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Surface interface regulation is an important research content in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. To improve the interface interaction between the active component and matrix, tremendous efforts have been dedicated to tailoring the morphology, size, and structure of composite catalysts. In this work, we report a confinement strategy to synthesize a series of core-shell catalysts loaded with metal oxides on titania nanotubes (TNTs), which were applied to the selective catalytic reduction of NOx with ammonia. Interestingly, the core-shell catalyst with confinement of TNTs exhibited the remarkable activity at low temperature region, N2 selectivity and sulfur tolerance. Benefiting from the superior interfacial confinement characteristic of TNTs and Fe2O3, strong component interactions, the surface acid sites and strong oxidizability of MnOx were properly regulated, thus obtained the outstanding activity, N2 selectivity and provide chemical protection to effectively prevent SO2 poisoning. As far as the reaction mechanism, we found that the adsorption and reactivity of Lewis acid sites were the dominant factors affecting the activity in the NH3-SCR process by in situ DRIFT spectra. In general, our work provides an innovative strategy for constructing an TNTs-enwrapped nanocomposite with nano-confinement and core-shell structure to improve the low temperature SCR process.

Plasmon-enhanced light-matter interactions have been widely investigated in the past decades. Here, we report surface plasmon-enhanced structural dynamics in multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The optical polarization dependent dynamic properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes are investigated using ultrafast transmission electron microscopy. Lattice contractions in the femtosecond time regime are observed upon excitation of the azimuthal plasmon by light polarized perpendicular to the tubular axis. The polarization dependence of the plasmon near field was examined using photon-induced near-field electron microscopy. The lattice changes resulting from the azimuthal plasmon enhance ultrafast alterations in both localized evanescent fields and the collective charge excitation, which play critical roles governing the light-matter interaction. These results suggest that the ultrafast responses of lattice degrees of freedom in nanomaterials could be essential for understanding the mechanism of surface plasmon enhanced effects.

Strong electron-photon (e-p) interactions occurring in a dielectric laser accelerator provide the potential for development of a compact electron accelerator, and certain critical features of the p-e interactions can be characterized well using ultrafast electron microscopy. Theoretically, metallic materials with notable surface plasmon-field enhancements can possibly generate a high electron acceleration capability. Herein, we present a design for metallic material-based on-chip laser-driven accelerators that show a remarkable electron acceleration capability, as demonstrated in ultrafast electron microscopy investigations. Under phase-matching conditions, efficient and continuous acceleration of free electrons on a periodic nanostructure is achieved. Momentum transfer via inelastic scattering is also studied in association with the electron beam acceleration. Importantly, an asymmetric spectral structure where the vast majority of the electrons are in the energy-gain states has been obtained in a periodic bowtie-structure accelerator. The nonlinear optical effects are found to promote the p-e interactions efficiently and improve the acceleration gradient to be as high as 0.335 GV/m. This demonstrates that a prototype metallic laser accelerator could provide a new way to develop compact accelerators on chip.

Using silent speech to issue commands has received growing attention, as users can utilize existing command sets from voice-based interfaces without attracting other people's attention. Such interaction maintains privacy and social acceptance from others. However, current solutions for recognizing silent speech mainly rely on camera-based data or attaching sensors to the throat. Camera-based solutions require 5.82 times larger power consumption or have potential privacy issues; attaching sensors to the throat is not practical for commercial-off-the-shell (COTS) devices because additional sensors are required. In this paper, we propose a sensing technique that only needs a microphone and a speaker on COTS devices, which not only consumes little power but also has fewer privacy concerns. By deconstructing the received acoustic signals, a 2D motion profile can be generated. We propose a classifier based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) to identify the corresponding silent command from the 2D motion profiles. The proposed classifier can adapt to users and is robust when tested by environmental factors. Our evaluation shows that the system achieves 92.5% accuracy in classifying 20 commands.

We developed an ultrasonic-based silent speech interface for Virtual Reality (VR). As more and more customized devices are proposed to enhance the immersion and experience of VR, our system can be used to improve the capability of interactions between users and the systems, while retaining the possibilities of using various customized devices and avoiding some limitations of traditional speech recognition. By employing the channel estimation techniques with ultrasonic waves, we can derive movement characteristics of users’ lips, which can be used to fine-tune existing speech recognition models and augmented by vast open-sourced speech datasets. Moreover, we use the speech interface to guide the initialization of customized models for new users, so that they can easily have the access to our system. A two-stage experiment has been conducted and the results show that our system can achieve 90.8% command-level accuracy and 1.3% word-error-rate in sentence-level accuracy.

Surface interface regulation is an important research content in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. To improve the interface interaction between the active component and matrix, tremendous efforts have been dedicated to tailoring the morphology, size, and structure of composite catalysts. In this work, we report a confinement strategy to synthesize a series of core-shell catalysts loaded with metal oxides on titania nanotubes (TNTs), which were applied to the selective catalytic reduction of NO

Dopamine (DA) detection is significant for the prevention of unfavorable neuronal illness. However, the detection of DA with low concentration still face tremendous challenges. In this study, highly ordered mesoporous Fe3O4 materials were synthesized as a biosensor by using mesoporous silica KIT-6 with different aging temperature as hard template. The ordered mesoporous Fe3O4 with high surface area modified glassy carbon electrode shows the high sensitivity for detecting DA. Fe3O4-40 mesoporous material modified electrode has the highest catalytic activity to DA with a sensitivity of 0.053 nA nM−1 and a detection limit of 0.8 nM (S/N = 3). The results indicating that the mesoporous Fe3O4 material modified electrode exhibits high sensitivity to determine DA at low levels, which can be used for DA real-time monitoring in neutral biological media.

Understanding the photoinduced ultrafast structural transitions and electronic dynamics in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is important for the development of SWCNT-based optoelectronic devices. In this study, we conducted femtosecond-resolved electron diffraction and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) measurements on SWCNTs using ultrafast transmission electron microscopy. The experimental results demonstrated that dominant time constants of the dynamic processes were ∼1.4 ps for electron-driven lattice expansion, ∼17.4 ps for thermal phonon-driven lattice expansion associated with electron–phonon coupling. The time-resolved EELS measurements clearly revealed a notable red shift of plasmon peaks by ∼100 meV upon femtosecond laser excitation. Different features of charge carrier excitation and relaxation were carefully discussed in correlation with the lattice dynamics and photoinduced absorption signals of SWCNTs. Our results provide a comprehensive understanding of the ultrafast dynamics in SWCNTs and powerful techniques to characterize the dynamics of low-dimensional structures.

Liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) data was very important for the process design and optimization of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) production. To provide this fundamental data, experimental liquid–liquid equilibrium data for ternary systems, {water + 5-HMF + 1-butanol}, {water + 5-HMF + isobutanol}, and {water + 5-HMF + methyl isobutyl ketone}, were measured at 313.15, 323.15, and 333.15 K. Partition coefficients were used to assess the extraction capacity of organic solvents in the biphasic systems. 1-Butanol and isobutanol were desirable extractants with good extraction performance and environmental benign properties. The NRTL model was used to correlate the experimental data and the binary interaction parameters were obtained. The average relative deviation was lower than 10%.

2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) serves as a monomer in various polyesters and is often obtained through the oxidation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural. The solubility data of FDCA are of great value for the reaction process analysis and separation technology. The experimental solubility of FDCA in eight pure solvents (water, methanol, acetonitrile, acetic acid, ethyl acetate, methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), 1-butanol, and isobutanol) and two binary solvent systems (water + acetonitrile and water + acetic acid) in the temperature range of 313.15–363.15 K was determined. In pure solvents and binary mixtures, the solubility of FDCA increased with the increasing temperature. The order from largest to smallest solubility in pure solvents was as follows: methanol, 1-butanol, isobutanol, acetic acid, water, MIBK, ethyl acetate, and acetonitrile. The mole fraction of FDCA in binary mixtures increased first and then decreased with the increasing mole fraction of water. The solubility data were correlated with the UNIQU...

Vehicles are providing increasing number of functions for drivers than they were designed, including streaming music from the Internet, answering calls, showing the latest news from drivers’ social networks, advising drivers the route and road condition, and etc. Traditionally, drivers use buttons and switches on control panel or a touch screen to access all the functions. However, a flat design may turn a car into a button-fest which may confuse even daily drivers. On the other hand, hierarchical UI requires drivers to click buttons or screens several times to navigate the menus is time intensive and may take drivers’ eyes from the road. To address these problems, we propose SmartWheelTag. SmartWheelTag is a RFID tag on a slap bracelet so drivers can easily attach and disattach it onto a steering wheel. When drivers touch the different part of the SmartWheelTag, different phases are detected. We further develop an Android APP so drivers can pre-define gestures to map their actions on SmartWheelTag to vehicle functions. Since SmartWheelTag can be installed at the most comfortable place and provide customized functions, drivers can easily access the desired vehicle functions quickly while concentrating on the roads.

To investigate the underlying mechanism of the tetrahedral A2+ cations and the octahedral Mn3+ cations in AMn2O4 spinel catalysts for toluene oxidation, a series of structure-controlled AMn2O4 spinel catalysts were prepared through substituting A2+ and Mn3+ with Cu2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, and Fe3+, respectively. The evaluation results demonstrated that the catalytic activities arrange in the sequence of CuMn2O4 > NiMn2O4 > ZnMn2O4 > CuFe2O4, and the temperature required for 90% conversion of toluene is 205 °C for the CuMn2O4 catalyst. The physical properties of these samples were well characterized by XRD, TEM, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms. The influences of crystal type, micro structure and specific surface area were successfully eliminated by using KIT-6 as the hard template method. The influence mechanism of A-site metal was further explored by analyzing the results of XPS, H2-TPR and O2-TPD. Results showed that the catalytic activity of the samples was highly affected by the substitution of highly electronegative A-site metal due to the enhancement of low-temperature reducibility and chemisorption oxygen activity. In particular, it was found that the incorporation of A-site metal can improve the ability of the catalyst to activate molecular state O2– to O-, which was highly related to the catalytic activity of the catalyst. The results hold guidance for the design of manganese spinel catalysts on the removal of VOCs.

Dopamine (DA) detection is significant for the prevention of unfavorable neuronal illness. However, the detection of DA with low concentration still face tremendous challenges. In this study, highly ordered mesoporous Fe

Whereas white adipose tissue depots contribute to the development of metabolic diseases, brown and beige adipose tissue has beneficial metabolic effects. Here we show that CDK6 regulates beige adipocyte formation. We demonstrate that mice lacking the CDK6 protein or its kinase domain (K43M) exhibit significant increases beige cell formation, enhanced energy expenditure, better glucose tolerance, and improved insulin sensitivity, and are more resistant to high-fat diet-induced obesity. Re-expression of CDK6 in Cdk6−/− mature or precursor cells, or ablation of RUNX1 in K43M mature or precursor cells, reverses these phenotypes. Furthermore, RUNX1 positively regulates the expression of Ucp-1 and Pgc1α by binding to proximal promoter regions. Our findings indicate that CDK6 kinase activity negatively regulates the conversion of fat-storing cells into fat-burning cells by suppressing RUNX1, and suggest that CDK6 may be a therapeutic target for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic diseases., Beige adipocytes can arise from transdifferentiation of mature white adipocytes. Here the authors identify CDK6 as a key molecule involved in the white-to-beige adipocyte transdifferentiation and, therefore, as a regulator of organismal energy homeostasis in mice.

Recensant 237 ouvrages littéraires chinois traduits en français publiés par les éditeurs français entre 2000 et 2014, cette étude tente d’explorer les règles et les conventions régissant la traduction de titres littéraires du chinois au français. Elle montre la complexité du processus et les multiples défis du traducteur. Nous examinons les différents procédés employés par les traducteurs, qui sont globalement au nombre de quatre : la traduction littérale, l’adaptation, l’explicitation et l’implicitation. Parfois, plusieurs procédés sont mis au service du traitement d’un titre. Nous constatons que le choix du titre ne consiste pas toujours uniquement à saisir les mots et/ou la structure de l’original. Le traducteur essaie, par toutes sortes de stratégies, d’être fidèle à l’intention de l’auteur et à l’esprit de son texte. Par ailleurs, il prend aussi en considération les caractéristiques de la langue française et les attentes du lectorat français. Il jouit d’un assez grand espace de liberté et peut raccourcir ou rallonger un titre, en condensant ou en décomposant certains mots ou structures ; il lui arrive parfois d’en réinventer un. Notre analyse montre que la majorité des titres traduits sont pertinents., The following study inventories the titles of a total of 237 Chinese literary works in French translation published in France between 2000 and 2014, and attempts to explore the rules and conventions governing the translation of literary titles from Chinese to French. It demonstrates the complexity of this process and the multiple challenges devolving on the translator. We examine the four methods of translating a title: literal translation, adaptation, explicitation, and implicitation. Sometimes several of these methods may be employed in the translating of a single title. We will see that the choice of a title is not always to convert into French the words and/or the structure of the title in Chinese. Through the use of various strategies, the translator strives to be faithful to both the spirit of the author and his text. But the translator must also take into account the characteristics of his target language and the customs of a French readership. Here he benefits from a considerable liberty: he can shorten a title or expand it, condense or decompose certain words or structures. Sometimes he has even invented an entirely new title. Our analysis has shown that the great majority of translated titles remain apt to their subject., El presente estudio es un catálogo de los títulos de un total de 237 obras literarias chinas en traducción francesa, publicadas en Francia entre 2000 y 2014. Apunta a explorar los procedimientos que rigen la traducción de títulos literarios del chino al francés. It demonstrates the complexity of this process and the multiple challenges devolving on the translator. Examinamos los cuatro procedimientos de traducción siguientes: la traducción literal, la adaptación, el explicitación y la implicitación, pudiendo emplearse más de un procedimeiento en un solo título. Se verá que la elección de un título no consiste siempre en verter en francés las palabras o estructuras del título original en chino. Al utilizar varios procedimientos el traductor intenta ser fiel al propósito del autor y espíritu del texto. Por otra parte, toma en cuenta las características de la lengua francesa y las expectativas del lectorado francés. Goza de un gran margen de libertad: puede acortar o alargar un título condensando o descomponiendo palabras o estructuras. A veces crea una palabra. Nuestro estudio muestra la pertinencia de la mayoría de los títulos traducidos.

(2R,3S,4S,5S)-6-(Hydroxymethyl)-tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2,3,4,5-tetraol (d-glucose) solubility in 1-dodecanol, 1-decanol, and 1-octanol from 343.15 K to 393.15 K was determined, respectively. The solubility of d-glucose increased with an increase in temperature and decreased with the increase of fatty alcohol chain length. The modified UNIQUAC model, S-UNIFAC model, and mS-UNIFAC model were applied to predict the solubility data; the interaction parameters were determined. Of the three models, the modified UNIQUAC model showed better prediction accuracy.

Summary A human genome-wide linkage scan for obesity identified a linkage peak on chromosome 5q13–15. Positional cloning revealed an association of a rare haplotype to high body-mass index (BMI) in males but not females. The risk locus contains a single gene, "arrestin domain-containing 3" ( ARRDC3 ), an uncharacterized α-arrestin. Inactivating Arrdc3 in mice led to a striking resistance to obesity, with greater impact on male mice. Mice with decreased ARRDC3 levels were protected from obesity due to increased energy expenditure through increased activity levels and increased thermogenesis of both brown and white adipose tissues. ARRDC3 interacted directly with β-adrenergic receptors, and loss of ARRDC3 increased the response to β-adrenergic stimulation in isolated adipose tissue. These results demonstrate that ARRDC3 is a gender-sensitive regulator of obesity and energy expenditure and reveal a surprising diversity for arrestin family protein functions.

A detailed radical chain elementary reaction mechanism for the liquid-phase catalytic oxidation of meta-xylene to meta-phthalic acid catalyzed by cobalt acetate and manganese acetate and promoted by hydrogen bromide was proposed. Using several reasonable assumptions a simple fractional-like kinetic model was derived from the assumed reaction mechanism. Several batch oxidation experiments were carried out to study the oxidation kinetics. The experiments included three values of the initial concentration of meta-xylene and four values of reaction temperature. The developed model parameters were determined in a nonlinear optimization, minimizing the difference between the simulated and experimental time evolutions of the product compositions obtained in a batch oxidation reactor, where the gas and liquid phases were well mixed. The experimental results cannot be interpreted by the empirical n-th order kinetics, but can be interpreted by the kinetic model proposed in this work. It means the kinetic model proposed in this work reveals the reaction mechanism. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2008

Heme oxygenase consists of two structurally related isozymes, heme oxygenase-1 and and heme oxygenase-2, each of which cleaves heme to form biliverdin, iron and carbon monoxide. Expression of heme oxygenase-1 is increased or decreased depending on cellular microenvironments, whereas little is known about the regulation of heme oxygenase-2 expression. Here we show that hypoxia (1% oxygen) reduces the expression levels of heme oxygenase-2 mRNA and protein after 48 h of incubation in human cell lines, including Jurkat T-lymphocytes, YN-1 and K562 erythroleukemia, HeLa cervical cancer, and HepG2 hepatoma, as judged by northern blot and western blot analyses. In contrast, the expression level of heme oxygenase-1 mRNA varies under hypoxia, depending on the cell line; it was increased in YN-1 cells, decreased in HeLa and HepG2 cells, and remained undetectable in Jurkat and K562 cells. Moreover, heme oxygenase-1 protein was decreased in YN-1 cells under the conditions used, despite the induction of heme oxygenase-1 mRNA under hypoxia. The heme oxygenase activity was significantly decreased in YN-1, K562 and HepG2 cells after 48 h of hypoxia. To explore the mechanism for the hypoxia-mediated reduction of heme oxygenase-2 expression, we showed that hypoxia shortened the half-life of heme oxygenase-2 mRNA (from 12 h to 6 h) in YN-1 cells, without affecting the half-life of heme oxygenase-1 mRNA (9.5 h). Importantly, the heme contents were increased in YN-1, HepG2 and HeLa cells after 48 h of incubation under hypoxia. Thus, the reduced expression of heme oxygenase-2 may represent an important adaptation to hypoxia in certain cell types, which may contribute to the maintenance of the intracellular heme level.

Heme oxygenase (HO) catalyzes physiological heme degradation and consists of two structurally related isozymes, HO-1 and HO-2. Here we show that HO-2-deficient (HO-2−/−) mice exhibit hypoxemia and hypertrophy of the pulmonary venous myocardium associated with increased expression of HO-1. The hypertrophied venous myocardium may reflect adaptation to persistent hypoxemia. HO-2−/− mice also show attenuated ventilatory responses to hypoxia (10% O2) with normal responses to hypercapnia (10% CO2), suggesting the impaired oxygen sensing. Importantly, HO-2−/− mice exhibit normal breathing patterns with normal arterial CO2 tension and retain the intact alveolar architecture, thereby excluding hypoventilation and shunting as causes of hypoxemia. Instead, ventilation–perfusion mismatch is a likely cause of hypoxemia, which may be due to partial impairment of the lung chemoreception probably at pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. We therefore propose that HO-2 is involved in oxygen sensing and responsible for the ventilation–perfusion matching that optimizes oxygenation of pulmonary blood.

The effects of heavy ion particle irradiation on meiosis and reproductive development in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans were studied. Meiotic pachytene nuclei are significantly resistant to particle irradiation by the heavy ions carbon and argon, as well as to X-rays, but not UV, whereas diplotene to diakinesis stage oocytes and early embryonic cells are not. Chromosomal abnormalities appear in mitotic cells and in maturing oocytes irradiated with heavy ion particles during the diplotene to the early diakinesis stages, but not in oocytes irradiated during the pachytene stage. The pachytene nuclei of ced-3 mutants, which are defective in apoptosis, are similarly resistant to ionizing radiation, but pachytene nuclei depleted for Ce-atl-1 (ataxia-telangiectasia like 1) or Ce-rdh-1/rad-51 are more sensitive. Pachytene nuclei thus appear to effectively repair heavy ion-induced DNA damage by the meiotic homologous recombination system.

Mammalian acyl-CoA thioesterases (Acots) catalyze the hydrolysis of fatty acyl-CoAs to form free fatty acids plus CoA, but their metabolic functions remain undefined. Thioesterase superfamily member 1 (Them1; synonyms Acot11, StarD14, and brown fat inducible thioesterase) is a long-chain fatty acyl-CoA thioesterase that is highly expressed in brown adipose tissue and is regulated by both ambient temperature and food consumption. Here we show that Them1 −/− mice were resistant to diet-induced obesity despite greater food consumption. Them1 −/− mice exhibited increased O 2 consumption and heat production, which were accompanied by increased rates of fatty acid oxidation in brown adipose tissue and up-regulation of genes that promote energy expenditure. Them1 −/− mice were also protected against diet-induced inflammation in white adipose tissue, as well as hepatic steatosis, and demonstrated improved glucose homeostasis. The absence of Them1 expression in vivo and in cell culture led to markedly attenuated diet- or chemically induced endoplasmic reticulum stress responses, providing a mechanism by which Them1 deficiency protects against insulin resistance and lipid deposition. Taken together, these data suggest that Them1 functions to decrease energy consumption and conserve calories. In the setting of nutritional excess, the overproduction of free fatty acids by Them1 provokes insulin resistance that is associated with inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum stress.

Targeted ablation of the novel flavoheme reductase Ncb5or knock-out (KO) results in progressive loss of pancreatic β-cells and white adipose tissue over time. Lipoatrophy persisted in KO animals in which the confounding metabolic effects of diabetes were eliminated by islet transplantation (transplanted knockout (TKO)). Lipid profiles in livers prepared from TKO animals were markedly deficient in triglycerides and diacylglycerides. Despite enhanced expression of stearoyl-Co-A desaturase-1, levels of palmitoleic and oleic acids (Δ9 fatty acid desaturation) were decreased in TKO relative to wild type controls. Treatment of KO hepatocytes with palmitic acid reduced cell viability and increased apoptosis, a response blunted by co-incubation with oleic acid. The results presented here support the hypothesis that Ncb5or supplies electrons for fatty acid desaturation, offer new insight into the regulation of a crucial step in fatty acid biosynthesis, and provide a plausible explanation for both the diabetic and the lipoatrophic phenotype in Ncb5or-/- mice.

Department of Molecular Biology and Applied Physiology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan, First Department of Internal Medicine, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima, Japan, Division of Pathology, School of Health Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai