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Abstract To develop and validate an enhanced CT-based radiomics nomogram for evaluating preoperative metastasis risk of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). One hundred and nine patients with histologically confirmed EOC were retrospectively enrolled. The volume of interest (VOI) was delineated in preoperative enhanced CT images, and 851 radiomics features were extracted. The radiomics features were selected by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), and the rad-score was calculated using the formula of the radiomics label. A clinical model, radiomics model, and combined model were constructed using the logistic regression classification algorithm. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the models. Seventy-five patients (68.8%) were histologically confirmed to have metastasis. Eleven optimal radiomics features were retained by the LASSO algorithm to develop the radiomic model. The combined model for evaluating metastasis of EOC achieved area under the curve (AUC) values of 0.929 (95% CI 0.8593–0.9996) in the training cohort and 0.909 (95% CI 0.7921–1.0000) in the test cohort. To facilitate clinical use, a radiomic nomogram was built by combining the clinical characteristics with rad-score. The DCA indicated that the nomogram had the most significant net benefit when the threshold probability exceeded 15%, surpassing the benefits of both the treat-all and treat-none strategies. Compared with clinical model and radiomics model, the radiomics nomogram has the best diagnostic performance in evaluating EOC metastasis. The nomogram is a useful and convenient tool for clinical doctors to develop personalized treatment plans for EOC patients.

Abstract Autophagy is a dynamic self-renovation biological process that maintains cell homeostasis and is responsible for the quality control of proteins, organelles, and energy metabolism. The E1-like ubiquitin-activating enzyme autophagy-related gene 7 (ATG7) is a critical factor that initiates classic autophagy reactions by promoting the formation and extension of autophagosome membranes. Recent studies have identified the key functions of ATG7 in regulating the cell cycle, apoptosis, and metabolism associated with the occurrence and development of multiple diseases. This review summarizes how ATG7 is precisely programmed by genetic, transcriptional, and epigenetic modifications in cells and the relationship between ATG7 and aging-related diseases.

Abstract Background Preoperative prediction of International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is crucial for determining appropriate treatment strategy. This study aimed to explore the value of contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) radiomics in predicting preoperative FIGO staging of EOC, and to validate the stability of the model through an independent external dataset. Methods A total of 201 EOC patients from three centers, divided into a training cohort (n = 106), internal (n = 46) and external (n = 49) validation cohorts. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression algorithm was used for screening radiomics features. Five machine learning algorithms, namely logistic regression, support vector machine, random forest, light gradient boosting machine (LightGBM), and decision tree, were utilized in developing the radiomics model. The optimal performing algorithm was selected to establish the radiomics model, clinical model, and the combined model. The diagnostic performances of the models were evaluated through receiver operating characteristic analysis, and the comparison of the area under curves (AUCs) were conducted using the Delong test or F-test. Results Seven optimal radiomics features were retained by the LASSO algorithm. The five radiomics models demonstrate that the LightGBM model exhibits notable prediction efficiency and robustness, as evidenced by AUCs of 0.83 in the training cohort, 0.80 in the internal validation cohort, and 0.68 in the external validation cohort. The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that carcinoma antigen 125 and tumor location were identified as independent predictors for the FIGO staging of EOC. The combined model exhibited best diagnostic efficiency, with AUCs of 0.95 in the training cohort, 0.83 in the internal validation cohort, and 0.79 in the external validation cohort. The F-test indicated that the combined model exhibited a significantly superior AUC value compared to the radiomics model in the training cohort (P

Abstract Global lake ecosystems are subjected to an increased occurrence of heat extremes, yet their impact on lake warming remains poorly understood. In this study, we employed a hybrid physically-based/statistical model to assess the contribution of heat extremes to variations in surface water temperature of 2260 lakes in China from 1985 to 2022. Our study indicates that heat extremes are increasing at a rate of about 2.08 days/decade and an intensity of about 0.03 °C/ day·decade in China. The warming rate of lake surface water temperature decreases from 0.16 °C/decade to 0.13 °C/decade after removing heat extremes. Heat extremes exert a considerable influence on long-term lake surface temperature changes, contributing 36.5% of the warming trends within the studied lakes. Given the important influence of heat extremes on the mean warming of lake surface waters, it is imperative that they are adequately accounted for in climate impact studies.

This study examined the survival rates of Anadara broughtonii and Chlamys farreri with varying heights throughout winter and summer aquaculture periods under varying ratios of mixed-culture conditions in marine environments. The aim was to assess the viability and economic advantages of mixed-culture practices among different bivalve species. Results indicate that the winter (from December to February of the following year) mortality rate for A. broughtonii in mixed culture ranges from 12.04% to 16.85%, markedly lower than in single-species cultures. Mixed-culture A. broughtonii measuring 2.5–4.0 cm exhibit a significantly reduced summer (from July to September) mortality rate compared to those in single-species cultures (p < 0.05). No significant mortality difference was observed between the monoculture and polyculture of C. farreri. Growth rates of C. farreri and A. broughtonii showed no significant differences between monoculture and polyculture conditions. The optimal size for combining two different species of bivalves is 2.5 cm, with a 1:1 ratio being the most effective. An equal number of seedlings were cultivated across various seawater aquaculture systems for a period of one year. The survival rates of monoculture seedlings of Anadara broughtonii and Chlamys farreri were 60.34% and 86.55%, respectively. In contrast, polyculture seedlings exhibited higher survival rates after one year of mariculture, with Anadara broughtonii at 73.36% and Chlamys farreri at 89.74%. The polyculture of A. broughtonii and C. farreri in suspension cages demonstrates a favorable input–output ratio of 1:2.02. This approach effectively reduces winter and summer mortality rates of A. broughtonii, representing an efficient new method for marine bivalve aquaculture.

Purpose: We aimed to develop and validate a predictive model for myocardial injury in individuals undergoing major abdominal surgery. Methods: This multicenter retrospective cohort analysis included 3546 patients aged ≥45 years who underwent major abdominal surgeries at two Chinese tertiary hospitals. The primary outcome was myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS), defined as prognostically relevant myocardial injury due to ischemia that occurs during or within 30 days after noncardiac surgery. The LASSO algorithm and logistic regression were used to construct a predictive model for postoperative MINS in the development cohort, and the performance of this prediction model was validated in an external independent cohort. Results: A total of 3546 patients were included in our study. MINS manifested in 338 (9.53 %) patients after surgery. The definitive predictive model for MINS was developed by incorporating age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification, preoperative hemoglobin concentration, preoperative serum ALB concentration, blood loss, total infusion volume, and operation time. The area under the curve (AUC) of our model was 0.838 and 0.821 in the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. Conclusions: Preoperative hemoglobin levels, preoperative serum ALB concentrations, infusion volume, and blood loss are independent predictors of MINS. Our predictive model can prove valuable in identifying patients at moderate-to-high risk prior to non-cardiac surgery.

Abstract Atmospheric warming heats lakes, but the causes of variation among basins are poorly understood. Here, multi-decadal profiles of water temperatures, trophic state, and local climate from 345 temperate lakes are combined with data on lake geomorphology and watershed characteristics to identify controls of the relative rates of temperature change in water (WT) and air (AT) during summer. We show that differences in local climate (AT, wind speed, humidity, irradiance), land cover (forest, urban, agriculture), geomorphology (elevation, area/depth ratio), and water transparency explain >30% of the difference in rate of lake heating compared to that of the atmosphere. Importantly, the rate of lake heating slows as air warms (P

Abstract Identity‐based Matchmaking Encryption (IB‐ME) is an extension notion of matchmaking encryption (CRYPTO 2019), where a sender and a receiver can specify an access policy for the other party. In IB‐ME, data encryption is performed by not only a receiver identity but also a sender's encryption key. Nevertheless, previous IB‐ME schemes have not considered the problem of efficient revocation. Hence, the authors introduce a new notion of revocable IB‐ME (RIB‐ME) and formalise the syntax and security model of RIB‐ME. In particular, the authors give an effective and simple construction of RIB‐ME in the standard model, whose security is reduced to the hardness of decisional bilinear Diffie—Hellman problem and computational Diffie—Hellman problem. In addition, the authors show two extensions of our RIB‐ME scheme to consider chosen‐ciphertext security and forward privacy.

BackgroundOvarian cancer (OC) is the most lethal tumor within the female reproductive system. Medical imaging plays a significant role in diagnosis and monitoring OC. This study aims to use bibliometric analysis to explore the current research hotspots and collaborative networks in the application of medical imaging in OC from 2000 to 2022.MethodsA systematica search for medical imaging in OC was conducted on the Web of Science Core Collection on August 9, 2023. All reviews and articles published from January 2000 to December 2022 were downloaded, and an analysis of countries, institutions, journals, keywords, and collaborative networks was perfomed using CiteSpace and VOSviewer.ResultsA total of 5,958 publications were obtained, demonstrating a clear upward trend in annual publications over the study peroid. The USA led in productivity with 1,373 publications, and Harvard University emerged as the most prominent institution with 202 publications. Timmerman D was the most prolific contributor with 100 publications, and Gynecological Oncology led in the number of publications with 296. The top three keywords were “ovarian cancer” (1,256), “ultrasound” (725), and “diagnosis” (712). In addition, “pelvic masses” had the highest burst strength (25.5), followed by “magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)” (21.47). Recent emergent keywords such as “apoptosis”, “nanoparticles”, “features”, “accuracy”, and “human epididymal protein 4 (HE 4)” reflect research trends in this field and may become research hotspots in the future.ConclusionThis study provides a comprehensive summary of the key contributions of OC imaging to field’s development over the past 23 years. Presently, primary areas of OC imaging research include MRI, targeted therapy of OC, novel biomarker (HE 4), and artificial intelligence. These areas are expected to influence future research endeavors in this field.

Hungary has been an active participant in China’s 16+1 initiative which is a cooperation scheme launched by Beijing in 2012 to facilitate comprehensive cooperation between China and 16 Central and Eastern European countries. The relationships between China and Hungary have improved greatly since then and China’s political and economic presence in the country is increasingly visible. Apart from the Budapest-Belgrade railway, the recent high-profile Chinese investment in Hungary includes a vaccine plant and Fudan University branch campus in Budapest. Since their bilateral relations have deepened, will China’s political and economic presence in Hungary impact Hungary’s relations with the European Union (EU) and the EU’s unified stance towards China? This article evaluates the impact of the 16+1 initiative on Sino-Hungarian political and economic relations and the impact of their engagement on Hungary’s relations with EU institutions and initiatives.

ABSTRACT Introduction The relationship between progesterone (P) and diabetic nephropathy (DKD) is unclear. Herein, we investigated the relationship between progesterone and DKD in men and postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Materials and Methods We recruited 3,556 male and postmenopausal female patients and obtained the dominance ratio (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) associated with progesterone by logistic regression analysis after adjusting for potentially confounding variants. Results We found that progesterone levels were significantly lower in the massive proteinuria and microproteinuria groups compared with the non‐DKD group for male patients. Also, microproteinuria and massive proteinuria prevalence were higher in the first (lowest) progesterone quartile than in the second to fourth quartiles. After adjusting for confounders, compared with the first (lowest) progesterone quartile group, the OR for the second to fourth quartiles in the male microproteinuria subgroup, were: Q2: 0.846 (95% CI: 0.581–1.233, P = 0.385); Q3: 0.667 (95% CI: 0.45–0988, P = 0.044); Q4: 0.597 (95% CI: 0.393–0.907, P = 0.016). In the male massive proteinuria subgroup, the OR for the third quartile group was 0.418 (95% CI: 0.201–0.867, P = 0.019). In contrast, no significant association was detected between progesterone and DKD prevalence in the female group. Conclusions Progesterone levels were negatively associated with DKD incidence in hospitalized male patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Abstract Background The benefit of remote ischemia preconditioning (RIPreC) in pediatric cardiac surgery is unclear. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the effectiveness of RIPreC in reducing the duration of mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay after pediatric cardiac surgery. Methods We searched PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library from inception to December 31, 2022. Randomized controlled trials comparing RIPreC versus control in children undergoing cardiac surgery were included. The risk of bias of included studies was assessed using the Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) tool. The outcomes of interest were postoperative duration of mechanical ventilation and ICU length of stay. We conducted random-effects meta-analysis to calculate weighted mean difference (WMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for the outcomes of interest. We performed sensitivity analysis to examine the influence of intraoperative propofol use. Results Thirteen trials enrolling 1,352 children were included. Meta-analyses of all trials showed that RIPreC did not reduce postoperative duration of mechanical ventilation (WMD -5.35 h, 95% CI -12.12–1.42) but reduced postoperative ICU length of stay (WMD -11.48 h, 95% CI -20.96– -2.01). When only trials using propofol-free anesthesia were included, both mechanical ventilation duration (WMD -2.16 h, 95% CI -3.87– -0.45) and ICU length of stay (WMD -7.41 h, 95% CI -14.77– -0.05) were reduced by RIPreC. The overall quality of evidence was moderate to low. Conclusions The effects of RIPreC on clinical outcomes after pediatric cardiac surgery were inconsistent, but both postoperative mechanical ventilation duration and ICU length of stay were reduced in the subgroup of children not exposed to propofol. These results suggested a possible interaction effect of propofol. More studies with adequate sample size and without intraoperative propofol use are needed to define the role of RIPreC in pediatric cardiac surgery.

Cellulose-based porous materials with a three-dimensional network skeleton and sound-absorbing properties prepared by foam forming were successfully made in this study. A refitted empirical model based on the Delany-Bazley model had been developed to predict the sound absorption coefficient of cellulose-based porous materials. The parameters of the model had been adjusted to best fit the values of flow resistance rate and sound absorption coefficient measured by the double-thickness method. The results showed that the average error of the fitted model between 200 and 6300 Hz was only 3.2%, indicating that the new model could predict the basic acoustic properties of cellulose-based porous materials with a measured flow resistance rate.

In this paper, we present a new method to construct new classes of distortion functions. A distortion function maps the unit interval to the unit interval and has the characteristics of a cumulative distribution function. The method is based on the transformation of an existing non-negative random variable whose distribution function, named the generating distribution, may contain more than one parameter. The coherency of the resulting risk measures is ensured by restricting the parameter space on which the distortion function is concave. We studied cases when the generating distributions are exponentiated exponential and Gompertz distributions. Closed-form expressions for risk measures were derived for uniform, exponential, and Lomax losses. Numerical and graphical results are presented to examine the effects of the parameter values on the risk measures. We then propose a simple plug-in estimate of risk measures and conduct simulation studies to compare and demonstrate the performance of the proposed estimates. The plug-in estimates appear to perform slightly better than the well-known L-estimates, but also suffer from biases when applied to heavy-tailed losses.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has caused more than 532 million infections and 6.3 million deaths to date. The reactive and neutralizing fully human antibodies of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are effective detection tools and therapeutic measures. During SARS-CoV-2 infection, a large number of SARS-CoV-2 reactive and neutralizing antibodies will be produced. Most SARS-CoV-2 reactive and neutralizing fully human antibodies are isolated from human and frequently encoded by convergent heavy-chain variable genes. However, SARS-CoV-2 viruses can mutate rapidly during replication and the resistant variants of neutralizing antibodies easily survive and evade the immune response, especially in the face of such focused antibody responses in humans. Therefore, additional tools are needed to develop different kinds of fully human antibodies to compensate for current deficiency. In this study, we utilized antibody humanized CAMouseHG mice to develop a rapid antibody discovery method and examine the antibody repertoire of SARS-CoV-2 RBD-reactive hybridoma cells derived from CAMouseHG mice by using high-throughput single-cell V(D)J sequencing analysis. CAMouseHG mice were immunized by 28-day rapid immunization method. After electrofusion and semi-solid medium screening on day 12 post-electrofusion, 171 hybridoma clones were generated based on the results of SARS-CoV-2 RBD binding activity assay. A rather obvious preferential usage of IGHV6-1 family was found in these hybridoma clones derived from CAMouseHG mice, which was significantly different from the antibodies found in patients with COVID-19. After further virus neutralization screening and antibody competition assays, we generated a noncompeting two-antibody cocktail, which showed a potent prophylactic protective efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 in cynomolgus macaques. These results indicate that humanized CAMouseHG mice not only provide a valuable platform to obtain fully human reactive and neutralizing antibodies but also have a different antibody repertoire from humans. Thus, humanized CAMouseHG mice can be used as a good complementary tool in discovery of fully human therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies.

The direction of human gaze is an important indicator of human behavior, reflecting the level of attention and cognitive state towards various visual stimuli in the environment. Convolutional neural networks have achieved good performance in gaze estimation tasks, but their global modeling capability is limited, making it difficult to further improve prediction performance. In recent years, transformer models have been introduced for gaze estimation and have achieved state-of-the-art performance. However, their slicing-and-mapping mechanism for processing local image patches can compromise local spatial information. Moreover, the single down-sampling rate and fixed-size tokens are not suitable for multiscale feature learning in gaze estimation tasks. To overcome these limitations, this study introduces a Swin Transformer for gaze estimation and designs two network architectures: a pure Swin Transformer gaze estimation model (SwinT-GE) and a hybrid gaze estimation model that combines convolutional structures with SwinT-GE (Res-Swin-GE). SwinT-GE uses the tiny version of the Swin Transformer for gaze estimation. Res-Swin-GE replaces the slicing-and-mapping mechanism of SwinT-GE with convolutional structures. Experimental results demonstrate that Res-Swin-GE significantly outperforms SwinT-GE, exhibiting strong competitiveness on the MpiiFaceGaze dataset and achieving a 7.5% performance improvement over existing state-of-the-art methods on the Eyediap dataset.

Intraocular lens (IOL) is widely used for cataract treatment. Its optical properties are crucial to obtain a good treatment efficacy and thus need to be evaluated and controlled. In this study, we propose a novel method based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) for noncontact and accurate in vitro measurement of thickness, refractive index and dioptric power of IOL implants. The OCT setup is specially designed to create two sampling optics, called dual-side view OCT (DSV-OCT), which allows for imaging IOL from the two opposite sides simultaneously in single OCT volume scanning. This can produce a three-dimensional surface contour without suffering image distortions due to the refraction of the curved surface. Then, the thickness and surface curvature can be easily computed from the surface contours. In addition, DSV-OCT is able to measure the refractive index. Three IOLs with different dioptric powers (5D, 20D and 28D) were chosen to evaluate this method. The results show that this method is capable to provide a comprehensive and accurate evaluation of IOLs from the aspects of thickness, refractive index and dioptric power, and hence can be potentially used as a quality assurance tool by IOL manufacturers.

Background and PurposeThe diagnosis of multiple system atrophy (MSA) remains challenging in clinical practice. This study investigated the value of hypointense signals in the putamen (“black straight-line sign”) in diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of brain MRI for distinguishing (MSA) from Parkinson's disease (PD).MethodsWe retrospectively enrolled 30 MSA patients, 30 PD patients, and 30 healthy controls who had undergone brain MRI between 2016 and 2020. Two readers independently assessed the signal intensity of the bilateral putamen on DWI. The putaminal hypointensity was scored using 4-point visual scales. Putaminal hypointensity and the presence of a “black straight-line sign” were statistically compared between MSA and PD or healthy controls.ResultsThe mean scores of putaminal hypointensity in DWI in the MSA group were significantly higher than in both the PD (U = 315.5, P = 0.034) and healthy control groups (U = 304.0, P = 0.022). Uni- or bilateral putaminal hypointensity in DWI with a score ≥2 was identified in 53.3% (16/30), 16.7% (5/30), and 13.3% (4/30) of MSA, PD, and healthy controls, respectively, with significant differences between MSA and PD (X2 = 8.864, P = 0.003) or healthy controls (X2 = 10.800, P = 0.001). Notably, the “black straight-line sign” of the putamen was observed in 16/30 (sensitivity 53.3%) patients with MSA, while it was absent in PD and healthy controls (specificity 100%). There were no significant differences for the presence of “black straight-line sign” in the MSA-P and MSA-C groups (X2 = 0.433, P = 0.510).ConclusionThe “black straight-line sign” of the putamen in DWI of head MRIs has the potential to serve as a diagnostic marker for distinguishing MSA from PD.

Osteoporosis is characterized by decreased bone mass and degenerating bone structure, which cause severe bone fragility and increase the risk for fractures. Human bone mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) differentiate into osteoblasts through osteogenesis, and disturbances in the balance between bone generation and degeneration underlie the pathogenesis of senile osteoporosis. The highly conserved glycoprotein Ribophorin II (RPN2) is involved in multiple biological reactions, but the role of RPN2 in the osteogenic differentiation of hBMSCs and their molecular etiology is incompletely understood. Here, we show that RPN2 expression is up‐regulated in hBMSCs during osteogenic differentiation. In vitro assays revealed that silencing of RPN2 inhibited hBMSC differentiation into osteoblasts. Moreover, RPN2 overexpression enhanced the expression of linked genes and resulted in high alkaline phosphatase activity. Our results suggest that RPN2 targets Janus kinase 1 (JAK1), and RPN2 overexpression was observed to induce JAK1 ubiquitination. Depletion of JAK1 facilitated osteogenic differentiation of RPN2‐silenced hBMSCs. Moreover, western blot analysis revealed that RPN2 silencing suppressed the stimulation and nuclear translocation of the downstream signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 sensor; this could be reversed via RPN2 overexpression. This research sheds light on an innovative molecular mechanism that is associated with hBMSC differentiation into osteoblasts and may facilitate bone anabolism through RPN2.

The thermal conductivity (TC) of graphene with Sierpinski carpet fractal (SCF) and regular carpet (RC) defects is numerically studied by the non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) method. The influences of porosity, fractal levels, and types of defects on the TC of graphene are clarified, and the underlying mechanisms of phonon behaviors are uncovered. The numerical results indicate that the defects in graphene induce the atoms that have the heat transfer blockage effect, and thus, the TC of defective graphene decreases with increasing porosity. With the increase in fractal levels, more atoms have the heat transfer blockage effect, which induces the TC of graphene with SCF defects to sharply decrease. Moreover, compared with the graphene with RC defects, more atoms participate in the heat transfer blockage under the graphene with SCF defects, which leads to the lower TC of graphene with SCF defects.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an emergent coronavirus that has caused frequent zoonotic events through camel-to-human spillover. An effective camelid vaccination strategy is probably the best way to reduce human exposure risk. Here, we constructed and evaluated an inactivated rabies virus-vectored MERS-CoV vaccine in mice, camels, and alpacas. Potent antigen-specific antibody and CD8+ T-cell responses were generated in mice; moreover, the vaccination reduced viral replication and accelerated virus clearance in MERS-CoV-infected mice. Besides, protective antibody responses against both MERS-CoV and rabies virus were induced in camels and alpacas. Satisfyingly, the immune sera showed broad cross-neutralizing activity against the three main MERS-CoV clades. For further characterization of the antibody response induced in camelids, MERS-CoV-specific variable domains of heavy-chain-only antibody (VHHs) were isolated from immunized alpacas and showed potent prophylactic and therapeutic efficacies in the Ad5-hDPP4-transduced mouse model. These results highlight the inactivated rabies virus-vectored MERS-CoV vaccine as a promising camelid candidate vaccine.

Gaze behavior is important and non-invasive human–computer interaction information that plays an important role in many fields—including skills transfer, psychology, and human–computer interaction. Recently, improving the performance of appearance-based gaze estimation, using deep learning techniques, has attracted increasing attention: however, several key problems in these deep-learning-based gaze estimation methods remain. Firstly, the feature fusion stage is not fully considered: existing methods simply concatenate the different obtained features into one feature, without considering their internal relationship. Secondly, dynamic features can be difficult to learn, because of the unstable extraction process of ambiguously defined dynamic features. In this study, we propose a novel method to consider feature fusion and dynamic feature extraction problems. We propose the static transformer module (STM), which uses a multi-head self-attention mechanism to fuse fine-grained eye features and coarse-grained facial features. Additionally, we propose an innovative recurrent neural network (RNN) cell—that is, the temporal differential module (TDM)—which can be used to extract dynamic features. We integrated the STM and the TDM into the static transformer with a temporal differential network (STTDN). We evaluated the STTDN performance, using two publicly available datasets (MPIIFaceGaze and Eyediap), and demonstrated the effectiveness of the STM and the TDM. Our results show that the proposed STTDN outperformed state-of-the-art methods, including that of Eyediap (by 2.9%).

Summary: The large-scale application of economically efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is limited in view of the high cost of polymer binders (Nafion) for immobilizing of powder catalysts. In this work, nitrogen-doped molybdenum carbide nanobelts (N-Mo2C NBs) with porous structure are synthesized through a direct pyrolysis process using the pre-prepared molybdenum oxide nanobelts (MoO3 NBs). Nanocellulose instead of Nafion-bonded N-Mo2C NBs (N-Mo2C@NCs) exhibits superior performance toward HER, because of excellent dispersibility and multiple exposed catalytically active sites. Furthermore, the conductive film composed of N-Mo2C NBs, graphene nanosheets, and nanocellulose (N-Mo2C/G@NCs) is fabricated by simple vacuum filtration, as flexible and editable electrode, which possesses excellent performance for scale HER applications. This work not only proposes the potential of nanocellulose to replace Nafion for binding powder catalysts, but also offers a facile strategy to prepare flexible and conductive films for a wide variety of nanomaterials. : Catalysis; Electrochemical Energy Conversion; Nanomaterials Subject Areas: Catalysis, Electrochemical Energy Conversion, Nanomaterials

A non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation method is conducted to study the thermal conductivity (TC) of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) with different types of defects. The impacts of defect position, porosity, temperature, and length on the TC of SiNWs are analyzed. The numerical results indicate that SiNWs with surface defects have higher TC than SiNWs with inner defects, the TC of SiNWs gradually decreases with the increase of porosity and temperature, and the impact of temperature on the TC of SiNWs with defects is weaker than the impact on the TC of SiNWs with no defects. The TC of SiNWs increases as their length increases. SiNWs with no defects have the highest corresponding frequency of low-frequency peaks of phonon density of states; however, when SiNWs have inner defects, the lowest frequency is observed. Under the same porosity, the average phonon participation of SiNWs with surface defects is higher than that of SiNWs with inner defects.

Aerogels have great potential in oil absorption applications; however, many reported aerogels have the drawbacks of a low oil-recovery rate and poor mechanical properties, which limit their application. In this study, highly reusable graphene oxide (GO)/TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofiber (TOCN)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) aerogels with excellent mechanical properties and with an architecture similar to that of Thalia dealbata stems were fabricated through a three-step process of bidirectional-freezing, freeze-drying, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) modification. After CVD modification, the modified GTPA (MGTPA) accorded hydrophobicity. The synergistic effects of the three components and the unique biomimetic structure conferred biomimetic-MGTPA (b-MGTPA) with excellent compressible properties. As an adsorbent, b-MGTPA showed a high adsorption capacity (75–151 g/g) for various types of organic solvents. In addition, its high compressibility enables b-MGTPA to have fast and highly efficient recovery of absorbed oil through simple mechanical squeezing and it possesses excellent reusable stability (the oil recovery rate and oil retention rate reached 80% and 91.5%, respectively, after 10 repeated absorption–compression cycles).

Purpose Recent studies have determined that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are potential prognostic biomarkers for non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). The purpose of this study was to analyze the function and associated pathways of zinc finger protein multitype 2 antisense RNA 1 (ZFPM2-AS1) in NSCLC cells. Methods We used qRT-PCR to analyze ZFPM2-AS1’s transcription level. Its proliferation, migration, and invasion capacities were determined using MTT, colony forming, wound healing, and transwell assays. We additionally analyzed the correlation between ZFPM2 and immune infiltration using the Tumor Immune Estimation Resource (TIMER) database, and the protein expression levels using Western blots. Results We found that ZFPM2-AS1 expression in NSCLC specimens and cell lines was elevated compared to the control group. ZFPM2-AS1 is an oncogene and independent prognostic predictor of poor survival in NSCLCs, and its expression had a positive correlation with tumor size and lymph node metastasis in our clinical data. MTT, colony forming, wound healing, and transwell assays showed a positive correlation between ZFPM2-AS1 expression and the proliferation, migration, and invasion of NSCLC cells in the presence and absence of interferon- (IFN-γ). Using the TIMER database, we hypothesized that ZFPM2 was negatively correlated with ZFPM2-AS1 expression, as well as the immune infiltration levels in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Finally, we found that ZFPM2-AS1 negatively regulated ZFPM2 expression, and had a positive correlation with PD-L1 expression through the JAK-STAT and AKT pathways. Conclusion Our study confirmed that ZFPM2-AS1 promotes the proliferation, migration, and invasion of NSCLC cells via the JAK-STAT and AKT pathways. Further research on the ZFPM2-AS1 pathway regulation mechanism is needed.

Rechargeable magnesium batteries suffer from slow solid-state Mg2+diffusion in the intercalation cathode. Here the authors show magnesium/iodine chemistry in which the liquid–solid two-phase reaction leads to increased rate capabilities by overcoming the sluggish kinetics.

Background Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a major subtype of lung cancer with high malignancy and bad prognosis, consisted of lung adenocarcinomas (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinomas (LUSC) chiefly. Multiple studies have indicated that competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network centered long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) can regulate gene expression and the progression of various cancers. However, the research about lncRNAs-mediated ceRNA network in LUAD is still lacking. Methods In this study, we analyzed the RNA-seq database from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and obtained dysregulated lncRNAs in NSCLC, then further identified survival associated lncRNAs through Kaplan–Meier analysis. Quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to confirm their expression in LUAD tissues and cell lines. The ceRNA networks were constructed based on DIANA-TarBase and TargetScan databases and visualized with OmicShare tools. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were performed to investigate the potential function of ceRNA networks. Results In total, 1,437 and 1,699 lncRNAs were found to be up-regulated in LUAD and LUSC respectively with 895 lncRNAs overlapping (|log2FC| > 3, adjusted P value 3, adjusted P value < 0.02). We selected 3 lncRNAs (CASC8, LINC01842 and VPS9D1-AS1) out of these 18 lncRNAs and confirmed their overexpression in lung cancer tissues and cells. CeRNA networks were further constructed centered CASC8, LINC01842 and VPS9D1-AS1 with 3 miRNAs and 100 mRNAs included respectively. Conclusion Through comprehensively analyses of TCGA, our study identified specific lncRNAs as candidate diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for LUAD. The novel ceRNA network we created provided more insights into the regulatory mechanisms underlying LUAD.

Objective To develop a bioluminescence-labelled bacterial infection model to monitor the colonization and clearance process of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in the lungs of mice following influenza A virus/Puerto Rico/8/34 (H1N1) strain (IAV/PR8) infection. Methods BALB/c mice were administered IAV/PR8 or 0.01 M phosphate-buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.4) intranasally 4 days prior to intranasal administration of 1 × 10 7 colony-forming units (CFU) of E. coli O157:H7-lux. Whole-body bioluminescent signals were monitored at 10 min, 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, 16 h and 24 h post-bacterial infection. Lung bioluminescent signals and bacterial load (CFU/g) were monitored at 4 h, 8 h, 12 h, 16 h and 24 h post-bacterial infection. Results Prior IAV/PR8 infection of mice resulted in a higher level of bacterial colonization and a lower rate of bacterial clearance from the lungs compared with mice treated with PBS. There were also consistent findings between the bioluminescence imaging and the CFU measurements in terms of identifying bacterial colonization and monitoring the clearance dynamics of E. coli O157:H7-lux in mouse lungs. Conclusion This novel bioluminescence-labelled bacterial infection model rapidly detected bacterial colonization of the lungs and monitored the clearance dynamics of E. coli O157:H7-lux following IAV/PR8 infection.

A fluorinated poly-acrylate emulsion with various fluorine contents was prepared by a seeded semi-continuous emulsion polymerization method and applied to filter paper for oil-water separation applications. The effects of surface wetting behavior on the oil-water separation efficiency of the prepared filter paper were studied. The results show that the prepared highly hydrophobic and superoleophilic filter paper presented 94.45 wt% water separation efficiency and strong mechanical strength. In addition, the oil-water separation stability and durability of the filter paper were also tested and shown to be suitable for use in real oil-water separation applications. These properties indicate that the filter paper has great potential applications in the oil-water separation industry.

Mercerized pulp is widely used in the filter paper industry. But the major challenge facing users of the pulp is its difficult dispersion in water. It was found that by applying a suitable degree of beating it was possible to achieve better dispersion than the original pulp. The beating degree before and after beating was almost the same. But the properties of filter paper were greatly improved after beating, especially for the formation index and burst index. The morphology of beaten fibers was analyzed by SEM with both the freeze-drying and air drying sample preparation process. The results showed that the primary cell wall of the beaten mercerized pulp fibers were swollen and partly peeled from the fiber main body after beating, as revealed by micrographs obtained after freeze-drying. The results suggest that the improvement of the fiber dispersion in water was caused by these changes on the fiber surface.

The aim of this study is not only to investigate the feasibility of using PAH (polyallylamine hydrochloride) and PSS (poly styrene-4-sulfonic acid sodium salt) to prepare a film via a layer by layer self-assembly process entrained with silver nanoparticles, but also to show that the silver nanoparticles crystalline structure can be defined and deposited on the surface of the substrate in the desired alignment structure and manner, which is of great help to research on the LBL method in the cellulose field. The effect of outermost layer variation, assembly layers, and composition of multilayers on the formation of the LBL structure on a nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) substrate was investigated. The deposition of PAH and PSS was monitored by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The morphology of the LBL film layers was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). Furthermore, thermal degradation properties were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and physical properties of multilayer films were tested by a universal mechanical tester. The results reveal that PAH and PSS can be readily deposited on a NFC/PVA substrate by using LBL methodology to prepare self-assembled polyelectrolyte multilayer films. The surface morphology of the LBL composite changed from negative to positive charged depending on the final LBL treatment. Also, according to SEM and AFM analysis, silver nanoparticles were well dispersed in the (PAH/PSS) film, which significantly improved the thermal stability of the composite films.

Steam explosion pulping was evaluated for oil palm empty fruit bunches fiber. The fiber morphology was observed by SEM and TEM. Results indicated that lignin was molten and the cell wall damaged after the steam explosion pulping and that the fiber was partly separated at the same time. The results of handsheet tests showed that the steam exploded pulp had a high yield (78.2%), good physical properties (especially for ring crush 8.6 N•m/g), and low effluent load (SS=910 mg/L; BOD5=3952 mg/L; CODCr=8140 mg/L). The SEP pulp from oil palm EFB fiber was very suitable for packaging paper when combined with American OCC pulp.

A new surface modification method fibrillation combined with oxygen plasma treatment to improve the wettability and hydrophily of PBO fiber was studied in this paper. The surface chemical structure and morphology of PBO fiber were characterized by the methods of FTIR, XPS and SEM. The wettability and hydrophlic characters changes on the surface were evaluated by the dynamic contact angle system and image analysis. The results show that the increase surface roughness by fibrillation could improve the wettability. Fibrillation combined oxygen plasma treatment has a better effect than oxygen plasma treatment to improve the wettability and hdyrophlization of PBO fiber. The specific area of PBO fiber increased to 10.7 m2/g from 0.7 m2/g, contact angle decreased to 43.2° from 84.4° and WRV increased to 208.4% from 13.7%. The modified fibers have a good dispersion in water for hydrophilization improvement.

The OQP, OQPO, and OLQP bleaching sequences have been applied to oil palm frond soda-anthraquinone pulp. Oxygen delignification resulted in a delignification of approximately half of the kappa number. In comparison between OQP and OQPO sequences, the OQPO sequence was able to improve brightness from 75.2% ISO to 82.3% ISO. A TCF bleaching sequence involving laccase was also suitable for the frond pulp bleaching. Results indicated that laccase has a good bleaching capability. Short beating in a PFI refiner (about PFI 2000 revolutions) was sufficient to attain good pulp strength of TCF bleached pulp. There was no total organically bound chlorine in the TCF bleaching effluent. The results of this study show that soda-anthraquinone pulping and TCF bleaching is a promising alternative to produce high-quality pulp from oil palm frond for writing and printing paper.

To improve the interfacial bonding of sisal fiber-reinforced polylactide biocomposites, polylactide (PLA) and sisal fibers (SF) were melt-blended to fabricate bio-based composites via in situ reactive interfacial compatibilization with addition of a commercial grade epoxy-functionalized oligomer Joncryl ADR@-4368 (ADR). The FTIR (Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy) analysis and SEM (scanning electron microscope) characterization demonstrated that the PLA molecular chain was bonded to the fiber surface and the epoxy-functionalized oligomer played a hinge-like role between the sisal fibers and the PLA matrix, which resulted in improved interfacial adhesion between the fibers and the PLA matrix. The interfacial reaction and microstructures of composites were further investigated by thermal and rheological analyses, which indicated that the mobility of the PLA molecular chain in composites was restricted because of the introduction of the ADR oligomer, which in turn reflected the improved interfacial interaction between SF and the PLA matrix. These results were further justified with the calculation of activation energies of glass transition relaxation (∆Ea) by dynamic mechanical analysis. The mechanical properties of PLA/SF composites were simultaneously reinforced and toughened with the addition of ADR oligomer. The interfacial interaction and structure–properties relationship of the composites are the key points of this study.

Optimizing the desired properties for stretch monolayer separators used in Lithium-ion batteries has been a challenge. In the present study a cellulose nanofiber/PET nonwoven composite separator is successfully fabricated, using a wet-laid nonwoven (papermaking) process, which can attain optimal properties in wettability, mechanical strength, thermal resistance, and electrochemical performance simultaneously. The PET nonwoven material, which is fabricated from ultrafine PET fibers by a wet-laid process, is a mechanical support layer. The porous structure of the composite separator was created by cellulose nanofibers coating the PET in a papermaking process. Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs), which are an eco-friendly sustainable resource, have been drawing considerable attention due to their astounding properties, such as: incredible specific surface area, thermal and chemical stability, high mechanical strength and hydrophilicity. The results show that the CNF separator exhibits higher porosity (70%) than a PP (polypropylene) separator (40%). The CNF separator can also be wetted by electrolyte in a few seconds while a PP separator cannot be entirely wetted after 1 min. The CNF separator has an electrolyte uptake of 250%, while a PP separator has only 65%. Another notable finding is that the CNF separator has almost no shrinkage when exposed to 180 °C for 1 h, whereas a PP separator shrinks by more than 50%. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) shows that the CNF separator has a higher melting point than a PP separator. These findings all indicate that the CNF 29 separator will be more favorable than stretch film for use in Lithium-ion batteries.

Improving yield is a major objective for cotton breeding schemes, and lint yield and its three component traits (boll number, boll weight and lint percentage) are complex traits controlled by multiple genes and various environments. Association mapping was performed to detect markers associated with these four traits using 651 simple sequence repeats (SSRs). A mixed linear model including epistasis and environmental interaction was used to screen the loci associated with these four yield traits by 323 accessions of Gossypium hirsutum L. evaluated in nine different environments. 251 significant loci were detected to be associated with lint yield and its three components, including 69 loci with individual effects and all involved in epistasis interactions. These significant loci explain ∼ 62.05% of the phenotypic variance (ranging from 49.06% ∼ 72.29% for these four traits). It was indicated by high contribution of environmental interaction to the phenotypic variance for lint yield and boll numbers, that genetic effects of SSR loci were susceptible to environment factors. Shared loci were also observed among these four traits, which may be used for simultaneous improvement in cotton breeding for yield traits. Furthermore, consistent and elite loci were screened with -Log10 (P-value) >8.0 based on predicted effects of loci detected in different environments. There was one locus and 6 pairs of epistasis for lint yield, 4 loci and 10 epistasis for boll number, 15 loci and 2 epistasis for boll weight, and 2 loci and 5 epistasis for lint percentage, respectively. These results provided insights into the genetic basis of lint yield and its components and may be useful for marker-assisted breeding to improve cotton production.

Vehicle surveillance of a wide area allows us to learn much about the daily activities and traffic information. With the rapid development of remote sensing, satellite video has become an important data source for vehicle detection, which provides a broader field of surveillance. The achieved work generally focuses on aerial video with moderately-sized objects based on feature extraction. However, the moving vehicles in satellite video imagery range from just a few pixels to dozens of pixels and exhibit low contrast with respect to the background, which makes it hard to get available appearance or shape information. In this paper, we look into the problem of moving vehicle detection in satellite imagery. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time to deal with moving vehicle detection from satellite videos. Our approach consists of two stages: first, through foreground motion segmentation and trajectory accumulation, the scene motion heat map is dynamically built. Following this, a novel saliency based background model which intensifies moving objects is presented to segment the vehicles in the hot regions. Qualitative and quantitative experiments on sequence from a recent Skybox satellite video dataset demonstrates that our approach achieves a high detection rate and low false alarm simultaneously.