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Surface roughness affects the near-wall fluid velocity profile and surface drag, and is commonly quantified by the equivalent sand-grain roughness k s . It is essential to estimate k s for accurate fluid dynamic problem modeling. While numerous roughness correlation formulas have been proposed to predict k s in the fully rough regime, most of them are restricted to certain roughness types, with various geometric parameters considered in each case, leading to ongoing disagreements regarding its parameterization and lack of universality. In this study, a Particle Swarm Optimized Backpropagation (PSO-BP) method is proposed to predict k s based on the selected surface parameters from previous DNS, LES, and experimental results for flow behavior over various surface roughness. The PSO-BP model’s ability to predict k s in the fully rough region is evaluated and compared with both the existing roughness correction formulas as well as the traditional BP model. An optimized polynomial function is also proposed to serve as a ‘white box’ for predicting k s . It turns out that the PSO-BP method has better performance in the evaluation metrics compared to other methods, yielding a Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of 0.0390, a Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 0.0026 and a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of 28.12%. This novel approach for estimating k s has practical applicability and holds promise for improving the precision and efficiency of calculations related to equivalent sand-grain roughness, and thus provides more accurate and effective solutions for CFD and other engineering applications.

Coal gangue (CG) and raw coal (RC) can catch fire due to spontaneous combustion. The combustion characteristics, functional groups, and kinetic behaviour of CG and RC were investigated to assess their thermal stability characteristics using thermogravimetric/Fourier transform infrared techniques (TG/FTIR) at heating rates of 10, 20, and 30 °C min−1. More types of aliphatic hydrocarbons and naphthenic bands found in CG than RC from FTIR analysis results contributed to more gaseous products including CO, CO2, and CH4 after 400 °C. A decomposition mechanism consisting of three stages for both samples was identified based on the characteristic temperatures obtained from TG data. The kinetic data of each sample were determined using different methods. The apparent activation energy varied in values for CG and RC due to the difference in combustible component content, but owned similar variation trend according to results of Vyazovkin method. The value of Eα calculated from Starink and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose methods exhibited good coincidence compared to Vyazovkin method. Reconstruction models without consideration the value of the heating rates were developed using the differential evolution algorithm to simulate the oxidation processes of each of the CG and RC samples, which was experimentally validated.

Background The exploitation of novel nanomaterials combining diagnostic and therapeutic functionalities within one single nanoplatform is challenging for tumor theranostics. Methods We synthesized dendrimer-modified gold nanorods for combinational gene therapy and photothermal therapy (PTT) of colon cancer. Poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAM, G3) grafted gold nanorods were modified with GX1 peptide (a cyclic 7-mer peptide, CGNSNPKSC). The obtained Au NR@PAMAM-GX1 are proposed as a gene delivery vector to gene (FAM172A, regulates the proliferation and apoptosis of colon cancer cells) for the combination of photothermal therapy (PTT) and gene therapy of Colon cancer cells (HCT-8 cells). In addition, the CT imaging function of Au NR can provide imaging evidence for the diagnosis of colon cancer. Results The results display that Au NR@PAMAM-GX1 can specifically deliver FAM172A to cancer cells with excellent transfection efficiency. The HCT-8 cells treated with the Au NR@PAMAM-GX1/FAM172A under laser irradiation have a viability of 20.45%, which is much lower than the survival rate of other single-mode PTT treatment or single-mode gene therapy. Furthermore, animal experiment results confirm that Au NR@PAMAM-GX1/FAM172A complexes can achieve tumor thermal imaging, targeted CT imaging, PTT and gene therapy after tail vein injection. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that the synthesized Au NR@PAMAM-GX1 offer a facile platform to exert antitumor and improve the diagnostic level of tumor.

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have been receiving utmost interest in virtue of their high theoretical capacity, but the undesirable cycling performance caused by soluble polysulfide shuttling between anode and cathode has hindered its practical applications. This study represents the first report on microporous carbon “shell” derived from carbonization of porous polymer to encapsulate ordered mesoporous carbon “core” functioning as sulfur immobilizers for Li–S batteries. The dual-pore carbon matrix combines the excellent confinement ability of micropores (0.5 nm) and large pore volume (1.432 cm3 g−1) to improve sulfur loading capacity (71.3 wt%), thereby maintaining a capacity of 535 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles and a low fading rate of 0.30% per cycle. The merits of our exclusive core–shell architecture are established through comparative electrochemical performance analyses of individual mesoporous carbon and microporous carbon composites. Our experimental results bring out the excellent electrochemical performance of porous carbon composites, benefitting from its outstanding sulfur loading mass improving its overall capacity and its confinement capacity in the micropores alleviating polysulfide dissolution.

To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of 308-nm excimer light therapy combined with topical pimecrolimus cream and crisaborole ointment in children with non-segmental vitiligo, using dermatoscopy, ImageJ software, Wood's lamp examination, and a color difference meter. A retrospective study was conducted involving 120 pediatric patients diagnosed with non-segmental vitiligo who attended the Department of Dermatology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, between January 2023 and December 2023. Patients were divided into three groups based on treatment regimen. Group 1 received 308-nm excimer light therapy combined with pimecrolimus cream. Group 2 received 308-nm excimer light therapy combined with crisaborole ointment. Control group received 308-nm excimer light therapy. Baseline images of skin lesions were obtained under natural light, Wood's lamp illumination, and dermatoscopic examination. All patients received once-weekly phototherapy sessions for 12 consecutive weeks, with treatment efficacy assessed at 4-week intervals. Treatment response rates, adverse events, and repigmentation patterns were systematically evaluated and compared across treatment groups. The overall treatment efficacy and repigmentation area demonstrated a progressive increase with successive treatment cycles. After 4 weeks of therapy, the response rates for Group 1, Group 2, and the control group were 34.1%, 32.1%, and 23.8%, respectively, with no statistically significant difference observed (P > 0.05). After 8 weeks of treatment, the response rates increased to 63.4%, 60.2%, and 42.8%, respectively, with statistically significant differences among groups (P < 0.05). Following 12 weeks of treatment, the response rates for Group 1, Group 2, and the control group further increased to 76.8%, 71.7%, and 54.8%, respectively (P < 0.05). The combination therapy groups exhibited significantly higher efficacy rates compared with the phototherapy-only group. Clinical efficacy varied significantly across different anatomical sites (P < 0.05), with the highest treatment response observed in the face and neck, followed by the trunk, extremities, and acral regions. Regarding treatment safety, no statistically significant differences in the incidence of adverse reactions were observed between the combination therapy groups and the phototherapy-only group (P > 0.05). With increasing treatment duration, the therapeutic efficacy and repigmentation area of vitiligo lesions show a progressive improvement. The combination of 308-nm excimer light therapy with topical pimecrolimus cream and crisaborole ointment demonstrates favorable efficacy in pediatric vitiligo, with only mild and well-tolerated adverse reactions. The integrated use of dermatoscopy, ImageJ software, Wood's lamp examination, and a color difference meter provides an objective, quantitative, and reproducible approach for digitally documenting changes in lesion color and area before and after vitiligo treatment.

CF3CBrCH2 (2-bromo-3,3,3-trifluoropropene, 2-BTP) is a potential replacement for CF3Br; however, it shows conflicted inhibition and enhancement behaviors under different combustion conditions. To better understand the combustion chemistry of 2-BTP, a theoretical study has been performed on its reactions with OH and H radicals. Potential energy surfaces were exhaustively explored by using B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ for geometry optimizations and CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ for high level single point energy refinements. Detailed kinetics of the major pathways were predicted by using RRKM/master-equation methodology. The present predictions imply that the –C(Br)=CH2 moiety of 2-BTP is most likely to be responsible for its fuel-like property. For 2-BTP + OH, the addition to the initial adduct (CF3CBrCH2OH) is the dominant channel at low temperatures, while the substitution reaction (CF3COHCH2 + Br) and H abstraction reaction (CF3CBrCH + H2O) dominates at high temperatures and elevated pressures. For 2-BTP + H, the addition to the initial adduct (CF3CBrCH3) also dominates the overall kinetics at low temperatures, while Br abstraction reaction (CF3CCH2 + HBr) and β-scission of the adduct forming CF3CHCH2 + Br dominates at high temperatures and elevated pressures. Compared to 2-BTP + OH, the 2-BTP + H reaction tends to have a larger effect on flame suppression, given the fact that it produces more inhibition species.

Background The relationship between childhood obesity and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (CCVD) remains ambiguous. This study aims to explore the causal relationship between childhood obesity and CCVD utilizing the two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) method. Furthermore, the study investigates the prognostic implications of obesity on CCVD, utilizing insights derived from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2021. Methods This study utilized pooled data on childhood obesity from the genome-wide association study (GWAS) available in the IEU Open GWAS database, alongside data on 20 types of CCVD from the GWAS in the 2024 Finngen database for analysis. The inverse variance weighted (IVW) method was served as the primary analysis method, while MR-Egger regression, weighted median, simple mode and weighted mode were employed as supplementary analyses to explore the causal relationship between childhood obesity and CCVD in adulthood. Cochran’s Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, and leave-one-out test were performed to access the robustness of the results. Simultaneously, summary data on childhood obesity from GWAS in the EGG database were utilized to replicate the analysis to verify the robustness of the results. Additionally, the latest data from the 2021 GBD study were employed to analyze the prognostic correlation between obesity and CCVD. Results IVW analysis finds positive causal relationship between childhood obesity and risk of coronary atherosclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, hard cardiovascular diseases, ischemic heart disease, angina pectoris, unstable angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, heart failure, major coronary heart disease event, cardiac arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation and flutter, coronary revascularization (ANGIO or CABG), coronary angioplasty, coronary artery bypass grafting, stroke, and embolic stroke (all P  < 0.05). These causal relationships remained significant after correcting for the false discovery rate (all P  < 0.05). Steiger directional test confirmed that the direction of the effect of childhood obesity on CCVD was correct (all P  < 0.001). No causal relationship was identified between childhood obesity and cardiac arrest, stroke (excluding SAH), subarachnoid haemorrhage, and intracerebral haemorrhage (all P >0.05). MR-Egger intercept test and leave-one-out test suggested that the research results are robust. The replication analysis corroborated the consistent findings, thereby further confirming the robustness of the results. The findings of GBD study showed that obesity was an important risk factor for deaths and DALYs in patients with CCVD. Conclusion This study revealed the positive causal relationship between childhood obesity and various CCVD. Obesity was identified as a risk factor for contributing to adverse prognostic outcomes in CCVD patients. This highlights the need for clinicians to prioritize evidence-based strategies in the management of childhood obesity to prevent the onset and adverse progression of CCVD in adulthood. Graphical abstract

Endocytosis and endolysosomal trafficking are essential for almost all aspects of physiological functions of eukaryotic cells. As our understanding on these membrane trafficking events are mostly from studies in yeast and cultured mammalian cells, one challenge is to systematically evaluate the findings from these cell-based studies in multicellular organisms under physiological settings. One potentially valuable in vivo system to address this challenge is the vitellogenic oocyte in Drosophila , which undergoes extensive endocytosis by Yolkless (Yl), a low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), to uptake extracellular lipoproteins into oocytes and package them into a specialized lysosome, the yolk granule, for storage and usage during later development. However, by now there is still a lack of sufficient understanding on the molecular and cellular processes that control yolk granule biogenesis. Here, by creating genome-tagging lines for Yl receptor and analyzing its distribution in vitellogenic oocytes, we observed a close association of different endosomal structures with distinct phosphoinositides and actin cytoskeleton dynamics. We further showed that Rab5 and Rab11, but surprisingly not Rab4 and Rab7, are essential for yolk granules biogenesis. Instead, we uncovered evidence for a potential role of Rab7 in actin regulation and observed a notable overlap of Rab4 and Rab7, two Rab GTPases that have long been proposed to have distinct spatial distribution and functional roles during endolysosomal trafficking. Through a small-scale RNA interference (RNAi) screen on a set of reported Rab5 effectors, we showed that yolk granule biogenesis largely follows the canonical endolysosomal trafficking and maturation processes. Further, the data suggest that the RAVE/V-ATPase complexes function upstream of or in parallel with Rab7, and are involved in earlier stages of endosomal trafficking events. Together, our study provides s novel insights into endolysosomal pathways and establishes vitellogenic oocyte in Drosophila as an excellent in vivo model for dissecting the highly complex membrane trafficking events in metazoan.

Background: Cardiac arrest (CA) is a common event in the intensive care unit (ICU), which seriously threatens the prognosis of patients. Therefore, it is crucial to determine a simple and effective clinical indicator to judge the prognosis of patients after a CA for later treatments. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the lactate dehydrogenase to albumin ratio (LAR) and the prognosis of patients after a CA. Methods: The clinical data of participants was obtained from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV, v2.0; 2008 to 2019). According to the 30-day prognosis, patients were divided into a survivors group (n = 216) and a non-survivors group (n = 304). The optimal LAR threshold was determined using restricted cubic spline (RCS), which divided patients into a high LAR group (≥15.50, n = 257) and a low LAR group (<15.50, n = 263). The ICU hospitalization and 30-day accumulative survival curves of the two groups were plotted following the Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. Multivariate Cox regression was used to analyze the relationship between the LAR and the prognosis of CA patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to evaluate the predictive efficacy of the LAR on 30-day all-cause mortality, and sensitivity analysis was used to check the reliability of the findings. Results: A total of 520 patients with CA were enrolled and the 30-day mortality was 58.46%. The LAR in the non-survivors group was higher than in the survivors group. The RCS showed a linear trend relationship between the LAR and the mortality risk in patients during their ICU stay and 30 days; moreover, as the LAR increased, so did the risk of mortality. The Kaplan–Meier survival curve showed that compared with the low LAR group, the cumulative survival rates of ICU hospitalization and 30 days were lower in the high LAR group among CA patients (p < 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that an elevated LAR (≥15.50) was an independent risk factor for mortality during ICU stay and 30 days (p < 0.005). ROC analysis suggested that the LAR was superior to the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score in predicting the 30-day all-cause mortality in CA patients (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.676, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.629–0.723). To verify the reliability of our findings, we performed sensitivity analyses and found that the findings were reliable. Conclusions: An elevated LAR might be a predictor of mortality in patients following a CA during ICU hospitalization and 30 days, thereby it can be used to provide a reference for the clinical management of these patients.

Objective This study aimed to develop and evaluate a nomogram for predicting preterm birth in patients with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), with a view to assisting clinical management and intervention. Methods This retrospective observational study included 257 pregnant women with ICP from Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital between January 1, 2022 and July 30, 2024. The routine clinical and laboratory information of these patients were also collected. We used the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and multivariable logistic regression analysis to investigate the association between clinical and laboratory data and preterm birth in ICP patients. A nomogram was developed to predict the likelihood of preterm birth in ICP patients. The prediction accuracy of the model was evaluated by consistency index (C-index), receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, area under the curve (AUC), and calibration curve. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate its applicability in clinical practice. Results Among the 257 ICP patients, 56 (21.79%) were diagnosed with preterm birth. Cases were randomly divided into a training set (154 cases) and a test set (103 cases). A nomogram was developed to predict preterm birth in ICP patients based on height, twin pregnancy (TP), gestational age at diagnosis (GA at diagnosis), and total bile acid level (TBA) at diagnosis. The calibration curve of the training set was close to the diagonal (C-index = 0.864), and the calibration curve of the test set was also close to the diagonal (C-index = 0.835). These results indicate that the model has a good consistency. The AUC of the training group and the test group were 0.864 and 0.836, respectively, indicating the good accuracy of the model. The DCA reveals that this nomogram could be applied to clinical practice. Conclusion The combination of TBA level, TP, height and GA at diagnosis is an effective model for identifying preterm birth in ICP patients. These results will help guide the clinical management and treatment of patients with ICP, thereby reducing maternal and infant safety issues caused by preterm birth.