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Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a high social burden and limited treatments. Hypoxic condition of the brain is considered an important pathological mechanism of ASD. HIF1A is a key participant in brain hypoxia, but its contribution to the pathophysiological landscape of ASD remains unclear. Methods: ASD-related datasets were obtained from GEO database, and HIF1A-related genes from GeneCards. Co-expression module analysis identified module genes, which were intersected with HIF1A-related genes to identify common genes. Machine learning identified hub genes from intersection genes and PPI networks were constructed to explore relationships among hub and HIF1A. Single-cell RNA sequencing analyzed hub gene distribution across cell clusters. ASD mouse model was created by inducing maternal immune activation (MIA) with poly(I:C) injections, verified through behavioral tests. Validation of HIF1A pathway and hub genes was confirmed through Western Blot, qPCR, and immunofluorescence in ASD mice and microglia BV-2 cells. Results: Using CEMiTool and GeneCards, 45 genes associated with ASD and HIF1A pathway were identified. Machine learning identified CDKN1A, ETS2, LYN, and SLC16A3 as potential ASD diagnostic markers. Single-cell sequencing pinpointed activated microglia as key immune cells. Behavioral tests showed MIA offspring mice exhibited typical ASD-like behaviors. Immunofluorescence confirmed the activation of microglia and HIF1A pathway in frontal cortex of ASD mice. Additionally, IL-6 contributed to ASD by activating JUN/HIF1A pathway, affecting CDKN1A, LYN, and SLC16A3 expression in microglia. Conclusions: HIF1A-related genes CDKN1A, ETS2, LYN, and SLC16A3 are strong diagnostic markers for ASD and the activation of IL-6/JUN/HIF1A pathway in microglia contributes to the pathogenesis of ASD.

Transient flow frequently occurs in water delivery systems, including various flow regimes such as water hammer, free surface flow, and slug flow. Current models often oversimplify these phenomena by simulating single-phase flow or using simplistic one-dimensional assumptions for the gas-water interface, neglecting interface instability. Although two-fluid models can address some of these issues, they cannot simulate open channel flow and have not yet been applied to transient flow scenarios. To date, no single model has been able to simultaneously simulate all these flow regimes while overcoming these limitations. To address this gap, the two-fluid model is enhanced in this paper. For water hammer simulation, a gas volume fraction of zero is assumed, and a TVB unsteady friction model is introduced to enhance numerical accuracy. For open channel flow, a variable wave speed equation and a new state equation are presented. Despite the different state equations required for various flow regimes, a Roe-type scheme is introduced to solve the two-fluid model. This approach accurately simulates water hammer, free surface flow (including open channel flow and stratified flow), and slug flow. An experimental pipeline system is designed to validate the proposed model's ability to simulate water hammer. Additionally, several cases are used to verify the model's capability in simulating open channel flow, stratified flow, and slug flow. The model accurately predicts the occurrence of slug flow, consistent with experimental flow pattern maps, and effectively simulates the evolution of slug flow, closely matching the measured gas-water interface. The effects of gas volume fraction, pipe length, and pipe slope on slug flow are systematically discussed. Results indicate that smaller initial gas volume fractions, longer pipe lengths, and upward pipe slopes increase the likelihood of slug flow generation within the pipeline, which should be minimized during design.Abbreviations: TVB: Trikha-Vardy-Brown model; Cr: Courant number

In this paper, a discrete air model (DAM) is developed to capture the discontinuous characteristics of air at different locations during the rapid filling process in long-range, large-scale water pipeline. By introducing the continuity and momentum equations of air and combining them with the water control equation and the interface continuity equation, an improved model based on the uniform air is derived. The accuracy of the model is verified by comparing it with experimental data and the results of the original uniform air model (UAM). Subsequently, a long-range, large-scale pipeline was considered to investigate the dynamic properties of air in large systems, which had not been covered in previous studies. Additionally, the influence of air dynamic characteristics on initial air volume affected by different air lengths and various pipe diameters in large systems – is further studied. Results show that an increased pipe diameter expands the contact area of the air–water interface, often resulting in the UAM underestimating the maximum peak pressure. The propagation process of transient waves in air is divided into three stages: propagation stage with multiple variation, maximum value stage with interface propulsive, and stability stage with several fluctuations, which corresponds to the pressure fluctuation curve. This explains the occurrence of small fluctuations and peaks in the curve. Therefore, the peak pressure simulated by the proposed DAM offers a better understanding of wave behaviours.

Abstract The community structure and co-occurrence pattern of eukaryotic algae in Yuncheng Salt Lake were analyzed based on marker gene analysis of the 18S rRNA V4 region to understand the species composition and their synergistic adaptations to the environmental factors in different salinity waters. The results showed indicated that the overall algal composition of Yuncheng Salt Lake showed a Chlorophyta-Pyrrophyta-Bacillariophyta type structure. Chlorophyta showed an absolute advantage in all salinity waters. In addition, Cryptophyta dominated in the least saline waters; Pyrrophyta and Bacillariophyta were the dominant phyla in the waters with salinity ranging from 13.2 to 18%. Picochlorum, Nannochloris, Ulva, and Tetraselmis of Chlorophyta, Biecheleria and Oxyrrhis of Pyrrophyta, Halamphora, Psammothidium, and Navicula of Bacillariophyta, Guillardia and Rhodomonas of Cryptophyta were not observed in previous surveys of the Yuncheng Salt Lake, suggesting that the algae are undergoing a constant turnover as the water environment of the Salt Lake continues to change. The network diagram demonstrated that the algae were strongly influenced by salinity, NO3 −, and pH, changes in these environmental factors would lead to changes in the algal community structure, thus affecting the stability of the network structure.

The utilization of high-strength and tough petroleum casing steel has become the focus of various research groups worldwide, particularly in the past decade. However, defining its forming behavior presents several challenges, stemming from the complexity of enhancing strength and toughness on the steel's characteristics. To address this issue, this study employed a low-carbon microalloyed steel and introduced V and Nb elements sequentially, resulting in three groups of steels under investigation. Subsequently, mechanical properties and microstructure characteristics were examined. Interestingly, the addition of V and Nb elements resulted in both tensile and yield strengths above 1200 MPa and 1173 MPa, respectively, satisfying the criteria for the V170 oil casing. Furthermore, after adding V, V(C,N) precipitates uniformly in the steel. Still, the Nb element is not completely precipitated as there is a significant amount of Nb in solid solution. The effective grain size of the investigated steel increases from 0.92 μm to 0.98 μm after adding V and Nb elements, accompanied by a reduction in the fraction of HAGB from 47.4 % to 42.4 %. Therefore, V element plays a vital and positive role in improving the mechanical properties of the experimental steel, while Nb element has only a minor effect.

Medium Mn steels are the primary candidates in the fields of automobile, construction machinery et al. due to the advantages of high strength-ductility combination, and low costs. By now, the balance of good performance and high preparation efficiency is still a critical issue to be unsolved, which restricts their further applications. This work designs a novel Al-contained medium Mn low-density steel and explores the effect of a short intercritical-annealing process. The microstructure evolution of multi-scales, especially the austenite characteristics and Mn partitioning behaviors is analyzed, and the relationship between austenite and tensile properties is discussed. The results indicate Al can broaden the annealing processing window and improve the annealing temperature. When annealed at 780 °C, the austenite reverted transformation happens quickly and after annealing for 3 min, the austenite volume fraction maintains stable in the range of 52.4–56.7 vol%, but the morphology and Mn concentration are very different. A large amount of blocky austenite with a coarse size of more than 1 μm and a low Mn concentration of 8–9 wt% forms at the longer annealing time of 20 min, while the austenite almost presents a lath-like shape with a high Mn concentration exceeding 10 wt% at annealing time of 4 min. The tensile properties are closely related to the volume fraction and mechanical stability of austenite, and the sample annealed for 4 min exhibited the best performance with tensile strength of 1192 MPa and total elongation of 33 %, due to its slow TRIP effect.

Abstract A cognitive radar (CR) system can offer enhanced target tracking performance due to its intelligence on the perception‐action cycle, wherein a CR adaptively allocates the limited transmitting resources based on its perception of surrounding environments. To effectively manage the transmit waveform resource for the target tracking task, CR resource management problem is formulated under the partially observable Markov decision process framework. The sequential decision‐making and the inherent partial observability for target tracking problem are considered. In the proposed method, a long short‐term memory (LSTM)‐based twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) algorithm is developed to effectively solve the problem. A reward function is designed considering Haykin's cognitive executive attention mechanism for radar systems such that the CR resource management policy has stability in the decision of transmit waveform, which follows the principle of minimum disturbance. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed LSTM memory‐based TD3 with improved target tracking performance and increased mean rewards for CR.

Modern Multi-Function Radars (MFRs) are sophisticated sensors that are capable of flexibly adapting their control parameters in transmitted pulse sequences. In complex electromagnetic environments, efficiently and accurately recognizing the inter-pulse modulations of non-cooperative radar pulse sequences is a key step for modern Electronic Support (ES) systems. Existing recognition methods focus more on algorithmic designs, such as neural network structure designs, to improve recognition performance. However, in open electromagnetic environments with increased flexibility in radar transmission, these methods would suffer performance degradation due to domain shifts between training and testing datasets. To address this issue, this study proposes a robust radar inter-pulse modulation feature extraction and recognition method based on disentangled representation learning. At first, inspired by the Representation Learning Theory (RLT), the received radar pulse sequences can be disentangled into three explanatory factors related to (i) modulation types, (ii) modulation parameters, and (iii) measurement characteristics, such as measurement noise. Then, an explainable radar pulse sequence disentanglement network is proposed based on auto-encoding variational Bayes. The features extracted through the proposed method can effectively represent the key latent factors related to recognition tasks and maintain performance under domain shift conditions. Experiments on both ideal and non-ideal situations demonstrate the effectiveness, robustness, and superiority of the proposed method in comparison with other methods.

Abstract Background Aortic dissection (AD) is a serious and fatal vascular disease. The earlier the condition of AD patients can be assessed precisely, the more scientifically controlled the patient’s condition will be. Therefore, timely and accurate diagnosis is significant for AD. Blood biomarker testing as a method of liquid biopsy can improve the diagnostic efficiency of AD. This study conducted a systematic review of the current blood diagnostic biomarkers of AD. Methods The PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Embase electronic databases were systematically searched from inception to January 1, 2023, using the terms “aortic dissection”, “serum”, “plasma” and “diagnosis”. Stata 12.0 software was used to perform Random effects meta-analysis was performed using Stata 12.0 software to determine the effect sizes and corresponding 95% confidence intervals. Then, a summary receiver operator characteristic (SROC) curve was drawn, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated. Results D-dimer had the best sensitivity and AUC for AD, with values of 0.96 (95% CI: 0.93–0.98) and 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93–0.97), respectively. The sensitivity and AUC values for D-dimer with a cut-off value of 500 ng/mL were 0.97 (95% CI: 0.95–0.99) and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.92–0.96), respectively. In contrast, microRNA had a better specificity value for AD, at 0.79 (95% CI: 0.73–0.83). Conclusions D-dimer and microRNA have good accuracy in the diagnosis of AD, but the specificity of D-dimer is worse, and studies of microRNA are insufficient. The combination of different biomarkers can improve the diagnostic accuracy. Other blood biomarkers are related to the pathological progression of AD and can be selected according to pathological progress.

Sixty-three patients admitted to 5 hospitals in 2014–2020 for the treatment of severe hypertensive brainstem hemorrhage by CT-guided and bone marker-oriented transcerebellar aspiration were enrolled in this study. The puncture accuracy, duration of hematoma removal, tracheal decannulation, postoperative complications, postoperative consciousness recovery time, Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score, and prognosis outcome at follow-up were retrospectively analyzed. Additionally, the relationship between admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score and GOS score, and between hematoma volume and prognosis of patients was analyzed at follow-up. Results showed that CT localization–based and bone marker oriented transcerebellar hematoma aspiration in the treatment of severe hypertensive brainstem hemorrhage ensures high puncture accuracy, relatively low surgery risk, and good prognosis. The prognosis relates to the state of consciousness and hematoma volume.

An increasing number of novel biomaterials have been applied in wound healing therapy. Creating beneficial environments and containing various bioactive molecules, hydrogel- and extracellular vesicle (EV)-based therapies have respectively emerged as effective approaches for wound healing. Moreover, the synergistic combination of these two components demonstrates more favorable outcomes in both chronic and acute wound healing. This review provides a comprehensive discussion and summary of the combined application of EVs and hydrogels to address the intricate scenario of wounds. The wound healing process and related biological mechanisms are outlined in the first section. Subsequently, the utilization of EV-loaded hydrogels during the wound healing process is evaluated and discussed. The moist environment created by hydrogels is conducive to wound tissue regeneration. Additionally, the continuous and controlled release of EVs from various origins could be achieved by hydrogel encapsulation. Finally, recent in vitro and in vivo studies reported on hydrogel dressings loaded with EVs are summarized and challenges and opportunities for the future clinical application of this therapeutic approach are outlined.

ABSTRACTObjectives: This study aimed to evaluate the incidence and prognostic significance of common cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities in patients with TP53-mutated and non-TP53-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML).Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 326 patients with newly diagnosed AML hospitalized in our institution between October 2015 and June 2021. Classification variables were reported as percentages and compared by χ2 tests. Survival rates were evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method.Results: The incidence of TP53 mutations in AML patients in this clinic was 9.8%, of whom 87.5% patients were over 50 years old. The common concurrent mutations of TP53 were DNMT3A, IDH2, NRAS and TET2. Patients with a TP53 variant allele frequency (VAF) ≤ 40% had better overall survival (OS) than patients with a VAF >40%. Compared with non-TP53-mutated patients, significantly more TP53-mutated patients were gene-fusion negative, +mar, – 7/del (7q), – 5/del (5q), – 17/17p-, – 12/12p-, incomplete (inc) karyotype, or complex karyotype (CK), and had FLT3-ITD or IDH2 mutations, as well as a lower complete remission (CR) rate (31.3%) and higher recurrence rate (80.0%). The 2-year OS rates of TP53-mutated and non-TP53-mutated patients were 18.8% and 47.3%, respectively (P

The cement composite calcium lignosulfonate is used to enhance the mechanical properties and the freeze–thaw resistance of loess. Based on an unconfined compressive test under different freeze–thaw cycles, the influence of cement dosage, curing age, and freeze–thaw cycles on compressive strength are discussed. The results indicate that the strength of loess can increase by up to 13 times, and the loss of strength is reduced from 72% to 28% under the reinforcement of cement dosage and curing age. The loss of strength is mainly concentrated in the initial 5 freeze–thaw cycles, and the structure gradually stabilizes after 10 freeze–thaw cycles. In addition, according to the X-ray diffraction test, it is found that the stabilized loess exhibits a comparatively more stable mineral composition. The scanning electron microscope results reveal that hydration products enveloped the soil particles, forming a mesh structure that strengthens the connection between the soil particles. The freeze–thaw damage makes the small and medium pores turn into large pores in loess, while the stabilized loess changes micro and small pores into small and medium pores, with no large pores found. It is feasible to improve loess with the cement composite calcium lignosulfonate, which can provide references for the reinforcement treatment of loess.

Abstract Multi‐function radars (MFRs) are sophisticated sensors with fine‐grained modes, which modify their modulation types and parameters range generating various signals to fulfil different tasks, such as surveillance and tracking. In electromagnetic reconnaissance, recognition of MFR fine‐grained modes can provide a basis for analysing strategies and reaction. With the limit of real applications, it is hard to obtain a large number of labelled samples for existing methods to learn the difference between categories. Therefore, it is essential to develop new methods to extract general knowledge of MFRs and identify modes with only a few samples. This paper proposes a few‐shot learning (FSL) framework based on efficient neural architecture search (ENAS) with high robustness and portability, which designs a suitable network structure automated and quickly adapts to new environments. The experimental results show that the proposed method can still achieve excellent fine‐grained modulation recognition performance (92.6%) under the condition of ‐6 dB signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR), even when each class only provides one fixed‐duration signal sample. The robustness is also verified under different conditions.

Fruit cracking affects both the yield and economic efficiency of citrus; however, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, this study focused on resistant and susceptible cultivars to identify the mechanisms underlying fruit cracking. The results showed that in ‘Mingrijian’, pectin morphological transformation and hemicellulose and lignin degradation in the pericarp were important contributing factors. During the critical fruit-cracking period (115–150 days after flowering), the water-soluble pectin, protopectin, and lignin contents in the pericarp of ‘Daya’ presented inverse changes relative to those in ‘Mingrijian’, thus enhancing the mechanical properties and resistance of pericarp. From 115 to 150 days after flowering, the soluble sugar content in the pulp of ‘Mingrijian’ increased rapidly by 97.35%, aiding in pulp water absorption and expansion. Moreover, the soluble protein content in the pericarp of ‘Mingrijian’ exhibited a declining trend and was lower than that of ‘Daya’, thus affecting the overall metabolism. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the pericarp of ‘Mingrijian’ gradually decreased from 115 to 180 days after flowering, while the peroxidase (POD) activity remained at a low level, resulting in weaker antioxidant capacity and lower environmental resistance. This study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms of citrus fruit cracking, laying the foundation for preventive and control strategies.

Abstract To mimic the Escherichia coli T7 protein expression system, we developed a facile T7 promoter-based protein expression system in an industrial microorganism Bacillus subtilis. This system has two parts: a new B. subtilis strain SCK22 and a plasmid pHT7. To construct strain SCK22, the T7 RNA polymerase gene was inserted into the chromosome, and several genes, such as two major protease genes, a spore generation-related gene, and a fermentation foam generation-related gene, were knocked out to facilitate good expression in high-density cell fermentation. The gene of a target protein can be subcloned into plasmid pHT7, where the gene of the target protein was under tight control of the T7 promoter with a ribosome binding site (RBS) sequence of B. subtilis (i.e., AAGGAGG). A few recombinant proteins (i.e., green fluorescent protein, α-glucan phosphorylase, inositol monophosphatase, phosphoglucomutase, and 4-α-glucanotransferase) were expressed with approximately 25–40% expression levels relative to the cellular total proteins estimated by SDS-PAGE by using B. subtilis SCK22/pHT7-derived plasmid. A fed-batch high-cell density fermentation was conducted in a 5-L fermenter, producing up to 4.78 g/L inositol monophosphatase. This expression system has a few advantageous features, such as, wide applicability for recombinant proteins, high protein expression level, easy genetic operation, high transformation efficiency, good genetic stability, and suitability for high-cell density fermentation. Graphical Abstract

A finite-volume second-order Godunov-type scheme (GTS) combining the unsteady friction model (UFM) is introduced to simulate free surface flow in pipelines. The exact solution to the Riemann problem calculates the mass and momentum fluxes while considering the Brunone unsteady friction factor. One simple boundary treatment with double virtual cells is proposed to ensure the whole computation domain with second-order accuracy. Results of various transient free-surface flows achieved by the proposed models are compared with exact solution, experimental data, the four-point implicit Preissmann scheme solution, as well as predictions by the classic Method of Characteristics (MOC). Results show that the proposed second-order GTS UFMs are accurate, efficient, and stable even for Courant numbers less than one and sparse grid. The four-point implicit Preissmann scheme may produce severe numerical attenuation in the case of large time steps and unsuitable weighting factors, while the MOC scheme may produce severe numerical attenuation in the case of a low Courant number and could not maintain mass conservation. The numerical simulations considering the unsteady friction factor are closer to the measured water depth variations. The effect of unsteady friction becomes more important as the initial water depth difference increases significantly. HIGHLIGHTS A finite-volume second-order Godunov-type scheme combining the unsteady friction model is introduced to simulate free surface flow in pipelines.; One simple boundary treatment with double virtual cells is proposed to ensure the whole computation domain with second-order accuracy.; The accuracy and stability of various numerical models (including the proposed model, MOC scheme, and Preissmann scheme) are investigated.;

Twin-roll strip casting (TRSC), which is a low-energy and short process to produce strip steel, is a potential approach to produce advanced high-strength steels. Herein, a medium-Mn steel containing 4 wt% Mn was processed using a novel route involving TRSC, hot rolling and quenching and partitioning (QP) to explore the possibility of medium-Mn steel produced by TRSC plus QP process. The effects of quenching temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties were studied. It was found that primary martensite and retained austenite (RA) were obtained at the quenching temperature of 140–180 °C, while primary martensite, RA and secondary martensite were obtained when the quenching temperature was 220–300 °C. With an increase in quenching temperature from 140 to 260 and to 300 °C, the RA fraction first increased from 15.4% to 31.8% and then decreased to 16.6%. The sample at a quenching temperature of 220 °C yielded mechanical properties with a yield strength of 992 MPa, tensile strength of 1159 MPa and total elongation of 20.4%. The superior mechanical properties were achieved by an optimum combination of high RA fraction (26.5%), appropriate mechanical stability of RA and a small number of the islands of secondary martensite and RA. Hence, the present study provides a viable processing route for medium-Mn steel.

Abstract The newly developed cognitive radar (CR) can implement flexible work modes defined with a set of mode definition parameters. Each definition parameter can employ its modulation type and corresponding optimised modulating values. Automatic recognition and analysis of CR work mode are significant challenges for electromagnetic reconnaissance applications. In this article, a deep multitask neural network is proposed for Joint automatic Modulation Recognition and modulation Parameter Estimation (JMRPE‐Net) for the emerging task of CR signals analysis. The proposed JMRPE‐Net consists of a fork‐shaped architecture in which three cascaded convolutional layers act as a shared module for the extraction of common features followed by multiple branches of long short‐term memory layers with the attention mechanism for task‐specific features extraction. The proposed network can receive a sequence of CR pulse signals as input and parallelly perform automatic modulation recognition (AMR) and modulation parameter estimation tasks for multiple work mode definition parameters. Extensive experiments are conducted based on simulated radar intermediate frequency signals with consideration of imperfections of real‐world electromagnetic environments. The experimental results validate the superiority of the proposed JMRPE‐Net against the existing state‐of‐the‐art single task AMR methods or parameter estimation methods.

Harumi tangor fruit with Ponkan as an interstock contains significantly higher levels of total soluble solids compared to Harumi tangor fruit cv.with no interstock. Transcriptome analysis of two graft combinations (Harumi/Hongjv (HP) and cv. cv.Harumi/Ponkan/Hongjv (HPP)) was conducted to identify the genes related to use of the Ponkan interstock. Soluble sugars and organic acids were also measured in the two graft combinations. The results showed that the contents of sucrose, glucose, and fructose were higher in the fruits of HPP than in those of HP; additionally, the titratable acid levels were lower in grafts with interstocks than in grafts without interstocks. Transcriptome analysis of HPP and HP citrus revealed that the interstock regulated auxin and ethylene signals, sugar and energy metabolism, and cell wall metabolism. Trend and Venn analyses suggested that genes related to carbohydrate-, energy-, and hormone-metabolic activities were more abundant in HPP plants than in HP plants during different periods. Moreover, weighted gene co-expression network analysis demonstrated that carbohydrates, hormones, cell wall, and transcription factors may be critical for interstock-mediated citrus fruit development and ripening. The contents of ethylene, auxin, cytokinin, transcription factors, starch, sucrose, glucose, fructose, and total sugar in HPP plants differed considerably than those in HP fruits. Interstocks may help to regulate the early ripening and quality of citrus fruit through the above-mentioned pathways. These findings provide information on the effects of interstock on plant growth and development.

A robust prediction system should monitor all possible hydraulic transients, which is significant for the appropriate and safe operation of pipe systems. A second-order finite volume method (FVM) Godunov-type scheme (GTS) considering unsteady friction factors is introduced to simulate hydraulic transients, which was rarely involved in previous work. One explicit-solution source item approach developed in this work is crucial for the proposed GTS to easily incorporate various forms of the existing unsteady friction models, including original convolution-based models (Zielke model and Vardy–Brown model), simplified convolution-based model (Trikha–Vardy–Brown (TVB) model), and Brunone instantaneous acceleration-based model. Results achieved by the proposed models are compared with experimental data as well as predictions by the classic Method of Characteristics (MOC). Results show that the MOC scheme may produce severe numerical attenuation in the case of a low Courant number. The proposed second-order GTS unsteady friction models are accurate, efficient, and stable even for Courant numbers less than one and sparse grid, and only need much less grid number and computation time to reach the same numerical accuracy. The TVB convolution-based model and Brunone model in the second-order GTS are suggested for further applications in hydraulic transients due to their high accuracy and efficiency. HIGHLIGHTS A Godunov-type scheme involving unsteady pipe friction is developed.; An explicit-solution source item approach is introduced to incorporate unsteady friction.; The numerical models are validated by the experimental data.; The proposed models are accurate, efficient, and stable for transient pipe flow.; A Brunone unsteady friction model is more efficient than the convolution-based model.;

BackgroundDyslipidemia is strongly associated with the development of hypertension. In our previous study, it was shown that elevated TC, LDL-c, and non-HDL-c were associated with the prevalence of hypertension in Chinese men, whereas the relationship between HDL-c and hypertension shifted from no association to a positive association after adjusting for the BMI. To further accumulate epidemiological evidence in Asian women, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between lipid profile and prevalence of hypertension in Chinese adult women.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study including 54,099 Chinese women aged>20 years at 32 health screening centers in 11 cities from 2010-2016. The original data were obtained from DATADRYAD database (www.datadryad.org). Besides, the overall women were classified into non-hypertensive and hypertensive groups based on baseline blood pressure levels. Differences between the two groups were examined by Man-Whitney test or Chi-square test. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was employed to evaluate the correlation between systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and lipid profiles. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to estimate the relationship between different lipid levels and the prevalence of hypertension. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) indicated the risk of lipid and hypertension. Bayesian model (BN) model was constructed to further assess the relationship between baseline characteristics and the prevalence of hypertension, as well as the importance of each variable for the prevalence of hypertension.ResultsCompared to the non-hypertensive population, the hypertensive population was older, and had the higher body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), serum creatinine (Scr), fasting blood glucose (FPG), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-c), but HDL-c and the presence concerning the family history of diabetes were lower. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that TC, LDL-c, and non-HDL-c showed a positive trend with hypertension risk (p for trend < 0.05) whereas TC and HDL-c were not significantly associated with hypertension prevalence. Moreover, each 1 mg/dl increase in TC, LDL, and non-HDL hypertension prevalence increased by 0.2% [1.002 (1.000-1.003)], 0.2% [1.002 (1.000-1.004)], and 0.2% [1.002(1.001-1.004)], respectively. BN suggested that the importance of age, BMI, FPG, non-HDL-c on the prevalence of hypertension was 52.73%, 24.98%, 11.22%, and 2.34%, respectively.ConclusionOverall, in Chinese adult women, TC, LDL-c and non-HDL-c levels were higher and HDL-c level was lower in the hypertensive population, whereas TG did not differ significantly from the non-hypertensive population. Meanwhile, TC, LDL-c, and non-HDL-c were positively associated with prevalence of hypertension, and HDL-c was negatively associated with prevalence of hypertension but became nonsignificant after full adjustment for variables. Moreover, BN model suggested that age, BMI, FPG, and non-HDL-c had a greater effect on the development of hypertension.

Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-IgG-associated disorder (MOGAD) is a nervous system (NS) demyelination disease and a newly recognized distinct disease complicated with various diseases or symptoms; however, MOGAD was once considered a subset of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD). The detection of MOG-IgG has been greatly improved by the cell-based assay test method. In one study, 31% of NMOSD patients with negative aquaporin-4 (AQP-4) antibody were MOG-IgG positive. MOGAD occurs in approximately the fourth decade of a person’s life without a markedly female predominance. Usually, optic neuritis (ON), myelitis or acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM) encephalitis are the typical symptoms of MOGAD. MOG-IgG have been found in patients with peripheral neuropathy, teratoma, COVID-19 pneumonia, etc. Some studies have revealed the presence of brainstem lesions, encephalopathy or cortical encephalitis. Attention should be given to screening patients with atypical symptoms. Compared to NMOSD, MOGAD generally responds well to immunotherapy and has a good functional prognosis. Approximately 44-83% of patients undergo relapsing episodes within 8 months, which mostly involve the optic nerve, and persistently observed MOG-IgG and severe clinical performance may indicate a polyphasic course of illness. Currently, there is a lack of clinical randomized controlled trials on the treatment and prognosis of MOGAD. The purpose of this review is to discuss the clinical manifestations, imaging features, outcomes and prognosis of MOGAD.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), an emerging life-threatening infectious disease caused by SFTS bunyavirus (SFTSV; genus Bandavirus, family Phenuiviridae, order Bunyavirales), has been a significant medical problem. Currently, there are no licensed vaccines or specific therapeutic agents available and the viral pathogenesis remains largely unclear. Developing appropriate animal models capable of recapitulating SFTSV infection in humans is crucial for both the study of the viral pathogenic processes and the development of treatment and prevention strategies. Here, we review the current progress in animal models for SFTSV infection by summarizing susceptibility of various potential animal models to SFTSV challenge and the clinical manifestations and histopathological changes in these models. Together with exemplification of studies on SFTSV molecular mechanisms, vaccine candidates, and antiviral drugs, in which animal infection models are utilized, the strengths and limitations of the existing SFTSV animal models and some important directions for future research are also discussed. Further exploration and optimization of SFTSV animal models and the corresponding experimental methods will be undoubtedly valuable for elucidating the viral infection and pathogenesis and evaluating vaccines and antiviral therapies.

Maltose is a natural α-(1,4)-linked disaccharide with wide applications in food industries and microbial fermentation. However, maltose has scarcely been used for in vitro biosynthesis, possibly because its phosphorylation by maltose phosphorylase (MP) yields β-glucose 1-phosphate (β-G1P) that cannot be utilized by α-phosphoglucomutase (α-PGM) commonly found in in vitro synthetic enzymatic biosystems previously constructed by our group. Herein, we designed an in vitro synthetic enzymatic reaction module comprised of MP, β-phosphoglucomutase (β-PGM), and polyphosphate glucokinase (PPGK) for the stoichiometric conversion of each maltose molecule to two glucose 6-phosphate (G6P) molecules. Based on this synthetic module, we further constructed two in vitro synthetic biosystems to produce bioelectricity and fructose 1,6-diphosphate (FDP), respectively. The 14-enzyme biobattery achieved a Faraday efficiency of 96.4% and a maximal power density of 0.6 mW/cm2, whereas the 5-enzyme in vitro FDP-producing biosystem yielded 187.0 mM FDP from 50 g/L (139 mM) maltose by adopting a fed-batch substrate feeding strategy. Our study not only suggests new application scenarios for maltose but also provides novel strategies for the high-efficient production of bioelectricity and value-added biochemicals.

Moyamoya disease (MMD) is an idiopathic and chronic steno-occlusive cerebrovascular disease. Genetic studies identified RNF213 as a principal susceptibility gene of MMD. In this study, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from an MMD patient with RNF213 p. R4810K mutations, and the PBMCs were then reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by the transfection of non-integrated episomal vectors. The iPSC line shows pluripotency markers and has the potential for in vitro differentiation into three germ layers, and will be valuable for elucidating the underlying cellular mechanisms of MMD, selecting therapeutic targets, and developing drugs.

Objectives: Intracranial hemorrhage is the second most common stroke subtype following ischemic stroke and usually induces high mortality and disability. Here, we conducted a retrospective study to establish a nomogram clinical prediction model. Methods: First, the baseline data of patients who presented to our hospital in 2015–2021 were collected and compared (789 patients for the training cohort and 378 patients for the validation cohort). Second, univariate and binary logistic analyses were performed to screen out alternative indicators. Finally, a clinical prediction model by nomogram was established that included such indicators to estimate the prognosis of intracranial hemorrhage patients. Results: Univariate logistic analysis was used to screen several possible impact factors, including hypertension, hematoma volume, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) score, irregular shape, uneven density, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) relation, fibrinogen, D-dimer, low density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), creatinine, total protein, hemoglobin (HB), white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil blood cell (NBC), lymphocyte blood cell (LBC), the neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), surgery, deep venous thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism (PE) rate, hospital day, and hypertension control. Further binary logistic analysis revealed that ICH score (p = 0.036), GCS score (p = 0.000), irregular shape (p = 0.000), uneven density (p = 0.002), IVH relation (p = 0.014), surgery (p = 0.000) were independent indicators to construct a nomogram clinical prediction model. The C statistic was 0.840. Conclusions: ICH score, GCS score, irregular shape, uneven density, IVH relation, surgery are easily available indicators to assist neurologists in formulating the most appropriate therapy for every intracranial hemorrhage patient. Further large prospective clinical trials are needed to obtain more integrated and reliable conclusions.

Rituximab has been frequently used as a second-line treatment for patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Recently, several studies have proposed low-dose (100 mg or 100mg/m2 per week for 4 weeks) rituximab instead of the standard dose of 375mg/m2 per week for 4 weeks to treat ITP patients. The aim of this review was to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of low-dose rituximab for patients with ITP. Pubmed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and Embase were searched to identify the clinical studies published in full text or abstract that met the predefined inclusion criteria. Efficacy analysis was restricted to the studies enrolling five or more patients. While safety analysis was evaluated based on all the studies reported adverse events. Nine studies (329 patients) were included for effect assessment of low-dose rituximab treatment on the patients with ITP. The pooled overall response rate was 63% (95% CI, 0.54–0.71) while the pooled complete response was 44% (95% CI, 0.33–0.55). Thirty-one patients were reported to experience adverse effects associated with rituximab, among them 30 cases suffered mild to moderate side-effects (grade1-2). Only one patient developed into interstitial pneumonia (grade3). No death was reported. Low-dose rituximab exhibited a satisfactory efficacy and safety profile, indicating that this regimen is a promising therapy for ITP, and should be further investigated through randomized clinical trials with standard-dose rituximab.

Cold storage preserves lemon fruit quality; however, it can result in significant chilling injury (CI). The effects of pre- and post-harvest methyl jasmonate (MeJA) treatments at four concentrations (0, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 mM) on CI and sensory quality of lemons during 80 d of storage at 7–10 °C were investigated. Both pre- and post-harvest MeJA treatments reduced CI, weight loss (WL) and maintained higher firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), and total acidity (TA) than in the controls. Antioxidant enzyme activities decreased in the control fruit but increased in both pre- and post-harvest MeJA-treated fruit. In addition, phospholipase D (PLD) and lipoxygenase (LOX) activities and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were higher in the control than in the MeJA-treated fruit. Pre-harvest MeJA treatment generally preserved fruit better than post-harvest MeJA treatment, with the best results observed when MeJA was applied at 0.3 mM, which enhanced the antioxidant system of the lemon fruits, thus reducing the post-harvest incidence of chilling injury. These results have important implications for improved fruit quality post-harvest.

We describe a unique case in which a patient was initially diagnosed with meningoencephalitis and then detected anti-myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody and demyelinating brain lesions. A 43-year-old Chinese man who complained of headache and fever, was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis after cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis. One month after onset, brain imaging revealed multiple lesions in bilateral white matter, and the anti-MOG antibody was detected in his serum and CSF (titer is 1:32 and 1:10, respectively). After a 3-month glucocorticoid therapy, repeated brain imaging and serological analysis for anti-MOG antibodies showed significant improvement. Multiple intracranial demyelinating lesions secondary to meningoencephalitis may be accompanied by anti-MOG antibody positivity, which can be reversed by hormone therapy.

Repair of articular cartilage defects is a challenging aspect of clinical treatment. Kartogenin (KGN), a small molecular compound, can induce the differentiation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) into chondrocytes. Here, we constructed a scaffold based on chondrocyte extracellular matrix (CECM) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres (MP), which can slowly release KGN, thus enhancing its efficiency. Cell adhesion, live/dead staining, and CCK-8 results indicated that the PLGA(KGN)/CECM scaffold exhibited good biocompatibility. Histological staining and quantitative analysis demonstrated the ability of the PLGA(KGN)/CECM composite scaffold to promote the differentiation of BMSCs. Macroscopic observations, histological tests, and specific marker analysis showed that the regenerated tissues possessed characteristics similar to those of normal hyaline cartilage in a rabbit model. Use of the PLGA(KGN)/CECM scaffold may mimic the regenerative microenvironment, thereby promoting chondrogenic differentiation of BMSCs in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, this innovative composite scaffold may represent a promising approach for acellular cartilage tissue engineering.

Zero-shot learning (ZSL) is the task of recognizing samples from their related classes which have never been seen during model training. ZSL is generally realized through learning a common embedding space where both high dimensional visual features and some pre-defined semantics can be mapped. However, this kind of solutions usually suffers from domain shift. In addition, the limitation and subjectivity of manual semantic information can also affect the classification results. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a novel end-to-end deep learning model called Cross-Layer Autoencoder (CLAE), which integrates different ways of semantic mapping and maintains reconstruction information. Besides, a regularized loss function is used to preserve local class manifolds. Extensive experiments for both traditional and generalized ZSL tasks are conducted on several benchmark datasets, and high effectiveness of the proposed method and its superiority over many previous researches are demonstrated.

The effective detection ofHelicobacter pylori has been a challenge clinically. Here, the authors demonstrate the potential of magnetic nanoparticles for non-invasive diagnosis of H. pylori using magnetic resonance imaging in vivo.

Coenobitidae is one of the most important families in Anomura. However, systematic classification and taxonomic studies are still limited. In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Coenobita brevimanus and further explored the phylogenetic relationships of Anomura. In the whole mitogenome of C. brevimanus (16388 bp), the AT-skew is negative and the GC-skew is positive.The phylogenetic tree was constructed using MrBayes method based on the 13 PCGs, which showed that Coenobitidae is monophyletic with maximal support value. Our phylogenetic analysis can be used to provide a basis for studies of the mitochondrial evolution of Anomura.

The stable normalised least‐mean fourth (SNLMF) algorithm is developed in the passive bistatic radar (PBR) system to realise the interference cancellation. The larger power of the reference signal may lead to the poor convergence rate. By replacing the reference signal vector with the instantaneous echo signal, the concept of the clutter attenuation (CA) is introduced in the SNLMF algorithm, and the CA‐SNLMF algorithm is proposed to provide a fast convergence. The real measured data collected from the PBR system demonstrate that the proposed CA‐SNLMF algorithm has a faster convergence speed and better cancellation performance than the SNLMF algorithm.

Wilms’ tumor is associated with a high treatment success rate, but there is still a risk of recurrence. Cisplatin, which is one of the chemotherapeutic agents used for its treatment, is associated with a very high rate of resistance. Par-4 (prostate apoptosis response 4) is a tumor suppressor, which is capable of sensitizing tumor cells to chemotherapy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine whether combined treatment with Par-4 and cisplatin is effective for inhibiting growth of Wilms’ tumor. Wilms’ tumor and control cell samples were collected and analyzed by immunofluorescence assay and immunohistochemistry. Total proteins extracted from cultured cells were analyzed using western blotting and flow cytometry. In addition, a mouse xenograft model was established. We discovered significantly low expression of Par-4 in the tumor tissue, which was positively correlated with high expression of GRP78 (glucose-regulated protein 78). In addition, we found that ectopic Par-4 co-localized with cell surface GRP78 and induced high expression of the endoplasmic reticulum proteins ATF4 and BAX, which activated the endoplasmic reticulum apoptosis pathway. Moreover, treatment with ectopic Par-4 and cisplatin suppressed xenograft growth in nude mice. In conclusion, our results showed that Par-4 overexpression and cisplatin had a synergistic effect on SK-NEP-1 cells, as a result of which cell growth was inhibited and cellular apoptosis was induced. Thus, in vitro and in vivo upregulation of Par-4 expression is indispensable for the trafficking of GRP78 to the cell membrane and subsequent apoptosis of cancer cells.

Nature Communications 8: Article number: 15653 (2017); Published: 15 June 2017; Updated: 30 August 2017 Supplementary Fig. 4 of this Article contains errors. Supplementary Fig. 4c shows the T2-weighted phantom images in reverse order, and Supplementary Fig. 4d is a duplicate of Fig. 3d. The corrected version of Supplementary Fig.

The interferences of radar and communication system coexistent environment are analyzed in this paper, and an attractive detection mechanism of the radar video signal and proportional fair scheduling algorithm based on channel sensing are proposed to realize the communication by using radar radiant intermissions. And the simulation is designed based on the proposed model to test this plan. The simulated results show that the packet scheduling algorithm is an excellent candidate for the communication solution for LTE system under radar radiant intermissions.