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[Display omitted] The commercial application of lithium-sulfur batteries is primarily impeded by the constant shuttling of soluble polysulfides and sluggish redox kinetics. Nowadays, the discovery of the heterojunction, which combines materials with diverse properties, offers a new perspective for overcoming these obstacles. Herein, a functional coating separator for the lithium-sulfur battery is designed using a MnO 2 -ZnS p-n heterojunction with a spontaneous built-in electric field (BIEF). The MnO 2 nanowire provides suitable adsorption capacity for polysulfides, while the abundant reactive sites brought by ZnS ensure efficient conversion. Moreover, the BIEF significantly facilitates the migration of electrons and polysulfides at the MnO 2 -ZnS interface, enabling a smooth "adsorption-diffusion-conversion" reaction mechanism. By serving as both the adsorption module and catalytic sites, this BIEF allows batteries utilizing separators modified with MnO 2 -ZnS heterojunction to achieve an impressive initial capacity of 1511.1 mAh g−1 at 0.1C and maintain a capacity decay rate of merely 0.048% per cycle at 2.0C after 1000 cycles. Even when increasing sulfur loading to 9.4 mg cm−2 in lean electrolyte (5.4 μL mg−1), the battery still exhibits an ultrahigh areal capacity of 6.0 mAh cm−2 after 100 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Objective Methods Results Conclusion Substances that can efficiently enhance skin penetration while exerting no adverse effect are useful for drug and cosmetics formulation.To investigate the safety and enhance skin penetration efficacy of Putocrin®, a combination containing 2% isosorbide dimethyl ether, 1% pentanediol, and 0.5% inositol.An in vitro keratinocyte cell assay using 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazolyl‐2)‐2,5 diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), and an in vitro EpiKutis® skin study adopted hematoxylin and eosin staining, immunostaining, and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) analysis were carried out to investigate the safety of Putocrin®. A pigskin‐Franz cell system experiment applied high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to compare the skin penetration efficiency of fluorescein isothiocyanate (Fitc)‐labeled tranexamic acid with or without the assistance of Putocrin®. The safety and efficacy of Putocrin® was further evaluated on zebrafish embryos.The MTT assay showed that Putocrin® at concentration ≤2.5% did not significantly affect cell viability. The in vitro EpiKutis® skin study revealed that 2.5% Putocrin® did not affect skin morphology, filaggrin content, ceramide/protein, or fatty acid/protein ratios, but significantly increased loricrin content by 86.00% (p < 0.001). The pigskin‐Franz cell penetration experiment demonstrated that Fitc‐labeled tranexamic acid could barely penetrate the skin (with penetration rate of 1.121%), while Putocrin® significantly enhanced the penetration rate up to 83.983%, which was close to unlabeled tranexamic acid (90.013%). The zebrafish embryo study showed that 2.5% Putocrin® did not exert observable toxicity and obviously assisted the skin penetration of Fitc‐labeled tranexamic acid into fish embryos. These results indicate the strong enhancing skin penetration potency of Putocrin®.This study demonstrated the safety as well as the strong enhancing skin penetration potency of Putocrin® for cosmetics formulation use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important transmission component, the spur gear has been widely used in automobiles and various mechanical equipment. However, spur gears are usually produced by the hobbing and shaving, which inevitably reduces the service strength and service life of the gear. In this paper, the one-step punching forming process of spur gear is presented. Compared with the traditional gear machining process, the process not only avoids the destruction of the metal flow line but significantly decreases the material cost. The effect of tooth filling and equivalent strain accumulation on gear forming quality was investigated by finite element simulation. The effects of upper die punching speed, lower die preheating temperature, and friction coefficient on lower die wear during forming were studied by response surface method. The optimum process parameters of punching of spur gear were a lower die preheating temperature of 280 ℃, friction coefficient of 0.27, and upper die feed speed of 8.3 mm/s, respectively. It is predicted that about 110,000 gears can be produced before the wear failure of the lower die. On the basis of the finite element simulation results, the gear punching experiment is performed. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results, and the metal flow line at the tooth is uniform and continuous, which verifies the reliability of the one-step punching process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the selection and application of electrode materials have been the subject of much discussion and study. Among them, graphite has been widely investigated for use as electrode materials in LIBs due to its abundant resources, low cost, safety and electrochemical diversity. While it is commonly recognized that conventional graphite materials utilized for commercial purposes have a limited theoretical capacity, there has been a steady emergence of new and improved carbonaceous materials for use as anodes in light of the progressive development of LIBs. In this paper, the latest research progress of various carbon materials in LIBs is systematically and comprehensively reviewed. Firstly, the rocking chair charging and discharging mechanism of LIBs is briefly introduced in this paper, using graphite anodes as an example. After that, the general categories of carbonaceous materials are highlighted, and the recent research on the recent progress of various carbonaceous materials (graphite-based, amorphous carbon-based, and nanocarbon-based) used in LIB anodes is presented separately based on the classification of the structural morphology, emphasizing the influence of the morphology and structure of carbon-based materials on the electrochemical performance of the batteries. Finally, the current challenges of carbonaceous materials in LIB applications and the future development of other novel carbonaceous materials are envisioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sabatier principle suggests that an excessive adsorption of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) by metal compounds may hinder their conversion in the absence of a conversion module. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a synergetic effect mechanism between "strong adsorption" and "rapid conversion" for LiPSs. To achieve this coexistence, a molybdenum‐doped MnS/MnO@C porous structure is designed as a multifunctional coating on the polypropylene (PP) separator. The incorporation of MnS/MnO@C enhances the adsorption capacity towards LiPSs, while molybdenum facilitates subsequent conversion. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of each component and its large specific surface area, the cell with Mo‐doped MnS/MnO@C coating achieves smooth adsorption‐diffusion‐conversion processes and exhibits an appreciable rate performance with outstanding cycling stability. Even when sulfur loading increases to 9.68 mg cm−2, the modified battery delivers an excellent initial areal capacity of 11.69 mAh cm−2 and maintains 6.97 mAh cm−2 after 50 cycles at 0.1 C. This study presents a promising approach to simultaneously accomplish "strong adsorption" and "rapid conversion" of polysulfides, offering novel perspectives for devising dual‐functional modified separators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to optimize the mechanical properties of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) reinforced with macro basalt fibers (MBFs). Six types of fibers, containing micro fibers and macro fibers, were employed to reinforce UHPC by mono or hybrid method. The micro fibers contained micro basalt fiber, polypropylene fiber, and polyvinyl alcohol fiber corresponding to the modulus of 90, 3.5, and 41 GPa, respectively. The macro fibers contained MBF, macro polypropylene fiber, and polyvinyl alcohol fiber corresponding to the modulus of 43, 2.9, and 23 GPa, respectively. The flowability, and compressive and flexural behavior of UHPC were tested and analyzed. The micro fibers with high modulus effectively restricted microcracks owing to the dense fiber distribution and strong restraint, thereby significantly enhanced the mechanical properties of UHPC before cracking; thus, UHPC with 0.3% micro basalt fiber showed the highest compressive and flexural strength of 132.6 and 26.10 MPa. The macro fibers showed pullout failure and consumed energy during fiber pullout process, leading to a ductile failure and enhancement in mechanical properties of UHPC after cracking. UHPC with 3% MBFs had the highest compressive, flexural first-cracking and post-cracking strength of 151.8, 24.97, and 26.32 MPa, owing to the great energy consumption, low damage to fiber–matrix interface and strong macrocrack resistance supported by MBFs. For UHPC with hybrid fibers, UHPC with 3% MBFs and 0.3% micro fibers had the best comprehensive performance, corresponding to the flexural first-cracking and post-cracking strength of 27.95 and 28.01 MPa. It was because that MBF and micro basalt fibers with proper content, which had the highest modulus, synergistically limited microcracks and macrocracks before and after UHPC cracked. The principle, choosing the fiber combination with high modulus and proper content, applies to the improvement of mechanical properties of UHPC with different mixture in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of primate behavior is crucial for neuroscience research and drug evaluation. Although many methods of automatically recording animal behavior have been proposed, none of them can meet the requirements of both speed and accuracy. In order to implement real-time and high-precision automatic recording of primate behavior, we proposed a novel Joint Detection and Classification (JDC) model to predict the location, identity and actions of monkeys simultaneously. Different from the existing complex non-end-to-end models, our model is the first end-to-end method in this field. In order to explore how to efficiently fuse spatiotemporal information, we constructed the JDC model with a single frame or different fusion approaches. In addition, we collected a new dataset named Spatiotemporal Action Localization of Monkeys in a Group (SALMG), which is the first one containing the location, identity and actions of monkeys in a group. The JDC model with middle fusion approach (JDC-MF) on the SALMG dataset outperforms all compared methods. The F1 score of the JDC-MF is 81.4%, which is 15.3% and 10.6% higher than the Separate Detection and Classification model and the two-stage model, respectively. Moreover, the JDC-MF achieves the highest accuracy of 99.1 % on public Pig Novelty Preference Behavior dataset, which is 4.1% higher than the second-best model. The JDC-MF only takes 0.027 s for a clip on a Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Therefore, the JDC-MF can realize real-time and high-precision spatiotemporal action localization of monkeys, and provide an effective reference scheme for automatic recording and analysis of animal behavior. Code has been made available at: https://github.com/Kewei-Liang/JDC-MF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plume deflection of an applied-field magnetoplasmadynamic thruster is demonstrated using an asymmetrical magnetic nozzle. The two-dimensional plume diagnoses are performed downstream the deflected plume, where the plasma density, electron temperature, plasma potential, ion current density and the external current are measured by the Langmuir single probe, Faraday probe and a water-cooled Hall probe. A maximum plume deflecting angle of 12°is achieved. And a high-electric-potential region named the deflection arm is found on the anti-deflection side of the thruster axis. To obtain more kinetic insights, a fully-kinetic planar particle-in-cell simulation is also conducted under similar operating conditions, and the general distributions of the properties are reproduced qualitatively. Related closely to the deflection arm region, the E × B -induced Lorentz force is found to be one of the dominant deflecting force under ion non-magnetization condition, besides the Lorentz force induced by the diamagnetic current. As for the other contributors, the inertia-induced and the stress-induced Lorentz forces are rather insignificant. • First experiment of MPDT plume deflection by asymmetric magnetic nozzle. • An asymmetric high potential is found to facilitate the deflection. • A 2D PIC simulation is conducted to analyze the deflection kinetically. • The ExB-induced Lorentz force is found to dominate the deflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidence has demonstrated that enhanced PHF20 expression plays a crucial role in cancer development and progression. However, little is known about the prognostic value of PHF20 expression in breast cancer (BRCA). In this study, we attempted to explore the expression pattern of PHF20 and its associations with prognosis and immune status in BRCA. The gene expression data and clinical information of 1109 BRCA samples were downloaded from TCGA database. The expression level of PHF20 protein was determined using UALCAN and HPA database. Kaplan–Meier method and CIBERSORT algorithm were used to analyze the associations of PHF20 expression with overall survival (OS) and immune microenvironment, respectively. Besides, GSEA analysis was conducted to explore potential biological functions and molecular mechanisms of PHF20 in BRCA. Moreover, starBase database was applied to construct a ceRNA nework. PHF20 was highly expressed in BRCA samples both at the transcriptional and protein level, and was strongly correlated with the OS and immune status. Univariable and multivariate Cox regression analyses identified PHF20 as an independent prognostic factor. Additionally, GSEA analysis showed that high PHF20 expression was closely associated with TGF-β signaling pathway, Wnt signaling pathway, and adherens junction. Furthermore, three ceRNA networks (AC037198.1/hsa-miR-223-3p/PHF20, CBR3-AS1/hsa-miR-223-3p/PHF20, and ZNF561-AS1/hsa-miR-223-3p/PHF20) were identified by starBase analysis. Functional experiments validated that PHF20 knockdown inhibited the cell viability and progression in BRCA cells. PHF20 overexpression was significantly associated with poor prognosis and immune status in BRCA, and could act as a potential novel prognostic biomarker for BRCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decyanation is an important process in the synthesis of aromatic molecules in the studies of pharmaceutical research, medical and materials sciences. In late‐stage modifications of privileged carbo/heterocyclic scaffolds, radical‐type decyanation techniques have been devised to date. As a result, the chemistry of cyano‐involved conversions, a hotly debated subject over the past few decades, has advanced significantly. The cyano group (CN), on the other hand, has rarely been acknowledged as a good reaction site due to its thermodynamic robustness. The most recent advancements in catalytic radical decyanation protocols that CN behaved as a leaving group has made are surveyed in this article. Following the introduction of a number of different reaction modes, the catalytic reactions that are used to activate the C−CN bonds are primarily categorized, and the text herein are divided into three groups: (1) photo‐catalyzed decyanation transformations, (2) electro‐catalyzed decyanation transformations, and (3) transition‐metal‐catalyzed or metal‐free decyanation transformations. With an emphasis on the catalytic systems and synthetic applications in C−CN bond activation, this review will provide the readers with an overview of decyanation chemistry in radical reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple-ratio fractional programming (FP) has been applied to the optimization of wireless communication networks, because of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio terms. However, in order to find solutions, FP requires iterative processes and may include complex operations, such as binary search, eigen-decomposition, and matrix inversion. Thus, the computational complexity and delay may violate the real-time requirements of delay-sensitive applications. To tackle this challenge, we propose a deep unfolding FP (DUFP) optimization framework naturally incorporating expert knowledge and deep neural networks. By unfolding the iterative process to neural network layers, the proposed DUFP framework trains a neural network with a little number of trainable parameters offline and then finds solutions online with reduced computational complexity. In addition, the proposed DUFP approach is applied to downlink beamforming problems to validate its efficiency. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed DUFP approach can achieve a balance between performance and computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent microelectrodes have received much attention from the biomedical community due to their unique advantages in concurrent crosstalk‐free electrical and optical interrogation of cell/tissue activity. Despite recent progress in constructing transparent microelectrodes, a major challenge is to simultaneously achieve desirable mechanical stretchability, optical transparency, electrochemical performance, and chemical stability for high‐fidelity, conformal, and stable interfacing with soft tissue/organ systems. To address this challenge, we have designed microelectrode arrays (MEAs) with gold‐coated silver nanowires (Au–Ag NWs) by combining technical advances in materials, fabrication, and mechanics. The Au coating improves both the chemical stability and electrochemical impedance of the Au–Ag NW microelectrodes with only slight changes in optical properties. The MEAs exhibit a high optical transparency >80% at 550 nm, a low normalized 1 kHz electrochemical impedance of 1.2–7.5 Ω cm2, stable chemical and electromechanical performance after exposure to oxygen plasma for 5 min, and cyclic stretching for 600 cycles at 20% strain, superior to other transparent microelectrode alternatives. The MEAs easily conform to curvilinear heart surfaces for colocalized electrophysiological and optical mapping of cardiac function. This work demonstrates that stretchable transparent metal nanowire MEAs are promising candidates for diverse biomedical science and engineering applications, particularly under mechanically dynamic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reform of public hospitals is a complex process, involving multiple subsystems and the interaction of related factors. This paper conducts a preliminary evaluation of the joint reform of medication, medical care, and medical insurance in Sanming using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The method of system dynamics is applied to model the three subsystems of medication, medical care, and medical insurance in Sanming and analyze the cause-and-effect relationship between different factors in the subsystem. Based on the analysis, the evaluation index is determined to evaluate the effect of the medical reform in Sanming. The analysis results show that Sanming's public hospitals have experienced a comprehensive reform that includes changing the way pharmaceuticals are procured, cutting prescription prices, and raising hospital worker wages. To maximize the hospital revenue structure, the medical insurance payment system was changed. The expense of patient therapy was reduced, and the development of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment was encouraged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (A/H3N2) in the central region had a semiannual periodicity. • The A/H3N2 in the central and south regions had summer peaks. • The antigenic similarity for A/H3N2 was low. • Better antigenic similarity for cell-derived vaccine strains in A/H3N2. • No quadrivalent influenza vaccines were available for people aged 6-35 months in China. To quantify the seasonal and antigenic characteristics of influenza to help understand influenza activity and inform vaccine recommendations. We employed a generalized linear model with harmonic terms to quantify the seasonal pattern of influenza in China from 2005-2017, including amplitude (circulatory intensity), semiannual periodicity (given two peaks a year), annual peak time, and epidemic duration. The antigenic differences were distinguished as antigenic similarity between 2009 and 2020. We categorized regions above 33° N, between 27° N and 33° N, and below 27° N as the north, central, and south regions, respectively. We estimated that the amplitude in the north region (median: 0.019, 95% CI: 0.018-0.021) was significantly higher than that in the central region (median: 0.011, 95% CI: 0.01-0.012, P <0.001) and south region (median: 0.008, 95% CI: 0.007-0.008, P <0.001) for influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (A/H3N2). The A/H3N2 in the central region had a semiannual periodicity (median: 0.548, 95% CI: 0.517-0.577), while no semiannual pattern was found in other regions or subtypes/lineages. The antigenic similarity was low (below 50% in the 2009-2010, 2014-2015, 2016-2018, and 2019-2020 seasons) for A/H3N2. Our study depicted the seasonal pattern differences and antigenic differences of influenza in China, which provides information for vaccination strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to further improve the computing power of the information aggregation operator in the q-rung orthopair probabilistic hesitant fuzzy environment, this paper proposes a multi-attribute decision-making method based on the q-rung orthopair probabilistic hesitant fuzzy Schweizer-Sklar power weighted Hamy mean operator. Firstly, the algorithm of q-rung orthopair probabilistic hesitant fuzzy set is improved based on the Schweizer-Sklar T-norm. In order to better reflect the degree of hesitation of decision-making experts, a new q-rung orthopair probabilistic hesitant fuzzy distance measure is proposed, which provides a basis for subsequent power weighted calculations. Furthermore, considering the correlation between attributes and the influence of data extremes, some information aggregation operators and their power weighted forms are proposed. Finally, a multi-attribute decision-making model based on the q-rung orthopair probabilistic hesitant fuzzy Schweizer-Sklar power weighted Hamy mean operator is established, and the reliability and validity of the research content in this paper are verified through decision-making examples and comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problems of insufficient flexibility and limited size of the workpiece in traditional EDM milling, an EDM milling based on a 6-DOF serial robot is proposed in this study. To realize the rapid adjustment of the machining gap, a tool electrode servo motion device was invented and installed at the end of a 6-DOF serial robot, and a servo control strategy of the tool electrode vertical trajectory fallback was proposed. Then, to achieve the controllable thickness of every layer in EDM milling based on a 6-DOF serial robot, the servo control strategy of limited motion of the tool electrode on the basis of vertical servo control and a fix-length compensation method to compensate the tool electrode wear was proposed. Finally, to verify the correctness and effectiveness of the servo control strategy and wear compensation of the tool electrode, the trapezoidal groove structures on the plane workpiece and cylindrical workpiece were machined by EDM milling based on a 6-DOF serial robot, respectively. Also, to verify the machining ability of complex trajectories on the space surface of the workpiece of EDM milling based on a 6-DOF serial robot, three complex trajectories, such as EDM, Chinese character "China," and "Chinese knot," was designed and machined on the hemispherical workpiece with the radius of 38 mm. The feasibility and effectiveness of EDM milling technology based on a 6-DOF serial robot were verified, which has great market application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioelectronic devices that allow simultaneous accurate monitoring and control of the spatiotemporal patterns of cardiac activity provide an effective means to understand the mechanisms and optimize therapeutic strategies for heart disease. Optogenetics is a promising technology for cardiac research due to its advantages such as cell‐type selectivity and high space‐time resolution, but its efficacy is limited by the insufficient number of modulation channels and lack of simultaneous spatiotemporal mapping capabilities in current implantable cardiac optogenetics tools available for in vivo investigations. Here, soft implantable electro‐optical cardiac devices integrating multilayered highly uniform arrays of transparent microelectrodes and multicolor light‐emitting diodes in thin, flexible platforms are designed for mechanically compliant high‐content high‐precision electrical mapping and single‐/multi‐site optogenetics and electrical stimulation without light‐induced artifacts. Systematic benchtop characterizations, together with ex vivo and in vivo evaluations on healthy and diseased small animal hearts and human cardiac slices demonstrate their functionalities in real‐time spatiotemporal mapping and control of cardiac rhythm and function, with broad applications in basic and ultimately clinical cardiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyisoprene, with a high degree of polymerization, is the main component of natural rubber. In the industrial production process, it is necessary to adjust the length of the macromolecule of polyisoprene to improve its plasticity. It is thus of vital importance to explore the effect of the degree of polymerization of polyisoprene on its properties, e.g., mechanical property and thermal property. Molecular dynamics simulations link microstructure to macroscopic properties. In this paper, Moltemplate was used to establish polyisoprene models with different degrees of polymerization, and the mechanical properties of polyisoprene under uniaxial tension were analyzed under an OPLS all-atom force field. The results showed that the strength and elastic modulus of the material increased with the increase in the degree of polymerization of the molecular chain. In the process of tensile loading, the non-bonded potential energy played a dominant role in the change of the total system potential energy. Then, the thermal conductivity of polyisoprene with different degrees of polymerization was calculated by the non-equilibrium molecular dynamics method (NEMD). The thermal conductivity of PI was predicted to converge to 0.179 W/(m·K). The mechanism of thermal conductivity of the polymer containing branched chains was also discussed and analyzed. The research content of this paper aims to provide theoretical support for improving the mechanical and thermal properties of natural rubber base materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epigenome reprogramming after fertilization enables transcriptionally quiescent maternal and paternal chromatin to acquire a permissive state for subsequent zygotic genome activation (ZGA). H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac) is a well‐established chromatin marker of active enhancers and promoters. However, reprogramming dynamics of H3K27ac during maternal‐to‐zygotic transition (MZT) in mammalian embryos are not well‐studied. By profiling the allelic landscape of H3K27ac during mouse MZT, we show that H3K27ac undergoes three waves of rapid global transitions between oocyte stage and 2‐cell stage. Notably, germinal vesicle oocyte and zygote chromatin are globally hyperacetylated, with noncanonical, broad H3K27ac domains that correlate with broad H3K4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) and open chromatin. H3K27ac marks genomic regions primed for activation including ZGA genes, retrotransposons, and active alleles of imprinted genes. We show that CBP/p300 and HDAC activities play important roles in regulating H3K27ac dynamics and are essential for preimplantation development. Specifically, CBP/p300 acetyltransferase broadly deposits H3K27ac in zygotes to induce the opening of condensed chromatin at putative enhancers and ensure proper ZGA. On the contrary, HDACs revert broad H3K27ac domains to canonical domains and safeguard ZGA by preventing premature expression of developmental genes. In conclusion, coordinated activities of CBP/p300 and HDACs during mouse MZT are essential for ZGA and preimplantation development. Synopsis: Reprogramming of the epigenome after fertilization is required for subsequent zygotic genome activation (ZGA). Here, profiling of H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac) associated with active enhancers/promotors reveals its dynamic reprogramming during maternal‐to‐zygotic transition in mouse preimplantation embryos. H3K27ac undergoes three waves of rapid global reprogramming during mouse maternal‐to‐zygotic transition.Germinal vesicle oocyte and zygote are globally hyperacetylated with noncanonical broad H3K27ac domains that correlate with broad H3K4me3 domains and open chromatin.CBP/p300 acetyltransferase broadly deposits H3K27ac in zygotes, regulates minor ZGA, and opens condensed chromatin at putative enhancers to ensure proper ZGA.HDAC‐dependent transition from broad‐to‐canonical H3K27ac domains between zygote and 2‐cell stage safeguards ZGA by preventing premature expression of developmental genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we propose to boost video-based person re-identification (Re-ID) by using attribute-enhanced feature presentation. To this end, we not only try to use the ID-relevant attributes more effectively, but also for the first time in literature harness the ID-irrelevant attributes to help model training. The former mainly include gender, age, clothing characteristics, etc., which contain rich and supplementary information about the pedestrian; the latter include viewpoint, action, etc., which are seldom used for identification previously. In particular, we use the attributes to enhance the significant areas of the image with a novel Attribute Salient Region Enhance (ASRE) module that can attend more accurately to the body of the pedestrian, so as to better separate the target from the background. Furthermore, we find that many ID-irrelevant but subject-relevant factors, like the view angle and movement of the target pedestrian, have great impact on the two-dimensional appearance of a pedestrian. We then propose to exploit both the ID-relevant and the ID-irrelevant attributes via a novel triplet loss called the Viewpoint and Action-Invariant (VAI) triplet loss. Based on the above, we design an Attribute Salience Assisted Network (ASA-Net) to perform attribute recognition along with identity recognition, and use the attributes for feature enhancement and hard sample mining. Extensive experiments on MARS and DukeMTMC-VideoReID datasets show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-arts. Also, the visualizations of learning results further prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vibration attenuation mechanism of shear thickening fluid- (STF-) filled sandwich structures was investigated in this study. Structural equivalent damping, stiffness, and mass increased simultaneously with the increase in the volume fraction of shear thickening fluid. However, the damping ratio decreased and natural frequency increased with the increase in structural mass. Thus, the damping ratio was not a monotonically increasing function of the volume fraction of STF. A modified shear strain model of the damping layer was developed based on the following conditions: (1) under the condition of small strain, shear thickening fluid was regarded as linear viscoelastic material, and (2) the warpage of the sandwich beam was considered during deformation and the influence of STF on the shear strain of sandwich beam. According to the modified shear strain model of the damping layer, the shear thickening occurred at 1 Hz to 20 Hz during vibration. Therefore, the resonance point of the structure shifted to the left. The predictions were in excellent agreement with the experimental results. The results demonstrated that shear thickening fluid improved the vibration damping performance of the sandwich structure, while the thickening ability was not the higher, the better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power gating, a general-purpose power saving technique, can be used to turn off inactive routers in Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) to reduce static power consumption. SPONGE is an advanced power gating scheme. When the router is dormant, SPONGE maintains the transmission of straight packets, which occupy a large percentage of the network, through a direct bypass design. At the same time, the energized router column's can ensure the normal transmission of turning packets. However, it suffers from increased latency due to excessive detours, aggravated load imbalance, and violation of the breakeven time (BET) constraint. To address the above problems, we propose an improved energy-efficient router architecture SPONGE+. First, we design a new router bypass architecture that enables powered-off routers to have the ability to transmit straight ahead and turn in the X-to-Y direction to reduce the bypass cost of packet transmission. Secondly, we propose a congestion-aware turning routing algorithm to balance the load among powered-on routers and improve network resource utilization. Finally, we pin improves the power gating mechanism for router columns to satisfy the BET constraint and further reduce the static power expenses. Experimental results indicate that, under real application scenarios, our scheme achieves a 27.3% reduction in static power consumption and a 10.5% decrease in packet latency compared to SPONGE, with commendable scalability. • A new bypass structure is designed. The bypass in this paper enables packet injection, ejection, straight forward transmission and X-direction to Y-direction steering transmission. • A packet congestion-aware turning routing algorithm is proposed. The algorithm in this paper balances the load between powered-on routers, improves network resource utilization, and gains more power gating time for powered-off routers. • A dedicated predictor is designed for the overall power gating of router columns to avoid power gating violation of BET constraint and further save static power consumption. • The performance of SPONGE+ in various aspects is evaluated using system-level cycle-accurate simulator. The results show that SPONGE+ has significant improvement in terms of packet latency, static power savings and scalability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of large-scale retirements of renewable energy modules has attracted considerable attention from governments and the public worldwide. Using the Chinese wind and photovoltaic industries as examples, this paper, for the first time, employs a real options approach to explore the optimal time for energy firms to retire their power plants and to predict the future trend of renewable energy wastage from a bottom-up perspective. The results show that the optimal retirement time for the four subdivided categories ranges from 16 to 23 years. The later the investments are made, the earlier the decommissioning time comes and the lower the project returns. Furthermore, wind projects have been found to generate more revenue than PV projects for the same size, and the gap continues to widen. Offshore wind technology always has the longest optimal service life (18.62 years in 2022) and the greatest project returns (10.84 million CNY in 2022). Annual utilization hours, the renewable electricity price and the waste price can accelerate the retirement of plants and generate more revenue for energy companies, while the initial investment cost has a completely opposite effect. The first wave of PV retirements will occur in 2035 at 305.82 GW, while onshore wind will be in 2036 at 530.77 GW and offshore wind will not explode until 2040 at 65.84 GW. An assessment of potential policies suggests that for every 100 CNY increase in incentive strength, the retirement wave arrives 1 year earlier. In contrast, for every 100 CNY increase in the strength of penalties, the retirement wave is delayed by 1 year. In addition, we verify that the size of the plants does not affect the forecast of the retirement trend, indicating that the assumptions about installed capacity do not cause bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construct an evolutionary game among enterprises and households. • Discuss the impacts of subsidy withdrawal on strategic changes. • Use multivariate sensitivity analysis to study the impact of 5 parameter changes. • Analyse the formulation of the subsidy cancellation policy. Access to affordable and clean energy is a challenge highlighted in the UN's sustainable development goals. China has implemented a large-scale subsidy policy to promote photovoltaics (PV), making it the hugest PV market. However, its subsidy policies spawned problems in the distributed photovoltaic (DPV) industry, such as poor product quality and subsidy gaps, making it impossible for the country to withhold the cancellation of these subsidies. Based on the evolutionary game theory, this study reveals the strategic changes among enterprises and households under the influence of subsidy policy withdrawal. Moreover, the impact of multiple parameter combination changes on the decision-making of the two parties is discussed in detail. The results are as follows: (1) under the basic parameters, enterprises tend to adopt a passive strategy, and households tend to choose positive participation; (2) successful DPV projects cannot be achieved without the subsidies under the current level of benefits and costs; (3) the effects of the five parameters change are discussed respectively. This study has certain reference values for the policy and strategy formulations to promote the development of DPV power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hundreds of millions of doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines have been administered globally, but progress on vaccination varies considerably between countries. We aimed to provide an overall picture of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, including policy, coverage, and demand of COVID-19 vaccines.Methods: We conducted a descriptive study of vaccination policy and doses administered data obtained from multiple public sources as of 8 February 2022. We used these data to develop coverage indicators and explore associations of vaccine coverage with socioeconomic and healthcare-related factors. We estimated vaccine demand as numbers of doses required to complete vaccination of countries' target populations according to their national immunization program policies.Results: Messenger RNA and adenovirus vectored vaccines were the most commonly used COVID-19 vaccines in high-income countries, while adenovirus vectored vaccines were the most widely used vaccines worldwide (180 countries). One hundred ninety-two countries have authorized vaccines for the general public, with 40.1% (77/192) targeting individuals over 12 years and 32.3% (62/192) targeting those ≥ 5 years. Forty-eight and 151 countries have started additional-dose and booster-dose vaccination programs, respectively. Globally, there have been 162.1 doses administered per 100 individuals in target populations, with marked inter-region and inter-country heterogeneity. Completed vaccination series coverage ranged from 0.1% to more than 95.0% of country target populations, and numbers of doses administered per 100 individuals in target populations ranged from 0.2 to 308.6. Doses administered per 100 individuals in whole populations correlated with healthcare access and quality index (R2 = 0.59), socio-demographic index (R2 = 0.52), and gross domestic product per capita (R2 = 0.61). At least 6.4 billion doses will be required to complete interim vaccination programs-3.3 billion for primary immunization and 3.1 billion for additional/booster programs. Globally, 0.53 and 0.74 doses per individual in target populations are needed for primary immunization and additional/booster dose programs, respectively.Conclusions: There is wide country-level disparity and inequity in COVID-19 vaccines rollout, suggesting large gaps in immunity, especially in low-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a chronic eye condition that is rapidly growing due to the prevalence of diabetes. There are challenges such as the dearth of ophthalmologists, healthcare resources, and facilities that are unable to provide patients with appropriate eye screening services. As a result, deep learning (DL) has the potential to play a critical role as a powerful automated diagnostic tool in the field of ophthalmology, particularly in the early detection of DR when compared to traditional detection techniques. The DL models are known as black boxes, despite the fact that they are widely adopted. They make no attempt to explain how the model learns representations or why it makes a particular prediction. Due to the black box design architecture, DL methods make it difficult for intended end-users like ophthalmologists to grasp how the models function, preventing model acceptance for clinical usage. Recently, several studies on the interpretability of DL methods used in DR-related tasks such as DR classification and segmentation have been published. The goal of this paper is to provide a detailed overview of interpretability strategies used in DR-related tasks. This paper also includes the authors' insights and future directions in the field of DR to help the research community overcome research problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants may pose a threat to immunity. A systematic landscape of neutralizing antibodies against emerging variants is needed. We systematically searched for studies that evaluated neutralizing antibody titers induced by previous infection or vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 variants and collected individual data. We identified 106 studies meeting the eligibility criteria. Lineage B.1.351 (beta), P.1 (gamma) and B.1.617.2 (delta) significantly escaped natural infection–mediated neutralization, with an average of 4.1-fold (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.6–4.7-fold), 1.8-fold (1.4–2.4-fold), and 3.2-fold (2.4–4.1-fold) reduction in live virus neutralization assay, while neutralizing titers against B.1.1.7 (alpha) decreased slightly (1.4-fold [95% CI: 1.2–1.6-fold]). Serum from vaccinees also led to significant reductions in neutralization of B.1.351 across different platforms, with an average of 7.1-fold (95% CI: 5.5–9.0-fold) for nonreplicating vector platform, 4.1-fold (3.7–4.4-fold) for messenger RNA platform, and 2.5-fold (1.7–2.9-fold) for protein subunit platform. Neutralizing antibody levels induced by messenger RNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 variants were similar to, or higher, than that derived from naturally infected individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning models have been widely used in security applications. However, it is well-known that adversaries can adapt their attacks to evade detection. There has been some work on making machine learning models more robust to such attacks. However, one simple but promising approach called randomization is under-explored. In addition, most existing works focus on models with differentiable error functions while tree-based models do not have such error functions but are quite popular because they are easy to interpret. This paper proposes a novel randomization-based approach to improve robustness of tree-based models against evasion attacks. The proposed approach incorporates randomization into both model training time and model application time (meaning when the model is used to detect attacks). We also apply this approach to random forest, an existing ML method which already has incorporated randomness at training time but still often fails to generate robust models. We proposed a novel weighted-random-forest method to generate more robust models and a clustering method to add randomness at model application time. We also proposed a theoretical framework to provide a lower bound for adversaries’ effort. Experiments on intrusion detection and spam filtering data show that our approach further improves robustness of random-forest method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A planar single-layer parasitic swastika-shaped structure, which serves as an effective isolator, is developed for mutual coupling reduction in wideband, high-density circularly polarized (CP) arrays. A closely spaced two-element CP antenna array demonstrates the efficacy of the approach. The currents induced by the CP coupling are effectively canceled out when this isolator is integrated into it. The antenna elements are co-planar. They are arranged with a center-to-center distance of $0.4\lambda _{\mathrm {L}}$ ($\lambda _{\mathrm {L}}$ being the wavelength of the lower bound of the array’s operational bandwidth) and have an extremely small edge-to-edge distance of $\sim 0.024\lambda _{\mathrm {L}}$. The parasitic element yields an increase of the isolation level between the antenna elements of more than 9.4 dB over the entire operational band, with a maximum improvement of 20.4 dB. Moreover, the antenna elements realize a modest maximum gain improvement of $\sim 1.2$ dB in the boresight direction over the same band. The overlapped impedance matching and 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidths cover the range of 1.7–2.7 GHz, a $\sim 45$ % fractional bandwidth. A prototype was fabricated and measured; the measured results are in good agreement with their simulated values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic retinopathy disease contains lesions (e.g., exudates, hemorrhages, and microaneurysms) that are minute to the naked eye. Determining the lesions at pixel level poses a challenge as each pixel does not reflect any semantic entities. Furthermore, the computational cost of inspecting each pixel is expensive because the number of pixels is high even at low resolution. In this work, we propose a hybrid image processing method. Simple Linear Iterative Clustering with Gaussian Filter (SLIC-G) for the purpose of overcoming pixel constraints. The SLIC-G image processing method is divided into two stages: (1) simple linear iterative clustering superpixel segmentation and (2) Gaussian smoothing operation. In such a way, a large number of new transformed datasets are generated and then used for model training. Finally, two performance evaluation metrics that are suitable for imbalanced diabetic retinopathy datasets were used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed SLIC-G. The results indicate that, in comparison to prior published works’ results, the proposed SLIC-G shows better performance on image classification of class imbalanced diabetic retinopathy datasets. This research reveals the importance of image processing and how it influences the performance of deep learning networks. The proposed SLIC-G enhances pre-trained network performance by eliminating the local redundancy of an image, which preserves local structures, but avoids over-segmented, noisy clips. It closes the research gap by introducing the use of superpixel segmentation and Gaussian smoothing operation as image processing methods in diabetic retinopathy–related tasks.Graphical abstract: Diabetic retinopathy disease contains lesions (e.g., exudates, hemorrhages, and microaneurysms) that are minute to the naked eye. Determining the lesions at pixel level poses a challenge as each pixel does not reflect any semantic entities. Furthermore, the computational cost of inspecting each pixel is expensive because the number of pixels is high even at low resolution. In this work, we propose a hybrid image processing method. Simple Linear Iterative Clustering with Gaussian Filter (SLIC-G) for the purpose of overcoming pixel constraints. The SLIC-G image processing method is divided into two stages: (1) simple linear iterative clustering superpixel segmentation and (2) Gaussian smoothing operation. In such a way, a large number of new transformed datasets are generated and then used for model training. Finally, two performance evaluation metrics that are suitable for imbalanced diabetic retinopathy datasets were used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed SLIC-G. The results indicate that, in comparison to prior published works’ results, the proposed SLIC-G shows better performance on image classification of class imbalanced diabetic retinopathy datasets. This research reveals the importance of image processing and how it influences the performance of deep learning networks. The proposed SLIC-G enhances pre-trained network performance by eliminating the local redundancy of an image, which preserves local structures, but avoids over-segmented, noisy clips. It closes the research gap by introducing the use of superpixel segmentation and Gaussian smoothing operation as image processing methods in diabetic retinopathy–related tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a reasonable 3D structure of enzyme IIC (EIIC) was established using ab initio methods. Curcumin, baicalein and phloretin were screened out from 127,695 natural products based on EIIC protein in Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) by using the virtual screening technology. The antibacterial assays results confirmed that these three compounds could inhibit S. aureus cell growth. The results of molecular docking, molecular dynamics and molecular mechanics/generalized born surface area calculation indicated that curcumin, baicalein and phloretin mainly bound to Glu275, His231, and Phe359 of EIIC through hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces to obstruct the transport of glucose-based carbohydrates, and thereby inhibited the carbohydrate metabolism of S. aureus. The steered molecular dynamics analysis revealed the existence of transfer channel in EIIC and illustrated that curcumin, baicalein and phloretin could dissociate from EIIC when pulling force on them. Furthermore, alanine scanning and hydrogen bond occupancy analyses found that Glu275 played an important role in stabilizing EIIC-baicalein/curcumin/phloretin complexes, and 275Glu@OE1 was a stable hydrogen bond acceptor. Therefore, Glu275 may be a hot spot residue that can maintain the stable binding of agents to EIIC, which may be a direction for the development of new drugs against S. aureus. • Curcumin, baicalein and phloretin were screened out by virtual screening technology. • The compounds can bind to EIIC to hinder sugar intake inhibiting the bacteria growth. • H-bonds and van der Waals forces had contributions to the EIIC-ligand complexes. • When pulling force on these three compounds, they could dissociate from EIIC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a severe immune-mediated inflammatory liver disease that currently lacks feasible drug treatment methods. Our study aimed to evaluate the protective effect of succinic acid against AIH and provide a reliable method for the clinical treatment of AIH. We performed an in vivo study of the effects of succinic acid on concanavalin A (ConA)-induced liver injury in mice. We examined liver transaminase levels, performed hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, and observed apoptotic phenotypes in mice. We performed flow cytometry to detect changes in the number of neutrophils and monocytes, and used liposomes to eliminate the liver Kupffer cells and evaluate their role. We performed bioinformatics analysis, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and western blotting to detect mitochondrial apoptosis-induced changes in proteins from the B-cell lymphoma 2(Bcl-2) family. Succinic acid ameliorated ConA-induced AIH in a concentration-dependent manner, as reflected in the survival curve. HE and TUNEL staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling revealed decreased alanine transaminase and aspartate aminotransferase levels, and reduced liver inflammation and apoptosis. RT-qPCR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay revealed that succinic acid significantly reduced liver pro-inflammatory cytokine levels. Flow cytometry revealed significantly decreased levels of liver neutrophils. Moreover, the protective effect of succinic acid disappeared after the Kupffer cells were eliminated, confirming their important role in the effect. Bioinformatics analysis, RT-qPCR, and western blotting showed that succinic acid-induced changes in proteins from the Bcl-2 family involved mitochondrial apoptosis, indicating the molecular mechanism underlying the protective effect of succinic acid. Succinic acid ameliorated ConA-induced liver injury by regulating immune balance, inhibiting pro-inflammatory factors, and promoting anti-apoptotic proteins in the liver. This study provides novel insights into the biological functions and therapeutic potential of succinic acid in the treatment of autoimmune liver injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wall building is labor-intensive and time-consuming as a typical construction task. It is expected to perform this heavy task using robots. However, laborers are still largely employed, mainly because high continuous stacking precision for mobile robots has always been a bottleneck problem. This paper examines the characteristics of continuous robotic stacking in wall-building tasks and finds the key challenge lies in precisely manipulating the robot arm terminal to the target pose and guaranteeing the wall's verticality. We propose an object-based terminal positioning solution for this issue. The core of this solution is establishing a reference coordinate system as a measurement reference and designing a multi-sensor measurement system to measure the relative pose between the robot and the object. The solution allows the robot to reposition multiple times and iteratively correct the terminal's pose, which greatly reduces the impact of positioning errors and loaded deflections of mobile systems on terminal positioning accuracy. Furthermore, we propose for the first time the construction of an active reference feature using a planar laser as a global constraint to provide a consistent reference for establishing reference coordinate systems. Global constraint eliminates the cumulative stacking errors due to relying only on the previously stacked object's reference features for terminal positioning in continuous stacking tasks and guarantees the wall's verticality. Finally, an autonomous mobile stacking robot is developed, and continuous block stacking experiments are conducted with this robot in a laboratory environment simulating real application sites. Experimental results demonstrate that the developed robotic system can achieve millimeter-level stacking accuracy, where a single vertical stack error of 3 mm meets the high requirements of the construction industry. Thus, it is reasonable to believe the proposed solution is extremely competitive compared to existing studies and provides valuable insights for improving the continuous stacking accuracy of mobile robots in large-scale unstructured environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: chronic hepatitis B; deep learning; liver disease; Machine learning; necroinflammatory activity EN chronic hepatitis B deep learning liver disease Machine learning necroinflammatory activity 1656 1659 4 10/19/21 20211101 NES 211101 Abbreviations APRI Aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index AUC The receiver operating characteristic CHB Chronic hepatitis B CI Confidence interval FIB-4 Fibrosis-4 index HBV Hepatitis B virus ROI Region of interest T2FS Breath-hold fat-suppressed T2-weighted INTRODUCTION Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major global health problem and causes chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in approximately 240 million people worldwide.1 Liver necroinflammatory activity is a driver of hepatic fibrosis and is associated with the initiation and progression of hepatocellular carcinoma.2 Accurate assessment of liver necroinflammatory activity could provide crucial information for treatment decisions and surveillance of CHB patients. Combining the predictive scores of these three models, the deep learning features-fusion model yielded better AUC values of 0.942 (95% CI, 0.912-0.969) and 0.851 (95% CI, 0.796-0.901) for predicting liver necroinflammatory activity >=G2 and >=G3 in the training cohort ( I p i < .023 and <.004, respectively). [Extracted from the article]

Transparent microelectrodes have recently emerged as a promising approach for crosstalk‐free multifunctional electrical and optical biointerfacing. High‐performance flexible platforms that allow seamless integration with soft tissue systems for such applications are urgently needed. Here, silver nanowires (Ag NWs)‐based transparent microelectrode arrays (MEAs) and interconnects are designed to meet this demand. The nanowire networks exhibit a high optical transparency >90.0% at 550 nm, and superior mechanical stability up to 100,000 bending cycles at 5 mm radius. The Ag NWs microelectrodes preserve low normalized electrochemical impedance of 3.4–15 Ω cm2 at 1 kHz, and the interconnects demonstrate excellent sheet resistance (Rsh) of 4.1–25 Ω sq−1. In vivo histological analysis reveals that the Ag NWs structures are biocompatible. Studies on Langendorff‐perfused mouse and rat hearts demonstrate that the Ag NWs MEAs enable high‐fidelity real‐time monitoring of heart rhythm during co‐localized optogenetic pacing and optical mapping. This proof‐of‐concept work illustrates that the solution‐processed, transparent, and flexible Ag NWs structures are a promising candidate for the next‐generation of large‐area multifunctional biointerfaces for interrogating complex biological systems in basic and translational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral anticoagulant (OAC) intervention trials have typically included clinical event outcomes. However, there is no standard list of outcomes to be used in OAC research. This study aimed to describe and classify the outcomes used in recent prospective clinical studies involving OACs. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases from January 2009 to July 2019 for prospective studies with an intervention or control group that included one or more oral anticoagulants. We abstracted details about each included study and the outcomes used from the study report and its accompanying protocol. Using the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) Initiative recommendations, we categorised each outcome into one of five domains (mortality/survival, physiological/clinical, life impact, resource use, and adverse events). Our primary outcome was the prevalence of use of an outcome domain across studies. We included 70 prospective studies, including 52 randomized controlled trials and 18 prospective cohort studies. A total of 121 different outcomes were reported. The COMET domains were represented in the 70 studies as follows: mortality (63/70, 90.0%); physiological/clinical domain (70/70, 100%), life impact domain (43/70, 61.4%), resource use domain (26/70, 37.1%), and adverse events domain (55/70, 78.6%). Outcome reporting in prospective studies of OACs more frequently concentrates on mortality, physiological/clinical domains, and adverse events compared to life impact and resource utilization domains, the latter uncommonly used. A priority for future research includes developing a core outcome set (COS) for OAC research that represents all domains. • No standard list of outcomes to be used in oral anticoagulants research • Most papers having mortality, physiological/clinical, and adverse events domains • Fewer outcomes measured in the life impact and resource use domains • Provide information useful for developing COS for oral anticoagulants research [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinal vessel segmentation has important application value in clinical diagnosis. If experts manually segment the retinal vessels, the workload is heavy, and the result is strong subjectively. However, some existing automatic segmentation methods have the problems of incomplete vessel segmentation and low‐segmentation accuracy. In order to solve the above problems, this study proposes a retinal vessel segmentation method based on task‐driven generative adversarial network (GAN). In the generative model, a U‐Net network is used to segment the retinal vessels. In the discriminative model, multi‐scale discriminators with different receptive fields are used to guide the generative model to generate more details. On the other hand, in view of the uncontrollable characteristics of the data generated by the traditional GAN, a task‐driven model based on perceptual loss is added to traditional GAN for feature matching, which makes the generated image more task‐specific. Experimental results show that the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the proposed method on data set digital retinal images for vessel extraction are 96.83, 80.66, 98.97 and 0.9830%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in case-based reasoning system (CBR) have led to an interest in favoring machine learning (ML) approaches as a replacement for traditional weighted distance methods. However, valuable information obtained through a training process was relinquished as transferring to other phases. This paper proposed a complete pipeline integration of CBR using kernel method designated with support vector machine (SVM) as the main engine. Since the system requires learning SVM model to be invoked in every phase, the online learning mechanism is nominated to effectively update the model when a new case adjoins. The proposed full SVM-CBR integration has been successfully built into a pipe defect detection. The achieved result indicates a substantial improvement by transferring learning information accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiation has been shown to promote the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in tumor cells, and TGF-β/Smad and PI3K-Akt signaling pathways play an important role in the EMT. In this study, we investigated the effects of neuropilin-1 (NRP1) on radiation-induced TGF-β/Smad and non-classical Smad signaling pathways in lung cancer cells, as well as the effects of NRP1 on invasion and migration. Changes in the expression levels of EMT markers (β-catenin, N-cadherin, and vimentin) and related transcription factors (Twist and ZEB1) in stably transfected cells were detected by Western blotting and qPCR, and changes were assessed by TGF-β/Smad and non-classical Smad signaling. Immunofluorescence was used to detect the expression of the cytoskeletal protein F-actin. Expression of TGF-β1 and CXCL-12 was detected by ELISA. Transwell and scratch assays were used to detect the invasive ability and migration of lung cancer cells, respectively. Our results showed that ionizing radiation could induce the EMT as well as morphological changes in lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549); however, the effects were not significant in lung squamous carcinoma cells (SK-MES-1). Moreover, we showed that NRP1 promotes the EMT induced by ionizing radiation in A549 cells, which may be related to the increased expression of EMT-related transcription factors. NRP1 may promote the radiation-induced EMT of A549 cells mainly through TGF-β1/Smad2/3 signaling. NRP1 also enhanced radiation-induced invasion, migration, and CXCL-12 expression in A549 cells. We conclude that NRP1 promotes radiation-induced EMT in lung adenocarcinoma cells via TGF-β1/Smad signaling and not non-classical Smad signaling, and enhances the invasion and migration of lung adenocarcinoma cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, through the edge computing application path, the educational evaluation system was optimized using the adaptive entropy theory polymerization method which based on applying the path. By adding multiple constraints to filter out nodes and educational evaluation edges that do not meet the requirements, the improved algorithm is used to optimize the redundant paths to avoid loops and node detour problem. To improve the accuracy of education evaluation and evaluation, ensure the load balance in the domain, and solve the problems of single evaluation attribute and high overlap of education evaluation paths. This paper proposes a multi-attribute education evaluation model that refines the evaluation attributes of education evaluation and uses analytic hierarchy process perform weight distribution. The algorithm can improve the accuracy of the evaluation of the education evaluation system while ensuring the computational efficiency, and can ensure the load balance within the domain, and improve the network survival time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible and transparent microelectrodes and interconnects provide the unique capability for a wide range of emerging biological applications, including simultaneous optical and electrical interrogation of biological systems. For practical biointerfacing, it is important to further improve the optical, electrical, electrochemical, and mechanical properties of the transparent conductive materials. Here, high‐performance microelectrodes and interconnects with high optical transmittance (59–81%), superior electrochemical impedance (5.4–18.4 Ω cm2), and excellent sheet resistance (5.6–14.1 Ω sq−1), using indium tin oxide (ITO) and metal grid (MG) hybrid structures are demonstrated. Notably, the hybrid structures retain the superior mechanical properties of flexible MG other than brittle ITO with no changes in sheet resistance even after 5000 bending cycles against a small radius at 5 mm. The capabilities of the ITO/MG microelectrodes and interconnects are highlighted by high‐fidelity electrical recordings of transgenic mouse hearts during co‐localized programmed optogenetic stimulation. In vivo histological analysis reveals that the ITO/MG structures are fully biocompatible. Those results demonstrate the great potential of ITO/MG interfaces for broad fundamental and translational physiological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cobalt-encapsulated in nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (Co-NCNT) were prepared by hydrothermal method. CoCl2·6H2O and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) were used as raw material. Samples containing such defective structures were synthesized by hydrothermal methods, while there is an excellent synergistic effect between cobalt nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes on hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In order to improving the HER performance, different samples were fabricated by changing the molar ratio of raw materials and pyrolysis temperature. The results show that Co-NCNT has the best HER performances at the ratio of CoCl2·6H2O and g-C3N4 (1:7) when the pyrolysis temperature reached 700 °C. The overpotential has reached 285 mV when the current density is 10 mA·cm−2, the Tafel slope of the sample is 103 mV·dec−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Expression of miR-149 is down-regulated in NAFLD mice. • Expression of ATF6 is up-regulated in NAFLD mice. • ATF6 is a target gene of miR-149. • MiR-149 alleviates ERS-induced inflammation and apoptosis in NAFLD. • MiR-149 inhibits NAFLD progression by negatively targeting ATF6 signaling pathway. This study aimed to research the effect of miR-149 on endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)-induced inflammation and apoptosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The mouse model with NAFLD was established by feeding with a high-fat diet, and the model establishment was subsequently confirmed by H&E staining and oil red O staining. MiR-149 agomir was injected into NAFLD mice to observe changes in liver tissues. After cell transfection, qRT-PCR and Western blot were performed to measure the expressions of lipid metabolism-related proteins (SCD-1, PPARα, and ABCA1), miR-149 and ATF6. Luciferase reporter gene assay was applied to verify the relationship between miR-149 and ATF6. Inflammatory factors (TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and NF-κB) and apoptotic-related factors (caspase-12 and CHOP) were measured by ELISA and flow cytometry. qRT-PCR and Western blot were applied to detect expressions of ATF6 signaling pathway-related proteins (GRP94 and Akt). NAFLD progression was attenuated in mice injected with miR-149 agomir. The expression of miR-149 was reduced in liver tissues of NAFLD mice, while the expression of ATF6 was increased. Transfection of miR-149 can result in a decrease of ATF6 expression. ATF6 was a target gene of miR-149. MiR-149 could down-regulate the expressions of inflammatory factors and apoptotic-related factors. MiR-149 could down-regulate expressions of ATF6 signaling pathway-related proteins. MiR-149 alleviates ERS-induced inflammation and apoptosis by down-regulating the ATF6 signaling pathway, thus inhibiting the progression of NAFLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA methylation at the 5-position of cytosine (5mC) plays vital roles in mammalian development. DNA methylation is catalyzed by DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), and the two DNMT families, DNMT3 and DNMT1, are responsible for methylation establishment and maintenance, respectively. Since their discovery, biochemical and structural studies have revealed the key mechanisms underlying how DNMTs catalyze de novo and maintenance DNA methylation. In particular, recent development of low-input genomic and epigenomic technologies has deepened our understanding of DNA methylation regulation in germ lines and early stage embryos. In this review, we first describe the methylation machinery including the DNMTs and their essential cofactors. We then discuss how DNMTs are recruited to or excluded from certain genomic elements. Lastly, we summarize recent understanding of the regulation of DNA methylation dynamics in mammalian germ lines and early embryos with a focus on both mice and humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), a well‐known methyltransferase, mediates histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) and plays a crucial role in several kidney disease models. However, its role in renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury still remains unclear. In this study, we found that EZH2 was positively related to renal I/R injury and inhibition of EZH2 with DZNeP alleviated I/R injury and blocked the activation of oxidative stress and pyroptosis in vivo. Similarly, inhibition of EZH2 with either DZNeP or si‐RNA also exerted an inhibitory effect on hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)‐induced oxidative stress and pyroptosis in vitro. Moreover, further study revealed that ablation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) with N‐acetyl‐cysteine (NAC) suppressed pyroptosis in human renal proximal tubular epithelial cell line cells exposed to H/R stimulation. Furthermore, Nox4, which was positively related to the generation of ROS, was upregulated during H/R process, while it could be reversed by EZH2 inhibition. Consistently, Nox4‐mediated ROS generation was attenuated upon inhibition of EZH2 with DZNeP or si‐RNA. Additionally, the transcriptional activity of Nox4 was enhanced by the activation of ALK5/Smad2/3 signaling pathway, which was abolished by ALK5 knockdown in vitro. Finally, EZH2 inhibition blocked H/R and I/R‐activated ALK5/Smad2/3 pathway and also resulted in an obvious decrease in the transcriptional activity and protein expression levels of Nox4. In conclusion, our results proved that EZH2 inhibition alleviated renal pyroptosis by blocking Nox4‐dependent ROS generation through ALK5/Smad2/3 signaling pathway, indicating that EZH2 could be a potential therapeutic target for renal I/R injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In‐line inspection (ILI) robot has been considered as an inevitable requirement to perform non‐destructive testing methods efficiently and economically. The detection of flaws that could lead to leakages in buried concrete pipes has been an area of great concern to the oil and gas industry and water resource‐based industry. The major problem is the difficulty in modelling the detection of cracks as a result of its irregularity and randomness that cannot be easily detected. This work covers the study of defect detection of non‐destructive testing methods using fusion inspect sensors, light detection and ranging, and optic sensors. Studies on ILI robots are also reviewed to construct an efficient gauge. Nevertheless, the study on current support vector machine (SVM) technique is centred as the main classification engine for the combined sensory data. The prototype robot has been designed and successfully operated in a lab‐scale environment. Intuitively, the obtained data described the status of inspected pipe clearly. Sensors from the proposed list also well integrated as attaching to the robot. The experiments with SVM techniques to evaluate the feasibility of defects detection also achieved remarkable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discriminating the source of water inrush accurately and efficiently is necessary for water control in the coal mining industry. We combined the Fisher feature extraction and support vector machine (SVM) methods and applied this new model to the Wuhai mining area. The method extracts features from the raw data and integrated SVM, and synthetically considers the influence of geographical factors. Cross-analysis was tested 100 times, which arbitrarily selected 12 samples for the prediction and discrimination process. The results indicate that this new combined model of linear dimension reduction and non-linear dimension elevation was more accurate and efficient in discriminating water inrush sources than the traditional SVM model. Moreover, by reducing the penalty term of SVM model, we analyzed the correlation among the aquifers. We concluded that aquifers II and IV correlated strongly with each other, and that aquifer III was poorly connected with the other aquifers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider a supply chain consisting of a supplier and a buyer. The buyer faces demand as a function of the selling price. There is risk of supply disruption, but the supplier can rebuild his capacity if he has invested for the capacity restoration before a disruption. To motivate the supplier to invest, the buyer can use one of two incentive contracts, namely direct and indirect. With a direct contract, the buyer provides a financial subsidy to share the supplier's capacity restoration cost when disruption occurs. With an indirect contract, the buyer adjusts the wholesale price in the case of disruption to stimulate the capacity restoration. Both contracts allow the buyer to adjust the order quantity in the case of disruption. We analyze decisions of each supply chain member under the two contracts with different commitment strategies (the ex ante commitment (EA) strategy under which the contract is signed before disruption and the ex post commitment (EP) strategy under which the contract is signed after disruption), and study how the supply disruption affects the buyer's selling price to end customers. We show that, from the perspective of either the supplier or the buyer, the incentive contract under the EA strategy is preferred by leading to a greater profit. Further, through numerical experiments, we recognize conditions for the fixed investment cost, probability of disruption, and regular wholesale price, under which each incentive contract encourages the supplier to invest for the capacity restoration, and brings greater profit to each supply chain member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the global success of the commercial exploration and development of shale oil and gas, research interest in the structure of shale pore, the gas and oil storage carrier, is increasing. However, current studies on shale organic pore are insufficient. Based on this, the basic parameters of Wufeng-Longmaxi shale in Sichuan Basin were tested and shale samples were observed using optical and electron microscopes. In the Changning and Weiyuan areas, CO 2 , N 2 adsorption and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) experiments were conducted on shale samples with different total organic carbon (TOC) content. In this study, we termed the organic matter (OM) with fixed form as formed OM, and the OM without fixed form as amorphous OM, rather than the amorphous OM in the conventional context, which only exists when the maturity of shale is less than 1.0%. The results showed that: (1) formed and amorphous OM can be distinguished under optical and electron microscopes. The formed OM was mainly graptolite, while the amorphous OM could be subdivided into bitumen and micrinite. Under reflected light, bitumen appeared gray-black, while micrinite exhibited certain fluorescence. Under the electron microscope, bitumen showed larger particles than micrinite; (2) there were abundant organic pores in graptolite and bitumen. The organic pores in graptolites were significantly smaller than those in bitumen. Due to the limitation associated with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) resolution, we did not observe organic pores in micrinite, which indicated that the organic pore size in micrinite is smaller than that in bitumen; (3) there were obvious differences in the development of organic pore. In different areas, the relationship between shale porosity and TOC content varied greatly, which was related to the shale gas preservation conditions. Microscopically, there were also several reasons for the developmental differences of organic pore. Among them, inorganic minerals contribute to the preservation of organic pore by filling these pores or forming rigid spatial skeletons, which is an important reason for the micro-difference of organic pore development; (4) The SEM image processing results showed that the organic pore of Wufeng-Longmaxi shale in the Sichuan Basin mainly occurs in the range of mesopore. By comparing the pore size distribution curves of shale samples in the Changning and Weiyuan areas, it is concluded that the organic pore size of shale in the Changning area is primarily 4–10 nm and that in the Weiyuan area it is primarily 2–20 nm. • Micrinite and bitumen were distinguished by optical and electron microscopes. • Supporting effect of inorganic minerals is beneficial for the preservation of organic pore. • The organic pore size of Wufeng-Longmaxi shale is mainly in the range of mesopore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]