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Objective: To explore the association of lifestyles, caspase gene (CASP), and noise kurtosis with noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Design: Three hundred seven NIHL individuals and 307 matched controls from factories in Chinese factories participated in this case–control study. Age, sex, noise exposure, exfoliated oral mucosa cells, and lifestyles of participants were gathered by the authors. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped using the Kompetitive Allele Specific polymerase chain reaction (KASP) method. Results: The risk of NIHL was higher for people who worked in the complex noise environment than for people exposed to steady noise environment (adjusted: OR = 1.806, P = 0.002). Smoking and regular earphone use increased the risk of NIHL (adjusted: OR = 1.486, P = 0.038). The GG genotype of the recessive model and G allele in rs1049216, together with the TT genotype of the recessive model in rs6948 decreased the NIHL risk (adjusted: OR = 0.659, P = 0.017). Oppositely, the AA genotype of additive model in rs12415607 had a higher NIHL risk (adjusted: OR = 1.804, P = 0.024). In the additive models, there was a positive interaction between noise kurtosis and CASP3 polymorphisms (RERI = 1.294, P = 0.013; RERI = 1.198, P = 0.031). Conclusions: Noise kurtosis, three SNPs (rs1049216, rs6948, and rs12415607), smoking and earphone use were found to be related to NIHL, and there was a positive interaction between noise kurtosis and CASP3. Results from this study can be used to prevent and detect NIHL and for genetic testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Finding reliable tools to predict alignment change after medial mobile‐bearing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) can help surgeons avoid under‐ or over‐correction. This prospective study aimed to investigate whether the parameters related to medial collateral ligament tension on valgus stress radiograph can predict the alignment change of medial mobile‐bearing UKA and establish a prediction model. Methods: This study prospectively included the patients undergoing medial mobile‐bearing UKA for knee osteoarthritis from November 2018 and April 2021. Patients took valgus stress radiograph and MRI preoperatively and took full‐length weight‐bearing anterior–posterior radiograph of the lower extremity preoperatively and postoperatively. The medial joint space width (MJSW) on valgus stress radiograph, area of femoral and tibial osteophyte on MRI, medial extrusion distance (MED) of the meniscus on MRI, and the change in hip‐knee‐ankle angle (∆HKAA) were measured. Factors influencing ∆HKAA were analyzed by correlation analysis. Univariable and multivariable linear regression analysis was performed to establish a prediction model of ∆HKAA. Results: One hundred and seven knees were included. On average, the preoperative HKAA was 170.84° ± 3.73°, and UKA corrected the alignment to 175.16° ± 3.21° postoperatively (p < 0.001), with ∆HKAA of 4.33° ± 1.93°. Correlation analysis showed that ∆HKAA correlated with MJSW (r = 0.628, p < 0.001), MED (r = 0.262, p < 0.001), and tibial osteophyte area (r = 0.235, p < 0.001). The prediction model for ∆HKAA was obtained by multivariable linear regression: ∆HKAA = −2.003 + 0.947 × MJSW(mm) + 1.838 × total osteophyte area(cm2). Conclusion: Valgus stress radiographic MJSW and osteophyte area are correlated to the alignment change of medial mobile‐bearing UKA. The prediction model for HKAA change is: ∆HKAA = −2.003 + 0.947 × MJSW(mm) + 1.838 × total osteophyte area(cm2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inferior activity and stability of non‐noble metal‐based electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) seriously limit their practical applications in various electrochemical energy conversion systems. Here we report, a drastic nonequilibrium precipitation approach to construct a highly disordered crystal structure of layered double hydroxides as a model OER catalyst. The unconventional crystal structure contains high‐density cationic defects coupled with a local alkaline‐enriched environment, enabling ultrafast diffusion of OH− ions and thus avoiding the formation of a local acidic environment and dissolution of active sites during OER. An integrated experimental and theoretical study reveals that high‐density cationic defects, especially di‐cationic and multi‐cationic defects, serve as highly active and durable catalytic sites. This work showcases a promising strategy of crystal structure engineering to construct robust active sites for high‐performance oxygen evolution in an alkaline solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inferior activity and stability of non‐noble metal‐based electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) seriously limit their practical applications in various electrochemical energy conversion systems. Here we report, a drastic nonequilibrium precipitation approach to construct a highly disordered crystal structure of layered double hydroxides as a model OER catalyst. The unconventional crystal structure contains high‐density cationic defects coupled with a local alkaline‐enriched environment, enabling ultrafast diffusion of OH− ions and thus avoiding the formation of a local acidic environment and dissolution of active sites during OER. An integrated experimental and theoretical study reveals that high‐density cationic defects, especially di‐cationic and multi‐cationic defects, serve as highly active and durable catalytic sites. This work showcases a promising strategy of crystal structure engineering to construct robust active sites for high‐performance oxygen evolution in an alkaline solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of the privileged amino functionality is of paramount importance in organic synthesis. In contrast to the well‐developed amination methods for alkenes, the dearomative amination of arenes is largely underexplored due to the inherently inert reactivity of arene π‐bonds and selectivity challenges. Herein, we report an intermolecular dearomative aminofunctionalization via direct nucleophilic addition of simple amines to chromium‐bound arenes. This multicomponent 1,2‐amination/carbonylation reaction enables rapid access to complicated alicyclic compounds containing amino and amide functionalities from benzene derivatives under CO‐gas‐free conditions, which also represents the first application of nitrogen‐based nucleophiles in η6‐coordination‐induced arene dearomatizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although great successes have been achieved, the preparation of closed‐loop recyclable polyesters with high working temperatures still remains as a big challenge. Herein, we present the syntheses of a series of enantiopure bicyclic ether‐ester monomers by upcycling of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) bioplastic. The "living"/controlled ring‐opening polymerizations of these enantiopure monomers to produce stereoregular polyesters with controlled molecular weights and well‐defined chain ends were achieved. The effects of stereoconfiguration and substituent on polymerization kinetics and thermodynamics as well as the thermal properties of resultant polyesters were investigated. Of note, the stereoregular polyesters are semi‐crystalline materials with melting temperatures up to 176 °C, even higher than the commodity polyolefin plastics. These polyesters can be depolymerized back to recover pristine monomers, thus successfully establishing a closed‐loop life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although great successes have been achieved, the preparation of closed‐loop recyclable polyesters with high working temperatures still remains as a big challenge. Herein, we present the syntheses of a series of enantiopure bicyclic ether‐ester monomers by upcycling of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) bioplastic. The "living"/controlled ring‐opening polymerizations of these enantiopure monomers to produce stereoregular polyesters with controlled molecular weights and well‐defined chain ends were achieved. The effects of stereoconfiguration and substituent on polymerization kinetics and thermodynamics as well as the thermal properties of resultant polyesters were investigated. Of note, the stereoregular polyesters are semi‐crystalline materials with melting temperatures up to 176 °C, even higher than the commodity polyolefin plastics. These polyesters can be depolymerized back to recover pristine monomers, thus successfully establishing a closed‐loop life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforcement learning (RL) has been used to optimize the continuous integration (CI) testing, where the reward plays a key role in directing the adjustment of the test case prioritization (TCP) strategy. In CI testing, the frequency of integration is usually very high, while the failure rate of test cases is low. Consequently, RL will get scarce rewards in CI testing, which may lead to low learning efficiency of RL and even difficulty in convergence. This paper introduces three rewards to tackle the issue of sparse rewards of RL in CI testing. First, the historical failure density‐based reward (HFD) is defined, which objectively represents the sparse reward problem. Second, the average failure position‐based reward (AFP) is proposed to increase the reward value and reduce the impact of sparse rewards. Furthermore, a technique based on additional reward is proposed, which extracts the test occurrence frequency of passed test cases for additional rewards. Empirical studies are conducted on 14 real industry data sets. The experiment results are promising, especially the reward with additional reward can improve NAPFD (Normalized Average Percentage of Faults Detected) by up to 21.97%, enhance Recall with a maximum of 21.87%, and increase TTF (Test to Fail) by an average of 9.99 positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated project-based governance (PBG) in China's higher vocational education (HVE) with a main research question asking how PBG works in China's HVE. Using case study as a research strategy, the paper examines the application and effect of the PBG model on Chinese HVE within the analytical framework of PBG-based agency theory. Twenty-three faculty members from both administrative and academic departments in College Plateau (pseudonym) were recruited to participate in a person-to-person interviews. They were expected to share their observations and perspectives on the PBG model as applied to HVE. As supplementary materials, the Chinese government's policy documents and statistics, as well as institutional policy documents, were also looked at for a brief discussion of governance of China's HVE. The results showed that the PBG model has greatly challenged the traditional administrative, distribution and personnel systems, as well as the college-enterprise cooperation model, and academic performance of higher vocational colleges (HVCs). These changes have brought higher academic achievements and greater social resources to College Plateau. However, they have also caused many negative effects, such as homogeneity of organizations and the Matthew effect among HVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientists and diplomats have significant differences in professional skills, activity time and work content, but they should work together. With the deepening impact of science and technology (S&T) on socio-economic development and international relations, S&T has become a crucial component of national strategies, particularly for diplomacy. There is a need for scientific evidence and advice, meaning that mastering more knowledge and skills in S&T would be helpful in negotiations. This paper analyses the ideas of S&T diplomacy, including a review of its 40-year history in China, its definition (with detailed connotations) and its characteristics. The paper focuses on the significant role of people-to-people communication in S&T, which may inform future work. Five suggestions are given to strengthen the strategic planning of S&T diplomacy: (1) A more clarified, strategic goal of future-oriented S&T diplomacy is required; (2) It is important to build a theoretical system for China to describe S&T diplomacy; (3) The creation of a global S&T cooperation map that adapts to the new type of international relations would be valuable; (4) Fairness and justice shall be maintained, while a reform of the global S&T governance system is promoted; (5) It is a must to adhere to bottom-line thinking and strengthen risk prediction and emergency responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter focuses on the non-contact generation of surface acoustic waves by using a continuous wave laser moving along the sample surface. The desired large-amplitude surface acoustic waves can be generated efficiently if the laser moving speed matches the Rayleigh value, which is a typical characteristic of the continuous laser moving excitation method. The different amplitudes of surface acoustic waves were generated at different laser moving speeds, and the largest amplitude occurred when the laser moving speed approached the surface acoustic wave velocity of the material. Subsequently, the influence of laser moving distance on the wave's amplitude under Rayleigh resonance conditions was investigated. The surface acoustic waves' amplitude grew linearly with the laser's moving distance in the elastic range. In brief, this paper provides a novel method to excite large amplitude surface acoustic waves by simply changing the moving speed and moving distance of the light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The production of defensive metabolites in plants can be induced by signaling chemicals released by neighboring plants. Induction is mainly known from volatile aboveground signals, with belowground signals and their underlying mechanisms largely unknown.We demonstrate that (−)‐loliolide triggers defensive metabolite responses to competitors, herbivores, and pathogens in seven plant species. We further explore the transcriptional responses of defensive pathways to verify the signaling role of (−)‐loliolide in wheat and rice models with well‐known defensive metabolites and gene systems.In response to biotic and abiotic stressors, (−)‐loliolide is produced and secreted by roots. This, in turn, induces the production of defensive compounds including phenolic acids, flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, benzoxazinoids, and cyanogenic glycosides, regardless of plant species. (−)‐Loliolide also triggers the expression of defense‐related genes, accompanied by an increase in the concentration of jasmonic acid and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Transcriptome profiling and inhibitor incubation indicate that (−)‐loliolide‐induced defense responses are regulated through pathways mediated by jasmonic acid, H2O2, and Ca 2+.These findings argue that (−)‐loliolide functions as a common belowground signal mediating chemical defense in plants. Such perception‐dependent plant chemical defenses will yield critical insights into belowground signaling interactions. See also the Commentary on this article by Frost, 238: 1749–1751. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a 2‐D planar periodic leaky‐wave antenna based on a series of concentric annular microstrip rings on a grounded dielectric slab. The leaky wave is generated from the perturbation to the surface wave, which is excited from the fundamental and dominant TM0 mode. The computation method for the propagation constant is first analyzed, and then the radiation property is researched. A set of suitable structural parameters for only −1th spacial harmonic radiation are extracted from the theoretical computation and then verified by the simulation, which shows an agreement. The results indicate that this proposed antenna can radiate two symmetrical flat conical beams with over 90% total efficiency. The theoretical results on radiation performance are then verified by simulation and measurement with good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LTUV (longitudinal-torsional ultrasonic vibration) makes cutting speed change rapidly; it is obvious that the rapid change makes the cutting edge become sharp and drilling force macroscopically reduce. Most experiment study has indicated that comparing with conventional drilling CFRP/Ti-alloy stacks, the hole quality of LTUV drilling is superior. For in-depth theoretical study of drilling forces of LTUV drilling, the drill bit is regarded as a continuous elastic body under the action of foundation vibration in this paper, its dynamic model is established, and the dynamic component prediction models of both thrust force and torque are derived. The reliability of the prediction model is verified by drilling experiment. This research shows that the ultrasonic vibration of the drill bit is the main factor to improve the cutting condition. The magnitude of both dynamic component of thrust force produced by longitudinal ultrasonic vibration and the torque dynamic component generated by the torsional vibration mainly depends on the vibration parameters (amplitude and frequency) and the drill bit geometric parameters. The drilling parameters (including spindle rotation speed and feed rate) nearly have no effect. When the drilling parameters are certain, the equivalent viscous damping coefficient is related to the geometric parameters of the drill bit, vibration parameters, tool materials, and processed materials. For different materials, the equivalent viscous damping coefficient is different. To conduct a small number of experiments, the damping coefficient of one drilling system can be calculated by measuring the difference of thrust force or torque between the LTUV drilling and the conventional drilling under the same drilling parameters. This work provides a reference for predicting the thrust force and torque of the LTUV drilling, rationally choosing the tool and determining the drilling parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phototherapy, including photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), is a non-invasive and effective approach used for cancer treatment, in which phototherapeutic agents are irradiated with an appropriate light source to produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) or heat to ablate cancer cells. Unfortunately, traditional phototherapy lacks a facile imaging method to monitor the therapeutic process and efficiency in real time, usually leading to severe side effects due to high levels of ROS and hyperthermia. To realize precise cancer treatment methods, it is highly desired to develop phototherapeutic agents possessing an imaging ability to evaluate the therapeutic process and efficacy in real time during cancer phototherapy. Recently, a series of self-reporting phototherapeutic agents were reported to monitor PDT and PTT processes by combining optical imaging technologies with phototherapy. Due to the real-time feedback provided by optical imaging technology, therapeutic responses or dynamic changes in the tumor microenvironment could be evaluated in a timely manner, thereby achieving personalized precision treatment and minimizing toxic side effects. In this review, we focus on the advances in the development of self-reporting phototherapeutic agents for a cancer phototherapy evaluation based on optical imaging technology to realize precision cancer treatments. Additionally, we propose the current challenges and future directions of self-reporting agents for precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate and economic policy are closely correlated with energy consumption. This study investigates the bi-directional causality between renewable (REC) and non-renewable energy consumption (NEC) and policy uncertainties. The time-varying bootstrap rolling window causality test considers structural changes and parameter instability. The results show that the causality between REC and climate policy uncertainty (CPU) is both negative and positive, which mainly stems from the attitudes of authorities towards climate change. If the Administration is positive for climate change mitigation, the correlation between REC and CPU is positive; otherwise, it is negative. The nexus between NEC and CPU is mainly positive, except during global financial crisis periods. This reflects that climate policies are affected by financial crises due to financial constraints. For comparison, we further analyse the dynamic correlation between energy consumption and economic policy uncertainty (EPU). EPU has a significant negative impact on REC in most subperiods, while it has a positive impact on NEC. This can be explained by the fact that non-renewable energy is cheap and convenient to use during economic downturns. Moreover, crude oil has strategic reserve value, especially in the turmoil periods. Regarding policy implications, harmonious and coherent climate and economic policies are important for energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal‐free carbon‐based materials are considered to be one of the most promising alternatives to precious metal Pt‐based electrocatalysts. However, the electrocatalytic activity of heteroatom‐modulated carbon rarely reaches the level of metal‐based electrocatalysts. Here, electron‐rich carbon and abundant pyridinic‐N adjacent to C vacancies decorated with carbon nanosheets (E‐NC‐V) are synthesized and used as the host for boosting efficient oxygen reduction reaction. Rich pyridinic‐N structures adjacent to C vacancies work in synergy with electron‐rich carbon, which promotes the sharp decrease of |ΔGO*|, resulting in the balanced adsorption and dissociation of oxygen intermediates, and thus activating OO. This can be attributed to the abundant vacancies and d–p orbital hybridization between Zn and N/C. The E‐NC‐V catalyst drives the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) via a 4e− transfer‐dominated pathway with a half‐wave potential of 0.87 V versus RHE in the alkaline solution, even superior to Pt/C. The assembled Al–air battery exhibits a high peak power density of 113 mW cm−2. This promising strategy sheds light on the design and fabrication of robust, rich‐density, and high‐performance active sites for the ORR. The work is expected to inspire future work on the role of electronic structure modulation and defect engineering for enhanced reaction kinetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present-day mantle is divided into the African and Pacific domains by the circum-Pacific subduction girdle. Very little is known about the mantle composition of the Pacific Domain before 120 Ma due to the scarcity of the oceanic record, having mostly been destroyed by subduction processes. Accreted oceanic lithosphere (ophiolites) in orogens along the Paleo-Pacific margins provide rare opportunities to partially fill this knowledge gap. The early Cambrian (530–505 Ma) Weraerai ophiolite mélange in the New England Orogen in Eastern Australia represents fragments of the now-consumed Paleo-Pacific oceanic plate, predecessor of the Panthalassa and Pacific oceanic plates, accreted to east Gondwana during c. 410–277 Ma. Early work revealed the presence of an accreted volcanic island(s) of possible mantle plume origin. However, due to their heavy alteration and weathering, the geochemical signature of the mafic rocks in the Weraerai ophiolite cannot be used to certify their plume origin with confidence. Therefore, mantle rocks found in the ophiolitic belt offer an alternative way to decipher the origin of the oceanic lithospheric fragments in the Weraerai ophiolite mélange. Here, we report the petrographic, major and trace elements composition, including highly siderophile elements (HSE), and Re–Os isotope composition for 16 serpentinized spinel harzburgite samples from Woodsreef and Port Macquarie. The observed spinel–orthopyroxene symplectite intergrowth textures are interpreted as garnet-breakdown textures due to cooling from an initial high temperature of >1200°C. Silicon and Al contents and Mg# of serpentinized spinel harzburgite, as well as heavy rare earth element modeling results, suggest a high-degree of melt extraction of 20–30% in the garnet stability field and in an anhydrous environment, probably in ocean island or oceanic plateau environments. The samples in this study have HSE concentrations interpreted to have resulted from post-melting processes rather than a melt extraction feature, indicating that their Re–Os model ages need to be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, the melt depletion ages obtained from the Woodsreef and Port Macquaries samples range between 1.4 and 1.1 Ga, consistent with previous studies on other Pacific-rim ophiolitic rocks. We argue that these ages might be related to a major depletion event during the transition between supercontinents Nuna and Rodinia. Such depletion events affected a large proportion of this section of the mantle before the incorporation of the peridotites into the oceanic lithosphere in the Paleo-Pacific associated with rapid ascent of mantle plumes. This interpretation is consistent with the occurrence of accreted volcanic islands in the Weraerai ophiolite mélange, as shown by the OIB chemical signatures of some of the mafic rocks, and their association with shallow water limestones that formed in near-equatorial latitudes. The proposed c. 530–510 Ma Paleo-Pacific Ocean mantle plume event coincides with a global peak of oceanic mantle plume events that may record the legacy of a circum-Rodinia subduction girdle driving antipodal mantle superplume episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hybrid type electric multiple units (EMUs) are generally equipped with LiCoO2/Li4Ti5O12 lithium-titanate (LTO) batteries. LTO batteries are often in a state of high-rate charging and discharging since they are mainly used for emergency traction and braking recycling of EMUs. Under such operating conditions, LTO batteries have a higher risk of thermal runaway, which would induce battery fires in the operation and lead to grave consequences. In this paper, a fire suppression device containing a fire detection tube was proposed for the power battery system of hybrid EMUs. Meanwhile, experiments were conducted to detect thermal runaway of the single battery and thermal expansion of the battery module installed with the fire suppression device. The fire detection tube was filled with clean agent Dodecafluoro-2-methylpentan-3-one. During the experiment, when triggering the process of thermal runaway, the fire suppression device prevented the battery from catching on fire successfully. Moreover, the fire suppression device had good cooling performance. The thermal runaway temperature of the battery with the fire suppression device installed was lowered to 130°C or so, compared with 550°C of the single battery alone. The fire suppression device was then installed in the battery system of a hybrid EMU, which performed well in operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aerodynamic performance and flow field structure of an inward-turning inlet at a high flying Mach number are attracting more and more attention. The main purpose of this paper is to study the aerodynamic performance and the back pressure characteristics of a circular entrance three-dimensional inward-turning inlet at Ma=5.0–8.0 , with the combination of wind tunnel test and numerical simulation. This series of experiments is divided into three parts to explore the unstart boundary, self-start ability, and suction slots influence. The experimental results show that at design point Ma=6.0 , the inlet outlet Mach number is 2.29 and the total pressure recovery coefficient is 0.31. Further numerical simulation results indicate that the opening of suction slots could enhance the maximum capability of back pressure about 7.3%. The circumferential flow in the isolator caused the asymmetry of the shock train and led to the nonuniform distribution of the separation region. The different size of the separation zones on the upper wall and the lower wall eventually leads to different pressure distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the main disasters that limit the formation of wheat yield and affect the quality of wheat, lodging poses a great threat to safety production. Therefore, an improved PSPNet (Pyramid Scene Parsing Network) integrating the Normalization-based Attention Module (NAM) (NAM-PSPNet) was applied to the high-definition UAV RGB images of wheat lodging areas at the grain-filling stage and maturity stage with the height of 20 m and 40 m. First, based on the PSPNet network, the lightweight neural network MobileNetV2 was used to replace ResNet as the feature extraction backbone network. The deep separable convolution was used to replace the standard convolution to reduce the amount of model parameters and calculations and then improve the extraction speed. Secondly, the pyramid pool structure of multi-dimensional feature fusion was constructed to obtain more detailed features of UAV images and improve accuracy. Then, the extracted feature map was processed by the NAM to identify the less significant features and compress the model to reduce the calculation. The U-Net, SegNet and DeepLabv3+ were selected as the comparison models. The results show that the extraction effect at the height of 20 m and the maturity stage is the best. For the NAM-PSPNet, the MPA (Mean Pixel Accuracy), MIoU (Mean Intersection over Union), Precision, Accuracy and Recall is, respectively, 89.32%, 89.32%, 94.95%, 94.30% and 95.43% which are significantly better than the comparison models. It is concluded that NAM-PSPNet has better extraction performance for wheat lodging areas which can provide the decisionmaking basis for severity estimation, yield loss assessment, agricultural operation, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gas dissolution or accumulation regulating in an aqueous environment is important but difficult in various fields. Here, we performed all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to study the dissolution/accumulation of gas molecules in aqueous solutions. It was found that the distribution of gas molecules at the solid–water interface is regulated by the direction of the external electric field. Gas molecules attach and accumulate to the interface with an electric field parallel to the interface, while the gas molecules depart and dissolve into the aqueous solutions with a vertical electric field. The above phenomena can be attributed to the redistribution of water molecules as a result of the change of hydrogen bonds of water molecules at the interface as affected by the electric field. This finding reveals a new mechanism of regulating gas accumulation and dissolution in aqueous solutions and can have tremendous applications in the synthesis of drugs, the design of microfluidic device, and the extraction of natural gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carrier transport associated with interband tunneling in semiconductors has been investigated extensively both experimentally and theoretically. However, the associated heat exchange from interband tunneling is not discussed in depth. Due to the nanoscale nature of the tunneling phenomenon, people tend to use a "resistor model" to compute the heat generated. We present our analysis of heat exchange in tunneling junctions based on an extended Kane's model. We observe that the heat exchange is distinct when we apply forward bias, small reverse bias, and large reverse bias. In each of these bias regimes, we demonstrate that the internal temperature distribution of a tunneling junction can deviate from the simplified "resistor model" significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The optimal therapeutic window to start intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) for Kawasaki disease (KD) is highly debatable. We aimed to summarize the existing literature to evaluate the therapeutic window of IVIG treatment and its correlation with clinical outcomes in KD patients. Methods: We searched the databases from inception to August 26, 2022, without language restrictions. The primary outcomes were initial IVIG resistance and coronary artery lesions (CALs) in acute phase. Secondary outcome was CALs during 1–2 months of follow-up. Results: 27 studies involving 41,139 patients were included in this study. Very low-quality evidence showed that the earlier IVIG treatment within 4 days had a higher IVIG-resistance rate (RR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.50–2.15; P <.00001; I2 = 75%) than the late treatment. Very low-quality evidence showed that IVIG treatment for more than 7 days was associated with a higher risk of CALs in acute phase(RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.40–0.80; P =.001; I2 = 76%). There was a lower risk of CALs during 1–2 months follow-up for those who started IVIG administration within 10 days from the onset. Conclusions: Overall, IVIG treatment within 7 days of illness seems to be the optimal therapeutic window of IVIG. IVIG treatment within 7 days is found to be effective for reducing the risk of coronary artery lesions and cardiac sequelae in KD patients. The early IVIG treatment within 4 days should be vigilant for the IVIG resistance although large multi-center randomized trials with well design are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient and selective cleavage of the β-O-4 linkage under mild conditions represents a promising strategy to convert lignocellulose to value-added aromatic chemicals. In this work, a recoverable polyoxometalate-ionic liquid (POM-IL) catalyst has been successfully constructed by reacting H5PMo10V2O40 (HPMoV) polyoxoacids with 1-methyl-3-(4-sulfobutyl)-1H-imidazolium (BMIM-SO3) zwitterions. Such a POM-IL catalyst can selectively and effectively convert various β-O-4 lignin models into aromatic acids and phenols under mild homogeneous conditions. Addition of ethyl acetate to the homogeneous post-reaction solution allows the easy recovery of the POM-IL catalyst for successive five recycling tests with high robustness. The dominant catalytic pathway was elucidated by a series of mechanistic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Deflectable double-stator Switched Reluctance Generator (DSRG) has the advantages of simple structure, small volume and multi-dimensional operation. The DSRG and propeller are combined into the application of underwater power generation. With the help of the deflect ability of the generator, the efficiency is improved. Due to the uncertainty of ocean current direction and the structure of switched reluctance generator, the torque ripple is one of the important factors damaging the underwater generator. In order to effectively suppress the influence of torque ripple caused by generator operation, a method of adding pole shoes on the pole side of outer stator is proposed, so as to reduce the torque ripple. The propulsion structure running at different deflection angles is simulated. The torque and speed obtained before and after pole shoe optimization are input into the propeller model. The pressure and speed characteristics of the corresponding blade structure are simulated to verify the effect of optimization and the effectiveness of the power generation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Using molecular techniques, we assessed the current situation of genetic structure and gene flow among different red deer groups living in the southern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains, the main distribution area of red deer in China. The result showed that the overall genetic diversity of red deer in the study area was intermediate. Significant genetic differentiation was observed, and a significant correlation was found between landscape variables and genetic differentiation, especially roads, altitude, and settlements, which were considered the main factors affecting the gene flow of red deer in this region. The research suggested that we should pay more attention to artificial landscapes and the supervision of human activities, and the distribution of human-made landscapes should avoid crossing the main habitats of red deer as much as possible. Red deer (Cervus canadensis xanthopygus) living in the north of China are restricted and threatened due to human activities and the changes in the natural environment, which influence the dispersal and effective gene flow between different groups of red deer. Effective gene flow plays an important role in maintaining genetic diversity and structure and ensuring population health. In order to evaluate the genetic diversity level and understand the gene flow between different red deer groups, 231 fresh fecal samples were collected from the southern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains, China. A microsatellite marker was used for genetic analysis. The results showed that the genetic diversity of red deer was intermediate in this region. Significant genetic differentiation among different groups was found in the main distribution area (p < 0.01) using F-statistics and the program STRUCTURE. Different degrees of gene flow existed in red deer groups, and the roads (importance = 40.9), elevation (importance = 38.6), and settlements (importance = 14.1) exerted main effects on gene flow between red deer groups. Human-made factors should be noticed and strictly supervised in this region to avoid excessive disturbance to the normal movement of the red deer. Further conservation and management of red deer should reduce the intensity of vehicular traffic in the concentrated distribution areas of red deer, especially during the heat season. This research helps us better understand the genetic level and health status of red deer in the southern part of the Greater Khingan Mountains and provides theoretical references for protecting and restoring the red deer populations in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the results of investigation on thermal conductivity anisotropy of a typical kind of thinly interbedded rock, i.e., banded magnetite quartzite. Influence mechanism of main factors on the thermal conductivity anisotropy were studied through experimental and numerical approaches. Using optical scanning technique, distributed thermal conductivity on the sample surface was obtained through a series of parallel scanning lines. Based on the measured distributed thermal conductivity graphs, effects of the spatial location and geometric size of the analysis subdomain on the thermal conductivity anisotropy were investigated. The results indicated that local anisotropy factors calculated based on subdomains with different spatial locations show significant heterogeneous characteristics. The spatial inhomogeneity of anisotropy is mainly influenced by local variations of mineral bands thickness, visible fissure development and its orientation relation with bedding planes. With the increase of geometric size of analysis subdomain, the dispersion degree of the local anisotropy factors gradually reduced. Based on thermal contact theory, a finite element model was established to simulate the thermal conduction processes of thinly interbedded rocks and its anisotropic characteristics. The numerical model was calibrated based on the experimental results. Sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the effects of main model parameters on the thermal conductivity anisotropy. The results of this study can provide better knowledge to the anisotropic thermal properties of interbedded rock masses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dermatophagoides farinae (Astigmata: Pyroglyphidae) occurs in both homes and storage environments. The species produces biochemically diverse allergens that cause allergic reactions and seriously endanger human health. Habitat diversity can lead to divergent adaptive selection and reduced gene flow, thereby increasing genetic drift; both factors contribute to genetic differentiation. However, there is a lack of research concerning the genetic diversity and differentiation of D. farinae in different habitats. In this study, the genetic diversity and differentiation of D. farinae populations in different habitats were studied using the mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cytb) gene, the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, and the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Both pillow cores (ZX) and dormitory (SS) habitats had higher haplotype diversity than the flour mill (MF) habitat. The reasons for this phenomenon are likely to be food availability as well as differences in temperature and humidity among habitats. There was significant genetic differentiation (Fst > 0.05, P < 0.05) between the ZX and MF and between the MF and SS habitats, but there was no significant genetic differentiation between the ZX and SS habitats (Fst < 0.05, P > 0.05) based on both Cytb and COI genes, reflecting the difference between mitochondrial and nuclear genes. The low level of gene flow observed for ZX-MF and MF-SS and the gene flow between the ZX and SS habitats supported the above results. A haplotype network and a neighbour-joining phylogenetic tree showed that individuals from the ZX and SS habitats occurred in two clades without a clear distribution boundary, indicating that the genetic structure was not correlated with the habitat distribution. This research is the first genetic analysis of D. farinae in different habitats. The study can improve our understanding of the population genetics of D. farinae in different habitats and aid in the development of more effective management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unsteady aerodynamic characteristics and interference effects of floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) are mainly affected by the pitch motion of the ocean platform. Based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and advanced overset grid technology, the aerodynamic performance and wake characteristics of a fully configured wind turbine with rotating blades, nacelle , and tower are studied in this paper. The effects of the amplitude and frequency of pitch motion on the wind turbine aerodynamic loads and flow field are investigated herein in detail. The power and thrust between numerical simulation and experiment are compared. The results show that the grid and simulation parameters used in this study can accurately capture the aerodynamic characteristics and the flow field around wind turbines. The influence of the pitch amplitude and frequency on the performance of wind turbines is discussed. The complex flow interaction between the tip vortex, tower shedding vortex, and the turbulent wake was observed. The present results indicate that the pitch motion amplitude and frequency have a great influence on the power, thrust, and wake characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, extensive efforts have been devoted to the development of the second near‐infrared bio‐window (NIR‐II, 1000–1700 nm) theranostic agents owing to the excellent tissue‐penetration capability of NIR‐II light. The exploration of organic NIR‐II photothermal therapy materials, especially those with absorption peak over 1000 nm, is an appealing yet significantly challenging task. Herein, we have designed conjugated polymer nanoparticles (PIS NPs) with NIR‐II absorption peak at 1026 nm through a combined strategy of introducing quinoid donor‐acceptor (D–A) structures, constructing intramolecular "conformational locks" and extending the conjugation area to narrow the band gap. Irradiated at 1064 nm, PIS NPs showed remarkable photothermal conversion performance for efficient photothermal ablation of tumor cells in vitro and in vivo. This study provides useful insights into the rational design of organic NIR‐II photothermal agents based on multiple strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valve‐side bushing of the UHV converter transformer is the key equipment in the DC transmission project, and its running state directly affects the security and stability of the power system. This paper analyses the attributes of the physical entities, uses the digital twins to establish the state feature set and proposes a zero‐sample state evaluation algorithm for the valve‐side bushing. First, the geometric, materials and electrical characteristics are analyzed, and the detailed components of carrier current are obtained by empirical mode decomposition. Then, COMSOL is used to establish digital twins, verify the validity of twins with axial heat distribution of bushing, and establish a state feature set with the extreme temperature inside and outside bushing. Finally, the fuzzy clustering algorithm is used to classify the state feature set, and the similarity is used as the index to realize the zero‐sample state evaluation of the valve‐side bushing. Through the demonstration and analysis of examples, the evaluation model solves the problems of difficulty in extracting the internal features, fewer fault samples, and training difficulty, which is conducive to improving the operation and maintenance management level of power transmission equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum is a significant impurity in the ion-adsorption rare earth ore. The changes in the occurrences of aluminum have a great influence on the leaching of the rare earth ore. In this paper, the column leaching method was employed using magnesium sulfate as a leaching agent to investigate the effects of pH and magnesium sulfate concentration in the leaching agent on the leaching of aluminum and rare earths. The results show that at low magnesium sulfate concentrations, the leaching of rare earths is greatly enhanced, while the leaching of aluminum is not significantly affected by a decrease in the pH of leaching agent. At high magnesium sulfate concentrations, a slight increase in the leaching of rare earths is observed, accompanied by a significant increase in the leaching of aluminum upon decreasing the pH of the leaching agent. The leaching behavior of aluminum is related to the changes in the occurrences of aluminum during the leaching process. At low magnesium sulfate concentrations, low pH promotes the transition of Hy-Al to Sol-Al, but due to the low Mg2+ concentration in the leaching agent, Sol-Al is back-adsorbed onto the clays and transformed into Ex-Al, resulting in no significant increase in the aluminum content in the leach solution. However, at higher magnesium sulfate concentrations, aluminum in the leach solution comes mainly from the transformation of Ex-Al. Lowering the pH of the leaching agent can significantly promote the transition of Hy-Al to Sol-Al, thereby greatly increasing the aluminum content in the leach solution. The above results provide theoretical support for the optimization of the in situ leaching of ion-adsorption rare earth ore using magnesium sulfate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-centering heavy timber frames rely on the self-centering beam-column timber connections to limit damage and provide the recentering capability. However, low compressive strength and stiffness perpendicular to the grain of the timber columns have long been a design challenge, which yields low initial post-tensioning forces and possibly a significant loss of post-tensioning forces over the building service life. To address this issue, this paper proposes a new design solution for the self-centering steel-timber hybrid beam-column connections, in which the timber column is replaced by a steel-timber composite column. Cyclic tests were conducted on four beam-column connection specimens with post-tensioning. During the gap-opening, the composite column provided a stiff foundation to the timber beam. The hysteretic curves of all four connections were in a flag shape. Compared with self-centering beam-column timber connections that had the same geometry and material properties, the proposed connection had a larger connection stiffness and an improved efficiency of dissipating energy. After the cyclic loading, the loss of post-tensioning force of the proposed connection was also lower than that of the counterpart timber connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Co(II)‐organic framework (Co‐MOF), [Co3(3,5‐bimpy)2(5‐cpia)2(H2O)2], was constructed via the hydrothermal reaction of 3,5‐bis(1‐imidazoly)pyridine (3,5‐bimpy) and 5‐(2′‐carboxylphenoxy)isophthalic acid (5‐H3cpia). The Co‐MOF possessed a three‐dimensional (3D) porous architecture with the porosity of 22.4% per unit volume. The Co‐MOF@Hemin composite was further constructed via the encapsulation of Hemin into the Co‐MOF material. The constructed Co‐MOF@Hemin exhibited satisfactory peroxidase‐like activity through catalytic oxidation of the colorless peroxidase substrate 3,3,5,5‐tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to a blue‐colored oxTMB in the presence of H2O2. Hence, the detection of H2O2 was achieved with a wide linear range from 0.005 to 0.5 mM (R2 = 0.992) and a low detection limit of 1.26 μM. More importantly, the peroxidase‐like Co‐MOF@Hemin was suitable for the sensitive and selective detection of glucose under the presence of glucose oxidase (GOx), which reduced O2 to H2O2. This analytical procedure for the detection of glucose had a linear range from 0.3 to 3 mM (R2 = 0.997), with a detection limit of 49 μM. The experimental results display the broad application prospects of the enzyme‐based MOFs in green and selective targets analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Periodic assembly and break-up of supercontinents since at least two billion years ago (Ga), dubbed the supercontinent cycle, provides the first-order tectonic control on the evolution of the Earth System including episodic orogenic events, mineralization, the formation and closure of oceans and superoceans, and even the evolution of life. However, the lifespan of the supercontinents appears to decrease with time, from ∼300 million years (Myr) for Nuna/Columbia, to 200–250 Myr for Rodinia and ∼150 Myr for the youngest supercontinent Pangaea. To understand what caused such a secular decrease in supercontinental lifespan, we conduct 3-D geodynamic modeling using realistic tectonic settings. The results show that the yield stress of newly formed orogens during the assembly of a supercontinent provides the dominant control on the lifespan of the supercontinent, implying that the yield stress of young orogens becomes lower with time. We hypothesize that the decreasing mantle temperature due to Earth's secular cooling might have caused new orogens to become weaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass-based aerogel fibers have attracted increasing attention due to their renewable nature. However, their disadvantages, such as low mechanical strength, poor long-range order, and easy combustion, are still significant challenges. Herein, a directed freezing-assisted forced stretching strategy is developed to fabricate sheath-core structured Ca-alginate/polyvinyl alcohol (Ca-A/PVA) aerogel fibers with Long-range-ordered pores. The Ca-A/PVA aerogel fibers (3:2 m/m) exhibit the best comprehensive mechanical properties in terms of low thermal conductivity of 0.0524 W·m−1·K−1, a density of 0.1614 g·cm−3, a porosity of 89.9 %, a tensile strength of 8.72 MPa, a tensile modulus of 249.7 MPa, a toughness of 1.98 MJ∙m−3, and a self-extinguishing time from the fire of <1.2 s. The Ca-A/PVA fabrics showed a maximum absolute temperature difference of 11.4 °C at −20 °C and 14.0 °C at 60 °C compared to the plate temperature. The presented strategy is generalizable to other alginate-based aerogel fibers (e.g., alginate/guar gum). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is an ill-defined entity. This study aims to explore the clinical characteristics and prognosis of diabetic patients that disparately develop heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) other than HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Patients and Methods: A total of 911 patients diagnosed with diabetes mellitus were identified in the ChiHFpEF cohort (NCT05278026). DCM was defined as diabetic patients diagnosed with HF, absent from flow obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD), uncontrolled refractory hypertension and hemodynamics significant heart valvular diseases, arrhythmia and congenital heart diseases. The primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause death and rehospitalization due to HF. Results: As compared to DCM-HFrEF patients, DCM-HFpEF patients had a longer duration of diabetes, were older and more noticeable in hypertension and non-obstructive CAD. After a median follow-up of 45.5 months, survival analysis showed that DCM-HFpEF patients had a better composite endpoint. Cox regression implicated that non-obstructive CAD was a negative (HR 0.101, 95% CI 0.028–0.373, p = 0.001) predictor for the composite endpoint of DCM-HFrEF patients. Age was a positive predictor for the composite endpoint of DCM-HFpEF patients (HR 1.044, 95% CI 1.007–1.082, p = 0.018). Conclusion: DCM-HFpEF is a disparate entity from DCM-HFrEF. Additional phenomic studies are needed to explore the molecular mechanisms and develop targeted therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) are widely used in bone tissue engineering because of their unique physical and chemical properties and their excellent biocompatibility. Under the action of a magnetic field, SPIONs loaded in a biological scaffold can effectively promote osteoblast proliferation, differentiation, angiogenesis, and so on. SPIONs have very broad application prospects in bone repair, bone reconstruction, bone regeneration, and other fields. In this paper, several methods for forming biological scaffolds via the biological assembly of SPIONs are reviewed, and the specific applications of these biological scaffolds in bone tissue engineering are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, models of hot carrier degradation (HCD) in nMOSFET and nFinFET, combined with the physical mechanism and reaction-diffusion framework and considering saturation effect, are proposed. The HCD data of different technology nodes of nMOSFET and nFinFET are used to verify the accuracy of the models. The results show that the prediction errors of device parameter degradation under different stress voltages are less than 10% for several types of short channel devices, which is better than the existing reported research results. Furthermore, the models have simple analytical expressions that allow them to not only be applied to device HCD prediction, but also be extended to circuit level HCD prediction tool more easily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Evidence‐based dental practice provides patient‐centred, compatible and efficient interventions and forms the basis for health profession education. So far, there is a paucity of data about Malaysian undergraduate dental education and the role of evidence‐based dentistry in it. The current research aimed to study the level of knowledge, attitude, practice and confidence of dental undergraduate students in Malaysia towards evidence‐based dental practice. Methods: This cross‐sectional study included final‐year undergraduate dental students (N = 645) who completed a pre‐tested self‐administered questionnaire that analysed the domains of perceived knowledge, practice, critical appraisal and attitude towards evidence‐based dentistry. We further explored the association between these domains with the type of curriculum, sex, prior research experience and EBD training. Results: A total of (n = 526) students participated (response rate of 81.55%). About 92% knew about evidence‐based dentistry. Whilst 58% had undergone formal training in evidence‐based dentistry, 90% of the respondents showed an overall positive attitude towards evidence‐based dentistry. However, only 45% of them practised it most of the time. Schools with an integrated curriculum showed more willingness and practised evidence‐based dentistry more frequently (p < 0.001). More than 50% of the participants rated their confidence in appraisal as moderate. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that Malaysian dental undergraduate students who are well aware of evidence‐based dentistry displayed a positive attitude towards it. The type of dental curriculum had a significant association with practice and attitude towards evidence‐based dental knowledge and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the variability of the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) in the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) in the solar maximum of 2002 and the solar minimum of 2008 were compared by using an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. The ionospheric TEC data were simulated using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (TIEGCM). The first three EOFs accounted for 94.8% and 93.86% of the variability in the data in 2002 and 2008, respectively. The results showed that the TEC variations of the first three EOFs were generally consistent in 2002 and 2008. The first mode showed the equatorial anomaly caused by plasma drift and the east–west asymmetry possibly caused by the change in geomagnetic declination and zonal wind; EOF2 exhibited the zonal variation influenced by the solar EUV radiation and the semiannual variation possibly controlled by the [O/N2], solar zenith angle, and atmospheric circulation. EOF3 suggested an equatorial anomaly and winter anomaly influenced by the [O/N2] variation. However, the values and amplitude variations in the TEC were significantly greater in the solar maximum than that in the solar minimum, and the spring–autumn asymmetry of the TEC was more obvious in the solar minimum. In addition, we used the EOF method to extract the annual variation characteristics of the time coefficients and carried out a correlation analysis. The results showed that the annual variation in the TEC in 2002 was mainly affected by the solar EUV radiation, which was strongly correlated with F10.7 (r = 0.7348). In contrast, the TEC was mainly influenced by the geomagnetic activity in 2008 and had a strong correlation with Dst (r = −0.7898). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an improvement on fully convolutional one-stage object detection to improve the overall performance of the model. Firstly, we propose two feature pyramid networks with dense architectures to enhance the semantic features of high levels of feature maps in feature pyramid networks. In addition, we modify the detection head, making it more intuitively to evaluate the prediction results. Finally, the qualities of positive samples in original model are limited by the generated error when the location maps back onto the original image. In this paper, we present an adaptive way to produce positive samples to alleviate this problem by appointing the size of center area adaptively. Besides, some other approaches are adopted to further improve the detector including new loss functions, deformable convolutional modules. We validate our approach on MS COCO validation datasets, and gain a 6.2% AP improvement compared to the original. Based on the backbone of ResNet-50, the detector can achieve an AP of 42.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal chemical enterprises have many risk factors, and the causes of accidents are complex. The traditional risk assessment methods rely on expert experience and previous literature to determine the causes of accidents, which has the problems such as lack of objectivity and low interpretation ability. Analyzing the accident report helps to identify typical accident risk factors and determines the accident evolution rule. However, experts usually judge this work manually, which is subjective and time-consuming. This paper developed an improved approach to identify safety risk factors from a volume of coal chemical accident reports using text mining (TM) technology. Firstly, the accident report was preprocessed, and the Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) was used for feature extraction. Then, the K-means algorithm and apriori algorithm were developed to cluster and for the association rule analysis of the vectorized documents in the TF-IDF matrix, respectively to quickly identify the hidden risk factors and the relationship between risk factors in the accident report and to propose targeted safety management measures. Using the sample data of 505 accidents in a large coal chemical enterprise in Western China in the past seven years, the enterprise accident reports were analyzed by text clustering analysis and association rule analysis methods. Through the analysis, six accident clusters and 13 association rules were obtained, and the main risk factors of each accident cluster were further mined, and the corresponding management suggestions were put forward for the enterprise. This method provides a new idea for coal chemical enterprises to make safety management decisions and helps to prevent safety accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a type of lethal gastrointestinal malignancy. It is mainly discovered at, and diagnosed with, an advanced stage of metastasis. As the only potentially curative treatment for PDAC, surgical resection has an uncertain impact on the survival of these patients. As such, we aimed to investigate if patients with metastatic PDAC (mPDAC) benefit from surgery. Methods: Patients with pancreatic cancer in 18 registries of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 2000 and 2018 were reviewed retrospectively. According to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), the eighth edition staging system was utilized. Propensity score matching was applied to strengthen the comparability of the study. The impact of surgery on survival was evaluated by restricted mean survival time (RMST) and Kaplan–Meier analysis. Results: A total of 210 well-matched mPDAC patients were included in the study. The 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year overall survival (OS) of patients undergoing surgery was 34.3%, 15.2%, and 11.0%, respectively. The 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year cancer-specific survival (CSS) of these patients was 36.1%, 19.7%, and 14.2%, respectively. RMST analysis revealed that mPDAC patients with surgery had better OS and CSS than those without (OS: 9.49 months vs. 6.45 months, p < 0.01; CSS: 9.76 months vs. 6.54 months, p < 0.01). Nevertheless, subgroup analysis demonstrated that such statistical significance especially existed in oligometastatic PDAC patients, which refers to those metastases that were limited in number and concentrated to a single organ in this study. Additionally, surgery was identified as a significant predictor for the long-term prognosis of patients (OS: [HR, hazard ratio] = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.36–0.65, p < 0.001; CSS: HR = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.33–0.63, p < 0.001). Lastly, a nomogram was established to predict whether an individual was suitable for surgical treatment in this study. Conclusions: Surgical resection significantly prolonged the long-term prognosis of oligometastatic PDAC patients. Such insights might broaden the management of patients with mPDAC to a large extent. However, a prospective clinical trial should be conducted before a recommendation of surgery in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with traditional rule-based algorithms, deep reinforcement learning methods in autonomous driving are able to reduce the response time of vehicles to the driving environment and fully exploit the advantages of autopilot. Nowadays, autonomous vehicles mainly drive on urban roads and are constrained by some map elements such as lane boundaries, lane driving rules, and lane center lines. In this paper, a deep reinforcement learning approach seriously considering map elements is proposed to deal with the autonomous driving issues of vehicles following and obstacle avoidance. When the deep reinforcement learning method is modeled, an obstacle representation method is proposed to represent the external obstacle information required by the ego vehicle input, aiming to address the problem that the number and state of external obstacles are not fixed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sliding dielectric barrier discharge (SL-DBD) has attracted attention due to its ability to suppress flow separation. This paper investigated the effect of SL-DBD on the flow field in the flat plate boundary layer by time-resolved particle image velocimetry. We obtained the finite-time Lyapunov exponent field and the Lagrangian coherent structures of the flow field through the velocity field. The results show the effect of SL-DBD has spatial differences, and SL-DBD will produce a "strong–weak–strong" spatial effect on the flow field. The directionality of the flow structure induced by SL-DBD is the main reason for the difference. SL-DBD will induce a large number of vortex structures in the local downstream area of the electrode. The vortex structure enhances the mixing and squeezing effects between the upper and lower flow fields. The upper flow field moves the lower flow field downward by about 0.1 mm through the squeezing effect. In addition, at the downstream region adjacent to the electrode, the oblique momentum injection of the SL-DBD is the dominant effect. At one electrode distance from the electrode, the SL-DBD induces a large number of vortex structures. However, when the distance from the electrode is twice the electrode spacing, the number of vortex structures decreases, and the structure becomes larger. The results show spatial differences in the perturbation of the flow field by SL-DBD, which cannot be ignored when SL-DBD is used to suppress flow separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]