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When it comes to the early detection of colorectal cancer (CRC), the study of protein phosphorylation is crucial. This work used magnetic covalent organic framework (COF) materials as substrates. The magCOF@PM-Ti4+ composites were obtained by constructing the three-dimensional cross-linked structures and chelating them with Ti4+ in a green and economical way, which was utilized to identify the phosphopeptides. This material possesses magnetic properties that facilitate simplified experimental manipulation, has superior sensitivity (0.2 fmol), excellent selectivity (1000:1), and good reusability (10 cycles), and achieves outstanding recovery rates (103.4 ± 1.2%). In addition, magCOF@PM-Ti4+ was utilized to identify phosphopeptides in human serum. One hundred phosphopeptides were identified from three normal control serums, whereas 98 phosphopeptides were identified from three CRC serums. The results demonstrated that magCOF@PM-Ti4+ has great potential in efficiently identifying low-abundance phosphopeptides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tea, a globally cultivated crop renowned for its unique flavor profile and health-promoting properties, ranks among the most favored functional beverages worldwide. However, diseases severely jeopardize the production and quality of tea leaves, leading to significant economic losses. While early and accurate identification coupled with the removal of infected leaves can mitigate widespread infection, manual leaves removal remains time-consuming and expensive. Utilizing robots for pruning can significantly enhance efficiency and reduce costs. However, the accuracy of object detection directly impacts the overall efficiency of pruning robots. In complex tea plantation environments, complex image backgrounds, the overlapping and occlusion of leaves, as well as small and densely harmful leaves can all introduce interference factors. Existing algorithms perform poorly in detecting small and densely packed targets. To address these challenges, this paper collected a dataset of 1108 images of harmful tea leaves and proposed the YOLO-DBD model. The model excels in efficiently identifying harmful tea leaves with various poses in complex backgrounds, providing crucial guidance for the posture and obstacle avoidance of a robotic arm during the pruning process. The improvements proposed in this study encompass the Cross Stage Partial with Deformable Convolutional Networks v2 (C2f-DCN) module, Bi-Level Routing Attention (BRA), Dynamic Head (DyHead), and Focal Complete Intersection over Union (Focal-CIoU) Loss function, enhancing the model's feature extraction, computation allocation, and perception capabilities. Compared to the baseline model YOLOv8s, mean Average Precision at IoU 0.5 (mAP0.5) increased by 6%, and Floating Point Operations Per second (FLOPs) decreased by 3.3 G. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, click chemistry and Schiff base reactions were simultaneously applied to prepare polymer brush (PEG)–functionalized MOF materials (UiO-66-NH2) and immobilized with Ti4+ (MOF-Brush-THBA-Ti4+) for phosphopeptide analysis. The material has a detection limit of 0.5 fmol, a selectivity of 2000:1, and a loading capacity of 133 mg/g for phosphopeptides. It also demonstrated great repeatability (10 cycles) and recovery rate (96.7 ± 1.4%). During the analysis of bio-samples, 4 specific phosphopeptides were identified in endogenous breast cancer serum, while 11 phosphopeptides were identified in skimmed milk. Moreover, 47 phosphopeptides correlated with 29 phosphorylated proteins were selectively identified from normal control serum, and 66 phosphopeptides correlated with 26 phosphorylated proteins were identified from breast cancer serum. Further analysis of gene ontology (GO) revealed that the detected phosphorylated proteins associated with breast cancer included positive regulation of receptor-mediated endocytosis, proteolysis, extracellular exosome, heparin binding, and chaperone binding. These findings suggest that these associated pathways might contribute to the etiology of breast cancer. Overall, this application exhibits enormous potential in the identification of phosphorylated peptides within bio-samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mine tailings have shown viability as the fine–grained layer in a capillary barrier structure for controlling acid mine drainage in a circular economy. Their saturated hydraulic conductivities (ksat) under wetting–drying cycles and freeze–thaw cycles remain unexplored. In this study, modified tailings with a weight ratio of 95:5 (tailings/hydrodesulfurization (HDS) clay from waste–water treatment) and an initial water content of 12% were used. The ksat of specimens was measured after up to 15 wetting–drying cycles, each lasting 24 h, with a drying temperature of 105 °C. The ksat for wetting–drying cycles decreased from 3.9 × 10−6 m/s to 9.5 × 10−7 m/s in the first three cycles and then stabilized in the subsequent wetting–drying cycles (i.e., 5.7 × 10−7 m/s–6.3 × 10−7 m/s). Increased fine particles due to particle breakage are the primary mechanism for the ksat trend. In addition, the migration of fines and their preferential deposition near the pore throat area may also promote this decreasing trend through the shrinking and potentially clogging–up of pore throats. This could be explained by the movement of the meniscus, increased salinity, and, subsequently, the shrinkage of the electrical diffuse layer during the drying cycle. Similar specimens were tested to measure ksat under up to 15 freeze–thaw cycles with temperatures circling between −20 °C and 20 °C at 12 h intervals. Compared to the untreated specimen (i.e., 3.8 × 10−6 m/s), the ksat after three freeze–thaw cycles decreased by 77.6% (i.e., 8.5 × 10−7 m/s) and then remained almost unchanged (i.e., 5.6 × 10−7 m/s–8.9 × 10−7 m/s) in subsequent freeze–thaw cycles. The increased fine grain content (i.e., 3.1%) can be used to explain the decreased ksat trend. Moreover, the migration of fines toward the pore throat area, driven by the advancing and receding of ice lens fronts and subsequent deposition at the pore throat, may also contribute to this trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open-source systems help to manage the rapid development of software, while governing open-source systems properly can effectively promote software and software engineering. However, some significant problems, such as code controls, incentives, interaction and cooperation, automation, transparency and fairness of rights and responsibilities, cannot be properly solved by traditional methodologies. The decentralization, immutability, change in trust mode and smart contract programming of blockchain provide new solutions. In order to solve the problems of traditional centralized open-source governance, this paper proposes a decentralized open-source coordination management system using a novel triple-blockchain architecture. Through the analysis of traditional and blockchain-based research, the business and technical issues that need to be addressed in decentralized open-source governance systems have been emphatically studied. Combined with triple-blockchain architecture, smart contracts, oracles and continuous integration tools, we study the decentralization of open-source businesses and make them more trustworthy, automated and coordinated. An identity authentication mechanism is designed for permission control and inter-community collaboration. A decentralized open-source reputation is proposed for incentive and reference. We also improved the DPoS (Delegated Proof of Stake) consensus under triple-blockchain architecture to reduce repeated elections. By constructing the OSCMS prototype based on the proposed architecture model, many comparative experiments were conducted under different parameters and conditions and showed good feasibility, scalability, reliability and performance. The OSCMS not only solves the shortcomings of previous research but also provides a comprehensive and feasible reference for the decentralized practice of open-source governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To limit the oxidation of waste rocks that originates from mining operations and the subsequent leaching of acidic solutions with high concentration of metal ions, a tailing–rock–clay triple layer capillary cover system was developed to prevent rainwater infiltration in humid climatic regions. The fine grained soil (FGS) layer consists of mine tailing and a hydrodesulfurization (HDS) clay from waste-water treatment with a 95:5 mass ratio. The coarse grained soil (CGS) layer consists of local waste rock granules with a size of 1–10 mm. Methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS), an oxidation-inhibiting agent with strong hydrophobicity, was passivated on the rock grains to further reduce water infiltration and leaching of metal ions. Prototype-scale column tests were performed with matric suction and water content measurements under 680 min rainfall of 60 mm/h, the most severe annual precipitation case scenario for the Dexing Copper Mine (Jiangxi Province, China, 28.95° N, 117.57° E, humid climate). Both the uncoated and the coated covers exhibited zero leakage throughout the experiment. The passivation on rock granules in the coated cover increased the water entry value (WEV) of the CGS layer to −0.56 kPa. This led to a 15 mm water storage increment in the overlain FGS layer as compared to that in the uncoated cover, and induced lateral drainage (5% of the precipitation) in the FGS layer, which was not overserved in the uncoated cover. The concentrations of the leached Fe2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, Mn2+ and Mg2+ cations drained from the CGS layers of the uncoated cover were 0, 0.4, 0.8, 73.5, and 590.5 mg/L, which are all within the regulation limits of industrial discharge water standards. The concentrations of Cu2+, Mn2+ and Mg2+ cations drained from the coated CGS layer were reduced by 1–3 orders of magnitude. The abovementioned laboratory studies validated the water retention and leaching prevention abilities of the proposed three-layer capillary covers and the MTMS coating, which hold promises in engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the preparation of nanofiltration (NF) membranes, the introduction of acid acceptors into the aqueous phase generates heat through their interaction with the byproduct HCl from interfacial polymerization (IP), potentially leading to the formation of bubbles. This work aims to dissect the combined influences of heat and nanobubbles on NF membrane structure and performance. Three representative alkalis (i.e., NaHCO 3 , NaOH, and Ca(OH) 2) were employed as acid acceptors into the aqueous phase, resulting in an increase of the consumption of PIP in the IP reaction from 10.75% to 23.65%, 19.35%, and 12.90%, respectively. The use of NaOH and Ca(OH) 2 released more heat led to a thicker polyamide layer which reduced flux. While the use of NaHCO 3 simultaneously released heat and bubbles, which promoted the development of a rougher surface polyamide layer, resulting in an increased flux from 20.3 to 28.3 L/m2 h bar, while maintaining a salt rejection rate of 97.7%. The attendance of acid acceptors also enhanced the degree of crosslinking and resulted in a decrease in negative charge of the prepared membrane. This study advances the understanding of the impact of heat and bubbles release induced by the addition of acid acceptors on NF membrane structure and performance. [Display omitted] • Acid acceptors in aqueous phase could promote interfacial polymerization. • Interfacial polymerization reactions can be half completed within 15 s. • Gas release has a great impact on NF membrane compared to generated heat. • NaHCO 3 exhibits the most significant promotional effect on IP process due to gas release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multifunctional and multiresponsive hydrogels demonstrate excellent promise for multifarious applications but often suffer from high synthesis complexity and poor resource availability. Herein, based on the boronate-catechol interactions between a disulfide-containing, boronic acid-based crosslinker, and a catechol-functionalized poly( N-isopropyl acrylamide), a multitasking hydrogel with double dynamic network is developed. By integrating the inherent heat-responsive property of poly( N-isopropyl acrylamide) and bioadhesion of catechol moieties with the reversibility and dynamic features of boronate ester and disulfide bonds, the final hydrogel is endowed with not only temperature, pH, glucose, and redox quadruple-stimuli sensitiveness, but also autonomic self-healing property and biomimetic adhesion ability. Moreover, the rheological and adhesive properties can be readily tuned by adjusting the amount of crosslinker or the catechol in polymer precursor. Considering the readily prepared starting materials, easy preparation, high flexibility in tuning hydrogel properties, the procedure provided here opens up a promising avenue to develop multifunctional hydrogels for multifarious applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Setting times, as the early-age properties of cement-based materials, are important properties to ensure the quality and long-term performance of engineering structures. To determine the initial and final setting times of cementitious materials, the compressive wave velocity and shear wave velocity of six early-age mortar samples were monitored. Their time evolution curves of Young's modulus, shear modulus, bulk modulus, and Poisson's ratio were then calculated and analyzed. The signature times of the derivatives of the Poisson's ratio evolution curves correlate well with the initial and final setting times, and the remarkably high coefficient of determination values relative to the data from this study are higher than those presented in the current literature. The proposed derivative method on the Poisson's ratio evolution curve is as good as the derivative methods from vs. evolution curves used by prior studies for the estimation of both the initial and final setting times of the early-age properties of cement-based materials. The formation and subsequent disappearance of ettringite of low Poisson's ratio were postulated to cause the initial dip in the Poisson's ratio evolution curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers information on mortgage defaults. Default is a loan payoff in which the previous condition was delinquent of in foreclosure but it is prepaid without a loss to the servicer. Also, a default occurs on the time the loan is liquidated. There are several determinants of mortgage defaults, such as the lack of equity in the home. Factors that affect default rates include loan-to-value ratio and home price appreciation, inflated appraisals, occupancy status, job losses, payment shock and loan purpose.

A one-way electric-car-sharing system is an environmentally friendly option for urban transportation systems, which can reduce air pollution and traffic congestion with effective vehicle assignment. However, electric vehicle assignment usually faces a dilemma where an insufficient battery level cannot fulfill the requests of users. It greatly affects assignment choices and order fulfillment rates, resulting in the loss of platform profit. In this study, with the assumption that the users agree to wait for a period of time during which electric vehicles can be charged to fulfill trip demands, we proposed a waiting-time policy and introduced users' utility to measure user retention. Then, we set up a bi-level electric-vehicle assignment model with a waiting-time policy to optimize the assignment and waiting decisions. The numerical results show that under the waiting-time policy, we can achieve more profits, a higher trip fulfillment rate, and a significant improvement in vehicle utilization. It not only generates more profits for the platform but also provides a better service for users and lays a user foundation for the future development and operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Front Cover: Multi‐responsive hydrogels demonstrate great promise for multifarious applications. However, their preparations often require multistep and complex synthetic procedures. Herein, by constructing double dynamic network using inexpensive commercial materials, a multitasking hydrogel with temperature, pH, glucose, and redox quadruple‐stimuli sensitiveness, autonomic self‐healing property, and biomimetic adhesion ability is readily obtained, providing a cost‐effective and easy‐to‐implement approach to fabricate multifunctional hydrogels. This is reported by Jiakai Chen, Qian Su, Ruiwei Guo, Jinwei Zhang, Anjie Dong, Cunguo Lin,* and Jianhua Zhang* in article number 1700166. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanofiltration (NF) membrane with good permselectivity is highly desired. However, it often suffers from permeability-selectivity trade-off in practical applications. To overcome this challenge, a novel in-situ template strategy was proposed for the preparation of high-performance thin film nanocomposite (TFN) NF membrane by adding AgNO 3 in the aqueous solution. The AgCl nanoparticles can be in-situ incorporated into the polyamide film due to the by-product of HCl from the interfacial polymerization and AgNO 3 at the oil/water interface. Besides, water transportation channels can be further constructed in the polyamide film via removal the AgCl template using ammonia as post-treatment solution. The optimized NF-3 membrane with low water transportation resistance shows a two-fold permeance as well as equal salt rejection compared with the controlled NF-1 membrane, indicating that the "trade-off" effect is effectively inhibited. Consequently, the in-situ template strategy provides a new sight for the preparation of high-performance NF membrane. [Display omitted] • A homogeneous addition - in-situ templating method was proposed to prepare NF membrane. • Silver nitrate was added in aqueous phase to in-situ generate silver chloride nanoparticles. • Water transportation channels was constructed by ammonia post-treatment. • The optimized membrane exhibits high water permeance and Na 2 SO 4 rejection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of protein phosphorylation and glycosylation is critical for investigating disease development. In this work, 1,2-epoxy-5-hexene and N , N -methylenebisacrylamide were polymerized with vinyl phosphate to produce a polymer (denoted as PVME), which contained a variety of hydrophilic groups. The material's hydrophilicity was further enhanced by a ring-opening reaction with cysteine (the product was denoted as Cys-PVEM). Finally, titanium sulfate was combined with Cys-PVME to form titanium-rich polymers (Cys-PVME-Ti4+) for the enrichment of phosphopeptides and glycopeptides. Cys-PVME-Ti4+ has a good sensitivity (0.02 fmol) and selectivity (1 : 1000) with a loading capacity of 62 mg g -1 , recyclability (9 cycles), and a good recovery rate (101.6 ± 0.60%) for phosphopeptides, and good sensitivity (0.01 fmol μL -1 ), selectivity (1 : 2000), a loading capacity of 62.5 mg g -1 , recyclability (9 cycles), and a good recovery rate (98.7 ± 1.2%) for glycopeptides. In addition, after enrichment with this material, 27 phosphopeptides with 14 phosphoproteins and 223 glycopeptides associated with 88 glycoproteins were captured from the serum of colorectal cancer patients, while 27 phosphopeptides associated with 14 phosphoproteins and 210 glycopeptides associated with 111 glycoproteins were also captured from the serum of a normal control. Gene ontology (GO) analysis revealed that complement activation, extracellular region, extracellular space, blood coagulation, the IgG immunoglobulin complex, and heparin binding were different between normal control and colorectal cancer, implying that related pathways are likely involved in colorectal cancer pathogenesis.

To elucidate the degradation mechanism of the CMC-modified MMT composite at aggressive Cu 2+ concentrations, large scale molecular dynamics simulation was conducted for CuCl 2 concentrations ranging from 0 to 800 mM. Both CMC and MMT followed the Langmuir isotherm for Cu 2+ adsorption, and the adsorption capacity of CMC (8.75 mmol/g) was much higher than that of MMT (0.83 mmol/g). Despite the CMC mass ratio being only 4.1%, it adsorbed up to 34.3% of the total adsorbed Cu 2+ . The Cu 2+ attraction ability hierarchy of oxygen-containing functional groups in the CMC is as follows: carboxylic oxygens > alcoholic oxygens > carbinolic oxygens > bridging oxygens > glucose oxygens. Carboxyls were the most effective in chelating and complexing with Cu 2+ , and they could be intentionally added in artificially synthesized polymer-MMT composites for Cu 2+ containment. Formation of the Cu 2+ cation bridge between CMC and MMT at aggressive CuCl 2 concentrations contributed to the transition of CMC density distribution from unimodality to bimodality and enhanced resistance of polymer elution. As the CuCl 2 concentration increased, the stoichiometric ratio between the chelated Cu 2+ and carboxylic oxygens increased from 1:2 to 1:1, suggesting the evolution of the Cu 2+ chelation mechanism.

Background: Magnesium alloys (Mg-alloys) have gained significant attention in recent years as a potential bioactive material for clinical applications. The incorporation of rare earth elements (REEs) into Mg-alloys has been of particular interest due to their potential to improve both mechanical and biological properties. Although there are diverse results in terms of cytotoxicity and biological effects of REEs, investigating the physiological benefits of Mg-alloys supplemented with REEs will help in the transition from theoretical to practical applications. Methods: In this study, two culture systems were used to evaluate the effects of Mg-alloys containing gadolinium (Gd), dysprosium (Dy), and yttrium (Y): human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and mouse osteoblastic progenitor cells (MC3T3-E1). Different compositions of Mg-alloys were assessed, and the effects of the extract solution on cell proliferation, viability, and specific cell functions were analyzed. Results: Within the range of weight percentages tested, the Mg-REE alloys did not exhibit any significant negative impacts on either cell line. Interestingly, moderate compositions (Mg-1.5Gd-1.5Dy-0.825Y-0.5Zr and Mg-2Gd-2Dy-1.1Y-0.5Zr) demonstrated a tendency to enhance osteoblastic activity and promote the vascularization process in both HUVEC and MC3T3-E1 cell lines. Discussion: The results of this study provide valuable insights into the potential benefits of REE-supplemented Mg-alloys for clinical applications. The observed enhancement in osteoblastic activity and promotion of vascularization processes suggest that optimizing the compositions of REEs in Mg-alloys could lead to the development of novel, more effective bioactive materials. Further investigations are required to understand the underlying mechanisms and to refine the alloy compositions for improved biocompatibility and performance in clinical settings., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Nie, Chen, Liu, Zhou, Zhao, Wang, Sun and Huang.)