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The pavement surface will inevitably develop cracks, subsidence, pits, ruts, and other defects due to the effects of traffic and the environment. In road engineering, vibration-based pavement condition monitoring has been widely adopted. Due to differences in vehicle dynamics, acquisition equipment, and road quality, the application of these techniques to the identification of minor pavement damage is limited. With the widespread adoption of the inertial navigation system (INS) in autonomous vehicles, INS-based pavement evaluation has emerged as a promising new technique. In this paper, the acceleration sensor, gyroscope, GPS, and other INS-integrated devices were used to collect data on vehicle attitude changes. For the detection of pavement apparent millimetre disease, a new method utilising INS data and machine learning was proposed. The method analyses the original vibration signal in time domain, determines the degree of sensing parameter influence, and extracts the index that can characterise the signal change. Multiple machine learning recognition models have been built to effectively classify road conditions, with the best-performing model achieving an F1 score of 99.61% and precision of 99.33%. The recall rate, accuracy rate, and F1 score of disease height classification were all above 0.7 on a macro and micro scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pavement surface will inevitably develop cracks, subsidence, pits, ruts, and other defects due to the effects of traffic and the environment. In road engineering, vibration-based pavement condition monitoring has been widely adopted. Due to differences in vehicle dynamics, acquisition equipment, and road quality, the application of these techniques to the identification of minor pavement damage is limited. With the widespread adoption of the inertial navigation system (INS) in autonomous vehicles, INS-based pavement evaluation has emerged as a promising new technique. In this paper, the acceleration sensor, gyroscope, GPS, and other INS-integrated devices were used to collect data on vehicle attitude changes. For the detection of pavement apparent millimetre disease, a new method utilising INS data and machine learning was proposed. The method analyses the original vibration signal in time domain, determines the degree of sensing parameter influence, and extracts the index that can characterise the signal change. Multiple machine learning recognition models have been built to effectively classify road conditions, with the best-performing model achieving an F1 score of 99.61% and precision of 99.33%. The recall rate, accuracy rate, and F1 score of disease height classification were all above 0.7 on a macro and micro scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The coking of supercritical pressure n-decane and its effect on heat transfer are investigated. • The influence of coking on heat transfer can be divided into three regions. • The coking precursor content and running time are key factors that influence the coke characteristics. • The fluid temperature and coking precursor content are key factors that influence the heat transfer. • The value of c C 2 H 4 + c C 3 H 6 e - T r e f T f is recommended as an indicator to evaluate the impact of coking on heat transfer in the pyrolytic coking region.. Coking of endothermic hydrocarbon fuels can affect heat transfer performance and block the cooling channels, threatening the safe operation of regenerative cooling system for hypersonic aircraft. In this study, an experimental investigation of the influence of coking of supercritical-pressure n-decane on heat transfer was presented. The mechanism by which coking affects heat transfer was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and other characterization methods. The influence of coke on heat transfer can be divided into three regions. In oxidative coking region, coke is generated primarily through catalytic reactions, and coking leads to a slight heat transfer deterioration. In the lower conversion region, filamentous coke is generated, which improves porosity and surface roughness, and leads to heat transfer enhancement. In the higher conversion region, the increase of coking rate leads to an increase in the thickness of the coke and uniformity of coke distribution. The thermal resistance effect exceeds that of rough surfaces, leading to heat transfer deterioration. From the heat transfer and coke characterization results, an indicator related with temperature and coking precursor content was proposed for evaluating the impact of pyrolytic coking on heat transfer. This study can help design the regenerative cooling system more accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The HfO 2 /Al 2 O 3 multilayer heterogeneous thin-film insulation layer was designed and fabricated. • The multilayer heterogeneous insulation layer could increase the high-temperature electrical resistance from 7.39 × 104 Ω to 1.09 × 106 Ω at 1100 °C. • The equiaxed crystal HfO 2 grains could prevent the cracks detrimental to the electrical insulation from penetrating the insulation structure. • The Hf-O-Al amorphous layer with defects as electron and hole traps at the interface could inhibit the longitudinal migration of carriers. • The simulation analysis of the ITO-In 2 O 3 heat flux sensors with different insulation layers demonstrated that the multilayer heterogeneous insulation layer could meet the high-temperature application requirement of sensors with large sensitive layer resistance. The real-time monitoring of the equipment operating in harsh environment is important for the cooling design and reliability analysis. However, the insulation layer of the thin-film sensors still faces challenges at high temperature, especially for sensors with large sensitive layer resistance. In this study, the HfO 2 / Al 2 O 3 multilayer heterogeneous thin-film insulation layer was designed and fabricated. The minimum resistance of the control structure was 7.39 × 104 Ω at 1100 °C during multiple thermal cycles. However, the minimum resistance of the modified insulation layer was 1.09 × 106 Ω, exhibiting significant electrical insulation improvement. The HfO 2 film could maintain the columnar grains of the TGO film by inhibiting the oxygen transport. Besides, the equiaxed crystal HfO 2 grains could prevent the cracks detrimental to the electrical insulation from penetrating the insulation structure. Meanwhile, the Hf-O-Al amorphous layer with defects as electron and hole traps at the interface could inhibit the longitudinal migration of carriers. As a result, the high-temperature insulation performance of the HfO 2 / Al 2 O 3 insulation layer was greatly improved. Furthermore, the simulation analysis of the ITO-In 2 O 3 heat flux sensors with different insulation layers demonstrated that the multilayer heterogeneous insulation layer could meet the high-temperature application requirement of sensors with the large sensitive layer resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Novel method to develop Nu and Sh correlations of SCP fuel considers pyrolysis reaction. • Internal heat and mass sources simplified as pseudo-wall fluxes based on DGR model. • Thermophysical property variation due to pipe wall-bulk flow ε differences considered. • Max relative deviation to Nu e less than 15% for Nu Π- ρ after considering coking empirically. The convective heat and mass transfer characteristics of the supercritical pressure (SCP) fuel in the regenerative cooling channel of hypersonic vehicles are significantly affected by pyrolysis reactions. In this study, we proposed a novel method to develop the Nusselt number (Nu) and Sherwood number (Sh) correlation of SCP fuel that considers the influence of pyrolysis reaction by simplifying internal heat and mass sources as pseudo-wall fluxes based on the differential global reaction (DGR) model of pyrolysis. The convective heat and mass transfer and pyrolysis characteristics of n-decane were investigated experimentally and numerically in a vertical downward-flow heated tube at pressures of 3-7 MPa. Theoretical analysis of the experimental conditions was conducted sequentially according to the partial differential equations (PDEs) of species continuity and energy, in which the internal source terms of heat and mass due to pyrolysis reactions were simplified and predicted using the DGR model of n-decane pyrolysis. A semi-empirical Sh correlation for predicting the radial distribution of fuel conversion was proposed associated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data by equivalently simplifying the internal mass source as pseudo-wall mass flux. A Nu correlation for convective heat transfer was proposed using the same methodology considering the influences of pyrolysis. The correction terms consider pyrolysis endothermicity and thermophysical property variation due to the conversion differences between the pipe wall and the bulk flow. Finally, the Nu correlation was compared to the experimental data, and the influence of heat transfer deterioration (HTD) due to pyrolysis coking was also analyzed quantitatively and empirically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability and durability of insulation structure is crucial for the operation of thin-film sensors, especially at high temperature. However, it still faces great challenges in practical applications owing to the insulation failure during thermal cycles. In this study, an ALD Al 2 O 3 film was introduced into the traditional TGO-sputtered Al 2 O 3 insulation structure for interface regulation. After five thermal cycles up to 1000 °C, the modified insulation structure survived, while the control structure failed. The ALD Al 2 O 3 layer could form denser equiaxed crystal during high-temperature crystallization, thereby preventing the propagation of cracks in sputtered Al 2 O 3 due to volume shrinkage in phase transition. Furthermore, the ALD Al 2 O 3 acted as a transition layer by forming semi-coherent interface with TGO Al 2 O 3 , stabilizing the multilayer insulation structure. Finally, Pt-PtRh thin-film thermocouples were fabricated on the modified insulation structure, which exhibited outstanding thermoelectric performance and stability at high temperature. Therefore, the interface regulation strategy proposed in this work could provide significant guidance for the development of high-temperature electrical insulation. • The insulation structures with and without interface regulation are designed and fabricated. • Cracks are conductive paths detrimental to insulation. • The ALD Al 2 O 3 forms dense equiaxed crystal and prevents propagation of cracks. • The ALD Al 2 O 3 acts as a transition layer by forming semi-coherent interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Novel online analysis method for pyrolysis products with significant volatility differences. • Sampling based on instant cooling–flashing to avoid gas–liquid separation. • The accuracy of measured mass fraction was highly improved, by 40–80% for C 3 –C 4. • The kinetic constants of SCP n-decane pyrolysis were determined and verified. Pyrolysis is widely applied in industrial fields including waste-to-energy conversion and hypersonic-vehicle cooling technology. Traditional offline analysis methods for fluid products based on cooling, depressurization, and separation processes often impart measurement uncertainties. Here, we propose a novel online analysis method for fluid pyrolysis products with significant volatility differences. High-frequency sampling based on instant cooling–flashing was used to avoid gas–liquid separation, where the fluid mixture is directly transported into an online-GC system as a vapor through a preheated vacuum tube. The method reliability was evaluated experimentally. Pyrolysis of supercritical-pressure n-decane (3–7 MPa) in a mini-tubular reactor was analyzed using both the proposed online method and an offline method. The gas yield measured using the offline method is significantly lower than that measured online due to the dissolution and volatilization loss of gaseous products during gas–liquid separation. The mass fraction of C 3 –C 4 products measured using the offline method was 40–80% less than the online results. The maximum deviation in the mass fraction of the main products obtained offline was reduced to 20–25% after dissolution-loss correction. The kinetic constants of n-decane pyrolysis were determined based on product-yield data, and the calculated residence time was experimentally verified using particle image statistics. The proposed model was implemented in a computational fluid dynamics model. The deviation between the predicted conversion and experimental results was below 11%, while the deviations of the predicted mass fraction of typical products was significantly higher based on the offline model than the online model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) have been widely used as an important subset of solid base catalysts. However, developing low-cost, small-sized LDH nanoparticles with enhanced surface catalytic sites remains a challenge. In this work, silica aerogel (SA)-supported, small-sized Mg-Al LDH nanosheets were successfully prepared by one-pot coprecipitation of Mg and Al ions in an alkaline suspension of crushed silica aerogel. The supported LDH nanosheets were uniformly dispersed in the SA substrate with the smallest average radial diameter of 19.2 nm and the thinnest average thickness of 3.2 nm, both dimensions being significantly less than those of the vast majority of LDH nanoparticles reported. The SA/LDH composites also showed large pore volume (up to 1.3 cm3·g) and pore diameter (>9 nm), and therefore allow efficient access of reactants to the edge catalytic sites of LDH nanosheets. In a base-catalyzed Henry reaction of benzaldehyde with nitromethane, the SA/LDH catalysts showed high reactant conversions and favorable stability in 6 successive cycles of reactions. The low cost of the SA carrier and LDH precursors, easy preparation method, and excellent catalytic properties make these SA/LDH composites a competitive example of solid-base catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New nonintrusive, in-situ method for the visualization and measurement of MRT. • Consideration of optical distortion caused by drastic changes in the fluid properties. • Two optical arrangements were proposed and compared. • Correcting uneven radial distortion of the tracer particles for NOA. • Accurate measurement of MRT at pyrolysis reaction conditions. This paper proposed a nonintrusive, in-situ experimental method for visualizing and measuring the mean residence time (MRT) of supercritical-pressure pipe flow with/without chemical reactions based on the high-frequency sampling of laser-induced particle images. Normal and oblique optical arrangements (NOA & OOA) for the incident laser were applied to induce particle scattering in the JP-10 pipe flow, using SiO 2 microsphere as tracers. Optical distortion caused by drastic change in fluid properties was analyzed. The relative deviation of the proposed particle image statistics (PIS) method was within ±4% with NOA after considering optical distortion and uneven radial distribution of particles. Although the same level of accuracy was achieved with OOA without the need for correction, the noise in images became significant when the fuel approached pseudo-critical temperature. When there was no influence from pyrolysis, the MRT simulated using 1D subroutine agreed well with measured data. However, the relative deviation increased after pyrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hot-dip galvanized steel fastener on an electromagnetic product was found to be seriously corroded after 16 years of storage in a room environment. Its surface had become rough and lost its metallic luster, and large amounts of corrosion products had accumulated on the surface, with color ranging from light yellow to red brown. To determine the corrosion mechanism, the manufacturing process and storage information of the fastener were first investigated. Pieces of the corroded fastener were sampled; at the same time, the same kind of steel before and after galvanization was prepared as two control samples. The micromorphology and composition of the surface and corrosion were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Based on these analyses, as well as the manufacturing process and storage information, the corrosion mechanism was identified to be that zinc plating first reacted with oxygen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to form Zn(OH), ZnCO, and Zn(CO)(OH). Subsequently, the iron under the zinc plating reacted with oxygen and water vapor to form Fe(OH), Fe(OH) or FeO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the failure phenomena of softening and flow of crosslinked epoxy resin encapsulant during a long-term storage were analyzed by means of fault tree analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray energy dispersive spectrum, and differential scanning calorimetry coupled with thermogravimetric analysis. Based on the results of those analyses, the reason of failure is identified to be that the epoxy resin was not cured completely during manufacturing, and the resulting imperfect three-dimensional crosslinked network was hydrolyzed because of the humidity in the environment during a long-term storage. Hence, the depolymerized polymers became softened gradually, and the seriously softened polymers flowed slowly because of creeping, an inherent property of the polymer materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effects of secondary reactions and pressure on pyrolysis of JP-10 are investigated. • The formation of gas products is suppressed by increasing the pressure. • Gas and liquid products are categorized as two and six types, respectively. • A differential global reaction (DGR) model for JP-10 predicts pyrolysis accurately. • An increase in pressure increases residence time and chemical heatsink. Regenerative cooling is widely employed for thermal protection of hypersonic vehicles. Hydrocarbon fuels undergo pyrolysis in regenerative cooling channels at supercritical pressures, which affects the performance of regenerative cooling. Pressure and secondary reactions are the key factors that influence pyrolysis. Pyrolysis experiments of JP-10 (exo-tetrahydrodicyclopentadiene) were performed in an electrically heated vertical tube in the pressure range of 3.5–7 MPa and the conversion range of 0%–45%. The formation of gas products was suppressed by increasing the pressure. The effects of pressure and secondary reactions were significant on the distribution of some of the main products, such as ethylene and 1,3-cyclopentadiene, but not for products such as propylene. A method for categorizing gas and liquid products was proposed. The gas and liquid products of JP-10 could be divided into two and six categories, respectively. Based on the differential global reaction modeling approach, a one-step reaction model for the pyrolysis of JP-10 at supercritical pressures was proposed, in which the stoichiometric coefficients were expressed as binary functions of pressure and fuel conversion to reflect the coupling effects of pressure and secondary reactions. The proposed model was implemented in one-dimensional theoretical model and a computational fluid dynamics model to predict JP-10 pyrolysis coupled with flow and heat transfer. The results demonstrated that the model accurately predicts the effects of both pressure and secondary reactions on pyrolysis. The results also showed that an increase in pressure increases the residence time at a fixed mass flow rate, which promotes fuel conversion and chemical heat sink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effects of pressure on supercritical pyrolysis of n-decane are investigated. • The formation of liquid products is preferred at higher pressures. • A novel global reaction modelling approach is proposed for hydrocarbon fuels. • Stoichiometric coefficients are expressed as functions of fuel conversion and pressure. • The new model predicts pyrolysis accurately at both low and high pressures. Pressure is one of the key factors in pyrolysis of hydrocarbon fuels at supercritical pressures, which changes the relation between the product distribution and fuel conversion. However, reaction model with both high accuracy and efficiency to predict pressure effects is lacking. A comprehensive experimental investigation of pressure effects on supercritical pyrolysis of n-decane in the pressure range of 3–7 MPa and temperature range of 560–670 °C is presented. The formation of liquid products is preferred at higher pressures. Gas and liquid products of n-decane pyrolysis can be categorized into three and four types, respectively, according to the formation characteristics. Results show that pressure had more profound effects on the formation of most products without C–C double bonds or benzene rings in their molecular structures (i.e., C 3 –C 9 n-paraffins or cycloparaffins). A novel global reaction modeling approach was presented to solve the effects of both pressure and secondary reactions on pyrolysis of hydrocarbon fuels, in which the stoichiometric coefficients of each product are expressed as binary functions of fuel conversion and pressure. The proposed model was implemented in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to predict the n-decane pyrolysis coupled with flow and heat transfer. The results show that the model predicts n-decane pyrolysis more accurately at both low and high pressures. This study can help design regenerative cooling systems with high accuracy and efficiency for engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D printing has revolutionised the design and manufacturing of high-temperature thin/thick-film sensors (TFSs). However, existing printable high-temperature materials face cost-performance trade-offs. This study proposes a silicate and RuO 2 composite for the 3D printing of TFSs. A silicate compound (SiO 2 –Al 2 O 3 –CaO, SAC) was used as a sintering aid to reduce the sintering temperature of RuO 2 , forming a silicate glass phase that enhanced film density and substrate adhesion. The SAC also minimised RuO 2 particle volatilisation at high temperatures, thus enhancing the stability of the SAC/RuO 2 composite. The SAC/RuO 2 TFSs demonstrated exceptional performance, with a positive temperature coefficient (502 ppm/°C) from room temperature to 800 °C, high linearity, and stability (resistance drift rate of 0.1 %/h at 800 °C), extending the application temperature of RuO 2 by nearly 200 °C from the previous application temperature of 600 °C. Therefore, the SAC/RuO2 composite offers a new low-cost and high-performance solution for using 3D printing technology in harsh environmental sensors such as turbine blades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic power has great volatility and intermittency due to environmental factors. Forecasting photovoltaic power is of great significance to ensure the safe and economical operation of distribution network. This paper proposes a novel approach to forecast short-term photovoltaic power based on a gated recurrent unit (GRU) network. Firstly, the Pearson coefficient is used to extract the main features that affect photovoltaic power output at the next moment, and qualitatively analyze the relationship between the historical photovoltaic power and the future photovoltaic power output. Secondly, the K-means method is utilized to divide training sets into several groups based on the similarities of each feature, and then GRU network training is applied to each group. The output of each GRU network is averaged to obtain the photovoltaic power output at the next moment. The case study shows that the proposed approach can effectively consider the influence of features and historical photovoltaic power on the future photovoltaic power output, and has higher accuracy than the traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A strong polarization electric field (PEF) in III‐nitride semiconductors has adverse effects on the performance of III‐N light‐emitting diodes (LEDs). However, to reduce the PEF of III‐N LEDs based on the polar plane (c‐plane) remains a big challenge. Here, a weak PEF blue LED on c‐plane GaN with an InGaN/AlGaN superlattices (SLs) quantum barrier and InGaN quantum well grown by metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition is proposed. The InGaN/SLs multiple quantum wells (MQWs) show a significant reduction of PEF compared with traditional InGaN/GaN MQWs. A low electric field of 0.5 MV cm−1 is obtained, which is confirmed by power‐dependent photoluminescence (PL) and time‐resolved PL measurements. The proposed LEDs with InGaN/AlGaN SLs barriers present a low efficiency droop, a great wavelength stability, and a high −3 dB E‐O modulation bandwidth up to 1.01 GHz. This work demonstrates the role of InGaN/AlGaN SLs barriers in reducing the PEF of III‐N LEDs and provides a feasible technical route to achieve the weak PEF LEDs on c‐plane, which can be expanded and applied to the preparation of high‐performance, long wavelength, and deep UV III‐N LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The microstructure and electrical conductivity of In 2 O 3 and indium tin oxide (ITO) films were characterized. • The high temperature stability of In 2 O 3 -ITO thermocouples is improved. • Small temperature drift rate holding at 1300 °C more than 7 h. The complex internal structure of the aero-engine and the high-temperature, high-pressure, and high-speed airflow make it difficult to measure the internal temperature. Indium tin oxide (ITO) and In 2 O 3 films have been studied for their application in high-temperature thermocouples and strain gauges. Due to their large Seebeck coefficient and high-temperature stability, ceramic thin-film thermocouples are expected to be used at high-temperature measure. In this paper, ITO-In 2 O 3 thermocouples were fabricated by magnetron sputtering. Besides, the electrical properties of the air-annealed and two-step nitrogen-annealed thermocouples were compared, including the repeatability of thermoelectric response after multiple thermal cycles and the drift rate during the high-temperature duration. The microstructure and electrical conductivity of both the as-deposited and post-annealed ceramic thin films were tested respectively. The result shows that the resitivity and Seebeck coefficient of the thin films annealed in nitrogen is reduced, but the stability at high temperature is greatly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A novel organic–inorganic photocatalytic membrane was processed. • This photocatalytic membrane possesses synergistic electronic interaction. • This photocatalytic membrane possesses accelerated photoexciton dynamics. • Excellent photostability was maintained owing to the stable organic–inorganic matrix. • A panel reactor was constructed for Cr(VI)-to-Cr(III) reduction. Artificial conversion technology based on solar energy is one of most strategic artificial technologies for addressing environmental hazards and energy crisis. However, micro/nano-sized particulate catalysts mostly have the drawbacks of unstable microstructure and difficult recovery, which inevitably limits the practical application of photocatalysis technology. In order to overcome the defects of most inorganic particulate photocatalysts, a novel organic–inorganic photocatalytic membrane based on highly active Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 /CdS composite and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was processed for simulated sunlight (SSL)-driven Cr(VI)-to-Cr(III) (CTC) reduction and H 2 O-to-H 2 (HTH) conversion. Due to the maximum light harvesting capacity and synergistically electronic interaction of this synergistically interface networked organic–inorganic membrane, it possesses accelerated dynamics for separating/transferring photoexcitons and restraining photoexciton recombination, thereby outstanding CTC reduction rate (1.25 × 10-2 min−1) and HTH conversion rate (7.45 mmol∙m−2∙h−1) were achieved under SSL-irradiation, and highly stable photoactivity was maintained even being recycled for dozens of times owing to the convenient separation/recovery performance and stable organic–inorganic matrix. Subsequently, a panel reactor for wastewater purification was constructed to achieve 6.5 × 10-3 min−1 of CTC reduction rate under SSL-irradiation. This study provides a prospective insight for application of photocatalysis technology based on the membrane materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Single-cell sequencing reveals that natural killer cells are most responsive to and damaged by the moxifloxacin environment. • Moxifloxacin environment promotes elevated cytokine and chemokine expression and activation of their signaling pathways in natural killer cells. • Moxifloxacin induces apoptosis by reducing mitochondrial DNA and inhibiting mitochondrial respiratory chain complex function in natural killer cells. • Moxifloxacin environment can activate immediate early response gene expression and mediate early activation response of natural killer cells. As antibiotics become more prevalent, accuracy and safety are critical. Moxifloxacin (MXF) have been reported to have immunomodulatory effects on a variety of immune cells and even anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects, but the mechanism of action is not fully clear. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from experimental groups of healthy adults (n = 3) were treated with MXF (10ug/ml) in vitro for 24 h. Single-cell sequencing was performed to investigate differences in the response of each immune cell to MXF. Flow cytometry determined differential gene expression in subsets of most damaged NK cells. Pseudo-time analysis identified drivers that influence MXF-stimulated cell differentiation. Detection of mitochondrial DNA and its involvement in the mitochondrial respiratory chain pathway clarifies the origin of MXF-induced stress injury. Moxifloxacin-environmental NK cells are markedly reduced: a new subset of NK cells emerges, and immediate-early-response genes in this subset indicate the presence of an early activation response. The inhibitory receptor-dominant subset shows enhanced activation, leading to increased expression of cytokines and chemokines. The near-mature subset showed greater cytotoxicity and the most pronounced cellular damage. CD56bright cells responded by antagonizing the regulation of activation and inhibitory signals, demonstrating a strong cleavage capacity. The severe depletion of mitochondrial genes was focused on apoptosis induced by the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex. NK cells exhibit heightened sensitivity to the MXF environment. Different NK subsets upregulate the expression of cytokines and chemokines through different activation pathways. Concurrently, MXF induces impairment of the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation system, culminating in apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar-driven wastewater purification technology is a promising candidate to solve the hazards of water contaminants. However, it is difficult for most of particulate photocatalysts to maintain durable photoactivity due to its micro/nano size. Herein, a synergistically electronic interacted membrane catalyst with large extending area and high pollutant capture capacity was processed based on a highly active CdS/TiO 2 heterojunction and ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride for achieving highly efficient Cr6+-to-Cr3+ (CTC) reduction (1.6×10−2 min−1) and synchronous decomposition of organic matters (methylene blue (1.2×10−2 min−1) and bisphenol A (0.6×10−2 min−1)) under simulated sunlight (SSL, 74.1 mW·cm−2) irradiation following a durably steady photoactivity even being recycled for 20 times, which effectively avoided the hazards of secondary pollution. Subsequently, a tailor-made panel wastewater purification system was first built based on this membrane catalyst to drive CTC reduction and synchronous organic matter degradation, and high-efficiency purification performance was presented on this panel system under multi-field drive of light-activation and piezoelectric polarization. This work provides an insight for photocatalytic wastewater purification through membrane catalyst assisted panel technology. [Display omitted] • A synergistically electronic interacted membrane catalyst was processed. • It possesses large extending area and high pollutant capture capacity. • Efficient Cr6+-to-Cr3+ reduction and synchronous organic matter decomposition were achieved. • A tailor-made panel wastewater purification system was first built based on this membrane. • The low photostability of particulate photocatalysts was effectively overcome by this protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast and accurate detection of Cryptococcus and precise differentiation of its subtypes is of great significance in protecting people from cryptococcal disease and preventing its spread in populations. However, traditional Cryptococcus identification and detection techniques still face significant challenges in achieving high analysis speed as well as high sensitivity. In this work, we report an electric microfluidic biochip. Compared to conventional methods that take several hours or even a day, this chip can detect Cryptococcus within 20 min, and achieve its maximum detection limit within 1 h, with the ability to differentiate between the Cryptococcus neoformans (NEO) and rare Cryptococcus gattii (GAT) efficiently, which accounts for nearly 100%. This device integrated two functional zones of an electroporation lysis (EL) zone for rapid cell lysis (<30 s) and an electrochemical detection (ED) zone for sensitive analysis of the released nucleic acids. The EL zone adopted a design of microelectrode arrays, which obtains a large electric field intensity at the constriction of the microchannel, addressing the safety concerns associated with high-voltage lysis. The device enables a limit of detection (LOD) of 60 pg/mL for NEO and 100 pg/mL for GAT through the modification of nanocomposites and specific probes. In terms of the detection time and sensitivity, the integrated microfluidic biochip demonstrates broad potential in Cryptococcus diagnosis and disease prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen-polar (N-polar) III-nitride has natural advantages in the fabrication of electronic devices. In this work, unintentionally doped N-polar GaN films were grown on sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. By optimizing the growth parameters including growth temperature, pressure, and V/III ratio, N-polar GaN with a relatively high sheet resistivity of 3.6 × 105 Ω/sq was achieved. The secondary ion mass spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction measurement results demonstrate that the increased carbon impurity concentration is primarily responsible for the high resistivity. Moreover, N-polar GaN/Al0.25Ga0.75N heterojunctions were deposited on the high-resistivity N-polar GaN template. An extremely high-density two-dimensional electron gas of up to 1.12 × 1013 cm−2 was realized at the interface between the Al0.25Ga0.75N and the GaN. It is reasonably believed that the experimental results obtained here are beneficial for the development of high-performance N-polar GaN-based electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) use the displacement current as a driving force to convert mechanical energy into electric power, which has made great contributions to micro‐nano energy harvesting, self‐powered systems, and the sustainable development of mankind. To date, it is accepted that the output of TENGs is only dependent on the polarization effect. This study reveals that this view is incomplete and, in reality, the magnetization effect also makes a significant contribution to the output of TENGs. For the first time, a novel insight on the output of TENGs is discovered through the theoretical derivation and analysis of Maxwell's equations in ferromagnetic medium. Experimentally, TENGs based on ferromagnetic media are constructed, which exhibit higher output than that of non‐ferromagnetic media based. Interestingly, the output behavior of ferromagnetic media based TENGs is strongly related to the external magnetic field ambient, which is well demonstrated. The discovered output characteristics of TENGs are precisely derived from the working principle of TENGs, simultaneously, a completed and unified theoretical system is constructed for TENGs. This significant discovery and theory will be an indispensable supplement to the existing research on TENGs and also provide a general guidance and deeper understanding of the TENG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise quantification of low-dose ionizing radiation is of great significance in protecting people from damage caused by clinical radiotherapy or environmental radiation. Traditional techniques for detecting radiation, however, remain extreme challenges to achieve high sensitivity and speed in quantifying radiation dosage. In this work, we report a Cas13a-Microdroplet platform that enables sensitive detection of ultra-low doses of radiation (0.5 Gy vs. 1 Gy traditional) within 1 h. The micro-platform adopts an ideal, specific radiation-sensitive marker, m6A on NCOA4 gene (NCOA4-m6A) that was first reported in our recent work. Microfluidics of the platform generate uniform microdroplets that encapsulate a CRISPR/Cas13a detection system and NCOA4-m6A target from the whole RNA extraction, achieving 10-fold enhancement in sensitivity and significantly reduced limit of detection (LOD). Systematic mouse models and clinical patient samples demonstrated its superior sensitivity and LOD (0.5 Gy) than traditional qPCR, which show wide potentials in radiation tracking and damage protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Lamin proteins in animals are implicated in important nuclear functions, including chromatin organization, signalling transduction, gene regulation and cell differentiation. Nuclear Matrix Constituent Proteins (NMCPs) are lamin analogues in plants, but their regulatory functions remain largely unknown.We report that OsNMCP1 is localized at the nuclear periphery in rice (Oryza sativa) and induced by drought stress. OsNMCP1 overexpression resulted in a deeper and thicker root system, and enhanced drought resistance compared to the wild‐type control. An assay for transposase accessible chromatin with sequencing (ATAC‐seq) analysis revealed that OsNMCP1‐overexpression altered chromatin accessibility in hundreds of genes related to drought resistance and root growth, including OsNAC10, OsERF48, OsSGL, SNAC1 and OsbZIP23.OsNMCP1 can interact with SWITCH/SUCROSE NONFERMENTING (SWI/SNF) chromatin remodelling complex subunit OsSWI3C. The reported drought resistance or root growth‐related genes that were positively regulated by OsNMCP1 were negatively regulated by OsSWI3C under drought stress conditions, and OsSWI3C overexpression led to decreased drought resistance.We propose that the interaction between OsNMCP1 and OsSWI3C under drought stress conditions may lead to the release of OsSWI3C from the SWI/SNF gene silencing complex, thus changing chromatin accessibility in the genes related to root growth and drought resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-language news event summarization aims to quickly obtain the important information from lots of related news texts written in different languages automatically. Considering that the main expressed information for a same event is similar no matter what language it is presented, the paper proposes a novel unified approach to summarize important information from the monolingual and Chinese–Vietnamese bilingual news sets simultaneously. Firstly, analyzing the sentence dependence relationship, making rules to segment sentence into different grammatical parts, a bilingual dictionary is used to set up bilingual feature space. Secondly, Chinese–Vietnamese sentence graph model is calculated distributively. Finally, using the features that graph nodes can boost each other and fusing context information, the sentences are ranked based on whether they can represent the important information. The experimental result shows that our method is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the reliability and reduce power loss of distribution network, the dynamic reconfiguration is widely used. It is employed to find an optimal topology for each time interval while satisfying all the physical constraints. Dynamic reconfiguration is a non-deterministic polynomial problem, which is difficult to find the optimal control strategy in a short time. The conventional methods solved complex model of dynamic reconfiguration in different ways, but only local optimal solutions can be found. In this paper, a data-driven optimization control for dynamic reconfiguration of distribution network is proposed. Through two stages that include rough matching and fine matching, the historical cases which are similar to current case are chosen as candidate cases. The optimal control strategy suitable for the current case is selected according to dynamic time warping (DTW) distances which evaluate the similarity between the candidate cases and the current case. The advantage of the proposed approach is that it does not need to solve complex model of dynamic reconfiguration, and only uses historical data to obtain the optimal control strategy for the current case. The cases study shows that the optimization results and the computation time of the proposed approach are superior to conventional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we demonstrate that solid-base such as amino-modified silica aerogel (SA-NH 2 ) together with trace water showed excellent catalytic performance in one-pot sequential reaction of acid-catalyzed benzaldehyde dimethyl acetal hydrolysis and base-catalyzed Henry reaction which was usually catalyzed by acid-base bifunctional heterogeneous catalyst. The role of trace water in the reaction was discussed by batch control experiment. This SA-NH 2 /water catalytic system showed high reactant conversions (> 99%) and main product selectivities (up to 99.4%). The trace water induced acid catalysis mechanism and a possible H + /-NH 2 coexistence mechanism were given to explain the synergistic catalytic effect of solid-base and trace water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probing nuclear protein expression while correlating cellular behavior is crucial for deciphering underlying causes of cellular disorders, such as tumor metastasis. Despite efforts to access nuclear proteins by trafficking the double barriers of cell membrane and nuclear membrane, they mostly fall short of the capacity for analyzing various proteins in different cells. Herein, we introduce a Companion-Probe & Race (CPR) platform that enables interrogating nuclear proteins in living cells, while guiding and tracking cellular behaviors (e.g., migration) in real time. The Companion-Probe consists of two polypeptide complexes that were structured with nuclear localization signal (NLS) for entering nucleus, recognition polypeptide for targeting different sites of nuclear proteins, and fragments of green fluorescent protein (GFP) that can recover a whole fluorescent GFP once the two polypeptide complexes combine with a same target protein. The two polypeptide complexes were expressed by two plasmids (named "probe plasmids") that were uniformly and efficiently delivered into cells by nano-electroporation (NEP), a high-performance delivery method for cell focal-poration and accelerated intracellular delivery. To track cell migration, multiple radial microchannels were designed with micro-landmarks on the platform to serve as addressable runways for cells. The proof-of-concept of CPR platform was validated with clinical primary cells that indicated the positive-correlation between nuclear protein murine double minute 2 (MDM2) expression level and cell migration velocity. This platform shows great promises to interrogate nuclear proteins in live cells, and to decode their roles in determining cellular behaviors on a chip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A two-step high-temperature growth method was adopted to grow N-polar GaN. • The influence of growth parameters on the properties of N-polar GaN was analyzed. • N-polar GaN with both smooth surface and high crystalline quality was achieved. Normally, nitrogen-polar (N-polar) GaN films with better crystalline quality tend to have poor surface morphology, whereas those with good surface morphology suffer from degraded crystalline quality. In this work, we use a two-step high-temperature (HT) growth method to grow N-polar GaN films on vicinal c-plane sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, which can effectively solve the irreconcilability between surface morphology and crystalline quality. The GaN film consists of two GaN layers (HT-GaN 1 and HT-GaN 2), which were grown at different growth parameters, respectively. The 300-nm-thick HT-GaN 1 layer was directly grown on the low-temperature GaN buffer layer under the higher V/III ratio and pressure at 1040 °C to reduce dislocation density. The 1.7-μm-thick HT-GaN 2 layer was grown under the lower V/III ratio and pressure to improve surface morphology. Besides, the growth temperature of HT-GaN 2 layer was ramped up to 1070 °C to suppress the yellow-band luminescence. Finally, high-quality N-polar GaN films with smooth surface morphology and high crystalline quality were obtained, for which the full-width at half-maximum values of (0002) and (10 1 ¯ 2) planes X-ray diffraction rocking curves are 131 and 390 arcsec, respectively, the root mean square roughness over an area of 20 × 20 μm2 is 1.88 nm, and the residual compressive stress is as low as 0.025 GPa. It is reasonably believed that this work provides an effective approach to preparing high-quality N-polar GaN films for the application of N-polar nitride devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: ferromagnetic medium; magnetization effect; Maxwell's equations; triboelectric nanogenerators EN ferromagnetic medium magnetization effect Maxwell's equations triboelectric nanogenerators 1 1 1 06/05/21 20210602 NES 210602 In article number 2003921, Zhuoqing Yang, Chi Zhang, Zhong Lin Wang and co-workers theoretically and experimentally verify the output characteristics of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) based on Maxwell's equations, which include both polarization and magnetization effects. Triboelectric Nanogenerators: Contribution of Ferromagnetic Medium to the Output of Triboelectric Nanogenerators Derived from Maxwell's Equations (Adv. Ferromagnetic medium, magnetization effect, Maxwell's equations, triboelectric nanogenerators. [Extracted from the article]

A simple plasmonic structure, which is made up of a metal baffle in the middle of the metal–insulator–metal (MIM) waveguide coupled with an isosceles triangular cavity, is reported to achieve triple Fano resonances. These Fano resonances are numerically calculated by the finite element method (FEM). Besides, the multimode interference coupled mode theory (MICMT) and the standing wave theory are used for analyzing the Fano resonances phenomenon. On the one hand, these three Fano resonances can be independently tuned by adjusting the structural parameters, which makes the design of highly integrated photonic circuits more flexible. On the other hand, the proposed structure is well malleable and can be easily extended to a quintuple Fano system by introducing a ring resonator. Furthermore, the suggested structure can act as a high efficient refractive index (RI) sensor, yielding a great sensitivity of 1200 nm/RIU and a ultra-high maximal figure of merit (FOM) value of 3. 0 × 1 0 6 . Comparing with other similar sensors, our structure has relatively good sensitivity and it is superior to other structures in the maximal FOM, which obviously demonstrates its excellent nano-sensing performance. • A metallic baffle contained MIM waveguide coupled triangular resonator is proposed. • Triple Fano resonances can be tuned by adjusting the structural parameters. • The results based on the MICMT and standing wave theory agree with the simulation results. • The structure is easily extended to a quintuple Fano system by introducing a ring resonator. • An ultra-high FOM of 3 × 1 0 6 and a good sensitivity of 1200 nm/RIU are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classification of disturbance signals is of great significance for improving power quality. The existing methods for power quality disturbance classification require a large number of samples to train the model. For small sample learning, their accuracy is relatively limited. In this paper, a hybrid algorithm of k-nearest neighbor and fully-convolutional Siamese network is proposed to classify power quality disturbances by learning small samples. Multiple convolutional layers and full connection layers are used to construct the Siamese network, and the output result of the Siamese network is used to judges the category of the signal. The simulation results show that: For small sample sizes, the accuracy of the proposed approach is significantly higher than that of the existing methods. In addition, it has a strong anti-noise ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]