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Pancreatic cancer's high fatality rates stem from its resistance to systemic drug delivery and aggressive metastasis, limiting the efficacy of conventional treatments. In this study, two-dimensional ultrathin silicene nanosheets were initially synthesized and near-infrared-responsive two-dimensional silicene-mesoporous silica nanoparticles (SMSNs) were successfully constructed to load the clinically-approved conventional pancreatic cancer chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine. Experiments on nanoparticle characterization show that they have excellent photothermal conversion ability and stability. Then silicene-mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with gemcitabine nanoparticles (SMSN@G NPs) were employed in localized photothermal therapy to control pancreatic tumor growth and achieve therapeutic effects. Our research confirmed the functionality of SMSN@G NPs through immunoblotting and apoptotic assays, demonstrating its capacity to enhance the nuclear translocation of the NF- κ B p65, further affect the protein levels of apoptosis-related genes, induce the apoptosis of tumor cells, and ultimately inhibit the growth of the tumor. Additionally, the study assessed the inhibitory role of SMSN@G NPs on pancreatic neoplasm growth in vivo, revealing its excellent biocompatibility. SMSN@G NPs have a nice application prospect for anti-pancreatic tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydrogen recirculation ejector, known for its low cost and simple structure, has garnered widespread attention in PEM fuel cell applications. As a fluid-driven passive component, the fluid dynamics inside the ejector play a pivotal role in determining its entrainment performance. This study explores the impact of the primary flow temperature on phase change characteristics based on the Euler-Lagrange model. Results indicate that at a primary flow temperature of −40 °C, the mass flow rate of droplets at the outlet reaches 285.2 mg/s, representing a condensation efficiency of 24.1%. Concurrently, condensation elevates the outlet temperature by 31.2 °C, resulting in an 8.8% reduction in the entrainment ratio. The mass flow rate of droplets decreases significantly as the primary flow temperature increases. As the temperature rises to 60 °C, homogeneous droplets vanish entirely. Simultaneously, foreign heterogeneous droplets evaporate by 42.0%, attributed to the negative subcooling degree at the diffuser and outlet pipe. This study emphasizes the significance of controlling the primary flow temperature for the hydrogen recirculation ejector. [Display omitted] • Condensation efficiency increases with decreasing primary flow temperature. • 24.1% of the water vapor condenses at a primary flow temperature of −40 °C. • Condensation reduces the entrainment ratio and enhances outlet temperature. • Evaporation occurs when the primary flow temperature rises to 60 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins play a crucial role in increasing the functional diversity of proteins and are associated with the pathogenesis of various diseases. This review focuses on a less explored PTM called citrullination, which involves the conversion of arginine to citrulline. This process is catalyzed by peptidyl arginine deiminases (PADs). Different members of the PAD family have distinct tissue distribution patterns and functions. Citrullination is a post-translational modification of native proteins that can alter their structure and convert them into autoantigens; thus, it mediates the occurrence of autoimmune diseases. CD4+ T cells, including Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells, are important immune cells involved in mediating autoimmune diseases, allergic reactions, and tumor immunity. PADs can induce citrullination in CD4+ T cells, suggesting a role for citrullination in CD4+ T cell subset differentiation and function. Understanding the role of citrullination in CD4+ T cells may provide insights into immune-related diseases and inflammatory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grasslands in North China are rich in fungal resources. However, the knowledge of the structure and function of fungal communities and the role of microbial communities in vegetation restoration and succession are limited. Thus, we used an Illumina HiSeq PE250 high-throughput sequencing platform to study the changing characteristics of soil fungal communities in degraded grasslands, which were categorized as non-degraded (ND), lightly degraded, moderately degraded, and severely degraded (SD). Moreover, a correlation analysis between soil physical and chemical properties and fungal communities was completed. The results showed that the number of plant species, vegetation coverage, aboveground biomass, and diversity index decreased significantly with increasing degradation, and there were significant differences in the physical and chemical properties of the soil among the different degraded grasslands. The dominant fungal phyla in the degraded grassland were as follows: Ascomycota, 44.88%–65.03%; Basidiomycota, 12.68%–29.91%; and unclassified, 5.51%–16.91%. The dominant fungi were as follows: Mortierella, 6.50%–11.41%; Chaetomium, 6.71%–11.58%; others, 25.95%–36.14%; and unclassified, 25.56%–53.0%. There were significant differences in the microbial Shannon–Wiener and Chao1 indices between the ND and degraded meadows, and the composition and diversity of the soil fungal community differed significantly as the meadows continued to deteriorate. The results showed that pH was the most critical factor affecting soil microbial and fungal communities in SD grasslands, whereas soil microbial and fungal communities in ND grasslands were mainly affected by water content and other environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Bile acids (BAs) improve antioxidant properties and lipid metabolism, but their effects on dairy cattle remain to be elucidated. The study results revealed that total antioxidant capacity and levels of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase were significantly higher in dairy cows supplemented with 18 g of BAs than in control cows. In conclusion, BAs can improve the antioxidant performance of dairy cows. This experiment investigated the effects of different levels of bile acid (BA) additives in diets on the lactation performance, serum antioxidant metabolites, and serum biochemical indices of 60 multiparous mid-lactation dairy cows. The cows were randomized to receive one of the four homogeneous treatments, with the BA preparation supplemented at 0, 6, 12, and 18 g/head/d. The experiment lasted for 14 weeks. The first 2 weeks were the pre-feeding period. The milk yield and composition data were recorded weekly, and the dry matter intake and antioxidative blood index were analyzed on the 6th, 10th, and 14th weeks of the study. On the 84th day of the experiment, the experimental group exhibited significantly higher levels of total protein and albumin, by 57.5% and 55.6%, respectively, compared to the control group (p < 0.05). On both the 28th and 84th days of the trial, the experimental group showed a markedly higher lipase content compared to the control group, by 26.5% and 25.2%, respectively (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the experimental group displayed notably elevated levels of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and total antioxidant capacity, surpassing the control group by 17.4%, 21.6%, and 8.7%, respectively. In conclusion, BA additives improve the serum antioxidant indices of dairy cows, thereby enhancing the performance of these cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a pivotal elastic property, elastic modulus plays a crucial role in characterising the mechanical performance of materials. To achieve the convenient and remote measurement of the elastic modulus of materials at elevated temperatures, a method based on diffracted grating laser-induced narrowband surface acoustic waves (SAW) is proposed. The design scheme of the diffraction grating is disclosed, and a CCD camera is deployed to confirm the generated grating pattern and determine the actual grating period. Delving into the viability of an effortless and reliable procedure for calculating elastic modulus is discussed. The elastic modulus determined by the SAW does not depend on the exact Poisson’s ratio, which can be calculated from the SAW velocity with a given, less precise value for Poisson’s ratio. Experimental results of the three metals are in line with the reference values, and the elastic modulus at elevated temperature is successfully measured remotely, thereby verifying the feasibility of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The densification of coal-measure sandstones is important to the exploration of tight sand gas. Previous studies have focused on the influence of diagenesis on sandstone densification, however neglecting the role of depositional processes. Based on an integrated analysis of logging, core, and rock and mineral data, this study depicted the lithological distribution and petrological characteristics of the coal-measure sandstones of the Shanxi Formation in the northeastern Ordos Basin, with revealing the influence of depositional process on diagenesis, and thus identified the densification of the sandstones. The results show that the sandstones were deposited in fluvial-delta settings and were isolated vertically and interbedded with the organic-rich carbonaceous mudstones and coal seams deposited in swamps. Depositional process exerts significant impact on the diagenesis of coal-measure sandstones by determining the sandstone composition. The sandstones are characterized by high argillaceous matrix content that sourced from both the weathered parent rock and the erosion of swamps. The well-sorted coarse and medium sandstones deposited in the middle of channels have relatively low argillaceous matrix contents due to high hydrodynamic energy, which preserved partial intergranular pores after compaction owing to grain supporting. The residual pores facilitated the acidic flow from organic matter in coal seams and mudstones, which led to dissolution and produced dissolved pores. However, the CO2 generated by the thermal degradation of organic acids in carbonaceous mudstones and coal seams contributed to ferroan carbonate cementation, which led to sandstone densification. The poorly sorted fine sandstones deposited in channel margins or crevasse splays present high argillaceous matrix content due to low hydrodynamic energy. The mixed muddy and carbonaceous clasts due to the erosion of swamps by channels further increased the content of argillaceous matrix. High content of argillaceous matrix occupied most intergranular pores after strong compaction and restricted acidic fluid flow, therefore, dissolution and ferroan cementation were limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causality detection, as a more fine‐grained task than causality extraction, which aims to detect the components that represent the cause and effect in sentence‐level texts with causality, is a significant task in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). Previous research on causality detection has concentrated on text token features whilst ignoring the dependency attributes between tokens. In this paper, we propose a model that uses the Edge‐featured Graph Attention Network based on dependency‐directed graphs for the causality detection task. To begin, we convert the texts with causality into the representation of dependency‐directed graphs (DDG), which regard the dependency attributes between tokens as edge features. Then we use Edge‐featured Graph Attention Network to aggregate the node and edge features of DDG. Finally, we put the graph embedding into Bi‐directional Long Short‐Term Memory (BiLSTM) layer to learn the dependencies between forward and backward long‐distance nodes in DDG. Experiments on three datasets prove that this method achieves better performance in precision, recall, and other evaluation metrics compared with other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultrasonic-vibration-assisted pressing process can improve the fluidity and the uneven distribution of density and particle size of WC-Co powder. However, the microscopic mechanism of ultrasonic vibration on the powder remains unclear. In this paper, WC particles with diameter 5 μm and Co particles with diameter 1.2 μm were simulated by three-dimensional spherical models with the aid of the Python secondary development. At the same time, the forming process of the powder at the mesoscale is simulated by virtue of the finite element analysis software ABAQUS. In the simulation process, the vibration amplitude was set to 1, 2, and 3 μm. Their influence on the fluidity, the filling density, and the stress distribution of WC-Co powder when the ultrasonic vibration was applied to the conventional pressing process was investigated. The simulation results show that the ultrasonic vibration amplitude has a great influence on the density of the compact. With an increase in the ultrasonic amplitude, the compact density also increases gradually, and the residual stress in the billet decreases after the compaction. From the experimental results, the size distribution of the billet is more uniform, the elastic after-effect is reduced, the dimensional instability is improved, and the density curves obtained by experimentation and simulation are within a reasonable error range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by frequent cessations or reductions of breathing during sleep. Polysomnography (PSG) is a definitive diagnostic tool for OSA. The costly and obtrusive nature of PSG and poor access to sleep clinics have created a demand for accurate home-based screening devices. This paper proposes a novel OSA screening method based solely on breathing vibration signals with a modified U-Net, allowing patients to be tested at home. Sleep recordings over a whole night are collected in a contactless manner, and sleep apnea-hypopnea events are labeled by a deep neural network. The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) calculated from events estimation is then used to screen for the apnea. The performance of the model is tested by event-based analysis and comparing the estimated AHI with the manually obtained values. The accuracy and sensitivity of sleep apnea events detection are 97.5% and 76.4%, respectively. The mean absolute error of AHI estimation for the patients is 3.0 events/hour. The correlation between the ground truth AHI and predicted AHI shows an R2 of 0.95. In addition, 88.9% of all participants are classified into correct AHI categories. The proposed scheme has great potential as a simple screening tool for sleep apnea. It can accurately detect potential OSA and help the patients to be referred for differential diagnosis of home sleep apnea test (HSAT) or polysomnographic evaluation. • A contactless and accurate scheme is proposed to screen for sleep apnea. • The proposed end-to-end neural network architecture can detect and localize respiratory events in fine granularity. • The proposed method obtained an apnea events detection accuracy of 97.5% and an R2 of AHI of 0.95 on a clinical dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is estimated that globally 425 million subjects have moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The accurate prediction of sleep apnea events can offer insight into the development of treatment therapies. However, research related to this prediction is currently limited. We developed a covert framework for the prediction of sleep apnea events based on low-frequency breathing-induced vibrations obtained from piezoelectric sensors. A CNN-transformer network was utilized to efficiently extract local and global features from respiratory vibration signals for accurate prediction. Our study involved overnight recordings of 105 subjects. In five-fold cross-validation, we achieved an accuracy of 85.9% and an F1 score of 85.8%, which are 3.5% and 5.3% higher than the best-performed classical model, respectively. Additionally, in leave-one-out cross-validation, 2.3% and 3.8% improvements are observed, respectively. Our proposed CNN-transformer model is effective in the prediction of sleep apnea events. Our framework can thus provide a new perspective for improving OSA treatment modes and clinical management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of examining the structure of Zr55Cu35Al10 alloy around the glass transition temperature (Tg) using the classical molecular dynamics simulations, it was proven that the atomic bonds in the interconnecting zones (i-zones) became loose with the small amount of energy absorption, and it became free volumes easily when the temperature approached Tg. Instead of i-zones, when clusters were largely separated by free volume networks, the solid amorphous structure was converted into supercooled liquid state, resulting in a sharp strength reduce and the great plasticity change from a limited plastic deformation to superplasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of examining the structure of Zr55Cu35Al10 alloy around the glass transition temperature (Tg) using the classical molecular dynamics simulations, it was proven that the atomic bonds in the interconnecting zones (i-zones) became loose with the small amount of energy absorption, and it became free volumes easily when the temperature approached Tg. Instead of i-zones, when clusters were largely separated by free volume networks, the solid amorphous structure was converted into supercooled liquid state, resulting in a sharp strength reduce and the great plasticity change from a limited plastic deformation to superplasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piezoelectric bimorph actuator has the advantages of small size, fast response speed and high displacement accuracy, but its inherent hysteresis nonlinearity seriously affect the control accuracy and stability of the system. The dead-zone operator was incorporated into classical Prandtl–Ishlinskii model to enable the description of asymmetric hysteresis of piezoelectric bimorph actuator. A hybrid model approach was developed with neural network and improved Prandtl–Ishlinskii model, and it has the advantages of a neural network with ready-made training algorithms and improve the Prandtl–Ishlinskii (PI) model to describe the asymmetric hysteresis. The adaptive control method was derived from training algorithm of neural network, which can update the weight parameters of Play operator and Dead-zone operator in real time. Comparing the results without control, the RMSE of displacement error decreases by 61.35% with classic model, and decreases by 82.93% with hybrid model and proposed adaptive tracking control. Experimental results show that the proposed hybrid model and adaptive control approach can more effectively compensate the hysteresis of piezoelectric bimorph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to realize an online power supply, this article develops an explicit design of induction power extraction technology combined with wireless power transmission (WPT) technology. Unlike the power supply mode of traditional batteries of online monitoring devices of high-voltage transmission lines, this technology solves the short battery life cycle problems. First, the principle of induction power extraction is analyzed. Based on the equivalent circuit of the mutual inductance model, expressions of induction power extraction without and with core saturation are derived, respectively. According to the current transformer (CT) magnetic coupling diagram, the open-circuit voltage of the secondary side of the CT is deduced. Therefore, the CT material and size could be selected. The CT coupling model is used to equivalent the current transformer to the ideal voltage source. Then, the four basic topological spaces of the magnetic coupling resonant WPT system are analyzed and calculated, and the efficiency of the SS topology WPT system is analyzed. Furthermore, aiming at long-distance power transmission, this article described the building of a three-coil WPT system and the analysis of the corresponding transmission efficiency and output power expression. With the aid of Maxwell, the technology proposed is simulated based on a 110 kV high-voltage transmission line with 1.2 m as the transmission distance of the system. Finally, the influence of a coupling coefficient and load resistance on the transmission characteristics of the multicoil system is obtained. Consequently, the simulation results with a system output power of 14.4 W verify the effectiveness of the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an unexplored observation of multi-orbital contribution in the below- and near-threshold harmonic generation of aligned molecules. A typical pump–probe configuration is used in our experiments. By scanning the time delay and crossing angle of polarization directions between the pump and probe pulses, we find that the harmonic yield in this region exhibits abnormal intensity-dependent modulation patterns. Further comparison and analysis show that this observation can be interpreted as due to the contribution of deeper-lying molecular orbitals, which are much more prominent than in the above-threshold region and can overall surpass the contribution of the highest occupied molecular orbital, leading to reversed modulation patterns. The particular importance of the deeper-lying orbitals in this regime is closely related to the multi-photon excitation pathways involved in the generation process. Our work will advance further investigations on the mechanism of below- and near-threshold harmonic generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bridge pavement subjected to vehicle loads is the most vulnerable component in the highway bridge and overloaded vehicles can result in serious damage to the bridge pavement more easily. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the pavement in vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) system. However, the bridge pavement is not considered in the traditional VBI system or the viscoelasticity of bridge pavement is ignored. In this study, a new vehicle-pavement-bridge interaction (VPBI) system is established. The viscoelastic asphalt pavement is simulated with the continuously and uniformly distributed spring-damper. The equivalent stiffness coefficient and equivalent damping coefficient of the pavement are determined through dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) test and finite element method. The equations of motion for VPBI system can be derived using Lagrange equation and the modal superposition method. Then the crucial parameters such as displacement at mid-span of bridge, acceleration of vehicle body, tire contact force, and pavement deformation are obtained. The effects of vehicle velocity, bridge span, tire contact area, pavement stiffness coefficient, and pavement damping coefficient on VPBI responses are analyzed. The results show that (1) The pavement is compressive during vehicle passing bridge and its dynamic deformation fluctuates around initially static deformation of pavement. (2) Increasing the stiffness of pavement can rapidly reduce the deformation of pavement, while the pavement damping has the opposite effect. (3) The increase of bridge span can conduct exponentially growth of dynamic responses of VPBI system. The pavement deformation will increase by 7.9% if the bridge span is lengthened by 5 m. This study provides a reliability response analysis method for VPBI system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early and accurate detection of viruses in clinical and environmental samples is essential for effective public healthcare, treatment, and therapeutics. While PCR detects potential pathogens with high sensitivity, it is difficult to scale and requires knowledge of the exact sequence of the pathogen. With the advent of next-gen single-cell sequencing, it is now possible to scrutinize viral transcriptomics at the finest possible resolution–cells. This newfound ability to investigate individual cells opens new avenues to understand viral pathophysiology with unprecedented resolution. To leverage this ability, we propose an efficient and accurate computational pipeline, named Venus, for virus detection and integration site discovery in both single-cell and bulk-tissue RNA-seq data. Specifically, Venus addresses two main questions: whether a tissue/cell type is infected by viruses or a virus of interest? And if infected, whether and where has the virus inserted itself into the human genome? Our analysis can be broken into two parts–validation and discovery. Firstly, for validation, we applied Venus on well-studied viral datasets, such as HBV- hepatocellular carcinoma and HIV-infection treated with antiretroviral therapy. Secondly, for discovery, we analyzed datasets such as HIV-infected neurological patients and deeply sequenced T-cells. We detected viral transcripts in the novel target of the brain and high-confidence integration sites in immune cells. In conclusion, here we describe Venus, a publicly available software which we believe will be a valuable virus investigation tool for the scientific community at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complicated background and noise of infrared images, infrared small target detection is one of the most difficult problems in the field of computer vision. In most existing studies, semantic segmentation methods are typically used to achieve better results. The centroid of each target is calculated from the segmentation map as the detection result. In contrast, we propose a novel end-to-end framework for infrared small target detection and segmentation in this article. First, with the use of UNet as the backbone to maintain resolution and semantic information, our model can achieve a higher detection accuracy than other state-of-the-art methods by attaching a simple anchor-free head. Then, a pyramid pool module is used to further extract features and improve the precision of target segmentation. Next, we use semantic segmentation tasks that pay more attention to pixel-level features to assist in the training process of object detection, which increases the average precision (AP) and allows the model to detect some targets that were previously not detectable. Furthermore, we develop a multi-task framework for infrared small target detection and segmentation. Our multi-task learning model reduces complexity by nearly half and speeds up inference by nearly twice compared to the composite single-task model while maintaining accuracy. The code and models are publicly available at https://github.com/Chenastron/MTUNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The role of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in bladder cancer (BC) remains unclear. Therefore, we analyzed the clinical information and RNA sequencing data from patients with BC and identified RBPs that may be promising predictors of BC. RBPs in the development and progression of BC remains unclear. Here, we elucidated the role of RBPs in predicting the survival of patients with BC. Clinical information and RNA sequencing data of the training and validation cohorts were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas and Gene Expression Omnibus databases, respectively. Survival-related differentially expressed RBPs were identified using Cox regression analyses. A total of 113 upregulated and 54 downregulated RBPs were observed, with six showing prognostic values (AHNAK, MAP1B, LAMA2, P4HB, FASN, and GSDMB). In both the GSE32548 and GSE31684 datasets, patients with low-risk scores in survival-related six RBPs-based prognostic model showed longer overall survival than those with high-risk scores. AHNAK, MAP1B, P4HB, and FASN expression were significantly upregulated in both BC tissues and cell lines. BC tissues from high-risk group showed higher proportions of naive CD4+ T cells, M0 and M2 macrophages, and neutrophils and lower proportions of plasma cells, CD8+ T cells, and T-cell follicular helper compared to low-risk group. AHNAK knockdown significantly inhibited the proliferation, invasion, and migration of BC cells in vitro and inhibited the growth of subcutaneous tumors in vivo. We thus developed and functionally validated a novel six RBPs-based prognostic model for BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The simultaneous adsorption of CO 2 , SO 2 , and NOx in flue gas by carbon materials are reviewed. • The classification of carbon materials and their synthesis methods are summarized. • The adsorption capacity, adsorption mechanisms and influencing factors are discussed. • The challenges and future research inspirations for carbon material sorbents are proposed. The acceleration of industrialization has led to extensive emissions of air pollutants, resulting in a series of environmental pollution and climate warming issues. Carbon materials, known for their low manufacturing cost, good plasticity, stable chemical properties, and strong adsorption capacity, are considered one of the most promising materials for adsorbing pollutants in flue gases. Research on carbon material adsorbents has been extensively conducted thus far. This review systematically summarizes the simultaneous adsorption and removal of CO 2 , SO 2 , and NO X by carbon materials in flue gas systems, with elaborate discussions on their adsorption capacity, adsorption mechanisms, critical factors affecting adsorption capture, and recent innovative advancements. Additionally, relevant information including carbon material classification, physical–chemical properties, and their modification methods is also briefly covered. Finally, the challenges and future research inspirations for carbon material sorbents in flue gas systems are outlined. The aim of this review is to highlight the development of carbon material solid sorbents for the simultaneous adsorption of air pollutants in flue gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is an electrically driven technology that can be used for converting CO/CO 2 into chemicals. The unique electronic and substrate properties of CO make it an important research target for MES. However, CO can poison the cathode and increase the overpotential of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), thus reducing the electron transfer rate via H 2. This work evaluated the effect of an anti-CO HER catalyst on the performance of MES for CO/CO 2 conversion. ZnMo-metal–organic framework (MOF) materials with different calcination temperatures were synthesized. ZnMo-MOF-800 with Mo 2 C nanoparticles as active centers exhibited excellent resistance to CO toxicity. It also obtained the highest hydrogen evolution and enhanced electron transfer rate in CO atmosphere. MES with ZnMo-MOF-800 cathode and Clostridium ljungdahlii as biocatalyst obtained 0.31 g L−1 d−1 acetate yield, 0.1 g L−1 d−1 butyrate yield, and 0.09 g L−1 d−1 2,3-butanediol yield in CO/CO 2 , while Pt/C only get 0.076 g L−1 d−1 acetate yield, 0.05 g L−1 d−1 butyrate yield and 0.02 g L−1 d−1 2,3-butanediol yield. ZnMo-MOF-800 was conducive to biofilm formation, enabling it to better resist CO toxicity. This work provides new opportunities for constructing a highly efficient cathode with an anti-CO hydrogen evolution catalyst to enhance CO/CO 2 conversion in MES. [Display omitted] • Catalytic particles were dispersed uniformly and more sites were involved in ZnMo-MOF-800. • ZnMo-MOF-800 with higher HER performance exhibited excellent resistance to CO toxicity. • The weakening of the H-binding energy and sufficient H coverage enhanced the ZnMo-MOF-800 HER. • 0.31 g L−1 d−1 of acetate, 0.22 g L−1 d−1 of butyrate and 0.09 g/L/day of 2,3-butanediol can be obtained. • ZnMo-MOF-800 promotes biofilm formation enhance CO toxicity resist in MES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficiency of ion transport in solid polyelectrolytes is significantly hindered by tight polymer chain entanglement compared to that in liquids. In this study, a series of hyperbranched poly(aryl piperidinium) anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with 1,3,5-triacetylbenzene as a branching point were synthesized. The hyperbranched structure results in weaker chain entanglement and a larger interchain correlation distance, leading to a higher fractional free volume, thereby greatly reducing ion transport resistance. Consequently, a remarkably higher OH− conductivity of the as-prepared hyperbranched AEM (296 mS cm−1) is achieved compared to that of non-hyperbranched AEMs (180 mS cm−1). Furthermore, the hyperbranched AEMs exhibit excellent fuel cell and water electrolysis performance, with a peak power density of 1.53 W cm−2 in AEMFCs and a current density of 1 A cm−2 at a voltage of 2 V in AEMWEs, respectively. [Display omitted] • Hyperbranched poly(aryl piperidinium) AEMs are prepared. • Weak chain entanglement and large interchain correlation distance increase the FFV. • High FFV reduces the ion transport resistance in AEM. • Excellent OH− conductivity and good AEMFC and AEMWE performance are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Homogeneous nuclei manifest when stack power exceeds 31 kW. • The average median diameter of heterogeneous droplets increases by 26.5 %. • A short residence time yields minimal droplets of 1.79 mg/s at 100 kW. • Condensation induces a maximum 4.18 % reduction in the entrainment ratio. The hydrogen recirculation ejector plays a pivotal role in proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems. Nevertheless, a comprehensive grasp of the intricate two-phase flow characteristics within hydrogen recirculation ejectors remains elusive. This investigation delves into the condensation and droplet behaviors of an ejector designed for a 100 kW fuel cell stack. The analysis relies on a two-phase flow model that takes into account both homogeneous and heterogeneous condensation. The findings reveal that homogeneous condensation nuclei manifest within the mixing chamber when the stack power surpasses 31 kW. The average median diameter of homogeneous droplets at the ejector outlet measures 0.367 μm, whereas that of heterogeneous droplets stands at 1.265 μm, signifying a 26.5 % augmentation compared to their initial size. Additionally, two crucial factors impact droplet size: residence time and subcooling degree. At the 100 kW condition, the droplet residence time is a mere 0.272 ms, yielding a meager droplet flow rate of merely 1.79 mg/s. In contrast, at the 53 kW condition, the downstream of the mixing chamber exhibits the maximum subcooling degree, resulting in the maximum droplet flow rate of 22.12 mg/s. A temperature elevation of 2.68 K at the ejector outlet is observed due to the latent heat of condensation. Furthermore, condensation has a marginal impact on the entrainment ratio, with the most significant reduction being 4.18 %, averaging at 1.42 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the anodizing process of aluminum alloy with sulfuric acid (H2SO4) solution as electrolyte and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as electrode material, the molecular structure model of the interaction between them was designed and constructed, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was performed. When the number of sulfuric acid and water molecules remained unchanged, by changing the structure ratio of oxygen-containing groups including the hydroxy (–OH), epoxy (–O–) and carboxyl (–COOH) groups of rGO, the influence of rGO structure on the interaction between them was discussed, and the nature of the interaction was revealed, which provides theoretical support for the research and development of cathode materials in aluminum anodic oxidation process. The calculation results showed that the interaction energies are all positive in the 7 rGO structures with different ratios of oxygen-containing groups, indicating that the interactions between particles are mutually repulsive. With the increase of the number of –OH, the interaction energy between rGO and H2SO4 basically decreases, and the diffusion coefficient of H2SO4 on the surface of rGO is generally similar to the change rule of the interaction energy. When the ratio of –OH, –O–, ‒COOH of rGO structure is 2 : 8 : 2, both the interaction energy and diffusion coefficient reach the maximum. From the analysis of the radial distribution functions, it can be seen that the O atoms of /H+ particles and the rGO surface tend to form bonding and non-bonding in the short and long range regions, respectively. The H and O atoms of water as well as the water molecules can not easily form chemical bonding with rGO sheet, while can form non-bonding, however, the non-bonding is not strong. And the formation of model system is mainly provided by the non-bond interaction. The order of bonding strength and the change of interaction energy with different rGO structures are basically the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally report fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in a single mode step-index polymer optical fiber (POF) with a core made of TOPAS and cladding made of ZEONEX using 520 nm femtosecond pulses and a point-by-point (PbP) inscription method. With different pulse energies between 69.8 nJ and 80.4 nJ, 12 FBGs are distributed along the cores of two pieces of POFs with negative averaged effective index change up to ~6 × 10−4 in the TOPAS. For POF 1 with FBGs 1–6, the highest reflectivity 45.1% is obtained with a pulse energy of 76.1 nJ. After inscription, good grating stability is reported. Thanks to the post-annealing at 125 °C for 24 h, after cooling the grating reflectivity increases by ~10%. For POF 2 with FBGs 7–12, similar FBG data are obtained showing good reproducibility. Then, the FBGs are annealed at 125 °C for 78 h, and the average reflectivity of the FBGs during the annealing process increases by ~50% compared to that before the annealing, which could be potentially applied to humidity insensitive high temperature measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The divergent synthesis of isoxazoles and 6H-1,2-oxazines was realized using a hypervalent fluoroiodane reagent from β,γ-unsaturated oximes. The formation of a five- or six-membered ring is controlled by the substituents of the substrates combined with the reaction conditions. The reaction was performed under mild conditions and gave the products in moderate to good yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the test case generation process of combinatorial testing, particle swarm optimization (PSO) is widely concerned for its simple implementation and fast convergence rate; however, it often falls into local optimum due to premature convergence. To attack this problem, a novel adaptive value measurement strategy is adopted by weighing the relationship between current test cases and historical test cases. The test case with the minimum average hamming distance is selected as the optimal test case, and the inertial weight linear differential decrease strategy is developed to ensure better inertial weight in different search stages, further to improve the capability of generating smaller covering arrays. In addition, we integrate the simulated annealing strategy into the improved PSO to improve the ability of particles jumping out of the local optimum, and an innovative approach for generating a better covering array is proposed. Experiments on 16 classical random strength covering arrays suggest that our approach outperforms six other techniques in terms of effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terahertz (THz) communications with multi-GHz bandwidth are envisioned as a key technology for 6G systems. Ultra-massive (UM) MIMO with hybrid beamforming architectures are widely investigated to provide a high array gain to overcome the huge propagation loss at THz band. However, most of the existing hybrid beamforming architectures can only utilize the multiplexing offered by the multipath components, i.e., inter-path multiplexing, which is very limited due to the spatially sparse THz channel. In this paper, a widely-spaced multi-subarray (WSMS) hybrid beamforming architecture is proposed, which improves the multiplexing gain by exploiting a new type of intra-path multiplexing provided by the spherical-wave propagation among $k$ widely-spaced subarrays, in addition to the inter-path multiplexing. The resulting multiplexing gain of WSMS architecture is $k$ times of the existing architectures. For WSMS architecture, a novel design problem is formulated by optimizing the number of subarrays, subarray spacing, and hybrid beamforming matrices to maximize the spectral efficiency, which is decomposed into two subproblems. An optimal closed-form solution is derived for the first hybrid beamforming subproblem, while a dominant-line-of-sight-relaxation algorithm is proposed for the second array configuration subproblem. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the WSMS architecture and proposed algorithms enhance the spectral efficiency substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Innovative Technique. Introduction of grating laser-induced nonlinear Rayleigh waves for noncontact hardness assessment of heat-treated carbon steel, showcasing a novel approach in material evaluation methodologies. • Optimized Instrument Setup. Investigation and successful suppression of instrument nonlinearity by strategically placing the micro-lens array at twice the focal length, ensuring precise and reliable measurements. • Significant Findings. Establishment of a logarithmic correlation between hardness and nonlinear parameters with a high goodness of fit value, indicating a significant advancement in nondestructive evaluation techniques for metal hardness assessment. Hardness is a crucial mechanical property to characterize the metal performance in service, and its nondestructive assessment is undoubtedly a challenging work. The objective of this paper is to realize a noncontact assessment of the heat-treated medium carbon steel by using grating laser-induced nonlinear Rayleigh waves. The generation and suppression mechanism of the instrument nonlinearity introduced by a grating laser source is explained theoretically. A different nonlinear parameter is adopted and its relevant feasibility is discussed. Ten heat-treated 45 steel samples underwent NDE using grating laser ultrasonics and the destructive testing using a Rockwell hardness tester in a successive manner. A logarithmic function is utilized to fit the correlation between the Rockwell A hardness and nonlinear parameter with a goodness of fit of 0.9102. The reasonableness of experimental fitting outcomes is discussed in the following, which confirms the potential application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effects of wind on the pool fire flame morphology and flow field were revealed. • Flame half-width of pool fires under wind were quantified using scaling analysis. • The crosswise profiles of heat flux and temperature show a similar trend. • The downstream crosswise heat flux was described by the Boltzmann function. This paper reveals the crosswise profiles of heat flux and temperature over the downstream surface (ground) of a pool fire in relative strong wind, which was not well addressed in the past. Two square gaseous burners (25 cm, 30 cm) are used with propane as the fuel producing different heat release rates to simulate pool fires. The wind speed ranges from 1.5 m/s to 4 m/s (with 0.5 m/s intervals for various cases), concerning relatively strong wind conditions (Fr > 0.87). The crosswise heat flux profile first shows to be nearly stable (fluctuation less than 20 %) in the continuous flame region, then a sharp decrease in the intermittent flame region and finally goes to near zero. The temperature profile shows a similar trend as heat flux. For the near stable region, the flame boundary layer goes into the counter-rotating streamwise vortex pairs to form the streak like flames. And the counter-rotating pair (CVP) on the flame makes the streaks on the sides of the burner to be even larger, as verified by the CFD simulation. The heat flux is different under the streaks and troughs of the flame (higher under trough than in streaks), which interprets the fluctuation in the nearly stable region. Then the sharp decrease happens in the intermittent flame region. The flame half-width is obtained, which sits at about the middle of the sharp decrease region. And finally, for the position further away in the crosswise direction, the profile turns to be nearly zero. The crosswise profiles can be well represented by a Boltzmann function. The obtained experimental results and the proposed functions on the crosswise profiles of heat flux and temperature provide an essential base to estimate the heat feedback to the downstream surface of a wind-driven fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Scabies is caused by burrowing of the mite Sarcoptes scabiei into the stratum corneum. Currently, diagnosis via routine skin scraping is very difficult, and information on the allergenic identification of S. scabiei remains limited. Methods: We performed comparative analysis of the serological diagnostic potential of recombinant S. scabiei chitinase-like protein-5 (rSsCLP5) and recombinant S. scabiei chitinase-like protein-12 (rSsCLP12) by measuring the levels of serum-specific IgG and IgE antibodies (Abs) as diagnostic markers. In addition, the allergenic characteristics of rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 were evaluated using IgE-binding experiments and skin tests. Results: The IgE Abs-based indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods showed high sensitivity and specificity: the rSsCLP5-based assay had 93.5% sensitivity and 94.4% specificity; the rSsCLP12-based assay had 100% sensitivity and 98.1% specificity. The specific IgE Abs in infested mouse sera could bind rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12. In skin tests, rabbits in the rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 groups and positive control (histamine) groups exhibited allergic reactions. Most test sites in the rSsCLP12 group had edema, bleeding spots, and even ulcers or scabs, but such allergy symptoms were rare in the rSsCLP5 group. Moreover, the allergic history rabbit group had more severe allergic reactions and lower levels of IgE Abs compared to the healthy rabbit group in the same protein group. Conclusions: These findings validate the use of IgE Abs to rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 as potentially useful markers for diagnosing scabies. Moreover, both rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 have allergenic properties, and the potential allergen rSsCLP12 is a stronger allergen than rSsCLP5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Branching channels are commonly emerged in a considerable variety of engineering applications, in which most of the fluids present non Newtonian behavior, such as in chemical processes. It is noted that in the material forming process, when one suspends nanoparticles in a basic non Newtonian fluid, a completely new non Newtonian fluid is formed with different rheological characteristics from the former ones. In our present numerical research, considering the side branches inclined at varying angles, we focus on the fluid flow and heat transfer of the laminar power-law nanofluid in a rectangular branching channel under the influences of generalized Reynolds number. Both the consistency coefficient and power-law index of the non Newtonian nanofluid, different from those of the base fluid, are described by empirical formula, dependent on the nanoparticle quantity. Finite element method is applied in the research. It is found that a smaller branch angle α can cause a larger fluctuation in pressure near the branched region. Furthermore, negative pressures exist both in the main and side branch with some certain inclination angle. Above all, the new extensive results of velocity contours, temperature, concentration contours along with pressure drop of the changing rheological models provide detailed information for studies on non Newtonian nanofluids in many intricate industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Terahertz band is envisioned to meet the demanding 100 Gbps data rates for 6G wireless communications. Aiming at combating the distance limitation problem with low hardware-cost, ultra-massive MIMO with hybrid beamforming is promising. However, relationships among wavelength, array size and antenna spacing give rise to the inaccuracy of planar-wave channel model (PWM), while an enlarged channel matrix dimension leads to excessive parameters of applying spherical-wave channel model (SWM). Moreover, due to the adoption of hybrid beamforming, channel estimation (CE) needs to recover high-dimensional channels from severely compressed channel observation. In this paper, a hybrid spherical- and planar-wave channel model (HSPM) is investigated and proved to be accurate and efficient by adopting PWM within subarray and SWM among subarrays. Furthermore, a two-phase HSPM CE mechanism is developed. A deep convolutional-neural-network (DCNN) is designed in the first phase for parameter estimation of reference subarrays, while geometric relationships of the remaining channel parameters between reference subarrays are leveraged to complete CE in the second phase. Extensive numerical results demonstrate the HSPM is accurate at various communication distances, array sizes and carrier frequencies. The DCNN converges fast and achieves high accuracy with 5.2 dB improved normalized-mean-square-error compared to literature methods, and owns substantially low complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FBG Inscription Using 520 nm Femtosecond Pulses, Paragraph 1 i b ": "In this work, 2-mm-long FBGs were fabricated in two pieces of POFs using the femtosecond laser PbP inscription method. FBG Inscription Using 520 nm Femtosecond Pulses, Paragraph 3 i b ": "For FBGs 2-6, the insertion losses induced by laser pulses are depicted in Figure 3. A correction has been made to " B I Abstract i b ": " B Abstract: b We experimentally report fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in a single mode step-index polymer optical fiber (POF) with a core made of TOPAS and cladding made of ZEONEX using 520 nm femtosecond pulses and a point-by-point (PbP) inscription method. [Extracted from the article]

• This manuscript firstly establishes a half vehicle-pavement-continuous beam bridge (VPCB) coupled system analytical model. • It is innovatively that the bridge and vehicle initial conditions are considered into analytical model. • The pavement road surface local deterioration is simulated by increasing the local roughness level of the road surface. At present, the highway bridge field is in a period of vigorous development, and the application of continuous beam bridges is becoming more extensive, so the related safety research is particularly important. However, there are few studies on the vehicle-bridge coupled interaction of continuous beam bridges, and the influence of pavement is not considered. In order to ensure that the theoretical research can better serve the engineering practice, it is urgent to establish a more refined and more complex vehicle-bridge coupled model. In this paper, a vehicle-pavement-continuous beam bridge (VPCB) coupled system model is established. A half-vehicle model is adopted, the pavement is simulated by a continuous and uniform spring damper, and the bridge is a three-span continuous beam bridge. The motion equation of VPCB system is established and deduced using D 'Alembert principle and modal superposition method. The dynamic responses of VPCB system are calculated by Newmark- β method. Here, the continuous beam bridge mode functions are fitted based on the modal vector of the continuous beam calculated by the finite element model. The correctness of the method is verified by existing literatures. The effects of bridge pavement, vehicle speed, bridge second span length, the pavement equivalent spring stiffness coefficient k p and damping coefficient c p , road roughness on VPCB system are studied. The results show that the pavement can reduce the bridge dynamic amplification factor (DAF) and the vehicle acceleration to improve the ride comfort. The dynamic responses of the vehicle and the bridge contain each other's natural frequencies. The responses of VPCB system increase with the vehicle velocity, the vehicle responses are more affected than the bridge responses. The pavement equivalent stiffness and damping coefficient has little effect on the system. The responses of vehicle and bridge increase with the increase of the bridge second span length. When the vehicle travels each span of the three-span continuous beam bridge, the time history curve of the pavement deformation under the tire resembles a sine wave. When the local roughness level of the road surface increases, the system responses at the deteriorated position suddenly increases, and the responses of the subsequent position will also be affected. The larger the roughness grade, the more obvious the responses increase. The effect on the system responses of the whole pavement damage is more significant than the local pavement damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economy and stability of the hydrogen recirculation system in high-power fuel cells significantly impact the performance of the stack system. However, there is no consensus on the optimal hydrogen recirculation mode to be employed. To determine the most effective solution across the entire power range of the stack, this study compares the performance of various coupling modes. The dynamic performance variations of the system were investigated under different modes by the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. The simulation results demonstrated that within the low and medium power range of the stack, the PUE (Pump Upstream of Ejector) mode had the lowest power consumption of all modes, at 112 W. The power of the PUE mode had a reduction of 56.3% compared to the full-power single hydrogen pump mode, and a reduction of 22.8% compared to the PDE (Pump Downstream of Ejector) mode. [Display omitted] • Various coupling models of hydrogen pumps and ejectors are studied. • The pressure rise distribution of coupling modes are compared and analyzed. • Coupling mode reduces power consumption by more than 50%. • The optimal solution for the full power range of the stack is derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing importance of the stock market, it is of great practical significance to accurately describe the systemic risk of the stock market and conduct more accurate early warning research on it. However, the existing research on the systemic risk of the stock market lacks multi-dimensional factors, and there is still room for improvement in the forecasting model. Therefore, to further measure the systemic risk profile of the Chinese stock market, establish a risk early warning system suitable for the Chinese stock market, and improve the risk management awareness of investors and regulators. This paper proposes a combination model of EEMD-LSTM, which can describe the complex nonlinear interaction. Firstly, 35 stock market systemic risk indicators are selected from the perspectives of macroeconomic operation, market cross-contagion and the stock market itself to build a comprehensive indicator system that conforms to the reality of China. Furthermore, based on TEI@I complex system methodology, an EEMD-LSTM model is proposed. The EEMD method is adopted to decompose the composite index sequence into intrinsic mode function components (IMF) of different scales and one trend term. Then the LSTM algorithm is used to predicted and model the decomposed sub-sequences. Finally, the forecast result of the composite index is obtained through integration. The empirical results show that the stock market systemic risk index constructed in this paper can effectively identify important risk events within the sample period. In addition, compared with the benchmark model, the EEMD-LSTM model constructed in this paper shows a stronger early warning ability for systemic financial risks in the stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon a comprehensive global database of landslides and utilizing high-resolution IMERG satellite precipitation data, this study investigates the spatial and temporal variations of landslide occurrences across the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This study constructs a region-specific, graded warning system by formulating an average effective intensity–duration (I–D) rainfall threshold curve for each ASEAN member. Examination of 1747 landslide events spanning from 2006 to 2018 illustrates a significant association between the frequency of landslides in ASEAN regions and the latitudinal movement of local precipitation bands. Incidences of landslides hit their lowest in March and April, while a surge is observed from October to January, correlating with the highest mortality rates. Geographical hotspots for landslide activity, characterized by substantial annual rainfall and constrained landmasses, include the Philippine archipelago, Indonesia's Java Island, and the Malay Peninsula, each experiencing an average of over 2.5 landslides annually. Fatalities accompany approximately 41.4% of ASEAN landslide events, with the Philippines and Indonesia registering the most substantial numbers. Myanmar stands out for the proportion of large-scale landslide incidents, with an average casualty rate of 10.89 deaths per landslide, significantly surpassing other countries in the region. The I–D rainfall threshold curves indicate that the Philippines experienced the highest precipitation levels before landslide initiation, whereas Myanmar has the threshold set at a considerably lower level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Scabies is caused by burrowing of the mite Sarcoptes scabiei into the stratum corneum. Currently, diagnosis via routine skin scraping is very difficult, and information on the allergenic identification of S. scabiei remains limited. Methods: We performed comparative analysis of the serological diagnostic potential of recombinant S. scabiei chitinase-like protein-5 (rSsCLP5) and recombinant S. scabiei chitinase-like protein-12 (rSsCLP12) by measuring the levels of serum-specific IgG and IgE antibodies (Abs) as diagnostic markers. In addition, the allergenic characteristics of rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 were evaluated using IgE-binding experiments and skin tests. Results: The IgE Abs-based indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods showed high sensitivity and specificity: the rSsCLP5-based assay had 93.5% sensitivity and 94.4% specificity; the rSsCLP12-based assay had 100% sensitivity and 98.1% specificity. The specific IgE Abs in infested mouse sera could bind rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12. In skin tests, rabbits in the rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 groups and positive control (histamine) groups exhibited allergic reactions. Most test sites in the rSsCLP12 group had edema, bleeding spots, and even ulcers or scabs, but such allergy symptoms were rare in the rSsCLP5 group. Moreover, the allergic history rabbit group had more severe allergic reactions and lower levels of IgE Abs compared to the healthy rabbit group in the same protein group. Conclusions: These findings validate the use of IgE Abs to rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 as potentially useful markers for diagnosing scabies. Moreover, both rSsCLP5 and rSsCLP12 have allergenic properties, and the potential allergen rSsCLP12 is a stronger allergen than rSsCLP5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although deep learning has achieved remarkable successes over the past years, few reports have been published about applying deep neural networks to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) for image targets recognition where data, energy, computation resources are limited. In this work, a Cost-Effective Domain Generalization (CEDG) algorithm has been proposed to train an efficient network with minimum labor requirements. CEDG transfers networks from a publicly available source domain to an application-specific target domain through an automatically allocated synthetic domain. The target domain is isolated from parameters tuning and used for model selection and testing only. The target domain is significantly different from the source domain because it has new target categories and is consisted of low-quality images that are out of focus, low in resolution, low in illumination, low in photographing angle. The trained network has about 7 M (ResNet-20 is about 41 M) multiplications per prediction that is small enough to allow a digital signal processor chip to do real-time recognitions in our WSN. The category-level averaged error on the unseen and unbalanced target domain has been decreased by 41.12%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between changes in Arctic sea ice and the mid‐latitude climate has been receiving increasing attention. As the highest and largest topography in Asia, the possible link between the west Tibetan Plateau snow depth (WTPSD) and the Arctic sea ice was investigated based on observational data and model simulations. The results indicate that a consistent variation between the WTPSD and the seesaw sea ice pattern in the Barents‐Nordic Sea and Labrador Sea (BLSIC) exists during boreal winter, and both the WTPSD and BLSIC are negatively correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. During the negative phases of the NAO, an anomalous Rossby wave train propagates from the North Atlantic to the north of the Arabian Sea, inducing cyclonic anomalies in the mid‐troposphere and enhancing water vapour transportation onto the TP, which is conducive to in situ snow accumulation. Furthermore, composite analysis and AGCM numerical experiments demonstrate that such an anomalous BLSIC pattern can in turn reinforce the negative phase of the NAO in strength, facilitating the propagation of the mid‐tropospheric Rossby waves to north of the Arabian Sea and hence an above normal WTPSD. Therefore, the variation in WTPSD is influenced by the direct effect of the NAO and additional feedback from BLSIC, which hints a potential cryospheric connection between the TP and the Arctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between changes in Arctic sea ice and the mid‐latitude climate has been receiving increasing attention. As the highest and largest topography in Asia, the possible link between the west Tibetan Plateau snow depth (WTPSD) and the Arctic sea ice was investigated based on observational data and model simulations. The results indicate that a consistent variation between the WTPSD and the seesaw sea ice pattern in the Barents‐Nordic Sea and Labrador Sea (BLSIC) exists during boreal winter, and both the WTPSD and BLSIC are negatively correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. During the negative phases of the NAO, an anomalous Rossby wave train propagates from the North Atlantic to the north of the Arabian Sea, inducing cyclonic anomalies in the mid‐troposphere and enhancing water vapour transportation onto the TP, which is conducive to in situ snow accumulation. Furthermore, composite analysis and AGCM numerical experiments demonstrate that such an anomalous BLSIC pattern can in turn reinforce the negative phase of the NAO in strength, facilitating the propagation of the mid‐tropospheric Rossby waves to north of the Arabian Sea and hence an above normal WTPSD. Therefore, the variation in WTPSD is influenced by the direct effect of the NAO and additional feedback from BLSIC, which hints a potential cryospheric connection between the TP and the Arctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Obesity is a heterogeneous condition and distinct adiposity subtypes may differentially affect type 2 diabetes risk. We assessed relations between genetically determined subtypes of adiposity and changes in glycemic traits in a dietary intervention trial. Methods: The four genetic subtypes of adiposity including waist–hip ratio-increase only (WHRonly+), body mass index-increase only (BMIonly+), WHR-increase and BMI-increase (BMI+WHR+), and WHR-decrease and BMI-increase (BMI+WHR−) were assessed by polygenetic scores (PGSs), calculated based on 159 single nucleotide polymorphisms related to BMI and/or WHR. We examined the associations between the four PGSs and changes in fasting glucose, insulin, β-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in 692 overweight participants (84% white Americans) who were randomly assigned to one of four weight-loss diets in a 2-year intervention trial. Results: Higher BMI+WHR−PGS was associated with a greater decrease in 2-year changes in waist circumference in white participants (P = 0.002). We also found significant interactions between WHRonly+PGS and dietary protein in 2-year changes in fasting glucose and HOMA-B (P = 0.0007 and < 0.0001, respectively). When consuming an average-protein diet, participants with higher WHRonly+PGS showed less increased fasting glucose (β = − 0.46, P = 0.006) and less reduction in HOMA-B (β = 0.02, P = 0.005) compared with lower WHRonly+PGS. Conversely, eating high-protein diet was associated with less decreased HOMA-B among individuals with lower than higher WHRonly+PGS (β = − 0.02, P = 0.006). Conclusions: Distinct genetically determined adiposity subtypes may differentially modify the effects of weight-loss diets on improving glucose metabolism in white Americans. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00072995. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discharge of wastewater into coastal waters can be simplified as a turbulent jet under waves and currents. A laboratory study has been carried out to measure the instantaneous flow field of a vertical round jet under wavy-crossflow environment using an improved particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. The phase-averaged streamlines are found to be the most chaotic at the wave trough phase. Temporal variation in fluctuating turbulent kinetic energy is explored. Results indicate a lack of distinctive patterns in fluctuation turbulent kinetic energy across wave phases, particularly in far field. This suggests that wave phases marginally affect jet width expansion, especially in the far field. Spatial variations in turbulent kinetic energy are examined and crossflow and wave period are also considered. It is found that decreasing relative wave-orbital velocity to crossflow velocity R wc enhances maximum turbulent kinetic energy in the near field of the wavy-crossflow jet. • Flow field of a round jet in wavy-crossflow environment are measured using an improved PIV technique. • Turbulent properties inside the effluent cloud are higher than that outside the effluent cloud. • Maximum turbulence kinetic energy of jet in wavy-crossflow environment is small than that in crossflow near jet orifice. • Reduce wave-to-crossflow velocity ratio enhances maximum turbulent kinetic energy in near field of jet in wavy-crossflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Burning rates of two tandem hydrocarbon pool fires under wind were investigated. • LPF's burning rate is mainly affected by air entrainment and external radiation. • A function was derived for the LPF's burning rate when air entrainment is sufficient. • Ratio of the FPF burning rate to that of the SPF fell into three phases. • Burning rates of two pool fires can be well described based on stagnant film model. The intention of this experimental work is to investigate the burning rates of two tandem-placed free-burning square pool fires (15 cm), separated by different separation distances (S/D = 1∼6) under the action of crossflow (0∼6.0 m/s). Two representative hydrocarbon liquid fuels with various sootiness, n-heptane and ethanol, were employed. A total of 204 conditions were considered comprehensively. Results showed that the burning rates of the leading pool fire (LPF) and the following pool fire (FPF) were found to be markedly different from that of the wind-blown single pool fire (SPF) and were attributable to the change of heat feedback mechanisms. The combined effects of the constraint air entrainment and external radiation from the FPF are conducive to the change of the LPF burning rates when tandem pool fires merge. The increment of LPF burning rate compared with SPF burning rate of n-heptane pool fires at a fixed crossflow velocity was deduced to be a function of the external radiation from the FPF when air entrainment is sufficient at a relatively larger separation distance (i.e., non-merging cases). Apart from the external heat transfer to fuel surface and the air entrainment restriction, the sheltering effect of the leading fire on the effective crossflow velocity also dramatically influences the FPF burning rates. The ratio of FPF burning rate to that of a SPF in crossflow, was observed to fall into three phases in terms of a defined Fr ⁎ for various separation distances and crossflow velocities, of which phase I with a rising branch, phase II with a falling branch and phase III reached a plateau. Finally, a stagnant film model was employed to correlate well the burning rates of convection-dominated SPF, LPF and FPF under crossflow, while the modified effective crossflow velocity was applied to the FPF. These results provide a basis for better understanding the underlying physics of multiple fires mass burning fluxes caused by complex flame-flow interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psoroptes ovis var. cuniculi is a common ectoparasite of wild and domestic rabbits worldwide that causes economically devastating losses in commercial rabbit husbandry and significantly affects the overall health of rabbits. Serine proteinase inhibitor (serpin) is present in almost all organisms that are involved in host–pathogen interactions, inflammatory responses, and reproductive development, among others. However, very little research has been carried out on P. ovis var. cuniculi serpins. Methods: Two serpin genes of P. ovis var. cuniculi (Pso c 27 and PsoSP2 cDNAs) were cloned and molecularly characterized. The transcriptional profiles and tissue localization of these two serpins in P. ovis var. cuniculi were investigated by quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The potential function of recombinant Pso c 27 and PsoSP2 (rPso c 27 and rPsoSP2) in the serodiagnosis of P. ovis var. cuniculi infestation in rabbits was evaluated using a newly devleoped indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Both the 523-residue Pso c 27 and the 240-residue PsoSP2 proteins contained typical serpin domains and signatures. Both Pso c 27and PsoSP2 cDNAs were expressed throughout the life-cycle; specifically, the cDNAs showed significantly higher expression in female mites than in larva, nymph, and male mites (Pso c 27: F(3, 8) = 1935.953, P < 0.0001; PsoSP2: F(3, 8) = 660.669, P < 0.0001). The native Pso c 27 and PsoSP2 proteins localized in the ovary and mouthparts of adult female mites, respectively. Compared to rPsoSP2, rPso c 27 showed better diagnostic efficiency, with higher values of sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (rPso c 27 vs rPsoSP2: 96.0 vs 90.0%; 90.91 vs 78.18%; 0.988 vs 0.964, respectively). Moreover, rPso c 27 showed seropositivity in 80% of the rabbits as early as the 2 weeks post-infestation, prior to visible clinical signs and microscopy-positive of skin scrapings. Conclusions: These results suggest that these two serpins may play essential roles in reproductive development, serum-feeding, and pathogenicity of P. ovis var. cuniculi. Compared to PsoSP2, Pso c 27 appears to be a potential antigen for serodiagnosis of P. ovis var. cuniculi infestation in rabbits, especially at the early stage of infestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PET/CT scan was recommended for insulinoma detection and staging, and the patient was enrolled in the clinical trial of comparison of [ SP 68 sp Ga]Ga-DOTATATE and [ SP 68 sp Ga]Ga-Exendin-4 PET/CT in insulinoma. [68 Ga]Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT versus [68 Ga]Ga-Exendin-4 PET/CT in the evaluation of metastatic insulinoma This case presented [ SP 68 sp Ga]Ga-DOTATATE and [ SP 68 sp Ga]Ga-Exendin-4 PET/CT findings in a patient with metastatic insulinoma, both tracers localized the primary tumour in pancreatic tail as well as multiple liver and spleen metastases. [Extracted from the article]

Thermodynamic property prediction of working fluids is of great importance on the performance analysis of high-temperature organic Rankine cycles (ORCs) for utilizing low-grade heat sources. In this study, an intrinsic-group-contribution perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory (iGC-PC-SAFT) is proposed for the high-temperature ORC performance analysis with 8 siloxanes and 10 alkanes. By adjusting the initial values and corresponding value ranges of PC-SAFT parameters repeatedly according to the changes in molecular structures, the PC-SAFT parameters were fitted to determine the initial iGC-PC-SAFT parameters. Afterwards, the final iGC-PC-SAFT parameters for each working fluid were obtained based on a global optimization algorithm. Furthermore, the iGC-PC-SAFT equation of state (EoS) was used to calculate the thermodynamic properties of working fluids. Compared with the results from Coolprop database, maximum relative deviations for the saturated liquid density and the compressibility factor in the superheated region are 0.95% for MM, and 0.84% for MD 2 M, respectively. Besides, the average absolute relative deviations of ORC performance parameters calculated by the iGC-PC-SAFT EoS at different input pressures of turbine, including the thermal efficiency, turbine power output, pump power consumption, heat rejection, mass flow, and exergy efficiency are less than 2.04% for siloxanes (except for MM) and 6.09% for alkanes, respectively. • New method for developing intrinsic-group-contribution PC-SAFT was proposed. • Novel group-contribution parameters for siloxanes and alkanes were presented. • iGC-PC-SAFT exhibits negligible prediction accuracy loss compared with PC-SAFT. • ORC performance was evaluated and predicted by iGC-PC-SAFT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]