Preventing brain aging by the artificial enforcement of the unfolded protein response:future directions

As the life expectancy of the world’s population increases,age-related diseases are emerging as one of the greatest problems facing modern society.The onset of dementia and neurodegenerative diseases is strictly dependent on aging as a major risk factor and has a profound impact on various aspects of the lives of individuals and their families.

Ascertaining the influences of auxiliary qubits on the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen steering and its directions

Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen(EPR) steering is an example of nontrivial quantum nonlocality and characteristic in the non-classical world.The directivity(or asymmetry) is a fascinating trait of EPR steering,and it is different from other quantum nonlocalities.Here,we consider the strategy in which two atoms compose a two-qubit X state,and the two atoms are owned by Alice and Bob,respectively.The atom of Alice suffers from a reservoir,and the atom of Bob couples with a bit flip channel.The influences of auxiliary qubits on EPR steering and its directions are revealed by means of the entropy uncertainty relation.The results indicate that EPR steering declines with growing time t when adding fewer auxiliary qubits.The EPR steering behaves as damped oscillation when introducing more auxiliary qubits in the strong coupling regime.In the weak coupling regime,the EPR steering monotonously decreases as t increases when coupling auxiliary qubits.The increases in auxiliary qubits are responsible for the fact that the steerability from Alice to Bob(or from Bob to Alice) can be more effectively revealed.Notably,the introductions of more auxiliary qubits can change the situation that steerability from Alice to Bob is certain to a situation in which steerability from Bob to Alice is certain.

Effects of cooling rate on microstructure and microhardness of directionally solidified Galvalume alloy

The influences of cooling rate on the phase constitution,microstructural length scale,and microhardness of directionally solidified Galvalume(Zn-55Al-1.6Si)alloy were investigated by directional solidification experiments at different withdrawal speeds(5,10,20,50,100,200,and 400μm·s^(-1)).The results show that the microstructure of directionally solidified Galvalume alloys is composed of primary Al dendrites,Si-rich phase and(Zn-Al-Si)ternary eutectics at the withdrawal speed ranging from 5 to 400μm·s^(-1).As the withdrawal speed increases,the segregation of Si element intensifies,resulting in an increase in the area fraction of the Si-rich phase.In addition,the primary Al dendrites show significant refinement with an increase in the withdrawal speed.The relationship between the primary dendrite arm spacing(λ_(1))and the thermal parameters of solidification is obtained:λ_(1)=127.3V^(-0.31).Moreover,as the withdrawal speed increases from 5 to 400μm·s^(-1),the microhardness of the alloy increases from 90 HV to 151 HV.This is a combined effect of grain refinement and second-phase strengthening.

Stability assessment of tree ring growth of Pinus armandii Franch in response to climate change based on slope directions at the Lubanling in the Funiu Mountains,China

Global warming will affect growth strategies and how trees will adapt.To compare the response of tree radial growth to climate warming in different slope directions,samples of Pinus armandii Franch were collected and treering chronologies developed on northern and western slopes from the Lubanling in the Funiu Mountains.Correlation analyses showed that two chronologies were mainly limited by temperatures in the previous June–August and the combination of temperatures and moisture in the current May–July.The difference of the climate response to slopes was small but not negligible.Radial growth of the LBL01 site on the northern slope was affected by the combined maximum and minimum temperatures,while that of the LBL02 site was affected by maximum temperatures.With regards to moisture,radial growth of the trees on the north slope was influenced by the relative humidity in the current May–July,while on the western slope,it was affected by the relative humidity in the previous June–August,the current May–July and the precipitation in the current May–July.With the change in climate,the effects of the main limiting factors on growth on different slopes were visible to a certain extent,but the differences in response of trees on different slopes gradually decreased,which might be caused by factors such as different slope directions and the change in diurnal temperature range.These results may provide information for forest protection and ecological construction in this region,and a scientific reference for future climate reconstruction.

Estimation of the anisotropy of hydraulic conductivity through 3D fracture networks using the directional geological entropy

With an extension of the geological entropy concept in porous media,the approach called directional entrogram is applied to link hydraulic behavior to the anisotropy of the 3D fracture networks.A metric called directional entropic scale is used to measure the anisotropy of spatial order in different directions.Compared with the traditional connectivity indexes based on the statistics of fracture geometry,the directional entropic scale is capable to quantify the anisotropy of connectivity and hydraulic conductivity in heterogeneous 3D fracture networks.According to the numerical analysis of directional entrogram and fluid flow in a number of the 3D fracture networks,the hydraulic conductivities and entropic scales in different directions both increase with spatial order(i.e.,trace length decreasing and spacing increasing)and are independent of the dip angle.As a result,the nonlinear correlation between the hydraulic conductivities and entropic scales from different directions can be unified as quadratic polynomial function,which can shed light on the anisotropic effect of spatial order and global entropy on the heterogeneous hydraulic behaviors.

Security-Enhanced Directional Modulation Based on Two-Dimensional M-WFRFT

Directional modulation(DM)is one of the most promising secure communication techniques.However,when the eavesdropper is co-located with the legitimate receiver,the conventional DM has the disadvantages of weak anti-scanning capability,anti-deciphering capability,and low secrecy rate.In response to these problems,we propose a twodimensional multi-term weighted fractional Fourier transform aided DM scheme,in which the legitimate receiver and the transmitter use different transform terms and transform orders to encrypt and decrypt the confidential information.In order to further lower the probability of being deciphered by an eavesdropper,we use the subblock partition method to convert the one-dimensional modulated signal vector into a twodimensional signal matrix,increasing the confusion of the useful information.Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed DM scheme not only provides stronger anti-deciphering and anti-scanning capabilities but also improves the secrecy rate performance of the system.

New direction for surgery:Super minimally invasive surgery

The top goal of modern medicine is treating disease without destroying organ structures and making patients as healthy as they were before their sickness.Minimally invasive surgery(MIS)has dominated the surgical realm because of its lesser invasiveness.However,changes in anatomical structures of the body and reconstruction of internal organs or different organs are common after traditional surgery or MIS,decreasing the quality of life of patients post-operation.Thus,I propose a new treatment mode,super MIS(SMIS),which is defined as“curing a disease or lesion which used to be treated by MIS while preserving the integrity of the organs”.In this study,I describe the origin,definition,operative channels,advantages,and future perspectives of SMIS.

Underdetermined direction of arrival estimation with nonuniform linear motion sampling based on a small unmanned aerial vehicle platform

Uniform linear array(ULA)radars are widely used in the collision-avoidance radar systems of small unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).In practice,a ULA's multi-target direction of arrival(DOA)estimation performance suffers from significant performance degradation owing to the limited number of physical elements.To improve the underdetermined DOA estimation performance of a ULA radar mounted on a small UAV platform,we propose a nonuniform linear motion sampling underdetermined DOA estimation method.Using the motion of the UAV platform,the echo signal is sampled at different positions.Then,according to the concept of difference co-array,a virtual ULA with multiple array elements and a large aperture is synthesized to increase the degrees of freedom(DOFs).Through position analysis of the original and motion arrays,we propose a nonuniform linear motion sampling method based on ULA for determining the optimal DOFs.Under the condition of no increase in the aperture of the physical array,the proposed method obtains a high DOF with fewer sampling runs and greatly improves the underdetermined DOA estimation performance of ULA.The results of numerical simulations conducted herein verify the superior performance of the proposed method.

A Novel CCA-NMF Whitening Method for Practical Machine Learning Based Underwater Direction of Arrival Estimation

Underwater direction of arrival(DOA)estimation has always been a very challenging theoretical and practical problem.Due to the serious non-stationary,non-linear,and non-Gaussian characteristics,machine learning based DOA estimation methods trained on simulated Gaussian noised array data cannot be directly applied to actual underwater DOA estimation tasks.In order to deal with this problem,environmental data with no target echoes can be employed to analyze the non-Gaussian components.Then,the obtained information about non-Gaussian components can be used to whiten the array data.Based on these considerations,a novel practical sonar array whitening method was proposed.Specifically,based on a weak assumption that the non-Gaussian components in adjacent patches with and without target echoes are almost the same,canonical cor-relation analysis(CCA)and non-negative matrix factorization(NMF)techniques are employed for whitening the array data.With the whitened array data,machine learning based DOA estimation models trained on simulated Gaussian noised datasets can be used to perform underwater DOA estimation tasks.Experimental results illustrated that,using actual underwater datasets for testing with known machine learning based DOA estimation models,accurate and robust DOA estimation performance can be achieved by using the proposed whitening method in different underwater con-ditions.

Unleashing the Potential of Unidirectional Mechanical Materials: Breakthroughs and Promising Applications

The emergence of mechanically one-way materials presents an exciting opportunity for materials science and engineering. These substances exhibit unique nonreciprocal mechanical responses, enabling them to selectively channel mechanical energy and facilitate directed sound propagation, controlled mass transport, and concentration of mechanical energy amidst random motion. This article explores the fundamentals of mechanically one-way materials, their potential applications across various industries, and the economic and environmental considerations related to their production and use.

Oral squamous cell carcinomas:state of the field and emerging directions

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) develops on the mucosal epithelium of the oral cavity. It accounts for approximately 90% oforal malignancies and impairs appearance, pronunciation, swallowing, and flavor perception. In 2020, 377,713 OSCC cases werereported globally. According to the Global Cancer Observatory (GCO), the incidence of OSCC will rise by approximately 40% by2040, accompanied by a growth in mortality. Persistent exposure to various risk factors, including tobacco, alcohol, betel quid (BQ),and human papillomavirus (HPV), will lead to the development of oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs), which are oralmucosal lesions with an increased risk of developing into OSCC. Complex and multifactorial, the oncogenesis process involvesgenetic alteration, epigenetic modification, and a dysregulated tumor microenvironment. Although various therapeuticinterventions, such as chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, and nanomedicine, have been proposed to prevent or treat OSCCand OPMDs, understanding the mechanism of malignancies will facilitate the identification of therapeutic and prognostic factors,thereby improving the efficacy of treatment for OSCC patients. This review summarizes the mechanisms involved in OSCC.Moreover, the current therapeutic interventions and prognostic methods for OSCC and OPMDs are discussed to facilitatecomprehension and provide several prospective outlooks for the fields.

GNSS array receiver faced with overloaded interferences:anti-jamming performance and the incident directions of interferences

Anti-jamming solutions based on antenna arrays enhance the anti-jamming ability and the robustness of global navigation satellite system(GNSS)receiver remarkably.However,the performance of the receiver will deteriorate significantly in the overloaded interferences scenario.We define the overloaded interferences scenario as where the number of interferences is more than or equal to the number of antenna arrays elements.In this paper,the effect mechanism of interferences with different incident directions is found by studying the anti-jamming performance of the adaptive space filter.The theoretical analysis and conclusions,which are first validated through numerical examples,reveal the relationships between the optimal weight vector and the eigenvectors of the input signal autocorrelation matrix,the relationships between the interference cancellation ratio(ICR),the signal to interference and noise power ratio(SINR)of the adaptive space filter output and the number of interferences,the eigenvalues of the input signal autocorrelation matrix.In addition,two simulation experiments are utilized to further corroborate the theoretical findings through soft anti-jamming receiver.The simulation results match well with the theoretical analysis results,thus validating the effect mechanism of overloaded interferences.The simulation results show that,for a four elements circular array,the performance difference is up to 19 dB with different incident directions of interferences.Anti-jamming performance evaluation and jamming deployment optimization can obtain more accurate and efficient results by using the conclusions.

Bioinspired All‑Fibrous Directional Moisture‑Wicking Electronic Skins for Biomechanical Energy Harvesting and All‑Range Health Sensing

Electronic skins can monitor minute physiological signal variations in the human skins and represent the body’s state,showing an emerging trend for alternative medical diagnostics and human-machine interfaces.In this study,we designed a bioinspired directional moisture-wicking electronic skin(DMWES)based on the construction of heterogeneous fibrous membranes and the conductive MXene/CNTs electrospraying layer.Unidirectional moisture transfer was successfully realized by surface energy gradient and push-pull effect via the design of distinct hydrophobic-hydrophilic difference,which can spontaneously absorb sweat from the skin.The DMWES membrane showed excellent comprehensive pressure sensing performance,high sensitivity(maximum sensitivity of 548.09 kPa^(−1)),wide linear range,rapid response and recovery time.In addition,the single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator based on the DMWES can deliver a high areal power density of 21.6μW m^(−2) and good cycling stability in high pressure energy harvesting.Moreover,the superior pressure sensing and triboelectric performance enabled the DMWES for all-range healthcare sensing,including accurate pulse monitoring,voice recognition,and gait recognition.This work will help to boost the development of the next-generation breathable electronic skins in the applications of AI,human-machine interaction,and soft robots.

Implications for identification of principal stress directions from acoustic emission characteristics of granite under biaxial compression experiments

The rock fracture characteristics and principal stress directions are crucial for prevention of geological disasters.In this study,we carried out biaxial compression tests on cubic granite samples of 100 mm in side length with different intermediate principal stress gradients in combination with acoustic emission(AE)technique.Results show that the fracture characteristics of granite samples change from‘sudden and aggregated’to‘continuous and dispersed’with the increase of the intermediate principal stress.The effect of increasing intermediate principal stress on AE amplitude is not significant,but it increases the proportions of high-frequency AE signals and shear cracks,which in turn increases the possibility of unstable rock failure.The difference of stress in different directions causes the anisotropy of rock fracture and thus leads to the obvious anisotropic characteristics of wave velocity variations.The anisotropy of wave velocity variations with stress difference is probable to identify the principal stress directions.The AE characteristics and the anisotropy of wave velocity variations of granite under two-dimensional stress are not only beneficial complements for rock fracture characteristic and principal stress direction identification,but also can provide a new analysis method for stability monitoring in practical rock engineering.

Characteristics and utility of combined duplex color-coded ultrasonography in the cervical rotational position with head MRI and MRA in the differential diagnosis of apogeotropic direction-changing positional nystagmus

Objective:To determine whether cervical ultrasonography,magnetic resonance imaging(MRI),and magnetic resonance angiography(MRA)are useful in the differential diagnosis of etiology and understanding the pathophysiology in cases of apogeotropic direction-changing positional nystagmus(DCPN).Methods:Thirty patients with apogeotropic DCPN were classified into 11 cases of central disease,seven cases of mixed central and peripheral disease,and 12 cases of peripheral disease by differential diagnosis based on various balance function,neuro-otological,and imaging tests.Cervical ultrasonography using the cervical rotation method and MRI and MRA of the head and neck were performed in most patients with apogeotropic DCPN.We reviewed the presence of abnormal imaging findings according to the disease etiology.Results:Of the 30 patients with apogeotropic DCPN,23 showed vascular abnormalities or central lesions on imaging.Vascular lesions were found in six of the 12 patients with peripheral disease.Cervical ultrasonography with cervical rotation detected blood flow disturbance in the vertebral artery in eight patients in whom the disturbance could not be detected by MRI or MRA of the head and neck.Discussion:We hypothesize that the causative disease of apogeotropic DCPN may be strongly associated with circulatory insufficiency of the vertebrobasilar and carotid arteries,and that impaired blood flow in these vessels may affect peripheral vestibular and central function.In patients with apogeotropic DCPN,examinations of vestibular function,central nervous system symptoms,and brain hemodynamics are valuable for differential diagnosis.

Practical prescribed-time tracking control for uncertain strict-feedback systems with guaranteed performance under unknown control directions

In this paper,we consider the practical prescribed-time performance guaranteed tracking control problem for a class of uncertain strict-feedback systems subject to unknown control direction.Due to the existence of unknown nonlinearities and uncertainties,it is challenging to design a controller that can ensure the stability of closed-loop system within a predetermined finite time while maintaining the specified transient performance.The underlying problem becomes further complex as the control directions are unknown.To deal with the above problems,a special translation function as well as Nussbaum type function are introduced in the prescribed performance control(PPC)framework.Finally,a PPC as well as preset finite time tracking control scheme is designed,and its effectiveness is confirmed by both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation.

New understanding and exploration direction of hydrocarbon accumulation in Termit Basin, Niger

Based on the seismic and drilling data, casting thin sections, geochemical analysis of oil and rock samples, and hydrocarbon generation history simulation, the hydrocarbon accumulation characteristics and exploration direction of Termit superimposed marine–continental rift basin are discussed. The Termit basin is superimposed with two-phase rifts(Early Cretaceous and Paleogene). The subsidence curves from two wells on the Trakes slope in the east of the basin show high subsidence rate in the Late Cretaceous, which is believed to be high deposition rate influenced by transgression. However, a weak rift may also be developed. The depositional sequences in the Termit basin were controlled by the Late Cretaceous marine transgression cycle and the Paleogene lacustrine transgression cycle, giving rise to two types of superimposed marine–continental “source-sink” deposits. The marine and continental mixed source rocks developed universally in the whole basinduring the marine transgression period, and are overlaid by the Paleogene Sokor 1 reservoir rocks and Sokor 2 caprocks developed during the lacustrine transgression period, forming the unique superimposed marine–continental basin in WCARS. The early low geothermal gradient in the Termit basin resulted in the late hydrocarbon generated by the source rock of Upper Cretaceous Yogou in Paleogene. Mature source rock of Upper Cretaceous Donga developed in the Trakes slope, so that the double-source-supply hydrocarbon and accumulation models are proposed for the Trakes slope in which formed the oil fields. Due to virtue of the newly proposed hydrocarbon accumulation model and the exploration activities in recent years in the Termit superimposed marine–continental rift basin, an additional effective exploration area of about 2500 km2has been confirmed in the east of the basin. It is believed that potential domains such as Sokor 1, Donga and Upper Cretaceous lithologic traps in the southeast of the basin are key expected targets for exploration and frontier evaluation in future.

Correction to:Application of long-reach directional drilling boreholes for gas drainage of adjacent seams in coal mines with severe geological conditions

Correction:International Journal of Coal Science&Technology(2022)9:88 https:/doi.org/10.1007/s40789-022-00553-6 In this article,the author would like to change the Ethics Declaration as below:EthicsDeclarations Scientific work published within the framework of an international project DD-MET co-financed by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel(RFCS),(Grant Agreement:847338)and by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education(Contract no.5073/FBWiS/19/2020/2 and 5038/FBWiS/2019/2).

Nonconvex Noise-Tolerant Neural Model for Repetitive Motion of Omnidirectional Mobile Manipulators

Dear Editor,Quadratic programming problems(QPs)receive a lot of attention in various fields of science computing and engineering applications,such as manipulator control[1].Recursive neural network(RNN)is considered to be a powerful QPs solver due to its parallel processing capability and feasibility of hardware implementation[2].

Coexistence of Unidirectional Charge Density Waves in LaTe_(3)

The classic rare-earth tritelluride provides an ideal platform to study the strong correlation state owing to its stable structures and abundance of orders.Here we report the observation of an undiscovered charge density wave(CDW)in LaTe_(3)under 4.2 K,the transition temperature of the CDW states is fitted to be 35 K,and confirmed by the evanishment of this CDW at 77 K via using temperature-dependent scanning tunneling microscope/spectroscopy.The coexistence of these CDWs is confirmed by the atomic resolution and beating pattern simulation.It is the first time to observe the coexistence of unidirectional charge density waves system,providing a new platform to understand the competition and evolution between strong correlation states,and get a deeper sight into the phase lag between different order parameters.