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Rising temperatures can increase the risk of mental disorders. As climate change intensifies, the future disease burden due to mental disorders may be underestimated. Using data on the number of daily emergency department visits for mental disorders at 30 hospitals in Beijing, China during 2016–2018, the relationship between daily mean temperature and such visits was assessed using a quasi-Poisson model integrated with a distributed lag nonlinear model. Emergency department visits for mental disorders attributed to temperature changes were projected using 26 general circulation models under four climate change scenarios. Stratification analyses were then conducted by disease subtype, sex, and age. The results indicate that the temperature-related health burden from mental disorders was projected to increase consistently throughout the 21st century, mainly driven by high temperatures. The future temperature-related health burden was higher for patients with mental disorders due to the use of psychoactive substances and schizophrenia as well as for women and those aged <65 years. These findings enhance our knowledge of how climate change could affect mental well-being and can be used to advance and refine targeted approaches to mitigating and adapting to climate change with a view on addressing mental disorders. • Future temperature-related health burden for mental disorders (MDs) will increase. • High temperatures pose a greater future health burden for MDs. • Those with substance use disorders and schizophrenia were at higher risk. • Female patients and patients aged <65 years were more susceptible to temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The buoyancy resistance of underground structures is increasingly important, emphasizing the need to control deformation under these conditions. Uplift-resistant, belled uplift piles are key materials for this purpose. The study of the piles nonlinear deformation is essential, with two main models: a simple elastic load transfer model without consideration of the decay of the soil shear modulus and accurate, yet complex, elastoplastic model without convenience in engineering applications. However, both models overlook groundwater effects. By addressing these gaps, a novel nonlinear elastic deformation model for uplift-resistant belled piles can be proposed. This model incorporates groundwater and shear strain relaxation effects, balancing simple computation with practical accuracy. In this model, the soil shear modulus decay is uniquely integrated with the shear strain, enhancing its practical applicability. The effectiveness and wide applicability of the model have been validated through field static load test data and laboratory test data. This model offers a theoretical contribution to the design and construction of belled uplift piles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Built-up radially battened columns (RBCs), comprising several identical circular steel tubes interconnected by multiple radial-shaped battens, represent an innovative column design that combines aesthetic appeal with exceptional load-bearing capacity. This makes them well-suited for architectural applications in large public buildings such as stations and airports. The axial compressive strength design methods for the built-up RBC have been extensively explored in the authors' prior studies. However, in real-world engineering applications, built-up RBCs may experience simultaneous axial compression and varying directional bending moments, particularly when considering potential eccentric compression or wind and earthquake loads in public buildings. Currently, strength design methods for this loading condition are still lacking. To address this deficiency, this paper primarily delves into the failure mechanism and strength design methods for built-up RBCs experiencing combined axial compression and arbitrary directional bending moments. Initially, the sectional strength of the built-up RBC is investigated by using a shell finite element model (FEM) for the built-up RBC. It is revealed that the compression-bending sectional strength of the built-up RBC exhibits significant differences with varying bending directions and tube numbers. Moreover, in some bending directions, the M - N sectional strength curve of the built-up RBC exhibits convexity. By integrating theoretically derived equations grounded in the principles of materials mechanics with FEM numerical calculations, concise and practical design equations are proposed for accurately predicting the sectional strength of the built-up RBC under combined axial compression and arbitrary directional bending moments. Subsequently, The buckling strength of the built-up RBC is studied using the FEM, considering initial geometrical imperfections consistent with first-order flexural buckling and accounting for geometric nonlinearity. It is noted that the bending direction of the built-up RBC may deviate during loading. Besides, the M - N buckling strength curve of the built-up RBC is not as convex as its M - N sectional strength curve. Based on calculations from numerous examples, practical design equations for predicting the buckling strength for the built-up RBC under axial compression and any directional bending moments are introduced. The key findings of this paper contribute to the compression-bending strength design of RBCs, enriching RBC design theory and promoting the widespread application of built-up RBCs in actual engineering projects. [Display omitted] • The M - N strength of RBCs varies with different bending directions and tube numbers. • The M - N sectional strength curve of the built-up RBC is convex. • The built-up RBC's bending direction may deviate during loading. • The M - N buckling strength curve of RBCs is less convex compared to its M - N sectional strength. • The M - N strength of RBCs can be predicted by a quadratic function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-hour resolution observations of stable carbon isotopes in both gaseous water-soluble organic carbon (WSOCg) and particulate water-soluble organic carbon (WSOCp) were conducted at a city site in the Yangtze River Delta. WSOCg exhibited significantly higher concentrations and lower 13C compared to WSOCp. The presence of radiation emerged as a crucial factor influencing the gas-particle partitioning mechanism of WSOC. There appeared to be distinct formation processes for WSOCp and WSOCg during nighttime, except on hazy days with elevated particulate matter concentrations. Gas-particle partitioning of WSOC may become inactive in environments with high temperatures and ozone concentrations, while it may become active in environments characterized by high relative humidity (RH) and elevated WSOCg concentrations. When addressing WSOC pollution, it's essential to focus not only on its sources but also on the suitable environmental conditions for gas-particle partitioning. Active gas-particle partitioning of WSOC may coincide with the formation of secondary inorganic ions (NH 4 +, NO 3 − and SO 4 2−). Thus, in targeting WSOC sources, it's imperative to implement coordinated strategies to control the sources of secondary inorganic ions. • Photochemical production is a critical mechanism of WSOC gas-particle partitioning during the wintertime. • δ13C–WSOC is influenced by both WSOC source compositions, meteorological conditions and gaseous pollutants concentrations. • Secondary inorganic ions are formed synergistically during gas-particle partitioning of WSOC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibiotics are widely used for treating bacterial infections. However, excessive or improper use of antibiotics can pose a serious threat to human health and water environments, and thus, developing cost-effective, portable and effective strategies to analyze and detect antibiotics is highly desired. Herein, we reported a responsive photonic hydrogel (RPH)-based optical biosensor (PPNAH) with superior recyclability for sensitive and colorimetric determination of a typical β -lactam antibiotic penicillin G (PG) in water. This sensor was composed of poly(N -isopropylacrylamide- co -acrylamide) smart hydrogel with incorporated penicillinase and Fe 3 O 4 @SiO 2 colloidal photonic crystals (CPCs). The sensor could translate PG concentration signals into changes in the diffraction wavelength and structural color of the hydrogel. It possessed high sensitivity and selectivity to PG and excellent detection performances for other two typical β -lactam antibiotics. Most importantly, due to the unique thermosensitivity of the poly(N -isopropylacrylamide) moieties in the hydrogel, the PG-responded PPNAH sensor could be facilely regenerated via a simple physical method at least fifty times while without compromising its response performance. Besides, our sensor was suitable for monitoring the PG-contaminated environmental water and displayed satisfactory detection performances. Such a sensor possessed obvious advantages of superior recyclability, highly chemical stability, low production cost, easy fabrication, wide range of visual detection, simple and intuitive operation for PG detection, and environmental-friendliness, which holds great potential in sensitive and colorimetric detection of the PG residues in polluted water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a shuttle-shaped buckling restraint brace (SS-BRB) with the uniform core and the peripheral restraint system that consists of uniform cross-section tube at its mid span and tapering sections at its two ends. This type of BRB maned as SS-BRB-UCS adopts circular steel tubes in the core and the peripheral restraint system. An isolation system is strategically positioned between the core and the peripheral restraint system to effectively transmit lateral loads. Obviously, this type of the optimizing peripheral restraint system could reduce material utilization with an economic design and beautiful appearance. First, the finite element (FE) model of the SS-BRB-UCS is established, then the elastic buckling performance investigation is carried out to determine the elastic buckling load formula through fitting techniques of numerical results, so as to obtain the formula of the restraint ratio. Additionally, an elastic-plastic stability bearing capacity analysis is conducted for the SS-BRB-UCS to assess its load-bearing capabilities, and the corresponding relationships between stability coefficient (φ) and the restraint ratio (ζ) is established to determine the lower restraint ratio (namely threshold) for static load-bearing capacity BRB design. Finally, the hysteretic responses of SS-BRB-UCSs subjected to axial compressive-tensile cyclic loads are studied numerically, and the corresponding lower limit of restraining ratio of SS-BRB-UCSs is proposed for their energy-dissipation design. Those two lower limits of restraining ratios of the SS-BRB-UCSs obtained in this study provide fundamentals for preliminary static and seismic designs of SS-BRB-UCSs. • The formula for the elastic buckling load of SS-BRB-UCSs is derived and verified to define its restraining ratio. • SS-BRB-UCS with parameter α = 0.3–0.5 exhibits optimal economic design. • Load resistance and hysteretic responses of the SS-BRB-UCSs are investigated by adopting Finite Element Model (FEM). • Two lower limits of restraining ratios corresponding to load-carrying and energy-dissipating types are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminescence emission spectra and decay kinetics of Ce3+ in YAG were investigated as a function of temperature (300–800 K) under excitation in the long wavelength tail of the lowest 4f–5d absorption spectrum. Both the anti-Stokes and Stokes emission intensity were found to exhibit an unusual non-monotonic temperature dependence compared to those commonly excited in the absorption band, where luminescence intensity decreases monotonically with increasing temperature. This phenomenon is well explained by a phonon-assisted anti-Stokes excitation model with strong vibronic interaction. It reveals that the intensity enhancement of Ce3+ anti-Stokes and Stokes emission is caused by the anti-Stokes excitation efficiency. Excitation efficiency is enhanced with increasing temperature, and thermal ionization of the 5d electron into the conduction band remains as the quenching mechanism of Ce3+ anti-Stokes and Stokes luminescence at high temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to establish a simple and easy high‐performance liquid chromatography system coupled with an ultraviolet detector suitable for simultaneous determination of 24 antiepileptic drugs in human plasma. Optimized chromatographic separation was performed on a ZORBAX Eclipse Plus‐C18 (4.6 × 150 mm2, 3.5 μm) column with acetonitrile and 5 mM potassium dihydrogen phosphate water solution as mobile phase. Note that, 24 antiepileptic drugs were divided into three groups and eluted with different gradient procedures, respectively. The column temperature was maintained at 35°C and the detection wavelength was set at 210 nm. Plasma was processed with ethyl acetate or acetonitrile. The calibration curves of 24 antiepileptic drugs demonstrated good linearity within the test range (r > 0.996). The intra‐ and inter‐batch precision and accuracy were all less than 15%, while extraction recoveries were in the range of 74.57–90.89% with the relative standard deviation values less than 15%. The validated methods have been successfully applied to determination of some antiepileptic drugs in rat or patient plasma. Those results indicated that the developed methods were simple and easy, and could be suitable for the determination of 24 antiepileptic drugs in plasma just by changing the gradient elution procedures of mobile phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Radiomics analysis of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhages on computed tomography (CT) images has been proven effective in predicting hematoma expansion and poor neurologic outcome. In contrast, there is limited evidence on its predictive abilities for traumatic intraparenchymal hemorrhage (IPH). (2) Methods: A retrospective analysis of 107 traumatic IPH patients was conducted. Among them, 45 patients (42.1%) showed hemorrhagic progression of contusion (HPC) and 51 patients (47.7%) had poor neurological outcome. The IPH on the initial CT was manually segmented for radiomics analysis. After feature extraction, selection and repeatability evaluation, several machine learning algorithms were used to derive radiomics scores (R-scores) for the prediction of HPC and poor neurologic outcome. (3) Results: The AUCs for R-scores alone to predict HPC and poor neurologic outcome were 0.76 and 0.81, respectively. Clinical parameters were used to build comparison models. For HPC prediction, variables including age, multiple IPH, subdural hemorrhage, Injury Severity Score (ISS), international normalized ratio (INR) and IPH volume taken together yielded an AUC of 0.74, which was significantly (p = 0.022) increased to 0.83 after incorporation of the R-score in a combined model. For poor neurologic outcome prediction, clinical variables of age, Glasgow Coma Scale, ISS, INR and IPH volume showed high predictability with an AUC of 0.92, and further incorporation of the R-score did not improve the AUC. (4) Conclusion: The results suggest that radiomics analysis of IPH lesions on initial CT images has the potential to predict HPC and poor neurologic outcome in traumatic IPH patients. The clinical and R-score combined model further improves the performance of HPC prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wavelength-routed optical network on chip (WRONoC) is a promising solution for signal transmission in modern System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. Previous works do not simultaneously handle all the following four main issues for WRONoCs: 1) correlations between the topological structure and physical layout; 2) tradeoffs between the maximum insertion loss and the number of wavelengths; 3) runtime scalability of wavelength assignment scheme; and 4) a fully automated flow to generate predictable designs. As a result, their insertion loss estimation is inaccurate, their wavelength assignment is inefficient, and thus, only suboptimal results are obtained. To remedy these disadvantages, we present a fully automated topological structure and a physical layout co-design flow with improved wavelength assignment schemes to minimize the maximum insertion loss and the laser power simultaneously with a significant speedup. The experimental results show that our co-design flow significantly outperforms state-of-the-art works in the maximum insertion loss, laser power, and runtimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advanced hyperspectral imager (AHSI) is the second hyperspectral imager of China, which is also one of the most important payloads onboard the ZY1E satellite. In order to monitor the radiometric calibration status since its launch on September 12, 2019 and thus provide supplementary onboard radiometric calibration, this article conducts several vicarious radiometric calibration experiments for the ZY-1E AHSI. Five satellite observations over the Dunhuang radiometric calibration site, one of the most relevant China Radiometric Calibration Sites (CRCS), were used. Surface reflectance, radiosonde data, aerosol optical depth (AOD) loading, and water vapor content were used to simulate the top of atmosphere (TOA) radiance at the entrance pupil of the satellite via MODerate resolution atmospheric TRANsmission (MODTRAN). Our results show that the vicarious radiometric calibration coefficients are relatively constant with the official coefficients: the mean relative differences are 5.55%, 5.64%, 7.02%, 5.07%, and 5.30% on January 11, January 17, February 12, May 7, and November 23, 2021, respectively. The vicarious radiometric calibration coefficients were found in good agreement with the official ones according to the validation analysis based on different surface types, i.e., water and vegetation. Uncertainties of vicarious radiometric calibration due to AOD assumptions, AOD measurements, water vapor measurements, radiosonde data measurements, relative spectral response (RSR) shifts, and surface reflectance measurements are also discussed in detail. The obtained results show that the ZY-1E AHSI exhibits good on-orbit radiometric status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complete mitochondrial genome of Episymploce splendens, 15,802 bp in length, was determined and annotated in this study. The mito-genome included 13 PCGs, 20 tRNAs and 2 rRNAs. Unlike most typical mito-genomes with conservative gene arrangement and exceptional economic organization, E. splendens mito-genome has two tRNAs (tRNA-Gln and tRNA-Met) absence and a long intergenic spacer sequence (93 bp) between tRNA-Val and srRNA, showing the diversified features of insect mito-genomes. This is the first report of the tRNAs deletion in blattarian mito-genomes and we supported the duplication/random loss model as the origin mechanism of the long intergenic spacer. Two Numts, Numt-1 (557 bp) and Numt-2 (975 bp) transferred to the nucleus at about 14.15 Ma to 22.34 Ma, and 19.19 Ma to 24.06 Ma respectively, were found in E. splendens. They can be used as molecular fossils in insect phylogenetic relationship inference. Our study provided useful data for further studies on the evolution of insect mito-genome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multiwavelength study of galaxies is important to understand their formation and evolution. Only in the recent past, thanks to the Atacama Large (Sub) Millimeter Array (ALMA), were we able to study the far-infrared (IR) properties of galaxies at high redshifts. In this article, we summarize recent research highlights and their significance to our understanding of early galaxy evolution from the ALPINE survey, a large program with ALMA to observe the dust continuum and 158 μ m C + emission of normal star-forming galaxies at z = 4–6. Combined with ancillary data at UV through near-IR wavelengths, ALPINE provides the currently largest multiwavelength sample of post-reionization galaxies and has advanced our understanding of (i) the demographics of C + emission; (ii) the relation of star formation and C + emission; (iii) the gas content; (iv) outflows and enrichment of the intergalactic medium; and (v) the kinematics, emergence of disks, and merger rates in galaxies at z > 4 . ALPINE builds the basis for more detailed measurements with the next generation of telescopes, and places itself as an important post-reionization baseline sample to allow a continuous study of galaxies over 13 billion years of cosmic time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this report, two diiron ethane-1,2-dithiolate carbonyl complexes with bridging 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane (dppp) or tris(3-fluorophenyl)phosphine have been synthesized and characterized. Treatment of complex [Fe2(CO)6(µ-SCH2CH2S)] (1) with a diphosphine ligand dppp or a monophosphine ligand tris(3-fluorophenyl)phosphine using Me3NO·2H2O as the decarbonylating reagent afforded the corresponding derivatives [{Fe2(CO)5(µ-SCH2CH2S)}2(Ph2PCH2CH2CH2PPh2)] (2) and [Fe2(CO)5(µ-SCH2CH2S){P(3-C6H4F)3}] (3) in 82% and 92% yields, respectively. Complexes 2 and 3 have been characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR spectroscopy, as well as confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Moreover, the electrochemistry of these complexes were studied by cyclic voltammetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipe route design is one of the most complex and time-consuming steps in the ship detailed design. A large number of scholars have studied the optimization of ship pipe routes, but there is still a lack of a fast and effective method for the automatic design of complex pipe routes. For this reason, this article proposes the auto-routing methods of single pipes, branch pipes, and multipipes. The auto-routing methods are based on an Improved A- algorithm. Compared with the traditional A- algorithm, the Improved A- algorithm considers the constraints of ship pipe route design. And by introducing "Blocking Iteration" and dynamic weight, the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm are improved. On this basis, this article uses Python and OpenGL to develop the automatic pipe route design system. The system supports the automatic pipe route design, visualization of optimization results, and two-way interaction with three-dimensional (3-D) design software. Finally, the practicability of the proposed methods and system is verified by the simulation on a comparison case and an actual fuel filling and transfer pipe system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern chemical industry process, soft sensing has been widely used. However, the lack of valid and sufficient data has made it difficult to apply advanced soft sensor modeling methods to realistic scenarios. In this paper, a novel soft sensing method based on deep learning is proposed to handle the problem of small data. Aiming at handling the issue of small sample size, a novel virtual sample generation method embedding a deep neural network as a regressor into conditional Wasserstein generative adversarial networks with gradient penalty (rCWGAN) is presented. In rCWGAN, conditional variables are introduced to make the training supervised and a dual training algorithm is specially designed. With the advanced structure and the designed training algorithm, rCWGAN has powerful sample generation capabilities and can well predict quality variables. Finally, an experiment on the purified terephthalic acid (PTA) solvent system is carried out for the validation of the presented rCWGAN. The simulation results indicate that the presented rCWGAN has good sample approximation ability and acceptable prediction accuracy with the small sample size task. • Novel virtual sample generation method with rCWGAN is proposed. • WGAN-GP is combined with condition variables to generate label samples. • The training method of rCWGAN is modified to obtain good virtual samples. • Simulation results confirm the superior effectiveness of the proposed rCWGAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering oxygen vacancies (Ovs) in submicron transition metal oxides (TMOs) is a promising way to fabricate high-capacity anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, oxygen vacancies activated porous MnO/graphene submicron needle arrays (Ovs-MnO/G NAs) are directly grown on flexible nanoporous Cu–Mn substrate by chemical vapour deposition and hydrogen etching method, and their lithium-ion diffusion and storage mechanisms and morphology evolution are systematically investigated at submicron scale. It can be concluded that these modification strategies synergistically guarantee the fast charge transfer, effective lithium-ion diffusion and storage behaviour, and electrode structural stability. Thus, the optimal Ovs-MnO/G NAs electrode deliver a high reversible capacity of 7.7 mAh cm−2 after 100 cycles at 0.2 mA cm−2 and outstanding cycling performance of 6.12 mAh cm−2 after 500 cycles at 1.0 mA cm−2. Furthermore, the Ovs-MnO/G NAs//NCM 523 full cells also achieve high average capacities of 6.74 mAh cm−2 and cycling stability of 3.88 mAh cm−2 after 100 cycles at 0.2C, indicating its practical application value. [Display omitted] • The oxygen vacancies activated porous MnO/graphene submicron needle arrays are fabricated by chemical vapour deposition and hydrogen etching pathway. • The integrated electrode shows high capacity of 7.7 mAh cm−2 at 0.2 mA cm−2 after 100 cycles. • Engineering oxygen vacancies in MnO submicron needle and the graphene coating layer, as well as mesoporosity, which can effectively boost enhanced lithium ions storage kinetics. • The full cell tests display the practical application values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diagnosis codes in administrative health data are routinely used to monitor trends in disease prevalence and incidence. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is used to record these diagnoses, have been updated multiple times to reflect advances in health and medical research. Our objective was to examine the impact of transitions between ICD versions on the prevalence of chronic health conditions estimated from administrative health data.Methods: Study data (i.e., physician billing claims, hospital records) were from the province of Manitoba, Canada, which has a universal healthcare system. ICDA-8 (with adaptations), ICD-9-CM (clinical modification), and ICD-10-CA (Canadian adaptation; hospital records only) codes are captured in the data. Annual study cohorts included all individuals 18 + years of age for 45 years from 1974 to 2018. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate annual age- and sex-adjusted prevalence and model parameters (i.e., slopes and intercepts) for 16 chronic health conditions. Statistical control charts were used to assess the impact of changes in ICD version on model parameter estimates. Hotelling's T2 statistic was used to combine the parameter estimates and provide an out-of-control signal when its value was above a pre-specified control limit.Results: The annual cohort sizes ranged from 360,341 to 824,816. Hypertension and skin cancer were among the most and least diagnosed health conditions, respectively; their prevalence per 1,000 population increased from 40.5 to 223.6 and from 0.3 to 2.1, respectively, within the study period. The average annual rate of change in prevalence ranged from -1.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.8, -1.4) for acute myocardial infarction to 14.6% (95% CI: 13.9, 15.2) for hypertension. The control chart indicated out-of-control observations when transitioning from ICDA-8 to ICD-9-CM for 75% of the investigated chronic health conditions but no out-of-control observations when transitioning from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CA.Conclusions: The prevalence of most of the investigated chronic health conditions changed significantly in the transition from ICDA-8 to ICD-9-CM. These results point to the importance of considering changes in ICD coding as a factor that may influence the interpretation of trend estimates for chronic health conditions derived from administrative health data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate and compare the clinical outcomes of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for multifocal papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) versus unifocal PTMC in a large cohort. Methods: Patients with low-risk PTMC (n = 487) who underwent RFA were included in this retrospective study and divided into the unifocal group (U group) (n = 432) and the multifocal group (M group) (n = 55) according to the number of lesions. After 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM), volume, volume reduction ratio (VRR), the development of local tumor progression including lymph node metastasis (LNM), recurrent PTMC and persistent lesions, and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate were evaluated and compared between the two groups. The different impacts of multifocality on recurrence after RFA for PTMC were investigated by Cox analysis. Results: During a mean follow-up time of 49.25 ± 12.98 months, the overall VRR was 99.40 ± 4.43% and the overall incidence of local tumor progression was 3.70% (18/487). No complications occurred after RFA. After PSM, no significant differences were found in volume (0.11 ± 0.69 mm3 vs 0 mm3, p = 0.441), VRR (99.87 ± 0.78% vs 100%, p = 0.441), complete disappearance rate (95.61% vs 89.09%, p = 0.201), incidence of local tumor progression (5.45% vs 5.45%, p = 1.000), LNM (1.82% vs 0%, p = 0.317), recurrent PTMC (1.82% vs 5.45%, p = 0.611), persistent lesions (1.82% vs 0%, p = 0.317), and RFS rate (96.36% vs 94.55%, p = 0.632) between the M group and U group. The association between multifocality and local tumor recurrence also remained nonsignificant (p = 0.619). No distant metastasis or delayed surgery occurred. Conclusions: The impact of multifocality on the prognosis after RFA for low-risk PTMC was little. RFA might be a promising treatment for both unifocal and multifocal PTMC in properly selected patients after sufficient preoperative evaluation. Key Points: • No significant differences are found in the local tumor progression between the unifocal PTMC and multifocal PTMC. • Multifocality is not associated with higher recurrence after RFA for low-risk PTMC. • RFA is a promising alternative for both unifocal and multifocal PTMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) might occur at the early stages of dementia. Individuals with SCD have an increased risk of subsequent objective cognitive decline and greater rates of progression to dementia.Objective: We aimed to explore the associations between SCD and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology in cognitively normal individuals.Methods: A total of 1,099 cognitively normal elders with available data on CSF biomarkers of AD pathology (Aβ42, P-tau, and T-tau) were included in our analysis. Linear regression was used to examine the associations of SCD status and SCD severity with CSF biomarkers. Additionally, a review was conducted to discuss the associations between SCD and CSF biomarkers of AD pathology.Results: After adjustments for covariates, SCD and SCD severity showed significant associations with CSF Aβ42 (SCD: β= -0.0003, p = 0.0263; SCD severity: β= -0.0004, p = 0.0046), CSF T-tau/Aβ42 ratio (SCD: β= 0.1080, p = 0.0064; SCD severity: β= 0.1129, p = 0.0009) and CSF P-tau/Aβ42 ratio (SCD: β= 0.0167, p = 0.0103; SCD severity: β= 0.0193, p = 0.0006) rather than T-tau and P-tau compared with cognitively normal individuals. In the review, a total of 28 studies were finally included after reviewing 174 articles. CSF Aβ42 was lower in SCD than cognitively normal (CN) individuals, but higher than those with objective cognitive decline. However, CSF tau pathology showed no difference between SCD and CN.Conclusion: The results indicated that pathophysiological changes in CSF Aβ pathology occurred in individuals with SCD, which provide new insights into early intervention of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs) characteristics and sources during fifteen high ozone (O 3) episodes (daily 1-h maximum >100 ppbv and maximum 8-h average > 80 ppbv) in Nanjing, China, and used a photochemical box model to study the O 3 formation sensitivity of VOCs, O 3 photochemistry, radical budget, and reactivity for different emission reduction scenarios together with the base case ones. Overall, emission reduction from biogenic sources, followed by combustion sources, multiple sources, and solvent usage, had the major impacts on the O 3 concentrations. According to photochemical box model simulations, isoprene was the most sensitive or influential VOC in the formation of O 3 , followed by ethylene, o-xylene, and cis-2-pentene. A 20.6 ± 11.7% concentration reduction of the sixteen most sensitive VOCs (SV16) for the production of O 3 could bring the O 3 concentration below the national standard level (daily 1-h maximum <100 ppbv). Besides, a 30% emission reduction from all the anthropogenic sources was more than enough to bring the O 3 concentration below the national standard level. The total emission reduction of alkenes was always enough to bring the O 3 concentration below the national standard level, which was not the case for aromatics under severe pollution conditions. The simulated OH reactivity analysis illustrates the importance of alkenes and aromatics, which account for about half of the total OH reactivity. The highest OH reactivity decreased due to the emission reduction for biogenic sources, followed by combustion and multiple sources. Alkenes played a major role in the OH, HO 2 , and RO 2 radical's formation in the study area. The biggest drop in OH, HO 2 , and RO 2 radical concentrations was noticed for biogenic emission reduction, followed by combustion and multiple sources. Due to the emission reduction from VOC sources, the highest O 3 formation rates decreased for biogenic sources, followed by combustion and multiple sources. The acquired information is valuable to the scientific community and policymakers for formulating and implementing O 3 pollution control strategies. • Isoprene, ethylene, and o-xylene are the most sensitive VOCs for O 3 formation. • O 3 formation drops the most for biogenic, combustion, and multiple sources' emission reduction. • A 30% reduction in anthropogenic VOC emissions can control O 3 pollution. • A 20.6% reduction of the 16 most sensitive VOC emissions can control O 3 pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerosis continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. The precise evaluation of the extent of an atherosclerotic plaque is essential for forecasting its likelihood of causing health concerns and tracking treatment outcomes. When compared to conventional methods used, nanoparticles offer clear benefits and excellent development opportunities for the detection and characterisation of susceptible atherosclerotic plaques. In this review, we analyse the recent advancements of nanoparticles as theranostics in the management of atherosclerosis, with an emphasis on applications in drug delivery. Furthermore, the main issues that must be resolved in order to advance clinical utility and future developments of NP research are discussed. It is anticipated that medical NPs will develop into complex and advanced next-generation nanobotics that can carry out a variety of functions in the bloodstream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To predict the efficacy of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation for uterine leiomyomas based on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) indicators and imaging features. Methods: Sixty-two patients with 85 uterine leiomyomas were consecutively enrolled in this retrospective study and underwent DTI scanning before HIFU treatment. Based on whether the non-perfused volume ratio (NPVR) was greater than 70%, all patients were assigned to sufficient ablation (NPVR ≥ 70%) or insufficient ablation (NPVR < 70%) groups. The selected DTI indicators and imaging features were incorporated to construct a combined model. The predictive performance of DTI indicators and the combined model were assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: There were 42 leiomyomas in the sufficient ablation group (NPVR ≥ 70%) and 43 leiomyomas in the insufficient ablation group (NPVR < 70%). The fractional anisotropy (FA) and relative anisotropy (RA) values were higher in the sufficient ablation group than in the insufficient ablation group (p < 0.05). Conversely, the volume ratio (VR) and mean diffusivity (MD) values were lower in the sufficient ablation group than those in the insufficient ablation group (p < 0.05). Notably, the combined model composed of the RA and enhancement degree values had high predictive efficiency, with an AUC of 0.915. The combined model demonstrated higher predictive performance than FA and MD alone (p = 0.032 and p < 0.001, respectively) but showed no significant improvement compared with RA and VR (p > 0.05). Conclusion: DTI indicators, especially the combined model incorporating DTI indicators and imaging features, can be a promising imaging tool to assist clinicians in predicting HIFU efficacy for uterine leiomyomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity is characterized by excessive body fat accumulation and is a high-risk factor for metabolic comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and cardiovascular disease. In lean individuals, adipose tissue (AT) is not only an important regulatory organ for energy storage and metabolism, but also an indispensable immune and endocrine organ. The sustained energy imbalance induces adipocyte hypotrophy and hyperplasia as well as AT remodeling, accompanied by chronic low-grade inflammation and adipocytes dysfunction in AT, ultimately leading to systemic insulin resistance and ectopic lipid deposition. Luteolin is a natural flavonoid widely distributed in fruits and vegetables and possesses multifold biological activities, such as antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory activities. Diet supplementation of this flavonoid has been reported to inhibit AT lipogenesis and inflammation as well as the ectopic lipid deposition, increase AT thermogenesis and systemic energy expenditure, and finally improve obesity and associated metabolic diseases. The purpose of this review is to reveal the nutritional activities of luteolin in obesity and its complications with emphasis on its action on AT energy metabolism, immunoregulation, and endocrine intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two diiron toluene-3,4-dithiolate complexes with a phosphine ligand or a phosphite ligand were prepared and characterized. Treatment of complex [Fe2(CO)6{µ-SC6H3(CH3)S}] (1) with one equivalent of ethyldiphenylphosphine or methyldiphenylphosphinite and the decarbonylation agent Me3NO·2H2O gave analogues [Fe2(CO)5(Ph2PCH2CH3){µ-SC6H3(CH3)S}] (2) [Fe2(CO)5(Ph2POCH3){µ-SC6H3(CH3)S}] (3) and in 84% and 61% yields, respectively. Both analogues have been characterized by spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X-ray crystallography. The electrochemical properties were probed by cyclic voltammetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) combined with the platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in predicting the prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). This was a retrospective analysis of the data of 73 patients with NPC who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT before treatment from January 2010 to December 2014. The maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) of NPC and the PLR within 1 week before treatment were both measured. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare the differences between the SUVmax and PLR among the different clinical characteristics of patients with NPC and the 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rate; according to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the best cutoff values of the SUVmax and PLR were obtained and used to group patients. The Kaplan-Meier method and Log-rank test were used to conduct univariate analysis of 5-year PFS in patients with NPC, and Cox regression was used to conduct multivariate analysis; differences in the 5-year PFS of patients with different SUVmax values combined with the PLR were compared. The SUVmax and PLR of patients with disease progression within 5 years were higher than those of patients without disease progression (p = 0.006 and p = 0.026). SUVmax = 9.7 and PLR = 132.98 had the best prognostic diagnostic efficiency for patients. Cox multivariate analysis showed that the SUVmax and PLR are independent factors affecting the prognosis of NPC. The 5-year PFS of patients with SUVmax <9.7 was significantly higher than that of patients with SUVmax ≥9.7 in the high PLR group (PLR ≥132.98) and in the low PLR group (PLR <132.98) (59.3% vs 29.4%, p = 0.033 and 90.9% vs 42.9%, p = 0.006, respectively). For patients with SUVmax <9.7, the 5-year PFS of the high PLR group was significantly lower than the low PLR group (59.3% vs 90.9%, p = 0.016); for patients with SUVmax ≥9.7, there was no significant difference in 5-year PFS between the high PLR group and the low PLR group (29.4% vs 42.9%, p = 0.406). Both the SUVmax of the primary tumor and the PLR before treatment have an important influence on the prognosis of NPC. Combining the SUVmax and the PLR can more accurately predict the prognosis of patients with NPC. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic value of combining pretreatment tumor 18F-FDG uptake on PET/CT imaging and PLR in NPC patients. We found that both SUVmax and PLR are independent factors for the PFS of NPC patients, and a low SUVmax (SUVmax <9.7) combined with a low PLR (PLR <132.98) revealed significant PFS benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive fluoride is known to induce oxidative stress and cell damage, particularly in the nervous system. We aimed to investigate changes in the expression of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), p47phox, phosphop47phox, gp91phox, p22phox, and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) in SH-SY5Y cells exposed to different levels of sodium fluoride and explore the molecular mechanisms underlying cell injury caused by excessive fluoride exposure. The cells were divided into the following groups: control, low-dose fluorinated (NaF 0.4 mmol/L), high-dose fluorinated (NaF 4 mmol/L), and FPS-ZM1 (1 µM). The protein levels of RAGE, p47phox, phospho-p47phox, gp91phox, p22phox, and NF-κB were detected using western blotting. Additionally, levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) were detected using respective biochemical methods. Compared with those in the control group, the protein levels of RAGE, p47phox, phospho-p47phox, gp91phox, p22phox, and NF-κB were significantly upregulated in the high-dose fluorinated group (p<0.05). Moreover, compared with those in the high-dose fluorinated group, the protein levels of p47phox, phospho-p47phox, gp91phox, p22phox, and NF-κB were downregulated in the FPS-ZM1 group (p<0.05). Furthermore, compared with that in the control and high-dose fluorinated groups (p<0.05), the expression of SOD decreased in the high-dose fluorinated group and increased in the FPS-ZM1 group, respectively. Compared with that in the control group and high-dose fluorinated groups (p<0.05), MDA expression increased in the high-dose fluorinated group and reduced in the FPSZM1 group, respectively. Thus, excessive fluoride can upregulate the RAGE/NADPH oxidase signaling pathway in SH-SY5Y cells, and these changes may be related to the nerve cell injury caused by fluoride. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a null controllability and an inverse source problem for stochastic Grushin equation with boundary degeneracy and singularity. We construct two special weight functions to establish two Carleman estimates for the whole stochastic Grushin operator with singular potential by a weighted identity method. One is for the backward stochastic Grushin equation with singular weight function. We then apply it to prove the null controllability for stochastic Grushin equation for any T and any degeneracy γ > 0, when our control domain touches the degeneracy line {x = 0}. In order to study the inverse source problem of determining two kinds of sources simultaneously, we prove the other Carleman estimate, which is for the forward stochastic Grushin equation with regular weight function. Based on this Carleman estimate, we obtain the uniqueness of the inverse source problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the working performance of the lower limb rehabilitation robot and the safety of the trained object, the mechanical characteristics of a cable-driven lower limb rehabilitation robot (CDLR) are studied. The dynamic model of the designed CDLR was established. Four kinds of cable tension optimization algorithms were proposed to obtain a good rehabilitation training effect, and the quality of the feasible workspace of the CDLR was analyzed. Finally, a real-time evaluation index of the cable tension optimization algorithms was given to measure the calculation speed of the optimization algorithms. The numerical research results were provided to confirm the characteristics of the four kinds of the optimization algorithms. The research results provide a basis for the follow-up research on the safety and compliance control strategy of the CDLR system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a novel diiron propane-1,3-dithiolate complex [Fe2(CO)5PH(C10H15)2(μ-SCH2CH2CH2S)] containing a di-1-adamantylphosphine ligand. Trimethylamine N-oxide-induced decarbonylation of complex [Fe2(CO)6(μ-SCH2CH2CH2S)] followed by reaction with di-1-adamantylphosphine yielded the target product in 86% yield. The title compound was identified by spectroscopy, elemental analysis, as well as further determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Electrochemical properties were studied by cyclic voltammetry without or with HOAc. Interestingly, the fungicidal activity of the title compound showed moderate activity against Phytophthora infestans, Pyricularia oryae, Botrytis cinerea, and Physalospora piricola. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Helicobacter pylori (Hp) is a class I carcinogen in gastric carcinogenesis, but its role in Barrett's esophagus (BE) is unknown. Therefore, we aimed to explore the possible relationship.Methods: We reviewed observational studies published in English until October 2019. Summary odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for included studies.Results: 46 studies from 1505 potential citations were eligible for inclusion. A significant inverse relationship with considerable heterogeneity was found between Hp (OR = 0.70; 95% CI, 0.51-0.96; P = 0.03) and BE, especially the CagA-positive Hp strain (OR = 0.28; 95% CI, 0.15-0.54; P = 0.0002). However, Hp infection prevalence was not significantly different between patients with BE and the gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) control (OR = 0.99; 95% CI, 0.82-1.19; P = 0.92). Hp was negatively correlated with long-segment BE (OR = 0.47; 95% CI, 0.25-0.90; P = 0.02) and associated with a reduced risk of dysplasia. However, Hp had no correlated with short-segment BE (OR = 1.11; 95% CI, 0.78-1.56; P = 0.57). In the present infected subgroup, Hp infection prevalence in BE was significantly lower than that in controls (OR = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.54-0.89; P = 0.005); however, this disappeared in the infection history subgroup (OR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.43-1.78; P = 0.73).Conclusions: Hp, especially the CagA-positive Hp strain, and BE are inversely related with considerable heterogeneity, which is likely mediated by a decrease in GERD prevalence, although this is not observed in the absence of current Hp infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on voluntary running of defined distances among mice fed with a high-fat diet (HFD). It states that running is positively correlated with bone volume fraction (BV/TV) and a higher structure model index (SMI) in vertebrae, and that quantitative voluntary running improves bone microstructure through its attenuation of bone resorption in the mice fed with a HFD. Also noted are findings which show that voluntary running improves bone quality in such young mice.

A bacterial strain, designated M625T, was isolated from the surface of a marine red alga. Phylogenetic trees were reconstructed based on the 16S rRNA gene and RpoB protein sequences, which indicated that the strain belongs to the genus Aquimarina within the family Flavobacteriaceae. Strain M625T showed high sequence similarities to A. aggregata RZW4-3-2 T (95.7%), A. seongsanensis CBA3208T (95.3%) and A. versatilis CBA3207T (95.0%). The AAI and POCP values between strain M625T and A. muelleri DSM 19832 T were 71.8% and 57.9% respectively. The dDDH and ANI values between strain M625T and A. aggregata were 19.5% and 74.6% respectively. The strain was Gram-stain negative, strictly aerobic, non-motile and long rod-shaped, and positive for hydrolysis of starch, cellulose, alginate, DNA and Tween 20. The dominant respiratory quinone was MK-6. The major fatty acids were iso-C15:0, iso-C17:0 3-OH, and iso-C15:1 G, and the polar lipids consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, one unidentified phospholipid, two unidentified aminolipids, and seven unidentified lipids. Based on the polyphasic comparisons, strain M625T is proposed to represent a novel species within the genus Aquimarina, for which the name Aquimarina algicola sp. nov. (type strain M625T = MCCC 1H00399T = KCTC 72685 T) was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Thermal ablation (TA) has been applied in patients with low-risk papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) who refuse surgery or active surveillance (AS). Recently, TA has been proposed as a potential therapeutic option for patients who are suitable for surgery or AS. However, the clinical outcomes of TA versus surgery remains controversial because of a lack of sufficient data. This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes between radiofrequency ablation (RFA) versus thyroid lobectomy (TL) for low-risk PTMC in a large cohort. Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 884 patients with unifocal low-risk PTMC treated with TL or RFA from June 2014 to March 2018. Among them, 460 patients underwent TL (TL group) and 424 patients, who refused surgery or AS, underwent RFA (RFA group). Patients were regularly followed up after treatment. Local tumor progression, recurrence-free survival (RFS), complications, and treatment variables, including procedure time, estimated blood loss, hospitalization, and cost, were compared after propensity score matching (PSM). Results: After PSM, a total of 332 patients underwent TL (mean ages 43.8 ± 9.5 years) and 332 underwent RFA (mean ages 44.1 ± 9.5 years). During the follow-up (median [interquartile ranges], 48.3 [23.2] months), no significant differences were observed in local tumor progression (1.8% vs. 3.3%, p = 0.209), lymph node metastasis (0.6% vs. 0.6%, p = 1.000), recurrent PTMC (1.2% vs. 2.4%, p = 0.244), persistent lesion (0% vs. 0.3%, p = 0.317), and 4-year RFS rates (98.2% vs. 97.0%, p = 0.223) between the TL and RFA groups. Distant metastasis was not detected. None of the patients who were treated by RFA underwent delayed surgery. Patients undergoing RFA had shorter procedure time (3.4 [2.5] vs. 86.0 [37.0] minutes, p < 0.001), lower estimated blood loss (0 vs. 20 [10.0] mL, p < 0.001), shorter hospitalization (0 vs. 7.0 [3.0] days, p < 0.001), lower cost ($2035.7 [254.0] vs. $2269.1 [943.4], p < 0.001) and lower complication rate (0% vs. 4.5%, p < 0.001) than those treated by TL. The association between treatment modality and recurrence remained nonsignificant after Cox analysis (p = 0.247). Conclusions: This large matched study revealed comparable four-year clinical outcomes between RFA and TL for low-risk PTMC. As a minimally invasive modality, RFA may be a promising alternative to the existing treatment options for low-risk PTMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To study the psychoacoustic and audiological characteristics of patients with chronic subjective tinnitus and provide basis for the personalized diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus through a single tinnitus multielement integration sound therapy (T-MIST) and analysis of efficacy preliminarily. Methods: 145 patients with tinnitus were assessed by systematic medical history collection, professional examination of otolaryngology, audiology examination, full precision test (FPT), residual inhibition test (RIT), tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) and visual analog scale (VAS) annoyance. The correlation among factors was performed. Results: The frequency of tinnitus was correlated with the frequency of maximum hearing loss (P < 0.05). The loudness of tinnitus was correlated with the loudness of maximum hearing loss (P < 0.05). In this study, T-MIST was used to treat tinnitus. After treatment, tinnitus alleviated VAS annoyance (P < 0.05). The results of RIT were correlated with the effect of T-MIST (P < 0.05). Conclusion: There was a correlation between tinnitus and hearing loss. The RIT may indicate the effectiveness of acoustic therapy in patients. The FPT can find the hidden hearing loss without display on routine pure tone audiometry, so as to provide a clinical reference for the detection of early hearing loss in tinnitus patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Dear Editor: b Tuberculosis is a serious threat to human health, especially multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Eventually, all the 25 MDR-TB patients with NTM completed the course of MDR-TB treatment and achieved success in the treatment according to the World Health Organization guidelines.[2] There are two possible explanations. The bacteriological diagnostic criteria recommended by the ATS guidelines may not be suitable for the diagnosis of MDR-TB patients with NTM infection, especially when NTM species is detected during the treatment of MDR-TB. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Helicobacter pylori (Hp) eradication has been used for many years. Yet, the impact of this eradication on the normal gastric microflora is not well understood. In this study, we explored the effect of eradication on the stomach microbial community and its recovery after successful Hp eradication. Methods: Among the 89 included patients, 23, 17, 40, and 9 were included in the Hp-negative, Hp-positive, successful eradication, and failed eradication groups, respectively. Four subgroups were further determined according to disease status (Hp-negative chronic gastritis [N-CG], Hp-negative atrophic gastritis [N-AG], successful-eradication chronic gastritis [SE-CG], and atrophic gastritis with successful eradication [SE-AG]). During the endoscopic examination, one piece of gastric mucosa tissue was obtained from the lesser curvature side of the gastric antrum and gastric corpus, respectively. In addition, 16S rDNA gene sequencing was used to analyze the gastric mucosal microbiome. Results: In the Hp-negative group, the gastric microbiota was dominated by five phyla: Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Fusobacteria. After successfully eradicating Hp, the bacterial flora in the stomach recovered to a considerable extent. In the failed eradication group, the flora was similar to the flora in Hp-positive subjects based on the alpha and beta diversities. Among the groups, Curvibacter and Acinetobacter were enriched in the presence of Hp (i.e., failed eradication and Hp-positive groups), suggesting that these two genera could be used as biomarkers in the symbiotic flora in the presence of Hp. SE-CG was characterized by an increase in Firmicutes taxa and a decrease in Proteobacteria taxa compared with N-CG. SE-AG was characterized by a decrease in Firmicutes relative to N-AG. Finally, no differences were found in the pairwise comparisons of nitrate and nitrite reductase functions of the microflora among the four subgroups. Conclusions: After Hp infection, the diversity and relative abundance of gastric microflora were significantly decreased. Yet, gastric microbiota could be partially restored to the Hp-negative status after eradication. Still, this effect was incomplete and might contribute to the long-term risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sparse LiDAR depth completion is a beneficial task for many robotic applications. It commonly generates a dense depth prediction from a sparse depth map and its corresponding aligned RGB image. This image‐guided depth completion task mainly has two challenges: sparse data processing and multi‐modality data fusion. In this letter, they are dealt with by two novel solutions: (1) To efficiently process sparse depth input, a Depth Aware Non‐local Convolution (DAN‐Conv) is proposed. It augments the spatial sampling locations of a convolution operation. Specifically, DAN‐Conv constructs a non‐local neighbourhood relationship by exploiting the intrinsic correlation among observable depth pixels. In particular, it can readily replace standard convolution without introducing additional network parameters. (2) A Symmetric Co‐attention Module (SCM) is proposed to fuse and enhance features from depth and image domain. It estimates the importance of complementary features by the co‐attention mechanism. Finally, a neural network built on DAN‐Conv and SCM is proposed. It achieves competitive performance on the challenging KITTI depth completion benchmark. Comparing to approaches with approximate accuracy, this lightweight network requires significantly fewer learnable parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postweaning diarrhea in pigs is mainly caused by pathogenic Escherichia coli and is a major source of revenue loss to the livestock industry. Bacteriophages dominate the gut virome and have the potential to regulate bacterial communities and thus influence the intestinal physiology. To determine the biological characterization of intestinal coliphages, we isolated and identified the fecal coliphages of healthy preweaned and postweaned piglets from the Nanjing and Chuzhou pig farms. First, ahead of coliphage isolation, 87 E. coli strains were isolated from healthy or diarrheal fecal samples from three pig farms, of which 8 were pathogenic strains, including enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). Of the E. coli strains, 87.3% possessed drug resistance to three antibiotics. Using these 87 E. coli strains as indicator hosts, we isolated 45 coliphages and found a higher abundance in the postweaning stage than in the preweaning stage (24 versus 17 in the Nanjing and 13 versus 4 in the Chuzhou farm). Furthermore, each farm had a single most-prevalent coliphage strain. Pathogenic E. coli-specific bacteriophages were commonly detected (9/10 samples in the Nanjing farm and 7/10 in the Chuzhou farm) in guts of sampled piglets, and most had significant bacteriostatic effects (P,0.05) on pathogenic E. coli strains. Three polyvalent bacteriophages (N24, N30, and C5) were identified. The N30 and C5 strains showed a genetic identity of 89.67%, with mild differences in infection characteristics. Our findings suggest that pathogenic E. coli-specific bacteriophages as well as polyvalent bacteriophages are commonly present in piglet guts and that weaning is an important event that affects coliphage numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the univariate dimension-reduction method (UDRM), Edgeworth series, and sensitivity analysis, a new method for reliability sensitivity analysis of mechanical components is proposed. The univariate dimension-reduction method is applied to calculate the response origin moments and their sensitivity with respect to distribution parameters (e.g., mean and standard deviation) of fundamental input random variables. Edgeworth series is used to estimate failure probability of mechanical components by using first few response central moments. The analytic formula of reliability sensitivity can be derived by calculating partial derivative of the failure probability P f with respect to distribution parameters of basic random variables. The nonnormal random parameters need not to be transformed into equivalent normal ones. Three numerical examples are employed to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method by comparing the failure probability and reliability sensitivity results obtained by the proposed method with those obtained by Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomimics for the active site of [FeFe]-hydrogenases, have been synthesized and characterized. Treatment of [Fe2(CO)6{μ-SCH2CH(CH3)S}] (1) and phosphine ligands tris(2-furyl)phosphine, tri(m-tolyl)phosphine, bis(diphenylphosphino)methane (dppm), or 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)benzene (dppbz) with Me3NO·2H2O as the decarbonylation agent afforded the corresponding phosphine-containing derivatives [Fe2(CO)5(L){μ-SCH2CH(CH3)S}] (L = P(2-C4H3O)3, 2; P(3-C6H4CH3)3, 3; Ph2PCH2PPh2, 4) and [Fe2(CO)4{κ2-(Ph2P)2(1,2-C6H4)}{μ-SCH2CH(CH3)S}] (5) in moderate to good yields. The new complexes 2‒5 have been structurally characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR spectroscopy, and further confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. The electrochemistry of complexes 2‒5 have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry, showing that they can catalyze the reduction of protons to H2 in the presence of HOAc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As with many phytopathogenic bacteria, the virulence of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, the causal agent of black rot disease in cruciferous plants, relies on secretion of a suite of extracellular enzymes that includes cellulase (endoglucanase), pectinase, protease, and amylase. Although the role in virulence of a number of these enzymes has been assessed, the contribution of amylase to X. campestris pv. campestris virulence has yet to be established. In this work, we investigated both the role of extracellular amylase in X. campestris pv. campestris virulence and the control of its expression. Deletion of XC3487 (here renamed amyAXcc), a putative amylase-encoding gene from the genome of X. campestris pv. campestris strain 8004, resulted in a complete loss of extracellular amylase activity and significant reduction in virulence. The extracellular amylase activity and virulence of the amyAXcc mutant could be restored to the wild-type level by expressing amyAXcc in trans. These results demonstrated that amyAXcc is responsible for the extracellular amylase activity of X. campestris pv. campestris and indicated that extracellular amylase plays an important role in X. campestris pv. campestris virulence. We also found that the expression of amyAXcc is strongly induced by starch and requires activation by the global posttranscriptional regulator RsmA. RsmA binds specifically to the 50-untranslated region of amyAXcc transcripts, suggesting that RsmA regulates amyAXcc directly at the posttranscriptional level. Unexpectedly, in addition to posttranscriptional regulation, the use of a transcriptional reporter demonstrated that RsmA also regulates amyAXcc expression at the transcriptional level, possibly by an indirect mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to ensure safe operations of industrial processes, it is especially important to find fault types accurately and quickly based on historical data and then deal with faults in time. Unfortunately, due to the tricky characteristics of industrial process data such as massive number, high dimensionality, and nonlinearity, it turns out that timely and accurate diagnosis of faults becomes of great difficulty in industrial processes. To address this problem, novel effective fault diagnosis using an improved global and local dimensionality reduction (DR) method named discrimination locality preserving projections integrated with sparse autoencoder (SAEDLPP) is proposed in this article. In SAEDLPP, the global DR information of data is first obtained by sparse autoencoder (SAE); next, the DR data obtained through SAE are passed through discrimination locality preserving projections (DLPP) to obtain local DR information, preserving not only the global information but the local information of the extracted features. Finally, fault diagnosis is achieved by separating the extracted features by SAEDLPP using an AdaBoost classifier to recognize fault types. Simulations are conducted on the Tennessee Eastman process (TEP) and the results indicate that the provided SAEDLPP-based fault diagnosis methodology can achieve much higher accuracy in fault diagnosis than other associated methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the achievement of ultra-strong Nano twinned pure nickel with an extremely fine twin thickness, reaching a record-breaking strength of 4.0 Gigapascals at a twin thickness of 2.9 nanometers. Topics include the Hall-Petch strengthening phenomenon, the formation mechanisms of nanotwins in nickel, and the mechanical properties of Nano twinned nickel with varying twin thicknesses.

Background: Endocervical adenocarcinoma (ECA) is further classified as human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated (HPVA) or non-HPVA (NHPVA), per the International Endocervical Adenocarcinoma Criteria and Classification (IECC). HPVA is a glandular tumor with stromal invasion and/or exophytic expansile-type invasion, associated with the typical molecular characteristics of high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) infection. Transforming acidic coiled-coil protein-3 (TACC3), an oncogene that is frequently abnormally expressed, represents a vital biomarker for multiple human malignancies. This study aimed to examine the role of TACC3 in the diagnosis and prognosis of ECA. Methods: We analyzed 264 patients with ECA who underwent surgical resection, classifying their tumors into HPVA and NHPVA subtypes. The expression levels of TACC3, P16, MLH1, PMS2, MSH2, MSH6 and Ki-67 in tumors were evaluated by tissue microarray using immunohistochemistry (IHC). HPV subtypes were identified in formalin-fixed paraffin- embedded (FFPE) ECA tissues by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: ECA samples showed increased TACC3 expression relative to adjacent non-carcinoma samples. TACC3 expression was higher in HPVA than in NHPA. In the HPVA subtype, high TACC3 expression was significantly correlated with P16-positive, Ki-67-high expression. Furthermore, TACC3 levels were significantly related to tumor histological type (P=0.006), nerve invasion (P=0.003), differentiation (P=0.004), surgical margin (P=0.012), parametrium invasion (P=0.040), P16 expression (P < 0.001), and Ki-67 (P=0.004). Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that TACC3 upregulation was associated with poor overall survival (OS, P=0.001), disease-free survival (DFS, P < 0.001), and recurrence survival (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that elevated TACC3 expression served as a marker to independently predict ECA prognosis. ROC curve analyses indicated that TACC3, P16, and HPV subtypes showed similar utility for distinguishing HPVA from NHPVA, with areas under the ROC curves of 0.640, 0.649, and 0.675, respectively. The combination of TACC3 and HPV subtypes improved the diagnostic performance of ECA compared with TACC3, P16, and HPV subtypes alone. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings identify that TACC3 is a promising complementary biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis for patients with ECA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbonaceous aerosols have great influence on the air quality, human health and climate change. Except for organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC), brown carbon (BrC) mainly originates from biomass burning as a group of OC, with strong absorption from the visible to near-ultraviolet wavelengths, and makes a considerable contribution to global warming. Large numbers of studies have reported long-term observation of OC and EC concentrations throughout the world, but studies of BrC based on long-term observations are rather limited. In this study, we established a two-wavelength method (658 and 405 nm) applied in the Sunset thermal–optical carbon analyzer. Based on a 1-year observation, we firstly investigated the characteristics, meteorological impact and transport process of OC and EC. Since BrC absorbs light at 405 nm more effectively than 658 nm, we defined the enhanced concentrations (dEC = EC 405nm - EC 658nm) and gave the possibility of providing an indicator of BrC. The receptor model and MODIS fire information were used to identify the presence of BrC aerosols. Our results showed that the carbonaceous aerosol concentrations were the highest in winter and lowest in summer. Traffic emission was an important source of carbonaceous aerosols in Nanjing. Receptor model results showed that strong local emissions were found for OC and EC; however, dEC was significantly affected by regional or long-range transport. The dEC/OC and OC/EC ratios showed similar diurnal patterns, and the dEC/OC increased when the OC/EC ratios increased, indicating strong secondary sources or biomass burning contributions to dEC. A total of two biomass burning events both in summer and winter were analyzed, and the results showed that the dEC concentrations were obviously higher on biomass burning days; however, no similar levels of the OC and EC concentrations were found both in biomass burning days and normal days in summer, suggesting that biomass burning emissions made a great contribution to dEC, and the sources of OC and EC were more complicated. Large number of open fire counts from the northwestern and southwestern areas of the study site were observed in winter and significantly contributed to OC, EC and dEC. In addition, the nearby Yangtze River Delta area was one of the main potential source areas of dEC, suggesting that anthropogenic emissions could also be important sources of dEC. The results proved that dEC can be an indicator of BrC on biomass burning days. Our modified two-wavelength instrument provided more information than the traditional single-wavelength thermal–optical carbon analyzer and gave a new idea about the measurement of BrC; the application of dEC data needs to be further investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two diiron toluene-3,4-dithiolate complexes with tris(3-fluorophenyl)phosphine or tris(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)phosphine have been synthesized and characterized. Treatment of hexacarbonyl complex [Fe2(CO)6{{µ-SC6H3(CH3)S}}] (1) with one equivalent of tris(3-fluorophenyl)phosphine or tris(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)phosphine in the presence of Me3NO·2H2O as the oxidative agent afforded complexes [Fe2(CO)5{{P(3-C6H4F)3}}{{µ-SC6H3(CH3)S}}] (2) and [Fe2(CO)5{{P(4-C6H4CF3)3}}{{µ-SC6H3(CH3)S}}] (3) in 90% and 80% isolated yields, respectively. The new complexes obtained above have been characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR spectroscopy, and their structures have been further confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. In addition, electrochemical studies revealed that they can catalyze the reduction of protons to molecular H2 in the presence of a weak acid HOAc. Two diiron toluene-3,4-dithiolate complexes with tris(3-fluorophenyl)phosphine or tris(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)phosphine have been synthesized by carbonyl substitution and studied by elemental analysis, spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and cyclic voltammogram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: The dynamical stability of the cable-driven lower-limb rehabilitation training robot (CLLRTR) is a crucial question. Based on the established dynamics model of CLLRTR, the solution to the wrench closure of the under-constrained system is presented. Secondly, the stability index of CLLRTR is proposed by the Krasovski method. Finally, in order to analyze the stability distribution of CLLRTR in the workspace, the stability evaluation index in the workspace is calculated using the eigenvalue decomposition method. The stability distribution laws of CLLRTR are further verified by the experimental study. The results provide references for studying trajectory planning and anti-pendulum control of CLLRTR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]