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[Objective] The ecological environment of the Kuye River Basin plays a critical role in the larger context of the Yellow River Basin’s health. Understanding the ecosystem services it provides is crucial for sustainable development. [Methods] Using the InVEST model, researchers conducted a quantitative assessment of ecosystem service functions from 1990 to 2020. [Results] (1) There have been some notable changes in land management policy leading to shifts in land use patterns, particularly in construction land expansion and decreased unused land. Additionally, it seems like there’s been a positive impact on vegetation cover, with grassland dominating and overall vegetation coverage showing an upward trend, albeit with fluctuations. (2) The ecological service function of the Kuye River Basin showed a trend of first declining around 2000 and then fluctuating and increasing after 2010, and the habitat quality index was basically stable between 0.22~0.24, and the overall habitat quality was poor. (3) The soil conservation and habitat quality index in the watershed was dominated by the distribution of low-low aggregation cold spots, the spatial distribution of carbon storage and water conservation cold spots and hot spots was relatively scattered, and the high and low values were spatially staggered. The soil conservation and habitat quality index were mainly low-value aggregation, and the spatial distribution of carbon storage and water conservation was fragmented. (4) In the past 30 years, carbon storage and habitat quality were mainly affected by land use, and soil conservation and water conservation were mainly affected by topography, soil type and precipitation. [Conclusion] The findings of this study highlight the intricate interplay between land use, topography, soil type, precipitation, and their impacts on carbon storage, habitat quality, soil conservation, and water conservation in the Kuye River Basin. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for devising effective strategies to enhance ecological services and allocate appropriate soil and water conservation measures.

With the increasing social pressure and academic competition, the mental health (for convenience, abbreviated as MH) problems of college students are becoming increasingly prominent, but there are often challenges that are difficult to accurately predict and intervene in a timely manner. The aim of this article is to address the early warning needs of college students’ MH problems and construct a model that can timely identify the MH problems of college students. The experiment collected MH related data from college students in S city, and analyzed and trained these data using the Long short-term memory (LSTM) network model. By changing the number of hidden layers, learning rate, batch size, and epoch times, the most suitable training effect was achieved. By using the time-series characteristics of the LSTM model, the selected parameters from the experiment can better capture the changing trends of college students’ MH status, thereby improving prediction accuracy. Finally, three stage indicators of low, medium, and high were set up for early warning of the predicted results, in order to effectively and timely take measures. The research results indicated that the constructed model achieved a minimum regularization loss of 0.0674 after training. Finally, the adjusted model was used to predict the test set, with an average accuracy of 0.852 and an average accuracy of 0.906. The LSTM-based MH risk model performed well in predicting college students’ MH problems and could identify potential risk factors in a timely manner.

Background: Face image animation generates a synthetic human face video that harmoniously integrates the identity derived from the source image and facial motion obtained from the driving video. This technology could be beneficial in multiple medical fields, such as diagnosis and privacy protection. Previous studies on face animation often relied on a single source image to generate an output video. With a significant pose difference between the source image and the driving frame, the quality of the generated video is likely to be suboptimal because the source image may not provide sufficient features for the warped feature map. Methods: In this study, we propose a novel face-animation scheme based on multiple sources and perspective alignment to address these issues. We first introduce a multiple-source sampling and selection module to screen the optimal source image set from the provided driving video. We then propose an inter-frame interpolation and alignment module to further eliminate the misalignment between the selected source image and the driving frame. Conclusions: The proposed method exhibits superior performance in terms of objective metrics and visual quality in large-angle animation scenes compared to other state-of-the-art face animation methods. It indicates the effectiveness of the proposed method in addressing the distortion issues in large-angle animation.

Internal circulation（IC） denitrification reactor was designed on the basis of IC anaerobic reactor，and the engineering application was investigated for the reverse osmosis concentrated water treatment. The results showed that the IC denitrification reactor exhibited a rapid start and stable running. The effluent TN ranged from 1.89 mg/L to 14.0 mg/L with an average of 4.65 mg/L when the influent TN were from 18.7 mg/L to 39.0 mg/L with an average of 26.6 mg/L，which was lower than the required 15 mg/L by Standard B of Table1 in Comprehensive Wastewater Discharge Standards for the Yellow River Basin in Shanxi Province （DB 61/224-2018）. The effluent suspended solids mass concentration was lower with an average mass concentration of 18.6 mg/L，and the effluent COD of the subsequent recirculation biofilter was 35.4 mg/L，stably controlled below 50 mg/L，which showed a perfect comprehensive treatment effect. Moreover，the IC denitrification reactor had a small footprint，simple process，and a direct water treatment cost of 1.36 yuan/m3，which had significant economic benefits.

Noroviruses are a group of non-enveloped single-stranded positive-sense RNA virus belonging to Caliciviridae family. They can be transmitted by the fecal-oral route from contaminated food and water and cause mainly acute gastroenteritis. Outbreaks of norovirus infections could be difficult to detect and investigate. In this study, we developed a simple threshold detection approach based on variations of the P2 domain of the capsid protein. We obtained sequences from the norovirus hypervariable P2 region using Sanger sequencing, including 582 pairs of epidemiologically-related strains from 35 norovirus outbreaks and 6402 pairs of epidemiologically-unrelated strains during the four epidemic seasons. Genetic distances were calculated and a threshold was performed by adopting ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) curve which identified transmission clusters in all tested outbreaks with 80 % sensitivity. In average, nucleotide diversity between outbreaks was 67.5 times greater than the diversity within outbreaks. Simple and accurate thresholds for detecting norovirus transmissions of three genotypes obtained here streamlines molecular investigation of norovirus outbreaks, thus enabling rapid and efficient responses for the control of norovirus.

Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) is a pathogen causing bovine mastitis that results in considerable economic losses in the livestock sector. To understand the distribution and drug resistance characteristics of S. agalactiae from dairy cow mastitis cases in China, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was carried out and the serotypes and drug resistance characteristics of the bacteria in the region were analysed.

Fibreoptic mammography is widely recognised as the first screening method for pathologic papillary overflow due to its significant advantages in the diagnosis of ductal dilatation, intraductal papilloma and intraductal carcinoma. The use of fibreoptic ductoscopic excisional biopsy techniques, such as biopsy needles, vacuum negative pressure aspiration, biopsy forceps and grasping baskets, has not been promoted largely due to their existing deficiencies. The imaging effect of fibreoptic ductoscopy compared with electronic ductoscopy is also one of the important factors limiting the progress of microscopic excisional biopsy techniques. Finding a more suitable operating space for electronic fibreoptic ductoscopy and the use of electrosurgical excision biopsy techniques should be the focus of research in view of achieving accurate diagnoses in electronic fibreoptic ductoscopy and microscopic excision biopsy. In this review, the development history, clinical application and existing problems of fibreoptic ductoscopy are reviewed and assessed to provide references for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of pathologic papillary overflow.

Introduction: We perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of nanoscopic liquid water drops on a graphite substrate mimicking the carbon-rich pore surface in the presence of CH4/CO2 mixtures at temperatures in the range 300 K–473 K.Methods: The surface tension in MD simulation is calculated via virial expression, and the water droplet contact angle is obtained through a cylindric binning procedure.Results: Our results for the interfacial tension between water and methane as a function of pressure and for the interfacial tension between water and CH4/CO2 mixtures as a function of their composition agree well with the experimental and computational literature.Discussion: The modified Young’s equation has been proven to bridge the macroscopic contact angle and microscopic contact with the experimental literature. The water droplet on both the artificially textured surface and randomly generated surface exhibits a transition between the Wenzel and Cassie–Baxter states with increased roughness height, indicating that surface roughness enhances the hydrophobicity of the solid surface.

Objective: Improve the mechanization and automation of the pretreatment process of China's freshwater fish processing industry. Methods: The catfish head cutting simulation model is constructed by the numerical analysis software ANSYS/LS-DYNA, and the catfish head removal process is simulated and analyzed and the motion parameters are optimized by FEM. The blade speed and transportation speed are adjusted with the minimum cutting power consumption as the optimization goal, and the accuracy of the simulation results is verified by the prototype test. Results: When the speed of the blade is 850 r/min and the conveying speed is 14 cm/s, the cutting section of the fish head is smooth and smooth, the sensory of the section is good, and the cutting efficiency of the head can be guaranteed. Conclusion: The established simulation model of disc cutter cutting fish head can describe the motion process, but the accuracy needs to be improved.

Objective: In order to improve the mechanization and automation level of catfish head cutting. Methods: Through the study on the shape parameters and friction characteristics of catfish, the related parameters of catfish were obtained. Based on the machine vision technology to identify the assembly line fish, the end of the fish skull was defined as the fish head cutting track line, and an adaptive adjustment device was designed to adjust the position of the fish body, so that the disc cutter can avoid the skull for head removal. The GUI was designed in order to achieve visual control. Results: The system test results showed that the success rate of cutting track line discrimination of the image acquisition system reached 90%, with the average error of the adaptive adjustment system of 0.21 cm, which confirmed the reliability of the system. Conclusion: According to the preset processing efficiency, about 600 catfish can be processed per hour.

BackgroundImmune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been proven to be an effective treatment strategy for a variety of malignant tumors. However, only a subset of patients can benefit from ICIs due to factors such as drug resistance. Therefore, it is crucial to identify biomarkers that can accurately predict the efficacy of ICIs and provide a basis for individualized immunotherapy. In this study, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to explore whether the chemokine interleukin 8 (IL-8) can be used as a biomarker to evaluate the efficacy of ICIs treatment.MethodsWe conducted a comprehensive search of several databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane, to identify relevant articles published up to June 08, 2023. Our inclusion criteria were limited to cohort studies and clinical trials that reported hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for overall survival (OS) and/or progression-free survival (PFS), as well as the objective response rate (ORR), in cancer patients with high and low IL-8 expression. For data analysis, we used Revman to generate forest plots, subgroup analysis, and assess publication bias. Additionally, Stata was utilized for sensitivity analysis and further examination of publication bias.ResultsA total of 24 datasets, involving 3190 participants, were selected from 14 studies. The meta-analysis revealed a reduction in ORR, OS, and/or PFS in the high IL-8 group after treatment with ICIs compared to the low IL-8 group.ConclusionIL-8 can serve as a biomarker for predicting the efficacy of ICIs. Patients with lower expression of IL-8 may benefit from ICIs treatment.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=383188, identifier CRD42022383188.

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is one of the most important zoonotic pathogens. In this study, we present a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of human E. bieneusi infection in endemic regions and analyze the various potential risk factors. A total of 75 studies were included. Among 31,644 individuals tested, 2,291 (6.59%) were E. bieneusi-positive. The highest prevalence of E. bieneusi in the male population was 5.50%. The prevalence of E. bieneusi in different age groups was varied, with 10.97% in teenagers. The prevalence of E. bieneusi in asymptomatic patients (6.49%) is significantly lower than that in HIV-infected patients (11.49%), and in patients with diarrheal symptoms (16.45%). Rural areas had a higher rate (7.58%) than urban ones. The prevalence of E. bieneusi in humans was the highest (6.42%) at altitudes

One SSY type equipment clamp serviced in a 500 kV station was found to be cracked. In this paper, the crcaked cause and mechanism is investigated by means of macroscopic morphology observation, fracture surface morphology observation, X-ray digital detection, metallographic observation. The results indicated that the main reason for the fracture of the equipment clamp this time is that the terminal board is a cast part, which contains a large number of casting defects such as porosity and shrinkage, resulting in a decrease in its effective cross-sectional area and load-bearing capacity. In addition, insufficient modification treatment of the terminal board led to insufficient toughness due to needle or rod-shaped eutectic silicon in the organization. Finally, under the combined action of dynamic load and self weight caused by the swinging of the wire in the wind, the terminal board was brittle fractured along the bolt hole with obvious stress concentration effect.

Primary hepatic carcinoma is a common malignant tumor. The classic molecular targeted drug sorafenib is costly and is only effective for some patients. Therefore, it is of great clinical significance to search for new molecular targeted drugs. Eupalinolide B (EB) from Eupatorium lindleyanum DC. is used to treat chronic tracheitis in clinical practice. However, the role of EB in hepatic carcinoma is unknown. In this study, we first measure the effect of EB on tumor growth in a xenograft model and PDX model. The cell proliferation and migration are also detected in human hepatocarcinoma cell lines (SMMC-7721 and HCCLM3). Then, we investigate cell cycle, cell apoptosis, cell necrosis, cell autophagy, and ferroptosis by flow cytometry, western blot analysis and electron microscopy. The results demonstrate that EB exerts anti-proliferative activity in hepatic carcinoma by blocking cell cycle arrest at S phase and inducing ferroptosis mediated by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, as well as HO-1 activation. When HO-1 is inhibited, EB-induced cell death and ER protein expression are rescued. The migration-related mechanism consists of activation of the ROS-ER-JNK signaling pathway and is not connected to ferroptosis. In summary, we first discover that EB inhibits cell proliferation and migration in hepatic carcinoma, and thus EB is a promising anti-tumor compound that can be used for hepatic carcinoma.

BackgroundCosine function shaping (or cos shaping) is used to digitally shape nuclear pulse signals, as the shaping method is simple and has high operability and flexibility.PurposeThis study aims to explore different cosine shaping methods of nuclear pulse signals, and evaluate their effect.MethodsFirstly, based on the single exponential decay signal and cosine pulse signal, transfer functions and cascade formulas of three different cosine shaping methods in the Z-domain were derived. The influence of the parameter selection on the shaping effect in the cosine shaping algorithm was analyzed. Then, the cosine shaping methods were developed for the simulated nuclear signals and the actual sampled nuclear signals, and the cosine shaping, amplitude extraction, and energy spectrum construction of the digital nuclear signals were implemented in the field programmable gate array (FPGA) system. Finally, the gamma (γ) energy spectrum of 137Cs (NaI(Tl) detector) was evaluated using the different cosine shaping methods.ResultsThe results of γ energy spectrum from 137Cs (NaI(Tl) detector) demonstrate the satisfactory performance of all three digital cosine shaping algorithms in terms of energy resolution and counting. The symmetric zero-area cosine shaping performance index is improved relative to conventional methods.ConclusionsThe three kinds of digital cosine shaping methods all achieve accurate cosine shaping for simulated and real nuclear signals. The three cosine shaping methods proposed in this study may be applied to shape functions in other research areas.

Objectives: We aim to evaluate the association between CORIN and heart failure. Methods: This study used PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane database, and China National Knowledge Database (CNKI) to search for CORIN-related full-text articles with heart failure patients. We drew forest plots, performed sensitivity and bias analyses based on the included data. Next, we used Review Manager 5.2 software to assess the heterogeneity among selected articles. Results: Our meta-analysis results showed there was significant relationship between CORIN and heart failure (HF). There was significant difference of CORIN between heart failure group and control group (MD = −293.88, 95% confidence interval [-380.26, −207.49], p < .00001; heterogeneity p < .0001, I 2 = 97%) and there was significant difference in CORIN between ischemic group and non-ischemic group (MD = 88.79, 95% confidence interval [70.46107.12], heterogeneity p < .000, p = 0.94, l 2 = 0%). In subgroup analysis, there were significant differences in three different HF levels. Limited publication bias was observed, and this study was robust. Conclusion: In short, the results showed that CORIN was closely related with heart failure and might be helpful in the diagnosis of heart failure.

The thick Upper Cambrian Xixiangchi dolostones, developed in the Sichuan Basin, are an important deep exploration target, but their genesis is still controversial, which hinders predicting the porous dolomite distribution and related potential hydrocarbon play. Herein, based on the observation and sampling of field outcrops, combined with a microscopic thin section analysis, cathodoluminescence analysis, and geochemical study, their characteristics and genesis were investigated. The results showed that there are mainly three types of dolomite that can be distinguished: (1) fine crystalline dolomite with a low crystallinity (Type 1); (2) granular dolomite with coarse grains, maintaining the original particle structure (Type 2); and (3) grain-texture relict dolomite with a higher degree of crystal form and obvious recrystallization (Type 3). The Type 1 dolomite with a common lamina structure and the highest 87Sr/86Sr ratio implies the most continental-influenced seawater in a supratidal environment around paleouplift, where there is an evaporation pump effect in its formation. The Type 2 dolomite recorded a slightly higher diagenesis temperature and slightly lower brine salinity, which would be formed in a seepage-reflux model in the beach environment of the platform. The lowest REY content and higher dolomite temperature with structural residuals indicate that the Type 3 dolomite is the result of further burial dolomitization during the diagenetic process.

Inter-patient and intra-tumour heterogeneity (ITH) have prompted the need for a more personalised approach to cancer therapy. Although patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models can generate drug response specific to patients, they are not sustainable in terms of cost and time and have limited scalability. Tumour Organ-on-Chip (OoC) models are in vitro alternatives that can recapitulate some aspects of the 3D tumour microenvironment and can be scaled up for drug screening. While many tumour OoC systems have been developed to date, there have been limited validation studies to ascertain whether drug responses obtained from tumour OoCs are comparable to those predicted from patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. In this study, we established a multiplexed tumour OoC device, that consists of an 8 × 4 array (32-plex) of culture chamber coupled to a concentration gradient generator. The device enabled perfusion culture of primary PDX-derived tumour spheroids to obtain dose-dependent response of 5 distinct standard-of-care (SOC) chemotherapeutic drugs for 3 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. The in vitro efficacies of the chemotherapeutic drugs were rank-ordered for individual patients and compared to the in vivo efficacy obtained from matched PDX models. We show that quantitative correlation analysis between the drug efficacies predicted via the microfluidic perfusion culture is predictive of response in animal PDX models. This is a first study showing a comparative framework to quantitatively correlate the drug response predictions made by a microfluidic tumour organ-on-chip (OoC) model with that of PDX animal models.

PurposeAge-related hearing loss (ARHL), associated with the function of speech perception decreases characterized by bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at high frequencies, has become an increasingly critical public health problem. This study aimed to investigate the topological features of the brain functional network and structural dysfunction of the central nervous system in ARHL using graph theory.MethodsForty-six patients with ARHL and forty-five age, sex, and education-matched healthy controls were recruited to undergo a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan in this study. Graph theory was applied to analyze the topological properties of the functional connectomes by studying the local and global organization of neural networks.ResultsCompared with healthy controls, the patient group showed increased local efficiency (Eloc) and clustering coefficient (Cp) of the small-world network. Besides, the degree centrality (Dc) and nodal efficiency (Ne) values of the left inferior occipital gyrus (IOG) in the patient group showed a decrease in contrast with the healthy control group. In addition, the intra-modular interaction of the occipital lobe module and the inter-modular interaction of the parietal occipital module decreased in the patient group, which was positively correlated with Dc and Ne. The intra-modular interaction of the occipital lobe module decreased in the patient group, which was negatively correlated with the Eloc.ConclusionBased on fMRI and graph theory, we indicate the aberrant small-world network topology in ARHL and dysfunctional interaction of the occipital lobe and parietal lobe, emphasizing the importance of dysfunctional left IOG. These results suggest that early diagnosis and treatment of patients with ARHL is necessary, which can avoid the transformation of brain topology and decreased brain function.

Optical flow has long been a focus of research study in computer vision community. Researchers have established extensive work to solve the optical flow estimation. Among the published works, a notable work using variational energy minimization has been a baseline of optical flow estimation for a long time. Variational optical flow optimization solves an approximate global minimum in a well-defined non-linear Markov Energy formulation. It works by first linearizing the energy model and uses a numerical method specifically successive over-relaxation (SOR) method to solve the resulting linear model. An initialization scheme is required for optical flow field in this iterative optimization method. In the original work, a zero initialization is proposed and it works well on the various environments with photometric and geometric distortion. In this work, we have experimented with different flow field initialization scheme under various environment setting. We found out that variational refinement with a good initial flow estimate using state-of-art optical flow algorithms can further improve its accuracy performance

Melatonin, mostly released by the pineal gland, is a circadian rhythm-regulated and multifunctional hormone. Great advances in melatonin research have been made, including its role in rhythms of the sleep-wake cycle, retardation of ageing processes, as well as antioxidant or anti-inflammatory functions. Melatonin can scavenge free radicals such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), a key factor in reproductive functions. Melatonin plays an important role in oocyte maturation, fertilization and embryonic development as well. The concurrent use of melatonin increases the number of mature oocytes, the fertilization rate, and number of high-quality embryos, which improves the clinical outcome of assisted reproductive technology (ART). This review discusses the relationship between melatonin and human reproductive function, and potential clinical applications of melatonin in the field of reproductive medicine.

Background: Most prior studies have explored surgery for the treatment of failed autologous arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) with limited follow-up times and a lack of end point mortality. Accordingly, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate the clinical outcomes of the surgery of new AVF proximal to the failed forearm AVF. Methods: In this study, 538 end-stage renal disease patients (group A, 418 with primary AVF; and group B, 120 with failed AVF) were consecutively enrolled between January 2013 and June 2016, with a median follow-up time of 41 months. Primary and secondary patency, all-cause mortality, and risk factors associated with AVF failure were explored by the Kaplan–Meier method or Cox proportional hazards model. Results: In group A (n = 418), the primary and secondary patencies of AVF were 85.6% vs. 96.8%, 79.7% vs. 95.0%, 75.1% vs.93.9%, 73.2% vs. 93.6% and 73.2% vs. 93.6% at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 months, respectively. The primary patencies of AVF in group B were 95.0%, 91.7%, 89.2%, 88.3% and 88.3% at 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60 months, respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, age, angiotensin-converting inhibitors or angiotensin-receptor blockers (anti-RAAS) drugs and D-dimer were independent predictors of AVF failure. However, there were no differences between functional and failed AVF regarding all-cause mortality. Conclusions: The study revealed that the primary and secondary patiencies of the surgery of new AVF proximal to the failed ones were ideal operations to restore failed forearm AVF.

Purpose: Individuals with presbycusis often show deficits in cognitive function, however, the exact neurophysiological mechanisms are not well understood. This study explored the alterations in intra- and inter-network functional connectivity (FC) of multiple networks in presbycusis patients, and further correlated FC with cognitive assessment scores to assess their ability to predict cognitive impairment.Methods: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) was performed in 40 presbycusis patients and 40 matched controls, and 12 resting-state networks (RSNs) were identified by independent component analysis (ICA) approach. A two-sample t-test was carried out to detect the intra-network FC differences, and functional network connectivity (FNC) was calculated to compare the inter-network FC differences. Pearson or Spearman correlation analysis was subsequently used to explore the correlation between altered FC and cognitive assessment scores.Results: Our study demonstrated that patients with presbycusis showed significantly decreased FC in the subcortical limbic network (scLN), default mode network (DMN), executive control network (ECN), and attention network (AN) compared with the control group. Moreover, the connectivity for scLN-AUN (auditory network) and VN (visual network)-DMN were found significantly increased while AN-DMN was found significantly decreased in presbycusis patients. Ultimately, this study revealed the intra- and inter-network alterations associated with some cognitive assessment scores.Conclusion: This study observed intra- and inter-network FC alterations in presbycusis patients, and investigated that presbycusis can lead to abnormal connectivity of RSNs and plasticity compensation mechanism, which may be the basis of cognitive impairment, suggesting that FNC can be used to predict potential cognitive impairment in their early stage.

The geomagnetic field prevents energetic particles, such as galactic cosmic rays, from directly interacting with the Earth’s atmosphere. The geomagnetic field is not static but constantly changing, and over the last 100,000 years, several geomagnetic excursions occurred. During geomagnetic field excursions, the field strength is significantly decreased and the field morphology is strongly influenced by non-dipole components, and more cosmic ray particles can access the Earth’s atmosphere. Paleomagnetic field models provide a global view of the long-term geomagnetic field evolution, however, with individual spatial and temporal resolution and uncertainties. Here, we reconstruct the geomagnetic shielding effect over the last 100,000 years by calculating the geomagnetic cutoff rigidity using four global paleomagnetic field models, i.e., the GGF100k, GGFSS70, LSMOD.2, and CALS10k.2 model. We compare results for overlapping periods and find that the model selection is crucial to constrain the cutoff rigidity variation. However, all models indicate that the non-dipole components of the geomagnetic field are not negligible for estimating the long-term geomagnetic shielding effect. We provide a combined record of global cutoff rigidities using the best available model for individual time intervals. Our results provide the possibility to estimate the cosmogenic isotope production rate and cosmic radiation dose rate covering the last 100,000 years according to the best current knowledge about geomagnetic field evolution, and will be useful in further long-term solar activity and climate change reconstruction.

PurposeThe phantom sound of tinnitus is considered to be associated with abnormal functional coupling between the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the prefrontal cortex, which may form a frontostriatal top-down gating system to evaluate and modulate sensory signals. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to recognize the aberrant directional connectivity of the NAc in chronic tinnitus and to ascertain the relationship between this connectivity and tinnitus characteristics.MethodsParticipants included chronic tinnitus patients (n = 50) and healthy controls (n = 55), matched for age, sex, education, and hearing thresholds. The hearing status of both groups was comparable. On the basis of the NAc as a seed region, a Granger causality analysis (GCA) study was conducted to investigate the directional connectivity and the relationship with tinnitus duration or distress.ResultsCompared with healthy controls, tinnitus patients exhibited abnormal directional connectivity between the NAc and the prefrontal cortex, principally the middle frontal gyrus (MFG), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Additionally, positive correlations between tinnitus handicap questionnaire (THQ) scores and increased directional connectivity from the right NAc to the left MFG (r = 0.357, p = 0.015) and from the right MFG to the left NAc (r = 0.626, p < 0.001) were observed. Furthermore, the enhanced directional connectivity from the right NAc to the right OFC was positively associated with the duration of tinnitus (r = 0.599, p < 0.001).ConclusionIn concurrence with expectations, tinnitus distress was correlated with enhanced directional connectivity between the NAc and the prefrontal cortex. The current study not only helps illuminate the neural basis of the frontostriatal gating control of tinnitus sensation but also contributes to deciphering the neuropathological features of tinnitus.

Abstract Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease with high mortality and increasing prevalence in the East Asia. Though the etiological agent has been identified as a novel Bunyavirus, cellular mechanisms of viral pathogenesis and host immune response to SFTS virus infection remain unknown. A comprehensive study was conducted on a cohort of 70 patients on clinical manifestations, viral loads, modulation of cytokines, serum interferon level, immune related gene expression in peripheral blood cells, and dynamic changes of circulating dendritic cells during the acute phase of SFTSV infection. We found that high level viremia, reduced platelets, coagulation dysfunction, multi-organ injuries, elevated IL-6 and TNF-α were closely associated with the aggravation of SFTS. In addition, we demonstrated strong correlations between disease severity and the decline of serum IFN-β and IL-1β level, reduction of myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and suppressed Toll like receptor 3 expression in monocytes and mDCs. In general, dysfunction of innate immune response and cytokine storm are both involved in the pathogenesis of SFTS. Reduction of myeloid DCs contributes to the fatal outcome of SFTS virus infection, and the regulation of TLR3 could probably be the mechanism.

The hourglass mode emerging from the analysis of the lateral pressure for the submarine cable,which makes effect of the accuracy of the simulation results. Different hourglass control modes were adopted to find out the reasons for the formation of the hourglass. and emphasis on distinguishing the parts which have serious hourglass mode and the control method were introduced. Firstly this paper finds out which components have the serious hourglass mode. Then several control methods of the hourglass mode were studied and compared by adjusting the different hourglass control coefficient,the most effective control method was concluded and a more accurate result was got.

When there are water rich-karst caves or large faults in front of the tunnel face, blind construction may easily cause safety accidents such as water inrush, mud outburst and collapse. Using advanced geological prediction methods to predict the spatial distribution of unfavorable geological bodies can greatly reduce construction risks. This paper introduces a new seismic reflection imaging system TSP-SK, and discusses the features, working mode and data processing methods of the prediction system, and verifies the reliability of TSP-SK through practical tunnel engineering prediction case. The result shows that TSP-SK can collect high signal-to-noise ratio seismic reflection data with little interference from clean first arrival when the water sealing effect of explosives in the borehole is good. Good reflection wave pickup effect can be obtained when the maximum gain of inverse Q filter and Q value are taken in the range of 15 to 30. The prediction results of TSP-SK are in good agreement with the actual excavation results, that is, the areas with low P-wave velocity indicate poor rock mass quality, and the area of low S-wave velocity is more likely to produce water from construction.

The traditional power distribution room lacks intelligent monitoring business functions, which is not conducive to the requirements of intelligent operation and maintenance. This article takes the intelligent IoT terminal(Internet of Things terminal) as the center, carries out the layout design of the distribution room sensor, combines the intelligent collection of the distribution room, and accesses the sensing equipment to build a smart distribution room, meanwhile, this paper designs the intelligent terminal which adopts the edge computing technology to carry out the environment temperature and humidity assessment, equipment partial discharge analysis and assessment, temperature rise assessment and other micro-applications to provide support for the construction of smart distribution room.

The influence factors on the transmission efficiency of MPV car driving axle are analyzed by using the vehicle rear axle transmission efficiency test bench. After the experiment of the drive axle,it is found that the bearing is an important factor affecting the efficiency of the drive axle. The friction torque of bearing,bearing clearance and friction torque of the sealing ring are analyzed to find the main factor of friction torque.The results show that friction torque of the sealing ring,which is accounted for over 85%,is the main power consumer of the frication torque of rear axle. Moreover,the transmission efficiency of rear axle can be improved when bearing clearance increases in an appropriate way.

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has been widely used in traceability of food-borne outbreaks nowadays. Here, an interesting connection between Cronobacter sakazakii and food-borne acute gastroenteritis (AGE) was noticed. In October 2016, an AGE outbreak affecting 156 cases occurred in a local senior high school. Case-control study including 70 case-patients and 295 controls indicated a strong association between eating supper at school canteen of the outbreak onset and AGE, as revealed by the Odds Ratio (OR: 95.32). Six recovered Cronobacter strains were evaluated and compared using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and WGS. A phylogenetic tree of whole genomic single nucleotide polymorphisms (wgSNPs) were generated to traceback the potential contamination source in this outbreak. C. sakazakii isolates S2 from a patient’s rectal swab and S4 from leftover food sample shared identical PFGE pattern and sequence type (ST73), and clustered tightly together in the SNP phylogenetic tree. C. sakazakii isolates S5 and S6 from food delivery containers were both ST4 but with different PFGE patterns. Cronobacter isolates S1 and S3 from two patients’ rectal swab were sequenced to be C. malonaticus and shared another PFGE pattern (ST567). The interesting feature of this study was the implication of C. sakazakii as a causative agent in food-borne AGE occurring in healthy adults, although C. sakazakii is considered as an opportunistic pathogen and generally affects neonates, infants and immunocompromised adults.