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Exemplified by China's installation of its National Supervisory Commission, the rise and fall of the Chinese anti-corruption apparatus remains puzzlingly changeable, which contrasts with the calls for its institutionalization. For a country known for informal politics, the role played by politicians behind such a seemingly irregular evolution remains inadequately examined. This research attempts to explain the elite struggle's influence on Chinese watchdog agencies using a factional framework. From a historical institutional perspective, this research summarizes several patterns of the Leninist party chief's interaction with watchdog agencies in different factional structures governing the institutional evolution. The analysis finds that the agency's power is contingent on its factional relationship with the chief, and only specific structures favor "super" watchdog agencies. This research adds to the theoretical understanding of how contingencies shape institutional development and underlines empirical facts about the vulnerability of Chinese anti-corruption institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Extended Quantum Molecular Dynamics (EQMD) model is one of the few QMD-like transport approaches that can describe the α -clustering structure with efficient computational power. However, compared to most QMD-like models, the choice of equation of state (EOS) for nuclear matter is very limited. In this work, a Monte Carlo integral method is employed to calculate the density integration with non-integer exponent. We demonstrate the superiority of our approach by studying the isovector giant dipole resonance (IVGDR). This improvement will be beneficial for the EQMD model to study more valuable effects for heavy ion collisions in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study systematically analyses the nonlinear relationship between China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and reverse green technological progress (RGTP) using fixed effects (FE) model based on panel data for 31 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2020. We find that the link between China's OFDI and RGTP is an inverted U-shaped curve. In addition, environmental regulation and technology gaps all reduce the height of the inverted U-shaped inflection point. Environmental regulation prolongs the "climb" stage while technology gaps compress the "climb" stage of the inverted U-curve relationship significantly. This result is verified in further robustness tests. The four transmission mechanisms of China's OFDI on RGTP play a positive role: these findings may help policymakers to design more flexible and effective OFDI policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 59.4–100% of head and neck cancer patients receiving radiotherapy or radio chemotherapy suffer from aphthous ulcers (AUs), which seriously affect the subsequent treatment. At the same time, AUs are a common oral mucosal disease with a high incidence rate among the population, often accompanied by severe pain, and affect both physical and mental health. Strategies to increase the ulcer healing rate and relieve pain symptoms quickly is a long-term clinical objective. Oral mucosal discontinuity is the main histological hallmark of AUs. So, covering the inner mucosal defect with an in vitro engineered oral mucosal equivalent shows good prospects for AU alleviation. Fibronectin (FN) is a glycopeptide in the extracellular matrix and exhibits opsonic properties, aiding the phagocytosis and clearance of foreign pathogens through all stages of ulcer healing. But native FN comes from animal blood, which has potential health risks. rhFN3C was designed with multi-domains of native FN, whose core functions are the recruitment of cells and growth factors to accelerate AU healing. rhFN3C is a peptide-fused recombinant protein. The peptides are derived from the positions of 1444–1545 (FNIII10) and 1632–1901 (FNIII12–14) in human native FN. We optimized the fermentation conditions of rhFN3C in E. coli BL21 to enable high expression levels. rhFN3C is thermally stable and nontoxic for L929, strongly promotes the migration and adhesion of HaCaT, decreases the incidence of wound infection, and shortens the mean healing time by about 2 days compared to others (p < 0.01). rhFN3C may have great potential for use in the treatment of AUs. The specific methods and mechanisms of rhFN3C are yet to be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salient object detection is vital for non-specific class subject segmentation in computer vision applications. However, accurately segmenting foreground subjects with complex backgrounds and intricate boundaries remains a challenge for existing methods. To address these limitations, our study proposes SU2GE-Net, which introduces several novel improvements. We replace the traditional CNN-based backbone with the transformer-based Swin-TransformerV2, known for its effectiveness in capturing long-range dependencies and rich contextual information. To tackle under and over-attention phenomena, we introduce Gated Channel Transformation (GCT). Furthermore, we adopted an edge-based loss (Edge Loss) for network training to capture spatial-wise structural details. Additionally, we propose Training-only Augmentation Loss (TTA Loss) to enhance spatial stability using augmented data. Our method is evaluated using six common datasets, achieving an impressive F β score of 0.883 on DUTS-TE. Compared with other models, SU2GE-Net demonstrates excellent performance in various segmentation scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Next‐generation shortwave infrared (SWIR) imaging systems generally require a multidimensional information sensing capability (including intensity, wavelength, polarization, phase, etc.), a highly integrated photodetector unit, and information processing, allowing for miniaturization and low‐cost production. However, traditional polarized SWIR imaging systems with integrated polarizer arrays as supplementary filters and silicon‐based amplifying circuits are complicated and very expensive. Here, a SWIR polarization‐sensitive photodetector and a monolithic integrated polarization amplification system (MIPAS) based on well‐aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays are demonstrated. The polarization‐sensitive CNT photodetector exhibits anisotropic ratios of ≈5.18 and ≈7.56 at 1800 and 2000 nm wavelengths, respectively, and high‐resolution characteristics that can be utilized to image SWIR laser spots with a radius of less than 10 µm. Furthermore, MIPAS including a CNT field‐effect transistor, a CNT loading resistor, and a polarization‐sensitive CNT photodetector is used to increase the anisotropic ratio of the CNT photodetector. The amplified anisotropic ratio is improved up to 173 and 243 at 1800 and 2000 nm wavelengths, respectively, which is the maximum reported in the SWIR band. Our work demonstrates that the CNT polarization‐sensitive photodetector has the potential for SWIR polarization imaging with a monolithic integrated polarization amplification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one kind of plant-derived extracellular vesicle, turmeric-derived exosome-like nanoparticles (TELNs) are composed of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and small-molecule compounds, which possess good biocompatibility and safety. They are especially rich in information from the "mother plant", which provides more applications in biological fields. In this study, we isolated and purified TELNs using differential centrifugation and ultracentrifugation and systematically detected their physicochemical properties using multi-omics. The TELNs possessed a typical teacup-like exosome morphology, and the extraction rate was approximately 1.71 ± 0.176 mg/g. The average particle size was 183.2 ± 10.9 nm, and the average zeta potential was −17.6 ± 1.19 mV. They were rich in lipids, mainly phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) (17.4%), triglyceride (TG) (12.3%), phosphatidylinositol (PI) (9.82%), and phosphatidylcholine (PC) (7.93%). All of them are the key lipids in the exosomes. The protein content was approximately 12% (M/M), mainly curcumin synthase and other proteins involved in secondary metabolite biosynthesis. In addition, there are critical essential genes for curcumin biosynthesis, such as curcumin synthase (CURS) and diketocoenzyme A synthase (DCS). More importantly, a greater variety of small-molecule compounds, primarily curcumin and curcumin analogs such as demethoxycurcumin and volatile oleoresins such as curcuminoids, have now been revealed. In conclusion, TELNs were successfully isolated, containing 0.17% (M/M) turmeric and a large amount of chemical information, the same as the parent-of-origin plant. This is the first time combining multi-omics to analyze the characteristics and nature of the TELNs, which laid a solid material foundation for the further development of turmeric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of solute Al on the penetration of Cu atoms into the Fe grain boundary (GB) in the Fe–Cu embrittlement system was investigated by performing molecular dynamics simulations. Furthermore, the first principle density functional theory calculation was also employed to determine the binding properties and the electronic structure of GBs doped with solute atoms. The inhibition mechanism of liquid metal embrittlement (LME) cracks in the Fe–Cu system by Al was analyzed at the atomic scale by conducting simulations and calculations. The results show that the diffusion rate of Al along with the GB direction was much higher than that of Cu, and the preferential penetration and segregation of Al atoms acted as a barrier layer. Moreover, the addition of Al reduced the potential energy of Cu atoms, thus stabilizing their motion. These factors significantly inhibited the diffusion of Cu atoms along with the GB direction. The binding property of Fe GB doped with a high concentration of Cu was severely deteriorated, while the Al doping improved the atomic bonding. GBs with higher binding properties are less susceptible to fracture and groove under the application of tensile stress. This paper presents a novel perspective on the inhibition mechanism of LME cracks by doping a third component to inhibit the penetration of embrittlement atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salient object detection is vital for non-specific class subject segmentation in computer vision applications. However, accurately segmenting foreground subjects with complex backgrounds and intricate boundaries remains a challenge for existing methods. To address these limitations, our study proposes SU2GE-Net, which introduces several novel improvements. We replace the traditional CNN-based backbone with the transformer-based Swin-TransformerV2, known for its effectiveness in capturing long-range dependencies and rich contextual information. To tackle under and over-attention phenomena, we introduce Gated Channel Transformation (GCT). Furthermore, we adopted an edge-based loss (Edge Loss) for network training to capture spatial-wise structural details. Additionally, we propose Training-only Augmentation Loss (TTA Loss) to enhance spatial stability using augmented data. Our method is evaluated using six common datasets, achieving an impressive F β score of 0.883 on DUTS-TE. Compared with other models, SU2GE-Net demonstrates excellent performance in various segmentation scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To investigate underlying mechanism of JMJD2A in regulating cytoskeleton remodeling in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) resistant to docetaxel. Methods: Tissue samples from CRPC patients were collected, and the expression of JMJD2A, miR-34a and cytoskeleton remodeling-related proteins were evaluated by qPCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry, and pathological changes were observed by H&E staining. Further, JMJD2A, STMN1 and TUBB3 were knocked down using shRNA in CRPC cell lines, and cell viability, apoptosis and western blot assays were performed. The interaction between miR-34a/STMN1/β3-Tubulin was analyzed with dual-luciferase reporter and co-immunoprecipitation assays. Results: In clinical experiment, the CRPC-resistant group showed higher expression of JMJD2A, STMN1, α-Tubulin, β-Tubulin and F-actin, and lower expression of miR-34a and β3-Tubulin compared to the sensitive group. In vitro experiments showed that JMJD2A could regulate cytoskeletal remodeling through the miR-34a/STMN1/β3-Tubulin axis. The expression of miR-34a was elevated after knocking down JMJD2A, and miR-34a targeted STMN1. The overexpression of miR-34a was associated with a decreased expression of STMN1 and elevated expression of β3-Tubulin, which led to the disruption of the microtubule network, decreased cancer cell proliferation, cell cycle arrest in the G0/G1 phase, and increased apoptosis. Conclusion: JMJD2A promoted docetaxel resistance in prostate cancer cells by regulating cytoskeleton remodeling through the miR-34a/STMN1/β3-Tubulin axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frame field distributed inside the model region characterizes the singular structure features inside the model. These singular structures can be used to decompose the model region into multiple quadrilateral structures, thereby generating a block-structured quadrilateral mesh. For the generation of block-structured quadrilateral mesh for two-dimensional geometric models, a convolutional neural network model is proposed to identify the singular structure inside the model contained in the frame field. By training the network model with a large number of model region decomposition data obtained in advance, the model can identify the vectors of the frame field in the region located in the segmentation field. Then, the segmentation streamline is constructed from the annotation. Based on this, the geometric region is decomposed into several small regions, regions which are then discretized with quadrilateral mesh elements. Finally, through two geometric models, it is verified that the convolutional neural network model proposed in this study can effectively identify the singular structure inside the model to realize the model region decomposition and block-structured mesh generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It's challenging to use the machine vision to inspect the hot-rolled steel pipes with complex surface texture, uneven colour greyscale, and micro-cracks. On the basis of the principle of magnetic particle detection, a visual inspection method of steel pipe surface cracks based on the dry magnetic particle feature enhancement is proposed, in which the dry red magnetic particles are applied to the steel pipe's surface to form magnetic particle indication, and complementary colour images are captured in red and green light sources, and image difference is used to eliminate background noise and enhance magnetic particle indication features in view of the fact that the red light source improves and the green light source reduces the magnetic particle indication greyscale. Afterwards, the principle of selection of complementary colours and the detection principle are presented and analysed. Then, the magnetic particle images acquisition and the processing operations of the magnetic particle indication feature enhancement and crack segmentation are presented in detail. Finally, the feasibility of the method proposed in this paper is verified by experiments, and image segmentation metrics demonstrate that it has a good detection effect on the hot-rolled steel pipes with complex surface texture, uneven colour greyscale, and fuzzy cracks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Amorphous MoOx with pre-insertion of Al3+ was prepared via ion-exchange protocol. Al-MoOx anode had remarkable capacity and record-level cycling stability for proton battery. The proton battery using Al-MoOx anode achieved a high voltage of 1.37 V. Developing advanced electrode materials is crucial for improving the electrochemical performances of proton batteries. Currently, the anodes are primarily crystalline materials which suffer from inferior cyclic stability and high electrode potential. Herein, we propose amorphous electrode materials for proton batteries by using a general ion-exchange protocol to introduce multivalent metal cations for activating the host material. Taking Al3+ as an example, theoretical and experimental analysis demonstrates electrostatic interaction between metal cations and lattice oxygen, which is the primary barrier for direct introduction of the multivalent cations, is effectively weakened through ion exchange between Al3+ and pre-intercalated K+. The as-prepared Al-MoOx anode therefore delivered a remarkable capacity and outstanding cycling stability that outperforms most of the state-of-the-art counterparts. The assembled full cell also achieved a high voltage of 1.37 V. This work opens up new opportunities for developing high-performance electrodes of proton batteries by introducing amorphous materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research offers a timely examination of the functioning of China's National Supervisory Commission (NSC) in Dr. Li Wenliang's case. Based on the normative analysis and empirical study, this research identifies two flaws of the NSC preset by particular features of a Leninist state, which make it vulnerable to politicization in the initiation and the course of this investigation: (i) Overreliance on certain factional power distribution; (ii) Twofold identity as an anti-corruption agency and a party disciplinarian concurrently. By challenging both the institutionalization and deinstitutionalization arguments with a critical case, this research advances new theoretical knowledge on the self-defeating mechanisms compromising institutionalization in the Leninist regime and highlights the significance of differentiating subtypes of authoritarianism in the comparative study of institutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) is a commonly used indoor ornamental foliage, particularly in the middle and lower regions of the Yangtze River in China. It typically grows in the tropical area, and it is yet unclear whether prolonged winter temperatures cause plant damage and impact its development. In this study, the E. aureum chilling injury response was explored by maintaining it at 1 °C. Based on the acquired results, low-temperature stress (LTS) induced wilting and yellowing of leaves and diminished chloroplast pigment concentrations, particularly the chlorophyll b content. LTS also induced overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within E. aureum and enhanced the relative electrical conductivity and superoxide dismutase activity. In addition, with prolonged LTS, the anatomical structure of E. aureum was severely damaged, resulting in a marked reduction in the photochemical activity of the photosystem Ⅱ reaction center and suppressed photosynthesis. Moreover, results of the transcriptomic analysis revealed that LTS induced the expression of genes involved in the α-linolenic acid metabolic pathway, plant hormone network, host plant–pathogen association, and MAPK axis, suggesting that LTS would activate its resistant response to cold stress. These results unraveled the physiological and transcriptomical response of E. aureum to chilling injury, which would lay a theoretical foundation for the cultivation of low-temperature-tolerant varieties of E. aureum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental information disclosure (EID) is an important embodiment of corporate social responsibility. With the awakening of public awareness of environmental protection and the increasing pressure of environmental preservation, enterprises tend to strategically manipulate environmental information for the pursuit of profit, which will consequently lead to environmental information disclosure falsification (EIDF) and disruption of both the market regulatory order and the development of green economy. In this article, support vector machine (SVM) technique is applied to construct the detection model of corporate EIDF. Based on the theory of "public pressure," the detection indicators will be improved from three aspects: public pressure, corporate governance, and financial indicators. The training set and test set are constructed by combining the manually collected cases of environmental administrative penalties from 2015 to 2019 with the indicator information of nonfinancial listed enterprises in China's A-share market, and the SVM detection performance is compared with the logistic regression of the benchmark model. To solve the problem of category imbalance, we have introduced the Borderline-SMOTE oversampling technique. Based on the detection results of SVM and Borderline-SMOTE, we find that the Borderline-SMOTE-SVM model has the best detection performance, surpassing the SVM and logistic regression models. These conclusions have constructive policy implications for regulatory agencies, investors, the third-party service sector, enterprises, and government policy-making to achieve high-quality corporate EID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dessin is a 2-cell embedding of a connected 2-colored bipartite graph into an orientable closed surface. A dessin is regular if its group of automorphisms, preserving both color and orientation, acts transitively on its edge set. Leveraging the theory of metacyclic 2-groups, we undertake the classification and enumeration of regular dessins with complete bipartite underlying graphs of the form K 2 e , 2 f , while imposing the additional criterion of metacyclic automorphism groups. Our findings extend and generalize the earlier work of Du et al. (2007) [5]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zein-fucoidan (Fuc) nanocarriers are used to deliver curcumin (Cur). However, the structural effects of Fuc and Cur ligand molecules on zein are still understudied. Therefore, multi-spectral analysis and molecular docking methods were used in this study to investigate the interaction of Cur and Fuc on zein. The UV–visible, synchronous, and endogenous fluorescence showed that Cur and Fuc influence the microenvironment of the chromogenic amino acids in zein. The FT-IR confirmed the effect of Cur and Fuc molecules on secondary structure changes in zein. Raman spectroscopy further analyzed the hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding between Cur and Fuc on zein. And the fluorescence quenching of zein by Cur or Fuc was a single static quenching. Additionally, molecular docking showed that Fuc was attached to the outside of zein, while Cur was on the contrary. The findings of this study provide a theoretical basis for the further application of Fuc-zein nanocarriers. [Display omitted] • Curcumin (Cur) and fucoidan (Fuc) affected secondary and tertiary structure of zein. • The fluorescence quenching of zein by Cur or Fuc was a single static quenching. • The hydrophobic interaction of zein was enhanced by the presence of Cur and Fuc. • Fucoidan was attached to the outside of zein, while Cur was on the contrary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hippocampal salt-inducible kinase 2 (SIK2)-CREB-regulated transcription co-activator 1 (CRTC1) system has been demonstrated to participate in not only the pathogenesis of depression but also the antidepressant mechanisms of several antidepressant medications including fluoxetine, paroxetine, and mirtazapine. Like fluoxetine, paroxetine is also a widely used selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). Recent studies have indicated that paroxetine also modulates several pharmacological targets other than the 5-HT system. Here, we speculate that paroxetine regulates the hippocampal SIK2-CRTC1 system. Chronic stress models of depression, various behavioral tests, western blotting, co-immunoprecipitation, quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR, and genetic knockdown were used together in the present study. Our results show that the antidepressant actions of paroxetine in mice models of depression were accompanied by its preventing effects against chronic stress on hippocampal SIK2, CRTC1, and CRTC1-CREB binding. In contrast, genetic knockdown of hippocampal CRTC1 notably abrogated the antidepressant effects of paroxetine in mice. In summary, regulating hippocampal SIK2 and CRTC1 participates in the antidepressant mechanism of paroxetine, extending the knowledge of its pharmacological targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become the major stakeholder in global photovoltaic (PV) technology. However, the existing mechanistic interpretation of "what promotes the technological progress of the Chinese PV industry" is controversial. This paper takes China's A-share listed PV enterprises from 1999 to 2019 as the research sample and uses a panel fixed-effect regression model to empirically test the impact of research and development (R&D) investment and government subsidies on the technological progress of PV enterprises. The results show that there is an "N"-shaped nexus between R&D investment and technological progress, and most PV enterprises are in the climbing stage of the N-shaped curve. With the development of the PV industry, the nexus will undergo a transformation from inverted U-shaped to N-shaped, indicating that R&D investment is a key driver of PV technological progress. Yet, government subsidies are a "double-edged sword". They have a significant positive direct effect on PV technological progress but also a negative moderating effect. Tax returns play a positive incentivizing role, while financial subsidies play a negative moderating role. This study provides a policy basis for the timely reduction of financial subsidies and increased R&D investment to promote technological progress in China's PV industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: colored nectar; deceptive pollination; earwig; pigment; secondary metabolites; stemona EN colored nectar deceptive pollination earwig pigment secondary metabolites stemona 1 6 6 05/05/22 20220501 NES 220501 Colored nectar is an uncommon floral nectar trait that has been known since 1785 in angiosperms, being recorded in 68 taxa from 20 genera in 15 families (Hansen et al., 2007). During studies of the pollination ecology of I S. tuberosa i in the field, we discovered that the flowers of I S. tuberosa i could secrete red colored nectar at ~8:00 PM after the flower beginning to close after sunset (Figure 1b). The colorless nectar of the white flower mutant together with the absence of nectar in experimental removals of stamens showed that the pigment of colored nectar of I S. tuberosa i appeared to stem from red-purple stamens. [Extracted from the article]

The unexpected success of China's PV industry in technology catch-up has been noted. However, existing research has overlooked the multidimensional nonlinear complexities in its underlying mechanisms. This study introduces the "Seven-Element Diamond Model" theoretical framework and employs machine learning (ML) methods to address this. Using observed data from 84 listed China's PV companies from 2000 to 2021, we systematically examine the intricate mechanisms of technology catch-up in China's PV industry. Key findings include: 1) The self-enhancing mechanism stemming from R&D effort, government subsidies, and domestic demand is pivotal for the successful technology catch-up of China's PV industry. 2) Key regulatory directions are identified from R&D effort to market competition, technology spillover, productivity, and government subsidies. 3) R&D effort forms the underlying logic of China's PV industry technology catch-up, and domestic market demand is an extremely important driver for China's PV technology catch-up. Government subsidies exhibit a "blowout" incentive effect, and the synergistic coupling between key variables is also significant in driving China's PV technology catch-up. This study offers valuable insights into the catch-up of clean energy or sustainable technologies in China and other emerging economies. [Display omitted] • Constructed the theoretical framework of the Seven-Element Diamond Model. • The self-reinforcing mechanism among R&D efforts, government subsidies, and domestic demand are investigated. • Key regulatory directions from R&D efforts to market competitiveness, technology spillovers, productivity, and government subsidies are identified. • R&D efforts are the underlying logic of China's photovoltaic industry technology catch-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid measurement of radon progeny concentration is of great significance for improving the efficiency of radon exposure dose evaluation in a specific area. In order to achieve rapid measurement of radon progeny concentration in engineering applications, this study is based on the rapid calculation function of BP (back propagation) neural network and uses other relevant environmental parameters to quickly obtain the radon progeny alpha potential energy. The relative standard uncertainty is 7.6% (k = 2), which met the uncertainty requirements of the standard of JJG (Military) 99-2015.The radon progeny alpha potential energy and its related parameters are substituted into the constructed neural network for training. According to the set training requirements, the range is set to 0–760 μJ/m3, and the simulation results meet the requirements of the "JJG (Military Industry) 99-2015" standard. The effect of rapid measurement can be achieved under the condition of ensuring measurement accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community detection is to divide a graph or a network into several components with high intra-edge density in a single-layer network. However, a multiplex network, consisting of multiple layers which share the same nodes but each owning different types of edges, brings new challenges for community detection. Although many classic algorithms and several multiplex embedding-based models try to address this problem, i.e. community detection in multiplex networks, they mostly focus on the local topological structures but ignoring the global information in each network layer, which is important for encoding intra-layer structural attributes and merging inter-layer semantic relations. In this paper, we propose a graph-enhanced attention model (GEAM) for community detection in multiplex networks by utilizing the above global information. In particular, the GEAM first constructs a layer contrastive learning module to encode node and graph embedding from the local and global graph view in each network layer. We also propose a self-attention adaptive fusion mechanism to learn a comprehensive version of node representation by fusing multiple layers. Finally, we propose an edge density-driven community detection module to train our GEAM in an end-to-end manner and output community divisions with strong modular structures. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets validate the superiority of our GEAM over the state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of better community detection performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist exenatide (exendin-4) has potential protective capabilities against diabetic kidney disease (DKD). However, the underlying mechanism has not been fully elucidated. The expression of thioredoxin-interacting protein (Txnip) is upregulated during DKD progression by histone acetylation. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) is a deacetylase and is decreased in DKD, which indicates that it may regulate Txnip in this disease. Here, we used whole-body heterozygous Sirt1 knockout (Sirt1 +/- ) and kidney-specific Sirt1 knockout (KSK) mice to investigate whether SIRT1 regulates Txnip via histone deacetylation in DKD and exenatide-alleviated DKD. Exenatide substantially improved renal pathological damage, decreased the albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR), upregulated SIRT1 expression, and downregulated Txnip expression in kidneys of high-fat diet-treated C57BL/6J mice. However, these effects diminished in Sirt1 +/- and KSK mice under exenatide treatment. The downregulation of Txnip expression by exendin-4 in high-glucose-treated SV40 MES13 cells was hampered during Sirt1 knockdown. These results demonstrate that kidney SIRT1 is indispensable in exenatide-improved DKD and downregulation of Txnip expression. Exendin-4 mechanistically downregulated Txnip histone 3 lysine 9 acetylation (H3K9ac) in a SIRT1-dependent manner and decreased spliced X-box binding protein 1 (XBP1s) recruitment to the Txnip promoter. These findings provide epigenetic evidence elucidating the specific mechanism for exenatide-mediated DKD alleviation and highlight the importance of Txnip as a promising therapeutic target for DKD. [Display omitted] • Exenatide exerts renoprotection in HFD-induced DKD via kidney SIRT1. • Exenatide/exendin-4 downregulates Txnip expression in a SIRT1-dependent way. • Exendin-4 decreases Txnip H3K9ac and reduces XBP1s recruitment at its promoter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of rolling on nanomechanical and mechanical behavior of Mg-7Li alloy was investigated by nanoindentation, tensile test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The α -Mg phase elongated along the rolling direction and gradually cracked. As the rolling ratio increased from 3 to 10, the hardness of α -Mg and β -Li phase increased by 7.35% and 20.75%, respectively. The fracture of alloys changed from ductile fracture to quasi-cleavage fracture. The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength increased by 23 MPa and 12 MPa, respectively, while elongation reduced by 12.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the large evanescent field of microfibers, a novel fiber sensor composed of a microfiber knot resonator and a fiber Bragg grating is proposed for the simultaneous measurement of temperature and refractive index of solutions. Due to the different responses of the microfiber knot resonator and fiber Bragg grating to temperature and refractive index variations, the fiber sensor can measure temperature and refractive index simultaneously by utilizing the sensitivity matrix. The experimental measurement results show that the sensitivities of the microfiber knot resonator and the fiber Bragg grating to temperature are 12.1 pm/°C and 11.6 pm/°C, respectively. The sensitivity of the microfiber knot resonator to the refractive index of solutions is 315 nm/RIU. It is indicated that microfiber knot resonators have a high sensitivity to the refractive index variation of solutions. Considering its small size, low cost, and high stability, the sensor proposed has a prospect in the fields of chemistry and biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With plane-wave expansion and the Green function method, the second harmonic generation in a two-dimensional metal photonic band gap (PBG) material is studied theoretically. By appropriately selecting the structural parameters of the PBG material, the wave vectors of the fundamental and the second harmonics can be set at the edges of the PBG. In this case, the second harmonic can be realized efficiently due to metal surface nonlinearity. The discussion can be generalized to three-dimensional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the electron transport and thermoelectric property of twisted bilayer graphene nanoribbon junction (TBGNRJ) in 0°, 21.8°, 38.2° and 60° rotation angles by first principles calculation with Landauer-Buttiker and Boltzmann theories. It is found that TBGNRJs exhibit a strong reduction of thermal conductance compared with the single graphene nanoribbon (GNR) and negative differential resistance (NDR) in 21.8° and 38.2° rotation angles under ± 0.2 V bias voltage. More importantly, three peak ZT values of 2.0, 2.7 and 6.1 can be achieved in the 21.8° rotation angle at 300 K. The outstanding ZT values of TBGNRJs are interpreted as the combination of the reduced thermal conductivity and enhanced electrical conductivity at optimized angles. Image 101 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impacts of morphologies of both membrane and foulant on interaction energies related with adhesive fouling in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) were explored by thermodynamic analyses. Interaction energies in three possible interaction scenarios regarding different membrane and foulant morphologies under conditions in this study were quantified according to the thermodynamic methods. It was interestingly found that, strength of total interaction between soluble microbial products (SMPs) and rough membrane was over 20,000 times of that between sludge flocs and rough membrane under same conditions, indicating the extremely higher adhesion ability of SMPs than the large particulate foulants. This result plausibly explained the high fouling propensity of SMPs over sludge flocs. As compared with smooth surfaces, rough surfaces of both membrane and sludge flocs significantly reduced total interaction strength, alleviating adhesive fouling caused by the sludge flocs. Reduce in fractal dimension ( D f ) of membrane increased adhesive fouling caused by the SMPs, but alleviated adhesive fouling caused by the sludge flocs. These findings gave important implications to better understand and control membrane fouling in MBRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) posits that differentiated environmental regulations will result in inter-country relocation of dirty industries. This article proposes a pollution haven hypothesis validated model to conduct a comprehensive analysis on the PHH in a case study of the Belt and Road, composed of calculating carbon emission embodied in imports and exports, testing the PHH and exploring the formation mechanism of pollution havens. The findings obtained show that China has become a pollution haven for 22 developed countries, and 19 developing countries have become China's pollution havens. There is weak evidence in favor of the PHH in trades between China and the other 22 countries. Moreover, the validity of the PHH is jointly associated with international production fragmentation as well as factor endowment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology is generally considered as one of the most promising technologies for wastewater treatment and recovery, membrane fouling remains the major obstacle limiting its applications. Interfacial interactions, which critically determine adhesion process and membrane fouling, were investigated in this study. It was found that, natural membrane surface was of a Gaussian surface obeying Gaussian distribution. A Gaussian approach integrating Fourier transform technique, Gaussian distribution and spectrum method was deduced to simulate rough surface topography of membrane. Thereafter, surface element integral (SEI) method, together with composite Simpson rule and triangulation of Gaussian surface was proposed to calculate interfacial interactions. By using the unified method, quantification of interfacial interactions with a Gaussian membrane surface was realized for the first time to date. It was further found that, membrane surface topography had profound impacts on interfacial interactions and adhesive fouling in the MBR. The deduced method can be used to address impacts of various factors on interfacial interactions and adhesive fouling, posing in-depth thermodynamic insights into membrane fouling and pointing towards its widespread potential in fouling research in MBRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Vanadium oxide is a promising pseudocapacitive electrode, but their capacitance, especially at high current densities, requires improvement for practical applications. Herein, a VOx@MoO3 composite electrode is constructed through a facile electrochemical method. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrate a modification on the chemical environment and electronic structure of VOx upon the effective interaction with the thin layer of MoO3. A careful investigation of the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data reveals much enhanced power capability of the composite electrode. More charge storage sites will also be created at/near the heterogeneous interface. Due to those synergistic effects, the VOx@MoO3 electrode shows excellent electrochemical performance. It provides a high capacitance of 1980 mF cm−2 at 2 mA cm−2. Even at the high current density of 100 mA cm−2, it still achieves 1166 mF cm−2 capacitance, which doubles the sum of single electrodes. The MoO3 layer also helps to prevent VOx structure deformation, and 94% capacitance retention over 10 000 cycles is obtained for the composite electrode. This work demonstrates an effective strategy to induce interactions between heterogeneous components and enhance the electrochemical performance, which can also be applied to other pseudocapacitive electrode candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel six-membered cyclic phosphate mimics (5-halo-3,3-difluoro-3,6-dihydro-2 H -1,2-oxaphosphinine 2-oxides) were synthesized via CuX 2 (X = Br, Cl)-mediated halocyclization of 1,1-difluoro-2,3-allenylphosphonic acid monoesters in moderate to good yields with high regio-selectivity. This reaction represents the first example of transition metal-mediated intramolecular cyclization of a P-OH moiety to β-allenylphosphonates with a carbon-carbon double bond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the effect of solution pH and ionic strength on membrane biofouling of anammox bacteria is essential for the widespread application of anammox MBRs. To provide an original elucidation, this study combined interfacial thermodynamics analysis and filtration experiments with an established planktonic anammox MBR to explore the biofouling behavior of anammox bacteria under varying solution pH and ionic strengths. Preliminary results showed that variation in solution pH and ionic strength has critical impacts on the thermodynamic properties of planktonic anammox bacteria and membrane surfaces. The further interfacial thermodynamics analysis and filtration experiments indicated that an increased pH and a decreased ionic strength could reduce membrane fouling by planktonic anammox bacteria. More specifically, a higher pH or lower ionic strength resulted in a stronger repulsive energy barrier due to the larger interaction distance covered by the dominant electrostatic double layer (EL) component compared to the Lewis acid-base (AB) and Lifshitz–van der Waals (LW) components, which corresponded to a reduction in the normalized flux (J/J 0) decline and the accumulation of cake resistance (R c) during the filtration process. Furthermore, the aforementioned effect mechanism was verified by a correlation analysis of the thermodynamic properties and filtration behavior. These findings have generalized significance for understanding the biofouling or aggregation behavior of anammox bacteria. [Display omitted] • A planktonic anammox MBR was achieved with stable nitrogen removal performance. • Effect of pH and ionic strength on anammox bacteria biofouling was elucidated. • Stronger repulsive energy barrier resulted from higher pH or lower ionic strength. • Cake resistance was significantly affected by solution pH and ionic strength. • Filtration resistance related to the thermodynamic properties of anammox bacteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Simplified subgrade based on Winkler's model. • Nonlinear contact stress on subgrade at the time of column footing punching shear failure. • Effect of eccentricity and column perimeter to effective depth ratio on the punching shear capacity of column footings. • New punching shear strength model that can consider nonlinearity of contact stress. The present design codes assume a linear distribution of contact stress on subgrade. Actually, the contact stress on subgrade is a nonlinear distribution. To evaluate the error caused by linear contact stress relative to nonlinear contact stress on the punching shear strength of RC footing, this paper performed punching test of footing with different eccentricity and the column perimeter to effective depth ratio, considering nonlinear contact stress on subgrade. Based on the experimental results and analysis, a bilinear contact stress distribution on subgrade is proposed. Furthermore, the calculation method based on the most unfavorable side checking is proposed to weaken the influence of the overall nonlinear contact stress. Finally, the proposed calculation method is verified for reliability and applicability based on the available experimental data. The results show that eccentricity and column perimeter to effective depth ratio significantly affect the punching shear capacity. The error caused by linear contact stress should be a concern by the codes. The bilinear contact stress distribution on subgrade is suitable for non-cohesive soil. The proposed calculation method has good reliability and applicability, and it meets the challenge posed by the nonlinear contact stress on subgrade for the assessment of column footing punching shear capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantification of interfacial interactions between particles provides a way to regulate the interface behaviors of particles related with adhesion, aggregation, flotation, flocculation, membrane fouling, etc. Existing methods are based on assumptions of smooth particles although real particle surfaces are rather rough. This study proposed a new method to quantify interfacial interactions between two rough particles. In this study, a rigorous mathematical equation was firstly introduced to construct surface topography. In the framework of surface element integration (SEI) method, the spatial relationship between two rough particles was significantly explored, resulting in establishment of a formula of double integrals for interaction quantification. Thereafter, surface properties of the microbial aggregations obtained from a membrane bioreactor (MBR) were experimentally measured. With these data, the interfacial interactions between two rough microbial aggregations were numerically quantified according to composite Simpson’s rule. The new method was compared with Derjaguin approximation (DA) method. It was found that ripple frequency and particle radius had profound effects on the total interfacial interaction. This method has extensive application foreground in interfacial behavior research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the characteristics of expansive soil from Pingdingshan, China, the shear strength parameters at different water contents, dry densities, and dry-wet cycles of expansive soil are obtained. It is found that, at higher soil-water content, the internal friction angle is 0° and the shallow layer of expansive soil slope will collapse and destroy; this has nothing to do with the height of the slope and the size of the slope. The parameters of soil influenced by atmosphere are the ones which have gone through dry-wet cycles, and the parameters of soil without atmospheric influence are the same as those of natural soil. In the analysis of slope stability, the shear strength parameters of soil can be determined by using the finite element method, and the stability coefficient of the expansive soil slope can be calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling rough surfaces has emerged as a distinct discipline of considerable research interest in interface behaviors including membrane fouling. In this paper, a facile method was proposed to simulate rough membrane surface morphology. Natural membrane surface was found to be randomly rough, and its height distribution obeys Gaussian distribution. A new method which combines spectrum method, Gaussian distribution and Fourier transform technique was deduced. Simulation of the rough membrane surface showed high similarity in terms of statistical roughness and height distribution between the simulated surface and the real membrane surface, indicating feasibility of the new method. It was found that, correlation length ( l ) and the number of superposed ridges ( N ) are key parameters affecting the simulated membrane surface morphology. This new method has evident advantages over conventional modeling methods The proposed method for randomly rough membrane surface modeling could be potentially used to quantify the interfacial interactions between two rough surfaces, giving implications for membrane fouling mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantitatively evaluating interaction energy between two randomly rough surfaces is the prerequisite to quantitatively understand and control membrane fouling in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). In this study, a new unified approach to construct rough topographies and to quantify interaction energy between a randomly rough particle and a randomly rough membrane was proposed. It was found that, natural rough topographies of both foulants and membrane could be well constructed by a modified two-variable Weierstrass-Mandelbrot (WM) function included in fractal theory. Spatial differential relationships between two constructed surfaces were accordingly established. Thereafter, a new approach combining these relationships, surface element integration (SEI) approach and composite Simpson’s rule was deduced to calculate the interaction energy between two randomly rough surfaces in a submerged MBR. The obtained results indicate the profound effects of surface morphology on interaction energy and membrane fouling. This study provided a basic approach to investigate membrane fouling and interface behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-situ growing of energy storage materials on graphene-based substrates/current collectors with low defect is a good way to boost electron transport and so enhance rate capability for the obtained electrode. Herein, high-quality graphene-like nanopetals are partially exfoliated from graphite foil (GF) through a facile and fast cathodic process. Three-dimensional porous structure is established for the afforded cathodically-exfoliated graphite foil (CEG), with many graphene-like nanopetals vertically anchoring on the graphite substrate. A hierarchical structure is constructed by the following electrochemical growth of Co−Ni double hydroxide nanopetals on the graphene atop CEG. The double hydroxide in the obtained electrode with the optimized Co 2+ /Ni 2+ molar ratio, Co 0.75 Ni 0.25 (OH) 2 -CEG, displays much improved rate capability and so can deliver a high specific capacitance of 1460 F g −1 at an ultra-high current density of 100 A g −1 . An asymmetric device is assembled by using Co 0.75 Ni 0.25 (OH) 2 -CEG as cathode, which demonstrates a high energy density of 31.6 Wh kg −1 at an ultra-high power density of 21.5 kW kg −1 , showing the potential of the hierarchical composite electrode for high power application. The device also displays good stability, it can retain more than 90% of its capacitance after 10000 galvanostatic charge-discharge cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantification of interfacial interactions between two rough surfaces represents one of the most pressing requirements for membrane fouling prediction and control in membrane bioreactors (MBRs). This study firstly constructed regularly rough membrane and particle surfaces by using rigorous mathematical equations. Thereafter, a new method involving surface element integration (SEI) method, differential geometry and composite Simpson’s rule was proposed to quantify the interfacial interactions between the two constructed rough surfaces. This new method were then applied to investigate interfacial interactions in a MBR with the data of surface properties of membrane and foulants experimentally measured. The feasibility of the new method was verified. It was found that asperity amplitude and period of the membrane surface exerted profound effects on the total interaction. The new method had broad potential application fields especially including guiding membrane surface design for membrane fouling mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on anode materials with high capacitive performance is lagging behind that of cathode materials, which has severely hindered the development of high-efficient energy storage devices. Compared with other anode materials, Fe 3 O 4 exhibits highly desirable advantages due to its low cost, high theoretical capacity and preferable electronic conductivity of ∼10 2 S cm −1 . Herein, hierarchical honeycomb Fe 3 O 4 is integrated on functionalized exfoliated graphite through electrochemical deposition and the following chemical conversion. The hierarchical honeycomb Fe 3 O 4 is constructed by the oxide nanorods, which are assembled by a number of nanoparticles. This unique porous structure not only ensures fast ion diffusion in the electrode, but also provides large amount of active sites for electrochemical reactions. The exfoliated graphene atop the graphite base can act as 3D conductive scaffold to facilitate the electron transport of the electrode. Therefore, FEG/Fe 3 O 4 exhibits large specific capacitances of 327 F g −1 @1 A g −1 and 275 F g −1 @10 A g −1 . Good cycling stability is also achieved due to the flexibility of the graphene substrate. The assembled asymmetric device using FEG/Fe 3 O 4 as anode can deliver a high energy density of 54 Wh kg −1 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influences of fractal dimension ( D f ) of membrane surface on interfacial interactions related to membrane fouling in a membrane bioreactor were investigated based on thermodynamic methods. It was found that membrane surface had significant fractal features, and its fractal dimension could be characterized by the power spectrum method. The modified Weierstrass-Mandelbrot (WM) function was found to be effective to model the fractal membrane surface, and higher D f corresponded to higher number of fine asperities in the modeled surface. Moreover, the modeled surface roughness exponentially decreased with D f . Interaction calculations according to a novel method showed that the interactions for fractal membrane surface were elongated and weakened as compared with smooth membrane surface. It was interestingly found that the absolute value of total interaction monotonically decreased with D f of membrane surface. As D f is a measure of substance stiffness, this result indicates that softer surface is more susceptible to adhesion by sludge foulant. The results offered new insights into membrane fouling mechanisms and alleviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discussed the differences in corrosion resistance and antimicrobial properties between nickel-aluminum bronze (NAB) fabricated by WAAM and cast. Compared with castings, the grain size of WAAM-NAB was smaller, and the precipitation of the κ phase was limited. The corrosion of WAAM-NAB occurred in the residual β phase with a suppression of selective phase corrosion, so its corrosion resistance was improved. The Cu ions of the WAAM-NAB were released more rapidly to achieve a more effective sterilization. The microbial corrosion resistance of WAAM-NAB was better than that of cast alloys. • WAAM-NAB has better corrosion resistance than cast alloy in artificial seawater. • In artificial seawater containing E.coli, corrosion of the cast alloy occurred in the κ phase, and the corrosion resistance was lower than that of WAAM-NAB. • The Cu ions of the WAAM-NAB were released more rapidly and were more effective in sterilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A 7-layer lightweight plant disease identification network LiteCNN is designed and knowledge distillation method is used to train LiteCNN, so that LiteCNN has a simple structure as well as high accuracy. • Separable convolution instead of regular convolution is employed to reduce the computation and the number of parameters of LiteCNN. • A low-redundancy block convolution approach is designed to reduce repeated data reading, thus reducing the latency of LiteCNN circuit. • BN layer is fused into the previous convolutional layer or fully-connect layer, instead of designing a standalone modular circuit for BN layer, so as to reduce the resource consumption and computation time. • The acceleration circuit of LiteCNN is designed and implemented on the FPGA development board ZYNQ Z7-Lite 7020, and is optimized for its parallel computation with four methods: unrolling the for-loop, pipelining the for-loop, loop_flattening and array partitioning. • LiteCNN is implemented on different devices, and the performance are compared in terms of speed, accuracy, power consumption and price. Using convolutional neural network (CNN) to identify plant diseases in-situ is a hot research topic in smart agriculture. Due to the memory-intensive and compute-intensive characteristics of CNN algorithm, it is difficult to implement CNN on edge terminals with limited memory and computational resources. In this paper, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is used to accelerate CNN to identify plant diseases. First, a 7-layer simple-structured network called "LiteCNN", with only 176 K parameters and 78.47 M floating point operations (FLOPs) was designed. And knowledge distillation method was used to train LiteCNN, making that the accuracy reaches 95.24 %. Secondly, the acceleration circuit of LiteCNN was designed and implemented on "ZYNQ Z7-Lite 7020″ FPGA board. To compress the network and speed up plant disease identification, the following methods were applied: 1) Separable convolution took place of regular convolution, and a low-redundancy block convolution approach was used to load data; 2) The Batch Normalization (BN) layer was fused into the previous convolutional layer (or fully-connected layer); 3) Feature data and model parameters were expressed by half float data. As the basic function of the circuit achieved, methods including unrolling the for-loop, pipelining the for-loop, loop flattening and array partitioning were used to optimize the parallelism of the circuit. Finally, LiteCNN on the FPGA board was verified. The plant disease identification accuracy was 95.71 %, the inference speed was 0.071 s per frame, and the power consumption was 2.41 W. The results show that this paper proposed a low-power, high-accuracy and fast-speed plant disease identification terminal, which can be well applied for real-time plant disease identification in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the risk factors associated with the peripheral venous catheter-related complication and infection in children with bronchopneumonia. Methods: A total of 185 patients were divided into case group (n = 114) and control group (n = 71) according to the presence of catheter-related infection and complications related to indwelling needle. We performed a multivariate logistic regression analysis to explore the risk factors associated with the infection. Results: Age was divided into 4 categories (0 < age ≤ 1, 1 < age ≤ 3, 3 < age ≤ 6, age > 6). The case group had a higher percentage of patients with 0 < age ≤ 1 than the control group (21% vs. 9.7%) and the age distribution was significant different between the two groups (P = 0.045). The case group had a longer retention time than the control group (≥ 3 days: 56% vs. 35%, P < 0.001). The results of binary logistics regression analysis revealed that the indwelling time and indwelling site were the factors that influenced the complications or bacterial infection. Among the three indwelling sites, the hand is more prone to infection and indwelling needle-related complications than the head (OR: 2.541, 95% CI 1.032 to 6.254, P = 0.042). The longer the indwelling time, the more likely the infection and indwelling needle related complications (OR: 2.646, 95% CI 1.759 to 3.979, P< 0.001). Conclusion: Indwelling time and indwelling site are the influencing factors of complications or bacterial infection, which should be paid more attention to prevent the catheter-related infection in children with bronchophenumonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interfacial interactions between foulants and membrane directly determine foulant adhesion and membrane fouling. In this study, surface of sludge foulant particles (flocs) was found to be rough, and could be modeled by a sinusoidal sphere function. A novel method, which combined surface element integration (SEI) method, differential geometry and composite Simpson’s rule, was developed to quantify the interfacial interactions between the modeled rough floc surface and membrane surface. Application of the novel method in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) provides broad profiles of quantitative interactions with rough floc surface with separation distance. It is also found that increase in the scaled amplitude of floc surface significantly reduced the interaction strength. Derjaguin’s approximation (DA) can be regarded as a special case of the novel method, indicating the extensive application prospect of the novel method. The novel method for interaction calculation was verified to be correct and feasible. Finally, roles of the novel method in membrane fouling research were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic responses of parallel hoisting system with time-varying length and rigid guidance under drive deviation are investigated considering tension and torsion characteristics of the ropes. The variable-domain three-node elements of rope are employed and the corresponding differential algebraic equations (DAEs) are derived using Lagrange’s equations of the first kind. The slack situation of the rope is considered, and the dynamic equations which are systems of DAEs are transformed to ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The dynamic responses of tension, torsion, and acceleration are analyzed considering radius’ error of the drums, which indicates that the drive deviation between ropes can cause large influence on the tension difference and even cause one of the ropes to slack. However, the torsion of the corresponding rope is active. And unreasonable discordance between ropes should be controlled for the design and manufacture of drum on super deep parallel hoisting system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The passivity and semiconducting behaviors of a high nitrogen-containing nickel-free stainless steel (HNSS) in 0.05 mol/L H2SO4 + 0.5 mol/L NaCl have been investigated. Results indicated that HNSS offered excellent pitting corrosion resistance in corrosive environments. Three corrosion potential values were observed in potentiodynamic polarization response, indicating the existence of an unstable system. The current transient and Mott-Schottky plots demonstrated that the stability of passive films decreased with the increase of applied potentials. The angle resolved X-ray photoelectron spectrometric results revealed that the primary constituents of passive films formed in 0.05 mol/L H2SO4 + 0.5 mol/L NaCl solution were composed of iron oxides, manganese oxides, Cr2O3, and Cr(OH)3. Meanwhile, it indicated that molybdenum oxides did not exist in the oxide layer, but chloride ions were present in the passive films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]