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This paper proposes an adaptive Particle Swarm Optimization(APSO) global search algorithm and Spiking Neural Network(SNN) surrogate model-based optimization design method for analog integrated circuits performance enhancement. The initial design parameters are calculated by numerical computation. The global design space is extended and explored using APSO in the main loop, with constraint testing ensuring the transistor works in the right conditions. A Spiking Neural Network (SNN) model aids in predicting circuit performance during local searches, in which training data for the local design space is generated through parallel SPICE simulations. The optimization framework is applied to rail-to-rail amplifiers of two topologies. The results show that the proposed method accelerates the optimization process, achieving up to a 35.4x speed enhancement compared to Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO) based on the SPICE simulation. Moreover, Compared with traditional approaches based on multiobjective optimization, the proposed method provides an advantage in performance improvement and is valid for different CMOS processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we study the convergence behavior, as α → 2 , of the invariant probability measures of stochastic Burgers equations driven by two kinds of cylindrical α -stable processes (i.e., cylindrical subordinated Brownian motions and subordinated cylindrical Brownian motions) on torus. We prove that the invariant probability measures of stochastic Burgers equations driven by cylindrical subordinated Brownian motions or subordinated cylindrical Brownian motions converge to the invariant probability measure of stochastic Burgers equations forced by cylindrical Brownian motions in Wasserstein distance. This result shows a connection between stochastic dynamical systems with non-Gaussian noises and stochastic dynamical systems with Gaussian noises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital microfluidics, with a distinctive manner of droplet actuation via electrowetting on individually addressable electrodes, has made tremendous scientific and technical advances in the last twenty years or so. Its unique advantages in reduced sample consumption, programmability and reconfigurability, ease for intelligent recognition and closed-loop control on compartmentalized liquid samples, and simplicity in integrating with other technologies, offer preciseness and flexibility in discrete biological and chemical sample handling, which bring in promising application opportunities to life science studies. Meeting the growing demands in biological and biochemical applications, this accurate liquid-handling platform now moves into a stage of high-level integration and instrumentation, highlighted by miniaturization and full functionalization. In this paper, we start with a comprehension of mechanisms related to DMF technology from which novel functions of DMF devices were derived, and from a technical perspective, we provide an in-depth review of recent developments in the DMF community on new approaches in DMF chip fabrication, control and automation of DMF manipulation and system integration, instrumentation, and applications. • A thorough understanding of the mechanisms related to the actuation and hydrodynamic paved a strong foundation for solutions on reliable manipulation and interestingly extended functions of DMF chips. • Novelties reported in fabrication and assembly methods of DMF devices allowed for low-cost and reusable but free from cross-contamination chips and highly accessible ways of production. Among these, PCB and flexible substrates, as well as reusable covers, will be attractive in manufacturing DMF chips. • To realize a closed-loop control, real-time detection by impedance or machine vision was proposed, and new schemes and algorithms were realized with close to perfect completion in the literature. Furthermore, for promoting the throughput of DMF systems, the active matrix of switch arrays has been established in reports and will be of great help to developing high-end instruments. • Towards building up functionalized DMF instruments for POC diagnosis, on-chip and system-level integrations were highlighted in this review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • FBG geophone with acceleration limit is designed for weak signal detection. • Environmental tests verify its reliability as oil & gas industry product. • FBG geophone shows higher SNR compared to conventional moving-coil geophone. • Seismic cross-section profiles were obtained by FBG geophone array in field tests. Abstract A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based geophone is designed for low-frequency signal detection. It has high acceleration response of about 60 dB re pm/g in a low frequency range of 5–60 Hz. However, the basic sensing principle of stretching FBG requires much more delicate and reliable packaging design and technology. Especially the high sensitivity at low frequency challenges the reliability in packaging, transportation and installation of sensor. To guarantee normal operation in field test and practical application, an acceleration amplitude restriction is added in the mechanical design of the FBG geophone. Then a series of environmental and reliability tests have been proceeded with online or offline monitoring of its working performance, including high & low temperature test, vibration test, shock test and tensile test, strictly according to National standard and Oil & Gas Industry Standard. The experimental results indicate that our FBG geophone meet the criterion of oil and gas industry product and is capable of field application. Finally, in the filed blasting tests, the seismic cross-section profile was obtained by use of FBG geophone array which shows the advantage in low frequency signal acquisition compared to conventional move-coil geophone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical properties of graphene transparent conductive film under visible light irradiation are investigated. The CVD-grown graphene on Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and glass substrates for flexible and rigid touch screen display application are chosen for research. The resistances of graphene with and without gold trichloride (AuCl 3 ) doping are measured in vacuum and atmosphere environment under blue light irradiation. Results show that the conductivities of all samples change slowly under light irradiation. The change rate and degree are related to the substrate material, doping, environment and lighting power. Graphene on flexible PET substrate is more stable than that on rigid glass substrate. Doping can improve the electrical conductivity but induce instability under light irradiation. Finally, the main reason resulting in the graphene resistance slowly increasing under blue light irradiation is analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking advantage of an extremely high theoretical capacity of 4200 mAh g −1 , silicon has been considered one of the most promising anode materials for lithium ion batteries. Nevertheless, it also has many challenging issues, such as large volume expansion, poor electrical conductivity and the formation of unstable solid electrolyte interphase layers. To address these challenges, much effort has been directed towards developing new strategies, such as designing novel nanosilicon and hybridizing with other functional materials. This paper is dedicated to identifying the current state-of-the-art fabrication methods of nanosilicon, including ball milling, chemical vapor deposition, metal-assisted chemical etching and magnesiothermic reduction, as well as the design principles and the selection criteria for fabricating high performance Si nanostructures. The critical factors determining the electrical conductivity, structural stability and active material content are elucidated as important criteria for designing Si-based composites. The structural evolution and reaction mechanisms of nanosilicon electrodes studied by in situ experiments are discussed, offering new insights into how advanced Si electrodes can be designed. Emerging applications of Si electrodes in other rechargeable batteries, such as Li-S, Li-O 2 and Na-ion batteries are also summarized. The challenges encountered for future development of reliable Si electrodes for real-world applications are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is crucial to reveal the dent deformation mechanism of the sandwich pipe (SP) for the dent evaluation of damaged offshore SPs. This study aimed to explore the difference in dent characteristics between sandwich pipes' inner and outer tubes subjected to lateral loads. Quasi-static lateral denting tests are carried out to investigate the denting resistance and the indentation characteristics of SPs with the ends fixed. The finite element method is used to simulate the development of SP dent in the installation, operation, and shutdown stages. The dent depth and dent strain of the inner and outer tubes are examined and compared. Parametric studies are performed to clarify the influence of material properties, geometric configuration, and interlayer friction on the difference in dent characteristics between the inner and outer tubes. The research demonstrates that the relative difference in dent characteristics between the inner tube and the outer tube is closely related to the hollow ratio, thickness-to-radius ratio, material steel grade of the inner tube and the outer tube, and the interaction between the layers. The findings show that the current dent evaluation criteria need to be improved to provide practical dent evaluation for the dented SPs. • The inner tube dent depth ratio is generally lager than the outer tube. • The dent strain of the outer tube is much higher than that of the inner tube. • Geometric parameters are the most crucial factors affecting the dent characteristics. • The current dent evaluation criteria needs to be improved for sandwich pipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital microfluidics (DMF), facilitating independent manipulation of microliter samples, provides an ideal platform for immunoassay detection; however, suffering limited multiplexity. To address the need, herein we described a digital microfluidics (DMF) platform that realizes spatial barcoding on the Teflon-coated indium tin oxide (ITO) glass side to fulfill highly multiplexed immunoassay (10+) with low-volume samples (∼4 μL) in parallel, representing the highest multiplexing recorded to date for DMF-actuated immunoassay. Planar-based spatial immobilization of multiple capture antibodies was realized on a Teflon-coated ITO glass side, which was then used as the top plate of the DMF device. Droplets containing analytes, secondary antibodies, and fluorescent signaling reporters with low volume, which were electrically manipulated by our DMF control system, were shuttled sequentially along the working electrodes to complete the immuno-reaction. Evaluation of platform performance with recombinant proteins showed excellent sensitivity and reproducibility. To test the feasibility of our platform in analyzing multiplex biomarkers of the immune response, we used lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages as a model system for protein secretion dynamics studies. As a result, temporal profiling of pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion dynamics was obtained. The spatial barcoding strategy presented here is easy-to-operate to enable a more comprehensive evaluation of protein abundance from biological samples, paving the way for new opportunities to realize multiplexity-associated applications with the DMF platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile co-precipitation and annealing method for the growth of porous CoMn 2 O 4 microspheres is presented. Serving as a supercapacitor electrode, the CoMn 2 O 4 microsphere possesses a remarkable specific capacitance (788 F g −1 at the current density of 1 A g −1 ), which hold great promise for use as electrochemical energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic compact thermal model plays important roles in predicting the junction temperature and characterizing the transient thermal behavior of an electronic device. In this paper, analytical dynamic compact thermal model for high power LEDs is established based on the three-directional heat flow paths under junction-to-ambient definition. Comparative results with finite element method model indicate that the presented model is accurate and efficient. It is further reduced by analyzing the influence of different components of the LED package. Good agreement with experimental results confirms that the reduced analytical model can predict the junction temperature and characterize the thermal behavior effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an effective low bit-rate video coding scheme is developed to realize state-of-the-art video coding efficiency with lower encoder complexity, while supporting standard compliance and error resilience. Such an architecture is particularly attractive for application scenarios involving resource-deficient wireless video communications. At the encoder, in order to increase resilience to channel error, multiple descriptions of a video sequence are generated in the spatio-temporal domain by temporal multiplexing and spatial adaptive downsampling. The resulting side descriptions are interleaved with each other in temporal domain, while still with conventional square sample grids in spatial domain. As such, each side description can be compressed without any change to existing video coding standards. At the decoder, each side description is first decompressed, and then reconstructed to the original resolution with the help of the other side description. In this procedure, the decoder recovers the original video sequence in a constrained least squares regression process, in which 2D or 3D piecewise autoregressive model is adaptively chosen according to different predictive modes. In this way, the spatial and temporal correlation is sufficiently explored to achieve superior quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed video coding scheme outperforms H.264/AVC and other state-of-the-art methods in rate–distortion performance at low bit-rates and achieves superior visual quality at medium bit rates as well, while with lower encoding computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method based on Bayesian deconvolution is proposed for multiexponential transient signal analysis. The multiexponential signal is initially converted to a convolution model using logarithmic and differential transformation after which the Bayesian iteration is used to deconvolve the data. The numerical simulation is applied on four different multiexponential signals with different levels of noise. Thermal transient experiment data of the high power light emitting diodes are also analyzed using the proposed method. Simulation and experimental results indicate that the present method performs efficiently in accurately estimating the decay rates except at low SNR case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-focus image fusion (MFF) is an effective way to eliminate the out-of-focus blur generated in the imaging process. The difficulties in distinguishing different blur levels and the lack of real supervised data make multi-focus image fusion remain a challenging task after decades of research. According to deep image prior (DIP) (Ulyanov et al., 2018), a neural network itself can capture the low-level statistics of a single image and is successfully used as a prior for solving many inverse problems without the need for handmade priors or priors learned from large-scale datasets. Motivated by this idea, we propose a novel multi-focus image fusion framework named ZMFF comprised of a deep image prior network to model the deep prior of the fused image and a deep mask prior network to model the deep prior of the focus map corresponding to each source image. Without the labor-intensive training pair collection, our method achieves zero-shot learning and avoids the domain shifting problem due to the inconsistency between the manually degraded multi-focus images and the real ones. As far as we know, it is the first unsupervised and untrained deep model for the MFF task. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the promising performance, generalization and flexibility of our approach. Source code is available at https://github.com/junjun-jiang/ZMFF. • It proposes the first zero-shot methods for multi-focus image fusion. • It successfully mines the deep priors of clear fused image and the corresponding focus maps. • It could avoid the labor-intensive data collection and domain shifting while achieving competitive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital microfluidics is a plausible platform for manipulation of discrete droplets, which are driven by electrowetting and dielectrophoretic forces. Increasing the sustainability of DMF chips while reducing their fabrication cost would be attractive to research on droplet-based micro-actuators. Here, we report a new robust composite layer, with which a broad range of its operation voltage of DMF chips was demonstrated, covering from 30 V, which was 25 V below the theoretical value predicted with scaling model that derived from d / ɛ , to at least 350 V with a minimum dispensing voltage at 100 V. Also, a lifetime of at least 5000 continuous cycles at 110 volts was achieved. Deposition of such a composite layer was solely accomplished with a low-cost spincoater, instead of expensive vapour deposition instruments. And the materials we used were cheap as well. The electromechanical force, which was expressed in separate terms of electrowetting force and dielectrophoretic force on a droplet, in six chips with different values of d / ɛ were calculated and compared. The result from our calculation showed that, differently from low- d / ɛ DMF chips, there was considerable electrowetting factor among the electromechanical force in the high- d / ɛ DMF chips and it may be the cause that the initial apparent actuation voltage was much lower than theoretical threshold actuation voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Dynamical systems driven by Gaussian noises have been considered extensively in modeling, simulation and theory. However, complex systems in engineering and science are often subject to non-Gaussian fluctuations or uncertainties. A coupled dynamical system under non-Gaussian Lévy noise is considered. After discussing cocycle property, stationary orbits and random attractors, a synchronization phenomenon is shown to occur, when the drift terms of the coupled system satisfy certain dissipativity conditions. The synchronization result implies that coupled dynamical systems share a dynamical feature in certain asymptotic sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Uniform, vertically aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube arrays (VACNTs) were grown on glassy carbon-like thin films by thermal chemical vapour deposition (CVD). Thin (5nm) aluminum and iron catalyst layers were pre-deposited by evaporation on the carbon substrates and VACNTs were grown at 750°C by water-assisted CVD using ethylene as the carbon source. The aluminum layer was shown to be essential for aligned nanotube growth. VACNT arrays adhered strongly to the carbon film with low contact resistance between the VACNTs and the substrate. The VACNT arrays grown directly on the planar conducting carbon substrate have attractive properties for use as electrodes. Excellent voltammetric characteristics are demonstrated after insulating the arrays with a dielectric material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A prototype device was made to scale up a method for the wet purification of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The device consists of a fluid-flow chamber, which facilitates the flow of MWCNT suspensions across a large array of interdigitated electrodes (IDEs). A radio-frequency voltage provides the electric field for dielectrophoresis. Electric parameters of the array were monitored during the running of the process and were observed to reflect the increase of conductance caused by accumulation of MWCNTs. SEM and Raman spectroscopy showed a decrease in the D-band to G-band ratio for the material accumulated on the array. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

CVD-grown multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in suspension were aligned and collected by an AC electric field developed within an inter-digitated electrode structure. The increases of conductance and capacitance were observed and monitored by dielectric spectroscopy and attributed to the accumulations of CNTs. Comparisons of the capacitance and conductance changes of aligned CNTs in different solvents were made. Among these, CNTs in distilled water showed the greatest increases in both conductance and capacitance. As the field is switched on or off, the conductance and capacitance of the CNTs show substantial reversible changes superimposed on the underlying increasing trend. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Hyperspectral and multispectral (HS–MS) image fusion aims to reconstruct high-resolution hyperspectral images from low-resolution hyperspectral images and high-resolution multispectral images. While convolutional neural networks have been widely used for HS–MS fusion, their potential is curtailed due to the limited receptive field of each neuron, resulting in inadequate long-range modeling capabilities. Although several Transformer-based HS–MS fusion methods have been proposed, most of them often fail to fully integrate and coordinate the data from the two modalities (i.e., hyperspectral images and multispectral images). Such ineffective interactions significantly compromise the quality of the reconstructed hyperspectral images. In this paper, we introduce a novel reciprocal fusion strategy called the dual cross Transformer-based fusion (DCTransformer) for HS–MS fusion. The model excels in capturing the interplay between different modalities by utilizing directional pairwise multi-head cross-attention, which facilitates the transfer of information between modalities. Additionally, we incorporate a Swin Transformer block post cross-attention to enhance the self-attention within the context. Extensive experiments show that our DCTransformer performs favorably against other recent works on both simulation HSI datasets and real HSI datasets. The source code and pre-trained models are availabe at https://github.com/qingma2016/DCTransformer. • We advance a novel hyperspectral and multispectral image fusion method through dual cross Transformer model. • The proposed method can reciprocally inject the spectral and spatial information to the target hyperspectral image. • It achieves the state-of-the-art performance in terms of both quantitative results and visual quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, an efficient broad-spectrum WS 2 /BiOBr heterostructure with ultrathin nanosheet was successfully prepared by one-pot hydrothermal route. The self-assembled flower-like WS 2 /BiOBr nanostructure was formed by few-layer WS 2 and BiOBr nanosheets. The optimized heterojunction presented broad-spectrum high-efficiency photocatalytic activity towards the removal of various pollutants under visible-light irradiation, including organic dyes, antibiotics and phenols. This efficiency was linked to high light harvesting combined with effective charge separation/transfer. Meanwhile, the degradation efficiencies varied with nature of the pollutant decreased in the following order: LR5B (99%) > MNZ (97%) > TC (92%) > OTC (92%) > RhB (90%) > CIP (83%) > MB (78%) > MO (62%) > bisphenol (42%) > phenol (40%). The photocatalytic process of ciprofloxacin was explored, and the results indicated that high ciprofloxacin concentrations, low pH values and elevated concentrations of ions (PO 4 3−, HPO 4 2‐, H 2 PO 4 −, and Cu2+) restrained the photocatalytic performances. Trapping experiments and ESR revealed the significant contribution of holes (h+) in the mechanism, where both superoxide radicals (O 2 −) and hydroxyl radicals (OH) acted as assistants. Overall, this work could offer a new protocol for the design of highly efficient heterostructure photocatalysts for environmental remediation. Unlabelled Image • Facile synthesis of flower-like WS 2 /BiOBr heterojunction was presented. • Formation process of flower-like WS 2 /BiOBr heterojunction was proposed. • WS 2 /BiOBr exhibited broad-spectrum photocatalytic activity towards pollutants. • The environmental factors on the degradation of CIP were investigated. • A plausible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the ill-posed problem of hyperspectral image super-resolution (HSISR), a commonly employed technique is to design a regularization term based on the prior information of hyperspectral images (HSIs) to effectively constrain the objective function. Traditional model-based methods that rely on manually crafted priors are insufficient in fully characterizing the properties of HSIs. Learning-based methods usually use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to learn the implicit priors of HSIs. However, the learning ability of CNN is limited, it only considers the spatial characteristics of the HSIs and ignores the spectral characteristics, and convolution is not effective for long-range dependency modeling. There is still a lot of room for improvement. In this paper, we propose a novel HSISR method that leverages the Transformer architecture instead of the CNN to learn the prior of HSIs. Specifically, we employ the proximal gradient algorithm to solve the HSISR model and simulate the iterative solution process using an unfolding network. The self-attention layer of the Transformer enables global spatial interaction, while a 3D-CNN is added behind the Transformer layers to better capture the spatio-spectral correlation of HSIs. Both quantitative and visual results on three widely used HSI datasets and the real-world dataset demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a considerable gain compared to all the mainstream algorithms including the most competitive conventional methods and the recently proposed deep learning-based methods. The source code and trained models are made publicly available at https://github.com/qingma2016/3DT-Net. • We advance a novel unfolding-based hyperspectral image super-resolution method. • A hyperspectral data cube prior modeling method is introduced via 3D-CNN and transformer. • It achieves the state-of-the-art performance in terms of both quantitative results and visual quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by rupture of tuberculosis associated aneurysm is a rare complication. In this paper, we report a case of intracranial tuberculum with adjacent intracerebral inflammatory aneurysm which caused subarachnoid hemorrhage and brain abscess formation. Case Description A 28-year-old man presented with sudden onset of severe headache. He was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis 8 years ago, and had been treated with antituberculosis medications for 6 months. Head computed tomography showed a small hematoma in the left sylvian fissure with subarachnoid hemorrhage. Cerebral digital subtraction angiography was performed and no aneurysm was found. He was discharged after nonsurgical treatment. Three weeks later, he came back to our department with complaint of aphasia. Magnetic resonance images showed a cystic lesion with mass effect. During operation, we encounter the brain abscess and were surprised to find a middle cerebral artery aneurysm while dissecting. The abscess was totally removed, and the aneurysm was secured by clipping. The aneurysm was suspected of being inflammatory in nature and associated with the patient's tuberculosis. Conclusions Tuberculosis in the central nervous system may present as tuberculoma and tuberculous meningitis. Vasculitis secondary to tuberculous meningitis can cause infarcts, and, rarely, aneurysm formation. This case report illustrated a rare case of intracranial infectious aneurysm related to tuberculosis and complicated by hemorrhage and brain abscess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Close contact and strong interaction between V 2 O 3 and NC existed in V 2 O 3 @NC. • Shortened ion diffusion pathways favored the electrochemical kinetics. • The surface coated NC introduced strong pseudo-capacitive behaviors. • V-C bond provided additional pathways and created more active sites for ion storage. • V 2 O 3 @NC delivered a high rate performance and a stable electrochemical stability. Uniform V 2 O 3 @NC (N -doped C) nanospheres with close contact and strong interaction between V 2 O 3 and NC was fabricated through a solvothermal and carbonization strategy. The fabricated V 2 O 3 @NC electrode exhibited shortened ion diffusion pathways and improved electronic conductivity, which favored the electrochemical kinetics. In addition, the strong interaction between V 2 O 3 and NC through V-C bond provided additional electron diffusion pathways, and the surface coated NC introduced a strong pseudo-capacitive behavior. As a consequence, the V 2 O 3 @NC electrode delivered excellent electrochemical performance in Na-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A new sharpness criterion, nuclear norm of gradient (NoG), is proposed to get the optimal distance from refocused focal stack. The NoG metric is composed of three parts: shape acquisition, gradient calculation, and gradient fusion. • The simulated results show that the NoG metric matches well with the blur from diffraction. • The experimental results including 20 sets of samples (binary, stained, and label-free target) demonstrate the superiority of our method. Auto-focusing is an essential task for lensfree holographic microscopy, where the optimal focal plane needs to be determined from refocused Z-stack data. In this work, we propose a new auto-focusing criterion, nuclear norm of gradient (NoG), to enhance the accuracy of distance estimation for lensfree imaging. The NoG metric is composed of three parts: shape acquisition, gradient calculation, and gradient fusion. The experiment is conducted in a multi-height on-chip system, where 20 sets of samples including resolution target, stained slide, and label-free cell are employed. The experimental results demonstrate that the accuracy of the NoG metric on auto-focusing is superior to state-of-the-art metrics. Also, the experiment of a multi-layer target proves that the NoG metric has a good optical-sectioning capability. We believe that the NoG metric is expected to be a useful tool for lensfree on-chip microscopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A hydrophobic TENG based on sisal cellulose paper(SCP) was constructed to collect raindrop energy. • Both physical and chemical hydrophobic modification can effectively improve the SCP's dielectric constant. • The hydrophobic SCP-TENG modified by the chemical method is more suitable than the physical method for collecting raindrop energy. • The output electrical signal of SCP-TENG and the raindrop velocity have linear relationship. • The hydrophobic SCP-TENG can be used as raindrop-based sensors. Hydrophobic Sisal cellulose paper (SCP) was obtained by surface modification of SCP via physical adsorbing polymer and chemical grafting monomer, respectively. The influence of surface modification conditioning on the hydrophobicity, dielectric constant and dipole moment of the SCP was investigated. The results showed that the hydrophobicity and dielectric constant of the modified SCP increased with the concentration and amount of the modifiers. The output electrical performance of the TENGs assembled by the two types of hydrophobic SCP for rain energy collection was compared. The output electrical performance of the chemically modified hydrophobic SCP-TENG is higher than that of the physical modified. The maximum power density of the former reaches 8.2 mW/m2. Furthermore, based on the linear relationship between the output performance (output voltage intensity and output current intensity) of hydrophobic SCP-TENG and the droplet velocity, a raindrop-based sensor based on hydrophobic SCP-TENG was successfully constructed and estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pillar[ n ]arenes (P[ n ]A, n = 5–10) have attracted much attention because of their highly symmetric pillar-shaped architecture with π -electron rich cavity. Nevertheless, the use of ionic liquid functionalized P[ n ]A in chromatography has not been reported up to data. This work reports the investigation of the imidazolium ionic liquids functionalized pillar[6]arene (P6A-C10-IM-C8[NTf 2 ]) as the stationary phase for gas chromatography (GC). The statically coated P6A-C10-IM-C8[NTf 2 ] column (0.25 mm i.d.) showed moderate polarity and high column efficiency of 4733 plates/m determined by n -dodecane at 120 °C (k = 2.29). Owing to its unique amphiphilic conformation, the P6A-C10-IM-C8[NTf 2 ] showed good column inertness and resolving capability for a wide range of analytes and isomers. Particularly, the P6A-C10-IM-C8[NTf 2 ] column exhibited distinctly advantageous performance for the challenging isomers of halogenated benzenes, benzaldehydes, phenols and anilines over the common commercial columns, namely 5% phenyl methyl polysiloxane (HP-5) and 35% phenyl methyl polysiloxane (HP-35). In addition, it exhibited good column repeatability and reproducibility with RSD values on the retention times less than 0.05% for run-to-run, 0.38% for day-to-day and 2.94% for column-to-column, respectively. This work demonstrates the promising future of ionic liquid P[ n ]A stationary phases for chromatographic separations. [Display omitted] • Novel ionic liquid pillar [6]arene stationary phase. • High separation performance and inertness towards the analytes of wide natures (apolar/polar, aromatic/aliphatic). • Advantageous performance of the P6A-C10-IM-C8[NTf 2 ] column over the commercial polysiloxane columns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discriminating secretory phenotypes provides a direct, intact, and dynamic way to evaluate the heterogeneity in cell states and activation, which is significant for dissecting non-genetic heterogeneity for human health studies and disease diagnostics. In particular, secreted microRNAs, soluble signaling molecules released by various cells, are increasingly recognized as a critical mediator for cell-cell communication and the circulating biomarkers for disease diagnosis. However, single-cell analysis of secreted miRNAs is still lacking due to the limited available tools. Herein, we realized three-plexed miRNA secretion analysis over four time points from single cells encapsulated in picoliter droplets with extreme simplicity, coupling vortexing-generated single-cell droplets with multiplexed molecular beacons. Notably, our platform only requires pipetting and vortexing steps to finish the assay setup within 5 min with minimal training, and customized software was developed for automatic data quantification. Applying the platform to human cancer cell lines and primary cells revealed previously undifferentiated heterogeneity and paracrine signaling underlying miRNA secretion. This platform can be used to dissect secretion heterogeneity and cell-cell interactions and has the potential to become a widely used tool in biomedical research. • Developed a facile process to generate high throughput droplets using a vortexing mixer. • Revealed previously undifferentiated heterogeneity underlying miRNA secretion. • Revealed the critical roles of secreted miRNA involved in cell-cell communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gas chromatography is worldwide recognized as one of the most important analytical techniques, due to its high versatility and reliability. The heart of a gas chromatograph is the column, that allows analyte peak separations and, consequently, accurate qualitative and qualitative analyses. New and more efficient columns are always requested to satisfy new and challenging analytical needs. In this work, imidazolium ionic liquids functionalized pillar [5] arenes have been used for the first time as gas chromatographic stationary phases, considering their highly symmetric pillar-shaped architecture with cavities rich in π -electrons. Four imidazolium ionic liquids functionalized pillar [5] arenes have been tested as stationary phases with numerous analytes and isomers. In particular, one of these showed superior performances if compared to commercial columns, enabling challenging isomeric separations of halogenated benzenes, aromatic aldehydes, and aromatic anilines. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of the ionic liquid P[ n ]A as a stationary phase in chromatography, either in GC or liquid chromatography (LC) separations. This work demonstrates the promising potential of ionic liquid P[ n ]A stationary phases for chromatographic separations. [Display omitted] • Novel ionic liquid P[ n ]A stationary phases. • High resolving performance towards the challenging isomer. • Advantageous performance of the γC 10 -C 8 column over the commercial columns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The interlayer dissipates the largest energy for SPs lying on the flexible seabed. • The light-high speed falling object causes greater dent depth in the scenario of flexible seabed. • The outer pipe experienced the maximum strain and obviously strain concentration. • The dent depth and strain prediction formulas are developed for sandwich pipe. Sandwich pipe (SP) is regarded as an ideal deep water oil and gas transportation solution and has attached more and more attention attributed to its good structural resistance and thermal insulation performance. The local dent damage of SP induced by the falling objects impact might result in the leakage of oil and gas resources. This work investigates the dent behavior of sandwich pipes subjected to falling object impact through finite element(FE) numerical simulation by considering the effect of seabed flexibility. A three-dimensional FE model was established and validated to accurately capture the structural behavior of SP lying on the seabed. The sensitive parameters studies were performed to assess the influence of falling object mass, kinetic energy and buried depth on the dent characteristics. The results show that the flexible seabed foundation can effectively reduce the local dent damage degree of sandwich pipes and most of the kinetic energy is dissipated by the annular layer so as to provide protect for the steel pipes. Besides, the outer pipe, annular layer and inner pipe show different dent depth and strain levels as the kinetic energy of falling objects changes. The degree to which the speed and mass of falling objects affect the characteristics of depressions depends on the magnitude of the kinetic energy of the falling object. Based on the parameters analyses, a group of empirical formulas are established to provide prediction of dent depth and dent strain for sandwich pipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The intensity of H Ly (2P–1S) and OI () is mapped in the magnetosphere of Saturn using the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph (UVIS) [Esposito, L.W., Barth, C.A., Colwell, J.E., Lawrence, G.M., McClintock, W.E., Stewart, A.I.F., Keller, H.U., Korth, A., Lauche, H., Festou, M.C., Lane, A.L., Hansen, C.J., Maki, J.N., West, R.A., Jahn, H., Reulke, R., Warlich, K., Shemansky, D.E., Yung, Y.L., 2004. The Cassini ultraviolet imaging spectrograph investigation. Space Science Reviews 115, 299–361] onboard Cassini. Spatial coverage is built up by stepping the slit sequentially across the system (system scan). Data are obtained at a large range of space-craft–Saturn distances. The observed atomic hydrogen distribution is very broad, extending beyond in the equatorial plane, with the intensity increasing with decreasing distances to Saturn. The distribution displays persistent local-time asymmetries, and is seen connecting continuously to the upper atmosphere of the planet at sub-solar latitudes located well outside of the equatorial (ring) plane. This is consistent with the source of the atomic hydrogen being located at the top of the atmosphere on the sun-lit side of the planet on the southern hemisphere. In addition there are a number of temporally persistent features in the intensity distribution, indicating a complex hydrogen energy distribution. The emission from OI is generally distributed as a broad torus centered around although the position of the peak intensity can vary by as much as . There is significant intensity present out to . HST observations of hydroxyl (OH) are re-analyzed and display a distribution half as broad as that of oxygen, also centered at . The observed atomic oxygen distribution requires a sourcing of against loss due to charge capture with the plasma. Using the ion partitioning of Schippers et al. [2008. Multi-instrument analysis of electron populations in Saturn''s magnetosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research (Space Physics) 113 (A12) 7208–+] then recombination of and will account for about a quarter of the mass-loss in the inner magnetosphere, with charge capture of accounting for the rest. The oxygen loss rate is seen to vary by over periods of weeks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A simple and convenient elemental-direction-reaction route has been successfully developed to prepare α-MnS nanorods under hydrothermal conditions using manganese and sulfur powder as starting materials in the temperature range of 240–260°C. It was found that the temperature was a key factor influencing the phase purity of the titled compound. A possible formation mechanism of the α-MnS nanorods was proposed on the basis of our contrast experimental results, which revealed that α-MnS nanorods were formed via an in situ sulfiding Mn(OH)2 nanorods produced by the reaction of manganese and water. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Nanocellulose has many excellent properties and functions and is a good candidate material. In this review, three major groups of nanocellulose are evaluated in detail: cellulose nanofiber (CNF), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and bacterial nanocellulose (BNC). We concentrated on the preparation and separation techniques to produce nanocellulose including mechanical, biological, and chemical treatment methods. These traditional single treatment methods have many restrictions such as long treatment time, high energy consumption and low recovery rate of nanocellulose. In order to overcome these defects, researchers combined mechanical treatment with biological and chemical treatment methods to prepare nanocellulose. The structure and properties of nanocellulose were significantly improved by the combined treatment method. Besides, the use and impact of nanocellulose in five industrial sectors: composite material, food industry, biomedical science, wasterwater treatment as well as energy and electronics are described and discussed. The future research directions and new applications challenges of this sustainable nanocellulose are described in detail in this paper in the original manuscript. [Display omitted] • The morphological and structural characteristics of nanocellulose were analyzed. • The separation method of biomass nanocellulose was discussed and summarized. • The mechano-deep eutectic solvent is a new green method to prepare nanocellulose. • The size and crystallinity of nanocellulose depend on the preparation method. • Nanocellulose is widely used in all aspects of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For microbial safety, thermal processing is applied during caprine milk processing, which affects the stability of proteins, specially the whey proteins. Therefore, this study evaluated the changes of glycated serum proteome in caprine milk products using a robust ion mobility time-of-flight proteomic technique, without glycated peptides enrichment. In total, 302 proteins were identified in whey and 41 lactosylation sites from 16 proteins. The number of identified whey proteins decreased from 202 to 194, 178 and 186 in pasteurised milk (PM), spray-dried milk (SDM) and ultra-high temperature (UHT) milk serum, respectively, as the heating intensity increased. Nevertheless, lactosylation sites increased 16 in raw milk to 20 in PM, 25 in UHT and 27 in SDM serum. Moreover, major whey proteins contained the highest number of lactosylation sites as expected. The results of this study may contribute to measurement of the quality of caprine milk after industrial processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanostructured spherical spinel LiMnO was synthesized at the temperature as low as 70 °C using CTAMnO4 as manganese source under the hydrothermal conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The practical applications of metal oxides in lithium-ion batteries require the robust and fast lithium storage performance in the wide temperature range. Construction of the suitable structure is still considered as an important approach to address metal oxide anode issues (volume expansion and inferior conductivity). Herein, an electrostatic adsorption-carbothermic reduction process is developed to prepare 1D hierarchical CoO@N-doped graphene microrods (CoO@N-rGO). 1D hierarchical microrod-like structure coated by a uniform & tight N-doped graphene not only builds up a bifunctional conductive path for Li+ and electrons, but also enhances the ability to accommodate the volumetric change. Oxygen vacancies caused by incomplete reduction of Co3+ would accelerate the kinetic process of conversion reaction. Moreover, a dominant pseudocapacitive effect (80.06%) induced by above structural features ensures the fast lithium storage properties. When served as anode material in LIBs, the as-prepared CoO@N-rGO manifests the high reversible capacity of 1588 mAh g−1, excellent long-term cycling stability under high current density (948 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 2 A g−1). Particularly, due to the reduced side-reaction between electrolyte and modified electrode, the CoO@N-rGO retains a reversible capacity of 1164 mA g−1 after 1000 cycles under 1 A g−1 at 55 °C. Image 1 • CoO@N-rGO microrods exhibit the excellent cyclic stability at 55 °C. • An electrostatic adsorption-carbothermic reduction process is presented. • Pseudocapacitive contribution is dominated in the lithium storage process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Cocoon-like Ag 3 PO 4 with hollow structure was fabricated by a simple ion-exchange route. The as-obtained samples displayed highly efficient visible-light photocatalytic performance for removing ciprofloxacin. Highlights • Cocoon-like Ag 3 PO 4 was fabricated through a facile ion-exchange route using Ag 2 MoO 4 as precursor. • Cocoon-like Ag 3 PO 4 possessed high BET surface area because of the highly hollow structure. • Excellent photocatalytic degradation for ciprofloxacin was achieved attributed to the special hollow structure. Abstract Cocoon-like Ag 3 PO 4 (C-Ag 3 PO 4) with hollow structure was synthesized via ion-exchange route using Ag 2 MoO 4 and Na 2 HPO 4 as precursors. Photocatalytic degradation experiments of the C-Ag 3 PO 4 toward ciprofloxacin (CIP) were investigated under visible light irradiation. The C-Ag 3 PO 4 showed superior photodegradation of CIP owing to its larger surface area and hollow structure. Besides, the C-Ag 3 PO 4 exhibited improved photocatalytic performance and good stability after repeating cycles, which could be attributed to the formed metal silver under visible light irradiation. Moreover, radical trap experiment was carried out, which indicated that the photo-induced holes (h+) and superoxide radicals (O 2 −) acted as the main reactive species in the photodegradation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Structural fabrication and modification are the effective approaches to regulate the electrochemical performances of anatase TiO 2. Herein, the template-annealing-etching processes are carried out to synthesize inverse opal TiO 2 with N-doped carbon layer and oxygen vacancies surface as an anode material for advanced lithium ion batteries and sodium ion batteries. These structural features not only shorten the diffusion paths and enhance the electronic conductivity, but also induce the dominant pseudocapacitive contribution. As a result, the as-prepared electrode exhibits the excellent Li+/Na+ storage performances, including a high capacity retention (462 mAh g−1 after 300 cycles at 0.5 A g−1) and a fast cycling capability (180 mAh g−1 after 3500 cycles under 10 A g−1) for lithium storage; a reversible capacity of 140 mAh g−1 after 400 cycles under 1 A g−1 for sodium storage. Revealed by cyclic voltammetry, the pseudocapacitive contribution is as high as 74.49% and 73.38% at 1 mV s−1 for lithium ion batteries and sodium ion batteries, respectively. This work may promise a general approach to synthesize metal oxides anode materials for advanced energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Few layer 2D MoS 2 vertical grown on biomass-based hollow carbon fibers showed excellent lithium and sodium storage performance. Highlights • Porous, hollow, individual carbon fibers are prepared by processing the palm silk. • Fewer layer 2D MoS 2 are vertically grown on BHCFs via a facile hydrothermal method. • The MoS 2 @BHCF electrodes display excellent lithium and sodium storage performance. • DFT calculations verify an optimized structure of MoS 2 vertically grown on BHCF. • A lower energy barrier of Li diffusing through MoS 2 crystals than Na is testified. Abstract 2D MoS 2 sheets have been extensively served as the anode materials for lithium and sodium ion batteries (LIBs, SIBs) due to its high theoretical capacity. However, its low electrical conductivity and large volume change during cycles impair the rate performance and lifespan of the electrodes. Herein, few layer MoS 2 nanosheets vertically grown on biomass-based hollow carbon fibers (BHCFs) derived from palm silk are prepared via a facile hydrothermal method. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations verify an optimized structure of MoS 2 vertically grown on BHCF surface and the strong interaction between the S edges of MoS 2 and the carbon surface. The few layer nanosheets structure and the enhanced conductivity of MoS 2 by biomass derived hollow BHCF ameliorate the diffusion of both Li and Na ions and electrons, as well as the electrode reaction kinetics. Deservedly, the MoS 2 @BHCF electrodes display excellent lithium and sodium storage performance, especially remarkable high-rate capabilities in LIBs. The higher reversible capacity in LIBs than in SIBs reflects the better kinetics of MoS 2 @BHCF in LIBs, owing to a much lower energy barrier of Li atoms diffusing through MoS 2 crystals than the Na counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Using low cost, environment-friendly, and sustainable biomass is a unique approach to the preparation carbon-based composites for lithium ion batteries. In our research, hollow, derived microtubes (HMD) were fabricated from graphene/loofah sponge. Each microtube was wrapped with graphene, resulting in conductivity improvement, and facilitated easily controlled growth of ultra-thin MoS 2 nanosheets. The method employed a simple process of soaking the HMD in graphene oxide (GO) dispersion liquid, and subsequent carbonization and activation of the HMD/rGO. When ultrathin MoS 2 nanosheets were vertically and uniformly grown on the surface of the HMD/rGO, via the hydrothermal method, the HMD/rGO/MoS 2 composite was obtained, and exhibited reversible lithium storage capacity of 838.2 mAh g−1 at a current density of 0.2 A g−1 after 200 cycles. This excellent electrochemical performance could be due to the high conductivity of HMD/rGO, a synergistic effect between HMD/rGO and MoS 2 nanosheets, a reasonable structural design, and the high theoretical specific capacity of MoS 2. Such a structure not only provides a novel, high-quality carbon template/matrix from cheap loofah sponge, but also provides a new way to design sustainable electrodes for electrochemical energy storage, and makes economical, multifunctional, carbon-based hybrids available for other applications. Graphical abstract Natural porous biomass carbons HMD/rGO/MoS 2 composite was obtained by activation, carbonization and hydrothermal method, and further used as the electrode materials for LIBs. The HMD/rGO/MoS 2 composite as anode material exhibits a reversible discharge capacity of 838.2 mAh g−1 at a current density of 0.2 A g−1 after 200 cycles. After the hydrothermal treatment and carbonization process of biomass loofah sponges, the obtained HMD/rGO/MoS 2 has an excellent electrochemical performance, which may due to the more vertically aligned ultrathin MoS 2 nanosheets, the high conductivity of HMD/rGO, synergistic effect of HMD/rGO and MoS 2 nanosheets, reasonable structural design, and high theoretical specific capacity of MoS 2. Image 1 Highlights • The biomass is a promising raw material to prepare the carbon-based composites for LIBs. • The HMD/rGO can improve the conductivity and easily controlled grown for ultrathin MoS 2 nanosheets. • The as-obtained anode material exhibits an excellent rate performance and cycle stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Three-dimensional hierarchical NiCo 2 O 4 /Ni 2 P electrodes have been successfully synthesized for advanced asymmetric supercapacitors. Highlights • Hierarchical NiCo 2 O 4 /Ni 2 P electrodes on nickel foam are rationally constructed. • This unique structure provides more electroactive sites for Faradaic reaction. • The NiCo 2 O 4 /Ni 2 P-30 electrode exhibits a high specific capacity of 2900 F g−1. • The assembled asymmetric supercapacitor can easily power 14 LEDs. Abstract Herein, a novel three-dimensional hierarchical NiCo 2 O 4 /Ni 2 P structure is successfully fabricated through a facile hydrothermal and subsequent electrodeposition process. One-dimensional Ni 2 P nanoneedles decorate on two-dimensional NiCo 2 O 4 nanosheets can effectively enhance the electrical conductivity and surface area of NiCo 2 O 4 to promote fast Faradaic reaction. The optimized NiCo 2 O 4 /Ni 2 P-30 electrode exhibits a high specific capacity of 2900 F g−1 at 0.008 A cm−2. Moreover, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) is fabricated by using the NiCo 2 O 4 /Ni 2 P-30 as positive electrode and activated carbon as the negative electrode, the device achieves an excellent electrochemical property with the energy density of 40.7 W h kg−1 at 800 W kg−1. Besides, the as-assembled device also exhibits an excellent cycling performance of ∼92.0% of initial capacitance after 5000 cycles indicating its outstanding conductivity and structural stability. All of the results demonstrate that the hierarchical NiCo 2 O 4 / Ni 2 P composites are electrodes in energy storage application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract The P-doped dandelion-like MnCo 2 S 4 electrodes have been successfully constructed for high performance asymmetric supercapacitor. Highlights • P-doped dandelion-like MnCo 2 S 4 were fabricated. • This hierarchical structure is beneficial to faradaic reaction. • The P-doped MnCo 2 S 4 electrode shows a high specific capacity of 543.3F g−1. • The assembled asymmetric supercapacitor can light three LEDs. Abstract A novel electrode material based on P-doped dandelion-like MnCo 2 S 4 spheres was fabricated and examined for application in electrochemical supercapacitors. The unique structure made up of nanoneedles endows high electrical conductivity and large accessible ion-diffusion surface area. When used as the electrode, the P-doped MnCo 2 S 4 nanostructures give an improved specific capacity of 543.3F g−1. A supercapacitor employing the P-MnCo 2 S 4 and active carbon as the electrodes shows a high energy density of 20.8 W h k g−1 at a power density of 400 W kg−1, and an excellent cycling stability of 91.1% retention after 5000 cycles. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we show that the as-made supercapacitor is able to drive three LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spherical N-doped mesoporous TiO 2 /C (MTC) composite micro-particles are produced by spray drying (SD) and carbonization process. The particle size of MTC microsphere is between 2 and 3.4 µm, and the N-doped amorphous C around TiO 2 could provide a conductive matrix, and buffer the volume change. When evaluated as electrodes for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) and Li-S batteries (LSBs), the MTC microsphere exhibits relatively high discharge-voltage plateau, excellent capacity retention and rate capability. As anode for LIBs, after 200 cycles, a reversible capacity more than 230 mA h g −1 can achieved at 1 C. And for LSBs, a specific capacity of 1317.7 mA h g −1 at 1 C and the capacity retention of 73.8% after 500 cycles. The superior electrochemical performance is ascribed to robust scaffolding architecture and conductive N-doped carbon matrix. The excellent electrochemical performance and process ability of the MTC microspheres make them very attractive as electrode materials for use in high rate battery application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the weak error in averaging principle for a stochastic wave equation on a bounded interval [ 0 , L ] , perturbed by an oscillating term arising as the solution of a stochastic reaction–diffusion equation evolving on the fast time scale. Under suitable conditions, it is proved that the rate of weak convergence of the original solution to the solution of the corresponding averaged equation is of order 1 via an asymptotic expansion approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The separation of aromatic isomers, in particular xylene isomers, represents a big issue in chemical and petroleum industries, owing to their similar molecular sizes and boiling points. In this work, the investigation ofpillar[6]arene derivative modified by long alkyl chains (P6A-C10) as a stationary phase for high-resolution gas chromatographic (GC) separations of xylene isomers is presented. Pillar[n]arenes are a new class of macrocyclic hosts that can accommodate specific guests due to their highly symmetrical and rigid pillar architectures with π -electron rich cavities. The P6A-C10 column showed high-resolution performance towards xylene isomers, with peculiar advantages if compared with the commercial HP-5, HP-35, DB-17, and PEG-20Mcolumns.A quantum chemistry calculation has been performed, showing a difference in non-covalent interactions with the P6A-C10 pillar framework, which leads to specific selectivity for xylene isomers.Furthermore, the P6A-C10 column exhibited good repeatability. [Display omitted] • Novel pillararene-based stationary phase. • High resolving performance towards xylene and other aromatic isomers. • Advantageous performance of the P6A-C10 column over the commercial HP-5, HP-35, DB-17, and PEG-20 M columns. • Quantum chemistry calculation was utilized to assess the separation mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of CuCo 2 O 4 nanostructures with different morphologies were prepared by a hydrothermal method in combination with thermal treatment. The morphology, structure and composition were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. As the electrode materials for supercapacitors, CuCo 2 O 4 nanoneedles delivered the highest specific capacitance compared with other CuCo 2 O 4 nanostructures. Electrochemical performance measurements demonstrate that the carbon layer can improve the electrochemical stability of CuCo 2 O 4 nanoneedles. The CuCo 2 O 4 @C electrode exhibits a high specific capacitance of 1432.4 F g −1 at a current density of 1 A g −1 , with capacitance retention of 98.2% after 3000 circles. These characteristics of CuCo 2 O 4 @C composite are mainly due to the unique one dimensional needle-liked architecture and the conducting carbon, which provide a faster ion/electron transfer rate. These excellent performances of the CuCo 2 O 4 @C electrode confirmed the material as a positive electrode for hybrid supercapacitor application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multidrug resistance (MDR) has become a very serious problem in cancer therapy. To effectively reverse MDR in tumor treatments, a new pH-sensitive nano drug delivery system (NDDS) composed of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) and d -a-tocopheryl poly-ethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS) copolymers was synthesized to deliver doxorubicin (DOX) into drug-resistant breast cancer cell line (MCF-7/ADR). DOX@MSNs-TPGS were characterized to have a single peak size distribution, high DOX loading efficiency and a pH-dependent drug release profile. MSNs-TPGS were internalized via caveolae, clathrin-mediated endocytosis and energy-dependent cellular uptake. The DOX@MSNs-TPGS exhibited 10-fold enhanced cell killing potency compared to free DOX and DOX@MSNs. The enhanced MDR reversal effect was ascribed to the higher amount of cellular uptake of DOX@MSNs-TPGS in MCF-7/ADR cells than that of free DOX and DOX@MSNs, as a result of the inhibition of P-gp mediated drug efflux by TPGS. In vivo studies of NDDS in tumor-bearing mice showed that DOX@MSNs-TPGS displayed better efficacy against MDR tumors in mice and reached the tumor site more effectively than DOX and DOX@MSNs, with minimal toxicity. These results suggest DOX@MSNs-TPGS developed in this study have promising applications to overcome drug resistance in tumor treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fluorescence-guided photothermal therapy (FPTT) has great potential in cancer treatment. However, the conventional FPTT has to be stimulated by external light, which tends to increase background noise and leads to the inaccurate infrared light irradiation for PTT. In this study, upconverting and persistent luminescent nanocarriers (UPLNs) loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles (UPLNs@mSiO 2 ) were first designed to solve the problem mentioned above. The UPLNs cores can effectively reduce the short-lived autofluorescence interference by exerting the delay time between signal acquisition and pulsed excitation light. For testing the luminescence properties, the indotcyanine green (ICG) as photothermal agent was encapsulated into the UPLNs@mSiO 2 . The experimental results showed that the UPLNs@mSiO 2 nanoparticles could significantly reduce the short-lived autofluorescence interference and improve signal-to-noise ratio during FPTT. Our data suggest that UPLNs@mSiO 2 may be a promising tool for improving the accuracy of PTT in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving a control over the growth of one-dimensional nanomaterial is significant for the study of energy storage material and device. In the present work, nickel tungstate (NiWO 4 ) nanofiber was synthesized by electrospinning technique combined with subsequent annealing treatment. The obtained NiWO 4 nanofiber is found to be highly crystalline and possesses a diameter of about 180 nm and a length of several millimeters. The influence of severe-annealing treatment on the structure and the electrochemical performance is studied and found that the temperature of annealing is a crucial factor in the crystalline phase, purity, structure and morphology. The impurities in the product of electrospinning disappeared, when the annealing temperature is raised from 650 to 670 °C, and a pure phase of mesoporous NiWO 4 nanofiber is obtained. However, for the temperature raising from 670 to 700 °C, the crystalline grains of the nanofiber grew and merged rapidly, as the mesoporous structure is disappeared. The lithium-ion battery furnished by the NiWO 4 nanofiber annealed at 700 °C as anode material, shows a moderate performance, while the battery provided by NiWO 4 nanofiber annealed at 670 °C exhibits an excellent lithium storage performance with high initial coulombic efficiency, high specific capacity, good cycle performance and rate performance. The initial coulombic efficiency could reach as high as 77.1%. A high reversible capacity of 514 mAh g −1 at a current density of 100 mA g −1 is achieved after 100 charge/discharge cycles, which indicated that NiWO 4 nanofiber was a promising candidate anode material for lithium ion battery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Amphiphilic triblock copolymer (TCP-Bim) as GC stationary phase. • High resolving performance towards a wide range of analytes and isomers. • Baseline resolution among chloroaniline and bromoaniline isomers. • Studies on chromatographic retention mechanisms of target analytes on GC columns. In this work, a novel amphiphilic triblock copolymer bonded with benzimidazolium ionic liquid (TCP-Bim) was designed, synthesized, and employed as stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC) column. This innovative column exhibited moderate polarity and an efficiency of 3280 plates/m, showing high resolutions for a wide range of analytes, with marked capabilities towards isomer separations, and different retention behaviors and separation performances respect to TCP or commercial HP-35 and PEG-20 M columns. The TCP-Bim stationary phase has exhibited in some cases unmatched separation capabilities, like, for example, in the case of separation of chloroaniline and bromoaniline. Its column performances have been compared with TCP and other commercial columns analyzing from apolar to polar compounds, showing in every case outstanding capability which clearly indicate that TCP-Bim can be considered a very interesting candidate as a new type of stationary phase in GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Hierarchical Mo 2 C-MXene@MoO 2 @C was fabricated via a self-assembly strategy. • Mo 2 C-MXene@MoO 2 @C exhibited abundant Mo-N bonds and weakened Mo-O bond. • Strong adsorption and low migration energy barrier of Li+ favored fast kinetics. • Fast diffusion kinetics enhanced the diffusion-controlled charge storage behavior. • The optimized electrode delivered superior rate capability and cyclic performance. Molybdenum dioxide (MoO 2) with high theoretical capacity and low cost has triggered extensive interest as a renowned anode for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). However, the sluggish diffusion kinetics and severe capacity decay obstructed its practical application. Herein, hierarchical spherical Mo 2 C-MXene@MoO 2 @C was fabricated through a self-assembly and carbonization strategy. DFT calculations and experimental results revealed that the incorporation of metallic Mo 2 C-MXene and carbon into MoO 2 not only modulated the charge distribution and weakened Mo-O bond of MoO 2 , but also promoted the adsorption of Li+ on MoO 2 and lowered the migration energy barrier for Li+, thereby accelerating the electrochemical kinetics, inducing a strong diffusion-controlled charge storage behavior and improving the electrochemical reversibility. In addition, the introduction of MXene reinforced the structural integrity of MoO 2 during ion insertion and extraction, which ameliorated the electrochemical stability. Beneficiating from the above synergistic effect, the optimized Mo 2 C-MXene@MoO 2 @C delivered remarkable cycling capacity (854.5 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 0.5 A g−1) and superior rate capacity (644.4 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1) for lithium storage. This work disclosed the charge storage mechanism of MoO 2 and provided new guidance for the rational design of novel electrode materials for secondary batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]