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Abstract Background With orthopedic surgery increasing year on year, the main challenges in bone drilling are thermal damage, mechanical damage, and drill skid. The need for new orthopedic drills that improve the quality of surgery is becoming more and more urgent. Methods Here, we report the skidding mechanism of drills at a wide range of inclination angle and propose two crescent drills (CDTI and CDTII). The anti-skid performance and drilling damage of the crescent drills were analyzed for the first time. Inclined bone drilling experiments were carried out with crescent drills and twist drills and real-time drilling forces and temperatures were collected. Results The crescent drills are significantly better than the twist drill in terms of anti-skid, reducing skidding forces, thrust forces and temperature. The highest temperature is generated close to the upper surface of the workpiece rather than at the hole exit. Finally, the longer crescent edge with a small and negative polar angle increases the rake angle of the cutting edge and reduces thrust forces but increases skidding force and temperature. This study can promote the development of high-quality orthopedic surgery and the development of new bone drilling tools. Conclusion The crescent drills did not skid and caused little drilling damage. In comparison, the CDTI performs better in reducing the skidding force, while the CDTII performs better in reducing the thrust force.

Abstract Aim To evaluate the objective visual outcomes following implantation of extended depth of focus intraocular lens (EDOF IOL) in individuals with varying axial lengths (AL) and targeted refraction. Methods This retrospective study comprised age-matched eyes that underwent implantation of the EDOF IOL. Eyes were categorized based on AL into groups: control group with AL 0.05). Additionally, in the high myopia group, the CS of the − 2.25 to -1.50 group was lower compared to that of the − 0.75 to 0.00 group (P = 0.017). Among high myopia patients, 90.00% with refraction ranging from − 1.50 to -0.75 reported achieving overall spectacle independence. Conclusions Implantation of extended depth of focus intraocular lenses (IOLs) yields satisfactory visual and refractive outcomes in eyes with axial myopia. Among high myopia patients, a refraction ranging from − 1.50 to -0.75 diopters achieves superior visual quality compared to other postoperative myopic diopters.

This paper proposes a comprehensive review of orthodontic archwire bending robots for fixed appliances, focusing on their key technologies. Orthodontic archwire bending robots can significantly reduce the workload of orthodontists and enhance the efficiency of orthodontic treatment with compared with the orthodontist’s manual bending of orthodontic archwires. Due to the high degree of customization required for orthodontic archwires and the challenge of springback during bending, research on robotic archwire bending has concentrated on developing advanced robotic systems, optimizing archwire bending plans, and implementing springback compensation methods. This paper comprehensively reviews the advancements in design and control of orthodontic archwire bending robots for fixed appliances. It delves into orthodontic archwire bending planning and springback compensation methods, providing a categorized introduction and detailed summaries. Finally, it evaluates and discusses the challenges and future directions of orthodontic archwire bending robots and their core technologies.

A smart and environmentally friendly pesticide system was developed that could respond to environmental stimuli while mitigating environmental risks. In this study, thiabendazole (Thi), an effective fungicide, was loaded onto zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) using the impregnation method to fabricate a pH-responsive nano hybrid delivery system (Thi@ZIF-8). The results demonstrated that Thi@ZIF-8 had a rhombic dodecahedral morphology and a loading capacity of approximately 25%. Notably, the amount of Thi released from Thi@ZIF-8 at a pH of 5.0 reached 79.54%, which was higher than that at pH 7.0 and 9.0, for 251 h. Such pH-responsive release characteristics of Thi@ZIF-8 were probably related to the pH-dependent structure stability of ZIF-8. The release mechanism of Thi@ZIF-8 conformed to non-Fickian diffusion. Additionally, Thi@ZIF-8 showed a higher control efficacy against B. cinerea compared with Thi alone. Importantly, the ZIF-8 carrier could effectively reduce the leaching loss of Thi in soil and showed no negative effects on the three varieties of tomato seedlings, implying good biocompatibility. This work provides a novel and eco-friendly approach to control B. cinerea effectively that has great potential in modern sustainable agriculture.

Background: TNFRSF4 plays a significant role in cancer progression, especially in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aims to investigate the prognostic value of TNFRSF4 expression in patients with HCC and to develop a predictive pathomics model for its expression. Methods: A cohort of patients with HCC retrieved from the TCGA database was analyzed using RNA-seq analysis to determine TNFRSF4 expression and its impact on overall survival (OS). Additionally, hematoxylin-eosin staining analysis was performed to construct a pathomics model for predicting TNFRSF4 expression. Then, pathway enrichment analysis was conducted, immune checkpoint markers were investigated, and immune cell infiltration was examined to explore the underlying biological mechanism of the pathomics score. Results: TNFRSF4 expression was significantly higher in tumor tissues than in normal tissues. TNFRSF4 expression also exhibited significant correlations with various clinical variables, including pathologic stage III/IV and R1/R2/RX residual tumor. Furthermore, elevated TNFRSF4 expression was associated with unfavorable OS. Interestingly, in the subgroup analysis, elevated TNFRSF4 expression was identified as a significant risk factor for OS in male patients. The newly developed pathomics model successfully predicted TNFRSF4 expression with good performance and revealed a significant association between high pathomics scores and worse OS. In male patients, high pathomics scores were also associated with a higher risk of mortality. Moreover, pathomics scores were also involved in specific hallmarks, immune-related characteristics, and apoptosis-related genes in HCC, such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Tregs, and BAX expression. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that TNFRSF4 expression and the newly devised pathomics scores hold potential as prognostic markers for OS in patients with HCC. Additionally, gender influenced the association between these markers and patient outcomes.

Studying the flow behavior is critical to understand the deformation mechanism of amorphous solids. However, detecting the basic flow events in amorphous solids is challenging. Here, by simultaneous SAXS/WAXS, elementary flow carriers in wound metallic glasses are identified from flow-induced structural heterogeneities with a radius of gyration of 2.5∼3.5 nm. Their size increases and morphology changes from sphere-like to rod-like under flow. Moreover, the atomic structure exhibits an unusual change to a more disordered state during winding/annealing at the temperature of ∼0.8 Tg. This work provides an atomic-to-nanoscale description of the flow carriers of amorphous solids during deformation.Impact StatementThe elementary flow carriers in metallic glasses have a radius of gyration of 2.5∼3.5 nm. During flow, their size increases and morphology changes from sphere-like to rod-like.

CO2 geological utilization and storage (CGUS) is an important technology to achieve a deep cut of global CO2 emissions. CO2 leakage from the subsurface may impair the performance of CGUS projects, and the CO2 leakage through wellbores is the most common leakage pathway. This paper proposes a workflow for wellbore CO2 leakage risk management, and the workflow consists of the following steps: i) leakage risk identification; ii) leakage risk evaluation; iii) leakage risk monitoring; iv) leakage handling. Representative approaches in each step of the workflow are systematically reviewed. Key challenges of wellbore CO2 leakage risk management include: lack of effective detection and evaluation approaches to tackle the CO2 leakage risk induced by cement failure; lack of low-cost acid resistance alloys and CO2-resistant cement; lack of automated monitoring systems that could enable automated shutdowns of the wellbore whenever certain warning criteria are met.

Background Frontal lobe injury (FLI) is related to cognitive control impairments, but the influences of FLI on the internal subprocesses of cognitive control remain unclear.Aims We sought to identify specific biomarkers for long-term dysfunction or compensatory modulation in different cognitive control subprocesses.Methods A retrospective case-control study was conducted. Event-related potentials (ERP), oscillations and functional connectivity were used to analyse electroencephalography (EEG) data from 12 patients with unilateral frontal lobe injury (UFLI), 12 patients with bilateral frontal lobe injury (BFLI) and 26 healthy controls (HCs) during a Go/NoGo task, which included several subprocesses: perceptual processing, anticipatory preparation, conflict monitoring and response decision.Results Compared with the HC group, N2 (the second negative peak in the averaged ERP waveform) latency, and frontal and parietal oscillations were decreased only in the BFLI group, whereas P3 (the third positive peak in the averaged ERP waveform) amplitudes and sensorimotor oscillations were decreased in both patient groups. The functional connectivity of the four subprocesses was as follows: alpha connections of posterior networks in the BFLI group were lower than in the HC and UFLI groups, and these alpha connections were negatively correlated with neuropsychological tests. Theta connections of the dorsal frontoparietal network in the bilateral hemispheres of the BFLI group were lower than in the HC and UFLI groups, and these connections in the uninjured hemisphere of the UFLI group were higher than in the HC group, which were negatively correlated with behavioural performances. Delta and theta connections of the midfrontal-related networks in the BFLI group were lower than in the HC group. Theta across-network connections in the HC group were higher than in the BFLI group but lower than in the UFLI group.Conclusions The enhancement of low-frequency connections reflects compensatory mechanisms. In contrast, alpha connections are the opposite, therefore revealing more abnormal neural activity and less compensatory connectivity as the severity of injury increases. The nodes of the above networks may serve as stimulating targets for early treatment to restore corresponding functions. EEG biomarkers can measure neuromodulation effects in heterogeneous patients.

Thermoplastic carbon fibre reinforced polyetheretherketone (CF/PEEK) and thermoset CF/epoxy composites have been widely applied in various industries. However, there is still a lack of knowledge concerning the milling performance and residual mechanical behavior of these two types of composites. To address this issue, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of the machinability during milling of both composites, with a focus on cutting force, machining temperature, chip characteristics, and milling-induced damages. To our knowledge, this is the first report documenting the correlation between surface integrity under different cutting conditions and residual tensile behaviour in both composites. The results demonstrate that CF/PEEK exhibits better machining quality than CF/epoxy due to its ductile matrix and strong interface bonding with fibres. Furthermore, down-milling was found to be preferable to up-milling for minimizing top layer surface damage, while petal-shaped chips with good integrity were found to be generated by CF/PEEK during milling. Moreover, CF/PEEK exhibited a significantly higher residual tensile strength (12.05%–63.22%) compared to CF/epoxy.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is an important forage crop worldwide, but molecular genetics and breeding research in this species are hindered by its self-incompatibility (SI). Although the mechanisms underlying SI have been extensively studied in other plant families, SI in legumes, including alfalfa, remains poorly understood. Here, we determined that self-pollinated pollen tubes could germinate on the stigma of alfalfa, grow through the style, and reach the ovarian cavity, but the ovules collapsed ~48 h after self-pollination. A transcriptomic analysis of dissected pistils 24 h after self-pollination identified 941 differently expressed genes (DEGs), including 784 upregulated and 157 downregulated genes. A gene ontology (GO) analysis showed that the DEGs were highly enriched in functions associated with the regulation of pollen tube growth and pollen germination. A Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that pentose and glucuronate interconversion, plant hormone signal transduction, the spliceosome, and ribosomes might play important roles in SI. Our co-expression analysis showed that F-box proteins, serine/threonine protein kinases, calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), bHLHs, bZIPs, and MYB-related family proteins were likely involved in the SI response. Our study provides a catalog of candidate genes for further study to understand SI in alfalfa and related legumes.

Due to the excellent properties of PEEK and their widely applications in medical industry, it is necessary to conduct a comparative study into the drilling performance and residual tensile behavior of PEEK plates under varying cutting conditions. In this study, the effects of tool geometry, drilling parameters, and slope angles on the thrust force, tool temperature, hole quality are discussed. The residual tensile behavior of the drilled PEEK plates is elucidated in terms of the full-field strain evolution during tensile testing by the Digital Image Correction system. The results showed that drilling parameter and tool geometry affect significantly cutting forces, tool temperature, and resulting hole quality. The relationship between the machinability and the residual tensile property of PEEK is reported for the first time. Full-field strains during tensile testing are sensitive to the level of drilling-induced damages, which have an impact on the residual tensile property of PEEK components.

The coupled vibration in the turbine disk-blade system (TDS) is one of the main bottlenecks that hinder the further development of high-performance engines. To analyze the vibration of the TDS, three types of contact conditions, involving bonded, frictionless, or frictional were used to simulate the contact between the turbine disk and the blades. Three finite element analysis (FEA) models of a typical TDS based on the tenon structure were developed. The experimental system was developed and experimental modal analysis (EMA) was performed. According to the comparison between FEA and EMA results, the most accurate model is the frictional contact FEA model. The average error of the frictional contact FEA model is 1.42%, and the root mean square error is 0.75%. The working modes of the TDS at different speeds were calculated using the frictional contact FEA model. Meanwhile, based on the newly developed FEA model, it is found that the weak links in the TDS are the blades. This work can provide a theoretical basis for the TDS structure optimization and promote the development of high-quality aero-engines.

Foliage-spraying selenite solution is an effective measure to enhance selenium (Se) concentration in wheat grains. However, how pH, temperature, light intensity, and leaf position affects selenite absorption in wheat leaf blades is not fully understood. In this study, the effects of pH, temperature, light intensity, and leaf position on selenite absorption in wheat leaf blades were investigated. The results indicated that the selenite absorption rate dramatically decreased with increasing pH. Further study revealed that aquaporin inhibitors such as HgCl2 and AgNO3 strongly inhibited selenite absorption at pH 3.0. Light and higher temperatures significantly promoted selenite absorption. Newly expanded leaf blades had higher rates of selenite absorption than younger and older leaf blades. Thus, higher rates of selenite absorption in leaf blades should attribute to the entrance of selenite into mesophyll cells via aquaporins in the form of H2SeO3 at low pH values. Foliage-spraying selenite solution on upper leaf blades at lower pH values benefited to increase the selenite absorption rate in wheat leaf blades.

Carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) has emerged as a sustainable alternative to carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) due to its improved reparability and recyclability. CFRTP, particularly carbon fibre reinforced polyetheretherketone (CF/PEEK), is a high-performance material known for its excellent mechanical, thermal, and corrosion resistance properties, making it well-suited for extreme environments in civil aviation equipment. However, machining processes such as milling often result in defects due to the material’s high toughness and anisotropic nature. This study aims to investigate the material removal mechanism in ultrasonic-assisted milling (UAM) of CF/PEEK and compare the effects of fibre cutting angle ( θ ) and milling processes on milling performance. To simulate the fibre fracture mechanisms under different θ , finite element analysis (FEA) is employed. The results reveal different fracture modes, including bending, bending-shear, compression, and compression-shear, at various θ . Additionally, UAM demonstrates lower cutting forces and temperatures compared to conventional milling (CM). Notably, UAM greatly improves surface quality by reducing burr height and facilitating chip evacuation, while also enhancing surface integrity by minimizing cavity defects and fibre pull-out phenomena. These findings contribute to the development of low-damage machining methods that aim to achieve higher accuracy in CFRTP.

Tooth enamel machining is a common procedure in dental surgery, yet the cutting mechanisms and performance of different dental burs remain unclear. In the dental field, this poses challenges for dentists in selecting appropriate dental burs for specific operations. In the engineering field, this creates difficulties in understanding the cutting mechanisms of tooth enamel and designing new high-performance dental burs. Therefore, the objective of this study is to bridge the gap between medicine and engineering by comprehending the cutting mechanisms and performance of different dental burs for tooth enamel machining. This study established an enamel machining experimental system and utilized the fissure bur, diamond bur, and round bur to conduct enamel drilling and milling experiments on the occlusal, buccal/lingual, and mesial/distal surfaces of the tooth. The results indicate that, compared to the buccal/lingual and mesial/distal surfaces, the milling force is lower ( p < 0.05) but the milling temperature is higher ( p < 0.05) on the occlusal surface. Furthermore, the fissure bur generated the lowest drilling and milling temperatures ( p < 0.05) and the best milling quality. The diamond bur generated the best drilling quality but lacked drilling precision ( p < 0.05). The round bur generated the smallest drilling force ( p < 0.05) but the largest milling force ( p < 0.05). The analysis of the structure and cutting mechanisms of different dental burs on various tooth surfaces explains the aforementioned phenomena. Different dental burs have distinct advantages based on their structures. This study enhances the understanding of tooth enamel cutting mechanisms and dental bur machining performance in the field of medicine and engineering, which can improve the quality of dental surgery and facilitate the development of high-performance dental burs.

Sepsis-associated coagulation dysfunction greatly increases the mortality of sepsis. Irregular clinical time-series data remains a major challenge for AI medical applications. To early detect and manage sepsis-induced coagulopathy (SIC) and sepsis-associated disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), we developed an interpretable real-time sequential warning model toward real-world irregular data. Eight machine learning models including novel algorithms were devised to detect SIC and sepsis-associated DIC 8n (1 ≤ n ≤ 6) hours prior to its onset. Models were developed on Xi'an Jiaotong University Medical College (XJTUMC) and verified on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). A total of 12,154 SIC and 7,878 International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) overt-DIC labels were annotated according to the SIC and ISTH overt-DIC scoring systems in train set. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) were used as model evaluation metrics. The eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model can predict SIC and sepsis-associated DIC events up to 48 h earlier with an AUROC of 0.929 and 0.910, respectively, and even reached 0.973 and 0.955 at 8 h earlier, achieving the highest performance to date. The novel ODE-RNN model achieved continuous prediction at arbitrary time points, and with an AUROC of 0.962 and 0.936 for SIC and DIC predicted 8 h earlier, respectively. In conclusion, our model can predict the sepsis-associated SIC and DIC onset up to 48 h in advance, which helps maximize the time window for early management by physicians.

Magnesium-based amorphous alloys have aroused broad interest in being applied in marine use due to their merits of lightweight and high strength. Yet, the poor corrosion resistance to chloride-containing seawater has hindered their practical applications. Herein, we propose a new strategy to improve the chloride corrosion resistance of amorphous Mg65Cu15Ag10Gd10 alloys by engineering atomic-to-nano scale structural homogeneity, which is implemented by heating the material to the critical temperature of the liquid–liquid transition. By using various electrochemical, microscopic, and spectroscopic characterization methods, we reveal that the liquid–liquid transition can rearrange the local structural units in the amorphous structure, slightly decreasing the alloy structure’s homogeneity, accelerate the formation of protective passivation film, and, therefore, increase the corrosion resistance. Our study has demonstrated the strong coupling between an amorphous structure and corrosion behavior, which is available for optimizing corrosion-resistant alloys.

Objectives This study aimed to determine the relationship between the body mass index (BMI) and short-term mortality of patients with intra-abdominal infection (IAI) using the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-III) database.Design Retrospective cohort study.Setting Adult intensive care units (ICUs) at a tertiary hospital in the USA .Participants Adult IAI ICU patients from 2001 to 2012 in the MIMIC-III database.Interventions In univariate analysis, we compared the differences in the characteristics of patients in each BMI group. Cox regression models were used to evaluate the relationships between BMI and short-term prognosis.Primary and secondary outcome measures 90-day survival.Results In total, 1161 patients with IAI were included. There were 399 (34.4%) patients with a normal BMI (30 kg/m2) who tended to be younger (p

Selenium (Se) deficiency in the human diet is a widespread problem. Se biofortification of wheat crop by spraying foliage with selenite could effectively increase Se intake by enhancing the Se concentration in wheat grains. However, pathway and driving forces of selenite absorption in wheat leaf blades are not fully understood. In this study, the effects of selenite-applied concentration, selenite-exposed duration, stomatal inhibitors, respiratory inhibitors, and competitive anions on selenite absorption in wheat leaf blades were investigated. The results indicated that the selenite absorption rate increased linearly with increasing selenite concentrations, but it decreased greatly and reached a low level with treatment times of 4 h and longer. Stomatal inhibitors significantly inhibited selenite absorption. Respiratory inhibitors and inorganic phosphate (Pi) strongly inhibited selenite absorption. Therefore, selenite passively enters wheat leaf blades via cuticle and stomata, and then enters mesophyll cells via Pi transporters. Concentration gradients and selenite uptake by mesophyll cells provide continual driving forces for selenite absorption in leaf blades.

Background Frontal lobe injury (FLI) is related to cognitive control impairments, but the influences of FLI on the internal subprocesses of cognitive control remain unclear. Aims We sought to identify specific biomarkers for long-term dysfunction or compensatory modulation in different cognitive control subprocesses. Methods A retrospective case-control study was conducted. Event-related potentials (ERP), oscillations and functional connectivity were used to analyse electroencephalography (EEG) data from 12 patients with unilateral frontal lobe injury (UFLI), 12 patients with bilateral frontal lobe injury (BFLI) and 26 healthy controls (HCs) during a Go/NoGo task, which included several subprocesses: perceptual processing, anticipatory preparation, conflict monitoring and response decision. Results Compared with the HC group, N2 (the second negative peak in the averaged ERP waveform) latency, and frontal and parietal oscillations were decreased only in the BFLI group, whereas P3 (the third positive peak in the averaged ERP waveform) amplitudes and sensorimotor oscillations were decreased in both patient groups. The functional connectivity of the four subprocesses was as follows: alpha connections of posterior networks in the BFLI group were lower than in the HC and UFLI groups, and these alpha connections were negatively correlated with neuropsychological tests. Theta connections of the dorsal frontoparietal network in the bilateral hemispheres of the BFLI group were lower than in the HC and UFLI groups, and these connections in the uninjured hemisphere of the UFLI group were higher than in the HC group, which were negatively correlated with behavioural performances. Delta and theta connections of the midfrontal-related networks in the BFLI group were lower than in the HC group. Theta across-network connections in the HC group were higher than in the BFLI group but lower than in the UFLI group. Conclusions The enhancement of low-frequency connections reflects compensatory mechanisms. In contrast, alpha connections are the opposite, therefore revealing more abnormal neural activity and less compensatory connectivity as the severity of injury increases. The nodes of the above networks may serve as stimulating targets for early treatment to restore corresponding functions. EEG biomarkers can measure neuromodulation effects in heterogeneous patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]