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Chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) are showing versatile possibilities in cutting-edge applications, including non-volatile memory, neuromorphic computing, and nano-photonics. However, for embedded phase-change memory applications, conventional PCMs suffer from insufficient thermal stability because of their relatively low crystallization temperatures (Tx). Although doping with additional alloying elements could improve the amorphous stability, it also increases the tendency towards compositional partitioning and phase separation. Recently, a two-dimensional (2D) layered compound CrGeTe3 (CrGT) was developed as a PCM, showing a high Tx ~ 276 °C with an inverse change in resistive-switching character upon phase transition. Here, we report a high-throughput materials screening for 2D layered phase-change chalcogenides. We aim to clarify whether the high Tx and the inverse electrical resistance contrast are intrinsic features of 2D PCMs. In total, twenty-five 2D chalcogenides with CrGT trilayer structures have been identified from a large database. We then focused on selected layered tellurides by performing thorough ab initio simulations and experimental investigations and confirming that their amorphous phase indeed has a much higher Tx than conventional PCMs. We attribute this enhanced amorphous stability to the structurally complex nuclei required to render crystallization possible. Overall, we regard InGeTe3 as a balanced 2D PCM with both high thermal stability and large electrical contrast for embedded memory applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) with a chemically modified surface typically have a complicated chemical composition, which can significantly differ from their intended design. In this study, we systematically studied the effects of two surface modification methods on active-targeting of intracellular organelles of SiNPs: (1) the widely used step-by-step approach, which involves modifying SiNPs in two steps, i.e., the outer surface of SiNPs was firstly modified with amino groups and then these amino groups were linked with targeting groups, and (2) a newly developed one-step approach in which the ligand–silane complex is initially synthesized, followed by chemically immobilizing the complex on the surface of SiNPs. In the one-step approach, the molar ratio of reactants was precisely tuned so that there are no reactive groups left on the outer surface of SiNPs. Two essential organelles, mitochondria and the nucleus, were selected to compare the targeting performances of SiNPs synthesized via these two approaches. By characterizing physicochemical properties, including structural properties, the number of amino groups, surface charge, polydispersity, and cell colocalization, we demonstrated that SiNPs synthesized via the one-step approach with no residual linkage groups on their surface showed significantly improved mitochondria- and nucleus-targeting performances. This precise control of surface properties allows for optimized biological behavior and active-targeting efficiency of SiNPs. We anticipate that such simple and efficient synthetic strategies will enable the synthesis of effective SiNPs for active-targeting organelles in various biological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) play a key role in regulating the host immune response and shaping tumor microenvironment. It has been previously shown that T cell infiltration in penile tumors was associated with clinical outcomes. However, few studies have reported the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire in patients with penile cancer. In the present study, we evaluated the TCR repertoires in tumor and adjacent normal tissues from 22 patients with penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC). Analysis of the T cell receptor beta-variable (TRBV) and joining (TRBJ) genes usage and analysis of complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) length distribution did not show significant differences between tumor and matched normal tissues. Moreover, analysis of the median Jaccard index indicated a limited overlap of TCR repertoire between these groups. Compared with normal tissues, a significantly lower diversity and higher clonality of TCR repertoire was observed in tumor samples, which was associated with clinical characteristics. Further analysis of transcriptional profiles demonstrated that tumor samples with high clonality showed increased expression of genes associated with CD8 + T cells. In addition, we analyzed the TCR repertoire of CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells isolated from tumor tissues. We identified that expanded clonotypes were predominantly in the CD8 + T cell compartment, which presented with an exhausted phenotype. Overall, we comprehensively compared TCR repertoire between penile tumor and normal tissues and demonstrated the presence of distinct T cell immune microenvironments in patients with PSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon fiber composites are widely used in machine manufacturing because of their excellent characteristics. However, their service life is affected by the surrounding environment. Therefore, it is urgent to establish a life prediction model that provides a certain theoretical basis for the basic application of actual carbon fiber composite materials. Suitable models for the storage life prediction of carbon fiber composites were established under certain storage conditions by investigating the aging behavior of the composites composed of T700/epoxy resin. The variation of conductivity of carbon fiber composites under different thermal and oxygen conditions were studied, and the reasons were explored from the perspective of the aging mechanism. An empirical model for life prediction of the thermal oxidative aging law was established using kinetic formula and linear kinetic curve method, and the aging life at 25 ℃ was predicted. At the same time, through exploring the electrical properties of carbon fiber composites, it is found that temperature and humidity jointly affect the aging life of the materials. Therefore, the wet and thermal aging life model derived by combining the Arrhenius model and Eyring model was adopted to predict the aging life under the condition of 25 ℃ and 60% relative humidity (60% RH). Residual strength model and environmental equivalent were used to predict the damp and heat aging life under different testing conditions. The life prediction is helpful to establish a sound material evaluation system and a systematic safety protection system in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this study on human papilloma virus (HPV) 6/11/16/18 infection among females in Chengdu were to provide more targeted strategies for the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer and genital warts. In this study, the infection status of 20 genotypes was analysed by gene chip technology. The prevalence rates of HPV-6, -11, -16, and -18 infection among 180,276 cases were 0.94%, 0.57%, 3.22%, and 1.28%, respectively. The prevalence of HPV 6/11/16/18 showed a bimodal U-shaped curve with age; the first and second peak occurred among females < 20 and ≥ 60 years old, respectively. As the multiplicity of infections involving HPV6/11/16/18 increases, the infection rate decreases. The ratios of HPV16 single infection showed a yearly increase. The top five genotypes with HPV-16, -18, -6, and -11 in coinfection were HPV52/58/53/51/33, HPV 52/16/53/58/51, HPV52/16/58/51/53 and HPV16/52/58/59/18, respectively, HPV16/18/6/11 were mainly coinfected with HR-HPV. In sum, among the five vaccines available, nonavalent vaccine is more suitable for Chengdu females. For young females prioritizing vaccination is essential in the current context, while HPV screening remains an effective approach for older females. Additionally, in patients with genital warts, it is necessary to assess the presence of high-risk HPV infection and manage it appropriately in patients with genital warts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exome sequencing (ES) has been used in a variety of clinical settings but there are limited data on its utility for diagnosis and/or prediction of monogenic liver diseases. We developed a curated list of 502 genes for monogenic disorders associated with liver phenotypes and analyzed ES data for these genes in 758 patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD). For comparison, we examined ES data in 7856 self-declared healthy controls (HC), and 2187 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Candidate pathogenic (P) or likely pathogenic (LP) variants were initially identified in 19.9% of participants, most of which were attributable to previously reported pathogenic variants with implausibly high allele frequencies. After variant annotation and filtering based on population minor allele frequency (MAF ≤ 10–4 for dominant disorders and MAF ≤ 10–3 for recessive disorders), we detected a significant enrichment of P/LP variants in the CLD cohort compared to the HC cohort (X2 test OR 5.00, 95% CI 3.06–8.18, p value = 4.5e−12). A second-level manual annotation was necessary to capture true pathogenic variants that were removed by stringent allele frequency and quality filters. After these sequential steps, the diagnostic rate of monogenic disorders was 5.7% in the CLD cohort, attributable to P/LP variants in 25 genes. We also identified concordant liver disease phenotypes for 15/22 kidney disease patients with P/LP variants in liver genes, mostly associated with cystic liver disease phenotypes. Sequencing results had many implications for clinical management, including familial testing for early diagnosis and management, preventative screening for associated comorbidities, and in some cases for therapy. Exome sequencing provided a 5.7% diagnostic rate in CLD patients and required multiple rounds of review to reduce both false positive and false negative findings. The identification of concordant phenotypes in many patients with P/LP variants and no known liver disease also indicates a potential for predictive testing for selected monogenic liver disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic functional connectivity (DFC) analysis has been widely applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to reveal the time-varying functional interactions between brain regions. Although the sliding window (SW) method is popular for DFC analysis, the selection of window length is hard, and the temporal resolution is limited by the window length. The hidden Markov model (HMM) without the limitation of window length has been proven to be able to estimate time-varying brain states from fMRI data. However, HMM tends to be overfitted in DFC analysis of fMRI data because of the high spatial dimension and the limited sample size of fMRI data. In this study, we proposed an alternating HMM (aHMM) method that used the functional connectivity estimation of SW to initialize the covariance matrix of HMM and adopted an alternating HMM procedure to reduce the number of parameters during each optimization. The simulated and real fMRI resting data from the Human Connectome Projects showed that aHMM produced better robustness to noise, parameter number and sample size in DFC estimation than SW and HMM. For the real fMRI resting data of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD), results of aHMM revealed that amnesia and mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) caused the CSVD with aMCI (CSVD-aMCI) group tended to spend more time on the brain state with overall weak connections and less time on the state with overall strong connections than the CSVD-controls. Moreover, CSVD-aMCI showed significantly lower connectivity amplitude and higher connectivity fluctuation than CSVD-control. In contrast, HMM did not detect intergroup differences of the connectivity amplitude and fluctuations and SW did not detect intergroup differences of connectivity fluctuations and fraction of time. The results further indicated that aHMM outperformed HMM and SW in detecting inter-group differences of temporal properties of DFC and connectivity fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clk4-associated serine/arginine-rich protein (CLASRP), an alternative splicing regulator, may be involved in the development and progression of cancer by regulating the activity of the CDC-like kinase (Clk) family. This study explored the biological function of CLASRP in colorectal cancer (CRC). The expression of CLASRP, which is associated with clinicopathological features, was analysed in CRC tissues and paired noncancer tissues by RT–PCR. The roles of CLASRP were investigated in CRC cells transfected with plasmids or shRNA through proliferation, migration and invasion assays in vitro and a xenograft model in vivo. Apoptosis was analysed using CLASRP-overexpressing CRC cells by western blotting. Clk inhibitors were used to perform functional research on CLASRP in CLASRP-overexpressing CRC cells. CLASRP was significantly upregulated in CRC cell lines, while high CLASRP expression was correlated with metastasis in CRC patients. Functionally, overexpression of CLASRP significantly promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of CRC cells in vitro and tumour growth in vivo. Mechanistically, the proliferation, migration and invasion of CLASRP-overexpressing CRC cells were inhibited by Clk inhibitors, accompanied by low expression of CLASRP at the gene and protein levels. Clk inhibitors induced apoptosis of CLASRP-overexpressing CRC cells, resulting in direct blockade of cell growth. The expression levels of cleaved caspase 3 and cleaved caspase 8 were increased in CLASRP-overexpressing CRC cells treated with Clk inhibitors. CLASRP might serve as a promotional oncogene in CRC cells and be suppressed by Clk inhibitors through activation of caspase pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and convenient non-isocyanate route is described to synthesize strong aliphatic crosslinked polyureas (cPUreas). A ring-opening reaction of mixed diamines with ethylene carbonate was carried out at 100 °C, and a transurethane polycondensation was followed at 170 °C, with different amino terminated polyurea oligomers (H2N-o-PUrea-NH2s) prepared. cPUreas were prepared further through a crosslinking reaction of H2N-o-PUrea-NH2s with 1,5-bis(maleimide)-2-methylpentane. The cPUreas were characterized by FT-IR, dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and tensile test. Different curing conditions were adopted to study the influence on the properties. The cPUreas exhibited tensile strength up to 91 MPa, glass transition temperature between 96 and 182 °C, and initial decomposition temperature at over 288 °C. Aliphatic cPUreas with excellent thermal and mechanical properties were successfully synthesized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The direct aqueous mineral carbonation of wood combustion ash (WCA), which is a representative high-calcium waste from combustion process, was systematically investigated by varying complex operating conditions, including reaction time, liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S), CO2 concentration, and particle size. The WCA exhibited high CO2 sequestration characteristics with an optimal carbonation efficiency of 76.4%, corresponding to a CO2 sequestration capacity of 0.314 g CO2/g WCA. In addition to solid carbonates, dry residues from liquid products with high potassium contents are potential feedstocks for quality potash fertilizer. Modified shrinking core models based on diffusion-controlled mechanism were proposed to evaluate the carbonation process. The theoretical framework assumes a contracting interface mechanism where active CaO reacts with CO2 to form a product layer. The effective diffusion coefficient of CO2 through the product layer decreases over time, giving deficient carbonation efficiency. The newly proposed models corresponding to different geometrical dimensions provided more perfect fit to the experimental data when compared with the most commonly used kinetic equations. The low apparent activation energy of the carbonation reaction demonstrated the diffusion-controlled mechanism. This work is useful for improving the economics and feasibility of bioenergy carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing highly reliable and practical microwave absorbers is one of the most important research directions in the microwave absorbing field. Many absorbents suffer from concentration-sensitivity and environmental-sensitivity dilemmas in practical applications. Here, sea urchin-like aggregates of MnO2 nanotubes were synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method, which exhibit an outstanding impedance matching characteristic. The composites based on sea urchin-like aggregates of MnO2 nanotubes show excellent microwave absorption performance in a wide concentration domain from 20 wt.% to 70 wt.%, corresponding to electrical conductivities from 1.86 × 10−7 to 1.85 × 10−5 S/m. Such a wide concentration range of absorbent for excellent microwave absorption is mainly attributed to the beneficial impedance matching properties of sea urchin-like aggregates of hollow nanotubes. A competitive absorption bandwidth of 3.36 GHz is achieved at 1 mm thickness, which can be broadened to 13.4 GHz by structural design. This work shows a new scheme for designing reliable and practical microwave absorbers benefit from the wide absorbent concentration domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel sandwich electrochemical impedimetric immunosensor was proposed to detect apolipoprotein-A1 (Apo-A1), a common biomarker for bladder cancer. The molybdenum disulfide/graphene quantum dot (MoS2/GQD) nanocomposites were modified on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and used to immobilize the biotinylated antibody (Ab1) with the help of chitosan and glutaraldehyde (denoted as BSA/Ab1/CHIT/MoS2/GQD/GCE). Pb(II)-thiol-β-cyclodextrin metal–organic framework (denoted as Pb-MOF) was synthesized with lead metal ions and thiol-β-cyclodextrin ligands by a one-pot solvothermal method, and then, gold nanoparticles were modified on the surface of Pb-MOF (Pb-MOF-AuNPs) by Au–S bond, which was used as signal label for the recombinant antibody (Ab2). When the immunosensor of BSA/Ab1/CHIT/MoS2/GQD/GCE reacted with Apo-A1, Pb-MOF-AuNPs-Ab2/BSA was connected to the electrode when immunoreaction occurred, and an immune sandwich structure was formed, which led to significantly increased charge transfer resistance of electrochemical probe for ferrocyanide (II)/(III) within the frequency range 10−1 ~ 105 Hz at 5 mV amplitude and the potential of 0.180 V (vs. SCE). Based on this principle, the quantitative detection of Apo-A1 was established. The relative change of electrochemical resistance and the logarithmic value of Apo-A1 concentration showed a linear relationship with a linear coefficient of 0.9989 in the range 1.00 pg mL−1 and 1.00 μg mL−1 with the limit of detection of 0.30 pg mL−1. The selectivity, repeatability, and other performance of the proposed immunosensor were also investigated. The immunosensor was successfully applied to the detection of real serum and urine samples with recovery in the range 96.4 ~ 109.1% (RSD < 3.8%), indicating that it could be helpful for the clinical diagnosis of bladder cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of wearable electronic devices, medical simulation equipment, and electronic textile industries, their energy storage devices need to maintain stable chemical properties after undergoing multiple tensile deformations. Flexible supercapacitors have long cycle life and mechanical properties due to their own strong, green, low-cost, and many other excellent performances; it has been widely concerned by the society. So far, the research on flexible supercapacitors has achieved excellent results. This paper focuses on the preparation process of flexible supercapacitor electrode materials and the different properties and characteristics of various electrode materials and summarizes the structure of flexible supercapacitors. The component methods, and the applications that have attracted much attention, compare the advantages of different flexible supercapacitors that exist at this stage. Finally, this paper gives a bright prospect for the development of flexible supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunoglobulin A (IgA) mediates mucosal responses to food antigens and the intestinal microbiome and is involved in susceptibility to mucosal pathogens, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and IgA nephropathy. We performed a genome-wide association study of serum IgA levels in 41,263 individuals of diverse ancestries and identified 20 genome-wide significant loci, including 9 known and 11 novel loci. Co-localization analyses with expression QTLs prioritized candidate genes for 14 of 20 significant loci. Most loci encoded genes that produced immune defects and IgA abnormalities when genetically manipulated in mice. We also observed positive genetic correlations of serum IgA levels with IgA nephropathy, type 2 diabetes, and body mass index, and negative correlations with celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and several infections. Mendelian randomization supported elevated serum IgA as a causal factor in IgA nephropathy. African ancestry was consistently associated with higher serum IgA levels and greater frequency of IgA-increasing alleles compared to other ancestries. Our findings provide novel insights into the genetic regulation of IgA levels and its potential role in human disease. Immunoglobulin A protects against infectious disease and contributes to autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. Here, the authors perform a genome-wide association study for serum IgA levels, identifying 20 genome-wide significant loci, providing new insights into the genetic regulation of IgA levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platooning control of connected and automated vehicles relies on the collected information via onboard sensors and wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communication. However, sensing delay arises from perception and fusion of multiple onboard sensors, and communication delay arises from transmission intermittencies. Two types of time delays may compromise the stability of platoon systems. In this paper, we study the effects of sensing delay and communication delay on stability of the platoons, where multiple vehicles move in a closed roadway. Each vehicle utilizes the delay-based bidirectional asymmetric control to regulate individual longitudinal behaviours, in which nonidentical asymmetry factors between the direct front and back adjacent vehicles are used for the feedback gains of position, velocity, and acceleration information. The platoon system with three weighted Laplacian matrices is decomposed into a finite number of linear spatial modes. Based on a geometric analysis approach for two constant time delays, we obtain the region of stability preservation in the delays plane, as well as the threshold values of sensing delay and communication delay. Numerical calculations show that, in terms of stability margin with respect to time delays, the platoon system tends to have a higher tolerance for sensing delay than for communication delay, especially for small asymmetric level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple route is established to synthesize segmented polyurethanes constructed mainly with polystyrene and poly(butylene adipate) sequences. A long dihydroxyl terminated polystyrene (HO-PS-OH) was synthesized through the radical polymerization of styrene with 4.4′-azobis(4-cyanopentanol) as initiator. The HO-PS-OH, HO-terminated poly(butylene adipate) (HO-PBA-OH), and 4,4′-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) were polymerized further in a one-step solution process, and a series of multi-block polystyrene-block-poly(butylene adipate) TPUs (PS–b-PBA TPUs) was prepared. Meanwhile, five two-step PS–b-PBA TPUs (ts- PS–b-PBA TPUs) were also prepared; that is, the HO-PBA-OH was first reacted with excessive MDI to obtain long OCN-terminated PBA-methylenediphenyl diurethane (PBA-MDU) prepolymers, and then it was polymerized with HO-PS-OH to form ts-PS–b-PBA TPUs. PS–b-PBA TPUs and ts-PS–b-PBA TPUs all showed two glass transition temperatures. Phase separation occurred between their hard and soft phases. Different from amorphous ts-PS–b-PBA TPUs that were constructed with long PBA-MDU soft segments (SSs) and PS-MDU hard segments (HSs), short and scattered PBA-MDU SSs and PS-MDU HSs led to crystallized PS–b-PBA TPUs that showed better mechanical property than ts-PS–b-PBA TPUs. Long amorphous PS and crystallizable PBA sequences provided the PS–b-PBA TPUs with high Tg and good thermal and mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honeycomb structural composites were fabricated by impregnating aramid paper frame with modified whisker carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polyurethane resin (PU). CNTs were oxidized by using mixed acid and strong oxidant. Vector network analysis was used to measure the reflection loss (RL) of the honeycomb composites and the compressive test of honeycomb composites was carried out with a universal testing machine. For the double-layers honeycomb composites, the method of concentration gradient design can bring double absorption peak resonance benefit, which expand the microwave absorption bandwidth. Therefore, RL achieves the absorption bandwidth (< -10 dB) of 14 GHz covering 4–18 GHz for double-layer honeycomb composites. In addition, an effective model is proposed through the logarithmic law and equivalent circuit theory. The absorption property of the composites is attributed to the quarter-wavelength cancellation interference and multiple scattering, harmonic peaks move to a low-frequency stage with the increase of the CNTs average content. Compared to pristine double-layers honeycomb core, the compression strength and the elastic modulus are enhanced by 64% and 123%, respectively. The composites benefiting from the excellent mechanical and absorption performance have significant potential in stealth technology fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-site cocatalysts engineered on supports offer a cost-efficient pathway to utilize precious metals, yet improving the performance further with minimal catalyst loading is still highly desirable. Here we have conducted a photochemical reaction to stabilize ultralow Pt co-catalysts (0.26 wt%) onto the basal plane of hexagonal ZnIn2S4 nanosheets (PtSS-ZIS) to form a Pt-S3 protrusion tetrahedron coordination structure. Compared with the traditional defect-trapped Pt single-site counterparts, the protruding Pt single-sites on h-ZIS photocatalyst enhance the H2 evolution yield rate by a factor of 2.2, which could reach 17.5 mmol g−1 h−1 under visible light irradiation. Importantly, through simple drop-casting, a thin PtSS-ZIS film is prepared, and large amount of observable H2 bubbles are generated, providing great potential for practical solar-light-driven H2 production. The protruding single Pt atoms in PtSS-ZIS could inhibit the recombination of electron-hole pairs and cause a tip effect to optimize the adsorption/desorption behavior of H through effective proton mass transfer, which synergistically promote reaction thermodynamics and kinetics. An alternative approach to defect-trapped Pt single-sites on a semiconductor is reported. Here, protruding Pt sites inhibit charge recombination and cause a tip effect which enhances H2 evolution yield rates with minimal co-catalyst loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of miniaturization and miniaturization of portable electronic devices, the requirements of electronic devices are increasing for the performance of energy storage components within a certain volume. Considering the low power density and short cycle life of microbatteries, they cannot meet the requirements of rapid charge/discharge and long life of microelectronic devices. Meanwhile, microsupercapacitors (MSCs) have many advantages, such as high power density and long service life, and they meet the needs of use and development and have good prospects and progress advantages. In recent years, as new energy storage devices, MSCs have been widely studied in the design of device structure, but they are limited by many challenges such as low energy storage density, large internal resistance, improved cycle stability, and complex micropreparation technology. In this paper, the principle of MSCs and the research progress of structured electrodes were reviewed, thus providing a reference for the continuous optimization of the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercapacitors are a new type of energy storage device between batteries and conventional electrostatic capacitors. Compared with conventional electrostatic capacitors, supercapacitors have outstanding advantages such as high capacity, high power density, high charging/discharging speed, and long cycling life, which make them widely used in many fields such as electronics, aerospace, and vehicles. However, the low energy density of supercapacitors limits their large-scale applications. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop high energy density supercapacitors and use as power sources for practical devices. In order to improve the performance of supercapacitors, the study of materials and structures is very important. In this paper, the research progresses of common materials and structures of some supercapacitors are reviewed. The related properties and device characterizations of carbon-based, conductive polymer and metal compound electrode materials are introduced. The structures of electrode materials, structures of devices, and corresponding properties are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pristine and Bi-doped lanthanum titanium oxide (La2Ti2O7) nanosheets have been synthesized as photocatalysts for overall solar water splitting. The surface hole trap is a critical factor that limits the photocatalytic activity of pristine La2Ti2O7. Deposition of cobalt phosphate (Co-Pi) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles on La2Ti2O7 cannot remove the surface traps although they are essential for enabling the oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions. It is interesting that doping bismuth (Bi) into La2Ti2O7 nanosheets has eliminated the surface traps due to surface enrichment of Bi. The Co-Pi/Bi-La2Ti2O7/Pt nanosheets exhibit increasing photocatalytic activity toward overall water splitting with increasing the Bi-dopant level up to 5 at.%. Further increasing the Bi-dopant level leads to the formation of localized states above the valence band, leading to the lifetime reduction of photogenerated charge-carriers, and jeopardizing the photocatalytic activity. This work proposes an effective strategy to address the surface trapping and surface catalysis issues in the nanostructured metal oxide photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of internally illuminated honeycomb photoreactor was designed. The honeycomb catalyst prepared by using Ce-doped TiO2 with 1%–2% vanadium and tungsten was employed for mercury removal from simulated industrial flue gas. The adsorption kinetics in the reaction process were studied. The results showed that the internally illuminated honeycomb photoreactor had good mercury removal performance. When the temperature was 25°C and the ultraviolet (UV) light intensity reached 80 µW/cm2, the mercury removal efficiency reached 92.5%. The mercury removal efficiency increased significantly with the doping ratio of Ce. XPS analysis showed that the oxidation state of Ce changed from 4 to 3 in the mercury removal reaction and produced lattice oxygen, which acts as an oxidant. O2 can promote mercury removal by honeycomb catalysts; SO2 and HCl also had positive effects, while NO had an inhibitory effect on mercury removal. Kinetic research in the reaction process showed that the quasi-first-order dynamic model had good fitting results, and the correlation coefficients of the fitting results for multiple sets of experimental data were more than 0.999. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method was provided to synthesize Diels–Alder (DA) self-healing cross-linked polyamides (SH-cPAs) with high tensile strength and good self-healing efficiency. A furfurylamine-N,N'-bis(methyl propionate) (FA-BMP) was synthesized through the Michael addition of furfurylamine and methyl acrylate. Bulk polycondensation of FA-BMP with bis(2-aminopropyl) polypropylene glycol and m-xylylenediamine were conducted, and several polyamide prepolymers containing furan pendent groups (pFU-PAs) were synthesized. From a DA reaction between pFU-PAs and 1,5-bismaleimido-2-methylpentane, different SH-cPAs were prepared. The pFU-PAs were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FT-IR, amine values, and size exclusion chromatography. The DA reaction in SH-cPAs were demonstrated by FT-IR and 1H NMR spectra. Their thermally repairing was verified with polarizing optical microscopy and tensile tests. SH-cPAs exhibits tensile strength up to 37 MPa with strain at break of 27%-164%. Their tensile strength after self-repairing was still up to 26 MPa with self-healing efficiency of 70%-92%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Double-shell-structured Si@SiOx@C composite material was prepared by aqueous etching with ammonium hydroxide and citric acid pyrolysis. The combination of Si with a double shell of SiOx and carbon shell has outstanding structural advantages. As Si anode has high specific capacity, SiOx is more stable during cycling and carbon has high conductivity. The excellent stability of SiOx during cycling compared with Si is profit from Li-oxide and Li-silicate generated by the reaction of Li+ with Si and O elements, which help to lead excellent cyclic performance. The Si@SiOx@C composite electrode demonstrates excellent electrochemical performance with high cyclic stability. The composite electrode has an initial reversible specific capacity of 575.3 mAhg−1 and capacity retention as high as 74.7% even after 400 cycles. The method used for the preparation of double-shell-structured Si@SiOx@C composite is easy and mass-productive, which could be applied for long-life lithium-ion battery anode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction of mercury emission from coal combustion is a serious task for public health and environmental societies. Herein, Ce-doped TiO2 (Ce/TiO2) catalyst coupling with a novel optical fiber monolith reactor was applied to efficiently remove elemental mercury (Hg0) from coal-fired flue gas. Under the optimal operation condition (i.e., 1.5 mW/cm2 UV light, 90 °C), above 95% of Hg0 removal efficiency was attained over the optical fiber monolith reactor coating with 3.40 g/m2 Ce/TiO2 catalyst. The effects of flue gas compositions on Hg0 removal performance were clarified systematically. Gaseous O2 replenished the surface oxygen, hence maintaining the production of free radicals and promoting the removal of Hg0. SO2, HCl, and NO inhibited Hg0 removal in the absence of O2 due to the competitive adsorption and consumption of free radicals. However, SO2 and HCl significantly enhanced Hg0 removal with the participation of O2, while NO exhibited obviously inhibitory effect even with the assistance of O2. H2O also decreased the Hg0 oxidation capacity owing to the competitive adsorption and reduction of HgO. The optical fiber monolith reactor exhibited much superior Hg0 removal capacity than the powder reactor. Utilization of Ce/TiO2 catalyst coupling with an optical fiber monolith reactor provides a cost-effective method for removing Hg0 from coal-fired flue gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work was to investigate the capacity of mogroside V (MOG-V), a food additive, as a novel carrier to improve the bioavailability and liver distribution of silybin (SLY). Solid dispersion particles (SDPs) of SLY/MOG-V were prepared utilizing the solvent evaporation method. The physicochemical characterizations of SDPs were evaluated by using dynamic light scattering (DLS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurements. DLS results demonstrated the formation of nanoparticles (206 nm) of SDPs in water. DSC and PXRD analysis revealed that SLY was in amorphous form or molecularly dispersed in SDPs. SDPs also exhibited a major increase in both dissolution rate and saturation solubility, as evidenced by a 1931-fold improvement (2201 μg/mL) in solubility compared with pure SLY (1.14 μg/mL). The pharmacokinetic study in rats showed that oral absorption of SLY/MOG-V SDPs was dramatically increased. The mean value of AUC until 12 h for SLY/MOG-V SDPs (27,481 ng·min/mL) was 24.5-fold higher than that of pure SLY (1122 ng·min/mL). In vivo tissue distribution experiment in mice confirmed that the major distribution tissue was changed from lungs to liver after SLY was loaded into MOG-V. In addition, even orally administrated to mice at a high dose (4.2 g/kg), MOG-V exhibited no undesirable effect on the plasma glucose concentrations. Thus, MOG-V may have the applicability to serve as an ideal excipient for solubilization or as a novel liver targeting carrier for the delivery of SLY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the iterative sequential lasso (ISLasso) variable selection for generalized linear model with ultrahigh dimensional feature space. The ISLasso selects features by estimated parameter sequentially iteratively for the second order approximation of likelihood function where the features selected depend on regulatory parameters. The procedure stops when extended BIC (EBIC) reaches a minimum. Simulation study demonstrates that the new method is a desirable approach over other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple method is established to synthesize bio-based cross-linked polyitaconamides (cPITAs) through a Michael ene-amine addition and bulk polycondensation. A tetraester, i.e. tetramethyl piperazine-N,N′-bis(2-methylene butanedioate) (TMPB), was synthesized through a Michael addition of dimethyl itaconate and piperazine at 90 °C. Bulk polycondensation of TMPB with butanediamine or hexamethylenediamine was conducted at 130–170 °C under atmospheric pressure, and several cPITAs with tunable properties were prepared. The Michael addition and the polycondensation were monitored by FT-IR and 1H NMR spectra. The cPITA films were characterized by DSC, WAXS, TGA, dynamic mechanical analysis, and tensile test. cPITAs exhibited Tg ranging from 58 to 72 °C, tensile strength up to 85 MPa, and strain at break from 9% to 17%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supported gold (Au) nanocatalysts have attracted extensive interests in the past decades because of their unique catalytic properties for a number of key chemical reactions, especially in (selective) oxidations. The activation of O2 on Au nanocatalysts is crucial and remains a challenge because only small Au nanoparticles (NPs) can effectively activate O2. This severely limits their practical application because Au NPs inevitably sinter into larger ones during reaction due to their low Taman temperature. Here we construct a Au-SiO2 interface by depositing thin SiO2 layer onto Au/TiO2 and calcination at high temperatures and demonstrate that the interface can be not only highly sintering resistant but also extremely active for O2 activation. This work provides insights into the catalysis of Au nanocatalysts and paves a way for the design and development of highly active supported Au catalysts with excellent thermal stability. The development of sintering resistant supported Au catalysts with high activity still remains a challenge. Here the authors construct a Au-SiO2 interface by depositing SiO2 thin layer onto Au/TiO2 catalyst which shows very high activity in CO oxidation even after calcination at 800 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FeRh attracts intensive interest in antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics due to its first-order phase transition between the AFM and ferromagnetic (FM) phase, which is unique for exploring spin dynamics in coexisting phases. Here, we report lateral spin pumping by which angular momentum is transferred from FM domains into the AFM matrix during the phase transition of ultrathin FeRh films. In addition, FeRh is verified to be both an efficient spin generator and an efficient spin sink, by electrically probing vertical spin pumping from FM-FeRh into Pt and from Py into FeRh, respectively. A dramatic enhancement of damping related to AFM-FeRh is observed during the phase transition, which we prove to be dominated by lateral spin pumping across the FM/AFM interface. The discovery of lateral spin pumping provides insight into the spin dynamics of magnetic thin films with mixed-phases, and the significantly modulated damping advances its potential applications, such as ultrafast spintronics. Iron–rhodium is a promising material for antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics applications. Here, the authors demonstrate a strong enhancement of damping during the ferromagnetic (FM) to AFM phase transition caused by lateral spin pumping from FM domains to the AFM matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Si@SiOx composite is successfully prepared by microwave hydrothermal method and is used as lithium-ion battery anode material. Delicate construction of the composite with uniform SiOx layer on Si nanoparticle surface can help to form stable solid electrolyte interphase layer. Moreover, the generated Li-oxide and Li-silicate can accommodate the volume changes caused by reaction of Si with Li+ during the charging and discharging processes, which help to leading superior cyclic performance. As an lithium-ion battery anode, the Si@SiOx composite electrode exhibits effectively improved electrochemical performance with initial reversible specific capacity of 1090.2 mAhg−1 and capacity retention as high as 95.9% (1045.4 mAhg−1) after 100 cycles. The method is mass-productive and benefit for the cyclic stability of Si anodes, which could be employed for high-performance lithium-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Copy number variation (CNV) is an important form of genomic structural variation and is linked to dozens of human diseases. Using next-generation sequencing (NGS) data and developing computational methods to characterize such structural variants is significant for understanding the mechanisms of diseases. Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a new statistical method of detection recurrent CNVs across multiple samples from genomic sequences. Methods: A statistical method is carried out to detect recurrent CNVs, referred to as SM-RCNV. This method uses a statistic associated with each location by combining the frequency of variation at one location across whole samples and the correlation among consecutive locations. The weights of the frequency and correlation are trained using real datasets with known CNVs. P-value is assessed for each location on the genome by permutation testing. Results: Compared with six peer methods, SM-RCNV outperforms the peer methods under receiver operating characteristic curves. SM-RCNV successfully identifies many consistent recurrent CNVs, most of which are known to be of biological significance and associated with diseased genes. The validation rate of SM-RCNV in the CEU call set and YRI call set with Database of Genomic Variants are 258/328 (79%) and (157/309) 51%, respectively. Conclusion: SM-RCNV is a well-grounded statistical framework for detecting recurrent CNVs from multiple genomic sequences, providing valuable information to study genomes in human diseases. The source code is freely available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/sm-rcnv/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, SrI2 and SrI2:Eu5% single crystals with size of Ø10 × 60 mm3 and Ø10 × 30 mm3 were successfully grown by edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) method. In the crystal growth process, the crack and turbidity of the crystal were solved by designing a temperature field, thereby optimizing crystal quality and obtaining crack-free crystals. X-ray diffraction analysis was performed on the grown crystals, and the optical properties of these crystals have been investigated at room temperature. Under the excitation of ultraviolet (UV) light, the crystals exhibit a single luminescence peak centered at 435 nm (λex = 350 nm), and the photoluminescence (PL) decay time is 0.594 μs. In addition, the designed temperature field also provides a reference value for other crystals grown by EFG method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are the largest class of small noncoding RNAs in animal cells; they cooperate with PIWI proteins to safeguard the genome. Although several studies have established that piRNAs can be biomarkers of cancer, it is still difficult to elucidate the exact function of piRNAs. In addition, researchers need to further investigate the interplay between piRNAs and piRNA groups in tumorigenesis. To identify cancer-associated piRNA-modules, we performed a weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) on piRNA expression data from 11 types of cancer. Thereafter, genes associated with hub piRNAs in modules were predicted, and functional analysis of these genes was used to interpret the relation between piRNA and cancer. The results indicated that these piRNA modules have significant associations with cancer. A module with a high correlation coefficient (cor: −0.83, p value: 1.86E−128) was found; it was especially relevant to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Moreover, we found that hub piRNAs in modules may contribute to metastasis. This finding advances the understanding of piRNA function and its association with human cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the hybrid of Acipenser dabryanus (♀) × A. schrenckii (♂) was first determined by using the next-generation sequencing in this study. The circular mitochondrial genome was 16,439 bp in length, which contained 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, one displacement loop locus and an origin of replication on the light-strand, showed a typical vertebrate pattern. All of the genes were encoded on the heavy strain except for ND6 and eight tRNA genes. The overall nucleotide composition was 30.19% A, 23.74% T, 29.65% C, 16.42% G, with 53.93% AT, respectively. Compared with the complete mitogenome of the parents, the results indicated that the mitochondria of hybrid sturgeon could be consistent with a maternal inheritance. Phylogenetic analyses using concatenated nucleotide sequences of the 13 protein-coding genes with two different methods (maximum likelihood and neighbor-joining analysis) both highly supported that A. dabryanus (♀) × A. schrenckii (♂) showed a close relationship with A. dabryanus and A. sinensis. These data provide useful information for a better understanding of the mitogenomic diversities and evolution in fish as well as novel genetic markers for studying population genetics and species identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple non-isocyanate route synthesizing thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) with good thermal and mechanical properties is described. Melt transurethane polycondensation of dimethyl 1,6-hexamethylene dicarbamate with 1,4-butanediol and 1,6-hexanediol was conducted at different molar ratios under the catalysis of tetrabutyl titanate. A series of crystallizable non-isocyanate TPUs with high molecular weight were prepared. The TPUs were characterized by gel permeation chromatography, FT-IR, 1H-NMR, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, wide angle X-ray diffraction, AFM, and tensile tests. The TPUs exhibited Mn ranging from 12 500 to 26 400 g/mol, Mw from 16 700 to 56 400 g/mol, Tm up to 151.4 °C, and initial decomposition temperature over 241.8 °C. Their tensile strength reached 42.99 MPa with a strain at break of 30.00%. TPUs constructed simply with butylene, hexylene, and urethane linkages were successfully synthesized through a non-isocyanate route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the feature screening and variable selection for ultrahigh dimensional covariates. The new feature screening procedure base on conditional expectation which is used to differentiate whether an explanatory variable contributes to a response variable or not, without requiring a specific parametric form of the underlying data model. The authors estimate the marginal conditional expectation by kernel regression estimator. The proposed method is showed to have sure screen property. The authors propose an iterative kernel estimator algorithm to reduce the ultrahigh dimensionality to an appropriate scale. Simulation results and real data analysis demonstrate the proposed method works well and performs better than competing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential evolution (DE) is an efficient intelligent optimization algorithm which has been widely applied to real-world problems, however poor in solution quality and convergence performance for complex multimodal optimization problems. To tackle this problem, a new improving strategy for DE algorithm is presented, in which crossover operator, mutation operator and a new local variables adjustment strategy are integrated together to make the DE more efficient and effective. An improved dynamic crossover rate is adopted to manage the three operators, so to decrease the computational cost of DE. To investigate the performance of the proposed DE algorithm, some frequently referred mutation operators, i.e., DE/rand/1, DE/Best/1, DE/current-to-best/1, DE/Best/2, DE/rand/2, are employed, respectively, in proposed method for comparing with standard DE algorithm which also uses the same mutation operators as our method. Three state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms (SaDE, CoDE and CMAES) and seven large-scale optimization algorithms on seven high-dimensional optimization problems of CEC2008 are compared with the proposed algorithm. We employ Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test to further test the difference significance of performance between our algorithm and other compared algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more effective in solution quality but with less CPU time (e.g., when dimensionality equals 1000, its mean optimal fitness is less than 1e-9 and the CPU time reduces by about 19.3% for function Schwefel 2.26), even with a very small population size, no matter which mutation operator is adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single crystal of Te4+-doped KTiOPO4(Te:KTP) has been grown by the flux method. The electronic structure and density of states of KTiOPO4 (KTP) and Te:KTP were calculated from first principles. As the results reveal, there is no change in the space group or lattice structure of Te:KTP, but that some increase in lattice parameters occurred. The chemical composition of Te:KTP was analyzed using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The possible existence of Ti3+ has been evaluated by measuring the electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum, and the results reveal that the ion is absent from this crystal. It was observed that Te4+ doping reduces the conductivity of the crystal from measurements of its conductivity at different temperatures and frequencies, indicating that Te:KTP has excellent electro-optical properties. The effect of Te4+ doping on the second harmonic generation in KTP was also studied. The thermal expansion, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity of KTP and Te:KTP were determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]