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Catalysts for the hydrogenation of adiponitrile (ADN) have been extensively studied, but achieving high selectivity of hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) in the absence of additional alkali inhibitors still poses many challenges. Herein, we fabricated nickel-based catalysts modified with Na additives for the liquid-phase hydrogenation of ADN in a fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that suitable weak acid sites are more conducive to enhancing the selectivity for HMDA, while stronger acid sites tend to promote the formation of higher amines. Moreover, the introduction of an appropriate amount of Na additive facilitates the dispersion of nickel, increasing the content of Ni0species. Its electron-donating capacity to nickel aids in hydrogen adsorption and dissociation, thereby enhancing hydrogenation activity and favoring the selectivity for HMDA. Under optimal conditions of 120 °C and 4 MPa, improved catalytic performance with 100% ADN conversion and 82.07% HMDA selectivity were achieved over the Ni-0.15Na/Al2O3catalyst.

Aging is a risk factor for human health and quality of life. Screening and development of novel supplements and medications to combat aging and delay the incidence of age-related diseases are of great significance. In this study, salidroside (SA), a primary natural small molecule from Rhodiola rosea, was investigated regarding its effects on life and healthspan and the underlying molecular mechanism(s) of anti-aging and antioxidation. Our results showed that SA effectively prolonged lifespan and exhibited anti-aging and antioxidative properties. Computer-assisted methods, label-free interaction analysis, and in vitro assays showed that SA directly bound heat shock protein 90 (HSP90). Furthermore, SA significantly inhibited the ATPase activity of HSP90, affecting the interaction between HSP90 and its interacting proteins and the expression of downstream genes to regulate lifespan and the oxidative stress response. Our findings provided new insights into the pharmacological properties of SA across multiple species and its potential as an anti-aging drug.

This study explores the effects of hot rolling with a shortened process on the microstructure and properties of Cu–3Ti alloy compared to the traditional multi-pass forming, and the finite element simulation was used to predict the experimental results. At the same time, the residual stress elimination model was used to provide prediction and reference for the relaxation of residual stress during the alloy annealing process. The residual stress of hot rolled samples through the shortened passes is reduced by an average of about 6.7 % after the appropriate annealing treatment, and accompanied by an obvious increase in the yield and tensile strengths compared to that of the traditional multi-pass forming. At the same time, this hot rolled sample by 90 % reduction with 9 passes contains a 45.7 % proportion of high-angle grain boundaries due to the occurrence of extensive dynamic recrystallization, which remains a good consistence with the higher strength under this condition.

Body-centred cubic refractory multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs), with several refractory metal elements as constituents and featuring a yield strength greater than one gigapascal, are promising materials to meet the demands of aggressive structural applications1–6. Their low-to-no tensile ductility at room temperature, however, limits their processability and scaled-up application7–10. Here we present a HfNbTiVAl10alloy that shows remarkable tensile ductility (roughly 20%) and ultrahigh yield strength (roughly 1,390 megapascals). Notably, these are among the best synergies compared with other related alloys. Such superb synergies derive from the addition of aluminium to the HfNbTiV alloy, resulting in a negative mixing enthalpy solid solution, which promotes strength and favours the formation of hierarchical chemical fluctuations (HCFs). The HCFs span many length scales, ranging from submicrometre to atomic scale, and create a high density of diffusive boundaries that act as effective barriers for dislocation motion. Consequently, versatile dislocation configurations are sequentially stimulated, enabling the alloy to accommodate plastic deformation while fostering substantial interactions that give rise to two unusual strain-hardening rate upturns. Thus, plastic instability is significantly delayed, which expands the plastic regime as ultralarge tensile ductility. This study provides valuable insights into achieving a synergistic combination of ultrahigh strength and large tensile ductility in MPEAs.

WAAM and LDM are two typical DED technologies. WAAM-LDM additive manufacturing technology can achieve the purpose of producing large and complex Ti–6Al–4V components, improving processing efficiency and precision. However, there is a lack of in-depth research on the microstructure evolution mechanism and the fracture behavior of WAAM-LDM samples. Therefore, horizontal and vertical WAAM samples were invoked as the substrate for LDM processes in this study, and the mechanical properties and tensile fracture behavior under different load directions were evaluated. The results show that the samples fabricated by WAAM-LDM manufacturing consist of four zones: WAAM zone, heat affected zone (HAZ), remelting zone (RZ) and LDM zone. WAAM zone mainly composed of coarse colony structure, HAZ and RZ are dominated by α colonies and fine basketweave structure, respectively, and LDM zone consists of acicular α phases and fine basketweave structure. The thickness of α laths shows a trend of ‘WAAM > HAZ > LDM > RZ’. The strengths are greatly improved at the interfaces due to the good metallurgical bonding and finer microstructure. All the fractures locate at WAAM zone during tensile test and propagate along the basketweave structure. These strengths of WAAM-LDM samples under the action of horizontal loading are higher than that of WAAM samples, and all the elongations of WAAM-LDM samples are higher than 10 %.

Question answering (QA) plays a vital role in biomedical natural language processing. Among question answering tasks, the retrieval question answering (ReQA) aims to directly retrieve the correct answer from candidates and has attracted much attention in the community for its efficiency. Recently, researchers have introduced ReQA into the biomedical domain as BioReQA. Typically BioReQA models rely on the dual-encoder to gain semantic representation and are trained following the settings of dense retrieval. However, they normally utilize easy in-batch negative samples in training process to avoid the extra forwarding cost and GPU memory required by encoding additional negative samples. However, hard negative samples have been proved more important with regard to the overall performance of BioReQA tasks. Therefore in this research, we focus on effectively constructing hard in-batch negative samples. Inspired by the classic linear assignment problem, we propose an Iterative Linear Assignment Grouping (ILAG) algorithm to construct hard in-batch negative samples. To further enhance performance for given hard batches in a low-resource scenario, we also employ adversarial training to augment the difficulty of batches. Extensive experiments have shown our proposed method's promising potential in the area of biomedical retrieval question answering.

Jacob disease is the new formation of a pseudo-joint between both of enlarged coronoid process and even zygomatic arch. A 23-year-old female patient with facial asymmetry and limited mouth opening was reported. Computed tomography images showed the classic symptom of Jacob disease with a mushroom-shaped tumor mass from the coronoid process a pseudoarthrosis joint with zygomatic arch. Coronoidectomy and zygomatic arch reduction were planned to operate based on computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing. During the actual operation, the excision of coronoid process and reconstruction of zygomatic arch were all navigated by 3-dimensional-printed surgical templates as designed through an intraoral approach. As a result, the enlarged coronoid process was smoothly removed without sequela and mouth opening along with facial symmetry were successfully improved. The authors suggested that computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing should be considered as an auxiliary technique to shorten operation time and enhance surgical accuracy.

Biomedical factoid question answering is an essential application for biomedical information sharing. Recently, neural network based approaches have shown remarkable performance for this task. However, due to the scarcity of annotated data which requires intensive knowledge of expertise, training a robust model on limited-scale biomedical datasets remains a challenge. Previous works solve this problem by introducing useful knowledge. It is found that the interaction between question and answer (QA-interaction) is also a kind of knowledge which could help extract answer accurately. This research develops a knowledge distillation framework for biomedical factoid question answering, in which a teacher model as the knowledge source of QA-interaction is designed to enhance the student model. In addition, to further alleviate the problem of limited-scale dataset, a novel adversarial knowledge distillation technique is proposed to robustly distill the knowledge from teacher model to student model by constructing perturbed examples as additional training data. By forcing the student model to mimic the predicted distributions of teacher model on both original examples and perturbed examples, the knowledge of QA-interaction can be learned by student model. We evaluate the proposed framework on the widely used BioASQ datasets, and experimental results have shown the proposed method’s promising potential.

Retrieval Question Answering (ReQA) is an essential mechanism of information sharing which aims to find the answer to a posed question from large-scale candidates. Currently, the most efficient solution is Dual-Encoder which has shown great potential in the general domain, while it still lacks research on biomedical ReQA. Obtaining a robust Dual-Encoder from biomedical datasets is challenging, as scarce annotated data are not enough to sufficiently train the model which results in over-fitting problems. In this work, we first build ReQA BioASQ datasets for retrieving answers to biomedical questions, which can facilitate the corresponding research. On that basis, we propose a framework to solve the over-fitting issue for robust biomedical answer retrieval. Under the proposed framework, we first pre-train Dual-Encoder on natural language inference (NLI) task before the training on biomedical ReQA, where we appropriately change the pre-training objective of NLI to improve the consistency between NLI and biomedical ReQA, which significantly improve the transferability. Moreover, to eliminate the feature redundancies of Dual-Encoder, consistent post-whitening is proposed to conduct decorrelation on the training and trained sentence embeddings. With extensive experiments, the proposed framework achieves promising results and exhibits significant improvement compared with various competitive methods.

Flexible sensors have received increasing attention due to their various applications in health monitoring, artificial intelligence, and other fields. The simple fabrication of flexible sensing devices with high performances has been a research hotpot. In this work, an ionogel composite sensor combined with elastic knitted coil (EIC) is proposed as a wearable device to monitor human movement and related feature information. This sensor can be fabricated in a simple and easy protocol, which can work as a clothing accessary to track the wellness status parameters in daily life. After washing, the redundant gel originally embedded between the fibers was removed, improving the sensitivity of the sensor, which can provide accurate information about human joint movements and other physiological activities. The EIC sensor is in high sensitivity with superior working durability, which can provide continuous piezoresistive signals in detection mode. Other than the common joint bending movements (wrist, knee, elbow and finger) of human body, this sensor can also accurately output monitoring data on periocular, oral, and pharyngeal movements, providing information about human health status. Besides, a Morse codes transmission system can be constructed based on the piezoresistive outputs of this EIC sensor under different tapping modes, providing a new working platform in other related applications.

Ionic thermoregulated osmotic energy conversion in nanochannels synergistically utilizes osmotic and thermal energy for power generation based on ionic selective transport in charged nano-membranes under salinity gradients and thermal regulations. Currently, no explicit general dimensionless formulas exist that reflect the relationship between impact factors and performance to guide performance designs. In this study, data-driven insight is presented to establish a framework for obtaining explicit and general relational expressions based on data augmentation using the similarity principle and deep learning. The original database is derived from a finite element simulation with 10,000 dimensional samples, then augmented to 30,000 dimensional samples via similarity principle-based data augmentation. Subsequently, a deep neural network model with decay algorithms is employed to expand the database to new 300,000 dimensional samples with a prediction accuracy exceeding 98 %, which are further converted to dimensionless forms for multiple linear regression. Three dimensionless and explicit formulas for the electrical potential, output power, and energy conversion efficiency are obtained, which indicate determination coefficients of 0.91, 0.93, and 0.92, respectively. Furthermore, considering actual experimental and application situations, the modified dimensionless formula of the output power predicts the experimental results with an average error of 7.80 %. This study efficiently alleviates experimental burden and facilitates engineering applications.

Pentatrichomonas hominis, a flagellated parasitic protozoan, predominantly infects the mammalian digestive tract, often causing symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. However, studies investigating its pathogenicity are limited, and the mechanisms underlying P. hominis-induced diarrhea remain unclear. Establishing an in vitrocell model for P. hominisinfection is imperative. This study investigated the interaction between P. hominisand IPEC-J2 cells and its impact on parasite growth, adhesion, morphology, and cell viability. Co-cultivation of P. hominiswith IPEC-J2 cells resulted in exponential growth of the parasite, with peak densities reaching approximately 4.8 × 105cells/mL and 1.2 × 106cells/mL at 48 h for initial inoculation concentrations of 104cells/mL and 105cells/mL, respectively. The adhesion rate of P. hoministo IPEC-J2 cells reached a maximum of 93.82% and 86.57% at 24 h for initial inoculation concentrations of 104cells/mL and 105cells/mL, respectively. Morphological changes in IPEC-J2 cells co-cultivated with P. hominiswere observed, manifesting as elongated and irregular shapes. The viability of IPEC-J2 cells exhibited a decreasing trend with increasing P. hominisconcentration and co-cultivation time. Additionally, the mRNA expression levels of IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α were upregulated, whereas those of CAT and CuZn-SOD were downregulated. These findings provide quantitative evidence that P. hominiscan promote its growth by adhering to IPEC-J2 cells, inducing morphological changes, reducing cell viability, and triggering inflammatory responses. Further in vivostudies are warranted to confirm these results and enhance our understanding of P. hominisinfection.

Textile-based flexible electronic devices have attracted tremendous attention in wearable sensors due to their excellent skin affinity and conformability. However, the washing process of such devices may damage the electronic components. Here, a textile-based piezoresistive sensor with ultrahigh sensitivity was fabricated through the layered integration of gold nanowire (AuNW)-impregnated cotton fabric and silver ink screen-printed nylon fabric electrodes, sealing with Parafilm. The prepared piezoresistive sensing patch exhibits outstanding performance, including high sensitivity (914.970 kPa–1, <100 Pa), a fast response time (load: 38 ms, recovery: 34 ms), and a low detection limit (0.49 Pa). More importantly, it can maintain a stable signal output even after 30 000 s of loading–unloading cycles. Furthermore, this sensing patch can efficiently detect breathing, pulse, heart rate, and joint movements during the activities. After five cycles of mechanical washing, the piezoresistive performance keeps 90.3%, demonstrating the high feasibility of this sensor in practical applications. This sensor has a simple fabrication, with good fatigue resistance and durability due to its all-fabric core element. It provides a strategy to address the machine-washing issues in textile electronics. This washable textile sensor is expected to show significant potential in future applications of health monitoring, human–machine interfaces, and artificial skin.

Thermal management of H2gas storage in a tank is crucial for determining the H2gas deliverable capacity. In this study, a strategy for the design of an excellent comprehensive performance fuel storage tank from the screening of microscopic materials to the design of macroscopic particle adsorption tank performance is proposed. The best metal–organic framework (MOF) for H2deliverable capacity in a computation-ready experimental MOF database is first screened using a grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) method. An upscale model that combines the finite volume method with GCMC is then established to investigate the H2charging and discharging processes in a screened best MOF-filled adsorption particle tank that is integrated with a phase-change material (PCM) jacket. The process of the heat and mass transfer in the screened best MOF particle adsorption tank with and without the PCM jacket-inserted metal foam is studied. The results show that the prescreened XAWVUN has the highest gravimetric and considerable volumetric deliverable capacity among 503 MOFs, which can reach up to 23.1 mol·kg–1and 20.8 kg·m–3at 298 K and pressures between 35 000 kPa (adsorption pressure) and 160 kPa (desorption pressure), respectively. The H2deliverable capacity can be maximized by 3.2 and 12.1% for PCM jackets inserted with metal foam in the H2charging and discharging processes when it is compared with the case without the PCM jacket, respectively. The above study will facilitate the development of new equipment for hydrogen storage.

•A STSF configuration is proposed as the cathode flow field of AC-PEMFC.•A 3D multiphase model is applied and validated against the experiment.•The STSF improves the water content by reducing the internal temperature.•A superior output voltage and mass-specific power density are achieved.

The coexistence of ferroptosis and other modes of death has great advantages in the treatment of cancers. A series of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) dual inhibitors were designed and synthesized, given the synergistic anticancer effect of ML162 (GPX4 inhibitor) in combination with indirubin-3′-oxime (IO) (CDK inhibitor). Compound B9exhibited the highest potential cytotoxic activity against all four cell lines and displayed excellent inhibitory activity against GPX4 (IC50= 542.5 ± 0.9 nM) and selective inhibition of CDK 4/6 (IC50= 191.2 ± 8.7, 68.1 ± 1.4 nM). Mechanism research showed that B9could simultaneously induce ferroptosis and arrest cells at the G1 phase in both MDA-MB-231 cells and HCT-116 cells. Compared with ML162 and IO, B9showed much stronger cancer cell growth inhibition in vivo. These results proved that developing potent GPX4/CDK dual inhibitors is a promising strategy for the malignant cancer therapy.

Gas diffusion in nanoporous media is significantly different from its bulk counterpart owing to the nanoconfinement effect. In this study, a local effective diffusivity lattice Boltzmann model (LED-LBM) is proposed to explore the gas diffusion behavior under nanoconfinement. The nanoconfinement effect is incorporated into the local effective diffusivity via a spatial position-dependent mean free path. The proposed LED-LBM is validated against molecular dynamics simulation results for methane gas diffusion in a nanoscale channel. Using this model, the spatial variations in the local effective diffusivity and gas mass flux in 3D nanoporous media are visualized, and the predominant factors influencing their variation and gas diffusivity are disclosed. The results show that the spatial variation features of the local effective diffusivity and gas mass flux are strongly influenced by the pore shape and average Knudsen number. The gas diffusivity in nanoporous media is significantly lower than its bulk counterpart owing to the nanoconfinement effect, and their differences increase with the average Knudsen number. To quantify the magnitude of the nanoconfinement effect, a new concept, namely, the confinement scope, is further defined. Finally, a semiempirical formula is established to predict the gas diffusivity in nanoconfined porous media, which is expressed as a function of the bulk diffusivity, average Knudsen number, and porosity.

Abstract: Interest in large-scale energy storage technologies has risen in recent decades with the rapid development of renewable energy. The redox flow battery satisfies the energy storage demands well owing to its advantages of scalability, flexibility, high round-trip efficiency, and long durability. As a critical component of the redox flow battery, the bipolar plates provide mechanical support for the electrodes and act as a physical separator between adjacent cells, as well as constructing the internal circuit and guiding the electrolyte flow. The present work offers a comprehensive review of the development of bipolar plates in redox flow batteries, covering materials, structures, and manufacturing methods. In terms of materials, the effects of material types and composition on the compactness, mechanical strength, and electrical conductivity are summarized in detail. Furthermore, the corrosion mechanisms of bipolar plates and the corresponding detection and mitigation methods are discussed. In addition, the structures of the bipolar plates refer to the flow field designs on the surface. The advantages and disadvantages of these existing flow fields are described, and the tendencies for further optimization are also discussed. The manufacturing of composite bipolar plates in terms of material cost and preparation methods is also outlined. Based on the summary of previous research, this work provides suggestions for the future development of high-performance bipolar plates. Graphical Abstract:

Liquid hydrogen (LH2) holds great potential in both aerospace and civil markets due to its high energy density. However, on account of the low boiling point and latent heat of vaporization of LH2, the high performance insulation storage system is the key to its efficient storage. One of the most efficient insulation methods for a LH2storage system is considered to be Variable Density Multilayer Insulation (VDMLI) coupled with Vapor-Cooled Shield (VCS). This study establishes a quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) thermodynamic model of liquid hydrogen storage system with VDMLI and VCS. The quasi-2D model incorporates the temperature gradient of VCS and its impact on VDMLI. The model can reveal the two-dimensional temperature and heat distribution in insulation systems, predict heat leakage and evaporation rate, and can be utilized for optimizing the design of the VCS structure. Using a NASA's tank as an example, the analysis conducted with the model indicates that the presence of VCS reduces the average temperature gradient of the inner VDMLI. The upper half of the tank exhibits a significantly smaller temperature gradient compared to the lower half, resulting in lower heat leakage. This effect becomes more pronounced as the VCS moves outward of the tank. Additionally, the VCS absorbs more heat in the inlet section than that in the outlet section, and this disparity becomes increasingly significant as the VCS moves outward of the tank. The model can also be employed to optimize the position of the VCS, resulting in a 69.73 % reduction in daily evaporation rate compared to NASA's original design. Lastly, a graphical method for the quick design of VCS structure is proposed which is based on calculated data for daily evaporation rate and apparent thermal conductivity. This method enables the retrieval of the corresponding apparent thermal conductivity based on the desired evaporation rate, facilitates the rapid determination of the range of VCS position, and allows for the quick prediction of the evaporation rate based on the VCS position. In conclusion, this research presents a new approach for the performance analysis and optimization design of liquid hydrogen storage system with VDMLI and VCS.

Osmotic energy conversion is a promising method of sustainable electricity generation using seawater and river water. Artificial pure NaCl solutions are commonly used, whereas the effects of multivalent-ion ingredients present in natural seawater on osmotic power generation remain unclear. In this study, the impacts of coexisting ions in multicomponent seawater (MS) are experimentally assessed using graphene oxide membrane (GOM). Divalent cation in MS shows inferior transport to monovalent cation, thereby presenting a lower power density than when using pure NaCl solutions. Inspired by experimental results, an interfacial binding rope theory is proposed to clarify ion-wall interactions and cation transport in sub-nanochannels with hydrophilic functional groups. The binding rope networks include direct cation-wall connections mediated by composition-changed hydration shells, indirect connections by H-bonds linking solvated water molecules and functional groups, and electrostatic attractions between cations and negatively charged surfaces. The theory feasibility is confirmed by first-principles calculations focusing on the charge distribution, binding site and length, surface electrification, and cation diffusivity and selectivity in GOM sub-nanochannels. Divalent cation diffuses slower than monovalent cation in both pure solutions and confined channels. For the mixed solution in channels, both monovalent and divalent cations show worse diffusivities due to additional monovalent-divalent electrostatic repulsions, as well as inferior cation selectivity due to weakened deprotonation reactions. Bridged by environment-controlled interfacial potential distribution, ion diffusivity, and ion selectivity, this theory guides the improvement of MS-based osmotic performance under regulations of concentration gradient, pH, and temperature. A power density of 8.52 W m–2and stable output within 27 days are achieved. The interfacial binding rope theory could be popularized to refine the transport mechanisms of various cations in diverse hydrophilic sub-nanochannel materials, promoting the application of osmotic power generation and other nanoscale technologies.

Objective: To investigate segmental maxillary distraction osteogenesis (DO) with hybrid-type distractor in the management of wide alveolar cleft.Patients and Methods: Six patients underwent segmental DO with a hybrid-type distractor. After the success of DO and 3-month consolidation period, removal of the distractor was accompanied by alveolar bone graft with iliac bone. Panoramic radiograph and computed tomography scanning were taken preoperatively (T0) and the day after distractor removal (T1). The crest distance between the long axis of cleft nearby teeth was measured.Result: All patients completed the DO period, and the succeeding alveolar bone graft healing was uneventful. The mean cleft distance decrease was 12.05 mm (range: 10.1-13.5 mm). As for the mobility degree record of abutment tooth in the transport segment recorded, 6 patients were grading I° at T0, while 5 patients were grading I° and 1 patient was grading II° at T1.Conclusion: Segmental maxillary DO with the hybrid-type distractor is successful to reduce the cleft width in these cases, and it is promising in the treatment of wide dental alveolar cleft, especially for the adult patient.

During vertebrate embryonic development, neural crest-derived ectomesenchyme within the maxillary prominences undergoes precisely coordinated proliferation and differentiation to give rise to diverse craniofacial structures, such as tooth and palate. However, the transcriptional regulatory networks underpinning such an intricate process have not been fully elucidated. Here, we perform single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) to comprehensively characterize the transcriptional dynamics during mouse maxillary development from embryonic day (E) 10.5 to 14.5. Our single-cell transcriptome atlas of ∼28,000 cells uncovers mesenchymal cell populations representing distinct differentiating states and reveals their developmental trajectory, suggesting that the segregation of dental from the palatal mesenchyme occurs at E11.5. Moreover, we identify a series of key transcription factors (TFs) associated with mesenchymal fate transitions and deduce the gene regulatory networks directed by these TFs. Collectively, our study provides important resources and insights for achieving a systems-level understanding of craniofacial morphogenesis and abnormality.

Avian coccidiosis is the most serious parasitic disease in the poultry industry. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to explore the effects of B. subtilisand live coccidiosis vaccine alone or in combination on the production performance and anticoccidiosis, as well as the dynamic changes of intestinal microbial community. Nine hundred ninty Mahuang chickens were randomized into 4 preimmune groups including control group, coccidiosis vaccine immunization group; B. subtilisadministration group and a group that was administrated a combination of live coccidiosis vaccine and B. subtilisgroup. Intestinal mucosal scraps collected from all these experimental groups at the age of 8 d and 15 d for microbial community 16S rRNA gene sequencing. At the age of 25 d, 30 broilers from each preimmune group were randomly assigned to a subgroup infected with Eimeriaspp.and renamed as CI, V-CI BS-CI, and VBS-CI group. The production performance was monitored at the age of 25 d, 35 d, 45 d, and 55 d for the rest broilers from each pre-immune group. Otherwise, in the Eimeriaspp.challenge stage, intestinal mucosal scraps collected for microbial community sequencing, while duodenum, jejunum, and cecum collected for pathological examination after sacrifice at the age of 32 d. In addition, the oocysts per gram of feces (OPG) and intestinal lesion score of broilers after Eimeriaspp.challenge were also counted. Overall, the probiotics and coccidiosis vaccine resulted in the significantly improvement of the production performance. Otherwise, the intestinal lesion score and OPG after Eimeriaspp. infection was significantly decreased in the VBS-CI group (P< 0.05). Moreover, these protective effects may also be closely related to genus such as Romboutsia, Blautia, and Butyricococcus, as well as microbiota functions like the quorum sensing pathway. According to these results, a combination of B. subtilisand coccidiosis vaccines can improve performance and provide additional protection against Eimeriaspp.infection.

Premature drug release is a common drawback in stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems (DDS), especially if it depends on internal triggers, which are hard to control, or a single external stimulus, which can only have one function. Thus, many DDS systems have been reported that combined different triggers; however, limited success has been established in fine-tuning the release process, mainly due to the poor bioavailability and complexity of the reported designs. This paper reports the design of a hybrid microcapsule (h-MC) by a simple layer-by-layer technique comprising polysaccharides (sodium alginate, chitosan, and hyaluronic acid), iron oxide, and graphene oxide (GO). Electrostatic assembly of the oppositely charged polysaccharides and graphene sheets provided a robust structure in which to load drugs through pH control. The polysaccharide component ensured high biocompatibility, bioavailability, and tumor cells targeting. The alternative magnetic field and near-infrared laser triggerable Fe3O4@GO component provided for dual high-energy and high-penetration hyperthermia therapy. On-demand drug release from h-MC can be achieved by synchronizing these external triggers, making the release highly controllable. The synergistic effect of hyperthermia and chemotherapy was successfully confirmed in vitro and in vivo.

In this study, diethylene glycol terephthalate (DTP) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fiber were degraded by crude enzymes extracted from a strain that was isolated from activated sludge obtained from factories. The feasibility of the biodegradation of the PET fiber is discussed through the rule of the biodegradation of DTP, which was used as the simulacrum of the biodegradation of the PET fiber. We concluded that the proper conditions for the degradation of DTP with the crude enzyme were 30°C and a medium pH. Through the degradation kinetics, we determined that the crude enzyme was more capable of degrading DTP than was lipase. In addition, the crude enzyme also degraded the PET fibers. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 3855–3859, 2006

The degradation of diethylene glycol terephthalate (DTP) and polyethylene terephthalate fiber (PET fiber) by microbes and lipase was studied. The HPLC method was used to determine the degradation ratio and degradation rule of DTP. Greater than 90% DTP was degraded by microbes in 24 days and 40% by lipase in 24 h. The degradation of DTP can be described by the first-order reaction model. Although the biodegradation ratio of PET fiber was still weak, we demonstrated with SEM micrographs and HPLC analysis that microbes and lipase could act on the PET fiber and there were some cracks on the surface of the fiber. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 1089–1096, 2004

Nowadays, flexible piezoresistive sensors have drawn considerable attention in e‐skin, motion monitoring devices, etc. Wearability is an important nature of various flexible sensors. Herein, a sensitive flexible piezoresistive pressure sensor with gold nanowires (AuNWs) combined textile with high sensitivity and durability is presented. The knitted cotton fabric is used as the matrix for loading conductive material AuNWs to fabricate the wearable pressure sensors as clothing components. Cotton fabric can be easily transformed into conductive textile due to impregnation and combination with AuNWs. This AuNWs/textile material is demonstrated to be an appropriate flexible sensor to monitor various human motions, such as finger pressing, joints bending, and foot status. A smart glove is integrated with this AuNWs/textile as the sensing block for gesture expression and recognition, signal reading, and transmission. Besides the common gesture with finger movement combination, e.g., numbers, the simple AuNWs/textile‐based smart glove can also serve for expressing some emoji symbol and be considered as a human–machine interface for some gesture emoji used in internet social platform. This AuNWs/textile is expected to be used as a practical wearable sensor with great potential for extensive applications, including human–machine interface, healthcare monitoring, and the Internet of Things construction. The knitted cotton fabric is used as the matrix for loading gold nanowires (AuNWs) to fabricate wearable pressure sensors as clothing components. The AuNWs/textile material is demonstrated to be an appropriate flexible sensor to monitor various human motions. A smart glove with AuNWs/textile can be utilized for gesture expression and recognition, signal reading, and transmission.

Genetic studies have revealed a critical role of Distal-homeobox (Dlx) genes in bone formation, and our previous study showed that Dlx2overexpressing in neural crest cells leads to profound abnormalities of the craniofacial tissues. The aim of this study was to investigate the role and the underlying molecular mechanisms of Dlx2in osteogenic differentiation of mouse bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and pre-osteoblast MC3T3-E1 cells. Initially, we observed upregulation of Dlx2 during the early osteogenesis in BMSCs and MC3T3-E1 cells. Moreover, Dlx2overexpression enhanced alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and extracellular matrix mineralization in BMSCs and MC3T3-E1 cell line. In addition, micro-CT of implanted tissues in nude mice confirmed that Dlx2overexpression in BMSCs promoted bone formation in vivo. Unexpectedly, Dlx2overexpression had little impact on the expression level of the pivotal osteogenic transcription factors Runx2, Dlx5, Msx2, and Osterix, but led to upregulation of Alpand Osteocalcin(OCN), both of which play critical roles in promoting osteoblast maturation. Importantly, luciferase analysis showed that Dlx2overexpression stimulated both OCNand Alppromoter activity. Through chromatin-immunoprecipitation assay and site-directed mutagenesis analysis, we provide molecular evidence that Dlx2 transactivates OCNand Alpexpression by directly binding to the Dlx2-response cis-acting elements in the promoter of the two genes. Based on these findings, we demonstrate that Dlx2overexpression enhances osteogenic differentiation in vitro and accelerates bone formation in vivo via direct upregulation of the OCNand Alpgene, suggesting that Dlx2 plays a crucial role in osteogenic differentiation and bone formation.

Now, biofunctionalization of synthetic polymers can be achieved through biocatalysts. Uniquely among the great enzyme, whole-cell biocatalysts provide a promising alternative for bioprocess. The bioprocess of depolymerization and assimilation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was investigated with whole-cell from aeromonas as biocatalyst in this investigation. The engineered aeromonas strain, which can grow with PET particle as sole carbon source and major energy, was employed as biocatalysts. The main products, such as terephtalic acid (TA), bis (2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate) (BHET) and benzoic acid (BA), muconic acid (MA), were recognized in whole-cell bioprocess of PET depolymerization. It showed that variation of these products was more complex than that in case of enzyme treatment, for the interaction of solid insoluble substrate, microbe cell and enzymes secreted by cells in this heterogeneous process. The result demonstrated that not only the ester bonds can be cleaved, but also the benzene ring can be decomposed in the process of whole-cell catalysis. And some of the intermediate products, which have inhibiting effect in enzyme catalysis process, can be utilized and further degraded in whole-cell bioprocess. Furthermore, assays by DSC showed that as degradation of PET progressed, crystallinity of PET granular increased by 1.81% due to preferential degradation of amorphous regions.