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This study investigated the effect of bias voltage on the microstructure, mechanical properties, and high-temperature steam oxidation behavior of the Cr coatings on the Zircaloy-4 alloy. By changing the bias voltage (0, − 50, − 100, − 150 V), Cr coatings with different orientations, including (110), (200), and (211), were obtained. Among these different samples, the Cr coating deposited at − 50 V exhibited a highly (211) preferred orientation, the lowest surface roughness, the highest deposition rate, and the best mechanical properties. Furthermore, after steam oxidation at 1200 °C for 30 min, the Cr coating with a (211) preferred orientation demonstrated superior oxidation resistance compared to those with (110) and (100) preferred orientations. This research is expected to provide new guidance for optimizing the structural design of Cr-coated nuclear fuel cladding, thereby extending accident tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing high-performance Pt-based catalysts with low Pt loading is crucial but challenging for CO oxidation at temperatures below 100 °C. Herein, we report a Pt-based catalyst with only a 0.15 wt% Pt loading, which consists of Pt–Ti intermetallic single-atom alloy (ISAA) and Pt nanoparticles (NP) co-supported on a defective TiO2 support, achieving a record high turnover frequency of 11.59 s–1 at 80 °C and complete conversion of CO at 120 °C. This is because the coexistence of Pt–Ti ISAA and Pt NP significantly alleviates the competitive adsorption of CO and O2, enhancing the activation of O2. Furthermore, Pt single atom sites are stabilized by Pt–Ti ISAA, resulting in distortion of the TiO2 lattice within Pt–Ti ISAA. This distortion activates the neighboring surface lattice oxygen, allowing for the simultaneous occurrence of the Mars-van Krevelen and Langmuir–Hinshelwood reaction paths at low temperatures. Developing high-performance Pt-based catalysts with low Pt loading is crucial but challenging for CO oxidation. Here, the authors report a novel Pt/TiO2 catalyst consisting of Pt–Ti intermetallic single-atom alloy and Pt nanoparticles to efficiently catalyze CO oxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rough fuzzy K-means (RFKM) decomposes data into clusters using partial memberships by underlying structure of incomplete information, which emphasizes the uncertainty of objects located in cluster boundary. In this scheme, the settings of cluster boundary merely depend on subjective judgment of perceptual experience. When confronted with the data exhibiting heavily overlap and imbalance, the boundary regions obtained by existing empirical schemes vary greatly accompanied by skewing of cluster center, which exerts considerable influence on the accuracy and stability of RFKM. This paper seeks to analyze and address this deficiency and then proposes an improved rough fuzzy K-means clustering based on parametric decision-theoretic shadowed set (RFKM-DTSS). Three-way approximation is implemented by incorporating a novel fuzzy entropy into the decision-theoretic shadowed set, which rationalizes cluster boundary through minimizing fuzzy entropy loss. Under the secondary adjustment method and improved update strategy of cluster center, the proposed RFKM-DTSS is thus featured by a powerful processing ability on class overlap and imbalance commonly seen in scenarios, such as fault detection and medical diagnosis with unclear decision boundaries. The effectiveness and robustness of the RFKM-DTSS are verified by the results of comparative experiments, demonstrating the superiority of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (FEN) is an aryloxy phenoxy propionate herbicide that has been widely used in paddy fields. Previous studies have indicated that FEN is highly toxic to aquatic organisms, but little is known about the developmental effects of FEN. This study investigated acute and developmental toxicity, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, and metabolomic analyses in zebrafish embryos after 96 h of exposure. FEN exhibited high acute toxicity to zebrafish embryos and larvae. Exposure to FEN could reduce heartbeat and hatching rates and increase malformation rates in embryos. Oxidative damage was also caused in embryos. The results of metabolomics analysis showed that 102 differentially abundant metabolites were found in zebrafish embryos in the 0.05 mg/L FEN treatment group, and 60 differentially abundant metabolites were found in the 0.20 mg/L FEN treatment group. These differentially abundant metabolites mainly belonged to 9 metabolic pathways, of which folate pathways and ABC transport protein pathways had the greatest impact. These results suggested that FEN induced high acute and developmental toxicity in zebrafish embryos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing semi-supervised domain adaptation (SSDA) approaches on visual classification usually assume that the labelled source data are only collected from single modality. However, since single source data cannot fully show the characteristics of the target data, source domain may be collected from multiple modalities (i.e. RGB and depth modalities). Traditional domain adaptation (DA) task makes an unrealistic scenario, where the label space in the source equals to the label space in the target. However, in real-world scenario, source and target domains may have different label spaces. Thus, the irrelevant categories in the source domain will cause two challenges: negative transfer and imbalanced distribution. In this paper, we design a novel deep SSDA framework in an end-to-end fashion, termed Local Weight Coupled Network (LWCN) for effective knowledge transfer, which aims to take advantage of the multi-modal information in the source domain and tackle the mentioned challenges, simultaneously. Specially, we construct the output layer including classification and regression, where the multi-class classifier and the multi-layer feature extractor can be learned jointly for mutual benefits. Empirical evaluations on five cross-domain benchmarks illustrate the competitive performance of our model with respect to the state-of-the-art, especially under the unequal categories scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degradation of unliganded androgen receptor (AR) in prostate cancer cells can be prevented by proteasome inhibition, but this is associated with only modest increases in polyubiquitylated AR. An inhibitor (VLX1570) of the deubiquitylases associated with the proteasome did not increase ubiquitylation of unliganded AR, indicating that AR is not targeted by these deubiquitylases. We then identified a series of AR ubiquitylation sites, including a not previously identified site at K911, as well as methylation sites and previously identified phosphorylation sites. Mutagenesis of K911 increases AR stability, chromatin binding, and transcriptional activity. We further found that K313, a previously reported ubiquitylation site, could also be methylated and acetylated. Mutagenesis of K313, in combination with K318, increases AR transcriptional activity, indicating that distinct posttranslational modifications at K313 differentially regulate AR activity. Together these studies expand the spectrum of AR posttranslational modifications, and indicate that the K911 site may regulate AR turnover on chromatin. Extensive mutagenesis and molecular investigation of the unliganded androgen receptor (AR) expands the known spectrum of AR post-translational modifications, including a ubiquitylation site at p.K911 that may regulate AR turnover on chromatin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater images play an essential role in acquiring and analyzing underwater information. Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) highly rely on the quality of the captured underwater images, in order to carry out several activities. Due to the poor lighting conditions and the limited capacity of the optical imaging device, captured underwater images usually contain severe color distortions and contrast reduction. To this end, most existing deep learning-based underwater image enhancement methods synthesize the pseudo ground-truth, or employ the in-air clear images as references to train the models. However, the synthesized or selected reference images are generally unsatisfying due to the lack of diversity and applicability. This paper presents a novel underwater image enhancement approach based on training an end-to-end underwater image enhancement network, without using any reference image. A novel encoder-decoder network structure and a set of non-reference loss functions are designed to measure the enhancement quality. The subjective and objective evaluations show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an approach of in-operation temperature bias drift compensation based on phase-based calibration for a stiffness-tunable MEMS accelerometer with double-sided parallel plate (DSPP) capacitors. The temperature drifts of the components of the accelerometer are characterized, and analytical models are built on the basis of the measured drift results. Results reveal that the temperature drift of the acceleration output bias is dominated by the sensitive mechanical stiffness. An out-of-bandwidth AC stimulus signal is introduced to excite the accelerometer, and the interference with the acceleration measurement is minimized. The demodulated phase of the excited response exhibits a monotonic relationship with the effective stiffness of the accelerometer. Through the proposed online compensation approach, the temperature drift of the effective stiffness can be detected by the demodulated phase and compensated in real time by adjusting the stiffness-tuning voltage of DSPP capacitors. The temperature drift coefficient (TDC) of the accelerometer is reduced from 0.54 to 0.29 mg/°C, and the Allan variance bias instability of about 2.8 μg is not adversely affected. Meanwhile, the pull-in resulting from the temperature drift of the effective stiffness can be prevented. TDC can be further reduced to 0.04 mg/°C through an additional offline calibration based on the demodulated carrier phase representing the temperature drift of the readout circuit.Highlights: The temperature drift behavior of a MEMS accelerometer with stiffness-tuning double-sided parallel-plate capacitors is investigated. An in-operation temperature drift compensation approach is proposed based on the extracted phase of an AC stimulus acceleration. The proposed stiffness-loop phase closed-loop can reduce the temperature drift of the proposed accelerometer while preventing the temperature drift-induced pull-in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coagulation system activation is commonly observed in tumor patients, including prostate cancer (PCa), with coagulation markers proposed as potential prognostic indicators for cancer severity. However, the correlation between these markers and clinicopathological features in PCa remains unclear. Thus, this study investigates the association between comprehensive coagulation markers and clinicopathological characteristics in PCa patients. A retrospective evaluation of 162 PCa patients diagnosed and categorized into low-intermediate-risk or high-risk groups based on clinical and pathological features was conducted. Coagulation markers, including fibrinogen (FIB), d-dimer (DD), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT), prothrombin activity (PTA), thrombin time (TT), platelet count (PLT), and international normalized ratio (INR), were assessed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to determine associations with clinicopathological features. FIB and DD were confirmed as independent factors associated with high-risk PCa. Furthermore, FIB and DD levels showed significant positive correlations with clinical parameters, including PSA levels, ISUP grade, T stage, N stage, and M stage. Our findings suggest that FIB and DD hold promise as independent prognostic biomarkers for risk stratification in PCa. These coagulation markers may aid in assessing PCa severity and guiding personalized treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Plant-based diets, particularly when rich in healthy plant foods, have been associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, the impact of plant-based diets that distinguish between healthy and unhealthy plant foods on cardiometabolic biomarkers remains unclear. Methods: Dietary information was collected by two 24-h recalls among 34,785 adults from a nationwide cross-sectional study. Plasma levels of insulin, C-peptide, glucose, C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cell (WBC) count, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were measured. Linear regression was used to evaluate the percentage difference in plasma marker concentrations by three plant-based diet indices, namely the overall plant-based diet index (PDI), the healthful PDI (hPDI), and the unhealthful PDI (uPDI). Results: Greater hPDI-adherence scores (comparing extreme quartiles) were associated with lower levels of insulin, Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), TG/HDL-C ratio, CRP, WBC count, and TG, and higher levels of HDL-C, with the percentage differences of – 14.55, – 15.72, – 11.57, – 14.95, – 5.26, – 7.10, and 5.01, respectively (all Ptrend ≤ 0.001). Conversely, uPDI was associated with higher levels of insulin, C-peptide, HOMA-IR, TG/HDL-C ratio, CRP, WBC count, and TG, but lower HDL-C, with the percentage differences of 13.71, 14.00, 14.10, 10.43, 3.32, 8.00, and – 4.98 (all Ptrend ≤ 0.001), respectively. Overall PDI was only associated with lower levels of CRP and WBC count (all Ptrend ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that hPDI may have positive, whereas uPDI may have negative impacts on multiple cardiometabolic risk markers, and underscore the need to consider the quality of plant foods in future PDI studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel passive devices such as all-optical diodes and all-optical logic gates require materials with appropriate both saturable and reverse saturable absorption properties. In this work, a series of GeSb4Te7 films were prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering and annealed at different temperatures to induce phase changes. Open-aperture Z-Scan experiments revealed that GeSb4Te7 films featured a large nonlinear absorption coefficient that varied with the extent of phase change induced by the annealing temperature. To understand the underlying reason, a three-level model was developed to explain the competition between ground-state absorption and excited-state absorption during the process. The large nonlinear absorption coefficient of GeSb4Te7 films ( β eff = - 20368.90 cm/GW) shows that ternary material demonstrates outstanding nonlinear optical absorption capability. Impressively, the annealing treatment induced microstructural changes in the GeSb4Te7 films that caused a transition from reverse saturable absorption to saturable absorption, offering great potential for innovative passive nonlinear optical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Krabbe disease is a kind of LDLs, and some patients with LDLs could exhibit MS phenotype; therefore, we believe that Mongolian spot might be a new phenotype of Krabbe disease. In fact, according to global reports, the phenotype and genotype of Krabbe disease are diverse and can be accompanied by hereditary spastic paraplegia, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, and Kennedy disease [[10]-[12]]. 6560759 11 Xu C, Sakai N, Taniike M, Inui K, Ozono K. Six novel mutations detected in the GALC gene in 17 Japanese patients with Krabbe disease, and new genotype-phenotype correlation. [Extracted from the article]

The development of efficient, long-lasting, low-cost, and environment friendly electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reactions (OER) is imminent in many energy storage and conversion devices. Here, a unique electrocatalyst of Fe-doped Co3O4 particles loaded on carbon nanotubes (Fe-doped Co3O4/CNT/NF) was synthesized by a one-step flame method. This method significantly reduces the reaction time (the whole flame process just maintain ~ 10 s). The doping of iron significantly enhances the activity of the OER, as demonstrated by a reduced overpotential of 232 mV to achieve 10 mA cm−2, a tiny Tafel slope (34.1 mV dec−1), and long-lasting durability in an alkaline electrolyte. This work provides a potential possibility for large-scale industrial production. The carbon nanotubes attached with Fe-doped and Co3O4 nanoparticles were generated in situ by a simple and reliable one-step flame method. Fe-doped and Co3O4 nanoparticles were immobilized on the surface of the carbon nanotubes, resulting in Co being able to expose more active edges. As a result, the newly designed Fe-doped Co3O4/CNT/NF exhibits lower overpotential and Tafel slope. The low cost of the basic materials in this design and the easy and fast preparation method ensure that it can be produced on a large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the prominent landforms in the Zhurong landing region, mesas are geological features with flat tops and steep marginal cliffs. The mesas are widely distributed along the dichotomy boundary. There are various interpreted origins proposed for the mesas, such as the erosion of sedimentary layers, tuyas eruptions, or surface collapse due to the catastrophic release of groundwater. We investigate the detailed morphological characteristics of the mesas on the Late Hesperian Lowland unit within the Utopia Planitia. We observe morphological evidence for both the ice-bearing interior mesas and the sedimentary origin, including (1) small pits on the crater wall and mesa cliff formed by the release of volatiles like ice; (2) lobate flows at the base of mesas formed by the melting of subsurface ice; (3) layered mesas indicating sedimentary origin; (4) grooves on the top surface of mesas formed by the volumetric compaction of sedimentary deposits. The results indicate that the mesas in the study area are formed by the erosion of sedimentary layers and representative of the Noachian oceanic sediments. We propose an evolutionary model for the mesas. This study will provide some insights into future research of ancient ocean hypothesis of Mars and interesting targets for the exploration of the Zhurong rover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dining tables may present a risk to diners by transmitting bacteria and/or viruses. Currently, there is a lack of an environmental-friendly and convenient means to protect diners when they are sitting together. This investigation constructed far-UVC excimer lamps to disinfect dining-table surfaces. The lamps were mounted at different heights and orientations, and the irradiance on table surfaces was measured. The irradiation doses to obtain different inactivation efficiencies for Escherichia coli (E. coli) were provided. In addition, numerical modeling was conducted for irradiance and the resulting inactivation efficiency. The surface-to-surface (S2S) model was validated with the measured irradiance. The germicidal performance of far-UVC irradiation, the far-UVC doses to which diners were exposed, and the risk of exposure to the generated ozone were evaluated. The results revealed that an irradiation dose of 12.8 mJ/cm2 can disinfect 99.9% of E. coli on surfaces. By varying the lamp irradiance output, the number and positions of the lamps, the far-UVC irradiation can achieve a 3-log reduction for a dining duration of 5 min. Besides, the far-UVC lamp has a low damage risk to diners when achieving an effective inactivation rate. Moreover, there is virtually no ozone exposure risk in a mechanically ventilated dining hall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exact solutions of higher-dimensional nonlinear equations takes a major place in the study of nonlinear phenomena observed in nature. In this article, some new kink type solutions are investigated for the new (3+1)-dimensional Boiti-Leon-Manna-Pempinelli(BLMP) equation. Firstly, a variety of solutions are obtained by Hirota's bilinear form, which include kink type wave solution, periodic solitary wave solutions and singular solitary wave solutions using extended homoclinic test approach. Secondly, solutions with three wave form are obtained by generalized three wave method. The extended homoclinic test approach is also used to construct solutions with a tail which explain some physical phenomenon. Moreover, some figures of the solutions are shown behind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Squat toilets are widely used in developing countries due to local customs and low costs. The flushing of a squat toilet can entrain strong airflow and produce aerosols. This investigation constructed a lavatory mock-up with a squat toilet. The flushing-induced airflow was both visualized and quantitatively measured by particle image velocimetry. The maximum height of the impacted airflow was identified by an ultrasonic anemometer. For inference of the particle emission rate, the toilet bowl was covered by an enclosed box for particle concentration measurement. The risks from skin contact of the deposited particles on the flushing button and the door handle and the possible inhalation of the released aerosols were evaluated. The results revealed that flushing a squat toilet can drive toilet plume to rise up to 0.9 m above the toilet bowl. A single flushing process can produce 0.29 million particles with diameters greater than 0.3 μm, among which 90% of the particles are submicron-sized. The flushing may cause particles to deposit on the flushing button and lavatory door handle as well as inhalation exposure even remaining in the lavatory for half a minute after flushing, especially for those lavatory users whose respiratory zones are below 1.0 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional machine learning requires good tags to obtain excellent performance, while manual tagging usually consumes a lot of time and money. Due to the influence of domain shift, using the trained model on the source domain directly on the target domain is not good. Domain adaptation is used to solve the above problems. The deep domain adaptation method uses deep neural networks to complete domain adaptation. This article has carried out a comprehensive review of the deep domain adaptation method of image classification. The main contributions are the following four aspects. Firstly, we divided the deep domain adaptation into several categories based on the label set of the source domain and the target domain. Secondly, we summarized various methods of Closed-set domain adaptation. Thirdly, we discussed current methods of multi-source domain adaptation. Finally, we discussed future research directions, challenges, and possible solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A machining workshop requires ventilation that removes oil mist particles efficiently and conditions air to a comfortable temperature. Displacement ventilation has been reported to be highly efficient in removing airborne pollutants in a workshop. However, the traditional wall-mounted displacement ventilation system may be inadequate for delivering conditioned, clean air to the internal zone of a large-span workshop. This investigation proposed an improved wall-mounted displacement ventilation system in which machining equipment is elevated, relay fans are operated in corridors in the cooling season, and ceiling air exhausts are lowered. The proposed ventilation system was compared with the traditional wall-mounted displacement ventilation system and a displacement ventilation system with multiple local diffusers in the corridors, separately. A validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software program was used to investigate the three ventilation systems in both the cooling and heating seasons. The airflow, oil mist particle concentration, and air temperature under the three ventilation systems were evaluated. The results revealed that the traditional wall-mounted displacement ventilation system is inappropriate for use in a large-span workshop, particularly in the cooling season. The proposed improved wall-mounted displacement ventilation provided the lowest oil mist particle concentration in the breathing zone and an appropriate air temperature in the occupied zone in both the cooling and heating seasons. Notably in the cooling season, the proposed system reduced the oil mist particle concentration by 48.5% in the breathing zone as compared with the traditional system. Such an improved ventilation system is highly recommended for use in large-span workshops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaporation and motion of atomized droplets have an essential effect on the safe and efficient long-term operation of the desulphurization tower. Therefore, the two-phase flow model is established and solved by three-dimensional steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations; the droplets are tracked by Eulerian-Lagrangian method. The three factors, including inlet swirling flow of flue gas, initial droplet diameter, and inlet flue gas temperature, are analyzed to show the effects on the evaporation and motion of atomized droplets, respectively. The results show that the swirling flow of flue gas and initial droplet diameter dominate the penetration length of the atomized droplets and the mixing characteristic of droplets and flue gas. With the increase of droplet diameter, the length of droplet penetrating flue gas increases. When droplet diameter is 200 µm and inlet swirl number is 0.35, droplets completely penetrate the core area. Therefore, this is the maximum initial droplet diameter at the inlet swirl number of 0.35. The droplets evaporation time of initial 150 µm diameter is 85.5% longer than that of 50 µm droplets (0.35 of inlet swirl number). Increasing the inlet flue gas temperature can enhance the heat transfer. When inlet flue gas temperature rises from 483 K to 523 K, the evaporation time decreases by 33.8%. The results can be used to guide the optimization of droplets spray evaporation under practical operating conditions in the desulfurization tower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In polluted waters, arsenic (As) poses substantial risks to the environment and human health. Inorganic As mainly exists as As(V) and As(III), and As(III) usually shows higher mobility and toxicity and is more difficult to be removed by coagulation. The oxidation of coexisting Fe(II) can accelerate As(III) oxidation and removal by promoting the generation of reactive intermediates and Fe(III) coagulant in the presence of dissolved oxygen. However, the removal efficiency of As from acidic wastewaters is far from satisfactory due to the low Fe(II) oxidation rate by dissolved oxygen. Herein, UV irradiation was applied to stimulate the synergistic oxidation of Fe(II)/As(III), and the effects of coexisting Fe(II) concentration and pH were also evaluated. The synergistic oxidation of Fe(II)/As(III) significantly enhanced the removal of As from acidic waters. Under UV irradiation, Fe(II) significantly promoted the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), thereby facilitating As(III) oxidation. In addition, the formation of ferric arsenate and amorphous ferric (hydr)oxides contributed much to As removal. In the As(III)-containing solution with 200 μmol L−1 Fe(II) at initial pH 4.0, the total arsenic (As(T)) concentration decreased from 67.0 to 1.3 and 0.5 μmol L−1, respectively, at 25 and 120 min under UV irradiation. The As(T) removal rate increased with increasing Fe(II) concentration, and first increased and then decreased with increasing initial pH from 2.0 to 6.0. This study clarifies the mechanism for the synergistic photo-oxidation of Fe(II)/As(III) under UV irradiation, and proposes a new strategy for highly efficient As(III) removal from acidic industrial and mining wastewaters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increasing environmental pollution around the world, air pollutants such as particulate matters (PM) have been becoming typical carcinogenic factors to cause lung cancer. The PM with aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm (PM2.5) plays an important role in lung cancer mortality. However, effects of PM2.5 on the mortality of lung cancer patients have not been investigated well. The purpose of this study is to assess the associations between PM2.5 exposure and lung cancer-related mortality, by regions and races. This systematic review was developed and conducted according to PRISMA protocol. A comprehensive literature search for peer-reviewed studies published up to October 2021 was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library. The identified records were carefully evaluated following the PICOS criteria. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of lung cancer mortality associated with PM2.5 were extracted and meta-analyzed. The Chi-squared test, Begg's test, and Eggerr analysis were performed to assess the heterogeneity and publication bias. Sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis were also conducted to make sure the authenticity and stability of the present study. In total, 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. For the overall effects of PM2.5 on lung cancer-related mortality, there was heterogeneity among the included studies (I2 = 62.30%, P < 0.01); thus, the random effects model was chosen to conduct related analysis. The pooled adjusted RR of lung cancer mortality associated with PM2.5 was 1.12 (95% CI: 1.09–1.15) for per 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentrations. For different continents, the RRs of subgroup analysis in North-America, Asia, and Europe were 1.16 (1.09–1.22), 1.08 (CI: 1.07–1.09), and 1.14 (CI: 1.04–1.23), respectively. Subgroup analysis by race showed that for Mongoloid RR = 1.08 (1.07–1.09), and for Caucasoid RR = 1.13 (CI: 1.11–1.15). With per 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5, the mortality rate of Caucasoid lung cancer patients increased by 1.13 times, greater than that of the Mongoloid. Increase in PM2.5 concentrations is associated positively with the mortality of lung cancer patients. For different regions and races, the adverse effects of PM2.5 are discrepant. Our Findings can provide necessary evidence to protect public health further from air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current dietary guidelines generally treat all types of vegetables the same. However, whether specific vegetables are more beneficial or deleterious for preventing chronic liver disease (CLD) remains uncertain. Methods: We investigated the associations between starchy and non-starchy vegetables and the odds of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis in a US nationwide cross-sectional study. Diet was assessed by the 24-h dietary recalls. Hepatic steatosis and fibrosis were defined based on vibration-controlled transient elastography (TE). Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Among 4170 participants with reliable TE test, 1436 were diagnosed with steatosis, 255 with advanced fibrosis. Increased intake of total starchy vegetables was associated with higher odds of steatosis (OR per 1-SD increment 1.11, 95% CI 1.01–1.24) and advanced fibrosis (OR = 1.39, 95% CI 1.15–1.69). Similar positive associations were observed for potatoes. Conversely, intakes of total non-starchy (OR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.71–0.95) and dark-green vegetables (OR = 0.89, 95% CI 0.82–0.97) were inversely associated with steatosis prevalence. Replacing 5% of energy from starchy vegetables (OR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.44–0.97) or potatoes (OR = 0.65, 95% CI 0.43–0.97) with equivalent energy from dark-green vegetables was associated with lower odds of steatosis. Conclusions: These findings support the recommendation to limit starchy vegetable intake and increase non-starchy vegetable intake in CLD prevention, and provide evidence for the potential health benefit from dietary substitution of non-starchy vegetables for starchy vegetables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to inhibit the serious damage of pore structure of silica template during the conventional hydrothermal method to prepare Ni-phyllosilicate material, a solvothermal method using double solvent, a small amount of water and a large amount of hydrophobic n-pentane, was proposed to synthesize FDU-12 derived Ni-phyllosilicate in this work. Water can infiltrate the inside channels of FDU-12 owing to more hydrophilic silica hydroxyl groups, and the hydrophobic n-pentane tends to surround the outside of FDU-12. The growth of Ni-phyllosilicate occured only inside channels rather than surface, and the addition of urea could improve its formation at 180 °C in 12 h. As a result, the optimal catalyst retained the pore structure of FDU-12 and obtained fine Ni particle size of 1.5 nm after 750 °C reduction in H2 flow, which exhibited CO2 conversion of 77.0% and CH4 selectivity of 94.7% at 450 °C, 60 L·g−1·h−1. In addition, this catalyst showed high long-term stability in a 100 h-lifetime test with high anti-sintering property derived from Ni-phyllosilicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practice, due to the influence of rotational speed fluctuation, structural resonance, load distribution, and so on, the impulse response signals caused by partial faults of rolling bearings are nonlinear and non-stationary, which is usually submerged by strong background noise. It is more challenging to realize bearing fault diagnosis by extracting transient fault characteristic information. Based on sparse representation and correlation analysis theories, a new approach for fault diagnosis of rolling bearing is proposed. This method improves the sparse dictionary structure. The inner and outer layer atomic libraries are constructed by Harmonic wavelet and Laplace wavelet to form nested dictionaries, which can enhance the accuracy and sensitivity of correlation filtering for screening characteristic parameters of the bearing system. In addition, the circular iteration mode of automatic updating parameters is added to refine the screening accuracy of feature parameters further. It gives the atoms a high degree of similarity to the signal structure and dramatically reduces the redundancy of the dictionary. To improve the matching accuracy and computational efficiency of sparse decomposition, the orthogonal matching pursuit is performed on the segmented signals. The fault time features are extracted from the reconstructed signals to realize fault diagnosis. The simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately diagnose rolling bearing faults under strong background interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing pandemic of Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is caused by a newly discovered β Coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). How long the adaptive immunity triggered by SARS-CoV-2 can last is of critical clinical relevance in assessing the probability of second infection and efficacy of vaccination. Here we examined, using ELISA, the IgG antibodies in serum specimens collected from 17 COVID-19 patients at 6–7 months after diagnosis and the results were compared to those from cases investigated 2 weeks to 2 months post-infection. All samples were positive for IgGs against the S- and N-proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Notably, 14 samples available at 6–7 months post-infection all showed significant neutralizing activities in a pseudovirus assay, with no difference in blocking the cell-entry of the 614D and 614G variants of SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, in 10 blood samples from cases at 6–7 months post-infection used for memory T-cell tests, we found that interferon γ-producing CD4+ and CD8+ cells were increased upon SARS-CoV-2 antigen stimulation. Together, these results indicate that durable anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunity is common in convalescent population, and vaccines developed from 614D variant may offer protection from the currently predominant 614D variant of SARS-CoV-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass-derived porous carbon materials have been receiving considerable attention in energy-storage devices by virtue of the abundant and renewable sources. In this work, we developed a facile, yet scalable fabrication of nitrogen doping porous carbon (QPC-3) with high specific surface area (SSA) of 2597 m2 g−1 derived from quinoa. The QPC-3 electrode exhibits a special capacitance of 330 F g−1 in 6 M KOH at a density of 1 A g−1 and a good rate capability. Additionally, symmetrical supercapacitors assembled by QPC-3 can deliver capacitances of 254 F g−1 and 99.2 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1, and the energy densities approach 9.5 Wh kg−1 and 22 Wh kg−1 in aqueous and organic electrolyte, respectively. The results suggest that this quinoa-derived porous carbon could be a promising biomass-derived electrode material applied in high-capacitance supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of surface adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and human gamma-globulin (HGG) on the tribological performance of a DLC film were investigated using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D), a ball-on-disk reciprocating tribometer, and a three-electrode electrochemical cell. The results showed that the wear depth in the BSA solution was higher than that in the HGG solution. In the HGG solution, the HGG-adsorbed layer could act as a lubricating layer and protect the DLC film from wear. The wear volume of DLC film in BSA and HGG mixture solution was higher than that in single HGG solution. This may be because the BSA molecules inhibit the formation of HGG adsorbed layer during sliding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Force finding of cable–strut structures is to identify self-equilibrated pre-stress states for structures with given shape, which is a crucial step in the structural design of flexible structures since pre-stresses significantly affect their mechanical behaviors. Utilizing symmetry properties of structures is generally considered as a practical way to facilitate the force finding process. To indicate the symmetric feature of structures, an algebraic indicator is proposed in the context of the equilibrium matrix theory. Furthermore, it is found that the orthogonal projection onto the null space of the equilibrium matrix could show the symmetry properties of structures geometrically. Then, a symmetry-based method of computing feasible pre-stress states is developed in the light of the above orthogonal projection. Finally, the proposed method is applied on three examples to confirm its validity and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ALK-rearranged non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents a molecular subgroup with high sensitivity to ALK inhibitors. Crizotinib, a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor for treating ALK-rearranged NSCLC, has shown remarkable response in ALK-positive NSCLC. However, heterogeneity of clinical responses exists among different ALK fusion partners. Several small studies have investigated the correlation between fusion partners and efficacy, but not yielded consistent results.Objective: We investigated the prevalence of ALK rearrangements in a Chinese NSCLC population, and correlated clinical outcomes of crizotinib with different ALK partners/variants.Patients and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed genomic profiling and clinical data of 110 ALK-rearranged NSCLC patients from five centers. The clinical response to crizotinib and survival data in ALK-positive patients was retrospectively analyzed.Results: A total of 134 ALK rearrangements with 39 partners were identified in 110 patients (5.6%) among a cohort of 1971 NSCLC patients. The most frequently occurring ALK fusion partner was EML4, which was identified in 71.6% (96/134) of all of the rearrangements in 87.3% (96/110) patients, and with variant 3 (41/96, 42.7%) as the main variant type. No statistically significant differences in terms of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were found between EML4-ALK and non-EML4-ALK NSCLC patients in our cohort (PFS, p = 0.207; OS, p = 0.678). Outcomes did not differ significantly between patients above and below 40 years of age (PFS, p = 0.427; OS, p = 0.686), nor between patients treated with crizotinib in different lines of therapy (PFS, p = 0.171; OS, p = 0.922). For EML4-ALK-positive NSCLC (n = 96), patients harboring variant 3 or variant 5 displayed significantly lower PFS and OS than those with other variants (PFS, 8.6 vs. 11.3 months, p = 0.046; OS, 31.0 vs. 37.6 months, p = 0.026). In addition, patients with a single EML4-ALK rearrangement event displayed favorable PFS (10.0 vs. 7.2 months, p = 0.040) and OS (36.0 vs. 20.0 months, p = 0.029) compared to those harboring multiple ALK rearrangements.Conclusions: This study illustrates the patterns of ALK fusion variants present in Chinese NSCLC patients and might help explain heterogeneous clinical outcomes to crizotinib treatment according to different ALK fusion variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Calcined dolomite was utilized as a low-cost and efficient catalyst for the Knoevenagel condensation of aldehydes with active methylene compounds such as malononitrile and ethyl cyanoacetate to afford substituted α, β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds. Calcination temperature was an important variable which changed the surface areas, textural characteristics and basicity of dolomite catalysts. Among them, natural dolomite was converted to CaO-MgO mixed oxide after calcination at 700 °C, which served as the best catalyst for this reaction. It could be reused for four times without significant decrease of the reactivity. The reaction proceeded smoothly under the magnetic stirring condition at room temperature in excellent yields within short time due to the high surface area and reasonable basicity concentration of dolomite-700 °C catalyst. The attractive features of this procedure were the mild and facile reaction conditions, excellent yields, environmentally friendly reaction profiles and high recyclability, which made it to be an efficient and attractive strategy for the preparation of α, β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds.Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide reforming of methane to syngas was investigated over a series of MgO promoted Ni/CNT catalysts. MgO played a critical role in improving the catalytic performance of Ni/CNT. The results showed that the addition of MgO strengthened the interaction of Ni and interior surface of CNT. Highly dispersed nickel particles with small size (less than 4.5 nm) were also observed in MgO modified CNT. Otherwise, the NiO nanoparticles were facilely reduced over the catalyst prepared with a narrow size of CNT, as shown in H2-TPR. The reaction tests demonstrated that the Ni-based catalyst with an addition of MgO and narrow size of CNT exhibited better catalytic activity. Furthermore, the lifetime of Ni-based catalyst was prolonged effectively after adding MgO, attributed to the stabilization and dispersion of Ni particles and the effective restraint on the gasification of CNT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly dispersed Ni/SBA-15 catalysts were prepared via template extraction with varying different extraction times (Ni/S-x, x = 0.5, 3.5, 6.5 h) for methane reforming with carbon dioxide. Based on the various characterization results and initial activity evaluation, Ni/S-3.5 h catalyst showed the best catalytic performance. Compared with the catalyst prepared via template calcination (Ni-S), Ni/S-3.5 h catalyst held steady with CH4 and CO2 conversions while those of the Ni-S catalyst respectively decreased by 15 and 11% during the long-term stability test at 700 °C for 50 h. As TEM and TG-DSC results confirmed, Ni particles in spent Ni/S-3.5 h catalyst stayed well-dispersed with size slightly increasing from an initial 3.9-4.1 nm and nearly no carbon deposition was observed. On the contrary, Ni-S catalyst was subjected to sintered metal particles (increased from 11.6 to 18 nm) and formed carbon fibers. The prominent resistance to sintering and coking over stable Ni/S-3.5 h catalyst was attributed to the high dispersion and strengthened metal-support interaction induced via the residual in situ templates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of CoO catalysts with various structures and exposed crystal planes were prepared by different methods. The effects of the structures and exposed crystal planes on the catalytic activity of CoO catalysts were investigated for the catalytic decomposition of NO. The CoO with nanorod structure was enclosed by (220) planes; CoO with irregular shape crystallites predominantly exposed (111) and (040) lattice planes; CoO with bulk particles only showed the single exposure of (040) planes; the spherical particles of CoO presented the (220) and (311) planes. The results indicated that CoO with irregular shape crystallites showed the best catalytic activity and over 80% of NO conversion was obtained at 384-450°C. The bulk particles of CoO showed inferior performance. In addition, the exposed crystal planes of CoO prepared by different methods can affect the catalytic decomposition of NO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ni/SBA-15 catalyst was prepared by homogeneous precipitation method (Ni-HP) and used for dry reforming of methane (DRM). The related characterization results indicated that the Ni particles were highly dispersed with a size range of 2-5 nm. Compared with Ni/SBA-15 catalyst prepared by impregnation (Ni-IM), the reduction temperature of Ni-HP obtained from H2-TPR was greatly improved, suggesting the stronger metal-support interaction. After reacting at 700 °C for 100 h, the CH conversion of DRM over Ni-HP catalyst slightly decreased from 74.5% to 73.8%. While, for the Ni-IM catalyst, the CH conversion dropped from 61.7% to 37.3%. Furthermore, the average particle size of Ni-HP was 3.7 nm and 4.7 nm before and after the long-time stability test, respectively, ascribed to the good anti-sintering property. Although a certain amount of coke was produced, mainly with disorder filamentous carbon of base-growth, the Ni/SBA-15 prepared by homogeneous precipitation exhibited excellent catalytic activity and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design and synthesis of efficient photocatalysts for hydrogen production via water splitting are of great importance from both theoretical and practical viewpoints. Many metal-based semiconductors have been explored for this purpose in recent decades. Here, for the first time, an entirely carbon-based material, bulk three-dimensionally cross-linked graphene (3DG), has been developed as a photocatalyst for hydrogen production. It exhibits a remarkable hydrogen production rate of 270 μmol·h·g under full-spectrum light via a hot/free electron emission mechanism. Furthermore, when combined with the widely used semiconductor TiO to form a TiO/3DG composite, it appears to become a more efficient hydrogen production photocatalyst. The composite achieves a production rate of 1,205 μmol·h·g under ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) light and a 7.2% apparent quantum efficiency at 350 nm due to the strong synergetic effects between TiO and 3DG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manganese oxide octahedral molecular sieves (OMS-2) synthesized from hydrothermal (H-OMS-2), reflux (R-OMS-2), co-precipitation (C-OMS-2), and solid phase (S-OMS-2) methods were impregnated with palladium and used for CO catalytic oxidation. Preparation methods presented an obvious effect on the morphology and catalytic activity of Pd/OMS-2 catalysts for CO oxidation. The hydrothermal synthesized OMS-2 (Pd/H-OMS-2) exhibited more ordered nanorod structure and higher crystallinity than Pd/R-OMS-2, Pd/C-OMS-2, and Pd/S-OMS-2. Further surface analysis indicated that different preparation methods of synthesizing OMS-2 and the impregnation process followed have a significant effect on the chemical states of Mn and O over the final Pd/OMS-2 products. The kinetics studies showed the trend of apparent activation energy ( E ) over different catalysts: Pd/H-OMS-2 (18.19 kJ/mol) < Pd/R-OMS-2 (21.56 kJ/mol) < Pd/C-OMS-2 (22.57 kJ/mol) < Pd/S-OMS-2 (29.44 kJ/mol). Over 99 % of the CO conversion was obtained at 35 °C by the optimal Pd/H-OMS-2 catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possible practical limits for the specific surface area and capacitance performance of bulk sp carbon materials were investigated experimentally and theoretically using a variety of carbon materials. We find the limit for the specific surface area to be 3500-3700 m g, and based on this, the corresponding best capacitance was predicted for various electrolyte systems. A model using an effective ionic diameter for the electrolyte ions was proposed and used to calculate the theoretical capacitance. A linear dependence of experimental capacitance versus effective specific surface area of various sp carbon materials was obtained for all studied ionic liquid, organic and aqueous electrolyte systems. Furthermore, excellent agreement between the theoretical and experimental capacitance was observed for all the tested sp carbon materials in these electrolyte systems, indicating that this model can be applied widely in the evaluation of various carbon materials for supercapacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been a great challenge to achieve the direct light manipulation of matter on a bulk scale. In this work the direct light propulsion of matter is observed on a macroscopic scale using a bulk graphene-based material. The unique structure and properties of graphene, and the novel morphology of the bulk three-dimensional linked graphene material make it capable not only of absorbing light at various wavelengths but also of emitting energetic electrons efficiently enough to drive the bulk material, following Newtonian mechanics. Thus, the unique photonic and electronic properties of individual graphene sheets are manifested in the response of the bulk state. These results offer an exciting opportunity to bring about bulk-scale light manipulation with the potential to realize long-sought applications in areas such as the solar sail and space transportation driven directly by sunlight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

p-Phenylenediamine (PPD) functionalized graphene oxide (GO) materials (PPDG) were prepared through a one-step solvothermal process and their application as supercapacitors (SCs) were studied. The PPD is not only as the spacers to prevent aggregating and restacking of the graphene sheets in the preparing process but also as nitrogen sources to obtain the nitrogen-doped graphene. The structures of PPDG were characterized by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the results show that the nitrogen-doped graphene was achieved with nitrogen content as high as 10.85 at.%. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) have confirmed that the morphologies of PPDG were loose layered with less aggregation, indicating that PPD molecules, as spacers, effectively prevent the graphene sheets from restacking during the solvothermal reaction. The special loose textures make PPDG materials exhibit excellent electrochemical performance for symmetric SCs with superior specific capacitance (313 F/g at 0.1 A/g), rate capability and cycling stability. The present synthesis method is convenient and may have potential applications as ultrahigh performance SCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing demand for hybrid supercapacitor systems to overcome the energy density limitation of existing-generation electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs), leading to next generation-II supercapacitors with minimum sacrifice in power density and cycle life. Here, an advanced graphene-based hybrid system, consisting of a graphene-inserted LiTiO (LTO) composite anode (G-LTO) and a three-dimensional porous graphene-sucrose cathode, has been fabricated for the purpose of combining both the benefits of Li-ion batteries (energy source) and supercapacitors (power source). Graphene-based materials play a vital role in both electrodes in respect of the high performance of the hybrid supercapacitor. For example, compared with the theoretical capacity of 175 mA·h·g for pure LTO, the G-LTO nanocomposite delivered excellent reversible capacities of 207, 190, and 176 mA·h·g at rates of 0.3, 0.5, and 1 C, respectively, in the potential range 1.0-2.5 V vs. Li/Li; these are among the highest values for LTO-based nanocomposites at the same rates and potential range. Based on this, an optimized hybrid supercapacitor was fabricated following the standard industry procedure; this displayed an ultrahigh energy density of 95 Wh·kg at a rate of 0.4 C (2.5 h) over a wide voltage range (0-3 V), and still retained an energy density of 32 Wh·kg at a high rate of up to 100 C, equivalent to a full discharge in 36 s, which is exceptionally fast for hybrid supercapacitors. The excellent performance of this Li-ion hybrid supercapacitor indicates that graphene-based materials may indeed play a significant role in next-generation supercapacitors with excellent electrochemical performance. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the nonmetallic powder recycled from waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) is used in cement mortar as admixture. The mechanical properties, bulk density, air content, water-retention property, shrinkage rate and water capillary adsorption are tested. The results show that the waste PCBs nonmetallic powder causes an increase in air content and improves the water-retention property of fresh mortar, decreases the bulk density of hardened mortar. The compressive strength and flexural strength of mortar with PCBs nonmetallic powder change slightly with the m/ m below 15%. The tensile bond strength goes down continuously with the increase of the m/ m but the reducing trend in the m/ m range from 0 to 10% is slow. The drying shrinkage rate of mortar has little change as the m/ m varies from 0 to 15%. The water capillary adsorption of mortar with the m/ m of 5, 10 and 15% are lower than that of control. Cement mortar made with recycled waste PCBs nonmetallic powder is a new type of green building materials, which is friendly to environment and has broad application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]