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The cornerstone of port production operations is ship handling, necessitating judicious allocation of diverse production resources to enhance the efficiency of loading and unloading operations. This paper introduces an optimisation method based on deep reinforcement learning to schedule berths and yards at a bulk cargo terminal. A Markov Decision Process model is formulated by analysing scheduling processes and unloading operations in bulk port imports business. The study presents an enhanced reinforcement learning algorithm called PS-D3QN (Prioritised Experience Replay and Softmax strategy-based Dueling Double Deep Q-Network), amalgamating the strengths of the Double DQN and Dueling DQN algorithms. The proposed solution is evaluated using actual port data and benchmarked against the other two algorithms mentioned in this paper. The numerical experiments and comparative analysis substantiate that the PS-D3QN algorithm significantly enhances the efficiency of berth and yard scheduling in bulk terminals, reduces the cost of port operation, and eliminates errors associated with manual scheduling. The algorithm presented in this paper can be tailored to address scheduling issues in the fields of production and manufacturing with suitable adjustments, including problems like the job shop scheduling problem and its extensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of temperature on the evolution of loops in nickel was investigated under 30 keV He+ irradiation. The size, Burgers vector, and nature of loops were analyzed by a transmission electron microscope (TEM). In addition, the Weibull statistical analysis was introduced to analyze the size distributions of the loops. The TEM results indicate that the sizes of loops increase with increasing irradiation temperature, where they are mainly in the range of 10-30, 20-50, and 30-80 nm at 300, 400, and 500 °C, respectively. In the irradiation temperature range of 300-500 °C, the size distributions of loops fit Weibull distribution very well, which suggests that the loops tend to grow larger and/or be merged. In addition, almost all the loops formed under He+ irradiation are the interstitial loops with Burgers vectors b = a/2 <110>, which is ascribed to the assistance of the He atom on the formation process of loops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diet and exercise during pregnancy have been used to prevent gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) with some success.Objective: To examine the effectiveness of lifestyle intervention on GDM prevention and to identify key effectiveness moderators to improve the prevention strategy.Search Strategy: Pubmed, Scopus, Cochrane, and cross-references were searched.Selection Criteria: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating lifestyle interventions during pregnancy for GDM prevention.Data Collection and Analysis: Two independent reviewers extracted data. A random-effects model was used to analyse the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Meta-regressions and subgroup analyses were used to investigate important moderators of effectiveness.Main Results: Forty-seven RCTs involving 15 745 participants showed that diet and exercise during pregnancy were preventive of GDM (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.69-0.87). Four key aspects were identified to improve the preventive effect: targeting the high-risk population; an early initiation of the intervention; the correct intensity and frequency of exercise; and gestational weight gain management. Although 24 RCTs targeted women who were overweight or obese, body mass index (BMI) failed to predict the effectiveness of an intervention. Instead, interventions are most effective in high-incidence populations rather than simply in women who are overweight or obese. Furthermore, exercise of moderate intensity for 50-60 minutes twice a week could lead to an approximately 24% reduction in GDM.Conclusion: The best strategy to prevent GDM is to target the high-risk population predicted by risk evaluation models and to control the gestational weight gain of women through intensified diet and exercise modifications early in their pregnancy.Tweetable Abstract: Four key effectiveness moderators of lifestyle interventions for GDM prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A remarkable magnetostriction λ111 as large as 6700 ppm was found at 70K in PrFe1.9 alloy. This value is even larger than the theoretical maximum of 5600 ppm estimated by the Steven's equivalent operator method. The temperature dependence of λ111 for PrFe1.9 and TbFe2 alloys follows well with the single-ion theory rule, which yields giant estimated λ111 values of about 8000 and 4200 ppm for PrFe1.9 and TbFe2 alloys, respectively, at 0K. The easy magnetization direction of PrFe1.9 changes from [111] to [100] as temperature decreases, which leads to the abnormal decrease of the magnetostriction k. The rare earth sublattice moment increases sharply in PrFe1.9 alloy with decreasing temperature, resulting in the remarkably largest estimated value of λ111 at 0K according to the single-ion theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: To study the role and mechanism of liraglutide in myocardial fibrosis after myocardial infarction (MI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 72 C57/BL male mice were randomly divided into sham operation group (Sham group), myocardial infarction group (MI group), and liraglutide intervention group (Lira group). The left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) of the mice in MI group and Lira group was ligated to establish the MI model. One week after the operation, the mice in Lira group were intraperitoneally injected with 100 μg/kg of liraglutide once a day for 4 weeks. The mice in Sham group and MI group were injected with the equal volume of normal saline. At the 5th week after the operation, the cardiac morphologic indexes and cardiac function indexes were measured by echocardiography. After an ultrasound, the heart specimens of the mice were immediately harvested by thoracotomy, and histomorphological hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, collagen fiber Masson staining, and immunohistochemical staining were performed. The infarction zone and the non-infarction zone were isolated from another heart specimen; the cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and hydroxyproline content were determined; and the expression levels of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) were detected by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting. RESULTS: Liraglutide improved the cardiac function of mice after myocardial infarction. Liraglutide improved the myocardial fibrosis in mice after myocardial infarction. Liraglutide increased cAMP in myocardial cells of mice after myocardial infarction. Liraglutide did not change the TGF-β1 expressions while reduced the CTGF expressions in infarct and non-infarct area of mice after myocardial infarction. CONCLUSIONS: Liraglutide, through increasing the level of cAMP, could decrease the deposition of collagen fibers in myocardial tissues of mice after MI, reduce the degree of infiltration of collagen fibers in the infarction zone into the myocardium in the non-infarction zone and inhibit the adverse ventricular remodeling in the non-infarction zone, thus improving the cardiac function after MI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of high-temperature irradiation-resistant nickel-based alloys has been receiving much attention due to their potential applications in molten salt reactors (MSRs). Pure nickel and SiC nanoparticles dispersed nickel-based alloys (Ni-SiCNP composites) have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to determine the helium diffusion behavior under 3 MeV helium ion irradiation at 600 °C with ion fluence up to 3 × 1020 ions/m². The TEM results indicated that the presence of dispersed SiCNP in nickel can inhibit the growth of helium bubbles, thereby mitigate the helium embrittlement and swelling of nickel-based alloys. The theoretical calculation results using the density functional theory (DFT) showed that the helium atoms prefer to diffuse to the interface between SiCNP and nickel matrix, and thus avoid the grain boundary segregation and also the growth of helium bubbles. This study confirmed the feasibility of dispersing carbides in nickel-based alloys to improve the irradiation-resistant performance of materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]