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Microplastics (MPs) have become a hot issue of environmental pollution. However, insufficient evidence exists regarding the distributions and fates of MPs in terrestrial environment, especially in farmlands. The distributions of MPs in paddy fields were investigated in Xiangtan City, a typical rice production area in China. The abundance of MPs in paddy seedling raising fields was 3805 ± 511 n·kg

Purpose The efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors such as programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibodies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is limited, and combined use with other therapies is recommended. Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) inhibitors, a class of small molecule inhibitors, are highly effective for treating type 2 diabetes. Emerging evidence implicates DPP4 inhibitors as immunomodulators that modify aspects of innate and adaptive immunity. We evaluated the combination of a DPP4 inhibitor (anagliptin) and PD-L1 blockade in an NSCLC mouse model. Methods The effect of the combination of anti-PD-L1 and anagliptin was evaluated in subcutaneous mouse models of NSCLC. Tumor-infiltrating immune cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. Bone marrow-derived monocytes of C57BL/6 mice were isolated in vitro to examine the underlying mechanism of anagliptin on the differentiation and polarization of macrophage. Results Anagliptin dramatically improved the efficacy of PD-L1 antibody monotherapy by inhibiting macrophage formation and M2 polarization in the tumor microenvironment. Mechanistically, anagliptin suppressed the production of reactive oxygen species in bone marrow monocytes by inhibiting NOX1 and NOX2 expression induced by macrophage colony-stimulating factor, reduced late ERK signaling pathway activation, and inhibited monocyte-macrophage differentiation. However, the inhibitory effect was reactivated by lipopolysaccharide and interferon-gamma interacting with corresponding receptors during M1 macrophage polarization, but not M2. Conclusions Anagliptin can enhance PD-L1 blockade efficacy in NSCLC by inhibiting macrophage differentiation and M2 macrophage polarization, and combination therapy may be a promising strategy for treating PD-L1 blockade therapy-resistant patients with NSCLC.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive and promising method for continuously monitoring hemodynamic and metabolic changes in tissues. However, the existing fNIRS equipment uses optical fiber, which is bulky, expensive, and time-consuming. We present a miniaturized, modular, novel silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) detector and develop a fNIRS instrument aimed at investigating the cerebral hemodynamic response for patients with epilepsy. Light emitting probe is a circle with a diameter of 5 mm. Independent and modular light source and detector are more flexible in placement. The system can be expanded to high-density measurement with 16 light sources, 16 detectors, and 52 channels. The sampling rate of each channel is 25 Hz. Instrument performance was evaluated using brain tissue phantom and in vivo experiments. High signal-to-noise ratio (60 dB) in source detector separation (SDS) of 30 mm, good stability (0.1%), noise equivalent power (0.89 pW), and system drift (0.56%) were achieved in the phantom experiment. Forearm blood-flow occlusion experiments were performed on the forearm of three healthy volunteers to demonstrate the ability to track rapid hemodynamic changes. Breath holding experiments on the forehead of healthy volunteers demonstrated the system can well detect brain function activity. The computer software was developed to display the original light signal intensity and the concentration changes of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO

In this paper, a compact magnetic dipole composite right/left-handed transmission line (CRLH-TL) leaky-wave antenna (LWA) is proposed, which is periodically loaded with rectangular gaps and short stubs. And then, in light of the dielectric resonator with a high dielectric constant, low loss tangent and good radiation performance, we further add an alumina ceramic block (ACB) to stack on the gap in each CRLH-TL LWA’s unit cell for forming the magnetic dipole, thus, wide beam scanning range and compactness are achieved. To validate this design, a traditional uniform CRLH-TL LWA is investigated in detail. The results of S-parameters, electrical field distribution and radiation properties illuminate the effects of introducing the ACB, such as impendence matching improvement and high radiation efficiency. Furthermore, to verify the flexible control of the balanced condition and the attenuation constant by changing the microstrip gap width and the ACB thickness predicted in the circuit model analysis, a nonuniform CRLH-TL LWA with quasi-constant amplitude is fabricated. Experiment results demonstrate a higher antenna gain and the stability of wide beam scanning range under the condition of a compact design.

The finite element (FE) method may suffer from numerical instability and mesh dependency when modelling the formation of shear bands using strain-softening constitutive models. Nonlocal methods have been shown to be capable of avoiding these numerical issues effectively. This paper proposes a novel generic algorithm for incorporating existing nonlocal methods into the FE formulation of elasto-plastic constitutive models with volumetric hardening laws. Using the example of the modified Cam Clay (MCC) model this paper shows that instabilities are inevitable if the nonlocal plastic volumetric strains are directly used to update the hardening parameter. The paper further proposes a robust regularisation algorithm to overcome this issue. This algorithm has been implemented into a bespoke FE code and its capability in significantly reducing mesh dependency while maintaining numerical stability is verified through a series of numerical analyses of biaxial compression tests for highly overconsolidated clays. The performance of various existing nonlocal methods is also critically assessed.

Thermo-active structures are underground facilities that enable the exchange of thermal energy between the ground and the overlying buildings, thus providing renewable means of space heating and cooling. Although this technology is becoming increasingly popular, the behaviour of geotechnical structures under additional thermal loading is still not fully understood. This paper focuses on the use of underground tunnels as thermo-active structures and explains their behaviour through a series of finite-element analyses based on an existing case study of isothermal tunnels in London Clay. The bespoke finite-element code adopted – the Imperial College Finite Element Program (ICFEP) – is capable of simulating the fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of porous materials. The complex coupled interactions between the tunnel and the surrounding soil are explored by comparing results from selected types of coupled and uncoupled simulations. It is demonstrated that: (a) the thermally induced deformation of the tunnel and the ground are more critical design aspects than the thermally induced forces in the tunnel lining, and (b) the modelling approach in terms of the type of analysis, as well as the assumed permeability of the tunnel lining, has a significant effect on the computed tunnel response and, hence, must be chosen carefully.

A compact implantable antenna is proposed for wireless health monitor microsystem, which is operated in frequency of the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band. A circular radiator is cut four L-shaped slots and loading a shortpin between the radiator and ground plane to implement the circular polarization. Two crossed rectangle slots are etched on the ground plane so that the impedance and axial ratio (AR) bandwidths have been expanded at the same time. In addition, to further verify the performance of the antenna for biomedical application, we simulate a microsystem that monitors human health; and establish the simulation environment of the human heart and head. Then, we evaluated the performance of the microsystem in the human tissue simulation environment. The maximum specific absorption rate value satisfies the IEEE standard safety guidelines. The experiment results indicate that the impedance and AR bandwidths of proposed antenna are 2.25–2.78 GHz and 2.32–2.63 GHz, respectively. The total dimensions of π × 42 × 1.27 mm3 are obtained, which is equivalent to π × 0.032 λ 02 × 0.0102 λ 0 ( λ 0 is the free-space wavelength at 2.4 GHz). This compact size is very suitable for the application in health monitoring microsystem.

This paper presents a conformal spiral antenna that is miniaturized and with dual-resonant for the wireless implantable capsule system. The spiral antenna conforms to a swallowable capsule with a radius of 3 mm and a length of 26 mm without occupying the internal space of the capsule. The compact antenna adopts two spiral arms to extend the effective current path for miniaturization. Biocompatible flexible polyimide was used as the dielectric substrate and capsule shell, achieving conformal properties of the antenna as well as compatibility with human tissue. The antenna has been simulated in different environmental models. The bandwidth of the antenna can reach 39.16 % (1.82 GHz-2.76 GHz) and 12.06 % (5.36 GHz-6.06 GHz) at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz. The maximum gains of −35.2 dBi and −28.1 dBi can be achieved at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz, respectively. In addition, the transmission characteristics of the antenna were experimentally verified in the minced pork and pig intestine. By analyzing the communication link, the communication distance between transceivers at 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz can meet 14 m and 5 m. These results show that the proposed antenna is suitable for wireless implantable capsule systems.

Today, with the continuous promotion and development of IoT and 5G technology, Cyberspace has become an important pillar of economic and social development, and also a foundational domain of national security. Cyberspace security is attracting more and more attention. Therefore, detecting malware and its variants is of great significance to Cyberspace. However, the increasing sophistication of malicious variants, such as encryption, polymorphism and obfuscation, makes it more difficult to identified malware effectively. In this article, a malware detection method of code texture visualization based on an improved Faster RCNN (Region-Convolutional Neural Networks) combining transfer learning is proposed. We utilize visualization technology to map malicious code into corresponding images with typical texture features, and realize the classification of malware. Firstly, in order to quickly acquire and locate the representative texture of malware, we adopt CNN to extract the global and deeper features of malicious code images. Then with RPN (Region Proposal Network) we generate the target image frame, which is used to locate the core texture of malware file (.text file), to realize the accurate positioning of malicious features. Secondly, we preprocess and train Faster RCNN model with ImageNet set, and then transfer the model to the malware classification model to accelerate the convergence of the first model and promote generation performance. Thirdly, we construct an improved objective function in which a novel multi-label of classification proportion is added to solve the problem that the texture change of “.text” section and other sections in malicious code image is not obvious after transfer learning. We collect code samples of six malware families from Kaggle platform, and compared the experimental results before and after transfer. The results show that the novel method can accelerate the convergence of loss function, and obtain higher accuracy (92.8%), lower FPR (6.8%) and better P-R (precision-recall) curve.

In order to adapt to the applications of the wireless capsule endoscope (WCE) system, a wideband implantable antenna is designed. We engrave some slots on both the radiator and the ground plane to miniaturize the size and expand the impedance bandwidth of the antenna. The capacitance loading technique is used to improve the impedance match. The influence of different organs such as the stomach, small intestine, and colon is discussed when the antenna is embedded in the WCE system. Compared to other implantable antennas with similar performance, impedance bandwidth, radiation pattern, and specific absorption rate in one-layer skin phantom model, this design has the best performance. Finally, experiments are carried out on a chicken breast slab to validate our design. Results are shown the proposed antenna available.

Emotion recognition has become increasingly prominent in the medical field and human-computer interaction. When people’s emotions change under external stimuli, various physiological signals of the human body will fluctuate. Electroencephalography (EEG) is closely related to brain activity, making it possible to judge the subject’s emotional changes through EEG signals. Meanwhile, machine learning algorithms, which are good at digging out data features from a statistical perspective and making judgments, have developed by leaps and bounds. Therefore, using machine learning to extract feature vectors related to emotional states from EEG signals and constructing a classifier to separate emotions into discrete states to realize emotion recognition has a broad development prospect. This paper introduces the acquisition, preprocessing, feature extraction, and classification of EEG signals in sequence following the progress of EEG-based machine learning algorithms for emotion recognition. And it may help beginners who will use EEG-based machine learning algorithms for emotion recognition to understand the development status of this field. The journals we selected are all retrieved from the Web of Science retrieval platform. And the publication dates of most of the selected articles are concentrated in 2016–2021.

This paper presents theoretical methods for the undrained stability analysis of shallow tunnels/sinkholes in clay based on the cavity contraction theory, with some assumptions and simplifications. To examine the accuracy and reliability of the new methods, a database was assembled, which consists of stability numbers of tunnel/sinkholes in clays from 22 centrifuge model tests, 10 field tests, and 62 FELA results. It is shown that the proposed methods give an average of 2.5% overestimation for the stability numbers from model tests and is in a good agreement with the FELA results. The cavity contraction theory-based methods are then discussed, which could provide useful guidance for designers to roughly assess shallow tunnel/sinkhole stability in clays.

In a FE analysis of transient heat transfer, a lower limit of the time-step size exists below which numerical oscillations of temperatures may occur. Although time-step constraints for simulating 1D heat diffusion have been well established in the literature, the conclusions cannot be directly applied to 2D cases. In this paper, both analytical and computational studies are carried out to obtain the time-step constraints for 2D linear and quadratic elements. It is noted that in the simulation of 2D heat diffusion employing quadratic elements is not always beneficial. Recommendations are provided on selecting the numerical scheme to minimise numerical oscillations.

This paper presents a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) finite element (FE) formulation which is capable of accounting for the effects of temperature change on the behaviour of unsaturated soils. Both vapour flow and density variation are taken into account in the development of this formulation. The full derivation procedure is provided and the adopted assumptions are stated and explained. To improve the efficiency of the nonlinear solution process while maintaining the accuracy of the prediction, a novel approach for determining iterative corrections when modelling coupled transient problems with the Newton-Raphson algorithm is established and presented here. The performance of the proposed FE formulation and of the new strategy for iterative corrections in a nonlinear solver is subsequently demonstrated and verified by simulations of laboratory experiments on unsaturated compacted bentonite, showing good agreement between the numerical and experimental results.

Thermo-active structures exchange heat with the ground to provide thermal energy to buildings. Consequently, the ground is subjected to changes in temperature, inducing thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) interactions within the soil. To provide insights into the origin and manifestations of the main mechanisms taking place in complex fully THM-coupled finite element (FE) analyses, simple, one-dimensional problems are firstly analysed in this paper and compared to analytical expressions developed for determining thermally-induced excess pore water pressures in undrained problems with different displacement restraints. Subsequently, various dimensionless parameters are established to evaluate the impact of varying ground properties on the observed THM interactions and their evolution with time. Finally, the findings from simple one-dimensional problems are verified in the context of THM modelling of thermo-active retaining walls, where the structural response of walls is shown to be highly transient and influenced by different phenomena prevailing over different periods involving thermal expansion of soils, volumetric deformations due to pore water generation and dissipation, and interactions with mechanical boundary conditions. The results also highlight the importance of performing fully coupled THM analyses and of a correct estimation of the hydraulic and thermal properties to guarantee a safe design of thermo-active structures.

Conventional laboratory triaxial tests apply axisymmetric boundary conditions to a cylindrical sample which has an axisymmetric geometry. For a homogeneous sample this implies that the deformed shape of the sample should maintain an axisymmetric geometry during the test. Consequently, the sample should deform in a barrelling mode and if slip planes develop they should define a cup and cone-like failure surface. However, in many triaxial tests such behaviour is not observed, especially as failure is approached when a planar slip surface develops. Such a deformation mode is not axisymmetric. One reason for this behaviour is that a fissure pre-exists in the sample. Employing hydro-mechanically coupled three-dimensional finite-element analyses, this paper investigates the influence of a single fissure in a triaxial sample of stiff clay on its behaviour throughout the test, focusing on the fissure position, orientation, strength and stiffness, in conjunction with the sample's end-restraints (rough or smooth). The effects are quantified in terms of the sample's overall stiffness and strength, indicating that the presence of a fissure can affect the very small strain stiffness, and that it has a significant effect on the strength of the sample, demonstrating that the conventional methods used to interpret laboratory tests may give unconservative results. The results also show a significant effect of the conditions at the top and bottom surfaces of the sample, where in particular the lateral restraint and rough ends introduce ‘bending’ in the sample.

Ground source energy systems (GSES) utilise low enthalpy geothermal energy and have been recognised as an efficient means of providing low carbon space heating and cooling. This study focuses on GSES where the exchange of heat between the ground and the building is achieved by circulating a fluid through heat exchanger pipes. Although numerical analysis is a powerful tool for exploring the performance of such systems, simulating the highly advective flows inside the heat exchanger pipes can be problematic. This paper presents an efficient approach for modelling these systems using the finite element method (FEM). The pipes are discretised with line elements and the conductive-advective heat flux along them is solved using the Petrov-Galerkin FEM instead of the conventional Galerkin FEM. Following extensive numerical studies, a modelling approach for simulating heat exchanger pipes, which employs line elements and a special material with enhanced thermal properties, is developed. The modelling approach is then adopted in three-dimensional simulations of two thermal response tests, with an excellent match between the computed and measured temperatures being obtained.

To explore the relationships of pain in pancreatic cancer patients with pathological stage and expressions of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2).A total of 54 patients with pancreatic cancer were enrolled to evaluate the pain before treatment, detect the expressions of NF-κB and COX-2, an inflammatory mediator, in tumor tissues by the immunohistochemical method and analyze their relationships with the pain in these patients.The expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 varied obviously among pancreatic cancer patients with different degrees of pain, and as the pain was aggravated, the patients had raised expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 in tumor tissues (p0.05). The degree of pain also differed evidently among the patients at different tumor node metastasis (TNM) stages, and the higher the pathological stage, the higher the degree of pain in patients (p0.05). The pain score of patients was positively correlated with the expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 (p0.05).The degree of pain in pancreatic cancer is closely related to the pathological stage and expressions of NF-κB and COX-2, and the expressions of NF-κB and COX-2 are raised and the pain is aggravated as well in the patients at a higher pathological stage.

A new line for characterising the initial state of sand in the e-lnp plane is firstly introduced in this note, which is defined as the normal compression line (NCL) for sand. Together with a series of existing characteristic state lines, four characteristic zones are subsequently established in the e-lnp plane, namely, liquefaction zone; strain softening zone; quasi-steady state zone and strain hardening zone. Under undrained shearing, saturated sands with the initial state located at the same zone can exhibit similar type of stress-strain relation denoted by the name of zone. A good agreement has been found between the proposed zones and existing experimental results, revealing the ability of proposed zones in characterising the initial state of sand. Finally, the significance of the proposed characteristic zones is demonstrated in the applications associated with sand.

A new Petrov-Galerkin finite element method for two-dimensional (2D) highly advective flows in porous media, which removes numerical oscillations and retains its precision compared to the conventional Galerkin finite element method, is presented. A new continuous weighting function for quadratic elements is proposed. Moreover, a numerical scheme is developed to ensure the weighting factors are accurately determined for 2D non-uniform flows and 2D distorted elements. Finally, a series of numerical examples are performed to demonstrate the capability of the approach. Comparison against existing methods in the simulation of a benchmark problem further verifies the robustness of the proposed method.

Thermo-active foundations utilise heat energy stored in the ground to provide a reliable and effective means of space heating and cooling. Previous studies have shown that the effects of temperature changes on their response are highly dependent on their interaction with the surrounding ground. Consequently, it is necessary to consider this interaction and include both the thermal and mechanical behaviour of the ground in design. This paper addresses this issue by performing state-of-the-art finite-element analyses using the Imperial College Finite Element Program, which is capable of simulating the fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of porous materials. First, the Lambeth College pile test is analysed to demonstrate the capability of the adopted modelling approach to capture the observed response under thermo-mechanical loading. Subsequently, a detailed study is carried out, demonstrating the impact of capturing the fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical response of the ground, the use of appropriate boundary conditions and the uncertainty surrounding thermal ground properties. It is demonstrated that the modelling approach has a large impact on the computed results, and therefore potentially on the design of thermo-active piles. Conversely, the effects of thermal conductivity and permeability of the soil are shown not to influence the pile behaviour significantly.

A temperature rise in soils is usually accompanied by an increase in excess pore fluid pressure due to the differential thermal expansion coefficients of the pore fluid and the soil particles. To model the transient behaviour of this thermally induced excess pore fluid pressure in geotechnical problems, a coupled THM formulation was employed in this study, which accounts for the non-linear temperature-dependent behaviour of both the soil permeability and the thermal expansion coefficient of the pore fluid. Numerical analyses of validation exercises (where there is an analytical solution), as well as of existing triaxial and centrifuge heating tests on Kaolin clay, were carried out in the current paper. The obtained numerical results exhibited good agreement with the analytical solution and experimental measurements respectively, demonstrating good capabilities of the applied numerical facilities and providing insight into the mechanism behind the observed evolution of the thermally induced pore fluid pressure. The numerical results further highlighted the importance of accounting for the temperature-dependent nature of the soil permeability and the thermal expansion coefficient of the pore fluid, commonly ignored in geotechnical numerical analysis.

Interface elements are frequently employed in finite element (FE) analyses to represent soil-structure interfaces or rock joints. The modelling of coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) problems in geotechnical engineering requires equally a coupled and robust THM formulation for interface elements. This paper presents such a formulation which is capable of reproducing the coupled THM behaviour of discontinuities and soil-structure boundaries, and is compatible with other types of finite elements used to discretise the soil and structural domains (e.g. solid and shell elements). The coupled THM three-dimensional (3D) zero-thickness interface element is implemented into the bespoke FE code employed in this research and its features are verified using a number of numerical exercises. To demonstrate their performance, the proposed interface elements are employed in the simulation of the coupled THM behaviour of a fissured triaxial sample subjected to a thermal load and the influence of the presence of fissures on soil behaviour is presented.

A wideband millimeter wave antenna operated at 37.5 GHz for 5G mobile communication technology has been proposed. The feed mode selects the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW), and grooving slots is used to increase the bandwidth of the antenna. Meanwhile, the whole dimension, 10 mm × 20.7 mm × 0.762 mm, is obtained. The derived radiation element was employed to improve the radiation effective. Finally, the proposed antenna was fabricated and tested. The result was consistent between simulated and experiment.