Search

Diffusion welding of YG8 and 40Cr was carried out by spark plasma sintering. The influence of Ni interlayer with different thicknesses varying from 0 to 500 μm on the welding morphology and mechanical properties of joints was studied. The fracture position moved from the cemented carbide substrate toward the connection interface with the increase in the thickness of the Ni intermediate layer. The joint with nickel-free interlayer and 100-μm thick fractured during electrical discharge machining due to the large residual stress. The bending strength of the joints enhanced with the increase in the Ni intermediate layer from 200 to 300 μm, and a maximum flexural strength of 982 MPa was obtained with the thickness of the Ni intermediate layer to be 300 μm, which was up to 97% of the strength of the cemented carbide substrate. However, the further increase in Ni intermediate layer from 300 to 500 μm resulted in a decrease in the bending strength, which was due to the coupled effects of residual stress and interlayer plastic constraint. Besides, fracture cracks were also observed at the interface of Ni/40Cr with the thickness of Ni intermediate layer to be 400 and 500 μm. The formation of Kirkendall pores in the interface of Ni/40Cr due to different diffusion coefficients of Fe (1.468 × 10−14 m2/s) and Ni (2.15 × 10−14 m2/s) was responsible for the crack initiation and propagation in the Ni/40Cr interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exosomal PD-L1 (exoPD-L1) has recently received significant attention as a biomarker predicting immunotherapeutic responses involving the PD1/PD-L1 pathway. However, current technologies for exosomal analysis rely primarily on bulk measurements that do not consider the heterogeneity found within exosomal subpopulations. Here, we present a nanoscale cytometry platform NanoEPIC, enabling phenotypic sorting and exoPD-L1 profiling from blood plasma. We highlight the efficacy of NanoEPIC in monitoring anti-PD-1 immunotherapy through the interrogation of exoPD-L1. NanoEPIC generates signature exoPD-L1 patterns in responders and non-responders. In mice treated with PD1-targeted immunotherapy, exoPD-L1 is correlated with tumor growth, PD-L1 burden in tumors, and the immune suppression of CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) with different PD-L1 expression levels display distinctive inhibitory effects on CD8 + T cells. NanoEPIC offers robust, high-throughput profiling of exosomal markers, enabling sEV subpopulation analysis. This platform holds the potential for enhanced cancer screening, personalized treatment, and therapeutic response monitoring. Exosomal PD-L1 (exoPD-L1) is a biomarker predicting immunotherapeutic responses. Here the authors report NanoEPIC, a nanoscale cytometry platform that enables phenotypic sorting and exoPD-L1 profiling from blood plasma by using magnetic-activated ranking to differentiate exosomal subpopulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the behavior recognition technology based on Wi-Fi devices has been favored by many researchers. Existing Wi-Fi-based human behavior recognition technology mainly uses classification algorithms to construct classification models, which has problems such as inaccurate behavior segmentation, failure to extract deep-level features from the original data and design classification models matching the proposed features in the process of behavior recognition. In order to solve above problems, this paper proposes a window variance comparison method by combining the adaptive thresholds calculated to achieve effective segmentation of multiple discontinuous human behaviors, then uses the short-time Fourier algorithm to extract time-frequency features of individual behavior, and extracts the graph structure data from the autocorrelation matrix of time-frequency features and the features themselves. A graph neural network is built for behavior recognition. The experimental results show that the segmentation accuracy of the behavior segmentation method in the two scenes is 0.964 and 0.993, which is better than the existing threshold-based behavior segmentation methods. In addition, this paper extracts graph structure data by spectral energy change method and builds behavior recognition model by using graph neural network, and the recognition accuracy is significantly improved compared with the traditional classification algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous iron batteries are appealing candidates for large-scale energy storage due to their safety and low-cost aspects. However, the development of aqueous Fe batteries is hindered by their inadequate long-term cycling stability. Here, we propose the synthesis and application as positive electrode active material of cross-linked polyaniline (C-PANI). We use melamine as the crosslinker to improve the electronical conductivity and electrochemical stability of the C-PANI. Indeed, when the C-PANI is tested in combination with a Fe metal negative electrode and 1 M iron trifluoromethanesulfonate (Fe(TOF)2) electrolyte solution, the coin cell can deliver a specific capacity of about 110 mAh g−1 and an average discharge voltage of 0.55 V after 39,000 cycles at 25 A g−1 with a test temperature of 28 °C ± 1 °C. Furthermore, mechanistic studies suggest that Fe2+ ions are bonded to TOF− anions to form positively charged complexes Fe(TOF)+, which are stored with protons in the C-PANI electrode structures. Finally, we also demonstrate the use of C-PANI in combination with a polymeric hydrogel electrolyte to produce a flexible reflective electrochromic lab-scale iron battery prototype. Aqueous iron batteries are safe and cost-effective candidates for large-scale energy storage. However, their long-term cycling stability is inadequate. Here, the authors propose a crosslinked polyaniline-based positive electrode for high-power aqueous iron batteries with electrochromic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nucleic acid sensing powered by the sequence recognition of CRIPSR technologies has enabled major advancement toward rapid, accurate and deployable diagnostics. While exciting, there are still many challenges facing their practical implementation, such as the widespread need for a PAM sequence in the targeted nucleic acid, labile RNA inputs, and limited multiplexing. Here we report FACT (Functionalized Amplification CRISPR Tracing), a CRISPR-based nucleic acid barcoding technology compatible with Cas12a and Cas13a, enabling diagnostic outputs based on cis- and trans-cleavage from any sequence. Furthermore, we link the activation of CRISPR-Cas12a to the expression of proteins through a Reprogrammable PAIRing system (RePAIR). We then combine FACT and RePAIR to create FACTOR (FACT on RePAIR), a CRISPR-based diagnostic, that we use to detect infectious disease in an agricultural use case: honey bee viral infection. With high specificity and accuracy, we demonstrate the potential of FACTOR to be applied to the sensing of any nucleic acid of interest. Nucleic acid sensing involving CRISPR technologies is powerful but has certain limitations, such as PAM sequence requirements and limited multiplexing. Here, authors report a CRISPR-based barcoding technology which enables multiple outputs from any target sequence, based on cis- and trans-cleavage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a design of a novel swimming mechanism based on a linkage mechanism. The generated motions of the proposed mechanism mimic the purely aquatic locomotion of frogs such as Xenopus laevis (X. laevis), including both the motions of the hind legs and the webbed foot. A six-bar linkage mechanism is employed in this study combing with a spatial linkage mechanism to simplify the overall mechanism. Attributes to the optimal design, the number of Degrees of Actuations (DoA) reduces to two in each hindlimb, which realizes miniaturization in the current study. Kinematic analysis is conducted to analyze the locomotion of the spatial mechanism. The hydrodynamic model based on the blade element theory is established to estimate the swimming performance of the designed mechanism. The peak thrust (approximately 0.2 N) is dramatically larger than the minimum drag (−0.023 N) observed in the experiment which increases the efficiency of the prototype’s swimming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, cobalt-nickel nanoparticles with ferromagnetic properties are often used in wave absorption materials and sensors. In this paper, after surface treatment of carbon fiber, a simple solvothermal method was used to grow cobalt-nickel alloy particles on the surface of carbon fiber, which was expressed as CoNi alloy/carbon fibers composite. The surface treatment process of carbon fiber, the structures, morphology, chemical, and electromagnetic parameters of CoNi alloy/CFs composites were analyzed in detail. In the composite material, more loss mechanisms are introduced to balance impedance matching, thus achieving designable electromagnetic parameters, ultra-thin thickness, low density, wide absorption frequency band, and strong electromagnetic absorption capacity. The effects of permittivity and permeability on the absorbing properties of the composites were compared under different CoNi alloy content (15–45%). The absorption frequency of composites moves to high-frequency and shows better performance, with the minimum RL of − 55.4 dB at 17.1 GHz and the effective absorption bandwidth is 4.1 GHz (thickness 1.2 mm). Accordingly, as-prepared CoNi alloy/CFs composites could be used as electromagnetic wave absorbing materials with great application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platinum (Pt) has found wide use as an electrocatalyst for sustainable energy conversion systems1–3. The activity of Pt is controlled by its electronic structure (typically, the d-band centre), which depends sensitively on lattice strain4,5. This dependence can be exploited for catalyst design4,6–8, and the use of core–shell structures and elastic substrates has resulted in strain-engineered Pt catalysts with drastically improved electrocatalytic performances7,9–13. However, it is challenging to map in detail the strain–activity correlations in Pt-catalysed conversions, which can involve a number of distinct processes, and to identify the optimal strain modification for specific reactions. Here we show that when ultrathin Pt shells are deposited on palladium-based nanocubes, expansion and shrinkage of the nanocubes through phosphorization and dephosphorization induces strain in the Pt(100) lattice that can be adjusted from −5.1 per cent to 5.9 per cent. We use this strain control to tune the electrocatalytic activity of the Pt shells over a wide range, finding that the strain–activity correlation for the methanol oxidation reaction and hydrogen evolution reaction follows an M-shaped curve and a volcano-shaped curve, respectively. We anticipate that our approach can be used to screen out lattice strain that will optimize the performance of Pt catalysts—and potentially other metal catalysts—for a wide range of reactions.By depositing platinum shells on palladium-based nanocubes, the strain can be controlled by through phosphorization and dephosphorization, making it possible to tune the electrocatalytic activity of the platinum shells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional materials have already been considered as promising microwave absorbing materials due to their unique and charming layered structure. However, it is difficult to achieve excellent absorption performance at a thin thickness. Herein, the polyhedral Fe3O4 was prepared in-situ using sheet-shaped carbonyl iron powder, which not only retained the sheet-like structure of carbonyl iron powder but also formed polyhedral Fe3O4 on the surface. By tuning the ratio of Ti3C2TX/carbonyl iron powder/Fe3O4 microwave absorption capabilities in terms of the minimum reflection loss (RL) value and absorber thickness could be readily optimized. This result is verified by the explanation of the quarter-wavelength law and impedance matching degree. Specifically, when the thickness of the C–F–M 10% composite material is 2.2 mm, the minimum RL value at 9.16 GHz is − 52.1 dB, and the effective absorption bandwidth is 3.32 GHz. The thickness of the C–F–M 15% composite is 2.0 mm, the minimum RL value at 11.12 GHz is − 49.9 dB, and the effective absorption bandwidth is 4.59 GHz. Therefore, Ti3C2TX composite material is expected to become a candidate material for ultra-thin and lightweight absorbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a scattering area model for processing multipath parameters achieve single base station positioning. First of all, we construct a scattering area model based on the spatial layout of obstacles near the base station and then collect the multipath signals needed for positioning and extract parameters. Second, we use the joint clustering algorithm improved by k-means clustering and mean shift clustering algorithm to process the parameters and extract useful information. Third, the processed information is combined with the spatial layout information of the scattering area model to construct equations, and then the solving problem of equations is converted into a least-squares optimization problem. Finally, the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm is used to solve the optimal solution and estimate the mobile target position. The simulation results show that the positioning algorithm in this paper can be used by a single base station to locate the target in an outdoor non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environment, and the accuracy is improved compared with the traditional positioning algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart environment sensing and other applications play a more and more important role along with the rapid growth of device-free sensing-based services, and extracting parameters contained in channel state information (CSI) accurately is the basis of these applications. However, antenna arrays in wireless devices are all planar arrays whose antenna spacing does not meet the spatial sampling theorem while the existing parameter estimation methods are almost based on the array satisfying the spatial sampling theorem. In this paper, we propose a parameter estimation algorithm to estimate the signal parameters of angle of arrival (AoA), time of flight (ToF), and Doppler frequency shift (DFS) based on the service antenna array, which does not satisfy the spatial sampling theorem. Firstly, the service antenna array is mapped to a virtual linear array and the array manifold of the virtual linear array is calculated. Secondly, the virtual linear array is applied to estimate the multi-dimensional parameters of the signal. Finally, by calculating the geometric relationship between the service antenna and the virtual linear array, the parameters of the signal incident on the service antenna can be obtained. Therefore, the service antenna can not only use the communication channel for information communication, but also sense the surrounding environment and provide related remote sensing and other wireless sensing application services. Simulation results show that the proposed parameter estimation algorithm can accurately estimate the signal parameters when the array antenna spacing does not meet the spatial sampling theorem. Compared with TWPalo, the proposed algorithm can estimate AoA within 3∘, while the error of ToF and DFS parameter estimation is within 1 ns and 1 m/s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy cost minimization for mission-critical internet-of-things (IoT) in mobile edge computing (MEC) system is investigated in this work. Therein, short data packets are transmitted between the IoT devices and the access points (APs) to reduce transmission latency and prolong the battery life of the IoT devices. The effects of short-packet transmission on the radio resource allocation is explicitly revealed. We mathematically formulate the energy cost minimization problem as a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problem, which is difficult to solve in an optimal way. More specifically, the difficulty is essentially derived from the coupling of the binary offloading variables and the resource management among all the IoT devices. For analytical tractability, we decouple the mixed-integer and non-convex optimization problem into two sub-problems, namely, the task offloading decision-making and the resource optimization problems, respectively. It is proved that the resource allocation problem for IoT devices under the fixed offloading strategy is convex. On this basis, an iterative algorithm is designed, whose performance is comparable to the best solution for exhaustive search, and aims to jointly optimize the offloading strategy and resource allocation. Simulation results verify the convergence performance and energy-saving function of the designed joint optimization algorithm. Compared with the extensive baselines under comprehensive parameter settings, the algorithm has better energy-saving effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four-dimensional (4D) printing of shape memory polymer (SMP) imparts time responsive properties to 3D structures. Here, we explore 4D printing of a SMP in the submicron length scale, extending its applications to nanophononics. We report a new SMP photoresist based on Vero Clear achieving print features at a resolution of ~300 nm half pitch using two-photon polymerization lithography (TPL). Prints consisting of grids with size-tunable multi-colours enabled the study of shape memory effects to achieve large visual shifts through nanoscale structure deformation. As the nanostructures are flattened, the colours and printed information become invisible. Remarkably, the shape memory effect recovers the original surface morphology of the nanostructures along with its structural colour within seconds of heating above its glass transition temperature. The high-resolution printing and excellent reversibility in both microtopography and optical properties promises a platform for temperature-sensitive labels, information hiding for anti-counterfeiting, and tunable photonic devices. Four-dimensional (4D) printing of shape memory polymer (SMP) imparts time responsive properties to 3D structures. Here, the authors explore 4D printing of a SMP in the submicron length scale, extending its applications to nanophononics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a simple yet efficient algorithm for recognizing simple quadric primitives (plane, sphere, cylinder, cone) from triangular meshes. Our approach is an improved version of a previous hierarchical clustering algorithm, which performs pairwise clustering of triangle patches from bottom to top. The key contributions of our approach include a strategy for priority and fidelity consideration of the detected primitives, and a scheme for boundary smoothness between adjacent clusters. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method produces qualitatively and quantitatively better results than representative state-of-the-art methods on a wide range of test data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many low-thermal-conductivity (κL) crystals show intriguing temperature (T) dependence of κL: κL ∝ T−1 (crystal-like) at intermediate temperatures whereas weak T-dependence (glass-like) at high temperatures. It has been in debate whether thermal transport can still be described by phonons at the Ioffe-Regel limit. In this work, we propose that most phonons are still well defined for thermal transport, whereas they carry heat via dual channels: normal phonons described by the Boltzmann transport equation theory, and diffuson-like phonons described by the diffusion theory. Three physics-based criteria are incorporated into first-principles calculations to judge mode-by-mode between the two phonon channels. Case studies on La2Zr2O7 and Tl3VSe4 show that normal phonons dominate low temperatures while diffuson-like phonons dominate high temperatures. Our present dual-phonon theory enlightens the physics of hierarchical phonon transport as approaching the Ioffe-Regel limit and provides a numerical method that should be practically applicable to many materials with vibrational hierarchy. Predicting thermal transport in low-thermal-conductivity (κL) materials is challenging. Here, the authors propose a dual-phonon theory, where normal phonons are treated using the Boltzmann thermal equation and diffuson-like phonons are treated within diffusion theory, yielding robust predictions of κL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Clarifying the relationship between photosynthesis and irradiance and accurately quantifying photosynthetic performance are of importance to calculate the productivity of phytoplankton, whether in aquatic ecosystems modelling or obtaining more economical production. Results: The photosynthetic performance of seven phytoplankton species was characterized by four typical photosynthesis–irradiance (P–I) response models. However, the differences were found between the returned values to photosynthetic characteristics by different P–I models. The saturation irradiance (Isat) was distinctly underestimated by model 1, and the maximum net photosynthetic rate (Pnmax) was quite distinct from its measured values, due to the asymptotic function of the model. Models 2 and 3 lost some foundation to photosynthetic mechanisms, that the returned Isat showed significant differences with the measured data. Model 4 for higher plants could reproduce the irradiance response trends of photosynthesis well for all phytoplankton species and obtained close values to the measured data, but the fitting curves exhibited some slight deviations under the low intensity of irradiance. Different phytoplankton species showed differences in photosynthetic productivity and characteristics. Platymonas subcordiformis showed larger intrinsic quantum yield (α) and lower Isat and light compensation point (Ic) than Dunaliella salina or Isochrysis galbana. Microcystis sp., especially M. aeruginosa with the largest Pnmax and α among freshwater phytoplankton strains, exhibited more efficient light use efficiency than two species of green algae. Conclusions: The present work will be useful both to describe the behavior of different phytoplankton in a quantitative way as well as to evaluate the flexibility and reusability of P–I models. Meanwhile we believe this research could provide important insight into the structure changes of phytoplankton communities in the aquatic ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Features extraction and analysis for human activity recognition (HAR) have been studied for decades in the 5th generation (5G) and beyond the 5th generation (B5G) era. Nowadays, with the extensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the civil field, integrating wireless signal receivers on UAVs could be a better choice to receive hearable signals more conveniently. In recent years, the HAR system based on CSI based on WiFi radar has received widespread attention due to its low cost and privacy protection property. However, in the existing CSI-based HAR system, there are two disadvantages: (1) The detection threshold is manually set, which limits its adaptability and immediacy in different wireless environments. (2) A sole classifier is used to complete the recognition, resulting in poor robustness and relatively low recognition accuracy. In this paper, we propose a CSI-based device-free HAR (CDHAR) system with WiFi-sensing radar integrated on UAVs to recognize everyday human activities. Firstly, by using machine learning, CDHAR applies kernel density estimation (KDE) to obtain adaptive detection thresholds to complete the extraction of activity duration. Second, we proposed a random subspace classifier ensemble method for classification, which applies the frequency domain feature instead of the time domain feature, and we choose each kind of feature in the same amount. Finally, we prototype CDHAR on commercial WiFi devices and evaluate its performance in both indoor environment and outdoor environments. The experiment results tell that even if experimental scenario varies, the accuracy of activity durations extraction can reach 98% and 99.60% whether in outdoor or indoor environments. According to the extracted data, the recognition accuracy in outdoor and indoor environments can reach 91.2% and 90.2%, respectively. CDHAR ensures high recognition accuracy while improving the adaptability and instantaneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Directional water harvesting is a special ability of flora and fauna in nature. Wettability-patterned surfaces inspired by natural structures have been extensively researched and could be a great potential avenue for easing water shortage. However, preparation strategies for these nature-inspired cases, including UV irradiation with mask technology, femtosecond laser direct writing and chemical treatment, are time-consuming, cost-ineffective and environmentally unfriendly. In this paper, robust and durable superhydrophobic (SHB) glass substrate was prepared by using laser-induced backward transfer technique and fluoroalkylsilane modification. Then wedge-shaped superhydrophilic (SHL) patterns on the SHB surfaces were rapidly constructed by inexpensive and commercially available fibre laser ablation for fog harvesting. This facile, cost-effective and non-corrosive preparation method described herein could be an alternative way to construct SHL–SHB patterns on glass substrate, which could be used for microfluidic devices, droplet manipulation and cell screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An energy-efficient digital-to-analogue converter switching scheme with operation-mode configurability is proposed for successive approximation register (SAR) analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs). The operation-mode configurability of the SAR ADC is realized by utilizing the single-side switching method, which can achieve operation-mode change between differential mode and single-ended mode. Compared to conventional scheme, the proposed switching scheme improves the energy-efficiency by 99.23% and 96.9% for differential mode and single-ended mode, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superhydrophobic surfaces patterned with hydrophilic groove structures have promising applications in microfluidics. In this work, hydrophilic groove patterns with stable wettability were created directly on superhydrophobic Al surface by micromilling. Feasibility of applying diverse milled hydrophilic patterns, including dimples, ring grooves and reservoirs connected by winding channels in a variety of droplet manipulations, such as water/oil/air storage, water transport, etc. was tried out. Experimental results showed that the milled dimples and ring grooves on the superhydrophobic background can function as a multifunctional platform for storing micro-liter sized water, oil and gas bubbles; two milled reservoirs connected by a milled channel can serve as a open surface microfluidics to transport liquid using Laplace pressure difference. On the basis of the liquid transport between two reservoirs, more sophisticated liquid handling such as droplet separation and mixing were achieved by transporting liquid among multiple reservoirs. It is thus clear that the micromilling is a quite suitable approach to create complex hydrophilic groove structures on superhydrophobic background for applications to diverse interface-driven microfluidics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computationally efficient inverse dynamics is crucial to the real-time application of parallel robots. This paper provides a computationally more efficient solution to the inverse dynamics of a class of six-DOF parallel robots based on the dual quaternion approach under the principle of virtual power. A unit dual quaternion is selected as the generalized coordinates of the system. The equations of motion are then constructed by the principle of virtual power. The dual quaternion constraints are eliminated by the null space formulation to obtain the inverse dynamic solution. It is revealed that in the new solution, the Jacobian matrices and the orthogonal complement matrix are all linear with respect to the generalized coordinates. Additionally, the positions, velocities and accelerations of all bodies are quadratic with respect to the generalized coordinates, velocities and accelerations. Such succinct expressions render the new solution computationally more efficient. The execution time of the dual quaternion approach and the traditional one are compared under the same condition by two different six-DOF parallel robots: 6-UPS and 6-PUS. The results show that the new solution can save the computational cost by 43.45% and 38.45% respectively for the two robots, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro punching process is suitable for mass production of micro parts. It is a challenge to fabricate micro punching mold with complex cross-sectional shape on-machine. The micro punching system's structure design has to meet the requirement of large punching force. In this study, a micro punching system has been developed with a micro electrical discharge machining (EDM) module. A series of machining operations, from the fabrication of micro molds to punching, have been completed with no secondary clamping error. The micro die and reversed electrode are prepared using micro EDM milling. The micro punch is fabricated using reversed electrode. The punching clearance is around 11 μm. Complex shape punched holes and blanked parts have been successfully fabricated on copper, brass, 304 stainless steel, and 3J21 alloy. After punching, there was no damage on the edges of micro die and micro punch. The key dimensional error of blanked part varies by different materials, which is less than 2.5 μm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibodies targeting PD-1 have been demonstrated durable anti-cancer activity in certain cancer types. However, the anti-PD-1 antibodies are less or not efficacious in many situations, which might be attributed to co-expression of multiple inhibitory receptors or presence of immunosuppressive cells in the tumor microenvironment. Most of the anti-PD-1 antibodies used in clinical studies are of IgG4 isotype with the S228P mutation (IgG4S228P). The functional impact by the interaction of anti-PD-1 IgG4S228P antibody with Fc gamma receptors (FcγRs) is poorly understood. To assess the effects, we generated a pair of anti-PD-1 antibodies: BGB-A317/IgG4S228P and BGB-A317/IgG4-variant (abbreviated as BGB-A317), with the same variable regions but two different IgG4 Fc-hinge sequences. There was no significant difference between these two antibodies in binding to PD-1. However, BGB-A317/IgG4S228P binds to human FcγRI with high affinity and mediates crosslinking between PD-1 and FcγRI. In contrast, BGB-A317 does neither. Further cell-based assays showed that such crosslinking could reverse the function of an anti-PD-1 antibody from blocking to activating. More importantly, the crosslinking induces FcγRI+ macrophages to phagocytose PD-1+ T cells. In a mouse model transplanted with allogeneic human cancer cells and PBMCs, BGB-A317 showed significant tumor growth inhibition, whereas BGB-A317/IgG4S228P had no such inhibition. Immunohistochemistry study revealed an inverse correlation between FcγRI+ murine macrophage infiltration and the density of CD8+PD-1+ human T cells within tumors in the BGB-A317/IgG4S228P-treated group. These evidences suggested that FcγRI+ binding and crosslinking had negative impact on the anti-PD-1 antibody-mediated anti-cancer activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By investigating some recently reported switching schemes for successive approximation register (SAR) analogue-to-digital converter, it is found that the reset energy is several times than the switching energy, which significantly reduces the overall energy-efficiency of these switching schemes. In this paper, a simple group reset method is proposed. By grouping capacitors into different groups during the resetting and sampling phase, the reset energy is eliminated, which significantly improves the overall energy-efficiency of SAR ADC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) have been widely utilized in biomedical applications owing to their attractive features and biocompatibility, which greatly increase the risk of humans’ being exposed to Au NPs, including pregnant women. In contrast to mature cells, embryos are more susceptible to outside disruptive stimuli. Nonetheless, a possible inhibitory effect of nanomaterials on embryonic development is usually ignored as long as the NPs do not have significant cytotoxic effects. According to our results, a minimal “nontoxic” concentration of Au NPs during early pregnancy can have lethal inhibitory effects on embryos in vivo and in vitro. We conducted important experiments on the influence of Au NPs on embryonic development and found that Au NPs can disturb embryonic development in a size- and concentration-dependent manner. Au NPs of 15 nm in diameter downregulated the expression pattern of distinct germ layer markers both at mRNA and protein levels; this action prevented differentiation of all three embryonic germ layers. Consequently, fetal resorption was observed. Our work reveals the impact of Au NPs on embryonic development and will provide an important guidance and serve as a reference for biomedical applications of Au NPs with minimal side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping genetic interactions in mammalian cells is limited due to technical obstacles. Here we describe a method called TCGI (tRNA-CRISPR for genetic interactions) to generate a high-efficient, barcode-free and scalable pairwise CRISPR libraries in mammalian cells for identifying genetic interactions. We have generated a genome- wide library to identify genes genetically interacting with TAZ in cell viability regulation. Validation of candidate synergistic genes reveals the screening accuracy of 85% and TAZ-MCL1 is characterized as combinational drug targets for non-small cell lung cancer treatments. TCGI has dramatically improved the current methods for mapping genetic interactions and screening drug targets for combinational therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal drought is a major threat to rice production. However, the sensitivity of rice to drought stress (DS) at different growth periods remains unclear. The objective of this study was to reveal the different impacts of DS at the flowering stage on rice physiological traits, grain yield, and quality. Field experiments were conducted with two rice cultivars, Yangliangyou 6 (YLY6) and Hanyou 113 (HY113) under two water treatments (traditional flooding (CK) and DS at flowering stage) in 2013 and 2014. Compared with CK, grain yield (GY) under DS was significantly reduced by 23.2% for YLY6 and 24.0% for HY113 while instantaneous water use efficiency (IWUE) was significantly increased by 39% for YLY6 and 37% for HY113, respectively. All physiological traits were significantly decreased under DS and physiological activities did not revert to normal levels at grain filling stage. There was no significant effect on the appearance and nutritional quality except for the significant increase in chalky kernel and chalkiness under DS. Our data suggest that drought stress at flowering stage has a strong influence on rice physiological traits and yield. Stronger recovery capability contributes to maintaining relatively high grain production, which could be a great target for the breeder in developing drought-tolerant rice cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study developed a facile approach for preparing Ti3+ self-doped TiO2-graphene photocatalyst by a one-step vacuum activation technology involved a relative lower temperature, which could be activated by the visible light owing to the synergistic effect among Ti3+ doping, some new intersurface bonds generation and graphene oxide reduction. Compared with the traditional methods, the vacuum activation involves a low temperature and low-costing, which can achieve the reduction of GO, the self doping of Ti3+ in TiO2 and the loading of TiO2 nanoparticles on GR surface at the same time. These resulting TiO2-graphene composites show the high photodegradation rate of MO, high hydrogen evolution activity and excellent IPCE in the visible light irradiation. The facile vacuum activation method can provide an effective and practical approach to improve the performance of TiO2-graphene and other metal oxides-graphene towards their practical photocatalytic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]