Abstract
Virtually all of the analysis of quantum contextuality is restricted to the case where events are represented by rank-one projectors. This restriction is arbitrary and not motivated by ...physical considerations. We show here that loosening the rank constraint opens a new realm of quantum contextuality and we demonstrate that state-independent contextuality (SIC) can even require projectors of nonunit rank. This enables the possibility of SIC with less than 13 projectors, which is the established minimum for the case of rank one. We prove that for any rank, at least 9 projectors are required. Furthermore, in an exhaustive numerical search we find that 13 projectors are also minimal for the cases where all projectors are uniformly of rank two or uniformly of rank three.
The apoptosis and autophagy play an important role in the pathogenesis of sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction. Previous studies have demonstrated that melatonin protects against cardiac dysfunction ...during sepsis. In addition, silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1) is a therapeutic target for sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction. The aims of this study were to investigate whether SIRT1 was involved in melatonin's cardioprotection during sepsis and the mechanisms.
In this study, twenty-four male C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned to four groups: Control group, LPS group, LPS + Melatonin group and LPS + Melatonin + EX527 group. Mice were treated with lipopolysaccharide for 8 h with or without melatonin or EX527. The cardiac function, myocardial injury biomarkers, cardiac histopathology, cardiomyocyte apoptosis, autophagosome as well as the protein expressions of SIRT1, cleaved caspase-3, LC3-II/LC3-I ratio and p62 in the myocardium were assayed.
The results demonstrated that melatonin significantly improved cardiac function, decreased creatine kinase (CK) and creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) levels, attenuated myocardial architecture destruction, inhibited cardiomyocyte apoptosis and increased cardiac autophagy as compared with the LPS group. In addition, melatonin significantly increased SIRT1 protein expression in the myocardium of mice with sepsis, while inhibition of SIRT1 by EX527 abolished melatonin's cardioprotection during sepsis.
In this study, we found that melatonin protected against sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction by regulating apoptosis and autophagy via activation of SIRT1 in mice.
The proposed mechanisms of melatonin's cardioprotection against cardiac dysfunction during sepsis. Melatonin activates SIRT1 signaling pathway and then regulates apoptosis and autophagy in the myocardium of mice with sepsis, which contributes to improving sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction. Display omitted
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
We studied the role of lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2) in collagen crosslinking and hepatic progenitor cell (HPC) differentiation, and the therapeutic efficacy of a LOXL2-blocking monoclonal antibody on ...liver fibrosis progression/reversal in mice.
Anti-LOXL2 antibody, control antilysyl oxidase antibody or placebo was administered during thioacetamide (TAA)-induced fibrosis progression or during recovery. Therapeutic efficacy in biliary fibrosis was tested in BALB/c.
and 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine (DDC)-fed mice. Collagen crosslinking, fibrosis progression and reversal were assessed histologically and biochemically. HPC differentiation was studied in primary EpCAM(+) liver cells in vitro.
LOXL2 was virtually absent from healthy but strongly induced in fibrotic liver, with predominant localisation within fibrotic septa. Delayed anti-LOXL2 treatment of active TAA fibrosis significantly reduced collagen crosslinking and histological signs of bridging fibrosis, with a 53% reduction in morphometric collagen deposition. In established TAA fibrosis, LOXL2 inhibition promoted fibrosis reversal, with enhanced splitting and thinning of fibrotic septa, and a 45% decrease in collagen area at 4 weeks of recovery. In the Mdr2-/- and DDC-induced models of biliary fibrosis, anti-LOXL2 antibody similarly achieved significant antifibrotic efficacy and suppressed the ductular reaction, while hepatocyte replication increased. Blocking LOXL2 had a profound direct effect on primary EpCAM(+) HPC behaviour in vitro, promoting their differentiation towards hepatocytes, while inhibiting ductal cell lineage commitment.
LOXL2 mediates collagen crosslinking and fibrotic matrix stabilisation during liver fibrosis, and independently promotes fibrogenic HPC differentiation. By blocking these two convergent profibrotic pathways, therapeutic LOXL2 inhibition attenuates both parenchymal and biliary fibrosis and promotes fibrosis reversal.
Although much research has been done to investigate the influence of regulatory and customer pressure on green innovations, the existing literature paid little attention to the question of how such ...pressure motivates organizations to improve their green innovation performance. A conceptual model based on the concept of green organizational responses is developed in this paper. The model is tested using structural equation modeling on a sample of 427 manufacturing organizations in six provinces in central China. The results of modeling show that regulatory and customer pressure promotes green organizational responses and enhances green innovation performance. However, these two forms of pressure are shown to have different impacts on specific organizational responses and different extent of impact on green innovation performance. For example, while regulatory pressure has significant positive impact on training and plays a direct role in green innovation performance, customer pressure has significant positive impact on research and development investments and collaboration networks. These results offer important implications for promoting green innovations in the manufacturing industry.
•The role of regulatory and customer pressure in green innovations is investigated.•The concept of green organizational responses is proposed.•Impacts of both forms of pressure on green organizational responses are examined.•Effects of green organizational responses on innovation performance are examined.•The mediating role of green organizational responses is examined.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Strongly coupled Nafion molecules and ordered porous CdS networks are fabricated for visible‐light photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen evolution. The Nafion layer coating shifts the band position of ...CdS upward and accelerates charge transfer in the photoelectrode/electrolyte interface. It is highly expected that the strong coupling effect between organic and inorganic materials will provide new routes to advance PEC water splitting.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives
To develop a computed tomography (CT) radiomics-based interpretable machine learning (ML) model to predict the pathological grade of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) in a ...non-invasive manner.
Methods
Patients with pNETs who underwent contrast-enhanced abdominal CT between 2010 and 2022 were included in this retrospective study. Radiomics features were extracted, and five radiomics-based ML models, namely logistic regression (LR), random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), XGBoost, and GaussianNB, were developed. The performance of these models was evaluated using a time-independent testing set, and metrics such as sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated. The accuracy of the radiomics model was compared to that of needle biopsy. The Shapley Additive Explanation (SHAP) tool and the correlation between radiomics and biological features were employed to explore the interpretability of the model.
Results
A total of 122 patients (mean age: 50 ± 14 years; 53 male) were included in the training set, whereas 100 patients (mean age: 48 ± 13 years; 50 male) were included in the testing set. The AUCs for LR, SVM, RF, XGBoost, and GaussianNB were 0.758, 0.742, 0.779, 0.744, and 0.745, respectively, with corresponding accuracies of 73.0%, 70.0%, 77.0%, 71.9%, and 72.9%. The SHAP tool identified two features of the venous phase as the most significant, which showed significant differences among the Ki-67 index or mitotic count subgroups (
p
< 0.001).
Conclusions
An interpretable radiomics-based RF model can effectively differentiate between G1 and G2/3 of pNETs, demonstrating favorable interpretability.
Clinical relevance statement
The radiomics-based interpretable model developed in this study has significant clinical relevance as it offers a non-invasive method for assessing the pathological grade of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and holds promise as an important complementary tool to traditional tissue biopsy.
Key Points
• A radiomics-based interpretable model was developed to predict the pathological grade of pNETs and compared with preoperative needle biopsy in terms of accuracy.
• The model, based on CT radiomics, demonstrated favorable interpretability.
• The radiomics model holds potential as a valuable complementary technique to preoperative needle biopsy; however, it should not be considered a replacement for biopsy.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
As a kind of natural composite material, the outer side of bamboo was quite different from its inner side in microscopic structure and mechanical properties. In order to research the effect of these ...differences on bonding strength of glued bamboo, bamboo strips were bonded by three different forms: outer side to outer side, outer side to inner side and inner side to inner side. Shear strength results indicated that the bamboo sample glued by inner side to inner side has the greatest shear strength value, which is 18.35 MPa, and the other two types have similar shear strength values (approximately 14 MPa). In particular, for the sample glued by outer side to inner side, the broken part is always the outer side. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images indicated that bamboo fiber cells and parenchyma cells have different failure patterns in compression shear test. For bamboo fiber cells, dominant destruction occurred at the interface between the fibers. And for parenchyma cell, fracture occurred on cell wall and broken the parenchyma cell itself. The interface between bamboo fiber cells was very weak, thus parenchyma cell was the major contributor to shear strength of bamboo. The inner side had higher shear strength because it had higher content of parenchyma cells. The SEM image and shear strength curve also indicated that in the early period of shearing process, the deformed parenchyma cells are in a relax status, and until the later period of shearing process, the parenchyma cells begin to contribute to shear strength.
Long‐lived room‐temperature phosphorescence (RTP) of organic materials holds a significant potential for optical information. Circularly polarized organic ultralong room‐temperature phosphorescence ...(CP‐OURTP) with extremely high dissymmetry factor (glum) values is even highly demanded and considerably challenging. Here, an effective strategy is introduced to realize CP‐OURTP with an emission decay time of 735 ms and a glum value up to 1.49, which exceeds two orders of magnitude larger than previous records, through a system composed of RTP polymers and chiral helical superstructures. The system exhibits excellent stability under multiple cycles of photoirradiation and thermal treatment, and is further employed for information encryption based on optical multiplexing. The results are anticipated to lay the foundation for the development of CP‐OURTP materials in advanced photonic applications.
An effective strategy is presented to realize circularly polarized organic ultralong room‐temperature phosphorescence (CP‐OURTP) with an emission decay time of 735 ms and a glumvalue up to 1.49. The CP‐OURTP materials obtain exhibit excellent stability under multiple cycles of photoirradiation and thermal treatment. Moreover, information encryption based on optical multiplexing using the prepared CP‐OURTP materials is demonstrated.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in many electronic and electrical devices, and accurately predicting their remaining useful life is essential to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the ...systems. The discharge current of lithium-ion batteries in the actual environment changes randomly during one charge and discharge cycle, and the randomly changing current has a greater impact on battery life. Existing prediction methods rarely take this into account. Therefore, this paper proposes a new method for predicting the remaining useful life of lithium-ion batteries with variable discharge current. First, the battery aging experiment under variable discharge current is designed by simulating the operation state of batteries and capacity data is collected. Secondly, a novel two-stage Wiener process model is established to describe the differences in the degradation characteristics of lithium-ion batteries at different stages. Finally, the unscented particle filtering algorithm is introduced so that all parameters in the model and the remaining useful life distribution of lithium-ion batteries are adaptively updated with the latest on-line measurements. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve more accurate and robust results compared with the two previous methods, which verifies the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.
Display omitted
•We investigate the impact of variable discharge current on lithium-ion batteries.•A novel two-stage Wiener process model is established to describe the degradation of lithium-ion batteries.•All parameters in the model are adaptively updated with the latest on-line measurements.•Comparative experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
In this paper, we propose a real-time and accurate automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) approach. Our study illustrates the outstanding design of ALPR with four insights: (1) the ...resampling-based cascaded framework is beneficial to both speed and accuracy; (2) the highly efficient license plate recognition should abundant additional character segmentation and recurrent neural network (RNN), but adopt a plain convolutional neural network (CNN); (3) in the case of CNN, taking advantage of vertex information on license plates improves the recognition performance; and (4) the weight-sharing character classifier addresses the lack of training images in small-scale datasets. Based on these insights, we propose a novel ALPR approach, termed VSNet. Specifically, VSNet includes two CNNs, i.e., VertexNet for license plate detection and SCR-Net for license plate recognition, integrated in a resampling-based cascaded manner. In VertexNet, we propose an efficient integration block to extract the spatial features of license plates. With vertex supervisory information, we propose a vertex-estimation branch in VertexNet such that license plates can be rectified as the input images of SCR-Net. In SCR-Net, we introduce a horizontal encoding technique for left-to-right feature extraction and propose a weight-sharing classifier for character recognition. Experimental results show that the proposed VSNet outperforms state-of-the-art methods by more than 50% relative improvement on error rate, achieving >99% recognition accuracy on CCPD and AOLP datasets with 149 FPS inference speed. Moreover, our method illustrates an outstanding generalization capability when evaluated on the unseen PKUData and CLPD datasets.
PDF
