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Garnet‐type solid‐state lithium batteries (SSLBs) possess excellent potential owing to their safety and high energy density. However, fundamental barriers are deficient cycling stability and poor rate capability. The main concern lies in generating voids at the Li|garnet interface during Li stripping, stemming from the sluggish diffusion of Li atoms inside the bulk Li metal. Herein, a composite anode (AN@Li) containing Li–Al alloy, Li3N, and LiNO2 is designed by introducing aluminum nitrate into molten Li. The lower interfacial formation energies exhibited by Li–Al alloy, Li3N, and LiNO2 with garnet solid‐state electrolyte (SSE) enhance the wettability of AN@Li toward SSE. Meanwhile, it affords efficient conductive pathways that facilitate Li+ diffusion in the bulk anode (not just on the surface). Impressively, the resulting symmetric cell with AN@Li electrodes achieves high critical current density (1.95 mA cm−2) and long cycle life (6000 h at 0.3 mA cm−2). The SSLB coupled with LiFePO4 cathode and AN@Li anode enables stable cycling for 200 cycles at a high rate of 1 C with a retention of 96% and exhibiting outstanding rate capability (145.9 mAh g−1 at 2 C). This work provides practical insights for producing high‐performance lithium metal anode for advanced garnet‐type SSLBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is one of the reasons for the slow growth of mammalian preimplantation embryos. Peroxisome proliferators-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) functions in the nuclear regulatory factor 2 (Nrf2) antioxidant pathways by binding to the promoters of antioxidant genes and regulates the expression of genes that associate with NADPH oxidase. To understand the role of PPARγ in the development of early embryos and define the mechanism responsible for the arrest in development during the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT), we used an embryo model of oxidative damage by H2O2. We found that H2O2 exposure significantly decreased embryo development, increased the intracellular ROS level, and upregulated the expression levels of the NADPH oxidase genes NOX2, DUOX1, and NOXA1. By contrast, embryo treatment with pioglitazone after H2O2 exposure promote embryo development, significantly decreased the ROS level, downregulates the expression levels of NOX2, DUOX1, and NOXA1, and upregulated the expression levels of PPARγ, Nrf2, and the antioxidant enzyme genes GPx3, GPx4, SOD1, SOD2, and SOD3. In conclusion, pioglitazone can reduce intracellular oxidative stress during in vitro development by promoting the expression of antioxidant genes and suppressing the expression of NADPH oxidant genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To fully comprehend the aggregation process of TiO2 nanoparticles in aqueous suspensions, one must quantitatively characterize the size distribution and the number of aggregates during the aggregation process. A Brownian dynamics approach was applied to simulate the aggregation of TiO2 nanoparticles in aqueous suspension. The well-known Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory was utilized to describe the particle–particle interaction. The effect of particle size (10, 20, and 30 nm), pH (5.5, 7.0, and 9.0), and ionic strength (0.001, 0.01, and 0.1 M) on aggregation process was characterized using the number of aggregates, single TiO2 nanoparticles, and size distribution of aggregates. Results indicated that aggregate size and degree of aggregation decreased with increase of pH, and increased with the increase of ionic strength. In comparison with pH and ionic strength, primary particle size probably played a critical role in the aggregation of the TiO2 nanoparticles in aqueous suspension. The proportion of large aggregates that included more than 30 single TiO2 nanoparticles in the 10 nm TiO2 nanoparticles model system was 30.6%. Brownian dynamic simulation of the aggregation process of TiO2 nanoparticle under different conditions is beneficial to adequately understand the fate of nanoparticles in environmental systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aimed to explore the dynamic properties and mechanisms between natural organic matter and engineered nanomaterials (NOM–ENMs) interactions in aqueous solutions with the existence of monovalent and divalent cations. Due to the limitation of experimental method characterizing the interactions at the atomic level, the molecular dynamics simulation method was used in the study. Comparative interaction processes between NOM and TiO2 nanoparticles in the aqueous solutions with or without Ca2+ and Na+ ions were simulated. Results showed that the Temple-Northeastern-Birmingham (TNB) encircled the TiO2 nanoparticles and formed a horseshoe-style binding by two hydrogen bonds in the absence of cations. However, in the presence of cations, strong attraction between the mediating divalent cations and the negatively charged COO− groups induced the OCOO− atoms to move away from the surface, which resulted in a hinge-style binding. The less TNB fragment encircling the nTiO2 might decrease the steric and electrostatic repulsion between TiO2 nanoparticles coated by humic acid. That is, the Ca2+ might destabilize the TiO2 nanoparticles in the presence of NOM. The mediating effect of Na+ cation on NOM–ENMs interaction is insignificant, whereas the adsorbed Na+ on the surface of the nTiO2 might change the surface charge and potentially affect the environmental behavior of the nTiO2. This study facilitates to understand the fate and potential toxicity of ENMs in the aquatic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient two-level spatial uniform grid structure-based high-quality surface reconstruction method with Marching Cubes (MC) for smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) fluids was presented in this paper. Compared with the traditional way that dividing the simulation domain with uniform grid directly, an enhanced narrow-band approach using the parallel cuckoo hashing method was taken to index the coarse-level surface vertices, hence decrease the memory consumption. Moreover, a two-level spatial uniform grid structure was employed with a scheme of arranging the fine surface vertices, which could preserve the spatial locality property to facilitate the coalesced memory access on the GPU. Our algorithm was designed for parallel architectures, based on which a parallel version of the optimized surface reconstruction was performed on the CUDA platform. In the experiment of comparison to traditional approaches, the results indicated that our surface reconstruction method was more efficient at the same level of quality of the reconstructed surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development and industrial applications of nanotechnology, increasing productions of engineered nanomaterials enter the aqueous environments by several routes (i.e. remediation purpose and unintentional release). Due to the potential risk deriving from their higher surface activity and greater transferability, engineered nanoparticles bring a new challenge for the environmental systems and human beings. Under favorable particle–particle interactions, nanoparticles aggregate, form large clusters, and settle out from the environmental solutions. The settling process can reduce the mobility of nanoparticles in environmental systems. In the current study, sedimentation experiments were conducted under different environmental conditions to investigate the settling process of nanoparticles. The results indicated that theA/A0ratios of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles increased with increasing ionic strength. They also increased near the pHpzc(point zero of charge). However, the increasing concentrations of humic acids in aqueous solutions reduced theA/A0ratios even near the pHpzc. The measured zeta potentials revealed that the TiO2nanoparticles became less charged in the range of pHpzcand at higher ionic strength. It was due to the double electric layers of TiO2nanoparticles compressed with increasing in ionic strength and charge screening effect. Therefore, the electrostatic repulsive force between nanoparticles significantly declined, which lead to favorable aggregation. The interaction energies calculated using the DLVO theory under different pH and ionic strength conditions were consistent with the experimental results from the sedimentation experiments. In addition, the steric interactions between humic acid absorbed on the surface of TiO2nanoparticles were responsible for the reduction in theA/A0ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ACE method has been developed for separation and determination on the active anthraquinone components physcion, chrysophanol, aloe-emodin, emodin, and rhein of the Chinese herb Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. The five anthraquinone compounds were separated to baseline with the optimum running buffer (24 mm disodium hydrogen phosphate +30% ( v/v) acetonitrile) and the amounts of the compounds in prepared and crude herb were quantitatively analyzed within 20 min. The effects of buffer pH and organic modifier (acetonitrile) concentration on the separation of the solutes were also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

¨ Hollow NiCoP are fabricated via a facile internal phase transition reaction. ¨ The designed NiCoP can be applied as confined reactor for Li-S battery. ¨ The NiCoP can provide both chemical adsorption and catalytic capabilities. ¨ NiCoP modified separator can effective regulate the electrochemical reaction of Li-S battery. Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery has attracted considerable attention as a promising kind of energy storage device. However, its practical application is always hindered by the "shuttle effect" of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and the sluggish sulfur conversion kinetics. Transition metal phosphides can serve as promising mediates to boost the conversion of LiPSs due to their high catalytic activity for sulfur redox reaction. Unfortunately, how to effectively capture LiPSs and realize high sulfur utilization is still the bottleneck of current research. Considering the solubility and liquidity of LiPSs, herein, a hollow nickel-cobalt bimetal phosphides nanocage, which consists of many interconnected nanosheets on the outer and inside shells, is designed and utilized as an interlayer to realize LiPSs's confined reactor. The unique microstructure endows abundant adsorption and electrocatalytic active sites. The hollow confined reactor enhances the capture rate of LiPSs and implements strong LiPSs immobilization, improves the sulfur utilization and achieves rapid and durable sulfur electrochemistry. This rational design of interlayer may provide a new vision for designing effective LiPSs's confined reactor for high-performance Li-S batteries. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidative stress due to low temperatures during in vitro preservation reduces boar spermatozoa quality. It has been proven that Schisandrin B (Sch-B) can act against oxidative stress in cells. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the treatment with Sch-B could improve the quality of boar sperm during storage at 17 °C. Semen samples were randomly divided into four groups and added to the Beltsville Thawing Solution containing different concentrations of Sch-B (0, 0.1, 0.5, and 1 mg/L) after collection. Each group was then preserved at 17 °C and the sperm motility, membrane integrity, and acrosome integrity were detected to determine the maximum available concentration of Sch-B for sperm. The optimal concentration was set at 0.1 mg/L and was used in subsequent experiments. Sperms treated with 0 and 0.1 mg/L Sch-B were evaluated for lipid peroxidation (MDA) and fertilization ability through in vitro fertilization. Finally, the quality of blastocysts which were formed by 0 and 0.1 mg/L Sch-B-treated sperm was determined. The results showed that compared with the control, the addition of 0.1 mg/L Sch-B improved boar sperm motility, and the addition of 0.1 and 0.5 mg/L Sch-B improved sperm membrane integrity and acrosome integrity. Treatment with 0.1 mg/L Sch-B reduced the level of MDA and increased the cleavage rate, blastocyst rate, and total cell number of blastocysts compared to the rate and number in the control group. However, no significant difference was observed in the ROS levels of blastocysts between the treatment and the control groups. The expression levels of CAT, SOD2, and Bcl-2 in IVF-blastocysts formed using sperm stored for one day at 17 °C were significantly higher than those in the control blastocysts. On day 4 of storage, CAT and Bcl-2 expression were significantly higher in IVF-blastocysts formed from sperm treated with 0.1 mg/L Sch-B than that in the control blastocysts. The ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 was also significantly higher in IVF-blastocysts formed using Sch-B-treated sperm. Our findings demonstrate that treatment with Sch-B can protect boar sperm from oxidative stress during liquid preservation and can increase the fertilization ability of the sperm. • Schisandrin B can significantly improve the quality of boar sperm during long-term storage. • Schisandrin B protects boar sperm stored at 17 °C by against oxidative damage. • Schisandrin B treatment of boar sperm improves fertilization rate and quality of the embryo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Channel head extraction is fundamental to understand the catchment hydrological processes, catchment origin, runoff generation and landscape evolution. A spatially constant threshold value such as upslope area, slope-area, and curvature have been widely used for channel head extraction because of their simplicity and efficiency. However, it is very difficult to determine the threshold values within and between catchments with different topography, soil types, and land cover. In this study, a fuzzy unsupervised machine learning method (e.g., the fuzzy c-means clustering) is introduced to determine the channel head locations to avoid the need for a threshold parameter. The topographic attributes (e.g., upslope area, slope, curvature, and elevation) and slope-area combined attributes (e.g., AS2 and S/ln(A)) are used as input variables. The sensitivity of surface terrain resolution is also analyzed in terms of the proposed method's ability to predict channel heads. Two catchments with field mapped channel heads, namely Indian Creek and Mid Bailey Run in Ohio, are selected for investigation and comparison. The proposed method performs well in terms of locating the channel head. The accuracy of identified channel heads from the proposed method is comparable to published state-of-the-art channel extraction methods. Meanwhile, the proposed method has a low computational burden. Our findings also reveal the comprehensive impact of topographic attributes in locating channel heads. • An unsupervised machine learning method used for channel head extraction is proposed. • The channel heads are extracted based on the characteristic difference of underlying surface. • The channel heads are independently identified within each tributary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hollow NiCo-LDHs nanoflowers are fabricated via a facile MOF-derived route. • M-FC is fabricated using a microbial-derived method. • M-FC provides both electrical conductivity and co-catalyst effects. • M-FC/NiCo-LDHs cathode can effective regulate the electrochemical reaction of Li-CO 2 battery. As a promising method for CO 2 capture and utilization, Li-CO 2 battery is attracting significant attention due to its uniqueness in low-carbon technology and high output energy density. However, the practical application is plagued by the sluggish electrochemical reaction kinetic and difficult decomposition of Li 2 CO 3. Herein, we propose a strategy to realize high capacity, large rate capability and good stability Li-CO 2 battery by inducing the growth of Li 2 CO 3 along the base face of hollow NiCo-LDHs nanoflowers. The unique morphology of the NiCo-LDHs nanoflowers make sure numerous exposed active sites and enough space for the reversible electrochemical reaction in Li-CO 2 battery. Meanwhile, microbial-derived functional carbon (M-FC) is prepared to decorate the petals of the NiCo-LDHs nanoflowers, which can provide both superior electrical conductivity and co-catalyst effects to accelerate the kinetics of the electrochemical reaction. Due to the deliberate design and the synergy effect of the M-FC and NiCo-LDHs nanoflowers, the Li-CO 2 battery using M-FC/NiCo-LDHs cathode exhibits a high discharge capacity (13756.8 mA h g−1), enhanced rate capability (up to 2000 mA g−1) and excellent cyclability (for 60 cycles) under optimized condition. This work opens a promising avenue for the design of high performance catalyst and the recycling utilization of hazardous microbial wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incremental algorithms are among the most popular approaches for Delaunay triangulation, and the point insertion sequence has a substantial impact on the amount of work needed to construct Delaunay triangulations in incremental algorithm triangulation. In this paper, 2D adaptive Hilbert curve insertion, including the method of dividing 3D multi-grids and adjusting the 3D adaptive Hilbert curve to avoid the "jump" phenomenon, is extended to 3D Delaunay triangulation. In addition, on the basis of adaptive Hilbert curve insertion, we continue to optimize the addition of control points by selecting control points in every order and every grid level. As a result, the number of conflicting elongated tetrahedra that have to be created and deleted multiple times and the number of search steps for positioning inserted points can both be reduced. Lastly, a new comparison method is used in the point location process to solve the precision problem in 3D Delaunay triangulation. As shown by detailed experiments and analysis, compared with previous adaptive Hilbert curve insertion, CGAL, regular grid insertion, multi-grid insertion and random insertion, the proposed 3D Delaunay triangulation is the most efficient for both artificial and real surface sampling point sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flash floods occur frequently and distribute widely in mountainous areas because of complex geographic and geomorphic conditions and various climate types. Effective flash flood forecasting with useful lead times remains a challenge due to its high burstiness and short response time. Recently, machine learning has led to substantial changes across many areas of study. In hydrology, the advent of novel machine learning methods has started to encourage novel applications or substantially improve old ones. This study aims to establish a discharge forecasting model based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks for flash flood forecasting in mountainous catchments. The proposed LSTM flood forecasting (LSTM-FF) model is composed of T multivariate single-step LSTM networks and takes spatial and temporal dynamics information of observed and forecast rainfall and early discharge as inputs. The case study in Anhe revealed that the proposed models can effectively predict flash floods, especially the qualified rates (the ratio of the number of qualified events to the total number of flood events) of large flood events are above 94.7% at 1–5 h lead time and range from 84.2% to 89.5% at 6–10 h lead-time. For the large flood simulation, the small flood events can help the LSTM-FF model to explore a better rainfall-runoff relationship. The impact analysis of weights in the LSTM network structures shows that the discharge input plays a more obvious role in the 1-h LSTM network and the effect decreases with the lead-time. Meanwhile, in the adjacent lead-time, the LSTM networks explored a similar relationship between input and output. The study provides a new approach for flash flood forecasting and the highly accurate forecast contributes to prepare for and mitigate disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air valve failure can cause air accumulation and result in a loss of carrying capacity, pipe vibration and even in some situations a catastrophic failure of water transmission pipelines. Air is most likely to accumulate in downward sloping pipes, leading to flow regime transition in these pipes. The flow regime identification can be used for fault diagnosis of air valves, but has received little attention in previous research. This paper develops a flow regime identification method that is based on support vector machines (SVMs) to evaluate the operational state of air valves in freshwater/potable pipelines using pressure signals. The laboratory experiments are set up to collect pressure data with respect to the four common flow regimes: bubbly flow, plug flow, blow-back flow and stratified flow. Two SVMs are constructed to identify bubbly and plug flows and validated based on the collected pressure data. The results demonstrate that pressure signals can be used for identifying flow regimes that represent the operational state (functioning or malfunctioning) of air valves. Among several signal features, Power Spectral Density and Short-Zero Crossing Rate are found to be the best indictors to classify flow regimes by SVMs. The sampling rate and time of pressure signals have significant influence on the performance of SVM classification. With optimal SVM features and pressure sampling parameters the identification accuracies exceeded 93% in the test cases. The findings of this study show that the SVM flow regime identification is a promising methodology for fault diagnosis of air valve failure in water pipelines. Image 1 • Flow regime identification is able to detect the operational state of air valves. • SVM effectively classifies the different flow regimes. • Best pressure signal feature improves identification accuracy. • Pressure sampling parameters impacts on identification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress induced by agents such as tunicamycin (TM) substantially impedes the developmental progression of porcine embryos. Lignan compounds such as Schisandrin B (Sch-B), may have the potential to mitigate this stress. However, there are few studies on the effects of Sch-B on embryo development. To address this research gap, this study evaluates the protective efficacy of Sch-B against TM-induced ER stress during pivotal stages of porcine embryogenesis. Notably, embryos treated with Sch-B exhibited pronounced resistance to TM-induced developmental arrest, particularly at the 4-cell stage, facilitating progression to the 8-cell stage and subsequent blastocyst formation. It was also observed that Sch-B effectively reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and improved mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Furthermore, Sch-B positively influenced the expression of several stress-related genes. These findings highlight the promising role of Sch-B in improving porcine embryo development and mitigating ER stress. • Schisandrin B promotes porcine embryonic development by mitigating Tunicamycin-induced 4-cell stage arrest and reducing apoptosis levels in blastocysts. • Schisandrin B mitigates the elevation of reactive oxygen species levels in porcine embryos treated with tunicamycin. • Schisandrin B improves mitochondrial membrane potential in porcine embryos treated with tunicamycin. • Schisandrin B positively influences the expression of several stress-related genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Simple and implementable surface reconstruction algorithm from 3D point sets. • The input requires only three-dimensional coordinates of points, without normals or other information. • The algorithm has relatively better reconstruction quality for some uniquely shaped data such as small details, undersampling and nonuniform sampling. • The algorithm has superior reconstruction quality for thin parts. This paper presents a surface reconstruction algorithm that takes an unoriented point cloud as input and produces an interpolating surface in the form of triangulation. Based on region-growing and Delaunay approaches, this algorithm aims to address the difficulties of reconstruction from point data with imperfections. Starting with a seed triangle from the Delaunay tetrahedron result for input points, the surface is gradually formed by adding the linked Delaunay triangle from the current boundaries one by one. During surface growth, the topology errors and the quantity of the holes generated by adding inappropriate triangles can be reduced by changing the triangle selection criteria and adjusting the addition order of the triangles. We evaluated our method using a wide range of datasets, and this method compares well to popular classic and current algorithms with unoriented input points and triangulated surface output. In addition, to achieve results with a small number of holes on the generated surface, a detection and repair approach is proposed to turn the holes of various shapes into smooth surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is widely used to address infertility and enhance reproductive outcomes in livestock. Among various ART techniques, in vitro maturation (IVM) is commonly used to obtain high-quality oocytes but is susceptible to oxidative stress. In traditional Chinese medicine, Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (Bai Zhu) is used to enhance maternal and fetal health. Atractylenolide Ⅲ (AⅢ), a major component of Bai Zhu, has shown both antioxidant properties and oxidative stress induction, leading to controversy. This study used porcine oocytes as a model to investigate the effects of AⅢ under tunicamycin (TM)-induced oxidative stress. During IVM, oocytes were treated with various concentrations of AⅢ and a constant dose of TM. AⅢ promoted oocyte maturation and cumulus cell expansion, with the optimal concentration being 1 mg/L. AⅢ reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, indicating reduced oxidative damage. Mitochondrial function and membrane potential (MMP) were preserved in AⅢ-treated oocytes. Additionally, AIII could alleviate TM-induced endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, as shown by decreased mRNA expression of ER stress markers. Following parthenogenetic activation (PA), AⅢ-treated oocytes exhibited increased cleavage and blastocyst formation rates with reduced apoptosis compared to the TM group. These findings suggest that AⅢ protects against oxidative stress, improving oocyte quality and developmental potential, with potential applications in ART. • Atractylenolide III protects oocytes from tunicamycin-induced oxidative and ER stress • Atractylenolide III restores mitochondrial function in stressed porcine oocytes • Tunicamycin-induced damage to SOD and CAT activity is reversed by Atractylenolide III • Enhanced oocyte developmental potential following Atractylenolide III treatment • Atractylenolide III improves oocyte quality in assisted reproduction technologies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]