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Open rock masses are subject to prolonged loading and freeze-thaw cycles in cold regions. In this study, we take saturated fissured red sandstone as object to investigate the long-term mechanical response characteristics of fractured rock under freeze-thaw conditions. Experimental tests were conducted to analyze the creep characteristics of the rock after freeze-thaw cycles, considering different freeze-thaw frequencies and fracture orientations. The results reveal that (1) freeze-thaw cycles exert a significant influence on the rock’s creep behavior, with axial strain, instantaneous strain, and creep strain increasing progressively with the number of freeze-thaw cycles; (2) dual-fractured rock samples with varying fracture angles exhibit distinct differences in creep phenomena, where increased fracture angles result in pronounced increases in instantaneous and creep strains, and higher horizontal stress levels lead to greater strain generation; (3) all rock samples with different pre-existing fractures exhibit rock bridge breakthrough during creep failure, and the variation in fracture angle affects the failure mode; (4) and the long-term strength of the rock varies with changes in fracture angle and freeze-thaw cycle frequency, showing an increasing trend with greater fracture angles but a rapid decrease with increasing freeze-thaw cycles. These findings provide valuable insights for engineering design and risk assessment of open rock masses in cold regions. This study has guiding significance for the safety construction of rock mass engineering in cold regions.

Traditional agricultural greenhouse environmental monitoring systems often lack effective anomaly detection mechanisms, which can lead to inaccurate environmental regulation and negatively affect plant growth. To address this issue, this paper proposes a greenhouse monitoring system integrating Zigbee and 4G communication technologies, combined with a CNN-LSTM-POT anomaly detection algorithm. The system employs a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to extract local spatial features from multi-source sensor data and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network to model long-term temporal dependencies. To accurately identify anomalies, the Peaks Over Threshold (POT) method from extreme value theory is applied to prediction residuals, enabling adaptive dynamic threshold determination. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm substantially improves anomaly detection precision, prevents erroneous data from disrupting greenhouse control decisions and reduces the volume of data transmitted to the cloud platform, thereby lowering computational overhead. This work provides a reliable and efficient solution for data monitoring and precise environmental control in smart agricultural greenhouses.

Fabricating functional materials via molecular self-assembly is a promising approach, and precisely controlling the molecular building blocks of nanostructures in the self-assembly process is an essential and challenging task. Blue phase liquid crystals are fascinating self-assembled three-dimensional nanomaterials because of their potential information displays and tuneable photonic applications. However, one of the main obstacles to their applications is their narrow temperature range of a few degrees centigrade, although many prior studies have broadened it to tens via molecular design. In this work, a series of tailored uniaxial rodlike mesogens disfavouring the formation of blue phases are introduced into a blue phase system comprising biaxial dimeric mesogens, a blue phase is observed continuously over a temperature range of 280 °C, and the range remains over 132.0 °C after excluding the frozen glassy state. The findings show that the molecular synergistic self-assembly behavior of biaxial and uniaxial mesogens may play a crucial role in achieving the ultrastable three-dimensional nanostructure of blue phases. Blue phases are spatially ordered yet fragile liquid crystalline structures, bearing applications in optoelectronics and photonics. Hu et al. show that self-assembly within a mixture of different mesogens may significantly broaden the temperature range over which they are stable.

Rock masses in cold regions deteriorate due to frost heave caused by fissure water, posing risks to engineering projects. This study investigates the long-term mechanical behavior of fully saturated fissured red sandstone under freeze–thaw conditions. Creep acoustic emission (AE) experiments were conducted to explore how freeze–thaw cycles and fissure dip angles influence rock creep and AE characteristics. Four freeze-thaw cycle levels (0, 30, 60, and 90) and three double-fissure orientations (15°–15°, 15°–75°, and 75°–75°) were examined in this study. Results show that: (1) Increasing freeze–thaw cycles lead to greater instantaneous and creep strains, higher AE signal amplitudes, exponential growth in AE energy rates, and faster b-value fluctuations. (2) With larger fissure dip angles, the instantaneous and creep strains significantly increase, while the amplitude density, intensity, and AE energy rates decrease. b-value fluctuations also slow down. (3) Abrupt b-value changes can predict freeze–thaw-induced rock failure. For intact samples subjected to 90 freeze–thaw cycles, intact non-freeze–thaw samples, and fissured non-freeze–thaw samples, b-value mutations occurred 12.96 s, 35.28 s, and 48.24 s earlier, respectively. These findings highlight b-value changes as an early indicator of freeze–thaw damage and provide theoretical insights into the creep failure of fissured rock masses under such conditions, aiding in the design and safety of cold-region engineering.

The ability of some animals to rapidly change their colors can greatly improve their chances of escaping predators or hunting prey. A classic example is cephalopods, which can rapidly shift through a wide range of colors. This ability is based on the synergetic effect of the change of pigmentary and structural colors exhibited by their own two categories of color‐changing cells: supernatant chromatophores offer various pigmentary colors and lower iridophores or leucophores reflect the different structural colors by adjusting their periodicities. Here, a mechanochromic liquid crystalline elastomer with force‐induced synergetic pigmentary and structural color change, whose mechanosensitivity is enhanced by the stress‐concentration induced by the doped nanoparticle, is presented. The materials have a large color‐changing gamut and high mechanochromic sensitivity, which exhibit great potential in the field of mechanical detectors, sensors, and anti‐counterfeiting materials. A mechanochromic liquid crystalline elastomer is presented with force‐induced synergetic pigmentary and structural color change, whose mechanosensitivity is enhanced by the stress‐concentration induced by the doped nanoparticle. The materials have a large color‐changing gamut and high mechanochromic sensitivity, which exhibit great potential in the field of mechanical detectors, sensors, and anti‐counterfeiting materials.

Background Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important functional regulators of many biological processes of cancers. However, the mechanisms by which lncRNAs modulate androgen-independent prostate cancer (AIPC) development remain largely unknown. Methods Next-generation sequencing technology and RT-qPCR were used to assess LEF1-AS1 expression level in AIPC tissues and adjacent normal tissues. Functional in vitro experiments, including colony formation, EDU and transwell assays were performed to assess the role of LEF1-AS1 in AIPC. Xenograft assays were conducted to assess the effect of LEF1-AS1 on cell proliferation in vivo. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and RNA binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays were performed to elucidate the regulatory network of LEF1-AS1. Results The next-generation sequencing results showed that LEF1-AS1 is significantly overexpressed in AIPC. Furthermore, our RT-qPCR assay data showed that LEF1-AS1 is overexpressed in AIPC tissues. Functional experiments showed that LEF1-AS1 promotes the proliferation, migration, invasion and angiogenic ability of AIPC cells in vitro and tumour growth in vivo by recruiting the transcription factor C-myb to the promoter of FZD2, inducing its transcription. Furthermore, LEF1-AS1 was shown to function as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) that sponges miR-328 to activate CD44. Conclusion In summary, the results of our present study revealed that LEF1-AS1 acts as a tumour promoter in the progression of AIPC. Furthermore, the results revealed that LEF1-AS1 functions as a ceRNA and regulates Wnt/β-catenin pathway activity via FZD2 and CD44. Our results provide new insights into the mechanism that links the function of LEF1-AS1 with AIPC and suggests that LEF1-AS1 may serve as a novel potential target for the improvement of AIPC therapy.

Androgenetic alopecia represents the most common form of progressive hair loss, with current treatments showing limitations in efficacy or tolerability. Xiaozhi Yufa decoction (XZYFD), a Traditional Chinese Medicine formulation composed of 13 herbal medicines, has shown clinical potential in treating hair loss. Network pharmacology analysis identified active compounds and potential targets of XZYFD, with molecular docking evaluating compound-target interactions. A testosterone propionate-induced mouse model was established to assess XZYFD's therapeutic efficacy. Treatment effects were evaluated through hair regrowth assessment, histological examination, serum biochemical analysis, and molecular pathway investigation. Network pharmacology identified 57 overlapping targets between XZYFD and androgenetic alopecia, with enrichment in MAPK signaling and lipid metabolism pathways. experiments demonstrated that XZYFD dose-dependently promoted hair regrowth and restored follicular morphology. Treatment significantly improved hormonal profiles, reduced serum lipid levels, and suppressed inflammatory markers. XZYFD effectively inhibited androgen metabolism and suppressed activation of MAPK signaling and SREBP-1-mediated lipid metabolism pathways, as confirmed through gene expression, protein analysis, and immunohistochemistry. XZYFD ameliorates androgenetic alopecia through simultaneous modulation of androgen metabolism, MAPK signaling, and SREBP-1-mediated lipid metabolism, with potential advantages for patients with metabolic dysfunction.

In this study, the response mechanism between macro- and microscales of deep hard-rock diorite is investigated under loading and unloading conditions. Moreover, the statistical theory is combined with particle flow code simulations to establish a correlation between unloading rates observed in laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. Subsequent numerical tests under varying confining pressures are conducted to examine the macroscopic mechanical properties and the evolution of particle velocity, displacement, contact force chain failures, and microcracks in both axial and radial directions of the numerical rock samples during the loading and unloading phases. The findings indicate that the confining pressure strength curve displays an instantaneous fluctuation response during unloading, which intensifies with higher initial confining pressures. This suggests that rock sample damage progresses in multiple stages of expansion and penetration. The study also reveals that with increased initial confining pressure, there is a decrease in particle velocity along the unloading direction and an increase in particle displacement and the number of contact force chain failures, indicating more severe radial expansion of the rock sample. Furthermore, microcracks predominantly accumulate near the unloading surface, and their total number escalates with rising confining pressure, suggesting that higher confining pressures promote the development and expansion of internal microcracks.

The damping enhancement effect of the inerter system means that its energy dissipation efficiency can be improved with respect to the traditional dampers. Energy dissipation efficiency have been considered as the optimal design principle of the inerter system, however, the solution for optimized key parameters is difficult because of the special mechanical behavior of the inerter. A modified float-point encoding genetic algorithm is proposed in this study to realize the optimal design of the inerter system with maximized energy dissipation efficiency effectively and robustly. A novel and simple crossover strategy termed differential crossover is proposed and applied in the classical genetic algorithm to optimize the inerter system more effectively. The differential crossover strategy means that a new individual is generated based on the difference between two randomly selected individuals in the population. The mathematical expression for the optimization problem of the inerter system corresponding to the maximum energy dissipation efficiency design principle is established. Following the performance-oriented design concept, performance demand is taken as the constrained condition of the optimization problem. Case design confirms that the modified genetic algorithm can successfully solve the optimization problem of the inerter system and perform a better solving ability over the original genetic algorithms.

An inerter system can amplify the deformation of its internal energy dissipation device, thereby improving the efficiency of energy dissipation and shock absorption. This is the so-called damping enhancement mechanism, one of the key mechanisms of the inerter system. Although the theoretical framework for damping enhancement of inerter systems has been established, the implementation of this principle for the design of an inerter system requires solving a complicated constrained optimization problem, which is not easy to be figured out using traditional approaches. To obtain valid design results through a lucid and robust method, it is proposed to optimize the damping parameters through a metaheuristic algorithm named harmony search algorithm in order to maximize the damping enhancement degree of the inerter system with the satisfaction of structural performance. First, the closed-form seismic response solutions of a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) structure with an inerter system are derived based on the theory of random vibration. Then, the mathematical expression of the constrained optimization problem is established. Due to the inefficiency of the original harmony search algorithm to solve the constrained optimization problem, the algorithm is modified by introducing a new harmony generating method and an adaptive strategy for parameter adjustment. The modified harmony search algorithm is compiled to solve the optimal design problem of the inerter system. The algorithm is verified by designing a structure with an inerter system. It is found that the number of iterations and time consumption until convergence required by the modified harmony search algorithm can be reduced by about 20%∼90% compared with the original algorithm, which confirms the effectiveness of the modified algorithm. The results of dynamic analyses show that the structure have achieved the preset performance demands under different cases and the damping enhancement characteristic of the inerter system is fully utilized.