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• A fruit counting method based on video of orchard to estimate yield is studied. • Mean average precision of fruit and trunk based on YOLOv4-tiny was 99.35%. • Detected trunk is tracked to obtain reference displacement in consecutive frames. • Matching same fruits by the minimum Euclidean distance to assign them unique ID. • Proposed method can be implemented on CPU at 2–5 fps with accuracy of 91.49%. Accurate count of fruits is important for producers to make adequate decisions in production management. Although some algorithms based on machine vision have been developed to count fruits which were all implemented by tracking fruits themselves, those algorithms often make mismatches or even lose targets during the tracking process due to the large number of highly similar fruits in appearance. This study aims to develop an automated video processing method for improving the counting accuracy of apple fruits in orchard environment with modern vertical fruiting-wall architecture. As the trunk is normally larger than fruits and appears clearly in the video, the trunk is thus selected as a single-object tracking target to reach a higher accuracy and higher speed tracking than the commonly used method of fruit-based multi-object tracking. This method was trained using a YOLOv4-tiny network integrated with a CSR-DCF (channel spatial reliability-discriminative correlation filter) algorithm. Reference displacement between consecutive frames was calculated according to the frame motion trajectory for predicting possible fruit locations in terms of previously detected positions. The minimum Euclidean distance of detected fruit position and the predicted fruit position was calculated to match the same fruits between consecutive video frames. Finally, a unique ID was assigned to each fruit for counting. Results showed that mean average precision of 99.35% for fruit and trunk detection was achieved in this study, which could provide a good basis for fruit accurate counting. A counting accuracy of 91.49% and a correlation coefficient R2 of 0.9875 with counting performed by manual counting were reached in orchard videos. Besides, proposed counting method can be implemented on CPU at 2 ∼ 5 frames per second (fps). These promising results demonstrate the potential of this method to provide yield data for apple fruits or even other types of fruits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A vacuum assisted confinement method is reported for preparing stretchable conductor. • A highly conductive and stretching-insensitive Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene/Ag NWs film is achieved. • A film's self-adaptability leads to its stretching-insensitive and high conductivity. • A WSPS based on Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene/Ag NWs film is designed. • WSPS has an ultralow stretching-sensitivity of 2.3%. Stretchable conductors that enable device to achieve a large deformation and high integration density at a curved surface are considered as a critical element for stretchable electronics. However, developing the conductor with high and stable electrical conductivity under stretching strains remains a challenge. Here, a highly conductive and stretching-insensitive titanium carbide (Ti 3 C 2 T x) MXene/Ag nanowires film is achieved by the design of mechanical structure. Benefited from the structure of regular mesh and automatic relief of concentrated stress, the electrical conductivity of this film is comparable to that of reported noble metal based stretchable conductors and can keep a stable value within the range of 0 ∼ 80% stretching strain. Moreover, a wearable and stretching-insensitive pressure sensor (WSPS) is designed based on this film. The electrical responses of WSPS for the same normal pressure are nearly identical and its sensing properties remain constant for 0 ∼ 60% stretching strain. WSPS has an ultralow stretching-sensitivity of 2.3% at the wide pressure regime of 6.8 ∼ 19.6 KPa, which achieves the accurate pressure perception. WSPS integrated with a microcontroller acts as the wearable monitoring system to assess human health in real time. These results illuminate the paths to design exceptional performance conductors and develop high precision wearable electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urchin-like tungsten oxide hydrate (WO3 ·H2O) hollow spheres were successfully synthesized via a self-sacrifice template method at low temperature. The effects of reaction parameters on the preparation were studied in solution. The growth mechanism was also proposed on the basis of experimental results. In addition, the acid amount and temperature have important effects on size control of the as-obtained samples. The achieved nanoarchitectures have typical diameters of 4-6 μm with nanoflakes of several nanometers at surface. Crystal structure, morphology, and composition of final nanostructures were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Degradation experiments of organic contaminant were also performed on samples of hollow spheres and walnut-like structures under visible-light illumination. Hollow sphere sample exhibited better photocatalytic capability than walnut-like sample. Possible mechanism was studied for WO3 ·H2O assisted photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminant under visible light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuing disparity between male and female mentions in news content, this study seeks to compare how news organizations employ men and women in Twitter feeds and how that connects to portrayals in news stories. In particular, the research examined how mentions of men and women in tweets may influence mentions in news stories that were linked to tweets. The study employed a content analysis of national, regional and local newspaper and television tweets, along with their accompanying news stories to compare media platforms and coverage areas. The results indicated a positive relationship between male and female portrayals in tweets and portrayals in news content. Further, male mentions were more likely to appear in national news stories than in regional or local news stories and more frequently than female mentions in print media than in television. Thus, it appears as if news agencies have not developed new dissemination strategies for employing Twitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adhesive domain of SdrE from Staphylococcus aureus was recombinantly expressed in Escherichia coli. The purified protein was identified by SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF MS. The protein was crystallized using the vapour-diffusion method in hanging-drop mode with PEG 8000 as the primary precipitating agent. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 1.8 Å resolution from a single crystal of the protein. Preliminary X-ray analysis indicated that the crystal belonged to space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a = 40.714, b = 66.355, c = 80.827 Å, α = 111.19, β = 93.99, γ = 104.39°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advances in wearable electronics require the sensor to be stretchable and flexible. However, the sensing properties of sensor vary significantly under lateral stretching strains, which results in inaccurate measurement. Here, a lateral stretching-insensitive and self-powered pressure sensor (SSPS) based on the triboelectric nanogenerator is fabricated through the regular porous networks design of Ag nanowires (Ag NWs) electrode. A stretchable Ag NWs electrode with regular porous networks can keep constant resistance within the range of 0–85% lateral stretching strain. The fabricated SSPS has nearly identical electrical response to the same normal pressure and its sensing properties maintain invariant in the lateral stretching strain range from 0% to 60%. This stretching-insensitive property is mainly derived from constant internal impedance of pressure sensor. Moreover, SSPS with the sensitivity of 0.1 nA/KPa can act as wearable monitors and electronic skin to perform the health assessment and has potential applications in prosthetics and intelligent robotics. [Display omitted] • We establish a new equivalent circuit of SPS and formula of internal impedance. • The invariant internal impedance of SPS is the key to achieve the stretching-insensitive property. • A highly stretchable and conductive Ag NWs electrode with porous networks is designed. • This electrode can keep stable resistance during stretching strain range of 0–80%. • SSPS based on TENG is constructed for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information accessibility guarantees that everyone can enjoy the modern civilization equally through information interaction tools. However, the visually impaired still have significant obstacles in information acquisition and utilization smoothly. Herein, a self-powered and ripple-inspired fingertip interactor (SRFI) based on the triboelectric nanogenerator with auditory feedback is developed to facilitate the visually impaired for information accessibility. Ascribed to the subtle structure design, the SRFI presents excellent scalability and high-volume text information detection capability. The three-channels assembled SRFI is capable of recognizing braille letters, which further assists the visually impaired for information acquisition effectively via auditory channel. Furthermore, through integrating the SRFI with the command delivery module, a smart home centralized control system with auditory feedback is established that enables the visually impaired manipulate scattered appliances at will for information utilization without obstacles. This work not only opens a novel path to assist the visually impaired break through the information barriers in an interactive way, but also presents a new perspective for future robotics and digital world. [Display omitted] • A self-powered and ripple-inspired fingertip interactor based on triboelectric nanogenerator is demonstrated. • The developed three-channel assembled SRFI is capable of recognizing 26 braille letters with signal programming processing. • A smart home centralized control system with auditory feedback is established for visually impaired manipulate appliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In humans, fine textures' tactile perception is mediated by fingertip skin, which is essential for environmental information obtaining and precision manipulation of objects. The keys to replicating the dynamic tactile perception ability in artificial devices are how to accurately map surface textures to electrical signals and reveal physical information. Electronic skins based on triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) have obtained many impressive applications and have great potential in fine texture recognition. Here, we built a fingerprint-inspired electronic skin (FE-skin) based on TENG that can respond to fine textures by the biomimetic design of human fingerprints' morphology. The FE-skin can detect the change of the contact area caused by the dynamic interaction between the fingerprint structure and the tested object surface, and the minimum size of the texture that can be discerned is as low as 6.5 µm. Besides, different textures can be effectively identified by processing the collected electrical signals via artificial neural networks. In the recognition demonstration of disordered and ordered texture, the accuracy rates of over 93.33% and 92.5% were obtained, respectively. This technology demonstrates TENG's potential superiority in the field of bionic tactile perception and has broad application prospects in humanoid robots, intelligent prostheses, and precise human-machine interaction. [Display omitted] • Fingerprint-inspired electronic skin based on single-electrode TENG for fine texture recognition. • Artificial neural networks for classifying the collected signals. • Successful demonstration of the recognition of surface roughness and Braille. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A method to avoid detecting branch/wire occluded kiwifruits as pickable targets. • Fruits were divided as four/five classes by robot picking strategy/field occlusion. • YOLOv3 and YOLOv4 were compared by mAP and detection speed. • Fruits classified into more classes was beneficial to achieving higher mAP. • YOLOv4 in the five-classes achieved the highest mAP and met real-time detection. Deep learning has achieved kiwifruit detection with high accuracy and fast speed. However, all the kiwifruits have been labeled and detected as only one class in most researches for robotic fruit picking, where fruits occluded by branches or wires have been detected as pickable targets. End-effectors or robots may be damaged by the branches or wires when they are forced to pick those fruits. Therefore, kiwifruits are labeled, trained, and detected in multi-classes based on their occlusions to avoid detecting fruits occluded by branches or wires as pickable targets. Fruits are classified into four classes and five classes according to robotic picking strategy and field occlusions, respectively. Well-known YOLOv3 and recently released YOLOv4 are employed to do transfer learning for multi-classes kiwifruit detection. Results show that mAP (mean average precision) of fruits in the five-classes is higher than that in the four-classes, while mAP of YOLOv4 is higher than YOLOv3. The mAP of YOLOv4 and YOLOv3 in the five-classes and four-classes are 91.9%, 91.5%, 91.1%, and 89.5%, respectively. The results demonstrate that fruits labeled and trained in more classes can achieve higher mAP. There are significant differences in average detection speed in YOLOv3 and YOLOv4, but no in the four-classes and five-classes. Overall, the highest mAP of 91.9% was achieved by YOLOv4 in the five-classes, which cost 25.5 ms on average to process a 2352 × 1568 image. The results illustrate that multi-classes kiwifruit detection is helpful for avoiding damage to the end-effectors or robots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noninvasive cardiovascular monitoring via pulse sensor is highly desirable for diagnosis and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. However, long-term and multi-indicators cardiovascular monitoring through pulse sensor is still great challenge in practical application. Here, a self-powered ultrasensitive pulse sensor (SUPS) based on triboelectric nanogenerator is developed for noninvasive multi-indicators cardiovascular monitoring. Owning to the synergistic engineering of materials surface and device structure, the SUPS holds excellent sensing performances including the ultrasensitivity of 10.29 nA/kPa, fast response time of 30 ms, and low detection limit of 5 mg. The SUPS achieves the precise detection of pulse waves from varies arteries, and the detailed characteristic peaks in pulse waveforms can be distinguished clearly. Furthermore, a novel strategy for noninvasive multi-indicators cardiovascular monitoring is proposed through the integration of SUPSs distributed on different arterial pulse sites. Cardiovascular indicators including heart rate, pulse wave velocity, and blood pressure are monitored based on the peak position differences extracted from detected pulse waveforms, and all monitored indicators show highly consistency with the results from commercial medical instruments. The developed SUPS enables the noninvasive, long-term and accurate monitoring of cardiovascular system, which is expected to be applied in diagnosis and prevention of cardiovascular diseases in the future. ga1 • A self-powered ultrasensitive pulse sensor based on triboelectric nanogenerator for cardiovascular monitoring is developed. • The self-powered ultrasensitive pulse sensor achieves the precise detection of pulse waves from varies arteries. • A novel strategy for noninvasive multi-indicators cardiovascular monitoring is proposed by the integration of pulse sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effect of different MWCNTs diameter on mechanical properties of cement-based materials was studied. • The effect of different MWCNTs diameter on microstructure of cement-based materials was studied. • The relations between MWCNT' diameter, porosity and mechanical properties of cement-based materials was analyzed. This paper is intended to investigate the effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with different inner diameters on the mechanical properties (flexural strength and compressive strength) and microstructures of cement-based materials. Three kinds of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with diameter of 10–20 nm, 20–40 nm and 40–60 nm were ready to reinforce cement-based materials. And each batch incorporated 0.1 wt%, 0.2 wt%, 0.3 wt%, 0.4 wt%, 0.5 wt% MWCNTs by cement weight. To obtain a uniform distribution of MWCNTs in the cement-based materials, the effects of ultrasonic dispersion time and intensity on the properties of MWCNTs cement-based materials were studied. In addition, the relationships between mechanical properties, porosity and diameter of MWCNTs were investigated. Experimental results showed that the improvements of flexural strength and compressive strength of cement-based materials were altered by increasing the diameter of MWCNTs. Microstructure analysis by SEM and MIP tests indicated that MWCNTs with diameter of 10–20 nm have the best effect on optimizing pore structure. The results of this study were useful to determine the diameter and content of MWCNTs required for optimum pore structure and maximum strength enhancement of cement-based materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• RGB-D cameras are widely used in fruit detection and localization. • RGB-D cameras with different depth measurement principles are conclude. • Researches based on RGB-D sensors for fruit detection and localization are summarized. • Major challenges for the application of RGB-D sensor systems on orchard are discussed. Fruit detection and localization are essential for future agronomic management of fruit crops such as yield prediction, yield mapping and automated harvesting. However, to perform robust and efficient fruit detection and localization in orchard is a challenging task under variable illumination, low-resolutions and heavy occlusion by neighboring fruits, foliage, or branches. Therefore, researches of fruit detection and localization by getting more information of objects are essential. RGB-D (Red, Green, Blue -Depth) cameras are promising sensors and widely used in fruit detection and localization given that they provide depth information and infrared information in addition to RGB information. After presenting a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of RGB-D cameras with different depth measurement principles and application fields, this paper reviews various types of RGB-D sensor systems and image processing methods used for fruit detection and localization in the field. Finally, major challenges for the successful application of RGB-D camera-based machine vision system, and potential future directions for the research and development in this area are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-powered sensor networks are an emerging technology with great potential applications in Internet of Things (IoTs). However, simultaneously harvesting various coexist energy from environment has always been a challenge to develop self-powered sensor networks. In this work, a tumbler-shaped hybrid triboelectric nanogenerator (TH-TENG) is elaborately designed to simultaneously harvest wind and water wave energy on land or ocean. The TH-TENG is composed of an external single-electrode liquid TENG and an internal rolling-ball TENG. The balance-reverting tumbler structure contributes to harvest energy from arbitrary directions and extra swings. Amphibious self-powered environmental monitoring including the wind speed, wave height and wave frequency can be detected by the TH-TENG directly. Meanwhile, the TH-TENGs can also be integrated in parallel to power a commercial environmental monitor. The detection of small vibration is achieved by connecting the TH-TENG with a single chip microcomputer. The TH-TENG demonstrates an effective and novel strategy to harvest coexist energy simultaneously in the amphibious environment and develop wireless sensor networks in the IoTs. Image 1 • Tumbler-shaped hybrid triboelectric nanogenerators for wind and water wave energy harvesting were developed. • The developed tumbler-shaped hybrid triboelectric nanogenerator meets the needs of amphibious energy harvesting. • Amphibious self-powered environmental monitoring including the wind speed, wave height and frequency was realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Apple fruits on one tree are labeled into 4 classes based on occlusion conditions. • The 4 classes are non-, leaf-, branch/wire-, and fruit-occluded fruit. • Apples in dense-foliage fruiting wall tree are detected as 4 classes by ZFNet and VGG16. • Mean AP of 0.879 is achieved by VGG16 with detection speed 0.241 s/image. • AP of 0.858 is obtained on branch/wire-occluded fruit class that may damage robot. Deep learning achieved high success of fruit-on-plant detection such as on apple. Most of studies on apple detection identified all target fruits as one class regardless of fruit condition and other canopy objects. However, some detected fruits were physically occluded by branches or trellis wires that could diminish the effectiveness of fruit picking and even damage the end-effector, especially when high-vigor rootstock apple cultivar was used. A multi-class apple detection method in dense-foliage fruiting-wall trees was thus proposed based on Faster Region-Convolutional Neural Network. It detected apples in different conditions such as non-occluded, leaf-occluded, branch/wire-occluded, and fruit-occluded fruit. A total of 800 images were acquired and then augmented to 12,800 images. Average precision of non-occluded, leaf-occluded, branch/wire-occluded, and fruit-occluded fruit were 0.909, 0.899, 0.858, and 0.848, respectively. Overall, the mean average precision of the four classes was 0.879, and an average of 0.241 s was needed to process an image. The results indicated that all the apples in different classes could be effectively detected, which can help the robot to decide the picking strategy (e.g., picking order and path planning) as well as to avoid the potential damage by the branches and trellis wires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tactile sensors have attracted great interest due to the huge potential applications. Skin-like multifunctional capabilities to sense multiple stimuli are increasingly desired to fulfill practical demands. Integration of multiple sensors with different functions is the most common approach, but requiring sophisticated fabricated processes. Here, a self-powered flexible antibacterial tactile sensor has been proposed which is based on triboelectric-piezoelectric-pyroelectric multi-effect coupling mechanism. The triboelectric-piezoelectric-pyroelectric multi-effect is utilized to differentiate external stimuli by analyzing the coupled bimodal voltage signal with response time difference. It permits multifunctional sensing in a single pixel, which can greatly reduce the structural complexity. The sensitivity of pressure and temperature monitoring is 0.092 V/KPa and 0.11 V/°C, respectively. Besides, it can operate without any external power attributing to the sensing mechanisms. Furthermore, the sensor performs excellent antibacterial property by doping Ag nanowires into the contact layer. This work can become promising candidate in soft robotics, artificial prosthetics and healthcare monitors by virtue of multifunctional, self-powered, antibacterial and easy-fabrication merits. Image 1 • A self-powered flexible antibacterial and multifunctional tactile sensor based on multi-effect coupling mechanism has been developed. • The applied pressure and temperature can be differentiated through analyzing the coupled bimodal voltage signal with response time difference. Experiments have been taken to confirm high accuracy of the theoretical simulation. • The device performs excellent antibacterial property by the modification of its surface layer, which broadens the applications in self-health protection field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium-oxide clusters (TOCs) are well-defined molecular models for TiO2 materials and provide the opportunity to study the structure–activity relationships of TiO2. Here, we report a new Pb-doped TOC, Ti12Pb2, which resembles a two-layer decker of the {TiTi6} structural units of rutile TiO2 with two Ti4+ ions replaced by two Pb2+ ions. Its electronic structure, photoresponse, and photocatalytic performances were investigated and compared with those of the Ti14 cluster, which is isostructural to Ti12Pb2. Our results indicate that Pb2+ does not affect the electronic structure, but it greatly enhances the photocatalytic activity by improving the charge-separation and interfacial charge-transfer properties of the TOC. The successful synthesis of Ti12Pb2 highlights the roles of closed-shell heterometal ions in the construction of new TOCs. Our mechanism may be an inspiration for understanding the structure–activity relationships of closed-shell heterometal-doped TiO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skin‐like stretchable tactile arrays are of paramount significance for perceiving physical interactions in dynamic biological tissues, prosthetic limbs, and robots. However, mechanical strain‐induced interference invariably degrades the pressure‐sensing accuracy of tactile arrays. In this work, an omnidirectionally strain‐unperturbed tactile array is prepared through modulus regulation in quasi‐homogeneous elastomer meshes. By varying fiber orientations, the proportion of intrinsic elastic and structural deformations in quasi‐homogeneous elastomer meshes can be adjusted, and the modulus can be regulated from 0.23 to 8.23 MPa. The tactile array combined with low‐ and high‐modulus elastomer meshes enables strain‐unperturbed pressure sensing through local stiffening and controllable deformation. Remarkably, the tactile array exhibits 97% strain insensitivity when stretched 100% along the omniplane directions. Moreover, the quasi‐homogeneous structure endows the tactile array with high robustness, even after 5000 cycles of severe stretching or pressing. By integrating the tactile array with a microcontroller, a tactile visualization system is built to achieve accurate tactile interaction even under multiaxial tensile strain. This work provides an alternative insight into the design of omnidirectionally strain‐unperturbed electronic devices for wide applications on dynamic surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cryptand-like Ti-coordination compound, namely Ti12Cs, comprising two Ti6-salicylate cages and hosting two Cs+ ions, was synthesized by the solvothermal method. It exhibits strong visible-light absorption with an absorption band edge of 652 nm, attributed to the electron transition from salicylate ligands to Ti ions. Electrochemical impedance, visible-light transient photocurrent response, and photoluminescence spectra confirm that Ti12Cs has excellent visible-light response and charge-separation properties. Ti12Cs can be used as a heterogeneous and recyclable photocatalyst for CO2/epoxide cycloaddition, with high utilization efficiency of visible-light under mild conditions. The mechanism investigation points to a synergistic effect of photocatalysis and Lewis acid catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Preimplantation genetic testing for monogenic disorders (PGT-M) has been used for over 20 years to detect many serious genetic conditions. However, there is still a lack of reference materials (RMs) to validate the test performance during the development and quality control of PGT-M. Method: Sixteen thalassemia cell lines from four thalassemia families were selected to establish the RMs. Each family consisted of parents with heterozygous mutations for α- and/or β-thalassemia and two children, at least one of whom carried a homozygous thalassemia mutation (proband). The RM panel consisted of 12 DNA samples (parents and probands in 4 families) and 4 simulated embryos (cell lines constructed from blood samples from the four nonproband children). Four accredited genetics laboratories that offer verification of thalassemia samples were invited to evaluate the performance of the RM panel. Furthermore, the stability of the RMs was determined by testing after freeze‒thaw cycles and long-term storage. Results: PGT-M reference materials containing 12 genome DNA (gDNA) reference materials and 4 simulated embryo reference materials for thalassemia testing were successfully established. Next-generation sequencing was performed on the samples. The genotypes and haplotypes of all 16 PGT-M reference materials were concordant across the four labs, which used various testing workflows. These well-characterized PGT-M reference materials retained their stability even after 3 years of storage. Conclusion: The establishment of PGT-M reference materials for thalassemia will help with the standardization and accuracy of PGT-M in clinical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A deep red-emitting Ba 2 MgGe 2 O 7 :Mn 4+ (BMG:Mn 4+ ) phosphor was synthesized by conventional solid-state reaction. 4 A 2g → 4 T 1g , 4 A 1g → 4 T 2g , and 4 A 2g → 2 T 2g transitions of Mn 4+ ions resulted in three absorption bands centered at 305, 330, and 420 nm, respectively. The phosphor showed a broad emission band from 600 nm to 700 nm due to 2 E→ 4 A 2 transition of Mn 4+ ions. The highest luminous peak located at 660 nm, and the highest luminous intensity was achieved at high Mn 4+ concentration (0.013). Multipolar interaction was the major mechanism for fluorescence quenching, and dipole–dipole interaction was the type of interaction mechanism between Mn 4+ ions. Fluorescence lifetimes decreased from 0.898 ms to 0.746 ms, which accorded with the requirement of white light-emitting diode phosphor. Color coordinates of BMG:Mn 4+ phosphors (0.721, 0.279) were close to the standard values of the National TV Standards Committee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rational design of a step‐scheme (S‐scheme) heterojunctions in hybrid semiconductors by avoiding unwanted charge transport paths is considered as an attractive way to achieve high photocatalytic activity in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, a dual S‐scheme heterojunction formed in the lychee‐shaped W18O49/CdWO4/CdS nanostructures is proposed for improving the photocatalytic performance in HER under visible light irradiation. The remarkable activity in photocatalytic HER of W18O49/CdWO4/CdS is attributed to the unique structure and effective charge separation by the photoinduced defect‐transit dual S‐scheme mechanism and strong internal electric field. The measurements of X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), femtosecond transient absorption (fs‐TA) spectroscopy, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) further confirm the photoinduced carrier transfer pathways following the dual S‐scheme mechanism. This research can provide a new strategy for designing the dual S‐scheme heterojunctions to improve photocatalytic performance through the defect band structure engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fruit counting, as one of the essential parts of yield estimation, is an important factor in production process planning. In the case of apple crops, it is useful in orchard management and as guidance for farmers, showing a decisive role in product market strategies and cultivation practices. Although some machine vision based studies have exhibited notable fruit counting ability, they still need to be improved for clustered fruit. This study proposes an automatic fruit counting pipeline called twice matched fruit counting system to overcome this limitation. The twice matched fruit counting system consists of three sub-algorithms: i) object detection model based on You Only Look Once Version 4-tiny; ii) fruit tracking with mutual match; iii) and fruit counting with ID assignment. The object detection model was developed based on You Only Look Once Version 4-tiny, which quickly and accurately detect fruit and trunks with mean average precision of 96.4% and detection speed of 16 ms. The fruit tracking with mutual match was designed to alleviate match errors associated with the clustered fruit, which achieved superior performance with average ID Switch Rate of 3.9%, Multiple Object Tracking Accuracy of 89.9% and Multiple Object Tracking Precision of 93.5%. The fruit counting was implemented by ID assignment, where each fruit was assigned with a unique ID based on fruit tracking results and direction of camera motion. The root mean squared error and coefficient of determination were 16.3 fruit per video and 0.93, respectively, which indicate a high correlation between fruit count results from the proposed approach and ground truth counting results. The twice matched fruit counting system was implemented on Central Processing Unit at 3–5 frames per second. These results demonstrate a potential of the twice matched fruit counting system for estimating fruit yield in modern apple orchards, which could provide technical support for orchard management. • Twice Matched Fruit Counting System implemented video-based fruit counting. • Target fruit detection influenced by fruit on the ground or in the back row of tree. • Mutual match algorithm alleviated ID switch caused by clustered fruit. • Fruit motion trajectories became smoother after removing abnormal matches. • ID assignment efficiently counted fruits in modern apple orchards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultraviolet (UV) communication is a cutting‐edge technology in communication battlefields, and self‐powered photodetectors as their optical receivers hold great potential. However, suboptimal charge utilization has largely limited the further performance enhancement of self‐powered photodetectors for high‐throughput communication application. Herein, a self‐powered Ti3C2Tx‐hybrid poly(3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene):poly‐styrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)/ZnO (TPZ) photodetector is designed, which aims to boost charge utilization for desirable applications. The device takes advantage of photothermal effect to intensify pyro‐photoelectric effect as well as the increased conductivity of the PEDOT:PSS, which significantly facilitated charge separation, accelerated charge transport, and suppressed interface charge recombination. Consequently, the self‐powered TPZ photodetector exhibits superior comprehensive performance with high responsivity of 12.3 mA W−1 and fast response time of 62.2 µs, together with outstanding reversible and stable cyclic operation. Furthermore, the TPZ photodetector has been successfully applied in an integrated UV communication system as the self‐powered optical receiver capable of real‐time high‐throughput information transmission with ASCII code under 9600 baud rate. This work provides the design insight of highly performing self‐powered photodetectors to achieve high‐efficiency optical communication in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel red-emitting phosphor (La 2 ZnTiO 6 :Eu 3+ ) was synthesized using a high-temperature solid-state method. Phase purity was examined by X-ray diffraction analysis. Results showed that the obtained La 2 ZnTiO 6 :Eu 3+ phosphors crystallized in the monoclinic space group P121/n1 (14). The photoluminescence spectrum under the excitation of 394 nm revealed two narrow bands at 594 and 616 nm, which correspond to the 5 D 0 – 7 F 1 and 5 D 0 – 7 F 2 transitions of Eu 3+ , respectively. The energy transfer mechanism among Eu 3+ ions was identified as dipole–dipole interactions. The phosphor exhibited ideal chromaticity coordinate (0.66, 0.34), which is close to the standard red color coordinates (0.67, 0.33). The temperature-dependent PL spectra were analyzed, and the calculated activation energy E a indicated the good thermal stability of the phosphor. The red-emitting light-emitting diodes (LED) fabricated by LZT:Eu 3+ and 395 nm-emitting InGaN chip exhibited high brightness intensity. Hence, La 2 ZnTiO 6 :Eu 3+ can be potentially applied to LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ubiquitous electromagnetic interference and pollution have become a deteriorating issue with the rapid advancement of wireless communication technologies and devices. Developing enhanced microwave absorber is a feasible and persistent research hotspot to counter serious electromagnetic radiation problems. To this end, state-of-the-art low-dimensional materials, including zero-dimensional, one-dimensional, two-dimensional, and mixed-dimensional nanoarchitectures have sprung up on account of their built-in merits including the modulable crystal and electronic structures, exquisite nanoarchitectures, and quantum and dielectric confinement effects. However, the pristine low-dimensional materials perform inferior status in microwave attenuation due to the monotonous dielectric or magnetic responses, the incoordination between wavelength and nanoscale, and semi-empirical electromagnetic attenuation mechanism. Therefore, the elaborate engineering strategies in low-dimensional materials, such as architecture modification, interface engineering, defect engineering, entropy manipulation, and dielectric-magnetic synergy are motivated to contend for enhanced microwave absorption performance. This review provides the cutting-edge progresses of engineering strategies for low-dimensional microwave absorbers. Firstly, the underlying microwave attenuation mechanisms of low-dimensional microwave absorbers are introduced thoroughly. Then, the leading-edge engineering strategies and low-dimensional microwave absorbers inspired by the basic principle of microwave attenuation are summarized and outlined. In the end, the challenges, and outlooks for engineering strategies in low-dimensional microwave absorbers are combed to pinpoint the long-term development orientation. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Segmenting abnormal leaves for hydroponic lettuce sorting using DeepLabV3+ model. • Xception-65, Xception-71, ResNet-50, and ResNet-101 were trained and compared. • Median frequency weight was used to mitigate data imbalance. • ResNet-101 achieved the highest mIoU and acceptable speed for automatic sorting. • Results provided guidance for automatic sorting device of hydroponic lettuce. Hydroponic lettuce has been widely cultivated in plant factory and desiring for mechanical harvesting and packing. Sorting of hydroponic lettuce must be carried out before packing. Information perception and image processing of hydroponic lettuce is a crucial technology to develop a robotic sorting system. In this study, DeepLabV3+ models of deep learning technologies were employed with four backbones of ResNet-50, ResNet-101, Xception-65, and Xception-71 to design a vision system of segmenting abnormal leaves (yellow, withered, and decay leaves) of hydroponic lettuce. Two weights assignation methods, i.e., median frequency weights (MFW) and uniform weights (UW), were incorporated into DeepLabV3+ and compared for performance. Results showed that models trained by UW were better than that of MFW assignation method. ResNet-101 had the best segmentation performance in UW assignation method with pixel accuracy of 99.24% and mIoU of 0.8326. In terms of speed, ResNet-50 had the fast segmentation speeds with 154.0 ms per image. This study provided object detection methodology for automatic sorting device of hydroponic lettuce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic detection of kiwifruit in the orchard is challenging because illumination varies through the day and night and because of color similarity between kiwifruit and the complex background of leaves, branches and stems. Also, kiwifruits grow in clusters, which may result in having occluded and touching fruits. A fast and accurate object detection algorithm was developed to automatically detect kiwifruits in the orchard by improving the YOLOv3-tiny model. Based on the characteristics of kiwifruit images, two convolutional kernels of 3 × 3 and 1 × 1 were added to the fifth and sixth convolution layers of the YOLOv3-tiny model, respectively, to develop a deep YOLOv3-tiny (DY3TNet) model. It takes multiple 1 × 1 convolutional layers in intermediate layers of the network to reduce the computational complexity. Testing images captured from day and night and comparing with other deep learning models, namely, Faster R-CNN with ZFNet, Faster R-CNN with VGG16, YOLOv2 and YOLOv3-tiny, the DY3TNet model achieved the highest average precision of 0.9005 with the smallest data weight of 27 MB. Furthermore, it took only 34 ms on average to process an image of a resolution of 2352 × 1568 pixels. The DY3TNet model, along with the YOLOv3-tiny model, showed better performance on images captured with flash than those without. Moreover, the experiments indicated that the image augmentation process could improve the detection performance, and a simple lighting arrangement could improve the success rate of detection in the orchard. The experimental results demonstrated that the improved DY3TNet model is small and efficient and that it would increase the applicability of real-time kiwifruit detection in the orchard even when small hardware devices are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy characterized by poor survival, recurrence after surgery and resistance to therapy. Nerves infiltrate the microenvironment of pancreatic cancers and contribute to tumor progression, however the clinicopathological significance of tumor innervation is unclear. In this study, the presence of nerves and their cross-sectional size were quantified by immunohistochemistry for the neuronal markers S-100, PGP9.5 and GAP-43 in a series of 99 pancreatic cancer cases versus 71 normal adjacent pancreatic tissues. A trend was observed between the presence of nerves in the tumor microenvironment of pancreatic cancer and worse overall patient survival (HR = 1.8, 95% CI 0.77–4.28, p = 0.08). The size of nerves, as measured by cross-sectional area, were significantly higher in pancreatic cancer than in the normal adjacent tissue (p = 0.002) and larger nerves were directly associated with worse patient survival (HR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.19–0.87, p = 0.04). In conclusion, this study suggests that the presence and size of nerves within the pancreatic cancer microenvironment are associated with tumor aggressiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is characterized by chronic inflammation in the colon and epigenetic factors underlying the occurrence. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been under intensive focus due to the circular construct and gene-regulating functions. However, the changes and roles of circRNAs in UC remain unknown.Methods: Microarrays were used to detect the differentially expressed genes, and quantitative real-time PCR was used to identify the changes in UC. In silico analyses were performed to predict the functions of circRNAs and mRNAs. In vitro, epithelial cell lines were stimulated by pro-inflammation effectors to test the alterations in circRNAs. CircRNAs-microRNAs-mRNAs network clarified the potential mechanisms underlying circRNAs in UC. The binding site between hsa_circ_0007919 and miR-138 or let-7a was verified using dual-luciferase assay.Results: A total of 264 significantly dysregulated circRNAs and 1869 differentially expressed mRNAs in inflamed mucosa were compared with the non-inflamed mucosa in UC. Hsa_circ_0004662 and hsa_circ_0007919 were altered largely in UC tissues. Hsa_circ_0007919 was reduced persistently after inflammatory treatments, and it was relevant to Mayo endoscopic subscores and the expression of tight junction molecules. Finally, hsa_circ_0007919 could harbor miR-138, and let-7a to regulate the targeted mRNAs EPC1 and VIPR1.Conclusions: Several circRNAs were differentially expressed in UC. Hsa_circ_0007919 is related to clinical characteristics and epithelial integrity by binding to hsa-let-7a, hsa-miR-138 to regulate the target genes. CircRNAs, especially hsa_circ_0007919, are associated with the pathogenesis and development of UC, with potential diagnostic and therapeutic implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Accurate apparent permeability (AP) model for oil transport in shale must consider natural fractures and micro/nano-pores within organic matter and inorganic matrix. Furthermore, the effect of pore geometry, tortuosity, pore size distribution (PSD), the spatial distribution of different pores, total organic content (TOC), and liquid slip should also be taken into account. However, all of the aforementioned factors are not simultaneously considered in one AP model. In this work, we develop an AP model in 3D for shale oil to overcome this drawback. We first validate our model by comparing with the published data. Then sensitivity analysis for some parameters is investigated. After that, shale oil APs are used in a macro-scale reservoir simulation model. In this way, the effect of some micro-scale factors on production performance can be quantitatively evaluated. Notably, on the basis of embedded discrete fracture model (EDFM), our reservoir simulation model considers non-linear flow in shale matrix, complex hydraulic fracture geometry, and pressure-dependent permeability of hydraulic fractures. Results show that natural fractures contribute the most to AP, followed by organic pores and inorganic pores. In general, the AP in the horizontal direction is approximately twice that in the vertical direction in shale. Furthermore, the maximum error caused by the pore type on shale oil production is ∼31%, followed by tortuosity (∼25%), pore shape (∼13%) and slip effect (∼4.8%). In conclusion, it is necessary to simultaneously incorporate the influences of the aforementioned factors. Our stochastic permeability model can serve as an efficient tool to determine shale oil AP. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • We develop a stochastic model for apparent permeability estimation in oil-shale. • The model incorporates the spectrum of known physics inherent in shale system. • The 3D model can estimate the apparent permeability in three directions. • Natural fracture direction has a decisive effect on permeability anisotropy. • Slit-type pores has more resistance to oil transport than circle-type pores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The ETL layer is used to transport electrons and block holes in the perovskite solar cell (PSC), and the uniformity of the dense layer affects the open circuit voltage (Voc) of the battery. The PSC open circuit voltage prepared by the solution method was 0.68 V, and the open circuit voltage of the PSC prepared by the sol method was remarkably improved to 0.95 V. The quality of the perovskite layer is critical for obtaining high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSC). In the process of preparing PSC by sequential deposition, the MAI solution was formed by IPA-n-hexane instead of isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as a solvent to grow CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 (MAPI). The MAPI prepared by the mixed solvent was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mixed solvent inhibited the Oswald ripening process, and the perovskite layer showed a uniform and dense morphology. The PL characterization implied that the MAPI film with low defect concentration, which prepared from the mixed solvent. Compared to the single solvent PSC (PCE = 4.2%), the efficiency was significantly improved by 1.5 times to 6.2%. This study provides the possibility to prepare ZnO-based high-efficiency solar cell devices in the air. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • The ZnO dense layer was prepared by sol method and assembled into a perovskite solar cell with V oc of 0.95V. • In the two-step deposition process, the second step was to prepare MAPbI 3 using IPA-n-hexane as a mixed solvent. • The mixed solvent inhibits the Oswald ripening process resulting in a high-quality perovskite layer. • The trap state density in the PSC prepared by the mixed solvent was lowered, and the PCE reached 6.2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photoinduced carrier transfer mechanism in heterojunction photocatalysts plays a significant role in photocatalytic water splitting. However, the relationships between photocatalytic activity and different band alignments in semiconducting heteronanosheets (HNSs) are rarely reported. Here, we used the ultrathin ZnIn 2 S 4 (ZIS) as a model, and constructed the HNSs such as ZIS/ZnSe, ZIS/ZnS with different band alignments. The time-resolved transient absorption results show that ZIS/ZnSe HNSs exhibited the S-scheme mechanism forming the internal electronic field which has more advantages in HER than the defects state trapping-mediated transfer mechanism in ZIS/ZnS HNSs. The long-lived carrier separation (>3.58 μs) and efficient charge transfer pathways of ZIS/ZnSe HNSs contribute to a highest photocatalytic performance so far, compared with the ZIS-based photocatalysts. These results could pave the route for the design the functional HNCs with different photoinduced carrier dynamics to establish the relationships between composite structures and properties. [Display omitted] • Ultrathin ZnIn 2 S 4 nanosheets were synthesized by the colloidal chemistry method. • ZnIn 2 S 4 /ZnSe HNSs exhibited the efficient S-scheme mechanism for high photocatalytic activity in HER. • ZnIn 2 S 4 /ZnS HNSs showed the defection-trap electron transfer pathway. • ZnIn 2 S 4 /ZnSe HNSs has a long charge separation lifetime under visible light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel phosphor, Sr 2 LaNbO 6 :Mn 4+ , is synthesized by conventional solid-state reaction. The phosphor can be excited at 300–500 nm and emit a deep-red light. An emission band peak of 694 nm is observed from the spin-forbidden transition 2 E → 4 A 2 of Mn 4+ ions. Energy transfer between the Mn 4+ –Mn 4+ pairs decreases fluorescence decay time from 0.815 ms to 0.512 ms. The resistance of luminescence against thermal impact is also investigated by emission spectroscopy at heating temperatures from 300 K to 500 K. The calculated activation energy Δ E (∼0.345 eV) demonstrate good thermal stability of the phosphors. All these results indicate that the phosphor can be applied in white-light-emitting diodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has been retracted. Please see the Retraction Notice for more detail: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-018-4559-3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ce 3+ and Tb 3+ singly doped and co-doped Li 6 Y(BO 3 ) 3 (LYB) phosphors were synthesized through a solid-state reaction. The phosphors were effectively excited by 350 nm, which matched the near-UV emitting InGaN chip. Luminescence spectra and decay lifetime curves of LYB:Ce 3+ ,Tb 3+ were measured to prove energy transfer from Ce 3+ to Tb 3+ . Through energy transfer, the intensity of the typical emission peak of Tb 3+ at 546 nm in LYB:0.05Ce 3+ ,0.03Tb 3+ was approximately 1.8 times stronger than that in LYB:0.03Tb 3+ . The mechanism of Ce 3+ →Tb 3+ energy transfer was a dipole–dipole interaction, and the energy transfer efficiency gradually increased to 29.27% with increasing Tb 3+ doping concentration. Furthermore, the emission colors of LYB:Ce 3+ ,Tb 3+ varied from blue to green by adjusting the Ce 3+ /Tb 3+ ratio, indicating that the phosphors could be used as blue-to-green emitting phosphors for application in ultraviolet light-emitting diodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Low-cost RGB-D sensor (Kinect V2) was employed to estimate diameter of grafted apple tree. • Deep learning contributed to automatically locate grafting position. • SOLOv2 model for segmenting grafting position achieved AP of 0.811 and AR of 0.830. • Appropriate distance thresholds in X, Y, and Z directions were determined to estimate diameter. Apple tree phenotyping can reflect individual development of single apple tree, which mainly involves tree height, crown width, and diameter of apple tree trunk (DATT). This study aimed to estimate diameter of grafted apple tree trunk, whose target position of diameter estimation is about 10 cm above grafting position. An estimated DATT approach of combining red–greenblue-depth (RGB-D) sensor with SOLOv2 was proposed. Firstly, Kinect V2 was employed to obtain original RGB images and point clouds of the grafted apple trees simultaneously. There were 120 and 60 RGB images and corresponding point clouds randomly collected from two modern apple orchards. Secondly, SOLOv2 deep learning model was selected and trained to instance segment grafting position from RGB image for determining it automatically. Then, corresponding exact position of the grafting position in point cloud was mapped by coordinate transformation of its pixel coordinates, which was obtained by trained SOLOv2 model. Finally, DATT was estimated by calculating the difference between maximum and minimum Y coordinates of points selected by distance thresholds in X, Y, and Z directions near the target position, which were 0.10 m, 0.035 m, and 0.20 m, respectively. Results showed that average precision and average recall of the trained SOLOv2 model for instant segmenting the grafting position were 0.811 and 0.830, respectively. Mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and root mean square error of the proposed method were 3.01 mm, 5.86%, and 3.79 mm, respectively. It illustrates that the proposed method can estimate DATT and thus contribute to automatic apple tree phenotyping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, the fabrication of Ag/TiO2 nanotube arrays and their photo-catalytic activity have been studied. The SEM, TEM and XRD were performed to characterize the morphology and crystalline phase of the TiO2 nanotube array and Ag/TiO2 nanotube array. Ag nanoparticles with different loadings, which are aimed to suppress the electron–hole recombination so as to enhance the photo-catalytic oxidation efficiency, were systematically coated onto TiO2 nanotubes. The photo-catalytic activity of these nano-materials was evaluated by the degradation of two different pollutants: methyl orange and glyphosate. The effects of various parameters, such as the amount of the photo-catalyst, the illumination time, and pH value on the photo-catalytic oxidation activity, were studied. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • A method of concrete CT image segmentation based on mask and regional convolution neural network is proposed. • The proposed segmentation method is more accurate to identify the meso-damage of concrete. • The propagation of cracks in concrete under load could be divided into compaction, expansion, and deformation stages. The meso-damage of concrete structure has an important impact on the macro-damage. X-ray CT technology, as a non-destructive testing method, is one of great significance to the study of concrete meso-structure. However, since the traditional CT scanning image segmentation methods cannot effectively identify and segment structural meso-defects autonomously. In order to solve this problem, a new method for meso-crack segmentation and extraction of concrete CT scanning images based on regional convolution neural network (Mask R-CNN) is proposed and applied to segment the images obtained from the real-time CT test under static uniaxial compression. Results showed that the segmentation accuracy of voids and cracks in the CT images is 0.957 and 0.931 respectively, which verifies the effectiveness of the method that can be used to high-precision recognize voids and cracks from CT scanning images of concrete. Additionally, the segmented images of internal voids and cracks in concrete are adopted to accurately 3D reconstruction to investigate the meso-cracks propagation under real-time loading based on CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• DeepLabV3 + was used to segment calyx, branch, and wire on kiwifruit canopy images. • Xception-65, Xception-71, ResNet-50, and ResNet-101 were trained and compared. • A method of reconstructing discrete wires was developed and competitive in speed. • Uniform weights outperformed median frequency weights during network training. • ResNet-101 achieved the highest mIoU and acceptable speed for robotic harvesting. Kiwifruits are commercially grown on sturdy support structures such as T-bars and pergolas. Wires are widely used in modern agriculture as an important material for supporting T-bars. It may lead to damage to kiwifruit harvesting end-effector or robot when accessing fruits occluded by branches or wires. Additional development to segment calyxes, branches, and wires will help to achieve higher-level picking strategies. DeepLabV3+ was adopted to segment the fruit calyx, branch, and wire in this work. A method of discrete wire pixels reconstruction was then developed on Progressive probabilistic Hough transform (PPHT) to help sense distribution of the wire. Lines that didn't meet the constraints, i.e., angle or distance between the lines, were regarded as noise and eliminated. There were 327 images divided into training (261) and testing (66) sets, where the training set was augmented to 1566 images. The dataset was heavily imbalanced where the pixels of calyx, branch, and wire were much fewer than background pixels. For the imbalanced kiwifruit canopy image segmentation, it was proven that the uniform weights assignation method outperformed the median frequency weights. In terms of backbone, ResNet-101 achieved IoUs (intersection over union) of 0.686, 0.709, and 0.424 for calyx, branch, and wire, respectively, and the highest mIoU (mean IoU) of 0.694. It took about 210.0 ms to process a resolution of 512 × 341 pixels image, which could be acceptable for the kiwifruit harvesting robot. The PPHT achieved an correct detection rate of 92.4%, and was competitive in processing time of 6.4 ms/image. Canopy image segmentation can provide a basis for guiding the harvesting end-effector to pick kiwifruits safely, thus improving the harvesting success rate and reducing on-orchard costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A KiwiDetector Android APP was developed to detect kiwifruits for yield estimation. • Kiwifruits were detected by two lightweight backbones MobileNetV2 and InceptionV3. • An 8-bit quantization was applied to compress model size and improve detection speed. • MobileNetV2 outperformed InceptionV3 in both true detected rate and detection speed. • Quantized MobileNetV2 performed fastest and can be improved by more powerful hardware. Fast and accurate detection of kiwifruit in orchard under natural environment is the primary technology for yield estimation. Deep learning has become a prevalent way of fruit detection and achieved outstanding results. Besides, easy-carry smartphones are getting popular and powerful. In this paper, single shot multibox detector (SSD) with two lightweight backbones MobileNetV2 and InceptionV3 were employed to develop an Android APP named KiwiDetector for field kiwifruit detection. An 8-bit quantization method was used to compress model size and improve detection speed by quantizing weight tensor and activation function data of convolutional neural networks from 32-bit floating point to 8-bit integer. Detection test was performed on 100 selected kiwifruit field images with resolution of 3,968 × 2,976 pixels using the four models on a HUAWEI P20 smartphone. Results showed that MobileNetV2, quantized MobileNetV2, InceptionV3, and quantized InceptionV3 obtained true detected rate (TDR) of 90.8%, 89.7%, 87.6%, and 72.8%, respectively. The TDR of MobileNetV2 and quantized MobileNetV2 was generally consistent and higher than InceptionV3 and quantized InceptionV3. For processing an image on the smartphone, MobileNetV2, quantized MobileNetV2, InceptionV3, and quantized InceptionV3 took about 163 ms, 103 ms, 1085 ms, and 685 ms with model sizes of 17.5 MB, 4.5 MB, 96.1 MB, and 24.1 MB, respectively. Quantized MobileNetV2 reached a significant TDR with the fastest detection speed and the smallest model size. The results indicated that the proposed Android APP is promising for yield estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a severe neurological event lacking of effective therapy. Early brain injury (EBI) and delayed neurological dysfunction are important cause in the poor prognosis of patients with SAH. Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation has been implicated in many inflammatory lesion pathogeneses including SAH. Dl-3-n-butylphthalide (NBP) has been reported to possess substantial anti-inflammatory properties, which is beneficial for various neurodegenerative diseases. However, the effect and molecular mechanisms of NBP on SAH have not been clearly identified. We designed this study to investigate the effect of NBP against EBI and delayed neurological dysfunction after SAH and to reveal the possible underlying mechanism. The adult mice were subjected to endovascular perforation SAH model or sham operation. Mice were randomized to sham group, SAH group, or SAH+NBP group. The EBI (short-term study) was studied at 48 h post-SAH and delayed neurological dysfunction (long-term study) at 21 days post-SAH. The results suggested that NBP evidently alleviated the EBI in mice at 48 h post-SAH, as shown by elevating neurological score, reducing brain edema, blood-brain barrier disruption, neuronal loss, and astrocyte aggregation, as well as ameliorating cerebral vasospasm. Moreover, NBP was able to improve long-term neurobehavioral functions and decrease neuronal apoptosis at 21 days after SAH. Significantly, NBP treatment also inhibited the expressions of NLRP3, ASC, caspase-1, cleaved-caspase-1, IL-1β, IL-18, GSDMD and GSDMD-N in both EBI and delayed neurological dysfunction induced by SAH. Our findings suggested that NBP treatment exerts a profound neuroprotective effect against early brain injury and delayed neurological dysfunction induced by SAH, at least partially through regulating NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway and its related inflammation and pyroptosis., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest All authors declare that there is no competing interest in this paper. The relevant statement has also been disclosed in this manuscript., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer (HLRCC) is a rare autosomal dominant syndrome caused by a germline mutation in the fumarate hydratase (FH) gene that manifests with cutaneous leiomyomas, uterine fibroids, and renal cell cancer (RCC). Patients with HLRCC-associated RCC (HLRCC-RCC) have aggressive clinical courses, but there is no standardized therapy for advanced HLRCC-RCC. In this study, we described a case of aggressive HLRCC in a 33-year-old female who exhibited a novel heterozygous germline insertion mutation in exon 8 of the FH gene (c.1126 C > T; p.Q376*). The patient underwent laparoscopic resection of the right kidney, but metastases appeared within 3 months after surgery. Histological staining of the resected tumor revealed high expression levels of programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). Therefore, the patient was treated with immunotherapy. The patient achieved a partial response to immunotherapy, and the treatment of metastatic lesions has continued to improve. A thorough literature review pinpointed 76 historical cases of HLRCC-RCC that had undergone immunotherapy. From this pool, 46 patients were selected for this study to scrutinize the association between mutations in the FH gene and the effectiveness of immunotherapy. Our results indicate that immunotherapy could significantly improve the overall survival (OS) of patients with HLRCC-RCC. However, no influence of different mutations in the FH germline gene on the therapeutic efficacy of immunotherapy was observed. Therefore, our study suggested that immunotherapy was an effective therapeutic option for patients with HLRCC regardless of the type of FH germline mutation., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: Endoscopic surgery is an effective technique for preserving the nipple and areola, as well as for sentinel lymph node biopsy and breast implant reconstruction. However, the technical challenges associated with endoscopic surgery have limited its widespread adoption., Methods: In the normal single-port endoscopic surgery, the ultrasonic knife was accessed through the retractor. In our modified procedure, a tiny 5 mm incision was made at the lateral margin underneath the breast, serving as the second entry port for the ultrasonic scalpel, which was referred to as the "Haigui-1 hole". Preoperative and postoperative indicators such as blood loss, operative time, and postoperative drainage volume were collected. Differences between parameters were compared using Student's t test., Results: Endoscopic surgery with the assistance of the "Haigui-1 hole" led to preserved breast aesthetics with minimal scarring. Moreover, "Haigui-1 hole" surgery significantly reduced the operation time, intraoperative bleeding, and postoperative drainage volume compared to normal single-port endoscopic surgery., Conclusion: The "Haigui-1 hole" procedure, which involves the addition of a second entrance to improve the maneuverability of the ultrasonic knife, is worthy of further promotion., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Titanium-oxide clusters (TOCs) are well-defined molecular models for TiO 2 materials and provide the opportunity to study the structure-activity relationships of TiO 2 . Here, we report a new Pb-doped TOC, Ti12Pb2, which resembles a two-layer decker of the {TiTi 6 } structural units of rutile TiO 2 with two Ti 4+ ions replaced by two Pb 2+ ions. Its electronic structure, photoresponse, and photocatalytic performances were investigated and compared with those of the Ti14 cluster, which is isostructural to Ti12Pb2. Our results indicate that Pb 2+ does not affect the electronic structure, but it greatly enhances the photocatalytic activity by improving the charge-separation and interfacial charge-transfer properties of the TOC. The successful synthesis of Ti12Pb2 highlights the roles of closed-shell heterometal ions in the construction of new TOCs. Our mechanism may be an inspiration for understanding the structure-activity relationships of closed-shell heterometal-doped TiO 2 .

Achieving the complete mineralization of persistent pollutants in wastewater is still a big challenge. Here, we propose an efficient photo-self-Fenton reaction for the degradation of different pollutants using the high-density (Ag: 22 wt %) of atomically dispersed AgCo dual sites embedded in graphic carbon nitride (AgCo-CN). Comprehensive experimental measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the Ag and Co dual sites in AgCo-CN play a critical role in accelerating the photoinduced charge separation and forming the self-Fenton redox centers, respectively. The bimetallic AgCo-CN exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance toward the phenol even under extreme conditions due to an efficient degradation pathway and in situ generation of the hydrogen peroxide producing the main active oxygen species (⋅OH and 1 O 2 ) and showed long-term activity in a self-design photo-Filter reactor for the purification of the phenol. Our discoveries pave the way for the design of efficient single-atoms photocatalysts-based photo-self-Fenton reaction for recalcitrant pollutant treatment., (© 2024 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

A cryptand-like Ti-coordination compound, namely Ti12Cs, comprising two Ti 6 -salicylate cages and hosting two Cs + ions, was synthesized by the solvothermal method. It exhibits strong visible-light absorption with an absorption band edge of 652 nm, attributed to the electron transition from salicylate ligands to Ti ions. Electrochemical impedance, visible-light transient photocurrent response, and photoluminescence spectra confirm that Ti12Cs has excellent visible-light response and charge-separation properties. Ti12Cs can be used as a heterogeneous and recyclable photocatalyst for CO 2 /epoxide cycloaddition, with high utilization efficiency of visible-light under mild conditions. The mechanism investigation points to a synergistic effect of photocatalysis and Lewis acid catalysis.

Two Mo-Ti-mixed oxide clusters, Ti 6 Mo 4 and Ti 4 Mo 4 , which contain the {Mo 2 V } unit commonly observed in many polyoxomolybdates, were successfully synthesized. The introduction of a {Mo 2 V } dopant into a titanium-oxide cluster (TOC) results in a red shift of the absorption edge, hence leading to a substantial enhancement of visible-light absorption. The band gap electron transition mainly involves the ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT, benzoate-to-Mo) and Mo V d-d transition. Both clusters show favorable visible-light responsiveness and charge-separation efficiency. Both serve as heterogeneous photocatalysts and exhibit excellent catalytic activity in CO 2 /epoxide cycloadditions under very mild conditions. The mechanism study suggests that the catalytically active sites are mainly Mo V , and the photogenerated electrons and holes are both involved. Ti 6 Mo 4 exhibits better photocatalytic activity than Ti 4 Mo 4 , demonstrating the crucial role of the titanium-oxide core, which corresponds to improved light absorption and charge-separation efficiency. Our findings highlight the potential of the {Mo 2 V } unit in constructing Mo-Ti-mixed oxide clusters with interesting topologies and excellent solar-light-harvesting activity.