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The electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) is a crucial physiological signal used by clinicians to evaluate auditory nerve functionality. Clean ECAP recordings help to accurately estimate auditory neural activity patterns and ECAP magnitudes, particularly through the panoramic ECAP (PECAP) framework. However, noise—especially in low-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions—can lead to significant errors in parameter estimation. This study proposes a two-stage preprocessing denoising (TSPD) algorithm to address this issue and enhance ECAP signals. First, an ECAP matrix is constructed using the forward-masking technique, representing the signal as a two-dimensional image. This matrix undergoes spatial noise reduction via an improved spatial median (I-Median) filter. In the second stage, the denoised matrix is vectorized and further processed using a log-spectral amplitude (LSA) Wiener filter for spectral domain denoising. The enhanced vector is then reconstructed into the ECAP matrix for parameter estimation using PECAP. The above integrated spatial-spectral denoising framework is denoted as PECAP-TSPD in this work. Evaluations are conducted using a simulation-based ECAP model mixed with simulated and experimental noise, designed to emulate the spatial characteristics of real ECAPs. Three objective quality measures—namely, normalized root mean square error (RMSE), two-dimensional correlation coefficient (TDCC), and structural similarity index (SSIM)—are used. Simulated and experimental results show that the proposed PECAP-TSPD method has the lowest average RMSE of PECAP magnitudes (1.952%) and auditory neural patterns (1.407%), highest average TDCC (0.9988), and average SSIM (0.9931) compared to PECAP (6.446%, 5.703%, 0.9859, 0.8997), PECAP with convolutional neural network (CNN)-based denoising mask (PECAP-CNN) (9.700%, 7.111%, 0.9766, 0.8832), and PECAP with improved median filtering (PECAP-I-Median) (4.515%, 3.321%, 0.9949, 0.9470) under impulse noise conditions.

Acute lung injury (ALI) and its severe form, known as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), are caused by direct pulmonary insults and indirect systemic inflammatory responses that result from conditions such as sepsis, trauma, and major surgery. The reciprocal influences between pulmonary and systemic inflammation augments the inflammatory process in the lung and promotes the development of ALI. Emerging evidence has revealed that alveolar macrophage (AM) death plays important roles in the progression of lung inflammation through its influence on other immune cell populations in the lung. Cell death and tissue inflammation form a positive feedback cycle, ultimately leading to exaggerated inflammation and development of disease. Pharmacological manipulation of AM death signals may serve as a logical therapeutic strategy for ALI/ARDS. This review will focus on recent advances in the regulation and underlying mechanisms of AM death as well as the influence of AM death on the development of ALI.

Nearly one-fifth of patients with non-small cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) will develop liver metastases (LMs), and the overall treatment strategy of LMs will directly affect the survival of patients. However, some retrospective studies have found that patients receiving chemotherapy or targeted therapy have a poorer prognosis once LMs develop. In recent years, multiple randomised controlled trials (RCTS) have shown significant improvements in outcomes for patients with advanced lung cancer following the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) compared to conventional chemotherapy. ICIs is safe and effective in patients with LMs, although patients with LMs are mostly underrepresented in randomised clinical trials. However, NSCLC patients with LMs have a significantly worse prognosis than those without LMs when treated with ICIs, and the mechanism by which LMs induce systemic anti-tumour immunity reduction is unknown, so the management of LMs in patients with NSCLC is a clinical challenge that requires more optimised therapies to achieve effective disease control. In this review, we summarised the mechanism of ICIs in the treatment of LMs, the clinical research and treatment progress of ICIs and their combination with other therapies in patients with LMs from NSCLC.

The doping evolution behaviors of the normal state magnetic excitations (MEs) of the pressurized nickelate La3Ni2O7 are theoretically studied in this paper. It was found that the MEs of the parental compound have very strong dependence on the vertical momentum qz. For small qz, the low energy MEs exhibit a square-like pattern centered at (0, 0) which originates from the intrapocket particle-hole scatterings. With the increasing of qz, this square pattern diminishes gradually, and the MEs turn to be ruled by two new interpocket scattering modes with significantly larger intensity for qz around π. Hence, we have established the exotic qz evolution of the normal state MEs of the bilayer nickelates in the present study. Furthermore, we find that the main features of the MEs are very robust against doping. They persist in the wide hole- or electron-doping regime around the filling of n = 3.0. However, in the heavily electron-doped regime, the behaviors of the MEs change qualitatively due to the occurrence of a Lifshitz transition. With the absence of the hole γ pocket, for n = 4.0, there will exist nearly perfect nesting between the electron α and the hole β pockets guaranteed by the Luttinger theorem and the Fermi surface topology. As a result, a spin-density-wave phase was theoretically predicted to order around (π,π,π) near n = 4.0, in contrast with the parental compound which orders at (π/2,π/2,π) under ambient pressure. We expect that the doping-temperature phase diagram of the pressurized La3Ni2O7 will be explored in the near future which is helpful to unravel the intricate relation between the magnetic order and superconductivity.

Transition-metal-catalyzed alkene hydrosilylation is one of the most important homogeneous catalytic reactions, and the development of methods that use base metals, especially iron, as catalysts for this transformation is a growing area of research. However, the limited number of ligand scaffolds applicable for base-metal-catalyzed alkene hydrosilylation has seriously hindered advances in this area. Herein, we report the use of 1,10-phenanthroline ligands in base-metal catalysts for alkene hydrosilylation. In particular, iron catalysts with 2,9-diaryl-1,10-phenanthroline ligands exhibit unexpected reactivity and selectivity for hydrosilylation of alkenes, including unique benzylic selectivity with internal alkenes, Markovnikov selectivity with terminal styrenes and 1,3-dienes, and excellent activity toward aliphatic terminal alkenes. According to the mechanistic studies, the unusual benzylic selectivity of this hydrosilylation initiates from π – π interaction between the phenyl of the alkene and the phenanthroline of the ligand. This ligand scaffold and its unique catalytic model will open possibilities for base-metal-catalyzed hydrosilylation reactions. Hydrosilylation of alkenes poses substantial challenges in terms of regioselectivity. Here, the authors report iron complexes with 1,10-phenantroline ligand scaffolds which  display benzylic selectivity in the hydrosilylation of internal alkenes and Markovnikov selectivity with terminal styrenes and 1,3-dienes.

Determination of the cracking behavior during crack propagation helps to better understand damage and fracture processes in brittle rocks. The paper studies the cracking behavior of rocks on three scales: macro-deformation (or macro-cracking), internal micro-fracture, and surface crack coalescence. Under uniaxial compression, the cracking behavior of two types of sandstone specimens having single flaws was experimentally and systematically investigated. Acoustic emission (AE) and three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) techniques were utilized to continuously monitor the acoustic shock signals generated by micro-fracture events inside the specimen and the specimen surface cracking process. The experimental results show that at the crack initiation stage, many micro-tensile fractures within the rock are initiated and coalesced, and small strain localized zones (SLZs) appear on the specimen surface. In the crack propagation stage, micro-fractures coalesce into macro-fractures that propagate in tensile mode to form surface cracks, which finally break in tension or slide against each other in shear mode. The formation of SLZs is related to the dip angle of pre-existing flaws, which determines the direction and mode of crack propagation. In conclusion, the strong acoustic-optical evidence accompanying different cracking behaviors is discussed in detail. From both acoustic and optical perspectives, it reveals and explains how flaws and material properties affect the strength and cracking mechanisms of brittle rocks. The study aids comprehension of the potential relation between internal micro-fracture and surface cracking in the process of engineering rock mass failure.

Sepsis is life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. During the development and progression of sepsis, polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) are the most abundantly recruited innate immune cells at sites of infection, playing critical roles in the elimination of local infection and healing of the injury. PMN reverse migration (rM) describes the phenomenon in which PMNs migrate away from the inflammatory site back into the vasculature following the initial PMN infiltration. The functional role of PMN rM within inflammatory scenarios requires further exploration. Current evidence suggests that depending on the context, PMN rM can be both a protective response, by facilitating an efficient resolution to innate immune reaction, and also a tissue-damaging event. In this review, we provide an overview of current advancements in understanding the mechanism and roles of PMN rM in inflammation and sepsis. A comprehensive understanding of PMN rM may allow for the development of novel prophylactic and therapeutic strategies for sepsis.

Achieving rapid definitive hemostasis is essential to ensure survival of patients with massive bleeding in pre-hospital care. It is however challenging to develop hemostatic agents or dressings that simultaneously deliver a fast, long-lasting and safe treatment of hemorrhage. Here, we integrate meso-/micro-porosity, blood coagulation and stability into a flexible zeolite-cotton hybrid hemostat. We employ an on-site template-free growth route that tightly binds mesoporous single-crystal chabazite zeolite onto the surface of cotton fibers. This hemostatic material maintains high procoagulant activity after water flow treatment. Chabazite particles are firmly anchored onto the cotton surface with < 1% leaching after 10 min of sonication. The as-synthesized hemostatic device has superior hemostatic performance over most other clay or zeolite-based inorganic hemostats, in terms of higher procoagulant activity, minimized loss of active components and better scalability for practical applications (a hemostatic T-shirt is hereby demonstrated as an example). Zeolites have attracted attention and have been applied as haemostatic agents; however, there are issues associated with released zeolite powder. Here, the authors report on the growth of zeolites on cotton fibres with high stability and haemostatic ability.

The objective of this study was to investigate the individual and combined contamination of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), zearalenone (ZEN) and deoxynivalenol (DON) in feedstuffs from different Provinces of China between 2016 and 2017. A total of 1569 samples, including 742 feed ingredients and 827 complete pig feed samples, were collected from various regions of China for mycotoxins analysis. The results showed that individual occurrence rates of AFB1, ZEN, and DON were more than 83.3%, 88%, and 74.5%, respectively, in all the tested samples. DON was the most prevalent contaminant, followed by ZEN and AFB1, with the average concentrations ranging from 450.0–4381.5 μg/kg, 2.3–729.2 μg/kg, and 1.3–10.0 μg/kg, respectively. Notable, 38.2%, 10.8%, and 0.6% of complete pig feeds were contaminated with DON, ZEN, and AFB1 over China’s regulatory limits, respectively. Moreover, over 75.0% analyzed samples were co-contaminated with two or three mycotoxins. In conclusion, the current study revealed that the feedstuffs in China were severely contaminated with DON, followed by ZEN and AFB1 during the past two years. These findings highlight the importance of monitoring mycotoxins in livestock feed and implementing feed management and bioremediation strategies to reduce mycotoxin exposure.