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The carnitine cycle is responsible for the transport of cytoplasmic fatty acids to the mitochondria for subsequent β-oxidation to maintain intracellular energy homeostasis. Recent studies have identified abnormalities in the carnitine cycle in various types of tumors; these abnormalities include the altered expression levels of carnitine cycle-related metabolic enzymes and transport proteins. Dysfunction of the carnitine cycle has been shown to influence tumorigenesis and progression by altering intracellular oxidative and inflammatory status or regulating tumor metabolic flexibility. Many therapeutic strategies targeting the carnitine cycle are actively being explored to modify the dysfunction of the carnitine cycle in patients with malignant tumors; such approaches include carnitine cycle-related enzyme inhibitors and exogenous carnitine supplementation. Therefore, here, we review the studies of carnitine in tumors, aiming to scientifically illustrate the dysfunction of the carnitine cycle in tumor progression and provide new ideas for further research.

Accurate canopy height mapping is crucial for estimating rubber plantation productivity, carbon storage, and biomass accurately. The prevailing method combines Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data with spatially continuous variables. However, these models often overlook forest growth variables and face challenges with GEDI geolocation errors. This study introduces a novel GEDI filtering technique to screen for high-quality footprints and incorporates rubber plantation age as a key factor. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset from Landsat-8, Sentinel-2, and Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR-2), we established a model for the canopy height of rubber plantations. Our multifaceted approach yields significant improvements: 1) enhanced rubber canopy height estimation accuracy, evidenced by an R-squared value of 0.86 and reduced error metrics (RMSE = 1.68, MAE = 1.32); 2) The mean difference of −2.81 ± 3.05 m compared with Potapov’s study and −5.62 ± 6.64 m compared with Liu’s, indicating superior consistency and reduced underestimation; and 3) Accurately average canopy heights for rubber plantations aged between 3 and 30 years on Hainan Island at 15.67 ± 1.87 m, spanning a height range of 5.02 to 18.59 m. The integration of stand age and the GEDI footprint filtering technique markedly enhances canopy height estimation accuracy, offering valuable insights for ecological monitoring and the advancement of sustainable forest management practices.

Abstract Existing studies about wind pressure on agricultural greenhouse buildings concentrate on the mean wind pressure while ignoring the systematic research on fluctuating wind pressure characteristics and the influence of roof shape on the wind pressure characteristics, which are closely associated with the wind-induced damage mechanism. In this study, two typical agricultural greenhouse buildings on tropical islands are selected as prototypes to conduct pressure measurement experiments in the wind tunnel. Based on the wind pressure time series for the two greenhouses, the mean and fluctuating wind pressure distribution pattern and the localized high-pressure generation mechanism are analyzed. Then, the shape coefficient of the two greenhouses is compared in depth to the standards from four countries. Besides, wind pressure non-Gaussian determination criteria for agricultural greenhouse buildings considering the roof shape and wind directions are proposed. Lastly, the differences in wind pressure spectra on the roofs and walls of the two greenhouses are summarized. The results indicate the roof shape has a significant influence on the wind pressure characteristics. Compared with the pitched roof, the vaulted roof will increase the suction effect on the windward front zone and the middle area, mitigate the suction impact on the leeward roof, and weaken the wind pressure non-Gaussian characteristics. The experimental shape coefficient of the pitched-roof greenhouse is basically consistent with the standard from the U.S., while that of the vaulted-roof greenhouse has some deviation from the existing standards. The results provide a theoretical basis for the wind-resistant design of agricultural greenhouse buildings on tropical islands.

Natural rubber produced by the rubber tree is a vital industrial raw material globally. Seven SCAMP gene family members were identified in the rubber tree, and the phylogenetic tree classified HbSCAMPs into three subfamilies. Significant differences were observed among HbSCAMPs in terms of gene length, number of exons, and composition of conserved motifs. The expansion of HbSCAMPs in the rubber tree genome is associated with segmental duplications. The high expression of HbSCAMP1–6 in petioles and HbSCAMP7 in stem tips, along with their distinct responses to drought, salt, and wound stresses, indicates their crucial roles in substance transport and stress adaptation. Transgenic poplar experiments demonstrated that overexpression of HbSCAMP3 significantly promotes plant height growth, with localization in the tobacco plasma membrane, suggesting its involvement in regulating plant growth through membrane transport processes. These findings enhance the understanding of HbSCAMPs in rubber trees and provide new insights into how plants finely tune gene family members to adapt to environmental changes.

A mechanical model of full-length anchoring bolt is established to study the stability of mechanical bearing structure of surrounding rock in high stress soft rock roadway after full-length anchoring bolt. The model considers the dilatancy characteristics of soft rock post-peak strength softening and the stress boundary conditions of full-length bolt, and the analytical formula of bolt stress is derived. Furthermore, the mechanical model of full-length anchored surrounding rock is established by equivalent the anchoring force to the form of volume force. From shallow to deep, it is divided into anchorage residual zone, anchorage plastic softening zone, non-anchorage plastic softening zone and elastic zone, and the stress expression of each zone is deduced. Combined with engineering examples, the influence of space effect, expansion coefficient, bolt length and tray reaction force on surrounding rock stress and bolt stress is analyzed. The results show that under the influence of spatial effect, the deformation and failure of roadway presents progressive development. The concept of ' anchorage control zone ' is proposed, that is, in the process of full-length bolt support, the virtual support force and anchoring force of surrounding rock are in a state of reciprocal growth and decline, thus inhibiting the transfer of surrounding rock stress to the deep and effectively reducing the plastic zone. The earlier the anchor bolt is installed, the greater the deformation of the surrounding rock acting on the rod body, and the easier it is to form a common bearing body with the surrounding rock. The axial force of the anchor bolt is proportional to the expansion coefficient. With the increase of the expansion coefficient, the growth rate of the anchoring force is significantly accelerated, which ensures the recovery effect of the anchor bolt on the radial stress of the surrounding rock. The axial force distribution and peak value of the rod body will increase with the increase of the length of the bolt and the bonding range of the surrounding rock/anchoring agent interface, and then the peak area of the tangential stress of the surrounding rock will shift to the direction of the tunnel wall. The effect of the reaction force of the full-length bolt tray is mainly reflected in improving the stress of the bolt, giving full play to the anchoring effect of the bolt and the ability to protect the surface, and having little effect on the boundary of the residual zone and the plastic zone.

Abstract The internal combustion engine is a widely used power equipment in various fields, and its energy utilization is measured using brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC). BSFC map plays a crucial role in the analysis, optimization, and assessment of internal combustion engines. However, due to cost constraints, some values on the BSFC map are estimated using techniques like K-nearest neighbor, inverse distance weighted interpolation, and multi-layer perceptron, which are recognized for their limited accuracy, particularly when dealing with distributed sampled data. To address this, an improved random forest method is proposed for the estimation of BSFC. Polynomial features are employed to increase higher dimensions of features for random forest by nonlinear transformation, and critical parameters are optimized by particle swarm optimization algorithms. The performance of different methods was compared on two datasets to estimate 20%, 30%, and 40% of BSFC data, and the results reveal that the method proposed in this paper outperforms other common methods and is suitable for estimating the BSFC map.

The precise acquisition of phenotypic parameters for individual trees in plantation forests is important for forest management and resource exploration. The use of Light-Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology mounted on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has become a critical method for forest resource monitoring. Achieving the accurate segmentation of individual tree crowns (ITCs) from UAV LiDAR data remains a significant technical challenge, especially in broad-leaved plantations such as rubber plantations. In this study, we designed an individual tree segmentation framework applicable to dense rubber plantations with complex canopy structures. First, the feature extraction module of PointNet++ was enhanced to precisely extract understory branches. Then, a graph-based segmentation algorithm focusing on the extracted branch and trunk points was designed to segment the point cloud of the rubber plantation. During the segmentation process, a directed acyclic graph is constructed using components generated through grey image clustering in the forest. The edge weights in this graph are determined according to scores calculated using the topologies and heights of the components. Subsequently, ITC segmentation is performed by trimming the edges of the graph to obtain multiple subgraphs representing individual trees. Four different plots were selected to validate the effectiveness of our method, and the widths obtained from our segmented ITCs were compared with the field measurement. As results, the improved PointNet++ achieved an average recall of 94.6% for tree trunk detection, along with an average precision of 96.2%. The accuracy of tree-crown segmentation in the four plots achieved maximal and minimal R2 values of 98.2% and 92.5%, respectively. Further comparative analysis revealed that our method outperforms traditional methods in terms of segmentation accuracy, even in rubber plantations characterized by dense canopies with indistinct boundaries. Thus, our algorithm exhibits great potential for the accurate segmentation of rubber trees, facilitating the acquisition of structural information critical to rubber plantation management.

The vibrissae of harbor seals exhibit a distinct three-dimensional structure compared to circular cylinders, resulting in a wave-shaped configuration that effectively reduces drag and suppresses vortex shedding in the wake. However, this unique cylinder design has not yet been applied to wind power technologies. Therefore, this study applies this concept to the design of downwind wind turbines and employs wind tunnel testing to compare the wake flow characteristics of a single-cylinder model while also investigating the output power and wake performance of the model wind turbine. Herein, we demonstrate that in the single-cylinder test, the bionic case shows reduced turbulence intensity in its wake compared to that observed with the circular cylinder case. The difference in the energy distribution in the frequency domain behind the cylinder was mainly manifested in the near-wake region. Moreover, our findings indicate that differences in power coefficient are predominantly noticeable with high tip speed ratios. Furthermore, as output power increases, this bionic cylindrical structure induces greater velocity deficit and higher turbulence intensity behind the rotor. These results provide valuable insights for optimizing aerodynamic designs of wind turbines towards achieving enhanced efficiency for converting wind energy.

In China’s mountainous coastal terrain, storms can badly damage low-rise buildings. At present, it is not clear how the relative position of buildings and mountains affects the surface of low-rise buildings. The study compared these results with the wind pressure distribution without the surrounding environment. The distribution of wind pressure in different hillside landforms is examined through a wind tunnel experiment, which is also compared with the distribution in an open environment. The study examined the fluctuating coefficient as the distance between the building and the hillside changed, specifically for wind blowing at a 0° angle. The investigation examined the power spectrum and wind pressure probability distribution while considering the proximity of the building to an adjacent hill. The findings indicated that as the distance between the slope and the mountain increases, the fluctuating wind pressure coefficient continues to increase, and the contour lines of the wind pressure distribution are relatively denser compared to where there is a mountain. The maximum value of the fluctuating wind pressure coefficient is 0.22, which appears at the windward roof. The roof’s wind pressure coefficient fluctuated and gradually increased until it reached its peak, unaffected by the surroundings. The wind pressure on the leeward side exhibited Gaussian characteristics in its probability distribution.

The theory of forward–backward stochastic differential equations occupies an important position in stochastic analysis and practical applications. However, the numerical solution of forward–backward stochastic differential equations, especially for high-dimensional cases, has stagnated. The development of deep learning provides ideas for its high-dimensional solution. In this paper, our focus lies on the fully coupled forward–backward stochastic differential equation. We design a neural network structure tailored to the characteristics of the equation and develop a hybrid BiGRU model for solving it. We introduce the time dimension based on the sequence nature after discretizing the FBSDE. By considering the interactions between preceding and succeeding time steps, we construct the BiGRU hybrid model. This enables us to effectively capture both long- and short-term dependencies, thus mitigating issues such as gradient vanishing and explosion. Residual learning is introduced within the neural network at each time step; the structure of the loss function is adjusted according to the properties of the equation. The model established above can effectively solve fully coupled forward–backward stochastic differential equations, effectively avoiding the effects of dimensional catastrophe, gradient vanishing, and gradient explosion problems, with higher accuracy, stronger stability, and stronger model interpretability.

This paper investigates the small-signal stability of a DC shipboard power system (SPS) with the integration of a supercapacitor. As an efficient energy storage solution, supercapacitors can not only provide rapid energy response to sudden power demand spikes, effectively mitigating load fluctuations, but also enhance the system’s resilience to disturbances. In the context of the parallel operation of two Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSGs), the inclusion of supercapacitors may alter the system’s dynamic behaviors, thereby affecting its small-signal stability. This paper develops the small-signal model of SPS and explores the small-signal model under various power distribution strategies in the parallel operation of diesel generator sets. Through the calculation of eigenvalues and influence factors, the system’s oscillation modes are analyzed, and key parameters affecting the stability of the DC distribution system are identified. Furthermore, this paper meticulously examines the specific impacts of electrical and control parameter variations on the system’s small-signal stability. Simulation experiments validate the accuracy of the small-signal stability analysis after supercapacitor integration into SPS.

Purpose: To compare bilateral lateral rectus recession (BLR) with unilateral recession and resection (RR) for divergence excess intermittent exotropia (IXT). Methods: Retrospective analysis of 66 patients with divergence excess IXT who underwent either BLR or RR from January 2013 to December 2020 was conducted. Data on demographics, pre- and postoperative deviations, fusion, stereopsis, control, and accommodative convergence/accommodation ratio were collected. Success was defined as esodeviation ≤5 PD (prism diopter) to exodeviation ≤10 PD with a follow-up time of at least 8.0 ± 2.0 weeks. Results: BLR (42 cases) and RR (24 cases) groups had the same success rate (83.3%, P = 0.688) and similar reduced postoperative deviations both in distance and at near (P > 0.05). Near-distance disparity decreased significantly in both groups (P = 0.000) with no intergroup difference (P = 0.193). Conclusion: BLR and RR were equally effective for divergence excess IXT with comparable outcomes of both distance and near deviations.

BackgroundPrognostic nutritional index (PNI) has been identified as a reliable prognostic factor for cancer adjuvant therapy. However, its prognostic value in lung cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remains inconclusive.MethodA systematic literature review and meta-analysis was performed based on online databases before March 1th 2023. The correlation of PNI with overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) was determined using the hazard ratios (HRs) coupled with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Then, a retrospective cohort enrolling 123 ICI-treated lung cancer patients from two hospitals was utilized for validation and further investigation.ResultsA total of 14 studies enrolling 1,260 lung cancer patients were included in the meta-analysis. The high PNI level was significantly correlated with better OS (HR = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.86–3.54) and PFS (HR = 1.91, 95% CI = 1.53–2.40) of the lung cancer patients. The subgroup analysis confirmed the results except for the PFS in patients receiving anti-PD-1 therapy (HR = 1.51, 95% CI = 0.86–2.65). In the retrospective study, the high PNI level was identified as a favorable factor for OS and PFS not only in the whole cohort but also in the subgroups stratified by non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. The high PNI was also correlated with better anti-cancer therapy response and performed better than body mass index and serum albumin level in OS prediction. Finally, we established a novel prognostic nomogram based on PNI and other clinical parameters. The nomogram was found to perform well in predicting the 1-year OS of ICI-treated lung cancer patients.ConclusionBoth the meta-analysis and retrospective work demonstrate the PNI is a reliable prognostic factor for advanced lung cancer patients receiving ICI-based therapies. Our study further highlights the crucial role of nutrition assessment and intervention in cancer immunotherapy.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: CRD42023424146.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health burden, accounting for approximately 10% of all new cancer cases worldwide. Accumulating evidence suggests that the crosstalk between the host mucins and gut microbiota is associated with the occurrence and development of CRC. Mucins secreted by goblet cells not only protect the intestinal epithelium from microorganisms and invading pathogens but also provide a habitat for commensal bacteria. Conversely, gut dysbiosis results in the dysfunction of mucins, allowing other commensals and their metabolites to pass through the intestinal epithelium, potentially triggering host responses and the subsequent progression of CRC. In this review, we summarize how gut microbiota and bacterial metabolites regulate the function and expression of mucin in CRC and novel treatment strategies for CRC.

Aimed at the optimization design of the parameters of the commutation circuit of a hybrid DC-current-limiting circuit breaker (HDCCLCB), a parameter selection model considering the short-time withstand of the thyristor and the volume of the commutation circuit is proposed by simplifying the object, and the commutation circuit parameters were preliminarily obtained. In order to verify the correctness of the method of selecting the commutation circuit parameters, the circuit simulation model of the HDCCLCB was built. The experimental platform was built, and the breaking experiment was completed under the fault condition with the current rising rate of 20 A/μs. The correctness of the simulation model and parameter design method was verified by comparing the circuit model simulation results with the experimental results. In order to further optimize the parameters of the commutation circuit, a mathematical model for optimization design was established. Taking the maximum critical breakdown voltage under unit capacitance energy as the objective function, the arcing time before commutating and the current-limiting inductance and capacitance are enumerated to obtain the optimized commutation circuit parameters. By comparing this result with the result of the preliminary design, the objective function is improved by 20.7%, laying a solid foundation for further research and the development of current-limiting circuit breakers for medium-voltage DC systems.

The gap fraction (GF) of vegetative canopies is an important property related to the contained bulk of reproductive elements and woody facets within the tree crown volume. This work was developed from the perspectives of porous media theory and computer graphics techniques, considering the vegetative elements in the canopy as a solid matrix and treating the gaps between them as pores to guide volume-based GFvol calculations. Woody components and individual leaves were extracted from terrestrial laser scanning data. The concept of equivalent leaf thickness describing the degrees of leaf curling and drooping was proposed to construct hexagonal prisms properly enclosing the scanned points of each leaf, and cylinder models were adopted to fit each branch segment, enabling the calculation of the equivalent leaf and branch volumes within the crown. Finally, the volume-based GFvol of the tree crown following the definition of the void fraction in porous media theory was calculated as one minus the ratio of the total plant leaf and branch volume to the canopy volume. This approach was tested on five tree species and a forest plot with variable canopy architecture, yielding an estimated maximum volume-based GFvol of 0.985 for a small crepe myrtle and a minimal volume-based GFvol of 0.953 for a sakura tree. The 3D morphology of each compositional element in the tree canopy was geometrically defined and the canopy was considered a porous structure to conduct GFvol calculations based on multidisciplinary theory.

COVID-19 prognoses suggests that a proportion of patients develop fibrosis, but there is no evidence to indicate whether patients have progression of mesenchymal transition (MT) in the lungs. The role of MT during the COVID-19 pandemic remains poorly understood. Using single-cell RNA sequencing, we profiled the transcriptomes of cells from the lungs of healthy individuals (n = 45), COVID-19 patients (n = 58), and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients (n = 64) human lungs to map the entire MT change. This analysis enabled us to map all high-resolution matrix-producing cells and identify distinct subpopulations of endothelial cells (ECs) and epithelial cells as the primary cellular sources of MT clusters during COVID-19. For the first time, we have identied early and late subgroups of endothelial mesenchymal transition (EndMT) and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) using analysis of public databases for single-cell sequencing. We assessed epithelial subgroups by age, smoking status, and gender, and the data suggest that the proportional changes in EMT in COVID-19 are statistically significant. Further enumeration of early and late EMT suggests a correlation between invasive genes and COVID-19. Finally, EndMT is upregulated in COVID-19 patients and enriched for more inflammatory cytokines. Further, by classifying EndMT as early or late stages, we found that early EndMT was positively correlated with entry factors but this was not true for late EndMT. Exploring the MT state of may help to mitigate the fibrosis impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In recent years, governments worldwide have paid more attention to environmental issues, and green innovation is essential to balance economic growth and environmental sustainability. This article investigates the different impacts of the government’s environmental attention on green innovation of heavy-polluting and non-heavy-polluting firms using the sample of listed firms in China from 2011 to 2019. We find that the relationship between the government’s environmental attention and green innovation is consistent with the “U”-shape in heavy-polluting firms. However, the government’s environmental attention positively impacts the green innovation of non-heavy-polluting firms. In addition, Fintech mitigates the negative effects of the government’s environmental attention on green innovation in the short term while enhancing the positive effect of the government’s environmental attention on green innovation in the long term for heavy polluting firms. Our article provides evidence and implications for environmental regulation in developing countries and urban areas.

In order to effectively address stability control technology issues of soft surrounding rock roadways in deep mines. This study analyses the deformation and failure characteristics of the surrounding rock of a −962 m horizontal track roadway with original support conditions based on a severe deformation case that occurred in a mine. Upon establishing a mechanical model of surrounding rock failure zoning for circular roadways, which is based on the relationship between the stress–strain curve of soft rocks and the secondary stress distribution and strength of surrounding rock, this study explores the influence of rock strength indicators, disturbance degree, and support resistance on the stress distribution of the surrounding rock. The failure or instability mechanism of high-stress soft and weak surrounding rock is revealed on this basis. A multi-stage strengthening combined support technology is proposed, which consists of “high-strength prestressed anchor bolt (cable) supports as the core, deep and shallow hole groutings as the foundation, bottom angle, and floor anchorage grouting reinforcements as the key.” Moreover, numerical simulation and engineering practice optimize and verify the support scheme. The results show that after adopting the multi-stage strengthening combined support technology, the deformation of the surrounding rock of the roadways was only 12.6~14.3% of that under the original supporting parameters, and the deformation rate was still less than 0.2 mm/d even after 40 days. The proposed surrounding rock support method realizes the stability control of the roadway, which also has specific reference significance for similar projects.

Abstract Background Adherence to a healthy lifestyle could reduce the cancer mortality in the western population. We conducted a city-wide prospective study in China investigating the association of a healthy lifestyle score with all-cause mortality and the life expectancy in cancer survivors. Methods This prospective cohort study included 46,120 surviving patients who were firstly diagnosed with cancer in Guangzhou. Five low-risk lifestyle factors including never smoking, never alcohol use, regular physical activity (≥ 2 h/week), sufficient sleep (≥ 6 h/day), and normal or high BMI (≥ 18.5 kg/m2) were assessed and a lifestyle score (0–5, a higher score indicates healthier lifestyle) was generated. Hazard ratios (HRs) of all-cause mortality and the life expectancy by levels of the lifestyle scores were estimated. Results Of 46,120 cancer survivors registered from 2010 to 2017, during an average follow-up of 4.3 years (200,285 person-years), 15,209 deaths were recorded. Adjusted HRs for mortality in cancer survivors with lifestyle score of 0–2, versus 5, were 2.59 (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.03–3.30) in women, 1.91 (95%CI 1.77–2.05) in men, 2.28 (95%CI 2.03–2.55) in those aged

Anaphylaxis is a severe systemic allergic reaction that exhibits multiple clinical symptoms. The Mas-related G protein-coupled receptor X2 (MRGPRX2) is recognized as a key cell receptor mediating allergic diseases and drug-induced anaphylactoid reactions. Thus, it has been a promising target for preventing and treating these reactions. Based on the potential activity of imperatorin and active structural feature of MRGPRX2, we first demonstrated that the synthetic imperatorin derivatives (IDs) could significantly inhibit MRGPRX2 agonist-induced degranulation and cytokine release in LAD2 cells, as well as alleviate local and systemic anaphylaxis in mice. The IC50 value of the most promising compound is an order of magnitude lower than that of imperatorin. IDs were further identified to display anti-pseudo-allergic activity by binding MRGPRX2 with the tertiary nitrogen substructures, just liking the reported MRGPRX2-ligand. These results would propose evidence for discovery of agents for treating MCs-dependent allergic disorders.

In order to study the stability control mechanism of deep soft rock roadway and the active support technology of the anchor-grouting flexible bolt, this paper takes the west wing transportation roadway of Yuandian No. 2 Coal Mine of Huaibei Mining Co., Ltd., Huaibei, China as the research background. By analyzing the occurrence conditions and failure characteristics of the surrounding rock of the west wing transportation roadway and the structural characteristics and mechanical properties of the anchor-grouting flexible bolt, combined with the elastic–plastic and superimposed arch theory analysis, the superposition community theoretical model and the superposition joint support scheme of “bolt (cable) + anchor net + anchor-grouting flexible bolt + shotcrete support” are proposed. The reliability of the combined support scheme is analyzed by FLAC 3D numerical simulation software and field experiment. The results show that the maximum roof-to-floor convergence and two-side convergence of the west wing transportation roadway are only 30.7 mm and 27.1 mm after adopting the combined support scheme, and the deep displacement variation is within 7 mm, which can effectively maintain the stability of the roadway. The combined support scheme has a certain reference value for other similar roadways.

Aligning and balancing the marginal and conditional feature distributions are two critical procedures for unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) problems. However, existing methods usually consider the former while ignoring the latter. To improve the problems of instability and imbalance, we propose the Adaptative Joint Distribution Adaptation Network (AJDAN) by analyzing the multi-modal interactions between the two types of distributions and adding a self-learning network to simultaneously balance them. Furthermore, we give higher weights to samples that are far away from the domain boundary (easy-to-classify samples) using Strong Binary Cross-Entropy (SBCE). The strong alignment strategy is adjustable and allows the network to better train easy-to-classify samples than traditional Binary Cross-Entropy (BCE) in various scenarios. The experiment shows that AJDAN with SBCE (AJDAN+S) provides an average of 68.3% accuracy on the Office-Home dataset, and 89.1% accuracy on the Office31 dataset, showing its superiority by 2~3 percent above the existing state-of-the-art methods.

Abstract Background Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a vital role in the genesis and development of human cancer. LncRNA MIR99AHG has been reported to be upregulated in acute myeloid leukemia (AML); however, its function in gastric cancer (GC) is still not clear. Here we were aiming to screen the prognostic lncRNA candidates and to explore the function of MIR99AHG in GC. Methods We have preliminarily screened some candidate lncRNA biomarkers in GC tissues through analyzing microarray datasets. The expression level of MIR99AHG in GC cell lines and tissues was monitored via qPCR. Survival analysis was performed with the patients of our hospital and TCGA database cases. CCK-8 assay, trans-well assay and flow cytometry were performed to determine cell proliferation, invasion, migration and apoptosis. Meanwhile, a target of MIR99AHG was predicted and identified by luciferase reporter gene detection experiments. Results MIR99AHG was strongly up-regulated in human GC and contributed to cancer progression. Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed that up-regulating MIR99AHG expression was positively correlated with unfavorable overall survival (P

Thermal images produced by the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) camera are robust and independent from environmental illumination change. They can help the standard visible light camera working under the complicated environmental condition. Breaking through the traditional stereo multi-spectral sensor consisting of a visible-light camera and a LWIR camera, a novel architecture of large field of view (FOV) cooperated infrared and visible spectral sensor for visual odometry is proposed. The novel sensor is equipped with two visible cameras, four infrared cameras covering 120 degrees FOV in horizontal under both bands. Distribution of cameras and related peripheral devices are specifically designed which makes the sensor's volume less than 100 cm (length) × 10 cm (height) × 10 cm (width). The sensor's cameras calibration, distortion correction and measurement principle are elaborated. Feature-based method for visible and multi-windowed optimization-based image alignment for infrared is designed for the visual odometer based on the different imaging mechanism and distribution of cameras in the sensor. The frames and estimated poses management from both bands are proposed. Moreover, all proposed methodologies can be implemented in the sensor's embedded processor. The electrical power consumption is only 12W. Experiments of the sensor's evaluation are performed, experimental results show that large FOV cooperated multi-spectral cameras can efficiently improve the robustness of visual odometry. The real-time performance of the sensor is higher than 10fps with disparity map construction under both bands.

Complex immune contexture leads to resistance to immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and the need for new potential biomarkers of immunotherapy in HCC is urgent. Histone chaperones are vital determinants of gene expression and genome stability that regulate tumor development. This study aimed to investigate the effect of histone chaperones on tumor immunity in HCC. Bioinformatics analyses were initially performed using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, and were validated using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) database. Immune-related histone chaperones were screened with the Spearman rank coefficient. Consensus clustering was utilized to divide the HCC samples into two clusters. ESTIMATE, CIBERSORT and ssGSEA analyses were performed to assess immune infiltration. The expression of immunomodulatory genes, chemokines and chemokine receptors was analyzed to evaluate sensitivity to immunotherapy. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were included in weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify the hub genes. Enrichment analyses were used to investigate the functions of the hub genes. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were conducted to draw survival curves. A Cox regression analysis was utilized to identify independent risk factors affecting prognosis. HSPA8 and DEK were screened out from 36 known histone chaperones based on their strongest correlation with the ESTIMATE score. Cluster 2, with high HSPA8 expression and low DEK expression, tended to have stronger immune infiltration and better sensitivity to immunotherapy than Cluster 1, with low HSPA8 expression and high DEK expression. Furthermore, WGCNA identified 12 hub genes closely correlated with immune infiltration from the DEGs of the two clusters, of which FBLN2 was proven to be an independent protective factor of HCC patients. HSPA8 and DEK are expected to be biomarkers for precisely predicting the effect of immunotherapy, and FBLN2 is expected to be a therapeutic target of HCC.

Abstract This paper presents the periodic averaging principle for impulsive stochastic dynamical systems driven by fractional Brownian motion (fBm). Under non-Lipschitz condition, we prove that the solutions to impulsive stochastic differential equations (ISDEs) with fBm can be approximated by the solutions to averaged SDEs without impulses both in the sense of mean square and probability. Finally, an example is provided to illustrate the theoretical results.

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology has become a mainstream tool for forest surveys, significantly contributing to the improved accuracy of forest inventories. However, the accuracy of the scanned data and tree properties derived using LiDAR technology may differ depending on the occlusion effect, scanning configurations, various scanning patterns, and vegetative characteristics of forest plots. Hence, this paper presents a computer simulation program to build a digital forest plot composed of many tree models constructed based on in situ measurement information and two mobile scanning patterns, i.e., airborne laser scanning (ALS) and ground-based mobile laser scanning (MLS). Through the adjustment of scanning parameters and the velocity of vehicle loading LiDAR sensors, the points scanned using two scanning patterns were compared with the original sampling points, derived from the constructed digital forest plots. The results show that only 2% of sampling points were collected by LiDAR sensors with the fastest vehicle speed (10 m/s) and coarsest scanning angular resolution (horizontal angular resolution 0.16° and vertical angular resolution 1.33°), and approximately 50% of sampling points were collected by LiDAR sensors with slow vehicle velocity (1.25 m/s) and a finer scanning angular resolution (horizontal angular resolution 0.08° and vertical angular resolution 0.33°). Meanwhile, the potential extended application of the proposed computer simulation program as a light model of forest plots was discussed to underpin the creation of the forest digital twin. Three main conclusions are drawn: (1) the collected points from airborne laser scanning (ALS) are higher than those collected from ground-based mobile laser scanning (MLS); (2) reducing the vehicle velocity is more efficient at improving the high density of the point cloud data than by increasing the scanning angular resolution; (3) the lateral extension of crown area increasing the light beams’ receptor area and the clumped leaf dispersion augmenting the light penetration with vertical elongation are the two paramount factors influencing the light transmittance of tree crowns.

Animal-manure biochar used as a sustainable amendment to garden soil has been widely applied, and the animal-manure pyrolysis temperatures would also have a regulatory effect on soil functions because of their affections on biochar physio-chemical properties. Here we studied the effects of different dosages of swine-manure biochar on tea garden soil functions, with the swine-manure pyrolysis temperature differed at 350 and 500°C. The results showed that the improvement of soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen and enzyme activities was closely related to the addition of 0.5–2% (biochar wt/soil wt) swine-manure biochar. Under different conditions of different carbon application rates and carbon type, the addition of 2% swine-manure biochar pyrolyzed at 350°C showed the best effects on soil enzyme activities and microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents. Compared to the control, after the addition of 2% swine-manure biochar, sucrase, phosphatase, catalase, and urease activities increased by 63.3, 23.2, 50.3, and 27.9%, respectively. Microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents also increased by 36.4 and 34.3%, respectively. Our study indicated that the effectiveness of using animal-manure swine-manure biochar as a sustainable amendment to soil would provide evidence of tea garden soil improvement and the environmental response to the usage of biochars.

Digital twins of forests (trees) are computational virtual recreations of forests (trees) in which the entity distributions and physical processes in real-world forests (trees) are duplicated. It is expected that conventional forest science and management can be undertaken in a digital twin of forests (trees) if the recreation of a real-world forest (tree) has accurate and comprehensive enough information. However, due to the various differences between the current tree model and the real tree, these envisioned digital twins of the forests (trees) stay a theoretical concept. In this study, we developed a processing strategy that partially integrated computational virtual measurement (CVM) process into the tree modeling workflow. Owing to the feature of CVM, partial tree skeleton reconstruction procedures were considered to have higher mechanical objectivity compared to conventional mathematical modeling methods. The reason was that we developed a novel method called virtual diameter tape (VDT), which could provide a certain percentage of modeling elements using CVM. Technically, VDT was able to virtually measure diameters and spatial distribution of cross-sectional area of trees, including the basal area, from point clouds. VDT simulated the physical scenario of diameter tapes, observing point clouds of trees. Diameter and the cross-sectional area of stem and branches were obtained by two consecutive physical measurement processes, one in the forest sample site and another in the virtual space. At the same time, VDT obtained better or a similar accuracy compared to the mathematical methods, i.e., Hough transform-based methods, using the same data sets. The root-mean-square deviation (RMSE) of retrieval of diameter at breast height (DBH) using VDT was 1.02 cm, while DBH obtained from three conventional methods varied from 1.29 cm to 1.73 cm. Based on VDT measurement results, tree skeleton reconstruction and actual forest scenario rendering of our sample plots were further implemented. Beyond the visual consistency, we believe that our work might be a small and solid step in the technological evolution from tree models to the digital twin of forests (trees).

Background and objectives: Supernumerary extraocular muscle (SEOM) is extremely rare. The purpose of this paper was to review the clinical characteristics and surgical outcomes of SEOM patients with atypical restrictive strabismus. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on the data from 12 SEOM cases. Pre- and post-operative measurements consisted of visual acuity, cycloplegic refraction, ocular alignment, ocular motility, binocular vision, and imaging. Management strategies included either conservative or surgical treatments. Results: Of the 12 cases reviewed (seven females, five males), the mean ± SD age was 14.3 ± 10.6 years (range: 4–38 years). The right eye was affected in six cases, the left in five, and both eyes in one case. The major clinical manifestations included restrictive ocular motility (12 cases), with seven cases in no less than three directions; varying degrees of horizontal or vertical strabismus; ipsilateral amblyopia (10 cases); and unequal palpebral aperture (10 cases). Imaging results revealed muscular bands originating from the annulus of Zinn and insertion into the globe or other recti, as well as anomalous muscular bands connecting two or more recti, sometimes with optic nerve involvement. Three patients received conservative treatment, while rectus recession with or without resection (seven patients) or rectus disinsertion plus globe fixation (two patients) were performed in those receiving surgical treatments. A surgical success was achieved in four cases. Conclusions: For restrictive strabismus, imaging plays an important role in the diagnosis of SEOM. When the SEOM is difficult to resect, a personalized surgical strategy may be required to achieve a good ocular alignment.

The lysyl oxidase (LOX) family, consisting of LOX and LOX-like proteins 1–4 (LOXL1–4), is responsible for the covalent crosslinking of collagen and elastin, thus maintaining the stability of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and functioning in maintaining connective tissue function, embryonic development, and wound healing. Recent studies have found the aberrant expression or activity of the LOX family occurs in various types of cancer. It has been proved that the LOX family mainly performs tumor microenvironment (TME) remodeling function and is extensively involved in tumor invasion and metastasis, immunomodulation, proliferation, apoptosis, etc. With relevant translational research in progress, the LOX family is expected to be an effective target for tumor therapy. Here, we review the research progress of the LOX family in tumor progression and therapy to provide novel insights for future exploration of relevant tumor mechanism and new therapeutic targets.

The accurate prediction of wind energy distribution on the terrain has been of great significance for wind farm selection. Therefore, this paper evaluated the influence of a two-dimensional hill with a relatively large slope (i.e., 0.83) on wind turbine wake. Firstly, the wakes on flat terrain and wind characteristics around a single hill were investigated by using a hot-wire anemometer. Subsequently, wake distributions combined with the hill were measured when the turbine was located 2D in front and on the hilltop. The results of the hill showed that a flow separation was formed within 6D of the leeward side (where D is the rotor diameter). The turbulence intensity increased initially and then decreased as height increased, leading to a high turbulence region 2.28 times the hill height, according to the experiment of a wind turbine combined with the hill. In conclusion, wake recovery was promoted on the windward side and 4D behind the hilltop. As the longitudinal coordinate increased, the intensity of the turbulence changed to a single peak, and the peak value was more than twice as high as on flat terrain. Based on this, it may be possible to optimize the design of wind turbines for better performance.

Herein, a three-step approach toward a multi-layered porous PBC/graphene sandwich has been developed, in which the chemical bonding interactions have been successfully enhanced via esterification between the layers of pyrolyzed bacterial cellulose (PBC) and graphene. Such a chemically induced compatible interface has been demonstrated to contribute significantly to the mass transfer efficiency when the PBC/graphene sandwich is deployed as electrode material for both supercapacitors and lithium–sulfur batteries. The high specific capacitance of the supercapacitors has been increased by three times, to 393 F g−1 at 0.1 A g−1. A high initial discharge specific capacity (~1100 mAhg−1) and high coulombic efficiency (99% after 300 cycles) of the rPG/S-based lithium–sulfur batteries have been achieved.

In this paper, CoFe2O4@pyrolyzed bacterial cellulose (CFO@PBC) nanocomposites were synthesized by a hydrothermal process and an in situ composite technique as the cathode for rechargeable Li-O2 batteries (LOB). CoFe2O4@Ketjenblack (CFO@KB) were prepared in the same way as the comparison. The as-prepared materials were characterized by SEM, XRD, and BET. The LOB with CFO@PBC-3 showed a maximum initial discharge capacity of 2660 mAh g−1 (electrode) at the current density of 100 mAg−1, while the mass ratio of CoFe2O4 and pyrolyzed bacterial cellulose was 3. The cyclic voltammetry of the CFO@PBC nanocomposite electrodes was investigated at 0.1 mVs−1 in the voltage window of 2.0–4.5 V. With the limited capacity of 640 mAh g−1 (electrode), the CFO@PBC-3 electrode showed the best cycle stability and higher cutoff voltage of discharging. The pyrolyzed bacterial cellulose, as the fibrous 3D backbone in CFO@PBC nanocomposite electrodes, produced better results than the CFO@KB.

Hurricanes often devastate trees throughout coastal China; accordingly, developing a method to quantitatively evaluate the changes in tree phenotypic characteristics under continuous strong winds is of great significance for guiding forest cultivation practices and mitigating wind hazards. For this research, we built a lifting steel truss carrying a large forced draft fan near a rubber plantation on Hainan Island, and we aligned three selected small rubber trees in a row in front of the fan (with separation distances from the forced draft fan outlet of approximately 1.3, 3.3, and 5.3 m) to explore the susceptibility of rubber trees to the mechanical loading of hurricane-level winds. By adjusting the power of the forced draft fan, four wind speeds were emitted: 0 m/s, 10.5 m/s, 13.5 m/s, and 17.5 m/s. Meanwhile, point clouds of the three rubber trees under different continuous wind speeds were acquired using two terrestrial laser scanners. Computer algorithms were applied to derive the key parameters of the three rubber trees, namely, the zenith and azimuth angles of each leaf, effective leaf area index (LAI), windward area of each tree, volume of the tree canopy, and trunk tilt angle, from these point clouds under all four wind speeds. The results show that by increasing the wind speed from 0 m/s to 17.5 m/s, the leaf zenith angles of the three rubber trees were unimodally distributed with the peak concentrated at 0°, while the leaf azimuth angles were bimodally distributed with the peaks concentrated at 0° and 360°. The effective LAI values of the three trees increased from 2.97, 4.77, and 3.63 (no wind) to 3.84, 5.9, and 4.29 (wind speed of 17.5 m/s), respectively, due to a decrease in the vertical crown projection area caused by the compression of the tree canopy. We also found that the effective LAI, windward area, and canopy volume of the third rubber tree (the tree farthest from the forced draft fan) varied less than those of the other two trees, reflecting the attenuation of the wind speed by the crowns of the two trees closer to the fan. The experimental results also indicate that the joint use of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data with computer graphics algorithms to analyse the dynamic changes in tree phenotypic characteristics during the passage of a hurricane is promising, enabling the development of a novel strategy for mitigating wind hazards. The proposed method with the designed device capable of producing an adjustable wind speed also has the potential to study the impacts of wind damage under various forest conditions by further modifying the tree spacing and tree species.

Ultrasonic gene transfer has advantages beyond other cell transfer techniques because ultrasound does not directly act on cells, but rather pushes the gene fragments around the cells into cells through an acoustic hole effect. Most examples reported were carried out in macro volumes with conventional ultrasonic equipment. In the present study, a MEMS focused ultrasonic transducer based on piezoelectric thin film with flexible substrate was integrated with microchannels to form a microfluidic system of gene transfer. The core part of the system is a bowl-shaped curved piezoelectric film structure that functions to focus ultrasonic waves automatically. Therefore, the low input voltage and power can obtain the sound pressure exceeding the cavitation threshold in the local area of the microchannel in order to reduce the damage to cells. The feasibility of the system is demonstrated by finite element simulation and an integrated system of MEMS ultrasonic devices and microchannels are developed to successfully carry out the ultrasonic gene transfection experiments for HeLa cells. The results show that having more ultrasonic transducers leads a higher transfection rate. The system is of great significance to the development of single-cell biochip platforms for early cancer diagnosis and assessment of cancer treatment.

Background and objectives: To analyze demographic and clinical features of pattern strabismus patients and assess the relationship among these clinical variables and risk factors. Materials and Methods: Medical records of pattern strabismus patients who had undergone strabismus surgery at our center between 2014 and 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Data collected included gender, age at onset, age at surgery, refraction, Cobb angle, pre- and post-operative deviations in the primary position, up- and downgaze, angle of ocular torsion, type/amount of pattern, grade of oblique muscle function and presence/grade of binocular function. To verify the clinical significance of the Cobb angle, 666 patients who had undergone surgery within one week after ocular trauma between 2015 and 2021 were enrolled as controls. Results: Of the 8738 patients with horizontal strabismus, 905 (507 males and 398 females) had pattern strabismus, accounting for 10.36%. Among these 905 patients, 313 showed an A-pattern and 592 showed a V-pattern. The predominant subtype was V-exotropia, followed by A-exotropia, V-esotropia and A-esotropia. Over half of these patients (54.6%) manifested an A- or V-pattern in childhood. The overall mean ± SD Cobb angle was 5.03 ± 4.06° and the prevalence of thoracic scoliosis was 12.4%, both of which were higher than that observed in normal controls (4.26 ± 3.36° and 7.8%). Within A-pattern patients, 80.2% had SOOA and 81.5% an intorsion, while in V-pattern patients, 81.5% had IOOA and 73.4% an extorsion. Patients with binocular function showed decreases in all of these percent values. Only 126 (13.9%) had binocular function, while 11.8% of A-pattern and 15.1% of V-pattern patients still maintained binocular function. Pre-operative horizontal deviation was negatively correlated with binocular function (r = −0.223, p < 0.0001), while the grade of oblique muscle overaction was positively correlated with the amount of pattern (r = 0.768, p < 0.0001) and ocular torsion (r = 0.794, p < 0.0001). There were no significant correlations between the Cobb angle and any of the other clinical variables. There were 724 patients (80.0%) who had received an oblique muscle procedure and 181 (20.0%) who received horizontal rectus muscle surgery. The most commonly used procedure consisted of horizontal rectus surgery plus inferior oblique myectomy (n = 293, 32.4%), followed by isolated horizontal rectus surgery (n = 122, 13.4%). Reductions of pattern were 14.67 ± 6.93 PD in response to horizontal rectus surgery and 18.26 ± 7.49 PD following oblique muscle surgery. Post-operative deviations were less in V- versus A-pattern strabismus. Post-operative binocular function was obtained in 276 of these patients (30.5%), which represented a 16.6% increase over that of pre-operative levels. The number of patients with binocular function in V-pattern strabismus was greater than that of A-pattern strabismus (p = 0.048). Conclusions: Of patients receiving horizontal strabismus surgery, 10.36% showed pattern strabismus. In these patients, 54.6% manifested an A- or V-pattern in childhood, and V-exotropia was the most frequent subtype. Pattern strabismus patients showed a high risk for developing scoliosis. Cyclovertical muscle surgery was performed in 724 of these patients (80.0%), and horizontal rectus surgery was effective in correcting relatively small levels of patterns. Binocular function represented an important factor as being involved with affecting the occurrence and development of pattern strabismus.

This work reports an optical fiber–based continuous liquid level sensor for cryogenic propellant mass gauging, which has significant advantages over the existing liquid level sensors in terms of accuracy, simplicity, and reliability. Based on Rayleigh backscattering coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry, every point of the sensing fiber is a liquid sensor which is able to distinguish liquid and vapor. We obtained a measurement accuracy of 1 mm for the optical fiber sensor by measuring both liquid nitrogen and water levels. For the first time, for practical applications, we experimentally studied the influence of ambient temperature and strain changes on the sensing performance as well as the repeatability of the optical fiber–based liquid level sensor’s measurements.

The present work aimed to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a pitching wind turbine airfoil with a Gurney flap under turbulent inflow. Experiments were carried out for the DTU-LN221 offshore wind turbine airfoil under different turbulence levels at Reynolds number 105 order of magnitude by replacing the grilles in the wind tunnel. The dynamic stall characteristics were analyzed by measuring surface pressure and near-wake flow field. The pressure results demonstrated that with the increase of turbulence intensity, the differences in lift hysteresis loops between baseline airfoil and flapped airfoil became smaller. With the turbulence intensity from 0.5% to 10.18%, the maximum lift increment of the Gurney flap decreased from 14.32% to 4.34% (i.e., 0–20° pitching oscillation). In a more extensive range of oscillation, the capability for the lift-improvement dropped down a bit more (i.e., 0–25°). A brief aerodynamic damping analysis indicated that the Gurney flap was more stable in turbulent conditions than the baseline airfoil. Besides, hysteresis loops of the wake were analyzed to compare the difference between the flapped airfoil and the baseline airfoil. Unlike the studies of static airfoils, the results may help better understand the dynamic characteristics of offshore wind turbines with Gurney flaps for practical situations.

Camera pose estimation from the image of a planar object has important applications in photogrammetry and computer vision. In this paper, an efficient approach to find the initial solutions for iterative camera pose estimation using coplanar points is proposed. Starting with homography, the proposed approach provides a least-squares solution for absolute orientation, which has a relatively high accuracy and can be easily refined into one optimal pose that locates local minima of the according error function by using Gauss-Newton scheme or Lu's orthogonal iteration algorithm. In response to ambiguities that exist in pose estimation from planar objects, we propose a novel method to find initial approximation of the second pose, which is different from existing methods in its concise form and clear geometric interpretation. Thorough testing on synthetic data shows that combined with currently employed iterative optimization algorithm, the two initial solutions proposed in this paper can achieve the same accuracy and robustness as the best state-of-the-art pose estimation algorithms, while with a significant decrease in computational cost. Real experiment is also employed to demonstrate its performance.

This paper introduces a continuous-time fast motion estimation framework using high frame-rate cameras. To recover the high-speed motions trajectory, we inherent the bundle adjustment using a different frame-rate strategy. Based on the optimized trajectory, a cubic B-spline representation was proposed to parameter the continuous-time position, velocity and acceleration during this fast motion. We designed a high-speed visual system consisting of the high frame-rate cameras and infrared cameras, which can capture the fast scattered motion of explosion fragments and evaluate our method. The experiments show that bundle adjustment can greatly improve the accuracy and stability of the trajectory estimation, and the B-spline representation of the high frame-rate can estimate the velocity, acceleration, momentum and force of each fragments at any given time during its motion. The related estimated result can achieve under 1% error.

Accurate individual tree crown (ITC) segmentation from scanned point clouds is a fundamental task in forest biomass monitoring and forest ecology management. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) as a mainstream tool for forest survey is advancing the pattern of forest data acquisition. In this study, we performed a novel deep learning framework directly processing the forest point clouds belonging to the four forest types (i.e., the nursery base, the monastery garden, the mixed forest, and the defoliated forest) to realize the ITC segmentation. The specific steps of our approach were as follows: first, a voxelization strategy was conducted to subdivide the collected point clouds with various tree species from various forest types into many voxels. These voxels containing point clouds were taken as training samples for the PointNet deep learning framework to identify the tree crowns at the voxel scale. Second, based on the initial segmentation results, we used the height-related gradient information to accurately depict the boundaries of each tree crown. Meanwhile, the retrieved tree crown breadths of individual trees were compared with field measurements to verify the effectiveness of our approach. Among the four forest types, our results revealed the best performance for the nursery base (tree crown detection rate r = 0.90; crown breadth estimation R2 > 0.94 and root mean squared error (RMSE) < 0.2m). A sound performance was also achieved for the monastery garden and mixed forest, which had complex forest structures, complicated intersections of branches and different building types, with r = 0.85, R2 > 0.88 and RMSE < 0.6 m for the monastery garden and r = 0.80, R2 > 0.85 and RMSE < 0.8 m for the mixed forest. For the fourth forest plot type with the distribution of crown defoliation across the woodland, we achieved the performance with r = 0.82, R2 > 0.79 and RMSE < 0.7 m. Our method presents a robust framework inspired by the deep learning technology and computer graphics theory that solves the ITC segmentation problem and retrieves forest parameters under various forest conditions.

Imagery registration is a fundamental step, which greatly affects later processes in image mosaic, multi-spectral image fusion, digital surface modelling, etc., where the final solution needs blending of pixel information from more than one images. It is highly desired to find a way to identify registration regions among input stereo image pairs with high accuracy, particularly in remote sensing applications in which ground control points (GCPs) are not always available, such as in selecting a landing zone on an outer space planet. In this paper, a framework for localization in image registration is developed. It strengthened the local registration accuracy from two aspects: less reprojection error and better feature point distribution. Affine scale-invariant feature transform (ASIFT) was used for acquiring feature points and correspondences on the input images. Then, a homography matrix was estimated as the transformation model by an improved random sample consensus (IM-RANSAC) algorithm. In order to identify a registration region with a better spatial distribution of feature points, the Euclidean distance between the feature points is applied (named the S criterion). Finally, the parameters of the homography matrix were optimized by the Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm with selective feature points from the chosen registration region. In the experiment section, the Chang’E-2 satellite remote sensing imagery was used for evaluating the performance of the proposed method. The experiment result demonstrates that the proposed method can automatically locate a specific region with high registration accuracy between input images by achieving lower root mean square error (RMSE) and better distribution of feature points.

Stellera chamaejasme L. (Thymelaeaceae) is widely distributed in Mongolia, Tibet and the northern parts of China. Its roots are commonly used as “Langdu”, which is embodied in the Pharmacopoeia of the P.R. China (2010) as a toxic Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is claimed to have antivirus, antitumor and antibacterial properties in China and other Asian countries. Studies were carried out to characterize the inhibition of neochamaejasmin B (NCB) on P-glycoprotein (P-gp, ABCB1, MDR1). Rhodamine-123 (R-123) transport and accumulation studies were performed in MDCK-hMDR1 cells. ABCB1 (MDR1) mRNA gene expression and P-gp protein expression were analyzed. Binding selectivity studies based on molecular docking were explored. R-123 transport and accumulation studies in MDCK-hMDR1 cells indicated that NCB inhibited the P-gp-mediated efflux in a concentration-dependent manner. RT-PCR and Western blot demonstrated that the P-gp expression was suppressed by NCB. To investigate the inhibition type of NCB on P-gp, Ki and Ki’ values were determined by double-reciprocal plots in R-123 accumulation studies. Since Ki was greater than Ki’, the inhibition of NCB on P-gp was likely a mixed type of competitive and non-competitive inhibition. The results were confirmed by molecular docking in our current work. The docking data indicated that NCB had higher affinity to P-gp than to Lig1 ((S)-5,7-dihydroxy-2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)chroman-4-one).

An ultrasonic transducer is a key component to achieve ultrasonic imaging. This paper designs a new type of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) based capacitive ultrasonic transducer and a linear array based on the transducer. Through directivity analysis, it can be found that its directivity is weak due to the small size of the designed transducer, but the directivity of the designed linear array is very strong. In order to further suppress the sidelobe interference and improve the resolution of the imaging system and imaging quality, the Dolph-Chebyshev weighting method and the Taylor weighting method are used to process −40dB sidelobe suppression, and satisfactory results are obtained, which can meet actual requirements.

A rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the quantification of cyclobenzaprine in dog plasma. After extracted with organic solvent, post-treatment samples were separated on an Agela C18 column interfaced with a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer in positive electrospray ionization mode. Multiple reaction monitoring was performed using the transitions of m/z 276.2 → 216.1 and m/z 325.1 → 109.0 to quantify cyclobenzaprine and escitalopram (internal standard), respectively. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile: 5 mM ammonium acetate: formic acid (90:10:0.01, v/v/v) at a flow rate of 0.3 ml/min. The total analysis time was 2.4 min. The method was linear over the concentration range of 0.0200–10.0 ng/ml. The intra- and inter-day precision was within 12.8% in terms of relative standard deviation (RSD%) and the accuracy within 5.6% in terms of relative error. This method was successfully applied in a pharmacokinetic study of extended-release cyclobenzaprine in dogs.

Three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction using line structured light vision system commonly cooperates with motion restraint devices, such as parallel guide rail push-broom devices. In this study, we propose a visual positioning method to eliminate the motion constraint. An extended orthogonal iteration algorithm for visual positioning is proposed to obtain the precise position of the line structured light binocular camera system during movement. The algorithm uses the information acquired by the binocular camera, and produces a better positioning accuracy than the traditional vision localization algorithm. Furthermore, a global optimization method is proposed to calculate the poses of the camera relative to the world coordinate system at each shooting position. This algorithm effectively reduces the error accumulation and pose drift during visual positioning, and 3D information of the surface can be measured via the proposed free-moving line structured light vision system. The simulation and physical experiments performed herein validate the proposed method and demonstrate the significant improvement in the reconstruction accuracy: when the test distance is 1.5 m, the root mean square error of the point cloud is within 0.5 mm.

When large-scale annotated data are not available for certain image classification tasks, training a deep convolutional neural network model becomes challenging. Some recent domain adaptation methods try to solve this problem using generative adversarial networks and have achieved promising results. However, these methods are based on a shared latent space assumption and they do not consider the situation when shared high level representations in different domains do not exist or are not ideal as they assumed. To overcome this limitation, we propose a neural network structure called coupled generative adversarial autoencoders (CGAA) that allows a pair of generators to learn the high-level differences between two domains by sharing only part of the high-level layers. Additionally, by introducing a class consistent loss calculated by a stand-alone classifier into the generator optimization, our model is able to generate class invariant style-transferred images suitable for classification tasks in domain adaptation. We apply CGAA to several domain transferred image classification scenarios including several benchmark datasets. Experiment results have shown that our method can achieve state-of-the-art classification results.