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Foodborne pathogenic infection has brought multifaceted issues to human life, leading to an urgent demand for advanced detection technologies. CRISPR/Cas-based biosensors have the potential to address various challenges that exist in conventional assays such as insensitivity, long turnaround time and complex pretreatments. In this perspective, we review the relevant strategies of CRISPR/Cas-assisted diagnostics on foodborne pathogens, focusing on biosensing platforms for foodborne pathogens based on fluorescence, colorimetric, (electro)chemiluminescence, electrochemical, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection. It summarizes their detection principles by the clarification of foodborne pathogenic bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Finally, we discuss the current challenges or technical barriers of these methods against broad application, and put forward alternative solutions to improve CRISPR/Cas potential for food safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robustness is one of the most critical characteristics of complex networks, determining their stability and resilience in the face of various disturbances. With the research on complex networks, people have observed that higher-order networks can also affect the structure and function of the network. Therefore, when studying network robustness, we also need to consider the interaction between higher-order networks and low-order networks. To delve deeper into the investigation and comprehension of robustness in complex networks, this paper introduces a model of higher-low order networks with adjustable coupling strength. In this model, network nodes are categorized into autonomous and nonautonomous nodes, with coupling strength adjusted using three methods: random coupling, degree-related coupling, and local coupling. Validation is performed on ER networks, BA networks, SW networks, as well as several real-world networks. The results indicate that as coupling strength increases, network robustness correspondingly diminishes, and the network exhibits intricate percolation behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, band structure calculations of two dimensional (2D) anisotropic photonic-crystal fibers (PhCFs) are considered. In 2D PhCFs, Maxwell's equations for the transversal electric and magnetic mode become decoupled, but the difficulty, arising from the anisotropic permittivity ε and/or permeability μ , plaguing the frequency-domain finite difference method, especially the original Yee's scheme, is our top concern. To resolve this difficulty, we re-establish the connection between the lowest order finite element method with the quasi-periodic condition and Yee's scheme using 2D non-orthogonal mesh, whereby the decoupled Maxwell's equations in 2D anisotropic PhCFs are readily discretized into a generalized eigenvalue problem (GEP). Moreover, we spell out the nullspace of the resulting GEP, if it exists, and explicitly construct the Moore–Penrose pseudoinverse of the singular coefficient matrix, whose smallest positive eigenvalues can be solved by the inverse Lanczos method. Extensive band structures of 2D PhCFs are calculated and benchmarked against reliable results to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stimulus size modulation of neuronal firing activity is a fundamental property of the primary visual cortex. Numerous biological experiments have shown that stimulus size modulation is affected by multiple factors at different spatiotemporal scales, but the exact pathways and mechanisms remain incompletely understood. In this paper, we establish a large‐scale neuronal network model of primary visual cortex with layer 2/3 to study how gamma oscillation properties are modulated by stimulus size and especially how long‐range connections affect the modulation as realistic neuronal properties and spatial distributions of synaptic connections are considered. It is shown that long‐range horizontal synaptic connections are sufficient to produce dimensional modulation of firing rates and gamma oscillations. In particular, with increasing grating stimulus size, the firing rate increases and then decreases, the peak frequency of gamma oscillations decreases and the spectral power increases. These are consistent with biological experimental observations. Furthermore, we explain in detail how the number and spatial distribution of long‐range connections affect the size modulation of gamma oscillations by using the analysis of neuronal firing activity and synaptic current fluctuations. Our results provide a mechanism explanation for size modulation of gamma oscillations in the primary visual cortex and reveal the important and unique role played by long‐range connections, which contributes to a deeper understanding of the cognitive function of gamma oscillations in visual cortex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of Cr alloying on phase stability, magnetism, and electronic structures in both body‐centered cubic (bcc) and face‐centered cubic (fcc) phases and on the transformation from fcc to bcc are studied by first‐principles calculations. Results show that the doped Cr atoms in fcc and bcc phases choose distinct occupation models. This phenomenon can be understood from the amount of electron density of states close to Fermi energy. For magnetism, Cr tends to be antiferromagnetically coupled with the surrounding Fe in the studied phases. The magnetic moment of Fe is greater than that of Cr in bcc, but the order is reversed in fcc. The moment of Fe is dictated by the distance between it and the doped Cr in bcc, whereas it is dominated by spatial orientation with Cr in fcc. For phase stability, it is found that the alloying of Cr prefers destabilizing bcc while tends to stabilize fcc, leading to a strong inhibition of phase transition from fcc to bcc. Notably, the role in the fcc phase is more prominent than that in bcc, which can be associated with the antiferromagnetism between Fe and Cr in fcc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Noninvasive quantifying activated hepatic stellate cells (aHSCs) by molecular imaging is helpful for assessing disease progression and therapeutic responses of liver fibrosis. Our purpose is to develop platelet-derived growth factor receptor β (PDGFRβ)-targeted radioactive tracer for assessing liver fibrosis by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of aHSCs. Methods: Comparative transcriptomics, immunofluorescence staining and flow cytometry were used to evaluate PDGFRβ as biomarker for human aHSCs and determine the correlation of PDGFRβ with the severity of liver fibrosis. The high affinity affibody for PDGFRβ (ZPDGFRβ) was labeled with gallium-68 (68Ga) for PET imaging of mice with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver fibrosis. Binding of the [68Ga]Ga-labeled ZPDGFRβ ([68Ga]Ga-DOTA-ZPDGFRβ) for aHSCs in human liver tissues was measured by autoradiography. Results: PDGFRβ overexpressed in aHSCs was highly correlated with the severity of liver fibrosis in patients and CCl4-treated mice. The 68Ga-labeled ZPDGFRβ affibody ([68Ga]Ga-DOTA-ZPDGFRβ) showed PDGFRβ-dependent binding to aHSCs. According to the PET imaging, hepatic uptake of [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-ZPDGFRβ increased with the accumulation of aHSCs and collagens in the fibrotic livers of mice. In contrast, hepatic uptake of [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-ZPDGFRβ decreased with spontaneous recovery or treatment of liver fibrosis, indicating that the progression and therapeutic responses of liver fibrosis in mice could be visualized by PDGFRβ-targeted PET imaging. [68Ga]Ga-DOTA-ZPDGFRβ also bound human aHSCs and visualized fibrosis in patient-derived liver tissues. Conclusions: PDGFRβ is a reliable biomarker for both human and mouse aHSCs. PDGFRβ-targeted PET imaging could be used for noninvasive monitoring of liver fibrosis in mice and has great potential for clinical translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While understanding the competitive adsorption behavior of gas sensor is important, it is yet to be unraveled. Especially for the influence of water molecules to the gas adsorbed on 2D materials. This study explores the potential of layered 2D materials as a candidate material for gas sensing, employing non‐destructive measurement, and second harmonic generation (SHG). The investigation focuses on analyzing oxygen, ammonia, and water vapor adsorbed on a WS2 surface by studying the evolutions in electric dipole and electric field. Leveraging the simplified bond hyperpolarizability model (SBHM), a foundation is established for gas sensors utilizing high‐quality 2D materials. This approach facilitates the detection of material modifications in response to environmental influences, including the inevitable water molecules. The obtained hyperpolarizability from SBHM exhibits remarkable consistency with Langmuir's adsorption model, confirming the physical adsorption in the system. In addition, the competitive effects between gases are explored by comparing experimental results with theoretical predictions based on Boltzmann distribution and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This highlights the effectiveness of SHG and SBHM in studying gas adsorption on layered van der Waals materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microglia are endogenous immune cells in the brain, and their pyroptosis and phenotype dichotomy are proved to play roles in neurodegenerative diseases. We investigated whether and how hypoxia affected pyroptosis and phenotype polarization in mouse microglia. Primary mouse microglia and BV2 microglia were exposed to hypoxia. Pyroptosis and M1/M2 phenotype were assessed by measuring gasdermin D truncation and M1/M2 surface marker expression. Mechanisms including purinergic ionotropic receptor (P2XR), peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor coactivator‐1α (PGC‐1α) and NOD‐like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome were investigated. We reported hypoxia (90% N2, 5% O2 and 5% CO2) induced pyroptosis and promoted M1 phenotype polarization in primary mouse microglia and BV2 microglia, and the effect appeared after 6 h exposure. Although hypoxia (90% N2, 5% O2 and 5% CO2, 6 h) had no effect on P2X1R and P2X7R expression, it increased P2X4R expression and decreased PGC‐1α expression. Interestingly, blockade of P2X4R or P2X7R abolished hypoxia‐modulated PGC‐1α expression, pyroptosis and M1 polarization. PGC‐1α overexpression or overactivation alleviated hypoxia‐induced pyroptosis and M1 polarization, while PGC‐1α knockdown or deactivation promoted pyroptosis and M1 polarization under normoxic situation. Further, hypoxia induced NLRP3 expression and activated caspase‐1 and induced the phosphorylation of NF‐κB and reduced the phosphorylation of STAT3/6. NLRP3 inhibitor and caspase‐1 inhibitor abolished hypoxia‐induced pyroptosis, while NF‐κB inhibitor and STAT phosphorylation inducer ameliorated hypoxia‐induced M1 polarization. In addition, NF‐κB activator and STAT3/6 inhibitor caused microglia M1 polarization under normoxic situation. We concluded in cultured mouse microglia, hypoxia may induce pyroptosis via P2XR/PGC‐1α/NLRP3/caspase‐1 pathway and trigger M1 polarization through P2XR/PGC‐1α/NF‐κB/STAT3/6 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Known for anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant properties, flavonoid has phytoestrogenic effects, but it is unclear whether its role in hyperuricemia and metabolic syndrome (MetS) differs by gender. Moreover, given the strong association between hyperuricemia and MetS, we aimed to explore whether flavonoid is a protective factor for hyperuricemia, independently of MetS, in different genders. Methods: Data for 2007–2010 and 2017–2018 were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS). To assess the association among flavonoid, hyperuricemia, and MetS, multivariate logistic regression and subgroup analyses were conducted. Besides, to investigate whether the association between flavonoid and hyperuricemia was independent of MetS, multivariate logistic regression models were further conducted to explore the association between flavonoid and MetS among females with hyperuricemia and to investigate the association between flavonoid and hyperuricemia among females after excluding MetS. Result: Among 5356 females, anthocyanin intake was inversely associated with the prevalence of hyperuricemia (Q4 vs. Q1: OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.76), and MetS (Q4 vs. Q1: OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.93). Furthermore, subgroup analyses showed the beneficial association between anthocyanin and hyperuricemia among females aged 40 to 59 years and menopausal. However, among 5104 males, no significant association was observed after adjustment for covariates (Q4 vs. Q1: OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.18). While in 372 females with hyperuricemia, no significant association was found between MetS and anthocyanin (Q4 vs. Q1: OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.31 to 2.49). Meanwhile, among 3335 females after excluding MetS, there was still a significant association between anthocyanin and a lower prevalence of hyperuricemia (Q4 vs. Q1: OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.85). Conclusion: Dietary anthocyanin is associated with a lower prevalence of hyperuricemia independently of MetS among females. Foods rich in anthocyanin should be emphasized for females, especially those aged 40 to 59 years and menopausal, which may be of potential significance in the prevention of hyperuricemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cu collector is modified with Ag and Sn coatings through a simple and efficient substitution reaction. Ag demonstrates higher lithiophilicity compared to Sn, and the gradient modification of the Cu foam enables control over the deposition site of Li metal. This leads to improved space utilization and enhanced C-rate performance of the 3D scaffold. [Display omitted] Metallic lithium (Li) is highly desirable for Li battery anodes due to its unique advantages. However, the growth of Li dendrites poses challenges for commercialization. To address this issue, researchers have proposed various three-dimensional (3D) current collectors. In this study, the selective modification of a 3D Cu foam scaffold with lithiophilic elements was explored to induce controlled Li deposition. The Cu foam was selectively modified with Ag and Sn to create uniform Cu foam (U-Cu) and gradient lithiophilic Cu foam (G-Cu) structures. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations revealed that Ag exhibited a stronger binding energy with Li compared to Sn, indicating superior Li induction capabilities. Electrochemical testing demonstrated that the half cell with the G-Cu@Ag electrode exhibited excellent cycling stability, maintaining 550 cycles with an average Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 97.35%. This performance surpassed that of both Cu foam and G-Cu@Sn. The gradient modification of the current collectors improved the utilization of the 3D scaffold and prevented Li accumulation at the top of the scaffold. Overall, the selective modification of the 3D Cu foam scaffold with lithiophilic elements, particularly Ag, offers promising prospects for mitigating Li dendrite growth and enhancing the performance of Li batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is a valuable pelagic migratory fish with potential for aquaculture. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the biological and physiological characteristics of this species, particularly regarding sex differences in growth performance. The liver, a crucial organ for digestion and metabolism, plays a significant role in regulating fish growth. This study aimed to compare liver enzyme activities and transcriptome profiles between female and male yellowfin tuna to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying difference between the sexes. The results revealed that female yellowfin tuna exhibited higher amylase and lipid metabolism enzyme activities, while male yellowfin tuna showed higher glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and antioxidant enzyme activities. Additionally, through Illumina sequencing technology, the study generated 37.74 Gb of clean data and identified 36,482 unique genes (UniGenes) in the liver transcriptome. A total of 2542 differentially expressed genes were found, with enriched Gene Ontology terms and pathways related to metabolic processes, particularly lipid metabolism and transport. These findings suggest that female yellowfin tuna have superior digestive enzyme activities and lipid metabolism, while male yellowfin tuna excel in sugar metabolism, ATP production, and antioxidant defense. This study provides valuable insights into sex differences in yellowfin tuna and could aid in advancing full-cycle aquaculture practices for this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformer oil, crucial for transformer and power system safety, demands effective monitoring. Aiming to address the problems of expensive and bulky equipment, poor real-time performance, and single parameter detection of traditional measurement methods, this study proposes a quartz tuning fork-based simultaneous measurement system for online monitoring of the density, viscosity, and dielectric constant of transformer oil. Based on the Butterworth–Van Dyke quartz tuning fork equivalent circuit model, a working mechanism of transformer oil density, viscosity, and dielectric constant was analyzed, and a measurement model for oil samples was obtained. A miniaturized simultaneous measurement system was designed based on a dedicated chip for vector current-voltage impedance analysis for data acquisition and a Savitzky–Golay filter for data filtering. A transformer oil test platform was built to verify the simultaneous measurement system. The results showed that the system has good repeatability, and the measurement errors of density, viscosity, and dielectric constant are lower than 2.00%, 5.50%, and 3.20%, respectively. The online and offline results showed that the system meets the requirements of the condition maintenance system for online monitoring accuracy and real-time detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on addressing fairness concerns in recommendation systems by proposing a novel type of fairness, where performance distributions across user groups should be similar. To achieve this, the study introduces a generative and adversarial training framework that ensures equivalent performance distributions across different user groups, aided by a dual curriculum learning strategy to smooth the training process.

In recent years, the rapid development of pig farming has led to a large quantity of heavy metal-polluted wastewater. Thus, it was desirable to develop a simple heavy metal detection method for fast monitoring of the wastewater from the pig farms. Therefore, there was an urgent need to develop a simple method for rapidly detecting heavy metal ions in pig farm wastewater. Herein, a simple electrochemical method for simultaneous detection of Cu2+ and Zn2+ was developed and applied to pig farm wastewater. With a glassy carbon electrode and anodic stripping voltammetry, simultaneous detection of Cu2+ and Zn2+ in water was achieved without the need for complicated electrode modification. Furthermore, it was found that the addition of Cd2+ can enhance the response current of the electrode to Zn2+, which increased the signal by eight times. After systematic optimization, the limit of detection (LOD) of 9.3 μg/L for Cu2+ and 45.3 μg/L for Zn2+ was obtained. Finally, it was successfully applied for the quantification of Cu2+ and Zn2+ with high accuracy in pig farm wastewater. This work provided a new and simple solution for fast monitoring of the wastewater from pig farms and demonstrated the potential of electrochemical measurement for application in modern animal husbandry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cognitive impairment will gradually appear over time in Parkinson's patients, which is closely related to the basal ganglia-cortex network. This network contains two parallel circuits mediated by putamen and caudate nucleus, respectively. Based on the biophysical mean-field model, we construct a dynamic computational model of the parallel circuit in the basal ganglia-cortex network associated with Parkinson's disease dementia. The simulated results show that the decrease of power ratio in the prefrontal cortex is mainly caused by dopamine depletion in the caudate nucleus and is less related to that in the putamen, which indicates Parkinson's disease dementia may be caused by a lesion of the caudate nucleus rather than putamen. Furthermore, the underlying dynamic mechanism behind the decrease of power ratio is investigated by bifurcation analysis, which demonstrates that the decrease of power ratio is due to the change of brain discharge pattern from the limit cycle mode to the point attractor mode. More importantly, the spatiotemporal course of dopamine depletion in Parkinson's disease patients is well simulated, which states that with the loss of dopaminergic neurons projecting to the striatum, motor dysfunction of Parkinson's disease is first observed, whereas cognitive impairment occurs after a period of onset of motor dysfunction. These results are helpful to understand the pathogenesis of cognitive impairment and provide insights into the treatment of Parkinson's disease dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fault-tolerant control (FTC) issue for a class of interconnected wave-distributed parameter systems is addressed by using the inclusion principle. Both subsystem faults and coupling faults are considered. First, the original system is expanded into an equivalent decoupled system. The main structure of the expanded system consists of multiple pair-wise subsystems. Second, the pair-wise fault-tolerant controllers are designed to stabilise the pair-wise subsystems, which can compensate for the effects of subsystem faults and major coupling faults. Third, a coordinated fault-tolerant controller with a suitable coordinated compensator for the expanded system is constructed according to the pair-wise fault-tolerant controllers of all subsystems. The coordinated compensator is used to compensate for the effects of other minor interconnections and coupling faults, and the coordinated controller is designed for the expanded system. Furthermore, the fault-tolerant controller is obtained to guarantee asymptotical stability of the faulty interconnected wave system by satisfying the contraction condition. The numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the FTC method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we proposed an efficient single-state three-party quantum key agreement (QKA) protocol. We proved that the protocol can resist potential outside attacks and inside attacks, and we generalized the efficient single-state three-party QKA scheme into the case of the N-party by substituting N-particle entangled state for three-particle entangled state as the resource quantum states. Compared with the previous QKA protocols, our scheme contains the good features of previous schemes, i.e., using one kind of maximally entangled states as the quantum resource, no requirements for pre-shared key between different participants, and no requirements for executing any unitary operations or quantum entanglement swapping. Furthermore, our scheme has significant improvements in terms of the times of quantum states transmission, the consumed qubits, and the qubit efficiency. In particular, as the number of participants increases, the number of qubits required by our scheme increases linearly rather than exponentially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high‐efficiency frequency tripler operating up to 330 GHz is developed based on a novel quad‐port balanced configuration. The proposed circuit could inhibit the even‐order harmonics with great idler loops, leaving out the lossy capacitors required in conventional triplers. Meanwhile, this topology employs two pairs of discrete Schottky diodes, which could increase the power‐handling capability by a factor of 2. In this way, a 330 GHz balanced tripler is implemented with four discrete Schottky diodes mounted on a 30‐μm‐thick quartz substrate. At room temperature, the implemented tripler module features a peak output power of 41.1 mW (@321.4 GHz) and a peak efficiency of 12.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering irreducibility is fundamental for studying the ergodicity of stochastic dynamical systems. In this paper, we establish the irreducibility of stochastic complex Ginzburg-Laudau equations driven by pure jump noise. Our results are dimension free and the conditions placed on the driving noises are very mild. A crucial role is played by criteria developed by the authors of this paper and T. Zhang for the irreducibility of stochastic equations driven by pure jump noise. As an application, we obtain the ergodicity of stochastic complex Ginzburg-Laudau equations. We remark that our ergodicity result covers the weakly dissipative case with pure jump degenerate noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimodal sentiment analysis involves discerning the emotions of speakers through diverse features such as sound, text, and images. However, current research in this field heavily relies on extensive supervised datasets, demanding substantial labor and computational resources. This study introduces a meta-learning-based approach for multimodal sentiment analysis, aiming to delve into emotional information within movie scenes. Leveraging meta-learning techniques, this approach seeks to accurately capture emotions in movie scenes using a limited number of annotated samples, achieving model generalization under constrained labeled data. Specifically, we introduce an optimization-based meta-learning approach for the multimodal sentiment analysis tasks in text and vision, enhancing the model's ability to generalize to new tasks with limited annotations. Additionally, an innovative strategy based on Meta-Prompting is proposed to handle multimodal data. The merits of the proposed method are validated across different datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a new method to obtain the accessibility of stochastic partial differential equations driven by additive pure jump noise. An important novelty of this paper is to allow the driving noises to be degenerate. As an application, for the first time, we obtain the accessibility of a class of stochastic equations driven by pure jump (possibly degenerate) noise, including stochastic 2D Navier-Stokes equations, stochastic Burgers equations, stochastic singular p-Laplace equations, and stochastic fast diffusion equations. As a further application, we establish the ergodicity of stochastic singular p-Laplace equations and stochastic fast diffusion equations driven by additive pure jump noise, and we remark that the driving noises could be Compound Poisson processes or Lévy processes with heavy tails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The aim of this study was to explore the safety and feasibility of single-port nephroscopy combined with a needle electrode technique to unroof single dorsal simple renal cysts (SRCs). Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of the clinical data for 18 patients with single dorsal SRCs treated with single-port nephroscopy and a needle electrode technique at Zhongshan City People’s Hospital from August 2021 to August 2022. The basic information included the cyst condition, surgical methods and recurrence rate, and follow-up was conducted with CT imaging. Results: The surgery was successful in all 18 patients. The duration of surgery ranged from 24 to 46 min, with an average of 35.83 ± 1.62 min; the intraoperative bleeding volume ranged from 2 to 20 mL, with an average of 9.0 ± 1.3 mL; and the visual analog scale (VAS) score within 24 h after surgery ranged from 1 to 6 points, with an average of 2.72 ± 0.36 points. There were no significant postoperative complications, such as bleeding, urinary fistula, or infection. All drainage tubes were removed on the first day after surgery. After 1 year of postoperative follow-up, 1 patient experienced recurrence, for a recurrence rate of 5.6%. Conclusion: Single-port nephroscopy combined with a needle electrode technique is a safe, feasible, and effective minimally invasive surgical approach for treating single dorsal SRCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The second harmonic current (SHC) caused by the instantaneous power of downstream inverter will seriously deteriorate the performance of two‐stage inverter and shorten the life of energy storage device, which narrows the application prospect of two‐stage inverter energy storage system (TSIESS). To reduce the SHC in TSIESS, this paper proposes a strategy of virtual LC series resonant circuit with notch filter (NF‐VLCSRC). This strategy utilizes the virtual impedance technology to achieve the function of a LC series resonant circuit (LCSRC) paralleled to the intermediate DC bus capacitor of the TSIESS, so the output impedance of the DAB converter can become larger than the impedance of the DC bus capacitor at twice fundamental frequency and thus the SHC in the front‐end DAB converter can be reduced effectively without power loss problem caused by the internal resistance of the actual LCSRC. Then, in order to facilitate the implementation and avoid interference of parameter mismatches on system performance, the NF is adopted to realize the VLCSRC strategy based on the frequency characteristics of the introduced virtual impedance. Theory analysis and experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing of tunnel mileage, one of the most vital problems of broad-scale structures is the intelligent identification and location of structural defects, which require massive data storage capacity and high data processing efficiency. The full-field point cloud data collected by terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) can be extracted to construct three-dimensional measured models more accurately, therefore, the fusion of TLS and the finite element method (FEM) is particularly beneficial to the deformation analysis of tunnel structures. This paper combines numerical simulation and full-field measurement to interactively verify the reliability of deformation analysis based on FEM simulation and point cloud processing. The innovation of this paper is that a three-dimensional FEM is validated through the measured point cloud data of the tunnel structure. The result of this study indicated that FEM simulation and the structural health monitoring analysis are consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal-electric conversion efficiency is a crucial metric for evaluating the performance of a thermoelectric generator (TEG). However, accurate measurement of this efficiency remains a significant challenge due to various factors that impact heat flow measurements. We have observed that temperature fluctuations during temperature control are the primary factor contributing to measurement errors in heat flow under vacuum conditions. To address this issue, we have developed a time-dependent theoretical model for the thermal-electric coupling of a TEG measurement system based on Fourier's theory of heat conduction. This model allows us to investigate the effects of both temperature fluctuation and structural parameters on the measurement error of TEG performance. Furthermore, we have proposed an error correction scheme for TEG performance based on our theoretical and experimental findings. These insights provide a theoretical framework and technical guidance for more precise measurements of TEG performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel approach to fabricate endogenous slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (eSLIPS) at room temperature using an evaporation-induced phase separation process. The ternary coating system, comprising ethylene–propylene copolymer, caprylyl methicone, and n-hexane, forms a porous structure in situ infiltrated with lubricant, resulting in surfaces with remarkable anti-fouling and anti-icing properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial engineering materials suffer from serious marine corrosion and biofouling issues with the sustainable exploitation and utilization of marine resources. Thermal sprayed protective coating is an effective strategy for extending service life and reducing economic losses of maritime materials. This study focuses on developing anti-corrosion/fouling dual functional marine coatings via flame spraying the composites of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and eco-friendly biocide capsaicin (CAP). Attachment and colonization behaviors of marine bacteria and algae were measured to evaluate the antifouling performances of the coatings for 30 days. The HDPE-CAP (0.6%, 0.9%, and 2.0 wt.% capsaicin) composite coatings effectively inhibit adhesion, aggregation and accumulation of the Bacillus subtilis and Chlorella on their surfaces. The antifouling rates of HDPE-2.0CAP against Chlorella and B. subtilis are 81.9% and ~ 100%. Electrochemical tests were further conducted to evaluate the corrosion resistance of these coatings. The results showed that the HDPE and HDPE-CAP coatings exhibited better corrosion resistance than uncoated 316L stainless steel substrate. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the development of novel thermal sprayed anti-corrosion/fouling coatings for potential marine applications, including marine engineering and biotechnology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of deuterated compounds is increasingly expanding across various fields, making the development of novel deuterium labeling techniques for obtaining deuterated compounds a burgeoning research focus. Carboxylic acids and their derivatives are widely utilized as cost‐effective and readily available materials for obtaining deuterated compounds due to their stable properties. This article presents a comprehensive and concise summary of the research progress in decarboxylative deuteration reactions over the past 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanism of aerosol pollution transport remains highly elusive owing to the myriad of influential factors. In this study, ground station data, satellite data, ground-based LiDAR remote sensing data, sounding data, ERA5 reanalysis and a backward trajectory model were combined to investigate the formation process and optical properties of winter aerosol pollution in Beijing and surrounding areas. The analysis of ground station data shows that compared to 2019 and 2021, the pandemic lockdown policy resulted in a decrease in the total number of pollution days and a decrease in the average concentration of particulate matter in the Beijing area in 2020. The terrain characteristics of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) made it prone to northeast and southwest winds. The highest incidence of aerosol pollution in Beijing occurs in February and March during the spring and winter seasons. Analysis of a typical heavy aerosol pollution process in the Beijing area from 28 February to 5 March 2019 shows that dust and fine particulate matter contributed to the primary pollution; surface air temperature inversion and an average wind speed of less than 3 m/s were conducive to the continuous accumulation of pollutants, which was accompanied by the oxidation reaction of NO2 and O3, forming photochemical pollution. The heavy aerosol pollution was transmitted and diffused towards the southeast, gradually eliminating the pollution. Our results provide relevant research support for the prevention and control of aerosol pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an ultracompact combined sensor for displacement and angle-synchronous measurement is proposed based on the self-imaging effect of optical microgratings. Using a two-grating structure, linear and angular displacement can be measured by detecting the change of phase and amplitude of the optical transmission, respectively, within one single structure in the meantime. The optically transmitted properties of the two-grating structure are investigated in both theory and simulation. Simulated results indicate that optical transmission changes in a sinusoidal relationship to the input linear displacement. Meanwhile, the amplitude of the curve decreases with an input pitch angle, indicating the ability for synchronous measurement within one single compact structure. The synchronous measurement of the linear displacement and the angle is also demonstrated experimentally. The results show a resolution down to 4 nm for linear displacement measurement and a maximum sensitivity of 0.26 mV/arcsec within a range of ±1° for angle measurement. Benefiting from a simple common-path structure without using optical components, including reflectors and polarizers, the sensor shows ultra-high compactness for multiple-degrees-of-freedom measuring, indicating the great potential for this sensor in fields such as integrated mechanical positioning and semiconductor fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new type of nuclear reactor, the Gen-IV reactor attracts increasing interest from the industry. Tritium is produced in lead-cooled fast reactors (LFR), sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), and other Gen-IV reactors. It is necessary to study the tritium permeation behavior of 15-15Ti stainless steel as a candidate cladding and structural material in Gen-IV reactors. In this study, gas-driven permeation experiments were conducted to measure the high-temperature deuterium transport behavior parameters of 15-15Ti stainless steel. The results showed that the deuterium permeation behavior of 15-15Ti and 316L stainless steels is similar. Additionally, this study discussed the effects of microstructures and surface oxidation on the permeability of stainless steels. This study will aid in evaluating tritium permeation in lead-based fast reactors and other Gen-IV reactors and whether tritium permeation barrier or tritium-removal devices are necessary. • The deuterium transport behavior of 15-15Ti stainless steel was investigated through gas-driven permeation experiments. • The deuterium permeation behavior of 15-15Ti stainless steel is similar to that of 316L stainless steel. • The effects of microstructure and surface oxidation films on the permeability of 15-15Ti stainless steels were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temperature plays a critical role in atmospheric research. A measurement system based on Rayleigh scattering Lidar was developed in this study to detect mid and upper-level atmospheric temperature. To analyze the error introduced by the calibration point temperature, the echo signal was simulated. The continuously measured atmospheric temperature structure is stable. The measured atmospheric temperature profile follows the same trend as the atmospheric mode, as shown by comparison with different modes and balloons. The mean difference between the measured atmospheric temperature and the balloon temperature is 2.59 K, with the error mostly concentrated below 5 K. Continuous observation of atmospheric temperature using the system revealed the occurrence of temperature-induced gravity waves at a vertical wavelength from 2 to 3 km at an altitude between 30 and 45 m. Partial fragmentation occurs when energy dissipation is performed in the low-frequency mode from 38 to 45 km. This system was demonstrated to effectively detect temperature and continuously observe gravity waves, with its accuracy confirmed by comparison with balloon temperature measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the purpose of real-time monitoring the hazard information on the electric power construction site, a personal safety monitoring system based on Artificial intelligence internet of things (AIoT) technology is designed. After the system sensing layer collects the gas information of the construction site through the gas sensor, limit current oxygen sensor and DS1820B temperature sensor, the edge computing device of the edge layer directly stores its calculation in the database of the platform layer through the data gateway. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) analysis module of this layer invokes the monitoring data of the power construction site of the database, and uses the personal safety identification method of the power construction site based on artificial intelligence technology, to complete the abnormal identification of monitoring data and realize personal safety monitoring. In addition, the system is also equipped with a power-fail detection module, which can collect the working voltage through the voltage transformer and compare it with the mains power standard to judge whether there is a power-fail risk, so as to prevent the problem of threatening personal safety due to the power-fail of the energized equipment. After testing, the system can monitor the operation status of the construction site in real time to protect personal safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, Mg in L6 steel is increased by pressure smelting raised to a high level (0.046–0.2%), which is difficult to reach under conventional conditions. It is found that Mg can form MgC2 carbide and become the heterogeneous nucleation core of granular pearlite in steel. The precipitation amount and temperature of MgC2 increase greatly with the increase of Mg mass fraction. When the mass fraction of Mg reaches 0.046%, the spheroidizing effect is the best, and the cutting performance is improved. When the mass fraction of Mg is higher than this range, pearlite agglomeration appears, resulting in uneven structure. The effect of pearlite spheroidization induced by MgC2 carbide is still effective in the full annealed state and can significantly reduce the strength and hardness of the full annealed steel. When the mass fraction of Mg is 0.046%, the best performance of the full annealed steel is close to that of spheroidized annealed steel without Mg. The comprehensive properties of full annealed Q–T steel with 0.046% Mg are similar to those of spheroidized Q–T steel without Mg addition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Glucose transporter 3 (GLUT3) plays a major role in glycolysis and glucose metabolism in cancer cells. We aimed to investigate the correlation between GLUT3 and histone lactylation modification in the occurrence and progression of gastric cancer. Materials and methods: We initially used single-cell sequencing data to determine the expression levels of GLUT3 and lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) in primary tumor, tumor-adjacent normal, and metastasis tumor tissues. Immunohistochemistry analysis was conducted to measure GLUT3, LDHA, and L-lactyl levels in gastric normal and cancer tissues. Transwell and scratch assays were performed to evaluate the metastatic and invasive capacity of gastric cancer cell lines. Western blotting was used to measure L-lactyl and histone lactylation levels in gastric cancer cell lines. Results: Single-cell sequencing data showed that GLUT3 expression was significantly increased in primary tumor and metastasis tumor tissues. In addition, GLUT3 expression was positively correlated with that of LDHA expression and lactylation-related pathways. Western blotting and immunohistochemistry analyses revealed that GLUT3 was highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues and cell lines. GLUT3 knockdown in gastric cancer cell lines inhibited their metastatic and invasive capacity to various degrees. Additionally, the levels of LDHA, L-lactyl, H3K9, H3K18, and H3K56 significantly decreased after GLUT3 knockdown, indicating that GLUT3 affects lactylation in gastric cancer cells. Moreover, LDHA overexpression in a GLUT3 knockdown cell line reversed the levels of lactylation and EMT-related markers, and the EMT functional phenotype induced by GLUT3 knockdown. The in vivo results were consistent with the in vitro results. Conclusions: This study suggests the important role of histone lactylation in the occurrence and progression of gastric cancer, and GLUT3 may be a new diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of Al and Si elements on the microstructure and properties of Incoloy909 alloy was studied. The results show that the increase in Si element content is conducive to the precipitation of Laves and e phases in the alloy, making the grain distribution in the alloy finer and more uniform, and improving the high-temperature rupture life of the alloy. The increase in Al element content leads to the precipitation of more strengthening phases in the alloy after double aging heat treatment, which enhances the strength and hardness of the alloy. The Al and Si elements fitting has little effect on the average linear expansion coefficient of the alloy. After heat treatment, dislocation density of the alloy decreases, and the strengthening phase disperses and precipitates. The structure is more stable, and the average linear expansion coefficient is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An object detection task includes classification and localization, which require large receptive field and high-resolution input, respectively. How to strike a balance between the two conflicting needs remains a difficult problem in this field. Fortunately, feature pyramid network (FPN) realizes the fusion of low-level and high-level features, which alleviates this dilemma to some extent. However, existing FPN-based networks overlooked the importance of features of different levels during fusion process. Their simple fusion strategies can easily cause overwritten of important information, leading to serious aliasing effect. In this paper, we propose an improved object detector based on context- and level-aware feature pyramid networks. Experiments have been conducted on mainstream datasets to validate the effectiveness of our network, where it exhibits superior performances than other state-of-the-art works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are previously reported to jeopardize maternal fetal health, most well-known for gestational diabetes, childhood obesity, and cognitive impairment. Although warnings and diet recommendations urge pregnant women to consume less SSB, there is no noticeable difference in their behavior. How and why reproductive women change their SSB consumption patterns were not investigated previously. Our study aims to investigate beverage consumption patterns and how these patterns change in pregnancy in the context of substance use disorder (SUD). We invited all pregnant women visiting the clinic to answer a structured 20-min questionnaire every trimester during the regular antennal visit. At the end of the study, 337 pregnant women aged over 20 participated. A total of 301 responses entered for final analysis, with a response rate of 89.3%. Our finding showed those with high DSM-5-TR scores reduced SSB intake after becoming pregnant, while those with mild or low DSM-5-TR scores increased SSB intake after becoming pregnant. The top 3 factors related to their SSB consumption were "use despite of known health hazard (n = 133)", "increased desire to drink (n = 88)", and "excessive time spent on seeking SSB (n = 85)". The least reported factors were in the domains of social impairment (ranging from n = 3 to n = 26), pharmacologic effects (i.e., tolerance (n = 24) and withdrawal (n = 70). When participants reduced SSB consumption after becoming pregnant, their choice of beverages largely shifted to sugarless beverage but not much plain water. The result provided new insights in deciphering pregnant women's psychomotor factors for SSB intake, which served as useful references for making clinical or even public health recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate wind speed prediction is significantly important for the full utilization of wind energy resources and the improvement in the economic benefits of wind farms. Because the ensemble forecast takes into account the uncertainty of information about the atmospheric motion, domestic and foreign weather service forecast centers often choose to use the ensemble numerical forecast to achieve the fine forecast of wind speed. However, due to the unavoidable systematic errors of the ensemble numerical forecast model, it is necessary to correct the deviation in the ensemble numerical forecast wind speed. Considering the typical spatio-temporal characteristics of the grid prediction data of the wind field, based on Convolutional Long–Short Term Memory (ConvLSTM) units and attention mechanism, this paper takes the complex and representative North China region as the research area, aiming to reveal the shortcomings of existing deep learning integrated prediction correction models in extracting temporal features of grid prediction data. We propose a new ensemble prediction wind field correction model integrating multi-factor and spatio-temporal characteristics. This model uses reanalyzed land data provided by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts as the real data to correct the deviation in the near-surface 10 m wind field data predicted by the regional ensemble numerical prediction model of the China Meteorological Administration. We used the reanalyzed land data provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) as the live data to correct the deviation in the near-surface 10 m wind field data predicted by the regional ensemble numerical forecast model of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). At the same time, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) were used as the scoring indicators, and the results of the China Meteorological Administration–Regional Ensemble Prediction System (CMA–REPS) ensemble average, multiple linear regression method correction, Long–Short Term Memory (LSTM) method correction, and U-net (UNET) method correction were compared. Compared with the UNET model method, the experimental results show that when processing the 10 m zonal wind data, 10 m meridional wind data, and 10 m average wind speed data of CMA–REPS 24 h forecasts, the correction results of our model can reduce the RMSE score index by 9.15%, 4.83%, and 7.79%. At the same time, when processing the 48 h and 72 h near-surface 10 m wind field data of the CMA–REPS forecast, our model can improve the prediction accuracy of CMA–REPS near-surface wind forecast data. Therefore, the correction effect of the proposed model in a complex terrain area is evidently better compared to other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The virulence of SARS-CoV-2 decreases with increasing infectivity, the primary approaches for antiviral treatments will be preventing or minimizing the complications resulting from virus infection. ADAM metallopeptidase domain 17 (ADAM17) activation by SARS-CoV-2 infection has a dual effect on the development of the disease: increased release of inflammatory cytokines and dysregulation of Angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2) on cell surfaces, inflammatory cytokine infiltration and loss of ACE2 protective function lead to a significant increase in the incidence of related complications. Importantly, pathologically activated ADAM17 showed superior features than S protein in regulating ACE2 expression and participating in the intra cellular replication of SARS-CoV-2. In short, SARS-CoV-2 elicits only a limited immune response when it promotes its own replication and pathogenicity through ADAM17. Therefore, the pathological activation of ADAM17 may also represent a diminished innate antiviral defense and an altered strategy of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this review, we summarized recent advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of ADAM17, with a focus on the new findings that SARS-CoV-2 affects ADAM17 expression through Furin protein converting enzyme and Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, and raises the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 may mediates the pathological activation of ADAM17 by hijacking the actin regulatory pathway, and discussed the underlying biological principles. • The complications induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection are related to pathological activation of ADAM17 • The mechanism of pathological activation of ADAM17 by SARS-CoV-2 remains unclear • The role of actin cytoskeleton in SARS-CoV-2 infection was hypothesized [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar‐driven evaporation process brings exciting opportunities to recover clean water and resources in a sustainable way from diverse sources like seawater and wastewater. Separation membranes, as a vital material in many environmental and energy applications, can contribute significantly to this process owing to their structural features. However, the unique roles of membranes in solar evaporator construction and process design are seldom recognized and not summarized yet from scientific principles and application demands, which forms the motivation of this review. Herein, the roles of membranes in different processes based on solar‐driven evaporation are focused and the design principles of membrane materials and devices to meet the requirements of these applications are discussed. Fabrication strategies for photothermal membranes are introduced primarily, followed by a discussion on how to design membrane materials, devices, and processes to pursue optimal performance and realize advanced functions accompanied by evaporation. Furthermore, the future of this field is forecast with both challenges and opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impacts of Mn alloying on lattice stabilities, magnetic properties, electronic structures of the bcc and fcc phases and the fcc→bcc phase transition in Fe 16 − x Mn x (x = 0, 1 and 2) alloys are studied by first-principles calculations. Results show that the doped Mn atom prefers ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interaction with the host Fe atoms in the bcc and fcc phases, respectively. In these two phases, the magnetic moment of Mn is smaller and larger than Fe, respectively. The local moment of Fe is decided by the Fe-Mn distance in the bcc phase, whereas in the fcc phase, it is determined by spatial orientation with Mn. In the different phases, Mn prefers different site occupations, which can be understood from the electronic density of states near Fermi energy, implying a possibility of element redistribution during phase transition. The driving force of phase transition decreases with Mn alloying. Both destabilized bcc phase and stabilized fcc phase contribute to the inhibited phase transition, but the latter plays a dominant role. Antiferromagnetism is recognized as the key reason for the enhanced stability of the fcc phase by Mn alloying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to identify the key genes involved in the development of multiple primary lung cancers. Methods: Differential expression analysis was performed, followed by comparing the infiltration levels of 22 immune cell types between multiple and single primary lung adenocarcinomas. Marker genes for epithelial cells with different proportions between the two types of lung adenocarcinomas were identified. The common genes between the marker genes and differentially expressed genes were identified. Finally, the effects of the key genes were tested on the in vitro proliferation, migration and morphology. Results: The infiltration levels of helper follicular T cells, resting NK cells, activated NK cells, M2 macrophages and resting mast cells were higher in the patients with multiple than in those with single primary lung adenocarcinomas. A total of 1553 differentially expressed genes and 4414 marker genes of epithelial cells were identified. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the 164 resulting genes. The macrophage migration inhibitory factor expression was positively associated with the occurrence of multiple primary lung adenocarcinomas. Moreover, its signalling pathway was the key pathway among the epithelial cells and multiple and single primary lung adenocarcinoma cells, and it was upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma cells. It also increased the expression of lung cancer markers, including NES and CA125, induced morphological changes in alveolar epithelial type II cells, and promoted their proliferation, migration and invasion. Conclusions: Multiple and single primary lung adenocarcinomas have different tumour immune microenvironments, and migration inhibitory factor may be a key factor in the occurrence of multiple primary lung adenocarcinomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gd 2 WO 6 precursor powder was prepared from Gd 2 O 3 and WO 3 via a high-temperature solid-state reaction. Gd 2 WO 6 ceramics with relative densities more than 95% were prepared by secondary sintering method. The effects of temperature on Gd 2 WO 6 phase composition, microstructure, and properties of the ceramic materials were studied. The main reaction temperature of Gd 2 O 3 and WO 3 is 1050 °C. However, XRD results show that the reaction already occurs below 1050 °C. The prepared precursor powder contains W 17 O 47. After secondary sintering, local segregation was observed by TEM, and two phases of solid solutions were formed. Gd 2 WO 6 and Gd 2 (WO 4) 3. W 17 O 47 dissolved into Gd 2 WO 6 to form Gd 2 (WO 4) 3. With increasing sintering temperature, the lattice parameters of Gd 2 WO 6 changed, the overall trend became smaller, and the theoretical density gradually increased. FTIR measurements showed that the ceramic has exxellent luminescence properties and is expected to be used in solid-state light emitters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The pathogenic variants in DEAH-box RNA helicase DHX37 are one of the major causes of 46,XY gonadal dysgenesis and testicular regression syndrome (TRS). To date, only 13 different missense variants have been reported. We report two additional cases with different clinical presentations carrying two novel variants in the DHX37 gene. Case Presentation and Results: Case 1 (4.4-year-old boy) presented with significant micropenis and cryptorchidism and was diagnosed as TRS. Case 2 (13.5-year-old girl) had a 46,XY karyotype with female external genitalia and was diagnosed as GD. Two novel DHX37 variants affecting the RecA2 domain, p.G478R and p.L627F, were identified in these cases. Both variants identified in the probands were also present in their unaffected mother. Conclusion: Our findings broaden the variant spectrum of DHX37 in 46,XY differences of sex development (DSD) individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phthalate esters (PAEs) are widely exposed in the environment as plasticizers in plastics, and they have been found to cause significant environmental and health hazards, especially in terms of endocrine disruption in humans. In order to investigate the processes underlying the endocrine disruption effects of PAEs, three machine learning techniques were used in this study to build an adverse outcome pathway (AOP) for those effects on people. According to the results of the three machine learning techniques, the random forest and XGBoost models performed well in terms of prediction. Subsequently, sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the initial events, key events, and key features influencing the endocrine disruption effects of PAEs on humans. Key features, such as Mol.Wt, Q+, QH+, ELUMO, minHCsats, MEDC-33, and EG, were found to be closely related to the molecular structure. Therefore, a 3D-QSAR model for PAEs was constructed, and, based on the three-dimensional potential energy surface information, it was discovered that the hydrophobic, steric, and electrostatic fields of PAEs significantly influence their endocrine disruption effects on humans. Lastly, an analysis of the contributions of amino acid residues and binding energy (BE) was performed, identifying and confirming that hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions, and van der Waals forces are important factors affecting the AOP of PAEs' molecular endocrine disruption effects. This study defined and constructed a comprehensive AOP for the endocrine disruption effects of PAEs on humans and developed a method based on theoretical simulation to characterize the AOP, providing theoretical guidance for studying the mechanisms of toxicity caused by other pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image deraining is still a vital and challenging low-level computer vision task, the purpose of which is to restore rain-free images from images degraded by rain streaks. Recently, many convolutional neural network (CNN)-based methods have made significant progress for the task of image deraining. However, there are still two issues with these methods: The rain streaks in heavy rain images cannot be effectively removed, and the high-quality images with clear details cannot be reconstructed. To solve the first issue, we adopt a two-stage structure to gradually remove rain streaks and use dilated convolution in the first stage network to rapidly enlarge the receptive field to capture the spatial characteristics of heavy rain streaks. For the latter issue, we introduced a structure-preserving network (SPN) without any up- and down-sampling and designed a feature extraction module based on wavelet transform in SPN to help SPN restore clear high-frequency details. In addition, we also designed a feature filter (FF) and multi-level feature fusion module (MLFFM), so that the valuable features in the first stage can be fully utilized in the second stage. Extensive experiments on six synthetic datasets and one real-world dataset indicate that our method can achieve excellent performance, compared with the current state-of-the-art methods. To further demonstrate the practical applicability of the proposed method, we use it as a semantic segmentation preprocessing step and display the semantic segmentation results to verify the effectiveness of our deraining method in downstream vision tasks. The source codes will be open at https://github.com/noxsine/WTSDNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essential singularity in Einstein’s gravity can be avoidable if the preconditions of Penrose’s theorem can be bypassed, i.e., if the strong energy condition is broken in the vicinity of a black hole center. The singularity mentioned here includes two aspects: (i) the divergence of curvature invariants, and (ii) the incompleteness of geodesics. Both aspects are now taken into account in order to determine whether a black hole contains essential singularities. In this sense, black holes without essential singularities are dubbed regular (non-singular) black holes. The regular black holes have some intriguing phenomena that are different from those of singular black holes, and such phenomena have inspired numerous studies. In this review, we summarize the current topics that are associated with regular black holes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte (hiPSC-CM)-based cell therapy has drawn broad attention as a potential therapy for treating injured hearts. However, mass production of hiPSC-CMs remains challenging, limiting their translational potential in regenerative medicine. Therefore, multiple strategies including cell cycle regulators, small molecules, co-culture systems, and epigenetic modifiers have been used to improve the proliferation of hiPSC-CMs. On the other hand, the immaturity of these proliferative hiPSC-CMs could lead to lethal arrhythmias due to their limited ability to functionally couple with resident cardiomyocytes. To achieve functional maturity, numerous methods such as prolonged culture, biochemical or biophysical stimulation, in vivo transplantation, and 3D culture approaches have been employed. In this review, we summarize recent approaches used to promote hiPSC-CM proliferation, and thoroughly review recent advances in promoting hiPSC-CM maturation, which will serve as the foundation for large-scale production of mature hiPSC-CMs for future clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]