Multimodal Transport System Coevolution Model Based on Synergetic Theory

This study investigates multimodal transport system evolution law with the consideration of synergetic theory. Compared with previous studies, this paper focuses on understanding influencing factors of system collaborative development. In particular, we have applied a multimodal system order parameter model to obtain the order parameter. Based on order parameters, the coevolution equations of the multimodal transport system are constructed with consideration of cooperation and competitive relationship between the subsystems. We set out the multimodal system followed the coevolution law of the freight system and dominated by the combined effects of order parameter line length and freight density. The results show that the coordination effects between railway, road, and water subsystems are stronger than aviation subsystem; the railway system is the short plank of the system. Some functional implications from this study are also discussed. Finally the results indicate that expansion of railway system capacity and mutual cooperation within the subsystems are required to reach an optimal multimodal transport system

Residual Stress Evaluation with Contour Method for Thick Butt Welded Joint

Thick plate with high tensile strength steel is increasingly employed for offshore structure fabrication, and welding residual stress is essential for assessment of mechanical performance and fatigue toughness. Therefore, it has been becoming the research issue to evaluate the distribution and magnitude of welding residual stress during butt welding of thick plate. With its advantages, contour method (CM) can be used for longitudinal residual stress evaluation by means of measuring sectional shrinkage after cutting the butt welded joint perpendicular to the welding line. Meanwhile, inverse finite element method (IFEM) code is programmed with C++ language to analyze the measured data to reestablish the welding residual stress. And based on the parallel computation of high-performance server, considering the effect of weld remelting and back-gouging during multi-pass welding process, the welding residual stress is predicted by using efficient thermal elastic plastic finite element method (TEP FEM). Results show that longitudinal residual stress turned from tensile stress in welded vicinity into compressive stress in base metal and the maximum tensile stress is 269 MPa. The computed longitudinal residual stress and welding displacement through TEP FEM are identified with the experimental results. In addition, the back-gouging has an insignificant effect on the residual stress but increases the welding displacement of butt welded joint. The proposed TEP FEM can accurately predict the welding residual stress in welded joint and is also an effective method to control welding displacement

Small-Molecule Electron Acceptors for Efficient Non-fullerene Organic Solar Cells

The development of organic electron acceptor materials is one of the key factors for realizing high performance organic solar cells. Compared to traditional fullerene acceptor materials, non-fullerene electron acceptors have attracted much attention due to their better optoelectronic tunabilities and lower cost as well as higher stability. Non-fullerene organic solar cells have recently experienced a rapid increase with power conversion efficiency of single-junction devices over 14% and a bit higher than 15% for tandem solar cells. In this review, two types of promising small-molecule electron acceptors are discussed: perylene diimide based acceptors and acceptor(A)-donor(D)-acceptor(A) fused-ring electron acceptors, focusing on the effects of structural modification on absorption, energy levels, aggregation and performances. We strongly believe that further development of non-fullerene electron acceptors will hold bright future for organic solar cells

Effect of arotinolol on chronic heart failure: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BackgroundHeart failure is the end stage of all cardiovascular diseases, which brings a heavy burden to the global health network. Arotinolol, as a new type of β Receptor blocker, has a good antihypertensive effect. Many clinical trials have observed the clinical efficacy of arotinolol in the treatment of essential hypertension. However, so far, there has been no systematic evaluation on the efficacy and safety of arotinolol in the treatment of chronic heart failure.ObjectiveThe purpose of this review was to systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy of arotinolol in patients with chronic heart failure.MethodsRandomized controlled trials (RCTs) of arotinolol in the treatment of chronic heart failure were retrieved from seven databases according to the Cochrane manual, including CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Wan fang database, VIP database, PubMed, Sinomed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library databases. The main outcomes were the effective rate, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac index, stroke volume (SV), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), hypersensitive C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP), left ventricular end diastolic volume (LVEDV), left ventricular end diastolic diameter (LVEDD), and adverse events (AEs).ResultsA total of 17 trials met the qualification criteria, which included 1,717 patients with heart failure. Most trials had uncertain risks in terms of random sequence generation, allocation hiding, patient loss, and result evaluation. Meta analysis showed that arotinolol significantly improved the treatment efficiency of patients with heart failure (standardized mean difference (SMD) = 4.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) [2.89, 5.72], p = 0.00, I2 = 0), LVEF (SMD = 1.59, 95% CI [0.99, 2.19], p = 0.000 0, I2 = 95.8%), cardiac index (SMD = 0.32, 95% CI [0.11, 0.53], p = 0.03), I2 = 0), SV (SMD = 2.00, 95% CI [1.57, 2.34], p = 0.000, I2 = 64.2%), lower BNP (SMD = −0.804, 95% CI [−0.97, −0.64], p = 0.000, I2 = 94.4%), and LVEDV (SMD = −0.25, 95% CI [−0.45, −0.05], p = 0.015, I2 = 0). There was no statistical significance for blood pressure (SMDsystolic pressure = −0.09, 95% CI [−0.69, 0.51], p = 0.775, I2systolic pressure = 90.2%; SMDdiastolic pressure = −0.16, 95% CI [−0.79, 0.48], P = 0.632, I2diastolic pressure = 91.2%), heart rate (SMD = −0.12, 95% CI [−1.00, 0.75], P = 0.787, I2 = 96.1%), Hs-CRP (SMD = −1.52, 95% CI [−3.43, 0.40], P = 0.121, I2 = 98.3%), and LVEDD (SMD = −0.07, 95% CI [−0.90, 0.76], P = 0.870, I2 = 96.5%).ConclusionArotinolol can safely and effectively improve the effective rate of patients with chronic heart failure, increase LVEF, increase CI and SV, and reduce BNP and LVEDV. However, because of the low overall quality of the included randomized controlled trials, these findings need to be considered carefully. More high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed for further verification, to provide a more scientific basis for the safety and effectiveness of arotinolol in the clinical treatment of heart failure.Systematic review registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=371214], identifier [CRD:420223371214]

The Probiotic Effectiveness in Preventing Experimental Colitis Is Correlated With Host Gut Microbiota

Current evidence to support extensive use of probiotics in inflammatory bowel disease is limited and factors that contribute to the inconsistent effectiveness of clinical probiotic therapy are not completely known. Here, we used Bifidobacterium longum JDM 301 as a model probiotic to study potential factors that may influence the effect of probiotics in experimental colitis. We found that the effect of B. longum JDM 301 in tempering experimental colitis varied across individual mice even with the same genetic background. The probiotic efficacy was highly correlated with the host gut microbial community features. Consumption of a diet rich in fat could exacerbate mucosal injury-induced colitis but could not change the host responsiveness to B. longum JDM 301 treatment, suggesting of potential mechanistic differences between regulating colitis pathogenesis, and modulating probiotic efficacies by the gut microbiota. Together, our results suggest that personalized microbiome features may modify the probiotic therapeutic effect and support the idea of personalized probiotic medicine in inflammatory bowel disease

Laparoscopic distal gastrectomy demonstrates acceptable outcomes regarding complications compared to open surgery for gastric cancer patients with pylorus outlet obstruction

BackgroundFor gastric cancer (GC) patients with pylorus outlet obstruction (POO), whether laparoscopic surgery has advantages over open surgery remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the differences between patients with and without POO in open and laparoscopic groups and to determine the differences between laparoscopic distal gastrectomy (LDG) and open distal gastrectomy (ODG) in GC patients with POO.MethodsA total of 241 GC patients with POO who underwent distal gastrectomy at the Department of Gastric Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University between 2016 and 2021 were included in this study. A total of 1,121 non-POO patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery and 948 non-POO patients who underwent open surgery from 2016 to 2021 were also enrolled in the study. We compared complication rates and hospital stays between open and laparoscopic groups.ResultsThere was no significant difference for LDG between GC patients with and without POO regarding the overall complication rates (P = 0.063), the Grade III–V complication rate (P = 0.673), and the anastomotic complication rate (P = 0.497) from 2016 to 2021. The patients with POO had longer preoperative hospital stay (P = 0.001) and postoperative hospital stay (P=0.007) compared to patients without POO. No significant difference was observed for open patients between POO and non-POO patients regarding the overall complication rate (P = 0.357), grade III–V complication rate (P = 1.000), and anastomosis-related complication rate (P = 0.766). Compared with open surgery in GC patients with POO (n = 111), the total complication rate of the LDG group was 16.2%, which was significantly lower than that of the open group (26.1%, P = 0.041). No significant differences in the Grade III–V complication rate (P = 0.574) and anastomotic complication rate (P = 0.587) were observed between laparoscopic and open groups. Patients receiving laparoscopic surgery had shorter postoperative hospital stay than open surgery (P = 0.001). More resected lymph nodes (LNs) were also observed in the laparoscopic group (P = 0.0145).ConclusionThe comorbidity of GC with POO does not increase the complication rate after laparoscopic or open distal gastrectomy. In GC patients with POO, laparoscopic surgery shows advantages over open surgery with a lower overall complication rate, shorter postoperative hospital stay, and more harvested lymph nodes. Laparoscopic surgery is a safe, feasible, and effective treatment for GC with POO

Associations of dietary factors with gastric cancer risk: insights from NHANES 2003–2016 and mendelian randomization analyses

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) continues to be one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths globally. Diet significantly influences the incidence and progression of GC. However, the relationship between dietary intake and GC is inconsistent.Methods: A study was conducted with adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2003 to 2016 to investigate possible associations between 32 dietary factors and GC. To further detect potential causal relationships between these dietary factors and the risk of GC, a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted. The primary method employed was the inverse variance weighted (IVW) analysis, and its results were further validated by four other methods.Results: Of the 35,098 participants surveyed, 20 had a history of GC. Based on the results of weighted logistic multivariate analysis, it was observed that there was a positive correlation between total fat intake [odds ratio (OR) = 1.09, 95% confidence interval (CI): (1.01–1.17), p = 0.03] and GC as well as negative association of dietary monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) intake [OR = 0.83, 95% CI: (0.76–0.92), p < 0.001]. Further evaluations of the odds of GC across the quartiles of dietary MUFAs showed that the top quartile of total MUFA intake was associated with a lower likelihood of GC in three different models [model1: OR = 0.03, 95% CI: (0.00–0.25), p < 0.01; model2: OR = 0.04, 95% CI: (0.00–0.38), p = 0.01; model3: OR = 0.04, 95% CI: (0.00–0.40), p = 0.01]. For the MR analyses, genetic instruments were selected from the IEU Open GWAS project; IVW analysis showed that GC risk was not associated with MUFAs [OR = 0.82, 95% CI: (0.59–1.14), p = 0.23] or the ratio of MUFAs to total fatty acids [OR = 1.00, 95% CI: (0.75–1.35), p = 0.98]. Similar results were observed when using the other MR methods.Conclusion: The NHANES study revealed that consuming MUFAs was linked to a lower risk of GC, although the results of MR analyses do not provide evidence of a causal relationship. Additional research is therefore necessary to clarify these findings

A Method for Extracting Texture Features of Landslide in High Resolution Remote Sensing Images

High resolution remote sensing images play an important role in landslide recognition. In order to solve the problems of diverse data, complex algorithms, redundant features, and insufficient research on the specific texture characteristics of a single landslide, Gabor filtering was used for texture feature extraction and fusion of spectral features using Support Vector Machine to achieve landslide extraction. First, multi-scale and multi-direction Gabor transformation is carried out on the landslide image. Then, the Gabor features of different scales in the same direction are fused to obtain the multi-directional features. Finally, the multi-directional Gabor features are filtered at the maximum to form the multi-scale and multi-directional Gabor texture features. The results show that, compared with the local binary model and local spatial autocorrelation, the texture analysis method in this paper has the best effect on landslide extraction and a high extraction accuracy

Real Non-Hermitian Energy Spectra Without Any Symmetry

Non-Hermitian models with real eigenenergies are highly desirable for their stability. Yet, most of the currently known ones are constrained by symmetries such as PT-symmetry, which is incompatible with realizing some of the most exotic non-Hermitian phenomena. In this work, we investigate how the non-Hermitian skin effect provides an alternative route towards enforcing real spectra and system stability. We showcase, for different classes of energy dispersions, various ansatz models that possess large parameter space regions with real spectra, despite not having any obvious symmetry. These minimal local models can be quickly implemented in non-reciprocal experimental setups such as electrical circuits with operational amplifiers