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Previous ultrasound studies suggest that patients with adenomyosis (AM) exhibit increased uterine cavity stiffness, although direct evidence regarding extracellular matrix (ECM) content and its specific impact on endometrial stiffness remains limited. This study utilized atomic force microscopy to directly measure endometrial stiffness and collagen morphology, enabling a detailed analysis of the endometrium’s mechanical properties: through this approach, we established direct evidence of increased endometrial stiffness and fibrosis in patients with AM. Endometrial specimens were also stained with Picrosirius red or Masson’s trichrome to quantify fibrosis, and additional analyses assessed α-SMA and Ki-67 expression. Studies indicate that pathological conditions significantly influence the mechanical properties of endometrial tissue. Specifically, adenomyotic endometrial tissue demonstrates increased stiffness, associated with elevated ECM and fibrosis content, whereas normal endometrial samples are softer with lower ECM content. AM appears to alter both the mechanical and histological characteristics of the eutopic endometrium. Higher ECM content may significantly impact endometrial mechanical properties, potentially contributing to AM-associated decidualization defects and fertility challenges.

Kawasaki disease is a common systemic vasculitis in children, and early treatment is critical to prevent coronary artery complications. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of different aspirin dosages on the prognosis of Kawasaki disease. A total of 161 children diagnosed with Kawasaki disease were enrolled and divided into four groups based on the dosage of aspirin: 30–34 mg/kg, 35–39 mg/kg, 40–44 mg/kg, and 45–49 mg/kg. Demographic characteristics, pre-treatment laboratory indicators, post-treatment laboratory indicators, the incidence of coronary artery complications, and the rate of IVIG resistance were compared across the groups. No significant differences were found in baseline characteristics such as age, gender, weight, IVIG treatment choice, IVIG treatment duration, or the proportion of patients diagnosed before the age of 1 year. Laboratory indicators before and after treatment were also similar between groups. However, at 3-4 weeks after the onset of illness, the incidence of coronary artery complications was significantly higher in the high-dose aspirin groups compared to the low-dose aspirin group. Additionally, the high-dose aspirin group had a longer duration of fever and a higher proportion of recurrent fever compared to the low-dose group. The results suggest that although aspirin dosage did not appear to have a clear impact on the overall prognosis of Kawasaki disease, high-dose aspirin administered in the 3-4 weeks following disease onset may increase the risk of coronary artery complications and is associated with a higher incidence of recurrent fever. Caution is therefore advised in selecting aspirin dosages to minimize unnecessary risks.

Abstract Background Several randomized clinical trials showed that aspirin could decrease the incidence of preeclampsia (PE) in women at high risk, but data from sources other than traditional clinical trials that investigating the preventive effect of aspirin 75 mg on PE is still lacking, especially in mainland China. We aimed to use Chinese real-world data to estimate the preventive effect of low-dose aspirin (LDA) on PE. Methods Clinical data of pregnant women who were at high risk of PE and had their first prenatal visit at the affiliated Taicang People’s Hospital of Soochow University during November 31, 2018 and May 10, 2021 was retrospectively analyzed. Among the 266 included pregnant women, 115 individuals treated with aspirin 75 mg per day and the other 151 without such treatment were considered as the LDA group and the control group, respectively. Results In the LDA group, 64 (55.65%) of 115 pregnant women took aspirin before 16 weeks of gestation. Besides, 12 (10.43%) and 34 (22.52%) women developed PE in the LDA group and control group, respectively; the aspirin prophylaxis was associated with a lower risk of PE (odds ratio = 0.40, 95% confidence interval = 0.20–0.82, P = 0.0098). In addition, LDA is slightly more effective when initiated before 16 weeks of gestation or in those without chronic hypertension, when compared with their counterparts. Conclusion Prophylaxis with 75 mg per day of aspirin in high-risk women resulted in a significantly lower incidence of PE than that in the control group.

Abstract The authors aimed to explore the association between visit‐to‐visit blood pressure variability (BPV) in pregnant women and adverse neonatal outcomes. The study included 52 891 pregnant women. BPV was calculated as standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CV) of systolic blood pressure (SBP) or diastolic blood pressure (DBP). All participants were divided into four groups by the quartiles of BPV. When comparing the highest quartiles to the lowest quartiles of DBP SD in all participants, the fully adjusted ORs were 1.19 (95% CI 1.11–1.27, p for trend

A hovercraft can adapt to an ice area, open water, land and other environments, owing to its unique hull structure. It also plays an important role in transporting supplies, rescuing people, breaking ice and conducting other tasks. Ice load prediction is very important for structural safety and navigation of a polar ship, especially in design of air cushion icebreakers or ice breaking platforms. In this paper, based on a simplified circumferential icebreaking pattern, the icebreaking force of the hovercraft operating on the ice sheet at low speed is simulated in a numerical way. Numerical analysis of the icebreaking process with different ice thicknesses and bending strengths are performed. The numerical results are compared with model test data in a time domain for three operating cases. By analyzing the average ice force, the errors between numerical simulation results and model test measurements are less than 30%. The present study is significant for the preliminary design of new icebreaking hovercraft and it assists the operation possibility for existing hovercraft.

In computer vision and pattern recognition applications, there are usually a vast number of unlabelled data whereas the labelled data are very limited. Active learning is a kind of method that selects the most representative or informative examples for labelling and training; thus, the best prediction accuracy can be achieved. A novel active learning algorithm is proposed here based on one‐versus‐one strategy support vector machine (SVM) to solve multi‐class image classification. A new uncertainty measure is proposed based on some binary SVM classifiers and some of the most uncertain examples are selected from SVM output. To ensure that the selected examples are diverse from each other, Gaussian kernel is adopted to measure the similarity between any two examples. From the previous selected examples, a batch of diverse and uncertain examples are selected by the dynamic programming method for labelling. The experimental results on two datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Abstract In recent years, the extensive participation of turbine generator in deep peak regulation has caused significant damage to the rotor windings, which is rooted in the frequent and significant changes in the electrical load of the rotor, accompanied by thermal expansion and contraction, causing harm to the rotor insulation and stress fatigue of the metal conductor. Hydrogen, as the cooling medium for the rotor windings of turbine generators, has a direct impact on the windings temperature through its parameters. Starting from suppressing the harm of deep peak regulation on the rotor windings, the inhibitory effect of hydrogen parameter changes on the temperature of the gap‐pickup diagonal‐flow rotor is studied. A calculation model for the rotor temperature field of the turbo‐generator with gap‐pickup diagonal‐flow ventilation is established. The finite volume method is used to iteratively calculate the control equations in the fluid‐thermal‐solid coupling heat transfer problem, and the temperature field distribution of various components of the rotor under different excitation loads is obtained. On this basis, the effects of individual adjustment of hydrogen temperature and pressure, as well as the combined adjustment, on the temperature of the rotor windings are studied. Finally, a variable hydrogen parameter adjustment strategy is proposed for the operation of turbo‐generators under deep peak regulation conditions. To a certain extent, the winding temperature fluctuation can be suppressed, which provides a potential solution for the thermal stable operation of the rotor.

The photo-self-Fenton collaborative system, which combines Fenton reaction with photocatalytic system, exhibits excellent oxidation ability over pollutants without external addition of hydrogen peroxide. Herein, the PDI-C/Fe3+ photo-self-Fenton system, combining carboxylic acid side chain modified perylene diimide supramolecule (PDI-C) and Fe3+, is used to obtain an extremely efficient and durable degradation efficiency of Phenol (a model pollutant in phenolic wastewater). The research systematically investigates the catalytic reaction mechanism by examining the changes in the form and content of iron species, the production mechanism and content changes of hydrogen peroxide and the content changes of various active species. The interaction between Fe3+ and the carboxylic acid side chain of PDI-C promotes photo-generated electron capture by Fe3+ and the resultant conversion to Fe2+, accordingly facilitating the separation of photogenerated carriers. On the other hand, the hydrogen peroxide generated in-situ during the photocatalytic process pairs with the effective circulation of iron ions to form a photo-self-Fenton system, which synergically promotes the efficient and durable phenol degradation. It is also found that as the reaction prolonged, α-FeOOH formed on the surface of PDI-C not only results in iron loss, but also leads to the obscuration of light-absorbing sites, thus becoming a non-negligible factor for the decrease of catalytic activity. Notably, acid addition can not only inhibit the generation of α-FeOOH, but also aid the leaching of formed α-FeOOH, enabling an efficient iron ion circulation and the photo-self-Fenton system's efficient operation. The work also identifies two pathways of hydrogen peroxide production and reveals a competitive relationship between ·OH and ·O2– in the presence of Fe3+. These findings highlight the high efficiency and durability of the PDI-C/Fe3+ photo-self-Fenton system in degrading phenol pollutants under visible light irradiation, while showcasing its potential for practical applications due to its cost-effectiveness and simplicity.

The exceptional energy absorption, deformability, and tuneable Poisson’s ratio properties of negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) honeycomb biomimetic structures make them highly suitable for applications in aerospace, medical, and acoustic stealth industries. The present study proposes a re-entrant hybrid honeycomb (REHH) structure comprising a re-entrant octagonal unit cell and a re-entrant hexagonal unit cell. Theoretical models of the in-plane elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio are established based on beam theory, and these models are validated through finite element (FE) simulations and tensile experiments conducted on the REHH samples. The influence of the cell geometry parameters on the in-plane elastic behaviours is investigated. The results indicate that the NPR performance of the REHH structure exhibits superior deformation capability compared with the four-point star hybrid honeycomb (FSHH) structure. The experimental REHH structure samples exhibit significant tensile displacement capabilities in the x-direction.

Abstract There is increasing attention to the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from lignocellulosic biomass by enzymatic hydrolysis with cellulase. In this study, the feasibility of the application of a cellulase system from engineered strain Penicillium oxalicum cEES in the production of CNCs was assessed. Using commercial eucalyptus dissolving pulp (EDP) as substrate, the CNCs were successfully obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis with the cellulase cEES, and the total yields of CNCs reached 15.7% through three-step enzymatic hydrolysis of total 72 h (24 h for each step). The prepared CNCs were characterized and found that their crystallinity and thermal stability were higher than that of EDP. In the later stage of enzymatic hydrolysis, the process efficiency of enzymatic preparation of CNCs greatly decreased because of the high crystallinity of cellulosic substrate, and a simple homogenization treatment can promote the enzymatic hydrolysis, as well as produce fusiform CNCs with more uniform size and more fermentable sugar that could be further converted into fuels and bulk chemicals through fermentation. This study provides a feasible enzymatic preparation process for CNCs with engineered cellulase and commercial cellulosic materials. Graphical Abstract

ABSTRACTChina's population and development land have changed dramatically over the last decade. Yet, our understanding of the spatial distribution patterns of the population and built-up areas remains limited. To fill this gap, we employ China's Population Census and GlobeLand30 remote sensing data from 2010 to 2020 at the county level to geovisualize the evolution of the population and built-up area. We find an increasing correlation between built-up areas and population as a result of the urbanization of rural areas, but the rapid expansion of built-up areas has not fundamentally changed concentration of China's population over the period 2010–20.

A series of quaternary ammonium or phosphonium salts were applied as zeolite growth modifiers in the synthesis of hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite. The results showed that the use of methyltriphenylphosphonium bromide (MTBBP) could yield nano-sized hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite with a “rice crust” morphology feature, which demonstrates a better catalytic performance than other disinfect candidates. It was confirmed that the addition of MTBBP did not cause discernable adverse effects on the microstructures or acidities of ZSM-5, but it led to the creation of abundant meso- to marco- pores as a result of aligned tiny particle aggregations. Moreover, the generation of the special morphology was believed to be a result of the coordination and competition between MTBBP and Na+ cations. The as-synthesized hierarchical zeolite was loaded with Zn and utilized in the propane aromatization reaction, which displayed a prolonged lifetime (1430 min vs. 290 min compared with conventional ZSM-5) and an enhanced total turnover number that is four folds of the traditional one, owing to the attenuated hydride transfer reaction and slow coking rate. This work provides a new method to alter the morphological properties of zeolites with low-cost disinfectants, which is of great potential for industrial applications.