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Background: Older patients are at risk for acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease. Age-related increases in DNA methylation at CpG islands have been linked to aging-related diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease, but the exact causal relationship between methylation in renal aging and other kidney diseases remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the methylation status of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in the Asian population. Using human whole blood DNA methylation analysis from the Taiwan Biobank, we included participants with both whole blood genome-wide methylation data and follow-up data on serum creatinine. We investigated hyper- and hypomethylated genes in comparison of participants with higher and lower estimated glomerular filtration (eGFR) decline rate in overall cohort as well as in comparison of old and young participants in subgroup of participants with higher eGFR decline rate. Common genes and signaling pathways in both comparative analyses were identified. Results: Among 1587 participants in the analysis, 187 participants had higher eGFR decline rate. According to the comparison of methylation in participants with different eGFR declines and at different ages, respectively, we identified common hypermethylated genes, including DNMT3A and GGACT, as well as hypomethylated genes such as ARL6IP5, CYB5D1, BCL6, RPRD2, ZNF451, and MIAT in both participants with higher eGFR decline and those of older age. We observed associations between the methylation status of signaling pathways and aging as well as renal function decline. These pathways notably included autophagy, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases, and sirtuins, which were associated with autophagy process and cytokine production. Conclusions: Through methylation analysis of PBMCs, we identified genes and signaling pathways which could play crucial roles in the interplay of renal aging and renal function decline. These findings contribute to the development of novel biomarkers for identifying at-risk groups and even for therapeutic agent discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization (FROMP) of dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) shows promise for manufacturing thermosets and composites. To widen the applications, this work develops a novel approach for the upgrading of polydicyclopentadiene (PDCPD) and fiber-reinforced composites via sequential FROMP and radical reactions to achieve high performance. Herein, we mixed DCPD, Grubbs catalyst and radical initiators in one pot, and initiated FROMP, a self-perpetuating reaction, to obtain FROMP-prepared PDCPD. Then, the further radical reactions were carried out at elevated temperature. With our strategy, the performances of PDCPD and its composites were dramatically upgraded. For instance, the Tg of PDCPD could be significantly improved from ~171 °C to ~240 °C. The Tg, flexural strength and modulus of FROMP fabricated composite were successively increased from 141 °C, 135.3 MPa and 36.9 GPa to 262 °C, 467.1 MPa and 43.2 GPa, respectively. We believe that this novel strategy will greatly improve the performance of PDCPD and composites, and open new avenues to apply FROMP to wider applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 40 years, global tertiary expansion has been driven in part by the rise of the non-university sector. The growth of this sector, which includes vocational colleges, also contributes to increasingly diverse national higher education systems. Prior research has focused on inter-state variation in national systems, while very few studies have explored intra-state variation in the expansion of non-university sector. Building on the policy innovation and diffusion model, this study uses event history analysis to investigate key drivers behind Chinese prefecture cities' adoption of vocational colleges during the latest tertiary education expansion. The study employs a rich panel dataset from 273 Chinese cities between 2000 and 2014. Findings suggest that the socioeconomic and the politico-institutional contexts matter the most for cities' policy adoption, and the influence of policy diffusion is negative but not significant. Moreover, there is substantial heterogeneity across time and region. The characteristics of early adopters significantly differ from those of late adopters, and the diffusion paths vary within and across regions. This study illustrates that the emergence of sub-national government affiliated non-university institutions is driven by a complex combination of socioeconomic, politico-institutional, and policy forces. Results highlight the regional contextual factors that may override coercive pressure from national strategies to promote the non-university sector expansion and the structural diversity in the context of less developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to evaluate the effect of cutoff criteria on spectral temperature measurement, partition functions are calculated for argon plasma at 3000–30 000 K using three different cutoff criteria (semi-empirical method, NIST data, and Griem's theory). The effects of cutoff criteria on particle number density and plasma temperature measurements were discussed. The results indicate that as the plasma temperature increases, the degree of particle ionization increases and the cutoff effect weakens. The cutoff criteria have little impact on the calculation of the number density of the main components of the plasma but have a significant impact on the calculation of the number density of non-major components. The cutoff criterion using the NIST data can be reliably used for the temperature measurement, especially when the standard temperature method is used. Nevertheless, Griem's theory should be considered for accurate calculation of radiation intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis and characterization of a linear two‐coordinate Cr(II) amido complex, Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2 (Dipp=2,6‐diisopropylphenyl), from the reaction of 1 molar equivalent (equiv) of CrCl2 and 2 equiv. of LiN(tBu)Dipp is reported. Single‐crystal X‐ray diffractometry (SC‐XRD) analysis revealed that it has a short Cr−N bond distance of 1.8878(9) Å, which could be attributed to the relatively less bulky nature of the amido ligand compared with reported systems. Furthermore, the oxidation reaction of the two‐coordinate Cr(II) complex was explored. The oxidation reaction of Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2 with the one‐electron oxidants AgOTf and [FeCp2][BArF4] (BArF4−=[B{C6H3−3,5‐(CF3)2}4]−) afforded the trigonal planar three‐ and bent two‐coordinate Cr(III) complexes Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2(OTf) and [Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2][BArF4], respectively. The reaction of Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2 with 1 equiv. of the organic azides AdN3 (Ad=1‐adamantyl) and PhN3 afforded the three‐coordinate Cr(IV) imido complexes Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2(NAd) and Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2(NPh), respectively. The reaction of Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2 and two equiv. of Me3NO afforded the Cr(VI) dioxo complex Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2(O)2. The reaction of Cr{N(tBu)Dipp}2 with 1 equiv. of CyN=C=NCy resulted in the insertion of the carbodiimide into the Cr−N bond, with the formation of a three‐coordinate Cr(II) complex. Finally, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to elucidate the electronic structure of these complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Freezing of gait (FOG) is an episodic and highly disabling symptom of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Traditionally, FOG assessment relies on time-consuming visual inspection of camera footage. Therefore, previous studies have proposed portable and automated solutions to annotate FOG. However, automated FOG assessment is challenging due to gait variability caused by medication effects and varying FOG-provoking tasks. Moreover, whether automated approaches can differentiate FOG from typical everyday movements, such as volitional stops, remains to be determined. To address these questions, we evaluated an automated FOG assessment model with deep learning (DL) based on inertial measurement units (IMUs). We assessed its performance trained on all standardized FOG-provoking tasks and medication states, as well as on specific tasks and medication states. Furthermore, we examined the effect of adding stopping periods on FOG detection performance. Methods: Twelve PD patients with self-reported FOG (mean age 69.33 ± 6.02 years) completed a FOG-provoking protocol, including timed-up-and-go and 360-degree turning-in-place tasks in On/Off dopaminergic medication states with/without volitional stopping. IMUs were attached to the pelvis and both sides of the tibia and talus. A temporal convolutional network (TCN) was used to detect FOG episodes. FOG severity was quantified by the percentage of time frozen (%TF) and the number of freezing episodes (#FOG). The agreement between the model-generated outcomes and the gold standard experts' video annotation was assessed by the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). Results: For FOG assessment in trials without stopping, the agreement of our model was strong (ICC (%TF) = 0.92 [0.68, 0.98]; ICC(#FOG) = 0.95 [0.72, 0.99]). Models trained on a specific FOG-provoking task could not generalize to unseen tasks, while models trained on a specific medication state could generalize to unseen states. For assessment in trials with stopping, the agreement of our model was moderately strong (ICC (%TF) = 0.95 [0.73, 0.99]; ICC (#FOG) = 0.79 [0.46, 0.94]), but only when stopping was included in the training data. Conclusion: A TCN trained on IMU signals allows valid FOG assessment in trials with/without stops containing different medication states and FOG-provoking tasks. These results are encouraging and enable future work investigating automated FOG assessment during everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massification of higher education has dramatically changed the association between credentials and jobs in advanced countries, while its impacts in transitional economies have received less academic attention. To address this research lacuna, the paper utilizes rich information from China's national surveys of college graduates from 2003 to 2019 and multiple waves of census data to explore the temporal and spatial effects of tertiary education expansion on college graduates' job sorting. Regression results from the fixed effects model and the two-stage least-squares model indicate that, on the temporal dimension, the higher education expansion has weakened ties between college credentials and quality jobs over the past 20 years. Recent graduates are more likely to work in informal, non-urban, and non-public sectors, and the college earnings premium has also declined. There is a persistent gap in employment outcomes between bachelor's and associate degree holders. On the spatial dimension, the growing enrolment size leads to skill sorting towards low skilled regions. The study argues that the dynamic effects of college credentials may be explained by labour market flexibility and cohort crowding after higher education expansion. This paper calls for a critical reflection on the merit of further massification of higher education in developing economies, regarding its potential impacts on intergenerational inequality and regional inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanodots (CNDs) were synthesized and utilized as sensing probes to detect different anions and metallic ions within aqueous solutions. The pristine CNDs were developed through a one-pot hydrothermal synthesis. o-Phenylenediamine was used as the precursor. A similar hydrothermal synthesis technique in the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) was adopted to form the PEG-coated CND clusters (CND-100k). Through photoluminescence (PL) quenching, both CND and PEG-coated CND suspensions display ultra-high sensitivity and selectivity towards HSO4− anions (Stern–Volmer quenching constant (KSV) value: 0.021 ppm−1 for CND and 0.062 ppm−1 for CND-100k) with an ultra-low detection limit (LOD value: 0.57 ppm for the CND and 0.19 ppm for CND-100k) in the liquid phase. The quenching mechanism of N-doped CNDs towards HSO4− ions involves forming the bidentate as well as the monodentate hydrogen bonding with the sulfate anionic moieties. The detection mechanism of metallic ions analyzed through the Stern–Volmer formulation reveals that the CND suspension is well suited for the detection of Fe3+ (KSV value: 0.043 ppm−1) and Fe2+ (KSV value: 0.0191 ppm−1) ions, whereas Hg2+ (KSV value: 0.078 ppm−1) sensing can be precisely performed by the PEG-coated CND clusters. Accordingly, the CND suspensions developed in this work can be employed as high-performance PL probes for detecting various anions and metallic ions in the liquid phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The purpose of the current study is to survey whether the application of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is associated with the development of open angle glaucoma (OAG) using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan. Our results showed that the prostate cancer with ADT group showed a significantly lower risk of OAG development compared to the control group, while the risk of OAG development in the prostate cancer without ADT group was similar compared to that in the control group. The application of ADT did not lead to higher incidence of subsequent OAG. Patients with known risk factor for OAG may receive the ADT management without increased risk of OAG development. This study aimed to survey the effect of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) on the development of open angle glaucoma (OAG) in prostate cancer using the data from national health insurance research database (NHIRD) of Taiwan. A retrospective cohort study was conducted and patients were regarded as prostate cancer with ADT according to related diagnostic, procedure and medication codes. Each prostate subject with ADT was matched to one patient with prostate cancer, but without ADT, and two participants without both prostate cancer and ADT; 1791, 1791 and 3582 patients were recruited in each group. The primary outcome was set as the OAG development according to related diagnostic codes. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of ADT for the incidence of OAG. There were 145, 65 and 42 newly developed OAG cases in the control group, prostate cancer without ADT group and prostate cancer with ADT group. The prostate cancer with ADT group showed a significantly lower risk of OAG development compared to the control group (aHR: 0.689, 95% CI: 0.489–0.972, p = 0.0341), and the risk of OAG development in the prostate cancer without ADT group was similar compared to that in the control group (aHR: 0.825, 95% CI: 0.613–1.111, p = 0.2052). In addition, ages older than 50 years old would lead to higher incidence of OAG development, respectively. In conclusion, the use of ADT will lead to a similar or lower rate of OAG development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the involvement of microribonucleic acids (miRNAs) in the pathogenesis of chronic anovulation and mechanism of metformin treatment in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Case-control and prospective validation cohort study. Tertiary university hospital. A total of 146 patients with PCOS and chronic anovulation and 20 non-PCOS controls were enrolled. Patients who resumed ovulation after metformin treatment (MET-OV) and remained anovulatory after metformin treatment (MET-AO) were assigned to MET-OV and MET-AO groups, respectively. All patients with PCOS received metformin treatment for 6 months. Baseline and chronological changes in the plasma levels of 14 miRNAs (miR-21, 93, 132, 193b, 221, 222, 223, 27a, 125b, 200b, 212, 320a, 429, and 483) selected by literature review, anthropometric data, and hormonal as well as metabolic profiles were measured. Predictive modeling based on baseline circulatory miRNA levels and clinical parameters was performed to predict ovulation recovery after metformin treatment. No significant differences were observed in the baseline hormonal and metabolic profiles between the MET-OV and MET-AO groups. However, the expression of miR-27a, miR-93, and miR-222 was significantly higher in the MET-OV group than that for the MET-AO and control groups. After 6 months of metformin treatment, the levels of insulin, luteinizing hormone, and 6 circulating miRNAs (miR-21, 27a, 93, 221, 222, and 223) and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance decreased significantly in the MET-OV group, but remained unchanged in the MET-AO group. The area under curve, sensitivity, and specificity of the adjusted prediction model, based on miRNA levels and clinical parameters using logistic regression analysis for predicting ovulatory response after metformin treatment, were 0.807, 0.892, and 0.632, respectively. The present study demonstrated a distinct pattern of baseline expression and chronological changes in the levels of several circulatory miRNAs between the MET-OV and MET-AO groups, suggesting that aberrantly overexpressed diabetogenic miRNAs are involved in the pathophysiology of chronic anovulation in PCOS, and their down-regulation might contribute toward the therapeutic effects of metformin. This could provide new insights into the mechanism of action and applicability of individualized metformin therapy in women with PCOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent article by Zafeiridi et al. examined the risk of hospital admissions and emergency department visits in patients with dementia. The study found that dementia was associated with an increased risk of hospital admissions and emergency department visits, as well as a lower probability of hospital readmission. However, the study did not evaluate the impact of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) on these outcomes, which is a significant factor that has been shown to increase the risk of hospital admissions in older patients. The authors acknowledge the limitations of the study and call for further research on this important issue. [Extracted from the article]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Upgrading of thermosets and composites via sequential frontal ring-opening metathesis polymerization and radical reactions" published in the Journal of Materials Science. The correction addresses an error in Figure 7 of the original article and provides the corrected figure. The correction notice also includes a statement from the publisher, Springer Nature, emphasizing their neutrality regarding jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. The authors of the article are Qingyan Zhan and Po Yang. [Extracted from the article]

Allantoinase (ALLase; EC 3.5.2.5) possesses a binuclear metal center in which two metal ions are bridged by a posttranslationally carbamylated lysine. ALLase acts as a key enzyme for the biogenesis and degradation of ureides by catalyzing the conversion of allantoin into allantoate. Biochemically, ALLase belongs to the cyclic amidohydrolase family, which also includes dihydropyrimidinase, dihydroorotase, hydantoinase (HYDase), and imidase. Previously, the crystal structure of ALLase from Escherichia coli K-12 (EcALLase-K12) was reported; however, the two active site loops crucial for substrate binding were not determined. This situation would limit further docking and protein engineering experiments. Here, we solved the crystal structure of E. coli BL21 ALLase (EcALLase-BL21) at a resolution of 2.07 Å (PDB ID 8HFD) to obtain more information for structural analyses. The structure has a classic TIM barrel fold. As compared with the previous work, the two missed active site loops in EcALLase-K12 were clearly determined in our structure of EcALLase-BL21. EcALLase-BL21 shared active site similarity with HYDase, an important biocatalyst for industrial production of semisynthetic penicillin and cephalosporins. Based on this structural comparison, we discussed the functional role of the two active site loops in EcALLase-BL21 to better understand the substrate/inhibitor binding mechanism for further biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic levitation is considered one of the most effective noncontact particle manipulation methods, along with aerodynamic, ferromagnetic, and optical levitation techniques. It is not restricted by the material properties of the target. However, existing acoustic levitation techniques have some drawbacks that limit their potential applications. Therefore, in this article, an innovative approach is proposed to manipulate objects more intuitively and freely. By taking advantage of the transition periods between the acoustic pulse trains and electrical driving signals, acoustic traps can be created by switching the acoustic focal spots rapidly. Since the high-energy-density points are not formed simultaneously, the computation of the acoustic field distribution with complicated mutual interference can be eliminated. Therefore, compared to the existing approaches that created acoustic traps by solving pressure distributions using iterative methods, the proposed method simplifies the computation of time delay and makes it possible to be solved even with a microcontroller. In this work, three experiments have been demonstrated successfully to prove the capability of the proposed method including lifting a Styrofoam sphere, transportation of a single target, and suspending two objects. Besides, simulations of the distributions of acoustic pressure, radiation force, and Gor’kov potential were conducted to confirm the presence of acoustic traps in the scenarios of lifting one and two objects. The proposed tactic should be considered effective since the results of the practical experiments and simulations support each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen significant advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. This advancement has enabled the development of decision support systems that support farmers with herbivorous pest identification and pest monitoring. In these systems, the AI supports farmers through the detection, classification and quantification of herbivorous pests. However, many of the systems under development fall short of meeting the demands of the end user, with these shortfalls acting as obstacles that impede the integration of these systems into integrated pest management (IPM) practices. There are four common obstacles that restrict the uptake of these AI‐driven decision support systems. Namely: AI technology effectiveness, functionality under field conditions, the level of computational expertise and power required to use and run the system and system mobility. We propose four criteria that AI‐driven systems need to meet in order to overcome these challenges: (i) The system should be based on effective and efficient AI; (ii) The system should be adaptable and capable of handling ‘real‐world’ image data collected from the field; (iii) Systems should be user‐friendly, device‐driven and low‐cost; (iv) Systems should be mobile and deployable under multiple weather and climate conditions. Systems that meet these criteria are likely to represent innovative and transformative systems that successfully integrate AI technology with IPM principles into tools that can support farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors have attracted great attention worldwide for a variety of applications in measuring physical, chemical and biological parameters. However, stability has been one of the key issues which have limited their effective commercial applications. To fully understand this challenge of operation stability, this paper aims to systematically review mechanisms, stability issues and future challenges of SAW sensors for various applications. Design/methodology/approach: This review paper starts with different types of SAWs, advantages and disadvantages of different types of SAW sensors and then the stability issues of SAW sensors. Subsequently, recent efforts made by researchers for improving working stability of SAW sensors are reviewed. Finally, it discusses the existing challenges and future prospects of SAW sensors in the rapidly growing Internet of Things-enabled application market. Findings: A large number of scientific articles related to SAW technologies were found, and a number of opportunities for future researchers were identified. Over the past 20 years, SAW-related research has gained a growing interest of researchers. SAW sensors have attracted more and more researchers worldwide over the years, but the research topics of SAW sensor stability only own an extremely poor percentage in the total researc topics of SAWs or SAW sensors. Originality/value: Although SAW sensors have been attracting researchers worldwide for decades, researchers mainly focused on the new materials and design strategies for SAW sensors to achieve good sensitivity and selectivity, and little work can be found on the stability issues of SAW sensors, which are so important for SAW sensor industries and one of the key factors to be mature products. Therefore, this paper systematically reviewed the SAW sensors from their fundamental mechanisms to stability issues and indicated their future challenges for various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk of stroke with antivenom usage after venomous snakebite in Taiwan: a population-based cohort study. We read with great interest the epidemiological study by Hung I et al. i [1] on the risk of stroke with antivenom use after venomous snakebite in Taiwan. [Extracted from the article]

For controlling recent COVID-19 outbreaks around the world, many countries have implemented suppression and mitigation interventions. This work aims to conduct a feasibility study for accessing the effect of multiple interventions to control the COVID-19 breakouts in the UK and other European countries, accounting for balance of healthcare demand. The model is to infer the impact of mitigation, suppression and multiple rolling interventions for controlling COVID-19 outbreaks in the UK, with two features considered: direct link between exposed and recovered population, and practical healthcare demand by separation of infections. We combined the calibrated model with COVID-19 data in London and non-London regions in the UK during February and April 2020. Our finding suggests that rolling intervention is an optimal strategy to effectively control COVID-19 outbreaks in the UK for balancing healthcare demand and morality ratio. It is better to implement regional based interventions with varied intensities and maintenance periods. We suggest an intervention strategy named as "Besieged and rolling interventions" to the UK that take a consistent suppression in London for 100 days and 3 weeks rolling intervention in other regions. This strategy would reduce the overall infections and deaths of COVID-19 outbreaks, and balance healthcare demand in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

External disturbances, uncertain parameters, asymmetric saturation input, and high computational burden can significantly damage the attitude tracking control performance of uncertain quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). To accomplish the high-precision attitude tracking control, this study proposes an antisaturation fixed-time attitude tracking control based low-computation learning. Firstly, a fixed-time state observer is constructed to estimate the system states in fixed time. Secondly, by developing the fast fixed-time stable system with the time-varying gain function, a nonsingular fast fixed-time sliding mode surface is designed to improve the convergence speed and avoid the singularity problem. Thirdly, to solve the problem of asymmetric input saturation, an auxiliary compensation system is integrated to regulate the control inputs. Subsequently, an adaptive neural network (NN) technology is used to overcome the negative effects of external disturbances and uncertain parameters, where the designed adaptive mechanism is to adjust a virtual parameter online instead of the weight vector of the NN, which has the characteristics of low computational burden and simple structure. The Lyapunov-based stability analysis concludes that the closed-loop system is practical fixed-time stable and the tracking errors can converge to bounded regions around the origin in fixed time independently of the initial system states. Finally, comparative results are given to demonstrate that compared with the existing controllers, the controller developed in this study can achieve stronger robustness, faster convergence, and saturation elimination with lower error-index values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abnormal lattice expansion of commercial polypropylene (PP)/polyethylene (PE)/polypropylene (PP) separator in lithium-ion battery under different charging current densities was observed by in-situ X-ray diffraction. Significant lattice changes of both PP and PE were found during the low current density charging. The capacity fading and the resistance value of the cell measured at 0.025 C (5th retention, 92%) is unexpectedly larger than that at 1.0 C (5th retention, 97.3%) from the electrochemical impedance spectroscopic data. High-resolution scanning electron microscopy is employed to witness the pore changes of the trilayered membrane. Density functional theory calculations were used to investigate the mechanism responsible for the irregular results. The calculations revealed that the insertion of Li-ion and EC molecule into PP or PE are thermodynamically favourable process which might explain the anomalous significant lattice expansion during the low current density charging. Therefore, designing a new separator material with a more compact crystalline structure or surface modification to reduce the Li insertion during the battery operation is desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiofrequency (RF)-assisted devices are widely used for hemostasis during liver resection. This study compared the use of dual switching (DS) versus single switching (SS) control modes for RF-based liver resections in a pig model. The RF-based system comprised a 200-W generator and three electrodes with 4-cm tips arranged in a linear configuration using an adaptor. Eight Lanyu pigs were used to assess ablation outcomes with electrode spacing of 2 or 3 cm, and ablation durations of 1.5, 2 or 3 min. All combinations were tested in DS and SS modes. Procedures were performed on left lateral, caudal and right anterior liver lobes, and after which transections were performed using a scalpel. Blood loss, complete ablation rate and ablation speed were compared. DS mode was shown to induce significantly less blood loss than SS mode when the electrode spacing was set at 2 cm and the ablation duration was 2 min or 3 min (p=.010 and.012, respectively). Extended ablation duration and narrow electrode spacing tended to induce less blood loss, regardless of operating mode. Bloodless resection was achieved using DS mode with electrode spacing of 2 cm and ablation duration of 2–3 min. The highest rate of complete ablation (11.3 cm2/min) was achieved using DS mode with electrode spacing of 2 cm and ablation duration of 1.5 min. RF-based hepatic resection using DS mode is safe and feasible, resulting in less blood loss than SS mode with a higher rate of complete ablation (i.e., superior ablation efficiency). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We compare three countries where public policy has explicitly sought to align incentives of employers and educational institutions around closing the gap between skill formation and labor market demand. In large, heterogeneous countries such as the United States, Russia and China, collaborative arrangements such apprenticeships and other forms of public-private partnerships can be constructed at the subnational level by building on direct, face-to-face ties across educational, business, government, and civic sectors. Drawing on existing literature as well as fieldwork studying a number of specific cases in the three countries, the paper develops a typology of such arrangements and proposes an explanation for the observed variation. It emphasizes the importance of two sets of factors: those that induce cooperation on the part of firms and schools, and those that influence the character of such partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led a global pandemic cross the world. Most countries took two main interventions: suppression like immediate lockdown cities at epicenter or mitigation that slows down but not stopping epidemic for reducing peak healthcare demand. Both strategies have their apparent merits and limitations; it becomes extremely hard to conduct one intervention as the most feasible way to all countries. Targeting at this problem, this paper conducted a feasibility study by defining a mathematical model named SEMCR, it extended traditional SEIR (Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered) model by adding two key features: a direct connection between Exposed and Recovered populations, and separating infections into mild and critical cases. It defined parameters to classify two stages of COVID-19 control: active contain by isolation of cases and contacts, passive contain by suppression or mitigation. The model was fitted and evaluated with public dataset containing daily number of confirmed active cases including Wuhan and London during January 2020 and March 2020. The simulated results showed that 1) Immediate suppression taken in Wuhan significantly reduced the total exposed and infectious populations, but it has to be consistently maintained at least 90 days (by the middle of April 2020). Without taking this intervention, we predict the number of infections would have been 73 folders higher by the middle of April 2020. Its success requires efficient government initiatives and effective collaborative governance for mobilizing of corporate resources to provide essential goods. This mode may be not suitable to other countries without efficient collaborative governance and sufficient health resources. 2) In London, it is possible to take a hybrid intervention of suppression and mitigation for every 2 or 3 weeks over a longer period to balance the total infections and economic loss. While the total infectious populations in this scenario would be possibly 2 times than the one taking suppression, economic loss and recovery of London would be less affected. 3) Both in Wuhan and London cases, one important issue of fitting practical data was that there were a portion (probably 62.9% in Wuhan) of self-recovered populations that were asymptomatic or mild symptomatic. This finding has been recently confirmed by other studies that the seroprevalence in Wuhan varied between 3.2% and 3.8% in different sub-regions. It highlights that the epidemic is far from coming to an end by means of herd immunity. Early release of intervention intensity potentially increased a risk of the second outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) are associated with known alterations in mitochondria DNA copy number (mtDNA-CN). The aim of this study is to study the change in mtDNA-CN in patients with PCOS who were treated with metformin. Methods: This is a prospective cohort of patients with PCOS, who received metformin for one year. From 2009 to 2015, 88 women diagnosed with PCOS, based on the Rotterdam criteria, were enrolled. Serial measurements of mtDNA-CN, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), anthropometric, metabolic, endocrine, and inflammatory markers were obtained before and after 3, 6, and 12 months of treatment. Results: A significant decrease in mtDNA-CN was seen over the course of one year. Other markers, including 8-OHdG, testosterone, free androgen index, blood pressure and liver enzymes, also decreased in the same interval. On regression analysis, there was a significant association between the change in mtDNA-CN and serum total testosterone, and no association between mtDNA-CN and metabolic factors. Conclusions: Treatment with metformin is associated with a time-dependent decrease in mtDNA-CN in patients with PCOS who are treated over the course of one year. This may signify a reduction in mitochondria dysfunction. The change in mtDNA-CN corresponds to a similar change in serum total testosterone, and suggests a possible relationship between mtDNA-CN and testosterone. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00172523. Registered September 15, 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a non-thermal ablation modality that has been shown to be safe and effective in its application to tumors that are close to risky areas. This study aims to assess the safety and efficacy of IRE for unresectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma. Nine patients from two medical centers in Asia received IRE treatment between June 2015 and July 2017. Before IRE treatment, percutaneous biliary decompressions had been performed on eight patients, and internal stenting had been performed on one patient. All patients tolerated the procedure well without high-grade complications. The ablated tumors had constant size without contrast enhancement for more than three months in eight patients and the level of CA19-9 decreased significantly in all patients. The percutaneous biliary drainage tube was removed from two patients with recanalization of the bile duct. The internal stent in one patient was removed without further stenting. The median overall survival period was 26 months, and the progression-free survival was 18 months. Bile ducts remained narrow in the majority (2/3) of the treated patients. Nevertheless, IRE ablation of unresectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma involving vital structures is a safe and feasible primary treatment for local tumor control and is effective in prolonging survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A systematic review critically examining Physical Activity Recognition and Measure (PARM) studies. • From a novel 3D dynamic IoT based physical activity collection and validation's perspective. • Summarized data fusion techniques from three plane domains in the 3D dynamic IoT model. • Identify some new research trends and challenges of data fusion techniques in the IoT enabled PARM. Due to importantly beneficial effects on physical and mental health and strong association with many rehabilitation programs, Physical Activity Recognition and Measure (PARM) has been widely recognised as a key paradigm for a variety of smart healthcare applications. Traditional methods for PARM relies on designing and utilising Data fusion or machine learning techniques in processing ambient and wearable sensing data for classifying types of physical activity and removing their uncertainties. Yet they mostly focus on controlled environments with the aim of increasing types of identifiable activity subjects, improved recognition accuracy and measure robustness. The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling technology is transferring PARM studies to an open and dynamic uncontrolled ecosystem by connecting heterogeneous cost-effective wearable devices and mobile apps and various groups of users [35]. Little is currently known about whether traditional Data fusion techniques can tackle new challenges of IoT environments and how to effectively harness and improve these technologies. In an effort to understand potential use and opportunities of Data fusion techniques in IoT enabled PARM applications, this paper will give a systematic review, critically examining PARM studies from a perspective of a novel 3D dynamic IoT based physical activity collection and validation model. It summarized traditional state-of-the-art data fusion techniques from three plane domains in the 3D dynamic IoT model: devices, persons and timeline. The paper goes on to identify some new research trends and challenges of data fusion techniques in the IoT enabled PARM studies, and discusses some key enabling techniques for tackling them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet of things (IoT) have entirely revolutionized the industry. However, the cyber-security of IoT enabled cyber-physical systems is still one of the main challenges. The success of cyber-physical system is highly reliant on its capability to withstand cyberattacks. Biometric identification is the key factor responsible for the provision of secure cyber-physical system. The conventional unimodal biometric systems do not have the potential to provide the required level of security for cyber-physical system. The unimodal biometric systems are affected by a variety of issues like noisy sensor data, non-universality, susceptibility to forgery and lack of invariant representation. To overcome these issues and to provide higher-security enabled cyber-physical systems, the combination of different biometric modalities is required. To ensure a secure cyber-physical system, a novel multi-modal biometric system based on face and finger print is proposed in this work. Finger print matching is performed using alignment-based elastic algorithm. For the improved facial feature extraction, extended local binary patterns (ELBP) are used. For the effective dimensionality reduction of extracted ELBP feature space, local non-negative matrix factorization is used. Score level fusion is performed for the fusion. Experimental evaluation is done on FVC 2000 DB1, FVC 2000 DB2, ORL (AT&T) and YALE databases. The proposed method achieved a high recognition accuracy of 99.59%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional higher education growth in non-federal states has not attracted much academic attention. This paper is one of the first attempts to explore China's latest higher education expansion and its systematic and regional impact from the perspective of multi-level governance. This article argues that the state had explicitly utilized the Commanding Heights Strategy to diffuse the higher education authority to sub-national level and promote regional growth. The Central authorities allowed the Ministry of Education establishing a vertical elite coalition to command the heights of tertiary institutional hierarchy and key resources for tertiary development. In addition, the state used both financial incentives and sectoral incentives to mobilize resources for regional expansion. The Commanding Heights Strategy shapes China's response to the higher education trilemma of costs, access, and quality. Under this strategy, the unprecedented tertiary expansion has expanded college access, but at the expense of affordability, quality, and a large and increasing regional variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using global citizenship as the framework and guided by a phenomenological approach, this paper examines the experiences of overseas education on Chinese students studying in American high schools, and the mechanisms through which potential growth takes place. The data were collected from interviews with 15 Chinese students studying at American high schools and seven teacher participants who work closely with them. Findings reveal that international sojourning could potentially serve as an effective pathway to global citizenship because it may help international students develop global competencies (knowledge, understanding and skills), and global consciousness (values and attitudes). The paper argues that the process of growing into a global citizen may be viewed as an advanced level of student development, and the mechanisms through which this kind of ideal transformation takes place which were identified in this study include: having non-vanity motives, developing self-authorship, exposure to different perspectives, and experiencing disadvantages and deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new thermodynamic retrieval scheme is developed by which one can use the wind fields synthesized from multiple-Doppler radars to derive the three-dimensional thermodynamic fields over complex terrain. A cost function consisting of momentum equations and a simplified thermodynamic equation is formulated. By categorizing the analysis domain into flow and terrain regions, the variational technique is applied to minimize this cost function only within the flow region, leading to the solutions for the three-dimensional pressure and temperature perturbations immediately over terrain. Using idealized datasets generated by a numerical model, an experiment is first conducted to assess the accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The retrieval scheme is then applied to a real case that occurred during the 2008 Southwestern Monsoon Experiment (SoWMEX) conducted in Taiwan. The retrieved thermodynamic fields, verified by radiosonde data, reveal the structure of a prefrontal squall line as it approaches a mountain. The retrieved three-dimensional high-resolution pressure and temperature along with the wind fields not only allow us to better understand the thermodynamic and kinematic structure of a heavy rainfall system, but can also be assimilated into a numerical model to improve the forecast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional foldover designs are obtained by changing the signs of some columns of an initial design. Li and Lin (Technometrics 58:508–512, 2016) proposed to further improve foldover designs by allowing column permutations. To deal with computational challenges in obtaining the optimal foldover with column permutations, we explore some theoretical properties of such designs. Using the indicator function approach, we investigate under what circumstances can a foldover design be improved by doing column permutations. Several types of permutations are found to be particularly effective for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been previously reported that a supercapacitor with activated carbon (AC)-based electrodes has a high degree of nanoporosity and a large specific surface area, leading to a larger capacitance than one using conventional materials for its electrodes. This study investigates the diffusive behavior of organic electrolyte molecules in activated carbon electrodes with different pore sizes and densities using the coarse-grained molecular model and constant-potential molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. This organic electrolyte consists of the tetraethylammonium cation (NEt 4 +) and tetrafluoroborate anion (BF 4 −) dissolved in an acetonitrile (ACN) solvent. Combining the time-stamped force-bias Monte Carlo (tfMC) and simulated-annealing methods, AC electrodes with different densities and pore sizes were constructed. This study provides an atomistic scale understanding for the ion exchange mechanism between the nanoporous electrode and electrolyte region. The simulation results were also used for comparison to the graphite electrode supercapacitors of our previous study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is one of the well-recognized oral potentially malignant disorders. In this study, we investigated the malignant transformation of OSF in a Taiwanese population.Methods: A retrospective cohort study was analyzed from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. A comparison cohort was randomly frequency-matched with the OSF cohort according to age, sex, and index year. Oral leukoplakia (OL) was further stratified to evaluate for the possible synergistic effects of OSF-associated malignant transformation.Results: In this cohort, 71 (9.13%) of 778 cases of OSF were observed to transform into oral cancer. The malignant transformation rate was 29.26-fold in the OSF cohort than in the comparison cohort after adjustment (95% confidence intervals 20.55-41.67). To further stratify with OL, OSF with OL (52.46%; 95% confidence intervals 34.88-78.91) had higher risk of malignant transformation rate than OSF alone (29.84%; 95% confidence intervals 20.99-42.42). The Kaplan-Meier plot revealed the rate free of malignant transformation was significant over the 13-year follow-up period (log-rank test, P<.001). The mean duration of malignant transformation was 5.1, 2.7, and 2.2 years for non-OSF, OSF alone, and OSF with OL, respectively.Conclusion: Oral submucous fibrosis patients exhibited a significantly higher risk of malignant transformation than those without OSF. OL could enhance malignant transformation in patients with OSF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are commonly synthesized through solid-state reactions and solution-mediated techniques. In this work, HEA nanoparticles were synthesized using an ultra-efficient pulse microwave (PM) method at relatively low temperatures (∼100 °C) with superior catalytic activities. During the PM synthesis process, the precursors of the reaction activate and accelerate the reaction owing to the release of localized and excessive energy. This leads to the formation of a crystallized high-entropy alloy (HEA). Pt 30 Al 15 Mn 15 Co 10 Ni 15 Cu 15 and Pt 30 Al 15 Mn 15 Co 10 Ni 15 Fe 15 HEA nanoparticles were synthesized without requiring additional external heat treatments. Furthermore, the synthesized entropically stable HEA nanoparticles showed excellent dispersion behavior towards graphene oxide (GO) sheets (particle size: 4–10 nm), this enhanced dispersion resulted in improved catalytic activity and long-term durability for various processes including H 2 adsorption/desorption, oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The robust design of Cu-HEA-GO catalytic nanoparticles leads to increased synergistic interactions, which play a critical role in enhancing the ORR/OER activity. We firmly believe that the framework established in this study paves the way for the development of various high-performance catalysts based on HEAs for applications in fuel cells, metal-air batteries, and other electrochemical devices. [Display omitted] • Pulse microwave method is used to synthesize high entropy alloys (HEAs) at 100 °C. • Two HEAs, Pt 30 Al 15 Mn 15 Co 10 Ni 15 Cu 15 and Pt 30 Al 15 Mn 15 Co 10 Ni 15 Fe 15 serve as catalysts. • Well-dispersed HEAs (particle size: 4–10 nm) are deposited on graphene oxide sheet. • Design of Cu-HEAs play a key role in enhancing catalytic activity and durability. • This work sets the stage for developing new classes of HEAs as electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bloodstream infections (BSI) are an important source of postoperative mortality in hepatobiliary–pancreatic surgery (HBPS) patients, and no prediction model has been analyzed before. Methods: Using big data from the electronic medical records of the administrative and culture databases of MacKay Memorial Hospital, we identified the potential risk factors for community-acquired and healthcare-associated BSI and mortality of patients who received HBPS. Subsequently, we analyzed the microorganisms' profiles and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns for these BSI. Results: BSI were found in 6.3% patients (349 of 5513 HBPS patients), and hospital mortality was 1.48% (82 of 5513). Dividing patients into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups on the basis of sex, age, status of comorbidity (renal failure, peptic ulcer disease, fluid and electrolyte disorders, and acute cholecystitis), a predictive BSI risk score model was developed. According to this model, BSI risk ranged from 1.43% to 11.95%; AUROC to predict BSI risk was 0.72 (95% CI 0.69–0.75). From this retrospective study, Enterobacteriaceae were the most common microorganisms that were isolated from BSI. For both community-acquired and healthcare-associated BSI, imipenem and colistin are the most successful. Conclusion: This novel model can be useful to predict who is at risk of BSI after HBPS, and new prophylactic protocols for these patients are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing a rapidly aging population, China has recently started to formulate and implement policies with the aim to provide old-age care. While well-developed old-age care policies commonly include a built-in component that assesses eligibility based on vulnerability, no such process is established in the context of China. Here, based on data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study collected in both 2011 and 2013, we (a) developed a simple and effective strategy for identifying vulnerable Chinese elderly, which can serve as a basis for policy targeting, and (b) improved the policy relevance and targeting efficiency of this vulnerability measure by including additional health indicators. Our vulnerability measures identify 35% to 46% of Chinese elderly as vulnerable, covering up to 67% of elderly at high risk of death or functional decline. They can serve as an initial screening step for more comprehensive geriatric assessments and enable policy makers to effectively target vulnerable elderly persons in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • 0.1 mM PS- b -P4VPQ with larger hydrophilic block forms core-shell polymer micelles. • High amounts of DNA can be absorbed in the brush shell of PS- b -P4VPQ micelles. • Dirpersed polymer micelle/DNA complexes can be formed with 29.4 μM DNA. • The polymer micelle/DNA complexes form agglomerates at 58.8 μM DNA or higher. Abstract The diblock copolymer polystyrene- block -poly(N -methyl 4-vinylpyridine iodide) (PS- b -P4VPQ) with the molecular weight of PS 3.5 × 103 g/mol and P4VPQ 11.6 × 103 g/mol forms core-shell polymer micelles in aqueous solution. The cationic brush shell of the polymer micelle can be used to accommodate hydrophilic drugs and biomolecules, such as DNA, for biomedical applications. It is essential to understand how biomolecules are adsorbed within the brush layer. Here we investigated the interaction of the cationic brush of the polymer micelle with DNA by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It is found when adding only relatively small amounts of on average 30 base pairs (bp) DNA, at 19.6 and 39.2 μM for 0.1 mM PS- b -P4VPQ, most of the polymer micelle/DNA complexes remain well dispersed. The brush layer of the polymer micelles are slightly swelled due to the adsorption of DNA within the brush layer. When the DNA concentration is increased to 58.8 μM or higher, the polymer micelle/DNA complexes form closely packed agglomerates. At high DNA concentrations, some adsorbed DNA will start to build up at the edge or surface of the brush layer which could induce aggregation of the polymer micelle/DNA complexes. This means that it is possible to prepare mostly dispersed polymer/DNA complexes by keeping the DNA concentration below the aggregation concentration. The well dispersed polymer micelle/DNA complexes are advantageous for many DNA related biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Mitochondria are organelles highly dynamic in most types of cells, constantly changing morphology and forming dynamically continuous networks. Defects of mitochondrial dynamics are associated with various human diseases including neurodegenerative diseases and cardiovascular diseases. In the heart, mitochondria are rigidly organized between myofilaments into a crystal-like lattice pattern, the apparently limited mitochondrial movement raises the question of whether mitochondria communicate with each other dynamically. A large body of evidence reveals abnormal mitochondrial morphology in cardiac diseases and that deficiencies of mitochondrial dynamic related proteins lead to cardiac dysfunctions, indicating an essential role of mitochondrial dynamics in regulating the cardiac function. Here we will review mitochondrial dynamics in the heart with the focus on recent findings of the direct inter-mitochondrial communication in adult cardiomyocytes, and will discuss the possible regulating mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Robust parameter design is an effective methodology for reducing variance and improving the quality of a product and a process. Recent work has mainly concentrated on two‐level robust parameter designs. We consider general robust parameter designs with factors having two or more or mixed levels these levels being either qualitative or quantitative. We propose a methodology and develop a generalised minimum aberration optimality criterion for selecting optimal robust parameter designs. A catalogue of 18‐run optimal designs is constructed and tabulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SPINT1, also known as HAI-1, is a Kunitz-type serine protease inhibitor that inhibits multiple proteases including hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) activator and matriptase. SPINT1 has been shown to modulate HGF/MET activation in certain cancer types. In the present study, we analyzed microarray datasets and found that SPINT1 was consistently upregulated in differentiated thyroid cancer. SPINT1 protein expression was investigated using tissue microarrays and independent samples of our 143 patients. Strong SPINT1 expression was observed in 61-68% of papillary thyroid cancer and 41-50% of follicular thyroid cancer. The overexpression diminished in anaplastic thyroid cancer. The SPINT1 expression in normal thyroid tissues and benign thyroid lesions was low. Furthermore, we noted that the SPINT1 expression was associated with extrathyroidal invasion, lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, advanced TNM stage, and a higher risk of recurrence in differentiated thyroid cancer. The results were in accordance with our analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas data. In conclusion, an overexpression of SPINT1 appears to be associated with an invasive phenotype in differentiated thyroid cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Systemic inflammation has been implicated in complications and heightened mortality of patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are widely available surrogate markers of inflammation. This study sought to delineate the changes in NLR and PLR after parathyroidectomy. Methods A total of 213 patients undergoing initial parathyroidectomy from 2010 to 2015 for secondary hyperparathyroidism were identified from a prospectively maintained clinical database. Among 183 patients free of persistent or recurrent disease, follow-up NLR and PLR were available for analysis in 85 patients. Results In the whole study population, the baseline NLR was positively correlated with male sex, total white blood cell count, height, serum phosphorus, and calcium–phosphorus product levels. The baseline PLR was positively correlated with platelet count, serum phosphorus, and calcium–phosphorus product levels and negatively associated with patient age. Postoperative parathyroid hormone levels were positively correlated with NLR and PLR at follow-up. For patients who had successful parathyroidectomy, there was a decrease in NLR ( P = 0.0006), PLR ( P = 0.0003), and platelet count ( P = 0.033), whereas hemoglobin significantly increased ( P = 0.0002) after surgery. Those with persistent or recurrent hyperparathyroidism had no change in NLR, PLR, hemoglobin, total white blood cell, or platelet count. Conclusions Successful parathyroidectomy is associated with a decrease in NLR and PLR. The modulatory effects of parathyroidectomy on systemic inflammation may partially explain the benefits of surgery in secondary hyperparathyroidism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining the time-stamped force-bias Monte Carlo (tfMC) and simulated-annealing methods, different densities of activated carbon (AC) in different quench rates were constructed. Six AC models were constructed, corresponding to densities of 0.5, 0.7, and 1.3 g/cm 3 and quench rates of 5 K per 30 tfMC steps and 5 K per 6000 tfMC steps, respectively. The structural properties of these models were examined, including porosity, specific surface area (SSA) and pore distribution. In uniaxial tensile simulation, the Young's modulus and the fracture of microstructures were also investigated. The specific surface area and Young's modulus are proportional to the density of AC, but the porosity and the main distribution of pore size are inversely related. The probability distribution of the ring size shows that six-atom rings translate to four- and five- atom ring during tensile simulation. The local shear strain analysis indicates that the fractures appear adjacent to the non-hexagonal ring defects and at the edge of the carbon wall frame in AC and will expand vertically along the tensile axis. This study not only constructs a structural prediction procedure of AC but also provides several detailed information of AC fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxygen free radicals have been implicated in the pathogenesis of toxic liver injury and are thought to be involved in cardiac dysfunction in the cirrhotic heart. Therefore, direct evidence for the electron spin resonance (ESR) detection of how D-galactosamine (GalN), an established experimental hepatotoxic substance, induced free radicals formation in platelets and primary hepatocytes is presented in the present study. ESR results demonstrated that GalN induced hydroxyl radicals (OH•) in a resting human platelet suspension; however, radicals were not produced in a cell free Fenton reaction system. The GalN-induced OH• formation was significantly inhibited by the cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor indomethasin, though it was not affected by the lipoxygenase (LOX) or cytochrome P450 inhibitors, AA861 and 1-aminobenzotriazole (ABT), in platelets. In addition, the present study demonstrated that baicalein induced semiquinone free radicals in platelets, which were significantly reduced by the COX inhibitor without affecting the formed OH•. In the mouse primary hepatocytes, the formation of arachidonic acid (AA) induced carbon-centered radicals that were concentration dependently enhanced by GalN. These radicals were inhibited by AA861, though not affected by indomethasin or ABT. In addition, GalN did not induce platelet aggregation prior to or following collagen pretreatment in human platelets. The results of the present study indicated that GalN and baicalein may induce OH• by COX and LOX in human platelets. GalN also potentiated AA induced carbon-centered radicals in hepatocytes via cytochrome P450. The present study presented the role of free radicals in the pathophysiological association between platelets and hepatocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet of Things (IoT) technology offers opportunities to monitor lifelogging data by a variety of assets, like wearable sensors, mobile apps, etc. But due to heterogeneity of connected devices and diverse human life patterns in an IoT environment, lifelogging personal data contains huge uncertainty and are hardly used for healthcare studies. Effective validation of lifelogging personal data for longitudinal health assessment is demanded. In this paper, lifelogging physical activity (LPA) is taken as a target to explore how to improve the validity of lifelogging data in an IoT enabled healthcare system. A rule-based adaptive LPA validation (LPAV) model, LPAV-IoT, is proposed for eliminating irregular uncertainties (IUs) and estimating data reliability in IoT healthcare environments. A methodology specifying four layers and three modules in LPAV-IoT is presented for analyzing key factors impacting validity of LPA. A series of validation rules are designed with uncertainty threshold parameters and reliability indicators and evaluated through experimental investigations. Following LPAV-IoT, a case study on a personalized healthcare platform myhealthavatar connecting three state-of-the-art wearable devices and mobile apps are carried out. The results reflect that the rules provided by LPAV-IoT enable efficiently filtering at least 75% of IU and adaptively indicating the reliability of LPA data on certain condition of IoT environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This work aims at probing the formation of hydrogen bonds in the blends of polybenzoxazines and additional hydrogen-bond donor moieties-containing compounds. Based on experimental study and computer simulations, we found that the dominant hydrogen bonds of p -cresol-aniline-based dimer ( p C-a-D) and polybenzoxazines (P p C-a) were OH⋯N while N,N ′-(pyridine-2,6-diyl)diacetamide (DAA) was NH⋯O C hydrogen bond. After blending p C-a-D or P p C-a with DAA, additional hydrogen bonds formed, i.e. , OH⋯O C and OH⋯ NH. Moreover, the total quantity of hydrogen bonds of the blends increased. These results suggested that hydrogen bonds formed between polybenzoxazines and the additional hydrogen-bond donor moieties-containing polymers or compounds, and furthermore would be desirable to foster the promoted performance. This novel insight about polybenzoxazine blends is anticipated to help researchers explore more blends of polybenzoxazines with excellent properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to storage conditions and material's non‐planar shape, geometric distortion of the two‐dimensional content is widely present in scanned document images. Effective geometric restoration of these distorted document images considerably increases character recognition rate in large‐scale digitisation. For large‐scale digitisation of historical books, geometric restoration solutions expect to be accurate, generic, robust, unsupervised and reversible. However, most methods in the literature concentrate on improving restoration accuracy for specific distortion effect, but not their applicability in large‐scale digitisation. This study proposes an effective mesh based geometric restoration system (GRLSD) for large‐scale distorted historical document digitisation. In this system, an automatic mesh generation based dewarping tool is proposed to geometrically model and correct arbitrary warping historical documents. An XML‐based mesh recorder is proposed to record the mesh of distortion information for reversible use. A graphic user interface (GUI) toolkit is designed to visually display and manually manipulate the mesh for improving geometric restoration accuracy. Experimental results show that the proposed automatic dewarping approach efficiently corrects arbitrarily warped historical documents, with an improved performance over several state‐of‐the‐art geometric restoration methods. By using XML mesh recorder and GUI toolkit, the GRLSD system greatly aids users to flexibly monitor and correct ambiguous points of mesh for the prevention of damaging historical document images without distortions in large‐scale digitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were carried out to investigate the conformations of fourth generation polyamidoamine (G4 PAMAM) dendrimer-encapsulated Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) of different sizes at different pH conditions. The consistent valence force field (CVFF) was used to model the interaction between the atoms of G4 PAMAM dendrimer and water molecules as well as their interactions with the Au atoms of AuNP. The many-body tight-binding potential was adopted to describe the interaction between Au atoms. The simulation results show a single G4 PAMAM dendrimer can only partially cover the AuNP when its diameter is larger than 2.3 nm. According to the variations of radius of gyration ( R g ) values, the conformations of PAMAM dendrimers become more compact after covering the AuNP at neutral pH. According to the Stokes–Einstein (SE) relation and the diffusion coefficients obtained by the Einstein equation, it was proposed that both the PAMAM dendrimer conformation and the interaction strength between the PAMAM/AuNP and water molecules have significant influences on the diffusion behaviors of PAMAM/AuNP systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fine-grained visual categorization requires the ability to distinguish categories with subtle differences, which is also a problem constantly burdened by collecting and labeling massive volume of samples. While transfer learning is extensively used in fine-grained visual categorization, these approaches generally does not work under few-shot regime. As apposed to meta-learning which suffers limitations such as shallow adaptation, and traditional transfer learning which is not task-oriented, we propose a novel transfer learning approach which we refer to as Trans-transfer Learning (T 2 L). Firstly, a two-phase learning framework is proposed to facilitate task orientation and deep adaptation. Secondly, a novel explainable-learning based procedure is integrated into the second phase to reconfigure the network for training on few samples, after which a deep adaptation procedure is conducted by simultaneously optimizing the feature extractor and the classification boundaries. It is motivated by the fact that a large factor of the over-fitting under few-shot regime, comes from noises that appear in every layers of the activation. The reconfigured model can train solely based on inter-class differences, which not only alleviates over-fitting, but also rediscovers more discriminating features. The proposed approach is comparatively evaluated with state-of-the-art approaches in this field and demonstrates better performances consistently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]