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In recent years, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has emerged as a prevalent medical imaging technique, offering comprehensive anatomical and functional information. However, the MRI data acquisition process presents several challenges, including time-consuming procedures, prone motion artifacts, and hardware constraints. To address these limitations, this study proposes a novel method that leverages the power of generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generate multi-domain MRI images from a single input MRI image. Within this framework, two primary generator architectures, namely ResUnet and StarGANs generators, were incorporated. Furthermore, the networks were trained on multiple datasets, thereby augmenting the available data, and enabling the generation of images with diverse contrasts obtained from different datasets, given an input image from another dataset. Experimental evaluations conducted on the IXI and BraTS2020 datasets substantiate the efficacy of the proposed method compared to an existing method, as assessed through metrics such as Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Normalized Mean Absolute Error (NMAE). The synthesized images resulting from this method hold substantial potential as invaluable resources for medical professionals engaged in research, education, and clinical applications. Future research gears towards expanding experiments to larger datasets and encompassing the proposed approach to 3D images, enhancing medical diagnostics within practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to develop and validate the Salt Reduction Behavior Scale (SRBS) to measure the behavior of hypertensive Chinese individuals in adhering to salt reduction practices. Methods: The SRBS was constructed based on the Health Belief Model, consisting of five constructs: knowledge, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and cues to action. Data were collected from 2,082 hypertensive patients in Beijing, China, who completed a questionnaire administered through an online platform. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test was used to assess the adequacy of the sample and the Bartlett's test of sphericity to examine the factorability of the dataset. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to assess the structural validity and reliability of the SRBS. Results: The KMO analysis yielded a notably elevated value of 0.95, indicating that the data was highly suitable for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Bartlett's test of sphericity yielded a statistically significant test statistic (P < 0.001). The 32-item SRB questionnaire demonstrated strong internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.923. A second-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) revealed that, after removing the unrelated construct of barriers, SRB could be represented by four sub-constructs: knowledge, severity, benefits, and action. The final version of the SRBS consists of 21 items. These items displayed high factor loadings, indicating a strong relationship between the items and their respective sub-constructs. The discriminant validity analysis revealed that the SRBS sub-constructs were distinct from each other. The SRBS scores were positively correlated with self-reported salt reduction practices. This demonstrates that individuals with higher SRBS scores were more likely to engage in actual salt reduction behaviors, indicating concurrent validity. Conclusion: The results illustrate that the Salt Reduction Behavior Scale is a robust and comprehensive instrument for assessing salt reduction behavior among hypertensive Chinese individuals. The scale's specific sub-constructs provide a detailed understanding of their knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to salt consumption. Healthcare professionals and policymakers can utilize this tool to tailor interventions and educational programs to encourage healthier dietary habits, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twin-field quantum key distribution (TF-QKD) is known for its capacity of overcoming the fundamental rate-distance limit of QKD, and a variety of its variants have been derived. One of them, the phase-matching quantum key distribution (PM-QKD) not only inherits the high rate-distance capacity, but also outperforms the original TF-QKD. Moreover, the relatively less single-photon component of the most frequently used weak coherent source (WCS) makes it unable to meet the high-performance requirements of communication. In this paper, we propose a four-intensity decoy-state PM-QKD protocol based on heralded pair-coherent source to improve the secure key rate and the practicality. The simulations show that the secure key rate of our scheme is about an order of magnitude higher than that of four-intensity decoy-state PM-QKD protocol based on WCS. Meanwhile, the transmission distance is increased by more than 100 km. And the performance of our protocol has been greatly improved, in comparison with the better performance protocol known as 'new PM-QKD'. In addition, the proposed protocol also shows excellent performance when finite data size and statistical fluctuation are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divertor is one of the key plasma-facing components (PFCs) for Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) since they play important roles in resisting the energetic particle irradiation and huge heat deposition from the core plasma as well as efficaciously dispelling such energy load. Tungsten is used as the plasma-facing material for PFCs due to the excellent properties. During the thermal analysis and the high heat flux test of the PFCs, the heat absorption coefficient is an important parameter that directly affects the availability and reliability of the design structure. Previous studies have shown that there is a large deviation in the measured heat absorption coefficient of tungsten. Therefore, it is very important to accurately measure the heat absorption coefficient of tungsten. In this article, the heat absorption coefficient of tungsten was tested by the e-beam device of the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). In this test, 36 sets of inlet and outlet water temperature data were obtained by changing the water flow rate and the incident heat flux. The heat absorption coefficient of tungsten was calculated by the theoretical calculation using water calorimetry. The results indicate that the heat absorption coefficient of tungsten is stable at ~0.54, which can be used as a reference for the engineering design of PFCs of the upgraded EAST lower divertor. All test parameters for EAST will provide important reference and guidance to the next-generation fusion facility China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To determine the expression profiling and mechanism of thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP)/nucleotide-binding domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway in sciatic nerve (SN) of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rats. Methods. Ten out of the 35 healthy SD rats (specific pathogen free) purchased were randomized into the control group, while the others were established a T2DM model by feeding a high-fat and high-sugar diet plus laparoscopic injection of 1% streptozotocin (STZ). The successfully modeled rats were subgrouped into two arms: a DM group with 10 rats and a resveratrol- (RES-) treated DM intervention group with 11 rats. Normal saline to control and DM groups. Alterations in fasting blood glucose (FBG) and body weight (BW) at different time points after administration were observed. Sciatic nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) and mechanical pain threshold (MPT) were measured. TXNIP, NLRP3, caspase-1, and interleukin- (IL-) 1β levels in rat SN tissue were determined. Results. DM group rats showed higher FBG and lower BW than control rats at different time points (P < 0.05). The FBG of DM intervention group at 2, 4, and 6 weeks after administration was lower, and the BW at 4 and 6 weeks after dosing was higher than DM group. Higher MPT and SNCV were determined in DM intervention group versus DM group (P < 0.05). DM group rats had disordered, swollen, and dissolved SN myelin sheath structure; TXNIP inhibition led to a small amount of nerve myelin fragments and mild pathological changes. Lower TXNIP, NLRP3, caspase-1, and IL-1β protein levels were found in DM intervention group versus DM group (P < 0.05). Conclusion. The pathogenesis of peripheral neuropathy in T2DM rats may be linked to TXNIP/NLRP3 inflammasome pathway activation, indicating the potential of this pathway as a therapeutic target for diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a distortion-corrected integral imaging (II) 3D display system based on lens array holographic optical element (LAHOE). The LAHOE is used as a projection screen. The projection beam of the LAHOE is parallel light. Hence, the projection system consists of a spatial light modulator, a reverse projection lens, a relay optical element, and a telecentric lens. The acquired 3D data and the reconstructed 3D image of II are symmetrically related to each other. Therefore, there is lens distortion in the projection system. To avoid affecting the viewing experience of the viewers, the elemental image array (EIA) is projected obliquely on the LAHOE, causing the lateral distortion of the EIA. There is a position deviation in the projection system, so the projected EIA has geometric deformation. Due to the distortion of the EIA, it is difficult to precisely align the projected EIA and LAHOE, which results in serious flip of the reconstructed 3D images. The distortion of the EIA affects the asymmetry of the 3D image reconstruction. Lens distortion can be solved by the distortion compensation method. Lateral and the geometric deformation can be solved by the perspective transformations in computer graphics. After correction, the undistorted EIA is projected, and the projected EIA on the LAHOE has little distortion. In the process of 3D image reconstruction, the causes of asymmetry affecting 3D image reconstruction are analyzed, and the issues that generate these asymmetric factors are addressed. Experimental results indicate that a better 3D display effect is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a compact integral imaging 2D/3D compatible display based on a liquid crystal (LC) micro-lens array. The LC micro-lens array is combined with a polarisation switching layer (PSL) to realise the rapid switching of the polarisation direction, it's a micro-lens array under the y-polarised light, and it's equivalent to a flat glass under the x-polarised light. The proposed 2D/3D compatible display can be switched between the 2D and 3D display mode only by changing the voltage-driving states of the PSL. An LC material with high birefringence is utilised in the LC micro-lens array. Therefore, the fabricated LC micro-lens array has a short focal length. The LC micro-lens array has the advantages of high fill factor (square lens elements), large pitch, and it can be manufactured in large scale. In addition, the large pitch of the LC micro-lens array provides a large viewing angle for the reconstructed 3D image. An LC micro-lens array with a size of 45 mm×40 mm is fabricated and a compact integral imaging 2D/3D compatible display is developed, and the thickness of the integral imaging 2D/3D compatible display is only 13.48 mm. The structure of the proposed display is simple, compact, and easy to implement. Finally, the principle of the proposed 2D/3D compatible display is experimentally verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescent point-of-care (POC) sensors with specific target recognition capability through signaling mechanisms have promising applications in areas such as environmental monitoring and food detection. Herein, a solvent-free method was developed to prepare a novel POC sensor based on dual-luminescent CsPbBr 3 @EuAPO-5 composite that enabled the multiple sensing of tetracycline (TC) and temperature in a unique fluorescent-traffic-light manner. Benefiting from the confinement effect of EuAPO-5 zeolite, the CsPbBr 3 perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) exhibits extraordinary luminescent stability even soaking in water for 30 days. During TC detection, the effective absorbed energy transfer from TC to Eu3+ in EuAPO-5 zeolite through the antenna effect enhances the red emission of Eu3+, and meanwhile a internal filtering effect (IFE) between the TC molecule and CsPbBr 3 PQDs results in the green emission quenching of CsPbBr 3. Combining the colorimetric determination using a smartphone-based analysis application (APP), the CsPbBr 3 @EuAPO-5 can serve as a portable POC sensor for TC monitoring in aqueous solution with a low detection limit of 0.013 µM in a linear range of 0–140 µM. Besides, ratiometric temperature sensing behavior of CsPbBr 3 @EuAPO-5 for high temperature warning in a fluorescent-traffic-light manner was also achieved, boosting a high sensitivity of 27.63 % K-1 (at 383 K) and a temperature resolution greater than 0.0035 K in 293–383 K. This work provides a novel bifunctional CsPbBr 3 PQDs based sensor for reliable and visual detection of TC concentration and temperature, laying the foundation for the development of high-quality POC sensors with exceptional sensitivity and practicality. [Display omitted] • Ultrastable CsPbBr 3 PQDs in EuAPO-5 was developed as fluorescent-traffic-light sensor. • The composite shows point-of-care response towards tetracycline (TC) and temperature. • Smartphone installed color picker APP can be used for on-site real-time detection. • Low TC detection limit and high temperature sensitivity (27.63 % K-1) were achieved. • Mechanisms of the sensor for ratiometric sensing of TC and temperature were explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the increasing focus on strengthening One Health capacity building on global level, challenges remain in devising and implementing real-world interventions particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Recognizing these gaps, the One Health Action Commission (OHAC) was established as an academic community for One Health action with an emphasis on research agenda setting to identify actions for highest impact. Main text: This viewpoint describes the agenda of, and motivation for, the recently formed OHAC. Recognizing the urgent need for evidence to support the formulation of necessary action plans, OHAC advocates the adoption of both bottom-up and top-down approaches to identify the current gaps in combating zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance, addressing food safety, and to enhance capacity building for context-sensitive One Health implementation. Conclusions: By promoting broader engagement and connection of multidisciplinary stakeholders, OHAC envisions a collaborative global platform for the generation of innovative One Health knowledge, distilled practical experience and actionable policy advice, guided by strong ethical principles of One Health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Hard-soft dual-protected method was applied to prepare ultrastable CsPbBr 3 -TS@St-Dvb. • The method remarkably overcomes the shortcomings of single encapsulation strategy. • CsPbBr 3 -TS@St-Dvb shows high stability against heat, water, and UV light irradiation. • It also had high compatibility with polymer and suppressed anion exchange properties. • It can be used in WLED with wide color gamut of 120.0% NTSC and excellent stability. Instability of all-inorganic perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) driven by the inherent ionic nature poses a grand challenge towards their long-term stability in optoelectronic devices. Herein, we report the crafting of a highly stable dual-protected CsPbBr 3 perovskite nanocomposite by capitalizing on the encapsulation of a hydrophobic Styrene-Divinylbenzene (St-Dvb) copolymer grafted hierarchical titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) zeolite shell. Firstly, an optimal hot injection method was used to accommodate CsPbBr 3 PQDs into hierarchical TS-1 zeolite. After the modification of terminated Si-OH groups on the surface of TS-1 by phenyltriethoxysilane (PTES), a subsequent polymerization of St and Dvb was implemented using azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator to result in the highly emissive CsPbBr 3 -TS@St-Dvb nanocomposite, exhibiting outstanding luminescent stability against heat, polar solvents, and UV light irradiation. The as-prepared CsPbBr 3 -TS@St-Dvb nanocomposite also showed strongly suppressed anion exchange and high compatibility in polymer matrix, enabling improved applicability for versatile lighting and optical display applications. Ultimately, a white light-emitting diode (WLED) composed of green-emitting CsPbBr 3 -TS@St-Dvb and red-emitting K 2 SiF 6 :Mn4+ phosphor onto a commercial blue InGaN LED chip with wide color gamut and excellent stability is demonstrated. This work highlights a judiciously-designed and hard-soft dual-protected strategy to produce ultrastable perovskite nanomaterials with high brightness and durability for backlight display application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Chemokine is key coordinator of leukocyte trafficking in inflammation immune response. • Inflammatory responses and immune regulation are crucial functions of CCL21/CCR7 axis. • CCL21 and CCR7 are highly expressed on various cells in autoimmune diseases. • Blocking CCL21-CCR7 signaling can alleviate autoimmune disease progression. • CCL21/CCR7 axis is a potential therapeutic target for autoimmune diseases. Chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) is a G protein-coupled receptor containing 7 transmembrane domains that is expressed on various cells, such as naive T/B cells, central memory T cells, regulatory T cells, immature/mature dendritic cells (DCs), natural killer cells, and a minority of tumor cells. Chemokine ligand 21 (CCL21) is the known high-affinity ligand that binds to CCR7 and drives cell migration in tissues. CCL21 is mainly produced by stromal cells and lymphatic endothelial cells, and its expression is significantly increased under inflammatory conditions. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown a strong association between CCL21/CCR7 axis and disease severity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, polymyositis, ankylosing spondylitis, and asthma. Disrupting CCL21/CCR7 interaction with antibodies or inhibitors prevents the migration of CCR7-expressing immune and non-immune cells at the site of inflammation and reduces disease severity. This review emphasizes the importance of the CCL21 /CCR7 axis in autoimmune diseases and evaluates its potential as a novel therapeutic target for these conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Novel thermoelectric coupled sweeping gas membrane distillation (T-SGMD) hybrid. • Hybrid membrane distillation for decentralized water treatment, dehumidification and space cooling. • Latent heat cooling provides for water treatment simultaneously. • Impact of membrane area, cool air recycle and module orientation on T-SGMD efficiency. • Interplay among power consumption, space cooling capacity and condensate rate. Abstract The current concept for cooling the indoors is far from ideal with respect to the total energy consumed and waste discharged. A novel concept for improving the energy efficiency is proposed via hybridizing the heat pump with a membrane distillation (MD) unit for simultaneous space cooling and water treatment. MD is well-acknowledged for utilizing low-quality waste heat for water treatment, which makes it feasible for coupling with a heat pump to make use of both the hot and cold reservoirs of the pump. Accordingly, the objective of the current effort was to investigate via experiments the efficacy of a thermoelectric heat pump coupled with a sweep-gas MD system (T-SGMD) by measuring the cooling capacity, condensate production and power consumption. The results from this study can be extended to other heat pumps. Three key highlights emanated from this study. Firstly, condensate production per unit energy consumed can be doubled with the T-SGMD system relative to thermoelectric dehumidification alone. Secondly, cool air recycle affected the condensate flux the most without a drastic loss of cooling compared to other tested parameters during the operation of the T-SGMD. Lastly, the T-SGMD system was able to provide an increase in condensate produced per unit energy without a loss in cooling capacity per unit energy input. These advantages of coupling heat pumps with MD, leveraging on the current advancements in MD, is promising for a hybridized system for decentralized water treatment, dehumidification and space cooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the second of three papers that propose and study a new concept of mooring turbine generators with the aim of resolving key difficulties in realizing ocean current power generation. The concept of Cross-stream Active Mooring (CSAM) features a hydro sail system that allows deployment of generator turbines, from anchoring points on shore or on shallow seafloors, across current stream to access current core flowing over deep seas or over seabed not suitable for anchoring construction. The CSAM can increase system power capacity by changing horizontal positions of generator turbines to track meandering current core, and can also change system depth to avoid storms. New anchoring designs of improved efficiency and implementation methods for resolving seafloor geological issues in the Kuroshio off southeast Taiwan are also included. This second paper discusses conceptual design and construction of the tethers, mooring implementations and reduction of flow drag, mooring of power cable and design of linear array and 2D formation. Model tests were conducted to demonstrate and observe the feasibility of the basic concept and its stability. Formation stability under the influences of waves and other possible perturbations was analyzed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the stall mechanism of a transonic tandem rotor. The stall mechanism is found to be mainly affected by the tip leakage flow and ejection in the tip area. To quantify the strength of these two factors, ejection coefficient and tip leakage flow coefficient are defined. Basing on the two coefficients, the dimensionless mass flow ratio coefficient ( DMFR ) is further introduced to value the relative strength of the two factors above. If the DMFR is large, the tip flow fields of the front blade (FB) passage are dominated by the tip leakage flow, and stall first occurs on the FB. If the DMFR is small, the tip flow fields of the FB passage are dominated by ejection, and in this scenario, stall first occurs on the aft blade (AB). The DMFR is affected by the tip clearance of the FB and by the axial overlap. A large FB tip clearance and small axial overlap strengthens the tip leakage flow. Consequently, the DMFR is large. Conversely, a small FB tip clearance and large axial overlap enhances the ejection. Therefore, the DMFR is small. The changing of AB tip clearance has no significant effect on DMFR . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating volume of oily wastewater, particularly produced water, necessitates efficient means of treatment for the recovery of both the water and oil constituents. Towards this end, membrane distillation (MD) is a promising candidate. Unfortunately, studies on the MD of oil emulsions are scarce, in large part because of membrane pore-wetting issues, which undermines the separation of oil and water. An earlier experimental study has indicated that membrane pore-wetting is caused by the presence of surfactant (namely, SDS) and salt (namely, NaCl), rather than oil, but the mechanisms underlying the poor performance remains unknown. Therefore, in order to improve the feasibility of MD, this molecular dynamics study is targeted at revealing the complex interactions that are detrimental to MD performance. The interactions of the three key constituents in produced water (namely, surfactant, oil and salt) among themselves and with the membrane are studied. The worst membrane pore-wetting experimentally observed for feeds containing SDS and NaCl is because NaCl increased the SDS-PVDF affinity without decreasing the mobility of SDS, and thereby leads to decreased surface tension and the increased likelihood of exceeding the liquid entry pressure (LEP). Accordingly, in order to mitigate pore-wetting in the membrane distillation of such feeds, means towards reducing the surfactant-membrane affinity, rather than oil-membrane affinity, and surfactant mobility near the membrane are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays an important role in hair follicle morphogenesis and hair growth. Recently, low-level laser therapy (LLLT) was evaluated for stimulating hair growth in numerous clinical studies, in which 655-nm red light was found to be most effective and practical for stimulating hair growth. We evaluated whether 655-nm red light + light-emitting diode (LED) could promote human hair growth by activating Wnt/β-catenin signaling. An in vitro culture of human hair follicles (HFs) was irradiated with different intensities of 655-nm red light + LED, 21 h7 (an inhibitor of β-catenin), or both. Immunofluorescence staining was performed to assess the expression of β-catenin, GSK3β, p-GSK3β, and Lef1 in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling. The 655-nm red light + LED not only enhanced hair shaft elongation, but also reduced catagen transition in human hair follicle organ culture, with the greatest effectiveness observed at 5 min (0.839 J/cm2). Additionally, 655-nm red light + LED enhanced the expression of β-catenin, p-GSK3β, and Lef1, signaling molecules of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, in the hair matrix. Activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling is involved in hair growth-promoting effect of 655-nm red light and LED in vitro and therefore may serve as an alternative therapeutic option for alopecia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simultaneous removal of noise and preservation of the integrity of 3-D magnetic resonance (MR) images is a difficult and important task. In this paper, we consider characterizing MR images with 3-D operators, and present a novel 4-D transform-domain method termed ‘modified nonlocal tensor-SVD (MNL-tSVD)’ for MR image denoising. The proposed method is based on the grouping, hard-thresholding and aggregation paradigms, and can be viewed as a generalized nonlocal extension of tensor-SVD (t-SVD). By keeping MR images in its natural three-dimensional form, and collaboratively filtering similar patches, MNL-tSVD utilizes both the self-similarity property and 3-D structure of MR images to preserve more actual details and minimize the introduction of new artifacts. We show the adaptability of MNL-tSVD by incorporating it into a two-stage denoising strategy with a few adjustments. In addition, analysis of the relationship between MNL-tSVD and current the state-of-the-art 4-D transforms is given. Experimental comparisons over simulated and real brain data sets at different Rician noise levels show that MNL-tSVD can produce competitive performance compared with related approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Effective boron rejection is challenging, particularly in seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO). Fortunately, electrodialysis (ED) provides a feasible alternative. This study was targeted at a mechanistic understanding of the transfer of boron in ED by systematically evaluating the effects of the chief parameters of solution pH, salinity, boron concentration, current and membrane type. Diffusion and additional transfer are key mechanisms for boron transfer in ED, and the additional transfer is governed by convection for boric acid and migration for borate. Four key results are highlighted. Firstly, boric acid (i.e., at pH = 6.1) transfer was greater than borate (i.e., at pH = 10.8) transfer, giving the permeability and additional transfer coefficient of the former of respectively an order-of-magnitude and twofold that of the latter. Secondly, while changes in salt concentrations had negligible impact on boric acid flux, borate flux decreased with NaCl concentration due to increased competition with the chloride ions. Thirdly, boron permeability was greater for the RO membranes than the ion-exchange membranes (IEMs) due to different membrane properties, and boron permeability decreased with pH for both the RO membranes and IEMs due respectively to electrostatic repulsion and competition for charge carriers. Fourthly, the percentage of boric acid transferred decreased with current, which suggests enhanced boron rejection as current increased. Collectively, results indicate that ED is promising for boron removal, and is possibly more effective than RO in boron rejection both because of the different membrane properties and transfer mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the problem of extracting tensor object feature is studied and a very elegant solution, multilinear principal component analysis (MPCA), is proposed, which is motivated as a tool for tensor object dimension reduction and feature extraction by operating directly on the original tensor data. However, the original MPCA is an offline learning method and not suitable for processing online data since it generates the best projection matrices by learning on the whole training data set at once. In this study, we propose an online multilinear principal component analysis (OMPCA) algorithm and prove that the sequence generated by OMPCA converges to a stationary point of the total tensor scatter maximizing problem. Experiment results of an OMPCA-based support higher-order tensor machine for classification, show that OMPCA significantly lowers the time of dimension reduction with little sacrifice of recognition accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retention of ibuprofen by a nanofiltration membrane (Desal 5 DK) was studied, considering the influence of the different co-existing salt (namely, NaCl, Na 2 SO 4 , CaCl 2 ) with varying concentration (ionic strength from 10 to 100 mM). The result shows that the Desal 5 DK cannot reject the ibuprofen satisfactorily (highest retention rate approximated to be ca.40%) in absence of salt, which agrees with the strong solute-membrane attraction. On the other hand, the presence of salt differentiates the membrane performance. An enhanced permeability of ibuprofen is only found when Na 2 SO 4 is present, giving lowest retention rate compared with other cases (without salt and with chloride-induced salts). NaCl improves the ibuprofen retention in a moderate extent. Donnan exclusions of the anions and membrane charge screening may be involved for these two mixtures. CaCl 2 gives the highest retention of ibuprofen mainly due to the specific interaction of calcium and carboxyl group, and the lowest adsorption of ibuprofen on membrane as well as acceptable permeate flux. Further study is needed to better understand the influence of salt on such emerging pollutants retention by membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the mechanistic understanding for advancing the design and engineering of the membrane distillation (MD) modules, the objective of the current study was to investigate via both experiments and simulations the impact of (i) module orientation, (ii) module geometry, and (iii) an oily feed on the permeate flux and pore wetting propensity of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). Three module orientations and four feed channel geometries were investigated via experiments and simulations for oily feeds. Two key highlights emanated from this study. Firstly, module orientation mattered for DCMD, particularly in view of the formation of natural thermal convective currents and when the particle density of the particulate foulants varied. Particulate foulants with density much lesser and greater than water only deposited when the membrane was oriented respectively atop and beneath the feed. Secondly, the lack of consideration of convection currents, oil coalescence and the corresponding cake-enhanced temperature polarization in the simulations caused disagreement with the experimental results, which underscores the importance of these factors. This highlights that the optimization of MD modules particularly for treating oily feeds requires more mechanistic studies, especially in view of the thermal gradients, rather than relying on analogy with pressure-driven filtration processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MIL-100(Fe) is one of the important metal–organic frameworks due to its fascinating physicochemical properties. Generally, MIL-100(Fe) was synthesized under the conditions of adding HF and solvent. Here, we report that MIL-100(Fe) can be facilely synthesized without the addition of solvent and HF. More importantly, this approach can produce MIL-100(Fe) with a high yield of 93%. Additionally, the obtained MIL-100(Fe) exhibited good catalytic performance in the acetalization of benzaldehyde with methanol. This catalyst can still maintain the initial catalytic activity after five cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrodialysis is promising to treat saline solutions containing organic solutes. However, there is still a need for a model to describe the desalination performances according to the process parameters. In this work a phenomenological model is proposed based on the analysis of the different contributions to the mass transfer of salt, water, and organic compounds. Once the characteristic parameters are determined experimentally, it is possible to predict the salt and organic concentrations in both compartments according to the operating conditions. The methodology is illustrated for the evaluation of electrodialysis performances considering a case study, and the effect of the current and solution compositions are discussed. To remove a fixed salt quantity, a lower current gives a higher organic solute transfer due to a higher time dependent solute diffusion, the additional transfer, fixed by the quantity of charge, remaining constant. Regarding the influence of the inorganic salts, higher transfer of organics, like glucose, acetic acid or acetate, are observed with sulfate compared to chloride, while a contrary behavior is obtained with phenol. This model also permits to discuss the influence of possible pretreatments to change the pH or the salt composition in order to improve the electrodialysis performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membrane distillation (MD) is a promising means for high-purity separations like those needed for potable water. The benefits of MD have not been realized for the treatment of surface or ground water, whereby the presence of both humic acid and calcium are detrimental to other membrane-based processes. Accordingly, this study investigated the efficacy of MD in rejecting various contaminants, namely, ibuprofen, boron and arsenic, in the presence of typical feeds comprising humic acid, calcium chloride and sodium chloride. Feeds investigated ranged from DI water to synthetic feeds mimicking surface water to NEWater brine (i.e., reverse osmosis concentrate from a local wastewater treatment plant in Singapore). Results consistently indicate constant permeate fluxes and low conductivities throughout the experiments with varying concentrations of humic acid and calcium, along with varying pH values, which implies negligible membrane fouling and wetting. Also, complete rejections of boron and arsenic were achieved, while rejection of ibuprofen was approximately 90%. The detection of the non-volatile ibuprofen and humic acid in the permeate suggests some hydrophobic interactions with the membrane. Finally, a cost analysis was carried out to evaluate MD against the conventional nanofiltration (NF) process. Although MD is currently at a higher cost than NF, (i) the availability of improved membranes tailored for MD and low-cost heat would decrease costs to at least those of NF, and (ii) the performance of MD is superior in terms of sustained flux over prolonged periods, capable to treat feeds with higher concentrations of foulants, and better permeate quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membrane distillation (MD) is an emerging green technology, but very few reports are available on its use for treating oily feeds, despite produced water representing a significant source of oily wastewater. Accordingly, this study was targeted at understanding the primary impediments of oily water MD by systematically investigating the influence of the key components (namely, oil-in-water emulsion, surfactant and salt) in such feeds. When the feed contained all three components typical in produced water, the MD performance severely deteriorated in terms of permeate flux and quality. Interestingly, for feeds containing oil or SDS or NaCl alone, the MD performance was reasonable, which indicates each component on its own did not impact the MD process significantly. Furthermore, the performance was also reasonable when the feed contained oil and NaCl, and improved when the feed contained oil and SDS. The adverse impact on the MD process was thereby traced to the combined presence of SDS and NaCl. Even in the absence of oil, increasing the concentrations of SDS and NaCl in the feed progressively deteriorated the permeate flux and quality. Therefore, to use MD for treating oily feeds necessitates a pre-treatment step to remove or significantly dilute either the surfactant or the salt. More understanding of the interaction between NaCl and SDS via molecular dynamics simulations would be useful to not only provide information on the interaction strength but also on means to circumvent such issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bisphenol A (BPA) is shown to be the endocrine disruptor that induces reproductive dysfunction in male animals. In this study, we aim to probe the effects of BPA exposure on induction of autophagy in goat Sertoli Cells (gSCs), as well as the relationship between autophagy and apoptosis. Results indicated that exposure to BPA (100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 μM) decreased the cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner. Exposure of gSCs to 500 μM BPA for 12 h resulted in in vitro triggered loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Apoptosis with an increase in Bax:Bcl-2 ratio and higher rates of autophagy, such as autophagosome formation and increased expression of autophagy-related markers were also induced in gSCs exposed to 500 μM BPA. Furthermore, treatment with 350 nM Rapamycin (Rap, autophagy activator) alleviated a decrease in cell viability, intracellular ROS production, and reduction of ΔΨm, as well as decreasing apoptosis. Collectively, our results indicated that gSCs viability was disrupted after BPA treatment through affecting ROS production, mitochondrial membrane potential and inducing autophagy/apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We construct the variational characterizations of the tensor average rank and get an equivalent mathematical program with an equilibrium constraint for the least squares loss minimization problem regularized by tensor average rank and zero norm. • We propose an equivalent Lipschitz surrogate for the regularization problem by adding the equality constraint into the objective. • we design a convex algorithm with multi-stage to verify the efficiency of the proposed method. Numerical experiments are reported for simulation data and actual data to show the performance of the new method. This paper considers the least squares loss minimization problem regularized by tensor average rank and zero norm, to decompose the noisy observation into a low-rank tensor, a sparse tensor and a noise tensor. Due to the nonconvex and nonsmooth of the average rank and the zero norm of tensors, it is not easy to solve the problem directly. We construct the variational characterizations of the tensor average rank and the tensor zero norm, get an equivalent mathematical program with an equilibrium constraint, and then propose an equivalent Lipschitz surrogate for the regularization problem by adding the equality constraint into the objective. Moreover, we design a convex algorithm with multi-stage to verify the efficiency of the proposed method. Numerical experiments are reported for simulation data and actual data to show the performance of the new method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glacial debris flow is a common natural disaster, and its frequency has been increasing in recent years due to the continuous retreat of glaciers caused by global warming. To reduce the damage caused by glacial debris flows to human and physical properties, glacier susceptibility assessment analysis is needed. Most research efforts consider the effect of existing glacier area and ignore the effect of glacier ablation volume change. In this paper, we consider the impact of glacier ablation volume change to investigate the susceptibility of glacial debris flow. The susceptibility to mudslide was evaluated by taking the glacial mudslide-prone ditch of G318 Linzhi section of Sichuan-Tibet Highway as the research object. First, by using a simple band ratio method with manual correction, we produced a glacial mudslide remote sensing image dataset, and second, we proposed a deep-learning-based approach using a weight-optimized glacial mudslide semantic segmentation model for accurately and automatically mapping the boundaries of complex glacial mudslide-covered remote sensing images. Then, we calculated the ablation volume by the change in glacier elevation and ablation area from 2015 to 2020. Finally, glacial debris flow susceptibility was evaluated based on the entropy weight method and Topsis method with glacial melt volume in different watersheds as the main factor. The research results of this paper show that most of the evaluation indices of the model are above 90%, indicating that the model is reasonable for glacier boundary extraction, and remote sensing images and deep learning techniques can effectively assess the glacial debris flow susceptibility and provide support for future glacial debris flow disaster prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of Sterculia from Vietnam - S. konchurangensis - is described, illustrated, and compared with the similar S. lanceolata. S. konchurangensis differs from S. lanceolata by the length of the petiole (7.0-9.5 vs. 25-35 mm), shape of the leaf blade (obovate or elliptic vs. elliptic, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate), length of the leaf blade (6-8 vs. 9-20 cm), and length of the calyx lobe (11-12.5 vs. 4-6 mm). A diagnostic key of the 22 Sterculia species occurring in Vietnam is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrodialysis is a promising process to treat saline water containing organic solute. The desalination performances are fixed by the transfer of salts and organic solutes. On the contrary to the transfer of salts, few results were reported regarding that of organic compounds. This is the objective of this work to investigate the transfer of neutral organic solutes (acetic acid, phenol, glucose) through ion-exchange membranes, focusing on the influence of the salt (NaCl, MgCl 2 , Na 2 SO 4 ). Results show that the water transfer due to electroosmosis depends on the salt composition following the ion hydration. Two contributions, diffusion and convection, are pointed out for the transfer of organic solutes. Both are important and mainly fixed by steric effect. Concerning the influence of the ion hydration, reverse trends are found for both contributions. Decreasing diffusion flux is observed for increasing membrane counter-ion hydration showing the influence of the membrane structural properties. Increasing convection flux is observed for increasing ion hydration showing the influence of the solute hydration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a green route that zeolite X accreted with coal fly ash (FA) based geopolymer foam materials (FGX) was firstly proposed and applied for carbon dioxide (CO 2) adsorption. Zeolite X was synthesized in situ by partially transferring geopolymer gel (mainly N-A-S-H gel) in foamed geopolymer materials at hydrothermal environment. It was found that zeolite X directly crystallized on the pore walls and retained the basic pore framework of the geopolymer foam. The porous monolith-type material exhibited the bulk density as low as 400 kg/m3 and high compressive strength (3 MPa). Multigradient pores ranging from micro to macro and multi-crack distributions of FGX improved the mass transfer coefficient of the materials and allowed for packed bed CO 2 adsorption. Equilibrium adsorption experiments showed that the maximum theoretical adsorption capacities of FGX reached 7.91 mmol/g for CO 2 at 298.15 K. At the meantime, by investigating the CO 2 dynamic adsorption processes at different adsorbent quantities, flow rates, and ratios of CO 2 /N 2 , it was concluded that higher flow rates, ratios of CO 2 /N 2 , and lower adsorbent quantities were more conducive to increasing the dynamic CO 2 adsorption rate. Additionally, the composites exhibited good re-generation properties in five cyclic experiments (desorption loss <0.25%). This innovative material shows a very promising potential in CO 2 adsorption. [Display omitted] • In-situ synthesis of zeolite X in fly ash based geopolymer foam. • The hierarchical connectivity of the pores allows for packed bed CO 2 adsorption. • This material contributes to the co-processing of FA and CO 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-rank and sparse matrix separation problem, recovering a low-rank matrix and a sparse matrix from a small number of linear observations, has arisen in a broad set of applications. The desire for efficiency motivated the research on it, however, most of them focus on the nuclear norm plus ℓ 1 -norm minimization problem, which is a single convex relaxation of the low-rank and sparse matrix separation problem. This paper is devoted to investigate a multi-stage convex relaxation method to recover the low-rank and sparse components via solving a sequence of convex relaxations, while the first stage of the method includes the nuclear norm plus ℓ 1 -norm minimization problem. Numerical studies indicate that the multi-stage convex relaxation outperforms the one-stage convex relaxation, especially when observations are incomplete and noisy. We have also verified the efficiency of the proposed method by applying it to the static background extraction from surveillance video. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water transfer is an important aspect to be considered in electrodialysis since it fixes the performances of the process. It is due to electro-osmosis, i.e. the water carried by the migrating species and is thus related to their hydration. Few results were reported about the hydration number of solutes transferring through ion-exchange membranes. In this work, a methodology is proposed to calculate the hydration numbers of ions transferring through ion exchange membranes during electrodialysis. It is based on the experimental measurements of ion and water transfer under different conditions, like salt compositions and current. Salt hydration is first obtained, and then the hydration numbers of 4 transferring ions (Na + , Mg 2 + , Cl − , SO 4 2 − ) are calculated simultaneously. It is shown that these hydration numbers are constant, independent from the salt composition and current. The hydration number for monovalent ions is found to be lower than that of divalent ones, which is in agreement with the values of the hydration free energy. Further comparison with the reported values concerning the hydration of the same ions in solution shows that for monovalent ions the hydration numbers are close to those reported for the 1st hydration shell while much higher values are obtained for divalent ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support vector machine (SVM) is sensitive to outliers or noise in the training dataset. Fuzzy SVM (FSVM) and the bilateral-weighted FSVM (BW-FSVM) can partly overcome this shortcoming by assigning different fuzzy membership degrees to different training samples. However, it is a difficult task to set the fuzzy membership degrees of the training samples. To avoid setting fuzzy membership degrees, from the beginning of the BW-FSVM model, this paper outlines the construction of a bilateral-truncated-loss based robust SVM (BTL-RSVM) model for classification problems with noise. Based on its equivalent model, we theoretically analyze the reason why the robustness of BTL-RSVM is higher than that of SVM and BW-FSVM. To solve the proposed BTL-RSVM model, we propose an iterative algorithm based on the concave-convex procedure and the Newton-Armijo algorithm. A set of experiments is conducted on ten real world benchmark datasets to test the robustness of BTL-RSVM. The statistical tests of the experimental results indicate that compared with SVM, FSVM and BW-FSVM, the proposed BTL-RSVM can significantly reduce the effects of noise and provide superior robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Confinement of cesium lead halide nanocrystals in micro-mesoporous ZSM-5 was prepared. • The CsPbBr 3 -HSZ ZSM-5 composite can be used as a dual-mode optical thermometer. • It also showed water-stable latent fingerprint identification performances. • This work paves a way for design luminescent material through pore engineering method. All-inorganic perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) CsPbX 3 (X = Cl and Br) are expected a new generation of promising luminescent materials with narrow-band emissions, color-tunability, and high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs), but the instability towards humid environments and high temperatures restrict their practical applicability. In this work, a hierarchically structured zeolite (HSZ) of ZSM-5 (Si/Al = 50) featured micro-mesoporous cross-linked architecture was applied to encapsulate CsPbX 3 PQDs through a simple thermal diffusion strategy. The luminescence performances of CsPbX 3 PQDs hybridized ZSM-5 nanocomposites can be optimized in the hierarchical micro-mesoporous structures. Particularly, the CsPbBr 3 -HSZ ZSM-5 composite calcined at 700 °C exhibited highly water-stable luminescence performance with a full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 22 nm and a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY, 62%), maintaining 92% of the initial emission intensity even after 100 days of immersion in water. The highly water-resistant and stable luminescent performance of the composite was attributed to the interconnected micro-mesoporous network of HSZ ZSM-5, in which micropores provide a shielding wall to isolate the CsPbBr 3 PQDs from the external environment and mesopores help to promote the diffusivity of precursors towards the successful space-confinement of CsPbX 3 (X = Cl and Br) PQDs. The temperature-dependent fluorescence intensity and spectral shift characteristics of CsPbBr 3 -HSZ ZSM-5 composite afford its capacity acting as dual-mode optical thermometers, and the water-stable latent fingerprint identification has been also demonstrated by applying the CsPbBr 3 -HSZ ZSM-5 nanocomposite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic dual-function ligands targeting specific DNA sequences and histone-modifying enzymes were applied to achieve regulatory control over multi-gene networks in living cells. Unlike the broad array of targeting small molecules for histone deacetylases (HDACs), few modulators are known for histone acetyltransferases (HATs), which play a central role in transcriptional control. As a novel chemical approach to induce selective HAT-regulated genes, we conjugated a DNA-binding domain (DBD) 'I' to N-(4- chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-2-ethoxy-benzamide (CTB), an artificial HAT activator. In vitro enzyme activity assays and microarray studies were used to demonstrate that distinct functional small molecules could be transformed to have identical bioactivity when conjugated with a targeting DBD. This proof-of-concept synthetic strategy validates the switchable functions of HDACs and HATs in gene regulation and provides a molecular basis for developing versatile bioactive ligands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic dual-function ligands targeting specific DNA sequences and histone-modifying enzymes were applied to achieve regulatory control over multi-gene networks in living cells. Unlike the broad array of targeting small molecules for histone deacetylases (HDACs), few modulators are known for histone acetyltransferases (HATs), which play a central role in transcriptional control. As a novel chemical approach to induce selective HAT-regulated genes, we conjugated a DNA-binding domain (DBD) 'I' to N-(4- chloro-3-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-2-ethoxy-benzamide (CTB), an artificial HAT activator. In vitro enzyme activity assays and microarray studies were used to demonstrate that distinct functional small molecules could be transformed to have identical bioactivity when conjugated with a targeting DBD. This proof-of-concept synthetic strategy validates the switchable functions of HDACs and HATs in gene regulation and provides a molecular basis for developing versatile bioactive ligands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase(HsDHODH) isa flavin-dependent mitochondrial enzyme that has been certified asa potential therapeutic target for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritisand other autoimmune diseases. On the basis of lead compound 4, which was previously identified as potential HsDHODH inhibitor, a novel series of thiazole derivatives were designedand synthesized. The X-ray complex structures of the promising analogues 12and 33confirmed that these inhibitors bindat the putative ubiquinone binding tunnel and guided us to exploremore potent inhibitors, such as compounds 44, 46, and 47which showed double digit nanomolar activitiesof 26, 18, and 29 nM, respectively. Moreover, 44presentedconsiderable anti-inflammation effect in vivo and significantly alleviatedfoot swelling in a dose-dependent manner, which disclosed that thiazole-scaffoldanalogues can be developed into the drug candidates for the treatmentof rheumatoid arthritis by suppressing the bioactivity of HsDHODH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integral imaging (InIm) 3D displays provide realistic 3D images with comfortable viewing experiences. However, existing approaches struggle to achieve high spatial resolution reproduction without relying on temporal or spatial multiplexing methods, which increases system complexity. Although precise control approaches for voxel formation have been explored to address this challenge, the existing methods lack systematic analysis theories for identifying the key factors affecting spatial resolution. In this study, a novel analysis framework is proposed that uses a point spread function (PSF) to characterize voxel formation. An analytical model based on the obtained PSF is established to achieve an aliasing‐free display. This framework identifies optimization directions for improving the spatial resolution, specifically by reducing the Gaussian blur caused by wavefront aberration in the lens unit. A targeted optimization of a compound lens array is conducted to achieve precise control of voxel formation. In these experiments, an InIm 3D display system prototype that substantially outperforms conventional InIm 3D displays is developed. The prototype achieves a 74.6% reduction in the system PSF and a 29.85% reduction in voxel size, enabling aliasing‐free voxels and a 2.82 times higher resolution in the InIm 3D display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study proposes a new process for synthesis of alkali-activated materials (AAM)-supported analcime-C foam materials (AFs), utilizing a by-product of the lithium carbonate industry. This material has great application value as a bulk-type solid adsorbent. Characterization analyses show that the alkaline activator modulus greatly affects the crystallinity of analcime-C in AFs. Furthermore, the compressive strength, zeolite yield, and microstructure of AFs are significantly affected by the saturated steam parameters, including crystallization pressure, temperature, and time. The synthesized materials comprise pores of different sizes (micro to macro). They combine the functional micro-porosity of the analcime-C, the meso-porosity of the gel matrix, and the macro-porosity of the foamed AAM. The maximum compressive strength, density, total porosity, and Pb2+ adsorption capacity of AFs investigated in this study are 1.15 MPa, 350 kg/m3, 76.5%, and 69.3 mg/g Pb2+, respectively. Unlike many granular adsorbents, the bulk AFs adsorbent produced by this process is easy to recycle. In addition, it also contributes to the comprehensive utilization of a by-product of the lithium carbonate industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germ cell gene switch: The dynamic epigenome coordinates the timely genome‐wide transcriptional activation that governs interindividual diversity, for example, in germ cells, which differ from somatic cells through their ability to undergo meiosis. Now, an epigenetically active synthetic small molecule can trigger unusual activation of the typically conserved PIWI gene that regulates the meiotic process in a human somatic cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genschalter für Keimzellen: Das dynamische Epigenom koordiniert die genomweite transkriptionelle Aktivierung, die beispielsweise die interindividuelle Diversität in Keimzellen, die sich von somatischen Zellen durch ihre Fähigkeit zur meiotischen Teilung unterscheiden, steuert. Eine epigenetisch aktive, synthetische niedermolekulare Substanz kann jetzt die Aktivierung des PIWI ‐ Gens auslösen, das die Meiose in humanen somatischen Zellen reguliert. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of three different extraction methods, namely hydrodistillation, supercritical CO extraction (SCE) and hexane extraction on the yield, chemical composition and antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of lavender essential oil were investigated in this study. SCE produced a yield of 6.7 % (dry weight), which was comparable to that of solvent extraction (7.6 %), but significantly higher than that of hydrodistillation (4.6 %). The chemical composition of the oils showed considerable variations among the extraction methods, with linalool, linalyl acetate, camphor and borneol making up approximately 80 % of identified components in all extracts. Hexane extraction produced oils with the presence of waxes, colour pigments and albuminious materials with semi-solid consistency, while hydrodistillation extracts showed signs of thermal degradation. The SCE extracts had an aroma with the closest resemblance to the starting material, showing negligible thermal degradation, and exhibited significantly higher antioxidant activity than the hydrodistillation and hexane extracts. Oils produced by SCE and hydrodistillation had antimicrobial activities higher than hexane extracts. The results of this study demonstrate that SCE is a promising process for the extraction of lavender essential oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, unmixing methods based on nonnegative tensor factorization have played an important role in the decomposition of hyperspectral mixed pixels. According to the spatial prior knowledge, there are many regularizations designed to improve the performance of unmixing algorithms, such as the total variation (TV) regularization. However, these methods mostly ignore the similar characteristics among different spectral bands. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a group sparse regularization that uses the weighted constraint of the L 2 , 1 norm, which can not only explore the similar characteristics of the hyperspectral image in the spectral dimension, but also keep the data smooth characteristics in the spatial dimension. In summary, a non-negative tensor factorization framework based on weighted group sparsity constraint is proposed for hyperspectral images. In addition, an effective alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) algorithm is used to solve the algorithm proposed in this paper. Compared with the existing popular methods, experiments conducted on three real datasets fully demonstrate the effectiveness and advancement of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The LAHOE has the optical properties of a convex micro-lens array and a concave micro-lens array, at the same time. • The operating principle of the dual-side see-through integral imaging 3D display was analyzed. • The dual-side see-through integral imaging 3D display based on a LAHOE was developed. We propose a dual-side see-through integral imaging 3D display based on a lens array holographic optical element (LAHOE). The display system consists of two projectors and a LAHOE. The LAHOE is fabricated according to the theory of reflective volume holograms. An interference pattern is formed by a plane-wave beam and a spherical-wave array beam, and the interference pattern is recorded into a photopolymer material. Thus, the LAHOE is formed. When a reference beam is projected into the LAHOE, the wavefront of a convex micro-lens array is reconstructed. When a phase conjugation reference beam is projected into the LAHOE, the wavefront of a concave micro-lens array is reconstructed. So, the LAHOE possesses the optical properties of a convex micro-lens array and a concave micro-lens array. The proposed display is developed using integral imaging principle and it realizes dual-side see-through integral imaging 3D display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a KKT point of the linear semidefinite programming (SDP), we show that the nonsingularity of the B-subdifferential of Fischer-Burmeister (FB) nonsmooth system, the nonsingularity of Clarke's Jacobian of this system, and the primal and dual constraint nondegeneracies, are all equivalent. Also, each of these conditions is equivalent to the nonsingularity of Clarke's Jacobian of the smoothed counterpart of FB nonsmooth system, which particularly implies that the FB smoothing Newton method may attain the local quadratic convergence without strict complementarity assumption. We also report numerical results of the FB smoothing method for some benchmark problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A One Health approach has been increasingly mainstreamed by the international community, as it provides for holistic thinking in recognizing the close links and inter-dependence of the health of humans, animals and the environment. However, the dearth of real-world evidence has hampered application of a One Health approach in shaping policies and practice. This study proposes the development of a potential evaluation tool for One Health performance, in order to contribute to the scientific measurement of One Health approach and the identification of gaps where One Health capacity building is most urgently needed. Methods: We describe five steps towards a global One Health index (GOHI), including (i) framework formulation; (ii) indicator selection; (iii) database building; (iv) weight determination; and (v) GOHI scores calculation. A cell-like framework for GOHI is proposed, which comprises an external drivers index (EDI), an intrinsic drivers index (IDI) and a core drivers index (CDI). We construct the indicator scheme for GOHI based on this framework after multiple rounds of panel discussions with our expert advisory committee. A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process is adopted to determine the weights for each of the indicators. Results: The weighted indicator scheme of GOHI comprises three first-level indicators, 13 second-level indicators, and 57 third-level indicators. According to the pilot analysis based on the data from more than 200 countries/territories the GOHI scores overall are far from ideal (the highest score of 65.0 out of a maximum score of 100), and we found considerable variations among different countries/territories (31.8–65.0). The results from the pilot analysis are consistent with the results from a literature review, which suggests that a GOHI as a potential tool for the assessment of One Health performance might be feasible. Conclusions: GOHI—subject to rigorous validation—would represent the world's first evaluation tool that constructs the conceptual framework from a holistic perspective of One Health. Future application of GOHI might promote a common understanding of a strong One Health approach and provide reference for promoting effective measures to strengthen One Health capacity building. With further adaptations under various scenarios, GOHI, along with its technical protocols and databases, will be updated regularly to address current technical limitations, and capture new knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses critical discourse analysis to explore the role journalism plays in the discursive formation of nationalism in an event of global visibility that lay outside the daily news making routine-the coverage of the Beijing Olympics global torch relay by newspapers in China. Taking Fairclough's analysis framework, at the text level, I noted the construction of 'we' and 'they' identities in the representations of the supportive and antagonist people involved in events in the torch host cities. At the discourse level, I investigated the major strategies used by the journalists in the construction of nationalism beyond the borders of China, including meaning substitution discourses and multiple articulations of voices, reinforcing a unitary meaning of collective belonging to a nation. At the social practice level, this study looked at how nationwide attention and the global relevance of this event, with its particular connection to the controversy over Tibet, led to structural constraints and self-censorship of journalism practices in the construction of three levels of 'oneness' to understand Chinese nationalism-one China, one Chinese nation, and one world under China's leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine sex specific co-morbidity of migraine and its subtypes migraine without aura (MO) and migraine with aura (MA) with a number of common somatic diseases.Subjects and methods: In 2002, a questionnaire containing previously validated questions to diagnose migraine and its subtypes as well as questions regarding some somatic diseases was sent to 46,418 twins residing in Denmark and born between 1931 and 1982. The twins are representative of the whole Danish population and were used as such in the present study.Results: We found that 21, 23 and 12 conditions were co-morbid with migraine, MA and MO, respectively. Co-morbid diseases included previously documented diseases: asthma, epilepsy and stroke as well as new conditions: kidney stone, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. MA had more co-morbidities than MO and females more than males. Conclusions: Migraine occurs in 20—30% of several medical conditions. It should be diagnosed and treated along with the primary disease. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]