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Metal complexes have a significant impact on the treatment of human cancer. However, the scarcity of these compounds, resulting from their limited synthesis, hinders the comprehensive investigation of their anticancer mechanisms. Organic palladium compounds, known for their distinctive stability and properties, are thus an essential area of research in the development of anti‐tumor therapy. In our study, we synthesized two novel ferrocene cyclopalladated compounds (C2 and C4). Its configuration was thoroughly characterized by employing 1H, 13C NMR, ESI‐MS, and elemental analysis techniques. The molecular structures were determined by X‐ray single‐crystal diffraction. In an in vitro anticancer study, it was observed that both C2 and C4 exhibited excellent suppression of viability in various tumor cell lines. These compounds showed better potency than cisplatin and demonstrated lower toxicity in normal cells. Particularly, C4 displayed approximately 22 times greater potency than cisplatin in suppressing melanoma cells (B16F10). Our study suggests that ferrocene cyclopalladated compounds have the potential to be promising candidates for the development of innovative anticancer drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The content of Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is one of the most important indicators of aquaculture water quality monitoring, which has a profound impact on the survival of aquatic animals and the income of aquaculture. Therefore, it's of great significance to develop an accurate and convenient detection method for the detection of hydrogen sulfide in aquaculture. Herein, using 2,4‐dinitrophenyl (DNP) ether as the detection group, a novel near‐infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe, X‐NO2, based on the hemicyanine fluorophore, was designed and synthesized for H2S detection in aquaculture. Accompanied by a noticeable color change from purple to blue, the probe X‐NO2 shows strong fluorescence at 685 nm when H2S mediates the thiolysis of DNP ether and release X‐OH. In 10 % DMSO‐PBS (pH=7.4,10 mM,v/v), the probe X‐NO2 shows high selectivity to H2S than other anions and some somebiologicalthiols, and strong anti‐interference capacity. Probe X‐NO2 also has short response time (within 3 min) and low detection limit (65 nM) towards H2S and has a stable performance over a wide pH range (6‐9) in hydrogen sulfide monitoring system. Moreover, probe X‐NO2 was used to determine the H2S levels in real water samples from aquaculture accurately and conveniently, which shows a good application prospect in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A Zn 5 (OH) 6 (CO 3) 2 -assisted pyrolysis strategy is proposed to prepare a coupled catalyst. • Fe nanoparticles can optimize electronic structures and d-band center of Fe center. • Fe-FeN-C exhibits eminent ORR activity with a E 1/2 of 0.921 V in alkaline media. • The Zn-air batteries deliver high power density and long-cycle life for 408 h. Fe single-atom catalysts still suffer from unsatisfactory intrinsic activity and durability for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Herein, the coexisting Fe single atoms and nanoparticles on hierarchically porous carbon (denoted as Fe-FeN-C) are prepared via a Zn 5 (OH) 6 (CO 3) 2 -assisted pyrolysis strategy. Theoretical calculation reveals that the Fe nanoparticles can optimize the electronic structures and d-band center of Fe active center, hence reducing the reaction energy barrier for enhancing intrinsic activity. The Zn 5 (OH) 6 (CO 3) 2 self-sacrificial template not only can promote the formation of Fe single atoms, but also contributes to the construction of microporous/mesoporous/macroporous structures. Therefore, the obtained Fe-FeN-C exhibits impressive ORR activity with a half-wave potential of 0.921 V, which far exceeds Pt/C. With Fe-FeN-C as the cathode catalyst, the assembled Zn-air batteries delivered a maximum power density of 206 mW cm−2 and a long-cycle life over 400 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: To compare laparoscopic splenectomy and esophagogastric devascularization (LSED) with endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) plus laparoscopic splenectomy (LS) in treating esophagogastric variceal bleeding (EGVB) caused by portal hypertension (PH). Methods: Between January 2015 and May 2022, 87 patients with PH caused by hepatitis B cirrhosis were included in the retrospective study (34 in LSED versus 53 in EVL + LS). Results: The clinical features of both groups were well-matched (P > .05). The EVL+LS group was associated with shorter operation time, lower operative blood loss, faster gastrointestinal (GI) recovery, lower C-reactive protein levels, and shorter hospital stays after operation (P < .05). Operative morbidity was more significant in the LSED group (19 55.9% versus 18 33.9%) (P < .05). On postoperative days 1 and 3, albumin levels were remarkably lower (P < .05) in the LSED group. The mean follow-up was 24.3 months for LSED and 26.5 for EVL+LS. Hematological parameters, hepatic functional status, hepatic hemodynamics, and endoscopy indicated a substantial improvement in both groups (P < .05), but no significant difference was identified (P > .05). There was no discernible difference in the incidence of GI bleeding between the two groups (P > .05). Conclusion: EVL+LS is a safer, simpler, and more minimally invasive treatment of EGVB secondary to PH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psychological capital is affected by different cultures and professional characteristics and its constituent dimensions and evaluation tools are heterogeneous. There is a lack of measurements for assessing nurses' psychological capital considering nursing professional characteristics and Chinese cultural impacts. Aims: To develop a psychological capital scale that conforms to the Chinese cultural background and the characteristics of nursing profession, and evaluate the preliminary validation of the Nurses Psychological Capital Scale. Methods: Nurses were conveniently recruited from two tertiary hospitals, Hebei, China. The research process included three steps: item development (Delphi survey and pilot survey), scale development (item analysis and exploratory factor analysis), scale validation (reliability and validity test). Results: Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the 43-item scale comprised three factors (work task-oriented psychological capital, interpersonal relationship-oriented psychological capital and learning development-oriented psychological capital). Exploratory factor analysis showed the factor loadings ranging from 0.460 to 1.029. Three factors explained 68.71% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis showed an adequate model fit (x2/df =2.839, RMR = 0.041, RMSEA = 0.078, IFI = 0.872, TLI = 0.863, CFI = 0.871, PNFI = 0.768). The Cronbach's α for the scale was 0.975. The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) was 0.83 ~ 1.00, scale-level average content validity index (S-CVI/Ave) was 0.988. Conclusion: The Nurse Psychological Capital Scale had good reliability and validity, which is a reliable evaluation measure for assessing psychological capital among nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), one of the most serious complications of diabetes, are essentially chronic, nonhealing wounds caused by diabetic neuropathy, vascular disease, and bacterial infection. Given its pathogenesis, the DFU microenvironment is rather complicated and characterized by hyperglycemia, ischemia, hypoxia, hyperinflammation, and persistent infection. However, the current clinical therapies for DFU are dissatisfactory, which drives researchers to turn attention to advanced nanotechnology to address DFU therapeutic bottlenecks. In the last decade, a large number of multifunctional nanosystems based on the microenvironment of DFU have been developed with positive effects in DFU therapy, forming a novel concept of "DFU nanomedicine". However, a systematic overview of DFU nanomedicine is still unavailable in the literature. This review summarizes the microenvironmental characteristics of DFU, presents the main progress of wound healing, and summaries the state‐of‐the‐art therapeutic strategies for DFU. Furthermore, the main challenges and future perspectives in this field are discussed and prospected, aiming to fuel and foster the development of DFU nanomedicines successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operational modal analysis refers to the modal analysis of a structure in its operating state. The advantage of operational modal analysis is that only the output vibration signal of a system is used. The classical operational modal analysis algorithm is based on the white noise excitation assumption, and it is considered that there is no correlation between the excitations; several identification methods have been developed in time and frequency domains. But excitations are not completely independent with each other and not pure white. In this article, the matrix theory is used to prove that the operational modal analysis algorithm can still be used to identify modal parameters when the excitation is correlated. In the simulation, five kinds of colored noise excitations are applied to the cantilever beam with correlated excitations, which shows that the idea proposed in this article is rational. In the experiment, the foundation excitation of colored noise is added to the cantilever beam, which can be regarded as applying several related excitations. It also shows the rationality of this idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) are the primary cell components of pancreatic cancer (PC) and are involved in tumor growth, metastasis and resistance. However, the role and the mechanism of PSCs in gemcitabine (GEM) resistance to PC still need more investigation. We found that CXCL12 mRNA and secreted CXCL12 protein were higher in PSCs after GEM treatment. The conditioned medium (CM) from GEM-treated PSCs reduced the GEM sensitivity of PC cells. Blocking of CXCL12 in CM by anti-CXCL12 antibody partly restored the GEM sensitivity of PC cells. Blocking of CXCL12 decreased glucose consumption, lactate production, ECAR, and glycolysis-related gene expression in PC cells. The PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway was activated by the binding of CXCL12 and CXCR4. Moreover, CXCR4 mRNA and protein expressions in PC cells were increased after GEM treatment. Our results indicated the cross-talk between PSCs and PC cells during GEM chemotherapy. CXCL12 secreted by PSCs reduces GEM sensitivity of PC cells by binding to CXCR4 and activating PI3K/AKT/mTOR-glycolysis pathway in PC. Our findings would lay the foundation for solving GEM resistance in PC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Simultaneous detection of auxiliary navigation lines and ridge boundary lines in paddy. • Development of high-precision G-STDC model and faster G-STDC-t model for area segmentation. • Creation of a multi-line detection method based on a central axis-based point clustering algorithm and RANSAC. Accurate and robust detection of reference lines in the field is essential for formulating linear tracking and steering strategies for agricultural machinery. The identification of planted and ridge areas poses challenges due to their similar appearance to unplanted areas, along with complex field conditions such as uneven illumination. In this study, we proposed a machine vision-based framework for the simultaneous detection of auxiliary navigation lines and ridge boundary lines. Firstly, we constructed a multi-area Paddy Area Segmentation dataset named PASeg, which contained ridge areas, planted areas, and unplanted areas. Additionally, a deep learning network called G-STDC that integrated the Ghost module into the STDC network was developed for efficient and robust area segmentation. Finally, a multi-line detection method was applied based on a central axis-based point clustering algorithm and random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm to extract reference lines. According to the results on PASeg, the proposed G-STDC model obtained a mean intersection over union (mIoU) of 95.23 %, outperforming the baseline model (with the mIoU of 93.18 %). The attitude error and distance error of line extraction on 640 × 512 resolution images were within 0.776° and 4.687 pixels, respectively. The overall detection speed reached 13.9 frames per second (FPS), while the faster G-STDC model (G-STDC-t) achieved 16.7 FPS. The proposed method could provide real-time reference lines for turning path planning and automatic navigation in agro-machinery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a dual‐responsive, self‐assembled nano micelle for co‐delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) and a previously reported cyclopalladated anti‐cancer agent (CP). In this micelle system, doxorubicin and CP were electrostatically complexed to form a hydrophobic core while a conjugation of polyethylene glycol and β‐cyclodextrin (CD) was designed to construct the hydrophilic out‐layer and stabilize the micelle. The interaction between pegylated CD and DOX‐CP composite was achieved via inclusion of ferrocene moiety by CD, which could be broken by stimulating ROS that is over‐expressed in many cancer cell lines. Moreover, the DOX‐CP adduct can be destabilized under an acidic environment that exists in most solid tumors, which can further disassemble the micelle and release the two drugs. The fabricated micelle was characterized by TEM, DLS and its stimulus‐responsive characteristic were confirmed by drug‐release profile. The in vitro cellular cytotoxicity was also evaluated, which showed improved anti‐cancer effect of drug‐loaded micelle compared to free drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • HP-Fe-N-C/2 exhibits eminent ORR activity and stability in alkaline and acidic media. • The Zn-air battery shows high power density and superior cyclability for 1342 h. • The power density of HP-Fe-N-C/2-based PEM fuel cell is up to 0.66 W cm−2. Atomically dispersed Fe-N-C catalysts are a promising alternative to platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, attaining efficient ORR activity and superior stability in Fe-N-C catalysts is still crucial yet challenging. Herein, we report a rational SiO 2 -mediated two-step pyrolysis strategy for stabilizing densely exposed Fe-N 4 active sites on hierarchically porous carbon (HP-Fe-N-C/2). Benefiting from the high density of accessible Fe-N 4 sites and the high graphitization degree of carbon support, the obtained HP-Fe-N-C/2 catalyst demonstrates outstanding activity and stability for ORR in both alkaline and acidic media. When used as the cathode catalyst, the assembled Zn-air battery shows a high peak power density of 217 mW cm−2 and ultra-long cycling stability for 1342 h without noticeable degradation. As a PGM-free cathode in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, it delivers a maximum output power density of 0.66 W cm−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Synthesized novel ferrocene cyclopalladated compounds for anticancer potential. • All compounds were characterized by ¹H, ¹³C NMR, ESI-MS, and elemental analysis techniques. • Molecular structures of compounds C1 and C3 determined by X-ray single-crystal diffraction. • In vitro tests showed these compounds outperformed cisplatin in inhibiting mouse melanoma cell proliferation. • Compound C2 exhibited 17-fold greater anticancer efficacy than cisplatin in YAC-1 cells. The biological potential of ferrocene cyclopalladated compounds as anticancer agents has garnered significant attention. However, the limited availability of these compounds due to their sparse synthesis constrains the broader exploration of their anticancer mechanisms. In this paper, we report the synthesis and comprehensive characterization of four novel ferrocene cyclopalladated compounds (C1, C2, C3 , and C4) employing ¹H, ¹³C NMR, ESI-MS, and elemental analysis techniques. The molecular structures of C1 and C3 were determined by X-ray single-crystal diffraction. Furthermore, when tested in vitro, these compounds exhibited superior inhibition of mouse melanoma cell (B16F10) proliferation compared to cisplatin. Notably, compound C2 displayed approximately 17-fold higher potency against mouse lymphoma cells (YAC-1) than cisplatin. This enhanced efficacy signifies the promising role of ferrocene cyclopalladated compounds in anticancer therapies. We synthesized and characterized four novel ferrocene cyclopalladated compounds C1, C2, C3 and C4 , demonstrating their superior antiproliferative activities against two cancer cell lines compared to cisplatin, advancing palladium and ferrocene-based anticancer drug research. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of high‐performance phosphors is required for phosphor‐converted white light‐emitting diodes. However, most approaches are unable to achieve optimum emission intensity and thermal quenching simultaneously. Here, a series of CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ (CASN:Eu2+) red‐emitting phosphors doped with B were synthesized using field‐assisted sintering technology. Compared with CASN:Eu2+, the B‐doped phosphor exhibited high external quantum efficiency (EQE) and good thermal quenching performance. With boron doping, the EQE of CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ shows an obvious growth, increasing from 48.83% to 70.68%. Meanwhile, thermal quenching performance has also been greatly improved, which is strongly associated with the band structure of Eu2+ and the crystal structure of CASN. The location of B in the crystal lattice was studied and the mechanism of improving thermal quenching via B doping was discussed in detail. Finally, a white LED fabricated by the combination of a GaN blue chip (450 nm) with the as‐synthesized red phosphors and Y3(Al, Ga)5O12:Ce3+ green phosphors (531 nm), shows a high color rendering index (Ra =91.6). This study offers a novel method to improve luminescence properties of CASN:Eu2+ red‐emitting phosphors, which may broaden their application in solid‐state lighting devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to reduce the hydrogen embrittlement risk of rebar caused by the continuous constant current (CC) in the bidirectional electromigration rehabilitation (BIEM). Three types of square wave current (SWC) were applied in the BIEM treatment on a Cl--contaminated concrete, in the saturated calcium hydroxide containing 1 mol/L triethylenetetramine (TETA). The sample experienced the BIEM with a constant current density of 3 A/m2 was chosen as the control sample with the same electricity consumption. After 4 cycles of treatment, the concentration profiles of Cl- and TETA were measured in the protective layer. The corrosion current densities of the rebar were analyzed by various electrochemical tests. The stress-strain curve of the rehabilitated rebar was tested, and its hydrogen embrittlement risk was estimated. The results suggested that the SWC more effectively removed Cl- and migrated TETA than the CC did, with the same electricity consumption and treatment duration. The rebar experienced the former BIEM exhibited a higher fracture energy ratio and a lower corrosion rate than the one experienced the latter treatment. In general, the SWC was more effective and lower hydrogen embrittlement risk than CC in the BIEM rehabilitation treatment. • SWC more effectively removed Cl- and immigrated TETA than CC did with the same electricity consumption and treatment duration. • Fracture energy ratio and corrosion rate of the SWC-treated rebar were higher and lower than those of the CC-treated one. • Hydrogen embrittlement of rebar can be reduced by using SCW instead of CC in the BIEM treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A comprehensive overview of atomically dispersed M−N−C catalysts for ORR. • Focus on active site engineering to improve activity and stability in fuel cells and Zn-air batteries. • Future directions of developing advanced M−N−C catalysts for ORR are outlined. Atomically dispersed metal-nitrogen-carbon (M−N−C) oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalysts have been proven as one of the most promising non-precious metal catalysts. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the active site engineering toward M−N−C catalysts for ORR, which focuses on modulating coordination environment of active sites to enhance intrinsic activity, such as coordination structures, heteroatomic doping M−N−C, dual-atom sites, coupled catalytic sites, and defective M−N−C. Moreover, the strategies for increasing the density and utilization of active sites are discussed, including chelation, stepwise atom doping, spatial confinement, surface exposed M−N x sites, and porous structure optimization. Thereafter, the performance decline mechanisms are introduced and the strategies for improving stability are systematically analyzed by regulating the structure of the active center and carbon support. Finally, we also proposed the future perspectives of M−N−C catalysts. This review aims to provide some guidelines towards synthesis of M−N−C catalysts for fuel cells and Zn-air batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Stannate bath was used to modify Mg particles in Mg-rich primer on AZ91D magnesium alloy. • A Mg stannate film formed on the surface of Mg particles and could reduce the reaction rate of pure Mg particles. • The stannate treatment made the corrosion products in coating compact and generated a Mg stannate film on AZ91D substrate. • The stannate treatment improves corrosion resistance of the Mg-rich primer on AZ91D alloy greatly. A stannate bath was used to pretreat Mg particles in an Mg-rich primer (MRP) coated on the AZ91D magnesium alloy. The duration of the stannate treatment and its effects on the MRP were investigated. After about 20 min of stannate treatment, a protective film of Mg stannate was formed on the surface of the Mg particles and could decrease the corrosion rate of pure Mg. In the first stage, the Mg stannate film reduced the reaction rate of pure Mg particles, prolonging the lifetime of the MRP. In addition, the stannate treatment caused the formation of compact corrosion products in the MRP, improving the barrier effect of the primer. Finally, a protective film consisting of Mg stannate was formed on the AZ91D substrate. The protective film could reduce the corrosion rate of the AZ91D alloy, improving the protective performance of the MRP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Aluminum tripolyphosphate was used as a corrosion inhibitor in a simulated concrete pore solution. For studies of the inhibition mechanism of aluminum tripolyphosphate on the carbon steel, its influence on the pitting initiation on the carbon steel in a Cl− containing pore solution were investigated. Design/methodology/approach: Potentiodynamic polarization curves, Mott–Schottky plots and potentiostatic polarization of the carbon steel in the pore solution with different content of aluminum tripolyphosphate were measured, as well as the optical micrographs of pitting on the carbon steel was observed. Findings: The metastable pitting potential and the stable pitting potential increased, while the donor density and the flat band potential decreased with the concentration of aluminum tripolyphosphate in solution. Furthermore, the initiation of pitting was suppressed, as well as the transition from metastable to stable pitting was hindered by the aluminum tripolyphosphate. The scale parameter (a), in the extreme distribution of the maximum current peak, could be used to predict the transition from metastable to stable pitting. Originality/value: The inhibition mechanism of aluminum tripolyphosphate on carbon steel in pore solution was revealed. It suppresses the initiation of pitting and hinders the transition from metastable to stable pitting. Furthermore, a parameter defined as the scale parameter (a) in the extreme distribution of the maximum current peak was introduced to predict the transition from metastable to stable pitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Abnormal expressions of microRNAs (miRNAs) are demonstrated in pancreatic cancer (PaC), but a major part of the mechanism remains elusive. This study mainly aimed to structure a coexpressed network of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) in PaC, as well as to explore their direct targets. Methods: LncRNA and mRNA microarrays were used to determine the expression profiles in PaC cells. Analysis of Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway was performed to identify pathways associated with differentially expressed mRNAs. Coexpression profiles were identified by constructing differentially expressed lncRNA‐mRNA regulatory network and further validated by quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction assay and western blot assay. The bioinformatics computational method was applied to predict the biological target of lncRNA and mRNA, which was identified by luciferase reporter assay. Migration/invasion ability and apoptosis rate of cells were assessed by transwell assay and flow cytometry assay. Results: It was identified that the level of urothelial cancer associated 1 (UCA1) was increased in PaC cells, and the inhibition of UCA1 suppressed migration and invasion ability of the cancer cells. The luciferase reporter assay recognized that miR‐107 was targeted by UCA1, and integrin subunit α 2 (ITGA2) was further targeted by miR‐107. This confirmed the prediction of lncRNA‐miRNA‐mRNA regulation mechanism. In the regulatory pathways, UCA1 and ITGA2 promoted PaC progression via focal adhesion pathway related proteins such as ITGA3, SRC protooncogene/nonreceptor tyrosine kinase, protein tyrosine kinase 2, and AKT serine/threonine kinase 1. Conclusion: The study revealed a regulatory network of UCA1‐miR‐107‐ITGA2 and validated UCA1 and ITGA2 as potential prognostic factors for PaC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) results in significant postoperative liver dysfunction, and the intricate mechanism of IRI poses challenges in developing effective therapeutic drugs. Mitigating the damage caused by hepatic IRI and promoting the repair of postoperative liver injury have become focal points in recent years, holding crucial clinical significance. Adipose mesenchymal stem cell derived exosomes (ADSCs-Exo) and metformin (Met) can play a mitochondrial protective role in the treatment of hepatic IRI, but whether there is a synergistic mechanism for their intervention is not yet known. Combining the unique advantages of exosomes as drug carriers, the aim of this study was to investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of the constructed Met and ADSCs-Exo complex (Met-Exo) on the liver IRI combined with partial resection injury in rat and hypoxic reoxygenation injury of rat primary hepatocytes (HCs). In this study, firstly, we detected that mitochondrial morphology and function were severely affected in hepatic tissues after hepatic IRI combined with partial resection, and then verified by in vitro experiments that Met-Exo could promote mitochondrial biosynthesis and fusion-associated protein expression and inhibit mitochondrial fission-related protein expression by modulating the AMPK/SIRT1 signalling pathway. This indicates that ADSCs-Exo can not only play a targeting role as a drug carrier but also has a great potential to act as a vehicle to act synergistically with drugs in the treatment of tissue and organ damage, which provides a new therapeutic strategy and experimental basis for the treatment of liver injury in medical science and clinical veterinary. [Display omitted] • Hepatic IRI intricately involves mitochondrial dynamics, oxidative stress, and pro-inflammatory responses, necessitating innovative intervention strategies. • ADSCs-Exo and Met synergistically activate AMPK/SIRT1 pathways, enhancing mitochondrial function in liver injury repair. • ADSCs-Exo is a promising drug carrier for targeted effects and synergistic interactions with therapeutic agents. • Metformin, as an AMPK activator, has potential therapeutic applications in mitigating oxidative stress and apoptosis. • This research opens new therapeutic avenues for liver injuries, with implications for veterinary clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen-doped graphene (N-G) is considered as a promising catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, the contributions of pyridinic N, pyrrolic N and graphitic N in N-G for the ORR catalytic activity are controversial. In this work, the contents of pyridinic N, pyrrolic N and graphitic N in N-G were transformed by annealing at different temperatures. It is found that the total N content in N-G is not the critical factor to determine the ORR activity. An increase in the annealing temperature can enhance the content of graphitic N in N-G, causing an improved catalytic ORR activity, which confirms that graphitic N is the active component. Moreover, the enriched graphitic N in the N-G-1000 catalyst shows a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.862 V, 29 mV higher than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst (0.833 V), which is one of the best reported for ORR metal-free catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segment 7 is considered an unfavorable portion for laparoscopic hepatectomy because of technical difficulties in exposure and controlling bleeding. We compared intermittent Pringle with continuous half-Pringle maneuver in laparoscopic liver resections of tumors in segment 7. A retrospective analysis was conducted in a total of 36 consecutive patients with tumors in segment 7 undergoing laparoscopic liver resections between July 2011 and February 2016 (16 in the Pringle group versus 20 in the half-Pringle group). The two groups were well matched in baseline characteristics. The operative time (274.5 ± 34.3 versus 237.6 ± 41.8 min), overall declamping time (28.4 ± 8.6 versus 2.3 ± 2.5 min), and ischemic duration (69.7 ± 16.5 versus 52.7 ± 13.2 min) were significantly longer in the Pringle group (P < 0.05). The amount of intraoperative blood loss (612.5 ± 222.3 versus 417.4 ± 163.8 mL) and transfusion (335.2 ± 58.7 versus 224.8 ± 76.2 mL) was significantly greater in the Pringle group (P < 0.05). The Pringle group was associated with significantly lower postoperative albumin and higher C-reactive protein levels on postoperative days 1, 3, and 7 (P < 0.05). Laparoscopic hepatectomy for tumors in segment 7 can be performed safely and effectively with successful exposure of surgical field and proper hepatic blood flow occlusion. Continuous half-Pringle maneuver offers the advantages of less operative time and blood loss, less injury, and better recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Rice seed setting rate detection was achieved and compared with deep learning models. • The detection performance of thermal infrared image was better than RGB image. • Multi-layer nested conglutinated segmentation algorithm segmented cohesive grains. • Thermal infrared de-ghost algorithm obtained the best detection accuracy. The seed setting rate (SSR) of rice is not only a key component of yield, but also an important parameter in rice phenotypic analysis. Fast and accurate detection of SSR is of great significance for yield prediction. The purpose of this research was to detect the SSR of rice quickly and automatically. A thermal infrared–visible light dual imaging system was built to obtain thermal infrared images and RGB images of rice grains. This paper proposed image registration method, thermal infrared de-ghost method and multi-layer nested conglutinated segmentation algorithm to detect SSR. Compared with the detection accuracy of three deep learning models (Faster RCNN 96.43%, SSD 81.84%, YOLO V3 96.75%) and image registration methods (80.83%), the highest SSR detection accuracy (97.66%) was achieved by fusing thermal infrared de-ghost and multi-layer nested conglutinated segmentation algorithm. This method has the advantages of simple structure, high efficiency and competitive results, and has great potential in detecting seed setting rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An anodic oxidation film was fabricated on an AZ91D magnesium (Mg) alloy via simple direct current anodic oxidation. The effects of the anodic oxidation film on the protection performance of a Mg-rich primer on this alloy, were determined. In addition to the barrier effect of the films, the holes in the film enhanced the mechanical interlocking between the primer and the film. This yielded a significant increase in the adhesion of the primer, on the AZ91D substrate by the film. The results of electrochemical measurements and scratch testing suggested that the film significantly prolongs the lifetime of the primer and the composite coating system provides excellent protection for the alloy. The mechanisms governing the effect of the film on the protection performance of the primer were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel rhodamine-based colorimetric and fluorescent sensor for Hg 2+ was reported. In CH 3 CN/H 2 O (1/99, v/v), the sensor showed high selectivity and sensitivity to Hg 2+ by an emerging absorption peak at 565 nm and a 32-fold fluorescence enhancement at 586 nm with vivid color changes. The absorbance and fluorescence maxima increased linearly with the concentration of Hg 2+ in the range of 0–90 μM. The colorimetric and fluorescent detection limits were 6.36 μM and 60.78 nM respectively. The sensor could work in a nearly neutral pH span of 6.01–8.57 and exhibited excellent interference immunity and low cytotoxicity. A 1:2 sensor-Hg 2+ complex formed with a binding constant of 2.89 × 10 8 M −2 . A new sensing mechanism was proposed. The sensor was successfully applied in real sample assay and living cell imaging. Furthermore, the sensor could be supported in low cost cellulose discs for signaling Hg 2+ in 100% aqueous solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atomically dispersed iron-nitrogen-carbon catalysts offer great potential in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), yet the poor exposure and low density of Fe-N x sites causes relatively low ORR activity. Herein, a zinc-assisted MgO template strategy is reported to construct porous carbon-supported Fe-N 4 sites (Fe-N-C). Iron atoms surrounded by zinc species are converted to abundant Fe-N 4 sites rather than Fe containing nanoparticles. Meanwhile, both the zinc species and the MgO template can effectively produce porous structure so as to increase the utilization of Fe-N 4 sites. Fe-N-C achieves superior ORR performance and stability in alkaline medium. Theoretical calculations manifest that Fe-N 4 sites can narrow the energy barrier for ORR. Moreover, finite element simulation exhibits the porous framework in Fe-N-C could significantly accelerate the diffusion of O 2. Therefore, Fe-N-C provides a high peak power density and superior discharge ability toward Zn-air batteries. [Display omitted] • Atomically dispersed Fe-N-C are prepared by zinc-assisted template strategy. • High density of Fe-N x and hierarchical porosity boost oxygen reduction reaction. • The porous framework of Fe-N-C could significantly accelerate the diffusion of O 2. • The catalyst exhibits an excellent performance in Zn-air batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of compressive and tensile stresses on the corrosion behaviour of the rebar in mortars was investigated. The corrosion of the rebar intensified with increasing magnitude of the stress. Results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and the observed corrosion state indicated that the stress-induced corrosion of the rebar resulted mainly from degradation of the concrete/rebar interface. For the same magnitude of stress, the rebar in the compressed sample was more severely corroded than that in the tensile sample. In addition, modes were proposed to illustrate the different failure patterns of the concrete/rebar interface, owing to the action of the stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metastable pitting of tensile-stressed 304 stainless steel in a simulated concrete pore solution was studied via potentiostatic polarization and Mott–Schottky plots. The results revealed that the carrier density of passive films increases significantly with increasing magnitude of the strain. In addition, the lifetime of metastable pitting increases with the strain and secondary metastable pitting always occurred in the severely deformed samples. The growth rates of individual metastable pits were only slightly influenced by the strain level and carrier density. However, the repassivation rates of pitting dramatically decreased with deformation and carrier density when the strain is below 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control method for the multi-axial half sine shock on random vibration test is studied in this article. From the Fourier spectrum analysis, it is found that the power of the half sine shock is mainly concentrated within a specific frequency band, which is only related to the sine frequency of the half sine shock. Compared with the broadband random signal, the frequency band occupies a small range. Therefore, a mixed signal separation method is proposed for the shock on random vibration control test. Firstly, the Fourier spectrum is divided into two parts, and then the Empirical Wavelet Transform (EWT) is used to extract the shock component from the mixed signal. Afterward, the random component is obtained by subtracting the shock component from the mixed signal. According to the deviations between each component and the specified references, the amplitudes of the shock component and the Power Spectral Densities (PSDs) of the random component are controlled by the amplitude correction algorithm and the matrix power control algorithm, respectively. An experiment with tri-axial shaker is implemented and the results show that the proposed method is feasible for the multi-axial half sine shock on broadband random vibration control test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A micro-arc oxidation (MAO) film is prepared on AZ91D magnesium alloy, and the effects of the MAO treatment on the performance of a Mg-rich primer on AZ91D alloy are studied. After MAO treatment, an oxidized film with high porosity forms on the magnesium substrate. As a result, the adhesion of a Mg-rich primer to the AZ91D substrate increases. The MAO treatment significantly improves the performance of a Mg-rich primer on the AZ91D alloy, owing to the corrosion resistance of the MAO film. The coating system with MAO pre-treatment shows good barrier effects after 2400 h of salt spray testing and could serve to protect the AZ91D alloy below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passivity of carbon steel was examined in saturated Ca(OH) 2 solution with different alternating temperatures. The results showed that the Fe3+/Fe2+ and OH-/O2- ratios decreased, and donor density in the passive film increased with the amplitude of temperature alternation. Cracks were observed in the film when the sample experienced a higher amplitude of temperature change. Passive films on the samples in 20–50 °C and 20–60 °C alternating temperature solution were less stable than those of their counterparts in 40 °C and 50 °C solution, respectively. Furthermore, a model was proposed to explain the degradation of passive films under alternating temperature. • Passive film formed at 20–50 and 20–60 °C was less stable and protective than that formed at 40 and 50 °C, respectively. • Temperature change with the amplitude of 20 °C can't while 40 °C can cause cracks in the passive film on carbon steel. • Cracks caused by high-amplitude temperature change cannot be re-passivated in a short time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been proven to be promising biomarkers associated with therapeutic outcomes and prognosis in breast cancer patients. Increased TIL levels predicted a higher rate of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in all molecular subtypes and was also associated with a survival benefit in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer. The assessment of TILs was based on surgical pathological sections or needle biopsies; this process was invasive and may have introduced sampling bias in biopsies. Imaging-based biomarkers provide a non-invasive evaluation of TIL levels. The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of transformer-based or convolutional neural network (CNN)-based deep-learning (DL) models to predict TIL levels in breast cancer from ultrasound (US) images. We confirmed that the ultrasound-based DL approach was a good non-invasive tool for predicting TILs in breast cancer and provided key complementary information in equivocal cases that were prone to sampling bias. This study aimed to explore the feasibility of using a deep-learning (DL) approach to predict TIL levels in breast cancer (BC) from ultrasound (US) images. A total of 494 breast cancer patients with pathologically confirmed invasive BC from two hospitals were retrospectively enrolled. Of these, 396 patients from hospital 1 were divided into the training cohort (n = 298) and internal validation (IV) cohort (n = 98). Patients from hospital 2 (n = 98) were in the external validation (EV) cohort. TIL levels were confirmed by pathological results. Five different DL models were trained for predicting TIL levels in BC using US images from the training cohort and validated on the IV and EV cohorts. The overall best-performing DL model, the attention-based DenseNet121, achieved an AUC of 0.873, an accuracy of 79.5%, a sensitivity of 90.7%, a specificity of 65.9%, and an F1 score of 0.830 in the EV cohort. In addition, the stratified analysis showed that the DL models had good discrimination performance of TIL levels in each of the molecular subgroups. The DL models based on US images of BC patients hold promise for non-invasively predicting TIL levels and helping with individualized treatment decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The plastic deformation significantly thinned the space charge layers. [•] The contents of Fe2+ ion decreased whereas the content of Fe3+ ion increased with the degree of deformation. [•] The degree of deformation does not have a significant influence on the content of Cr cations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Disease and pest detection of grape foliage is essential for grape yield and quality. RGB image (RGBI), multispectral image (MSI), and thermal infrared image (TIRI) are widely used in the health detection of plants. In this study, we collected three types of grape foliage images with six common classes (anthracnose, downy mildew, leafhopper, mites, viral disease, and healthy) in the field. ShuffleNet V2 was used to build up detection models. According to the accuracy of RGBI, MSI, TIRI, and multi-source data concatenation (MDC) models, and a multi-source data fusion (MDF) decision-making method was proposed for improving the detection performance for grape foliage, aiming to enhance the decision-making for RGBI of grape foliage by fusing the MSI and TIRI. The results showed that 40% of the incorrect detection outputs were rectified using the MDF decision-making method. The overall accuracy of MDF model was 96.05%, which had improvements of 2.64%, 13.65%, and 27.79%, compared with the RGBI, MSI, and TIRI models using label smoothing, respectively. In addition, the MDF model was based on the lightweight network with 3.785 M total parameters and 0.362 G multiply-accumulate operations, which could be highly portable and easy to be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The protective performance of a Mg-rich primer on AZ91D magnesium alloy was greatly improved by addition of aluminum tri-polyphosphate (SAP) pigment into the primer. The effects of SAP in the Mg-rich primer were investigated. In the first stage, the pigment SAP prolongs the cathodic protection of the Mg-rich primer for AZ91D alloy by a pH buffering effect. Then, the corrosion products of the magnesium particles, composed of phosphates and oxides of magnesium, form in the primer, which enhances the barrier effect of the primer. Finally, a protective layer composed of magnesium phosphates and oxides forms on the substrate surface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A silane film is prepared on AZ91D magnesium alloy and the effect of the silane pretreatment on the performance of a Mg-rich primer on AZ91D alloy are studied. After the silane treatment, Si–O–Mg covalent bonds form between the silane film and magnesium substrate and Si–O–Si structure forms in the silane film. As the result, the adhesion of the Mg-rich primer to AZ91D substrate increases obviously. Machu test and electrochemical measurements indicate that the silane pre-treatment significantly improves the performance of the Mg-rich primer on AZ91D alloy, which is attributed to strengthened barrier effect of the coating system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A Mg-rich epoxy primer was prepared by adding pure magnesium particles to an epoxy coating. The coating properties were studied with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The Mg-rich primer showed better protection for AZ91D magnesium alloy than the same epoxy primer without Mg addition. The open circuit potential measurements showed cathodic protection effect of the Mg-rich primer on AZ91D alloy. Cross scratch testing showed that the Mg-rich primer provided better protection for the substrate than original epoxy coating. The precipitation of Mg(OH)2 in the coating also provided some degree of barrier protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • GHNCNs_Urea was designed by introducing nitrogen source, increasing pore structures. • The GHNCNs_Urea electrocatalyst exhibited outstanding ORR activity. • The excellent ORR activity was attributed to ultra-high SSA and large pore volume. • The Zn-air battery exhibited a high peak power density and a long-term stability. When designing carbon-based electrocatalysts as Pt-free catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), pore structures is crucial, in addition to creating active sites. Here, N-doped carbon nanosheets were rationally designed by tactfully introducing nitrogen source into the carbonization process, which could increase the density of pore structures and effective active sites. Owing to the ultra-high specific surface area (2127 m2 g−1), large pore volume (5.77 cm3 g−1), and bimodal-pore structure (micropores and mesopores), the optimized catalyst exhibited an excellent ORR activity (a half-wave potential of 0.86 V), as well as outstanding durability and methanol tolerance in alkaline medium. Moreover, it provided excellent stability and high peak power density when used as ORR catalyst in Zn-air battery, exceeding that driven by Pt/C catalyst. This work brings a feasible and universal strategy for fabricating metal-free ORR catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heteroatoms-modified Fe–N–C catalysts have garnered significant attention for enhancing the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). However, revealing the correlation between the type of heteroatoms used for doping and catalytic performance still faces significant challenges. Herein, based on the density functional theory (DFT), a series of heteroatom-modified Fe–N–C models with the tailored Fe–N 4 -X (X = S, P or B) site are constructed to explore the regulatory mechanism of heteroatoms on the electronic structure and adsorption behavior of Fe centers. Theoretical calculations reveal that the doping of S atoms can optimize the electronic environment of Fe atoms, thus leading the favorable interaction between Fe–N 4 –S site and OH intermediates. As a result, the Fe–N 4 –S site possess a lower energy barrier for the desorption of OH* than that of Fe–N 4 –B and Fe–N 4 –P, indicating higher catalytic activity and kinetics of S-modified Fe–N–C catalysts. [Display omitted] • Heteroatom-modified Fe–N 4 models are analyzed by theoretical calculations. • S doping can optimize the electronic structure around Fe–N 4 sites. • S doping promotes the OH* desorption, thus leading to enhanced kinetics process. • Fe–N 4 –S model exhibits higher activity and stability than Fe–N 4 –B and Fe–N 4 –P. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) is an important factor affecting liver regeneration and functional recovery postoperatively. Many studies have suggested that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) contribute to hepatic tissue repair and functional recovery through paracrine mechanisms mediated by exosomes. Minipigs exhibit much more similar characteristics of the liver to those of humans than rodents. This study aimed to explore whether exosomes from adipose-derived MSCs (ADSCs-exo) could actively promote liver regeneration after hepatectomy combined with HIRI in minipigs and the role they play in the cell proliferation process. This study also compared the effects and differences in the role of ADSCs and ADSCs-exo in the inflammatory response and liver regeneration. The results showed that ADSCs-exo suppressed histopathological changes and reduced inflammatory infiltration in the liver; significantly decreased levels of ALT, TBIL, HA, and the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, and CRP; increased levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and the pro-regeneration factors Ki67, PCNA, CyclinD1, HGF, STAT3, VEGF, ANG1, ANG2; and decreased levels of the anti-regeneration factors SOCS3 and TGF-β. These indicators above showed similar changes with the ADSCs intervention group. Indicating that ADSCs-exo can exert the same role as ADSCs in regulating inflammatory responses and promoting liver regeneration. Our findings provide experimental evidence for the possibility that ADSCs-exo could be considered a safe and effective cell-free therapy to promote regeneration of injured livers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of multi-focus image fusion (MFIF) is to generate a fully focused image through integrating multiple partially focused source images. Most of the existing methods do not fully consider the local gradient variation rate of the source image, which makes it difficult to accurately distinguish the small defocused (focused) region covered by the large focused (defocused) region. In addition, these methods also cause edge blurring because they do not take into account misregistration of the source images. To address these issues, in this paper, we propose a simple and effective multi-focus image fusion framework based on multi-channel Rybak neural network (MCRYNN) model. Specifically, the proposed MCRYNN model is highly sensitive to local gradient changes of images based on input receptive fields, which can process multiple source images in parallel and extract the features of focused regions. Moreover, the decision maps can accurately be generate in proposed method based on the information interaction effect of parallel network structure for multi-focus image fusion task. Finally, we conduct qualitative and quantitative experiments on public datasets, and the results show that the performance of the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. • A primary attempt to use Rybak's visual cortex theory to perform the MFIF. • A novel multi-channel Rybak neural network (MCRYNN) is proposed. • A simple and efficient MFIF framework is proposed based on MCRYNN model. • The proposed method has a high computational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordination environment engineering is developed to synthesize Fe SA /NSC catalysts with the tailored N, S co-coordinated Fe atomic site. [Display omitted] • The Fe-N 3 S active site with the optimized electronic structure is constructed. • S doping promotes the OH* desorption, thus leading to enhanced kinetics process. • The catalyst displays impressive ORR activity in both alkaline and acidic mediums. • The catalyst exhibits excellent performance in Zn-air batteries and fuel cells. Atomically dispersed iron–nitrogen-carbon (FesbndNsbndC) materials have been considered ideal catalysts for the oxygen reduction. Unfortunately, designing and adjusting the electronic structure of single-atom Fe sites to boost the kinetics and activity still faces grand challenges. In this work, the coordination environment engineering is developed to synthesize the Fe SA /NSC catalyst with the tailored N, S co-coordinated Fe atomic site (Fe-N 3 S site). The structural characterizations and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the incorporation of sulfur can optimize the charge distribution of Fe atoms to weaken the adsorption of OH* and facilitate the desorption of OH*, thus leading to enhanced kinetics process and intrinsic activity. As a result, the S-modified Fe SA /NSC exhibits outstanding catalytic activity with the half-wave potentials (E 1/2) of 0.915 V and 0.797 V, as well as good stability, in alkaline and acidic electrolytes, respectively. Impressively, the excellent performance of Fe SA /NSC is further confirmed in Zn-air batteries (ZABs) and fuel cells, with high peak power densities (146 mW cm−2 and 0.259 W cm−2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Qishen granules (QSG) are a frequently prescribed formula with cardioprotective properties prescribed to HF for many years. RNA-seq profiling revealed that regulation on cardiac mitochondrial energy metabolism is the main therapeutic effect. However, the underlying mechanism is still unknown. In this study, we explored the effects of QSG on regulating mitochondrial energy metabolism and oxidative stress through the PGC-1α/NRF1/TFAM signaling pathway. RNA-seq technology revealed that QSG significantly changed the differential gene expression of mitochondrial dysfunction in myocardial ischemic tissue. The mechanism was verified through the left anterior descending artery- (LAD-) induced HF rat model and oxygen glucose deprivation/recovery- (OGD/R-) established H9C2 induction model both in vivo and in vitro. Echocardiography and HE staining showed that QSG could effectively improve the cardiac function of rats with myocardial infarction in functionality and structure. Furthermore, transcriptomics revealed QSG could significantly regulate mitochondrial dysfunction-related proteins at the transcriptome level. The results of electron microscopy and immunofluorescence proved that the mitochondrial morphology, mitochondrial membrane structural integrity, and myocardial oxidative stress damage can be effectively improved after QSG treatment. Mechanism studies showed that QSG increased the expression level of mitochondrial biogenesis factor PGC-1α/NRF1/TFAM protein and regulated the balance of mitochondrial fusion/fission protein expression. QSG could regulate mitochondrial dysfunction in ischemia heart tissue to protect cardiac function and structure in HF rats. The likely mechanism is the adjustment of PGC-1α/NRF1/TFAM pathway to alleviate oxidative stress in myocardial cells. Therefore, PGC-1α may be a potential therapeutic target for improving mitochondrial dysfunction in HF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On account of varying tiny cross-sectional clearance and fairly high bearing speed, the feature of lubricant gas of gas-lubricated journal bearings (GLJBs) is a complex multiscale problem. In this research, both macroscopic Reynolds equation and mesoscopic lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM) are adopted to successfully establish models for restoring flow characteristics of GLJBs from continuum, slip to transition flow regimes. The influences of eccentricity ratios, bearing speeds and Knudsen numbers (Kn) on pressure, thickness, velocity distributions and flow fields of lubricant flow are investigated. The distinctions between the results through two methods, which can be complementary, are compared and analyzed with maximum error ≯9.6%. It indicates that keeping the eccentricity ratio or bearing speed at appropriate high levels is good for improving its working performance. When Kn is enhanced, the maximum and minimum pressure peaks will decrease and increase, respectively, whereas, the impact degree of rarefaction effect on the pressure distribution will reduce after Kn exceeding a certain level. Besides, an interesting backflow phenomenon in the lubricant flow field is demonstrated. This investigation enriches numerical models for GLJBs at different flow regimes, and provides new fruitful insights into the flow characteristics at multiscale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a machine vision-based variable weeding system for plant- protection unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to address the issues of pesticide waste and environmental pollution that are readily caused by traditional spraying agricultural machinery. The system utilizes fuzzy rules to achieve adaptive modification of the Kp, Ki, and Kd adjustment parameters of the PID control algorithm and combines them with an interleaved period PWM controller to reduce the impact of nonlinear variations in water pressure on the performance of the system, and to improve the stability and control accuracy of the system. After testing various image threshold segmentation and image graying algorithms, the normalized super green algorithm (2G-R-B) and the fast iterative threshold segmentation method were adopted as the best combination. This combination effectively distinguished between the vegetation and the background, and thus improved the accuracy of the pixel extraction algorithm for vegetation distribution. The results of orthogonal testing by selected four representative spraying duty cycles—25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%—showed that the pressure variation was less than 0.05 MPa, the average spraying error was less than 2%, and the highest error was less than 5% throughout the test. Finally, the performance of the system was comprehensively evaluated through field trials. The evaluation showed that the system was able to adjust the corresponding spraying volume in real time according to the vegetation distribution under the decision-making based on machine vision algorithms, which proved the low cost and effectiveness of the designed variable weed control system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a multifunctional metasurface are studied based on Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) and photosensitive silicon. The study explores various functionalities such as refractive index sensing, slow light, optical switch, and optical energy flux sensing measurement. When the photosensitive silicon is not excited, the response of the metasurface is EIT, creating a transparent window, thereby achieving refractive index sensing and slow light effect. Upon excitation of the photosensitive silicon, it functions as a light-controlled switch. The conductivity of the photosensitive silicon determines the transmittance of the front valley, indicating the state of the switch (closed or open). Furthermore, by correlating different electrical conductivity values with the corresponding transmittance, the device enables the measurement of light flux. This design has potential applications in slow light devices, as well as in fields such as biomolecular recognition, environmental monitoring, and optical energy calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MVS reconstruction produces high-precision dense maize ear point clouds. • Coordinate correction and circular sampling optimize the data structure. • Local feature aggregation and self-attention modules enhance the network performance. • Data resampling method improves the spatial uniformity of point cloud. • Point-level quantitative approach for maize ear rot precise evaluation is proposed. Maize ear rot poses a severe threat to maize yield and quality. Breeding and cultivating highly resistant maize varieties is a crucial approach for preventing and controlling maize ear rot. However, traditional methods of visually grading the severity of maize ear infection and resistance lack objectivity and repeatability. To meet the requirement of precise breeding and resistance assessment scenarios, a novel pipeline based on three-dimensional (3D) point clouds of maize ear was developed for ear rot precise evaluation. First, multi-view stereo (MVS) reconstruction was employed to obtain high-precision dense point clouds of maize ears. And the coordinate correction and circular sampling approaches were proposed to optimize the data structure of the input maize ear samples. Next, a specialized network called the ear rot segmentation network (ERSegNet) was proposed to detect the infected area of maize ears. This network incorporated an orientation-encoding (OE) module and point transformer (PT) attention, which effectively boosted the performance of PointNet++. The proposed ERSegNet achieved impressive results, including a mean intersection over union (mIoU) of 85.83%, a mean precision (mPrec) of 92.34%, a mean recall (mRec) of 92.23%, a mean F1-score of 92.28%, and an overall accuracy (OA) of 93.76%. This demonstrated the feasibility of using semantic segmentation algorithms to predict 3D point clouds of maize ears. Furthermore, a point cloud resampling method was suggested to enhance the spatial uniformity of maize ear point clouds and a point-level quantitative assessment approach based on the 3D point cloud data was provided for evaluating the severity of ear rot. The results showed an average evaluation error of 1.55% in the testing set, indicating the accuracy of the proposed method. This study provides a reliable and objective method for maize ear rot precise assessment, offering potential and valuable support for the identification of resistant varieties in breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Grading modeling and decision-making framework were proposed for yield estimation. • Normalized weight decision-making strategy improved the estimation precision. • Deep learning network ConvNeXt was compared for modeling performance. • Proposed framework performs precisely and robustly using UAV RGB images. Rice yield estimation is of great significance for ensuring food security and breeding new varieties with high yield and good stress resistance. The popular yield estimation method is to combine unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images to extract vegetation index (VI) for multi-variable regression, whose application is always limited by expensive equipment and complex data processing. In this study, based on the deep learning network, ConvNeXt, a robust framework developed by grading modeling and normalized weight decision-making strategy was innovatively proposed to estimate the rice yield, only using RGB images collected by UAVs. The main results are: (1) the yield estimation performance of yield grading model was better than that of regression model, and R2, mean absolute error (MAE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) on the test dataset using the grading model were 0.97, 410.94 kg/ha, and 3.96 % respectively; (2) the confidence scores of the grading model were adopted as the weights, which could correct the estimated yield of the misclassified samples and further reduce the estimated error. The normalized weight decision-making after optimization had obvious advantages, the performance of 2-weight strategy was the best, whose R2, MAE, and MAPE reached 0.98, 386.08 kg/ha, and 3.79 %, respectively; (3) the MAPE results of generalization assessment showed that the generalization of the grading (12.98 %) and regression (10.88 %) models was inferior to the proposed framework (8.71 %), which could reduce the MAPE on the generalization evaluation dataset to less than 10 %. Furthermore, the framework exhibited good adaptability when applied to the rice yield estimation of the new data in 2022, with an MAPE of 4.54 %. Considering both application potential and adaptability, this framework constructs a novel strategy and method for rice yield estimation using grading modeling and normalized weight decision-making strategy, which provides a reference for future real-time and precise yield estimation using UAV remote sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protoplast transient expression-based RNA-sequencing identifies Opaque2 targets supported by molecular evidence and expression quantitative trait loci. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer has become the leading cancer of the 21st century. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have emerged as effective biomarkers for predicting treatment response and prognosis in breast cancer. The work described here was aimed at designing a novel deep learning network to assess the levels of TILs in breast ultrasound images. We propose the Multi-Cascade Residual U-Shaped Network (MCRUNet), which incorporates a gray feature enhancement (GFE) module for image reconstruction and normalization to achieve data synergy. Additionally, multiple residual U-shaped (RSU) modules are cascaded as the backbone network to maximize the fusion of global and local features, with a focus on the tumor's location and surrounding regions. The development of MCRUNet is based on data from two hospitals and uses a publicly available ultrasound data set for transfer learning. MCRUNet exhibits excellent performance in assessing TILs levels, achieving an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.8931, an accuracy of 85.71%, a sensitivity of 83.33%, a specificity of 88.64% and an F1 score of 86.54% in the test group. It outperforms six state-of-the-art networks in terms of performance. The MCRUNet network based on breast ultrasound images of breast cancer patients holds promise for non-invasively predicting TILs levels and aiding personalized treatment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As operating under quite high bearing speed with quite narrow clearance, the slip effect generally inevitable exists and closely relates to the performance of Gas Journal Bearing (GJB). However, singly the conventional macroscopic method may not be capable of fully exploring the influence of slip effect and seize tiny details such as slip velocity and flow vortex. In this article, both the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) and the Reynolds equation method are applied to analyze the distributions of lubricant viscous dissipation heat, velocity, slip velocity, pressure, journal position and film thickness versus different operating parameters at multiscale. It shows that the slip effect weakens the squeezing function on lubricant film, reduces the viscous dissipation heat peaks, consumes the maximum pressure peaks, and decreases the bearing capacity, which is more obvious at larger Knudsen number. At higher bearing speed, the high viscous dissipation heat and pressure zone rapidly magnifies, in contrast, under larger bearing load, the high viscous dissipation heat zone concentrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]