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Aim: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of retagliptin in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) inadequately controlled with metformin. Materials and Methods: This multicentre, phase 3 trial consisted of a 16‐week, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled period, where patients with HbA1c levels between 7.5% and 11.0% were randomized to receive either once‐daily (QD) retagliptin 100 mg (n = 87) or placebo (n = 87), both as an add‐on to metformin. The primary endpoint was the change in HbA1c from baseline to week 16. Results: At week 16, the least squares mean change in HbA1c from baseline, compared with placebo, was −0.82% (95% CI, −1.05% to −0.58%) for the retagliptin 100 mg QD group (P <.0001) per treatment policy estimand. Significantly higher proportions of patients in the retagliptin 100 mg QD group achieved HbA1c levels of less than 6.5% (11.5%) and less than 7.0% (26.4%) compared with those receiving placebo (0% and 4.6%; P =.0016 and P <.0001, respectively) at week 16. Retagliptin 100 mg QD also lowered fasting plasma glucose and 2‐hour postprandial plasma glucose levels. The incidence of adverse events (AEs) during the treatment period was similar between the two groups. However, slightly higher proportions of increased lipase and increased amylase in the retagliptin 100 mg QD group were observed. No patients discontinued treatment permanently because of AEs, and no episodes of severe hypoglycaemia were reported. Conclusions: Retagliptin 100 mg QD as an add‐on therapy to metformin offers a new therapeutic option for treating Chinese patients with T2D inadequately controlled by metformin alone, and is generally well tolerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study conducted in China that explores the treatment satisfaction of individuals with type 2 diabetes who were treated with dulaglutide, a medication used to lower blood sugar levels. The study found that participants reported high levels of satisfaction with dulaglutide, indicating that it may be a beneficial treatment option for individuals with type 2 diabetes in the Chinese population. Factors such as longer treatment duration, lower HbA1c levels, weight loss, absence of adverse events, and the convenience and ease of use of the medication were associated with higher treatment satisfaction. The study suggests that high treatment satisfaction may lead to improved adherence and better clinical outcomes for individuals with type 2 diabetes. [Extracted from the article]

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a highly prevalent chronic complication in type 2 diabetes (T2D) for which no effective treatment is available. In this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 clinical trial in China, patients with T2D with DPN received acetyllevocarnitine hydrochloride (ALC; 1,500 mg/day; n = 231) or placebo (n = 227) for 24 weeks, during which antidiabetic therapy was maintained. A significantly greater reduction in modified Toronto clinical neuropathy score (mTCNS) as the primary end point occurred in the ALC group (−6.9 ± 5.3 points) compared with the placebo group (−4.7 ± 5.2 points; P < 0.001). Effect sizes (ALC 1.31 and placebo 0.85) represented a 0.65-fold improvement in ALC treatment efficacy. The mTCNS values for pain did not differ significantly between the two groups (P = 0.066), whereas the remaining 10 components of mTCNS showed significant improvement in the ALC group compared with the placebo group (P < 0.05 for all). Overall results of electrophysiological measurements were inconclusive, with significant improvement in individual measurements limited primarily to the ulnar and median nerves. Incidence of treatment-emergent adverse events was 51.2% in the ALC group, among which urinary tract infection (5.9%) and hyperlipidemia (7.9%) were most frequent. Article Highlights: The prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in adults with diabetes is ∼50%, with clinical manifestations of burning, tingling, pain, and progressive numbness. Carnitine insufficiency is associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes complications, and carnitine therapy reduces fasting plasma glucose and hemoglobin A1c concentrations. Adult patients with DPN were treated with acetyllevocarnitine hydrochloride (ALC) orally while receiving concomitant antidiabetic therapy, which resulted in improved modified Toronto clinical neuropathy scores. Dietary ALC supplementation provides at least some incremental improvement in DPN-related symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the properties and characteristics of the information structure in incomplete lattice-valued information system (ILIS), we redefine the information structure and the dependence and information distance between the two information structures. In addition, in order to evaluate the uncertainty of ILIS, the concepts of granular measure and entropy measure are expounded, including information granulation, information quantity, rough entropy and information entropy. Finally, we carry out numerical experiments to verify the feasibility of the method, and carry out effective statistical analysis. These results are conducive to the establishment of granular computing framework in ILIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photothermal immunotherapy can provide an efficient and convenient strategy for cancer treatment by inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD) to generate vaccine‐like functions in situ, which highly relies on suitable photothermal agents with superior photothermal effect. Herein, a novel diradical‐featured organic small‐molecule photothermal material (TTD‐TPE) based on 4,6‐di(2‐thienyl)thieno[3,4‐c][1,2,5]thiadiazole and tetraphenylethylene is developed to exhibit near‐infrared (NIR) absorption of 808 nm, high photothermal conversion efficiency (PTCE) of about 75%, and superior photoacoustic imaging (PAI) property in nanoparticle. The excellent photothermal effect of TTD‐TPE nanoparticles originates from the integrated synergic effect of D–A interactions, diradical character, and excited‐state intramolecular motion, which not only ablates the primary tumor by localized high temperature but also transforms the primary tumor into vaccine in situ through ICD to inhibit the growth of distant and metastatic tumors, demonstrating the huge potential in photothermal immunotherapy. Thus, this finding encourage researchers to develop superior organic small‐molecule photothermal materials to boost the simple but useful modality for cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To our knowledge, this is the first real‐world study to investigate the safety and effectiveness of a glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonist in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Materials and Methods: This prospective, observational, post‐marketing study conducted at 46 hospitals in China included adults with T2DM prescribed dulaglutide in routine clinical practice. The primary endpoint was the incidence of treatment‐emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and serious AEs in patients who received ≥1 dose of dulaglutide, for up to 24 weeks. Exploratory endpoints included changes in patient‐reported glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and body weight. Post hoc analyses and multivariate regression were also performed. Results: From 20 January 2020 to 24 November 2021, 3291 patients received dulaglutide and entered the safety analysis. TEAEs were reported in 1333 (40.5%) patients; the most commonly reported were nausea (n = 193, 5.9%), diarrhoea (n = 183, 5.6%) and decreased appetite (n = 179, 5.4%). serious AEs were reported in 160 (4.9%) patients. TEAEs led to treatment discontinuation in 212 (6.4%) patients. The mean absolute change in HbA1c from baseline to week 24 was −1.65% (p <.001). Greater reductions in HbA1c at week 24 were observed in patients with T2DM duration ≤5 years (p =.002), baseline HbA1c ≥8.5% (p <.001), and without atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (p =.002). The mean absolute change in body weight from baseline at week 24 was −2.62 kg (p <.001). Conclusion: Dulaglutide showed a safety profile consistent with previous reports and significantly reduced HbA1c in a real‐world setting. These findings support the clinical use of dulaglutide and inform the individualized treatment of patients with T2DM in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction mechanism between plasmas and electromagnetic waves has not been fully defined, and experiments are helpful for investigating the mechanism and verifying the theoretical analysis. This paper proposes a point-focusing lens antenna based on three-dimensional (3D) printing technology for the experimental study of the interaction between electromagnetic waves and a small-area plasma. First, CST simulation software was used for the simulation design of the horn antenna and focusing lens. Subsequently, 3D printing technology was used to print the lens combined with the horn antenna for experimental verification of the focusing performance. Finally, an electromagnetic wave passing through a plasma was experimentally investigated, and it was mutually verified with the propagation theory of electromagnetic waves in plasmas. The experimental and theoretical data indicated that the 3D-printed point-focusing lens antenna exhibited a good focusing effect on electromagnetic waves. This method may be used by employing a variety of materials and designs, thereby considerably improving the detection of small-area plasma. It may also solve the issue of the radial diffraction effect of narrow cylindrical plasma generated by inductively coupled plasma-generation equipment and reduce the error associated with experimental data. Therefore, this method may be useful for plasma propagation measurement, plasma-environment diffraction analysis, and parameter inversion of complex plasma environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are few large-scale studies evaluating the safety of the sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor, dapagliflozin, in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes. DONATE, a multicentre, single-arm, prospective, non-interventional study, is the first real-world study evaluating the safety of dapagliflozin in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes in routine clinical practice. Methods: Between August 2017 and July 2020, patients with type 2 diabetes who had initiated dapagliflozin therapy and received ≥1 dose were prospectively recruited from 88 hospitals in China. Patients were subsequently followed up for 24 weeks; if patients discontinued dapagliflozin they were followed up for an additional 7 days after treatment discontinuation. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with adverse events and serious adverse events, particularly key adverse events of special interest (AESI) including urinary tract infection, genital tract infection (typical symptoms with or without microbiological diagnosis) and hypoglycaemia (typical symptoms with or without blood glucose ≤3.9 mmol/L, or blood glucose ≤3.9 mmol/L without symptoms). Exploratory outcomes included the absolute change in metabolic parameters and the proportion of patients with other AESI including volume depletion, abnormal blood electrolytes, polyuria, renal impairment, diabetic ketoacidosis, hepatic impairment and haematuria. Results: A total of 3000 patients were enrolled, of whom 2990 (99.7%) were included in the safety analysis set. Mean (SD) age was 52.6 (12.0) years, and 65.8% of patients were male. Mean (SD) duration of type 2 diabetes at enrolment was 8.4 (7.1) years. Mean (SD) treatment duration of dapagliflozin was 209.1 (157.6) days. Adverse events were reported in 35.4% (n = 1059) of patients during the 24-week follow-up period. Overall, 9.0% (n = 268) were related to treatment and 6.2% (n = 186) were serious. Urinary tract infection, genital tract infection and hypoglycaemia were reported in 2.3% (n = 70), 1.3% (n = 39) and 1.1% (n = 32) of patients, respectively. The proportion of patients with other AESI was also low: polyuria (0.7%; n = 21), volume depletion (0.3%; n = 9), renal impairment (0.3%; n = 8), hepatic impairment (0.2%; n = 7), haematuria (0.2%; n = 6) and diabetic ketoacidosis (0.1%; n = 2). Conclusions: This study demonstrated that once-daily dapagliflozin was well tolerated in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes and the overall safety profile of dapagliflozin in clinical practice in China was consistent with that reported in clinical trials. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03156985. Registered on 16 May, 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve ship safety and increase ship concealment, we introduce a nonconvex regularization with a Cauchy-based penalty for discussing the influence of ship parameters and speckle noise in numerically simulated SAR images. First, the Kelvin wake geometry was modeled based on the classic theory of ship wave generation. Second, the scattering echo of the Kelvin wake was calculated using the two-scale method (TSM). Then, using the range-Doppler algorithm (RDA), the scattering echo data obtained by the TSM were processed to obtain the Kelvin wake in SAR images. Finally, the wake was reconstructed in the Radon domain using the Cauchy proximal splitting based on the forward–backward algorithm. The simulation results showed that Kelvin wakes were more easily detected in HH polarization with a large pitch angle and X-band, based on which the influence of ship parameters and speckle noise on the detection of ship wake in numerically simulated SAR images was discussed at different wind speeds. The research conclusions are of value to the development of ship wake stealth technology and the improvement of ship safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to probe the transformations that preserve capacities, their ergodicity and mixing behaviors. Firstly, definitions of different levels of mixing and ergodicity are introduced. Then attention is paid to continuous transformations on topological spaces with invariant capacities on Borel σ -algebra. The main results include that strong mixing implies ergodicity and weak mixing implies weak ergodicity. Moreover, limit properties of mixing capacity preserving dynamical systems and connections between a capacity preserving dynamical system and its product system are also discussed. The novelty of this study is that we present several topological characterizations of ergodic and mixing capacity preserving dynamical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dusty plasma environments, such as aircraft sheaths and rocket exhaust plumes, significantly affect the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves. In this study, the Mie theory and the dyadic Green method were used to calculate the Mie scattering cross section, Debye scattering cross section of the surrounding Debye cloud, and Mie–Debye coherence cross section formed by the two scattering fields. We propose that the Mie–Debye model should be regarded as a whole particle, and the dusty plasma can be simplified by assuming that it is composed of Mie–Debye spherical models of different densities. These assumptions were combined with the scattering characteristics of the microscopic Mie–Debye model and Monte Carlo method to analyze the propagation characteristics of EM waves in dusty plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cover image is based on the Original Article Retagliptin as add‐on therapy to metformin in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes inadequately controlled with metformin: A multicentre, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, phase 3 trial by Lixin Guo MD et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.15601..By Lixin Guo; Fengsheng Tian; Li Liu; Mingwei Chen; Chengxia Jiang; Shuangqing Li; Cong Liu; Yawei Zhang; Jie Qin; Dongni Yu; Yicen Zong and Wei DaiReported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, blockage effects on high-frequency antennas are studied and their influence on the voltage standing wave ratio, gain, and radiation patterns is analysed. By simulating different blockage effects, the relationship between the antenna and the size of the blockage is clarified. It finds that radiation patterns are usually affected more seriously than other coefficients. The impact on the pattern is greater if the size or height of the blockage is larger than half of the wavelength. Two methods relating to the modification of the angle and height of the antenna are proposed that can reduce the influence of blockage effects. These are verified using a simulation and one is further demonstrated using a practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: TRUST-CHN is a prospective, post-marketing safety study in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in China to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of dulaglutide in real-world clinical practice. We report here the study design and baseline characteristics of enrolled patients. Methods: The study design was described, and baseline data were analyzed, including demographic characteristics, T2DM duration, comorbidities, dulaglutide treatment patterns, and concomitant medications. Results: For the present analysis of this ongoing study, data were collected from January 2020 to November 2021. A total of 3313 patients were enrolled, of whom 3294 patients were included in the safety analysis. In total, 1047 patients had a prior history of dulaglutide use before being enrolled in the study. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of study subjects was 50.1 (13.2) years, 85.1% were aged < 65 years; 67.9% were male, and 35.9% had an education of university level or higher. Mean (SD) duration of T2DM was 6.4 (6.7) years. Baseline mean (SD) glycated hemoglobin was 8.8% (2.2%), and mean (SD) body mass index was 28.1 (4.1) kg/m2. A total of 2867 (87%) patients had at least one comorbidity, the most frequently reported of which were overweight/obesity (87.1%), hyperlipidemia (50.5%), hypertension (47.9%), diabetic neuropathy (18.9%), and coronary artery disease (15.7%). Almost all (99.7%) patients were treated with 1.5 mg dulaglutide; at baseline, 24.8% were treated with this medication as monotherapy and 75.2% in combination therapy with other medications, including metformin (42.3%), sodium glucose co-transporter2 inhibitor (26.7%), insulin (18.3%), α-glucosidase inhibitor (13.1%), sulfonylurea (5.3%), dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor (4.4%), glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (2.7%), and thiazolidinedione (2.4%). Conclusion: The present analysis revealed real-world baseline characteristics of patients with T2DM in China who use dulaglutide enrolled in TRUST-CHN. These data will enable further exploration of the characteristics of patients with T2DM in China and provide an insight on the current use of dulaglutide in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of high‐power vehicle‐mounted log periodic dipole antenna for 8‐22 MHz use was discussed. It is shown that the antenna has a power endurance of 150 kW. With the application of the coefficients variation method, the total size of the proposal was shrunk to 12 × 18 m so that it can be mounted on a vehicle of 10 m long by an elevation tower. The voltage standing wave ratio over the entire frequency band is lower than 2.0 without utilizing any match network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Preisendorfer and Mobley Monte Carlo model is a classical photon-rough sea surface interaction model that is used to study the reflectance and transmittance properties of the wind-driven sea surface. In this paper, we develop a computational framework and the implementation for parallel processing of this model by using Message Passing Interface. We then analyze the correspondence between serial and parallel results and the speedup of the proposed algorithm on a single personal computer and computers cluster. The results indicate that achieved speedup is slightly lower than the linear speedup, and the parallel efficiency is slowly decreased by increasing the number of processes. Compared to a serial code, the relative differences of irradiance are all lower than 2.5%, and the relative differences of radiance are below 2.5% for air-incident source and below 10% for underwater source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic photothermal materials have aroused more and more attentions, due to their unique merits of diverse structure, tunable property, and good biocompatibility. However, most of them suffered from complicated design and high cost in extending the molecular conjugation for long-wavelength absorption. Herein, we interestingly discovered a typical organic conjugated molecule, 4,6-di(2-thienyl)thieno[3,4-c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (T-TTD-T) with low molecular weight of only 306 g mol−1 and simple structure, to exhibit superior photothermal performance under aggregation. T-TTD-T with rigid and planar molecular skeleton was endowed with diradical feature and could aggregate closely in π-π stacking, extending the absorption to cover from 300 to 1000 nm for effective sunlight absorption and facilitating the high photothermal conversion efficiency of 65.5 % under 685 nm laser. On this basis, T-TTD-T was successfully applied in solar-driven water evaporation to obtain a considerable evaporation efficiency of 85.2 % and water evaporation rate of 1.2366 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sunlight irradiation. This finding would light up the enthusiasm in constructing high-efficiency but simple organic small-molecule photothermal materials. [Display omitted] • A diradical-featured organic small molecule with low molecular weight is synthesized. • The close π-π stacking enables broad absorption covering from 300 to 1000 nm. • Unexpected 65.5 % η PT for solar-driven water evaporation with high efficiency of 85.2 % under one sun is realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron density is one of the most important parameters for characterizing plasma properties, so obtaining accurate electron density is a prerequisite for studying the interaction between plasma and the electromagnetic waves. This paper presents the effects of different electron densities on the electric field distribution of a microstrip antenna with a center frequency of 2.45 GHz. Then, on the basis of the integrated model of plasma and the microstrip antenna, the Bayesian regularization neural network (BRNN) is used to retrieve the electron density of inhomogeneous plasma. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed approach is evaluated and analyzed by comparison with Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) and Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG) neural networks. The results show that the BRNN provides better performance than LM and SCG neural networks to retrieve plasma electron density based on the electric field intensity at fewer spatial positions. The accurate distribution of the electron density of inhomogeneous plasma can be obtained using BRNN. In addition, the greater the range variation of electron density, the greater the relative inversion error. This study provides an important theoretical basis for the diagnosis of electron density for inhomogeneous plasma in experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electromagnetic (EM) scattering properties of the chaff cloud in airflow are rarely addressed in previous works. To deal with this issue, two types of the chaff clouds in airflow are first established based on aerodynamics theories. Then, the K-means algorithm is utilized to divide the chaff cloud into several parts according to the elements’ number density. Meanwhile, the EM transmission property of each part is extracted with the help of the method-of-moments (MoM). Based on this, the vector radiative transfer (VRT) method is introduced to estimate the bistatic scattering coefficients of the established chaff clouds with 40 million elements, which takes into account the radiation pattern of the transmitting antenna and the EM coupling between chaff elements. To speed up the VRT program, parallel computing technologies are adopted. Besides, the verifications of the VRT method are proposed by performing simulations with a numerical method and conducting experiments. Comparative investigations indicate that the results predicted by the proposed VRT method have a good agreement with experimental ones with an error of less than 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rocket exhaust, as a source of the disturbance, provides a way to examine physical and chemical phenomena in the ionosphere. Since the disturbance morphological characteristics are closely related to rocket orbit, the ionospheric perturbation produced by the rocket exhaust considering the trajectory effect is simulated. The three-stage booster rocket trajectory is calculated, considering multi-stage thrust, aerodynamic drag, gravity and apparent force. Based on trajectory calculation and the electron density depletion theory of neutral gas injected into ionosphere, the exhaust is divided into a series of mass elements released at different time and different positions along the trajectory. The theory considers the charge exchange between the ambient O+ ions and the high-speed exhaust molecules (primarily H 2 O) in the exhaust plume. The simulation results show that the depletion structure restricted by the trajectory are dramatically different from the structure produced by a point source release, meaning that it no longer appears as an isotropic quasi-symmetric distribution, but the overall orientation of the depletion structure is consistent with the trajectory direction. Furthermore, the ray tracing technique is used to simulate the propagation of radio waves passing through the depletion structures. Due to the steepness of the depletion boundary and the difference in the shape of the boundary, the "focusing" effect of the rays which though the disturbance structure restricted by the trajectory disappear. These characteristics results can be an important reference for rocket detection and identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reason for communication blackout in hypersonic vehicles is strong interference from the plasma sheath on antenna radiation. This paper presents the calculation of the effects of a plasma sheath on microstrip antenna radiation using the ray tracing method, a method comprising an accurate and complex theoretical algorithm. Using an integrated model of a plasma sheath and microstrip antenna, the ray tracing method is used to obtain the disturbed electric field in the sheath with different parameters. This study reveals that the sensitivity of X-band antenna radiation to the alteration of plasma parameters is lower than that of C-band antenna radiation. These numerical results provide a reference guide for the design of antennas for use in hypersonic vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dust particles generated from the thermal protection layer greatly influence the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves in the plasma sheath. This paper presents the first calculation of the effects of these dust particles on microstrip antenna radiation. On the basis of an integrated model of the ablation plasma sheath and C-band microstrip antenna, the ray tracing method is used to obtain the disturbed electric field in a traditional plasma and a dusty plasma (with different dust parameters). The results show that the dust particles cause greater attenuation of incident waves, and different dust parameters have different effects on the penetrating electric field. This study reveals that the ablation of the thermal protection layer changes the electromagnetic properties of the plasma sheath, and the generated dust particles should not be ignored in the electromagnetic computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attenuation characteristics of obliquely incident electromagnetic (EM) wave in L-Ka frequency band in weakly ionized dusty plasma are analyzed based on the modified Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) collision model. According to the kinetic equation and the charging theory, the total complex dielectric constant of the weakly ionized dusty plasma is derived by considering that the minimum velocity of the electron accessible to the dust particle surface is non-zero and the second potential part of the collision cross-section contributes to the charging. The attenuation characteristics within the modified model are compared with those within the traditional model. The influence of the dusty plasma parameters and the incident angle of EM waves on the attenuation in weakly ionized dusty plasma is further analyzed. Finally, the influence of different reentry heights on the attenuation characteristics of the obliquely incident EM wave is discussed. The results show that the effect of the minimum electron velocity and the second term of the collision cross-section on the attenuation characteristics of EM waves cannot be ignored. When the dust density and dust radius are changed, the trends of the attenuation of obliquely incident EM waves are consistent, but the influence of dust density is weaker than that of dust radius due to the constraint of orbit-limited motion (OLM) theory. The plasma thickness, electron density, and incident angle are proportional to the attenuation amplitude of EM waves. The effect of different reentry heights on the attenuation obliquely incident EM waves is related to the electron density and plasma thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose a hybrid approach that combines machine learning and experimental design to efficiently and accurately predict the monostatic radar cross section (RCS) of a conducting target versus the incident angle. The approach is called physical optics-inspired support vector regression (POI-SVR). The design of its kernel function is inspired by PO. Uniform design (UD) and uniform design sampling (UDS) are introduced to obtain highly representative training samples. Numerical experiments dealing with simple and complex targets are carried out to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. The results show that our method can reduce the predictive root-mean-square error (RMSE) by 29.38%–64.78% compared with the alternative methods of combining a Gaussian SVR with the centrically located sampling (CLS), the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS), or the simple random sampling (SRS). Under the same sampling strategies (i.e., UD and UDS), POI-SVR can reduce the predictive RMSE by 11.30%–53.56% compared with the Gaussian SVR. The well-trained POI-SVR can predict the monostatic RCS of the target in any direction within 0.1 s, and in 20 000 directions within 10 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed whether comparative efficacy and safety of biphasic insulin aspart 30 (BIAsp 30) plus metformin versus BIAsp 30 monotherapy differed for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) inadequately controlled with oral antidiabetic drugs with different cardiovascular risk scores and different body mass indexes (BMI) by performing a post hoc analysis of the randomized controlled MERIT study. In the MERIT study, eligible patients were randomized 1:1 to receive BIAsp 30 plus metformin or BIAsp 30 for 16 weeks. Patients in the 2 treatment groups were classified into "low" and "high" risk subgroups based on their GloboRisk scores and into "BMI ≤ 26 kg/m2"and "BMI > 26 kg/m2" subgroups. Primary efficacy endpoint was between-treatments comparison of HbA1c changes from baseline for these 2 sets of subgroups. Between-treatments comparisons of secondary efficacy and safety endpoints were also performed. We found that BIAsp 30 plus metformin led to significantly higher percentage of high-risk patients achieving HbA1c target < 7% than BIAsp 30 monotherapy, with an overall comparable safety profile for high-risk patients. Meanwhile, for patients with BMI ≤ 26 kg/m2, compared with BIAsp 30 monotherapy, BIAsp 30 plus metformin led to significantly higher percentages of patients achieving HbA1c target (47.83% vs 28.17%, P = 0.0165) and composite target of HbA1c < 7% without hypoglycemia or weight gain (20.29% vs 6.85%, P = 0.0187) and have a slightly better safety profile. In conclusion, for T2DM patients at high CV risk or with BMI ≤ 26 kg/m2, BIAsp 30 plus metformin was preferable to BIAsp 30 monotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the application of vortex electromagnetic (EM) beams in practical detection scenes, the scattering characteristics of electrically large arbitrarily shaped targets illuminated by an off-axis Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) vortex beam are investigated and compared to the on-axis incidence case. The vector potential method is used to extract the electric and magnetic field components of the LG beam in different polarization states. The physical optics algorithm is adopted to calculate the scattering fields of four typical targets with the shape of a sphere, NASA almond, blunt cone, and blade model. The results revealed that as the beam center offset and the topological charge of the incident vortex beam increase, the scattering field distorts, and the obvious orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectrum mixing occurs. In addition, OAM spectrum aliasing occurs for asymmetric targets, even at on-axis incidence. These results elucidate the mechanism of vortex EM scattering and provide a reference for applying vortex beams for target detection and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a proposed high-resolution numerical simulation, a qualified development of ionospheric instability triggered by chemical release is first presented in this paper. First, the upwelling, pinching, penetrating, and bifurcating processes of artificial instability are overall produced with electron density patterns generated by using this model. This high-resolution simulation method is first used in artificial instability rather than similar previous work involving natural cases. The numerical method provides a clearer prospect on the development of artificially induced instability. Second, aside from the morphology, statistical characteristics of the electron density fluctuations are obtained and used to verify the effect of instability. The variance and the power spectral density (PSD) of artificial instability are first analyzed in detail by using data extracted from simulations. The empirical PSD of the generated natural irregularities yields Shkarofsky's spectrum, which is deemed to be the general spectrum of the ionospheric plasma. It is interesting that the PSD of artificially initiated electron density fluctuation is found to be in good agreement with Shkarofsky's spectrum. This consistency indicates the occurrence of irregularities in nonlinear simulation and applicability of the simulations to extended studies. Finally, as the electron density fluctuation shown in simulation varies along the altitude, the multiple phase screen (MPS) method is ready for scintillation calculation of the diagnostic radio propagation. Validity of the scintillation calculation by using the MPS reveals that the electron density predicted by instability simulation could be useful for further studies involving both natural and artificial instabilities in the ionosphere. It is shown that the high-resolution simulation model proposed could be useful for further studies involving both natural and artificial instabilities in the ionosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Gastrointestinal (GI) events are a common side effect of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (RA) class. This post hoc analysis assessed the characteristics of GI adverse events in Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) who were treated with once-weekly dulaglutide from two randomized clinical trials. Methods: Chinese patients with T2D, treated with once-weekly dulaglutide (1.5 mg and 0.75 mg) from two phase III multicenter trials (AWARD-CHN1 and AWARD-CHN2) were included. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data. The characteristics (incidence, severity, onset, duration, and time of occurrence) of GI adverse events reported through 26 weeks in a Chinese subpopulation from the two trials were investigated. Results: A total of 787 Chinese patients with T2D were included in this analysis. Up to week 26, 225 patients (28.6%) reported at least one GI treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE). The most frequently reported GI TEAEs were diarrhea (13.1%), nausea (6.6%), abdominal distension (6.4%), and vomiting (3.0%), with most being categorized as mild to moderate in severity in proportions of 92%, 88%, 94%, and 83%, respectively. A total of 12 patients (1.5%) discontinued the dulaglutide treatment as a result of GI TEAEs. The median duration of the first reported GI TEAEs was 4.0, 5.0, 12.5, and 4.0 days for diarrhea, nausea, abdominal distension, and vomiting, respectively. The incidence of GI TEAEs was more frequent during the first 2 weeks of dulaglutide treatment; however, the incidence declined rapidly after 2 weeks and remained low until week 26. Conclusions: Most of the GI TEAEs associated with once-weekly dulaglutide (1.5 mg and 0.75 mg) were mild to moderate in severity. The incidence of GI TEAEs was more pronounced during the first 2 weeks of dulaglutide treatment but declined rapidly as treatment continued, and was low at week 26, indicating that dulaglutide was well tolerated in Chinese patients with T2D. Trial Registration: NCT01648582 and NCT01644500. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accumulating amount of evidence has highlighted the important roles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) acting as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) in tumor pathogenesis. However, the roles of long non coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the lncRNA-related ceRNA network of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) still remain enigmatic. The current study aims to identify prognostic factors in the lncRNA-related ceRNA network of ICC. Methods: The transcriptome sequencing data of lncRNAs, messenger RNA (mRNA) and microRNA (miR) were downloaded from the SRA and TCGA databases. Differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs), DEmiRs and DEmRNAs were identified and adopted to construct an lncRNA-miR-mRNA ceRNA network. ICC-associated DEmRNAs were adopted to construct the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. The expression of the top 6 genes in the hub module was validated with mRNA transcriptome sequencing data and ICC-related gene expression dataset GSE45001, followed by GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. The relationship between the hub gene-associated ceRNA network and the overall survival of patients with ICC was predicted by conducting a Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. Results: Sixty co-expressed DEmRNAs were identified in the ceRNA network. The top 6 hub genes consisted of downregulated FOS, IGF2, FOXO1 and NTF3, upregulated IGF1R, and insignificantly downregulated HGF in ICC tissues, when compared to that of normal adjacent tissues, followed by the successful construction of lncRNA-miR-hub network consisting of 86 ceRNA modules. MME-AS1 and hsa-miR-182 were associated with overall survival in ICC patients. FOS, IGF1R, IGF2, FOXO1, and NTF3 might target "TGF-β signaling pathway", "the hedgehog signaling pathway", "retinol metabolism", or "type II diabetes mellitus" pathways respectively. Conclusion: These results indicate that FOS, IGF1R, IGF2, FOXO1, and NTF3 were useful prognostic factors in determining the prognosis of patients with ICC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of nonuniform moving plasma on the polarization properties of electromagnetic (EM) waves were theoretically studied. Taking the ${L}$ -band right-hand circularly polarized (RHCP) wave as an example, based on the nonuniform moving plasma slab moving perpendicularly to the incident wave, the relationship between the polarization properties of the transmitted wave and the normalized velocity of the nonuniform plasma slab was analyzed. The results indicate that the polarization state of the transmitted wave is closely related to the normalized velocity of the nonuniform plasma slab. When the plasma slab approaches to the incident wave, its influence on the polarization properties is greater than that away from the incident wave. In addition, when the change of the polarization state reaches the maximum, the corresponding normalized velocity is mainly determined by the incident angle and the collision frequency. Various interesting features regarding polarization properties were obtained. The results are very important for applications in space exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental results of the downshifted peak (DP) in stimulated electromagnetic emissions under two-pump wave ionospheric heating near the third electron gyroharmonic frequency are presented. The European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association heating antenna array was divided into two parts, one of which worked at constant pump wave frequency f 1 and the other part worked at varied pump wave frequency f 2 which was not larger than f 1. It was found that when the second pump wave was turned on at different frequency with f 1 , the f 1 DP power declined by more than 10 dB with respect to the background noise level, while the downshifted maximum belonging to f 1 was further enhanced. The time needed to reach a steady state for DP was shortened from approximately 10 s under cold background conditions belonging to f 1 , which was nearly consistent with growth time of small-scale artificially field-aligned irregularity (AFAI), to less than 1 s under the preconditioned heating belonging to f 2 with pre-existing AFAI. According to the difference in DP temporal evolution under two experimental conditions, it could be deduced that AFAI plays an important role in the DP generation process. Similar to single-pump wave heating, the frequency offset of DP decreases as f 2 increases toward the third electron gyroharmonic frequency. These experimental findings provide new insights into the theoretical study of ionospheric plasma nonlinearity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of weakly ionized dusty plasma on electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation was investigated to understand blackouts in communications during the reentry of hypersonic vehicles. Adopting the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) collision model and charging theory, the total complex dielectric constant of weakly ionized dusty plasma is derived considering solely: 1) a nonzero minimum velocity of the electron; 2) a contribution of the second term of the collision cross-section; and finally, 3) both 1) and 2) considered. Using the propagation matrix method, we analyzed the dielectric constant and propagation properties from our modified models and those of the traditional model for weakly ionized plasma with and without dust. The results show that, regarding EM waves, the dust-free weakly ionized plasma has a larger coefficient of reflection than weakly ionized dusty plasma. Simultaneous considering nonzero velocity and contribution of the second term of the collision cross-section significantly changed the dielectric constant and propagation properties, indicating the nonnegligible role of these two factors. Furthermore, the influence of dust size and concentration on the propagation properties of the EM wave was discussed with considering the two factors. The simulated results show that the coefficient of absorption increases and the coefficient of transmission decreases with increase in size and concentration of dust particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During reentry, the high temperatures experienced by near-space hypersonic vehicles result in surface ablation, generating ablative particles. These particles become part of a plasma, commonly referred to as a "dusty plasma sheath" in radar remote sensing. The dusty plasma model, integral in radar studies, involves extensive charge and dynamic interactions among dust particles. Previous derivations assumed that the dust particle radius significantly surpassed the Debye radius, leading to the neglect of dust radius effects. This study, however, explores scenarios where the dust particle radius is not markedly smaller than the Debye radius, thereby deducing the charging process of dusty plasma. The derived equations encompass the Debye radius, charging process, surface potential, and charging frequency, particularly considering larger dust particle radii. Comparative analysis of the dusty plasma model, both before and after modification, reveals improvements when dust particles approach or exceed the Debye length. In essence, our study provides essential equations for understanding dusty plasma under realistic conditions, offering potential advancements in predicting electromagnetic properties and behaviors, especially in scenarios where dust particles closely align with or surpass the Debye radius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we obtained the intensity and orbital angular momentum (OAM) spectral distribution of the scattering fields of vortex electromagnetic beams illuminating electrically large targets composed of different materials. We used the angular spectral decomposition method to decompose a vortex beam into plane waves in the spectral domain at different elevations and azimuths. We combined this method with the physical optics algorithm to calculate the scattering field distribution. The OAM spectra of the scattering field along different observation radii were analyzed using the spiral spectrum expansion method. The numerical results indicate that for beams with different parameters (such as polarization, topological charge, half-cone angle, and frequency) and targets with different characteristics (such as composition), the scattering field intensity distribution and OAM spectral characteristics varied considerably. When the beam parameters change, the results of scattering from different materials show similar changing trends. Compared with beams scattered by uncoated metal and dielectric targets, the scattering field of the coating target can better maintain the shape and OAM mode of beams from the incident field. The scattering characteristics of metal targets were the most sensitive to beam-parameter changes. The relationship between the beam parameters, target parameters, the scattering field intensity, and the OAM spectra of the scattering field was constructed, confirming that the spiral spectrum of the scattering field carries the target information. These findings can be used in remote sensing engineering to supplement existing radar imaging, laying the foundation for further identification of beam or target parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ionospheric delay effect is inevitable when a radio signal propagates through the ionosphere. It has been extensively studied in the L-band. Typically, the influence of the ionosphere on the code phase and carrier phase is regarded as the same. In this study, a numerical ratio between the group delay time and phase advance time with reference to the study of the L-band is investigated in the short-wave band. The variation in the numerical ratio with frequency, critical frequency, and elevation angle is discussed in detail. There appears an interesting phenomenon wherein the elevation angle has a greater effect on the ratio than the frequency and critical frequency. The numerical ratio increases with an increasing elevation angle. On the other hand, a regression analysis is used to establish the mapping relation between the ratio and the three factors of frequency, critical frequency, and elevation angle, based on the simulation results obtained by a ray-tracing algorithm. The little relative errors between the fitted values and simulation values under different ionospheric models prove the relationship between the ratio and the three factors of frequency, critical frequency, and elevation angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Beat wave (BW) high frequency (HF) ionospheric heating experiments were conducted to generate very low frequency (VLF) waves. The VLF waves were registered with a VLF receiver located ∼15 km east of the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) heating facility in Tromsø, Norway. A fluxgate magnetometer was used to monitor auroral electrojet current, and ionospheric conditions were measured using a Dynasonde. Correlation coefficients between VLF amplitudes and the deviation of geomagnetic north–south components were calculated. Experimental results show that strong and positive correlation exists the majority of the time, but sometimes no correlation or even a negative correlation occurred. This is consistent with similar past experiments that took place with exclusively AM generation. These results therefore support the conclusion that BW generation of VLF waves is no different than with AM, likely occurring in the D or lower E ionospheric region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Propagation model of radially polarized vortex beams in atmospheric turbulence is established. • A radially polarized vortex beam can reduce beam spreading and wander effects in the atmosphere. • Polarization modulation can be an approach to mitigate turbulent effects on OAM-based systems. Abstract Adopting a vortex beam with poor coherence can reduce turbulence-induced beam spreading and wander effects in the atmosphere, but it intensifies the degradation rate of its beam profile from a doughnut shape into a Gaussian shape. Transmission quality of Orbital–angular–momentum (OAM) mode carried by a vortex beam is closely related to its evolution of intensity distribution. After appropriate polarization modulation, a radially polarized vortex beam has a better performance on the reduction of beam spreading and wander effects than its scalar counterpart. A radially polarized vortex beam can also lower the degradation rate of its beam profile and keep "OAM information" a longer distance. Therefore, appropriate polarization modulation can be an effective approach to mitigate the adverse turbulent effects on OAM-based systems operated in the atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-domain physical optics (TDPO) contour integral representations are developed for backscattered near fields from a perfectly conducting surface illuminated by a dipole source. The proposed representations are derived from the TDPO surface integral representations by introducing two theorems: surface gradient and surface divergence theorems. The proposed representations are free from singularities for all the source/observer positions in which the dipole antenna is located. In addition, the time-domain physical theory of diffraction is introduced to modify the physical optical field considering the effect of the edge diffraction. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene-like carbon films have been fabricated by annealing carbide-derived carbons on 6H-SiC (000 1 ¯ ) at lower temperature in Ar ambience. Those films show a moderate interaction with substrates and an ordered stacking along c-axis and exhibit the same Raman spectra as that of epitaxial graphene on SiC. This carbon film growth process developed here will provide a new approach to obtain graphene epitaxially grown on SiC substrate at lower cost compared with the traditional access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • FSF occurred more often after midnight. • RSF and scintillation appeared mainly during pre-midnight. • FSF occurrence rates mostly appeared during the summer months. • RSF and scintillation occurred mostly in the equinoctial months at low-latitudes. • Scintillation occurrence was usually associated with the appearance of RSF. Abstract The spread-F echo of ionograms and scintillation of satellite signal propagation along the Earth-space path are two typical phenomena induced by ionospheric irregularities. In this study, we obtained spread-F data from HF (high frequency) digital ionosonde and scintillation index (S4) data from L-band and UHF receivers at low- and mid-latitudes in China during the 24th solar cycle. These four sites were located at Haikou (HK) (20°N, 110.34°E), Kunming (KM) (25.64°N, 103.72°E), Qingdao (QD) (36.24°N, 120.42°E), and Manzhouli (MZL) (49.56°N, 117.52°E). We used these data to investigate spread-F and scintillation occurrence percentages and variations with local time, season, latitude and solar activity. A comparative study of spread-F and scintillation occurrence rates has been made. The main conclusions are as follows: (a) FSF occurred mostly during post-midnight, while RSF and scintillation appeared mainly during pre-midnight at HK and KM; (b) FSF occurrence rates were larger at QD and MZL than expected; (c) the FSF occurrence percentages were anti-correlated with solar activity at HK and KM; meanwhile RSF and scintillation occurrence rates increased with the increase of solar activity at this two sites; (d) the highest FSF occurrence rates mostly appeared during the summer months, while RSF and scintillation occurred mostly in the equinoctial months at HK and KM; (e) the scintillation occurrence was usually associated with the appearance of RSF, probably due to a different physical mechanism comparing with FSF. Some of these results verified the conclusions of previous papers, whereas some show slight difference. These results are important in understanding ionospheric irregularities variations characteristic at low- and mid-latitudes in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To confirm non‐inferiority of biphasic insulin aspart 30 (BIAsp 30) plus metformin to BIAsp 30 in lowering glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) in Chinese patients with inadequately controlled type 2 diabetes using oral antidiabetic drugs. Materials and methods: In this 16‐week, prospective, randomized, open‐label, multicentre, parallel‐controlled study, patients aged 18‐79 years with HbA1c ≥7% were randomized to BIAsp 30 plus metformin (n = 130) or BIAsp 30 (n = 127). Initially, 500 mg metformin was administered twice daily and BIAsp 30 was administered at 0.2‐0.3 U/kg/d. Changes in HbA1c % from baseline to week 16 as well as secondary and safety endpoints were assessed. Results: In total, 83.66% of patients in the BIAsp 30 plus metformin (n = 110) and the BIAsp 30 (n = 105) groups completed the study. Mean (±standard deviation) change in HbA1c from baseline to endpoint was −1.74 ± 1.64% and −1.32 ± 2.05% with BIAsp 30 plus metformin and BIAsp 30, respectively. Least squares mean treatment difference was −0.67% (95% CI, −1.06; −0.28). The upper limit of the 95% CI was <0.4 (non‐inferiority margin). A significantly higher proportion of individuals reached HbA1c <7% with BIAsp 30 plus metformin than with BIAsp 30 (53.15% vs 35.19%; P = 0.0074). At endpoint, daily BIAsp 30 dose (P < 0.001) and weight gain were significantly lower (P < 0.05) in the BIAsp 30 plus metformin group compared with the BIAsp 30 group. No between‐group differences in number of hypoglycaemic events were observed. Conclusion: BIAsp 30 plus metformin was non‐inferior to BIAsp 30 in safely reducing HbA1c in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle running state adaptive unscented Kalman filter soft-sensing algorithm is put forward in this paper based on traditional UKF which can estimate vehicle running state parameters and suboptimal Sage-Husa noise estimator which can effectively solve the problem of noises varying with time. Meanwhile 3-DOF dynamic model of vehicle and HSRI tire model are established. So vehicle running state can be accurately estimated by fusing the low-cost measurement information of longitudinal and lateral acceleration and handwheel steering angle. Under the typical working condition, AUKF soft-sensing algorithm is verified with substantial vehicle tests. Comparing with UKF soft-sensing algorithm, the result indicates AUKF soft-sensing algorithm has a good performance in robustness and is able to realize the effective estimation of vehicle running state more precisely than UKF soft-sensing algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical expressions of average intensity and long-term beam width for a radially polarized multi-Gaussian Schell-model (MGSM) beam in anisotropic atmospheric turbulence are developed based on the extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. The influences of anisotropic non-Kolmogorov turbulence and source parameters on the average intensity, polarization and long-term beam spreading of radially polarized MGSM beam are examined in detail. The source correlations, free-space diffraction and turbulent effect jointly affect both the intensity and polarization profiles of the beam propagated in the atmosphere. As a radially polarized MGSM beam propagates in the atmosphere, increasing the associated beam order can lower the evolution rate from its flat-topped beam profile into a Gaussian beam profile because of the turbulent effect. Variations in the average intensity and long-term beam width are closely related to the propagation distance, power spectrum index, inner-scale, initial spatial coherence, and beam width. The atmospheric turbulence-induced beam spreading is generally suppressed with the enhanced anisotropy coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model coupling Maxwell’s equations with electron fluid equations is used to simulate air and SF6 breakdown at high pressure by microwaves radiated from a circular waveguide. The modeling for microwaves radiated from a circular waveguide is validated by comparing its results with those from the commercial software FEKO. Under a fixed initial growth rate of electron density in the maximum radiated field, the space and time evolution of electron density in SF6 breakdown is similar to that in air breakdown. However, SF6 plasma causes less change in the radiated field than air plasma. This is because the saturation electron density playing an important role in absorption and scattering by plasma is lower in SF6 than in air. The ratio of critical radiated power in SF6 to that in air increases as pulsewidth or gas pressure increases. The breakdown threshold from simulations as a function of pressure shows the same trend as the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]