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In this work, we utilize the quantum renormalization-group (QRG) method to investigate quantum phase transitions (QPT) in a one-dimensional anisotropic spin-1/2 XY model with Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya (DM) interaction. Within this model, it has been demonstrated that phase diagrams are influenced by both the anisotropy parameter and DM interaction strength. Particularly noteworthy is our identification of QPT in global entanglement (GE) and tripartite negativity as the number of QRG iterations increases, allowing for a clear distinction between the Spin-fluid and Néel phases. Additionally, both GE and tripartite negativity decrease with rising anisotropy parameter, eventually stabilizing. However, we have observed that the robustness of tripartite negativity exceeds that of GE. To gain deeper insights, we conduct a detailed analysis of the first derivative of GE, unveiling scaling and nonanalytic behavior at the critical point. Our findings provide crucial insights into multipartite entanglement dynamics in condensed matter systems, significantly advancing our understanding of the quantum critical properties in Heisenberg spin models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Debates persist over optimal pelvic girdle reconstruction after acetabular tumor resection, with surgeons grappling between modular and 3D-printed hemipelvic endoprostheses. We hypothesize superior outcomes with 3D-printed versions, yet scarce comparative research exists. This study fills the gap, examining biomechanics and clinical results retrospectively. Methods: From February 2017 to June 2021, we retrospectively assessed 32 patients undergoing en bloc resection for malignant periacetabular tumors at a single institution. Primary outcome: limb function. Secondary outcomes: implant precision, hip joint rotation center restoration, prosthesis-bone osteointegration, and complications. Biomechanical characteristics were evaluated through finite element analysis on pelvic defect models. Results: In the 3D-printed group, stress distribution mirrored a normal pelvis, contrasting the modular group with elevated overall stress, unstable transitions, and higher stress peaks. The 3D-printed group exhibited superior functional scores (MSTS: 24.3 ± 1.8 vs. 21.8 ± 2.0, p < 0.05; HHS: 79.8 ± 5.2 vs. 75.3 ± 3.5, p < 0.05). Prosthetic-bone interface osteointegration, measured by T-SMART, favored 3D-printed prostheses, but surgery time (426.2 ± 67.0 vs. 301.7 ± 48.6 min, p < 0.05) and blood loss (2121.1 ± 686.8 vs. 1600.0 ± 505.0 ml, p < 0.05) were higher. Conclusions: The 3D-printed hemipelvic endoprosthesis offers precise pelvic ring defect matching, superior stress transmission, and function compared to modular endoprostheses. However, complexity, fabrication expertise, and challenging surgical implantation result in prolonged operation times and increased blood loss. A nuanced consideration of functional outcomes, complexity, and patient conditions is crucial for informed treatment decisions. Level of evidence: Level III, therapeutic study (Retrospective comparative study). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific community has witnessed extensive developments and applications of organoboron compounds as synthetic elements and metal-free catalysts for the construction of small molecules, macromolecules, and functional materials over the last two decades. This review highlights the achievements of organoboron-mediated polymerizations in the past several decades alongside the mechanisms underlying these transformations from the standpoint of the polymerization mode. Emphasis is placed on free radical polymerization, Lewis pair polymerization, ionic (cationic and anionic) polymerization, and polyhomologation. Herein, alkylborane/O2 initiating systems mediate the radical polymerization under ambient conditions in a controlled/living manner by careful optimization of the alkylborane structure or additives; when combined with Lewis bases, the selected organoboron compounds can mediate the Lewis pair polymerization of polar monomers; the bicomponent organoboron-based Lewis pairs and bifunctional organoboron-onium catalysts catalyze ring opening (co)polymerization of cyclic monomers (with heteroallenes, such as epoxides, CO2, CO, COS, CS2, episulfides, anhydrides, and isocyanates) with well-defined structures and high reactivities; and organoboranes initiate the polyhomologation of sulfur ylides and arsonium ylides providing functional polyethylene with different topologies. The topological structures of the produced polymers via these organoboronmediated polymerizations are also presented in this review mainly including linear polymers, block copolymers, cyclic polymers, and graft polymers. We hope the summary and understanding of how organoboron compounds mediate polymerizations can inspire chemists to apply these principles in the design of more advanced organoboron compounds, which may be beneficial for the polymer chemistry community and organometallics/organocatalysis community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Falls are among the most significant factors affecting older adults' lives. Almost 30%~50% of older adults have experienced a fall. Therefore, walking appropriately is crucial for older adults. Consequently, it is necessary to design walking support equipment. This study investigated the effects of a novel additional elastic hip flexor band on angle (abduction, adduction, dorsiflexion, and plantar flexion), gait (step length, step cadence, and height between ground and toe), and vertical ground reaction force at comfortable and maximum walking speeds in older adults. Methods: Twenty healthy adults aged 65-74 years voluntarily participated in this study. Each subject randomly wore the novel additional elastic hip flexor band at 0%, 50%, and 100% extension while walking three times at comfortable and maximum speeds. A three-dimensional motion capture system and AMTI force plate were used to measure their kinematic and kinetic parameters during walking. The analyzed gait cycle was defined as the right heel touching the force plate to touching the ground again after three steps. All kinematic and kinetic parameters at different walking speeds were compared using repeated measure two-way analysis of variance. Results: Older adults who wore the additional elastic hip flexor band at 50% and 100% extension had greater maximum hip flexion angles than those who wore it at 0% extension (p < 0.05). Older adults who wore the additional elastic hip flexor band at 100% extension had higher toe elevations than those who wore it at 0% extension (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Older adults who wore the additional elastic hip flexor band showed increased hip flexion and extension angles. These findings suggest that the novel additional elastic hip flexor band might help older adults cross the threshold, go upstairs, get on the buses, and perform other daily activities. It might also further reduce their fall risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With continuous hydrocarbon exploration extending to deeper basins, the deepest industrial oil accumulationwas discovered below 8,200 m, revealing a new exploration field. Hence, the extent to which oil exploration can be extended, and the prediction of the depth limit of oil accumulation (DLOA), are issues that have attracted significant attention in petroleum geology. Since it is difficult to characterize the evolution of the physical properties of the marine carbonate reservoir with burial depth, and the deepest drilling still cannot reach the DLOA. Hence, the DLOA cannot be predicted by directly establishing the relationship between the ratio of drilling to the dry layer and the depth. In this study, by establishing the relationships between the porosity and the depth and dry layer ratio of the carbonate reservoir, the relationships between the depth and dry layer ratio were obtained collectively. The depth corresponding to a dry layer ratio of 100% is the DLOA. Based on this, a quantitative prediction model for the DLOA was finally built. The results indicate that the porosity of the carbonate reservoir, Lower Ordovician in Tazhong area of Tarim Basin, tends to decrease with burial depth, and manifests as an overall low porosity reservoir in deep layer. The critical porosity of the DLOA was 1.8%, which is the critical geological condition corresponding to a 100% dry layer ratio encountered in the reservoir. The depth of the DLOA was 9,000 m. This study provides a new method for DLOA prediction that is beneficial for a deeper understanding of oil accumulation, and is of great importance for scientific guidance on deep oil drilling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erwinia amylovora is a relatively homogeneous species with low genetic diversity at the nucleotide level. However, phenotypic differences and genomic structural variations among E. amylovora strains have been documented. In this study, we identified 10 large chromosomal inversion (LCI) types in the Spiraeoideae-infecting (SI) E. amylovora strains by combining whole genome sequencing and PCR-based molecular markers. It was found that LCIs were mainly caused by homologous recombination events among seven rRNA opérons (rrns) in SI E. amylovora strains. Although ribotyping results identified inter- and inlra-variations in the internal transcribed spacer (ITS1 and ITS2) regions among rrns, LCIs tend to occur between rrns transcribed in the opposite directions and with the same tRNA content (tRNA-Glu or tRNA-Ile/Ala) in ITS1. Based on the LCI types, physical/estimated replichore imbalance (PRI/ERI) was examined and calculated. Among the 117 SI strains evaluated, the LCI types of Eal 189, CFBP1430, and Ea273 were the most common, with ERI values at 1.31, 7.87, and 4.47°, respectively. These three LCI types had worldwide distribution, whereas the remaining seven LCI types were restricted to North America (or certain regions of the United States). Our results indicated ongoing chromosomal recombination events in the SI E. amylovora population and showed that LCI events are mostly symmetrical, keeping the ERI less than 15°. These findings provide initial evidence about the prevalence of certain LCI types in E. amylovora strains, how LCI occurs, and its potential evolutionary advantage and history, which might help track the movement of the pathogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience-based design optimization is an effective way to design the high resilience into engineering systems during the design stage. Addressing the continuous degradation, discrete shocks, and different maintenance strategy, the resilience-based design optimization model and algorithms are proposed to ensure the operational safety of engineering systems in this paper. The unified framework of resilience under the continuous degradation, discrete shock, and different maintenance strategy is first proposed. The surrogate model to estimate the time-variant reliability under the continuous stochastic process and discrete Poisson process is then constructed. The mapping function between the performance improvement ratio and the maintenance strategy is defined to build the lifecycle cost models. The combination of Kriging surrogate model and particle swarm optimization is finally provided to conduct resilience-based design optimization. An engineering case of a harmonic reducer used for the lower extremity exoskeleton is employed to illustrate and testify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orange carotenoid protein (OCP) is a photoactive protein that participates in the photoprotection of cyanobacteria. There are 2 full-length OCP proteins, 4 N-terminal paralogs (helical carotenoid protein [HCP]), and 1 C-terminal domain-like carotenoid protein (CCP) found in Nostoc flagelliforme, a desert cyanobacterium. All HCPs (HCP1 to 3 and HCP6) from N. flagelliforme demonstrated their excellent singlet oxygen quenching activities, in which HCP2 was the strongest singlet oxygen quencher compared with others. Two OCPs, OCPx1 and OCPx2, were not involved in singlet oxygen scavenging; instead, they functioned as phycobilisome fluorescence quenchers. The fast-acting OCPx1 showed more effective photoactivation and stronger phycobilisome fluorescence quenching compared with OCPx2, which behaved differently from all reported OCP paralogs. The resolved crystal structure and mutant analysis revealed that Trp111 and Met125 play essential roles in OCPx2, which is dominant and long acting. The resolved crystal structure of OCPx2 is maintained in a monomer state and showed more flexible regulation in energy quenching activities compared with the packed oligomer of OCPx1. The recombinant apo-CCP obtained the carotenoid pigment from holo-HCPs and holo-OCPx1 of N. flagelliforme. No such carotenoid transferring processes were observed between apo-CCP and holo-OCPx2. The close phylogenetic relationship of OCP paralogs from subaerial Nostoc species indicates an adaptive evolution toward development of photoprotection: protecting cellular metabolism against singlet oxygen damage using HCPs and against excess energy captured by active phycobilisomes using 2 different working modes of OCPx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The great majority of microorganisms are as-yet-uncultivated, mostly found in extreme environments. High-throughput sequencing provides data-rich genomes from single-cell and metagenomic techniques, which has enabled researchers to obtain a glimpse of the unexpected genetic diversity of "microbial dark matter." However, cultivating microorganisms from extreme environments remains essential for dissecting and utilizing the functions of extremophiles. Here, we provide a straightforward protocol for efficiently isolating prokaryotic microorganisms from different extreme habitats (thermal, xeric, saline, alkaline, acidic, and cryogenic environments), which was established through previous successful work and our long-term experience in extremophile resource mining. We propose common processes for extremophile isolation at first and then summarize multiple cultivation strategies for recovering prokaryotic microorganisms from extreme environments and meanwhile provide specific isolation tips that are always overlooked but important. Furthermore, we propose the use of multi-omics-guided microbial cultivation approaches for culturing these as-yet-uncultivated microorganisms and two examples are provided to introduce how these approaches work. In summary, the protocol allows researchers to significantly improve the isolation efficiency of pure cultures and novel taxa, which therefore paves the way for the protection and utilization of microbial resources from extreme environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are regarded as promising candidates for next‐generation energy storage systems. However, the slow kinetics and shuttle effects of polysulfides hinder their practical applications. Designing high‐efficiency catalysts to enhance the kinetics and suppress shuttling is one major task for the building of durable Li–S batteries. Here, a Co/CoSe junction is reported to catalyzepolysulfide conversion efficiently because the junction has metallic electron mobility and field‐enhanced catalytic activity. The mechanistic investigation reveals that the difference in the work functions of Co and CoSe rearranges the charge distribution in the junction and strengthens the interaction between polysulfides and CoSe, thereby yielding high catalytic activity. In addition, the relative stability of CoSe, as compared to Co, renders the junction durable upon cycling; therefore, demonstrating long‐term catalytic activity. Such a junction makes full use of metal‐like conductivity and field‐enhanced catalysis and provides an alternative approach to enhancing the catalytic conversion of polysulfides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Distant metastasis (DM) and neoadjuvant treatment response prediction remain critical challenges in the management of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical relevance of viable circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for DM or response in patients with LARC in a neoadjuvant setting. Methods: The detection of viable CTCs at different stages of treatment was planned for consecutive patients from a prospective trial. The Kaplan-Meier method, Cox proportional hazards model, and logistic regression model were utilized to analyze factors associated with DM or pathological complete response (pCR) and clinical complete response (cCR). Results: Between December 2016 and July 2018, peripheral blood samples from 83 patients were collected before any treatment (median follow-up time, 49.3 months). CTCs were present in 76 of 83 patients (91.6%) at baseline, and more than three CTCs detected in the blood sample was considered high risk. Only the CTC risk group was significantly associated with 3-year metastasis-free survival (MFS) (high risk vs. low risk, 57.1% (95% CI, 41.6-72.6) vs. 78.3% (95% CI, 65.8-90.8), p = 0.018, log-rank test). When all the important variables were entered into the Cox model, the CTC risk group remained the only significant independent factor for DM (hazard ratio (HR), 2.74; 95% CI, 1.17-6.45, p = 0.021). The pCR and continuous cCR rates were higher in patients with a decreased number of CTCs of more than one after radiotherapy (HR, 4.00; 95% CI, 1.09-14.71, P = 0.037). Conclusions: The dynamic detection of viable CTCs may strengthen pretreatment risk assessment and postradiotherapy decision making for LARC. This observation requires further validation in a prospective study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In palliative care, many end-of-life (EOL) patients are physically dependent on their caregivers. These patients may also have difficulty expressing their needs because of their underlying disease and are vulnerable to abuse. Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA) describes a condition in which an individual intentionally feigns physical or psychological signs or symptoms in another person with the intention of deceiving medical providers. Although FDIA is a form of abuse that palliative care workers must be aware of because of its multiple impacts on EOL care, it has never been reported in the palliative care literature. In this case discussion, we highlight a woman with advanced dementia who was subjected to FDIA. We discuss the impact of FDIA on EOL care and the management of FDIA in palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The predictive methods of tool wear are usually based on different algorithm predictors, different source data, and different sensing devices for remaining useful life (RUL). In general, it has challenges to model and ensure all of the cutting conditions that are suitable in the actual cutting process for sustainable manufacturing. In order to overcome the doing large amount of experimental data and predict different tool RULs, this study combines the analytical force modeling, the back-propagation neural network (BPNN) machine learning, and the current sensor which all are integrated in smart machine box (SMB) to realize the practical RUL prediction for on-line and real-time applications. The analytical model of the cutting force coefficients of shear and ploughing was established from average cutting forces, it could reduce the experimental number and predict the different cutting conditions. In general, the loading current of the cutting tool from a spindle motor is relatively easier acquired than the resultant forces. Thus, the loading currents of the spindle are used to train and predict the cutting forces using the BPNN model during intelligent manufacturing. The SMB architecture mainly performed the autonomous actions based on the edge layer, the fog layer, and the cloud layer via the TCP/IP, the MQTT protocol, and the unified communication library. Results showed that a predictive error for the ends of the tool life is about 3–10% that are based on the calculating of the cumulative current ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erwinia amylovora causes a devastating fire blight disease in apples and pears. One of the main virulence determinants in E. amylovora is the hypersensitive response (HR) and pathogenicity (hrp)-type III secretion system (T3SS), which is activated by the RpoN-HrpL sigma factor cascade. However, the RpoN regulon in E. amylovora has not been investigated. In this study, we determined the RpoN regulon in E. amylovora by combining RNA-seq transcriptomic analysis with in silico binding site analysis. RNA-seq revealed that 262 genes, approximately 7.5% genes in the genome of E. amylovora, were differentially transcribed in the rpoN mutant as compared with the wild type. Specifically, genes associated with virulence, motility, nitrogen assimilation, the PspF system, stress response, and arginine biosynthesis are positively regulated by RpoN, whereas genes associated with biosynthesis of amino acids and sorbitol transport are negatively regulated by RpoN. In silico binding site analysis identified 46 potential target genes with a putative RpoN binding site, and the upstream sequences of six, three, and three genes also contain putative GlnG, PspF, and YfhA binding sites, respectively. Overall, RpoN directly regulates genes associated with virulence, nitrogen assimilation, the PspF system, motility and the YfhA/YfhK two-component regulatory system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the mechanism and research progress of activation of persulfate by applying Fe, n-ZVI, heat and alkali, analyses the effects of persulfate on soil physicochemical properties and micro-organisms, describes the combined application with surfactant drenching and bioremediation, and points out some research hotspots for the remediation of contaminated soils by persulfate oxidation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the control parameters of the wall thickness of the ball table and the thickness of the pressure plate of the ball table, four universal wrapped assembled joint models were designed for the research of stress performance via static loading test. The failure mode of the joint, the axial force–displacement curve of the web member, the equivalent stress distribution of the ball table and the pressure plate of the ball table were analyzed, and the ABQAUS finite element software was used for the analysis of parameter expansion of the specimen. The research results show that the failure modes of universally wrapped assembled joints can be divided into the buckling failure of the ball table and the strength failure of the material. The wall thickness of the ball table is the key parameter affecting the failure mode of the joints, and the thickness of the pressure plate of the ball table is the crucial parameter influencing the ultimate bearing capacity of the joints. The maximum equivalent stress of the pressure plate and the ball table at compression zone for all the joints is occurred at the side squeezed by the bolt ball, and the growth rate of the equivalent stress for the ball table at compression zone is more uniform than that at tension zone. According to the finite element analysis results, when the wall thickness of the ball table is greater than 7 mm, the thickness of the pressure plate of the ball table is greater than 16 mm, the growth rate of the ultimate bearing capacity of the joint is significantly decreased, therefore, it is recommended to use the wall thickness of 7 mm and the pressure plate thickness of 16 mm in the actual design of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of gynecology, the selection of surgical approach should be carefully considered based on individual patient characteristics. The development of minimally invasive surgery has greatly impacted gynecological surgeries, and the number of robotic surgeries has been increasing yearly. Robotic surgery offers many benefits. The use of robotic surgery techniques in the multidisciplinary teamwork (MDT) surgery can make surgical operations more convenient, and has resulted in many successful cases, such as in advanced ovarian cancer and deep infiltrating endometriosis surgeries. Single-port robotic surgery has its operational limitations but shows potential for development. The use of remote robotic surgery is being explored. The support of national policies in China has contributed to the development of domestically produced surgical robots. The future of surgical robots lies in technological advancements, market dominance, and the integration of intelligence and miniaturization. Our goal is to disseminate high-quality medical resources and provide services to a larger number of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The safety of an MRI simulation-guided boost after short-course preoperative radiotherapy (SCPRT) for unresectable rectal cancer is assessed with a planned interim analysis. Methods and materials: Patients diagnosed with clinical stage T3-4 or regional lymph node-positive disease with positive mesorectal fascia or T4b disease evaluated by pelvic MRI were randomly assigned to the SCPRT-boost group (25 Gy in 5 fractions plus 4 Gy delivered to the gross tumor volume, followed by four cycles of chemotherapy) or preoperative chemoradiotherapy group (50 Gy in 25 fractions with concurrent chemotherapy). Then, patients received total mesorectal excision surgery after preoperative treatment. The primary endpoint was the R0 resection rate. The interim analysis was performed when 42 patients completed their assigned treatments. Results: From October 2018 to November 2019, a total of 43 patients were enrolled, and 42 patients were included in the interim analysis. During preoperative therapy, grade 3 or above toxicities were observed in 10/21 (47.6%) patients in the experimental group, and 4/21 (19.0%) patients in the control group. A total of 17 (81.0%) and 13 (61.9%) patients in the experimental group and control group underwent surgery, respectively. Overall, 65.1% of the patients achieved R0 resection in the intention-to-treat analysis. Surgery-related adverse complications were observed in 2 patients (11.8%) in the experimental group and 1 patient (7.7%) in the control group. Conclusion: Our results show that the toxicity of an MRI simulation-guided boost after SCPRT for unresectable rectal cancer is acceptable. Thus, this clinical trial will be continued as planned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oreocharis qianyuensis, a new species of Gesneriaceae from Southwest, China, is described and illustrated based on morphological comparisons and molecular phylogenetic analyses. Phylotranscriptomic analyses of the new species in the context of a comprehensive phylogeny with dense sampling of 88% (111/126) of all species of the genus indicated that the new species was most closely-related to O. fargesii. The new species is morphologically similar to O. fargesii and O. nanchuanica in the shape, color and structure of flowers and the number of stamens, but differs in the leaf blade shape, margin and the indumentum characters of the inflorescence. Its morphological relationship with similar species is discussed, the detailed descriptions, colour photographs, distribution, as well as the IUCN threatened status based on the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diphenylphosphoryl azide ((C6H5O)2P(O)N3, DPPA) was studied by in situ Raman scattering spectroscopy and synchrotron angle‐dispersive X‐ray diffraction (ADXRD) technologies up to 11.6 GPa at room temperature. The analyses of Raman spectra revealed that the liquid DPPA transformed from Phase I to Phase II at 0.4 GPa and went to Phase III at 1.3 GPa. The first phase transition was attributed to the change of molecular conformation, and the second phase transition was induced by the deformation of benzene rings. The XRD results suggested that DPPA remained in a liquid state during the two phase transitions. The azide group became increasingly asymmetric under pressure and decomposed at 11.6 GPa. The low decomposition pressure of the azide group is conducive to the formation of polymeric nitrogen. Exploring the behaviors of the azide group under pressure might be helpful for understanding the potential application of DPPA in the synthesis of high energy density materials (HEDMs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients who suffer from dyspnea while dying from COVID-19 are treated with opioids and benzodiazepines. In some instances, patients may experience refractory dyspnea at the end of life. Palliative sedation can be prescribed to alleviate such patients' suffering. We describe two patients being treated for severe COVID-19 pneumonia in a tertiary hospital. Both developed intractable dyspneic crises despite high-dose opioids and benzodiazepines. This led to their requirement of palliative sedation in the general ward using subcutaneous phenobarbitone (phenobarbital). We outline clinical considerations for the use of palliative sedation in COVID-19 related dyspnea. In particular, we discuss the evidence for, benefits and limitations of using phenobarbitone for palliative sedation in COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is widely performed in bariatric surgery. However, the prevalence and risk factors of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms after LSG remain unclear to date. This study aimed to identify risk factors of GERD after LSG. (2) Methods: We conducted a retrospective study at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and reviewed 296 patients who underwent LSG from 2016 to 2019. A total of 143 patients who underwent preoperative esophagogastroduodenoscopy and completed the 12-month postoperative follow-up were enrolled. Patients' demographic data, comorbidities, and postoperative weight loss results were recorded for analysis. The GerdQ questionnaire was used to assess GERD after LSG. (3) Results: There were eight surgical complications (5.6%) among the 143 studied patients (median age, 36 years; 56 (39.2%) men; median body weight 105.5 kg; median body mass index [BMI], 38.5 kg/m2). Twenty-three patients (16.1%) developed de novo GERD symptoms. GERD was significantly associated with older age (p = 0.022) and lower BMI (<35 kg/m2, p = 0.028). In multiple logistic regression analysis, age and BMI were significantly associated with GERD. (4) Conclusions: LSG is a safe and effective weight loss surgery. In our study, it led to 16.1% of de novo GERD symptoms, which were significantly related to older age and lower BMI (<35 kg/m2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota may cause irregular digestive function, and intestinal wall inflammation. Over the past few years, probiotics generate bioactive metabolites, named postbiotics, have been discovered its crucial roles in modulation of intestinal microbiota. Single-strain postbiotics have positive effect on health of host, but the functions of multi-strain postbiotics remain unclear. This study proposed a useful application of multi-strain postbiotics and thereby establish the developing foundation of multi-strain postbiotics. Initially, various probiotics and postbiotics were screened for antiinflammatory activity through inducing the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß)and interleukin-10 (IL -10) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Then, we detailed the synergistic effects of 4Mix postbiotics (named as Probiotic Extracts of 4 strains-number 1, PE0401) consisted of metabolites generated from Lactobacillus salivarius AP-32, Lactobacillus acidophilus TYCA06, Lactobacillus plantarum LPL28, Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis BLI -02 on anti-inflammatory activity, antioxidative capacity, regulation of tight junction proteins. The results displayed that anti-inflammatory activity of 4Mix postbiotics PE0401 was stronger than other mixed postbiotic combinations. The antioxidative capacity, which correlated to anti-inflammation, also significantly increased as shown in DPPH and FRAP assays. The epithelial tight junction proteins expressed in mRNA levels (ZO-1, ZO-2, Occludin, JAM-A, and Claudin) were highly potent modulated by PE0401. In addition, PE0401 selectively promoted the growth of intestinal bacterial strains including Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium strains and other beneficial bacteria. Therefore, this study provides a fascinating insight into the strategy to the treatment of the intestinal disorders. PE0401 may deliver as health functional food ingredient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: Recent progress in colloidal synthesis has realized the preparations of uniform nanocrystal (NC) model catalysts with rich and well‐controlled morphologies that were employed to explore structure‐activity relationships of powder catalysts, similar to single‐crystal‐based model catalysts under ultrahigh vacuum conditions but can work at the same conditions as powder catalysts without the "materials gap" and "pressure gap". In this perspective, the CeO2‐based NC model catalysts with various morphologies are included and their relevant progresses are critically reviewed. The detailed descriptions of morphology‐controlled synthesis and characterizations of uniform CeO2 NCs, and morphology‐dependent catalysis of CeO2‐based NC model catalysts containing pure CeO2 NCs, CeO2‐supported oxide catalysts, and CeO2‐supported metal catalysts, provide us a comprehensive cognition in CeO2‐involved catalytic reactions and also open up a new approach for the fundamental studies of complex heterogeneous catalysis. Finally, a concept of oxide‐based NC model catalysts and outlook of oxide NCs acting not only as model catalysts for the fundamental study but also as the support in tailoring structures and optimizing performance of oxide‐involved catalysts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Temporal Knowledge Graph (TKG) is a sequence of Knowledge Graphs (KGs) attached with time information, in which each KG contains the facts that co-occur at the same timestamp. Temporal knowledge prediction (TKP) aims to predict future events given observed historical KGs in TKGs, which is essential for many applications to provide intelligent analysis services. However, most existing TKP methods focus on entity and relation prediction tasks but ignore the importance of time prediction tasks. Furthermore, there is uncertainty in time prediction, and it is difficult for prediction models to model it completely. In this work, we propose a collaboration framework with B ayesian H ypernetwork and T ime- D ifference E volutional N etwork (BH-TDEN) to address these problems. First, we begin with the time prediction task, and we present a Bayesian hypernetwork to model the uncertainty of events time. For the input of Bayesian hypernetwork, we design a novel time-difference evolutional network to obtain the entities and relations embedding. Specifically, we propose an auto-regressive time gate parameterized by the time difference of adjacent KGs in entity and relation encoder to learn the time-sensitive TKG embedding, which not only learns the relationship between the given time information and TKG embedding but also provides more expressive TKG embedding for Bayesian hypernetwork to accurately predict the time of future events. Furthermore, we also present a novel relation updating mechanism that employs the neighbor relations of the subject corresponding to the current relation to learn more adaptive relation embedding. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed method obtains considerable time prediction and link prediction performance on four TKG benchmark datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wet-deck slamming affects the structural integrity of trimarans sailing under severe sea conditions. In this study, a Cartesian-grid computational fluid dynamics code is adopted to simulate the water-entry process of a trimaran cross-section. The numerical simulation results of the wet-deck slamming pressure and evolution of the free surface agree well with the experimental results. The spatial distribution of the wet-deck slamming pressure and the process by which the slamming pressure increases to its maximum are analyzed via simulation. Simultaneously, the wet-deck slamming characteristics are compared with three different main-hull profiles. We found that the occurred of the flow separation is related to the bilge curvature of the trimaran, which makes the slamming pressure near the main hull smaller than the other positions on wet deck. Moreover, the dimensionless peak slamming pressure on wet deck is less affected by the main-hull profile, while the time required for slamming pressure rise to its maximum is longest for the main-hull profile with smallest bilge curvature. These results can provide a better understanding of the relationship between the main-hull profile and the wet-deck slamming characteristics, which may be considered in future design for the trimaran section. • The non-uniform spatial distribution of the wet-deck slamming are mainly caused by the main-hull water-entry. • The flow separation angle near the main hull increased with the bilge curvature. • The dimensionless peak slamming pressure on wet deck is less affected by the main-hull profile. • The time required for wet-deck slamming pressure rise to its maximum is longest for the smallest bilge curvature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal-induced two-phase flow instabilities could badly slow the runtime performance of two-phase systems, such as boiling water reactor core, and even endanger the safe operation. Hence, many researchers have carried out numerous researches on flow instability characteristics, but few publications cover the effects of local throttling on two-phase flow instabilities in open-channel systems such as coolant rod bundle subchannel with spacer grids in the nuclear reactor core. This paper provides a numerical study on the effects of local throttling on two-phase flow instabilities in a simplified typical coolant open-channel system in a nuclear reactor core by using the NUSOL-SYS code. The effects of local throttling ratio, throttling position, and other throttling parameters on the stability of the boiling channel system were carried out. The results show that usually in uniformly distributed throttling conditions, the stability of the system and high throttling ratio are positively correlated. In fixed throttle ratio conditions, the stability of the system is positively correlated with the distance from the throttling region to the entrance and local void fraction. If throttling regions are uniformly arranged along the heating channel with a certain value, the number of throttle regions will enhance the instability of the system. Besides, this paper preliminarily proposed a criterion function f(n, RT, α) to study the complicated throttling effects on flow instability which could provide technical reference for the safe design and operation of two-phase systems, especially, the reactor core. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of social economy and the change of ideology, people are increasingly enthusiastic about participating in sports events. How to make better use of the existing massive network data of sports events to solve the overload of information circulation of sports events has become a potential application problem to promote the development of sports information digitalization. Based on this problem orientation, this paper chooses to study the common characteristics of the current Internet data of sports events and the corresponding and applicable event recommendation technology and constructs feasible event recommendation model as the main direction of solution. The competition information system is the core technology system of the games and the central nervous system of the games. By summing up the previous high-level comprehensive games, the competition information system should serve the competition, command, media, and the public. The smooth construction and stable operation of the perfect design of the competition information system will reflect the organization level of the games and guarantee the success of the games. At the same time, it has certain guiding significance for the design of the competition information system of the large-scale comprehensive games in China in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: COVID-19 infection can cause life-threatening respiratory disease. This study aimed to fully characterize the clinical features associated with postponed viral shedding time and disease progression, then develop and validate two prognostic discriminant models.Methods: This study included 125 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, for whom 44 parameters were recorded, including age, gender, underlying comorbidities, epidemiological features, laboratory indexes, imaging characteristics and therapeutic regimen, et al. Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney test were used for feature selection. All models were developed with fourfold cross-validation, and the final performances of each model were compared by the Area Under Receiving Operating Curve (AUROC). After optimizing the parameters via L2 regularization, prognostic discriminant models were built to predict postponed viral shedding time and disease progression of COVID-19 infection. The test set was then used to detect the predictive values via assessing models' sensitivity and specificity.Results: Sixty-nine patients had a postponed viral shedding time (> 14 days), and 28 of 125 patients progressed into severe cases. Six and eleven demographic, clinical features and therapeutic regimen were significantly associated with postponed viral shedding time and disease progressing, respectively (p < 0.05). The optimal discriminant models are: y1 (postponed viral shedding time) = - 0.244 + 0.2829x1 (the interval from the onset of symptoms to antiviral treatment) + 0.2306x4 (age) + 0.234x28 (Urea) - 0.2847x34 (Dual-antiviral therapy) + 0.3084x38 (Treatment with antibiotics) + 0.3025x21 (Treatment with Methylprednisolone); y2 (disease progression) = - 0.348-0.099x2 (interval from Jan 1st,2020 to individualized onset of symptoms) + 0.0945x4 (age) + 0.1176x5 (imaging characteristics) + 0.0398x8 (short-term exposure to Wuhan) - 0.1646x19 (lymphocyte counts) + 0.0914x20 (Neutrophil counts) + 0.1254x21 (Neutrphil/lymphocyte ratio) + 0.1397x22 (C-Reactive Protein) + 0.0814x23 (Procalcitonin) + 0.1294x24 (Lactic dehydrogenase) + 0.1099x29 (Creatine kinase).The output ≥ 0 predicted postponed viral shedding time or disease progressing to severe/critical state. These two models yielded the maximum AUROC and faired best in terms of prognostic performance (sensitivity of78.6%, 75%, and specificity of 66.7%, 88.9% for prediction of postponed viral shedding time and disease severity, respectively).Conclusion: The two discriminant models could effectively predict the postponed viral shedding time and disease severity and could be used as early-warning tools for COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging is an irreversible physiological degradation of living organisms. Accumulated oxidative stress and dysbiosis accelerate aging. Probiotics such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium and their fermented metabolites (postbiotics) have been discovered to exhibit antioxidative activities that regulate oxidative stress and protect cells from oxidative damage. We screened selected Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains and their postbiotics for potential antioxidative activity by using DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) assay. Strains with their metabolites were selected for mixed formula in experiments involving aging mice. The aged groups presented higher oxidative stress in the brain, liver, heart, and kidney than did young mice. However, treatment with probiotic strains and their postbiotics elevated antioxidative levels, especially in the high-dose probiotics plus postbiotics group. Next-generation sequencing data revealed positive microbiota alterations of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia in the gut. Lactobacillus johnsonii and Akkermansia muciniphila exhibited effective enlargement of relative abundance. Besides, high-dose probiotics and high-dose probiotics plus postbiotics showed significant elevation in serum SCFAs, especially in butyrate. In conclusion, the formula containing Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. infantis BLI-02, Bifidobacterium breve Bv889, Bifidobacterium bifidum VDD088, B. animalis subsp. lactis CP-9, and Lactobacillus plantarum PL-02 and their metabolites may benefit aged people’s health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic resistance of turfgrasses is an essential indicator of urban recreational and sports turf quality (TQ). In our study, four turfgrass species were investigated for their wear resistance. A self-made traffic simulator was used to determine the wear resistance of the study turf area in a 2-year field trial (2019–20). The experimental plots were established using a randomized block design with three replicates. The morphological characteristics, soil physical properties, and physiological indices of the grasses were analyzed. Using the acquired quantitative data, we set the turf cover index (TCI), the turf quality index (TQI), and the shoot density index (SDI) as the wear tolerance index, and assessed the correlations among these morphological characteristics, soil physical properties, physiological indices, and wear tolerance. ‘Lanyin III’ zoysiagrass and ‘Tifgreen’ hybrid bermudagrass provided relatively greater wear tolerance, followed by ‘Qingdao’ zoysiagrass and common bermudagrass after 12 weeks of traffic exposure in 2019 and 2020. Traffic changes the soil physical properties and affects the physiological metabolism of turfgrasses. Leaf morphology characteristics and the mechanical strength of these grasses were related significantly to TCI, TQI, and SDI, and most physiological responses and soil properties correlated significantly with TCI and TQI. Our findings of the correlations among physiological responses, soil properties, leaf morphology, and wear tolerance will allow grass breeders to evaluate their breeding procedures more efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we consider the issue of energy efficient management for distributed state estimation over unknown packet-dropping communication channels which are exposed to Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks. After a packet is transmitted, the sensor determines whether to retransmit and the retransmission power levels based on the feedback information from the receiving sensor. We formulate the energy efficient management problem as a modified Markov decision problem (MMDP), and proposed an algorithm to seek a retransmission power schedule that achieves optimal tradeoff between energy consumption and communication rate for given channel noise power. In the case of unknown channel state, we design a statistical learning method to estimate channel noise power. Besides, inspired by the hypothesis testing, we design an anomaly detector to guarantee the instantaneity of channel noise power estimation and efficiency of energy management. Furthermore, we derive the optimal gain for each estimator, and provide a sufficient condition for the stability of estimator under the energy management. Finally, we verify the main results by numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A high-fidelity model considers multiphases transition and anisotropy. • Thermal behavior was analyzed as a preliminary screening process parameter. • A process parameter optimization considering track space overlap is proposed. • Process parameter constraint conditions based on VED was introduced. • The optimal window of process parameters of Al-Mg-Sc-Zr is obtained. To improve the relative density and decrease the manufacturing deficiency, a 3D finite element model of multi-layer and multi-track, considering material state transition and temperature-dependent and anisotropic thermal properties, was established and validated to study the temperature field and optimize the process parameters of laser powder bed fusion. The effects of process parameters on cooling rate and liquid lifetime of molten pool were investigated with numerical simulation. Then a process parameter optimization method considering thermal behavior of molten pool, track space overlap of molten pool and VED constraint conditions was proposed to obtain the optimal process parameter window. The results show that the evolution of temperature field tends to be stable till the third layer of powder bed. The cooling rate and liquid lifetime of molten pool are mainly affected by laser power and scanning speed. The influence of process parameters on the overlap rate of molten pool is ranked as follows: laser power > scanning speed > hatch spacing. The laser power of 200–250 W, scanning speed of 0.8–1.0 m/s, hatch spacing of 120–140 μm, and volumetric energy density of 60–80 J/mm3 can contribute to a sound metallurgical bonding between the neighbor layers and tracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Unsupervised algorithms has achieved remarkable performance in image dehazing. However, the CycleGAN framework can lead to confusion in generator learning due to inconsistent data distributions, and the DisentGAN framework lacks effective constraints on generated images, resulting in the loss of image content details and color distortion. Moreover, Squeeze and Excitation channel attention employs only fully connected layers to capture global information, lacking interaction with local information, resulting in inaccurate feature weight allocation for image dehazing. To solve the above problems, in this paper, we propose an Unsupervised Bidirectional Contrastive Reconstruction and Adaptive Fine-Grained Channel Attention Networks (UBRFC-Net). Specifically, an Unsupervised Bidirectional Contrastive Reconstruction Framework (BCRF) is proposed, aiming to establish bidirectional contrastive reconstruction constraints, not only to avoid the generator learning confusion in CycleGAN but also to enhance the constraint capability for clear images and the reconstruction ability of the unsupervised dehazing network. Furthermore, an Adaptive Fine-Grained Channel Attention (FCA) is developed to utilize the correlation matrix to capture the correlation between global and local information at various granularities promotes interaction between them, achieving more efficient feature weight assignment. Experimental results on challenging benchmark datasets demonstrate the superiority of our UBRFC-Net over state-of-the-art unsupervised image dehazing methods. This study successfully introduces an enhanced unsupervised image dehazing approach, addressing limitations of existing methods and achieving superior dehazing results. The source code is available at https://github.com/Lose-Code/UBRFC-Net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector beams, featured by a specific space-variant distribution of polarization, have attracted intensive attention. Arbitrary and broadband spatial polarization processing is a key pursuit for vector beam generation, modulation, and detection. Here, we introduce black dye into liquid crystals to form a dichroic medium and imprint high-resolution patterns into the medium via photopatterning. Continuous cylindrical and binary vector beams are freely generated. Switching between a vector beam generator and a high-transmittance homeotropic state can be realized due to the electro-optical tunability of liquid crystals. On the basis of a radial vector beam generator array, the polarization distribution is characterized by calculating the darkest line of each generator. This strategy provides a platform for arbitrary spatial polarization processing and may bring more possibilities for polarization imaging, structured light generation, and materials characterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with disabilities can have access to a variety of learning opportunities via motor play. Researchers have emphasized the need to intentionally support children's motor skill development. Despite previous research showing that fundamental motor skill (FMS) interventions result in improved motor skills for preschoolers with disabilities or developmental delays, it is unclear if those studies were methodologically sound. Thus, the purpose of this review is to summarize the existing evidence and critically evaluate the quality of research on FMS interventions for preschoolers with disabilities or developmental delays using the Council for Exceptional Children's Quality Indicators. Seven studies are included in this review, and the findings clearly indicate there is a need to conduct more methodologically rigorous research in this area. Additionally, implementation fidelity must be addressed in future studies to enhance our understanding of intervention effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungus. Many mycotoxin species are highly toxic and are frequently found in cereals and feedstuffs. So, powerful detection methods are vital and effective ways to prevent feed contamination. Traditional detection methods can no longer meet the needs of massive, real-time, simple, and fast mycotoxin monitoring. Rapid detection methods based on advanced material and sensor technology are the future trend. In this review, we highlight recent progress of mycotoxin rapid detection strategies in feedstuffs and foods, especially for simultaneous multiplex mycotoxin determination. Immunoassays, biosensors, and the prominent roles of nanomaterials are introduced. The principles of different types of recognition and signal transduction are explained, and the merits and pitfalls of these methods are compared. Furthermore, limitations and challenges of existing rapid sensing strategies and perspectives of future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although transmission of Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Americas has greatly declined since late 2017, recent reports of reduced risks of symptomatic Zika by prior dengue virus (DENV) infection and increased risks of severe dengue disease by previous ZIKV or DENV infection underscore a critical need for serological tests that can discriminate past ZIKV, DENV, and/or other flavivirus infections and improve our understanding of the immune interactions between these viruses and vaccine strategy in endemic regions. As serological tests for ZIKV primarily focus on envelope (E) and nonstructural protein 1 (NS1), antibodies to other ZIKV proteins have not been explored. Here, we employed Western blot analysis using antigens of 6 flaviviruses from 3 serocomplexes to investigate antibody responses following reverse transcription- PCR (RT-PCR)-confirmed ZIKV infection. Panels of 20 primary ZIKV and 20 ZIKV with previous DENV infection recognized E proteins of all 6 flaviviruses and the NS1 protein of ZIKV with some cross-reactivity to DENV. While the primary ZIKV panel recognized only the premembrane (prM) protein of ZIKV, the ZIKV with previous DENV panel recognized both ZIKV and DENV prM proteins. Analysis of antibody responses following 42 DENV and 18 West Nile virus infections revealed similar patterns of recognition by anti-E and anti-NS1 antibodies, whereas both panels recognized the prM protein of the homologous serocomplex but not others. The specificity was further supported by analysis of sequential samples. Together, these findings suggest that anti-prM antibody is a flavivirus serocomplex-specific marker and can be used to delineate current and past flavivirus infections in endemic areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral-nasal mucosal immunity plays a crucial role in protecting the body against bacterial and viral invasion. Safe probiotic products have been used to enhance human immunity and oral health. In this study, we verified the beneficial effects of mixed viable probiotic tablets, consisting of Lactobacillus salivarius subsp. salicinius AP-32, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis CP-9, and Lactobacillus paracasei ET-66, and heat-killed probiotic tablets, consisting of L. salivarius subsp. salicinius AP-32 and L. paracasei ET-66, on oral immunity among 45 healthy participants. Participants were randomly divided into viable probiotic, heat-killed probiotic, and placebo groups. The administration of treatment lasted for 4 weeks. Saliva samples were collected at Weeks 0, 2, 4, and 6, and Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus mutans populations and IgA concentration were measured. IgA concentrations, levels of TGF-beta and IL-10 in PBMCs cells were quantified by ELISA method. Results showed that salivary IgA levels were significantly increased on administration of both the viable (119.30 ± 12.63%, ***P < 0.001) and heat-killed (116.78 ± 12.28%, ***P < 0.001) probiotics for 4 weeks. Among three probiotic strains, AP-32 would effectively increase the levels of TGF-beta and IL-10 in PBMCs. The oral pathogen Streptococcus mutans was significantly reduced on viable probiotic tablet administration (49.60 ± 31.01%, ***P < 0.001). The in vitro antibacterial test confirmed that viable probiotics effectively limited the survival rate of oral pathogens. Thus, this clinical pilot study demonstrated that oral probiotic tablets both in viable form or heat-killed form could exert beneficial effects on oral immunity via IL-10, TGB-beta mediated IgA secretion. The effective dosage of viable probiotic content in the oral tablet was 109 CFUs/g and the heat-killed oral tablet was 1 × 1010 cells/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plants belonging to the genus Petrocosmea are rare and small herbs difficult to find in the wild. In the present study, a new species, Petrocosmea duyunensis, from Guizhou, China, is described. The species is most similar to P. leiandra and differs from it by a distinctly recurved abaxial corolla lip, free anthers and included pistil. Detailed morphological comparisons are given. One population with about 100 mature individuals was found at the type locality. This new taxon was assessed as "Data Deficient" (DD) according to the IUCN standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different amounts of wheat bran (WB) inclusion and postbiotics form by Saccharomyces cerevisiae and phytase cofermented wheat bran (FWB) on the growth performance and health status of broilers. Methods: Study randomly allocated a total of 300 male broilers to a control and 4 treatment groups (5% WB, 5% FWB, 10% WB, and 10% FWB inclusion, respectively) with each pen having 20 broilers and 3 pens per treatment. Results: The WB does not contain enzymes, but there are 152.8, 549.2, 289.5, and 147.1 U/g dry matter xylanase, protease, cellulase and ß-glucanase in FWB, respectively. Furthermore, FWB can decrease nitric oxide release of lipopolysaccharide stimulated chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells by about two times. Results show that 10% FWB inclusion had significantly the highest weight gain (WG) at 1 to 21 d; 5% FWB had the lowest feed conversion rate at 22 to 35 d; 10% WB and 10% FWB inclusion have the highest villus height and Lactobacillus spp. number in caecum; and both 5% and 10% FWB can increase ash content in femurs. Compared to control group, all treatments increase mucin 2, and tight junction (TJ), such as occludin, claudin-1, zonula occludens-1, and mRNA expression in ileum by at least 5 folds. In chicken peripheral blood mononuclear cells, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-oxidase-1 mRNA expression decreases from 2 to 5 times, and glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit mRNA expression also increases in all treatment groups compared to control group. The mRNA expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), nuclear factor-κB, and IL-1ß, decreases in 5% and 10% FWB groups compared to control group. Conclusion: To summarize, both WB and FWB inclusion in broilers diets increase TJ mRNA expression and anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation, but up to 10% FWB groups have better WG in different stages of broiler development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have achieved great improvements in blind image motion deblurring. However, most existing image deblurring methods require a large amount of paired training data and fail to maintain satisfactory structural information, which greatly limits their application scope. In this paper, we present an unsupervised image deblurring method based on a multi-adversarial optimized cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN). Although original CycleGAN can handle unpaired training data well, the generated high-resolution images are probable to lose content and structure information. To solve this problem, we utilize a multi-adversarial mechanism based on CycleGAN for blind motion deblurring to generate high-resolution images iteratively. In this multi-adversarial manner, the hidden layers of the generator are gradually supervised, and the implicit refinement is carried out to generate high-resolution images continuously. Meanwhile, we also introduce the structure-aware mechanism to enhance the structure and detail retention ability of the multi-adversarial network for deblurring by taking the edge map as guidance information and adding multi-scale edge constraint functions. Our approach not only avoids the strict need for paired training data and the errors caused by blur kernel estimation, but also maintains the structural information better with multi-adversarial learning and structure-aware mechanism. Comprehensive experiments on several benchmarks have shown that our approach prevails the state-of-the-art methods for blind image motion deblurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen steering, Bell non-locality, first-order coherence and concurrence in the spin- 1 2 Heisenberg XX model. We first quantify these quantum resources in Heisenberg spin chain model. In fact, the spin chain model will be inevitably affected by environmental noise. Then, we find the dynamical behavior, which is a interaction of two qubits and an open environment, can test the properties of quantum resources. And the influences of these parameters are investigated on quantum resources, including the coupling coefficient, temperature, magnetic field strength and the parameters of channel. Furthermore, we will get dynamical behavior of the stable state under the circumstance of BF channel. And the role of spin chains in quantum information processing can be realized. Finally, we explore the stability of coherence, steering and Bell non-locality in AD channel. These explain how to obtain the ideal quantum state by achieving the control through quantum steering and other operations under noisy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1a (CPT1a) is a rate-limited enzyme in the mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation pathway. It acts as a bridge between PPARα and the fatty acid oxidation pathways and is closely related to ruminant growth and development. In this study, one 12 bp InDel polymorphism of the CPT1a gene was identified in 700 goats, and we designated these three genotypes II, ID, and DD. Association analysis showed that the InDel polymorphism was closely associated with trunk index (p = 0.008) and body length index (p = 0.034) in Hainan black goats, and body length (p = 0.010), chest circumference (p = 0.004), chest depth (p = 0.029), and huckle bone width (p = 0.002) in Nubian goats, as well as the chest circumference (p = 0.016) in the Fuqing goat breed. In both kids and adult goats, qRT-PCR results showed that the CPT1a gene was expressed in all tissues, showing the highest mRNA levels in the liver, lung, spleen, and kidney, followed by the adipose tissue and brain. This indicates an association between the InDel of the CPT1a gene and growth traits in selected goat breeds, which may facilitate marker-assisted selection in goat genetics and breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, grey genetic optimization model (GGOM) is proposed for predicting insufficient channel parameters without increasing the amount of measurement data. Based on the millimetre wave 28 GHz indoor measurement data for both LOS and NLOS scenarios, the GGOM model is compared with traditional back propagation (BP) and grey model (GM) to analyse channel parameters like delay spread, excess delay and azimuth spread. Results show that the fitness of GGOM is better than the grey model in improving the stability of system. It works well with insufficient data (size less than 30) in most cases as it is set regardless of the specific scene and measurement data. This is verified by QuaDRiGa platform by generating uniformly distributed and interpolated data between the experimental measurement data. GGOM fits best with the measurement data compared with other prediction methods in channel characterization. Moreover, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for GGOM is the least compared with GM and BP methods. The proposed GGOM model has good performance in modeling insufficient data of propagation channel, practically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Cu and Ce were added to melt-spun Al–Ag precursor alloys to refine the microstructures of nanoporous Ag and Ag/CeO2 composite catalysts for NaBH4 oxidation. After the precursor alloys were dealloyed in 20% NaOH, calcined in air and corroded again in 50% NaOH, Ag2Al in the precursor alloys was completely removed, and refined nanoporous Ag could be obtained; from this process, the finest microstructures were exhibited by Al84Ag8Cu8. When more than 0.3% Ce was added to the Al84Ag8Cu8 ribbons, a refined nanoporous Ag material that consisted of CeO2 nanorods interspersed between Ag ligaments was obtained. Electrochemical measurements indicated that the catalytic properties were clearly increased due to the Cu addition to the Al–Ag alloy. After Ce was added to the Al84Ag8Cu8 ribbons, the catalytic properties of the resulting material were further improved. In regard to melt-spun Al84Ag8Cu8Ce0.5, the obtained nanoporous Ag/CeO2 presented the best properties, and its current density was 2.5 times that of Al84Ag8Cu8, 3.1 times that of Al90Ag8Cu2 and 2.3 times that of Ag/Ce from the Al79Ag15Ce6 precursor alloy without Cu. It was believed that the core–shell structure composed of Ag and Cu-rich phases formed during dealloying could limit the diffusion of Ag and prevent the coarsening of Ag ligaments. Thus, the refined microstructures could provide a large specific surface or additional active sites for the catalytic reaction. Strong interactions resulted from the many interfaces between the Ag ligaments and interspersed CeO2 nanorods, and the more effective utilization of Ag was due to the decomposition of Ag2Al; this result was the key reason for the clear improvement in catalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted significant attention as porous catalyst platforms due to the synthetic modularity of these materials and the diversity of lattice‐confined catalytic active sites that are readily embedded within periodic crystalline frameworks. MOFs offer platforms to heterogenize molecular catalysts, stabilize novel coordination motifs, and leverage confinement effects in catalysis. Crystallinity allows diffraction‐based methods to be employed in the characterization of these catalysts. Access to crystalline MOFs typically requires reversible construction of the metal−ligand (M−L) bonds that connect the SBUs, which provides a mechanism to anneal defects during crystallization. While the required M−L bond reversibility is often promoted by synthesis at elevated temperature, access to crystalline materials based on either transition metals with characteristic slow exchange kinetics or highly basic donor ligands remains a synthetic challenge. Here, we highlight synthetic strategies that leverage M−L exchange kinetics to access MOFs based on kinetically inert ions and extensions of these strategies to the assembly of atomically precise multimetallic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

we report novel symmetry breaking breathers of an optical fiber system governed by a set of generalized nonlinear coupled Schrödinger equations. Via introducing Darboux transformation method, the vector breather solutions are constructed for the system. For a small perturbation to the coefficient parameter which represents mixed higher-order dispersion and nonlinearity, symmetry breaking vector breathers can be observed. As the integral parameter is adjusted, these breathers will switch between different phases. Our study reveals theoretically the formation and transition mechanisms of symmetry breaking vector breathers and helps explain the corresponding experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Wheat bran (WB) was co-fermented with Aspergillus oryzae and phytase (Phy) to determine whether co-fermentation improve WB phosphorus and fiber utilization in Isa-brown layers. Methods: A total of 112 Isa brown layer were randomly divided into 7 treatments with 8 replicates per a treatment and 2 hens per a replicate. The treatments included basal diet (control), basal diet supplemented with 250 unit/kg Phy (control+Phy), diet with 10% WB (10% WB), diet with 5% WB and 250 unit/kg Phy (5% WB+Phy) diet with 10% WB and 250 unit/kg Phy (10% WB+Phy), diet with 5% fermented WB supplemented with molasses and phy (PCFWH) and 125 unit/kg Phy (5% PCFWH), and diet with 10% PCFWH (10% PCFWH). The intestinal microbial population, intestinal morphology, serum antioxidant enzyme activities, and excreta phosphorus content were assessed. Results: In PCFWH, spore counts, protease activity, xylanase activity, and ferulic acid were 8.50 log/g dry matter (DM), 190 unit/g DM, 120 unit/g DM, and 127 μg/g, respectively. Xylobiose and xylotriose were released in PCFWH, while they were not detectable in WB. Antioxidant capacity was also enhanced in PCFWH compared to WB. The 10% WB+Phy and 10% PCFWH groups produced higher egg mass, but hens fed 5% WB+Phy had the lowest amount of feed intake. Eggs from 10% PCFWH had better eggshell weight, eggshell strength, and eggshell thickness. Birds fed with 10% PCFWH also had higher serum superoxide dismutase and catalase activities. Compare to control, 10% PCFWH significantly reduced excreta phosphorus content. Conclusion: Diet inclusion of 10% PCFWH improved egg quality, antioxidant status, and excreta phosphorus content of laying hens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featuring higher switching speed and lower losses, the silicon carbide MOSFETs (SiC MOSFETs) are widely used in higher power density and higher efficiency power electronic applications as a new solution. Due to the limited current capability of a single module, more modules parallel-connected are necessary for higher power application. However, current sharing is the key obstacle. In this article, an active gate driver (AGD) for high-power SiC MOSFETs is presented to balance the currents of parallel-connected SiC MOSFET modules. The principle of the AGD is based on dynamic gate drive voltage adjustment to synchronize current edges and current slopes among parallel-connected SiC MOSFET modules automatically. Each AGD measures and controls the current of its SiC MOSFET module individually. No extra supervising control circuit is needed. In addition, the hardware and software configurations are independent of the system design and no restrictions on the number of SiC MOSFET modules connected in parallel exist. Finally, the switching performance of the AGD was experimentally verified on two parallel-connected SiC MOSFET modules in a multipulse test under constant and variable load currents. In addition, the effectiveness of AGD under different control topologies has been studied with simulation and verified using three parallel-connected SiC MOSFET modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]