Enhancing ground loss rate prediction in soft-soil shield tunneling: a synergistic approach of peck back analysis and eXtreme Gradient Boosting and bayesian optimization.

This study investigates the prediction of ground loss rate during soft-soil shield tunneling using Peck's back analysis method and XGBoost model. Bayesian optimization is employed to determine optimal hyperparameters, ensuring comprehensive and efficient model tuning. The XGBoost model is compared with Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) models to benchmark its performance.

Dual-Channel Prototype Network for Few-Shot Pathology Image Classification.

In the field of pathology, the scarcity of certain diseases and the difficulty of annotating images hinder the development of large, high-quality datasets, which in turn affects the advancement of deep learning-assisted diagnostics. Few-shot learning has demonstrated unique advantages in modeling tasks with limited data, yet explorations of this method in the field of pathology remain in the early stages. To address this issue, we present a dual-channel prototype network (DCPN), a novel few-shot learning approach for efficiently classifying pathology images with limited data.

Non-canonical amino acids uncover the significant impact of Tyr671 on Taq DNA polymerase catalytic activity.

Responsible for synthesizing the complementary strand of the DNA template, DNA polymerase is a crucial enzyme in DNA replication, recombination and repair. A highly conserved tyrosine (Tyr), located at the C-terminus of the O-helix in family A DNA polymerases, plays a critical role in enzyme activity and fidelity. Here, we combined the technology of genetic code extension to incorporate non-canonical amino acids and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to uncover the mechanisms by which Tyr671 impacts substrate binding and conformation transitions in a DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus.

Optical authentication method based on correspondence ghost imaging.

Ghost imaging technology has a great application potential in optical security because of its non-local characteristics. In this paper, on the basis of computational ghost imaging, an optical authentication scheme is proposed that utilizes the correspondence imaging technique for the preliminary reconstruction of the object image, and then authenticates the image by a nonlinear correlation algorithm. Different from the previous optical authentication schemes that usually adopted random selection of measurements, this authentication method consciously selects the bucket detector measurement values with large fluctuation and can achieve authentication using ultra-low data volumes less than 1% of the Nyquist limit.

Customized multiple sequence alignment as an effective strategy to improve performance of Taq DNA polymerase.

Engineering Taq DNA polymerase (TaqPol) for improved activity, stability and sensitivity was critical for its wide applications. Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) has been widely used in engineering enzymes for improved properties. Here, we first designed TaqPol mutations based on MSA of 2756 sequences from both thermophilic and non-thermophilic organisms.

Bipolar compressive ghost imaging method to improve imaging quality.

Compressive ghost imaging (CGI) can effectively reduce the number of measurements required for ghost imaging reconstruction. In most cases, however, when using illumination patterns as measurement matrices, CGI has not demonstrated the ability to reconstruct high-quality images at an ultra-low sampling rate as perfect as claimed by compressive sensing theory. According to our analysis, the reason is that the non-negative nature of light intensity causes measurement matrix in compressive ghost imaging to be inconsistent with the essential requirements of good measurement matrix in compressive sensing theory, leading to low reconstruction quality.

Anti-inflammatory effects of vinpocetine in LPS-stimulated microglia via activation of AMPK.

Microglia are the resident immune cells in the central nervous system (CNS), which play important roles in the repair of neuroinflammatory injury. The present study investigated the anti-neuroinflammatory effects of vinpocetine induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in BV2 microglia. BV2 microglia were pretreated with vinpocetine, and then stimulated with LPS (100 ng/mL).

Spectrum Decomposition-Based Orbital Angular Momentum Communication of Acoustic Vortex Beams Using Single-Ring Transceiver Arrays.

The orbital angular momentum (OAM)-based acoustic vortex (AV) communication has been proven to provide a topological spinning characteristics for data transmission with an improved channel capacity, exhibiting good application prospects in underwater acoustic communications. To improve the accuracy and efficiency of data communication, the spectrum decomposition of OAM modes for OAM-multiplexed AV beams is studied with a simplified structure of single-ring transceiver arrays. The principle of spectrum decomposition for the single-OAM or OAM-multiplexed AV beams is derived based on the phase-coded approach and the orthogonal property of AVs.

Diversity of Conopeptides and Their Precursor Genes of .

The venom of various species is composed of a rich variety of unique bioactive peptides, commonly referred to as conotoxins (conopeptides). Most conopeptides have specific receptors or ion channels as physiologically relevant targets. In this paper, high-throughput transcriptome sequencing was performed to analyze putative conotoxin transcripts from the venom duct of a vermivorous cone snail species, native to the South China Sea.

Two new 3-hexenol glycosides from the calyces of var. .

Two new hexenol glycosides, ()-hex-3-en-1-ol O--d-xylcopyranosyl-(1-6)- -d-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)--d-glucopyranoside () and ()-hex-3-en-1-ol O--d-xylcopyranosyl-(1-6)--d-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)--d-glucopyranoside (2), were isolated from the 50% ethanol elution of macroporous resin of var. . Their structures were established by detailed spectroscopic analysis, including extensive 2D-NMR data.

Magnetic Drug Targeting: Preclinical in Vivo Studies, Mathematical Modeling, and Extrapolation to Humans.

A sound theoretical rationale for the design of a magnetic nanocarrier capable of magnetic capture in vivo after intravenous administration could help elucidate the parameters necessary for in vivo magnetic tumor targeting. In this work, we utilized our long-circulating polymeric magnetic nanocarriers, encapsulating increasing amounts of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) in a biocompatible oil carrier, to study the effects of SPION loading and of applied magnetic field strength on magnetic tumor targeting in CT26 tumor-bearing mice. Under controlled conditions, the in vivo magnetic targeting was quantified and found to be directly proportional to SPION loading and magnetic field strength.