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[Display omitted] Flexible sensors and actuators are the basis for realizing the Internet of Everything. This study identifies specific interfacial polarization and filler dispersion challenges in flexible sensors. A novel sandwich-structured flexible sensor with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-filled Nb 2 CT x as the interlayer and poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)]-filled barium titanate (BTO) as the upper and lower layers was designed and fabricated. The thickness of the interlayer was optimized to be 6.2 μm, resulting in an ultrahigh sensitivity of 16.05 V/N and ultrashort response time of 626 μs. The interlayer achieved an oriented arrangement of the dipoles in the upper and lower piezoelectric films through interfacial polarization, enhancing the piezoelectric output and sensitivity. The proposed mechanism was confirmed by the dielectric properties, local piezoelectric response, cross-sectional potential simulation, and interfacial electrical calculations. Additionally, the sensor effectively distinguishes various body movements, facial micro-expressions, and throat vibrations during vocalization, and can be applied to ultrahigh-sensitive self-powered flexible piezoelectric pressure sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPostoperative adjuvant chemotherapy could improve the life quality of patients with breast cancer but also bring side effects and cause adverse reactions. Yiqi Yangyin decoction has been reported to possess anti-cancer activity and has been employed in the postoperative treatment of various cancers. A total of 128 patients with breast cancer who received surgical therapy were enrolled in this study and were randomly grouped as the control and the test group to receive different therapies. Patients in the control group received single chemotherapy of fluorouracil and hydrochloride, while the therapy of the test group patients supplemented Yiqi Yangyin decoction based on the control group. Both two therapeutic strategies improved life quality and TCM syndrome scores of enrolled patients, and the supplement of Yiqi Yangyin decoction significantly improved the therapeutic effect. Adverse reactions including nausea, vomiting, thrombocytopenia, diarrhea, leukopenia, and hemoglobinia occurred in both two groups, but the application of Yiqi Yangyin decoction significantly alleviated adverse reactions. Additionally, patients in the test group showed a better 1-year disease-free survival. The combination of adjuvant chemotherapy with Yiqi Yangyin decoction could improve postoperative life quality, improve therapeutic efficacy, and reduce adverse reactions in patients with breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigated the influence of crosswinds and leg positions on the aerodynamics of an articulated cycling mannequin on a track bicycle. Force, wake total pressure and wake velocity measurements were made in a low-speed sports wind tunnel of closed-circuit type. The freestream velocity and wheel speeds were kept at 15 m/s . The crank angle of the mannequin was varied across a pedal cycle. Yaw angles from 0 ∘ to 20 ∘ were examined. The experimental results reveal that the leg position significantly affects the aerodynamic performance of a cyclist. At high yaw angles, the aerodynamic drag on the cyclist showed noticeable deviations between most leg positions and their 180 ∘ -apart pairs. A wake analysis technique effectively captured the influence of leg positions on drag. The total pressure deficit contributes dominantly to the overall drag. The wake pressure contours demonstrate how leg-wheel interaction affects the total pressure distribution and drag under crosswinds. This study offers valuable insights into the flow behavior and drag generation around a cyclist with varying leg positions under crosswinds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of small-scale 1 g model tests were conducted using a self-designed pile driving loading model test system to investigate the effect of relative density and cross-section geometry on the development of soil stress around the pile during the penetration of X-section Cast-in-place Concrete (XCC) pile in sand. It is found that the variations of the radial stress Δσ'r/σ'v0 in the surrounding soil presented a significant "h/R effect" during the penetration of the XCC pile, indicating that the "h/R effect", which was found for circular pile during the penetration of piles, was also observed for the XCC pile. The radial stress distribution along the axial direction of the pile could be divided into three zones, i.e., the pile body region, the pile tip region, and the soil region below the pile tip. The development trend of the radial stress along with soil depth is different in each region. Additionally, the peaks of the radial stresses in the pile tip region were very sensitive to the variations of the relative density of the surrounding soils and the cross-section geometry of the piles, which increased significantly with increasing the relative density and cross-section geometry. The radial stresses Δσ'r/σ'v0 decreased exponentially as the radial distance r/R increased. The decay rates decreased with increasing the relative densities of the surrounding soils, while increased with decreasing the cross-section geometry parameter of the piles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excavation and maintenance of buried natural gas pipelines can lead to deformation and stress redistribution of the pipelines and even cause secondary damage to the pipes with issues. To clarify the impact of excavation unloading on buried pipelines, this study established a finite element three-dimensional pipe-soil model, investigated the mechanical response of pipelines under layered excavation and evaluated various parameters impacting the response. The parameters analyzed include the diameter-thickness ratio of the pipe, excavation length and width, thickness of top covering soil, elastic modulus of soil, specific weight of soil and initial displacement of the pipeline. The study results showed that the pipeline bulges upwards during excavation unloading, the pipe top in the middle is under tension, and the bottom of the pipe is under compression. Therefore, the axial stress and vertical displacement both increase first and then decrease, and they are distributed symmetrically along the pipeline axis; excavating the initially compressed pipeline leads to high strain areas in the pipeline and even local buckling. The response to slope excavation is more pronounced than that to straight trench excavation; the additional response of the pipeline increases with the increase of diameter-thickness ratio, excavation width, thickness of pipe top covering soil and specific weight of soil, but it decreases with the increasing soil elastic modulus. The additional response is closely related to excavation length and the initial displacement. The results of this study can provide a reference for pipeline construction, maintenance, and safety assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows the beneficial properties of using (Li 2 Mn 4)O(CO 3) 4 ·H 2 O (P–LiMn 2 O 4) as an anti-ablation additive in silicone rubber, effectively inhibiting ablation at all temperature ranges studied, indicating its potential as a valuable material. The experimental results show that P–LiMn 2 O 4 enhances the anti-ablation process of silicone rubber through several mechanisms, including dehydration, decarbonization, gas production, and solid-solid phase change. These mechanisms induce heat absorption, gas film formation and ceramic phase formation. Furthermore, P–LiMn 2 O 4 effectively improves the resistance of silicone rubber to ablation without compromising its mechanical properties. This study presents a method to enhance ablation resistance through multiple pathways, which can extend the application of phase change materials under extreme thermal conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tunnel boring projects, wear and tear in the tooling system can have significant consequences, such as decreased boring efficiency, heightened maintenance costs, and potential safety hazards. In this paper, a fault diagnosis method for TBM tooling systems based on SAV−SVDD failure location (SSFL) is proposed. The aim of this method is to detect faults caused by disk cutter wear during the boring process, which diminishes the boring efficiency and is challenging to detect during construction. This paper uses SolidWorks to create a complete three−dimensional model of the TBM hydraulic thrust system and tool system. Then, dynamic simulations are performed with Adams. This helps us understand how the load on the propulsion hydraulic cylinder changes as the TBM tunneling tool wears to different degrees during construction. The hydraulic propulsion system was modeled and simulated using AMESIM software. Utilizing the load on the hydraulic propulsion cylinder as an input signal, pressure signals from the two chambers of the hydraulic cylinder and the system's flow signal were acquired. This enabled an in−depth exploration of the correlation between these acquired signals and the extent of the tooling system failure. Following this analysis, a collection of normal sample data and sample data representing different degrees of disk cutter abrasions was amassed for further study. Next, an SSFL network model for locating the failure area of the cutter was established. Fault sample data were used as the input, and the accuracy of the fault diagnosis model was tested. The test results show that the performance of the SSFL network model is better than that of the SAE−SVM and SVDD network models. The SSFL model achieves 90% accuracy in determining the failure area of the cutter head. The model effectively identifies the failure regions, enabling timely tool replacement to avoid decreased boring efficiency under wear conditions. The experimental findings validate the feasibility of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata [L.] A. Gray), a deciduous shrub producing glossy bright red berries, is a valuable ornamental and medicinal plant with good market prospects. However, the growth and development of I. verticillata are significantly affected by various stresses, and environmentally hazardous agrochemicals are often used to mitigate them. Trichoderma spp. ubiquitous soil-borne eco-friendly plant growth-promoting fungi, are potent biostimulants and biofertilizers and viable alternatives to agrochemicals for healthy and sustainable agriculture. In this study, the temporal efficacy of different dosages of the filamentous fungus Trichoderma guizhouense NJAU4742 in promoting morphophysiological responses of I. verticillata and the physicochemical properties and enzymatic activities of the substrate were investigated. Different concentrations of the strain T. guizhouense NJAU4742 spore suspension (C [0%], T1 [5%, v/m], T2 [10%, v/m] and T3 [15%, v/m]) were injected in the substrate contained in a pot in which 1-year-old I. verticillata was planted for temporal treatment (15, 45 and 75 days) under open-air conditions. The beneficial effects of T2 and/or T3 treatment for a long duration (75 days) were evident on the different root, aerial and photosynthetic traits; total contents of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in different tissues and the physicochemical properties of the substrate and its enzymatic activities (urease and invertase). Overall, the study revealed the potency of strain T. guizhouense NJAU4742 as a sustainable solution to improve the growth and development and ornamental value of I. verticillata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ducted propellers present broad applicability in urban air mobility vehicles due to their enhanced operational safety, improved aerodynamic performance, and potential to mitigate noise emissions. This study proposes a numerical approach for designing adequate duct geometries, focusing on the duct's lip profile, expansion ratio, and tip clearance, aiming to provide valuable design guidance for ducted propellers. The simulations are validated through experimental data, showing reasonable agreement in terms of thrust generation and far-field noise. The mean flow and generated thrust are characterized with a parametric study using steady simulations, while delayed detached eddy simulations are employed to capture transient flow characteristics and investigate noise generation. The noise levels were computed using the integral solution of the Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings equation. The lip geometry impacts the flow distribution and generated thrust, modifying the tonal noise. Furthermore, slightly divergent ducts can increase the total thrust by minimizing flow separation on the duct wall while increasing the suction on the duct lip. The primary noise sources are identified at the propeller's leading edge and tip. The results reveal that divergent ducts effectively reduce tonal noise at all observer angles but increase broadband noise, attributed to the noise sources at the leading edge of the propeller and the interaction with the duct lip. Additionally, reducing the tip clearance from 2 to 1 mm enhances the total thrust by more than 20% without causing extra noise generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastric cancer poses a serious threat to the health of people. Despite the continuous breakthroughs in the development of new drugs such as chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy in recent years, radical surgery remains the cornerstone in the treatment of gastric cancer. With the establishment of standard gastric cancer surgery, the advancement of minimally invasive surgical techniques represented by laparoscopy, the determination of perioperative comprehensive treatment of advanced gastric cancer and the formation and initial practice of precise surgical concepts for gastric cancer, the progress of surgical treatment for gastric cancer is advancing by leaps and bounds. The concepts of individualized and optimal treatment are gradually taking root. Safety, effectiveness, precision and minimally invasive approaches have always been the inherent laws of discipline development firmly grasped by gastric cancer surgeons. In order to facilitate better growth for young doctors, the author summarized the latest developments in the diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer and looked ahead to future trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The binding correlation between electrocatalyst and lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) determines the regulation of LiPSs' redox conversion. However, how the correlation works on the LiPSs under voltage remains obscured. In this paper, the π‐conjugated aromatic pyridyl porphyrin with nitrogen of a lone pair of electrons is introduced as electrocatalyst to accelerate redox kinetics and inhibit polysulfides shuttle. On the foundation of DFT calculation and experimental tests, it is stated that the chemical binding between pyridyl porphyrin and lithium polysulfides is beefed up under higher voltage, which facilitates the charge transfer. Moreover, the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of the solid‐liquid model shows that the presence of pyridyl porphyrin increases the binding chances between Li+ and S62− and forms clusters rather than dissolving in electrolyte, which is good for charge transfer and polysulfides localization. By hybridizing the pyridyl porphyrin with conductive cathode matrix of carbon nanotube and graphene oxide, the as‐fabricated Li2S‐T4PP‐GO‐CNT cathode delivers a high initial discharge capacity of 996.4 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C. The as‐made batteries with good electrochemical performance therefore show potential for trouble‐shooting and commercial utilization of lithium‐sulfur batteries (LSBs) in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pterocarya (Juglandaceae) is disjunctly distributed in East Asia and the Caucasus region today, but its fossils are widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. We first inferred phylogeny with time estimation of Pterocarya under node‐dating (ND) based on plastomes of all eight extant species and tip‐dating (TD) based on plastomes and 69 morphological characters of 19 extant and extinct species, respectively. We compared the biogeographical reconstructions on the timetrees from ND and TD, respectively, and then compiled 83 fossil records and 599 current occurrences for predicting the potential distributions for the past and the future. The most recent comment ancestor of Pterocarya is inferred in East Asia at 40.46 Ma (95% highest posterior density [HPD]: 28.04–54.86) under TD and 26.81 Ma (95% HPD: 23.03–33.12) under ND. The current distribution was attributed to one dispersal and one vicariant event without fossils, but as many as six dispersal, six vicariant, and 11 local extinction events when considering fossils. Pterocarya migrated between East Asia and North America via the Bering Land Bridge during the early Oligocene and the early Miocene periods. With the closure of Turgai Strait, Pterocarya dispersed between East Asia and Europe through the Miocene. The potential distribution analyses indicated that Pterocarya preferred warm temperate regions across the Northern Hemisphere since the Oligocene, but the drastic temperature decline caused its extinction in high latitudes. Except for Pterocarya fraxinifolia and Pterocarya stenoptera, suitable habitats for this genus are predicted to contract by 2070 due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitriles constitute essential components in a vast array of both bulk and fine chemicals, as well as in various bioactive molecules. The aerobic oxidative cyanation of diverse oxygen-containing feedstocks, including alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones, stands out as a green and highly promising avenue for nitrile synthesis over both thermocatalysts and photocatalysts. In this review, we initially elucidate the reaction mechanisms involved in the oxidative cyanation of oxygen-containing compounds. Following this, we present a summary and commentary on the predominantly achieved progress in the oxidative cyanation of various oxygen-containing feedstocks over the last decade. The categorization is based on types of catalysts, including non-noble metal catalysts, single-metal-atom catalysts, metal-free catalysts, and photocatalysts. Additionally, we assess the current catalytic systems from the standpoint of green chemistry. Finally, we conclude by highlighting the current challenges and delineating our prospects for future research endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is very vital to exploit efficient electrocatalysts for water splitting. Herein, we design and fabricate one kind of bimetallic and phosphorus-doped CoMoO 4 (P–CoMoO 4) nanosheet product with coarse surface and porous structure. The P–CoMoO 4 nanosheets possess rectangular architecture with the length and width of ∼2 μm and 500 nm. It is worth noting that the synthetic P–CoMoO 4 catalyst displays bifunctional activity for overall water splitting in alkaline electrolyte. The overpotentials are merely 300 and 70.2 mV for OER and HER at 10 mA cm−2, respectively. The water splitting voltage of P–CoMoO 4 couple is 1.48 V at 10 mA cm−2, and this couple presents reliably long-term stability for 24 h. This research indicates the important significance of bimetallic and phosphorus-decorated oxides in water electrolysis field. [Display omitted] • Bimetallic and phosphorus-decorated CoMoO 4 (P–CoMoO 4) nanosheets are synthesized. • P–CoMoO 4 nanosheets have rectangular shape with rough surface and porous structure. • P–CoMoO 4 catalyst exhibits bifunctional electrocatalytic properties for OER and HER. • P–CoMoO 4 shows low water splitting voltage (1.48 V) at 10 mA cm−2 and well stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insufficient exciton (e−‐h+ pair) separation/transfer and sluggish two‐electron water oxidation are two main factors limiting the H2O2 photosynthetic efficiency of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) photocatalysts. Herein, we present an alternative strategy to simultaneously facilitate exciton separation/transfer and reduce the energy barrier of two‐electron water oxidation in COFs via a dicyano functionalization. The in situ characterization and theoretical calculations reveal that the dicyano functionalization improves the amount of charge transfer channels between donor and acceptor units from two in COF‐0CN without cyano functionalization to three in COF‐1CN with mono‐cyano functionalization and four in COF‐2CN with dicyano functionalization, leading to the highest separation/transfer efficiency in COF‐2CN. More importantly, the dicyano group activates the neighbouring C atom to produce the key *OH intermediate for effectively reducing the energy barrier of rate‐determining two‐electron water oxidation in H2O2 photosynthesis. The simultaneously enhanced exciton separation/transfer and two‐electron water oxidation in COF‐2CN result in high H2O2 yield (1601 μmol g−1 h−1) from water and oxygen without using sacrificial reagent under visible‐light irradiation. COF‐2CN can effectively yield H2O2 in water with wide pH range, in different real water samples, in scaled‐up reactor under natural sunlight irradiation, and in continuous‐flow reactor for consecutively producing H2O2 solution for water decontamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insufficient exciton (e−‐h+ pair) separation/transfer and sluggish two‐electron water oxidation are two main factors limiting the H2O2 photosynthetic efficiency of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) photocatalysts. Herein, we present an alternative strategy to simultaneously facilitate exciton separation/transfer and reduce the energy barrier of two‐electron water oxidation in COFs via a dicyano functionalization. The in situ characterization and theoretical calculations reveal that the dicyano functionalization improves the amount of charge transfer channels between donor and acceptor units from two in COF‐0CN without cyano functionalization to three in COF‐1CN with mono‐cyano functionalization and four in COF‐2CN with dicyano functionalization, leading to the highest separation/transfer efficiency in COF‐2CN. More importantly, the dicyano group activates the neighbouring C atom to produce the key *OH intermediate for effectively reducing the energy barrier of rate‐determining two‐electron water oxidation in H2O2 photosynthesis. The simultaneously enhanced exciton separation/transfer and two‐electron water oxidation in COF‐2CN result in high H2O2 yield (1601 μmol g−1 h−1) from water and oxygen without using sacrificial reagent under visible‐light irradiation. COF‐2CN can effectively yield H2O2 in water with wide pH range, in different real water samples, in scaled‐up reactor under natural sunlight irradiation, and in continuous‐flow reactor for consecutively producing H2O2 solution for water decontamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing a cost-effective, energy-efficient and highly scalable network for data centers that can deliver sufficient bandwidth has drawn tremendous attentions recently. The data center networks constructed by using multi-port servers can provide sufficient bandwidth, such as BCube, DCell and GBC3. As the volume of data keeps growing rapidly, more and more servers are continuously added into data centers. In order to reduce the cost and energy consumption, data center networks can be expanded gradually by adding a small number of servers from time to time instead of adding a huge number of servers at a time. This paper proposes a new type of data center network structure called GHB, which is constructed by using commercial switches and multi-port servers. Two types of incomplete GHB structures are also proposed. A small number of servers can be gradually added into the incomplete structures without changing their topological properties. As shown in the experimental results, the throughput of GHB is comparable to that of BCube, and is larger than that of GBC3 and DCell. The analysis results indicate that GHB strikes a good balance among diameter, bisection width, incremental scalability, cost, and energy consumption in contrast to BCube, DCell and GBC3. Compared with the BCube and GBC3, GHB reduces the cost and energy consumption by about 6% and 18%, respectively. The highest throughput of GHB is higher than that of DCell and GBC3 by about 3.4% and 8.35%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining a holistic understanding of the impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on multiple ecosystem services of forest is essential for developing comprehensive and sustainable strategies, particularly in heavy N deposition regions such as subtropical China. However, such impacts remain incompletely understood, with most previous studies focus on individual ecosystem function or service via understory N addition experiments. To address this knowledge gap, we quantified the effects of over‐canopy and understory N additions on multiple ecosystem services based on a 7‐year large‐scale field experiment in a typical subtropical forest. Our results showed continued over‐canopy N addition with 50 kg ha−1 year−1 over a period of 4–7 years significantly increased plant nutrient retention, but did not affect the services of soil nutrient accumulation, water yield, C sequestration (in plants and soil), or oxygen release. There were trade‐offs between the soil and plant on providing the services of nutrient accumulation/retention and C sequestration under over‐canopy N addition. However, without uptake and retention of tree canopy, the trade‐off between soil and plant were more weaken under the understory N addition with 50 kg ha−1 year−1, and their relationships were even synergetic under the understory N addition with 25 kg ha−1 year−1. The results suggest that understory N addition cannot accurately simulate the effects of atmospheric N deposition on multiple services, along with mutual relationships. Interestingly, the services of plant N, P retention, and C sequestration exhibited a synergetic increase under the over‐canopy N addition but a decrease under the understory N addition. Our results also found tree layer plays a primary role in providing plant nutrient retention service and is sensitive to atmospheric N deposition. Further studies are needed to investigate the generalized effects of forest canopy processes on alleviating the threaten of global change factors in different forest ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing highly-efficient, stable and low-cost catalysts for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) plays an important role in renewable energy conversion technology. The particularly ultrathin and porous 2D architecture can provide plentiful activation sites, short delivery channels to improve reaction kinetic and promote HER procedure. High-performance transition metal phosphide (CoP) combined with unique and holey 2D ultrathin nanosheet structure is prepared by successively hydrothermal reaction, oxidation and phosphorization techniques, which presents remarkable stability and electrocatalytic HER properties in a wide pH range. The thickness and pore dimension of ultrathin and porous CoP nanosheets are ∼15 and 3–17 nm. The optimized CoP nanosheets only require 60, 128, 90 mV overpotentials to drive the current density of 10 mA cm−2 in acidic, neutral and alkaline environment, respectively, much better than those of oxide counterpart and the previously reported transition metal-based electrocatalysts. Moreover, the small Tafel slopes of porous CoP nanosheets are 54, 69.9 and 62.9 mV dec−1 in acidic, neutral and alkaline media. CoP nanosheets also exhibit high conductivity, large C dl , and long-term stability for 20 h in pH-universal electrolyte. • The unique and neoteric CoP nanosheets were successfully synthesized. • The CoP nanosheets possess ultrathin and porous architecture. • The thickness and pore dimension of ultrathin CoP nanosheets are ∼15 and 3–17 nm. • The optimized CoP nanosheets displayed outstanding HER activity in a wide pH range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, flow structures and their evolution over a track cyclist were investigated through wind tunnel tests. In supplement to the experiment, high-fidelity numerical simulations were also conducted to demonstrate the origins of global flow structures. In wind tunnel tests, a full-scale track cyclist mannequin was built based on the three-dimensional scanning of an elite track cyclist in a riding position of a sprint event, and a Cobra probe was used to measure the wake structures. The results show that the preeminent flow structures around the track cyclist mannequin are the streamwise vortices originating from different body parts. The evolution of these vortices involves strong vortex interactions and performs differently on each side, resulting in a dominant streamwise vortex merged behind the right thigh, which is associated with aerodynamic drag productions. In particular, leg position affects the lateral displacement between the elbow vortex and upper thigh, which is the reason for the distinct flow behaviors on each side. This study helps to better understand the flow around a track cyclist, facilitating the development of drag-saving strategies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is the key half reaction of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), and is highly dependent on Pt-based nanocrystals as core electrocatalysts. Despite the exceptional ORR activity from adjusting the electronic structures of surface or near-surface atoms, several serious issues, including the corrosion of carbon supports, the preferential leaching of active metal elements, the instability of surface low-coordinated atoms and the sintering/agglomeration of nanocrystals, still exist, challenging the ORR durability of developed Pt-based ORR catalysts. From the point of view of the catalyst structure design, in this review, we summarized the state-of-the-art structural regulation strategies for improving the ORR durability of Pt-based catalysts. The current limitation of Pt-based binary catalysts for ORR electrocatalysis is firstly discussed, and the detailed strategies are further classified into the optimization of supports, metal-doped alloys, core/shell structures, intermetallics and high-entropy alloys, etc. The structure–performance relationship is detailedly explained, especially emphasizing the elimination of the above restrictions. Finally, the existing challenges and future research direction are further presented, aiming at practicing the PEMFC devices of the ultradurable Pt-based catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the conventional air plasma spraying (APS) technology was employed to deposit Al 2 O 3 coatings with varying TiO 2 contents (AT coatings) on a Ti80 substrate. The coating microstructure was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as well as the mechanical properties including fracture toughness and Vickers hardness by indentation method. Besides, the galvanic corrosion behavior of a 921A/AT coating system couples was thoroughly investigated in comparison to a 921A/Ti80 couple. The influence of TiO 2 content on the resistance of Al 2 O 3 coatings to galvanic corrosion were discussed experimentally and theoretically. Microstructural observation indicated that the introduction of TiO 2 into Al 2 O 3 coating was conducive to improving coating quality, exhibiting a decreasing value in surface roughness and porosity. Besides, improved fracture toughness and decreasing hardness were observed for samples with higher contents of TiO 2. Both experimental and theorical results demonstrated that the AT coatings could potentially inhibit the galvanic corrosion which occurred on 921A/Ti80 couples, but its resistance to galvanic corrosion weakened conversely with the increase of TiO 2 content. Thereinto, the volume resistivity played a decisive role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trailing edge serrations have shown remarkable ability to reduce noise, but their effectiveness can be significantly impacted by flow misalignment, particularly under aerodynamic loading conditions. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the effect of incorporating streamwise vane treatments at the root of the trailing edge serrations on its noise reduction performance. Experiments were performed on a 100 mm chord NACA 0012 wing model with sawtooth type trailing edge serration. The aeroacoustic performance was investigated for serrations with non-zero flap angle at various angles of attack between −5° and 8.5°. The findings reveal that streamwise vanes can reduce the high-frequency noise by over 5 dB when placed at the root. Furthermore, particle image velocimetry measurements in the wall-normal plane demonstrate a significant decrease in cross-flow and turbulence generation when the treatment was placed near the root of serrations. In addition, the load measurements indicate no noticeable variation in the lift coefficient and up to 6% increase in the drag coefficients in the pre-stall region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As an important task in bioinformatics, clustering analysis plays a critical role in understanding the functional mechanisms of many complex biological systems, which can be modeled as biological networks. The purpose of clustering analysis in biological networks is to identify functional modules of interest, but there is a lack of online clustering tools that visualize biological networks and provide in-depth biological analysis for discovered clusters. Results: Here we present BioCAIV, a novel webserver dedicated to maximize its accessibility and applicability on the clustering analysis of biological networks. This, together with its user-friendly interface, assists biological researchers to perform an accurate clustering analysis for biological networks and identify functionally significant modules for further assessment. Conclusions: BioCAIV is an efficient clustering analysis webserver designed for a variety of biological networks. BioCAIV is freely available without registration requirements at http://bioinformatics.tianshanzw.cn:8888/BioCAIV/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) is a crucial climate system in Asia, with significant social and economic impacts. Orbital‐scale variability of the EAWM during the Holocene and its associated mechanisms, however, are still not fully understood. Based on a high‐resolution transient simulation by a coupled climate model, we present here a continuous climate evolution of the EAWM in response to orbital forcing. Our simulated springtime EAWM variations, consistent with grain size records of loess, exhibit an obvious strengthening trend since the mid‐Holocene. In winter, a similar increasing trend is also simulated although not statistically significant. Our results suggest that the Holocene EAWM is basically controlled by meridional temperature gradients between high and low latitudes in both seasons. Other than northern insolation forcing, the feedbacks from Arctic sea ice and Eurasian snow cover also modulate the meridional temperature gradients, highlighting their important roles in driving EAWM evolution during the Holocene. Plain Language Summary: Understanding the past climate change in the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) is necessary for assessing future climate scenarios in Asia. However, our current knowledge about the Holocene EAWM changes and associated mechanisms, based on geological proxies and numerical simulations, remains controversial, impeding understanding of the climate factors driving future EAWM change. In our study, we conducted a high‐resolution transient simulation to investigate the evolution of EAWM. Our results reveal that the EAWM has been strengthening since the mid‐Holocene, as evidenced by grain size records of loess. The EAWM during the Holocene is primarily influenced by meridional temperature gradients, rather than local temperature. More pronounced changes in Arctic ice cover can amplify the latitudinal temperature gradient between low and high latitudes via albedo feedback. These insights contribute to a better understanding of long‐term climate variability in East Asia and its implications for projecting future climate change under anthropogenic warming scenario. Key Points: Transient simulation reveals strengthened East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) in both winter and spring since the mid‐HoloceneThe EAWM during the Holocene is primarily influenced by meridional temperature gradients between high and low latitudesIn addition to northern insolation, feedbacks from Arctic sea ice and Eurasian snow cover also affect temperature structure [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the local conductance of the tetragonal-like (T-like) and rhombohedral-like (R-like) phases of epitaxial BiFeO3 film is systematically studied via conductive atomic force microscopy. At higher tip voltage, there is a mutual transition between the T-like and R-like phases, which could be attributed to the strain relaxation in the T-like phase induced by electric poling, as well as local polarization switching. The T-like phase exhibits a higher conductance, which is related to the lower interface potential barrier between the tip and film surface. Reversible low- and high-current states in the T-like phase can be tuned by polarization switching. These results will be helpful for designing novel nanoelectronic devices, such as voltage and strain sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the short-term clinical efficacy of hip arthroscopy combined with catheter irrigation and drainage in the treatment of brucellosis of the hip. Methods: From 2015 to 2020, 11 patients with a diagnosis of brucellosis-induced unilateral hip joint arthritis were treated with arthroscopic debridement and lesion synovectomy. Catheterization was performed during the operation, and normal saline lavage was continued after the operation. A regimen of doxycycline plus rifampicin, plus a third-generation cephalosporin in cases of refractory infections, were used for three months. Results: The rate of positive synovial bacterial culture during the operation was 91% (10/11). Postoperative pathological examination of 11 patients showed purulent arthritis; this result combined with the disease history led to the diagnosis of all patients with brucellosis of the hip. All patients were followed up for more than 24 months. From three months after surgery to the last follow-up, both ESR and CPR were within the normal range, but the VAS score decreased significantly (P < 0.05), and the mHHS and HOS-ADL scores increased significantly (P < 0.01). Compared with that on preoperative imaging, the measurement of the hip joint space on imaging at the last follow-up showed no significant change (P > 0.01). Conclusion: Arthroscopic treatment of brucellosis in the hip joint not only preserves the joint fluid and lesion tissue for a clear diagnosis but also allows thorough removal of the infected and injured tissue during surgery. Hip arthroscopy combined with postoperative tube irrigation and drainage is an effective method for the diagnosis and treatment of brucellosis in the hip joint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Myocardial bridges are congenital anatomical abnormalities in which myocardium covers a segment of coronary arteries, leading to stenocardia, myocardial ischemia, and sudden cardiac death in severe cases. However, automatic diagnosis of myocardial bridge presents significant challenges. Method: A novel framework of myocardial bridge detection with x-ray angiography sequence is proposed, which can realize automatic detection of vessel stenosis and myocardial bridge. Firstly, we employ a novel neural network model for coronary vessel segmentation, which consists of both CNNs and transformer structures to effectively extract both local and global information of the vessels. Secondly, we describe the vessel segment information, establish the vessel tree in the image, and fuse the vessel tree information between sequences. Finally, based on vessel stenosis detection, we realize automatic detection of the myocardial bridge by querying the blood vessels between the image sequence information. Results: In experiment, we evaluate the segmentation results using two metrics, Dice and ASD, and achieve scores of 0.917 and 1.39, respectively. In the stenosis detection, we achieve an average accuracy rate of 92.7% in stenosis detection among 262 stenoses. In multi-frame image processing, vessels in different frames can be well-matched, and the accuracy of myocardial bridge detection achieves 75%. Conclusions: Our experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm can automatically detect stenosis and myocardial bridge, providing a new idea for subsequent automatic diagnosis of coronary vessels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aerobic oxidative cleavage of C–C bonds is an attractive and sustainable route for constructing valuable molecules such as esters, nitriles, and amides. Traditionally homogeneous catalytic systems for C–C bond cleavage required harsh conditions, stoichiometric oxidants, and noble metal catalysts to overcome the thermodynamic and kinetic barriers of C–C bonds, imposing environmental concerns of the transformation. Therefore, developing efficient, low-cost, and environmentally benign methods for C–C bond cleavage is of great importance and a cutting-edge area in modern chemistry. This feature article summarizes the sustainable aerobic oxidative C–C bond cleavage method developed by our group in the past 5 years. Fundamental principles in catalyst design, substrate scope, and mechanism for C–C bond cleavage are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tembusu virus (TMUV) is an emerging pathogenic flavivirus associated with acute egg-drop and fatal encephalitis in domestic waterfowl. Since its initial identification in mosquitoes in 1955, TMUV has been confirmed to infect ducks, pigeons, sparrows, geese, and chickens, posing a significant threat to the poultry industry. Here, we sequenced two DTMUV strains isolated in 2019 and systematically investigated the possible origin, genetic relationships, evolutionary dynamics, and transmission patterns of TMUV based on complete virus genome sequences in the public database. We found that TMUV can be divided into four major clusters: TMUV, cluster 1, cluster 2, and cluster 3. Interestingly, we found that cluster 2.2 (within cluster 2) is the most commonly involved in interspecies transmission events, and subcluster 2.1.2 (within cluster 2.1) is currently the most prevalent cluster circulating in Asia. Notably, we also identified three positively selected sites in the E and NS1 proteins, which may be involved in virus replication, immune evasion, and host adaptation. Finally, phylogeographic analysis revealed that cluster dispersal originated in Southeast Asia and that short-distance transmission events have occurred frequently. Altogether, these data provide novel insights into the evolution and dispersal of TMUV, facilitating the development of rapid diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics against TMUV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to improve the number and distribution of active particles on the MAO layer by changing the activation method, thus improving the corrosion resistance of the coating. The structure of the coatings was characterized by SEM, XRD, XPS, and AFM, as well as the corrosion resistance of the coatings by polarization curves, EIS tests, immersion tests, and salt spray tests. The conductive resistance and adhesion of different composite coatings were compared. The results demonstrate that the properties of the composite coating are significantly affected by different activation methods, and the Ni-P coating prepared with more active particles offers superior corrosion protection to the inner layer. The quantity and distribution of active particles affect the compactness of the coating by influencing the initial deposition process. The size of nickel particles is larger and the inter-grain porosity increases in the case of fewer active sites, and as the number of active sites increases, the size of nickel particles decreases, and the coating compactness increases. The mechanism of the effect of the number of active particles on the deposition process of electroless Ni-P coating was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly efficient water electrolytic agents are restricted by the lack of cheap and Earth-abundant catalysts that can manipulate at unharsh conditions and be prepared with a simple procedure. Here, hierarchically vertical and porous MoS2-CoS2 heterojunction nanosheet arrays are designed and fabricated. The MoS2-CoS2 nanosheets are composed of ultrasmall nanocrytallites with the dimension of ∼62 nm. This special and novel architecture presents synergistic properties to create excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), where high density active sites generated by ultrasmall nanocrytallites with heterostructures, and the vertical and porous structure accelerates electrolyte transport with luxuriant channels while this hierarchically collaborative framework guarantees completely exposed active sites to electrolytes. This electrode shows low overpotentials of 295 and 103 mV at 10 mA cm−2, small Tafel slopes of 70 and 78 mV dec−1, and long stability for OER and HER, respectively. This work indicates that vertical and porous heterojunction nanosheet arrays with hierarchically ultrasmall secondary nanostructures are a promising catalyst for widespread application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In forensic investigations, age estimation is vital for determining whether a suspect is under or over the legally defined adult age. With breakthroughs in RNA sequencing technology, small noncoding RNAs have provided new ways to solve problems related to the age estimation of trace or aged samples, owing to their small molecular weight and better stability. In our previous study, we had applied miRNAs for the age estimation of bloodstains; however, further improvement of the existing model is needed. PIWI-interacting RNAs (PiRNAs), which are 24–32 nt noncoding small RNA molecules involved in the PIWI-piRNA pathway, play an important role in the aging process. In this study, we explored the possibility of simultaneously analyzing piRNAs and miRNAs for better age estimation purpose. Through massively parallel sequencing, five age-related piRNAs were identified in blood samples that had been stored for eight years. Further real-time PCR analysis revealed that two piRNAs (piR-000753 and piR-020548) showed relatively higher efficiency in age estimation. Additionally, two age-related miRNAs (miR-324-3p and miR-330-5p) were used to build the estimation model. Among all algorithms tested, gradient boosting showed the lowest mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) values (3.171 and 4.403 years, respectively) for the validation dataset (n = 110). The errors of the model were less than 5 years and 10 years for 81.82% and 96.36% of the samples, respectively. The results suggest that the combined use of piRNA and miRNA markers may increase the accuracy of age estimation, and our new model has great potential for application in forensic casework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Photoaging is a degenerative biological process that affects the quality of life. It is caused by environmental factors including ultraviolet radiation (UVR), deep skin burns, smoking, active oxygen, chemical substances, and trauma. Among them, UVR plays a vital role in the aging process. Aim: With the continuous development of modern medicine, clinical researchers have investigated novel approaches to treat aging. In particular, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), non‐coding RNAs are involved in various physiological processes have broad clinical application as they have the advantages of convenient samples, abundant sources, and avoidable ethical issues. Methods: This article reviews research progress on five types of stem cell, exosomes, non‐coding RNA in the context of photoaging treatment: adipose‐derived stem cell, human umbilical cord MSCs, epidermal progenitor cells, keratinocyte stem cells, and hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs). It also includes stem cell related exosomes and their non‐coding RNA research. Results: The results have clinical guiding significance for prevention and control of the onset and development of photoaging. It is found that stem cells secrete cytokines, cell growth factors, non‐coding RNA, exosomes and proteins to repair aging skin tissues and achieve skin rejuvenation. In particular, stem cell exosomes and non‐coding RNA are found to have significant research potential, as they possess the benefits of their source cells without the disadvantages which include immune rejection and granuloma formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) is widely used in remote sensing applications due to its ability to obtain full-polarization information. Compared to the quad-pol SAR, the dual-pol SAR mode has a wider observation swath and is more common in most SAR systems. The goal of reconstructing quad-pol SAR data from the dual-pol SAR mode is to learn the contextual information of dual-pol SAR images and the relationships among polarimetric channels. This work is dedicated to addressing this issue, and a multiscale feature aggregation network has been established to achieve the reconstruction task. Firstly, multiscale spatial and polarimetric features are extracted from the dual-pol SAR images using the pretrained VGG16 network. Then, a group-attention module (GAM) is designed to progressively fuse the multiscale features extracted by different layers. The fused feature maps are interpolated and aggregated with dual-pol SAR images to form a compact feature representation, which integrates the high- and low-level information of the network. Finally, a three-layer convolutional neural network (CNN) with a 1 × 1 convolutional kernel is employed to establish the mapping relationship between the feature representation and polarimetric covariance matrices. To evaluate the quad-pol SAR data reconstruction performance, both polarimetric target decomposition and terrain classification are adopted. Experimental studies are conducted on the ALOS/PALSAR and UAVSAR datasets. The qualitative and quantitative experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method. The reconstructed quad-pol SAR data can better sense buildings' double-bounce scattering changes before and after a disaster. Furthermore, the reconstructed quad-pol SAR data of the proposed method achieve a 97.08% classification accuracy, which is 1.25% higher than that of dual-pol SAR data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To develop a radiomics nomogram based on dual-phase enhanced computed tomography (CT) for predicting the Ki-67 index status in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: 137 patients with NSCLC who had undergone dual-phase enhanced CT scans and Ki-67 examination within 2 weeks were retrospectively enrolled between January 2020 and December 2022. Clinical and laboratory data were collected, and the patients were categorized based on low or high expression of Ki-67 index, with a cut-off value of 40%. The cohort was randomly divided into a training group (n = 95) and a testing group (n = 42) at a ratio of 7:3. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm was employed to select the most valuable radiomics features from the dual-phase enhanced CT images. Subsequently, a nomogram that incorporated the radiomics score and clinical factors associated with Ki-67 index status was established through univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The predictive performance of the nomogram was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC). Results: The AUC values of the radiomics features of artery phase and vein phase CT in the testing group were 0.748 and 0.758, respectively. The AUC of the dual-phase enhanced CT was 0.785, and the AUC of the developed nomogram was 0.859, which was higher than those of the radiomics (AUC, 0.785) and clinical models (AUC, 0.736). Conclusions: The radiomics nomogram based on dual-phase enhanced CT images provides a promising method for predicting the Ki-67 index status in patients with advanced NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problem of low accuracy of small target detection in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) aerial remote sensing images and limited computing resources of UAV platform, this paper proposes a novel real-time detection algorithm for aerial remote sensing images. Firstly, the Spatial Pyramid Pooling-Fast (SPPF) is used to fuse the global and local features in different receptive fields. Second, we propose the Drone-captured Path Aggregation Network (CPAN) to enrich the semantic features of small targets while keeping the model lightweight. CPAN adds a new detection layer and uses the fusion of deep and shallow feature information to enhance the detection of small targets. At the same time, it uses depthwise separable convolution (DSC) to reduce the number of parameters. Then, Coordinate Attention (CA) is used to capture the cross-channel information with direction-aware and position-aware information. Finally, Decoupled-Head is introduced to make the detection of classification and coordinate regression more robust. We evaluate our model based on the aerial remote sensing dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed method provides a better balance between accuracy and speed than other lightweight networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among human and non-human animals, the ability to respond rapidly to biologically significant events in the environment is essential for survival and development. Research has confirmed that human adult listeners respond emotionally to environmental sounds by relying on the same acoustic cues that signal emotionality in speech prosody and music. However, it is unknown whether young children also respond emotionally to environmental sounds. Here, we report that changes in pitch, rate (i.e. playback speed), and intensity (i.e. amplitude) of environmental sounds trigger emotional responses in 3- to 6-year-old American and Chinese children, including four sound types: sounds of human actions, animal calls, machinery, and natural phenomena such as wind and waves. Children's responses did not differ across the four types of sounds used but developed with age – a finding observed in both American and Chinese children. Thus, the ability to respond emotionally to non-linguistic, non-music environmental sounds is evident at three years of age – an age when the ability to decode emotional prosody in language and music emerges. We argue that general mechanisms that support emotional prosody decoding are engaged by all sounds, as reflected in emotional responses to non-linguistic acoustic input such as music and environmental sounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human rotavirus (HRV) is a leading cause of viral gastroenteritis in children across the globe. The virus has long been established as a pathogen of the gastrointestinal tract, targeting small intestine epithelial cells and leading to diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Recently, this classical infection pathway was challenged by the findings that murine strains of rotavirus can infect the salivary glands of pups and dams and transmit via saliva from pups to dams during suckling. Here, we aimed to determine if HRV was also capable of infecting salivary glands and spreading in saliva using a gnotobiotic (Gn) pig model of HRV infection and disease. Gn pigs were orally inoculated with various strains of HRV, and virus shedding was monitored for several days post-inoculation. HRV was shed nasally and in feces in all inoculated pigs. Infectious HRV was detected in the saliva of four piglets. Structural and non-structural HRV proteins, as well as the HRV genome, were detected in the intestinal and facial tissues of inoculated pigs. The pigs developed high IgM antibody responses in serum and small intestinal contents at 10 days post-inoculation. Additionally, inoculated pigs had HRV-specific IgM antibody-secreting cells present in the ileum, tonsils, and facial lymphoid tissues. Taken together, these findings indicate that HRV can replicate in salivary tissues and prime immune responses in both intestinal and facial lymphoid tissues of Gn pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, a large number of inefficient induction motors (IMs) are still being used in various industrial fields, resulting in a huge waste of energy. Obviously, it is expensive to replace all these machines with high-efficiency motors. Therefore, this paper will investigate the method of low-cost modification of inefficient IMs and propose a low-cost permanent magnetization remanufacturing (PMR) method that can make full use of the original structure of IMs. The PMR method converts the IM's rotor into a permanent magnet (PM) rotor by directly milling slots in the original rotor and embedding PMs, thus improving the efficiency of the original motor to meet the IE4 standard. Firstly, this paper proposes the PMR process of IM, and based on this process, a Y2-132M1-6 IM is designed for remanufacturing, and the performance of the motor before and after the PMR is compared through finite-element analysis. Then, this paper researches the factors that may affect the starting performance and rated performance of the motor in the PMR design. Finally, based on the PMR design scheme, the Y2-132M1-6 IM is remanufactured into an experimental prototype. The total cost of the PMR is calculated and the performance improvement is tested through experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ilex metabaptista is a woody tree species with strong waterlogging tolerance and is also admired as a landscape plant with high development prospects and scientific research value. Unfortunately, populations of this species have declined due to habitat loss. Thus, it is a great challenge for us to efficiently protect I. metabaptista resources from extinction. Molecular biology research can provide the scientific basis for the conservation of species. However, the study of I. metabaptista genetics is still in its infancy. To date, no mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) in the genus Ilex has been analysed in detail. Results: The mitogenome of I. metabaptista was assembled based on the reads from Illumina and Nanopore sequencing platforms; it was a typical circular DNA molecule of 529,560 bp with a GC content of 45.61% and contained 67 genes, including 42 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, and 3 rRNA genes. Repeat sequence analysis and prediction of RNA editing sites revealed a total of 286 dispersed repeats, 140 simple repeats, 18 tandem repeats, and 543 RNA editing sites. Analysis of codon usage showed that codons ending in A/T were preferred. Gene migration was observed to occur between the mitogenome and chloroplast genome via the detection of homologous fragments. In addition, Ka/Ks analysis revealed that most of the protein-coding genes in the mitogenome had undergone negative selection, and only the ccmB gene had undergone potential positive selection in most asterids. Nucleotide polymorphism analysis revealed the variation in each gene, with atp9 being the most notable. Furthermore, comparative analysis showed that the GC contents were conserved, but the sizes and structure of mitogenomes varied greatly among asterids. Phylogenetic analysis based on the mitogenomes reflected the exact evolutionary and taxonomic status of I. metabaptista. Conclusion: In this study, we sequenced and annotated the mitogenome of I. metabaptista and compared it with the mitogenomes of other asterids, which provided essential background information for further understanding of the genetics of this plant and helped lay the foundation for future studies on molecular breeding of I. metabaptista. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is a cancer of the gastrointestinal tract that is highly malignant and has poor prognosis. Circular RNAs are a class of nonclassical RNA molecules that have been determined to be involved in GC malignancy in various ways. However, the underlying function and mechanism of circTDRD3 in gastric cancer remain largely unknown. Methods: We analyzed circTDRD3 expression in databases and verified the findings in GC cell lines and tissue specimens. A series of functional gene overexpression and knockdown assays in vivo and in vitro were carried out to investigate the role of circTDRD3 in proliferation and metastasis. Here, we revealed the role of the miR-891b/ITGA2 axis by analyzing bioinformatics datasets. Furthermore, we performed dual-luciferase, fluorescence in situ hybridization, RNA pull-down, and functional rescue experiments to examine the relationships between circTDRD3 and its interacting molecules. Western blot confirmed the positive regulatory role of circTDRD3 in the AKT signaling pathway. A promoting effect of ATF4 on circTDRD3 was determined through chromatin immunoprecipitation. Results: CircTDRD3 was significantly overexpressed in GC tissues compared with adjacent benign tissue, and its expression level was positively correlated with tumor volume and lymph node metastasis. CircTDRD3 promoted GC cell proliferation and migration in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, circTDRD3 exerted a tumor-promoting effect by regulating the miR-891b/ITGA2 axis and AKT signaling pathway in a positive feedback manner mediated by the transcription factor ATF4. Conclusions: ATF4-mediated circTDRD3 overexpression modulates the proliferation and metastasis of GC cells through the miR-891b/ITGA2 axis in a positive feedback manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonhazardous and self-powered flexible pressure sensors based on piezoelectric effect are promising in the field of health monitoring, human-machine interfaces, soft robots and so on. Here, lead-free self-powered flexible pressure sensors with coaxial nanofiber structure are prepared, where Nb 2 CT x doped poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] and BaTiO 3 (BTO) doped P(VDF-TrFE) are core and shell, respectively. Impressive piezoelectric output of ∼28 V and ∼8.2 μA was obtained for the device prepared by the nanofiber membranes under repeated mechanical force of 25 N at a frequency of 2 Hz. More importantly, the assembled self-powered pressure sensor possesses an ultrafast response time of 215 μs and a good linear relation between voltage and pressure. An interfacial polarization model based on the coaxial nanofibers has been proposed, in which the charge density calculation was carried out to understand the enhanced piezoelectric output of the piezoelectric pressure sensors. Moreover, the sensors are sensitive to various human motions and are suitable for movement monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the volume of data keeps growing rapidly, more and more storage devices, servers, and network devices are continuously added into data center networks (DCNs) to store, manage, and analyze the data. The industry experience indicates that, instead of adding a huge number of servers into the DCNs at a time, the DCN can also be expanded gradually by adding a small number of servers from time to time. This paper proposes a new type of dual-centric data center network structure, called GHDC (Generalized Hypercube Data Center network architecture), which is constructed by using commodity switches and multi-port servers. After analyzing the shortest distance between any two vertices, a routing algorithm for GHDC is developed. To achieve incremental scalability, two incomplete GHDC structures are proposed. A small number of servers can be added into the incomplete GHDC structures while their topological properties are maintained. The analysis and experiment results show that GHDC significantly outperform the other DCN structures, such as FatTree, BCube, Platonica, FCell, FSquare, and FRectangle, in terms of the incremental scalability and robustness. The average throughput of GHDC is approximately comparable to that of FatTree, BCube, and FSquare, and is higher than that of Platonica, FCell, and FRectangle by about 130.2%, 17.45% and 25.5%. Compared with the FatTree, BCube, FCell, FRectangle, and FSquare, GHDC reduces the cost by about 68.49%, 78.04%, 10.84%, 22.85%, and 29.55%, and reduces the max energy consumption by about 69.45%, 34.48%, 11.55%, 24.31%, and 29.58%, respectively. The actual energy consumption of GHDC is much lower than that of FatTree, BCube, FCell, FRectangle, and FSquare, and is little higher than that of Platonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pig industry is significantly influenced by complex traits such as growth rate and fat deposition, which have substantial implications for economic returns. Over the years, remarkable genetic advancements have been achieved through intense artificial selection to enhance these traits in pigs. In this study, we aimed to investigate the genetic factors that contribute to growth efficiency and lean meat percentages in Large White pigs. Specifically, we focused on analyzing two key traits: age at 100 kg live weight (AGE100) and backfat thickness at 100 kg (BF100), in three distinct Large White pig populations—500 Canadian, 295 Danish, and 1500 American Large White pigs. By employing population genomic techniques, we observed significant population stratification among these pig populations. Utilizing imputed whole-genome sequencing data, we conducted single population genome-wide association studies (GWAS) as well as a combined meta-analysis across the three populations to identify genetic markers associated with the aforementioned traits. Our analyses highlighted several candidate genes, such as CNTN1—which has been linked to weight loss in mice and is potentially influential for AGE100—and MC4R, which is associated with obesity and appetite and may impact both traits. Additionally, we identified other genes—namely, PDZRN4, LIPM, and ANKRD22—which play a partial role in fat growth. Our findings provide valuable insights into the genetic basis of these important traits in Large White pigs, which may inform breeding strategies for improved production efficiency and meat quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ilex pubescens is an important traditional Chinese medicinal plant with many naturally occurring compounds and multiple pharmacological effects. However, the lack of reference genomic information has led to tardiness in molecular biology research and breeding programs of this plant. Results: To obtain knowledge on the genomic information of I. pubescens, a genome survey was performed for the first time by next generation sequencing (NGS) together with genome size estimation using flow cytometry. The whole genome survey of I. pubescens generated 46.472 Gb of sequence data with approximately 82.2 × coverage. K-mer analysis indicated that I. pubescens has a small genome of approximately 553 Mb with 1.93% heterozygosity rate and 39.1% repeat rate. Meanwhile, the genome size was estimated to be 722 Mb using flow cytometry, which was possibly more precise for assessment of genome size than k-mer analysis. A total of 45.842 Gb clean reads were assembled into 808,938 scaffolds with a relatively short N50 of 760 bp. The average guanine and cytosine (GC) content was 37.52%. In total, 197,429 microsatellite motifs were detected with a frequency of 2.8 kb, among which mononucleotide motifs were the most abundant (up to 62.47% of the total microsatellite motifs), followed by dinucleotide and trinucleotide motifs. Conclusion: In summary, the genome of I. pubescens is small but complex with a high level of heterozygosity. Even though not successfully applied for estimation of genome size due to its complex genome, the survey sequences will help to design whole genome sequencing strategies and provide genetic information support for resource protection, genetic diversity analysis, genetic improvement and artificial breeding of I. pubescens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalytic stability is the prerequisite for the catalyst to achieve high catalytic efficiency. This study finds a new path that Prussian Blue (PB) ultrathin nanosheet assembly material (PB‐NSa) is designed and used to reach efficient catalysis through continuous interaction with ammonium perchlorate (AP, component to be catalyzed). Based on the strong oxidation environment provided by AP, the decomposition of PB occurs in advance, the product Fe2O3 accelerates the decomposition of AP that can release a large amount of gas, then reacts on Fe2O3 and disperses it near the undecomposed AP, finally realizing continuous and efficient catalysis. The results show that under the catalysis of PB‐N, "deactivation" stage of AP thermal decomposition disappears, showing two consecutive exothermic stages, high temperature decomposition peak of AP is reduced to 341.1 °C, the reduction range is 73.1 °C. Combining kinetic calculation and TG‐IR test, it is found that PB‐NSa can keep excellent catalytic stability, which depends on its special structure and interaction with AP. This research provides a design idea for the material to achieve catalytic stability, which will greatly promote its rapid industrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the results of arthroscopic autologous iliac bone graft suspension fixation combined with the Remplissage procedure in the treatment of recurrent shoulder dislocation with bony Bankart lesions and joint hyperlaxity. Methods: From 2018 to 2020, 22 patients with joint laxity underwent arthroscopic autologous iliac bone graft suspension fixation and Bankart repair combined with the Remplissage procedure due to recurrent shoulder dislocation. Clinical assessment included range of motion (forward flexion, abduction, 90° external rotation, conventional external rotation, adduction, and internal rotation), visual analog scale (VAS) score, Rowe score, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) score, and Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index (WOSI) score. Post-operatively, the healing of the bone graft was evaluated with computed tomography (CT) scanning. Results: All 22 patients were followed up for a mean of 19.3 ± 4.1 months. CT imaging showed that the healing time of the bone graft was 6–8 weeks. The patient satisfaction rate was 100%, there were no cases of redislocation, all patients returned to their preinjury training state, and the fear test was negative. At the final follow-up, the UCLA, VAS, Rowe, and WOSI scores were 29.8 ± 2.1, 2.2 ± 0.8, 89.4 ± 4.2, and 482.3 ± 46.2, respectively (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Arthroscopic autologous iliac bone graft suspension fixation and Bankart repair combined with the Remplissage procedure are effective in preventing recurrent instability with joint hyperlaxity. Furthermore, no patient had redislocation. Level of evidence: IV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph data is an irregular structural data type that is broadly used in various realistic scenarios to represent the complex interrelationships or topological structures inside the data. As the topological structures of the graphs are usually different from each other, it is difficult to handle the graph classification task. Most existing methods rely on Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to extract the graph embeddings and produce the classification results based on these graph embeddings. However, these GNN-based methods usually have the over-smoothing issue caused by superimposing GNN to increase the receptive field when extracting high-order local structures. To address this issue, we proposed a novel Multi-Scale Fusion Graph Neural Network (MSFG) in this paper. Through the proposed multi-scale graph coarsen framework and parameter sharing mechanism, the proposed model can efficiently extract high-order structural features of graphs without increasing the number of GNN layers. We conduct experiments on six graph classification datasets and the experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed MSFG model. Furthermore, multiple ablation experiments prove the validity of each component of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]