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With the deteriorating environmental pollution by oil spill accidents and industrial sewage emissions, stimuli-responsive superwettable materials have been of considerable interest for its intriguing application in oil-water separation. Herein, we report a facile room temperature method to fabricate mussel-inspired cotton fabric with pH-responsive superwettability, by combining in situ generation of silver particles to construct roughness with self-assembly of long alkyl thiols terminated with methyl and carboxyl groups to endow hydrophobicity and responsiveness. The fabricated pH-responsive cotton fabric showed superhydrophobicity with water contact angle (WCA) up to 153° under acidic and neutral conditions while superhydrophilicity with WCA at 0° under alkaline condition. Importantly, the cotton fabric was successfully applied in bidirectional oil-water separation, exhibiting high separation efficiency and excellent reversibility. Furthermore, the pH-responsive cotton fabric also demonstrated superior self-cleaning property and antibacterial activity to E. coli and S. aureus. Our method to construct pH-responsive cotton fabric is simple, and no special techniques, chemicals or control of atmosphere is required. Our findings conceivably stand out as a new tool to fabricate functional superwettable materials and surfaces with responsiveness to external stimuli for various oil-pollution treatments and other potential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MnO2 is an oxide with many crystalline phases and is often used as a cathode material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. However, its poor electrical conductivity and structural instability limit its further application. In the present work, Mo-doped MnO2 microflowers are successfully prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. Interestingly, it is found that the doping of Mo inhibits the phase transition from δ-MnO2 to α-MnO2, which may be related to the low crystallinity of Mo doped MnO2. Compared with undoped MnO2, Mo-doped MnO2 maintains two-dimensional morphology with a large specific surface area and mesoporous structure. In addition, the electronic conductivity and reversibility of Zn2+ insertion/extraction are improved in Mo doped MnO2. Therefore, Mo-doped MnO2 exhibits high reversible capacity and long cycling stability. For example, a high reversible capacity of 72.6 mA h g−1 can be achieved at a current density of 2000 mA g−1 after 2500 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Taiwanese government launched the Blueprint for Developing Taiwan into a Bilingual Nation by 2030, the Implementation Project of Bilingual Instruction in several domains of primary and junior high school education was promoted by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a dual-objective strategy in which students simultaneously acquire language skills and subject knowledge. CLIL has been widely implemented and proven to be successful in European countries. This strategy will become the primary method of bilingual education for instructors in grades K-12. Other non-European countries, such as Latin America and Indonesia, however, found difficulties applying CLIL in class. The issues need to be identified to encourage researchers and practitioners to find solutions. The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to implementing CLIL from the perspective of K-12 teachers. We surveyed 102 K-12 teachers in Keelung using a questionnaire. The findings indicate that (1) 49.0% of teachers feel concerned if they are required to teach half of their content in English, (2) 64.8% of teachers are willing to improve their English proficiency in their spare time for implementing CLIL in class, and (3) only 36.3% of teachers are willing to adopt CLIL in class, while 50.0% of teachers are willing to implement CLIL if a teaching assistant system supports them with English course materials. Teaching assistant systems that provide English course materials might influence teachers' willingness to implement CLIL in class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: DNA‐based next‐generation sequencing has been widely used in the selection of target therapies for patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). RNA‐based next‐generation sequencing has been proven to be valuable in detecting fusion and exon‐skipping mutations and is recommended by National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for these mutation types. Methods: The authors developed an RNA‐based hybridization panel targeting actionable driver oncogenes in solid tumors. Experimental and bioinformatics pipelines were optimized for the detection of fusions, single‐nucleotide variants (SNVs), and insertion/deletion (indels). In total, 1253 formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded samples from patients with NSCLC were analyzed by DNA and RNA panel sequencing in parallel to assess the performance of the RNA panel in detecting multiple types of mutations. Results: In analytical validation, the RNA panel achieved a limit of detection of 1.45–3.15 copies per nanogram for SNVs and 0.21–6.48 copies per nanogram for fusions. In 1253 formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded NSCLC samples, the RNA panel identified a total of 124 fusion events and 26 MET exon 14‐skipping events, in which 14 fusions and six MET exon 14‐skipping mutations were missed by DNA panel sequencing. By using the DNA panel as the reference, the positive percent agreement and the positive predictive value of the RNA panel were 98.08% and 98.62%, respectively, for detecting targetable SNVs and 98.15% and 99.38%, respectively, for detecting targetable indels. Conclusions: Parallel DNA and RNA sequencing analyses demonstrated the accuracy and robustness of the RNA sequencing panel in detecting multiple types of clinically actionable mutations. The simplified experimental workflow and low sample consumption will make RNA panel sequencing a potentially effective method in clinical testing. RNA panel sequencing was capable of detecting multiple types of clinically actionable mutations with high accuracy. This simplified experimental method was proven in 1253 formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded non–small cell lung cancer samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytopathogenic fungi secrete chitin deacetylase (CDA) to escape the host's immunological defense during infection. Here, we showed that the deacetylation activity of CDA toward chitin is essential for fungal virulence. Five crystal structures of two representative and phylogenetically distant phytopathogenic fungal CDAs, VdPDA1 from Verticillium dahliae and Pst_13661 from Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, were obtained in ligand-free and inhibitor-bound forms. These structures suggested that both CDAs have an identical substrate-binding pocket and an Asp-His-His triad for coordinating a transition metal ion. Based on the structural identities, four compounds with a benzohydroxamic acid (BHA) moiety were obtained as phytopathogenic fungal CDA inhibitors. BHA exhibited high effectiveness in attenuating fungal diseases in wheat, soybean, and cotton. Our findings revealed that phytopathogenic fungal CDAs share common structural features, and provided BHA as a lead compound for the design of CDA inhibitors aimed at attenuating crop fungal diseases. Phytopathogenic fungi secrete chitin deacetylase (CDA) to escape the host's immunological defense during infection. Here, the authors reveal the common structural features of phytopathogenic fungal CDAs, and identify CDA inhibitors that are promising to control plant diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In single patterning, the increase of odd order diffractive power and decrease of even order diffractive power may improve the wafer alignment performance. A Fourier model is given to quantitatively describe the diffractive optical power of grating structures. Four novel alignment mark structures with higher odd order wafer qualities (WQs) have been optimized based on the model. The accuracy of our model has been validated with almost the same results for different alignment marks using our model and rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA). Moreover, three dimensions (3D) of alignment mark should be optimized to get higher WQs for self-aligned double patterning (SADP). Our paper proposes a model to simplify the 3D RCWA algorithm where WQs of SADP grating structures could be split into two different one-direction grating structures. The advantage of the equation makes the evaluation of different grating period of SADP mark fast, accurate and simple. The models and structures of all the designed alignment marks will make it easier for engineers to choose the property alignment mark faced with single patterning or SADP process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a facile approach to designing the robust organic-inorganic hybrid superhydrophilic coating films under UV radiation. It is based on the utilization of ene-terminated hydrophilic oligomer (ETHO) and hierarchically mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs). ETHO was firstly synthesized with dl -dithiothreitol and excess of poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate at room temperature via thiol-ene reaction, and then by spraying the methanol solution containing ETHO, HMSNs, trimethylolpropane triacrylate as crosslinking agent, and Darocur 1173 as photoinitiator on substrate, the thiol-ene/HMSNs hybrid superhydrophilic coating films were fabricated under the exposure of UV light. The structure of ETHO was confirmed by FT-IR, 1 H NMR and 13 C NMR, its molecular weight was 7600 measured by GPC. The wetting behavior of the coating films was found to be largely determined by the mass ratio of HMSNs to ETHO. With the mass ratio at 0.75, the hybrid coating films could achieve superhydrophilic state within 0.24 s, and SEM revealed the existence of double micro-nano structure on the surface, which was significant for the improvement of superhydrophilicity. Importantly, the superhydrophilicity of the coating film could be steadily maintained under the conditions of acid solution, boiling water and abrasion. Additionally, the coating films also exhibited excellent adhesion, flexibility and impact strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancements in radiotherapy (RT) in recent years, several studies have shown that RT can significantly prolong the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). As a noninvasive treatment option, the application of RT for the treatment of HCC is garnering increasing attention. In this retrospective study, we included data from 13,878 patients with HCC from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database between 2000 and 2019 and 325 patients with HCC treated in three tertiary hospitals in China between 2015 and 2021. Patient data were divided into RT and non-RT groups based on whether the patients underwent RT. Propensity score matching analysis was performed to minimize the deviation between the RT and non-RT groups, and the Kaplan–Meier method, Cox proportional hazard model, and nomogram were used to assess the efficacy of undergoing RT. The median overall survival (mOS) of the RT group was significantly longer compared with that of the non-RT group for the SEER data (16 months versus 9 months, p < 0.01). Similarly, the survival benefit was more significant in the RT group than in the non-RT group at our hospitals (34.1 months versus 15.4 months, p < 0.01). Furthermore, multivariate Cox analysis revealed that factors, including tumor (T) stage, patient age, tumor grade, serum AFP level, and chemotherapy, also affected patient survival. Moreover, these factors were also used to construct a nomogram. Subgroup analysis of these factors showed that RT was effective in prolonging patient survival in different populations. RT significantly improves the survival time of patients with inoperable HCC, thereby providing a basis for selecting HCC patients who can benefit from RT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought risk assessment provides a vital basis for drought relief and prevention. We developed a dynamic agricultural drought risk (DADR) assessment model to predict drought trends and their impacts on crop yield in real time. A weather generator was employed to produce daily meteorological scenarios to simulate drought trends stochastically. Then, it was used to drive a crop model for simulating drought-induced yield loss. The yield loss rate was calculated to assess the DADR, whereas the cumulative yield loss rate was calculated to measure the cumulative impacts of drought on yield. The drought that occurred in the Liaoning Province in 2000 was selected as a case study, and the DADR was assessed weekly during the maize growth period. The statistical parameters of historical meteorological data were used to prove the rationality of meteorological scenarios. The crop data from 1996 to 2012 were used for crop model calibration and verification. The results showed that, on July 3, 2000, the majority of the Liaoning Province experienced severe or moderate DADR, which showed an increasing trend from east to west, while the highest DADR (over 35%) was noted in Fuxin and Chaoyang. The drought during the maize growth period in 2000 caused an average cumulative yield loss rate of 62.4%. The drought in the early seeding and milk maturity stages had a negligible impact on maize yield, contrary to that in the jointing to tasseling period. Our study provides insights into the implementation of drought relief measures and the development of drought monitoring systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, many oil-water separation membranes are being developed to purify oily wastewater. However, oily wastewater often contains heavy metal, which are often difficult to dispose during separation. Furthermore, most of the oil-water separation membranes cannot be degraded after scrap, producing pollution to environment. Herein, the polyvinyl alcohol/chitosan@carnauba wax (PCGCW) membrane with heavy metal adsorption and biodegradation performance was acquired by electrospinning and spraying process. The acquired PCGCW membrane had excellent mechanical properties after crosslinking glutaraldehyde (GA). Furthermore, the composite membrane had excellent superhydrophobic property (WCA = 154°) with a rolling angle of 2°, due to the introduction of carnauba wax. Exhilaratingly, for emulsions with surfactant, it had a high separation flux with 19,217 L·m−2·h−1·bar−1 and splendid an oil purity over 99.9 %. Besides, the efficiency of oil purity and separation flux remained stable even after 10 separations. In addition, the PCGCW membrane had the ability to adsorb heavy metals with adsorption capacity of 51–106 mg/g for Cu2+, Fe3+, Co2+ ions. Foremost, the superhydrophobic PCGCW membrane was biodegradable, with degrading 29.76 % within 40 days. The prepared composite membrane had the advantages of low cost, high separation flux, great repeatability, adsorbable heavy metals and degradability, which had a vast application prospect. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Novel cyano-cinnamate derivatives based on MPC inhibitor UK-5099 have been designed and synthesized. • Single-crystal incubation was carried out to confirm the E-configuration of cyano-cinnamate derivatives. • Compound 4i showed better cellular lactate production activity than UK-5099. • Compound 4i also promoted obvious hair growth on mice. Mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) inhibitors promote the development of hair follicle stem cells without affecting normal cells, which is promising for the treatment of hair loss. Herein, a series of cyano-cinnamate derivatives of UK-5099 were designed and synthesized. All these new compounds have been tested for their ability to promote cellular lactate production in vitro. Compound 4i (LA content:0.322 μmol/106cell) showed better cellular lactate production activity than UK-5099 (LA content:0.185 μmol/106cell). Further compound 4i was also tested on shaved mice by topical treatment and promoted obvious hair growth on mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Layout hotspot detection is one of the most important issues for the reliability enhancement of integrated circuits. Machine learning-based hotspot detectors have shown their advantages of efficiency and generalization compared with computationally intensive lithography process simulation. However, most machine learning-based hotspot detectors only accept layout clips of fixed size as input with the potential defect whose location is restricted at the center of each clip. Therefore, they cannot be used directly for multiple hotspots detection in a large area, which occurs frequently in real design cases. In this article, we build a new end-to-end hotspot detector based on a fully convolutional network, which has the flexibility of detecting a various number of hotspots in a layout of any size at one time. Moreover, we also develop a transfer learning scheme matching our proposed detector network, which can reduce the requirement of sample number when setting up a new model for a more advanced technology node. The experimental results demonstrate our proposed hotspot detector outstanding among state-of-the-art works and the transfer learning scheme is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: Retrospective case-control radiographic study.Objective: To identify main effects of preoperative pattern and global coronal malalignment (GCM) on postoperative coronal imbalance in degenerative lumbar scoliosis (DLS) patients and evaluate the rationality of the classification of coronal deformity based on preoperative GCM. A classification of coronal deformity based on preoperative GCM (20 mm set as the threshold of coronal imbalance) has been proposed recently, but whether it is practical is unclear.Methods: One hundred twelve DLS patients treated with posterior instrumented fusion were reviewed. Coronal measurements included GCM and major Cobb angle. Based on relationship between C7 PL and major curve, preoperative patterns were classified into: Pattern 1(concave pattern), C7 PL shifted to the concave side of major curve; Pattern 2(convex pattern), C7 PL shifted to the convex side of major curve. Patients were separated into 4 groups (3 types): Type 0-1: GCM < 20 mm plus Pattern 1; Type 0-2: GCM < 20 mm plus Pattern 2; Type 1: GCM > 20 mm plus Pattern 1; Type 2: GCM > 20 mm plus Pattern 2. After comparison within patterns or among 4 groups, further factorial analysis was performed.Results: Significant differences regarding postoperative GCM or coronal imbalance/balance ratio existed among 4 groups (F = 6.219, p = 0.001; x2 = 22.506, p < 0.001, respectively), despite no significant difference in intra-pattern 1(concave pattern) or intra-pattern 2(convex pattern) groups. Two-way analysis of variance showed preoperative pattern exhibited significant effect on postoperative GCM or imbalance/balance ratio (F(1,108) = 14.286, p < 0.001; F(1,108) = 30.514, p < 0.001, respectively) while neither preoperative GCM alone nor interaction of preoperative GCM with pattern did.Conclusion: In DLS patients, it's the preoperative pattern other than GCM that had main effects on postoperative coronal imbalance. Classification of coronal deformity based on preoperative GCM is questionable.Level Of Evidence:3: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defines the elements of the province-based knowledge competitiveness and analyzes the strategies to enhance the competitiveness. And then, this paper builds a model to verify and measure the effectiveness of enhancement policy for the province-based knowledge competitiveness, with the help of the AHP, Granger causality test, structural equation modeling and other methods. What is more, it takes China's 31 provinces and cities in 2008 as the objects for the knowledge competitiveness empirical analysis. And finally, the findings show that: on one hand, R & D incentives, talents introduction policies and other policies take a positive part in promoting knowledge competitiveness. On the other hand, the promotion effect of R&D input policy, achievements transformation policy, talents development policy, high-tech industry development policy and new product and technology promotion policy is not notable from the statistics perspective, and the validity of these policies should be further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urogenital Chlamydia trachomatis infection is one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted diseases globally. Untreated C. trachomatis infections can ascend to the upper genital tract and establish a series of severe complications. Previous studies using C3−/− and C5−/− mice models demonstrated that C3-independent activation of C5 occurred during C. trachomatis infection. However, the mechanism of how chlamydial infection activates C5 in the absence of C3 has yet to be elucidated. To delineate interactions between C5 and chlamydial infection, cleavage products in a co-incubation system containing purified human C5 and C. trachomatis -HeLa229 cell lysates were analyzed, and a novel cleavage pattern of C5 activation induced by C. trachomatis infection was identified. C5 was cleaved efficiently at the previously unidentified site K970, but was cleaved poorly at site R751. C5b was modified to C5bCt, which later formed C5bCt-9, which had enhanced lytic ability compared with C5b-9. The chlamydial serine protease CPAF contributed to C3-independent C5 activation during C. trachomatis infection. Nafamostat mesylate, a serine protease inhibitor with a good safety profile, had a strong inhibitory effect on C5 activation induced by chlamydial infection. These discoveries reveal the mechanism of C3-independent C5 activation induced by chlamydial infection, and furthermore provide a potential therapeutic target and drug for preventing tubal fibrosis caused by chlamydial infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hotspot detection focused on lithography induced defects becomes crucial at advanced node due to the increasing complexity of the design and manufacture process. Compared with traditional lithography simulation techniques for hotspot detection, machine-learning-based methods have shown significant advantages attributing to the efficiency and generality of their model. However, most convolutional neural network-based hotspot detector can only inference a layout pattern at once. Therefore, sampling clip patterns from the detected layout is the bottleneck of the whole process and determines the performance of hotspot detection. We designed a flow to generate filter rules by clustering analysis of known hotspots, which can efficiently extract layout clips as detected samples to hotspot classifier. We further propose a feature parametric optimization method to extract valuable graphic features for classifiers and reduce redundancy from context patterns. Experimental results demonstrate that these techniques improve the accuracy of hotspots detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]