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Grain number per panicle (GNP) is a complex trait controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTL), directly determining grain yield in rice. Identifying GNP-associated QTL is desirable for increasing rice yield. A rice chromosome segment substitution line (CSSL), F771, which showed increased panicle length and GNP, was identified in a set of CSSLs derived from a cross between two indica cultivars, R498 (recipient) and WY11327 (donor). Genetic analysis showed that the panicle traits in F771 were semidominant and controlled by multiple QTL. Six QTL were consistently identified by QTL-seq analysis. Among them, the major QTL qPLN10 for panicle length and GNP was localized to a 121-kb interval between markers N802 and N909 on chromosome 10. Based on quantitative real-time PCR and sequence analysis, TAWAWA1 (TAW1), a known regulator of rice inflorescence architecture, was identified as the candidate gene for qPLN10. A near-isogenic line, NIL-TAW1, was developed to evaluate its effects. In comparison with the recurrent parent R498, NIL-TAW1 showed increased panicle length (14.0%), number of secondary branches (20.9%) and GNP (22.0%), and the final grain yield per plant of NIL-TAW1 was increased by 18.6%. Transgenic experiments showed that an appropriate expression level of TAW1 was necessary for panicle development. Haplotype analysis suggested that the favorable F771-type (Hap 13) of TAW1 was introduced from aus accessions and had great potential value in high-yield breeding both in indica and japonica varieties. Our results provide a promising genetic resource for rice grain yield improvement.

Redox non-innocent metal dithiolene or diamine complexes are potential alternative catalysts in hydrogen evolution reaction and have been incorporated into 2D metal–organic frameworks to obtain une...

Based on the first-principles calculations of density functional theory, co-adsorption models of C or CO with Cl2 on rutile TiO2 (100) surface were established. The adsorption structures and electronic properties during chlorination process were predicted. Then, the adsorption energy, charge density, electron density difference and density of state of the adsorption structures were calculated and analyzed. The stabilities of the adsorption structures and the charge distributions between atoms were studied. It was found that both C and CO could promote the adsorption reactions of Cl2 on TiO2 (100) surface, and C was more favorable to the adsorption process. The results show that the adsorption process of Cl2 on TiO2(100) surface was physisorption, and the co-adsorption processes of C or CO with Cl2 on TiO2(100) surface were chemisorptions.

Chirality is essential in nature and often pivotal for biological information transfer, for example, via odor messenger molecules. While the human nose can distinguish the enantiomers of many chiral odors, the technical realization by an artificial sensor or an electronic nose, e‐nose, remains a challenge. Herein, we present an array of six sensors coated with nanoporous metal–organic framework (MOF) films of different homochiral and achiral structures, working as an enantioselective e‐nose. While the achiral‐MOF‐film sensors show identical responses for both isomers of one chiral odor molecule, the responses of the homochiral MOF films differ for different enantiomers. By machine learning algorithms, the combined array data allow the stereoselective identification of all compounds, here tested for five pairs of chiral odor molecules. We foresee the chiral‐MOF‐e‐nose, able to enantioselectively detect and discriminate chiral odors, to be a powerful approach towards advanced odor sensing., An enantioselective electronic nose based on an array of six sensors coated with nanoporous metal–organic framework films of different homochiral and achiral structures is presented. Each chiral film shows a different response for each enantiomer of the chiral odor molecules, allowing their discrimination. All tested odor molecules can be enantioselectively identified with high precision by using the combined data of the sensor array.

Grain filling is a complex agronomic trait that directly determines grain weight and quality in rice (Oryza sativa). Nevertheless, key factors affecting grain filling remain poorly understood. Here, we identified a grain filling gene, OsPK3, encoding a pyruvate kinase (PK). The loss of function of OsPK3 caused reduced PK activity and Suc translocation defects from source to sink in rice, which led to compromised grain filling. OsPK3 was constitutively expressed but had relatively higher expression levels in leaf and developing caryopsis and specific expression signals in tissues involved in Suc transport and unloading, supporting its biological function in regulation of grain filling by affecting Suc translocation. Subcellular localization analysis of OsPK3 revealed its association with mitochondria, and OsPK3 physically interacted and formed heterodimers in vivo with two other PK isozymes, OsPK1 and OsPK4. Both OsPK1 and OsPK4 localized to the mitochondria and cytosol and were recruited to the mitochondria by OsPK3. Despite their high sequence similarity, OsPK1 and OsPK4 had distinct expression patterns. As observed for ospk3, disruption of OsPK1 caused pleiotropic defects, while OsPK4 loss of function led to severely chalky grains without other obvious defects. Collectively, we revealed that two mitochondria-associated pyruvate kinase complexes, OsPK3-OsPK1/OsPK4, are involved in regulation of grain filling by stage-specific fine-tuning of Suc translocation.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is essential for successful nodulation during the symbiosis of rhizobia and legumes. However, the detailed mechanism of the LPS in this process has not yet been clearly elucidated. In this study, the effects of common bean seed exudates on the growth, lipopolysaccharide production, and lipopolysaccharide transport genes expression (lpt) of Rhizobium anhuiense were investigated. Rhizobium anhuiense exposed to exudates showed changes in LPS electrophoretic profiles and content, whereby the LPS band was wider and the LPS content was higher in R. anhuiense treated with seed exudates. Exudates enhanced cell growth of R. anhuiense in a concentration-dependent manner; R. anhuiense exposed to higher doses of the exudate showed faster growth. Seven lpt genes of R. anhuiense were amplified and sequenced. Sequences of six lpt genes, except for lptE, were the same as those found in previously analyzed R. anhuiense strains, while lptE shared low sequence similarity with other strains. Exposure to the exudates strongly stimulated the expression of all lpt genes. Approximately 6.7- (lptG) to 301-fold (lptE) increases in the transcriptional levels were observed after only 15 min of exposure to exudates. These results indicate that seed exudates affect the LPS by making the cell wall structure more conducive to symbiotic nodulation.

To realize the functions of de-icing and self-propelling of droplet, one soft and superhydrophobic microfluidic chip (SMC) equipped with the liquid metal was successfully fabricated in this work. After modification via nanostructures and lower surface free energy cover, the SMC surface shows self-cleaning performance. The surface not only could realize self-propelling of droplet at room temperature but also uni-directional de-icing even −30 °C after melting. The results indicate the driving force is induced by the thermal gradient, which is generated by resistance heating of liquid metal (GaIn24.5). This study is significant for extending the applications of microfluidic chip in low temperature condition.

We herein present a case study on the templated, Pd-catalyzed polymerization reaction of methyl propiolate in the confined pore space of three different surface anchored metal–organic framework (SURMOF) systems in order to introduce electrical conductivity to MOF thin films and provide predictions for potential device integrations. To gain comprehensive insight into the influence of the template on polymerization, we chose Cu(bpdc), Cu$_{2}$(bdc)$_{2}$ (dabco) and HKUST-1 because of their different types of pore channels, 1D, quasi-1D and 3D, and their free pore volumes. Well-defined MOF thin films were prepared using layer-by-layer deposition, which allows for the application of several characterization techniques not applicable for conventional powder MOFs. With SEM, AFM, XRD, MALDI-ToF/MS, ToF-SIMS and QCM, we were able to investigate the behaviour of the polymer formation. For lower dimensional pore channels, we find a depot-like release of monomeric units leading to top-layer formation determined by desorption kinetics, whereas for the 3D channels, quick release of an excess amount of monomers was observed and polymerization proceeds perfectly. Despite polymerization issues, control over the maximum chain lengths and the molecular weight distribution was achieved depending on the dimensionality of the pore systems. For the HKUST-1 system, polymerization was optimized and we were able to measure the electrical conductivity introduced by the conjugated polymer inside the channels

The structures and stereochemistry of spiromyrrhenes A–D (1–4), isolated from Commiphora exudates, were elucidated using NMR and ECD methods. They are the first examples of hepta- and octa-cyclic heterodimers possessing C35 skeletons, for the biosynthesis of which intermolecular [4 + 2] cycloaddition has been proposed. Biological studies show that they suppress tumor stemness in esophageal cancer by inactivating the Hippo/Yap pathway.

Passive and wireless surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonant sensors are extensively used in harsh environments. The response signal is affected by the different characteristics of various wireless environments. Accordingly, the detection threshold constitutes a crucial process in sensor detection. This paper investigates an adaptive environment-aware threshold determination algorithm for SAW resonant sensors based on the characteristics of wireless environments in order to detect sensors as accurately and reliably as possible with maintaining the false alarm rate under controlled limits in the unknown wireless environments. The efficiency of the algorithm is verified by experiments. The results indicate that an improved SAW sensor detection and anti-interference capabilities are achieved.

In this work, a label-free electrochemical biosensor is fabricated for the detection of nereistoxin (NRT)-related insecticides based on NRT binding-triggered conformational switching of DNAzyme and micropipette tip-based miniaturized homogeneous electrochemical device. NRT-related insecticides are first converted into NRT with two sulfhydryl groups in a pretreatment step. Then, the thymine-Hg2+-thymine (T-Hg2+-T) mismatch is used to induce the programmed assembly of DNAzyme subunits into functional catalytic structures, thereby activating the Mg2+-DNAzyme and the subsequent hemin/G-quadruplex DNAzyme, respectively. The electrochemical signals generated by the catalytic activity of hemin/G-quadruplex DNAzyme are recorded using a miniaturized electrochemical device. After introduction of the converted NRT, the catalytic functions of Mg2+-DNAzyme are switched-off by uptaking Hg2+ from Mg2+-DNAzyme to disband its catalytic structure, and block the electrochemical signal generation pathway. With such design, a highly sensitive “signal-off” strategy is proposed for bensultap (BST) detection, with a 6.9 ng/L detection limit and 0.01–2000 μg/L linear range. Our strategy also demonstrates the applicability of BST detection in agricultural products.

Soil salinization is an important threat to wheat growth and production. Previous transcriptome analysis showed that the expression of the betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase (BADH) gene differed significantly between cultivars with strong or weak salinity tolerance. Herein, the BADH gene from the wheat cultivar Dongnongdongmai 1 was cloned and transformed into wild-type Arabidopsis to identify its function in salt tolerance. Root length was calculated at 0, 50, 100, 150, and 200 mmol L−1 NaCl for 7 d. The relative electrolytic leakage (REL), GB content, and BADH activity were measured at 150 mmol L−1 NaCl for 1 and 3 d. It was determined that BADH activity and the GB content of TaBADH-overexpressed transgenic (TaBADHOE) lines were significantly higher than in wild-type lines. Salt stress analysis showed that the root length of TaBADHOE lines 4, 18, and 19 were 0.44, 0.54, and 0.35 cm, respectively, which were significantly longer than the 0.24 cm roots of the wild-type line in the media containing 150 mmol L−1 NaCl for 7 d. In addition, the RELs of transgenic lines 4, 18, and 19 were 0.37, 0.33, and 0.42, respectively, which is significantly lower than the 0.63 of the wild-type line in media containing 150 mmol L−1 NaCl for 3 d. These results demonstrate that TaBADH significantly increased plant salt tolerance, indicating that genetic transformation of TaBADH may be an effective and sustainable breeding method for increasing salt tolerance in wheat cultivars.

Experiments show that high purity titanium (HP-Ti) samples have been successfully processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) using a 120 degree die and a relatively slow ram speed at cryogenic temperature when the HP-Ti rods were trapped with 6061 Al alloy tubes. Optical microscopy (OM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were utilized to investigate the deformed microstructure of the material. Typical microstructures of shear bands and deformation twinning were found in the deformed microstructure of ECAPed HP-Ti. Furthermore, the SAED pattern analysis of the twinning structures revealed that the deformation twinning occurred on {112} planes. Keywords: High purity titanium; ECAP; TEM; Deformation twinning; Cryogenic temperature.

A novel NASICON-type K0.24Na2.76Fe2(PO4)3 (K0.24NFP) is synthesized via a simple solid-state reaction method. K-doped method can enlarge lattice distance and restrain the structure dilapidation from Na3Fe2(PO4)3 to Na5Fe2(PO4)3. Comparison with undoped-Na3Fe2(PO4)3 (NFP) sample (82.1 mAh g−1), K0.24NFP electrode shows a 101.3 mAh g−1 discharge capacity at 10 mA g−1, which up to 97% of theoretical capacity. As for rate capability performance, a high reversible capacity of 73.6 mAh g−1 at 1000 mA g−1. The cycle stability performance measurement results indicate that the discharge capacity of K0.24NFP electrode is up to 93.7 mAh g−1 after 500 cycles at 100 mA g−1. The excellent electrochemical performance is attributed to the improvement of structural stability and the highest intercalation-deintercalation kinetic of sodium-ions (DNa+ = 3.98 × 10−11) due to K-doped. Hence, the K-doped iron-based phosphate (K0.24Na2.76Fe2(PO4)3) should be a potential cathode material in sodium-ions batteries for scale energy storage.

Spotting off-targets from gene editing Unintended genomic modifications limit the potential therapeutic use of gene-editing tools. Available methods to find off-targets generally do not work in vivo or detect single-nucleotide changes. Three papers in this issue report new methods for monitoring gene-editing tools in vivo (see the Perspective by Kempton and Qi). Wienert et al. followed the recruitment of a DNA repair protein to DNA breaks induced by CRISPR-Cas9, enabling unbiased detection of off-target editing in cellular and animal models. Zuo et al. identified off-targets without the interference of natural genetic heterogeneity by injecting base editors into one blastomere of a two-cell mouse embryo and leaving the other genetically identical blastomere unedited. Jin et al. performed whole-genome sequencing on individual, genome-edited rice plants to identify unintended mutations. Cytosine, but not adenine, base editors induced numerous single-nucleotide variants in both mouse and rice. Science , this issue p. 286 , p. 289 , p. 292 ; see also p. 234

A new approach was developed for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of In2O3(ZnO)5 ceramics. Ni coating layer on the surface of In2O3(ZnO)5 powders was prepared by chemical plating. The Ni-Coated In2O3(ZnO)5 powders was densified to composite bulk with Ni enrichment in the grain boundaries. The composite sample obtained a remarkably enhanced dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) of 0.39 at 973 K, which is 3.6 times higher than that of a pristine In2O3(ZnO)5 sample.

A detailed understanding of the composition, buffering capacity, surface charge property, and metals leaching behavior of bauxite residue is the key to improved management, both in reducing the environmental impact and using the material as an industrial by-product for other applications. In this study, physical, chemical, and surface charge properties of bauxite residue derived from a combined process were investigated. Results indicated that the main alkaline solids in bauxite residue were katoite, sodalite, and calcite. These minerals also lead to a higher acid neutralizing capacity of bauxite residue. Acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) to pH 7.0 of this residue is about 0.9 mol H+/kg solid. Meanwhile, the Fe-, Al-, and Si-containing minerals in bauxite residue resulted in an active surface; The isoelectric point (IEP) and point of zero charge (PZC) were 7.88 and 7.65, respectively. This also leads to a fact that most of the metals in bauxite residue were adsorbed by these surface charged solids, which makes the metals not readily move under natural or even moderately acidic conditions. The leaching behavior of metals as a function of pH indicated that the metals in bauxite residue present low release concentrations (pH > 3).

Lonimacranaldes A and B (1 and 2), along with one biogenetically related intermediate, lonimacranalde C (3), were isolated from the flower buds of Lonicera macranthoides. Characterized by an iridoid structure and an additional C-6 unit with an aldehyde group, compounds 1 and 2 are the first examples of hybrid iridoids possessing an unexpected 6/5/6 fused tricyclic ring system, while compound 3 serves as an important precursor for their generation. The structures of lonimacranaldes A–C (1–3) were revealed by extensive spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction analyses. A plausible biogenetic pathway for them was proposed. Compound 3 showed anti-inflammatory activities by inhibiting the production of IL-6 on LPS-induced RAW 264.7 cells with an IC50 value of 6.33 μM.

The organic-inorganic lead halide perovskites are attractive materials for photovoltaic application. The most widely studied perovskites based on methyl ammonium organic cation are less likely to form an ideal high-symmetry configuration at room temperature, leading to the appearance of local lattice strain. Herein, this study reports a strategy for the construction of thermally stable cubic perovskites at room temperature through the incorporation of the larger organic cation dimethyl ammonium. Detailed characterization on the single crystals and thin films reveals the formation of cubic phase with the addition of a certain amount of dimethyl ammonium at room temperature. With the presence of dimethyl ammonium, the nonradiative recombination in perovskite is suppressed, showing a longer PL lifetime and hole diffusion length. The more efficient charge extraction leads to an improvement in the photocurrent density, and then the device efficiency from 17.1% to 18.6%, together with an enhanced thermal stability at 85 °C. The influence of incorporating a larger organic cation on the structural configuration, optical properties, charge extraction, as well as the photovoltaic performance is systematically investigated, which offers an alternative way to improve the intrinsic stability of hybrid perovskites.

Digenite (Cu1.8S) has attracted extensive attention as candidate for use in thermoelectric applications due to its low-cost, low-toxicity characteristics, but the thermoelectric (TE) property is still not good. In this work, PbS was used for improving TE properties of polycrystalline Cu1.8S bulk. Cu1.8S+ x wt% PbS (x = 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 3) bulk samples were fabricated via mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) techniques. The effects of adding PbS on the TE performance of Cu1.8S were investigated in detail at the temperature between 323 K and 773 K. According to the results, introducing PbS is an efficient approach for optimizing the TE properties of Cu1.8S, which is mainly due to the maintained electrical transport properties by the regulated hole carrier concentration and the modified band structure, as well as the reduced the thermal conductivity by the generated point defect and additional interfaces. An optimum thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) value of 1.1 was obtained at 773 K for the Cu1.8S sample with 2 wt% PbS, which is 2.2 times higher than that of the pristine Cu1.8S (0.49 at 773 K).

A leaf-to-caryopsis abscisic acid transport mechanism ensures normal seed development in response to variable temperatures., Long-distance transport of the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) has been studied for ~50 years, yet its mechanistic basis and biological significance remain very poorly understood. Here, we show that leaf-derived ABA controls rice seed development in a temperature-dependent manner and is regulated by defective grain-filling 1 (DG1), a multidrug and toxic compound extrusion transporter that effluxes ABA at nodes and rachilla. Specifically, ABA is biosynthesized in both WT and dg1 leaves, but only WT caryopses accumulate leaf-derived ABA. Our demonstration that leaf-derived ABA activates starch synthesis genes explains the incompletely filled and floury seed phenotypes in dg1. Both the DG1-mediated long-distance ABA transport efficiency and grain-filling phenotypes are temperature sensitive. Moreover, we extended these mechanistic insights to other cereals by observing similar grain-filling defects in a maize DG1 ortholog mutant. Our study demonstrates that rice uses a leaf-to-caryopsis ABA transport–based mechanism to ensure normal seed development in response to variable temperatures.

We demonstrate an efficient scheme to accelerate the self-similar pulse evolution and reduce the intensity noise of a free-running femtosecond fiber amplifier based on the pump wavelength optimization. Experiments and simulations indicate the enhanced tolerances of the pulse self-similar amplification to the seed signal power and pump wavelength fluctuations, with the optimum 915 nm pump wavelength. ∼20% increase in the compressed pulse quality and ∼31% reduction in the amplifier root-mean-square (RMS) relative intensity noise (RIN) (1.5 kHz to 5 MHz) have been observed, even with a more than 4 times higher pump laser diode (LD) RIN than the case of 976 nm. ∼50 fs transform-limited pulses are generated with the ∼0.03% amplifier RMS RIN. The proposed scheme can lower the requirements of low-noise self-similar femtosecond fiber amplifiers on the power stability of the seed oscillator and the thermal control of the pump LD, thus denoting potentials for the various satellite-based high-precision applications of femtosecond laser in space.

LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) is one of the pioneer clustering routing algorithm, the idea of clustering proposed by which provides a good reference for the design of routing algorithm for wireless sensor network. In LEACH algorithm, the selection of cluster head ignores the consideration of node energy, which may lead to the death of cluster head and this will case the failure of data transmitted to sink. Besides, cluster head direct communication with the base station limits the expansion of the network scale. In response to these shortcomings, three strategies to improve the performance of LEACH-based algorithm are discussed in this paper, based on which we propose a low energy consumption high reliable multi-hop routing algorithm LEACH-MB. By improving the selection of cluster heads, introducing a mechanism of backup cluster head and adopting the approach of cluster head multi-hop, the performance of this new algorithm has been significantly improved compared to LEACH. Through the simulation analysis of the algorithm, we can find that this algorithm can prolong the network lifetime and improve the reliability of data transmission, and get a result of throughput increase.

ALK is the key gene of controlling rice gelatinization temperature (GT), and at least three ALK alleles are thought to be responsible for the diversity of GT among rice cultivars. But whether the sequence polymorphism of the promoter region also associated with GT is not clearly studied. In this study, we analyzed sequence variation in the promoter region of ALK and mainly two types of promoter were identified. ALK type I promoter prevails among thousands of indica and japonica rice varieties, while ALK type II promoter predominates over varieties from Aus/boro and Basmati ecotypes. Phenotypic analysis and quality characterization of CSSLs with different alleles of ALK and promoter activity assays revealed that type II promoter downregulates the expression level of ALK and subsequently, negatively affects ASV values. ALKQ1882, owning type II promoter region and TT SNP at 4329/4330 bp of ALK gene, was identified as a rare and elite ALK allele for rice quality improvement. Transcriptional detection in hybrid triploid endosperm revealed that ALK is simultaneously expressed by gene copes from both parents, the ASV of hybrid rice varieties can be estimated through the genotypes of two parents. More importantly, a new dCAPS marker was developed to discriminate the functional SNP of TT at 4329/4330 bp, which is an efficient tool for improving the grain quality with high accuracy on low testing cost.

Metallic glasses (MGs) with superior catalytic performance have recently been recognized as attractive candidates for wastewater treatment. However, further improving their performance will require knowledge of how to precisely regulate their electronic structures via compositional control. Here, two Fe-based MGs (Fe

Summary Nitrogen (N) is one of the key essential macronutrients that affects rice growth and yield. Inorganic N fertilizers are excessively used to boost yield and generate serious collateral environmental pollution. Therefore, improving crop N use efficiency (NUE) is highly desirable and has been a major endeavour in crop improvement. However, only a few regulators have been identified that can be used to improve NUE in rice to date. Here we show that the rice NIN‐like protein 4 (OsNLP4) significantly improves the rice NUE and yield. Field trials consistently showed that loss‐of‐OsNLP4 dramatically reduced yield and NUE compared with wild type under different N regimes. In contrast, the OsNLP4 overexpression lines remarkably increased yield by 30% and NUE by 47% under moderate N level compared with wild type. Transcriptomic analyses revealed that OsNLP4 orchestrates the expression of a majority of known N uptake, assimilation and signalling genes by directly binding to the nitrate‐responsive cis‐element in their promoters to regulate their expression. Moreover, overexpression of OsNLP4 can recover the phenotype of Arabidopsis nlp7 mutant and enhance its biomass. Our results demonstrate that OsNLP4 plays a pivotal role in rice NUE and sheds light on crop NUE improvement.

Lentinan is a Lentinus edodes secondary metabolite that can regulate human immune function, but yields are low. Here, the effects of Ca2+ and Na+ on L. edodes lentinan content were investigated. Metal ion concentrations and induction times were optimized according to mycelial biomass, and intracellular polysaccharide (IPS), extracellular polysaccharide (EPS), and total polysaccharide (TPS) content. The activities and gene expression of phospho-glucose isomerase (PGI), phosphoglucomutase (PGM), and UDP-glcpyrophosphorylase (UGP) were also measured. Ca2+ and Na+ concentration and induction time affected biomass, IPS, and EPS concentrations. Na+ increased EPS, IPS and TPS, while Ca2+ increased biomass, IPS, and TPS. During fermentation, mycelial biomass varied greatly under Ca2+ induction, while IPS, EPS and TPS varied greatly under Na+ induction. PGM and UGP activities increased in the presence of Na+, while PGI increased with Ca2+. Compared to control samples, pgi and pgm expression under Na+ was greater at days 45 and 60, respectively, while under Ca2+, ugp expression was greater at day 45. IPS content correlated significantly with enzyme activity, while EPS correlated with PGM activity. Our data contributes to better understanding how Na+ and Ca2+ affect mycelial growth and secondary metabolite production, and of polysaccharide biosynthesis mechanisms of L. edodes.

The optimization of thermoelectric materials involves the decoupling of the transport of electrons and phonons. In this work, an increased Mg 1 -Mg 2 distance, together with the carrier conduction network protection, has been shown as an effective strategy to increase the weighted mobility ( U = μ m ∗ 3 / 2 ) and hence thermoelectric power factor of Mg 3+ δ Sb 2- y Bi y family near room temperature. Mg 3+ δ Sb 0.5 Bi 1.5 has a high carrier mobility of 247 cm 2 V -1 s -1 and a record power factor of 3470 μ W m -1 K -2 at room temperature. Considering both efficiency and power density, Mg 3+ δ Sb 1.0 Bi 1.0 with a high average ZT of 1.13 and an average power factor of 3184 μ W m -1 K -2 in the temperature range of 50-250°C would be a strong candidate to replace the conventional n-type thermoelectric material Bi 2 Te 2.7 Se 0.3 . The protection of the transport channel through Mg sublattice means alloying on Sb sublattice has little effect on electron while it significantly reduces phonon thermal conductivity, providing us an approach to decouple electron and phonon transport for better thermoelectric materials.

Five new meroterpenoids, zizhines P-S and U (1&minus, 4,7), together with two known meroterpenoids (5 and 6) were isolated from Ganoderma sinensis. Their structures including absolute configurations were assigned by using spectroscopic, computational, and chemical methods. Racemics zizhines P and Q were purified by HPLC on chiral phase. Biological evaluation found that 4, 5 and 6 are cytotoxic toward human cancer cells (A549, BGC-823, Kyse30) with IC50 values in the range of 63.43&ndash, 80.83 &mu, M towards A549, 59.2 &plusmn, 2.73 &mu, M and 64.25 &plusmn, 0.37 &mu, M towards BGC-823, 76.28 &plusmn, 1.93 &mu, M and 85.42 &plusmn, 2.82 &mu, M towards Kyse30.

Three unusual sesquiterpenoid dimers, nardochinoids A–C (1–3), were isolated from Nardostachys chinensis Batal. Compound 1 features a rare fused 3,8-dioxatricyclo[7.2.1.01,6]dodecane-11-one ring system, compound 2 is the first nitrogen-containing nornardosinane–aristolane sesquiterpene conjugate, and compound 3 represents the first example of the dimer of a nornardosinane and a nardosinane sesquiterpene. Their structures were characterized by NMR spectroscopic methods and X-ray single-crystal diffraction analysis. Compound 3 showed significant anti-inflammatory activities.

Belamchinanes A-D (1-4), four triterpenoids with an unprecedented skeleton, were isolated from the seeds of Belamcanda chinensis and fully characterized. The structures of belamchinanes feature a 4/6/6/6/5 polycyclic system in which a four-membered carbocyclic ring bridges the C-1 and C-11 positions of a classical triterpenoid framework. A plausible pathway for the biosynthesis of 1-4 is proposed. Biological studies reveal that 1-4 dose-dependently protect age-related renal fibrosis in vitro .

This paper proposes a general finite element method (FEM)-based wavenumber domain analysis (WDA) to calculate scattering characteristics of surface acoustic wave (SAW) on arbitrary piezoelectric substrates. We add a damping loss mechanism (DLM) to the SAW injection port to avoid interferences from the incident and backscattered modes. After checking the validity of the proposed method, we calculate and study Sezawa mode scattering using a small number of electrodes on the ScAlN/3CSiC structure for demonstration. The frequency dependences of reflection and transmission coefficients and that of the power dissipation ratio for different termination conditions and electrode thicknesses are calculated. Also, the influence of base substrate materials and that of gratings on scattering parameters are explored. Investigation results demonstrate that high reflectivity with suppressed mode conversion can be obtained for the ScAlN-based layer structure if a base substrate with an extremely large velocity is used and if proper grating design is applied.

Two new octanorlanostane-type triterpenes, euphraticanoids A and B (1 and 2), two new trinorsesquiterpenoids, euphraticanoids C and D (3 and 4), and eight known triterpenoids (5, 6, 8&ndash, 13) along with one steroid (7) were isolated from Populus euphratica resins. The structures of these new compounds, including their absolute configurations, were characterized by spectrocsopic, chemical, and computational methods. Biological evaluation revealed that compounds 4, 7&ndash, 9, 12, and 13 display neuroprotective activities in H2O2-induced HT-22 cells with 4, 8, and 9 occurring in a concentration-dependent manner and 7, 12, and 13 reaching the maximum effects at 20 &mu, M. Meanwhile, the neuroprotective properties of all isolates were accessed using glutamate-induced SH-SY5Y cells and disclosed that compounds 3, 4, 8, and 9 could dose-dependently protect neural cell injury in a concentration range of 10&ndash, 40 &mu, M. Finally, a brief structure&ndash, activity relationship was briefly discussed.

As a new application technology of burst control, the explosive logic network (ELN) and its functional realization play critical roles in the areas of weapon system (such as missiles and torpedoes) and aerospace, as well to determine the reliability and safety for initiating explosive devices. This paper investigates the failure models and mechanism of ELN from the perspective of failure analysis and reliability engineering, as well combine the method of performance design and analysis, which are of great significance to carry out its functional reliability evaluation and health status assessment accordingly. Firstly, taking the ELN with two-input-four-output into account, we discuss its failure modes and failure factors based on its structural and functional properties, then establish the fault tree model for qualitative analysis. Secondly, considering some uncertainties inherent in a certain size parameters, we calculate the reliability window of the gap null gate, in term of probabilistic model and quantitative method so as to obtain the reliability of the gap null gate. Meanwhile, referring to estimated accuracy, we introduced the H-Bayes method in the field of ELN system and initiating explosive devices. After that, the environmental monitoring data is applied to health assessment system for ELN. Moreover, when it comes to merging a variety of condition assessment information of ELN’s health level, we adopted the D-S evidential approach in information fusion for initiating explosive devices under shock conditions and electromagnetic interference. As far as the ELN is concerned, we find that: (1) Initiating explosive devices such as ELN are easily affected by environmental factors. The storage state described as storage life should be an important health indicator of ELN, which demands an effective evaluation strategy for the security and reliability considerations. (2) The functional reliability for complex ELN systems should be carried out by integrating multiple performance parameters into the evaluation method. (3) Along with three main indicators, namely, test information index, historical information index and monitoring information index, such information as polymorphism and relationship between quantitative and qualitative information should not be ignored.

In the post-embryonic stage of Arabidopsis thaliana, roots can be initiated from the vascular region of the existing roots or non-root organs; they are designated as lateral roots (LRs) and adventitious roots (ARs), respectively. Some root-like organs can also be initiated from the vasculature. In tissue culture, auxin-induced callus, which is a group of pluripotent root-primordium-like cells, is formed via the rooting pathway. The formation of feeding structures from the vasculature induced by root-knot nematodes also borrows the rooting pathway. In this review, we summarize and discuss recent progress on the role of LATERAL ORGAN BOUNDARIES DOMAIN16 (LBD16; also known as ASYMMETRIC LEAVES2-LIKE18, ASL18), a member of the LBD/ASL gene family encoding plant-specific transcription factors, in roots and root-like organ initiation. Different root and root-like organ initiation processes have distinct priming mechanisms to specify founder cells. All these priming mechanisms converge to activate LBD16 expression in the primed founder cells. The activation of LBD16 expression leads to organ initiation via promotion of cell division and establishment of root-primordium identity. Therefore, LBD16 might play a common and pivotal role in root and root-like organ initiation.

The substituent effect of dithiolene ligand on electrocatalytic activity of Ni bis(dithiolene) towards hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are thoroughly explored with computational methods. A series of differently substituted dithiolene ligands are compared and evaluated. These computational results indicate that adding electron-withdrawing groups on the ligand or enlarging the conjugate Π system of the ligand can greatly reduce the reduction potentials, while tuning the electronic structure of the non-innocent framework can optimize the geometry of dihydrogen species to achieve lower energy barrier for H2 elimination. This study may benefit the deep understanding of the electrocatalyzed HER mechanism and give inspirations on the design of efficient nickel bis(dithiolene) electrocatalysts with low overpotential and improved kinetics.

A Ti-5Cu alloy produced by selective laser melting exhibits a nonuniform Ti2Cu phase structure, which contains a small amount of α′ phase in melt pool boundaries thereby resulting in reduced corrosion resistance. The heat-treatment process proposed in this work eliminates the deleterious effect of α′ phase and the Ti2Cu phase is refined using different cooling rates, which improves the corrosion resistance. The electrochemical results indicate that the heat-treated Ti-5Cu samples have similar corrosion behavior to pure CP-Ti. A slower cooling rate produces a larger spacing between the Ti2Cu phases in the microstructure of the sample, resulting in higher corrosion resistance. The corrosion behavior of SLM-produced Ti-5Cu and heat-treated counterparts with different microstructure are detailed discussed.

The electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity of the Cu1−xIn1−ySe2.05 alloys were investigated, which were synthesized by solid-state reaction method combined with spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. With the increasing of vacancy contents, the electron and phonon scattering were enhanced. The electrical and thermal transport properties of the samples changed accordingly. The Cu0.99InSe2.05 bulk sample achieves the highest ZT value of 0.31 at 773 K due to optimized electrical and thermal transport properties, which is 3 times higher than that of pristine CuInSe2.05. Moreover, it is the highest ZT value in CuInSe2 system in all of previous literatures.

We report the use of 2H-NbS2 film as a novel counter electrode in perovskite solar cells fabricated with a cold isostatic pressing method. The 2H-NbS2 film, which was prepared through an exfoliation method followed by restacking from LixNbS2 powder, shows high electrical conductivity of 8.7 × 103 S cm−1 and work function of 5.20 eV. The two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide was used for the first time as a counter electrode in meso-structured perovskite solar cells. Through this process, we demonstrated a new alternative to noble metals. The perovskite solar cell base on the 2H-NbS2 counter electrode showed an open-circuit voltage of 1.046 V, comparable to that of gold, and a power conversion efficiency of 8.3%.

Although the parts produced by selective laser melting (SLM) are reported to possess comparable or better mechanical properties than the traditionally processed counterparts, the SLM-produced parts demonstrate slightly unfavorable corrosion resistance properties compared with their traditional counterparts. This work shows that, in addition to rapid manufacturing of parts, SLM can effectively refine the grains of eutectic Al-12Si alloy. The SLM-produced Al-12Si shows an ultrafine-grained microstructure and improved corrosion resistance, which provides an innovative and efficient approach to refine the silicon particles in eutectic Al-12Si alloy. Unlike the microstructured Al-12Si alloy manufactured by traditional casting, the SLM-produced Al-12Si alloy contains ultrafine-grained eutectic silicon particles distributing in the aluminum substrate. Importantly, it is found that the SLM-produced Al-12Si alloy possesses superior corrosion resistance than the cast Al-12Si alloy in terms of the results from electrochemical methods and weight loss test. The favorable corrosion resistance of SLM-produced Al-12Si is attributed to these ultrafine silicon particles, which prominently benefits for the formation of the oxide film. The influence of the microstructure with regard to eutectic silicon particles size on the corrosion resistance has also been discussed in depth. Keywords: Selective laser melting, Corrosion resistance, Eutectic Al-12Si alloy, Ultrafine microstructure

Electrochemical measurements and microstructural studies were carried out to investigate the corrosion behaviour of the different planes for the Al-12Si alloy produced by selective laser melting (SLM). The electrochemical results demonstrate that the building direction plane (XZ-plane) of the SLM-produced alloy exhibits better corrosion resistance in comparison with the building plane (XY-plane) in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. The relatively inferior corrosion resistance of the XY-plane is ascribed to that the grown corrosion products extrude the deep and small-bore Si shells on the aluminum substrate, thereby causing the crack of Si shells. Without such a cover of the Si shells, the Cl− would continuously penetrate into the aluminum substrate and ultimately induce occurrence of the severe pitting. As for the XZ-plane, the corrosion products cannot grow and deposit in its shallow and large-bore Si shells, instead of transferring to the testing solution. The undamaged Si shells and formed oxide film constitute a protective layer to protect the aluminum substrate from the attack of Cl−, thereby displaying superior corrosion behaviour for the XZ-plane.

Extensively investigated BiVO4 photoanode for solar water splitting suffers from low product of light absorption and charge separation efficiency (ηabs × ηsep) due to the lack of high surface area supporting materials as a charge collector. Such a host|guest heterostructure is not only effective but also attractive, but it is too complicated to understand the original process of ηsep. Here, a host–guest heterostructure of Nb-doped TiO2 nanowires supporting BiVO4 nanoparticles is fabricated to investigate its visible-light charge injection efficiency (ηinj) and charge collection efficiency (ηcol). With the aid of gradient W doping in BiVO4 guest, the Nb-doped TiO2|gradient W-doped BiVO4 (N:T|g-W:B) produces ηinj = 82% and ηcol = 95% to yield a very high value for ηabs × ηsep of 55.3% at 0.6 VRHE, which is one of the highest values among these nanostructure-host|BiVO4-geust photoanodes. By being further coated with Co–Pi, the photoanode simultaneously achieves a high value of ηtrans for efficient solar wate...

We demonstrate the effective removal of Gordon–Haus (GH) jitter in mode-locked fiber lasers based on the narrow bandpass filtering, verified from large positive dispersion to large negative dispersion. Simulations and experiments indicate that there exists an optimum filtering bandwidth for the near-zero GH jitter along with the constant directly coupled jitter. The corresponding measured root-mean-square timing jitter (10 kHz to 10 MHz) is restrained within 0.6 dB, even though the net dispersion is largely varied by 70% of the intracavity fiber dispersion. The demonstrated effective GH jitter elimination free of the dispersion management gives an easy way for the low-jitter laser design and the related high-precision applications outside the laboratory.

Discovering functional applications of metallic glasses (MGs) as heterogeneous catalysts is a fundamental and essential topic. This work reports the rapid production of sulfate radicals (SO4·−) from peroxymonosulfate (PMS) using Fe73.5Si13.5B9Cu1Nb3 glassy ribbons as catalysts for Eosin Y (EY) dye wastewater treatment. The reaction rates (k) from the experimental data reveal that the EY degradation is well fitted with the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The strong electron transfer ability is characterized by electrochemical methods, presenting an advanced catalytic performance for EY degradation. Various experimental parameters, including dye concentration, catalyst dosage, PMS concentration, light intensity, pH and reaction temperature as well as the saline and natural inorganic effects, are fully investigated. The results show that the color removal of EY dye could achieve nearly 100% within 20 min. The quenching experiments are performed to verify the production of reactive species, suggesting that both ·OH and SO4·− are produced from PMS and play significant roles in EY degradation. This critical study reveals that using Fe73.5Si13.5B9Cu1Nb3 MGs as catalysts exhibits a superior reactivity on PMS activation in wastewater treatment. The discoveries shed lights into the study of electron transfer ability for MGs, presenting extensive prospects in the application of dye wastewater treatment. Keywords: Metallic glass, Heterogeneous catalysis, Peroxymonosulfate, Sulfate radicals, Eosin Y

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that H2 evolution is attributed to active sulfur hydrides derived from MoS2 complexes via two- or three-electron reduction from the synthesized [(PY5Me2)MoS2]2+. Water acts as a bridge for H2 evolution from the intermolecular H+/H- coupling between sulfur hydride complexes and hydrated protons.

The temperature-dependent evolution of heavy-hole valence band contribution to the Seebeck coefficients of SnTe-based thermoelectric materials is revealed in situ by neutron and synchrotron powder diffraction. The additional carriers with high effective mass are created in a heavy-hole valence band above 493 K, which contribute to the electrical transport, and lead to a significant enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient at high temperature. In addition, remarkably improved electrical transport properties are achieved through the synergetic effects of the resonance levels, the valence band convergence, and the carrier concentration optimization by co-doping with Mg & In, Ag & In and Bi & In. Significant reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity is obtained by multiscale phonon scattering over a wide spectrum via atomic point defects, nanoscale elongated screw dislocations with random directions, and the microscale grain boundaries caused by sintering. As a result, a high figure of merit, ZT, of ∼1 at 873 K is obtained for the Mg0.015In0.015Sn0.97Te sample.

Cu-Se compounds have attracted more attentions as a low-cost, low toxicity thermoelectric materials. In this work, p-type Cu 2 Se x compound powders were prepared by solution syntheses, including the wet chemistry method and hydrothermal synthesis method. The reaction mechanisms were investigated, showing that the NaOH contents affected the phase structure of the final product. Polycrystalline Cu 2 Se x bulk materials were obtained by densifying the powders using spark plasma sintering (SPS) and obtained the maximum ZT value of 0.75 at 623 K, which is currently the highest reported value for the Cu-Se system at this temperature. We also found that the introduced oxides could suppress the long-range migration of Cu ions in Cu-Se system to avoid the decomposition of the materials.

This work sheds light on the relationship between the quantities of synthesized core shell Gd 2 O 3 added to epoxy matrix and the mechanical and X-ray attenuation properties of particulate epoxy composite. Then, an optimal geometric design of non-lead based X-ray protective material with light weight per volume unit is prepared. A plateau with 28–30% increments in the value of fracture toughness (K IC ) is observed with a specific addition of 0.08–0.1 volume fraction ( φ S ) of Gd 2 O 3 particles in pure epoxy. The same quantity of particles also optimally raises the critical strain energy release rate and Young’s modulus of epoxy by approximately 22–24% and 18–25% respectively. A 16 mm thick sheet of fabricated filled composite at ( φ S ) of 0.08 and 0.1 can shield greater than 95% and 99% respectively of a primary X-ray beam in the range of 60–120 kVp. At the same X-ray attenuation (99% attenuation), the specimen is 7, 8.5 and 16 times lighter than wood, glass, and concrete, respectively. At 0.5 mm Pb-equivalence, the composite also has 4.5–19.4% less weight per unit area than current commercial non-lead products.