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Objectives: The failure rate and risk factors of upper airway surgery with drug induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) remain unknown in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This review aims to analyze the failure rate of upper airway surgery with DISE and identify obstruction sites for surgical failure. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar until May 20th, 2023. We included studies that used DISE to assess obstructive sites before upper airway surgery and reported surgical failure rates and outcomes in patients with OSA. Results: 25 studies with a total of 1522 patients were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Upper airway surgery guided by DISE had a relatively low failure rate of 37% (95% CI 0.31–0.44) in the random effects model (I2 = 85.97%, P < 0.001). According to the velum, oropharynx, tongue base, and epiglottis (VOTE) scoring system, major risk factors for surgical failure included circumferential collapse at the velum, lateral wall collapse and small tonsils at the oropharynx, anterior–posterior lingual collapse and complete collapse at the tongue base. High body mass index and large preoperative apnea hypopnea index were also risk factors for OSA surgical failure. Conclusions: Upper airway surgery guided by DISE in patients with OSA had a low failure rate of 37%. DISE can identify obstruction sites associated with surgical failure and guide single-level and multi-level surgeries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increases in near-surface ozone (O3) concentrations is a global environmental problem. High-concentration O3 induces stress in plants, which can lead to visible damage to plants, reduced photosynthesis, accelerated aging, inhibited growth, and can even plant death. However, its impact has not been comprehensively evaluated because of the response differences between individual plant species, environmental O3 concentration, and duration of O3 stress in plants. We used a meta-analysis approach based on 31 studies 343 observations) to examine the effects of elevated O3 on malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD) activities in herbaceous plants. Globally, important as they constitute the majority of the world's food crops. We partitioned the variation in effect size found in the meta-analysis according to the presence of plant species (ornamental herb, rice, and wheat), O3 concentration, and duration of O3 stress in plants. Our results showed that the effects of elevated O3 on plant membrane lipid peroxidation depending on plant species, O3 concentration, and duration of O3 stress in plants. The wheat SOD and POD activity was significantly lower compared to the herbs and rice (P<0.01). The SOD activity of all herbaceous plants increased by 34.6%, 10.5%, and 26.3% for exposure times to elevated O3 environments of 1–12, 13–30, and 31–60 days, respectively. When the exposure time was more than 60 days, SOD activity did not increase but significantly decreased by 12.1%. However, the POD activity of herbaceous plants increased by 30.4%, 57.3%, 21.9% and 5.81%, respectively, when exposure time of herbaceous plants in elevated O3 environment was 1–12, 13–30, 31–60 and more than 60 days. Our meta-analysis revealed that (1) rice is more resistant to elevated O3 than wheat and ornamental herbs likely because of the higher activity of antioxidant components (e.g., POD) in the symplasts, (2) exposure to elevated O3 concentrations for >60 days, may result in antioxidant SOD lose its regulatory ability, and the antioxidant component POD in the symplast is mainly used to resist O3 damage, and (3) the important factors affected the activity of SOD and POD in plants were not consistent: the duration of O3 stress in plants was more important than plant species and O3 concentration for SOD activity. However, for POD activity, plant species was the most important factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swept shock wave/boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) is a complex flow phenomenon commonly observed in three-dimensional hypersonic inlets. Wall temperatures can influence the scale of the separation of the swept SWBLI. It may lead to inlets unstart, resulting in a significant decrease in mass flow rate. This study delves into the flowfield of swept SWBLI under varying wall temperatures, using both experimental and numerical methods to examine the effects of these temperature changes on the separation scaling and the fluctuating velocity within the SWBLI flowfield. The investigation uncovers that modifications in wall temperature significantly impact the boundary layer's subsonic layer thickness, streamwise momentum distribution, and shear stress, which collectively alter the separation scale. To estimate characteristic surface limiting streamline angles under changed wall temperature conditions, a predictive model is proposed that utilizes the boundary layer shape factor H as a metric. Additionally, it is established that wall temperature variations can influence surface friction coefficients, which can, in turn, affect the pressure rise process during separation and alter the spatial angle of the separation shock. The fluctuating velocity characteristic reveals that the wall temperature affects the separated flow mainly on the incoming boundary layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we perform a numerical investigation on the polarization of a terahertz wave transmitting through a dust acoustic wave. Assuming a triangular waveform of the particle number density in the dust acoustic wave, the transmission characteristics are calculated using the finite-difference time-domain method. It is shown that dust acoustic waves can function as a polarizer to control the polarization states of the terahertz wave, and the conversion efficiency depends on the parameters of the dust acoustic wave, such as the particle number density and the thickness of particle cloud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The driven-dissipative Langevin dynamics simulation is used to produce a two-dimensional (2D) dense cloud, which is composed of charged dust particles trapped in a quadratic potential. A 2D mesh grid is built to analyze the center-to-wall dust density. It is found that the local dust density in the outer region relative to that of the inner region is more nonuniform, being consistent with the feature of quadratic potential. The dependences of the global dust density on equilibrium temperature, particle size, confinement strength, and confinement shape are investigated. It is found that the particle size, the confinement strength, and the confinement shape strongly affect the global dust density, while the equilibrium temperature plays a minor effect on it. In the direction where there is a stronger confinement, the dust density gradient is bigger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Background Methods Results Conclusion To evaluate the real‐world effectiveness of eptinezumab for migraine prevention in Asian patients.Eptinezumab is a monoclonal antibody that targets calcitonin gene‐related peptide (CGRP), a potent vasodilator with an important role in migraine pathophysiology. Although there is robust clinical evidence from pivotal Phase 3 placebo‐controlled trials of the efficacy of eptinezumab for migraine prevention, there are limited data on the real‐world effectiveness of eptinezumab in Asian patient cohorts.This was a non‐interventional, prospective, multisite cohort study of adults with migraine (International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition criteria) in Singapore who were prescribed eptinezumab (100 mg at baseline and Month 3, administered intravenously) and were followed until Month 6. The primary endpoint was change from baseline in monthly migraine days (MMDs) at Month 3 and Month 6. Secondary endpoints were ≥30% and ≥50% responder rates, and change from baseline in the Headache Impact Test‐6 (HIT‐6), Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS), Migraine‐Specific Quality of Life (MSQ), patient‐identified most bothersome symptom (PI‐MBS), acute medication use at Month 3 and Month 6, and safety.Enrolled patients (completed = 29/30) had on average 3.4 (SD 2.9) previous preventive treatments; 29/30 of the patients had trialed at least one previous preventive treatment without benefit. Most had previously trialed oral preventives (87%, 26/30) and anti‐CGRP (70%, 21/30). Relative to baseline, mean MMDs decreased by 4.3 days (95% CI 2.1–6.4; p < 0.001) at Month 3 and 4.9 days (95% CI 2.1–7.7; p < 0.001) at Month 6. At Month 3 and Month 6, 14/30 (47%) and 15/29 (52%) of the patients were ≥30% responders, and 6/30 (20%) and 8/29 (28%) patients were ≥50% responders, respectively. The number of patients with severe life impairment based on the HIT‐6 score (total score 60–78) decreased from 24/30 (80%) at baseline to 19/30 (63%) at Month 3 and 19/29 (66%) at Month 6. The mean MIDAS score decreased by 24.6 points (95% CI 2.82–46.38; p = 0.028) at Month 6, and the mean MSQ score increased by 12.2 points (95% CI 5.18–19.20; p = 0.001) at Month 3 and 13.6 points (95% CI 4.58–22.66; p = 0.004) at Month 6. Most patients reported improvement in the PI‐MBS at Month 3 (73%, 22/30) and Month 6 (55%, 16/29). Acute medication use for headache relief decreased by 3.3 days/month (95% CI 1.0–5.6; p = 0.007) at Month 3 and 4.7 days/month (95% CI 1.7–7.7; p = 0.003) at Month 6. Treatment‐emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were reported in 16/30 (54%) patients, mostly mild/moderate in severity. No serious TEAEs led to treatment discontinuation.Quarterly eptinezumab administration was effective and well‐tolerated in Asian patients with chronic migraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• ERP was employed to explore how a-tDCS over the parietal cortex influences the task-switching processes. • a-tDCS affected predictable and unpredictable task switching through target-N2 and P2, respectively. • There was a causal relationship between the right parietal cortex and exogenous adjustment processes. • a-tDCS may lead to the manifestation of gender differences. Task switching refers to a set of cognitive processes involved in shifting attention from one task to another. In recent years, researchers have applied transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to investigate the causal relationship between the parietal cortex and task switching. However, results from available studies are highly inconsistent. This may be due to the unclear understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Therefore, the current study utilized event-related potential (ERP) analysis to investigate the modulatory effects of tDCS on task-switching processes. Twenty-four subjects were recruited to perform both predictable and unpredictable parity/magnitude tasks under anodal (RA) and sham conditions. The results showed no significant changes in behavioral performance. However, marked tDCS-induced ERP changes were observed. Specifically, for the predictable task switching, compared with the sham condition, the target-N2 component occurred significantly earlier for switch trials than repeat trials under the RA condition in males, while no difference was found in females. For unpredictable task switching, under the sham condition, the P2 peak was significantly larger for switch trials compared with repeat trials, whereas this difference was not observed under the RA condition. These results indicated the causal relationship between the right parietal cortex and exogenous adjustment processes involved in task switching. Moreover, anodal tDCS over the right parietal cortex may lead to the manifestation of gender differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) is essential for maintaining the function and stability of anaerobic microbial consortia. However, only limited natural DIET modes have been identified and DIET engineering remains highly challenging. In this study, an unnatural DIET between Shewanella oneidensis MR‐1 (SO, electron donating partner) and Rhodopseudomonas palustris (RP, electron accepting partner) was artificially established by a facile living cell‐cell click chemistry strategy. By introducing alkyne‐ or azide‐modified monosaccharides onto the cell outer surface of the target species, precise covalent connections between different species in high proximity were realized through a fast click chemistry reaction. Remarkably, upon covalent connection, outer cell surface C‐type cytochromes mediated DIET between SO and RP was achieved and identified, although this was never realized naturally. Moreover, this connection directly shifted the natural H2 mediated interspecies electron transfer (MIET) to DIET between SO and RP, which delivered superior interspecies electron exchange efficiency. Therefore, this work demonstrated a naturally unachievable DIET and an unprecedented MIET shift to DIET accomplished by cell‐cell distance engineering, offering an efficient and versatile solution for DIET engineering, which extends our understanding of DIET and opens up new avenues for DIET exploration and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suffusion severely threatens the stability of granular soils supporting infrastructure. While the geometric conditions of the granular soils are intrinsic to their mechanical behavior, their influences on the suffusion characteristics have not been fully understood. This study presents a micro-macro investigation of the suffusion characteristics of gap-graded soils with different fines contents and particle size ratios using the coupled computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFD-DEM). The severity of the suffusion was quantified by both the loss of fines by mass and the volumetric deformation of the specimen. Meanwhile, Voronoi tessellation and weighted Delaunay method were employed to analyze the evolution of pore structures. The evolution of different contact types was used to analyze the rearrangement of the specimen skeleton. The simulation results show that suffusion is aggravated under otherwise identical conditions with an increase in particle size ratio and fines content. The particle size ratio influences the local pore difference between coarse and fine particles, while the fines content influences the fines’ contribution to the soil skeleton. The evolution of the distribution of local void fractions, constriction size distributions, stress-reduction factors, different types of coordination numbers, and different types of contact forces provides useful insights into the microscopic mechanism of the suffusion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nacre with brick‐and‐mortar structure enables multiple toughening and strengthening mechanisms, and bioinspired ceramics with brick‐and‐mortar structure have been attracting much attention from many researchers. However, the process of constructing precise and uniform microstructure is quite complicated. Herein, we propose a novel and facial method to fabricate composite ceramics with brick‐and‐mortar structure. Si3N4 microspheres prepared by particle‐stabilized foaming and centrifugal spray drying were directly hot pressed after being immersed in suspension and evenly wrapped with ZrO2. The mechanical properties of composite ceramics were optimized by adjusting the pressure during sintering and ZrO2 content. When ZrO2 content was 10 wt% and sintering pressure was 5 MPa, the fracture toughness of ZrO2/Si3N4 brick‐and‐mortar composite ceramics reached 9.02 MPa·m1/2, and the flexural strength was 784 MPa, which were increased by 46.9% and 26.5%, respectively, compared with the control group. While retaining excellent flexural strength, the strong interface also induces crack to deflect and branch along the two‐phase interface of the brick‐and‐mortar structure caused by the residual stress, which was derived from the mismatch of the thermal expansion coefficient of ZrO2 and Si3N4, consuming more fracture energy to achieve the toughening effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The curved surfaces widely exist in three-dimensional inward-turning inlets and variable sectional isolators, which determine the downstream evolution of the converged flow generated by the crossing shock wave/boundary layer interaction, thereby affecting the start performance and combustion efficiency of the hypersonic vehicles. In this work, the converged flow subjected to the curved surfaces is experimentally studied with the nanoparticle-based planar laser scattering method and particle image velocimetry. Results show that the velocity profiles of the converged flow on the transverse plane can be normalized at different angles. The upstream separation size is found to be decreased by the downstream convex surface due to the reduction of backpressure, especially in large-radius cases, whereas the converged flow gradually becomes smooth ought to the dependence of the acceleration effect on the velocity. The concave surface shows an opposite effect on the converged flow, which further indicates that a downstream convex surface is preferred for hypersonic inlets to weakens the flow non-uniformity to improve the inlet performance. • Converged flow generated by the crossing shock wave/boundary layer interaction on the transverse plane is visualized semi-elliptical. • Velocity profile of the converged flow on the transverse plane can be normalized at different angles and expressed in the logarithmic form. • The convex surface makes the converged flow dissipated under the momentum exchange and the expansion effect. • A downstream convex surface is preferred for inlet design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I examine the iconography, religious function and text–image relationship of one of the earliest illustrations of the apocryphal Visualization Sūtra, namely, the mural painting on the left (south) wall of Cave 20 at the Toyok Grottoes in Turfan created in the late sixth century. I study this mural with a structuralist approach to situate it within the overall pictorial program of the cave temple. I argue that this wall painting was designed as a set of visual and verbal cues to assist the meditating monks in situ to separately visualize the different individual visions constituting the "Thirteen Visualizations" taught in the sutra, excluding the five visions directly related to the Amitāyus Triad, namely, the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and thirteenth visualizations. These five visualizations were likely facilitated by icons of the Amitāyus Triad placed in the center of the cave. The meditators started from the contemplations of the impure represented on the right (north) wall as preparatory practices to eliminate their sins, improve their karma and thereby enhance their spiritual purity to a level appropriate for performing the Pure Land visualizations. They then turned to the left wall to perform the Pure Land visualizations represented there that end with the twelfth visualization: imagining oneself being reborn in Sukhāvatī. Continuing from the twelfth visualization, the meditators facing the rear wall entered the Western Pure Land via the lotus ponds represented on the rear wall while in a state of meditational concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ObjectivesMethodsResultsConclusionThis study aimed to examine ethnic disparities in the prevalence of diabetes and its association with sleep disorders among the older adults Han and ethnic minority (Bai, Ha Ni, and Dai) population in rural southwest China.A cross-sectional survey of 5,642 was conducted among the rural southwest population aged ≥60 years, consisting of a structured interview and measurement of fasting blood glucose, height, weight, and waist circumference. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess sleep quality.The overall prevalence of diabetes and sleep disorder was 10.2% and 40.1%, respectively. Bai participants had the highest prevalence of diabetes (15.9%) and obesity (9.9%)(P < 0.01), while Ha Ni participants had the lowest prevalence of diabetes (5.1%) and obesity (3.4%)(P < 0.01). The highest prevalence of sleep disorder (48.4%) was recorded in Bai participants, while Dai participants had the lowest prevalence of sleep disorder (25.6%)(P < 0.01). In all four studied ethnicities, females had a higher prevalence of sleep disorder than males (P < 0.01), and the prevalence of sleep disorder increased with age (P < 0.01). The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated older adults with sleep disorder had a risk of developing diabetes (P < 0.05). Moreover, the higher educational level, family history of diabetes, and obesity were the main risk factors for diabetes in participants (P < 0.01).There are stark ethnic disparities in the prevalence of diabetes and sleep disorders in southwest China. Future diabetes prevention and control strategies should be tailored to address ethnicity, and improving sleep quality may reduce the prevalence of diabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractObjectiveMethodsResultsConclusionTo analyze the application effects of low-dose bupivacaine and ropivacaine combined with epidural anesthesia.The primary outcome measure was the anesthesia effect, assessed by the excellent anesthesia rate. Secondary outcomes included the occurrence of adverse reactions, blood pressure, and serum prolactin levels at different time points. The anesthesia effect, serum prolactin levels, occurrence of adverse reactions, and MAP at various time points [before anesthesia (T0), 5 min after anesthesia (T1), at the start of surgery (T2), at delivery of the fetus (T3), and at closure of the abdomen (T4)] were compared between the two groups.① Anesthesia effect: The excellent anesthesia rate was 71.88% in the control group and 93.94% in the observation group, with a significantly higher rate in the observation group than in the control group (p = 0.017). ② Serum prolactin levels: The serum prolactin levels in both groups increased significantly after surgery compared to before surgery (p < 0.001); however, there was no statistically significant difference in serum prolactin levels between the two groups before and after surgery (p = 0.651). ③ Occurrence of adverse reactions: The occurrence rate of adverse reactions was 28.13% in the control group and 9.09% in the observation group, with a significantly lower rate in the observation group than in the control group (p = 0.048).In cesarean sections for pregnant women with coexisting mental illness, low-dose ropivacaine demonstrates significantly better anesthesia efficacy, blood pressure stability, and anesthesia safety compared to low-dose bupivacaine. Both low-dose bupivacaine and ropivacaine result in increased prolactin levels postpartum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High‐density surface electromyography (sEMG) electrode arrays enable the recording of tens to hundreds of channels of electromyographic signals, which have found wide applications in clinics and human‐machine interfaces. However, current manufacturing technologies of high‐density sEMG electrode arrays generally involve high‐cost equipments, complicated procedures, and insufficient programmability, severely hampering the rational design and practical applications of customized yet cost‐effective high‐density electrode arrays. Herein, the facile and efficient fabrication of novel 32‐channel soft high‐density sEMG electrode arrays by an all‐printed technique based on multimaterial direct ink writing 3D printing is presented. By employing rational four‐layer stacked structure designs with systematic ink printability evaluation, it can successfully realize seamless interfacial integration during the multimaterial printing, achieving reproducible, programmable, continuous fabrication of soft high‐density sEMG electrode arrays. The all 3D‐printed soft electrode arrays exhibit excellent stability, low impedance, and high signal‐to‐noise ratio superior to commercial products with an increase of 32.2%. Such intriguing properties enable this all 3D‐printed electrode arrays the unique capability of mapping muscle activation of the forearm, and the motor unit action potential trains can be precisely identified for varying hand gestures to effectively explore the innovative human‐machine interface toward diverse applications such as teleoperation and prosthetic control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a longitudinal regression model for covariance matrix outcomes is introduced. The proposal considers a multilevel generalized linear model for regressing covariance matrices on (time-varying) predictors. This model simultaneously identifies covariate-associated components from covariance matrices, estimates regression coefficients, and captures the within-subject variation in the covariance matrices. Optimal estimators are proposed for both low-dimensional and high-dimensional cases by maximizing the (approximated) hierarchical-likelihood function. These estimators are proved to be asymptotically consistent, where the proposed covariance matrix estimator is the most efficient under the low-dimensional case and achieves the uniformly minimum quadratic loss among all linear combinations of the identity matrix and the sample covariance matrix under the high-dimensional case. Through extensive simulation studies, the proposed approach achieves good performance in identifying the covariate-related components and estimating the model parameters. Applying to a longitudinal resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data set from the Alzheimer's Disease (AD) Neuroimaging Initiative, the proposed approach identifies brain networks that demonstrate the difference between males and females at different disease stages. The findings are in line with existing knowledge of AD and the method improves the statistical power over the analysis of cross-sectional data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: COVID-19 infection confers an increased risk of coagulation dysfunction (1) predisposing to thromboembolism in many anatomical sites including the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) (2). This study investigates the clinical presentation and outcome in patients presenting with concurrent COVID-19 infection and gastrointestinal tract ischaemia. Furthermore, differentiation and comparisons are drawn between those with arterial and venous aetiology for mesenteric ischaemia. Methods: A systematic search was undertaken on EMBASE, PubMed, and MEDLINE. Two independent reviewers screened titles, abstracts, and full-text articles according to the inclusion criteria and extracted relevant data. Data analyses were conducted using Excel®. Results: Forty-one studies were included in the data analyses, yielding 44 patients. Twenty-six patients had mesenteric arterial occlusion, sixteen patients had mesenteric venous occlusion, and two patients had both arterial and venous mesenteric occlusion. All patients had concurrent COVID-19 infection. The survival rate in patients with arterial aetiology was 38.5% in contrast to 68.8% in patients with venous aetiology. Twelve patients (29.3%) experienced respiratory symptoms in the community before the onset of gastrointestinal symptoms, and five (12.2%) developed gastrointestinal symptoms during their inpatient stay for COVID-19 pneumonitis. Conclusions: Acute mesenteric ischaemia presents a clinical challenge to diagnose due to its non-specific symptoms. Concurrent COVID-19 infection with its predominant respiratory symptoms adds a further challenge in recognising the non-specific symptoms of mesenteric ischaemia. Our study draws attention to the increased thromboembolic risk posed by COVID-19 infection and the need for a high index of suspicion to aid prompt diagnosis and management of acute mesenteric ischaemia, even in the post-pandemic era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the enhancement of modern security through the integration of electrocardiograms (ECGs) into biometric authentication systems. As technology advances, the demand for reliable identity authentication systems has grown, given the rise in breaches associated with traditional techniques that rely on unique biological and behavioral traits. These techniques are emerging as more reliable alternatives. Among the biological features used for authentication, ECGs offer unique advantages, including resistance to forgery, real-time detection, and continuous identification ability. A key contribution of this work is the introduction of a variant of the ECG time-slicing technique that outperforms existing ECG-based authentication methods. By leveraging machine learning algorithms and tailor-made compact data learning techniques, this research presents a more robust, reliable biometric authentication system. The findings could lead to significant advancements in network information security, with potential applications across various internet and mobile services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an experimental study of shaking table tests on two geosynthetic encased stone columns (GESC) composite foundation models with different geosynthetic encasement stiffness to investigate the influence of geosynthetic encasement stiffness on the shear reinforcement effect. The reduced-scale GESC composite foundation models were designed according to the similitude relationships by scaling the model geometry, geosynthetic encasement stiffness, and input motions for shaking table tests in a 1 g gravitational field. The GESC composite foundation models were constructed using poorly graded sand, gravel, and geotextile encasement, and then were excited using a series of sinusoidal input motions with increasing peak acceleration. The acceleration amplification factors for the GESC composite foundation model with higher geosynthetic encasement stiffness are larger than those of the lower geosynthetic encasement stiffness model due to the increased stiffness of the composite foundation. The higher geosynthetic encasement stiffness composite foundation has smaller settlements and lateral displacements under the same input motions compared to the lower geosynthetic encasement stiffness composite foundation. The incremental geosynthetic encasement tensile strains increase with increasing input acceleration for both models. The longitudinal tensile effect of geosynthetic encasement plays an important role on the shear reinforcement mechanism of GESC. • The shear reinforcement effect of geosynthetic encasement on the GESC composite foundations is investigated. • The dynamic response of GESC composite foundation with different geosynthetic encasement stiffness is compared and discussed. • The acceleration response of GESC composite foundation under a series of sinusoidal motions is analyzed and discussed. • The longitudinal tensile effect of geosynthetic encasement on the shear reinforcement mechanism of GESC is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanotechnology-enabled pesticide delivery systems have been widely studied and show great prospects in modern agriculture. Nanodelivery systems not only achieve the controlled release of agrochemicals but also possess many unique characteristics. This study presents the development of a pH-responsive pesticide nanoformulation utilizing hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs) as a nanocarrier. The nanocarrier was loaded with the photosensitive pesticide prochloraz (Pro) and then combined with ZnO quantum dots (ZnO QDs) through electrostatic interactions. ZnO QDs serve as both the pH-responsive gatekeeper and the enhancer of the pesticide. The results demonstrate that the prepared nanopesticide exhibits high loading efficiency (24.96%) for Pro. Compared with Pro technical, the degradation rate of Pro loaded in HMSNs@Pro@ZnO QDs was reduced by 26.4% after 24 h ultraviolet (UV) exposure, indicating clearly improved photostability. In a weak acidic environment (pH 5.0), the accumulated release of the nanopesticide after 48 h was 2.67-fold higher than that in a neutral environment. This indicates the excellent pH-responsive characteristic of the nanopesticide. The tracking experiments revealed that HMSNs can be absorbed by rice leaves and subsequently transported to other tissues, indicating their potential for effective systemic distribution and targeted delivery. Furthermore, the bioactivity assays confirmed the fungicidal efficacy of the nanopesticide against rice blast disease. Therefore, the constructed nanopesticide holds great prospect in nanoenabled agriculture, offering a novel strategy to enhance pesticide utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: There are 1.8 million lung cancer deaths worldwide, accounting for 18% of global cancer deaths, including 710,000 in China, accounting for 23.8% of all cancer deaths in China. OBJECTIVE: To explore the out-of-set association rules of lung cancer symptoms and drugs through text mining of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment of lung cancer, and form medical case analysis to analyze the experience of TCM syndrome differentiation in its treatment. METHODS: The medical records of all patients diagnosed with lung cancer in Nanjing Chest Hospital from January to December 2018 were collected, and the out-of-set association analysis was performed using the MedCase v5.2 TCM clinical scientific research auxiliary platform based on the frequent pattern growth enhanced association analysis algorithm. RESULTS: In terms of TCM treatment of lung cancer, the clinical symptoms with high correlation included cough, expectoration, chest distress, and white phlegm; and the drugs with high correlation included Pinellia ternata, licorice root, white Atractylodes rhizome, and Radix Ophiopogonis; with the prescriptions based on Erchen and Maimendong decoctions. CONCLUSION: This analytical study of the medical cases of TCM treatment for lung cancer was performed using data mining techniques, and the out-of-set association rules between clinical symptoms and drugs were analyzed, including the understanding of lung cancer in TCM. Moreover, the essence of experience in drug use was gathered, providing significant scientific guidance for the clinical treatment of lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile communication base stations have become ubiquitous with the popularization and development of mobile communication services. Although the Chinese government has designated a radio quiet zone (RQZ) specifically for Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the 4G International Mobile Telecommunications (4G-IMT) system is still heavily used to meet the communication needs around the RQZ. To assess the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) caused by 4G-IMT base stations on the performance of FAST, this paper employs the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) deterministic radio wave propagation prediction model. The interference of 4G-IMT base stations on FAST is evaluated based on relevant parameters, such as the frequency used by both FAST and the base station, in conjunction with the FAST threshold protection requirements. The results indicate that 47.73 % of the data exceed the radio astronomy protection threshold of FAST. In addition, a field experiment was conducted to verify the accuracy of the radio wave propagation prediction method used. The root-mean-square error between the predicted value and the measured value was found to be 6.94 dB, supporting the accuracy of the predicted results. The findings of this study can help suppress interference from mobile communication services around the RQZ of FAST and optimize the electromagnetic environment around FAST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional shock/boundary layer interactions (SBLIs) in the hypersonic inlet generate the separation vortex, which affects the flow uniformity of the inlet and can even cause the inlet to unstart. This study experimentally investigates the separation vortex produced by a crossing SBLI in a supersonic quiet wind tunnel. Using a nanoparticle-based planar laser scattering method, the tomography-like three-dimensional structures of the separation vortex on the transverse, streamwise, and horizontal planes are demonstrated. The semi-elliptical separation vortex is formed from a pair of anti-rotating vortices and exhibits eddies around the vortex core; it remains stable in the absence of the expansion effect. Additionally, fractal dimension analysis reveals that the separation vortex core experiences stable streamwise development, while its outer edge is fragmented and dissipated due to the shearing effect of the mainstream. This investigation provides valuable insight for potential flow control to mitigate separation issues in hypersonic inlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread dissemination of high-fidelity fake faces created by face forgery techniques has caused serious trust concerns and ethical issues in modern society. Consequently, face forgery detection has emerged as a prominent topic of research to prevent technology abuse. Although, most existing face forgery detectors demonstrate success when evaluating high-quality faces under intra-dataset scenarios, they often overfit manipulation-specific artifacts and lack robustness to postprocessing operations. In this work, we design an innovative dual-branch collaboration framework that leverages the strengths of the transformer and CNN to thoroughly dig into the multimodal forgery artifacts from both a global and local perspective. Specifically, a novel adaptive noise trace enhancement module (ANTEM) is proposed to remove high-level face content while amplifying more generalized forgery artifacts in the noise domain. Then, the transformer-based branch can track long-range noise features. Meanwhile, considering that subtle forgery artifacts could be described in the frequency domain even in a compression scenario, a multilevel frequency-aware module (MFAM) is developed and further applied to the CNN-based branch to extract complementary frequency-aware clues. Besides, we incorporate a collaboration strategy involving cross-entropy loss and single center loss to enhance the learning of more generalized representations by optimizing the fusion features of the dual branch. Extensive experiments on various benchmark datasets substantiate the superior generalization and robustness of our framework when compared to the competing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) valleytronic materials are both fundamentally intriguing and practically appealing to explore novel physics and design next-generation devices. However, traditional control means such as optic pumping or magnetic field cannot meet the demands of modern electron devices for miniaturization, low-dissipation, and non-volatility. Thus, it is attractive to combine the ferroelectric property with valley property in a single compound. In this paper, the recent progress of ferroelectric-valley coupling is reviewed. First, we briefly recall the development of valleytronics in the past several years. Then, various structures demonstrating ferroelectric-valley coupling, including heterostructures and intrinsic materials, are introduced. Subsequently, we describe ferroelectric-valley coupling in sliding and adsorption system and the unconventional ferroelectricity in the moiré system. Finally, we discuss the research status and outlook. We hope that this perspective will be helpful to bridge the gap between valleytronics and ferroelectrics in 2D materials and inspire further exciting findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new diagrammatic quantum Monte Carlo approach is proposed to deal with the imaginary time propagator involving both dynamic disorder (i.e., electron–phonon interactions) and static disorder of local or nonlocal nature in a unified and numerically exact way. The establishment of the whole framework relies on a general reciprocal-space expression and a generalized Wick's theorem for the static disorder. Since the numerical cost is independent of the system size, various physical quantities, such as the thermally averaged coherence, Matsubara one-particle Green's function, and current autocorrelation function, can be efficiently evaluated in the thermodynamic limit (infinite in the system size). The validity and performance of the proposed approach are systematically examined in a broad parameter regime. This approach, combined with proper numerical analytic continuation methods and first-principles calculations, is expected to be a versatile tool toward the calculation of various transport properties, such as mobilities in realistic semiconductors involving multiple electronic energy bands, high-frequency optical and low-frequency acoustic phonons, different forms of dynamic and static disorders, and anisotropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With restricted face-to-face interactions, COVID-19 lockdowns and distancing measures tested the capability of computer-mediated communication to foster social contact and wellbeing. In a multinational sample (n = 6436), we investigated how different modes of contact related to wellbeing during the pandemic. Computer-mediated communication was more common than face-to-face, and its use was influenced by COVID-19 death rates, more so than state stringency measures. Despite its legal and health threats, face-to-face contact was still positively associated with wellbeing, and messaging apps had a negative association. Perceived household vulnerability to COVID-19 reduced the positive effect of face-to-face communication on wellbeing, but surprisingly, people's own vulnerability did not. Computer-mediated communication was particularly negatively associated with the wellbeing of young and empathetic people. Findings show people endeavored to remain socially connected, yet however, maintain a physical distance, despite the tangible costs to their wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the popularity of video in ELT, video use in primary English classrooms remains under-scrutinized. Grounded in a social semiotic conceptualization of video as multimodal ensemble, this study explored 115 Chinese primary English teachers' use of videos and the influencing factors in the post-pandemic era. Data were collected through a narrative frame, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations. The findings revealed a predominant use of video for motivational and linguistic purposes, with occasional use of video as multimodal ensemble for critical and creative viewing purposes. Factors that shaped video use were also identified, including limited understanding of viewing multimodal texts as part of language competence, absence of institutional policies and support, and constrained access to quality videos. These findings call for attention to the importance of multimodal awareness for primary English teachers to develop pedagogic competences to use videos for an expanded range of literacy purposes in contemporary ELT landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six species in two genera of the family Cheiracanthiidae Wagner, 1887 are studied from Hainan Island, China, including two new species: Cheiracanthium bawanglingense sp. n. (♀♂) and Eutittha hainanensis sp. n. (♀). Cheiracanthium ningmingense Zhang and Yin, 1999 syn. n. is synonymised with C. exquestitum Zhang and Zhu, 1993, and C. adjacensoides Song, Chen and Hou, 1990 stat. resurr. (♀♂) is removed from synonymy with C. approximatum O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1885. Cheiracanthium insigne O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874 (♀♂) and C. taegense Paik, 1990 (♀♂) are reported from Hainan Province, China, for the first time. Photos of habitus and genitalia and a distribution map of all species are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the existence of global solutions to the Cauchy problem for the integrable nonlocal nonlinear Schrödinger (nonlocal NLS) equation under the initial data q0(x)∈H1,1(R)$q_0(x)\in H^{1,1}(\mathbb {R})$ with the L1(R)$L^1(\mathbb {R})$ small‐norm. The nonlocal NLS equation was first introduced by Ablowitz and Musslimani as a new nonlocal reduction of the well‐known Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur system. The main technical difficulty for proving its global well‐posedness on the line in H1(R)$H^1(\mathbb {R})$ is due to the fact that mass and energy conservation laws, being nonlocal, do not preserve any reasonable norm and may be negative. In this paper, we use the inverse scattering transform approach to prove the existence of global solutions in H1,1(R)$H^{1,1}(\mathbb {R})$ based on the representation of a Riemann–Hilbert (RH) problem associated with the Cauchy problem of the nonlocal NLS equation. A key of this approach is, by applying the Volttera integral operator and Cauchy integral operator, to establish a Lipschitz bijective map between the solution of the nonlocal NLS equation and reflection coefficients associated with the RH problem. By using the reconstruction formula and estimates on the solution of the time‐dependent RH problem, we further affirm the existence of a unique global solution to the Cauchy problem for the nonlocal NLS equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two‐dimensional material‐based field‐effect transistors (2DM‐FETs) are playing a revolutionary role in electronic devices. However, before electronic design automation (EDA) for 2DM‐FETs can be achieved, it remains necessary to determine how to incorporate contact transports into model. Reported methods compromise between physical intelligibility and model compactness due to the heterojunction nature. To address this, quasi‐Fermi‐level phase space theory (QFLPS) is generalized to incorporate contact transports using the Landauer formula. It turns out that the Landauer‐QFLPS model effectively overcomes the issue of concern. The proposed new formula can describe 2DM‐FETs with Schottky or Ohmic contacts with superior accuracy and efficiency over previous methods, especially when describing non‐monotonic drain conductance characteristics. A three‐bit threshold inverter quantizer (TIQ) circuit is fabricated using ambipolar black phosphorus and it is demonstrated that the model accurately predicts circuit performance. The model could be very effective and valuable in the development of 2DM‐FET‐based integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the safety risk caused by icing on asphalt pavement, we propose a new method to prepare a superhydrophobic coating (SHC) on asphalt mixture surfaces for anti-icing purposes. The nano-SiO2 particles modified by a coupling agent (KH550), and oxysilane were sprayed on the asphalt mixture surfaces to prepare the SHC. Fourier transform infra-red spectra prove that Si-O-Si and C–H are the main components of the superhydrophobic materials, and the coupling agent has a good cross-linking effect. SEM images reveal that SHCs have a micro nano-binary composite structure, and show excellent super-hydrophobicity. Moreover, when the spraying amount of the SHC with nano-SiO2 (30 nm), KH550 (4 ml), MTMS (6 ml) and DMDS (4 ml) on asphalt mixture was 40 ml, the contact angle presented the highest value of 154.2°. The anti-icing tests confirm that the SHCs can effectively delay the freezing time of surface water and decrease the adhesion force between the ice and the pavement. The simulated rainfall test verifies that the superhydrophobic properties of SHCs become worse after water washing. After 2 h of droplet impact, the contact angle of the SHC surface on asphalt mixture is still close to 150°, and SHCs still have good hydrophobic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately calculating axial electromagnetic force is essential to analyse transformer winding axial stability. Prior research has mainly focused on the effect of winding structure on static axial electromagnetic force and studying vibration by substituting the static force in a time‐varying function. However, the coupling effect between axial electromagnetic force and winding vibration has not been addressed, and no calculation method for the axial electromagnetic force that considers both winding meso‐structures and vibration coupling effects has been proposed. Previously the authors presented an electromagnetic force calculation model that considers winding structure characteristics, and an iterative algorithm for magnetic‐structure coupling calculation. Currently, the winding vibration model was first proposed and the dynamic calculation method was formulated. By applying the method to a typical 110kV transformer, the spatial‐temporal distribution of winding axial short‐circuit electromagnetic force was obtained. It was found that the peak value of the axial short‐circuit electromagnetic force of some windings appears at the second or third peak moment of the short‐circuit current, which is called as peak time shift phenomenon. Further stress analysis indicates that existing evaluation methods may overestimate the short‐circuit resistance of windings by only considering short‐circuit electromagnetic force under maximum peak of short‐circuit current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformer winding turns often consist of multiple parallel strands. The spatial position variation of each strand affects the leakage inductance of each branch, resulting in an uneven distribution of short‐circuit currents within the winding turns. And this unevenness persists even when transposition structures are implemented. Traditional methods in transformer analysis frequently overlooked the distribution characteristics of short‐circuit currents when calculating electromagnetic forces. A frequency‐domain calculation method for analysing the current distribution in winding turns was proposed, with a deviation of less than 3% compared to existing analysis methods. Two typical 110 kV transformer models were utilised to investigate the influence of uneven current distribution on the spatial distribution of electromagnetic forces. The spatial distribution of short‐circuit electromagnetic forces in low‐voltage (LV) windings exhibited significant changes, with maximum change rates of 10% and 61.2% for axial and radial electromagnetic force, respectively, in a LV winding with 4 parallel strands. The research also analysed how strand radial width and axial height affect current distribution unevenness and proposed specific design principles to mitigate these disparities in winding design. The findings offer valuable insights for selecting structural parameters and assessing short‐circuit stability during transformer design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain tumor accounts for about 1.6% of incidence and 2.5% of mortality of all tumors, and the median survival for brain tumor patients is only about 20 months. The treatment for brain tumor still faces many challenges, such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), blood-brain tumor barrier (BBTB), the overexpressed efflux pumps, the infiltration, invasion, high heterogeneity of tumor cells, drug resistance and immune escape caused by tumor microenvironment (TME) and cancer stem cells (CSC). This review attempts to clarify the challenges for multi-functional nano drug delivery systems (NDDS) to cross the BBB and target the cancer cells or organelles, and also provides a brief description of the different types of targeted multi-functional NDDS that have shown potential for success in delivering drugs to the brain. Further, this review also summarizes the research progress of multi-functional NDDS in the combination therapy of brain tumors from the following sections, the combination of chemotherapy drugs, chemotherapy-chemodynamic combination therapy, chemotherapy-immunization combination therapy, and chemotherapy-gene combination therapy. We also provide an insight into the recent advances in designing multi-functional NDDS for combination therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tornado fatality rates in the southeastern United States are higher than those in Tornado Alley, despite Tornado Alley having a higher frequency of tornadoes. A major contributing factor is the large number of mobile and manufactured homes (MMHs) in the southeastern states. Forensic engineering assessments of tornado damage have consistently shown that inadequate anchoring of MMHs or the absence of proper anchoring has been the primary cause of structural failure. To properly design a MMH anchorage system to resist tornadic winds, it is imperative to have accurate knowledge of the tornadic wind effects on the MMH systems. In this study, tornado–MMH interactions are investigated using high-fidelity numerical simulations. The pressure distribution on the MMH surface and the total forces/moments on the entire MMH induced by tornadic winds are obtained. In addition, simulations are conducted to reveal (1) the difference in tornadic wind effects between a MMH and its associated permanent home (home with classical on-site construction), and (2) the difference in wind effects between tornadic winds and the equivalent straight-line winds. The latter of these comparisons is intended to provide information on the unconservative use of straight-line wind loading for MMHs. The simulation results (peak wind pressure and total forces/moments on the MMH) are compared between the tornadic wind field and straight-line wind field. The comparison indicates that the results caused by the tornado are higher. Under a tornadic wind field, compared with the permanent home (PH), the peak pressure and horizontal forces on the MMH are smaller because of the existence of open space under the MMH. Although the research findings here demonstrate the limitation of US code for MMHs, a great number of simulation cases with the related uncertainties involved will be needed to be run to improve the US code. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a novel class of coupled stochastic strict‐feedback nonlinear systems (CSSFNSs) whose topology is not strongly connected. We are devoted to investigating the stabilization issue of CSSFNSs via pinning control. First, the specific form of controllers is decided through the back‐stepping method and the design of virtual controllers. Second, we find a new method to construct the global Lyapunov function of CSSFNS by employing the Lyapunov function of each stochastic strict‐feedback nonlinear system (SSFNS). Meanwhile, combining Lyapunov method with graph theory, several sufficient conditions to guarantee exponential stability in mean square of CSSFNS are obtained in the form of coefficients‐type criterion. Ultimately, our theoretical results are applied to a class of coupled oscillator systems and a predator‐prey model. Furthermore, the validity and feasibility of the theoretical results are illustrated by some numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

α1C-tubulin (TUBA1C) is a member of the α-tubulin family and has served as a potential biomarker in a variety of cancers in many studies. In this study, the gene expression profile of TUBA1C in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was extracted for analysis, and the prognostic value of TUBA1C in breast cancer was comprehensively evaluated. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and logistic regression analysis were performed to confirm the correlations between TUBA1C expression and the clinical characteristics of breast cancer patients. The effect of TUBA1C expression on the survival of breast cancer patients was assessed by Kaplan-Meier curve, Cox regression analysis, and the Kaplan-Meier plotter (an online database). The TCGA data set was used for the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). The results confirmed that high TUBA1C expression in breast cancer was closely correlated with survival time, survival status, and tumor size. In addition, elevated TUBA1C expression can predict poor overall survival (OS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). Univariate and multivariate analyses (Cox regression analyses) confirmed that TUBA1C was an independent prognostic factor for the OS of breast cancer patients. The GSEA identified that the high TUBA1C expression phenotype was differentially enriched in cell cycle, basal transcription factor, P53 signaling pathway, pathways in cancer, TOLL-like receptor signaling pathway, and NOD-like receptor signaling pathway. In summary, high messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of TUBA1C is an independent risk factor for poor prognosis of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although significant progress in the development of functional covalent organic frameworks (COFs) as effective porous adsorbents for capturing radioactive iodine has been achieved, a systematic study on regulating the iodine adsorption performance of COFs by tuning the proportion of monomers is extremely scarce. Herein, a series of two- and three-component β-ketoenamine-linked COFs denoted as NH2-ThX-Mth1−X-Tfp (X = 1, 0.75, 0.50, 0.25, and 0) with different contents of free amino groups have been synthesized by tuning the proportion of three monomers, 2-aminoterephthalohydrazide (NH2-Th), 2,5-bis(2-methylbutoxy) dihydrazide terephthalate (Mth) and 1,3,5-trihydroxy phloroglycerol (Tfp). Then, these NH2-ThX-Mth1−X-Tfp COFs have been utilized as adsorbents for iodine vapour capture. Apparently, owing to the change of the proportion of monomers, the content of amino groups, crystallinity and the specific surface area of the obtained COFs are different, which have remarkable regulation effects on their adsorption performances toward iodine vapour. With the decrease of the content of NH2-Th, the crystallinity and specific surface area of COFs increased gradually. And the adsorption capacities of five NH2-ThX-Mth1−X-Tfp COF materials (X = 1, 0.75, 0.50, 0.25, and 0) were determined to be 1.21, 1.32, 1.55, 2.30 and 1.73 g g−1, respectively. Significantly, the NH2-Th0.25-Mth0.75-Tfp COF containing 25% NH2-Th exhibited the largest adsorption capacity for iodine vapour among the five as-synthesized COFs, and still maintained 70% adsorption capacity after six cycles. Moreover, the iodine adsorption kinetics of NH2-ThX-Mth1−X-Tfp COFs (X = 0, 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75) were consistent with the pseudo-second-order simulations, while that of the NH2-Th-Tfp COF fitted better with the pseudo-first-order simulations. This study uncovered that regulating the COF structures by tuning the proportion of monomers could greatly improve their iodine adsorption performances, which provided a reference for the design and development of new high-performance COF-based absorbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess whether prophylactic intraoperative abdominal aortic balloon occlusion (IAABO) is indeed beneficial in pregnancies with placenta previa (PP) and placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) during cesarean section. Methods: A retrospective case–control study included 251 pregnancies with PP and/or PAS. All enrolled patients were divided into a PP/PAS group, a PP + PAS group, and an IAABO group. The demographic characteristics and maternal and neonatal outcomes were compared. Results: There was no significant difference in blood loss and transfusion between the IAABO group and the PP + PAS group (P > 0.05). However, blood loss and red blood cell and fresh frozen plasma transfusion in the above two groups were significantly higher than in the PP/PAS group (P < 0.05). More pregnancies in the IAABO group had to undergo uterine artery embolization (29.2%) or hysterectomy (20.8%), and this percentage was significantly higher than that in the other two groups (P < 0.001). All neonatal characteristics did not show differences between the IAABO group and PP + PAS group (P > 0.05). IAABO led to femoral artery thrombosis in three cases and minor postoperative renal injury in one case. Conclusion: IAABO only acted as a less important supporting technique during cesarean section. There was no evidence suggesting that IAABO could significantly control the massive hemorrhage in pregnancies with PP and PAS during cesarean delivery. Synopsis: There was no evidence suggesting that intraoperative abdominal aortic balloon occlusion could significantly control the massive hemorrhage in pregnancies with placenta previa and placenta accreta spectrum during cesarean delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis of 2-aminoquinazoline derivatives is achieved by using hydrochloric acid as a mediator in the [4+2] annulation reaction between N-benzyl cyanamides and 2-amino aryl ketones. In addition, 2-amino-4-iminoquinazolines are synthesized by the reaction of 2-aminobenzonitriles, instead of 2-amino aryl ketones, with N-benzyl cyanamides. A wide range of substrates can be used and high yields are obtained, demonstrating the practicality of this method for the synthesis of 2-aminoquinazoline derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, two CdII-based coordination polymers, namely [Cd4(HL)2(H2O)5]n (1), and {[Cd2(HL)(2,2′-bpy)2(H2O)]·6H2O}n (2) (2,2′-bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine) have been designed and synthesized using 2,3-bis(3,5-dicarboxylphenxoy)benzoic acid (H5L). Coordination polymer 1 displays a layer structure, which was connected through C–H‧‧‧π interactions into 3D supramolecular network, while coordination polymer 2 shows a three-dimensional framework structure. In addition, the excellent fluorescence performance make them potential luminescent sensors for antibiotics. The results show that coordination polymer 1 exhibits high sensitivity for detecting of sulfadiazine (SDZ), while coordination polymer 2 can selectively detect nitrofurantoin (NFT). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Disulfidptosis is a recently discovered programmed cell death pathway. However, the exact molecular mechanism of disulfidptosis in cutaneous melanoma remains unclear. Methods: In this study, clustering analysis was performed using data from public databases to construct a prognostic model, which was subsequently externally validated. The biological functions of the model genes were then investigated through various experimental techniques, including qRT-PCR, Western blotting, CCK-8 assay, wound healing assay, and Transwell assay. Results: We constructed a signature using cutaneous melanoma (CM) data, which accurately predicts the overall survival (OS) of patients. The predictive value of this signature for prognosis and immune therapy response was validated using multiple external datasets. High-risk CM subgroups may exhibit decreased survival rates, alterations in the tumor microenvironment (TME), and increased tumor mutation burden. We initially verified the expression levels of five optimum disulfidptosis-related genes (ODRGs) in normal tissues and CM. The expression levels of these genes were further confirmed in HaCaT cells and three melanoma cell lines using qPCR and protein blotting analysis. HLA-DQA1 emerged as the gene with the highest regression coefficient in our risk model, highlighting its role in CM. Mechanistically, HLA-DQA1 demonstrated the ability to suppress CM cell growth, proliferation, and migration. Conclusion: In this study, a novel signature related to disulfidptosis was constructed, which accurately predicts the survival rate and treatment sensitivity of CM patients. Additionally, HLA-DQA1 is expected to be a feasible therapeutic target for effective clinical treatment of CM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bile reflux (BR) was considered to be an independent risk factor for the development of precancerous gastric lesions and GC. Dendrobium officinale polysaccharides (DOP) show a novel potential in preventing the progress of gastric cancer. However, the specific mechanism of DOP that causes such activities remains a mystery. This study aimed to investigate the effects of DOP on chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA)-induced gastric intestinal metaplasia and explore the underlying mechanisms. Different concentrations of DOP had no significant damage to normal GSE-1 cells and gastric intestinal metaplasia model cells by CCK-8 assay. After DOP treatment, the mRNA and protein expression of CDX2 (p < 0.01) and HNF4α (p < 0.01) were decreased, and HO-1 (p < 0.05) and TFF2 (p < 0.01) were increased. The NRF2 protein expression was slightly upregulated (p < 0.05), and H-DOP further promoted NRF2 protein expression in the nucleus (p < 0.05). Hence, our findings reveal that DOP could be used as a potential anti-inflammation supplement by activating NRF2/HO-1 and modulating the HNF4α/CDX2 signaling pathway to inhibit the progress of CDCA-induced gastric intestinal metaplasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DOP) has shown various biological activities. However, the ability of DOP to participate in immune regulation during anti-gastric cancer treatment has remained unclear. In this study, the in vitro results showed that DOP has the potential to polarize THP-1 macrophages from the M2 to the M1 phenotype, downregulate the STAT6/PPAR-r signaling pathway and the protein expression of their down-targeted ARG1 and TGM2, and further decrease the main protein and mRNA expression in the JAGGED1/NOTCH1 signaling pathway. DOP suppressed the migration of gastric cancer cells by decreasing the protein expression of N-cadherin and Vimentin and increasing E-cadherin. In addition, CM-DOP promoted the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by upregulating Caspase-3 and increasing the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2. In vivo, DOP effectively inhibited the growth of tumors and the expression of Ki-67. In summary, these findings demonstrated that DOP converted the polarization of M2 subtype macrophages into M1 subtypes via the STAT6/PPAR-r and JAGGED1/NOTCH1 signaling pathways in order to reduce apoptosis and prevent migration, thus indicating the potential of DOP as an adjuvant tumor therapy in preclinical and clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An original centrality metric objective function for the LMRNP is introduced. • A new data-driven adaptive distributionally robust equilibrium programming method. • The DBSCAN algorithm is newly adopted to construct a data-driven ambiguity set. • The proposed model is theoretically derived into a computationally solvable form. • The performance of the deduced model is validated by two real data sets. This paper studies a variant of the two-stage last mile relief network problem by introducing a centrality metric objective including the distance centrality metric, the demand centrality value-at-risk and the residual supplies centrality metric. Under the scenario-based design, the demand in each scenario is described as a random fuzzy variable whose probability distribution is ambiguous. In order to characterize its ambiguousness, this paper designs a Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm based on sample data to construct a data-driven ambiguity set containing the support and mean, which not only realizes the visualization of the ambiguous probability distribution, but also provides a finite set of scenarios for the uncertain demand. Given the constructed data-driven ambiguity set, this paper proposes a data-driven adaptive distributionally robust equilibrium programming (DDADREP) method for the last mile relief network problem (LMRNP). In view of its computational difficulty, the safe approximation, duality technique and credibility measure theory are used to approximate it as a mixed integer second-order cone programming with significant computational advantages. Finally, the proposed model is validated with two real-world cases, and its effectiveness as well as advantages is demonstrated by comparison with the classical robust optimization and the nominal equilibrium optimization, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of current retrospective study was to explore the outcomes of using the adductor magnus tendon to reconstruct the medial patellofemoral ligament in the treatment of recurrent patellar dislocation in children. Method: Thirty-two children with recurrent patellar dislocation were selected. Sixteen cases in the conservative group, seven males and nine females, with an average age of 11.81 ± 1.28 years; sixteen cases in the surgical group, eight males and eight females, with an average age of 11.56 ± 1.15 years. All patients had no surgery history. The IS index (> 1.2), Q angle (> 20°) and tibial tubercle–femoral trochlear groove (TT–TG) distance (> 20 mm) were measured by X-ray and MRI. The conservative group was treated with closed reduction and a brace, and the surgical group received surgical treatment. Two years after surgery, congruence angle (CA) (− 6° to 6°) and lateral patellofemoral angle (LPFA) (7.7°–18.7°) were measured by X-ray image and all children were evaluated based on Kujala and Lysholm scores. The re-dislocation rate was recorded. Analysis was performed by t test and chi-square with the statistical SPSS software. P < 0.05 was considered a statistically significant difference. Furthermore, we measured the length (mm) of the adductor tendon and MPFL in three knee cadaveric specimens, and also observed the positional relationship between the two structures. Result: There were no significant differences in sex, age, injury site between groups (P > 0.05). Patients in the two groups were followed up for 2 years in average. Among the 16 cases in the conservative group, 7 cases (43.75%) had recurrence of patellar dislocation, while none of recurrence in the surgical group (P < 0.05). The Lysholm score of the surgical group (94.63 ± 8.99) was significantly better than that of the conservative group (79.31 ± 18.90), and the Kujala score of the surgery group (95.25 ± 10.32) was also significantly better than that of the conservative group (77.06° ± 14.34°) (P < 0.05). The CA and LPFA of the two groups of patients after treatment were significantly recovered. The CA (− 5.81° ± 7.90°) in the surgical group was significantly better than that in the conservative group (20.94° ± 8.21°), and the LPFA (6.44° ± 3.22°) was also significantly better than that in the conservative group (− 9.18 ± 11.08), and the difference is statistically significant (P < 0.05). We found it through autopsy that adductor magnus tendon was 124.33 ± 1.53 mm long, MPFL was 48.67 ± 2.08 mm, and the femoral insertion of the adductor magnus tendon was adjacent to the MPFL femoral insertion. Conclusion: Reconstruction of Medial patellofemoral ligament with the adductor magnus tendon, fixing with PEEK suture anchors on the patellar side, can achieve satisfactory results in the treatment of children with recurrent patellar dislocation. Compared with conservative treatment, the rate of recurrence is lower and the stability of the patella is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: High-speed health trains are important tools and guarantees in major accidents, epidemic pandemics, disasters, and warfare health care, and the health trains currently developed for common train platforms have more functional defects. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the medical transfer system and the medical system, and to obtain a better medical transfer train formation through the established model. METHODS: Based on the case study of medical transport tools, this paper analyzes the components and interrelationships of the medical transport system and the medical system, and then analyzes the medical transport task process of the health train by using the hierarchical task analysis (HTA) method. Combined with the Chinese standard EMU, a medical transport task model of the high-speed health train is established. Through this model, the functional compartment unit of the high-speed health train and the marshaling scheme of the high-speed health train are obtained. RESULTS: The expert system is used to evaluate the scheme. The results show that the train formation scheme formulated by the model in this paper is superior to other train formation schemes in three indicators, meeting the requirements of large medical transfer tasks. CONCLUSION: The results of this study can improve the ability of on-site treatment of patients, and can provide a basis for the research and development of a high-speed health train, which has a certain practical application value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain segmentation at different levels is generally represented as hierarchical trees. Brain regional atrophy at specific levels was found to be marginally associated with Alzheimer's disease outcomes. In this study, we propose an ℓ1‐type regularization for predictors that follow a hierarchical tree structure. Considering a tree as a directed acyclic graph, we interpret the model parameters from a path analysis perspective. Under this concept, the proposed penalty regulates the total effect of each predictor on the outcome. With regularity conditions, it is shown that under the proposed regularization, the estimator of the model coefficient is consistent in ℓ2‐norm and the model selection is also consistent. When applied to a brain sMRI dataset acquired from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the proposed approach identifies brain regions where atrophy in these regions demonstrates the declination in memory. With regularization on the total effects, the findings suggest that the impact of atrophy on memory deficits is localized from small brain regions, but at various levels of brain segmentation. Data used in preparation of this paper were obtained from the ADNI database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the corrosion of fasteners by water-based preservatives, the preserved timber in outdoor environments can decrease the service life of the metal fasteners. In addition, the segregation of timber members and metal fasteners is also difficult during the demolition of timber structures. Wooden fasteners can be a promising alternative to metal fasteners because they have favorable resistance against corrosion and are more naturally harmonized with timber members. This paper studied the pull-out performance of dried densified wood (DW) dowels embedded into glued laminated timber (glulam) parallel to the grain with three different embedded lengths in two ambient environments with a temperature of 20°C and relative humidity (RH) of 65% and with a temperature of 20°C and relative humidity of 85%. The hygroscopic swelling of the dried DW dowels with a long embedded length can provide the favorable friction locking to transfer the axial load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]