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China’s power system will face more constraints of the carbon emission reduction policy under the goal of “double carbon”, it is particularly important to study the impact of carbon constraints on the capital structure of power enterprises. Commencing the viewpoint of static and dynamic, this research regards the implementation of China’s carbon pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, using DID method, sys-GMM model and some robustness tests to examine how the carbon constraint affects the capital structure of power companies from 2008 to 2020. The empirical results show that the financial leverage is significantly reduced after the implementation of China’s carbon pilot policy. Moreover, the mandatory implementation of carbon emission trading mechanism makes heavy emission enterprises such as power enterprises face greater pressure on emission reduction, resulting in an increase in the risk of financial distress, reducing debt financing and equity financing of power enterprises, which promotes enterprises to decrease financial leverage. In addition, the article verifies another possibility, the enhancement of carbon constraints leads to the reduction of carbon-intensive investment rather than the increase of financial distress risk, so as to reduce the asset-liability ratio. However, the coefficient of interactive items is not significant. Further analysis indicates that the decline of financial leverage is unlikely to be caused by changes in investment.

Key message SYL3-k allele increases the outcrossing rate of male sterile line and the yield of hybrid F1 seeds via enhancement of endogenous GA4 content in Oryza sativa L. pistils. The change in style length might be an adaptation of rice cultivation from south to north in the northern hemisphere. Abstract The style length (SYL) in rice is one of the major factors influencing the stigma exertion, which affects the outcross rate of male sterile line and the yield of hybrid F1 seeds. However, the biological mechanisms underlying SYL elongation remain elusive. Here, we report a map-based cloning and characterisation of the allele qSYL3-k. The qSYL3-k allele encodes a MADS-box family transcription factor, and it is expressed in various rice organs. The qSYL3-k allele increases SYL via the elongation of cell length in the style, which is associated with a higher GA4 content in the pistil. The expression level of OsGA3ox2 in pistils with qSYL3-k alleles is significantly higher than that in pistils with qSYL3-n allele on the same genome background of Nipponbare. The yield of F1 seeds harvested from plants with 7001SSYL3−k alleles was 16% higher than that from plants with 7001SSYL3−n allele. The sequence data at the qSYL3 locus in 136 accessions showed that alleles containing the haplotypes qSYL3AA, qSYL3AG, and qSYL3GA increased SYL, whereas those containing the haplotype qSYL3GG decreased it. The frequency of the haplotype qSYL3GG increases gradually from the south to north in the northern hemisphere. These findings will facilitate improvement in SYL and yield of F1 seeds henceforward.

This study was aimed at evaluating the performance of the innovative technique Smart Fetus (SF) developed to recognize the planes and obtain the basic biometric measurements of fetuses automatically. This prospective study included 1005 uncomplicated singleton pregnancies undergoing routine examinations. For every pregnancy, planes, including the transverse section of the thalami, transverse section of the abdomen and longitudinal section of the femur, were acquired, and standard biometric measurements, including biparietal diameter, head circumference, abdominal circumference and femur length, were obtained using SF and traditional ultrasound technique (TUT). The accuracy, reproducibility and time required for the analysis of SF were compared with those of TUT. In 998 of 1005 cases (99.30%), SF successfully acquired the sections and made all measurements. The agreement between the techniques was high for all measurements. The time to obtain sections and measure biometric parameters or solely measure biometric parameters was significantly shorter with SF than with TUT. No significant differences were found in SF repeated measurements obtained by two independent observers. The SF technique helped in the acquisition of reliable standard sections and biometric measurements and saved time. It might serve as a novel ultrasound scanning approach and improve workflow efficiency.

Rotated clinching is a novel cold plastic deformation joining process, which is suitable for the multi-point simultaneous joining of sheet metals. However, the effect of various parameters on the mechanical properties of joints using rotated clinching remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to analyse the important parameters that affect the joint’s shearing strength and relationship between them. The relational expression between the four process parameters (die depth, rotation angle, small fillet radius and large fillet radius) and joint shearing strength was established using the response surface method. Additionally, the quantitative relationship between them was expressed by this relational expression, and the significance of process parameters were evaluated using the analysis of variance. The results revealed that the most significant parameter regarding the shearing strength was die depth h, with the contribution of 47.1%, followed by rotation angle α and small fillet radius r1, with the contributions of 26.8% and 8.2%, respectively, whereas the large fillet radius R1 is the least significant, there is a significant interaction effect between R1 and α, with the contribution of 5.4%. The shearing strength had a negative relationship with the die depth h and small fillet r1, whereas it had a positive relationship with rotation angle α. The predicted maximum value of the shearing strength was 1231.92 N at h = 2.29 mm, r1 = 0.46 mm, R1 = 1.27 mm and α = 18.45° in the range of given design parameter values. The experimental values of the shearing strength comprised approximately 74% of the predicted values.

Resumo Fundamento: A fração de ejeção (FE) tem sido utilizada em análises fenotípicas e na tomada de decisões sobre o tratamento de insuficiência cardíaca (IC). Assim, a FE tornou-se parte fundamental da prática clínica diária. Objetivo: Este estudo tem como objetivo investigar características, preditores e desfechos associados a alterações da FE em pacientes com diferentes tipos de IC grave. Métodos: Foram incluídos neste estudo 626 pacientes com IC grave e classe III–IV da New York Heart Association (NYHA). Os pacientes foram classificados em três grupos de acordo com as alterações da FE, ou seja, FE aumentada (FE-A), definida como aumento da FE ≥10%, FE diminuída (FE-D), definida como diminuição da FE ≥10%, e FE estável (FE-E), definida como alteração da FE

A number of studies have suggested that autoantibodies against β1-adrenoreceptors (β1R-AAbs) have an important role in pathophysiological processes of heart failure. The aim of the present study was to determine whether β1R-AAbs are implicated in cardiac dysfunction following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and their association with prognosis. A total of 33 cases with systolic heart failure (SHF), 49 with diastolic heart failure (DHF) and 44 with normal heart function following AMI were recruited. β1R-AAbs were detected by ELISA and major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) were recorded during the 5-year follow-up. The positive rate of β1R-AAbs in the SHF group (45.5%) was significantly higher compared with that in the DHF (22.4%; P

Meng-Meng Han,1,* Wen-Shu Zhao,2,* Xin Wang,2,* Shan He,3 Xiao-Rong Xu,2 Cai-Jing Dang,2 Juan Zhang,2 Jia-Mei Liu,2 Mu-Lei Chen,2 Lin Xu,2 Hua Wang2 1Intensive Care Units, Beijing Longfu Hospital, Beijing, 100010, People’s Republic of China; 2Heart Center and Beijing Key Laboratory of Hypertension Research, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100020, People’s Republic of China; 3Heart Center, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Jingxi Branch, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100020, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Lin Xu; Hua WangHeart Center and Beijing Key Laboratory of Hypertension Research, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100020, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-10-85231445; +86-10-85231556Email lxdrqw09_dr@163.com; huwsmndr66@yandex.comObjective: This study aimed to find echocardiographic parameters that can predict short- and long-term adverse cardiovascular events in patients with AMI.Methods: A total of 126 patients with AMI admitted to our hospital from July to December 2012 were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent echocardiographic examination within 12 hours after admission and received regular follow-ups until December 2018. The primary endpoint was a composite of the major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs).Results: In the first year of this study, a primary endpoint occurred in 35 patients and the predictor derived from the echocardiography of 1-year primary endpointwas LVEF< 40% (OR: 9.000, 95% CI 3.242-24.987, p< 0.0001) andthe area under the curve (AUC) for the predictor was 0.676 (95% CI 0.561-0.790, p=0.002). For the total 5 years, 57 patients underwent primary endpoint. The results of the 5-year primary endpoint were: E/E’> 15 (OR: 4.094, 95% CI 1.726– 9.710, P=0.001), the wall motion score index was (WMSI)> 1.5 (OR: 12.791, 95% CI 1.511– 108.312, P=0.019), and the AUC was 0.691 (95% CI 0.595– 0.787 P< 0.0001).Conclusion: LVEF is correlated with a short-term outcome (1-year), and WMSI and E/E’ can predict a long-term outcome (5-year) in patients with acute myocardial infarction.Keywords: echocardiography, cardiovascular events, predictors, acute myocardial infarction, wall motion score index

The clinching process is widely used in joining lightweight sheet metal. We proposed a novel rotated clinching process (RCP), which is characterized by a flat bottom die structure and twin rotating punches. The aim of this study was to evaluate the strength of RCP joints. Al1060 sheets with thicknesses of 1.5 mm and 2 mm were used as the experimental materials. Overlap and T-lap RCP joints with three die depths and five bottom thicknesses were fabricated, and shear and peel tests were performed on the joints. The joint strengths were evaluated based on the mechanical load, cross-sectional profile dimensions, and failure mode. The results showed that the mechanical load is a direct, reliable, and quantitative evaluation criterion, while the cross-sectional profile and failure mode are indirect and qualitative. These criteria confirmed that the strength of thick sheet joints is higher than that of thin sheet joints, the shear strength is superior to the peel strength, and the strengths of the joints are high with failure mainly occurring due to tearing or shear failure. Finally, the key parameters for determining the strength of a joint include the bottom thickness/sheet thickness ratio (Rt), and the die depth (h).

Summary Type VI secretion system (T6SS) is widely distributed in Gram-negative bacteria and functions as a versatile protein export machinery that translocates effectors into eukaryotic or prokaryotic target cells. Growing evidence indicates that T6SS can deliver several effectors to promote bacterial survival in harmful environments through metal ion acquisition. Here, we report that the Pseudomonas aeruginosa H2-T6SS mediates molybdate (MoO42−) acquisition by secretion of a molybdate-binding protein, ModA. The expression of H2-T6SS genes is activated by the master regulator Anr and anaerobiosis. We also identified a ModA-binding protein, IcmP, an insulin-cleaving metalloproteinase outer membrane protein. The T6SS-ModA-IcmP system provides P. aeruginosa with a growth advantage in bacterial competition under anaerobic conditions and plays an important role in bacterial virulence. Overall, this study clarifies the role of T6SS in secretion of an anion-binding protein, emphasizing the fundamental importance of this bacterium using T6SS-mediated molybdate uptake to adapt to complex environmental conditions.

In this study, the extraction conditions of

Ejection fraction (EF) has been used in phenotype analyses and to make treatment decisions regarding heart failure (HF). Thus, EF has become a fundamental part of daily clinical practice.This study aims to investigate the characteristics, predictors, and outcomes associated with EF changes in patients with different types of severe HF.A total of 626 severe HF patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III-IV were enrolled in this study. The patients were classified into three groups according to EF changes, namely, increased EF (EF-I), defined as an EF increase ≥10%, decreased EF (EF-D), defined as an EF decrease ≥10%, and stable EF (EF-S), defined as an EF change10%. A p-value lower than 0.05 was considered significant.Out of 377 severe HF patients, 23.3% presented EF-I, 59.5% presented EF-S, and 17.2% presented EF-D. The results further showed 68.2% of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) in the EF-I group and 64.6% of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) in the EF-D group. The predictors of EF-I included younger age, absence of diabetes, and lower left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). The predictors of EF-D were absence of atrial fibrillation, lower uric acid level, and higher LVEF. Within a median follow-up of 40 months, 44.8% of patients suffered from all-cause death.In severe HF, HFrEF presented the highest percentage in the EF-I group, and HFpEF was most common in the EF-D group.A fração de ejeção (FE) tem sido utilizada em análises fenotípicas e na tomada de decisões sobre o tratamento de insuficiência cardíaca (IC). Assim, a FE tornou-se parte fundamental da prática clínica diária.Este estudo tem como objetivo investigar características, preditores e desfechos associados a alterações da FE em pacientes com diferentes tipos de IC grave.Foram incluídos neste estudo 626 pacientes com IC grave e classe III–IV da New York Heart Association (NYHA). Os pacientes foram classificados em três grupos de acordo com as alterações da FE, ou seja, FE aumentada (FE-A), definida como aumento da FE ≥10%, FE diminuída (FE-D), definida como diminuição da FE ≥10%, e FE estável (FE-E), definida como alteração da FE10%. Valores p inferiores a 0,05 foram considerados significativos.Dos 377 pacientes com IC grave, 23,3% apresentaram FE-A, 59,5% apresentaram FE-E e 17,2% apresentaram FE-D. Os resultados mostraram ainda 68,2% de insuficiência cardíaca com fração de ejeção reduzida (ICFEr) no grupo FE-A e 64,6% de insuficiência cardíaca com fração de ejeção preservada (ICFEp) no grupo FE-D. Os preditores de FE-A identificados foram faixa etária mais jovem, ausência de diabetes e fração de ejeção do ventrículo esquerdo (FEVE) menor. Já os preditores de FE-D encontrados foram ausência de fibrilação atrial, baixos níveis de ácido úrico e maior FEVE. Em um seguimento mediano de 40 meses, 44,8% dos pacientes foram vítimas de morte por todas as causas.Na IC grave, a ICFEr apresentou maior percentual no grupo FE-A e a ICFEp foi mais comum no grupo FE-D.

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is the most common form of familial cerebral small vessel disease in adults, and is caused by NOTCH3 mutations. However, individual symptom types, onset, and disease severity span a wide range.Herein, we report a case of chronic neurological symptoms including slurring of speech, recurrent weakness in both limbs and legs, and progressive memory loss. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging revealed recurrent acute lacunar subcortical infarction and extensive white matter hyperintensities. Skin biopsy revealed granular osmiophilic materials close to the cell surface of smooth muscle cells in an arteriolar vessel. The patient's genomic DNA showed a mutation c.635GC[p.(Cys212Ser)] in exon 4.The patient was finally diagnosed with CADASIL.The patient was treated with antiplatelet therapy and extremity rehabilitation.There was no improvement in speech, extremity function, or memory.Accurate early diagnosis and appropriate treatment are crucial to improve the prognosis of patients with CADASIL.

Consumers are becoming more customized-conscious and customized service becomes particularly important. We suppose that 3PL firm and the newsvendor-like retailer are risk-neutral profit maximizers, and the retailer is capital-constrained, needing short-term financing. Considering customized service, we mainly discuss two financing sources: bank financing and 3PL financing, where the customized service level is determined by the retailer or 3PL firm. The results show that the optimal financing strategy depends on the ratio of revenue-sharing. When the ratio is within a certain range, 3PL financing is the optimal strategy, achieving a win–win outcome. This paper also discusses a case where the retailer has risk aversion behavior. We reach an interesting conclusion. When the retailer has extremely risk-averse attitude, bank financing might be the optimal financing strategy. When the retailer is relatively optimistic, 3PL financing is a wise choice. These conclusions give us some meaningful management inspirations in light of customized service.

Ordered porous block copolymer films (PBCFs) have attracted much attention because of their potential applications in several fields. In this paper, we first reported a non-destructive, controllable, and efficient approach for preparation of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD)-functionalized PBCFs (β-CD-PBCFs). The key point of the approach is to incorporate β-CD units into the hydrophilic segment of amphiphilic block copolymers before the preparation of films. β-CD-PBCFs with structural integrity and controllable pore parameters were fabricated through combining of self-assembly and breath figure methods. And then, the effective adsorption capacity of β-CD-PBCFs toward Congo red was confirmed through UV-Vis spectroscopy and was found to be affected by β-CD content and solution pH values. Adsorption kinetic results showed that the adsorption behavior of β-CD-PBCFs was consistent with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and the chemisorption mechanism.

Drug delivery systems based on stimuli-responsive porous polymer films (PPFs) have been extensively investigated because of their many advantages. However, the ability to adjust the drug release from PPFs is not always perfect, and at times, it cannot satisfy real-world requirements. In this paper, supramolecular host-guest interactions were harnessed to overcome the difficulties associated with adjustable release from these systems by incorporating host molecules into the pore walls of thermoresponsive PPFs. β-Cyclodextrin-functionalized porous amphiphilic block copolymer films (β-CD-PBCPFs) with controllable pore parameters, high homogeneity, and large areas were prepared by combining the self-assembly and breath-figure methods. Drug-loaded β-CD-PBCPFs displayed thermoresponsive release behavior, which could be tuned by increasing the β-CD content in phosphate-buffered saline. The release was governed by the host-guest interactions of the β-CD moieties and drug molecules. The concept of host-guest interaction-enhanced adjustable release could be applied to different drug molecules, such as doxorubicin and metronidazole.

In this study, the extraction conditions of Nostoc commune Vauch polysaccharide (NCVP) were optimized by single factor and orthogonal experiments. Then, the NCVP microcapsules (NCVPM) were prepared. After analyzing the microcapsule structural and thermal characteristics, the skin wound healing ability was studied by establishing back trauma rat models. Results showed that the NCVP yield was 10.37% under the following optimum conditions: 210 min extraction time, solid–liquid ratio of 1:50 and extraction temperature of 90 °C. The overall performance of the microcapsule was the best when the concentration of sodium alginate, calcium chloride and chitosan was 2%, 3% and 0.3%, respectively. NCVPM had spherical morphology, typical microcapsule structural characteristics and good thermal stability, and NCVP was dispersed in the microcapsules. NCVPM showed good biocompatibility and biodegradability, which met the requirements for slow-release polymer materials. After 14 days of treatment, the wound healing rate was 92.4%, the cells were arranged neatly and regularly, the cell nucleus became large and elliptical, the cell had a tendency to divide, and the fibers and microvessel were significantly more. By evaluating the mechanism, NCVPM could increase the content of hydroxyproline and glutathione to protect cells from oxidative damage, leading in turn to accelerated wound healing and shorter wound healing times. It could also accelerate cell division, collagen and microvascular production by increasing transcription levels of vascular endothelial growth factor mRNA and miRNA-21.

A 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (DMTD)-immobilized and persimmon tannin (PT)-based biosorbent, DMTD-PT, was synthesized via a one-pot method and used for selective enrichment of Ag(I) from electronic waste (e-waste) leachate. Batch adsorption revealed that both PT and DMTD-PT had a weaker affinity for co-existing metal cations. However, DMTD-PT and PT adsorbed 98.7% and 20.7% of Ag(I), respectively, with a dose of 5.0 g L−1 each at pH 3.0 from e-waste leachate that contained 117.3 mg L−1 of Ag(I) at room temperature. These observations indicate that the selectivity of DMTD-PT is superior to that of PT. The column adsorption further proved that DMTD-PT can be used to separate Ag(I) from e-waste leachate. The adsorption of Ag(I) on DMTD-PT fit the Langmuir isotherm well with a maximum adsorptive capacity of 50.7 mg g−1. A thermodynamics study further indicated that the adsorption was spontaneous and was dominated by chemisorption. The two mass transfer models of homogeneous solid diffusion model (HSDM) and a Linear Driving Force (LDF) model were used to study the kinetics and generally well fitted the experimental data. Analyses of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of fresh and Ag(I)-adsorbed DMTD-PT further revealed that the plausible adsorption mechanism was principally attributable to the complexation of N and S on the diazole ring. Also, DMTD-PT exhibited better reusability and qualified durability without a distinct decrease in Ag(I) adsorption even after 5 repeated cycles.

As global warming continues, the melting rate of Arctic glaciers is further accelerated, which provides favorable conditions for the development of the Arctic's abundant resources, shipping, and ecological research. Accordingly, Russia, as the country with the longest Arctic coastline, has promulgated a series of policies and guidelines which aimed at the development of the Arctic region and the revitalization of the Northern Sea Route (NSR). By strengthening infrastructure construction, reducing port dues, and improving handling efficiency to promote the development of ports along theNSR and also to gives full play to the transportation potential of NSR, which is an inherent need for the development of Russian Arctic region. However, how Russia's Arctic strategy may affect port development along the NSR and whether the Russian arctic strategy can promote the development of ports along the NSR remain to be investigated. This study, based on the multi-source data, uses the difference-in-difference (DID) method to estimate the impact of Russia's Arctic strategy on the development of ports along the NSR. The results from this study indicate that Russia's Arctic strategy has failed to promote the development of ports along the NSR during 2003–2012, and the growth of port cargo throughput is overly reliant on energy exploitation. All of our preliminary results throw light on the nature of the impact of Russia's Arctic strategy on the development of ports along the NSR.

In this paper, we introduce one full-duplex (FD) relaying transmission scheme for high speed railway and compare its ergodic capacity and outage performance with half-duplex (HD) relaying scheme. Both decode-and-forward (DF) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay modes are considered. Moreover, the carriage penetration loss (CPL) and the self-interference (SI) cancellation ratio are investigated. We derive the closed-form expressions for the outage probability and ergodic capacity of both HD and FD relay transmission schemes. It is shown that when CPL is larger than a certain level, the FD relay can achieve better performance in terms of capacity and keep the outage probability in a low level. It is also found that three factors: AF or DF modes, CPL and SI cancellation ratio, can have impact on capacity performance, and that CPL is one decisive factor. Our results can provide theoretical supports for development and deployment of future wireless communication systems on high speed railways.

The multidrug-resistant strains of food spoilage bacteria and foodborne pathogenic bacteria in food are badly in need of being controlled by effective bio-preservatives. In this study, the XN8 strain was isolated from Jiangshui and identified as Lactobacillus coryniformis according to 16S rRNA gene sequence. One of the bacteriocins produced by XN8 was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation and a series of chromatographic column, and designated as lactocin XN8-A (LXA). The molecular mass of LXA was 3100.0242 Da by MALDI-TOF MS. The LXA showed good heat, pH and storage stabilities. However, it was sensitive to proteases. The LXA was found to have a broad antimicrobial spectrum on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria including multidrug-resistant strains and Listeria monocytogenes. Its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was 6.85 μg/mL. The LXA had a bactericidal mode without cell lysis by the growth curve and time-kill assay. The results of electron microscope showed that the LXA destroyed membrane permeability and induced pore-formation of target cells. Furthermore, the LXA induced cell cycle arrest at both G1 and G2/M phase by cell cycle analysis. This research suggests that the LXA has promising potential as bio-preservative in food industry.

To identify a strategy for earlier sowing and harvesting of spring maize ( Zea mays L.) in an alternative maize–maize double cropping system, a 2-year field experiment was performed at Quzhou experimental station of China Agricultural University in 2014 and 2015. A short-season cultivar, Demeiya number 1 (KX7349), was used in the experiment. Soil temperature to 5 cm depth in the early crop growth stage, crop growth, crop yield, and water use of different treatments (plastic film-mulched raised bed (RF) and flat field without plastic film mulching (CK) in 2014; RF, plastic film-mulched flat field (FF), and CK in 2015) were measured or calculated and compared. Soil temperature in the film-mulched treatments was consistently higher than that in CK (1.6–3.5 °C in average) during the early growth stage. Crops in plastic film-mulched treatments used 214 fewer growing-degree days (GDDs) in 2014 and 262 fewer GDDs in 2015. In 2014, the RF treatment yielded 32.7% higher biomass than CK, although its 9.4% higher grain yield was not statistically significant. Also, RF used 17.9% less water and showed 33.1% higher water use efficiency (WUE) than CK. In 2015, RF and FF showed 56.2% and 49.5% higher yield, 15.0% and 4.5% lower water use (ET), and 63.4% and 75.7% higher WUE, respectively, than CK. RF markedly increased soil temperature in the early crop season, accelerated crop growth, reduced ET, and greatly increased crop yield and WUE. Compared with FF, RF had no obvious effect on crop growth rate, although soil temperature during the period between sowing and stem elongation was slightly increased. However, RF resulted in lower ET and higher WUE than FF. Effects of RF on soil water dynamics as well as its cost-effectiveness remain topics for further study.

We report on the synthesis and characterization of Poly ( N , N -diethylaminoethyl methacrylate)- block -Polystyrene (PDEAEMA- b -PS) di-block copolymer. The synthesis was finished by using reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization method. The investigation results of humidity sensing property of pure PDEAEMA, pure PS and PDEAEMA- b -PS di-block copolymer demonstrated that the block copolymer shown the best sensing performance. Its impedance changed more than three orders of magnitude in the range from 22% to 95% relative humidity. The hysteresis was less than 8% RH, the response and recovery time was 60 and 206 s, respectively. The humidity sensing mechanism was discussed based on complex impedance plots. This work broadens the responsive scope of PDEAEMA-based materials from double-responsive (pH and temperature) to multi-responsive (pH, temperature and humidity).

Silane coupling reagent γ-glycidoxy propyl trimethoxy silane/polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (KH-560/POSS) functionalized nanosized boron nitride (POSS-g-nBN) fillers were performed to fabricate thermally conductive bismaleimide/diallylbisphenol A (BMI/DABA) nanocomposites combining excellent dielectric properties and outstanding thermal stability. POSS molecules have been grafted on the surface of the nBN fillers. The POSS-g-nBN/BMI/DABA nanocomposite with 15.4 vol% POSS-g-nBN is an excellent dielectric composite material with high thermal conductivity and outstanding thermal stability; the corresponding dielectric constant e is 3.42, the dielectric loss factor tanδ is 0.0085, the thermally conductive coefficient λ is 0.607 W m−1 K−1 (increased by 266% compared to that of pure BMI/DABA), and the 5 wt% thermal weight loss temperature (T5) reaches up to 428 °C, which holds potential for use in the integration and the miniaturization of microelectronic devices.

In order to manage and utilize a large amount of wasted apple pomace, the magnetic biochar was prepared through pyrolysis of apple pomace at 600 °C in nitrogen environment, followed by immersion aging in Fe(II)/Fe(III) aqueous solution. The characterization of the resulting magnetic biochar, herein called the M600APB, showed that the saturation magnetization value and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area of M600APB were 9.52 emu/g and 102.18 m2/g, respectively. The batch adsorption showed that M600APB could preferentially enrich the low concentration of Ag(I) with the maximum adsorption capacity of 818.4 mg/g in an Ag(I)-Pb(II)-Cu(II)-Ni(II)-Zn(II) aqueous system at ambient temperature. The column adsorption experiments indicated that M600APB could effectively enrich and separate Ag(I) from the same aqueous mixture. The presumable mechanism of Ag(I) adsorption on M600APB involves intra-particle diffusion, coordination, ion exchange and reduction. This study provided an effective approach to both utilize wasted apple pomace and enrich the low concentration of Ag(I) in a sustainable way.

With respect to the problem of long period and low precision in using traditional methods to predict rice seeds germination rate, a novel method based on continuous polarization spectroscopy was proposed to achieve rapid and nondestructive prediction .The paper set different aging rice seeds as prediction targets and ten minutes as prediction time, using polarizer to modulate optical fiber collimating light source to linearly polarized light which issuing into rice seeds extract vertically before rotating the analyser every 5 degrees . The transmission spectrum was predicted through the optical fiber spectrometer. After normalization pretreatment to the polarization spectrum, the article gave the characteristics of polarization angel and wavelength by 0 degree, 5 degrees, 25 degrees, 620, 788 and 576 nm according to the contribution of polarization angel and wavelength when predicting different germination rate rice seeds and inputted obtained continuous polarization spectrum by wavelength, polarization angel, transmissivity to construct rice seeds germination rate prediction model using three modeling methods to build rice seeds germination rate prediction model in comparison, including Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR), Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN).1 520 sets of experimental data were measured in total at different polarization angels through using rice seeds with different aging days (0, 2, 4, 6) respectively, setting 912 sets of data as calibration set and 608 sets of data as predicion set. The modeling results show that RBF model’s prediction accuracy is the highest. Its correlation coefficient is 0.976; the mean square is 0.785; and the average relative error is 0.85%. The research results show that the continuous polarization spectroscopy technique through multidimension spectral information can achieve rapid and accurate prediction of rice seeds germination rate.