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Highlights Unique inter-skeleton conductive films are constructed in polymer foam. The resistance change of the foam can reach four orders of magnitude under compression. This foam exhibits strain-adaptive electromagnetic interference shielding performance, anti-interference pressure sensor with high sensitivity over a wide pressure range and compression-regulated Joule heating function.

Abstract Nowadays, the malicious MS-Office document has already become one of the most effective attacking vectors in APT attacks. Though many protection mechanisms are provided, they have been proved easy to bypass, and the existed detection methods show poor performance when facing malicious documents with unknown vulnerabilities or with few malicious behaviors. In this paper, we first introduce the definition of im-documents, to describe those vulnerable documents which show implicitly malicious behaviors and escape most of public antivirus engines. Then we present GLDOC—a GCN based framework that is aimed at effectively detecting im-documents with dynamic analysis, and improving the possible blind spots of past detection methods. Besides the system call which is the only focus in most researches, we capture all dynamic behaviors in sandbox, take the process tree into consideration and reconstruct both of them into graphs. Using each line to learn each graph, GLDOC trains a 2-channel network as well as a classifier to formulate the malicious document detection problem into a graph learning and classification problem. Experiments show that GLDOC has a comprehensive balance of accuracy rate and false alarm rate − 95.33% and 4.33% respectively, outperforming other detection methods. When further testing in a simulated 5-day attacking scenario, our proposed framework still maintains a stable and high detection accuracy on the unknown vulnerabilities.

Abstract Cross‐site scripting (XSS) attack has been one of the most dangerous attacks in cyberspace security. Traditional methods essentially discover XSS attack by detecting malicious payloads in requests, which is unable to distinguish attacking attempts with the attacking reality. The authors collect responses from a web server and train a bagging‐based PU learning model to determine whether the XSS vulnerability is truly triggered. To validate the authors’ proposed framework, experiments are performed on 5 popular web applications with 11 specified CVE recorded vulnerabilities and 32 vulnerable inputs. Results show that the authors’ approach outperforms existing research studies, effectively identifies the attacking reality from attacking attempts, and meanwhile reduces the number of worthless security alarms.

Purpose: To study the effect of corneal white-to-white diameter on Pentacam Scheimpflug cornea tomography and Corvis ST corneal visualization Scheimpflug technology parameters in myopic eyes. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 190 eyes of 190 Chinese myopic patients (spherical equivalent range: −1.25 D to −11.00 D) assessed for refractive surgery using Pentacam and Corvis ST devices were included. Patients were divided into groups based on corneal diameter: group A

In this article, a game theoretic non‐cooperative dynamic target tracking algorithm that empowers defensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with directional sensing capabilities to track and collect information on intrusive UAVs, is proposed. Specifically, defenders aim to maximize the collection of identity information from intruders possessing anti‐tracking and evading capabilities, while simultaneously preventing their entry into protected areas. Game theory is employed to determine the optimal confrontation paths for defenders against the intruders. The probability perception model is utilized for evaluating the dynamic target tracking capability and designing a tracking merit function to assess tracking performance, taking into account both the target's position and the perception relative angle. Furthermore, considering the dynamic interactive behaviors between intruders and defenders, the iterative linear quadratic game (ILQG) algorithm is employed to solve the Nash equilibrium of the non‐cooperative target tracking game. Through simulation experiments, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in accomplishing multi‐agent dynamic target tracking tasks is demonstrated and the performance of the algorithm under varying parameters in the intruder's cost function is evaluated, which represent different intrusion intentions.

Study region: The research is conducted in United Arab Emirates (UAE) where limited water resources are negatively impacted by both natural and human-induced factors. Study focus: The focus of this study is to establish a cost-effective and accessible isotopic database to identify the sources of recharging country-wide aquifers in UAE. The hydrogen (δ2H) and oxygen (δ18O) data of five aquifer systems is integrated into a publicly accessible web mapping application. In addition, the Machine Learning (ML) approach is employed to develop a novel isotopic boundary clustering tool for the various aquifers. New hydrological insights: The results indicate a cost - time-effective web application could assist in any future research. The results also revealed that (1) the eastern gravel plain, ophiolite, and northern carbonate aquifers are isotopically comparable, indicating a recharge by modern precipitation, (2) Mixing and upward leakage along the deep-seated faults with modern precipitation is reflected by the isotopic signature of Jabel Hafeet carbonate aquifer and (3) The isotopic values of the coastal aquifers suggested an impact of the sea water intrusion. The ML clustering categorized the isotopic data into four main boundary decision zones (DZ) that are different from the aquifer boundaries indicating various recharge sources. This study provides a new country wide geospatial stable isotope distribution of groundwater which is vital for the sustainable management of water resources in arid regions.

This article investigates a reach‐avoid game and proposes a cooperative path planning algorithm for a target–pursuers (TP) coalition to capture an evader. In the game, the target aims to bait and escape from the evader, and the pursuer aims to capture the evader. Due to imperfect observations, the TP coalition has uncertain information of the evader's state, while the evader is assumed to have perfect observation. The game model is constructed by formulating the optimization problems for each player in a receding horizon fashion. Then, to counter the evader effectively, the TP coalition constructs a virtual evader using the belief information from a Kalman filter. And a chance constraint optimization problem is constructed to predict the virtual evader's trajectory under uncertainties. The TP coalition can capture the actual evader by generating a robust counter‐strategy against the virtual evader with a chance constraint feasible set. Next, to compute the Nash equilibrium of the TP coalition's subjective game, an iterative algorithm is designed that combines the iterative best response and the distributed alternating direction method of multiplier algorithms. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithm is validated through simulations and experiments.

The large deuterium/tritium target is the key component to achieve high yield and high current neutron source, which is the precondition for the wide application of deuterium/tritium neutron source. At present, there are mature deuterium/tritium titanium targets in scientific or engineering applications abroad, and the neutron yield generally reaches the level of 1013/s. However, the technology of large-area target film in China is immature. The scientific and industrial application of large-area target film is rarely reported. The main problem is that the deuterium/tritium target can not reach the high yield, and the large area of the target film prepared is uneven, the binding force is poor and easy to fall off. In this paper, in order to solve the above mentioned problems and optimize the performance of the target film, magnetron sputtering coating and multi-arc ion plating were combined to prepare large-area titanium films with copper or molybdenum substrate and diameter greater than φ500 mm. At the same time, the feasibility of erbium film, scandium film and zirconium film preparation was explored by preparing large area deuterium-titanium or tritium-titanium targets with high binding force and high deuterium-tritium-titanium ratio. Deuterium and tritium targets with deuterium/tritium titanium ratio greater than 1.85 are produced by using self-developed deuterium/tritium target production system after degassing, purification, high temperature deuterium absorption, tail gas recovery and other processes. In order to better utilize the functions of each film layer, scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the cross-section of the film layer in the experiment. The results show that the clear interface is observed among the base layer, transition layer, and functional layer. The prepared titanium film was tested for neutron yield using a deuterium ion accelerator, and the effects of deuterium ion beam current and anode voltage on neutron yield were analyzed. The experiment shows that with the increase of deuterium beam current, neutron yield shows a linear increase in the range of 700 μA. The effect of anode acceleration voltage on neutron yield increases exponentially in a quadratic relationship. The neutron yield of the developed deuterium target is more than 8.0×108/s, and the neutron yield of the tritium target is estimated according to the reaction section of the deuterium target and the tritium target. Under the same conditions, the neutron yield of the tritium target is more than 1.0×1011/s. The test results show that the developed φ500 mm large area deuterium/tritium target can achieve the high-yield neutron output of the high-current neutron source, reaching the highest neutron flux of 1013/s in the world.

The novel application of laser surface texture as a method for enhancing the deposition of coatings on substrates has garnered significant interest. This study focuses on the use of atmospheric plasma-sprayed Mo–NiCrBSiCFe coating, which was applied to both laser surface textured and grit-blasted AISI 304 substrates. The coating powder was created by mechanically milling a mixture of 25 % molybdenum and 75 % NiCrBSiCFe powders, providing a unique combination of materials for the deposition coating. The analysis zeroed in on examining the effects of laser texture grooves on the microstructure, porosity, microhardness, and adhesion strength of the composite coating. The findings revealed that the composite coating primarily comprises MoO2, Mo, and Ni phases. In comparison to the grit-blasted substrate, the coating applied on the laser-textured groove substrate exhibited a porosity increase of 15.15 %, a pore size rise of 17.45 %, a notable 45.62 % improvement in adhesion strength, and a significant 23.57 % enhancement in scratch resistance. Furthermore, the coating on the laser-textured substrate exhibited fewer closed pores. The microhardness of the coating surface was higher than that of the coating cross-section within the grooves. Notably, the laser surface texture had a significant impact on the adhesion strength, microstructure, and hardness of the composite coating, surpassing the results achieved through traditional grit blasting. One novel observation from this study is that laser surface texturing can have a significant impact on the porosity of Mo–NiCrBSiCFe coatings. Another noteworthy finding is that laser surface texturing can enhance the hardness of Mo–NiCrBSiCFe coatings.

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) arises from autoimmune-mediated destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. Recent advancements in the technology of generating pancreatic beta cells from human pluripotent stem cells (SC-beta cells) have facilitated the exploration of cell replacement therapies for treating T1D. However, the persistent threat of autoimmunity poses a significant challenge to the survival of transplanted SC-beta cells. Genetic engineering is a promising approach to enhance immune resistance of beta cells as we previously showed by inactivating the Renalase (Rnls) gene. Here, we demonstrate that Rnls loss of function in beta cells shapes autoimmunity by mediating a regulatory natural killer (NK) cell phenotype important for the induction of tolerogenic antigen-presenting cells. Rnls-deficient beta cells mediate cell–cell contact-independent induction of hallmark anti-inflammatory cytokine Tgfβ1 in NK cells. In addition, surface expression of regulatory NK immune checkpoints CD47 and Ceacam1 is markedly elevated on beta cells deficient for Rnls. Altered glucose metabolism in Rnls mutant beta cells is involved in the upregulation of CD47 surface expression. These findings are crucial to better understand how genetically engineered beta cells shape autoimmunity, giving valuable insights for future therapeutic advancements to treat and cure T1D.

Optical satellite images frequently suffer from thin clouds, degrading the data quality. A thin cloud correction method is developed based on complementary dark objects on multiple visible bands to address this problem. First, thin cloud images are divided into irregular subareas using the superpixel segmentation algorithm, enabling the proper identification of dark objects in the spatial domain across different visible bands. A criterion is then established to classify the dark objects into two types, namely, absolute dark objects (ADOs) and relative dark objects (RDOs). Subsequently, the quantitative correlation of thin clouds between visible bands is estimated by adopting the ADOs. Dark objects present complementarity in visible bands; thus, the RDOs on one band are spatially densified by referencing the RDOs on the other visible bands. Thereby, a thin cloud map with fine spatial details is interpolated by using all the ADOs and RDOs on a band, and the correction procedure is performed through subtraction. Eight visible data captured by Landsat platforms are collected for simulated and real experiments to evaluate the method's performance. Three representative thin cloud correction approaches are selected for visual and quantitative comparisons. The proposed method can correct thin clouds effectively and restore various scenes accurately. The interpolated thin cloud maps show enhanced texture details and finer representation compared with the benchmarks. In addition, the advantages of dark-object densification for thin cloud map generation and the limitations of the proposed method are investigated.

Abstract Hydrogen-isotope storage materials are essential for the controlled nuclear fusion. However, the currently used smelting-ZrCo alloy suffers from rapid degradation of performance due to severe disproportionation. Here, we reveal a defect-derived disproportionation mechanism and report a nano-single-crystal strategy to solve ZrCo’s problems. Single-crystal nano-ZrCo is synthesized by a wet-chemistry method and exhibits excellent comprehensive hydrogen-isotope storage performances, including ultrafast uptake/release kinetics, high anti-disproportionation ability, and stable cycling, far superior to conventional smelting-ZrCo. Especially, a further incorporation of Ti into nano-ZrCo can almost suppress the disproportionation reaction. Moreover, a mathematical relationship between dehydrogenation temperature and ZrCo particle size is established. Additionally, a microwave method capable of nondestructively detecting the hydrogen storage state of ZrCo is developed. The proposed disproportionation mechanism and anti-disproportionation strategy will be instructive for other materials with similar problems.

Under the action of alternating load, the initial crack on the gear tooth surface would inevitably initiate and gradually evolve into spalling and other faults. It has a serious impact on the transmission system. More attention is paid to the research when there are apparent faults on the gear tooth surface, and it is difficult to monitor the early faults on the gear tooth surface in real time. Therefore, it is essential to make systematic research on the evolution mechanism of early fault on the gear tooth surface and identify the early fault characteristics of the gear tooth surface in time. According to the improved energy method, a time-varying meshing stiffness model of tooth surface crack initiation and degradation into spalling fault is constructed. Considering the transverse propagation path of the cracks and edge contact effect, the impact of the model on the time-varying meshing stiffness is studied. The results indicate that the impact of surface crack and spalling on the time-varying meshing stiffness is only in a specific area, and the impact of crack length would accelerate the decrease of the meshing stiffness. The spalling width has an impact on the time-varying meshing stiffness, and the spalling length has an impact on the beginning and end of the time-varying meshing stiffness reduction. The spalling edge meshing stiffness would suddenly increase due to the influence of the edge contact.

Abstract Esketamine provides an immediate and noticeable antidepressant effect, although the underlying molecular processes are yet unclear. Irisin induced by aerobic exercise has been implicated in the alleviation of depressive symptoms, whether irisin expression responds to the administration of esketamine remains unknown. In this study, we found that irisin was reduced in the hippocampus and peripheral blood of chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) mice, whereas the irisin level was rescued by esketamine treatment. The reduction of PGC-1α expression (transcriptional regulator of irisin gene expression) in the CUMS mice was rescued by esketamine treatment, PGC-1α knockdown significantly reduced the irisin level induced by esketamine. Additionally, FNDC5/irisin-knockout mice developed more severe depressant-like behaviors than wild-type mice under CUMS stimulation, with an attenuated the antidepressant effect of esketamine. Further research indicated that irisin-mediated modulation of esketamine on depressive-like behaviors in CUMS mice involved the ERK1/2 pathway. Overall, the PGC-1α/irisin/ERK1/2 signaling activation may be a new mechanism underlying the antidepressant activity of esketamine, denoting that irisin may be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of depression.

Thin cloud contamination adversely influences the interpretation of ground surface information in optical remote sensing images, especially for visible spectral bands with short wavelengths. To eliminate the thin cloud effect in visible remote sensing images, this study proposes a thin cloud correction method based on a spectral transformation scheme. Given the strong linear correlation among the three visible bands, a spectral transformation scheme is presented to derive intermediate images and further estimate spectrally varied transmission maps for the three visible bands. An improved strategy that locally estimates atmospheric light was also developed to produce spatially varied atmospheric light maps. Spectrally varied transmission maps and spatially varied atmospheric light maps contribute to the complete removal of thin clouds. Several remotely sensed images featuring various land covers were collected from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager, Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus, and GaoFen-2 to perform simulated and real tests and verify the effectiveness and universality of the presented approach. Four existing thin cloud correction algorithms were used as baseline for comprehensive evaluation, including three single-image-based approaches and a deep-learning-based approach. Results demonstrate that the proposed method outperformed the other four baseline methods, yielding more natural and clearer cloud-free images. The ground surface information in the cloud-contaminated images can be appropriately recovered by the proposed method, with high determination coefficients (>0.8906) and low root-mean-square errors (

Abstract. The glucose metabolism is crucial for sustained brain activity as it provides energy and is a carbon source for multiple biomacromolecules; glucose metabolism decreases dramatically in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and may be a fundamental cause for its development. Recent studies reveal that the alternative splicing events of certain genes effectively regulate several processes in glucose metabolism including insulin receptor, insulin-degrading enzyme, pyruvate kinase M, receptor for advanced glycation endproducts, and others, thereby, influencing glucose uptake, glycolysis, and advanced glycation end-products-mediated signaling pathways. Indeed, the discovery of aberrant alternative splicing that changes the proteomic diversity and protein activity in glucose metabolism has been pivotal in our understanding of AD development. In this review, we summarize the alternative splicing events of the glucose metabolism-related genes in AD pathology and highlight the crucial regulatory roles of splicing factors in the alternative splicing process. We also discuss the emerging therapeutic approaches for targeting splicing factors for AD treatment.

The heat of hydration, mechanical properties, pozzolanic activity, and microscopic characteristics of cement pastes incorporating co-combusted fly ash (CCFA) were investigated, and the disparities between the CCFA/cement system and the coal fly ash (CFA) binding system were also compared. The results indicate a decrease in the heat of hydration for both CFA and CCFA samples, with a more pronounced trend observed as the fly ash content increased from 10% to 30%. The distinction in the early hydration between CFA and CCFA samples primarily manifested in the rate of heat release, potentially correlated with variations in the active Al2O3 content in the fly ash. Neither CFA nor CCFA samples exhibited significant cementitious activity at 3 days, functioning solely as inert fillers in the cement paste. By 3 and 28 days, the mechanical properties of both CFA and CCFA samples were inferior to those of pure cement paste. However, by 180 days of hydration, the compressive strength of CCFA-blended mortar notably increased, with the highest strength observed in the 10% CCFA-blended sample. Both CFA and CCFA samples produced the secondary hydration product C-A-S-H and demonstrated comparable consumption of calcium hydroxide (CH). These findings underscore the potential of CCFA as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) and lay a foundation for its widespread adoption.

Sparse linear array is prone to element failure affected by environmental and other factors in practical application, resulting in the decline of degrees of freedom and the attenuation or even failure of direction of arrival (DOA) estimation performance. To address this problem, a ternary redundant sparse array composed of three uniform linear arrays with different spacings at specific distances is designed, and the analytical expression of its degrees of freedom is derived. The configuration rules of the array are concise, and the difference coarrays of the array are hole-free. Mathematically proves that all virtual array elements can be covered with a weight of not less than 3 except the 4 farthest. The array has lower sensors importance and less generalized k-fragility. The array design takes into account the maximum degrees of freedom, redundancy and sparsity. In case of sensors failure, compared with the other sparse linear arrays, the array has more stable difference coarrays and higher uniform degrees of freedom. Compared with multiple-fold redundancy arrays, the array has lower mutual coupling. Simulation results show that the ternary redundant array has superior robustness and higher DOA estimation accuracy under sensors failure.

The work gives a review on the distributed Nash equilibrium seeking of noncooperative games in multi-agent networks, which emerges as one of the frontier research topics in the area of systems and control community. Firstly, we give the basic formulation and analysis of noncooperative games with continuous action spaces, and provide the motivation and basic setting for distributed Nash equilibrium seeking. Then we introduce both the gradient-based algorithms and best-response based algorithms for various type of games, including zero-sum games, aggregative games, potential games, monotone games, and multi-cluster games. In addition, we provide some applications of noncooperative games.

Abstract Scarcity of drinking water is a global problem and especially serious in rural areas of developing countries. Passive permeate-side-heated interfacial-heating solar membrane distillation has been shown recently as a promising system for off-grid distributed water and wastewater treatment. In this study, single-stage tubular systems were developed by giving the poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane (pore size: 0.45 µm) a tubular structure with the outer surface (i.e., the permeate side) coated with carbon black NPs which absorbed solar thermal energy and evaporated the feedwater inside the membrane tube. Under natural sunlight, the vertical tubular system had a production rate of distilled water per footprint of 0.67‒2.06 kg m−2 day−1 throughout the year, 71% higher than the single-stage planar system on average. The three-stage planar systems were developed by overlapping three single-stage modules. Two adjacent modules shared a common copper sheet that serves as both the top of the condensation chamber of the preceding stage and the bottom of the feedwater chamber of the following stage. The copper sheet can partially transfer the condensation heat of the preceding stage to the feedwater of the following stage, thus enhancing the system energy efficiency (ƞ sys) in producing distilled water. The ƞ sys and distillate flux of the three-stage systems were 62% and 5.01 kg m−2 day−1, respectively, at the average daytime irradiance of 422 W m−2, 34% higher than the single-stage planar systems.

Summary: Autoimmunity-induced pancreatic beta cell failure is the main characteristic of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Here, we describe a protocol for genome-scale in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 screening for use in a mouse model of T1D. Using a non-obese-diabetic-derived mouse beta cell line, NIT-1, and a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout library (GeCKO-v2), we describe how to identify genes that confer resistance to autoimmune killing. This protocol can be applied in other mouse models of autoimmunity.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Cai et al. (2020).1 : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

The controllable transfer of droplets on the surface of objects has a wide application prospect in the fields of microfluidic devices, fog collection and so on. The Leidenfrost effect can be utilized to significantly reduce motion resistance. However, the use of 3D structures limits the widespread application of self-propulsion based on Leidenfrost droplets in microelectromechanical system. To manipulate Leidenfrost droplets, it is necessary to create 2D or quasi-2D geometries. In this study, femtosecond laser is applied to fabricate a surface with periodic hydrophobicity gradient (SPHG), enabling directional self-propulsion of Leidenfrost droplets. Flow field analysis within the Leidenfrost droplets reveals that the vapor layer between the droplets and the hot surface can be modulated by the SPHG, resulting in directional propulsion of the inner gas. The viscous force between the gas and liquid then drives the droplet to move.

In this paper, we propose a novel distributed algorithm based on model predictive control and alternating direction multiplier method (DMPC-ADMM) for cooperative trajectory planning of quadrotor swarms. First, a receding horizon trajectory planning optimization problem is constructed, in which the differential flatness property is used to deal with the nonlinear dynamics of quadrotors while we design a relaxed form of the discrete-time control barrier function (DCBF) constraint to balance feasibility and safety. Then, we decompose the original trajectory planning problem by ADMM and solve it in a fully distributed manner with peer-to-peer communication, which induces the quadrotors within the communication range to reach a consensus on their future trajectories to enhance safety. In addition, an event-triggered mechanism is designed to reduce the communication overhead. The simulation results verify that the trajectories generated by our method are real-time, safe, and smooth. A comprehensive comparison with the centralized strategy and several other distributed strategies in terms of real-time, safety, and feasibility verifies that our method is more suitable for the trajectory planning of large-scale quadrotor swarms.

Objective: Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome (WSS) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder caused by deleterious heterozygous variants of the KMT2A gene. This study aims to describe the phenotypic and genotypic features of Chinese WSS patients, and assess therapeutic effects of recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH).Methods: Eleven Chinese children with WSS were enrolled in our cohort. Their clinical, imaging, biochemical and molecular findings were analyzed retrospectively. Moreover, the phenotypic features of 41 previously reported Chinese WSS patients were reviewed and included in our analysis.Results: In our cohort, the 11 WSS patients presented with classic clinical manifestations, but with different frequencies. The most common clinical features were short stature (90.9%) and developmental delay (90.9%), followed by intellectual disability (72.7%). The most frequent imaging features were patent ductus arteriosus (57.1%) and patent foramen ovale (42.9%) in cardiovascular system, and abnormal corpus callosum (50.0%) in the brain. In the set comprising 52 Chinese WSS patients, the most common clinical and imaging manifestations were developmental delay (84.6%), intellectual disability (84.6%), short stature (80.8%) and delayed bone age (68.0%), respectively. Eleven different variants, including three known and eight novel variants, of the KMT2A gene were identified in our 11 WSS patients without a hotspot variant. Two patients were treated with rhGH and yielded satisfactory height gains, but one developed acceleration of bone age.Conclusion: Our study adds 11 new patients with WSS, reveals different clinical characteristics in Chinese WSS patients, and extends the mutational spectrum of the KMT2A gene. Our study also shares the therapeutic effects of rhGH in two WSS patients without GH deficiency.

Abstract Distributed Nash equilibrium seeking of aggregative games is investigated and a continuous-time algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is designed by virtue of projected gradient play dynamics and aggregation tracking dynamics, and is applicable to games with constrained strategy sets and weight-balanced communication graphs. The key feature of our method is that the proposed projected dynamics achieves exponential convergence, whereas such convergence results are only obtained for non-projected dynamics in existing works on distributed optimization and equilibrium seeking. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of our methods.

Abstract In this paper, we aim to develop distributed continuous-time algorithms over directed graphs to seek the Nash equilibrium in a noncooperative game. Motivated by the recent consensus-based designs, we present a distributed algorithm with a proportional gain for weight-balanced directed graphs. By further embedding a distributed estimator of the left eigenvector associated with zero eigenvalue of the graph Laplacian, we extend it to the case with arbitrary strongly connected directed graphs having possible unbalanced weights. In both cases, the Nash equilibrium is proven to be exactly reached with an exponential convergence rate. An example is given to illustrate the validity of the theoretical results.

To accurately obtain development dynamic data such as zonal pressure and fluid parameters of each oil layer in the late development stage of a high water-cut old oilfield, a modular zonal sampling and testing technology with the characteristics of modularization, full electronic control and rapidity was proposed and developed. Lab testing and on-site testing was carried out. The modular zonal sampling and testing system is composed of 10 functional modules, namely ground control system, downhole power supply module, drainage pump, electronically controlled anchor, electronically controlled packer, electronically controlled sampler, magnetic positioning sub, terminal sub, adapter cable, and quick connector. Indoor tests have confirmed that the performance parameters of each module meet the design requirements. The downhole function modules of the system can withstand pressures up to 35 MPa and temperatures up to 85 °C. The rubber cylinder of the electronically controlled packer can withstand a pressure difference of more than 10 MPa. The electronically controlled anchor has an anchoring force of greater than 6.9 t, and can be forcibly detached in the event of an accident. The discharge pump has a displacement of 0.8 m3/d and a head of 500 m. The electronically controlled sampler can meet the requirement of taking 500 mL of sample in each of the 3 chambers. Field tests in Jilin Oilfield show that the system can realize rapid isolation and self-check of isolation of a certain production interval downhole, as well as layer-by layer pressure build-up test. The drainage pump can be used to discharge the mixed liquid between the upper and lower packers and near the wellbore to obtain real fluid samples of the tested formation interval. The data obtained give us better understanding on the pay zones in old oilfields, and provide important basis for development plan adjustment, reservoir stimulation, and EOR measures.

Abstract Conductive hydrogels have potential applications in shielding electromagnetic (EM) radiation interference in deformable and wearable electronic devices, but usually suffer from poor environmental stability and stretching-induced shielding performance degradation. Although organohydrogels can improve the environmental stability of materials, their development is at the expense of reducing electrical conductivity and thus weakening EM interference shielding ability. Here, a MXene organohydrogel is prepared which is composed of MXene network for electron conduction, binary solvent channels for ion conduction, and abundant solvent-polymer-MXene interfaces for EM wave scattering. This organohydrogel possesses excellent anti-drying ability, low-temperature tolerance, stretchability, shape adaptability, adhesion and rapid self-healing ability. Two effective strategies have been proposed to solve the problems of current organohydrogel shielding materials. By reasonably controlling the MXene content and the glycerol-water ratio in the gel, MXene organohydrogel can exhibit exceptionally enhanced EM interference shielding performances compared to MXene hydrogel due to the increased physical cross-linking density of the gel. Moreover, MXene organohydrogel shows attractive stretching-enhanced interference effectiveness, caused by the connection and parallel arrangement of MXene nanosheets. This well-designed MXene organohydrogel has potential applications in shielding EM interference in deformable and wearable electronic devices.

This study explores the antifungal properties of Agaricus blazei Murrill, a valuable medicinal and edible fungus. Six compounds (1–6) were first isolated from A. blazei using various isolation techniques and identified using spectroscopic methods. These compounds include linoleic acid, 1,1′-oxybis(2,4-di-tert-butylbenzene), glycerol monolinoleate, volemolide (17R)-17-methylincisterol, (24s)-ergosta-7-en-3-ol, and dibutyl phthalate. This study also assesses the antifungal activities of these compounds against Trichophyton mentagrophology, Trichophyton rubrum, Candida albicans, and Cryptococcus neoformans. The results demonstrate varied sensitivities against these pathogenic fungi, with compound 2 showing significant inhibition against T. mentagrophology, compound 3 showing significant inhibition against T. rubrum, and compound 6 showing significant inhibition against C. albicans. This study underscores the medicinal potential of A. blazei as an antifungal agent and sheds light on its valuable research implications.

Renal anemia is one of the most common complications of chronic kidney disease and diabetic kidney disease. Despite the progress made in recent years, there is still an urgent unmet clinical need for renal anemia treatment. In this research, we investigated the efficacy and mechanism of action of the novel tetramethylpyrazine nitrone (TBN). Animal models of anemia including the streptozotocin (STZ)-induced spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and the cisplatin (CDDP)-induced C57BL/6J mice are established to study the TBN’s effects on expression of hypoxia-inducible factor and erythropoietin. To explore the mechanism of TBN’s therapeutic effect on renal anemia, cobalt chloride (CoCl2) is used in Hep3B/HepG2 cells to simulate a hypoxic environment. TBN is found to increase the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor HIF-1α and HIF-2α under hypoxic conditions and reverse the reduction of HIFs expression caused by saccharate ferric oxide (SFO). TBN also positively regulates the AMPK pathway. TBN stimulates nuclear transcription and translation of erythropoietin by enhancing the stability of HIF-1α expression. TBN has a significant regulatory effect on several major biomarkers of iron homeostasis, including ferritin, ferroportin (FPN), and divalent metal transporter-1 (DMT1). In conclusion, TBN regulates the AMPK/mTOR/4E-BP1/HIFs pathway, and activates the hypoxia-inducible factor and regulates iron homeostasis to improve renal anemia.

Summary: Prevention or amelioration of declining β cell mass is a potential strategy to cure diabetes. Here, we report the pathways utilized by β cells to robustly replicate in response to acute insulin resistance induced by S961, a pharmacological insulin receptor antagonist. Interestingly, pathways that include CENP-A and the transcription factor E2F1 that are independent of insulin signaling and its substrates appeared to mediate S961-induced β cell multiplication. Consistently, pharmacological inhibition of E2F1 blocks β-cell proliferation in S961-injected mice. Serum from S961-treated mice recapitulates replication of β cells in mouse and human islets in an E2F1-dependent manner. Co-culture of islets with adipocytes isolated from S961-treated mice enables β cells to duplicate, while E2F1 inhibition limits their growth even in the presence of adipocytes. These data suggest insulin resistance-induced proliferative signals from adipocytes activate E2F1, a potential therapeutic target, to promote β cell compensation.

Traditional PDF document detection technology usually builds a rule or feature library for specific vulnerabilities and therefore is only fit for single detection targets and lacks anti-detection ability. To address these shortcomings, we build a double-layer detection model for malicious PDF documents based on an entropy method with multiple features. First, we address the single detection target problem with the fusion of 222 multiple features, including 130 basic features (such as objects, structure, content stream, metadata, etc.) and 82 dangerous features (such as suspicious and encoding function, etc.), which can effectively resist obfuscation and encryption. Second, we generate the best set of features (a total of 153) by creatively applying an entropy method based on RReliefF and MIC (EMBORAM) to PDF samples with 37 typical document vulnerabilities, which can effectively resist anti-detection methods, such as filling data and imitation attacks. Finally, we build a double-layer processing framework to detect samples efficiently through the AdaBoost-optimized random forest algorithm and the robustness-optimized support vector machine algorithm. Compared to the traditional static detection method, this model performs better for various evaluation criteria. The average time of document detection is 1.3 ms, while the accuracy rate reaches 95.9%.

Four compounds (1, 5, 7, and 8) were first isolated from the genus Belamcanda Adans. nom. conserv., and six known compounds (2–4, 6, 9, and 10) were isolated from the rhizome of Belamcanda chinensis (L.) DC. Their structures were confirmed by spectroscopic data. Herein, compounds 1–10 were rhapontigenin, trans-resveratrol, 5,7,4′-trihydroxy-6,3′,5′-trimethoxy-isoflavone, irisflorentin, 6-hydroxybiochannin A, iridin S, pinoresinol, 31-norsysloartanol, isoiridogermanal, and iristectorene B, respectively. All compounds were evaluated for their antiproliferative effects against five tumor cell lines (BT549, 4T1, MCF7, MDA-MB-231, and MDA-MB-468). Among them, compound 9 (an iridal-type triterpenoid) showed the highest activity against 4T1 and MDA-MB-468 cells. Further studies displayed that compound 9 inhibited cell metastasis, induced cells cycle arrest in the G1 phase, exhibited significant mitochondrial damage in 4T1 and MDA-MB-468 cells including excess reactive oxygen species, decreased mitochondrial membrane potential, and induced 4T1 and MDA-MB-468 cell apoptosis for the first time. In summary, these findings demonstrate that compound 9 exerts promising potential for triple-negative breast cancer treatment and deserves further evaluation.

Intelligent manufacturing has become the trend of shipbuilding. Industrial Internet is one of the key technologies to realize intelligent manufacturing. As a new generation of mobile communication technology, 5G has the characteristics of wireless, high speed, large capacity，low delay and high reliability, which is highly consistent with the requirements of information transmission in industrial Internet. Domestic shipyards have made many explorations in the application of industrial Internet, but some problems have been exposed, such as high implementation cost, isolated data island, and difficult equipment access to network. The typical application scenarios of 5G in shipbuilding industrial Internet are proposed by combining with the characteristics of shipbuilding and 5G technology. Finally, proposals for application of 5G in shipbuilding industrial Internet is made.

ObjectiveTo investigate the application value of narrative medical model in communication with cancer patients with low education level.MethodsRetrospective analysis was performed on 80 cancer patients with low education level who were hospitalized in West China Hospital of Sichuan University from March 2019 to April 2020. They were randomly divided into control group （n=40） and observation group （n=40）. The control group received conventional nursing intervention， while the observation group received narrative medical nursing mode intervention. Both groups received intervention for 6 months. The Self-rating Anxiety Scale （SAS）， Self-rating Depression Scale （SDS）， Morisky Medication Adherence Scale （MMAS-8）， Social Support Rating Scale （SSRS） and self-designed knowledge of the disease and cognition questionnaire were used for evaluation before and after intervention.ResultsAfter intervention， the SAS and SDS scores of observation group were lower than those of control group （t=7.493， 8.314， P

Exploration of highly efficient and robust catalyst is pivotal for electrocatalytic degradation of dye wastewater, but it still is a challenge. Here, we develop a three-dimensional self-supported SnO2-Mn2O3 hybrid nanosheets grown on carbon cloth (noted by SnO2-Mn2O3@CC) electrode via a simple hydrothermal method and annealing treatment. Benefitting from the interlaced nanosheets architecture that enlarges the surface area and the synergetic component effect that accelerates the interfacial electronic transfer, SnO2-Mn2O3@CC electrode exhibits a superior electrocatalytic degradation efficiency for cationic blue X-GRRL dye in comparison with the single metal oxide electrode containing SnO2@CC and Mn2O3@CC. The degradation efficiency of cationic blue X-GRRL on SnO2-Mn2O3@CC electrode can reach up to 97.55% within 50 min. Furthermore, self-supported architecture of nanosheets on carbon cloth framework contributes to a robust stability compared with the traditional electrode via the multiple dip/brush coating accompanied by the thermal decomposition method. SnO2-Mn2O3@CC electrode exhibits excellent recyclability, which can still retain a degradation efficiency of 94.12% after six cycles. This work may provide a new pathway for the design and exploration of highly efficient and robust electrooxidation catalysts for dye degradation.

A multi-sensor medical-image fusion technique, which integrates useful information from different single-modal images of the same tissue and provides a fused image that is more comprehensive and objective than a single-source image, is becoming an increasingly important technique in clinical diagnosis and treatment planning. The salient information in medical images often visually describes the tissue. To effectively embed salient information in the fused image, a multi-sensor medical image fusion method is proposed based on an embedding bilateral filter in least squares and salient detection via a deformed smoothness constraint. First, source images are decomposed into base and detail layers using a bilateral filter in least squares. Then, the detail layers are treated as superpositions of salient regions and background information; a fusion rule for this layer based on the deformed smoothness constraint and guided filtering was designed to successfully conserve the salient structure and detail information of the source images. A base-layer fusion rule based on modified Laplace energy and local energy is proposed to preserve the energy information of these source images. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperformed nine state-of-the-art methods in both subjective and objective quality assessments on the Harvard Medical School dataset.

As the most common energy storage technology on the market, lithium-ion batteries are widely used in various industries and have a profound impact on our daily lives, with the characteristics of high voltage, high capacity, good safety performance, and long cycle life. Lithium metal was first used in the anode of lithium-ion batteries. However, the inherent growth of lithium dendrites and the instability of the SEI film limit the practical application of lithium metal materials. Despite this, lithium metal is still an ideal anode material to meet the growing demands for electronic equipment and electric vehicles due to its extremely high theoretical specific capacity, low density, and the lowest negative electrochemical potential. With the urgent need to develop new energy storage technologies, the research on lithium metal anodes has once again received extensive attention. In this review, the research progress in the modification of composite lithium metal electrode materials is summarized, including lithium/alloy composite electrode, lithium/carbon-based materials composite electrode and artificial SEI film. The possible directions for future development of lithium metal electrode are also prospected.