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Endohedrally doped clusters form a large category of cage clusters, with unique structures, diverse elemental compositions, and highly tunable electronic structures and physisochemical properties. They have been widely achieved in laboratory and may serve as functional building blocks for assembling new supermolecular structures and devices. In this paper, for the first time, we disclosed the luminescence properties of endohedrally doped group-IV clusters by time-dependent density functional theory calculations. A total of 64 cage clusters have been explored in terms of stability, emission wavelength, and the energy difference between the first excited singlet and triplet states. The key geometric and electronic factors governing the photophysical properties of these cage clusters were unveiled, to provide crucial insights for crafting atomically precise nanoclusters for optical and optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extreme ultraviolet (EUV) nanolithography technology is the keystone for developing the next-generation chips. As conventional chemically amplified resists are approaching the resolution limit, metal-containing photoresists, especially tin-oxo clusters, seize the opportunity to embrace this challenge owing to their small sizes, precise atomic structures, and strong EUV absorption. However, atomistic insights into the mechanism for regulating their photolithographic behavior are lacking. Herein, we systematically explored the effects of ligands, counterions, and endohedral doping on the photophysical properties of tin-oxo cage clusters by first-principles calculations combined with molecular dynamics simulations. Photoresists assembled by allyl-protected clusters with small-size OH− or Cl− counterions have a high absorption coefficient at the EUV wavelength of 13.5 nm and a low energy cost for ligand detachment and superior stability to ensure high sensitivity and strong etch resistance, respectively. The photoresist performance can further be improved by endohedral doping of the metal-oxo nanocage with Ag+ and Cd2+ ions, which exhibit superatomic characteristics and are likely to be synthesized in laboratory. These theoretical results provide useful guidance for modification of metal-oxo clusters for high-resolution EUV photolithography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile and versatile methodology is developed for the synthesis of diverse gold nanostructured arrays employing an oxide secondary template combined with sputtering deposition. A bowl‐shaped tin oxide‐built array, with fine structure on its bowl edges, is first designed and prepared by solution‐dipping of an organic colloidal monolayer, drying, and heating treatment. This array is then used as a secondary template for a gold nanostructured array by sputtering deposition on it. By controlling the solution's concentration and drying rate to adjust the fine structure of the secondary template, various new gold nanostructured arrays with hexagonal arrangement are fabricated, including "graphene‐structured" gold nanoarray, non‐contact nanoparticle's ring array, closely contacted nanoring array, and bowl/nanoparticle binary composite nanoarray, achieving the structural diversity and morphological tunability of nanoarrays. Additionally, these gold nanostructured arrays can transition from hydrophilic to hydrophobic properties solely by adjusting their surface architecture. Importantly, the bowl‐shaped structural units within these gold nanoarrays demonstrate a marked capability for capturing target molecules that can only very weakly interact with plasmonic metals. This work offers an efficient route to achieve the structural diversity of nanoarrays, which is of significance in designing and fabricating foundational materials for the next generation of multifunctional nanodevices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating real‐time electrical gas sensing and highly identifiable surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) monitoring holds significant potential for safeguarding public health and safety. However, this technique remains in the proof‐of‐concept stage because the performance and reproducibility of devices fall short of meeting the practical application requirements. This work addresses this challenge by employing vortex engineering on a bifunctional dual‐layer array of Ni‐doped SnO2 (Ni‐SnO2) bowl‐coated on Ni‐SnO2/Au/SiO2 and developing highly reproducible device fabrication. In the dual‐layer array, vortices generated in upper Ni‐SnO2 bowls slow down the VOC flow and direct its delivery to gaps between lower Ni‐SnO2/Au/SiO2 units that are critical to SERS and electrical sensing. Experimental results show that the vortex effect in the array enables a low limit of detection of 10 ppb with a response and recovery in seconds. The excellent practicality of the array has been demonstrated through a ca. 100 hours of quantitative dual‐monitoring of styrene in a spacious environment (~60 m3) with a 5‐meter distance between the leakage source and the array. This work advances dual‐monitoring sensors for practical applications and offers insights for designing gas‐sensing materials and devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the sparse β model with 1 penalty in the field of network data models, which is a hot topic in both statistical and social network research. We present a refined algorithm designed for parameter estimation in the proposed model. Its effectiveness is highlighted through its alignment with the proximal gradient descent method, stemming from the convexity of the loss function. We study the estimation consistency and establish an optimal bound for the proposed estimator. Empirical validations facilitated through meticulously designed simulation studies corroborate the efficacy of our methodology. These assessments highlight the prospective contributions of our methodology to the advanced field of network data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a prevalent health problem in women worldwide. Many women experience UI during pregnancy. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) as the first-line conservative treatment for UI. However, it is not widely implemented due to the limited number of healthcare trainers. Group-based PFMT has been used with older women and a limited number of maternity studies. But the effectiveness of the group-based PFMT needs to be investigated because the overall quality of the studies is low. Therefore, this study aims to assess the feasibility of delivering a group-based PFMT programme for pregnant women in Nanjing city. Methods: This feasibility study will be conducted in Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital in China, using a mixed methods design to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of delivering group-based PFMT to pregnant women. Pregnant women with or without the symptoms of UI will be included. This study aims to recruit 48 pregnant women with 24 in each arm. Participants will receive either the group-based PFMT delivered by a midwife or usual antenatal care which includes only verbal instruction on PFMT. The study will assess the completion rates, acceptability of outcome measures, recruitment and retention rate and calculate an appropriate sample size for a future study. Discussion: The results of this study will inform the design and implementation of a definitive randomized clinical trial to explore the effectiveness of the intervention. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05242809. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) serves an important role in statistics and machine learning. In this article, for i.i.d. variables, we obtain constant-specified and sharp concentration inequalities and oracle inequalities for the MLE only under exponential moment conditions. Furthermore, in a robust setting, the sub-Gaussian type oracle inequalities of the log-truncated maximum likelihood estimator are derived under the second-moment condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Reduced survival of red blood cells (RBCs) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is thought to contribute to renal anaemia. Although renal anaemia improved greatly because of the wide use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) and the advancement of dialysis techniques, RBC longevity seems not to be obviously ameliorated. Methods In this single-centre, single-arm trial, patients who had been undergoing haemodialysis and ESA therapy with epoetin alfa for at least 12 weeks changed their anti-anaemia drugs from epoetin alfa to oral roxadustat three times per week for 24 weeks. The primary endpoint was the change in RBC lifespan from baseline at week 24. The change in the circulating percentage of eryptotic RBCs, RBC deformability and RBC oxygen transport ability were also assessed. Results A total of 27 patients were enrolled, with 26 completing the full course of intervention. At baseline, the average RBC lifespan was 60.1 days [standard deviation (SD) 14.4; n  = 27]. At the end of the study period, 26 patients had an RBC lifespan measurement (83.9 days on average; SD 21.9). The RBC lifespan increased by 22.8 days on average [95% confidence interval (CI) 15.5–30.0, P  < .001]. This equated to an average RBC lifespan increase of 39.2% (95% CI 27.8–50.6). The percentage of circulating eryptotic RBCs, erythrocyte filtration index and the pressure at which haemoglobin is 50% saturated decreased significantly from baseline to week 24 (1.39 ± 0.44% versus 0.89 ± 0.25%, P  < .0001; 0.29 ± 0.12 versus 0.16 ± 0.08, P  < .0001 and 32.54 ± 4.83 versus 28.40 ± 2.29, P  < .001, respectively). Conclusion Roxadustat prolonged RBC lifespan in patients with long-term haemodialysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive-cooling building materials can achieve cooling without external energy consumption, which is an energy-saving and environmentally friendly cooling method. However, the existing passive-cooling building materials have the limitations of high cost, complicated processes, and a toxic organic solvent, which hinders the passive-cooling technology applied in practical building. To overcome these limitations, we developed a facile, high-efficiency, non-toxic, and superhydrophobic passive-cooling building coating (SPCBC) with an efficient cooling capability and excellent durability that was composed of polydimethylsiloxane and SiO2. The fabricated SPCBC demonstrated a high reflectance and a high emittance, showing a superior cooling capability with a 14 °C temperature drop compared with a bare cement surface on a hot summer day. In addition, the SPCBC could not be wetted or contaminated by muddy water, corrosive aqueous solutions, or dust, which presented an excellent anti-fouling and self-cleaning capability. Moreover, the fabricated SPCBC could work outdoors for 30 days, withstand UV irradiation for 30 days, and resist accelerated aging for 100 h without any significant changes in the superhydrophobicity and the cooling capability, meaning that the SPCBC had an outstanding durability. This work provides a new method to facilitate passive-cooling technology to apply in practical building in hot weather regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tunable 5 d-4f luminescence of Eu2+ is of great application value, but it is still full of challenges in terms of luminescence efficiency, thermal stability and precise tuning of luminescence colors. In this work, we synthesized a series of Rb 2-x Cs x CaP 2 O 7 :0.015Eu2+ phosphors based on the equivalent substitution strategy, allowing a certain proportion of Cs+ to replace Rb+ sites. By optimizing the Rb/Cs ratio, the structural symmetry of the [CaO 6 ] octahedra can be enhanced, providing a high-stability and high-symmetry localized crystal field environment for the high efficiency luminescence of Eu2+. The experimental results confirmed that the broad-spectrum orange light emission could be achieved in Rb 0·5 Cs 1·5 CaP 2 O 7 :0.015Eu2+, and the integrated luminescence intensity was 6.9 times higher than that of Rb 2 CaP 2 O 7 :0.015Eu2+. Moreover, the luminescence intensity at 150 °C reached 93.3% of its room-temperature value. Using the synthesized phosphor as orange component, a white LED was assembled and a high-quality white light emission with Ra = 87.8 was achieved. These results suggest that rationally tuning the local structural symmetry around Eu2+ is an effective strategy to develop high-performance Eu2+-activated phosphors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressure-induced phase transition of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) provides an effective approach to develop new boron nitride nanostructures with more desirable functions than those of carbon nanotubes, owing to the unique polar B–N bonds. However, the synthetic BNNTs usually comprise double- or multi-walls, whose structural evolution under pressure is complicated and remains largely elusive. Here, we unveil the complete phase transition behavior of hexagonal bundles of double-walled (DW) BNNTs of different chirality and diameters under hydrostatic pressures of up to 60 GPa. A series of new monolith phases are obtained from the compressed DW-BNNT bundles, whose structures can be well retained even after releasing the pressure. The bonding characters; electronic, optical, and mechanical properties; and Raman signature of these monolith phases are elucidated, which provide essential guidance for synthesis of new boron nitride materials with unprecedented properties for technological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational design of polymer structures at the molecular level promotes the iteration of high‐performance photocatalyst for sustainable photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production from oxygen and water, which also lays the basis for revealing the reaction mechanism. Here we report a benzoxazine‐based m‐aminophenol‐formaldehyde resin (APFac) polymerized at ambient conditions, exhibiting superior H2O2 yield and long‐term stability to most polymeric photocatalysts. Benzoxazine structure was identified as the crucial photocatalytic active segment in APFac. Favorable adsorption of oxygen/intermediates on benzoxazine structure and commendable product selectivity accelerated the reaction kinetically in stepwise single‐electron oxygen reduction reaction. The proposed benzoxazine‐based phenolic resin provides the possibility of production in batches and industrial application, and sheds light on the de novo design and analysis of metal‐free polymeric photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rational design of polymer structures at the molecular level promotes the iteration of high‐performance photocatalyst for sustainable photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production from oxygen and water, which also lays the basis for revealing the reaction mechanism. Here we report a benzoxazine‐based m‐aminophenol‐formaldehyde resin (APFac) polymerized at ambient conditions, exhibiting superior H2O2 yield and long‐term stability to most polymeric photocatalysts. Benzoxazine structure was identified as the crucial photocatalytic active segment in APFac. Favorable adsorption of oxygen/intermediates on benzoxazine structure and commendable product selectivity accelerated the reaction kinetically in stepwise single‐electron oxygen reduction reaction. The proposed benzoxazine‐based phenolic resin provides the possibility of production in batches and industrial application, and sheds light on the de novo design and analysis of metal‐free polymeric photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, convolutional‐neural‐network based stereo matching methods have achieved significant gains compared to conventional methods in terms of both speed and accuracy. Current state‐of‐the‐art disparity estimation algorithms require many parameters and large amounts of computational resources and are not suited for applications on edge devices. In this paper, an end‐to‐end light‐weight network (LWNet) for fast stereo matching is proposed, which consists of an efficient backbone with multi‐scale feature fusion for feature extraction, a 3D U‐Net aggregation architecture for disparity computation, and color guidance in a 2D convolutional neural network (CNN) for disparity refinement. MobileNetV2 is adopted as an efficient backbone in feature extraction. The channel attention module is applied to improve the representational capacity of features and multi‐resolution information is adaptively incorporated into the cost volume via cross‐scale connections. Further, a left‐right consistency check and color guidance refinement are introduced and a robust disparity refinement network is designed with skip connections and dilated convolutions to capture global context information and improve disparity estimation accuracy with little computational cost and memory space. Extensive experiments on Scene Flow, KITTI 2015, and KITTI 2012 demonstrate that the proposed LWNet achieves competitive accuracy and speed when compared with state‐of‐the‐art stereo matching methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a command filtered asymptotic adaptive prescribed performance control method is presented for nonlinear systems with time‐variant parameters, input delay, and external disturbances. The feature of the concerned system is more general and practical, which makes the controller development more complicated. By exquisitely constructing a set of auxiliary systems, both the command filtered errors and input delay are actively compensated simultaneously. Then a smooth nonlinear term with an updated gain is introduced into the controller design to concurrently compensate for time‐variant parameters and external disturbances. With the integration of the command filtered technique, the adaptive control and the prescribed performance function, a command filter‐based adaptive prescribed performance control framework is skillfully exploited, in which tracking errors of all the states are restricted into the preset regions. Based on the Lyapunov theory, both the transient and zero‐error asymptotic convergence performance can be guaranteed with the developed control method. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the preponderance of the exploited approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients infected with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) are known to exhibit longer hospital stays and a significantly poorer prognosis. We performed a 6-year retrospective analysis of nosocomial infections reported in the orthopedics department of our institution, to gain valuable insights into antibiotic sensitivity and infectious characteristics of MDROs, in order to deduce effective measures to control the occurrence of multidrug-resistant infections in clinical practice. A retrospective, single center surveillance study (January 2012–December 2017) was performed on the nosocomial infections recorded in the department of orthopedics. A nosocomial infection is defined as one that develops when a patient is residing in a hospital but was not present at the time of admission. All relevant data, including basic patient information, cultivated bacterial strains, and antimicrobial resistance, was obtained from the hospital information system. A total of 1392 strains of pathogenic bacteria were isolated; 358 belonged to MDROs (detection rate = 25.7%). All the isolated strains of MDROs were mostly from secretions (52.2%). The number of cases infected with MDROs were 144 (40.2%) and 129 (36.0%) in the trauma and spinal wards, respectively. MRSA showed high resistance to β lactam antibiotics, but was sensitive to quinolone antibiotics, linezolid and cotrimoxazole. ESBL-positive strains showed more sensitivity to carbapenem antibiotics (resistance rate < 10%). MDR nonfermenters showed high resistance to most antibiotics. Logistic multivariate analysis revealed age, open injury, and central nervous system injury as independent risk factors for multidrug resistant infections. A high antibiotic resistance rate and an increasing prevalence of infections with MDROs was identified in the orthopedics department. Patients with open injury, central nervous system injury and those aged ≥ 60 years, were more prone to multidrug-resistant infections. Clinicians should pay more attention to such patients in order to actively prevent and control the occurrence of infections caused by MDROs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article develops a high‐precision tracking control without velocity measurement for electro‐hydraulic actuators subject to mismatched and matched disturbances. Compared with previous studies, the presented control method is attractive from a practical point of view. First, velocity signal is often approximately derived by numerical differentiation on position signal, nevertheless, accompanied heavy noise will severely deteriorate tracking performance. Thus, to avert using noise‐polluted velocity signal, a third‐order super‐twisting algorithm (STA) is developed to achieve velocity estimation. Second, the STA‐based disturbance estimator is employed to estimate and compensate mismatched and matched disturbances in finite time. Then a composite STA‐based control law is constructed to achieve a velocity‐free high‐performance tracking control, in which an employed modified STA only with an adjustable gain is easier to be performed for practical implementation. The stability analysis reveals the proposed controller is asymptotically stable while existing time‐variant disturbances. Comparative experiment results validate the superiority of the presented method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, brine droplet impact has received less attention compared with water droplets, but the impact of brine droplets on heated surfaces frequently occurs in the industry, agriculture, biomedicine and other fields. The kinematics and evaporation of brine droplet impact on heated surfaces deserve paying much more attention due to their wide industry applications. This review provides a comprehensive summary of existing research on the dynamics, evaporation and crystallization characteristics of brine droplets impacting heated surfaces. The effect of salt in droplets on the evaporation rate, component transportation and crystal deposition are discussed. In addition, this review also summarized inadequacies of existing research and recommended concerning future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, a quasi-resonant extended state observer-based predictive current control (QRESO-based PCC) strategy is proposed for three-phase pulse width modulation (PWM) rectifier. Specifically, the QRESO is utilized to estimate the predictive value of system total disturbance and grid current at time instant k+1 in the stationary αβ frame, and the required control input at time instant k+1 is then calculated based on the principle of deadbeat predictive control. The proposed control scheme can achieve robust control against to the electrical parameter variation, accommodate the measurement noise, and also assure the satisfactory steady-state and dynamic performance for the PWM rectifier. Besides, the stability analysis of QRESO and the whole current close-loop control system with the consideration of QRESO in the discrete-time domain are presented. Finally, several hardware-in-the-loop test results of the proposed control strategy are provided and compared with the model free predictive current control based on linear extended state observer and the generalized integrator-extended state observer-based PCC strategy, which validate the effectiveness and superiority of proposed QRESO-based PCC strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cervical cancer (CC), as one of the most widespread gynecological malignancies in the world, severely threatens women health. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) could exert vital functions in assorted cancers, including CC. Although FLVCR heme transporter 1 antisense RNA 1 (FLVCR1-AS1) has been recognized as a critical effector in different cancers, its precise role and mechanisms have never been studied in CC. Methods: RT-qPCR analysis was done for the measurement of the expression of FLVCR1-AS1, magnesium transporter 1 (MAGT1) and miR-381-3p in CC cells. Supported by western blot analysis, functional assays were done to evaluate the CC cell phenotype, while mechanism assays were done to explore the putative correlation among genes. Results: In CC cells, FLVCR1-AS1 and MAGT1 were upregulated and miR-381-3p was downregulated. FLVCR1-AS1 or MAGT1 knockdown or miR-381-3p augment restrained CC cell proliferation, migration and invasion, but facilitated cell apoptosis. FLVCR1-AS1 sponged miR-381-3p, and MAGT1 was targeted by the FLVCR1-AS1/miR-381-3p axis. It was also revealed that the inhibitory influences of FLVCR1-AS1 silence on CC cell malignant behaviors were countervailed by MAGT1 overexpression. Conclusion: FLVCR1-AS1 exacerbated the malignant phenotype of CC cells via the miR-381-3p/MAGT1 axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study selects five parameters as decision variables for the optimization design of an ocean thermal energy conversion system, including the evaporating temperature, the condensing temperature, the pinch-point temperature difference between the evaporator and condenser, and the working fluid flow rate. The optimization goal is to maximize the net output power per unit area and the exergy efficiency. The final scheme is comprehensively screened out from the Pareto solution set through some evaluation indexes. Finally, this study also analyzes the effects of four decision variables on the optimization objectives and the evaluation indexes. This study finds that evaporating temperature and condensing temperature have similar effects on the two objective functions. However, the pinch-point temperature difference has different effects on them. The back work ratio is obviously affected by the condensing temperature. A small pinch-point temperature difference is beneficial and improves the performance of an ocean thermal energy conversion system. The effects of evaporating temperature and condensing temperature on the investment cost per unit net output power are roughly similar to those on the net output power per unit heat exchange area. However, the effects of the pinch-point temperature difference on the two performance aspects are inconsistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reactive nitrogen species (RNS) generated via the reaction of nitric oxide (NO) with reactive oxygen species (ROS) are more lethal than ROS, and thus RNS‐mediated therapy has great potential in cancer treatment, yet it is still largely unexploited. Herein, a novel, injectable and NO‐releasing hydrogel (NO‐Gel) composed of α‐(nitrate ester) acetic acid‐modified amphiphilic copolymers is developed. To further convert released NO to RNS, glutathione (GSH)‐sensitive CuCys nanoparticles (NPs) and β‐lapachone (Lapa) are co‐loaded into the NO‐Gel. This hydrogel system possesses a temperature‐induced sol‐gel transition and can continuously liberate Lapa, CuCys NPs, and NO in vitro for up to 3 weeks. The sustained supply of Lapa can efficiently boost hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration in cancer cells, and intracellular GSH can induce the rapid release of NO and the reduction of CuCys NPs. With elevating H2O2 levels and producing highly reactive Cu(I), the Cu(I)‐catalyzed Fenton‐like reaction is dramatically enhanced, resulting in the generation of abundant hydroxyl radicals (·OH), and the subsequent cascade reactions among ·OH, H2O2, and NO cause more lethal RNS pool. After a single peritumoral injection of the hydrogel system, the cascade generation of ROS and RNS plus the substantial depletion of GSH can significantly suppress tumor growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese students' outstanding performance in several rounds of PISA tests has attracted extensive attention on Chinese teacher professional development practices and system. The school-based teaching research system has evolved for many years in China and became a mature and systematical model for improving teaching quality. However, this system and its functions has not been fully recognized and understood. This case study, mainly focusing on Shanghai, explores how the teaching-research system formed and developed and how it influenced teachers' learning and professional development. We summarized three different versions of Shanghai' teaching-research models and deeply described their processes, characteristics, and influence. Future research directions and implication for creating an effective and sustained approach for improving teacher quality were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Bone-targeted nanomedicine was designed and synthesized via using HCCP as the linkage. • The HQPA NPs show high water dispersibility and bone-targeting capability. • HQPA NPs could be used for effective treatment of osteoporosis. • HQPA NPs have dual anti-osteoporosis effects of promoting osteoblasts and inhibiting osteoclasts. Osteoporosis, closely related to age, is characterized by impaired bone mass and bone strength, damage of bone microstructure, resulting in a higher risk of fractures with minimal trauma, especially in the hip and spine. Quercetin (Que), a natural compound, has previously demonstrated its potential anti-osteoporosis effects via promoting bone formation and anti-bone resorption. However, Que is poor water solubility, lack of bone targeting, and requires high concentration to exert its therapeutic effects. In this work, a pH-responsive and bone-targeted nanomedicine HCCP-Que-PEG-ALN (HQPA) was developed via using hexachlorocyclotriphosphazene (HCCP) as the cross-linkage, Que, alendronate (ALN), and amino-polyethylene glycol (NH 2 -PEG) as other building blocks. We demonstrated that HQPA can form spherical nanoparticles in aqueous solution with average size of 158.3 ± 59.8 nm with high drug loading capacity of Que (31.4 w/w%) and obvious bone-targeting capability. in vitro experimental results indicated that HQPA NPs have dual anti-osteoporosis effects of promoting osteoblasts and inhibiting osteoclasts. Furthermore, HQPA NPs can effectively reduce the bone loss in OVX mice with low toxicity to major organs. We believe that this method should be a general and useful route for fabrication of bone-targeted natural-compounds-based nanomedicines for treatment different bone-related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma gas injection as one of the non-thermal plasma (NTP) technologies has a free-standing gas-phase plasma reactor outside the polluted target and can efficiently degrade contaminants by injecting plasma gas containing a large number of reactive species. This approach has been utilized in various fields of pollutants treatment, because of its structural advantage of indirect contact between pollutants and electrodes and its ability to produce strong oxidizing species. This article first expounds on the principle of the plasma gas injection and then progresses to a discussion of its application for pollutants degradation, mainly focusing on the treatment effect and degradation mechanisms. It is believed that plasma gas injection is considered to be a very practical, clean, efficient, and environmentally friendly method for pollution control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and hypothesis: Urinary incontinence (UI) is prevalent in antenatal and postnatal women. Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is the first-line treatment for UI. Group-based PFMT provides a way for professionals to deliver this intervention to more women who need to prevent and/or treat UI. This review aims to (1) assess the effectiveness of group-based PFMT in preventing and treating UI in antenatal and postnatal women and (2) explore the characteristics of group-based intervention and factors which had an impact on the success of group-based PFMT. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this review. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, Maternity and Infant Care Database, CINAHL, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Database and Wanfang Database. The overall quality was assessed using Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE). RCTs which included pregnant and/or postnatal women with or without UI investigating the effectiveness of group-based PFMT were included. Results: Five RCTs were included in this review. The overall quality of the results of the included studies was low. Delivering group-based PFMT during pregnancy significantly reduced the prevalence of UI in both the pregnant period [risk ratio (RR) = 0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.57 to 0.80, P < 0.00001] and the postnatal period [RR = 0.66, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.84, P = 0.0008]. Only one RCT delivered group-based PFMT during the postnatal period. Conclusion: Evidence of weak quality supports the effectiveness of undertaking group-based PFMT in pregnancy to prevent UI during pregnancy and the postnatal period. No evidence showed the effectiveness of undertaking group-based PFMT in the postnatal period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and utilization of marine renewable energy is an important measure for achieving energy conservation, emissions reduction and carbon neutrality. Ocean thermal energy is the most stable energy among all the types of marine renewable energy. This paper built a simulation model of an ocean thermal energy conversion system based on actual device specifications by Aspen and MATLAB and put forward a corresponding control strategy. The opening control signal of the control valve at the turbine inlet was the condenser inlet pressure in this paper, and the frequency control of the working fluid pump depended on the evaporating pressure and flow rate of the working fluid. This paper analyzed the key operating parameter changes of the system under different working conditions. According to the analysis results, the turbogenerator in this system was able to generate 50 kW power for about 8 months per year. The highest net output power of the Organic Rankine Cycle was 47.3 kW; the highest cycle thermal efficiency was 3.2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the asymptotic tracking control problem for uncertain nonlinear systems subject to both multiple disturbances and parametric uncertainties. To address this issue, a parameter adaptation law is synthesized to deal with the parametric uncertainties, and an adaptive-gain disturbance estimator (ADE) is constructed to estimate the mismatched and matched disturbances, and compensate them in feedforward channels, which eliminates the impact of disturbances on tracking performance. Meanwhile, an updated law for estimator gain driven by the estimation errors is utilized in the ADE when facing unknown upper bounds of disturbances, which reduces the conservatism of estimator gain selection and is beneficial to practical implementation. Based on the parameter adaption technique and the presented ADE approach, a composite controller is proposed to ensure an excellent asymptotic output tracking performance. The stability analysis shows the proposed controller can attain asymptotic tracking performance in the presence of both time-variant disturbances and parametric uncertainties. Comparative simulation results of the application to a robot manipulator reveal the validity of the developed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer (CC) is a common female malignant tumor. With the trend of younger onset, people pay more and more attention to it. Numberless evidence has been indicated that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can take part in progression of cancers and can exert the regulatory roles in assorted cancers. Nevertheless, the roles of FEZ family zinc finger 1-antisense RNA 1 (FEZF1-AS1) in CC cells are still undiscovered. Aim of the study. Thus, the central purpose of our research was to reveal the specific functions and molecular mechanisms of FEZF1-AS1 in CC cells. RT-qPCR was utilized to test FEZF1-AS1 expression in CC cells. In addition, functional assays were conducted to evaluate cell proliferation, apoptosis, and migration as well as invasion. In addition, mechanism experiments verified relationship among FEZF1-AS1, miR-367-3p and solute carrier family 12 member 5 (SLC12A5). FEZF1-AS1 was highly expressed in CC cells. Moreover, FEZF1-AS1 depletion suppressed proliferation, migration, invasion, and induced cell apoptosis. Importantly, mechanism experiments confirmed that miR-367-3p could bissnd to FEZF1-AS1 and SLC12A5. The rescue assays determined that FEZF1-AS1 could up-regulate SLC12A5 through binding to miR-367-3p. The up-regulated FEZF1-AS1 could accelerate the malignant behaviors of CC cells by miR-367-3p/SLC12A5 signal axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a compact extreme ultraviolet high-throughput spectrometer covering the 50–70 eV energy band. The key element in this spectrometer is a multilayer varied-line-spacing grating that operates in near-normal incidence geometry. The spectrometer can obtain one order of magnitude higher throughput compared to the traditional grazing incidence grating spectrometer in this energy band. The spectrum collection time and sample radiation damage can be largely reduced using the presented design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant decrease in red blood cell (RBC) survival has been observed in patients with renal failure, which is supposed to contribute to renal anemia. The aim of this observational study was to determine RBC survival in hemodialysis (HD) patients treated with roxadustat or recombinant human erythropoietin (rhuEPO) compared with healthy persons. RBC lifespan was measured by Levitt's CO breath test with newly developed automatic instrument ELS Tester. A total of 102 patients receiving long-term HD from two independent dialysis centers enrolled in the study, of whom 62 were treated with rhuEPO and 40 were on roxadustat therapy. A total of 25 healthy participants were recruited to match HD participants according to age and sex. Median RBC survival times in rhuEPO, roxadustat, and control groups were 65.0 (25th–75th percentile, 49.5–77.3), 75.5 (25th–75th percentile, 57.3–99.3), and 108.0 (25th–75th percentile, 89.0–141.5) d, respectively. Patients treated with roxadustat had significantly longer RBC survival time than patients treated with rhuEPO (p <.05). In multivariate analysis of factors affecting RBC lifespan in the whole HD patients, anemia treatment drugs (rhuEPO/roxadustat) and levels of hemoglobin were the significantly independent factors. RBC survival was not found to correlate with either weekly rhuEPO dosage (r = –0.087, p =.500) or weekly roxadustat dosage (r = −0.267, p =.110) in our cohort. HD patients treated with roxadustat had significantly longer RBC survival time than patients treated with rhuEPO, large prospective studies with long-term follow-up are warranted to verify the results in future. Abbreviations RBC: red blood cell; HD: hemodialysis; rhu EPO: recombinant human erythropoietin; ESRD: end-stage renal disease; EPO: erythropoietin; ROS: reactive oxygen species; CKD: chronic kideny disease; ESAs: erythropoiesis-stimulating agents; HIF-PHD: hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase; CO: carbon monoxide; Hb: hemoglobin [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was applied to model the thermal conductivity (k nf) in water/ethylene glycol (80:20) based hybrid nanofluid containing MWCNTs-titania-Zinc oxide. The nanofluids were synthesized by a two-step method. The ternary hybrid nanofluids had a volume fraction of nanoparticles φ = 0.1% to 0.4%, as well as mono and binary hybrid nanofluids. The experiments were performed at temperatures T = 25 °C–50 °C. Then an ANN has been used to predict the k nf. According to the results, the optimum neuron number was 26. The designed network has acceptable performance and the maximum absolute error was less than 0.018 in 102 data points. [Display omitted] • The thermal conductivity of water/ethylene glycol-MWCNTs-titania-Zinc oxide is extracted. • k nf is predicted by ANN and fitting method. • For both methods, the results have been presented and compared. • ANN could predict the thermal behavior of mono, binary and ternary nanofluids • ANN can decrease the lab costs and can obtain knf of mono, binary and ternary nanofluids [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Extensive clinical evidence suggests that time spent outdoors might reduce the risk of myopia. This study aimed to determine whether increasing sunlight exposure has a protective effect on hyperopic‐defocus induced myopia in a non‐human primate. Methods: Twelve 2‐month‐old rhesus monkeys were treated monocularly with photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) (4.0 D) and divided randomly into two groups: artificial light (AL; n = 6) and natural light (NL; n = 6). Monkeys in the AL group were reared under artificial (indoor) lighting (08:00–20:00 h). Monkeys in the NL group were exposed to natural (outdoor) lighting for 4 h (09:00–11:00 and 15:00–17:00 h). Ocular refraction, corneal power and axial dimensions were measured before sunlight exposure and every 10 days after PRK. At day 180, retinal histology and apoptosis activity were evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin (dUTP) nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay. Results: Mean (±SD) PRK induced anisometropia was +3.11 (0.33) D. At the end of the experiment, both eyes of the NL monkeys exhibited significantly more hyperopia and shorter vitreous chamber depths (VCD), compared with AL monkeys (p < 0.05). The NL group exhibited a significantly slower rate of compensation to the induced anisometropia than the AL group (p < 0.05). The retinas of both groups exhibited normal histology and levels of apoptosis. Conclusions: Moderate sunlight exposure exerts protective effects against the myopic shift resulting from PRK‐induced defocus in monkeys. These results are consistent with current clinical findings that increased outdoor exposure protects against myopia development. Sunlight exposure should serve as an independent positive factor in human myopia control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to study the influence of different amounts of hBN additive on the mechanical properties and microstructure of TiB 2 -15 vol% SiC samples. All ceramics, containing 0, 3.5, and 7 vol% hBN, were sintered at 2000 °C using a hot-pressing route and reached their near full densities. Thanks to two different chemical reactions among the SiC reinforcement and the TiB 2 surface oxides (B 2 O 3 and TiO 2), the in-situ phases of SiO 2 and TiC were generated over the sintering process. The intergranular mode was identified as the predominant fracture type in all three composite samples. The hBN additive could contribute to grain refining of composites so that the sample containing 7 vol% hBN reached the finest microstructure. Finally, the highest Vickers hardness of 25.4 HV 0.5 kg and flexural strength of 776 MPa were attained for the TiB 2 –SiC and TiB 2 –SiC-7 vol% hBN samples, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the law of the iterated logarithm (LIL) for the maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters (as a convex optimization problem) in the generalized linear models with independent or weakly dependent (ρ-mixing) responses under mild conditions. The LIL is useful to derive the asymptotic bounds for the discrepancy between the empirical process of the log-likelihood function and the true log-likelihood. The strong consistency of some penalized likelihood-based model selection criteria can be shown as an application of the LIL. Under some regularity conditions, the model selection criterion will be helpful to select the simplest correct model almost surely when the penalty term increases with the model dimension, and the penalty term has an order higher than O(log log n) but lower than O(n). Simulation studies are implemented to verify the selection consistency of Bayesian information criterion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extensive use of information and communication technologies (ICT) has facilitated people's lives and promoted the improvement of productivity. In the meantime, ICT has a profound effect on the efficiency of electricity utilization and the demand for electricity. The existing studies consider the direct effect of ICT on electricity consumption (EC) but neglect the spillover effect of ICT on EC and their action channels. Under the assumption of cross-section dependence, this paper introduces spatial modeling techniques to confirm the positive direct effect and negative spillover effect of ICT on EC. The positive direct effects and negative spillover effects of information technology on EC are similar to those of the communication technology, and the absolute value of the former is also greater than the latter. Additionally, the results of meditation effect modeling also confirm that there exists an incomplete mediating effect in the process of the ICT affecting EC through the channels of economic growth and the adjustment of the industrial structure. This study provides freshly empirical evidence for people to better understand the role of ICT in EC and opens fresh insights for policymakers to make corresponding policy adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are an emerging global problem that increases in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and cost. We performed a 6-year retrospective study to provide valuable insight into appropriate antibiotic use in HAI cases. We also aimed to understand how hospitals could reduce pathogen drug resistance in a population that overuses antibiotics. Methods: All data (2012–2017) were obtained from the hospital information warehouse and clinical microbiology laboratory. Results: We isolated 1392 pathogen strains from patients admitted to the orthopedics department during 2012–2017. Escherichia coli (14.7%, 204/1392), Enterobacter cloacae (13.9%, 193/1392), and Staphylococcus aureus (11.3%, 157/1392) were the most common pathogens causing nosocomial infections. The dominant Gram-negative bacterium was E. coli, with high resistance to ampicillin, levofloxacin, cotrimoxazole, gentamicin, and ciprofloxacin, in that order. E. coli was least resistant to amikacin, cefoperazone-sulbactam. The most dominant Gram-positive bacterium was S. aureus, highly resistant to penicillin and ampicillin, but not resistant to fluoroquinolones and cotrimoxazole. Analysis of risk factors related to multidrug-resistant bacteria showed that patients with open fractures (Gustillo III B and IIIC) were significantly more susceptible to methicillin-resistant S. aureus infections (p < 0.05). Additionally, extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing E. coli infections occurred significantly more often in patients with degenerative diseases (p < 0.05). Elderly patients tended to be more susceptible to multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, but this outcome was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Antimicrobial resistance is a serious problem in orthopedics. To effectively control antimicrobial resistance among pathogens, we advocate extensive and dynamic monitoring of MDR bacteria, coupled with careful use of antibiotics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In stream learning, data continuously arrives over time, often at a very high rate. For imbalanced data streams with concept drift, it becomes essential to simultaneously address classification accuracy and time efficiency. However, existing algorithms currently either demand excessive computational time or exhibit relatively lower classification performance. To address these issues, in this paper, a cost-sensitive continuous ensemble kernel learning method (CCEKL) is proposed to deal with the imbalanced data streams with concept drift. Firstly, for two-class data streams, a novel misclassification cost is proposed to adapt to the changing imbalance rate. Secondly, based on the modified loss function, a continuous kernel learning method is applied to adapt to the changing data distribution. Furthermore, the two-class method is extended to multi-class classification to deal with multi-class dynamic imbalance problems. Finally, we use an ensemble approach to address the proposed algorithm sensitivity to the initial kernel width. To further improve efficiency, a parallel approach is applied to simultaneously train multi-classifiers with different initial kernel widths. Experimental results on 30 data streams reveal that, for binary classification, CCEKL achieves superior balanced accuracy in a shorter training time. For multi-class classification, CCEKL attains better balanced accuracy without requiring excessive training time, surpassing the most of the state-of-the-art baseline algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• High-speed photography used to study micro-droplet ejection on super-hydrophobic surfaces. • Impact velocity is crucial for controlling micro-droplet ejection. • Initiated chemical vapor deposition method was used to change surface wettability. • Jet is caused by the blast of air-cavity collapse, verified by visualization experiment. • Ejection occurs at velocities of 0.26–1.31 m/s, classified into 5 stages. Impact velocity plays a crucial role in the control of droplet ejection when producing micro-droplets with directed diameters and velocities from millimetre-sized droplets. In this study, high-speed photography is used to experimentally investigate the characteristics of the ejection of micro-droplets after impacting a super-hydrophobic surface with different impact velocities ranging from 0.16 to 2.34 m/s. The results indicate that droplet ejection only occurs at impact velocities ranging from 0.26 to 1.31 m/s. Furthermore, it is found that the droplet ejection process can be classified into five stages based on the Weber number. In Stages 1–3, the ratio of the ejected to initial droplet diameters changes only slightly with the Weber number. In Stage 4, the ratio first increases, then decreases, and finally increases again. In Stage 5, the ratio decreases linearly. An equation describing the decrease in the ratio during Stage 5 is obtained and the correlation between the ratio of the ejection to impact velocities and the Weber number for the same stage is investigated. It is concluded that the formation of the central liquid column and the final characteristics of droplet ejection are mainly the result of the competition among inertial force, reaction force from the surface, gravity, and surface tension; and the formation of the jet is determined by the collapse of the air cavity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the distributions between the source (training) and target (test) datasets are different, the performance of classical statistical learning methods degrades significantly. Domain adaptation (DA) aims at correcting this distribution mismatch and narrowing down the distribution discrepancy. Existing methods mostly focus on correcting the mismatch between the marginal distributions and/or the class-conditional distributions. In this paper, we assume that the distribution mismatch in domain adaptation is the joint distribution mismatch, and propose an Extended Maximum Mean Discrepancy (EMMD) metric to measure the distance between joint distributions. Based on this metric, we propose the Joint Distribution Matching Embedding (JDME) approach, which finds a mapping matrix to project the samples into a latent space, where the EMMD between the source and target joint distributions is minimized. The resultant orthogonal-constrained optimization problem can be solved in the form of an unconstrained problem on the Grassmann manifold. After the joint distribution matching, we can expect the classical statistical learning methods to perform well on the target dataset. Experiments on object recognition, face recognition, and spam filtering demonstrate that our method statistically outperforms the state-of-the-art shallow methods and is also on par with the deep learning methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Advancements in ‐omics techniques provide powerful tools to assess the potential effects in composition of a plant at the RNA, protein and metabolite levels. These technologies can thus be deployed to assess whether genetic engineering (GE) causes changes in plants that go beyond the changes introduced by conventional plant breeding. Here, we compare the extent of transcriptome and metabolome modification occurring in leaves of four GE rice lines expressing Bacillus thuringiensis genes developed by GE and seven rice lines developed by conventional cross‐breeding. The results showed that both types of crop breeding methods can bring changes at transcriptomic and metabolic levels, but the differences were comparable between the two methods, and were less than those between conventional non‐GE lines were. Metabolome profiling analysis found several new metabolites in GE rice lines when compared with the closest non‐GE parental lines, but these compounds were also found in several of the conventionally bred rice lines. Functional analyses suggest that the differentially expressed genes and metabolites caused by both GE and conventional cross‐breeding do not involve detrimental metabolic pathways. The study successfully employed RNA‐sequencing and high‐performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry technology to assess the unintended changes in new rice varieties, and the results suggest that GE does not cause unintended effects that go beyond conventional cross‐breeding in rice. Significance Statement: We compared the biological variation at mRNA and metabolite levels among four genetically engineered rice lines and nine conventionally bred rice cultivars that represent a range of genetic and phenotypic diversity in rice. The results provide evidence that genetic engineering does not cause unintended effects that go beyond conventional cross‐breeding in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Zr47Cu44Al9)100−xSix (x = 0, 0.5, 1.5 and 2.5 at%) thin-film metallic glasses (TFMGs) were deposited at glass substrate by pulsed laser deposition. The influence of Si content and substrate temperature on the microstructure, optical and electrical properties was investigated. After adding Si in the Zr47Cu44Al9 system, the transmittance of the films enhances obviously, especially in the near-infrared region. The resistivity increases and becomes more sensitive to the temperature due to Si addition. With increasing substrate temperatures from room temperature to 430 °C, (Zr47Cu44Al9)98.5Si1.5 films display fully amorphous structure. Appropriate substrate temperature drastically decreases the resistivity of films without degrading the transmittance. (Zr47Cu44Al9)98.5Si1.5 TFMG deposited at 330 °C exhibits the visible transmittance of 49.38%, the infrared transmittance of 80.27% and the resistivity of 7.62 mΩ cm, which are useful properties for their potential applications in infrared technology with the high requirement of radiation resistance and corrosion resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO oxidation is a crucial reaction to combat environmental pollution caused by fossil fuel burning, industrial exhaust and vehicle emissions. Searching for efficient catalysts made of economical and earth-abundant elements is vital and remains challenging. Here, we show for the first time that dual transition metal doped germanium clusters M 2 Ge 12 (M = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co and Ni), which are experimentally accessible, are promising catalysts for low-temperature CO oxidation. Our first-principles calculations demonstrate that the reaction barrier has a linear relation with the O 2 binding strength on the cluster, with the Ni 2 Ge 12 cluster possessing the lowest barrier of 0.35 eV under the Eley-Rideal mechanism. The binding capability and activity are correlated to the d orbital center of two metal dopants in the cluster. Moreover, these M 2 Ge 12 alloy clusters remain stable during the entire reaction process and exhibit satisfactory thermal stability and resistance to segregation. These theoretical results not only extend the application area of germanium-based alloy clusters, but also provide useful guidelines for designing inexpensive catalysts for CO oxidation and tuning their performance by electronic structure engineering. • Ni 2 Ge 12 cluster exhibits high activity for CO oxidation with barrier of 0.35 eV. • M 2 Ge 12 clusters have excellent structural robustness and thermal stability. • The activity of clusters is correlated to the d orbital center of metal atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Filtering images of more than one channel are challenging in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness. By grouping similar patches to utilize the self-similarity and sparse linear approximation of natural images, recent nonlocal and transform-domain methods have been widely used in color and multispectral image (MSI) denoising. Many related methods focus on the modeling of group level correlation to enhance sparsity, which often resorts to a recursive strategy with a large number of similar patches. The importance of the patch level representation is understated. In this paper, we mainly investigate the influence and potential of representation at patch level by considering a general formulation with a block diagonal matrix. We further show that by training a proper global patch basis, along with a local principal component analysis transform in the grouping dimension, a simple transform-threshold-inverse method could produce very competitive results. Fast implementation is also developed to reduce the computational complexity. The extensive experiments on both the simulated and real datasets demonstrate its robustness, effectiveness, and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can prevent bacteria from adhesion by repelling the bacteria with its negatively charged surface. However, it is commonly believed that it does not have the ability to directly inactivate bacteria. Surprisingly, we have found that alkali-treated PET nanofibers, which are also negatively charged due to the carboxyl end groups, can have remarkable antibacterial properties (antibacterial rate (AR) at 89% and 75%, against S.aureus and E.coli , respectively). We find that alkali-treatment has brought increased carboxyl end groups to the surface, making the surface more negatively charged. The positively charged cetyltrimethylammonium ions (CTA+) that are used as catalysts for the alkali-treatment can form stable electrical double layers (EDL) with the carboxyl groups near the fiber surfaces, and the enriched CTA+ in EDL can efficiently inactivate the bacteria. Based on these, an effective heavy-metal free antibacterial fiber has been developed by loading iron-phthalocyanine to the nanofibers. This phthalocyanine-empowered antibacterial fiber can inactivate bacteria under dark conditions (99% AR) by the surface CTA+ and the generated weak reactive oxygen species. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Created plane-wave measurement model to obtain intensity with associated uncertainty. • Detailed experimental and analytical evaluation of component uncertainties. • Revealed contribution of each component uncertainty to combined uncertainty. • Provided a guide to evaluate the uncertainty in sound intensity measurements. • Improved quality of intensity measurements in multi-input measurement models. Currently, sound intensity instrument calibrations consist of a paired microphone phase and pressure calibrations, and the general uncertainty analysis focuses on how to calculate and express the uncertainty in the pressure lever and phase difference. However, no guidance for intensity level uncertainty is available. A significant barrier is the requirement to develop a measurement model that constitutes a relationship between the output quantities and input quantities, known to be the paired microphone pressure levels and phase difference. The Beijing Aerospace Institute of Metrology and Measurement Technology (AIM) is addressing this issue using a double-coupler calibration system, which is the incentive for the systematic evaluation of the associated measurement uncertainty in this study. A set of methodologies based on the plane-wave model is developed for estimating intensity and particle velocity uncertainty for sound intensity instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]