Ultrasonic investigation of the Kondo semimetal CeBi

We report the elastic properties of the Kondo semimetal CeBi by resonant ultrasound spectroscopy measurements at zero magnetic field. Clear elastic softening is found in bulk modulus $C_B$ below $\sim 60$ K. Such a softening in $C_B$, in addition to the anomalous temperature dependent Poisson's ratio, is hardly attributable to multipolar response for stable localized $4f$ orbital, but can be well described by a two-band model arising from the hybridization between conduction- and $4f$- electrons. These results probably are consequences of the valence fluctuations in this Kondo semimetal as originally suggested by a Fermi-surface expansion observed in a previous angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study [P. Li \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. B $\mathbf{100}$, 155110 (2019)].Comment: 7+4 pages, 5+2 figures, 2+1 table

An Approach for Identifying Cytokines Based on a Novel Ensemble Classifier

Copyright 2013 Quan Zou et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Application of machine learning for risky sexual behavior interventions among factory workers in China

IntroductionAssessing the likelihood of engaging in high-risk sexual behavior can assist in delivering tailored educational interventions. The objective of this study was to identify the most effective algorithm and assess high-risk sexual behaviors within the last six months through the utilization of machine-learning models.MethodsThe survey conducted in the Longhua District CDC, Shenzhen, involved 2023 participants who were employees of 16 different factories. The data was collected through questionnaires administered between October 2019 and November 2019. We evaluated the model's overall predictive classification performance using the area under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. All analyses were performed using the open-source Python version 3.9.12.ResultsAbout a quarter of the factory workers had engaged in risky sexual behavior in the past 6 months. Most of them were Han Chinese (84.53%), hukou in foreign provinces (85.12%), or rural areas (83.19%), with junior high school education (55.37%), personal monthly income between RMB3,000 (US$417.54) and RMB4,999 (US$695.76; 64.71%), and were workers (80.67%). The random forest model (RF) outperformed all other models in assessing risky sexual behavior in the past 6 months and provided acceptable performance (accuracy 78%; sensitivity 11%; specificity 98%; PPV 63%; ROC 84%).DiscussionMachine learning has aided in evaluating risky sexual behavior within the last six months. Our assessment models can be integrated into government or public health departments to guide sexual health promotion and follow-up services

Maintaining Internal Consistency of Report for Real-time OLAP with Layer-based View

Maintaining internal consistency of report is an important aspect in the field of real-time data warehouses. OLAP and Query tools were initially designed to operate on top of unchanging, static historical data. In a real-time environment, however, the results they produce are usually negatively influenced by data changes concurrent to query execution, which may result in some internal report inconsistency. In this paper, we propose a new method, called layer-based view approach, to appropriately and effectively maintain report data consistency. The core idea is to prevent the data involved in an OLAP query from being changed through using lock mechanism, and avoid the confliction between read and write operations with the help of layer mechanism. Our approach can effectively deal with report consistency issue, while at the same time avoiding the query contention between read and write operations under real-time OLAP environment

Natural Coevolution of Tumor and Immunoenvironment in Glioblastoma.

Isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild-type glioblastoma (GBM) has a dismal prognosis. A better understanding of tumor evolution holds the key to developing more effective treatment. Here we study GBM\u27s natural evolutionary trajectory by using rare multifocal samples. We sequenced 61,062 single cells from eight multifocal IDH wild-type primary GBMs and defined a natural evolution signature (NES) of the tumor. We show that the NES significantly associates with the activation of transcription factors that regulate brain development, including MYBL2 and FOSL2. Hypoxia is involved in inducing NES transition potentially via activation of the HIF1A-FOSL2 axis. High-NES tumor cells could recruit and polarize bone marrow-derived macrophages through activation of the FOSL2-ANXA1-FPR1/3 axis. These polarized macrophages can efficiently suppress T-cell activity and accelerate NES transition in tumor cells. Moreover, the polarized macrophages could upregulate CCL2 to induce tumor cell migration. SIGNIFICANCE: GBM progression could be induced by hypoxia via the HIF1A-FOSL2 axis. Tumor-derived ANXA1 is associated with recruitment and polarization of bone marrow-derived macrophages to suppress the immunoenvironment. The polarized macrophages promote tumor cell NES transition and migration. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 2711

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Modeling and Simulation of Traction Power Supply System for High-Speed Maglev Train

The electromagnetic suspension high-speed maglev train system uses long-stator linear synchronous motors (LLSMs) as levitation and traction mechanisms. In this paper, the modeling and simulation of the traction power supply system for the maglev train are performed. The simulation models include transformers, converters, variable-length cables and LLSMs of both two sides and two ends; meanwhile, the corresponding control and segmented power supply strategies, including the two-step method and three-step method, are implemented. Based on the system model, the operational performance of the high-speed maglev power supply control system is verified, and the fault performances under open circuit and short circuit are also analyzed. The whole simulation modeling and results have important reference significance for the research of high-speed maglev technology

Train-Induced Building Vibration and Radiated Noise by Considering Soil Properties

Constructing buildings above subway tracks exploits urban-area space intensively by adopting the three-dimensional overlapping development mode, which is one of the important measures for solving the contradictions among urban population increase, land resource shortage, and environmental protection. However, the vibration generated by the frequent train operations is transmitted to the upper buildings through the track structure and ground soil, which can cause structural vibrations and radiated noise and bring physical and mental side effects to occupants within the buildings. Subway projects are often located in geologically sensitive areas, while the influences of the encountered geological problems on the generation and propagation of structural vibration and structure-radiated noise within the buildings are not yet clear. Hence, this paper presents a method of studying the train-induced vibration transmission from the ground up into the buildings and the structure-radiated noise within the building. The method consists of a train-track model, track-soil-building model, and structure-radiated noise simulation. The impact of soil properties on the building vibration and structure-radiated noise is analyzed and ground-improvement measures are proposed in order to mitigate vibration and structure-radiated noise within buildings. The results show that the interaction between soil and structure has a great impact on vibration transmission from the ground into the building. Good foundations reduce vibration transmission from ground soil up into the building and lead to a lower level of structure-radiated noise. Ground improvements increase the impedance of ground soil, thereby weakening the vibration transmission and lowering the structure-radiated noise

Hybrid pseudo-relevance feedback for microblog retrieval

National Natural Scientific Foundation of China [61102136, 61001013]; Natural Scientific Foundation of Fujian Province of China [2011J05158]; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Intelligent Information Processing [IIPL-2011-004]; Base Research Project of Shenzhen Bureau of Science, Technology and Information [JCYJ20120618155655087]The microblog has become a new global hot spot. Information retrieval (IR) technologies are necessary for accessing the massive amounts of valuable user-generated contents in the microblog sphere. The challenge in searching relevant microblogs is that they are usually very short with sparse vocabulary and may fail to match queries. Pseudo-relevance feedback (PRF) via query-expansion has been proven in previous studies to successfully increase the number of matches in IR. However, a critical problem of PRF is that the pseudo-relevant feedback may not be truly relevant, and thus may introduce noise to query expansion. In this paper, we exploit the dynamic nature of microblogs to address this problem. We first present a novel dynamic PRF technique, which is capable of expanding queries with truly relevant keywords by extracting representative terms based on the query's temporal profile. Next we present query expansion from external knowledge sources based on negative and positive feedbacks. We further consider that the choice of PRF strategy is query-dependent. A two-level microblog search framework is presented. At the high level, a temporal profile is constructed and categorized for each query; at the low level, hybrid PRF query expansion combining dynamic and external PRF is adopted based on the query category. Experiments on a real data set demonstrate that the proposed method significantly increases the performance of microblog searching, compared with several traditional retrieval models, various query expansion methods and state-of-art recency-based models for microblog searching

Evaluation of Building Construction-Induced Noise and Vibration Impact on Residents

Environmental noise and vibration induced by building construction are increasingly prominent in daily life. If the noise and vibration level exceeds the corresponding standard limits stipulated by the country, humans’ normal life, working, or studying efficiency would be interfered. This paper aims to explore how residents respond to noise and vibration mainly induced by the building construction. The noise and vibration measurements, as well as a questionnaire survey, were conducted. Through analysis and comparisons, it is shown that the noise impacts were concentrated in the area near the construction site. For the noise and vibration transmission within the building, the noise levels were amplified in the lower floors and gradually attenuated with floors, and the vibration levels decayed with the floors. The noise impact was much greater than the vibration impact. Building construction was found to be one of the most annoying noise and vibration sources, while the subway operation has little impact on residents according to either subjective or objective evaluation. The ratio of noise and vibration dissatisfaction was less than that of annoyance, which demonstrated that the residents’ psychological capacity was high toward the impact of noise and vibration. The proposed dose-response relationship can apply in a similar community environment. Once the noise levels within the building obtained, the residents’ noise annoyance can then be estimated