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In this paper, we propose a novel shape-sensing method based on deep learning with a multi-core optical fiber for the accurate shape-sensing of catheters and guidewires. Firstly, we designed a catheter with embedded multi-core fiber containing three sensing outer cores and one temperature compensation middle core. Then, we analyzed the relationship between the central wavelength shift, the curvature of the multi-core Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG), and temperature compensation methods to establish a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) BP neural network-based catheter shape sensing method. Finally, experiments were conducted in both constant and variable temperature environments to validate the method. The average and maximum distance errors of the PSO-BP neural network were 0.57 and 1.33 mm, respectively, under constant temperature conditions, and 0.36 and 0.96 mm, respectively, under variable temperature conditions. This well-sensed catheter shape demonstrates the effectiveness of the shape-sensing method proposed in this paper and its potential applications in real surgical catheters and guidewire.

In fields such as polarization navigation and imaging, there is a demand for polarizers to simultaneously possess a high transmittance and extinction ratio. However, most studies focus solely on a single metric for polarizer design. To address this issue, this paper proposed a metasurface polarizer with a transition layer and its efficient design method, aiming to enhance the polarizers’ transmittance and extinction ratio performance simultaneously. An all-dielectric metasurface polarizer with a TiO2 transition layer was designed, and a tandem neural network was constructed by combining forward prediction and inverse design networks. The network is successfully trained by utilizing structural parameters and spectral response Tx and Ty datasets collected through simulation software. A high-performance metasurface polarizer was designed under the desired metrics with a transmittance of 90% and an extinction ratio of 40 dB. The proposed method in this paper made progress in the comprehensive optimization of polarizer performance. It is more accurate and efficient compared to other design methods and is better suited for practical applications.

Predicting wave run-up on seawalls is essential for assessing coastal flood risk and guiding resilient design. In this study, we combine physical model experiments with a hybrid data driven method to forecast wave run-up distance. Laboratory tests generated a nonlinear data set spanning a wide range of wave amplitudes, wavelengths, Froude numbers. To capture the underlying physical regimes, the records were first classified using a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), which automatically grouped waves of similar hydrodynamic character. Within each cluster a Gradient Boosting Regressor (GBR) was then trained, allowing the model to learn tailored input–output relationships instead of forcing a single global fit. Results demonstrate that the GMM-GBR combined model achieves a coefficient of determination R2 greater than 0.91, outperforming a conventional, non-clustered GBR model. This approach offers a reliable tool for predicting seawall performance under varying wave conditions, contributing to better coastal management and resilience strategies.

To meet the practical application requirements of cardiac fixation during off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, a soft cardiac fixator with a flexible arm was previously designed. To enable the soft cardiac fixator to adapt to uncertain external forces, this study evaluates the variable-stiffness performance of the flexible arm. First, the flexible arm was simplified as a soft silicone manipulator measuring 60 mm × 90 mm × 120 mm, which can actuate, soften, or stiffen independently along the length of the arm by combining granular jamming with input pressure. Then, the soft manipulator was modelled as a cantilever beam to analyse its variable-stiffness performance with granular jamming. Next, based on theoretical analysis and calculations, many experiments were conducted to evaluate the variable-stiffness performance of the soft manipulator. The experimental results demonstrated that the variable-stiffness performance is influenced by the flexible arm length, the size of the granules, and the input pressure.

In clinical drug development, two fundamental questions must be addressed: what is the success rate of drugs in clinical trial; how does such rate change over time. Here, a dynamic strategy for calculating clinical trial success rate (ClinSR) is proposed, which identifies that: the ClinSR has been declining since the early 21st century, yet it hits a plateau and recently starts to increase; the ClinSR for repurposed drugs is unexpectedly lower than that for all drugs in recent years; and an extremely low ClinSR is found for anti-COVID-19 drugs. In-depth analysis reports great variations among the ClinSRs of various diseases, developmental strategies, and drug modalities. A platform ClinSR.org ( https://ClinSR.org/ ), is then developed to show how ClinSRs change over time. All in all, this work enables accurate, timely and continuous assessment of ClinSRs, for now and the future, to aid pharmaceutical and economic decision making. Tracking the success rate of clinical drug development is key for pharmaceutical and economic decision making. Here, the authors establish a strategy enabling dynamic measurement of the success rate using public data and generate an online platform.

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease associated with pelvic pain and infertility. Despite several existing theories, the etiology and molecular mechanisms of endometriosis remain to be investigated. Here we report that transcription factor 21 (TCF21) regulates uterine development and endometriosis pathogenesis by promoting epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cytoskeleton reorganization. Uterine-specific knockout of Tcf21 in mice promotes EMT of the endometrium and dysplasia of the uterus. Accordingly, patients with endometriosis exhibit high TCF21 expression and an expanded population of stromal cells in both eutopic and ectopic endometria. Integrative epigenomic and transcriptomic analyses in patient-derived ectopic stromal cells reveal that TCF21 transcriptionally activated a cohort of genes, including LIMK2 , which is critically involved in cytoskeleton organization. Indeed, TCF21-activated LIMK2-cofilin signaling in stromal cells is associated with actin-cytoskeleton reorganization and increased cell invasion and adhesion. In a surgically constructed mouse model, depletion of Tcf21 in eutopic stromal cells alleviates endometriotic lesions, whereas treatment of mice with AAV-Pgr-Tcf21 leads to increased endometriosis incidence, which could be mitigated by administering the LIM kinase inhibitor LIMKi 3. These observations uncover the importance of the TCF21-LIMK2-cofilin axis in uterine development and endometriosis, supporting the pursuit of TCF21-LIMK2-cofilin targeting in the diagnosis and therapeutics of endometriosis. Endometriosis causes pelvic pain and infertility, but how uterine development and disease are linked is unclear. Here, the authors show that TCF21 shapes uterine development and drives endometriosis by promoting epithelial–mesenchymal transition and reorganization of the cell skeleton.

The grasshopper optimization algorithm (GOA) is a novel metaheuristic algorithm. Because of its easy deployment and high accuracy, it is widely used in a variety of industrial scenarios and obtains good solution. But, at the same time, the GOA algorithm has some shortcomings: (1) original linear convergence parameter causes the processes of exploration and exploitation unbalanced; (2) unstable convergence speed; and (3) easy to fall into the local optimum. In this paper, we propose an enhanced grasshopper optimization algorithm (EGOA) using a nonlinear convergence parameter, niche mechanism, and the β-hill climbing technique to overcome the abovementioned shortcomings. In order to evaluate EGOA, we first select the benchmark set of GOA authors to test the performance improvement of EGOA compared to the basic GOA. The analysis includes exploration ability, exploitation ability, and convergence speed. Second, we select the novel CEC2019 benchmark set to test the optimization ability of EGOA in complex problems. According to the analysis of the results of the algorithms in two benchmark sets, it can be found that EGOA performs better than the other five metaheuristic algorithms. In order to further evaluate EGOA, we also apply EGOA to the engineering problem, such as the bin packing problem. We test EGOA and five other metaheuristic algorithms in SchWae2 instance. After analyzing the test results by the Friedman test, we can find that the performance of EGOA is better than other algorithms in bin packing problems.

Summary Microbiome plays a key role in determining soil suppressiveness against invading pathogens. Our previous study revealed that microbial community of bulk soil could be manipulated by lime and ammonium bicarbonate fumigation followed by biofertilizer application. However, the assembly of microbial community suppressive to banana Panama disease in the rhizosphere is still unclear. In this study, we used high‐throughput sequencing and quantitative PCR to explore the assembly of rhizosphere microbiome associated with banana Panama disease suppression in a two‐seasonal pot experiment. We found biofertilizer applied to lime and ammonium bicarbonate fumigated soil significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the abundance of rhizosphere Fusarium oxysporum compared to biofertilizer applied to non‐fumigated soil. Principal coordinate analysis revealed that biofertilizer applied to lime and ammonium bicarbonate fumigated soil re‐shaped the rhizosphere bacterial community composition by increasing the phylogenetic relatedness, and stimulating indigenous microbes, for example, Gemmatimonas, Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Lysobacter and Bacillus. Co‐occurrence analysis revealed that potential species involved in disease suppression were more interrelated in disease‐suppressive soils. Taken together, lime and ammonium bicarbonate fumigation followed by biofertilizer application could induce banana rhizosphere to assemble beneficial microbes dominated consortia to suppress banana Panama disease. We found biofertilizer applied to lime and ammonium bicarbonate fumigated soil significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the abundance of rhizosphere Fusarium oxysporum compared to biofertilizer applied to non‐fumigated soil. Principal coordinate analysis revealed that biofertilizer applied to lime and ammonium bicarbonate fumigated soil re‐shaped the rhizosphere bacterial community composition by increasing the phylogenetic relatedness, and stimulating indigenous microbes, e.g., Gemmatimonas, Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Lysobacter and Bacillus. Co‐occurrence analysis revealed that potential species involved in disease suppression were more interrelated in disease‐suppressive soils. Taken together, lime and ammonium bicarbonate fumigation followed by biofertilizer application could induce banana rhizosphere to assemble beneficial microbes dominated consortia to suppress banana Panama disease.

Transmembrane and ubiquitin-like domain-containing 1 (Tmub1) encodes a protein (TMUB1) containing an ubiquitin-like domain and plays a negative regulatory role during hepatocyte proliferation, but its mechanism in this process is still unknown. Here, TMUB1 interfered with the binding of calcium-modulating cyclophilin ligand (CAML) to cyclophilin B, which may represent a key role in the negative regulatory process of TMUB1 in hepatocyte proliferation. Co-immunoprecipitation assays in rat BRL-3A cells confirmed the interaction between TMUB1 and CAML; significant regulation of the influx of Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) and hepatocyte proliferation occurred following TMUB1 overexpression or knockout. Deletion of the TM1 hydrophobic domain of TMUB1 completely abolished this interaction and led to loss of TMUB1’s regulatory effects on cytological behavior. Furthermore, overexpression of TMUB1 completely abolished the interaction between CAML and its downstream protein cyclophilin B, which can act upstream of calcineurin by increasing [Ca2+]i during cell proliferation. Taken together, our results indicate that TMUB1 regulates BRL-3A hepatocyte proliferation by interacting with CAML and further interferes with the binding of CAML to cyclophilin B to decrease cellular [Ca2+]i.