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Summary: The rhizosphere microbiome plays critical roles in plant growth and provides promising solutions for sustainable agriculture. While the rhizosphere microbiome frequently fluctuates with the soil environment, recent studies have demonstrated that a small proportion of the microbiome is consistently assembled in the rhizosphere of a specific plant genotype regardless of the soil condition, which is determined by host genetics. Based on these breakthroughs, which involved exploiting the plant‐beneficial function of the rhizosphere microbiome, we propose to divide the rhizosphere microbiome into environment‐dominated and plant genetic‐dominated components based on their different assembly mechanisms. Subsequently, two strategies to explore the different rhizosphere microbiome components for agricultural production are suggested, that is, the precise management of the environment‐dominated rhizosphere microbiome by agronomic practices, and the elucidation of the plant genetic basis of the plant genetic‐dominated rhizosphere microbiome for breeding microbiome‐assisted crop varieties. We finally present the major challenges that need to be overcome to implement strategies for modulating these two components of the rhizosphere microbiome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding the most interesting areas of an image is the aim of saliency detection. Conventional methods based on low-level features rely on biological cues like texture and color. These methods, however, have trouble with processing complicated or low-contrast images. In this paper, we introduce a deep neural network-based saliency detection method. First, using semantic segmentation, we construct a pixel-level model that gives each pixel a saliency value depending on its semantic category. Next, we create a region feature model by combining both hand-crafted and deep features, which extracts and fuses the local and global information of each superpixel region. Third, we combine the results from the previous two steps, along with the over-segmented superpixel images and the original images, to construct a multi-level feature model. We feed the model into a deep convolutional network, which generates the final saliency map by learning to integrate the macro and micro information based on the pixels and superpixels. We assess our method on five benchmark datasets and contrast it against 14 state-of-the-art saliency detection algorithms. According to the experimental results, our method performs better than the other methods in terms of F-measure, precision, recall, and runtime. Additionally, we analyze the limitations of our method and propose potential future developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanocrystalline cesium tungsten bronze (CsxWO3) exhibits high transparency and near-infrared blocking effect caused by localized surface plasmon resonance and small-polaron absorption, making it a promising transparent heat insulation material. CsxWO3 has certain application in energy-saving coated glass for building, but its application in laminated glass, another widely used building glass, has rarely been studied. The research on laminated glass mainly focuses on safety, but it also has high energy-saving potential, and the research in this area is relatively backward. Compared with the glass coating whose thickness limits the application of thermal insulation materials, the interlayer of laminated glass can introduce both infrared shielding materials and low thermal conductivity materials by virtue of its larger thickness, so as to achieve better thermal insulation effect. Herein, a new type of thermal insulation laminated glass was proposed. For this purpose, two types of thermal insulation nanomaterials, nanocrystalline CsxWO3 and SiO2 aerogel, were incorporated into polyvinyl butyral (PVB) to prepare PVB/CsxWO3/ SiO2-aerogel composite for the preparation of laminated glass. The materials containing CsxWO3 exhibited high visible light transmittance (75%) and NIR shielding rate (77%). In addition, when appropriate content of SiO2 aerogel was added, the thermal insulation was further improved with minimal change in the transmittance spectrum. The PVB/CsxWO3/SiO2-aerogel achieved both good visible light transmittance and excellent thermal insulation performance, making it a composite material for laminated glass in line with contemporary green energy-saving concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIron and steel industry descale rolls long-term high-pressure water erosion, high temperature, easy to wear, corrosion failure and other problems, the continuous production of steel rolling impact, descale rolls base wall thickness is the main cause of cracking of the surfacing gradient lap organization. This article combines numerical simulation and experimental testing, the use of CALPHAD method to calculate the surfacing material temperature change physical parameters, based on the double ellipsoid heat source model, the establishment of the descale roller submerged arc surfacing process of multi-field coupling three-dimensional numerical model, calculations and reveal the descale roller submerged arc surfacing process of the temperature field, the stress field, the phase change field and the flow field of the transient evolution of the law, and further analyze the descale roller wall thickness of the surfacing process of the influence of the mechanism. Calculation results show that the depth of melting of the surfacing matrix is positively correlated with the width of the double ellipsoid heat source, and the larger the wall thickness, the faster the cooling rate, the greater the formation of residual stress. The austenite and martensite phase transformation of the overlay welding process is greatly influenced by the wall thickness. At the same time, SEM, EDS, XRD material science microcharacterization experiments were carried out to observe the micro-morphology, phase and elemental composition of the cladding layer. This study lays an important theoretical foundation for optimizing the submerged arc surfacing process of descale roller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-cost and efficient interface evaporation technology based on solar energy has attracted much attention in seawater desalination, but is still challenging. In this study, a novel interface evaporator was constructed by brushing paste containing 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (FAS) modified carbon black (CB) nanoparticles and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) on a pre-cleaned waste mask to develop the superhydrophobic photothermal layer, with cellulose non-woven fabric as the water supply layer and polystyrene foam as the insulation layer. Benefitting from the excellent light absorption capability of CB nanoparticles in the photothermal layer, the surface temperature of the evaporator increased up to 105 °C within 140 s with an evaporation rate of 1.58 kg m−2 h−1, and the photothermal conversion efficiency reached 94.3% under 1 kW m−2 of solar irradiation. The evaporator has shown excellent potential for long-term seawater desalination due to the use of FAS-modified CB nanoparticles, which create surface roughness, and hydrophobic PVDF adhesive, which helps in film formation. As a result, the evaporator has demonstrated significantly low heat loss, making it highly suitable for practical applications. This study demonstrates an economical and efficient solution in seawater desalination, wastewater treatment, and hydropower cogeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: This review is focused on the role of root exudates on beneficial rhizobacterial colonization. The dynamic interaction between root exudates and rhizobacteria is influenced by plant genotype, development, environmental biotic factors, and abiotic factors. Bacterial-specific metabolism plays crucial roles in rhizosphere competence and rhizobacterial colonization ability. Diverse types of root exudates serve as nutrients, signals, or antimicrobial substances, facilitating root colonization by beneficial bacteria. Certain secondary metabolites selectively promote root colonization by bacteria with specialized functions. Soil-beneficial microbes in the rhizosphere play important roles in improving plant growth and health. Root exudates play key roles in plant–microbe interactions and rhizobacterial colonization. This review describes the factors influencing the dynamic interactions between root exudates and the soil microbiome in the rhizosphere, including plant genotype, plant development, and environmental abiotic and biotic factors. We also discuss the roles of specific metabolic mechanisms, regulators, and signals of beneficial soil bacteria in terms of colonization ability. We highlight the latest research progress on the roles of root exudates in regulating beneficial rhizobacterial colonization. Organic acids, amino acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, volatiles, and other secondary metabolites are discussed in detail. Finally, we propose future research objectives that will help us better understand the role of root exudates in root colonization by rhizobacteria and promote the sustainable development of agriculture and forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been associated with attentional deficits and impairments of working memory. Meanwhile, attention and working memory are critical for time perception. However, it remains unclear how time perception alters in AUD patients and how attention and working memory affect their time perception. The current study aims to clarify the time perception characteristics of AUD patients and the cognitive mechanisms underlying their time perception dysfunction. Thirty‐one patients (three of them were excluded) with AUD and thirty‐one matched controls completed the Time Bisection Task, Attention Network Test and Digital Span Backward Test to assess their abilities in time perception, attention network and working memory, respectively. The results showed that, after controlling for anxiety, depression, and impulsivity, AUD patients had a lower proportion of 'long' responses at intervals of 600, 750, 900, 1050 and 1200 ms. Furthermore, they displayed higher subjective equivalence points and higher Weber ratios compared to controls. Moreover, AUD patients showed impaired alerting and executive control networks as well as reduced working memory resources. Only working memory resources mediated the impact of AUD on time perception. In conclusion, our findings suggested that the duration underestimation in AUD patients is predominantly caused by working memory deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhizosphere microbes play critical roles for plant's growth and health. Among them, the beneficial rhizobacteria have the potential to be developed as the biofertilizer or bioinoculants for sustaining the agricultural development. The efficient rhizosphere colonization of these rhizobacteria is a prerequisite for exerting their plant beneficial functions, but the colonizing process and underlying mechanisms have not been thoroughly reviewed, especially for the nonsymbiotic beneficial rhizobacteria. This review systematically analyzed the root colonizing process of the nonsymbiotic rhizobacteria and compared it with that of the symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria. This review also highlighted the approaches to improve the root colonization efficiency and proposed to study the rhizobacterial colonization from a holistic perspective of the rhizosphere microbiome under more natural conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) is frequently used for heavy traffic. In CRCP, early-age cracking can be caused by environmental loading freely and randomly, but only certain crack patterns can affect its long-term performance and induce distress such as punchouts. In this work, we introduce a peridynamic model that includes the time dependency of the environmental loading and material properties to investigate the early-age behaviour of CRCP and predict its cracking. The simulation results match those from field observations in terms of crack patterns, average transverse crack spacing, and crack width. We conduct parametric analyses and find the effects changing environmental conditions and design parameters have on crack patterns. An investigation of active crack control demonstrates that the model can be used to determine optimal pre-notch spacing, for specific environmental conditions, that leads to desirable crack patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All‐inorganic CsPbX3 (X = Cl, Br, and I) perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have great application prospects in many fields due to their excellent photoelectric properties. However, CsPbX3 NCs are extremely sensitive to water, heat, light, and oxygen, which leads to dramatic photoluminescence quenching and seriously restricts their future commercial applications. Herein, a novel, simple one‐step solution strategy for synthesizing high‐quality CsPbBr3 NCs was reported. By the combination of the hot‐injection process with the mesoporous template confinement effect of the KIT‐6 matrix, the space‐confined growth of NCs was precisely achieved. The CsPbBr3 NCs encapsulated by KIT‐6 (CsPbBr3@KIT‐6 composite) exhibited a uniform size, a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of up to 82%, and a narrow full width at half‐maximum (FWHM) of 24 nm. Most importantly, CsPbBr3@KIT‐6 powder composites had dramatically enhanced light, thermal and water stability in comparison with colloidal CsPbBr3 NCs due to the dual protection of organic ligands and matrix templates. Ultimately, a white light‐emitting diode (LED) device was successfully fabricated by encapsulating a mixture of green‐emitting CsPbBr3@KIT‐6 composite and red‐emitting K2SiF6:Mn4+ phosphor onto a blue‐emitting InGaN LED chip. A color coordinate of (0.327, 0.337) and a wide color gamut of 128% NTSC well demonstrate their potential applications in lighting and display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Quantifying niche shifts of non‐native species and their interactions with natives is vital in evaluating invasion risk yet remains difficult. Climate filtering and competition with native congeners are two important processes impacting niche changes and yielding contradictory predictions for the coexistence of non‐native and native species. Closely related species representing the Eastern Asia (EA)–Eastern North America (ENA) floristic disjunction provide a powerful yet unexplored system for assessing the relative roles of these two processes. Here, we tested three niche change scenarios (unfilling, expansion and stable) using EA species naturalized in ENA. We aim to answer: (1) which scenario is observed for naturalized species? and (2) how has niche overlap between EA and ENA congeners changed after naturalization? Location: ENA and EA. Time Period: Present. Major Taxa Studied: Angiosperms. Methods: Niches were estimated using both occurrences and predictions generated by ecological niche models. Niche changes of naturalized species and their niche overlap with natives were measured using Schoener's D. Contributions of niche expansion and unfilling on niche changes of naturalized niches were evaluated using hierarchical partitioning and linear regressions. We further measured pairwise phylogenetic distances among EA and ENA congeners and evaluated the association with niche overlap. Results: Unfilling‐dominated postintroduction niche changes of the naturalized species. EA species naturalized in ENA exhibited lower niche overlap with ENA native congeners compared with native range populations in EA. These results remain when considering time since introduction and potential physical dispersal limitations interpreted by projecting suitable niche space between EA and ENA. However, dispersal limitation may contribute to the degree of niche unfilling. Main Conclusions: Using intercontinental disjunct species as a study system, we found that naturalization is shaped jointly by climate filtering and competition with native congeners, providing valuable insights for evaluating invasion risk underlying global floristic exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, data-driven deep networks have demonstrated remarkable detection performance for infrared small targets. However, continuously increasing the depth of neural networks to enhance performance has proven impractical. Consequently, the integration of prior physical knowledge related to infrared small targets within deep neural networks has become crucial. It aims to improve the models' awareness of inherent physical characteristics. In this paper, we propose a novel dual-domain prior-driven deep network (DPDNet) for infrared small-target detection. Our method integrates the advantages of both data-driven and model-driven methods by leveraging the prior physical characteristics as the driving force. Initially, we utilize the sparse characteristics of infrared small targets to boost their saliency at the input level of the network. Subsequently, a high-frequency feature extraction module, seamlessly integrated into the network's backbone, is employed to excavate feature information. DPDNet simultaneously emphasizes the prior sparse characteristics of infrared small targets in the spatial domain and their prior high-frequency characteristics in the frequency domain. Compared with previous CNN-based methods, our method achieves superior performance while utilizing fewer convolutional layers. It has a performance of 78.64% IoU, 95.56 Pd, and 2.15 × 10−6 Fa on the SIRST dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peridynamic model introduced in this paper is capable of simulating the entire process of concrete freeze-thaw failure. The model considers the heterogeneity of concrete and a new loading method implementing the freezing force during freeze-thaw cycles is applied. The model is verified by comparing with the damage pattern of a cement paste sample captured in the experiment. Considering concrete's porosity, randomly distributed pre-damage is introduced to simulate freeze-thaw damaging in actual macroscopic concrete. The unique contribution to the field in this work, is the way to couple the damage with loading condition, through diffuse layers, not on mathematical interfaces. Damage initiation and crack propagation in freeze-thaw cycling are simulated. The peridynamic simulation adopts a stochastically homogenized material model. Ice crystallization pressure is applied via an equivalent displacement condition. Freezing forces exert on material nodes near crack surfaces to mimic a thin water diffusion layer. Stochastic model retains heterogeneity while cost the same as a homogenized one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combustion instability is a common thermoacoustic coupling problem in combustion systems, and the pressure oscillations generated inevitably damage the combustion system. Studying the mechanism of combustion instability, especially the triggering problem of combustion instability, is particularly important for understanding combustion instability. This article adopts experimental research methods. The flame transfer function and flame describing function governing pressure pulsation were hereby measured to study the effect of heat release rate fluctuation on acoustic disturbance. By triggering combustion instability through ignition, the growth process of combustion instability was also studied. The results showed that flame pulsation amplitude shows a complex curvature when the frequency is lower than 200 Hz, while the growth rate of pulsation amplitude monotonically decreases as frequencies increase above 200 Hz. According to the considerable self−excited combustion instability tests, the oscillation amplitudes in the limit cycle state are generally greater than 0.4, while the pressure amplitudes in the limited state are less than 0.2, thus verifying the concept of a trigger threshold for low−frequency oscillation. In addition, analysis of the growth rate, the pressure and the attractor of the heat release pulsation observed after the triggering of combustion instability reveals that the triggering of combustion instability is a gradual coupling process between oscillation pressure and heat release rate pulsation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abnormal heating of composite insulators on transmission lines frequently occurs, seriously threatening the power grid's safe and stable operation. For different types of abnormal heating composite insulators, undifferentiated replacement wastes a lot of labor and material resources. This study explores the abnormal heating composite insulators under different environmental humidity and wind speed conditions. The heating and discharge of composite insulators are observed, and the heating range, heating shape, and temperature rise (ΔT) are analyzed. The abnormal heating of the sheath-aging composite insulator is related to the aging of the silicone rubber and the environmental humidity. The partial discharge caused by the core rod's defect is the primary source of the temperature rise in the decay-like insulator. The heating range of the contaminated insulator is connected to the environmental humidity, and the ΔT increases with the salt density. The ΔT and heating range of the three types of abnormal heating increase with the ambient humidity. The heating phenomenon under low humidity is an important characteristic that distinguishes decay-like and contaminated insulators from sheath-aging insulators. Therefore, the on-site infrared inspection should be carried out in sunny and windless weather to prevent the impact of high humidity and wind speed on infrared temperature measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution millimeter-wave (MMW) radar is viewed as a low-cost and highly reliable sensor compared to camera, lidar, etc., in moving scenarios and thus has been selected by highway stakeholders as an important roadside detector to detect the movement of traffic vehicles and monitor traffic flow in real time. However, the echo signal of MMW radar in complex highway environment contains not only the signal reflected by target but also spurious signals and other interference signals, which significantly affects the estimation of the target movement state. To solve this problem, an improved vehicle tracking method is designed to simultaneously estimate the polar angle and polar radius in coordinator of MMW radar. Moreover, considering the movement patterns of target vehicles in dynamic uncertain traffic situations, a set of state space models, such as CA, CV, and CT are combined to represent the vehicle movement. In addition, based on the enhanced detection performance of a single radar, the combination of multiple MMW radars' information was performed to determine the sequential trajectory of the target vehicle on the continuous road sections; then, the historical trajectory of the target vehicle was correlated and fused. Real experiments in highway scenarios show that the method used in this study is effective in deriving the trajectory of the vehicle and improving the positioning accuracy and reliability when the vehicle performs heavy maneuvers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glutathione (GSH) is generally used as an effective and sensitive tumor marker because its abnormal levels are associated with high free radical level in tumor. In this work, GSH could be easily detected by a kind of designed Eu‐based metal–organic frameworks (Eu‐MOFs, named Eu(DTBA)) fluorescent sensor. Due to the "antenna effect" of 4,4′‐dithiobenzoic acid (4,4′‐DTBA) ligands on Eu3+, Eu(DTBA) emits the strong characteristic red light of Eu3+ under ultraviolet excitation. Moreover, the emission intensity strongly depends on GSH concentrations. Thus, Eu(DTBA) can serve as a turn‐off fluorescent switch of GSH because its framework structure can easily be destroyed by GSH that leads to the fluorescence quenching. Remarkably, during sensing GSH, Eu(DTBA) has shown many appealing performances, such as broad a response window (0–20 mM), fast response (3 min), high sensitivity (LOD = 0.35 µM), and excellent anti‐interference ability. The real bioimaging application has demonstrated that the reported Eu(DTBA) can be used as an excellent bioimaging agent to successfully distinguish tumor cells from normal cells in clinical diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a fast computational method based on the training of the U-net neural network is proposed to solve the fluid-thermal coupling problem of transformers. First, the input variables are selected according to the fluid-thermal coupling principle, and the finite volume method is applied to obtain the output results under different operating conditions and make them into training sets and test sets. Second, the training sets are normalized and input into the U-net neural network. At the same time, three hyperparameters that have more influence on the network training are discussed in detail, and the optimal combination of hyperparameters is determined. Finally, the prediction set is fed into the trained model for prediction computation, and the results are subjected to the inverse normalization operation, whose predictive results are consistent with those calculated by the finite volume method. In addition, the computational time is shortened from 300 to 0.07 s, and the prediction variance does not exceed 0.055 K2. The results show that the proposed method can be used to obtain the temperature of immersed transformer windings quickly, which provides an effective tool for real-time temperature simulation of the digital twin of power transformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: While some clinical studies have shown that PD-1 and PD-L1 can also be an effective neoadjuvant treatment for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), no evidence has been available for the use of the PD-1 inhibitor sintilimab combined with chemotherapy as a neoadjuvant treatment for potentially resectable NSCLC in the Chinese population. Methods: This prospective, single-center, single-arm, phase 2 clinical trial (registration number: NCT04326153) included treatment-naive patients with potentially resectable NSCLC (stage IIIA/IIIB) who received sintilimab plus nab-paclitaxel and carboplatin for two to three cycles before systematic nodal dissection 30 to 45 days after neoadjuvant treatment. After surgery, patients needed to complete two cycles of adjuvant chemoimmunotherapy (sintilimab + nab-paclitaxel + carboplatin). The primary endpoint was disease-free survival rate at 24 months, whereas secondary endpoints included major pathological response (MPR) and pathologic complete response (pCR) rates, the proportion of patients who achieved tumor downstaging, overall survival, objective response rate (ORR), and adverse effects. PD-L1 status before and after treatment was also determined. Results: Among the 20 patients who received neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy, 16 underwent radical resection. The disease control rate and ORR were 90% and 70%, respectively. Among the 16 patients who underwent surgery, 10 (62.5%) and 5 (31.25%) achieved MPR and pCR, respectively. Squamous cell NSCLC exhibited superior response rates compared to adenocarcinoma (pCR 35.7% vs. 0%). Moreover, 14 patients (70%) experienced grade 1 or 2 neoadjuvant treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs), whereas 6 (30%) experienced grade 3 TRAEs. Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) was found in the current study as an adverse reaction of concern. The rate of BPF was 20% (4/20), of which three patients were in grade 1–2, and one patient died. The occurrence of BPF had no significant correlation with basic disease history, nutritional status, anemia, hypoalbuminemia, surgical procedure, pathological remission, and PD-L1 expression. However, during neoadjuvant treatment, no adverse events prompted dose reduction, treatment discontinuation, surgery delay, or death. Although PD-L1 expression may change after chemoimmunotherapy, no regular pattern was noted. PD-L1 expression, neither at baseline nor after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy, was associated with pathological remission. Conclusions: The current study found similar ORR, slightly lower MPR and pCR rates, and lower grade 3 TRAEs among patients with potentially resectable stage IIIA/IIIB NSCLC compared to the NADIM trial, as well as a greater ORR, MPR rate, pCR rate, and grade 3 TRAEs compared to Gao's study involving sintilimab for Chinese patients with resectable stage IA–IIIB NSCLC. Though neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy had been found to promote a high risk of BPF for patients with stage IIIA/IIIB disease, it offered greater potential for radical cure. Therefore, the current study suggests that neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy can be a safe approach in increasing the efficiency of treatment and hopefully improving the prognosis of patients with potentially resectable locally advanced NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In the clinical diagnosis of lung cancer, doctors mainly rely on pathological images to make decisions about the patient's condition. Therefore, pathology diagnosis is known as the gold standard for disease diagnosis. In recent years, convolutional neural networks have been widely used for computer-aided diagnosis to relieve the work pressure of pathologists. However, this method still faces two problems: from the perspective of clinical application, the current neural network model can only perform simple lung cancer type detection; From the perspective of model design, the strategy adopted by researchers to improve the accuracy of diagnosis is often to carry out complex model design, which will cause the model parameters to be too large to be clinically deployed. In this study, we first prepared a lung cancer dataset that can provide more complex cancer information to the model. Then, using only a novel visual activation function, the ability of convolutional neural networks to detect interclass and intraclass differences in cancer pathological images is enhanced. Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors in human beings. It is highly fatal, as its early symptoms are not obvious. In clinical medicine, physicians rely on the information provided by pathology tests as an important reference for the final diagnosis of many diseases. Therefore, pathology diagnosis is known as the gold standard for disease diagnosis. However, the complexity of the information contained in pathology images and the increase in the number of patients far outpace the number of pathologists, especially for the treatment of lung cancer in less developed countries. To address this problem, we propose a plug-and-play visual activation function (AF), CroReLU, based on a priori knowledge of pathology, which makes it possible to use deep learning models for precision medicine. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to optimize deep learning models for pathology image diagnosis from the perspective of AFs. By adopting a unique crossover window design for the activation layer of the neural network, CroReLU is equipped with the ability to model spatial information and capture histological morphological features of lung cancer such as papillary, micropapillary, and tubular alveoli. To test the effectiveness of this design, 776 lung cancer pathology images were collected as experimental data. When CroReLU was inserted into the SeNet network (SeNet_CroReLU), the diagnostic accuracy reached 98.33%, which was significantly better than that of common neural network models at this stage. The generalization ability of the proposed method was validated on the LC25000 dataset with completely different data distribution and recognition tasks in the face of practical clinical needs. The experimental results show that CroReLU has the ability to recognize inter- and intra-class differences in cancer pathology images, and that the recognition accuracy exceeds the extant research work on the complex design of network layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saturable reactor is the key equipment in converter valves; it is important to evaluate the core condition. In this paper, a recognition model of saturable reactor core loosening based on variational mode decomposition (VMD)‐symmetrized dot pattern (SDP) feature fusion images and scale‐invariant feature transform (SIFT) was proposed. Firstly, the saturable reactor vibration test under high frequency pulse excitation was carried out, and the vibration signals in different core loosening degrees were collected. Secondly, the VMD algorithm was used to decompose the broadband vibration signal into multiple narrowband functions, which were used to reflect the characteristics of each frequency band. Thirdly, each function and the original signal were transformed by SDP, the generated spiral arms were fused into a new image, and the typical templates in different loosening degrees were selected. Finally, the improved SIFT algorithm was used to obtain the matching results between test sets and templates. The results show that the recognition accuracy of the proposed model for core loosening is 97.5%, which is better than traditional algorithms. It can find the core loosening defect early and avoid further failures such as water pipe break and discharge, which can provide an important basis for saturable reactor monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lightweight aggregates (LWAs) with microcrystalline diopside as the main constituent were prepared in this study. Waste glass and waste muck were used as the main raw materials, and the formula was designed according to the chemical composition of diopside, rather than using the Riley scheme. The effects of the glass content and nucleating agent on the mechanical properties, mineral composition, and microstructure of LWAs were studied. The results indicated that the presence of diopside crystallites can significantly improve the mechanical properties of LWAs. With an increase in the glass content from 0 wt % to 70 wt %, the strength of the LWAs increased from 12.21 MPa to 19.31 MPa with similar densities in the range of 1.667–1.687 g/cm3. The addition of a nucleating agent has a fluxing effect and promotes the formation and growth of diopside, which provides aggregates with high strength and low density. For example, the addition of CaF 2 decreased the density of the LWAs from 1.687 g/cm3 to 1.461 g/cm3 and increased the strength from 17.59 MPa to 20.81 MPa under the same calcination regime. The effect of the pore structure on the mechanical properties of the LWA in this experiment was far less than that of the crystal phase composition. With the addition of a nucleating agent, the diopside was co-precipitated from both the muck and glass. If no nucleating agent is added, diopside mainly precipitates from glass, and muck mainly forms a glass phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capturing sufficient and balanced data for intelligent fault diagnosis is significantly consumptive in practice. It is tricky and demand-oriented to identify faults accurately and reliably with limited samples. For this issue, contrastive learning is a promising attempt by learning discriminative representations (DRs). It is a research gap for contrast learning to apply in limited and imbalanced samples due to negative sample pairs, contrastive loss, and mechanistic interpretations. In this study, counterfactual-augmented few-shot contrastive learning (CAFCL) is proposed for intelligent fault diagnosis with limited samples. Firstly, a feature weight network is designed to exploit optimal features (OFs) with sparsity. Moreover, OFs are reliably unique with the assistance of weight updaters and feature sparsifiers. Next, counterfactual augmentation with OFs is defined for negative samples, whose plausibility is discussed in terms of causation. Thirdly, few-shot contrastive learning (FCL) is customized for intelligent fault diagnosis with limited samples, which reconciles global associations and local diffusions. Furthermore, model decisions are indicated by FCL via DRs, which are deemed to coincide with the fault mechanism of mechanical components. The feasibility and effectiveness of CAFCL are verified by various experiments on fault diagnosis. Results show that CAFCL is superior in few-shot intelligent fault diagnosis with promising engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In steel industry, the descaling rolls is subject to the long-term high-pressure water erosion, dynamic impact, strong wear, and high temperature, which is prone to wear and corrosion failure affecting the continuous production of rolling steel. Submerged arc surfacing with flux cored wire is an important method for strengthening and repairing the surface of descaling rolls. It is capable of repairing the surface of descaling rolls in large sizes. Laser cladding reinforcement on the basis of submerged arc surfacing layer can realize the complementary advantages of the two reinforcement processes. In turn, the online service life of the descaling roller is improved. This paper establishes a multi-field coupled three-dimensional numerical model of the composite process of submerged arc surfacing and laser cladding of descaling rolls. The transient evolution laws of temperature field, stress field, and phase change field during the composite process were calculated and revealed. Material science microscopic characterization experiments are conducted on the composite reinforced layer of submerged arc surfacing and laser cladding. On this basis, the response surface model between laser power, spot diameter, scanning speed, powder feeding rate, and laser melting temperature and temperature gradient under the composite process was established based on the response surface method. The sensitivity of the process parameters to the effect of temperature and temperature gradient was analyzed by using the Monte Carlo method with multiple sampling calculations. The results show that it is feasible to realize the reinforced repair of the descaling rolls by the combination of submerged arc surfacing and laser cladding process. The maximum temperature of the surfacing process reaches 2100 K, which is lower than the maximum temperature of laser cladding 2500 K. The maximum stress of the two processes is nearly 600 MPa. 97% of the austenite is transformed into martensite during the surfacing process. The spot diameter (C2) has the greatest influence on the laser melting temperature (T) and the melting temperature gradient (TG) under the composite process. This study can provide theoretical guidance for the compounding of the two processes, which has important practical significance and application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Electrostatic adsorption–based anhydrous de-dusting method is proposed. • The de-dusting mechanism is discussed. • The effect of applied voltage polarity and speed on de-dusting is analyzed. • The highest electrostatic de-dusting rate can reach 99.84%. • The power generation efficiency significantly improves after de-dusting. Dust accumulation has become one of the core problems that have limited the further development of the photovoltaic (PV) industry. To improve the de-dusting efficiency and achieve better results, we propose an electrostatic adsorption–based (ESA) anhydrous de-dusting method based on the construction of a transparent conductive indium tin oxide layer on a PV glass surface and using high-voltage electrodes above PV panels. First, we present the type and mechanism of ESA de-dusting, and employe COMSOL Multiphysics software to simulate the electric field in the de-dusting area. Thereafter, we develop an experimental platform for ESA de-dusting to carry out de-dusting experiments. Experimental results show that the dust particles that satisfy the removal conditions jump as the voltage increases. Further, the voltage applied at a slow speed may lead to aggregation of particles, deteriorating the de-dusting effect, whereas the polarity of the applied voltage negligibly affects the de-dusting effect. We explain the mechanism of the above phenomenon and give targeted suggestions to improve the de-dusting effect. Finally, based on the above findings, we conduct ESA de-dusting experiments in a laboratory environment. The highest de-dusting rate of 99.82 % is achieved when positive-polarity voltage is applied at a rate of 0.1 kV/s. The PV power generation efficiency after de-dusting is approximately 98.31 % of that in the surface dust-free state and 93.29 % of the highest power generation efficiency of ordinary PV panels. Our research is expected to further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of de-dusting on the PV panels, to provide effective support for the better and faster development of the PV industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel refill friction stir riveting (RFSR) process is proposed for the first time. • Both solid-state bonding and mechanical interlocking are achieved in RFSR joints. • The size of mechanical interlock is predefined by the groove on the rivet shank. • The high-quality solid-state bonding is generated at the sheet faying surface. • The joint lap-shear and cross-tension forces are 9.09 kN and 6.82 kN respectively. In this study, a novel refill friction stir riveting (RFSR) process was proposed to achieve hybrid solid-state bonding and mechanical interlocking of high-strength aluminium alloy AA7075-T6 sheets. The size of mechanical interlock is predefined by the depth of groove designed on the rivet shank, and realized through sheet material refilling. High-quality solid-state bonding is also generated at the sheet faying surface under the high pressure and strong friction stir from the rivet. The quality characteristics, microstructure, heat generation, microhardness distribution and mechanical properties were systematically investigated to uncover the joint formation mechanism and verify the effectiveness of the RFSR process. The results reveal that a mechanical interlock with 82% of the predefined value was successfully achieved by sheet material refilling into the groove on the rivet shank. An extra mechanical interlock, which was formed between the rivet shank and trapped bottom sheet, further enhanced the joint strength. Continuous solid-state bonding with a width of 0.39 mm was also generated between the two sheets. Strengthened by the multiple connection features, the peak lap-shear and cross-tension forces reached up to 9.09 ± 0.24 kN and 6.82 ± 0.11 kN respectively, and the corresponding failure modes were rivet shank fracture and pull-out of rivet shank from the bottom sheet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To assess the efficacy of targeted perioperative management for diabetic patients with traumatic calcaneal fractures. Methods. Between April 2020 and December 2020, 100 diabetic patients with traumatic calcaneal fractures treated in our institution satisfying the inclusion criteria were enrolled and assigned to receive either conventional treatment with surgery or plaster fixation (observation group) or targeted treatment with surgery or plaster fixation (experimental group) via the random number table method, with 50 patients in each group. All eligible patients were followed up for 1 year postoperatively. Outcome measures included length of hospital stay, recovery time, fracture healing, duration of postoperative wound drainage, complication rate, blood glucose, and treatment satisfaction. The Maryland score was used for the assessment of foot function. Results. The duration of postoperative wound drainage, length of hospital stay, and recovery time in the experimental group (3.63 ± 1.04 d, 12.13 ± 3.77 d, and 111.22 ± 16.24 d) were significantly shorter than those in the observation group (5.71 ± 2.34 d, 15.28 ± 4.42 d, 123.10 ± 22.82 d) (P < 0.01). The experimental group obtained a markedly higher complete healing rate versus the observation group (P < 0.001). A significantly lower complication rate was observed in the experimental group than in the observation group (P < 0.05). The Maryland scores results were dichotomized into good (≥75 points) and poor (<75 points). The experimental group showed significantly higher Maryland scores good rate and treatment satisfaction versus the observation group (P < 0.01). The experimental group patients were associated with better postoperative fasting glucose and 2 h postprandial glucose versus those in the observation group (P < 0.05). Conclusion. Targeted treatment in the perioperative management of diabetic patients with traumatic calcaneal fractures significantly promotes the recovery of patients, reduces the incidence of complications, increases treatment satisfaction, and ameliorates the doctor-patient relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly‐efficient photocatalytic conversion of CO2 into valuable carbon‐contained chemicals possesses a tremendous potential in solving the energy crisis and global warming problem. However, the inadequate separation of photogenerated electron‐hole pairs and the unsatisfied capture of CO2 stay the chief roadblocks. Herein, we designed a novel photocatalyst for CO2 reduction by assembling three‐dimensional graphene (3D GR) with a typical metal‐organic framework material UIO‐66‐NH2, aiming to construct a built‐in electric field for charge separation as well as taking advantage of the typical 3D structure of GR for maximizing the exposed absorption site on the surface. The performance evaluation demonstrated that the photocatalytic activity has been improved for the composite materials compared with that of the pure UIO‐66‐NH2. Further mechanism investigations proved that the enhanced photocatalytic performance is attributed to the synergy of enhanced CO2 absorption and inhibited photogenerated charge recombination, which could be owing to the better distribution and exposure of absorption and reaction sites on composites, and the redistribution of photogenerated carriers between 3D GR and UIO‐66‐NH2. This study provides a promising pathway to probe nanocomposites based on MOFs in environmental improvement and other relevant fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As basalt fiber has better mechanical properties and stability than glass fiber, cross arms made of continuous basalt-fiber-reinforced epoxy matrix composites are capable of meeting the mechanical requirements in the event of typhoons and broken lines in coastal areas, mountainous areas and other special areas. In this paper, continuous basalt-fiber-reinforced epoxy matrix composites were used to fabricate the core rods and composite cross arms. The results verified that basalt fiber composite cross arms can meet the strict requirements of transmission lines in terms of quality and reliability. In addition to high electrical insulation performance, the flexural modulus and the flexural strength of basalt fiber core rods are 1.8 and 1.06 times those of glass fiber core rods, respectively. Basalt fiber core rods were found to be much better load-bearing components compared to glass fiber core rods. However, the leakage current and the result of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis reveal that the interface bonding strength between basalt fibers and the matrix resin is weak. A 3D reconstruction of micro-CT indicates that the volume of pores inside basalt fiber core rods accounts for 0.0048% of the total volume, which is greater than the 0.0042% of glass fiber rods. Therefore, improving the interface bond between basalt fibers and the resin can further improve the properties of basalt fiber core rods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to promote the application of composite insulators in coastal areas with high temperature, high humidity and high salt, it is of great importance to develop matrix resin with salt corrosion resistance for composite core rods. In this study, bisphenol A epoxy resin was modified by blending with alicyclic epoxy resin (2021P). Three different proportions of 2021P/DGEBA blend resins (0% 2021P/DGEBA, 10% 2021P/DGEBA and 20% 2021P/DGEBA) were prepared, and the high salt medium corrosion test was carried out. The physicochemical (FTIR, DMA, TGA) and electrical properties (dielectric loss, leakage current and breakdown field strength) of the blend resin before and after aging were tested and analyzed, and the optimal blend proportion was determined. The results showed that after salt aging, the Tg of 0% 2021P/DGEBA decreased to 122.99 °C, while the Tg of 10% 2021P/DGEBA reached 134.89 °C; The leakage current of 0% 2021P/DGEBA increased to 48.994 μA, while that of 10% 2021P/DGEBA only increased to 44.549 μA; The breakdown field strength of 0% 2021P/DGEBA dropped to 40.36 kv/mm, while that of 10% 2021P/DGEBA only dropped to 43.63 kv/mm. The introduction of 2021P enhanced the salt corrosion resistance of the blend resin, which could hinder the penetration, diffusion and erosion of external media (such as Na+, Cl−, H2O, etc.) to the matrix resin. The comprehensive properties of 10% 2021P/DGEBA blend system reached the best, which was better than other blending resins, showing great application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-spectral image patch matching is still challenging due to significant nonlinear differences between image patches. Recently, image patch matching methods based on feature relation learning have attracted increasing attention and achieved good performance. However, we find that the metric learning methods based on feature difference cannot comprehensively and effectively extract useful discriminative information between image patch pairs by only adopting the two-branch network structure. Therefore, we propose a novel multibranch feature difference learning network (MFD-Net). Specifically, we build a multibranch parallel feature difference extraction network, which can capture richer and more discriminative feature difference information and achieve significant improvements on matching tasks. Furthermore, we propose a combined metric network composed of a master metric network module and multiple branch metric network modules, which promotes the forward update of network weights and reduces the similarity of features extracted by each feature difference extraction module with a negligible increase in inference time. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed MFD-Net achieves superior performances on cross-spectral image patch matching and single spectral image patch matching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the effect of gradient interface on the mechanical properties of Cu/WCP functional gradient materials, digital image correlation technique was used to analyze the mechanical characteristics of laminated Cu/WCP functional gradient material under tension load in the layer direction. In this paper, the deformation information of the specimens is obtained by the digital image correlation method. In order to obtain high-precision measurement results, speckle patterns with small spots and uniform distribution are prepared on the specimen surface by using small sample speckle preparation technology. The tensile experimental results showed that the incorporation of WC particles significantly improved the stiffness and strength of Cu/WCP composites. Meanwhile, the plastic strain and plastic strain rate are non-uniform in each layer of the five-layer Cu/WCP functional gradient material under the tension load along the layer direction. The plastic strain and plastic strain rate in each layer gradually increase along with the decreasing direction of WC content. It is found, from the analysis of experimental results, the existence of the gradient interface has an obvious inhibitory effect on the increase in plastic strain rate along the decreasing direction of WC content, and the specimen fracture location also has a certain relationship with the plastic strain rate, which reflects the important influence of the gradient interface on the mechanical properties of Cu/WCP functional gradient materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar‐blind ultraviolet (UV) discharge detection based on UV signals in the solar‐blind band from 240 to 280 nm is an effective non‐contact discharge detection method for electrical equipment, but there is still a problem that the detection results of different types of UV imagers are not comparable. To this end, by using standard light source and MODTRAN model, the relationship between the facular area and the radiant flux received by UV imagers was investigated by establishing a radiation transmission model for UV detection under different environmental conditions. Through analysis, it was found that the influence of humidity on the transmittance of the solar‐blind band in atmosphere can be neglected, and the transmittance is slightly affected by atmospheric pressure, temperature, and detection distance under conditions suitable for UV detection. Moreover, a consistency formula for UV detection results was proposed, thus forming a consistency method for detection results suitable for various types of UV imager. Finally, the feasibility of the consistency method was verified by UV discharge detection tests with a rod‐plate model and the absolute irradiance at discharge points of the rod‐plate model measured by a grating spectrometer. The consistency method is conducive to the promotion of UV discharge detection technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An insulation board is an important insulator used between damping capacitors in a converter valve. The potential creeping discharge phenomenon on the insulation board will affect the insulation between the damping capacitors and even the safe operation of the converter valve; therefore, a modified chaos particle swarm optimization multiple signal classification (MCSPO‐MUSIC) localization algorithm based on a sparse array was proposed. The performance of the localization algorithm and the sparse array was analyzed by MATLAB simulation, and a test platform was established to detect the insulation board discharge position localization. The simulation results showed that the calculation time of this algorithm is about 1.5 s, which is an order of magnitude less than traditional MUSIC algorithm, and it is found that when the sparsity of the 4 × 4 array is 4 (the sparse array elements are 5, 9, 14 and 15), the localization accuracy remains high. Ten groups of experimental data were put into the MCSPO‐MUSIC algorithm; the root mean square errors (RMSE) of the localization errors are 1.91° (non‐sparse array) and 3.12° (sparse array), respectively. Finally, the blind source separation algorithm was used to remove the field noise, which verifies the algorithm and sparse concept accurate and economical in practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic coding metamaterials have important applications in simplifying design procedure and providing a flexible approach to realize complicated functions. Here, we design a 1-bit coding metamaterial for flexibly manipulating the sound propagation path. The capability of subwavelength acoustic propagation control on coding metamaterial is attributed to the dipole-like characteristic of the Mie resonator. The Mie resonator with a subwavelength scale is constructed with a non-uniform structure, which can generate Mie resonance with dipole-like characteristic. Two kinds of coding elements are introduced by horizontally or vertically reversing the Mie resonator in each element. To verify the performance of the designed coding metamaterials, three specific metamaterial patterns are fabricated to give different trajectories of sound propagation. Our finding may open an avenue for designing acoustic metamaterials and is expected to design intelligent acoustic devices with exciting reconfigurable and programmable applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hollow hybrid heterostructures are regarded to be promising materials as bifunctional electrocatalysts for highly efficient water electrolysis due to their intriguing morphological features and remarkable electrochemical properties. Herein, with FeNi-PBA as both a precursor and morphological template, we demonstrate the rational construct of cost-effective (Fe,Ni)S 2 @MoS 2 /NiS 2 hollow hybrid heterostructures as bifunctional electrocatalysts for alkaline overall water splitting. Microstructural analysis shows that the hybrid is a kind of hierarchical heterostructure composed of MoS 2 /NiS 2 nanosheets/nanoparticles in situ grown on hollow (Fe,Ni)S 2 nanocubes with abundant heterointerfaces, which effectively maximizes the electrochemical active sites to the accessible electrolyte ions, leading to the promoted charge transfer. As expected, the hybrid shows remarkable alkaline electrocatalytic performance, such as hydrogen evolution overpotential of 176 mV and oxygen evolution overpotential of 342 mV at 50 mA cm−2, as well a cell voltage of 1.65 V at 20 mA cm−2. Moreover, the stability and durability are greatly enhanced under harsh electrochemical conditions. This study opens a new venue for developing earth-abundant bifunctional electrocatalysts with hollow hybrid heterostructures for alkaline water electrolysis in the future. (Fe, Ni)S 2 @MoS 2 /NiS 2 hollow hybrid heterostructures achieved with FeNi-PBA as both a precursor and morphological template by the facile and conventional strategies, were reported as active and stable bifunctional electrocatalyst for alkaline water electrolysis. Benefitted from the maximized exposure of catalytic active edges of MoS 2 nanosheets and NiS 2 nanoparticles (the outer shell) and the enhanced electrical conductivity of (Fe,Ni)S 2 (the inner core), as well as the hollow hybrid heterostructures facilitating rapid electrolyte diffusion, the hybrid exhibited remarkable alkaline electrocatalytic activity with HER overpotential of 91 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and OER overpotential of 275 mV at 20 mA cm−2. A low cell voltage of 1.65 V at 20 mA cm−2 was required for water electrolysis with satisfactory durability after continuous operation for 20 h. [Display omitted] • (Fe, Ni)S 2 @MoS 2 /NiS 2 hollow nanocubes derived from FeNi PBA were obtained. • The hybrid presents abundant heterointerfaces with maximizing active sites. • The inner hollow (Fe,Ni)S 2 nanocubes facilitate electrolyte ion diffusion. • Superior catalytic activity for HER (η 50 = 176 mV) and OER (η 50 = 342 mV) is achieved. • The stability and durability are greatly enhanced under harsh electrochemical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microminiaturization of detectors used to record the intensity of X‐ray beams is very favorable for combined X‐ray experimental techniques. In this paper, chemical‐vapor‐deposited (CVD) polycrystalline diamond film was used to fabricate a micro‐detector owing to its well controlled size, good thermostability, and appropriate conductivity. The preparation process and the main components of the CVD diamond micro‐detector are described. The external dimensions of the packaged CVD diamond micro‐detector are 15 mm × 7.8 mm × 5.8 mm. To demonstrate the performance of the detector, K‐edge X‐ray absorption fine‐structure (XAFS) spectra of Cr, Fe, Cu, and Se foils were collected using the CVD diamond micro‐detector and routine ion chamber. These XAFS measurements were performed at beamline 1W2B of Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, covering an energy range from 5.5 to 13.5 keV. By comparison, it can be seen that the CVD diamond micro‐detector shows a more excellent performance than the routine ion‐chamber in recording these XAFS spectra. The successful application of the CVD diamond micro‐detector in XAFS measurements shows its feasibility in recording X‐ray intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diode magnetron injection gun (MIG) has been designed and analyzed for G-band gyro-traveling wave tube (Gyro-TWT). A novel curved surface emitter is proposed to enhance the beam quality. An electron beam with velocity ratio of 1.20 and transverse velocity spread of 2.11% is obtained. The beam transportation stability with geometry misalignment is also analyzed, and the assembly accuracy should be controlled under 0.1 mm. The stray electron is intercepted by the capture structure to avoid the bombardment to the interaction circuit. Then the cathode is fabricated, and the temperature distribution is measured. The experimental result matches well with the simulation. The electron beam quality considering expansion, surface roughness, and thermal emission is estimated, and the total transverse velocity spread is about 2.63%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorectal cancers (CRCs) with the BRAF V600E mutation exhibit upregulation of programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) but fail to respond to immunotherapy targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1. Recent studies have explored the intracellular functions of PD-L1. Here, we demonstrate that PD-L1 was highly expressed in both the cytoplasm and nucleus of BRAF-mutated CRC tumor cells and tissues. Nuclear PD-L1 (nPD-L1) promoted the growth of tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistic investigations revealed that PD-L1 translocation into the nucleus was facilitated by the binding of p-ERK. Further, nPD-L1 upregulated the expression of cell cycle regulator BUB1 via interactions with thyroid hormone receptor-associated protein 3 (THRAP3), thereby accelerating cell cycle progression and promoting cell proliferation. Moreover, BRAF V600E-mutated CRC cells exhibited upregulation of PD-L1 expression via the transcription factor LEF-1. These findings reveal a novel role of nPD-L1, which promotes cell cycle progression in an immune-independent manner in BRAF V600E-mutated CRC. Our study provides novel insight into the mechanisms underlying BRAF V600E-mutated CRC progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based field emission X-ray source with the advantage of fast start-up response offers the chance to achieve high-frequency X-ray emission. In this study, a high-frequency random pulse X-ray source of CNT cold cathode combined with a channel electron multiplier (CEM) was built, and its direct current (DC) and pulse emission characteristics were tested. The DC measurement results were used for parameter selection for performing pulse experiments. During the DC test, with the conditions of 2.2 kV CEM bias voltage and 25 kV anode voltage, the anode currents are 141, 250, and 300 μA at grid voltages of 290, 387.6, and 432.2 V, respectively; the corresponding grid field values are 1.45, 1.94, and 2.16 V/μm. During the pulse test, the amplitude–frequency response of the X-ray source reaches 3.58 MHz at 3 dB. The developed pulse X-ray source was introduced into the X-ray communication (XCOM), and the experimental communication rate reached 6 Mbps with the bit-error-rate of 1.1 × 10−3. The developed high-frequency pulse CNT-CEM X-ray source has potential applications in XCOM, high-speed X-ray imaging, and other fields. • Proposed a high-frequency pulse CNT X-ray source combined with channel electron multiplier at low grid voltage. • Direct current and pulse emission characteristics were tested, respectively. • Frequency response of the CNT-CEM X-ray source is 3.58 MHz at 3 dB. • Communication rate reaches up to 6 Mbps with the bit-error-rate of 1.1 × 10−3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate remaining useful life (RUL) estimation is crucial for the normal and safe operations of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Traditionally, every cycle's maximum discharging capacity should be measured and then serve as a model input to predict iteratively the degradation trajectory. Unfortunately, full discharge stages are not always present in practice. Herein, this study presents a hybrid approach consisting of signal decomposition and deep learning to overcome the above limitations. Firstly, for the collected discharging fragments, the convolutional neural networks model predicts every cycle's maximum discharging capacity which combines to form a predicted capacity degradation curve before the start point of RUL prediction. Then, via empirical mode decomposition, this curve's global degradation trend is extracted and serves as the subsequent model input. Finally, the entire degradation trajectory and RUL value could be inferred based on the well-trained gated recurrent unit-fully connected model. The superior prediction performance of the proposed method is verified on two open battery datasets. All the estimation errors can be maintained within 7.0% based on the discharging fragment of the ∼ 20% capacity ratio ranges from 40% to 60% of the degradation data. This result illustrates the promising accuracy and robustness of the developed LIBs RUL estimation method, especially for not full discharge process in practice. [Display omitted] • A hybrid approach of RUL prediction based on discharging fragments is presented. • Discharging fragments are utilized to improve the universality of this approach. • Signal processing method could avoid the disruption of capacity regeneration. • The model exhibits high robustness and accuracy for RUL prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting spatial patterns in thermal tolerance and vulnerability of species under climate warming remains a challenge. Current knowledge is mainly from experiment‐based thermal physiology of limited numbers of ectotherms, yet large‐scale evaluations on plants remain elusive. Here, using distribution maps with spatial resolutions of 20 × 20 km for 5628 woody species in China, we propose a novel approach, i.e. thermal distribution curves, to describe species' realized thermal niches and then estimate their thermal tolerance and warming risks under projected climate warming in 2050s and 2070s. We find that species' vulnerability and potential local extinction risks within grid cells decrease with latitude and increase with aridity due to narrow thermal tolerance of species located at low latitudes and arid regions. Over 90% of species could still tolerate future warming in most areas, indicating relatively optimistic expectation of potential local extinctions. Our study presents a new framework to quantify climate warming impacts on a large number of species without sufficient physiological information and provides fundamental references for conservation planning under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data centers, the critical infrastructure underpinning Cloud computing, often employ Software-Defined Networks (SDN) to manage cluster, wide-area and enterprise networks. As the network forwarding in SDN is dynamically programmed by controllers, it is crucial to ensure that the controller intent is correctly translated into underlying forwarding rules. Therefore, detecting and locating forwarding anomalies in SDN is a fundamental problem in production networks. Existing research proposals, roughly categorized into probing-based, packet piggybacking-based, and flow statistics analysis-based, either impose significant overhead or do not provide sufficient coverage for certain forwarding anomalies. In this article, we propose ${\sf FADE}$ FADE , a controllable and passive measuring scheme to simultaneously deliver detection efficiency and accuracy. ${\sf FADE}$ FADE first analyzes the entire network topology and flow rules, and then computes a minimal set of flows that can cover all forwarding rules. For each selected network flow, ${\sf FADE}$ FADE decides the optimal number of monitoring positions on its path (much less than total number of hops), and installs dedicated rules to collect flow statistics. ${\sf FADE}$ FADE controls the installation and expiration of these rules, along with unique flow labels, to guarantee the accuracy of collected statistics, based on which ${\sf FADE}$ FADE algorithmically decides whether a forwarding anomaly is detected, and if so it further locates the anomaly. On top of ${\sf FADE}$ FADE , we propose ${\sf iFADE}$ iFADE (a more scalable version of ${\sf FADE}$ FADE ) to further optimize the usage and deployment of dedicated measurement rules. ${\sf iFADE}$ iFADE achieves over 40 percent rule reduction compared with ${\sf FADE}$ FADE . We implement a prototype of both ${\sf FADE}$ FADE and ${\sf iFADE}$ iFADE in about 12000 lines of code and evaluate the prototype extensively. The experiment results demonstrate ${\sf (i)}$ (i) ${\sf FADE}$ FADE and ${\sf iFADE}$ iFADE are accurate, e.g., they achieve over 95 percent true positive rate and 99 percent true negative rate in anomaly detection; ${\sf (ii)}$ (ii) ${\sf FADE}$ FADE and ${\sf iFADE}$ iFADE are lightweight, e.g., they reduce the overhead of control messages compared with state-of-the-art by about 50 and 90 percent, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient root colonization of plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria is critical for their plant‐beneficial functions. However, the strategy to overcome plant immunity during root colonization is not well understood. In particular, how Bacillus strains cope with plant‐derived reactive oxygen species (ROS), which function as the first barrier of plant defence, is not clear. In the present study, we found that the homolog of flg22 in Bacillus velezensis SQR9 (flg22SQR9) has 78.95% identity to the typical flg22 (flg22P.s.) and induces a significant oxidative burst in cucumber and Arabidopsis. In contrast to pathogenic or beneficial Pseudomonas, live B. velezensis SQR9 also induced an oxidative burst in cucumber. We further found that B. velezensis SQR9 tolerated higher H2O2 levels than Pst DC3000, the pathogen that harbours the typical flg22, and that it possesses the ability to suppress the flg22‐induced oxidative burst, indicating that B. velezensis SQR9 may exploit a more efficient ROS tolerance system than DC3000. Further experimentation with mutagenesis of bacteria and Arabidopsis showed that the two‐component regulatory system, ResDE, in B. velezensis SQR9 is involved in tolerance to plant‐derived oxidative stress, thus contributing to root colonization. This study supports a further investigation of the interaction between beneficial rhizobacteria and plant immunity. The beneficial rhizobacterium Bacillus velezensis SQR9 or its flg22 peptides triggered oxidative burst in cucumber and Arabidopsis. The two‐component regulatory system, ResDE, in B. velezensis SQR9 is involved in tolerance to plant‐derived oxidative stress, thus contributing to root colonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Gram-staining-positive, aerobic, non-endospore-forming, coccus-shaped, non-flagellated, and non-motile bacterium, designated WN024T, was isolated from the natural saline–alkali wetland soil of Binhai new district, Tianjin, China. Cells of strain WN024T were catalase- and oxidase-positive. The isolate was able to grow between 20 and 45 °C (optimal at 33–37 °C), pH 6.5–11.0 (optimal 7.5–8.0), and in the presence of 5.0–25.0% NaCl (optimal at 10.0–15.0%, w/v). The isolate could be affiliated to the genus Salimicrobium and the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of strain WN024T to its closest relative Salimicrobium salexigens DSM 22782T was 97.9%. The size of the genome was 2,622,223 bp in size with a G + C content of 47.1%. The sole respiratory quinone of strain WN024T was MK-7, the predominant fatty acids were iso-C15:0, anteiso-C15:0 and anteiso-C17:0. The major polar lipids were phosphatidylglycerol (PG), glycolipid (GL), phospholipid (PL) and diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG). The cell-wall diamino acid was meso-diaminopimelic acid. The DNA–DNA hybridization values between strain WN024T and the closest relative S. salexigens DSM 22782T was 47.3 ± 2.3%. The highest average nucleotide identity (ANI) value was 92.3% to S. salexigens DSM 22782T (GenBank Accession No. GCA_900156705.1). Therefore, we propose a novel species in the genus Salimicrobium to accommodate this novel isolate, named Salimicrobium humidisoli sp. nov. The type strain is WN024T (= ACCC 19979T = KCTC 33897T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Surgical vagotomy has a long history of use in studies of physiology. • Vagotomy has identified multiple roles for the vagus nerve in gut-brain signalling. • The vagus nerve mediates bi-directional communication between the immune and central nervous systems. • The vagus nerve may be a major facilitator of neuro-immune communication along the microbiota-gut-brain axis. The Microbiota-gut-brain axis describes the bidirectional communication between central nervous system and microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract. Increasing evidence has suggests that the vagus nerve, a major neural connection between the gut and brain, plays a key role in facilitating signaling along the microbiota-gut-brain axis. Much of this evidence has come from studies employing surgical subdiaphragmatic vagotomy. Here we provide a review of the use of vagotomy as a tool to explore the role of the vagus nerve in gut to brain signaling and the knowledge this approach has provided. We also examine how, more recently, vagotomy has contributed to the understanding of the vagus nerve as a bridge for multi-systemic communication; linking microbiota, immune and central nervous systems. Finally, we address limitations to surgical vagotomy and identify such limitations may be mitigated in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optical frequency-response analysis (OFRA) method is proposed to detect the winding deformation in a power transformer. Compared to existing frequency-response analysis (FRA) systems, the proposed system has several unique merits, such as high immunity to electromagnetic interference, direct display of winding deformation, no influence of connected power equipment, and long reliability in harsh environments. First, the principle of optical frequency-response detection and noise elimination is introduced. Then, the algorithm used to acquire the winding deformation matrix is discussed in detail. Next, winding deformation experiments are carried out to investigate the diagnostic ability of the proposed OFRA method. The experimental results indicate that the OFRA can locate the deformation disc and determine the deformation level correctly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The addition of polymer emulsion in cement paste improves concrete impermeability. However, a high polymer emulsion content (usually 10%–20% of the mass of cement) is typically required to significantly improve the performance of concrete, which might increase material costs and decrease the compressive strength of concrete. This study seeks to develop a better method for improving concrete impermeability without significantly decreasing the concrete strength at a relatively low polymer emulsion content. In this study, the aggregates were pretreated with asphalt emulsion to concentrate hydrophobic asphalt film in the interfacial transition zone (ITZ). The effects of asphalt emulsion-coated aggregate (ACA) on the transport and mechanical properties of concrete were investigated. The aggregates were pretreated with asphalt emulsion at dosages of 0.1%, 0.4%, 0.7%, and 1.0% mass of the coarse aggregates, and the replacement percentages of normal coarse aggregates (NCA) by ACA were 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90%. Water absorption (WA) by capillarity, compressive strength, and stress-strain curves were obtained. The porosity and microhardness of ITZ around ACA were also investigated. The results indicated that the porosity of ITZ within 20 μm of the aggregate surfaces increased over two times, and its microhardness decreased by approximately 30% when the coated asphalt emulsion content increased to 0.7% and 1.0%, thus decreasing the concrete strength by approximately 20%. The WA rate was influenced by the mutual effects of the hydrophobicity of asphalt film and increased porosity in ITZ. The proper replacement percentage of NCA by ACA (30%) improve concrete impermeability and reduce concrete brittleness without significantly decreasing the concrete strength at a relatively low asphalt emulsion content (0.4% mass of coarse aggregates). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • An electrostatic dust removal method for solar photovoltaic panels is investigated. • The dust removal mechanism is analyzed. • Relative humidity affects the effectiveness of dust removal. • Optimizing the metal plate type can improve the dust removal efficiency. Electrostatic dust removal has the advantages of energy saving, high efficiency, and controllability, and has become the preferred dust removal solution for solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in recent years. This paper investigates a new electrostatic adsorption dust removal method for solar PV panels based on the electrostatic dust removal effect of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) transparent conductive films. In the sheet resistance range of 500–1×105 Ω/□, the electrostatic dust removal effect of CNTs transparent conductive films has little relationship with the film sheet resistance, and when the electric field strength in the dust removal area is 6 kV/cm, the final dust removal rate of different films can reach more than 98.6 %, and the power generation efficiency of the PV panels can reach 94–97 % of that of the ordinary PV panels in the surface clean state after dust removal. The influence of the environment on the dust removal effect is mainly reflected in the relative humidity. When the relative humidity of the dust removal environment is 70 %, it shows the optimal dust removal effect, and the electric field strength required for the dust particles to jump is the lowest, which is 2.46 kV/cm. The highest dust removal efficiency can be achieved by using a metal plate with a lower surface curvature of 1/9.08 cm−1, and the final dust removal rate can reach 98.92 %. The research results are of great significance for further developing electrostatic dust removal technology in the solar PV panel dust removal field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]