Preoperatively predicting vessels encapsulating tumor clusters in hepatocellular carcinoma:Machine learning model based on contrast-enhanced computed tomography

BACKGROUND Recently,vessels encapsulating tumor clusters(VETC)was considered as a distinct pattern of tumor vascularization which can primarily facilitate the entry of the whole tumor cluster into the bloodstream in an invasion independent manner,and was regarded as an independent risk factor for poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).AIM To develop and validate a preoperative nomogram using contrast-enhanced computed tomography(CECT)to predict the presence of VETC+in HCC.METHODS We retrospectively evaluated 190 patients with pathologically confirmed HCC who underwent CECT scanning and immunochemical staining for cluster of differentiation 34 at two medical centers.Radiomics analysis was conducted on intratumoral and peritumoral regions in the portal vein phase.Radiomics features,essential for identifying VETC+HCC,were extracted and utilized to develop a radiomics model using machine learning algorithms in the training set.The model’s performance was validated on two separate test sets.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)analysis was employed to compare the identified performance of three models in predicting the VETC status of HCC on both training and test sets.The most predictive model was then used to constructed a radiomics nomogram that integrated the independent clinical-radiological features.ROC and decision curve analysis were used to assess the performance characteristics of the clinical-radiological features,the radiomics features and the radiomics nomogram.RESULTS The study included 190 individuals from two independent centers,with the majority being male(81%)and a median age of 57 years(interquartile range:51-66).The area under the curve(AUC)for the combined radiomics features selected from the intratumoral and peritumoral areas were 0.825,0.788,and 0.680 in the training set and the two test sets.A total of 13 features were selected to construct the Rad-score.The nomogram,combining clinicalradiological and combined radiomics features could accurately predict VETC+in all three sets,with AUC values of 0.859,0.848 and 0.757.Decision curve analysis revealed that the radiomics nomogram was more clinically useful than both the clinical-radiological feature and the combined radiomics models.CONCLUSION This study demonstrates the potential utility of a CECT-based radiomics nomogram,incorporating clinicalradiological features and combined radiomics features,in the identification of VETC+HCC.

Research on the Construction of Entrepreneurship Course Clusters for Students in Agriculture and Forestry Universities

Curriculum construction is the key factor in determining the quality of education.The innovation and entrepreneurship course clusters have effectively upgraded entrepreneurship courses in terms of talent cultivation,resource integration,and educational practice.In response to the existing problems and difficulties in the construction of entrepreneurship course clusters in agricultural and forestry universities,suggestions and measures are proposed from macro-,meso-,and micro-level perspectives to reach a consensus on entrepreneurship education,construct interdisciplinary course clusters,and improve the quality and effect of education implementation.This provides a reference for agricultural and forestry universities to construct high-quality entrepreneurship course clusters.

Parity Alternation of Silicon-doped Ternary Cationic Clusters HC_nSi_2^+(n=1～9)

Systematic study on the electronic/geometrical structures and the parity alternation effect of silicon-doped ternary cationic clusters HCnSi2＋（n = 1 ~9） have been carried out at the coupled cluster level. The ground-state （G-S） isomers of the clusters have been defined. The C, chains of the G-S isomers display polyacetylene-like structures. The even-n cations are more stable than the odd-n ones. Such a trend of even/odd alternation has been elaborated based on concepts of the bond character, atomic charge, incremental binding energy, ionization potential, proton affinity and fragmentation energies of the systems. The findings accord with the relative intensities of HC,,Si2＋ species recorded in the related mass spectrometric experiments.

TDDFT-SOS Studies on the Polarizabilities and Second-order Hyperpolarizabilities of Zn_3O_3 II-VI Semiconductor Clusters

The geometrical structure of semiconductor clusters including Zn3O3 was optimized by the DFT B3LYP method. With the same basis sets, dipole moments, polarizabilities and secondorder hyperpolarizabilities have been calculated and compared with the results obtained by TDDFT B3LYP method combined with sum-over-state （SOS） formula. The calculation results indicate that the dipole moments of the ground state depend on the atom radius and electronegative differences between elements and are their balance point as well. The polarizabilities of the clusters accord with the rule of the corresponding energy transformation from ground to excited state. The results predict an increase of second-order hyperpolarizabilities with increasing the distances between atoms in the clusters as well as a decrease of the polarizabilities and second-order hyperpolarizabilities in the same serial of semiconductor clusters with increasing the dipole moments of the ground states. The changes of dipole moments in ground states are inconsistent with transition moments. Spatial structure, charge transfer and other factors play an important role in composing the transition moments.

Study of Quantitative and Qualitative Characteristics of Nickel Clusters and Semiconductor Structures

The possibility of building of clusters of impurity atoms of Ni in silicon and controlling their parameters is currently investigated in the present research article. Our group develops a special technique for doping, the so-called “low-temperature doping” of semiconductors. This method of doping is based upon the diffusion process which is carried out in stages by gradually increasing temperature ranging from room temperature to the diffusion temperature.

Constraints on Dark Energy from the CSST Galaxy Clusters

We study the potential of the galaxy cluster sample expected from the Chinese Space Station Telescope(CSST)survey to constrain dark energy properties.By modeling the distribution of observed cluster mass for a given true mass to be log-normal and adopting a selection threshold in the observed mass M_(200m)≥0.836×10^(14)h^(-1)M_(⊙),we find about 4.1×10^(5)clusters in the redshift range 0≤z≤1.5 can be detected by the CSST.We construct the Fisher matrix for the cluster number counts from CSST,and forecast constraints on dark energy parameters for models with constant(w_(0)CDM)and time dependent(w_(0)w_(a)CDM)equation of state.In the self-calibration scheme,the dark energy equation of state parameter w_(0)of the w_(0)CDM model can be constrained toΔw_(0)=0.036.If w_(a)is added as a free parameter,we obtainΔw_(0)=0.077 andΔw_(a)=0.39 for the w_(0)w_(a)CDM model,with a Figure of Merit for(w_(0),w_(a))of 68.99.Should we have perfect knowledge of the observable-mass scaling relation("known SR"scheme),we would obtainΔw_(0)=0.012 for the w_(0)CDM model,andΔw_(0)=0.062 andΔw_(a)=0.24 for the w_(0)w_(a)CDM model.The dark energy Figure of Merit of(w_(0),w_(a))increases to 343.25.This indicates again the importance of calibrating the observable-mass scaling relation for optically selected galaxy clusters.By extending the_(max)imum redshift of the clusters from z_(max)~1.5 to Z_(max)~2,the dark energy Figure of Merit for(w_(0),w_(a))increases to 89.72(self-calibration scheme)and 610.97("known SR"scheme),improved by a factor of~1.30 and~1.78,respectively.We find that the impact of clusters’redshift uncertainty on the dark energy constraints is negligible as long as the redshift error of clusters is smaller than 0.01,achievable by CSST.We also find that the bias in logarithm mass must be calibrated to be 0.30 or better to avoid significant dark energy parameter bias.

Study on the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with nanometre-sized hydrogen clusters

The interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with hydrogen clusters has been experimentally studied. The hydrogen clusters were produced from expansion of high-pressure hydrogen gas （backed up to 8×10^6Pa） into vacuum through a conical nozzle cryogenically cooled by liquid nitrogen. The average size of hydrogen clusters was estimated by Rayleigh scattering measurement and the maximum proton energy of up to 4.2keV has been obtained from the Coulomb explosion of hydrogen clusters under 2 × 10^16W/cm^2 laser irradiation. Dependence of the maximum proton energy on cluster size and laser intensity was investigated, indicating the correlation between the laser intensity and the cluster size. The maximum proton energy is found to be directly proportional to the laser intensity, which is consistent with the theoretical prediction.

Nuclear fusion from Coulomb explosions of deuterated methane clusters subjected to ultraintense femtosecond laser pulses

This paper reports that Coulomb explosions taken place in the experiment of heteronuclear deuterated methane clusters （（CD4）n） in a gas jet subjected to intense femtoseeond laser pulses （170 mJ, 70 fs） have led to table-top laser driven DD nuclear fusion. The clusters produced in supersonic expansion had an average size of about 5 nm in radius and the laser intensity used was 3 × 10^17 W/cm^2.The measured maximum and average energies of deuterons produced in the laser-cluster interaction were 60 and 13.5 keV, respectively. Prom DD collisions of energetic deuterons, a yield of 2.5（±0.4） × 10^4 fusion neutrons of 2.45 MeV per shot was realized, giving rise to a neutron production efficiency of about 1.5 × 10^5 per joule of incident laser pulse energy. Theoretical calculations were performed and a fairly good agreement of the calculated neutron yield with that obtained from the present experiment was found.

Probing Structure, Thermochemistry, Electron Affinity and Magnetic Moment of Dysprosium-doped Silicon Clusters DySi_n(n = 3～10) and Their Anions with Double-hybrid Density Functional Theory

The equilibrium geometries, electronic structures and electronic properties including adiabatic electron affinity（AEA）, vertical detachment energy（VDE）, simulated photoelectron spectroscopy, HOMO-LUMO gap, charge transfer, and magnetic moment for DySi_n（n = 3~10） clusters and their anions were systematically investigated by using the ABCluster global search technique combined with the B3 LYP and B2 PLYP density functional methods. The results showed that the lowest energy structure of neutral DySi_n（n = 3~10） can be regarded as substituting a Si atom of the ground state structure of Si_（n＋1） with a Dy atom. For anions, the extra electron effect on the structure is significant. Starting from n = 6, the lowest energy structures of DySi_n~？（n = 3~10） differ from those of neutral. The ground state is quintuplet electronic state for DySi_n（n = 3~10） excluding DySi_4 and DySi_9, which is a septet electronic state. For anions, the ground state is a sextuplet electronic state. The reliable AEA and VDE of DySi_n（n = 3~10） are reported. Analyses of HOMO-LUMO gaps indicated that doping Dy atom to silicon clusters can improve significantly their photochemical reactivity, especially for DySi_9. Analyses of NPA revealed that the 4 f electrons of Dy in DySi_4, DySi_9, and DySi_n~？ with n = 4 and 6~10 participate in bonding. That is, DySi_nbelongs to the AB type. The 4 f electrons of Dy atom provide substantially the total magnetic moments for DySi_n and their anions. The dissociation energies of Ln（Ln = Pr, Sm, Eu, Gd, Ho, and Dy） fromLn Sin and their anions were evaluated to examine the relative stabilities.

Effect of Merging of the Convective Cloud Clusters on Occurrence of Heavy Rainfall

Sun et al., (1983) have given some favourable environmental conditions and have shown that there are four common features in convective rainstorms. In this paper, an important process of evolution of cloud systems was revealed when heavy rainfall occurred based on the diagnostic analysis of heavy rainfall cases. When the different cloud systems merge into a large one, the mesoscale heavy rainfall occurs and enhances. In other words, the process of evolution of cloud systems emphasized in this paper is the process of interaction between two cloud systems when the heavy rainfall occurs. The favourable environmental condition is also investigated.

Interactions of a Femtosecond Intense Laser with Rare Gas Clusters in a Dense Jet

A study on the interactions of high intensity (- 1016 W/cm2) femtosecond laser pulses with rare gas clusters in a dense jet is performed. Energy absorption by Ar and Xe clusters is measured and it can be as high as 90%. Very energetic ions produced in the laser interaction with a dense cluster jet are detected by time-of-flight spectrometry and the maximum ion energy of Xe is up to 1.3 MeV. The average ion energies are found to increase with increasing cluster size and get saturated gradually. The average ion energies also show a strong directionality and the average ion energy in the direction parallel to the laser polarization vector is 40% higher than that perpendicular to it. The findings are discussed in terms of a model of charge-dependent ion acceleration.

Electronic Structure of the Clusters Containing Oxygen in Ni

The electronic structure of the clusters containing oxygen, the stacking fault and the complex in the transition metal Ni are calculated by the multiple-scattering Xa method. Energy levels,density of states and transfer of charge are obtained. Based on the calculation and analysis,the influences of impurity oxygen and structure defect on the electronic structure of the clusters are discussed, and it is found that the local Ni-o cluster with the interstitial oxygen is a stable atomic configuration.

Effects of human umbilical cord serum on proliferation and insulin content of human fetal islet-like cell clusters

BACKGROUND: Type 1 diabets is an autoimmune disease caused by the destruction of pancreatic β-cell with an in- creased incidence worldwide in the closing decades of the 20th century. This study was to investigate the effects of human umbilical cord serum (UCS) on the proliferation and function of human fetal islet-like cell clusters (ICCs) in vitro. METHODS: Eight fresh pancreatic glands obtained after in- duction of labor with water bag were mildly exposed to col- lagenase V, and the digested cells were cultured in a RPMI- 1640 medium plus 10% pooled UCS or fetal calf serum (FCS) to permit cells attachment and outgrowth of ICCs. RESULTS: In 8 consecutively explanted glands, develop- ment and proliferation of ICCs were observed. In the pre- sence of FCS, the outgrowth of ICC took place on the top of a flbroblast monocellular layer. UCS affected less growth of fibroblasts and increased the formation of ICCs about four-fold compared with explants from the same glands maintained in FCS. In both UCS and FCS, the insulin con- tent of the medium was variable to a certain extent and progressively declined from day 2 to day 6. Dithizone- stained ICCs in UCS suggested that most cell clusters were islet cells ( β-cells), and the purity of islets was estimated 80%-90%. The ultrastructure of the cultured cells showed a large number of granule-containing cells, most of which were identified as β-cells. CONCLUSION: We conclude that in comparison with ex- plants with FCS, the yield of ICCs and purification of islet cells are markedly increased by UCS and may facilitate the proliferation of pancreatic β-cells intended for islet trans- plantation.

Molybdenum carbide clusters for thermal conversion of CO2 to CO via reverse water-gas shift reaction

Molybdenum carbides are highly active for CO2 conversion to CO via the reverse water-gas shift(RWGS)reaction, however the large grain size up to micrometers renders its relatively lower active sites utilization efficiency while generating CH4 as a by-product. In this work, a homogeneously dispersed molybdenum carbide hybrid catalyst with sub-nanosized cluster(the average size as small as 0.5 nm) is prepared via a facile carbothermal treatment for highly selective CO2-CO reduction. The partially disordered Mo2C clusters are characterized by synchrotron high-resolution XRD and atomic resolution HAADF-STEM analysis, for which the source cause of the disorder is pinpointed by XAFS analysis to be the nitrogen intercalants from the carbonaceous precursor. The partially disordered Mo2C clusters show a RWGS rate as high as 184.4 μmol gMo2C-1s-1 at 400 ℃ with a superior selectivity toward CO(> 99.5%). This work 2 highlights a facile strategy for fabricating highly dispersed and partially disordered Mo2C clusters at a sub-nano size with beneficial N-doping for delivering high catalytic activity and operational stability.

A Metal-organic Framework Containing Octanuclear Zn(Ⅱ) Clusters Constructed by 5-Methoxyisophthalate and Flexible Bis(imidazolyl) Ligand

The hydrothermal reaction of 5-methoxyisophthalic acid（MeO-H2ip）, 1,3-bis（2-methylimidazol-1-yl）propane（bmip） and Zn（NO3）2·6H2O in the presence of NaOCH3 gave rise to a three-dimensional（3-D） metal-organic framework containing octanuclear Zn（II） units, [Zn4（MeO-ip）3（OH）2（bmip）]n. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the complex crystallizes in the triclinic space group P1 with a = 11.348（3）, b = 14.163（4）, c = 15.088（4） , α = 108.537（2）, β = 106.542（2）, γ = 103.106（1）o, V = 2065.4（9） -3, Z = 2, Mr = 334.62, Dc = 1.740 g·cm-（-3）, μ = 2.375 mm-（-1）, S = 1.015, F（000） = 1096, the final R = 0.0272 and w R = 0.0715 for 8929 observed reflections（I 〉 2σ（I））. The complex is thermally stable up to 370 oC, and exhibits photoluminescent emission at 450 nm on 350 nm excitation.

CeO_(x)-supported monodispersed MoO_(3) clusters for high-efficiency electrochemical nitrogen reduction under ambient condition

Developing efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts is essential for the electroreduction of N_(2) to NH_(3).Here,highly monodispersed MoO_(3) clusters loaded on a coral-like CeO_(x)compound with abundant oxygen vacancies are successfully prepared by an impregnation-reduction method.The MoO_(3) clusters with small sizes of 2.6±0.5 nm are induced and anchored by the oxygen vacancies of CeO_(x),resulting in excellent nitrogen reduction reaction(NRR)performance.Additionally,the synergistic effects between MoO_(3) and CeO_(x)lead to a further improvement of the electrochemical performance.The as-prepared MoO_(3)-CeO_(x)catalyst shows an NH_(3) yield rate of 32.2 μg h^(-1) mg^(-1) cat and a faradaic efficiency of 7.04%at-0.75 V(vs.reversible hydrogen electrode)in 0.01 M Dulbecco’s Phosphate Buffered Saline.Moreover,it displays decent electrochemical stability over 30,000 s.Besides,the electrochemical NRR mechanism for MoO_(3)-CeO_(x)is investigated by in-situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.N-H stretching,H-N-H bending,and N-N stretching are detected during the reaction,suggesting that an associative pathway is followed.This work provides an approach to designing and synthesizing potential electrocatalysts for NRR.

Synthesis,Crystal Structure and Photoluminescent Property of a Novel Dy^(3+) Coordination Compound Containing Rare(H_2O)_(22) Clusters

A novel Dy^（3＋） coordination compound,（H_2pipz）（H_3O）[Dy（pydc）_3]·11H_2O（1,pipz = piperazine and H_2pydc = pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid）,has been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by X-ray single-crystal diffraction,elemental analysis. It is interesting that the packing structure of compound 1 contains 22-core water clusters. Compound 1 is extended into a threedimensional supramolecular structure via O···H···O hydrogen bonding interactions. Furthermore,the luminescent property of compound 1 was also investigated.

Two New Complexes with the Same(3,8)-Connected tfz-d Topology Based on [Co4(μ3-OH)2] Clusters and Different Aromatic Multicarboxylic Acids

Two new metal-organic frameworks（MOFs）, namely, [Co_2（L_1）（bix）（μ_3-OH）]·2H_2O（1） and [Co_2（L_2）（bix）（μ_3-OH）]·2.5H_2O（2）（H_3L_1 = 5-oxyacetate isophthalic acid, H_3L_2 = 3,5-bis-oxyacetate-benzoic acid, bix = 1,4-bis（imidazol-1-ylmethyl）benzene）, have been synthesized under hydrothermal conditions. Their structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and further characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectra, and powder X-ray diffraction（PXRD） analysis. Both complexes 1 and 2 demonstrate identical three-dimensional（3D）（3,8）-connected tfz-d nets with（4~3）_2（4~6·6^（18）·8~4） topologies, where the tetranuclear [Co_4（μ_3-OH）_2] clusters act as 8-connected nodes and aromatic multicarboxylic ligands as 3-connected nodes. The results show that the ligands with different geometrical conformations can form products with the same topological structures. Their thermal and magnetic properties were also investigated.

Effect of copper addition on the thermal contraction of indium melt clusters

The structure of In-1 %Cu and In-5%Cu (mass fraction) alloy melts werestudied at different temperatures above liquidus by using a high-temperature X-ray diffractometerand were compared with that of pure In melt. Experimental results show that with the addition of 1%Cu or 5% Cu, the thermal contraction phenomenon of atom clusters occurs in melts with thetemperature increasing like pure In melt. With the addition of 1% Cu, the thermal contraction ofatom clusters increases and the contraction is not homogeneous in the whole measurement temperaturerange. The sudden change and noticeable contraction can be found in the range of 280-390 ℃. Thetemperature range of the sudden change is lower than that of pure In melt. With the addition of 5%Cu, the thermal contraction of atom clusters decreases and the contraction is not consistent in thewhole measurement temperature range. The anomalous change can be measured at about 600 ℃. At thesame superheating temperature, the nearest interatomic distance r_1 of the melts containing copperis smaller than that of pure In melt, implying that the cluster structure of melts containing copperis more compact.

A New Self-Adapting Admission Control Algorithm for Differential Service in Web Clusters

A new admission control algorithm considering the network self-similar access characteristics is proposed. Taking advantage of the mathematical model of the network traffic admission control which can effectively overcome the self-similar characteristics of the network requests, through the scheduling of the differential service qucue based on priority while at the same time taking into account various factors including access characteristics of requests, load information, etc, smoothness of the admission control is ensured by the algorithm proposed in this paper. We design a non-linear self-adapting control algorithm by introducing an exponential admission function, thus overcomes the negative aspects introduced by static threshold parameters. Simulation results show that the scheme proposed in this paper can effectively improve the resource utilization of the clusters, while at the same time protecting the service with high priority. Our simulation results also show that this algorithm can improve system stability and reliability too. Key words Web cluster - admission control - differential service - self-similar - self-adapting CLC number TP 393 Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10375024) and the Hunan Natural Science Foundation of China(03JJY4054)Biography: LIU An-feng(1971-), male, Ph. D candidate, majoring in network computing, Web QoS.