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To address the low accuracy and stability when applying classical control theory in distribution networks with distributed generation, a control method involving flexible multistate switches (FMSs) is proposed in this study. This approach is based on an improved double-loop recursive fuzzy neural network (DRFNN) sliding mode, which is intended to stably achieve multiterminal power interaction and adaptive arc suppression for single-phase ground faults. First, an improved DRFNN sliding mode control (SMC) method is proposed to overcome the chattering and transient overshoot inherent in the classical SMC and reduce the reliance on a precise mathematical model of the control system. To improve the robustness of the system, an adaptive parameter-adjustment strategy for the DRFNN is designed, where its dynamic mapping capabilities are leveraged to improve the transient compensation control. Additionally, a quasi-continuous secondorder sliding mode controller with a calculus-driven sliding mode surface is developed to improve the current monitoring accuracy and enhance the system stability. The stability of the proposed method and the convergence of the network parameters are verified using the Lyapunov theorem. A simulation model of the three-port FMS with its control system is constructed in MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation result confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy based on a comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients may experience pessimism, and even despair, due to longterm nature of the condition, which increases the risk of depression. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) can relieve depression. This retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate the effects of MBSR on mental health and quality of life in CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression, so as to provide guidance for clinical nursing programs. Methods: The clinical data of 100 CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression who were treated in Jiading District Central Hospital Affiliated Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences from January 2021 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Based on nursing method received, the patients were divided into the conventional group (conventional management) and the MBSR group (MBSR therapy was implemented in addition to conventional management). After matching, there were 35 cases in each group. The scores for the self-rating depression scale (SDS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRISC), Five-factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were compared between the two groups. Results: After management, the SDS and PSQI scores of the MBSR group were lower than those of the conventional group, and the CD-RISC, FFMQ and SF-36 scores were higher than those of the conventional group (p<0.05). Conclusion: MBSR can improve the mental health, sleep quality, and quality of life of CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression, and improve psychological resilience and mindfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bipolar objects are widespread in nature, and their two attributes describe the opposition and unity of the things. Motivated by characterizing fuzzy topological structures by means of fuzzy graphs, we propose a bipolar fuzzy topological graph to measure the features of bipolar fuzzy systems. The topological characteristics in bipolar neutrosophic and bipolar interval-valued fuzzy settings are discussed as well. Several instances are manifested to clarify new definitions and conclusions. Furthermore, the properties of edge calculating and graph isomorphic are determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation of this work is to analyse the nonlinear models and their complex nature with generalized tools associated with material and history-based properties. With the help of well-known and widely used numerical scheme, we study the stimulating behaviours of the financial system in this work. The impact of parameters on price index, rate of interest, investment demand, influence changes and investment cost with respect to saving amount, and the elasticity of commercial markets demand are discussed. The consequences of generalizing the model within the arbitrary order are derived. The existence of the solution for the considered system is presented. This study helps beginner researchers to investigate complex real-world problems and predict the corresponding consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes an effective and accurate method for solving the partial geometry modification problem of original scattering. The current and scattering characteristics after structure modification can be efficiently calculated by using the information of the initial impedance matrix. These modifications include adding geometry or moving and rotating different parts of geometry. Although the changes in each impedance matrix are local for partial modified geometries, the associated computational cost is high because the whole analysis is iterative. By combining the binomial series method and the reduced basis method, the proposed method can effectively evaluate the scattering field without solving the inverse impedance matrix of the modified geometry. The proposed algorithm has a computational cost of O(n2), which is much smaller than O(n3) of the traditional method of moments (MoM), where n is the number of unknowns. Through several examples, the traditional MoM and the proposed method are compared, and the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new γ-lactone compound, trichonafurin A (1), was obtained from the culture of Trichoderma atroviride ZW-7, an endophyte of the marine brown alga Sargassum thunbergii. Its structure was unambiguously assigned by detailed interpretation of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichonafurin A (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and HepG2 cell lines with IC50 values of 20.2 and 32.1 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional multi-process to enhance tight oil recovery based on fracturing and huff-n-puff has obvious deficiencies, such as low recovery efficiency, rapid production decline, high cost, and complexity, etc. Therefore, a new technology, the so-called fracturing-oil expulsion integration, which does not need flowback after fracturing while making full use of the fracturing energy and gel breaking fluids, are needed to enable efficient exploitation of tight oil. A novel triple-responsive smart fluid based on "pseudo-Gemini" zwitterionic viscoelastic surfactant (VES) consisting of N-erucylamidopropyl-N,Ndimethyl-3-ammonio-2-hydroxy-1-propane-sulfonate (EHSB), N,N,N0,N0-tetramethyl-1,3-propanediamine (TMEDA) and sodium p-toluenesulfonate (NaPts), is developed. Then, the rheology of smart fluid is systematically studied at varying conditions (CO2, temperature and pressure). Moreover, the mechanism of triple-response is discussed in detail. Finally, a series of fracturing and spontaneous imbibition performances are systematically investigated. The smart fluid shows excellent CO2-, thermal-, and pressure-triple responsive behavior. It can meet the technical requirement of tight oil fracturing construction at 140 °C in the presence of 3.5 MPa CO2. The gel breaking fluid shows excellent spontaneous imbibition oil expulsion (~40%), salt resistance (1.2 x 104 mg/L Naþ), temperature resistance (140 °C) and aging stability (30 days). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double helical-like flow heat exchanger model was built, its shell-side flow state was studied by the CFD method, and the difference in heat transfer performance between it and the torsional flow heat exchanger was compared. From the numerical simulation results, it is found that the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are improved by 7.07-8.93% and 15.50-18.22%, respectively at the same flow rate, and the comprehensive performance expressed as Nu/f 1/3 is improved by 21.84-24.08%. Using the orthogonal test method to optimize the shell-side structure, it is found that the comprehensive performance is influenced by the two factors of spacing/groups and angle of baffles, and the influence of the deflection angle of two adjacent groups of baffles is very small, and the optimal structural combination of comprehensive performance is 30-0-70/11 (the angle of baffles is 30°, the deflection angle of two adjacent groups of baffles is 0°, the spacing between two adjacent sets of baffles is 70 mm, and the number of baffle groups is 11). The reliability and feasibility of the simulation method were verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new two-stage alignment on a moving base is proposed for a low-cost inertial navigation system with the aid of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver in the Earth-centered, Earth-fixed (ECEF) frame under large initial attitude errors. Both the state and measurement equations are derived using the additive quaternion error model in the ECEF frame for alignment without the need for level adjustment. The nonlinear velocity error equations in both the coarse and the fine stages are linearized further. An improved strong tracking filter is proposed for the coarse stage to converge quickly with large initial attitude errors. After the attitude errors converge to smaller values in the coarse stage, a standard Kalman filter is implemented for the fine stage. Experiments demonstrate that attitude error can converge quickly with the proposed adaptive alignment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new carotane sesquiterpene, trichocarotin N (1), was isolated from a culture of the marine-derived fungus Trichoderma virens QD-11. The structure of this compound was established by detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichocarotin N (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 32.4 and 41.6 μM, respectively. A new carotane sesquiterpene, trichocarotin N (1), was isolated from a culture of the marine-derived fungus Trichoderma virens QD-11. The structure of this compound was established by detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichocarotin N (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 32.4 and 41.6 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a high impedance fault (HIF) occurs in a distribution network, the detection efficiency of traditional protection devices is strongly limited by the weak fault information. In this study, a method based on S-transform (ST) and average singular entropy (ASE) is proposed to identify HIFs. First, a wavelet packet transform (WPT) was applied to extract the feature frequency band. Thereafter, the ST was investigated in each half cycle. Afterwards, the obtained time-frequency matrix was denoised by singular value decomposition (SVD), followed by the calculation of the ASE index. Finally, an appropriate threshold was selected to detect the HIFs. The advantages of this method are the ability of fine band division, adaptive time-frequency transformation, and quantitative expression of signal complexity. The performance of the proposed method was verified by simulated and field data, and further analysis revealed that it could still achieve good results under different conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important tool to represent structured and uncertain data, graph models are widely used in computer networks and chemical molecular structure representation. If there are uncertainties in the vertices or the binary relationship between vertices in the graph, the membership function is introduced to the vertex set and the edge set, and the fuzzy graph is used to describe such uncertain structural features. The independent set is an important object to measure the topological structure of the graph, as the basis of many graph parameters. In this paper, a novel concept of independent set is proposed in bipolar fuzzy graph setting. The fuzzy topological parameters to measure its degree of independence are defined, and the characteristics of bipolar independence degree are obtained by using graph theory and fuzzy set theory, especially for two types of product bipolar fuzzy graphs. Finally, the algorithm for calculating the maximum (resp. minimum) positive (resp. negative) fuzzy subgraph with given positive (resp. negative) degree of independence is designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal components of Hypericum perforatum L. plants varies widely due to fluctuations in growth environment and biotic and abiotic contamination during cultivation management. The quality of extracts or preparations is difficult to control because of the unstable raw materials. The aim of this study is to enhance the yield and medicinal component contents of H. perforatum by optimizing lighting factors under controlled environment. H. perforatum plants were hydroponically cultivated for 30 d under 3 levels of photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) with 200, 300, and 400 µmol/(m²·s) using white LEDs (R:B ratio is the ratio of red light to blue light, R:B ratio of 0.9 and 1.8) and white plus red LED (R:B ratio of 2.7). The results showed that PPFD and LED spectrum had significant effects on the growth and accumulation of medicinal components of H. perforatum. Biomass accumulation of stem, leaf, and root increased linearly with the increase of PPFD under each LED spectrum. Fresh weights and dry weights of stem, leaf, and root were significantly higher under a PPFD of 400 µmol/(m²·s) with R:B ratio of 0.9 than those of 200 µmol/(m²·s), respectively. The relative growth rate and net photosynthetic rate showed linear relationships with PPFD under the same LED spectrum. Total hypericin content, total hyperforin content, and energy yield of hypericin increased with increasing PPFD. Total hypericin content and energy yield of hypericin of P400-L0.9 were 78% and 89% more than those of P400-L2.7, respectively. Total hyperforin content and energy yield of hyperforin of P400-L0.9 and P400-L2.7 were no significant differences. Based on energy efficiency, an R:B ratio of 0.9 of white LEDs with a PPFD of 400 µmol/(m²·s) was beneficial to improve medicinal component contents of hydroponic H. perforatum in plant factory with LED lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate the effects of Reduning combined with gamma globulin on symptom improvement and serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), 25-hydroxyvitamin D[25-(OH)D] and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in children with severe mycoplasma pneumonia (MP). Methods: A total of 123 children with severe MP admitted to the Changzhou Cancer Hospital affiliated to Soochow University from May 2018 to April 2020 were selected as subjects and randomly divided into three groups: control Group-A, control Group-B and the observation group, with 41 cases in each group. Control Group-A was given with Reduning, control Group-B was treated with gamma globulin, while the observation group was treated with Reduning injection combined with gamma globulin. The clinical efficacy, symptom improvement, incidence of adverse reactions, serum levels of IL-6, 25-(OH)D, LDH, Toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation factor 88 (TLR4/MyD88) signaling pathway and T lymphocyte subsets before and after treatment were statistically compared between the three groups. Results: The total effective rate of treatment in the observation group was higher than that in control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05); The time for body temperature, lung rales, and cough to return to normal in the observation group was shorter than that in control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). After treatment, the observation group had lower serum levels of IL-6, LDH, and higher levels of 25-(OH)D compared with control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). Moreover, the observation group had lower serum expressions of TLR4 and MyD88 (p<0.05), higher serum levels of CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, and lower CD8+ compared with control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). No significant difference can be seen in the comparison of the incidence of adverse reactions between the three groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: Reduning combined with gamma globulin in the treatment of severe MP is worthy of clinical promotion and application. With such a treatment regimen, the immune function of children with severe MP can be significantly enhanced, the inflammatory response can be suppressed, and symptom improvement can be promoted, further improving the treatment outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive beamformers at the element level usually require a great number of training samples and the computational cost for calculating the weight vector for large phased array antennas is very high, which make it difficult for real-time applications. To address this problem, a two-dimensional (2-D) adaptive beamformer applicable to large planar array antennas that have low computational complexity and low training sample requirement is proposed. In the proposed method, the weight matrix is first reconstructed as a matrix that has the same or close columns and rows by utilising the special Kronecker property of the array steering matrix. Then, the weight vector is determined by adopting a bi-quadratic cost function and a bi-iterative algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve fairly good performance even when the training samples are small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oyster mushrooms are grown commercially worldwide, especially in many developing countries, for their easy cultivation and high biological efficiency. Pleurotus cornucopiae is one of the main oyster mushroom species because of its gastronomic value and nutraceutical properties. Cap color is an important trait, since consumers prefer dark mushrooms, which are now represented by only a small portion of the commercial varieties. Breeding efforts are required to improve quality- related traits to satisfy various demands of consumers. Here, we present a saturated genetic linkage map of P. cornucopiae constructed by using a segregating population of 122 monokaryons and 3,449 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers generated by the 2b-RAD approach. The map contains 11 linkage groups covering 961.6 centimorgans (cM), with an average marker spacing of 0.27 cM. The genome of P. cornucopiae was de novo sequenced, resulting in 425 scaffolds (>1,000 bp) with a total genome size of 35.1 Mb. The scaffolds were assembled to the pseudochromosome level with the assistance of the genetic linkage map. A total of 97% SNP markers (3,357) were physically localized on 140 scaffolds that were assigned to 11 pseudochromosomes, with a total of 32.5 Mb, representing 92.5% of the whole genome. Six quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling cap color of P. cornucopiae were detected, accounting for a total phenotypic variation of 65.6%, with the highest value for the QTL on pseudochromosome 5 (18%). The results of our study provide a solid base for marker-assisted breeding for agronomic traits and especially for studies on biological mechanisms controlling cap color in oyster mushrooms. IMPORTANCE Oyster mushrooms are produced and consumed all over the world. Pleurotus cornucopiae is one of the main oyster mushroom species. Dark-cap oyster mushrooms are becoming more and more popular with consumers, but dark varieties are rare on the market. Prerequisites for efficient breeding programs are the availability of high-quality whole genomes and genetic linkage maps. Genetic studies to fulfill some of these prerequisites have hardly been done for P. cornucopiae. In this study, we de novo sequenced the genome and constructed a saturated genetic linkage map for P. cornucopiae. The genetic linkage map was effectively used to assist the genome assembly and identify QTL that genetically control the trait cap color. As well, the genome characteristics of P. cornucopiae were compared to the closely related species Pleurotus ostreatus. The results provided a basis for understanding the genetic background and marker-assisted breeding of this economically important mushroom species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depressive symptoms are common in patients with first‐episode psychosis. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the comorbid depression in schizophrenia are still unknown. The main purpose of this study was to characterize the structural abnormalities of first‐episodes drug‐naïve (FEDN) schizophrenia comorbid with depression by utilizing both volume‐based and surface‐based morphometric measurements. Forty‐two patients with FEDN schizophrenia and 29 healthy controls were recruited. The 24‐item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD‐24) was administrated to divide all patients into depressive patients (DP) and non‐depressive patients (NDP). Compared with NDP, DP had a significantly larger volume and surface area in the left isthmus cingulate cortex and also had a greater volume in the left posterior cingulate cortex. Correlation analysis showed that HAMD total score was positively correlated with the surface area of the left isthmus cingulate and gray matter volume of the left isthmus cingulate cortex. In addition, gray matter volume of the left isthmus cingulate was also correlated with the PANSS general psychopathology or total score. The findings suggest that prominent structural abnormalities of gray matter are mainly concentrated on the cingulate cortex in FEDN schizophrenia patients comorbid with depression, which may contribute to depressive symptoms and psychopathological symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxyurea (HU) is an FDA-approved drug used to treat a variety of diseases, especially malignancies, but is harmful to fertility. We used porcine oocytes as an experimental model to study the effect of HU during oocyte maturation. Exposure of cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) to 20 µM (P<0.01) and 50 µM (P<0.001) HU reduced oocyte maturation. Exposure to 20 µM HU induced approximately 1.5- and 2-fold increases in Caspase-3 (P<0.001) and P53 (P<0.01) gene expression levels in cumulus cells, respectively, increased Caspase-3 (P<0.01) and P53 (P<0.001) protein expression levels in metaphase II (MII) oocytes and increased the percentage of apoptotic cumulus cells (P<0.001). In addition, HU decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential (Δφm) (P<0.01 and P<0.001) and glutathione (GSH) levels (P<0.01 and P<0.001) of both cumulus cells and MII oocytes, while increasing their reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels (P<0.001). Following parthenogenetic activation of embryos derived from MII oocytes, exposure to 20 µMHU significantly reduced total blastocyst cell numbers (P<0.001) and increased apoptosis of blastocyst cells (P<0.001). Moreover, HU exposure reduced the rate of development of two-celled, four- to eight-celled, blastocyst, and hatching stages after parthenogenetic activation (P<0.05). Our findings indicate that exposure to 20 µM HU caused significant oxidative stress and apoptosis of MII oocytes during maturation, which affected their developmental ability. These results provide valuable information for safety assessments of HU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small ubiquitin-like modifier 4 (SUMO4) is the latest member of the sumoylation family, which enhances the stability of protein, regulates the distribution and localization of the protein, and affects the transcription activity of the protein. However, the role of SUMO4 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not yet been reported. The present study first demonstrated that SUMO4 was upregulated in a number of tissues from patients with NSCLC. Immunohistochemistry was performed to demonstrate the expression level of SUMO4 in lung cancer tumor tissues. Following the transfection, The EMT status and signaling pathway activation regulated by SUMO4-siRNA was assessed by western blotting. The Transwell and wound healing assays were performed to investigate the regulatory effect of SUMO4-siRNA on cell migration and invasion. Cell Counting Kit-8 assay was performed to investigate whether SUMO4-siRNA affected the chemosensitivity of the NSCLC cells to cisplatin. Statistical analysis of immunohistochemical results from the tissues showed that the overexpression of SUMO4 was significantly associated with sex, tumor type, history of smoking, T stage and poor prognosis. It was also identified that SUMO4 small interfering RNA attenuated invasion and migration in NSCLC cell lines, as well chemosensitivity to cisplatin via the inhibition of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway. In conclusion, SUMO4 may play an important role in the poor prognosis of patients with NSCLC. The present study indicates that SUMO4 may be a potential therapeutic target for NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most extensively studied glycosaminoglycan lyases, heparinase I has been used in producing low or ultra-low molecular weight heparin. Its' important applications are to neutralize the heparin in human blood and analyze heparin structure in the clinic. However, the low productivity and activity of the enzyme have greatly hindered its applications. In this study, a novel Hep-I from Bacteroides cellulosilyticus (BcHep-I) was successfully cloned and heterologously expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) as a soluble protein. The molecular mass and isoelectric point (pI) of the enzyme are 44.42 kDa and 9.02, respectively. And the characterization of BcHep-I after purified with Ni-NTA affinity chromatography suggested that it is a mesophilic enzyme. BcHep-I can be activated by 1 mM Ca2+, Mg2+, and Mn2+, while severely inhibited by Zn2+, Co2+, and EDTA. The specific activity of the enzyme was 738.3 U⋅mg-1 which is the highest activity ever reported. The Km and Vmax were calculated as 0.17 mg⋅mL-1 and 740.58 U⋅mg-1, respectively. Besides, the half-life of 300 min at 30°C showed BcHep-I has practical applications. Homology modeling and substrate docking revealed that Gln15, Lys74, Arg76, Lys104, Arg149, Gln208, Tyr336, Tyr342, and Lys338 were mainly involved in the substrate binding of Hep-I, and 11 hydrogen bonds were formed between heparin and the enzyme. These results indicated that BcHep-I with high activity has great potential applications in the industrial production of heparin, especially in the clinic to neutralize heparin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By modeling the network structure with a graph, the corresponding data transmission problem can be transformed into a fractional flow problem on the graph. Under certain specific conditions, the transmission path of data is required to pass through certain special channels, thus the corresponding mathematical framework is transformed into the existence of fractional covered graphs under the special network graph structure. In this paper, by means of the necessary and sufficient conditions for fractional (g; f; n';m)- critical covered graphs, we obtain some sufficient conditions on graph parameters of fractional covered graphs. Furthermore, we point out that these results are tight in terms of some counterexamples, and the results have potential guiding value for network designing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Azygia hwangtsiyui (Trematoda, Azygiidae), a neglected parasite of predatory fishes, is little-known in terms of its molecular epidemiology, population ecology and phylogenetic study. In the present study, the complete mitochondrial genome of A. hwangtsiyui was sequenced and characterized: it is a 13,973 bp circular DNA molecule and encodes 36 genes (12 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes) as well as two non-coding regions. The A+T content of the A. hwangtsiyui mitogenome is 59.6% and displays a remarkable bias in nucleotide composition with a negative AT skew (-0.437) and a positive GC skew (0.408). Phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated amino acid sequences of twelve protein-coding genes reveals that A. hwangtsiyui is placed in a separate clade, suggesting that it has no close relationship with any other trematode family. This is the first characterization of the A. hwangtsiyui mitogenome, and the first reported mitogenome of the family Azygiidae. These novel datasets of the A. hwangtsiyui mt genome represent a meaningful resource for the development of mitochondrial markers for the identification, diagnostics, taxonomy, homology and phylogenetic relationships of trematodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wavelet transform is a multi-scale signal analysis method. It has the characteristics of low entropy, good timefrequency characteristic, multi-scale characteristic and de-correlation, which makes the wavelet transform widely used in image de-noising and edge detection. The multi-scale detection method mainly uses multiple edge detection operators of different scales to detect the edge of image correctly by effective combination. Wavelet multiscale edge detection method not only has good noise suppression capability, but also has complete edge preservation characteristics, which can take advantage of size and scale to obtain precise single pixel wide edge in edge extraction. The proposed algorithm in this paper uses the wavelet transform to detect the jump edge of the image in row direction and column direction, and then the image edge can be formed under certain rules, and useful edge information can be extracted by means of the multi-scale wavelet transform and the difference between signal and noise under the wavelet transform to multiply wavelet coefficient on the adjacent scale. In suppressing noise at the same time, such algorithm implies the the causal relationship of the edge on different scales, and holds that the edge point is the local modulus maximum point of the scale volume coefficient through the thresholding operation, and remove the noise interference and finally the detailed experiment is carried out to prove that this method can effectively solve the contradiction between extracting edge and restraining noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a critical field of theoretical chemistry, chemical graph theory works as a key part in the model topology calculation and prediction based on chemical molecular structures. The paper can contribute to the research in the following aspects: (1) We propose the concept of bipolar fuzzy influence graph, using positive and negative membership functions to describe positive and negative uncertainties respectively; (2) Based on the new concept, we give a hypothesis to explain the memory of water. The hypothesis is based on two salient facts of the bipolar fuzzy influence graph. Initially, the non-collapsibility of the positive and negative membership functions ensures that the information after using fuzzy coding will not change with the material layer. Then, the influence pairs connect the vertices and edges between different components in the graph through bipolar uncertain influence. At the end of this paper, the conditions for the establishment of the hypothesis and the facts to be verified in the future are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the issue of disturbance observer-based fuzzy adaptive optimal finite-time control in light of the backstepping approach for strict-feedback nonlinear systems with bias fault term and full state constraints. Considering that external disturbance and bias fault signal can affect the stability of control and control quality, a disturbance observer is constructed to track the external disturbances and bias fault online. A disturbance observer-based finite-time control strategy is proposed to achieve optimized control by utilizing the fuzzy logic system approximation-based adaptive dynamic programming method under the critic-actor framework. The purpose of the critic is to evaluate control performance and the role of the actor is to execute control behaviour. In addition, it is proved that the proposed fuzzy adaptive optimal finite-time scheme not only realizes all signals in closed-loop system are bounded, but also ensures that system states are restricted within specific sets. Finally, simulation results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new norsesquiterpene and four known bisabolanes were obtained from the organic extract of Trichoderma atroviride TD-8 isolated from ocean sediments. Their structures were assigned by detailed interpretation of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data, and they were determined to be nor-bisabolan-1,11-diol (1), (3R,6R,7R)-1,10-bisaboladien-3-ol (2), (3R,6R,7S)-1,10-bisaboladien-3,6-diol (3), (3R,6S,7R,10R)-1-bisabolen3,10,11-triol (4), (3R,6R,7S,10R)-1-bisabolen-3,10,11-triol (5). Nor-bisabolan-1,11-diol (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and HCT-8 cell lines with IC50 values of 28.6 and 30.3 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fractional factor theory of graphs originated from the feasible flow problem in communication networks. With the development of computer networks, this problem has been highly valued by scholars from the field of computer science and mathematics. This paper studies the sufficient conditions for the existence of fractional factors in the different setting of network from a theoretical perspective. These theoretical results provide the basis for the initial network designing. We first study the relationship between vulnerable parameter in networks and the existence of fractional factor, and an isolated toughness condition for a graph to be fractional (g; f; n')- critical is determined. Then, we illustrate some neighborhood union conditions for independent-set-deletable deleted graphs, and point out that the conditions are best in some senses. Moreover, we present an independent set condition for a graph to be fractional ID-(g; f;m)-deleted. Also, the result is tight on independent set degree condition. Finally, we introduce the concept of all fractional ID-(g; f;m)-deleted graph, and several conclusions are obtained from the known results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer has been one of the most common malignancies in the world. Cell senescence has been recognized as the avenue to inhibit tumor progression. However, the mechanisms remain poorly understood. In the present study, we have shown that synaptotagmin-7 (SYT7) expression was up-regulated in lung cancer. SYT7 also promoted the growth and colony formation of lung cancer cells and inhibited their senescence. In a molecular mechanism study, SYT7 was shown to interact with P53 and to potentiate the interaction between P53 and MDM2. Taken together, the present study demonstrates the oncogenic roles of SYT7 in lung cancer, and suggests that SYT7 may be a good therapeutic target for lung cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viviparous (live-bearing) vertebrates have evolved repeatedly within otherwise oviparous (egg-laying) clades. Over two-thirds of these changes in vertebrate reproductive parity mode happened in squamate reptiles, where the transition has happened between 98 and 129 times. The transition from oviparity to viviparity requires numerous physiological, morphological, and immunological changes to the female reproductive tract, including eggshell reduction, delayed oviposition, placental development for supply of water and nutrition to the embryo by the mother, enhanced gas exchange, and suppression of maternal immune rejection of the embryo. We performed genomic and transcriptomic analyses of a closely related oviparous-viviparous pair of lizards (Phrynocephalus przewalskii and Phrynocephalus vlangalii) to examine these transitions. Expression patterns of maternal oviduct through reproductive development of the egg and embryo differ markedly between the two species. We found changes in expression patterns of appropriate genes that account for each of the major aspects of the oviparity to viviparity transition. In addition, we compared the gene sequences in transcriptomes of four oviparous-viviparous pairs of lizards in different genera (Phrynocephalus, Eremias, Scincella, and Sphenomorphus) to look for possible gene convergence at the sequence level. We discovered low levels of convergence in both amino acid replacement and evolutionary rate shift. This suggests that most of the changes that produce the oviparity-viviparity transition are changes in gene expression, so occasional reversals to oviparity from viviparity may not be as difficult to achieve as has been previously suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TET (Ten-Eleven Translocation) proteins catalyze the oxidation of 5mC (5-methylcytosine) to 5hmC (5-hydroxymethylcytosine) and play crucial roles in embryonic development. Ascorbic acid (Vc, Vitamin C) stimulates the expression of TET proteins, whereas DMOG (dimethyloxallyl glycine) inhibits TET expression. To investigate the role of TET1, TET2, and TET3 in PA (parthenogenetic) embryonic development, Vc and DMOG treatments were administered during early embryonic development. The results showed that Vc treatment increased the blastocyst rate (20.73 +- 0.46 compared with 26.57 +- 0.53%). By contrast, DMOG reduced the blastocyst rate (20.73 +- 0.46 compared with 11.18 +- 0.13%) in PA embryos. qRT-PCR (quantitative real-time PCR) and IF (immunofluorescence) staining results revealed that TET1, TET2, and TET3 expressions were significantly lower in PA embryos compared with normal fertilized (Con) embryos. Our results revealed that Vc stimulated the expression of TET proteins in PA embryos. However, treatment with DMOG significantly inhibited the expression of TET proteins. In addition, 5hmC was increased following treatment with Vc and suppressed by DMOG in PA embryos. Taken together, these results indicate that the expression of TET proteins plays crucial roles mediated by 5hmC in PA embryonic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on programmable wettability pathways to not only simplify liquid handling in the microplates and droplet microarrays technology and provide distinctly microfluidic microreactors for different purposes. It mentions novel paraffin-infused porous graphene film (PIPGF) with programmable wettability as transition between liquid and solid in response to near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation.

A multi-camera dense RGB-D SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) system has the potential both to speed up scene reconstruction and to improve localization accuracy, thanks to multiple mounted sensors and an enlarged effective field of view. To effectively tap the potential of the system, two issues must be understood: first, how to calibrate the system where sensors usually shares small or no common field of view to maximally increase the effective field of view; second, how to fuse the location information from different sensors. In this work, a three-Kinect system is reported. For system calibration, two kinds of calibration methods are proposed, one is suitable for system with inertial measurement unit (IMU) using an improved hand–eye calibration method, the other for pure visual SLAM without any other auxiliary sensors. In the RGB-D SLAM stage, we extend and improve a state-of-art single RGB-D SLAM method to multi-camera system. We track the multiple cameras’ poses independently and select the one with the pose minimal-error as the reference pose at each moment to correct other cameras’ poses. To optimize the initial estimated pose, we improve the deformation graph by adding an attribute of device number to distinguish surfels built by different cameras and do deformations according to the device number. We verify the accuracy of our extrinsic calibration methods in the experiment section and show the satisfactory reconstructed models by our multi-camera dense RGB-D SLAM. The RMSE (root-mean-square error) of the lengths measured in our reconstructed mode is 1.55 cm (similar to the state-of-art single camera RGB-D SLAM systems). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gut microbiota and microRNAs play important roles in the defense against infection. However, the role of miR-146a in L. monocytogenes infection and gut microbiota remains unclear. We tried to determine whether miR-146a controlled L. monocytogenes infection by regulating the gut microbiota. Wild-type and miR-146a-deficient mice or macrophages were used to characterize the impact of miR-146a on animal survival, cell death, bacterial clearance, and gut microbiota following L. monocytogenes challenge. We found that L. monocytogenes infection induced miR-146a expression both in vitro and in vivo. When compared to wild-type mice, miR-146a-deficient mice were more resistant to L. monocytogenes infection. MiR-146a deficiency in macrophages resulted in reduced invasion and intracellular survival of L. monocytogenes. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA revealed that the gut microbiota composition differed between miR-146a-deficient and wild-type mice. Relative to wild-type mice, miR-146a-deficient mice had decreased levels of the Proteobacteria phylum, Prevotellaceae family, and Parasutterella genus, and significantly increased short-chain fatty acid producing bacteria, including the genera Alistipes, Blautia, Coprococcus_1, and Ruminococcus_1. Wild-type mice co-housed with miR-146a-deficient mice had increased resistance to L. monocytogenes, indicating that miR-146a deficiency guides the gut microbiota to alleviate infection. Together, these results suggest that miR-146a deficiency protects against L. monocytogenes infection by regulating the gut microbiota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Inactivated mycobacterium phlei (M. phlei) is well known for its immune‐stimulatory functions in humans and livestock, but less information is available about the influence on meat quality of pigs when used as a feed additive. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of inactivated M. phlei on growth performance as well as meat quality of fattening pigs. A total of 240 cross‐bred pigs ([Landrace × Yorkshire] × Duroc) with initial body weight of 80.14 ± 0.29 kg were randomly allocated to five treatments, each of which consisted of eight replicates with 6six pigs per replicate. The basal diet supplemented with five levels of inactivated M. phlei preparations (0, 3.5 × 109 [0.1% w/w], 7 × 109 [0.2%], 1.4 × 1010 [0.4%] or 2.1 × 1010 [0.6%] colony‐forming units/kg) was respectively fed to the control group and four treatment groups for 30 days. Adding 0.4% of inactivated M. phlei to diet increased the average daily feed intake and average daily gain of pigs. Importantly, intramuscular fat percentage in the Longissimus dorsi (LD) was increased by feeding diet containing 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.6% of inactivated M. phlei, despite the pH value, drip loss, cooking loss and filter paper fluid uptake not being influenced. Analysis of the fatty acid components showed that some saturated fatty acids were decreased in LD after feeding inactivated M. phlei, but some monounsaturated fat acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids were increased (PUFAs), which induced the total contents of MUFAs and PUFAs were improved. RT‐PCR assay revealed that feeding inactivated M. phlei up‐regulated genes implicated in fat metabolism in muscle, including ELOVL6, FASN, SCD1 and H‐FABP. This study revealed that feeding inactivated M. phlei not only increased growth performance of fattening pigs, but also improved the meat quality by increasing intramuscular fat content, thus inactivated M. phlei probably has high utilization value in modern pig production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A convenient and highly efficient palladium-catalyzed reaction of [60]fullerene (C60) with aroyl compounds via enolate-mediated C-H activation and hydroxylation has been exploited for the first time to synthesize novel C60-fused dihydrofurans, and rare 1,4-fullerenols. Further functionalization including etherification, and esterification of synthesized 1,4-fullerenols provided efficient access to versatile fullerene derivatives. Moreover, a plausible reaction mechanism leading to the observed products is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of hyper Zagreb index, Zagreb and M-polynomials are establish in chemical graph theory based on the degree of the vertex. It is reported that these indices are useful in the study of anti-inflammatory activities of certain chemical networks. In this paper, we determine hyper Zagreb index, Zagreb and Mpolynomials for an infinite class of Titania nanotubes TiO2 [m, n ] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a lot of nanomaterials and related chemical substances synthesized in the laboratory every year, which makes the test of their performance has become a hard work. The theory of nanoscience from the perspective of graph theory provides an excellent idea, characteristics of the nanomaterials can be obtained by calculating topological indices in their corresponding molecular graphs, and have attracted the attention of scholars in the field of nanoscience. In this paper, we learn the characteristics of nanostructures from mathematical point of view. Some important nanomaterials are selected and their multiplicative atom-bond connectivity indices are determined by edge set divided trick. These theoretical results can be considered as a guideline in nanoengineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a lot of nanomaterials and related chemical substances synthesized in the laboratory every year, which makes the test of their performance has become a hard work. The theory of nanoscience from the perspective of graph theory provides an excellent idea, characteristics of the nanomaterials can be obtained by calculating topological indices in their corresponding molecular graphs, and have attracted the attention of scholars in the field of nanoscience. In this paper, we learn the characteristics of nanostructures from mathematical point of view. Some important nanomaterials are selected and their multiplicative atom-bond connectivity indices are determined by edge set divided trick. These theoretical results can be considered as a guideline in nanoengineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph theory is used for modeling, designing, analysis and understanding chemical structures or chemical networks and their properties. The molecular graph is a graph consisting of atoms called vertices and the chemical bond between atoms called edges. In this article, we study the chemical graphs of carbon graphite and crystal structure of cubic carbon. Moreover, we compute and give closed formulas of degree based additive topological indices, namely hyper-Zagreb index, first multiple and second multiple Zagreb indices, and first and second Zagreb polynomials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fucosyltransferase VII (FUT7) is one of a1,3-fucosyltransferases family that catalyzes the final fucosylation step in the synthesis of Lewis antigens and generates a unique glycosylated product sialyl Lewis X (sLeX). sLeX can serve as ligands for E- or P-selectin expressed on the cell surface and results in cancer metastasis and angiogenesis. However, the molecular biological mechanisms of FUT7 elevation in neoplastic cells are still largely unknown. In this study, we examined the impact of FUT7 on cell proliferation and migration in A549 cells by colony formation assay, cell cycle assay, gelatin zymography, wound-healing assay, transwell invasion assay and Western blot. In addition, we identified that FUT7 activated EGFR/AKT/mTOR signal pathway that correlated with sLeX augmentation. In conclusion, FUT7 overexpression augments sLeX synthesis to trigger cell proliferation via the activation of EGFR/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, which indicated that FUT7 may be a potential therapeutic target for epithelial cancers with a high expression of FUT7 and sLeX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a transport model coupled with a microscopic coalescence model, the directed and elliptic flows of protons and deuterons as well as their scalling properties are studied in the centrality of 20-30% Au+Au collisions at s NN = 2.4 GeV. It is found that the flows as well as their scaling properties simulated with the isospin- and momentum-dependent nuclear mean field with an incompressibility K 0 = 230 MeV fit fairly the HADES data, while those simulated with the commonly used momentum-independent nuclear mean field with an incompressibility K 0 = 380 MeV can only fit partially the HADES data. Moreover, by checking the rapidity distributions of both protons and deuterons in the centrality of 0-10% Au+Au collisions at s NN = 2.4 GeV, we find that the rapidity distributions of deuterons are underestimated while those of protons are overestimated by the simulations with the momentum-independent nuclear mean field. In contrast, the rapidity distributions of both protons and deuterons simulated with the isospin- and momentum-dependent nuclear mean field are in good agreement with the HADES data. Our findings imply that the momentum dependence of nuclear mean field is an unavoidable feature for a fundamental understanding of nuclear matter properties and for the successful interpretation of the HADES data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a finite-element-based computational method is proposed for time-dependent structural stability analysis of a concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) arch with uncertain parameters. Specifically, the targeted uncertainty includes the mercurial effects of the creep and shrinkage of the concrete core, which inevitably affect the structural performance of the CFST arch. The structural stability of the composite arch is systematically investigated under the influence of uncertain creep and shrinkage in a time-dependent fashion. The proposed computational scheme efficiently establishes the quantitative long-term stability envelope for CFST arches against uncertain viscoelastic effects. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed time-dependent structural stability analysis for CFST arches, practically motivated numerical examples are thoroughly investigated throughout this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graph G is called a fractional ID-k-factor-critical graph if after deleting any independent set of G the resulting graph admits a fractional k-factor. In this paper, we prove that for k≥2, G is a fractional ID-k-factor-critical graph if δ(G) ≥n/3+k,σ2(G)≥4n/3,n≥6k-8 The result is best possible in some sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methionine was demonstrated to be the most limiting amino acid for growing sheep when microbial protein is the predominant source of absorbable AA, but its specific requirement was not well quantified. The indicator amino acid oxidation (IAAO) method is based on the concept that when the most limiting amino acid (LAA) is deficient for protein synthesis, then all other AAs will be oxidized. With increasing intakes of the LAA, IAAO will decrease until the requirement for the LAA is met, and there is no further change in the indicator oxidation afterwards. Therefore, the catabolism of 13 C-Phe was used to indicate the effects of varying duodenal infusing levels of Met on the oxidation rate by 4-month-old Kazakh lambs (30.8 ± 0.4 kg BW). After a 6-d adaptation period, the IAAO test was conducted on d 7. Each lamb received a priming dose of 0.67 mg/kg BW of 13 C-Phe injected via the jugular vein, together with 0.18 mg/kg BW of NaH 13 CO 3 at time 0. Then, constant infusions [1.33 mg 13 C-Phe/(kg h) −1 ] were started. Breath samples were collected prior to and half-hourly between 90 and 210 min after the start of the 13 C-Phe infusions. An estimate of the mean Met requirement was determined by a breakpoint analysis of the rate of 13 CO 2 released by 13 C-Phe oxidation, with a 2-phase linear regression model. The oxidation rate of 13 C-Phe decreased (P < 0.001) with increasing amounts of methionine infused in a dose-dependent fashion up to 1.65 g/day, and it was not different from 1.65 to 2.15 g/day (P > 0.05). The mean Met requirement was estimated to be 1.28 ± 0.11 g/day of supplementation. The total postruminal minimum requirement of Met would be 2.02 g/day when the basal passage of Met (0.74 g/day) was summed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Disseminated cryptococcosis is a rare and fatal disease, and limited data exist regarding it in children. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of disseminated cryptococcosis in previously healthy children in China.Methods: Hospitalized patients with disseminated cryptococcosis were enrolled during January 1996 to December 2015 in Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, China. Data on clinical manifestations, laboratory tests, treatment, and prognosis were evaluated.Results: A total of 52 pediatric patients with no underlying disease were enrolled, including 38 boys and 14 girls. Only 10 cases had a history of exposure to pigeon droppings. Fever, cough, and hepatomegaly were 3 main manifestations of disseminated cryptococcosis. However, headache was more common in patients with central nervous system (CNS) invasion than in patients with non-CNS invasion (P < 0.05). Lung (96.2%, 50/52) was the most commonly invaded organ, but only 9.6% (5/52) of patients had respiratory signs. The most common findings on chest imaging were hilar or mediastinal lymphadenopathy (46.8%, 22/47), and nodules (44.7%, 21/47), including small nodules in a scattered distribution (57.1%, 12/21) or miliary distribution (42.9%, 9/25), especially localized in subpleural area. Subsequent invasion occurred in the CNS, abdomen lymph nodes, liver, spleen, peripheral lymph nodes, and skin. In all patients, 42.3% (22/52) and 51.9% (27/52) had elevated eosinophils or IgE, respectively. The positive rate of serum cryptococcal antigen was higher, especially in patients with CNS invasion (approximately 83.3%), than with other primary methods used for pathogen detection, including cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cryptococcal antigen, cultures of blood, bone marrow, or CSF, and CSF ink staining. The overall mortality rate of pediatric patients in our study was 11.5% (6/52). Some cases had long-term sequela, including hydrocephalus, cirrhosis, or blindness.Conclusions: Disseminated cryptococcosis can occur in previously healthy or immunocompetent children in China. Lung and CNS were most commonly invaded by this disease. Furthermore, most cases usually showed no obvious or specific symptoms or signs, and therefore pediatricians should pay more careful attention to identify this disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the generic construction of certificate-based signature (CBS) from certificateless signature (CLS). This paper proposes a new generic conversion from CLS to CBS which is more intuitive, simpler, and provably secure without random oracles than the current one. To develop the security proof, we put forth one novel CLS security model which features a previously neglected but nontrivial attack and hence captures the CLS security notion more comprehensively. We show that many existing CLS schemes can be proved secure in the current model by slightly modifying its original security proof. Following this conversion, many provably secure CBS schemes can be constructed from the corresponding existing CLS schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Resectable lung adenocarcinoma is dominated by peripheral distribution, and surgical resection is the main treatment protocol. However, high recurrence rate remains after surgery. Lung adenocarcinoma with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation has strong invasion ability, but the effects of this mutation on local invasion in early lung adenocarcinoma have been rarely studied. This study aimed to assess the effects of EGFR mutation on local invasion in resectable lung adenocarcinoma. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 103 patients clinically diagnosed with peripheral lung adenocarcinoma was included. They underwent preoperative bronchoscopy, which indicated grades 2 or 3 bronchial involvement (lumen of the lobe or segment). The associations of EGFR mutation with pleural invasion, endobronchial metastasis, and lymph node metastasis were analyzed according to pathologies of pleural invasion and lymph node metastasis, as well as EGFR gene mutation detected by postoperative pathological specimens. Statistical analyses were performed by unpaired Chi-square test using the SPSS16.0 software. Results: In patients with EGFR mutation, pleural invasion, endobronchial metastasis, and lymph node metastasis rates were 62.5, 39.1, and 34.4%, respectively, indicating statistically significant differences (p = 0.003). Meanwhile, the pleural invasion rate in patients with wild-type EGFR was 43.6%, significantly reduced compared with patients with mutated EGFR (62.5%; p = 0.018). In addition, the endobronchial metastasis rate in patients with wild-type EGFR was 17.9%, significantly lower than in patients with EGFR mutation (39.1%; p = 0.005). However, lymph node metastasis rates were similar between EGFR mutated and wild-type patients (34.4 vs 25.6%, respectively, p > 0.05). Conclusions: Early resectable lung adenocarcinoma patients with EGFR mutation showed a higher rate of local invasion compared with those harboring wild-type EGFR. This finding provides a basis for improved therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Randic Connectivity Index R(G) is one of the oldest connectivity index, introduced by Randic in 1975. Another connectivity indices is the Sum-Connectivity Index X(G) introduced in 2008 by Zhou and Trinajstic. Recently in 2011, a modification of the Randic Connectivity Index of a graph G was introduced by Dvorak et al. In this paper, we compute these connectivity topological indices for a family of molecular graphs known as titania nanotubes TiO2(m,n). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a novel multiscale geometric analysis tool, sparse representation has shown many advantages over the conventional image representation methods. However, the standard sparse representation does not take intrinsic structure and its time complexity into consideration. In this paper, a new fusion mechanism for multimodal medical images based on sparse representation and decision map is proposed to deal with these problems simultaneously. Three decision maps are designed including structure information map (SM) and energy information map (EM) as well as structure and energy map (SEM) to make the results reserve more energy and edge information. SM contains the local structure feature captured by the Laplacian of a Gaussian (LOG) and EM contains the energy and energy distribution feature detected by the mean square deviation. The decision map is added to the normal sparse representation based method to improve the speed of the algorithm. Proposed approach also improves the quality of the fused results by enhancing the contrast and reserving more structure and energy information from the source images. The experiment results of 36 groups of CT/MR, MR-T1/MR-T2, and CT/PET images demonstrate that the method based on SR and SEM outperforms five state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]