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The effects of moisturized inflow on turbocharger compressor performance and aerodynamic noise were numerical analyzed in this paper. The gas-liquid two-phase flow method based on Euler-Lagrange model was firstly introduced. The influence of water concentration and water droplet diameter on compressor performance and internal flow characteristics at design speed were studied using the two-phase flow method. The compressor aerodynamic noise was also predicted at design condition under two different inflow conditions, including ideal inflow and moisturized inflow with 0.1% water concentration. The results indicate that moisturized inflow with an appropriate water concentration can reduce the outlet temperature of the compressor and improve the compressor performance, in which the water concentration is a dominant parameter. There is a phase transition process of water in the compressor with moisturized inflow, but moisturized inflow has little effects on the compressor internal flow characteristics. Moreover, the moisturized inflow also has influence on compressor aerodynamic noise.

CdZnTe:In (CZT:In) films were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide-coated (FTO) substrates by close-spaced sublimation method, and the structural, morphological, and optical properties of CZT:In f...

A flower-like SnO/ZnO heterojunction photocatalyst with high catalytic activity was synthesized by a simple ultrasonic reaction method. Results show that the SnO/ZnO composites consist of SnO, SnO2, and ZnO. The flower-like structure is made of many SnO nanosheets with a thickness of approximately 20 nm and length of 1–2 μm. A tight interface combination of SnO, SnO2, and ZnO clearly improves the photoactivity of SnO. The photocatalytic performance of the SnO/ZnO composite is much higher than that of ZnO raw materials and SnO sample. The degradation rate of the methyl orange of the SnO/ZnO composite is 99% within 60 min under visible-light irradiation.

SnO samples were prepared from SnCl2 and NH4HCO3 by microwave–hydrothermal method. The effects of temperature on the composition, microstructure, and photocatalytic properties of SnO were studied. Results showed that samples synthesized at 50–90 °C for 10 min were composed of SnO and tiny SnO2 particles. All SnO samples displayed good photocatalytic activities. The sample synthesized at 60 °C was composed of numerous porous microspheres, which were 5–10 µm in size and assembled by SnO nanosheets. In general, the SnO samples possessed excellent visible photocatalytic properties and can degrade 87.5% of methyl orange within 80 min.

The security of cloud data has always been a concern. Cloud server provider may maliciously tamper or delete user’s data for their own benefit, so data integrity audit is of great significance to verify whether data is modified or not. Based on the general three-party audit architecture, a dynamic auditing scheme without bilinear pairings is proposed in this paper. It utilizes exponential operation instead of bilinear mapping to verify the validity of evidence. By establishing the mapping relation between logic index and tag index of data block with index transformation table, this scheme can easily support dynamic data operation. By hiding random numbers in the integrity evidence, this scheme can protect users’ privacy information. Detailed security analysis shows that our scheme is secure against attacks such as forgery, replaying and substitution. Further experiments demonstrate that our scheme has lower computational overhead.

SnO microspheres were synthesized by a simple one-step ultrasonic reaction method. SnO materials were annealed at 150–250 °C to enhance their photocatalytic performance by adjusting their phase composition and lattice distortion. Effects of annealed temperature on the phase composition, microstructure and photocatalytic performance of SnO materials were investigated in detail. The results reveal that the annealing treatment considerably affected phase composition, absorption in the visible light zone, and the photocatalytic activity of the SnO materials. At increased temperature, SnO2 content in the products gradually increased. At 250 °C, SnO materials were transformed to SnO2. Correspondingly, the photocatalytic activity of the samples improved gradually with increasing temperature. The excellent photocatalytic efficiency of 98.3% within 40 min for the SnO microspheres annealed at 225 °C was achieved under the visible-light irradiation. The enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of this sample can be ascribed to lattice distortion of SnO combined with increased SnO2 content.

The emergent plants may differ in their capacity to assimilate nutrients from eutrophic water bodies, so the utilization of suitable emergent plants is the key part for successful restoration of shallow eutrophic lakes and rivers. This research applied the depletion method to study the kinetics of uptake of nutrient (, , ) in different nutrient stresses by the five emergent aquatic plants (Acorus calamus L., Typha orientalis, Lythrum salicaria L., Sagittaria trifolia L., Alisma plantago-aquatica Linn) in the riverine zones of Dashi River (39&deg, 30&prime, &ndash, 39&deg, 40&prime, N, 115&deg, 59&prime, 116&deg, 5&prime, E), a shallow eutrophic river located in Fangshan District, Beijing. The results showed that at the three phosphorus levels, A. calamus and A. plantago-aquatica had the highest maximum uptake rate values for under low to moderate phosphorus conditions, and high phosphorus, respectively. T. orientalis had the highest maximum uptake rate values for at all phosphorus concentrations, while the Michaelis˗Menten constant values of L. salicaria and A. plantago-aquatica were smaller. At the three nitrogen levels, the maximum uptake rate values for were the greatest for A. plantago-aquatica at the low to moderate nitrogen levels and L. salicaria at high levels. Meanwhile, T. orientalis and L. salicaria had the smallest Michaelis˗Menten constant values. In this study, nitrogen microbial transformations, such as nitrification, denitrification and their coupling were not measured and their role in measuring kinetics was not assessed. Thus, achieved results shall be considered as a synthesis of several processes mediated by plants, a theoretical guidance to the selection of plant species for phytoremediation of polluted water bodies with different nutrient stresses for quality improvement around the diverse rivers in Haihe River basin.

Anisotropy in electronic structures may ignite intriguing anisotropic optical responses, as has been well demonstrated in various systems including superconductors, semiconductors, and even topological Weyl semimetals. Meanwhile, it is well established in metal optics that the metal reflectance declines from one to zero when the photon frequency is above the plasma frequency {\omega}p , behaving as a plasma mirror. However, the exploration of anisotropic plasma mirrors and corresponding applications remains elusive, especially at room temperature. Here, we discover a pronounced anisotropic plasma reflectance edge in the type-II Weyl semimetal WP2, with an anisotropy ratio of {\omega}p up to 1.5. Such anisotropic plasma mirror behavior and its robustness against temperature promise optical device applications over a wide temperature range. For example, the high sensitivity of polarization-resolved plasma reflectance edge renders WP2 an inherent polarization detector. We further achieve a room-temperature WP2-based optical switch, effectively controlled by simply tuning the light polarization. These findings extend the frontiers of metal optics as a discipline and promise the design of multifunctional devices combining both topological and optical features.

Homologous recombination (HR) is often used to achieve targeted gene integration because of its higher precision and operability compared with microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) or non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ). It appears to be inefficient for gene integration in animal cells and embryos due to occurring only during cell division. Here we developed genome-wide high-throughput screening and a subsequently paired crRNA library screening to search for genes suppressing homology-directed repair (HDR). We found that, in the reporter system, HDR cells with knockdown of SHROOM1 were enriched as much as 4.7-fold than those with control. Down regulating SHROOM1 significantly promoted gene integration in human and mouse cells after cleavage by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein-9 nuclease (Cas9), regardless of the donor types. The knock-in efficiency of mouse embryos could also be doubled by the application of SHROOM1 siRNA during micro-injection. The increased HDR efficiency of SHROOM1 deletion in HEK293T cells could be counteracted by YU238259, an HDR inhibitor, but not by an NHEJ inhibitor. These results indicated that SHROOM1 was an HDR-suppressed gene and that the SHROOM1 knockdown strategy may be useful for a variety of applications, including gene editing to generate cell lines and animal models for studying gene function and human diseases.

Homologous recombination (HR) is often used to achieve targeted gene integration because of its higher precision and operability compared with microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) or non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ). It appears to be inefficient for gene integration in animal cells and embryos due to occurring only during cell division. Here we developed genome-wide high-throughput screening and a subsequently paired crRNA library screening to search for genes suppressing homology-directed repair (HDR). We found that, in the reporter system, HDR cells with knockdown of SHROOM1 were enriched as much as 4.7-fold than those with control. Down regulating SHROOM1 significantly promoted gene integration in human and mouse cells after cleavage by clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein-9 nuclease (Cas9), regardless of the donor types. The knock-in efficiency of mouse embryos could also be doubled by the application of SHROOM1 siRNA during micro-injection. The increased HDR efficiency of SHROOM1 deletion in HEK293T cells could be counteracted by YU238259, an HDR inhibitor, but not by an NHEJ inhibitor. These results indicated that SHROOM1 was an HDR-suppressed gene and that the SHROOM1 knockdown strategy may be useful for a variety of applications, including gene editing to generate cell lines and animal models for studying gene function and human diseases.

Additional file 1. Additional figures and tables.

SnO/CB composite photocatalysts with different carbon black (CB) contents were prepared by ultrasonic reaction method. CB addition significantly affected the morphology and photocatalytic a...

SnO/reduced graphene oxide photocatalysts were prepared using ultrasonic synthesis with SnCl2 · 2H2O, NH4HCO3, and GO powders. Photocatalytic properties of samples were estimated by the degradation of methyl orange (MO). An SnO/graphene oxide composite containing small amounts of SnO2 was obtained. Numerous nano SnO/SnO2 particles were loaded uniformly on the RGO thin flakes. The composites possessed excellent photocatalytic activity, which may degrade 99% of MO under visible light irradiation within 50 min.

SnO/Graphitic-C3N4 (g-C3N4) photocatalysts were prepared by a simple solid phase grinding-assisted ultrasonic synthesis technology. Results showed that SnO/g-C3N4 composites with moderate g-C3N4 exhibit nanosheet morphology. An intimate interface boundary exists between the g-C3N4 and SnO phases in the composites. The composites possess excellent photocatalytic activity. SnO/g-C3N4 exhibits optimum photocatalytic property (7.66%) and highest photoactivity, which could degrade 98% of methyl orange under visible-light irradiation within 80 min.

The slanted-edge technique is the main method for measurement detectors MTF, however this method is commonly used on planar array detectors. In this paper the authors present a modified slanted-edge method to measure the MTF of linear array HgCdTe detectors. Crosstalk is one of the major factors that degrade the MTF value of such an infrared detector. This paper presents an ion implantation guard-ring structure which was designed to effectively absorb photo-carriers that may laterally defuse between adjacent pixels thereby suppressing crosstalk. Measurement and analysis of the MTF of the linear array detectors with and without a guard-ring were carried out. The experimental results indicated that the ion implantation guard-ring structure effectively suppresses crosstalk and increases MTF value.

In this paper, tin monosulfide (SnS) nanosheets were prepared by one-pot method and silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited on the SnS nanosheets (NSs) through a photochemical reduction process. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and energy spectrometer (EDS), UV–Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy were used to characterize the physical properties of the SnS:Ag NSs. Photoelectrochemical tests indicated that Ag NPs enhanced the photoelectric properties of SnS NSs and the highest photocurrent density of 14.93 μA/cm2 was achieved.

Herein, we have developed a one-step ionothermal accompanied thermolysis strategy based on metal chloride deep eutectic solvent (DES) precursors to synthesize NiFe layered double-hydroxide ultrathin nanosheets hybridized with N-doped carbon quantum dots (NCD@NiFe-LDH). The NCD@NiFe-LDH hybrid shows hierarchical three-dimensional flower-like morphology assembled with ~1.4 nm ultrathin nanosheets possessing higher surface area values and well conductivity. The as-synthesized NCD@NiFe-LDH hybrid exhibits excellent performance for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and just require 363 mV to achieve a higher current density of 500 mA cm−2 compared to the state-of-the-art IrO2 in 0.1M KOH. Besides, NCD@NiFe-LDH hybrid shows long-term stability and satisfactory durability even at 1000 mA cm−2. Such an excellent OER performance at high current density can be ascribed to the unique porous ultrathin structure with abundant active edges and sites and the synergistic effect of the NCD and NiFe-LDH. The work offers a new way for the design and synthesis of other carbon-hybridized LDH ultrathin nanosheets with unique electrochemical properties.

A new type of ultrasensitive electrochemical immunosensor with "signal on" strategy was designed for quantitative detection of CEA. The sensing strategy design is based on the following principles: We use HMSNs-Cu2+@HA as the signal probe, the structure of HA is destroyed under acidic conditions, and the released Cu2+ activates the substrate material MMoO4 (M = Co, Ni) Peroxidase activity initiates the reaction of catalytic H2O2 and realizes the "signal on" condition of electrical signals. This strategy has the following advantages: (1) HA coating of HMSNs-Cu2+ can prevent Cu2+ leakage, has good biocompatibility and can be connected with more antibodies. (2) The prepared sensor has the characteristics of high sensitivity and a low detection limit. When the electrode substrate was CoMoO4, the detection range of the immunosensor was 0.01 pg/mL-40 ng/mL, and the detection limit was 0.0035 pg/mL (S/N = 3). This work innovatively applies the catalytic activity of metal ion-activated nanozymes in the detection of CEA, providing a new perspective for the monitoring and analysis of cancer markers.

Nonadiamond (ND) are renowned as superlative material due to their relatively high thermal conductivity and hardness while comparing with any bulk materials. In the paper, the polyacrylonitrile/nanonodiamond (PAN/ND) precursors were fabricated via electrospinning using the PAN solution incorporated with ND at an alteration of mass fractions. The C/ND nanofibers were preparation from the carbonization of PAN/ND precursors. And then, composite nanofibers are characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and so on. The results show that the thermal conductivity of the C/ND nanofiber composite nanofibers with 50 wt% ND incorporation reached 6.7 W/(m•k), which is about 2.7 times that of the C/ND composite nanofiber without ND.

The emergent plants may differ in their capacity to assimilate nutrients from eutrophic water bodies, so the utilization of suitable emergent plants is the key part for successful restoration of shallow eutrophic lakes and rivers. This research applied the depletion method to study the kinetics of uptake of nutrient (H2PO4−, NH4+, NO3−) in different nutrient stresses by the five emergent aquatic plants (Acorus calamus L., Typha orientalis, Lythrum salicaria L., Sagittaria trifolia L., Alisma plantago-aquatica Linn) in the riverine zones of Dashi River (39°30′–39°40′ N, 115°59′–116°5′ E), a shallow eutrophic river located in Fangshan District, Beijing. The results showed that at the three phosphorus levels, A. calamus and A. plantago-aquatica had the highest maximum uptake rate values for NH4+ under low to moderate phosphorus conditions, and high phosphorus, respectively. T. orientalis had the highest maximum uptake rate values for NO3− at all phosphorus concentrations, while the Michaelis-Menten constant values of L. salicaria and A. plantago-aquatica were smaller. At the three nitrogen levels, the maximum uptake rate values for H2PO4− were the greatest for A. plantago-aquatica at the low to moderate nitrogen levels and L. salicaria at high levels. Meanwhile, T. orientalis and L. salicaria had the smallest Michaelis-Menten constant values. In this study, nitrogen microbial transformations, such as nitrification, denitrification and their coupling were not measured and their role in measuring kinetics was not assessed. Thus, achieved results shall be considered as a synthesis of several processes mediated by plants, a theoretical guidance to the selection of plant species for phytoremediation of polluted water bodies with different nutrient stresses for quality improvement around the diverse rivers in Haihe River basin.

Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) are becoming powerful DNA-targeting tools in a variety of mammalian cells and model organisms. However, generating a stable cell line with specific gene mutations in a simple and rapid manner remains a challenging task. Here, we report a new method to efficiently produce monoclonal cells using integrated TALE nuclease technology and a series of high-throughput cell cloning approaches. Following this method, we obtained three mTOR mutant 293T cell lines within 2 months, which included one homozygous mutant line.

Field experiments were carried out in Huantai County from 2006 to 2008 to evaluate the effects of different nitrogen (N) fertilization and irrigation management practices on water leakage and nitrate leaching in the dominant wheat–maize rotation system in the North China Plain (NCP). Two N fertilization (NF1, the traditional one; NF2, fertilization based on soil testing) and two irrigation (IR1, the traditional one; IR2, irrigation based on real-time soil water content monitoring) management practices were designed in the experiments. Water and nitrate amounts leaving the soil layer at a depth of 2.0 m below the soil surface were calculated and compared. Results showed that the IR2 effectively reduced water leakage and nitrate leaching amounts in the two-year period, especially in the winter wheat season. Less than 10 percent irrigation water could be saved in a dry winter wheat season, but about 60 percent could be saved in a wet winter wheat season. Besides, 58.8 percent nitrate under single NF2IR1 and 85.2 percent under NF2IR2 could be prevented from leaching. The IR2 should be considered as the best management practice to save groundwater resources and prevent nitrate from leaching. The amounts of N input play a great role in affecting nitrate concentrations in the soil solutions in the winter wheat–summer maize rotation system. The NF2 significantly reduced N inputs and should be encouraged in ordinary agricultural production. Thus, nitrate leaching and groundwater contamination could be alleviated, but timely N supplement might be needed under high precipitation condition.

Allelopathic effects of submerged macrophytes against algae are affected by many environmental factors which can only be measured one by one by traditional methods. Box-Behnken design of response surface methodology was used to optimize three environmental factors (temperature, light intensity and total dissolved solids) of allelopathic effects of Potamogeton pectinatus against Microcystis aeruginosa at the same time. By solving the regression equation and analyzing the response surface contour plots, the optimal conditions of the relatively inhibitory rate of Microcystis aeruginosa were that the temperature was 23°C, the light intensity was 2,700,lx and the total dissolved solids were 4,415,mg/L. Under these conditions, the optimal value of relatively inhibitory rate of Microcystis aeruginosa was 81.9%. According to validation experiments, the results of analysis indicated that the experimental values fitted well with the predicted ones.

ZnO/g-C3N4 photocatalysts were prepared by adopting room-temperature solid-phase grinding with Zn(CH3COO)2, NaOH, and g-C3N4 powders. ZnO grains with flower-like architectures were loaded on g-C3N4 thin flakes. The as-synthesized ZnO/g-C3N4 composite displayed highly visible photocatalytic activity during the degradation of methylene blue (MB).

To date, ∼700 microRNA (miRNA) molecules have been identified in humans. Accurate and sensitive quantification of miRNA levels will help unveil their biological functions. Here, we extend the isothermal ramification amplification (RAM) approach to a sensitive and specific real-time assay for quantitative analysis of miRNA. This RAM miRNA assay is based on the threshold cycle (CT) principle similar to that of real-time PCR. It has a dynamic range of at least seven orders of magnitude, allowing for the quantification of miRNA input from 103 to 1010 copies per reaction (10 nM to 1 fM). The capabilities of discriminating single-base mismatch and distinguishing mature miRNAs from their precursors are achieved by coupling the reverse-transcription of miRNA to the generation of a closed C-probe, rather than using expensive detection probes like in real-time PCR. Quantitative measurement of 5 miRNAs (mir-1, miR-122, mir-150, mir-143, and let-7a) across 12 mouse tissues is validated in total RNA samples without further purification. U6 snRNA, snoRNA 135, and miRNA-191 could be simultaneously quantified as endogenous controls. These results suggest that our RAM miRNA assay might provide a universal tool for miRNA detection and functional studies to meet the needs for bench examination, clinical diagnosis, and on-site detection.

MiRNAs (microRNAs) are a group of endogenous, small noncoding RNA with the length of 18-25 nucleotides, which have recently been demonstrated to play important roles in a wide range of biological processes. In this work, we developed a simple, sensitive, specific, and inexpensive assay through the combination of enzymatic probe ligation and real-time PCR amplification for the measurement of mature miRNAs. A couple of novel DNA probes with a stem-loop structure were implemented to reduce nonspecific ligation by at least 100-fold. The assay has several remarkable features including wide dynamic range, low total RNA input (0.02-0.2 ng), distinct anti-interference from precursor miRNAs (signal-to-noise ratio > 500), and single-base mismatch discrimination among miRNA sequences. In addition, a one-tube assay could be accomplished by designing a couple of universal probes, which makes it feasible to examine the expression of a whole family of miRNA (such as let-7) at one time. Finally, we validated the method for quantifying the expression of four mature miRNAs including miR-122, miR-1, miR-34a, and let-7a across 10 mouse tissues, where U6 snRNA could be simultaneously examined as an endogenous control. Thus, this method revealed a great potential for miRNA quantitation in ordinary laboratory studies and clinical diagnoses.

VEGF is a major contributor to angiogenesis, a vital process in normal growth and development and tumor transition. However, the current clinical efficacy of VEGF inhibitors is limited, and the molecular mechanism underlying VEGF regulation remains to be elucidated. Here we show that miR-190 directly targets a group of angiogenic effectors besides VEGF per se. Noted, these effectors can transcriptionally regulate VEGF expression in an intracellular or intercellular manner, thus demonstrating that miR-190 modulates the VEGF-mediated tumor angiogenesis at three levels. The synergistic effect of miR-190 and its target genes demonstrates a complex but apparently more stable system, allowing for the tight control of the level of VEGF. Finally, we showed that miR-190 significantly suppresses tumor metastasis, especially angiogenesis. Together, these results indicate that miR-190 is a promising antitumor target in clinical applications.

Tumor suppressor TP53 (or p53) is one of the most important regulators in numerous physiological and pathological processes. Recently, the miRNA-mediated post-transcription regulation of p53 has been studied. However, systematic studies of miRNA targeting sites within the p53 gene are still a challenging task. Here, we developed a dual-color assay capable of identifying miRNA targeting sites in a certain gene, specifically p53, in a simple, direct, and robust manner. Results showed that p53 was a direct and critical target of miR-19b, but not miR-19a, regardless of sequence similarity. Overexpression of miR-19b observed in human cancer cells can diminish p53 protein levels and, subsequently, downstream components such as Bax and p21. This miR-19b-mediated p53 reduction was shown to promote cell cycle, cell migration or invasion, and repress senescence and apoptosis in vitro. Further investigation revealed that miR-19b controls tumor growth and metastasis in vivo. Therefore, it is possible that miR-19b antagomirs or sponges could be developed as therapeutic agents against tumor development.

Kinases become one of important groups of drug targets. To identify more kinases being potential for cancer therapy, we developed an integrative approach for the large-scale screen of functional genes capable of regulating the main traits of cancer metastasis. We first employed self-assembled cell microarray to screen functional genes that regulate cancer cell migration using a human genome kinase siRNA library. We identified 81 genes capable of significantly regulating cancer cell migration. Following with invasion assays and bio-informatics analysis, we discovered that 16 genes with differentially expression in cancer samples can regulate both cell migration and invasion, among which 10 genes have been well known to play critical roles in the cancer development. The remaining 6 genes were experimentally validated to have the capacities of regulating cell proliferation, apoptosis and anoikis activities besides cell motility. Together, these findings provide a new insight into the therapeutic use of human kinases. From the Clinical Editor This team of authors have utilized a self-assembled cell microarray to screen genes that regulate cancer cell migration using a human genome siRNA library of kinases. They validated previously known genes and identified novel ones that may serve as therapeutic targets.