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Objective. Galectin-3, an inflammatory mediator derived from microglia, participates in the pathophysiological process of various neurological diseases. However, the relationship between galectin-3 and poststroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) remains ambiguous. This research purposed to prove whether serum galectin-3 can predict PSCI. Methods. In the end, an aggregate of 416 patients with the first acute ischemic stroke (AIS) were continuously and prospectively enrolled in the study. Upon admission, the baseline data of AIS patients were collected, and their serum galectin-3 levels were measured. Three months after the stroke, the Montreal Cognitive Scale (MoCA) was utilized to measure the cognitive function of AIS patients, and PSCI was defined as a MoCA score less than 26 points. Results. Premised on the MoCA scores, patients were categorized into PSCI cohort and non-PSCI cohort. The two AIS patient cohorts did not exhibit any statistical difference in their baseline characteristics ( p > 0.05 ). However, the serum galectin-3 level of AIS patients in the PSCI cohort was considerably elevated ( p < 0.001 ). Pearson correlation analysis illustrated that serum galectin-3 level was negatively linked to MoCA score ( r = − 0.396 , p < 0.05 ). The findings from the receiver-operating curve (ROC) illustrated that the sensitivity of serum galectin-3 as a possible biomarker for diagnosing PSCI was 66%, and the specificity was 94%. The cut-off value of serum galectin-3 to diagnose PSCI is 6.3 ng/mL ( OR = 5.49 , p < 0.001 ). Upon controlling for different variables, serum galectin-3 level remained to be an independent predictor of PSCI ( p < 0.001 ). Conclusions. Elevated serum galectin-3 levels are linked to a higher risk of PSCI. Serum galectin-3 could be a prospective biomarker for predicting PSCI.

In order to achieve both adjustable wideband and high Polarization Conversion Rate (PCR) of the transmitted waves, a novelty tri-layered structure is proposed for terahertz applications. The Rhombus Hollow Square (RHS) is built up by top and bottom gold gratings on Silicon Dioxide and Polyamide substrate with graphene strips. The proposed polarizer broadens the bandwidth and has well performance. As chemical potential increases, the bandwidth is also broadened by adjusting the graphene. From 0.5 THz to 3 THz, the PCR is greater than 90%, and the relative bandwidth up to 142.9%. The transmission and absorption of polarizer are analyzed at the oblique incidence with chemical potential 0.1eV. By simulating and analyzing the performance, a new result of maintaining broadband and high transmittance in oblique incidence is obtained.

The urinary C-peptide/creatinine ratio (UCPCR) is low in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, but it has not been well characterized in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We aimed to measure the UCPCRs in patients with T2DM and explore the relationships among UCPCR, insulin resistance (IR), and chronic vascular complications of diabetes.A cross-sectional study was performed of 1299 Chinese hospitalized patients with T2DM. Binary logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationships between the chronic vascular complications of diabetes and UCPCR. K-means analysis was used to allocate participants to subgroups with five to six variables (age at diagnosis, body mass index [BMI], glycosylated hemoglobin, homoeostasis model assessment 2-estimated beta-cell function (HOMA2-B), and HOMA2-insulin resistance (HOMA2-IR), with or without UCPCR).UCPCR positively correlated with HOMA2-IR (r = 0.448, P .001). After adjustment for sex, age, duration of diabetes, and other cardiovascular risk factors, UCPCR was positively associated with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) (odds ratio [OR] = 1.198, 95% CI 1.019-1.408, P = .029) and coronary heart disease (CHD) (OR = 1.312, 95% CI 1.079-1.594, P = .006). When UCPCR was added, cluster analysis using the six variables identified five subgroups of T2DM, characterized by differing age at diagnosis, BMI, beta-cell function, IR, and prevalence of vascular complications.UCPCR is positively associated with IR, DKD, and CHD and represents a promising biomarker that could refine the classification of T2DM.背景: 1型糖尿病患者尿C肽/肌酐比值水平低。但尿C肽/肌酐比值在2型糖尿病患者中并没有被充分评估, 本研究拟测定2型糖尿病患者的尿C肽/肌酐比值水平, 探讨尿C肽/肌酐比值与胰岛素抵抗及糖尿病慢性血管并发症的相关性, 并评估尿C肽/肌酐比值改善2型糖尿病精准分型的可能性。 方法: 本研究共纳入北京大学人民医院内分泌科住院2型糖尿病患者1299名。采集所有患者的临床资料, 测定其空腹尿C肽/肌酐比, 通过二元Logistic回归分析尿C肽/肌酐比值与糖尿病血管并发症的相关性。并分别用传统的五个变量[诊断年龄, 体重指数, 糖化血红蛋白, 改良稳态模型计算的β细胞功能指数(HOMA2-B)及胰岛素抵抗指数(HOMR2-IR)]和加入尿C肽/肌酐比值后的六个变量, 通过相同的k-means聚类算法对2型糖尿病患者进行聚类分组, 比较不同亚组的临床特点。 结果: 尿C肽/肌酐比值与HOMA2-IR水平 (r=0.448, P0.001)正相关。在调整了性别, 年龄, 病程及其他心血管疾病危险因素后, 尿C肽/肌酐比值水平与糖尿病肾病 [比值比(OR) =1.198, 95%CI (1.019, 1.408), P=0.029]及冠状动脉粥样硬化性心脏病的发生风险呈正相关 [OR=1.312, 95%CI (1.079, 1.594), P=0.006]。在五个传统临床变量基础上, 加入尿C肽/肌酐比值后再进行聚类分型, 可以清晰地将患者分为五组:两组具有早发糖尿病特征[早发胰岛素缺乏型糖尿病(n=350)和早发胰岛素抵抗型糖尿病(n=176)], 两组具有晚发糖尿病特征[晚发胰岛素缺乏型糖尿病(n=318)和晚发胰岛素抵抗型糖尿病(n=133)]及轻型糖尿病(n=299)。各组间诊断年龄, 体重指数, 胰岛β细胞功能, 胰岛素抵抗水平以及糖尿病血管并发症比例显著不同。 结论: 尿C肽/肌酐比值与胰岛素抵抗水平及糖尿病肾病, 冠状动脉粥样硬化性心脏病发生风险正相关。在传统临床变量基础上引入尿C肽/肌酐比值, 可以改善2型糖尿病的精准分型。.

A high-gain Fabry–Perot cavity antenna (FPCA) with wide 1 dB gain bandwidth in the S -band is proposed. A partially reflective surface with a positive phase gradient in a wideband is adopted to effectively improve the radiation characteristics of the designed broadband source antenna. The proposed FPCA has a measured –10 dB impedance bandwidth of 2.9–3.95 GHz (30.65%), and a 1 dB gain bandwidth is 2.9–3.6 GHz (21%). In such a wideband, the realized gain is enhanced by up to 6 dB, and the measured maximum aperture efficiency is 39.3%.

An ultra broadband all-dielectric transmitarray antenna (TA) is designed based on genetic algorithm optimization (GAO) and 3-D print fabrication technology. The array element is composed of all-dielectric pillars with different sizes distributed on the two sides of a substrate. The element is operating in the out-of-band resonance (OBR) zone, whose transmission amplitude is nearly one and the phase can be easily controlled. Afterward, the geometric parameters of the elements on different positions of the TA surface were optimized using generalized Snell’s Law-based GAO, which achieved broadband phase compensation and good transmission performance. As the structure is all- dielectric, it can be easily manufactured using 3-D printing technology. The TA was fed by a ridged horn, and the antenna gains are enhanced by 7–12 dB in the measuring band (9–20 GHz). Moreover, the 1 dB steady gain ranges from 14.5 to 20 GHz (up to 29%).

A low-profile and broadband metasurface antenna is proposed for circular polarization radiation. The metasurface is an array of subwavelength square patches. The modal behaviors of the proposed metasurface are investigated by using the characteristic mode theory. Two characteristic modes with the same resonant frequencies and orthogonal current distributions are chosen as operation modes. Furthermore, a hybrid feed system consisting of a cross-slot and a microstrip line is employed to excite the two orthogonal modes having a 90° phase difference to obtain circular polarization radiation. Based on these concepts, an antenna with low profile of $0.07{\lambda _0}$ ( ${\lambda _0}$ is the free-space wavelength at an operation frequency of 5.5GHz) is designed. The measurement results show that the proposed antenna has −10 dB impedance bandwidth of 4.8–6.35 GHz and 3 dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 4.85–6 GHz. Moreover, the antenna gain is 6.8–9.7 dBic in the whole axial-ratio bandwidth.

To detect the students’ concentration state in classroom, a DS (Dempster–Shafer theory)-based evaluation algorithm is proposed by measuring the students’ Euler angles of their facial attitude. The detection of facial attitude angles can be implemented under the surveillance video with lower pixels. Therefore, compared with other methods for students’ concentration evaluation, the proposed algorithm can be applied directly in most classrooms by the support of existing monitoring equipment. By using DS theory to fuse the concentration state of each student, the curve of students’ overall concentration score changing with time can be obtained to describe the overall classroom concentration state. The design of the algorithm is proved to be feasible and effective under the dataset provided by computer front camera. The realization of the overall function effect of the algorithm is tested under the 35-person classroom video dataset. Compared with the average score from the questionnaire given by 20 reviewers, the accuracy of the proposed algorithm is about 85.3%.

We provided evidence that a 6-month regular hopping exercise intervention can increase trabecular number and possibly trabecular volume fraction of the distal tibia. Our novel localised analysis demonstrated region-specific changes, predominantly in the anterior region, in postmenopausal women. The localisation of bone remodelling and microarchitectural adaptation to exercise loading has not been demonstrated previously in vivo in humans. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of using 3D image registration and high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) to investigate the effect of high-impact exercise on human trabecular bone variables and remodelling rate across the distal tibia. Ten postmenopausal women were recruited for 6-month unilateral hopping exercises, with HR-pQCT scans taken of both exercise leg (EL) and control leg (CL) for each participant before and after the intervention. A 3D image registration was used to ensure measurements were taken at the same region. Short-term reproducibility tests were conducted prior to the assessment using identical setup. The results were assessed comparing CL and EL, and interaction (time × leg) using a two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA). Across the whole tibia, we observed significant increases in trabecular number (Tb.N) (+ 4.4%) and trabecular bone formation rate (tBFR) (3.3%), and a non-significant increase in trabecular bone volume fraction (BV/TV) (+ 1%) in the EL. Regional resorption was higher in the CL than the EL, with this difference being statistically significant at the lateral tibia. In the EL, tBFR was significantly higher in the anterior region than the medial but a trabecular bone resorption rate (tBRR) showed no significant regional variation. Conversely in the CL, both tBFR and tBRR were significantly higher in the anterior and lateral than the medial region. We demonstrated that it was possible to detect exercise-related bone adaptation with 3D registration of HR-pQCT scan data. Regular hopping exercise increased Tb.N and possibly BV/TV across the whole distal tibia. A novel finding of the study was that tBFR and tBRR responses to loading were localised: changes were achieved by formation rate exceeding resorption rate in the exercise leg, both globally and at the anterior region where turnover was greatest. clinicaltrials.gov : NCT03225703

Modern developments of biomedical applications demand a better understanding of mechanical behaviour of soft biological tissues. As human soft tissues demonstrate a significant structural and functional diversity, characterisation of their mechanical behaviour still remains a challenge. Limitations related with implementation of mechanical experiments on human participants lead to a use of finite-element models for analysis of mechanical responses of soft tissues to different loads. This study focuses on parameters of numerical simulation considered for modelling of indentation of a human lower limb. Assessment of the effect of boundary conditions on the model size shows that at a ratio of its length to the tissue’s thickness of 1.7 for the 3D model this effect vanishes. The numerical results obtained with models employing various sets of mechanical parameters of the first-order Ogden scheme were compared with original experimental data. Furthermore, high sensitivity of the resulting reaction forces to the indenting direction is demonstrated for cases of both linear and angular misalignments of the indenter. Finally, the effect of changes in material parameters and their domain on their contribution to the reaction forces is discussed with the aim to improve our understanding of mechanical behaviour of soft tissues based on numerical methods. The undertaken research with its results on minimal requirements for finite-element models of indentation of soft tissues can support inverse analysis of their mechanical properties and underpin orthopaedic and medical procedures.

Microring resonator (MRR) is regarded as one of the most widely-used building blocks in photonic integration, which is employed to implement optical filtering, routing, sensing, true time delay, signal processing, logic operations and so on. However, a single MRR intrinsically produces Lorentzian or Lorentzian-derivative shape responses with very sharp peaks, which is incapable of handling wideband signals for microwave photonic systems. In this paper, we introduce a reflective-type MRR with a reflector connected to the drop port of an add-drop MRR. Thanks to the reflector, reconfigurable intensity and group delay responses can be achieved by setting the coupling coefficients of the MRR, leading to the implementation of flat-top filtering, wideband optical true time delay, XNOR/XOR optical logic operation and electro-optic modulation. Both theoretical analysis and experimental demonstration are carried out. This new MRR structure may enable a new, compact and low-cost design strategy for the integrated reconfigurable or programmable microwave photonic systems.

A sidelobe-suppression technique for the reflector antenna is proposed. Compared to the conventional reflector antenna analysis technique, the proposed technique adopts the novel quasi-actual feed ...

Temporal synchronous target selection is an association-free selection technique: users select a target by generating signals (e.g., finger taps and hand claps) in sync with its unique temporal pattern. However, classical pattern set design and input recognition algorithm of such techniques did not leverage users' behavioral information, which limits their robustness to imprecise inputs. In this paper, we improve these two key components by modeling users' interaction behavior. In the first user study, we asked users to tap a finger in sync with blinking patterns with various period and delay, and modeled their finger tapping ability using Gaussian distribution. Based on the results, we generated pattern sets for up to 22 targets that minimized the possibility of confusion due to imprecise inputs. In the second user study, we validated that the optimized pattern sets could reduce error rate from 23% to 7% for the classical Correlation recognizer. We also tested a novel Bayesian, which achieved higher selection accuracy than the Correlation recognizer when the input sequence is short. The informal evaluation results show that the selection technique can be effectively scaled to different modalities and sensing techniques.

A comprehensive life cycle assessment was conducted on fermentation, pyrolysis, and gasification systems to compare their environmental performance of converting corn stover to biofuels. In addition, the normalization method was applied to compare different environmental impact categories. The differences and similarities in their environmental performance were explored, and the reasons for the differences were discussed. Comparatively, based on 1 GJ biofuel consumed, fermentation performs poorly on almost all environmental impact categories, while the equivalent CO2 emission of pyrolysis is the highest. Comparing with pyrolysis, the equivalent CO2 emission reductions can be more than 50% for the other systems. There are also similar regularities in the environmental performance of the three systems. The acidification potential is the most arresting impact category. Biofuel production and agriculture are identified as the processes that mainly affect the environment. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis on all 5 impact categories was conducted, demonstrating that biofuel yield is the most sensitive factor to nearly all impact categories.

A photonic-assisted transceiver for microwave Doppler frequency shift (DFS) measurement, which possesses capabilities of generating a frequency-quadruplicated transmitted signal and evaluating the speed and the orientation of the moving object, is proposed and demonstrated by simulating. In the transmitter, the frequency-quadruplicated transmitted signal is obtained by beating the carrier-suppressed ±2nd sidebands. In the receiver, a low-frequency reference signal is introduced to estimate the sign of the DFS. Different from the other DFS measurement solutions based on microwave photonics, the proposed approach takes the advantages of generating a high transmitted signal, employing a low reference signal, and having no use of an optical filter.

In recent decades, Bisphenol S (BPS), which have been considered as alternatives for Bisphenol A (BPA), have become widely used in personal care products, paper products and food. Clarifying the relationship between bisphenol and tumors is of great significance for the treatment and prevention of diseases. In this work, we discovered a new method to predict the correlation between bisphenol interactive genes and tumors. The transcriptome profile and interactive genes of bisphenol were obtained from the Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression, Comparative Toxicology Genomics and PharmMapper database. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analysis showed that interactive genes were mainly enriched in prostate cancer. Gene targetd prediction and gene set variation analysis proved that bisphenol exert potential effects on prostate cancer. The operating characteristic curves and survival analysis showed that role of COL1A1 and COL1A2 in predicting the prognosis of prostate cancer. Cell counting kit-8 assay demonstrated that the cells with BPS-treated could remarkably promote the cell proliferation ability in both PC-3 and LNCap cells. Wound healing assay and the transwell assay demonstrated that the cells with BPS-treated could significantly promote the cell invasion capacity of prostate cells. Two key genes, COL1A1 and COL1A2, were significantly upregulated with BPS-treated in the PC-3 and LNCap cells.

Background: Serum ceruloplasmin is one of the major diagnostic parameters for Wilson’s disease (WD). Age and gender difference of serum ceruloplasmin remain controversy. This study aims to assess diagnostic value of serum ceruloplasmin for WD in children. Methods: Serum ceruloplasmin were measured in 317 WD patients, 21 heterozygotes, 372 healthy control children and 154 non-WD patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the diagnostic accuracy of serum ceruloplasmin for WD in children. Results: Among healthy controls, serum ceruloplasmin was mildly low in the infants younger than 6 months, and then presented around 26–33 mg/dl from 6 months to 15 years. Few (8.1%) of healthy children had serum ceruloplasmin 20 mg/dL. Serum ceruloplasmin had gender difference, higher in healthy boys than healthy girls, and also higher in asymptomatic WD boys than asymptomatic WD girls (p

To accelerate the adoption of Metal Additive Manufacturing (MAM) for production, an understanding of MAM process-structure-property (PSP) relationships is indispensable for quality control. A multitude of physical phenomena involved in MAM necessitates the use of multi-modal and in-process sensing techniques to model, monitor and control the process. The data generated from these sensors and process actuators are fused in various ways to advance our understanding of the process and to estimate both process status and part-in-progress states. This paper presents a hierarchical in-process data fusion framework for MAM, consisting of pointwise, trackwise, layerwise and partwise data analytics. Data fusion can be performed at raw data, feature, decision or mixed levels. The multi-scale data fusion framework is illustrated in detail using a laser powder bed fusion process for anomaly detection, material defect isolation, and part quality prediction. The multi-scale data fusion can be generally applied and integrated with real-time MAM process control, near-real-time layerwise repairing and buildwise decision making. The framework can be utilized by the AM research and standards community to rapidly develop and deploy interoperable tools and standards to analyze, process and exploit two or more different types of AM data. Common engineering standards for AM data fusion systems will dramatically improve the ability to detect, identify and locate part flaws, and then derive optimal policies for process control.

Background: Dietary factors are regarded as an essential influence in changing colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. However, there is no clear conclusion of the relationship between solanaceous vegetables and colorectal cancer at present. The study aimed to evaluate the intake of solanaceous vegetables in relation to colorectal cancer risk among the Northeast Chinese population.Methods: We carried out a hospital-based case-control study in three hospitals in Northeast China from 2009 to 2011. The study finally included 833 patients with CRC and 833 controls matched separately according to age, gender, and city of residence. We applied a structural questionnaire to collect demographic characteristics and dietary information by face-to-face interview and adopted conditional logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Stratified analyses were conducted by sex and subsites.Results: There was no obvious correlation between total intake of solanaceous plants and CRC risk. The adjusted OR for the highest quartile and the lowest quartile was 1 (95% CI: 0.68–1.5). Certain types of solanaceous vegetables were negatively associated with the risk of CRC, such as eggplant (OR = 0.42; 95% CI:0.29–0.62) and sweet pepper (OR = 0.48; 95%CI: 0.33–0.7). Potato was found to have a positive correlation with CRC (OR = 1.76; 95% CI: 1.26–2.47). In the stratified analyses by gender, total solanaceous vegetables intake was inversely associated with CRC risk only in men. In the stratified analyses of cancer subsites, no significant association between total solanaceous vegetables intake and CRC risk was found.Conclusion: No findings showed that the intake of total solanaceous vegetables was related to the reduction of CRC risk. However, specific types of solanaceous vegetables indicated an inverse association with CRC risk.

The scenario that quantities of users subscribing to a same live video content cluster together in a spatially local area poses challenges to cellular operators even in 5G unicast networks. In this regard, we propose a network paradigm exploiting eMBMS and edge computing, which relieves resource starvation in both backbone and wired access networks by grouping users and distributing the desired content to each multicast group only once. However, problems are raised by operators to perform an optimal server-side decision: how to partition users with the heterogeneity and dynamic of channel conditions, how to fairly and optimally allot resources considering both unicast and multicast users, and how to maximize the overall QoE of this live video service. To cope with these coupled problems, we formulate an optimization model based on coalition game with QoE assured, which defines a fair allocation strategy according to respective contributions and a dynamic grouping method. Subsequently, we propose a heuristic algorithm with a low-time complexity that guarantees QoE for most users and shows conspicuous reduction of annoying stalling events. Noticeably, numerical simulations reveal the fairness and near-optimality of our algorithm compared with state-of-the-art approaches in multiple scenarios.

Lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) has been emerging as a popular integration platform for optical communications and microwave photonics. An edge coupler with high coupling efficiency, wide bandwidth, high fabrication and misalignment tolerance, as well as a small footprint is essential to couple light in or out of the LNOI chip. Some edge couplers have been demonstrated to realize fiber-to-chip coupling in the last few years, but the coupling with distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor laser is rarely studied. In this paper, we propose a multi-tip edge coupler with three tips to reduce the mode size mismatch between the LNOI waveguide and the DFB laser. The tilted sidewall, fabrication tolerance, misalignment tolerance, and facet reflection due to the effective index mismatch are discussed. It shows that the proposed multi-tip edge coupler can be practically used in the production of effective LNOI integrated chips.

In this paper, a theoretical analysis of a flat-top microring resonator (FTMRR) is undertaken. The intensity and group delay responses of the FTMRR are derived from a transfer matrix formalism, which shows that flat-top resonance is possible in this single-ring cavity by stimulating and manipulating slow light in the counterclockwise (CCW) mode and fast light in the clockwise (CW) mode. The analytical solutions required for achieving the flat-top responses are obtained by assuming that the slope around the resonant wavelength equals zero. In addition, an improvement in the bandwidth of the FTMRR (in comparison with the MRR), the tunable and reconfigurable optical responses for filtering/switching, and the small variation in intensity during the tuning of the flat-top group delay observed in the previous experiments are all proved through theoretical analysis.

Objective To investigate the genetic and epigenetic differences between human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) and HPV-negative OPSCC. Methods Microarray data of HPV-positive and -negative OPSCC were retrieved from NCBI GEO datasets. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially expressed miRNAs (DE-miRNAs) were identified by performing differential expression analysis. A functional enrichment analysis was performed to explore the biological processes and signaling pathways that DEGs and DE-miRNAs were involved in, respectively. A protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of DEGs was constructed to identify hub genes. miRNA-target network and miRNA-miRNA functional synergistic network were each constructed in order to identify risk-marker miRNAs. An miRNA-target-pathway network was constructed in order to explore the function of identified risk-marker miRNAs. Results Microarray data from 3 datasets (GSE39366, GSE40774, and GSE55550) was included and analyzed. The PPI network identified 3 hub genes (VCAM1, UBD, and RPA2). MiR-107 and miR-142-3p were found to play the most significant role in both the DE-miRNA-target network as well as in the miRNA-miRNA functional synergistic network. MiR-107 was involved in HPV-induced tumorigenesis by targeting many genes (CAV1, CDK6, MYB, and SERPINB5) and regulating the p53 signaling pathway, the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and the autophagy pathway. In addition, miR-142-3p was implicated in HPV-induced tumorigenesis by targeting the PPFIA1 gene and regulating transcriptional dysregulation and other cancerous pathways. Conclusion Three genes (VCAM1, UBD, and RPA2), two miRNAs (miR-107 and miR-142-3p), and four pathways (p53, PI3K-Akt, autophagy, and transcription dysregulation in cancer) were identified to play critical roles in distinguishing HPV-positive OPSCC from HPV-negative OPSCC.

Decoupling of a wideband circularly polarized (CP) conformal array is studied by a single-negative (SNG) metamaterial (MTM) isolator. The conformal array consists of two wideband CP antennas, which are assembled on an arched carrier, and a wideband SNG structure is placed between the antenna elements for coupling reduction. The SNG structure consists of four wheel-shaped units concentrically. The SNG structure is bianisotropic, and its constitutive parameters are tailored to form a wide isolation band. By using the proposed wideband SNG structure, the mutual coupling between the conformal antenna elements is reduced up to 25 dB at 4.5 GHz, and the mutual coupling is improved in the 3.9–5.05 GHz band. In addition, the loading of the SNG structure has little effect on the axial-ratio bandwidth. Besides, the gain and radiation patterns are improved. This research provides some basis in the decoupling of the conformal array.

To date, the development of coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs has attracted a great deal of attention due to its considerable perspective reserves. As a result, nearly all research aspects of CBM reservoirs have been extensively investigated and expect to advance gas production performance as well as associated economic value. Notably, amongst the most significant issue influencing the production performance is the production strategy optimization, which however remains challenging because of the complex time-varying fluid flow performance during the development process of CBM reservoirs. It is always difficult but crucial to shed light on the optimal drawdown pressure within different production scenarios. According to the gas-water two-phase version productivity equations which have been proposed in our previous work, a set of quantified optimization criterion for production strategy within the entire CBM well production process is developed for the first time in this research paper. The proposed optimization criterion contains three procedures: (1) the gas well maintains the bottom-hole pressure (BHP) as critical desorption pressure until the pressure wave propagate to the boundary; (2) the BHP is set as the critical pressure, which is firstly proposed herein and determined by gas phase productivity equation, until the pressure at the boundary become below the critical desorption pressure; (3) the gas well maintains the BHP as the abandonment pressure. In order to clarify the validity of the proposed criterion, we applied the optimization criterion to an actual CBM well located in Hancheng field, China, and found the case with optimized production strategy achieved much better gas recovery compared with that based on the previous production strategy. Moreover, production evaluation work is performed based on the utilization of the proposed optimization method, it indicates that optimized gas production can attain relatively high gas production rate in the future three years. The optimization method possesses simple and easy-operation advantages, which shares great application potential in actual CBM fields and turns out to be practical. In addition, because a practical optimization method for scheduling production strategy of CBM wells has not been proposed before, this work is able to fill the knowledge gap and will contribute to the efficient development of CBM reservoirs.

The previously proposed resonance-based reflector (RBR) antennas have the merits of wide impedance bandwidth, low-profile, and unidirectional pattern; however, their front-to-back ratio (FBR) bandwidths are narrow. In this paper, a wideband RBR is proposed for FBR bandwidth enhancing antenna with a low profile. The proposed RBR consists of a metallic ring with three stubs printed on a substrate. It has a ±90° in-phase bandwidth of 63.57% (3.23-6.24 GHz) and its reflection magnitude values range from -0.02 to -11.5 dB within the in-phase band (-90° L at the lowest operating frequency, and the RBR has the same size as the bowtie antenna. Compared to the previous RBR antennas, the proposed RBR antenna has wider FBR bandwidth. The operating band of the antenna is suitable for 5G system applications.

The combination of spectral and spatial information provides an effective way to improve the hyperspectral image (HSI) classification. However, the local spatial contexture changes with different neighborhood regions over the HSI image plane, and methods with fixed weights to integrate spatial information for all neighborhood regions could result in inaccurate spatial features, leading to adverse effects on classification performance. To address this issue, a novel adaptive spatial-spectral feature learning network (ASSFL) has been proposed to reflect spatial contexture changes and learn robust adaptive features in this paper. In the implementation of the proposed method, a convolution neural network (CNN) is first applied to learn weight features for each pixel within a hyperspectral patch and adaptive weights can be obtained based on a softmax normalization. Then, the shallow joint adaptive features can be acquired according to these weights. After that, a stacked auto-encoder (SAE) is proposed to further extract deeper hierarchical features for the final classification. The experimental results on four benchmark HSI data sets demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve competitive classification results compared with other existing classifiers.

Electromagnetic (EM) wave collimation and energy harvesting are key technologies to usher a new epoch of EM applications. In this paper, a novel structure for mid-infrared wave collimation has been proposed in the scope of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMM), i.e., designing a k-space diagram as hyperbolic dispersion. The proposed HMM is a thin slab of quasi-two-dimensional (2-D) structure and is composed of alternately arranged dielectric and graphene multilayers. The quasi-2-D structure has a triangle shape on the xy-plane. Compared to the traditional metal-dielectric multilayer model, this research use graphene as replacement of the metal for mid-infrared wave collimation, which the losses are relatively low and the permittivity can be tuned through applying voltage gating. In addition, the field distribution diagrams and power density charts explicitly illustrate the performance of wave collimation. Theory and physical mechanisms of the proposed design are discussed. Research also found that the proposed structure can be utilized to generate multiple beams, and the ultimate collimations direction can be regulated.

A circularly polarized(CP) antenna array with the capability of beam-scanning based on liquid crystal(LC) is proposed. TUD-649 LC is adopted to realize beam steering by controlling the permittivity of LC. Circular polarization is obtained using two orthogonal slots. The radiation array is fed by four-port power dividers. The peak gain of the antenna is 10.5 dBi. The scanning angles from −20° to 20° are achieved at 12.6GHz.

BACKGROUND COVID-19 and influenza share many similarities, such as mode of transmission and clinical symptoms. Failure to distinguish the 2 diseases may increase the risk of transmission. A fast and convenient differential diagnosis between COVID-19 and influenza has significant clinical value, especially for low- and middle-income countries with a shortage of nucleic acid detection kits. We aimed to establish a diagnostic model to differentiate COVID-19 and influenza based on clinical data. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 493 patients were enrolled in the study, including 282 with COVID-19 and 211 with influenza. All data were collected and reviewed retrospectively. The clinical and laboratory characteristics of all patients were analyzed and compared. We then randomly divided all patients into development sets and validation sets to establish a diagnostic model using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Finally, we validated the diagnostic model using the validation set. RESULTS We preliminarily established a diagnostic model for differentiating COVID-19 from influenza that consisted of 5 variables: age, dry cough, fever, white cell count, and D-dimer. The model showed good performance for differential diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS This initial model including clinical features and laboratory indices effectively differentiated COVID-19 from influenza. Patients with a high score were at a high risk of having COVID-19, while patients with a low score were at a high risk of having influenza. This model could help clinicians quickly identify and isolate cases in the absence of nucleic acid tests, especially during the cocirculation of COVID-19 and influenza. Owing to the study's retrospective nature, further prospective study is needed to validate the accuracy of the model.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has become a widely used tool for insight into biomedical challenges due to its rapid, long-term, and super-resolution (SR) imaging. However, artifacts that often appear in SIM images have long brought into question its fidelity, and might cause misinterpretation of biological structures. We present HiFi-SIM, a high-fidelity SIM reconstruction algorithm, by engineering the effective point spread function (PSF) into an ideal form. HiFi-SIM can effectively reduce commonly seen artifacts without loss of fine structures and improve the axial sectioning for samples with strong background. In particular, HiFi-SIM is not sensitive to the commonly used PSF and reconstruction parameters; hence, it lowers the requirements for dedicated PSF calibration and complicated parameter adjustment, thus promoting SIM as a daily imaging tool.

Structured illumination microscope (SIM) can double the spatial resolution by using fringed pattern illumination. However, for samples with large intra-scene dynamic ranges, such as clustered objects, SIM fails to reconstruct high-quality images and often exhibits strong artifacts. Herein, we present a high dynamic range SIM (HDR-SIM) method using a multi-exposure acquisition strategy. With HDR-SIM, individual and clustered microspheres and vesicles with 420 times intensity differences can be visualized in the same scene while the delicate structures of the sample were preserved effectively.

An orthomode transducer (OMT) working in Ku band is presented in this paper. Its vertical polarization and horizontal polarization ports both use standard waveguide dimensions. The size of the branch end waveguide interface (straight or coupling) is $a_{11}=15.799mm, b_{11}=7.898mm$ (BJ140), and the common waveguide uses a circular waveguide with a radius of $R_{1}=8mm$. In order to simplify the structure and avoid the use of power combining structure at the coupling port, the physical three-port design of a single branch waveguide is adopted, and the multi-section conversion of the straight-through port and the coupling port screw tuning are adopted. Its VSWR is less than 1.4 while working in the Ku-band (12-15.7GHz). Besides, its fractional bandwidth reached 26.7% and achieving a broadband effect. Its VSWR is less than 1.4 while working in the Ku-band (12-15.7GHz). Besides, its fractional bandwidth reached 26.7% and achieved a broadband effect.

With the development of Virtual Reality (VR) technology, the growing number of VR users puts tremendous pressure on network bandwidth. The tile-based scheme is proposed to reduce the transmission size of 360° video and improve bandwidth utilization. However, when the Field of View (FoV) of the user changes unexpectedly, the tile-based scheme will cause video distortion and quality switching by unacceptable delay. Therefore, many methods are proposed to cache the tiles that users are most likely to playback in Cloud/Edge to decrease delay. However, the dynamic adaptive bitrate delivery and the caching decision is a complex joint optimization problem, which will be a dimensional explosion problem when the scale of users and videos is large. In this paper, we design a QoE-based 360° video adaptive bitrate delivery and caching scheme aiming to maximize the quality of experience (QoE) of multi-user and ensure the fairness of users. To solve this optimization problem which is proved to be NP-Hard, we propose a bitrate selection and caching decision algorithm by greedy strategy. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that our algorithm significantly improves cache hit rate and QoE performance compared with other algorithms with fairness guaranteed.

We analyze the wavelength drifting of a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer coupler assisted reflective-type microring resonator (RT-MRR) based on the transmission matrix formalism. An experiment is carried out to validate our analysis. The results show that the resonant wavelength of the RT-MRR periodically drifts as a function of the control signal, which helps us to understand the wavelength drifting mechanism and to find solutions to avoid the wavelength drifting effect.

Background The related research of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the mental health of community residents is still lacking. Here we reported the mental health status of Chinese residents as well as the community's prevention and control during the pandemic period of COVID-19 and further explored the influencing factors of mental status. Methods In this cross-sectional study, convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods were adopted from February 16 to February 23, 2020, and Chinese community residents were included according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Three questionnaires, including General Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), and a self-designed "Community prevention and control questionnaire", were used. A multivariate linear regression analysis was conducted to analyze the impact factors of anxiety and depression. Results A total of 3,001 community residents were included in this study. In total, 85.6% and 83.7% of participants had minimal anxiety and depression, respectively. Among all the community residents, 16.6% of participants proved that the communities they lived in had confirmed cases. 95.3% of participants reported that the residents were screened for mobility and contact history. 97.8% of participants reported the entrance and exit of the community were managed in their communities. There were 97.5% and 99% of participants needed to take body temperature and wear masks in their communities. Ninety-two percent (92%) of communities have their public areas and facilities disinfected daily, and 95.4% of communities have conducted health education about COVID-19. Factors including gender, education level, chronic illness, the frequency of going out, achieving information about COVID-19 by community and newspaper, and confirmed cases in the community, show association with community residents' anxiety and depression. Conclusions The vast majority of Chinese residents have little anxiety and depression, and most communities have adopted standardized control measures following the government's regulations and policy, which plays a vital role in the control of COVID-19 and improving residents' anxiety and depression.

A miniaturized ultra-wideband printed antenna working at C / X / Ku / K / Ka band is presented in this article. The hexagon-shaped radiator with a semi-elliptical ground plane is designed as a feed antenna. The size of the antenna is 32 $\times 32\times 1.47\mathrm{mm}^{3}$ or 0.32 $\lambda_{0}\times 0.32\lambda_{0}\times 0.0147\lambda_{0}$ , where $\lambda_{0}$ is the wavelength at 3 GHz in the free space. The proposed antenna is fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW). The impedance bandwidth and fractional bandwidth are 26.2 GHz and 161.4%, respectively. The antenna operates from 3.13-29.33 GHz. The peak gain is 6.64 dBi and the radiation patterns are approximately omnidirectional in H-plane in the whole operating frequency band.

In this paper, a compact microstrip duplexer with relatively close channels is proposed. The ring resonator and the orthogonal-feed are directly connected to form a band elimination filter. The band elimination filter is loaded with branches to realize the band-pass filter. The design of the duplexer in the article composed of two such band-pass filters. The design method of the duplexer is introduced in detail, and verified by the experimental results of the manufactured duplexer. The central frequency of the bandpass channels is 1.45Ghz and 1.75Ghz respectively. The measurement results show that the two channels of the duplexers are close to each other, with low insertion loss and high out-of-band rejection, which are in good agreement with the simulation results.

To examine the knowledge level, behaviors, and psychological status of the Chinese population during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to explore the differences between urban and rural areas.We carried out a cross-sectional survey of the knowledge, behaviors related to COVID-19, and mental health in a probability sample of 3001 community residents in 30 provinces or districts across China from February 16-23, 2020. Convenience sampling and a snowball sampling were adopted. We used General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and knowledge and behaviors questionnaire of community residents regarding COVID-19 designed by us to investigate the psychological status, disease-related knowledge, and the behavior of Chinese urban and rural residents during the pandemic.The average score of anxiety and depression among urban residents was 9.15 and 11.25, respectively, while the figures in rural areas were 8.69 and 10.57, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in the levels of anxiety (P 

A polarization-reconfigurable and frequency-tunable active metasurface (MS) is presented. The proposed MS can realize the dynamic switch of linear to linear, and linear to circular polarization. The MS is composed of active unit cells incorporated with voltage controlling. By controlling the DC bias voltage of the varactor diodes, the electromagnetic responses of the proposed MS can be tailored, leading to reconfigurable polarization conversions. The simulation results show that the proposed MS structure can switch between left-handed circular polarization (LHCP), right-handed circular polarization (RHCP), and linear polarization (LP) in the frequency band of 3-4GHz.

We propose a high refractive index metamaterial (HRIM)that is composed of two identical patch arrays symmetrically etched on both sides of a dielectric plate. By reducing the gap of adjacent patches and the thickness of dielectric plate, the proposed metamaterial can suppress the diamagnetic response and enhance the capacitance coupling, so that the refractive index of the metamaterial is higher than 10 in wideband from 4 to 8 GHz. Attributing to the property of high refractive index, the metamaterial can effectively improve the performance of a microstrip antenna when it is loaded as a superstrate. The measured results reveal that the antenna has an impedance bandwidth (S11 < −10 dB) of 690 MHz (12.4%) and a maximum gain of 13 dB appearing at 5.6 GHz. The 1 dB and 3 dB gain bandwidths are 380 MHz (6.7%) and 590 MHz (10.3%), respectively. Fortunately, the profile of the antenna is only 0.19λ0 (λ0is the free space wavelength at central frequency). Furthermore, the profile can be further reduced to 0.15λ0 when the radiation patch of the antenna is surrounded by another metamaterial.

In this research, the polarization and bandwidth of a zeroth‐order resonators (ZORs) loaded microstrip antenna are improved by employing a grid polarization filter cover and a metallic cavity. The polarization improvement is owing to three operations, (a) the filter cover allows co‐polarization wave passing through only, (b) the ZORs partly rotate the reflected cross‐polarizations (X‐polarizations) wave to be co‐polarization, (c) the metallic cavity suppresses the fringe fields of the cover. The bandwidth enhancement is owing to the polarization cover that reflects the X‐polarization, which forms a resonant cavity. The improvements of the simulated cross‐polarizations range from 17.7 to 35.3 dB in the band. The measured bandwidth is increased from 940 MHz (17.22%) of the referenced antenna to 1390 MHz (24.5%) of the proposed antenna. The measured results verify the simulations.

Student action analysis plays an import role in learning and teaching. In order to improve the accuracy of student action recognition in classroom learning, a Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network for Student Action Recognition (DCGANSAR) method is proposed. The method contains two stages: constructing the Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network (DCGAN) to obtain pre-trained weights in the discriminator, and using the discriminator of DCGAN to classify actions. The advantage is that the confrontation between the generator and the discriminator in DCGAN makes the discriminator get stronger, and effective weights are obtained. The pre-trained weights are beneficial for student action recognition, so the accuracy of recognition is improved. Experiments are conducted on the self-built student action dataset. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method recognizes student action with high accuracy and fast convergence speed.

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has been a widely-used super-resolution (SR) fluorescence microscopy technique, but artifacts often appear in reconstructed SR images which reduce its fidelity and might cause misinterpretation of biological structures. We present HiFi-SIM, a high-fidelity SIM reconstruction algorithm, by engineering the effective point spread function (PSF) into an ideal form. HiFi-SIM can effectively reduce commonly-seen artifacts without loss of fine structures and improve the axial sectioning. Since results of HiFi-SIM are not sensitive to used PSF and reconstruction parameters, it lowers the requirements for dedicated PSF calibration and complicated parameter adjustment, thus promoting SIM as a daily imaging tool.

The aim of this study was to investigate service needs and health care utilization among people with type 2 diabetes, further to identify the relationship between service needs and health care utilization. We used a self-reported questionnaire to collect data regarding demographic and diabetes characteristics, service needs toward self-management and follow-up care, and 4 health care utilizations during past year. Multiple linear regression and binary logistic regression were used to test the impacts of demographic and diabetes characteristics on service needs and health care utilizations, respectively. Spearman rank correlations were used to explore correlation between service needs and health care utilization. We recruited 1796 participants with type 2 diabetes from 20 community health centers across 12 cities of Sichuan Province in China. Needs of self-management and follow-up had significant positive correlations with health care utilization. Participants rated that nutrition was the most needed aspects of self-management (78.5%), and out-patient visit was the most popular type of follow-up (66.8%). Educational level and treatment modality were predictors of self-management needs. Low educational level (elementary school or blow, β = 0.11, P = .008; middle school, β = 0.10, P = .015) and insulin treatment (β = 0.08, P = .007) were positive factors of self-management needs. Younger age (age

Overactivation of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is one of the main pathophysiological features in the evolution of chronic heart failure (CHF). The (pro)renin receptor ((P)RR) represents an important player in a tissue renin-angiotensin system (tissue RAS), which mediates tissue injury through fibrosis and hypertrophy of the affected organs in CHF patients. In our study we used plasma samples from 556 elderly subjects with CHF and 198 healthy participants in order to evaluate prognostic and diagnostic potential of s(P)RR in setting of CHF. The patients with CHF showed significantly higher plasma levels of s(P)RR than the healthy volunteers (p=0.0005). We observed association between higher s(P)RR plasma concentrations and lower left ventricular ejection fraction and higher degree of left ventricular dilatation on baseline echocardiography examination of the CHF patients. Elderly CHF patients with higher baseline s(P)RR plasma concentration were at same risk for death, stroke and hospitalization due to heart failure worsening at mean follow-up from forty-eight months in comparison to low s(P)RR counterparts.