Explore the vast range of titles available.

Abstract The surface defect detection (SDD) problem is one of the crucial techniques during production process, so it has become a key research area to control the quality of industrial products, which has been increasingly of greater interest to the researchers especially with the rapid development of artificial neural networks technology in recent years. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel deep convolutional neural network algorithm aiming at SDD. Firstly, a dense cross-stage partial Darknet backbone network is designed for feature extraction by optimizing cross-stage partial Darknet through the idea of dense connections, which can, not only enhance feature reuse but also greatly alleviate the overfitting issue. Secondly, a new cross-stage hierarchy module is presented combining the cross-stage feature fusion strategy and depthwise separable convolution technique for each node of the path aggregated feature pyramid network (PAN). Finally, an efficient channel attention (ECA) mechanism is introduced in PAN to construct a novel ECA PAN. The experimental results on three surface defect datasets show that the mean average precision of this network is 2.63, 5.48, and 1.16$\\%$ which is higher than that of the baseline network, respectively. The proposed network outperforms not only the classical models but state-of-the-art models, which indicates the proposed algorithm can achieve higher accuracy and speed with fewer calculation parameters. And what is more, the proposed algorithm also has outstanding generalization ability. Graphical Abstract Graphical Abstract

Black Carbon (BC), the second-largest contributor to global warming, has detrimental effects on human health and the environment. However, the accurate quantification of BC poses a significant challenge, impeding the comprehensive assessment of its impacts. Therefore, this paper aims to critically review three quantitative methods for measuring BC: Thermal Optical Analysis (TOA), the Optical Method, and Laser-Induced Incandescence (LII). The determination principles, available commercial instruments, sources of deviation, and correction approaches associated with these techniques are systematically discussed. By synthesizing and comparing the quantitative results reported in previous studies, this paper aims to elucidate the underlying relationships and fundamental disparities among Elemental Carbon (EC), Equivalent Black Carbon (eBC), and Refractory Black Carbon (rBC). Finally, based on the current advancements in BC quantification, recommendations are proposed to guide future research directions.

Cryopreservation has important application in assisted reproductive technology (ART). The vitrification technique has been widely used in the cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos, as a large number of clinical results and experimental studies have shown that vitrification can achieve a higher cell survival rate and preimplantation development rate and better pregnancy outcomes. Ovarian tissue vitrification is an alternative method to slow freezing that causes comparatively less damage to the original follicular DNA. At present, sperm preservation mainly adopts slow freezing or rapid freezing (LN2 vapor method), although the vitrification method can achieve higher sperm motility after warming. However, due to the use of high-concentration cryoprotectants and ultra-rapid cooling, vitrification may cause strong stress to gametes, embryos and tissue cells, resulting in potentially adverse effects. Imprinted genes are regulated by epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation, and show single allele expression. Their accurate regulation and correct expression are very important for the placenta, fetal development and offspring health. Considering that genome imprinting is very sensitive to changes in the external environment, we comprehensively summarized the effect of cryopreservation—especially the vitrification method in ART—on imprinted genes. Animal studies have found that the vitrification of oocytes and embryos can have a significant impact on some imprinted genes and DNA methylation, but the few studies in humans have reported almost no influence, which need to be further explored. This review provides useful information for the safety assessment and further optimization of the current cryopreservation techniques in ART.

Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) mediates vascular maturation and immune response. Diabetes decreases Ang1 expression and disrupts Ang1/Tie2 signaling activity. Vasculotide is an Ang1 mimetic peptide, and has anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we test the hypothesis that vasculotide treatment induces neuroprotection and decreases inflammation after stroke in type 1 diabetic (T1DM) rats. T1DM rats were subjected to embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) and treated with: 1) phosphate buffered saline (PBS); 2) vasculotide (3µg/kg, i.p. injection) administered half an hour prior to MCAo and at 8 and 24 hours after MCAo. Rats were sacrificed at 48 h after MCAo. Neurological function, infarct volume, hemorrhage, blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability and neuroinflammation were measured. Vasculotide treatment of T1DM-MCAo rats significantly improves functional outcome, decreases infarct volume and BBB permeability, but does not decrease brain hemorrhagic transformation compared with PBS-treated T1DM-MCAo rats. In the ischemic brain, Vasculotide treatment significantly decreases apoptosis, number of cleaved-caspase-3 positive cells, the expression of monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α). Western blot analysis shows that vasculotide significantly decreases expression of receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), MCP-1 and TNF-α in the ischemic brain compared with T1DM-MCAo rats. Vasculotide treatment in cultured primary cortical neurons (PCN) significantly decreases TLR4 expression compared with control. Decreased neuroinflammation and reduced BBB leakage may contribute, at least in part, to vasculotide-induced neuroprotective effects after stroke in T1DM rats.

Furfural residue (FR), a solid waste, was applied as the precursor to prepare activated carbon by steam activation. The Box-Behnken design (BBD) approach-based response surface methodology (RSM) was utilized to optimize the preparation conditions to evaluate their effects on the performance of activated carbon from furfural residue (FRAC). The optimum preparation conditions of FRAC were found as follows: activation temperature of 922 °C, activation time of 62 min, and the mass ratio of char to H2O of 1:4.5, resulting in 1,501.84 mg/g of iodine adsorption capacity and 1,662.41 m2/g of specific surface area. The FRAC was characterized and then the adsorption performance of bisphenol S (BPS) on FRAC was investigated. Langmuir and Koble-Corrigan isotherm models were well fitted to the experimental data, and the adsorption kinetics process was perfectly described by the pseudo-second-order model. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the adsorption of BPS was a spontaneous exothermic process. Besides, the regeneration efficiency of FRAC was over 97% after five consecutive cycles. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity of FRAC for BPS was 3.2848 mmol/g at 298 K, indicating that the FRAC was an excellent adsorbent for the removal of BPS from aqueous solutions.

Using AgNO 3 as the Ag source, the Ag@BiOCl photocatalysts were prepared by depositing noble metal Ag on the surface of BiOCl by solvothermal method. Ag exists as spherical particles with a diameter of 40 nm. Based on the surface plasmon resonance effect (SPR) of Ag, the photoresponse range of BiOCl was successfully extended to the visible light region, which reduced the photo-generated electron–hole recombination efficiency and improved the charge transfer efficiency. The photocatalytic performance of Ag@BiOCl was studied under visible light. The results show that when the Ag content is 10wt%, it exhibits excellent photocatalytic performance on the degradation of acid red B (ARB), and its degradation rate constant is 11 times larger than that of BiOCl. The active substance-capturing test results show that voids play the key role in photocatalytic degradation of ARB.

Geocoding converts unstructured geographic text into structured spatial data, which is crucial in fields such as urban planning, social media spatial analysis, and emergency response systems. Existing approaches predominantly model geocoding as a geographic grid classification task but struggle with the output space dimensionality explosion as the grid granularity increases. Furthermore, these methods generally overlook the inherent hierarchical structure of geographical texts and grids. In this paper, we propose a hierarchy-aware geocoding model based on cross-attention within the Seq2Seq framework, incorporating S2 geometry to model geocoding as a task for generating grid labels and predicting S2 tokens (labels of S2 grids) character-by-character. By incorporating a cross-attention mechanism into the decoder, the model dynamically perceives the address contexts at the hierarchical level that are most relevant to the current character prediction based on the input address text. Results show that the proposed model significantly outperforms previous approaches across multiple metrics, with a median and mean distance error of 41.46 m and 93.98 m, respectively. Furthermore, our method achieves superior results compared to others in regions with sparse data distribution, reducing the median and mean distance error by 16.27 m and 7.52 m, respectively, suggesting that our model has effectively mitigated the issue of insufficient learning in such regions.

News media play a crucial role in shaping public perceptions of climate change and constructing national identities. However, limited research has examined the discursive strategies and underlying ideologies employed by Western media in reporting on China’s role in climate change. This study applied corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to a dataset of 283 articles from The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph , examining how British media construct China’s role in climate change through five key discursive strategies: (1) nomination, framing China’s role by naming social actors, objects/phenomena/events, and processes/actions in layered and selective ways; (2) predication, evaluating China’s climate actions through specific verb choices and comparative language; (3) argumentation, attributing climate responsibility to China primarily through topoi of numbers, responsibility, definition, and threat; (4) perspectivization, predominantly featuring specific sources including government, social institutions, international organizations, opinion leaders, and the public; and (5) intensification/mitigation, amplifying or downplaying China’s actions and responsibilities using adverbs and modal verbs. These strategies serve to position China as both a central actor in global climate governance and as the other, highlighting its contributions while emphasizing its responsibilities and challenges as a major emitter. The findings provide critical insights into the power dynamics of global climate politics and their reproduction in media discourse, informing future studies on international climate communication.

PurposeTo investigate whether exosomes derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (hucMSC-derived exosomes) can repair injured endometrial epithelial cells (EECs).MethodsHucMSC-derived exosomes and mouse primary EECs were isolated and purified. EECs were exposed to oxygen and glucose deprivation for 2 h followed by reoxygenation to mimic injury. After oxygen and glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R), hucMSC-derived exosomes were added to the EEC culture medium. After 24 h of co-treatment, cell viability and cell death were tested by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium assay and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay, respectively. The expression of proinflammatory cytokines was tested by real-time PCR, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and Western blot to investigate the potential mechanism.ResultsCompared with the control group, 5, 10, and 15 μg/mL of hucMSC-derived exosomes significantly attenuated cell viability decrease and inhibited LDH release of injured EECs, but 1 μg/mL of hucMSC-derived exosomes had no effect on either cell viability or LDH release. Real-time PCR and ELISA analysis revealed that 10 μg/mL of hucMSC-derived exosomes significantly inhibited the release of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and increased tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFA) in injured EECs. In addition, 10 μg/mL of hucMSC-derived exosomes significantly inhibited toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and v-rel reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog A (RelA) expression in injured EECs.ConclusionsIn OGD/R-induced injured EECs, hucMSC-derived exosomes efficiently improved the cell viability, reduced cell death, and exhibited anti-inflammatory properties against OGD/R.

DNA methylation is essential for epigenetic regulation of gene transcription and development in many animals, plants and fungi. We investigated whether DNA methylation plays a role in the development and secondary metabolism of Aspergillus flavus , identified the DmtA methyltransferase from A. flavus and produced a dmtA knock-out mutant by replacing the dmtA coding sequence with the pyrG selectable marker. The A. flavus dmtA null mutant lines produced white fluffy mycelium in liquid medium and displayed a slightly flavescent conidial pigmentation compared with the normal yellow of the wild-type strain when grown on agar. The Δ dmtA lines exhibited decreased conidiation and aflatoxin (AF) biosynthesis, compared with the wild-type line, suggesting that the DmtA knock-out affected the transcriptional level of genes in the AF cluster. In particular, sclerotia development and host colonization were altered in the dmtA null mutants. Green fluorescent protein tagging at the C-terminus of DmtA showed that DmtA localized to the nucleus and cytoplasm. DNA methylation content measurements in the dmtA mutants revealed no widespread DNA methylation in the mutants or wild-type lines. Thus, our findings suggest that DmtA, apart from being a C-5 cytosine methyltransferase in A. flavus , contributes to asexual development, aflatoxin biosynthesis, sclerotial production and virulence.