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Objectives: To evaluate the manufacturability, efficacy and safety of allogeneic CD19 chimeric antigen receptor double‐negative T cells (CD19‐CAR‐DNTs) as an off‐the‐shelf therapeutic cell product. Methods: A membrane proteome array was used to assess the off‐target binding of CD19‐CAR. DNTs derived from healthy donors were transduced with lentiviral vectors encoding the CD19‐CAR. The manufacture of the CD19‐CAR‐DNTs was under GMP conditions, and their surface molecule expression patterns were characterised using flow cytometry. We investigated the off‐the‐shelf potential of CD19‐CAR‐DNTs by evaluating the cryopreserved CD19‐CAR‐DNTs in terms of cell viability as well as their cytotoxicity against various CD19+ target cell lines and primary patient blasts in vitro. We evaluated the persistence and safety of the cryopreserved CD19‐CAR‐DNTs in xenograft models in vivo. Results: GMP‐grade CD19‐CAR‐DNTs were manufactured and cryopreserved for use in advance. The cryopreserved CD19‐CAR‐DNTs maintain their viability and antitumor activity against various CD19+ target cell lines and primary patient blasts. These cells significantly prolonged the survival in Raji‐Luc‐xenografted NOG mice. Multiple infusions of the cells can further augment their efficacy. Remarkably, following a single infusion in mice, CD19‐CAR‐DNTs rapidly got distributed among well‐perfused organs initially, and progressively spread to most tissues, peaking at Day 43. In toxicity studies, CD19‐CAR‐DNTs significantly reduced tumor burden and ameliorated tissue damage in tumor‐bearing NOG mice. Critically, no immunotoxicity or graft versus host disease was observed in non‐tumor‐bearing NOG mice. Conclusions: The allogeneic CD19‐CAR‐DNTs fulfil the requirements of an off‐the‐shelf therapeutic cell product, offering a promising new approach to the treatment of haematological malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of colloidal particles into 3D porous constructs to realize heterostructure ensembles enhances surface interactions and energy transfer that can transform the catalytic properties of conventional catalysts. However, assembling hydrophobic colloidal nanoparticles within hydrophilic 3D porous matrices to create tailored heterostructures and catalytic properties is particularly challenging. Here, a modified ligand grafting method is presented to spontaneously assemble CdS inorganic colloidal quantum dots within a metal‐organic framework (MOF) derived porous framework for efficient photocatalytic CO2 reduction. The grafted long chain molecular ligands effectively suppress phase separation and endow a molecular‐recognition effect to form ordered assembly microstructures. The proof‐of‐concept assembly of CdS and Prussian blue analogues (PBA) derived Co3O4 facilitates a high density of heterojunctions formation, improving charge transfer and extended lifetimes of photo‐induced electrons. Consequently, CdS/Co3O4 assembly exhibits exceptionally active and stable photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity, with a CO production rate of 73.9 µmol g−1 h−1 and CO selectivity of 98.9%. Importantly, the ligand grafting method can be generalized to achieve spontaneous assembly of quantum dots within various metal organic framework derived porous scaffolds. This work provides a rational strategy for precise self‐assembly of colloidal nanoparticles within porous microstructures, allowing tailored heterointerfaces for functional materials and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourier ptychography (FP) is an enabling imaging technique that produces high‐resolution complex‐valued images with extended field coverages. However, when FP images a phase object with any specific spatial frequency, the captured images contain only constant values, rendering the recovery of the corresponding linear phase ramp impossible. This challenge is not unique to FP but also affects other common microscopy techniques — a rather counterintuitive outcome given their widespread use in phase imaging. The underlying issue originates from the non‐uniform phase transfer characteristic inherent in microscope systems, which impedes the conversion of object wavefields into discernible intensity variations. To address this challenge, spatially‐coded Fourier ptychography (scFP) is presented for true quantitative phase imaging. In scFP, a flexible and detachable coded thin film is attached atop the image sensor in a regular FP setup. The spatial modulation of this thin film ensures a uniform phase response across the entire synthetic bandwidth. It improves reconstruction quality, corrects refractive index underestimation issues prevalent in conventional FP, and adds a new dimension of measurement diversity in spatial domain. The development of scFP is expected to catalyze new research directions and applications for phase imaging, emphasizing the need for true quantitative accuracy with uniform frequency response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have synthesized a quinone‐incorporated bistriarylamine donor‐acceptor‐donor (D–A–D) semiconductor 1 by B(C6F5)3 (BCF) catalyzed C−H/C−H cross coupling via radical ion pair intermediates. Coordination of Lewis acids BCF and Al(ORF)3 (RF=C(CF3)3) to the semiconductor 1 afforded diradical zwitterions 2 and 3 by integer electron transfer. Upon binding to Lewis acids, the LUMO energy of 1 is significantly lowered and the band gap of the semiconductor is significantly narrowed from 1.93 eV (1) to 1.01 eV (2) and 1.06 eV (3). 2 and 3 are rare near‐infrared (NIR) diradical dyes with broad absorption both centered around 1500 nm. By introducing a photo BCF generator, 2 can be generated by light‐dependent control. Furthermore, the integer electron transfer process can also be reversibly regulated via the addition of CH3CN. In addition, the temperature of 2 sharply increased and reached as high as 110 °C in 10 s upon the irradiation of near‐infrared‐II (NIR‐II) laser (1064 nm, 0.7 W cm−2), exhibiting a fast response to laser. It displays excellent photothermal stability with a photothermal (PT) conversion efficiency of 62.26 % and high‐quality PT imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the gas kinetic schemes (GKS) have emerged as one of the powerful tools for simulating compressible flows, they exhibit several shortcomings. Since the local solution of continuous Boltzmann equation with the Maxwellian distribution function is used to calculate the numerical fluxes at the cell interface, the flux expression in GKS is usually more complicated. In this paper, a high‐order simplified gas kinetic flux solver (GKFS) is presented for simulating two‐dimensional compressible flows. Circular function‐based GKFS (C‐GKFS), which simplifies the Maxwellian distribution function into the circular function, combined with an improved weighted essentially non‐oscillatory (WENO‐Z) scheme is applied to capture more details of the flow fields with fewer grids. As a result, a simple high‐order accurate C‐GKFS is obtained, which improves the computing efficiency and reduce its complexity to facilitate the practical application of engineering. A series of benchmark‐test problems are simulated and good agreement can be obtained compared with the references, which demonstrate that the high‐order C‐GKFS can achieve the desired accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deep separation between In(III) and Fe(III) ions is considered as an important technological challenge in the engineering fields. The In(III) ions are closer to the soft acid in terms of Lewis acidity due to the smaller polarizability and greater deformability than the Fe(III) ions, which facilitates the possibility of separating them. Herein, the Lewis basicity of the N‐containing adsorption sites is regulated by the fluorine‐containing group to better match with the In(III) ions rather than Fe(III) ions, causing a significant discrepancy in the binding of the adsorption sites to them. Moreover, targeted programmed desorption techniques based on the potential energy differences of the adsorption sites can achieve the deep separation of In(III) and Fe(III) ions, and reach an exceptional concentration of 20.7 mmol L−1 for In(III) ions in the initial desorption solution with extremely high mass ratio (mIn/mFe = 151.7). This work provides a novel technique for in‐depth separation of In(III) and Fe(III) ions from mixed systems, and a new strategy for separating metal ions with similar or close properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Premature infants are exposed to numerous stressors in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) during a crucial period for brain development; this period exerts long-term influences on cognitive and behavioral development. Aims. To evaluate the effect of NICU-related stress on neonatal rat pups and explore the effect of Chinese medicine treatment (CMT). Methods. Sixty male rat pups were randomly assigned to three groups: the control group, the NICU group (NICU-related stress), and the CMT group (NICU-related stress plus CMT). All stressors and interventions were administered from 0 to 7 days after birth. Body weight, serum corticosterone levels, and behavior in the open field (OF) test, elevated plus maze (EPM) test, sucrose preference test, and Morris water maze (MWM) test were recorded, and blood samples were collected at five different time points (T0, T1, T2, T3, and T4). Results. The body weights of rats in the CMT and control groups were heavier than those in the NICU group in both early life and adulthood (P < 0.05). Serum corticosterone levels significantly differed with time (except T0 vs. T1 and T3 vs. T4) but did not significantly differ among the three groups (F = 0.441 , P = 0.894). Regardless of age, spatial memory and anxiety-like and depression-like behavior did not differ among the three groups. Conclusion. NICU-related stress exerted a long-term effect on rat growth and development but did not affect spatial memory, anxiety-like behavior, depression-like behavior, or serum corticosterone levels. CMT alleviated the impact of NICU-related stress on rats and promoted the growth and development of neonatal rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platinum metal (PtM, M=Ni, Fe, Co) alloys catalysts show high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity due to their well‐known strain and ligand effects. However, these PtM alloys usually suffer from a deficient ORR durability in acidic environment as the alloyed metal is prone to be dissolved due to its high electronegativity. Herein, we report a new class of PtMn alloy nanodendrite catalyst with low‐electronegativity Mn‐contraction for boosting the oxygen reduction durability of fuel cells. The moderate strain in PtMn, induced by Mn contraction, yields optimal oxygen reduction activity at 0.53 A mg−1 at 0.9 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). Most importantly, we show that relative to well‐known high‐electronegativity Ni‐based Pt alloy counterpart, the PtMn nanodendrite catalyst experiences less transition metals' dissolution in acidic solution and achieves an outstanding mass activity retention of 96 % after 10,000 degradation cycles. Density functional theory calculation reveals that PtMn alloys are thermodynamically more stable than PtNi alloys in terms of formation enthalpy and cohesive energy. The PtMn nanodendrite‐based membrane electrode assembly delivers an outstanding peak power density of 1.36 W cm−2 at a low Pt loading and high‐performance retention over 50 h operations at 0.6 V in H2‐O2 hydrogen fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we open an avenue toward rational design of potential efficient catalysts for sustainable ammonia synthesis through composition engineering strategy by exploiting the synergistic effects among the active sites as exemplified by diatomic metals anchored graphdiyne via the combination of hierarchical high‐throughput screening, first‐principles calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations. Totally 43 highly efficient catalysts feature ultralow onset potentials (|Uonset| ≤ 0.40 V) with Rh‐Hf and Rh‐Ta showing negligible onset potentials of 0 and −0.04 V, respectively. Extremely high catalytic activities of Rh‐Hf and Rh‐Ta can be ascribed to the synergistic effects. When forming heteronuclears, the combinations of relatively weak (such as Rh) and relatively strong (such as Hf or Ta) components usually lead to the optimal strengths of adsorption Gibbs free energies of reaction intermediates. The origin can be ascribed to the mediate d‐band centers of Rh‐Hf and Rh‐Ta, which lead to the optimal adsorption strengths of intermediates, thereby bringing the high catalytic activities. Our work provides a new and general strategy toward the architecture of highly efficient catalysts not only for electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (eNRR) but also for other important reactions. We expect that our work will boost both experimental and theoretical efforts in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The silty fine sand and rounded gravel layers are widely distributed in Nanning City, China. Due to the low clay content, the silty fine sand and rounded gravel layers are prone to disturbance during sampling and transportation, which affects the shear strength test results. The reasonable determination of their shear strength is significant and imperative to the project. The rail transit project in Nanning is under large-scale construction. This work obtained the shear strength of the silty fine sand and the rounded gravel layers by conducting laboratory tests on undisturbed samples from deep foundation pits, combined with large-scale direct shear in situ tests. In addition, geotechnical investigation reports for typical projects in Nanning City were compiled, and the test data for the silty fine sand and the rounded gravel layers were comparatively analyzed using the empirical value. The results show that the shear strength test values of the fine sand layer are consistent with the current standard empirical values, and empirical values can be used for reference. The shear strength test value of the rounded gravel layer has significantly improved compared to the current standard empirical value, with a cohesion (c) value of 0–6.8 kPa and an increase in internal friction angle (φ) of 0%–12.5%. It is recommended to determine the shear strength of the rounded gravel layer based on the actual situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physics‐informed neural networks (PINNs) have aroused an upsurge in scientific machine/deep learning community, especially in research areas involving solving partial differential equations. In this work, based on the multilayer perceptron neural network and finite difference (FD) method, we apply the finite difference‐based PINNs (FD‐PINNs) to simulate the steady incompressible flows. The spatial derivatives in nonlinear governing equations are discretized by the central FD scheme, and the physical boundary conditions can be exactly satisfied in a similar way to conventional fluid flow solvers. Compared to original PINNs using automatic differentiation (AD) to discretize the governing equations, FD‐PINNs hold three‐fold potential advantages in decoupling the predictive accuracy of derivatives from the network's approximating accuracy, fulfilling the physical boundary conditions, and saving computational costs when large‐size networks or meshes are used. We first attempt to make relatively fair comparisons between AD‐PINNs, FD‐PINNs and conventional flow solvers using a benchmark flow problem—steady incompressible laminar isothermal lid‐driven cavity flow across a wide range of Reynolds numbers (Re). Our results indicate that FD‐PINNs are superior to AD‐PINNs in both predictive precision, computational efficiency and training convergence. Moreover, FD‐PINNs exhibit higher accuracy than flow solvers when insufficient mesh points are used to solve high‐Re cavity flow. Even at Re = 10,000, with only 10 internal samples, FD‐PINNs can still precisely recover the flow details on a uniform mesh of size 51 × 51. Besides, the time consumption of FD‐PINNs grows much slower than that of conventional flow solvers. We also investigate the robustness of FD‐PINNs w.r.t. the noise level of samples and the effects of pressure boundary condition imposed on solid cavity walls. Furthermore, FD‐PINNs are extensively applied to predict the incompressible thermal flows: natural convective flows in a square cavity and in a concentric annulus, where the effects of governing equations on the predictive accuracy are discovered and discussed for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extraction and recovery of lithium from reserves play a critical role in the sustainable development of energy due to the explosive growth of the lithium‐battery market. However, the low efficiency of extraction and recovery seriously threatens the sustainability of lithium supply. In this contribution, we fabricate a novel mechanically robust fluorine‐rich hydrogel, showing highly efficient Li+ extraction from Li‐containing solutions. The hydrogel was facilely fabricated by simple one‐pot polymerization of supramolecular nanosheets of fluorinated monomers, acrylic acid and a small amount of chemical crosslinkers. The hydrogel exhibits a remarkable lithium adsorption capacity (Qm Li+=122.3 mg g−1) and can be reused. Moreover, it can exclusively extract lithium ions from multiple co‐existing metal ions. Notably, the separation of Li+/Na+ in actual wastewater is achieved with a surprising separation factor of 153.72. The detailed characterizations as well as calculation showed that the specific coordination of Li−F plays a central role for both of the striking recovery capability and selectivity for Li+. Furthermore, an artificial device was constructed, displaying high efficiency of extracting lithium in various complex actual lithium‐containing wastewater. This work provides a new and promising avenue for the efficient extraction and recovery of lithium resource from complex lithium‐containing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Studies focusing on catheter removal and the pathogenic spectrum of peritoneal dialysis‐associated peritonitis (PDAP) need to be updated. Methods: Data were collected from four peritoneal dialysis (PD) centers. Peritonitis rates were compared using Poisson regression and Logistic regression was used to examine the risk factors for catheter removal. Results: The PD duration (odds ratio [OR], 1.021; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.010–1.032), number of previous PDAP episodes (OR, 1.267; 95% CI, 1.039–1.545), dialysate white cell count >100 × 106/L on Day 5 of PDAP (OR, 6.088; 95% CI, 3.277–11.312), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (OR, 4.122; 95% CI, 1.071–15.874) and polymicrobial infections (OR, 3.257; 95% CI, 1.519–6.982) were independent predictors of catheter removal (p < 0.05). The prevalence of polymicrobial peritonitis and fungal peritonitis has increased (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Attention should be paid to patients with long PD duration or a history of previous episodes of PDAP characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self‐setting calcium phosphate cement (CPC) scaffold with interconnected macropores is hard to prepare without compromising its hydration reaction. Herein, an indirect 3D printing method is using to prepare CPC scaffolds. Detailedly, polycaprolactone (PCL)‐sacrificed models with different strut sizes are first printed by 3D plotting technique, and then the CPC pastes are perfused into the PCL models and then self‐setting. After the removal of the PCL models, the CPC scaffolds with different pore sizes are obtained. It is showed in the results that the prepared CPC scaffolds had uniform shape and 3D interconnected macropore structure. Meanwhile, the compressive strength of CPC scaffolds all meets the requirements of repairing cancellous bone. More interestingly, the CPC scaffold with about 300 μm in macropore size is more conducive to the ingrowth and osteogenesis differentiation of mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. As a whole, the indirect 3D printing method is a promising strategy for preparing CPC scaffolds, which are hard to form directly by 3D printing technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autophagy deficiency in macrophages exacerbates inflammation in atherosclerosis (AS), and recently, galectin‐3 (Gal‐3) has been implicated as a critical promoter of inflammation in AS. Further, melatonin (Mel) exerts an autophagy‐promoting effect in many chronic inflammatory diseases. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether Mel inhibits AS progression by downregulating Gal‐3 to enhance autophagy and inhibit inflammation. Thus, we performed in vivo and in vitro experiments using high‐fat diet (HFD)‐fed ApoE−/− mice and THP‐1 macrophages, respectively. Smart‐seq of AS plaque macrophages revealed that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) downregulated by Mel were enriched in immune‐related processes, and changes in inflammation status were confirmed based on lower levels of proinflammatory factors in Mel‐treated HFD‐fed ApoE−/− mice and THP‐1 macrophages. Further, via transcriptome‐based multiscale network pharmacology platform (TMNP), the upstream target genes of the smart‐seq DEGs were identified, and Gal‐3 showed a high score. Gal‐3 was downregulated both in vivo and in vitro by Mel treatment. Besides, the enrichment of the target genes predicted via the TMNP method indicated that autophagy considerably affected the DEGs. Mel treatment as well as Gal‐3 knockdown downregulated most inflammatory response‐related proteins could attribute to enhancing autophagy. Mechanistically, Mel treatment inhibited Gal‐3 leading to lowering the activity of the nuclear transcription factor‐kappa B (NF‐κB) pathway, and promoting the nuclear localization of transcription factor EB (TFEB). However, increased secretion of Gal‐3 activated the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) pathway and impaired autophagy via binding to CD98. Thus, Mel promoted autophagy and restrained inflammation by downregulating Gal‐3, implying that it holds promise as a treatment for AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Several elderly patients with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) had to undergo urgent‐start peritoneal dialysis (USPD). This study aimed to determine whether break‐in period (BI) within 24 h was feasible in elderly patients undergoing USPD. Methods: Patients with ESRD who underwent PD at five hospitals were screened. Patients were divided into the BI ≤24 h and >24 h groups. Complications were compared between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to determine whether BI ≤24 h was associated with complications. Results: A total of 175 elderly patients were included: BI ≤24 h group, 78; and BI >24 h group, 97. There was no significant difference in the rate of complications between the two groups (all p > 0.05). Furthermore, BI ≤24 h was not an independent risk factor for complications (all p > 0.05). Conclusions: Starting PD within 24 h after PD catheter insertion was feasible in elderly ESRD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a method is proposed to simulate the high Reynolds number turbulent flows by combining the diffuse‐interface immersed boundary method (IBM) with different wall models. In this method, two auxiliary layers (a series of Lagrangian points) are set outside the wall: the reference layer and the enforced layer. The wall model is applied at the reference layer to calculate the wall shear stress and the boundary condition is implemented at the enforced layer. When implementing the boundary condition, the implicit velocity correction‐based IBM is used. This process requires the velocity at the enforced layer. To calculate the velocity at the enforced layer, the momentum equation is integrated along the normal direction of the wall to link the tangential component of the velocity to the wall shear stress predicted by the wall models, and the normal component of the velocity is approximately reconstructed by the parabolic distribution. In addition, the Reichardt's law combined with Spalding's formula is utilized to determine the integral length. Numerical experiments for the turbulent flows around the flat plate, the NACA0012 airfoil and the NACA23012 airfoil are carried out to verify the feasibility of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Assess risk factors for early death in patients who underwent urgent‐start peritoneal dialysis (USPD). Methods: Patients who initiated USPD in five peritoneal dialysis centers from 2013 to 2019 were screened in this multicenter retrospective cohort study. Risk factors for all‐cause mortality within 3 months were explored. Results: A total of 1265 USPD patients with 43 early deaths were included. Cox regression analyses showed that age older than 60 years (hazard ratio [HR], 3.054; 95% CI [1.597, 5.842]; p = 0.001), albumin less than 30 g/L (HR, 2.234; 95%CI [1.207, 4.136]; p = 0.011), blood glucose greater than 7 mmol/L (HR, 2.766; 95%CI [1.477, 5.180]; p = 0.001), higher estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR; HR, 1.121; 95%CI [1.071, 1.172]; p = 0.000), and poor stages of heart failure (class IV compared with class 0‐I; HR, 5.165; 95%CI [2.544, 10.486]; p = 0.000) were independent predicting factors for early death. Conclusions: Risk factors for early death were older age, hypoproteinemia, hyperglycemia, higher eGFR, and severe heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Early‐onset peritonitis (EOP) is a risk factor for mortality in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. This study investigates the clinical features and outcomes of EOP in elderly patients. Methods: This multicenter retrospective study evaluated 433 elderly PD patients with end‐stage renal disease. The cohort was divided into nonperitonitis group (n = 239), EOP group (≤12 months, n = 109) and late‐onset peritonitis (LOP) group (>12 months, n = 85). Clinical data, treatment results, and outcomes were compared between the groups. Results: Compared with LOP group, there were no significant intergroup differences in the rate of primary recovery, complete cure, relapse, catheter removal, or death from PDAP (p >0.05) in the most recent PDAP episode. However, Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients in the EOP group were likely to have multiple episodes of PD‐associated peritonitis (PDAP), technique failure, all‐cause death, and composite endpoint in the long‐term prognostic outcomes (p <0.001). Conclusions: EOP is significantly associated with poorer clinical outcomes in older PD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Flexible supercapacitors (SCs) have the advantages of high flexibility, high mechanical strength, easy assembly, and high power density, so SCs can be widely used in portable and wearable electronic devices. It is of great significance to research and develop high‐performance electrode materials in order to further improve the performance of SCs and expand their application fields. Here, we prepared a free‐standing flexible g‐C3N4/Ti3C2 hybrid film as electrode material for SCs by inserting two‐dimensional g‐C3N4 nanosheets between Ti3C2 layers‐based vacuum suction filtration methods. The addition of g‐C3N4 nanosheets effectively prevented the self‐stacking of MXene layers, significantly increasing the interlayer spacing of g‐C3N4/Ti3C2 hybrid film. The electrochemical results show that the mass specific capacity of 10 wt% g‐C3N4/Ti3C2 is as high as 552 F g−1 at the scanning rate of 2 mV s−1, which is 3.29 times higher than 168 F g−1 of Ti3C2, the capacity retention rate of 10 wt% g‐C3N4/Ti3C2 is 97% after 104 cycles at a current density of 3 A g−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We for the first time systematically studied the structures and electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction properties of two‐dimensional single transition‐metal anchored square tetracyanoquinodimethane monolayers (labeled as: TM‐sTCNQ, TM = 3d, 4d, 5d series transition metals) by employing density functional theory method. Through high‐throughput screenings and full reaction path researches, two promising electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction catalysts Nb‐sTCNQ and Mo‐sTCNQ have been obtained. The nitrogen reduction reaction onset potential on Nb‐sTCNQ is as low as −0.48 V. Furthermore, the Nb‐sTCNQ catalyst can quickly desorb NH3 produced with a free energy of 0.65 eV, giving Nb‐sTCNQ excellent catalytic cycle performance. The high catalytic activity of the two materials might be attributed to the effective charge transfer between the active center and adsorbed N2, which enables the active center to adsorb and activate inert N2 molecules well, and the reduction processes require small energy input (i.e., the maximum free energy changes are small). This work provides insights for finding highly efficient, stable, and low‐cost nitrogen reduction reaction electrocatalysts. We hope our results can promote further experimental and theoretical research of this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White‐light emitting polymers (WLEPs) based on aggregation microenvironment‐sensitive aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) and Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) have aroused great interest in lighting and optoelectronic devices. Herein, we developed a novel strategy to construct WLEP particles via a stepwise self‐stabilized precipitation polymerization of two emission‐complementary AIEgens under core–shell engineering, where the AIE characteristics and FRET process of core–shell fluorescent polymeric particles (CS‐FPPs) could be modulated by altering aggregation microenvironment under swelling and shrinking of polymers, facilitating the tunable white light emission of CS‐FPPs. Furthermore, such tuning could be fast realized in the solid state, thus demonstrating the potential in anti‐counterfeiting. This work proved the significance of aggregation microenvironment on emission of luminogens, guiding the development of high‐efficiency emission‐tunable materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel gas kinetic flux solver (GKFS) is presented for simulation of compressible and incompressible flows in the continuum and slip regimes. The finite volume method is adopted to discretize the governing differential equations, and inviscid and viscous fluxes at the cell interface are evaluated simultaneously by the local solution to the Boltzmann equation. Different from the conventional GKFS, in which the local solution to the Boltzmann equation is divided into the equilibrium part and the nonequilibrium part and the nonequilibrium distribution function is approximated by the difference of equilibrium distribution functions at the cell interface and its surrounding points, the present solver evaluates the local solution by integrating the Boltzmann equation along the characteristic line. As a result, the local solution to the Boltzmann equation consists of the equilibrium distribution function at the cell interface and the initial distribution function at the surrounding points. In the present work, the initial distribution function is given from the first‐order Chapman–Enskog expansion. Finally, the distribution function at the cell interface is only relevant to the macroscopic variables and their spatial derivatives. Accordingly, the fluxes across the cell interface can be evaluated by the moments of the distribution function at the cell interface. Test results show that the present solver can provide accurate numerical predictions for flows in both continuum and slip regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: The bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria, Cucurbitaceae) is an important horticultural crop exhibiting tremendous diversity in fruit shape. The genetic architecture of fruit shape variation in this species remains unknown. We assembled a long‐read‐based, high‐quality reference genome (ZAAS_Lsic_2.0) with a contig N50 value over 390‐fold greater than the existing reference genomes. We then focused on dissection of fruit shape using a one‐step geometric morphometrics‐based functional mapping approach. We identified 11 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) responsible for fruit shape (fsQTLs), reconstructed their visible effects and revealed syntenic relationships of bottle gourd fsQTLs with 12 fsQTLs previously reported in cucumber, melon or watermelon. Homologs of several well‐known and newly identified fruit shape genes, including SUN, OFP, AP2 and auxin transporters, were comapped with bottle gourd QTLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neurodevelopmental diseases are increasingly recognized to be caused by "de novo" variants with the expanding use of next‐generation sequencing. The apparent de novo variants may actually be low‐level hereditary parental mosaic variants, which could increase the recurrence risk of disease by >50% and is thought to be an underappreciated cause of neurodevelopmental diseases. Our study aimed to investigate the frequency of parental mosaicism in "de novo" neurodevelopmental diseases. A total of 237 patients (and parents) with neurodevelopmental diseases carrying apparent de novo pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants were recruited consecutively. Deep next‐generation sequencing was performed on parental samples to identify parental mosaicism. Fourteen parental disease‐causing mosaicism variants (3.0%) in 11 genes were detected with alternate allele frequency (AAF) 0.22%–34%. Three parents showed milder clinical phenotypes than their offspring with relatively high AAF (23.33%, 25%, 34% separately). One recurrent variant was identified prenatally. A review of cohort study on parental mosaicism in neurodevelopmental diseases was performed. Our study highlights that identifying the parental mosaic disease‐causing variants especially the low‐level mosaicism will contribute to improving the accuracy of genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis for reproductive risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was intended to delineate the profile of double‐negative T cells (DNTs) in NOD.Cg‐Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1wj/SzJ mice and cytokines released from DNTs in vivo and in vitro. Total 4 × 107 cells of RC1012 injection per mice were intravenously infused. IFN‐γ, TNF‐α, IL‐1β, IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐10 were measured in vivo and in vitro. A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed to determine the gene copies of Notch2‐NLA per DNT cell from collected organs. Cytokines were significantly increased in vitro (4 h) and in vivo (3 h). DNT cells were distributed into the lung, liver, heart, and kidney earlier, and redistributed to lymphocyte homing spleen and bone marrow, which seemed to frame a two‐compartment pharmacokinetics (PK) model but more data are needed to confirm this, and the clearance of DNT cells fell into first‐order kinetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the accuracy, efficiency, and consistency between experienced and less‐experienced professionals using intelligent navigation echocardiography. Methods: In this prospective study, we enrolled 93 second‐ and third‐trimester fetuses with conotruncal defects (CTD) from July 2017 to February 2018. One or more spatiotemporal image correlation volume data sets were collected per case. The fetuses with CTD were diagnosed by the following two groups of professionals (n = 20 in each) with different experience levels using intelligent navigation echocardiography and two‐dimensional ultrasound: group A with 15 years of experience and group B with 1 year of experience. The diagnostic consistency and accuracy of the technologies between the two groups were analyzed. Results: Satisfactory consistency was noted in the two groups (group A, τ = 0.855, P < 0.05, and group B, τ = 0.821, P < 0.05), and no significant difference in accuracy (χ2 = 3.218, P > 0.05) in using intelligent navigation echocardiography was reported between the two groups. However, there a significant difference in accuracy (χ2 = 0.021, P < 0.05) when using two‐dimensional ultrasound was observed between the two groups. Conclusion: Intelligent navigation echocardiography was found to be efficient and accurate for the diagnosis of CTD and good consistency existed in the experienced and less‐experienced professionals. Intelligent navigation echocardiography was feasible and accurate for the diagnosis of fetal conotruncal defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi‐terminal hybrid line commutated converter (LCC)/modular multilevel converter (MMC)‐based high voltage dc (HVDC) has been applied to solve the simultaneous commutation failure problem in East China. Here, the propagation of the travelling wave is characterised by transfer functions and the characteristic of the fault current travelling wave in the multi‐terminal hybrid LCC/MMC HVDC system is analysed. Then a directional pilot protection for the multi‐terminal hybrid LCC/MMC HVDC system is proposed. The proposed method is implemented to the designed HCM5000 dc control and protection device and verified in the Kun–Liu–Long three‐terminal hybrid LCC/MMC HVDC real‐time digital simulator (RTDS) test system. The test results show that the proposed method meets the engineering requirement of multi‐terminal hybrid LCC/MMC HVDC system for line protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-dependent behaviour of saturated soils under static and dynamic loading is generally attributed to the flow-dependent and viscous behaviour of pore fluid. However, the intrinsic energy dissipative effects from the flow-independent viscoelastic behaviour of solid skeleton are not always considered. In this study, the effect of flow-independent viscoelastic behaviour on the seismic amplification of ground soil in vertical and horizontal directions is studied based on a two-phase poroviscoelastic model. A generalized Kelvin–Voigt model is used to define the effective stress in the soils, and the compressibilities of both solid skeleton and pore fluid are considered. The seismic-induced dynamic displacements are analytically derived and are shown to depend on soil layer thickness, soil properties, and ground motion parameters. The formulation neglecting the viscoelastic behaviour of solid skeleton could overestimate both the vertical and horizontal motion amplifications at the surface of ground soil. In addition, the seismic responses of viscoelastic soils are demonstrated to be closely related to the saturation state of surface soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High voltage dc (HVDC) transmission, especially voltage source converter (VSC)‐based HVDC transmission requires high‐speed operation for relay protection. However, traditional derivative‐based non‐unit travelling wave‐based protection (TWP) methods are sensitive to the fault impedance, resulting in low protection sensitivity in case of the high‐impedance fault. First, the fault information containing in the fault travelling wavefront is analysed based on the frequency‐dependent parameters of the dc transmission line and the broadband characteristic of the fault‐point initial travelling wave. It can be concluded that the distortion of the fault travelling wavefront depends on the fault distance and the amplitude of the fault travelling wavefront depends on the fault impedance. Then, a principle of non‐unit TWP for dc transmission line based on waveform correlation calculation is proposed. The proposed method is verified in both thyristor‐based HVDC and VSC HVDC PSCAD test systems. The simulation results verify the high‐speed, high fault‐impedance tolerability and correctness of the proposed protection method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this paper, a diffuse‐interface immersed boundary method (IBM) is proposed for simulation of compressible viscous flows with stationary and moving boundaries. In the method, the solution of flow field and the implementation of boundary conditions are decoupled into two steps by applying the fractional step technique, ie, the predictor step and the corrector step. Firstly, in the predictor step, the intermediate flow field is resolved by a recently developed gas kinetic flux solver (GKFS) without consideration of the solid boundary. The GKFS is a finite volume approach that solves the Navier‐Stokes equations for the flow variables at cell centers. In GKFS, the inviscid and viscous fluxes are evaluated as a single entity by reconstructing the local solution of continuous Boltzmann equation. Secondly, in the corrector step, the intermediate flow field is corrected by the present diffuse‐interface IBM. During this process, the velocity field is firstly corrected by the implicit boundary condition–enforced IBM so that the no‐slip boundary condition can be accurately satisfied. After that, the density correction is made by an iterative approach with the help of the continuity equation. Finally, the correction of the temperature field is made in the same way as that of the velocity field. Good agreements between the present simulations and the reference data in literature demonstrate the reliability of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerosis is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory arterial disease forming the pathological basis of many cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke. Numerous studies have implicated inflammation as a key player in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is a 30 kDa β-galactose, highly conserved and widely distributed intracellularly and extracellularly. Gal-3 has been demonstrated in recent years to be a novel inflammatory factor participating in the process of intravascular inflammation, lipid endocytosis, macrophage activation, cellular proliferation, monocyte chemotaxis, and cell adhesion. This review focuses on the role of Gal-3 in atherosclerosis and the mechanism involved and several classical Gal-3 agonists and antagonists in the current studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a single‐ended fault location method that does not need the information of the remote‐end system. As the foundation of the proposed method, the fault location equations under different fault types are derived based on the fault loops. The fault distance, fault impedance, and equivalent resistance and inductance of the remote‐end system are considered as the unknowns of the fault location equation. Then the equation can be solved using the Gauss‐Newton method, by which the four unknowns can be obtained. Therefore, the proposed method is not sensitive to the fault impedance and the system parameters. A two‐terminal 500 kV ac transmission line test system is built in PSCAD to verify the proposed method. Numerous simulation data of faults of different fault distances, fault impedances, and fault types verify the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method. The proposed method is a time‐domain method that can locate the fault using 5 ms data after the faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this work, an improved axisymmetric lattice Boltzmann flux solver (LBFS) is proposed for simulation of axisymmetric isothermal and thermal flows. This solver globally resolves the axisymmetric Navier‐Stokes (N‐S) equations through the finite volume strategy and locally reconstructs numerical fluxes with solutions to the lattice Boltzmann equation. Compared with previous axisymmetric LBFS, some novel strategies are adopted in this work to simplify the formulations and improve the accuracy. First, the macroscopic equations are reformulated to reduce the number of source terms and remove spatial derivatives involved in the source terms. Second, the local reconstruction of numerical fluxes utilizes relationships given by the Chapman‐Enskog analysis and combines the radial coordinate (r) with the local solution to the standard LB equation. By adopting these two modifications, the present axisymmetric LBFS avoids the fractional‐step formulation and the finite‐difference approximation adopted in the previous solver, which reduces the complexity of implementation. Moreover, an alternative way of predicting intermediate pressure is proposed, which could effectively fix the inaccurate resolution of the pressure field in previous axisymmetric LBFS. Further extensions are made to enrich the applicability of the present solver in thermal axisymmetric flows. Validations on various benchmark tests are carried out for comprehensive evaluation of the robustness and flexibility of the proposed solver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C−H alkenylation of cyclic ethers (THF, 1,4‐dioxane) using the readily available nitroalkenes as the alkenylating reagents has been developed. It allows the rapid access to the α‐alkenyl ethers with high E‐selectivity. The previous inaccessible α‐dienyl ethers are successfully obtained. Acyclic ether can also participate in this alkenylation process. The mechanism study reveals that alkenylation proceeded through a proton coupled electron transfer (PCET) process with a de‐nitration. Photo mediator: An organic photocatalyst combined with suitable base allow the employment of readily available versatile nitroalkenes for alkenylation of ethers. Good Z/E selectivity was obtained via an efficient proton coupled electron transfer process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Drought stress conditions decrease maize growth and yield, and aggravate preharvest aflatoxin contamination. While several studies have been performed on mature kernels responding to drought stress, the metabolic profiles of developing kernels are not as well characterized, particularly in germplasm with contrasting resistance to both drought and mycotoxin contamination. Here, following screening for drought tolerance, a drought‐sensitive line, B73, and a drought‐tolerant line, Lo964, were selected and stressed beginning at 14 days after pollination. Developing kernels were sampled 7 and 14 days after drought induction (DAI) from both stressed and irrigated plants. Comparative biochemical and metabolomic analyses profiled 409 differentially accumulated metabolites. Multivariate statistics and pathway analyses showed that drought stress induced an accumulation of simple sugars and polyunsaturated fatty acids and a decrease in amines, polyamines and dipeptides in B73. Conversely, sphingolipid, sterol, phenylpropanoid and dipeptide metabolites accumulated in Lo964 under drought stress. Drought stress also resulted in the greater accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and aflatoxin in kernels of B73 in comparison with Lo964 implying a correlation in their production. Overall, field drought treatments disordered a cascade of normal metabolic programming during development of maize kernels and subsequently caused oxidative stress. The glutathione and urea cycles along with the metabolism of carbohydrates and lipids for osmoprotection, membrane maintenance and antioxidant protection were central among the drought stress responses observed in developing kernels. These results also provide novel targets to enhance host drought tolerance and disease resistance through the use of biotechnologies such as transgenics and genome editing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the circular function-based gas-kinetic scheme (CGKS), which was originally developed for simulation of flows on stationary grids, is extended to solve moving boundary problems on moving grids. Particularly, the unsteady flows through oscillating cascades are our major interests. The main idea of the CGKS is to discretize the macroscopic equations by the finite volume method while the fluxes at the cell interface are evaluated by locally reconstructing the solution of the continuous Boltzmann Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook equation. The present solver is based on the fact that the modified Boltzmann equation, which is expressed in a moving frame of reference, can recover the corresponding macroscopic equations with Chapman-Enskog expansion analysis. Different from the original Maxwellian function-based gas-kinetic scheme, in improving the computational efficiency, a simple circular function is used to describe the equilibrium state of distribution function. Considering that the concerned cascade oscillating problems belong to cases that the motion of surface boundary is known a priori, the dynamic mesh method is suitable and is adopted in the present work. In achieving the mesh deformation with high quality and efficiency, a hybrid dynamic mesh method named radial basic functions-transfinite interpolation is presented and applied for cascade geometries. For validation, several numerical test cases involving a wide range are investigated. Numerical results show that the developed CGKS on moving grids is well applied for cascade oscillating flows. And for some cases where nonlinear effects are strong, the solution accuracy could be effectively improved by using the present method. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating phasors as quickly as possible while guaranteeing accuracy is important to ensure reliable fault detection and isolation in power systems. Window length is an important factor for phasor estimation. The conventional fixed window length cannot handle well the many and diverse fault voltage and current signals. By analysing the relationship between accuracy and window length of a phasor estimation using the matrix pencil method, a criterion is established to determine whether or not the estimated phasor is credible. Then, an adaptive algorithm to estimate the phasors using dynamic window length is proposed. Analytical and experimental investigations show that the proposed algorithm can accurately and timely estimate phasors and can enable reliable and quick relay operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three-dimensional (3D) nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) architecture supporting ultrafine Pd nanoparticles is prepared and used as a highly efficient electrocatalyst. Graphene oxide (GO) is first used as a surfactant to disperse pristine CNTs for electrochemical preparation of 3D rGO@CNTs, and subsequently one-step electrodeposition of the stable colloidal GO-CNTs solution containing Na2PdCl4 affords rGO@CNTs-supported Pd nanoparticles. Further thermal treatment of the Pd/rGO@CNTs hybrid with ammonia achieves not only in situ nitrogen-doping of the rGO@CNTs support but also extraordinary size decrease of the Pd nanoparticles to below 2.0 nm. The resulting catalyst is characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Catalyst performance for the methanol oxidation reaction is tested through cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques, which shows exceedingly high mass activity and superior durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power frequency phasors are widely used in the measurement, analysis, control and protection of power systems. When disturbances occur in such systems, power frequency phasors must be estimated quickly to ensure an accurate restoration to normal operation. Hence, a fast and accurate estimation algorithm would be a significantly useful tool. In consideration of the composition of transient signals in power systems, a novel algorithm for power frequency phasor estimation is proposed. Based on the double matrix pencil method, a unitary reference matrix of complex‐valued exponential signals is formed. The power frequency phasor estimation is then transformed to a brief multiplication of matrices. Thus, the QR decomposition, generalised eigenvalue calculation, and secondary estimation can be avoided and no complex multiplication is introduced. Therefore, the computational efficiency of the proposed method is improved compared with previous estimation techniques. Analytical and experimental investigations show that the proposed algorithm can extract power frequency phasors accurately, stably and quickly under power system transients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) is a promising support material for nanosized electrocatalysts. However, the conventional stacking arrangement of rGO sheets confines the electrocatalysts between rGO layers, which decreases the number of catalytic sites substantially. We report here a facile synthesis of vertically oriented reduced graphene oxide (VrGO) through cyclic voltammetric electrolysis of graphene oxide (GO) in the presence of Na2PdCl4. Experiments without Pd nanoparticles or with a low loading amount of Pd nanoparticles results in the deposition of rGO parallel to the electrodes. The vertical orientation of Pd/rGO nanoflakes causes a remarkable enhancement of the catalytic activity toward methanol electro-oxidation. The mass activity (620.1 A gPd−1) of Pd/VrGO is 1.9 and 6.2 times that of Pd/flat-lying rGO (331.8 A gPd−1) and commercial Pd/C (100.5 A gPd−1), respectively. Furthermore, the Pd/VrGO catalyst shows excellent resistance to CO poisoning. This work provides a simple wet-chemical method for VrGO preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genomics has provided a lever to pry open lymphoid cells and examine their regulatory biology. The large body of available gene expression data has also allowed us to define the of coordinately expressed genes, termed gene expression signatures, which characterize the states of cellular physiology that reflect cellular differentiation, activation of signaling pathways, and the action of transcription factors. Gene expression signatures that reflect the action of individual transcription factors can be defined by perturbing transcription factor function using RNA interference (RNAi), small-molecule inhibition, and dominant-negative approaches. We have used this methodology to define gene expression signatures of various transcription factors controlling B-cell differentiation and activation, including BCL-6, B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein-1 (Blimp-1), X-box binding protein-1 (XBP1), nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), and c-myc. We have also curated a wide variety of gene expression signatures from the literature and assembled these into a signature database. Statistical methods can define whether any signature in this database is differentially expressed in independent biological samples, an approach we have used to gain mechanistic insights into the origin and clinical behavior of B-cell lymphomas. We also discuss the use of genomic-scale RNAi libraries to identify genes and pathways that may serve as therapeutic targets in B-cell malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]