Shapes of distal tibiofibular syndesmosis are associated with risk of recurrent lateral ankle sprains

Distal tibiofibular syndesmosis (DTS) has wide anatomic variability in depth of incisura fibularis and shape of tibial tubercles. We designed a 3-year prospective cohort study of 300 young physical training soldiers in an Army Physical Fitness School. Ankle computed tomography (CT) scans showed that 56% of the incisura fibularis were a "C" shape, 25% were a "1" shape, and 19% were a "Gamma"shape. Furthermore, we invited a randomly selected subcohort of 6 participants in each shape of DTS to undergo a three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning. The "1" shape group showed widest displacement range of the DTS in the y-axis, along with the range of motion (ROM) on the position more than 20 degrees of the ankle dorsiflexion, inversion and eversion. During the 3-year study period, 23 participants experienced recurrent lateral ankle sprains. 7 cases of the incisura fibularis were "C" shape, 13 cases were "1" shape, and 3 cases were "Gamma"shape. The "1" shape showed highest risk among the three shapes in incident recurrent lateral ankle sprains. We propose that it is possible to classify shapes of DTS according to the shapes of incisura fibularis, and people with "1" shape may have more risk of recurrent lateral ankle sprains

Terahertz spectra of electrolyte solutions under applied electric and magnetic fields

Most biomolecules require an aqueous environment to fully exert their biological activity. However, the rotation mode, vibration mode, and energy associated with the hydrogen bonding network of water are in the terahertz band, resulting in strong absorption. Therefore, it is difficult to detect liquid biological samples using the terahertz technology. Here, a high-transmittance double-layer microfluidic chip was prepared using a cycloolefin copolymer material with high transmittance of terahertz waves. Combined with terahertz time-domain spectroscopy, the terahertz spectral characteristics of deionized water, NaCl, NaCO3, and CH3COONa solutions were studied. The changes in the terahertz transmission intensity of these electrolyte solutions under constant electric and magnetic fields were measured. The results show that the terahertz spectra of different sodium salt solutions with the same concentration of 0.9 mol/L are different. Furthermore, the terahertz absorption coefficients of the different electrolyte solutions gradually decrease with the increase of their residence time under the electric field, which is contrary to the results obtained under the external magnetic field. This study provides a new idea for the detection of sodium salt solution and lays a foundation for the development of THz technology

TraceDiag: Adaptive, Interpretable, and Efficient Root Cause Analysis on Large-Scale Microservice Systems

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is becoming increasingly crucial for ensuring the reliability of microservice systems. However, performing RCA on modern microservice systems can be challenging due to their large scale, as they usually comprise hundreds of components, leading significant human effort. This paper proposes TraceDiag, an end-to-end RCA framework that addresses the challenges for large-scale microservice systems. It leverages reinforcement learning to learn a pruning policy for the service dependency graph to automatically eliminates redundant components, thereby significantly improving the RCA efficiency. The learned pruning policy is interpretable and fully adaptive to new RCA instances. With the pruned graph, a causal-based method can be executed with high accuracy and efficiency. The proposed TraceDiag framework is evaluated on real data traces collected from the Microsoft Exchange system, and demonstrates superior performance compared to state-of-the-art RCA approaches. Notably, TraceDiag has been integrated as a critical component in the Microsoft M365 Exchange, resulting in a significant improvement in the system's reliability and a considerable reduction in the human effort required for RCA

Synthesis and Anti-Breast Cancer Evaluation of Novel N-(Guanidinyl)benzenesulfonamides

Scientific and Technologial Innovation Programs of the Nanjing military region, China [10MA077]A series of 4-(substituted)-N-(guanidinyl)benzenesulfonamides bearing biologically active pyrazole, pyrimidine and pyridine moieties were prepared and evaluated for their anticancer activity against human tumor breast cell line (MCF7). These sulfonamides showed promising activity with IC50 values ranging from 49.5 to 70.2 mu M. The structure-activity relationship of the synthesized compounds was studied. Interestingly, it was found that the most potent compounds in this study were the corresponding 2-cyanoacrylate 3, 3-oxobutanoate 4, pyrazole 6, pyridine 9 and pyrazole 13. Compounds 7 and 8 are nearly as active as Doxorubicin as reference drug with (IC50 values = 70.2, 68.1 mu M), while compounds 5, 10 and 11 exhibited a moderate activity

Research Trends and Perplexity of Green Manufacturing Under the Goal of “Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality”--Based on Citespace & Coupling Model

In this paper, the reference theses are from CNKI and core database of WOS. A total of 503 theses published from 2016 to 2023 about this topic in China and abroad are collected. Citespace is mainly used to compare and analyze the number of published theses, authors, institutions and hotspots in this field at home and abroad. Then coupling model is used to study the coordination degree between the hottest topic of the moment and the development of domestic green manufacturing. The results show that: (1) In the past 7 years, the attention on the development of green manufacturing has been rising rapidly; (2) The cooperation between domestic scholars and institutions is not optimistic; (3) China takes the lead in the number of international publications, which reflects the high importance China attaches to the development of green manufacturing. (4) Nowadays, countries all over the world generally pay attention to the application of R&D investment and technological upgrades in the field of green manufacturing; (5) At present, there is a risk of imbalance between R&D investment and green manufacturing development in China

An Optical Fiber Sensor Based on Fluorescence Lifetime for the Determination of Sulfate Ions

A new optical fiber sensor based on the fluorescence lifetime was prepared for specific detection of sulfate ion concentration, where 1,1′-(anthracene-9,10-diylbis(methylene))bis(3-(dodecylcarbamoyl)pyridin-1-ium) acted as the sulfate fluorescent probe. The probe was immobilized in a porous cellulose acetate membrane to form the sensitive membrane by the immersion precipitation method, and polyethylene glycol 400 acted as a porogen. The sensing principle was proven, as a sulfate ion could form a complex with the probe through a hydrogen bond, which led to structural changes and fluorescence for the probe. The signals of the fluorescence lifetime data were collected by the lock-in amplifier and converted into the phase delay to realize the detection of sulfate ions. Based on the phase-modulated fluorometry, the relationship between the phase delay of the probe and the sulfate ion concentration was described in the range from 2 to 10 mM. The specificity and response time of this optical fiber sensor were also researched

Micromechanism of the Dispersion Behavior of Polymer-Modified Rejuvenators in Aged Asphalt Material

Polymer-modified rejuvenator has a different composition and dispersion behavior to traditional rejuvenators. The objective of this study was to investigate the micromechanism of polymer-modified rejuvenators on the behavior of aged asphalt binder. Firstly, gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis was conducted to determine the dispersion effectiveness. Secondly, the dispersal behavior of polymer-modified rejuvenators was studied by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Rheological, toughness-tenacity, and force–ductility analyses of the rejuvenated asphalt binder were additionally performed. The results indicate that the contacted asphaltenic micelles in aged asphalt binder were dispersed by dispersion agent in the polymer-modified rejuvenator, and that the dispersion ability of the polymer-modified rejuvenator was promoted to the commercial rejuvenator level. Additionally, the polymer-modified rejuvenator was found to improve the rejuvenated asphalt binder’s resistance to deformation, through the formation of polymeric network structures in the asphalt binder. The results may be used to improve the performance of rejuvenated asphalt binder in recycled-pavement engineering

Preparation and Properties of Alkali-Activated Ground-Granulated Blast Furnace Slag Thermal Storage Concrete

Thermal storage concrete is prepared by using alkali-activated ground-granulated blast furnace slag as cementitious material. To improve thermal conductivity, graphite aggregate is used to replace part of the coarse aggregate, and, furthermore, polypropylene fiber is added to improve the heat resistance performance of the concrete. The compressive strength of concrete specimens before and after heating (up to 450 °C) was tested, and, furthermore, scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate the structure alteration due to heating. Results showed that the partial replacement of coarse aggregate by graphite block could obviously improve the thermal conductivity of the thermal storage concrete. At the same time, the specimen with 30% graphite aggregate replacement still exhibited good mechanical properties. The mechanism of the high residual strength was investigated