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CNNs outperform traditional machine learning algorithms across a wide range of applications. However, their computational complexity makes it necessary to design efficient hardware accelerators. Most CNN accelerators focus on exploring dataflow styles that exploit computational parallelism. However, potential performance speedup from sparsity has not been adequately addressed. The computation and memory footprint of CNNs can be significantly reduced if sparsity is exploited in network evaluations. To take advantage of sparsity, some accelerator designs explore sparsity encoding and evaluation on CNN accelerators. However, sparsity encoding is just performed on activation or weight and only in inference. It has been shown that activation and weight also have high sparsity levels during training. Hence, sparsity-aware computation should also be considered in training. To further improve performance and energy efficiency, some accelerators evaluate CNNs with limited precision. However, this is limited to the inference since reduced precision sacrifices network accuracy if used in training. In addition, CNN evaluation is usually memory-intensive, especially in training. In this paper, we propose SPRING, a SParsity-aware Reduced-precision Monolithic 3D CNN accelerator for trainING and inference. SPRING supports both CNN training and inference. It uses a binary mask scheme to encode sparsities in activation and weight. It uses the stochastic rounding algorithm to train CNNs with reduced precision without accuracy loss. To alleviate the memory bottleneck in CNN evaluation, especially in training, SPRING uses an efficient monolithic 3D NVM interface to increase memory bandwidth. Compared to GTX 1080 Ti, SPRING achieves 15.6X, 4.2X and 66.0X improvements in performance, power reduction, and energy efficiency, respectively, for CNN training, and 15.5X, 4.5X and 69.1X improvements for inference.

Objective: to study the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients and risk factors, to analyze their influence on the frequency of infection of artificial vascular prostheses in the aortoiliac-femoral segment. Material and methods. We analyzed 609 medical records of inpatient patients who had undergone vascular reconstructive interventions on the aortoiliac-femoral segment using a synthetic vascular prosthesis. The article presents the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients with lesions of the aortoiliac-femoral segment. The frequency of conduit infection in various major diseases, surgical approaches, types of bypass surgery (prosthetics), types of artificial vascular prosthesis was analysed. Results. The patients who developed lesions of the aortoiliac-femoral segment were mostly males (94.6%), urban residents (78%), unemployed (68.6%), those with chronic obliterating diseases of the arteries of the lower extremities (72.7%) and coronary heart disease (59.4%). The incidence of vascular prostheses in patients with chronic obliterating diseases of the arteries of the lower extremities was 5.5%, and in those with an aneurysm of the infrarenal abdominal aorta – 1.2%. Conclusion. The pattern of developing artificial vascular prosthesis infection has been established. Infection of conduits occurs statistically significantly more often in patients with chronic obliterating diseases of the arteries of the lower extremities than in those with an aneurysm of the infrarenal abdominal aorta.

The incidence of diabetes–associated cognitive dysfunction is increasing. However, few clinical interventions are available to prevent the disorder. Several researches have shown that liraglutide, as a glucagon-like peptide-1 analog, has protective effects on various neurodegenerative diseases, but its roles in diabetic cognitive dysfunction are rarely reported. This study aims to investigate the protective effects of liraglutide on diabetic cognitive dysfunction and its underlying mechanisms. In vivo, the effects of liraglutide treatment were investigated in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In vitro, we investigated the effects of liraglutide on the high-glucose-induced rat primary neurons. The results showed that liraglutide reduced the escape latency and increased the time in effective area in the Morris water maze test, improved the damage of hippocampal and synaptic ultrastructure, and decreased the accumulation of amyloid β protein in hippocampus of T2DM mice. Furthermore, liraglutide increased the ratio of microtubule-associated protein light 1 chain Ⅱ/Ⅰ, the expression of Beclin1 protein and Lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 in vivo and vitro. Additionally, Bafilomycin A1 which can inhibit the fusion of autophagosome and lysosome partially abolished the effects of liraglutide. These findings indicate liraglutide ameliorates diabetes-associated cognitive dysfunction by rescuing autophagic flux.

Noninvasive evaluation of hypoxia in rabbit VX2 lung transplant tumors using spectral CT parameters and texture analysis. Twenty-five VX2 lung transplant tumors of twenty-two rabbits were included in the study. Contrast-enhanced spectral CT scanning in the arterial phase (AP) and venous phase (VP) was performed. Tumors were divided into strong and weak hypoxic groups by hypoxic probe staining results. Spectral CT image-related parameters [70 keV CT value, normalized iodine concentration (NIC), slope of spectral HU curve (λHU)] were measured and the texture analysis on the monochromatic images was performed. Imaging parameters and texture features between tumors with different hypoxic degrees were compared and their diagnostic efficacies for predicting hypoxia in lung cancers were analyzed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. NIC in VP and λHU in VP of the strong hypoxic group were significantly higher than those in the weak hypoxic group (p

The aim of this study was to compare the indices of heart rate variability, central hemodynamics and physical working capacity in female swimmers with different sports qualifications. Materials and methods. The indices of heart rate variability (HRV), central hemodynamics (CH) and physical development (PD) were studied in 44 female swimmers (mean age 15.00 ± 0.36 years, swimming experience – 7.40 ± 0.35 years) depending on their sports qualifications (MSIC, MS, CMS, first- and second-class athletes). To analyze the autonomic regulation of cardiac activity, power spectral and time-domain indices of HRV were used. CH were examined by the method of automated tetrapolar rheography according to W. Kubiček et al. (1970) in Y. T. Pushkar’s et al. modification (1970). Physical working capacity was measured according to the generally accepted technique on a cycling ergometer using the PWC170 submaximal test. The functional state index (FSI) was calculated using the formula patented by authors. Results. Significant differences were found between the indices of HRV, CH and PD in female swimmers with different qualifications. Thus, in the athletes with the MSIC–MS sports qualifications, heart rate was 61.0 ± 3.8 bpm, cardiac index (CI) – 2.978 ± 0.098 L·min-1·m-2 (there was a trend towards the eukinetic type of hemodynamics (TH)), stress index (SI) – 51.16 ± 12.66 relative units (r.u.), PWC170/kg – 16.98 ± 1.22 kgm·min-1·kg-1, FSI – 6.511 ± 0.422 r.u. A decrease in heart rate among them was correlated with a decrease in SI, and an increase in Mo – with a decrease in CI. In female CMS swimmers, heart rate was 61.37 ± 2.83 beats/min-1, CI – 3.021 ± 0.112 l -1min -1·m -2 , a trend towards the predominantly eukinetic TH, SI – 53.73 ± 9.41 r.u., PWC170 /kg– 14.66 ± 0.683 kgm·min-1·kg -1, FSI – 5.683 ± 0.324 r.u. Reduced values of SI and CI were associated with increased values of Mo and PWC170/kg. In first- and second-class female swimmers, heart rate was 63.05 ± 2.22 beats/min, SI – 50.62 ± 6.4 r.u. This group tended to be eytonic and eukinetic. The mean value of the PWC170/kg was 14.19 ± 0.589 kgm·min-1·kg-1 and FSI – 5.953 ± 0.337 r.u. Correlation analysis confirmed the relationship between the decrease in heart rate and CI and the increase in Mo and PWC170/kg. Conclusions. Long-term training in female swimmers at the distance of 50 to 200 meters is accompanied by the significant increase in the PWC170/kg values with qualification improving, 14.19 ± 0.589 kgm·min-1·kg-1, 14.66 ± 0.683 kgm·min-1·kg-1; 16.98 ± 1.22 kgm·min-1·kg-1, respectively, improvements in HRV (decrease in stress index and increase in Mo) and decrease in CI.

Purpose.Analysis of the immediate results of emergency glomus-sparing auto-transplantation of the internal carotid artery (ICA) in the acute period of ischemic stroke, developed on the basis of the City Alexandrovskaya Hospital, St. Petersburg.Material and methods.In this prospective, single-center study from January 2017 to August 2020. 49 patients were included in the acute period of ischemic stroke with hemodynamically significant extended atherosclerotic lesions of the ICA. All patients underwent glomus-sparing ICA autotransplantation, developed on the basis of the City Alexandrovskaya Hospital, St. Petersburg (Kazantsev A. N., Zarkua N. E., Chernykh K. P. et al. Аrteries with extended atherosclerotic lesions of the internal carotid artery. Patent application No. 202.013.4151/14 (062595), filing date 10/16/2020). Glomus-sparing ICA autotransplantation, developed on the basis of the City Alexandrovskaya Hospital, St. Petersburg, was performed as follows. On the inner edge of the external carotid artery (ECA), adjacent to the carotid sinus, 2–3 cm above the orifice, depending on the spread of atherosclerotic plaque (ASB), arteriotomy was performed with the transition to the common carotid artery (CCA) (also 2–3 see below the mouth of the NSA). The ICA was cut off at the site formed by the sections of the wall of the NSA and the CCA. Then the ICA was cut off as distally as possible in front of the hypoglossal nerve, so that the artery was completely resected. In view of the presence of an intact carotid glomus on the resected area of the ICA, which connects it to the wound, endarterectomy from the ICA was performed inside the operating field by its complete eversion. Then, open endarterectomy from ECA and CCA was performed. At the next stage, the ICA was implanted in its previous place with the creation of proximal and distal end-to-end anastomoses, so that the continuing ASB above the endarterectomy zone was fixed with a circular vascular suture.Results.There were no complications in the postoperative period. No cases of restenosis / thrombosis of the reconstruction zone were identified in all the sample according to the color duplex scanning data. On the 7th day after the operation, all patients were diagnosed with regression of neurological symptoms according to the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale: on admission, the mean score was 10.5±3.5; at the moment of the control point — 6.5±1.5; p=0.001. This reflects the effectiveness of the chosen treatment strategy. According to the data on the dynamics of systolic blood pressure, stable systolic parameters were observed in the postoperative period against the background of antihypertensive therapy taken before the operation.Conclusion.Carotid endarterectomy in the acute period of ischemic stroke is safe in the presence of mild neurological deficits (up to 25 points on the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale) and the diameter of the ischemic focus in the brain not exceeding 2.5 cm according to the computer data. tomography. Glomussparing ICA autotransplantation, developed on the basis of the Aleksandrovskaya Hospital, St. Petersburg, does not require the use of a patch and is not characterized by the risk of developing ICA thrombosis as a result of intimal detachment behind the endarterectomy zone. Preservation of the carotid glomus during reconstructive intervention on the ICA prevents the development of labile arterial hypertension and hemorrhagic transformation in the postoperative period.

Background Patients with gastric cancer often suffer from generalized and progressive reduction of skeletal muscle mass and strength, which negatively affects the quality of life (QOL). In this study, we explored the impact of sarcopenia on QOL and overall survival (OS). Methods From December 2015 to June 2017, 135 patients underwent radical gastrectomy at the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. Based on the diagnostic criteria of the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia (AWGS), data including handgrip strength, 6-m gait speed and muscle mass were collected and analyzed. EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-STO22 were used to evaluate the QOL before surgery, 1, 3 and 6 months after surgery. Results A total of 27 out of the 135 patients (20.00%) were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Compared with non-sarcopenia group, patients in sarcopenia group had a higher incidence of postoperative complications (14.80% vs. 40.70%, p = 0.003), and more hospitalization costs (p = 0.029). The scores of eating restriction (p = 0.026), anxiety (p = 0.045) and body image (p = 0.046) were significantly higher in sarcopenia group at postoperative 6 months. Besides, sarcopenia was an independent risk factor for global health status at 6 months after operation (OR: 2.881, 95% CI: 1.110–7.475, p = 0.030) and OS (HR: 3.140, 95% CI: 1.255–7.855, p = 0.014). Other factors, including tumor stage III and the postoperative complications, had negative influences on OS. Conclusion Sarcopenia is a predictive factor of poor QOL and prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.

Strain modulation is crucial for heteroepitaxy such as GaN on foreign substrates. Here, the epitaxy of strain-relaxed GaN films on graphene/SiC substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition is demonstrated. Graphene was directly prepared on SiC substrates by thermal decomposition. Its pre-treatment with nitrogen-plasma can introduce C–N dangling bonds, which provides nucleation sites for subsequent epitaxial growth. The scanning transmission electron microscopy measurements confirm that part of graphene surface was etched by nitrogen-plasma. We study the growth behavior on different areas of graphene surface after pre-treatment, and propose a growth model to explain the epitaxial growth mechanism of GaN films on graphene. Significantly, graphene is found to be effective to reduce the biaxial stress in GaN films and the strain relaxation improves indium-atom incorporation in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) active region, which results in the obvious red-shift of light-emitting wavelength of InGaN/GaN MQWs. This work opens up a new way for the fabrication of GaN-based long wavelength light-emitting diodes.

Dynamic examination of athletes is of great interest for sports medicine specialists, as it allows measuring changes in athletes’ functional state in parallel with increasing athletic performance in a one-year training cycle. The aim of the work is to assess dynamic changes in parameters of heart rate variability, central hemodynamics and physical performance in short-distance swimmers during preparatory and competitive periods of the training process. Materials and methods. The swimmers (n = 94) qualified from the second-class sport qualification to Master of Sports of International Class were examined during the preparatory and competitive periods of the training process. Short ECG recordings of 5 minutes were used for the heart rate variability (HRV) analysis according to the International Standard. Results. In the preparatory period, the autonomic equilibrium index had a mean value of 3.104 ± 0.494 1/s2, and in the competitive period – 2.459 ± 0.248 1/s2 (P = 0.295). The initial distribution of athletes depending on the value of autonomic tone, according to the classification proposed by R. M. Bayevskiy, had the following ratio in the preparatory period: 75.0 % / 20.0 % / 5.0 %, vagotonic, normotonic and sympathotonic individuals, respectively, statistically significantly indicating the prevalence of athletes with vagotonia over normotonic individuals (P = 0.0005). In the competitive period, this ratio was 60.0 % / 40.0 % / 0 %. The central hemodynamic indices showed a downward trend as evidenced by a decrease in the cardiac index from 2.954 ± 0.126·l·min-1·m-2 to 2.862 ± 0.088 l‧min-1‧m-2 (Р = 0.510), although these values matched to the eukinetic circulatory type (CT) during both training periods. However, the ratio of hypokinetic, eukinetic and hyperkinetic CT in the preparatory period was 45.0 % / 45.0 % / 10 0 %, and in competitive period – 45.0 % / 55.0 % / 0 %, respectively. The mean value of physical working capacity (PWC170/kg) in the preparatory period was 15.54 ± 0.66 kgm·min-1·kg-1, and in the competitive period it was 18.09 ± 0.53 kgm·min-1·kg-1, making an increase of 16.41 % (Р = 0.0001). The functional state index (FSI) increased significantly by 25.08 % from 5.558 ± 0.322 r. u. to 6.952 ± 0.272 r. u. (Р = 0.00001). The correlation analysis during the preparatory period showed a significant positive correlation between Mo and PWC170/kg (r = 0.46, P = 0.040), ARI and CI (r = 0.50, P = 0.026), IARP and CI (r = 0.53, P = 0.017), stress-index and SI (r = 0.52, P = 0.019) and negative – between Mo and CI (r = -0.56, P = 0.009). In the competitive period, the general tendency of correlation interaction was remained, as evidenced by revealed positive relationships between Mo and FSI (r = 0.53, P = 0.017), ARI and SI (r = 0.51, P = 0.020). Conclusions. Short-distance swimmers in the competitive period had significantly higher level of physical working capacity (by 16.4 %), the functional state index (by 25.1 %), as well as parasympathetic tone of ANS in comparison with the preparatory period. The above-mentioned hemodynamic changes and autonomic balance indicators were associated with the increase in athletic performance: 4 (20 %) swimmers qualified for the title of Master of Sports of Ukraine, 2 (10 %) swimmers – for Candidate Master of Sports, and 2 (10 %) swimmers – for first-class sport qualification.

In this paper, we present a novel learning-based scheme for vehicle logo recognition (VLR). This scheme is termed Multilayer Pyramid Network Based on Learning (MLPNL) and is based on the principle that considering multiple resolutions is helpful for extracting valuable features that benefit the final recognition performance. The innovations of this scheme include (1) a multilayer pyramid network, with pixel difference matrices (PDMs) as its input and output and feature parameters mapping one PDM to another; (2) an objective function and a corresponding optimization method designed to facilitate the learning of the feature parameters of the proposed multilayer pyramid network; and (3) a multi-codebook-based encoding method that makes best use of the features extracted from PDMs corresponding to different resolutions. Extensive experiments conducted with an open dataset, HFUT-VL, demonstrate that the proposed MLPNL scheme outperforms state-of-the-art handcrafted descriptors and non-deep-learning-based learning methods when fewer training samples exist. Experiments conducted with a benchmark dataset, XMU, demonstrate that MLPNL outperforms existing state-of-the-art VLR methods. Experiments conducted both on HFUT-VL and XMU demonstrate that MLPNL is faster than most deep-learning-based learning methods while maintaining nearly the same recognition rate. Code has been made available at: https://github.com/HFUT-CV/MLPNL .

Hemp fiber has excellent performance as a renewable fiber material. It is of great significance to study more efficient, energy-saving and environmentally friendly pre-treatment methods of hemp textiles. A novel hemp fiber scouring method based on electrochemical techniques was presented in the research. A type of water solution with high and stable oxidative potential due to in-situ- generated oxidative components was produced by the proposed electrical method, and was applied to scouring treatment of raw hemp fibers by just soaking the fibers in it. Hemp fibers with different treatments were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, and residual gum rate, lignin content and whiteness of the samples were tested. Experiment results show that electrochemical scouring has a similar degumming effect of hemp fibers compared with traditional chemical scouring, with a better lignin removal and whiteness, implying an effective and short process method of hemp textiles pre-treatment with low impact on the environment.

The aim of this study was to determine the invasiveness of ground-glass nodules (GGNs) using a 3D multi-task deep learning network. We propose a novel architecture based on 3D multi-task learning to determine the invasiveness of GGNs. In total, 770 patients with 909 GGNs who underwent lung CT scans were enrolled. The patients were divided into the training (n = 626) and test sets (n = 144). In the test set, invasiveness was classified using deep learning into three categories: atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (AAH) and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS), minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA), and invasive pulmonary adenocarcinoma (IA). Furthermore, binary classifications (AAH/AIS/MIA vs. IA) were made by two thoracic radiologists and compared with the deep learning results. In the three-category classification task, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 65.41%, 82.21%, and 64.9%, respectively. In the binary classification task, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and area under the ROC curve (AUC) values were 69.57%, 95.24%, 87.42%, and 0.89, respectively. In the visual assessment of GGN invasiveness of binary classification by the two thoracic radiologists, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the senior and junior radiologists were 58.93%, 90.51%, and 81.35% and 76.79%, 55.47%, and 61.66%, respectively. The proposed multi-task deep learning model achieved good classification results in determining the invasiveness of GGNs. This model may help to select patients with invasive lesions who need surgery and the proper surgical methods. • The proposed multi-task model has achieved good classification results for the invasiveness of GGNs. • The proposed network includes a classification and segmentation branch to learn global and regional features, respectively. • The multi-task model could assist doctors in selecting patients with invasive lesions who need surgery and choosing appropriate surgical methods.

The trigger in the violation of the immune response in sepsis is the release of a large number of pro- and antiinflammatory mediators, primarily cytokines and other biologically active substances. Despite the fact that a sufficient number of studies have been carried out in which an increase in the amount of cytokines in sepsis has been noted, there is no work on the study of similar changes in the skin, which is the largest protective barrier in the body, and, accordingly, plays a significant role in maintaining the immune homeostasis. The aim of the study was to assess the expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory skin mediators in experimental sepsis. Materials and Methods. Mice were used as experimental animals, which underwent surgery CLP. The object of the study is the skin, which was studied using the immunohistochemical method (antibodies to TGF-a, TGF-a, IL-12, IL-10, IL-6, CD206, CD163, CD68). Results. In case of sepsis, an increase in the proportion of immunopositive cells in the epidermis and dermis was found: TNF-(33.1 ± 1.2%); TGF-a (35.3 ± 1.4%); IL-12 (6.8 ± 0.3%); IL-10 (9.2 ± 0.9%); IL-6 (28.2 ± 0.8%); CD206 (12.9 ± 0.7%); CD163 (16.1 ± 0.8%); CD68 (28.4 ± 0.9%). Conclusion. An increase in the number of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in sepsis indicates the involvement of the epidermis in the general inflammatory process, due to a shift in the cytokine balance towards the predominance of pro-inflammatory mediators and M1-macrophages

Background. Disability is one of the most important medical and social problems. According to the latest data, more than 1 billion people in the world are disabled according to WHO data in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 and older were overweight, of which more than 650 million were obese (11% of men and 15% of women). According to WHO, it is expected that children with obesity will increase to 70 million by 2025. Obesity in early childhood it is most severe and less treatable, and can also lead to serious complications: hypertension, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases. The aim: we believe that the study of the population of disabled people due to various diseases with obesity in various nosologies is important for the development of comprehensive measures for the prevention of morbidity, early diagnosis and rehabilitation of this group of people. Materials and methods. We conducted a comprehensive study of children with the status of disabled child and initially examined in the ITU Bureau No. 4 for the Republic of Mordovia. The study group included overweight and obese children with various diseases. Information from the statistical collections of Rosstat and approved forms of state statistics No. 7-Sobes for 2019 were also included. Results. In 2019, 1065 children were examined in 4 bureaus of the ITU RM; of these, 730 children were examined to determine the category of disabled child, which was 68.5% (first: 262; 35.9%, second: 468; 64.1%). The largest proportion of children recognized as disabled for the first time is young children from 0 to 3 years (45,2%). In the structure of primary disability of this age category, congenital malformations account for 31% (28 people out of 90). The proportion of disabled people in the age category from 4 to 7 years is 16.5%. The proportion of disabled people in the age group 15 years and older is 9.5%. The first place is occupied by diseases of the endocrine system (42.1%), the second by diseases of the musculoskeletal system (26.3%). The largest number of patients with primary examination are obese with disorders of neuromuscular, skeletal and movement-related (statodynamic) functions ― 10 children (5%); with disorders of the cardiovascular system ― 8 children (4%); and disorders of the endocrine system ― 7 children (3.5%). When re-examining children with various pathologies, the ranking places are occupied by violations of the same functions ― neuromuscular (6.1%), cardiovascular (3.7%), endocrine (2.5%). In other persistent disorders of body functions, there are also obese patients in both groups, but their number is very small. Conclusions. When monitoring for 20182019, we see an increase in the number of obese children with various functional disorders. Most often, obese children recognized as disabled are found in groups with impaired statodynamic and cardiovascular functions, most likely this is due to restricted movement. And such patients are recommended to follow the principles of a healthy diet more carefully, no matter what aggravates the existing condition. And thus, in a short time to carry out all the necessary rehabilitation measures and in some cases reduce the period of disability.

The software and hardware complex for managing the generation and redistribution of energy in a photovoltaic system with a battery, which provides the own needs of the local object connected to the grid with a three-zone tariffication is presented. A decrease in the cost of paying for electricity consumed from the grid is achieved by using cheaper energy during peak hours with matching the load with the generation of a photovoltaic battery and the degree of charge of the battery. There is a proposal to forming

Patients should be examined for blood pressure regulation disorders starting from a young age though adolescence and young adulthood. In this aspect, it is necessary to pay attention to neurocirculatory dystonia, as a phenomenon of impaired adaptation to changing environmental and internal conditions in which the neurohumoral regulation of various body systems, including cardiovascular, can be violated. The aim of this work was to study the inter-gender characteristics of blood pressure rhythms and heart rate in patients with hypertensive neurocirculatory dystonia living in the northern region. Wavelet analysis was used to test the hypothesis of numerous cyclicities. In patients with neurocirculatory dystonia, especially in women, the circadian structure of hemodynamic rhythms was observed to decay with an increased average daily value. The violation of vegetative regulation of arterial pressure rhythms was present in the examined northerners in the form of mesor, hyper-amplitude and ultradian desynchronosis.

Airy beams exhibit intriguing properties such as nonspreading, self-bending, and self-healing and have attracted considerable recent interest because of their many potential applications in photonics, such as to beam focusing, light-sheet microscopy, and biomedical imaging. However, previous approaches to generate Airy beams using photonic structures have suffered from severe chromatic problems arising from strong frequency dispersion of the scatterers. Here, we design and fabricate a metasurface composed of silicon posts for the frequency range 0.4–0.8 THz in transmission mode, and we experimentally demonstrate achromatic Airy beams exhibiting autofocusing properties. We further show numerically that a generated achromatic Airy-beam-based metalens exhibits self-healing properties that are immune to scattering by particles and that it also possesses a larger depth of focus than a traditional metalens. Our results pave the way to the realization of flat photonic devices for applications to noninvasive biomedical imaging and light-sheet microscopy, and we provide a numerical demonstration of a device protocol.

Introduction The aim of this work is to investigate the clinical and radiological characteristics of elderly rheumatoid arthritis and compare the outcomes between the two subgroups, elderly- and young-onset rheumatoid arthritis (EORA and YORA, respectively). Methods We conducted a retrospective case-control study on the elderly rheumatoid arthritis patients in our medical center. EORA was defined as the patient whose onset age was above 60. Results A total of 142 elderly rheumatoid arthritis patients were admitted, with 79 patients in EORA and 63 in YORA group. Inflammatory parameters including C-reactive protein, D-dimer, serum ferritin, and platelet count levels were all higher in the EORA group than those in YORA. EORA patients showed a higher score of health assessment questionnaire's disability index (p = 0.01) and patient global health assessment (p = 0.049), but a lower status of modified total sharp score (p = 0.001). Bivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that elderly onset of the disease (OR 2.30, 95% CI [1.45–3.77]), age (OR 2.04, 95% CI [1.22–3.41]), high disease activity (OR 1.90, 95% CI [1.17–3.32]), and red blood cell distribution width (OR 1.81, 95% CI [1.03–3.19]) were independent prognostic factors of disability. Age (OR 0.25, 95% CI [0.07–0.91]), disease duration (OR 2.73, 95% CI [0.97–7.70]), and co-morbid diabetes mellitus (OR 118.10, 95% CI [3. 50–3985.57]) independently contributed to radiographic joint damage in the elderly population. EORA patients showed increased death incidents and worse prognosis than YORA. Cox regression analysis reveals that comorbid hypertension (HR 12.02, 95% CI [1.08–133.54]), interstitial lung disease (ILD) (HR 85.04, 95% CI [4.11–1759.19]), and compressive fracture (HR 85.04, 95% CI [4.11–1759.19]) are independent predictors of mortality, and that ILD (HR 50.21, 95% CI [5.56–335.33]) and pulmonary hypertension (HR 25.37, 95% CI [3.03–265.81]) are independent predictors of no disease remission in the EORA patients. Conclusions The distinct features of EORA patients make EORA a unique entity different from “classic rheumatoid arthritis”. EORA patients develop an upgraded systemic inflammatory status, more declined life quality, and worse prognosis than the elderly YORA. Better control of the comorbidities like ILD and diabetes mellitus may benefit the management of elderly rheumatoid arthritis. Further investigation regarding the pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies of EORA is urgently warranted. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40744-020-00267-8.

The aim – to present the first in Ukraine experience of using the LAAO Cardia device for the procedure of the left atrial appendage occlusion in patients with atrial fibrillation.Materials and methods. The article represents clinical cases of four patients aged 24 to 68 years with atrial fibrillation and ineffective anticoagulant therapy or contraindications for it.Results and discussion. All patients underwent transcatheter occlusion of the left atrial appendage. Complete occlusion of the ostium was achieved without residual paradevice leaks. In 30–45 days after the procedure, no dislocation of the device or its thrombosis was detected.Conclusions. Cardia left atrial appendage occlusion system allows transcatheter occlusion of the left atrial appendage with good immediate results and good safety profile of the procedure.

There is an increasing trend that enterprises outsource their middlebox processing to a cloud for lower cost and easier management. However, outsourcing middleboxes brings threats to the enterprise’s private information, including the traffic and rules of middleboxes, all of which are visible within the cloud. Existing solutions for secure middlebox outsourcing either incur significant performance overhead or do not support incremental updates. In this article, we present a secure and dynamic middlebox outsourcing framework, SICS, short for Secure In-Cloud Service. SICS encrypts each packet header and uses a label for in-cloud rule matching, which enables the cloud to perform its functionalities correctly with minimum header information leakage. Evaluation results show that SICS achieves higher throughput, faster construction and update speed, and lower resource overhead at the enterprise and in the cloud when compared with existing solutions.

Background. Recent developments in the field of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) have led to arised interest for the optimization of this procedure and related devices for patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. This is the first study to examine novel XPand device, jointly developed by German, French and Ukrainian scientists. This study aims to contribute to this growing area of research by exploring efficacy and safety in patients with severe aortic stenosis. Objective. To evaluate the procedure effectiveness and long-term outcomes for XPand device implantation in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. Materials and methods. We initiated a single-center clinical trial to evaluate the XPand device and already perform an initial analysis of the primary outcomes. After patients fitted the inclusion criteria full examination they underwent TAVI procedure using the XPand system. Postoperative result evaluation was performed according to the established protocol. Outcomes. Primary good results for TAVI XPand were obtained in all patients (n = 7). The average length of stay in the hospital after the procedure was 20 ± 1.25 days. The postoperative period was unremarkable. In 71.5% of patients the minimal paravalvular insufficiency or insufficiency absence were obtained after the final aortography. Comments. The first experience of using modern device XPand for transcatheter implantation of the aortic valve prosthesis confirms its effectiveness and safety in patients with severe aortic stenosis.

The aim – to present the first experience in Ukraine of using the NVT Allegra device for the procedure of transcatheter implantation of the aortic valve prosthesis to patients with high surgical risk with severe aortic stenosis. Materials and methods. The presented clinical cases included two patients of age 90 and 80 years with severe aortic stenosis, mean transaortic blood flow gradients of 32 and 76 mm Hg and aortic valve areas of 0.4 and 0.6 cm2, respectively. Both patients were recognized as high surgical risk patients. Results and discussion. Both patients underwent transcatheter implantation of the aortic valve prosthesis through transfemoral access. After implantation, the average gradients of the transaortic blood flow were 13 and 8 mm Hg respectively. Residual paravalvular insufficiency was mild in both cases. Second patient was implanted permanent pacemaker due to persistent complete AV block. Conclusions. The NVT Allegra system for transcatheter implantation of the aortic valve prosthesis is a third generation device that enables successful and safe intervention of the aortic valve.

In this study, we have demonstrated an N-polar III-nitride tunnel junction (TJ) light-emitting diode (LED). The LED was grown on an N-polar GaN template on sapphire substrates by metal-organic vapo...

Infrared (IR) light photodetection based on two dimensional (2D) materials of proper bandgap has attracted increasing attention. However, the weak IR absorption in 2D materials, due to their ultrathin attribute and indirect bandgap in multilayer structures, degrades their performance when used as IR photodetectors. In this work, we utilize the fact that few-layer MoTe2 flake has a near-IR (NIR) bandgap and demonstrate a ~ 60-fold enhancement of NIR response by introducing a gold hollow nanorods on the surface. Such gold hollow nanorods have distinct absorption peak located also at the NIR regime, therefore induces strong resonance, benefitting NIR absorption in MoTe2, resulting in strong near-field enhancement. With the evidence from steady and transient state optical spectra, we confirm that the enhancement of NIR response originates only photon absorption, rather than electron transport at interfaces as observed in other heterostructures, therefore, precluding the requirement of high-quality interfaces for commercial applications.

Land use-induced land cover change (LUCC) is an important anthropogenic driving force of global change that has influenced, and is still influencing, many aspects of regional and global environments. Accurate historical global land use/cover datasets are essential for a better understanding of the impacts of LUCC on global change. However, there are not only evident inconsistencies in current historical global land use/cover datasets, but inaccuracies in the data in these global dataset revealed by historical record-based reconstructed regional data throughout the world. A focus in historical LUCC and global change research relates to how the accuracy of historical global land cover datasets can be improved. A methodology for assessing the credibility of existing historical global land cover datasets that addresses temporal as well as spatial changes in the amount and distribution of land cover is therefore needed. Theoretically, the credibility of a global land cover dataset could be assessed by comparing similarities or differences in the data according to actual land cover data (the “true value”). However, it is extremely difficult to obtain historical evidence for assessing the credibility of historical global land cover datasets, which cannot be verified through field sampling like contemporary global land cover datasets. We proposed a methodological framework for assessing the credibility of global land cover datasets. Considering the types and characteristics of the available evidence used for assessments, we outlined four methodological approaches: (1) accuracy assessment based on regional quantitative reconstructed land cover data, (2) rationality assessment based on regional historical facts, (3) rationality assessment based on expertise, and (4) likelihood assessment based on the consistency of multiple datasets. These methods were illustrated through five case studies of credibility assessments of historical cropland cover data. This framework can also be applied in assessments of other land cover types, such as forest and grassland.

The discovery of graphene has intrigued the significant interest in exploring and developing the two-dimensional layered materials (2DLMs) for the photonics application in recent years. Unlike the isotropic graphene, a number of 2DLMs possess the in-plane anisotropic crystal structure with low symmetry, enabling a new degree of freedom for achieving the novel polarization-dependent and versatile ultrafast photonic devices. In this review article, we focus on the typical anisotropic 2DLMs including BP, ReS2, ReSe2, SnS, and SnSe and summarize the recent development of these anisotropic 2DLMs in the pulsed laser and the optical switch applications. First, we introduce the fabrication methods as well as the material characterization of the anisotropic 2DLMs by analyzing the polarized Raman configuration. Second, we discuss the anisotropic nonlinear optical properties of the anisotropic 2DLMs and concentrate on the anisotropic nonlinear absorption response. Next, we sum up state of the art of the anisotropic 2DLMs in the application of pulse lasers and optical switches. This review ends with perspectives on the challenge and outlook of the anisotropic 2DLMs for ultrafast photonics applications.

Effective ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were fabricated by clamping the n-ZnO films on the top of p-hBN/p-GaN/sapphire substrates. An ultraviolet emission originating from ZnO was measured from the diode under a forward bias, the electroluminescence (EL) spectra of which show a peak wavelength of ∼376 nm with a narrow full-width at half maximum of ∼12 nm. Compared with the reference diode fabricated by directly growing n-ZnO on the p-hBN substrates using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, the proposed diode showed a dramatic increment of the EL intensity; meanwhile, its emission onset lowered down considerably. The improved optical property of the proposed LED is mainly ascribed to suppressing the formation of the BNO-related layer at the n-ZnO/p-hBN interface. The present work provides a simple and feasible approach for developing advanced ZnO-based optoelectronic devices.

In response to infection by pathogenic microbes, a serious systemic inflammation occurs in the body, often lead- ing to death. Unbalanced systemic immune responses can lead to the accumulation of leukocytes, disseminated intravascular coagulation and microcirculatory dysfunction, followed by apoptosis and cell necrosis, as well as the development of multiple organ failure syndrome. The destruction of the barrier can apparently lead to a violation of the proliferation and apoptosis of keratinocytes. The aim of the study was to evaluate intracellular protein-regulators of the life cycle of keratinocytes of the intact epidermis in case of systemic inflammation. Material and methods. The study was performed on 40 archival paraffin blocks of skin fragments in two groups: group I (n = 30) - deceased patients with a diagnosis of severe bacterial sepsis; Group II (n = 10) – dead for reasons not related to an infectious disease (control). Immunohistochemical studies were performed according to a standard protocol using antibodies to Ki-67, caspase 3, Bcl-2 and p53. Results. In the cells of the epidermis of patients in the condition of systemic inflammation, the following expression of the studied markers is observed: caspase-3 – 39.4 ± 1.2%; p53 – 18.4 ± 0.7%; Ki-67 – 15.2 ± 4.1%; Bcl-2 – 4.2 ± 1.2%. Conclusion Under conditions of systemic inflammation in the epidermis, there is an imbalance in the proliferative- apoptotic activity of keratinocytes in the direction of reducing their mitotic division and activation of apoptosis, leading to cell death.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a severe complication of connective tissue disease (CTD), causing death in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The past decade has yielded many scientific insights into microRNA (miRNAs) in PAH and SSc. This growth of knowledge has well-illustrated the complexity of microRNA (miRNA)-based regulation of gene expression in PAH. However, few miRNA-related SSc-PAH were elucidated. This review firstly discusses the role of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) signaling and bone morphogenetic protein receptor type II (BMPR2) in PAH and SSc. Secondly, the miRNAs relating to TGF-β and BMPR2 signaling pathways in PAH and SSc or merely PAH were subsequently summarized. Finally, future studies might develop early diagnostic biomarkers and target-oriented therapeutic strategies for SSc-PAH and PAH treatment.

In the context of the widespread application of big data technology, the field of film and television production has been greatly affected. In the new era of industrial development brought about by the use of “Internet +,” the problems caused by changes in the creative environment of the film and television industry cannot be ignored. At present, most film and television productions still have some shortcomings for big data applications. Affected by big data, in the process of film and television creation, film and television creation needs to follow the pace of current social development, resulting in creators not paying attention to the content of film and television works, and continuously reducing the cost of film and television production. Compared with traditional algorithms, genetic algorithms start from one part and simultaneously search for the best solution to the problem. This makes it easier to search for the best solution comprehensively, and avoid the trap of one-sided best solution due to partial limitations. Genetic algorithm does not rely on derivative information and other auxiliary information to find the best solution. Genetic algorithm uses probabilistic rules instead of decisive rules, so the results may not be exactly the same each time, but random search and direction search can be completely combined. In this paper, through theoretical analysis, physical model, and numerical simulation, the investigation of slope failure and failure provides a good reference basis for slope reinforcement. Use this case to analyze film and television creation, make full use of the massive information provided by big data, and achieve the timeliness that big data should have. Therefore, film and television creators should pay attention to this issue and actively make improvements to ensure the continuous development of the film and television creation industry in the context of big data.

The progressive and generalized loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, also known as sarcopenia, underlies disability, increasing adverse outcomes and poor quality of life in older people. Exercise interventions are commonly recommended as the primary treatment for sarcopenia. Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) plays a vital role in regulating metabolism, mitochondrial function, and the ROS-dependent adaptations of skeletal muscle, as the response to exercise. To investigate the contribution of Nrf2 to the benefits of exercise interventions in older age, aged (∼22 month old) Nrf2 knockout (Nrf2-KO) mice and age-matched wild-type (WT) C57Bl6/J mice were randomly divided into 2 groups (sedentary or exercise group). We found that exercise interventions improved skeletal muscle function and restored the sarcopenia-like phenotype in WT mice, accompanied with the increasing mRNA level of Nrf2. While these alternations were minimal in Nrf2-KO mice after exercise. Further studies indicated that Nrf2 could increase the stability of Drp1 through deubiquitinating and promote Drp1-dependent mitochondrial fission to attenuate mitochondrial disorder. We also observed the effects of sulforaphane (SFN), a Nrf2 activator, in restoring mitochondrial function in senescent C2C12 cells and improving sarcopenia in older WT mice, which were abolished by Nrf2 deficiency. These results indicated that some benefits of exercise intervention to skeletal muscle were Nrf2 mediated, and a future work should focus on Nrf2 signaling to identify a pharmacological treatment for sarcopenia.

Aims Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), is characterized by immune-mediated demyelination and neurodegeneration. NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation aggravates spinal cord inflammation in EAE. Autophagy is associated with alleviation of systemic inflammation, including that encountered in EAE. However, the effects of autophagy on NLRP3 in EAE are still unclear. Here, we evaluated the effects of the autophagy activator AZD8055 on EAE. Methods EAE model mice were established, histological examination was performed to assess the degree of inflammatory cell infiltration and demyelination. And the levels of autophagy and NLRP3-mediated pyroptosis in spinal cords were assessed. Western blotting and immunofluorescence analyses were performed to evaluate protein expression and localization. Results AZD8055 significantly enhanced autophagy in the spinal cords of EAE model mice, coupled with decreased abnormal clinical behavior scores and increased body weights. The degree of inflammatory cell infiltration and demyelination was mild in AZD8055-treated EAE model mice. Meanwhile, the pathway of ROS/NLRP3 was downregulated, and LC3 and NLRP3 were colocalized. Conclusions AZD8055 ameliorated EAE through anti-inflammatory and anti-pyroptosis effects via the mammalian target of mTOR/ROS/NLRP3 pathway. These findings provide insights into the interactions between autophagy and pyroptosis and may facilitate the development of novel treatments for MS.

Motivation: The advent of single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) enables scientists to characterize the transcriptomic response of cells under different conditions and understand expression heterogeneity at single cell level. One of the fundamental steps in scRNA-seq analysis is to summarize raw sequencing reads into a list of gene counts for each individual cell. However, this step remains to be most time-consuming and resource intensive in the analysis workflow due to the large amount of data produced in a scRNA-seq experiment. It is further complicated by the special handling of cell barcodes and unique molecular identifiers (UMIs) information in the read sequences. For example, the gene count summarization of 10X Chromium sequencing by standard Cell Ranger count often takes many hours to finish when running on a computing cluster. Although several alignment-free algorithms have been developed to improve efficiency, their derived gene count suffer from poor concordance with Cell Ranger count and algorithm-specific bias[1]. Results: In this work, we present a light-weight k-mer based gene count algorithm, FastCount, to support efficient UMI counts from single cell RNA-seq data. We demonstrate that FastCount is over an order of magnitude faster than Cell Ranger count while achieving competitive accuracy on 10X Genomics single cell RNA-seq data. FastCount is a stand-alone program implemented in C++. The source code is located at https://bitbucket.org/merckey/fastcount/.

Стаття присвячена дослідженню ефективності реабілітаційних методик для корекції синдрому крилоподібних лопаток у людей молодого віку з порушенням постави. Отримані дані показують, що включення методу постізометричної релаксації в реабілітаційний комплекс більше сприяє відновленню постави та збільшенню сили мʼязів, які беруть участь у рухах лопатки.

OBJECTIVE To explore the difference of 18F-FDG PET/CT images between the symptomatic and asymptomatic pulmonary tuberculosis, as well as the correlation between the standard uptake value (SUV) and the symptomatic/asymptomatic pulmonary tuberculosis. METHODS A study dataset of 57 pulmonary tuberculosis cases was retrospectively assembled and analyzed. Among these cases, 30 were diagnosed having symptomatic pulmonary tuberculosis and 27 were asymptomatic pulmonary tuberculosis. PET/CT was performed in all 57 cases. The clinical data, CT images and PET/CT radioactive uptake data were analyzed using statistical data analysis software. RESULTS All 57 cases showed radioactively high uptake, with the maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) of the lesion ranging from 1.60 to 27.30 and a mean value of 6.63±4.82. The symptomatic cases had an SUVmax of 8.76±4.97 and the asymptomatic cases had an SUVmax of 4.27±3.39. The SUVmax as well as singular or multiple lesions showed statistical differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. CONCLUSION The symptomatic pulmonary tuberculosis cases show significantly higher SUVmax than the asymptomatic cases. Based on the criteria of SUVmax greater than 2.0 to define active lesions, 100% of symptomatic cases might have active lesions while 70.4% of asymptomatic cases might have active lesions. Therefore, focused attention should be clinically paid on the asymptomatic cases of pulmonary tuberculosis to avoid miss diagnosis and delayed treatment.

Primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most frequently reported malignancy, and it is also the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Although most HCC cases have been reported to develop from cirrhosis, accumulating data suggest that HCC is also closely related to non-cirrhotic chronic liver disease. Traditionally, HCC was thought to develop mostly from cirrhosis; however, an increasing number of reports have found that HCC can develop directly from inflammation without cirrhosis. The incidence of HCC in non-cirrhotic liver (HCC-NCL) is high, especially in developed countries. Studies have found that the most common cause of HCC-NCL is neglected fatty liver disease. This type of HCC has unique clinical characteristics and is closely related to metabolic disorders. Unfortunately, the prevention of HCC-NCL has not received enough attention worldwide, and there is also a lack of specific screening methods and clinical guidelines. This article mainly reviews the etiology, incidence, clinical characteristics, and screening markers of HCC-NCL to improve the understanding and prevention of this disease.

The scapulohumeral pain syndrome (frozen shoulder) is an umbrella term for various pathological conditions characterized by pain and limited range of motion in the shoulder joint that considerably reduces a person’s ability to work and impairs the quality of life. The most common etiological factors are: load on the muscles of the shoulder girdle, traumatic injuries of the shoulder joint in patient’s history and overstretching and partial tearing of the ligaments of the shoulder joint, vertebral radiculopathy with the development of reflex and dystrophic disorders in the corresponding muscles, ligaments and joint capsule. The goal of our work was to compare the efficacy of the rehabilitation plans based on standard approaches and rehabilitation plans based on the theory of muscle spirals in patients with the severe pain syndrome and scapulohumeral periarthritis. Materials and methods. We studied 98 patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis. At the first stage of the treatment, all patients received a medical blockade in sites of marked inflammation of para-articular structures. Then, the patients were divided into 2 groups: the patients of group I received a standard rehabilitation in accordance with the recommended regimens using physiotherapy and exercise therapy. The patients of group II took the patient-centred rehabilitation course based on the theory of muscle spirals and the complex effect on spastic muscles. Pain intensity was assessed by visual analogue scale and DASH scale, muscle stiffness was evaluated by compression and shear wave elastography. Results and conclusions. The dynamic changes of pain reduction in patients of group II demonstrated the significant intensity of pain, and a rapid restoration of joint function. The findings of shear wave elastometry showed no difference between the stiffness of the shoulder muscles in the group II after the course of rehabilitation and healthy muscles. Thus, the use of patient-centred rehabilitation plans based on the theory of muscle spirals and a complex effect on spastic muscles enables to achieve a more pronounced effect compared to the standard rehabilitation approaches.

To satisfy the rapidly growing demands of wireless communications, new structures have been proposed for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication networks, such as cloud radio access networks (C-RANs), which have advantages including high energy efficiency, large network capacity, and high flexibility. This paper concentrates on the problem of remote radio head (RRH) activation, user association, and power allocation in C-RANs. To tackle the problem with $l_{0}$ norm, we transform it into a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem. Instead of solving it by centralized solvers, we propose a novel algorithm based on Benders decomposition, which can obtain the optimal solution of the MINLP problem. To solve the primal problem in Benders decomposition efficiently, we adopt the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to achieve a parallel implementation. To further reduce the complexity of solving the MINLP problem, a distributed two-stage iterative algorithm combining the ADMM and the max-sum algorithm is also proposed. The simulation results demonstrate that the first proposed algorithm can obtain the optimal solution, and the second proposed algorithm outperforms conventional algorithms significantly.

GeoPyTool is an open source application developed for geological calculations and plots, such as geochemical classification, parameter calculation, basic statistical analysis and diagrams for structural geology. More than acting as a link from raw data stored in Microsoft Excel® (MS Excel) files to vector graphic files, GeoPyTool includes recently developed routines that have not been included in previous software, such as the calculation of the Ce(IV)/Ce(III) ratio for zircons as a method to examine the temporal evolution of oxygen fugacity in the magmatic source for igneous rocks, and the temperature calculator with titanium in zircon and zirconium in rutile. Besides these routines, GeoPyTool also allows users to load any figure from articles or books as a base map. As a Python-based cross-platform program, GeoPyTool works on Windows®, MacOS X® and GNU/Linux. GeoPyTool can do the whole process from data to results without the dependence of Microsoft Excel®, CorelDraw® and other similar software. It takes Excel® XLSX and CSV (Comma Separated Value) as the formats of both the input data source files and the output calculation results files. The figures generated by GeoPyTool can be saved as portable network graphics (PNG), scalable vector graphics (SVG) or portable document format (PDF). Another highlight of GeoPyTool is the multilingual support, the official version of GeoPyTool supports both Chinese and English, and additional languages can be loaded through interface files. GeoPyTool is still in the development stage and will be expanded with further geochemical and structural geology routines. As an open source project, all source code of GeoPyTool are accessible on Github (https://github.com/GeoPyTool/GeoPyTool). Users with Python experience can join in the development team and build more complex functions expanding the capabilities of GeoPyTool. Keywords: Python, Geochemistry, Structural geology, Calculation, Cross platform

With the increasing demands for large-scale computing in Internet of Things network, fog computing emerges as a potential solution. However, the time and energy costs are the bottlenecks for developing fog computing. In this paper, we investigate the green fog computing by maximizing the network utility function considering energy efficiency with the constraints of power and interference. The proposed problem is a large-scale mixed integer nonlinear programming. To deal with such kind of problems, we design an algorithm framework to solve the problem in a distributed and parallel manner. The outer loop of the problem is based on the Benders decomposition to divide the integer variables and continuous variables into the master problems and subproblems, respectively. In the subproblem, we use the Dinkelbach algorithm to transform the fractional programming into an equivalent solvable form. In the inner loop, the large-scale problem with only continuous variables is handled by the alternating direction method of multipliers algorithm. For the master problem, we propose a centralized branch-and-bound algorithm to deal with the complexity. We also discuss the properties and performances of our algorithm. Finally, the simulation results indicate that our proposed algorithm is energy-efficient and time-saving.

We were successful in realizing an efficient warm white organic light-emitting device simultaneously exhibiting extreme color-stability and high color rendering index (CRI) just by precisely confining the recombination zone and fully utilizing the energy transfer between excitons. The warm white OLED presents maximum efficiencies of 21.4 cd/A, 25.8 lm/W and still remains at high efficiencies of 17.7 cd/A, 15.6 lm/W at the luminance of 1000 cd/m2. As the operating current density increases from 10 mA/cm2 to 60 mA/cm2, the variations in Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates are only (0.004, 0.007) while the general CRI (Ra) maintains at 80 approximately and the special CRI R9 is higher than 20. What is more, the Duv satisfies the criteria for CRI measurements and the gamut area index (GAI) ensures the vividness of the illuminated objects, as renders the fabricated white OLED a promising candidate for high-quality solid-state lighting application. We also studied the origin of the quite slight color variations for the warm white OLED.

We have experimentally demonstrated the flat supercontinuum (SC) generation using a 10-m-long ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF (ZBLAN) fluoride fiber pumped by an erbium-doped mode-locked fiber laser incorporating carbon-nanotube-based saturable absorbers. In order to improve the spectral flatness of SC, the standardized single-mode fiber with different lengths is connected to the output of the mode-locked fiber laser before the pulse amplification. The generated SC with ZBLAN fiber exhibits the best spectral flatness with fluctuation less than 1.29dB over the wavelength of 1571.8nm–1803.1nm, showing potential applications in optical sensing.

The aim – to establish differences in the structural and functional state of the heart in patients with chronic myocarditis and dilated cardiomyopathy and to investigate their associations with the presence of cardiac rhythm disorders. Materials and methods. We included 95 patients who were divided into two groups: the first group consisted of 55 patients with chronic myocarditis (CM), the second group included 40 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). All patients had heart failure (HF) II or higher functional class (FC) according to the classification of the New York Heart Association (NYHA) and a reduced left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF). All patients underwent the echocardiography (EchoCG) with speckle tracking (ST), Holter electrocardiogram monitoring and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging. Results and discussion. A comparative analysis of the EchoCG data revealed that CM was characterized by lower values of LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volume indexes (by 21.7 and 28.6 %, respectively, p

We have reported high-energy pulse generation from a Q-switched Er-doped fiber laser based on black phosphorus (BP) with a drop-casting method. Poly dimethyl diallyl ammonium (PDDA) is employed to protect BP. A passive Q-switching operation is achieved by using the BP/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) film as the saturable absorbers (SAs). When the pump power increases from 130.4 mW to 378 mW, the repetition rate increases from 13.33 kHz to 26.6 kHz, and the pulse duration decreases from 10.67 μs to 7.11 μs. The maximum pulse energy is 468.03 nJ, to the best of our knowledge, which is the highest pulse energy produced from Q-switched fiber laser based on BP-SA at 1.5 μm. The obtained high-energy pulse demonstrates that BP/PVA film fabricated by such a drop-casting method can provide an ideal SA for high pulse energy generation from fiber lasers, and it has a potential application of remote sensing.