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The subtropical monsoon climate zone features abundant water resources but with uneven temporal and spatial distribution, so seasonal water shortages are frequent. In order to reduce the water shortage and water spill in this region, a nonlinear optimization model for the joint operation of a system of a reservoir and two pumping stations is developed in this paper. In this model, the water supply of the reservoir and pumping volume of the pumping stations in each period are two types of decision variables, which are subjected to the annual available water in the reservoir, water rights of the two pumping stations and the operation rule of the reservoir. However, modern intelligent algorithms may fail in dealing with constraints of if-statements like the operation rule of the reservoir in this model. In light of the shortcoming of the classical genetic algorithm, a modified genetic algorithm is proposed by comparing the different methods for dealing with constraints. The modified algorithm shows a better adaptability to the operation rule. The modified genetic algorithm may provide a reference for similar modern intelligent algorithms to solve optimal water resources allocation for systems of multiple reservoirs and multiple pumping stations.

Background Neuroinflammation in the peripheral nervous system has been linked to cancer metastasis-induced bone pain. The stimulator of interferon genes (STING), an innate immune sensor for cytosolic DNA, plays an important role in inflammation and cancer metastasis and is reported to be a critical regulator of nociception. Here, we examined the role of STING in primary nociceptive neurons and chronic pain to determine if it could be a new target for treating bone cancer pain (BCP). Methods Walker 256 cancer cells were injected intratibially to induce bone cancer pain in rats. STING and its downstream inflammatory factors in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) were detected using western blotting and immunofluorescent staining. Transmission electron microscopy and the BCL2-associated X (Bax) expression were used to detect the mitochondrial stress in DRG neurons. C-176, a specific inhibitor of STING, was used to block STING activation and to test the pain behavior. Results Mechanical hyperalgesia and spontaneous pain were observed in BCP rats, accompanied by the upregulation of the STING expression in the ipsilateral L4-5 DRG neurons which showed significant mitochondrion stress. The STING/TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1)/nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway activation was observed in the DRGs of BCP rats as well as increased IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α expression. C-176 alleviated bone cancer pain and reduced the STING and its downstream inflammatory pathway. Conclusion We provide evidence that STING pathway activation leads to neuroinflammation and peripheral sensitization. Pharmacological blockade of STING may be a promising novel strategy for preventing BCP.

Low-intensity unfocused ultrasound (LIUU) is proposed for producing a temperature difference (TD) effect in biological tissues. A finite-element simulation model has been established to validate the method’s rationality, and its effectiveness in practical applications is further discussed through phantom experiments. Experimental results indicate that LIUU under suitable conditions can result in discrepancy of temperature increases in biological tissues with complex compositions. For photoacoustic imaging, the method leverages differences in acoustic absorption coefficients of biological tissues and extracts the TD as an imaging contrast, offering the potential to enhance tissue discrimination in conventional photoacoustic imaging with low light absorption coefficients.

As one of the causes of bone cancer pain (BCP), central hyperalgesia has more and more supporting evidence recently. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is implicated in emotional disorders associated with BCP. Major histocompatibility complex II (MHCII) is a key component in regulating anti-inflammatory response and antigen presentation. This study aims to investigate whether MHCII of the mPFC participates in the BCP. The rat model of BCP was established by injecting Walker 256 cells into the tibia. BCP-induced decreased pain threshold, increased the expression of MHCII and the downstream protein CTSS, CD74 and upstream protein CIITA in mPFC, and the upregulation of MHCII was mainly observed in the mPFC microglia. Furthermore, pharmacological inhibition of MHCII in mPFC by intraperitoneal injecting minocycline provides relief from BCP. Importantly, the upregulation of MHCII is accompanied by significant NLRP3 inflammasome activation and inflammatory factors (IL-1β, IL-18 and TNF-α) released in the mPFC of BCP rats. Taken together, our data suggest that MHCII participates in BCP by activating NLRP3 inflammasome in microglia of the mPFC.

The celebrated Meyer-Miller mapping model has been a useful approach for generating practical trajectory-based nonadiabatic dynamics methods. It is generally assumed that the zero-point-energy (ZPE) parameter is positive. The constraint implied in the conventional Meyer-Miller mapping Hamiltonian for an F-electronic-state system actually requires that parameter \gamma is larger than -1/F for the ZPE parameter for each electronic degree of freedom. Both negative and positive values are possible for such a parameter. We first establish a rigorous formulation to construct exact mapping models in the Cartesian phase space when the constraint is applied. When nuclear dynamics is approximated by the linearized semiclassical initial value representation, a negative ZPE parameter could lead to reasonably good performance in describing dynamic behaviors in typical spin-boson models for condensed-phase two-state systems, even at challenging zero temperature.

Objectives To observe the changes in the concentrations of circulating peripheral blood mesenchymal stem cells (PBMSCs) in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats and explore the pattern of changes in PBMSCs during the process of distraction osteogenesis. Methods SD rats were randomly divided into the osteotomy with lengthening group (lengthening group), the osteotomy without lengthening group (osteotomy group), and the blank control group (control group). Each group included 24 rats. Percutaneous pinning with external fixation of the left femur was carried out in lengthening group and osteotomy group, but control group received no surgical treatment. On day 5 after operation, continuous traction was carried out at a rate of 0.25 mm/d in lengthening group, while no traction was carried out in osteotomy group. Peripheral blood was collected from all rats on days 1, 3, 7, and 16 after the start of traction. PBMSCs were isolated by density gradient centrifugation. CD105, CD34, and CD45 were selected as cell surface markers. The concentration of PBMSCs was detected by flow cytometry and compared between groups at different time points. X‐ray films were taken during and after the operation to observe whether the osteotomy end was pulled and the growth and mineralization of the new bone in the osteogenic area of the femur. Color ultrasound was used to monitor the width of the distraction space, the formation of new bone, and the blood supply of soft tissue around the distraction. Results All rats were able to tolerate the operation well, and the external fixation was firm and reliable. X‐ray showed that, in lengthening group, the distraction space of femur gradually widened and new bone gradually formed in the distraction space; after 8 weeks, the samples were taken out, which showed that the new bone tissue in the lengthened area healed well. In osteotomy group, the average healing time of osteotomy was (7.12 ± 0.78) weeks. Ultrasonic examination showed that after the end of traction, the high echo callus shadow was seen in the traction space, and the blood flow signal was obviously rich at an earlier stage. In lengthening group and osteotomy group, the average concentrations of PBMSCs (3.02% ± 0.87% vs 2.95% ± 0.74%, respectively) were significantly increased in the early stage after osteotomy, and the average concentrations of PBMSCs on days 3, 7, and 16 after the start of traction were 5.34% ± 1.13% vs 3.28% ± 1.22%; 6.41% ± 1.05% vs 3.16% ± 0.92%; and 5.94% ± 1.23% vs 1.48% ± 0.52%, respectively. The concentration of PBMSCs in peripheral blood of lengthening group and osteotomy group was the same at osteotomy stage, and the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). After that, compared with lengthening group, the concentration of PBMSCs in osteotomy group gradually decreased and maintained at a certain level; the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P, In the rat model of femoral osteotomy, with the process of distraction osteogenesis, peripheral blood mesenchymal stem cells will have obvious aggregation changes.

Steered molecular dynamics as an alternative to equilibrium techniques for enhanced sampling is receiving attention in recent years. In stratified pulling simulations, the selection criterion idea in adaptive steered molecular dynamics (ASMD) can be used to avoid the short equilibrium sampling for initial configurations in each pulling segment to some extent. In this work, we formulate the path integral (PI) realization of the ASMD algorithm to capture nuclear quantum effects via adaptive nonequilibrium pulling. Illustrative calculations in three examples including the double-well ammonia inversion, intra-molecular single-proton transfer in malonaldehyde and inter-molecular double-proton transfer in a formamidine dimer reflect the promising performance of the AS-PIMD technique for efficient calculation of free energy landscapes in practical situations where nuclear quantum effects are significant.

The incidence, severity and associated risk factors of acute pain after preoperative needle localization of pulmonary nodules are poorly characterized. We therefore conducted a cross-sectional study to quantify the acute pain induced by preoperative needle localization of small pulmonary nodules before video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS).We conducted this study at Shanghai Chest Hospital from September 2021 through December 2021. Eligible patients were between 18 and 75 years old and had small pulmonary nodules requiring preoperative CT-guided needle localization. The intensity of acute pain was assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS) after preoperative needle localization. A VAS score ≥4 cm indicated moderate to severe pain. Patient demographics and CT-guided localization factors were collected to identify significant predictors associated with moderate to severe pain.A total of 300 patients were included in the final analysis, with a mean (SD) age of 51 (SD =12) years old; 63% were female. Moderate to severe pain occurred in 50.8% of patients during deep breathing and 45.7% of patients during movement. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that multiple localization needles [multiple needle localizationsIn adult patients receiving hookwire CT-guided localization, moderate to severe pain was common. Avoiding the localization route through lateral chest wall may be helpful and pharmacological medications or regional blockade is necessitated in high-risk population.

At present, meta-heuristic algorithms are the most popular methods for the optimization of the operations of reservoirs. In order to avoid inappropriate solutions, i.e. spills occurring when the reservoir is not full, a modified method is proposed that can adjust the trajectories of the particles, using the particle swarm algorithm, according to the operation rule of the reservoir. The method was tested in a case study, and was compared to two commonly used methods for generating particle position vectors. These included the direct method, which uses water supply and water spills as the iteration variables, and the indirect method, which uses water storages (water levels) as the iteration variables. The results showed that the three methods could achieve similar solutions at the 75% probability of exceedance. There was no difference in the convergence speeds or the final objective function values of the three models. However, at the 50% probability of exceedance, the modified method produced results that followed the operation rule of the reservoir, whereas the other two methods could lead to inappropriate water spills. This new method may provide a reference for other meta-heuristic algorithms in models of the optimal operation of reservoirs.

Environmental sound recognition (ESR) refers to the recognition of all sounds other than the human voice or musical sounds. Typical ESR methods utilize spectral information and variation within it with respect to time. However, in the case of transient sounds, spectral information is insufficient because only an average quantity of a given signal within a time period can be recognized. In this study, the waveform of sound signals and their spectrum were analyzed visually to extract temporal characteristics of the sound more directly. Based on the observations, features such as the initial rise time, duration, and smoothness of the sound signal; the distribution and smoothness of the spectrum; the clarity of the sustaining sound components; and the number and interval of collisions in chattering were proposed. Experimental feature values were obtained for eight transient environmental sounds, and the distributions of the values were evaluated. A recognition experiment was conducted on 11 transient sounds. The Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) was selected as reference. A support vector machine was adopted as the classification algorithm. The recognition rates obtained from the MFCC were below 50% for five of the 11 sounds, and the overall recognition rate was 69%. In contrast, the recognition rates obtained using the proposed features were above 50% for all sounds, and the overall rate was 86%.

Double-reservoir-and-double-pumping-station systems are commonly used for irrigation water supply in hilly regions of southern China. An optimization model for this water supply system is proposed to minimize water shortage. The model features few coupling constraints, including available water in the system and pumping volume limited by regional water rights. Dynamic programming was adopted to solve the subsystem and aggregation models. The results with the model and that with the standard operation policy were compared; the total water shortage was reduced by 87.7%, total water replenishment from outside was reduced by 2.2%, and total water spill was reduced by 60.6% for a system in Nanjing, China. The method may provide a reference for optimal operation of water supply systems comprising reservoirs and pumping stations.

Atomic-level understanding of the dynamical feature of host-guest interactions remains a central challenge in supramolecular chemistry. The remarkable guest binding behavior of the Cucurbiturils family of supramolecular containers makes them promising drug carriers. Among Cucurbit[n]urils, Cucurbit[8]uril (CB8) has intermediate portal size and cavity volume. It can exploit almost all host-guest recognition motifs formed by this host family. In our previous work, an extensive computational investigation of the binding of 7 commonly abused and structurally diverse drugs to the CB8 host was performed and a general dynamical binding picture of CB8-guest interactions was obtained. Further, two widely used fixed-charge models for drug-like molecules were investigated and compared in great detail, aiming at providing guidelines in choosing an appropriate charge scheme in host-guest modelling. Iterative refitting of atomic charges leads to improved binding thermodynamics and the best root-mean-squared deviation from the experimental reference is 2.6 kcal/mol. In this work, we focus on a thorough evaluation of the remaining parts of classical force fields, i.e., the bonded interactions. The widely used general Amber force fields are assessed and refitted to improve the intra-molecular conformational preference and thus the description of inter-molecular host-guest interactions. The interaction pattern and binding thermodynamics show significant dependence on the modelling parameters. The refitted system-specific parameter set improves the consistency of the modelling results and the experimental reference significantly. Finally, combining the previous charge-scheme comparison and the current force-field refitting, we provide general guidelines for the theoretical modelling of host-guest binding.

We show that a novel, general phase space mapping Hamiltonian for nonadiabatic systems, which is reminiscent of the renowned Meyer-Miller mapping Hamiltonian, involves a commutator variable matrix rather than the conventional zero-point-energy parameter. In the exact mapping formulation on constraint space for phase space approaches for nonadiabatic dynamics, the general mapping Hamiltonian with commutator variables can be employed to generate approximate trajectory-based dynamics. Various benchmark model tests, which range from gas phase to condensed phase systems, suggest that the overall performance of the general mapping Hamiltonian is better than that of the conventional Meyer-Miller Hamiltonian.

The first-order model-based generalized momentum observer (GMO) is a low pass filter with high-frequency attenuation characteristics and detection delay. Therefore, it cannot detect short impacts (extremely short time interval) sensitively. According to the frequency distribution of modeling errors, collision signal, and measurement noise, we design three different second-order model-based GMOs, which improve the performance of collision detection effectively. Specifically, these GMOs include a second-order damped system (abbreviated as Damp), a second-order damped system with PD regulation (abbreviated as PD), and a band-pass filter (abbreviated as BPF). Typically, the collision reaction function can be realized by switching to the torque control mode with gravity compensation. However, the robot cannot continue to move along its original trajectories after switching from position to torque control, and cannot continue to perform subsequent tasks. To address this problem, we design a collision reaction strategy in position control mode by mapping the output of the observer to the increment of joint velocity, realizing a safe collision reaction.

With the increasingly discharging and inappropriately disposing of antibiotics from human disease treatment and breeding industry, extensive development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria raised serious public health concern. In this work, algal biochar was coated onto the stainless steel mesh, and was employed as cathodic electrode for the degradation of sulfadiazine (SDZ) in an electro-Fenton (EF) system. It was found that algal biochar pyrolyzed at 600 °C with 1:1 KOH achieved best catalytic performance to generate H

Autonomous urban driving navigation is still an open problem and has ample room for improvement in unknown complex environments and terrible weather conditions. In this paper, we propose a two-stage framework, called IPP-RL, to handle these problems. IPP means an Imitation learning method fusing visual information with the additional steering angle calculated by Pure-Pursuit (PP) method, and RL means using Reinforcement Learning for further training. In our IPP model, the visual information captured by camera can be compensated by the calculated steering angle, thus it could perform well under bad weather conditions. However, imitation learning performance is limited by the driving data severely. Thus we use a reinforcement learning method-Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG)-in the second stage training, which shares the learned weights from pretrained IPP model. In this way, our IPP-RL can lower the dependency of imitation learning on demonstration data and solve the problem of low exploration efficiency caused by randomly initialized weights in reinforcement learning. Moreover, we design a more reasonable reward function and use the n-step return to update the critic-network in DDPG. Our experiments on CARLA driving benchmark demonstrate that our IPP-RL is robust to lousy weather conditions and shows remarkable generalization capability in unknown environments on navigation task.

For an energy transfer network, the irreversible depletion of excited electron energy occurs through either an efficient flow into an outer energy sink or an inefficient decay. With a small decay rate, the energy transfer efficiency is quantitatively reflected by the average life time of excitation energy before being trapped in the sink where the decay process is omitted. In the weak dissipation regime, the trapping time is analyzed within the exciton population subspace based on the secular Redfield equation. The requirement of the noise-enhanced energy transfer is obtained, where the trapping time follows an exact or approximate 1/Γ-scaling of the dissipation strength Γ. On the opposite side, optimal initial system states are conceptually constructed to suppress the 1/Γ-scaling of the trapping time and maximize the coherent transfer efficiency. Our theory is numerically testified in four models, including a biased two-site system, a symmetric three-site branching system, a homogeneous onedimensional chain, and an 8-chromophore FMO protein complex.

The temperature, vibration, and noise in air-conditioned Chinese vessel cabins in wintertime were investigated in this study. Field measurements were used to appraise the thermal sensation vote (TSV) of crew members and passengers in specific cabin environments. The survey data was summarized and analyzed to determine the neutral temperature, preferred temperature, thermal preference, and thermal acceptance rate. The determined neutral and preferred temperatures of 20.9 and 21.5 °C indicated that the ship occupants preferred a temperature higher than the neutral temperature in winter. The acceptable operative temperature range was determined to be 18.54–23.29 °C. Although most passengers preferred the neutral environment or a slightly warmer one, the acceptable air temperature was appropriately lower. A fitting analysis was conducted on the TSV and predicted mean vote (PMV) using different levels of subject activity. The thermal neutral temperature predicted by the PMV was higher than that predicted by the TSV; however, a modification of the PMV brought the former closer to the latter. The vibration vote indicated that most of the subjects considered the ship's vibration level to be acceptable. Although the noise level in the passenger cabins was higher than the recommendation, only 12% of the subjects considered it a little troublesome. Conversely, the noise evaluation in the dining room was not particularly impressive, with 6% of the subjects considering it very troublesome, and24% considering it a little troublesome.

The voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels are crucial in initiating and propagating action potentials in excitable cells. In this work, with atomistic molecular simulations employing conventional and advanced sampling techniques, we investigate the dynamics of a series of Nav channels. The thermodynamic picture along the ion permeation pathway is obtained and the ion dynamics in the channels are analyzed. The ion permeation pathway could be divided into several regions. The cation enters the channel through the selectivity filter, stays in the global free energy minimum at the central cavity, and waits for the open of the activation gate. Exchanges between neighboring ions are also observed. There is an obvious free energy barrier for K+ entering the channel, and the thermodynamic stability of K+ in the central cavity is similar to the extracellular side, while there is no explicit barrier for Na+ and the cation is more stable in the cavity.

Morel-Lavallee lesions (MLLs) are shearing injuries resulting in separation of the skin and subcutaneous tissue from the underlying fascia. They are closed internal degloving injuries. Classical sites of the lesions are around the greater trochanter, pelvis, thigh, knee joint, and on the head, in decreasing order of frequency. This injury is often delayed or misdiagnosed when patients present with soft tissue injury alone or when more obvious injuries distract from its presence in polytrauma patients. There is currently no universally accepted treatment for these lesions. Conservative management often fails and requires surgical intervention. The purpose of this manuscript is to show that nose ring drainage, a minimally invasive incision and loop drainage technique for the treatment of lower limb Morel-Lavallee lesions, is effective and economical.

Making use of the PID controller to make up the defeat of the geometric controller like Pure Pursuit is a very effective way to improve the effects of the Pure Pursuit (PP). However, existed methods didn't explain the internal principle of the fusion. This paper will try to give a detailed analysis about the fusion mechanism. Firstly, we will discuss the error caused by PP, and then we will separately analyze how the PI controller correct the error. Based on the above discussion, we conclude that the weight parameters are very important to the performance of the fusion controller. Thereby, we proposed a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based parameter tuning method to improve the accuracy of the fusion method. Finally, the experiments on CARLA simulator prove the effects of GA based PP_PI (PP fusion with PI) method in urban driving scenario.

The linear absorption spectrum of a multisite system can be written as a weighted accumulation of elements of an absorption matrix. In the framework of the quantum-classical Liouville equation (QCLE), a mean-field approximation is introduced to simplify the calculation of the absorption matrix. The classical bath oscillators are propagated under partially shifted potentials, which reflects an averaged behavior after considering quantum jumps of the system states. For a specified initial condition, the time-dependent shifting possibility of each bath potential is given by the time evolution of site population estimated by the Redfield equation or the noninteracting blip approximation. The two hybrid QCLE approaches are tested in various models, including biased and unbiased two-site models, a subnetwork and the whole monomer of Fenna-Matthews-Olson, and harmonic and anharmonic baths. With numerically excellent results, the numerical studies show reliability and flexibility of the hybrid QCLE in calculating the absorption matrix and spectrum.