Search

Abstract The large-scale collapse of overlying strata in the gob directly affect the safe production of coal mines; they are also the major causes of geological disasters, such as ground cracks, surface subsidence, and ground collapse. In this paper, the movement and caved characteristics of overlying strata during coal seam excavation are studied by conducting a physical model experiment. Results show that overlying strata have different movement and caved laws during the initial, intermediate, and later mining stages. During the initial mining stage, overlying strata do not collapse, and the subsidence is extremely small. During the intermediate mining stage, overlying strata cave along the vertical direction, and caved height gradually increases. Large numbers of cavities, abscission layers, and fractures exist between caved strata. The fractured area gradually increases upward, and the subsidence increases considerably. During the later mining stage, overlying strata cave along the horizontal direction. The abscission layers between the caved strata of the central are compacted. The compacted area is surrounded by a fractured area. The compacted and fractured areas increase along the horizontal direction. The subsidence curves exhibit a horizontal variation. Overlying strata evolve from the self-equilibrium stage to the vertical collapse stage, and finally, the horizontal collapse stage. The fractured area changes from a no fractured area to a fractured area, increases vertically, and finally, increases horizontally. The subsidence curve changes from extremely small to large, and finally, changes horizontally.

Objective: To explore the feasibility of remotely obtaining complex information on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pulse conditions through voice signals. Methods: We used multi-label pulse conditions as the entry point and modeled and analyzed TCM pulse diagnosis by combining voice analysis and machine learning. Audio features were extracted from voice recordings in the TCM pulse condition dataset. The obtained features were combined with information from tongue and facial diagnoses. A multi-label pulse condition voice classification DNN model was built using 10-fold cross-validation, and the modeling methods were validated using publicly available datasets. Results: The analysis showed that the proposed method achieved an accuracy of 92.59% on the public dataset. The accuracies of the three single-label pulse manifestation models in the test set were 94.27%, 96.35%, and 95.39%. The absolute accuracy of the multi-label model was 92.74%. Conclusion: Voice data analysis may serve as a remote adjunct to the TCM diagnostic method for pulse condition assessment.

Eye movement patterns have become an essential element in modern approaches for identifying air traffic controller fatigue. By observing eye movements among various individuals and environments, researchers have discovered correlations with multiple physiological metrics and cognitive processing abilities. This study involved human-in-the-loop simulations to collect eye movement and fatigue data from air traffic controllers and students. The eye movements were classified into three main types: fixation, saccade, and blink. Statistical analyses were performed to determine the most important indicators. Using support vector machine and random forest models for training and prediction, it was found that the fixation characteristic is significantly important for monitoring air traffic controller fatigue. The implementation of this model has the potential to identify forthcoming instances of controller fatigue during their shifts, thereby helping to avert the possibility of unsafe situations.

Although schizophrenia patients exhibit structural abnormalities in the striatum, it remains largely unknown for the role of the striatum subregions in the treatment response of antipsychotic drugs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between the striatal subregions and improved clinical symptoms in first-episode drug-naïve (FEDN) schizophrenia. Forty-two FEDN schizophrenia patients and 29 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. At baseline, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used to assess the clinical symptoms of patients, MRI scanner was used to obtain anatomical images of patients and HCs. After 12-week stable doses of risperidone treatment, clinical symptoms were obtained in 38 patients and anatomical images in 26 patients. After 12 weeks of treatment, the left nucleus accumbens volume decreased, whereas the left pallidum volume increased in schizophrenia patients. The decreased left nucleus accumbens volume was positively correlated with cognitive factor improvement measured by PANSS. Intriguingly, greater left nucleus accumbens volume at baseline predicted greater cognitive improvements. Furthermore, the responders who had >50 % improvement in cognitive symptoms exhibited significantly greater baseline left nucleus accumbens volume compared to non-responders. The left striatum volume at baseline and after treatment predicted the cognitive improvements in FEDN schizophrenia, which could be a potential biomarker for the development of precision medicine approaches targeting cognitive function.

Abstract Background Assisted reproduction technology (ART) has advanced significantly, raising concerns regarding its impact on the secondary sex ratio (SSR), which is the sex ratio at birth in offspring. This study aimed to explore factors affecting SSR in singletons, singletons from twin gestation, and twins from twin gestation within the context of ART. Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on data from 8335 births involving 6,223 couples undergoing ART. Binary logistic regression assessed relationships between parental and embryonic factors and SSR in singletons and singletons from twin gestation. Multinomial logistic regression models were utilized to identify factors influencing SSR in twins from twin gestation. Results Secondary infertility (OR = 1.164, 95% CI: 1.009–1.342), advanced paternal age (OR = 1.261, 95% CI: 1.038–1.534), and blastocyst embryo transfer (OR = 1.339, 95% CI: 1.030–1.742) were associated with an increased SSR, while frozen embryo transfer (FET) showed a negative association with SSR (OR = 0.738, 95% CI: 0.597–0.912) in singletons. A longer duration of gonadotropin (Gn) usage reduced SSR in singletons (OR = 0.961, 95% CI: 0.932–0.990) and singletons from twin gestation (OR = 0.906, 95% CI: 0.838–0.980). In singletons from twin gestation, male-induced infertility (OR = 2.208, 95% CI: 1.120–4.348) and higher Gn dosage (OR = 1.250, 95% CI: 1.010–1.548) were significantly associated with an increased SSR. Women aged > 35 years and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) were associated with lower SSR (OR = 0.539, 95% CI: 0.293–0.990 and OR = 0.331, 95% CI: 0.158–0.690, respectively). In twins from twin gestation, paternal age exceeded maternal age (OR = 0.682, 95% CI: 0.492–0.945) and higher Gn dosage (OR = 0.837, 95% CI: 0.715–0.980) were associated with a higher proportion of male twins. Cleavage stage transfer (OR = 1.754, 95% CI: 1.133–2.716) resulted in a higher percentage of boy-girl twins compared to blastocyst transfer. Conclusion This study demonstrates the complex interplay of various factors in determining the SSR in ART, highlighting the importance of considering infertility type, paternal age, fertilization method, embryo transfer stage, and Gn use duration when assessing SSR. Nevertheless, further research with a large sample size is necessary to confirm and expand upon the findings of this study.

In the current situation of increasing demand for nuclear heat propulsion in various countries, the heat transfer characteristics of high temperature and high velocity fluid in the flow channel are particularly important for safe core operation and efficient heat transfer. In order to obtain the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the coolant channel of nuclear thermal propulsion reactor under normal and blocked flow conditions, the numerical method based on commercial CFD software is adopted. Researches by changing the inlet velocity of the coolant channel and the blocking forms of the circular pipe are carried out. The SST k-omega viscous model together with the pressure-based coupling algorithm, which have extraordinary applicability to the model, are adopted. The impulse which are vital to the performance of nuclear heat propulsion is analyzed.The calculation results indicate that with the increase of the inlet velocity, the coolant outlet impulse increases significantly; The heat transfer deteriorated gradually, and the wall temperature slightly increased; The closer to the center of the pipe the blockage occurred, the higher the pipe temperature became. The research methods and results can provide a reference for the study of the heat transfer characteristics of high temperature and high velocity hydrogen flow, and the heat transfer characteristics and transient simulation initiated by the blockage of the nuclear thermal propulsion reactor.

This study aimed to assess the effect of excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) before and after 28 weeks on the mode of delivery in women who attempted a trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC), stratified by pre-pregnancy BMI. A retrospective analysis of the outcomes of eligible women who attempted trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC) in a Chinese hospital from January 2016 to October 2022 was performed. GWG before and after 28 weeks was categorized as ‘excessive’ or ‘non-excessive’ based on the guideline of Institute of Medicine (IOM). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the effect of excessive GWG before and after 28 weeks on mode of delivery in women who underwent TOLAC, stratified by pre-pregnancy BMI. Of the 512 women who underwent term trial of labor, 71.1% achieved a vaginal birth. No correlation was found between excessive GWG before 28 weeks and the rate of vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC). Among women with or without excessive GWG before 28 weeks, excessive GWG after 28 weeks was significantly associated with a reduced rate of VBAC. When stratified by pre-pregnancy BMI, women who had excessive gestational weight gain after 28 weeks gestation had lower rates of VBAC than those who did not, regardless of being underweight, normal or overweight (aOR 0.23, 95% CI 0.06–0.88; aOR 0.42, 95% CI 0.25, 0.70; and aOR 0.12, 95% CI 0.04–0.36; respectively). Excessive weight gain after 28 weeks of pregnancy was related to decreased rates of VBAC, irrespective of pre-pregnancy weight status and weight gain before 28 weeks.

The material library is an emerging, new data-driven approach for developing pharmaceutical process models. How many materials or samples should be involved in a particular application scenario is unclear, and the impact of sample size on process modeling is worth discussing. In this work, the direct compression process was taken as the research object, and the effects of different sample sizes of material libraries on partial least squares (PLS) modeling in the prediction of tablet tensile strength were investigated. A primary material library comprising 45 materials was built. Then, material subsets containing 5 × i (i = 1, 2, 3, …, 8) materials were sampled from the primary material library. Each subset underwent sampling 1000 times to analyze variations in model fitting performance. Both hierarchical sampling and random sampling were employed and compared, with hierarchical sampling implemented with the help of the tabletability classification index d. For each subset, modeling data were organized, incorporating 18 physical properties and tableting pressure as the independent variables and tablet tensile strength as the dependent variable. A series of chemometric indicators was used to assess model performance and find important materials for model training. It was found that the minimum R2 and RMSE values reached their maximum, and the corresponding values were kept almost unchanged when the sample sizes varied from 20 to 45. When the sample size was smaller than 15, the hierarchical sampling method was more reliable in avoiding low-quality few-shot PLS models than the random sampling method. Two important materials were identified as useful for building an initial material library. Overall, this work demonstrated that as the number of materials increased, the model’s reliability improved. It also highlighted the potential for effective few-shot modeling on a small material library by controlling its information richness.

COL1A1–PDGFB gene fusion uterine sarcoma is an especially rare malignant mesenchymal tumor that was previously classified as an undifferentiated uterine sarcoma due to the lack of specific features of differentiation. Till now, only five cases have been reported, and here we presented another case recently diagnosed in a Chinese woman who had vaginal bleeding. She presented with a cervical mass at the anterior lip of the cervix invading the vagina and was treated with laparoscopic total hysterectomy plus bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (TH+BSO) and partial vaginal wall resection with the final pathology of COL1A1–PDGFB fusion uterine sarcoma. Our aim is to emphasize the importance of differential diagnosis of this rare tumor, as early precise diagnosis may allow patients to benefit from the targeted therapy imatinib. This article also serves as further clinical evidence of this disease, serving to increase clinical awareness of this rare sarcoma to avoid misdiagnosis.

Satellite remote sensing (RS) has been drawing considerable research interest in land-cover classification due to its low price, short revisit time, and large coverage. However, clouds pose a significant challenge, occluding the objects on satellite RS images. In addition, snow coverage mapping plays a vital role in studying hydrology and climatology and investigating crop disease overwintering for smart agriculture. Distinguishing snow from clouds is challenging since they share similar color and reflection characteristics. Conventional approaches with manual thresholding and machine learning algorithms (e.g., SVM and Random Forest) could not fully extract useful information, while current deep-learning methods, e.g., CNNs or Transformer models, still have limitations in fully exploiting abundant spatial/spectral information of RS images. Therefore, this work aims to develop an efficient snow and cloud classification algorithm using satellite multispectral RS images. In particular, we propose an innovative algorithm entitled UCTNet by adopting a dual-flow structure to integrate information extracted via Transformer and CNN branches. Particularly, CNN and Transformer integration Module (CTIM) is designed to maximally integrate the information extracted via two branches. Meanwhile, Final Information Fusion Module and Auxiliary Information Fusion Head are designed for better performance. The four-band satellite multispectral RS dataset for snow coverage mapping is adopted for performance evaluation. Compared with previous methods (e.g., U-Net, Swin, and CSDNet), the experimental results show that the proposed UCTNet achieves the best performance in terms of accuracy (95.72%) and mean IoU score (91.21%) while with the smallest model size (3.93 M). The confirmed efficiency of UCTNet shows great potential for dual-flow architecture on snow and cloud classification.

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the effect of integrating routine treatment with Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) intervention on the clinical symptom of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) from clinical and neurological perspectives.MethodsTwenty patients with COPD were recruited for regular treatment combined with 8-week TCC rehabilitative practice. Clinical symptoms were evaluated by Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Symptom Assessment Scale (CAT) and Modified Dyspnea Scale (mMRC) at baseline and after treatment. Resting-state MRI scan was also performed with multiline T2-weighted echo-planar imaging (EPI) to acquire their functional images before and after the treatment. TCC rehabilitation involved a total of 8 weeks of practice with 90 min per session, three times a week.ResultsAfter an 8-week integration routine treatment with TCC practice, the patient’s clinical symptoms improved significantly. Imaging analysis showed that COPD patients exhibited decreased Degree of Centrality (DC) in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), right middle frontal gyrus, bilateral cingulate cortex, bilateral precuneus, and right precentral gyrus. Moreover, correlation analysis found that the decreased DC in the right IFG was positively correlated with the CAT improvements.ConclusionThe routine treatment involving TCC rehabilitation practice could improve the clinical symptoms of patients with COPD. The right IFG might be a key brain region to contribute to the neural mechanism underlying integrative intervention on the clinical symptoms in COPD. These findings provide neurological evidence for treating COPD rehabilitation practice with mind-body practice based on Chinese culture to some extent, which also advances the understanding of the efficacy of TCC as the adjuvant technology from a neuroscience perspective.Clinical Trial Registration:[http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=45189], identifier [ChiCTR1900028335].

Objective: The aim of the study was to analyze the clinicopathologic features, the survival rate, and the prognostic factors of women with unexpected primary fallopian tube carcinoma diagnosed during gynecological operations. Materials and methods: We reviewed medical records of patients with unexpected primary fallopian tube carcinoma at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University between January 2004 to December 2017. The survival analysis was based on the Kaplan–Meier method, and the results were compared using the log-rank test. Cox regression analysis was used to determine factors affecting survival. Results: Sixty-seven patients with unexpected primary fallopian tube carcinoma were identified. The 5-year overall survival was 49.7%, the mean overall survival was 64 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 54–74], and the median overall survival was 59 months (95% CI 49–69). The mean follow-up time was 53.9 months (range 5–141 months). The most common clinical presentation was adnexal mass (38.8%), followed by vaginal bleeding (16.4%) and no specific symptom (13.4%). Cytoreductive surgery was performed initially in 57 (85.1%) patients. Residual disease was optimal in 56 (83.6%) patients and suboptimal in 11 (16.4%) patients. The histological subtype was predominantly the serous type (88.1%). 44 patients (65.7%) were diagnosed at Stage I/II postoperatively. 23 (34.3%) patients were in Stage III/IV. 51 patients (76.1%) had gone through laparoscopic surgery, 16 patients (23.9%) were performed laparotomy. Univariate analyses on overall survival revealed that only the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO)stage [p

The thickness effect on ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared (UV–Vis-NIR) light absorption of Mo-modified tin oxide (SnO2) thin films is investigated by the first principle calculation based on the density functional theory. The electronic structures and optical properties of the pristine, defective, Mo-doped and Mon (n = 1, 2, 3, 4) cluster adsorbed SnO2 (110) surfaces with film thickness from 0.594 to 3.273 nm are discussed. The results show that the pristine SnO2 semiconductor thin films can hardly absorb the Vis-NIR light. The absorption peaks in the Vis-NIR light region of the defective SnO2 (110) surface increase with the film thickness. The Vis-NIR light absorption of SnO2 is significantly enhanced by Mo modification. Mon cluster adsorption on SnO2 makes the greatest enhancement in Vis-NIR light absorption. The surface modification of Mo is concluded to be a promising route for SnO2 semiconductor thin film as a photocatalyst under Vis-NIR light irradiation.

Anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/PD-ligand-1 (PD-L1) treatments are effective in a fraction of patients with advanced malignancies. However, the majority of patients do not respond to it. Resistance to cancer immunotherapy can be mediated by additional immune checkpoints. We hypothesized that co-targeting of PD-L1 and lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (LAG-3) could provide an alternative therapeutic approach. Here, we developed IBI323, a dual blockade bispecific antibody targeting PD-L1 and LAG-3. We assessed the binding affinity, blocking activity, cell bridging effect, and immunomodulation function of IBI323 using in vitro assays. We also evaluated, in two humanized mouse models, anti-tumor effects and antitumor T cell immunity induced by IBI323. IBI323 bound to PD-L1 and LAG-3 with similar potency as its parental antibodies and blocked the interaction of PD-1/PD-L1, CD80/PD-L1, and LAG-3/MHC-II. Moreover, IBI323 mediated the bridging of PD-L1+ cells and LAG-3+ cells and demonstrated superior immune stimulatory activity compared to each parent antibody in mixed leukocyte reaction. In PD-L1/LAG-3 double knock-in mice bearing human PD-L1 knock-in MC38 tumors, IBI323 showed stronger anti-tumor activity compared to each parental antibody. The better antitumor response correlated with increased tumor-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells. IBI323 also induced stronger anti-tumor effect against established A375 tumors compared with combination in mice reconstituted with human immune cells. Collectively, these data demonstrated that IBI323 preserved the blockade activities of parental antibodies while processing a novel cell bridging function. Based on the encouraging preclinical results, IBI323 has significant value in further clinical development.