Search

[Display omitted] Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensors provide a convenient and high sensitivity method for early disease diagnosis. However, creating luminophore arrays relying on powerful ECL signals remains a daunting task. Porphyrin-centered metal organic frameworks (MOFs) exhibit remarkable potential in ECL sensing applications. In this paper, based on a simple one-pot synthesis method, PCN-222@Ag NPs doped with CeO 2 was synthesized to enhance the ECL performance. Due to the strong catalytic ability of CeO 2 , the ECL signal strength of the new material PCN-222@CeO 2 @Ag NPs is much higher than that of the PCN-222@Ag NPs and PCN-222. The luminous properties of PCN-222@CeO 2 @Ag NPs become more intense and stable due to the excellent electronic conductivity of Ag NPs. Based on the fact that CuS@PDA composite can quench the ECL signal of PCN-222@CeO 2 @Ag NPs, we constructed a novel sandwich ECL immune sensor for the detection of phosphorylated Tau 181 (p-Tau-181) protein. The ECL sensor has a great linear relationship with p-Tau-181 protein concentration, ranging from 1 pg/mL to 100 ng/mL. The detection limit is as low as 0.147 pg/mL. This work provides new ideas for developing sensitive ECL sensors for the p-Tau-181 protein, the marker of Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin lesion segmentation from dermatoscopic images is essential for the diagnosis of skin cancer. However, it is still a challenging task due to the ambiguity of the skin lesions, the irregular shape of the lesions and the presence of various interfering factors. In this paper, we propose a novel Ambiguous Context Enhanced Attention Network (ACEANet) based on the classical encoder-decoder architecture, which is able to accurately and reliably segment a variety of lesions with efficiency. Specifically, a novel Ambiguous Context Enhanced Attention module is embedded in the skip connection to augment the ambiguous boundary information. A Dilated Gated Fusion block is employed in the end of the encoding phase, which effectively reduces the loss of spatial location information due to continuous downsampling. In addition, we propose a novel Cascading Global Context Attention to fuse feature information generated by the encoder with features generated by the decoder of the corresponding layer. In order to verify the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed network, we have performed comparative experiments on ISIC2018 dataset and PH2 dataset. Experiments results demonstrate that the proposed model has superior segmentation performance for skin lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate segmentation of the skin lesion region is crucial for diagnosing and screening skin diseases. However, skin lesion segmentation is challenging due to the indistinguishable boundaries of the lesion region, irregular shapes and hair interference. To settle the above issues, we propose a Multi‐scale Depthwise Separable Convolutional Neural Network for skin lesion segmentation named MDSC‐Net. Specifically, a novel Multi‐scale Depthwise Separable Residual Convolution Module is employed in skip connection, conveying more detailed features to the decoder. To compensate for the loss of spatial location information in down‐sampling, we propose a novel Spatial Adaption Module. Furthermore, we propose a Multi‐scale Decoding Fusion Module in the decoder to capture contextual information. We have performed extensive experiments to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed network on three public benchmark skin lesion segmentation datasets and one public benchmark polyp segmentation dataset, including ISIC‐2017, ISIC‐2018, PH2, and Kvasir‐SEG datasets. Experimental results consistently demonstrate the proposed MDSC‐Net achieves superior segmentation across five popularly used evaluation criteria. The proposed network reaches high‐performance skin lesion segmentation, and can provide important clues to help doctors diagnose and treat skin cancer early. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lunar breccias provide crucial insights into the lithological diversity, shock processing and evolution of the lunar crust. Here, we report a unique regolith breccia (CE5C0000YJYX070GP, hereafter CE5C) returned from the Chang'E-5 (CE-5) mission. CE5C is one of the largest CE-5 breccias with a wide variety of lithologies, dominated by basaltic and mineral fragments as well as impact-melted clasts (including mid-Ti glasses, high-Al glasses, and crystal-bearing impact melt clasts). A comprehensive study of petrology and mineralogy on several representative clasts was conducted by integrating Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Tescan Integrated Mineral Analysis (TIMA), Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) techniques. Evidence is sufficient that CE5C is a mixed mare-highland regolith breccia, with a high percentage of KREEPy material (>20 vol.%), which has not been previously reported in other CE-5 samples. The mid-Ti impact glasses are characterized by high FeO (24.0 wt.%) and intermediate TiO2 (5.5 wt.%) contents, while the high-Al impact glasses have a chemical composition compatible with KREEP. Integrated with the regional geological context of the CE-5 landing site, we propose that CE5C is likely derived from a mixed region between the P58/Em4 mare unit and its contiguous eastern highlands. Despite the difficulty in assessing the representativeness of CE5C, the substantial presence of KREEPy material may provide valuable clues to the provenance of exotic ejecta, including the identification of unrecognized source craters situated in the eastern periphery of the sampling unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myocardial infarction (MI) causes excessive damage to the myocardium, including the epicardium. However, whether pluripotent stem cell‐derived epicardial cells (EPs) can be a therapeutic approach for infarcted hearts remains unclear. Here, the authors report that intramyocardial injection of human embryonic stem cell‐derived EPs (hEPs) at the acute phase of MI ameliorates functional worsening and scar formation in mouse hearts, concomitantly with enhanced cardiomyocyte survival, angiogenesis, and lymphangiogenesis. Mechanistically, hEPs suppress MI‐induced infiltration and cytokine‐release of inflammatory cells and promote reparative macrophage polarization. These effects are blocked by a type I interferon (IFN‐I) receptor agonist RO8191. Moreover, intelectin 1 (ITLN1), abundantly secreted by hEPs, interacts with IFN‐β and mimics the effects of hEP‐conditioned medium in suppression of IFN‐β‐stimulated responses in macrophages and promotion of reparative macrophage polarization, whereas ITLN1 downregulation in hEPs cancels beneficial effects of hEPs in anti‐inflammation, IFN‐I response inhibition, and cardiac repair. Further, similar beneficial effects of hEPs are observed in a clinically relevant porcine model of reperfused MI, with no increases in the risk of hepatic, renal, and cardiac toxicity. Collectively, this study reveals hEPs as an inflammatory modulator in promoting infarct healing via a paracrine mechanism and provides a new therapeutic approach for infarcted hearts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and Objectives: To (1) describe the socio‐demographic and behavioural characteristics of older adults who use wearable devices for physical activity monitoring and (2) explore whether wearable device use increases the possibilities of meeting physical activity guideline recommendations among older adults and older adults with known cardiovascular disease or risk. Background: Finding ways to increase physical activity and reduce cardiovascular disease risk among older adults is a public health priority. Wearable technology has great potential for promoting physical activity among older adults. Design: A secondary analysis of the national data. Methods: A nationally representative sample of older adults aged 65 years and older (mean age = 73.79 years, N = 1484) and a subsample of older adults with known cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular disease risk (mean = 74.32 years, N = 1098) was used in the analysis. All analyses were weighted to account for the complex survey design. This study was reported according to the STROBE checklist. Results: The overall prevalence of wearable device use among older adults and older adults with cardiovascular disease risk was 16% and 14%, respectively. Older adults with higher household incomes, better self‐rated health, and greater exercise enjoyment were more likely to use wearable devices. Compared with non‐users, older adult users were more likely to meet the recommended levels of moderate (55% vs. 31%) and strengthening activity guidelines (46% vs. 25%), but not of the sedentary behaviour guideline (69% vs. 62%). Similar findings were also seen in older adults with known cardiovascular disease or risk. Conclusion: The uptake of wearable devices in older adults, particularly those with known cardiovascular disease or risk is still low. The use of wearable devices is an important facilitator of physical activity. It is critical to provide individualised support for their engagement. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Age‐friendly design and individualised support are recommended to increase older adults' adoption of wearable devices to improve their physical health. Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution was involved in this study since we used publicly available data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic endothelial dysfunction associated with diminished endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase (eNOS) activity accelerates the development of atherosclerosis and cardiomyopathy. However, the approaches to restore eNOS activity and endothelial function in diabetes remain limited. The current study shows that enhanced expression of Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2), a shear stress-inducible transcription factor, effectively improves endothelial function through increasing NO bioavailability. KLF2 expression is suppressed in diabetic mouse aortic endothelium. Running exercise and simvastatin treatment induce endothelial KLF2 expression in db/db mice. Adenovirus-mediated endothelium-specific KLF2 overexpression enhances both endothelium-dependent relaxation and flow-mediated dilatation, while it attenuates oxidative stress in diabetic mouse arteries. KLF2 overexpression increases the phosphorylation of eNOS at serine 1177 and eNOS dimerization. RNA-sequencing analysis reveals that KLF2 transcriptionally upregulates genes that are enriched in the cyclic guanosine monophosphate-protein kinase G-signaling pathway, cAMP-signaling pathway, and insulin-signaling pathway, all of which are the upstream regulators of eNOS activity. Activation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase-Akt pathway and Hsp90 contributes to KLF2-induced increase of eNOS activity. The present results suggest that approaches inducing KLF2 activation, such as physical exercise, are effective to restore eNOS activity against diabetic endothelial dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the effect of light-duty vehicle trip characteristics and cold-start extra emissions (CSEEs) on the spatio-temporal distribution of vehicle emissions at the urban scale facilitates dynamic modeling of emissions and assessment of human exposure in denser settings. The results of Beijing demonstrate that cold starts and CSEEs are predominantly distributed in peak hours, especially morning peaks. A total of 80.8% of the morning peak trips are cold-start trips, and CSEEs account for 64.2%, 50.1%, and 8.3% of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), and nitrogen oxide (NOX) in the winter morning peaks, respectively. The fraction of CSEEs for CO, HC, and NOX increases by 49.1%, 54.6%, and 36.7%, respectively, when trip length decreases from more than 35 km to less than 5 km. By converting 50% of the short automobile trips to non-motorized modes, CSEEs decrease by 12.9%, 13.4%, and 12.9% of CO, HC, and NOX of the entire road network. CSEEs are mainly distributed on local roads and minor arterials with high air pollution exposure for pedestrians and cyclists, accounting for 68.1% and 21.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disordered rocksalt cathodes have shown attractive electrochemical performance via oxygen redox, but are limited by a necessary Li‐excess level above the percolation threshold (x > 1.09 in LixTM2‐xO2, TM = transition metals) to obtain electrochemical activity. However, a relatively low‐Li content is essential to alleviate excessive oxygen charge compensation in rocksalt oxides. Herein, taking the homogeneous Li2MnO3 and LiMn2O4 as the starting point, disordered rocksalt‐like cathodes are prepared with initial Li‐deficient nanostructures, cation vacancies, and partial spinel‐type structures that provide a solution for the acquisition of fast Li+ percolation channels under Li‐deficient condition. As a result, the prepared sample exhibits high initial discharge capacity (363 mAh g−1) and energy density (1081 Wh kg−1). Advanced spectroscopy and in situ measurements observe highly reversible charge compensation during electrochemical process and assign coupled Mn‐ and O‐related redox contribution. Theoretical calculations also suggest the novel and chemical reversible trapped molecular O2 model in the rocksalt structure with vacancies, demonstrating a dual role of Li‐deficient structure in promoting cationic oxidation and extending reversible oxygen redox boundary. This work is expected to breakthrough the existing ideas of oxygen oxidation and opens up a higher degree of freedom in the design of disordered rocksalt structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adsorption of small-molecule gases (NO2, SO2, NO, H2, N2, O2, CO, CO2, H2O, H2S, and NH3) on GeS was studied using first-principles density functional theory (DFT). The study revealed that, among the small-molecule gases, NO2, SO2, and NO present the highest adsorption energies of 0.746 eV, 0.466 eV, and 0.412 eV, respectively. Moreover, the monolayer GeS transforms from a non-magnetic state to a magnetic state with a magnetic moment of 1 μ B after NO2 or NO adsorptions, resulting in significant changes in the electronic band structures. Especially, for the NO2 adsorption system, exhibited exceptional adsorption density and an I–V curve shift demonstrate that GeS has high selectivity for sensing NO2 gas. Therefore, our research results indicate that GeS is a promising candidate material for NO2 gas sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type 2C protein phosphatases (PP2Cs) play key roles in regulating plant senescence and ripening. Here, we discovered a subfamily F PP2C, SlPP2C, associated with leaf senescence through transcriptome analysis. The gene expression, protein accumulation, and promoter activity of SlPP2C all gradually increased along with the progression of leaf and flower senescence and fruit ripening in tomato. Also, the expression of SlPP2C was highly up‐regulated by the senescent‐inducible hormone treatments, showing more sensitivity to ethylene (ETH) and abscisic acid (ABA). Meanwhile, SlPP2C RNA interference (RNAi) tomato transgenic lines showed obvious delayed senescence and ripening phenotypes of leaves, flowers, and fruits. SlPP2C RNAi lines delayed leaf senescence with higher chlorophyll fluorescence and content, and lower expressions of senescence marker genes (SlSGR1 and SlSAG12) compared to WT. SlPP2C RNAi lines clearly delayed flower senescence time; it was at least twice longer than WT. SlPP2C RNAi lines delayed fruit ripening, exhibiting higher firmness and lower polygalacturonase activity compared to WT. In addition, we proved that SlPP2C is unable to interact with any of the ABA receptors (SlPYLs). Together, the results demonstrate that SlPP2C is a senescence‐related and ripening‐related gene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium (Li) metal has been regarded as the "Holy Grail" of Li battery anodes thanks to its high theoretic specific capacity and low reduction potential, but uneven formation of Li dendrites and uncontrollable Li volume changes hinder the practical applications of Li metal anodes. A three-dimensional (3D) current collector is one of the promising strategies to address the above issues if it can be compatible with current industrialized process. Here, Au-decorated carbon nanotubes (Au@CNTs) are electrophoretically deposited on commercial Cu foil as a 3D lithiophilic skeleton to regulate Li deposition. The thickness of the as-prepared 3D skeleton can be accurately controlled by adjusting the deposition time. Benefitting from the reduced localized current density and improved Li affinity, the Au@CNTs-deposited Cu foil (Au@CNTs@Cu foil) achieves uniform Li nucleation and dendrite-free Li deposition. Compared with bare Cu foil and CNTs deposited Cu foil (CNTs@Cu foil), the Au@CNTs@Cu foil exhibits enhanced Coulombic efficiency and better cycling stability. In the full-cell configuration, the Au@CNTs@Cu foil with predeposited Li shows superior stability and rate performance. This work provides a facial strategy to directly construct a 3D skeleton on commercial Cu foils with lithiophilic building blocks for stable and practical Li metal anodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinal vessel segmentation is crucial in the diagnosis of certain ophthalmic and cardiovascular diseases. Although U-shaped networks have been widely used for retinal vessel segmentation, most of the improved methods have insufficient feature extraction capability and fuse different network layers using element or dimension summation, leading to redundant information and inaccurate retinal vessel localization with blurred vessel edges. The asymmetry of small blood vessels in fundus images also increases the difficulty of segmenting blood vessels. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel multi-scale subtraction network (MS-CANet) with residual coordinate attention to segment the vessels in retinal vessel images. Our approach incorporates a residual coordinate attention module during the encoding phase, which captures long-range spatial dependencies while preserving precise position information. To obtain rich multi-scale information, we also include multi-scale subtraction units at different perceptual field levels. Moreover, we introduce a parallel channel attention module that enhances the contrast between vessel and background, thereby improving the detection of marginal vessels during the decoding phase. We validate our proposed model on three benchmark datasets, namely DRIVE, CHASE, and STARE. The results demonstrate that our method outperforms most advanced methods under different evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primitive achondrites, representing 'transitional' samples between chondrites and differentiated achondrites, provide a great opportunity to decode the thermal histories of planetesimals in the early solar system. In this work, we report a comprehensive study of petrography, mineralogy, O-Cr isotopes and 53Mn-53Cr systematics of four ungrouped primitive achondrites, Northwest Africa (NWA) 12869, NWA 3250, NWA 11112, and Tafassasset. High resolution X-ray tomographic microscopy (HR-XTM) observations yield the 3D spatial distributions of metal, sulfide, and plagioclase, providing the direct petrologic evidence for incipient melting. In NWA 12869, NWA 3250, and NWA 11112, only FeNi-FeS eutectic melting occurs, with small fractions of metal and sulfide melt and amalgamate sporadically. As for Tafassasset, in addition to common metal and sulfide melt, plagioclase (±pyroxene) extensively melts and interconnects to form networks, with the generation of basaltic melts. The 53Mn-53Cr systematics in NWA 12869 [initial 53Mn/55Mn of (3.24 ± 0.32) × 10−6] and Tafassasset [initial 53Mn/55Mn of (3.48 ± 0.20) × 10−6] are determined with mineral separates and bulk samples. When anchored to the D'Orbigny angrite, NWA 12869 has a 53Mn-53Cr age of 4563.4 ± 0.6 Ma, while Tafassasset has an age of 4563.8 ± 0.4 Ma. The Mn-Cr ages of NWA 12869 and Tafassasset record the time of incipient melting within their parent bodies. Considering that NWA 12869, NWA 3250, and NWA 11112 exhibit the same olivine-dominated (47–69 vol%) mineral assemblages with recrystallized textures and a great similarity in mineral chemistry (olivine: Fa 35–38 ; pyroxene: Fs 27–30 Wo 3.0–3.5 ; plagioclase: An 47–50 ; chromite: Cr#: 74–76; Mg#: 14.0–14.6), oxygen fugacity (IW-2 to IW-1), as well as 54Cr nucleosynthetic anomalies (ε54Cr: 1.01 ± 0.09 to 1.44 ± 0.18) and oxygen isotopes (Δ17O: −1.72 to −1.78 ± 0.05‰), we first classify them into a new grouplet of primitive achondrites, different from Tafassasset. This grouplet does not share a parent body with CR chondrites, but rather derives from incipient melting of a carbonaceous chondrite parent body which formed in a nebular reservoir physically close to that sampled by CR chondrites. More chondrite, differentiated achondrite, and/or iron samples associated with this new grouplet would provide further constraints on the rate and onset time of accretion, as well as the interior structure of the planetesimal in the outer solar system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have made great achievements in the field of medical image segmentation, especially full convolutional neural networks based on U-shaped structures and skip connections. However, limited by the inherent limitations of convolution, CNNs-based methods usually exhibit limitations in modeling long-range dependencies and are unable to extract large amounts of global contextual information, which deprives neural networks of the ability to adapt to different visual modalities. In this paper, we propose our own model, which is called iU-Net bacause its structure closely resembles the combination of i and U. iU-Net is a multiple encoder-decoder structure combining Swin Transformer and CNN. We use a hierarchical Swin Transformer structure with shifted windows as the primary encoder and convolution as the secondary encoder to complement the context information extracted by the primary encoder. To sufficiently fuse the feature information extracted from multiple encoders, we design a feature fusion module (W-FFM) based on wave function representation. Besides, a three branch up sampling method(Tri-Upsample) has developed to replace the patch expand in the Swin Transformer, which can effectively avoid the Checkerboard Artifacts caused by the patch expand. On the skin lesion region segmentation task, the segmentation performance of iU-Net is optimal, with Dice and Iou reaching 90.12% and 83.06%, respectively. To verify the generalization of iU-Net, we used the model trained on ISIC2018 dataset to test on PH2 dataset, and achieved 93.80% Dice and 88.74% IoU. On the lung feild segmentation task, the iU-Net achieved optimal results on IoU and Precision, reaching 98.54% and 94.35% respectively. Extensive experiments demonstrate the segmentation performance and generalization ability of iU-Net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fengyun-4A (FY-4A) is the latest generation of China’s geostationary satellite. The Advanced Geosynchronous Radiation Imager (AGRI) onboard FY-4A can provide high-precision, high-frequency observation data, which makes a new possibility for estimating the downwelling surface longwave radiation (DSLR) with high spatial and temporal resolution. This work presents a new method for estimating DSLRs under all-sky conditions using a genetic algorithm–artificial neural network (GA-ANN) algorithm based on brightness temperature (BT) from the FY-4A AGRI infrared channels and near-surface air temperature and dew point temperature from ERA5 reanalysis data. Based on the verification results of two independent observation sites, it is shown that the bias and RMSE are - 4.31 W/m2 and 35.28 W/m2, respectively. Compared the CERES SYN all-sky DSLR product with the DSLR estimated by the new method, the bias and RMSE are 0.86 W/m2 and 26.87 W/m2, respectively, and the new method has a higher spatial resolution (4 km), which can display more details of spatial variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we survey some results on the symmetric semi-perfect obstruction theory on a Deligne—Mumford stack X constructed by Chang—Li, and Behrend's theorem equating the weighted Euler characteristic of X and the virtual count of X by symmetric semi-perfect obstruction theories. As an application, we prove that Joyce's d-critical scheme admits a symmetric semi-perfect obstruction theory, which can be applied to the virtual Euler characteristics by Jiang—Thomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a mycotoxin known to impair human and animal health. It is also believed to have a deleterious effect on ruminal nutrient digestibility under in vitro batch culture systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of increasing the dose of AFB1 on ruminal dry matter and nutrient digestibility, fermentation profile, and N flows using a dual-flow continuous culture system fed a diet formulated for lactating dairy cows. Eight fermenter vessels were used in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with 10 d periods (7 d adaptation and 3 d sample collection). Treatments were randomly applied to fermenters on diet DM basis: (1) 0 μg of AFB1/kg of DM (Control); (2) 50 μg of AFB1/kg of DM (AF50); (3) 100 μg of AFB1/kg of DM (AF100); and (4) 150 μg of AFB1/kg of DM (AF150). Treatments did not affect nutrient digestibility, fermentation, and N flows. Aflatoxin B1 concentration in ruminal fluid increased with dose but decreased to undetectable levels after 4 h post-dosing. In conclusion, adding incremental doses of AFB1 did not affect ruminal fermentation, digestibility of nutrients, and N flows in a dual-flow continuous culture system fed diets formulated for lactating dairy cows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superenhancers drive abnormal gene expression in tumors and promote malignancy. However, the relationship between superenhancer‐associated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and abnormal metabolism is unknown. This study identifies a novel lncRNA, fatty acid synthesis‐related lncRNA (FASRL), whose expression is driven by upstream stimulatory factor 1 (USF1) through its superenhancer. FASRL promotes hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, FASRL binds to acetyl‐CoA carboxylase 1 (ACACA), a fatty acid synthesis rate‐limiting enzyme, increasing fatty acid synthesis via the fatty acid metabolism pathway. Moreover, the expression of FASRL, USF1, and ACACA is increased, and their high expression indicates a worse prognosis in HCC patients. In summary, USF1 drives FASRL transcription via a superenhancer. FASRL binding to ACACA increases fatty acid synthesis and lipid accumulation to mechanistically exacerbate HCC. FASRL may serve as a novel prognostic marker and treatment target in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Glaucoma can cause irreversible blindness to people's eyesight. Since there are no symptoms in its early stage, it is particularly important to accurately segment the optic disc (OD) and optic cup (OC) from fundus medical images for the screening and prevention of glaucoma. In recent years, the mainstream method of OD and OC segmentation is convolution neural network (CNN). However, most existing CNN methods segment OD and OC separately and ignore the a priori information that OC is always contained inside the OD region, which makes the segmentation accuracy of most methods not high enough. Methods: This paper proposes a new encoder–decoder segmentation structure, called RSAP-Net, for joint segmentation of OD and OC. We first designed an efficient U-shaped segmentation network as the backbone. Considering the spatial overlap relationship between OD and OC, a new Residual spatial attention path is proposed to connect the encoder–decoder to retain more characteristic information. In order to further improve the segmentation performance, a pre-processing method called MSRCR-PT (Multi-Scale Retinex Colour Recovery and Polar Transformation) has been devised. It incorporates a multi-scale Retinex colour recovery algorithm and a polar coordinate transformation, which can help RSAP-Net to produce more refined boundaries of the optic disc and the optic cup. Results: The experimental results show that our method achieves excellent segmentation performance on the Drishti-GS1 standard dataset. In the OD and OC segmentation effects, the F1 scores are 0.9752 and 0.9012, respectively. The BLE are 6.33 pixels and 11.97 pixels, respectively. Conclusions: This paper presents a new framework for the joint segmentation of optic discs and optic cups, called RSAP-Net. The framework mainly consists of a U-shaped segmentation skeleton and a residual space attention path module. The design of a pre-processing method called MSRCR-PT for the OD/OC segmentation task can improve segmentation performance. The method was evaluated on the publicly available Drishti-GS1 standard dataset and proved to be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), a destructive pest that originated in South and North America, spread to China in early 2019. Controlling this invasive pest requires an understanding of its population structure and migration patterns, yet the invasion genetics of Chinese S. frugiperda is not clear. Here, using the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, triose phosphate isomerase (Tpi) gene and eight microsatellite loci, we investigated genetic structure and genetic diversity of 16 S. frugiperda populations in China. The Tpi locus identified most S. frugiperda populations as the corn-strains, and a few were heterozygous strains. The microsatellite loci revealed that the genetic diversity of this pest in China was lower than that in South America. Furthermore, we found moderate differentiation among the populations, distinct genetic structures between adjacent populations and abundant genetic resources in the S. frugiperda populations from China sampled across 2 years. The survival rate of S. frugiperda was significantly higher when it was fed on corn leaves than on rice leaves, and the larval stage mortality rate was the highest under both treatments. Our results showed that S. frugiperda probably invaded China via multiple independent introductions and careful pesticide control, continuous monitoring and further studies will be needed to minimize its potential future outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We retrospectively analyzed risk factors on in-hospital mortality in CRRT-therapy patients with open cardiac surgery (CS)-induced acute kidney injury (AKI), to provide the clinical basis for predicting and lowering the in-hospital mortality after CS. Methods: 84 CS-AKI patients with CRRT were divided into survival and death groups according to discharge status, and the perioperative data were analyzed with R version 4.0.2. Results: There were significant differences between the two groups, including: urea nitrogen, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score and vasoactive-inotropic score (VIS) on the first day after operation; VIS just before CRRT; SOFA score and negative balance of blood volume 24 h after CRRT; the incidence rate of bleeding, severe infection and MODS after operation; and the interval between AKI and CRRT. Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that SOFA score and VIS on the first day after operation; VIS just before CRRT; VIS and negative balance of blood volume 24 h after CRRT; the incidence rate of bleeding, infection and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) after operation; bootstrap resampling analysis showed that SOFA score and VIS 24 h after CRRT, as well as the incidence of bleeding after operation were the independent risk factors. Conclusion: Maintaining stable hemodynamics and active prevention of bleeding are expected to decrease the in-hospital mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spinel LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO), high‐voltage and high‐power density, is a very promising cathode candidate. Nevertheless, its lack of cycling stability has historically been long accepted as an inherent issue. Based on the above problem, a strategy is initiated to directly address Mn dissolution and unstable interface structure. A beneficial solid‐phase reaction occurs at the LNMO interface, transforming the spinel phase into two functional phases. One is the layered phase that provides electrochemical activity and supports charge transport. The other is the rock‐salt like phase induced by Li/Mn exchange that can inhibit the dissolution of Mn and provide inert protection. The Li/Mn exchange structure increases the diffusion energy barriers of Mn, which restrains the loss of Mn, proven by the bond valence sum calculation. The two phases are modulated successfully at the LNMO interface to balance the stable material structure and excellent charge transfer, obtaining a sample with excellent electrochemical performance. The capacity retention rate of modified LNMO is 15% higher than that of the pristine sample after 500 cycles. The preparation method does not utilize any dopants or coatings and can play a guiding role in addressing issues regarding structural stability and electrochemical performance for cathode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a complex process of ectopic calcification involving various factors that lead to aortic valve stenosis, hemodynamic changes, and, in severe cases, even sudden death. Currently, aortic valve replacement is the only effective method. The osteogenic differentiation of aortic valve interstitial cells (AVICs) is one of the key factors of valve calcification. Emerging evidence suggests that bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) can induce the proosteogenic activation of AVICs. However, the regulatory mechanism underlying this activation in AVICs is unclear. In the present study, we elucidated through high-throughput RNA sequencing and RT-qPCR that miR-664a-3p was evidently downregulated in the calcific aortic valve. We also proved that miR-664a-3p was involved in regulating osteogenic differentiation in AVICs. Target prediction analysis and dual-luciferase reporter gene assay confirmed that miR-664a-3p is preferentially bound to BMP2. Furthermore, the effect of the miR-664a-3p/BMP2 axis on osteogenic differentiation in AVICs was examined using the gain- and loss-of-function approach. Finally, we constructed a mouse CAVD model and verified the effect of the miR-664a-3p/BMP2 axis on the aortic valve calcification leaflets in vivo. In conclusion, miR-664a-3p regulates osteogenic differentiation in AVICs through negative regulation of BMP2, highlighting that miR-664a-3p may be a potential therapeutic target for CAVD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a construction of the moduli space of stable coherent sheaves in the world of non-archimedean geometry, where we use the notion of Berkovich non-archimedean analytic spaces. The motivation for our construction is Tony Yue Yu's non-archimedean enumerative geometry in Gromov—Witten theory. The construction of the moduli space of stable sheaves using Berkovich analytic spaces will give rise to the non-archimedean version of Donaldson—Thomas invariants. In this paper we give the moduli construction over a non-archimedean field K . We use the machinery of formal schemes, that is, we define and construct the formal moduli stack of (semi)-stable coherent sheaves over a discrete valuation ring R, and taking generic fiber we get the non-archimedean analytic moduli space of semistable coherent sheaves over the fractional non-archimedean field K . We generalize Joyce's d-critical scheme structure in [37] or Kiem—Li's virtual critical manifolds in [38] to the world of formal schemes, and Berkovich non-archimedean analytic spaces. As an application, we provide a proof for the motivic localization formula for a d-critical non-archimedean K -analytic space using global motive of vanishing cycles and motivic integration on oriented formal d-critical schemes. This generalizes Maulik's motivic localization formula for the motivic Donaldson—Thomas invariants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a stacked convolutional neural network incorporating a novel and efficient pyramid residual attention (PRA) module for the task of automatic segmentation of dermoscopic images. Precise segmentation is a significant and challenging step for computer-aided diagnosis technology in skin lesion diagnosis and treatment. The proposed PRA has the following characteristics: First, we concentrate on three widely used modules in the PRA. The purpose of the pyramid structure is to extract the feature information of the lesion area at different scales, the residual means is aimed to ensure the efficiency of model training, and the attention mechanism is used to screen effective features maps. Thanks to the PRA, our network can still obtain precise boundary information that distinguishes healthy skin from diseased areas for the blurred lesion areas. Secondly, the proposed PRA can increase the segmentation ability of a single module for lesion regions through efficient stacking. The third, we incorporate the idea of encoder-decoder into the architecture of the overall network. Compared with the traditional networks, we divide the segmentation procedure into three levels and construct the pyramid residual attention network (PRAN). The shallow layer mainly processes spatial information, the middle layer refines both spatial and semantic information, and the deep layer intensively learns semantic information. The basic module of PRAN is PRA, which is enough to ensure the efficiency of the three-layer architecture network. We extensively evaluate our method on ISIC2017 and ISIC2018 datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that PRAN can obtain better segmentation performance comparable to state-of-the-art deep learning models under the same experiment environment conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: More than 60% of cancer cases occur in older adults, and many are treated with oral anticancer agents. Yet, the treatment tolerability in older adults has not been fully understood due to their underrepresentation in oncology clinical trials, creating challenges for treatment decision-making and symptom management. The objective of this study was to investigate the tolerance of capecitabine, an example of oral chemotherapy, among older adults with cancer and explore factors associated with capecitabine-related side effects and treatment changes, to enhance supportive care.Methods: A secondary analysis used combined data from electronic health records and a pilot study of patient-reported outcomes, with a total of 97 adult patients taking capecitabine during 2016-2017, including older adult patients aged 65 years or older (n = 43). The data extracted included patient socio-demographics, capecitabine information, side effects, and capecitabine treatment changes (dose reductions and dose interruptions). Bivariate correlations, negative binomial regression, and multiple linear regression were conducted for data analysis.Results: Older adults were more likely to experience fatigue (86% vs. 51%, p = .001) and experienced more severe fatigue (β = 0.44, p = 0.03) and hand-foot syndrome (HFS) (β = 1.15, p = 0.004) than younger adults. The severity of fatigue and HFS were associated with the number of outpatient medications (β = 0.06, p = 0.006) and the duration of treatment (β = 0.50, p = 0.009), respectively. Correlations among side effects presented different patterns between younger and older adults. Although more older adults experienced dose reductions (21% vs. 13%) and dose interruptions (33% vs. 28%) than younger adults, the differences were not statistically different. Female sex, breast cancer diagnosis, capecitabine monotherapy, and severe HFS were found to be associated with dose reductions (p-values < 0.05).Conclusions: Older adults were less likely to tolerate capecitabine treatment and had different co-occurring side effects compared to younger adults. While dose reductions are common among older adults, age 65 years or older may not be an independent factor of treatment changes. Other socio-demographic and clinical factors may be more likely to be associated. Future studies can be conducted to further explore older adults' tolerance to a variety of oral anticancer agents to generate more evidence to support optimal treatment decision-making and symptom management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dicyandiamide (DCD) has been extensively used to retard the nitrification process and decrease nitrogen (N) losses. However, its efficacy is variable and inconsistent depending upon the environmental conditions. The effects of temperature and moisture on DCD degradation and carbon dioxide (CO2) release from calcareous soil are not well-known. Therefore, an incubation experiment comprising three treatme ts (control, N fertilizer, and N fertilizer + DCD) was conducted for 67 d at different temperature (10 °C and 25 °C) and moisture (40% and 60% WFPS) levels. Results showed that nitrification activity and subsequent gaseous losses were increased with N addition and significantly affected by temperature and moisture levels. DCD effectively inhibited NH4+ oxidation, net NO3− production (31–59%), and N2O emissions (69%). CO2 emissions increased with N fertilization but reduced (18–161%) significantly with DCD application. DCD efficiency of inhibiting nitrification and controlling CO2 emission was related to its residence time in the soil. DCD degraded quickly at high temperature (25 °C) and moisture (60% WFPS), that is why it was least effective in inhibiting nitrification and controlling gaseous fluxes. Accordingly, DCD is not equally effective everywhere and is more suitable for regions with low temperature and low moisture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single photon LIDAR exhibits exceptional detection sensitivity and finds extensive applications in long-distance measurement and three-dimensional imaging domains. However, it is susceptible to background noise interference, leading to a trade-off between scanning imaging efficiency and angular resolution, thereby limiting its overall performance. In this paper, we propose a novel 'compression-resampling' high-resolution imaging method for single-photon scanning LIDAR based on the spatial correlation of the target scene. This approach significantly enhances the system's angular resolution without compromising imaging efficiency. By employing this method, we successfully conducted 3D imaging over distances exceeding 26 km even under challenging conditions with high levels of background noise during daylight hours. Within a target field of view measuring 1° × 1°, we reconstructed a high-resolution 3D point cloud image comprising 1000 × 1410 pixels. Notably, this achievement yielded an impressive angular resolution of 17.4 urad while maintaining an acceptable imaging time of approximately 20 minutes. The results unequivocally demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in improving the quality of three-dimensional imaging and enhancing angular resolution while simultaneously reducing imaging time requirements, thus expanding potential application scenarios for single-photon LIDAR technology. • A 'compression-resampling' high-resolution imaging method is proposed for single-photon scanning LIDAR. • A fast 3D imaging over distances exceeding 26 km was conducted during daylight hours. • A high-resolution 3D point cloud image comprising 1000 × 1410 pixels was reconstructed. The angular resolution is 17.4 urad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil salinization is a serious problem during ground improvement and foundation construction around the coastal region. This study used high alumina cement (HAC) as a soil stabilisation agent to modify the coastal chlorine saline soil as roadbed backfilling materials. In addition, Ordinary Portland cement (OPC), slaked lime (SL) and fly ash (FA) were used to better the understanding of the chlorine fixation and roadbed performance. The microstructures of different hydration products were investigated through the utilization of the X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersion spectrometer. The HAC-SL-modified soil depicts that the aluminium and calcium phases are beneficial to the formation of Friedel's salt and hydration products. The optimal chlorine fixation is approximately 20.5% at 6% HAC-SL incorporation (3% of HAC and 3% SL). At the early stage of curing, the strength of the HAC-treated soil is high. However, with a prolonged curing period, there is a slight decrease in the strength because the porosity will increase during the transformation of metastable CAH 10 and C 2 AH 8 into stable and dense C 3 AH 6. This evolution can be prevented by incorporating SL to enrich calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) and calcium aluminate hydrate (C-A-H). Furthermore, it is of key importance to mention that HAC reaction is quick, therefore, the compaction should be undertaken instantly to ensure the road performance. • It is effective for high alumina cement (HAC) with slaked lime (SL) to modify chlorine saline soil. • Al-phase component in cement react with Cl- ion to generate Friedel's salt and fix Cl-. • Excellent Cl- fixation is achieved with 20.5% fixation at 3% SL and 3% HAC to dry soil. • Alkalinity and Ca2+ source enhance Cl- fixation, compactability and performance. • Delayed compaction weakens the performance for quick hydration of high alumina cement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many major diseases of the retina often show symptoms of lesions in the fundus of the eye. The extraction of blood vessels from retinal fundus images is essential to assist doctors. Some of the existing methods do not fully extract the detailed features of retinal images or lose some information, making it difficult to accurately segment capillaries located at the edges of the images. In this paper, we propose a multi-scale retinal vessel segmentation network (SCIE_Net) based on skip connection information enhancement. Firstly, the network processes retinal images at multiple scales to achieve network capture of features at different scales. Secondly, the feature aggregation module is proposed to aggregate the rich information of the shallow network. Further, the skip connection information enhancement module is proposed to take into account the detailed features of the shallow layer and the advanced features of the deeper network to avoid the problem of incomplete information interaction between the layers of the network. Finally, SCIE_Net achieves better vessel segmentation performance and results on the publicly available retinal image standard datasets DRIVE, CHASE_DB1, and STARE.Graphical abstract: Many major diseases of the retina often show symptoms of lesions in the fundus of the eye. The extraction of blood vessels from retinal fundus images is essential to assist doctors. Some of the existing methods do not fully extract the detailed features of retinal images or lose some information, making it difficult to accurately segment capillaries located at the edges of the images. In this paper, we propose a multi-scale retinal vessel segmentation network (SCIE_Net) based on skip connection information enhancement. Firstly, the network processes retinal images at multiple scales to achieve network capture of features at different scales. Secondly, the feature aggregation module is proposed to aggregate the rich information of the shallow network. Further, the skip connection information enhancement module is proposed to take into account the detailed features of the shallow layer and the advanced features of the deeper network to avoid the problem of incomplete information interaction between the layers of the network. Finally, SCIE_Net achieves better vessel segmentation performance and results on the publicly available retinal image standard datasets DRIVE, CHASE_DB1, and STARE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Over the past few decades, terrestrial ecosystems have experienced rising atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, which further impacts the global carbon (C) budget through soil microbial respiration (MR). However, the effects of N deposition on MR are rarely characterized in deep soil (depth > 10 cm) rather than in surface soil (0–10 cm). This study attempted to elucidate how N deposition regulates MR along the soil profile and its underlying mechanism.We collected soil samples and determined MR across three soil layers (shallow, medium, and deep) from a decade-long and five-level N addition experiment in a temperate steppe in Inner Mongolia. We further used structural equation modeling to explore how long-term N addition regulates MR through various biotic (plant attributes and microbial community structure) and abiotic (soil properties) factors across the three soil layers.The overall response of MR to N addition varied with soil depth, shifting from stimulation in the shallow soil layer (standardized total effect of 0.36) to inhibition in the medium and deep soil layers (-0.34 and − 0.31). The identified direct and indirect pathways by which N addition regulates MR significantly differed across soil layers.Our results found that the N addition effect on soil C decomposition varied across different soil layers and involved distinct mechanisms in the temperate grassland. As soil depth increases, the suppressive effect of N deposition on MR provides evidence that increasing N deposition may contribute to C accrual in deep soil in grassland ecosystems.Methods: Over the past few decades, terrestrial ecosystems have experienced rising atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, which further impacts the global carbon (C) budget through soil microbial respiration (MR). However, the effects of N deposition on MR are rarely characterized in deep soil (depth > 10 cm) rather than in surface soil (0–10 cm). This study attempted to elucidate how N deposition regulates MR along the soil profile and its underlying mechanism.We collected soil samples and determined MR across three soil layers (shallow, medium, and deep) from a decade-long and five-level N addition experiment in a temperate steppe in Inner Mongolia. We further used structural equation modeling to explore how long-term N addition regulates MR through various biotic (plant attributes and microbial community structure) and abiotic (soil properties) factors across the three soil layers.The overall response of MR to N addition varied with soil depth, shifting from stimulation in the shallow soil layer (standardized total effect of 0.36) to inhibition in the medium and deep soil layers (-0.34 and − 0.31). The identified direct and indirect pathways by which N addition regulates MR significantly differed across soil layers.Our results found that the N addition effect on soil C decomposition varied across different soil layers and involved distinct mechanisms in the temperate grassland. As soil depth increases, the suppressive effect of N deposition on MR provides evidence that increasing N deposition may contribute to C accrual in deep soil in grassland ecosystems.Results: Over the past few decades, terrestrial ecosystems have experienced rising atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, which further impacts the global carbon (C) budget through soil microbial respiration (MR). However, the effects of N deposition on MR are rarely characterized in deep soil (depth > 10 cm) rather than in surface soil (0–10 cm). This study attempted to elucidate how N deposition regulates MR along the soil profile and its underlying mechanism.We collected soil samples and determined MR across three soil layers (shallow, medium, and deep) from a decade-long and five-level N addition experiment in a temperate steppe in Inner Mongolia. We further used structural equation modeling to explore how long-term N addition regulates MR through various biotic (plant attributes and microbial community structure) and abiotic (soil properties) factors across the three soil layers.The overall response of MR to N addition varied with soil depth, shifting from stimulation in the shallow soil layer (standardized total effect of 0.36) to inhibition in the medium and deep soil layers (-0.34 and − 0.31). The identified direct and indirect pathways by which N addition regulates MR significantly differed across soil layers.Our results found that the N addition effect on soil C decomposition varied across different soil layers and involved distinct mechanisms in the temperate grassland. As soil depth increases, the suppressive effect of N deposition on MR provides evidence that increasing N deposition may contribute to C accrual in deep soil in grassland ecosystems.Conclusion: Over the past few decades, terrestrial ecosystems have experienced rising atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition, which further impacts the global carbon (C) budget through soil microbial respiration (MR). However, the effects of N deposition on MR are rarely characterized in deep soil (depth > 10 cm) rather than in surface soil (0–10 cm). This study attempted to elucidate how N deposition regulates MR along the soil profile and its underlying mechanism.We collected soil samples and determined MR across three soil layers (shallow, medium, and deep) from a decade-long and five-level N addition experiment in a temperate steppe in Inner Mongolia. We further used structural equation modeling to explore how long-term N addition regulates MR through various biotic (plant attributes and microbial community structure) and abiotic (soil properties) factors across the three soil layers.The overall response of MR to N addition varied with soil depth, shifting from stimulation in the shallow soil layer (standardized total effect of 0.36) to inhibition in the medium and deep soil layers (-0.34 and − 0.31). The identified direct and indirect pathways by which N addition regulates MR significantly differed across soil layers.Our results found that the N addition effect on soil C decomposition varied across different soil layers and involved distinct mechanisms in the temperate grassland. As soil depth increases, the suppressive effect of N deposition on MR provides evidence that increasing N deposition may contribute to C accrual in deep soil in grassland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The symbiotic microbiota inhabiting the skin and gut of amphibians exerts roles in maintaining host health, especially during the critical stage of complete metamorphosis where failure to remodel the microbiota can result in various diseases. However, the composition and alterations in the amphibian microbiota in diverse diseased populations, as well as the exact mechanisms underlying disruptions in skin and gut microbial communities leading to diseases, are not yet well established. Herein, skin and gut microbiota were sampled from healthy Chinese spiny frogs (CTL group) as well as individuals with ascites disease (AD group), cataract disease (CD group), and rotten-skin disease (RD group) for Illumina high-throughput sequencing analysis to comprehensively explore potential associations between microbiota composition and the health status of the host. Venn diagrams and UpSet analysis revealed that the CTL group exhibited the highest number of unique amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) in their skin, while the CD group displayed the lowest abundance of ASVs in their gut. Compared to the CTL group, the alpha-diversity of skin microbiota was dramatically depressed in diseased groups, and notable variations in the beta-diversity of both skin and gut microbiota were observed. Further compositional analysis identified Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidota as the dominant bacterial phyla in both skin and gut microbiota, although their relative abundances varied widely among groups. The linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) analysis identified various bacteria species with substantial differences between skin and gut microbiota groups including beneficial populations as well as opportunistic ones. Functional predictions indicated significant differences between CTL and diseased groups mainly enriched in metabolism-relevant pathways. Furthermore, in vitro culture experiments confirmed the presence of a total of 19 strains of bacteria from the skin microbiota of RD group, including opportunistic bacteria population Acinetobacter closely associated with spiny frog rotten-skin disease. Taken together, this work provides insights into the composition dynamics of skin and gut microbiota under different health conditions in spiny frogs, highlighting potential applications for symbiotic microbiota modification in promoting healthy amphibian culture practices as well as preventing diseases. • Diseases significantly impacted alpha-diversity and beta-diversity of skin and gut microbiota in Chinese spiny frog. • Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidota might be intrinsic microbiota colonizing skin and gut of Chinese spiny frog. • Several sensitive indicator taxa were identified for host health assessment and disease prediction. • Diseases triggered biological dysfunctions in microbiota of Chinese spiny frog, especially pathways related to metabolism. • Skin-cultivable bacteria were identified from frogs with rotten-skin disease, dominated by opportunistic pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The aim of the study was to find the potential roles of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and imaging markers on distinguishing cardioembolic (CE) stroke from non-CE stroke, so as to provide useful information for making individualized endovascular treatment (EVT) plan for the patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Methods. The patients with unilateral anterior circulation large vessel occlusion who underwent EVT between March 2016 and December 2021 were analyzed in this study, retrospectively. The risk factors, laboratory test indicators, imaging parameters, and other factors were compared between the CE group and non-CE group. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors of CE stroke. ROC curves were used to assess the values of different parameters on distinguishing CE stroke from non-CE stroke. The relationships between BNP and imaging parameters were assessed using the Spearman correlation analysis. Results. 160 patients were enrolled in the study and divided into the CE group (n = 66) and non-CE group (n = 94). BNP (odds ratio OR = 1.004 ; 95% CI, 1.001-1.009; p = 0.038), MMR (OR = 0.736 ; 95% CI, 0.573-0.945; p = 0.016), NIHSS (OR = 1.150 ; 95% CI, 1.022-1.294; p = 0.020), and AF (OR = 556.968 ; 95% CI, 51.739-5995.765; p < 0.001) were the independent predictive factors of CE stroke. The area under the curve (AUC) of BNP and mismatch ratio (MMR) were 0.846 (95% CI (0.780-0.898), p < 0.001) and 0.636 (95% CI (0.633-0.779), p < 0.001), respectively. The cut-off value of BNP was 249.23 pg/mL with the sensitivity of 74.24% and the specificity of 82.98%. BNP combined with MMR improved the predictive value for CE stroke. The AUC of the combination was 0.858 with the sensitivity of 84.85% and the specificity of 73.40%. BNP was correlated with 4D CTA collateral score, MMR, clot burden score, final infarct volume, infarct core volume, and ischemic penumbra volume (all, p < 0.05). Conclusion. BNP on admission combined with MMR is valuable for the risk prediction of CE stroke, which will promote the further screening of the high-risk patients with CE stroke and provide more diagnostic information for clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate medical imaging segmentation of the retinal fundus vasculature is essential to assist physicians in diagnosis and treatment. In recent years, convolutional neural networks (CNN) are widely used to classify retinal blood vessel pixels for retinal blood vessel segmentation tasks. However, the convolutional block receptive field is limited, simple multiple superpositions tend to cause information loss, and there are limitations in feature extraction as well as vessel segmentation. To address these problems, this paper proposes a new retinal vessel segmentation network based on U-Net, which is called multi-scale cross-position attention network (MCPANet). MCPANet uses multiple scales of input to compensate for image detail information and applies to skip connections between encoding blocks and decoding blocks to ensure information transfer while effectively reducing noise. We propose a cross-position attention module to link the positional relationships between pixels and obtain global contextual information, which enables the model to segment not only the fine capillaries but also clear vessel edges. At the same time, multiple scale pooling operations are used to expand the receptive field and enhance feature extraction. It further reduces pixel classification errors and eases the segmentation difficulty caused by the asymmetry of fundus blood vessel distribution. We trained and validated our proposed model on three publicly available datasets, DRIVE, CHASE, and STARE, which obtained segmentation accuracy of 97.05%, 97.58%, and 97.68%, and Dice of 83.15%, 81.48%, and 85.05%, respectively. The results demonstrate that the proposed method in this paper achieves better results in terms of performance and segmentation results when compared with existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinal vessel segmentation is extremely important for risk prediction and treatment of many major diseases. Therefore, accurate segmentation of blood vessel features from retinal images can help assist physicians in diagnosis and treatment. Convolutional neural networks are good at extracting local feature information, but the convolutional block receptive field is limited. Transformer, on the other hand, performs well in modeling long-distance dependencies. Therefore, in this paper, a new network model MTPA_Unet is designed from the perspective of extracting connections between local detailed features and making complements using long-distance dependency information, which is applied to the retinal vessel segmentation task. MTPA_Unet uses multi-resolution image input to enable the network to extract information at different levels. The proposed TPA module not only captures long-distance dependencies, but also focuses on the location information of the vessel pixels to facilitate capillary segmentation. The Transformer is combined with the convolutional neural network in a serial approach, and the original MSA module is replaced by the TPA module to achieve finer segmentation. Finally, the network model is evaluated and analyzed on three recognized retinal image datasets DRIVE, CHASE DB1, and STARE. The evaluation metrics were 0.9718, 0.9762, and 0.9773 for accuracy; 0.8410, 0.8437, and 0.8938 for sensitivity; and 0.8318, 0.8164, and 0.8557 for Dice coefficient. Compared with existing retinal image segmentation methods, the proposed method in this paper achieved better vessel segmentation in all of the publicly available fundus datasets tested performance and results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain tumor semantic segmentation is a critical medical image processing work, which aids clinicians in diagnosing patients and determining the extent of lesions. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have demonstrated exceptional performance in computer vision tasks in recent years. For 3D medical image tasks, deep convolutional neural networks based on an encoder–decoder structure and skip-connection have been frequently used. However, CNNs have the drawback of being unable to learn global and remote semantic information well. On the other hand, the transformer has recently found success in natural language processing and computer vision as a result of its usage of a self-attention mechanism for global information modeling. For demanding prediction tasks, such as 3D medical picture segmentation, local and global characteristics are critical. We propose SwinBTS, a new 3D medical picture segmentation approach, which combines a transformer, convolutional neural network, and encoder–decoder structure to define the 3D brain tumor semantic segmentation job as a sequence-to-sequence prediction challenge in this research. To extract contextual data, the 3D Swin Transformer is utilized as the network's encoder and decoder, and convolutional operations are employed for upsampling and downsampling. Finally, we achieve segmentation results using an improved Transformer module that we built for increasing detail feature extraction. Extensive experimental results on the BraTS 2019, BraTS 2020, and BraTS 2021 datasets reveal that SwinBTS outperforms state-of-the-art 3D algorithms for brain tumor segmentation on 3D MRI scanned images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes a new method for estimating downwelling surface longwave radiation (DSLR) under cloudy-sky conditions based on a parameterization method and a genetic algorithm–artificial neural network (GA-ANN) algorithm. The new method establishes a GA-ANN model based on simulated data, and then combines MODIS satellite data and ERA5 reanalysis data to estimate the DSLR. According to the validation results of the field sites, the bias and RMSE are –9.18 and 34.88 W/m2, respectively. Compared with the existing research, the new method can achieve reasonable accuracy. Parameter analysis using independently simulated data shows that the near-surface air temperature ( T a ) and cloud base height (CBH) have an important influence on DSLR estimation under cloudy-sky conditions. With an increase in CBH, DSLR gradually decreases; however, with an increase in T a , DSLR shows a trend of gradual increase. When estimating DSLR under cloudy-sky conditions, under the influence of clouds, except for cirrus, the change in DSLRs with CBH and T a is greater than 20 W/m2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] In December 2020, Chang'E-5 (CE-5), China's first lunar sample return mission, successfully collected samples totaling 1731 g from the northern Oceanus Procellarum. The landing site was located in a young mare plain, a great distance from those of Apollo and Luna missions. These young mare basalts bear critical scientific significance as they could shed light on the nature of the lunar interior (composition and structure) as well as the recent volcanism on the Moon. In this article, we investigated a CE-5 basalt sample (CE5C0000YJYX065) using a combination of state-of-art techniques, including high resolution X-ray tomographic microscopy (HR-XTM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS)-based scanning electron microscope (SEM), and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) to reveal its 3D petrology and minerology. Our results show that this sample has a fine- to medium-grained subophitic texture, with sparse olivine phenocrysts setting in the groundmass of pyroxene, plagioclase, ilmenite and trace amounts of other phases. It has an extremely high ilmenite modal abundance (17.8 vol%) and contains a significant amount (0.5 vol%) of Ca-phosphate grains. The mineral chemistry is in excellent agreement with that of Apollo and Luna high-Ti basalts. The major phase pyroxenes also display strong chemical zoning with compositions following the trends observed in Apollo high-Ti basalts. Based on current data, we came to the conclusion that CE5C0000YJYX065 is a high-Ti mare basalt with a rare earth element (REE) enriched signature. This provides a rigid ground-truth for the geological context at the CE-5 landing site and clarifies the ambiguity inferred from remote sensing surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Povidone iodine (PVP‐I) is widely used as an efficient antiseptic disinfectant, which can kill various pernicious microbe. PVP‐I also exhibits certain toxic effects to the environment. To study the comprehensive toxic effects of PVP‐I on microalgae, different concentrations including 0, 7, 14, 28, 56 and 112 mg/L were set. The effects of PVP‐I on the growth performance, microstructure, photosynthesis, antioxidant levels and photosynthesis associated genes expressions of microalgae were investigated. The results showed that PVP‐I had significant effects on the growth and physiological functions of C. pyrenoidosa. Under the observation of scanning electron microscope, PVP‐I of 56 and 112 mg/L could destroy the cytoderm of C. pyrenoidosa directly. Under the PVP‐I exposure, the activity of SOD and CAT fluctuated up and down, while MDA content continued to rise. The relative gene expression of PsbA gene was significantly up‐regulated in high concentration of 112 mg/L PVP‐I. The relative gene expression of rbcL and rbcS gene were upregulated in 28 mg/L PVP‐I. The results of present study showed that PVP‐I could induce the production of oxidative stress response in C. pyrenoidosa, inhibit the expression of genes related to photosynthesis of C. pyrenoidosa and affect the photosynthesis of C. pyrenoidosa. The present study will provide a reference for the safe application of PVP‐I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Restless legs syndrome is a highly prevalent comorbidity of migraine; however, its genetic contributions remain unclear. Objectives: To identify the genetic variants of restless legs syndrome in migraineurs and to investigate their potential pathogenic roles. Methods: We conducted a two-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify susceptible genes for restless legs syndrome in 1,647 patients with migraine, including 264 with and 1,383 without restless legs syndrome, and also validated the association of lead variants in normal controls unaffected with restless legs syndrome (n = 1,053). We used morpholino translational knockdown (morphants), CRISPR/dCas9 transcriptional knockdown, transient CRISPR/Cas9 knockout (crispants) and gene rescue in one-cell stage embryos of zebrafish to study the function of the identified genes. Results: We identified two novel susceptibility loci rs6021854 (in VSTM2L) and rs79823654 (in CCDC141) to be associated with restless legs syndrome in migraineurs, which remained significant when compared to normal controls. Two different morpholinos targeting vstm2l and ccdc141 in zebrafish demonstrated behavioural and cytochemical phenotypes relevant to restless legs syndrome, including hyperkinetic movements of pectoral fins and decreased number in dopaminergic amacrine cells. These phenotypes could be partially reversed with gene rescue, suggesting the specificity of translational knockdown. Transcriptional CRISPR/dCas9 knockdown and transient CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of vstm2l and ccdc141 replicated the findings observed in translationally knocked-down morphants. Conclusions: Our GWAS and functional analysis suggest VSTM2L and CCDC141 are highly relevant to the pathogenesis of restless legs syndrome in migraineurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, an E-plane substrate is inserted into the W-band standard waveguide to construct a bandpass filter (BPF) with high selectivity. This E-plane waveguide BPF with three transmission zeroes (TZs) is developed by using a novel compact beeline resonant cell (CBRC) and uniform-impedance resonant cells (UIRCs). It is shown that the locations of the TZs can be designed. Three TZs, with two located in the upper stopband, and the other one located in the lower stopband, are produced by a novel CBRC and two UIRCs, respectively. For verification, the BPF prototype is designed, fabricated and measured, whose total length is just 3.21 mm, namely, less than 0.83 λg (λg is the waveguide wavelength at the center frequency). Moreover, the minimum insertion loss (IL) is only 1.02 dB, and the measured return loss (RL) of the proposed BPF is greater than 14 dB at the frequency range of 94 to 99.3 GHz. The 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) is 6.5%, which is from 93.6 to 99.9 GHz. Good agreement between the simulations and measurements validates the design method. The proposed W-band E-plane waveguide BPF and the efficient design method used in their design are believed to be of importance for future filter device applications in millimeter wave systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a major component of lung cancer and is significantly correlated with poor prognosis. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation is closely related to the occurrence, progression, and prognosis of cancer. The potential biological functions and mechanisms of m6A RNA methylation in the immune microenvironment are still unclear. Methods. We assessed m6A RNA methylation modification patterns in 1326 NSCLC patient samples based on 20 m6A regulators, linking these clusters to the tumor microenvironment and immune cell infiltration. The m6Ascore was created to quantify the m6A modification patterns of individual tumors. We then assessed the value of NSCLC patients in terms of clinical prognosis and immunotherapy response. Results. According to different mRNA expression levels, two different m6A clusters were identified. m6A aggregation was significantly associated with clinical prognostic characteristics, the tumor microenvironment, and immune-related biological processes. Fifteen differential genes were screened based on these two m6A clusters, and to further investigate the mechanisms of action of these differential genes, they were subjected to unsupervised clustering analysis, which classified them into four different genomic isoforms. Prognostic analysis indicated that the survival advantage of the m6A gene cluster A modification mode was significantly prominent. We continued to construct the m6Ascore, which was used as a scoring tool to evaluate tumor typing, immunity, and prognosis. Patients with a low m6Ascore showed a significant survival advantage, and the group with a low m6Ascore had a better prognosis predicted by immunotherapy. The anti-PD-1/L1 immunotherapy cohort showed that a lower m6Ascore was associated with higher efficacy of immunotherapy. Conclusions. The results suggest that m6A RNA methylation regulators make an important difference in the tumor immune microenvironment of patients with NSCLC. m6A gene characterization and the construction of the m6Ascore provide us with a richer understanding of m6A RNA methylation modification patterns in NSCLC patients and help to predict clinical prognosis and immunotherapeutic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning methods utilizing Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Transformers have achieved remarkable success in volumetric medical image analysis. While successful, the symmetrical structure of numerous networks pays insufficient attention to the encoding phase, and the large amount of memory occupied by voxels leads to unnecessary redundancy in the network. In this paper, we present a novel approach to handle volumetric medical images by converting them into point cloud and introduce a new asymmetrical segmentation architecture. We propose a dual-path encoder that fully captures both dense and sparse representations of the input point cloud sampled from volumes. Moreover, the two obtained representations are subtracted at the skip connection as a complementary feature during the decoding stage. Experimental results on the Brain Tumor Segmentation (BraTS) and the Multi-sequence Cardiac MR Segmentation tasks demonstrate the great potential of our point-based method for volumetric medical image segmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate segmentation of retinal vessels is critical to the mechanism, diagnosis, and treatment of many ocular pathologies. Due to the poor contrast and inhomogeneous background of fundus imaging and the complex structure of retinal fundus images, this makes accurate segmentation of blood vessels from retinal images still challenging. In this paper, we propose an effective framework for retinal vascular segmentation, which is innovative mainly in the retinal image pre-processing stage and segmentation stage. First, we perform image enhancement on three publicly available fundus datasets based on the multiscale retinex with color restoration (MSRCR) method, which effectively suppresses noise and highlights the vessel structure creating a good basis for the segmentation phase. The processed fundus images are then fed into an effective Reverse Fusion Attention Residual Network (RFARN) for training to achieve more accurate retinal vessel segmentation. In the RFARN, we use Reverse Channel Attention Module (RCAM) and Reverse Spatial Attention Module (RSAM) to highlight the shallow details of the channel and spatial dimensions. And RCAM and RSAM are used to achieve effective fusion of deep local features with shallow global features to ensure the continuity and integrity of the segmented vessels. In the experimental results for the DRIVE, STARE and CHASE datasets, the evaluation metrics were 0.9712, 0.9822 and 0.9780 for accuracy (Acc), 0.8788, 0.8874 and 0.8352 for sensitivity (Se), 0.9803, 0.9891 and 0.9890 for specificity (Sp), area under the ROC curve(AUC) was 0.9910, 0.9952 and 0.9904, and the F1-Score was 0.8453, 0.8707 and 0.8185. In comparison with existing retinal image segmentation methods, e.g. UNet, R2UNet, DUNet, HAnet, Sine-Net, FANet, etc., our method in three fundus datasets achieved better vessel segmentation performance and results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• CAFs suppress the killing effect of PBMCs on lung cancer cells through PD-L1. • Exosomes derived from CAFs suppress the killing effect of PBMCs on lung cancer cells. • MiR-142-5p suppresses lung cancer development through regulating PD-L1 in vivo. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the most important stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment (TEM) and have been reported to regulate various cancer development. Exosomes are considered important elements involved in intercellular communication and TME regulation, while the potential function of CAFs in lung cancer immunosuppressive microenvironments remains unknown. CAFs-derived exosomes (CAFs-exo) and normal fibroblasts (NFs)-derived exosomes (NFs-exo) were isolated by ultra-centrifugation and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and western blot analysis. A549 cells were co-cultured with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Flow cytometry assay was performed to detect the killing role of PBMCs on A549 cells. Bioinformatics and luciferase reporter assays were used to analyze the relationship among microRNA (miRNA), long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and target gene. BALB/c mice were used to construct the lung cancer model by subcutaneous injection. Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) was up-regulated in lung cancer tissues and cells. PD-L1 also up-regulated in CAFs cell medium-mediated A549 cells. CAFs decreased PBMCs induced-cell apoptosis through increasing PD-L1 in A549 cells. Moreover, CAFs transferred exosomes to lung cancer cells to suppress the killing effect of PBMCs through up-regulating PD-L1. Using microarray assays, opa-interacting protein 5 antisense RNA 1 (OIP5-AS1) level was highly expressed in CAFs-exos. After treatment by CAFs-exos, miR-142-5p level was significantly down-regulated in A549 cells. OIP5-AS1 served as a sponge to target miR-142-5p and negatively regulated miR-142-5p expression in lung cancer cells. In addition, PD-L1 was a direct target of miR-142-5p. CAFs derived exosomal OIP5-AS1 reduced PBMCs induced-cell apoptosis and promoted tumor growth through decreasing miR-142-5p and up-regulating PD-L1. CAFs-derived exosomes suppressed the role of PBMCs induced-killing of lung cancer cells and promoted lung cancer progression by OIP5-AS1/ miR-142-5p/ PD-L1 axis, which provided a potential opportunity for diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) overproduction promotes the alveolar bone loss during the development of periodontitis. Mitochondria are the principal source of ROS. Hydroxytyrosol (HT), a natural phenolic compound present in olive oil, is well known for its antioxidant and mitochondrial-protective prosperities. Nonetheless, the impact of HT on periodontitis and its related mechanisms underlying bone cell behavior remains unknown. Osteoclasts differentiated from RAW264.7 model and oxidative stress (OS) induced pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cell injury model were treated with and without HT. Cell viability, apoptosis, differentiation, mitochondrial function along with mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway were investigated. Meanwhile, the effect and related mechanisms of HT on bone loss in mice with periodontitis were also detected. HT inhibited osteoclast differentiation and prevented OS induced pre-osteoblast cells injury via regulating mitochondrial function as well as ERK and JNK signaling pathways. Moreover, HT attenuated the alveolar bone loss, increased bone forming activity, inhibited the osteoclasts differentiation and decreased the level of OS in mice with periodontitis. Our findings, for the first time , revealed a novel function of HT in bone remodeling of periodontitis, and highlighted its therapeutical potential for the prevention/treatment of periodontitis. [Display omitted] • HT inhibited osteoclast differentiation via suppressing ERK/JNK pathway regulated activation in mitochondria. • HT protected osteoblast from oxidative damage via suppressing ERK/JNK pathway regulated dysfunction in mitochondria. • HT ameliorated periodontitis in mice via attenuating osteoclast differentiation and osteoblast injury. • HT may act as a potential bone-protective therapeutic agent for the prevention or treatment of periodontitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potassium elemental and isotope systematics were investigated for a suite of central European tektites from three strewn sub-fields in Czech Republic and possible parent sedimentary materials from the vicinity of the Ries impact structure in SE Germany, supplemented by data for several other impact-related materials (bediasites, Ivory Coast tektites, Libyan Desert Glass). This is paralleled by computation of potential K loss and attendant isotope fractionation for physico–chemical conditions typical for formation of tektite precursor melts. These theoretical calculations indicate a <0.1% loss of K from tektite precursor melts up to 2,500 K and <0.002‰ change in the 41K/39K ratio even for a small sphere of 0.002 m at 2,500 K, precluding any significant K loss and isotope fractionation. Numerical modelling also indicates that differential velocities between surrounding gas and liquid are not sufficient to remove the gaseous boundary layer, such that the partial pressure of potassium developed around the molten moldavite beads impedes further evaporation and also contributes to back-condensation of the already evaporated potassium. Central European tektites (moldavites) are enriched in K compared to the assumed sedimentary sources from the wider Ries area whereby the latter materials do not exceed 2.9 wt.% K 2 O compared to 2.5–4.1 wt.% K 2 O in moldavites. The apparent K enrichment in moldavites may be explained by a yet unaccounted process during formation of tektite precursor melts and/or unidentified source, such as volcanoclastic deposits that were produced by large Mid-Miocene volcanic centers in the Pannonian Basin. The K isotope compositions of tektites are more variable than those of sediments from the wider Ries area but they largely overlap (δ41K from −0.78 ± 0.03‰ to −0.13 ± 0.03‰ versus −0.72 ± 0.03‰ to −0.28 ± 0.02‰, respectively). These ranges mimic 41K/39K variations reported for igneous and sedimentary portions of the upper continental crust (δ41K roughly between −0.7 and −0.1‰). They show a slight difference among the three investigated strewn sub-fields, depending on their respective distance from the impact. In detail, moldavites from the closest strewn sub-field in the Cheb Basin show predominantly heavy K isotope compositions and those from the farthest strewn sub-field in Western Moravia are uniformly isotopically light. The origin of this difference may reflect lithological heterogeneity of the target area. Potassium contents in bediasites and Ivory Coast tektites range between 1.3 and 1.8 wt.% K 2 O and their corresponding δ41K values vary from −0.57 ± 0.02‰ to −0.41 ± 0.03‰. Both ranges are significantly narrower than those observed for moldavites. When compared to data for possible sedimentary precursors in the Chesapeake Bay and Bosumtwi impact structure, respectively, it is apparent that these tektites were neither depleted nor enriched in potassium. The extent of their K isotope fractionation relative to plausible sources remains unconstrained. The Libyan Desert Glass displays invariant δ41K of ~ −0.57 ± 0.06‰ at ≤0.01 wt.% K 2 O. Given the silica-rich nature of LDG and the lack of possible parent materials, no further constraints can be placed at present to further resolve the source material or reveal details of LDG formation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resveratrol (trans-3,4',5-trihydroxystilbene) belongs to the family of natural phytoalexins. Resveratrol first came to our attention in 1992, following reports of the cardioprotective effects of red wine. Thereafter, resveratrol was shown to exert antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, and angio-regulatory effects against atherosclerosis, ischaemia, and cardiomyopathy. This article critically reviews the current findings on the molecular basis of resveratrol-mediated cardiovascular benefits, summarizing the broad effects of resveratrol on longevity regulation, energy metabolism, stress resistance, exercise mimetics, circadian clock, and microbiota composition. In addition, this article also provides an update, both preclinically and clinically, on resveratrol-induced cardiovascular protection and discusses the adverse and inconsistent effects of resveratrol reported in both preclinical and clinical studies. Although resveratrol has been claimed as a master anti-aging agent against several age-associated diseases, further detailed mechanistic investigation is still required to thoroughly unravel the therapeutic value of resveratrol against cardiovascular diseases at different stages of disease development. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed section on The Pharmacology of Nutraceuticals. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v177.6/issuetoc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel E‐plane waveguide bandpass filter with multiple transmission zeros is proposed in W‐band. The center frequency and bandwidth of this filter can be flexibly designed. Stripe line resonators and L‐shaped resonators are used in the filter. The filter contains four resonators, two of which are used to generate transmission zeros in the upper stopband, and the other two are used to generate transmission zeros in the lower stopband. These transmission zeros can enhance the out‐of‐band suppression and selectivity of the filter. And the position of the transmission zeroes can be flexibly changed as required. One sample is fabricated and measured to verify the proposed filter. The minimum insertion loss in passband is 0.6 dB. Good agreements between the simulated and measured results are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]