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Vegetation coverage directly affects the quality of a regional ecological environment. Current analyzes of the factors driving vegetation coverage do not focus on human activities. Poyang Lake is an internationally important wetland. This study is based on 814 MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data from 2000 to 2017 in the Poyang Lake Basin. Natural effects (temperature, precipitation, terrain niche index) and human activity intensity are employed to analyze the driving forces of NDVI changes. The results demonstrate the following: NDVI in the Poyang Lake Basin fluctuated and increased over the 18 years examined. Spatially, NDVI significantly decreased around the central city, and NDVI significantly increased on both sides of the river. NDVI changes are less affected by topographic factors and are more affected by climatic factors and human activities. Among the climatic factors, the correlation between NDVI and temperature was greater than that between NDVI and precipitation. Climatic factors had a greater impact on NDVI than human activities throughout the study area. However, in areas with significant NDVI changes, the correlation between climatic factors and NDVI was not obvious, and the correlation between human activities and NDVI was more obvious than in other areas. Therefore, from 2000 to 2017, the vegetation coverage of the Poyang Lake Basin generally showed an increasing trend; climatic factors had a greater impact on the overall vegetation coverage of the basin than human activities, but significant changes in vegetation coverage were caused by human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gut microbiota plays vital roles in the development, evolution and environmental adaptation of the host insects. The brown planthopper (BPH) is one of the most destructive pests of rice, but little is known about its gut microbiota. In this study, we investigated the gut bacterial communities in two BPH populations feeding on susceptible and resistant rice varieties by high-throughput amplicon sequencing. Our results revealed that the gut bacterial communities in BPH were species diverse. A total of 29 phyla and 367 genera were captured, with Proteobacteria and Acinetobacter being the most prominent phylum and genus, respectively. Comparative analysis showed that significant differences in the profile of gut bacterial communities existed between the two BPH populations. The species richness detected in the population feeding on the resistant rice variety was significantly higher than that in the population rearing on the susceptible rice variety. Although the most dominant gut bacteria at all taxonomic levels showed no significant differences between the two BPH populations, the relative abundances of two subdominant phyla (Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes) and two subdominant classes (Bacteroidia and Clostridia) were significantly different. FAPROTAX analysis further indicated that host rice varieties might induce changes of the gut bacterial flora in BPH, as significant differences in five metabolism-related functional categories (fermentation, methylotrophy, xylanolysis, nitrate reduction and ureolysis) were detected between the two BPH populations. Our results are informative for studies which focused on the interactions between BPH and its symbiotic microbes and could also provide the basis of future BPH biological management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) hold a great promise for cell-based therapy in the field of regenerative medicine. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intravenous infusion of human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (HUC-MSCs) in patients with aging frailty. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, participants diagnosed with aging frailty were randomly assigned to receive intravenous administrations of HUC-MSCs or placebo. All of serious adverse events and AEs were monitored to evaluate the safety of treatment during the 6-month follow-up. The primary efficacy endpoint was alteration of physical component scores (PCS) of SF-36 qualities of life at 6 months. The secondary outcomes including physical performance tests and pro-inflammatory cytokines, were also observed and compared at each follow-up visits. All evaluations were performed at 1 week, 1, 2, 3 and 6 months following the first intravenous infusion of HUC-MSCs. Results: In the MSCs group, significant improvements in PCS of SF-36 were observed from first post-treatment visit and sustained throughout the follow-up period, with greater changes compared to the placebo group (p = 0.042). EQ-VAS scores of MSCs group improved significantly at 2 month (p = 0.023) and continued until the end of the 6-month visit (p = 0.002) in comparison to the placebo group. The timed up and go (TUG) physical performance test revealed significant group difference and showed continual enhancements over 6 months (p < 0.05). MSC transplantation improved the function of 4-m walking test (4MWT) compared with the placebo group with a decrease of 2.05 s at 6 months of follow-up (p = 0.21). The measurement of grip strength revealed group difference with MSCs group demonstrating better performance, particularly at 6 months (p = 0.002). Inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-17) exhibited declines in MSCs group at 6 months compared to the placebo group (p = 0.034 and 0.033, respectively). There was no difference of incidence of AEs between the two groups. Conclusion: Intravenous transplantation of HUC-MSCs is a safe and effective therapeutic approach on aging frailty. The positive outcomes observed in improving quality of life, physical performance, and reducing chronic inflammation, suggest that HUC-MSC therapy may be a promising potential treatment option for aging frailty. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrial.gov; NCT04314011; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04314011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia is considered one of the most promising zero-carbon fuels for internal combustion engines. However, its poor combustion performance often leads to low efficiency and high unburned ammonia emissions in compression ignition engines. Recognizing that hydrogen can significantly enhance the combustion characteristics of ammonia, this paper explores the impact of hydrogen addition on the combustion and emission characteristics of ammonia-diesel dual fuel mode. The results indicate that with the addition of hydrogen, the heat release rate and maximum in-cylinder pressure noticeably increased under medium to high engine loads. Although NOx emissions saw a significant rise, the addition of hydrogen, combined with early diesel injection timing, inhibited N 2 O emissions. The indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) increased remarkably, reaching up to 50 %. For low-load conditions, early diesel injection resulted in a weak reactivity and low heat release rate, leading to ammonia emissions surpassing 10,000 ppm. By elevating intake heating to 55 °C, ammonia emissions were significantly reduced, improving ITE to 45 %. In conclusion, the research suggests that a high ITE can be achieved across a broad range of engine load conditions in ammonia-diesel dual-fuel combustion mode with the strategic addition of hydrogen and optimization of injection timing. • Impacts of hydrogen addition on the ammonia-diesel dual-fuel combustion mode were explored. • 50 % indicated thermal efficiency (ITE) can be reached with 10 % hydrogen for medium-high loads. • By intake heating to 55 °C and 10 % hydrogen, ITE was improved to 45 % under low load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In computer artificial intelligence, there is great potential in research on the protection of Suzhou's traditional gardens, a world cultural heritage site. As a special material in Suzhou's traditional garden architecture, shedthin tile is widely used in roof base laying and is one of the important materials for building roofs. However, professionals need to reach the roof and spend much time and effort assessing the damage before repairing it. Therefore, the main goals of this study are to investigate a machine learning-based method for finding targets and determining the type of surface damage on a shedthin tile using the YOLOv4 model trained in this study. Using 500 shedthin tile on-site photos as training samples, the model was trained for 750 epochs. The main results of this study are as follows: (1) An object detection method based on machine learning can efficiently and accurately identify damage content, overcoming the manpower and time–cost limitations of traditional assessment methods. (2) The detection model in this study has an accuracy of 85.89% for water stain recognition of shedthin tiles, 93.29% for surface scaling, 87.37% for color aberration, and 96.15% for too wide a gap. The comprehensive accuracy is 90.20%, which meets the basic testing requirements. (3) The model demonstrated its robustness and reliability in complex environments in application tests in actual scenarios, providing a methodological reference for computer vision and target detection technology in cultural heritage protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microbiome associated with brown planthopper (BPH) plays an important role in mediating host health and fitness. Characterization of the microbial community and its structure is prerequisite for understanding the intricate symbiotic relationships between microbes and host insect. Here, we investigated the bacterial and fungal communities of BPH at different developmental stages using high‐throughput amplicon sequencing. Our results revealed that both the bacterial and fungal communities were diverse and dynamic during BPH development. The bacterial communities were generally richer than fungi in each developmental stage. At 97% similarly, 19 phyla and 278 genera of bacteria were annotated, while five fungal phyla comprising 80 genera were assigned. The highest species richness for the bacterial communities was detected in the nymphal stage. The taxonomic diversity of the fungal communities in female adults was generally at a relatively higher level when compared to other developmental stages. The most dominant phylum of bacteria and fungi at each developmental stage all belonged to Proteobacteria and Ascomycota, respectively. A significantly lower abundance of bacterial genus Acinetobacter was recorded in the egg stage when compared to other developmental stages, while the dominant fungal genus Wallemia was more abundant in the nymph and adult stages than in the egg stage. Additionally, the microbial composition differed between male and female adults, suggesting that the microbial communities in BPH were gender‐dependent. Overall, our study enriches our knowledge on the microbial communities associated with BPH and will provide clues to develop potential biocontrol techniques against this rice pest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We aimed to develop and validate a nomogram for effective prediction of vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) and guide future clinical application.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from hospitalized pregnant women who underwent trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC), at the Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children's Hospital, between October 2015 and October 2017. Briefly, we included singleton pregnant women, at a gestational age above 37 weeks who underwent a primary cesarean section, in the study. We then extracted their sociodemographic data and clinical characteristics, and randomly divided the samples into training and validation sets. We employed the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression to select variables and construct VBAC success rate in the training set. Thereafter, we validated the nomogram using the concordance index (C-index), decision curve analysis (DCA), and calibration curves. Finally, we adopted the Grobman's model to perform comparisons with published VBAC prediction models.Results: Among the 708 pregnant women included according to inclusion criteria, 586 (82.77%) patients were successfully for VBAC. Multivariate logistic regression models revealed that maternal height (OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.19), maternal BMI at delivery (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.79 to 1.00), fundal height (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.58 to 0.88), cervix Bishop score (OR, 3.27; 95% CI, 2.49 to 4.45), maternal age at delivery (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82 to 0.98), gestational age (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.17 to 0.62) and history of vaginal delivery (OR, 2.92; 95% CI, 1.42 to 6.48) were independently associated with successful VBAC. The constructed predictive model showed better discrimination than that from the Grobman's model in the validation series (c-index 0.906 VS 0.694, respectively). On the other hand, decision curve analysis revealed that the new model had better clinical net benefits than the Grobman's model.Conclusions: VBAC will aid in reducing the rate of cesarean sections in China. In clinical practice, the TOLAC prediction model will help improve VBAC's success rate, owing to its contribution to reducing secondary cesarean section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic is an ongoing global health emergency. The aim of our study was to investigate the changes of liver function and its clinical significance in COVID‐19 patients. Method: This retrospective, single‐centre study was conducted on 115 confirmed cases of COVID‐19 in Zhongnan hospital of Wuhan University from 18 January 2020 to 22 February 2020. Liver function and related indexes were analysed to evaluate its relationship with disease progression in COVID‐19 patients. Results: Part of the COVID‐19 patients presented with varying degrees of abnormality in liver function indexes. However, the levels of ALT, AST, TBIL, GGT and LDH in COVID‐19 patients were not significantly different when compared with hospitalised community‐acquired pneumonia patients, and the levels of albumin is even significantly higher. The levels of ALT, AST, TBIL, LDH and INR showed statistically significant elevation in severe COVID‐19 cases compared with that in mild cases. However, the clinical significance of the elevation is unremarkable. Majority of severe COVID‐19 patients showed significantly decreasing in albumin level and continuously decreasing in the progress of illness. Most of the liver function indexes in COVID‐19 patients were correlated with CRP and NLR, the markers of inflammation. Logistic regression analysis further identified NLR as the independent risk factor for severe COVID‐19, as well as age. Conclusions: Although abnormalities of liver function indexes are common in COVID‐19 patients, the impairment of liver function is not a prominent feature of COVID‐19, and also may not have serious clinical consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a new type of reticulated joint, named the steel–concrete composite reticulated shell joint, is proposed. The proposed reticulated shell joint consists of an inner circular steel pipe, an outer circular steel pipe, a steel cover plate, and internal concrete. Five test specimens were tested under axial compression. The variable study included the wall thickness of the inner and outer circular steel pipes and the radius of the inner circular steel pipe. The test specimens exhibited a high bearing capacity and good plastic deformation ability under axial compression. The test results show that the wall thickness of the outer circular steel pipe and the radius of the inner circular steel pipe have a great influence on the bearing capacity of the steel–concrete composite reticulated shell joint, while the wall thickness of the inner circular steel pipe has little influence on the bearing capacity of the steel–concrete composite reticulated shell joint. Based on the test of the steel–concrete composite reticulated shell joints under axial load, the three-dimensional nonlinear finite element model was used to analyze the mechanical properties of the steel–concrete composite reticulated shell joints under axial compression. The results of the finite element analysis showed good agreement with the experimental results. The formula for calculating the bearing capacity of the joint is derived. By comparing with the experimental results, the calculated results are basically consistent with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a deep learning based multitask learning (MTL) model to predict network-wide traffic speed, and introduces two methods to improve the prediction performance. The nonlinear Granger causality analysis is used to detect the spatiotemporal causal relationship among various links so as to select the most informative features for the MTL model. Bayesian optimization is employed to tune the hyperparameters of the MTL model with limited computational costs. Numerical experiments are carried out with taxis' GPS data in an urban road network of Changsha, China, and some conclusions are drawn as follows. The deep learning based MTL model outperforms four deep learning based single task learning (STL) models (i.e., Gated Recurrent Units network, Long Short-term Memory network, Convolutional Gated Recurrent Units network and Temporal Convolutional Network) and three other classic models (i.e., Support Vector Machine, k -Nearest Neighbors and Evolving Fuzzy Neural Network). The nonlinear Granger causality test provides a reliable guide to select the informative features from network-wide links for the MTL model. Compared with two other optimization approaches (i.e., grid search and random search), Bayesian optimization yields a better tuning performance for the MTL model in the prediction accuracy under the budgeted computation cost. In summary, the deep learning based MTL model with nonlinear Granger causality analysis and Bayesian optimization promises the accurate and efficient traffic speed prediction for a large-scale network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita) are plant parasitic worms that widely influence the agricultural production including soilless cultivation. In this study, we investigated the inactivating effect of ozonated nutrient solution on the root-knot nematode juveniles in both nutrient solution and substrate, as well as the invitro egg hatching. The results showed that twice ozonation treatments with dissolved ozone concentration (DOC) at 0.5 mg/L resulted in a mortality at 90.8% for invitro study. DOC of 4.0 mg/L with three treatment repeats in the substrate experiment resulted in a mortality at 88.3%. Our results imply that the application of ozonated nutrient solution might be a feasible method in soilless cultivation for the control of root-knot nematodes. In practical application, ozonation treatment should be conducted with appropriate DOC and treatment repeats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Many studies have shown that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are closely related to the stimulation of osteogenic differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and the prevention of osteoporosis. Current research aimed to investigate the novel lncRNA and explored the function and molecular mechanism of the LINC00314/miR-129-5p/GRM5 axis in regulating osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs. Methods: LncRNA and miRNA sequencing was performed in normal and osteogenic differentiation-induced ADSCs (osteogenic group). Abnormally expressed lncRNAs and miRNAs were obtained by the R software and the relative expression of LINC00314, miR-129-5p, and GRM5 during osteogenic induction was measured by RT-PCR. ADSCs were then transfected with pcDNA3.1-sh-LINC00314 and agomiR-129-5p. Alizarin red staining (ARS) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining were performed to identify the mechanism of the LINC00314/miR-129-5p/GRM5 axis in regulating osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs. Results: LINC00314 was significantly upregulated in the group of osteogenic-induced ADSCs. LINC00314 and GRM5 mimics increased the early and late markers of osteogenic differentiation, which manifest in not only the markedly increased ALP activity but also higher calcium deposition, while miR-129-5p mimic had the opposite effects. LINC00314 directly targeted miR-129-5p through luciferase reporter assay, and miR-129-5p suppressed GRM5 expression. Moreover, the LINC00314/miR-129-5p/GRM5 regulatory axis activated the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Conclusions: LINC00314 confers contributory function in the osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs and thus the LINC00314/miR-129-5p/GRM5 axis may be a novel mechanism for osteogenic-related disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When treating drinking water using UV/H2O2 advanced oxidation, the H2O2 residual is usually quenched to allow for downstream chlorine stability. In some utilities, monochloramine (NH2Cl) is used for secondary disinfection, and H2O2 may not need to be quenched because NH2Cl and H2O2 can coexist for some time. However, when ammonia and chlorine are applied to form NH2Cl in the H2O2 -containing water, H2O2 will compete with ammonia to react with the applied chlorine, compromising the NH2Cl formation efficiency. This research combined theory and experiments to evaluate NH2Cl formation efficiency in the presence of H2O2 in Lake Ontario water and, after NH2Cl formation, its subsequent decay at different temperatures and pH. The results demonstrated that at many typical temperatures and pH, the presence of H2O2 does not significantly impair the formation of NH2Cl. Furthermore, while H2O2 accelerates NH2Cl decay, the results suggest that under specific conditions, such as short to medium residence times (e.g., less than 48 h), it may be possible for NH2Cl to coexist with as much as 5 mg/L H2O2 without compromising secondary disinfection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ozone is one of the potential high-effective oxidants for the disinfection of nutrient solution. However, ozone residue in aqueous state in the nutrient solution could be a stress factor for the crops cultivated. In order to address the effects of dissolved ozone concentration (DOC) on the growth and antioxidant profile of lettuce, nutrient solution with DOC of 2.0 and 4.0 mg L−1 was applied to the two soilless cultivation methods (substrate and hydroponic cultivation). Based on our results, we conclude that the nutrient solution with DOC up to 4.0 mg L−1 resulted in no negative impact on the development and root antioxidant of the lettuce, which suggest ozonation of the nutrient solution is applicable as an alternative disinfection method with the purpose of reducing the waste of water resources and chemical residual of traditional disinfectants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we proposed an amphibious spherical robot that can search and rescue from uneven terrain and also move in narrow underwater spaces. This paper presents three control methods for an articulated amphibious spherical robot. The first is a full-dimensional that is adapted the robot to the complex amphibious terrain, in this method, relying on a novel drive mode of mecanum wheels, the power required for the movement comes from the friction generated by mecanum wheels and the spherical shell. The second control method is modeling based on a unit quaternion motion control algorithm to realized 6 Degrees of Freedoms (DoFs) movement mode. The last control algorithm is according to Archimede Buoyancy Principle (ABP) and Fuzzy Control (FC) algorithm by controlling the air density of the spherical capsules in the lower hemispheres, the relationship between buoyancy and gravity is controlled to achieve the functions of floating and diving. Experiments are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods and the developed robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertical farming using light‐emitting diode offers potential for the early production phase (few weeks) of young ornamental plants. However, once transferred to the greenhouse, the photosynthetic acclimation of these young plants might depend on this initial light regime. To obtain insight about this acclimatization, Chrysanthemum (sun species) and Spathiphyllum (shade species) were preconditioned in growth chambers for 4 weeks under four light qualities: blue (B), red (R), red/blue (RB, 60% R) and white (W) at 100 μmol m−2 s−1. Monochromatic light (R and B) limited leaf development of both species, which resulted in a lower leaf mass per area when compared to multispectral light (RB for Chrysanthemum, RB and W for Spathiphyllum). R‐developed leaves had a lower photosynthetic efficiency in both species. After the light quality pretreatment, plants were transferred to the greenhouse with high‐intensity natural light conditions. On the first day of transfer, R and B preconditioned leaves of both species had an inhibited photosynthesis. After 1 week in natural light condition, rapid light curve parameters of Chrysanthemum leaves that developed under B acclimated to sunlight had a similar level than RB‐developed leaves unlike R‐leaves. Spathiphyllum leaves showed a decrease in maximum electron transport rate and this was most pronounced for the R pretreatment. After 1 month, R‐preconditioned Chrysanthemum had the lowest dry mass, while no effects on the dry weight of Spathiphyllum with respect to the pretreatments were observed. Light quality during preconditioning affected the leaf ability to acclimate to natural high light intensities in greenhouse environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a tensor-based K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN) method, in which traffic patterns involve multi-dimensional temporal information and bi-directional spatial information. Such multi-temporal information can not only capture the instantaneous fluctuation of short-term traffic but keep the general trend of long-term traffic. In numerical experiments, with taxis' GPS data from an urban road network, traffic speed data are organized into one- (2 min), two- (4 min) and three- (2, 4 and 10 min) temporal dimensions. Meanwhile, spatial information about six upstream links and six downstream links of the target link is incorporated to construct the tensor-based data structure. Numerical results show that the K-NN with three temporal dimensions (K-NN 3D) outperforms other methods under no data missing or under various random/module/mixed data missing rates. In summary, the tensor-based K-NN method is promising in the traffic prediction under data missing cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The misalignment correction in cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), which is usually carried out in an offline manner, is a difficult and tedious process. It becomes even more challenging in microscopic CBCT due to the much higher requirements on spatial resolution. In practice, however, an offline approach for misalignment correction may not be readily implementable, especially in the situations where either time is of the essence or the process needs to be carried out repetitively. Thus, an online self‐calibration (i.e., data sustained misalignment correction without the involvement of specific alignment phantom) would be more practical. In this work, we investigate the data sustained misalignment correction in microscopic CBCT via optimization under the Grangeat Epipolar Consistence Condition and evaluate its performance via phantom and specimen studies. Methods: With the cost function defined according to the Grangeat Epipolar Consistency Condition (G‐ECC) and by minimizing the cost function using the simplex‐simulated annealing algorithm (SIMPSA), we evaluate and verify the G‐ECC optimization‐based online self‐calibration method's performance. Performance is measured in sensitivity, robustness, and accuracy using the projection data of phantoms generated by computer simulation and botanical specimens acquired by a prototype microscopic CBCT. Results: The online data sustained misalignment correction in microscopic CBCT via G‐ECC optimization works very well in sensitivity and robustness, in addition to its accuracy of 0.27%, 0.48%, and 0.34% relative errors, respectively, in obtaining the three geometric parameters that are the most critical to image reconstruction in CBCT. Quantitatively, the performance in meeting the requirements on spatial resolution is comparable to, if not better than, that of the offline misalignment correction method, in which a specific alignment phantom has to be used. Conclusions: The G‐ECC optimization‐based online self‐calibration approach provides a practical solution (as long as no latitudinal (lateral) data truncation occurs) for misalignment correction in microscopic CBCT, an application that demands high accuracy in geometric alignment for biological (cellular) imaging at super high spatial resolutions in the order of micrometers (2.1 µm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• BiOCl/diatomite composites were successfully prepared by hydrothermal method. • TC and HCHO were set as target pollutant at liquid and gaseous phase, respectively. • Diatomite can be used as dominant facets regulator for BiOCl when reaction pH is 3. • Bi in [Bi 2 O 2 ]2+ group interacts with the O in Si O Si bond in the formation of BiOCl. BiOCl/diatomite composite with enhanced photocatalytic property for the degradation of liquid Tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) and gaseous formaldehyde (HCHO) were successfully prepared by a facile hydrothermal method at different pH value. The structure and morphology characterizations of BiOCl/diatomite composite exhibit that diatomite not only acts as a natural porous support of photocatalyst but also acts as dominant facets regulator at pH = 3 when the doping amount is change, owing to the surface electrical property of the diatomite and interaction between diatomite and BiOCl. This interaction is certified by XPS and FT-IR which indicate that Bi in layer structure of [Bi 2 O 2 ]2+ group interacts with the O in Si O Si bond when the formation of BiOCl with the participation of diatomite. The BET characterization confirms that the increasing amount of diatomite enables the composite with more reaction points for light harvest and molecule adsorption than pure BiOCl. Furthermore, TC and formaldehyde are targeted as degradation objects to test the photocatalytic property of BiOCl/diatomite composite. The optimum photocatalytic property are BiOCl(3–1.2) and BiOCl(12–0.6) at TC degradation and BiOCl(3–0.3) and BiOCl(12–0.6) at formaldehyde elimination, which is much better than that of pure diatomite or BiOCl. The difference of optimum photocatalysts in liquid and gaseous phase systems can be attributed to the photoelectric performances of BiOCl/diatomite composite, which were characterized by DRS, PL, transient photocurrents and the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper validates the vehicle type-dependent car-following heterogeneity from micro- and macro-aspects by using Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) trajectory data. Regarding the micro-viewpoint, traffic conflict analysis techniques and three surrogate safety indexes (i.e., time headway (TH), time to collision (TTC) and safety margin (SM)) are introduced to evaluate the safety performance during 'steady' car following. When driving or following a larger vehicle, Z-test results show that TH, TTC and SM all become higher significantly, that is, the driver's accepted risk tends to be lower. From the macro-viewpoint, with the aggregated traffic data, a flexible Lagrangian fundamental diagram is calibrated by a bi-level optimization procedure. These calibrated curves illustrate that during close car following process with the same speed, the driver generally keeps a higher gap distance with the leader when following or driving a larger vehicle. Therefore, the consistent findings contribute to the conclusive results about the vehicle type-dependent car-following heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We annotate attribute labels on two large-scale person re-identification datasets. • We propose APR to improve re-ID by exploiting global and detailed information. • We introduce a module to leverage the correlation between attributes. • We speed-up the retrieval of re-ID by ten times with only a 2.92% accuracy drop. • We achieve competitive re-ID performance with the state-of-the-art methods. Person re-identification (re-ID) and attribute recognition share a common target at learning pedestrian descriptions. Their difference consists in the granularity. Most existing re-ID methods only take identity labels of pedestrians into consideration. However, we find the attributes, containing detailed local descriptions, are beneficial in allowing the re-ID model to learn more discriminative feature representations. In this paper, based on the complementarity of attribute labels and ID labels, we propose an attribute-person recognition (APR) network, a multi-task network which learns a re-ID embedding and at the same time predicts pedestrian attributes. We manually annotate attribute labels for two large-scale re-ID datasets, and systematically investigate how person re-ID and attribute recognition benefit from each other. In addition, we re-weight the attribute predictions considering the dependencies and correlations among the attributes. The experimental results on two large-scale re-ID benchmarks demonstrate that by learning a more discriminative representation, APR achieves competitive re-ID performance compared with the state-of-the-art methods. We use APR to speed up the retrieval process by ten times with a minor accuracy drop of 2.92% on Market-1501. Besides, we also apply APR on the attribute recognition task and demonstrate improvement over the baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction method for chains of disasters or events is still one of the core scientific questions in studying the common rules of disaster's evolution. Especially when dealing with the complexity and diversity of disasters, it is critical to make a further investigation on reducing the dependency of prior knowledge and supporting the comprehensive chains of disasters. This paper tries to propose a novel approach, through collecting the big scholar and social news data with disaster-related keywords, analysing the strength of their relationships with the co-word analysis method, and constructing a complex network of all defined disaster types, in order to finally intelligently extract the unique disaster chain of a specific disaster type. Google Scholar, Baidu Scholar and Sina News search engines are employed to acquire the needed data, and the respectively obtained disaster chains are compared with each other to show the robustness of our proposed approach. The achieved disaster chains are also compared with the ones concluded from existing research methods, and the very reasonable result is demonstrated. There is a great potential to apply this novel method in disaster management domain to find more secrets about disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic critical limb ischemia (CLI) represents a clinical end stage of peripheral arterial disease. Many CLI patients are ineligible for conventional revascularization therapies; thus, it is urgent to explore an alternative strategy to rescue the ischemic limb. Recent stem cell studies have greatly developed the field of therapeutic angiogenesis, which aims to significantly improve the limb blood supply. In our study, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) served as the control to evaluate the function of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) in enhancing angiogenesis. We compared gene expression between BMMSCs and UCMSCs, and a bioinformatics analysis indicated that both UCMSCs and BMMSCs could stimulate angiogenesis and angiogenesis-related factors were upregulated in UCMSCs. In vitro assays indicated that both BMMSCs and UCMSCs promoted human umbilical vein endothelial cell proliferation, migration, and tube formation, and the effects of UCMSCs were more obvious. Consistent with in vitro results, both UCMSCs and BMMSCs improved the limb blood supply in a mouse model of hind limb ischemia, in which UCMSCs promoted angiogenesis more significantly. Finally, we found that activation of ERK and PI3K-Akt pathways might be the mechanism by which UCMSCs promote angiogenesis. These results indicate that UCMSCs play an important role in therapeutic angiogenesis to improve limb blood perfusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To discuss anti-infection strategies through successful treatment of a patient with bloodstream infection of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, and to accumulate clinical experience for the treatment of complicated infection cases. Methods: Clinical pharmacists participated in the treatment of an elderly patient with bloodstream infection of multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. Based on the professional characteristics and closely combined with the actual conditions of the patient, clinical pharmacists were involved in the development of anti-infection strategies and adjustment of drug dosage according to blood drug concentrations, and assisted clinicians to further optimize anti-infection strategies. Results: The infection in the patient was effectively controlled, and no adverse drug reactions occurred. Conclusion; As a member of the clinical team, clinical pharmacists should make full use of their pharmaceutical knowledge in the development of therapeutic regimen, observe the efficacy and monitor adverse drug reactions, so as to insure safety, efficiency and economy of drug treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Person re-identification (re-ID) is mostly viewed as an image retrieval problem. This task aims to search a query person in a large image pool. In practice, person re-ID usually adopts automatic detectors to obtain cropped pedestrian images. However, this process suffers from two types of detector errors: excessive background and part missing. Both errors deteriorate the quality of pedestrian alignment and may compromise pedestrian matching due to the position and scale variances. To address the misalignment problem, we propose that alignment be learned from an identification procedure. We introduce the pedestrian alignment network (PAN) which allows discriminative embedding learning pedestrian alignment without extra annotations. We observe that when the convolutional neural network learns to discriminate between different identities, the learned feature maps usually exhibit strong activations on the human body rather than the background. The proposed network thus takes advantage of this attention mechanism to adaptively locate and align pedestrians within a bounding box. Visual examples show that pedestrians are better aligned with PAN. Experiments on three large-scale re-ID datasets confirm that PAN improves the discriminative ability of the feature embeddings and yields competitive accuracy with the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To preserve some invariant properties of the original differential equation is an important criterion to judge the success of a numerical simulation. In this paper, we construct, analyze and numerically validate a class of momentum-preserving finite difference methods for the Korteweg-de Vries equation. The proposed schemes can conserve the discrete momentum to machine precision. Numerical experiments reveal that the phase and amplitude errors, after long time simulation, are well controlled due to the momentum-preserving property. Besides, the numerical results show that the numerical errors grow only linearly as a function of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MgB 2 bulks with NaCl doping amount ranging from 0–30 at% have been prepared by hot pressed sintering process. With the increase of NaCl doping amount, the c axis lattice parameter of MgB 2 monotonously increases, indicating the substitution of Mg atoms by larger Na atoms. Meanwhile, the intensity of diffraction peaks of both NaCl and impurity phase of MgO increases. More compact morphology was found in the NaCl doped MgB 2 samples. The critical transition temperature (T c) decreases from 38.2 K to 36.8 K with the increase of NaCl doping amount from 0 to 30 at%, and the corresponding transition width of T c (Δ T c) increases from 0.5 K to 1.8 K. When the doping amount of NaCl is not exceeding 10 at%, the J c value is about 106 A/cm2 at 4.2 K, 3 T, and 5 × 105 A/cm2 at 10 K, 3T. J c performance of the 5 at% NaCl doped MgB 2 sample (NC05) reaches 6.8 × 105 A/cm2 at 20 K, 2T, which improves approximately 20% compared to the pure one, attributing to the better grain connectivity of MgB 2 and enhancement of flux pinning force by NaCl doping. • Doping of NaCl into MgB 2 improved the J c performance in entire applied field. • Excellent grain connectivity was formed in hot pressed sintered MgB 2 samples. • Small amount of NaCl doping is effective to enhance flux pinning force of MgB 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Hands‐on endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) training is essential for trainees to grasp the technique. Cannulation success rate (CSR) is considered one of the main indicators of competency of trainees. We aimed to investigate whether patient‐related factors had an impact on the CSR of trainees. Methods: A post hoc analysis of data from two multicenter studies (NCT02002650 and NCT03057769) was conducted. Patients aged 18–90 years with native papilla undergoing ERCP were eligible for this study. Only procedures involving trainees in centers strictly following "10‐min criteria" for initial cannulation were enrolled. Primary outcome was CSR by trainees. Results: From December 2013 to October 2017, 20 trainees in four centers were involved in initial cannulation in 1044 patients with native papilla. Primary CSR by trainees was 61.0% (436/715), 31.5% (70/222) and 44.9% (48/107) in patients with common bile duct stone (CBDS), biliary stricture (BS) and other indications, respectively (P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, indication of BS (OR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.22–0.44; P < 0.001) and presence of type A diverticulum (OR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.23–2.33; P = 0.001) were both independently associated with cannulation success of trainees. Biliary infection was significantly higher in the BS than in the CBDS group (3.6% vs 0.7%, P = 0.004), whereas other post‐ERCP complications were comparable between the two groups. Conclusions: Indication of BS and the presence of type A diverticulum were independently associated with the success of cannulation by trainees. These findings indicate that greater effort is needed for trainees to improve the ability of cannulation in BS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new cleaner man-powered product service system, bikesharing could make full use of idle bicycles, reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution, so it contributes to develop eco-friendly urban transport system and thus has a significant increase in number and scope. However, one of the most critical issues in many Chinese bikesharing systems is the overuse, inspired by the development history of three generations of bikesharing systems worldwide, we involve various management modes to deal with the overuse problem. The paper firstly carries out the game theory analyses about three generations of bikesharing systems, and concludes that (1) the overuse will occur if adopting the management modes in the first- and second-generations (i.e. no fee with no restrictions and no fee with restrictions), or one kind in the third-generation (i.e. a low fee with few restrictions); (2) the overuse can be controlled effectively by the mode of a low fee with strict restrictions or a high fee management mode in the third-generation. Finally, under the context of Chinese bikesharing systems, these analyses results can help to design some feasible strategies to mitigate or prevent the overuse problem. • Overuse is one of the most important issues faced by Chinese bikesharing systems. • Beneficial lessons are learnt from three generations of bikesharing systems. • Game theory is employed to explore the root causes of the overuse. • Three feasible strategies are proposed to address the issue of overuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Volume of municipal solid waste (MSW) in China declined for the first time in 2020. • Proportion of incineration mode may increase significantly in the coming years. • China's sanitation industry investment relies heavily on local governments. • There is an urgent need to expand investment channels for sustainable MSW treatment. This study aims to analyze the development trend of municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment in China from 2011 to 2020, and provide insights into the challenges and opportunities of sustainable MSW management. Our analysis shows that MSW generation declined in 2020, which could be attributed to a combination of factors, including the low urban population growth rate, the implementation of the garbage classification policy, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also found that the shift from landfill to incineration is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, although there are still several structural problems, such as an imbalance in treatment capacity among regions and cities, and uncertainty about whether the increase in incineration treatment capacity can meet overall demand due to the high volume of MSW generation. Our analysis highlights the heavy dependence on government investment for MSW treatment mode change, which is difficult due to the expanding deficit between fiscal revenue and expenditure of local governments. Correlation coefficient analysis shows a significant positive correlation between the proportion of incineration and sanitation investment, and a significant negative correlation between the proportion of landfill treatment and sanitation investment. To address these challenges, we propose technological advancement and management optimization to reduce the cost of MSW treatment, as well as expansion of investment channels through green funds, taxation relief, and other means to promote high-quality and sustainable development of the MSW treatment industry. These changes could accelerate the transformation of China's MSW treatment industry from policy promotion-dependent to market-oriented sustainable operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effects of powder storage condition is helpful to improve the mechanical properties of powder metallurgy (PM) and additive manufacturing (AM) superalloys. In this work, nickel-based FGH96 superalloy powders were stored under ambient air (relatively dry) and humid (25 °C/95%RH and 90 °C/95%RH) atmospheres and then consolidated by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The powders and corresponding bulk alloys were characterized by XPS, OM, FESEM, EPMA, EBSD, and TEM. The results indicate that the humid atmosphere mainly affects the gas content, chemical state, and oxide/hydroxide layer thickness of powders, leading to highest values of oxygen content (∼450 ppm), hydrogen content (∼25 ppm), and NiO/Ni(OH) 2 thickness (∼13.9 nm) for 90 °C/95%RH powders, and further forms much severe prior particle boundaries (PPBs) defects in HIPed alloy. The detrimental PPBs are composed of large-sized γ', MC carbides-(Ti, Nb)C, Al 2 O 3 and ZrO 2 oxides. In comparison with ambient air powders compact, the strength of 90 °C/95%RH powders compact is unexpectedly increased, which is due to the internal grains pinned inside the original particle boundaries by higher severity degree of PPBs, and leads to the increase of grain boundary strength. Meanwhile, the ductility is significantly decreased, because the fracture mode transited from ductile transgranular fracture to brittle inter-particle debonding. The study reveals the relationship between humid atmosphere and properties of both powders and bulk alloys, and intends to obtain good combination of strength and ductility for PM Ni-based superalloys. • The characteristics of Ni-based superalloy powders under ambient air and humid atmospheres were comparatively investigated. • Higher humid atmosphere results in higher oxygen content and much severe PPBs defects. • PPBs are composed of large-sized γ', (Ti, Nb)C, Al 2 O 3 , and ZrO 2. • Higher severity degree of PPBs obviously decreases the ductility but slightly increases the strength of FGH96 superalloy. • The increase of grain boundary strength contributes to the increase of yield strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the synthesis of novel vinpocetine derivatives (2–25) and their biological evaluation. The chemical structures of the synthesized compounds were fully characterized using techniques such as 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and HRMS. The inhibitory activity of the synthesized compounds on PDE1A was evaluated, and the results revealed that compounds 3, 4, 5, 12, 14, 21, and 25 exhibited superior inhibitory activity compared to vinpocetine. Compound 4, with a para-methylphenyl substitution, showed a 5-fold improvement in inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 3.53 ± 0.25 μM. Additionally, compound 25, with 3-chlorothiazole substitution, displayed an 8-fold increase in inhibitory activity compared to vinpocetine (IC50 = 2.08 ± 0.16 μM). Molecular docking studies were conducted to understand the binding models of compounds 4 and 25 within the active site of PDE1A. The molecular docking study revealed additional binding interactions, such as π–π stacking and hydrogen bonding, contributing to the enhanced inhibitory activity and stability of the ligand–protein complexes. Overall, the synthesized vinpocetine derivatives demonstrated promising inhibitory activity on PDE1A, and the molecular docking studies provided insights into their binding modes, supporting further development of these compounds as potential candidates for drug research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive disease with rapid progression and poor prognosis due to multidrug resistance (MDR). Piperine (PIP) shows promise as a P-gp inhibitor, capable of sensitizing chemotherapeutic drugs and exhibiting antitumor properties. This study explores the inhibitory mechanism of PIP on P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and its capacity to enhance the sensitivity of paclitaxel (PTX). We subsequently evaluated the efficacy and safety of albumin nanoparticles that co-encapsulate PTX and PIP (PP@AN). The results demonstrated that PIP enhanced the accumulation of PTX intracellularly, as determined with HPLC/MS/MS analysis. PIP was also found to increase cell sensitivity to PTX. Furthermore, we explored the inhibitory mechanism of PIP on P-gp, utilizing molecular docking simulations, RT-qPCR, and Western blot analysis. PIP appears to compete with the active paclitaxel binding site on P-gp, affecting ATPase activity and downregulating the MDR1 gene and P-gp expression. In summary, PIP could inhibit P-gp and act as a sensitizer in the treatment of TNBC with PTX. Moreover, stable and uniform PP@AN was successfully formulated, resulting in a significant increase in drug accumulation within cells as well as the downregulation of P-gp in tumors at the optimal ratio (PTX:PIP = 1:2). This led to an improvement in the antitumor effect in vivo while also reducing hepatotoxicity and hemototoxicity following chemotherapy. This study comprehensively investigated PIP's inhibitory effect and mechanism on P-gp. We present a new approach for co-delivering PIP and PTX using albumin nanoparticles, which reduced toxicity and improved therapeutic efficacy both in vivo and in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung transplantation is the only effective treatment for end-stage lung diseases. Bronchiolitis obliterans, which is known as non-infectious chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) in the new classification, is the greatest threat to long-term survival after lung transplantation. This study investigated the role of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and montelukast in transplantation-related bronchiolitis obliterans and discussed the pathophysiological significance of LTB4 in chronic rejection.Methods: Rats were randomly divided into an experimental group (montelukast), a positive control group (dexamethasone), and a blank control group (normal saline solution; NS). Each piece of trachea removed from a F344 rat was transplanted into a Lewis rat through a 5-mm incision at the episternum by subcutaneous embedding. The recipients were treated with gastric lavage with 3 mg/kg · d montelukast suspension, 1 mg/kg · d dexamethasone, and 1 mL/kg · d NS, respectively, in each group. On Day 28, peripheral blood was drawn to measure the white blood cell counts and plasma LTB4 levels. The donor specimens were stained by H-E and Masson, and their organizational structure and extent of fibrosis were visually assessed. The measurement data were compared using one-way analysis of variance, and the categorical data were compared using the chi-square test. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance.Results: The white blood cell counts of the montelukast, dexamethasone, and NS groups were (16.0 ± 4.2) × 109/L, (19.5 ± 11.6) × 109/L, and (25.8 ± 3.6) × 109/L; no statistical significance was found (P = 0.101). The concentrations of LTB4 were 2230 ± 592 pg/mL, 1961 ± 922 pg/mL, and 3764 ± 1169 pg/mL, and statistical significance was found between the NS group and each of the others (P = 0.009). The percentages of tracheal occlusion were 73.6% ± 13.8%, 23.4% ± 3.2%, and 89.9% ± 11.3%, and statistical significance was found among the three groups (P = 0.000).Conclusions: The study established a model to simulate bronchiolitis obliterans after clinical lung transplantation. Oral administration of montelukast reduced plasma LTB4 levels in rats and played a preventive role against tracheal fibrosis after transplantation. This suggests that LTB4 may be involved in bronchiolitis obliterans after pulmonary transplantation. This study indicates a new direction for research into the prevention and treatment of bronchiolitis obliterans after lung transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of renewable energy poses new challenges to grid operation. Owing to deficiencies in peak regulation capability, wind power cannot be fully connected to the grid. As a controllable load, electric vehicle (EV) charging enables the coordinated operation of EV charging, and the wind/thermal power generation system. In order to determine the coordinated operation mechanism of a power system with large-scale EV charging, a new dynamic multi-objective dispatch (DMOD) model of the power system that includes the economy, pollutant discharge, and abandonment volume was established to optimize the output of thermal power units. Here, we report the two-phase optimization strategy we developed to solve this model. In the first phase of the strategy, EV charging load is determined by optimizing user charging, combined with the time-sharing price of electricity, and the charging protocol. In its second phase, an improved multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (IMOEA) based on a modified particle swarm optimization (PSO) method was proposed to determine the coordinated operation of EV charging, and wind/thermal power generation system. A power system with 10 conventional units, and a grid-connected wind farm was simulated, and the analysis verifies the feasibility of the dispatching model and the effectiveness of the proposed optimization algorithm as a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study object detection using a large pool of unlabeled images and only a few labeled images per category, named "few-example object detection". The key challenge consists in generating trustworthy training samples as many as possible from the pool. Using few training examples as seeds, our method iterates between model training and high-confidence sample selection. In training, easy samples are generated first and, then the poorly initialized model undergoes improvement. As the model becomes more discriminative, challenging but reliable samples are selected. After that, another round of model improvement takes place. To further improve the precision and recall of the generated training samples, we embed multiple detection models in our framework, which has proven to outperform the single model baseline and the model ensemble method. Experiments on PASCAL VOC'07, MS COCO'14, and ILSVRC'13 indicate that by using as few as three or four samples selected for each category, our method produces very competitive results when compared to the state-of-the-art weakly-supervised approaches using a large number of image-level labels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Antidepressants need to penetrate the blood–brain barrier (BBB) to exert their functions in the central nervous system. Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), an efflux transporter abundantly expressed in the BBB, prevents the accumulation of many drugs in the brain. This study aimed to identify whether five commonly used antidepressants (sertraline, duloxetine, fluoxetine, amitriptyline and mirtazapine) are BCRP substrates. Methods: A combination of bidirectional transport and intracellular accumulation experiments was conducted on BCRP‐overexpressing MDCKII and wild‐type (WT) cells, and in situ brain perfusion was conducted in rats. Key findings: The bidirectional transport study revealed that the net efflux ratio (NER) of sertraline reached 2.08 but decreased to 1.06 when co‐incubated with Ko143, a selective BCRP inhibitor. Conversely, the other four antidepressants did not appear to be BCRP substrates, due to their low NER values (<1.5). The accumulation of sertraline in MDCKII‐BCRP cells was significantly lower than that in MDCKII‐WT cells. The presence of Ko143 significantly increased the sertraline accumulation in MDCKII‐BCRP cells but not in MDCKII‐WT cells. Brain perfusion showed that the permeability of 1 and 5 μm sertraline was significantly higher in the presence of Ko143. Conclusions: Taken together, BCRP is involved in sertraline efflux. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to improve the collaboration ability and stability of amphibious spherical robots (ASRs). According to our previous researches, robots have no communication or control stability module. This study designed a new torque gyro control stability and an artificial electronic communication module devoted to allowing the robot to both move on land and underwater, which used a gyro sensor to design a closed-loop control module to perform terrestrial locomotion efficiently. Regarding the spherical robot mechanical structure and dynamic model, the robot communication module is designed, and the physical robot is set up to complete specific experiments. In addition, it is necessary to analyze the underwater and land motion to evaluate the performance of the robot stability motion and communication module, which includes the gait stability and velocity, and predicts the effects of the key parameters, such as electrode distance and emitter current of the amphibious spherical robot when it moves in underwater or on land. We also characterize communicate performance of the robots in still water with obstacles and natural water conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Diamond/W matrix composites were prepared by SPS process. • Interdiffusion of tungsten and carbon occurs at the interface between diamond and tungsten matrix. • The relative density and thermal conductivity of coated composites are higher than those of uncoated composites. • A high thermal conductivity is achieved because of the formation of the diamond/WC, W 2 C/W. Future fusion reactors need materials that can withstand high heat loads. This study introduced a production process of high thermal conductivity diamond/W composite materials via spark plasma sintering (SPS). The microstructures, structure of the interface, and thermal properties of the diamond/W composites are investigated. The results indicated that both the interfacial bonding and the thermal conductivity of the composite with a W coated layer are strengthened compared to the non-coated composites. The volume fraction of the diamond particles in the composites is between 10% and 50%. Moreover, thermal conductivity of 30% by volume of coated composites reaches 204 W/(mK), an increase of 18% over pure tungsten. A high thermal conductivity is achieved because of the formation of the diamond/WC、W 2 C/W structure at the interface between diamond and tungsten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pipe cleaning is a common operation in the oil and gas industry. In this paper, the governing equation of the pipeline inspection gauge (PIG, lowercase pig is commonly used) speed is combined with the gas flow equations. The method of characteristics (MOC) is used to solve the transient equations of gas flow. And the process of a pig passing over an uphill section of a gas pipeline is simulated. The results indicate that a pig may get stuck in uphill gas pipeline, due to the coupling of the gas and the pig. Under these circumstances, a higher pressure of the upstream could be helpful for driving the pig in motion. Additionally, the ratio of inlet pressure rise during the pigging process is primarily determined by the inclination of the uphill section. In addition, a formula to predict the inlet pressure during pigging in an uphill pipe is presented. Furthermore, the proposed method and solution can be utilized to predict the speed and position of the pig, as well as the gas pressure and the stoppage of the pig in hilly gas pipelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract General similitude requirements and the scaling laws for nonlinear buckling of stiffened orthotropic shallow spherical shells are presented by applying similitude transformation to the total energy of the structural system. In the absence of the experimental data, structural similitude is completed by numerical experiments. The predicted values of the prototype, obtained by substituting the model results into the scaling laws, are compared with those values of the prototype. In practical engineering, it may be hard to fulfill the complete similarity requirements. Thus, several cases of partial similitude are mainly investigated, including models distorted in material properties of ribs, in material properties and in material properties and geometry. By using specific formulas of stiffness parameters and the displacement scale factor, distorted models can predict geometric nonlinear buckling behavior of the prototypes of the stiffened orthotropic shallow spherical shell under external pressure with good accuracy. Highlights • We establish general similitude requirements and the scaling laws for nonlinear buckling of stiffened orthotropic shallow spherical shells are presented by energy approach. • By using specific formulas of stiffness parameters and the displacement scale factor, we establish the distorted models. • We investigate complete similitude and partial similitude for nonlinear buckling of stiffened orthotropic shallow spherical shells by numerical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We have successfully synthesized kilometer-length 6 + 1 filamentary MgB 2 wires reinforced and toughened by Nb/Cu composite with in-situ powder-in-tube method, and for the first time innovatively applied the rapidly heating and quenching (RHQ) to the treatment of MgB 2 wires, directly realizing the superconductivity of quenched MgB 2 wires as well as the improvement of workability, thus avoiding the necessary annealing program in the conventional process. The results show that the phase composition of samples is mostly MgB 2 after treatment with heating current at 350 A, except for a small amount of impurities. Most importantly, at 5 T and 20 K, the critical current density is still as high as 1.34 × 103 A cm−2, which fully meets the requirements of practical applications. This may be due to the relatively uniform distribution and compact MgB 2 grains. This method is entirely possible to replace the traditional preparation technology and widen the market application prospect of MgB 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • A bi-objective stochastic simulation-based optimization (BOSSO) method is proposed. • Equitable and efficient signal timing stochastic SO problem is solved well. • Network-wide microscopic traffic simulation model is well calibrated from two aspects. • The proposed BOSSO method can address other similar problems. Abstract The equity of right-of-way is an important topic in traffic management and control. With the balance consideration of traffic equity and efficiency, which are respectively evaluated by the Atkinson index and average travel time, this study proposes a bi-objective signal timing simulation-based optimization (SO) model under uncertainties, and solve it by a bi-objective stochastic simulation-based optimization (BOSSO) method. In this method, two types of surrogate models (i.e., regressing Kriging model and quadratic regression model) are used to capture the complicated mapping relationship between decision variables and bi-objectives, respectively in the whole variable domain and in the local trust-region. Meanwhile, the incorporation of the global regressing Kriging model and an adaptive selector helps to predict bi-objective values of untested samples and re-estimate simulated samples in the local trust-region, which can save great computational costs and smooth stochastic noises. Moreover, the non-interactive role of a decision maker is taken to generate more Pareto optimal solutions around his/her desired bi-objective values. Through the algorithm comparison for a benchmark bi-objective stochastic optimization problem, the proposed BOSSO method is validated to outperform three other counterparts (i.e., NSGA-II, BOTR and BOEGO) under the same simulation costs. In real-field experiments, an urban road network with 15 signalized and five non-signalized intersections in Changsha, China is modeled by VISSIM. After the well calibration of the microscopic traffic simulation model, the network-wide bi-objective signal timing stochastic SO problems with and without coordination are solved by BOSSO. Numerical results indicate that compared with the real-field case, the average travel time and Atkinson index are reduced respectively by at most 13.48% and 23.49% for optimized non-coordinated signal plans, and respectively by at most 25.58% and 2.83% for optimized coordinated ones. It is further validated that under variable traffic volumes, the non-coordinated signal plan can well improve both traffic efficiency and equity, and the coordinated one is capable to improve traffic efficiency at a larger degree but sacrifice traffic equity. Moreover, the balance analyses show the existence of competing relationship between bi-objectives, and BOSSO is confirmed to outperform NSGA-II, BOTR and BOEGO in searching the better Pareto optimal signal plans under the same budged simulations. In conclusion, BOSSO is promising to address bi-objective optimization problems characterized by costly evaluation, high dimensions and stochastic noises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), with broad morphological diversity, wide geographic distribution and substantial agricultural significance, are a challenging group for taxonomists and phylogenetics. As a promising tool to identify and discover new species, DNA barcoding might offer significant potential for identification, taxonomy and phylogeny of ladybird beetles. In the present study, a total of 1364 COI (cytochrome C oxidase subunit I) sequences representing 128 species from 52 genera of ladybird beetles were screened for barcoding evaluation and phylogenetic analysis. Our results from the barcoding analysis revealed that COI displays a similar level of species identification efficiency (nearly 90%) either based on Kimura two-parameter (K2P) distances calculation or on simplified neighbour-joining (NJ) tree construction. The phylogenetic relationships within the family Coccinellidae was analyzed by Bayesian-inference (BI) method. The phylogenetic results confirmed the monophyly of the subfamilies Microweisinae and Coccinellinae sensu Ślipiński (2007), and suggested that the subfamilies Coccidulinae, Chilocorinae and Scymninae are paraphyletic. However, the phylogenetic relationships among different subfamilies are not clearly defined and thus remain to be thoroughly studied. Overall, our study confirmed the usefulness of DNA barcoding for coccinellid species identification and phylogenetic inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tubing string is one of the most important tools in flowing production. In the state of lateral vibration instability of the tubing string, severe collisions between the string and casing may lead to tubing string failure and borehole wall sloughing. Stability of the tubing string is a potential safety hazard in the process of oil and gas production and discussed in this paper. Considering interaction among the gravity, internal fluid hydrodynamic force, reservoir pressure and liquid cushion in the annular, a mechanical model of lateral vibration of the tubing string, which is simplified as a uniform pipe conveying fluid upwards in vertical well, is developed, and the stability of the system is analyzed by the finite element method. The influences of the flow velocity, the bottom hole pressure and the height and density of liquid cushion on the stabilities of tubing string are discussed. It is found that the increase of either the flow velocity or the bottom hole pressure can cause the buckling of tubing string, however, increasing the height or density of liquid cushion is helpful to improve the stability of tubing string. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Fusion reactors undergo severe particle radiation and require advanced plasma-facing materials. After an accident, the lack of coolant causes water vapor to enter the vacuum chamber, which brings serious safety risks to the material. In the absence of a coolant, the temperature of the tungsten alloys facing the plasma may reach 1200 °C. At this temperature, tungsten are directly oxidized and volatilized, thus causing plasma pollution. The oxidation-resistant tungsten alloys in this study is expected to solve this problem. In this work, the improvements and mechanisms of different alloying elements with regard to the oxidation resistance of tungsten alloys, combined with the results in recent studies, were reviewed, and possible development trends were discussed. • Adding Si or Cr in W can preferentially form a protective oxide film. • Adding Ti played a positive role in improving the oxidation resistance of the alloy. • W-Cr-Y alloy has more excellent oxidation resistance than W-Cr-Ti ternary alloy. • W-Cr-Y alloy after annealing has better oxidation resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA barcoding has been widely used to identify and discover new species in a wide range of taxa. In order to assess the effectiveness of COI (cytochrome C oxidase subunit I) and 16S (16S ribosomal RNA) in the discrimination of spiders, we have generated 289 barcodes for a total of 56 farmland spider species from 14 different families for the first time in China. Our results reveal that the standard barcoding marker COI can be used to distinguish the farmland spiders both in species and family level by NJ tree-based method, despite the absence of a barcode gap between the intra- and inter-specific genetic divergences. 16S has a lower species identification success as compared with COI. However, almost 98% of the species can be correctly distinguished for both COI and 16S when a threshold of 3% nucleotide divergence was used for species discrimination. Our study significantly improves the barcode reference sequence library for Chinese farmland spiders, and will be very useful in pest management and eco-environmental monitoring and protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low serum cholinesterase (SCHE) activity has been associated with poor prognoses in a variety of conditions, including sepsis. However, such an association has not been well characterized since the Third International Consensus Definitions Task Force modified the definition of sepsis to “life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection” (known as sepsis-3) in 2016. In the current retrospective cohort study, we examined whether 30-day mortality in sepsis-3 patients is associated with SCHE activity. A total of 166 sepsis-3 patients receiving treatment at an emergency intensive care unit (EICU) were included. The 30-day death rate was 33.1% (55/166). SCHE activity upon EICU admission was lower in nonsurvivors (3.3 vs. 4.5 KU/L in survivors, p = 0.0002). Subjects with low SCHE activity (defined as <4 KU/L) had higher 30-day mortality rates than subjects with normal SCHE activity (45.5%, 40/88 vs. 19.2%, 15/78; p<0.001). A multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed an association between 30-day mortality and lower SCHE activity after adjustments for relevant factors, such as acute multiple organ dysfunction. The odds ratio (OR) for every unit decrease in SCHE activity was 2.11 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.37–3.27; p = 0.0008). The area under the curve (AUC) of SCHE activity for predicting 30-day mortality was 0.67 (95% CI 0.59–0.74), and the AUC of lactate for predicting 30-day mortality was 0.64 (95% CI 0.57–0.70). Using a combination of SCHE and lactate, the AUC was 0.74 (95% CI 0.69–0.83). These data suggest that lower SCHE activity is an independent risk factor for 30-day mortality in sepsis-3 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cephalcia chuxiongica Xiao is one of the most dangerous defoliators of Pinus yunnanensis and other pine species in Yunnan province, resulting in serious losses. Its distinguishing characteristics are the females' aggregation oviposition and larvae's aggregation feeding. In order to explore the mechanism of aggregation oviposition in this sawfly, preliminary olfactory bioassay was conducted in laboratory. In in-cage choice tests, on average vast majority gravid females selected the shoots that had been loaded and oviposited by a 'pioneer' female. In one-choice tests in laboratory by a Y-tube olfactometer, the gravid females were attracted by the odors of eggs-carrying shoots (PE), shoots with one delivering female and her eggs (PGE), needles' extract (NE), and fresh eggs' eluent (EL); the virgin females were attracted by odors of fresh needles (P), PE, PGE, and NE, but repelled by odors of virgin and gravid females. In two-choice tests, the odors were tested in pairs for gravid females. When compared with odors of gravid females (G) or P, gravid females showed significantly more tendency to odors of PE or PGE. When given odors EL vs. NE, gravid females preferred the odors of NE, but they did not make obvious selection between G vs. P, and PE vs. PGE. Based on the results, our conjectures were: (1) Delivery female, as a pioneer, can summon her conspecific gravid females to aggregate in the same pine shoot; (2) Pine needles' odors were attractive for both the virgin and gravid females; (3) Gravid females could be attracted by odors released by the pioneer gravid females; (4) The olfactory sensation of the females may be changed by mating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]