Search

In the realm of large-area trauma flap transplantation, averting ischaemic necrosis emerges as a pivotal concern. Several key mechanisms, including the promotion of angiogenesis, the inhibition of oxidative stress, the suppression of cell death, and the mitigation of inflammation, are crucial for enhancing skin flap survival. Apoptotic bodies (ABs), arising from cell apoptosis, have recently emerged as significant contributors to these functions. This study engineered three-dimensional (3D)-ABs using tissue-like mouse adipose-derived stem cells (mADSCs) cultured in a 3D environment to compare their superior biological effects against 2D-ABs in bolstering skin flap survival. The findings reveal that 3D-ABs (85.74 ± 4.51) % outperform 2D-ABs (76.48 ± 5.04) % in enhancing the survival rate of ischaemic skin flaps (60.45 ± 8.95) % (all p < 0.05). Mechanistically, they stimulated angiogenesis, mitigated oxidative stress, suppressed apoptosis, and facilitated the transition of macrophages from M1 to M2 polarization (all p < 0.05). A comparative analysis of microRNA (miRNA) profiles in 3D- and 2D-ABs identified several specific miRNAs (miR-423-5p-up, miR30b-5p-down, etc.) with pertinent roles. In summary, ABs derived from mADSCs cultured in a 3D spheroid-like arrangement exhibit heightened biological activity compared to those from 2D-cultured mADSCs and are more effective in promoting ischaemic skin flap survival. These effects are attributed to their influence on specific miRNAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To alleviate the energy crisis and achieve green energy conversion, the heterojunctions that can be applied to the photocatalytic decomposition of water have attracted attention. In this paper, we design a novel two-dimensional GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure and investigate in detail the structural stability, electronic characteristics, photocatalytic activity and optical behavior as well as the effects due to the applied strain based on the first-principles. Firstly, the most stable γ-stacking mode is determined by combining energy comparison, thermodynamic and dynamic studies. Second, the analysis of electronic properties demonstrates that the GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure exhibits a type-II energy band arrangement and a direct Z-scheme photocatalytic mechanism. This pivotal aspect enhances the separation of photogenerated carriers at the interface and facilitates the active participation of the most proficient materials in oxidation-reduction processes during photocatalytic hydrolysis reactions. The hydrolysis reaction's Gibbs free energy shift demonstrates the GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure's superior photocatalytic activity in neutral and alkaline environments and can spontaneously carry out the overall hydrolysis reaction, and this outstanding ability is not affected by the −4% to 4% strain range. In addition, the GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure has outstanding solar-to-hydrogen efficiency (58.18%) and excellent light absorption capability (up to 4 × 1 0 5 cm − 1 ) within visible light. The implications of these discoveries point towards the direct Z-scheme GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure holds promise as an excellent candidate for photocatalytic water splitting applications. Free energy descriptions of the GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure participating in water splitting (a) hydrogen evolution reaction and (b) oxygen evolution reaction under different conditions. Top and side views of the most stable adsorption sites for (c) H on the GeC layer and (d) OH, (e) O and (f) OOH on the SnSe 2 layer of the GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure. The H and O atoms are represented by pink and red balls, respectively. [Display omitted] • The GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure is thermodynamic, dynamic and thermal stable. • The GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure exhibits direct Z-scheme mechanism and strong redox capacity. • Gibbs free energy diagram of water splitting demonstrates its excellent spontaneous reaction capability. • The GeC/SnSe 2 heterostructure has excellent light absorption capability within visible light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinal surgery can be associated with significant intraoperative blood loss which may lead to various complications. As the number of patients undergoing spinal surgery increases over time, accurate and effective hemostasis becomes critically important. Despite various surgical hemostatic techniques, conventional interventions such as compression, suture, ligation, and heat-generating cautery, are not suitable for osseous and epidural venous plexus bleeding during spinal procedures. Therefore, a variety of hemostatic agents have been developed to promote hemostasis. As they differ in terms of mechanism, form, application and potential adverse reactions, it is important to understand the natural features of existing agents. Here we comprehensively review currently available topical hemostatic agents from different sources and summarize their mechanisms of action, applications, and current or potential utilization in spinal surgery. We found hemostatic agents from different sources exert hemostatic actions through different mechanisms. In addition, topical hemostatic agents play various roles in spinal surgery including as hemostatic agent, dura mater repair, drug-carrier, skin closure, and fibrosis prevention. Compressive neurological complications are the most common complications of these hemostatic agents. Therefore, optimal use in spinal environments should match their features, indications, and efficacy with clinical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The harsh service environment of aeroengine hot-end components requires superalloys possessing excellent antioxidant properties. This study investigated the effect of pre-strain on the oxidation behavior of polycrystalline Ni3Al-based superalloys. The growth behaviors of oxidation products were analyzed by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The results indicated that the 5% pre-strained alloys exhibited lower mass gain, shallower oxidation depth and more compact oxide film structures compared to the original alloy. This is mainly attributed to the formation of rapid diffusion paths for Al atoms diffusing to the surface under 5% pre-strain, which promotes the faster formation of protective Al2O3 film while continuing to increase the pre-strain to 25% results in less protective transient oxidation behavior being aggravated due to the increase in dislocation density within the alloy, which prevents the timely formation of the protective Al2O3 film, resulting in uneven oxidation behavior on the alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precision of stereopsis and vergence are ultimately limited by internal binocular disparity noise. Here we propose an equivalent noise model with both global and local internal disparity noises to provide a unified explanation of both absolute and relative disparity thresholds. To test this model, we developed a psychophysical procedure to measure the equivalent internal disparity noise by adding external disparity noise to random-Gabor-patch stereograms. We used the method of constant stimuli to measure the minimum and maximum disparity thresholds (Dmin and Dmax) for both absolute and relative disparity. Consistent with previous studies, we found that Dmin thresholds are substantially worse for absolute disparity than for relative disparity. We tested three relative disparity mechanisms: (1) the difference between the monocular separations of targets projecting to the two eyes; (2) the direct measurement of relative disparity; and (3) the difference of absolute disparities of targets. Computing the difference of absolute disparities when detecting relative disparity, Mechanism 3 cancels global noise, resulting in a much lower relative Dmin threshold, and provides a reasonable fit to the experimental data. We also found that the presence of as much as 2400 arcsec of external disparity noise does not appear to affect the Dmax threshold. This observation suggests that Dmax is implicated in a mechanism that disregards the disparity variance of individual items, relying instead on the average disparity across all items, supporting the depth model proposed in our previous study (Ding & Levi, 2021), which posits distinct mechanisms governing Dmin and Dmax thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, first-principles calculations were used to investigate in detail the structural, electronic, optical, and photocatalytic properties of PtS2/GeC heterostructures. The calculations demonstrate that the PtS2/GeC heterostructure has favorable stability with an inherent type-II (staggered) band alignment and a much smaller indirect bandgap of 0.83 eV than those of 2.59 and 2.80 eV for constructional PtS2 and GeC monolayers, respectively. The GeC layer transfers 0.11 ‖e‖ to the PtS2 layer and leads to a 1.3 eV potential drop, both resulting in a built-in electric field Ein from the GeC side to the PtS2 side. Both the Ein and band edge bending make the direct Z-scheme PtS2/GeC heterostructure a promising photocatalyst with the oxidation and reduction reactions achieved respectively on the PtS2 and GeC layers with high catalytic activity. The PtS2/GeC heterostructure has a higher solar-to-hydrogen (STH) energy conversion efficiency of 56.69% than that of a few previously reported photocatalytic materials. The PtS2/GeC heterostructure's ability to absorb solar light in the visible and infrared spectrum can be significantly enhanced by tensile strain. Therefore, the newly designed direct Z-scheme PtS2/GeC heterostructure is a promising photocatalyst with high STH efficiency for overall water splitting under acidic, alkaline, and neutral conditions and in large-strain regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that every possible metric associated with critical (γ = 2) Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) induces the same topology on the plane as the Euclidean metric. More precisely, we show that the optimal modulus of continuity of the critical LQG metric with respect to the Euclidean metric is a power of 1/log(1/∣·∣). Our result applies to every possible subsequential limit of critical Liouville first passage percolation, a natural approximation scheme for the LQG metric which was recently shown to be tight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new and simple proof for the classic results of Imbrie (1985) and Bricmont–Kupiainen (1988) that for the random field Ising model in dimension three and above there is long range order at low temperatures with presence of weak disorder. With the same method, we obtain a couple of new results: (1) we prove that long range order exists for the random field Potts model at low temperatures with presence of weak disorder in dimension three and above; (2) we obtain a lower bound on the correlation length for the random field Ising model at low temperatures in dimension two (which matches the upper bound in Ding–Wirth (2020)). Our proof is based on an extension of the Peierls argument with inputs from Chalker (1983), Fisher–Fröhlich–Spencer (1984), Ding–Wirth (2020) and Talagrand's majorizing measure theory (1980s) (and in particular, our proof does not involve the renormalization group theory). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activities in public places are becoming increasingly frequent, and public seats have become an important component of public space and an "auxiliary tool" for work, life, and leisure. The demand for such furniture in China is gradually increasing, but the design and research work of public seats is lagging behind the development status and speed of other civil and office furniture. Usually, public seats can be divided into two parts based on their usage: public indoor seats and public outdoor seats. How to understand the role and impact of public seats on the indoor environment, and how to establish a new design method for public seats in the context of the overall environmental system, are currently urgent issues to be solved. The chair furniture comfort design evaluation is a classical MADM issues. In such paper, the generalized weighted Bonferroni mean (WBM) operator and power average (PA) is constructed for MADM with single-valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs). Then, the generalized single-valued neutrosophic number power WBM (GSVNNPWBM) operator is built and then the MADM decision methods are proposed based on the GSVNNPWBM operator. Finally, an example about chair furniture comfort design evaluation and some comparative analysis were given to demonstrate the GSVNNPWBM method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the problem of reconstructing a perfect matching M ∗ hidden in a randomly weighted n × n bipartite graph. The edge set includes every node pair in M ∗ and each of the n (n - 1) node pairs not in M ∗ independently with probability d/n. The weight of each edge e is independently drawn from the distribution P if e ∈ M ∗ and from Q if e ∉ M ∗ . We show that if d B (P , Q) ≤ 1 , where B (P , Q) stands for the Bhattacharyya coefficient, the reconstruction error (average fraction of misclassified edges) of the maximum likelihood estimator of M ∗ converges to 0 as n → ∞ . Conversely, if d B (P , Q) ≥ 1 + ϵ for an arbitrarily small constant ϵ > 0 , the reconstruction error for any estimator is shown to be bounded away from 0 for both the sparse (fixed d) and dense (growing d) regimes, resolving the conjecture in Moharrami et al. (Ann Appl Probab 31(6):2663–2720, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1214/20-AAP1660) and Semerjian et al. (Phys Rev E 102:022304, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.102.022304). Furthermore, in the special case of complete exponentially weighted graph with d = n , P = exp (λ) , and Q = exp (1 / n) , for which the sharp threshold simplifies to λ = 4 , we prove that when λ = 4 - ϵ , the optimal reconstruction error is exp - Θ (1 / ϵ) , confirming the conjectured infinite-order phase transition in Semerjian et al. (2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the shotgun assembly problem for the lattice labeling model, where i.i.d. uniform labels are assigned to each vertex in a d-dimensional box of side length n. We wish to recover the labeling configuration on the whole box given empirical profile of labeling configurations on all boxes of side length r. We determine the threshold around which there is a sharp transition from impossible to recover with probability tending to 1, to possible to recover with an efficient algorithm with probability tending to 1. Our result sharpens a constant factor in a previous work of Mossel and Ross (IEEE Trans Netw Sci Eng 6(2):145–157, 2019) and thus solves a question therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, to explore propagation dynamics of computer viruses over the Internet, a delayed SLBRS (susceptible–latent–breaking-out–recovering–susceptible) model of computer viruses considering horizontal and vertical dissemination over Internet is studied. The basic reproduction number at which computer viruses are prone to be extinct or continue to exist is calculated with the help of the next generation matrix method. By choosing the time delay because of processing time consumed to recover the breaking-out computers as bifurcation parameter, a series of sufficient criteria for experience of Hopf bifurcation are derived. Specially, optimal strategies to control dissemination of computer viruses over Internet are established. Finally, numerical simulations for certificating correctness of our theoretical findings are carried out. The findings show that the exhibition of Hopf bifurcation has an important impact on prediction and control of the propagation of computer viruses over the Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endocrine therapy is the frontline treatment for estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer patients. However, the primary and acquired resistance to endocrine therapy drugs remain as a major challenge in the clinic. Here, this work identifies an estrogen‐induced lncRNA, LINC02568, which is highly expressed in ER‐positive breast cancer and functional important in cell growth in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo as well as endocrine therapy drug resistance. Mechanically, this work demonstrates that LINC02568 regulates estrogen/ERα‐induced gene transcriptional activation in trans by stabilizing ESR1 mRNA through sponging miR‐1233‐5p in the cytoplasm. Meanwhile, LINC02568 contributes to tumor‐specific pH homeostasis by regulating carbonic anhydrase CA12 in cis in the nucleus. The dual functions of LINC02568 together contribute to breast cancer cell growth and tumorigenesis as well as endocrine therapy drug resistance. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) targeting LINC02568 significantly inhibits ER‐positive breast cancer cell growth in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo. Furthermore, combination treatment with ASO targeting LINC02568 and endocrine therapy drugs or CA12 inhibitor U‐104 exhibits synergistic effects on tumor growth. Taken together, the findings reveal the dual mechanisms of LINC02568 in regulating ERα signaling and pH homeostasis in ER‐positive breast cancer, and indicated that targeting LINC02568 might represent a potential therapeutic avenue in the clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MRR convolution module is proposed to improve the multiscale features extraction in Martian river valleys segmentation. • TA attention module is proposed to improve the skip connection in Unet in Martian river valleys segmentation. • MRR-Unet-TA network is proposed to realize the Martian river valleys segmentation. • MRR-Unet-TA improves the segmentation performance significantly in Martian river valleys segmentation. • MRR-Unet-TA has high precision, robustness and generalization in Martian river valleys segmentation. Martian river valleys are inextricably linked to Martian researches, including the development of the Martian climate, geological development and shallow water ice distribution. The segmentation of Martian river valleys provides materials for scientific research. Due to the absence of water, however, the features of Martian rivers are not obvious, resulting in inefficient segmentation. In order to realize high-accuracy segmentation, we propose an end-to-end segmentation method of Martian river valleys based on deep learning. We put forward the MDR (multi-scale double residual) convolution module and the TA (triple attention) module to improve Unet, and thus, MDR-Unet-TA. In this network, we replace two 3 × 3 convolution layers in Unet with an MDR convolution module, which uses multi-scale convolution to extract features of multiple sizes, and uses the residual connection to avoid gradient disappearance. In addition, we introduce a TA module into the skip connection, which reduces the feature map difference between the encoder and the decoder, and obtains detailed information during decoding. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with current semantic segmentation networks, MDR-Unet-TA obtains higher accuracy, F1 and IOU scores of 98.78%, 95.77% and 95.12% on the simple test set and 97.50%, 95.12% and 93.50% on the complex test set, respectively. Compared with MultiRes Unet, the improvement by MDR-Unet-Tri1 in accuracy, F1, and IOU is 0.92%, 2.40% and 2.70% respectively on the simple test set, and 1.98%, 1.84% and 3.58% respectively on the complex test set. MDR-Unet-TA improves the segmentation performance significantly compared with the original network, and realizes the end-to-end segmentation of Martian river valleys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulation of aberrant proteins in the heart causes cardiac amyloidosis, an uncommon and complicated illness. It can be classified into two main types: light chain (AL) and transthyretin (ATTR). The diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis is challenging due to its non-specific clinical presentation and lack of definitive diagnostic tests. Diagnostic accuracy has increased with the advent of modern imaging methods, including cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans. Depending on the severity of cardiac amyloidosis, a number of treatments may be attempted and specified according to the subtype of amyloidosis and the presence of complications. However, there are still significant challenges in treating this condition due to its complexity and lack of effective treatments. The prognosis for patients with cardiac amyloidosis is poor. Despite recent advances in diagnosis and treatment, there is still a need for more effective treatments to improve outcomes for patients with this condition. Therefore, we aim to review the current and future therapeutics reported in the literature and among ongoing clinical trials recruiting patients with CA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the parameter identification of six-degree-of-freedom tandem robots, a dynamic parameter identification method based on weighted least squares and migrating birds optimization (WLS-MBO) is proposed. Firstly, based on the dynamic's principle of the robot, a linearized dynamic equation considering the Coulomb viscous friction parameters is obtained. The fifth-order Fourier series is used as the identification excitation trajectory, the robot controller drives the joints to track the excitation trajectory and collects the joint position and torque data during the robot movement, and the initial solution of the dynamic parameters is obtained by the weighted least square (WLS) method. Based on the results of the WLS method, the migrating birds optimization (MBO) is used for secondary optimization to improve the identification accuracy of parameters. The analysis of the results shows that the identification method has a good identification effect and can further improve the identification accuracy, and it verifies that the MBO has better global search ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is well known to be associated with a lot of tumors, including lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, EBV-associated gastric carcinoma, and some other carcinomas with similar lymphoepithelioma-like features. However, the association between EBV and thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) is inconclusive as reports in this regard are not entirely consistent and the methods employed are of different sensitivity and specificity. The geographical difference of the patients is also one of the reasons for the different points of view. Methods: In our study, we examined 72 thymomas, including 3 cases of type A thymomas, 27 cases of type AB, 6 cases of type B1, 26 cases of type B2 and 10 cases of type B3 thymomas, and 15 thymic carcinomas to detect the viral genome at both DNA and RNA levels. The genome DNA of fresh tissues was first screened by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which could be regarded as the most sensitive method to detect small amounts of DNA. Then all the tissue blocks were further submitted for viral localization by Epstein–Barr-encoded RNA (EBER) ISH. Group parameters were assessed using the chi-square test at a significance level of p < 0.05. Results: Nested PCR results showed that none of type A, eight (29.6%) type AB, one (16.7%) type B1, fifteen (57.7%) type B2, and four (40.0%) type B3 were positive for EBV genome. However, none of them detected EBER expression except for one case of type B2 thymoma. Fourteen (93.3%) thymic carcinomas were positive for EBV by nested PCR, of which three displayed weak nuclear signals within the tumor cells by EBER ISH. Conclusions: These results showed that nested PCR was a sensitive method for screening the EBV genome in thymic epithelial tumors. As the malignancy of thymoma increases, the rate of EBV infection became higher. Thymic carcinomas were well associated with the Epstein–Barr virus.There was significant association between the EBV infection rate and thymoma type (p < 0.05). We further analyzed the association between EBV infection and myasthenia gravis. However, it showed no significant difference(p = 0.2754), although the EBV infection rate was higher in the thymomas with myasthenia gravis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four new Viola species from southern China, i.e. Viola qingruii, V. heyuanensis, V. chaozhouensis, and V. longissima, are described and illustrated based on morphology and molecular phylogeny. Viola qingruii is widely distributed in the coastal mountains of southeastern China, while V. heyuanensis, V. chaozhouensis, and V. longissima, are all narrow endemics in Guangdong Province, China. These species are described and compared with the morphologically related species V. lucens, V. tenuis, V. guangzhouensis and V. huizhouensis. Phylogenetic analysis based on ITS confirmed that all of the four new species belong to Viola sect. Plagiostigma subsect. Diffusae. An identifcation key is provided to distinguish the four new species from other species of V. subsect. Diffusae in southern China. In addition, the origin and evolution of characters such as aerial stems, stolons, elaiosomes and tuberculate seeds in Viola are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study ferromagnetic Ising models on finite graphs with an inhomogeneous external field, where a subset of vertices is designated as the boundary. We show that the influence of boundary conditions on any given spin is maximised when the external field is identically 0. One corollary is that spin–spin correlations are maximised when the external field vanishes and the boundary condition is free, which proves a conjecture of Shlosman. In particular, the random field Ising model on Z d , d ⩾ 3 , exhibits exponential decay of correlations in the entire high temperature regime of the pure Ising model. Another corollary is that the pure Ising model in d ⩾ 3 satisfies the conjectured strong spatial mixing property in the entire high temperature regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For preparation of functional materials, the facile and efficient complexing‐combustion method has many advantages such as the easily operating, no washing and filtration process, a slight loss of the products obtained, material saving, and so on. Here, CuO–La2O3/ZrO2 catalysts were prepared by using various amino acids as complexing‐combustion agents for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. Based on the results of characterization by N2 physical adsorption, SEM, XRD, XPS, and chemisorption, along with the experimental data, it was found that the structure and catalytic activity of as‐obtained catalysts depended on the group type and carbon chain length of amino acids. Among them, L‐glutamic acid had two carboxyl hydrophilic groups and a moderately long carbon chain, which was conducive to the formation of a larger specific surface area along with abundant pores and a smaller grain size of CuO. Moreover, the prepared catalyst showed a higher Cu dispersion and the abundant surface acidic/basic sites. As a result, the larger Cu+/Cu0 surface area contributed to the active adsorption of H2 and CO2 molecules, which greatly improved the hydrogenation of CO2, while the methanol production increased with the increase of surface basicity/acidity. For example, the selectivity to methanol of 87.9%, which corresponded to a methanol yield of 120 mg/(h gcatalyst), was obtained along with a stable online performance (life span more than 144 h) at 2.2 MPa, 220°C, H2/CO2 = 2, and GHSV = 3000 h−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(–)-5-Methylmellein (1) and its new dimer (2) were isolated from cultures of the basidiomycete Inonotus sinensis. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic methods including UV, IR, HR-EI-MS, 1D NMR and 2D NMR. The structure of Compound 2 was determined by single-crystal X-ray crystallographic analysis. Compound 2 was tested for the cytotoxicities against five human cancer cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an experimental investigation on the time-dependent compression behavior of dredged clay samples at high initial water contents under lower effective stress. A series of laboratory one-dimensional consolidation tests with or without aging were conducted on dredged clay samples with various initial water contents. Test results showed that initial water content has a significant effect on the primary compression of dredged clay specimen. All dredged clay specimens follow the same decreasing trend in void ratio with time. Compared with the significant decrease in void ratio in the primary consolidation stage, void ratio decreases less significantly with time in the secondary consolidation stage and tends to level off. The aging strain will not continue increasing as the increase in initial water content more than two times the liquid limit. Aging strain of specimens at different initial water contents consistently increase linearly with the increasing time. The value of secondary compression index is influenced by both aging time and initial water content. It consistently reduces with increasing aging time yet increases with increasing initial water content. We should fully consider the effect of initial water content and aging time on the secondary compression index to predict the secondary compression settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

T cell Receptor (TCR) Fusion Construct (TRuC®) T cells harness all signaling subunits of the TCR to activate T cells and eliminate tumor cells, with minimal release of cytokines. While adoptive cell therapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells has shown unprecedented clinical efficacy against B-cell malignancies, monotherapy with CAR-T cells has suboptimal clinical efficacy against solid tumors, probably because of the artificial signaling properties of the CAR. TRuC-T cells may address the suboptimal efficacy of existing CAR-T therapies for solid tumors. Here, we report that mesothelin (MSLN)-specific TRuC-T cells (referred to as TC-210 T cells) potently kill MSLN+ tumor cells in vitro and efficiently eradicate MSLN+ mesothelioma, lung, and ovarian cancers in xenograft mouse tumor models. When benchmarked against MSLN-targeted BBζ CAR-T cells (MSLN-BBζ CAR-T cells), TC-210 T cells show an overall comparable level of efficacy; however, TC-210 T cells consistently show faster tumor rejection kinetics that are associated with earlier intratumoral accumulation and earlier signs of activation. Furthermore, in vitro and ex vivo metabolic profiling suggests TC-210 T cells have lower glycolytic activity and higher mitochondrial metabolism than MSLN-BBζ CAR-T cells. These data highlight TC-210 T cells as a promising cell therapy for treating MSLN-expressing cancers. The differentiated profile from CAR-T cells may translate into better efficacy and safety of TRuC-T cells for solid tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that for each cM∈[1,25)${\mathbf {c}}_{\mathrm{M}} \in [1,25)$, there is a unique metric associated with Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) with matter central charge cM${\mathbf {c}}_{\mathrm{M}}$. An earlier series of works by Ding–Dubédat–Dunlap–Falconet, Gwynne–Miller, and others showed that such a metric exists and is unique in the subcritical case cM∈(−∞,1)${\mathbf {c}}_{\mathrm{M}} \in (-\infty ,1)$, which corresponds to coupling constant γ∈(0,2)$\gamma \in (0,2)$. The critical case cM=1${\mathbf {c}}_{\mathrm{M}} = 1$ corresponds to γ=2$\gamma =2$ and the supercritical case cM∈(1,25)${\mathbf {c}}_{\mathrm{M}} \in (1,25)$ corresponds to γ∈C$\gamma \in \mathbb {C}$ with |γ|=2$|\gamma | = 2$. Our metric is constructed as the limit of an approximation procedure called Liouville first passage percolation, which was previously shown to be tight for cM∈[1,25)$\mathbf {c}_{\mathrm{M}} \in [1,25)$ by Ding and Gwynne (2020). In this paper, we show that the subsequential limit is uniquely characterized by a natural list of axioms. This extends the characterization of the LQG metric proven by Gwynne and Miller (2019) for cM∈(−∞,1)$\mathbf {c}_{\mathrm{M}} \in (-\infty ,1)$ to the full parameter range cM∈(−∞,25)$\mathbf {c}_{\mathrm{M}} \in (-\infty ,25)$. Our argument is substantially different from the proof of the characterization of the LQG metric for cM∈(−∞,1)$\mathbf {c}_{\mathrm{M}} \in (-\infty ,1)$. In particular, the core part of the argument is simpler and does not use confluence of geodesics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies indicate that top-down influence plays critical roles in visual perception by enhancing neuronal excitability in the primary visual cortex (V1). The underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. This study examined changes of excitatory glutamatergic markers in the V1 cortex of cat after top-down influence of cortical area 7 (A7) was modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Our results showed that the content of glutamate as well as the total cellular protein of glutamatergic receptors, including the key subunit GluA1 of AMPA receptors and subunit NR1 of NMDA receptors, in the V1 cortex had no significant change after anode- and cathode-tDCS relative to sham-tDCS in A7. However, the plasma membrane protein content of GluA1 and NR1 in the V1 was significantly increased after anode-tDCS, but decreased after cathode-tDCS when compared with that after sham-tDCS in A7. Further, the abundance of phosphorylated GluA1 and NR1 in the V1 also elevated significantly after anode-tDCS, but lowered after cathode-tDCS compared with that after sham-tDCS. Additionally, the content of phosphorylated CaMKII (p -CaMKII), a protein kinase preferentially boosting phosphorylation of glutamatergic receptors, in the V1 improved after anode-tDCS although no significant alteration occurred after c-tDCS in A7. Taken together, our results indicate that feedback influence of A7 may facilitate the trafficking of glutamatergic receptors to postsynaptic membrane in the V1 cortex through receptors' phosphorylation process, which could be an important mechanism of high-level cortex in modulating visual information processing in the V1 cortex. • Top-down influence doesn't alter the expression of NMDA/AMPA receptors in V1 cortex. • Top-down influence affects the trafficking of NMDA/AMPA receptors in V1 cortex. • Top-down influence affects the phosphorylation of NMDA/AMPA receptors in V1 cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In he past decade, object detection has achieved significant progress in natural images but not in aerial images, due to the massive variations in the scale and orientation of objects caused by the bird’s-eye view of aerial images. More importantly, the lack of large-scale benchmarks has become a major obstacle to the development of object detection in aerial images (ODAI). In this paper, we present a large-scale Dataset of Object deTection in Aerial images (DOTA) and comprehensive baselines for ODAI. The proposed DOTA dataset contains 1,793,658 object instances of 18 categories of oriented-bounding-box annotations collected from 11,268 aerial images. Based on this large-scale and well-annotated dataset, we build baselines covering 10 state-of-the-art algorithms with over 70 configurations, where the speed and accuracy performances of each model have been evaluated. Furthermore, we provide a code library for ODAI and build a website for evaluating different algorithms. Previous challenges run on DOTA have attracted more than 1300 teams worldwide. We believe that the expanded large-scale DOTA dataset, the extensive baselines, the code library and the challenges can facilitate the designs of robust algorithms and reproducible research on the problem of object detection in aerial images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Output accuracy performance is directly determined by geometric errors and working poses of a mechanism. Accuracy sensitivity as geometric error transmission coefficient, closely relates to pose configuration and geometric parameters. This research focuses on accuracy of a 3-RPR planar parallel mechanism: firstly, established 3 models in an analytic form, to describe relationship between output errors and geometric ones, then they are mutually verified statistically. Secondly, the anisotropy and periodic fluctuation of position errors, independently contributed by each category of geometric errors, are illustrated; and mirror symmetric trajectories and poses generating output errors with mirror symmetry, are also revealed by numerical simulation. Finally, the radical accuracy model in an analytic form, was established through variance and covariance analysis on output errors. We concluded that the radical error of the movable platform in central symmetric poses, follows Rayleigh distribution pattern. Through statistical comparison with Monte Carlo simulation, the radical error model was demonstrated, that provided a reference for accuracy design for other planar parallel mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet technology has a great impact on the application and development of libraries. In order to provide users with more convenient and efficient services, this paper puts forward the development strategy of unmanned intelligent digital libraries in the era of "Internet +." Design by IntelliSense module, network transmission module, data storage and analysis module, and intelligent service module of no wisdom digital library service mode, IntelliSense module using RFID technology, close range wireless communication technology, and other Internet technologies to collect the wisdom of unmanned services of all kinds of information in the digital library; use network transmission module of the wireless LAN network, Internet technology such as RFID network to transmit information collected to store in a data storage and analysis module; and at the same time using k-means clustering algorithm in data mining techniques such as analysis of collected data, based on the analysis results provide users with intelligence services such as search, wisdom is recommended. The experimental results show that the developed strategy meets the expected functional requirements, can accurately perceive the location of data, and effectively realize the intelligent service function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For power retailers in a smart grid, it is necessary to design an economic dispatch method to maintain a balance between power supply and demand on the sale side as well as obtain better economic benefits. This study concentrates on the economic dispatch of the dominant retailer in a regional market. The dominant retailer is considered to be equipped with generator resources such as distributed photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines (WT), and microturbines (MT). As one retailer cannot exactly predict the market conditions of other retailers, the retail market is considered to be modeled as a dichotomous-market model consisting of the dominant retailer market and the other retailers market. As a result, a bi-level optimal dispatch model is proposed for the dominant power retailer based on the dichotomous-market model. In the proposed model, the outer problem aims to minimize the costs of purchases under time-of-use (TOU) price given in the market clearing process, while the inner problem is formulated to simulate the process of market clearing. Furthermore, the bi-level model is converted to a single-level model via the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) conditions and eventually solved by employing the YALMIP toolbox with Gurobi solver. Finally, a case study is conducted to validate the effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed model, and the analysis of the variables is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a very promising material for CO2 capture owing to its appealing properties, such as abundant basic sites and a higher theoretical adsorption capacity, there are a variety of MgO-based adsorbent (MA) preparation methods reported in numerous studies. Zirconia is usually studied as a carrier; however, little research is focused on the preparation of MA by trace ZrO2-doping. Since the preparation of MA is complex and time-consuming, it is imperative to find a facile and efficient method to simplify the preparation process and produce MA with high performance for CO2 capture. In this experiment, salicylic acid was used as a combustion aid to prepare MA with different doping contents of ZrO2. Among the as-obtained samples, under the calcination temperature of 550 °C and the calcination time of 160 min, the MA doped with 2% ZrO2 prepared by the combustion of MgO and ZrO2 complexes without washing and a filtration process showed excellent performance. As confirmed by CO2-TPD, the adsorption of CO2 over the adsorbent was mainly chemical adsorption, and the adsorbent that had a larger specific surface area provided numerous surface basic sites. Besides, the micro crystals of MgO were widely separated due to the employment of ZrO2 as a dispersant, avoiding the accumulation of MgO through CO2 adsorption–desorption cycles. This study provides a meaningful idea for the preparation of modified MA for CO2 capture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biofouling caused by protein adsorption and microbial colonization remains a great challenge in many applications. In this work, we synthesized a new type of zwitterionic polypeptoid containing carboxybetaine (CB) moieties (PeptoidCB) through thiol–ene chemistry of poly(N-allylglycine) (PNAG). The zwitterionic antifouling hydrogel was subsequently prepared by co-mixing PeptoidCB with agarose, which exhibited excellent resistance to non-specific protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion. Further, PeptoidCB-modified block copolypeptoids with amphiphilic structure were synthesized to form nanoparticles in an aqueous solution with neglected protein adsorption. The ability of PeptoidCB to resist non-specific protein adsorption and bacterial adhesion makes it a promising candidate for biomedical and industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understand the structure of the ILs/air interface on a molecular level is significant. In this work, the liquid-air interface of a class of ILs containing 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations ([Cnmim]+, n = 4, 6 and 8) was investigated by a sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy experiment. The length of the alkyl chain of cations and anion type (tetrafluoroborate ([BF4]−), thiocyanate ([SCN]−), dicyanamide ([DCA]−), hexafluorophosphate ([PF6]−)) were varied to determine their intrinsic effects to the micro-structure on the interface. Meanwhile, combining with the experiment, the orientation angle and surface density for cations and anions of ILs at the air interface was analyzed by molecular dynamics simulation. It is found that the butyl side chain of cations protrudes out into the air as well as the orientation angle between the side chain and interface is 30°–50°. Meanwhile, the anion volume of ILs has almost no influence on the butyl side chain and the methyl on the side chains tend almost planar to the interface with the increased chain length. This research is highly significant for the theoretical and quantitative understanding of the interface chemistry of imidazole-based ILs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the manufacturing process of tubing and casing, manufacturing deviations can occur in quality parameters, such as yield strength, outer diameter, and wall thickness, which can lead to uncertainty in the actual strength of the tubing string. Specifically, tubing string failures periodically occur in high‐temperature, high‐pressure, and ultra‐deep gas wells owing to the uncertainty in string strength, attenuation of high‐temperature material properties, and influence of complex load fluctuations. Therefore, in this study, Monte Carlo method is adopted to simulate the local fluctuation of downhole actual load, and the load variation rule of tubing string in high‐temperature and high‐pressure ultra‐deep well is obtained. By considering the effect of manufacturing tolerance and corrosion, variation law of string strength is obtained. Additionally, the influence of load, temperature, manufacturing tolerance, and other uncertainties on the strength and stress of the tubing string is analyzed, and a quantitative evaluation method for the mechanical integrity of the tubing string is established. The calculation results show that the uncertainty of complex loads and influence of high temperature increase the failure probability of the mechanical integrity of tubing string. Furthermore, a failure risk can potentially exist under conditions wherein conventional verification results denote no failure. It is determined via sensitivity analysis that temperature, corrosion rate, and steel grade are the main factors for the failure of the tubing string mechanical integrity. By considering the influence of high temperature, the failure probability of the tubing string is increased by 25.33% when compared to the original basis. However, considering the manufacturing tolerance of tubing string, the actual yield strength of tubing string is higher than the nominal yield strength, which reduces the failure probability of the tubing string. This implies that reduction of the subjective influence in the risk assessment process can lead to precise and quantitative analysis of the failure risk of the tubing string mechanical integrity and optimization of the structure of the tubing string in high‐temperature, high‐pressure, and ultra‐deep gas wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sea buckthorn is an economically important woody plant for desertification control and water soil conservation. Its berry pulp is rich in flavonoids and unsaturated fatty acids. Cultivars containing high oil and flavonoid contents have higher economic value and will increase in the planting area. However, the cause of the differences in oil and flavonoid contents among cultivars is still unclear. The influence of key enzymes in the lipid and flavonoid synthesis pathways on their content needs to be explored and clarified. Results: The flavonoid content in XE (Xin'e 3) was 54% higher than that in SJ (Suiji 1). Rutin was the main flavonoid in sea buckthorn pulp, and the differences in the rutin content could cause flavonoid differences between the two cultivars. The oil content of XE was 31.58% higher than that of SJ, and the difference in oil content was highest at 50–70 DAF. High-throughput proteomics was used to quantify key enzymes of flavonoid and lipid synthesis pathways in two cultivars at three developmental stages. By functional annotation and KEGG analysis, 41 key enzymes related to phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, flavone and flavonol biosynthesis, fatty acid biosynthesis and TAG biosynthesis were quantified. CHS, F3H, ANS, fabD, FATA, FAB2, LPIN and plcC showed significant differences between the two cultivars. In addition, we quantified 6 oleosins. With the exception of a 16 kDa oleosin, the other oleosins in the two cultivars were positively correlated with oil content. Conclusions: In the flavonoid synthesis pathway, CHS and F3H were the main enzymes responsible for the difference in flavonoid content between the two cultivars. In the lipid synthesis pathway, LPIN, plcC and MGD were the main enzymes with different contents in the middle to late stages. Higher contents of LPIN and plcC in XE than in SJ could cause DAG to generate TAG from PC, since the difference in DGAT between the two cultivars was not significant. Investigating the causes of flavonoid and oil content differences among different cultivars from the perspective of proteomics, could provide a basis for understanding the regulatory mechanism of flavonoids and lipid synthesis in sea buckthorn pulp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the future manned lunar exploration mission, astronauts would work with the lunar robots, which has a high requirement for human–robot interaction (HRI). As the accuracy of gesture recognition interaction does not fulfill the requirement for human–robot joint exploration missions, we propose the DMS-SK/BLSTM-CTC hybrid network to improve the performance of HRI. For gesture recognition, considering VGG-SK has low accuracy and complex architecture, we delete the fourth convolution module, optimize the last global pooling layer, introduce dilated convolution block and multiscale convolution block in VGG-SK, and get the DMS-SK-based gesture recognition sub-network. Compared with the traditional recognition methods, the accuracy and performance of DMS-SK improve. For speech recognition, considering that Bidirectional long–short-term memory unit (BLSTM) has the advantages of processing temporal information, and the Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) algorithm can simplify speech data preprocessing, we use BLSTM based on CTC as the speech recognition sub-network. Finally, we combine DMS-SK with BLSTM-CTC, and propose the DMS-SK/BLSTM-CTC hybrid network as the gesture/speech hybrid network. In addition, we use 10 gestures in the American Sign Language (ASL) dataset and 10 speech commands to construct the gesture/speech hybrid dataset. Experimental results show that compared with the pure gesture or pure speech networks, the recognition accuracy of the gesture-speech hybrid network improves by 2% and 12%, respectively, its accuracy reaches 97.38%, which fulfills the requirement of astronauts for HRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation of this paper is to address the limitations of the conventional keypoint-based disparity estimation methods. Conventionally, disparity estimation is usually based on the local information of keypoints. However, keypoints may distribute sparsely in the smooth region, and keypoints with the same descriptors may appear in a symmetric pattern. Therefore, conventional keypoint-based disparity estimation methods may have limited performance in smooth and symmetric regions. The proposed algorithm is superpixel-based. Instead of performing keypoint matching, both keypoint and semiglobal information are applied to determine the disparity in the proposed algorithm. Since the local information of keypoints and the semi-global information of the superpixel are both applied, the accuracy of disparity estimation can be improved, especially for smooth and symmetric regions. Moreover, to address the non-uniform distribution problem of keypoints, a disparity refining mechanism based on the similarity and the distance of neighboring superpixels is applied to correct the disparity of the superpixel with no or few keypoints. The experiments show that the disparity map generated by the proposed algorithm has a lower matching error rate than that generated by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of heavy neutrinos is the most prominent feature of type-I seesaw-like mechanisms, which naturally explain tiny masses of observed neutrinos. Various experiments have been conducted to search for heavy neutrinos, with meson decays sensitive to heavy neutrinos lighter than B mesons and high energy collider experiments sensitive to the ones with masses larger than O (0.1) TeV. In between, there is a mass gap uncovered by these two kinds of experiments, and by this work, we investigate the 3–15 GeV neutrino searches at future Z-factories via the process e - e + → Z → ν N → ν ℓ q ¯ q ′ with ℓ = e , μ . Based on the simulation of signal and background events, we find that the signals appear as monojet events owning to the large Lorentz boost of the heavy neutrinos. Furthermore, the substructures of such monojet are essential to reconstruct the signal and suppress the background. The upper bounds on the cross section of the signal process and the mixing parameter V ℓ N 2 are obtained. Compared with other experiments, the monojet method at future Z-factories will be able to fill the gap around this mass range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) with a face-centered cubic structure offer numerous advantages, including high plasticity, good processability, and high-temperature resistance. They are also suitable for use as materials in shaped-charge liners, which can cause significant damage. In this study, CoCrFeNi HEAs were prepared, and their mechanical characteristics were examined. The results indicated that the alloy exhibited good plasticity and processability. After dynamic compression, the samples were analyzed using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was found that dislocation was the primary deformation mechanism at low strain rates. However, as the strain rate increased, the deformation mechanism shifted from dislocations to a combination of dislocations and twinning. The damage performance of the CoCrFeNi HEA was verified through a static penetration experiment using a conical charge. The results were then compared with simulation results obtained using the AUTODYN software. This study demonstrated that the CoCrFeNi HEA could form a condensed, stable-shaped charge jet, leading to efficient damage after penetrating the steel target plate. Therefore, after uniform treatment, the CoCrFeNi HEA can be utilized as a high-energy structural material to design shaped charge structures that achieve highly efficient damage. • CoCrFeNi HEA has excellent comprehensive mechanical properties. • CoCrFeNi HEA liner can form a continuous jet. • CoCrFeNi HEA jet has excellent penetration ability. • CoCrFeNi HEA exhibits the property of releasing impact energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Hybrid model for Bacillus licheniformis fed-batch culture was established. • To maximize spore sporulation, the optimal operating curve was calculated. • The optimal operating curve led to a 35.21% increase in sporulation. Bacillus licheniformis is widely utilized in disease prevention and environmental remediation. Spore quantity is a critical factor in determining the quality of microbiological agents containing vegetative cells. To improve the understanding of Bacillus licheniformis BF-002 strain culture, a hybrid model integrating traditional dynamic modeling and recurrent neural network was developed. This model enabled the optimization of carbon/nitrogen source feeding rates, pH, temperature and agitation speed using genetic algorithms. Carbon and nitrogen source consumption in the optimal duplicate batches showed no significant difference compared to the control batch. However, the spore quantity in the broth increased by 16.2% and 35.2% in the respective duplicate batches. Overall, the hybrid model outperformed the traditional dynamic model in accurately tracking the cultivation dynamics of Bacillus licheniformis , leading to increased spore production when used for optimizing cultivation conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the intense exothermic hydration process, early-age concrete undergoes restrained shrinkage deformation, which can easily lead to cracks in concrete structures during construction. In order to accurately predict the adverse effects of early-age concrete cracking behavior, a cohesive element-based chemo-thermo-mechanical multi-field coupled cracking model of early-age concrete is proposed in this study. Parametric analysis shows that by selecting appropriate gap conductance, constitutive thickness, mesh size, and viscosity coefficient for the cohesive elements, the multi-field coupled cracking model can successfully simulate the entire cracking process of early-age concrete, and it has the ability to obtain crack development behavior based on the real displacement field jumps, coordinates, and damage of cohesive elements. The validation of the numerical examples reveals the competing mechanisms between thermal expansion and autogenous shrinkage in early-age concrete and accurately predicts the cracking strain, region, time, and width (within an order of magnitude) as reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a continuous map T : X → X on a compact metric space (X , d) , we say that a function f : X → R has the property P T if its time averages along forward orbits of T are maximized at a periodic orbit. In this paper, we prove that for the one-sided full shift on two symbols, the property P T is prevalent (in the sense of Hunt–Sauer–Yorke) in spaces of Lipschitz functions with respect to metrics with mildly fast decaying rate on the diameters of cylinder sets. This result is a strengthening of [3, Theorem A] , confirms the prediction mentioned in the ICM proceeding contribution of J. Bochi ([1, Section 1]) suggested by experimental evidence, and is another step towards the Hunt–Ott conjectures in the area of ergodic optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication efficient secret sharing (CESS) schemes are a class of threshold schemes that aim to minimize the so-called decoding bandwidth, namely the necessary amount of communication between a combiner who wants to reconstruct the secret and the available participants storing shares of the secret. Previous works proved that the decoding bandwidth had a tight lower bound related to the number of available participants. Some threshold schemes that achieved the lower bound (optimal decoding bandwidth) and optimal information rate were constructed for a given number (non-universal case) or multiple distinct number ($\triangle $ -universal case) of available participants. However, all those CESS schemes have large share sizes. Moreover, they have a common feature that each secret and share are a vector with multiple coordinates, which results in the decoding delay since the combiner must reconstruct a part of coordinates of the secret at first, and these recovered coordinates will be used to reconstruct another part of coordinates of the secret. In this work, we describe a new construction for CESS schemes of non-universal and $\triangle $ -universal cases, whereas each secret and share of our schemes are a single element of a finite field $\mathbb {F}_{q^{e}}$ , and each participant of an authorized subset provides a single element of a same subfield of $\mathbb {F}_{q^{e}}$ to the combiner to reconstruct the secret. We find that the CESS schemes of this type, termed balanced CESS schemes, have an inevitable restriction on the number of available participants, but our schemes has no decoding delay. Furthermore, our schemes have smaller share sizes than other existing works, which are realized by using a smaller sub-packetization $e$ and a smaller base field $\mathbb {F}_{q}$. Indeed, the sub-packetizations of our schemes are minimum for given $\mathbb {F}_{q}$ among balanced CESS schemes. In addition, when our constructions are used to generate communication efficient $(n,r)$ threshold schemes, we derive a generalized Shamir’s scheme that universally achieves optimal decoding bandwidth and optimal information rate for the first time, where the restriction on the number of available participants is removed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrete Liouville first passage percolation (LFPP) with parameter ξ > 0 is the random metric on a sub-graph of Z 2 obtained by assigning each vertex z a weight of e ξ h (z) , where h is the discrete Gaussian free field. We show that the distance exponent for discrete LFPP is strictly positive for all ξ > 0 . More precisely, the discrete LFPP distance between the inner and outer boundaries of a discrete annulus of size 2 n is typically at least 2 α n for an exponent α > 0 depending on ξ . This is a crucial input in the proof that LFPP admits non-trivial subsequential scaling limits for all ξ > 0 and also has theoretical implications for the study of distances in Liouville quantum gravity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, Cu/ZrO2 catalysts containing different Cu contents with or without La-doping were used for the selective hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate (DMO) to ethylene glycol (EG). Effects of La addition and the optimal Cu content were thoroughly investigated. It was found that the Cu0/Cu+ pairs located at interfacial sites for CuO/ZrO2 catalysts with different Cu contents played an important role in the hydrogenation of DMO to EG. Interestingly, the La-doping could make the copper dispersion increase obviously. Besides, it greatly inhibited the crystal phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic zirconia regardless of being calcined at 750 °C. Meanwhile, the incorporation of La promoted the activation of hydrogen although resulting in a small increase in acidic/basic sites over the catalyst surface, which led to a higher conversion of DMO while the selectivity of EG decreased slightly. As a result, 97.2% selectivity of EG, which corresponds to 100% conversion of DMO, was achieved over the La-doped CuO/ZrO2 catalyst with 33 wt% Cu content, which was also stable for more than 168 h on stream. This results revealed that the strong interaction between La promoters and Cu species was another type of important active site with high catalytic efficiency in addition to the Cu0/Cu+ site of La-doped CuO/ZrO2 catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the Cu sintering in dimethyl oxalate (DMO) hydrogenation to ethanol, the reaction temperature should be kept at a low value, however, which is unable to show excellent catalytic performance. Herein, the reaction temperature decreased significantly from above 260 to 220°C over Ce‐doping Cu/ZrO2 catalyst, which retained high catalytic efficiency with little influence on the catalyst structure after 96 h on stream. Besides, the structure and performance were changed greatly by adjusting the Cu content. For example, the ethanol selectivity can reach 96.1% based on the 100% conversion of DMO over Ce‐doping Cu/ZrO2 catalysts with 40% content of Cu. Based on systematic characterization, the catalyst possessed higher exposed Cu surface area along with the proper amount of medium acidic sites, avoiding the strong ones that could bring about a series of by‐products. As a result, the formed synergistic effects between Cu sites and medium acidic sites provided the active sites with high efficiency for ethanol synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

That binocular viewing confers an advantage over monocular viewing for detecting isolated low luminance or low contrast objects, has been known for well over a century; however, the processes involved in combining the images from the two eyes are still not fully understood. Importantly, in natural vision, objects are rarely isolated but appear in context. It is well known that nearby contours can either facilitate or suppress detection, depending on their distance from the target and the global configuration. Here we report that at close distances collinear (but not orthogonal) flanking contours suppress detection more under binocular compared to monocular viewing, thus completely abolishing the binocular advantage, both at threshold and suprathreshold levels. In contrast, more distant flankers facilitate both monocular and binocular detection, preserving a binocular advantage up to about four times the detection threshold. Our results for monocular and binocular viewing, for threshold contrast discrimination without nearby flankers, can be explained by a gain control model with uncertainty and internal multiplicative noise adding additional constraints on detection. However, in context with nearby flankers, both contrast detection threshold and suprathreshold contrast appearance matching require the addition of both target-to-target and flank-to-target interactions occurring before the site of binocular combination. To test an alternative model, in which the interactions occur after the site of binocular combination, we performed a dichoptic contrast matching experiment, with the target presented to one eye, and the flanks to the other eye. The two models make very different predictions for abutting flanks under dichoptic conditions. Interactions after the combination site predict that the perceived contrast of the flanked target will be strongly suppressed, while interactions before the site predict the perceived contrast will be more or less veridical. The data are consistent with the latter model, strongly suggesting that the interactions take place before the site of binocular combination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How top-down influence affects neuronal activity and information encoding in the primary visual cortex (V1) remains elusive. This study examined changes of neuronal excitability and contrast sensitivity in cat V1 cortex after top-down influence of area 7 (A7) was modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The neuronal excitability in V1 cortex was evaluated by visually evoked field potentials (VEPs), and contrast sensitivity (CS) was assessed by the inverse of threshold contrast of neurons in response to visual stimuli at different performance accuracy. We found that the amplitude of VEPs in V1 cortex lowered after top-down influence suppression with cathode-tDCS in A7, whereas VEPs in V1 did not change after sham-tDCS in A7 and nonvisual cortical area 5 (A5) or cathode-tDCS in A5 and lesioned A7. Moreover, the mean CS of V1 neurons decreased after cathode-tDCS but not sham-tDCS in A7, which could recover after tDCS effect vanished. Comparisons of neuronal contrast-response functions showed that cathode-tDCS increased the stimulus contrast required to generate the half-maximum response, with a weakly-correlated reduction in maximum response but not baseline response. Therefore, top-down influence of A7 enhanced neuronal excitability in V1 cortex and improved neuronal contrast sensitivity by both contrast gain and response gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by applications such as discovering strong ties in social networks and assembling genome subsequences in biology, we study the problem of recovering a hidden 2k-nearest neighbor (NN) graph in an n-vertex complete graph, whose edge weights are independent and distributed according to Pn for edges in the hidden 2k-NN graph and Qn otherwise. The special case of Bernoulli distributions corresponds to a variant of the Watts-Strogatz small-world graph. We focus on two types of asymptotic recovery guarantees as n → ∞ : (1) exact recovery: all edges are classified correctly with probability tending to one; (2) almost exact recovery: the expected number of misclassified edges is o(nk). We show that the maximum likelihood estimator achieves (1) exact recovery for 2 ≤ k ≤ no(1) if lim inf 2αn/log n > 1; (2) almost exact recovery for 1 ≤ k ≤ o (log n/log log n) if lim inf kD(Pn||Qn)/log n > 1, where αn ≜ −2 log ∫ √d Pn d Qn is the Rényi divergence of order 1/2 and D(Pn||Qn) is the Kullback-Leibler divergence. Under mild distributional assumptions, these conditions are shown to be information-theoretically necessary for any algorithm to succeed. A key challenge in the analysis is the enumeration of 2k-NN graphs that differ from the hidden one by a given number of edges. We also analyze several computationally efficient algorithms and provide sufficient conditions under which they achieve exact/almost exact recovery. In particular, we develop a polynomial-time algorithm that attains the threshold for exact recovery under the small-world model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct Z-scheme heterostructure photocatalyst has been validated as an efficacious approach for addressing energy source issues and environmental challenges. This manuscript employs a first-principles approach to scrutinize single-layer WSe2 and HfS2 materials, culminating in the successful construction of a direct Z-scheme WSe2/HfS2 van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure. Herein, we present a comprehensive investigation regarding the structural stability, electronic characteristics, and photocatalytic efficacy of this heterostructure. The findings indicate that the WSe2/HfS2 heterostructure exhibits exemplary thermodynamic stability, thereby endorsing its viability for subsequent experimental synthesis. Characterized by a type-II energy band arrangement, the heterostructure manifests a band gap of 0.63 eV that is much smaller than 2.15 eV and 1.94 eV for individual WSe2 and HfS2 monolayers, respectively, together with the band edge positioning conforming to the prerequisites for overall water-splitting. Additionally, the built-in electric field from the WSe2 side to the HfS2 side and the band bending in the charged region induce direct Z-scheme charge transfer, thereby effectively enhancing redox reaction kinetics. Through the calculation of free energy changes in intermediate products during the redox process, we corroborate the high photocatalytic activity of the heterostructure. Ultimately, we demonstrate the exceptional optical absorption performance of the WSe2/HfS2 heterostructure, coupled with excellent solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency, ηSTH, within the visible light spectrum. Notably, the optical absorption ability and STH efficiency are further enhanced under the application of biaxial compressive strain. In conclusion, the outcomes of this inquiry affirm the expansive application potential of the WSe2/HfS2 heterostructure in the realm of water decomposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]