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To achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, Taiwan's government is committed to aggressively developing renewable energy sources, with wind power being among the top three. However, when wind turbines experience failures, it is common to shut them down and call for professional help to troubleshoot, leading to significant losses due to transportation costs and downtime. Traditional maintenance methods rely on expertise and are limited by paper manuals and screen-based tutorials. As Industry 4.0 progresses, IoT technology is being increasingly adopted across industries, leading to greater automation. Augmented reality (AR) technology is also gaining recognition as science and technology rapidly advance. AR technology adds virtual objects to the physical world and presents the potential to simplify tasks that once required significant time and effort. Additionally, it provides real-time information to technicians and has become an indispensable auxiliary system in various sectors. In this study, we aim to develop an AR-based, interactive, and real-time wind turbine maintenance auxiliary platform system using Unity3D and Vuforia. The system can control and repair wind turbines, monitor operational data and conditions in real time, and alert users to maintenance and repair tasks in the event of failures. This AR maintenance assistance platform also includes a remote expert system. When users are unable to troubleshoot issues themselves, they can connect with remote experienced experts for support, increasing wind farm efficiency and enabling real-time monitoring. The presented AR system can assist operations and maintenance (O&M) of a wind farm in reducing the maintenance cost and time, and thus increase the efficiency and output yield of the wind farm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pyrolysis behaviors of Qingdao vacuum residue (QD-VR) and its SARA (saturates, aromatics, reins, and asphaltenes) fractions were evaluated by thermo-gravimetric with mass spectrometer (TG-MS). The pyrolysis kinetics were determined by Friedman, one-parallel and four-parallel distributed activation energy model (DAEM), respectively. The results indicated that the pyrolysis behavior of QD-VR was similar to that of aromatics. For saturates, the release of H2, CH4, CO, and CO2 occurred in 80–400 °C, while the temperature range for QD-VR and other fractions is 200–800 °C. The average activation energy (Ea) via Friedman method was 179.72 kJ/mol and increased with the conversion ratio. One-parallel Gaussian DAEM was more suitable to describe the pyrolysis process of the single SARA fractions, while four-parallel Gaussian DAEM was more suitable to describe the pyrolysis process of heavy oil. Furthermore, comparing the weighted Ea from one-parallel (227.64 kJ/mol) and four-parallel Gaussian DAEM (204.63 kJ/mol), the results suggested that during pyrolysis process of heavy oil, there was an interaction between the SARA fractions, which could reduce the Ea of heavy oil pyrolysis. Specifically, during heavy oil pyrolysis, resins and asphaltenes could increase the Ea of saturates and aromatics, while saturates and aromatics could decrease the Ea of resins and asphaltenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management and treatment of terminal metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) remains heavily debated. We sought to investigate the efficacy of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor plus anlotinib as a potential solution for terminal mCRPC and further evaluate the association of genomic characteristics with efficacy outcomes. We conducted a retrospective real-world study of 25 mCRPC patients who received PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib after the progression to standard treatments. The clinical information was extracted from the electronic medical records and 22 patients had targeted circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) next-generation sequencing. Statistical analysis showed that 6 (24.0%) patients experienced prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response and 11 (44.0%) patients experienced PSA reduction. The relationship between ctDNA findings and outcomes was also analyzed. DNA-damage repair (DDR) pathways and homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway defects indicated a comparatively longer PSA-progression-free survival (PSA-PFS; 2.5 months vs 1.2 months, P = 0.027; 3.3 months vs 1.2 months, P = 0.017; respectively). This study introduces the PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib as a late-line therapeutic strategy for terminal mCRPC. PD-1 inhibitor plus anlotinib may be a new treatment choice for terminal mCRPC patients with DDR or HRR pathway defects and requires further investigation.

An optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) for the generation of a frequency-doubled or -quadrupled microwave signal with a tunable frequency multiplication technique is proposed and demonstrated. In the proposed OEO, a modulated signal is generated by a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM). The modulated signal is then divided into two parts. One part is sent to a photodetector (PD1) via an optical domain dual-loop composite cavity and then fed back to the MZM to form the OEO loop that can generate an oscillation signal with the frequency determined by the center frequency of an electrical bandpass filter used in the loop and the length difference of the dual-loop composite cavity. The other part is sent to a fiber-optic recirculating delay line (RDL) structure and then applied to another PD (PD2) for the formation of a microwave photonic (MWP) notch filter. Through using the cascade characteristics of the RDL loop in the fiber-optic RDL structure and the notch response of the MWP notch filter, a frequency-doubled or -quadrupled microwave signal is generated. A detailed theoretical analysis is provided and the results are verified by an experiment. A fundamental oscillation signal at 5.592 GHz is generated in the OEO loop, which is multiplied to generate a frequency-doubled microwave signal at 11.184 GHz or a frequency-quadrupled microwave signal at 22.368 GHz, respectively. The performance of the generated microwave signals is also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background 3-Hydroxy butyrate dehydrogenase 2 (BDH2) is a short-chain dehydrogenase/reductase family member that plays a key role in the development and pathogenesis of human cancers. However, the role of BDH2 in gastric cancer (GC) remains largely unclear. Our study aimed to ascertain the regulatory mechanisms of BDH2 in GC, which could be used to develop new therapeutic strategies. Methods Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and RT-PCR were used to investigate the expression of BDH2 in GC specimens and cell lines. Its correlation with the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of GC patients was analysed. Functional assays, such as CCK-8 and TUNEL assays, transmission electron microscopy, and an in vivo tumour growth assay, were performed to examine the proliferation, apoptosis, and autophagy of GC cells. Related molecular mechanisms were clarified by luciferase reporter, coimmunoprecipitation, and ubiquitination assays. Results BDH2 was markedly downregulated in GC tissues and cells, and the low expression of BDH2 was associated with poor survival of GC patients. Functionally, BDH2 overexpression significantly induced apoptosis and autophagy in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, BDH2 promoted Keap1 interaction with Nrf2 to increase the ubiquitination level of Nrf2. Ubiquitination/degradation of Nrf2 inhibited the activity of ARE to increase accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby inhibiting the phosphorylation levels of AktSer473 and mTORSer2448. Conclusions Our study indicates that BDH2 is an important tumour suppressor in GC. BDH2 regulates intracellular ROS levels to mediate the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway through Keap1/Nrf2/ARE signalling, thereby inhibiting the growth of GC.

We performed a pairwise and network meta-analysis to compare pathological complete response (pCR) among neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. We searched PubMed for randomized clinical trials between January 1, 2000 and December 1, 2020. Abstracts from meetings were also searched. A frequentist random-effect model was applied to compare pCR and toxicities. The P-score was used to rank treatment effects. Nineteen trials with 16 treatments and 7794 patients were included. On the basis of SoC, the addition of carboplatin (OR = 1.82, 95% CI, 1.24 to 2.68, P < .01) and the addition of checkpoint inhibitors (OR = 1.69, 95% CI, 1.23 to 2.32, P < .01) increased pCR in pairwise meta-analysis; compared with paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel did not improve pCR rates (OR = 1.81, 95% CI, .80 to 4.12, P = .16). The anthracycline-sparing regimen led to similar pCR compared with the anthracycline-containing regimen (OR = 1.50, 95% CI, .82 to 2.76, P = .19). In network meta-analysis, the addition of carboplatin plus a PD-1 inhibitor (pembrolizumab), carboplatin plus bevacizumab, and carboplatin plus veliparib ranked as the top three treatments for achieving pCR, with corresponding P-scores of .91, .84, and .72, respectively. Among patients with homologous recombination deficiency, the addition of carboplatin (OR = 1.31, 95% CI, .69 to 2.50, P = .41) or carboplatin plus PARP inhibitors (OR = 1.19, 95% CI, .58 to 2.47, P = .63) did not increase pCR. For triple-negative breast cancer, combining carboplatin with taxane-anthracycline-containing neoadjuvant chemotherapy could be the standard of care, and the combination containing checkpoint inhibitor is promising. However, their role in long-term oncologic outcome remains to be determined.