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Traffic sign detection and recognition facilitates real-time monitoring and interpretation of various traffic signs on the road, such as those indicating speed limits, prohibition of overtaking, and navigation cues. This has substantial applications for autonomous driving and decision-making systems. Consequently, designing accurate and efficient algorithms for the automatic recognition of traffic signs is crucial in the intelligent transportation field. However, targets that need to be detected by traffic sign recognition applications are mostly small-sized, causing challenges regarding their automatic recognition. The YOLOv5s model, characterized by its minimal depth and narrowest feature map, has gained widespread popularity for executing detection owing to its features of being lightweight and easily portable. Furthermore, the YOLOv5s model uses an anchor-based prediction approach that uses anchor boxes of different sizes and shapes to regress and classify various targets. This method generates dense anchor boxes and enables the model to directly perform object classification and bounding box regression, thereby enhancing its target recall capability. Therefore, the anchor-based Yolov5s method has been applied to traffic sign detection; however, it suffers from issues such as false positives and missed detection. Detection of small targets continues to be a challenging aspect in current traffic sign recognition technology due to the following: small targets carry less information; detection of small targets requires high precision in positioning; and environmental noise may overwhelm the detection of small targets. To overcome the abovementioned issues, such as missed detection, false positives, and low detection accuracy, this study proposes a model called STD-YOLOv5s that is specifically designed for small target detection. First, by increasing the number of upsampling and prediction output layers, this model obtains abundant location information. This can enhance the global understanding of images and solve the issue of insufficient information associated with small targets. Second, the CA attention mechanism is added after each C3 module, whereas the Swin-T attention mechanism module is added before each output layer, increasing the model’s ability to capture multilayer feature information and consequently improving its performance of small target detection. Finally, the accuracy of target localization is ensured using the SIoU penalty function, which considers the target shape and spatial relationships, thereby increasing the model’s ability to capture the positional relationships among targets of different sizes in the image. The STD-YOLOv5s model was validated using the TT100K dataset by ablation and comparison experiments. Experimental results indicate that the proposed model not only maintains the lightweight nature and high detection speed of the YOLOv5s model but also achieves improvements in precision, recall, and average precision.

Abstract This study develops a neural network control for a non‐linear two‐degree‐of‐freedom unmanned helicopter system satisfying prescribed performance constraints is developed. By introducing a prescribed performance function to express the system constraints, a constrained tracking control problem is transformed into an equivalent unconstrained stability problem through error transformations. The neural network controller is designed to ensure that the tracking error converges to a small neighborhood of zero and that the prescribed performance constraints are satisfied. Furthermore, the stability and error convergence of the system are analysed through the Lyapunov direct approach. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is verified by simulation and experimental results.

Abstract A capacitive coupling dual‐band circular patch antenna for on‐/off‐body communications is proposed for 3.5 GHz world interoperability for microwave access band and 5.8 GHz industrial scientific medical band. The antenna has a compact structure with a single substrate made of polydimethylsiloxane which is flexible and easy to wear. To realise off‐body mode, the antenna adopted bias feeding. The on‐body mode is achieved by symmetrically loading four shorting vias on the edge of the patch to stimulate TM41 mode, which tends to bring a high gain of the antenna. The measured operating bandwidths of the antenna for off‐body and on‐body modes are 120 MHz (3.45–3.57 GHz) and 360 MHz (5.54–5.90 GHz) respectively. The peak gains are 5.99 dBi for off‐body mode and 5.46 dBi for on‐body mode. Moreover, the antenna displays robust performances when it is bended or closed to human bodies. Meanwhile, low specific absorption rate values are proving that the antenna is safe to wear on human bodies.

Hindwing venation is one of the most important morphological features for the functional and evolutionary analysis of beetles, as it is one of the key features used for the analysis of beetle flight performance and the design of beetle-like flapping wing micro aerial vehicles. However, manual landmark annotation for hindwing morphological analysis is a time-consuming process hindering the development of wing morphology research. In this paper, we present a novel approach for the detection of landmarks on the hindwings of leaf beetles (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) using a limited number of samples. The proposed method entails the transfer of a pre-existing model, trained on a large natural image dataset, to the specific domain of leaf beetle hindwings. This is achieved by using a deep high-resolution network as the backbone. The low-stage network parameters are frozen, while the high-stage parameters are re-trained to construct a leaf beetle hindwing landmark detection model. A leaf beetle hindwing landmark dataset was constructed, and the network was trained on varying numbers of randomly selected hindwing samples. The results demonstrate that the average detection normalized mean error for specific landmarks of leaf beetle hindwings (100 samples) remains below 0.02 and only reached 0.045 when using a mere three samples for training. Comparative analyses reveal that the proposed approach out-performs a prevalently used method (i.e., a deep residual network). This study showcases the practicability of employing natural images—specifically, those in ImageNet—for the purpose of pre-training leaf beetle hindwing landmark detection models in particular, providing a promising approach for insect wing venation digitization.

PURPOSEWe aimed to determine the ablation characteristics of discontinuous moving shot technique (DMST) in microwave ablation (MWA), radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and laser ablation (LA), and analyze the differences compared with fixed electrode technique (FET) in an ex vivo porcine liver model.METHODSFET was defined as the ablation needle remaining fixed during ablation. In DMST, ablation needle moved backward for a fixed distance twice along the long axis during ablation. Four moving distances (0.5 cm, 0.75 cm, 1 cm and 2 cm) were used in DMST. Long-axis diameter (LAD) and short-axis diameter (SAD) of ablation zones were measured. The ratio of LAD/SAD was calculated.RESULTSThe shape and size of ablation zones were different between DMST and FET. Compared with FET, DMST could achieve greater LAD when the moving distance became long enough. In MWA with DMST, SAD decreased with the extension of moving distance and finally became smaller than the SAD in FET. While in LA and RFA, the change of moving distance did not affect SAD significantly.CONCLUSIONIn MWA, RFA and LA, the characteristics of ablation zone of DMST were different from that of FET. This unique ablation technique may be suitable for conformal thermal ablation.

Increasing attention to skin regeneration has rapidly broadened research on the topic. However, no bibliometric analysis of the field’s research trends has yet been conducted. In response to this research gap, this study analyzed the publication patterns and progress of skin regeneration research worldwide using a bibliometric analysis of 1,471 papers comprising 1,227 (83.4%) original articles and 244 (16.6%) reviews sourced from a Web of Science search. Publication distribution was analyzed by country/region, institution, journal, and author. The frequency of keywords was assessed to prepare a bibliometric map of the development trends in skin regeneration research. China and the United States were the most productive countries in the field: China had the greatest number of publications at 433 (29.4%) and the United States had the highest H-index ranking (59 with 15,373 citations or 31.9%). Author keywords were classified into four clusters: stem cell, biomaterial, tissue engineering, and wound dressing. “Stem cells,” “chitosan,” “tissue engineering,” and “wound dressings” were the most frequent keywords in each cluster; therefore, they reflected the field’s current focus areas. “Immunomodulation,” “aloe vera,” “extracellular vesicles,” “injectable hydrogel,” and “three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting” were relatively new keywords, indicating that biomaterials for skin regeneration and 3D bioprinting are promising research hotspots in the field. Moreover, clinical studies on new dressings and techniques to accelerate skin regeneration deserve more attention. By uncovering current and future research hotspots, this analysis offers insights that may be useful for both new and experienced scholars striving to expand research and innovation in the field of skin regeneration.

Abstract Liquid biopsy is noninvasive and convenient to detect cancer-derived materials in blood or other body fluids. The aim of this study was to identify tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) in plasma that could distinguish patients with breast cancer (BC) from healthy controls. Basing on high-throughput sequencing, 15 significantly upregulated tsRNAs were selected and assessed in cell supernatants and cell lines. 6 tsRNAs were identified and verified in a large cohort of 120 patients with BC and 112 healthy controls. tRF-Arg-CCT-017, tRF-Gly-CCC-001, and tiRNA-Phe-GAA-003 could serve as novel diagnostic biomarkers. Meanwhile, tRF-Arg-CCT-017 and tiRNA-Phe-GAA-003 could also act as prognostic biomarkers. Target genes of these tsRNAs were related to the development of cancers. These results suggested that specific tsRNAs in plasma might serve as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of BC.

Small RNAs derived from tRNAs are attracting considerable attention; however, the effects of tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) and tRNA halves (tiRNAs) as biomarkers have not been investigated in early-stage breast cancer (EBC). The study aimed to explore whether tRFs and tiRNAs could be detected in plasma and whether they could serve as diagnostic biomarkers. The study was conducted in four phases. Thirty tRFs and tiRNAs were selected by high-throughput sequencing in screening phase and then assessed in training, testing, and external validation phases by qRT-PCR. Six tRFs (tRF-Glu-CTC-003, tRF-Gly-CCC-007, tRF-Gly-CCC-008, tRF-Leu-CAA-003, tRF-Ser-TGA-001, and tRF-Ser-TGA-002) were found significantly downregulated in plasma samples of patients with EBC compared with normal controls, and all were derived from 5′ ends of tRNAs. Patients with HER2+ EBC with low expression levels of tRF-Glu-CTC-003 were related to worse disease-free survival and overall survival. The identified tRFs were further examined in cell supernatants, exosomes isolated from plasma, and tissues. In conclusion, our study identified six tRFs from the 5′ ends of tRNAs as novel diagnostic biomarkers for EBC, providing additional evidence for, and a better understanding of, circulating tRFs and EBC.

Abstract Background The evaluation of the eighth edition of ypTNM staging system for patients with esophageal cancer was limited in the setting of neoadjuvant therapy. Methods A total of 2324 patients with esophageal cancer receiving radio(chemo)therapy prior to surgery from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 2004 and 2013 were eligible for the analysis. Kaplan‐Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate overall survivals. Results Among patients with preoperative therapy, both the seventh edition TNM grouping and the eighth edition ypTNM grouping could significantly stratify the overall survival (both log‐rank P

Abstract This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the circulating free DNA (cfDNA) level in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) having different neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) responses and to investigate whether dynamic changes in cfDNA level could predict the effectiveness of NCT in patients with LABC. Data on 61 patients with LABC were included. NCT responses were evaluated using the response evaluation criteria. Blood samples were collected for cfDNA detection before treatment and after the first and eighth courses of chemotherapy. The Alu 111‐bp and 260‐bp fragment levels were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction, and the predictive value of the cfDNA level in the NCT response was determined. In vitro, the MCF‐7 and MCF‐7/ADR cell lines were applied to simulate the phenomenon of drug resistance and explain the underlying mechanism. The Alu 111‐bp level increased after the first NCT course (P = .014) and then remained high after NCT in the high‐R group (P = .047), but it remained steady in the low‐R group during NCT. A similar tendency in the Alu 260‐bp level was revealed in different groups. The ∆∆Ct value of Alu 260‐bp had good diagnostic efficiency in assessing predictive ability. The area under the curve for the ∆∆Ct1 and ∆∆Ct2 of Alu 260‐bp was 0.697 and 0.647, respectively. The cfDNA level was closely related to epirubicin‐induced apoptosis and changes in the Ki‐67 index in vitro. The elevation of cfDNA after one chemotherapy cycle was mediated by the apoptosis of tumor cells and related to the improved chemotherapy response.

Background: The forecasting of daily outpatient visits has significant practical implications in outpatient clinic operation management, not only contributing to guiding long-term resource planning and scheduling but also making tactical resolutions for short-term adjustments on special days such as holidays. We here in propose an effective genetic programming (GP)-based forecasting model to predict daily outpatient visits (OV) in a primary hospital. Methods: In the GP-based model, the holiday-based distance outlier mining algorithm was used to determine the holiday effect. In addition, solar terms were applied as the smallest unit to more accurately determine the impact of a change in the climate on the outpatient volume. A segmental learning strategy also was used to predict the daily outpatient volume for the time series data. Results: The GP-based prediction could more effectively extract depth information from a finite training sample size and achieve a better performance for predicting daily outpatient visits, with lower root mean square error (RMSE) and higher coefficient of determination (R2) values, than the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model in the time range of holidays and the holiday effect. Conclusion: GP-based model can achieve better prediction performance by overcoming the shortcomings of the SARIMA model. The results can be applied to support decision-making and planning of outpatient clinic resources, to help managers implement periodic scheduling of available resources on the basis of periodic features, and to perform proactive scheduling of additional resources.

This case report describes a 22-year-old man with a pharyngeal foreign body sensation arising from the left side of the postpharyngeal wall. Histological examination showed a biphasic pattern of epithelioid and spindle cells including glandular differentiation. The tumour was positive for vimentin and SS18-SSX, and the spindle cells were positive for bcl-2; in contrast, the epithelioid tumour cells were positive for pan-cytokeratin, epithelial membrane antigen and CD99. There was no INI-loss in tumour cells. Then, the presence of the SYT-SSX gene fusion was demonstrated by fluorescence in situ hybridization. In addition, androgen receptor gene somatic mutations were detected by next-generation sequencing. However, 6 months postoperatively, the patient had neither developed a recurrence nor received adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Accurate diagnosis depends on morphological and immunohistochemical examination and a proper molecular analysis, and novel technologies can detect a wide variety of genetic alterations. Although androgen receptor somatic mutations cannot provide addition treatment at present, surgical resection with a clean margin and follow-up is an appropriate approach.

Purpose. To evaluate the prevalence, causes, and risk factors of presenting visual impairment (PVI) and presenting blindness among adults in Suzhou, China. Methods. A total of 43927 subjects were included in this cross-sectional study. Each subject underwent ophthalmic examinations, including presenting visual acuity (PVA), intraocular pressure (IOP), slit-lamp examination, and fundus examination under the small pupils of each eye. Results. Using the World Health Organization (WHO) definition, the prevalence of bilateral PVI, bilateral presenting blindness, monocular PVI, and monocular presenting blindness was 1.59% (95% CI, 1.51–1.67), 0.002% (95% CI, 0.0019–0.0021), 3.87% (95% CI, 3.68–4.06), and 0.19% (95% CI, 0.18–0.20), respectively. Using the United States (US) definition, the prevalence of bilateral PVI, bilateral presenting blindness, monocular PVI, and monocular presenting blindness was 5.83% (95% CI, 5.54–6.12), 0.04% (95% CI, 0.038–0.042), 7.43% (95% CI, 7.06–7.80), and 0.45% (95% CI, 0.43–0.47), respectively. The prevalence of PVI was higher in females (WHO criteria, 2.06%, 95% CI, 1.96–2.16; US criteria, 7.27%, 95% CI, 6.91–7.63) than in males (WHO criteria, 1.2%, 95 CI%, 1.14–1.26; US criteria, 4.65%, 95% CI, 4.42–4.89). The leading cause of PVI is an uncorrected refractive error, followed by cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Multivariate analysis proved that the prevalence of visual impairment (PVA, better eye, WHO criteria) increased significantly with older age, higher mean arterial pressure (MAP), higher globulin level, and higher fasting blood glucose (FBG). In addition, it also increased significantly with lower hemoglobin, a lower body mass index (BMI), and a lower arterial stiffness index. In this study, serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, triglycerides, and the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) showed no association with visual impairment. Conclusion. The leading causes of PVI in Suzhou were uncorrected refractive error and cataracts. The prevalence of PVI increased with females, older age, higher MAP, higher FBG, higher globulin, lower hemoglobin, lower BMI, and lower arterial stiffness index.

In this paper, based on backstepping technique and time delay estimation (TDE) technique, an adaptive time delay compensation control scheme is developed for a class of piezoelectric positioning mechanical systems with Bouc-Wen hysteresis and input saturation constraint. The nonlinear part of the Bouc-Wen model is estimated online by TDE, and the TDE error introduced by TDE is compensated online by an adaptive law. Furthermore, an auxiliary variable system is used to deal with the input saturation constraint. Based on the Lyapunov method, the stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed and proved. Two simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Background: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are human-made compounds with a widespread presence in human blood and other organs. PFAS have been associated with multiple health effects, including higher serum cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. Objective: Potential population differences in serum PFAS attributable to ezetimibe, a medication that inhibits cholesterol absorption, are of interest for several reasons. The “C8” Health Project survey data from six contaminated water districts in the mid-Ohio Valley of the United States provide a wide enough range of serum PFAS and a sufficient number of ezetimibe takers to explore this topic. Methods: A total of 44,126 adult participants of the C8 Health Survey were included in the community-based study. The status of taking (1075) or non-taking of ezetimibe, alone or in combination with another lipid-lowering agent, was acquired. The geometric mean serum concentrations of the four most commonly detected serum PFAS were compared based on the status of ezetimibe use. Results: There is no significant difference in serum concentrations of perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) between ezetimibe users and non-users after adjustment for age, sex, body mass index, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), cigarette smoking, education, and average household income. Conclusion: The sterol absorption-inhibiting medication ezetimibe does not appear to affect serum PFAS concentrations. We sought but did not find direct evidence that ezetimibe could inhibit PFAS uptake nor inferential evidence that inter-individual differences in sterol absorption could provide a confounding factor explanation for the association of serum total- and LDL-cholesterol with serum PFAS.

The comprehensive balance of the mechanical, interfacial, and environmental requirements of waterborne polyurethane (WPU) has proved challenging, but crucial in the specific application as the binder for high-performance polymer fiber composites. In this work, a multi-step chain extension (MCE) method was demonstrated using three kinds of small extenders and one kind of macro-chain extender (CE) for different chain extension steps. One dihydroxyl blocked small molecular urea (1,3-dimethylolurea, DMU) was applied as one of the CEs and, through the hybrid macrodiol/diamine systems of polyether, polyester, and polysiloxane, the WPU was developed by the step-by-step optimization on each chain extending reaction via the characterization on the H-bonding association, microphase separation, and mechanical properties. The best performance was achieved when the ratio of polyether/polyester was controlled at 6:4, while 2% of DMU and 1% of polysiloxane diamine was incorporated in the third and fourth chain extension steps, respectively. Under the condition, the WPU exhibited not only excellent tensile strength of 30 MPa, elongation of break of about 1300%, and hydrophobicity indicated by the water contact angle of 98°, but also effective interfacial adhesion to para-aramid fabrics. The peeling strength of the joint based on the polysiloxane incorporated WPU after four steps of chain extension was 430% higher than that prepared through only two steps of chain extension. Moreover, about 44% of the peeling strength was sustained after the joint had been boiling for 40 min in water, suggesting the potential application for high-performance fabric composites.

Image edge is the most indicative feature that forms a significant role in image analysis and image understanding, but edge-detail preservation is a difficult task in image restoration due to noise and blur during imaging. The balance between edge preservation and noise removal has always been a difficult problem in image restoration. This paper proposes a derivative fidelity-based total generalized variation method (D-TGV) to improve this balance. First, an objective function model that highlights the ability to maintain details is proposed for the image restoration problem, which is combined with a fidelity term in derivative space and a total generalized variation regularization term. This is designed to achieve the advantage of preserving details in derivative space and eliminate the staircase effect caused by traditional total variation. Second, the alternating direction method of the multipliers (ADMM) is used to solve the model equations by decomposing the original, highly complex model into several simple sub-problems to attain rapid convergence. Finally, a series of experiments conducted on standard grayscale images showed that the proposed method exhibited a good balance between detail preservation and denoising but also reached completion with the fewest iterations compared with the currently established methods.

The Hongguleleng Cu deposit is a Manto-type deposit in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, located in the east section of West Junggar, Xinjiang, China. It is hosted by Middle Ordovician volcano-sedimentary sequence, especially for porous units. Specifically, the orebodies of this Manto-type deposit are hosted in basalt, andesite, and andesitic breccia host rocks (the particular volcano-sedimentary sequence). The occurrence of these orebodies is controlled by normal faults. Chalcopyrite, pyrite, calcite, chlorite, and epidote are most common minerals of the Hongguleleng deposit. Three alternation belts and six ore related stages have been recognised. The epidote-chalcopyrite stage, quartz-calcite-chalcopyrite stage, and chlorite stage are ore forming stage. The δ34S of chalcopyrite in ore depositing stages varies from 0.94‰ to 2.59‰, indicating that the origin of sulfur is either magma or host volcanic rock. Further, the 206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, and 208Pb/204Pb values of the chlorite-chalcopyrite and quartz-calcite-chalcopyrite stages exist in the range of 17.443–17.847 and 17.855–17.973; 15.472–15.495 and 15.493–15.620; and 37.616–37.666 and 37.689–38.114, respectively, indicating that the metal originates from the Middle Ocean Ridge Basalt (MORB). The δ13CPDB value of calcite for the epidote-chalcopyrite stage ores, quartz-calcite-chalcopyrite ores with veinlet characteristics, quartz-calcite-chalcopyrite ores with brecciated characteristics, and chlorite-chalcopyrite ores range from −1.40 to −1.50‰, −2.01 to 0.41‰, −1.15 to 0.75‰, and −0.80 to 1.58‰, respectively, while the 18OSMOW ranges from 8.94–10.42‰, 11.83–13.17‰, 13.59–14.04‰, and 12.34–14.18‰, respectively. The CO isotope of calcite of the Hongguleleng deposit indicates that seawater is an essential fluid for ore formation and that modified seawater interacts with the host rock extensively. The hydrothermal magnetite in the quartz-magnetite stage and chlorite in the ore forming stages indicate that temperature decreases from its early to late stages. High Zn and Pb concentrations over four stages of pyrite, with a relatively stable contents, indicate that the content of Zn and Pb in fluid is also high. The concentration of Cu in these four stages of pyrite of the Hongguleleng deposit follow a decreasing trend, indicating that the concentration of Cu in the ore forming fluid decreases from the early to late stage. Based on information mentioned above, we argue that this deposit is a Manto-type deposit with modified seawater driving forces.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) is the standard treatment for patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). The aim of this study was to verify this relationship, and to estimate the clinical value of aneuploid circulating endothelial cells (CECs) in LABC patients with different NCT responses. Methods: Breast cancer patients received an EC4-T4 NCT regimen. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were obtained before NCT, and after the first and last NCT courses. A novel subtraction enrichment and immunostaining fluorescence in situ hybridization (SE-iFISH) strategy was applied for detection of circulating rare cells (CRCs). CECs (CD45–/CD31+/DAPI+) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) with different cytogenetic abnormalities related to chromosome 8 aneuploidy were analyzed in LABC patients subjected to NCT. Results: A total of 41 patients were enrolled. Firstly, CD31+/EpCAM+ aneuploid endothelial-epithelial fusion cells were observed in LABC patients. Further, aneuploid CECs in the peripheral blood showed a biphasic response during NCT, as they initially increased and then decreased, whereas a strong positive correlation was observed between aneuploid CECs and CTC numbers. Conclusion: We determined that aneuploid CEC dynamics vary in patients with different response to chemotherapy. Elucidating the potential cross-talk between CTCs and aneuploid CECs may help characterize the process associated with the development of chemotherapy resistance and metastasis.

In this paper, we deal with the vibration control problem of a flexible spacecraft system with unknown external disturbance and uncertain input backlash nonlinearity. The considered system is described by two partial differential equations and an ordinary differential equation as governing equations, and by ordinary differential equations as boundary conditions. The backlash nonlinearity is reformulated into the desired control input associated with an extra input nonlinear error. This input error and the external disturbance are combined into an unknown “disturbance-like” item. Two boundary control inputs are designed at the center body of the spacecraft, compensating for the unknown upper-bound of such items by applying proper online updating laws. As a result, the vibration of both solar panels of the flexible spacecraft is suppressed and their angle positions are regulated in the desired region. The numerical simulations are provided to verify the control performance of the proposed controls by the choice of proper parameters.

This paper presents an adaptive distributed control method based on an iterative learning scheme for a flexible manipulator to realize trajectory tracking and vibration reducing. The dynamical model of the flexible manipulator is captured by partial differential equations (PDEs). The control objective is to design a boundary controller and a distributed controller so that the motion of the flexible manipulator can track a desired position, and the deflection can be suppressed simultaneously subjecting to system parameters uncertainties and spatio-temporal distributed disturbances. A Lyapunov based stability analysis is carried out to achieve stability of the controlled system. Finally, simulation results evaluate the validity of the derived control scheme.

Superposed perfobond connectors are a type of connector used in composite structures. When the construction conditions are limited to increase the diameter of the opening, the shear capacity of the connector can be improved by enhancing the confining effect of the concrete dowel. In this study, 12 superposed perfobond connectors were fabricated to investigate the influence of lateral constraints on their shear behavior. The effects of hole area and holes’ number, diameter of the perforating rebar, concrete compressive strength, and the number of transverse reinforcements were investigated via the failure modes and load–slip curves. The results indicate that double-sided shear failure occurs in connectors with perfobond rib thicknesses exceeding 9 mm, and the connectors featuring strong lateral constraints not only exhibited higher bearing capacities but also superior load-holding capacities after peak load. Finally, an equation for the shear capacity of multi-hole perfobond connectors, considering lateral constraints, was proposed according to the double-sided shear theory.

Hierarchical zeolites attract people’s attention due to their enhanced mass transfer properties in catalytic reactions. The research over obtaining these zeolites in green and efficient methods is of great significance for the current post-treatments and templating strategies tend to be costly for hierarchical zeolite synthesis. In this research, nanosized mesoporous ZSM-5 (SN-ZSM-5) zeolites have been synthesized without the addition of mesoscale templates under highly concentrated conditions. The physicochemical characteristics were systematically investigated by XRD, SEM, N2 sorption, TEM, and NMR. The SEM images showed ZSM-5 crystals with sizes between 50–110 nm were obtained. N2 sorption and high-resolution TEM images gave direct evidence for the hierarchical structure of SN-ZSM-5. The forming mechanism for the hierarchical structure was proposed that the etching effect of the highly alkaline environment for the starting gels played a critical role in the formation of hierarchical structure. Catalytic tests in methanol-to-olefins (MTO) showed the SN-ZSM-5 performed a longer catalyst lifetime and higher propylene selectivity than the conventional ZSM-5 zeolites (C-ZSM-5) obtained from a traditional hydrothermal method. The features of hierarchical structure in the SN-ZSM-5 crystals and the sustainability for synthesis method could show a promising choice for wide applications of these SN-ZSM-5 zeolites in the future.

The effective processing and deep mining analysis of data can provide manufacturers with more effective production scheduling,equipment management and other strategies to affect production yield and efficiency.The processing methods and technologies of multi-source heterogeneous data in the manufacturing process were systematically reviewed.Firstly,the multi-source heterogeneous data content and classification in the manufacturing process was clarified.Secondly,the data processing methods and techniques applied in various stages of data collection,data integration and data analysis in the multi-source heterogeneous data processing were described.And the advantages and disadvantages of various techniques and their applications were analyzed.Finally,the multi-source heterogeneous data processing methods and techniques in the manufacturing process were summarized.And the challenges and development trends were pointed out.

In this study, we aim to construct the boundary robust adaptive control for weakening the vibration of the flexible Timoshenko manipulator in the presence of unknown disturbances. By Lyapunov’s direct method, the adaptive controllers and disturbance observers are exploited to achieve the angle tracking and handle the external disturbances. With the suggested adaptive laws and disturbance observers, the controlled system with both parametric and disturbance uncertainties is guaranteed to be uniformly bounded. Finally, simulation results are provided to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed control.

The article examines the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of traditional Tibetan "Bengke" residential architecture in Luhuo County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The study utilizes spatial statistical methods, including Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis, Getis-Ord Gi*, and Kernel Density Estimation, to identify significant clustering patterns of Bengke architecture. Spatial autocorrelation was tested using Moran's Index, with results indicating no significant spatial autocorrelation, suggesting that the distribution mechanisms are complex and influenced by multiple factors. Additionally, exploratory data analysis (EDA), the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and regression methods such as Lasso and Elastic Net were used to identify and validate key factors influencing the distribution of these buildings. The analysis reveals that road density, population density, economic development quality, and industrial structure are the most significant factors. The study also highlights that these factors vary in impact between high-density and low-density areas, depending on the regional environment. These findings offer a comprehensive understanding of the spatial patterns of Bengke architecture and provide valuable insights for the preservation and sustainable development of this cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rolling bearing is a key component of rotating machines, its working state directly affects the performance and safety of the whole equipment. Deep learning based on big data is a mainstream means of intelligent mechanical fault diagnosis. The key lies in enhancing fault feature and improving diagnosis accuracy. Different from the Convolution Neural Network (CNN) which relies on the convolution layer to extract the image features, the Vision Transformer (VIT) uses the multi-head attention mechanism to establish the relationship among the pixels in an image. In order to improve the accuracy of rolling bearing fault diagnosis, a new fault diagnosis method based on VIT is proposed. The vibration gray texture images to be input are divided into the patches according to the predetermined size and linearly mapped into input sequences, and the global image information is integrated through the self-attention mechanism to realize fault diagnosis. In order to enhance the expressiveness and generalization ability, the pooling layer is introduced into VIT. The tested results show that the fault diagnosis accuracy of VIT on the test set reaches 94.6%, and the corresponding classification indexes top-1 is 84.2% and top-5 is 95.0%. The accuracy of the new Pooling Vision Transformer (PIT) is 3.3% higher than that of the original VIT, which proves that the introduction to pooling layer can improve the image identification performance of VIT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) bacterial wilt, caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, is indeed a highly destructive plant disease, leading to substantial damage in tobacco production. While biological control is considered an effective measure for managing bacterial wilt, related research in this area has been relatively limited compared to other control methods. In order to discover new potential antagonistic bacteria with high biocontrol efficacy against tobacco bacterial wilt, we conducted an analysis of the microbial composition differences between disease-suppressive and disease-conducive soils using Illumina sequencing. As a result, we successfully isolated six strains from the disease-suppressive soil that exhibited antibacterial activity against Ralstonia solanacearum. Among these strains, B4-7 showed the strongest antibacterial activity, even at acidic conditions with a pH of 4.0. Based on genome analysis using Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI), B4-7 was identified as Bacillus velezensis. In greenhouse and field trials, strain B4-7 significantly reduced the disease index of tobacco bacterial wilt, with control efficiencies reaching 74.03% and 46.88% respectively. Additionally, B4-7 exhibited plant-promoting abilities that led to a 35.27% increase in tobacco production in field conditions. Quantitative realtime (qPCR) analysis demonstrated that strain B4-7 effectively reduced the abundance of R. solanacearum in the rhizosphere. Genome sequencing and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis revealed that strain B4-7 potentially produces various lipopeptide metabolites, such as microlactin, bacillaene, difficidin, bacilysin, and surfactin. Furthermore, B4-7 influenced the structure of the rhizosphere soil microbial community, increasing bacterial abundance and fungal diversity, while also promoting the growth of different beneficial microorganisms. In addition, B4-7 enhanced tobacco's resistance to R. solanacearum by increasing the activities of defense enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO). Collectively, these findings suggest that B. velezensis B4-7 holds significant biocontrol potential and can be considered a promising candidate strain for eco-friendly management of tobacco bacterial wilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]