Low dose and fast grating-based x-ray phase-contrast imaging using the integrating-bucket phase modulation technique

X-ray phase-contrast imaging has experienced rapid development over the last few decades, and in this technology, the phase modulation strategy of phase-stepping is used most widely to measure the sample's phase signal. However, because of its discontinuous nature, phase-stepping has the defects of worse mechanical stability and high exposure dose, which greatly hinder its wide application in dynamic phase measurement and potential clinical applications. In this manuscript, we demonstrate preliminary research on the use of integrating-bucket phase modulation method to retrieve the phase information in grating-based X-ray phase-contrast imaging. Experimental results showed that our proposed method can be well employed to extract the differential phase-contrast image, compared with the current mostly used phase-stepping strategy, advantage of integrating-bucket phase modulation technique is that fast measurement and low dose are promising.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure

β-arrestin2/miR-155/GSK3β Regulates Transition of 5\u27-Azacytizine-Induced Sca-1-Positive Cells to Cardiomyocytes

Stem-cell antigen 1-positive (Sca-1+) cardiac stem cells (CSCs), a vital kind of CSCs in humans, promote cardiac repair in vivo and can differentiate to cardiomyocytes with 5\u27-azacytizine treatment in vitro. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms are unknown. b-arrestin2 is an important scaffold protein and highly expressed in the heart. To explore the function of b-arrestin2 in Sca-1+ CSC differentiation, we used b-arrestin2-knockout mice and overexpression strategies. Real-time PCR revealed that b-arrestin2 promoted 5\u27-azacytizine-induced Sca-1+ CSC differentiation in vitro. Because the microRNA 155 (miR-155) may regulate b-arrestin2 expression, we detected its role and relationship with b-arrestin2 and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3β), another probable target of miR-155. Real-time PCR revealed that miR-155, inhibited by b-arrestin2, impaired 5\u27-azacytizine-induced Sca-1+ CSC differentiation. On luciferase report assay, miR-155 could inhibit the activity of b-arrestin2 and GSK3β, which suggests a loop pathway between miR-155 and b-arrestin2. Furthermore, b-arrestin2-knockout inhibited the activity of GSK3β. Akt, the upstream inhibitor of GSK3β, was inhibited in b-arrestin2-Knockout mice, so the activity of GSK3β was regulated by b-arrestin2 not Akt. We transplanted Sca-1+ CSCs from b-arrestin2-knockout mice to mice with myocardial infarction and found similar protective functions as in wild-type mice but impaired arterial elastance. Furthermore, low level of b-arrestin2 agreed with decreased phosphorylation of AKT and increased phophorylation of GSK3β, similar to in vitro findings. The β-arrestin2/miR-155/GSK3β pathway may be a new mechanism with implications for treatment of heart disease

Chitosan Hydrogel Beads Functionalized with Thymol-Loaded Solid Lipid–Polymer Hybrid Nanoparticles

In this study, the innovative and multifunctional nanoparticles–hydrogel nanocomposites made with chitosan hydrogel beads and solid lipid–polymer hybrid nanoparticles (SLPN) were prepared through conjugation between SLPN and chitosan beads. The SLPNs were first fabricated via coating the bovine serum albumin (BSA)-emulsified solid lipid nanoparticles with oxidized dextran. The aldehyde groups of the oxidized dextran on the surface of the SLPN enabled an in situ conjugation with the chitosan beads through the Schiff base linkage. The obtained nano-on-beads composite exhibited a spherical shape with a homogeneous size distribution. The successful conjugation of SLPN on the chitosan beads was confirmed by a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and a scanning electron microscope. The effects of the beads dosage (50, 100, 200, and 300 beads) and the incubation duration (30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 min) on the conjugation efficiency of SLPN onto the beads were comprehensively optimized. The optimal formulations were found to be a 200 bead dosage, with 30–90 min incubation duration groups. The optimal formulations were then used to encapsulate thymol, an antibacterial agent, which was studied as a model compound. After encapsulation, the thymol exhibited sustained release profiles in the phosphate buffer saline. The as-prepared nanoparticles–hydrogel nanocomposites reported in this proof-of-concept study hold promising features as a controlled-release antibacterial approach for improving food safety

Study on Mechanism Analysis of Skidding Prediction for Electric Vehicle Based on Time-Delay Effect of Force Transmission

The electric vehicle anti-skidding control system is used to ensure the stability of the vehicle under any circumstances. There is a typical feature in most anti-skidding detection methods; the skidding occurs first, and then the detection is performed. For methods that rely on slip rate detection, more accurate vehicle speeds are required, which are often difficult to accurately observe. The previous method was detection and could not do prediction. Skidding prediction can improve driver reaction time and increase safety. Therefore, this paper proposes a prediction method that does not depend on the slip rate. The skidding prediction can be performed by relying on the driving torque, as well as the wheel speed. In this paper, the characteristics of the transmission from the driving force to the friction force in the vehicle model are analyzed. As for the distributed electric vehicle, the slip factor was designed with traction torque and friction force for skidding prediction by its sharp increase before the maximum adhesion point. The variation in the slip factor and time period of skidding are revealed. A multi-information merged prediction model is designed to improve reliability. The co-simulation and experimental verification based on the physical skidding simulation platform are carried out

Collaborative Self-Supervised Transductive Few-Shot Learning for Remote Sensing Scene Classification

With the advent of deep learning and the accessibility of massive data, scene classification algorithms based on deep learning have been extensively researched and have achieved exciting developments. However, the success of deep models often relies on a large amount of annotated remote sensing data. Additionally, deep models are typically trained and tested on the same set of classes, leading to compromised generalization performance when encountering new classes. This is where few-shot learning aims to enable models to quickly generalize to new classes with only a few reference samples. In this paper, we propose a novel collaborative self-supervised transductive few-shot learning (CS2TFSL) algorithm for remote sensing scene classification. In our approach, we construct two distinct self-supervised auxiliary tasks to jointly train the feature extractor, aiming to obtain a powerful representation. Subsequently, the feature extractor’s parameters are frozen, requiring no further training, and transferred to the inference stage. During testing, we employ transductive inference to enhance the associative information between the support and query sets by leveraging additional sample information in the data. Extensive comparisons with state-of-the-art few-shot scene classification algorithms on the WHU-RS19 and NWPU-RESISC45 datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed CS2TFSL. More specifically, CS2TFSL ranks first in the settings of five-way one-shot and five-way five-shot. Additionally, detailed ablation experiments are conducted to analyze the CS2TFSL. The experimental results reveal significant and promising performance improvements in few-shot scene classification through the combination of self-supervised learning and direct transductive inference

LINC01133 can induce acquired ferroptosis resistance by enhancing the FSP1 mRNA stability through forming the LINC01133-FUS-FSP1 complex

Abstract Due to a lack of research on the critical non-coding RNAs in regulating ferroptosis, our study aimed to uncover the crucial ones involved in the process. We found that LINC01133 could make pancreatic cancer cells more resistant to ferroptosis. A higher expression of LINC01133 was associated with a higher IC50 of sorafenib in clinical samples. Furthermore, we discovered that LINC01133 induced this process through enhancing the mRNA stability of FSP1. CEBPB was the transcription factor to increase the expression of LINC01133. A higher CEBPB could also indicate a higher IC50 of sorafenib in patients with cancer. Moreover, we confirmed that LINC01133 could form a triple complex with FUS and FSP1 to increase the mRNA stability of FSP1

Comparison of Crop Evapotranspiration and Water Productivity of Typical Delta Irrigation Areas in Aral Sea Basin

The intensity of agricultural activities and the characteristics of water consumption affect the hydrological processes of inland river basins in Central Asia. The crop water requirements and water productivity are different between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins due to the different water resource development and utilization policies of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which have resulted in more severe agricultural water consumption of the Amu Darya delta than the Syr Darya delta, and the differences in the surface runoff are injected into the Aral Sea. To reveal the difference in water resource dissipation, water productivity, and its influencing factors between the two basins, this study selected the irrigation areas of Amu Darya delta (IAAD) and Syr Darya delta (IASD) as typical examples; the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) was retrieved by using the modified surface energy balance algorithm for land model (SEBAL) based on high spatial resolution Landsat images from 2000 to 2020. Land use and cover change (LUCC) and streamflow data were obtained to analyze the reasons for the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of regional ETa. The water productivity of typical crops in two irrigation areas was compared and combined with statistical data. The results indicate that: (1) the ETa simulated by the SEBAL model matched the crop evapotranspiration (ETc) calculated by the Penman–Monteith method and ground-measured data well, with all the correlation coefficients higher than 0.7. (2) In IAAD, the average ETa was 1150 mm, and the ETa had shown a decreasing trend; for the IASD, the average ETa was 800 mm. The ETa showed an increasing trend with low stability due to a large amount of developable cultivated land. The change of cultivated land dominated the spatio-temporal characteristics of ETa in the two irrigation areas (3). Combined with high spatial resolution ETa inversion results, the water productivity of cotton and rice in IAAD was significantly lower than in IASD, and wheat was not significantly different, but all were far lower than the international average. This study can provide useful information for agricultural water management in the Aral Sea region