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Fires are one of the most dangerous hazards and the leading cause of death in construction sites. This paper proposes a video-based firefighting mobile robot (FFMR), which is designed to patrol the desired territory and will constantly observe for fire-related events to make sure the camera without any occlusions. Once a fire is detected, the early warning system will send sound and light signals instantly and the FFMR moves to the right place to fight the fire source using the extinguisher. To improve the accuracy and speed of fire detection, an improved YOLOv3-Tiny (namely as YOLOv3-Tiny-S) model is proposed by optimizing its network structure, introducing a Spatial Pyramid Pooling (SPP) module, and refining the multi-scale anchor mechanism. The experiments show the proposed YOLOv3-Tiny-S model based FFMR can detect a small fire target with relatively higher accuracy and faster speed under the occlusions by outdoor environment. The proposed FFMR can be helpful to disaster management systems, avoiding huge ecological and economic losses, as well as saving a lot of human lives.

In this work, the Mg97Y2Zn (at%) alloys have been processed by the rotary-die (RD) ECAP technique under different temperature or pass conditions to tailor the microstructure and mechanical properties. The results reveal that the DRX ratio (VDRX) increases with the increase of ECAP pass or temperature, weakening the texture intensity. The refinement of DRXed grains saturates after 9 passes of ECAP at 350 °C, while the size of DRXed grains (dDRX) monotonically decreases with the reduction of temperature from 400 °C to 300 °C in the case of the same pass number (9P). The combination of fine dDRX, large VDRX, and directionally arranged LPSO phases along the extrusion direction endows the 350 °C–9P alloy with the optimum strength and ductility synergy, exhibiting the tensile yield strength (TYS) of 267 MPa, ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 318 MPa, and elongation of 10.3%. However, the larger VDRX, weaker texture, less low-angle grain boundaries combine to improve the elongation (14.7%) of the 400 °C–9P alloy at the expense of the TYS (231 MPa) and UTS (303 MPa). This paper provides useful information to optimize the RD-ECAP parameters for the fabrication of high-performance Mg97Y2Zn alloys.

The horizontal joint is a critical component of the prefabricated shear wall structure, responsible for supporting both horizontal shear forces and vertical loads along with the wall, thereby influencing the overall structural performance. This study employs direct shear testing and finite element analysis to investigate the horizontal joint in walls with ring reinforcement. It examines the impact of various factors on joint shear performance, including the type of joint material, joint configuration, buckling length of ring reinforcement, strength of precast concrete, reinforcement ratio of ring reinforcement and dowel bars, and the effect of horizontal binding force. The findings indicate that the shear bearing capacity and stiffness of joints incorporating post-cast epoxy resin concrete and keyways are comparable or superior to those of integrally cast specimens. A larger buckling length in ring reinforcement may reduce shear strength, suggesting an optimal buckling length at approximately one-third of the joint width. As the strength of precast concrete increases, ductility decreases while bearing capacity increases, initially at an increasing rate that subsequently declines. Optimal results are achieved when the strength of precast concrete closely matches that of the post-cast epoxy concrete. Enhancing the reinforcement ratio of ring reinforcement improves shear capacity, but excessively high ratios significantly reduce ductility. It is recommended that the diameter of ring reinforcement be maintained between 10 mm and 12 mm, with a reinforcement ratio between 0.79% and 1.13%. Increasing horizontal restraint enhances stiffness and shear capacity but reduces ductility; thus, the axial compression ratio should not exceed 0.5.

The exocyst is a hetero-octameric complex that exhibits significant functional diversity in regulating biological processes and defense responses. In plants, the EXO70 proteins are important components of the exocyst complex and are involved in membrane trafficking, biotic and abiotic interactions, as well as cell wall formation. A previous study has indicated that a member of the EXO subfamily, EXO70E2, interacts with RIN4 to mediate plant immunity. In this study, we found that EXO70E2 interacts with the RING-type E3 ligase Botrytis susceptible1 interactor (BOI), and the C-terminal domain of BOI is necessary for its interaction with EXO70E2. Moreover, the protein level of EXO70E2 was degraded and ubiquitinated by BOI in vitro. Collectively, our study reveals a mechanism for regulating the stability of EXO70E2 by a RING-type E3 ligase BOI-mediated ubiquitination.

The interface of fresh-aged concrete represents a critical vulnerability within monolithic assembled monolithic concrete structures. In this paper, the shear performance of the interface between post-cast epoxy resin concrete and standard concrete is studied using experimental methods and finite element analysis. The objective is to furnish empirical data that support the broader adoption of epoxy resin concrete in assembled structures. A direct shear experiment of 19 Z-shaped samples and a computation of 20 finite element models were completed. The results from both experimental and computational analyses provided insights into several factors influencing the shear performance at the interface. These factors include the pre-cast part of concrete strength, the friction coefficient of the interface, the longitudinal reinforcement ratio at the interface, the compressive strength of concrete in the post-cast part, and confining stress. The findings indicate that utilizing epoxy resin concrete for post-cast material, roughing the interface, and setting keyways can enhance the shear performance of the interface so that it equals or even exceeds the cast-in situ sample. Optimal shear results are obtained when the compressive strength of the post-cast epoxy resin concrete closely matches that of the pre-cast conventional cement. Moreover, increasing the depth of the keyways rather than their width is more effective in improving the shear capacity of the sample. It is recommended that the depth of the keyway should be at least 30 mm, and its width should be no less than three times the depth. As the longitudinal reinforcement ratio at the interface increases, there is an enhancement in shear capacity coupled with a reduction in deformative performance. It is advisable to maintain this ratio below 1.0% to balance the strength and ductility effectively.

Epoxy resin concrete, characterized by its superior mechanical properties, is frequently utilized for structural reinforcement and strengthening. However, its application in structural members remains limited. In this paper, the bond–slip behavior between steel reinforcement and epoxy resin concrete was investigated using a combination of experimental research and finite element analysis, with the objective of providing data support for substantiating the expanded use of epoxy resin concrete in structural members. The research methodology included 18 center-pullout tests and 14 finite element model calculations, focusing on the effects of variables such as epoxy resin concrete strength, steel reinforcement strength, steel reinforcement diameter and protective layer thickness on bond performance. The results reveal that the bond strength between epoxy resin concrete and steel reinforcement significantly surpasses that of ordinary concrete, being approximately 3.23 times higher given the equivalent strength level of the material; the improvement in the strength of both the epoxy resin concrete and steel reinforcement are observed to marginally increase the bond stress. Conversely, an increase in the diameter of the steel reinforcement and a reduction in the thickness of the protective layer of the concrete can lead to diminished bond stress and peak slip. Particularly, when the steel reinforcement strength is below 500 MPa, it tends to reach its yield strength and may even detach during the drawing process, indicating that the yielding of the steel reinforcement occurs before the loss of bond stress. In contrast, for a steel reinforcement strength exceeding 500 MPa, yielding does not precede bond stress loss, resulting in a distinct form of failure described as scraping plough type destruction. Compared to ordinary concrete, the peak of the epoxy resin concrete and steel reinforcement bond stress–slip curve is more pointed, indicating a rapid degradation to maximum bond stress and exhibiting a brittle nature. Overall, these peaks are sharper than those of ordinary concrete, indicating a rapid decline in bond stress post-peak, reflective of its brittle characteristics.

The hot deformation behavior of AZ42 alloy was observed using thermal compression tests at a temperature scope of 250–400 °C and strain rate scope of 0.001–1 s−1. True stress-strain curves exhibited a combination of work hardening and dynamic softening features. A Northern Goshawk algorithm (NGO)-optimized artificial neural network (ANN) model was proposed. The established NGO-ANN model demonstrated impressive prediction accuracy, achieving a high determination coefficient of 0.991, a mean absolute percentage error of 3.51 %, and a root mean square error of 2.73. Subsequently, three-dimensional (3D) hot processing map based on the dynamic material model (DMM) theory was created. There were three different regions within the processing maps: the flow instability region (region A: 250–260 °C, 0.02–1 s−1, and region B: 300–400 °C, 0.01–0.1 s−1), high-power dissipation coefficient region (region C: 350–400 °C, 0.001–0.02 s−1, and region D: 300–350 °C, 0.5–1 s−1), and low power dissipation efficiency safety region (region E: the rest ones). Microstructural analysis revealed significant local plastic flow features in the flow instability region and a combination of coarse initial deformation grains and fine dynamic recrystallization (DRX) grains in the low power dissipation efficiency safety region. Fine and uniform grains were observed in the high-power dissipation efficiency region with DRX degree VDRX as high as 85.6 %, resulting in the best mechanical properties. Based on the established 3D hot processing map, the optimal process domains were determined.

In this work, Mg98.5Zn0.5RE1 (RE = Gd and/or Y) and Mg97Zn1Y2 (at%) alloys were subjected to homogenization and equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) to systematically compare the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties. The results indicate that, instead of the lamellar LPSO phases in the as-cast Mg-Zn-Y series alloys, the β-Mg5(Gd, Zn) phases appear in the as-cast Mg98.5Zn0.5Gd1 alloy which tend to be dissolved during homogenization. The furnace cooling after homogenization promotes the precipitation of numerous lamellar LPSO phases in all the studied alloys which inhibit the DRX behavior but facilitate the operation of kinking deformation during ECAP for the Mg98.5Zn0.5RE1 alloys, especially the Mg98.5Zn0.5Gd1 one. After the 5p-ECAP process at 350 °C, the larger density of kink bands, more LAGBs (low-angle grain boundaries) and lower SFB (Schmid factor for basal slip) combine to endow the Mg98.5Zn0.5Gd1 alloy with the higher strength-ductility synergy, exhibiting the tensile yield strength (TYS) of 214 MPa and elongation of 9.6%. The Mg97Zn1Y2 alloy with the larger volume fraction of interdendritic LPSO phases and dynamically recrystallized (DRXed) regions exhibits the superior ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 277 MPa and moderate elongation of 7.2%.

Edge servers frequently manage their own offline digital twin (DT) services, in addition to caching online digital twin services. However, current research often overlooks the impact of offline caching services on memory and computation resources, which can hinder the efficiency of online service task processing on edge servers. In this study, we concentrated on service caching and task offloading within a collaborative edge computing system by emphasizing the integrated quality of service (QoS) for both online and offline edge services. We considered the resource usage of both online and offline services, along with incoming online requests. To maximize the overall QoS utility, we established an optimization objective that rewards the throughput of online services while penalizing offline services that miss their soft deadlines. We formulated this as a utility maximization problem, which was proven to be NP-hard. To tackle this complexity, we reframed the optimization problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) and introduced a joint optimization algorithm for service caching and task offloading by leveraging the deep Q-network (DQN). Comprehensive experiments revealed that our algorithm enhanced the utility by at least 14.01% compared with the baseline algorithms.

To date, various methods have been proposed for calibrating polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) using distributed targets. Some studies have utilized the covariance matching estimation technique (Comet) for SAR data calibration. However, practical applications have revealed issues stemming from ill-conditioned problems due to the analytical solution in the iterative process. To tackle this challenge, an improved method called Comet IS is introduced. Firstly, we introduce an outlier detection mechanism which is based on the Quegan algorithm’s results. Next, we incorporate an initial search approach which is based on the interior point method for recalibration. With the outlier detection mechanism in place, the algorithm can recalibrate iteratively until the results are correct. Simulation experiments reveal that the improved algorithm outperforms the original one. Furthermore, we compare the improved method with Quegan and Ainsworth algorithms, demonstrating its superior performance in calibration. Furthermore, we validate our method’s advancement using real data and corner reflectors. Compared with the other two algorithms, the improved performance in crosstalk isolation and channel imbalance is significant. This research provides a more reliable and effective approach for polarimetric SAR calibration, which is significant for enhancing SAR imaging quality.

Precast concrete structures are popular in the building industry because of their high efficiency and environmental friendliness. In this paper, the U-type reinforcement ferrule connection technique was applied to study the seismic performance of precast concrete shear walls. Five shear wall finite element models and four shear wall specimens were prepared. Both experiments and finite element analysis were conducted to explore the impact of parameters on the work performance of precast reinforced concrete shear walls, such as the variety of post-cast concrete, the form of horizontal joints, and the buckle length of U-type reinforcements. On this basis, the mechanism of failure as well as the characteristics of hysteresis, ductility, and energy dissipation capacity were analyzed. According to the analytical results, the cast in situ reinforced concrete shear wall is inferior to the precast shear wall with post-cast epoxy resin concrete in terms of seismic performance. In addition, the specimen with a keyway on the horizontal joint interface outperforms the specimen without a keyway. With an increase in the buckle length of the U-type reinforcement, there is a rise in the sectional height and stiffness of the hidden beam at the bottom of the wall, while the horizontal load-bearing capacity of the wall is improved. However, its ductility and energy dissipation capacity are decreased. As revealed by a thorough analysis, the construction scheme most suitable for precast shear wall horizontal joints adopts epoxy resin concrete as the post-cast material, the buckle length of U-type reinforcements is approximately one-third the height of the horizontal joint, and there is a keyway at the interface of the joint.

Background: Recent studies from targeted and untargeted metabolomics have consistently revealed that diet-related metabolites, including carnitine (C0), several species of acylcarnitines (AcyCNs), amino acids, ceramides, and lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs) may serve as potential multiple myeloma (MM) biomarkers. However, most of these approaches had some intrinsic limitations, namely low reproducibility and compromising the accuracy of the results. Objective: This study developed and validated a precise, efficient, and reliable liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method for measuring these 28 metabolic risk factors in human serum. Design: This method employed isopropanol to extract the metabolites from serum, gradient elution on a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatographic column (HILIC) for chromatographic separation, and multiple reaction monitor (MRM) mode with positive electrospray ionization (ESI) for mass spectrometric detection. Results: The correlation coefficients of linear response for this method were more than 0.9984. Analytical recoveries ranged from 91.3 to 106.3%, averaging 99.5%. The intra-run and total coefficients of variation were 1.1–5.9% and 2.0–9.6%, respectively. We have simultaneously determined the serological levels of C0, several subclasses of AcyCNs, amino acids, ceramides, and LPCs within 15 min for the first time. Conclusion: The established LC-MS/MS method was accurate, sensitive, efficient, and could be valuable in providing insights into the association between diet patterns and MM disease and added value in further clinical research.

To ensure that grid-connected currents are of high quality, it is crucial to optimize the dynamic performance of grid-connected inverters and their control. This study suggests using a combination of reduced-order linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC) and a Proportional-Integral (PI) controller. By applying this control strategy to a single-phase photovoltaic grid-connected system, the system's ability to suppress grid harmonics is significantly improved. The validity and effectiveness of this control approach have been confirmed through simulations and experiments. The results show that the LADRC-based control system is robust and capable of rejecting disturbances, resulting in a significant reduction in the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of grid-connected currents. Comparative analysis with traditional control methods demonstrates the superior performance of the proposed approach.

Abiotic stimuli severely restrict the growth and development of plants, resulting in massive losses in the quality and yield of crops. Exploring genes that can improve crop tolerance to abiotic stress is important. In a previous study, we found that overexpression of the Arabidopsis nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) gene AtRPM1(D505V) increased disease resistance in rice. In this research, we found that AtRPM1(D505V) transgenic plants were more sensitive to abscisic acid (ABA) than wild type (WT) plants. Abiotic-stress resistance in AtRPM1(D505V) transgenic plants was investigated. We found that AtRPM1(D505V) transgenic plants exhibited improved resistance to drought and salt stress; the phonotype and survival rates of transgenic rice were better than WT plants. The expression of stress responsive genes including OsDREB2A, OsDREB2B, OsRD22, and OsRD29A were significantly upregulated in AtRPM1(D505V) overexpressed plants than in WT plants. Moreover, the activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) were significantly increased in AtRPM1(D505V) overexpressed plants than in WT plants under drought and salt stress. Under cold stress, the expression of stress responsive genes and the activities of antioxidant enzymes in AtRPM1(D505V) transgenic plants were significantly lower than in WT plants. Our research demonstrated that AtRPM1(D505V) confers drought and salt resistance to transgenic rice. Therefore, AtRPM1(D505V) could act as a potential candidate gene to cultivate drought- and salt-tolerant plants.

For the challenges of high-precision mapping in complex terrain, a novel airborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) system is designed. This system, named ASMIS (Airborne Short-Baseline Millimeter-Wave InSAR System), adopts the coplanar antenna and a pod-type structure. This design makes the system lightweight and highly integrated. It can be compatible with small general aviation flight platforms. The baseline is millimeters in size, which greatly simplifies the unwrapping process. The coplanar antennas have two advantages: they maximize the baseline utilization and minimize the Doppler decorrelation and the motion error inconsistency. Acquisition campaigns of the system have been carried out in Boao, Bayannur, and Chengde, China. In the Chengde experimental area, we designed an antiparallel flight experiment to account for the topographic relief. High-precision Digital Orthophoto Maps (DOMs) and Digital Surface Models (DSMs) at a scale of 1:5000 were obtained. The coordinate Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the checkpoints within the obtained DSM is less than 0.82 m in altitude and 3 m horizontally. The RMSE of the Sparse Ground Control Points (GCPs) within the obtained DSM is less than 0.3 m in altitude. Experimental results from different areas, including plains, mountains, and coastlines, demonstrate the system’s performance.

Panoramic radiograph is one of the most widely used inspection tools for dentists making caries diagnosis, especially for teeth that are hard to be diagnosed through visual inspection. Recently, several deep learning methods, e.g., based on convolutional neural network (CNN) or transformer network, have been proposed for automatic caries diagnosis on dental panoramic radiographs, and promising results have been achieved. However, current approaches use all the teeth equally when training their models, which results in performance degeneration because of unbalanced classification difficulties for different tooth positions. The objective of this study is to introduce a position weighted CNN to alleviate the above problem for more accurate caries diagnosis. The position weighted module evaluates and revises the output of a specially designed CNN to incorporate position information. In addition, a novel data augmentation method is used to balance data with uneven decayed and normal teeth, which is one of the reasons leading to unbalanced classification difficulty. To verify the proposed method, a children panoramic radiograph database is collected and labeled with more than 6,000 teeth. The proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art caries diagnosis methods with the accuracy, precision, recall, F1 and area-under-the-curve being 0.8859, 0.8875, 0.8932, 0.8903 and 0.9315, respectively. Specially, the proposed model displays higher diagnosis performance compared with two attending doctors with more than five-year clinical experience but with different diagnosis patterns, showing a potential tool for assisting dentists.

In order to improve the efficiency, quality, and utilization rate of raw ingredients for Hunan flavor marinated beef, bovine leg meat was used as raw material and traditional marinated (atmospheric pressure, 95 ℃) was used as control, The NaCl mass transfer coefficients, sensory quality, texture characteristics and microstructure of beef under different vacuum marinated, micropressure marinated, pulse marinated conditions were studied to optimize the best marinated process. The results showed that the optimal marinated process was pulse marinated process: −50 kPa, 80 ℃ combined with +50 kPa, 95 ℃, pulse frequency 4 times, and marinated duration 2.7 h, Under these conditions, the sensory score (89.6) and NaCl mass transfer coefficients value (2.71×10−6 m2/s) of beef were obtained. They were superior to the optimal conditions of vacuum marinated (-50 kPa, 80 ℃), the optimal conditions of micropressure marinated (+50 kPa, 95 ℃), sensory scores of traditional marinated (85.2, 86.1, 83.6), and the NaCl mass transfer coefficients (1.91×10−6、1.92×10−6、1.64×10−6 m2/s). The texture characteristics of pulse marinated beef were significantly improved (P

Abstracts: This study aims to explore the effect of Zn content on mechanical properties and degradation behaviour of biodegradable Mg–Y–Zn (WZ) alloys via mechanical and in-vitro testing. Microstructure characterization showed that the morphology and composition of the secondary phases changed significantly with the increase of Zn content. The continuous precipitation of long-period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase led to an increase in the strength of the WZ alloys. However, the corrosion resistance of the WZ alloys increased initially and then decreased as Zn content increased. In the Mg-9.1Y-1.8Zn (WZ92) alloy, the continuous rod-like LPSO phases formed an effective degradation barrier to prevent the corrosion penetration, thus leading to a uniform and slow degradation process. Discontinuous and dispersed (i.e., lamellar-like) LPSO phase existed in the Mg-9.2Y-3.1Zn (WZ93) alloy cannot act as the degradation barrier, and the intragranular fine lamellar structure would aggravate corrosion and promote corrosion penetration into the α-Mg matrix. In addition, the WZ93 alloy with high content of LPSO phase formed more micro-galvanic couples, which exacerbated the micro-galvanic corrosion. EIS results revealed that the WZ92 alloy exhibited better corrosion resistance due to the formation of a more stable and thicker surface film. This study demonstrates that the Mg–Y–Zn alloy with tunable mechanical and degradation properties can be fabricated efficiently and economically by regulating the Zn content, and is expected to be a promising candidate in the field of degradable medical implant.

Summary: Osteocytes are the mechano-sensors of bones. Large gradient high-static magnetic fields (LG-HMFs) produce stable, high-precision, and non-attenuation mechanical forces. We discovered that magnetic forces opposite to gravity inhibited MLO-Y4 osteocyte proliferation and viability by inducing structural damage and apoptosis. In contrast, magnetic force loading in the same direction as that of gravity promoted the proliferation and inhibited apoptosis of MLO-Y4 osteocytes. Differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis after magnetic force stimulation indicated that the ECM-integrin-CSK axis responded most significantly to mechanical signals. Wisp2 was the most significant DEG between the 12 T upward and downward groups, showing the highest correlation with the Wnt pathway according to the STRING protein interaction database. Explaining the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which mechanical stimuli influence bone remodeling is currently the focus of osteocyte-related research. Our findings provide insights into the effects of LG-HMFs on bone cells, which have further implications in clinical practice.

Epoxy resin concrete has superior mechanical properties compared to ordinary concrete, and will play an increasingly important role in urban construction. In this paper, the application effect and prospect of epoxy resin concrete in precast composite frame structures are discussed. Taking the joint surface of the old and new concrete at the end of the composite beam as the research object, three specimens were devised and fabricated. Subsequently, a horizontal cyclic load test was conducted, and the seismic performance indices were analyzed. Multiple finite element models were established to assess the influence of precast concrete strength, the diameter of the longitudinal bar of the beam, the shear span ratio, and the epoxy resin concrete post-cast area, among other factors, on the seismic performance of the beam end. Four findings indicate the following: Firstly, epoxy resin concrete, characterized by its high performance attributes, can be used as a post-cast material in precast concrete structures. Secondly, when the strength of the post-cast epoxy concrete approximates or slightly exceeds that of the precast concrete, and the ratio of longitudinal reinforcement and shear span ratio are appropriately balanced, the operational performance of the composite beam frame structure is enhanced. In addition, when post-cast epoxy resin concrete is employed in the beam-column joint area, the mechanical performance of the composite beam end in the joint area matches or even surpasses that of the structure that was cast in situ. And subsequently, the expansion of post-cast area resulted in better mechanical performance. Finally, when the area of post-cast epoxy resin concrete is a non-node area, the mechanical properties of the composite beam end are worse than the former. However, the amount of epoxy resin concrete used will be greatly reduced, and as the precast node area expands, the bearing capacity of the beam end will increase and gradually approach the cast-in situ structure, indicating that this construction scheme also has advantages.

The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a type of active radar that can obtain polarization scattering information of ground objects, which is an important supplement to optical remote sensing. This paper designs a high-precision quantitative SAR system that combines radiation and polarization calibration processing to achieve a subtle perception of the changes in soil moisture and straw coverage. In Yushu, Jilin, we conducted the first S-band agricultural remote sensing application experiment. The backscattering coefficient was measured under different water content and straw coverage conditions, and the results showed that the backscattering coefficient increased by about 2 dB and 6 dB, respectively. We estimated that the soil water content increased by about 0.01 cm3/cm3, which was consistent with the theoretical analysis. The polarization scattering characteristics also showed significant differences under different straw coverage. The results indicated that S-band quantitative SAR had an excellent response ability to water content and straw coverage, which provided a technical basis for further radar agricultural applications in the future.

It is estimated that 5–10% of breastfeeding mothers are unable to produce enough milk for their infants [...]

Abstract Background Cell-free therapy has been inspired as a promising approach to overcome the limitations of traditional stem cell therapy. However, the therapeutic effect between extracellular vesicles and conditioned medium with the same source had not been compared. Our previous studies have shown that both the conditioned medium of adipose tissue (adipose tissue extract, ATE) and its further purification product small extracellular vesicles (sEV-AT) contributed to adipose tissue regeneration. In this study, we aimed to compare the ATE and sEV-AT in composition, inductivity on cells and de novo adipose regenerative potential. Methods The characteristics of sEV-AT and ATE were compared through protein and particle yield, particle size distribution and composition. The inductivity of sEV-AT and ATE on cells were compared through co-culture of sEV-AT or ATE with ASC, HUVEC and RAW264.7 in vitro. The capacity of promoting de novo adipogenesis was compared by implanting the silicone tube containing sEV-AT or ATE subcutaneously in vivo. Results More particles and concentrated particle size distribution were detected in sEV-AT. In turn, more soluble factors and multiple peaks in particle size distribution were detected in ATE. In 1662 common proteins of sEV-AT and ATE, there were 984 (59.2%) proteins enriched twice more in sEV-AT than in ATE. With the prerequisite of equivalent protein concentration, sEV-AT outperformed ATE in promoting proliferation, migration and regeneration potential of cells those contributing adipose tissue regeneration in vitro. Furthermore, sEV-AT expedited the de novo adipose tissue regeneration and angiogenesis at the early stage than ATE in vivo, but sEV-AT and ATE group formed similar neoadipose tissue and new vessels at week 12. Conclusions Our results provided a direct comparison between EV and conditioned medium as cell-free therapeutic strategy. Both sEV and ATE had specific biological signature to facilitate tissue repair. Considering the convenience of extraction and acceptable effect, ATE represented a feasible product of cell-free therapy, providing another option for different situations in clinical application. Furthermore, the complex contents of both sEV-AT and ATE should be studied comprehensively to avoid possible negative effects and to ensure sufficient safety for clinical applications.

To solve the problems of path planning and dynamic obstacle avoidance for an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in a locally observable non-dynamic ocean environment, a visual perception and decision-making method based on deep reinforcement learning is proposed. This method replaces the full connection layer in the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) neural network structure with a convolutional neural network (CNN). In this way, the degree of memorization and forgetting of sample information is controlled. Moreover, this method accumulates reward models faster by preferentially learning samples with high reward values. From the USV-centered radar perception input of the local environment, the output of the action is realized through an end-to-end learning model, and the environment perception and decision are formed as a closed loop. Thus, the proposed algorithm has good adaptability in different marine environments. The simulation results show that, compared with the PPO algorithm, Soft Actor–Critic (SAC) algorithm, and Deep Q Network (DQN) algorithm, the proposed algorithm can accelerate the model convergence speed and improve the path planning performances in partly or fully unknown ocean fields.

As a traditional fermentation food, red sour soup (RSS) is very popular in China. However, browning is always occurred during the process of fermentation, which influences the sensory quality of RSS and limits its further application. Thus, it is meaningful to elucidate the main factors related to browning during the process of fermentation. Herein, the changes in various factors related to browning from group spontaneous (RSS-SF) and inoculant fermentation (RSS-IF) were determined and analyzed. Firstly, the activity changes of enzymes related to browning indicated that browning of group RSS-SF and RSS-IF during fermentation was not related to enzymatic browning. Secondly, path analysis revealed that the main factors related to non-enzymatic browning of group RSS-SF and RSS-IF were oxidation of polyphenol and degradation of ascorbic acid (Vc). The results of this study not only identifies the main factors associate with browning of RSS, but also provides foundation on how to control the browning of RSS in further study.

Objective. To evaluate the influence of pilocarpine eyedrops on the ocular biometric parameters and whether these parameter changes affect the intraocular lens (IOL) power calculation in patients with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG). Methods. Twenty-two PACG patients and fifteen normal subjects were enrolled. Ocular biometric parameters including the axial length (AL), anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT), mean keratometry (Km), and white-to-white distance (WTW) were measured by using a Lenstar LS 900 device before and at least 30 minutes after instillation of 2% pilocarpine eyedrops. Lens position (LP) was calculated, and the IOL power prediction based on the ocular biometric parameters was performed using the Barrett Universal II, Haigis, Hoffer Q, Holladay I, or SRK/T formulas before and after pilocarpine application. Results. In both PACG and normal groups, pilocarpine eyedrops induced a slight but statistically significant increase in the mean AL (0.01 mm for both groups) and mean LT (0.02 mm and 0.03 mm, respectively) but a significant decrease in the mean ACD (0.03 mm and 0.05 mm, respectively) and mean LP (0.02 mm and 0.04 mm, respectively). No significant changes in the mean Km and WTW were noticed in both groups. In addition, the IOL power calculation revealed insignificant changes before and after the pilocarpine instillation in both groups, regardless of the formula used. Conclusions. Pilocarpine eyedrops can induce slight changes in the ocular biometric parameters including the AL, ACD, LT, and LP. However, these parameter changes will not result in a significant difference in IOL power estimation.

Red Sour Soup (RSS) is a traditional fermented food in China. After two rounds of fermentation, sour soup has a mellow flavor. However, the microbial composition and flavor formation processes in post-fermentation in RSS are unclear. This study investigates the bacteria composition of RSS during the post-fermentation stage (0–180 days) using high-throughput sequencing. The results show that lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are dominant during the post-fermentation process, and their abundance gradually increases with fermentation time. Additionally, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to detect volatile flavor compounds in the post-fermentation process. Seventy-seven volatile flavor compounds were identified, including 24 esters, 14 terpenes, 9 aromatic hydrocarbons, 9 alkanes, 6 heterocyclic compounds, 3 alcohols, 3 acids, 3 ketones, 2 phenols, 2 aldehydes, 1 amine, and 1 other. Esters and aromatic hydrocarbons are the main volatile compounds in RSS during the post-fermentation process. Orthogonal partial least squares screening and correlation analysis derived several significant correlations, including 48 pairs of positive correlations and 19 pairs of negative correlations. Among them, Acetobacter spp., Clostridium spp. and Sporolactobacillus spp. have 15, 14, 20 significant correlation pairs, respectively, and are considered the most important bacterial genera post-fermentation. Volatile substances become abundant with increasing fermentation time. LAB are excessive after more than 120 days but cause a drastic reduction in volatile ester levels. Thus, the post-fermentation time should be restricted to 120 days, which retains the highest concentrations of volatile esters in RSS. Overall, these findings provide a theoretical basis to determine an optimal post-fermentation time duration, and identify essential bacteria for manufacturing high-quality starter material to shorten the RSS post-fermentation processing time.

The key orally delivered drug metabolism processes are reviewed to aid the assessment of the current in vivo/vitro experimental systems applicability for evaluating drug metabolism and the interaction potential. Orally administration is the most commonly used state-of-the-art road for drug delivery due to its ease of administration, high patient compliance and cost-effectiveness. Roles of gut metabolic enzymes and microbiota in drug metabolism and absorption suggest that the gut is an important site for drug metabolism, while the liver has long been recognized as the principal organ responsible for drugs or other substances metabolism. In this contribution, we explore various experimental models from their development to the application for studying oral drugs metabolism of and summarized advantages and disadvantages. Undoubtedly, understanding the possible metabolic mechanism of drugs in vivo and evaluating the procedure with relevant models is of great significance for screening potential clinical drugs. With the increasing popularity and prevalence of orally delivered drugs, sophisticated experimental models with higher predictive capacity for the metabolism of oral drugs used in current preclinical studies will be needed. Collectively, the review seeks to provide a comprehensive roadmap for researchers in related fields.

Abstract Background The hypertriglyceridemic waist (HTGW) phenotype has been proposed to be related to the occurrence and progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The ageing trend of the Chinese population continues to intensify, and elderly individuals are at high risk of CKD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the HTGW phenotype and the risk of CKD by following community-dwelling adults aged 60 years and older in Tianjin, China, for 7 years. Methods This study was an observational cohort study conducted between 2013 and 2019. Of 2050 participants aged 60 years and older who underwent an annual health examination in 2013, 1605 individuals with complete data were enrolled in the cross-sectional analysis. Among them, 1271 individuals were observed until 2019. Detailed follow-up records were available for 816 participants, of whom 600 participants without CKD at baseline were eligible for inclusion in the retrospective analysis. The HTGW phenotype was defined as a waist circumference of 90 cm or more and triglyceride concentrations of 2.0 mmol/L or more in males or a waist circumference of 85 cm or more and triglyceride concentrations of 1.5 mmol/L or more in females. CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)

Magnesium hydride (MgH2) has been widely regarded as a potential hydrogen storage material owing to its high gravimetric and volumetric capacity. Its sluggish kinetics and high activation energy barrier, however, severely limit its practical application. Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have been extensively used as catalysts to improve the hydrogen storage performance of MgH2, but the low-valence transition metal (TM) ions, resulting from the reduction of TMOs accompanied by the formation of inactive MgO, have been demonstrated to be the most effective components. Herein, we theoretically and experimentally confirm that the doping of low-valence TMs into MgO could effectively weaken the Mg-H bonds and decrease the energy required for hydrogen desorption from MgH2, leading to superior catalytic activity compared to both TMOs and MgO. In particular, the apparent activation energy for the dehydrogenation of Mg(Nb)O-catalyzed MgH2 could be reduced to only 84.1 kJ mol-1, and the reversible capacity could reach around 7 wt.% after 5 cycles with a capacity retention of 96%. Detailed theoretical calculations confirm that the remarkable orbital hybridization between Mg(Nb)O and MgH2 promotes charge transfer from MgO to the MgH2 monomer, resulting in significantly weakened stability of MgH2, which could effectively enhance its hydrogen storage performance.

The objective of this study was to introduce a novel deep learning technique for more accurate children caries diagnosis on dental panoramic radiographs. Specifically, a swin transformer is introduced, which is compared with the state-of-the-art convolutional neural network (CNN) methods that are widely used for caries diagnosis. A tooth type enhanced swin transformer is further proposed by considering the differences among canine, molar and incisor. Modeling the above differences in swin transformer, the proposed method was expected to mine domain knowledge for more accurate caries diagnosis. To test the proposed method, a children panoramic radiograph database was built and labeled with a total of 6028 teeth. Swin transformer shows better diagnosis performance compared with typical CNN methods, which indicates the usefulness of this new technique for children caries diagnosis on panoramic radiographs. Furthermore, the proposed tooth type enhanced swin transformer outperforms the naive swin transformer with the accuracy, precision, recall, F1 and area-under-the-curve being 0.8557, 0.8832, 0.8317, 0.8567 and 0.9223, respectively. This indicates that the transformer model can be further improved with a consideration of domain knowledge instead of a copy of previous transformer models designed for natural images. Finally, we compare the proposed tooth type enhanced swin transformer with two attending doctors. The proposed method shows higher caries diagnosis accuracy for the first and second primary molars, which may assist dentists in caries diagnosis.

Leisure dried tofu (LD-tofu) was prepared using two different marinating processes: the repeated heating method (RHM) and the vacuum pulse method (VPM). The quality characteristics and bacterial community succession of LD-tofu and the marinade were evaluated. The results showed that the nutrients in LD-tofu were easily dissolved into the marinade during the marinating process, while the protein and moisture content of RHM LD-tofu changed most dramatically. With the increase in marinade recycling times, the springiness, chewiness and hardness of VPM LD-tofu increased significantly. The total viable count (TVC) of the VPM LD-tofu decreased from the initial value of 4.41 lg cfu/g to 2.51–2.67 lg cfu/g as a result of the marinating process, which had a significant inhibitory effect. Additionally, 26, 167 and 356 communities in the LD-tofu and marinade were detected at the phylum, family and genus levels, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed that Pseudomonadaceae, Thermaceae and Lactobacillaceae were closely related to the quality characteristics of LD-tofu, whereas Caulobacteriaceae, Bacillaceae and Enterobacteriae were closely related to the marinade. The present work provides a theoretical basis for the screening of functional strains and quality control in LD-tofu and marinade.

Bladder cancer (BC) is the tenth most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide, and its carcinogenesis mechanism has not been fully elucidated. BC is able to induce natural killer (NK) cell dysfunction and escape immune surveillance. The present study found that exosomes derived from the urinary bladder cancer cell line (T24 cell) contribute in generating NK cell dysfunction by impairing viability, and inhibiting the cytotoxicity of the NK cell on target cells. Meanwhile, T24 cell-derived exosomes inhibited the expression of the important functional receptors NKG2D, NKp30, and CD226 on NK cells as well as the secretion of perforin and granzyme-B. The critical miRNAs with high expression in T24 cell-derived exosomes were identified using high-throughput sequencing. Furthermore, following dual-luciferase reporter assay and transfection experiments, miR-221-5p and miR-186-5p were confirmed as interfering with the stability of the mRNAs of DAP10, CD96, and the perforin gene in NK cells and may be potential targets used in the therapy for BC.

Currently, the processing method of introducing plant protein into meat products has attracted great attention. However, the direct addition of plant protein often leads to a decline in meat product quality. This paper aims to provide an efficient method for incorporating plant protein into fish sausage. Pea protein isolate (PPI), grass carp protein isolate (CPI) and pea-grass carp coprecipitated dual protein (Co) were derived from pea and grass carp by an isoelectric solubilisation/precipitation method. At the same time, the blended dual protein (BL) was obtained by blending PPI with CPI, and the plant and animal protein content of Co and BL was both controlled to be the same. The four proteins were combined with soybean oil and water to form a three-phase pre-emulsification system of protein-oil-water, which was added to grass carp meat as a replacement for animal fat to prepare fish sausage. The gelation properties of the four fish sausages and those without protein were analysed. The results showed that the gel quality of PPI fish sausage is poor, while the overall quality of Co fish sausage as a whole was significantly superior to that of PPI and BL, which was equivalent to CPI fish sausage. The sensory score of the Co fish sausage was slightly lower than that of CPI, but it had significantly higher water-holding capacity and hardness (p < 0.05). The Co fish sausage showed the synergistic effect of heterologous proteins, while BL had some antagonistic effects. This study shows that Co pre-emulsion is an effective strategy to introduce plant protein, so it has a good application prospect in the meat industry.

Over the last three years, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related health crisis has claimed over six million lives and caused USD 12 trillion losses to the global economy. SARS-CoV-2 continuously mutates and evolves with a high basic reproduction number (R0), resulting in a variety of clinical manifestations ranging from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and even death. To gain a better understanding of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is critical to investigate the components that cause various clinical manifestations. Single-cell sequencing has substantial advantages in terms of identifying differentially expressed genes among individual cells, which can provide a better understanding of the various physiological and pathological processes. This article reviewed the use of single-cell transcriptomics in COVID-19 research, examined the immune response disparities generated by SARS-CoV-2, and offered insights regarding how to improve COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment plans.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common pregnancy complication with short- and long-term health consequences for the infant and mother. Breastfeeding is the recommended mode of feeding as it offers an opportunity to reduce the risk of GDM consequences, likely partially mediated through changes in human milk (HM) composition. This review systematically reviewed 12 identified studies that investigated the impact of GDM on concentrations of HM metabolic hormones. Meta-analysis was not possible due to significant heterogeneity in study designs and hormone measurement techniques. The risk of bias was assessed using the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) tool. The methodological qualities were medium in half of the studies, while 25% (3/12) of studies carried a high risk of bias. Significant relationships were reported between GDM and concentrations of HM ghrelin (3/3 studies), insulin (2/4), and adiponectin (2/6), which may play an integral role in infant growth and development. In conclusion, preliminary evidence suggests that GDM may alter HM metabolic hormone concentrations; however, these relationships may be limited to the early lactation stage.

Abstract Background Aedes albopictus (Skuse) is an important vector of chikungunya, dengue, yellow fever and Zika viruses. In the absence of anti-viral medication and with limited availability of a commercial vaccine for public health use, vector control remains an effective means for reducing Aedes-borne disease morbidity. Knowledge about genetic mutations associated with insecticide resistance (IR) is a prerequisite for developing rapid resistance diagnosis, and the distribution and frequency of IR conferring mutations is important information for making smart vector control decisions. Methods Partial DNA sequences of domain II and domain III of Ae. albopictus voltage gated sodium channel (VGSC) gene were amplified from a total of 426 individuals, collected from 17 sites in the Beijing municipality. These DNA fragments were sequenced to discover the possible genetic mutations mediating knockdown resistance (kdr) to pyrethroids. The frequency and distribution of kdr mutations were assessed in the 17 Ae. albopictus populations. The origin of kdr mutations was investigated by haplotype clarification and phylogenetic analysis. Results Sequence alignments revealed the existence of multiple mutations (V1016G, I1532T, F1534S and F1534L) in VGSC. The highest frequency of the mutant 1016G allele (0.647) was found in Haidian, while 1016G was not detected in Huai Rou, Yan Qing, Ping Gu and Shun Yi. The frequency of 1532T was highest (0.537) in the population from the Olympic Forest Park (OFP, Chao Yang District), but not detectable in Huai Rou and Mi Yun. Two mutations were observed at codon 1534 with different distribution patterns: 1534L was only found in Tong Zhou (TZ) with a frequency of 0.017, while 1534S was distributed in TZ, OFP, Fang Shan, Da Xing and Shi Jing Shan with frequencies ranging from 0.019 (OFP) to 0.276 (TZ). One 1016G, one 1532T, one 1534L and two 1534S haplotypes were identified. Conclusions Multiple mutations (V1016G, I1532T, F1534L/S) in VGSC were found in Ae. albopictus in Beijing. This represents the first report of V1016G in Ae. albopictus. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed multiple origins of 1534S. The spatial heterogeneity in distribution and frequency of kdr mutations calls for a site-specific strategy for the monitoring of insecticide resistance. The relatively high frequencies of V1016G warn of a risk of pyrethroid resistance in mosquitoes in the urban zones.

This paper develops an incremental randomized learning method for an extended Echo State Network (φ-ESN), which has a reservoir with random static projection, to better cope with non-linear time series data modelling problems. Although the typical ESN can effectively improve the prediction performance of the network by extending a random static nonlinear hidden layer, since the input weights and biases of the hidden neurons in the extended static layer are randomly assigned, some neurons have little effect on reducing the model error, resulting in high model complexity, poor generalization and large performance fluctuation. A constructive incremental randomized learning method termed OLS-φ-ESN is proposed for generating the nodes of the extended static nonlinear hidden layer. Two-step training paradigm is adopted, namely, randomly assigning the input weights and biases of the hidden neurons in the extended static layer according to a supervisory mechanism and solving output weights by least squares algorithm. Based on Orthogonal Least Squares (OLS) search algorithm, the proposed supervisory mechanism is designed where an adaptive threshold is also set to better control the compactness of the generated learner model. Simulation results concerning both nonlinear time series prediction and system identification tasks indicate some advantages of our proposed OLS-φ-ESN in terms of more compact model and sound generalization.

Objective: Despite the achievement of blood glucose, blood pressure targets, the risk for kidney injury remains high among older adults. This observational retrospective study investigated whether high TG or high WC contribute to this high residual risk for kidney injury. Methods: A total of 843 elderly from Dongli Community, Tianjin, China, we selected 666 individuals with a baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2 and negative microalbuminuria completing a 3-year follow-up. At baseline, subjects were grouped according to the levels of TG and WC. The primary outcome was the incidence of kidney injury, defined as low eGFR (eGFR 25%) or UACR ≥30 mg/g. Results: Overall, 6.01% developed low eGFR, 11.11% reduced eGFR, 25.98% UACR ≥30 mg/g, and 3.45% low eGFR and UACR ≥30mg/g after 3-year follow-up. TG ≥1.7 mmol/L increased the risk of eGFR

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of neurodegenerative disease, and increasing evidence shows that insulin signaling has crucial roles in AD initiation and progression. In this study, we explored the effect and underlying mechanism of SQW, a representative formula for tonifying the kidney and promoting yang, on improving the cognitive function in a streptozotocin-induced model of AD rats. We investigated memory impairment in the AD rats by using the Morris water test. HE and Nissl staining were employed to observe the histomorphological changes in the hippocampal. Expression levels of NeuN and proteins related to Tau and apoptosis were measured using immunohistochemistry and Western blotting, respectively. Additionally, we performed RNA sequencing, and the selected hub genes were then validated by qRT-PCR. Furthermore, the protein expression levels of PI3K/AKT pathway-related proteins were detected by Western blot. We found that SQW treatment significantly alleviated learning and memory impairment, pathological damage, and apoptosis in rats, as evidenced by an increased level of NeuN and Bcl-2, and decreased phosphorylation of Tau, Bax, and Caspase-3 protein expression. SQW treatment reversed the expression of insulin resistance-related genes (Nr4a1, Lpar1, Bdnf, Atf2, and Ppp2r2b) and reduced the inhibition of the PI3K/AKT pathway. Our results demonstrate that SQW could contribute to neuroprotection against learning and memory impairment in rats induced by STZ through activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway.

Sepsis is a fatal infectious disease accompanied by multiple organ failure. Immune dysfunction and inflammatory response play an important role in the progression of the disease. Tripterygium glycoside (TG) has immune suppression and anti-inflammatory effects. Here, we investigated the effects of TG on cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis. Septic mice model was induced by cecal ligation and puncture(CLP), after administration of TG, specimens are collected at designated time points. Histopathology changes of lung tissues and Kidney tissues were observed under light microscope, magnetic microbeads were used to isolate splenic CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Tregs), and phenotypes were then analyzed by flow cytometry. ELISA method was employed to detect the concentrations of plasma TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10. Nuclear p-NF-κB and Cytoplasmic IkB-a was detected by western blot. TG administration significantly alleviated lung and kidney inflammatory injury and improved the survival of septic mice. Furthermore, the suppressive function of regulatory T cells was enhanced and plasma expression of IL-10 was increased following TG treatment. The NF-B signaling pathway and secretion of plasma TNF-α and IL-6 was notably inhibited in septic mice treated with TG. TG exerts protective effects through improving regulatory T cells and attenuating pro-inflammatory cytokines in septic mice.

This study addresses the output impedance model of the LCL-type grid-connected converter considering the dead-time effects and the digital control delay. The model shows that the digital control delay will affect the accuracy of the output impedance of the grid-connected converter, and the dead-time effects are only equivalent to superimposing a disturbance voltage on the original output impedance model. The derived output impedance model is verified by comparing it with the switching model in the PSIM simulation environment. The harmonic interaction between converter cluster and utility grid is modeled and analyzed based on the output impedance model. A combined harmonic suppression strategy is incorporated into every converter control scheme to suppress the harmonic interaction. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the correctness of harmonic interaction analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed suppression strategy.

Background and objective: This study combined two clinical indicators (age and prostate volume (PV)) to generate age to PV (AVR) ratio, whose diagnostic value for prostate cancer (PCa) was examined based on prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the range of 4–20.0 ng/mL. Methods: The medical records of patients who underwent transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy of the prostate in our hospital from June 2015 to June 2019 were examined retrospectively. According to the pathological results of the biopsy, the patients were divided into the PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for TPSA, PSAD, PV, (F/T)PSA, AVR, and PSA-AV were plotted with SPSS 26.0 and GraphPad Prism 5.0, and areas under the ROC curves (AUROCs) were determined and compared by Delong test. A log-linear model was used to compare AVR and other parameters with similar high sensitivities, for specificity. Results: The AUROC for AVR was significantly different from those of TPSA (p < 0.001), PV (p = 0.004), (F/T)PSA (p < 0.001), and PSA-AV (p = 0.006), and similar to that of PSAD (p = 0.064). With the same high sensitivity (90.0%), log-linear model analysis showed that the specificity of AVR was significantly higher than those of TPSA and (F/T)PSA (p < 0.01), while there were no significant differences among AVR and PSAD, PV and PSA-AV. Conclusion: With PSA in the range of 4–20.0 ng/mL, AVR may be useful in sparing an invasive intervention for a number of patients.

Effects of ginkgo biloba powder (GBP) on the chemical, physicochemical properties and quality of dough and fresh wet noodles were investigated. Lower contents of gluten and starch, and higher contents of fibre, amylose and flavonoids in GBP than wheat flour, were detected. Water absorption of dough increased and the development time and stability time of dough were decreased with GBP addition. Meanwhile, the pasting properties results showed that the addition of GBP reduced the aging degree of starch and improved the thermal stability of dough. Scanning electron microscopy results showed that addition of GBP smoothed the surface of raw noodles while increasing the hole size of the cooked noodles. With increased GBP addition (0~40%), the chewiness and extensibility of the fresh wet noodles increased significantly (p < 0.05), and the sensory scores changed, ascending from 0~20% substitution, and then descending from 20~40% substitution. The digestibility and estimated glycemic index (eGI) values of the GBP fresh wet noodles decreased significantly (p < 0.05). In general, 20% GBP addition could improve the chewiness, extensibility, taste and nutrition of fresh wet noodles, and decrease the digestibility and eGI values of noodles. Thus, GBP has potential for application in the noodle industry.

Chinese red sour soup is a traditional fermented product famous in the southwestern part of China owing to its distinguished sour and spicy flavor. In the present study, the effect of inoculation of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on the microbial communities and metabolite contents of the Chinese red sour soup was investigated. Traditional red sour soup was made with tomato and red chilli pepper and a live count (108 CFU/mL) of five bacterial strains (including Clostridium intestinalis: Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum: Lacticaseibacillus casei: Lactobacillus paracei) was added and fermented for 30 days in an incubator at 37 °C. Three replicates were randomly taken at 0 d, 5 d, 10 d, 15 d, 20 d, 25 d and 30 d of fermentation, with a total of 21 sour soup samples. Metabolomic analysis and 16S-rDNA amplicon sequencing of soup samples were performed to determine microbial diversity and metabolite contents. Results revealed that fermentation resulted in the depletion of native bacterial strains as LAB dominated over other microbes, resulting in differences in the relative abundance of bacteria, and types or contents of metabolites. A decrease (p < 0.01) in Shannon and Simpson indices was observed at different fermentation times. The metabolomic analyses revealed a significant increase in the relative content of 10 metabolites (particularly lactic acid, thymine, and ascorbic acid) in fermented samples as compared to the control. The correlation network revealed a positive association of Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus with differentially enriched metabolites including lactic acid, ascorbic acid, and chlorogenic acid, which can desirably contribute to the flavor and quality of the red sour soup.

Firstly,the previous work of fog computing was systematically analyzed and summarized.The background of fog computing and the comparison with cloud computing were introduced.Besides,based on the comparison with other computing style,the advantages and characteristics of fog computing were explained.In addition,the architecture of fog computing was described.Moreover,network management and resource scheduling of fog computing were discussed,where the related previous work were summarized and analyzed.At last,the applications of fog computing were described.Taking the intelligent driving and industrial Internet of things applications as examples,the key research issues of fog computing were proposed.

A three-dimensional (3D) detailed numerical model of an immersed tunnel in a horizontally layered site is established in this study. The 3D seismic response of the immersed tunnel in a horizontally layered site subjected to obliquely incident waves is analyzed based on the precise dynamic stiffness matrix of the soil layer and half-space via combined viscous-spring boundary and equivalent node stress methods. The nonlinear effects of external and internal site conditions on the whole model were determined by equivalent linearization algorithm and Mohr–Coulomb model, respectively. The proposed model was then applied to investigate the nonlinear seismic response of an immersed tunnel in the Haihe River subjected to seismic waves of oblique incidence. The dislocation (opening) of pipe joints in the immersed tunnel were analyzed to determine the response characteristics of the shear keys and overall displacement of the tunnel; the dynamic responses of the immersed tunnel subjected to obliquely incident seismic waves markedly differ from those of vertically incident seismic SV waves. The maximum stress value of shear keys and the maximum dislocation of the pipe joint appear as upon critical angle. The overall displacement of the tunnel increases as incident angle increases. Under severe earthquake conditions, both the pipe corners and midspan section of the roof and floor are likely to produce crack. These areas need careful consideration in the seismic design of immersed tunnel structures.