Natural polyphenol self-assembled pH-responsive nanoparticles loaded into reversible hydrogel to inhibit oral bacterial activity

Periodontitis is one of the most prevalent chronic inflammatory diseases and Polyphenols isolated from Turkish gall play a major role in the treatment of inflammatory diseases for their antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. In this work, Turkish Galls effective constituent (TGEC, T) was prepared into nanoparticles (T-NPs) by principle of oxidative self-polymerization. The pH-sensitive T-NPs was encapsulated into thermosensitive type in-situ hydrogel, and 42.29 ± 1.12% of effective constituent from T-NPs were continuously released within 96 h under the periodontitis environment. In addition, the weakly alkaline oral micro-environment of patients with periodontitis is more conducive to the sustained release of effective constituent, which is 10.83% more than that of healthy periodontal environment. The bacteriostatic test showed that T-NPs had stronger antibacterial activity on oral pathogens than that of TGEC. Compared with TGEC, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of T-NPs against P. gingivalis and A. viscosus was reduced by 50% and 25%, respectively. Interestingly, T-NPs induced bacteria lysis by promoting the excessive production of ROS without periodontal tissue damage caused by excessive oxidation reaction. In conclusion, a simple method of preparing microspheres with natural polyphenols was developed, which provides beneficial reference for one-step prepared drug carriers from effective components of natural product, likewise the method offers a green and effective solution to synthesis a new adjuvant therapy drugs for treatment of gingivitis associated with periodontal pockets.

Repair of critical diaphyseal defects of lower limbs by 3D printed porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds without additional bone grafting: a prospective clinical study

The repair of critical diaphyseal defects of lower weight-bearing limbs is an intractable problem in clinical practice. From December 2017, we prospectively applied 3D printed porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds to reconstruct this kind of bone defect. All patients experienced a two-stage surgical process, including thorough debridement and scaffold implantation. With an average follow-up of 23.0 months, ten patients with 11 parts of bone defects were enrolled in this study. The case series included three females and seven males, their defect reasons included seven parts of osteomyelitis and four parts of aseptic nonunion. The bone defects located at femur (five parts) and tibia (six parts), with an average defect distance of 12.2 cm. Serial postoperative radiologic follow-ups displayed a continuous process of new bone growing and remodeling around the scaffold. One patient suffered tibial varus deformity, and he underwent a revision surgery. The other nine patients achieved scaffold stability. No scaffold breakage occurred. In conclusion, the implantation of 3D printed Ti6Al4V scaffold was feasible and effective to reconstruct critical bone defects of lower limbs without additional bone grafting. Graphical abstract.

External validation of models for predicting risk of colorectal cancer using the China Kadoorie Biobank

BACKGROUND

In China, colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality have been steadily increasing over the last decades. Risk models to predict incident CRC have been developed in various populations, but they have not been systematically externally validated in a Chinese population.  This study aimed to assess the performance of risk scores in predicting CRC using the China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB), one of the largest and geographically diverse prospective cohort studies in China.

METHODS

Nine models were externally validated in 512,415 participants in CKB and included 2976 cases of CRC. Model discrimination was assessed, overall and by sex, age, site, and geographic location, using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Model discrimination of these nine models was compared to a model using age alone. Calibration was assessed for five models, and they were re-calibrated in CKB.

RESULTS

The three models with the highest discrimination (Ma (Cox model) AUC 0.70 [95% CI 0.69-0.71]; Aleksandrova 0.70 [0.69-0.71]; Hong 0.69 [0.67-0.71]) included the variables age, smoking, and alcohol. These models performed significantly better than using a model based on age alone (AUC of 0.65 [95% CI 0.64-0.66]). Model discrimination was generally higher in younger participants, males, urban environments, and for colon cancer. The two models (Guo and Chen) developed in Chinese populations did not perform better than the others. Among the 10% of participants with the highest risk, the three best performing models identified 24-26% of participants that went on to develop CRC.

CONCLUSIONS

Several risk models based on easily obtainable demographic and modifiable lifestyle factor have good discrimination in a Chinese population. The three best performing models have a higher discrimination than using a model based on age alone.

SchizoGoogLeNet: The GoogLeNet-Based Deep Feature Extraction Design for Automatic Detection of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe and prolonged disorder of the human brain where people interpret reality in an abnormal way. Traditional methods of SZ detection are based on handcrafted feature extraction methods (manual process), which are tedious and unsophisticated, and also limited in their ability to balance efficiency and accuracy. To solve this issue, this study designed a deep learning-based feature extraction scheme involving the GoogLeNet model called "SchizoGoogLeNet" that can efficiently and automatically distinguish schizophrenic patients from healthy control (HC) subjects using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals with improved performance. The proposed framework involves multiple stages of EEG data processing. First, this study employs the average filtering method to remove noise and artifacts from the raw EEG signals to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. After that, a GoogLeNet model is designed to discover significant hidden features from denoised signals to identify schizophrenic patients from HC subjects. Finally, the obtained deep feature set is evaluated by the GoogleNet classifier and also some renowned machine learning classifiers to find a sustainable classification method for the obtained deep feature set. Experimental results show that the proposed deep feature extraction model with a support vector machine performs the best, producing a 99.02% correct classification rate for SZ, with an overall accuracy of 98.84%. Furthermore, our proposed model outperforms other existing methods. The proposed design is able to accurately discriminate SZ from HC, and it will be useful for developing a diagnostic tool for SZ detection.

P11.65.B GBM AGILE: A global, phase 2/3 adaptive platform trial to evaluate multiple treatment regimens in newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma

Background

GBM AGILE (Glioblastoma Adaptive, Global, Innovative Learning Environment) is a biomarker based, multi-arm, international, seamless Phase 2/3 Response Adaptive Randomization platform trial designed to rapidly identify experimental therapies that improve overall survival and confirm efficacious experimental therapies and associated biomarker signatures to support new drug approvals and registration. It is a collaboration between academic investigators, patient organizations and industry, under the sponsorship of the non-profit organization, Global Coalition for Adaptive Research, to support new drug applications for newly diagnosed and recurrent GBM.

Material and Methods

The primary objective of GBM AGILE is to identify therapies that effectively improve overall survival in patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent GBM. Bayesian response adaptive randomization is used within subtypes of the disease to assign participants to investigational arms based on their performance. Operating under a master protocol, GBM AGILE allows multiple drugs from different pharmaceutical companies to be evaluated simultaneously and/or over time against a common control arm. Based on performance, a drug may graduate and move to a Stage 2 (Phase 3) within the trial, and the totality of the data can be used for a new drug application and registration process. New experimental therapies are added as information about promising new drugs is identified while other therapies are removed as they complete their evaluation. The master protocol/ trial infrastructure includes efficiencies through an adaptive trial design, shared control arm and operational processes such as risk-based monitoring and enhanced remote activities. With its adaptable structure, GBM AGILE has continued trial activation, inclusion of new investigational therapies, and enrollment globally through the challenges of a global pandemic.GBM AGILE provides an efficient mechanism to screen and develop robust information regarding the efficacy of proposed novel therapeutics and associated biomarkers for GBM and to quickly move therapies and biomarkers into clinic. GBM AGILE received initial approval from the United States FDA in April 2019, and in Europe through the Voluntary Harmonization Procedure (VHP) in April, 2021. As of 2022, AGILE has screened over 1000 patients studying multiple investigational treatments. Enrollment rates are 3 to 4 times greater than traditional GBM trials, with active sites averaging 0.75 to 1 patients/site/month.

Currently, there are 41 sites activated in the US, 4 in Canada and 2 in Switzerland and an estimated 24 sites yet to open in Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and Austria. In addition to the continued expansion in Europe, effort is undergoing to extend the trial to China and Australia as well. Clinical trial information: NCT03970447

Influence of different fixation modes on biomechanical conduction of 3D printed prostheses for treating critical diaphyseal defects of lower limbs: A finite element study

Background

Applying 3D printed prostheses to repair diaphyseal defects of lower limbs has been clinically conducted in orthopedics. However, there is still no unified reference standard for which the prosthesis design and fixation mode are more conducive to appropriate biomechanical conduction.

Methods

We built five different types of prosthesis designs and fixation modes, from Mode I to Mode V. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to study and compare the mechanical environments of overall bone-prosthesis structure, and the maximum stress concentration were recorded. Additionally, by comparing the maximum von Mises stress of bone, intramedullary (IM) nail, screw, and prosthesis with their intrinsic yield strength, the risk of fixation failure was further clarified.

Results

In the modes in which the prosthesis was fixed by an interlocking IM nail (Mode I and Mode IV), the stress mainly concentrated at the distal bone-prosthesis interface and the middle-distal region of nail. When a prosthesis with integrally printed IM nail and lateral wings was implanted (Mode II), the stress mainly concentrated at the bone-prosthesis junctional region. For cases with partially lateral defects, the prosthesis with integrally printed wings mainly played a role in reconstructing the structural integrity of bone, but had a weak role in sharing the stress conduction (Mode V). The maximum von Mises stress of both the proximal and distal tibia appeared in Mode III, which were 18.5 and 47.1 MPa. The maximum peak stress shared by the prosthesis, screws and IM nails appeared in Mode II, III and I, which were 51.8, 87.2, and 101.8 MPa, respectively. These peak stresses were all lower than the yield strength of the materials themselves. Thus, the bending and breakage of both bone and implants were unlikely to happen.

Conclusion

For the application of 3D printed prostheses to repair diaphyseal defects, different fixation modes will lead to the change of biomechanical environment. Interlocking IM nail fixation is beneficial to uniform stress conduction, and conducive to new bone regeneration in the view of biomechanical point. All five modes we established have reliable biomechanical safety.

Real-Time Depth of Anaesthesia Assessment Based on Hybrid Statistical Features of EEG

This paper proposed a new depth of anaesthesia (DoA) index for the real-time assessment of DoA using electroencephalography (EEG). In the proposed new DoA index, a wavelet transform threshold was applied to denoise raw EEG signals, and five features were extracted to construct classification models. Then, the Gaussian process regression model was employed for real-time assessment of anaesthesia states. The proposed real-time DoA index was implemented using a sliding window technique and validated using clinical EEG data recorded with the most popular commercial DoA product Bispectral Index monitor (BIS). The results are evaluated using the correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman methods. The outcomes show that the highest and the average correlation coefficients are 0.840 and 0.814, respectively, in the testing dataset. Meanwhile, the scatter plot of Bland-Altman shows that the agreement between BIS and the proposed index is 94.91%. In contrast, the proposed index is free from the electromyography (EMG) effect and surpasses the BIS performance when the signal quality indicator (SQI) is lower than 15, as the proposed index can display high correlation and reliable assessment results compared with clinic observations.

Numerical investigation of the energy distribution of Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound neuromodulation for hippocampus

OBJECTIVE

Ultrasonic neuromodulation as a safe and non-invasive brain stimulation method that delivers a low-intensity, focused ultrasound to nervous system tissue in a targeted area of the brain. The objective of this study is to numerically investigate the ultrasound wave propagation and the energy distribution within the brain tissues using customized single element focused ultrasound transducers (SEFT), targeting the hippocampus.

METHODS

A high resolution detailed human head model with seven tissue types was constructed from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A full-wave finite-difference time-domain simulation platform, Sim4life, was then used to simulate a 3D non-linear ultrasound wave equation to the specific region of interest, the hippocampus. Three customized SEFT were used to test the effect of transducer positions, and another customized transducer was used to compare the sensitivity effect on heterogeneous and homogeneous brain models. Finally, the sensitivity and performance of low intensity focusing ultrasound stimulation were evaluated.

RESULTS

An optimized application of SEFT was customized to deliver 100 W/m² intensity of energy deposition at the hippocampus region. About 85.65% of the generated volume beam was delivered to the targeted hippocampus region and the beam overlap parameter was affected by different transducer positions. Deflection angle changes of SEFT at the range of ± 5% did not have a significant effect on energy delivery and position displacement. Only 0.5% of peak pressure change was observed between heterogeneous and homogeneous brain models. The sensitivity analysis also showed that the sound speed is the most influential acoustic parameter.

SIGNIFICANCE

This study demonstrated that ultrasound neuromodulation targeting the depth brain tissue of the hippocampus could be a potential and promising alternative method to some non-acoustic brain stimulation modalities. In the numerical study of ultrasound brain stimulations, ultrasound parameters and the brain model need to be properly determined to simulate the ultrasonic neuromodulations.

Clinicopathological outcome in 27 children with tuberculous empyema in Shandong Provincial Chest Hospital, Jinan, China

The literature on childhood tuberculous empyema (TE) is limited. The aim of this study was to examine the clinicopathological characteristics and outcome of paediatric TE and methods of prompt diagnosis and treatment. Between January 2014 and April 2019, 27 consecutive patients with TE aged ≤15 years [mean (SD) 12.2 (3.3), range 6-15] were retrospectively reviewed. The following were reviewed: baseline demographics, symptoms, laboratory and pathological examination, radiographical findings, microbiological data, anti-tuberculous and surgical treatment and clinical outcome. Acid-fast bacillus (AFB) smear, culture, TB real-time (RT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and T-SPOT.TB assay were reviewed. Six (60%) of 10 patients were TB-RT-PCR-positive in pus or purulent fluid. Twenty-three of 24 (95.8%) were T-SPOT.TB-positive. Decortication by surgical thoracotomy or thoracoscopy was performed in 22 (81.5%) patients. None of the 27 patients had specific complications such as pyopneumothorax or bronchopleural fistula and all were successfully treated. In childhood TE, aggressive surgical management is associated with a favourable outcome.Abbreviations: AFB, acid-fast bacilli; E, ethambutol; EPTB, extra-pulmonary TB; H, isoniazid; HIC, high-income countries; LMIC, low- and middle-income countries; MTB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; PTB, pulmonary TB; R, rifampicin; RT, real time; TB, tuberculosis; TE, tuberculous empyema; Z, pyrazinamide.

Fabrication of alkali lignin-based emulsion electrospun nanofibers for the nanoencapsulation of beta-carotene and the enhanced antioxidant property

For the greater utilization of β-carotene in antioxidant material, β-carotene-loaded emulsion stabilized by alkali lignin (AL) was successfully electrospinning with poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) (PVA/AL/β-carotene nanofiber). Transmission electron microscopy demonstrated the core-shell structure of nanofiber with the average diameter being 356.31 nm, and 85.7 % of β-carotene was effectively encapsulated into the core section. Fourier transform infrared spectra and differential scanning calorimetry revealed the good compatibility and decreased crystallinity of β-carotene, favoring its stability and solubility, respectively. As expected, the PVA/AL/β-carotene nanofiber exhibited higher antioxidant activity than free β-carotene due to the protection of AL matrix and the special structure of nanofiber, as the DPPH free radical scavenging rate being 90.7 % at 7th day. The sustained release behavior of β-carotene and AL from fiber followed Fickian diffusion model, contributing to the greater protection for fish oil than that of emulsion. Thus, this study provides an approach to develop hydrophobic compounds-loaded emulsion electrospun antioxidant material with controlled release property and enhanced activity.

Electrospinning of PLA Nanofibers: Recent Advances and Its Potential Application for Food Packaging

Poly(lactic acid), also abbreviated as PLA, is a promising biopolymer for food packaging owing to its environmental-friendly characteristic and desirable physical properties. Electrospinning technology makes the production of PLA-based nanomaterials available with expected structures and enhanced barrier, mechanical, and thermal properties; especially, the facile process produces a high encapsulation efficiency and controlled release of bioactive agents for the purpose of extending the shelf life and promoting the quality of foodstuffs. In this study, different types of electrospinning techniques used for the preparation of PLA-based nanofibers are summarized, and the enhanced properties of which are also described. Moreover, its application in active and intelligent packaging materials by introducing different components into nanofibers is highlighted. In all, the review establishes the promising prospects of PLA-based nanocomposites for food packaging application.

Mechanical Distribution and New Bone Regeneration After Implanting 3D Printed Prostheses for Repairing Metaphyseal Bone Defects: A Finite Element Analysis and Prospective Clinical Study

Critical metaphyseal bone defects caused by nonunion and osteomyelitis are intractable to repair in clinical practice owing to the rigorous demanding of structure and performance. Compared with traditional treatment methods, 3D printing of customized porous titanium alloy prostheses offer feasible and safe opportunities in repairing such bone defects. Yet, so far, no standard guidelines for optimal 3D printed prostheses design and fixation mode have been proposed to further promote prosthesis stability as well as ensure the continuous growth of new bone. In this study, we used a finite element analysis (FEA) to explore the biomechanical distribution and observed new bone regeneration in clinical practice after implanting 3D printed prostheses for repairing metaphyseal bone defects. The results reflected that different fixation modes could result in diverse prosthesis mechanical conductions. If an intramedullary (IM) nail was applied, the stress mainly conducted equally along the nail instead of bone and prosthesis structure. While the stress would transfer more to the lateral bone and prosthesis’s body when the printed wing and screws are selected to accomplish fixation. All these fixation modes could guarantee the initial and long-term stability of the implanted prosthesis, but new bone regenerated with varying degrees under special biomechanical environments. The fixation mode of IM nail was more conducive to new bone regeneration and remodeling, which conformed to the Wolff’s law. Nevertheless, when the prosthesis was fixed by screws alone, no dense new callus could be observed. This fixation mode was optional for defects extremely close to the articular surface. In conclusion, our innovative study could provide valuable references for the fixation mode selection of 3D printed prosthesis to repair metaphyseal bone defect.

Jumping Knowledge Based Spatial-temporal Graph Convolutional Networks for Automatic Sleep Stage Classification

A novel jumping knowledge spatial-temporal graph convolutional network (JK-STGCN) is proposed in this paper to classify sleep stages. Based on this method, different types of multi-channel bio-signals, including electroencephalography (EEG), electromyogram (EMG), electrooculogram (EOG), and electrocardiogram (ECG) are utilized to classify sleep stages, after extracting features by a standard convolutional neural network (CNN) named FeatureNet. Intrinsic connections among different bio-signal channels from the identical epoch and neighboring epochs can be obtained through two adaptive adjacency matrices learning methods. A jumping knowledge spatial-temporal graph convolution module helps the JK-STGCN model to extract spatial features from the graph convolutions efficiently and temporal features are extracted from its common standard convolutions to learn the transition rules among sleep stages. Experimental results on the ISRUC-S3 dataset showed that the overall accuracy achieved 0.831 and the F1-score and Cohen kappa reached 0.814 and 0.782, respectively, which are the competitive classification performance with the state-of-the-art baselines. Further experiments on the ISRUC-S3 dataset are also conducted to evaluate the execution efficiency of the JK-STGCN model. The training time on 10 subjects is 2621s and the testing time on 50 subjects is 6.8s, which indicates its highest calculation speed compared with the existing high-performance graph convolutional networks and U-Net architecture algorithms. Experimental results on the ISRUC-S1 dataset also demonstrate its generality, whose accuracy, F1-score, and Cohen kappa achieve 0.820, 0.798, and 0.767 respectively.

Preparation, structural characterization and prebiotic potential of mulberry leaf oligosaccharides

The present study shows the purification of a main oligosaccharide fraction (MLO 1-2) from the enzymatic hydrolysate of mulberry leaf polysaccharides by DEAE-52 cellulose and gel column chromatography. The physicochemical properties of MLO 1-2 were characterized. The structure of MLO 1-2 was obtained as follows: α-(2-OAc)-Manp-1 → 2-β-Glcp-1 → 4-β-Glcp-1 → 4-α-Glcp-1 → 2-α-Glcp-1 → 2-α-Galp-1 → 2-β-Galp-1 → 2-β-Galp-1, which was elucidated by methylation and NMR analysis. The molecular weight of MLO 1-2 showed no significant change after simulated saliva, gastric and intestinal digestion. This indicated that MLO 1-2 could pass through the digestive system without being degraded to safely reach the colon to regulate the gut microbiota. Additionally, MLO 1-2, more than glucose or galactooligosaccharides, promoted the proliferation of Bifidobacterium bifidum, B. adolescentis, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Furthermore, the acetic and lactic acid concentrations of bacterial cultures inoculated with MLO 1-2 were higher than those inoculated with glucose and galactooligosaccharide (GOS). These results suggest that MLO 1-2 could be an excellent prebiotic for intestinal flora regulation and the promotion of gut health.

The Anti-Constipation Effects of Raffino-Oligosaccharide on Gut Function in Mice Using Neurotransmitter Analyses, 16S rRNA Sequencing and Targeted Screening

Raffino-oligosaccharide (ROS), the smallest oligosaccharide of the raffinose family, is a novel food ingredient. However, the anti-constipation effects of ROS remain obscure. This study investigates the anti-constipation effects of ROS based on the loperamide-induced mice model and reveals the underlying mechanism using constipation parameters, neurotransmitter level, 16S rRNA sequencing, and the targeted screening strategy. The prevention effects were firstly investigated by the gastro-intestinal transit rate experiment (50 mice) and defecation status experiment (50 mice), which were divided into five groups (n = 10/group): blank, model, and low-, medium- and high-dose ROS. Furthermore, the slow-transit constipation experiment (blank, model, and high-dose ROS, n = 10/group) was conducted to illustrate the underlying mechanism. The results showed that ROS aided in preventing the occurrence of constipation by improving the gastro-intestinal transit rate and the defecation frequency in mice, and ROS significantly reduced the serum levels of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). In addition, ROS regulated the diversity and structure of intestinal flora. Among them, one specific family and six specific genera were significantly regulated in constipated mice. The targeted screening revealed that 29 targets related to the anti-constipation effects of ROS, indicating ROS may play a role by regulating multiple targets. Furthermore, the network pharmacology analysis showed that Akt1, Stat3, Mapk8, Hsp90aa1, Cat, Alb, Icam1, Sod2, and Gsk3b can be regarded as the core anti-constipation targets. In conclusion, ROS could effectively relieve constipation, possibly by inhibiting the level of neurotransmitters and regulating the gut flora in mice. This study also provides a novel network pharmacology-based targeted screening strategy to reveal the anti-constipation effects of ROS.

Humping Formation and Suppression in High-Speed Laser Welding

Increasing welding speed can promote the productivity of laser welding. However, humping defects often occur, which limits the application of this strategy. The existing explanations for the humping formation remain vague, and mitigation and suppression methods are limited. In this research, high-speed imaging experiments and numerical simulation of the high-speed laser welding process are performed. Through careful examination, the humping phenomenon is explained. At high welding speed, the high-speed melt flow caused by recoil pressure is hindered by the solidified region in the melt pool, leading to the occurrence of a swelling. The swelling then grows, forming a valley in front of the swelling under the effect of surface tension. The solidification of the valley results in the occurrence of a second swelling. This process repeats and humping defect forms. Marangoni force and viscous force also have influence on this process. In addition, it is found that adding a Tungsten Inert Gas arc behind the laser beam can effectively suppress the humping.

Microclimate Environment Model Construction and Control Strategy of Enclosed Laying Brooder House

The growth performance and health of chicks can be significantly improved by a suitable microclimate in brooder houses. However, the microclimate of the chicken house is affected by factors such as its structure and the heat dissipation of chickens, making it is difficult to establish an accurate mathematical model and achieve effective regulation. In this paper, the environmental data acquisition system of enclosed chick brooder house was established by analyzing various environmental factors in brooder houses. According to the structural characteristics of brooder houses and the growth environment of chicks and other parameters, the microclimate simulation model of brooder houses was established using the physical law of energy balance. The coefficient of determination R² (R-square) between simulated temperature and humidity output value and measured value was 0.7634 and 0.9740, respectively, and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was 1.55°C and 2.61%, respectively. The correctness of the simulation model was verified. On the basis of established microclimate models, a simulation model of fuzzy decoupling Proportion Integration Differentiation (PID) control in chicken house environments was established for the strong coupling between temperature control and general risk control system in chicken houses. Different control strategies were generated by fuzzy and logical reasoning about multiple environmental factors. The compensation coefficient was added to optimize the environmental regulation system of brooder houses. The temperature maximum deviation between the set value and the fuzzy decoupling PID controller was 0.5°C, the maximum relative error was 2.7%, the maximum deviation of relative humidity between the set value and the fuzzy decoupling PID controller was 4.93%, the maximum relative error was 10.49%.The simulation results show the control strategy meets the temperature and humidity control requirements, verify the effectiveness of the control strategy and model. The experimental results can guide the actual environmental control of brooder houses.

Intracranial hemorrhage following drainage of chronic subdural effusion and hematoma: A case report and review of the literature

Acute intracranial hemorrhage (AIH) after drainage of chronic subdural hematoma is a rare but serious complication. An 86-year-old man with bilateral frontotemporal subdural effusion, hematoma, and cerebral hernia was admitted to our department and treated with bilateral burr hole surgery and closed-system drainage under local anesthesia. After the operation, computed tomography (CT) showed AIH in the left temporal and occipital lobe, and then a series of head CT showed that the hematoma gradually increased day by day. This patient had a medical history of hypertension, diabetes, atrial fibrillation, and taking warfarin. He was treated conservatively, but had not recovered at discharge after 1 month. We reviewed the relevant literature and analyzed the operation opportunity, causes of cerebral hemorrhage, and preventive measures in similar patients. We suppose that the coagulation abnormality and rapid fluctuations of intracranial pressure were the main causes of development of AIH in our patient. Several possible reasons such as brain shift and impaired vascular autoregulation are also associated with postoperative AIH. We must be aware of this complication and keep some preventive measures in our mind.

Streamlined Iterative Assembly of Thio-Oligosaccharides by Aqueous S-Glycosylation of Diverse Deoxythio Sugars

A streamlined iterative assembly of thio-oligosaccharides was developed by aqueous glycosylation. Facile syntheses of various deoxythio sugars with the sulfur on different positions from commercially available starting materials were described. These syntheses featured efficient chemical methods including our recently reported BTM-catalyzed site-selective acylation. The resulting deoxythio sugars could then be used for the Ca(OH)₂ -promoted protecting group-free S-glycosylation in water at room temperature. The aqueous glycosylation reaction proceeded smoothly to afford the corresponding 1,2-trans S-glycosides in good yields with high chemo- and stereoselectivity. An appropriate choice of protecting groups for the thiol in the glycosyl donor was necessary for the development of iterative synthesis of thio-oligosaccharides. The aqueous glycosylation was then applied to the synthesis of a trimannoside moiety of N-linked glycans core region.

Biodegradable magnesium alloy WE43 porous scaffolds fabricated by laser powder bed fusion for orthopedic applications: Process optimization, in vitro and in vivo investigation

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of magnesium (Mg) alloy porous scaffolds is expected to solve the dual challenges from customized structures and biodegradable functions required for repairing bone defects. However, one of the key technical difficulties lies in the poor L-PBF process performance of Mg, contributed by the high susceptibility to oxidation, vaporization, thermal expansion, and powder attachment etc. This work investigated the influence of L-PBF energy input and scanning strategy on the formation quality of porous scaffolds by using WE43 powder, and characterized the microstructure, mechanical properties, biocompatibility, biodegradation and osteogenic effect of the as-built WE43 porous scaffolds. With the customized energy input and scanning strategy, the relative density of struts reached over 99.5%, and the geometrical error between the designed and the fabricated porosity declined to below 10%. Massive secondary phases including intermetallic precipitates and oxides were observed. The compressive strength (4.37–23.49 MPa) and elastic modulus (154.40–873.02 MPa) were comparable to those of cancellous bone. Good biocompatibility was observed by in vitro cell viability and in vivo implantation. The biodegradation of as-built porous scaffolds promoted the osteogenic effect, but the structural integrity devastated after 12 h by the immersion tests in Hank's solution and after 4 weeks by the implantation in rabbits' femur, indicating an excessively rapid degradation rate.

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In vitro and in vivo investigations were performed on WE43 porous scaffolds.

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Reliable fusion quality and dimensional accuracy were achieved.

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The compressive strength and Young modulus ranged 4.37–23.49 and 154.40–873.02 MPa.

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Good biocompatibility and improved osteogenic effect were observed.

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The massive secondary phases as well as the enlarged specific surface resulted to a rapid degradation rate.

Comparison of Necroptosis With Apoptosis for OVX-Induced Osteoporosis

As one common kind of osteoporosis, postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP) is associated with the death and excessive loss of osteocytes. Estrogen deficiency of PMOP can cause osteocyte death by regulating necroptosis and apoptosis, but their roles in POMP have not been compared. In the present study, ovariectomy (OVX)-induced rat and murine long bone osteocyte Y4 (MLO-Y4) cells were used to compare the influence of necroptosis and apoptosis on osteocyte death and bone loss. Benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp (zVAD) and necrostatin-1 (Nec-1) were used to specifically block cell apoptosis and necroptosis, respectively. OVX rats and MLO-Y4 cells were divided into zVAD group, Nec-1 group, zVAD + Nec-1 group, vehicle, and control group. The tibial plateaus of the rat model were harvested at 8 weeks after OVX and were analyzed by micro–computed tomography, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the transferase dUTP nick end labeling assay, and western blot. The death of MLO-Y4 was stimulated by TNF-α and was measured by flow cytometry and TEM. The results found that necroptosis and apoptosis were both responsible for the death and excessive loss of osteocytes, as well as bone loss in OVX-induced osteoporosis, and furthermore necroptosis may generate greater impact on the death of osteocytes than apoptosis. Necroptotic death of osteocytes was mainly regulated by the receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 signaling pathway. Collectively, inhibition of necroptosis may produce better efficacy in reducing osteocyte loss than that of apoptosis, and combined blockade of necroptosis and apoptosis provide new insights into preventing and treating PMOP.

Facet-Selective Deposition of Ultrathin Al2 O3 on Copper Nanocrystals for Highly Stable CO2 Electroreduction to Ethylene

Catalysts based on Cu nanocrystals (NCs) for electrochemical CO₂ -to-C₂₊ conversion with high activity have been a subject of considerable interest, but poor stability and low selectivity for a single C₂₊ product remain obstacles for realizing sustainable carbon-neutral cycles. Here, we used the facet-selective atomic layer deposition (FS-ALD) technique to selectively cover the (111) surface of Cu NCs with ultrathin Al₂ O₃ to increase the exposed facet ratio of (100)/(111), resulting in a faradaic efficiency ratio of C₂ H₄ /CH₄ for overcoated Cu NCs 22 times higher than that for pure Cu NCs. Peak performance of the overcoated catalyst (Cu NCs/Al₂ O₃ -10C) reaches a C₂ H₄ faradaic efficiency of 60.4 % at a current density of 300 mA cm^-2 in 5 M KOH electrolyte, when using a gas diffusion electrode flow cell. Moreover, the Al₂ O₃ overcoating effectively suppresses the dynamic mobility and the aggregation of Cu NCs, which explains the negligible activity loss and selectivity degradations of Cu NCs/Al₂ O₃ -10C shown in stability tests.

Comprehensive evaluation method of the poultry house indoor environment based on gray relation analysis and analytic hierarchy process

Due to the antagonism and synergy among environmental factors in the poultry house, the influence process becomes extremely complex. As a result, it is difficult to predict and evaluate the degree of such influence accurately. In this paper, we study the poultry house environment factor and its relationship with poultry production performance, using the gray relation analysis (GRA) to filtrate the main factors that influence the evaluation of the poultry house environment. Put forward using the gray relation degree (GRD) to improve the method for structuring the judgment matrix, and weights are more objective and reasonable. The evaluation index system and evaluation model are constructed through the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). It is expected that the comprehensive evaluation of the indoor environment status of the poultry house can guide the optimization of the environmental control in the poultry house and obtain better production indicators of the poultry. In this study, the experimental broiler house was enclosed in autumn. Because of the ventilation system, the indoor environment is still affected by the outdoor environment. The top 3 in the calculation of weights were outdoor environment (0.4315), indoor temperature (0.2384), and indoor air quality (0.1687), which were consistent with experience. From October 24 to 27, the environmental evaluation values of the experimental broiler house were {2.4367, 2.8149, 2.3857, 2.5669}, that is, the evaluation results were {good, good, good, good}; consistent with the expert manual judgment. The correctness and practicability of the proposed method were verified. This paper provides a scientific basis for environmental evaluation and environmental control in the poultry house.

Intracranial germ cell tumors in Adolescents and Young Adults: European and North American consensus review, current management and future development

The incidence of intracranial germ cell tumors (iGCT) is much lower in European and North American (E&NA) than in Asian population. However, E&NA cooperative groups have simultaneously developed with success treatment strategies with specific attention paid to long-term sequelae. Neurological sequelae may be reduced by establishing a diagnosis with an endoscopic biopsy and/or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and/or serum analysis, deferring the need to perform a radical surgery. Depending on markers and/or histological characteristics, patients are treated as either germinoma or non-germinomatous germ cell tumors (NGGCT). Metastatic disease is defined by a positive CSF cytology and/or distant drops in craniospinal MRI. The combination of surgery and/or chemotherapy and radiation therapy is tailored according to grouping and staging. With more than 90% 5-year event-free survival (EFS), localized germinomas can be managed without aggressive surgery, and benefit from chemotherapy followed by whole ventricular irradiation with local boost. Bifocal germinomas are treated as non-metastatic entities. Metastatic germinomas may be cured with craniospinal irradiation. With a 5-year EFS over 70%, NGGCT benefit from chemotherapy followed by delayed surgery in case of residual disease, and some form of radiotherapy. Future strategies will aim at decreasing long-term side effects while preserving high cure rates.

Development of Nervilia fordii Extract-Loaded Electrospun PVA/PVP Nanocomposite for Antioxidant Packaging

An ethyl acetate extract from of Nervilia fordii (NFE) with considerable suppression activity on lipid peroxidation (LPO) was first obtained with total phenolic and flavonoid contents and anti-LPO activity (IC₅₀) of 86.67 ± 2.5 mg GAE/g sample, 334.56 ± 4.7 mg RE/g extract and 0.307 mg/mL, respectively. In order to improve its stability and expand its application in antioxidant packaging, the nano-encapsulation of NFE within poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and polyvinyl(pyrrolidone) (PVP) bio-composite film was then successfully developed using electrospinning. SEM analysis revealed that the NFE-loaded fibers exhibited similar morphology to the neat PVA/PVP fibers with a bead-free and smooth morphology. The encapsulation efficiency of NFE was higher than 90% and the encapsulated NFE still retained its antioxidant capacity. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the successful encapsulation of NFE into fibers and their compatibility, and the thermal stability of which was also improved due to the intermolecular interaction demonstrated by thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA). The ability to preserve the fish oil’s oxidation and extend its shelf-life was also demonstrated, suggesting the obtained PVA/PVP/NFE fiber mat has the potential as a promising antioxidant food packaging material.

Influence of Laser Energy Input and Shielding Gas Flow on Evaporation Fume during Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Zn Metal

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) of Zn-based metals exhibits prominent advantages to produce customized biodegradable implants. However, massive evaporation occurs during laser melting of Zn so that it becomes a critical issue to modulate laser energy input and gas shielding conditions to eliminate the negative effect of evaporation fume during the LPBF process. In this research, two numerical models were established to simulate the interaction between the scanning laser and Zn metal as well as the interaction between the shielding gas flow and the evaporation fume, respectively. The first model predicted the evaporation rate under different laser energy input by taking the effect of evaporation on the conservation of energy, momentum, and mass into consideration. With the evaporation rate as the input, the second model predicted the elimination effect of evaporation fume under different conditions of shielding gas flow by taking the effect of the gas circulation system including geometrical design and flow rate. In the case involving an adequate laser energy input and an optimized shielding gas flow, the evaporation fume was efficiently removed from the processing chamber during the LPBF process. Furthermore, the influence of evaporation on surface quality densification was discussed by comparing LPBF of pure Zn and a Titanium alloy. The established numerical analysis not only helps to find the adequate laser energy input and the optimized shielding gas flow for the LPBF of Zn based metal, but is also beneficial to understand the influence of evaporation on the LPBF process.

Detection of k-complexes in EEG signals using a multi-domain feature extraction coupled with a least square support vector machine classifier

Sleep scoring is one of the primary tasks for the classification of sleep stages using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. It is one of the most important diagnostic methods in sleep research and must be carried out with a high degree of accuracy because any errors in the scoring in the patient's sleep EEG recordings can cause serious problems. The aim of this research is to develop a new automatic method for detecting the most important characteristics in sleep stage 2 such as k-complexes based on multi-domain features. In this study, each EEG signal is divided into a set of segments using a sliding window technique. Based on extensive experiments during the training phase, the size of the sliding window is set to 0.5 s (s). Then a set of statistical, fractal, frequency and non-linear features are extracted from each epoch based on the time domain, Katz's algorithm, power spectrum density (PSD) and tunable Q-factor wavelet transform (TQWT). As a result, a vector of twenty-two features is obtained to represent each EEG segment. In order to detect k-complexes, the extracted features were analysed for their ability to detect the k-complex waveforms. Based on the analysis of the features, twelve out of twenty-two features are selected and forwarded to a least square support vector machine (LS-SVM) classifier to identify k-complexes in EEG signals. A set of various classification techniques of K-means and extreme learning machine classifiers are used to compare the obtained results and to evaluate the performance of the proposed method.The experimental results showed that the proposed method, based on multi-domain features, achieved better recognition results than other methods and classifiers. An average accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 97.7 %, 97 %, and 94.2 % were obtained, respectively, with the CZ-A1 channel according to the R&K standard. The experimental results with high classification performance demonstrated that the technique can help doctors optimize the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders.

Effects of enzymatic hydrolysis on the structural, rheological, and functional properties of mulberry leaf polysaccharide

Effects of enzymatic hydrolysis on the structural, rheological, and functional properties of mulberry leaf polysaccharide (MLP) were characterized in this study. The enzymatic hydrolysis of MLP raised the carbonyl, carboxyl, and hydroxyl groups from 7.21 ± 0.86 to 10.08 ± 0.28 CO/100 Glu, 9.40 ± 0.13 to 17.55 ± 0.34 COOH/100 Glu, and 5.71 ± 0.33 to 8.14 ± 0.24 OH/100 Glu, respectively. Meanwhile, an increase in thixotropic performance and structure-recovery capacities were observed in hydrolyzed MLP, while the molecular weight, surface tension, apparent viscosity, and thermal stability were decreased. An improved antioxidant activity of MLP was also achieved after the enzymatic degradation. Moreover, the hydrolyzed MLP showed greater ability to promote the growths of Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium adolescentis, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Lactobacillus acidophilus and the production of acetic acid, butyric acid, and lactic acid. The results demonstrate that enzymatic modification is a useful approach for polysaccharide processing.

Solvent-Free Synthesis of the Polymer Electrolyte via Photo-Controlled Radical Polymerization: Toward Ultrafast In-Built Fabrication of Solid-State Batteries under Visible Light

Thin solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) with good processability, improved room-temperature ionic conductivity, and better interfacial compatibility are urgently needed to develop solid-state batteries without safety and leakage issues. In-built electrolyte polymerization has emerged as a novel and effective platform to obtain such electrolytes. However, existing in-built methods usually involve heat, UV, γ irradiation, and so forth to initiate the polymerization and often require the addition of solvents to avoid the concentrated active propagating species, which inevitably afford solvent residues that persist in the electrolyte matrix, leading to complex SPE preparation processes, safety hazards, and side reactions with the electrodes. Herein, a simple solvent-free preparation of the poly(mPEGAA)-based electrolyte film was achieved via the photo-controlled radical polymerization under visible light irradiation via an in-built manner, which resulted in 99% monomer conversion within 5 min to obtain the polymer electrolytes with a controlled molecular weight distribution. Thanks to the mild and green conditions, a thin, solvent-free, and cross-linked SPE electrolyte film was obtained efficiently yet in a well-regulated manner, which gave rise to good interfacial compatibility and an improved room-temperature ionic conductivity of 1.5 × 10^-4 S cm^-1 at 25 °C. As-prepared solid-state LiFePO₄|Li batteries based on the in-built thin SPE exhibited a high discharge areal capacity of 1.7 mA h cm^-2 (164.6 mA h g^-1) at an ambient temperature. Furthermore, the system displayed lithium dendrite suppression behavior and good long-term charge-discharge cycling in the Li symmetric battery for over 270 h, representing enhanced stability and capacities compared with ex-built systems.

Osteogenic effects of the peptide fraction derived from pepsin-hydrolyzed bovine lactoferrin

Osteoporosis is a common disease that frequently occurs in the older population, particularly in postmenopausal women. It severely compromises the health of the older population, and the drugs commonly used to treat osteoporosis have a variety of adverse effects. Lactoferrin (LF) is a protein present in milk that has recently been found to exhibit osteogenic activity. Lactoferrin is nontoxic and harmless, suggesting that it may have excellent biocompatibility and tolerability after human consumption. Oral consumption of LF in an ovariectomized rat model has been found to ameliorate osteoporosis. However, the mechanism underlying this effect remains to be clarified. In this study, bovine LF (bLF) was first hydrolyzed by pepsin for 1 h, and the hydrolyzed mixture was freeze-dried and collected. The hydrolyzed mixture was then separated into 5 components (E1-E5), of which E3 had the greatest effect in promoting proliferation of osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1). Component E3 was further isolated into 21 components with preparative reversed phase HPLC, and the E3-15 component had maximal bioactivity. With HPLC-mass spectrometry and peptide sequencing, E3-15 was identified to contain amino acids 97 to 208 from the bLF N terminus. Then, E3-15 was divided into 6 different peptide segments (P1-P6), and the corresponding segments were generated by solid-phase synthesis. Only the P1 peptide (amino acids 97-122 from the N terminus of bLF) significantly promoted osteoblast proliferation. The bioactivity of P1 toward osteoblast cells and alkaline phosphatase activity were tested as a function of P1 concentration, and a nonlinear effect was observed.

Microbial response during treatment of different types of landfill leachate in a semi-aerobic aged refuse biofilter

In this research, for the first time, three kinds of landfill leachate (young (YL), mature (ML) and mixed (MYL) leachate) were treated in a semi-aerobic aged refuse biofilter (SAARB) to compare the effectiveness of, and microbial changes in, this biofilter when treating leachates that have significantly different characteristics. The SAARB achieved stable removal of organic matter from all three leachates and reduced the concentrations of aromatic substances. The best treatment was achieved with YL, followed in order by MYL and ML. The removal of nitrogen from all three leachates by the SAARB was particularly significant. The microbial abundance and diversity in the media of the SAARB changed after treatment of the three leachates, and the order of change from small to large was ML# < MYL# < YL#. The microbial communities were mainly affected by (and negatively correlated to) the relative content of refractory organics in leachate. Proteobacteria was the dominant microorganism. Deinococcus-thermus responded most to the quality of leachate being treated, increasing in relative abundance as the content of refractory organics increased. This was opposite to the response of Chloroflexi. In YL# the dominant species at the genus level was Thauera, and in ML# the dominant species were Truepera and Iodidimonas. The microbial activity and metabolic intensity were enhanced after treatment of the different leachates. The expression of nitrification-related genes was the strongest and the total abundance was the highest when YL was treated. This study promotes the optimization and application of SAARB.

Transformation mechanisms of refractory organic matter in mature landfill leachate treated using an Fe0-participated O3/H2O2 process

An Fe⁰-participated O₃/H₂O₂ (Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂) process was applied to remove refractory organic matter (OM) in semi-aerobic aged refuse biofilter (SAARB) leachate arising from treating mature landfill leachate. The degradation and transformation characteristics of refractory OM were revealed at molecular level. Removal efficiencies of aromatic substances were 63.55% by the Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂ process (much higher than in other single or binary processes), and fulvic- and humic-like substances were more effectively degraded by this process than by other treatments. According to Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS), 6645 categories of OM in SAARB leachate were identified. Although there was little difference in number of OM categories after treatment using the single-O₃ and Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂ processes, Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂ process can better reduce OM relative abundance. It is noteworthy that the Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂ process more effectively degraded CHONS compounds than the single-O₃ process, while also producing more CHO compounds having higher bio-availability. The enhanced degradation efficiency of the Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂ process were attributed to the formation of the Fenton process initiated by leached Fe²⁺ and H₂O₂. The heterogeneous catalytic effect from iron (hydro) oxides for O₃/H₂O₂ also increased the treatment capacity of the Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂ process, resulting in better total organic carbon removal. The Fe⁰-O₃/H₂O₂ process is an efficient method for removing refractory OM in SAARB leachate.

Mild Cu(OTf)2-Mediated C-Glycosylation with Chelation-Assisted Picolinate as a Leaving Group

C-Glycosylation reactions of glycosyl picolinates with allyltrimethylsilane or silyl enol ethers were developed. Picolinate as a chelation-assisted leaving group could be activated by Cu(OTf)2 and avoided the use of harsh Lewis acids. The glycosylations were operated under mild neutral conditions and gave the corresponding C-glycosides in up to 95% yield with moderate to excellent stereoselectivities.

Mapping the Topics and Evolutions of Chinese Children’s Bestsellers

Children’s books involve a large number of topics. Research on them has been paid much attention to by both scholars and practitioners. However, the existing achievements do not focus on China, which is the fastest growing market for children’s books in the world. Studies using quantitative analysis are low in number, especially on the intellectual structure, evolution patterns, and development trends of topics of children’s bestsellers in China. Dangdang.com, the biggest Chinese online bookstore, was chosen as a data source to obtain children’s bestsellers, and topic words in them were extracted from brief introductions. With the aid of co-occurrence theory and tools of social network analysis and visualization, the distribution, correlation structures, and evolution patterns of topics were revealed and visualized. This study shows that topics of Chinese children’s bestsellers are broad and relatively concentrated, but their distribution is unbalanced. There are four distinguished topic communities (Living, Animal, World, and Child) in terms of centrality and maturity, and they all establish their individual systems and tend to be mature. The evolution of these communities tends to be stable with powerful continuity.

The Two-Sided Effect of Leader Unethical Pro-organizational Behaviors on Subordinates' Behaviors: A Mediated Moderation Model

Research suggests that unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) has two conflicting characteristics: unethical and pro-organizational. However, little attention has been paid to the negative and positive outcomes of UPB. Therefore, the present study aimed to fill this gap by examining a mediated moderation model on the effects of leader UPB on their subordinates’ behaviors. Based on social information processing theory and three-wave survey data from 204 supervisor-subordinate dyads in China, we found that the mixed relationships between leader UPB and subordinates’ behaviors were dependent on the leader’s Machiavellianism. Specifically, for high Machiavellian leaders, their UPB was positively related to subordinates’ unethical behaviors via subordinates’ moral disengagement. For low Machiavellian leaders, their UPB was positively related to subordinates’ organizational citizenship behaviors via their organizational identification. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

A novel purification machine and fuzzy inference method based hybrid model for wind speed forecasting

As one kind of readily available renewable energy sources, wind is widely used in power generation where wind speed plays an important role. Generally speaking, we need to forecast the wind speed for improving the controllability of wind power generation. However, there exists considerable randomness and instabilities in wind speed data so that it is difficult to obtain accurate forecasting results. In this paper, we propose a novel fuzzy inference method based hybrid model for accurate wind speed forecasting. In this hybrid model, we adopt two strategies to enhance the estimation performance. On one hand, we propose the purification machine which utilize the Irregular Information Reduction Module (IIRM) and the Irrelevant Variable Reduction Module (IVRM) to reduce the randomness and instabilities of the data and to eliminate the variables with zero or negative effect in the wind speed time series. On the other hand, we adopt the developed Single-Input-Rule-Modules based Fuzzy Inference System (SIRM-FIS), the functionally weighted SIRM-FIS (FWSIRM-FIS) to realize the prediction of wind speed. This FWSIRM-FIS utilizes the multi-variable functional weights to dynamically measure the importance of the input variables so that the input-output mapping can be strengthened and more accurate forecasting results can be achieved. Furthermore, detailed experiments and comparisons are given. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed FWSIRM-FIS and purification machine contributes greatly to deal with the randomness and instability in the wind speed data and yield more accurate forecasting results than those existing excellent forecasting models.

Metallic Glacial Glass Formation by a First-Order Liquid-Liquid Transition

The glacial phase, with an apparently glassy structure, can be formed by a first-order transition in some molecular-glass-forming supercooled liquids. Here we report the formation of metallic glacial glass (MGG) from the precursor of a rare-earth-element-based metallic glass via the first-order phase transition in its supercooled liquid. The excellent glass-forming ability of the precursor ensures the MGG to be successfully fabricated into bulk samples (with a minimal critical diameter exceeding 3 mm). Distinct enthalpy, structure, and property changes are detected between MGG and metallic glass, and the reversed "melting-like" transition from the glacial phase to the supercooled liquid is observed in fast differential scanning calorimetry. The kinetics of MGG formation is reflected by a continuous heating transformation diagram, with the phase transition pathways measured at different heating rates taken into account. The finding supports the scenario of liquid-liquid transition in metallic-glass-forming liquids.

Scalable neutral H2O2 electrosynthesis by platinum diphosphide nanocrystals by regulating oxygen reduction reaction pathways

Despite progress in small scale electrocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) using a rotating ring-disk electrode, further work is needed to develop a non-toxic, selective, and stable O2-to-H2O2 electrocatalyst for realizing continuous on-site production of neutral hydrogen peroxide. We report ultrasmall and monodisperse colloidal PtP2 nanocrystals that achieve H2O2 production at near zero-overpotential with near unity H2O2 selectivity at 0.27 V vs. RHE. Density functional theory calculations indicate that P promotes hydrogenation of OOH* to H2O2 by weakening the Pt-OOH* bond and suppressing the dissociative OOH* to O* pathway. Atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 prevents NC aggregation and enables application in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with a maximum r(H2O2) of 2.26 mmol h-1 cm-2 and a current efficiency of 78.8% even at a high current density of 150 mA cm-2. Catalyst stability enables an accumulated neutral H2O2 concentration in 600 mL of 3.0 wt% (pH = 6.6).

Combination of chest CT and clinical features for diagnosis of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia

In December 2019, novel coronavirus pneumonia-19 (COVID-19) was discovered in the viral pneumonia cases that occurred in Wuhan, China, and then quickly spread around the world. This report described the clinical course of two COVID-19 patients and the purpose of the study was to discuss the combination of chest CT and clinical features for diagnosis of COVID-19. The first case was a typical COVID-19 case. A 66-year-old female presented to our hospital with a 3-day history of fever. She had contact with a COVID-19 patient. Chest CT showed a typical COVID-19 appearance. She was diagnosed with COVID-19 by a positive nucleic acid test. The second case was a 50-year-old male with a 2-day history of fever. He denied having been to Wuhan. Chest CT also showed typical features of COVID-19 pneumonia. COVID-19 nucleic acid tests were repeated up to seven times and the results remained controversial. Eventually, he was diagnosed with COVID-19. Our study shows that chest CT has high sensitivity for diagnosis of COVID-19 in clinical practice, particularly when the nucleic acid test is negative. The chest CT should be considered as a diagnostic tool for the COVID-19 screening, comprehensive evaluation, and follow-up and patients would benefit from effective treatments in time.