Triceps skinfold thickness (TSF) is a surrogate marker of subcutaneous fat. Evidence is limited about the association of sex-specific TSF with the risk of all-cause mortality among maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal relationship of TSF with all-cause mortality among MHD patients. A multicenter prospective cohort study was performed in 1034 patients undergoing MHD. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association of TSF with the risk of mortality. The mean (standard deviation) age of the study population was 54.1 (15.1) years. 599 (57.9%) of the participants were male. The median (interquartile range) of TSF was 9.7 (6.3–13.3 mm) in males and 12.7 (10.0–18.0 mm) in females. Over a median follow up of 4.4 years (interquartile range, 2.4-7.9 years), there were 548 (53.0%) deaths. When TSF was assessed as sex-specific quartiles, compared with those in quartile 1, the adjusted HRs (95%CIs) of all-cause mortality in quartile 2, quartile 3 and quartile 4 were 0.93 (0.73, 1.19), 0.75 (0.58, 0.97) and 0.69 (0.52, 0.92), respectively (P for trend =0.005). Moreover, when analyzed by sex, increased TSF (≥9.7 mm for males and ≥18mm for females) was significantly associated with a reduced risk of all-cause mortality (quartile 3-4 vs. quartile 1-2; HR, 0.70; 95%CI: 0.55, 0.90 in males; quartile 4 vs. Quartile 1-3; HR, 0.69; 95%CI: 0.48, 1.00 in females). In conclusion, high TSF was significantly associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality in MHD patients.

This paper proposes an online robust self-learning terminal sliding mode control (RS-TSMC) with stability guarantee for balancing control of reaction wheel bicycle robots (RWBR) under model uncertainties and disturbances, which improves the balancing control performance of RWBR by optimising the constrained output of TSMC. The TSMC is designed for a second-order mathematical model of RWBR. Then robust adaptive dynamic programming based on an actor-critic algorithm is used to optimise the TSMC only by data sampled online. The system closed-loop stability and convergence of the neural network weights are guaranteed based on the Lyapunov analysis. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through simulations and experiments.

The AIMTB rapid test assay is an emerging test, which adopted a fluorescence immunochromatographic assay to measure interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production following stimulation of effector memory T cells in whole blood by mycobacterial proteins. The aim of this article was to explore the ability of AIMTB rapid test assay in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection compared with the widely applied QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) test among rural doctors in China. In total, 511 participants were included in the survey. The concordance between the QFT-Plus test and the AIMTB rapid test assay was 94.47% with a Cohen’s kappa coefficient (κ) of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.79–0.90). Improved concordance between the two tests was observed in males and in participants with 26 or more years of service as rural doctors. The quantitative values of the QFT-Plus test was higher in individuals with a result of QFT-Plus-/AIMTB+ as compared to those with a result of QFT-Plus-/AIMTB- (p < 0.001). Overall, our study found that there was an excellent consistency between the AIMTB rapid test assay and the QFT-Plus test in a Chinese population. As the AIMTB rapid test assay is fast and easy to operate, it has the potential to improve latent tuberculosis infection testing and treatment at the community level in resource-limited settings.

Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) is one of the world’s resilient upland weeds, primarily spreading through its tubers. Its emergence in rice (Oryza sativa L.) fields has been increasing, likely due to changing paddy-farming practices. This study aimed to investigate how C. rotundus, an upland weed, can withstand soil flooding and become a problematic weed in rice fields. The first comparative analysis focused on the survival and recovery characteristics of growing and mature tubers of C. rotundus exposed to soil-flooding conditions. Notably, mature tubers exhibited significant survival and recovery abilities in these environments. Based on this observation, further investigation was carried out to explore the morphological structure, nonstructural carbohydrates, and respiratory mechanisms of mature tubers in response to prolonged soil flooding. Over time, the mature tubers did not form aerenchyma but instead gradually accumulated lignified sclerenchymal fibers, with lignin content also increasing. After 90 d, the lignified sclerenchymal fibers and lignin contents were 4.0 and 1.1 times higher than those in the no soil-flooding treatment. Concurrently, soluble sugar content decreased while starch content increased, providing energy storage, and alcohol dehydrogenase activity rose to support anaerobic respiration via alcohol fermentation. These results indicated that mature tubers survived in soil-flooding conditions by adopting a low-oxygen quiescence strategy, which involves morphological adaptations through the development of lignified sclerenchymal fibers, increased starch reserves for energy storage, and enhanced anaerobic respiration. This mechanism likely underpins the flooding tolerance of mature C. rotundus tubers, allowing them to endure unfavorable conditions and subsequently germinate and grow once flooding subsides. This study provides a preliminary explanation of the mechanism by which mature tubers of C. rotundus from the upland areas confer flooding tolerance, shedding light on the reasons behind this weed’s increasing presence in rice fields.

Isoproturon phytotoxicity to wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a worry for many farmers in chemical control of weeds in wheat fields, especially in subzero weather conditions. Iron chlorin e6 (ICe6), a new plant growth regulator, has been reported to enhance crop stress resistance to alleviate damage caused by stress; however, it is not clear whether ICe6 has an alleviative effect on isoproturon phytotoxicity to wheat. We determined the alleviative effect of ICe6 on isoproturon phytotoxicity to wheat, and 0.018 g ai ha−1 was the optimal dose. Meanwhile, we also studied the photosynthetic pigment content, photosynthetic parameters, oxidative stress indicators, and antioxidant enzyme activity of wheat treated with the three different treatments. We found that the photosynthetic pigment content, antioxidant enzyme activity, and photosynthesis of wheat damaged by isoproturon were significantly lower than those of the control, and the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content increased. These results indicate that isoproturon stress significantly weakened the photosynthetic and antioxidant capacity of wheat. The photosynthetic pigment content, photosynthetic parameters (excluding intercellular CO2 concentration), and antioxidant enzyme activity of isoproturon+ICe6– treated wheat were significantly higher than those of isoproturon-treated wheat. The H2O2 and MDA content was significantly lower than that of isoproturon-treated wheat. These results indicate that ICe6 treatment maintained the photosynthetic pigment content of wheat and relatively improved photosynthetic capacity, allowing photosynthesis to proceed normally. ICe6 treatment also limits the decrease in antioxidant enzyme activity, effectively clearing excess reactive oxygen species and ultimately alleviating membrane lipid peroxidation damage. In summary, ICe6 not only enhances stress resistance and increases yield in crops such as soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and canola (Brassica napus L.), but also has an alleviating effect on the isoproturon phytotoxicity to wheat, which is manifested by the improvement of photosynthetic and antioxidant abilities, ultimately leading to an increase in wheat shoot height and shoot fresh weight.

The two-wheeled legged robot combines the advantages of legged robot and wheeled robot and has high terrain adaptability. Spherical robots are highly resistant to interference during detection. In this paper, a new sphere-wheel-legged robot is designed by combining these three motion modes. This paper begins by introducing the mechanical design, hardware, and software. Then, kinematics and dynamics of wheel-legged motion and spherical motion are analyzed in detail. Subsequently, the controllers for wheel-legged balancing motion, wheel-legged jumping motion, and sphere rolling motion are developed, respectively. Finally, experiments are carried out for different modes. The results demonstrate that the designed robot has excellent locomotor capabilities over different terrains.

Validating the theoretical work on Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) through experiments with an exceptionally clean and well-characterized initial condition has been a long-standing challenge. Experiments were conducted to study the three-dimensional RTI of an SF$_6$–air interface at moderate Atwood numbers. A novel soap film technique was developed to create a discontinuous gaseous interface with controllable initial conditions. Spectrum analysis revealed that the initial perturbation of the soap film interface is half the size of an entire single-mode perturbation. The correlation between the initial interface perturbation and Atwood numbers was determined. Due to the steep and highly curved feature of the initial soap film interface, the early-time evolution of RTI exhibits significant nonlinearity. In the quasi-steady regime, various potential flow models accurately predict the late-time bubble velocities by considering the channel width as the perturbation wavelength. Differently, the late-time spike velocities are described by these potential flow models using the wavelength of the entire single-mode perturbation. These findings indicate that the bubble evolution is influenced primarily by the spatial constraint imposed by walls, while the spike evolution is influenced mainly by the initial curvature of the spike tip. Consequently, a recent potential flow model was adopted to describe the time-varying amplitude growth induced by RTI. Furthermore, the self-similar growth factors for bubbles and spikes were determined from experiments and compared with existing studies, revealing that a large amplitude in the initial soap film interface promotes the spike development.

The widely used model predictive control of discrete-time control barrier functions (MPC-CBF) has difficulties in obstacle avoidance for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) in complex terrain. To address this problem, we propose adaptive dynamic control barrier functions (AD-CBF). AD-CBF is able to adaptively select an extended class of functions of CBF to optimize the feasibility and flexibility of obstacle avoidance behaviors based on the relative positions of the UGV and the obstacle, which in turn improves the obstacle avoidance speed and safety of the MPC algorithm when integrated with MPC. The algorithmic constraints of the CBF employ hierarchical density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (HDBSCAN) for parameterization of dynamic obstacle information and unscaled Kalman filter (UKF) for trajectory prediction. Through simulations and practical experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the AD-CBF-MPC algorithm in planning optimal obstacle avoidance paths in dynamic environments, overcoming the limitations of the point-by-point feasibility of MPC-CBF.

Three-dimensional effects of sidewalls on the low-frequency unsteadiness of the shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction (SBLI) are of academic and practical importance but not yet well understood. Considerable attention has been paid to the viscous effect of sidewalls, whereas the potential inviscid confinement effect of sidewalls has received little attention. The present work provides experimental evidence of multiscale spanwise travelling waves crossing the separation front under the confinement of sidewalls. Global pressure measurements were made for a sidewall-confined 24$^\circ$ compression ramp interaction in Mach-2.83 flow using fast-responding pressure-sensitive paint. The unsteady pressure in a statistically two-dimensional intermittent region suggests that in addition to the canonical streamwise oscillation, the separation front exhibits significant low-frequency, multiscale spanwise distortion. Modal analysis further reveals that multiscale spanwise unsteadiness has higher intensity and frequency than the streamwise oscillation. Such strong spanwise unsteadiness calls attention to the low-frequency unsteadiness in previous sidewall-confined SBLI experiments and encourages further study on the mechanism of the confinement effect.

China is still among the 30 high-burden tuberculosis (TB) countries in the world. Few studies have described the spatial epidemiological characteristics of pulmonary TB (PTB) in Jiangsu Province. The registered incidence data of PTB patients in 95 counties of Jiangsu Province from 2011 to 2021 were collected from the Tuberculosis Management Information System. Three-dimensional spatial trends, spatial autocorrelation, and spatial–temporal scan analysis were conducted to explore the spatial clustering pattern of PTB. From 2011 to 2021, a total of 347,495 newly diagnosed PTB cases were registered. The registered incidence rate of PTB decreased from 49.78/100,000 in 2011 to 26.49/100,000 in 2021, exhibiting a steady downward trend (χ2 = 414.22, P < 0.001). The average annual registered incidence rate of PTB was higher in the central and northern regions. Moran’s I indices of the registered incidence of PTB were all >0 (P< 0.05) except in 2016, indicating a positive spatial correlation overall. Local autocorrelation analysis showed that ‘high–high’ clusters were mainly distributed in northern Jiangsu, and ‘low–low’ clusters were mainly concentrated in southern Jiangsu. The results of this study assist in identifying settings and locations of high TB risk and inform policy-making for PTB control and prevention.