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Solid-state refrigeration using barocaloric materials is environmentally friendly and highly efficient, making it a subject of global interest over the past decade. Here, we report giant barocaloric effects in sodium hexafluorophosphate (NaPF6) and sodium hexafluoroarsenate (NaAsF6) that both undergo a cubic-to-rhombohedral phase transition near room temperature. We have determined that the low-temperature phase structure of NaPF6 is a rhombohedral structure with space group R 3 ¯ by neutron powder diffraction. There are three Raman active vibration modes in NaPF6 and NaAsF6, i.e., F2g, Eg, and A1g. The phase transition temperature varies with pressure at a rate of dTt/dP = 250 and 310 K GPa−1 for NaPF6 and NaAsF6. The pressure-induced entropy changes of NaPF6 and NaAsF6 are determined to be around 45.2 and 35.6 J kg−1 K−1, respectively. The saturation driving pressure is about 40 MPa. The pressure-dependent neutron powder diffraction suggests that the barocaloric effects are related to the pressure-induced cubic-to-rhombohedral phase transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic data, complementary with real-world datasets, have shown their effectiveness for autonomous driving in urban scenarios. However, for specific and complex environments, such as surface mines, which often involve extreme weather and corner cases, synthetic datasets are notably scarce. In this article, PMScenes, the first synthetic dataset for autonomous driving in surface mines, is built upon the previously public AutoMine dataset. It extends the available data by constructing corner case scenarios, such as unusual intrusions; collisions; and extreme weather scenarios including rain, blizzards, fog, and dust storms—situations that would bring significant safety risks and are hard to capture in the real world. Our article explores the enhancement methods for synthetic to real for perception tasks of autonomous driving under different challenging scenarios. The outcomes demonstrate that PMScenes significantly enhances the performance across a variety of perception tasks compared with the results obtained when training only with real-world datasets. PMScenes is released at https://github.com/PMScenes/PMScenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CYP450 enzyme is a superfamily enzyme ubiquitously found in nearly all organisms, playing a vital role in the metabolism of both endogenous and exogenous compounds, and in biosynthesis. Unfortunately, an understanding of its classification, functions, expression characteristics, and other biological traits in Hyalomma asiaticum, a vector for Crimean–Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, as well as of the genes implicated in its natural product metabolism, is lacking. Towards this end, this study has identified 120 H. asiaticum CYP450 genes via transcriptome data in the face of a joint genome threat from terpinolene. The proteins these genes encode are of higher molecular weight, devoid of a signal peptide, and composed of unstable hydrophobic proteins principally containing 1–3 variable transmembrane regions. Phylogenetic evolution classifies these H. asiaticum CYP450 genes into four subfamilies. These genes all encompass complete CYP450 conserved domains, and five specific conserved motifs, albeit with different expression levels. GO and KEGG annotation findings suggest a widespread distribution of these CYP450 genes in many physiological systems, predominantly facilitating lipid metabolism, terpenoid compound metabolism, and polyketone compound metabolism, as well as cofactor and vitamin metabolism at a cellular level. Molecular docking results reveal a hydrophobic interaction between the ARG-103, ARG-104, LEU-106, PHE-109, and ILE-119 amino acid residues in CYP3A8, which is primarily expressed in the fat body, and terpinolene, with a notably up-regulated expression, with affinity = −5.6 kcal/mol. The conservation of these five key amino acid residues varies across 12 tick species, implying differences in terpinolene metabolism efficacy among various tick species. This study thereby fills an existing knowledge gap regarding the biological characteristics of H. asiaticum CYP450 genes and paves the way for further research into the functions of these particular genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zizania latifolia is usually infected by the obligate parasitic fungus Ustilago esculenta to form an edible fleshy stem which is an aquatic vegetable called Jiaobai in China. The infection by the teliospore (T) strain of U. esculenta induces Z. latifolia forming gray fleshy stems, while the mycelia-teliospore (MT) strain of U. esculenta induces white fleshy stems which are more suitable for edibility than gray fleshy stems. The mechanism of this phenomenon is still largely unknown. One of the possible causes is the diversity of endophytic microbial communities between these two fleshy stems. Therefore, we utilized fungal ITS1 and bacterial 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing to investigate the diversity of endophytic microbial communities in the two different fleshy stems of Z. latifolia. The results revealed that the α diversity and richness of endophytic fungi in white Z. latifolia were significantly greater than in gray Z. latifolia. The dominant fungal genus in both fleshy stems was U. esculenta, which accounted for over 90% of the endophytic fungi. The community composition of endophytic fungi in gray and white Z. latifolia was different except for U. esculenta, and a negative correlation was observed between U. esculenta and other endophytic fungi. In addition, the dominant bacterial genus in gray Z. latifolia was Alcaligenaceae which is also negatively correlated with other bacterium communities. Additionally, the co-occurrence network of white Z. latifolia was found to have a stronger scale, connectivity, and complexity compared to that of gray Z. latifolia. And the detected beneficial bacteria and pathogens in the stems of Z. latifolia potentially compete for resources. Furthermore, the function of endophytic bacteria is more abundant than endophytic fungi in Z. latifolia. This research investigated the correlation between the development of Z. latifolia fleshy stems and endophytic microbial communities. Our findings indicate that the composition of endophytic microbial communities is closely related to the type of Z. latifolia fleshy stems. This research also suggests the potential utilization of specific microbial communities to enhance the growth and development of Z. latifolia, thereby contributing to the breeding of Z. latifolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New ventures often face the challenge of resource scarcity, and how to overcome the resource constraint problem and improve new venture sustainability has been a long-standing concern of scholars and practitioners. Most existing studies have explored the impact on the financial performance of new ventures of a single factor, and few studies have focused on the impact of the configuration effect of multiple factors on new venture sustainability. In this paper, based on the configuration theory and resource orchestration theory, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with a sample of 189 entrepreneurs to explore the mechanisms driving the configuration effects of multiple factors of entrepreneurial decision-making logic, resource bundling, and environmental uncertainty on new venture sustainability. The empirical results show that the paths to achieve high new venture sustainability are diverse and equivalent, and effectuation is a core antecedent condition in all paths. There are four conditional configurations of the drivers of high sustainability in new ventures, including dual-logic resource integration, market-driven resource integration, means–resource innovation in emerging markets, and resource-rich or resource-creating integration under dual logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miniaturized energy storage devices with superior performance and compatibility with facile fabrication are highly desired in smart microelectronics. Typical fabrication techniques are generally based on powder printing or active material deposition, which restrict the reaction rate due to the limited optimization of electron transport. Herein, we proposed a new strategy for the construction of high-rate Ni-Zn microbatteries based on a 3D hierarchical porous nickel (Ni) microcathode. With sufficient reaction sites from the hierarchical porous structure as well as excellent electrical conductivity from the superficial Ni-based activated layer, this Ni-based microcathode is featured with fast-reaction capability. By virtue of facile electrochemical treatment, the fabricated microcathode realized an excellent rate performance (over 90% capacity retention when the current density increased from 1 to 20 mA cm−2). Furthermore, the assembled Ni-Zn microbattery achieved a rate current of up to 40 mA cm−2 with a capacity retention of 76.9%. Additionally, the high reactivity of the Ni-Zn microbattery is also durable in 2000 cycles. This 3D hierarchical porous Ni microcathode, as well as the activation strategy, provides a facile route for the construction of microcathodes and enriches high-performance output units for integrated microelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miniaturized powering devices with both sufficient capacity as well as fast charging capability are anticipated to support microelectronics with multi-functions. However, most reported miniaturized energy storage devices only display limited performances around capacity or rate performance, and it remains challenging to develop high-rate microdevices with large capacities. Herein, a reconstructed NiCo alloy is proposed as a promising microcathode for a Ni-Zn microbattery with a high-rate performance and large capacity. With the reconstructed layer compactly adhered on the metal substrate, the activated NiCo alloy demonstrates an excellent conductivity close to metals. Meanwhile, the abundant alloying defect contributes to a relatively higher reconstruction depth up to 20 nm. Both the superior electron transport and the higher reaction depth facilitate the simultaneous excellent performance in the reaction rate and capacity. As a consequence, the microcathode achieves a large capacity up to 1.51 mAh cm−2, as well as an excellent rate performance with a capacity retention of 82.9% when the current density is expanded to 100 mA cm−2. More surprisingly, such excellent performance can shift towards the full Ni-Zn microbattery, and the fast-charging capability based on large capacity can stably maintain 7000 cycles. This unique strategy of reconstructed NiCo alloy microcathode provides a new direction for the construction of high-performance output units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air strikes are among the main means of attack in modern warfare. To improve air defense capabilities and aid military decision-making, threat assessment models have been introduced. As the parameters of the kernel extreme learning machine (KELM) model need to be set individually, this study proposes a parameter learning strategy based on a multistrategy improved sparrow search algorithm (MISSA). First, a reasonable threat assessment model was established based on the capability and situation factors of air targets. Second, the sparrow search algorithm was improved in terms of population position initialization and position update strategy, incorporating tent chaos reverse learning, nonlinear inertia weights, a global search strategy, and adaptive t-distribution. The effectiveness of the MISSA strategy was verified using nine common benchmark functions. The results show that the proposed MISSA finds an effective balance between global and local searches. Moreover, when the MISSA is applied to solve the tuning problem of KELM, the values of mean absolute percentage error, mean square error, root mean square error, and mean absolute error for MISSA–KELM in the air target threat assessment problem are 2.013 × 10−2, 1.282 × 10−4, 1.132 × 10−2, and 8.316 × 10−3, respectively, all of which are higher than that of the other metaheuristic algorithms (e.g., ACWOA-KELM and HGWO-KELM). Therefore, the method proposed in this study can be used as a parameter-tuning tool for KELM, enabling KELM to perform better in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we demonstrated a novel and low-cost full-range optical coherence tomography (FROCT) method. In comparison with the off-pivot approach, which needs precise control of the deflecting distance and should be adjusted for different situations, our proposed method is more flexible without regulating the system itself. Different from the previous systems reported in the literature, which used a high-cost piezo-driven stage to introduce the phase modulation, our system utilizes a cost-effective voice coil motor for retrieving the complex-valued spectral signal. The complex-valued data, with a twofold increase in the accessible depth range, can be calculated using an algorithm based on the Hilbert transform and Dirac delta function. To confirm the effectivity of our method, both simulation and experiments were performed. In particular, for the in vivo experiment, we presented the FROCT result of a fingernail fold, demonstrating the availability of in vivo imaging. Since the key element of our system is a low-cost voice coil motor, which is flexible and more accessible for most of the clinics, we believe that it has great potential to be a clinical modality in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aspheric light emitted from a pinhole restrains the reconstruction quality of a digital in-line hologram. Herein, the Fresnel-diffracted spot from the first step converging spherical wave diffracted at a rough circular aperture is collimated and expanded to generate an even plane wave, which is converged again by an objective lens and matching a minimum aperture while the central spot is varying from light to dark. We observed that the collected background hologram is filled with a round spot with high contrast as an ideal spherical wave. The resolution board and biology experimental results demonstrated a distinctively reconstructed image without any image processing in a single exposure. The adjustable field of view and magnification, single exposure, and noncontact make it suitable for an online microscope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of colossal barocaloric effects in organic plastic crystals has significantly advanced the development of solid‐state refrigerant techniques. Adapting to the real application, a tradeoff of various barocaloric performances has to be achieved. Here, it is reported a novel plastic crystal system, that is, carboranes (C2B10H12), including three positional isomers: ortho‐carborane, meta‐carborane, and para‐carborane, which are characterized by C2v, C2v, D5d point groups, respectively. They all undergo an orthorhombic‐to‐tetragonal phase transition around room temperature. Compared to the previously reported organic plastic crystals, this system exhibits a combination of large pressure‐normalized entropy changes, the high‐pressure sensitivity of the transition temperature, small thermal hysteresis, and so forth. Their barocaloric performances are positional‐isomerism dependent, and the best performances are obtained in para‐carborane with maximum entropy changes of about 106.2 J kg−1 K−1 achieved under pressure changes below 30 MPa. This study not only suggests that carboranes would be a considerably promising working material for barocaloric refrigeration at room temperature but also indicates that delicate tuning of molecular isomerism is an effective strategy to enhance barocaloric performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigation shows that crystalline porous Mg(OH)2 nanoplates can be synthesized from corresponding bulky crystals by a facile hydrothermal recrystallization process. The formation of bimodal mesopores is believed to be caused by the aggregation of small primary nanoparticles in nanoplates.

Recently, a method was proposed to determine the parameters for each Class DE driver in high-intensity focused ultrasound arrays for efficient operation and to compensate for variations in the impedance of each array element. This work extends that method to consider the effect of switch resistance and to provide limited control on the power delivered to the transducers with a constant supply voltage while keeping a good efficiency. The method is experimentally validated using an integrated driver developed by the authors. This paper also shows that the frequency range for efficient electrical operation is close to the frequency where the transducer array presents a peak in the conversion efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]