Search

The construction of Z-scheme heterojunctions is still a challenge. Structure tailoring and energy band engineering of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) permit the rational design and fabrication of Z-scheme MOF/graphene oxide (GO) heterojunctions to enhance photocatalytic performance. Herein, a novel Z-scheme Zn-MOF/GO heterojunction as an environmentally friendly, reusable, and highly efficient visible-light-induced photocatalyst for methylene blue (Mb) decoloration and/or Cr(VI) reduction was synthesized. The Zn-MOF/GO composite displayed much higher photodegradation performance than pure Zn-MOF. Besides, the photocatalytic performance of composites is related to the amounts of GO, and Zn-MOF/GO(15%) showed the best activity. Specifically, Zn-MOF/GO(15%) presented 92.6% Mb decoloration, 98.8% Cr(VI) reduction, and the simultaneous removal of Mb (87.9%) and Cr(VI) (99.8%) with good stability. The improved performance for Zn-MOF/GO(15%) can be due to the formation of the Z-scheme heterojunction and built-in electric field, which can not only promote the photogenerated electron–hole separation and transfer, but also broaden the spectrum of light absorption. Furthermore, the improved plausible photodegradation mechanism of Zn-MOF/GO(15%) was provided, and e−, h+ and ·OH were the primary reactive species during the photodegradation reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the issue of crystal aggregation in CaWO 4 -based glass-ceramics under high temperature or prolonged durations, while also aiming to enhance the luminescent properties, a thermoelectric coupling treatment is introduced during the preparation process of glass-ceramics. In this study, the influence of applying an external DC electric field on the nucleation and crystallization was examined. Techniques such as DSC, XRD, and SEM are utilized to investigate the crystal types and microstructure of the glass-ceramics. Furthermore, the luminescent performance under ultraviolet and X-ray is characterized, with PL, PLE, and XEL spectra being measured. The findings reveal that thermoelectric coupling treatment augments the crystallization content, refines crystal distribution, and enhances luminescent properties. The applied DC electric field provides energy for thermodynamic reactions, reduces activation energy for bond breaking, accelerates ion migration, and facilitates crystal nucleation precipitation. Crucially, it induces polarization of Ti and Zr ions within crystal nuclei, generating electrostatic repulsion between nuclei. These effects mitigate crystal aggregation, refine distribution, and amplify crystal count. This underscores the potential of thermoelectric coupling treatment in synthesizing optical materials utilizing glass-ceramics as luminescent base materials, offering insights for similar researches endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a common vegetable variety, asparagus is rich in B vitamins, vitamin A, and trace elements such as folate, selenium, iron, manganese, and zinc. With the increasing market demand, China has become the world's largest cultivated area for asparagus production and product exportation. However, traditional asparagus grading mostly relies on manual visual judgment and needs a lot of manpower input to carry out the classification operation, which cannot meet the needs of large-scale production. To address the high labor cost and labor-intensive production process resulting from the large amount of manpower input and low accuracy of existing asparagus grading devices, this study proposed an improved asparagus grading system and method based on TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) objective evaluation and SVM (support vector machine) prediction. The key structure of classification device was analyzed first, the key components were designed, and the structural parameters were determined by theoretical calculation. Through analysis of the factors affecting asparagus quality, three key attributes were determined: length, diameter, and bruises, which were used as reference attributes to conduct experimental analysis. Then, the graded control groups were set up, combining the TOPSIS principle with weighting, and a score for each asparagus sample was determined. These scores were compared with those of a graded control group to derive the grade of each asparagus, and these subsets of the dataset were used as the training set and the test set, excluding the error caused by the subjectivity of the manual judgment. Based on a comparison of the accuracies of different machine learning models, the support vector machine (SVM) was determined to be the most accurate, and four SVM methods were used to evaluate the test set: linear SVM, quadratic SVM, cubic SVM, and medium Gaussian SVM. The test results showed that the grading device was feasible for asparagus. The bruises had a large influence on asparagus quality. The training accuracy of the medium Gaussian SVM method was high (96%), whereas its test accuracy was low (86.67%). The training accuracies and test accuracy of the quadratic and cubic SVM methods were 93.34%. The quadratic SVM and cubic SVM were demonstrated to have better generalization ability than the medium Gaussian SVM method for predicting unknown grades of asparagus and meeting the operational requirements of the asparagus grading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work aims to propose an interface-enriched isogeometric analysis strategy for predicting the size-dependent effective moduli and local stress field of periodic arrays of nanosize inhomogeneity. The proposed framework allows for an exact representation of the curved boundary of inhomogeneity inside the matrix due to the representation of the geometry of repeating unit cells for microstructured materials with nonuniform rational B-splines. The energetic surface was characterized by the Gurtin–Murdoch model, and it was incorporated into the proposed framework by introducing additional surface energies linked to the bulk elements neighbouring the interface. The surface-enhanced isogeometric homogenization method was verified through comparisons with existing solutions found in the literature. It is demonstrated that the proposed framework enables the satisfaction of higher-order continuity of the displacement fields, leading to smooth and accurate predictions of the stress fields and homogenized moduli of nanocomposites, without encountering the convergence problems associated with conventional finite-element methods in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a patch array antenna with wideband circular polarization and high gain is proposed by utilizing a hybrid metasurface (MS). A corner-cut slotted patch antenna was chosen as the source due to the possible generation of CP mode. The hybrid MS (HMS), consisting of a receiver MS (RMS) arranged in a 2 × 2 array of squared patches and a linear-to-circular polarization conversion (LCPC) MS surrounding it was then utilized as the superstrate driven by the source. The LCPC MS cell is a squared-corner-cut patch with a 45° oblique slot etched, which has the capability for wideband LCPC. The LCPC unit cell possesses wideband PC capabilities, as demonstrated by the surface current analysis and S-parameter simulations conducted using a Floquet–port setup. The LP EM wave radiated by the source antenna was initially received by the RMS, then converted to a CP wave as it passed through the LCPC MS, and ultimately propagated into space. To further enhance the LCPC properties, an improved HMS (IHMS) was then proposed with four cells cut at the corners, based on the original HMS design. To verify this design, both CMA and E-field were utilized to analyze the three MSs, indicating that the IHMS possessed a wideband LCPC capability compared to the other two MSs. The proposed antenna was then arranged in a 2 × 2 array with sequential rotation to further enhance its properties. As demonstrated by the measurements, the array antenna achieved an S11 bandwidth of 60.5%, a 3 dB AR bandwidth of 2.85 GHz, and a peak gain of 15.1 dBic, all while maintaining a low profile of only 0.09λ0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Insulin resistance (IR) is linked to both the complexity of coronary artery lesions and the prognosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, the precise extent of this correlation and its impact on adverse cardiovascular outcomes in ACS patients remain unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the intricate relationship between IR, coronary artery lesion complexity, and the prognosis of ACS through a cohort design analysis. Method: A total of 986 patients with ACS who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were included in this analysis. IR was assessed using the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, while coronary artery lesion complexity was evaluated using the SYNTAX score. Pearson's correlation coefficients were utilized to analyze the correlations between variables. The association of the TyG index and SYNTAX score with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in ACS was investigated using the Kaplan-Meier method, restricted cubic splines (RCS), and adjusted Cox regression. Additionally, a novel 2-stage regression method for survival data was employed in mediation analysis to explore the mediating impact of the SYNTAX score on the association between the TyG index and adverse cardiovascular outcomes, including MACEs and unplanned revascularization. Results: During a median follow-up of 30.72 months, 167 cases of MACEs were documented, including 66 all-cause deaths (6.69%), 26 nonfatal myocardial infarctions (MIs) (2.64%), and 99 unplanned revascularizations (10.04%). The incidence of MACEs, all-cause death, and unplanned revascularization increased with elevated TyG index and SYNTAX score. Both the TyG index (non-linear, P = 0.119) and SYNTAX score (non-linear, P = 0.004) displayed a positive dose-response relationship with MACEs, as illustrated by the RCS curve. Following adjustment for multiple factors, both the TyG index and SYNTAX score emerged as significant predictors of MACEs across the total population and various subgroups. Mediation analysis indicated that the SYNTAX score mediated 25.03%, 18.00%, 14.93%, and 11.53% of the correlation between the TyG index and MACEs in different adjusted models, respectively. Similar mediating effects were observed when endpoint was defined as unplanned revascularization. Conclusion: Elevated baseline TyG index and SYNTAX score were associated with a higher risk of MACEs in ACS. Furthermore, the SYNTAX score partially mediated the relationship between the TyG index and adverse cardiovascular outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiral metamaterials possess unique optical chiral responses, and the attainment of remarkable intrinsic chirality typically necessitates the disruption of their mirror symmetry to facilitate cross‐coupling between electric and magnetic dipoles. However, achieving such symmetry breaking in a flexible and controllable manner remains challenging due to the limited range of applications afforded by available methodologies. Here, a method is proposed for fabricating robust three‐dimensional (3D) chiral metamaterials by projecting arbitrary planar chiral metasurfaces onto on‐demand height‐tunable 3D silicon structures, thereby effectively modulating their optical chiral responses through continuously tuning the degree of cross‐coupling between dipoles. Experimental and simulation results demonstrate this approach's ability to precisely control circular dichroism (CD) from a non‐chiral state to various activated and enhanced chirality. Enhancing CD with high precision and continuous control manners can naturally provide an advanced opportunity and platform for the future design and actual applications of chiral optical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LiNi 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O 2-δ (NCAL) is reported to provide dual catalytic activities of hydroxide reaction (HOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in solid oxide fuel cell. However, it has been observed that the performance of NCAL symmetric electrodes undergoes a gradual decrease during fuel cell operation, especially the cathode, which was found to suffer from severe gas diffusion degradation. In this study, we tried to optimize the NCAL cathode by modifying the microstructure in order to increase the cathode performance under extended operation time. During the fabrication of SOFCs, various mass ratios of poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microspheres were introduced into the NCAL cathode as pore former. The affection of pore former ratio and its size on cell performance is investigated. Results suggest that properly increasing the porosity of the cathode is of significant importance for improving cathode performance, but additionally increasing the porosity of the anode by pore-former is not a wise choice. Besides, considering the oxidation of nickel foam at the cathode, comparative study on the application of nickel foam is carried out to understand its role. In addition, the performance of the cells over a continuous operation for hours has been studied to evaluate the effectiveness of the optimization method. This study provides reference for improving the performance of SOFC based on NCAL electrodes. • Improving cathode performance by adding PMMA as pore-former in the cathode. • Demonstrating that cathode performance is the limiting issue for NCAL based fuel cell. • Removal of nickel foam on the cathode side is important for improving the cell stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The initial state inconsistency and iteration‐varying trajectory problems are considered in adaptive iterative learning control (AILC) to enhance the tracking performance of the non‐strict feedback systems with unknown input nonlinearities. Through constructing an error reference trajectory independence of the reference signal, the restrictions on the initial condition and reference trajectory are both relaxed. Subsequently, a backstepping‐based AILC methodology is systematically presented to ensure that the error reference trajectory can be followed by the actual tracking error. Integral Lyapunov functions are employed to design the recursive controllers, avoiding potential singularity problems resulting from the differentiation of gain functions. Rigorous analysis is provided without imposing constraints on the control gain functions to demonstrate tracking error convergence. Numerical simulations are included to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the improvement of the new generation information technology, and the development of online economy, the customer behavior has gradually changed. The online economy has gradually become a new economic growth point. Many online platforms attract customers to purchase new products through different kinds of price discounts. In this article, we discuss the inventory bullwhip effect (IBE) in an online retail supply chain (ORSC) considering the price discount based on the different forecasting methods. Moreover, we discuss the influence of them on the IBE. When the price discount, the moving average forecasting method (MA), the exponential smoothing forecasting method (ES), and the minimum mean squared error forecasting method (MMSE) are considered, we consider an ORSC including of a manufacturer and an online platform, and the quantitative models of the BE and the IBE are discussed. This article finds that when the price sensitivity coefficient is very low, the online platform's IBE is the lowest when the online platform adopts the MMSE method. Moreover, when the price discount gradually increases, the IBE of the online platform is also increasing. Moreover, it is gradually increasing when the expectation price difference coefficient becomes gradually increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Diabetes is a common metabolic disease that seriously endangers human health. In the present study, we investigated the therapeutic effects of the active ingredient Eleutheroside B (EB) from the traditional Chinese medicine Eleutheroside on diabetes mellitus in a zebrafish model. Concomitant hepatic injury was also analysed, along with the study of possible molecular mechanisms using metabolomics technology. This work should provide some theoretical references for future experimental studies. (2) Methods: A zebrafish diabetes model was constructed by soaking in a 1.75% glucose solution and feeding a high-fat diet. The intervention drug groups were metformin (100 μg∙mL−1) and EB (50, 100, and 150 μg∙mL−1) via water-soluble exposure for 30 days. Glucose, TG, TC, LDL-C, and HDL-C were evaluated in different treatment groups. GLUT4 protein expression was also evaluated in each group, and liver injury was observed by HE staining. Metabolomics techniques were used to investigate the mechanism by which EB regulates endogenous markers and metabolic pathways during the development of diabetes. (3) Results: All EB treatment groups in diabetic zebrafish showed significantly reduced body mass index (BMI) and improved blood glucose and lipid profiles. EB was found to upregulate GLUT4 protein expression and ameliorate the liver injury caused by diabetes. Metabolomics studies showed that EB causes changes in the metabolic profile of diabetic zebrafish. These were related to the regulation of purine metabolism, cytochrome P450, caffeine metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, the mTOR signalling pathway, insulin resistance, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. (4) Conclusions: EB has a hypoglycaemic effect in diabetic zebrafish as well as significantly improving disorders of glycolipid metabolism. The mechanism of action of EB may involve regulation of the mTOR signalling pathway, purine metabolism, caffeine metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the application of cryogenic hoses in the field of cryogenic media has become a hot topic, especially in the industry of offshore liquefied natural gas and aerospace field. However, the structure of cryogenic hoses is complex, and reasonable structural properties are required due to the harsh working conditions. There is still plenty of scope for further development to improve the performance in all aspects. In this paper, the current development status of cryogenic hoses for liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation is reviewed first, including the types, manufacturers, structural forms, performance, and key technical challenges. And then, the recent progress and prospect of cryogenic hoses for cryogenic liquid transportation (such as LNG and liquid oxygen) are summarized, including structure design, low-temperature resistant polymers, liquid oxygen compatible polymers, and leakage monitoring technologies. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the research development and application of cryogenic hoses. Moreover, future research directions have been proposed to facilitate its practical applications in aerospace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1, also known as NCOA1) frequently functions as a transcriptional coactivator by directly binding to transcription factors and recruiting to the target gene promoters to promote gene transcription by increasing chromatin accessibility and promoting the formation of transcriptional complexes. In recent decades, various biological and pathological functions of SRC-1 have been reported, especially in the context of tumorigenesis. SRC-1 is a facilitator of the progression of multiple cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, neurological cancer, and female genital system cancer. The emerging multiorgan oncogenic role of SRC-1 is still being studied and may not be limited to only steroid hormone-producing tissues. Growing evidence suggests that SRC-1 promotes target gene expression by directly binding to transcription factors, which may constitute a novel coactivation pattern independent of AR or ER. In addition, the antitumour effect of pharmacological inhibition of SRC-1 with agents including various small molecules or naturally active compounds has been reported, but their practical application in clinical cancer therapy is very limited. For this review, we gathered typical evidence on the oncogenic role of SRC-1, highlighted its major collaborators and regulatory genes, and mapped the potential mechanisms by which SRC-1 promotes primary tumour progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Psittacosis is a zoonosis caused by Chlamydia psittaci, the clinical manifestations of Psittacosis range from mild illness to fulminant severe pneumonia with multiple organ failure. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics of Chlamydia psittaci infection diagnosed based on metagenomic next-generation sequencing(mNGS), as well as the risk factors affecting the progress of Chlamydia psittaci infection, in order to improve the effect of therapeutics. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of patients infected with chlamydia psittaci in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University from January 2021 to December 2021. The patient's past medical history, clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations, chest CT results, treatment status, and prognosis data were collected. we also investigated both the pathogenic profile characteristics and the lower respiratory tract microbiota of patients with Chlamydia psittaci pneumonia using mNGS. Results: All cases of Chlamydia psittaci in our research have been confirmed by mNGS. Among 46 cases of Chlamydia psittaci pneumonia, Poultry exposure was reported in 35 cases. In severe cases of Chlamydia psittaci pneumonia, Neutrophils, Procalcitonin (PCT), Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH), Hydroxybutyrate Dehydrogenase (HBDH), Creatine Kinase Isoenzymes-B (CK-MB) and D-Dimer levels were remarkably higher than that of non-severe cases, except for lymphocytes (all P < 0.05). Chest CT scans showed Bilateral (77.8%), multiple lobar lungs (85.2%), pleural effusions (44.4%) involvement in those suffering from severe Chlamydia psittaci pneumonia, whereas its incidence was 0%, 21.1% and 10.5% in non-severe patients, respectively (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that higher lymphocyte concentrations (OR 0.836, 95% CI 0.714–0.962, P = 0.041) were the only protective factor for survival. mNGS results indicated that 41.3% of patients (19/46) had suspected coinfections with a coinfection rate of 84.2% (16/19) in the severe group, much higher than that in the non severe group (p < 0.05). No significantly different profiles of lower respiratory tract microbiota diversity were found between non severe group and severe group. Conclusion: A history of poultry exposure in patients can serve as an important basis for diagnosing Chlamydia psittaci pneumonia, and patients with severe Chlamydia psittaci pneumonia are more likely to develop elevated inflammatory biomarkers as well as elevated cardiac markers. Higher lymphocyte concentrations are protective factors associated with severe C. psittaci pneumonia. The higher proportion of patients with coinfections in our study supports the use of mNGS for comprehensive early detection of respiratory infections in patients with C. psittaci pneumonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a toroidal metamaterial for achieving highly sensitive sensors in the terahertz (THz) frequency range is proposed. Such a subwavelength structure consists of a pair of mirror-symmetric metal split-ring resonators and a single metal wire. By exciting the structure with vertically incident electromagnetic waves, high-Q transmission peaks are generated at 2.40 and 2.44THz. Near-field analysis reveals that the reverse-flowing currents in the metal split-ring resonators and the metal wire create a pair of magnetic dipoles connected end to end, resulting in a vortex-like magnetic field known as a toroidal dipole. Calculations of multipole scattering energy further confirm that the rapidly enhanced toroidal dipole is the primary factor responsible for the high-Q transmission peaks. This toroidal metamaterial can be used to design refractive index sensors with a sensitivity of up to 20GHz/RIU, enabling the detection of subtle changes in the surrounding environment’s parameters. Our strategy paves an alternative route to the development of highly sensitive sensors for biological and chemical molecules in the THz frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regeneration has been considered as an ideal way for the post-treatment of waste FCC catalyst (ECat). In this work, the degeneration mechanism of ECat was firstly researched and attributed to the increasing of strong acid sites accessibility of ECat in contrast with fresh FCC catalyst by adsorption FTIR. Based on the proposed degeneration mechanism, ECat was successfully regenerated through suitable weakening for strong acid sites by boron modification. Characterization and evaluation results suggested that, the strong acid sites of regenerated ECat (R-ECat) were apparently decreased by boron modification which had significantly improve the heavy oil catalytic cracking performance of R-ECat. Because of the excellent performance, R-ECat in this work could successfully substitute for partial fresh FCC catalyst in FCC unit, which would provide a practicable way for the reutilization of ECat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mathematical and quantitative methods were used to describe the damaged shape repair and provide the restoration results in the form of a probability distribution. • A specialized triangle mesh topology for Buddha statue head registration was designed, and a semi-automated registration strategy was developed to achieve high-quality shape registration. • Using the deformation field and interpolator, we defined the Gaussian process model, in which every shape sampling from the model is a function defined on the reference shape. • A set of kernel functions was designed to extend the flexibility of the learned model. • A series of experiments was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of our method, and we applied the methods to an actual damaged Buddha statue head repair project. Buddha statues are distributed worldwide, and each piece reflects the aesthetic fashion of a particular region and historical era. Therefore, these sculptures have important cultural, aesthetic, and historical value. Owing to natural or artificial destruction, several Buddha statues have been damaged, with head or facial damage being the most prominent damage type. Because Buddha statue heads exhibit intricate variations in facial expressions and proportions, restoring head or facial damage is the most challenging aspect of damaged sculpture restoration projects. This study provides a new method for the restoration of damaged statues based on a Gaussian process model. The Gaussian process model entails a type of statistical shape modeling that allows it to learn shape distribution properties from a training dataset. During the restoration process, we used the residual parts of the damaged shape for the observations and added them to a Bayesian inference system to obtain the possible restoration result in the form of a posterior distribution. Therefore, the proposed method can be regarded as a quantitative mathematical representation of the subjective deduction process. Compared to those of the traditional manual restoration method, our results were more repeatable and stable, and the restoration process was automatic and rigorous, which reduced the requirements for professional knowledge and experience. Based on the learned model information, the proposed method exhibits strong robustness and anti-noise properties. In contrast to the optimization method, our final restoration result is a probability distribution, applicable to the repair of cultural relics. As our method make the missing shape inference using residual shape information and the regularity learned from training dataset, it is suitable for the restoration of damaged parts with no direct shape evidence. Finally, our model is generative; in other words, we can generate shapes on the posterior distribution and provide the corresponding probability. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our method, a series of experiments were conducted to restore damaged parts under different parameters and damage type settings. Subsequently, a quantitative analysis was performed. Finally, we applied this method to the virtual restoration of a damaged Buddha statue head in Xi 'an Museum. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, inspired by the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, examines the mechanisms by which perceived hazard characteristics and the informational subjective norms of Chinese youth, aged from 14 to 44 years old, become associated with their intentions to seek cancer risk information online. A sample of 684 Chinese youths was collected from four cities in Mainland China with results revealing that perceived hazard characteristics and informational subjective norms motivate their online cancer risk information seeking intentions. Specifically, perceived probability, perceived severity, and institutional trust are positively related to negative affect, however the relationship between personal control and negative affect is not significant. Institutional trust and personal control are positively related to positive affect while perceived probability and perceived severity have no significant effect on positive affect. Negative affect and informational subjective norms are positively related to perceived information insufficiency, while the relationship between positive affect and perceived information insufficiency is not significant. Negative affect, positive affect, informational subjective norms, and perceived information insufficiency are all positively related to the online cancer risk information seeking intentions of Chinese youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an adaptive fixed‐time neural control scheme is proposed for a class of nonlinear uncertain systems with full‐state constraints. A novel asymmetric hyperbolic barrier Lyapunov function (AHBLF) is first constructed to handle time‐varying constraints of all the system states. EspecialLy, the AHBLF can not only be applied to unconstrained, symmetric‐constrained and asymmetric‐constrained systems simultaneously, but also the fixed time control can be realized by incorporating the AHBLF into each step of the backstepping method to design controller. The adaptive controller is presented to guarantee that the tracking errors converge into the neighborhood around the equilibrium point in a fixed time and all the system states can be restricted within the predefined time‐varying boundaries. With the proposed control scheme, the singularity problem is avoided without constructing multiple piecewise functions, and no prior knowledge on the bound of gain functions is required in the controller design. Comparative simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, squeeze casting experiments of flywheel housing components with a large wall thickness difference and a complex shape were carried out with AlSi9Mg aluminum alloy. The defects, microstructures, and mechanical properties under different process parameters were investigated. Furthermore, the local pressurization process was applied to the thick-walled positions to force-feed the cast defects. The mechanical properties and microstructures at these positions were analyzed. The results showed that the surface quality of formed components was good and that local pressurization could effectively reduce the shrinkage cavity and shrinkage porosity in thick walls, but the scope and effect of forced feeding were limited. The optimum process parameters were a pouring temperature of 650 °C, a specific pressure of 48 MPa, a mold temperature of 220 °C, a local pressurization of 800 MPa, and pressure delay times of 15 s (side A) and 17 s (side B). The ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation of the formed component under validation experiments of the optimum process parameters were 201 MPa, 103 MPa, and 5.1%. Meanwhile, the fine grains of primary α-Al were mainly rosette and equiaxed grains, and the average grain size was about 40 μm. The microstructure of the eutectic silicon was acicular and was prone to segregation under pressure. According to profile morphology, the positions after pressurization were divided into a deformation zone, a direct action zone, and an indirect action zone. The coexistence of as-cast and plastic deformation microstructures was observed. The effect of local pressurization mainly involved a change in the solidification process, plastic deformation, and forced feeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This reviews the latest progress in the host structure, storage mechanism, electrolytes, and devices of aqueous ammonium ion storage devices from a structural perspective, and proposes research prospects and promising improvement strategies. [Display omitted] • Summarized the host materials of aqueous ammonium ions from a structural perspective, including storage mechanisms and improvement strategies. • The electrolytes used for NH 4 + storage was classified based on storage type and concentration, and the problems and solutions faced were summarized. • Summarized the advanced progress of various NH 4 + storage devices using NH 4 + as carriers. Aqueous ammonium ion energy storage devices have received widespread attention recently due to their high safety, fast diffusion kinetics, and unique tetrahedral structure with abundant charge carriers (NH 4 +) resources. Although many NH 4 + storage electrode materials have been frequently proposed, there are still face explorations and challenges in terms of performance improvement and storage mechanisms. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop high-performance NH 4 + storage electrode materials and explore deeper mechanisms. This review comprehensively classifies and compares NH 4 + storage electrode materials from a structural perspective, and reviews the influence of electrolyte composition and concentration on NH 4 + storage systems. In addition, this review also elaborates on the current limitations and possible solutions. Finally, common NH 4 + storage devices are summarized, and their future development prospects and challenges are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic astaxanthin is an effective nutritional strategy for improving shrimp body color and promoting growth. However, the optimal amount of astaxanthin in feed also varies with the synthetic technology and purity. In the present study, five diets containing different doses of synthetic astaxanthin (0% (CON), 0.02% (AX0.02), 0.04% (AX0.04), 0.08% (AX0.08), and 0.16% (AX0.16)) were administered to Penaeus monodon (initial body weight: 0.3 ± 0.03 g) for 8 weeks. With an increase in astaxanthin content in feed, weight gain and specific growth rate increased initially and subsequently decreased, with the highest value appearing at AX0.08. Dietary astaxanthin supplementation obviously improved the carapace and muscle color by enhancing astaxanthin pigmentation. Meanwhile, the fatty acid profile was altered by dietary astaxanthin, as evidenced by a decline in palmitic acid proportion, along with an increase in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) contents in muscle. In addition, dietary astaxanthin supplementation regulated prawn's antioxidant capacity. In the hemolymph, the activities of glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) showed a significantly decrease trend with linear effect. The activities of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) were first downregulated and then upregulated with significantly quadratic pattern. In the hepatopancreas, the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the contents of MDA were significantly downregulated with the increase of dietary astaxanthin levels. Reduced glutathione (GSH) contents and catalase (CAT) activities were also significantly decreased in group AX0.08. Correspondingly, astaxanthin decreased GSH and MDA contents under transportation stress. Moreover, the mRNA expression of immune genes (traf6, relish, and myd88) were inhibited by dietary astaxanthin supplementation. Based on the results of polynomial contrasts analysis and Duncan's test, dietary synthetic astaxanthin is a suitable feed additive to improve the growth, body color, antioxidant capacity, and nonspecific immunity of P. monodon. According to the second-order polynomial regression analysis based on the weight gain, the optimal supplementation level of dietary astaxanthin was 90 mg kg−1 in P. monodon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On‐surface synthesis serves as a powerful approach to construct π‐conjugated carbon nanostructures that are not accessible by conventional wet chemistry. Nevertheless, this method has been limited by the types and numbers of available on‐surface transformations. While the majority of successful cases exploit thermally triggered dehalogenative carbon–carbon coupling and cyclodehydrogenation, rearrangement of appropriate functional moieties has received limited research attention. Here, the unprecedented interchain coupling and thermally induced skeleton rearrangement are described of (dihydro)indeno[2,1‐b]fluorene (IF) polymers on an Au(111) surface under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, leading to different ladder polymers as well as fully fused graphene nanoribbon segments containing pentagonal and heptagonal rings. Au‐coordinated nanoribbons are also observed. All structures are unambiguously characterized by high‐resolution scanning probe microscopy. The current results provide an avenue to fabricating a wider variety of π‐conjugated polymers and carbon nanostructures comprising nonhexagonal rings as well as rarely explored organometallic nanoribbons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop two joint tests for the parametric drift and volatility functions of a diffusion model based on empirical processes. One key feature of our joint tests is that they account for different convergence rates of parameter estimators. The tests are of classical Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Cramér–von Mises types, and are asymptotically distribution free. The proposed tests have nontrivial power against a class of local alternatives with different convergence rates for the drift and volatility terms. Monte Carlo simulations show that the tests perform quite well in finite samples and outperform the nonparametric test of Hong and Li. The new tests are applied to EUR/USD exchange rate data and generate some interesting empirical findings that are consistent with our theoretical results and simulation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global environmental concern surrounding microplastic (MP) pollution has raised alarms due to its potential health risks to animals, plants, and humans. Because of the complex structure and composition of microplastics (MPs), the detection methods are limited, resulting in restricted detection accuracy. Surface enhancement of Raman spectroscopy (SERS), a spectral technique, offers several advantages, such as high resolution and low detection limit. It has the potential to be extensively employed for sensitive detection and high-resolution imaging of microplastics. We have summarized the research conducted in recent years on the detection of microplastics using Raman and SERS. Here, we have reviewed qualitative and quantitative analyses of microplastics and their derivatives, as well as the latest progress, challenges, and potential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that enhancing the osteogenic ability of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) may be beneficial in the fight against osteoporosis (OP) effects. Inokosterone (IS) is a major active constituent of Achyranthis bidentatae radix (ABR), which stimulates osteogenic differentiation of mouse embryonic osteoblasts. This study aims to investigate effect of IS on OP using osteogenic differentiated BMSCs and ovariectomy (OVX)-induced OP rats. The BMSCs were treated with 50, 100, or 200 mg/L IS and OP rats were given 2 or 4 mg/kg of IS by gavage. Cell viability, the osteogenic differentiation marker protein expression level, and mineralization were observed. This study proved that IS improved cell viability, osteogenic differentiation, and cellular mineralization in BMSCs and raised expression levels of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2), Smad1, runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2), collagen I, ALP, and OCN. By BMP2 knockdown/overexpression, this study also proved the BMP2 signaling pathway activation is a potential biological mechanism of IS to improve osteogenic differentiation and mineralization in osteogenic differentiated BMSCs. In OVX-induced OP rats, IS was observed to antagonize bone loss, improve osteogenic differentiation marker protein expression levels, and activate BMP-2, smad1, and RUNX2. These findings provide scientific support for further investigation of the biological mechanisms of IS in ameliorating OP. • In vitro , Inokosterone (IS) improved viability and osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs. • In vivo , IS antagonized bone loss of ovariectomy (OVX)-induced OP rats. • BMP2 knockdown/overexpression suggested that IS improve osteoporosis through BMP-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Requirements of blood transfusions rise rapidly in China. Improving the efficiency of blood donation could help maintaining sufficient blood supplement. We conducted a pilot research to investigate the reliability and safety of collecting more units of red blood cell by apheresis. Methods: Thirty‐two healthy male volunteers were randomized into two groups: red blood cell apheresis (RA) (n = 16) and whole blood (WB) donation (n = 16). RA group donated individualized RBC volumes by apheresis according to the volunteers' basal total blood volumes and haematocrit levels, WB group donated 400 mL whole blood. All volunteers were scheduled seven visit times in 8 weeks' study period. The cardiovascular functions were assessed by laboratory examinations, echocardiography and cardiopulmonary functional tests. All results were compared between groups at the same visit time and compared between visit 1(before donation) and other visit times within the same group. Results: The average donated RBC volume in RA group and in WB group was 627.25 ± 109.74 mL and 175.28 ± 8.85 mL, respectively(p < 0.05); the RBC, haemoglobin and haematocrit levels changed significantly between times and between groups (p < 0.05). Cardiac biomarker levels such as NT‐proBNP, hs‐TnT and CK‐MB did not change significantly between times or between groups (p > 0.05). The echocardiographic and cardiopulmonary results did not change significantly between times or between groups during the whole study period(p > 0.05). Conclusions: We provided an efficient and secure method for RBC apheresis. By harvesting more RBC volumes at one single‐time, the cardiovascular functions did not change significantly compared with traditional whole blood donation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, as a surrogate marker of insulin resistance, is independently associated with the severity of coronary artery lesions and the prognosis of coronary heart disease. The investigation aimed to explore the relationship between the TyG index and recurrent revascularization in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) resulting from the progression of lesions or in-stent restenosis (ISR) after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Method: A total of 633 patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled and divided into three groups based on the tertiles of the TyG index. The primary endpoint was recurrent revascularization resulting from the progression of lesions or ISR. All-cause death was considered as the competing risk event. Competing risk analysis and Cox regression analysis for predicting recurrent revascularization after PCI were conducted stepwise. Variables were standardized to make the hazard ratio (HR), subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) and corresponding 95% CI more consistent prior to being used for fitting the multivariate risk model. The predictive ability of the TyG index was evaluated using several measures, including the ROC curve, likelihood ratio test, Akaike's information criteria, category-free continuous net reclassification improvement (cNRI > 0), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI). Internal validation was conducted through bootstrapping with 1000 resamples. Results: During a median follow-up period of 18.33 months, a total of 64 (10.11%) patients experienced recurrent revascularization, including 55 cases of lesion progression and 9 cases of in-stent restenosis. After controlling for competitive risk events, the TyG index was independently associated with a higher risk of recurrent revascularization [SHR:1.4345, (95% CI 1.1458–1.7959), P = 0.002]. The likelihood ratio test and Akaike's information criteria showed that the TyG index significantly improves the prognostic ability. Additionally, adding the TyG index improved the ability of the established risk model in predicting recurrent revascularization, indicated by a C-index of 0.759 (95% CI 0.724–0.792, P < 0.01), with a cNRI > 0 of 0.170 (95% CI 0.023–0.287, P < 0.05), and an IDI of 0.024 (95% CI 0.009–0.039, P = 0.002). These results remained consistent when the models containing TyG index were confirmed using an internal bootstrap validation method. Conclusion: The findings highlight the potential of the TyG index as a predictor of recurrent revascularization. Lesion progression emerged as the primary contributor to recurrent revascularization instead of in-stent restenosis. The incorporation of the TyG index into risk prediction models is likely to be beneficial for accurate risk stratification in order to improve prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of schizophrenia (SCZ) genetic risk on gene expression in brain remains elusive. A popular approach to this problem has been the application of gene co-expression network algorithms (e.g., WGCNA). To improve reliability with this method it is critical to remove unwanted sources of variance while also preserving biological signals of interest. In this WCGNA study of RNA-Seq data from postmortem prefrontal cortex (78 neurotypical donors, EUR ancestry), we tested the effects of SCZ genetic risk on co-expression networks. Specifically, we implemented a novel design in which gene expression was adjusted by linear regression models to preserve or remove variance explained by biological signal of interest (GWAS genomic scores for SCZ risk—(GS-SCZ), and genomic scores- GS of height (GS-Ht) as a negative control), while removing variance explained by covariates of non-interest. We calculated co-expression networks from adjusted expression (GS-SCZ and GS-Ht preserved or removed), and consensus between them (representative of a "background" network free of genomic scores effects). We then tested the overlap between GS-SCZ preserved modules and background networks reasoning that modules with reduced overlap would be most affected by GS-SCZ biology. Additionally, we tested these modules for convergence of SCZ risk (i.e., enrichment in PGC3 SCZ GWAS priority genes, enrichment in SCZ risk heritability and relevant biological ontologies. Our results highlight key aspects of GS-SCZ effects on brain co-expression networks, specifically: 1) preserving/removing SCZ genetic risk alters the co-expression modules; 2) biological pathways enriched in modules affected by GS-SCZ implicate processes of transcription, translation and metabolism that converge to influence synaptic transmission; 3) priority PGC3 SCZ GWAS genes and SCZ risk heritability are enriched in modules associated with GS-SCZ effects. Overall, our results indicate that gene co-expression networks that selectively integrate information about genetic risk can reveal novel combinations of biological pathways involved in schizophrenia. Author summary: Genetic risk for schizophrenia (SCZ) is linked to brain connectivity at multiple levels, from molecular interactions to coherent cognitive processing. Biological mechanisms by which SCZ genetic risk affects brain connectivity are generally unknown. In this study we sought to uncover some of these mechanisms by focusing on gene co-expression networks calculated from RNA-Seq data extracted from postmortem DLPFC. We created co-expression networks from gene expression adjusted to account for, or to remove the likely effects of genomic (polygenic) scores of SCZ risk. We minimized potential confounding effects of illness state or treatment on gene expression by using only brains from donors without a history of mental disorder. We used as a control, co-expression networks from gene expression adjusted to account for effects of genomic scores of height- a normative trait. Our results show subtle and widespread effects of SCZ genomic scores on DLPFC co-expression networks. Gene sets from co-expression modules adjusted for SCZ genetic risk harbor biological significance represented by neuronal functions, but also by interacting pathways of general cellular processes like transcription, translation and metabolism. Our findings highlight possible avenues for identifying regulatory targets of gene expression in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Soft fruit is an economically important global fruit crop. Drosophila suzukii is a significant pest of soft fruit, including grape bayberry. In China, Trichopria drosophilae is the dominant pupal parasitoid of D. suzukii. In order to control the population of D. suzukii more effectively and reduce the use of pesticides, researchers have investigated the potential role of T. drosophilae in the biological control of D. suzukii in China. In this paper, we investigated the functional response and control potential of T. drosophilae on D. suzukii pupae at different temperatures. Our aim was to expand the range of control applications for T. drosophilae. We investigated the functional response and interference effect of T. drosophilae and found that T. drosophilae showed good levels of parasitic ability on D. suzukii pupae in the laboratory environment. At temperatures of 23 °C to 35 °C, T. drosophilae exhibited a type II functional response on D. suzukii pupae. Researchers have previously investigated the role of Trichopria drosophilae as a pupal parasitoid in the biological control of Drosophila suzukii in China. Here, we investigated the ability of T. drosophilae to parasitize D. suzukii pupae at different temperatures. To do this, we evaluated the functional response of T. drosophilae to D. suzukii pupae at different temperatures and investigated the specific effects of density on parasitism. The results show that the parasitic functional response of T. drosophilae under different high-temperature stimuli is Holling type II. After processing at 29 °C, the instantaneous search rate was 1.1611; the theoretical maximum parasitic value was 20.88 at 31 °C. The parasitic efficiency decreased with increasing stimulation temperature, as the host pupa density increased from 5 to 25, and the strongest search effect occurred at 0.87 at 27 °C. The searching effect of T. drosophilae at each temperature fell gradually with an increase in prey density from 5 to 25. At 31 °C, the theoretical parasitic maximum of T. drosophilae reached a maximum of 20.88 pupae. At this temperature, when a pair of T. drosophilae was placed in a pupa density of 50, its actual total number of parasites was 18.60. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A meta-analysis study was performed to systematically assess the association between tea consumption and CRC risk. Methods: Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science were retrieved to collect articles in English since 24 July 2023. Databases were searched and evaluated by two reviewers independently.We screened the literature based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. After determining the random effect model or fixed utility model based on a heterogeneity test, odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. Results: We included fourteen articles in this meta-analysis. We analyzed the data using a random effect model to explore the association between tea consumption and CRC because of apparent heterogeneity (P < 0.001, I2 = 99.5%). The combined results of all tests showed that there is no statistically significant association between tea consumption and CRC risk (OR = 0.756, 95%CI = 0.470–1.215, P = 0.247). Subsequently, subgroup analysis and sensitivity analysis were performed. Excluding any single study, the overall results ranged from 0.73 (95%CI = 0.44–1.20) to 0.86 (95%CI = 0.53–1.40). It was determined that there was no significant publication bias between tea consumption and CRC risk (P = 0.064) by Egger's tests. Conclusions: The results indicated that tea consumption may not be significantly associated with the development of CRC. Implications of key findings: Tea reduces colon cancer risk by 24%, but the estimate is uncertain. The actual effect on risk can range from a reduction of 51% to an increase of 18%, but regional and population differences may cause differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For very-high-resolution (VHR) remote sensing images with complex objects and rich textural information, multi-difference image fusion has been proven as an effective method to improve the performance of change detection. However, errors are superimposed during this process and a single spectral feature cannot fully utilize the correlation between pixels, resulting in low robustness. To overcome these problems and optimize the performance of multi-difference image fusion in change detection, we propose a novel multi-difference image fusion change detection method based on a visual attention model (VA-MDCD). First, we construct difference images using change vector analysis (CVA) and spectral gradient difference (SGD). Second, we use the visual attention model to calculate multiple color, intensity and orientation features of the difference images to obtain the difference saliency images. Third, we use the wavelet transform fusion algorithm to fuse two saliency images. Finally, we execute the OTSU threshold segmentation algorithm (OTSU) to obtain the final change detection map. To validate the effectiveness of VA-MDCD on VHR images, two datasets of Jilin 1 and Beijing 2 are selected for experiments. Compared with classical methods, the proposed method has a better performance with fewer missed alarms (MA) and false alarms (FA), which proves that the method has a strong robustness and generalization ability. The F-measure of the two datasets is 0.6671 and 0.7313, respectively. In addition, the results of ablation experiments confirm that the three feature extraction modules of the model all play a positive role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

π‐Conjugated nanoribbons attract interest because of their unusual electronic structures and charge‐transport behavior. Here, we report the synthesis of a series of fully edge‐fused porphyrin‐anthracene oligomeric ribbons (dimer and trimer), together with a computational study of the corresponding infinite polymer. The porphyrin dimer and trimer were synthesized in high yield, via oxidative cyclodehydrogenation of singly linked precursors, using 2,3‐dichloro‐5,6‐dicyano‐1,4‐benzoquinone (DDQ) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TfOH). The crystal structure of the dimer shows that the central π‐system is flat, with a slight S‐shaped wave distortion at each porphyrin terminal. The extended π‐conjugation causes a dramatic red‐shift in the absorption spectra: the absorption maxima of the fused dimer and trimer appear at 1188 nm and 1642 nm, respectively (for the nickel complexes dissolved in toluene). The coordinated metal in the dimer was changed from Ni to Mg, using p‐tolylmagnesium bromide, providing access to free‐base and Zn complexes. These results open a versatile avenue to longer π‐conjugated nanoribbons with integrated metalloporphyrin units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

π‐Conjugated nanoribbons attract interest because of their unusual electronic structures and charge‐transport behavior. Here, we report the synthesis of a series of fully edge‐fused porphyrin‐anthracene oligomeric ribbons (dimer and trimer), together with a computational study of the corresponding infinite polymer. The porphyrin dimer and trimer were synthesized in high yield, via oxidative cyclodehydrogenation of singly linked precursors, using 2,3‐dichloro‐5,6‐dicyano‐1,4‐benzoquinone (DDQ) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TfOH). The crystal structure of the dimer shows that the central π‐system is flat, with a slight S‐shaped wave distortion at each porphyrin terminal. The extended π‐conjugation causes a dramatic red‐shift in the absorption spectra: the absorption maxima of the fused dimer and trimer appear at 1188 nm and 1642 nm, respectively (for the nickel complexes dissolved in toluene). The coordinated metal in the dimer was changed from Ni to Mg, using p‐tolylmagnesium bromide, providing access to free‐base and Zn complexes. These results open a versatile avenue to longer π‐conjugated nanoribbons with integrated metalloporphyrin units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The finite-volume direct averaging micromechanics (FVDAM) has been extended to simulate the superelastic and plastic response of shape memory composites. The homogenized stress–strain response and local field variables generated with FVDAM were first validated vis-à-vis the exact solution under axisymmetric loading conditions. Furthermore, an in-house finite-element code was developed to assess the FVDAM theory’s accuracy for simulating wavy multilayers. Parametric studies were conducted to quantify the effect of microstructural parameters on the nonlinear response of multilayers. The common mechanism is responsible for the differences in the nonlinear stress–strain response of multilayers is rooted in the effective stress differences that alter the phase transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) is a serious congenital malformation. Given the focus on improving survival in patients with "high-risk" CDH, it is possible that risk factors for low-risk patient with CDH may not be a concern. Left heart failure leads to adverse postoperative outcomes, including the need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The purpose of this study was to explore the causes of postoperative left heart failure in the low-risk group. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on newborns with congenital diaphragmatic hernia who were surgically treated in our hospital from January 2018 to March 2022. Children at low risk were divided into three groups according to the intraoperative repair conditions. Group A was defined as grade A defects repaired by direct suture. Group B was defined as a grade B defect repaired by mesh. Group C was a grade B defect repaired by high-tension suture. The age, gender, weight, perioperative echocardiography, and follow-up of the patients were statistically analyzed. The risk factors of left ventricular dysfunction after surgery in neonates with low-risk congenital diaphragmatic hernia were analyzed. Results: A total of 52 low-risk children were included in the study. For children in the low-risk group, there was no significant difference between the low-tension repair group and the high-tension repair group in terms of operation time, thoracic tube drainage time, hospital stay, and long-term survival rate. Group A and group B showed good left ventricular function, while group C showed more decreased left ventricular EF and LVFS (LVEF 54.06 ± 10.28, LVFS 26.94 ± 5.83, p < 0.001). On the comparison of measures of left ventricular size, the mean values of left ventricular end-diastolic diameters(LVDD) and left ventricular end-systolic diameters (LVDS) were significantly difference in group C. Univariate analysis showed that LHR, o/e LHR, operation time, and high-tension repair were the influencing factors of left ventricular dysfunction. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified risk factors for high-tension repair. Severe left heart dysfunction occurred in 2 patients with ECMO requirement in the high-tension repair group, although the difference was not significant. Conclusions: High-tension repair is a potential cause of left ventricular dysfunction in neonates with low-risk CDH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 6 February 2023 (UTC), an earthquake doublet, consisting of the Mw 7.8 Pazarcik earthquake and the Mw 7.5 Elbistan earthquake, struck south-central Turkey and northwestern Syria, which was the largest earthquake that occurred in Turkey since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake. The faulting model of this earthquake was estimated based on the coseismic InSAR and GPS displacements. In addition, the best-fitting coseismic faulting model indicates that both the Pazarcik earthquake and the Elbistan earthquake were controlled by predominated left-lateral strike-slip motion, with slip peaks of 9.7 m and 10.8 m, respectively. The Coulomb failure stress (CFS) change suggests that the Pazarcik earthquake has a positive effect in triggering the rupture of the seismogenic fault of the Elbistan earthquake. Furthermore, these two main shocks promoted the occurrence of the Mw 6.3 strong aftershock. Additionally, it is found that the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake doublet increased the rupture risk of the Puturge segment of the EAF fault and the northern segment of the Dead Sea Fault (DSF). It is crucial to note that the northern segment of the DSF has not experienced a large earthquake in several centuries, highlighting the need for heightened attention to the potential seismic hazard of this segment. Finally, a deformation zone adjacent to the DSF was identified, potentially attributed to the motion of a blind submarine fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, super-resolution neural networks have achieved good results in restoring super-resolution images from low-resolution ones. However, most subsequent tasks based on super-resolution images such as object detection are done by the computer. Considering this situation, we propose a learnable downsampler–upsampler pair, which can realize both the downscaling process and the upscaling process by neural networks, and is jointly trained with the YOLOV5 network to optimize the object detection task. Thus, different from existing super-resolution networks, the entire downsampler–upsampler pair is optimized for machine perception. In addition, to further reduce the size of the downsampled images, we also propose a differentiable method for estimating image entropy and add it to the loss function. We verify the effectiveness of our method on the pothole dataset and use scale factors 2× and 4× to prove that our method is capable of diverse resizing levels. The experimental results show that using our learnable downsampler–upsampler pair as a resizing method can highly improve the detection performance compared with other resizing techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since hydrogen has wide flammability limit and low ignition energy, it could be easily ignited and be easy for the transition to a detonation, leading to extremely serious impacts in explosion accidents or extremely high combustion effeciency in the propulsion. In the field of explosion accidents and the combustion chamber of propulsion systems, hydrogen mixtures are more likely to be highly non-uniform and a detonation usually propagates in a non-homogeneous medium. The work studies behaviors of detonations in non-homogenous medium by a high-resolution simulations. We widen computational domain and steepen the gradient to weaken the role of transverse wave on cellular detonations propagating in the medium with transverse concentration gradient and to reveal the interaction of longitudinal shock with reaction wave. The results show that characteristics of detonations in nonuniform medium is controlled by coupling role of gradient and confinement. As a domain is sufficient wide, the reflection wave is rather weak so that the detonation takes on galloping propagation, with a single-head mode. As the width is mediate, detonation cell takes on highly irregularity, similar to that of highly unstable detonation. However, in the narrow domain, steepening gradient plays a key role while confinement becomes minor in detonation propagation. • The cause and significance of selecting hydrogen fuels have been highlighted. • The numerical simulation has been verified through comparing the detonation cell size to the experimental results. • We have discussed quantitatively the figures given in manuscript. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considerable efforts have been made to better describe and identify Parkinson's disease (PD) subtypes. Cluster analyses have been proposed as an unbiased development approach for PD subtypes that could facilitate their identification, tracking of progression, and evaluation of therapeutic responses. A data-driven clustering analysis was applied to a PD cohort of 114 subjects enrolled at St. Josef-Hospital of the Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany). A wide spectrum of motor and non-motor scores including polyneuropathy-related measures was included into the analysis. K-means and hierarchical agglomerative clustering were performed to identify PD subtypes. Silhouette and Calinski–Harabasz Score Elbow were then employed as supporting evaluation metrics for determining the optimal number of clusters. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were conducted to determine the relevance of each score for the clusters' definition. Three PD cluster subtypes were identified: early onset mild type, intermediate type, and late-onset severe type. The between-cluster analysis consistently showed highly significant differences (P < 0.01), except for one of the scores measuring polyneuropathy (Neuropathy Disability Score; P = 0.609) and Levodopa dosage (P = 0.226). Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), Non-motor Symptom Questionnaire (NMSQuest), and the MDS-UPDRS Part II were found to be crucial factors for PD subtype differentiation. The present analysis identifies a specific set of criteria for PD subtyping based on an extensive panel of clinical and paraclinical scores. This analysis provides a foundation for further development of PD subtyping, including k-means and hierarchical agglomerative clustering. Trial registration: DRKS00020752, February 7, 2020, retrospectively registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thermal-oxidative aging test at 120 °C was conducted on ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) vulcanizates of the semi-efficient vulcanization system. The effect of thermal-oxidative aging on EPDM vulcanizates was systematically studied by curing kinetics, aging coefficient, crosslinking density, macroscopic physical properties, contact angle, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermal decomposition kinetics. The results show that the content of hydroxyl and carbonyl groups as well as the carbonyl index increased with increasing aging time, indicating that EPDM vulcanizates were gradually oxidized and degraded. As a result, the EPDM vulcanized rubber chains were crosslinked with limited conformational transformation and weakened flexibility. The thermogravimetric analysis demonstrates that the thermal degradation of EPDM vulcanizates had competitive reactions of crosslinking and degradation, and the thermal decomposition curve can be divided into three stages; meanwhile, the thermal stability of EPDM vulcanizates gradually decreased with increasing aging time. The introduction of antioxidants in the system can promote the crosslinking speed and reduce the crosslinking density of EPDM vulcanizates while inhibiting the surface thermal and oxygen aging reaction. This was attributed to the fact that the antioxidant can reduce the thermal degradation reaction level, but it is not conducive to the formation of a perfect crosslinking network structure and reduces the activation energy of thermal degradation of the main chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we propose two scale-inspired local feature extraction methods based on Quantum Convolutional Neural Network (QCNN) in the Tensorflow quantum framework for binary image classification. The image data is properly downscaled with Multi-scale Entanglement Renormalization Ansatz and Box-counting based fractal features before fed into the QCNN's quantum circuits for state preparation, quantum convolution and quantum pooling. Quantum classifiers with one QCNN and two hybrid Quantum-classical QCNN models have been trained with a breast cancer dataset, and their performance are compared against that of a classic CNN. The results show that the proposed QCNN with the proposed feature extraction methods outperformed the classic CNN in terms of recognition accuracy. It is interesting to find that image bit-plane slicing has a similar internal mechanism to that of the Ising phase transition. This observation motivates us to explore the correlation between the chaotic nature of image and the classification performance enhancement by QCNN classifiers. It also implies that the pixels of the image and the Ising chaology particles share some similar patterns and are apt to classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this communication, a multi-task deep learning-driven homogenization scheme is proposed for predicting the effective thermomechanical response of unidirectional composites consisting of a random array of inhomogeneity. Toward this end, 40 000 repeating unit cells (RUCs) comprising an arbitrary number of locally irregular inclusions are generated over a wide range of fiber volume fractions. The finite-volume direct averaging micromechanics is then employed to evaluate the homogenized thermo-mechanical moduli of each RUC. Subsequently, a two-dimensional deep convolution neural network (CNN) is constructed as a surrogate model to extract the statistical correlations between the RUC geometrical information and the corresponding homogenized response. The RUC images together with their homogenized moduli are divided into two datasets in a ratio of 9:1 with the former part used for training the CNN model and the latter part used for verification. The results presented in this contribution demonstrate that the deep CNN predictions exhibit remarkable correlations with the theoretical values generated by the finite-volume micromechanics, with a maximum relative prediction error of less than 8%, providing good support for the data-based homogenization approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Thoracoscopic lobectomy is a common treatment for congenital lung malformation. Single-direction thoracoscopic lobectomy may be an effective and safe approach without the need to flip the lung over repeatedly, thus minimizing tissue trauma, but its use has not been reported in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of single-direction thoracoscopic lobectomy in children. Methods: A total of 91 patients who underwent thoracoscopic lobectomy in our hospital from January 2020 to December 2020 were retrospectively analysed. According to the inclusion criteria, 21 children were identified as the single-direction group. The details of the single-direction thoracoscopic lobectomy technique are described. Another 21 patients who underwent conventional thoracoscopic lobectomy in the same period were matched using the propensity score matching and set as the control group, the clinical outcomes between the two groups were compared. Results: The median age of the patients was 4.72 months (4.72 ± 0.90) with a mean body weight of 7.43 kg (7.43 ± 1.14). There were no significant differences in intraoperative blood loss (P = 0.549), operation time (P = 0.859), length of chest tube drainage (P = 0.102) and length of hospital stay (P = 0.636) between the 2 groups. No patients experienced bronchopleural fistula and conversion to thoracotomy in either group. All patients recovered well without respiratory symptoms or other complications after follow-up of more than 1 year. Conclusions: Our preliminary experience presented a series of single-direction video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy for children with satisfactory perioperative results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous ammonium ion hybrid supercapacitor (A‐HSC) combines the charge storage mechanisms of surface adsorption and bulk intercalation, making it a low‐cost, safe, and sustainable energy storage candidate. However, its development is hindered by the low capacity and unclear charge storage fundamentals. Here, the strategy of phosphate ion‐assisted surface functionalization is used to increase the ammonium ion storage capacity of an α‐MoO3 electrode. Moreover, the understanding of charge storage mechanisms via structural characterization, electrochemical analysis, and theoretical calculation is advanced. It is shown that NH4+ intercalation into layered α‐MoO3 is not dominant in the A‐HSC system; rather, the charge storage mainly depends on the adsorption energy of surface "O" to NH4+. It is further revealed that the hydrogen bond chemistry of the coordination between "O" of surface phosphate ion and NH4+ is the reason for the capacity increase of MoO3. This study not only advances the basic understanding of rechargeable aqueous A‐HSC but also demonstrates the promising future of surface engineering strategies for energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An accelerated micromechanics framework based on the extended Mori–Tanaka transformation field analysis (TFA) and cycle jump technique is proposed to predict the homogenized response of short glass fiber-reinforced polyamide 66 composites (PA66/GF) under a large number of loading cycles (> 100,000 cycles). The extended theory accounts for microscopic viscoelastic–viscoplastic and damage mechanisms, and realistic microstructures induced by the injection molding process. Toward this end, a number of training cycles are first conducted using the extended Mori–Tanaka TFA to obtain the global evolution functions of material state-dependent variables (SDVs) for each phase. These SDVs are extrapolated linearly to a certain jump length with the help of global evolution functions such that direct numerical simulation of the cycles during this interval can be skipped, leading to a large computational cost reduction. After the cycle jump, a set of complete cycles are performed based on the extrapolated SDVs using the Mori–Tanaka TFA simulation to re-establish the global evolution functions. The implementation of the cycle jump procedure is facilitated by introducing an extrapolation control function to allow adaptive jump size control as well as to minimize the extrapolating error. The capabilities of the extended theory with the cycle jump technique have been validated extensively vis-à-vis cycle-by-cycle benchmark calculations under various loading conditions. It has been further verified with the experimental results of actual PA66/GF composites under high-cycle loading beyond which the cycle-by-cycle simulations can achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Lung cancer is the most prevalent cancer with high mortality in China, and it is associated with the dysbiosis of the lung microbiome. This study attempted to screen for specific microorganisms as potential biomarkers for distinguishing benign lung disease from lung cancer. Methods: Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) sample was selected in the study instead of saliva to avoid contamination with oral microorganisms, and microbial taxonomic and functional differences in BALF samples from patients with lung cancer and those with those from patients with benign lung diseases were performed based on metagenomic next‐generation sequencing, for the first time, so that microorganisms other than bacteria could be included. Results: The results showed that the intrasample diversity of malignant samples was different from benign samples, and the microbial differences among malignant samples were smaller, with lower microbial diversity, significantly changed microbial abundance and metabolic functions. Metabolic function analysis revealed amino acid‐related metabolism was more prevalent in benign samples, whereas carbohydrate‐related metabolism was more prevalent in malignant samples. By LEfSe, Metastat and Random Forest analysis, we identified a series of important differential microorganisms. Importantly, the model combining five key genera plus one tumor marker (neuron‐specific enolase) as indicators presented the optimal disease typing performance. Conclusion: Thus results suggest the value of these differential microorganisms enriched in tumors in mechanism research and may be potential new targets for lung cancer therapy. More importantly, the biomarkers identified in this study can be conducive to improve the clinical diagnosis of lung cancer and have good application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The triglyceride–glucose (TyG) index has been shown to be an independent predictor for the progression and prognosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Whether the TyG index predicts the severity of CAD in patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains unknown. Methods: A total of 1,007 individuals presenting with ACS undergoing coronary angiography were stratified according to the tertiles of the TyG index and The Synergy Between Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (SYNTAX) score (SYNTAX score ≤ 22 versus SYNTAX score > 22). CAD complexity was determined by the SYNTAX score. Results: After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, the TyG index was still an independent risk factor for mid/high SYNTAX scores (SYNTAX score > 22, OR 2.6452, 95% CI 1.9020–3.6786, P < 0.0001). Compared with the lowest tertile of the TyG (T1) group, the risk for a mid/high SYNTAX score in the T2 and T3 groups was 2.574-fold higher (OR, 2.574; 95% CI 1.610–4.112; P < 0.001) and 3.732-fold higher (OR, 3.732; 95% CI 2.330–5.975; P < 0.001), respectively. Furthermore, there was a dose‒response relationship between the TyG index and the risk of complicated CAD (SYNTAX score > 22; nonlinear P = 0.200). The risk for a mid/high SYNTAX score in the T2 and T3 groups was significantly higher in normoglycemia, prediabetes mellitus, and diabetes mellitus subgroups. Conclusions: A higher TyG index was associated with the presence of a higher coronary anatomical complexity (SYNTAX score > 22) in ACS patients, irrespective of diabetes mellitus status. The TyG index might serve as a noninvasive predictor of CAD complexity in ACS patients and could potentially influence the management and therapeutic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the kinetic energy partitions between electrons and ions in the 2-D magnetostatic equilibria called Arnold–Beltrami–Childress (ABC) fields, using particle-in-cell (PIC) numerical simulations. We cover a wider range of ion–electron temperature combinations and get different results compared to previous studies of the Harris-layer-type magnetic reconnection simulations. We find that the initial ion–electron enthalpy ratio is an important indicator. The particle species that dominates the total enthalpy will also dominate the kinetic energy gains and the momentum distribution peaks, but the other species have higher nonthermal energy fractions because both species show similar maximum energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]