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This study describes a strategy for improving organic photovoltaic materials performance by adjusting the packing mode with a branched alkyl-chain, BTIC-TCl-b. This modification significantly reduces the π–π distance and boosts the power conversion efficiency up to 16.71%.

Food authenticity is a critical issue associated with the economy, religion, and food safety. Herein, we report a label-free and colorimetric nucleic acid assay for detecting DNA barcodes, enabling the determination of food authenticity with the naked eye. This method, termed the

In this article, an N-rich covalent organic framework (COFTFPB-TZT) was successfully synthesized using 4,4′,4′-(1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triyl) trianiline (TZT), and 4-[3,5-bis (4-formyl-phenyl) phenyl] benzaldehyde (TFPB). The as-prepared COFTFPB-TZT possesses irregular cotton wool patches with a large specific surface area. A novel selective electrode based on COFTFPB-TZT was used for the determination of Mercury ions. The abundance of N atoms in COFTFPB-TZT provides more coordination sites for Hg2+ adsorption, resulting in a change in the surface membrane potential of the electrode to selectively recognize Hg2+. Under optimal experimental conditions, the ion-selective electrode shows a good potential response to Hg2+, with a linear range of 1.0 × 10−9∼1.0 × 10−4, a Nernst response slope of 30.32 ± 0.2 mV/-PC at 25°C and a detection limit of 4.5 pM. At the same time, the mercury-ion electrode shows a fast response time of 10 s and good reproducibility and stability. The selectivity coefficients for Fe2+, Zn2+, As3+, Cr6+, Cu2+, Cr3+, Al3+, Pb2+, NH4+, Ag+, Ba2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+ are found to be small, indicating no interference in the detection system. The proposed method can be successfully applied to the determination of Hg2+ in 3 typical environmental water samples, with a recovery rate of 98.6–101.8%. In comparison with the spectrophotometric method utilizing dithizone, the proposed method is simple and fast and holds great potential application prospects in environmental water quality monitoring and other fields.

The size, morphology and distribution of MnS inclusions in the sulfur bearing free-cutting steel are the key factors to determine the performance of the free-cutting steel. It is thus important to accurately characterize and control the morphology of the MnS inclusions in the steel. The morphology of MnS inclusions are complex during rolling due to their good plasticity. Additionally, the morphology of the MnS inclusions would change during heating due to the decomposition and mass transfer of the Mn and S in the steel matrix. The traditional metallographic for characterizing the MnS inclusions on the cross-sections only reveal the local characteristics of the inclusions and results in misunderstanding of the real morphologies. In this study, the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the MnS inclusions in the sulfur bearing free-cutting steels is characterized by using the X-ray Micro-CT in the beamline of BL13W1 at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). The stereology and morphological evolution of the MnS inclusion during heating are characterized and analyzed based the 3D observation. The number of MnS inclusions increased more than twice, the length of the inclusion with sizes less than 9 μm increased from 25.79% to 71.28%. The anisotropy index was reduce from 2.30 to 1.04 due to the spheroidization of the MnS inclusions during heating. The mechanism of the morphological evolution of the MnS inclusions is discussed on basis of the local chemical potential of the MnS caused by the variation of the curvature on the surface of the inclusions.

A carbon quantum dot with orange high quantum yield is used to detect PFOS/PFOA in cells.

The thermodynamic precipitation behavior of the second-phase particles in Nb-containing high titanium microalloyed steel has been studied by calculation in this article. It is revealed that FCC_A1#2 is isomorphic with FCC_A1#3 and the contents of Ti and Nb elements are much higher than that of FCC_A1#3. The influence of different quenching temperatures on microstructure and mechanical properties of steel was also studied. The results indicate that the quenching temperature should be controlled below 1,100°C and the soaking time should not exceed 60 min to avoid abnormal grain growth. The thermodynamic calculation and experimental results have certain theoretical guiding significance for the practical industrial application of high titanium–niobium steel.

A series of PPV-TIPS-b-P2VP BCPs have been designed and synthesized, and the morphology transition from 2D square to rectangular or rod-like micelles was achieved. Heterogenous co-assembly was also realized as new circle-like micelles.

2D multi-layered hierarchical architectures, ball-like micelles, flower-like aggregates and nanoribbons were fabricated by the self-assembly of poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT)-b-polyethylene glycol with a short P3HT chain in alcohol solvents.

Three non-fullerene acceptors with benzonitrile groups were synthesized, which could reduce the non-radiative recombination energy loss and enhance the efficiency in organic solar devices.

Antibiotic tolerance is implicated in difficult-to-treat infections and in the development and spread of antibiotic resistance. The high storage capacities and excellent biocompatibilities of UiO-66-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have made...

The rice stem borer (RSB), Chilo suppressalis (Walker), is an economically important pest of rice in subtropical Asia. Up till present, it remains unknown how pest abundance and parasitoid-mediated biological control are modulated by landscape composition. In this study, 20 rice fields with varying proportion of non-crop habitat in (2000 m radius) landscape sectors were selected in China's Jiangxi province. RSB infestation levels were highest in agriculture-dominated landscapes. Meanwhile, parasitism rate increased with pest pressure but was not related to landscape-level non-crop habitat cover. Landscape-level responses of parasitoids were species-specific and likely modulated by functional traits. The specialist parasitoid Cotesia chilonis (Munakata) responded negatively to non-crop habitat, while positive responses were recorded for the generalists Eriborus sinicus (Holmgren) and Microgaster russata (Haliday). Our work unveils the occurrence of a bottom-up cascade in which spatiotemporal rice cropping patterns shape pest pressure and parasitism dynamics, with more diverse landscapes experiencing lower RSB infestation levels. Non-crop habitats within the landscape matrix equally retained parasitoid species with varying feeding modes and attack strategies. Hence, despite its (globally) inconsistent impacts on biological control, agricultural landscape diversification can directly benefit pest suppression and thus remains a valuable component of the ecological intensification toolbox.

The mitochondrial genome of Camellia nitidissima was sequenced by Illumina and Pacbio sequencing. The results of sequences showed that a total length was 949,915 bp, and the GC content was 45.7% in assembled mitochondrial genome of C. nitidissima. 71 unigenes had been found, including 36 coding proteins and 35 non-coding proteins. Subsequently, the phylogenetic tree was built on 24 plants with the maximum-likelihood method, which had high bootstrap value and fited to the angiosperm phylogeny group classification (APG IV). The study’s findings unravel the taxonomic status of C. nitidissima and benefit the evolution study.

Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causative agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), which is endangering human health worldwide, especially in Africa, Europe, the United States, and parts of Asia. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of KSHV in Xinjiang. Three KSHV recombinant proteins (ORF65, ORF73, and K8.1) were used to detect KSHV infection. The serum samples to be tested were detected by an indirect ELISA method. The overall infection rate of KSHV in Xinjiang was 25.60%, with a higher infection rate in the Uygur population of 29.79%. After adjusting for possible confounders, Uygur (OR = 3.95, 95% CI 2.64–6.12, P < 0.001 ), agriculture and livestock (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.20–2.17, P = 0.002), age ≤ 50 years (OR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.13–2.00, P = 0.006), and predominantly meat-based diet (OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.11–2.78, P = 0.018) were significantly associated with the odds of KSHV seropositivity correlation. Three unique sequences of KSHV were obtained in this study; genotypic analysis showed that the three unique sequences were all subtype A2.

Following systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), the brain is one of the most sensitive organs vulnerable to an external stressor. According to our previous study, ketamine had a protective effect on alleviating SIRS-associated neuronal necroptosis and cecal epithelial cell necroptosis by inhibiting the RIP1-RIP3-MLKL pathway. In this study, we further provided valid evidence that ketamine could safeguard the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), modulate microglia over-activation, and prevent neural network damage, resulting in relieving cerebral edema and improving system symptoms significantly. Simultaneously, cecum damage was partly reversed by ketamine intervention, which was attributed to a decrease in circulating high mobility group protein 1 (HMGB1). Interestingly, the result showed less cecum injury and relieved BBB disturbance in Rip3-/- mice. Furthermore, circulating HMGB1 content between Rip3-/- mice and mice with ketamine intervention significantly decreased. Moreover, anti-HMGB1 neutralizing antibody identically reversed BBB damage, indicating that cecum-promoted HMGB1 releases extravagated SIRS and BBB leakage. In addition, we clarified that cecectomy reduced serum HMGB1 release level and alleviated BBB damage and microglial activation. Altogether, our work shed light on the new view about the pathogenesis of SIRS, establishing the connection between cecum damage and BBB damage. Besides, we identified ketamine as a candidate to protect the brain from damage like BBB leakage and microglia over-activation, which attributed to the effect on alleviating cecum damage and decreasing circulation HMGB1 release. Our results provided a new theoretical view and therapeutic target for the application of ketamine in SIRS.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has proven to be an effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Adaptive control strategies offer the potential to improve efficacy, limit side effects and save battery consumption via reducing the total amount of stimulation delivered. However, the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of DBS for PD remain poorly understood and are still under debate, which has hindered the development of closed-loop DBS. And during the chronically implanted phase, adaptive DBS needs to be further improved to maintain its advantages. In the design of new adaptive DBS, more insights into inaccuracies when establishing mathematical basal ganglia model, unknown external disturbance signal and dynamics of focal area should be considered. A controlled auto-regressive moving average is used as the representative description of stimulus-response relationship based on recursive extended least square method, where stimulation signal is applied to subthalamic nucleus (STN) and the feedback signal is selected as local field potential signal from globus pallidus (GPi). The generalized minimum variance algorithm is used for online update of stimulation frequency and amplitude in a closed-loop manner. Simulation results illustrated the efficiency of the proposed closed-loop stimulation methods in disrupting the aberrant beta band oscillation and restore normal firing pattern when compared with the PD state. Robustness of the adaptive algorithm was further verified through dynamic change of illness state.

The Lanzhou-Xinjiang (Lan-Xin) high-speed railway is one of the principal sections of the railway network in western China, and signal equipment is of great importance in ensuring the safe and efficient operation of the high-speed railway. Over a long period, in the railway operation and maintenance process, the railway signaling and communications department has recorded a large amount of unstructured text information about equipment faults in the form of natural language. However, due to irregularities in the recording methods of these data, it is difficult to use directly. In this paper, a method based on natural language processing (NLP) was adopted to analyze and classify this information. First, the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model was used to extract the semantic features of the text, which were then expressed in the corresponding topic feature space. Next, the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm was used to construct a signal equipment fault diagnostic model that reduced the impact of sample data imbalance on the classification accuracy. This was compared and analyzed with the traditional Naive Bayes (NB), Logistic Regression (LR), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithms. This study used signal equipment failure text data from the Lan-Xin high-speed railway to conduct experimental analysis and verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Experiments showed that the accuracy of the SVM classification algorithm could reach 0.84 after being combined with the LDA topic model, which verifies that the natural language processing method can effectively realize the fault diagnosis of signal equipment and has certain guiding significance for the maintenance of field signal equipment.

Parasitosis is a disease caused by parasites that could infect humans, animals, or plants. The parasites include mites, ascariasis, liver flukes, and malaria. The methods to detect parasites include pathological examination, immunological examination, and imaging examination. In this chapter, parasitic infections are detected from digital images acquired from a microscope, which will look for the possible infection caused by worms or eggs in a sample, such as mites and malaria. Rapid and accurate classification and detection of parasites will be very helpful for fast diagnosis and treatment. In this chapter, a malaria detection method is deployed by using deep learning based on TensorFlow and achieved 0.73 mAP@0.5IOU. Even if it does not seem to be a perfect performance, in the limited time and resources, the results are still valuable. The future work could port the model to mobile phones for image detection, which would bring much more convenience and portability.

Nanoscale organic two-dimensional (2D) materials of block polymers (BCPs) have attracted interest on account of their wide potential applications in a range of fields. Herein, we design a new poly(

The seroprevalence of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is high in Xinjiang, China. But the seroprevalence of KSHV and risk factors are still unknown in Gansu which is adjacent to Xinjiang. Six hundred and seventy-eight serum samples of the general population and 87 serum samples of syphilis patients from Jiuquan, Gansu were tested for antibodies against KSHV, including one latent protein (ORF73) and two lytic proteins (ORF65 and K8.1) using the ELISA. The total KSHV-seropositive rate was 15.9% in 678 serum samples in the Jiuquan area, and the KSHV-seropositive rate of males was higher than females (18.0% vs. 14.6%, p 0.05). The Uygur, Kazakh, Hui, Manchu, and Mongolian populations had a higher seroprevalence of KSHV than the Han population (43.8%, 40.0%, 34.5%, 30.3%, 35.0% vs. 11.0%, respectively) among the ethnic groups in Jiuquan. Compared to the Han, Uygur, Kazak, Hui, Manchu, and Mongolian people had an increase in the risk of KSHV of 528.9%, 439.1%, 325.6%, 251.6%, and 335.4% (p 0.001, p 0.001, p 0.001, p = 0.002, p = 0.003, respectively). The serum prevalence of KSHV in subjects aged 20 years, 20-50 years, and50 years was 13.8%, 14.7%, and 20.1%, respectively. Compared to the subjects aged 20 years, 20-50 years and50 years had an increase in the risk of KSHV of 7.4% and 56.9% (p = 0.829 and p = 0.204, respectively). Compared to the positive rate of KSHV in the general population of Anhui, the positive rate of KSHV was significantly higher in the general population of the Jiuquan area (15.9% vs. 9%, p 0.01). There was no significant difference in the positive rate of KSHV between the Han population of Jiuquan and the Han population of Anhui (p 0.05). In the population of syphilis patients in the Jiuquan area, the positive rate of KSHV was 30.7%, which was higher than that of the general population in the Gansu area (p 0.05). This study indicates that Gansu has a high seroprevalence of KSHV. Ethnicity and syphilis are risk factors for KSHV infection.

The interaction of the newly approved pharmacon esketamine with HSA (human serum albumin) has been investigated by various spectrographic methods. The fluorescence quenching results of HSA by esketamine revealed that the 1:1 ground state complex has formed. The results of binding parameters lead to the conclusion that the reaction was exothermic. In the presence of esketamine, HSA was found to undergo partial unfolding, and thermodynamic parameters (ΔG° = − 2.08 × 104 J·mol−1, ΔS° = 35.7 J·mol−1·K−1, and ΔH° = − 1.20 × 104 J·mol−1 at 298 K) revealed that electrostatic forces dominated the stabilization of the complex. The qualitative and quantitative analyses of conformational changes of HSA were conducted using circular dichroism, three-dimensional, and synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy, revealing the loosening of skeleton structure and adaptive modifications of secondary structures. Fe3+ and Mg2+ may help prolong the storage time and improve the drug efficacy.