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Polymer templates are important additives for electrospun ceramic nanofibers and have strong relationship to its properties. In this study, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) were used as templates to prepare mullite nanofibers. The morphology, microstructure and mechanical properties of the nanofibers were investigated and compared. Results show that after 1000 °C calcination, fibers prepared using PVB had a porous structure with surface area of 40.11 m2/g, and were composed of mullite crystals with elastic modulus of ∼27.5 GPa. However, the fibers prepared using PVP had a dense structure with surface area of 8.14 m2/g, and were composed of γ-Al2O3 and mullite crystals with a higher elastic modulus of ∼79.4 GPa. The influence mechanism was confirmed that the different binding states of polymer and aluminasilica precursor were the main reason for the fiber differences. These results give a reference for polymer template categories selection for preparing mullite nanofibers applied in different areas like filtration, catalysis and insulation.

Proprietary product designs create high switching costs, directly hurting consumers, and hurting firms due to intensified competition.

Although mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based regenerative therapy is being developed for the treatment of kidney diseases, cell delivery and engraftment still need to be improved. Cell sheet technology has been developed as a new cell delivery method, to recover cells as a sheet form retaining intrinsic cell adhesion proteins, which promotes its transplantation efficiency to the target tissue. We thus hypothesized that MSC sheets would therapeutically reduce kidney disease with high transplantation efficiency. When the chronic glomerulonephritis was induced by two injections of the anti-Thy 1.1 antibody (OX-7) in rats, the therapeutic efficacy of rat bone marrow stem cell (rBMSC) sheet transplantation was evaluated. The rBMSC-sheets were prepared using the temperature-responsive cell-culture surfaces and transplanted as patches onto the surface of two kidneys of each rat at 24 h after the first injection of OX-7. At 4 weeks, retention of the transplanted MSC-sheets was confirmed, and the animals with MSC-sheets showed significant reductions in proteinuria, glomerular staining for extracellular matrix protein, and renal production of TGFß1, PAI-1, collagen I, and fibronectin. The treatment also ameliorated podocyte and renal tubular injury, as evidenced by a reversal in the reductions of WT-1, podocin, and nephrin and by renal overexpression of KIM-1 and NGAL. Furthermore, the treatment enhanced gene expression of regenerative factors, and IL-10, Bcl-2, and HO-1 mRNA levels, but reduced TSP-1 levels, NF-kB, and NAPDH oxidase production in the kidney. These results strongly support our hypothesis that MSC-sheets facilitated MSC transplantation and function, and effectively retarded progressive renal fibrosis via paracrine actions on anti-cellular inflammation, oxidative stress, and apoptosis and promoted regeneration.

Background Sepsis is a syndrome of physiological, pathological and biochemical abnormalities caused by infection. Although the mortality rate is lower than before, many survivors have persistent infection, which means sepsis calls for new treatment. After infection, inflammatory mediators were largely released into the blood, leading to multiple organ dysfunction. Therefore, anti-infection and anti-inflammation are critical issues in sepsis management. Results Here, we successfully constructed a novel nanometer drug loading system for sepsis management, FZ/MER-AgMOF@Bm. The nanoparticles were modified with LPS-treated 'bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) membrane, and silver metal organic framework (AgMOF) was used as the nanocore for loading FPS-ZM1 and meropenem which was delivery to the infectious microenvironments (IMEs) to exert dual anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects. FZ/MER-AgMOF@Bm effectively alleviated excessive inflammatory response and eliminated bacteria. FZ/MER-AgMOF@Bm also played an anti-inflammatory role by promoting the polarization of macrophages to M2. When sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) challenged mice was treated, FZ/MER-AgMOF@Bm could not only reduce the levels of pro-inflammatory factors and lung injury, but also help to improve hypothermia caused by septic shock and prolong survival time. Conclusions Together, the nanoparticles played a role in combined anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, alleviating cytokine storm and protecting vital organ functions, could be a potential new strategy for sepsis management.

This article compares two essential concepts: one is Schleiermacher’s divination, and another is Kierkegaard’s contemporaneity. These concepts cannot be understood without “religiousness”. The first part of this article presents a preliminary study on the convergence and divergence of Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard on religiousness. While Schleiermacher presupposes what being religious is and describes what it is to be a Christian, Kierkegaard focuses on how to be religious and become a Christian. The second part focuses on Schleiermacher’s theory of hermeneutics. A mysterious and intuitive interpretation, namely the divinatory, reveals its similar construction to Schleiermacher’s religiousness. The last part interprets Schleiermacher through Kierkegaard by opposing contemporaneity to divination. While divination can be regarded as a state in which readers become contemporary with the original author, Kierkegaard regards this approach as a leap in the immediacy that focuses on “whatness” instead of “howness”. Compared to Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard introduces an existential mode of understanding.

To improve the low compactness and limited size of powder metallurgy (P/M) aluminum alloy materials, cold rolling deformation on P/M aluminum alloy was carried out in this work. And the microstructure and mechanical properties of P/M aluminum alloy during cold rolling were investigated from multi-dimensional and multi-scale perspectives. The results indicate that the microstructure gradually evolved from the original equiaxial structure to the fiber structure after cold rolling. Also, the grain size decreased with an increase in cumulative reductions. When the cumulative reduction was increased from 0 to 80%, the relative density and tensile strength of the samples increased from 98.31% to 221.94 MPa to 99.04% and 302.88 MPa, respectively. On this basis, the synergetic effect of microstructure densification and deformation strengthening of the P/M 2024 Al alloy during cold rolling was investigated. The improved mechanical properties mainly resulted from the combined effects of the increased microstructural compactness and deformation strengthening.

Improving the reliability of the solder joint has been the recent research focus in the electronic packaging field due to the increasing degree of integration in the electronic devices. During the reflow soldering process, when the local component is heterogeneous, the coarse structure of the solder joint is easy to grow, which deteriorates the performance of the solder joint. In this study, Au-20Sn/Au/Ni(P)/Kovar joints were prepared using ultrasonic-assisted reflow soldering process. Ultrasonication during reflow improved the wettability and shear strength between the Au-20Sn solder and Kovar substrate. The applied ultrasound can break the primary Au5Sn grain and refine the eutectic microstructure through acoustic cavitation. Meanwhile, ultrasound induced the formation of a new intermetallic compound (IMC) layer that was identified as Ni3P (ca 120 nm), which inhibited the diffusion of Ni from substrate into the solder matrix. The mechanical properties of Au-20Sn/Au/Ni(P)/Kovar joint treated with 80 W ultrasonic vibration (USV) increased by 46.94% as compared to the control sample. The current study provides a new strategy for high-performance packaging in electronic devices in extreme environments.

This paper proposed a novel low-pressure sintering process contraposing to characteristics of pre-alloyed aluminum powders and analyzed its feasibility. The low pressure was set to 0.1 MPa in this study. Meanwhile, 0 MPa and 10 MPa were set as control group. With gas-atomized 2024 aluminum powders as raw material, the microstructure and tensile properties of specimens sintered under three orders of magnitude of pressure (0 MPa, 0.1 MPa and 10 MPa) at two representative temperatures (525 °C and 575 °C) were compared. The results showed that it was difficult for pressureless sintering (0 MPa) to densify pre-alloyed aluminum powders, but low-pressure sintering could. As the liquid phase formed at supersolidus temperature was squeezed out, the loss of alloying elements such as Cu and Mg, which would play an important role in subsequent heat treatment, during low-pressure sintering was apparently less than that of 10 MPa. The density of aluminum sintered under 0.1 MPa at 575 °C was 2.732 g/cm3 and the ultimate tensile strength was 228.16 MPa with ductility of 12 %, which achieved a good balance of plasticity and strength. These findings will bring new insights to the industrialization of aluminum powder metallurgy (APM).

Background Upregulation of an RNA-binding protein HuR has been implicated in glomerular diseases. Herein, we evaluated whether it is involved in renal tubular fibrosis. Methods HuR was firstly examined in human kidney biopsy tissue with tubular disease. Second, its expression and the effect of HuR inhibition with KH3 on tubular injury were further assessed in a mouse model induced by a unilateral renal ischemia/reperfusion (IR). KH3 (50 mg·kg–1) was given daily via intraperitoneal injection from day 3 to 14 after IR. Last, one of HuR-targeted pathways was examined in cultured proximal tubular cells. Results HuR significantly increases at the site of tubular injury both in progressive CKD in patients and in IR-injured kidneys in mice, accompanied by upregulation of HuR targets that are involved in inflammation, profibrotic cytokines, oxidative stress, proliferation, apoptosis, tubular EMT process, matrix remodeling and fibrosis in renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis. KH3 treatment reduces the IR-induced tubular injury and fibrosis, accompanied by the remarkable amelioration in those involved pathways. A panel of mRNA array further revealed that 519 molecules in mouse kidney following IR injury changed their expression and 71.3% of them that are involved in 50 profibrotic pathways, were ameliorated when treated with KH3. In vitro, TGFβ1 induced tubular HuR cytoplasmic translocation and subsequent tubular EMT, which were abrogated by KH3 administration in cultured HK-2 cells. Conclusions These results suggest that excessive upregulation of HuR contributes to renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis by dysregulating genes involved in multiple profibrotic pathways and activating the TGFß1/HuR feedback circuit in tubular cells. Inhibition of HuR may have therapeutic potential for tubular fibrosis.

Plants are affected by changes in light and adaptation mechanisms can affect secondary metabolite synthesis. In this study, the physiological response and regulation of the coumarin biosynthetic pathway of

Background: One goal of the ACDF is to restore the loss of intervertebral disc height (IDH) results from the degenerative process. However, the effect of IDH on postoperative dysphagia after ACDF remain unclear. Methods: 217 consecutive patients after single-level ACDF were enrolled. Based on the results of a one-year telephone follow-up, the patients were divided into dysphagia group and non-dysphagia group. Radiologically, IDH, spinous process distance (SP) of the operated segment and C2-7 angle (C2-7A) were measured preoperatively and postoperatively. The relationship between changes of above radiological parameters and the development of dysphagia was analyzed. Results: 63 cases exhibited postoperative dysphagia. The mean changes in IDH, SP and C2-7A were 2.84 mm, -1.54 mm, and 4.82 degrees, respectively. Change of IDH (P=0.001) and change of C2-7A (P=0.000) showed significant differences between dysphagia and non-dysphagia patients. Increased IDH and increased C2-7A (P=0.037 and 0.003, respectively) significantly and independently influenced the incidence of postoperative dysphagia. When change of IDH ≥ 3 mm, the chance of developing postoperative dysphagia of this patient is significantly greater. No significant relationship was observed between change of spinous process distance (SP) and the incidence of dysphagia. Conclusion: The change of IDH could be regarded as a predictive factor for postoperative dysphagia after single-level ACDF.

The monobasic Sb thin films with different thicknesses were prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The evolutions of Sb thin film from the amorphous state to the crystalline state were studied by in situ resistance–temperature measurement system. The crystallization temperature, electrical resistance, crystallization activation energy, and data retention capacity of Sb thin films increase significantly with the decrease of film thickness. The optical band gap energy increases and the surface become smoother. The analysis of X-ray diffraction indicates that the grain size becomes smaller and the crystallization may be inhibited by decreasing the film thickness. The prototype phase-change memories based on Sb thin films with different thicknesses were fabricated by CMOS technology. The electrical performances of phase-change memory show that the thinner Sb films have the larger threshold switching voltage and smaller RESET operation voltage, which means the better thermal stability and lower power consumption. The outcomes of this work provide the guidance for designing high-density phase-change memory by reducing the size of Sb thin film.

Powder byproduct is inevitably produced during spray-forming of 7055 aluminum alloy, greatly reducing the utilization rate of raw materials and increasing production costs. To make such powder byproduct into valuable products, 7055 alloy was prepared by hot-press sintering of powder byproduct in this work. The characteristics of the powder byproduct were studied comprehensively. The microstructure and properties of the as-sintered 7055 alloy were investigated, and the parameters of the hot-press sintering process were optimized using the Taguchi method. The results indicated that the microstructure of the as-sintered alloy was very compact and the grains typically had equiaxed structure, with the main precipitated phase being MgZn2. The tensile strength of the alloy prepared by hot-press sintering with parameters of sintering temperature of 560°C, holding time of 150 min, and pressure of 12 MPa was 287.29 MPa.

Background Kruppel like factor 10 (KLF10), which is also known as TGF-β Inducible Early Gene-1 (TIEG1), plays a crucial role in regulating cell proliferation, cell apoptosis and inflammatory reaction in human carcinoma cells. Moreover, KLF10 knockout in mice leads to severe defects associated with muscle, skeleton and heart etc. However, the function of KLF10 in intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD) has not been reported yet. Methods The relationship between KLF10 and IVDD were investigated in nucleus pulposus (NP) tissues from human and rats. The role of KLF10 in NP cells was explored via loss or gain of function experiments. IVDD rat models were constructed through needle puncture and the effects of KLF10 in IVDD model of rats were investigated via intradiscal injection of KLF10. Results We first found that KLF10 was lowly expressed in degenerative NP tissues and the level of KLF10 showed negative correlation with the disc grades of IVDD patients. Loss or gain of function experiments demonstrated that KLF10 could inhibit apoptosis and enhance migration and proliferation of IL-1β induced NP cells. And KLF10 overexpression reduced extracellular matrix (ECM) degeneration and enhanced ECM synthesis, whereas knockdown of KLF10 resulted in adverse effects. These positive effects of KLF10 could be reversed by the inhibition of TGF-β signaling pathway. In vivo, KLF10 overexpression alleviated IVDD. Conclusions This is the first study to reveal that KLF10 was dysregulated in IVDD and overexpressed KLF10 could alleviate IVDD by regulating TGF-β signaling pathway both in vitro and in vivo, which were involved in prohibiting apoptosis, promoting proliferation and migration of NP cells. The translational potential of this article: Overexpression of KLF10 might be an effective therapeutic strategy in the treatment of IVDD.

Background Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDGs) are a genetically heterogeneous group of metabolic disorders caused by abnormal protein or lpid glycoproteins. DPM2 is a subunit of a heterotrimeric complex (dolichol-phosphate-mannose synthase, DPMS), a key enzyme in glycosylation, and only four patients with DPM2-CDG have been reported. Methods Whole exome sequencing (WES) was applied to analyze a Chinese family with two daughters with developmental delay, milder intellectual disability, hypotonia and increased serum creatine kinase. In vitro functional study was performed to evaluate the impact of pathogenic genetic mutation . Results A homozygous mutation, c.197G > A (p.G66E) in exon 4 of DPM2 gene (NM_003863) was identified by whole exome sequencing. In vitro functional analysis demonstrated that this variant increased the expression level of DPM2 protein and western blot revealed a significant decrease in ICAM1, a universal biomarker for hypoglycosylation in patients with CDG, suggesting abnormal N-linked glycosylation. We also review the 4 previously reported patients carried homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations of DMP2 gene, and found that mutations within the region encoding the first domain is correlated with more severe clinical symptoms than ones within the second domain, establishing the possible correlation of genotypes and phenotype based on the localization of the variants. Conclusions our study broadens the mutation spectrum of DPM2 genes, expands the genetic and phenotypic relevance of DPM2 variants, and emphasizes the need of further functional studies to understand the underlying pathophysiology of the phenotype heterogeneity.

Smoke removal has been a challenging problem which refers to the process of retrieving clear images from the smoky ones. It has an extensive demand while the performances of existing image desmoking methods have limitations owing to the homogeneous medium based model, hand-crafted features, and insufficient datasets. Unlike the existing desmoking methods using an atmospheric scattering model, the proposed method utilizes a general deblurring model. Inspired by Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), we propose an end-to-end attentive DesmokeGAN which implements the visual attention into the generative network to effectively learn the smoke features and their surroundings. The architecture of critic network is identical to PatchGAN by adding multi-component loss function to the image patch. Due to the scarce of various and quality smoke datasets, a graphics rendering engine is used to synthesize the smoky images. The quantitative and qualitative results show that the designed framework performs better than the recent state-of-the-art desmoking approaches on both synthetic and real images in indoor and outdoor scenes, especially for the thick smoky images.

Two recent clinical trials, using sodium glucose cotransporter (SGLT2) or endothelin-A receptor (ET-A) blocker, reported the first efficacious treatments in 18 years to slow progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). We hypothesized that combined inhibition of SGLT2 and ET-A receptor may confer greater protection against renal injury than either agent alone. Uninephrectomized male db/db mice were randomized to four groups: vehicle, SGLT2 inhibitor (dapagliflozin (dapa), 1 mg/kg/day), ET-A blocker (atrasentan (atra), 5 mg/kg/day), or dual treatment from 10 weeks until 22 weeks of age. At 10 weeks of age, no differences were observed in body weight, blood glucose or urinary albumin excretion among the four groups. At 16 and 22 weeks of age, body weight was lower and blood glucose levels higher in the vehicle and atra groups compared with dapa- and dual-treated groups. No notable differences were observed among the four groups in urinary albumin excretion at weeks 16 and 22. Histological analysis showed mild glomerulosclerosis and tubular injury (

The effect of calcium supplementation on bone mineral accretion in people under 35 years old is inconclusive. To comprehensively summarize the evidence for the effect of calcium supplementation on bone mineral accretion in young populations (≤35 years).This is a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Pubmed, Embase, ProQuest, CENTRAL, WHO Global Index Medicus, Clinical Trials.gov, WHO ICTRP, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang Data databases were systematically searched from database inception to April 25, 2021. Randomized clinical trials assessing the effects of calcium supplementation on bone mineral density (BMD) or bone mineral content (BMC) in people under 35 years old.This systematic review and meta-analysis identified 43 studies involving 7,382 subjects. Moderate certainty of evidence showed that calcium supplementation was associated with the accretion of BMD and BMC, especially on femoral neck (standardized mean difference [SMD] 0.627, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.338-0.915; SMD 0.364, 95% CI 0.134-0.595; respectively) and total body (SMD 0.330, 95% CI 0.163-0.496; SMD 0.149, 95% CI 0.006-0.291), also with a slight improvement effect on lumbar spine BMC (SMD 0.163, 95% CI 0.008-0.317), no effects on total hip BMD and BMC and lumbar spine BMD were observed. Very interestingly, subgroup analyses suggested that the improvement of bone at femoral neck was more pronounced in the peripeak bone mass (PBM) population (20-35 years) than the pre-PBM population (20 years).Our findings provided novel insights and evidence in calcium supplementation, which showed that calcium supplementation significantly improves bone mass, implying that preventive calcium supplementation before or around achieving PBM may be a shift in the window of intervention for osteoporosis.This work was supported by Wenzhou Medical University grant [89219029].Osteoporosis and bone fractures are common problems among older people, particularly older women. These conditions cause disability and reduce quality of life. Progressive loss of bone mineral density is usually the culprit. So far, strategies to prevent bone weakening with age have produced disappointing results. For example, taking calcium supplements in later life only slightly reduces the risk of osteoporosis or fracture. New approaches are needed. Bone mass increases gradually early in life and peaks and plateaus around 20-35 years of age. After that period, bone mass slowly declines. Some scientists suspect that increasing calcium intake during this period of peak bone mass may reduce osteoporosis or fracture risk later in life. A meta-analysis by Liu, Le et al. shows that boosting calcium intake in young adulthood strengthens bones. The researchers analyzed data from 43 randomized controlled trials that enrolled 7,382 participants. About half the studies looked at the effects of taking calcium supplements and the other half analyzed the effects of a high calcium diet. Boosting calcium intake in people younger than age 35 improved bone mineral density throughout the body. It also increased bone mineral density at the femoral neck, where most hip fractures occur. Calcium supplementation produced larger effects in individuals between the ages of 20 and 35 than in people younger than 20. Both high calcium diets and calcium supplements with doses less than 1000 mg/d boosted bone strength. Higher dose calcium supplements did not provide any extra benefits. The analysis suggests people should pay more attention to bone health during early adulthood. Large randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm the long-term benefits of boosting calcium intake during early adulthood. But if the results are validated, taking calcium supplements, or eating more calcium-rich foods between the ages of 20 and 35 may help individuals build healthier bones and prevent fractures and osteoporosis later in life.

This study aimed to translate and validate the Trust in Nurses Scale (TINS) and then test and implement the tool.Trust is the core feature of the nurse-patient relationship, and a simple and universal instrument to measure patients' trust in nurses in China is lacking.Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) were performed to verify structural validity. Content validity and reliability analyses were also conducted.The Cronbach's alpha of the TINS was .817, and the test-retest reliability coefficient was .852. EFA revealed two factors and explained 59.702% of the total variation. CFA proved that all the goodness-of-fit indicators were acceptable.The TINS exhibited satisfactory reliability and validity, and it can be universally applied to survey Chinese patients' trust in nurses.The TINS can be used by nursing managers to assess patients' trust in nurses, and appropriate programmes can be developed to improve patients' trust.

Oxidative stress-induced autophagy dysfunction is involved in the pathogenesis of intervertebral disc degeneration (IVDD). MicroRNAs (miRNAs) not only have been regarded as important regulators of IVDD but also reported to be related to autophagy. This research was aimed to explore the role of miR-130b-3p in IVDD and its regulation on autophagy mechanism. The miR-130b-3p expression in the patient's degenerative nucleus pulposus (NP) samples and rat NP tissues was detected by qRT-PCR and FISH assay. The miR-130b-3p was knocked down or overexpressed in the human NP cells by lentivirus transfection. TBHP was used to induce oxidative stress in the human NP cells. Apoptosis, senescence, and autophagy were evaluated by flow cytometry, β-gal staining, immunofluorescence, electron microscopy, and Western blot in the miR-130b-3p knocked down human NP cells under TBHP treatment. The relationship between the miR-130b-3p and ATG14 or PRKAA1 was confirmed by luciferase assay. The siRNA transfection was used to knock down the ATG14 and PRKAA1 expression, and then the human NP cells functions were further determined. In the in vivo experiment, the IVDD rat model was constructed and an adeno-associated virus (AAV)-miR-130b-3p inhibitor was intradiscally injected. After that, MRI and histological staining were conducted to evaluate the role of miR-130b-3p inhibition in the IVDD rat model. We found that the miR-130b-3p was upregulated in the degenerative NP samples from humans and rats. Interestingly, the inhibition of miR-130b-3p rescued oxidative stress-induced dysfunction of the human NP cells, and miR-130b-3p inhibition upregulated autophagy. Mechanistically, we confirmed that the miR-130b-3p regulated the ATG14 and PRKAA1 directly and the knockdown of the ATG14 or PRKAA1 as well as the treatment of autophagy inhibitor blockaded the autophagic flux and reversed the protective effects of miR-130b-3p inhibition in the TBHP-induced human NP cells. Furthermore, the inhibition of the miR-130b-3p via AAV- miR-130b-3p injection ameliorated the IVDD in a rat model. These data demonstrated that the miR-130b-3p inhibition could upregulate the autophagic flux and alleviate the IVDD via targeting ATG14 and PRKAA1.The translational potential of this article: The suppression of miR-130b-3p may become an effective therapeutic strategy for IVDD.

With the requirement of lead-free soldering technology in electronic industry for manufacturing lead-free electronic devices, Au80Sn20 solder has been developed and applied in high-power devices due to its excellent physical and chemical properties. However, the application of new type of chip in high-power devices leads to the exposure of the Au80Sn20 solder joints to the complex environment of temperature cycle and current switch cycle, which seriously affects the reliability of solder joints in practical applications. In this study, the solder joint structure and simulation platform were designed independently. The failure mechanism of Au80Sn20/AlN substrate solder joint under temperature cycle and current switch cycle was studied by analyzing the changes in morphological characteristics of solder joint and composition in different working times. It was found that the failure process of solder joint involved the generation of steps along the grain boundary and phase boundary, and the failure was caused by the gradual expansion of steps. Owing to the uneven distribution of Cu and Ni in Au5Sn and AuSn phases, the volume difference among different phases was generated, which promoted the formation of phase boundary steps. The grain boundary steps were formed due to the formation of Au3Cu phase at the grain boundary, resulting in the volume difference between grain boundary and grain. Based on the research results, the idea of improving solder joint reliability by adjusting microstructure of Au80Sn20 solder is put forward, which plays a theoretical guiding role in the optimization of targeted performance of Au80Sn20 solder.

In this work, we investigate low-temperature sintering behavior of the 90W-7Ni-3Fe alloy by introducing Sn. The 90W-7Ni-3Fe alloy with different Sn contents (0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 wt.%) was fabricated via vacuum sintering at 1300 °C for 90 min. When 1 wt.% Sn was added, the liquidus temperature of the 90W-7Ni-3Fe alloy decreased from 1477 to 1265 °C, resulting in rapid densification (relative density increased from 77.77 to 98.59%) and an homogeneous liquid-phase sintered microstructure. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations revealed that, apart from W and the γ-(Ni, Fe) phase, a new Ni3Sn2 phase appeared in the matrix phase. Furthermore, we discuss in detail the formation of the Ni3Sn2 phase based on element selection theory, which can be associated with the larger atomic radius of Sn and with the negative enthalpy of mixing Sn and Ni. Excessive Sn content (1.5 wt.%) led to the increase in Ni3Sn2 phase, and this deteriorated the relative density and tensile strength of the alloy. The 90W-7Ni-3Fe alloy with the addition of 1 wt.% Sn exhibited a maximum tensile strength value (710 MPa), which was much higher than that of the 90W-7Ni-3Fe alloy that was obtained at 1300 °C. Our findings shed light on further research directions and developed a 90W-6.3Ni-2.1Fe-1Sn alloy for low-temperature sintering.

Wildland fire is a major natural disaster that causes the environmental hazards and severe negative impacts on the lives. Therefore, early prediction is the key to control such phenomenon and avoid the economic and ecological damage. This paper proposes an improved long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network model with multiply input layers and attention mechanism to increase its performance, which is named as Multi-AM-LSTM. The proposed model is used to predict the wildland fire burned areas, as well as to carry out an analysis of the multilateral interactive relationship among the related variables. The Montesinho Natural Park dataset is introduced to provide the wildland fire and meteorological data between Jan. 2000 and Dec. 2003. And then, the correlation analysis performs to figure out the related variables with the wildland fire and the features of the variables can be extracted by using the convolutional neural network. Next, the improved LSTM model is established to predict the wildland fire and further the attention mechanism is injected into the LSTM model, which can help reduce the loss of historical information and strengthen the impact of important information. Quantitative results show that the designed model outperforms the recent outstanding methods with the highest accuracy over 96%. The results indicate that the model is capable to predict the wildland fire burned areas at a high accuracy in a reasonable computational complexity.

Herein, an 2024-Al/AZ31-Mg laminated composite was prepared by hot-pressing sintering using powder metallurgy integrated forming and sintering. Effects of sintering temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the matrix and interface of Al/Mg laminated composites were investigated. The mechanisms of interface formation and evolution were obtained. The results indicate that with sintering temperature increases from 475°C to 550°C, the densification of the Al/Mg matrix gradually increases. Intermetallic compounds were generated at the interface, and their thickness increased from 56.4 μm to 195.1 μm. In addition, the interface structure was composed of an Al7Cu3Mg6, Al3Mg2 and Al12Mg17 layer. At a sintering temperature of 525°C, the tensile strength and interface shear strength of Al/Mg laminated composites were 37.8 MPa and 31.13 MPa, respectively. The shear fracture occurred between the Al3Mg2 layer and Al12Mg17 layer and was a mixed cleavage and intergranular fracture.

T-2 toxin is a member of a class of mycotoxins produced by a variety of Fusarium species under appropriate temperature and humidity conditions and is a common contaminant in food and feedstuffs of cereal origin. Selenium is an indispensable element in animals, regulates a variety of biological functions of the body, and can antagonize metal and mycotoxin poisoning to a certain extent. However, the effect of selenium on kidney injury induced by T-2 toxin has not been reported. In this study, 50 New Zealand rabbits were divided into 5 groups (the control group, T-2 toxin group, low-dose Se + T-2 toxin group, medium-dose Se + T-2 toxin group, and high-dose Se + T-2 toxin group). Rabbits were examined after oral administration of different doses of selenomethionine (SeMet) for 21 days and after perfusion with 0.4 mg/kg T-2 toxin (or the same dose of olive oil in the control group) for 5 days. We found that T-2 toxin induced kidney function damage and increased the levels of ROS and the contents of inflammatory factors. Renal structure was pathologically damaged. However, we found that after pretreatment with 0.2 mg/kg SeMet, oxidative stress, the inflammatory response, and pathological damage induced by T-2 toxin were attenuated. The results indicate that a low dose (0.2 mg/kg) of SeMet effectively reversed T-2 toxin-induced kidney injury in rabbits.

Experiments have shown that graphene-supported Ni-single atom catalysts (Ni-SACs) provide a promising strategy for the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO, but the nature of the Ni sites (Ni-N2C2, Ni-N3C1, Ni-N4) in Ni-SACs has not been determined experimentally. Here, we apply the recently developed grand canonical potential kinetics (GCP-K) formulation of quantum mechanics to predict the kinetics as a function of applied potential (U) to determine faradic efficiency, turn over frequency, and Tafel slope for CO and H2 production for all three sites. We predict an onset potential (at 10 mA cm−2) Uonset = −0.84 V (vs. RHE) for Ni-N2C2 site and Uonset = −0.92 V for Ni-N3C1 site in agreement with experiments, and Uonset = −1.03 V for Ni-N4. We predict that the highest current is for Ni-N4, leading to 700 mA cm−2 at U = −1.12 V. To help determine the actual sites in the experiments, we predict the XPS binding energy shift and CO vibrational frequency for each site., Single atom catalysts (SACs) are promising in electrocatalysis but challenging to characterize. Here, the authors apply a recently developed quantum mechanical grand canonical potential kinetics method to predict reaction mechanisms and rates for CO2 reduction at different sites of graphene-supported Ni-SACs.

Competitive analysis is a critical part of any business. Product managers, sellers, and marketers spend time and resources scouring through an immense amount of online and offline content, aiming to discover what their competitors are doing in the marketplace to understand what type of threat they pose to their business' financial well-being. Currently, this process is time and labor-intensive, slow and costly. This paper presents Clarity, a data-driven unsupervised system for assessment of products, which is currently in deployment in the large IT company, IBM. Clarity has been running for more than a year and is used by over 1,500 people to perform over 160 competitive analyses involving over 800 products. The system considers multiple factors from a collection of online content: numeric ratings by online users, sentiments of reviews for key product performance dimensions, content volume, and recency of content. The results and explanations of factors leading to the results are visualized in an interactive dashboard that allows users to track their product's performance as well as understand main contributing factors. Its efficacy has been tested in a series of cases across IBM's portfolio which spans software, hardware, and services.

We have investigated the role of surface roughening on the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) over Cu. The activity and product selectivity of Cu surfaces roughened by plasma pretreatment in Ar, O2, or...

The satellite navigation integrity monitoring technology is closely related to the reliability of train positioning. It is of great significance to study satellite navigation Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) algorithm suitable for train positioning. Some existing conventional RAIM algorithms do not consider the influence of satellite navigation signal on algorithms performance. Aiming at the influence of satellite navigation signal on the propagation processes, such as shadow and multipath effects, the fault detection algorithm based on BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) baseband signal is proposed. The innovation parameters contained in the satellite navigation baseband signal are combined into the covariance matrix to set up a new test statistics of RAIM. A new fault detection algorithm based on optimized BDS baseband signal is discussed. And combined with weighted least square method, the noise power balance factor is established to realize satellite fault detection. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the monitoring performance of train satellite positioning integrity, and lay the foundation for meeting the railway industry's security requirements for positioning services.

An end-to-end image dehazing method based on convolution neural network is presented to solve the problem in which Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) high-resolution remote sensing images have reduced image sharpness due to haze. First, the original atmospheric scattering model is adapted to get an end-to-end dehazing model. Then, several unknown parameters are unified into one parameter, and the unknown parameter is estimated by using a multiscale convolution neural network. Finally, the parameter estimates are incorporated into the dehazing model to get a haze-free image. For the no reference image dataset, we first train the network using existing datasets, and then the network is trained using a self-built dataset. In this article, the haze removal effect for different types of unmanned remote sensing images is tested and compared with those of the main dehazing algorithms. The experiments show that the algorithm in this article has different degrees of improvement regarding its visual effect and objective indicators.