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Cadmium (Cd)-induced oxidative stress detrimentally affects hyperaccumulator growth, thereby diminishing the efficacy of phytoremediation technology aimed at Cd pollution abatement. In the domain of plant antioxidant mechanisms, the role of glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in conferring Cd tolerance to tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) remained unclear. Our investigation employed genome-wide analysis to identify 14 NtGPX genes in tobacco, revealing their organization into seven subgroups characterized by analogous conserved domain patterns. Notably, qPCR analysis highlighted NtGPX8a as markedly responsive to Cd2+ stress. Subsequent exploration through yeast two-hybridization unveiled NtGPX8a's utilization of thioredoxins AtTrxZ and AtTrxm2 as electron donors, and without interaction with AtTrx5. Introduction of NtGPX8a into Escherichia coli significantly ameliorated Cd-induced adverse effects on bacterial growth. Transgenic tobacco overexpressing NtGPX8a demonstrated significantly augmented activities of GPX, SOD, POD, and CAT under Cd2+ stress compared to the wild type (WT). Conversely, these transgenic plants exhibited markedly reduced levels of MDA, H2O2, and proline. Intriguingly, the expression of NtGPX8a in both E. coli and transgenic tobacco led to increased Cd accumulation, confirming its dual role in enhancing Cd tolerance and accumulation. Consequently, NtGPX8a emerges as a promising candidate gene for engineering transgenic hyperaccumulators endowed with robust tolerance for Cd-contaminated phytoremediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with cost‐effectiveness, high performance, and repeatable scale‐up production hold promises for large‐scale green hydrogen generation technology. Herein, a convenient method for scaling up Cu2S@NiS@Ni/NiMo electrocatalysts on Cu foam with high geometric area over 100 cm2 is presented. The hybrid electrode exhibits high hydrogen evolution activity with 190 and 250 mV overpotential at 1000 mA cm−2 and superior stability with negligible overpotential loss after over 2000 h at 500 mA cm−2 under steady‐state conditions in both artificial seawater and real seawater. Detailed characterizations and simulations demonstrate that high intrinsic activity resulting from the unique boundary interface, enhance mass transport resulting from superaerophobic nanoarray architecture, and corrosion resistance resulting from polyanion‐rich passivating layers together lead to the outstanding performance. The practicability is also demonstrated in an alkaline seawater electrolyzer coupling with the hybrid electrode and stable commercial anode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dissipation and residue of picoxystrobin in three different soils (Xerosols, Yermosols and Chernozem) was investigated. An easy-to-implement and sensitive method was established to determine picoxystrobin in the three different soils via modified QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) combined with HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography). The photodegradation process of picoxystrobin in three different soils was detected by HPLC-mass spectrometry. The linearity of picoxystrobin detection was studied in the range of 0.3–10 mg/L (0.3, 0.5, 1, 2 and 10 mg/L), good linearity was obtained and the correlation coefficients (R2) was 0.9999. The recoveries of picoxystrobin ranged from 78.4% to 106.4% and relative standard deviation of 0.67%-4.46% in three kinds of soil spiked at 0.5, 1, and 2 mg/kg. The results of the recovery study indicated that the method meets the precision and accuracy requirements for picoxystrobin in the three different soils. The photodegradation experiments revealed that the compound had a degradation half-life ranging from 3.80–4.29 days. The rule of photodegradation of picoxystrobin on the surface of three soils was consistent with first-order reaction kinetic model. Finally, two possible routes of picoxystrobin fragmentation were indicated by mass spectrometry. This work will provide a theoretical reference for the analysis of picoxystrobin residues in soil and practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the high global warming potential and rapidly increasing atmospheric concentrations of fluorinated greenhouse gases (hereinafter referred to as F-gases), the emission estimation has been widely studied. Additionally, the atmospheric observation supports the emission estimation. However, there are few F-gas studies with respect to chemical plants. In this study, we firstly carried out atmospheric observation studies of F-gases around chemical plants in China. Four typical chemical plants were selected, and the concentration levels, their concentration differences (hereinafter referred to as the up–down difference) and enhanced ratios (hereinafter referred to as the up–down enhanced ratio) of the F-gases at upwind and downwind sites in the four plants were observed. Both the upwind and downwind observation results of each plant showed that the average concentrations of HFCs were the highest (57%–85%), followed by PFCs, while the total average concentrations of SF6 and NF3 only accounted for less than 5%. The F-gases, with both the larger up–down enhanced ratios and the larger up–down differences in each plant, may suggest larger emission strengths during fluorinated production, by-products and usage processes. Additionally, the numbers of F-gas species emitted from Plants A, B and C were all significantly higher than those from Plant D. This may be because the F-gases in Plants A, B and C were emitted not only during fluorinated production and by-product processes, but also during usage processes, with respect to refrigeration and air-conditioning or foam insulation materials. The F-gases emitted by each plant did not cause toxicity to humans at sensitive sites; however, they can cause nonnegligible climate impacts. In the future, it is necessary to select more typical chemical plants to carry out the atmospheric observation of F-gases, with a higher observation frequency and larger sample size, to further estimate F-gas emissions from chemical plants in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to clarify the effect of irrigation water amount and planting pattern on water use and yield of cotton in Northern Xinjiang. A field experiment was conducted during 2020–2021 comprising four irrigation water amounts (360, 450, 540, and 630 mm) and two planting patterns (same row spacing, R1; and wide-narrow row planting, R2). The results showed that the evapotranspiration (ET), soil evaporation (Es), and plant transpiration (T) of cotton under both planting patterns increased with the increasing irrigation amount. During the entire growth period, the annual average daily ET and T under R2 were higher than those under R1, but the annual average daily Es under R2 were lower than those under R1. The daily Es was highest between one and four days after irrigation. The Es/ET under R1 was approximately 27.45%–31.82%, and that under R2 was approximately 24.52%–28.56% under the four irrigation treatments. The relationship between the Es/ET and leaf area index was fitted based on an exponential equation (R2>0.85). The yield increased with an increase in the irrigation amount, although there was no significant difference between the yields obtained with 540 mm and 630 mm irrigation amounts. The water use efficiency (WUE) increased first and then decreased with an increase in irrigation water amount, with the highest WUE observed under the 540 mm condition and the lowest under the 630 mm condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Efficient evaporation and pollution resistance are achieved simultaneously. • The hydrophilic modification by adding polyethylene glycol is economical. • The doping Enteromorpha reduces the cost and improves the mechanical property. • PEGA forms unstable hydrogen bonds with water to promote evaporation and detachment. • The evaporator can float on the surface of oily seawater to obtain fresh water. Photothermal evaporation using solar energy is a sustainable way to produce fresh water from seawater. Aiming to explore functional materials as a solar-energized evaporator with enhanced evaporation rate and pollutant tolerance, this study was to synthesize a self-floating composite graphene aerogel (GA) doped with Enteromorpha and modified polyethylene glycol (PEG), named as PEGA using solar energy for desalination. Physio-chemical properties and evaporative mechanism of PEGA were experimentally investigated and analyzed with respect to molecular weight, PEG dosage, and ratio of Enteromorpha and graphene oxide. Experimental data revealed that the modification of PEG improved hydrophilic functional ability of PEGA, resulting in increasing the evaporation rate and photothermal conversion efficiency up to 2.55 kg/(m2·h) and 105.71 %, respectively. The ion removal rate of seawater exceeds 99.99 % via the PEGA conducted solar evaporation. Furthermore, PEGA possessed an excellent property of salinity emulsion pollution tolerance. Particularly, the evaporation rate of the PEG-modified biomass-based aerogel was 2.84 kg/(m2·h) in a 15 wt% NaCl solution (1 sun, 6 h) and 2.50 kg/(m2·h) at 1 h. The formation of hydrogen bonds between –OH of PEG and water molecules assist to conduct water along the graphene matrix to improve water evaporation. The cost of the graphene aerogel modified by Enteromorpha was reduced by 38.88 % less than the original graphene aerogel. The results from this study will greatly promote the application of graphene aerogel for desalination via solar evaporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dicentric chromosome analysis is the gold standard for biological dose assessment. To enhance the efficiency of biological dose assessment in large-scale radiation catastrophes, automatic identification of dicentric chromosome images is a promising and objective method. In this paper, an automatic identification method for dicentric chromosome images using two-stage convolutional neural network is proposed based on Giemsa-stained automatic microscopic imaging. To automatically segment the adhesive chromosome masses, a k-means based adaptive image segmentation and watershed segmentation algorithm is applied. The first-stage CNN is used to identify the dicentric chromosome images from all the images and the second-stage CNN works to specifically identify the dicentric chromosome images. This two-stage CNN identification method can effectively detects chromosome images with concealed centromeres, poorly expanded and long-armed entangled chromosomes, and tricentric chromosomes. The novel two-stage CNN method has a chromosome identification accuracy of 99.4%, a sensitivity of 85.8% sensitivity, and a specificity of 99.6%, effectively reducing the false positive rate of dicentric chromosome. The analysis speed of this automatic identification method can be 20 times quicker than manual detection, providing a valuable reference for other image identification situations with small target rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pinene is a commercially important monoterpene that can be prepared using engineered bacterial and yeast species; however, high pinene levels can adversely affect the stability and permeability of microbial membranes leading to significantly reduced growth yields. This study reports that the fluidities and permeabilities of cell membranes of Candida glycerinogenes decrease as pinene levels increase resulting in adverse effects on cell growth. Exposure of cells to pinene results in upregulation of the genes encoding ergosterol and trehalose whose production helps stabilize their cell membranes. Exogenous addition of ergosterol and trehalose to pinene‐treated cells also reduces the fluidity and permeability of the cell membrane, whilst also reducing production of intracellular reactive oxygen species. This led to the finding that the biomass of yeast cells cultivated in shake flask systems are improved by exogenous addition of trehalose and ergosterol. Overexpression of genes that encode trehalose and ergosterol produced a recombinant C. glycerinogenes strain that was found to tolerate higher concentrations of pinene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph convolutional networks (GCNs) have achieved great success on graph-structured data. Many GCNs can be considered low-pass filters for graph signals. In this paper, we propose a more powerful GCN, named BiGCN, that extends to bidirectional filtering. Specifically, we consider the original graph structure information and the latent correlation between features. Thus BiGCN can filter the signals along with both the original graph and a latent feature-connection graph. Compared with most existing GCNs, BiGCN is more robust and has powerful capacities for feature denoising. We perform node classification and link prediction in citation networks and co-purchase networks with three settings: Noise-Rate, Noise-Level, and Structure-Mistakes. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art graph neural networks in both clean and artificially noisy data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TBC1Domain Family Member 25 (TBC1D25) is a protein that contains a TBC/RAB‐GTPase activating protein (GAP) domain, which was shown to participate in autophagy in previous studies. However, the role of TBC1D25 in cerebral ischemia‐reperfusion (I/R) injury remains unknown. In this study, we found that the mRNA and protein expression levels of TBC1D25 decreased in mouse brain after I/R injury and primary cortical neurons treated with oxygen and glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R). Then TBC1D25 knockout (KO) mice were applied to demonstrate that TBC1D25 ablation aggravated cerebral I/R‐induced neuronal loss and infarct size. In addition, neuronal apoptosis and inflammation were significantly potentiated in the TBC1D25‐KO group. In in vitro OGD/R model, TBC1D25 knockdown can attenuate neuronal cell viability and aggravate the process of inflammation and apoptosis. Conversely, over‐expression of TBC1D25 in primary neurons ameliorated the aforementioned processes. Mechanistically, RNA‐sequencing (RNA‐seq) analysis revealed mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway was the most significant pathway that contributed to TBC1D25‐mediated brain I/R injury process. Through experimental verification, TBC1D25 deficiency increased the phosphorylation of the transforming growth factor‐β‐activated kinase 1 (TAK1)‐c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK)/p38 axis in neurons during the brain I/R injury. Furthermore, we found that TAK1 blockade abrogated the apoptosis and inflammatory response produced by TBC1D25 knockdown in vitro. In conclusion, this study is the first to demonstrate the functional significance of TBC1D25 in the pathophysiology of brain I/R injury, and the protective mechanism of TBC1D25 is dependent on the TAK1‐JNK/p38 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A low-energy hybrid FO-SE process was designed to desalinate brackish water. • An excellent PPy@MS solar evaporator is prepared by mixing in one step. • The structure–activity relationship of concentrating DS with PPy@MS was studied. • Evaporation link reversed the attenuation trend of J W at some DS concentrations. • Significant irreversible deterioration of J S and FO fouling did not formed. The application of the osmotic pressure-driven forward osmosis (FO) process is limited due to the high costs for regeneration and replacement of draw solution. A hybrid FO-solar evaporation (SE) hybrid process was systematically investigated to produce fresh water from desalination of brackish water. The melamine sponge loaded with polypyrrole (PPy@MS) composite material was synthesized by loading light-absorbing polypyrrole (PPy) into a network of melamine sponge (MS) substrates. As a solar evaporator, PPy@MS material showed high light absorption, water evaporation, and anti-pollution abilities in the FO-SE process. Feasibility for operating the hybrid desalination process was studied in terms of solar evaporation rate, salinity tolerance, hydrophilicity, and mechanical strength of PPy@MS, and desalination performance, including water flux, ion removal, reverse salt flux, and membrane fouling. Characterization results indicated that PPy@MS performed a high interfacial molecular transformation, solar energy accessing ability, salt-tolerance, and mechanical stability in a long-term FO-SE operation, achieving an evaporation rate up to 2.80 kg·m−2·h−1 (1 sun, 1 h) and ion removal rate of 99.9 %. A maximum evaporation flux of 17.4 L·m−2·h−1 was monitored in the FO-SE process using 2 M NaCl as the draw solution (FO film area: 5 cm2). Solar-driven evaporation via PPy@MS was able to assist the continuous operation of the FO-SE process with high water flux. This work proposes a novel sustainable hybrid FO-SE technology for FO desalination of brackish water and other saline water bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We develop a shallow-etched grating coupler with high efficiency for diffractive waveguides based on the lithium niobate on insulator platform. The key parameter of the etching depth of grating is precisely designed to balance the coupling efficiency and minimize the damage to the waveguide. By controlling the etching depth at the level of more than one hundred nanometers, a coupling efficiency of 33.9 % is achieved in experiment. • Such compact structures realized by micro-nano fabrication technologies offer a flexible solution for achieving efficiently optical coupling at selectable locations on the surfaces of waveguides. • The diffractive waveguide demonstrates excellent input/output functions and the angle-dependent spectral modulation effect. These characteristic allow for the development of visualization glasses customized for angle-resolved spectroscopy, thereby greatly amplifying the adaptability and utility of AR glasses. Diffractive waveguide integrates both the light transmission, optical modulation and the signal input/output functions based on a waveguide structure etched with gratings. Such compact structures realized by micro-nano fabrication technologies offer a flexible solution for achieving efficiently optical coupling at selectable locations on the surfaces of waveguides, while the grating etching process will inevitably affect the original waveguide efficiency. Deep-etched gratings can achieve high coupling efficiency but may cause nonnegligible damage to the waveguide device. In this study, we develop a shallow-etched grating coupler with high efficiency for diffractive waveguides based on the lithium niobate on insulator platform. The key parameter of the etching depth of grating is precisely designed to balance the coupling efficiency and minimize the damage to the waveguide. By controlling the etching depth at the level of hundred nanometers, a coupling efficiency of 33.9 % is achieved in experiment. Moreover, the diffractive waveguide demonstrates excellent input/output functions and the angle-dependent spectral modulation effect. This work provides valuable insights for the design and optimization of grating couplers for augmented reality glasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a novel core-shell structured TiAl composite consisting of nanoparticles "shell" and a near fully lamellar "core" was designed using a Ti–48Al–2Nb–2Cr alloy and Boron nitride nanoplates. By tailoring microstructure and nanoparticles strengthening, the TiAl composite exhibited a superior combination of strength and ductility at high temperature, which achieved an ultimate tensile strength of 514.2 MPa and an outstanding fracture strain of 18.8 % at 850 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of liquefaction catalyzed by acid in the acetone/lithium bromide system is an efficient method of transforming lignocellulosic biomass into hydrocarbon fuel precursors. In this study, the authors have investigated the effect of reaction temperature, residence time, and dosage of the catalysts on the liquefaction yield and composition of bio-oil precursors produced from the bamboo powder. To understand the liquefaction mechanism, the reaction of liquefaction is compared with the reaction of transformation of sugars and bamboo cellulose under the same conditions. The results show that 140°C is the optimum temperature of the liquefaction reaction. When the temperature is 140°C and the reaction time is 4 h, the bamboo liquefaction yield can reach 98.77%. It was also found that the acid dosage has a significant effect on both the liquefaction yield and the composition of the hydrocarbon fuel precursors. With increase in the dosage of the acid, the yield increases. Most phenols produced in the reaction of liquefaction originate from lignin, while most ketones and hydrocarbon precursors are produced by the transformation of cellulose and hemicellulose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seawater electrolysis to produce hydrogen is a critical technology in marine energy projects; however, the severe anode corrosion caused by the highly concentrated chloride is a key issue should be addressed. In this work, we discover that the addition of sulfate in electrolyte can effectively retard the corrosion of chloride ions to the anode. We take nickel foam as the example and observe that the addition of sulfate can greatly improve the corrosion resistance, resulting in prolonged operating stability. Theoretical simulations and in situ experiments both demonstrate that sulfate anions can be preferentially adsorbed on anode surface to form a negative charge layer, which repulses the chloride ions away from the anode by electrostatic repulsion. The repulsive effect of the adsorbed sulfate is also applicable in highly‐active catalyst (nickel iron layered double hydroxide) on nickel foam, which shows ca. 5 times stability of that in traditional electrolyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seawater electrolysis to produce hydrogen is a critical technology in marine energy projects; however, the severe anode corrosion caused by the highly concentrated chloride is a key issue should be addressed. In this work, we discover that the addition of sulfate in electrolyte can effectively retard the corrosion of chloride ions to the anode. We take nickel foam as the example and observe that the addition of sulfate can greatly improve the corrosion resistance, resulting in prolonged operating stability. Theoretical simulations and in situ experiments both demonstrate that sulfate anions can be preferentially adsorbed on anode surface to form a negative charge layer, which repulses the chloride ions away from the anode by electrostatic repulsion. The repulsive effect of the adsorbed sulfate is also applicable in highly‐active catalyst (nickel iron layered double hydroxide) on nickel foam, which shows ca. 5 times stability of that in traditional electrolyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Adverse drug–drug interactions (DDIs) are crucial for drug research and mainly cause morbidity and mortality. Thus, the identification of potential DDIs is essential for doctors, patients and the society. Existing traditional machine learning models rely heavily on handcraft features and lack generalization. Recently, the deep learning approaches that can automatically learn drug features from the molecular graph or drug-related network have improved the ability of computational models to predict unknown DDIs. However, previous works utilized large labeled data and merely considered the structure or sequence information of drugs without considering the relations or topological information between drug and other biomedical objects (e.g. gene, disease and pathway), or considered knowledge graph (KG) without considering the information from the drug molecular structure. Results Accordingly, to effectively explore the joint effect of drug molecular structure and semantic information of drugs in knowledge graph for DDI prediction, we propose a multi-scale feature fusion deep learning model named MUFFIN. MUFFIN can jointly learn the drug representation based on both the drug-self structure information and the KG with rich bio-medical information. In MUFFIN, we designed a bi-level cross strategy that includes cross- and scalar-level components to fuse multi-modal features well. MUFFIN can alleviate the restriction of limited labeled data on deep learning models by crossing the features learned from large-scale KG and drug molecular graph. We evaluated our approach on three datasets and three different tasks including binary-class, multi-class and multi-label DDI prediction tasks. The results showed that MUFFIN outperformed other state-of-the-art baselines. Availability and implementation The source code and data are available at https://github.com/xzenglab/MUFFIN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection for Al alloy is investigated through vapor phase assembly technology. The corrosion resistance performance of the assembled Al alloys is compared by the electrochemical measurements as well as hydrogen evolution test. The assembly sequence affects the protection of the complex films formed on Al alloy surface. It indicates that the complex films of base and acid assembly components have better protection effects. The reactivity between the assembly components and the formation mechanism of the complex films is analyzed. The alternative assembly of acid and base components enhances the anticorrosion ability of Al alloys and becomes the promising method for the use of the salt‐type volatile corrosion inhibitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CoMnHCF is utilized in aqueous sodium/zinc mixed ion batteries and exhibits a high reversible capacity with good rate and cycle performances. At 0.05 A g−1 current density, the CoMnHCF can deliver a specific capacity for 180.4 mA h g−1, and have 99.3% capacity retention after 300 cycles at 0.3 A g−1. Such high reversible capacity profits from Mn vacancies that generate in situ during the first cycle, which provides more active sites for Zn storage. The de-intercalation of Na+ further elevates this good electrochemical performance. Co atoms in the framework are not only involved in the redox reactions, but help to support the structure, thus achieving better cycle stabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitric oxide (NO) and carbon monoxide (CO) gaseous signaling molecules play crucial roles in maintaining biological homeostasis, which depends on the cellular microenvironment, concentrations, as well as spatial and temporal factors. Therefore, visualizing and monitoring these molecules in living systems is crucial for comprehending their origin, activity, and biological effects. Among various detection methods, luminescence-based probes (such as fluorescence, phosphorescence, and chemiluminescence) have emerged as a powerful technique for detecting and imaging NO and CO owing to their non-invasive, highly selective, and real-time in situ detection capabilities. This article provides a comprehensive review of the advancements made in luminescence-based probes for the selective detection and imaging of NO and CO in cells and living organisms and showcases their potential for rapid real-time detection of these vital gaseous signaling molecules in biological systems. [Display omitted] • The design strategies of luminescence-based probes for nitric oxide and carbon monoxide are discussed. • The detection and bioimaging properties of luminescence-based probes for nitric oxide and carbon monoxide are discussed. • Future research directions of luminescence-based probes for nitric oxide and carbon monoxide are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemiluminescence biosensor is an analytical method combining electrochemiluminescence technology with biosensor. Using nanomaterials as electrochemical luminescence sensor platform can not only immobilize a large number of biomolecules but also improve the performance of the sensor to realize the supersensitive detection of biomacromolecules. Although these methods have high sensitivity for bioanalysis, there are still some shortcomings which limit the practical application. Therefore, this paper discusses the development of functional gold nanomaterials industry and its application in chemiluminescence bioanalysis. In this paper, two methods of synthesizing luminescent functional gold nanomaterials at room temperature were studied by using chemiluminescent reagents as reducing agent and protective agent. Based on luminescent functionalized gold nanoparticles, immunoassay and DNA bioanalysis probes were constructed, and their applications in chemiluminescence and electrochemiluminescence bioanalysis were discussed. Finally, the simulation results show that the relative deviation between the experimental results and the existing clinical methods is less than 17%. The sensor has good stability and selectivity and can be used for the determination of CEA in human serum. The gold nanomaterials synthesized by further research have excellent chemiluminescence activity and can be used to label biomolecules and prepare biological probes. This article aims to explore the application of chemical methods in the transformation of new industries, to achieve breakthroughs in new products in industrial innovation, and to achieve the cross-fusion of management science and engineering disciplines and chemical disciplines. The industrial development of derivative functionalized gold nanomaterials has broad application prospects in biological analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ce anomaly is an important indicator for many geochemical processes. Although the role of strong ligand such as siderophore desferrioxamine B (DFOB) in facilitating negative Ce anomaly formation on Mn (hydr)oxide has been well studied, the effect of ubiquitous weak ligands such as polysaccharides on the mobility of Ce have not been considered. Here, we investigated the effects of polysaccharides with different molecular weights on Mn (hydr)oxide formation as well as the distribution coefficients of rare-earth elements (REEs) at the solid–liquid interface. In coprecipitation experiments, REEs distribution coefficients between Mn (hydr)oxide and the solution showed a negative Ce anomaly during coprecipitation of Mn in the presence of dextran with molecular weight of 5000 Dalton (Dextran 5 k). The molecular size of the saccharides affected the crystal growth of Mn (hydr)oxide. Mn (hydr)oxide was deposited on a matrix of polysaccharide molecules to form a metal–organic framework in the presence of dextran. The crystal size decreased with an increase in the length of the saccharide molecular chain. As a control test, when well crystallized δ-MnO 2 was used as an adsorbent, the distribution coefficients of the REEs showed a positive Ce anomaly in the presence of dextran 5 k. Based on the results, we suggest that the mechanism by which saccharides affect the sorption behavior of REEs on Mn (hydr)oxide is different from the reported mechanisms of strong metal-binding ligands such as DFOB. Saccharide-mediated electron transfer may occur between Mn (hydr)oxides and Ce(III), resulting in the formation of an organic-Ce(IV) complex in solution. Our results imply that ubiquitous weak ligands such as polysaccharides may significantly affect the mobility of Ce largely due to the association with Mn oxides, which are widespread natural electron acceptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paramagnetism and superparamagnetism of magnetic nanomaterials are very important for in vivo applications. The magnetic particles with paramagnetism or superparamagnetism can redistribute the magnetic particles after the magnetic field is withdrawn, which is widely used for the separation and purification of biomolecules. At the same time, superparamagnetic particles can also be used as MRI imaging contrast agent. Compared with Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine is different from Western medicine in that it is originated from nature and has thousands of years of clinical efficacy. Therefore, we hope to elaborate the complex mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine through some modern technical means: through the establishment of relevant quality control system, Chinese medicine will be recognized and popularized in the international field. Therefore, this paper discusses the application of magnetic nanomaterials in the chemical composition analysis and drug metabolism of traditional Chinese medicine and its industrial prospect and development path. Firstly, the advantages of magnetic nanomaterials and the shortcomings of chemical composition analysis technology of traditional Chinese medicine are analyzed theoretically. Then, through the experimental simulation, the results show that, under the optimal conditions, the magnetic nanomaterials can be used to analyze the chemical composition of traditional Chinese medicine. The peak current and concentration of THP showed a good linear relationship in the range of 5.2 × 10−8 ∼ 2.1 × 10−5 mol/L, and the detection limit was 1.9 × 10−7 mol/L. Moreover, it showed effective results in repeatability, stability, and interference tests. Therefore, magnetic nanomaterials play an important role in the chemical composition analysis and drug metabolism of traditional Chinese medicine as well as its industrial prospect and development path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal transport properties have attracted extensive research attentions over the past decades. First-principles-based approaches have proved to be very useful for predicting the thermal transport properties of materials and revealing the phonon and electron scattering or propagation mechanisms in materials and devices. In this review, we provide a concise but inclusive discussion on state-of-the-art first-principles thermal modeling methods and notable achievements by these methods over the last decade. A wide range of materials are covered in this review, including two-dimensional materials, superhard materials, metamaterials, and polymers. We also cover the very recent important findings on heat transfer mechanisms informed from first principles, including phonon–electron scattering, higher-order phonon–phonon scattering, and the effect of external electric field on thermal transport. Finally, we discuss the challenges and limitations of state-of-the-art approaches and provide an outlook toward future developments in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutations of MSX1 have been associated with nonsyndromic hypodontia. To seek the causal gene mutation sites in a family with nonsyndromic oligodontia, whole‐exome sequencing (WES) was performed to seek the causative locus of the family. The candidate mutation was further identified by Sanger sequencing afterward. Two mutations of MSX1 were found both in the proband and her mother. One novel heterozygous missense mutation (c.C667G, p.R223G) of MSX1 inherited from the asymptomatic mother with mosaic mutation was located in the highly conserved fragment of exon 2. The other was a synonymous mutation (c.C348T, p.G116G) in exon 1, which had been reported. The novel maternal heterozygous missense mutation (c.C667G, p.R223G) was likely to be the major reason for nonsyndromic oligodontia in the family. This is the first mosaic variant that has been recorded of the MSX1 gene. Our study expands the phenotype–genotype correlation associated with MSX1 variants. Our study also suggests that the determination of the mosaicism is essential for precise genetic counseling if a disease appears to arise de novo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Highly graphitic nanosheets were formed on the Enteromorpha -based catalysts. • Both the intrinsic N/Fe in Enteromorpha were co-doped onto the catalysts. • Graphitic N in different catalysts showed the high correlation with PCM removal rate. • PCM degradation was dominated by the radical O 2 − and non-radical 1O 2. Abstract An environmentally friendly, facile, and economical Fe/N co-doped carbonaceous material (Fe-N@C) was prepared by the in-situ pyrolysis of Fe/N rich Enteromorpha biomass for peroxymonosulfate activation and organic contaminants degradation. Results indicated that Enteromorpha -based catalysts prepared at high pyrolysis temperature displayed some highly graphitic nanosheets with rich nitrogen doped. The graphitic N derived from the intrinsic N in Enteromorpha showed the high correlation with the paracetamol (PCM) removal rate; this was confirmed by the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation, showing the high adsorption energy (ΔE ads , −2.62 eV) of PMS molecular adsorbed onto the graphitic N area. A weak correlation between the PCM removal rate and adsorption capacity was also observed, revealing that the PCM catalytic reaction could be greatly accelerated after the pre-adsorption. It was interesting that the intrinsic Fe in Enteromorpha did not affect the PCM degradation, but PCM removal rate of acid treated Fe-N/C was improved as more active sites were formed after the Fe extraction by acid treatment. Both the radical pathways of O 2 − and non-radical 1O 2 generated in the Fe-N@C/PMS system were the primary mechanisms for the PCM degradation, which was consistent with the Fukui function values of f° and f- based on the DFT calculation. In addition, high stability of the carbon-based catalysts was observed after three runs and calcinating regeneration, which showed the promising applications for environmental remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) are hyperglycosylated members of the hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein (HRGP) superfamily and are widely distributed throughout the plant kingdom. In Oryza sativa (rice), the gene expression and biological function of AGPs only have received minimal research attention. Here, we used qRT-PCR to detect the expression patterns of OsAGP genes in various organs, and found that six genes were preferentially expressed in panicles, three genes were specifically expressed in anthers, and one gene in the stigma. Furthermore, using four specific monoclonal antibodies (JIM8, JIM13, LM2, MAC207), we observed the distribution of AGPs in rice anthers, ovules, and embryos. In anthers, the strong fluorescence signals of AGPs were present in tapetum cells, pollen mother cells, and mature pollens, suggesting that AGPs might be related to the development of anther and pollen. In ovules, signals of AGPs were specifically distributed in the three micropylar megaspores of the tetrad, and with intense signals in the egg cell and synergid cells in the mature embryo sac. This suggests that AGPs may be involved in megaspore determination and double fertilization. In embryos, the immunological signals of AGPs appeared in peripheral and inner cells at the early stage, and in the scutellum, plumule, and radicle at the late stage, indicating that AGPs may be associated with organ differentiation and maturation of embryos. In this study, we revealed that AGPs were widely distributed in rice anthers, ovules, and embryos, which lays a foundation for the functional investigation of AGPs in various processes of sexual reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family Oxalobacteraceae is known for the indicator of bacterial diversity in the environment and many of which are important beneficial bacteria. Previous studies on the taxonomic structure of family Oxalobacteraceae mostly relied on 16S rRNA gene analysis, or core-genome phylogeny of a limited number of species and resulted in taxonomic confusion within several genera. Developments in sequencing technologies have allowed more genome sequences to be obtained, enabling the revision of family Oxalobacteraceae. Here, we report a comprehensive analysis of phylogenomic trees, concatenated protein and up-to-date bacterial core gene phylogenetic trees, and genomic metrics for genus demarcation on 135 genomes of Oxalobacteraceae species to elucidate their interrelationships. Following this framework for classification of species in family Oxalobacteraceae , all the proposed genera formed monophyletic lineages in the phylogenomic trees and could also be clearly separated from others in the genomic similarity indexes of average amino acid identity, percentage of conserved proteins and core-proteome average amino acid identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The ultrasonic pulse-echo signals are used for the point-cloud acquisition in CFRP samples. • The point-cloud acquisition is treated as a time-delay-estimation (TDE) problem. • The cross-correlation technique is explored for the ultrasonic location estimation. • The multi-reflection and multi-delay TDE problem is addressed. • A cross-correlation method using the fundamental ply-resonance frequency is proposed. Wrinkles in carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) degrade the mechanical performance. The numerical study on wrinkles requires internal structural point cloud for the meso -structure reconstruction. This paper explores the ultrasonic location estimation with the phase-shift reference pulse for the point-cloud acquisition. The point-cloud acquisition using pulse-echo signals is a time-delay estimation which is a multi-reflection and multi-delay problem. We theoretically simplify the multi-reflection problem as a single-reflection problem and propose a normalized-cross-correlation-peaks (NCCPeaks) method for the multi-delay problem. The proposed method can eliminate some amplitude decrease and balance the smearing and frequency-dependent effects. Simulation shows that the proposed method has the maximum detectable depth without missing inter-ply estimations and a stronger noise resistance than the instantaneous phase method. An experiment is implemented on the 32-ply CFRP sample with an induced wrinkle. The estimation results of the instantaneous phase and NCCPeaks methods are almost the same at the first thirteenth layers. After the thirteenth layer, the NCCPeaks method has a stabler estimation and lower false estimation index than the instantaneous phase method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Roughness enhances heat transfer between the wall and the fluid. • The enhancement stems from the increased contact area between the wall and the fluid. • Nano-roughness shows certain degree of lubricating effect. • Heat convection in the nanochannel studied in this work is diffusion dominated. • Surface coating with an intermediate vibrational spectrum can enhance heat convection. Abstract The subject of convective heat transfer in micro-/nano-scale channels is of utmost importance for the effective cooling of small-scale electronic devices with high power density. The overall heat convection in these channels largely depends on interfacial (wall-fluid) thermal transport. In this work, we demonstrate that a carefully designed surface topology can enhance heat dissipation in nanochannels. Specifically, we found that both uniformly and randomly distributed surface roughness can substantially increase the overall heat transfer between the wall and fluid in the nanochannels. Moreover, we reveal that depositing a coating layer, of which the vibrational density of states bridge those of the walls and the flowing fluid, can significantly enhance wall-fluid interfacial heat transfer. This work reveals the critical effect of surface topology and material choice of the channel wall on heat dissipation in nanochannels, which is important for the cooling of small-scale devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A nonnoble bimetallic metal catalyst Cu 15 Pr 3 /Al 2 O 3 readily prepared through incipient-wetness impregnation method was developed for the reductive amination of levulinic acid (LA) with amines to N -substituted-5-methyl-2-pyrrolidinones. A wide variety of N -substituted-5-methyl-2-pyrrolidinones were obtained in high yield over this catalyst. The characterization results from XRD, H 2 -TPR, XPS, TEM, NH 3 -TPD and N 2 adsorption-desorption revealed that Cu0 species are the active species for the hydrogenation in the reductive amination reaction. Besides, the doping of praseodymium into γ-Al 2 O 3 supported copper catalyst greatly enhanced the catalytic performance of Cu/γ-Al 2 O 3 due to better dispersion of Cu0. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Levulinic acid was transformed to pyrrolidinones in high yield over Cu 15 Pr 3 /Al 2 O 3. • Doping of Pr into Cu 15 /Al 2 O 3 optimizes the structure of copper based catalyst. • The bimetallic catalyst Cu 15 Pr 3 /Al 2 O 3 showed good performance in the reaction. • The non-noble bimetallic catalyst is low cost compared to reported noble catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The world is entering a new era of exploring and exploiting the deep-underground space. With humans poised to reach historical depths in the use of the deep Earth, it is essential to understand the effect of the deep-underground environment on the health of humans and other living organisms. This article outlines the history and development of biological research conducted in deep-underground laboratories and provides insight into future areas of investigation. Many deep-underground laboratories have investigated the effects of reduced cosmic ray muons flux, searching for rare events such as proton decay, dark matter particles, or neutrino interactions, but few have focused on the influence of the environmental factors in the deep-underground on living organisms. Some studies revealed that prokaryote and eukaryote cells maintained in low levels of background radiation exhibited an stress response, which manifested as changes in cell growth, enzyme activity, and sensitivity to factors that cause genetic damage; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. There remains an urgent need to understand the detrimental and beneficial biological effects of low background radiation and other factors in the deep-underground on humans and other organisms. Consequently, a multidisciplinary approach to medical research in the deep-underground has been proposed, creating a new discipline, deep-underground medicine, and representing a historical milestone for exploring the deep Earth and in medical research. Highlights • The world is entering a new era of exploring and exploiting the deep-underground space. • There is an urgent need to understand the biological effects of working or living in the deep-underground on organisms. • Current research in deep-underground laboratories has focused on the implications of low background radiation for life. • Deep-underground laboratories must be extended to the biological and medical sciences. • Research data collected could be integrated into a new discipline, deep-underground medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi energy system is considered an effective pattern to improve the energy efficiency and reduce energy supply cost by integrating multi energy carriers. Face abundance energy convertor and storage devices with various characteristics, how to select the types and capacities of devices, how to connect and manage the selected devices are core challenging problems to design the optimal structures of new multi energy systems. A generic optimal planning framework and model is proposed to design multi energy systems, which can obtain both the optimal structure configuration and energy management strategies. The optimal planning problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model with the objective to minimize the overall cost. Three different energy system schemes are compared to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed optimal planning model. Simulation results show that the multi energy system designed by the proposed planning model (scheme 3) shows better economic and environmental performances than the conventional centralized energy system (scheme 1) and the typical combined cooling, heating and power systems (scheme 2). Compared with scheme 1, the total annual and carbon emission costs of scheme 3 decrease by 35.21% and 55.34%, respectively. While, compared to scheme 2, the total annual and carbon emission costs of scheme 3 decrease by 14.53% and 26.14%, respectively. Moreover, the robustness and performances of the optimization planning model are demonstrated through sensitivity and comparative analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel tubular graphitic carbon nitride has been successfully prepared via electrospinning technology, high temperature calcination technology, a vapor deposition reaction method and the method of acid removal, and in this process, Al2O3 fibers used as a template can help achieve the controllable preparation of GCNTs. Structural characterization results reveal that the as-prepared sample has the same composition as bulk graphitic carbon nitride and verify the well-defined tubular morphology of the graphitic carbon nitride tubes, which have a diameter of about 270 nm and a wall thickness of 30 nm. With regard to the photocatalytic activity of the sample, the degradation of organic dyes under visible light irradiation was carried out and cycling experiments were conducted, and the results indicated that the prepared sample has visible light catalytic activity and great stability. The specific tubular structure of graphitic carbon nitride will provide more active sites and higher reaction efficiency with potential application to waste treatment. When applied as an electrocatalyst in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), GCNTs deliver a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 360 mV with a Tafel slope of only 40 mV dec−1, and demonstrate excellent long term durability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Columbite compound MnNb 2 O 6 , consisted the layers with slightly distorted hexagonal-closed-packed oxygen sublattice, has abundant reaction sites whereby the interlayered ions can occur faradic reaction to enhance the charge storage capability. Here, we first report three-dimensional nanostructure of MnNb 2 O 6 as electrode materials for electrochemical pseudocapacitor synthesized through hydrothermal method. The crystal morphologies of MnNb 2 O 6 show an evolution with the hydrothermal time, from primary spindle-like particles grown for 12 h and undergrown star-like crystals for 18 h, to hierarchical star-like crystals for 1 day and overgrown crystals for 3 days. MNO-1d sample synthesized for 1 day possesses ordered six-leaf nanostructure composed of hierarchical nano-sheets (thickness ∼30 nm). To explore its potential applications for supercapacitor, MnNb 2 O 6 sample as electrode material is characterized by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements. MNO-1d demonstrates an outstanding specific capacitance of 350 F g −1 and rate capability with a high capacitance retention of ∼90% of its initial capacitance after 10000 cycles at a high current density of 10 A g −1 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Hospital readmission costs a lot of money every year. Many hospital readmissions are avoidable, and excessive hospital readmissions could also be harmful to the patients. Accurate prediction of hospital readmission can effectively help reduce the readmission risk. However, the complex relationship between readmission and potential risk factors makes readmission prediction a difficult task. The main goal of this paper is to explore deep learning models to distill such complex relationships and make accurate predictions. Materials and methods: We propose CONTENT, a deep model that predicts hospital readmissions via learning interpretable patient representations by capturing both local and global contexts from patient Electronic Health Records (EHR) through a hybrid Topic Recurrent Neural Network (TopicRNN) model. The experiment was conducted using the EHR of a real world Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) cohort of 5,393 patients. Results: The proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art methods in readmission prediction (e.g. 0.6103 ± 0.0130 vs. second best 0.5998 ± 0.0124 in terms of ROC-AUC). The derived patient representations were further utilized for patient phenotyping. The learned phenotypes provide more precise understanding of readmission risks. Discussion: Embedding both local and global context in patient representation not only improves prediction performance, but also brings interpretable insights of understanding readmission risks for heterogeneous chronic clinical conditions. Conclusion: This is the first of its kind model that integrates the power of both conventional deep neural network and the probabilistic generative models for highly interpretable deep patient representation learning. Experimental results and case studies demonstrate the improved performance and interpretability of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dopamine signals mainly through D1 receptors (D1Rs) and D2 receptors (D2Rs); D1R-expressing or D2R-expressing neurons contribute to distinct reward and addictive behaviors. Traditionally, transgenic mice expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) under D1R or D2R promoters are used for fluorescent verification in electrophysiology studies, whereas Cre mice are employed for behavioral research. However, it is unknown whether the same neuronal populations are targeted in GFP and Cre mice. Additionally, while D1Rs and D2Rs are known to be expressed in different striatal neurons, their expression patterns outside the striatum remain unclear. The present study addressed these two questions by using several transgenic mouse lines expressing fluorescent proteins (GFP or tdTomato) or Cre under the control of D1R or D2R promoters. We found a high degree of overlap between GFP-positive and Cre-positive neurons in the striatum and hippocampus. Additionally, we discovered that D1Rs and D2Rs were highly segregated in the orbitofrontal cortex, prefrontal cortex, dorsal and ventral hippocampus, and amygdala: ~4-34 percent of neurons co-expressed these receptors. Importantly, slice electrophysiological studies demonstrated that D1R-positive and D1R-negative hippocampal neurons were functionally distinct in a mouse line generated by crossing Drd1a-Cre mice with a Cre reporter Ai14 line. Lastly, we discovered that chronic alcohol intake differentially altered D1R-positive and D2R-positive neuron excitability in the ventral CA1. These data suggest that GFP and Cre mice target the same populations of striatal neurons, D1R-expressing or D2R-expressing neurons are highly segregated outside the striatum, and these neurons in the ventral hippocampal may exert distinct roles in alcohol addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reductive amination of levulinic acid to N-substituted pyrrolidinones was performed in a continuous-flow microreactor (CFMR) in high yield, using formic acid as hydrogen source and acetonitrile as the reaction solvent. The developed protocol allows the avoidance of high boiling solvents such as DMSO and the additive triethylamine, more commonly associated with this synthetic transformation. As a result, the reaction products are more readily separated from the low boiling solvent.The continuous reductive amination of levulinic acid with amines to N-substituted pyrrolidones was performed in a continuous-flow microreactor in high yield, using formic acid as hydrogen source and acetonitrile as the reaction solvent under catalyst-free conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small containments generally possess a small free volume and compact layout of inner structures. After a loss of coolant accident (LOCA) or main steam line break accident (MSLB), steam with high temperature and momentum may impinge directly on the safety-related equipment, which may harm the normal operation of these devices. Therefore, predictions of temperature and velocity of the jet are absolutely essential. Calculation model based on MATLAB and related experimental researches of hot-air to cold-air jet were carried out in this paper. Several typical experimental conditions have been simulated by the CFD code. The running time of these two codes proved the advantage of the model developed in this paper. Results of the calculations with the MATLAB model and CFD code are both coincident with the experimental data in general. Both modeling simulation and experimental results showed that temperature and velocity of the air jet decay rapidly in a limited distance and then the jet maintains a low temperature and velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A composite catalyst that graphite carbon nitride/carbon nanofibers (g-C 3 N 4 /CNFs) was successfully prepared through electrospinning technology, high-temperature calcination process and gas-solid method. The morphology and structure of g-C 3 N 4 /CNFs were investigated through some characteristics, indicating the composite that g-C 3 N 4 wrapping on one-dimensional carbon fiber has been synthesized successfully. Furthermore, the experiments for degradation of different dyes with the photocatalyst under the irradiation of UV and visible light were carried out, showing that the composite catalyst has the synergy effects of adsorption and photocatalysis which are belonged to CNFs and g-C 3 N 4 respectively. Furthermore, the recycle experiments of the catalyst for degrading dyes under the UV and visible light irradiation were also carried out and indicated that the catalyst had an excellent stability and cycle performance. Above all, as-prepared g-C 3 N 4 /CNFs catalyst had a potential appliance value in the degradation of organic pollutants in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulated evidence suggests that the dorsomedial striatum (DMS) of the basal ganglia plays an essential role in pathological excessive alcohol consumption. The DMS receives multiple glutamatergic inputs. However, whether and how alcohol consumption distinctly affects these excitatory afferents to the DMS remains unknown. Here, we used optogenetics to selectively activate the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA) inputs in DMS slices, and measured the effects of alcohol consumption on glutamatergic transmission in these corticostriatal and amygdalostriatal circuits. We found that excessive alcohol consumption increased AMPA receptor- and NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-mediated neurotransmission, as well as the GluN2B/NMDAR ratio, at the corticostriatal input to the DMS. The probability of glutamate release was increased selectively at the amygdalostriatal input. Interestingly, we discovered that paired activation of the mPFC and BLA inputs using dual-channel optogenetics induced robust long-term potentiation (LTP) of the corticostriatal input to the DMS. Taken together, these results indicate that excessive alcohol consumption potentiates glutamatergic transmission via a postsynaptic mechanism for the corticostriatal input and via a presynaptic mechanism for the amygdalostriatal input. These changes may in turn contribute to pathological alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic testing is an important non-destructive testing method, which is sensitive to the defects in the diffusion bonding interface. Ultrasonic testing of diffusion bonding interfaces in complex-surface components is a challenge due to the geometry and the weak echo signal of the diffusion bonding defects. This paper proposes an interfacial stiffness characterization method based on the spring model for the ultrasonic testing of the diffusion bonding interface of titanium alloy complex-surface component. Finite element models for ultrasonic field are established to analyze the diffusion bonding defects response, the effect of complex surface, and the inconsistency of the bonding interface depth in ultrasonic testing of the titanium alloy complex-surface component. 15 MHz is recommended as the testing frequency of the diffusion bonding interface. Ultrasonic C-scan experiments are conducted using specimens with embedded artificial defects and a titanium alloy complex-surface component. The simulation and experimental results show that the novel interfacial stiffness characterization method can be applied to ultrasonic testing of the diffusion bonding interface (inclination angle less than 14°) in complex-surface components, and the ability to test defects at the diffusion bonding interface can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sudden air pollution accidents (explosions, fires, leaks, etc.) in chemical industry parks may result in great harm to people's lives, property, and the ecological environment. A gas tracking network can monitor hazardous gas diffusion using traceability technology combined with sensors distributed within the scope of a chemical industry park. Such systems can automatically locate the source of pollutants in a timely manner and notify relevant departments to take major hazards into their control. However, tracing the source of the leak in a large area is still a tough problem, especially within an urban area. In this paper, the diffusion of 79 potential leaking sources with consideration of different weather conditions and complex urban terrain is simulated by AERMOD. Only 61 sensors are used to monitor the gas concentration within such a large scale. A fully connected network trained with a hybrid strategy is proposed to trace the leaking source effectively and robustly. Our proposed model reaches a final classification accuracy of 99.14%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Although expression of miR-200s is aberrant in liver fibrosis, its role in liver fibrogenesis still remains unknown. Here, we investigated the role of miR-200c in the activation of human hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and induction of liver fibrosis. Methods. We engineered human HSCs (LX2 cell line) to stably express miR-200c (LX2-200c) or empty vector control (LX2-nc). Results. miR-200c expression upregulated α-smooth muscle actin (SMA) and vimentin, enhanced HSCs growth and migration, increased expression of collagen type I (a main component of ECM) gene and secretion of epidermal growth factor (EGF), and upregulated the phosphorylation of Akt, a downstream effector of the PI3K pathway. As a target of miR-200s and inhibitor of PI3K pathway, FOG2 protein expression was significantly suppressed in LX2-200c cells. Moreover, LY294002, a highly selective inhibitor of PI3K, blocked phosphorylation of Akt and the effects of miR-200c. Conclusions. These data suggest that miR-200c activates HSCs in liver fibrosis possibly by downregulating FOG2 protein expression and upregulating PI3K/Akt signaling. Autocrine activation of EGF signaling may also be a mechanism of miR-200c-mediated HSCs activation. So miR-200c can be a potential marker for HSCs activation and liver fibrosis progression, as well as a potential target to attenuate liver fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-temperature hydrogen charging was carried out to reveal the effect of hydrogen on the microstructure and hot deformability of TiAl alloys. The Ti–44Al (at.%) alloy and Ti–48Al alloy were hydrogenated at temperature range from 1373 K to 1693 K under hydrogen pressure of 0.1 MPa, and effects of hydrogen on the hot deformation behavior were tested on Gleeble-1500D at temperature of 1373–1523 K under strain rate of 0.01 s −1 . Results show that hydrogen content increases with increasing of temperature and the volume fraction of α 2 phase, and hydrogen absorption reaches to equilibrium within 30 min at high temperature. There is a linear relationship between ln C H and 1/ T , the heat of solution of hydrogen is calculated as 86.0 kJ/mol and 76.2 kJ/mol respectively, suggesting that hydrogen absorption in TiAl alloys is an endothermic reaction. Hydrogen promotes the formation of γ phases because hydrogen promotes the transition of L(α 2 /γ)→γ and nucleation of γ phase. The presence of hydrogen promotes the dynamic recrystallization and dislocation movement during hot deformation, resulting in decrease of flow stress. The peak stresses of Ti–44Al alloy and Ti–48Al alloy are decreased by 29% and 38% respectively after hydrogenation, which corresponds to the decrease of deformation temperature by about 50 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of hydrogen on the hot deformation behavior and microstructural evolution of Ti–44Al–6Nb–1Cr–2V (at.%) alloys were investigated at temperature range of 1373–1523 K under strain rate of 0.01 s −1 . The true stress–strain curves show that the peak stress decreases from 323 MPa to 97 MPa when deformation temperature increases from 1373 K to 1523 K. The peak stress is decreased by 30% after hydrogenation with 2% H, which corresponds to the decrease of deformation temperature by about 50 K, it denotes that hydrogen can promote a solution softening effect in TiAl alloys. This is attributed to hydrogen-promoted the dynamic recrystallization, hydrogen-induced dislocation movement and hydrogen-stabilized the B2 phase. For dynamic recrystallization, the calculated results show that hydrogen accelerates the onset of dynamic recrystallization, which means that hydrogen promotes the dynamic recrystallization kinetics. For dislocation movement, EBSD results show that the fraction of low-density dislocation region increases from 59.6% to 79.7% after hydrogenation with 2% H, which indicates that hydrogen reduces the dislocation tangles and dislocation density. For B2 phase, more softening B2 phases are observed in hydrogenated alloy compared with that in unhydrogenated alloy, which results from hydrogen-promoted the transition of L (α 2 /γ) → γ + B2. The positive effect of hydrogen on TiAl alloys provides an effective method to improve the hot workability of TiAl alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy security and environmental problems impel people to explore a more efficient, environment friendly and economical energy utilization pattern. In this paper, the coordinated operation and optimal dispatch strategies for multiple energy system are studied at the whole Micro Energy Grid level. To augment the operation flexibility of energy hub, the innovation sub-energy hub structure including power hub, heating hub and cooling hub is put forward. Basing on it, a generic energy hub architecture integrating renewable energy, combined cooling heating and power, and energy storage devices is developed. Moreover, a generic modeling method for the energy flow of micro energy grid is proposed. To minimize the daily operation cost, a day-ahead dynamic optimal operation model is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming optimization problem with considering the demand response. Case studies are undertaken on a community Micro Energy Grid in four different scenarios on a typical summer day and the roles of renewable energy, energy storage devices and demand response are discussed separately. Numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed energy flow modeling and optimal operation method are universal and effective over the entire energy dispatching horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research work, the effect of β-phase stabilizing elements (Nb, Cr, V) and high temperature (1373–1693 K) on hydrogen absorption in TiAl alloys was investigated. The results show that hydrogen content increases with increasing of hydrogenation temperature, hydrogenation time, hydrogen flow rate and the volume fraction of α 2 phase and B2 phase, the maximum hydrogen content in Ti44Al6Nb1Cr2V alloy is 0.126 wt.%. Hydrogen absorption in TiAl alloys is an endothermic reaction and the heat of solution of hydrogen in Ti44Al, Ti48Al and Ti44Al6Nb1Cr2V alloys is calculated as 86.0 kJ/mol, 76.2 kJ/mol and 82.9 kJ/mol respectively, which increases with increasing of Ti content and β-phase stabilizing elements. Hydrogen promotes the size of lamellar colonies and lamellar spacing, the lamellar colony boundary of hydrogenated alloy is smooth compared with that of unhydrogenated alloy. The nanohardness of Ti44Al alloy is decreased from 3.9 GPa to 3.5 GPa after hydrogenation and the elasticity modulus is decreased from 189.2 GPa to 178.6 GPa. As hydrogen content increases, the compressive strength of TiAl alloys is decreased while the fracture strain is slightly increased indicating that hydrogen promotes a softening effect in TiAl alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For multiplex bioassays, one effective strategy is to employ microfluidic chips based on an array of photonic crystal beads (PCBs) that are encoded by their characteristic reflection spectrum (CRS). In this paper, we report a hyperspectral imaging system and algorithms for the high throughput decoding of a PCB array and subsequent detection. The results showed that the decoding accuracy of up to ∼500 PCBs is 98.56% with an excellent ability to extract low-intensity fluorescence intensities. The results also demonstrated hyperspectral imaging techniques which can simultaneously obtain both spatial and spectral information as powerful tools in the analysis of multiplex bioassays or microfluidic chips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]