Search

The application of Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is restricted by the insufficient catalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction and the impedance increase of cathode in long-term operation at medium and low temperature. In this work, we prepare La0.8Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ (LSCF) nanofiber cathode material with different A-site defects by electrospinning technology, and systematically explore the influence of A-site cation defect on the electrochemical performance and long-term stability of LSCF cathode. La0.77Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ, (La0.8Sr0.2)0.97Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ and La0.8Sr0.17Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ cathode materials are successfully prepared by controlling the proportion of nitrate input, among which La0.77Sr0.2Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ obtains the best electrochemical performance, and the polarization impedance is 0.09 Ω·cm2 at 800 ℃.

Previous studies have shown that rewards weaken visual inhibition of return (IOR). However, the specific mechanisms underlying the influence of rewards on cross-modal IOR remain unclear. Based on the Posner exogenous cue-target paradigm, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of rewards on exogenous spatial cross-modal IOR in both visual cue with auditory target (VA) and auditory cue with visual target (AV) conditions. The results showed the following: in the AV condition, the IOR effect size in the high-reward condition was significantly lower than that in the low-reward condition. However, in the VA condition, there was no significant IOR in either the high- or low-reward condition and there was no significant difference between the two conditions. In other words, the use of rewards modulated exogenous spatial cross-modal IOR with visual targets; specifically, high rewards may have weakened IOR in the AV condition. Taken together, our study extended the effect of rewards on IOR to cross-modal attention conditions and demonstrated for the first time that higher motivation among individuals under high-reward conditions weakened the cross-modal IOR with visual targets. Moreover, the present study provided evidence for future research on the relationship between reward and attention.

Simulation is a standard tool for robot design, control, and performance analysis. Numerous mature, thoroughly validated methods exist to build fast and reliable simulation models for traditional rigid robotics platforms. However, when it comes to novel soft robotics systems, most existing models concern themselves with the dynamics of the soft bodies during actuation, largely disregarding the sensory system. Simultaneous simulation of sensors and actuators is essential to establishing a realistic and accurate robot model in the virtual environment. This article proposes a pipeline to implement coupling field simulation (CFS) of capacitive sensors deployed on a square soft arm and a pneumatic manipulator. The CFS approach can seamlessly integrate mechanical and sensing components, enabling us to understand sensor behavior better by simulating sensor responses to various deformations including bending, inflation, and the combinations of bending, twisting, and elongation. We also demonstrate that CFS is cost-effective manner to acquire a large number of annotated data that can be used for pretraining in soft robot perception tasks through two case studies (i.e., applied force estimation and deformation classification).

This study developed the two new indexes, the distance to the nearest cropland (DTNC) of urban residents and the foodshed radius of urban residents (FRUR), to evaluate the potential of China's local food system to sustainably meet urban food needs. The results found that the per-capita DTNC increased by 53% over 1990−2015, with a total increase of 8.2 × 106 km on a national scale; the FRUR estimated on a “business-as-usual” basis was estimated to be 10.1 km. This study further predicted that stress on local food supplies will continue increasing until the 2040s, particularly in mega-urban areas. Appropriate spatial planning regarding the distribution of cropland and urban areas is necessary for mega-urban regions to cope with crisis situations when the external food supply is restricted. Such planning will ultimately ensure the long-term sustainability of urban areas.

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) aging is accompanied by hematopoietic reconstitution dysfunction, including loss of regenerative and engraftment ability, myeloid differentiation bias, and elevated risks of hematopoietic malignancies. Gut microbiota, a key regulator of host health and immunity, has recently been reported to affect hematopoiesis. However, there is currently limited empirical evidence explaining the direct impact of gut microbiome on aging hematopoiesis. In this study, we performed fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from young mice to aged mice and observed a significant increment in lymphoid differentiation and decrease in myeloid differentiation in aged recipient mice. Furthermore, FMT from young mice rejuvenated aged HSCs with enhanced short-term and long-term hematopoietic repopulation capacity. Mechanistically, single-cell RNA sequencing deciphered that FMT from young mice mitigated inflammatory signals, upregulated the FoxO signaling pathway, and promoted lymphoid differentiation of HSCs during aging. Finally, integrated microbiome and metabolome analyses uncovered that FMT reshaped gut microbiota composition and metabolite landscape, and Lachnospiraceae and tryptophan-associated metabolites promoted the recovery of hematopoiesis and rejuvenated aged HSCs. Together, our study highlights the paramount importance of the gut microbiota in HSC aging and provides insights into therapeutic strategies for aging-related hematologic disorders.

Purpose Evaluating the economic effects of climate change is a pivotal step for planning adaptation in developing countries. For Bangladesh, global warming has put it among the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, with increasing temperatures and sea-level rise. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine how climate change impacts the economy in Bangladesh in the case of climate scenarios. Design/methodology/approach Using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and three climate change scenarios, this paper assesses the economy-wide implications of climate change on Bangladesh’s economy and agriculture. It is clear from the examination of the CGE model that the impacts of climate change on agricultural sectors were felt more sharply, reducing output by −3.25% and −3.70%, respectively, and increasing imports by 1.22% and 1.53% in 2030 and 2050, compared to the baseline. Findings The findings reveal that, relative to baseline, agricultural output will decline by a range of −3.1% to −3.6% under the high climate scenario (higher temperatures and lower yields). A decrease in agricultural output results in declines in agricultural labor and household income. Household income falls in all categories, although it drops the most in urban less educated households with a range of −3.1% to −3.4%. On the other hand, consumption of commodities will fall by −0.11% to −0.13%, according to the findings. Although climate change impacts had a relatively small effect on gross domestic product, reducing it by −0.059% and −0.098% in 2030 and 2050, respectively. Practical implications As agricultural output, household consumption and income decline, it will impact the majority of the population’s health in Bangladesh by increasing malnutrition, hidden hunger, poverty, changing food environment, changing physical and mental health status and a changing health-care environment. Therefore, population health and food security will be a top socioeconomic and political concern for Bangladesh Government. Originality/value The examination of the dynamic CGE model is its originality. In conclusion, the evidence generated here can provide important information to policymakers and guide government policies that contribute to national development and the achievement of food security targets. It is also necessary to put more emphasis on climate change issues and address potential risks in the following years.

Carposina sasakii Matsumura (Lepidoptera: Carposinidae) is a serious fruit-boring pest in eastern Asia. In China, it is one of the most harmful and common pests in deciduous fruit trees, causing an annual loss of more than a billion yuan. However, economic losses to the jujube industry as a result of C. sasakii damage remain undefined. In this study, we collected related data on C. sasakii, the market price of jujube, and costs of its prevention and management. The potential economic losses of China's jujube industry caused by C. sasakii were predicted using @RISK (Palisade, Raleigh, NC) software and a stochastic simulation method, which is the universal model of potential economic loss assessment for economically important fruit flies. Our results showed that the total economic losses potentially caused by C. sasakii to China's jujube industry are approximately 8,643.41–350,524.15 million RMB (RMB is the legal tender in China; approximately 1,338.00–54,261.14 million USD) if the pest was not managed and approximately 2,487.15–123,242.12 million RMB (about 385.01–19, 077.88 million USD) when management was applied. Therefore, a loss of approximately 841.83–244,144.06 million RMB (approximately 130.32–37,793.50 million USD) can be logically retrieved after controlling this pest. As a result, we suggest that related organizations and pest management practitioners strengthen prevention and control measures of C. sasakii to reduce the risk of economic loss by decreasing the infestation level of C. sasakii in jujube production and, thus, economic losses after infestation.

The thermal blooming effect, platform jitter, and other effects of laser beam propagation cause serious deviation, which will have a negative impact on laser tracking systems. It is important to ensure that the laser beam does not deviate. Based on a fast steering mirror, a CMOS camera, and a Flex RIO system, a laser beam jitter control system is designed and implemented. The error is detected by camera and compensated for by the fast steering mirror (FSM), which is controlled by the Flex RIO device. By using LabVIEW and MATLAB, a closed loop model is realized. The results show that the system response is highly stabilized and has a short rise time, providing a reference for engineering applications.

Many robotic tasks require knowledge of the exact 3D robot geometry. However, this remains extremely challenging in soft robotics because of the infinite degrees of freedom of soft bodies deriving from their continuum characteristics. Previous studies have achieved only low proprioceptive geometry resolution (PGR), thus suffering from loss of geometric details (for example, local deformation and surface information) and limited applicability. Here we report an intelligent stretchable capacitive e-skin to endow soft robots with high PGR (3,900) bodily awareness. We demonstrate that the proposed e-skin can finely capture a wide range of complex 3D deformations across the entire soft body through multi-position capacitance measurements. The e-skin signals can be directly translated to high-density point clouds portraying the complete geometry via a deep architecture based on transformer. This high PGR proprioception system providing millimetre-scale, local and global geometry reconstruction (2.322 ± 0.687 mm error on a 20 × 20 × 200 mm soft manipulator) can assist in solving fundamental problems in soft robotics, such as precise closed-loop control and digital twin modelling.

Animal slurry contains plant nutrients such as nitrogen (N) that are essential for crop production. Inorganic slurry N is easily volatilised as ammonia after field application, reducing slurry fertiliser value and causing environmental problems. Ammonia emissions can be reduced by lowering slurry pH, rapid infiltration or incorporation of slurry into soil. This study investigated the effect of different combinations of slurry types and application strategies on ammonia emissions. The slurry types tested were untreated cattle slurry (CS), the liquid fraction from mechanical solid–liquid separation of cattle slurry (LF) and biogas digestate based mainly on cattle slurry (BD). The application strategies tested were trailing hoses, trailing shoes, trailing hose application of acidified slurry and slurry injection. Ammonia emissions after slurry application were measured using wind tunnels, with continuous measurements of ammonia concentrations in outgoing air. Comparisons were also made between measured ammonia emissions and emissions predicted by the ALFAM2 model. Cumulative ammonia emissions after 70 h from LF, CS and BD represented 23%, 29% and 32% of total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) applied. Trailing shoes and 50 mm deep injection slots reduced ammonia emissions by on average 17% and 37%, respectively, compared with trailing hoses. Slurry acidification resulted in an average reduction in ammonia emissions of 83%. The ALFAM2 model was reasonably accurate in predicting cumulative emissions (70 h). Accuracy in predicting emission dynamics was low in some cases, likely due to differences between wind tunnel measurements and open-air emissions and to model error.

Mineshaft development mode design and decision-making is a complex system theory problem with significant implications for the mine’s investment cost, operational safety, and production efficiency. Because of the many factors that influence mine shaft development mode decision-making, various decision-makers have different worries and inclinations, resulting in greater subjectivity and uncertainty in the decision-making process. The concept of a specialty chain was born out of a belief in group decision-making. By merging and assessing the decision-making information of different groups in the same specialty chain, a systematic decision-making index database of the mine shaft development model was created. To elucidate the correlation model and hierarchical link between the decision-making indexes, the Interpretative Structure Model (ISM) was applied. The multilevel decision-making index system of mine shaft development mode was established. The decision-making group structure was optimized. The relative importance of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was modified to determine the scale. A collaborative weight determination method of multiple decision-making groups was established to reduce the influence of individual subjective consciousness on decision-making results. The ISM-GAHP-FCA decision-making model of mine shaft development mode was built in conjunction with Fuzzy Comprehensive Analysis (FCA) to increase fuzzy decision-making information’s integration and analysis ability. The decision-making outcomes from the analysis of 10 typical mine shaft types in China are adaptable to the actual situation. The model can effectively express the hierarchy, significance, and fuzziness of mine shaft development mode decision-making indexes and limit the interference of decision-maker subjectivity on decision-making results.

A R-PTC had been prepared in previous study by compositing tetradecyl ester, methyl red and poplar wood. For improving the heating storage ability, a PS-R-PTC was prepared by encapsulated R-PTC with PEG400–SiO2 in this work.

Superiority of FA-PEG112-PDEAEMA40/PEG112-SS-PCL70 mixed micelles with high loading capacity, well controlled release, and active targeting-enhanced inhibitory effects on HepG2 cells was found.

The design of next-generation positive intercalation battery cathodes will leverage chemistry—mechanics—geometry coupling to mitigate stress, unlock more accessible storage capacity, and prolong cycle life.

A mild and transition-metal-free arylsulfonylation reaction of arynes has been developed. Arynes generated in situ from 2-(trimethylsilyl)aryl triflates undergo nucleophilic addition with thiosulfonates to produce diaryl sulfones in 41–99% yield. The reaction can be scaled easily to gram-scale with the high yield maintained. Finally, mechanistic experiments showed that acetonitrile acted as a proton source.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) plays an important role in the regulation of lipid metabolism and has been widely identified in diverse species. Gymnocypris przewalskii is a native fish of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau that survives in a chronically cold environment. In the current study, we conducted genome-wide identification of PPAR genes, revealing the existence of seven PPARs in the G. przewalskii genome. Collinearity was observed between two copies of PPARαb and PPARγ in G. przewalskii, suggesting that the additional copy might be gained through whole genome duplication. Both phylogenetic and multiple sequence alignment analyses indicated that PPARs in G. przewalskii were conserved with teleosts. The cold treatment (10 °C and 4 °C) led to the developmental delay of G. przewalskii embryos. Continuous expression of PPARs was observed during the embryonic development of G. przewalskii under normal and cold conditions, with significantly different transcriptional patterns. These results indicated that PPARs participated in the embryonic development of G. przewalskii, and were involved in the cold response during development. The current study proposed a potential role of PPARs in the cold response in the embryonic development of G. przewalskii, which shed light on understanding cold adaptation in Tibetan highland fish.

Phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) plays an important role in anesthetic-induced unconsciousness. The delta-alpha PAC signature during anesthetic-induced unconsciousness is gradually becoming known; however, the frequency dependence and spatial characteristics of PAC are still unclear. Multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG) was performed during the loss and recovery phases of consciousness in patients undergoing general anesthesia using sevoflurane. First, a spectral analysis was used to investigate the power change of the different frequency bands in the EEG signals. Second, PAC comodulogram analysis was performed to confirm the frequencies of the PAC phase drivers. Finally, to investigate the spatial characteristics of PAC, a novel PAC network was constructed using within- and cross-lead PAC, and a K-means clustering algorithm was used to identify PAC network patterns. Our results show that, in addition to the delta-alpha PAC, unconsciousness induced by sevoflurane was accompanied by spatial non-uniform alpha-gamma PAC in the cortical network, and dynamic PAC patterns between the anterior and posterior brain were observed during the unconscious phase. The dynamic transition of PAC network patterns indicates that brain states under sevoflurane-induced unconsciousness emerge from the regulation of functional integration and segregation instantiated by delta-alpha and alpha-gamma PAC.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a type of non-coding RNA that plays a vital role in biology. circRNAs appear to have a role in the development and progression of several malignancies, according to research. However, circRNAs that regulate prostate cancer (PCa) progression are still largely unknown and deserve further exploration. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hsa_circ_0070512 on the function and mechanism of PCa. hsa_circ_0070512 was increased in PCa tissues and cells and was mostly found in the cytoplasm of PCa cells. Overexpression of hsa_circ_0070512 considerably increased PCa cell proliferation and migration, whereas silencing of hsa_circ_0070512 greatly decreased PCa cell proliferation and migration. Mechanistically, we show that hsa_circ_0070512 acts as a "molecular sponge" for miR-338-3p and that the miR-338-3p mimics partially block the pro-tumor effects of hsa_circ_0070512. RNA sequencing analysis of PC3 cells stably overexpressing hsa_circ_0070512 revealed that hedgehog was downstream of the signaling pathways of hsa_circ_0070512 and miR-338-3p. Our results implied that hsa_circ_0070512 regulated the hedgehog signaling pathways through miR-338-3p to enhance PCa growth and migration, providing a new diagnostic and therapeutic target for PCa.

Developing smart stimuli-responsive metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with diversified induced readable signals is highly desirable; however, reported multimode responsive MOFs are always achieved under strong environmental stimulations, making it difficult to keep MOF structures stable for practical applications. Herein, we reported a hydration-facilitated coordination tuning strategy to achieve the dual-mode water response in fluorescence and proton conduction from a single MOF. The designed MOF permitted reversible single-crystal transformation via the controllable hydration effect on metal nodes. The change in coordination modes leads to the regulation on conformations of optical ligands, contributing to the switch of fluorescence emissions. Moreover, the hydration effect adds additional hydrogen-bond sites in channels and optimizes hydrogen-bond networks, abruptly enhancing the proton conductivity by ∼20 times. These results pave new avenues for the exploitation of smart MOFs with multimode responsive behavior for on-demand sensing/detection applications.

Despite the advancement of treatments, adults with relapsed/refractory (R/R) B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) have poor prognosis, with an expected five-year overall survival (OS) rate of 10%‒20% (Nguyen et al., 2008; Oriol et al., 2010). Extramedullary relapse of B-ALL is regarded as a high-risk factor generally associated with poor survival, occurring in about 15% to 20% of all relapsed patients (Ding et al., 2017; Sun et al., 2018). The central nervous system (CNS) and the testes are the most common sites of extramedullary relapse of B-ALL. In addition, extramedullary leukemia can appear in the skin, eyes, breasts, bones, muscles, and abdominal organs. The prognosis of relapsed extramedullary B-ALL after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is extremely poor (Spyridonidis et al., 2012; Dahlberg et al., 2019). Conventional chemotherapy or radiation is often ineffective in such patients. At present, there are no optimal treatment strategies for treating extramedullary leukemia after allo-HSCT.

In the depth of anesthesia monitoring, electrooculogram is usually treated as an artifact of EEG. However, the amplitude of the electrooculogram is much greater than that of electroencephalography. Its requirements for electrode materials and detection circuits are also far lower than electroencephalography. In this prospective cohort study, we use a new language paradigm that elicited rhythmic ocular muscle activity to explore whether the electrooculogram can be used for monitoring the depth of anesthesia. Thirty-three patients inhaled sevoflurane via a laryngeal mask for induction of anesthesia. According to the end-tidal sevoflurane concentration, patients were studied under three depth of sedation. Throughout all periods, the rhythmic calling of the patient’s own name script was sporadically played at a frequency of 0.5 Hz. We found that the electrooculogram was synchronized to the language paradigm during induction with sevoflurane, and the Ag/AgCl electrode has a significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio and 0.5 hz spectral peak value than other electrode. With the increase in the sevoflurane concentration, the synchronizing ability gradually weakened and eventually disappeared. Based on this evidence, we proposed a new method that can improve the performance of the anesthesia prediction monitoring model.

The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic efficacy of physical examination, ultrasound, and computed tomography for the detection of lymph node metastasis (LNM).Patients with pathologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and who were not planned for surgery underwent preoperative physical examinations, ultrasound (US) scans, and computed tomography (CT) scans to detect LNM. Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytopathology was the reference standard for calculating the diagnostic parameters.US examination yielded fewer false-negative LNM (P = 0.0125) and higher sensitivity (P = 0.0313), specificity (P = 0.0078), and Youden index (P 0.0001) than CT examination. The likelihood of detecting LNM with US, CT, and the combination of US and CT as measured in diagnostic confidence/lymph node was0.718,0.768, and0.552, respectively. The combination of US and CT had the least risk of underdiagnosis and higher measures of diagnostic efficacy and predicting outcomes than all other index tests.US has greater diagnostic efficacy than CT in detecting LNM for patients who have no clinical indication for surgery or decline surgical treatment. The combination of US and CT examinations may be a reliable noninvasive method.

Purpose Climate change and its imminent threat to human survival adversely impact the agriculture sector. In an impoverished country like The Gambia, economic costs of climate change are colossal. This study aims to establish a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for The Gambia’s agriculture sector to examine the effects of climate change on crops, livestock and sea-level rise. Design/methodology/approach This study used a CGE model with other climate change impact models to compute the impacts of climate change on The Gambia’s agriculture sector. The social accounting matrix calibrates the results from the various models, thereby generating the baseline results which exemplify a “steady-state” and policy shock results illustrating the medium- and long-term effects of climate change on the country’s agriculture sector. Findings The baseline results indicate the status quo showing the neglect of the agriculture sector due to limited investment in the sector. Hence, the sector is the “hardest hit” sector as a result of climate change. When the model factored in climate change in the medium term (2055) and long term (2085), the macroeconomic indicators of gross domestic product, national savings, wages, disposable income and consumer price index deteriorated, elucidating the vulnerability of the economy to climate change. The consumption of groundnuts, cattle and fish will decline by 5%, 5% and 4%, respectively, in the long term. However, the production of all agricultural commodities will decline by an average of 35% for the same period. The results for international trade show that exportation would decline while importation will increase over time. The general price level for agricultural commodities would increase by 3% in 2055 and 5% in 2085. Generally, the results manifest the severity of climate change in the agriculture sector which will have a multiplier effect on the economy. The impact of climate change would result in agriculture and economic decline causing hunger, poverty and human misery. Originality/value The caveat of this study revealed the nuances not captured by previous Gambian climate change studies, thus the novelty of the study.