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As the critical component of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), proton exchange membrane (PEM) determine its overall performance. Current PEMs hardly meet the operating requirements of fuel cells, limiting their commercial applications. With the development of nanocomposite technology, nanofibers introduced into PEMs to prepare nanofiber composite proton exchange membranes (NCPEMs) have been widely studied. In an NCPEM, nanofibers can form long-range channels for proton transport, and reinforced skeleton to reach the target performance of PEMFCs. Focusing on NCPEM, this paper reviews on recent progresses in nanofiber preparation and NCPEM preparation techniques. Furthermore, different types of nanofibers incorporated into NCPEMs are reviewed in terms of fiber composition. The challenges and future perspectives regarding NCPEMs are also discussed.

Droplet-based transport driven by surface tension has been explored as an automated pumping source for several biomedical applications. This paper presented a simple and fast superhydrophobic modify and patterning approach to fabricate various open-surface platforms to manipulate droplets to achieve transport, mixing, concentration, and rebounding control. Several commercial reagents were tested in our approach, and the Glaco reagent was selected to create a superhydrophobic layer; laser cutters are utilized to scan on these superhydrophobic surface to create gradient hydrophilic micro-patterns. Implementing back-and-forth vibrations on the predetermined parallel patterns, droplets can be transported and mixed successfully. Colorimetry of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) mixing with substrates also reduced the reaction time by more than 5-times with the help of superhydrophobic patterned chips. Besides, patterned superhydrophobic chips can significantly improve the sensitivity of colorimetric glucose-sensing by more than 10 times. Moreover, all bioassays were distributed homogeneously within the region of hydrophilic micropatterns without the coffee-ring effect. In addition, to discuss further applications of the surface wettability, the way of controlling the droplet impacting and rebounding phenomenon was also demonstrated. This work reports a rapid approach to modify and pattering superhydrophobic films to perform droplet-based manipulations with a lower technical barrier, higher efficiency, and easier operation. It holds the potential to broaden the applications of open microfluidics in the future.

In perovskite solar cells, doped organic semiconductors are often used as charge-extraction interlayers situated between the photoactive layer and the electrodes. The π-conjugated small molecule 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis[N,N-di(4-methoxyphenyl)amino]-9,9-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) is the most frequently used semiconductor in the hole-conducting layer1-6, and its electrical properties considerably affect the charge collection efficiencies of the solar cell7. To enhance the electrical conductivity of spiro-OMeTAD, lithium bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide (LiTFSI) is typically used in a doping process, which is conventionally initiated by exposing spiro-OMeTAD:LiTFSI blend films to air and light for several hours. This process, in which oxygen acts as the p-type dopant8-11, is time-intensive and largely depends on ambient conditions, and thus hinders the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Here we report a fast and reproducible doping method that involves bubbling a spiro-OMeTAD:LiTFSI solution with CO2 under ultraviolet light. CO2 obtains electrons from photoexcited spiro-OMeTAD, rapidly promoting its p-type doping and resulting in the precipitation of carbonates. The CO2-treated interlayer exhibits approximately 100 times higher conductivity than a pristine film while realizing stable, high-efficiency perovskite solar cells without any post-treatments. We also show that this method can be used to dope π-conjugated polymers.

Under the global climate warming, extreme weather events occur more and more frequently. Epidemiological studies have proved that extreme temperature is strongly correlated with respiratory diseases. We evaluated extreme-temperature effect on respiratory emergency room (ER) visits for 5 years in Lanzhou, a northwest temperate climate city of China from January 1st, 2013, to August 31st, 2017. We built a distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) to evaluate the lag effect up to 30 days. Results showed the relative risk (RR) of respiratory disease always reached the maximum at lag 0 day and decreased to 1.0 at lag 5 days. Extremely low temperature showed the lag effect of 22 days and the maximum RR was 1.415 (95% CI 1.295–1.546) at lag 0 day. Extremely high temperature showed the lag effect of 7 days and the maximum RR was 1.091 (95% CI 1.069–1.114) at lag 0 day. The elders (age > 65 years) were at the greatest risk to extreme temperatures and the response were very acute. Children (age ≤ 15 years) were at the lowest risk but the lag effect lasted the longest lag days than other subgroups. Males showed longer-term lag effect and higher RR than females. Our study indicated that the extremely low temperature has a significantly greater effect on respiratory diseases than extremely high temperature.

Prestack seismic inversion can be regarded as an optimization problem, which minimizes the error between the observed and synthetic data under the premise of certain geological/geophysical a priori information constraints. It has been proved to be a powerful approach for reconstructing the subsurface properties and building the elastic parameter models (e.g., P- and S-wave velocity, and density). With respect to the specific expressions of a priori information, the starting model and regularization are expected to be the most widely used and indispensable constraints to reconstruct structural features and subsurface properties. The conventional prestack inversion (trace-by-trace) methods perform well when the geological structure of the target area is not too complex. However, due to the lack of lateral constraint, such trace-independent methods are inevitably limited by their capability of characterization (including accuracy, resolution, and robustness) in the case of geologically complex structures, such as tilted stratum and steep faults. The geological structure-guided constraint, herein referred to as the seismic slope attribute, can be exploited as a lateral constraint integrated into the prestack inversion algorithm. In this work, the seismic slope attribute is introduced to the amplitude variation with offset/angle inversion from two aspects, i.e., starting model building and regularization penalty. Firstly, using the seismic slope attribute, instead of the traditional manual interpreted geological horizons, as a constraint, the well-log data are interpolated to build the initial model. The interpolation algorithm is formulated as solving the inverse problem by using the shaping regularization method rather than the kriging-based algorithm. Secondly, by rotating the coordinate system according to the seismic slope attribute, the directional total variation regularization is used as a constraint to improve the resolution (in both vertical and horizontal directions) and lateral continuity of the inversion results. Finally, the proposed methods are applied to synthetic and real seismic data. Synthetic tests and field data applications demonstrate that the proposed method is capable of revealing complex structural features and achieving stabilized inversion of multi-parameters with less uncertainty.

The geometric effects of Coanda trailing edges on the aerodynamic performance of an airfoil are numerically evaluated for a range of different freestream Mach numbers and momentum coefficients. A Circulation control (CC) airfoil with a circular trailing edge (ACTE) proves to have better control effectiveness at low subsonic freestream speeds (Mach = 0.1). A CC airfoil having an elliptic trailing edge (AETE) outperforms the ACTE at high subsonic flow conditions. The occurrence of C μ-stall for the AETE is greatly postponed, and meanwhile the maximum net lift coefficient increment achieved for the AETE (Δ C L = 0.51) is slightly higher than that of the ACTE (Δ C L = 0.50) at Mach 0.6. Compared to the ACTE, the AETE is found to have better control consistency at different operating velocities and better control stability when the Coanda jet is supersonic. Through careful consideration of the aerodynamic performance and the control effects, the most appropriate axial ratio for an AETE ellipse is within the interval from 1.5 to 2. Finally, the flow field instability phenomenon and the jet detachment induced by the supersonic Coanda jet are investigated. A self-sustained shock-wave instability phenomenon without jet detachment is first observed in this paper.

Self-assembled lignin nanospheres (LNS) have attracted much attention due to the new opportunities provided for the preparation of value-added products derived from lignin. However, the internal co...

Nonlocal means (NLM) is one of the classic patch-based methods for random noise attenuation. It assumes that a significant amount of redundant information exists in similar patches, which can be used to restore the original data. However, this method is computationally expensive due to a large number of overlapping patches. In addition, because this method uses a weighted average of patches to suppress noise, when applied to the data with complicated structures, the “average effect” may appear in the denoised results. We have implemented the NLM in the frequency-space domain, which can be called adaptive frequency-domain nonlocal means. This novel strategy will significantly reduce the computational cost and improve the quality of the final result compared to traditional NLM. Considering the impact of filtering parameters on the final result, we also build a mapping relationship between the noise strength and the filtering parameters, which could help obtain the denoised result with less signal leakage. We provide synthetic and field examples to show the superiority of this method over the traditional f-x prediction and NLM methods.

A novel metal-enamel interlocking coating was designed and prepared in situ by co-deposition of Ni-enamel composite layer and subsequent air spray of enamel with 10 wt% nanoscale Ni. During the firing process, the external enamel layer was melted and jointed with the enamel particles at the upper part of the Ni-plating layer to form the enamel pegs. Thermal shock tests of pure enamel, enamel with 10 wt% Ni composite and metal-enamel interlocking coatings were conducted at 600 °C in water and static air. The results indicated that the metal-enamel interlocking showed superior thermal shock resistance to both pure enamel and enamel with 10 wt% Ni composite coatings. The enhanced performance was mainly attributed to the advantageous effects of mechanical interlocking of the enamel pegs formed at the enamel/Ni-plating interface. Meanwhile, during thermal shock test, big clusters formed by nanoscale Ni agglomerations were oxidised to be a Ni/NiO core–shell structure while small single nanoscale Ni grains were oxidised completely, which both improved the thermal shock resistance of enamel coating significantly.

Fundamental group of a manifold gives a deep effect on its underlying smooth structure. In this paper we introduce a new variant of the Donaldson invariant in Yang-Mills gauge theory from twisting by the Picard group of a four manifold in the case when the fundamental group is free abelian. We then generalize it to the general case of fundamental groups by use of the framework of non commutative geometry. We also verify that our invariant distinguishes smooth structures between some homeomorphic four manifolds., Comment: typos fixed, Rewrite Section 4 to reduce technicality

It is significant to ensure the temperature stability of the test tank, which has a direct impact on reducing production energy consumption, improving tank quality and ensuring experimental results. However, the high nonlinearity and long delay of the temperature control process in the test tank make it difficult to satisfactorily control the temperature by traditional control methods. To solve the problem, this paper designs a temperature prediction model for the test tank based on backpropagation neural network (BPNN), which has a good fitting ability for nonlinear systems. The proposed model was coupled with improved generalized predictive control (GPC) into a new test tank temperature control method, namely, BPNN-based stepped GPC. Simulation results show that the new control method could reduce the prediction error of the BPNN and effectively control the temperature of the test tank.

The Co–Fe–Zr system and its Co–Zr subsystem were optimized using the CALculation of PHAse Diagram (CALPHAD) approach. The substitutional solution model was used for describing the phases liquid, fcc_A1, bcc_A2 and hcp_A3. Two Laves phases were modeled as (Co,Fe,Zr)2(Co,Fe,Zr)1, and the phases CoFe and CoZr with the bcc_B2 crystal structure were described as the ordered one of bcc_A2 in the formula (Co,Fe,Va,Zr)0.5(Co,Fe,Va,Zr)0.5Va3. With limited solubility ranges, all other phases were treated as the line compounds (Co,Fe)mZrn. An excellent agreement between the reported and calculated results was reached. The reliable thermodynamic parameters of the Co–Fe–Zr system were acquired, which can be well applied to various thermodynamic calculations and materials design.

Hydraulic structures are man-made waterworks interacting with the rainfall run-off to store and convey water, or mitigate the impact of run-off. Current approaches in hydraulic structure design ten...

Three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical MnO2@NiCo2O4 core–shell nanoflower in situ grown on the Ni-foam substrate has successfully prepared via a two-step hydrothermal process and calcination treatment, and the related properties of electrode materials for supercapacitors have also been investigated. The prepared samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge–discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). When the current density was 0.25 A/g, the specific capacitance of the MnO2@NiCo2O4 composite material could reach 634.37 F/g. The specific capacitance was 83.1% retention after 3000 cycles at 1 A/g, and the initial capacitance retention rate was 96.3%, showing good capacitance stability. It opens up a new way for the development of high-performance supercapacitor electrode materials.

Biomimetic total syntheses of Festuclavine and Pyroclavine were achieved by a sequential radical coupling. The key steps include intramolecular decarboxylative Giese reaction to form the central C ring and 4-nitrobenzenesulfonyl (Ns)-directed indole C4-H olefination to introduce the indole C4 component. In addition, D-ring formation was completed by decarboxylative alkenylation and intramolecular SN2 reaction.

Artificial intelligence (AI) on chips has recently driven the expansion of the Social Internet of Things (SIoT), where a group of SIoT devices with social relations can collaboratively identify and handle local events without the help of remote servers. On the other hand, mobile-edge computing (MEC) is a favorable way to locally process SIoT data for reducing data transmission and computation among SIoT devices and backhaul networks. Nevertheless, the load sharing among SIoT devices, MEC, and remote servers brings about new challenges for the communication and computation tradeoff, cross-layer design in SIoT, and forwarding and aggregation tradeoff. To tackle these issues, we formulate a new optimization problem, namely, SIoT collaborative group and device selection problem (SCGDSP), and prove the NP-hardness. We first explore the intrinsic properties of a fundamental SCGDSP case by finding the optimal collaborative group for each user request. Then, we design an approximation algorithm for the general SCGDSP that first evaluates candidate collaborative groups under different social relations, and then selects the collaborative groups and SIoT devices properly. For scalability, the proposed algorithm also supports dynamic user requests and can be distributionally deployed in massive networks enabling collaborative MEC. Moreover, it also sustains local SIoT services, where the computation only involves SIoT devices and MEC servers. Simulation results demonstrate that effective SIoT and collaborative group selection (ESCGS) can reduce by more than 50% of the total communication and computation costs compared with baseline schemes in the real networks from topology zoo. Moreover, the distributed ESCGS reduces by 87% of the running time with total 16.5-MB message overhead, requiring no more than 0.05-ms transmission delay in a 100-Gb/s backbone network with eight MEC servers, 1000 SIoTs, and 800 monitored locations.

As representative varieties of the four phases of the super rice breeding project in China, Lianyoupei 9 (LYP9), Y Liangyou 1 (YLY1), Y Liangyou 2 (YLY2), and Y Liangyou 900 (YLY900) achieved higher yield under optimal cultivation techniques. However, the impact of these high-yield rice varieties on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under high-yield cultivation management practices remains poorly understood. In this study, we conducted field experiments to investigate CH4 and N2O emissions from paddies containing four elite rice varieties, managed with field drying at the ineffective tillering stage and alternate wet/dry irrigation at the grain-filling stage. The plants were fertilised with nitrogen (N) at three different rates. The results showed that CH4 emission was highest at the tillering stage. N2O emission flux was dramatically increased by field drying at the ineffective tillering stage, and with the rate of N application. Rice variety was among the most important factors affecting CH4 emission and global warming potential (GWP). N2O emission was mainly related to N application rate rather than rice variety. YLY2 achieved higher yield than LYP9, YLY1, and YLY900, and lower GHG emission than YLY900. Our results indicate that rice variety should be considered as a key factor to reduce GHG emissions from rice paddies under high-yield cultivation practices. Based on its high yield and low GHG emission at the study site, YLY2 may be an optimal rice variety.

Seismic diffractions are weak seismic events hidden within the more dominant reflection events in a seismic profile. Separating diffraction energy from the poststack seismic profiles can help infer the subsurface discontinuities that generate the diffraction events. The separated seismic diffractions can be migrated with a traditional seismic imaging method or a specifically designed migration method to highlight the diffractors, that is, the diffraction image. Traditional diffraction separation methods based on the underlying plane-wave assumption are limited by either the inaccurate slope estimation or the plane-wave assumption of the plane-wave destruction filter and thus will cause reflection leakage into the separated diffraction profile. The leaked reflection energy will deteriorate the resolution of the subsequent diffraction imaging result. We have adopted a new diffraction separation method based on a localized rank-reduction (LRR) method. The LRR method assumes the reflection events to be locally low-rank and the diffraction energy can be separated by a rank-reduction operation. Compared to the global rank-reduction method, the LRR method is more constrained in selecting the rank and is free of separation artifacts. We use a carefully designed synthetic example to demonstrate that the LRR method can help separate the diffraction energy from a poststack seismic profile with kinematically and dynamically accurate performance.

Endophytes mainly present in the tissues of the plants. The effects of endophytes on host physiology and ecology have been relatively well studied in many plants, while the functions of endophytes within invasive plants are few that have been reported. Endophytic bacteria considered mutualistic and mediate nutrients availability to facilitate the growth and competitiveness of the host. The present study aimed to check how alien plant species have positive population growth and to identify the functional gene diversities of endophytic bacteria in the tissues. An alien plant, Ageratina adenophora has been experimentally manipulated in order to investigate the bacterial community structure of endophytes in its roots, stems and leaves. Results indicated that after tetracycline treatment, the heights of A. adenophora plants were significantly reduced. Several changes in the host physiological and biochemical properties were detected, including decreased ferredoxin contents, increased iron and chlorophyll concentrations in the leaves. High-throughput sequencing of the bacterial community 16S rRNA genes indicated that endophytic bacteria in untreated A. adenophora plants were dominated by the phyla Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes. After treatment with tetracycline, the overall bacterial diversity decreased. To investigate the links between endophytic bacteria and host growth, six strains of bacteria (Acinetobactor johnsonii, Chryseobacterium arthrosphaerae, Bacillus sp., Arthrobacter nitroguajacolicus, Bacillus cereus and an unidentified bacterium sp.) were isolated from A. adenophora. Three of these isolates produced indole-3-acetic acid, which has been shown to promote the growth of A. adenophora plants. These strains also showed strong nematicidal activities, suggesting their potential roles in aiding host defense mechanisms.

Based on the construction strategy of proton transport channels, we design a high-performance proton exchange membrane (PEM) with ordered deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-functionalized graphene oxide (GO) and Nafion matrix via the electrostatic layer-by-layer deposition (ELD) technique, which is a novel method of membrane formation aided by electrostatic force. The effects of different content rations of single-strand DNA (ss-DNA) molecules and GO (ss-DNA@GO) on the proton conductivity, methanol permeability, and single cell performance of composite PEMs are investigated. The composite membrane shows a high proton conductivity of 351.8 mS cm−1 (80 °C, 100%RH) but a low methanol permeability of 1.63 × 10−7 cm2 s−1 at room temperature. Furthermore, the composite membranes are assembled into direct methanol fuel cells at 60 °C, and Nafion/DNA@GO-2/5 exhibits a maximum power density of 255.33 mW cm−2, which is 2.42 times higher than that of pure Nafion. This work explores the application potential of DNA@GO in PEM and provides a bioinspired avenue to designing next-generation high-performance PEM for fuel cells.

The development of micro-fabrication and micro-assembly technology is indispensable for the future manufacturing of miniaturized, functional, and integrated devices. This paper proposes a planar micro-assembly technology to make the assembly of micro-objects easier. Firstly, delicate three-dimensional (3D) structures were fabricated on glass and silicon slice substrates using femtosecond laser two-photon polymerization (2PP). Secondly, transparent fluorescent scintillation ceramic powder, referred to as fluorescent powder, was assembled using a laboratory-made 3D moving heating micro-operator into a microstructure on a glass substrate, and this device is used to assemble the graphene powder into the microstructure on the silicon slice substrate. The fluorescence spectra and Raman spectra characterizations of the fluorescent powder and graphene powder in the microstructure were carried out by using excitation light at 405 nm and 532 nm, respectively. According to the above results, it can be concluded that the powder properties of the fluorescent powder and graphene powder assembled into the microstructure were not changed. The experimental device could not only assemble many micron-sized powder materials into hollow microstructures of arbitrary shape but also joined microstructures with different materials and characteristics to form a complex hybrid microstructure system.

The high strength obtained in Cu–Cr alloys is mainly attributed to the precipitation strengthening, dislocation strengthening, and grain-boundary strengthening. The precipitate size, dislocation density, and grain size are related to thermomechanical treatment. The strength of Cu–Cr alloys can be controlled by the thermomechanical treatment process. In this study, the microstructure and strengthening mechanisms of Cu–0.8Cr–0.1Zr (wt%) alloy after one-step and two-step thermomechanical treatment were studied. The results showed that after the following thermomechanical treatments, solution treated at 950 °C for 60 min, thickness reduction at first cold rolled for 60%, annealed at 450 °C for 180 min, and then 30% thickness reduction in secondary cold rolling, the microhardness, tensile strength, and conductivity reach 215 HV, 623 MPa, and 74.5% IACS, respectively. The main difference of strength between one-step and two-step thermomechanical treatment in the Cu–0.8Cr–0.1Zr alloy is due to the difference of dislocation strengthening effect. The dislocation strengthening achieved in two-step thermomechanical treatment (175.6 MPa) is 95 MPa greater than that of one-step thermomechanical treatment (80.6 MPa).

This paper studies the sintering mechanism and property of ZnO–V2O5–MnCO3–Nb2O5 (ZnVMnNbO) varistor ceramic and their evolution by Ce–La dopant. The XRD, SEM, EBSD and TEM results show MnZn2Nb2O8 has a similar effect as ZnV2O4 and Zn3(VO4)2 on contributing to the formation of Vanadium (V)-rich liquid phase and promoting the sintering of ZnVMnNbO ceramic. Oppositely, ZnMn2O4 particle phase can only postpone sintering by pinning the growth of ZnO grains. Adding Ce–La dopant leads to forming Ce(La)VO4 intergranular particle phase that further hinders the sintering of the ceramic. This conclusion agrees with the result of the following kinetics study that shows the grain-growth exponent and apparent activation energy of ZnVMnNbO ceramic increasing from 2.39 and 186 KJ mol-1 to 2.95 and 263 KJ mol-1 with the addition of Ce–La dopant. Meanwhile, the electrical properties of the Ce–La doped ZnVMnNbO varistor ceramics are generally better than its Rare Earth (RE)-free counterparts. Sintering at 875 °C for 3 h can increase the nonlinear coefficient of Ce–La doped ZnVMnNbO varistor ceramic to its highest value of 48.4, therefore, is proposed as the optimum fabricating procedure.

High transparency and toughness are prerequisites for sustainable polymers if they are to find wide application as alternatives to petroleum-based polymers. However, the utility of sustainable polymers such as commercially available polylactide (PLA) is limited by their inherent brittleness and high cost. Unfortunately, toughening PLA-based materials via cost-effective blending strategies without sacrificing transparency remains a challenge. Herein, we report a novel strategy involving active refractive index matching for creation of highly transparent and tough PLA blends. Specifically, we engineered the refractive index of a promising renewable poly(epichlorohydrin-co-ethylene oxide) elastomer by introducing polar ionic moieties via a simple chemical method, and we blended the resulting ionomers with PLA. The best blend showed an impact strength of > 80 kJ/m2, an elongation at break of 400%, and high transparency (90%). These characteristics are of great importance for potential applications such as packaging. Our strategy offers a versatile new way to prepare high-performance sustainable polymer materials with excellent transparency.

Research on natural hazards has become a focus due to the serious threat to human life and property. Based on the Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index in the Web of Science spanning 2000–2017, we analyze the characteristics, cooperating countries and research trends of existing articles in the field of natural hazards using a bibliometric method. And the findings provide meaningful data and references for the allocation of science and technology inputs in the fields of natural hazards research. The results show the following: The USA has made the largest contribution to the natural hazards literature and has been in the leading position during the period of research; three of the ten most influential institutions are American institutions, and six out of ten of the most-cited articles are American articles; furthermore, the USA is the country that has the highest degree of cooperation with other countries; Chinese publications rank in second place, and China is the country with the highest average annual growth rate (22.63%), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is one of the most productive research institutions (2098) but with a low international influence. We also analyze the changes in the research on natural hazards in two time periods as well as the similarities and differences between disaster occurrences and research hotspots. We found that “earthquakes,” “landslides,” and “climate change” are frequently used keywords in natural disaster science. The frequency of the keywords “climate change,” “vulnerability,” and “adaptability” has significantly increased. In addition, the frequency of the keywords used in various countries is significantly affected by the geographical location and there is a discrepancy between the research hotspots and the actual disaster occurrences. It is recommended that countries need to adjust their research directions in natural hazards research, strengthen international cooperation and exchange, and promote the establishment and improvement of a global disaster prevention and reduction system.

Aim: Search for a new class of potential antidiabetic agents. Methodology: A series of novel peptidomimetics bearing the p-aminobenzoic acid moiety (TM3–TM6) were designed and synthesized. For all synthetic target molecules, the peroxisome proliferator response element (PPRE) activated activities have been evaluated and the toxicity were computed. Results & discussion: 46 new p-aminobenzoic acid derivatives have been characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). The results of in vitro PPRE-activated activity, molecular docking study and toxicity prediction revealed that these compounds had potential antidiabetic activities and low toxicity. In particular compound 3b had up to 87% PPRE-activated activity compared with pioglitazone. This discovery may provide new insights for finding novel PPRE lead compound.

The housefly larvae (Musca domestica) vermireactor is capable of highly efficient waste reduction for swine manure management; however, effectiveness of larvae-vermicompost land utilization and the...

The moisture and the temperature variation of shallow loess during the freeze-thaw process have tremendous influences on the freeze-thaw disease and agricultural development. The present paper, based on the field test of the temperature and water content of the shallow loess in the seasonal frozen region, probes into the variation of the temperature and moisture fields of shallow loess in the freeze-thaw period. Field test shows that the daily variation of surface temperature reaches the maximum with the peak temperature appearing around 14:00, and the time when the peak temperature appears gradually postpones as the depth increases. Moreover, the daily variation of soil temperature decreases with the increase of temperature, and the variation can be ignored given the depth of more than 30 cm. In addition, there is an obvious variation of moisture content in shallow soil under the action of freeze-thaw cycles. In this regard, the coupled calculation model is proposed in this paper to simulate the dynamic variation of temperature and moisture in shallow soil in Bin County located in Western China under natural conditions, compare the calculation value with the measurement value, and further verify the rationality of the numerical calculation method and parameter selection. Furthermore, the variation law of the maximum frozen depth with the air temperature is obtained through the simulation of extreme cold climate conditions.

Microseismic monitoring is an indispensable technique in characterizing the physical processes that are caused by extraction or injection of fluids during the hydraulic fracturing process. Microseismic data, however, are often contaminated with strong random noise and have a low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). The low S/N in most microseismic data severely affects the accuracy and reliability of the source localization and source-mechanism inversion results. We have developed a new denoising framework to enhance the quality of microseismic data. We use the method of adaptive sparse dictionaries to learn the waveform features of the microseismic data by iteratively updating the dictionary atoms and sparse coefficients in an unsupervised way. Unlike most existing dictionary learning applications in the seismic community, we learn the features from 1D microseismic data, thereby to learn 1D features of the waveforms. We develop a sparse dictionary learning framework and then prepare the training patches and implement the algorithm to obtain favorable denoising performance. We use extensive numerical examples and real microseismic data examples to demonstrate the validity of our method. Results show that the features of microseismic waveforms can be learned to distinguish signal patches and noise patches even from a single channel of microseismic data. However, more training data can make the learned features smoother and better at representing useful signal components.

Casing radial deformation during complex fracturing process was seriously for shale gas wells in Sichuan district of China, and the average casing deformation rate in the region is of 50%. The bridge plug, perforating gun and other tools cannot successfully pass with deformed casing. Aiming at the 3-D logging morphology for deformed casing of shale gas wells, the failure modes and mechanisms were analyzed by using elasticity and theoretical mechanics. Many factors were evaluated and integrated to achieve quantitative evaluation model including geology feature, wellbore trajectory, cement property, casing material and hydrofracture process. With the aid of the self-developed unconventional oil and gas well casing simulation test equipment, the casing bearing capacity with shear load were carried out, established the relationship between shear load value and radial deformation, and further constructed the casing failure criterion with shear force. This work can provide technical support for casing design and selection in shale gas wells.

Corrosion leakage became serious due to cyclic sewage injection and continuous increase in water injection pressure. Corrosion behavior for N80 casing was studied during long-term service, using corrosion reaction kettle and weight loss method. The morphology and composition were characterized with laser confocal microscopy (LCM), scan electron microscopy (SEM) and energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS). These results showed that corrosion rate remained constantly at initial stage, and increased gradually, then sharply reached to 0.327mm/a at later stage, accompanying with inflection point under oxygen condition. Meanwhile, corrosion rate decreased significantly from 0.028mm/a to 0.020mm/a under oxygen-free condition. The corrosion of N80 steel was dominated by dissolved oxygen, and accelerated by chloridion. The micro-mechanism was suggested to be the transition of defect structure from crack with micron range to etch pit with millimeter range.

During heavy oil production, the performance of casing varies with temperature in the service environment. The tensile test of N80Q Steel and 80SH Steel were carried out to evaluate the mechanical properties during the service. The results indicated that the grain size of 80SH steel was relatively uniform and the grain boundary was relatively obvious compared with N80Q steel. A qualitative analysis was performance by relating the tensile properties with different temperature. The results showed that the yield strength, the tensile strength and elongation of N80Q and 80SH steels decreased with increasing temperature, but the degree of decline was limited. The observation of the tensile fracture revealed that the characteristics of the radiation zone of N80Q steel were obvious compared with 80SH steel at 20°C.

Viscosity-temperature characteristics of high borosilicate glass were investigated in detail by means of rotor viscometer and dilatometer. The neck-down deformation process of glass tube was simulated by Polyflow software, and the simulation was verified by the secondary drawing of glass perform. The results showed that the high temperature viscosity of borosilicate glass is higher compared to that of ordinary optical glass. In the high temperature stage, the fitting curves of VFT, AV, AG and MYEGA models are all in good agreement with the tested curve. However, in the low temperature stage, only viscosity fitted by VFT model is close to the tested value. Based on Navier-Stokes equation, a mathematical model of neck-down deformation of glass tube during secondary drawing is established. It is found that viscosity is the key material intrinsic factor affecting neck-down process of glass tube. The distribution of inner and outer diameters of glass tube along the drawing direction is simulated and analyzed under different feeding and drawing rates. The deviation between the steady-state dimension simulated and that actually drawn is only ±0.06 mm.

This study investigated the distribution and transformation behaviors of heavy metals (HMs) and phosphorus (P) during hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of sewage sludge. In addition to a large reduction in sludge volume, HTC significantly decreased the exchangeable fraction of HMs (Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, and Mn) and increased their residual fraction, which resulted in immobilization of HMs accumulated in hydrochar. The ecological toxicity of HMs was greatly reduced, and all HMs exhibited their lowest risk levels after HTC at 220 °C for 1 h in 2% H2SO4 solution. Most of the P (~ 97%) in the input sludge remained in the hydrochar after HTC. HTC facilitated transformation of organic P to inorganic P and promoted conversion of apatite P to non-apatite inorganic P under acidic conditions. The feasibility of recovering P from sludge by HTC was verified by an acid extraction experiment utilizing hydrochar, which recovered more than 90% P.

In the present work, oxidation behavior of NiCrAl alloys with La additive and La and Y additives have been investigated at 900, 1000, and 1100°C. Oxidation kinetics has been studied using thermogravimetric analysis. The phase constitutions of the surface were determined by X-ray diffraction. Scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy has been used to observe the microstructural evolution and compositions. Mechanism for the effect of multi rare-earth additives to NiCrAl alloys has been proposed.

Significance Multielement nanomaterials hold great promise for various applications due to their widely tunable surface chemistry, yet it remains challenging to efficiently study this multidimensional space. Conventional approaches are typically slow and depend on serendipity, while a robust and general synthesis is still lacking among increasingly complex compositions. We report a high-throughput technique for combinatorial compositional design (formulation in solution phases) and rapid synthesis (within seconds) of ultrafine multimetallic nanoclusters with a homogeneous alloy structure. We synthesized and screened the PtPdRhRuIrFeCoNi compositional space using scanning droplet cell electrochemistry, with two promising catalysts quickly identified and further verified in a rotating disk setup. The reported high-throughput approach establishes a facile and reliable pipeline to significantly accelerate material discovery in multimetallic nanomaterials., Multimetallic nanoclusters (MMNCs) offer unique and tailorable surface chemistries that hold great potential for numerous catalytic applications. The efficient exploration of this vast chemical space necessitates an accelerated discovery pipeline that supersedes traditional “trial-and-error” experimentation while guaranteeing uniform microstructures despite compositional complexity. Herein, we report the high-throughput synthesis of an extensive series of ultrafine and homogeneous alloy MMNCs, achieved by 1) a flexible compositional design by formulation in the precursor solution phase and 2) the ultrafast synthesis of alloy MMNCs using thermal shock heating (i.e., ∼1,650 K, ∼500 ms). This approach is remarkably facile and easily accessible compared to conventional vapor-phase deposition, and the particle size and structural uniformity enable comparative studies across compositionally different MMNCs. Rapid electrochemical screening is demonstrated by using a scanning droplet cell, enabling us to discover two promising electrocatalysts, which we subsequently validated using a rotating disk setup. This demonstrated high-throughput material discovery pipeline presents a paradigm for facile and accelerated exploration of MMNCs for a broad range of applications.

Drought stress is the primary factor limiting the growth and fruit quality of grapevines worldwide. However, the biological function of the NAC [No apical meristem (NAM), Arabidopsis transcription activation factor (ATAF), Cup-shaped cotyledon (CUC)] transcription factor (TF) in grapevine is not clear. In this study, we reported that VvNAC17, a novel NAC transcription factor, was expressed in various tissues following drought, high temperature (45 °C), freezing (4 °C), salicylic acid (SA), and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments in grapevine. The VvNAC17 protein was localized in the nucleus of Arabidopsis thaliana protoplasts and demonstrated transcriptional activation activities at its C-terminus in yeast. The VvNAC17 gene was overexpressed in Arabidopsis thaliana. Under mannitol and salt stress, the germination rates of the VvNAC17-overexpression lines were higher than those of the wild-type plants, as were the root lengths. The VvNAC17-overexpression lines showed greater tolerance to freezing stress along with a higher survival rate. Following ABA treatment, the seed germination rate and the root length of the VvNAC17-overexpression lines were inhibited, and the stomatal opening and stomatal density were reduced. When subjected to drought and dehydration stress, the VvNAC17-overexpression lines showed improved survival and reduced water loss rates in comparison to the wild-type plants. Under drought conditions, the VvNAC17-overexpression lines had lower malondialdehyde and H2O2 contents, but higher peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase activities as well as higher proline content. Moreover, the expression of marker genes, including ABI5, AREB1, COR15A, COR47, P5CS, RD22, and RD29A, was up-regulated in the VvNAC17-overexpression lines when subjected to ABA and drought treatments. The results suggest that in transgenic Arabidopsis over-expression of VvNAC17 enhances resistance to drought while up-regulating the expression of ABA- and stress-related genes.

Metal-free photocatalysts have attracted great attention in hydrogen production under visible light due to their low cost and abundance. Inspired by the structure of chloroplast-granum, here we prepare a new porous nanorod composed of F-doped g-C3N4 ultrathin nanosheet for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The obtained g-C3N4 (FCN-PNRs) show layer-by-layer stacked structure for highly efficient light hasting, exhibit F-doping for highly charge separation efficiency, and display porous structure for exposing a large amount of photocatalytic activity sites. These findings have been studied by various characterizations, such as Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, and Photoluminescence. As a result, the hydrogen production performance for the optimized FCN-PNRs photocatalyst reaches 2600 μmol h−1 g−1 under visible light, which is almost 16 times higher than bulk g-C3N4. This study not only reports a new chloroplast-granum-inspired g-C3N4 photocatalyst, but also provides new views to the fabrication and design of nature-inspired metal-free structures for catalysis applications.

Batteries coupled to photovoltaic (PV) modules have been identified as a viable power source for independent “internet of things” portable electronic devices and to reduce the grid load during peak times. However, the poor matching of these systems can adversely affect the power conversion efficiency, safety, and cost due to increased charge control strategies and supporting load management equipment. In this work, we significantly improve the rate performance of the battery electrodes by asphalt-derived carbon coating, and strategically couple high-efficiency n-i-p type perovskite solar cells with either aqueous lithium or sodium (Li/Na)-ion batteries, for the first time, to create a low-cost and high-performance photovoltaic battery system. Both photovoltaic battery systems demonstrate stable cycling performance for at least 30 cycles. We also demonstrate a high energy-conversion and storage efficiency of about 9.3% at a high discharge rate of 2 C and show that this is significantly superior than previously integrated photovoltaic battery systems. We suggest that the enhanced power and efficient energy transfer between the perovskite solar cells and aqueous Li/Na-ion batteries make this system attractive for a wide range of energy needs.

Different kinds of new synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) have been continuously developed to evade drug monitoring. Segmental hair analysis offers a longer period for retrospective drug detection compared with blood or urine. In this study, matrix-assisted laser-desorption/ionization-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometric imaging (MALDI-FT ICR MSI) was developed for direct identification and imaging of synthetic indole-3-carboxamide cannabinoids in hair samples using the positive ion mode. The target SCs include N-(adamantan-1-yl)-1-pentyl-1H-indole-3-carboxamide (APICA), N-(1-amino-3-methyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl)-1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indole-3-carboxamide (5F-AB-PICA), N-(1-amino-3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl)-1-pentyl-1H-indazole-3-carboxamide (ADB-PINACA) and N-(1-amino -3,3-dimethyl-1-oxobutan-2-yl)-1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1H-indole-3-carboxamide (5F-ADBICA). The MALDI-MS and MS/MS were first performed on the scraped hair soaked in a mixture of the four SCs after matrix sublimation. This method may provide a detection power for SCs to the 0.1 ng level per 2 cm hair. Target cannabinoids were identified by MS1 and MS2. Matrix deposition methods including airbrush sprayer and sublimation were compared. The method was then applied in revealing the spatial distribution of APICA and 5F-ADBICA in real hair samples from two drug abusers by comparing MS1 and MS2 spectra. The metabolites of APICA and 5F-ADBICA were also presumed to be present in the positive hair samples. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison between a MALDI-FT ICR MS and a MALDI time-of-flight–MS instrument was performed in detection-sensitivity and specificity for positive real samples. The proposed method provides a powerful tool for drug supervision and forensic medicine analysis in a wide time window, and the sample amount required was also decreased.

Particulate matter (PM) has been proved to be a risk factor for the development of circulatory system diseases (CSDs) around the world. In this study, we collected daily air pollutants, emergency room (ER) visits for CSDs, and meteorological data from 2009 to 2012 in Beijing, China. After controlling for the long-term trend and eliminating the influence of confounding factors, the generalized additive model (GAM) was used to evaluate the short-term effects of PM10 on CSDs and cause-specific diseases. The results showed that for every 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10, the largest effect estimates in ER visits of total CSDs, arrhythmia, cerebrovascular diseases, high blood pressure, ischemic heart disease and other related diseases were 0.14% (95% CI: 0.06–0.23%), 0.37% (95% CI: − 0.23 to 0.97%), 0.20% (95% CI: 0.00–0.40%), 0.15% (95% CI: 0.02–0.27%), 0.18% (95% CI: 0.02–0.35%) and 0.35% (95% CI: − 0.04 to 0.79%), respectively. When NO2 or SO2 was added into the model, the effect estimates of PM10 were mostly attenuated, while in those models with PM2.5 added, the effect estimates of PM10 were mostly increased. Stratified analysis indicated that PM10 had a greater effect on males and the elderly.

Collapsible soils have been regarded to be a significant engineering concern for foundation constructions in northwest China. Given that the collapsible soils, also known as loess, cover most of northwest China, all buildings, structures, and utility pipelines have to deal with the collapse of loess. Despite the many empirically based methods available for evaluation of the collapse of loess, methods to assess the collapse of loess surrounded by piles are, however, rarely seen. This study proposes a simple method for evaluation of the collapse of loess surrounded by piles by taking into account both the collapsible deformation characteristics and friction at the loess–pile interface. The results of an application of the proposed method to three more loess–pile foundation worksites are presented and indicate that the proposed method can predict the settlement of loess–pile foundation satisfactorily.

The upgrade of the laser pump time-resolved X-ray probes, namely time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy (TR-XAS) and X-ray diffraction (TR-XRD), implemented at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, is described. The improvements include a superbunch fill, a high-efficiency fluorescence collection, an efficient spatial overlap protocol and a new data-acquisition scheme. After upgrade, the adequate TR-XAS signal is now obtained in a 0.3 mM solution, compared with a 6 mM solution in our previous report. Furthermore, to extend application in photophysics, the TR-XAS probe is applied on SrCoO2.5 thin film. And for the first time, TR-XAS is combined with TR-XRD to simultaneously detect the kinetic trace of structural changes in thin film.

Proton transfer using amino acids as proton delivery sites is a ubiquitous and important process in organisms. In this study, novel proton-conducting nanofibers were prepared on the basis of a bionic design concept from two perspectives, namely, proton transfer site and proton transfer route, by immobilizing four kinds of amino acids, namely, serine, arginine, lysine, and glycine, onto chitosan (CS) nanofibers. Nanocomposite membranes were then fabricated by filling the pores of the amino acid-functionalized CS nanofiber mats (AA-CSNFs) with sulfonated polysulfone (SPSF). The methanol crossover of the nanocomposite membranes with AA-CSNFs was reduced and their proton conductivity was increased compared with those of pure SPSF membrane. The nanocomposite membrane embedded with the serine-functionalized CS nanofibers exhibited an excellent proton-conducting ability with the highest proton conductivity of 0.192 S/cm at 80 °C. Results indicated that these nanocomposite membranes showed potential for applications in proton exchange membrane fuel cells with superior combined properties.

Lagrangian field data in tidal shallow waters are rare, but valuable for the understanding of the spatiotemporal structure of flow and particle transport. The response of drifters to the wind and water flow in tidal shallow water was examined using correlation, spectral, and coherence analyses. Under moderate wind conditions (0–4 m/s), floating drifter motions in bounded sheltered water are affected by wind through low-frequency induced wind current rather than direct wind drag, when only a small portion of the drifter is unsubmerged. The field validation of both high- and low-resolution drifters with surface measured velocity from a fixed acoustic Doppler current profiler is good in the streamwise direction. The correlation between the drifter and fixed instrument velocities is low in the cross-stream direction due to strong spatial variability of the flow field. The evaluation shows that drifters are applicable to studying the flow dynamics of tidal water bodies in relation to small-scale processes.

2D graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3 N4 ) nanosheets are a promising negative electrode candidate for sodium-ion batteries (NIBs) owing to its easy scalability, low cost, chemical stability, and potentially high rate capability. However, intrinsic g-C3 N4 exhibits poor electronic conductivity, low reversible Na-storage capacity, and insufficient cyclability. DFT calculations suggest that this could be due to a large Na+ ion diffusion barrier in the innate g-C3 N4 nanosheet. A facile one-pot heating of a mixture of low-cost urea and asphalt is strategically applied to yield stacked multilayer C/g-C3 N4 composites with improved Na-storage capacity (about 2 times higher than that of g-C3 N4 , up to 254 mAh g-1 ), rate capability, and cyclability. A C/g-C3 N4 sodium-ion full cell (in which sodium rhodizonate dibasic is used as the positive electrode) demonstrates high Coulombic efficiency (ca. 99.8 %) and a negligible capacity fading over 14 000 cycles at 1 A g-1 .

Driven by the exceptional success of 2,2′-bithiophene-3,3′-dicarboximide imide (BTI) for enabling high-performance polymer semiconductors, herein two BTI analogues 2,2′-bifuran-3,3′-dicarboximide (...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with high porosity and designable functionality make it possible to access the merits of high permeability and selectivity. However, scalable fabrication methods to produce mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) with good flexibility and ultrahigh MOF loading are urgently needed yet largely unmet. Herein, we report a thermally induced phase separation-hot pressing (TIPS-HoP) strategy to roll-to-roll produce 10 distinct MOF-membranes (loadings up to 86 wt%). Ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene interweaving the MOF particles contributes to their mechanical strength. Rejections (99%) of organic dyes with a water flux of 125.7 L m–2 h–1 bar–1 under cross-flow filtration mode. The micron-sized channels between the MOF particles translate into fast water permeation, while the porous MOFs reject solutes through rapid adsorption. This strategy paves ways for developing high-performance membrane adsorbers for crucial separation processes. As a proof-of-concept, the abilities of the membrane adsorbers for separating racemates and proteins have been demonstrated., Mixed matrix membranes have shown great promise for separation applications, but low filler loading typically leads to low selectivity. Here the authors use a thermally induced phase separation-hot-pressing strategy to fabricate 10 distinct metal-organic framework-based membrane adsorbers with up to 86 wt% MOF-loading.

A novel nanomaterial, bismuth oxychloride nanoplates (BiOCl NPs), was first applied in organic solar cells (OSCs) as hole transporting layers (HTLs). It is worth noting that the BiOCl NPs can be facilely synthesized at ∼1/200 of the cost of the commercial PEDOT:PSS and well dissolved in green solvents. Different from the PEDOT:PSS interlayer, the deposition of BiOCl HTL is free of post-treatment at elevated temperature, which reduces device fabrication complexity. To demonstrate the universality of BiOCl in improving photovoltaic performance, OSCs containing various representative active layers were investigated. The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the P3HT:PC

The metalloid-centered covalent organic framework has attracted great interest from both its structure and application. Heavier elements have seldomly been incorporated in the covalent organic frameworks, even if they exhibit special structural features and properties. Herein, we reported the first crystalline germanate covalent organic framework with hexacoordinated germanate linked by an anthracene linker. The existence of counterion lithium ions in the framework provides a high CO2 uptake of 88.5 cm3 g-1 at 273 K and a high CO2 /N2 selectivity of 101. A significantly improved lithium ion conductivity of 0.25 mS cm-1 at room temperature was observed due to the soft germanium center.