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Aims: To examine the association between body fat and muscle parameters and FLD in individuals of Chinese descent. Methods: A total of 515 participants who underwent routine check-ups between November 2019 and August 2021 were reviewed. Based on ultrasound performance, the subjects were categorized into the non-FLD group and the FLD group. The prevalence of FLD in sex subgroups was analyzed using logistic regression to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) of body composition parameters with adjustment for confounders. Results: A total of 262 males and 253 females aged 20–84 years were reviewed. In both males and females, higher fat mass index (FMI) (OR: 1.989 for males vs. 1.389 for females), fat mass percent (FM%) (OR: 1.253 for males vs. 1.149 for females), visceral adipose tissue (VAT) (OR: 1.002 for males vs. 1.002 for females), and body mass index (BMI) (OR: 1.530 for males vs. 1.247 for females)were associated with increased ORs of FLD while higher lean mass percent (LM%) (OR: 0.839 for males vs. 0.856 for females)was associated with decreased ORs of FLD. Despite accounting for confounding factors, the associations remained present. Logistic regression of the quartiles of the indices showed associations with the prevalence of FLD. The trends still existed even after adjusting for confounders. Conclusion: Independently of age, lipid profiles and other confounders, lower VAT, FM, FMI, FM% and BMI tended to be associated with a lower prevalence of FLD, while lower LM% trended to be associated with a higher prevalence of FLD in both sexes of the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A novel lithium salt lithium bis(4-styrene) sulfonyl imine (LiBSSI) is synthesized. • Li+ deposition in cells with P(PETMP-LiBSSI)/PVDF-HFP SICPEs is regulated uniformly to avoid lithium dendrite growth. • P(PETMP-LiBSSI)/PVDF-HFP SICPEs show high t Li+ (0.95) and a wide electrochemical stability window (5.85 V vs. Li/Li+). • Li|P(PETMP-LiBSSI)/PVDF-HFP|Li battery exhibits superior cycle stability at ambient temperature. In spite of the fact that lithium metal batteries (LMBs) facilitate the diversification of energy storage technologies, their electrochemical reversibility and stability have long been constrained by side reactions and lithium dendrite problems. While single-ion conducting polymer electrolytes (SICPEs) possess unique advantages of suppressing Li dendrite growth, they deal with difficulties in practical applications due to their slow ion transport in general application scenarios at ∼25 °C. In this study, we develop novel bifunctional lithium salts with negative sulfonylimide (-SO 2 N(-)SO 2 -) anions mounted between two styrene reactive groups, which is capable of constructing 3D cross-linked networks with multiscale reticulated ion nanochannels, resulting in the uniform and rapid distribution of Li+ ions in the crosslinked electrolyte. To verify the feasibility of our strategy, we designed PVDF-HFP-based SICPEs and the obtained electrolyte exhibits high thermal stability, outstanding Li+ transference number (0.95), pleasing ionic conductivity (0.722 mS cm−1), and broad chemical window (greater than5.85 V) at ambient temperature. As a result of the electrolyte structural merits, the Li||LFP cells displayed excellent cycling stability (96.4% reversible capacities after 300 cycles at 0.2C) without additional auxiliary heating. This ingenious strategy is expected to providing a new perspective for advanced performance and high safety LMBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farnesyl/geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthases (FPPS/GGPPS) as the short‐chain prenyltransferases catalyse the formation of the acyclic precursors (E)‐FPP and (E)‐GGPP for isoprenoid biosynthesis. Here, we first cloned the cDNAs encoding FPPS and GGPPS in the vetch aphid Megoura viciae (designated as MvFPPS and MvGGPPS). They had an open reading frame of 1185 and 930 bp in length, encoding 395 and 309 amino acids, with a theoretical isoelectric point of 6.52 and 6.21, respectively. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis showed that MvFPPS and MvGGPPS shared the conserved aspartate‐rich motifs characterized by all prenyltransferases identified to date and were clustered with their homologues in two large clades. RNA interference (RNAi) combined with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis showed that both MvFPPS and MvGGPPS were involved in the biosynthesis of alarm pheromone. Spatiotemporal expression profiling showed that the expression of MvFPPS and MvGGPPS was significantly higher in embryos than in other tissues. RNAi and GC–MS performed specifically in embryos corroborated the function of MvFPPS and MvGGPPS. In vitro, enzymatic activity assay and product analysis demonstrated that MvFPPS could catalysed the formation of (E)‐FPP using DMAPP or (E)‐GPP as the allylic cosubstrates in the presence of IPP, while MvGGPPS could only use (E)‐GPP or (E)‐FPP as cosubstrates. Functional interaction analysis using RNAi revealed that MvGGPPS exerts unidirectional functional compensation for MvFPPS. Moreover, it can regulate the biosynthesis of alarm pheromone by imposing a negative feedback regulation on MvFPPS. Our study helps to understand the molecular regulatory mechanism of terpenoid biosynthesis in the aphid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the use of telemedicine had been expanding before the initial outbreak of COVID-19, the pandemic has dramatically accelerated its implementation and expanded its usage in many hospitals. Tele-intensive care unit (ICU) is a specialized type of telemedicine that adapts available technologies to the unique needs of critically ill patients. We published an editorial in 2020 describing our initial experiences of Tele-ICU application in Shandong Province. Here, we update our insights gained over the past 2 years, and we provide a systematic review of the literature to compare our perspectives with those from other institutions. Methods: We performed a systematic literature review of publications describing the use of telemedicine in an ICU setting during COVID-19. The PubMed database was searched for studies published after January 1, 2020, which offered detailed descriptions of tele-ICU usage. Extracted data included details regarding tele-ICU technologies, descriptions of the institution, usage cases, assessments of tele-ICU effectiveness, and site-reported opinions (e.g., advantages, disadvantages). Results: We screened 162 studies resulting from the PubMed literature search, along with one expert recommendation. Of the 112 full-text articles retrieved, 11 were selected for inclusion in this qualitative summary. All were retrospective descriptions of tele-ICU experiences at a single site. Some pairs of included articles reported results from the same institution, with seven unique sites being described. Three sites employed centralized models of tele-ICU, while four allowed staff to participate from distant locations. Five sites collected user-reported feedback regarding tele-ICU. While the advantages and disadvantages described rarely overlapped directly between sites, many reported positive opinions of tele-ICU use overall. Conclusions: The potential applications of tele-ICU technologies vary widely, making them highly adaptable to the needs of individual institutions. Tele-ICU has proven invaluable to some hospitals during COVID-19 due to its effectiveness at aiding patient care while mitigating risk to health care workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuation of human civilization has always been accompanied by symbiosis and confrontation with fire. Particularly, humans can comprehensively recognize fire situations based on various sensory receptors in organs (eyes, skin, nose, etc.), further forming a sound fire perception system by in‐the‐brain recording, modeling, and understanding fire behaviors, leading to the most accurate fire treatments. If a sensing perception system can mimic human perceptual behavior and carry out real‐time fire recognition, such an active defense system can achieve real fire safety. Here, inspired by the brain‐centered perception system, an early‐fire perception system enabled by a VO2‐based temperature‐flame‐modulated optical switch, and a machine‐learning‐assistant demodulation algorithm is reported. This approach creates real‐time monitoring composed of early fire warning (1 s for candle flame and 4 s for 130 °C heat flow), fire cause recognition (95.7% accuracy in identification), and evacuation advice provision, advancing the technologies in the perception system that enable future sensors the comprehensive perception capability for fire state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Female parasitoid wasps (Microplitis mediator) are attracted by the sex pheromone of the turnip moth (Agrotis segetum). • The female-biased odorant receptor MmedOR49 tuned to the Z 5-10:Ac (the main sex pheromone component of the turnip moth) in vitro. • Z 5-10: Ac strongly binds to MmedOR49 by the formation of hydrogen bonds with the key residues (His 80, Ile 81, and Arg 84). • The behavioral response of female M. mediator to Z 5-10:Ac was strongly diminished when MmedOR49 was downregulated by RNAi. • MmedOR49 is involved in the locating of parasitic wasp host habitats using the perception of host sex pheromone. The parasitoid wasp Microplitis mediator is an important natural enemy of the turnip moth Agrotis segetum and other Noctuidae pests. In our field observation, it was fortuitously discovered that sex pheromone traps used for A. segetum also attract female wasps, verified by a simulated field condition dual-choice laboratory assay. Therefore, it was hypothesized that olfactory recognition could be crucial in this process. In this regard, a female-biased odorant receptor of the wasp, MmedOR49, attracted our attention. To unravel the significance of the female-biased MmedOR49 regulating host pheromone recognition. Expression analysis (fluorescence in situ hybridization; quantitative realtime PCR), in vitro (two-electrode voltage-clamp recordings) and in vivo (RNAi combined with behavioral assessments) functional studies, and bioinformatics (structural modeling and molecular docking) were carried out to investigate the characteristics of MmedOR49. MmedOR49 expression was detected in the antennae of females by FISH. Quantification indicated that the expression level of MmedOR49 increased significantly after adult emergence. In vitro functional study revealed that MmedOR49 was specifically tuned to cis -5-decenyl acetate (Z5-10:Ac), the major sex pheromone component of A. segetum. Molecular docking showed that Z5-10:Ac strongly bound to the key amino acid residues His 80, Ile 81, and Arg 84 of MmedOR49 through hydrogen bonding. Behavioral assays indicated that female wasps were significantly attracted by Z5-10:Ac in a three-cage olfactometer. RNAi targeting further confirmed that MmedOR49 was necessary to recognize Z5-10:Ac, as female wasps lost their original behavioral responses to Z5-10:Ac after down-regulation of the MmedOR49 transcript. Although M. mediator is a larval endoparasitoid, female wasps have a behavioral preference for a sex pheromone component of lepidopteran hosts. In this behavior, for female M. mediator , MmedOR49 plays an important role in guiding the habitat of host insects. These data provide a potential target for enhancing natural enemy utilization and pest control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatitis-panniculitis-polyarthritis (PPP) syndrome is an uncommon complication of pancreatic disorders, with fewer than 70 reported cases in English literature.[[1]] It frequently affects middle-aged males with pancreatitis or pancreatic carcinoma, and lacks gastrointestinal symptoms in nearly half of cases.[1] However, it is extraordinarily associated with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (PanNET), with only three of 59 PPP syndrome cases and 14 pancreatic panniculitis (PP) cases caused by PanNET.[[1], [3]] We report a middle-aged woman with PanNET-induced PPP syndrome. Pathology of the pancreatic tail neoplasm revealed uniform tumor cells with organoid growth, intravascular invasion, and scattered intratumoral necrosis (Figure 1e). (e) Pancreatic tail neoplasm displaying relatively uniform tumor cells with organoid growth, granular nuclei, and intravascular extension (Hematoxylin and eosin, × 200). [Extracted from the article]

The reaction of non‐fluorinated silyl enol ether with alkyne is useful for the synthesis of β,γ‐unsaturated carbonyl compounds. However, most of the existing methods for realizing such organic transformation usually employ stoichiometric amounts of relatively expensive Lewis acids/metallic salts. Herein, an iron(III)‐catalyzed difluoroalkylation of aryl alkynes with difluoroenol silyl ether was developed. The reactions proceeded smoothly in the presence of a catalytic amount of iron(III) chloride, stoichiometric amounts of trimethylsilyl chloride, and 4 Å molecular sieves in dichloroethane (DCE) to afford the corresponding α‐alkenyl‐α,α‐difluoroketones in modest to good yields. Remarkably, among the various metallic salts screened, cheap and less‐toxic iron(III) salt was found to be the most efficient Lewis acid catalyst for the present reaction. In addition, in the absence of iron(III) chloride or trimethylsilyl chloride, either no reaction occurred or considerably reduced reaction performance was observed. Moreover, the use of Brønsted acid to replace iron(III) chloride as reaction catalyst failed to promote the reaction. The reaction could be scaled up and the obtained difluoroalkylated carbonyl compound serves as a versatile building block which could be subjected to late‐stage diversification to be converted into useful organic molecules containing CF2H and CF2CF2 moieties. Deuterated experiments showed that the proton in the generated alkene product should originate from trace amounts of water present in the reaction system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity, especially presenting with excessive amounts of visceral adipose tissue (VAT), is strongly associated with insulin resistance (IR), atherosclerosis, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Aims: To construct a predication equation for estimating VAT mass using anthropometric parameters and validate the models with a validation group. Methods: Five hundred fifteen subjects (366 for the derivation group and 149 for the validation group) were enrolled in the study. The anthropometric parameters, blood lipid profile, and VAT mass were accessed from medical records. Stepwise regression was applied to develop prediction models based on the dual X–ray absorptiometry (DXA)-measured VAT mass in the derivation group. Bland–Altman plots and correlation analysis were performed to validate the agreements in the validation group. The performance of the prediction equations was evaluated with the Hosmer–Lemeshow test and area under the curve (AUC). Results: Model 1, which included age, sex, body mass index (BMI), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and the grade of hepatic steatosis, had a variance of 70%, and model 2, which included age, sex, weight, height, TG, HDL, and the grade of hepatic steatosis, had a variance of 74%. The VAT mass measured by DXA was correlated with age, sex, height, weight, BMI, TG, HDL, and grade of hepatic steatosis. In the validation group, the VAT mass calculated by the prediction equations was strongly correlated with the DXA–VAT mass (r = 0.870, r = 0.875, respectively). The AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of the two prediction equations were not significantly different (both P = 0.933). Conclusion: The study suggests that prediction equations including age, sex, height, BMI, weight, TG, HDL, and the grade of hepatic steatosis could be useful tools for predicting VAT mass when DXA is not available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital soil mapping has emerged as a new method to describe the spatial distribution of soils economically and efficiently. In this study, a lightweight soil organic matter (SOM) mapping method based on a deep residual network, which we call LSM-ResNet, is proposed to make accurate predictions with background covariates. ResNet not only integrates spatial background information around the observed environmental covariates, but also reduces problems such as information loss, which undermines the integrity of information and reduces prediction uncertainty. To train the model, rectified linear units, mean squared error, and adaptive momentum estimation were used as the activation function, loss/cost function, and optimizer, respectively. The method was tested with Landsat5, the meteorological data from WorldClim, and the 1602 sampling points set from Xinxiang, China. The performance of the proposed LSM-ResNet was compared to a traditional machine learning algorithm, the random forest (RF) algorithm, and a training set (80%) and a test set (20%) were created to test both models. The results showed that the LSM-ResNet (RMSE = 6.40, R2 = 0.51) model outperformed the RF model in both the roots mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2), and the training accuracy was significantly improved compared to RF (RMSE = 6.81, R2 = 0.46). The trained LSM-ResNet model was used for SOM prediction in Xinxiang, a district of plain terrain in China. The prediction maps can be deemed an accurate reflection of the spatial variability of the SOM distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gene expression studies using xenograft transplants or co-culture systems, usually with mixed human and mouse cells, have proven to be valuable to uncover cellular dynamics during development or in disease models. However, the mRNA sequence similarities among species presents a challenge for accurate transcript quantification. To identify optimal strategies for analyzing mixed-species RNA sequencing data, we evaluate both alignment-dependent and alignment-independent methods. Alignment of reads to a pooled reference index is effective, particularly if optimal alignments are used to classify sequencing reads by species, which are re-aligned with individual genomes, generating > 9 7 % accuracy across a range of species ratios. Alignment-independent methods, such as convolutional neural networks, which extract the conserved patterns of sequences from two species, classify RNA sequencing reads with over 85% accuracy. Importantly, both methods perform well with different ratios of human and mouse reads. While non-alignment strategies successfully partitioned reads by species, a more traditional approach of mixed-genome alignment followed by optimized separation of reads proved to be the more successful with lower error rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we comprehensively investigate the response of amorphous and crystalline Zr-based alloys under nanosecond pulse laser ablation. The in situ multiphysics processes and ablation morphologies of the two alloy targets are explored and compared. The results indicate that the dynamics of laser-induced plasma and shock waves obey the idea blast wave theory and are insensitive to the topological structures of targets. Both targets experience significant superheating and culminate in explosive boiling. This ablation process leads to the formation of a hierarchical structure in the resultant ablation crater: microdents covered by widespread nanovoids. The amorphous target shows shallower microdents and smaller nanovoids than their crystalline counterparts because the former has a smaller heat-affected zone and experiences a higher degree of superheating. The hierarchical structure can adjust the surface wettability of targets from initial hydrophilic to hydrophobic, showing an increase of the contact angle approximately 119% for amorphous alloy compared with the crystal approximately 64%. This work demonstrates that amorphous alloys have a better performance against nanosecond pulse laser ablation and provides a feasible and one-step method of wettability modification for either amorphous or crystalline alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aphids are destructive pests, and alarm pheromones play a key role in their chemical ecology. Here, we conducted a detailed analysis of terpenoids in the vetch aphid, Megoura viciae, and its host plant Pisum sativum using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Four major components, (-)-β-pinene (49.74%), (E)-β-farnesene (32.64%), (-)-α-pinene (9.42%) and (+)-limonene (5.24%), along with trace amounts of (+)-sabinene, camphene and α-terpineol) (3.14%) were found in the aphid. In contrast, few terpenoids were found in the host plant, consisting mainly of squalene (66.13%) and its analog 2,3-epoxysqualene (31.59%). Quantitative analysis of the four major terpenes in different developmental stages of the aphid showed that amounts of the monoterpenes increased with increasing stage, while the sesquiterpene amount peaked in the 3rd instar. (-)-β-Pinene was the most abundant terpene at all developmental stages. Behavioral assays using a three-compartment olfactometer revealed that the repellency of single compounds varied in a concentration-dependent manner, but two mixtures [(-)-α-pinene: (-)-β-pinene: (E)-β-farnesene: (+)-limonene = 1:44.4:6.5:2.2 or 1:18.4:1.3:0.8], were repellent at all concentrations tested. Our results suggest that (-)-α-pinene and (-)-β-pinene are the major active components of the alarm pheromone of M. viciae, but that mixtures play a key role in the alarm response. Our study contributes to the understanding of the chemical ecology of aphids and may help design new control strategies against this aphid pest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal order of vasopressor discontinuation during shock resolution remains unclear. We evaluated the incidence of hypotension in patients receiving concomitant vasopressin (VP) and norepinephrine (NE) based on the order of their discontinuation. In this retrospective cohort study, consecutive patients receiving concomitant VP and NE infusions for shock admitted to intensive care units were evaluated. The primary outcome was hypotension incidence following discontinuation of VP or NE (VP1 and NE1 groups, respectively). Secondary outcomes included the incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) and arrhythmias. Subgroup analysis was conducted by examining outcomes based on the type of shock. Of the 2,035 included patients, 952 (46.8%) were VP1 and 1,083 (53.2%) were NE1. VP1 had a higher incidence of hypotension than NE1 (42.1% vs. 14.2%; P < 0.001), longer time to shock reversal (median: 2.5 vs. 2.2 days; P =.009), higher hospital [29% (278/952) vs. 24% (258/1083); P =.006], and 28-day mortality [37% (348/952) vs. 29% (317/1,083); P < 0.001] when compared with the NE1 group. There were no differences in ICU mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay, new-onset arrhythmia, or AKI incidence between the two groups. In subgroup analyses based on different types of shock, similar outcomes were observed. After adjustments, hypotension in the following 24 h and 28-day mortality were significantly higher in VP1 (Odds ratios (OR) 4.08(3.28, 5.07); p-value <.001 and 1.27(1.04, 1.55); p-value <.001, respectively). Besides, in a multivariable model, the need for renal replacement therapy (OR 1.68 (1.34, 2.12); p-value <.001) was significantly higher in VP1. Among patients with shock who received concomitant VP and NE, the VP1 group was associated with a higher incidence of hypotension in comparison with NE1. Future studies need to validate our findings and their impact on clinical outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil C, N contents and C:N stoichiometry are important indicators of soil quality, the variation characteristics of which have great significance for soil carbon-nitrogen cycle and sustainable utilization. Based on 597 observations along with soil profiles of 0–20cm depth in the 1980s and the 2010s, the temporal and spatial variations of soil C, N contents and C:N stoichiometry in the major grain-producing region of the North China Plain were illustrated. Results showed that there were significant changes in soil C, N contents over time, with increasing rates of 60.47% and 50%, respectively. The changes of C, N contents resulting in a general improvement of C:N stoichiometry. There was a significant decline in nugget effects of soil C, N contents from the 1980s to 2010s, the spatial autocorrelation of soil nutrients showed an increasing trend, and the effect of random variation was reduced. C:N stoichiometry was higher in Huixian City and Weihui City, and lower in Yanjin County, an apparent decline was observed in the spatial difference of soil C:N stoichiometry from the 1980s to 2010s. Soil C, N contents and C:N stoichiometry differed among soil types, agricultural land-use types, and topography in space. The temperature, precipitation, and fertilization structure were considered as the main factors that induce the temporal variations. These findings indicated that the soil nutrient elements in the farmland ecosystems changed in varying degrees in both time and space scales, and the variation was influenced by soil types, land-use types, topography, meteorological factors, and fertilization structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storing CO2 in geological formations can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In order to explore the fracture behavior of caprock during CO2 geological storage, three caprock adsorption experiments for supercritical, liquid, and gaseous CO2 were designed. The fracture toughness of mode I, mode II, and mixed‐mode I/II of sandstone before and after the experiment was tested, and X‐ray diffraction (XRD), X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to examine the fracture mechanical characteristics of sandstone. Results showed that the pure mode I fracture toughness of sandstone immersed in supercritical CO2 (ScCO2), liquid CO2, and gaseous CO2 for 30 days decreased by 27.89%, 11.01%, and 17.43%, respectively, compared to nonimmersed sandstone. Pure mode I fracture toughness was more sensitive than mixed‐mode I/II and pure mode II fracture toughness to the various CO2 phase states. Furthermore, the ability of sandstone to resist fracture and failure was significantly reduced by the adsorption of CO2 in different phases. The effects of the different phases were in the following order: ScCO2 > gaseous CO2 > liquid CO2. The decreased ability of sandstone to resist fracture was primarily due to the geophysical and chemical reactions between CO2 and minerals, the alteration of minerals, or the formation of new substances. SEM observations showed that liquid CO2 adsorption caused the sandstone to undergo intergranular fracture, and the adsorption of gaseous CO2 promoted the occurrence of transgranular fractures. In particular, due to the ScCO2 adsorption, various fracture forms such as intergranular fractures, transgranular fractures, and mutual coupling fractures existed simultaneously. Sandstone exhibited numerous fractures and pores, and fracture resistance was weakened. Results of this study have important significance for evaluating the stability and safety of CO2 geological storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vertical spatial distribution of dust particles in radio frequency (RF) discharge plasma sheath is studied. The dust particles are levitated above the powered electrode in the discharge. From the distribution of the dust particles of different sizes generated by mixing of suitable gases, the effect of changing the RF power on the dust cloud behavior is studied. It is found that the distribution of the different sized dust particles in the sheath with variable bias differs significantly from that of single sized dust particles with fixed bias. As the RF power increases, the distribution range as well as the levitation height of the dust cloud above the powered electrode decrease. A theory for the observed results is also given. Based on the experimental and numerical results, we attribute the observed dependence to a combination of the enhanced sheath electric field and the ion drag force, but the decrease of the sheath thickness with increase of the discharge power has only minor contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, two-way oil/water separation materials bearing both "water-removing" and "oil-removing" functions are of great interest for treating environmental water pollution. Despite having switchable surface wettability, these materials are generally designed to possess superhydrophilicity in air, which, standing on the viewpoint of thermodynamics, is unstable and easy to lose the superwetting property. Concerning the full exploitation of sustainable biomass resources, herein, we use soy protein and ramie fiber to fabricate a cross-linked biocomposite whose amphiphilicity can be tuned by introducing a low surface-energy agent, octadecylamine. The resultant composite can be used as a coating for stainless steel meshes, preparing stably hydrophobic surface in air as well as achieving dual superlyophobicity under liquid that is required for efficiently separating light and heavy oils from water. Furthermore, a high separation efficiency is acquired for both light oil/water and heavy oil/water mixtures during cyclic usage. Notably, the fully bio-based coating displays high resistance against mechanical abrasion and harsh chemical corrosions (acid, alkaline, and salt) without losing high separation efficiency, indicating the potential application of such material in oily wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding urban human mobility, particularly trip purposes, is essential for optimizing traffic management, personalized recommendations, and urban planning. However, in real-world scenarios, trip purposes cannot be directly extracted from the trajectory data. To address this issue, we propose a geometry-driven neural topic model for trip purpose inference. We integrate trajectory data with nearby POI data using a geometry-driven technique to enhance the interpretability of the results. Furthermore, our model captures the semantics and relationships of the data in a high-dimensional space and identifies latent topics representing distinct trip purposes. These learned topics are analyzed using clustering algorithms to group similar trips, enabling trip purpose inference. And we evaluate our model using the trajectory data of Shenzhen and Chengdu, and compare it with baseline models. The results demonstrate that our model performs well. Furthermore, we analyze trajectory data containing trip purpose information to gain insight into human mobility patterns and the influence of trip purposes, paving the way for potential implications and future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microplastics (100nm-5 mm) and nanoplastics (1–100 nm) are collectively referred to as micro(nano)plastics (MNPs), which are refractory to degradation, easy to migration, small in size, strong in adsorption, and can widely present in human living environment. A number of studies have confirmed that MNPs can be exposed to the human body through a variety of routes, and can penetrate various barriers to enter the reproductive system, suggesting that MNPs may pose potential harm to human reproductive health. Current studies most were limited to phenotypic studies and their subjects were basically lower marine organisms and mammals. Therefore, in order to provide theoretical base for further exploring the effects of MNPs on the human reproductive system, this paper searched the relevant literature at home and abroad, mainly analyzed rodent experiments, and concluded that the main exposure routes of MNPs are dietary intake, air inhalation, skin contact and medical plastics. After entering the reproductive system, MNPs produce reproductive toxicity mainly through oxidative stress, inflammation, metabolic disorders, cytotoxicity and other mechanisms. More work is required to comprehensively identify the exposure routes, improve the detection methods to evaluate the effective exposure and deeply study the specific mechanisms of toxic effects, withing the aim of conducting relevant studies at the population level in the next step. [Display omitted] • We review the toxic effects of micro(nano)plastics on mammalian reproductive system mainly rodents. • Exposure routes for micro(nano)plastics include dietary intake, air inhalation, skin contact and medical plastics. • In recent years, studies on the reproductive system of micro(nano)plastics have confirmed their reproductive toxicity. • Reproductive toxicity mechanisms of micro(nano)plastics are not very clear, and more in-depth studies are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 3.7 million trajectories data are adopted to develop an integrated method. • A geometry-based probability model is proposed for uncertainties of the issue. • A multi-scenario programming model is proposed for rebalancing operations. • A multi-sided sensitivity analysis is made for potential emissions reduction. As a representation of smart and sustainable city development, bicycle-sharing system is one of the hottest topics in the domains of transportation, public health, urban planning, and so on. In this paper, a model is proposed for analyzing the potential reduction in emissions associated with the adoption of a bicycle-sharing system. Methods are proposed for extracting human travel modes from mobile phone GPS trajectories, together with a geometry-based probability model, to support particle swarm optimization. A comparison study is implemented to analyze the model's computational efficiency. Based on the resulting optimal layout for the network of bicycle docking stations, and considering demand uncertainty, a multi-scenario integer linear programming model is proposed to optimize rebalancing procedures (i.e., moving bicycles between docking stations according to demand), to determine the detailed design-scale information required. Mobile phone GPS trajectories from approximately 3.7 million local mobilities are used to construct a case study for Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. The results show that, compared with the previous methods, the optimal layout solved by the proposed method could reduce emissions by a further 6.4% and 4.4%. With an increase from 30 to 90 bicycle stations, the adoption of bicycle-sharing can reduce CO 2 emissions by approximately 3.1–3.8 thousand tonnes. However, emission reduction will maximally decrease by 21.26% after offset by bicycles production and rebalancing-generated emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To increase the color stability of hemoglobin (Hb) powder, the technological conditions for arginine–hemoglobin (Arg‐Hb) powder preparation were optimized by response surface methodology and the influence of arginine (Arg) on the color stability of Hb powder was evaluated. Results showed that: (a) Arg‐Hb powder had better colors (less MetHb% and higher a* value) than Hb powder (p < 0.05); (b) using MetHb% as an indicator, the optimal conditions to prepare Arg stabilized Hb were Arg concentration of 10.5 mg/ml Hb extract, reaction pH of 10.75, and reaction temperature of 18°C; (c) pH and NaCl had a significant influence on the color stability of Hb (p < 0.05). At various NaCl concentrations and pH conditions, Arg‐Hb solution showed better color than Hb (p < 0.05); (d) Arg‐Hb powder had higher a* values and higher percentages of deoxyhemoglobin and oxyhemoglobin but lower MetHb% than Hb powder during storage (p < 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ex-ante online risk assessment for building emergency evacuation is essential to protect human life and property. Current risk assessment methods are limited by the tradeoff between accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, we propose an online method that overcomes this tradeoff based on multimedia data (e.g. videos data from surveillance cameras) and deep learning. The method consists of two parts. The first estimates the evacuee position as input for training the assessment model to then perform risk assessment in real scenarios. The second considers a social force model based on the evacuation simulation for the output of training model. We verify the proposed method in simulation and real scenarios. Model sensitivity analyses and large-scale tests demonstrate the usability and superiority of the proposed method. By the method, the computation time of risk assessment could be decreased from 10 minutes (by traditional simulation method) to 2.18 s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical accessibility is an important indicator for evaluating the effectiveness of public health services. However, the previous medical accessibility studies mainly focus on spatial accessibility without considering temporal variation in population distribution which is significant for evaluating access to emergency medical service (EMS). This paper proposes a model of spatio-temporal accessibility to EMS called ST-E2SFCA based on adapting the enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method. We apply our method to the greater Tokyo area for a large volume of GPS dataset with millions of users and compare the accessibility difference over space and time. To evaluate our model, we also analyze the distinction of our model over different weight sets and compare the performance of ST-E2SFCA with the traditional E2SFCA. The result shows that our method can illustrate the temporal difference and is suitable for measuring the spatio-temporal accessibility to EMS, thus can guide the hospital location selection and urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights from the article: Recently, however, people's mobile phone data, GPS trajectories data, location-based online social networking data, surveillance video data, satellite imagery and IC card data have become readily available and this information has increased explosively. B Memorial of Dr. Tao Li: b As the initial Lead Guest Editor of this Special Issue, Dr. Tao Li, a talented Professor of Computer Science at Florida International University, suffered a stroke during a doctoral defense on December 6, 2017.

With the pressing demand of climate change mitigation, the rapid technological development and market adoption of battery electric vehicles are imperative. However, the diverse consumption attitudes and their interactions, which are rarely considered, can significantly affect the adoption potential of battery electric vehicles. On the basis of three years of global positioning system data of 1.6 million people, we estimated the travel and adoption demands of battery electric vehicles in Japan considering diverse consumption attitudes. Under the current construction conditions for public charging systems and charging technologies, the adoption potential of battery electric vehicles may not be as promising as previously expected, and the government still faces great pressure to respond to the market share target. Given the current level of battery technology, technical and policy improvements such as fast charging, reducing the production cost, perfecting the public charging infrastructure, and increasing purchasing subsidies were found to be more effective than improving the battery capacity at increasing the adoption potential of battery electric vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effect of different treatments on collagen self-assembly, the morphological and the qualitative analysis of collagen assembly were measured by atomic force microscopy. Collagen samples were treated with 0.02%, 0.04%, 0.10% and 0.20% glutaraldehyde individually at the first steps. Meanwhile, the other experimental groups were treated with 0.05%, 0.10%, 0.20% riboflavin, respectively, the structural change of the collagen network with 15, 30, 45, 60 min UV365 exposure and the fluorescent irradiation as the control group in turn was investigated by atomic force microscopy. The width and height of collagen assembly increased with the concentration of glutaraldehyde, which were changed from 36.45 ± 4.45nm to 64.35 ± 2.58nm and 2.26 ± 0.19nm to 4.93 ± 0.29 nm, respectively. The effect of different UV365 irradiation time on the height of collagen was greater than the effect on the width, the width and height of collagen were varied from 41.36 ± 4.30nm to 55.47 ± 4.53nm and 3.10 ± 0.39nm to 6.20 ± 0.85nm, which were changed 25.44% and 50.00%, respectively. The concentration of riboflavin was more efficiently than irradiation time, and the maximum width and height of collagen reached 106.98 ± 3.37nm and 11.17 ± 1.33 nm, respectively, the control group without a significant change at the fluorescent irradiation by the time. This optimized cross-linking method with riboflavin/UV365 would have great potential for tissue engineering in clinic and food packaging science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Powder‐based additive manufacturing (AM) is an important technology in fabricating complex 3D products. In powder‐based AM, a powder deposition system plays a key role in determining the resolution, density, and properties of printed parts. An acoustic‐actuated particle deposition approach, which utilizes acoustic waves to actuate a glass nozzle, enables the deposition of particles in a cost‐effective way. However, the capability to programmably deposit different particles using acoustic waves has yet to be fully demonstrated. Herein, a selective particle deposition approach via acoustic modulation for muti‐material AM is demonstrated. Sequential and parallel depositions of two types of particles by modulating the signal inputs and resonant frequencies of piezo transducers are demonstrated. An AM process is demonstrated by integrating this acoustic‐actuated particle deposition approach with a heat‐curing mechanism. Several products from this system are produced as well. It is expected that this particle deposition approach can be used in a wide spectrum of applications, such as direct manufacturing of multi‐functional materials/devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Conventional machining methods for fabricating piezoelectric components such as ultrasound transducer arrays are time-consuming and limited to relatively simple geometries. The purpose of this paper is to develop an additive manufacturing process based on the projection-based stereolithography process for the fabrication of functional piezoelectric devices including ultrasound transducers.Design/methodology/approach To overcome the challenges in fabricating viscous and low-photosensitive piezocomposite slurry, the authors developed a projection-based stereolithography process by integrating slurry tape-casting and a sliding motion design. Both green-part fabrication and post-processing processes were studied. A prototype system based on the new manufacturing process was developed for the fabrication of green-parts with complex shapes and small features. The challenges in the sintering process to achieve desired functionality were also discussed.Findings The presented additive manufacturing process can achieve relatively dense piezoelectric components (approximately 95 per cent). The related property testing results, including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, dielectric and ferroelectric properties as well as pulse-echo testing, show that the fabricated piezo-components have good potentials to be used in ultrasound transducers and other sensors/actuators.Originality/value A novel bottom-up projection system integrated with tape casting is presented to address the challenges in the piezo-composite fabrication, including small curing depth and viscous ceramic slurry recoating. Compared with other additive manufacturing processes, this method can achieve a thin recoating layer (as small as 10 μm) of piezo-composite slurry and can fabricate green parts using slurries with significantly higher solid loadings. After post processing, the fabricated piezoelectric components become dense and functional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JAK/STAT pathway is one of cytokine signaling pathways and mediates diversity immune responses to protect host from viral infection. In this study, LvSOCS2, a member of suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) families, has been cloned and identified from Litopenaeus vannamei . The full length of LvSOCS2 is 1601 bp, including an 1194 bp open reading frame (ORF) coding for a putative protein of 397 amino acids with a calculated molecular weight of ∼42.3 kDa. LvSOCS2 expression was most abundant in gills and could respond to the challenge of LPS, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Staphhylococcus aureus, Poly (I: C) and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). There are several STAT binding motifs presented in the proximal promoter region of LvSOCS2 and its expression was induced by LvJAK or LvSTAT protein in a dose dependent manner, suggesting LvSOCS2 could be the transcriptional target gene of JAK/STAT pathway. Moreover, the transcription of DmVir-1, a read out of the activation of JAK/STAT pathway in Drosophila , was promoted by LvJAK but inhibited by LvSOCS2, indicating that LvSOCS2 could be a negative regulator in this pathway and thus can form a negative feedback loop. Our previous study indicated that shrimp JAK/STAT pathway played a positive role against WSSV. In this study, RNAi-mediated knockdown of LvSOCS2 shrimps showed lower susceptibility to WSSV infection and caused lessened virus loads, which further demonstrated that the JAK/STAT pathway could function as an anti-viral immunity in shrimp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simultaneously enhancing the thermal conductivity, insulation, and mechanical properties of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) composites is highly desired for electronic and electrical applications. In this research, HDPE/boron nitride (BN)/coconut shell charcoal (CSC) composites were prepared. Benefit from the synergistic effect between the multi-dimensional hybrid fillers, the prepared HDPE/BN/CSC composites exhibited enhanced comprehensive properties compared to the HDPE/BN composites and pure HDPE. In particular, as for HDPE/25BN/3CSC (25 wt% BN, 3 wt% CSC) nanocomposites compared to the pure HDPE, enhancements in in-plane thermal conductivity of 980.89%, normal thermal conductivity of 138%, and tensile strength of 18.91% were obtained, while higher volume resistivity and decomposition temperature were achieved. This work provides a simple but effective way for improving the thermal conductivity and comprehensive physical properties of HDPE composites. • HDPE/BN/CSC composites were prepared. • High thermal conductivity of the HDPE/BN/CSC composites were achieved. • Thermal stability, mechanical properties, and insulation properties were all enhanced at appropriate CSC contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prosocial behaviours and their correlates have been extensively studied; however, few studies have examined the linkage between self-disclosure and prosocial behaviours. Three studies were conducted aimed at examining the relationship between self-disclosure and prosocial tendencies, as well as the moderating role of feedback from the help provider's perspective. We hypothesized that participants' self-disclosure was positively associated with his/her prosocial tendencies and that this association would be moderated by feedback received. The results generally support our hypotheses, and reveal that participants with higher levels of self-disclosure tend to exhibit more prosocial tendencies (Studies 1 and 2), but this association was only true for those participants that received self-disclosure feedback (Study 3). The present study suggests that, other than self-disclosure, reciprocal feedback also plays an important role in promoting prosocial behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We categorize this research in terms of its contribution to both graph theory and computer vision. From the theoretical perspective, this study can be considered as the first attempt to formulate the idea of mining maximal frequent subgraphs in the challenging domain of messy visual data, and as a conceptual extension to the unsupervised learning of graph matching. We define a soft attributed pattern (SAP) to represent the common subgraph pattern among a set of attributed relational graphs (ARGs), considering both their structure and attributes. Regarding the differences between ARGs with fuzzy attributes and conventional labeled graphs, we propose a new mining strategy that directly extracts the SAP with the maximal graph size without applying node enumeration. Given an initial graph template and a number of ARGs, we develop an unsupervised method to modify the graph template into the maximal-size SAP. From a practical perspective, this research develops a general platform for learning the category model (i.e., the SAP) from cluttered visual data (i.e., the ARGs) without labeling “what is where,” thereby opening the possibility for a series of applications in the era of big visual data. Experiments demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method on RGB/RGB-D images and videos. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The shortcomings such as undesired severe lithium-dendrite growth and side-reactions impede the applications of lithium batteries. Investigation into the formation of uniform lithium-ion diffusion layers provides new insights into the suppression of dendrite growth and stabilization of lithium metal. Herein, cross-linked nanofibrous polysiloxane hybrid membranes (SHMs) are fabricated via simple processes involving the electrospinning of poly(vinylidene fluoride- co -hexafluoropropylene), vinyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane, and functional cage silsesquioxanes. The functional polar groups on the SHMs impart lithiophilicity to the membranes, thus enabling them to form artificial solid electrolyte interfaces to guide uniform Li-ion flux distribution, ensure smooth lithium deposition, and fundamentally alter dendrite formation. In addition, the shear enhancement effect of polydimethylsiloxane 3D networks not only changes the surface morphology but also facilitates the migration of lithium ions. As a result, with the introduction of these SHMs, the Li||Li symmetric batteries were stabilized and thus able to maintain successive electrodeposition over 800 h at 0.5 mA cm−2 and the LiFePO 4 ||Li cells exhibit a high capacity of 112 mAh g–1 and 96.7% capacity retention after 400 cycles at 2C. This work provides an effective strategy for the suppression of uncontrolled lithium dendrite formation and the enhancement of cycling performance. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mining object-level knowledge, that is, building a comprehensive category model base, from a large set of cluttered scenes presents a considerable challenge to the field of artificial intelligence. How to initiate model learning with the least human supervision (i.e., manual labeling) and how to encode the structural knowledge are two elements of this challenge, as they largely determine the scalability and applicability of any solution. In this article, we propose a model-learning method that starts from a single-labeled object for each category, and mines further model knowledge from a number of informally captured, cluttered scenes. However, in these scenes, target objects are relatively small and have large variations in texture, scale, and rotation. Thus, to reduce the model bias normally associated with less supervised learning methods, we use the robust 3D shape in RGB-D images to guide our model learning, then apply the properly trained category models to both object detection and recognition in more conventional RGB images. In addition to model training for their own categories, the knowledge extracted from the RGB-D images can also be transferred to guide model learning for a new category, in which only RGB images without depth information in the new category are provided for training. Preliminary testing shows that the proposed method performs as well as fully supervised learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The JAK/STAT signaling pathways are conserved in evolution and mediate diversity immune responses to virus infection. In the present study, a Janus kinase (designated as LvJAK) gene was cloned and characterized from Litopenaeus vannamei . LvJAK contained the characteristic JAK homology domain (JH domain) from JH1 to JH7 and showed 19% identity (34% similarity) and 21% identity (35% similarity) to Drosophila Hopscotch protein and Human JAK2 protein, respectively. The mRNA of LvJAK was highly expressed in hepatopancreas of L. vannamei and its expression level was prominently upregulated after the stimulation of Poly (I:C) and white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) challenges. There were 10 putative STAT binding motifs in the promoter region of LvJAK, and it could be regulated by LvJAK self or (and) LvSTAT, suggesting that LvJAK is the JAK/STAT pathway target gene and could function as a positive regulator to form a positive feedback loop. In addition, the silencing of LvJAK caused higher mortality rate and virus load, suggesting that LvJAK could play an important role in defense against WSSV. This is the first report about the complete set of JAK/STAT proteins in shrimp and the results provide the evidence of the positive feedback loop mediated by JAK protein present in the JAK/STAT pathway in invertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coupling and spatial variation of range and azimuth parameters is the biggest challenge for bistatic forward-looking SAR (BFSAR) imaging. In contrast with the monostatic SAR and translational invariant bistatic SAR (TI-BSAR), the range cell migration (RCM), and Doppler parameters of high-speed bistatic forward-looking SAR (HS-BFSAR) have two-dimensional spatial variation characteristics, which makes it difficult to obtain SAR images with satisfactory global focusing. Firstly, based on the configuration of the spaceborne illuminator and high-speed forward-looking receiving platform, the accurate range-Doppler domain expression of the echo signal is derived in this paper. Secondly, using this analytical expression, a range nonlinear chirp scaling (NLCS) is proposed to equalize the RCM and equivalent range frequency modulation (FM) rate so that they can be uniformly processed in the two-dimensional frequency domain. Next, in the azimuth processing, the proposed method decomposes the Doppler contribution of the transmitter and receiver, respectively. Then, an azimuth NLCS is used to eliminate the spatial variation of the azimuth FM rate. Finally, a range-dependent azimuth filter is constructed to achieve azimuth compression. Simulation results validate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the mechanism and effective countermeasures of floor heave in large section mining roadway, one of its prediction methods was put forward through theoretical deduction. It is showed that floor rock beam with lower critical stress is easier to instability, along with larger section of mining roadway. Almost all large section roadway are subject to the threat of floor heave under horizontal force. Moreover, with the increasing width of tunnel, the heave volume increases approximately linearly. At the same time, three kinds of support scheme, roadway support, reinforcement of sides, comers and roof, were analysed with Ansys. A conclusion is drawn that floor heave can be controlled well by installing roof bolting based on floor on a small scale with the reinforcement of working slope, angle and roof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sensitivity in polymer-bonded explosives (PBXs) relies on the presence of defects, such as cracks and voids, which create localized thermal energy, commonly known as hotspots, and initiate reactions through various localization phenomena. Our prior research has explored the use of internal gas pressure induced by thermite ignition to generate localized defects for PBX sensitization. However, further research is required to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the defect generation process resulting from internal gas pressure. This study investigates the process of defect generation in PBXs in response to internally induced gas pressure by applying controlled compressed gas to a fabricated cavity within the materials, simulating the gas pressure emitting from thermite. X-ray micro-computed tomography was employed to visualize the microstructure of the sample before and after gas injection. The experiments reveal the significance of gas pressure, cavity shape, temperature, and specimen compaction pressure in the defect generation. Numerical simulations using Abaqus/Standard were conducted to assess the defect generation in mock PBXs under varying gas pressures, cohesive properties, and binder thicknesses. The simulation results demonstrate the substantial influence of these properties on the ability to generate defects in mock PBXs. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors influencing defect generation in mock PBXs. This knowledge is crucial for achieving precise control over defect generation, leading to improved ignition and detonation characteristics in PBXs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Successful multi-target tracking requires locating the targets and labeling their identities. For a laser-based tracking system, this mission becomes significantly challenging when the targets are in close proximity or frequently interact with one another. This paper presents a novel on-line learning-based method for laser-based multi-target tracking. When the targets do not interact with one another, multiple independent trackers are employed to train a classifier for each target. When the targets are in close proximity, the learned classifiers are used to assist in tracking. The tracking and learning supplement each other in the proposed method, which is helpful in dealing with difficult problems encountered in laser-based multi-target tracking; moreover, it ensures that the entire process can be completely automatic and available on-line. Various evaluations have demonstrated that this method performs better than previous methods when interactions occur, and it can maintain the correct tracking under various complex tracking situations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

B Introduction: b Acute kidney injury (AKI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in the intensive care unit (ICU) are common and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Of the 1,136 patients with both AKI and ARDS, 136 (12%) developed AKI first, 303 (27%) ARDS first, and 697 (61%) had simultaneous disease. B Results: b Patients with both ARDS and AKI had higher ICU (21.2%) and hospital (28.4%) mortality compared to patients with ARDS alone (9.0% ICU mortality, 14.0% hospital mortality) or AKI alone (4.4% ICU mortality, 8.4% hospital mortality) (p < 0.001). [Extracted from the article]

The fabrication and development of excellent thermoset polymers with self-healing and shape memory properties is highly desirable. Herein, a novel high-strength epoxy resin (EP-SeSe) with diselenide bonds was rationally designed for rapid repair materials in building constructions and electrical packaging. The resultant resins exhibit excellent shape memory performance and self-healing performance due to the dynamic diselenide bonds (Se Se), while maintaining a high mechanical strength (tensile strength = 105 MPa and E = 2.0GPa), and exceptional thermal stability. It is especially noteworthy that the diselenide bonds of the bis(4-aminophenyl) diselenide (BAPDSe) allow EP-SeSe to exchange molecular chains in a dynamic manner, facilitating transport of chain segments while the ortho-phenyl groups prevent the side effects of weak bonds on mechanical properties. Furthermore, when the temperature exceeds Tg, EP-SeSe displays fast stress relaxation, self-healing, remodeling, and weldability due to the [2 + 1] radical-mediated mechanism of the diselenide bonds. We envision that this study provides a facile method for constructing robust multifunctional epoxy resins, which have great potential applications for self-healing and shape-memory epoxy resins. [Display omitted] • Epoxy thermosets (EP-SeSe) based on dynamic diselenide bonds were successfully prepared. • The epoxy thermosets (EP-SeSe) exhibit good mechanical strength, stretchability and excellent self-healing properties. • The dynamic diselenide bonds of bis (4-aminophenyl) diselenide (BAPDSe) made EP-SeSe exhibit excellent stress relaxation. • The epoxy resin have certain shape memory properties under the action of dynamic diselenide bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Tracking hundreds of persons in the large and high density scenarios is a particularly challenging task due to the frequent occlusions and merged measurements. In such circumstances, a stronger dynamic model for prediction usually plays a more important role in the overall tracking process. In this paper, we propose an elaborate dynamic model for multiple pedestrians tracking in the extremely crowded environments. The novelty of this tracking model is that: the global semantic scene structure, local instantaneous crowd flow and the social interactions among persons are taken into account together and combined into an unified approach, which can make the prediction for persons’ motion more powerful and accurate. We apply the proposed model by using an online “tracking-learning” framework, which can not only perform the robust tracking in the extremely crowded scenarios, but also ensures that the entire process is fully automatic and online. The testing is conducted on the JR subway station of Tokyo, and the experimental results show that the system with our tracking model can robustly track more than 180 targets at the same time while the occlusions and merge/split frequently occur. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents a novel method to extract skeletons of complex articulated objects from 3D point cloud sequences collected by the Kinect. Our approach is more robust than the traditional video-based and stereo-based approaches, as the Kinect directly provides 3D information without any markers, 2D-to-3D-transition assumptions, and feature point extraction. We track all the raw 3D points on the object, and utilize the point trajectories to determine the object skeleton. The point tracking is achieved by the 3D non-rigid matching based on the Markov Random Field (MRF) Deformation Model. To reduce the large computational cost of the non-rigid matching, a coarse-to-fine procedure is proposed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first to extract skeletons of highly deformable objects from 3D point cloud sequences by point tracking. Experiments prove our method''s good performance, and the extracted skeletons are successfully applied to the motion capture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As an important class of chemosensory-associated proteins, odorant binding proteins (OBPs) play a key role in the perception of olfactory signals for insects. Parasitoid wasp Microplitis mediator relies on its sensitive olfactory system to locate host larvae of Noctuidae and Geometridae. In the present study, MmedOBP14, a male-biased OBP in M. mediator , was functionally investigated. In fluorescence competitive binding assays, the recombinant MmedOBP14 showed strong binding abilities to five plant volatiles: β-ionone, 3,4-dimethylacetophenone, 4-ethylacetophenone, acetophenone and ocimene. Homology modeling and molecular docking results indicated that the binding sites of all five ligands were similar and concentrated in the binding pocket of MmedOBP14. Except acetophenone, the remaining four ligands at 1, 10 and 100 μg/μL caused strong antennal electrophysiological responses in adults M. mediator , and males showed more obvious EAG responses to most ligands than females. In behavioral trials, males were attracted by low concentrations of MmedOBP14 ligands, whereas high doses of β-ionone and acetophenone had a repellent effect on males. Moreover, 1 μg/μL of 3,4-dimethylacetophenone showed the strongest attractiveness to female wasps. These findings suggest that MmedOBP14 may play a more important role in the perception of plant volatiles for male wasps to locate habitat, supplement nutrition and search partners. [Display omitted] • The MmedOBP14 is a male antennal biased OBP in parasitoid wasp Microplitis mediator. • Mating experience had no impacts on transcriptional expression of MmedOBP14. • MmedOBP14 has strong binding abilities to five plant volatile components. • The binding sites of all five ligands are similar and concentrated in the binding pocket of MmedOBP14. • Male adults showed more obvious electrophysiological response and behavioral preferences to MmedOBP14 ligands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the condition of No. 1-2 coal seam of Shendong minging area Shangwan Coal Mine, the caving characteristics, the fracture position and caving zone and fracture zone "two belts" height of the 5.5 m large mining height workface's roof were studied by similar simulation test, with geometric similarity ratio 1 : 50. The results show that the immediate roof eaves stratified to loose blocks, and the goal can not be full of these loose blocks; because of the increasing of mining height at one time, and the original immediate roof is far from full of goal, the lower basic roof can not form hinge structure after it collapse, and the increasing of mining height evolves into the increasing of immidiate roof; before periodic weighting, fracture position of roof usually advance beyond working face 7.65 m; the height of two belts presents step increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: We aimed to assess whether machine learning models are superior at predicting acute kidney injury (AKI) compared to logistic regression (LR), a conventional prediction model.Methods: Eligible studies were identified using PubMed and Embase. A total of 24 studies consisting of 84 prediction models met inclusion criteria. Independent samples t-test was performed to detect mean differences in area under the curve (AUC) between ML and LR models. One-way ANOVA and post-hoc t-tests were performed to assess mean differences in AUC between ML methods.Results: AUC data were similar between ML (0.736 ± 0.116) and LR (0.748 ± 0.057) models (p = 0.538). However, specific ML models, such as gradient boosting (0.838 ± 0.077), exhibited superior performance at predicting AKI as compared to other ML models in the literature (p < 0.05). Creatinine and urine output, standard variables assessed for AKI staging, were classified as significant predictors across multiple ML models, although the majority of significant predictors were unique and study specific.Conclusions: These data suggest that ML models perform equally to that of LR, however ML models exhibit variable performance with some ML models displaying exceptional performance. The variability in ML prediction of AKI can be attributed, in part, to the specific ML model utilized, variable selection and processing, study and subject characteristics, and the steps associated with model training, validation, testing, and calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the social economy in China, numerous Chinese cities are facing high levels of particulate matter (PM) pollution problems. In this study, high-resolution ZY-3 images and GIS techniques were used to establish the emission inventory of total suspended particle (TSP), particulate matter 10 (PM10) and particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) from fugitive dust sources in May 2016, and a spatial grid of 3 km × 3 km resolution was established to demonstrate the spatial distribution of PM emission. Results showed that the total emissions of TSP, PM10 and PM2.5 in Zhengzhou city were 237.5 kt·a−1, 103.7 kt·a−1 and 22.4 kt·a−1, respectively. Construction dust source was the main fugitive dust emission source in Zhengzhou city—the TSP, PM10 and PM2.5 emission of which account for 76.42%, 89.68% and 88.39%, respectively, of the total emission, followed by road dust source and soil dust source. PM emission was higher in Zhongyuan, Huiji, Jinshui and Zhengdong New District, while Zhongmou, Xingyang, Dengfeng and other remote areas had low PM emissions. Compared to other Chinese cities or regions, the PM emission from the construction dust source was at a high level in Zhengzhou city, while the PM emissions from the soil dust source and road dust source were at moderate levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaf area index (LAI) is a fundamental indicator of crop growth status, timely and non-destructive estimation of LAI is of significant importance for precision agriculture. In this study, a multi-rotor UAV platform equipped with CMOS image sensors was used to capture maize canopy information, simultaneously, a total of 264 ground‐measured LAI data were collected during a 2-year field experiment. Linear regression (LR), backpropagation neural network (BPNN), and random forest (RF) algorithms were used to establish LAI estimation models, and their performances were evaluated through 500 repetitions of random sub-sampling, training, and testing. The results showed that RGB-based VIs derived from UAV digital images were strongly related to LAI, and the grain-filling stage (GS) of maize was identified as the optimal period for LAI estimation. The RF model performed best at both whole period and individual growth stages, with the highest R2 (0.71–0.88) and the lowest RMSE (0.12–0.25) on test datasets, followed by the BPNN model and LR models. In addition, a smaller 5–95% interval range of R2 and RMSE was observed in the RF model, which indicated that the RF model has good generalization ability and is able to produce reliable estimation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]