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Abstract Stem cell therapy constitutes a pivotal subject in contemporary discourse, with donor stem cells having been employed in research and clinical treatments for several decades. Primary cell transplantation encompasses diverse stem cell types, including ectomesenchymal stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and various stem cell derivatives such as vesicles and extracellular vesicles. Nevertheless, the emergence of cell engineering techniques has heralded a new epoch in stem cell therapy, markedly broadening their therapeutic potential. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) epitomize a significant milestone in modern medical biology. This groundbreaking discovery offers significant potential in disciplines such as biology, pathophysiology, and cellular regenerative medicine. As a result, iPSCs derived differentiated cells have become a pioneering avenue for cell therapy research. Induced mesenchymal stem cells (iMSCs), derived from iPSCs, represent a novel frontier in MSCs related research. Empirical evidence suggests that iMSCs demonstrate enhanced proliferative capacities compared to natural MSCs, with diminished age-related variability and heterogeneity. Numerous clinical trials have highlighted the prospective superiority of iMSCs. This article synthesizes current basic research and clinical trials pertaining to iMSCs, aiming to provide a reference point for future research endeavors.

Abstract The duration-of-fertility (DF), which was defined as the number of days when breeding hens lay fertile eggs following copulation or artificial insemination (AI), is an important economic trait in chick production when it has strong effects on fertile egg output and production costs. Little is known about the underlying genes and molecular markers related to DF trait to date. Here, we measured the DF of 701 Chinese Jinghong hens and 408 Jingfen hens. The DF showed high individual variability and potential for genetic improvement. Then, 192 Jinghong breeding hens were provided for a genome-wide association study, 27 SNPs respectively located in three genomic linkage regions (GGA1:41Kb; GGA3:39Kb and GGA8:39Kb) were suggested to be significantly associated with DF. Particularly, 6 of these 27 SNPs were further verified to be associated with DF in the 701 Jinghong and 408 Jingfen hens using PCR-RFLP genotyping method. These 27 SNPs were also mapped to 7 genes according to their genomic position. Furtherly, 5 of these 7 genes were tested using qPCR. Results show that the CYP2D6, WBP2NL, ESR1 and TGFBR3 mRNA expression levels of hens with long DF were significantly higher than the hens with short DF (P

Recently, wind energy has been developed as an important technology to address the energy crisis. However, due to an unreasonable energy structure, wind power curtailment is becoming increasingly severe. Combined heat and power dispatch (CHPD) provided a solution for wind accommodation by utilizing the flexibility resources of district heating systems. Because of the imperfect dispatch methods and CHPD platforms, many wind power heating projects have not effectively linked the use of abandoned wind and heating. The virtual power plant (VPP) achieves the reasonable combination of controllable power sources, distributed energy, controllable loads, and energy storage systems within a certain area. Thus, we propose a VPP model based on combined dispatch of wind power and heat energy, which integrates wind turbines, thermal turbines, CHP units, etc., into a whole to join in the grid operation. Besides, to preserve the privacy of energy agents, Benders decomposition algorithm is adopted to solve the proposed model in this paper. The validity and efficiency of the proposed VPP model and Benders decomposition algorithm are verified via numerical cases.

Background: Our previous research has demonstrated that electroacupuncture (EA) has the potential to mitigate depression-like symptoms resulting from chronic stress. However, further investigation is required to fully understand the underlying mechanisms. The regulatory role of γ-aminobutyric acid type B (GABAB) in synaptic plasticity and the involvement of NF-κB/NLRP3-mediated inflammation in the lateral habenula nucleus (LHb) are key factors in the development of depression. This study sought to investigate the potential of EA in mitigating depression-like symptoms induced by chronic stress through mechanisms such as enhancing GABAB levels, regulating synaptic plasticity in the LHb, and suppressing NF-κB/NLRP3-mediated inflammation. Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) in order to create a model of depression. Subsequently, the weight and behavioral assessments of all rats were monitored, and samples of the lateral habenula and serum were collected. The protein expression levels were analyzed using western blotting. The 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HT), Dopamine (DA), and Norepinephrine (NE) in the LHb and serum were measured using ELISA. The alterations in GABAB and NF-κB in the LHb were observed through immunofluorescence. The neuronal damage in the LHb was assessed using Nissl staining. Results: EA upregulated the expression of GABAB in the LHb of rats subjected to CUMS. Subsequent behavioral assessments indicated that blocking GABAB attenuated the antidepressant effects of EA in CUMS-exposed rats. Furthermore, EA enhanced synaptic plasticity in the LHb of CUMS-exposed rats and mitigated NF-κB/NLRP3-mediated inflammatory responses, with these effects potentially being reversed by GABAB inhibition. Conclusion: Through the promotion of GABAB levels, regulation of synaptic plasticity within the LHb, and inhibition of NF-κB/NLRP3-mediated neuroinflammation in the same region, electroacupuncture at Shangxing and Fengfu acupoints demonstrates efficacy in mitigating depression-like behaviors induced by CUMS.

Previous studies have shown that subcutaneous adipose tissue is an important energy supply organ for chicks before and after birth, except yolk. So far, the significance of large deposits of subcutaneous adipose tissue in chicks is unclear. Therefore, this study takes the information interaction between adipocytes and macrophages as the starting point to explore whether adipocytes and macrophages could participate in adipose tissue fibrosis, angiogenesis, adaptive thermogenesis and other related functions in a specific metabolic environment. Under cold stress, the expression levels of genes related to lipidolysis, lipid transport and fatty acid oxidation in adipose tissue of chicks were significantly increased, but the expression levels of genes related to mitochondrial uncoupling were not significantly changed. Through Masson staining of adipose tissue of chicks under cold stress, it was found that the level of vascularization in adipose tissue of chicks was significantly increased. We found that the interaction between adipocyte and macrophage could participate in the angiogenesis related process of adipocytes in chicks through the HIF1A–VEGFA pathway. The analysis of lipid metabolism in subcutaneous adipose tissue of chicks from the perspective of cell heterogeneity will expand the understanding of lipid metabolism in chicks and provide a theoretical basis for chick rearing.

Abstract In the realm of ferroelectric memories, HfO2-based ferroelectrics stand out because of their exceptional CMOS compatibility and scalability. Nevertheless, their switchable polarization and switching speed are not on par with those of perovskite ferroelectrics. It is widely acknowledged that defects play a crucial role in stabilizing the metastable polar phase of HfO2. Simultaneously, defects also pin the domain walls and impede the switching process, ultimately rendering the sluggish switching of HfO2. Herein, we present an effective strategy involving acceptor-donor co-doping to effectively tackle this dilemma. Remarkably enhanced ferroelectricity and the fastest switching process ever reported among HfO2 polar devices are observed in La3+-Ta5+ co-doped HfO2 ultrathin films. Moreover, robust macro-electrical characteristics of co-doped films persist even at a thickness as low as 3 nm, expanding potential applications of HfO2 in ultrathin devices. Our systematic investigations further demonstrate that synergistic effects of uniform microstructure and smaller switching barrier introduced by co-doping ensure the enhanced ferroelectricity and shortened switching time. The co-doping strategy offers an effective avenue to control the defect state and improve the ferroelectric properties of HfO2 films.

Abstract With the continuous improvement of human technology, the medical field has gradually moved from molecular therapy to cellular therapy. As a safe and effective therapeutic tool, cell therapy has successfully created a research boom in the modern medical field. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are derived from early mesoderm and have high self-renewal and multidirectional differentiation ability, and have become one of the important cores of cell therapy research by virtue of their immunomodulatory and tissue repair capabilities. In recent years, the application of MSCs in various diseases has received widespread attention, but there are still various problems in the treatment of MSCs, among which the heterogeneity of MSCs may be one of the causes of the problem. In this paper, we review the correlation of MSCs heterogeneity to provide a basis for further reduction of MSCs heterogeneity and standardization of MSCs and hope to provide a reference for cell therapy.

Abstract Metabolic abnormalities constitute a significant characteristic of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We utilised a two-sample Mendelian randomisation (MR) study to evaluate the potential causal association between 486 blood metabolites and SLE. Exposure data at the metabolite level were extracted from 7824 European Genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Preliminary analysis utilised SLE GWAS data from FinnGen. The primary method for causal analysis relied on random inverse variance weighting (IVW). To ensure robustness, sensitivity analyses included the Cochran Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, MR-PRESSO, and leave-one-out analysis. Steiger testing and linkage disequilibrium score regression were employed to validate the identified metabolites. This study identified 12 metabolites, comprising six known chemical structures: 1,5-anhydroglucitol(1,5-AG) [odds ratio (OR) = 0.100, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.015–0.773, P = 0.027), gamma-glutamylthreonine (OR = 0.077, 95% CI: 0.010–0.574, P = 0.012), 5-dodecenoate(12:1n7) (OR = 0.205, 95% CI: 0.061–0.685, P = 0.010), linoleoylglycerophosphoethanolamine * (OR = 0.159, 95% CI: 0.027–0.933, P = 0.044), erythrose (OR = 88.331,95% CI:1.098–63.214, P = 0.040) and 1-, adrenate (22:4n6) (OR = 9.876, 95% CI: 1.753–55.639, P = 0.001)]. Additionally, we found associations between SLE and six unknown chemical structures: X-06351 (OR = 0.071, 95% CI: 0.006–0.817, P = 0.034), X-10810 (OR = 4.268 95% CI: 1.260–14.459, P = 0.020), X-11412 (OR = 5.418 95% CI: 1.068–27.487, P = 0.041), X-11905 (OR = 0.551, 95%CI: 0.304–0.997, P = 0.049), X-12038 (OR = 0.178 95%CI: 0.032–0.988, P = 0.045), X-12217 (OR = 0.174 95%CI: 0.044–0.680, P = 0.014). This study offers evidence supporting a causal relationship between SLE and 12 circulating metabolites, six of which have known chemical structures and six that remain unidentified. These findings introduce a new perspective for further exploration of SLE mechanisms.

Titanium (Ti) and its alloys are commonly used implant materials in orthopedics due to their good corrosion resistance, mechanical properties, and biocompatibility. However, the inherent biological inertness of the Ti surface leads to insufficient osseointegration and antibacterial ability, which may result in implant failure. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is currently the most widely used material in the biomedical field. It is one of the bioactive coating materials because of its chemical and structural similarity to natural bone. At present, many techniques are used to deposit HA as a coating material on Ti implants. The stability of the HA coating is the most important factor in determining the success of the implant. In addition, biofunctional ions have been introduced into HA coatings to enhance functional performance. This article aims to present the crystal structure and characteristics of HA and the principle of doping ions into HA. The preparation methods for the deposition of HA functional coatings on Ti and its alloys are introduced and discuss its advantages and limitations. In addition, the coating of doped HA on the surface of Ti and its alloys to improve their surface properties for bone integration is also reviewed.

The Nuclear Receptor (NR) family of transcriptional regulators possess the ability to sense signalling molecules and directly couple that to a transcriptional response. While this large class of proteins are united by sequence and structural homology, individual NR functional output varies greatly depending on their expression, ligand selectivity and DNA binding sequence specificity. Many NRs have remained somewhat enigmatic, with the absence of a defined ligand categorising them as orphan nuclear receptors. One example is Nuclear Receptor subfamily 6 group A member 1 (Nr6a1), an orphan nuclear receptor that has no close evolutionary homologs and thus is alone in subfamily 6. Nonetheless, Nr6a1 has emerged as an important player in the regulation of key pluripotency and developmental genes, as functionally critical for mid-gestational developmental progression and as a possible molecular target for driving evolutionary change in animal body plan. Here, we review the current knowledge on this enigmatic nuclear receptor and how it impacts development and evolution.

While bacterial diversity is beneficial for the functioning of rhizosphere microbiomes, multi-species bioinoculants often fail to promote plant growth. One potential reason for this is that competition between different species of inoculated consortia members creates conflicts for their survival and functioning. To circumvent this, we used transposon insertion mutagenesis to increase the functional diversity within Bacillus amyloliquefaciens bacterial species and tested if we could improve plant growth promotion by assembling consortia of highly clonal but phenotypically dissimilar mutants. While most insertion mutations were harmful, some significantly improved B. amyloliquefaciens plant growth promotion traits relative to the wild-type strain. Eight phenotypically distinct mutants were selected to test if their functioning could be improved by applying them as multifunctional consortia. We found that B. amyloliquefaciens consortium richness correlated positively with plant root colonization and protection from Ralstonia solanacearum phytopathogenic bacterium. Crucially, 8-mutant consortium consisting of phenotypically dissimilar mutants performed better than randomly assembled 8-mutant consortia, suggesting that improvements were likely driven by consortia multifunctionality instead of consortia richness. Together, our results suggest that increasing intra-species phenotypic diversity could be an effective way to improve probiotic consortium functioning and plant growth promotion in agricultural systems.

Matrix permeability is the primary transport property for shale gas recovery, due to the special production process of gas from matrix to wellbore. With the micro pore size of shale matrix, it is necessary to consider micro transport mechanisms for the obtained permeability from macro experimental techniques. In this study, the macro experimental permeability was investigated in micro way, by the analyzation of pressure drop curves of shale matrix at high- and low-pressure experimental conditions, with modified numerical model containing micro transport mechanisms. As selected parameters, porosity, pore radius and tortuosity were regressed to obtain apparent permeabilities of three samples. The analysis shows that, tortuosity is much higher than macro one, and has been proved to be necessary and reasonable. The Knudsen diffusion and slippage effect control the micro transport of shale matrix at low and high pressure, separately, which is the main difference of macro and micro transports. Slippage flow weight factor helps to increase of slippage flow proportion with pressure. Higher pore radius and tortuosity both could weaken the effect of Knudsen diffusion, and slippage flow appears positive relationship with pore size at high pressure. This research provides an inspiration to shale transport study and a micro perspective theoretical guidance for the macro recovery of in-site shale gas reservoir.

Abstract Background Bacterial viruses, phages, play a key role in nutrient turnover and lysis of bacteria in terrestrial ecosystems. While phages are abundant in soils, their effects on plant pathogens and rhizosphere bacterial communities are poorly understood. Here, we used metagenomics and direct experiments to causally test if differences in rhizosphere phage communities could explain variation in soil suppressiveness and bacterial wilt plant disease outcomes by plant-pathogenic Ralstonia solanacearum bacterium. Specifically, we tested two hypotheses: (1) that healthy plants are associated with stronger top-down pathogen control by R. solanacearum-specific phages (i.e. ‘primary phages’) and (2) that ‘secondary phages’ that target pathogen-inhibiting bacteria play a stronger role in diseased plant rhizosphere microbiomes by indirectly ‘helping’ the pathogen. Results Using a repeated sampling of tomato rhizosphere soil in the field, we show that healthy plants are associated with distinct phage communities that contain relatively higher abundances of R. solanacearum-specific phages that exert strong top-down pathogen density control. Moreover, ‘secondary phages’ that targeted pathogen-inhibiting bacteria were more abundant in the diseased plant microbiomes. The roles of R. solanacearum-specific and ‘secondary phages’ were directly validated in separate greenhouse experiments where we causally show that phages can reduce soil suppressiveness, both directly and indirectly, via top-down control of pathogen densities and by alleviating interference competition between pathogen-inhibiting bacteria and the pathogen. Conclusions Together, our findings demonstrate that soil suppressiveness, which is most often attributed to bacteria, could be driven by rhizosphere phage communities that regulate R. solanacearum densities and strength of interference competition with pathogen-suppressing bacteria. Rhizosphere phage communities are hence likely to be important in determining bacterial wilt disease outcomes and soil suppressiveness in agricultural fields. Video Abstract

Abstract Introduction Super-enhancer-associated lncRNAs play important roles in the occurrence and development of malignant tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Objectives The current work aimed to identify and characterize super-enhancer-associated lncRNAs in the pathogenesis of HCC. Methods H3K27ac ChIP-seq data from HepG2 cell line and two HCC tissues were used to identify super-enhancer-associated lncRNAs in HCC. JQ-1 treatment and CRISPR-dCas9 system were performed to confirm super-enhancer activity. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), ChIP-qPCR, and dual-luciferase reporter system assay demonstrated the regulation of E2F1 on super-enhancer. Functional loss experiment was used to identify the function of LINC01004. Results In this study, we identified and characterized LINC01004, a novel super-enhancer-associated lncRNA, as a crucial oncogene in HCC. LINC01004 was upregulated in liver cancer tissues and was associated with poor patient prognosis. Moreover, LINC01004 promoted cell proliferation and metastasis of HCC. The binding of E2F1 to the super-enhancer could promote the transcription of LINC01004, while the inhibition of super-enhancer activity decreased LINC01004 expression. Conclusion This finding might provide mechanistic insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying hepatocarcinogenesis and the biological function of super-enhancer. LINC01004 can serve as a potential therapeutic target for HCC patient. Graphical abstract

Abstract Modern society is undergoing rapid technological growth and urbanisation. Despite the positive changes, there are still vulnerable categories of the population that cannot adapt so quickly to the new realities. The ageing process in the developed countries of Europe, America and Southeast Asia raises the issue of further labour market development. In this regard, it is vital to understand the linguistic picture of a quickly ageing labour market, such as China. Drawing on Conversation Analysis, this study aims to investigate the impact of the ageing process on the labour market and identify age-related trends in communication, behaviour and attitude. The focus is on the socio-economic context. The most important finding is that in most contexts, the language behaviour of ageing labour market participants leaned on three underpinning factors: age, social status and exposure to emotional pressure. Older adults in the Chinese labour market value their informal status, accept social hierarchy, follow strict etiquette rules, tend to self-victimise, and complain about feeling vulnerable. The present findings can help social workers in China improve care for ageing adults and allow other researchers to investigate older people’s participation in the labour market.

Post-weaning diarrhea is common in piglets, causing huge economic losses worldwide. Associations between LPS challenge, intestinal inflammation, and microbiota have been reported in Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire (DLY) crossbred pigs. However, the effects of LPS challenge in other breeds remain unclear. In the current study, we performed a comprehensive comparative analysis of the effects of LPS challenge on jejunal mucosal morphology, jejunal microbial composition, and serum indexes in two pig breeds: DLY and Heigai, an indigenous Chinese breed. The results showed that LPS caused considerable damage to the mucosal morphology, enhanced serum levels of inflammatory cytokines and the intestinal permeability index, and lowered the antioxidant capacity index. LPS challenge also changed the microbial composition and structure of the jejunum, significantly increased the abundances of Escherichia-Shigella in DLY pigs, and decreased those of Gemella and Saccharimonadales in Heigai pigs. Furthermore, LPS challenge triggered functional changes in energy metabolism and activities related to the stress response in the jejunal bacterial community, alleviating the inflammatory response in Heigai pigs. This study also revealed that Heigai pigs had a weaker immune response to LPS challenge than DLY pigs, and identified several genera related to the breed-specific phenotypes of Heigai pigs, including Gemella, Saccharimonadales, Clostridia_UCG_014, Terrisporobacter, and Dielma. Our collective findings uncovered differences between Heigai and DLY pigs in intestinal inflammation and microbiota dysbiosis induced by LPS challenge, providing a theoretical basis for unraveling the mechanism of intestinal inflammation in swine and proposing microbial candidates involved in the resistance to diarrhea in piglets.

Bluff-body swirling flows have been widely employed in gas-turbine combustors to achieve flame stabilization. Meanwhile, considerable efforts have been made to understand swirling flow dynamics, the effects of swirl number and bluff body on flow structure and dynamics are still not well understood. To this end, a series of direct numerical simulations of isothermal swirling flows have been conducted in this work in order to investigate the impact of swirl numbers and bluff-body diameters on the flow structure, Reynolds stresses, and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) transport. It is found that a change in the swirl number can affect the inner recirculation zone (IRZ) and hence momentum transport. Specifically, as the swirl number increases, the vortex core formed at downstream locations can merge with the IRZ. Moreover, including the bluff body not only contributes to the formation of the IRZ but also serves as a disturbance source for the flow, which is favorable for the formation of large-scale vortex structures. Then, the impact of swirl number and bluff body on Reynolds shear stresses and anisotropy invariants is investigated to identify the locations of the inter shear layer (ISL), the outer shear layer (OSL), and the main swirling zone (MSZ). The results show that as the swirl number increases, both the ISL and MSZ shift to the wall, indicating a large IRZ. Furthermore, the analysis of TKE indicates that for cases with a bluff body, TKE mainly occurs in the ISL and OSL, featuring a dual peak distribution. However, for cases without a bluff body, the distribution of TKE is primarily concentrated in the ISL. These results suggest that both increasing the swirl number and/or including the bluff body could help with TKE transport, which can lead to a wide range of TKE distribution.

District heating systems have been widely used in large and medium-sized cities. Typical district heating systems consist of the primary heating system (PHS) and the secondary heating system (SHS) operating in isolation. However, the isolated dispatch of the PHS and the SHS has poor adjustability and large losses, resulting in unnecessary operation costs. To address these issues, a coordinated economic dispatching model (CEDM) for the primary and secondary heating systems considering the boiler’s supplemental heating is proposed in this study, which characterized the physical properties of the PHS and the SHS in detail. Considering that the PHS and the SHS are controlled separately without central operators in practice, it is difficult to dispatch them in a centralized method. Thus, the master-slave splitting algorithm is innovatively introduced to solve the CEDM in a decentralized way. Finally, a P6S12 system is utilized to analyze and verify the effectiveness and optimality of the proposed algorithm.

Abstract It is very necessary for an intelligent heavy truck to have the ability to prevent rollover independently. However, it was rarely considered in intelligent vehicle motion planning. To improve rollover stability, a motion planning strategy with autonomous anti rollover ability for an intelligent heavy truck is put forward in this paper. Considering the influence of unsprung mass in the front axle and the rear axle and the body roll stiffness on vehicle rollover stability, a rollover dynamics model is built for the intelligent heavy truck. From the model, a novel rollover index is derived to evaluate vehicle rollover risk accurately, and a model predictive control algorithm is applicated to design the motion planning strategy for the intelligent heavy truck, which integrates the vehicle rollover stability, the artificial potential field for the obstacle avoidance, the path tracking and vehicle dynamics constrains. Then, the optimal path is obtained to meet the requirements that the intelligent heavy truck can avoid obstacles and drive stably without rollover. In addition, three typical scenarios are designed to numerically simulate the dynamic performance of the intelligent heavy truck. The results show that the proposed motion planning strategy can avoid collisions and improve vehicle rollover stability effectively even under the worst driving scenarios.

Although not greatly studied, the inflow performance relationship (IPR) in dewatered and vertical coalbed methane (CBM) wells is essential in the development of a CBM reservoir. The dynamics of the stress sensitivity effect (SSE) and the matrix shrinkage effect (MSE), as well as the hydraulic fracture propagation, have all been neglected, especially for the exterior region, which is larger than the drainage radius. A novel IPR model has now been built that integrates dynamic SSE–MSE and hydraulic fracture propagation into the skin factor, and is validated with real production data from the Qinshui Basin, China. The absolute open flow rate given the SSE–MSE is 60.5% larger than without SSE–MSE. If the positive effect of the SSE–MSE on the permeability in the exterior region is neglected, the absolute open flow rate is reduced by 21%. The MSE has a greater effect on the fracturing skin factor than the SSE and tends to lower the fracturing skin factor, benefitting the production of CBM. Moreover, in light of the SSE or MSE, the non-Darcy flow effect is weaker due to restraints on the velocity of flow or the permeability. Useful and essential theoretical guidance for real CBM production can thus be gleaned from this novel IPR model.

Intestinal microbiota has an important impact on pig phenotypes. Previous studies mainly focused on the microbiota of feces and worldwide farmed commercial pigs, while research on the microbiota of various intestinal sections and indigenous pig breeds is very limited. This study aimed to characterize and compare the biogeography of intestinal microbiota in pigs of one Chinese indigenous breed and one commercial crossbred. In this study, we sequenced the microbiota of six intestinal segments in the grown-up pigs of a Chinese indigenous breed, Laiwu pigs, and the worldwide farmed crossbred Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire (DLY) pigs by 16S rRNA sequencing, characterized the biogeography of intestinal microbiota, and compared the compositional and functional differences between the two breeds. The results showed that there were obvious differences in microbial structure and abundance between the small and large intestines. Laiwu pigs had higher large intestinal diversity than DLY pigs, while DLY pigs had higher small intestinal diversity than Laiwu pigs. Moreover, some specific bacterial taxa and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways were found to be related to the high fat deposition and good meat quality of Laiwu pigs and the high growth speed and lean meat rate of DLY pigs. This study provides an insight into the shifts in taxonomic composition, microbial diversity, and functional profile of intestinal microbiota in six intestinal segments of Laiwu and DLY pigs, which would be essential for exploring the potential influence of the host’s genetic background on variation in microbiota composition and diversity.

In aerospace engine delivery systems, “one-in-two-out” bifurcation structures are commonly used for flow distribution to downstream pipelines. There are two common “one-in-two-out” bifurcation structures in aircraft engines: the planar orthogonal bifurcation and the spatial orthogonal bifurcation. By adjusting the flow supply upstream and the cross-sectional diameter downstream, the flow distribution in the two branches can be adjusted, i.e., the “splitting ratio” changes. In this paper, a dismantling and flexible experimental system is constructed to measure the pressure signals in each channel and use non-linear dynamic analysis methods to extract pressure characteristics. The particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique combined with the fine rope tracing technique is creatively used to observe the vortex structure in the cross section of the downstream branch. The study found that for spatial orthogonal bifurcation, the pressure signal characteristics in each channel are basically the same at larger splitting ratios, regardless of the chirality. As the splitting ratio decreases, the difference in pressure signal characteristics between the two branches gradually becomes evident and becomes related to the chirality. Moreover, unlike the planar orthogonal bifurcation structure, a complete large vortex structure has not been found in the downstream branch of the spatial orthogonal bifurcation structure, regardless of changes in the splitting ratio, and it is unrelated to the chirality.

The use of gas energy includes a wide range of applications to directly accelerate the liquid in a pipeline without the aid of mechanical equipment, such as marine gas-liquid jet propulsion. To clarify the characteristics of energy transfer by interphase forces for gas-liquid flows in variable cross-section tubes, two-fluid models of annular flow, bubbly flow and homogeneous flow were adopted, respectively, along with four newly elaborated coefficients, which are the work factor of gas fg, reflecting the relative ability of gas to power liquid, the interface work transfer coefficient kg (representing the relative magnitude of mechanical work received by liquid from gas), the interphase work-to-energy conversion coefficient kl (denoting the capability of energy transfer through work performed by interphase forces) and the interphase mechanical efficiency ηw. The results reveal the interphase work transfer is strongly influenced by the structural parameters of the tubes (or nozzles), and an optimized design is necessary to improve the performance. The higher the degree of gas dispersion in the liquid, the more advantageous the conversion of gas work into the liquid’s mechanical energy. Of these three flow patterns, annular flow has the lowest kl and ηw (kl = 0.0797, ηw = 0.9885 in present example), while homogeneous flow displays the limit of interphase mechanical energy conversion because the gas-liquid momentum coupling reaches the maximum (kl = 0.9979, ηw = 1).

Energy efficiency evaluation of industrial park customers is carried out to help customers develop optimization strategies and improve the energy efficiency level. The evaluation indexes are proposed based on pressure-state-response (PSR) model and the redundant indexes are selected by combining principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation analysis. Thus the dynamic energy efficiency index system is constructed. The weight of indexes is calculated by the entropy weight method (EWM). An energy efficiency evaluation model based on improved Grey-technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is proposed, which replaces the Euclidean distance by weighted grey correlation degree and can accurately evaluate customers’ energy efficiency level. An energy efficiency optimization model is proposed, which can maximize optimization benefits while improving energy efficiency. The validity of the evaluation and optimization models is verified by the case study of an industrial park.

The influencing factors of kite culture inheritance form a complex system that is influenced by many factors, such as the inheritance mode, audience preferences, communication mode and social environment, and the influencing factors are plentiful and nonlinear. In this paper, we use the literature search method and Delphi method to determine the set of influencing factors and clarify the direct binary relationships between each of them. Based on the results of these methods, the Adversarial Interpretive Structure Model (AISM) is modeled and used, and the AISM model with a cause-effect reachable hierarchy is obtained by comparing the directed topological diagram of a pair of up and down diagrams and conducting a comprehensive analysis of the influencing factors of kite culture inheritance. Finally, the validity of the model is proved through the project practice of talent training in the National Art Foundation of China. The results of this study show the following: policies and regulations and product characteristics are the root cause elements affecting the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) metamaterials (MTMs) based on the bright-dark mode theory have gained great interest in slow light, sensing, and energy storage in recent years. Typically, various split ring resonators with magnetic response have been proposed as dark resonators in EIT MTMs. Here, we have employed a cut-wire (CW) and two electric-field-coupled inductor-capacitor (ELC) resonators with a pure electrical response on a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate with a low loss tangent to fulfill the EIT effect in the terahertz (THz) region. The former works as the bright mode, and the latter functions as the dark mode. The EIT phenomenon results from the destructive interference between these two modes, which can be verified by numerical simulation and near field distribution. In addition, a Lorentz oscillator model was studied to quantitatively analyze the relationship between the coupling strength and the coupling distance. As a demonstration, an EIT MTM device with 5000 units was fabricated and characterized, which showed a transmission window with a peak value of 0.75 at 0.414 THz. This work may inspire new multifunctional EIT MTMs, especially the flexible applications at THz frequencies.

Cylindrical ducts with axial mean temperature gradient and mean flows are typical elements in rocket engines, can combustors, and afterburners. Accurate analytical solutions for the acoustic waves of the longitudinal and transverse modes within these ducts can significantly improve the performance of low order acoustic network models for analyses of acoustic behaviours and combustion instabilities in these kinds of ducts. Here, we derive an acoustic wave equation as a function of pressure perturbation based on the linearised Euler equations (LEEs), and the modified WKB approximation method is applied to derive analytical solutions based on very few assumptions. The eigenvalue system is built based on the proposed solutions and applied to predict the resonant frequencies and growth rate for transverse modes. Validations of the proposed solutions are performed by comparing them to the numerical results directly calculated from the LEEs. Good agreements are found between analytical reconstruction and numerical results of three-dimensional transverse modes. The system with both mean temperature profile and mean flow presents a larger absolute value of the growth rate than the condition of either uniform mean temperature or no mean flow.

The bifurcation process of self-sustained combustion instability pressure perturbations in a liquid rocket combustor is investigated based on the Helmholtz equations and a pressure dependent flame describing function. The modal frequency and growth rates are numerically resolved by the commercial software COMSOL multiphysics. Validation of the numerical approach is firstly conducted on a Rijke tube combustor, and a supercritical bifurcation for the first longitudinal mode is observed. The bifurcation diagrams for the first transverse mode for different time delays and gain index of the flame describing function are analyzed. Only the supercritical bifurcation presents for this configuration. The trajectory of Hopf points and the bifurcation diagram feature period motions with increasing the time delay. The effect of flame length distributions on the bifurcation diagrams is analyzed by considering a non-uniform flame length distribution model. Results show that the distribution has a large impact on the bifurcation process, e.g., the first transverse mode is more unstable for the non-uniform distribution. Finally, a subcritical bifurcation is found when a more complicated flame describing function is considered; the bistable region presents and the condition for this is discussed.

Combustion instability is the biggest threat to the reliability of liquid rocket engines, whose prediction and suppression are of great significance for engineering applications. To predict the stability of a combustion chamber with a hypergolic propellant, this work used the method of decoupling unsteady combustion and acoustic system. The turbulence is described by the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes technique, and the interaction of turbulence and chemistry interaction is described by the eddy-dissipation model. By extracting the flame transfer function of the combustion field, the eigenvalues of each acoustic mode were obtained by solving the Helmholtz equation, thereby predicting the combustion stability for the combustion chamber. By predictions of the combustion chamber instability with different flow rate distributions, it was found that the increasing of inlet flow rate amplitude will improve the stability or instability of combustion. The combustion stability of the chamber was optimized when the flow rate distribution for the oxidant was set more uniform in the radial direction. The heterogeneity of the flow rate distribution in the circumferential direction is not recommended, considering that a homogeneous flow rate distribution in the circumferential direction is beneficial to the combustion stability of the chamber.

Abstract Vehicle rollover, and its resulting fatalities, is an actively researched topic especially for multi-axle vehicles in the field of vehicle dynamics and control. This paper first presents a new rollover index for a triaxle bus to accurately evaluate its rollover possibility and then discusses the influence laws of the vehicle rollover dynamics to explore the mechanism of its stability. First, a six degree of freedom rollover model of the triaxle bus is developed, including lateral, yaw, roll motion of the sprung mass of the front/rear axle, and roll motion of the unsprung mass of the front/rear axle. Next, some key parameters of the vehicle rollover model are identified. A new rollover index is deduced according to the basics of vehicle dynamics, to predict vehicle rollover risk for the triaxle bus, which is verified by TruckSim. Furthermore, the influence laws of vehicle rollover dynamics by vehicle parameters and road parameters are discussed based on the simulation results. More importantly, the results show that the new method of modeling can precisely describe the rollover dynamics of the studied bus, and the proposed new index can effectively evaluate the rollover possibility. Therefore, this study provides a theoretical basis to improve anti-rollover ability for triaxle buses.

In home-based elderly care service, how to precisely recognize activities is a key issue in the design and implementation of context-aware service for elderly people. Existing research works reveal that those approaches ignore the characteristics of activity diversity, and similarity and the features of activities of elderly people at home, so recognition accuracy of those approaches are not high enough for real-life applications. Thus, in this paper, we first study the types of activities in home-based elderly care service. Then, we propose a two-stage elderly home activity recognition method based on random forest and activity similarity. The method uses improved random forest to obtain a preliminary result in the first stage. Then, the correlation between activity, location, and time is employed to judge the rationality of the result. The similarity of activities is further used to correct the results in the second stage. We set up a series of experiments to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach.

Robots manipulating in domestic environments generally need to interact with articulated objects, such as doors, drawers, laptops and swivel chairs. The rigid bodies that make up these objects are connected by a revolute pair or a prismatic pair. Robots are expected to learn and understand the objects' articulated constraints with a simple interaction method. In this way, the autonomy of robot manipulation will be greatly improved in an environment with unstructured constraints. In this paper, a method is proposed to obtain the articulated objects' constraint model by learning from a one-shot continuous visual demonstration which contains multistep movements, and this enables human teacher to continuously demonstrate several tasks at once without manual segmentation. At the end of this paper, a six-degree-of-freedom robot uses the constraint model obtained by demonstration learning to achieve manipulation planning of various tasks based on the AG-CBiRRT algorithm.

The cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) response element-binding protein (CREB) is associated with multiple signaling pathways. The signaling pathways leading to epilepsy have been extensively studied and include the Ca2+/CaMKiV/CREB pathway, the MAPK/CREB pathway, and the PI3K/Akt/CREB pathway. The regulation of transcription in cells requires CREB phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. Based on a review of the relevant literature, we found that increasing evidence demonstrates that drug-resistant epilepsy might be closely related to the upregulation and phosphorylation of CREB. Previous studies have shown that the mechanisms of epileptogenesis are associated with the over-excitability and sudden synchronous discharge of neurons. In turn, we have learned that inflammation produces proinflammatory factors that damage the blood–brain barrier and activate microglia (MG) and astrocytes (AS). Activated MG and AS not only play neuroprotective roles, but also cause neuroinflammation, which in turn damages nerve cells through CREB-related signaling pathways, leading to reduced effectiveness of antiepileptic drugs and, ultimately, to drug resistance in patients with epilepsy. Therefore, we hypothesized that the formation of drug-resistant epilepsy is related to the regulation of CREB activation or phosphorylation in glial cells activated by chronic inflammation.

Metabolites that incorporate elements other than carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen can be selectively detected by inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICPMS). When used in parallel with chromatographic separations and conventional electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESIMS), ICPMS allows the analyst to quickly find, characterize and identify target metabolites that carry nutrient elements (P, S, trace metals; “nutrient metabolites”), which are of particular interest to investigations of microbial biogeochemical cycles. This approach has been applied to the study of siderophores and other trace metal organic ligands in the ocean. The original method used mass search algorithms that relied on the ratio of stable isotopologues of iron, copper and nickel to assign mass spectra collected by ESIMS to metabolites carrying these elements detected by ICPMS. However, while isotopologue-based mass assignment algorithms were highly successful in characterizing metabolites that incorporate some trace metals, they do not realize the whole potential of the ICPMS/ESIMS approach as they cannot be used to assign the molecular ions of metabolites with monoisotopic elements or elements for which the ratio of stable isotopes is not known. Here we report a revised ICPMS/ESIMS method that incorporates a number of changes to the configuration of instrument hardware that improves sensitivity of the method by a factor of 4–5, and allows for more accurate quantitation of metabolites. We also describe a new suite of mass search algorithms that can find and characterize metabolites that carry monoisotopic elements. We used the new method to identify siderophores in a laboratory culture of Vibrio cyclitrophicus and a seawater sample collected in the North Pacific Ocean, and to assign molecular ions to monoisotopic cobalt and iodine nutrient metabolites in extracts of a laboratory culture of the marine cyanobacterium Prochorococcus MIT9215.

Lean combustion technique and annular geometries are preferred in aero-engines and gas turbines, which however may lead to azimuthal combustion instabilities. Active control can be used to stabilize combustion instabilities. Due to its easy use, linear feedback controllers embedded with linear flame response models under weak perturbation amplitude are typically preferred. However, flame responses to oncoming disturbances are typically nonlinear; such controllers are not guaranteed to stabilize. Model-based control strategies generally focus on axisymmetric cases, even though symmetry breaking of azimuthal thermoacoustic modes often occurs in annular combustors. This work uses an improved thermoacoustic model to simulate combustion instabilities within annular combustors, providing a platform on which control strategies development can be performed. The improved model takes into account the nonlinear flame response and the symmetry breaking of azimuthal modes. Single-input single-output control strategies targeting on these nonlinear instabilities are developed in this work. Such controllers can achieve stability for linear and nonlinear fluctuations as well as in symmetric and non-axisymmetric cases. The controllers adopt the H ∞ loop-shaping control strategy and a satisfactory robust performance is obtained.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory arterial disease characterized by build-up of atheromatous plaque, which narrows the lumen of arteries. Hypercholesterolemia and excessive oxidative stress in arterial walls are among the main causative factors of atherosclerosis. Transient receptor potential channel M2 (TRPM2) is a Ca2+-permeable cation channel activated by oxidative stress. However, the role of TRPM2 in atherosclerosis in animal models is not well studied. In the present study, with the use of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-PCSK9 and TRPM2 knockout (TRPM2−/−) mice, we determined the role of TRPM2 in hypercholesterolemia-induced atherosclerosis. Our results demonstrated that TRPM2 knockout reduced atherosclerotic plaque area in analysis of En face Oil Red O staining of both whole aortas and aortic-root thin sections. Furthermore, TRPM2 knockout reduced the expression of CD68, α-SMA, and PCNA in the plaque region, suggesting a role of TRPM2 in promoting macrophage infiltration and smooth-muscle cell migration into the lesion area. Moreover, TRPM2 knockout reduced the expression of ICAM-1, MCP-1, and TNFα and decreased the ROS level in the plaque region, suggesting a role of TRPM2 in enhancing monocyte adhesion and promoting vascular inflammation. In bone-marrow-derived macrophages and primary cultured arterial endothelial cells, TRPM2 knockout reduced the production of inflammatory cytokines/factors and decreased ROS production. In addition, a TRPM2 antagonist N-(p-amylcinnamoyl) anthranilic acid (ACA) was able to inhibit atherosclerotic development in an ApoE−/− mouse model of atherosclerosis. Taken together, the findings of our study demonstrated that TRPM2 contributes to the progression of hypercholesterolemia-induced atherosclerosis. Mechanistically, TRPM2 channels may provide an essential link that can connect ROS to Ca2+ and inflammation, consequently promoting atherosclerotic progression.

The H19 gene promotes skeletal muscle differentiation in mice, but the regulatory models and mechanisms of myogenesis regulated by H19 are largely unknown in pigs. Therefore, the regulatory modes of H19 in the differentiation of porcine skeletal muscle satellite cells (PSCs) need to be determined. We observed that H19 gene silencing could decrease the expressions of the myogenin (MYOG) gene, myogenic differentiation (MYOD), and myosin heavy chain (MYHC) in PSCs. Therefore, we constructed and sequenced 12 cDNA libraries of PSCs after knockdown of H19 at two differentiation time points to analyze the transcriptome differences. A total of 11,419 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. Among these DEGs, we found through bioinformatics analysis and protein interaction experiment that SRY-box transcription factor 4 (SOX4) and Drebrin 1 (DBN1) were the key genes in H19-regulated PSC differentiation. Functional analysis shows that SOX4 and DBN1 promote PSC differentiation. Mechanistically, H19 regulates PSC differentiation through two different pathways. On the one hand, H19 functions as a molecular sponge of miR-140-5p, which inhibits the differentiation of PSCs, thereby modulating the derepression of SOX4. On the other hand, H19 regulates PSC differentiation through directly binding with DBN1. Furthermore, MYOD binds to the promoters of H19 and DBN1. The knockdown of MYOD inhibits the expression of H19 and DBN1. We determined the function of H19 and provided a molecular model to elucidate H19’s role in regulating PSC differentiation.

Background: Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is one of the most prevalent personality disorders in general population. However, neural mechanisms underlying OCPD remain elusive. The aim of this study is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether OCPD patients will exhibit altered spontaneous brain activity as compared to healthy controls (HC). Methods: Resting-state fMRI data were acquired in 37 OCPD patients and 37 matched HC. Amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) were calculated and compared between the two groups. Correlation analysis was performed between regional ALFF values and OCPD severity scores. Results: Significant group differences in regional ALFF were found in multiple brain regions. Compared to HCs, OCPD subjects had increased ALFF in bilateral caudate, left precuneus, left insula, and left medial superior frontal gyrus, and decreased ALFF in the right fusiform gyrus and left lingual gyrus. The ALFF values in the left precuneus correlated with OCPD severity scores. Limitations: We excluded patients with comorbidity and did not conduct cognitive function assessments. Our findings are also limited to cross-sectional analysis. Conclusions: OCPD patients exhibit altered spontaneous neural activity as compared to healthy controls in multiple brain regions, which may reflect different characteristic symptoms of OCPD pathophysiology, including cognitive inflexibility, excessive self-control, lower empathy, and visual attention bias. Keywords: Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, Resting-state functional MRI, Amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation, Spontaneous neuronal activity

Abstract Long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) play essential roles in numerous biological processes and are widely studied. The skeletal muscle is an important tissue that plays an essential role in individual movement ability. However, lincRNAs in pig skeletal muscles are largely undiscovered and their biological functions remain elusive. In this study, we assembled transcriptomes using RNA-seq data published in previous studies of our laboratory group and identified 323 lincRNAs in porcine leg muscle. We found that these lincRNAs have shorter transcript length, fewer exons and lower expression level than protein-coding genes. Gene ontology and pathway analyses indicated that many potential target genes (PTGs) of lincRNAs were involved in skeletal-muscle-related processes, such as muscle contraction and muscle system process. Combined our previous studies, we found a potential regulatory mechanism in which the promoter methylation of lincRNAs can negatively regulate lincRNA expression and then positively regulate PTG expression, which can finally result in abnormal phenotypes of cloned piglets through a certain unknown pathway. This work detailed a number of lincRNAs and their target genes involved in skeletal muscle growth and development and can facilitate future studies on their roles in skeletal muscle growth and development.

Skeletal muscle satellite cells are a class of undifferentiated mononuclear myogenic stem cells distributed between the myofibroblast and membrane basement. Since their development determines the development of skeletal muscles, knowledge of their proliferation, differentiation, and fate is vital for understanding skeletal muscle development. Increasing evidence have shown that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) plays an important role in regulating the development process of satellite cells. Based on the results of our previous studies, we screened lncRNA MSTRG.59589, which is highly expressed in skeletal muscle tissue. In the present study, knockdown of MSTRG.59589 significantly inhibited satellite cell differentiation at various time points, whereas overexpression of MSTRG.59589 demonstrated opposite effects. An MSTRG.59589 knockdown cell model was constructed for transcriptome sequencing, and RNA sequencing analysis screened out a large number of differentially expressed genes. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses of these differentially expressed genes revealed that they are mainly enriched in actin cytoskeleton, muscle contraction, and other pathways related to muscle development. Mechanistic analyses showed that MSTRG.59589 could promote the differentiation process of skeletal muscle satellite cells by positively regulating the expression level of the target gene PALLD. This experiment lays a theoretical foundation for deeper studies on the mechanism of MSTRG.59589 in the differentiation of porcine skeletal muscle satellite cells.

Long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been considered to play a key regulatory role in various biological processes. An increasing number of studies have utilized transcriptome analysis to obtain lincRNAs with functions related to cancer, but lincRNAs affecting growth rates in weaned piglets are rarely described. Although lincRNAs have been systematically identified in various mouse tissues and cell lines, studies of lincRNA in pigs remain rare. Therefore, identifying and characterizing novel lincRNAs affecting the growth performance of weaned piglets is of great importance. Here, we reconstructed 101,988 lincRNA transcripts and identified 1,078 lincRNAs in two groups of longissimus dorsi muscle (LDM) and subcutaneous fat (SF) based on published RNA-seq datasets. These lincRNAs exhibit typical characteristics, such as shorter lengths and lower expression relative to protein-encoding genes. Gene ontology analysis revealed that some lincRNAs could be involved in weaned piglet related processes, such as insulin resistance and the AMPK signaling pathway. We also compared the positional relationship between differentially expressed lincRNAs (DELs) and quantitative trait loci (QTL) and found that some of DELs may play an important role in piglet growth and development. Our work details part of the lincRNAs that may affect the growth performance of weaned piglets and promotes future studies of lincRNAs for molecular-assisted development in weaned piglets.

An increasing number of studies have shown that long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) are a very important class of non-coding RNAs that plays a vital role in many biological processes. Adipose tissue is an important place for storing energy, but few studies on lincRNAs were related to pig subcutaneous fat development. Here, we used published RNA-seq data from subcutaneous adipose tissue of Italian Large White pigs and identified 252 putative lincRNAs, wherein 34 were unannotated. These lincRNAs had relatively shorter length, lower number of exons, and lower expression level compared with protein-coding transcripts. Gene ontology and pathway analysis indicated that the adjacent genes of lincRNAs were involved in lipid metabolism. In addition, differentially expressed lincRNAs (DELs) between low and high backfat thickness pigs were identified. Through the detection of quantitative trait locus (QTL), DELs were mainly located in QTLs related to adipose development. Based on the expression correlation of DEL genes and their differentially expressed potential target genes, we constructed a co-expression network and a potential pathway of DEL’s effect on lipid metabolism. Our study identified and analyzed lincRNAs in subcutaneous adipose tissue, and results suggested that lincRNAs may be involved in the regulation of subcutaneous fat development. Our findings provided new insights into the biological function of porcine lincRNAs.

The sampling-based motion planner is the mainstream method to solve the motion planning problem in high-dimensional space. In the process of exploring robot configuration space, this type of algorithm needs to perform collision query on a large number of samples, which greatly limits their planning efficiency. Therefore, this paper uses machine learning methods to establish a probabilistic model of the obstacle region in configuration space by learning a large number of labeled samples. Based on this, the high-dimensional samples’ rapid collision query is realized. The influence of number of Gaussian components on the fitting accuracy is analyzed in detail, and a self-adaptive model training method based on Greedy expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is proposed. At the same time, this method has the capability of online updating and can eliminate model fitting errors due to environmental changes. Finally, the model is combined with a variety of sampling-based motion planners and is validated in multiple sets of simulations and real world experiments. The results show that, compared with traditional methods, the proposed method has significantly improved the planning efficiency.

This paper proposes a reversible data hiding scheme by exploiting the DGHV fully homomorphic encryption, and analyzes the feasibility of the scheme for data hiding from the perspective of information entropy. In the proposed algorithm, additional data can be embedded directly into a DGHV fully homomorphic encrypted image without any preprocessing. On the sending side, by using two encrypted pixels as a group, a data hider can get the difference of two pixels in a group. Additional data can be embedded into the encrypted image by shifting the histogram of the differences with the fully homomorphic property. On the receiver side, a legal user can extract the additional data by getting the difference histogram, and the original image can be restored by using modular arithmetic. Besides, the additional data can be extracted after decryption while the original image can be restored. Compared with the previous two typical algorithms, the proposed scheme can effectively avoid preprocessing operations before encryption and can successfully embed and extract additional data in the encrypted domain. The extensive testing results on the standard images have certified the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

SiO2-Fe2O3-CaO (SFC) is believed to be the transition phase during the SiO2-Fe2O3-CaO-Al2O3 (SFCA) formation process. The effect of SiO2 on the mechanical property and reduction of the CaO-Fe2O3-SiO2 system was inspected in this study. Experiments were carried out under air at 1200 °C with different amounts of SiO2 mixed with Fe2O3 and CaO. The mechanical properties and reduction of samples were studied. Results indicate that the hardness of samples gradually increases with the increase of SFC content. That may be caused by SiO2 solid solution in calcium ferrite. The larger the amount and smaller size of acicular calcium ferrites in samples, the greater the fracture toughness. The solid solution of SiO2 in calcium ferrite is beneficial to decrease the initial reduction temperature. The apparent activation energy values of the samples with the different content of SiO2 from 0% to 5% are 167.23, 84.36, 87.90, 96.02, 92.44 and 107.83 kJ·mol−1, respectively. The microstructure of lump samples after reduction consists of four phases, i.e., CF (CaFe2O4), SFC, calcio-wüstite (CW) and Fe. It was not difficult to find the Fe in the samples reduced from CW. Scanning electron micrograph images have revealed that the acicular-like calcium ferrites are more easily reduced than the platy-like ones.

Preterm delivery increases the risk of infant mortality and morbidity, and therefore developing reliable methods for predicting its likelihood are of great importance. Previous work using uterine electromyography (EMG) recordings has shown that they may provide a promising and objective way for predicting risk of preterm delivery. However, to date attempts at utilizing computational approaches to achieve sufficient predictive confidence, in terms of area under the curve (AUC) values, have not achieved the high discrimination accuracy that a clinical application requires. In our study, we propose a new analytical approach for assessing the risk of preterm delivery using EMG recordings which firstly employs Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) to obtain their Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMF). Next, the entropy values of both instantaneous amplitude and instantaneous frequency of the first ten IMF components are computed in order to derive ratios of these two distinct components as features. Discrimination accuracy of this approach compared to those proposed previously was then calculated using six differently representative classifiers. Finally, three different electrode positions were analyzed for their prediction accuracy of preterm delivery in order to establish which uterine EMG recording location was optimal signal data. Overall, our results show a clear improvement in prediction accuracy of preterm delivery risk compared with previous approaches, achieving an impressive maximum AUC value of 0.986 when using signals from an electrode positioned below the navel. In sum, this provides a promising new method for analyzing uterine EMG signals to permit accurate clinical assessment of preterm delivery risk.