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Magnesium (Mg) alloy is expected to be the promising medical implant material because of its similar strength and Young's modulus to human bone, good biocompatibility and biodegradability. In the present study, as-cast Mg-9.1Y-1.8Zn (WZ92) alloy was homogenized first and then hot extruded to regulate its mechanical and corrosion properties. The as-cast alloy composes of α-Mg matrix, Mg24Y5 eutectic phase and interdendritic 18R-long period stacking ordered (LPSO) phase, in which the continuous block- or rod-like 18R-LPSO phase can act as corrosion barrier to prevent the corrosion penetration. After heat treatment, the precipitation of intragranular fine lamellar 14 H-LPSO phase not only reduces the ductility of the alloy, but also provides channels for corrosion intrusion, thus severe corrosion pits are formed. First-principles calculation reveals that the 14 H-LPSO phase is more likely adsorbed with Cl atom, and chemical bonds are formed in the 14 H-LPSO/Cl interface, which results in the worst corrosion resistance of the homogenized alloy. Further extrusion improves the yield strength and ductility (266.7 MPa and 6.8% respectively) of the alloy significantly through fine-grain strengthening, particle dispersion strengthening and kink band strengthening. Meanwhile, the corrosion resistance of the extruded alloy is enhanced through the corrosion barrier effect of long strip LPSO phase, stable product film protection as well as the formation of uniform corrosion mode. This study proves that hot extrusion is an effective method to synergistically improve the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of WZ alloys, which can provide a favorable reference for the preparation of high-performance medical Mg alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the rapid development of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), the combination of IoV and edge computing, known as vehicle edge computing (VEC), has received considerable attention from both academia and industry. However, task offloading in diverse intersection scenarios remains suffering from inefficiency of resource allocation and low quality of service for task execution due to the imbalance of traffic flow and the rigid requirement of latency. To address these issues, we develop a task offloading strategy by a fuzzy decision-making algorithm to handle uncertainty and imprecision. This task offloading strategy comprises two components: (1) A VEC resource pool with available vehicles at each intersection is constructed when taking the rotating direction of the recognition region. Then, we introduce a fuzzy decision-making algorithm to select a set of high-quality service vehicles from this VEC resource pool as an auxiliary edge server (AS). (2) We employ an edge service provider (ESP) to manage the computational resources of a main edge server (MS) and an AS deployed at a traffic intersection. The negotiation between the ESP and the task vehicles is modeled as a Stackelberg game. We prove the existence of the unique perfect Nash equilibrium, and a genetic algorithm is applied to find the optimum. Finally, we conduct simulation experiments with datasets collected in real-world scenarios. The results demonstrate that our scheme decreases task execution time by 9.73% compared to the cloud server scheme and reduces energy consumption by 13.78% compared to the state-of-the-art reinforcement learning (RL) strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CeO2 has high elastic modulus and thermal stability, as well as good surface effects, making it ideal as a reinforcement for aluminum matrix composites. In this paper, the interfacial relationships between Al and CeO2 was studied by first-principles calculation, and the nucleation mechanism of aluminum matrix growth on CeO2 substrate was discussed. First, the Al/CeO2 interface matching crystal surface was identified as the Al(111)/CeO2(111) interface. Then, the surface work function was calculated for all surfaces constituting the Al(111)/CeO2(111) interface, and the results showed that the Al(111) loses charge more easily than CeO2(111). Subsequently, the interface energy and work of adhesion of the Al(111)/CeO2(111) interface were calculated, and the results showed that the interface energy of O1–Al was the smallest (0.07 J/m2), the work of adhesion of O2 interface energy of O1–Al was the smallest (0.07 J/m2), the work of adhesion of O2–Al was the largest (9.36 J/m2)Al was the largest (9.36 J/m2). Finally, the combined properties of the Al(111)/CeO2(111) interface were analyzed by the electronic properties at the interface, and the results showed that The Al(111)/CeO2(111) interface is a mixture of ionic and covalent bonds. Therefore, the calculated results confirm that the effectiveness of CeO2 as a heterogeneous nucleation substrate for Al. This study provides a theoretical basis for the nucleation mechanism of the heterogeneous nucleation interface between CeO2 and aluminum matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer-associated deaths worldwide, among which non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80%. Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) inhibition results in a significant depletion of NSCLC metastasis. Additionally, SDF-1 is the only natural chemokine known to bind and activate the receptor CXCR4. Thus, we attempted to clarify the molecular mechanism of SDF-1 underlying NSCLC progression. Transwell migration, adhesion, and G-LISA assays were used to assess megakaryocytic chemotaxis in vitro and in vivo in terms of megakaryocytic migration, adherence, and RhoA activation, respectively. Western blotting was used to assess PI3K/Akt-associated protein abundances in MEG-01 cells and primary megakaryocytes under the indicated treatment. A hematology analyzer and flow cytometry were used to assess platelet counts in peripheral blood and newly formed platelet counts in Lewis LC mice under different treatments. Immunochemistry and flow cytometry were used to measure CD41+ megakaryocyte numbers in Lewis LC mouse tissue under different treatments. ELISA was used to measure serum TPO levels, and H&E staining was used to detect NSCLC metastasis. SDF-1 receptor knockdown suppressed megakaryocytic chemotaxis in Lewis LC mice. SDF-1 receptor inhibition suppressed megakaryocytic chemotaxis via the PI3K/Akt pathway. SDF-1 receptor knockdown suppressed CD41+ megakaryocyte numbers in vivo through PI3K/Akt signaling. SDF-1 receptor inhibition suppressed CD41+ megakaryocytes to hinder NSCLC metastasis. SDF-1 facilitates NSCLC metastasis by enhancing the chemoattraction of megakaryocytes via the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which may provide a potential new direction for seeking therapeutic plans for NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast spin-flipping is the key to exploit the triplet excitons in thermally activated delayed fluorescence based organic light-emitting diodes toward high efficiency, low efficiency roll-off and long operating lifetime. In common donor-acceptor type thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules, the distribution of dihedral angles in the film state would have significant influence on the photo-physical properties, which are usually neglected by researches. Herein, we find that the excited state lifetimes of thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters are subjected to conformation distributions in the host-guest system. Acridine-type flexible donors have a broad conformation distribution or bimodal distribution, in which some conformers feature large singlet-triplet energy gap, leading to long excited state lifetime. Utilization of rigid donors with steric hindrance can restrict the conformation distributions in the film to achieve degenerate singlet and triplet states, which is beneficial to efficient reverse intersystem crossing. Based on this principle, three prototype thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters with confined conformation distributions are developed, achieving high reverse intersystem crossing rate constants greater than 106 s−1, which enable highly efficient solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes with suppressed efficiency roll-off.The distribution of dihedral angles in film state has significant influence on excited state lifetimes of thermally activated delayed fluorescence emitters. Here authors report conformation distribution confinement strategy to achieve fast spin-flipping for efficient organic light-emitting diodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 10 (ADAMTS10) plays a role in extracellular matrix and correlates with Weill–Marchesani syndrome. However, its role in gastric cancer remains unknown. Thus, we started this research to unveil the role of ADAMTS10 in gastric cancer (GC). Methods: The expression of ADAMTS10 in GC was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining and quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). The effects of ADAMTS10 inhibiting GC cell progression were conducted by functional experiments in vitro and in vivo. Flow cytometry was used to discover changing of cell cycle, apoptosis and ROS by ADAMTS10 in GC cell. Western blot was applied to identify targets of ADAMTS10. Western blot, qRT-PCR and flow cytometry were applied to discover the effect of ADAMT10 on THP1. Results: ADAMTS10 expression was downregulated in GC tissue and patients with low ADAMTS10 levels had poorer overall survival. ADAMTS10 overexpression altered cell cycle, promoted apoptosis, and inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro and in vivo. ADAMTS10 regulated TXNIP and ROS through the JAK/STAT/c-MYC pathway. Decreasing TXNIP and ROS reversed the inhibitory effect of ADAMTS10 on cell migration and invasion in vitro. ADAMTS10 secreted by GC cells was absorbed by THP1 and regulated TXNIP and ROS in THP1. ADAMTS10 secreted by GC cells inhibited macrophage M2 polarization. Conclusions: These results suggest that ADAMTS10 targets TXNIP and ROS via the JAK/STAT/c-MYC pathway and that may play important roles in GC progression and macrophage polarization which indicates that ADAMTS10 can be a potential survival marker for gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality has been proposed as a solution for the current severe energy and climate crisis caused by the overuse of fossil fuels, and machine learning (ML) has exhibited excellent performance in accelerating related research owing to its powerful capacity for big data processing. This review presents a detailed overview of ML accelerated carbon neutrality research with a focus on energy management, screening of novel energy materials, and ML interatomic potentials (MLIPs), with illustrations of two selected MLIP algorithms: moment tensor potential (MTP) and neural equivariant interatomic potential (NequIP). We conclude by outlining the important role of ML in accelerating the achievement of carbon neutrality from global-scale energy management, unprecedented screening of advanced energy materials in massive chemical space, to the revolution of atomic-scale simulations of MLIPs, which has the bright prospect of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characteristics, profile composition, ecological and human health risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in surface dust collected from Shenyang city, China, were investigated. Concentrations of 16 USEPA priority PAHs ranged between 371.57 and 3300.04 μg/kg (mean 1244.76 ± 715.25 μg/kg). Fluoranthene was the most abundant individual PAHs, followed by pyrene, and high molecular weight PAHs, more than three times of low molecular weight PAHs, were the predominant components. Profiles of PAHs showed that 4-ring PAHs were dominant, followed by 3-ring and 5-ring PAHs, and indicated that combustion sources accounted for the most PAHs. Results of diagnostic ratios and positive matrix factorization all suggested that pyrogenic sources were the most important source of PAHs in urban dust, followed by natural gas combustion and petrogenic sources, and traffic emissions would play an increasingly critical role with the increasing of vehicles. Health risk assessment suggested children were the most vulnerable to PAHs compared to adolescents and adults. Ingestion was the most important exposure pathway. The total lifetime cancer risk of 43.33% of sampling sites was higher than 10–6, but the TLCR at all sites was much lower than the highest acceptable risk established by USEPA (10–4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air-breathing has evolved independently serval times with a variety of air-breathing organs (ABOs) in fish. The physiology of the air-breathing in bimodal respiration fish has been well understood, while studies on molecular mechanisms of the character are very limited. In the present study, we first determined the gill indexes of 110 fish species including 25 and 85 kinds of bimodal respiration fishes and non-air-breathing fishes, respectively. Then combined with histological observations of gills and ABOs/non-ABOs in three bimodal respiration fishes and two non-air breathing fishes, we found that the bimodal respiration fish was always of a degeneration gill and a well-vascularized ABO. Meanwhile, a comparative transcriptome analysis of posterior intestines, namely a well vascularized ABO in Misgurnus anguillicaudatus and a non-ABO in Leptobotia elongata, was performed to expound molecular variations of the air-breathing character. A total of 5,003 orthologous genes were identified. Among them, 1,189 orthologous genes were differentially expressed, which were enriched in 14 KEGG pathways. More specially, the expressions of hemoglobin genes and various HIF/VEGF signaling pathway genes were obviously upregulated in the ABO of M. anguillicaudatus. Moreover, we found that HIF-1α, VEGFAa, and MAP2K1 were co-expressed dramatically higher in ABOs of bimodal respiration fishes than those of non-ABOs of non-air-breathing fishes. These results indicated that the HIF/VEGF pathway played an important role in ABO angiogenesis/formation to promote fish to do aerial respiration. This study will contribute to our understanding of molecular mechanisms of air-breathing in fish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the target to fabricate more feasible catalysts for SRM to produce hydrogen, the interaction between Ni and LaBO3 (B = Al, Cr and Fe) perovskite supports with different B-sites has been explored. To avoid the formation of big Ni grains, the Ni loading is intentionally set as low as 2 wt%. XRD and Raman results revealed that the three LaBO3 supports are composed of pure perovskite phase, but have differed fine crystal structures. While LaFeO3 and LaCrO3 can be indexed to the orthorhombic perovskite phase, LaAlO3 can be indexed to the hexagonal phase. H2-TPR and XPS results have validated that NiO has varied interfacial interactions with the LaBO3 supports through partial electron transfer from the supports to Ni. As a consequence, the active metallic Ni surface areas are in the order of 2%Ni/LaAlO3 > 2%Ni/LaCrO3 > 2%Ni/LaFeO3, well consistent with the reaction performance. Furthermore, by varying the B-site element, the abundance of the active surface oxygen species (mainly O22−) is varied, obeying the sequence of 2%Ni/LaCrO3 > 2%Ni/LaAlO3 > 2%Ni/LaFeO3, well consistent with the anti-coking ability of the catalysts. It is discovered that the change of the fine crystal structure of LaBO3 supports can influence the SRM performance of the 2%Ni/LaBO3 catalysts evidently. The reaction performance of the catalysts is mainly determined by the active Ni surface area, but the anti-coking ability is majorly decided by the amount of active oxygen species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the previous work, in this paper, the antireflective films thicknesses, refractive indexes and reflectance spectra of different color categories of the polycrystalline silicon cells are tested and compared. It is found that the color difference of polycrystalline silicon cells is mainly caused by the antireflective film. Then the matrix transfer method is used to simulate the reflection spectra according to the actual tested parameters of the samples, and the effectiveness of the simulation is verified. Finally, according to the distribution of the spectral solar irradiance, the total solar absorption of the polycrystalline silicon cells with different antireflective film thicknesses is simulated. The optimal value of the antireflective film thickness of the polycrystalline silicon cell is calculated. This study has important guiding significance for photovoltaic (PV) enterprises to realize the optimal production of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process in production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petroleum refinery wastewater (PRWW) that contains recalcitrant components as the major portion of constituents is difficult to treat by conventional biological processes. An effective and economical biological treatment process was established to treat industrial PRWW with an influent COD of over 2500 mg L−1 in this research. This process is mainly composed of internal circulation biological aerated filter (ICBAF), hydrolysis acidfication (HA), two anaerobic–aerobic (A/O) units, a membrane biological reactor (MBR), and ozone-activated carbon (O3-AC) units. The results showed that, overall, this system removed over 94% of the COD, BOD5, ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) and phosphorus in the influent, with the ICBAF unit accounting for 54.6% of COD removal and 83.6% of BOD5 removal, and the two A/O units accounting for 33.3% of COD removal and 9.4% of BOD5 removal. The degradation processes of eight organic pollutants and their removal via treatment were also analyzed. Furthermore, 26 bacteria were identified in this system, with Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria being the most dominant. Ultimately, the treatment process exhibited good performance in degrading complex organic pollutants in the PRWW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, an internal circulation biological aerated filter (ICBAF) reactor was applied to pretreat refinery wastewater containing large amounts of organic pollutants. According to the composition change of inlet-and-outlet water, the main organic pollutants, including micromolecular organic-acids, aldehydes, ketones, phenols, and so forth, degraded well in ICBAF unit. The concentration of organic acids, alcohols, and esters changed from 648 to 90 mg/L, 130 to 90 mg/L, and 158 to 228 mg/L, respectively. The average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD5) reached 54.62% and 83.64%, respectively. It was clear that the concentration of effluent organic acids in the ICBAF unit decreased significantly. The degradation process of organic acids, alcohols, and esters (among others) and the degradation pathway of organic acids were also discussed. Straight chain organic acids and naphthenic acids were degraded by α-oxidation, β-oxidation, α- and β-combined oxidation, or aromatization. The study demonstrates the potential of the ICBAF as an alternative for the high-efficiency pretreatment of refinery wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic facial expression recognition (FER) plays a crucial role in realizing the adaptable and individualized tutoring in affective computer-based learning environment. Although many research efforts have been conducted to enhance a greater understanding of FER, a successful accurate recognition of the spontaneous facial expressions in real e-learning environment is still challenging due to its low change in intensity and short duration. In this paper, we propose a new dual-modality spatiotemporal feature representation learning for recognizing facial expression in e-learning using the hybrid deep neural network. Except facial expression class information, representative expression states (e.g., onset, apex, offset of expressions) are utilized for expression recognition in our study. Spatiotemporal geometrical feature representations and spatial-temporal appearance feature representations are learned with a hybrid deep neural network. The dual-modality feature fusion representations are used to recognize facial expressions. The comprehensive experiments have been conducted on two spontaneous micro-expression datasets ( CAS(ME) 2 and CASME II). The experimental results showed that the proposed method achieved higher recognition accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art methods. Moreover, multiple metrics were adopted to provide more insight into the performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the basic principle of heat transfer enhancement, a 1-kW compact thermoelectric generator (TEG) is proposed that is suitable for use at high temperatures and high flow speeds. The associated heat exchanger has a tube-row structure with a guide-plate to control the thermal current. The heat exchanger has a volume of 7 L, and the TEG has a mass of 8 kg (excluding the thermoelectric modules (TEMs)). In this paper, the heat transfer process of the tube-row exchanger is modeled and analyzed numerically; and the influences of its structure on the heat transfer and temperature status of the TEMs are investigated. The results show that use of the thin - wall pipes and increase of surface roughness inside the pipes are effective ways to improve the heat transfer efficiency, obtain the rated surface temperature, and make the TEG compact and lightweight. Furthermore, under the same conditions, the calculated results are compared with the data of a fin heat exchanger. The comparison results show that the volume and mass of the tube-row heat exchanger are 19% and 33% lower than those of the fin type unit, and that the pressure drop is reduced by 16%. In addition, the average temperature in the tube-row heat exchanger is increased by 15°C and the average temperature difference is increased by 19°C; the tube-row TEG has a more compact volume and better temperature characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent progress in the synthesis and application of graphene-based aerogels, some challenges such as scalable and cost-effective production, and miniaturization still remain, which hinder the practical application of these materials. Here we report a large-scale electrospinning method to generate graphene-based aerogel microspheres (AMs), which show broadband, tunable and high-performance microwave absorption. Graphene/Fe3O4 AMs with a large number of openings with hierarchical connecting radial microchannels can be obtained via electrospinning-freeze drying followed by calcination. Importantly, for a given Fe3O4:graphene mass ratio, altering the shape of aerogel monoliths or powders into aerogel microspheres leads to unique electromagnetic wave properties. As expected, the reflection loss of graphene/Fe3O4 AMs-1:1 with only 5 wt.% absorber loading reaches −51.5 dB at 9.2 GHz with a thickness of 4.0 mm and a broad absorption bandwidth (RL < −10 dB) of 6.5 GHz. Furthermore, switching to coaxial electrospinning enables the fabrication of SiO2 coatings to construct graphene/Fe3O4@SiO2 core‒shell AMs. The coatings influence the electromagnetic wave absorption of graphene/Fe3O4 AMs significantly. In view of these advantages, we believe that this processing technique may be extended to fabricate a wide range of unique graphene-based architectures for functional design and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design structure and heat-transfer mechanism of a thermoelectric generator (TEG) determine its body temperature state. Thermal stress and thermal deformation generated by the temperature variation directly affect the stress state of thermoelectric modules (TEMs). Therefore, the rated temperature and pressing force of TEMs are important parameters in TEG design. Here, the relationships between structural of a fin-type TEG (FTEG) and these parameters are studied by modeling and 'machine-thermal' coupling simulation. An indirect calculation method is adopted in the coupling simulation. First, numerical heat transfer calculations of a three-dimensional FTEG model are conducted according to an orthogonal simulation table. The influences of structural parameters for heat transfer in the channel and outer fin temperature distribution are analyzed. The optimal structural parameters are obtained and used to simulate temperature field of the outer fins. Second, taking the thermal calculation results as the initial condition, the thermal-solid coupling calculation is adopted. The thermal stresses of outer fin, mechanical force of spring-angle pressing mechanism, and clamping force on a TEM are analyzed. The simulation results show that the heat transfer area of the inner fin and the physical parameters of the metal materials are the keys to determining the FTEG temperature field. The pressing mechanism's mechanical force can be reduced by reducing the outer fin angle. In addition, a corrugated cooling water pipe, which has cooling and spring functionality, is conducive to establishing an adaptable clamping force to avoid the TEMs being crushed by the thermal stresses in the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy is an intrinsic cellular process that can degrade cytoplasmic components. It has been reported that several pathogens hijack this process to facilitate their replication. Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3), a member of the family Picornaviridae, induces autophagy upon infection. However, the details of CVB3-induced autophagy remain a subject of debate. This study applied a combination of multiple assays for the measurement of autophagy and demonstrated that CVB3 induces a complete autophagic flux. Experiments with infected HEK293A cells revealed that autophagosomes were induced upon CVB3 infection. Most of these autophagosomes were mCherry positive in mCherry-GFP-LC3 cells. Conversely, mCherry-positive autophagosomes were rescued to green positive when treated with the acidification inhibitors chloroquine (CQ) and bafilomycin A1 (BAF), suggesting that autophagosomes fused with late endosomes or lysosomes. The co-localization of LC3-positive puncta with lysosome-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1) or LysoTracker confirmed that the autophagosomes fused primarily with lysosomes. Interestingly, the disruption of autophagosome formation by 3-methyladenine (3-MA) or ATG5 siRNA treatment during viral infection significantly decreased CVB3 replication. However, inhibitors of lysosomal acidification, fusion, or degradation did not affect viral replication. Therefore, autolysosomes may not be critical for viral replication in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In oil and gas drilling or geothermal well drilling, the temperature difference between the drilling fluid and formation will lead to an apparent temperature change around the borehole, which will influence the stress state around the borehole and tend to cause borehole instability in high geothermal gradient formations. The thermal effect is usually not considered as a factor in most of the conventional borehole stability models. In this research, in order to solve the borehole instability in high-temperature formations, a calculation model of the temperature field around the borehole during drilling is established. The effects of drilling fluid circulation, drilling fluid density, and mud displacement on the temperature field are analyzed. Besides these effects, the effect of temperature change on the stress around the borehole is analyzed based on thermoelasticity theory. In addition, the relationships between temperature and strength of four types of rocks are respectively established based on experimental results, and thermal expansion coefficients are also tested. On this basis, a borehole stability model is established considering thermal effects and the effect of temperature change on borehole stability is also analyzed. The results show that the fracture pressure and collapse pressure will both increase as the temperature of borehole rises, and vice versa. The fracture pressure is more sensitive to temperature. Temperature has different effects on collapse pressures due to different lithological characters; however, the variation of fracture pressure is unrelated to lithology. The research results can provide a reference for the design of drilling fluid density in high-temperature wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high confinement of surface plasmon polaritons in graphene nanostructures at infrared frequencies can enhance the light-matter interactions, which open up intriguing possibilities for the sensing. Strain sensors have attracted much attention due to their unique electromechanical properties. In this paper, a surface plasmon resonance based graphene strain sensor is presented. The considered sensing platform consists of arrays of graphene ribbons placed on a flexible substrate which enables efficient coupling of an electromagnetic field into localized surface plasmons. When the strain stretching is applied to the configuration, the localized surface plasmon resonance frequency sensitively shift. The strain is then detected by measuring the frequency shifts of the localized plasmon resonances. This provides a new optical method for graphene strain sensing. Our results show that the tensile direction is the key parameter for strain sensing. Besides, the sensitivity and the figure of merit were calculated to evaluate the performance of the proposed sensor. The calculated figure of merit can be up to two orders of magnitude, which could be potentially useful from a practical point of view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the present study was to compare the structural and compositional differences of cuticle between tender leaf and fully-expanded leaf in Camellia sinensis, and provide metabolic base for the further characterization of wax biosynthesis in this economically important crop species. The tender second leaf and the fully-expanded fifth leaf from new twig were demonstrated to represent two different developmental stages, their cuticle thickness were measured by transmission electron microscopy. The thickness of the adaxial cuticle on the second and fifth leaf was 1.15 µm and 2.48 µm, respectively; the thickness of the abaxial cuticle on the second and fifth leaf was 0.47 µm and 1.05 µm, respectively. The thickness of the epicuticular wax layer from different leaf position or different sides of same leaf were similar. However, the intracuticular wax layer of the fifth leaf was much thicker than that of the second leaf. Total wax lipids were isolated from the second leaf and the fifth leaf, respectively. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis identified 51 wax constituents belonging to 13 chemical classes, including esters, glycols, terpenoids, fatty acids and their derivatives. Wax coverage on the second and fifth leaf was 4.76 µg/cm2 and 15.38 µg/cm2, respectively. Primary alcohols dominated in the tender second leaf. However, triterpenoids were the major components from the fully-expanded fifth leaf. The predominant carbon chains varied depending on chemical class. These data showed that the wax profiles of Camellia sinensis leaves are development stage dependent, suggesting distinct developmental dependent metabolic pathways and regulatory mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The name of the third author in the original version of this article was unfortunately wrongly written on the first pages of the main text and the ESM.Instead ofWeiIt should readWei Wei [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients who have had COVID-19 often report persistent symptoms after resolution of their acute illness. Recent reports suggest that vaccination may be associated with improvement in post-acute symptoms. We used data from a prospective cohort to assess differences in post-acute sequelae of COVID (PASC) among vaccinated vs. unvaccinated patients.Methods: We used data from a cohort of COVID-19 patients enrolled into a prospective registry established at a tertiary care health system in New York City. Participants underwent a baseline evaluation before COVID-19 vaccines were available and were followed 6 months later. We compared unadjusted and propensity score-adjusted baseline to 6-month change for several PASC-related symptoms and measures: anosmia, respiratory (cough, dyspnea, phlegm, wheezing), depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; COVID-19-related and other trauma), and quality-of-life domains among participants who received vs. those who did not receive COVID-19 vaccination.Results: The study included 453 COVID-19 patients with PASC, of which 324 (72%) were vaccinated between the baseline and 6-month visit. Unadjusted analyses did not show significant differences in the baseline to 6-month change in anosmia, respiratory symptoms, depression, anxiety, PTSD, or quality of life (p > 0.05 for all comparisons) among vaccinated vs. unvaccinated patients. Similar results were found in propensity-adjusted comparisons and in secondary analyses based on the number of vaccine doses received.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that COVID vaccination is not associated with improvement in PASC. Additional studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying PASC and to develop effective treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]