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Aims: This study aimed to systematically compare the effectiveness, safety, and costs of different anti‐Parkinson drugs (APDs). Methods: This is a multi‐center study that retrospectively analyzed the data of 8420 outpatients with PD from 2014 to 2019 across 30 tertiary hospitals in China. The effectiveness was evaluated by changes in total dosages of APDs, normalized by levodopa equivalent dose (LED) and presented as ΔLEDs; levodopa equivalent dose cost (LEDc) represented the daily cost of APDs; and newly added diagnostics were represented as APDs‐related adverse events. Results: A total of 384 patients with eligible medical records for three consecutive years were enrolled. Patients treated with carbidopa/levodopa or levodopa/benserazide had significantly lower mean ΔLEDs than other groups (p < 0.01), followed by pramipexole and selegiline. The piribedil group had the highest ΔLEDs, with mean differences of 112.56–355.04 mg compared to other groups (p < 0.01). Meanwhile, LEDc in the levodopa/benserazide, carbidopa/levodopa, and piribedil groups were significantly lower than those in pramipexole or selegiline groups ($0.088–0.135/day for levodopa/benserazide; $0.070–0.126/day for carbidopa/levodopa; $0.112–0.138/day for piribedil; $0.290–0.332/day for pramipexole; $0.229–0.544/day for selegiline; p < 0.01). Patients with piribedil had more adverse events, with an incidence rate of 35.7%, followed by levodopa/benserazide (25.6%), selegiline (23.5%), carbidopa/levodopa (23.3%), and pramipexole (16.4%). Pramipexole showed a lower incidence rate of adverse events than piribedil, including neuropsychiatric symptoms (p = 0.006), headache/dizziness (p = 0.016), and gastrointestinal symptoms (p = 0.031). Conclusions: Carbidopa/levodopa or levodopa/benserazide might exhibit better clinical improvement with less medical cost, while piribedil presented less clinical improvement but a higher risk of headache/dizziness, gastrointestinal, and neuropsychiatric symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipid metabolism has been considered as a potential therapeutic target in sevoflurane‐induced neurotoxicity that can potentially affect the learning and memory function in the developmental brain. Recently, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) is identified as a crucial step in regulating lipid metabolism and associated with the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Herein, it is reported that quercetin modified Cu2‐xSe (abbreviated as CSPQ) nanoparticles can ameliorate sevoflurane‐induced neurotoxicity by tuning the microglial lipid metabolism and promoting microglial M2‐like polarization via TREM2 signaling pathway, in which the apolipoprotein E (ApoE), and adenosine triphosphate‐binding cassette transporters (ABCA1 and ABCG1) levels are upregulated. Furthermore, the protective effects of CSPQ nanoparticles against sevoflurane‐induced neurotoxicity via TREM2 are further demonstrated by the small interfering RNA (siRNA)‐TREM2 transfected BV2 cells, which are obviously not influenced by CSPQ nanoparticles. The cell membrane coated CSPQ (referred as CSPQ@CM) nanoparticles can significantly reduce sevoflurane‐induced learning and memory deficits, improve lipid metabolism dysfunction, and promote the remyelination in the hippocampus of mice. The study shows great potential of targeting microglial lipid metabolism in promoting remyelination of neurons for treatment of neurotoxicity and neurodegenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a non-classical symmetry method for obtaining the symmetries of differential–difference equations is proposed. The non-classical symmetry method introduces an additional constraint known as the invariant surface condition, which is applied after the infinitesimal transformation. By solving the governing equations that satisfy this condition, we can obtain the corresponding reduced equation. This allows us to determine the non-classical symmetry of the differential–difference equation. This method avoids the complicated calculation involved in extending the infinitesimal generator and allows for a wider range of symmetry forms. As a result, it enables the derivation of a greater number of differential–difference equations. In this paper, two kinds of (2+1)-dimensional Toda-like lattice equations are taken as examples, and their corresponding symmetric and reduced equations are obtained using the non-classical symmetry method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a new dynamical system equation named the (3+1)-dimensional Hirota-bilinear-like equation (HBLE) was constructed. The generalized Hirota bilinear method was applied to obtain this new HBLE in (3+1) dimensions. This new HBLE possesses a similar bilinear form to the original (3+1)-dimensional Hirota bilinear equation, but with additional nonlinear terms. A set of high-order rational solutions is constructed for the given equation, generated from polynomial solutions to the associated generalized bilinear equation. The analyticity conditions of the resulting solutions were investigated and six groups of general solutions were derived. In addition, the shape and surface of the high-order rational function solutions and their dynamic behaviors were studied by utilizing Maple. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Route guidance strategies are an important part of advanced traveler information systems, which are a subsystem of intelligent transportation systems (ITSs). In previous research, many scholars have proposed a variety of route guidance strategies to guide vehicles in order to relieve traffic congestion, but few scholars have considered a strategy to control transportation infrastructure. In this paper, to cope with tidal traffic, we propose a dynamic lane reversal strategy (DLRS) based on the density of congestion clusters over the total road region. When the density reaches 0.37, the reversible lane converts to the opposite direction. When the density falls off to below 0.22, the reversible lane returns back to the conventional direction. The simulation results show that the DLRS has better adaptability for coping with the fluctuation in tidal traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a high-resolution time–frequency (TF) analysis method, called time-extracting wavelet transform (TEWT), is introduced to analyze impulsive-like signals whose TF ridge curves are nearly perpendicular to the time axis. For impulsive-like signals, the instantaneous frequency with almost infinite rate of change is difficult to estimate, but the group delay (GD) with nearly zero rate of change is easier to estimate. Since the GD is the key feature of frequency-domain signals, it indicates that one can try to understand impulsive-like signals from the perspective of frequency-domain signals. In this regard, for an impulsive signal and its Fourier transform (i.e., the frequency-domain harmonic signal), we propose the TEWT that achieves highly concentrated TF representations while allowing signal reconstruction, only by retaining the TF coefficients closely related to TF features of signals, while removing weakly related TF information. The two contributions of this paper are the proposal of TEWT and the theoretical analysis of TEWT for frequency-domain signals. On the other hand, we provide a rigorous theoretical analysis of TEWT under a mathematical framework for frequency-domain signals. Specifically, we define a function class as a set of all superposition of well-separated frequency-domain harmonic-like functions, where each function can be locally regarded as a sum of a finite number of harmonic signals in the frequency domain, and establish error bounds for WT approximate expression, GD estimation, and component recovery. Finally, we verify the effectiveness of TEWT in terms of the energy concentration, robustness, and invertibility through numerical experiments with synthetic and real signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have shown that the NOD-, LRR-, and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is extensively activated in the process of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD), leading to the pyroptosis of nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) and the exacerbation of the pathological development of the intervertebral disc (IVD). Exosomes derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs-exo) have shown great therapeutic potential in degenerative diseases. We hypothesized that hESCs-exo could alleviate IVDD by downregulating NLRP3. We measured the NLRP3 protein levels in different grades of IVDD and the effect of hESCs-exo on the H2O2-induced pyroptosis of NPCs. Our results indicate that the expression of NLRP3 was upregulated with the increase in IVD degeneration. hESCs-exo were able to reduce the H2O2-mediated pyroptosis of NPCs by downregulating the expression levels of NLRP3 inflammasome-related genes. Bioinformatics software predicted that miR-302c, an embryonic stem-cell-specific RNA, can inhibit NLRP3, thereby alleviating the pyroptosis of NPCs, and this was further verified by the overexpression of miR-302c in NPCs. In vivo experiments confirmed the above results in a rat caudal IVDD model. Our study demonstrates that hESCs-exo could inhibit excessive NPC pyroptosis by downregulating the NLRP3 inflammasome during IVDD, and miR-302c may play a key role in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Serum biochemical indicators are often regarded as direct reflections of animal metabolism and health. The molecular mechanisms underlying serum biochemical indicators metabolism of chicken (Gallus Gallus) have not been elucidated. Herein, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify the variation associated with serum biochemical indicators. The aim of this research was to broaden the understanding of the serum biochemical indicators in chickens. Results: A GWAS of serum biochemical indicators was carried out on 734 samples from an F2 Gushi× Anka chicken population. All chickens were genotyped by sequencing, 734 chickens and 321,314 variants were obtained after quality control. Based on these variants, a total of 236 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on 9 chicken chromosomes (GGAs) were identified to be significantly (-log10(P) > 5.72) associated with eight of seventeen serum biochemical indicators. Ten novel quantitative trait locis (QTLs) were identified for the 8 serum biochemical indicator traits of the F2 population. Literature mining revealed that the ALPL, BCHE, GGT2/GGT5 genes at loci GGA24, GGA9 and GGA15 might affect the alkaline phosphatase (AKP), cholinesterase (CHE) and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) traits, respectively. Conclusion: The findings of the present study may contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of chicken serum biochemical indicator regulation and provide a theoretical basis for chicken breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fungal strain (JC-1) of Simplicillium was isolated from a pod of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) infested with the blackleg pathogen Leptosphaeria biglobosa. This study was done to clarify its taxonomic identity using morphological and molecular approaches, to characterize its antifungal activity through bioassays and genome-based identification of antifungal metabolites, and to determine its efficacy in inducing systemic resistance (ISR) in oilseed rape. The results showed that JC-1 belongs to Simplicillium lamellicola. It displayed a strong antagonistic relationship with L. biglobosa, Botrytis cinerea (gray mold) and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (stem rot). The cultural filtrates of JC-1 showed a high efficacy in suppressing infection by S. sclerotiorum on detached leaves of oilseed rape. Genome analysis indicated that JC-1 has the capability of producing multiple antifungal metabolites, including aureobasidin A1, squalestatin S1 and verlamelin. Inoculation of JC-1 on seeds of oilseed rape caused a suppressive effect on infection by L. biglobosa on the cotyledons of the resulting seedlings, suggesting that JC-1 can trigger ISR. Endophytic growth, accumulation of anthocyanins, up-regulated expression of CHI (for chalcone isomerase) and PR1 (for pathogenesis-related protein 1), and down-regulated expression of NECD3 (for 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase) were detected to be associated with the ISR. This study provided new insights into the biocontrol potential and modes of action of S. lamellicola. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the autolytic clinker microsphere with clinker as core and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as coating film was prepared. Pretreatment of clinker with silane coupling agent was firstly processed during the preparation. To investigate the autolytic mechanism, the microstructures of the autolytic clinker microsphere at different curing ages were observed using environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The autolytic stages were also identified based on the microstructural evolution. The influence of pretreatment degree on autolytic behavior was also studied by measurements of micro-morphology and isothermal calorimetry. Experimental results indicated that the compressive strength recovery of specimens was increased by 15–19% due to the addition of autolytic clinker microspheres. The recovery of compressive strength was also improved with the increase of pH value. The improvements in compressive strength recovery of specimens with microspheres were in the range of 15–19%, 15–31%, 25–36%, and 29–50% with the pH value of 7, 8, 10, and 12, respectively. It was also found that inner damage of cement-based matrix had greater recovery when pre-cracked specimens were cured in alkaline environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The solvent sublation for enrichment of lanthanides was designed and established. • Using the established method, the recovery of four lanthanides were more than 90%. • The extraction ability is of La(III) < Ce(III) < Gd(III) < Er(III) calculated by DFT. • Compared to conventional liquid extraction, the established method was efficient. • Four lanthanides were achieved well using high speed countercurrent chromatography. Rare earth elements are non-renewable resources. During their processing, a lot of wastewater are produced, which poses a danger to human beings and the environment. Herein, the enrichment method of solvent sublation for La (III), Ce (III), Gd (III) and Er (III) was designed and established. Enrichment parameters pH, flotation time, extractant concentration and air flow rate were optimized. The result showed that the highest recovery of La (III) reached up to 92.33 % under the optimized conditions of pH 8, 10 min of flotation time, 0.15 mol L-1 of the extractant 2-ethylhexyl phosphate acid-2-ethylhexyl ester and 30 mL min−1 of air flow rate. The light rare earth element Ce (III) and heavy rare earth elements Gd (III) and Er (III) were also examined and obtained with maximum recovery. The stability of the extractant complexation with rare earth ions and the mechanism of competitive extraction were studied by density functional theory calculations. The extraction ability was following sequence of La (III) < Ce (III) < Gd (III) < Er (III). The enrichment of rare earth elements from real water samples was investigated and obtained result was consistent with the experiment result of synthetic solutions. The established high speed countercurrent chromatography method was used to successfully separate La (III), Ce (III), Gd (III) and Er (III) from the solution of rare earth ions enriched by solvent sublation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A NIR-actuated multifunctional nanocatalyst based on mesoporous Prussian blue and β-lapachone (Mlalp NCs) is developed for glutathione inhibition and photothermal-enhanced CDT. [Display omitted] • Our designed prussian blue with special structure loads and transport a mass of β-Lapachone. • Laser irradiation increases the Fenton reaction, leading to heat-enhanced CDT. • Laser irradiation mediated heat facilitates the release of LAP, promoting the overexpression of NQO1 protein. • Mlalp NCs show MRI property which enables an "all-in-one" imaging-guided CDT. Photothermal-enhanced chemodynamic therapy (CDT) based on the Fenton reaction has been widely studied as a safe, tumor-specific, and highly effective nanomedicine therapy. Herein, a collective hyperthermia-facilitated glutathione (GSH) inhibition strategy for boosted oxidative stress treatment was presented using mesoporous Prussian blue (MPB NPs) as a multifunctional carrier and loading β-lapachone (Lap) as an oxidative mediator. A phase transfer catalyst (lauric acid, La) was co-packed for preventing drug leakage and achieving temperature-controlled drug release. After biocompatible decoration by external encapsulation with polyethylene glycol (PEG), the MPB-Lap/La@PEG nanocatalysts (Mlalp NCs) were rationally constructed. Upon 808 nm light irradiation, the Mlalp NCs showed a good photothermal effect with temperature increases for directly damaging tumor cells and accelerating the release of Lap. Significantly, the expression of NAD(P)H: quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO1) in cells could increase and generate more hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) with Lap and reduce the level of GSH concurrently, forming a hyperthermia-facilitated glutathione inhibition strategy. Most importantly, the hyperthermia also accelerated the Fenton reaction rate, resulting in an enhanced CDT effect. In addition, the Mlalp NCs also equipped with excellent T 1 -weighted magnetic resonance imaging properties. To sum up, this work displays a collective hyperthermia-facilitated glutathione inhibition strategy for boosted oxidative stress treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Pitaya-like SiO x /nitrogen-doped carbon superstructures are prepared as an anode in LIBs. • Nanosized SiO x obtained from the renewable rice husks shortens the electron and Li+ diffusion path. • The integrated carbon matrix prevents the aggregation of SiO x NPs, and improves the kinetics and structural stability. • This electrospray strategy is economic, effective and universal for fabricating superstructures. Silicon sub-oxides (SiO x) are increasingly becoming a prospective anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Nevertheless, inferior electrical conductivity and drastic volume fluctuation upon cycling significantly hamper the electrochemical performance of SiO x. In this work, rice husks (RHs)-derived pitaya-like SiO x /nitrogen-doped carbon (SNC) superstructures have been prepared by a simple electrospray-carbonization approach. SiO x nanoparticles (NPs) are well-dispersed in a spherical nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) matrix. The carbon frameworks discourage the aggregation of SiO x NPs, facilitating the kinetics for ion diffusion and charge transfer, and maintaining structural stability upon cycling, thus bringing about improved electrochemical performance. When the optimized SNC superstructures with SiO x content of 64.3% are utilized as LIBs anodes, a stable specific capacity of 622.8 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.1 A g−1, and an excellent long cycle performance of 190.1 mA h g−1 after 5000 cycles at 5 A g−1 are obtained. This effective and universal synthetic strategy for fabricating controllable superstructures offers insights into the development of high-performance LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most critical factor determining the success of biodegradable bone implants is the host tissue response, which greatly depends on their degradation behaviors. Here, a new magnesium‐based implant, namely magnesium–silicon–calcium (Mg–0.2Si–1.0Ca) alloy, that coordinates its biodegradation along with the bone regenerative process via a self‐assembled, multilayered bone–implant interface is designed. At first, its rapid biocorrosion contributes to a burst release of Mg2+, leading to a pro‐osteogenic immune microenvironment in bone. Meanwhile, with the simultaneous intervention of Ca and Si in the secondary phases of the new alloy, a hierarchical layered calcified matrix is rapidly formed at the degrading interface that favored the subsequent bone mineralization. In contrast, pure Mg or Mg–0.2Si alloy without the development of this interface at the beginning will unavoidably induce detrimental bone loss. Hence, it is believed this biomimicking interface justifies its bioadaptability in which it can modulate its degradation in vivo and accelerate bone mineralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the porous CoCCHH-CoSe heterogeneous-tube @PEDOT:PSS foam architecture with abundant surface defects and vacancies is prepared. The porous structure provides a large number of channels for ion transport, and the surface defects and vacancies provide abundant active sites for adsorption and oxidation reactions. [Display omitted] It is still challenging to construct stable 3D energy storage materials at the nanoscale by precise pore structure control and reasonable surface modification. Herein, a novel interwoven porous Co(CO 3) 0.35 Cl 0.20 (OH) 1.10 (CoCCHH)-CoSe heterogeneous-tube @PEDOT:PSS 3D foam with abundant active sites is presented as supercapacitor electrodes. The electrochemical results indicated that the pore structure provides ample space for redox reaction, and increases the number of ion transport channels. Besides, rational surface modification brings about sufficient active sites for redox reaction. The stable, porous PEDOT:PSS foam with a 3D elastic frame exhibited excellent electrical conductivity. Thus, the CoCCHH-CoSe@PEDOT:PSS foam possessed excellent specific capacitance and energy density, due to the synergistic effect of the unique 3D structure and surface defects. The home-made supercapacitor with CoCCHH-CoSe@PEDOT:PSS foam as cathode materials showed high specific capacitance (440.6F g−1 at 1 A g−1) and excellent energy density (137.7 Wh kg−1). This work provides a valuable strategy to develop potential materials for electrochemical energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyamine detection and depletion have been extensively investigated for cancer prevention and treatment. However, the therapeutic efficacy is far from satisfactory, mainly due to a polyamine compensation mechanism from the systemic circulation in the tumor environment. Herein, we explore a new solution for improving polyamine detection as well as a possible consumption therapy based on a new photosensitizer that can efficiently consume polyamines via an irreversible chemical reaction. The new photosensitizer is pyrrolopyrroleaza-BODIPY pyridinium salt (PPAB-PyS) nanoparticles that can react with the over-expressed polyamine in cancer cells and produce two photosensitizers with enhanced phototoxicity on cancer destruction. Meanwhile, PPAB-PyS nanoparticles provide a simultaneous ratiometric fluorescence imaging of intracellular polyamine. This combination polyamine consumption with a chemical reaction provides a new modality to enable polyamine detection along with photodynamic therapy as well as a putative depletion of polyamines for cancer treatment and prevention. Li et al develop PPAB-PyS nanoparticles that simultaneously allows intracellular imaging and ratiometric detection of the intracellular polyamine. With an additional potential to consume polyamines via an irreversible chemical reaction, the authors thus provide an alternative approach for photodynamic therapy with polyamine detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to expand the photoresponsive spectrum of TiO 2 and improve its catalytic activity under visible light, the hollow urchin-like composites of TiO 2 @g-C 3 N 4 /GQDs (TCN/GQDs) with a core-shell structure heterojunction was synthesized through a hydrothermal method and calcination. Potassium titanium oxalate, melamine, and citric acid were utilized as the raw materials for this synthesis process. The TCN/GQDs composites were subjected to a range of analyses to examine their microstructure and photoelectric properties. The findings indicated that the synthesized composites effectively enhanced the absorption spectrum of TiO 2 in the visible light range by creating the stable heterojunctions among TiO 2 , g-C 3 N 4 and GQDs. Additionally, the ability of these composites to degrade toxic organic pollutants under visible light was studied by using several different organic dyes and antibiotics. The results demonstrated that the TCN/GQDs composites exhibited efficient visible light catalytic degradation capability on organic pollutants, and the degradation efficiency could approach to 100 % under visible light in a short time. Furthermore, the photocatalyst exhibited hardly change of degradation efficiency towards organic pollutants even after 5 cycles of testing, suggesting its commendable performance in visible light catalysis and potential for repeated utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy Disaggregation at substations (EDS) is challenging because measurements are mostly aggregated over multiple types of loads, and the existence of some loads such as behind-the-meter solar is unknown to the operator. This paper for the first time addresses this so-called “partial labels” issue in energy disaggregation and develops a model-free EDS method to separate individual loads, including BTM solar, from the total energy consumption in real-time. Our approach learns the patterns of all loads offline from recorded historical datasets with partial labels. Compared with conventional model-free methods that require either pure measurements of each load for training or full labels of each training sample, our method can extract load patterns from partially labeled aggregated data and thus, is more applicable to practical scenarios and alleviates the annotation burden for the operator. Specifically, we propose to solve a new dictionary learning problem, where column-sparsity and incoherence regularization terms are added to identify unlabeled loads and learn distinctive patterns of each load. In real-time disaggregation, our approach solves an improved sparse decomposition problem where one decomposes the aggregated measurements as a linear combination of some representative recorded measurements with known disaggregation learned in the offline stage. Numerical experiments are reported to validate our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficient activation of peroxydisulfate (PDS) for wastewater treatment remains a great challenge. Photocatalysis, which generates highly-reactive electrons and holes, shows great potential in activating PDS for effective degradation and deep mineralization. Herein, an electron-enriched PDI-SiO 2 photocatalyst was synthesized by covalently linking 3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) onto silicon dioxide (SiO 2) to form π-π stacked supramolecular PDI layers for efficient PDS activation. The highly dispersed PDI generates electron-enriched PDI·- under visible light, promoting the rapid activation of PDS for bisphenol A (BPA) degradation. The PDI-SiO 2 activated PDS system realized a high BPA degradation rate of 0.100 min−1 and a remarkable mineralization rate of 81%. Moreover, the charge separation efficiency is significantly improved since the electrons of PDI·- are captured by PDS, boosting oxidative degradation and improving the mineralization efficiency. This work developed a novel PDS activation strategy by constructing electron-enriched photocatalyst, and revealed the mechanism of photocatalytic activation and deep mineralization. [Display omitted] • A novel electron-enriched supramolecular PDI-SiO 2 photocatalyst was prepared. • In visible light, the production of PDI·- greatly promotes the activation of PDS. • PDS activation promotes the separation of h+, enhancing the mineralization rate. • Multiple reactive species (h+, SO 4 ·-,·OH,·O 2 -) accelerate the pollutants degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates damage and healing of cementitious materials based on fly ash (FA) with a special focus on the effect of repeated loading on the self-healing performance. In total, 90 prism specimens and 33 cylinder specimens were prepared and tested. Variables including the FA replacement ratio and preloading level were considered. Different methods were adopted to evaluate the self-healing performance, i.e., mechanical tests, acoustic emission (AE) analysis, water absorption measurement, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation. Test results revealed that an appropriate amount of cement replaced by FA was beneficial to the self-healing performance of the specimens subjected to a high level of repeated preloading, where the strength increased by 11% and the water absorption rate decreased by 12%, in comparison with that of the undamaged specimens. This was attributed to the active hydration of FA, which was confirmed by an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis. This study extends understanding of the self-healing performance when subjected to repeated loading and provides some useful suggestions for the self-healing technique based on mineral additives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-dimensional (1D) ZnFe 2 O 4 @SiO 2 (ZS) nanochains were prepared with Stöber method under external magnetic field. Then, 1D ZS nanochains were covered with a uniform polydopamine (PDA) shell, and the pyrolysis process was completed to obtain 1D ZnFe 2 O 4 @SiO 2 @C (ZSC) nanochains. Finally, 1D flower-like ZnFe 2 O 4 @SiO 2 @C@NiCo 2 O 4 (ZSCNC) nanochains were fabricated through a simple hydrothermal method. The carbon layer with strong dielectric loss enabled the 1D ZSC nanochains to achieve an ultra-wide effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 6.22 GHz. Compared with the above nanochains, the 1D ZSCNC nanochains showed more excellent microwave absorption (MA) properties because of the unique 1D flower-like architectures having large surfaces and multiple interfaces. The sample loaded with 30 wt% 1D flower-like ZSCNC nanochains showed strong MA performances with a minimum reflection loss (RL) value of −54.29 dB (11.14 GHz) and an EAB of 5.66 GHz (11.94–17.60 GHz) at the thickness of 2.39 mm. The 1D flower-like ZSCNC nanochains with strong absorption, broad absorption bandwidth (almost the entire Ku band) and thin layer has a good application prospect for the absorption of electromagnetic waves in Ku band. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(1H,1H,7H-dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate) (PEG- b -PDFMA) block copolymer was first synthesized by the reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Then a novel facile approach was developed to fabricate oval cuboid TiO 2 particles with mesoporous structure by using the PEG- b -PDFMA block copolymer as a template and titanium tetrabutoxide (TBOT) as a precursor, followed by evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process and calcination process. The results show that the PEG- b -PDFMA block copolymer can control the oriented assembly of nanoparticles and act as templates for the formation of a mesopore. It is found that the mass ratio of TBOT/PEG- b -PDFMA and water content in the solution have a significant influence on the morphology of TiO 2 particles. When the mass ratio of TBOT/PEG- b -PDFMA is 0.25/1, oval cuboid TiO 2 particles with mesopores are obtained, which exhibits a high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under UV light irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diverse fault types, fast reclosures, and complicated transient states after a fault event make real-time fault location in power grids challenging. Existing localization techniques in this area rely on simplistic assumptions, such as static loads, or require much higher sampling rates or total measurement availability. This paper proposes a faulted line localization method based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier using bus voltages. Unlike prior data-driven methods, the proposed classifier is based on features with physical interpretations that improve the robustness of the location performance. The accuracy of our CNN-based localization tool is demonstrably superior to other machine learning classifiers in the literature. To further improve the location performance, a joint phasor measurement units placement strategy are proposed and validated against other methods. A significant aspect of our methodology is that under very low observability (${7\%}$ of buses), the algorithm is still able to localize the faulted line to a small neighborhood with high probability. The performance of our scheme is validated through simulations of faults of various types in the IEEE 39-bus and 68-bus power systems under varying uncertain conditions, system observability, and measurement quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time identification of successive events in power systems is crucial to avoid cascading failures. Existing identification methods are mainly designed for single events and may not accurately identify a subsequent event that occurs when the system is under going the disturbance of a previous event. Since overlapping successive events do not frequently happen in power systems, insufficient multievent data sets exist for training. We develop a data-driven event identification method that can accurately identify the types of overlapping events. Our approach only requires a small number of recorded phasor measurement unit data of single events to train a two-layer convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier offline. We extract the dominant eigenvalues and singular values as features instead of training on time series directly. That reduces the required number of training data sets and enhances the robustness to measurement inaccuracy. In real time, our method first predicts and subtracts the impact of previous events. It then extracts the dominant features from the residual measurements and applies the classifier. We evaluate the method on simulated events in the IEEE 68-bus power system. Our classifier is demonstrated to be more accurate and stable than a direct application of CNN on time series. The robustness of the proposed method to the delay in event detection and noise is validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ziyuglycoside I and ziyuglycoside II are important active components of Sanguisorba officinalis L., which have excellent pharmacological effects, such as antioxidant and anticancer effects. However, the bioavailability of ziyuglycoside I and ziyuglycoside II has not been reported. This work aims to establish a UPLC-MS/MS method to study the pharmacokinetics of ziyuglycoside I and ziyuglycoside II in rats under different administration routes (intragastric and intravenous administration) and to calculate the bioavailability. The concentration of ziyuglycoside I and ziyuglycoside II in rat plasma in the range of 2–2000 ng/mL showed a good linear relationship (r > 0.99). The intra-day accuracies of ziyuglycoside I and ziyuglycoside II ranged from 87% to 110%, and the inter-day accuracies ranged from 97% to 109%. The intra-day precision was less than 15% and the inter-day precision was less than 14%. The matrix effects ranged from 88% to 113%. The recoveries were all above 84%. The developed UPLC-MS/MS method for the determination of ziyuglycoside I and ziyuglycoside II in rat plasma was applied to pharmacokinetics. The bioavailability of ziyuglycoside I and ziyuglycoside II was measured at 2.6% and 4.6%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers an adaptive output feedback fault tolerant control (FTC) for a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) during reentry phase for which four grid fins are used as actuators. Based on a prescribed tracking performance and an auxiliary system to deal with the input constraints, the proposed adaptive controller can compensate for the effect of uncertainties, external and internal disturbances, input constraints and actuator faults. It is shown that with the proposed scheme, the system tracking performance can be guaranteed even in the presence multiple actuator faults. The influence of the input constraints on the tracking performance is also investigated. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers an adaptive output feedback fault tolerant control (FTC) for a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) during reentry phase for which four grid fins are used as actuators. Based on a prescribed tracking performance and an auxiliary system to deal with the input constraints, the proposed adaptive controller can compensate for the effect of uncertainties, external and internal disturbances, input constraints and actuator faults. It is shown that with the proposed scheme, the system tracking performance can be guaranteed even in the presence multiple actuator faults. The influence of the input constraints on the tracking performance is also investigated. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan pigs from the Tibetan Plateau are characterized with a significant phenotypic difference relative to lowland pigs. In this study, a significant difference of the fatness and fatty acid composition traits was observed between the Tibetan and Yorkshire pigs. To uncover the involved mechanism, the expression profile of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and genes was compared between them. After serial filtered steps, 1,964 lncRNAs were obtained through our computational pipeline. In total, 63 and 715 lncRNAs and genes were identified to be differentially expressed. Evidence from cis- and trans-targeting analysis of lncRNAs demonstrated that some lncRNAs, such as MSTRG.14097 and MSTRG.8034, played important roles in the fatness and fatty acid composition traits. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that many candidate genes were responsible for the two traits. Of these, FASN, ACACA, SCD, ME3, PDHB, ACSS1, ACSS2, and ACLY were identified, which functioned in regulating the level of hexadecanoic acid, hexadecenoic acid, octadecenoic acid, and monounsaturated fatty acid. And LPGAT1, PDK4, ACAA1, and ADIPOQ were associated with the content of stearic acid, octadecadienoic acid, and polyunsaturated fatty acid. Candidate genes, which were responsible for fatness trait, consisted of FGF2, PLAG1, ADIPOQ, IRX3, MIF, IL-34, ADAM8, HMOX1, Vav1, and TLR8. In addition, association analysis also revealed that 34 and 57 genes significantly correlated to the fatness and fatty acid composition trait, respectively. Working out the mechanism caused by these lncRNAs and candidate genes is proven to be complicated but is invaluable to our understanding of fatness and fatty acid composition traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Abstract The diverse morphologies of aggregates formed by the self-assembly of block copolymers in selective solvents have attracted widespread attention, but the design of aggregate shapes is still limited owing to the thermodynamic favorability of sphere formation. In this paper, we report our discovery that polyhedral aggregates can be formed by the self-assembly of 1H,1H,2H,2H -perfluoro- 1 -dodecanol (PFD)-grafted amphiphilic polystyrene- b -poly(acrylic acid) (PS- b -PAA- g -PFD) copolymers in water at room temperature. It is determined that the crystallization of fluorocarbon side chains at the surface of PS- b -PAA- g -PFD aggregates induces the formation of a polyhedral shape. The morphology of aggregates can be controlled by the dialysis temperature, the grafting ratio of PFD in PS- b -PAA- g -PFD copolymers, and the initial copolymer concentration. The layers of polyhedral aggregates show excellent antibacterial adhesion properties. We anticipate that this method will expand the promise of self-assembly for the synthesis of a series of nonspherical micellar nanoparticles, which have promising applications in various fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the key challenges in transmitarray (TA) designs is its narrow bandwidth. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes a novel design of ultrawideband TA antenna based on tightly coupled dipole arrays (TCDAs). The array consists of $20 \times 10$ unit cells, and each unit cell is composed of a pair of short dipoles connected with a section of meandered transmission line. The size of each unit cell is 20 $\text {mm} \times 10$ mm, which is about $0.2\lambda \times 0.1\lambda $ , where $\lambda $ is the wavelength in free space at the lowest working frequency of the TA. By utilizing the strong coupling between adjacent units of the TA, the bandwidth of the TA is improved significantly. To verify the design concept, one prototype of the proposed TA is fabricated and measured. The prototype demonstrates good performance over a bandwidth of 104%, i.e., from 3.0 to 9.5 GHz, which is significantly wider than that of other TAs reported in the literature. Within the working band of the TA antenna, the radiation pattern is stable and no distortion or splitting of the main beam of the antenna is observed. This is the first time that the TA based on TCDA is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surging interest in blockchain technology has revitalized the search for effective Byzantine consensus schemes. In particular, the blockchain community has been looking for ways to effectively integrate traditional Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) protocols into a blockchain consensus layer allowing various financial institutions to securely agree on the order of transactions. However, existing BFT protocols can only scale to tens of nodes due to their $O(n^2)$ message complexity. In this paper, we propose FastBFT, a fast and scalable BFT protocol. At the heart of FastBFT is a novel message aggregation technique that combines hardware-based trusted execution environments (TEEs) with lightweight secret sharing. Combining this technique with several other optimizations (i.e., optimistic execution, tree topology and failure detection), FastBFT achieves low latency and high throughput even for large scale networks. Via systematic analysis and experiments, we demonstrate that FastBFT has better scalability and performance than previous BFT protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a data-driven real-time event identification method based on the measurements of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs). The central idea is to characterize an event by the low-dimensional subspace spanned by the dominant singular vectors of a data matrix that contains spatial–temporal blocks of PMU data. The subspace representation is robust to system initial conditions and characterizes the system dynamics. A dictionary of subspaces that correspond to different events are established offline, and an event is identified online with the most similar event in the dictionary through subspace comparison. The compact subspace representation reduces the dictionary size and the computational time of the event identification method. Numerical experiments on both simulated events in an IEEE 68-bus power system and the recorded data in New England validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) was firstly identified as a hormone that mediates the biological effects of growth hormone. Accumulating data have indicated the role of IGF-1 signaling pathway in lung development and diseases such as congenital disorders, cancers, inflammation, and fibrosis. IGF-1 signaling modulates the development and differentiation of many types of lung cells, including airway basal cells, club cells, alveolar epithelial cells, and fibroblasts. IGF-1 signaling deficiency results in alveolar hyperplasia in humans and disrupted lung architecture in animal models. The components of IGF-1 signaling pathways are potentiated as biomarkers as they are dysregulated locally or systemically in lung diseases, whereas data may be inconsistent or even paradoxical among different studies. The usage of IGF-1-based therapeutic agents urges for more researches in developmental disorders and inflammatory lung diseases, as the majority of current data are collected from limited number of animal experiments and are generally less exuberant than those in lung cancer. Elucidation of these questions by further bench-to-bedside researches may provide us with rational clinical diagnostic approaches and agents concerning IGF-1 signaling in lung diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel ultra-wide-band tightly coupled dipole reflectarray (TCDR) antenna is presented in this paper. This reflectarray antenna consists of a wideband feed and a wideband reflecting surface. The feed is a log-periodic dipole array antenna. The reflecting surface consists of $26 \times 11$ unit cells. Each cell is composed of a tightly coupled dipole and a delay line. The minimum distance between adjacent cells is 8 mm, which is about 1/10 wavelength at the lowest operating frequency. By combining the advantages of reflectarray antennas and those of tightly coupled array antennas, the proposed TCDR antenna achieves ultra-wide bandwidth with reduced complexity and fabrication cost. A method to minimize the phase errors of the wideband reflectarray is also developed and the concept of equivalent distance delay is introduced to design the unit cell elements. To verify the design concept, a prototype operating from 3.4 to 10.6 GHz is simulated and fabricated. Good agreement between simulated and measured results is observed. Within the designed frequency band, the radiation pattern of the TCDR antenna is stable and the main beam of the antenna is not distorted or split. The side lobe levels of the radiation patterns are below −11.7 dB in the entire operating band. It is the first time a tightly coupled reflectarray is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel polarization-reconfigurable planar antenna is presented. The antenna consists of an electronically reconfigurable polarizer integrated with a printed slot. By changing the states of the p-i-n diodes on the polarizer, the linearly polarized (LP) waves radiated by the slot can be converted into either right-hand circularly polarized (RHCP) or left-hand CP (LHCP) waves. The polarizer contains 16 unit cells arranged as a $4\times 4$ array. The antenna radiates RHCP waves if the p-i-n diodes on the top side of the polarizer are switched ON, while LHCP waves are radiated if the p-i-n diodes of the bottom side of the polarizer are switched ON instead. The physical mechanisms of the antenna are discussed and the parametric study is carried out by full-wave simulations. To verify the concept, one prototype at 2.5 GHz is designed, fabricated, and measured. Good agreement between the measured and simulated results is obtained. The antenna achieves a gain ≥8.5 dBic in both RHCP and LHCP with an aperture efficiency of 70%. Advantages of the proposed design include electronically reconfigurable polarizations for RHCP or LHCP, low profile, low cost, high isolation between the dc bias circuit and RF signals, high power handling capability, and easy extension to large-scale arrays without increasing the complexity of the dc bias circuit. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an electronically polarization-reconfigurable CP antenna with a single-substrate polarizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migraine is a primary headache, which has been producing heavy disease burden globally. There is no data on the incidence of migraine among women of childbearing age worldwide, including China. This study aimed to investigate the time trend in incidence rate of migraine among women of childbearing age in China from 1999 to 2019, and to make a prediction for 2030. Methods: Data on migraine incidence and population among women of childbearing age in China were derived from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019. Crude and age-standardized incidence rates of migraine (CIR, ASIR) were presented. The trend in migraine during 1990–2019 was examined using annual percent change and average annual percent change based on Joinpoint regression models. Age-period-cohort model was introduced to estimate the independent effect of age, period and cohort on migraine incidence rate among participants over the three decades. Bayesian age-period-cohort analysis was conducted to predict migraine incidence rate for 2030 among women of childbearing age in China. Results: For women of childbearing age in China, the case number, CIR and ASIR of migraine kept rising, with a cumulative percentage increase of 10.87%, 2.01% and 5.65%, respectively, from 1990 to 2019. An annual percent increase of 0.18% in the ASIR was observed over the three decades. As for the age, period and cohort effects, the adjusted cohort-specific relative risks constantly increased from 0.91 (95% CI: 0.90, 0.93) in the 1940–1949 cohort to 1.04 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.05) in the 1995–2004 cohort, while the period-specific relative risks initially declined from 1.00 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.00) in 1990–1994 cohort to 0.99 (95% CI: 0.98, 0.99) in 1995–1999 cohort, and then increased to 1.04 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.04) in 2015–2019 cohort. Moreover, the age-specific relative risks of migraine followed a bimodal pattern with peaks at the age-group of 25–29 years (CIR = 1718.27/100000) and 35–39 years (CIR = 1635.18/100000). Projection modeling showed that the CIR and ASIR of migraine will continue to significantly increase from 2020 to 2030. Conclusion: Migraine incidence remained an increasing trend from 1990 to 2019 and is projected to continually increase till 2030 among women of childbearing age in China. This study has important public health implication for population-level migraine prevention in China. Precision intervention strategies and approaches shall be considered in campaigns initiated for migraine prevention among Chinese women of childbearing age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients suffering from cancer have benefited from combination therapy. Nanocarriers are the ideal candidates for combination therapy. In this study, we constructed docetaxel (DTX) loaded micellar nanomedicines co-loaded with near infrared (NIR) dye-IR820 for photothermal therapy (PTT)/photodynamic therapy (PDT)/chemotherapy of breast cancer. Lyp-1, a tumor homing peptide, was introduced into the nanosystems to construct the active targeting nanomedicine. In order to deliver IR820 to the tumor site and overcome its short lifetime in vivo , a PEI derivative—PCL-g-PEI was introduced. IR820 with negative charge was formed stable static interaction with the amine groups, meanwhile, the absorption of IR820 in the NIR region was weakened. It indicated that the nanosystem constructed in this study may provide an alternative candidate for mild PTT. By the evaluation of the photothermal conversion in vivo , we can confirm that IR820 has been successfully delivered and effectively accumulated in the tumor site. Furthermore, the tumor cells targeting and anticancer performances of this nanosystem have been studied in vitro and in vivo . The results demonstrated Lyp-1 modification has enhanced the tumor targeting delivery of DTX and IR820. By combining PTT and PDT, DTX nanomedicine efficiently inhibited the growth and metastasis of breast cancer in mice. This nanosystem is a promising candidate for combination therapy of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reproductive performance of chicken breeders has significant economic importance in the poultry industry, and sperm motility is an indicator of reproductive performance. This study performed RNA-seq of the testes of Gushi chicken roosters with high and low sperm motility and identified differentially expressed RNAs involved in sperm motility. RNA-seq analysis showed that 73 and 67 differentially expressed mRNAs were up- and downregulated, and 47 and 56 differentially expressed long non-coding RNAs were up- and downregulated, respectively. The genes related to sperm motility and spermatogenesis included KIFC1, KCNK2, and REC8. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the pathways related to sperm motility included oxidative phosphorylation and glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism. In addition, the MSTRG.15920.1- REC8 -MSTRG.11860.2- VWC2 pathway may regulate sperm motility. This study helped elucidate the molecular genetic mechanism of sperm motility in chicken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, we first propose a time-reassigned synchrosqueezing wavelet transform (TSWT) to analyze impulsive-like signals, whose instantaneous frequency curves are nearly perpendicular to the time axis. By squeezing the wavelet transform coefficients in the time direction, the TSWT has very high energy concentration and enables signal reconstruction. Furthermore, we provide a rigorous theoretical analysis of TSWT for frequency-domain signals under the mathematical framework. Finally, numerical experiments are employed to verify the effectiveness of TSWT. • We introduce a high-resolution time–frequency analysis method called time-reassigned synchrosqueezing wavelet transform (TSWT) to analyze impulsive-like signals. • We define a class of frequency-domain harmonic-like signal model. • We develop a theoretical analysis of TSWT for frequency-domain signals. • For impulsive-like signals, TSWT achieves highly-concentrated time frequency representations while allowing signal reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During amino acid starvation, bacterial cells rapidly synthesize the nucleotides (p)pp Gpp, causing a massive re-programming of the transcriptional profile known as the stringent response. The (p)pp Gpp synthase RelA is activated by ribosomes harboring an uncharged tRNA at the A site. It is unclear whether synthesis occurs while RelA is bound to the ribosome or free in the cytoplasm. We present a study of three E scherichia coli strains, each expressing a different RelA-fluorescent protein ( RelA- FP) construct: RelA- YFP, RelA-mEos2 and RelA-Dendra2. Single-molecule localization and tracking studies were carried out under normal growth conditions and during amino acid starvation. Study of three labeling schemes enabled us to assess potential problems with FP labeling of RelA. The diffusive trajectories and axial spatial distributions indicate that amino acid starvation induces net binding of all three RelA- FP constructs to 70S ribosomes. The data are most consistent with a model in which RelA synthesizes (p)pp Gpp while bound to the 70S ribosome. We suggest a 'short hopping time' model of RelA activity during starvation. Our results contradict an earlier study of RelA-Dendra2 diffusion that inferred off-ribosome synthesis of (p)pp Gpp. The reasons for the discrepancy remain unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The source-sink relationship determines crop yield, and it is largely regulated by water and nutrients in agricultural production. This has been widely investigated in cereals, but fewer studies have been conducted in root and tuber crops such as potato (Solanum tuberosum L.). The objective of this study was to investigate the source-sink relationship in potato and the regulation of water and nitrogen on the source-sink relationship during the tuber bulking stage. A pot experiment using virus-free plantlets of the Atlantic potato cultivar was conducted, using three water levels (50%, 70% and 90% of field capacity) and three nitrogen levels (0, 0.2, 0.4 g N∙kg−1 soil). The results showed that, under all water and nitrogen levels, plant source capacity were small at the end of the experiment, since photosynthetic activity in leaves were low and non-structural reserves in underground stems were completely remobilized. While at this time, there were very big differences in maximum and minimum tuber number and tuber weight, indicating that the sink tuber still had a large potential capacity to take in assimilates. These results suggest that the source-supplied assimilates were not sufficient enough to meet the demands of sink growth. Thus, we concluded that, unlike cereals, potato yield is more likely to be source-limited than sink-limited during the tuber bulking stage. Water and nitrogen are two key factors in potato production management. Our results showed that water level, nitrogen level and the interaction between water and nitrogen influence potato yield mainly through affecting source capacity via the net photosynthetic rate, total leaf area and leaf life span. Well-watered, sufficient nitrogen and well-watered combined with sufficient nitrogen increased yield mainly by enhancing the source capacity. Therefore, this suggests that increasing source capacity is more crucial to improve potato yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multifunction antibacterial hemostatic materials can reduce blood loss, infection and wound complications, which probably decrease morbidity and health care costs. However, the contradictory relationship between antibacterial ability and biocompatibility, and the unnecessary blood loss restricts the practical application of hydrophilic cationic antibacterial hemostatic materials. Herein, a multifunctional temperature-triggered antibacterial hemostatic fluorocopolymer aggregate coating was developed. After self-assembly and quaternization process, the quaternized poly(N,N-dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate)- b -poly(1H,1H,2H,2H -heptadecafluorodecyl acrylate) block copolymers (PDMA- b -PFOEMA) aggregate coating consisting of fluoropolymer and quaternary ammonium salt were built. The synergistic effect on fluorinated block with low surface energy and quaternary ammonium salt block with bactericide activity severs the way of initial bacterial attachment and proliferation, while the migration of fluorinated block greatly promotes the biocompatibility and anti-adhesion performance in response to the switch from room temperature to physiological temperature. Furthermore, the fluorocopolymer aggregate coating with hydrophobic properties possessed the property of rapid coagulation, low blood loss, minor secondary bleeding and least bacteria infiltration. The multifunctional temperature-triggered fluorocopolymer aggregate coating with antifouling, antibacterial and hemostatic properties may have a great potential in the biomedical application. [Display omitted] • Self-assembly process changes temperature-responsive behaviors of the coating. • The apparent contradiction between bactericidal ability and biological toxicity was relieve by the coating. • The coating prevents excessive blood loss before hemostasis through hydrophobic fluoropolymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To systematically explore the effects of skin thickness, core topology, core depth and core direction on crushing deformation, failure behavior, mode and mechanism of aluminum (Al) honeycomb-based sandwich structures, a series of sandwich panels with various honeycomb core structures and skin thicknesses are prepared and deformed in the out-of-plane three-point bending deformations. Particularly, auxetic and non-auxetic honeycomb structures with an ultrathin cell wall thickness are investigated. Finite element simulations of all flexural deformations are conducted with the mixed Swift-Voce constitutive model which accurately describes plastic deformation. The numerical model is well validated by comparisons of the experimental load-deflection responses and simulation results. Ductile failure modes in Types I, II and III are identified, and their behaviors and mechanisms are numerically reproduced. Although core topology has a negligible effect on the failure mode, skin thickness, core depth, and core direction do. Additionally, using an auxetic honeycomb core, such as a reentrant unit, improves peak load, energy absorption, and the corresponding specific values of honeycomb-based sandwich structures. Increases in core depth and skin thickness, on the other hand, do not result in a consistent increase in specific peak load. To achieve a lighter and stronger Al honeycomb-based sandwich structure, utilizing a reentrant honeycomb core rather than a traditional non-auxetic core is more effective than increasing core depth and skin thickness. [Display omitted] • Three types of failure modes are observed in Al honeycomb-based sandwich panels. • Experimental failure behaviors and mechanisms are numerically reproduced. • Skin thickness, core depth and core direction influence ductile failure. • An auxetic honeycomb core enhances specific peak load and energy absorption. • Reentrant core is more effective to obtain a lighter and stronger sandwich panel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parameters monitoring is essential to maintain the stability and efficiency of the wastewater treatment process, which has spurred ubiquitous installation of sensors in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). As the rich process data of WWTPs is not effectively transformed into actionable knowledge for system optimization due to improper sensor installation, the sensor placement scheme needs to be optimized. In this paper, a weighted sensor placement optimization model based on sensor cost, information richness and reliability is established to transform the sensor optimization problem to a nonlinear mathematical programming problem. Then a discrete multi-objective state transition algorithm is proposed to find the Pareto optimal solutions. Finally, an evaluation strategy is designed to select the most suitable solution for industrial application. The results of simulation experiments on three different WWTPs demonstrate the validity and superiority of the proposed method, increasing the degree of variable observability and measurement redundancy while keeping the sensor cost at a low level. [Display omitted] • A weighted multi-objective sensor placement model considering importance of flows is established. • A novel discrete multi-objective state transition algorithm is proposed to find optimal solutions effectively. • An evaluation strategy consisting of corrosion degree and maintenance cost is designed for decision making. • The applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated by three typical WWTP configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A universal electrospray-carbonization approach to prepare ternary metal/SiO x /nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) superstructures is proposed, where metal (Fe, Co, Ni, CoNi, FeNi, FeCo and FeCoNi) and small SiO x nanoparticles (NPs) are homogeneously distributed in NC matrix. Metal greatly promotes the electrochemical activity and stability of the SiO x system, which can be considered as high-performance Li-ion-battery anodes. [Display omitted] • Metal/SiO x /nitrogen-doped carbon superstructures are designed as LIB anodes. • Nitrogen-doped carbon inhibits the gathering of SiO x and relieves its strain. • Ultrasmall Ni nanoparticles and nitrogen-doped carbon improve the kinetics of SiO x. • The strategy to prepare multiple SiO x - or metal-based composites is universal. For silicon oxides (SiO x) as a prospective Li-ion-battery anode material, the low inherent conductivity and huge volume fluctuation during cycling immensely limit their electrochemical performance. Herein, a universal electrospray-carbonization approach to prepare ternary metal/SiO x /nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) superstructures is proposed. Accordingly, metal (Fe, Co, Ni, CoNi, FeNi, FeCo and FeCoNi) nanoparticles (NPs) and small SiO x NPs derived from rice husks (RHs) are homogeneously distributed in the NC matrix. Metal (Fe, Co, Ni) NP-embedded NC frameworks avoid the accumulation, increase the conductivity and accommodate adequent volume expansion of SiO x NPs. This results in an enhanced rate capability and excellent cycle stability upon cycling. Besides, Ni/SiO x /NC (NSC) superstructures with ultra-small Ni NPs can exhibit better electrochemical kinetics for fast diffusion of ions and charge transfer and cyclability than Co/SiO x /NC (CSC) and Fe/SiO x /NC (FSC) composites. When NSC superstructures are employed as lithium-ion battery (LIB) anodes, superior specific capacities of 757.5 mA h g−1 at the 200th cycle, as well as superb long cyclability with discharge capacities of 665.0 mA h g−1 for 500 cycles at 500 mA g−1 and 116.3 mA h g−1 at the 5000th cycle, even at 10 A g−1, are achieved. Furthermore, the easy and general approach for preparing multiple SiO x -, metal- or alloy-based superstructures paves the way for designing high-performance rechargeable batteries and electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Erwinia amylovora, ECF (extracytoplasmic functions) alternative sigma factor HrpL regulates the transcription of hrp ( hypersensitive response and pathogenicity)-type III secretion system ( T3SS) genes by binding to a consensus sequence known as the hrp box in hrp gene promoters. In turn, the expression of hrpL has been proposed to be positively controlled by alternative sigma factor 54 (σ54) ( RpoN) and HrpS, a member of the σ54 enhancer-binding proteins ( EBPs). However, the function of RpoN has not been characterized genetically in E. amylovora. In this study, we investigated the role of RpoN, a nitrogen limitation sigma factor, and its modulation protein YhbH, a novel ribosome-associated protein, in E. amylovora virulence. Our results showed that mutations in hrp S, hrp L, rpo N and yhbH, but not yfiA and rmf3, resulted in a nonpathogenic phenotype on immature pear fruits and apple shoots. Consistently, the expression of T3SS genes, including hrp L, dsp E, hrp N and hrp A, was barely detected in hrp S, hrp L, rpo N and yhbH mutants. These mutants were also not capable of eliciting a hypersensitive response ( HR) on tobacco; however, the overexpression of hrpL using an inducible promoter rescued the HR-eliciting abilities of these mutants. These results suggest that a sigma factor cascade exists in the regulatory networks of E. amylovora and regulates important virulence factors. On the basis of this study and previously reported data, a model is proposed for the regulation of T3SS in E. amylovora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Yangtze River Delta white goat is an exclusive indigenous Chinese goat breeds that can produce Brush Hair specialized in making valuable writing brush. The high-grade (Type III) Brush Hair is conical coarse hair but with a tip, which only grows in the cervical carina and back regions of Yangtze River Delta white goats. Screening of genes influencing the formation of Type III Brush Hair was conducted using differential display of mRNA technique in skin including the hair follicles of different goat groups and the differential bands were identified using reverse Northern dot blot, and the positive bands were subsequently cloned and sequenced. The results showed that 20 differentially displayed bands were obtained, seven of which were identified positive as expressed in skin. Three of these seven cDNAs were homologous to certain sequences from GenBank and the other four were respectively homologous to CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain containing 3 (CMTM3), S100 calcium binding protein A4 (S100A4), protein kinase inhibitor gamma (PKIG) and fibulin 1-D. The study would provide a new view to elucidate their roles in hair growth and hair follicle cycle and increase our understanding of the formation of Type III Brush Hair. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A method for the quality evaluation of Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma (AMR) based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint, HPLC quantification, and chemical pattern recognition analysis was developed and validated. The fingerprint similarity of the 27 batches of AMR samples was 0.887–0.999, which indicates there was very limited variance between the batches. The 27 batches of samples were divided into two categories according to cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). A total of six differential components of AMR were identified in the partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), among which atractylenolide I, II, III, and atractylone counted 0.003–0.045%, 0.006–0.023%, 0.001–0.058%, and 0.307–1.175%, respectively. The results indicate that the quality evaluation method could be used for quality control and authentication of AMR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon suboxide (SiOx) has attracted widespread interest as Li‐ion battery (LIB) anodes. However, its undesirable electronic conductivity and apparent volume effect during cycling impede its practical applications. Herein, sustainable rice husks (RHs)‐derived SiO2 are chosen as a feedstock to design SiOx/iron–nitrogen co‐doped carbon (Fe–N–C) materials. Using a facile electrospray‐carbonization strategy, SiOx nanoparticles (NPs) are encapsulated in the nitrogen‐doped carbon (N–C) frameworks decorating atomically dispersed iron sites. Systematic characterizations including high‐angle annular dark‐field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF‐STEM) and X‐ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) verify the existence of Fe single atoms and typical coordination environment. Benefiting from its structural and compositional merits, the SiOx/Fe–N–C anode delivers significantly improved discharge capacity of 799.1 mAh g−1, rate capability, and exceptional durability, compared with pure SiO2 and SiOx/N–C, which has been revealed by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Additionally, the electrochemical tests and in situ X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reveal the oxidation of LixSi phase and the storage mechanism. The synthetic strategy is universal for the design and synthesis of metal single atoms/clusters dispersed N–C frameworks encapsulated SiOx NPs. Meanwhile, this work provides impressive insights into developing various LIB anode materials suffering from inferior conductivity and huge volume fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]