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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plant foliage play an important role in ozone (O3) and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. Their emissions can be influenced by the leaf age. We explored the VOCs emissions and their effects on the formation of O3 and SOA from plant foliage in different ages. VOCs emissions from the young, mature, and senescent leaves of Ginkgo biloba, Ligustrum lucidum, and Forsythia suspensa were measured using the dynamic enclosure system and the TD–GC–MS technique. Based on the emission rates of quantified compounds, their potential to form O3 and SOA was estimated. Results showed that there were significant differences in the VOCs emission rate and their composition among leaves in different ages. The emission rate of the total VOCs by young leaves was the highest, while the lowest by senescent leaves. Monoterpenes were the dominant VOCs category, and isoprene emission had the lowest contribution for the leaves at each age. With increasing leaf age, the proportion of monoterpenes emission increased, and the proportion of sesquiterpenes decreased. The variations of isoprene and other VOCs were different. The potentials of total VOCs, isoprene, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and other VOCs to form O3 (OFP) and SOA (SOAP) varied significantly among leaves at different ages. The total OFP and SOAP were the highest by young leaves, while the lowest by senescent leaves. With increasing leaf age, the contribution of monoterpenes to OFP and SOAP also increased, while that of sesquiterpenes decreased. Our study will provide support for the more accurate parameterization of the emission model and help to understand the VOCs emissions and study the precise prevention and control of complex air pollution at different times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the existence of communication delays, the adaptive fault‐tolerant control problems for constrained multiple Euler–Lagrange systems are considered in this paper. First, a communication delays observer is utilized to enable all followers can acquire the leader's state information. Second, based on neural network technique, two distributed coordinated control schemes are designed to make every follower can track the leader. Compared with the first control algorithm, the adaptive fault‐tolerant control problem is further considered in the second control algorithm. The proposed algorithm can simultaneously compensate the actuator bias faults and the partial loss of actuation effectiveness faults. At the same time, a tan‐type barrier Lyapunov function is used to constrain the tracking errors of all followers and the leader. Finally, the simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of iGlarLixi in the Asian Pacific (AP) population with type 2 diabetes (T2D) using derived time‐in‐ranges calculated from seven‐point self‐measured blood glucose. Methods: Two phase III trials were analysed. LixiLan‐O‐AP was performed in insulin‐naive T2D patients (n = 878) randomized to iGlarLixi, glargine 100 units/mL (iGlar) or lixisenatide (Lixi). LixiLan‐L‐CN was performed in insulin‐treated T2D patients (n = 426) randomized to iGlarLixi or iGlar. Changes in derived time‐in‐ranges from baseline to end‐of‐treatment (EOT) and estimated treatment differences (ETDs) were analysed. The proportions of patients achieving 70% or higher derived time‐in‐range (dTIR), 5% or higher dTIR improvement, and the composite triple target (≥ 70% dTIR, < 4% derived time‐below‐the‐range [dTBR] and < 25% derived time‐above‐the‐range [dTAR]) were calculated. Results: The changes from baseline to EOT in dTIR with iGlarLixi were greater versus iGlar (ETD1: 11.45% [95% CI, 7.66% to 15.24%]) or Lixi (ETD2: 20.54% [95% CI, 15.74% to 25.33%]) in LixiLan‐O‐AP, and versus iGlar (ETD: 16.59% [95% CI, 12.09% to 21.08%]) in LixiLan‐L‐CN. In LixiLan‐O‐AP, the proportions of patients achieving 70% or higher dTIR or 5% or higher dTIR improvement at EOT with iGlarLixi were 77.5% and 77.8%, respectively, higher than with iGlar (61.1% and 75.3%) or Lixi (47.0% and 53.0%). In LixiLan‐L‐CN, the proportions of patients achieving 70% or higher dTIR or 5% or higher dTIR improvement at EOT were 71.4% and 59.8% with iGlarLixi, greater than with iGlar (45.4% and 39.5%). More patients achieved the triple target with iGlarLixi compared with iGlar or Lixi. Conclusion: iGlarLixi achieved greater improvements in dTIR parameters versus iGlar or Lixi in insulin‐naïve and insulin‐experienced AP people with T2D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the corrosion resistance of mechanical components, cold sprayed assisted laser remelting was used to synthesized HEA coatings with different Co contents AlCoxCrFeNiCu(x = 0,0. 5,1,1. 5,2). The effects of the change in Co content on the phase structure, microstructure and corrosion resistance of the alloy coating was characterized via XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM, electrochemical test system and other equipment tests. The results show that the laser remelting AlCoxCrFeNiCu HEA coatings is composed of simple BCC and FCC phases, when x=1, the lattice distortion of HEA coatings is the largest, with the increase of Co content, the equiaxed dendrites of the laser remelting AlCoxCrFeNiCu HEA coatings become less and more and gradually refine, and the spacing of columnar dendrites first increases and then decreases. In 3. 5% NaCl corrosive medium, when x = 0. 5, there is slight segregation of Cu element in HEA coatings, and a small amount of pitting occurs. The laser remelting synthesized AlCo0.5CrFeNiCu HEA coatings has the most positive self-corrosion potential, the corrosion current density reaches the minimum, the corrosion rate was 2. 28×10-3 mm/a, the AlCo0.5CrFeNiCu HEA coating shows good corrosion resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel bamboo-wood box beam was introduced in this paper, which consisted of laminated bamboo lumber flanges and OSB webs. Four-point bending tests were conducted on composite beams to investigate the effects of shear span ratio and stiffeners on failure mode and strength. The results showed that the composite beams with shear span ratio less than two failed in web shear failure, but for the others, the beams failed in twist and delamination of OSB in flanges. The load carrying capacity of beams decreased with the increase of shear span ratio. However, the mechanical performance of beams can be improved moderately by the presence of stiffeners, and theultimate bearing capacity and initial stiffness was increased by 16.5% and 13.1% respectively.

The effect of the curing temperature of cement mortar on the mechanical and deformation characteristics of the full encapsulated rock bolting system was not considered in most previous studies. To reveal the temperature-dependent behavior of cement mortar and bolt-grout interface in terms of strength and deformation characteristics, extensive tests over a curing temperature range of 2–60 ℃ were carried out in this study, including uniaxial compression tests of cement mortar, direct shear tests of cement mortar under both constant normal load (CNL) and constant normal stiffness (CNS) boundary conditions, and direct shear tests of the bolt-mortar interface under CNL boundary conditions. The results showed that the uniaxial compression and shear strength of cement mortar increase with curing temperature at 2–40 ℃ and reduce slightly at 40–60 ℃. Moreover, the effect of CNS boundary conditions was discussed. Furthermore, the evolution of shear strength and dilation limit of bolt-mortar interface with curing temperature was revealed. Based on the experimental results, suggestions for supporting the design of rock bolting systems under high- or low-temperature geological environments are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of lung cancer (LC) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients is dozens of times higher than that in patients without COPD. Elevated activity of nuclear factor-k-gene binding (NF-κB) was found in lung tissue of patients with COPD, and the continuous activation of NF-κB is observed in both malignant transformation and tumor progression of LC, suggesting that NF-κB and its regulators may play a key role in the progression of LC in COPD patients. Here, we report for the first time that a key long non-coding RNA (lncRNA)-ICL involved in the regulation of NF-κB activity in LC tissues of COPD patients. The analyses showed that the expression of ICL significantly decreased in LC tissues of LC patients with COPD than that in LC tissues of LC patients without COPD. Functional experiments in vitro showed that exogenous ICL only significantly inhibited the proliferation, invasion and migration in primary tumor cells of LC patients with COPD compared to LC patients without COPD. Mechanism studies have shown that ICL could suppress the activation of NF-κB by blocking the hsa-miR19-3p/NKRF/NF-κB pathway as a microRNA sponge. Furthermore, In vivo experiments showed that exogenous ICL effectively inhibited the growth of patient-derived subcutaneous tumor xenografts (PDX) of LC patients with COPD and significantly prolonged the survival time of tumor-bearing mice. In a word, our study shows that the decrease of ICL is associated with an increased risk of LC in patients with COPD, ICL is not only expected to be a new therapeutic target for LC in COPD patients, but also has great potential to be used as a new marker for evaluating the occurrence, severity stratification and prognosis of LC in patients with COPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]