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To improve the accuracy and robustness of autonomous vehicle localization in a complex environment, this paper proposes a multi-source fusion localization method that integrates GPS, laser SLAM, and an odometer model. Firstly, fuzzy rules are constructed to accurately analyze the in-vehicle localization deviation and confidence factor to improve the initial fusion localization accuracy. Then, an odometer model for obtaining the projected localization trajectory is constructed. Considering the high accuracy of the odometer's projected trajectory within a short distance, we used the shape of the projected localization trajectory to inhibit the initial fusion localization noise and used trajectory matching to obtain an accurate localization. Finally, the Dual-LSTM network is constructed to predict the localization and build an electronic fence to guarantee the safety of the vehicle while also guaranteeing the updating of short-distance localization information of the vehicle when the above-mentioned fusion localization is unreliable. Under the limited arithmetic condition of the vehicle platform, accurate and reliable localization is realized in a complex environment. The proposed method was verified by long-time operation on the real vehicle platform, and compared with the EKF fusion localization method, the average root mean square error of localization was reduced by 66%, reaching centimeter-level localization accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human patients often experience an episode of serious seizure activity, such as status epilepticus (SE), prior to the onset of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), suggesting that SE can trigger the development of epilepsy. Yet, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The low-density lipoprotein receptor related protein (Lrp4), a receptor for proteoglycan-agrin, has been indicated to modulate seizure susceptibility. However, whether agrin-Lrp4 pathway also plays a role in the development of SE-induced TLE is not clear. Methods: Lrp4f/f mice were crossed with hGFAP-Cre and Nex-Cre mice to generate brain conditional Lrp4 knockout mice (hGFAP-Lrp4−/−) and pyramidal neuron specific knockout mice (Nex-Lrp4−/−). Lrp4 was specifically knocked down in hippocampal astrocytes by injecting AAV virus carrying hGFAP-Cre into the hippocampus. The effects of agrin-Lrp4 pathway on the development of SE-induced TLE were evaluated on the chronic seizure model generated by injecting kainic acid (KA) into the amygdala. The spontaneous recurrent seizures (SRS) in mice were video monitored. Results: We found that Lrp4 deletion from the brain but not from the pyramidal neurons elevated the seizure threshold and reduced SRS numbers, with no change in the stage or duration of SRS. More importantly, knockdown of Lrp4 in the hippocampal astrocytes after SE induction decreased SRS numbers. In accord, direct injection of agrin into the lateral ventricle of control mice but not mice with Lrp4 deletion in hippocampal astrocytes also increased the SRS numbers. These results indicate a promoting effect of agrin-Lrp4 signaling in hippocampal astrocytes on the development of SE-induced TLE. Last, we observed that knockdown of Lrp4 in hippocampal astrocytes increased the extracellular adenosine levels in the hippocampus 2 weeks after SE induction. Blockade of adenosine A1 receptor in the hippocampus by DPCPX after SE induction diminished the effects of Lrp4 on the development of SE-induced TLE. Conclusion: These results demonstrate a promoting role of agrin-Lrp4 signaling in hippocampal astrocytes in the development of SE-induced development of epilepsy through elevating adenosine levels. Targeting agrin-Lrp4 signaling may serve as a potential therapeutic intervention strategy to treat TLE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microcellulose materials are increasingly considered multifunctional candidates for emerging energy applications. Microcellulose fibers (MCF) are a kind of bio-based reinforcement in composites, and their hydrophilic character hinders their wide application in industry. Thus, in the present work, MCF was hybrid-modified by amino silicone oil-phosphorylated to fabricate hydrophobic, thermal stability, and flame-retardant microcellulose fibers for potential application in vehicle engineering. The results showed that the amino silicone oil-phosphorylated (ASOP) hybrid modification could transform the surface property of microcellulose from hydrophilic to hydrophobic and improve the compatibility between MCF and resin matrix. Meanwhile, the ASOP treatment led to the formation of an amino silicone oil film layer on the surface of the microcellulose, which improved the thermal stability of the MCF. Furthermore, the ASOP hybrid modification microcellulose fibers paper (100% microcellulose fibers paper) was transformed from flammable to flame-retardant and showed self-extinguishing behavior after burning under flame for 2 s. The flame-retardant mechanism was attributed to the formation of the char layer in the condensed phase and the production of non-combustible gases in the gaseous phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban-rural integration is the critical process of urbanization, while during this process there are various corresponding problems generated, safety is the most important one, especially at urban-rural fringe areas due to mixed traffic flow and complicated land use. This study intended to investigate the injury severity interaction between urban area and urban-rural fringe area, and explore the correlation within injury severity levels and heterogeneity attributed to unobserved factors. To address the correlation and heterogeneity issues, a grouped random parameters seemingly unrelated bivariate (SUB) probit model was proposed, in which the SUB probit model addressed the correlation of residuals, while the random parameters model accommodated the heterogeneity due to unobserved factors. By comparing the pooled with random parameters models, the results showed that random parameters SUB probit model performed better than the pooled one, and the dataset collected from 2013 to 2017 in Chengdu, China was adopted to illustrate the proposed model. It is found that crash location, speed limit and age of person injured are significant for injury severity in urban and urban-rural fringe areas, but crash form plays a significant role in urban area while number of persons involved should be paid more attention due to injury severity in urban-rural fringe area. Some empirical suggestions are presented to improve the safety in urban and urban-rural fringe areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delirium, a form of acute cerebral dysfunction, is a common complication of postoperative cardiac surgery in children. It is strongly associated with adverse outcomes, including prolonged hospitalization, increased mortality, and cognitive dysfunction. This study aimed to identify risk factors and incidence of delirium after cardiac surgery in children to facilitate early identification of delirium risk and provide a reference for the implementation of effective prevention and management. A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, CNKI, Sinomed, and Wanfang for studies published in English or Chinese from the inception of each database to November 2023. The PRISMA guidelines were followed in all phases of this systematic review. The Risk of Bias Assessment for Nonrandomized Studies tool was used to assess methodological quality. A total of twelve studies were included in the analysis, with four studies classified as overall low risk of bias, seven studies as moderate risk of bias, and one study as high risk of bias. The studies reported 39 possible predictors of delirium, categorized into four broad groups: intrinsic and parent-related factors, disease-related factors, surgery and treatment-related factors, and clinical scores and laboratory parameters. By conducting qualitative synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis, we identified two definite factors, four possible factors, and 32 unclear factors related to delirium. Definite risk factors included age and mechanical ventilation duration. Possible factors included developmental delay, cyanotic heart disease, cardiopulmonary bypass time, and pain score. With only a few high-quality studies currently available, well-designed and more extensive prospective studies are still needed to investigate the risk factors affecting delirium and explore delirium prevention strategies in high-risk children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chimp Optimization Algorithm (ChOA) is a cutting-edge swarm intelligence algorithm that models the social status ties and hunting behavior of chimps to solve complex optimization problems. Although ChOA is known for its simplicity and efficiency, it may encounter challenges such as convergence speed and local optima. This study presents a comprehensive and competitive multi-strategy-enhanced chimp optimization algorithm (SLDChOA), which comprehensively enhances the optimization performance of the algorithm through four strategies. Firstly, a low-difference Sobol sequence strategy is used to initialize the chimp population to increase the diversity of the initial population. Secondly, different location update strategies are adopted according to different iteration stages. The early iteration stage employs the Lévy flight-based location update strategy to help chimps explore the space more abundantly and improve the global search ability of the algorithm. In contrast, the proposed probability-based elitist operation strategy is used in the late iteration stage to help the chimps obtain higher-quality optimal solutions and improve the convergence accuracy and speed of the algorithm. Finally, the dimension learning-based hunting search strategy is introduced to facilitate information sharing among chimps and enable the algorithm to jump out of the local optimum effectively. To demonstrate its comprehensive performance, SLDChOA is compared with 17 state-of-the-art algorithms on 23 traditional benchmark functions, CEC 2014 and CEC 2019 test sets (totaling 63 test functions). Moreover, its efficacy and excellence are further demonstrated in 4 well-known engineering optimization issues and 2 feature selection problems of multimodal Parkinson's speech datasets. A series of simulations demonstrate that SLDChOA has good comprehensive merit-seeking ability and is extremely competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note presents an exact analytical solution of Fredlund–Hasan consolidation for unsaturated soils under an arbitrary loading using the mode superposition method. Air pressure and water pressure are expressed in a series of products of Eigen functions with respect to depth and normal coordinates with respect to time, respectively. A pressure function substitutes for the related homogeneous problem. Eigen functions can be first obtained based on two pairs of drainage condition. Then, the nonhomogeneous governing equations of unsaturated soils under constant loading, exponential loading, and sine loading are considered. After matrix algebraic manipulation, the normal coordinates can be obtained based on the initial conditions that compose the final solutions of the Fredlund–Hasan unsaturated consolidation. This solution can avoid inconvenient Laplace transform and inverse Laplace transform. Through comparisons with a classic example, the validation of the proposed analytical solution is verified against other analytical solutions and the finite difference method solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membrane lipids play essential roles in regulating physiological properties in higher plants and algae. Monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) is a major thylakoid membrane lipid, and it is an important source of polyunsaturated fatty acids for cells, plays a key role in the biogenesis of plastids, and maintains the function of the photosynthetic machinery. Several studies have indicated that the knockdown of MGDG synthase results in membrane lipid remodeling, albino seedlings, and changes in photosynthetic performance. However, the effects of MGDG synthase (MGD) inhibitors on lipids in macroalgae have not yet been clarified. Here, we characterized the effects of MGD inhibitors (ortho‐phenanthroline and N‐ethylmaleimide) on the composition of the fatty acids observed in MGDG and digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) in Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis using electrospray ionization–mass spectrometry. The most abundant MGDG species contained 16:0/18:1 (sn‐1/sn‐2) fatty acids, and the most dominant DGDG species contained 20:5/16:0 (sn‐1/sn‐2) fatty acids. Measurements of photosynthetic pigments and photosynthetic parameters revealed that photosynthesis of G. lemaneiformis was impaired. Principal component analysis and Spearman's correlation analysis revealed interactions between specific MGDG structural composition patterns and key metabolites involved in photosynthesis, indicating that 20:4/16:0 (sn‐1/sn‐2) MGDG and 16:0/18:1 (sn‐1/sn‐2) MGDG affect the structure and function of phycobilisomes and thus the color of G. lemaneiformis. Three genes (GlMGD1, GlMGD2, and GlMGD3) were cloned and identified. The addition of N‐ethylmaleimide to G. lemaneiformis did not affect the abundance of GlMGD mRNA, and the abundance of transcripts was significantly decreased by ortho‐phenanthroline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subtropical evergreen broad‐leaved forest (EBLF) is the predominant vegetation type in eastern China. However, the majority of the region it covers in eastern China was an arid area during the Paleogene. The temporal history and essential factors involved in the evolution of subtropical EBLFs in eastern China remain enigmatic. Here we report on the niche evolution of Quercus section Cyclobalanopsis, which appeared in south China and Japan during the Eocene and became a dominant component of subtropical EBLFs since the Miocene in eastern Asia, using integrative analysis of occurrences, climate data and a dated phylogeny of 35 species in Cyclobalanopsis. Species within clades Cyclobalanoides, Lamellosa, and Helferiana mainly exist in the Himalaya–Hengduan region, adapting to a plateau climate, while species within the other clades mainly live in eastern China under the control of the East Asian monsoon. Reconstructed history showed that significant divergence of climatic tolerance in Cyclobalanopsis began around 19 million years ago (Ma) in the early Miocene. Simultaneously, disparities in precipitation of wettest/warmest quarter and annual precipitation were markedly enhanced in Cyclobalanopsis, especially in the recent eastern clades. During the Miocene, the marked radiation of Cyclobalanopsis and many other dominant taxa of subtropical EBLFs strongly suggest the rapid formation and expansion of subtropical EBLFs in eastern China. Our research highlights that the intensification of the East Asian monsoon and subsequent occupation of new niches by the ancient clades already present in the south may have jointly promoted the formation of subtropical EBLFs in eastern China since the early Miocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The molecular models of nitrile–butadiene rubber (NBR) with varied contents of acrylonitrile (ACN) were developed and investigated to provide an understanding of the enhancement mechanisms of ACN. The investigation was conducted using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to calculate and predict the mechanical and tribological properties of NBR through the constant strain method and the shearing model. The MD simulation results showed that the mechanical properties of NBR showed an increasing trend until the content of ACN reached 40%. The mechanism to enhance the strength of the rubber by ACN was investigated and analyzed by assessing the binding energy, radius of gyration, mean square displacement, and free volume. The abrasion rate (AR) of NBR was calculated using Fe-NBR-Fe models during the friction processes. The wear results of atomistic simulations indicated that the NBR with 40% ACN content had the best tribological properties due to the synergy among appropriate polarity, rigidity, and chain length of the NBR molecules. In addition, the random forest regression model of predicted AR, based on the dataset of feature parameters extracted by the MD models, was developed to obtain the variable importance for identifying the highly correlated parameters of AR. The torsion–bend–bend energy was obtained and used to successfully predict the AR trend on the new NBR models with other acrylonitrile contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide a novel method to analytically calculate the high-order origin moments of a hypergeometric distribution, that is, the expectation identity method. First, the expectation identity of the hypergeometric distribution is discovered and summarized in a theorem. After that, we analytically calculate the first four origin moments of the hypergeometric distribution by using the expectation identity. Furthermore, we analytically calculate the general kth ( k = 1 , 2 , ... ) origin moment of the hypergeometric distribution by using the expectation identity, and the results are summarized in a theorem. Moreover, we use the general kth origin moment to validate the first four origin moments of the hypergeometric distribution. Next, the coefficients of the first ten origin moments of the hypergeometric distribution are summarized in a table containing Stirling numbers of the second kind. Moreover, the general kth origin moment of the hypergeometric distribution by using the expectation identity is restated by another theorem involving Stirling numbers of the second kind. Finally, we provide some numerical and theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when communication network technology is developing rapidly, the security of the Internet has aroused widespread concern in the academic community. In particular, electronic payment, which has been booming in recent years, has great security risks and people are prone to information leakage and property loss in the process of payment. In order to solve these problems, this study adopts the AES to encrypt the information in the payment process, introduces the RSA Public Key System (RSA) and the SM4 packet cipher algorithm for comparison, and analyses their encryption (decryption) speed, decryption (decryption) speed and encryption speed respectively. (decryption) speed, as well as PR curve, Loss function and sensitivity. The results show that the AES algorithm has a faster encryption (decryption) speed compared to the other two algorithms. In the PR curve, the AES algorithm has an AP value of 0.9988, which is significantly higher than the other two algorithms, and has a better balance between accuracy and recall, and better performance. In the sensitivity analysis, the AES algorithm can have the highest sensitivity of 97.88%. This is significantly higher than the 93.47% and 96.59% of the other two algorithms. Moreover, as shown by the Loss function of the AES algorithm, it converges faster and the Liss value varies between 0.1 and 0.9. In summary, the AES algorithm has a faster encryption speed and is better in terms of accuracy, convergence speed and security factor in all aspects. This also demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of this algorithm for information security protection in electronic payment processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban transportation is a major element of sustainable urban development and a key factor affecting the health of urban residents. It influences public health through noise, air pollution, social isolation, inactive modes of transportation, and sedentary behaviors. This paper reviews literature related to urban transportation and health from two perspectives: travel behavior and environmental impact. It focuses on passenger transportation and freight transportation to analyze their respective negative environmental externalities, such as noise, environmental pollution, and accidents. After the literature review, the paper identifies the main deficiencies in urban transportation research aiming to build healthy cities, and proposes measures and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The development of technology and the recent Covid-19 has moved a substantial part of education into online environments, and video-based learning has become a common format of online learning. An alternative to enhance the co-learning experience in video-based online learning is to make use of immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. The current study focused on how to build a sense of being together in an immersive VR classroom for video-based learning, when individual learners can schedule and pace their learning on their own. Two alternative in-class interaction mechanisms for video-based learning were proposed (i.e., real-time interaction and timeline-anchored interaction). The impact of in-class interaction design was investigated, together with the impact of different styles of visual embodiment of learners (i.e., realistic and cartoon-styled), through a laboratory experiment involving 48 participants, and the influences on learners’ immersion in a VR classroom, identification with the avatars, perceived social presence of peer learners, and learning outcomes were analyzed. The results showed that enabling in-class interaction with peer learners in VR classrooms enhances immersion in the learning environment and their identification of peer avatars, as well as helping learners to develop a stronger co-presence and more intimate perception of peers. Whereas real-time interaction improves perceived social presence the most, the reduced learning outcome suggests that it may distract learners from the video. The timeline-anchored interaction, on the other hand, improves social presence at no cost of learning performance. Appearance style, however, has no significant influence on learning experiences and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Craquelure is the most common defect on ancient polychrome paintings, which may deteriorate further to paint loss. Previous image processing methods, which can accurately recognize paint loss, have limited precision and efficiency in segmenting craquelure. This paper proposes a semantic segmentation method, Res-UNet, for the recognition of craquelure and paint loss in the Palace Museum, Beijing. The residual structure of ResNet-50 enables the avoidance of network degradation, and image features can be fully extracted. Using the unique skip connection module of U-Net, features of different levels are fused to improve segmentation accuracy and provide smoother craquelure edges. Three loss functions are combined to accelerate stable convergence. The model was tested on a newly built dataset based on 600 images. Experimental results supported by statistical tests show that Res-UNet is a capable method of craquelure recognition, with an accuracy rate of 98.19%, and F1-score of 93.42%. Hence, the proposed hybrid approach is a promising tool to support the preservation and restoration of valuable traditional Chinese polychrome architectural paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface elasticity has a strong influence on the size-dependent mechanical properties of nanowires (NWs). In this work, a laminated beam model is used to predict the effective tensile and bending moduli of a NW. The surface layer is assumed to have a definite thickness and different elastic moduli from the bulk layer. The effective moduli of the NW are expressed as a function of surface thickness and surface constant. The theoretical predictions for stiffening and softening effects are in good agreement with experimental results. High surface elasticity increases the bending modulus more than the tensile modulus. Low surface elasticity decreases the bending modulus more than the tensile modulus. Surface thickness has a considerable influence on the effective modulus of NW and amplifies stiffening and softening effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs play key regulatory roles in plant development. The changed pattern of miRNA expression is involved in the production of viral symptoms. Here, we showed that a small RNA, Seq119, a putative novel microRNA, is associated with the low seed setting rate, a viral symptom of rice stripe virus (RSV)-infected rice. The expression of Seq 119 was downregulated in RSV-infected rice. The overexpression of Seq119 in transgenic rice plants did not cause any obvious phenotypic changes in plant development. When the expression of Seq119 was suppressed in rice plants either by expressing a mimic target or by CRISPR/Cas editing, seed setting rates were extremely low, similar to the effects of RSV infection. The putative targets of Seq119 were then predicted. The overexpression of the target of Seq119 in rice caused a low seed setting rate, similar to that in Seq119-suppressed or edited rice plants. Consistently, the expression of the target was upregulated in Seq119-suppressed and edited rice plants. These results suggest that downregulated Seq119 is associated with the low seed setting rate symptom of the RSV in rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excessive use of chemical fertilizers causes many problems for which solutions are being sought in a variety of agricultural production systems. From the perspective of paying attention to the health requirements of aquatic animals in terms of water quality, this study investigated the impact of chemical fertilizer application on water quality in a rice (Oryza sativa L.; Cultivar "Qingxiangruangeng," accession number: 2014004)–eel (Monopterus albus) coculture system in Shanghai, China. Chemical fertilizer was applied four times—as base fertilizer, rejuvenated fertilizer, tiller fertilizer, and ear granule fertilizer—during the production process of a rice–eel coculture system (June to October 2020). Changes in the water quality parameters of rice field's surface water and ring ditch water in the regular chemical fertilizer group (RF) and no chemical fertilizer group (NF, the control) were compared before and at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h after the chemical fertilizer application. The results for the analyzed physical and chemical indexes of each water area before and after four fertilizations revealed several consistent trends. First, the pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), water temperature (T), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of either water area were similar between the NF and RF groups, whereas their total nitrogen (TN), total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), and total phosphorus (TP) levels differed significantly. After adding the above fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphorus, 24 h later, the TN, TAN, and TP content had already increased significantly in comparison with the control. The maximum average content of TAN and nitrite nitrogen (NO2−-N) in the ring ditch water reached 12.30 mg/L and 0.37 mg/L, respectively, at 24 h after the chemical fertilizer application. Nonlinear regression analysis results showed that there was a significant positive relationship TN (δTN) and TAN (δTAN) vis-à-vis the nitrogen content of the fertilizer. The results of this study provide a timely empirical reference and data support for improving fertilizer management in rice–eel coculture systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the corrosion behavior of 316L stainless steel under cavitation condition in simulated seawater. Design/methodology/approach: Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and electrochemical noise analyses are used to characterize the electrochemical process during the cavitation erosion process. Findings: Because of good corrosion resistance of this material, mechanical damage is the main cause of cavitation erosion. The alloy surface is in active dissolution state during the cavitation erosion process, and the corrosion rate is accelerated as time prolongs which is verified by electrochemical results. Originality/value: Electrochemical noise is an effective way to study the corrosion under cavitation erosion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the deformation mechanisms and, in particular, the features of particle pair motions in response to shearing. A specially designed biaxial testing system with a flexible boundary equipped with an image system was set up for experimental tests. The whole testing system was modified from a CKC triaxial testing system. The particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique and close-range photogrammetry were used together to help with the investigation. The test samples TA and TB were made of randomly packed 3 D printed elliptical rods with different particle eccentricities e = 0.1, 0.2, respectively. In the examinations, the motion of a particle pair was divided into three modes, i.e. the contact deformation, the Type 4 rolling and the rigid body motion. It is found that each mode of the motion has different contributions to the sample deformation at different strain levels. The normal component of contact deformation dominates volumetric contraction at small strains and dilation at larger strains. The rigid body rotation only induces a slight dilation in sample TA and even leads to contraction in sample TB as the particles used in TB assembly become more elongated. For the sample distortion, it is mainly due to the rigid body rotation while the normal component of contact deformation makes a second contribution. The tangential component of contact deformation and the Type 4 rolling have relatively small contributions to both volumetric strain and sample distortion. The local volumetric strains arising from the contact deformation (including normal and tangential components) and Type 4 rolling mainly take place at the interfaces between moving particle clusters and vortices, also at the boundaries of micro bands or shear bands. The associated local volumetric strain due to the rigid body rotation mainly occurs inside the shear band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of collaborative innovation of water pollution control industry chain, there are some problems, such as chain break and lack of chain, which lead to poor effect of water pollution collaborative governance and low economic benefits. Therefore, this paper proposes a research method of collaborative innovation mechanism of water pollution treatment industry chain based on complex scientific management. In view of the problems existing in the current industrial chain of water pollution control, the collaborative economic model and matter-element extension model of the industrial chain of water pollution treatment are constructed to improve the synergy effect of each link in the industrial chain and solve the contradictions of each link in the coordination process, so as to provide guarantee for the collaborative innovation of the industrial chain of water pollution control. The experimental results show that the proposed method can bring high economic benefits in the stage of source emission reduction, process interruption, and end treatment, and the water pollution treatment effect is good, which fully verifies the practical application effect of the method. After using the design method to purify, the maximum purification rate reaches more than 80%, and the purification effect reaches class v. The effect is remarkable, which has practical application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arctigenin (Arc) is a phenylpropanoid dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan in Arctium lappa L, which has been widely applied as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine for treating inflammation. In the present study, we explored the neuroprotective effect and the potential mechanisms of arctigenin against LPS-evoked neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and memory impairments in the mice hippocampus. Daily administration of arctigenin (50 mg/kg per day, i.g.) for 28 days revealed noticeable improvements in spatial learning and memory deficits after exposure to LPS treatment. Arctigenin prevented LPS-induced neuronal/synaptic injury and inhibited the increases in Abeta (Aβ) generation and the levels of amyloid precursor protein (APP) and β-site amyloid precursor protein cleavage enzyme 1 (BACE1). Moreover, arctigenin treatment also suppressed glial activation and reduced the production of proinflammatory cytokines. In LPS-treated BV-2 microglial cells and mice, activation of the TLR4 mediated NF-κB signaling pathway was significantly suppressed by arctigenin administration. Mechanistically, arctigenin reduced the LPS-induced interaction of adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1) with TLR4 and its coreceptor CD14 and inhibited the TLR4-mediated downstream inflammatory response. The outcomes of the current study indicate that arctigenin mitigates LPS-induced apoptotic neurodegeneration, amyloidogenesis and neuroinflammation as well as cognitive impairments, and suggest that arctigenin may be a potential therapeutic candidate for neuroinflammation/neurodegeneration-related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of cancer is increasing today, particularly lung and chest cancer. Employing novel methods to detect cancer in its earliest stages and discover painless, noninvasive treatments are urgently needed. The goal of the proposed study is to investigate the value of automated breast volume scanning (ABUS) in conjunction with contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in properly diagnosing breast cancer in its early stages and the effectiveness of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in treating the disease. For the research study, information on 98 patients who had NAC and surgery in the breast surgery department of the Shaanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital has been gathered. All patients have received four cycles of NAC and underwent conventional ultrasound (HUSS), CEUS, ABUS, and pathological examination. At the same time, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, single factor, multiple linear regression, and other methods have also been used to analyze the diagnostic efficacy of breast cancer and NAC efficacy evaluation results. The study of this paper is totally based on the data collected from Shaanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital. The statistical and computational analyses are performed on the data collected for drawing inferences. When the findings are compared to the results of the pathological examination, HUSS has demonstrated a significant distinction between benign and malignant diagnoses with a statistical value of P < 0.05.ABUS combined with CEUS has shown no considerable differences in correlation study. Except for negative likelihood ratio, the diagnostic performance indexes of CEUS+ ABUS are substantially higher than HHUS with P < 0.05. ROC curve analysis is also performed which shows that CEUS and ABUS combination has higher precision in the analysis of breast cancer. ABUS pooled with CEUS shows great application value in the judgment of breast cancer as per the results obtained from the statistical analysis on data of 98 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon/phenolic hybrid resins are one of the most commonly used materials for thermal protection. However, the weak ability of SiO 2 generated by silicone during ablation to resist the impact of high-speed hot gas flow hinders further improvement of the performance. Therefore, in this work, the ultrahigh-temperature ceramic elements Zr4+ and Hf4+ were integrated into hyperbranched polysiloxanes in the form of coordination bond and then introduced into phenolic resin (PR), obtaining hybrid resin with excellent ablative resistance. During ablation, Zr4+ and Hf4+ will first undergo ceramization, producing ZrO 2 and HfO 2. Subsequently, they will undergo a solid solution sintering reaction to produce complex-phase ceramic particles (Zr x Hf 1-x)O 2 , which are embedded in the SiO 2 liquid film and provide excellent pinning effect. This gives the hybrid resin excellent ablation resistance, whose linear ablation rate can be as low as 0.038 mm/s, a 58 % decrease compared to pure PR. This work not only provides a new pathway for ceramization through metal ion coordination bonding, but also provides a new way to prepare high-performance TPS materials. [Display omitted] • Zr4+ and Hf4+ were successfully introduced into hyperbranched organosilica through the lone electron pair provided by C=O. • Silicon/phenolic hybrid resin with a unique nano-bicontinuous phase structure was produced. • The coordinated Zr4+ and Hf4+ can undergo in-situ ceramization and solid solution sintering reaction to produce (Zr x Hf 1-x)O 2. • (Zr x Hf 1-x)O 2 can perform an excellent pinning effect and confer excellent ablation resistance to the hybrid resin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides experimental evidence of the correlation between different fabric tensors in 2D granular assemblies subjected to shearing. Two testing assemblies with different elliptical rods were used and the shearing tests were conducted in a tailor-made biaxial cell. Both the rods and cell were produced using the 3D printing technique. Throughout the shearing, three fabric tensors, i.e., the particle orientation-based, the contact normal-based and the void-based fabric tensors, were studied. In particular, to obtain the void-based fabric tensor, the best-fit ellipse method was used, which can better describe the irregular void geometric information compared with the conventional methods described in the literature. In both samples, a strong linear relationship between the anisotropy intensity factors of the three fabric tensors was found. However, such a correlation was not identified when the void-based fabric tensor was quantified using the conventional methods. The discrepancy demonstrates the importance of properly quantifying the fabric tensor, and by using the best-fit ellipse method, the correlation between the fabric tensors can be better observed, which is crucial to understand the constitutive relationship in granules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs and applies the legal model of transaction management in the digital information perspective based on the approach of big data. To solve the problem, it is necessary to integrate various legal tools, construct an idealized legal model of big data transaction management, conduct interprofessional and interdisciplinary research on the big data transaction management problems that are difficult to be regulated by the existing legal norms, and selectively design and arrange the corresponding system, to provide the digital regulatory tools for the operation of the digital economy and promote the scientific and standardized development of the digital economy. Based on the decentralized blockchain platform, sealed bidding is used to achieve information isolation among nonconspiratorial data buyers, and through the big data auction algorithm, the purpose of the conspirators cannot be achieved and anticomplicity is realized. The model is based on smart contracts and combined with auction theory to achieve anticollision in the process of big data auctions. Based on the model, we construct an anticomplicity big data auction mechanism and dissect the big data auction algorithm. The correctness of the model and algorithm is demonstrated through simulation. After the data is hosted, the data will be completely owned by the big data trading center. In the data transaction process, the big data transaction center provides data resource information to data buyers, so that data buyers can select the required data. Second is the construction of a multilevel regulatory system in the administrative supervision of the construction of the central national security leading institutions led by the interregional collaborative regulatory system and in the industry self-regulatory supervision of the implementation of the data trading platform data trading supervision obligations. The balance between the development of the data trading industry and data trading security is comprehensively maintained from multiple perspectives of legislation and law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the three-step theory of high-order harmonic generation, the harmonic cutoff is very sensitive to the few-cycle laser waveform in both time and space regions. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the method to control the harmonic cutoff and to produce the water window attosecond pulse through the optimization of time and space waveform. It is found that, in the time region, by properly choosing the delay and phase of the few-cycle two-color pulse, not only the harmonic intensity is enhanced, but also the quantum path of the harmonic emission can be controlled. Further, with the introduction of the 3rd pulse (i.e., the infrared pulse or the unipolar pulse), the harmonic cutoff from the single harmonic emission peak can be extended, showing a water window harmonic plateau. In the space region, by using the positive spatial inhomogeneous effect, the harmonic cutoff from the basic two-color waveform can also be extended, which leads to a water window spectral continuum. Finally, by Fourier transformation of harmonics during the water window region, the ultrashort single 29 as pulses can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile networks (MNs) are anticipated to provide unprecedented opportunities to enable a new world of connected experiences and radically shift the way people interact with everything. MNs are becoming more and more complex, driven by ever increasing complicated configuration issues and blossoming new service requirements. This complexity poses significant challenges in deployment, management, operation, optimization, and maintenance, since they require complete understanding and cognition of MNs. Artificial intelligence (AI), which deals with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers, has demonstrated enormous success in many application domains, suggesting its potential in cognizing the state of an MN and making intelligent decisions. In this article, we first propose an AI-powered MN architecture and discuss challenges in terms of cognition complexity, decisions with high-dimensional action space, and self-adaptation to system dynamics. Then potential solutions associated with AI are discussed. Finally, we propose a deep learning approach that directly maps the state of an MN to perceived QoS, integrating cognition with the decision. Our proposed approach helps operators to make more intelligent decisions to guarantee QoS. Meanwhile, the effectiveness and advantages of our proposed approach are demonstrated on a real-world dataset involving 31,261 users over 77 stations within 5 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing number of automated vehicles (AVs) being tested and operating on roads, external Human–Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) are proposed to facilitate interactions between AVs and other road users. Considering the need to protect vulnerable road users, this paper addresses the issue by providing research evidence on various designs of eHMIs. Ninety participants took part in this experiment. Six sets of eHMI prototypes—Text, Arrowed (Dynamic), Text and Symbol, Symbol only, Tick and Cross and Traffic Lights, including two sub-designs (Cross and Do Not Cross)—were designed. The results showed that 65.1% of participants agreed that external communication would have a positive effect on pedestrians' crossing decisions. Among all the prototypes, Text, and Text and Symbol, eHMIs were the most widely accepted. In particular, for elderly people and those unfamiliar with traffic rules, Text, and Text and Symbol, eHMIs would lead to faster comprehension. The results confirmed that 68.5% of participants would feel safer crossing if the eHMI had the following features: 'Green', 'Text', 'Symbol', or 'Dynamic'. These features are suggested in the design of future systems. This research concluded that eHMIs have a positive effect on V2X communication and that textual eHMIs were clear to pedestrians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of Galerkin finite element for first-order initial-value problems (IVPs) is proposed. Both the trial and test functions employ the same m-degreed polynomials. The adjoint equation is used to eliminate one degree of freedom (DOF) from the test function, and then the so-called condensed test function and its consequent condensed Galerkin element are constructed. It is mathematically proved and numerically verified that the condensed element produces the super-convergent nodal solutions of O(h2m+2), which is equivalent to the order of accuracy by the conventional element of degree m + 1. Some related properties are addressed, and typical numerical examples of both linear and nonlinear IVPs of both a single equation and a system of equations are presented to show the validity and effectiveness of the proposed element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteosarcoma, considered as the primary cause of malignant bone tumors in children, necessitates novel therapeutic strategies to enhance overall survival rates. KAT7, a histone acetyltransferase, exerts pivotal functions in gene transcription and immune modulation. In light of this, our study identified a significant upregulation of KAT7 in the mRNA and protein levels in human osteosarcoma, boosting cell proliferation in vivo and in vitro. In addition, KAT7-mediated H3K14ac activation induced MMP14 transcription, leading to increased expression and facilitation of osteosarcoma cell metastasis. Subsequent bioinformatics analyses highlighted a correlation between KAT7 and adaptive immune responses, indicating CCL3 as a downstream target of KAT7. Mechanistically, STAT1 was found to transcriptionally upregulate CCL3 expression. Furthermore, overexpression of KAT7 suppressed CCL3 secretions, whereas knockdown of KAT7 enhanced its release. Overall, these findings underscore the oncogenic role of KAT7 in regulating immune responses for osteosarcoma treatment. • KAT7 was abundantly expressed in osteosarcoma. • KAT7 overexpression enhanced the expression of MMP14 by H3K14ac modification. • KAT7 inhibited the expression of CCL3 via JAK1-STAT1 signaling pathways. • STAT1 transcriptionally activated CCL3, thereby modulating immune responses. • KAT7 accelerated dissemination of OS cells in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Develop a novel pixel-wise calibration method for telecentric structured light systems, offering higher accuracy and distortion-free 3D reconstruction. • Implement a global calibration strategy based on the virtual plane, addressing calibration degeneracy and enhancing robustness. • Introduce an orthographic projection model to essentially eliminate XY fluctuation issues, simplifying the pixel-wise strategy and the 3D reconstruction process. • Design a best stripe selection algorithm for optimizing calibration and improving accuracy in the pixel-wise strategy. • Experimentally demonstrate the calibration framework's versatility for different system setups and its capability to rapidly achieve high precision in experimental results. Micro three-dimensional (3D) imaging technology based on structured light is widely used in industrial applications, as it can obtain high-precision morphology of tiny objects using a camera equipped with a telecentric lens and a distorted pinhole projector. However, the telecentric structured light system suffers from problems caused by stereo-vision degeneracy, and their measurement accuracy is limited due to local distortions in stereo-vision calibration. To overcome these issues, the paper proposed a pixel-wise calibration method based on the virtual plane. In this method, first, the virtual plane is applied to the telecentric structured light system to ensure spatial relationships between the camera and projector, which is achieved easily by the Levenberg-Marquardt-based Perspective-n-Point(PnP) algorithm. Second, a pixel-wise polynomial regression model is introduced for local distortions, which converts phase information into refined 3D coordinates. Third, considering orthogonal stripes have poor sensitivity in one direction, the optimal fringe selection based on a reference plane is used in the calibration process to make the system more sensitive to depth. In addition, the proposed method can be extended to multi-projector systems and allows uncalibrated projectors to be calibrated with unidirectional fringe patterns. The proposed calibration method is flexible and easy to conduct. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method can effectively reduce local measurement errors and significantly improve reconstruction speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A deep multimodal fusion (DMF) model is developed for sand gravel moisture content prediction. • The DMF model effectively extracts and fuses information from image, spectral, and dielectric data. • The DMF model shows superior performance on sand gravel multimodal datasets. • The DMF model maintains good robustness when the dataset was disturbed by general noise. A fast and accurate moisture content (MC) measurement of sand gravel is essential for hydraulic engineering project sites. Most existing measurement methods are unimodal, facing non-robust against external interference. To address this issue, a deep multimodal fusion (DMF) model for measuring the MC of sand gravel using images, near-infrared (NIR) spectra, and dielectric data, is proposed. A modified bottleneck transformer network (BoTNet) added with an extremely efficient spatial pyramid (EESP) block is first proposed to extract image features from different receptive fields. The improved convolutional neural network with attention blocks added (A-CNN) and gated recurrent unit with attention blocks added (A-GRU) networks are then adopted to extract local and sequential features from NIR spectra, respectively. The square root of dielectric data and above multimodal features are effectively fused according to their contribution to the target indicator in the Fusion module. Among other comparative models, the DMF model yielded the best performance (R2 = 0.962, RMSE = 0.645, RPD = 5.124) on the original sand gravel dataset, and still maintained the best accuracy (the average R2 and RPD mostly exceeded 0.85 and 2.5, respectively) when against general external noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduced salinity is a major factor that causes macrobenthic degradation in reclaimed wetlands. We investigated populations of the sesarmid crab Chiromantes dehaani in reclaimed and natural wetlands. Then, in the laboratory, we exposed male and female crabs to four salinity levels (0, 6, 12 and 18) for 96 h to analyse the effects of reduced salinity on osmoregulatory enzyme activities in the posterior gills and digestive and immune enzyme activities in the hepatopancreas of C. dehaani. The results revealed a significant positive correlation between the number of crabs and salinity. In the laboratory, we found that the isosmotic point of C. dehaani was close to 16 ppt. The crabs showed strong hyper-osmotic regulation when exposed to 0–6 ppt salinities. Moreover, in this salinity range, amylase activities were significantly inhibited. Under low-salinity stress, the immune enzyme activities were significantly activated. However, phenoloxidase and lysozyme activities were inhibited in the freshwater environment. The male and female crabs showed no significant differences in most of the enzyme activities. Thus, reduced salinity can adversely affect the digestive and immune functions of C. dehaani, which may cause population degradation in reclaimed wetlands. Our findings can provide new insights into the effects of reclamation on macrobenthos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-Bötzinger complex (PBC) is a necessary condition for the generation of respiratory rhythm. Due to the existence of synaptic gaps, delay plays a key role in the synchronous operation of coupled neurons. In this study, the relationship between synchronization and correlation degree is established for the first time by using ISI bifurcation and correlation coefficient, and the relationship between synchronization and correlation degree is discussed under the conditions of no delay, symmetric delay, and asymmetric delay. The results show that the phase synchronization of two coupling PBCs is closely related to the weak correlation, that is, the weak phase synchronization may occur under the condition of incomplete synchronization. Moreover, the time delay and coupling strength are controlled in the modified PBC network model, which not only reveals the law of PBC firing transition but also reveals the complex synchronization behavior in the coupled chaotic neurons. Especially, when the two coupled neurons are nonidentical, the complete synchronization will disappear. These results fully reveal the dynamic behavior of the PBC neural system, which is helpful to explore the signal transmission and coding of PBC neurons and provide theoretical value for further understanding respiratory rhythm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chloroplasts play crucial roles in plant defence against viral infection. We now report that chloroplast NADH dehydrogenase‐like (NDH) complex M subunit gene (NdhM) was first up‐regulated and then down‐regulated in turnip mosaic virus (TuMV)‐infected N. benthamiana. NbNdhM‐silenced plants were more susceptible to TuMV, whereas overexpression of NbNdhM inhibited TuMV accumulation. Overexpression of NbNdhM significantly induced the clustering of chloroplasts around the nuclei and disturbing this clustering facilitated TuMV infection, suggesting that the clustering mediated by NbNdhM is a defence against TuMV. It was then shown that NbNdhM interacted with TuMV VPg, and that the NdhMs of different plant species interacted with the proteins of different viruses, implying that NdhM may be a common target of viruses. In the presence of TuMV VPg, NbNdhM, which is normally localized in the nucleus, chloroplasts, cell periphery and chloroplast stromules, colocalized with VPg at the nucleus and nucleolus, with significantly increased nuclear accumulation, while NbNdhM‐mediated chloroplast clustering was significantly impaired. This study therefore indicates that NbNdhM has a defensive role in TuMV infection probably by inducing the perinuclear clustering of chloroplasts, and that the localization of NbNdhM is altered by its interaction with TuMV VPg in a way that promotes virus infection. Chloroplasts have been reported to play a vital role in plant defense against viruses. Increasing evidence indicates that the perinuclear clustering of chloroplasts is a defense response against pathogens. Here, we found that the chloroplast NADH dehydrogenase‐like complex M subunit (NdhM) induced the clustering of chloroplasts around the nuclei and disturbing this clustering facilitated turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) infection. Interestingly, to counteract it, TuMV VPg protein interacted with NbNdhM and redirected it into the nucleus and nucleolus, thereby impairing NdhM‐induced perinuclear chloroplast clustering to promote virus infection. The results provide a better insight into the complicated virus‐chloroplast interaction that occurs during TuMV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonon-mediated motion transfer plays an essential role in scalable phononic devices. We present geometric motion transfer between two mechanical resonators, which are indirectly coupled by parametrically coupling to the same intermediate mechanical mode. The phonon-mediated coupling is controlled so that the intermediate mode remains unoccupied after the system undergoes a cyclic evolution. Pure geometric motion transfer between the indirectly coupled mechanical resonators is achieved experimentally through a controlling motion evolution path in the Hilbert space. Because the geometric phase is robust against local fluctuation of the evolution path, our research provides a prospective scenario for noise-resilient phonon-based information processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A full‐scale wastewater treatment plant in China experienced unintentional anammox bacterial enrichment on biofilm carriers placed in the anaerobic and anoxic zones of an anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process under ambient temperatures and without bioaugmentation. Here, we show that microaerophilic conditions resulting from air scouring needed for biofilm carrier suspension in the anaerobic/anoxic zones can support a robust nitritation/anammox process. Results from an in situ on/off air scouring test showed that air scouring strongly induced both ammonia and total inorganic nitrogen removal in the anaerobic/anoxic zones. Ammonium concentration in the anaerobic and anoxic tanks remained constant or even slightly increased when air scouring was off, indicating that air scouring made a noticeable difference in nitrogen profiles in the anaerobic/anoxic zones. Various batch tests further indicated that partial denitrification is not likely to generate nitrite for anammox bacteria. Robust nitritation, and anammox on the carriers, can occur at low dissolved oxygen conditions, as measured in the full‐scale facility. The observations show that mainstream deammonification without sidestream bioaugmentation at moderate temperature is feasible and further optimization by a more dedicated design can result in improved nitrogen removal in cases when chemical oxygen demand is limited in mainstream wastewater treatment. Practitioner points: Microaerophilic conditions in a full‐scale IFAS reactor caused mainstream anammox in moderate temperate area.Robust nitritation, and anammox on the carriers, can occur at low dissolved oxygen conditions in anaerobic/anoxic tanks with air scouring.Anammox can function well with conventional nitrification and denitrification process at mainstream conditions for stable nitrogen removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To check if it is possible for crayfish to reduce the weed biomass in a paddy field, we hypothesised that crayfish can feed on common weeds in a paddy field. The feeding ability of red swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, males and females for 4 weeds, Ludwigia prostrata Roxb., Leptochloa chinensis (L.) Nees, Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv and Eclipta prostrata L., commonly found in rice–crayfish fields were evaluated using a quantitative feeding experiment and behaviour observation experiment. The results of the quantitative feeding and behaviour experiments were highly consistent. The P. clarkii gender and weed species had no interactive effects on survival rate, the daily feed intake (FI) and percentage of daily feed intake (PFI). The results of the quantitative feeding experiment showed that the FI and PFI values of both P. clarkii females and males were significantly higher in the P. clarkii feed group than in the weed treatment group. Both FI and PFI were significantly higher in the L. chinensis group than in the other treatment groups. The survival rate of P. clarkii was significantly lower in the E. crusgalli group than in the other treatment groups. The behaviour observation experiment showed that the feeding frequency and duration were in the order of L. chinensis > E. prostrata > L. prostrata > E. crusgalli. The results indicate that the P. clarkii specimens liked to eat L. chinensis (mean PFI was more than 2%), hardly fed on E. crusgalli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle to vulnerable road user (VRU) crashes occupy a large proportion of traffic crashes in China, and crash injury severity analysis can support traffic managers to understand the implicit rules behind the crashes. Therefore, 554 VRUs-involved crashes are collected from January, 2017, to February, 2021, in a city in northern China, including 322 vehicle-pedestrian crashes and 232 vehicle-bicycle crashes. First, a descriptive statistical analysis is conducted to investigate the characteristics of VRUs-involved crashes. Second, the extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) model is introduced to identify the importance of risk factors (i.e., time of day, day of week, rushing hour, crash position, weather, and crash involvements) of VRUs-involved crashes. The statistical analysis demonstrates that the risk factors are closely related to VRUs-involved crash injury severity. Moreover, the results of XGBoost reveal that time of day has the greatest impact on VRUs-involved crashes, and crash position shows the minimum importance among these risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical image information may be polluted by noise in the process of generation and transmission, which will seriously hinder the follow-up image processing and medical diagnosis. In medical images, there is a typical mixed noise composed of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and impulse noise. In the conventional denoising methods, impulse noise is first removed, followed by the elimination of white Gaussian noise (WGN). However, it is difficult to separate the two kinds of noises completely in practical application. The existing denoising algorithm of weight coding based on sparse nonlocal regularization, which can simultaneously remove AWGN and impulse noise, is plagued by the problems of incomplete noise removal and serious loss of details. The denoising algorithm based on sparse representation and low rank constraint can preserve image details better. Thus, a medical image denoising algorithm based on sparse nonlocal regularization weighted coding and low rank constraint is proposed. The denoising effect of the proposed method and the original algorithm on computed tomography (CT) image and magnetic resonance (MR) image are compared. It is revealed that, under different σ and ρ values, the PSNR and FSIM values of CT and MRI images are evidently superior to those of traditional algorithms, suggesting that the algorithm proposed in this work has better denoising effects on medical images than traditional denoising algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intended to investigate the crash injury severity from the insights of the novice and experienced drivers. To achieve this objective, a bivariate panel data probit model was initially proposed to account for the correlation between both time-specific and individual-specific error terms. The geocrash data of Las Vegas metropolitan area from 2014 to 2017 were collected. In order to estimate two (seemingly unrelated) nonlinear processes and to control for interrelations between the unobservables, the bivariate random-effects probit model was built up, in which injury severity levels of novice and experienced drivers were addressed by bivariate (seemingly unrelated) probit simultaneously, and the interrelations between the unobservables (i.e., heterogeneity issue) were accommodated by bivariate random-effects model. Results revealed that crash types, vehicle types of minor responsibility, pedestrians, and motorcyclists were potentially significant factors of injury severity for novice drivers, while crash types, driver condition of minor responsibility, first harm, and highway factor were significant for experienced drivers. The findings provide useful insights for practitioners to improve traffic safety levels of novice and experienced drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spontaneous anammox bacteria enrichment at mainstream conditions was reported in a full‐scale Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in a temperate zone of China. The mainstream anammox was observed after WWTP process retrofit, which constructed a hybrid sludge retention time (SRT) system by providing moving carriers in the anaerobic/anoxic tank and was initially designed to enhance the denitrification process in a conventional anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process. The hybrid SRT system achieved 86.0 ± 4.6% total nitrogen (TN) removal via combined mainstream anammox and conventional denitrification. Autotrophic denitrification via mainstream anammox was confirmed by various shreds of evidence including high‐throughput sequencing, specific anammox activity test, and 15N isotopic tracing. Long‐term anammox bacteria existence in the biofilm of the carrier in anoxic zones was detected in a much higher relative abundance compared with other spots. The contribution of anammox activity to TN removal was estimated at around 20%–30%. The reasons leading to spontaneous anammox enrichment were mainly attributed to the carriers for slow‐growing bacteria growth and dissolved oxygen gradient in the anoxic tank (caused by intermittent aeration) for nitrite production. The insights of this full‐scale case study provide important perspectives for future mainstream anammox application, and also the design of an energy‐neutral WWTP process. Practitioner points: Spontaneous mainstream anammox in a full‐scale WWTP after its retrofit in a temperate zone of China was reported.Anammox bacteria enrichment and long‐term stability on moving carriers at mainstream conditions was achieved by modified hybrid SRT system.The hybrid SRT system achieve stable nitrogen removal even in cold winter and high BOD/N situation by combining mainstream anammox with conventional denitrification.Long term full‐scale operation demonstrated excellent nitrogen removal with about 20%–30% contribution of mainstream anammox.This full‐scale case study provided perspectives for future optimizing mainstream anammox application, and also energy‐neutral WWTP process design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of rare-earth fluorescent materials based on the fluorescence intensity ratio method allows the monitoring of internal temperature, stability and service life of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). In this paper, Eu3+ doped (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 rare-earth ceramic materials was firstly prepared by chemical co-precipitation technique, and the doping content of Eu3+ was optimized by comparing its effect on morphology, luminescence and temperature sensitive performance of (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7. Then the Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene was subsequently blended into the optimal (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 : Eu3+ powders by mechanical milling. The influence of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXenes on the structure, morphology, fluorescence properties and temperature sensitivity of (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 : Eu3+ powders was further investigated systematically. Results showed that (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 : Eu3+ powders were compound of M′-YTaO 4 and YSZ in tetragonal phase. The optimal doping content of Eu3+ is 1.5 mol%. The adding of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene did not affect the structure of (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 :Eu3+ powders. After addition of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXenes, part of (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 :Eu3+ particles embedded in the middle of the accordion-shaped MXenes sheet, while the other part wrapped around MXenes. Ti 3 C 2 T x MXenes could significantly improve the luminescence intensity, fluorescence lifetime and temperature-sensitive performance of (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 : Eu3+powders. The optimal addition amount of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXenes is 0.6 wt%. The absolute and relative sensitivities of MXene/(YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 :Eu3+ powders archived 2 times of (YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 : Eu3+ powders. Therefore, MXene/(YSZ) 0.3 -(YTaO 4) 0.7 : Eu3+ could be used as temperature-indicating ceramic materials with highly efficient fluorescent properties for real-time monitoring of internal temperature of TBCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intended to investigate the crash injury severity from the insights of the novice and experienced drivers. To achieve this objective, a bivariate panel data probit model was initially proposed to account for the correlation between both time-specific and individual-specific error terms. The geocrash data of Las Vegas metropolitan area from 2014 to 2017 were collected. In order to estimate two (seemingly unrelated) nonlinear processes and to control for interrelations between the unobservables, the bivariate random-effects probit model was built up, in which injury severity levels of novice and experienced drivers were addressed by bivariate (seemingly unrelated) probit simultaneously, and the interrelations between the unobservables (i.e., heterogeneity issue) were accommodated by bivariate random-effects model. Results revealed that crash types, vehicle types of minor responsibility, pedestrians, and motorcyclists were potentially significant factors of injury severity for novice drivers, while crash types, driver condition of minor responsibility, first harm, and highway factor were significant for experienced drivers. The findings provide useful insights for practitioners to improve traffic safety levels of novice and experienced drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new species of Spiradiclis (Rubiaceae), Spiradiclis repens L. Wu & Yan Liu and S. reticulata L. Wu, Q Yuan & Jian‐Ling Li are described and illustrated here. Spiradiclis repens is morphologically similar to S. karstana in having a creeping habit, puberulent stems, elliptic to oblong leaves and slenderly salverform corolla, but differ by having less numerous flowers on linear stipules, terminal cymose inflorescences, peduncles 4.0–12.0 mm long, and corolla lilac or pale pink and glabrous inside. Spiradiclis reticulata is close to S. emeiensis and S. malipoensis in that their capsules are ellipsoid and slightly compressed from both sides, but the former can be distinguished from the latter two by having 2‐lobed stipules, monostylous flowers and slenderly cylindrical corollas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a by-product of the construction and demolition waste (CDW) classification process, the construction and demolition waste residue (CDWR) faces the problem of having nowhere to be stacked and being unable to be handled. Solidifying CDWR by alkali activation technology to make building blocks not only provides a value-added method for recycling CDWR, but also promotes the sustainable development of rural construction. In this study, a new alkali-activated material (NAAM) was proposed for the solidification of CDWR, and the optimal ratio of NAAM at different curing ages was determined by mixture design, and then the micro-mechanism and macro-properties of CDWR solidified with NAAM were investigated. The results show that the compressive strength of the optimized specimen at 14-day meets the requirement of 10 MPa. After solidifying CDWR with NAAM, the products generated are mainly calcium silicate hydrate gels with different morphologies, accompanied by ettringite and CaCO 3. Water content and pH have a significant impact on the compressive strength, and low water content and pH value have a negative impact on the pozzolanic reaction and the generation of products of the specimen. In general, it is feasible to use NAAM mainly composed of waste brick powder proposed in this paper to solidify CDWR. Without using cement and natural aggregates, it still shows good mechanical property and environmental benefits. • A new alkali-activated material based on waste brick powder is proposed. • Recycling of construction and demolition waste residue as recycled aggregate. • The optimal ratio of NAAM at different curing ages is determined by mixture design. • The compressive strength of the optimized specimen at 14-day meets the requirement of 10 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]