Cloud inversion analysis of surrounding rock parameters for underground powerhouse based on PSO-BP optimized neural network and web technology.

Aiming at the shortcomings of the BP neural network in practical applications, such as easy to fall into local extremum and slow convergence speed, we optimized the initial weights and thresholds of the BP neural network using the particle swarm optimization (PSO). Additionally, cloud computing service, web technology, cloud database and numerical simulation were integrated to construct an intelligent feedback analysis cloud program for underground engineering safety monitoring based on the PSO-BP algorithm. The program could conveniently, quickly, and intelligently carry out numerical analysis of underground engineering and dynamic feedback analysis of surrounding rock parameters. The program was applied to the cloud inversion analysis of the surrounding rock parameters for the underground powerhouse of the Shuangjiangkou Hydropower Station. The calculated displacement simulated with the back-analyzed parameters matches the measured displacement very well. The posterior variance evaluation shows that the posterior error ratio is 0.045 and the small error probability is 0.999. The evaluation results indicate that the intelligent feedback analysis cloud program has high accuracy and can be applied to engineering practice.

Analytical and experimental analysis of concrete temperature and energy considering open-air environmental variations.

Longwave radiation is an important open-air environmental factor that can significantly affect the temperature of concrete, but it has often been ignored in the temperature analysis of open-air concrete structures. In this article, an improved analytical model of concrete temperature was proposed by considering solar radiation, thermal convection, thermal conduction and especially longwave radiation. Temperature monitoring of an open-air concrete block was carried out to verify the proposed model and analyze the heat energy characteristics of open-air concrete. As demonstrated by the open-air experiment, under the influence of longwave radiation, the temperature at the top of the concrete block could decrease rapidly at night and even become lower than the minimum temperature at its bottom. Compared with the analytical model that ignores longwave radiation, the improved model that includes it better matches the measured temperature. According to the energy analysis, although solar radiation controls the transient variation in heat energy, the heat exchange caused by longwave radiation were more than that caused by convection on sunlit surfaces, which indicates the importance of considering longwave radiation.

OGM and WES identifies translocation breakpoints in PKD1 gene in an polycystic kidney patient and healthy baby delivered using PGT.

BACKGROUND: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is one of the most common autosomal dominant genetic diseases. Whole exome sequencing (WES) is a routine tool for diagnostic confirmation of genetic diseases, and it is usually performed to confirm the clinical diagnosis in ADPKD. Reciprocal translocation is the most common chromosomal structural abnormalities and most of its carriers have normal phenotypes until they are encountered infertility problems in adulthood. However, for the polycystic kidney disease caused by abnormal chromosome structure, WES is difficult to achieve the purpose of gene diagnosis. METHODS: ADPKD-related genes were detected by WES; Chromosomal karyotyping and Optical Genome Mapping (OGM) were used to detect structural variant; The genomic break-point locations and the abnormal splicing were detected by reverse transcription-PCR and Sanger sequencing; The karyomapping gene chip and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) were performed to screen aneuploidy and to distinguish the non-carrier embryos from the carrier embryos. RESULTS: No pathogenic variant was found after the first round of WES analysis. Karyotyping data showed 46, XX, t (16; 17) (p13.3; q21.3). With the help of OGM, the translocation breakpoint on chromosome 16 was located within the PKD1 gene. With re-analysis of WES raw data, the breakpoint of translocation was verified to be located at the c.10618 + 3 of PKD1 gene. Based on this molecular diagnosis, a non-carrier embryo was selected out from three blastocysts. With preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) after in vitro fertilization (IVF), it was then transferred into uterus. With confirmation by prenatal and postnatal testing, the pedigree delivered a healthy baby. CONCLUSION: We identified a case of ADPKD caused by balanced translocation and assisted the patient to have a healthy child. When the phenotype was closely related with a monogenic disease and the WES analysis was negative, chromosomal structural analysis would be recommended for further genetic diagnosis. Based on the precision diagnosis, preventing the recurrence of hereditary diseases in offspring would be reachable.

Experimental Study on the Dilatancy and Energy Evolution Behaviors of Red-Bed Rocks under Unloading Conditions.

Surrounding rock deformation and consequent support failure are the most prominent issues in red-bed rock tunnel engineering and are mainly caused by the effects of unloading, rheology, and swelling. This study investigated the mechanical responses of two kinds of red-bed mudstone and sandstone under unloading conditions via laboratory observation. Volume dilation was observed on the rocks during unloading, and the dilatancy stress was linear with the initial confining pressure. However, the ratios of dilatancy stress to peak stress of the two rocks kept at a range from 0.8 to 0.9, regardless of confining pressures. Both the elastic strain energy and the dissipated energy evolved synchronously with the stress-strain curve and exhibited conspicuous confining pressure dependence. Special attention was paid to the evolution behavior of the dilatancy angle. The dilatancy angle changed linearly during unloading. When the confining pressure was 10 MPa, the dilatancy angle of mudstone decreased from 26.8° to 12.5° whereas the dilatancy angle of sandstone increased from 34.6° to 51.1°; when the confining pressure rose to 25 MPa, the dilatancy angle of mudstone and sandstone decreased from 45.8° to 17.4° and increased from 21.7° to 39.5°, respectively. To further understand the evolution of the dilatancy angle, we discussed the links between the variable dilatancy angle and the processes of rock deformation and energy dissipation.

Photo-assisted "co-movement catalysis": CoFe2O4/CNS heterojunction based portable electrochemical sensor for simultaneous detection of Pb2+ and Cd2+ in natural water.

Heavy metal ions (HMIs) seriously threaten human health even under trace conditions. Therefore, accurate, efficient and simultaneous detection of multiple HMIs is of great significance. Here, a strategy of "co-movement catalysis" based on photo-assisted electrochemical catalysis is proposed by constructing a flexible electrochemical sensor with CoFe2O4/CNS heterojunction-modified nickel foam as the working electrode for simultaneous detection of HMIs. Regarding photo-assisted catalysis, CoFe2O4/CNS nanocomposites formed a p-n type heterojunction, effectively separating photo-generated electron-hole pairs and reducing photo-generated carriers' recombination rate, leading to the catalytic reaction of photogenerated electrons and holes with HMIs and atoms to improve the efficiency of preconcentration and stripping, further amplifying the electrochemical signal. Regarding electrochemical catalysis, the CoFe2O4 spinel contains variable valence transition metal ions Fe2+/Fe3+ and Co2+/Co3+, which can reduce and oxidize HMIs circularly, further enhancing the sensor's sensitivity. The portable sensor based on "co-movement catalysis" exhibited sensitive detection performance. The linear range is 0.100-10.0 µM for Pb2+ and 1.00-10.0 µM for Cd2+, with the detection limit of 0.0310 µM for Pb2+ and 0.219 µM for Cd2+, respectively. The recovery rate of the sensor to natural water samples is between 96% and 105%, which proves its development potential in environmental monitoring.

Destructive interference in N2+ lasing.

We report an unexpected experimental observation in rotation-resolved N2+ lasing that the R-branch lasing intensity from a single rotational state in the vicinity of 391 nm can be greatly stronger than the P-branch lasing intensity summing over the total rotational states at suitable pressures. According to a combined measurement of the dependence of the rotation-resolved lasing intensity on the pump-probe delay and the rotation-resolved polarization, we speculate that the destructive interference can be induced for the spectrally-indistinguishable P-branch lasing due to the propagation effect while the R-branch lasing is little affected due to its discrete spectral property, after precluding the role of rotational coherence. These findings shed light on the air-lasing physics, and provide a feasible route to manipulate air lasing intensity.

Design of a Double-Photoelectrode Sensing System with a Metal-Organic Framework-Based Antenna-like Strategy for Highly Sensitive Detection of PD-L1.

Currently, the construction of heterojunctions as a method to enhance photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity has shown prospective applications in the analytical field. Restricted by carrier separation at the interface, developing a heterojunction sensing platform with high sensitivity remains challenging. Here, a double-photoelectrode PEC sensing platform was fabricated based on an antenna-like strategy by integrating MIL-68(In)-NH2, a p-type metal-organic framework (MOF) photocatalyst, as a photocathode with the type-II heterojunction of CdSe/MgIn2S4 as a photoanode synchronously. According to the ligand-to-metal charge transition (LMCT), the photo-generated carriers of MIL-68(In)-NH2 transferred from the organic ligand to the metal cluster, which provides an efficient antenna-like transfer path for the charge at the heterojunction interface. In addition, the sufficient Fermi energy difference between the double photoelectrode provides the continuous internal driving force required for rapid carrier separation at the anode detection interface, significantly improving the photoelectric conversion efficiency. Hence, compared with the traditional heterojunction single electrode, the photocurrent response of the double-photoelectrode PEC sensing platform developed using the antenna-like strategy is 2.5 times stronger. Based on this strategy, we constructed a PEC biosensor for the detection of programed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). The elaborated PD-L1 biosensor exhibited sensitive and precise detection capability with a detection range of 1 × 10-5 to 1 × 103 ng/mL and a lower detection limit of 3.26 × 10-6 ng/mL and demonstrated the feasibility of serum sample detection, providing a novel and viable approach for the unmet clinical need of PD-L1 quantification. More importantly, the charge separation mechanism at the heterojunction interface proposed in this study provides new creative inspiration for designing sensors with high-sensitivity PEC performance.

Ultraviolet supercontinuum generation driven by ionic coherence in a strong laser field.

Supercontinuum (SC) light sources hold versatile applications in many fields ranging from imaging microscopic structural dynamics to achieving frequency comb metrology. Although such broadband light sources are readily accessible in the visible and near infrared regime, the ultraviolet (UV) extension of SC spectrum is still challenging. Here, we demonstrate that the joint contribution of strong field ionization and quantum resonance leads to the unexpected UV continuum radiation spanning the 100 nm bandwidth in molecular nitrogen ions. Quantum coherences in a bunch of ionic levels are found to be created by dynamic Stark-assisted multiphoton resonances following tunneling ionization. We show that the dynamical evolution of the coherence-enhanced polarization wave gives rise to laser-assisted continuum emission inside the laser field and free-induction decay after the laser field, which jointly contribute to the SC generation together with fifth harmonics. As proof of principle, we also show the application of the SC radiation in the absorption spectroscopy. This work offers an alternative scheme for constructing exotic SC sources, and opens up the territory of ionic quantum optics in the strong-field regime.

The low fetal fraction at the first trimester is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in IVF singleton pregnancies with single embryo transfer from frozen cycles.

PURPOSE: To study the associations between fetal fraction at the first trimester and subsequent adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs) in IVF singleton pregnancies with single embryo transfer from frozen cycles. METHODS: This is a single-center retrospective cohort study on IVF singleton pregnancies with single embryo transfer from frozen cycles. A total of 8457 women were collected between March 2015 and September 2018 from the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Shandong University, China. Participants underwent cell-free DNA (cfDNA) sequencing at 11-13 weeks' gestation. Multivariable logistic regressions were performed with the risk of APOs based on various predictor variables. RESULTS: A total of 8457 women were included in the analysis of which 1563 (18.48%) women developed one or more APOs. The hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) (N = 515), gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) (N = 684), preterm birth (PTB) (N = 567), and low birth weight (LBW) (N = 306) groups had lower fetal fraction compared with the no pregnancy complication (NPC) group (all p values < 0.05). Based on the multivariable logistic regression results, the optimal cutoff values of fetal fraction were 9.30%, 12.54%, 9.10%, 12.65%, and 13.83% for at least one APO, HDP, GDM, PTB, and LBW, respectively. After adjustment for potential maternal confounders, women in the low fetal fraction (LFF) group had a higher risk for the APOs compared with high fetal fraction (HFF) group. CONCLUSIONS: The fetal fraction in HDP, GDM, PTB, and LBW groups were lower than NPC group in IVF singleton pregnancies with single embryo transfer from frozen cycles in China.

Background-free single-beam coherent Raman spectroscopy assisted by air lasing.

We develop a background-free single-beam coherent Raman scattering technique enabling the high-sensitivity detection of greenhouse gases. In this scheme, Raman coherence prepared by a femtosecond laser is interrogated by self-generated narrowband air lasing, thus allowing single-beam measurements without complex pulse shaping. The unique temporal and spectral characteristics of air lasing are beneficial for improving the signal-to-noise ratio and spectral resolution of Raman signals. With this method, SF6 gas present at a concentration of 0.38% was detected in an SF6-air mixture. This technique provides a simple and promising route for remote detection due to the low divergence of Raman signals and the availability of high-energy pump lasers, which may broaden the potential applications of air lasing.

Blastocyst euploidy rates in low-prognosis patients according to the POSEIDON criteria: a retrospective analysis of 3016 embryos.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Do embryo euploidy rates differ in the four groups of women with low prognosis as stratified by the POSEIDON criteria? DESIGN: This was a retrospective cohort study of low-prognosis patients who met the POSEIDON criteria and underwent preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A) from January 2013 to June 2020 at the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Shandong University, China. A total of 3016 blastocysts from 1269 PGT-A cycles were included in the study. The primary outcome was the euploidy rate of the blastocysts. For each group, regression analyses were performed to quantitatively describe the relationship between maternal age and embryo euploidy rate. RESULTS: The euploidy rate of embryos in women with poor ovarian response (POR) was 39.1% in total. There were 727, 1052, 275 and 962 blastocysts in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively, with corresponding embryo euploidy rates of 57.2%, 34.9%, 52.4% and 26.2% (P < 0.001). Within each group, the euploidy rate decreased with age, especially in women aged 35 years or older (i.e. groups 2 and 4). CONCLUSIONS: Euploidy rates were more favourable in groups 1 and 3, of a young age, re-emphasizing that oocyte quality is the primary factor determining embryo euploidy rate. The study's findings demonstrated the reasonability of categorizing women with POR by the POSEIDON criteria depending on female age and ovarian reserve biomarkers. These results also provide information for women with POR in different subgroups so they can receive proper counselling on the possible prognosis.

DNA methylation-mediated down-regulation of TMEM130 promotes cell migration in breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common female cancer worldwide. DNA methylation is a common modification in epigenetics and affects the prognosis of breast cancer by changing gene expression. In the present study, we aim to investigate the role of DNA methylation in TMEM130 gene expression, and the function of TMEM130 in breast cancer cell migration. METHODS: The transcriptional expression of TMEM130 was detected by qRT-PCR in breast cancer cell lines and tissues. Bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP) was used to confirm the methylation status of TMEM130 promoter. Then, TMEM130 was transfected in breast cancer cell lines and to explore its role in cell migration by Transwell and western blot. RESULTS: TMEM130 mRNA expression was decreased in breast cancer cell lines and tissues, and consistent with the data in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The promoter of TMEM130 was hypermethylated in breast cancer and the expression of TMEM130 could be restored by the methyltransferase inhibitor. Overexpression of TMEM130 could inhibit cell migration ability in breast cancer cell lines. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results indicate TMEM130 downregulation and hypermethylation might contribute to breast cancer migration and TMEM130 might be a promising biomarker for breast cancer.

Super-resolution of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia CT via self-attention GAN.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Computed tomography (CT) examination plays an important role in screening suspected and confirmed patients in pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), and the efficient acquisition of high-quality medical CT images is essential for the clinical application of computer-aided diagnosis technology. Therefore, improving the resolution of CT images of pneumonia is a very important task. METHODS: Aiming at the problem of how to recover the texture details of the reconstructed PCP CT super-resolution image, we propose the image super-resolution reconstruction model based on self-attention generation adversarial network (SAGAN). In the SAGAN algorithm, a generator based on self-attention mechanism and residual module is used to transform a low-resolution image into a super-resolution image. A discriminator based on depth convolution network tries to distinguish the difference between the reconstructed super-resolution image and the real super-resolution image. In terms of loss function construction, on the one hand, the Charbonnier content loss function is used to improve the accuracy of image reconstruction, and on the other hand, the feature value before activation of the pre-trained VGGNet is used to calculate the perceptual loss to achieve accurate texture detail reconstruction of super-resolution images. RESULTS: Experimental results show that our SAGAN algorithm is superior to other state-of-the-art algorithms in both peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structural similarity score (SSIM). Specifically, our SAGAN method can obtain 31.94 dB which is 1.53 dB better than SRGAN on Set5 dataset for 4 enlargements. CONCLUSION: Our SAGAN method can reconstruct more realistic PCP CT images with clear texture, which can help experts diagnose the condition of PCP.

Enhanced resonant vibrational Raman scattering of N2+ induced by self-seeding ionic lasers created in polarization-modulated intense laser fields.

We report on an experimental investigation of the five vibrational Raman lines at 358 nm, 388 nm, 391 nm, 428 nm, and 471 nm of N2+ resonantly driven by the self-seeding ionic lasers generated by a polarization-modulated (PM) or alternatively a linearly polarized (LP) femtosecond laser. It was found that the spectral intensities of several Raman lines can be dramatically enhanced by exploiting the PM laser pulses in comparison to the LP laser pulses. The evaluated Raman conversion efficiency reaches ∼10-2 for some lasing lines at suitable pressures. Moreover, the role of interplay between the seed amplification and the resonant vibrational Raman scattering processes in inducing the gain of N2+ lasing is characterized for the first time. The developed vibrational Raman spectroscopy with intense ultrafast lasers provides an additional approach to interrogate the products in a femtosecond filament, and it therefore can be a powerful tool for identifying chemical species at remote distances in the atmosphere.

[Identification of a novel variant of COL4A5 gene in a pedigree affected with Alport syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the genetic basis for a pedigree affected with Alport syndrome. METHODS: Next generation sequencing and Sanger sequencing was carried out to detect potential variant of the COL4A5 gene among members from the pedigree and 100 unrelated healthy controls. RESULTS: A novel missense c.3293G>T (p.Gly1098Val) variant was found in the COL4A5 gene among 6 affected members but not the unaffected members of the pedigree or the 100 healthy controls. According to the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics standards and guidelines, the c.3293G>T variant was classified as pathogenic (PP1-strong+PM1+PM2+PP3+PP4). CONCLUSION: By destructing the Gly-X-Y structure of its protein product, the c.3293G>T variant of the COL4A5 gene probably underlies the Alport syndrome in this pedigree. Above finding has enriched the spectrum of COL4A5 variants.

Mechanism and control of rotational coherence in femtosecond laser-driven N2.

We investigate the formation of rotational coherence of N2+ resonantly interacting with an intense femtosecond laser field by numerical simulations based on a strong-field ionization-coupling model described with the density matrix formalism. The created N2+ system is unique in many aspects: the variable total population within the pump duration due to the intensity-dependent ionization injection, the readily accessible resonance owing to the effect of Stark shift, and the involvement of a few dozen of quantum states. By regarding the N2+ system as an open and non-stationary Λ-type cascaded multi-level system, we quantitatively studied the dependence of rotational coherence in different electronic-vibrational states of N2+ on the alignment angle θ and the pumping intensity. Our simulation results indicate that the quantum coherence between the neighbouring rotational states of J, J+2 in the vibrational state ν=0, 1 of the ground state of N2+ can be changed from a negative to a positive. The significant contribution of rotational coherence to inducing an extra gain or absorption of N2+ air lasing is further verified by solving the Maxwell's propagating equation. The finding provides crucial clues on how to manipulate N2+ lasing by controlling the rotational coherence and paves the way to studying strong-field quantum optics effects such as lasing without inversion and electromagnetically induced transparency in molecular ionic systems.

[Identification of a novel splicing variant of IDS gene in a pedigree affected with type II glycosaminoglycan product storage disease].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze variant of IDS gene in a pedigree affected with mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II). METHODS: The proband was subjected to next generation sequencing and Sanger sequencing to identify potential variants. Suspected variant was analyzed by its co-segregation with the disease in the pedigree. Its impact on mRNA splicing was analyzed by using reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR). RESULTS: A hemizygous IVS1-3T>G variant was found in the IDS gene in the proband. RT-PCR results revealed two abnormal cDNA fragments of 600 bp and 300 bp. The 600 bp fragment had inserted 216 nucleotides at the 3' end of intron 1, while the 300 bp fragment had lost 109 nucleotides at the 5' end of exon 2, which resulted in two truncated proteins comprising 38 and 92 amino acids, respectively, instead of the normal product (550 amino acids). The proband and his mother were respectively hemizygous and heterozygous for the variant. The same variant was not found among 100 normal controls. CONCLUSION: The IVS1-3T>G variant of the IDS gene probably underlies the MPS II in this pedigree by causing reduction or elimination of the IDS protein.

Clinical Characteristics of Colonoscopic Perforation and Risk Factors for Complications After Surgical Treatment.

Background: There are few studies on postoperative complications after colonoscopic perforation. We aimed to study clinical characteristics and treatment after colonoscopic perforation, and to determine risk factors for postoperative complications by surgical treatment of colonoscopy perforation. Methods: Cases with perforation within 7 days after colonoscopy from January 2017 to December 2019 were collected for retrospective analysis. Data regarding demography, clinical information, colonoscopy, perforation, and operation were collected. Single-factor analysis and Spearman correlation analysis were employed to determine the risk factors of postoperative complications. Results: A total of 35,243 colonoscopy examinations were performed during the study period, of which 18 cases of colonoscopic perforation were included in the criteria. Most perforations occurred in the rectosigmoid junction (3 cases) and sigmoid colon (11 cases). All perforation patients received operational treatment, and the incidence of postoperative complications was 38.9%, but no deaths. There were 7 patients who developed postoperative complications. Spearman correlation analysis showed that preoperative medication of glucocorticoid and nonrectosigmoid perforation were positively related to postoperative complications (P < .05), while perforation diagnosed immediately and satisfying intestinal cleanliness were negatively related to it (P < .05). Conclusion: Perforation is a rare but serious complication of colonoscopy, which mostly occurs in the rectosigmoid junction and sigmoid colon. Laparoscopic primary repair is safe and feasible in resolving colonic perforation due to colonoscopy, and postoperative complications were significantly related to perforation site, preoperative medication of glucocorticoid, perforation diagnosis time, and intestinal cleanliness.