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The development of solid-state zinc–air batteries (SZABs) has stimulated significant interest. However, the practical use of SZABs still encounters difficulties due to the complicated preparation process and low-performance air cathode. In this study, we developed a free-standing CoNi/graphene composite cathode without current collectors and binders. The simplified cathode structure decreased the preparation process, and the self-assembled conductive matrix increased charge transfer, which holds promise for facile preparation and high-performance SZABs. Specifically, a free-standing CoNi/graphene film was fabricated by a simple composition method. The CoNi/graphene electrocatalyst exhibited comparable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalytic activity to that of Pt/C. Furthermore, the CoNi/graphene film could be directly used as a cathode, which showed an open-circuit voltage of 1.41 V and a power density of 210 mW cm−2 in alkaline liquid ZABs, as well as an open-circuit voltage of 1.43 V and a power density of 40 mW cm−2 in alkaline SZABs. This facile preparation and excellent performance offer substantial potential for practical SZAB applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) studies aim to understand the influence of genetic variants on gene expression. The colocalization of eQTL mapping and GWAS strategy could help identify essential candidate genes and causal DNA variants vital to complex traits in human and many farm animals. However, eQTL mapping has not been conducted in ducks. It is desirable to know whether eQTLs within GWAS signals contributed to duck economic traits. Results: In this study, we conducted an eQTL analysis using publicly available RNA sequencing data from 820 samples, focusing on liver, muscle, blood, adipose, ovary, spleen, and lung tissues. We identified 113,374 cis-eQTLs for 12,266 genes, a substantial fraction 39.1% of which were discovered in at least two tissues. The cis-eQTLs of blood were less conserved across tissues, while cis-eQTLs from any tissue exhibit a strong sharing pattern to liver tissue. Colocalization between cis-eQTLs and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of 50 traits uncovered new associations between gene expression and potential loci influencing growth and carcass traits. SRSF4, GSS, and IGF2BP1 in liver, NDUFC2 in muscle, ELF3 in adipose, and RUNDC1 in blood could serve as the candidate genes for duck growth and carcass traits. Conclusions: Our findings highlight substantial differences in genetic regulation of gene expression across duck primary tissues, shedding light on potential mechanisms through which candidate genes may impact growth and carcass traits. Furthermore, this availability of eQTL data offers a valuable resource for deciphering further genetic association signals that may arise from ongoing extensive endeavors aimed at enhancing duck production traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: To realize a high‐accuracy tracking control of an electromechanical actuator in which only position signal is available, a new robust adaptive output feedback control strategy based on dual CMAC neural networks is proposed in this article. A high‐gain observer and a neural network are combined to estimate the unmeasured system states, in which a neural network is designed to estimate and compensate the system parameter estimation error and other uncertain nonlinearity to improve the performance of the traditional observer. A robust adaptive controller and another neural network are combined to decrease the impact of parameter perturbation and external disturbance and strengthen the system robustness. Lyapunov theorem is used to derive an on‐line weight adaption law for the two neural networks and an on‐line parameter adaptation law for the uncertain parameters to stabilize the system. Thus the parameter uncertainty and disturbance can be compensated with feedforward compensation technique. A nonlinear robust feedback term is designed to suppress the model compensation deviation. Considering the stronger approximation ability of CMAC basis function against RBF basis function, an improved CMAC neural network is introduced in the proposed controller. A large number of simulations and experiments show that the proposed controller has better tracking performance than many main‐stream output feedback controllers in present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypophosphatasia is a rare inherited metabolic disorder caused by the deficiency of tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase. More severe and early onset cases present symptoms of muscle weakness, diminished motor coordination, and epileptic seizures. These neurological manifestations are poorly characterized. Thus, it is urgent to discover novel differentially expressed genes for investigating the genetic mechanisms underlying the neurological manifestations of hypophosphatasia. RNA-sequencing data offer a high-resolution and highly accurate transcript profile. In this study, we apply an empirical Bayes model to RNA-sequencing data acquired from the spinal cord and neocortex tissues of a mouse model, individually, to more accurately estimate the genetic effects without bias. More importantly, we further develop two integration methods, weighted gene approach and weighted Z method, to incorporate two RNA-sequencing data into a model for enhancing the effects of genetic markers in the diagnostics of hypophosphatasia disease. The simulation and real data analysis have demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed integration methods, which can maximize genetic signals identified from the spinal cord and neocortex tissues, minimize the prediction error, and largely improve the prediction accuracy in risk prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomic selection (GS) has great potential to increase genetic gain in poultry breeding. However, the performance of genomic prediction in duck growth and breast morphological (BM) traits remains largely unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the benefits of genomic prediction for duck growth and BM traits using methods such as GBLUP, single‐step GBLUP, Bayesian models, and different marker densities. This study collected phenotypic data for 14 growth and BM traits in a crossbreed population of 1893 Pekin duck × mallard, which included 941 genotyped ducks. The estimation of genetic parameters indicated high heritabilities for body weight (0.54–0.72), whereas moderate‐to‐high heritabilities for average daily gain (0.21–0.57) traits. The heritabilities of BM traits ranged from low to moderate (0.18–0.39). The prediction ability of GS on growth and BM traits increased by 7.6% on average compared to the pedigree‐based BLUP method. The single‐step GBLUP outperformed GBLUP in most traits with an average of 0.3% higher reliability in our study. Most of the Bayesian models had better performance on predictive reliability, except for BayesR. BayesN emerged as the top‐performing model for genomic prediction of both growth and BM traits, exhibiting an average increase in reliability of 3.0% compared to GBLUP. The permutation studies revealed that 50 K markers had achieved ideal prediction reliability, while 3 K markers still achieved 90.8% predictive capability would further reduce the cost for duck growth and BM traits. This study provides promising evidence for the application of GS in improving duck growth and BM traits. Our findings offer some useful strategies for optimizing the predictive ability of GS in growth and BM traits and provide theoretical foundations for designing a low‐density panel in ducks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the use of ureteroscope-assisted laparoscopic surgery (UALS) in treating symptomatic prostatic utricle (PU) in children. Materials and Methods: Data on surgically treated cases of PU at the Department of Urology in Hunan Children's Hospital between September 2014 and September 2022 were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The diagnosis was confirmed by cystourethroscopy followed by ureteroscopy, and PU was excised by ureteroscope-assisted laparoscopy. Results: A total of 21 patients with PU were enrolled in this study. The median age of the patients at surgery was 8.1 (4.6–11.5) years. Karyotyping was available for 15 children: 13 (86.7%) were 46XY, 1 (6.7%) was 45X/46XY, and 1 (6.7%) was 45X/46XY/47XYY. The median length of the PU was 5.0 (4.1–7.1) cm. Nineteen patients underwent only ureteroscope-assisted laparoscopic excision, whereas 2 also had a perineal incision. All excisions were successfully performed. The median intraoperative blood loss was 25.0 (20.0–37.5) mL. The median hospital stay and follow-up durations were 18.0 (14.5–25.0) days and 24.0 (13.5–49.0) months, respectively. The patients reported no postoperative clinical symptoms. Conclusion: UALS allows for accurate patient positioning and thorough exposure of the anatomical structures, and it is a safe, effective, and minimally invasive treatment for PU in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to explore the relationship between the proactive coping behaviors of Chinese social workers, the perceived importance of organizational job resources, and work engagement within the job demands-resources model. The participants were 423 licensed social workers. They completed self-report questionnaires on proactive coping behavior, organizational job resources, and work engagement. Following structural equation modeling, results indicated that organizational job resources and work engagement had significant associations with proactive coping behaviors. Moreover, proactive coping behaviors differed by demographic variables such as age, job position, and work experience. Measures for facilitating the proactive coping behaviors of social workers were discussed and recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient use of organic amendment (OM) is considered an economic, environmental and sustainable practice to improve soil quality, especially the accumulation of organic carbon (C) and water use efficiency (WUE) in dryland agriculture. However, the effect of different OM on soil nutrients, organic carbon fractions, water content and maize yield is unclear in arid and semi-arid regions with sandy soil. Field experiments with four OM, grass peat (GP), biochar (BC), organic fertilizer (OF) and maize straw (MS), were conducted with an equivalent amount of C input on the southeastern edge of Mu Us Sandy Land in China. Results indicated that the soil nutrients and labile organic carbon (DOC, MBC, KMnO4-C and POC) concentrations were higher under OM (GP, BC, OF and MS) treatments than in CK in the 0–0.10 m soil layers. GP treatment remarkably improved carbon pool index values (1.63, 2.51 and 2.24, respectively) in all layers compared to CK (1.00). At maturity stages of maize, the soil water content (SWC) under GP and OF treatments (11.3–13.4%) was remarkably higher than that in CK treatment (around 10.0%). Yield and WUE were remarkably greater in GP and OF treatments compared to CK. The results proved that GP amendment is superior for barren sandy soil than BC, OF and MS treatments in improving soil nutrients, organic carbon sequestration, WUE and crop yield in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a conjecture relevant to Galkin's lower bound conjecture, and verify it for the blow-ups of a four-dimensional quadric at a point or along a projective plane. We also show that Conjecture O holds in these two cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with brain tumors, especially pediatric brain tumors such as cerebellar medulloblastoma, always suffer from the severe side effects of radiotherapy. Regeneration of neural cells in irradiation‐induced cerebellar injury has been reported, but the underlying mechanism remains elusive. Methods: We established an irradiation‐induced developing cerebellum injury model in neonatal mice. Microarray, KEGG analysis and semi in vivo slice culture were performed for mechanistic study. Results: Nestin‐expressing progenitors (NEPs) but not granule neuron precursors (GNPs) were resistant to irradiation and able to regenerate after irradiation. NEPs underwent less apoptosis but similar DNA damage following irradiation compared with GNPs. Subsequently, they started to proliferate and contributed to granule neurons regeneration dependent on the sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway. In addition, irradiation increased Shh ligand provided by Purkinje cells. And microglia accumulated in the irradiated cerebellum producing more IFN‐γ, which augmented Shh ligand production to promote NEP proliferation. Conclusions: NEP was radioresistant and regenerative. IFN‐γ was increased post irradiation to upregulate Shh ligand, contributing to NEP regeneration. Our study provides insight into the mechanisms of neural cell regeneration in irradiation injury of the developing cerebellum and will help to develop new therapeutic targets for minimizing the side effects of radiotherapy for brain tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The extensive use of vancomycin has led to the development of Staphylococcus aureus strains with varying degrees of resistance to vancomycin. The present study aimed to explore the molecular causes of vancomycin resistance by conducting a proteomics analysis of subcellular fractions isolated from vancomycin-intermediate resistant S. aureus (VISA) and vancomycin-sensitive S. aureus (VSSA) strains. Methods: We conducted proteomics analysis of subcellular fractions isolated from 2 isogenic S. aureus strains: strain 11 (VSSA) and strain 11Y (VISA). We used an integrated quantitative proteomics approach assisted by bioinformatics analysis, and comprehensively investigated the proteome profile. Intensive bioinformatics analysis, including protein annotation, functional classification, functional enrichment, and functional enrichment-based cluster analysis, was used to annotate quantifiable targets. Results: We identified 128 upregulated proteins and 21 downregulated proteins in strain 11Y as compared to strain 11. The largest group of differentially expressed proteins was composed of enzymatic proteins associated with metabolic and catalytic activity, which accounted for 32.1% and 50% of the total proteins, respectively. Some proteins were indispensable parts of the regulatory networks of S. aureus that were altered with vancomycin treatment, and these proteins were related to cell wall metabolism, cell adhesion, proteolysis, and pressure response. Conclusion: Our proteomics study revealed regulatory proteins associated with vancomycin resistance in S. aureus. Some of these proteins were involved in the regulation of cell metabolism and function, which provides potential targets for the development of strategies to manage vancomycin resistance in S. aureus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) were synthesized from cucurbit[7]uril (Q[7]) and 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic (DMPA) by a hydrothermal method. The Q[7]–DMPA complex was confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The CQDs showed blue fluorescence, photostability, and ionic strength stability. They were used to detect histamine with a low limit of 2.33 × 10−6 M. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the application of reinforcement learning (RL) to nonlinear system control. And many published studies have shown that reusing historical data can improve the learning efficiency of intelligent agents. However, reusing historical data leads to a large increase in the data to be processed. This paper proposes a novel adaptive law for the critic network in the RL framework to address this problem. The innovation of the proposed method is the introduction of an auxiliary matrix containing information about the historical estimation errors instead of the historical data itself. Moreover, the addition of the auxiliary matrix allows the persistent excitation (PE) conditions to be checked online. As a validation, the proposed approach is applied to a motor servo system containing unknown dynamics. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3D monolithic Ti 3 C 2 T x /RGO hybrid hydrogel has been fabricated by a room-temperature GO-assisted gelation method with l -cysteine and Na 2 S, which exhibited excellent performances as self-standing anode for electrochemical sodium-ion storage. [Display omitted] • 3D Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene/RGO hydrogels have been successfully fabricated at room temperature by introducing Na 2 S as the primary reducing agent and l -cysteine as the auxiliary crosslinker. • This room-temperature gelation method not only effectively inhibits the restacking problem of MXene, but also simultaneously avoids the oxidation issue of MXene. • The resulting aerogels with excellent structural robustness can be used as the self-standing electrode, which delivered remarkable specific capacity and excellent cycling stability for sodium-ion storage. Assembling two-dimensional (2D) MXene nanosheets into monolithic three-dimensional (3D) structures is an efficient pathway to transfer the nanoscale properties to practical applications. Nevertheless, the majority of the preparation schemes described in the literature are carried out at relatively high temperatures, which inevitably leads to the notorious high-temperature oxidation issue of MXenes. Preparing MXene-based hydrogels at lower temperatures or even room temperature is of great research importance. In this study, we report a novel and efficient room-temperature gelation method for fabricating 3D macro-porous Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) hybrid hydrogels, using anhydrous sodium sulfide (Na 2 S) as the primary reducing agent and l -cysteine as the auxiliary crosslinker. This room-temperature preparation technique successfully prevents the oxidation issue of MXenes and generates porous aerogels with excellent structural robustness after freeze-drying. As the self-standing anode for sodium-ion storage, the optimized 3D Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene/RGO electrode possesses a specific capacity of 152 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g and good cycling stability with no significant capacity degradation after 500 cycles, which is significantly higher than that of the vacuum-filtered MXene film. This work demonstrates a straightforward room-temperature gelation method for constructing 3D MXene-based hydrogels to avoid the oxidation of MXenes, and casts new insight on the mechanism of the graphene oxide (GO)-assisted gelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hydrofoil with a classic cylinder–hydrofoil structure is adopted for study in this paper. The hydrofoil is invented by National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and so-called NACA0012.The hydrofoil is placed in an unsteady turbulent environment by positioning a cylinder in front of the hydrofoil. The simulation includes a solid stress model to calculate the hydrofoil's elastic deformation. Large-eddy simulation is used to simulate the effects of different materials on the hydrodynamic performance and noise characteristics. Researching the hydrodynamic performance and acoustic radiation characteristics of the pitching hydrofoil in a turbulent flow provides a reference basis for its design and manufacture. It was found that different material properties have limited effects on the hydrodynamic performance of pitching hydrofoils, and the generated lift is similar for each case. An analysis of stress changes shows that the stress increases with increasing elastic modulus and as the fixed rod is approached. In contrast, the displacement decreases as the elastic modulus increases. The displacement increases with the distance from the fixed rod. In addition, the noise component results show that thickness noise dominates, and an elastic material hydrofoil has better noise performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the high accuracy motion output feedback control of a kind of launching platforms driven by motors is focused. The launching platform is used to launch kinetic load to hit the target so it is susceptible to external disturbance. In addition, significant issues arise due to limitations on the plant inputs, such as actuator energy limits and velocity state is usually unavailable due to the limitation of system cost and volume. A new adaptive fuzzy output feedback controller based on dual observers is proposed for solving these problems. A smooth and continuous model is established for input saturation to compensate it. A sliding mode observer and a fuzzy observer with proper membership function are combined to estimate the unmeasured system states more accurately. An adaptive robust controller and the fuzzy observer are combined to realize a motion control with disturbance rejection, which allows correct adaptation while the plant input is saturated. Lyapunov theorem proves the bounded stability of the proposed controller when there exists observation error. Extensive comparative simulation and experiment results verify the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed controller and show that the control accuracy can be improved by an order of magnitude compared with the traditional PID controller and better than some other nonlinear controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria-induced VAP often has high lethality. We present this systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the risk factors for MDR bacterial infection in patients with VAP. PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched for studies regarding MDR bacterial infection in VAP patients, from Jan 1996 to Aug 2022. Study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment of included studies were conducted by two reviewers independently, and potential risk factors for MDR bacterial infection were identified. Meta-analysis showed that the score of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE-II) [OR = 1.009, 95% (CI 0.732, 1.287)], Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS-II) [OR = 2.805, 95%CI (0.854, 4.755)], length of hospital-stay before VAP onset (days) [OR = 2.639, 95%CI (0.387, 4.892)], in-ICU duration [OR = 3.958, 95%CI (0.894, 7.021)], Charlson index [OR = 1.000, 95%CI (0.889, 1.111)], overall hospital-stay [OR = 20.742, 95%CI (18.894, 22.591)], Medication of Quinolones [OR = 2.017, 95%CI (1.339, 3.038)], medication of carbapenems [OR = 3.527, 95%CI (2.476, 5.024)], combination of more than 2 prior antibiotics [OR = 3.181, 95%CI (2.102, 4.812)], and prior use of antibiotics [OR 2.971, 95%CI (2.001, 4.412)] were independent risk factors of MDR bacterial infection in VAP patients. Diabetes and mechanical ventilation duration before VAP onset showed no association with risk for MDR bacterial infection. This study has identified 10 risk factors associated with MDR bacterial infection in VAP patients. Identification of these factors would be able to facilitate the treatment and prevention of MDR bacterial infection in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Surgical resection is cornerstone treatment for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and offers a chance for cure. This study was conducted to determine current surgical treatment patterns and outcomes of Chinese patients with NSCLC. Methods: Data of patients with histologically confirmed NSCLC of stages IA–IIIA and who underwent surgery between July 2014 and July 2020 were retrospectively collected from 9 tertiary hospitals in China. Cox model was used for multivariate analyses. Results: This study included 11,958 patients, among whom 59.1%, 19.2%, and 21.7% were in stages I, II, and IIIA, respectively. Lobectomy was the most common operation method (78.4%), followed by wedge resection (8.2%), segmentectomy (5.4%), pneumonectomy (5.2%), and bronchial sleeve lobectomy (2.8%). Among patients who underwent wedge resection and segmentectomy, majority had stage I NSCLC (87.2% and 93.3%, respectively), and sublobectomy accounted for 20.7% of stage I operations. With a median follow-up time of 30.2 months, disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of entire population were 88.9% and 96.1% at 1 year, 75.2% and 85.1% at 3 years, and 65.3% and 77.0% at 5 years, respectively. The 5-year OS rates for stages IA, IB, IIA, IIB, and IIIA disease were 93.2%, 82.7%, 70.3%, 67.0%, and 52.1%, respectively. Conclusion: This is the largest real-world cohort study of patients with NSCLC who underwent surgery in China, where we described characteristics of surgical treatment and survival outcomes. The results of our study provide insights into real-world surgical treatment status for surgeons and clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of global energy transition and the imperative for sustainable development, the trade dynamics of solar photovoltaic (PV) products among "Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)" countries gained momentum. This study investigates the evolving trade patterns of PV products within BRI nations, alongside the underlying determinants. The paper constructs and analyzes a solar PV product trade network, elucidating evolutionary trends, structural complexities, and clusters. A novel centrality influence model explores influencing factors across five dimensions. Methodologically, trade data, the "Five Connectivity" framework, and socio-economic indicators from 2001 to 2022 across 65 BRI countries underpin the study. Empirical insights reveal a robust PV product trade network with density exceeding 0.4 and reciprocity surpassing 0.38. China's rising centrality, reflected in a weighted degree surge from 14.38 to 79.37 since 2011, signifies its consolidation within the network. Results show sustained high density and reciprocity in the PV trade network, signaling robust communication among BRI countries. China's centrality in the network has consistently grown since 2011. Trade cluster analysis reveals isolated segments predominant, depicting emerging economies with limited photovoltaic exchanges, mainly export-focused. The study highlights the pivotal role of "Five Connectivity" dimensions in promoting PV trade, while financial connectivity's impact remains modest. The emergence of PV product centers challenges traditional energy hubs, prompting the need for new energy trading paradigms and robust financial hubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Panax ginseng is a well-known medicinal plant with several pharmacological uses in China. The trihelix family transcription factors, also known as GT factors, can be involved in the regulation of growth and developmental processes in plants. There have been no in-depth reports or systematic studies about the trihelix transcription factor in ginseng. In this study, the structure, chromosomal localization, gene duplication, phylogeny, functional differentiation, expression patterns and coexpression interactions of trihelix transcripts were analysed using bioinformatics methods based on the ginseng transcriptome database. Thirty-two trihelix transcription factor genes were identified in ginseng, and these genes were alternatively spliced to obtain 218 transcripts. These transcripts were unevenly distributed on different chromosomes of ginseng, and phylogenetic analysis classified the PgGT transcripts into five subgroups. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis classified PgGT transcripts into eight functional subclasses, indicating that they are functionally diverse. The expression pattern analysis of 218 PgGT transcripts revealed that their expression was tissue-specific and spatiotemporally-specific in 14 different tissues of 4-year-old ginseng, 4 different ages of ginseng roots, and 42 farmers' cultivars of 4-year-old ginseng roots. Despite the differences in the expression patterns of these transcripts, coexpression network analysis revealed that these transcripts could be expressed synergistically in ginseng. In addition, two randomly selected PgGT transcripts in each of the five different subfamilies were subjected to methyl jasmonate treatment at different times, and PgGT was able to respond to the regulation of methy1 jasmonate. These results provide a theoretical basis and gene resources for an in-depth study of the function of trihelix genes in other plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer relapse is associated with the presence of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), which lead to multidirectional differentiation and unrestricted proliferative replication. Fumagillin, a myocotoxin produced by the saprophytic filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, has been reported to affect malignant characteristics in hepatocellular cancer cells. However, its exact role in CSCs is still unknown. Methods: CSCs were enriched by culturing cancer cells in serum-free medium. The effects of fumagillin on malignant cell characteristics and mitochondrial function were measured. The regulatory role of fumagillin on methionine aminopeptidase-2 (MetAP-2) was assessed. Results: When it was supplemented in medium, fumagillin treatment inhibited sphere formation and the maintenance of stemness of CSCs without disturbing cell growth. Fumagillin also decreased stemness-related markers and the aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1)-positive proportion, which demonstrated that fumagillin decreases stemness in CSCs. It was also found to inhibit malignant traits in CSCs, including cell proliferation, invasion, and tumor formation, and sensitize CSCs to chemoagents, including sorafenib and doxorubicin, by promoting chemoagent-induced apoptosis. Moreover, fumagillin treatment was found to disturb mitochondrial membrane homeostasis, ATP synthesis and mitochondrial transcriptional activity. In addition, we found that fumagillin decreased MetAP-2 protein levels and exerted anti-CSC effects potentially by regulating MetAP-2. We also found that fumagillin treatment activated p53 and its transcriptional activity and thus caused cell cycle blockade. Moreover, fumagillin treatment significantly decreased tumor formation in nude mice. Conclusion: This work offers evidence for fumagillin as a specific inhibitor of liver cancer CSCs and proposes a novel strategy for cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Statistical correlation analysis is currently the most typically used approach for investigating the risk factors of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, this approach does not readily reveal the causal relationships between risk factors and rarely describes the causal relationships visually. Results: Considering the superiority of reinforcement learning in prediction, a causal discovery approach with reinforcement learning for T2DM risk factors is proposed herein. First, a reinforcement learning model is constructed for T2DM risk factors. Second, the process involved in the causal discovery method for T2DM risk factors is detailed. Finally, several experiments are designed based on diabetes datasets and used to verify the proposed approach. Conclusions: The experimental results show that the proposed approach improves the accuracy of causality mining between T2DM risk factors and provides new evidence to researchers engaged in T2DM prevention and treatment research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetotelluric (MT) inversion and forward modeling are closely linked. The optimization and iteration processes of the inverse algorithm require frequent calls to forward modeling. However, traditional numerical simulations for forward modeling are computationally expensive; here, deep learning (DL) networks can simulate forward modeling and significantly improve forward speed. Applying DL for forward modeling in inversion problems requires a high-precision network capable of responding to fine changes in the model to achieve high accuracy in inversion optimization. Most existing MT studies have used a convolutional neural network, but this method is limited by the receptive field and cannot extract global feature information. In contrast, the Mix Transformer has the ability to globally model and extract features. In this study, we used a Mix Transformer to hierarchically extract feature information, adopted a multiscale approach to restore feature information to the decoder, and eliminated the skip connection between the encoder and decoder. We designed a forward modeling network model (MT-MitNet) oriented toward inversion. A sample dataset required for DL forward was established using the forward data generated from the traditional inverse calculation iteration process. The trained network quickly and accurately calculates the forward response. The experimental results indicate a high agreement between the forward results of MT-MitNet and those obtained with traditional methods. When MT-MitNet replaces the forward computation in traditional inversion, the inversion results obtained with it are also highly in agreement with the traditional inversion results. Importantly, under the premise of ensuring high accuracy, the forward speed of MT-MitNet is hundreds of times faster than that of traditional inversion methods in the same process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The volume control tank (VCT) is an important facility in the primary circuit of nuclear power plants. During the normal operation of nuclear power plants, the mass transfer between the gas and liquid phases occurs in the VCT at all times. It is driven by submerged jets, which may cause potential risks to the operational safety of nuclear power plants. It is necessary to conduct an in-depth study to gain a deeper understanding of the gas–liquid mass transfer behavior in the VCT. In this paper, a new gas–liquid mass transfer model is developed that combines a surface divergence model with a CFD model to accurately simulate the mass transfer process of the gas phase into the liquid phase. The simulation data were verified by the experimental results. The deviation between the simulation results and experimental results is less than 6.55%. Based on this model, a simulation study was carried out for the effect of structural parameters of the VCT on gas–liquid mass transfer. The results show that the double-vortex structure above the jet inlet, the surface jet at the gas–liquid interface, and the vortex at the end of the jet are the three factors dominating the gas–liquid mass transfer in the VCT. The gas–liquid mass transfer can be influenced by the jet diameter since the jet diameter has a remarkable effect on the Kolmogorov scale and the macroscopic flow field structure. Moreover, both the Kolmogorov scale and the macroscopic flow field structure can be affected by the jet height. However, these two effects cancel each other out. Thus, the influence of the jet height on the gas–liquid mass transfer rate is negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, dense continuous carbon fiber (C f) reinforced (TiZrHfNbTa)C high-entropy ceramic (C f /HEC) composites were rapidly prepared via in-situ reactive melt infiltration (RMI). A TiZrHfNbTa high-entropy alloy served as the cation source and carbon in C f reinforced carbon matrix (C f /C) preforms served as the anion source, and a (TiZrHfNbTa)C high-entropy ceramic phase with a near equimolar ratio was successfully formed. The results revealed that most of the TiZrHfNbTa high-entropy alloy reacted with the carbon matrix, and the harvested C f /HEC composites exhibited an excellent bending strength (612.6 MPa) and low ablation rates. High reaction rates caused by ultra-high temperature and homogeneous distribution of elements in the high-entropy TiZrHfNbTa alloy significantly reduced the difference in reactivity with C among Ti, Zr, Hf, Nb, and Ta are considered to be the reasons for successful formation of (TiZrHfNbTa)C high-entropy ceramic with a near equimolar ratio in C f /HEC composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Carcass traits are crucial for broiler ducks, but carcass traits can only be measured postmortem. Genomic selection (GS) is an effective approach in animal breeding to improve selection and reduce costs. However, the performance of genomic prediction in duck carcass traits remains largely unknown. Results: In this study, we estimated the genetic parameters, performed GS using different models and marker densities, and compared the estimation performance between GS and conventional BLUP on 35 carcass traits in an F2 population of ducks. Most of the cut weight traits and intestine length traits were estimated to be high and moderate heritabilities, respectively, while the heritabilities of percentage slaughter traits were dynamic. The reliability of genome prediction using GBLUP increased by an average of 0.06 compared to the conventional BLUP method. The Permutation studies revealed that 50K markers had achieved ideal prediction reliability, while 3K markers still achieved 90.7% predictive capability would further reduce the cost for duck carcass traits. The genomic relationship matrix normalized by our true variance method instead of the widely used ∑ 2 p i (1 - p i) could achieve an increase in prediction reliability in most traits. We detected most of the bayesian models had a better performance, especially for BayesN. Compared to GBLUP, BayesN can further improve the predictive reliability with an average of 0.06 for duck carcass traits. Conclusion: This study demonstrates genomic selection for duck carcass traits is promising. The genomic prediction can be further improved by modifying the genomic relationship matrix using our proposed true variance method and several Bayesian models. Permutation study provides a theoretical basis for the fact that low-density arrays can be used to reduce genotype costs in duck genome selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) has advanced our understanding of the spatial patterns of gene expression, but the lack of single-cell resolution in spatial barcoding-based SRT hinders the inference of specific locations of individual cells. To determine the spatial distribution of cell types in SRT, we present SpaDecon, a semi-supervised learning approach that incorporates gene expression, spatial location, and histology information for cell-type deconvolution. SpaDecon was evaluated through analyses of four real SRT datasets using knowledge of the expected distributions of cell types. Quantitative evaluations were performed for four pseudo-SRT datasets constructed according to benchmark proportions. Using mean squared error and Jensen-Shannon divergence with the benchmark proportions as evaluation criteria, we show that SpaDecon performance surpasses that of published cell-type deconvolution methods. Given the accuracy and computational speed of SpaDecon, we anticipate it will be valuable for SRT data analysis and will facilitate the integration of genomics and digital pathology. SpaDecon is a semi-supervised learning-based method for cell-type deconvolution of spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) data that is also computationally fast and memory efficient for large-scale SRT studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the effect of D‑Sorbitol (DS) on the crystallization and processibility of PLA was systematically explored by means of DSC, FTIR, POM, WAXD, and as well as dynamic rheological analysis. Our results show that, as expected, DS can act as an effective nucleating agent for PLA and thus strikingly improve its crystallization properties. With 0.25–0.75% DS in blends, the cold crystallization of PLA disappears accompanied by a concomitant elevation of crystallization temperature. Based on analyzing isothermal crystallization kinetics, it is clear that the incorporation of DS can significantly enhance the crystallization rate of all PLA samples. For instance, the semi-crystallization time of neat PLA is 14.2 min at 110 °C, while PLA/0.75% DS blend takes only 1.5 min. A rheological characterization demonstrated that, besides playing a role as a nucleating agent, DS also serves as a plasticizer which improves the melt processing performance as reducing the modulus and viscosity of PLA matrix. On the basis of FTIR data, we propose that hydrogen bonding interactions between PLA and DS are responsible for hampering a further improvement of both crystallization properties and rheological performance over adding a high content of DS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aim to evaluate the relationship between the use of metformin and the risk of pancreatic cancer in type 2 diabetes patients. Method: We systematically searched the observational studies on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, clinicalrials.gov, and CNKI databases, extracted relevant data, combined the OR value and 95% CI using the random effect model, and conducted a sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, and meta-regression to evaluate the size and stability of this relationship. Result: Twenty-nine studies from twenty-four articles met our inclusion criteria, including more than 2 million subjects. Overall analysis showed that compared with no use of metformin, the use of metformin could reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes (OR = 0.82, 95% CI (0.69, 0.98)). Subgroup analysis showed that compared with the use of hypoglycemic drugs, the use of metformin could reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer in patients with type 2 diabetes (OR = 0.79, 95% CI (0.66, 0.94)). However, compared with no drugs or only diet therapy, metformin users might increase the risk of pancreatic cancer (OR = 2.19, 95% CI (1.08, 4.44)). Sensitivity analysis confirmed the stability of the study, and there was no significant publication bias. Conclusion: Compared with the no-use of metformin, metformin users with diabetes can reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer. More research is needed to prove it works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SLC26A4 gene mutations related to hearing loss patients can obtain good hearing and speech rehabilitation effects after cochlear implantation (CI). To explore the long-term rehabilitative outcomes of CI in patients with different SLC26A4 mutation groups. Clinical data of 71 patients with SLC26A4 gene mutations who received CI in the Second Hospital of Lanzhou University from 2012 to 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. According to the genetic test results, use One-way ANOVA analysis to compare the differences in auditory results, categories of auditory performance (CAP) and speech intelligibility rating (SIR) index questionnaire scores and speech recognition rates among different groups in 4-5 years after CI. Compared with other genotypes of SLC26A4, the patients with homozygous mutation of c.919-2A > G in SLC26A4 had better hearing aid threshold at 500 Hz and better recognition rates of Yangyang words than other monoallelic mutation groups after CI (p <.05). The most common hot spot mutation of SLC26A4 gene is c.919-2A > G. The patients with homozygous mutation of c.919-2A > G in SLC26A4 gene had partly better hearing and speech rehabilitation than other monoallelic mutation groups after CI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective and simultaneous detection of multimetal ions has been achieved by a colorimetric and fluorometric sensor (RA), which was fabricated between rhodamine hydrazide and 9‐anthraldehyde through a simple Schiff base reaction. Sensor RA provided an effective platform for reliable detection of Hg2+ with a detection limit as low as 9.978 × 10−9 and displayed fabulous sensitivity for Cu2+ with a low limit of detection (LOD) of 4.81 × 10−8 M of detection limit toward Cu2+. Among them, the detection limit for heavy metal mercury ions has reached the ultrasensitive level. The sensing mechanism between RA and metal ions was further confirmed by 1H NMR and IR titration experiments and high‐resolution mass spectrometry and discussed from a theoretic level based on crystal structures and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The switch in turn‐on signaling was attributed to the spiro‐lactam and ring‐opened form of RA and was accompanied by significant changes in ultraviolet spectroscopy and fluorescent spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Λ CDM model provides a good fit to most astronomical observations but harbors large areas of phenomenology and ignorance. With the improvements in the precision and number of observations, discrepancies between key cosmological parameters of this model have emerged. Among them, the most notable tension is the 4 σ to 6 σ deviation between the Hubble constant ( H 0 ) estimations measured by the local distance ladder and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurement. In this review, we revisit the H 0 tension based on the latest research and sort out evidence from solutions to this tension that might imply new physics beyond the Λ CDM model. The evidence leans more towards modifying the late-time universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Haploidentical transplantation strategies for patients with transfusion‐dependent thalassaemia (TD‐TM) remain to be investigated. In this study, 54 paediatric patients with TD‐TM were treated with a novel approach using post‐transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) and low‐dose methotrexate (LD‐MTX), following a myeloablative regimen. The incidence of neutrophil and platelet engraftment was 96.3% ± 2.6% and 94.4% ± 3.1% respectively. The cumulative incidence of grades II–III acute graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) was 13.8% ± 4.8% at 100 days. At three years, the cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD was 28.5% ± 8.5%. With a median follow‐up of 520 days (132–1325 days), the overall survival (OS) and event‐free survival (EFS) were 98.1% ± 1.8% and 90.7% ± 3.9% respectively. Compared with the low‐dose cyclophosphamide (CTX) conditioning regimen (120 mg/kg), the high‐CTX regimen (200 mg/kg) achieved a higher incidence of stable engraftment (100% vs 66.7% ± 15.7%, p = 0.003), a comparable incidence of grades II–III acute GVHD, a lower incidence of chronic GVHD (20.2% ± 8.3% vs 66.6% ± 19.2%, p = 0.011), and better overall survival (100% vs 88.9% ± 10.5%, p = 0.025) as well as EFS (95.6% ± 3.1% vs 66.7% ± 15.7%, p = 0.008). Our results using unmanipulated haploidentical grafts and PTCy with LD‐MTX in TD‐TM are encouraging. (chictr.org.cn ChiCTR1800017969) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Millions of Americans infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) need oncologic surgery. Patients with acute or resolved COVID-19 illness complain of neuropsychiatric symptoms. How surgery affects postoperative neuropsychiatric outcomes such as delirium is unknown. We hypothesize that patients with a history of COVID-19 could have an exaggerated risk of developing postoperative delirium after undergoing major elective oncologic surgery. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study to determine the association between COVID-19 status and antipsychotic drugs during postsurgical hospitalization as a surrogate of delirium. Secondary outcomes included 30 days of postoperative complications, length of stay, and mortality. Patients were grouped into pre-pandemic non-COVID-19 and COVID-19-positive groups. A 1:2 propensity score matching was used to minimize bias. A multivariable logistic regression model estimated the effects of important covariates on the use of postoperative psychotic medication. Results: A total of 6003 patients were included in the study. Pre- and post-propensity score matching demonstrated that a history of preoperative COVID-19 did not increase the risk of antipsychotic medications postoperatively. However, respiratory and overall 30-day complications were higher in COVID-19 individuals than in pre-pandemic non-COVID-19 patients. The multivariate analysis showed that the odds of using postoperative antipsychotic medication use for the patients who had COVID-19 compared to those who did not have the infection were not significantly different. Conclusion: A preoperative diagnosis of COVID-19 did not increase the risk of postoperative antipsychotic medication use or neurological complications. More studies are needed to reproduce our results due to the increased concern of neurological events post-COVID-19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate monitoring of the internal statuses is highly valuable for the management of the lithium-ion battery (LIB). This article proposes a thermal-model-based method for multistate joint observation, enabled by a novel smart battery design with an embedded and distributed temperature sensor. In particular, a novel smart battery is designed by implanting the distributed fiber optical sensor internally and externally. This promises a real-time distributed measurement of LIB internal and surface temperature with a high space resolution. Following this endeavor, a low-order joint observer is proposed to coestimate the thermal parameters, heat generation rate, state of charge, and maximum capacity. Experimental results disclose that the smart battery has space-resolved self-monitoring capability with high reproducibility. With the new sensing data, the heat generation rate, state of charge, and maximum capacity of LIB can be observed precisely in real time. The proposed method validates to outperform the commonly-used electrical-model-based method regarding the accuracy and the robustness to battery aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microglia are the main immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and comprise various model systems used to investigate inflammatory mechanisms in CNS disorders. Currently, shaking and mild trypsinization are widely used microglial culture methods; however, the problems with culturing microglia include low yield and a time-consuming process. In this study, we replaced normal culture media (NM) with media containing 25% fibroblast-conditioned media (F-CM) to culture mixed glia and compared microglia obtained by these two methods. We found that F-CM significantly improved the yield and purity of microglia and reduced the total culture time of mixed glia. The microglia obtained from the F-CM group showed longer ramified morphology than those from the NM group, but no difference was observed in cell size. Microglia from the two groups had similar phagocytic function and baseline phenotype markers. Both methods yielded microglia were responsive to various stimuli such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), and interleukin-4 (IL-4). The current results suggest that F-CM affect the growth of primary microglia in mixed glia culture. This method can produce a high yield of primary microglia within a short time and may be a convenient method for researchers to investigate inflammatory mechanisms and some CNS disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of microbial contamination on the rancidity of Huangjiu (Chinese rice wine) during pottery jar storage were studied. With the increase in the rancidity of Huangjiu, the alcohol content decreased, while the conductivity increased significantly. The sour taste and umami taste of Huangjiu increased, leading to flavor deterioration. Meanwhile, the increase in biogenic amine content makes Huangjiu unfit for drinking. The changes in components showed that the degree of rancidity was related to the metabolism of organic acids and amino acids caused by contaminated microorganisms. According to the analysis of microbial community structure, more microorganisms were found in the severe rancid Huangjiu. This indicated that with the aggravation of the degree of rancidity, the community structure of the contaminated microorganisms becomes complex, and potentially pathogenic microorganisms such as Arcobacter species were detected. Therefore, the change of components of Huangjiu will also affect the community structure of contaminated microorganisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Perinatal Ureaplasma infection is associated with a variety of adverse outcomes and neonatal diseases. This meta-analysis is to evaluate current evidence evaluating the association between Ureaplasma and adverse pregnancy outcomes and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in preterm infants. Methods: We searched for published articles on Ureaplasma, preterm and BPD in PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and Embase databases posted before August 28, 2021. In addition, the references of these articles were screened. A random/fixed-effect model was used to synthesize predefined outcomes. Results: A total of 19 cohort studies involving 11,990 pregnancy women met our inclusion criteria. Pregnancy Ureaplasma positive increased the risk of preterm birth [odds ratios (OR) 2.76, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.63–4.68], BPD (OR 2.39 95% CI 1.73–3.30), chorioamnionitis (OR 2.71, 95% CI 2.02–3.64) and premature rupture of membranes (PROM, OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.34–3.58). Conclusions: Pregnancy Ureaplasma positive may increase the risk of developing preterm birth, chorioamnionitis, PROM and BPD in the preterm infant. The evidence base is, however, of low quality and well-designed studies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming to investigate the transient four-quadrant hydrodynamics on blades under the circumferential motion of the steering center, an efficient three-dimensional (3D) model with half blades was established in this paper. The 3D model with half blades accounts for the hydrodynamic loss induced by the complicated mechanical structure, predicting the hydrodynamic performance of the high-load cycloidal propeller with high accuracy. On this basis, the open water manoeuvering performance of the cycloidal propellers in fully azimuth angle was simulated by Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver, and the hydrodynamic loads and flow field characteristics were analyzed in detail. The research shows that the variation of azimuth angle φ induces the rapid response of hydrodynamic loads, which directly affects the direction of ship motion. Compared with φ = 0°, the increase in the azimuth angle of the steering center will enhance the negative impact of the inflow velocity on the wake flow field and the internal flow field within the blades. Additionally, the non-uniform flow in the main thrust direction leads to a significant increase in the undesired net lateral force. Our primary findings revealed in present paper should contribute to accurate prediction of hydrodynamic performance for high-load cycloidal propellers during maneuvering process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with cancer may suffer from a decline in their cognitive function after various cancer therapies, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and in some cases, this decline in cognitive function persists even years after completion of treatment. Chemobrain or chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment, a well-established clinical syndrome, has become an increasing concern as the number of successfully treated cancer patients has increased significantly. Chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment can originate from direct neurotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress, resulting in alterations in grey matter volume, white matter integrity, and brain connectivity. Surgery has been associated with exacerbating the inflammatory response associated with chemotherapy and predisposes patients to develop postoperative cognitive dysfunction. As the proportion of patients living longer after these therapies increases, the magnitude of impact and growing concern of post-treatment cognitive dysfunction in these patients has also come to the fore. We review the clinical presentation, potential mechanisms, predisposing factors, diagnostic methods, neuropsychological testing, and imaging findings of chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment and its intersection with postoperative cognitive dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An atmosphere within a package affects the metabolic process of food and the microbial growth of fresh products and has a vital role in preserving food. It depends on the membrane's specific gas permeability and selectivity to generate a desirable atmosphere for storage. In this study, triblock poly(l-lactic acid‑ d -ɛ-caprolactone) (PLDC) copolymers and three-arm poly(l-lactic acid- g -ɛ-caprolactone) (PLGC) star copolymers were synthesized, in which a microphase-separated morphology of sea-island structure was established in PLGC membrane as a gas "fast permeation channel" for regulating CO 2 and O 2 permeability and CO 2 /O 2 selectivity. AFM observation revealed different well-defined micro phase-separated structures of PLGC with size ranges of 200– 300 nm. Comparing PLGC membrane with PLLA, CO 2 and O 2 transmission rates increased by 416.9 % and 132.7 %, while H 2 O transport rates increased by 245.6 %. Mechanical testing shows that the PLGC membrane exhibits 40.8-fold elongation at break compared to PLLA, showing excellent flexibility. Moreover, okra's equilibrium-modified atmosphere packaging was designed based on a theoretically derived model. Preservation results suggested that the PLGC packaging membrane could generate an ideal high 8.7– 9.2 % CO 2 and low 2.3– 2.7 % O 2 atmosphere for okra preservation, delaying the discoloring and rotting of okra. [Display omitted] • A three-arm star poly (l-lactic acid- g - ɛ -caprolactone) membrane has been prepared. • Construction of a sea-island structure to regulate membrane gas permeability. • An ideal atmosphere with high CO 2 and low O 2 can be generated in the package. • Poly (l-lactic acid- g - ɛ -caprolactone) membranes can extend the shelf life of okra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new species of the water scavenger beetle, Regimbartia majorobtusa Mai, Jia, and Jäch sp. n., is described from China (Yunnan) and Thailand (Phitsanulok). It is the eleventh known species of this genus. Regimbartia attenuata (Fabricius, 1801) is redescribed; it is reported for the first time from the Chinese provinces Shaanxi and Hubei. A key to the Chinese species of the genus Regimbartia Zaitzev, 1908 is provided, and the two remaining Asian species, R. minima Orchymont, 1941 and R. sumatrensis Orchymont, 1941, are diagnosed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For 3d1 (V4+) impurity in 30PbO‐5Bi2O3‐(65‐x)SiO2 glass systems with different concentrations x of V2O5, the defect structures and gyromagnetic factors are theoretically investigated by using the perturbation formulas of g factors for a tetragonally compressed octahedral 3d1 group. The concentration dependences of d‐d transition band and g factors are suitably explained from the Fourier type concentration functions of the cubic crystal field parameter Dq, covalency factor N and relative tetragonal compression ratio ρ. The above concentration dependences of these quantities are suitably illustrated by the modifications of the local crystal field strength and electron cloud distribution with increasing x. The concentration variations of the electrical conductivity and dielectric relaxation are further analyzed from the stability of the systems in view of two competitive factors (increasing network polymerization and bulk stability at low concentrations and decreasing former SiO2 and stability at high concentrations). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The study focuses on the development of a new type of RTP material. • The film demonstrates remarkable RTP with an extended afterglow time of up to 12 s. • This characteristic opens up potential applications in four fields. Stimuli-responsive room temperature phosphorescent materials have been the subject of considerable research activity in recent years. In this study, the tetraphenylethylene group was selected in combination with arylboronic acid (TIPE-BOH) and used to dope a rigid polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix to generate a film material (TIPE-BOH-PVA) that exhibited an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect. The prepared film exhibits excellent room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) performance, with an enhanced emission wavelength and an afterglow time of up to 12 s. The triplet-to-singlet Förster resonance energy transfer (TS-FRET) has been utilized to modify the afterglow color by adding butyl rhodamine B (BRhB) and rhodamine 6G (R6G), employing a water phase without the use of organic solvents. The resultant material exhibits stimulus responsiveness; the RTP properties disappear when the material is exposed to water vapor, but are restored following thermal treatment. The material has potential applications in information encryption and erasure, double anti-counterfeiting ink, and fingerprint acquisition systems. This work offers a new strategy for the design of stimuli-responsive ultra-long RTP materials with far-ranging end applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a type of correlated queue in which its inter-arrival and service times are correlated, with their joint distribution being characterized by a copula function. This characterization allows for very generally correlated inter-arrival and service times. For such a queue, we first derive an infinite system of linear equations for the moments of the waiting time, based on which we design an algorithm to calculate the moments of the waiting time. In contrast with traditional methods, our algorithm incorporates a recursive procedure which is computationally much more efficient. Furthermore, we show how the moments and covariances of the inter-departure times of the queue can be obtained based on the moments of the waiting time. Numerical experiments are provided to validate our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chicken egg chalaza (CLZ) is a natural colloidal structure in eggs that exists as an egg yolk stabilizer and is similar in composition to egg white. In this study, the proteome, phosphoproteome, and N-glycoproteome of CLZ were characterized in depth. We hydrolyzed the CLZ proteins and enriched the phosphopeptides and glycopeptides. We identified 45 phosphoproteins and 80 N-glycoproteins, containing 59 phosphosites and 203 N-glycosylation sites, respectively. Typically, the ovalbumin in CLZ was both phosphorylated and N-glycosylated, with 4 phosphosites and 4 N-glycosylation sites. Moreover, we identified 2 N-glycosylated subunits of ovomucin, mucin-5B and mucin-6, with 32 and nine N- glycosylation sites, respectively. Analysis of the phosphorylation and N-glycosylation status of CLZ proteins could provide novel insights into the structural and functional characteristics of CLZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The red-emitting perovskite material has received widespread attention as a long-wavelength optical gain media. But the easy phase change in the air limits its practical application. Herein, red CsPbBr x I3âˆ' x /SiO2 quantum dots (QDs) are prepared by a ligand-mediated hot injection method in which 3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APTES) is used instead of the usual oleylamine (OAm) ligand. Through the hydrolysis of amino groups, a thin silicon layer is formed on the QD surface, improving the stability and without causing the aggregation of QDs. We find that the ratio of I/Br and the size of QDs can be tuned by adjusting the APTES amount. Moreover, this ligand-mediated synthesis effectively passivates the surface defects, so the photoluminescence quantum yield is remarkably improved, and the carrier lifetime is prolonged. The amplified spontaneous emission is achieved under 532 nm nanosecond laser excitation. Compared with the original CsPbBrI2-OAm QD films, the threshold of CsPbBr x I3âˆ' x /SiO2 QD films is reduced from 403.5 to 98.7 ÎĽ J cmâˆ'2, and the radiation stability is significantly enhanced. Therefore, this material shows great potential in the random laser field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the remarkable progress achieved in conventional instance segmentation, the problem of predicting instance segmentation results for unobserved future frames remains challenging due to the unobservability of future data. Existing methods mainly address this challenge by forecasting features of future frames. However, these methods always treat features of multiple levels (e.g., coarse-to-fine pyramid features) independently and do not exploit them collaboratively, which results in inaccurate prediction for future frames; and moreover, such a weakness can partially hinder self-adaption of a future segmentation prediction model for different input samples. To solve this problem, we propose an adaptive aggregation approach called Auto-Path Aggregation Network (APANet), where the spatio-temporal contextual information obtained in the features of each individual level is selectively aggregated using the developed “auto-path”. The “auto-path” connects each pair of features extracted at different pyramid levels for task-specific hierarchical contextual information aggregation, which enables selective and adaptive aggregation of pyramid features in accordance with different videos/frames. Our APANet can be further optimized jointly with the Mask R-CNN head as a feature decoder and a Feature Pyramid Network (FPN) feature encoder, forming a joint learning system for future instance segmentation prediction. We experimentally show that the proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art performance on three video-based instance segmentation benchmarks for future instance segmentation prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep State Sequence-based (DSS) equivalence checking and path-based equivalence checking have been successfully applied for verification of digital designs between System Level Model (SLM) and Register Transfer Level (RTL). The DSS-based equivalence checking method can validate designs without mapping information, but the query size for each DSS is large compared with path-based verification. The query size for path-based methods is small, but the number of comparisons is large. In this work, we combine the advantages of DSS-based methods and path-based methods. We use DSS-based methods to find the corresponding paths and use cut-points like in path-based methods to split the DSS to reduce the query size. Finite State Machine with Datapath (FSMD) is used to represent the SLM and RTL models. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can effectively validate the designs and reduce the query size for DSS-based equivalence checking method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All inorganic cesium lead halide perovskite (CsPbX3; X = Cl, Br, or I) quantum dots (QDs) have received widespread attention as a class of favorable optical gain materials. The key issue of CsPbX3 perovskites is their instability under light or exposure to air. Notably, the inherent phase instability of CsPbI3 QDs severely restricts the development of red-light emission. Herein, we propose a simple method to post-process CsPbBr3 QDs with a ZnI2 solution. The prepared CsPbBryI3−y (named CPBI-z, where z corresponds to the photoluminescence peaks' position) QDs exhibit adjustable photoluminescence in the range of 550–640 nm. The photoluminescence quantum yield is increased from 73.3% to 97.2% as the surface defects of QDs are passivated by I− and Zn2+. Compared with the pristine CsPbBr3 QDs, the post-processed QDs are more stable under ultraviolet irradiation and in the air. Aside from that, under 532 nm nanosecond laser excitation, CPBI-z QD films exhibit excellent amplified spontaneous emission performance. The CPBI-640 QD film shows a low threshold, 102 μJ cm−2 for red stable amplified spontaneous emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]