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Abstract Ubiquitous moisture is of particular interest for sustainable power generation and self‐powered electronics. However, current moisture electric generators (MEGs) can only harvest moisture energy in the air, which tremendously limits the energy harvesting efficiency and practical application scenarios. Herein, the operationality of MEG from air to underwater environment, through a sandwiched engineered‐hydrogel device with an additional waterproof breathable membrane layer allowing water vapor exchange while preventing liquid water penetration, is expanded. Underwater environment, the device can spontaneously deliver a voltage of 0.55 V and a current density of 130 µA cm−2 due to the efficient ion separation assisted by negative ions confinement in hydrogel networks. The output can be maintained even under harsh underwater environment with 10% salt concentration, 1 m s−1 disturbing flow, as well as >40 kPa hydraulic pressure. The engineered hydrogel used for MEG also exhibits excellent self‐healing ability, flexibility, and biocompatibility. As the first demonstration of practical applications in self‐powered underwater electronics, the MEG device is successfully powering a wireless emitter for remote communication in water. This new type of MEG offers an innovative route for harvesting moisture energy underwater and holds promise in the creation of a new range of innovative electronic devices for marine Internet‐of‐Things.

BackgroundPatients with primary aldosteronism present with renal function decline after unilateral adrenalectomies. Our study aimed to assess the evolution of renal function after adrenalectomy in patients with primary aldosteronism across different age groups and to identify risk factors for postoperative renal function deterioration.MethodsWe included 210 patients with primary aldosteronism categorized into three age groups:

The rapid development of science and technology, as well as the trend toward intelligence, has resulted in a surge in the demand for excellent energy storage devices for smart devices. At present, the most widely used lithium ion batteries have limited further development because of their high cost and various disadvantages of electrolytes (flammable and toxic). In spite of the low costs and safety of aqueous zinc-ion batteries, the high radius of the zinc ions and strong electrostatic interactions make cathode materials without excellent performance difficult to find. Various oxidation states, structural diversity, excellent multiplicity performance and high capacity have attracted researchers to vanadium-based oxides in recent years. However, vanadium-based oxides have disadvantages such as poor structural stability and low electrical conductivity, so this paper summarizes the progress of research on vanadium oxide cathode materials such as V2O5, VO2, V2O3, etc., and provides an outlook on future development directions.

Abstract The high hardness, brittleness, and thermal resistance impose significant challenges in the scalable manufacturing of fused silica lenses, which are widely used in numerous applications. Taking advantage of the nanocomposites by stirring silica nanopowders with photocurable resins, the newly emerged low‐temperature pre‐shaping technique provides a paradigm shift in fabricating transparent fused silica components. However, preparing the silica slurry and carefully evaporating the organics may significantly increase the process complexity and decrease the manufacturing efficiency for the nanocomposite‐based technique. By directly pressing pure silica nanopowders against the complex‐shaped metal molds in minutes, this work reports an entirely different room‐temperature molding method capable of mass replication of complex‐shaped silica lenses without organic additives. After sintering the replicated lenses, fully transparent fused silica lenses with spherical, arrayed, and freeform patterns are generated with nanometric surface roughness and well‐reserved mold shapes, demonstrating a scalable and cost‐effective route surpassing the current techniques for the manufacturing of high‐quality fused silica lenses.

In this study, we have designed an anticancer drug delivery framework by a one-pot technique using a zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) as the carrier. The chitosan-coated Aminopterin (AMT) loaded with zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-90) CS@AMT@ZIF-90 (CAZ-90) for breast cancer cells. The particle’s outer layer changed Chitosan (CS), a pH-sensitive biomaterial, to increase the composite CAZ-90’s reactivity to pH during drug release. CAZ-90 displayed target-selective and pH-responsive by releasing a significant ratio of AMT under an acidic milieu and a considerably reduced amount of AMT in a normal milieu. Additionally, CAZ-90 was found to have low toxicity to normal Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) cells while inhibiting breast cancer 4T1, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7 cells in vitro. Further, cell death was investigated by two different staining methods (AO-EB and DAPI nuclear staining). RNase-PI staining by flow cytometry techniques investigated the cell cycle arrest in breast (4T1, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7) cancer cells. CAZ-90 showed high AMT drug loading, cancer-targeted release, and excellent biocompatibility in the related tests, making it a promising option for an anticancer drug delivery system.

BackgroundSacubitril/valsartan is an angiotensin receptor neprilysin antagonist (ARNI) approved for adult heart failure (HF). Its safety and efficacy in pediatric HF patients with cardiomyopathy or congenital heart disease are poorly understood. A pilot study was conducted to assess the clinical response, efficacy and safety of sacubitril/valsartan in this population at a tertiary care hospital in China.MethodsClinical parameters of patients who received sacubitril/valsartan from January 2019 to March 2023 were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Children over 1 month with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF)

ObjectivesThe impact of blood pressure (BP) control and its timing on left ventricular (LV) structure and function remains unclear. The present study was to evaluate whether BP control correlated with conventional LV geometry and function indexes or global longitudinal strain (GLS) progression, and when echocardiographic changes would occur in essential hypertension.Methods and resultsA total of 62 participants (mean age 55.2 ± 11.5, male 71.0%) with uncontrolled hypertension were enrolled in the longitudinal study. Patients were followed up at the 6-month and 18-month, when echocardiographic measurements were performed and BP control was evaluated during the follow up period. At the 6- and 18-month examination, we divided the hypertensive patients into two groups as BP controlled and uncontrolled group. Patients with BP uncontrolled (n = 33) had higher LV mass index (P = 0.02), higher left atrial volume index (P = 0.01), worse GLS (P = 0.005) and GLS changes (P = 0.003) compared with controlled BP (n = 29) at the 6-month follow-up examination. Patients with uncontrolled BP (n = 25) had higher LV mass index (P = 0.001), higher LV mass index changes (P = 0.01), higher relative wall thickness (P = 0.01), higher E/e′ (P = 0.046), worse GLS (P = 0.02) and GLS changes (P = 0.02) compared to BP controlled group (n = 24) at the 18-month follow-up examination. GLS changes were associated with BP control (β = 0.370, P = 0.004 at the 6-month examination and β = 0.324, P = 0.02 at the 18-month examination, respectively) in stepwise multivariate regression analysis. LV mass index changes was corelated with systolic BP (β = 0.426, P = 0.003) at the 18-month follow-up examination in stepwise multivariate regression analysis. Neither was GLS changes nor LV mass index changes were related to antihypertensive medication class, including combination therapy in 6- or 18-month follow up examination.ConclusionsOur findings offer new clinical evidence on the association of BP control with echocardiographic changes in hypertensive patients, and, in particular, support the view that GLS progression was earlier and subtler than conventional LV geometry and function parameters. GLS changes were significant between BP controlled and uncontrolled patients even in 6-month follow-up period.

BackgroundWe sought to classify patients with congenital tracheal stenosis (CTS) according to tracheobronchial morphology and determine anatomic features associated with tracheobronchial anomalies (TBAs) and concurrent cardiovascular defects (CVDs).MethodsWe enrolled 254 patients who underwent tracheoplasty between November 1, 2009 and December 30, 2018. The anatomic features of the tracheobronchial tree and cardiovascular system were abstracted from bronchoscopy, echocardiography, computerized tomography, and operative reports.ResultsFour types of tracheobronchial morphology were identified: Type-1, which included normal tracheobronchial arborization (Type-1A, n = 29) and tracheal bronchus (Type-1B, n = 22); Type-2 (tracheal trifurcation; n = 49), and Type-3 (typical bridging bronchus; n = 47). Type-4 (bronchus with an untypical bridging pattern) was divided into Type-4A (involving bronchial diverticulum; n = 52) and Type-4B (absent bronchus; n = 55). Carinal compression and tracheomalacia were significantly more frequent in Type-4 patients than in the other patients (P

Abstract Applications of organic compounds‐based electrodes in aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) at low temperatures are severely restricted by the freezing of aqueous electrolytes and the inferior dynamic behavior of organic electrodes below zero. Herein, tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) was purified by the sublimation method and used as a cathode in AZIBs to investigate electrochemical Zn storage performance in comparison with nonpurified TCNQ at a temperature range of 25°C to −40°C. Nuclear magnetic resonance and elemental analysis prove increased purity in purified TCNQ (p‐TCNQ), whereas scanning electron microscope and Brunner−Emmet−Teller data verify reduced particle size and increased surface area of p‐TCNQ. Kinetic analysis demonstrates that p‐TCNQ is a more surface‐controlled electrode process than TCNQ and offers much higher ionic diffusivity than the latter at various temperatures. Molecular dynamics simulation validates that the existence of impurity increases the absorption energy of TCNQ in a TCNQ//Zn system that is unfavorable to Zn migration. Comprehensive analysis, including ex situ X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, Raman, and electron spin‐resonance spectroscopy characterization confirm the high reversibility of transformation between C≡N and −C═N groups in p‐TCNQ. This work provides a simple, environmentally friendly strategy to fabricate a high‐performance AZIB at low temperatures while offering fundamental chemistry insight into organic electrode performance, thus possessing universal significance.

Acori tatarinowii rhizome (ATR) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which has multiple effects, such as neuroprotective activity, antidepressant and other activity. However, the widespread cultivation of ATR has led to it varying quality. Therefore, it is important to find a method to quickly identify the components of ATR. Headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) and headspace solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC–MS) were applied to analyze and characterize the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of ATR. 33 VOCs were identified by HS-GC-IMS and 95 VOCs were identified by HS-SPME-GC–MS from 15 batches of ATR. Then, quantification of estragole, methyleugenol, γ-asarone, β-asarone and asarone by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The fingerprint of HS-GC-IMS and the heatmap of HS-SPME-GC–MS were established. Which compared differential components of ATR. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the results of both instruments. The VOCs in the ATR were significantly correlated with β-asarone and asarone by PatternHunter analysis. It assisted HS-GC-IMS determine ATR quality. It is the first report regarding the method development of HS-GC-IMS and HS-SPME-GC–MS that targets the VOCs characterization of ATR, and the findings obtained would benefit the quality control and distinguish the complex analytical objects of ATR.

The tensile properties and microstructure of hot extruded GW84 alloy stretching at 200 °C, 250 °C and 300 °C were investigated. The results showed that the alloys had excellent high temperature mechanical properties, when stretching at 250 °C, the ultimate tensile strength of alloy reached peak value, 393 MPa, and the tensile strength stretching at 300 °C reached 354 MPa. During high temperature tensile process, the microstructure markedly changed, which is not recognised in previous researches. Stretching at 200 °C, the precipitate phase was still metastable β′ phase. However, when stretching at 250 °C, the nano β′ precipitate transformed into nano β phase (β′ → β), and the precipitation mechanism is mainly inoculation nucleation of β phase. When stretching at 300 °C, the number of β precipitates increased significantly at triangular grain boundaries, which grew up to sub-micron particles, and precipitation mechanism is mainly growth and coarsening.

Background: This study aimed to determine whether the hemodynamics of patients with right ventricle outflow tract obstructive congenital heart disease (RVOTO-CHD) improve after corrective surgery by changing the ventilation mode. Methods: Patients with RVOTO-CHD who underwent corrective surgery were enrolled in this study. Echocardiography and advanced hemodynamic monitoring were performed using the pulse indicator continuous cardiac output (PiCCO) technology in the pressure-regulated volume control (PRVC) mode, followed with switching to the pressure support ventilation (PSV) mode and neurally adjusted ventilatory assist (NAVA) mode in random order. Results: Overall, 31 patients were enrolled in this study from April 2021 to October 2021. Notably, changing the ventilation mode from PRVC to a spontaneous mode (PSV or NAVA) led to better cardiac function outcomes, including right ventricular cardiac index (PRVC: 3.19 ± 1.07 L/min/m2 vs. PSV: 3.45 ± 1.32 L/min/m2 vs. NAVA: 3.82 ± 1.03 L/min/m2, p < 0.05) and right ventricle contractility (tricuspid annular peak systolic velocity) (PRVC: 6.58 ± 1.40 cm/s vs. PSV: 7.03 ± 1.33 cm/s vs. NAVA: 7.94 ± 1.50 cm/s, p < 0.05), as detected via echocardiography. Moreover, in the NAVA mode, PiCCO-derived cardiac index (PRVC: 2.92 ± 0.54 L/min/m2 vs. PSV: 3.04 ± 0.56 L/min/m2 vs. NAVA: 3.20 ± 0.62 L/min/m2, p < 0.05), stroke volume index (PRVC: 20.38 ± 3.97 mL/m2 vs. PSV: 21.23 ± 4.33 mL/m2 vs. NAVA: 22.00 ± 4.33 mL/m2, p < 0.05), and global end diastolic index (PRVC: 295.74 ± 78.39 mL/m2 vs. PSV: 307.26 ± 91.18 mL/m2 vs. NAVA: 323.74 ± 102.87 mL/m2, p < 0.05) improved, whereas extravascular lung water index significantly reduced (PRVC: 16.42 ± 7.90 mL/kg vs. PSV: 15.42 ± 5.50 mL/kg vs. NAVA: 14.4 ± 4.19 mL/kg, p < 0.05). Furthermore, peak inspiratory pressure, mean airway pressure, driving pressure, and compliance of the respiratory system improved in the NAVA mode. No deaths were reported in this study. Conclusions: We found that utilizing spontaneous ventilator modes, especially the NAVA mode, after corrective surgery in patients with RVOTO-CHD may improve their right heart hemodynamics and respiratory mechanics. However, further randomized controlled trials are required to verify the advantages of spontaneous ventilation modes in such patients. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT04825054.

BackgroundAdrenal venous sampling (AVS) is recognized as the gold standard for subtyping primary aldosteronism (PA), but its invasive nature and technical challenges limit its availability. A recent study reported that sodium chloride cotransporter (NCC) in urinary extracellular vesicles (uEVs) is a promising marker for assessing the biological activity of aldosterone and can be treated as a potential biomarker of PA. The current study was conducted to verify the hypothesis that the expression of NCC and its phosphorylated form (pNCC) in uEVs are different in various subtypes and genotypes of PA and can be used to select AVS candidates.MethodsA total of 50 patients with PA were enrolled in the study. Urinary extracellular vesicles (uEVs) were isolated from spot urine samples using ultracentrifugation. NCC and pNCC expressions were tested in patients diagnosed with PA who underwent AVS. Sanger sequencing of KCNJ5 was performed on DNA extracted from adrenal adenoma.ResultspNCC (1.89 folds, P

Due to its high hardness and brittleness, sapphire is difficult to obtain a low grinding roughness. In this paper, the cerium oxide liquid is used to assist the grinding of sapphire with a diamond wheel with relatively big-size grains to obtain a low roughness. The effects of grain size, the crystal orientation of the sapphire, and the pH values of the cerium oxide liquid on the assisted grinding process have been analyzed. It is shown that with the proposed method, the roughness of 45 nm and subsurface damage of 141 nm are obtained, respectively. Compared with the grinding surfaces obtained without the assistant, the roughnesses and the subsurface damage of the assisted grinding surfaces are reduced by 60.8% and 84.5% when #600 wheel is used, respectively. Moreover, in the grinding experiments, the crystal orientation of the sapphire and the pH values of the cerium oxide liquid have little effect on the roughness of the grinding surface, while the grain size has a great impact. It is concluded that the improvement of the surface roughness by using the proposed method benefits from the combined action of the grinding of grains and the polishing of the cerium oxide liquid.

Objective: Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is an effective mechanical circulatory support that is used to rescue critically ill patients after congenital heart surgery. As there was still no recommended guideline for monitoring parameters during extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), this study aimed to investigate the role of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in the early period of venoarterial (VA)-ECMO.Method: This study enrolled patients with NIRS monitoring during ECMO after pediatric cardiac surgery at Shanghai Children's Medical Center (2018–2020). The information obtained from the retrospective, the observational dataset included the demographic information, diagnoses, baseline characteristics, procedural details, ECMO data, monitoring data, in-hospital mortality, and complications of the patients.Results: The overall mortality rate was 43.6%. Lactate was significantly higher in non-survivors compared to survivors at 12 h (11.25 ± 7.26 vs. 6.96 ± 5.95 mmol/l, p = 0.022) and 48 h [2.2 (0.7, 20) vs. 1.4 (0.7, 5.8) mmol/l, p = 0.008] after initiation of ECMO. The cranial regional oxygen saturation (CrSO2) was significantly higher in survivors compared to non-survivors at 24 h (62.5 ± 14.61 vs. 52.05 ± 13.98%, p = 0.028), 36 h (64.04 ± 14.12 vs. 51.27 ± 15.65%, p = 0.005), and 48 h (65.32 ± 11.51 vs. 55.00 ± 14.18%, p = 0.008). Multivariate logistics regression analysis of the hemodynamic and laboratory parameters revealed that the CrSO2 at 36 h (OR = 0.945, p = 0.049) and 48 h (OR = 0.919, p = 0.032) was related to mortality. The use of continuous renal replacement therapy (OR = 14.940, p = 0.039) was also related to mortality. The optimal cutoff values for CrSO2 for predicting mortality after weaning off ECMO at 36 and 48 h were 57% (sensitivity: 61.5%, specificity: 80%) and 56% (sensitivity: 76.9%, specificity: 70%), respectively. The risk of mortality was higher among patients with a CrSO2(36h) < 57% (p = 0.028) by Kaplan-Meier analysis.Conclusion: Near-infrared spectroscopy may be a useful tool for monitoring the hemodynamic stability during the early period of ECMO, while CrSO2 can predict the in-hospital mortality after ECMO.

Parts with high-quality freeform surfaces have been widely used in industries, which require strict quality control during the manufacturing process. Among all the industrial inspection methods, contact measurement with coordinate measuring machines or computer numerical control machine tool is a fundamental technique due to its high accuracy, robustness, and universality. In this paper, the existing research in the contact measurement field is systematically reviewed. First, different configurations of the measuring machines are introduced in detail, which may have influence on the corresponding sampling and inspection path generation criteria. Then, the entire inspection pipeline is divided into two stages, namely the pre-inspection and post-inspection stages. The typical methods of each sub-stage are systematically overviewed and classified, including sampling, accessibility analysis, inspection path generation, probe tip radius compensation, surface reconstruction, and uncertainty analysis. Apart from those classical research, the applications of the emerging deep learning technique in some specific tasks of measurement are introduced. Furthermore, some potential and promising trends are provided for future investigation.

A 29-year-old female patient diagnosed with primary aldosteronism (PA) in 2004 underwent complete adrenalectomy for left aldosterone-producing adenoma (APA) confirmed by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and CYP11B2 staining. Her hypokalemia was corrected, and her blood pressure (BP) normalized and maintained without medication for 10 years. In 2014, her BP became elevated again, and a recurrence of PA with an adenoma on the right adrenal gland was discovered by computed tomography scan. She underwent partial right adrenalectomy in 2018 due to unsatisfactory BP control with medication and gradually enlarging adenoma. The resected adrenal tissue contained a CYP11B2 staining positive APA. Her BP was then controlled by two drugs. Sanger sequencing of DNA extracted from tissue slices revealed that both left and right adenomas carried the same aldosterone-driver KCNJ5 gene mutation, but with different nucleotide changes. We suggest that patients who undergo adrenalectomy for APA should be followed up for life.

Cell microinjection is a direct and effective way to transfer external materials into the cell. In the field of modern biomedicine, cell microinjection is very important, no matter in genetics, reproductive health, tumor therapy or others related research directions. Traditional manual cell microinjection has the disadvantages of low efficiency and low survival rate. In contrast, robotic cell microinjection can achieve precise and effective cell microinjection, and can be used in the injection of large quantities of cells. This paper reviews recent advances in robotic cell microinjection technologies. It summarizes the main approaches of key technologies and their advantages and disadvantages, such as cell identification, cell holding, precise positioning platform, cell injection strategy, sensors in cell microinjection, and cell modeling. The conclusion of the investigation is that the robotic cell microinjection has achieved remarkable results and still has great potential for further development. It is expected to be widely used in biomedicine and other fields to realize convenient, fast, and efficient microinjection operations of large number of individual cells.

Siteng Fang (STF) has been shown to inhibit migration, invasion, and adhesion as well as promote apoptosis in gastric cancer (GC) cells. However, whether it can reverse the multidrug resistance (MDR) of GC to chemotherapy drugs is unknown. Thus, we aimed to elucidate the mechanism of STF in reversing the MDR of GC. The chemical composition of STF and genes related to GC were obtained from the TCMNPAS(TCM Network Pharmacology Analysis System, TCMNPAS) Database, and the targets of the active ingredients were predicted using the Swiss Target Prediction Database. The obtained data were mapped to obtain the key active ingredients and core targets of STF in treating GC. The active component-target network and protein interaction network were constructed by Cytoscape and String database, and the key genes and core active ingredients were obtained. The biological functions and related signal pathways corresponding to the key targets were analyzed and then verified via molecular docking. A total of 14 core active ingredients of STF were screened, as well as 20 corresponding targets, which were mainly enriched in cancer pathway, proteoglycan synthesis, PI3K-AKT signaling pathway, and focal adhesion. Molecular docking showed that the core active ingredients related to MDR, namely quercetin and diosgenin, could bind well to the target. In summary, STF may reverse the MDR of GC and exert synergistic effect with chemotherapeutic drugs. It mediates MDR mainly through the action of quercetin and diosgenin on the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. These findings are the first to demonstrate the molecular mechanism of STF in reversing MDR in GC, thus providing a direction for follow-up basic research.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are the main chemical components of Schizonepetae Spica (SS), which have positive effects on the quality evaluation of SS. In this study, HS-SPME-GC-MS (headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) and HS-GC-IMS (headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry) were performed to characterize the VOCs of SS from six different regions. A total of 82 VOCs were identified. In addition, this work compared the suitability of two instruments to distinguish SS from different habitats. The regional classification using orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) shows that the HS-GC-IMS method can classify samples better than the HS-SPME-GC-MS. This study provided a reference method for identification of the SS from different origins.

A simple and efficient synthetic route was developed to obtain composites by mechanically ball-milling Li2ZrO3 (LZO) with Li3V2(PO4)3/C (LVPC). LZO improves the ionic conductivity of LVPC, compensates for the transfer of Li+ between the LVPC and the electrolyte, reduces the impedance of LVPC, and protects LVPC from side reactions caused by direct contact with the electrolyte. The composite consisting of 4.0 wt% of LZO exhibited a considerable electrochemical performance. The 1st discharge capacity reached 192 mAh g−1 at 30 mA g−1 between 3.0 and 4.8 V, and remained at 153 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles. The EIS analysis showed that the charge transfer and diffusion of Li+ in the LZO-LVPC composites were more favorable than those of pristine LVPC. The synthetic method proposed in this work is simple and efficient, which is convenient for large-scale production.

In order to solve the problem of network congestion caused by a large number of data requests generated by intelligent vehicles in LTE-V network, a brand-new fog server with fog computing function is deployed on both the cellular base stations and vehicles, and an LTE-V-fog network is constructed to deal with delay-sensitive service requests in the Internet of vehicles. The weighted total cost combines delay and energy consumption is taken as the optimisation goal. First a reinforcement learning algorithm Q-learning based on Markov decision process is proposed to solve the problem for minimising weighted total cost. Furthermore, this study specifically explains the setting method of three elements for reinforcement learning-state, action and reward in the fog computing system. Then for reducing the scale of problems and improving efficiency, the authors set up a pre-classification process before reinforcement learning to control the possible values of actions. However, considering that as the number of vehicles in system increases, Q-learning method based on recorded Q values may fall into a dimensional disaster. Therefore, the authors propose a deep reinforcement learning method, deep Q-learning network (DQN), which combines deep learning and Q-learning. Experimental results show that the proposed method has advantages.

Compared with other materials, monoclinic Li1+xV3O8 as the promising cathode includes many strong points, such as high theoretical capacity, abundant raw materials, safety characteristic and low environmental impact. However, the primary problems facing the development of Li1+xV3O8 for energy storage devices are poor cycling performance, low rate capability and short service life. Recently, many researches have taken various measures to overcome these shortcomings. In this mini-review, we summarized the recent developments of Li1+xV3O8 and focus on the improving of Li1+xV3O8 by ions-doping, which is deemed to a significant manner to improve the electrochemical performances of Li1+xV3O8.

With the rapid development of cloud computing, users are exposed to increasingly serious security threats such as data leakage and privacy exposure when using cloud platform services. Problems in data security, such as inaccurate screening of indicators, lack of scientific validation of reputation evaluation results are also existed. In order to solve the problems, based on cloud environment, a security reputation model using S-AlexNet convolutional neural network and dynamic game theory (SCNN-DGT) is proposed. And it is used to protect the privacy of health data in Internet of Things (IoT). Firstly, the text information of user health data is pre-classified by using S-AlexNet convolutional neural network. Then, a recommendation incentive strategy based on dynamic game theory is proposed. So that the reputation model of user health data security is built, and the evaluation system of the model is established. Finally, an experimental study is carried out to verify the validity of the model and the model index screening. It is shown by experimental results that the model can solve the problems of low reliability of health data screening index, and low accuracy of credit distinction in cloud environment. Therefore, the reliability of mobile terminals is improved, and data security and privacy protection of mobile cloud services are strengthened effectively.

Rate-dependent hysteresis seriously deteriorates the positioning accuracy of the piezoelectric actuators, especially when tracking high-frequency signals. As a widely-used nonparametric Bayesian method, the Gaussian process (GP) has proven its effectiveness in nonlinear hysteresis modeling. In this paper, the dimension of the input to the GP model is extended to consider more dynamic features of the tracking signal so as to improve the rate-dependent hysteresis modeling accuracy. In contrast with the traditional training set containing only the position and speed information, the acceleration and jerk information, as well as their temporal distribution information, is also included in the input of the model. An inverse hysteresis compensator (IHC) is established in the same way, and open-loop and closed-loop controllers are developed by using the IHC. Experimental results on a PEA stage show that with the increase in the input dimension, the hysteresis modeling accuracy improves greatly and, thus, the controllers based on IHC can achieve a better tracking performance.

Speckle tracking echocardiography is a novel technique to quantify cardiac function and deformation. It has been applied in a series of cardiovascular diseases for the evaluation of early cardiac impairment. We recently used this technique to investigate cardiac structure and function in patients with primary aldosteronism. Cardiac damage usually occurs earlier in patients with primary aldosteronism than those with primary hypertension, probably because aldosterone hypersecretion is more commonly observed in the former than the latter patients. In this article, we will review the imaging studies, especially with speckle tracking echocardiography, for the detection of early cardiac dysfunction in primary aldosteronism as a disease model.

Abstract Background Orbital vascular malformation often encircles normal tissue with ill-defined borders. It is easy to bleed during resection operation, making surgical treatment difficult and lesions hard to be removed completely. In this study we aimed to summarize the treatment outcomes by embolizing orbital vascular malformation with intraoperative intracavitary injection of medical glue . Methods A retrospective observational and cross-sectional case series study enrolled 31 patients (male = 9, female = 22) with orbital vascular malformations, who were treated from March 2008 to September 2017 at our institution. The clinical features, operation records, pathological reports and follow-up data were analyzed. Results The location of vascular malformations involved intraorbital (14 cases), superficial area of eyelid and/or face (7 cases), both intraorbital and superficial area (10 cases). Imaging examination showed a solitary mass with regular shape in 8 cases and a space occupying lesion with irregular shape and ill-defined margins in 23 cases. There were 9 cases had optic nerve involved. Surgical debulkling were performed via skin incision on the mass surface (5 cases), lateral orbitotomy (2 cases), and anterior orbitotomy (24 cases). During the operation, lesions were partly exposed and injected with medical glue. The amount of injected glue was 0.25 ml to 2.5 ml in divided doses. The lesions and remnant glue were removed after the glue had turned hard. The whole procedure caused less bleeding and was easier performing than usual. Topical skin aseptic inflammation took place on the same side of the superficial eyelid lesions in 3 cases. One patient suffered from sudden central retinal artery embolism on the third day post operation. With timely rescue and appropriate procedure, visual acuity recovered to 20/32. There were no recurrences in 29 cases. Conclusions Embolization of orbital vascular malformation with medical glue intraoperatively made it easy to control hemorrhage. Surgeons should be careful with glue application methods in order to avoid complications.

Leisure is an important way for residents to achieve well-being. As urbanization continues to accelerate and residents’ spiritual and cultural needs gradually increase, urban park leisure is becoming increasingly prominent in daily recreation, and recreational activities that meet residents’ short-term and frequent needs for leisure are becoming preferred. In this article, based on structural equation models, four representative urban parks in Beijing were selected as study areas to explore the relationships among three variables: leisure involvement, flow experience, and place attachment. The results showed that (1) leisure involvement had a significant positive effect on flow experience, (2) flow experience had a significant positive effect on place attachment, and (3) leisure involvement had both a significant direct effect on place attachment and an indirect effect mediated by flow experience. In addition, according to the empirical analysis of the influence of leisure behavior characteristics on leisure benefits, it was found that 1–3 h of leisure time in the park had the best leisure benefits. Therefore, a higher level of leisure involvement and a stronger flow experience can help to enhance residents’ place attachment; foster self-expression, identity, and self-actualization; and boost the benefits of leisure, which will eventually improve personal well-being and quality of life, construct and strengthen a sense of urban community, and fulfill people’s aspirations for a better life.

Nanoparticles and macromolecular carriers have been widely used to increase the efficacy of chemotherapeutics, largely through passive accumulation provided by their enhanced permeability and retention effect. However, the therapeutic efficacy of nanoscale anticancer drug delivery systems is severely truncated by their low tumor-targetability and inefficient drug release at the target site. Here, the design and development of novel l-peptide functionalized dual-responsive nanoparticles (l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX) for active targeting and effective treatment of GRP78-overexpressing human breast cancer in vitro and in vivo are reported. l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX NPs have a relative high drug loading (13.5%) and excellent encapsulation efficiency (74.3%) and an average diameter of 275 nm. The release of PTX is slow at pH 7.4 and 25 °C but greatly accelerated at pH 5.0 and 37 °C. MTT assays and confocal experiments showed that the l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX NPs possessed high targetability and antitumor activity toward GRP78 overexpressing MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. As expected, l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX NPs could effectively treat mice bearing MDA-MB-231 human breast tumor xenografts with little side effects, resulting in complete inhibition of tumor growth and a high survival rate over an experimental period of 60 days. These results indicate that l-peptide-functionalized acid – and thermally activated – PTX prodrug NPs have a great potential for targeted chemotherapy in breast cancer.

Measurement accuracy of the angular stiffness of flexible joint is directly related to the control accuracy and sensitivity of gyro, but the traditional measurement methods have many problems. According to the principle of angular stiffness measurement of flexible joint, two static measurement methods of angular stiffness are proposed based on different loading ways, namely mechanical loading angular stiffness measurement and piezoelectric loading angular stiffness measurement. The mechanical loading angular stiffness measurement system is built by using a motor driven indexing feeding tilting table, the measure experiment if the angular stiffness of flexible joint is conducted, and the angular stiffness of flexible joint is measured. For the excessive fluctuation problem of the measure result in mechanical load test, a piezoelectric loading structure is designed and a measurement method employing piezoelectric actuator is proposed for angular stiffness measurement of flexible joint. Based on ANSYS Workbench, the displacement output of the piezoelectric loading structure is analyzed by simulations. The simulation results illustrate that the displacement output meets the requirement of static loading angular stiffness measurement of flexible joint, and the theoretical feasibility of piezoelectric loading angular stiffness measurement method is validated.

This article presents a systematic and practical calibration method for an industrial robot to improve its absolute accuracy. The forward kinematics is established based on the global product-of-exponential formula considering some practical constraints. An enhanced partial pose measurement technique is used to construct the linearized error model with only position measurement. All the kinematic parameters are identified via the linear least-squared iteration. The end effector errors are compensated by an inverse Jacobian iteration algorithm in the robot joint space. To suppress the influences of the measurement error, an improved sequential forward floating search algorithm is proposed to select an optimal subset of configurations from a large pool of measured poses based on the D-Optimality. The proposed algorithm is verified via simulations. The calibration method is validated by experiments on an industrial robot, showing that the absolute accuracy of the robot is improved about 10 times under a statistics sense after the calibration.

This article presents a test bed for comprehensive study of a cable-driven hyper-redundant robot in terms of mechanical design, kinematics analysis, and experimental verification. To design the hyper-redundant robot, the multiple section structure is used. Each section consists of two rotational joints, a link mechanism, and three cables. In this sense, two degrees of freedom are achieved. For kinematics analysis between the actuator space and joint space, each section of the development is treated as three spherical–prismatic–spherical chains and a universal joint chain (3-SPS-U), which results in a four-chain parallel mechanism model. In order to obtain the forward kinematics from the joint space to task space directly and easily, the coordinate frames are established by the geometrical rules rather than the traditional Denavit–Hartenburg (D-H) rules. To solve the problem of inverse kinematics analysis, we utilize the product of exponentials approach. Finally, a prototype of 24-degrees of freedom hyper-redundant robot with 12 sections and 36 cables is fabricated and an experiment platform is built for real-time control of the robot. Different experiments in terms of trajectories tracking test, positioning accuracy test, and payload test are conducted for the validation of both mechanical design and model development. Experiment results demonstrate that the presented hyper-redundant robot has fine position accuracy, flexibility with mean position error less than 2%, and good load capacity.

Li3V2(PO4)3−xBrx/carbon (x = 0.08, 0.14, 0.20, and 0.26) composites as cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries were prepared through partially substituting PO43− with Br−, via a rheological phase reaction method. The crystal structure and morphology of the as-prepared composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and electrochemical properties were evaluated by charge/discharge cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). XRD results reveal that the Li3V2(PO4)3−xBrx/carbon composites with solid solution phase are well crystallized and have the same monoclinic structure as the pristine Li3V2(PO4)3/carbon composite. It is indicated by SEM images that the Li3V2(PO4)3−xBrx/carbon composites possess large and irregular particles, with an increasing Br− content. Among the Li3V2(PO4)3−xBrx/carbon composites, the Li3V2(PO4)2.86Br0.14/carbon composite shows the highest initial discharge capacity of 178.33 mAh·g−1 at the current rate of 30 mA·g−1 in the voltage range of 4.8–3.0 V, and the discharge capacity of 139.66 mAh·g−1 remains after 100 charge/discharge cycles. Even if operated at the current rate of 90 mA·g−1, Li3V2(PO4)2.86Br0.14/carbon composite still releases the initial discharge capacity of 156.57 mAh·g−1, and the discharge capacity of 123.3 mAh·g−1 can be maintained after the same number of cycles, which is beyond the discharge capacity and cycleability of the pristine Li3V2(PO4)3/carbon composite. EIS results imply that the Li3V2(PO4)2.86Br0.14/carbon composite demonstrates a decreased charge transfer resistance and preserves a good interfacial compatibility between solid electrode and electrolyte solution, compared with the pristine Li3V2(PO4)3/carbon composite upon cycling.

In an attempt to find the correlation of aberrant expression of long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) with cancer, twenty-five samples of breast cancer tissue and respective adjacent normal tissue were studied for the expression of lincRNAs by RNA-seq. Among the 538 lincRNAs studied, 124 lincRNAs were exclusively expressed in cancer adjacent tissues and 62 lincRNAs were exclusively expressed in the cancer tissues. Furthermore, the expression of 134 lincRNAs was higher while 272 lower in breast cancer tissue compared with adjacent tissue. The expression of four selected lincRNAs (BC2, BC4, BC5, and BC8) was validated by semi-quantitative and real-time PCR. It was revealed that expression of lincRNA-BC5 was positively correlated with patients' age, pathological stage, and progesterone receptor concentration, while lincRNA-BC8 was negatively correlated with progesterone receptor expression. Higher expression of lincRNA-BC4 was seen in advanced breast cancer grade. LincRNA-BC2 showed no specific changes in the pathological features studied. Interactions between selected lincRNAs and breast cancer associated proteins were highly suggested by RPIseq based on the specific secondary structure. The results demonstrated that this group of lincRNAs was aberrantly expressed in breast cancer. They might play important roles in the function of oncogenes or tumor suppressors affecting the development and progression of breast cancer.

In this study, a CMOS compatible capacitive humidity sensor structure was designed and fabricated on a 200 mm CMOS BEOL Line. A top Al interconnect layer was used as an electrode with a comb/serpent structure, and graphene oxide (GO) was used as sensing material. XRD analysis was done which shows that GO sensing material has a strong and sharp (002) peak at about 10.278°, whereas graphite has (002) peak at about 26°. Device level CV and IV curves were measured in mini-environments at different relative humidity (RH) level, and saturated salt solutions were used to build these mini-environments. To evaluate the potential value of GO material in humidity sensor applications, a prototype humidity sensor was designed and fabricated by integrating the sensor with a dedicated readout ASIC and display/calibration module. Measurements in different mini-environments show that the GO-based humidity sensor has higher sensitivity, faster recovery time and good linearity performance. Compared with a standard humidity sensor, the measured RH data of our prototype humidity sensor can match well that of the standard product.