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According to agronomic requirements, the bag removal of shiitake mushroom logs should be carried out promptly during factory production. However, the current manual bag removal process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, limiting the development of the shiitake mushroom industry. Robotic bag removal is the best solution to this problem. In this paper, firstly, a novel robotic bag removal method was proposed, measuring and analyzing the biomechanical parameters of shiitake mushroom logs. It was determined that the maximum normal stress that does not cause damage when gripping the logs is 455.56 N. Secondly, a novel bag removal end-effector was designed, including a gripping mechanism and a vacuum sponge sucker mechanism. Thirdly, a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm combined with numerical simulation was used to optimize the suction hole layout and vacuum degree of the vacuum sponge sucker, reducing the maximum deformation and overall deformation of the bag during the bag removal process by 36.11 % and 56.23 %, respectively. Furthermore, a robotic bag removal test bench was built using the designed bag removal end-effector. The test results showed a bag removal success rate of 87.04 % and a gripping damage rate of 0 %, proving the effectiveness and feasibility of this method. The designed end-effector has high potential for integration into a robot to support the bag removal process of shiitake mushroom logs in factory-based production.

Abstract Pavement cracks affect the structural stability and safety of roads, making accurate identification of crack for assessing the extent of damage and evaluating road health. However, traditional convolutional neural networks often struggle with issues such as missed detection and false detection when extracting cracks. This paper introduces a network called CPCDNet, designed to maintain continuous extraction of pavement cracks. The model incorporates a Crack align module (CAM) and a Weighted Edge Cross Entropy Loss Function (WECEL) to enhance the continuity of crack extraction in complex environments. Experimental results show that the proposed model achieves mIoU scores of 77.71%, 80.36%, 91.19%, and 71.16% on the public datasets CFD, Crack500, Deepcrack537, and Gaps384, respectively. Compared to other networks, the proposed method improves the continuity and accuracy of crack extraction.

The characterization accuracy of damage indices in massive and porous composite biomaterials under complex osmotic conditions has long been a challenge in engineering materials science. Establishing correlations between damage indices calculated using different methodologies is crucial to validate and improve defects characterizations. In this study, we investigated the damage index correlation of cylindrical massive granite-porous backfill structural composites under both dry and seepage conditions. A series of triaxial cyclic loading and unloading tests were conducted on specimens under hydromechanical conditions with varying osmotic pressures (0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 MPa) and a confining pressure of 9 MPa involving acoustic emission monitoring and phase-based 3D nondestructive CT scanning. The results revealed the AE energy was lower under osmotic conditions compared to dry conditions. The AE Damage Index (DAE), defined by separating tensile and shear microcracking signals, significantly increased from 0.32 to 0.55 with rising osmotic pressure. 3D mesoscopic fracture visualization provided detailed insights into the fractures in granite and backfill interfaces. The number of small-angle cracks increased with osmotic pressure, and the crack inclination distribution range expanded from 63°- 85° to 49°–80°. The average crack angle showed a significant monotonic decrease with increasing osmotic pressure. An Energy Dissipation Damage Index (DED) was defined, and its correlation with the DAE under dry conditions was modeled using a reciprocal function DED=a/(DAE+bσ3)+c. This novel approach offers insights into the transition points between tensile and shear-dominated failure stages. Furthermore, an exponential function DV=aDAEb(b

ABSTRACT Background Krabbe disease (KD; globoid cell leucodystrophy) is a rare autosomal recessive lipid storage disorder that affects the white matter of the peripheral and central nervous. Late‐onset KD is less frequently diagnosed and often presents with milder symptoms, making accurate diagnosis challenging, especially when distinguishing it from peripheral neuropathy. In this report, we present two cases of late‐onset KD in a Chinese family. The first case involves a 25‐year‐old female who sought treatment due to long‐standing spastic gait and deformities in her lower limbs. A muscle biopsy revealed muscle atrophy, and electromyography indicated neurogenic damage. Her 27‐year‐old sister (Case 2) exhibited similar lower limb weakness, along with more severe central and peripheral neurological symptoms. Methods The patients' peripheral blood was retained for galactocerebrosidase (GALC) enzyme activity assaying and whole exome gene sequencing. Results GALC enzyme activity assaying showed decreased GALC activity and gene sequencing revealed homozygous mutation of p.L634S (c.1901T>C) in the two cases. Conclusion This study broadens the scope for considering of KD in the diagnosis of patients presenting with muscle weakness and deformities in the lower limbs.

Histotripsy has been proposed as a non-invasive surgical procedure for clinical use that liquefies the tissue into acellular debris by utilizing the mechanical mechanism of bubbles. Accurate and reliable imaging guidance is essential for successful clinical histotripsy implementation. Nakagami imaging is a promising method to evaluate the microstructural change induced by high intensity focused ultrasound. However, practically, it is difficult for the Nakagami imaging to distinguish the treated lesion induced by histotripsy from the surrounding normal biological tissues. In this study, we introduce the use of noise-assisted correlation algorithm (NCA) in Nakagami images as a solution to suppress the background normal tissue and identify the treated lesion induced by histotripsy. Experiments are conducted on fresh porcine liver ex vivo by cavitation-cloud histotripsy. Results show that the contrast-to-noise ratio between the treated lesion and surrounding tissue corresponding to the Nakagami image after NCA and original Nakagami image is 3.434 and 0.505, respectively. The optimal artificial noise level is 1-fold of the background normal tissue amplitude, and the corresponding optimal threshold of correlation coefficient should be between 0.6 and 0.8 in the application of NCA. Therefore, the use of NCA in Nakagami image can suppress the background normal tissues without affecting the information of treated lesion for an appropriate artificial noise level and threshold used in the NCA. Moreover, the Nakagami images after the application of the NCA can also be used for automatically distinguishing and measuring the tissue fractionation accurately using binarization. The proposed Nakagami images overlaid on the B-mode images can provide a promising method for positioning and visualizing the treated lesion to achieve precise histotripsy treatment.

Introduction: Penile fracture is an uncommon urological emergency resulting from tunica albuginea rupture during penile erection. It is a rare condition requiring urgent surgery. Despite immediate surgical repair, the patients' erectile functions may still be impacted by penile fracture. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of surgical repair in penile fractures and its impact on erectile function. Methods: Our cohort was composed of patients diagnosed with penile fractures and received surgical repair from September 2014 to August 2022 in Peking University First Hospital. Penile color Doppler ultrasound confirmed the diagnosis. Surgical exploration was conducted, and postoperative complications were evaluated during follow-up. Erectile function was assessed using the International Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) score. Univariate analysis was conducted employing the chi-square test, t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test to identify factors that may impact postoperative erectile function. Furthermore, multivariate analysis was conducted using logistic regression and linear regression to determine the independent risk factors influencing postoperative erectile function. Results: A total of 58 patients were enrolled in our study. The majority of injuries (69.0 %, 40/58) resulted from vigorous sexual intercourse. Most of the patients (69.0 %, 40/58) presented within 24 h. Sixteen patients (27.6 %) presented with concomitant urethral injury. The median size of the tunical tear was 1.5 (IQR, 1.0–2.0) cm. Presentation delay correlated significantly with the difference in IIEF-5 score before and after surgery, with corresponding p values of 0.028. Urethral injury correlated significantly with postoperative erectile dysfunction (ED), postoperative IIEF-5 score, and the difference in IIEF-5 score before and after surgery, with corresponding p values of 0.002, 0.004, and 0.002, respectively. Conclusions: To conclude, surgical repair of penile fracture provides good functional results with few morbidities and urethral injury may adversely affect postoperative erectile function after penile fracture repair.

In the deep mining process, the coupling effect of high stress and high water pressure results in a more complex evolution mechanism of rock mechanical properties. In this work, the degradation effect of granite under complicated conditions is analyzed for analysis and failure characteristics by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance granite initial porosity measurement. A high-temperature triaxial rheological rock system was used to conduct the stress–seepage coupling experiment, introducing energy consumption than energy evolution of granite failure process analysis, and this is combined with the accurate and basic characteristics of the granite building stress–seepage coupling damage constitutive model. The findings reveal that the main pore in granite is the main cause of porosity change, which directly impacts the porosity size and sample strength. Porosity size is associated with secondary pores and main pores, and the porosity is difficult to be affected by the proportion of micropores. The peak strength and peak strain of rock decrease linearly with increasing pore pressure as the decreasing rate gradually increases and increase linearly with increasing confining pressure as the increasing rate gradually decreases. The peak permeability increases linearly with increasing pore pressure but decreases linearly with increasing confining pressure. Rock failure strain energy exhibits an evident confining pressure effect and pore water pressure effect. The peak stress point is the extreme point of elastic energy. After the peak point, the elastic energy rapidly transforms into dissipated energy of rock damage. The energy dissipation ratio increases in the early stage and decreases in the late stage with increasing confining pressure and increases overall with increasing pore pressure. The initial porosity of granite is introduced, and the rock is considered as the solid skeleton and the pore, and the initial nonlinear deformation of rock is employed to build the stress–seepage coupling constitutive model based on the deformation characteristics. The model parameters are obtained by the quadratic logarithm operation method. Compared with the experimental results, the model is found to be of high applicability. The experimental results offer guidance for the analysis of rock deformation characteristics. In the support design of the deep mine roadway, the weakening effect of groundwater on surrounding rock should be fully considered. Effective support of the roadway before the rapid increase of dissipative energy has a significant impact on mitigating mine disasters.

This work focuses on the effect of the interval between two shocks on the ejecta formation from the grooved aluminum (Al1100) surface by using smoothed particle hydrodynamics numerical simulation. Two unsupported shocks are obtained by the plate-impact between sample and two flyers at interval, with a peak pressure of approximately 30 GPa for each shock. When the shock interval varies from 2.11 to 7.67 times the groove depth, the bubble velocity reduces to a constant, and the micro jetting factor RJ from spike to bubble exhibits a non-monotonic change that decreases initially and then increases. At a shock interval of 3.6 times the groove depth, micro jetting factor RJ from spike to bubble reaches its minimum value of approximately 0.6. While, the micro jetting factor RF from spike to free surface decreases linearly at first, and stabilizes around 0.25 once the shock interval surpasses 4.18 times the groove depth. When the shock interval is less than 4.18 times the groove depth, the unloading wave generated by the breakout of the first shock wave is superimpose with the unloading part of the second shock wave to form a large tensile area.

Rock-encased-backfill (RB) structures are common in underground mining, for example in the cut-and-fill and stoping methods. To understand the effects of cyclic excavation and blasting activities on the damage of these RB structures, a series of triaxial stepwise-increasing-amplitude cyclic loading experiments was conducted with cylindrical RB specimens (rock on outside, backfill on inside) with different volume fractions of rock (VF = 0.48, 0.61, 0.73, and 0.84), confining pressures (0, 6, 9, and 12 MPa), and cyclic loading rates (200, 300, 400, and 500 N/s). The damage evolution and meso-crack formation during the cyclic tests were analyzed with results from stress-strain hysteresis loops, acoustic emission events, and post-failure X-ray 3D fracture morphology. The results showed significant differences between cyclic and monotonic loadings of RB specimens, particularly with regard to the generation of shear microcracks, the development of stress memory and strain hardening, and the contact forces and associated friction that develops along the rock-backfill interface. One important finding is that as a function of the number of cycles, the elastic strain increases linearly and the dissipated energy increases exponentially. Also, compared with monotonic loading, the cyclic strain hardening characteristics are more sensitive to rising confining pressures during the initial compaction stage. Another finding is that compared with monotonic loading, more shear microcracks are generated during every reloading stage, but these microcracks tend to be dispersed and lessen the likelihood of large shear fracture formation. The transition from elastic to plastic behavior varies depending on the parameters of each test (confinement, volume fraction, and cyclic rate), and an interesting finding was that the transformation to plastic behavior is significantly lower under the conditions of 0.73 rock volume fraction, 400 N/s cyclic loading rate, and 9 MPa confinement. All the findings have important practical implications on the ability of backfill to support underground excavations.

Based on the construction of the human body key point recognition model and the study of Chinese medicine meridian and acupuncture point theory, the detection framework for human body acupuncture points was realized by combining the relationship between key points and acupuncture points. In the human body acupuncture point detection framework, deep learning is first used to construct the human body key point recognition model, and the model is trained with a human body image dataset. The target detection model is built using the Faster R-CNN algorithm to perform human target detection, while the HRNet key point recognition algorithm is employed to detect human key points through thermal regression. Based on the “acupoint-located method by bone proportional Cun” from the standards of Chinese medicine for acupuncture points, this study proposes a calculation method for converting pixel values to ‘cun’ values. By examining the positional relationships of ‘cun’ values between different acupoints in the theory of channels and meridians in Chinese medicine, the pixel coordinates of the acupoints are calculated after conversion. The key point detection model is then utilized to detect the pixel coordinates of multiple acupoints in the input human image, enabling the visualization of these acupoints on the image. The experimental results successfully detected all 21 acupoints in the Bladder Meridian of Foot-Taiyang, and the moxibustion efficacy was not affected within the error range. Through information fusion, the combination of the human body key point detection algorithm with Chinese medicine meridian and acupoint theory enabled successful detection of acupoints in human body images, providing improved support for intelligent moxibustion point recognition.

Porous materials are widely used in the field of protection because of their excellent energy absorption characteristics. In this work, a series of polyurethane microscopic models are established and the effect of porosity on the shock waves is studied with classical molecular dynamics simulations. Firstly, shock Hugoniot relations for different porosities are obtained, which compare well with the experimental data. The pores collapse and form local stress wave, which results in the complex multi-wave structure of the shock wave. The microstructure analysis shows that the local stress increases and the local velocity decreases gradually during the process of pore collapse to complete compaction. Finally, it leads to stress relaxation and velocity homogenization. The shock stress peaks can be fitted with two exponential functions, and the amplitude of attenuation coefficient decreases with the increase of density. Besides, the pore collapse under shock or non-shock are discussed by the entropy increase rate of the system. The energy is dissipated mainly through the multiple interactions of the waves under shock. The energy is dissipated mainly by the friction between atoms under non-shock.

Pavement distress detection is crucial in road health assessment and monitoring. However, there are still some challenges in extracting pavement distress based on deep learning: such as insufficient segmentation, extraction errors and discontinuities. In this paper, we propose DARNet, a network for pavement distress extraction. A Distress Aware Attention Module (DAAM) is proposed to solve the problem of discontinuity in distress extraction due to inaccurate recovery of distress pixels during upsampling. Based on the characteristics of distress morphology, a Refinement Extraction Module (REM) is designed to effectively capture horizontal and vertical pavement damage features by fusing high-level and low-level features, which improves the accuracy of the model in extracting details of pavement damage information. Finally, a Weighted Cross-Entropy Loss function (WCEL) is introduced to assign weights according to the distance of the pixel point to the boundary of the distress, which solves the problem that the traditional cross entropy function treats each pixel point equally. We also propose a set of pavement distress datasets LNTU_RDD_GS, and the experimental results show that DARNet can reach 82.68% mIoU and 90.13% F score in the datasets in this paper, 80.63% mIoU and 88.35% F score in the four public datasets.

The analysis of land cover using deep learning techniques plays a pivotal role in understanding land use dynamics, which is crucial for land management, urban planning, and cartography. However, due to the complexity of remote sensing images, deep learning models face practical challenges in the preprocessing stage, such as incomplete extraction of large-scale geographic features, loss of fine details, and misalignment issues in image stitching. To address these issues, this paper introduces the Multi-Scale Modular Extraction Framework (MMS-EF) specifically designed to enhance deep learning models in remote sensing applications. The framework incorporates three key components: (1) a multiscale overlapping segmentation module that captures comprehensive geographical information through multi-channel and multiscale processing, ensuring the integrity of large-scale features; (2) a multiscale feature fusion module that integrates local and global features, facilitating seamless image stitching and improving classification accuracy; and (3) a detail enhancement module that refines the extraction of small-scale features, enriching the semantic information of the imagery. Extensive experiments were conducted across various deep learning models, and the framework was validated on two public datasets. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach effectively mitigates the limitations of traditional preprocessing methods, significantly improving feature extraction accuracy and exhibiting strong adaptability across different datasets.

Abstract Purpose Tenosynovial giant cell tumour (TGCT) is a benign hyperplastic and inflammatory disease of the joint synovium or tendon sheaths, which may be misdiagnosed due to its atypical symptoms and imaging features. We aimed to identify biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity to aid in diagnosing TGCT. Methods Two scRNA-seq datasets (GSE210750 and GSE152805) and two microarray datasets (GSE3698 and GSE175626) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. By integrating the scRNA-seq datasets, we discovered that the osteoclasts are abundant in TGCT in contrast to the control. The single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) further validated this discovery. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of the GSE3698 dataset were screened and the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses of DEGs were conducted. Osteoclast-specific up-regulated genes (OCSURGs) were identified by intersecting the osteoclast marker genes in the scRNA-seq and the up-regulated DEGs in the microarray and by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression algorithm. The expression levels of OCSURGs were validated by an external dataset GSE175626. Then, single gene GSEA, protein–protein interaction (PPI) network, and gene-drug network of OCSURGs were performed. Result 22 seurat clusters were acquired and annotated into 10 cell types based on the scRNA-seq data. TGCT had a larger population of osteoclasts compared to the control. A total of 159 osteoclast marker genes and 104 DEGs (including 61 up-regulated genes and 43 down-regulated genes) were screened from the scRNA-seq analysis and the microarray analysis. Three OCSURGs (MMP9, SPP1, and TYROBP) were finally identified. The AUC of the ROC curve in the training and testing datasets suggested a favourable diagnostic capability. The PPI network results illustrated the protein–protein interaction of each OCSURG. Drugs that potentially target the OCSURGs were predicted by the DGIdb database. Conclusion MMP9, SPP1, and TYROBP were identified as osteoclast-specific up-regulated genes of the tenosynovial giant cell tumour via bioinformatic analysis, which had a reasonable diagnostic efficiency and served as potential drug targets.

To study the influence of the addition of basalt fibers on the mechanical properties, pore structure, and damage evolution characteristics of the cemented tailings backfill (CTB), the uniaxial compression tests, nuclear magnetic resonance tests and scanning electron microscopy analysis were conducted on the CTB with four different content and lengths of basalt fibers. Test results show the following. (1) An increase in the content of basalt fibers will lead to an increase in the proportion of micropores and secondary pores in the CTB, while a decrease in the proportion of macropores. The influence of basalt fiber length on pore structure is not as significant as the content. (2) With the increase of basalt fiber content and length, the peak stress and peak strain of the CTB increase, but the elastic modulus decreases. Basalt fiber can significantly improve the ductility and bearing time of the CTB, with a length of 12 mm and a content of 1.5 % having the best effect. The length of basalt fibers affects macroscopic mechanics more than content. (3) The CTB without fiber have fewer cracks and faster crack propagation speed, while the CTB with fiber have more cracks and slower crack propagation speed. Basalt fibers mainly play a bridging role between hydration products, delaying the failure process of the sample. (4) A damage constitutive model was constructed. The rationality and reliability of the model were verified, and the damage evolution law of CTB was analyzed. The content and length of basalt fibers have a positive impact on damage evolution.

Background Understanding the evolution of circadian rhythm dysfunction and psychopathology in the high-risk population has important implications for the prevention of bipolar disorder. Nevertheless, some of the previous studies on the emergence of psychopathologies and circadian dysfunction among high-risk populations were inconsistent and limited.Aims To examine the prevalence rates of sleep and circadian dysfunctions, mental disorders and their symptoms in the offspring of parents with (O-BD) and without bipolar disorder (O-control).Methods The study included 191 O-BD and 202 O-control subjects aged 6–21 years from the Greater Bay Area, China. The diagnoses and symptoms of sleep/circadian rhythm and mental disorders were assessed by the Diagnostic Interview for Sleep Patterns and Disorders, and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children-Present and Lifetime Version, respectively. Generalised estimating equations and shared frailty proportional hazards models of survival analysis were applied to compare the outcomes in the offspring.Results Adjusting for age, sex and region of recruitment, there was a significantly higher risk of delayed sleep phase symptoms (9.55% vs 2.58%, adjusted OR: 4.04) in O-BD than in O-control. O-BD had a nearly fivefold higher risk of mood disorders (11.70% vs 3.47%, adjusted OR: 4.68) and social anxiety (6.28% vs 1.49%, adjusted OR: 4.70), a fourfold higher risk of depressive disorders (11.17% vs 3.47%, adjusted OR: 3.99) and a threefold higher risk of mood symptoms (20.74% vs 10.40%, adjusted OR: 2.59) than O-control. Subgroup analysis revealed that O-BD children (aged under 12 years) had a nearly 2-fold higher risk of any mental and behavioural symptoms than O-control, while there was a nearly 4-fold higher risk of delayed sleep phase symptoms, a 7.5-fold higher risk of social anxiety and a 3-fold higher risk of mood symptoms in O-BD adolescents (aged 12 years and over).Conclusions There was an increase in delayed sleep phase symptoms in O-BD adolescents compared with their control counterparts, confirming the central role of circadian rhythm dysfunction in bipolar disorder. The findings of the specific age-related and stage-related developmental patterns of psychopathologies and circadian dysfunction in children and adolescent offspring of parents with bipolar disorder paved the way to develop specific and early clinical intervention and prevention strategies.Trial registration number NCT03656302.

Under deep mining conditions, rocks are subjected to complex multi-physical fields and can contain numerous pores and fractures. To explore the influence and correlation of these factors on the physical and mechanical properties of fractured rock samples, this study conducted triaxial compression tests on sandstone specimens under various physical conditions using a rock full stress multi-field coupling triaxial tester. Additionally, a random fracture model for multi-field coupling numerical simulation was established. This allowed the study to obtain the mechanical parameters, failure mode, and internal fracture development of rocks under multi-physical field conditions. By analyzing the complete stress-strain curve, mechanical characteristic points, and permeability, a combination of laboratory tests and numerical simulations was used to examine how temperature, seepage, and stress fields affect the development of pores and fractures in rocks. It was found that the temperature field, under conventional geothermal conditions, generates tensile force through thermal expansion and the presence of fluid, thereby promoting fracture development within the rocks. This mechanism is similar to that of seepage. The confining pressure caused by deep geo stress uniformly inhibits the expansion of pores and fissures within the rocks.

Refractance window (RW) drying is a new thin-layer drying technology that can control well the heating temperature to effectively reduce the loss of heat-sensitive substances. Here, an experiment on tomato pulp drying was carried out to study the drying characteristics of RW drying based on a D-optimal mixture design. The fitting of the classical model of thin-layer drying was studied, and SAS and 1stOpt calculation software were used to analyze the test data. The result showed that the RW drying equipment could dry 8 mm of tomato pulp in 120 min, and the maximum drying speed could reach 0.40 g/(g·min). Based on an effective diffusion coefficient under different conditions, the activation energy was 27.35 kJ/mol at an air speed of 3 m/s. When comparing the fitting of the moisture ratio curve in four classic thin-layer drying models, it was found that the R-square value of the modified Page model was 0.9960, which had better fitting properties. Then, the polynomial fitting model of thin-layer drying reflects the regression relationship between the coefficient of the classic model and drying conditions including temperature, wind speed, and time. After comparison with the classic model and validation experiment, the results showed that there is no significant difference between the polynomial fitting model and the validations under a confidence level of 0.95, which could well predict the change in the water content ratio over time under different conditions.

To study the structural parameter influence on the creep mechanical properties of surrounding rock and filling body (SR-FB) composite specimens, reveal their creep energy change laws and damage evolution characteristics, the composite specimens with different inner diameters (12 mm, 18 mm, 24 mm, or 30 mm) were prepared, conventional triaxial tests and triaxial creep tests were carried out. Besides, Computed tomography (CT) scanning was used to analyze the internal crack growth before loading and after creep failure. The results show that with the increase of inner diameters, the SR-FB creep deformation increased, peak strengths decreased from 87.42 MPa to 60.60 MPa, long-term strengths decreased from 69.10 MPa to 48.35 MPa, and the steady-state creep rate increased exponentially. The three-dimensional reconstruction shows that with the increase of inner diameters, the SR-FB failure modes were transformed from single slope shear failure to tension-conjugate shear failure, and the internal cracks significantly increased. Furthermore, the creep energy and damage development of SR-FB were nonlinear related to the inner diameter and stress level. An improved creep damage constitutive model considering inner diameter and stress level was established, which can better characterize the whole creep process of SR-FB.

In order to investigate the drying characteristics of green Sichuan pepper by heat pump and optimize the drying process parameters to improve the quality of dried green Sichuan pepper, the single-factor experiments and orthogonal tests on the drying process of green Sichuan pepper were conducted in this study. Temperature, air speed and laying thickness were defined as test factors, and effective moisture diffusion coefficient, photosynthetic pigment unit mass content and color difference were determined as evaluation indexes. Six commonly used drying mathematical models were used to fit the orthogonal test data nonlinearly, respectively. The results showed that the Page model had the best fit to the test data and it was the best model to describe the drying of green Sichuan pepper by heat pump. Under the constant temperature drying condition, the effect of temperature on the effective moisture diffusion coefficient and color difference was highly significant (P

Abstract Deep convolutional neural networks have become a popular tool for the automatic detection of pavement cracks. Despite their widespread use, the models currently available tend to emphasize pixel‐level classification accuracy for cracks, often overlooking the critical aspect of crack continuity. Addressing this gap, the authors’ research introduces a new method for the continuous detection of ultrafine pavement cracks, centred around the concept of topological loss. The authors’ novel approach hinges on expressing the disconnectivity between the background areas in an image through the connectivity of the cracks themselves. The proposed loss function accomplishes this by penalizing the unnecessary disconnection of the background areas, thereby minimizing the risk of false‐positive crack predictions. In this study, the authors trained and tested a crack‐detection network using the Crack500 dataset, as well as a new dataset specifically compiled for ultrafine crack analysis. The experimental outcomes indicate that the amalgamation of the mean squared error and the authors’ novel spatial topological loss function leads to a substantial improvement in the topological structure of ultrafine crack detection.

Pavement distress detection is a crucial task when assessing pavement performance conditions. Here, a novel deep-learning method based on a transformer network, referred to as ISTD-DisNet, is proposed for multi-type pavement distress semantic segmentation. In this methodology, a mix transformer (MiT) based on a hierarchical transformer structure is chosen as the backbone to obtain multi-scale feature information on pavement distress, and a mixed attention module (MAM) is introduced at the decoding stage to capture the pavement distress features across different channels and spatial locations. A learnable transposed convolution upsampling module (TCUM) enhances the model’s ability to restore multi-scale distress details. Subsequently, a novel parameter—the distress pixel density ratio (PDR)—is introduced based on the segmentation results. Analyzing the intrinsic correlation between the PDR and the pavement condition index (PCI), a new pavement damage index prediction model is proposed. Finally, the experimental results reveal that the F1 and mIOU of the proposed method are 95.51% and 91.67%, respectively, and the segmentation performance is better than that of the other seven mainstream segmentation models. Further PCI prediction model validation experimental results also indicate that utilizing the PDR enables the quantitative evaluation of the pavement damage conditions for each assessment unit, holding promising engineering application potential.

Abstract Background Suboptimal medication adherence is a major reason for failure in the management of major depressive disorder (MDD), childhood trauma might be an essential risk factor of suboptimal medication adherence. This study aimed to comprehensively explore the associations between different types of childhood trauma and medication adherence among patients with MDD, and to test whether resilience has moderating effects on the foregoing associations. Methods Participants were from the Depression Cohort in China (ChiCTR registry number 1900022145), 282 MDD patients with completed both baseline and 12-weeks follow-up investigations were included in this study. The diagnosis of MDD was assessed by trained psychiatrists using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.). Childhood trauma was evaluated using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-28 item Short Form (CTQ-SF), and resilience was evaluated using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Demographic characteristics, depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, suicidal ideation, suicidal attempt, insomnia symptoms, and painful somatic symptoms were also investigated. Participants were divided into groups of optimal and suboptimal adherence based on their Medication Adherence Rating Scale scores. Logistic regression and stratified analyses were performed. Results A total of 234 participants (83%) reported suboptimal medication adherence. After adjusting for covariates, CTQ total scores (AOR = 1.03, 95%CI = 1.01–1.06), CTQ measures of sexual abuse (AOR = 1.17, 95%CI = 1.01–1.37), and CTQ measures of physical neglect (AOR = 1.12, 95%CI = 1.02–1.23) were all associated with an increased likelihood of suboptimal adherence. There were significant moderating effects of resilience on the associations of childhood trauma (P = 0.039) and physical neglect (P = 0.034) with medication adherence. The stratification analyses showed that CTQ total scores and CTQ measures of physical neglect were independently associated with an increased risk of suboptimal adherence among patients with MDD with low-resilience or moderate-resilience, while not significantly associated with suboptimal adherence in those with high-resilience. Conclusion Childhood trauma was a significant risk factor of suboptimal adherence among patients with MDD, and resilience moderated the foregoing association. Obtaining a history of childhood trauma and assessing resilience may help identify patients with suboptimal adherence when providing MDD pharmacotherapy. Psychiatrists may consider enhancing resilience to cope with the adverse effects of childhood trauma on medication adherence.

IntroductionSepsis is a common but serious disease in intensive care units, which may induce multiple organ dysfunctions such as liver injury. Previous studies have demonstrated that gamma delta (γδ) T cells play a protective role in sepsis. However, the function and mechanism of γδ T cells in sepsis-induced liver injury have not been fully elucidated. IL-17A-producing γδ T cells are a newly identified cell subtype.MethodsWe utilized IL-17A-deficient mice to investigate the role of IL-17A-producing γδ T cells in sepsis using the cecum ligation and puncture (CLP) model.ResultsOur findings suggested that these cells were the major source of IL-17A and protected against sepsis-induced liver injury. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that these γδ T cells expressed Vγ4 TCR and migrated into liver from peripheral post CLP, in a CCR6-dependent manner. When CLP mice were treated with anti-CCR6 antibody to block CCR6-CCL20 axis, the recruitment of Vγ4+ γδ T cells was abolished, indicating a CCR6-dependent manner of migration. Interestingly, pseudo germ-free CLP mice treated with antibiotics showed that hepatic IL-17A+ γδ T cells were regulated by gut commensal microbes. E. coli alone were able to restore the protective effect in pseudo germ-free mice by rescuing hepatic IL-17A+ γδ T cell population.ConclusionOur research has shown that Vγ4+ IL-17A+ γδ T cells infiltrating into the liver play a crucial role in protecting against sepsis-induced liver injury. This protection was contingent upon the recruitment of CCR6 and regulated by gut commensal microbes.

Reducing solid waste emission is the development direction of cleaner production in the future. This paper proposes to use the agricultural solid waste rice husk ash (RHA) as an alternative cementitious material for the underground filling of mines. The pore structure and mechanical properties of cemented paste backfill with different RHA dosages (RCPB) are analyzed. The results reveal that: (1) The pore structure of RCPB is divided into three types: micropores (100 μm). The total number of micropores accounts for the largest proportion, followed by secondary pores and main pores. The total volume of secondary pores accounts for the largest proportion, followed by micropores and main pores. (2) The porosity decreases and the UCS increases with the increase of RHA dosage and curing time. The UCS decreases linearly with the increase of RHA dosage. The UCS has a linear negative correlation with porosity. (3) The cracks of RCPB initiated at the yield point, gradually expanded at the peak point, and finally penetrated at the post-peak point. The failure mode of RCPB is mainly a tensile failure, accompanied by a small number of secondary tensile cracks. (4) The hydration products of RCPB are mainly C–S–H and AFt gels. The greater the RHA dosage and CT, the more hydration products, the fewer pores, the greater the strength, and the greater the average gray value. The outcome of this work will afford a new ideas and methods for using solid waste (Rice husk) as backfilling.

In this paper, the internal pore structure and mechanical properties of cemented paste backfill (CPB) with different mix proportions are studied by low field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test, and the relationship between UCS, pore structure characteristics and curing time is quantitatively characterized. The following conclusions are obtained: (1) The internal pores of CPB are divided into micropores, secondary pores, and macropores, among which secondary pores account for the largest proportion, accounting for about 70% of the total pores. The proportion of macropores is inversely proportional to the UCS, while the proportion of micropores is proportional to the UCS. (2) The porosity of CPB decreases with the increase of curing time, and UCS increases with the increase of curing time. The curing time has an exponential function relationship with porosity. UCS decreases exponentially with the increase of porosity. (3) A damage model of CPB is established considering the initial pore damage, which is highly consistent with the experimental results. The total damage evolution curve presents an “S'' type distribution. The total damage change rate evolution curve showed a normal distribution.

BackgroundThe presence of heterogenous somatic symptoms frequently obscures the recognition of depression in primary care. We aimed to explore the association between somatic symptoms and subthreshold depression (SD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), as well as to determine the predictive potential of somatic symptoms in identifying SD and MDD in primary care.MethodsData were derived from the Depression Cohort in China study (ChiCTR registry number: 1900022145). The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) was used to assess SD by trained general practitioners (GPs), and the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview depression module was used to diagnose MDD by professional psychiatrists. Somatic symptoms were assessed using the 28-item Somatic Symptoms Inventory (SSI).ResultsIn total of 4,139 participants aged 18–64 years recruited from 34 primary health care settings were included. The prevalence of all 28 somatic symptoms increased in a dose-dependent manner from non-depressed controls to SD, and to MDD (P for trend

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a life-threatening disease that currently lacks a cure. Although stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) have shown promising effects in the treatment of ALI, their underlying mechanisms and responsible components have yet to be identified. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 6 (PCSK6) is a gene involved in inflammation and a potential target of miR-21-5p, a microRNA enriched in stem cell-derived sEVs. The current study investigated the role of PCSK6 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI and its interaction with miR-21-5p. Notably, our results showed that PCSK6 expression was positively correlated with LPS stimulation. Knockdown of PCSK6 ameliorated LPS-induced inhibition of proliferation and upregulation of permeability in human BEAS-2B cells, whereas PCSK6 overexpression displayed the opposite effects. BEAS-2B cells were able to actively internalize the cocultured bone mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived sEVs (BMSC-sEVs), which alleviated the cell damage caused by LPS. Overexpressing PCSK6, however, eliminated the therapeutic effects of BMSC-sEV coculture. Mechanistically, BMSC-sEVs inhibited PCSK6 expression via the delivery of miR-21-5p, which is directly bound to the PCSK6 gene. Our work provides evidence for the role of PCSK6 in LPS-induced ALI and identified miR-21-5p as a component of BMSC-derived sEVs that suppressed PCSK6 expression and ameliorated LPS-induced cell damage. These results reveal a novel molecular mechanism for ALI pathogenesis and highlight the therapeutic potential of using sEVs released by stem cells to deliver miR-21-5p for ALI treatment.

In this study, a series of experiments was conducted to examine the mechanical and damage properties of cemented paste backfill (CPB) with different water saturations (ws = 0%, 22.1%, 47.0%, 65.3%, 82.8%, and 100%). The results reveal that the UCS, peak strain, and elastic modulus first increased and then decreased, and the porosity and fractal dimension of cracks first decrease and then increase with the increase of ws. In addition, the UCS, peak strain, and elastic modulus is maximum, and the porosity and fractal dimension are minimum when the ws is 65.3%. The UCS increases with the increase of peak strain and elastic modulus, and decreases with the increase of porosity and fractal dimension, and the UCS present good quadratic polynomial functions relationship with the porosity and fractal dimension. The SEM images show that with the increase of ws from 0% to 65.3%, the hydration products increases and the pore structure decreases. When the ws exceeds 65.3%, and the pore structure begins to increase. The failure mode of the CPB is mainly tensile failure. A new damage constitutive model of CPB with different ws was constructed. The total damage D of the CPB is composed of initial damage Dp and load damage DL. The total damage evolution curve shows an S-shaped distribution, and the total damage rate evolution curve shows a normal distribution. With the increase of ws, the damage rate and the peak value of damage rate of CPB first increases and then decreases.

Icariside II, as a favonoid compound derived from epimedium, has been proved to involed in a variety of biological and pharmacological effects such as anti-inflammatory, anti-osteoporosis, anti-oxidation, anti-aging, and anti-cancer but its mechanism is unclear, especially in terms of its effect on post-transcriptional modification of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). Phosphorylation of eNOS plays an important role in the synthesis of nitric oxide in endothelial cells, which is closely related to erectile dysfunction, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and other diseases. Our study aims to investigate the effect and mechanism of Icariside II on the rapid phosphorylation of eNOS. In this study, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were stimulated with Icariside II in the presence or absence of multiple inhibitors (1 µM), including LY294002 (PI3K-inhibitor), MK-2206 (AKT-inhibitor), Bisindolylmaleimide X (AMPK-inhibitor), H-89 (CaMKII-inhibitor), KN-62 (PKA-inhibitor), Dorsomorphin (PKC-inhibitor). The proliferation of HUVECs was assessed using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8). The release of nitric oxide (NO) within HUVECs was detected via fluorescence probe (DAF-FM). Western blot was used to examine the effect of Icariside II on the expression of eNOS, phosphorylation of eNOS, and common signaling pathways proteins. In this study, Icariside II was found to promote the cell proliferation and rapid NO release in HUVECs. The phosphorylation of eNOS-Ser1177 was significantly increased after Icariside II stimulation and reached a peak at 10 min (p

With the wide application of remote sensing technology, target detection based on deep learning has become a research hotspot in the field of remote sensing. In this paper, aimed at the problems of the existing deep-learning-based desert land intelligent extraction methods, such as the spectral similarity of features and unclear texture features, we propose a multispectral remote sensing image desert land intelligent extraction method that takes into account band information. Firstly, we built a desert land intelligent interpretation dataset based on band weighting to enhance the desert land foreground features of the images. On this basis, we introduced the deformable convolution adaptive feature extraction capability to U-Net and developed the Y-Net model to extract desert land from Landsat remote sensing images covering the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Finally, in order to analyze the spatial and temporal trends of the desert land in the study area, we used a structural equation model (SEM) to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of natural conditions and human activities, i.e., population density (PD), livestock volume (LS), evaporation (Evp), temperature (T), days of sandy wind conditions (LD), humidity (RH), precipitation (P), anthropogenic disturbance index (Adi), and cultivated land (CL). The results show that the F1-score of the Y-Net model proposed in this paper is 95.6%, which is 11.5% more than that of U-Net. Based on the Landsat satellite images, the area of desert land in the study area for six periods from 1990 to 2020 was extracted. The results show that the area of desert land in the study area first increased and then decreased. The main influencing factors have been precipitation, humidity, and anthropogenic disturbance, for which the path coefficients are 0.646, 0.615, and 0.367, respectively. This study will be of great significance in obtaining large-scale and long-term time series of desert land cover and revealing the inner mechanism of desert land area change.

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic have caused mental and psychological problems on the general population, patients, and related workers. Our study is to determine the impact of mental and psychological symptoms among population in quarantine for 2 weeks during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A case-controlled study design have conducted at department of psychiatry of Shenzhen Longgang Center for Chronic Disease Control in Shenzhen, China mainland from 7th April to 15th June 2020.1674 participants (aged 18 to 65 years) in quarantine for 2 weeks and 1743 age-sex matched controls living in Shenzhen were recruited between 7th April 2020 and 15th June 2020. The assessment of depressive, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms were determined by self-reported questionnaires PHQ-9, GAD-7, and ISI, respectively. Results A total of 1674 participants in quarantine for 2 weeks and 1743 age-sex matched controls (32.6 ± 9.3 years vs. 32.7 ± 10.7 years, 49.8% vs. 47.8% females) were recruited. Population in quarantine had higher score on PHQ-9 (6.1 ± 5.5 vs. 3.0 ± 3.7, p

Aiming at the high precision of the transmission system of the scanning device in the cone-beam oral CT diagnostic equipment，the ordinary transmission device is difficult to meet its use requirements. The oral CT machine developed in China has high noise and low positioning accuracy，harmonic transmission has the advantages of smooth transmission and high transmission accuracy. Combined with the characteristics of planetary gear transmission with strong anti-shock and vibration capabilities，a composite harmonic transmission device for cone beam oral CT scanning device is designed. Three-dimensional modeling is performed using the three-dimensional design software SolidWorks，and Adams kinetic simulation software is introduced for simulation experiments. The results show that the design has fast response，smooth rotation，high transmission accuracy，and meets medical requirements.

Abstract Background Dysfunction in brain network dynamics has been found to correlate with many psychiatric disorders. However, there is limited research regarding resting electroencephalogram (EEG) brain network and its association with cognitive process for patients with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). This study aimed at using EEG microstate analysis to determine whether brain network dynamics in patients with MUD differ from those of healthy controls (HC). Methods A total of 55 MUD patients and 27 matched healthy controls were included for analysis. The resting brain activity was recorded by 64-channel electroencephalography. EEG microstate parameters and intracerebral current sources of each EEG microstate were compared between the two groups. Generalized linear regression model was used to explore the correlation between significant microstates with drug history and cognitive functions. Results MUD patients showed lower mean durations of the microstate classes A and B, and a higher global explained variance of the microstate class C. Besides, MUD patients presented with different current density power in microstates A, B, and C relative to the HC. The generalized linear model showed that MA use frequency is negatively correlated with the MMD of class A. Further, the generalized linear model showed that MA use frequency, scores of Two-back task, and the error rate of MA word are correlated with the MMD and GEV of class B, respectively. Conclusions Intracranial current source densities of resting EEG microstates are disrupted in MUD patients, hence causing temporal changes in microstate topographies, which are correlated with attention bias and history of drug use.

The concepts of initial damage, loaded damage, and total damage were introduced for cemented paste backfills (CPBs) with stratified structures. Based on these, the damage evolution model, damage constitutive model, and strength criterion of CPB with stratified structures were formulated based on damage theory and the total differential rule. Finally, compression experiments and numerical simulations of CPBs were conducted with three-dimensional particle flow code with the layer numbers of 0, 1, 2, and 3, a solid content of 75% and a cement–sand ratio of 1:4. The theoretical curves of the damage constitutive model and strength criterion of the layered CPB closely matched the curves generated based on experimental tests and numerical simulations. This finding verified the correctness of the model. The initial increase of the damage fits closely to a quadratic polynomial as a function of the layer number, the total damage rate first increased and then decreased, while the maximum of the total damage rate increased.

Abstract Background The 12-week, multicentre, observational INITIAL study (NCT02143739) assessed asthma severity in newly diagnosed Chinese patients. Methods Post hoc analysis of medication combinations prescribed per routine clinical practice at baseline, and the impact on control levels evaluated using 2012 vs 2018 Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) criteria. Results In total, 4491 patients were included in the analysis. At baseline, intermittent, mild, moderate and severe asthma was reported in 3.9, 12.0, 22.6 and 61.6% of patients, respectively. Most patients (90.2%) were prescribed inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2 agonist (ICS/LABA). ICS/LABA plus ≥1 additional medication(s) was prescribed to 66.7% of patients, with leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA, 54.7%) being the most common additional medication. Distribution of ICS/LABA vs ICS/LABA+LTRA was comparable in patients with intermittent (3.2% vs 3.0%), mild (11.5% vs 9.7%), moderate (21.2% vs 19.9%) and severe asthma (64.1% vs 67.4%). Control levels among patients using ICS/LABA+LTRA vs ICS/LABA were comparable using GINA 2012 and lower using GINA 2018 criteria. The proportion of patients using ICS/LABA+LTRA vs ICS/LABA with intermittent, mild, moderate and severe asthma controlled at Week 12 (using GINA 2012) were 78.1% vs 80.0, 86.5% vs 85.8, 78.5% vs 71.3, and 59.6% vs 61.8%, respectively. Using GINA 2018 criteria proportions were 86.8% vs 95.9, 86.1% vs 93.2, 82.1% vs 85.3, and 71.9% vs 77.6%, respectively. Conclusions Asthma control was not improved by adding LTRA to ICS/LABA and may have been unnecessary for some newly diagnosed patients. These findings were irrespective of the GINA criteria (2012 vs 2018) used and baseline severity.

BackgroundThis study reported the individual surgical treatment of 12 cases with stage IV Müller-Weiss disease (MWD) according to CT/MRI examination.MethodsIn total, 12 cases diagnosed with stage IV MWD in our hospital from 2015 to 2019 were included in the retrospective study. Relevant clinical outcomes were evaluated preoperatively and postoperatively.ResultsThe follow-up results showed satisfactory outcomes in all cases. All the cases were presented with tenderness and chronic pain on the midfoot dorsum, and three cases were also presented with tenderness and pain on the lateral side of the midfoot, in which calcaneal cuboid arthritis was revealed by CT/MRI. The American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) scores elevated from 62.5 ± 6.8 (range: 53–74) preoperatively to 95.3 ± 7.2 (range: 73–100) postoperatively (P < 0.005). The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores declined from 4.2 ± 0.9 (range: 3–5.5) preoperatively to 0.5 ± 0.3 (range: 0–2) postoperatively (P < 0.001). On the weight-bearing lateral view of the foot, the Tomeno-Méary angle (TM lat) changed from −11.2 ± 4.2 (range: −17.2 to −2.8) degrees preoperatively to −2.4 ± 3.9 (range: −10.2 to 5.2) degrees postoperatively (P < 0.001).ConclusionsThe fusion of the talus-navicular joint and the adjacent affected joint provide good clinical outcomes. The CT/MRI scans are helpful to identify the adjacent joint arthritis and provide indications for individual treatment for Stage IV MWD.

The lack of large-scale, multi-scene, and multi-type pavement distress training data reduces the generalization ability of deep learning models in complex scenes, and limits the development of pavement distress extraction algorithms. Thus, we built the first large-scale dichotomous image segmentation (DIS) dataset for multi-type pavement distress segmentation, called ISTD-PDS7, aimed to segment highly accurate pavement distress types from natural charge-coupled device (CCD) images. The new dataset covers seven types of pavement distress in nine types of scenarios, along with negative samples with texture similarity noise. The final dataset contains 18,527 images, which is many more than the previously released benchmarks. All the images are annotated with fine-grained labels. In addition, we conducted a large benchmark test, evaluating seven state-of-the-art segmentation models, providing a detailed discussion of the factors that influence segmentation performance, and making cross-dataset evaluations for the best-performing model. Finally, we investigated the effectiveness of negative samples in reducing false positive prediction in complex scenes and developed two potential data augmentation methods for improving the segmentation accuracy. We hope that these efforts will create promising developments for both academics and the industry.

Objective: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic degenerative joint disease, which represents the leading cause of age-related disability. Here, this study aimed to depict the intercellular heterogeneity of OA synovial tissues.Methods: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data were preprocessed and quality controlled by the Seurat package. Cell cluster was presented and cell types were annotated based on the mRNA expression of corresponding marker genes by the SingleR package. Cell-cell communication was assessed among different cell types. After integrating the GSE55235 and GSE55457 datasets, differentially expressed genes were identified between OA and normal synovial tissues. Then, differentially expressed marker genes were overlapped and their biological functions were analyzed.Results: Totally, five immune cell subpopulations were annotated in OA synovial tissues including macrophages, dendritic cells, T cells, monocytes and B cells. Pseudo-time analysis revealed the underlying evolution process in the inflammatory microenvironment of OA synovial tissue. There was close crosstalk between five cell types according to the ligand-receptor network. The genetic heterogeneity was investigated between OA and normal synovial tissues. Furthermore, functional annotation analysis showed the intercellular heterogeneity across immune cells in OA synovial tissues.Conclusion: This study offered insights into the heterogeneity of OA, which provided in-depth understanding of the transcriptomic diversities within synovial tissue. This transcriptional heterogeneity may improve our understanding on OA pathogenesis and provide potential molecular therapeutic targets for OA.

This study determined the physical and mechanical characteristics of fresh black fungus during the harvesting season to provide basic data for the development of mechanical equipment for black fungus harvesting and processing. We have conducted a comprehensive test of black fungus cultivars “Heishan”. The mono-factor separation force experiments of black fungus and black fungus virgulate medium were conducted. It was noted that the tension angle was an important factor affecting the separation force, which was mainly distributed between 1.06 and 3.65 N. Besides, the average value of Poisson’s ratio of black fungus was measured to be 0.445 in the tensile test of black fungus leaves using image recognition and analysis techniques, with a test error within 2.5%; and the average value of tensile elastic modulus and shear elastic modulus of black fungus leaves was 0.947 MPa and 0.327 MPa, respectively; we also found that the average tensile strength at the root of black fungus was not significantly different from that at the leaf, which was around 0.436 MPa. In addition, it was obtained that the height and thickness dimensions of black fungus in the picking season conformed to a normal distribution, and concentrated around 34.39mm and 0.92mm respectively.

Abstract Background To enhance awareness of the clinical features and prevention of endotracheal myiasis. Case presentation A case of intratracheal myiasis is reported. A 61-year-old male patient with a history of laryngectomy was admitted to hospital due to tracheostomal hemorrhage of 3 h duration. Intratracheal myiasis was confirmed by bronchoscopy, and the patient underwent bronchoscopic intervention, which was complicated by a tracheal-esophageal fistula and resolved by endotracheal stenting. Twenty months after stent placement, the fistula had not healed. Conclusion Intratracheal myiasis has serious complications and is difficult to treat. For post-tracheostomy patients, healthcare providers and caregivers should pay attention to the care and monitoring of wounds and maintenance of a tidy, clean living environment to prevent intratracheal myiasis.

To further determine the brittle-to-ductile transition temperature, the microstructures and mechanical properties of typical forged β-solidifying Ti-42Al-5Mn (TiAlMn) and Ti-43Al-4Nb-1Mo-0.5B (TNM) alloys were studied. The results show that the microstructures of both heat-treated alloys consist of γ/α2 lamellar colony, equiaxed γ phase, and β0 phase. In addition, the globular α2 phase appears in the TNM alloy. The yield strength of TiAlMn alloy increases gradually with the testing temperature, whereas a significant drop from 605 MPa to 469 MPa occurs between 650 °C and 700 °C. In contrast, the TNM alloy exhibits a declining trend with the increasing testing temperature, and a remarkable reduction is observed in the temperature range of 700 °C–750 °C. Moreover, the fracture mode transition from transcrystalline cleavage to intercrystalline with increasing testing temperature was applied to the auxiliary judgment of brittle-to-ductile transition. As a result, the brittle-to-ductile transition temperatures of TiAlMn alloy and TNM alloy are about 650 °C–700 °C and 700 °C–750 °C, which may provide a reference for service temperature range of both alloys.

The Auricularia auricula harvester has low harvesting productivity, low qualification rate, and high breakage rate, and the lack of research on key operating parameters has become a bottleneck restricting the large-scale development industry. In view of the difficulty of industrialization and promotion of Auricularia auricula harvesting equipment, this paper combines the research on the physical properties of Auricularia auricula, adopts a quadratic orthogonal rotation combination design test and response surface analysis method to carry out the optimization and test of the key parameters of the harvesting equipment of Auricularia auricula, including the speed of the tray fungus stick (A), the frequency of the harvesting knife (B), and the distance of the harvesting knife (C). Design-Expert software was used to analyse the data and investigate the influence of each parameter and its interaction on the harvesting productivity, qualified rate, and breakage rate. The test results show that the factors affecting the harvesting productivity are in order: (A) > (B) > (C); the factors affecting the harvest qualification rate are in order: (C) > (B) > (A); and the factors affecting the harvesting damage rate are in order: (C) > (B) > (A). The multi-objective optimization results show that the optimal parameter combination of the key parameters of the Auricularia auricula harvesting equipment operation is that the tray speed is 308.17 r/min, the harvesting knife frequency is 10.78 Hz, the spacing between the harvesting knives is 84.67 mm, the productivity is 363 bags/h, the pass rate is 94.26%, and the breakage rate is 2.40%. The field production application under this optimized parameter combination shows that the productivity of the Auricularia auricula mechanized harvester is 346 bars/h, the qualified rate is 91.43%, and the breakage rate is 3.19%. This study can provide a reference for improving the quality of Auricularia auricula harvesting equipment.

BackgroundPrevious studies have identified the treatment effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on cravings of patients with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD). However, the mechanism underlying the treatment effect remains largely unknown. A potential candidate mechanism could be that rTMS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) modulates the attention bias to methamphetamine-related cues. The purpose of this study is therefore to determine the modulation of rTMS on methamphetamine-related attention bias and the corresponding electrophysiological changes.MethodsForty-nine patients with severe MUD were included for analysis. The subjects were randomized to receive the active intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) or sham iTBS targeting DLPFC for 20 sessions. Participants performed the Addiction Stroop Task before and after the treatment while being recorded by a 64-channel electroencephalogram. Baseline characteristics were collected through the Addiction Severity Index.ResultsPost-treatment evaluations showed a reduced error rate in discriminating the color of methamphetamine words in the active iTBS group compared with the sham iTBS group. Following rTMS treatment, we found the significant time-by-group effect for the N1 amplitude (methamphetamine words > neutral words) and P3 latency (methamphetamine words > neutral words). The change of N1 amplitude was positively correlated with cravings in the active group. Moreover, reduced power of neural oscillation in the beta band, manifesting at frontal central areas, was also found in the active group.ConclusionThis study suggests that attention bias and the beta oscillation during the attentional processing of methamphetamine words in patients with MUD could be modulated by iTBS applied to left DLPFC.

Introduction: There has been no report regarding the impact on male sexual life or sexual function by changes in lifestyle during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. Aim: To investigate the changes in sexual life and sexual function of Chinese men during the COVID-19 epidemic. Methods: An online questionnaire was created and the survey was administered through social media to Chinese adult men. Main Outcome Measure: The main end point was the deteriorated erectile function or ejaculatory control ability, defined by self-evaluation or by decreased International Index of Erectile Function-5 items (IIEF-5) scores or increased premature ejaculation diagnostic tool (PEDT) scores. Results: Altogether, 612 questionnaires were collected. About 322 (52.6%) subjects were unmarried. About 8.4% and 8.5% subjects reported deteriorated erectile function or ejaculation control ability by self-evaluation, whereas 31.9% and 17.9% subjects showed decreased IIEF-5 scores or increased PEDT scores. Subjects with deteriorated erectile function by self-evaluation and decreased IIEF-5 scores had higher General Anxiety Disorder-7 (P < .001 and P = .001) and higher Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score (P < .001 and P = .002) after the epidemic, decreased frequency of sexual life (P < .001 and P < .001) and physical exercise (P = .009 and .007) after the epidemic. Subjects with deteriorated ejaculation control ability by self-evaluation and increased PEDT scores had higher General Anxiety Disorder-7 (P < .001 and P < .001) and higher Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score (P < .001 and P = .002) after the epidemic. Subjects with decreased frequency of sexual life had reduced income (P < .001), increased anxiety (P < .001) and depression (P < .001). Married subjects had higher proportion of improved depression (P = .048) and increased frequency of sexual life (P = .010). Conclusion: During the COVID-19 epidemic, decreased sexual function was present in a certain proportion of adult men, and the risk factors include increased anxiety and depression, and decreased frequency of sexual life.Fang D, Peng J, Liao S, et al. An Online Questionnaire Survey on the Sexual Life and Sexual Function of Chinese Adult Men During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Epidemic. Sex Med 2021;9:100293

In order to further decrease the energy consumption of desiccant wheel dehumidification, the drying medium circulation characteristics of a system combining heat pump drying with desiccant wheel dehumidification were investigated. Moreover, the critical dehumidification conversion mechanism was studied. The analysis of the heat pump hot air circulation system demonstrated that the heat pump system has the best dehumidification efficiency. Through the analysis of the system combining heat pump drying with desiccant wheel dehumidification, the critical conversion point was determined. The critical dehumidification mechanism was further verified using an online temperature and humidity measurement system. To investigate the effect of the critical point on energy consumption and drying quality and develop a drying model, response surface experiments were performed based on the effects of regeneration temperature, drying temperature, and conversion point relative humidity on rehydration, color difference, and specific moisture extraction rate (SMER). The optimal conversion point humidity was determined to be about 46% RH, which was slightly different from the test optimization value of 45.6% RH. In addition, comprehensive optimization and experimental verification of the influencing factors were conducted. The results demonstrated that the R2 values of the three models were greater than 0.98, and the experimental factors had a significant effect on drying quality and energy consumption. When the regeneration temperature was 96°C, the drying temperature was 53°C, the relative humidity of the conversion point was 46%, the color difference was 46.3, the rehydration ratio was 5.75, and the SMER was 1.62 kg/kW·h.

Background Respiratory viruses (RVs) is a common cause of illness in people of all ages, at present, different types of sampling methods are available for respiratory viral diagnosis. However, the diversity of available sampling methods and the limited direct comparisons in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) make decision-making difficult. We did a network meta-analysis, which accounted for both direct and indirect comparisons, to determine the detection rate of different sampling methods for RVs.Methods Relevant articles were retrieved comprehensively by searching the online databases of PubMed, Embase and Cochrane published before 25 March 2020. With the help of R V.3.6.3 software and ‘GeMTC V.0.8.2’ package, network meta-analysis was performed within a Bayesian framework. Node-splitting method and I2 test combined leverage graphs and Gelman-Rubin-Brooks plots were conducted to evaluate the model’s accuracy. The rank probabilities in direct and cumulative rank plots were also incorporated to rank the corresponding sampling methods for overall and specific virus.Results 16 sampling methods with 54 438 samples from 57 literatures were ultimately involved in this study. The model indicated good consistency and convergence but high heterogeneity, hence, random-effect analysis was applied. The top three sampling methods for RVs were nasopharyngeal wash (NPW), mid-turbinate swab (MTS) and nasopharyngeal swab (NPS). Despite certain differences, the results of virus-specific subanalysis were basically consistent with RVs: MTS, NPW and NPS for influenza; MTS, NPS and NPW for influenza-a and b; saliva, NPW and NPS for rhinovirus and parainfluenza; NPW, MTS and nasopharyngeal aspirate for respiratory syncytial virus; saliva, NPW and MTS for adenovirus and sputum; MTS and NPS for coronavirus.Conclusion This network meta-analysis provides supporting evidences that NPW, MTS and NPS have higher diagnostic value regarding RVs infection, moreover, particular preferred methods should be considered in terms of specific virus pandemic. Of course, subsequent RCTs with larger samples are required to validate our findings.

Background: The supracondylar nonunion of femur in elderly individuals is rare and challenging to manage. Nothing in English literatures or guidelines is available regarding this particular fracture characterized by osteoporosis, soft-tissue contracture, shortening, and joint stiffness. We report a case of an elderly patient with a supracondylar nonunion of the femur, which was successfully treated using staged Ilizarov techniques and dual plating. Case Presentation: An 84-year-old female patient was admitted to our orthopedic department for her pain and soft-tissue swelling around the right knee with claudication and shortening deformity of the affected extremity. She denied any specific history of trauma and had sought traditional Chinese medical attention for 6 months before she presented to our hospital. Diagnosis of the right femoral supracondylar nonunion was made based on the X-ray and computed tomography. Ilizarov external fixator was carried out for successive and slow distraction and gradual correction of the shortening deformity, in consideration of the nonunion was still present. Subsequently, internal fixation with dual plating of the distal femur was performed. Excellent function and patient satisfaction were observed at 6 months of follow-up. Conclusion: The protocol of Ilizarov technique with subsequent internal fixation of dual plating seems to be an efficient solution to the supracondylar nonunion of femur in elderly patients with osteoporosis. The advantage of the protocol is that it allows knee joint motion, avoids neurovascular complications, and gentle correction of soft-tissue contractures.