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Blood vessels are highly dynamic and complex structures with a variety of physiological functions, including the transport of oxygen, nutrients, and metabolic wastes. Their normal functioning involves the close and coordinated cooperation of a variety of cells. However, adverse internal and external environmental factors can lead to vascular damage and the induction of various vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis and thrombosis. This can have serious consequences for patients, and there is an urgent need for innovative techniques to repair damaged blood vessels. Polyesters have been extensively researched and used in the treatment of vascular disease and repair of blood vessels due to their excellent mechanical properties, adjustable biodegradation time, and excellent biocompatibility. Given the high complexity of vascular tissues, it is still challenging to optimize the utilization of polyesters for repairing damaged blood vessels. Nevertheless, they have considerable potential for vascular tissue engineering in a range of applications. This summary reviews the physicochemical properties of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly-lactic acid (PLA), and poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA), focusing on their unique applications in vascular tissue engineering. Polyesters can be prepared not only as 3D scaffolds to repair damage as an alternative to vascular grafts, but also in various forms such as microspheres, fibrous membranes, and nanoparticles to deliver drugs or bioactive ingredients to damaged vessels. Finally, it is anticipated that further developments in polyesters will occur in the near future, with the potential to facilitate the wider application of these materials in vascular tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining geological and landform dislocation features, as well as the measured stratigraphic activity age, provides direct evidence to evaluate fault activity, which is more difficult to do in areas with low tectonic activity, such as eastern and central China. A detailed investigation of the fault activity, trenching, drilling joint geological profile, geological survey, and chronological analysis were used to obtain the spatial geometry, fault kinematics, and activity chronology of the Jiulong fault. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The Jiulong fault was a fracture zone composed of four branch faults, with a width of around 30–40 m and good extendibility, while the maximum surface rupture length was 373 m. (2) The Jiulong fault has many strata dislocations, and the dislocation distance decreased from bottom to top, demonstrating synsedimentary structure characteristics, with a maximum stratigraphic dislocation distance of 18.2 m. (3) Preliminary analysis suggested the Jiulong fault as a secondary fracture of the Xiangfan-Guangji fault zone and provided evidence of the southeastward extension of the Xiangfan-Guangji fault. A preliminary hypothesis purported the Xiangfan-Guangji fault as the seismogenic fault of the Ms 5.0 magnitude earthquake in 1911. (4) According to OSL and ESR dating analyses, the upper breakpoint of the Jiulong fault cuts into the Late Pleistocene Xingang Formation (Qp3x) strata, and the latest active age of the Jiulong fault was 57.6 ka. The chronology analysis confirmed an active fault from the Late Pleistocene and identified a weak tectonic in Jiujiang Province, which represents the largest active fault outcrop uncovered in the area so far. This study provides evidence and research materials for the evaluation of fault activity and seismic stability in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glutamate is traditionally viewed as the first messenger to activate NMDAR (N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor)-dependent cell death pathways in stroke1,2, but unsuccessful clinical trials with NMDAR antagonists implicate the engagement of other mechanisms3–7. Here we show that glutamate and its structural analogues, including NMDAR antagonist l-AP5 (also known as APV), robustly potentiate currents mediated by acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) associated with acidosis-induced neurotoxicity in stroke4. Glutamate increases the affinity of ASICs for protons and their open probability, aggravating ischaemic neurotoxicity in both in vitro and in vivo models. Site-directed mutagenesis, structure-based modelling and functional assays reveal a bona fide glutamate-binding cavity in the extracellular domain of ASIC1a. Computational drug screening identified a small molecule, LK-2, that binds to this cavity and abolishes glutamate-dependent potentiation of ASIC currents but spares NMDARs. LK-2 reduces the infarct volume and improves sensorimotor recovery in a mouse model of ischaemic stroke, reminiscent of that seen in mice with Asic1a knockout or knockout of other cation channels4–7. We conclude that glutamate functions as a positive allosteric modulator for ASICs to exacerbate neurotoxicity, and preferential targeting of the glutamate-binding site on ASICs over that on NMDARs may be strategized for developing stroke therapeutics lacking the psychotic side effects of NMDAR antagonists.Glutamate functions as a positive allosteric modulator for acid-sensing ion channels to exacerbate ischaemic neurotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multipath is recognized as one of the major error sources for GNSS urban navigation. This study proposes a random forest (RF)-based multipath parameter estimator that uses random forest regression for parameter estimation, thereby mitigating multipath effect by removing the estimated reflected signal components. The proposed estimator is evaluated and compared with the multipath estimation delay-lock loop (MEDLL) for one-multipath and three-multipath cases, respectively. Simulation results demonstrate that the RF-based estimator is less affected by the front-end bandwidth of received signals, compared with MEDLL. The proposed RF-based estimator shows better performance than MEDLL for signals with front-end bandwidths of lower than 6 MHz. In 20 sets of tests on signals with a front-end bandwidth of 10 MHz in the three-multipath case, the RF-based estimator obtains smaller standard deviations than MEDLL. In experiments using real data with a front-end bandwidth of 2 MHz, the RF-based estimator reduces the 2D and 3D positioning errors by 8.5% and 8.7% over 180 epochs, respectively, against the conventional delayed-locked loop (DLL). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is an immune-mediated skin disease associated with neurogenic inflammation, but the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. We demonstrate here that acid-sensing ion channel 3 (ASIC3) exacerbates psoriatic inflammation through a sensory neurogenic pathway. Global or nociceptor-specific Asic3 knockout (KO) in female mice alleviates imiquimod-induced psoriatic acanthosis and type 17 inflammation to the same extent as nociceptor ablation. However, ASIC3 is dispensable for IL-23-induced psoriatic inflammation that bypasses the need for nociceptors. Mechanistically, ASIC3 activation induces the activity-dependent release of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) from sensory neurons to promote neurogenic inflammation. Botulinum neurotoxin A and CGRP antagonists prevent sensory neuron-mediated exacerbation of psoriatic inflammation to similar extents as Asic3 KO. In contrast, replenishing CGRP in the skin of Asic3 KO mice restores the inflammatory response. These findings establish sensory ASIC3 as a critical constituent in psoriatic inflammation, and a promising target for neurogenic inflammation management. Psoriasis is a skin disease associated with neurogenic inflammation. Here, the authors activation of ASIC3 on sensory neurons that leads to the release of CGRP, which triggers inflammation through dendritic cells and drives psoriatic inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The impact of changes in skeletal muscle and sarcopenia on outcomes during neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (NACR) for patients with esophageal cancer remains controversial. Patients and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of patients with locally advanced esophageal squamous cell cancer who received NACR followed by esophagectomy between June 2013 and December 2021. The images at third lumbar vertebra were analyzed to measure the cross-sectional area and calculate skeletal muscle index (SMI) before and after NACR. SMI less than 52.4 cm2/m2 for men and less than 38.5 cm2/m2 for women were defined as sarcopenia. The nonlinearity of the effect of percent changes in SMI (ΔSMI%) to survival outcomes was assessed by restricted cubic splines. Results: Overall, data of 367 patients were analyzed. The survival outcomes between sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups had no significant differences before NACR. However, patients in post-NACR sarcopenia group showed poor overall survival (OS) benefit (P = 0.016) and poor disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.043). Severe postoperative complication rates were 11.9% in post-NACR sarcopenia group and 5.0% in post-NACR non-sarcopenia group (P = 0.019). There was a significant non-linear relationship between ΔSMI% and survival outcomes (P < 0.05 for non-linear). On the multivariable analysis of OS, ΔSMI% > 12% was the independent prognostic factor (HR 1.76, 95% CI 1.03–2.99, P = 0.039) and significant difference was also found on DFS analysis (P = 0.025). Conclusions: Patients with post-neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy sarcopenia have worse survival and adverse short-term outcomes. Moreover, greater loss in SMI is associated with increased risks of death and disease progression during neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, with maximum impact noted with SMI loss greater than 12%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, it has been realized that in some systems internal space rotation can induce energy amplification for scattered waves, similar to rotation in real space. In particularly, it has been shown that energy extraction is possible for a Q-ball, a stationary non-topological soliton that is coherently rotating in its field space. In this paper, we generalize the analysis to the case of boson stars, and show that the same energy extraction mechanism still works for boson stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This meta-analysis aims to clarify the correlations between cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and life satisfaction. We searched the literature using eight databases and set a deadline of April 19, 2021. A total of 33 studies (66 effect sizes) were obtained, and random-effect models were also used to evaluate the relationships between the two strategies and life satisfaction. Additionally, the moderating effects of age, gender, and regional cultural values of participants were analyzed. The results showed that cognitive reappraisal was moderately positively correlated with life satisfaction, whereas expression suppression was not. The relationships between the two strategies and life satisfaction were not affected by age and gender, and only the regional cultural values of the participants moderated the relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction. The relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction in Western cultural values is significantly negative, while the relationship in Eastern cultural values is non-significant. We examined the relationships between cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, and life satisfaction, and demonstrated that regional cultural values had a moderating effect on the relationship between expression suppression and life satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) prediction of droughts and floods is one of the major challenges of weather and climate prediction. Recent studies suggest that the springtime land surface temperature/subsurface temperature (LST/SUBT) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) can be a new source of S2S predictability. The project "Impact of Initialized Land Surface Temperature and Snowpack on Subseasonal to Seasonal Prediction (LS4P)" was initiated to study the impact of springtime LST/SUBT anomalies over high mountain areas on summertime precipitation predictions. The present work explores the simulated global scale response of the atmospheric circulation to the springtime TP land surface cooling by 16 current state-of-the-art Earth System Models (ESMs) participating in the LS4P Phase I (LS4P-I) experiment. The LS4P-I results show, for the first time, that springtime TP surface anomalies can modulate a persistent quasi-barotropic Tibetan Plateau-Rocky Mountain Circumglobal (TRC) wave train from the TP via the northeast Asia and Bering Strait to the western part of the North America, along with the springtime westerly jet from TP across the whole North Pacific basin. The TRC wave train modulated by the TP thermal anomaly play a critical role on the early summer surface air temperature and precipitation anomalies in the regions along the wave train, especially over the northwest North America and the southern Great Plains. The participant models that fail in capturing the TRC wave train greatly under-predict climate anomalies in reference to observations and the successful models. These results suggest that the TP LST/SUBT anomaly via the TRC wave train is the first order source of the S2S variability in the regions mentioned. Furthermore, the TP surface temperature anomaly can influence the Southern Hemispheric circulation by generating cross-equator wave trains. However, the simulated propagation pathways from the TP into the Southern Hemisphere show large inter-model differences. More dynamical understanding of the TRC wave train as well as its cross-equator propagation into the Southern Hemisphere will be explored in the newly launched LS4P phase II experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prediction skill for precipitation anomalies in late spring and summer months—a significant component of extreme climate events—has remained stubbornly low for years. This paper presents a new idea that utilizes information on boreal spring land surface temperature/subsurface temperature (LST/SUBT) anomalies over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) to improve prediction of subsequent summer droughts/floods over several regions over the world, East Asia and North America in particular. The work was performed in the framework of the GEWEX/LS4P Phase I (LS4P-I) experiment, which focused on whether the TP LST/SUBT provides an additional source for subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) predictability. The summer 2003, when there were severe drought/flood over the southern/northern part of the Yangtze River basin, respectively, has been selected as the focus case. With the newly developed LST/SUBT initialization method, the observed surface temperature anomaly over the TP has been partially produced by the LS4P-I model ensemble mean, and 8 hotspot regions in the world were identified where June precipitation is significantly associated with anomalies of May TP land temperature. Consideration of the TP LST/SUBT effect has produced about 25–50% of observed precipitation anomalies in most hotspot regions. The multiple models have shown more consistency in the hotspot regions along the Tibetan Plateau-Rocky Mountain Circumglobal (TRC) wave train. The mechanisms for the LST/SUBT effect on the 2003 drought over the southern part of the Yangtze River Basin are discussed. For comparison, the global SST effect has also been tested and 6 regions with significant SST effects were identified in the 2003 case, explaining about 25–50% of precipitation anomalies over most of these regions. This study suggests that the TP LST/SUBT effect is a first-order source of S2S precipitation predictability, and hence it is comparable to that of the SST effect. With the completion of the LS4P-I, the LS4P-II has been launched and the LS4P-II protocol is briefly presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rare Metals is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.9 calls for a substantial reduction in deaths attributable to PM2.5 pollution (DAPP). However, DAPP projections vary greatly and the likelihood of meeting SDG3.9 depends on complex interactions among environmental, socio-economic, and healthcare parameters. We project potential future trends in global DAPP considering the joint effects of each driver (PM2.5 concentration, death rate of diseases, population size, and age structure) and assess the likelihood of achieving SDG3.9 under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) as quantified by the Scenario Model Intercomparison Project (ScenarioMIP) framework with simulated PM2.5 concentrations from 11 models. We find that a substantial reduction in DAPP would not be achieved under all but the most optimistic scenario settings. Even the development aligned with the Sustainability scenario (SSP1-2.6), in which DAPP was reduced by 19%, still falls just short of achieving a substantial (≥20%) reduction by 2030. Meeting SDG3.9 calls for additional efforts in air pollution control and healthcare to more aggressively reduce DAPP. Reducing PM2.5 air pollution from biomass burning, transport, energy, and manufacturing, in combination with improvements in healthcare, especially in emerging economies like India and China, will be crucial to meeting SDG3.9 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-level inverters offer several advantages, including reduced harmonic distortion in output currents and alleviated voltage stress on power electronic devices. However, the imbalance of the neutral point potential causes distortion in the output voltage if not considered during calculations. In the present paper, a model that incorporates the impact of neutral point imbalance on the output voltage is proposed, thereby enhancing the accuracy of current trajectory predictions. Additionally, the model features a dynamic compensation of the output voltage. To achieve a balance between neutral point potential symmetry and switching frequency, constraints are applied to limit the neutral point potential within a specific range. Simulation and experimental results underscore the effectiveness of the presented control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An excessively high switching frequency causes significant losses in inverters, especially in high-power applications, which should be avoided. Predictive control, based on a circular boundary restriction strategy presented in this paper, can effectively suppress current distortion while reducing the switching frequency. Until now, this method has been implemented with the same boundaries for both the torque component and flux component of the stator current vector. Due to the physical behavior of an induction motor, a higher current distortion tolerance of the flux component of the stator current vector can be accepted without affecting the torque. Therefore, in this work, the circular boundary restriction strategy is modified to configure larger boundaries for the flux component than for the torque component. This is done to achieve an even lower switching frequency. Furthermore, an additional improvement can be expected if only the boundaries of the torque component are strictly maintained, while the magnetizing current can exceed its boundary to some extent. The predictive control method based on this new strategy is experimentally tested to determine its feasibility. A method based on the circular boundary strategy is also implemented under the same testing conditions, and the performances of both strategies are compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoking has caused great public health burdens in the global. Although socioeconomic factors have been confirmed to substantially influence smoking behaviors, the impact of comprehensive social deprivations on smoking behavior and related biological mechanisms are still unclear. Supported by UK Biobank cohort, we randomly divided 369,915 participants into discovery cohort (60%) and replication cohort (40%). We first tested the associations for index of multiple deprivation (IMD) and 7 IMD subdomains with ever-smoking and daily smoking frequency using regression models in both cohorts. Genome-wide by environment interaction study (GWEIS) was further conducted by using PLINK2.0 to detect the effects of the interactions between SNPs and IMD subdomains on two smoking behaviors. In discovery and replication cohorts, we observed the more deprivation status the individuals were in, the higher daily smoking frequency or risk to be ever smokers. And among the subdomains of IMD, income, education, health, living environment, and crime deprivation were positively associated with the risk of smoking behaviors, while employment deprivation was negatively correlated with smoking behaviors (all P < 0.0125). Totally, GWEIS analysis detected 23 shared significant socioeconomic-deprivation interacted loci for daily smoking frequency in two cohorts, such as rs116680599 at 2p16.3 (NRXN1, Pdiscovery = 7.68 × 10−14, Preplication = 1.96 × 10−2) and rs150451424 at 16p13.3 (RBFOX1, Pdiscovery = 1.89 × 10−10, Preplication = 1.96 × 10−2) interacting with employment deprivation. We illustrated the diverse effects of IMD on smoking behaviors and provided insights for the biological mechanisms of the interaction effects between socioeconomic deprivation with genetic factors on smoking behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prostate is a vital accessory gonad in the mammalian male reproductive system. With the ever-increasing proportion of the population over 60 years of age worldwide, the incidence of prostate diseases, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer (PCa), is on the rise and is gradually becoming a significant medical problem globally. The notch signaling pathway is essential in regulating prostate early development. However, the potential regulatory mechanism of Notch signaling in prostatic enlargement and hyperplasia remains unclear. In this study, we proved that overactivation of Notch1 signaling in mouse prostatic epithelial cells (OEx) led to prostatic enlargement via enhancing proliferation and inhibiting apoptosis of prostatic epithelial cells. Further study showed that N1ICD/RBPJ directly up-regulated the androgen receptor (AR) and enhanced prostatic sensitivity to androgens. Hyper-proliferation was not found in orchidectomized OEx mice without androgen supply but was observed after Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) supplementation. Our data showed that the number of mitochondrion in prostatic epithelial cells of OEx mice was increased, but the mitochondrial function was impaired, and the essential activity of the mitochondrial respiratory electron transport chain was significantly weakened. Disordered mitochondrial number and metabolic function further resulted in excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Importantly, anti-oxidant N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) therapy could alleviate prostatic hyperplasia caused by the over-activation of Notch1 signaling. Furthermore, we observed the incremental Notch signaling activity in progenitor-like club cells in the scRNA-seq data set of human BPH patients. Moreover, the increased number of TROP2+ progenitors and Club cells was also confirmed in our OEx mice. In conclusion, our study revealed that over-activated Notch1 signaling induces prostatic enlargement by increasing androgen receptor sensitivity, disrupting cellular mitochondrial metabolism, increasing ROS, and a higher number of progenitor cells, all of which can be effectively rescued by NAC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ample evidence has suggested the stress etiology of depression, but the underlying mechanism is not fully understood yet. Here, we report that chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) attenuates the excitatory output of the claustrum (CLA) to the prelimbic cortex (PL) through the dynorphin/κ-opioid receptor (KOR) signaling, being critical for depression-related behaviors in male mice. The CSDS preferentially impairs the excitatory output from the CLA onto the parvalbumin (PV) of the PL, leading to PL micronetwork dysfunction by disinhibiting pyramidal neurons (PNs). Optogenetic activation or inhibition of this circuit suppresses or promotes depressive-like behaviors, which is reversed by chemogenetic inhibition or activation of the PV neurons. Notably, manipulating the dynorphin/KOR signaling in the CLA-PL projecting terminals controls depressive-like behaviors that is suppressed or promoted by optogenetic activation or inhibition of CLA-PL circuit. Thus, this study reveals both mechanism of the stress etiology of depression and possibly therapeutic interventions by targeting CLA-PL circuit. The stress etiology of depression remains elusive. Here, authors show that dynorphin/KOR signaling-mediated impairment of excitatory synaptic transmission from claustrum to prelimbic cortex PV interneurons contributes to stress-induced depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cracks are important indexes to evaluate the health status of concrete structures. To accurately and automatically identify the cracks of concrete structures, and solve the time-consuming and labor-intensive limits of manual detection methods, this paper proposed an image-based concrete cracks identification method based on a lightweight Convolutional Neural Network, which includes three modules: crack classification, semantic segmentation and quantitative calculation of crack geometric size. Firstly, the S_MobileNet was used to classify cracks, exclude irrelevant regions, and reduce the interference of non-crack images; Secondly, the optimized method SM-UNet based on the U-Net network was employed to segment the detected crack image at the pixel level; Finally, based on the results of crack semantic segmentation, image post-processing technology was used to realize the quantitative calculation of crack geometric size parameters, which provides a basis for crack damage assessment of concrete structures. The experimental results show that this study provides a solution for the automatic detection of crack images and high-precision measurement of crack size, which has an important value in scientific research and engineering application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Early brain injury (EBI) following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is characterized by rapid development of neuron apoptosis and dysregulated inflammatory response. Microglia efferocytosis plays a critical role in the clearance of apoptotic cells, attenuation of inflammation, and minimizing brain injury in various pathological conditions. Here, using a mouse SAH model, we aim to investigate whether microglia efferocytosis is involved in post-SAH inflammation and to determine the underlying signaling pathway. We hypothesized that TAM receptors and their ligands regulate this process. To prove our hypothesis, the expression and cellular location of TAM (Tyro3, Axl, and Mertk) receptors and their ligands growth arrest-specific 6 (Gas6) and Protein S (ProS1) were examined by PCR, western blots, and fluorescence immunostaining. Thirty minutes after SAH, mice received an intraventricular injection of recombinant Gas6 (rGas6) or recombinant ProS1 (rPros1) and underwent evaluations of inflammatory mediator expression, neurological deficits, and blood–brain barrier integrity at 24 h. Microglia efferocytosis of apoptotic neurons was analyzed in vivo and in vitro. The potential mechanism was determined by inhibiting or knocking down TAM receptors and Rac1 by specific inhibitors or siRNA. SAH induced upregulation of Axl and its ligand Gas6. The administration of rGas6 but not rPros1 promoted microglia efferocytosis, alleviated inflammation, and ameliorated SAH-induced BBB breakdown and neurological deficits. The beneficial effects of rGas6 were arrogated by inhibiting or knocking down Axl and Rac1. We concluded that rGas6 attenuated the development of early brain injury in mice after SAH by facilitating microglia efferocytosis and preventing inflammatory response, which is partly dependent on activation of Axl and Rac1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural topology optimization has gained widespread attention due to more possibilities of innovative structural design. The current research focus/hotspots, application areas, main research scholars, institutions and the countries involved in structural topology optimization are visually presented through clustering and visual analysis based on CiteSpace. The four metric dimensions of the literatures in this paper are as follows: annual quantity of papers and core countries, core authors and co-authors' institutions, hotspots and burst terms, and the highly co-cited papers. The results show the research hotspots in this field are concentrated on keywords such as "level set method", "sensitivity analysis", "homogenization", "genetic algorithm", etc. Regarding the research frontier, "moving morphable component (MMC)", "additive manufacturing (AM)" and "deep learning" are hot topics. In addition, Y. Sui, Z. Kang and O. Sigmund, etc. have high publications. M. Bendsøe and O. Sigmund have high citations. Dalian University of Technology, Technical University of Denmark, etc. are prominent institutions. Moreover, China accounts for more than 34% in the terms of original WOS literatures following by the USA and Australia. This paper could identify structural topology optimization development patterns for the scholars concerned with this field, especially novices, to quickly focus and track the research priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

T cell leukemia homeobox 2 (TLX2) plays an important role in some tumors. Bioinformatics and experimental validation represent a useful way to explore the mechanisms and functions of TLX2 gene in the cancer disease process from a pan cancer perspective. TLX2 was aberrantly expressed in pan cancer and cell lines and correlated with clinical stage. High TLX2 expression was significantly associated with poor overall survival in COAD, KIRC, OC, and UCS. The greatest frequency of TLX2 alterations in pan cancer was amplification. Alterations of NXF2B, MSLNL, PCGF1, INO80B-WBP1, LBX2-AS1, MRPL53, LBX2, TTC31, WDR54, and WBP1 co-occurred in the TLX2 alteration group. PFS was significantly shorter in the TLX2-altered group (n = 6) compared to the TLX2-unaltered group (n = 400). Methylation levels of TLX2 were high in 17 tumors. TLX2 expression was associated with MSI in seven tumors and TMB in five tumors. TLX2 expression was associated with immune infiltration and immune checkpoint genes. TLX2 may be associated with some pathways and chemoresistance. We constructed a possible competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network of LINC01010/miR-146a-5p/TLX2 in OC. TLX2 expression was significantly upregulated in ovarian cancer cell lines compared to ovarian epithelial cell lines. Aberrant expression of TLX2 in pan cancer may promote tumorigenesis and progression through different mechanisms. TLX2 may represent an important therapeutic target for human cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering Taq DNA polymerase (TaqPol) for improved activity, stability and sensitivity was critical for its wide applications. Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) has been widely used in engineering enzymes for improved properties. Here, we first designed TaqPol mutations based on MSA of 2756 sequences from both thermophilic and non-thermophilic organisms. Two double mutations were generated including a variant H676F/R677G showing a decrease in both activity and stability, and a variant Y686R/E687K showing an improved activity, but a decreased stability. Mutations targeted on coevolutionary residues of Arg677 and Tyr686 were then applied to rescue stability or activity loss of the double mutants, which achieved a partial success. Sequence analysis revealed that the two mutations are abundant in non-thermophilic sequences but not in thermophilic homologues. Then, a small-scale MSA containing sequences from only thermophilic organisms was applied to predict 13 single variants and two of them, E507Q and E734N showed a simultaneous increase in both stability and activity, even in sensitivity. A customized MSA was hence more effective in engineering a thermophilic enzyme and could be used in engineering other enzymes. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed the impact of mutations on the protein dynamics and interactions between TaqPol and substrates. Key points: • The pool of sequence for alignment is critical to engineering Taq DNA polymerase. • The variants with low properties can be rescued by mutations in coevolving network. • Improving binding with DNA can improve DNA polymerase stability and activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Glioma is a highly malignant and unfavorable cancer in the brain. Recent evidence highlights the vital role of cilia-related pathways as novel regulators of glioma development. However, the prognostic potential of ciliary pathways in glioma is still ambiguous. In this study, we aim to construct a gene signature using cilia-related genes to facilitate the prognostication of glioma. Methods: A multi-stage approach was employed to build the ciliary gene signature for prognostication of glioma. The strategy involved the implementation of univariate, LASSO, and stepwise multivariate Cox regression analyses based on TCGA cohort, followed by independent validation in CGGA and REMBRANDT cohort. The study further revealed molecular differences at the genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic levels between distinct groups. Results: A prognostic tool utilizing a 9-gene signature based on ciliary pathways was developed to assess the clinical outcomes of glioma patients. The risk scores generated by the signature demonstrated a negative correlation with patient survival rates. The validation of the signature in an independent cohort reinforced its prognostic capabilities. In-depth analysis uncovered distinctive molecular characteristics at the genomic, transcriptomic, and protein-interactive levels in the high- and low-risk groups. Furthermore, the gene signature was able to predict the sensitivity of glioma patients to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs. Conclusion: This study has established the utility of a ciliary gene signature as a reliable prognostic predictor of glioma patient survival. Findings not only enhance our comprehension of the intricate molecular mechanisms of cilia pathways in glioma, but also hold significant clinical implications in directing chemotherapeutic strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a bioinspired sensor with high temporal resolution, the spiking cameras have enormous potential in real applications, yet it remains largely unknown how to improve their performance. In this study, we showed that the critical dynamics resulting from balanced excitatory and inhibitory synaptic currents, as well as the heterogeneity in the resting potentials of neurons, can maximize the dynamic range of the neuronal networks jointly. We then built a spiking camera to demonstrate that its performance, characterized by the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and the structural similarity index measure (SSIM), could be optimized if the critical dynamics and the heterogeneity were introduced in the neuronal networks of the spiking camera's core modules. We argue that criticality and heterogeneity can serve as basic optimization principles of brain-inspired computing systems to improve their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rare Metals is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The caspase gene family is a crucial gene cluster that regulates apoptosis which contribute to programmed cell death, cell proliferation and differentiation, and several immune responses. In our study, a complete set of 12 caspase genes were identified in spotted sea bass Lateolabrax maculatus. These genes were divided into three subfamilies: 2 inflammatory caspases (casp-1 and casp-14-like), 5 apoptosis initiators (casp-2, casp-8a, casp-8b, casp-9, and casp-10), and 5 apoptosis executioners (casp-3a, casp-3b, casp-3-like, casp-6, and casp-7). Their phylogenetic relationships, synteny and gene structures were systematically analyzed. Furthermore, the relative expression profiles of the caspase family members in the liver, intestine, head kidney, and spleen were measured by qPCR after infection with Vibrio harveyi. The results showed that the overall mRNA levels of the caspase genes were dramatically increased after V. harveyi infection, and the expression patterns varied among genes and tissues. More caspase genes underwent pronounced expression changes in the head kidney and spleen than in the liver or intestine, mainly after 48 h of the challenge. Specifically, casp-3a, casp-3b, casp-3-like, casp-6, casp-7, casp-8a, casp-8b, casp-10, and casp-14-like in the head kidney, and casp-3-like, casp-6, casp-7, and casp-14-like in the spleen, were the most responsive caspase genes which may contribute significantly to immune regulation in spotted sea bass. Additionally, the apoptosis level in head kidney and spleen after infection were examined using the Caspase assay. Our study provides a systemic overview of the caspase gene family in spotted sea bass after V. harveyi infection and lays a foundation for further deciphering the biological roles of these caspase genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New alkaloid, (E)-2-(hydroxyimino)-4-methylpentanamide (1) and a new cyclopentano[b] pyridine, 4-hydroxy-7-methyl-6,7-dihydro-5H-cyclopenta[c]pyridin-5-one (2), together with ten known compounds (3–12) were isolated from the mangrove soil-derived fungus Arthrinium sp. SCSIO 41305. Extensive spectroscopic analysis and X-Ray crystallographic analysis were used to elucidate the structure of (E)-2-(hydroxyimino)-4-methylpentanamide (1), including its absolute configuration. All the isolated compounds (1–12) were evaluated for their antimicrobial and enzyme inhibitory activities against acetylcholinesterase (AChE), neuraminidase (NAs), and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). Among them, compounds 1 and 3 exhibited strong neuraminidase inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 12.04, 1.92 µmolL−1 (IC50 20 µmolL−1 for oseltamivir acid), while compounds 5, 6, 8, and 10 showed moderate neuraminidase inhibitory activity, and compounds 6–10 displayed weak enzyme inhibitory activities against PI3K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clarifying how radial gap affects the vibration characteristic of a disc-like structure is of importance in engineering applications, such as in evaluating the operational stability of a runner of a pump turbine. In the present investigation, the runner is simplified as a disc, and a physical experiment is designed on it with variable radial gaps to measure the vibration characteristics, especially by considering rotation. Two frequency peaks for the diametrical mode are generated due to the rotation, and those with lower and higher frequencies are defined as positive and negative modes, respectively. The frequency difference between positive and negative modes increases linearly with the increasing rotating speed, and a linear function is captured to describe the relationship between natural frequency and rotating speed. Regarding the radial gap, its increase causes a slight increase in the natural frequencies but results in a significant reduction in the hydrodynamic damping ratio. Especially in the smaller radial gap conditions, such as when the relative radial gap increases from 0.67% to 3.3%, the reduction in hydrodynamic damping ratio reaches 31.52%. From the perspective of suppressing the resonance amplitude, reducing the radial gap of a runner is recommended due to the mechanism of increasing hydrodynamic damping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic levitation technology is used in the preparation of new materials and the study of metallurgical reactions. However, the surface deformation of droplets in the levitation process can introduce errors in the experimental measurements. The modeling and characterization of molten droplet surface deformation and current distribution under electromagnetic levitation are studied in this paper. The results show that under the influence of surface tension or other factors such as electromagnetic force, molten droplets will oscillate and deform, before finally attaining a relatively stable configuration. Under the conditions of the present work, the relationship between surface current density and applied current is y = 142.65 x2 + 35,998.53 x + 1.14 × 108 and the deformation ratio of the droplet (longitudinal diameter/transverse diameter) is least when the applied current is 470 A. When the current is less than 470 A, the longitudinal diameter of the droplet is greater than the transverse diameter. However, when the current is greater than 470 A, the transverse diameter is greater than the longitudinal diameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suction foundations are generally installed with negative pressures to overcome the resistance of soils and complete the penetration, but excessive negative pressures are also avoided to cause seepage damages. In this paper, the model test method was used to analyze the movement characteristics of multi-bucket foundations in the process of sinking in sand, and the common calculation methods of sinking resistances are verified. The critical negative pressure corresponding to the seepage failure of foundation was determined under the action of increasing negative pressure step by step and the characteristics of soil failure were studied. The calculation formula of critical suction in sand was verified in application, and according to the test results, the value of seepage coefficient was modified, which provides an example for the study of suction foundation in sand soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer (BC) had the highest incidence of all cancers in Chinese women. However, studies on spatial pattern and environmental drivers of BC were still lacked as they were either limited in a small area or few considered the comprehensive impact of multiple risk factors. In this study, we firstly performed spatial visualization and the spatial autocorrelation analysis based on Chinese women breast cancer incidence (BCI) data of 2012–2016. Then, we explored the environmental drivers related to BC by applying univariate correlation analysis and geographical detector model. We found that the BC high-high clusters were mainly distributed in the eastern and central regions, such as Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui Provinces. The BCI in Shenzhen was significantly higher than other prefectures. Urbanization rate (UR), per capita GDP (PGDP), average years of school attainment (AYSA), and average annual wind speed (WIND) had higher explanatory power on spatial variability of the BCI. PM10, NO2, and PGDP had significant nonlinear enhanced effect on other factors. Besides, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was negatively associated with BCI. Therefore, high socioeconomic status, serious air pollution, high wind speed, and low vegetation cover were the risk factors for BC. Our study may able to provide evidence for BC etiology research and precise identification of areas requiring focused screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has attracted an enormous interest as a promising candidate for gas detection due to its large specific surface area, abundant oxygen-containing functional groups and scalable production. Although intense works have been conducted on rGO-based gas sensors, there is still much room for improvement on both their response speed and thorough exploration. In this work, thermal reduced graphene oxide (TRGO) is fabricated by spinning dilute graphene oxide (GO) suspension combined with subsequent in situ thermal reduction. TRGO sheets with size of more than 10 μm are uniformly dispersed and smoothly coated on Au interdigitated electrodes. The ammonia sensing performance indicates that 250 °C-TRGO exhibits the shortest response time of 11 s to 100-ppm ammonia. Besides, 130 °C-TRGO shows strong response to low concentration ammonia with the calculated limit of detection (LOD) of 0.9 ppm. After being exposed to air for 3 months, it still maintains 74.23% of its initial responsivity demonstrating the excellent long-term stability. Moreover, the systematic investigation on the effect of annealing temperature to the sensing performance of TRGO elaborates that with the increase in thermal reduction temperature, the responsivity monotonically decreases while the response time will decrease initially and then gradually increase after the turning point of 250 °C. These results shed a light on developing TRGO-based ammonia sensors (TBASs) for future practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To analyze the utility of isolated-check visual evoked potential (icVEP) for discriminating between eyes with dysthyroid optic neuropathy (DON) and eyes with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) but not DON. Methods: Forty-three eyes with TAO but not DON (as non-DON), fifty-three eyes with DON, and sixty healthy eyes (as controls) were included. Comprehensive ophthalmic examinations, including best-corrected visual acuity, refraction, color vision test, intraocular pressure measurement, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, ophthalmoscopy, RAPD, exophthalmometry measurements, pVEP test, icVEP test, standard automated perimetry, and clinical activity score classification of TAO, as well as demographic information, were collected and analyzed. Results: In the DON group, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) value of icVEPs decreased significantly compared with that of the non-DON group as well as control (p < 0.05). The SNR values under 8%, 16% and 32% depth of modulation (DOM) were significantly negatively correlated with BCVA (p < 0.05, r = − 0.9 ~ − 0.6), papilledema (Y/N) (p < 0.05, r = − 0.8 ~ 0.4) and DON (Y/N) (p < 0.001, r = − 0.7 ~ − 0.5). The 8% DOM of icVEP had the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) (0.842) for discriminating DON from non-DONs. Meanwhile, decision curve analysis (DCA) showed that patients clinically benefit most from 8% DOM of icVEP. Furthermore, the 8% DOM of icVEP combing with papilledema (Y/N) and BCVA (Model 1) has significantly larger AUC than the 8% DOM of icVEP (p = 0.0364), and has better clinical benefit in DCA analysis. Conclusions: The SNR of 8% DOM from icVEP may represent a significant ancillary diagnostic method for DON detection. Furthermore, icVEP combined with papilledema (Y/N) and BCVA should be considered as a diagnostic model in future clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main conclusion: The role of transporters in subcellular metal transport is of great significance for plants in coping with heavy metal stress and maintaining their proper growth and development. Heavy metal toxicity is a serious long-term threat to plant growth and agricultural production, becoming a global environmental concern. Excessive heavy metal accumulation not only damages the biochemical and physiological functions of plants but also causes chronic health hazard to human beings through the food chain. To deal with heavy metal stress, plants have evolved a series of elaborate mechanisms, especially a variety of spatially distributed transporters, to strictly regulate heavy metal uptake and distribution. Deciphering the subcellular role of transporter proteins in controlling metal absorption, transport and separation is of great significance for understanding how plants cope with heavy metal stress and improving their adaptability to environmental changes. Hence, we herein introduce the detrimental effects of excessive common essential and non-essential heavy metals on plant growth, and describe the structural and functional characteristics of transporter family members, with a particular emphasis on their roles in maintaining heavy metal homeostasis in various organelles. Besides, we discuss the potential of controlling transporter gene expression by transgenic approaches in response to heavy metal stress. This review will be valuable to researchers and breeders for enhancing plant tolerance to heavy metal contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uterine luminal epithelium, glandular epithelium, and stromal cells are vital for the establishment of pregnancy. Previously studies have shown various methods to isolate mouse uterine epithelium and stromal cells, including laser capture microdissection (LCM), enzyme digestion, and immunomagnetic beads. Despite the importance of the endometrial epithelium as the site of implantation and nutritional support for the conceptus, there is no isolated method to separate the luminal epithelium and glandular epithelium. Here, we establish a novel enzyme-based way to separate two types of epithelium and keep their viability. In this article, we analyzed their purity by mRNA level, immunostaining, and transcriptome analysis. Our isolation method revealed several unstudied luminal and glandular epithelial markers in transcriptome analysis. We further demonstrated the viability of the isolated epithelium by 2D and 3D cultures. The results showed that we successfully separated the endometrial luminal epithelium and glandular epithelium. We also provided an experimental model for the following study of the physiological function of the different parts of the uterus and related diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Complete ammonia oxidation (comammox) overturned the traditional two-step nitrification theory. Newly discovered comammox Nitrospira and canonical nitrifiers (ammonia-oxidizing archaea and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria) collaboratively perform the oxidation of ammonia in ecosystems. However, the niche distribution of three ammonia oxidizers is controversial. In this study, we explored the distribution and diversity of comammox Nitrospira in riparian wetland ecosystems around Taihu Lake. Materials and methods: Soil samples were collected from five habitats: wheat field, vegetable field, peach orchard, tea orchard, and small camphor forest. The abundances and diversity of comammox Nitrospira amoA gene were measured. Results and discussion: The amoA gene abundance of comammox Nitrospira varied greatly, ranging from 1.83 × 105 to 8.35 × 107 copies/g. Temperature, total nitrogen, total carbon, and pH showed significant correlations with the amoA gene abundance of three ammonia oxidizers. High-throughput sequencing suggested that the community structure of comammox Nitrospira showed both spatial and temporal heterogeneity. Total carbon and pH could be the prime environmental factors causing the niche differentiation between comammox Nitrospira and canonical nitrifiers. Moisture content and NH4+ affected the community structure of comammox Nitrospira. Conclusions: Three ammonia oxidizers distributed widely in riparian wetland ecosystems around Taihu Lake. Canonical nitrifiers were more competitive than comammox Nitrospira in most soil samples. Meanwhile, comammox Nitrospira seemed to prefer inhabiting oligotrophic conditions. Collectively, our study expands the general insights into the niche distribution of comammox Nitrospira and the driving environmental factors in riparian wetland ecosystems around Taihu Lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning algorithms are sensitive to hyperparameters, and hyperparameter optimization techniques are often computationally expensive, especially for complex deep neural networks. In this paper, we use Q-learning algorithm to search for good hyperparameter configurations for neural networks, where the learning agent searches for the optimal hyperparameter configuration by continuously updating the Q-table to optimize hyperparameter tuning strategy. We modify the initial states and termination conditions of Q-learning to improve search efficiency. The experimental results on hyperparameter optimization of a convolutional neural network and a bidirectional long short-term memory network show that our method has higher search efficiency compared with tree of Parzen estimators, random search and genetic algorithm and can find out the optimal or near-optimal hyperparameter configuration of neural network models with minimum number of trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles (MSCs-EVs) possess cardioprotection in acute myocardial infarction. Nevertheless, the therapeutic intervention potential and the molecular mechanism of EVs from NMN (Nicotinamide mononucleotide) preconditioned hUCMSCs (N-EVs) in acute myocardial infarction remains unknown. In the present study, EVs from hUCMSCs (M-EVs) and N-EVs were identified by electron microscopy, immunoblotting and nanoparticle tracking analysis. Compared with M-EVs, N-EVs significantly increased the proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of HUVECs. Meanwhile, N-EVs markedly reduced apoptosis and cardiac fibrosis and promoted angiogenesis in the peri-infarct region in the MI rats. A high-throughput miRNA sequencing and qPCR methods analysis revealed that miR-210-3p was abundant in N-EVs and the expression of miR-210-3p was obviously upregulated in HUVECs after N-EVs treated. Overexpression of miR-210-3p in HUVECs significantly enhanced the tube formation, migration and proliferative capacities of HUVECs. However, downregulation of miR-210-3p in HUVECs markedly decreased the tube formation, migration and proliferative capacities of HUVECs. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis and luciferase assays revealed that EphrinA3 (EFNA3) was a direct target of miR-210-3p. Knockdown of miR-210-3p in N-EVs significantly impaired its ability to protect the heart after myocardial infarction. Altogether, these results indicated that N-EVs promoted the infarct healing through improvement of angiogenesis by miR-210-3p via targeting the EFNA3. Created with Biorender.com. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low temperature is a limiting factor of seed germination and plant growth. Although there is a lot information on the response of maize to low temperatures, there is still poorly description of how histone methylation affects maize germination and growth development at low temperatures. In this study, the germination rate and physiological indexes of wild-type maize inbred lines B73 (WT), SDG102 silencing lines (AS), SDG102 overexpressed lines (OE) at germination stage and seedling stage were measured under low temperature stress (4 ℃), and transcriptome sequencing was applied to analyze the differences of gene expression in panicle leaves among different materials. The results showed that the germination rate of WT and OE maize seeds at 4 ℃ was significantly lower than 25 ℃. The content of MDA, SOD and POD of 4 ℃ seeding leaves higher than contrast. Transcriptome sequencing results showed that there were 409 different expression genes (DEGs) between WT and AS, and the DEGs were mainly up-regulated expression in starch and sucrose metabolism and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. There were 887 DEGs between WT and OE, which were mainly up-regulated in the pathways of plant hormone signal transduction, porphyrin and chlorophyll metabolism. This result could provide a theoretical basis for analyzing the growth and development of maize from the perspective of histone methylation modification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The optimal interval between neoadjuvant therapy and oesophagectomy for oesophageal cancer remains controversial. Methods: Patients with locally advanced oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who received neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by oesophagectomy between June 2017 and December 2020 were prospectively enrolled and retrospectively analysed. Patients were divided into two groups: timely (group A; < 10 weeks) and delayed (group B; ≥ 10 weeks) surgery groups. Survival was the primary outcome, and tumour response and post-operative complications were the secondary outcomes. Results: Overall, 224 patients were recruited; 116 patients (51.8%) underwent timely surgery within 10 weeks (group A), and 108 patients (49.2%) underwent delayed surgery over 10 weeks (group B) after chemoradiotherapy. In patients with clinical complete response (cCR), two groups had no significant difference of survival benefit (P = 0.618). However, in patients without cCR, delayed surgery was associated with poor survival (P = 0.035) and cancer progression (P = 0.036). A total of 40 patients (34.5%) in group A and 54 patients (50.0%) in group B achieved pCR (P = 0.019). pCR rates were significantly different across the four groups and increased over time (P = 0.006). Conclusions: Patients with a prolonged time interval from neoadjuvant chemoradiation to surgery had higher pCR rates. For patients with cCR to neoadjuvant chemoradiation, the time interval to surgery can be safely prolonged for at least 10 weeks. However, for patients with non-cCR to neoadjuvant chemoradiation, delayed surgery is associated with poor survival, and surgery should be performed within 10 weeks of neoadjuvant chemoradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During electromagnetic levitation, the thermal conductivity and density of droplets will change with temperature, which will affect the droplet flow field and thermal field. In this paper, the effect of bidirectional coupling of the thermal conductivity and density of silicon droplets on the flow field and temperature field is simulated. The results indicate that (1) The equilibrium levitation position of a droplet under bidirectional coupling circumstances is higher than that under unidirectional coupling circumstances, and the calculated results under the bidirectional coupling condition are more consistent with the experimental results. The most stable levitation state of the droplet is found to be at 390 A under bidirectional coupling circumstances, in contract to that at 410 A under unidirectional coupling circumstances. (2) The bidirectional coupling of thermal conductivity and density has little effect on the flow field, and the maximum velocity of the droplet under the bidirectional coupling condition is slightly smaller. (3) With bidirectional coupling, the thermal conductivity gradually decreases with the increase of temperature, and the upward trend of the droplet's temperature under this condition is more evident than that with a constant thermal conductivity in the unidirectional model. The increasing trend of temperature in the former case is 17.4 K higher than that in the latter with the levitation current increasing from 360 to 560 A. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three-bucket jacket foundation is a new type of foundation for offshore wind turbine that has the advantages of fast construction speed and suitability for deep water. The study of the hoisting and launching process is of great significance to ensure construction safety in actual projects. In this paper, a new launching technology is proposed that is based on the foundation of the three-bucket jacket for offshore wind turbine. A complete time domain simulation of the launching process of three-bucket jacket foundation is carried out by a theoretical analysis combined with hydrodynamic software Moses. At the same time, the effects of different initial air storage and sea conditions on the motion response of the structure and the hoisting cable tension are studied. The results show that the motion response of the structure is the highest when it is lowered to 1.5 times the bucket height. The natural period of each degree of freedom of the structure increases with the increase of the lowering depth. The structural motion response and the hoisting cable tension vary greatly in the early phases of Stages I and III, smaller in Stage II, and gradually stabilize in the middle and late phases of Stage III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The giant thermopower of ionic thermoelectric materials has attracted great attention for waste-heat recovery technologies. However, generating cyclic power by ionic thermoelectric modules remains challenging, since the ions cannot travel across the electrode interface. Here, we reported a reversible bipolar thermopower (+20.2 mV K−1 to −10.2 mV K−1) of the same composite by manipulating the interactions of ions and electrodes. Meanwhile, a promising ionic thermoelectric generator was proposed to achieve cyclic power generation under a constant heat course only by switching the external electrodes that can effectively realize the alternating dominated thermodiffusion of cations and anions. It eliminates the necessity to change the thermal contact between material and heat, nor does it require re-establish the temperature differences, which can favor improving the efficiency of the ionic thermoelectrics. Furthermore, the developed micro-thermal sensors demonstrated high sensitivity and responsivity in light detecting, presenting innovative impacts on exploring next-generation ionic thermoelectric devices. Generating continuous power by ionic thermoelectric material modules remains challenging. Here, the authors find the ionic thermoelectric material exhibiting bipolar thermopower property by manipulating the interactions between ions and electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reactive fluorescent "turn-on" probe (di-PIP) with imine-linked dual phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole luminophore have been conveniently prepared as an Al3+ and H+ dual functional receptor. di-PIP displayed high selectivity and sensitivity towards Al3+ ion in DMF/HEPES accompanied by fluorescence blue-shift and a good linear relationship as well as a low detection limit of 30.5 nmol·L–1, which can root from the synergetic functions of the decomposition reaction of di-PIP promoted by acidic Al3+ and the coordination effect between decomposition product and Al3+. Intriguingly, it was found that hydrogen ion H+ can be sufficient for simulating the fluorescence enhancing of di-PIP. 1H NMR titration and MS analyses for elucidation of the intermediate structure further revealed that the acid-triggered decomposition reaction resulted in the rapid, and sensitive sensing to Al3+ and H+. In addition, the probe di-PIP could be successfully applied to the detection of Al3+ in real water samples, and also utilized to visualize Al3+ and H+ in the living cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]