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In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on the environmental impact of plastics, including the carbon emissions related to plastics, which has promoted the application of biodegradable plastics. Countries worldwide have shown high interest in replacing traditional plastics with biodegradable plastics. However, no systematic comparison has been conducted on the carbon emissions of biodegradable versus traditional plastic products. This study evaluates the carbon emissions of traditional and biodegradable plastic products (BPPs) over four stages and briefly discusses environmental and economic perspectives. Four scenarios—namely, the traditional method, chemical recycling, industrial composting, and anaerobic digestion—are considered for the disposal of waste BPPs (WBPPs). The analysis takes China as a case study. The results show that the carbon emissions of 1000 traditional plastic products (plastic bags, lunch boxes, cups, etc.) were 52.09–150.36 carbon emissions equivalent of per kilogram (kg CO2eq), with the stage of plastic production contributing 50.71%–50.77%. In comparison, 1000 similar BPPs topped out at 21.06–56.86 kg CO2eq, approximately 13.53%–62.19% lower than traditional plastic products. The difference was mainly at the stages of plastic production and waste disposal, and the BPPs showed significant carbon reduction potential at the raw material acquisition stage. Waste disposal plays an important role in environmental impact, and composting and anaerobic digestion are considered to be preferable disposal methods for WBPPs. However, the high cost of biodegradable plastics is a challenge for their widespread use. This study has important reference significance for the sustainable development of the biodegradable plastics industry.

Interface reaction between lithium (Li) and materials at the anode is not well understood in an all-solid environment. This paper unveils a new phenomenon of constriction susceptibility for materials at such an interface, the utilization of which helps facilitate the design of an active three-dimensional scaffold to host rapid plating and stripping of a significant amount of a thick Li metal layer. Here we focus on the well-known anode material silicon (Si) to demonstrate that, rather than strong Li–Si alloying at the conventional solid–liquid interface, the lithiation reaction of micrometre-sized Si can be significantly constricted at the solid–solid interface so that it occurs only at thin surface sites of Si particles due to a reaction-induced, diffusion-limiting process. The dynamic interaction between surface lithiation and Li plating of a family of anode materials, as predicted by our constrained ensemble computational approach and represented by Si, silver (Ag) and alloys of magnesium (Mg), can thus more homogeneously distribute current densities for the rapid cycling of Li metal at high areal capacity, which is important in regard to solid-state battery application.

Research on orthodontic treatment monitoring from oralscan video is a new direction in dental digitalization. We designed an approach to reconstruct, segment, and estimate the pose of individual teeth to measure orthodontic treatment. To handle the semantic gap in heterogeneous data on the condition that they are combined linearly, we present a multimedia interaction network (MIN) to combine heterogeneous information in point cloud segmentation by extending the graph attention mechanism. Moreover, a structure-aware quadruple loss is designed to explore the relation between multiple and diverse unmatched points in point cloud registration. The performance of our approach is evaluated on multiple tooth registration datasets, and extensive experiments show that our approach improves the accuracy by a margin of 1.4% in the inlier ratio on the Aoralscan3 dataset when it is compared with prevailing approaches.

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) as a new pneumonia which is extremely infectious, the classification of this coronavirus is essential to effectively control the development of the epidemic. Pathological changes in the chest computed tomography (CT) scans are often used as one of the diagnostic criteria of COVID-19. Meanwhile, deep learning-based transfer learning is currently an effective strategy for computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). To further improve the performance of deep transfer learning model used for COVID-19 classification with CT images, in this article, we propose a hybrid model combined with a semi-supervised domain adaption model and extreme learning machine (ELM) classifier, and the application of a novel multikernel correntropy induced loss function in transfer learning is also presented. The proposed model is evaluated on open-source datasets. The experimental results are compared to some baseline models to verify the effectiveness, while adopting accuracy, precision, recall, $F_{1}$F1 score and area under curve (AUC) as the evaluation metrics. Experimental results show that the proposed method improves the performance of original model and is more suitable for CT images analysis.

Alkali-activated materials (AAM) are considered a type of green cementitious material because they are produced without the grinding and calcining required for cement production, significantly reducing carbon emissions. However, their production typically involves the use of commercial alkalis, which are often corrosive, irritating, and expensive. As an industrial waste from sodium carbonate production, soda residue (SR) has a large reserve and is challenging to dewater and utilize, making its disposal a widespread technical challenge. In this paper, considering the alkaline nature and high salt content of SR, a soda residue activated granulated blast-furnace slag cementitious material (SAG) was synthesized directly using undried and unground SR slurry as the alkali activator, with a mass ratio of SR to granulated blast-furnace slag (GBFS) of 30:70. The effects of ambient temperature (AT) curing, water curing, various heat curing temperatures (45°C, 60°C, 75°C, and 90°C), and different heat curing durations (6 h, 12 h, 18 h, and 24 h) on the properties of SAG were investigated. Specifically, the effect of curing conditions on the mechanical properties of SAG was analyzed through unconfined compressive strength (UCS) testing of mortar specimens. The impact of curing conditions on the phase composition and changes in SAG was characterized using XRD, TG, and FTIR, while the effect on the microstructure of SAG was characterized using SEM. The results showed that SAG achieved the highest UCS (3 d/56 d: 28.1 MPa/36.7 MPa) when subjected to heat curing at 75°C for 12 h. The UCS increased significantly by 3022 % and 321 %, respectively, compared to those under AT sealed curing. This was attributed to the fact that SAG under heat curing produced more C-(A)-S-H gels and hydrocalumite crystals, optimizing pore structure and resulting in a denser microstructure. However, exceeding the threshold temperature of 75°C led to an excessively rapid hydration reaction that adversely affected the further dissolution of GBFS and the uniform distribution of hydration products, thereby diminishing the positive effects of heat curing on UCS. In addition, excessively prolonging the heat curing time exacerbated the development of microcracks within the SAG, leading to a deterioration of UCS over age. In this paper, a novel AAM was synthesized using undried and unground industrial waste without the addition of commercial alkali, and the impact of curing conditions on their properties was studied. This broadens the range of applications for SAG, fills a gap in research on the impact of curing conditions on AAM without commercial alkali, and provides a theoretical basis for the low-carbon utilization of industrial waste.

Layered lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2, LCO) is the most successful commercial cathode material in lithium-ion batteries. However, its notable structural instability at potentials higher than 4.35 V (versus Li/Li+) constitutes the major barrier to accessing its theoretical capacity of 274 mAh g−1. Although a few high-voltage LCO (H-LCO) materials have been discovered and commercialized, the structural origin of their stability has remained difficult to identify. Here, using a three-dimensional continuous rotation electron diffraction method assisted by auxiliary high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, we investigate the structural differences at the atomistic level between two commercial LCO materials: a normal LCO (N-LCO) and a H-LCO. These powerful tools reveal that the curvature of the cobalt oxide layers occurring near the surface dictates the structural stability of the material at high potentials and, in turn, the electrochemical performances. Backed up by theoretical calculations, this atomistic understanding of the structure–performance relationship for layered LCO materials provides useful guidelines for future design of new cathode materials with superior structural stability at high voltages.

Orthodontic treatment monitoring involves using current images and previous 3D models to estimate the relative position of individual teeth before and after orthodontic treatment. This process differs from image-based object 6D pose estimation due to the gingiva deformation and varying pose offsets for each tooth during treatment. Motivated by the fact that the poses of molars remain relatively fixed in implicit orthodontics, we design an approach that employs multiview pose evaluation and bidirectional temporal propagation for jaw pose estimation and then employs an iteration-based method for tooth alignment. To handle changes in tooth appearance or location with weak texture across frames, we also introduce an instance propagation module that leverages positional and semantic information to explore instance relations in the temporal domain. We evaluated the performance of our approach using both the Shining3D tooth pose dataset and the Aoralscan3 tooth registration dataset. Our experimental results demonstrate remarkable accuracy improvements compared with existing methods.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNA) are known to play a key role in the etiology and treatment of epilepsy through controlling the expression of gene. However, miR-125a-5p in the epilepsy is little known. Epilepsy in rat models was induced by Pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) and miR- 125a-5p profiles in the hippocampus were investigated in our experiment. Also, the relationship between miR-125a-5p and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IV (CAMK4) was identified and the related mechanism was also illustrated. Methods: The miR-125a-5p mRNA expression levels were evaluated by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Western Blot (WB) was used to analyze the CAMK4 protein expression levels. Seizure score, latency and duration were determined based on a Racine scale. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to analyze the inflammatory factor expression. The relationship between miR-125a-5p and CAMK4 was detected through dual luciferase assay. Results: Downregulation of miR-125a-5p was observed in the hippocampus of PTZ-induced epilepsy rats. The overexpression of miR-125a-5p attenuated seizure and decreased inflammatory factor level in the hippocampus of PTZ-induced rats. The miR-125a-5p alleviated epileptic seizure and inflammation in PTZ-induced rats by suppressing its target gene, CAMK4. Conclusion: miR-125a-5p may represent a novel therapeutic treatment for PTZ-induced epilepsy by preventing the activation of CAMK4.

Massive traffic surveillance data extracted from vehicle detectors such as cameras provide essential information for revealing urban traffic pattern. However, most existing tools only allow users to analyze the data in specific time periods and regions with particular requirements. In this paper, we work closely with traffic domain experts and investigate a novel way of reframing visual traffic analysis tasks into the combinations of various atom categorical/numerical features and visual presentation. The categorical features contain primitive attributes such as vehicle type, O/D status and driving direction, and the numerical features contains information such as vehicle frequency and speed. The combination of above features includes four basic operations, namely and, or, xorand notto support diversified user requirements. Basic and advanced visualization methods such as trajectory view and flow distribution view are provided to demonstrate the combination results. Through interactive assembling of various atom operations, analysts could derive different query conditions to meet existed and potential upcoming analysis requirements such as locating suspicious vehicles (e.g., fake plate vehicles). Furthermore, AtoMixer, a visual analytic system is developed to support spatio-temporal investigative tasks for traffic surveillance data. We evaluate the effectiveness and scalability of our approach with real world traffic surveillance data.

A series of linear thermosensitive amphiphilic pentablock terpolymers PNIPAMx-b-PtBA90-b-PPO36-b-PtBA90-b-PNIPAMx(NxT90O36T90Nx) with various lengths xof PNIPAM block (x= 111, 107, 95, 58, 33, and 26) were synthesized via a two-step atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using modified poly(propylene oxide) (PPO36) as the macroinitiator, tert-butyl acrylate (tBA) as the first monomer, and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) as the second monomer. The NxT90O36T90Nxpentablock terpolymers form micelles in dilute aqueous solution, whose structure and morphology are dependent on the length xof PNIPAM block and solution temperature. At 14 °C, below the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of PNIPAM block, the morphology of NxT90O36T90Nxmicelles changes from core–corona spherical micelles with homogeneous hydrophobic core to rodlike micelles, core–shell–corona spherical micelles with clear boundaries, core–shell–corona spherical micelles with blurry boundaries, and finally large compound spherical micelles with embedded hydrophilic chains in the hydrophobic region when xdecreases from 111 to 26. This morphology change might be attributed to the different stretching factors of hydrophobic PPO and PtBA blocks in the micelles, which varied differently with length xof PNIPAM block and hence resulted in the change of compatibility of the two hydrophobic blocks. A scaling relationship between the length L0of hydrophilic corona and the length xof PNIPAM block is found to be L0∼ x0.77±0.08, which falls in the range 0.5–0.86 theoretically predicted for the micelles of diblock copolymers. The size of hydrophobic regions increases with decreasing x. At 60 °C above the LCST of PNIPAM block, all NxT90O36T90Nxpentablock terpolymers form spherical micelles with uniform structure and size distribution in aqueous solution regardless of the length xof PNIPAM block.

This paper deals with inverse displacement analysis of a Hyper-redundant Elephant’s Trunk Robot (HRETR). The HRETR is connected in series with n modules of 3UPS-PRU parallel mechanism where the underline P denotes an active prismatic joint. Based on the idea of differential geometry, backbone curve of the robot is formulated by using a parametric function consisting of sub-functions and control parameters. A general algorithm for generating a backbone curve and fitting the modules to the backbone curve is proposed. In this way, the inverse displacement analysis of the robot can be carried out by solving the inverse displacement problem of each parallel mechanism module and taking into account the length limits of the links. A HRETR with 6 modules is taken as an example to demonstrate the applicability of the algorithm.

Background: Rhein (1,8-dihydroxy-3-carboxyanthraquinone) is a monomer of anthraquinone derivatives mainly found in Polygonaceae plants such as Rhubarb, and Cuspidatum, widely used in the traditional Chinese medicine with many pharmacological activities, such as antitumor, anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effects, and regulation of glucose and lipid metabolism. Objective: To conclude the role of Rhein in cancer control and its mechanisms for its futher deep research and potential clinical application. Method: All kinds of reports previously related to Rhein from PubMed datebase were collected, integrated and analyzed. Results: Rhein could control many cancer cells by regulating their proliferation and apoptosis, invasion and migration, especially intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis pathways induced by Rhein plays the core role in cancer control. For good inhibitory role in NF-ΚB pathway, the Ras/Raf/MEK (MAPK)/ERK and PTEN/PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways are other two key pathways regulated by Rhein with its role in antiphosphorylation of ERK, PI3K and AKT to control many cancers' development which frequently dysregulated in cancer, involved in the activation, proliferation, invasion, and migration of cancer cells. Conclusion: Rhein is a potential cancer treatment agent..

Recent decades have witnessed an exponential growth in the discovery of low-dimensional materials (LDMs), benefiting from our unprecedented capabilities in characterizing their structure and chemistry with the aid of advanced computational techniques. Recently, the success of two-dimensional compounds has encouraged extensive research into one-dimensional (1D) atomic chains. Here, we present a methodology for topological classification of structural blocks in bulk crystals based on graph theory, leading to the identification of exfoliable 1D atomic chains and their categorization into a variety of chemical families. A subtle interplay is revealed between the prototypical 1D structural motifs and their chemical space. Leveraging the structure graphs, we elucidate the self-passivation mechanism of 1D compounds imparted by lone electron pairs, and reveal the dependence of the electronic band gap on the cationic percolation network formed by connections between structure units. This graph-theory-based formalism could serve as a source of stimuli for the future design of LDMs.Application of graph theory to inorganic compounds enables discovery of atomic-scale one-dimensional materials and helps to decipher the control of geometric features on stability and electronic structure of low-dimensional materials.

The mammalian spermatozoon has many cellular compartments, such as head and tail, permitting it to interact with the female reproductive tract and fertilize the egg. It acquires this fertilizing potential during transit through the epididymis, which secretes proteins that coat different sperm domains. Optimal levels of these proteins provide the spermatozoon with its ability to move to, bind to, fuse with, and penetrate the egg; otherwise male infertility results. As few human epididymal proteins have been characterized, this work was performed to generate a database of human epididymal sperm-located proteins involved in maturation. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of epididymal tissue and luminal fluid proteins, followed by identification using MALDI-TOF/MS or MALDI-TOF/TOF, revealed over a thousand spots in gels comprising 745 abundant nonstructural proteins, 408 in luminal fluids, of which 207 were present on spermatozoa. Antibodies raised to 619 recombinant or synthetic peptides, used in Western blots, histological sections, and washed sperm preparations to confirm antibody quality and protein expression, indicated their regional location in the epididymal epithelium and highly specific locations on washed functional spermatozoa. Sperm function tests suggested the role of some proteins in motility and protection against oxidative attack. A large database of these proteins, characterized by size, pI, chromosomal location, and function, was given a unified terminology reflecting their sperm domain location. These novel, secreted human epididymal proteins are potential targets for a posttesticular contraceptive acting to provide rapid, reversible, functional sterility in men and they are also biomarkers that could be used in noninvasive assessments of male fertility.

The mammalian spermatozoon has many cellular compartments, such as head and tail, permitting it to interact with the female reproductive tract and fertilize the egg. It acquires this fertilizing potential during transit through the epididymis, which secretes proteins that coat different sperm domains. Optimal levels of these proteins provide the spermatozoon with its ability to move to, bind to, fuse with, and penetrate the egg; otherwise male infertility results. As few human epididymal proteins have been characterized, this work was performed to generate a database of human epididymal sperm-located proteins involved in maturation. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of epididymal tissue and luminal fluid proteins, followed by identification using MALDI-TOF/MS or MALDI-TOF/TOF, revealed over a thousand spots in gels comprising 745 abundant nonstructural proteins, 408 in luminal fluids, of which 207 were present on spermatozoa. Antibodies raised to 619 recombinant or synthetic peptides, used in Western blots, histological sections, and washed sperm preparations to confirm antibody quality and protein expression, indicated their regional location in the epididymal epithelium and highly specific locations on washed functional spermatozoa. Sperm function tests suggested the role of some proteins in motility and protection against oxidative attack. A large database of these proteins, characterized by size, pI, chromosomal location, and function, was given a unified terminology reflecting their sperm domain location. These novel, secreted human epididymal proteins are potential targets for a posttesticular contraceptive acting to provide rapid, reversible, functional sterility in men and they are also biomarkers that could be used in noninvasive assessments of male fertility.

The capacity of the layered oxide cathode in a sodium ion battery can be increased by harnessing anionic redox. However, the extra capacity induced by anionic redox comes at the expense of reversibility due to the irreversible oxidation and subsequent loss of oxygen. Here, we report a universal strategy of improving the reversibility of oxygen redox in sodium layered oxides by regulating the superstructural motifs. The intrinsic chemical properties of superstructural motifs can be directionally altered by modulating the interionic interactions, and the rational integration of selected superstructural motifs can result in advanced materials with target performance. As a demonstration, a novel cathode comprising both Mg@Mn6and Li@Mn6superstructural motifs is designed and synthesized with inherently inhibited oxygen loss and significantly improved cyclic reversibility. Detailed characterizations on the atomic-level structure and chemistry of materials revealed that the pinning effect of the Mg@Mn6superstructural motif is critical to maintain a stable layered structure. The findings from this work open up new routes for the design and development of next-generation high energy cathodes with target performance.

Li@Mn6superstructure units from the model compound Li2MnO3, i.e., six MnO6octahedra linked like a ring (Mn6) with a central LiO6octahedron, could provide extra capacity when composited with other transition metal octahedra (TMO6) structure units in Li and Mn-rich TM layered oxides, xLi2MnO3·(1-x)LiTMO2, one of the most promising high-energy-density cathodes. Nevertheless, it suffers serious capacity and voltage fade due to the unstable local oxygen environment in the basic superstructure unit Li@Mn6. Herein, a new Li-rich layered oxide cathode, Li(Li1/6Mn1/3Ni1/3Sb1/6)O2, was designed and synthesized by compositing Li@Mn6with a similar superstructure unit Sb@Ni6. Complementary structural/chemical analysis combining with the electronic structure calculations reveal that, the uniform mixing of these two superstructure units at the atomic level has been firstly accomplished in TM layers, which introduces a large amount of boundaries between Li@Mn6and Sb@Ni6super-units, thus greatly enriching the local oxygen environments, and reducing the energy barrier of Li+diffusion. Therefore, the better electrochemical performance, especially the superb cycling stability with the larger capacity (double that of Li(Ni2/3Sb1/3)O2) is implemented. It provides another route to design new Li-rich layered oxides with the better cycling stability by modifying local oxygen environments.

This article presents the inverse displacement analysis of a hyper-redundant bionic trunk-like robot. The hyper-redundant bionic trunk-like robot is constituted of some parallel mechanism modules in series. The mathematical model of the inverse displacement analysis of the hyper-redundant robot comprises a set of nonlinear consistent equations with a number of unknown variables that are more than given equations. It is impossible to find all solutions for the inverse displacement analysis since there are infinite solution possibilities. By planning the pose of distal moving platforms for robot modules, the problem of the inverse displacement analysis of the hyper-redundant robot is transformed into that of a parallel mechanism. The inverse velocity and acceleration computation are then implemented using a method of the numerical differentiation. A developed prototype of a hyper-redundant bionic trunk-like robot is presented. The approach can be applied to the hyper-redundant robot with man–machine interactive system in the unstructured environment.

The testis produces male gametes in the germinal epithelium through the development of spermatogonia and spermatocytes into spermatids and immature spermatozoa with the support of Sertoli cells. The flow of spermatozoa into the epididymis is aided by testicular secretions. In the epididymal lumen, spermatozoa and testicular secretions combine with epididymal secretions that promote sperm maturation and storage. We refer to the combined secretions in the epididymis as the sperm-milieu. With two-dimensional-PAGE matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight MS analysis of healthy testes from fertile accident victims, 725 unique proteins were identified from 1920 two-dimensional-gel spots, and a corresponding antibody library was established. This revealed the presence of 240 proteins in the sperm-milieu by Western blotting and the localization of 167 proteins in mature spermatozoa by ICC. These proteins, and those from the epididymal proteome (Li et al. 2010), form the proteomes of the sperm-milieu and the spermatozoa, comprising 525 and 319 proteins, respectively. Individual mapping of the 319 sperm-located proteins to various testicular cell types by immunohistochemistry suggested that 47% were intrinsic sperm proteins (from their presence in spermatids) and 23% were extrinsic sperm proteins, originating from the epididymis and acquired during maturation (from their absence from the germinal epithelium and presence in the epididymal tissue and sperm-milieu). Whereas 408 of 525 proteins in the sperm-milieu proteome were previously identified as abundant epididymal proteins, the remaining 22%, detected by the use of new testicular antibodies, were more likely to be minor proteins common to the testicular proteome, rather than proteins of testicular origin added to spermatozoa during maturation in the epididymis. The characterization of the sperm-milieu proteome and testicular mapping of the sperm-located proteins presented here provide the molecular basis for further studies on the production and maturation of spermatozoa. This could be the basis of development of diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for infertility or targets for male contraception.

The testis produces male gametes in the germinal epithelium through the development of spermatogonia and spermatocytes into spermatids and immature spermatozoa with the support of Sertoli cells. The flow of spermatozoa into the epididymis is aided by testicular secretions. In the epididymal lumen, spermatozoa and testicular secretions combine with epididymal secretions that promote sperm maturation and storage. We refer to the combined secretions in the epididymis as the sperm-milieu. With two-dimensional-PAGE matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight MS analysis of healthy testes from fertile accident victims, 725 unique proteins were identified from 1920 two-dimensional-gel spots, and a corresponding antibody library was established. This revealed the presence of 240 proteins in the sperm-milieu by Western blotting and the localization of 167 proteins in mature spermatozoa by ICC. These proteins, and those from the epididymal proteome (Li et al.2010), form the proteomes of the sperm-milieu and the spermatozoa, comprising 525 and 319 proteins, respectively. Individual mapping of the 319 sperm-located proteins to various testicular cell types by immunohistochemistry suggested that 47% were intrinsic sperm proteins (from their presence in spermatids) and 23% were extrinsic sperm proteins, originating from the epididymis and acquired during maturation (from their absence from the germinal epithelium and presence in the epididymal tissue and sperm-milieu). Whereas 408 of 525 proteins in the sperm-milieu proteome were previously identified as abundant epididymal proteins, the remaining 22%, detected by the use of new testicular antibodies, were more likely to be minor proteins common to the testicular proteome, rather than proteins of testicular origin added to spermatozoa during maturation in the epididymis. The characterization of the sperm-milieu proteome and testicular mapping of the sperm-located proteins presented here provide the molecular basis for further studies on the production and maturation of spermatozoa. This could be the basis of development of diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets for infertility or targets for male contraception.