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The helically metallic fuel is promising to improve the power density and safety margin of reactors core by its advantages of high thermal conductivity, large heat transfer area-to-volume ratio and continual inter-channel mixing. However, helical geometry and metallic U-Zr fuel will introduce challenges in the analysis of neutron physics, thermohydraulics and mechanics performance. Thus, in the current work, the analysis methods were developed for the characteristics of helically metallic fuel in neutron physics, thermohydraulics, mechanics and multi-physics coupling. For neutron physics, a 3D continuous-energy Monte Carlo method was employed to address the complex geometries and the complex intermediate neutron energy spectrum and generate few-group cross-sections. In core calculations, the 3D method of characteristics (MOC) with high geometric flexibility, accuracy and convergence was utilized. This method has been verified in 3D calculations of helically metallic fuel core. The results demonstrate that both cross-section generation and core calculation have achieved high accuracy and effectively improved computational efficiency. For thermohydraulics, the experimental technique including visual measurement and wire mesh sensor were used to measure the mixing characteristics of single and two-phase flow in helically metallic fuel rod bundle. CFD and subchannel analysis codes were developed to predict the boiling and critical heat flux. The inter-channel mixing was dominated by the flow sweeping mixing, while the turbulent mixing was insignificant. The vapor phase crowded at the elbow of the rods, where the boiling crisis was triggered. For mechanics, the molecular dynamics method was employed to predict the fundamental thermal-mechanical properties. The correlations were proposed for the thermal conductivity and elasticity modulus of U-Zr alloy under irradiation conditions with pores. The finite element tool Abaqus was used to analysis the thermal-mechanical performance of helically metallic fuel rod bundle. The maximum stress was found at the blade tips where adjacent rods contact with each other. The maximum stress varied from 326.7 MPa under fresh condition to about 313.3 MPa at 14.1% FEMA because of creep, which was far lower than the failure strength of the rod. The structure integrity can be ensured during the full life cycle. Based on the individual analysis method, the multi-physics coupling framework combining the neutron physics, thermohydraulics and mechanics was developed for the design and performance evaluation of the fuel assembly and reactor core with helically metallic fuel rods. Based on this multi-physics analysis tool, a novel boron-free small modular pressurized water reactor NETH-HCF175M design using helical-cruciform metal fuel was proposed. The core can achieve a cycle length of about 1 360 EFPD as the reactivity of the core is completely controlled by burnable absorbers and control rods.

Abstract Pyroptosis, apoptosis, and necroptosis are mainly programmed cell death (PCD) pathways for host defense and homeostasis. PANoptosis is a newly distinct inflammatory PCD pathway that is uniquely regulated by multifaceted PANoptosome complexes and highlights significant crosstalk and coordination among pyroptosis (P), apoptosis (A), and/or necroptosis(N). Although some studies have focused on the possible role of PANpoptosis in diseases, the pathogenesis of PANoptosis is complex and underestimated. Furthermore, the progress of PANoptosis and related agonists or inhibitors in disorders has not yet been thoroughly discussed. In this perspective, we provide perspectives on PANoptosome and PANoptosis in the context of diverse pathological conditions and human diseases. The treatment targeting on PANoptosis is also summarized. In conclusion, PANoptosis is involved in plenty of disorders including but not limited to microbial infections, cancers, acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS), ischemia-reperfusion, and organic failure. PANoptosis seems to be a double-edged sword in diverse conditions, as PANoptosis induces a negative impact on treatment and prognosis in disorders like COVID-19 and ALI/ARDS, while PANoptosis provides host protection from HSV1 or Francisella novicida infection, and kills cancer cells and suppresses tumor growth in colorectal cancer, adrenocortical carcinoma, and other cancers. Compounds and endogenous molecules focused on PANoptosis are promising therapeutic strategies, which can act on PANoptosomes-associated members to regulate PANoptosis. More researches on PANoptosis are needed to better understand the pathology of human conditions and develop better treatment.

Background Falls among older adults will cause a heavy burden on society and families. The development of effective falls prevention intervention policies for community-dwelling older adults is an important initiative to address this global public health problem. Objective To analyze and compare the content composition, key initiatives and implementation strategies of current falls prevention intervention policies for community-dwelling older adults in different countries from the perspective of policy tools. Methods Six countries in Asia, North America, and Europe, including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, Germany, and Russia, were selected as sample countries according to the degree of population aging and economic income level. Refer to the websites of relevant government departments such as the Ministry of Health, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and directly affiliated institutions, as well as websites of nongovernmental organizations, such as Prevention of Falls Network Europe, National Council On Aging, U.S., Association of Fall Prevention, Japan, and National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, Germany, the national policy documents of prevention interventions for community-dwelling older adults from January 2010 to June 2022 were searched by using "older adults" "fall/drop/accidental injuries" "prevention" as keywords. The text analysis was performed from the dimensions of policy tools such as demand-side type, supply-side type and environmental-side type, and injury prevention strategies such as education prevention strategies and evaluation strategies. Results Among the 24 policy documents, there were 212 coded targets in the dimension of policy tools, with environmental-side type, supply-side type and demand-side type policy tools accounting for 45.3% (96/212), 40.6% (86/212) and 14.1% (30/212), respectively. Among high-income countries, the public service tools under supply-side type policy tools were mostly applied in the United States and Germany, accounting for 40.5% (17/42) and 13.8% (8/58) ; the infrastructure construction tools under supply-side type policy tools were focused in Singapore〔24.1% (7/29) 〕. Among low and middle income countries, the environmental-side type policy tools were mostly applied in Russia and Thailand, accounting for 51.3% (20/39) and 55.6% (10/18), respectively. Public service was mostly applied among the supply-side type policy tools, accounting for 17.5% (37/212) ; technical standard was mostly applied among the environmental-side type policy tools, accounting for 10.8% (23/212) ; medicare payment was mostly applied among the demand-side type policy tools, accounting for 4.7% (10/212). In addition, there were 105 coded targets in the dimension of injury prevention strategies, with the education prevention strategies accounting for the highest proportion of 31.4% (33/105), the engineering strategy accounting for the lowest proportion of 5.7% (6/105). High-income countries are at the stage of multi-sectoral collaborative policy implementation, low and middle income countries are at the stage of policy implementation by the Ministry of Health stage. Conclusion Six countries focus on public service and infrastructure development under supply-side type policy tools; the application of demand-side type policy tools can be summarized as intervention services managed by medical insurance, intervention projects supported by financial funds, service purchases attracted by price subsidies, planning, organization, advocacy, and standard setting of environmental-side type policy tools. In combination with the priorities and specific measures of the six countries, it is suggested to learn from advanced experience in improving public services, strengthening evidence-based projects, standardizing technical standards, supporting financial incentives, expanding medical insurance programs, and providing price subsidies, thus further optimizing falls prevention intervention policies for community-dwelling older adults.

Objective To investigate the change in olfactory function after endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and related influencing factors. Methods Clinical data were collected from 176 patients with CRS who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery in our hospital from February 2019 to October 2021, and according to the improvement in olfactory function at 3 months after surgery, they were divided into good improvement group with 143 patients and poor improvement group with 33 patients. The two groups were compared in terms of the changes in olfactory function score and objective score before surgery and at 3 months after surgery, and the correlation between preoperative olfactory function score and objective score was analyzed. For the factors with significant differences in the univariate analysis, the multivariate logistic regression model was used to further investigate the independent risk factors for postoperative olfactory function. Results Both groups had significant changes in T&T olfactory score, VAS olfactory score, Lund-Mackay score, and Lund-Kennedy score after treatment (t=2.334,3.943,χ2=8.624,5.568,P

Beclin-1 is the firstly-identified mammalian protein of the autophagy machinery, which functions as a molecular scaffold for the assembly of PI3KC3 (class III phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase) complex, thus controlling autophagy induction and other cellular trafficking events. Notably, there is mounting evidence establishing the implications of Beclin-1 in diverse tumorigenesis processes, including tumor suppression and progression as well as resistance to cancer therapeutics and CSC (cancer stem-like cell) maintenance. More importantly, Beclin-1 has been confirmed as a potential target for the treatment of multiple cancers. In this review, we provide a comprehensive survey of the structure, functions, and regulations of Beclin-1, and we discuss recent advances in understanding the controversial roles of Beclin-1 in oncology. Moreover, we focus on summarizing the targeted Beclin-1-regulating strategies in cancer therapy, providing novel insights into a promising strategy for regulating Beclin-1 to improve cancer therapeutics in the future.

Biological data often takes the form of regular grids of samples, e.g., obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). When the finite-element method is used to predict the electromagnetic fields in volumes specified in this way, the data is first transformed to a geometric model, and then the model is subdivided into finite elements. These steps are expensive and can be unreliable. An alternative is proposed that avoids both steps. A regular mesh of rectangular finite elements is superimposed on the MRI grid. Each element may straddle boundaries between different tissues, but the basis functions are constructed in such a way that they respect the material interfaces. The new method is applied to the forward problem in electroencephalography. A circular head model and a model derived from real MRI data are analyzed with the new method. Sampled potentials at the surface of the scalp compare well with those obtained using the conventional finite-element method. Index Terms--Biological tissues, electroencephalography, finite-element methods (FEMs), magnetic resonance imaging.

OBJECTIVE: Our review aims at comparing the morbidity and mortality-related risks associated with the pre-injury administration of VK-antagonists or DOACs in elderly patients with TBI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a systematic search of the academic literature across five databases (Web of Science, EMBASE, CENTRAL, Scopus, and MEDLINE), following PRISMA guidelines. We conducted a random-effect meta-analysis to compare the influence of pre-injury VK-antagonists or DOACs administration on the overall intensive care unit and hospital stays of patients with TBI. We also evaluated the overall risks associated with VK-antagonists and with DOACs for intracranial hemorrhage progression, surgical intervention, and overall mortality in patients with TBI. RESULTS: From 973 studies, we found 11 eligible with 4,991 patients with traumatic brain injury (mean age, 77.82 ± 6.76 years). Our meta-analysis revealed insignificantly higher odds of surgical intervention (OR=1.72) and mortality (OR=1.07) associated with VK-antagonists administration than with DOACs administration. Similarly, we found that the intensive care unit (Hedge's g, 0.13) and hospital (g, 0.26) stays were insignificantly longer for individuals on VK-antagonists than for those on DOAC. Moreover, we observed insignificantly higher intracranial hemorrhage progression risks (OR=1.22) for individuals receiving DOACs than for those receiving VK-antagonists. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence on the morbidity and mortality-related outcomes associated with the pre-injury administration of VK-antagonists or DOACs in patients with TBI. We found no significant differences between VK-antagonists and DOACs on the overall morbidity (hospital and intensive care unit stays, intracranial hemorrhage, and surgical intervention frequency) and mortality outcomes in elderly patients with TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates robust active vibration suppression of a flexible beam with a low dominant frequency using piezoceramic sensor and actuators. The piezoceramic sensor and actuators are in patch form and are surface-bonded to the cantilevered end of the flexible beam. The robust sliding mode control, which has the advantages of being robust to plant parameter variation, insensitive to the unmodeled dynamics, and easy to implement, is adopted in this article for active vibration control of the flexible beam. Unlike other commonly used vibration suppression methods, such as positive position feedback control, strain rate feedback control, and lead compensation, the sliding mode controller requires almost no knowledge of the flexible beam. To avoid the chattering problem commonly associated with sliding mode control, a smooth switching function employing a hyperbolic tangent function is used. A low pass filter is applied to the output of the sliding mode controller to avoid excitation of the higher modes of the flexible beam. To demonstrate the advantage of sliding mode based active vibration reduction, its experimental results are compared with those of Proportional plus Derivative (PD) control and lead compensation. The comparison shows that the sliding mode controller reduces vibration of the flexible beam much more rapidly. To verify the robustness of the proposed sliding mode controller, vibration suppression of the beam is conducted for a case where the modal frequency of the beam is changed by adding masses. In addition, vibration suppression of the beam when subjected to a multi-modal excitation is also conducted. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed controller with respect to varying model parameters and even the dynamics of higher modes. Key words: Robust control, sliding mode control, vibration control, piezoceramic sensor and acatuator, 1. INTRODUCTION Recent years have seen the emergence of the new field of active structural control using smart materials. Among the smart materials used in active structure control, piezoceramics have [...]

Host plant resistance in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is a promising component in an integrated cropping system for managing thrips (Thrips palmi Karny) infestation. This study was conducted to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for resistance to thrips in common bean, using [F.sub.5:7] recombinant inbred lines (RILs) as a mapping population. The RILs, derived by single seed descent (SSD) of the cross of two Mesoamerican bean lines, BAT 881 and G 21212, were found to show transgressive segregation for thrips resistance in the field. Correlations between damage and reproductive adaptation (RA) scores were significant within and between seasons. The QTLs for both traits were located based on single interval mapping (IM) and joint interval mapping (JIM) analysis using a genetic map constructed with microsatellite and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Eight of eleven resulting linkage groups (LGs) were shown to be homologous to chromosomes of the integrated linkage map of common bean. A major QTL for thrips resistance located on LG b06 explained up to 26.8% of variance for resistance in a single season and was named Tpr6.1. The JIM across several seasons revealed various QTLs on LGs b02, b03, b06, and b08, some of which were located at regions of genes encoding for disease resistance. The identification and mapping of thrips-resistance genes is expected to facilitate the development of resistant bean cultivars by using molecular marker-assisted selection., THE COMMON BEAN was domesticated from a wild-growing vine distributed in the highlands of tropical America and has become a major legume food crop grown worldwide in a broad range [...]