Calcium-sensitive protein MLC1 as a possible modulator of the astrocyte functional state

Astrocytes,the main population of glial cells in the central nervous system(CNS),exert essential tasks for the control of brain tissue homeostasis,supporting neuron and other glial cell activity from the developmental stage to adult life.To maintain the optimal functionality of the brain,astroglial cells are particularly committed to reacting to every change in tissue homeostatic conditions,from mild modifications of the physiological environment,a process called astrocyte activation,to the more severe alterations occurring in pathological situations causing astrocyte reactivity or reactive astrogliosis(Escartin et al.,2021).During these reactive states,astrocytes mount an active,progressive response encompassing morphological,molecular,and interactional remodeling,leading to the acquisition of new functions and the loss of others,whose intensity,duration,and reversibility are dependent on the nature of the stimulus and regulated in a context-specific manner.

Neuropeptide cholecystokinin:a key neuromodulator for hippocampal functions

Spatial memory is crucial for survival within external surroundings and wild environments.The hippocampus,a critical hub for spatial learning and memory formation,has received extensive investigations on how neuromodulators shape its functions(Teixeira et al.,2018;Zhang et al.,2024).However,the landscape of neuromodulations in the hippocampal system remains poorly understood because most studies focus on classical monoamine neuromodulators,such as acetylcholine,serotonin,dopamine,and noradrenaline.The neuropeptides,comprising the most abundant neuromodulators in the central nervous system,play a pivotal role in neural information processing in the hippocampal system.Cholecystokinin(CCK),one of the most abundant neuropeptides,has been implicated in regulating various physiological and neurobiological statuses(Chen et al.,2019).CCK-A receptor(CCK-AR)and CCK-B receptors(CCK-BR)are two key receptors mediating the biological functions of CCK,both of which belong to class-A sevenfold transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors(Nishimura et al.,2015).CCK-AR preferentially reacts to sulfated CCK,whereas CCK-BR binds both CCK and gastrin with similar affinities(Ding et al.,2022).The expression patterns of CCK-AR and CCK-BR are distinct,implying that CCK has various functions in target regions.For instance,CCK-AR is widely expressed in the GI and brain subregions and is hence implicated in the control of digestive function and satiety regulation.Conversely,CCK-BR is abundantly and widely distributed in the central nervous system,which majorly regulates anxiety,learning,and memory(Ding et al.,2022).However,the roles of endogenous CCK and CCK receptors in regulating hippocampal function at electrophysiological and behavioral levels have received less attention.

OFDM with Generalized Cascade Index Modulation for Secure Communications

Cascade index modulation(CIM) is a recently proposed improvement of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation(OFDM-IM) and achieves better error performance.In CIM, at least two different IM operations construct a super IM operation or achieve new functionality. First, we propose a OFDM with generalized CIM(OFDM-GCIM) scheme to achieve a joint IM of subcarrier selection and multiple-mode(MM)permutations by using a multilevel digital algorithm.Then, two schemes, called double CIM(D-CIM) and multiple-layer CIM(M-CIM), are proposed for secure communication, which combine new IM operation for disrupting the original order of bits and symbols with conventional OFDM-IM, to protect the legitimate users from eavesdropping in the wireless communications. A subcarrier-wise maximum likelihood(ML) detector and a low complexity log-likelihood ratio(LLR) detector are proposed for the legitimate users. A tight upper bound on the bit error rate(BER) of the proposed OFDM-GCIM, D-CIM and MCIM at the legitimate users are derived in closed form by employing the ML criteria detection. Computer simulations and numerical results show that the proposed OFDM-GCIM achieves superior error performance than OFDM-IM, and the error performance at the eavesdroppers demonstrates the security of D-CIM and M-CIM.

Modular System of Cascaded Converters Based onModel Predictive Control

A modular system of cascaded converters based on model predictive control(MPC)is proposed to meet the application requirements ofmultiple voltage levels and electrical isolation in renewable energy generation systems.The system consists of a Buck/Boost+CLLLC cascaded converter as a submodule,which is combined in series and parallel on the input and output sides to achieve direct-current(DC)voltage transformation,bidirectional energy flow,and electrical isolation.The CLLLC converter operates in DC transformer mode in the submodule,while the Buck/Boost converter participates in voltage regulation.This article establishes a suitable mathematical model for the proposed system topology,and uses MPC to control the system based on this mathematical model.Module parameters are designed and calculated,and simulation is built in MATLAB/Simulink to complete the simulation comparison experiment between MPC and traditional proportional integral(PI)control.Finally,a physical experimental platform is built to complete the physical comparison experiment.The simulation and physical experimental results prove that the control accuracy and response speed ofMPC are better than traditional PI control strategy.

基于改进的Cascade RCNN铸管字符检测算法

由于工业现场采集的铸管字符图像存在背景模糊、字符区域占比小、刻字位置不固定、油漆遮挡等问题,导致现有模型的检测精度难以满足工业现场的需求。针对上述问题,提出改进的Cascade RCNN铸管字符检测算法。首先对特征金字塔进行改进,提出融合小目标增强的特征金字塔(STE-FPN),利用多尺度特征融合的特征增强能力丰富铸管小目标字符的特征信息。其次引入自矫正/池化的ResNeSt(SCP-ResNeSt)作为特征提取网络,利用自矫正卷积和池化操作以提升背景复杂的铸管字符特征提取效率。最后对级联结构进行改进,引进Mask分支结构,可以自适应地检测字符区域并去除干扰区域,优化了检测结果。将改进后的算法在铸管数据集上进行测试,其平均检测精度mAP为99.1%,比原Cascade RCNN算法提高了2.3%,得到的精度表明改进后的性能优于原算法。

基于改进Cascade R-CNN算法的船舶目标检测方法

为了解决实际场景下船舶目标检测精度低的问题,本文在Cascade R-CNN算法的基础上,提出一种船舶目标检测方法 Boat R-CNN。Boat R-CNN使用带自注意力机制的Swin-Transformer Tiny网络提取图像特征,使用Soft-NMS非极大值抑制方法提升候选框过滤精度,使用Smooth_L1损失函数加速模型收敛并减少梯度爆炸情况,使用CIOU边界框回归损失提高候选框回归质量,并针对船舶目标的形状特征优化锚框的长宽比,提高锚框的生成质量。实验结果表明,Boat R-CNN算法的精度相比原版Cascade R-CNN算法提高了21.8%,相比主流Faster R-CNN算法提高了30.3%,有效提升了实际场景下的船舶目标检测精度。

基于改进Cascade R-CNN的安全帽检测算法

针对安全帽检测中,目标形状、尺度变化大,易出现漏检、误检等问题,提出了一种基于改进级联基于区域的卷积神经网络(Cascade R-CNN)的安全帽检测算法。首先,对ResNet50进行改进形成D-ResNet50,利用可变形卷积仅增加少量参数就可增大感受野的特性,对特征提取网络的C2~C5卷积层进行重塑,提高网络对目标几何变换的适应能力和特征提取能力。其次,将D-ResNet50作为主干网络引入Cascade R-CNN,形成级联目标检测器,在每个阶段对正负样本重采样,抑制误检问题。再次,对递归特征金字塔进行改进,更高效地进行多尺度特征融合,并且基于反馈信息对特征进行二次处理,增强特征表达,提高网络的分类和定位能力。最后,使用Soft-非极大值抑制(Soft-NMS)进行后处理,进一步解决漏检问题。提出的方法在Hard hat workers数据集上的AP值相比检测基线提高了3.5%,与Sparse R-CNN、TridentNet、VFnet等先进算法相比分别提升了4.7%、5.9%、2.3%等。

Pluggable multitask diffractive neural networks based on cascaded metasurfaces

Optical neural networks have significant advantages in terms of power consumption,parallelism,and high computing speed,which has intrigued extensive attention in both academic and engineering communities.It has been considered as one of the powerful tools in promoting the fields of imaging processing and object recognition.However,the existing optical system architecture cannot be reconstructed to the realization of multi-functional artificial intelligence systems simultaneously.To push the development of this issue,we propose the pluggable diffractive neural networks(P-DNN),a general paradigm resorting to the cascaded metasurfaces,which can be applied to recognize various tasks by switching internal plug-ins.As the proof-of-principle,the recognition functions of six types of handwritten digits and six types of fashions are numerical simulated and experimental demonstrated at near-infrared regimes.Encouragingly,the proposed paradigm not only improves the flexibility of the optical neural networks but paves the new route for achieving high-speed,low-power and versatile artificial intelligence systems.

Coordinated Capacitor Voltage Balancing Method for Cascaded H-bridge Inverter with Supercapacitor and DC-DC Stage

Cascaded H-bridge inverter(CHBI) with supercapacitors(SCs) and dc-dc stage shows significant promise for medium to high voltage energy storage applications. This paper investigates the voltage balance of capacitors within the CHBI, including both the dc-link capacitors and SCs. Balance control over the dc-link capacitor voltages is realized by the dcdc stage in each submodule(SM), while a hybrid modulation strategy(HMS) is implemented in the H-bridge to balance the SC voltages among the SMs. Meanwhile, the dc-link voltage fluctuations are analyzed under the HMS. A virtual voltage variable is introduced to coordinate the balancing of dc-link capacitor voltages and SC voltages. Compared to the balancing method that solely considers the SC voltages, the presented method reduces the dc-link voltage fluctuations without affecting the voltage balance of SCs. Finally, both simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the presented method.

Multi-dimensional multiplexing optical secret sharing framework with cascaded liquid crystal holograms

Secret sharing is a promising technology for information encryption by splitting the secret information into different shares.However,the traditional scheme suffers from information leakage in decryption process since the amount of available information channels is limited.Herein,we propose and demonstrate an optical secret sharing framework based on the multi-dimensional multiplexing liquid crystal(LC)holograms.The LC holograms are used as spatially separated shares to carry secret images.The polarization of the incident light and the distance between different shares are served as secret keys,which can significantly improve the information security and capacity.Besides,the decryption condition is also restricted by the applied external voltage due to the variant diffraction efficiency,which further increases the information security.In implementation,an artificial neural network(ANN)model is developed to carefully design the phase distribution of each LC hologram.With the advantage of high security,high capacity and simple configuration,our optical secret sharing framework has great potentials in optical encryption and dynamic holographic display.

Phase-locked single-mode terahertz quantum cascade lasers array

We demonstrated a scheme of phase-locked terahertz quantum cascade lasers(THz QCLs)array,with a single-mode pulse power of 108 mW at 13 K.The device utilizes a Talbot cavity to achieve phase locking among five ridge lasers with first-order buried distributed feedback(DFB)grating,resulting in nearly five times amplification of the single-mode power.Due to the optimum length of Talbot cavity depends on wavelength,the combination of Talbot cavity with the DFB grating leads to better power amplification than the combination with multimode Fabry-Perot(F-P)cavities.The Talbot cavity facet reflects light back to the ridge array direction and achieves self-imaging in the array,enabling phase-locked operation of ridges.We set the spacing between adjacent elements to be 220μm,much larger than the free-space wavelength,ensuring the operation of the fundamental supermode throughout the laser's dynamic range and obtaining a high-brightness far-field distribution.This scheme provides a new approach for enhancing the single-mode power of THz QCLs.

基于Cascade R-CNN的乳腺钼靶肿块检测算法研究

乳腺癌生物学特性复杂,恶性程度极高,位于女性恶性肿瘤发病率首位。乳腺钼靶肿块的X射线检查是早期确诊乳腺癌的重要方式。但乳腺钼靶肿块的检测尚处于早期阶段,现有的计算机辅助检测检测精度较低。针对这一问题,论文提出了一种基于Cascade R-CNN的乳腺钼靶肿块检测方法。实验使用南佛罗里达大学的乳房X光检查数据集,将乳腺钼靶肿块分为良性和恶性两类。通过在特征网络中加入注意力模块,提取了较为丰富的乳腺钼靶肿块特征。此外,论文提出了一种新的FPN网络FA-FPN,进一步提高了乳腺钼靶肿块病灶特征的提取,解决了深层网络在下采样中特征出现稀释的问题,提高了乳腺钼靶肿块的检测准确率。经实验验证,该模型在南佛罗里达大学的乳房X光检查数据集上的mAP值达到82.9%,在AP75下表现尤为突出。该方法在乳腺钼靶肿块的检测中具有良好的性能,可以提高乳腺钼靶肿块的检测精度,并在一定程度上避免了误检和漏检。

基于CSS-Cascade Mask R-CNN的有遮挡多片烟叶部位识别

烟叶部位信息是进行烟叶分级的重要参考信息,准确识别烟叶部位对实现烟叶智能分级具有重要意义。在实际的烟叶智能分级应用中,为了提高分级效率,需要对多片烟叶等级进行同步识别。受现行上料方式的限制,同步识别的多片烟叶间往往存在局部遮挡的问题,给烟叶的目标检测和部位识别带来挑战。该研究提出一种基于改进Cascade Mask R-CNN,融合通道、非局部和空间注意力机制,并引入柔性极大值抑制检测框交并操作与斯库拉交并比损失函数(SIoU)的目标检测与识别模型(CSS-Cascade Mask R-CNN)。该模型对Cascade Mask R-CNN进行了三方面的改进:一是在其骨干网络Resent101上同时引入通道、非局部、空间3种注意力机制,使网络更加关注未被遮挡且部位特征明显区域的显著度;二是将Cascade Mask R-CNN中的损失函数SmoothL1Loss替换为SIoU损失函数,将预测框与真实框之间的方向差异引入到模型训练中提高模型检测精度;三是在筛选候选框时将常规的非极大抑制(non-max-suppression)替换为柔性非极大抑制,以避免删除候选框造成信息丢失。试验结果表明,利用提出的模型对有遮挡多片烟叶进行检测和部位识别,检测框平均准确率均值(bbox_mAP50)达到了80.2%,与改进前的Cascade Mask R-CNN模型相比提高了7.5个百分点。提出的模型与多个主流的目标检测模型(YOLOvX、YOLOv3、YOLOv5、Mask R-CNN、Cascade R-CNN)相比,分别高7.1、10.2、5.8、9.2、8.4个百分点,尤其是对较难区分的下部烟叶优势明显,因此研究结果可以为有遮挡多片烟叶部位的检测识别提供参考。

Influence of substrate effect on near-field radiative modulator based on biaxial hyperbolic materials

Relative rotation between the emitter and receiver could effectively modulate the near-field radiative heat transfer(NFRHT)in anisotropic media.Due to the strong in-plane anisotropy,natural hyperbolic materials can be used to construct near-field radiative modulators with excellent modulation effects.However,in practical applications,natural hyperbolic materials need to be deposited on the substrate,and the influence of substrate on modulation effect has not been studied yet.In this work,we investigate the influence of substrate effect on near-field radiative modulator based onα-MoO_(3).The results show that compared to the situation without a substrate,the presence of both lossless and lossy substrate will reduce the modulation contrast(MC)for different film thicknesses.When the real or imaginary component of the substrate permittivity increases,the mismatch of hyperbolic phonon polaritons(HPPs)weakens,resulting in a reduction in MC.By reducing the real and imaginary components of substrate permittivity,the MC can be significantly improved,reaching 4.64 forε_(s)=3 at t=10 nm.This work indicates that choosing a substrate with a smaller permittivity helps to achieve a better modulation effect,and provides guidance for the application of natural hyperbolic materials in the near-field radiative modulator.

基于Local Cascade Ensemble方法的胎儿健康自动分类

为更好地自动评估胎儿宫内状态,提出一种基于local cascade ensemble(LCE)方法的胎儿健康状态分类模型。选用UCI数据集,使用ADASYN方法对不平衡数据集进行填充平衡,接着结合随机森林算法对数据特征进行选择,最后使用LCE方法对胎儿状态进行自动分类。实验结果表明,所提出模型使用的方法平均准确率、精确率、召回率和F1分数分别达到了0.9554、0.9054、0.9557和0.9290,对比传统的机器学习算法能得到更好的分类效果,有效降低了误判率。

Experimental study on phase noise of terahertz quantum cascade laser frequency comb and dual-comb sources

Frequency combs with equally spaced frequency lines show great potentials for applications in spectroscopy,imag-ing,communications,and so on.In the terahertz frequency region,the quantum cascade laser(QCL)is an ideal radiation source for frequency comb and dual-comb operation.The systematic evaluation of phase noise characteristics of terahertz QCL frequency comb and dual-comb sources is of great importance for high precision measurements.In this work,we present detailed measurements and analysis of the phase noise characteristics of terahertz QCL frequency comb and dual-comb sources emitting around 4.2 THz with repetition frequencies of~6.2 GHz.The measurement results for the current noise of the direct current(DC)sources(that are used to electrically pump the terahertz QCLs)indicate that at 100 Hz,the current noise for DC-1 and DC-2 is 0.3895 and 0.0982 nA/Hz1/2,respectively.Such levels of current noise can be safely disregarded.The phase noise of radio frequency(RF)generators(that are employed for injection locking and phase locking),intermode beatnotes,and dual-comb signals with and without phase-locked loop(PLL)are all measured and compared.The experimental results show that in the free-running mode,the phase noise of the intermode beatnote signals is always lower than that of the dual-comb sig-nals across all frequencies.Additionally,the phase noise induced by the RF generators is negligible.By employing the phase lock-ing technique,the phase noise of the intermode beatnote and dual-comb signals in the low offset frequency band can be signifi-cantly suppressed.At an offset frequency of 100 Hz,the measured phase noise values of the dual-comb line without and with phase locking are 15.026 and-64.801 dBc/Hz,respectively.

Enhanced picosecond terahertz wave generation based on cascade effects in a terahertz parametric generator

Enhanced terahertz wave generation via a Stokes cascade process has been demonstrated using picosecond pulse pumped terahertz parametric generation at 1 kHz repetition rate.Clear cascade saturation of terahertz output was observed,and the corresponding cascade-Stokes spectra were analyzed.The maximum terahertz wave average power was 22μW under a pump power of 30 W,whereas the maximum power conversion efficiency was 8×10^(-7)under a pump power of 21 W.The THz power fluctuation was measured to be about 1%in 20 min.This THz parametric source with a relatively stable output is suitable for a variety of practical applications.

Conjugated microporous polymers-scaffolded enzyme cascade systems with enhanced catalytic activity

Enhancing catalytic activity of multi-enzyme in vitro through substrate channeling effect is promis-ing yet challenging.Herein,conjugated microporous polymers(CMPs)-scaffolded integrated en-zyme cascade systems(I-ECSs)are constructed through co-entrapping glucose oxidase(GOx)and horseradish peroxidase(HRP),in which hydrogen peroxide(H_(2)O_(2)) is the intermediate product.The interplay of low-resistance mass transfer pathway and appropriate pore wall-H_(2)O_(2) interactions facilitates the directed transfer of H_(2)O_(2),resulting in 2.4-fold and 5.0-fold elevation in catalytic activ-ity compared to free ECSs and separated ECSs,respectively.The substrate channeling effect could be regulated by altering the mass ratio of GOx to HRP.Besides,I-ECSs demonstrate excellent stabili-ties in harsh environments and multiple recycling.

Enhancing the Electrocatalytic Oxidation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Through Cascade Structure Tuning for Highly Stable Biomass Upgrading

Electrocatalytic 5-hydroxymethylfurfural oxidation reaction(HMFOR)provides a promising strategy to convert biomass derivative to highvalue-added chemicals.Herein,a cascade strategy is proposed to construct Pd-NiCo_(2)O_(4)electrocatalyst by Pd loading on Ni-doped Co3O4 and for highly active and stable synergistic HMF oxidation.An elevated current density of 800 mA cm^(-2)can be achieved at 1.5 V,and both Faradaic efficiency and yield of 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid remained close to 100%over 10 consecutive electrolysis.Experimental and theoretical results unveil that the introduction of Pd atoms can modulate the local electronic structure of Ni/Co,which not only balances the competitive adsorption of HMF and OH-species,but also promote the active Ni^(3+)species formation,inducing high indirect oxidation activity.We have also discovered that Ni incorporation facilitates the Co2+pre-oxidation and electrophilic OH*generation to contribute direct oxidation process.This work provides a new approach to design advanced electrocatalyst for biomass upgrading.

Exploring the modulatory role of bovine lactoferrin on the microbiome and the immune response in healthy and Shiga toxin‑producing E.coli challenged weaned piglets

Background Post-weaned piglets suffer from F18+Escherichia coli(E.coli)infections resulting in post-weaning diar-rhoea or oedema disease.Frequently used management strategies,including colistin and zinc oxide,have contrib-uted to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.Novel antimicrobials capable of directly interacting with pathogens and modulating the host immune responses are being investigated.Lactoferrin has shown promising results against porcine enterotoxigenic E.coli strains,both in vitro and in vivo.Results We investigated the influence of bovine lactoferrin(bLF)on the microbiome of healthy and infected weaned piglets.Additionally,we assessed whether bLF influenced the immune responses upon Shiga toxin-producing E.coli(STEC)infection.Therefore,2 in vivo trials were conducted:a microbiome trial and a challenge infection trial,using an F18+STEC strain.BLF did not affect theα-andβ-diversity.However,bLF groups showed a higher relative abundance(RA)for the Actinobacteria phylum and the Bifidobacterium genus in the ileal mucosa.When analysing the immune response upon infection,the STEC group exhibited a significant increase in F18-specific IgG serum levels,whereas this response was absent in the bLF group.Conclusion Taken together,the oral administration of bLF did not have a notable impact on theα-andβ-diversity of the gut microbiome in weaned piglets.Nevertheless,it did increase the RA of the Actinobacteria phylum and Bifi-dobacterium genus,which have previously been shown to play an important role in maintaining gut homeostasis.Furthermore,bLF administration during STEC infection resulted in the absence of F18-specific serum IgG responses.