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Chemotherapy regimens containing cisplatin remain the first-line treatments for patients with oral squamous cell cancer (OSCC); however, the treatment effect is often transient because of chemoresistance and recurrence. Understanding the mechanisms of chemoresistance in OSCC might provide novel targetable vulnerabilities. In the present study, we revealed that Forkhead box D1 (FOXD1) is upregulated in OSCC and predicted poor prognosis. Moreover, ectopic expression of FOXD1 promoted, while silencing of FOXD1 inhibited, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and chemoresistance of OSCC, both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, FOXD1 binds to the promoter of long non-coding RNA Cytoskeleton Regulator RNA (CYTOR) and activates its transcription. CYTOR then acts as a competing endogenous RNA to inhibit miR-1252-5p and miR-3148, thus upregulating lipoma preferred partner (LPP) expression. Importantly, the CYTOR/LPP axis was proven to be essential for FOXD1-induced EMT and chemoresistance in OSCC. These findings reveal a novel mechanism for the chemotherapy resistance of OSCC, suggesting that FOXD1 might be a potential prognostic marker and anti-resistance therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated reasoning is a key research area of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and has attracted much greater attention in recent years due to the demands of trustworthy AI, where binary resolution inference rule based first-order automated reasoning play a crucial role. Recently, a novel multi-clause dynamic standard contradiction separation (S-CS) inference rule and related automated deduction theory were proposed to overcome the limitations of binary resolution-based automated deduction. Now that strategies for dynamic clause selection are essential for S-CS based automated deduction, in the present work, a class of novel clause selection strategies, along with the corresponding novel complementary ratio based dynamic S-CS automated deduction algorithm (called CRA), are proposed. Furthermore, we are interested in determining whether CRA may be deployed on top of the current best first-order automated reasoning system designs to increase their performance. As a result, CRA is applied to the current leading systems, Vampire and E, resulting in two integrated automatic reasoning systems, CRA_Vampire and CRA_E. Experiment results demonstrate that CRA can improve E and Vampire in CASC 2020–2022 competitions. The new integrated automated reasoning systems can resolve 44 problems with rating of 1, meaning they are intractable by other existing first-order automated systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Whether or not young patients with squamous cell carcinoma of oral cavity (OC-SCC) have a difference in prognosis remains a controversy. This study aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics and difference of survival rates between adult patients less than 40 years of age and those 40 years of age and older. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted using the database of patients diagnosed with OC-SCC between 1990 and 2013 in the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, but patients older than 85 years, younger than 18 years, or died within 6 months of diagnosis were excluded. Patients were categorized into two groups: the young group (< 40 years of age) and the older group (≥ 40 years of age). Cox regression, survival and subgroups analyses were performed. The primary endpoints included the rates of 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS). Results: A total of 1902 OC-SCC patients were identified. The percentage of female in the young group was significantly higher than that in the older group (40.27% vs 31.03%, p < 0.001). This study failed to find the difference in TNM classification or tumor stage between the two groups (p > 0.05). The young group was more likely to receive adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy (42.48% vs 26.91%, p < 0.001). The 5-year OS rate (71% vs. 57%, p < 0.001) and DSS rate (72% vs 58%, p < 0.001) in patients under 40 years were significantly higher than those for the older group. Conclusion: Our findings suggested that OC-SCC in younger patients did not present at a more advanced stage. In addition, young age is an independent predictor for better survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to our previous study, GOLPH3 is markedly up‐expressed in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC), which is also associated with poor survival. However, it remains unclear about key upstream and downstream mechanisms of GOLPH3. This study aimed to illuminate new mechanisms modulating GOLPH3 upregulation and promoting TSCC development at the molecular level. Using mass spectrometry and agarose‐streptavidin‐biotin pull‐down analyses, SOX8 (SRY‐Box 8) was identified to be the new protein to bind the GOLPH3 promoter within TSCC cells, which was further verified to be the regulator of GOLPH3 upregulation. The knockdown of SOX8 suppressed the promoter activity of GOLPH3, while secondarily inhibiting TSCC cell proliferation both in vivo and in vitro. Interestingly, GOLPH3 overexpression rescued the SOX8 knockdown‐mediated suppression on TSCC proliferation. Additionally, exogenous over‐expression of SOX8 also activated the activity of promoter as well as GOLPH3 expression, in the meantime of promoting TSCC development. Moreover it was discovered that SOX8 regulated GOLPH3 expression through interacting with TFAP2A. Moreover our results suggested that the SOX8 level was increased within tumor tissue compared with that in para‐cancer normal counterpart, which showed positive correlation with the GOLPH3 level. According to Kaplan‐Meier analyses, TSCC cases having higher SOX8 and GOLPH3 expression were associated with poorer prognostic outcomes. Taken together, this study reveals that SOX8 enhances the TSCC cell growth via the direct transcriptional activation of GOLPH3, which also indicates the potential to use SOX8/GOLPH3 pathway as the treatment target among TSCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two models are developed for updating opinions in social networks under situations where certain beliefs might be considered to be competing. These two models represent different attitudes of people towards the perceived conflict between beliefs. In both models agents have a degree of tolerance, which represents the extent to which the agent takes into account the differing beliefs of other agents, and a degree of conflict, which represents the extent to which two beliefs are considered to be competing. Computer simulations are used to determine how the opinion dynamics are affected by the inclusion of conflict. Results show that conflict can enhance the formation of consensus within the network in certain circumstances according to one of the models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate the role of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) nuclear‐enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) in regulating sorafenib (Sora) sensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells and possible signaling pathways. Methods: HCC cell lines and tumor tissue were quantified for NEAT1 expression by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Following shRNA (short hairpin RNA) knockdown of NEAT1, cell viability, apoptosis, and related protein expression were measured after drug treatment. The downstream target of NEAT1, including miR‐335 and c‐Met was studied using a combination of luciferase binding assay, gene knockdown/overexpression, western blot analysis, and cell viability/apoptosis assay. Cancer cells with NEAT1 knockdown were transplanted onto nude mice for in vivo tumorigenesis assay. Results: Silencing of NEAT1 in HCC cells facilitated Sora sensitivity by enhancing drug‐induced apoptosis, and led to smaller tumor size on nude mice. Mechanistic study suggested that miR‐335 was negatively regulated by NEAT1, and miR‐335 further suppressed c‐Met–Akt pathway, whose activation caused drug resistance of HCC cells. The knockdown of miR‐335, or overexpression of c‐Met, all remarkably abolished the proapoptotic effect of NEAT1 knockdown in HCC cells. Conclusion: lncRNA NEAT1 mediates Sora resistance of HCC cells by suppressing miR‐335 expression, and disinhibition on c‐Met–Akt signaling pathway. Our results provide potency of NEAT1 as the biomarker for drug resistant HCC and possible treating targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We investigate the ac admittance of a quantum point contact (QPC) in quantum hall regime. Experiment data shows that the phase of the QPC admittance is not transmission independent. With the increasing of the QPC transmission, the phase increases in large magnetic field, but stays constant in small field. The theoretical works indicated that the Coulomb interaction between the counter-propagate channels is the main reason for the non-constant phase in large field. Besides this, we also studied the other types of Coulomb interactions. Especially, the Coulomb interaction between the channels across the QPC could make the sample behave like a capacitance and thus a change from the capacitive behavior to inductive behavior is expected when the QPC is opening. Our investigation demonstrates that the Coulomb interaction can serve as a sensitive detection method for the internal properties of quantum devices, in particular, at gigahertz frequencies. Highlights • The phase of the ac admittance of a quantum point contact (QPC) is only transmission-independent at small magnetic field. • The phase of the QPC admittance increases as the QPC transmission increasing at large magnetic fields. • The Coulomb interaction between the counter-propagate channels is the main reason for the non-constant phase. • The Coulomb interaction between the channels across the QPC causes a 90-degrees change of the phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Clinically, we have observed that some oral cancer patients have a history of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer; we have named this condition radiotherapy-associated cancer (RAC). Gingival cancer, which is usually juxtaposed with other oral cancer subtypes, is seldom reported individually, and there are few reports on the association between the incidence of oral cancer and history of radiation therapy. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the clinicopathological features and prognosis of second primary gingival squamous cell carcinoma after head and neck radiotherapy.Materials and Methods: The data collected included 450 patients diagnosed with gingival squamous cell carcinoma from 1964 to 2012 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer, among whom 52 patients had a history of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. We retrospectively analysed the differences in the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis between sporadic gingival squamous cell carcinoma and radiation-associated gingival carcinoma, with an emphasis on gingival carcinoma.Results: Sporadic gingival squamous cell carcinoma is less likely to have more advanced T stage, and the second primary tumour is more likely to be located in the molar area of the maxillary gingiva than in the mandibular gingiva (75.6% vs 24.4%, P < 0.05). The 5-year overall survival of patients with second primary gingival carcinoma was influenced by age distribution, T classification, N classification, clinical TNM stage, histological grade and radiation history in head and neck. Mandibular gingival carcinoma was more likely to have an increased neck lymph node metastasis than maxillary gingival carcinoma (P = 0.001), but there was no significant difference in 5-year overall survival between these two groups (P = 0.828). The main therapy for gingiva carcinoma is surgery or comprehensive treatment based on surgery.Conclusions: Second primary gingival squamous cell carcinoma after radiotherapy demonstrated particular clinicopathologic features, such as prominent sites and TNM stage; and there was statistically significant difference in 5-year overall survival and prognosis between second primary gingival carcinoma after radiotherapy and sporadic gingival carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ordered mesoporous alumina (OMA)-supported vanadia catalysts with different vanadium loading (denoted as n V/OMA) were employed for ethylbenzene dehydrogenation to styrene with CO 2 as soft oxidant, and a commercial γ-Al 2 O 3 -supported vanadia catalyst for comparison. The catalytic behavior depends strongly on the vanadium loading and the support properties. With an optimal V loading of 0.8 mmol/g-support, 0.8 V/OMA catalyst exhibits superior catalytic performance than that of 0.8 V/γ-Al 2 O 3 , which can be attributed to the excellent structural, textual, and surface properties of OMA support. The important roles played by OMA lies in stabilizing highly dispersed V 5+ active species and preventing the coke formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the gate hysteresis behavior in single electron transport driven by surface acoustic wave (SAW/SET) devices over a wide temperature range from 1.7 to 200 K. From the temperature dependence, we come to the conclusion that the gate hysteresis in SAW/SET devices arises from a combination of the screening effect of the surface state and the electron tunneling between the moving quantum dot and the impurity quantum dot. In addition, when a perpendicular magnetic field is applied to the sample, the behavior of the gate hysteresis changes substantially. A competition between the magnetic field and the gate voltage on determining the electronic wave function is considered as the reason for the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated theorem prover (ATP) for first-order logic (FOL), as a significant inference engine, is one of the hot research areas in the field of knowledge representation and automated reasoning. E prover, as one of the leading ATPs, has made a significant contribution to the development of theorem provers for FOL, particularly equality handling, after more than two decades of development. However, there are still a large number of problems in the TPTP problem library, the benchmark problem library for ATPs, that E has yet to solve. The standard contradiction separation (S-CS) rule is an inference method introduced recently that can handle multiple clauses in a synergized way and has a few distinctive features which complements to the calculus of E. Binary clauses, on the other hand, are widely utilized in the automated deduction process for FOL because they have a minimal number of literals (typically only two literals), few symbols, and high manipulability. As a result, it is feasible to improve a prover's deduction capability by reusing binary clause. In this paper, a binary clause reusing algorithm based on the S-CS rule is firstly proposed, which is then incorporated into E with the objective to enhance E's performance, resulting in an extended E prover. According to experimental findings, the performance of the extended E prover not only outperforms E itself in a variety of aspects, but also solves 18 problems with rating of 1 in the TPTP library, meaning that none of the existing ATPs are able to resolve them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the impact of competing opinion leaders on attracting followers in a social group based on a bounded confidence model in terms of four characteristics: reputation, stubbornness, appeal and extremeness. In the model, reputation differs among leaders and normal agents based on the weights assigned to them, stubbornness of leaders is reflected by their confidence towards normal agents, appeal of the leaders is represented by the confidence of followers towards them, and extremeness is captured by the opinion values of leaders. Simulations show that increasing reputation, stubbornness or extremeness makes it more difficult for the group to achieve consensus, but increasing the appeal will make it easier. The results demonstrate that successful opinion leaders should generally be less stubborn, have greater appeal and be less extreme in order to attract more followers in a competing environment. Furthermore, the number of followers can be very sensitive to small changes in these characteristics. On the other hand, reputation has a more complicated impact: higher reputation helps the leader to attract more followers when the group bound of confidence is high, but can hinder the leader from attracting followers when the group bound of confidence is low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, automatic image crack detection has become a critical task for ensuring the safety of various facilities. Many researchers utilized convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for crack detection. However, the existing CNN methods have the limitation of the receptive fields and struggle to establish long dependencies and global background information. Aiming to address this problem, we propose a CNN method with an attention module and recurrent mechanism. In terms of the backbone network, we propose a backbone network named Attention-VGG-19. In our network, we remove the last three fully connected layers of VGG-19 to expect the meaningful side output with different scales and to reduce the number of parameters. The fully connected layers are computationally intensive. The proposed network also provides integrated direct supervision for features of each convolutional stage. Then, to promote important features and suppress unimportant features, an attention module called CrackP attention is proposed. In the recurrent mechanism, the module can be unrolled into R loops to connect the path between one pixel and its neighboring ones. To prove the effectiveness of our proposed method, we evaluate it on four public crack datasets, DeepCrack, crack forest dataset (CFD), Crack500, and CrackTree260, on which it achieves F-score (F1) values of 0.876, 0.652, 0.692, and 0.593, respectively. After a guided filter is added, our method achieves F1 values of 0.878, 0.638, 0.681, and 0.526 on these four datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many decision making problems, the experts are not able to provide accurate preferences among the alternatives but some kind of partial orders with certain belief degrees, due to limited expertise related to the problem domain, lack of data, or time restriction and so on. To facilitate decision making in this type of situations, this paper proposes a belief structure to represent the partially ordered preferences with belief degrees, which can cover both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the evaluation and can also represent indifference and incomparability relations as well. An evidential reasoning based preference combination approach is then applied to combine the partially ordered preferences with belief degrees of the experts. The collective ordering of alternatives, which again could be a partial order, is generated based on a distance measure between pairs of preference relations. A group decision making model based on the preference combination and the collective ordering generation is then established for partially ordered preference under uncertainty. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A feasible approach was developed for the synthesis of ordered mesoporous SBA-15-type materials using coal fly ash (CFA) as raw material. In the proposed approach, CFA was, firstly, activated by subcritical water with the addition of NaOH, which allowed an efficient extraction of silicon species from CFA under strong acidic conditions at near room temperature. Subsequently, in the synthesis system, using silicon extraction solution as the silicon precursor, the introduction of anhydrous ethanol as a co-solvent effectively inhibited the polymerization of silanol species and promoted their collaborative self-assembly with surfactant molecules by enhancing the hydrogen bond interactions. The resultant SBA-15 material had a high purity, high specific surface area (1014 m2/g) and pore volume (1.08 cm3/g), and a highly ordered mesostructure, and, therefore, exhibited an excellent removal efficiency (90.5%) and adsorption capacity (160.8 mg/g) for methylene blue (MB) from simulated wastewater. Additionally, the generation of surface acid sites from the homogenous incorporation of Al atoms onto the mesoporous walls of SBA-15 combined with the perfect retention of the ordered mesostructure endowed the obtained Al-SBA-15 material with a further boost in the removal performance of MB. The MB removal efficiency can reach ~100%, along with a maximum adsorption capacity of 190.1 mg/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Decision making is the crucial step in many real applications such as organization management, financial planning, products evaluation and recommendation. Rational decision making is to select an alternative from a set of different ones which has the best utility (i.e., maximally satisfies given criteria, objectives, or preferences). In many cases, decision making is to order alternatives and select one or a few among the top of the ranking. Orderings provide a natural and effective way for representing indeterminate situations which are pervasive in commonsense reasoning. Ordering based decision making is then to find the suitable method for evaluating candidates or ranking alternatives based on provided ordinal information and criteria, and this in many cases is to rank alternatives based on qualitative ordering information. In this paper, we discuss the importance and research aspects of ordering based decision making, and review the existing ordering based decision making theories and methods providing future research directions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene (EB) to styrene (ST) in the presence of carbon dioxide (CO2) was carried out over silica-supported vanadium catalysts (VO x /SiO2) to investigate the role of CO2 played in this reaction coupling process. A prominent promoting effect of CO2 on EB dehydrogenation is observed; over VO x /SiO2 with a vanadium loading of 0.8mmol/g-SiO2, ST yield at 550°C in CO2 is 2.05 times higher than that in an inert atmosphere of nitrogen and the catalyst also deactivates much more slowly in CO2. CO2 as a soft oxidant can effectively keep/regain high valence vanadium species that are highly active for EB dehydrogenation, which is then conducive to enhancing EB conversion and suppressing catalyst deactivation. Both carbonaceous deposition and deep reduction of the active vanadium species contribute to the catalyst deactivation; however, CO2 is only effective on alleviating the catalyst deactivation by protecting the high valance vanadium species from deep reduction, but is invalid in suppressing coke formation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The activity and stability of the Co-Beta catalyst were investigated for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO by CH4 with and without the presence of SO2. The Co-Beta catalyst exhibited good stability during a long-term test of 30h for the SCR reaction in the absence of SO2. The addition of 78ppm SO2 caused a decrease in NO conversion, but the loss of catalytic activity was completely reversible after removal of SO2 from the feed. The characterization of fresh and used Co-Beta catalyst samples by XRD, UV–vis spectroscopy, H2-TPR, NO-TPD and FTIR spectroscopy was carried out to study the effect of SO2 on Co sites. UV–vis spectroscopy and H2-TPR analyses showed that the main Co species present in the catalyst were negligibly reducible Co2+ ions located at ion exchange sites and easily reducible polynuclear and/or nanosized Co oxide phases. The poisoning effects of SO2 on the different Co species were different. The poisoning of SO2 was irreversible for the Co2+ ions at the exchange sites but was completely reversible for the polynuclear and/or nanosized Co oxide species. The reversible deactivation was strongly related to the redox properties of the surface Co species. The polynuclear and/or nanosized Co oxide species were found to be active sites in the SCR reaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene (EB) to styrene (ST) in the presence of carbon dioxide was investigated over a series of alumina-supported vanadia catalysts (VO x /Al2O3) with the vanadium loading of 0.40–3.00mmol/gAl2O3. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, H2-TPR, TGA, UV-Raman and UV–vis spectroscopy. The catalytic behaviour as well as the structure of VO x species on alumina depends strongly on the vanadium loading. Catalytic activity increases firstly with increasing the vanadium loading and the ST yield reaches a maximum value of 69.7% at a vanadium loading of 1.50mmol/gAl2O3, and then the activity decreases with a further increase in the vanadium loading. This may be related to the fraction of VO x exposed on the domain surfaces and the reducibility of the surface VO x species. The catalysts with different vanadium loadings are also different in the deactivation mechanism. The deactivation of VO x /Al2O3 with vanadium loading below 1.50mmol/gAl2O3 is mainly ascribed to coke deposition, while the deep reduction of V5+ species becomes an important factor in the deactivation of catalyst with higher vanadium loading. EB dehydrogenation over VO x /Al2O3 in the presence of carbon dioxide exhibits higher ST yield than that in the presence of an inert nitrogen atmosphere. Such a result can be attributed to the facts that carbon dioxide as a weak oxidant can eliminate hydrogen produced during EB dehydrogenation, regain the oxidation state (lattice oxygen) of reduced vanadium species and alleviate the catalyst deactivation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Starting from the thermodynamic analysis of the coupling of diethylbenzene (DEB) dehydrogenation to divinylbenzene (DVB) with reverse water–gas shift, the dehydrogenation of DEB in the presence of carbon dioxide over alumina-supported iron oxide catalysts was carried out at 450–650 °C under atmospheric pressure with CO2/DEB mole ratio of 10–70 and DEB liquid space velocity (LHSV) of 0.2–1.2 h−1. The effects of reaction temperature, LHSV, CO2/DEB ratio, as well as iron loading and addition of promoters upon DEB conversion and DVB selectivity were investigated. It was revealed that the yield of DVB and ethylstyrene (EST) could be greatly improved by the reaction coupling due to the simultaneous elimination of the hydrogen produced in the dehydrogenation by reverse water–gas shift. A typical result with EST + DVB selectivity of 90.3%, DVB yield of 43.9% and EST yield of 38.0% was obtained at 550 °C with DEB LHSV of 0.4 h−1 and CO2/DEB mole ratio of 40. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: N1-Methyladenosine (m1A) is an abundant modification of transcripts regulating mRNA structure and translation efficiency. However, the characteristics and biological functions of mRNA m1A modification in adult hippocampal neurogenesis remain enigmatic. Results: We found that m1A demethylase Alkbh3 was dramatically enriched in neurons and neuronal genesis. Functionally, depletion of Alkbh3 in neural stem cells (NSCs) significantly decreased m1A modification, neuronal differentiation and proliferation coupling with increasing gliogenesis, whereas overexpressing Alkbh3 facilitated neuronal differentiation and proliferation. Mechanistically, the m1A demethylation of Mmp15 mRNA by Alkbh3 improved its RNA stability and translational efficacy, which promoted neurogenesis. Therapeutically, the silencing of Alkbh3 reduced hippocampal neurogenesis and impaired spatial memory in the adult mice. Conclusions: We reveal a novel function of m1A demethylation on Mmp15 mRNA in Alkbh3-mediated neurogenesis, which shed light on advancing Alkbh3 regulation of neurogenesis as a novel neurotherapeutic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesoporous alumina (MA) materials with outstanding textural properties have been synthesized by a facile approach, and were evaluated as supports of Pt-based catalyst for methylcyclohexane dehydrogenation. At 300 °C, the resultant catalyst demonstrates a much higher activity with a maximum hydrogen evolution rate of 2081 mmol/g Pt /min in comparison with the state-of-the-art alumina supported Pt catalysts. Interestingly, even after a long-time reaction of 100 h or regeneration, more than 80% of original activity was still maintained. The superior catalytic performance of the obtained catalyst is associated with the high specific surface area and large mesoporous size of support MA, thus benefiting the increase in the number of Pt active sites and efficiently inhibiting the formation of coke deposition during the reaction. Our contribution has provided a rational design strategy for highly efficient and stable dehydrogenation catalysts, which is a key for the utilization of methylcyclohexane-toluene system in hydrogen storage technology. [Display omitted] • A confined hydrolysis-condensation approach. • Mesoporous alumina with excellent textural properties. • Pt-based catalyst with highly homogenous dispersion of Pt. • Improved catalytic performance for dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane at low temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection has become an important etiological driver of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC), leading to unique tumor characteristics. However, the interplay between HPV-associated tumor cells and tumor microenvironment (TME) remains an enigma. Methods: We performed a single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) on HPV-positive (HPV+) and HPV-negative (HPV‒) OPSCC tumors, each for three samples, and one normal tonsil tissue. Ex vivo validation assays including immunofluorescence staining, cell line co-culture, and flow cytometry analysis were used to test specific subtypes of HPV+ tumor cells and their communications with T cells. Results: Through a comprehensive single-cell transcriptome analysis, we uncover the distinct transcriptional signatures between HPV+ and HPV‒ OPSCC. Specifically, HPV+ OPSCC tumor cells manifest an enhanced interferon response and elevated expression of the major histocompatibility complex II (MHC-II), potentially bolstering tumor recognition and immune response. Furthermore, we identify a CXCL13+CD4+ T cell subset that exhibits dual features of both follicular and pro-inflammatory helper T cells. Noteworthily, HPV+ OPSCC tumor cells embrace extensive intercellular communications with CXCL13+CD4+ T cells. Interaction with HPV+ OPSCC tumor cells amplifies CXCL13 and IFNγ release in CD4+T cells, fostering a pro-inflammatory TME. Additionally, HPV+ tumor cells expressing high MHC-II and CXCL13+CD4+ T cell prevalence are indicative of favorable overall survival rates in OPSCC patients. Conclusions: Together, our study underscores a synergistic inflammatory immune response orchestrated by highly immunogenic tumor cells and CXCL13+CD4+ T cells in HPV+ OPSCC, offering useful insights into strategy development for patient stratification and effective immunotherapy in OPSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seeking truth is an important objective of agents in social groups. Opinion leaders in social groups may help or hinder the other agents on seeking the truth by symmetric nature. This paper studies the impact of opinion leaders by considering four characteristics of opinion leaders—reputation, stubbornness, appeal, and extremeness—on the truth-seeking behavior of agents based on a bounded confidence model. Simulations show that increasing the appeal of the leader whose opinion is opposite to the truth has a straightforward impact, i.e., it normally prevents the agents from finding the truth. On the other hand, it also makes the agents who start out close to the truth move away from the truth by increasing the group bound of confidence, if there is an opinion leader opposite to the truth. The results demonstrate that the opinion of the leader is important in affecting the normal agents to reach the truth. Furthermore, for some cases, small variations of the parameters defining the agents' characteristics can lead to large scale changes in the social group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalytic performance of Al‐MCM‐41‐supported vanadia catalysts (V/Al‐MCM‐41) with different V loading was investigated for oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene (ST) with CO2 (CO2‐ODEB). For comparison, pure silica MCM‐41 was also used as support for vanadia catalyst. The catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption, X‐ray diffraction (XRD) pyridine‐Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy, H2‐temperature‐programmed reduction, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UV‐Raman, and diffuse reflectance (DR) UV–vis spectroscopy. The results indicate that the catalytic behavior and the nature of V species depend strongly on the V loading and the support properties. Compared with the MCM‐41‐supported catalyst, the Al‐MCM‐41‐supported vanadia catalyst exhibits much higher catalytic activity and stability along with a high ST selectivity (>98%). The superior catalytic performance of the present V/Al‐MCM‐41 catalyst can be attributed to the Al‐MCM‐41 support being more favorable for the high dispersion of V species and the stabilization of active V5+ species. Together with the characterization results of XRD, TGA, and DR UV–Vis spectroscopy, the deep reduction of V5+ into V3+ during CO2‐ODEB is the main reason for the deactivation of the supported vanadia catalyst, while the coke deposition has a less important impact on the catalyst stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor (TF) family is one of the biggest TF families identified so far in the plant kingdom, functioning in diverse biological processes including plant growth and development, signal transduction, and stress responses. For Perilla frutescens, a novel oilseed crop abundant in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) (especially α-linolenic acid, ALA), the identification and biological functions of bZIP members remain limited. In this study, 101 PfbZIPs were identified in the perilla genome and classified into eleven distinct groups (Groups A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, S, and UC) based on their phylogenetic relationships and gene structures. These PfbZIP genes were distributed unevenly across 18 chromosomes, with 83 pairs of them being segmental duplication genes. Moreover, 78 and 148 pairs of orthologous bZIP genes were detected between perilla and Arabidopsis or sesame, respectively. PfbZIP members belonging to the same subgroup exhibited highly conserved gene structures and functional domains, although significant differences were detected between groups. RNA-seq and RT-qPCR analysis revealed differential expressions of 101 PfbZIP genes during perilla seed development, with several PfbZIPs exhibiting significant correlations with the key oil-related genes. Y1H and GUS activity assays evidenced that PfbZIP85 downregulated the expression of the PfLPAT1B gene by physical interaction with the promoter. PfLPAT1B encodes a lysophosphatidate acyltransferase (LPAT), one of the key enzymes for triacylglycerol (TAG) assembly. Heterogeneous expression of PfbZIP85 significantly reduced the levels of TAG and UFAs (mainly C18:1 and C18:2) but enhanced C18:3 accumulation in both seeds and non-seed tissues in the transgenic tobacco lines. Furthermore, these transgenic tobacco plants showed no significantly adverse phenotype for other agronomic traits such as plant growth, thousand seed weight, and seed germination rate. Collectively, these findings offer valuable perspectives for understanding the functions of PfbZIPs in perilla, particularly in lipid metabolism, showing PfbZIP85 as a suitable target in plant genetic improvement for high-value vegetable oil production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To explore the predictive value of inflammatory‐nutritional score (INS) and a nomogram for survivals in head and neck soft tissue sarcoma (HNSTS) patients with negative resection margins (R0). Methods: Clinical characteristics and hematological features of 315 HNSTS patients underwent R0 surgery were analyzed. Results: The 5‐year overall survival (OS) rate, 3‐year recurrence‐free survival rate and disease‐free survival (DFS) rate were 77.3%, 61.0% and 55.4%, respectively. High INS was associated with a deep tumor location (p < 0.001), high tumor grade (p < 0.001), and advanced AJCC stage (p < 0.001). The low‐risk group (INS 0) exhibited a higher 5‐year OS rate and 3‐year DFS rate than others (87.6% vs. 81.3% vs. 53.3%, p < 0.001; 62.2% vs. 56.9% vs. 37.9%, p = 0.007). The INS (p = 0.023), tumor depth (p < 0.001), pT classification (p = 0.022), pN classification (p < 0.001) and tumor grade (p < 0.001) were independent survival predictors. Moreover, a novel nomogram for predicting OS was generated and assessed by the concordance index, exhibiting a better performance than the p7TNMG classification alone (p < 0.001). Conclusions: For R0 resected HNSTS patients, the oncological outcomes can be predicted using the INS system and a specific nomogram. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) catalyzes the first step in triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis. However, GPAT members and their functions remain poorly understood in Perilla frutescens, a special edible-medicinal plant with its seed oil rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (mostly α-linolenic acid, ALA). Here, 14 PfGPATs were identified from the P. frutescens genome and classified into three distinct groups according to their phylogenetic relationships. These 14 PfGPAT genes were distributed unevenly across 11 chromosomes. PfGPAT members within the same subfamily had highly conserved gene structures and four signature functional domains, despite considerable variations detected in these conserved motifs between groups. RNA-seq and RT-qPCR combined with dynamic analysis of oil and FA profiles during seed development indicated that PfGPAT9 may play a crucial role in the biosynthesis and accumulation of seed oil and PUFAs. Ex vivo enzymatic assay using the yeast expression system evidenced that PfGPAT9 had a strong GPAT enzyme activity crucial for TAG assembly and also a high substrate preference for oleic acid (OA, C18:1) and ALA (C18:3). Heterogeneous expression of PfGPAT9 significantly increased total oil and UFA (mostly C18:1 and C18:3) levels in both the seeds and leaves of the transgenic tobacco plants. Moreover, these transgenic tobacco lines exhibited no significant negative effect on other agronomic traits, including plant growth and seed germination rate, as well as other morphological and developmental properties. Collectively, our findings provide important insights into understanding PfGPAT functions, demonstrating that PfGPAT9 is the desirable target in metabolic engineering for increasing storage oil enriched with valuable FA profiles in oilseed crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective and sensitive detection of Cyanide (CN−) is critical essential due to it is one of the most lethal chemicals and threat to human health. In this study, nitrogen‐doped carbon quantum dots (N‐CQDs) were synthesized by one‐step hydrothermal method using 4‐aminosalicylic acid and tartaric acid as raw materials. The prepared N‐CQDs were spherical particles with good water solubility and uniform particle size distribution, the optimal excitation and emission wavelengths of N‐CQDs were 495 nm and 514 nm, respectively. Based on the selective fluorescence quenching effect between CN− and N‐CQDs, achieving accurate and rapid detection of CN−. Fluorescence quantum yield (PLQY) of N‐CQDs is 39 %, and the other competing anions showed little or no interference to CN−. For highly sensitivity detections of N‐CQDs under optimal conditions, the fluorescence quenching degree was linearly correlated with the CN− concentration in the range of 0–100 μM (R2=0.9929). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to better understand the occurrence of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in tap water and their real impacts on consumers, this study made a one-year long survey of the temporal variations of a series of DBPs before and after a point-of-use (POU) treatment facility installed in a building serving for ∼300 people. Water samples were collected every week at a fixed location and time for 1 year, and frequent samplings were carried out every 6 h a day for 1 month at selected seasons, which ultimately amounted to 322 samples. The results show that the concentrations of DBPs were higher in the summer than other seasons, with the lowest DBP levels being observed in spring. Within one week, higher levels of haloacetic acids (HAAs) were identified on weekdays than those on weekends. Diurnally, trihalomethanes, HAAs, and haloacetaldehydes were found to be higher at noon but lower in the evening. Consistent with other studies, the variations of most DBPs were somewhat positively related to the changes of temperature and organic matter, but negatively related to the quantity of free chlorine. With the use of a POU facility, which equips with two activated carbon cartridges and a boiler in sequence, most of DBPs were dramatically reduced, leading to 62–100% lower cytotoxicity for the measured DBPs. The study hence provides a real-water evidence about the DBP occurrences in a typical distribution system endpoint and the efficiency of a typical POU on mitigating DBP risks. Image 1 • Temporal variations of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) were monitored in a consumer's tap. • Trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, and haloaldehydes were predominant compounds in the tap. • Seasonal, weekly, and diurnal occurrences of DBPs exhibited various patterns. • DBPs were markedly reduced by a point-of-use facility equipped with activated carbon and boiler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The admittance of a quantum point contact (QPC) is investigated in the ac regime. Resonance-like peaks superimposed on the commonly occurring admittance plateaus are observed. To explore the origin of these peaks, we perform measurements on the sample in perpendicular magnetic fields of different strengths. We find that as the magnetic field increases, the resonance-like peak located at the first admittance plateau disappears, while that at the third plateau becomes more pronounced. Under certain conditions, these peaks can evolve into 0.7 anomalous plateaus. We believe that these resonance-like peaks are caused by the presence of impurities in the QPC. To confirm this, a bias voltage is added to the common gate voltage to generate an asymmetric QPC confinement potential. We then observe an asymmetric evolution of the peaks for both positive and negative bias voltages. The effects of the magnetic field and the bias voltage can be described well by the results of numerical calculation using the finite difference method and taking into account the influence of the impurity. The results of this work should help provide better understanding of charge dynamic transfer and may also be useful for the study of QPC-based devices such as qubits and quantum dots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the random telegraph signal (RTS) in surface acoustic wave based single electron transport (SAW/SET) devices. In our experiment, the ratio of the average time at the high acoustoelectric (AE) current state to the average time at the low AE current state, τ h i g h / τ l o w , increases when the gate voltage is progressively positive, as well as the radio frequency (rf) power is increased and the offset voltage is gradually decreased. The experiment result indicates that the trap center is positively charged before trapping an electron. In this paper, we describe one kind of RTS attributed to the positively charged trap center. And we can get information on the spin properties of a single trap by investigating the magnetic field dependence of the average time ratio τ h i g h / τ l o w of the RTS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been reported that forkhead box D1 (FOXD1) plays an established role in human early embryonic development and is broadly involved in various malignancies. However, there is limited information regarding FOXD1 expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). This present study aimed to explore the clinical significance of FOXD1 in patients with HNSCC. Tissue microarrays of 334 primary HNSCC patients who underwent surgery between 2008 and 2010 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were investigated by immunohistochemistry regarding FOXD1 expression. χ2 test was used to estimate the relationship of FOXD1 expression with clinicopathologic characteristics. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify FOXD1 expression as an independent prognostic indicator of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). FOXD1 expression is closely associated with postoperative recurrence. HNSCC patients with high FOXD1 expression have poorer prognoses than the low-expression group (p < 0.05). According to multivariate analysis, FOXD1 was an independent prognostic factor for OS and DFS. The results revealed that FOXD1 could be a prognostic factor for HNSCC and might serve as a potential target for novel therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) has become an effective treatment for early‐stage oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCCs). We aimed to analyze the clinical safety and efficacy of TORS for human papilloma virus (HPV)‐positive and HPV‐negative OPSCC in China. Methods: Patients with OPSCC of pT1‐T2 stage who underwent TORS from March 2017 to December 2021 were analyzed. Results: A total of 83 patients (HPV‐positive, n = 25; HPV‐negative, n = 58) were included. The median age of the patients was 57.0 years and 71 were men. The majority of primary tumor sites were palatine tonsils (52, 62.7%) and base of tongues (20, 24.1%). Three patients have a positive margin. A total of 12 (14.5%) patients received tracheotomies, the average duration of tracheostomy tube use was 9.4 days, and nasogastric tube was 14.5 days. No patient had a long‐term tracheotomy. The 3‐year overall survival (OS), disease‐free survival (DFS), and recurrence‐free survival (RFS) for all 83 patients were 89.5%, 80.1%, and 83.3%, respectively. The OS at 3 years between the HPV‐positive group and HPV‐negative group were 100% versus 84.3% (P =.07), while the DFS and RFS between two groups also showed no significant difference. Among multivariate cox regression analysis of all potential risk factors, smoking was the significant risk factors for disease recurrence (P <.05). Conclusion: Transoral robotic surgery achieved encouraging oncologic outcomes and safety in T1‐T2 stage OPSCC treatment, regardless of HPV status. Level of Evidence: 4 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Work-related neck pain (WRNP) is a leading cause of disability and absenteeism. Patients with neck pain often have neck muscle tenderness and decreased cervical mobility, which are sometimes combined with psychosocial issues, such as pain catastrophising, thereby reducing their work ability. Whilst multidisciplinary treatments, including pharmacological interventions, manual therapy and specific neck exercises, have produced positive outcomes, effective personalised treatment modalities are still needed. Furthermore, manual therapies using the hands can bring fatigue to therapist. Occiflex is a computerised device that can provide personalised segmental joint mobilisation based on symptoms and injury of the patient and then provide a medium range of joint activities to improve range of cervical motion. This study aims to compare the effect of computerised mobilisation performed with Occiflex with that of traditional manual therapy on WRNP. Methods: We will conduct a prospective randomised controlled trial including 150 patients with WRNP. These patients will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: (i) home exercise (TE), (ii) home exercise plus Occiflex therapy and (iii) home exercise plus manual therapy delivered by a physical therapist. Ten treatment sessions will be performed in four weeks. During the trial, these patients will receive only the assigned treatment and the standard patient education and will be asked not to use any analgesics unless strictly necessary. Assessments by trained evaluators will occur at baseline, week 4 and week 12. The primary outcome measures will include visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain and neck disability index (NDI) at each time point. Secondary outcome measures will include cervical range of motion (CROM), pressure pain threshold (PPT), global perceived effect (GPE) and sick leave. Group by time differences will be analysed using linear mixed models with repeated measures. Discussion: This protocol describes the methods for a randomised controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of computerised versus manual mobilisation techniques in treating WRNP. The results will provide an alternative method (Occiflex) that is possibly effective for treating neck pain whilst minimising the manual work done by therapists. Trial registration: The study protocol was retrospectively registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn (registration number: ChiCTR2100053076) on November 10, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significance of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) to the neck for pN1 status head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) after neck dissection is unclear. A total of 208 patients with pN1 status HNSCC treated from January 1, 2001, to December 31, 2014, were enrolled in the current study. The 5-year regional recurrence-free survival (RRFS), overall survival (OS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) were compared between patients with or without PORT to the dissected neck. Moreover, the stratified Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association between PORT to the neck and survival before and after propensity score matching. Seventy-nine patients received PORT to the neck, while 129 did not. All patients were followed for over 5 years, with a median follow-up duration of 64.6 months. The PORT group did not show better survival results than the group without PORT to the neck in RRFS, OS or DMFS. Moreover, no evidence showed that PORT to the neck was independently associated with 5-year survival. PORT to the neck for pN1 status HNSCC after neck dissection did not lead to better survival. However, it is necessary to conduct prospective randomized clinical trials to confirm these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural, electronic, lattice dynamic, thermodynamic, and mechanical properties of disodium dimolybdate (Na2Mo2O7) are studied using first‐principles. First, for the crystal structure, the calculated structural parameters have a standard deviation of less than 1.7% compared with the experimental results. Then, the calculated electronic energy band and density of states reveal that Na2Mo2O7 is an insulator and its bandgap is about 2.87 eV. In addition, the linear response method is used to study the lattice dynamics, and the complete phonon dispersion curve, infrared spectra, Raman shift, Born effective charge, and longitudinal optical–transverse optical (LO–TO) splitting characteristic for Na2Mo2O7 are presented for the first time; its thermodynamic properties are worked out based on the phonon density of states (PDOS). Furthermore, the result of elastic anisotropy shows the title compound is a highly anisotropic material. The calculation results in this article are conducive to the development of Na2Mo2O7 and provide guidelines for further experimental research to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inconsistence between system optimality and user optimality represents one of the key difficulties on network traffic congestion control. The advanced connected vehicle systems, enabling smart vehicles to possess/exchange real-time information and conduct portable computation, provide new opportunities to address this challenge. Motivated by this view, this study proposes a coordinated online in-vehicle routing mechanism with intentional information provision perturbation (CRM-IP), which seeks to shape individual vehicles online routing decisions so that user optimality and system optimality are balanced, by exploiting bounded rationality of the users. The proposed CRM-IP is modeled as a pure strategy atomic routing game, and implemented by a sequentially updating distributed algorithm. The mathematical analysis is conducted to quantify the absolute gain of system optimality corresponding to the loss of user optimality resulting from a given level of the information perturbation in the worst case so that the efficiency of the information perturbation can be evaluated. Furthermore, numerical experiments conducted based on City of Sioux Falls network investigate the average effects of the CRM-IP on system optimality and user optimality under various network traffic conditions, comparing to the CRM developed by Du et al. (in press). The results indicate that the improvement of system optimality and the reduction of individual vehicles’ travel time from the CRM is more significant when the network traffic is under an mild congestion state, such as under the levels of service (LOS’s) C, D, and E, rather than under extremely sparse or congested states, such as under LOS’s A and B, or F. Moreover, higher level of information perturbation benefits system optimality more, but the marginal effect decreases after the perturbation reaching certain level, such as λ = 0.1 in this case study. In addition, a portion of vehicles may sacrifice user optimality due to the information perturbation, but the extent of the sacrifice is not significant, even though it increases with the information perturbation level. Hence, a small information perturbation is recommended to achieve an efficient network traffic control through the CRM-IP. Overall, this study proposes the CRM-IP as an efficient routing mechanism, which has a great potential to guide the routing decisions of individual vehicles so that their collective behavior improve network performance in both system optimality and user optimality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of zeolite powders on feasibility of rapid aerobic granulation in the column-type sequencing batch reactors. After 90 days' operation, aerobic granular sludge was formed in both reactors by altering influent chemical oxygen demand/nitrogen (COD/N) ratios. R1 with zeolite powders had better removal capabilities of COD and total nitrogen than R2, which was without zeolite powders. Mixed liquor volatile suspended solid concentrations of the two reactors were 7.36 and 5.45 g/L, while sludge volume index (SVI) values were 34.9 and 47.9 mg/L, respectively. The mean diameters of aerobic granular sludge in the above two reactors were 2.5 and 1.5 mm, respectively. Both reactors achieved the largest simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) efficiency at an influent COD/N ratio of 8; however, R1 exhibited more excellent SND efficiency than R2. The obtained results could provide a novel technique for rapid aerobic granulation and N removal simultaneously, especially when treating nitrogen-rich industrial wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiments on the dowel-bearing of neosinocalamus affinis- based bamboo scrimber (NABS), considering the angles between load and fiber direction (LFD) and the dowel diameters, were carried out to investigate the dowel-bearing properties, including its failure modes, dowel-bearing strength, and embedded initial stiffness. Referring to the standard ASTM D5764, a controlled displacement was employed to load till specimen failure during the experiments. Then, the load-displacement curves of all specimens were obtained, and the dowel-bearing strength of NABS was calculated based on the load-displacement curve according to the 5 % bolt diameter offset method, and the embedded initial stiffness was derived from the slope of the elastic region of the load-displacement curve. Through a sorting-out and analysis of the experimental results, the types of damage modes of the specimens transit from brittle failure to plastic failure with the LFD angles increases from 0° to 90°, which is mainly dominated by adhesive layer damage; The dowel-bearing strength of NABS at each LFD angle exhibits stability, the coefficient of variation is between 2.4 % and 10.2 %, and its average for each group was calculated, respectively, which decreases with the increase of bolt diameter; Similar to the dowel-bearing strength, the coefficient of variation of embedded initial stiffness is between 2.2 % and 9.2 %, and its average for each group was also computed individually, which increases with the increase of bolt diameter and decreases with the LFD angles increases from 0° to 90°. Finally, the empirical equations for predicting the dowel-bearing strength of NABS were developed by regression analysis of the experimental data and Hankinson formula, and the equation to predict the embedded initial stiffness under different LFD angles was discussed. The results can benefit to depth understanding of the dowel-type connection and structural design of bamboo scrimber. • We conducted experiments on dowel-bearing of neosinocalamus affinis-based bamboo scrimber (NABS). • The effect of the dowel diameter and LFD angle on the dowel-bearing properties was considered in the experiments. • The dowel-bearing properties and failure modes of bamboo scrimber was obtained from experiments. • An empirical prediction model of dowel-bearing properties of the bamboo scrimber was proposed by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an experimental investigation of how the different operating parameters affect the random telegraph signal (RTS) noise in surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. The altered parameters include: SAW power and frequency, phase difference between two counterpropagating SAW beams, and asymmetrical voltage applied to the two side gates of the quantum point contact. The results indicate that proper tuning of the relevant parameters can reduce the RTS noise, which would be beneficial for metrological applications. Building on the experimental results, physical models have been proposed to explain the reason why the effective reduction of the noise can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haloacetaldehyde (HAL) is a type of disinfection byproduct (DBP) commonly detected in disinfected drinking water, and concerns toward its cytotoxic effects have promoted numerous efforts to control it. Given that household water treatment (HWT) process is a promising approach to polish drinking water quality and has been widely used by public, we herein evaluated the performances of two household heating devices (electric kettle and microwave oven) on the removals of three types of chlorinated haloacetaldehydes (Cl-HALs) under varying operating and water conditions. Results showed that the removals of HALs by boiling water to 100 °C were not very efficient (<20%) under automatic switch-off mode when chlorine was absent. The key mechanism responsible for Cl-HALs loss was likely volatilization because altering heating or cooling time did not enhance Cl-HALs' attenuations significantly. In contrast, Cl-HALs were readily transformed (>80%) when 1.0 mg/L chlorine was present without prolonging boiling time. Adding chlorine quencher (ascorbic acid) inhibited Cl-HALs' removals substantially, confirming that chlorine played a key role in the transformation process. The reactions between Cl-HALs and chlorine can be accelerated by raising water temperature and chlorine dosage. Stepwisely, monochloroacetaldehyde was transformed into dichloroacetaldehyde (DCAL), then DCAL was converted into trichloroacetaldehyde (TCAL), and eventually the C–C bond of TCAL was cleaved to form trichloromethane and formic acid. The study hence explains the differences on the removals of Cl-HALs between with and without adding chlorine and meanwhile identifies the limits of domestic heating devices in removing Cl-HALs from drinking water. [Display omitted] • Heating water via boiler or microwave oven can remove some haloacetaldehydes. • Cl-HALs removal is ≤ 20% under automatic switch-off mode if Cl 2 is absent. • Cl-HALs removal is ≥ 80% under automatic switch-off mode if Cl 2 is present. • Cl-HALs removal rates surge markedly with rising temperature and chlorine dose. • Chlorine substitution and carbon-carbon bond cleavage are key reaction pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene was performed in the presence of carbon dioxide instead of steam over a series of alumina supported catalysts, which was believed to be an energy-saving and environmentally friendly process. The effects of active components, promoters, textural properties and other preparation parameters on the catalyst behaviors were examined. The results indicated that the conversion of ethylbenzene could be greatly improved by the reaction coupling due to the simultaneous elimination of hydrogen produced from the dehydrogenation, and vanadium supported on alumina with chromium as promoter was suggested to be promising catalysts. With the catalyst VCr/Al2O3, high ethylbenzene conversion (about 50%) and selectivity to styrene (95–99%) at lower temperature (550 °C) was achieved with reasonable stability (>70 h). The main cause of catalyst deactivation is the coke deposition, which may be alleviated in the presence of carbon dioxide. The catalytic activity of V/Al2O3 can be resumed completely after burning the coke by air or diluted air. Moreover, the catalyst characterization showed that high ratio of mesopore in the γ-Al2O3 support could benefit the catalyst activity and stability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]