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The effective strategy for enhancing the separation of photogenerated carriers is the construction of heterojunctions between photocatalysts. The metallic characteristics of CoCeOx, coupled with its extensive specific surface area, render it an ideal material for the photocatalytic production of hydrogen. Graphdiyne (GDY) has gained significant attention in the area of photocatalytic hydrogen production owing to its appropriate band gap and exceptional electrical conductivity. In this work, the Co element was introduced into CeO2and a photocatalytic hydrogen evolution experiment was carried out with graphdiyne. It is found that the heterojunction between photocatalytic materials changes from type-I to a Schottky type after the introduction of the Co element by in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and density functional theory. Simultaneously, the hydrogen evolution capacity of CoCeOx/graphdiyne has shown a significant enhancement while maintaining excellent stability. The Schottky junction formed at the interface of CoCeOxand graphdiyne further separates the photogenerated electrons from the holes and effectively reduces the photogenerated carrier recombination. This investigation establishes a theoretical foundation for the potential application of graphdiyne and cobalt–cerium-based catalysts in photocatalytic hydrogen generation.

Intelligent defect detection of insulators is faster, more accurate, standardized, and cheaper than manual detection with necessary massive inspection work. Insulator datasets are important for training detection models. Nevertheless, public datasets are scarce and lack variety, which hampers improving detection accuracy and achieving industrial-grade accuracy. We construct a comprehensive beyond the current insulator dataset—the diverse insulator dataset (DINS). DINS contains over 10 000 insulator images involving three insulator types (porcelain, glass, and composite) and defects. We annotate over 25 000 bounding boxes for object detection and 9000 masks, for instance, segmentation. DINS has much more scale and diversity than the current insulator datasets. Eventually, we discussed the effective augmentation methods for DINS and conducted some experiments demonstrating the usefulness of DINS with 98.3% mean average precision (mAP) of object detection and 97.2% mAP of instance segmentation. The datasets are available on GitHub.

With the development of photocatalytic hydrogen production technology, the effective transport of photogenerated carrier electrons is still one of the main factors affecting the performance of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. In this work, graphdiyne was prepared by ball milling method. The CoMo-MOF with polyhedral structure was introduced into graphdiyne to construct S-scheme heterojunction to promote the efficient transfer of photogenerated carriers and enhanced hydrogen evolution activity. Graphdiyne is a new carbon material with adjustable band gap, which is synthesized from the hybrid of spand sp2, and has excellent electrical conductivity. CoMo-MOF is a polyhedral structure that can provide more active sites and promote photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The weak point of poor conductivity in CoMo-MOF has been successfully improved by combining CoMo-MOF with graphdiyne, and the migration rate of photogenerated carriers has been accelerated. The hydrogen evolution property of graphdiyne/CoMo-MOF is 300 μmol, which is 19.61 times that of graphdiyne and 9.03 times that of CoMo-MOF. Therefore, the construction of S-scheme heterojunction provides a transport channel for electron transfer and improves the efficiency of photogenerated carrier separation. This work provides a new train of thought of design to introduce MOFs materials into carbon materials for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

Two general protocols for the regioselective electrochemically enabled sulfonylation cyclization of N-alkenylacrylamides with sodium sulfinates or sulfonyl hydrazides were described. These methods were carried out under mild, chemical oxidant-free, and transition-metal-free conditions with a broad substrate scope and good functional group tolerance to provide sulfonyl-containing 4-pyrrolin-2-ones, which is readily scalable to the gram scale.

In this paper, we described a palladium/norbornene-catalyzed ortho-C–H phosphormethylation of aryl iodides using XCH2P(O)RR′, offering a reliable method for the modular synthesis of polysubstituted α-phosphorylated arenes. Alkenylation, hydrogenation, cyanation, methylation, and arylation were all viable termination steps compatible with the reaction. This method demonstrates excellent functional group tolerance and can be extended to the late-stage modification of bioactive molecules. Furthermore, the synthetic transformations of the products demonstrate the practical utility of this reaction.

Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) demonstrate plenty of unique properties due to the band structure. Symmetry breaking brings second-order susceptibility to meaningful values resulting in the enhancement of corresponding nonlinear effects. Cooling the TMDC films to cryogenic temperatures leads to the emergence of two distinct photoluminescence peaks caused by the exciton and trion formation. These intrinsic excitations are known to enhance second harmonic generation. The nonlinear signal can be greatly increased if these material resonances are boosted by high-quality factor geometric resonance of all-dielectric metasurfaces. Here, we experimentally observe optical second harmonic generation caused by excitons of 2D semiconductor MoSe2at room and cryogenic temperatures enhanced by spectrally overlapped high-Q resonance of TiO2nanodisks metasurface. The enhancement reaches two orders of magnitude compared to the case when the resonances are not spectrally overlapped.

The radiant syngas cooler (RSC) absorbs heat and generates steam, which is an indispensable part of the entrained-flow gasification system. The fly ash particles and molten slag adhere to the membrane wall of the RSC, resulting in an increasing thermal resistance of the membrane wall and a decreasing efficiency of the gasification system. The impact force of high-pressure airflow from the sootblowers can remove ash and slag deposits. In this study, a two-dimensional model of sootblowing without an impact wall surface and a three-dimensional model of water wall tubes in the industrial-scale RSC for a 2000 t/d entrained-flow coal gasifier are established. The effects of impingement angle, distance, and pneumatic supply pressure of sootblowers are numerically investigated to improve the sootblowing efficiency. The sootblowing gas flow characteristics and deposit removal performance analysis are studied as well. The results show that the core region of the sootblowing jet is located at a distance of 42 mm from the nozzle, exhibiting a jet velocity of 340 m/s under basic operating conditions. The effective impact distance range is insufficient when the pneumatic supply pressure is below 6.8 MPa. The effective sootblowing region reaches the largest area when the sootblowing angle is 30° and the sootblowing distance is 110 mm for radiation screens. The practical installation of sootblowers would be more optimal by selecting a smaller impact angle which can enhance the efficiency in a sootblowing system. The shorter sootblowing distance is suitable for removing high strength deposits, but it is not conducive to overall removal of ash and slag. The effective sootblowing area increases from 29.3 to 355.0 cm2when the pneumatic supply pressure of the sootblower is raised from 6.9 to 8.1 MPa.

Recognizing the imperative to mitigate carbon emissions in power plants, the availability of palm oil biomass in tropical countries holds significant promise. Nevertheless, the utilization for energy generation is currently limited to some parts of the palm oil biomass, such as empty fruit bunches and oil palm kernels. The primary objective of this investigation is to systematically evaluate the appropriate selection of two different parts of a mixture of oil palm biomass by focusing on slagging and fouling aspects. The evaluation method is initially conducted using empirical calculations and subsequently validated through experimental tests. This study produced three combinations of the two most promising oil palm biomasses: 75% oil palm mesocarp fiber and 25% oil palm leaves, 25% oil palm leaves and 75% palm kernel shell, and 50% oil palm leaves and 50% palm kernel shell. These have calorific value above 4144 kcal/kg, 3824 kcal/kg, and 3761 kcal/kg, respectively. They also result clean probe observations due to high estimated ash fusion temperature up to 1200 °C, lower K-element between 2.71 and 5.14 wt% and dominance presence of Si-based minerals in ash up to 80 wt%.

Throated downdraft gasifiers have the high tendency to pressure drop that hinders the smooth operations of these reactors. The ratio of gasifier throat diameter to gasifier diameter has an unprecedented impact on the pressure drop of downdraft reactors. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of reducing the throat on pressure, velocity, turbulence, and temperature in the reduction and oxidizing zones of the gasifier through computational fluid dynamics. The recorded data indicated a significant increase in both turbulence and velocity by 16% and 21% respectively, while there was a marginal increase in the pressure drop when TR0.12and TR0.40models were compared. The gasification temperature tremendously improved as the throat ratio is decreased from 0.40 to 0.12. Additionally, the gasifier performance in terms of carbon conversion, cold gas, gasification efficiencies as well as heating values are also dealt with. The results show that lower throat ratios increase the carbon conversion, heating value, and cold gas efficiency of the process to the tune of 8.61%, 15.3%, and 8.58% respectively when the T0.12and TR0.40were compared.

Schematic diagram of CH4-AG diffusion flame under oxy-fuel condition.

Solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients require meticulously tailored immunosuppressive regimens to minimize graft loss and mortality. Traditional approaches focus on inhibiting effector T cells, while the intricate and dynamic immune responses mediated by other components remain unsolved. Emerging advances in synthetic biology and material science have provided novel treatment modalities with increased diversity and precision to the transplantation community. This review investigates the active interface between these two fields, highlights how living and non-living structures can be engineered and integrated for immunomodulation, and discusses their potential application in addressing the challenges in SOT clinical practice.

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The disadvantages of cell-adaptive microenvironments and cellular diffusion out of the lesion have limited hydrogel-based scaffold transplantation treatment for neural connectivity, leading to permanent neurological disability from spinal cord injury. Herein, porous GelMA scaffold was prepared, in which the inner porous structure was optimized. The average pore size was 168 ± 71 μm with a porosity of 77.1%. The modulus of porous hydrogel was 593 ± 4 Pa compared to 1535 ± 85 Pa of bulk GelMA. The inner connected porous structure provided a cell-infiltrative matrix for neural stem cell migration and differentiation in vitro and eventually enhanced neuron differentiation and hindlimb strength and movement of animals in in vivo experiments. Furthermore, inflammation response and apoptosis were also alleviated after implantation. This work demonstrated that the porous hydrogel with appropriately connected micropores exhibit favorable cellular responses compared with traditional non-porous GelMA hydrogel. Taken together, our findings suggest that porous hydrogel is a promising scaffold for future delivery of stem cells and has prospects in material design for the treatment of spinal cord injury.

The combination of SiO2and CaO has an interdisciplinary significance in the practical application of thermal conversion of organic wastes. In this work, the influence of CaO/SiO2on pyrolysis behavior and morphology evolution of cellulose pyrolytic char pellets were explored in a high-frequency heating furnace. Results showed that, the addition of these two oxides obviously regulated the content and composition of pyrolytic products. The further cracking of pyrolytic oil was promoted and the gas yield was increased. Besides, SiO2and CaO were found in the forms of sharp splinters and aggregates in pyrolytic char, which inhibited the shrinkage of pellets and improved their reactivity. Moreover, a series of synergistic effects were observed, which had influence on both the oil and gas composition, the char reactivity and the microcrystalline structure.

To reduce the pollution during the pyrolysis recovery of chlorine-containing plastic waste from different sources, effects of the interaction between different plastics and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) on the transformation of chlorine at low temperature were investigated by thermogravimetry-Fourier transform infrared (TG-FTIR) and fixed-bed pyrolysis experiments. Results showed that the proportions of chlorine in chars were all <0.04 %, indicating that almost all chlorine was released after pyrolysis. However, the chlorine forms in volatiles were significantly changed with mixing different plastics. HCl production was significantly inhibited due to the addition of other plastics, while the organic chlorinated compounds (OCCs) formation was promoted, which increased the distribution of chlorine in liquid products. During PVC pyrolysis, chlorine was mainly distributed in gas (93.09 %) in the form of HCl, only a small amount of aliphatic chlorides were generated and distributed in liquid (6.89 %). After the addition of polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the chlorine distribution in liquid increased to 8.86 %, 11.98 % and 25.99 %, respectively. The formation of OCCs was significantly affected by the difference in thermochemical reaction characteristics of plastics. Specifically, the production of aromatic chlorides was promoted by PS, while the generation of aliphatic chlorides and aromatic chloroesters was significantly promoted by PE and PET, respectively. Therefore, the release form of chlorine could be significantly altered by the interaction between PVC and other waste plastics, which provides a reference for the regulation of chlorine-containing pollutants in the recovery and utilization of plastic waste.

To explore the influence of pelletization on the thermal conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW), pyrolysis characteristics and gasification reactivity of MSW pellet and powder were investigated in this study. Besides, the physicochemical properties of internal char and external char within the char pellet were separately characterized. Moreover, the relationship between the physicochemical properties of char pellet and its gasification reactivity was clarified. Results showed that the pyrolytic gas yields of MSW pellets were increased by 15.47 % and 11.55 % at 700 °C and 800 °C, respectively, compared to powder MSW. It was mainly attributed that the conversion of monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was promoted by the longer residence time within the pellets. Meanwhile, the physicochemical properties of pyrolytic char pellets exhibited a significant heterogeneity. Specifically, the number of ordered aromatic rings of char pellet was reduced, while the order degree of carbon structure was enhanced, particularly the internal char. However, the difference magnitude between internal and external char was diminished with temperature. This was due to the higher temperature resulting in a larger surface specific area and pore volume of the char pellet, especially the internal char, thereby enhancing the pyrolysis process. Furthermore, an increase in pore volume within the char pellet improved gasification reactivity when the conversion rate > 0.4. These findings provide a reference for the pyrolysis and gasification process of MSW pellets.

The article presents the results of experimental studies on the gasification of mixtures of brown coal and polyethylene (up to 20 wt% fraction) in a laboratory reactor. The work aims to study the agglomeration process during the heating and oxidation of the mixtures. The measurement results (gas composition, pressure drop) provide indirect information on the dynamics of thermal decomposition and structural changes in the fuel bed. We have shown that the interaction between polyethylene and a coal surface leads to the formation of dense agglomerates, in which the molten polymer acts as a binder. Clinkers form as a result of interfacial interactions between components and filtration flow rearranging. The hydrogen/carbon ratio in the solid residue of coal-polyethylene co-gasification increases from 0.07–0.2 to 1.11, indicating the formation of stable hydrocarbon compounds on the carbon surface. The conducted research makes it possible to identify possible interactions between chemical reactions and transfer processes that lead to agglomeration in mixtures of coal with polyethylene.

Background: The incidence of HIV and AIDS is growing faster among individuals 50 and older compared to those under 40. Although the majority of clinical trials aimed at treating diseases have been found to exclude older individuals, it is not yet known whether this bias extends to sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk-reduction clinical trials published in a wide range of journals. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of STD risk-reduction clinical trials that were published in the English-language journals included in MEDLINE between January 1, 1994, and January 1, 2005. Results: Over two-thirds (73%) of these clinical trials excluded persons over the age of 50 and 89% excluded persons over the age of 65. The level of inclusion of these older individuals showed no improvement during the 10 years of the systematic review. Conclusions: The pattern of excluding individuals above the age of 50 from STD risk-reduction clinical trials has persisted even though AIDS is increasing most rapidly in this age group. Therefore, a need exists to increase older individuals' representation in these clinical trials.

Medium-sized rings are important structural units, but their synthesis, especially in a highly enantioselective manner, has been a great challenge. Herein we report an enantioselective synthesis of medium-sized-ring lactones by an iridium-catalyzed Z-retentive asymmetric allylic substitution reaction. The reaction features mild conditions and a broad substrate scope. Various eight- to 11-membered-ring lactones can be afforded in moderate to excellent yields (up to 88%) and excellent enantioselectivity (up to 99% ee). The utilization of both Z-allyl precursors and an Ir catalyst is critical for the medium-sized-ring formation.

The presence of contaminates (i.e., heavy metals) in biomass through various sources (industrial activities and municipal solid waste) from its growth to end use has become a nuisance. Over the past years, biofuel production from metal-contaminated waste biomasses (MCWBs) has attracted more attention on account of the potential roles in addressing both energy and environmental concerns. This review considers the migration and transfer behaviors of heavy metals into various output streams, including solid products (i.e., biochar), tar and syngas from MCWBs, i.e., contaminated energy crops, plants, industrial wastes, and municipal solid waste, and using thermochemical processes (gasification and pyrolysis). In addition, the authors also shed light on the transfer mechanisms of heavy metals (however, the availability of the literature on the transfer mechanisms of heavy metals during thermal process is very limited) and usability of products (bio-oil, biochar, and syngas), including a comparison of gasification and pyrolysis processes in regard to the conversion of MCWBs into bioenergy. In the end, techno-economic assessments and future perspectives are presented. This review will be helpful to promote future research and may aid in the scale-up of the current practices to visualize MCWBs as potential opportunities instead of nuisances.

Rapid pyrolysis experiment of Zhundong coal was conducted in a high-frequency furnace to investigate release characteristics of alkali and alkaline earth metals (AAEMs) and its correlation with changes of physical and chemical properties of char. Residence time and atmosphere during pyrolysis were important process parameters that affected the migration characteristics of AAEMs and physicochemical structural evolution of char. Experimental results show that the release of AAEMs in coal char increases over time. The maximum release rate of Na, Mg and Ca is 61.05%, 64.47%, and 44.01%, respectively. Promoting effect of CO2on release of Na mainly occurs in the initial stage of rapid pyrolysis, nevertheless the promoting effect on release of Mg and Ca mainly is in the middle and late stage. CO2accelerates release of AAEMs by promoting release of volatiles, facilitating decomposition of oxygen-containing functional groups and aliphatic functional groups, and promoting formation of cracks on surface of coal char.

The morphological structure of six samples including the rapid pyrolysis soot of solid fuels (coal, biomass), the soot from non-catalytic partial oxidation(NCPOX) of natural gas in a laboratory pilot plant and an industrial plant, the commercial carbon black in natural gas furnace/coal tar furnace, were characterized by using a transmission electron microscope. Based on atmospheric thermogravimetric analyzer, the non-isothermal method (50–800 °C) was adopted to study the ignition point and the oxidation reaction rate of soot, and the oxidation reaction kinetic parameters of soot was obtained. Studies showed that the physical and chemical properties of various soot were quite different. The soot from the rapid pyrolysis of coal and biomass presented a higher sphericity and a larger particle size. The Lab-NCPOX-soot was formed at a lower temperature which caused the particle being wrapped by a carbon capsule. The Ind-NCPOX-soothad a hollow structure and a small particle size. The reactivity of the Lab-NCPOX-soot is close to that of the Ind-NCPOX-soot, which is 3.1 times that of the commercial natural gas furnace carbon black and 3.2 times that of the commercial coal tar furnace carbon black; the reactivity of NCPOX-soot is 9.0 times of the rapid pyrolysis soot of coal, and 26.6 times of the rapid pyrolysis soot of biomass. The activation energy of 2 kinds of NCPOX-soot and 2 kinds of commercial carbon blacks present staged forms with increasing temperature. The activation energy of the 2 rapid pyrolysis soot was basically unchanged with increasing the temperature.

ABSTRACTBackground and Contextautomated feedback for programming assignments has great potential in promoting just-in-time learning, but there has been little work investigating the design of feedback in this context.Objectiveto investigate the impacts of different designs of automated feedback on student learning at a fine-grained level, and how students interacted with and perceived the feedback.Methoda controlled quasi-experiment of 76 CS students, where students of each group received a different combination of three types of automated feedback for their programming assignments.Findingsfeedback addressing the gap between expected and actual outputs is critical to effective learning; feedback lacking enough details may lead to system gaming behaviors.Implicationsthe design of feedback has substantial impacts on the efficacy of automated feedback for programming assignments; more research is needed to extend what is known about effective feedback design in this context.

AimsS-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (Skp2) oncoprotein is overexpressed in a variety of cancer tissues and promotes the malignant development of cancer. The expression levels of chromobox homolog 7 (CBX7) protein are varied among different types of cancer tissues, but its role in cervical cancer is not clear. We aimed to examine the expression and clinical significance of Skp2 and CBX7 proteins as well as their correlations in cervical cancer.MethodsImmunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of Skp2 and CBX7 proteins in the cancerous tissues and adjacent tissues of 64 patients with cervical cancer. Relevant clinicopathological data of these patients were collected, compared and analysed for the correlations.ResultsThe expression of Skp2 protein in cervical cancer (87.5%) was higher than that in paracancerous tissues (14.1%), and the expression was positively correlated with clinical stage, malignant degree, lymphatic metastasis, vascular invasion and interstitial invasion. The expression of CBX7 protein in cervical cancer (48.4%) was lower than that in paracancerous tissues (96.8%), and the expression was negatively correlated with clinical stage, malignant degree, interstitial invasion, vascular invasion and lymphatic metastasis. The expression of Skp2 protein and CBX7 protein in cervical cancer tissues and adjacent tissues was negatively correlated. The expression of Skp2 and CBX7 proteins was closely related to the clinicopathological features of cervical cancer.ConclusionsCBX7 may play the role of a tumour suppressor gene in cervical cancer and provide reference value for the diagnosis and new targeted treatment of cervical cancer.

In this work, a novel coordination polymer HNU-55has been synthesized by the reaction of Zn(II) ion with the organic ligand 3-pyridinesulfonic acid (PSA) under solvothermal condition, which can be used as a fluorescent sensor for the detection of doxycycline (DOX). The fluorescent performance is effective in a wide linear range from 0 to 30 μM of DOX with a low detection limit of 3.7 nM. Likewise, the fluorescent sensor presents good selectivity, anti-interference, and circularity. Additionally, the HNU-55sensor can be successfully used to assay the content of DOX in pig feed. Furthermore, the mechanism of fluorescence enhancement has been discussed in detail, which provides a clear understanding for the antibiotic detection based on the fluorescence enhancement.

We show that the synthetic gauge fields for photons provide a versatile approach to generate and control the non-Hermitian skin effect. By utilizing indirectly coupled optical ring resonator arrays with long-range couplings and on-site gain and loss, we find that the skin effect appears once the gauge field is not an integer multiple of π. In addition to tunable localization direction, the skin modes display anisotropic behaviors with frequency-dependent decay length, which can be explained by the split subregion of the generalized Brillouin zone (GBZ) and an effective model under adiabatic elimination. Through numerical simulation, we can also demonstrate exotic features in propagation effects enabled by the skin effect, including asymmetric transmission and reconfigurable accumulation interface. Our study paves the way to dynamically steer skin modes, which may find applications in laser, optical switch, and signal processing.

ABSTRACTTo solve the problem of point cloud registration caused by noisy or incomplete data, a deep learning model based on the 3D Siamese convolution neural network is proposed. The key idea of our algorithm is the acquisition of the training data. To accumulate training data for our model, we project 3D point cloud data onto a 2D plane to obtain cumulative projection images, then we use the SIFT algorithm to match the images and obtain the matching point pairs. On this basis, according to the relationship between the matching point pairs and 3D point cloud, the 3D point blocks are obtained, and finally the Siamese convolution neural network is used to learn the 3D point block pairs and obtain the 3D feature descriptor. The point cloud can be effectively matched by using the feature descriptor and Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. Experiments show that the descriptor consistently outperforms other state-of-the-art approaches by a significant margin; therefore, this method offers significant improvement in processing speed and registration accuracy.

Objective This study aimed to compare the pregnancy outcomes of Day 2 (D2) fresh embryo transfer and D3 fresh embryo transfer in women with only one zygote with two pronuclei (2PN).Methods Data on 432 in vitrofertilization-embryo transfer cycles with only one 2PN zygote from January 2016 to January 2022 were retrospectively collected. A total of 302 fresh embryo transfers on D2 (n = 193) and D3 (n = 109) were analyzed, and pregnancy outcomes were compared.Results The patients’ characteristics were not different between D2 and D3 embryo transfer. There were no significant differences in the rates of clinical pregnancy, early abortion, or live birth between D2 and D3 embryo transfer. A multivariate logistic regression model controlling for age, the fertilization method, the number of oocytes harvested, and the number of high-quality embryos transferred showed that the live birth rate was similar between D2 and D3 embryo transfer.Conclusion In in vitrofertilization-embryo transfer cycles with only one 2PN zygote, D2 fresh embryo transfer may provide similar pregnancy outcomes to those of D3 embryo transfer. D2 embryo transfer may be an option because of the risk of cycle cancellation due to the absence of viable embryos on D3.

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by recurrent respiratory infections, nasosinusitis, tympanitis, and/or male infertility, all of which can severely impair the patient’s quality of life. Multiple morphological abnormalities of the sperm flagella (MMAF) is one type of severe teratozoospermia and results from a variety of flagellar defects. In this study, we conducted whole-exome sequencing to identify and evaluate the genetic lesions in two patients with potential PCD and MMAF. Biallelic mutations in exon 10, c.983G>A; p.(Gly328Asp), and exon 29, c.3532G>A; p.(Asp1178Asn), of the CFAP74(NM_001304360) gene were identified in patient 1 (P1), and biallelic mutations in exon 7, c.652C>T; p.(Arg218Trp), and exon 35, c. 4331G>C; p.(Ser1444Thr), of the same gene were identified in patient 2 (P2). Bioinformatic analysis suggested that these variants may be disease causing. Immunofluorescence confirmed that CFAP74 was absent in these patients’ sperm samples. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) was carried out for P1, and his wife became pregnant after embryo transfer and gave birth to a healthy baby. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to identify the importance of CFAP74in potential PCD and MMAF, contributing to the genetic diagnosis of these disorders and helping to predict pregnancy outcomes relevant in in vitro fertilization.

Identifying severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) as soon as possible is critical for achieving optimal outcomes and saving lives. In this study, a novel P-selectin-targeted, NIR fluorescent dye (Cy 5.5)-labeled dual-modal nanoprobe based on diethylenetriaminepentaacetic chelates (Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb) was constructed for the bimodal imaging of SAP at the early stage. Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb was prepared, and its structure was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV–vis spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy, and its stability was evaluated. Biocompatibility was evaluated by the hemolysis and cytotoxicity assays. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect and evaluate the expression of P-selectin in the peripheral blood of 11 patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) and 5 healthy volunteers. The bimodal imaging ability of Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb nanoprobes was evaluated via near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in AP animal models in vivo. Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb showed low toxicity to human embryonic kidney cells (293T cells) and good blood compatibility. The P-selectin levels of humans and rats in the mild acute pancreatitis (MAP)/SAP stage were significantly higher than those in the control group and reached the highest level at the SAP stage. Furthermore, Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb nanoprobes showed clear NIRF imaging of mouse pancreas at the MAP stage and SAP stage by a fluorescence signal at 6.09 × 108and 1.95 × 109, respectively. Meanwhile, Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb nanoprobes also successfully showed the T1-weighted MR signal of rat pancreas at the MAP stage, but Gd-DTPA seldom showed any signal increase at the MAP stage; Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb and Gd-DTPA could show an increasing MR signal of rat pancreas at the SAP stage. Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb proved to offer a stronger signal than Gd-DTPA.Our findings indicate that Gd-DTPA-Cy5.5-PsLmAb is an effective and specific MR/NIRF dual nanoprobe for bimodal imaging, providing a promising diagnostic approach for early SAP in clinic.

AimsMorphological abnormalities are present in patients with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). We studied and compared the pelvic anatomy and morphology between the affected hemipelvis with the unaffected side in patients with unilateral Crowe type IV DDH using 3D imaging and analysis.MethodsA total of 20 patients with unilateral Crowe-IV DDH were included in the study. The contralateral side was considered normal in all patients. A coordinate system based on the sacral base (SB) in a reconstructed pelvic model was established. The pelvic orientations (tilt, rotation, and obliquity) of the affected side were assessed by establishing a virtual anterior pelvic plane (APP). The bilateral coordinates of the anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) and the centres of hip rotation were established, and parameters concerning size and volume were compared for both sides of the pelvis.ResultsThe ASIS on the dislocated side was located inferiorly and anteriorly compared to the healthy side (coordinates on the y-axis and z-axis; p = 0.001; p = 0.031). The centre of hip rotation on the dislocated side was located inferiorly and medially compared to the healthy side (coordinates on the x-axis and the y-axis; p < 0.001; p = 0.003). The affected hemipelvis tilted anteriorly in the sagittal plane (mean 8.05° (SD 3.57°)), anteriorly rotated in the transverse plane (mean 3.31° (SD 1.41°)), and tilted obliquely and caudally in the coronal plane (mean 2.04° (SD 0.81°)) relative to the healthy hemipelvis. The affected hemipelvis was significantly smaller in the length, width, height, and volume than the healthy counterpart. (p = 0.014; p = 0.009; p = 0.035; p = 0.002).ConclusionAsymmetric abnormalities were identified on the affected hemipelvis in patients with the unilateral Crowe-IV DDH using 3D imaging techniques. Improved understanding of the morphological changes may influence the positioning of the acetabular component at THA. Acetabular component malpositioning errors caused by anterior tilt of the affected hemi pelvis and the abnormal position of the affected side centre of rotation should be considered by orthopaedic surgeons when undertaking THA in patients with Crowe-IV DDH.Cite this article: Bone Joint J2020;102-B(10):1311–1318.

In this study, the catalytic effect of biomass leachate from corn straw (CS) and corncob (CC) on CO2gasification of high-rank coal was investigated. The coal char was pretreated by impregnation with biomass leachate. The isothermal gasification of char was performed using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) at temperatures of 1100, 1200, and 1300 °C. The model-free, model-fitting, and nucleation model were adopted for the kinetic analysis. The carbon structure, the surface morphology, and element composition were further evaluated. The results showed that the CS and CC leachate can effectively accelerate coal char gasification at high temperatures, reducing the activation energy by 53.4 and 66.1 kJ/mol, respectively. The model-fitting analysis showed that the volume model (VM) or random pore model (RPM) had a better fitting performance than the grain model (GM). The structure analysis indicated that the active sites and porosity of the pretreated coal char increased during gasification, which was due to the attachment of the inorganic and organic species from biomass leachate. In addition, the predictions for isothermal gasification over a temperature range of 1100–1300 °C were made with respect to the specific reaction time.

A gold-catalyzed dearomatization reaction of β-naphthol derivatives via intramolecular hydroalkylation of alkynes is described. In the presence of 5 mol % Au complex, various spironaphthalenones were obtained from α-tethered alkyne β-naphthols in good to excellent yields (76–99%) under open-flask conditions.

The development of infrared photodetectors is mainly limited by the choice of available materials and the intricate crystal growth process. Moreover, thermally activated carriers in traditional III–V and II–VI semiconductors enforce low operating temperatures in the infrared photodetectors. Here we demonstrate infrared photodetection enabled by interlayer excitons (ILEs) generated between tungsten and hafnium disulfide, WS2/HfS2. The photodetector operates at room temperature and shows an even higher performance at higher temperatures owing to the large exciton binding energy and phonon-assisted optical transition. The unique band alignment in the WS2/HfS2heterostructure allows interlayer bandgap tuning from the mid- to long-wave infrared spectrum. We postulate that the sizeable charge delocalization and ILE accumulation at the interface result in a greatly enhanced oscillator strength of the ILEs and a high responsivity of the photodetector. The sensitivity of ILEs to the thickness of two-dimensional materials and the external field provides an excellent platform to realize robust tunable room temperature infrared photodetectors.

In this paper, typical Chinese bituminous coal was pyrolyzed rapidly and repeatedly in a high-frequency furnace at 1000 °C to investigate the changes of coal physicochemical structures, reactivities, and their relationship. The physicochemical structure was mainly characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, pore analysis, and so forth. The results showed that after the rapid pyrolysis, the specific surface area reduced significantly, the average particle size and the content of amorphous carbon structure increased first and then decreased, the content of the oxygen-containing group exposed to the surface decreased, and the aromaticity increased gradually. The reactivities were analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis, including slow pyrolysis (from 105 to 1000 °C) and in situ gasification (at 850, 900, 950, and 1000 °C). For slow pyrolysis, the primary decomposition peak of pretreated samples was inhibited, whereas the secondary peak was enhanced. For in situ gasification, the reactivity was promoted after rapid pyrolysis according to the reactivity index. The Coats–Redfern method and model-free method were adopted for kinetic analysis. These reactivity changes were discussed with the evolution of the physicochemical structure in detail. For example, the variation of the decomposition peak in slow pyrolysis was implied by the content of the aliphatic and aromatic in the samples. Besides, the first rapid pyrolysis was found to be more crucial than the second rapid pyrolysis for the changes of the coal structure and reactivity.

A gold-catalyzed dearomatization reaction of indole derivatives was realized in the presence of JohnPhosAuCl/AgOMs to afford a series of spiroindolenines in excellent yields (≤99%). In addition, when the Hantzsch ester was used as the hydrogen transfer reagent, various spiroindolines were obtained in a cascade fashion starting from readily available indole derivatives in modest to good yields (≤79%). Both reactions feature readily available substrates, mild conditions, and good functional group tolerance.

Food waste is a global challenge for the environment but also an available fuel with complex components. In this paper, rice, lettuce, and fish residue (contained meat and bone) were selected as typical components of daily food waste. The co-gasification reactivity of three food wastes with Shenfu coal was tested via thermogravimetric analysis. The interaction mechanism was further studied via scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, heating stage microscope, and Fourier transform (FT)-Raman techniques. The lettuce/fish waste char presented great synergy with coal char during co-gasification, whereas no synergy was observed during co-gasification of rice char and coal char. During co-gasification of lettuce/fish waste char and coal char, the ash from lettuce (rich in potassium) and fish residue (rich in calcium) migrated to the surface of coal char and further catalyzed the coal char gasification. The synergetic effect was further confirmed via a high-temperature stage microscope. In addition, The FT-Raman analysis showed that the lettuce and fish ash increased the reacting sites of Shenfu char and inhibited the degree of graphitization.

The heterogeneity of waste tire pyrolytic char associated with ash composition and distribution is explored to understand the effect of ash on gasification. In this paper, high-ash tire tread (TT) and low-ash sidewall (SW) were separated to study gasification kinetics and the influence of ash on char physicochemical morphological evolution during CO2gasification. Morphological development and characterization of chars were studied using N2adsorption and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Isothermal gasification kinetics were derived from a thermogravimetric analyzer and described by the shrinking core model (SCM), volumetric model (VM), and the random pore model (RPM). The results showed that TT char has silica-based ash clusters which inhibit gasification, particularly at high conversions. Moreover, TT ash suppresses surface area development and forms an inherent skeletal structure that inhibits particle size reduction during the reaction. In contrast, SW char exhibited significant particle size reduction, and surface area development was more pronounced compared to that for TT char. The surface area for SW char increased until 75% conversion and decreased thereafter, albeit insignificantly, while the TT char surface area decrease was more pronounced after 50% conversion. All chars exhibited significant internal structure development, thus eliminating the SCM as an appropriate model. All models yielded kinetic parameters of nearly the same magnitude, and the RPM was selected as the most suitable model. The activation energy for TT and SW were found to be 177.1 and 163.6 kJ mol–1, respectively. The model-free method confirmed the reliability of the results. These findings further confirmed the inhibiting nature of tire ash.

Co-gasification of biomass after hydrothermal treatment (HTT) and coal blends had great potential to realize the clean and efficient co-conversion of biomass and coal. In this study, co-gasification reactivity and synergy of Shenfu bituminous coal and rice straw (RS) hydrochar (prepared at HTT temperatures of 200, 220, and 240 °C) blends (denoted as SF-RS200, SF-RS220, and SF-RS240) were investigated using a nonisothermal thermogravimetric analysis, and gasification kinetic analysis was conducted based on the Coats–Redfern method. The results show that different blends showed little difference in the initial temperature for weight loss, the final temperature for weight loss, and the temperature corresponding to the maximum weight loss rate during both co-pyrolysis (stage 1) and blended char co-gasification (stage 2), and only the maximum weight loss rate of different blends showed a relatively large difference. Reactivity of blends at both stage 1 and stage 2 decreased at a higher HTT temperature. There was no synergy behavior at stage 1. However, the synergistic effect at stage 2 was observed and was more significant for SF-RS200 and SF-RS220 compared with SF-RS240, which was mainly attributed to the potassium concentration difference among RS hydrochar samples led to various catalytic effects on coal char gasification at stage 2. Kinetics analysis demonstrates that both volumetric reaction model (O1) and shrinking core model (R2, R3) all showed high correlation coefficients (>0.95) for different samples and reaction stages. There were obvious kinetic compensation effects in the gasification process, and activation energy (E) and pre-exponential factor (A) of different samples followed a positive correlation relationship as ln A= 0.2340 × E– 4.3186 for stage 1 and ln A= 0.1217 × E– 6.2181 for stage 2.

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are bound electromagnetic waves propagating at a dielectric-metal interface, which have gained attention for high performance and ability for miniaturisation in high-speed dense circuits, due to their subwavelength properties. A dielectric-metal-dielectric (I-M-I) plasmonic waveguide with a 40 nm thick metal or metal-like strip on silicon substrate is proposed for intra-chip communication. The propagation characteristics of the I-M-I waveguide are investigated by numerical simulation and the modes are experimentally verified by scanning near-field optical microscopy. Metal lines as thin as 40 nm can have propagation lengths as large as 239 μm, which has small footprint compatible with the advanced interconnect process.