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Phase measuring deflectometry is a powerful measuring method for complex optical surfaces, which captures the reflected fringe images encoded on the screen under the premise of focusing the measured specular surface. Due to the limited depth of field of the camera, the captured images and the measured surface cannot be focused at the same time. To solve the position-angle uncertainty issue, in this Letter, the wavefront coding technology is used to modulate the imaging wavefront of the deflectometry, thereby making the measuring system insensitive to the defocus and other low-order aberration including astigmatism, field curvature, and so on. To obtain the accurate phase, the captured fringe images are deconvoluted using the modulated point spread function to reduce the phase error. Demonstrated with a highly curved spherical surface, the measurement accuracy can be improved by four times. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method can successfully reconstruct the complex surfaces defocusing the captured images, which can greatly release the focusing requirement and improve measurement accuracy.

The insufficient contact between two phases in the heterostructure weakens the coupling interaction effect, which makes it difficult to effectively improve the electrochemical performance. Herein, a Co-carbonate hydroxide@ Ni-metal organic frameworks (Co-CH@Ni-MOFs) composite with super uniform core-shell heterostructure is fabricated by adopting 1D Co-CH nanowires as structuredirecting agents to induce the coating of Ni-MOFs. Both experimental and theoretical calculation results demonstrate that the heterostructure plays a vital role in the high performance of the as-prepared materials. On the one hand, the construction of super uniform core-shell heterostructure can create a large number of interfacial active sites and take advantages of the electrochemical characteristics of each component. On the other hand, the heterostructure can increase the adsorption energy of OH

Blocking PD-1/PD-L1 signaling transforms cancer therapy and is assumed to unleash exhausted tumor-reactive CD8

A series of novel cross-linkable PSF-6AF/DBA copolymers with different structure were successfully synthesized via nucleophilic aromatic substitution stepwise polymerization of 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyl sulfone (DCS) with hexafluorobisphenol A (6AF) and 4,4′-(propane-2,2-diyl)bis(2-allylphenol) (DBA) monomer. The 6AF and DBA moieties with a large number of pendant groups had been successfully introduced into the PSF polymer chain. Then, the PSF-6AF/DBA films were fabricated by casting the PSF-6AF/DBA/DMF solutions with the concentration of 10% on the clean glass plates, followed by heat-treating all the films at 300 °C for 4 h. The effects of both the component and cross-linking on the thermal, mechanical and dielectric properties of the obtained films were investigated in detail. Compared to PSF-6AF/DBA films, the cross-linked PSF-6AF/DBA (CS-PSF-6AF/DBA) films show high glass transition temperature (Tg= 184–197 °C) and outstanding mechanical strength (64–77 MPa). More importantly, all CS-PSF-6AF/DBA films display stable dielectric properties in the temperature range of 20–200 °C. The permittivity of CS-PSE-6AF/DBA film at 1 kHz is as low as 2.1, while the dielectric loss is only 0.007.

Copper films with a thickness of 220 nm were deposited onto polyester fabrics by magnetron sputtering technology. To improve the stability of copper films in synthetic perspiration, the Cu-coated fabric was treated by a solution of Benzotriazole (BTA). Finishing agents with 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10 g/L concentrations were applied on Cu-coated fabrics by a method of impregnation. The surface morphologies were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness (EMI-SE) and the electrical conductivity were measured to characterize the degree of damage to the copper film, respectively. In addition, the ultraviolet (UV) absorption of the fabrics treated with differ rent concentrations of BTA was investigated. The results show that the protective ability of BTA on copper film in synthetic perspiration improved with the increase of its concentration; and the copper film treated with the BTA concentration of 1 g/L presented good stability, which the sheet resistance value was 1.15 Ω/sq, and the average of EMI-SE value was 35 dB. However, when the BTA concentration is higher than 1 g/L, both the EMI-SE and conductivity were reduced. The BTA treatment improved the stability of Cu-coated fabrics in synthetic perspiration, which can help enlarge the application area of Cu-coated fabrics.

Chromatin accessibility and post-transcriptional histone modifications play important roles in gene expression regulation. However, little is known about the joint effect of multiple chromatin modifications on the gene expression level in plants, despite that the regulatory roles of individual histone marks such as H3K4me3 in gene expression have been well-documented. By using machine-learning methods, we systematically performed gene expression level prediction based on multiple chromatin modifications data in Arabidopsis and rice. We found that as few as four histone modifications were sufficient to yield good prediction performance, and H3K4me3 and H3K36me3 being the top two predictors with known functions related to transcriptional initiation and elongation, respectively. We demonstrated that the predictive powers differed between protein-coding and non-coding genes as well as between CpG-enriched and CpG-depleted genes. We also showed that the predictive model trained in one tissue or species could be applied to another tissue or species, suggesting shared underlying mechanisms. More interestingly, the gene expression levels of conserved orthologs are easier to predict than the species-specific genes. In addition, chromatin state of distal enhancers was moderately correlated to gene expression but was dispensable if given the chromatin features of the proximal regions of genes. We further extended the analysis to transcription factor (TF) binding data. Strikingly, the combinatorial effects of only a few TFs were roughly fit to gene expression levels in Arabidopsis. Overall, by using quantitative modeling, we provide a comprehensive and unbiased perspective on the epigenetic and TF-mediated regulation of gene expression in plants.

Thyroid carcinoma (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy, and papillary TC (PTC) is the most frequent subtype of TC, accounting for 85–90% of all the cases. Aberrant histone acetylation contributes to carcinogenesis by inducing the dysregulation of certain cancer-related genes. However, the histone acetylation landscape in PTC remains elusive. Here, we interrogated the epigenomes of PTC and benign thyroid nodule (BTN) tissues by applying H3K27ac chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) along with RNA-sequencing. By comparing the epigenomic features between PTC and BTN, we detected changes in H3K27ac levels at active regulatory regions, identified PTC-specific super-enhancer-associated genes involving immune-response and cancer-related pathways, and uncovered several genes that associated with disease-free survival of PTC. In summary, our data provided a genome-wide landscape of histone modification in PTC and demonstrated the role of enhancers in transcriptional regulations associated with prognosis of PTC.

Polyarylene ether nitrile (PEN) random copolymers were prepared from 6AF, BHPF, and 2, 6-dichlorobenzonitrile according to the nucleophilic aromatic substitution polymerization. The chemical structure of PEN random copolymers was characterized by the FT-IR and 1H-NMR spectrum, respectively. The thermal properties of the PEN random copolymers were investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The resulting PEN copolymers have excellent thermal stability with high glass transition temperature (Tg) ranging from 187℃ to 271℃ and the 5% weight loss temperature (T5%) of PEN copolymers greater than 490℃ in nitrogen atmospheres. Meanwhile, the PEN films have excellent mechanical property, the tensile strength ranges from 55 to 95 MPa. Moreover, the dielectric properties of the PEN random copolymers were investigated by dielectric tests. The dielectric constants (k) and loss tangent (tan δ) of PEN (PEN-6-AF/BHPF100) film is only 2.3 and 0.03 at 1 kHz, respectively. More importantly, the dielectric properties were found to be relatively stable until the Tg, which can be attributed to the existence of BHPF units in the molecular backbone.

Composite materials applied to capacitors with high dielectric constant, low dielectric loss and outstanding thermal stability are concerned widely in the field of dielectrics. So committed to the development of dielectric materials with excellent performance is the key factor. In this work, the barium titanate/polyether sulfone (BaTiO3/PES) composite films were prepared by a physical dispersion technology, which utilized a ball milling machine by high-speed circulation, scattered the PES solution contained BaTiO3 in deionized water with the aid of a surfactant. Then, the BaTiO3/PES composite films were obtained through a series of operations, containing reclaimed organic solvent, washed with deionized water, filtered, dried and hot pressed. The morphology of the BaTiO3/PES emulsion was investigated by TEM and SEM. The results showed that the BaTiO3 particles were covered in the PES resin matrix homogeneously. For 50 wt% BaTiO3 reinforced PES composite film. The dielectric constant increased by ~ 227% compared with pure PES resin (4.1 at 1 kHz) and the dielectric loss maintained around 10−2 magnitude, which performed better dielectric properties. The tensile strength of 10 wt% BaTiO3/PES composite films (72 MPa) reached the highest value in comparison with those of pure PES (58 MPa) due to the strengthened interaction between particles and matrix. Further increase of BaTiO3 content, the tensile strength and elongation at break decreased slightly but remained an excellent flexibility from the PES matrix. The temperature at weight loss 5% (T5%) of composite film with 40 wt% of BaTiO3 content reached up to 503 °C in N2 atmosphere. All the BaTiO3/PES composite films performed the concentrated glass transition temperature (Tg) around 229 °C. In sum, excellent thermal stability and dielectric properties would make the BaTiO3/PES composite films become the fine potential candidates for dielectric composites in the capacitors.

To develop high performance of polymer-based composites, the dispersion state and interfacial interaction of nano-fillers are two key issues to be considered. Herein, we report the surface decoration of basalt fibers (BF) with nano-sized barium titanate (BT) particles and their dielectric application in poly(ether sulfone)-based composite laminates (PBCLs) was investigated in detail. Firstly, the nano-sized BT particles uniformly deposited along the BF surface through a simple and effective solvothermal method, as confirmed by SEM and XRD measurement. Then, novel ternary dielectric polymer-based composite laminates, consisting of BT particles decorated BF and poly(ether sulfone) (BT–BF/PES), were fabricated by hot-pressing method. Compared to raw BF filled PBCLs, the SEM images of BT–BF fibers reinforced PBCLs showed that all the BT–BF fibers strongly adhere to the PES matrix, and obscure fiber/PES interfaces are present without visible boundaries, indicating a improved interfacial interactions in this case. Thus, the mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties of the resultant PBCLs were characterized and results indicated that the BF and BT particles show enhanced synergistic effects. Following this strategy, the flexural strength and dielectric constant of BT–BF/PES blend with 40 wt% of BT were increased by 28 and 350%, respectively, in comparison with those of BF/PES composite laminates.

Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is widely used in autonomous driving and intelligent robot positioning and navigation. In order to overcome the defects of traditional visual SLAM in rapid motion and bidirectional loop detection, we present a feature-based PAL-SLAM system for a panoramic-annular-lens (PAL) camera in this paper. We use a mask to extract and match features in the annular effective area of the images. A PAL-camera model, based on precise calibration, is used to transform the matched features onto a unit vector for subsequent processing, and a prominent inlier-checking metric is designed as an epipolar constraint in the initialization. After testing on large-scale indoor and outdoor PAL image dataset sequences, comprising of more than 12,000 images, the accuracy of PAL-SLAM is measured as typically below 1 cm. This result holds consistent in conditions when the camera rotates rapidly, or the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals are blocked. PAL-SLAM can also detect unidirectional and bidirectional loop closures. Hence it can be used as a supplement or alternative to expensive commercial navigation systems, especially in urban environments where there are many signal obstructions such as buildings and bridges.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Relationship between gene expression levels and epigenetic levels estimated from promoter and gene body regions for different histone modifications. Boxplots show the distribution patterns of the levels of 16 investigated marks from gene body (upper panel) or promoter (lower panel) regions for genes in MSC with low expression (RPKM≤1), intermediate expression (1 10)). Statistical analysis indicates that the genes with high expression have higher epigenetic levels than the genes with low expression for all except for two repressive marks H3K27me3 and H3K9me3 that display an opposite trend (one-sided Wilcox rank-sum test, P-value 1) between H1 and MSC. However, no such pattern was observed for permuted data (right). Figure S4. Correspondence between genes showing alterations in the epigenetic circumstances and genes showing dynamic expression. (A) Venn diagrams displaying the number of common and direction-specific ECGs and DEGs during differentiation from H1 to MSC or NPC, respectively. The arrows indicate the three gene set pairs to be tested for the degree of gene overlap. (B) Bar plot showing that the proportions of DEGs in the corresponding ECGs are significantly higher than those from using randomly permutated data for the comparison from H1 to MSC or NPC. The simulated results are presented as the mean ± sd. (C-D) Bar plots showing that the proportions of DEGs in the corresponding EDGs are significantly higher than those from using randomly permutated data for the for the comparison from H1 to MSC or NPC and for the comparison from H1 to MSC or TBL, respectively. (E-F) Bar plots showing that the proportions of DEGs in the corresponding ECGs are significantly higher than those from using randomly permutated data for the comparison from H1 to MSC or NPC and for the comparison from H1 to MSC or TBL, respectively. Figure S5. Comparison of the gene scores between DEG and non-EDG among EDGs. Boxplots showing that the gene scores of DEGs among EDGs are significantly lower than those of non-DEGs among EDGs for the comparison between H1 and MSC. Figure S6. (A-C) Pearson correlations in terms of the histone modification levels between H1 and ME, between H1 and TBL, and between H1 and NPC, respectively, for DEGs and non-DEGs, respectively. (D-F) Pearson correlations in terms of the expression changes and epigenetic changes for each mark between H1 and ME, between H1 and TBL, and between H1 and NPC, respectively, for DEG and non-DEGs. The similar method of creating Fig. 7a was used to calculate the expression changes and epigenetic changes for each mark for the DEGs and non-DEGs. The marks in (A-F) are positioned by the difference in the correlations between DEGs and non-DEGs in ascending order. Figure S7. (A-D) Spearman correlations in terms of the histone modification levels between H1 and MSC, between H1 and ME, between H1 and TBL, and between H1 and NPC, respectively, for DEGs and non-DEGs, respectively. (E-H) Spearman correlations in terms of the expression changes and epigenetic changes for each mark between H1 and MSC, between H1 and ME, between H1 and TBL, and between H1 and NPC, respectively, for DEG and non-DEGs. The similar method of creating Fig. 7a was used to calculate the expression changes and epigenetic changes for each mark for the DEGs and non-DEGs. The marks in (A-H) are positioned by the difference in the correlations between DEGs and non-DEGs in ascending order. Figure S8. TFs that preferentially bind to DEGs and non-DEGs among EDGs, respectively, between H1 and MSC. The bar length represents the significance level of q-value (in logarithmic scale). Figure S9. Effect of additional noise on the performance of ICGEC. (A) Density plot showing the shift of the gene score produced from datasets without (s = 0) or with (s = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) additional artificial noise. (B) Hierarchical clustering plot showing the similarity of gene scores produced at different noise levels. The similarity is estimated as PCC over all genes with regard to their gene scores. The arrow indicates the dataset without additional noise. (C-D) Heatmaps showing the overlap degree of EDGs (C) and ECGs (D), respectively, identified between using datasets with additional noise at five levels and without. The EDGs or ECGs identified at the five noise levels were divided into 20 bins of approximately equal size, then the number of genes that were present at the equivalent bins corresponding to the dataset without additional noise were counted. For this part of analysis, we began with the epigenetic data matrices (s = 0) from the H1 and MSC cell lines, then we added different levels of additional noise to both matrices to produce artificially less perfect datasets, finally we evaluate the performance of ICGEC based on the results shown here. The added noise was derived from the distribution U (− 1, 1) × s × e, where s represented the noise strength from low to high with corresponding values from 0.2 to 1 with a step size of 0.2, e was the original modification level, and U (− 1,1) denoted a uniform distribution from − 1 to 1. Our results indicate that ICGEC performs well in despite of low-to-moderate level of noise. Figure S10. Comparison of ICGEC using epigenetic signal data from four methods. (A) Pair-wise Pearson correlation coefficient of ICGEC gene scores derived from using the four methods that quantify the epigenetic signal of genes from the promoter alone (Promoter), gene body regions alone (Body), from the promoter and gene body regions (Promoter+Body), and from the promoter and gene body regions, separately (Promoter+Body (32)). (B, C) Bar plot showing the number of DEGs (B) and essential genes (C) in EDGs or ECGs, respectively. The genes with ICGEC gene scores on the top and bottom one-quarter of all genes were defined as epigenetically dynamic genes (EDGs) and epigenetically conserved genes (ECGs), respectively. Figure S11. Comparison of the distributions of gene-gene correlation coefficients between H1 and MSC cell lines. Density plot showing the distribution pattern of gene-gene correlation coefficients, which were calculated from the gene epigenetic context matrices for H1 and MSC cell lines, separately. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicates that two distributions are significantly (P-value

A novel soluble poly(aryl ether ketone) (PAEK) terminated with 4-nitrophthalonitrile was designed and synthesized, which was used to solve the problem of difficult solution processing. Then, a series of cross-linked PAEK films with different thermal treatment temperatures were fabricated by using 4,4-bis(3,4-dicyanophenoxy)biphenyl (BPH) as a novel cross-linking agent, improving the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the traditional PAEK. Then, the fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrum, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), mechanical testing machine and LCR meter were used to investigate the microstructure, thermal, mechanical and dielectric properties of PAEK films, respectively. The results indicated that the increase in heat-treatment time and temperature are beneficial for the improvement of the value of Tg and T5%, and the excellent thermal stability and mechanical properties of PAEK films are demonstrated. Compared to PAEK-1 film, the Tg and T5% both increased by 63 °C for PAEK-4 film. Significantly, the tensile strength of PAEK-3 film (42 MPa) reaches the highest value in comparison with other samples. In addition, the dielectric constants (e) and loss tangent (tan δ) of PAEK-4 film is as low as 3.67 and 0.001 at 1 kHz, respectively. More importantly, the dielectric properties are found to be relatively stable to near the Tg value, which can be widely used for applications in dielectric energy storage at high temperatures.

In this work, a high-performance panoramic annular lens system designed with a point-by-point method and variable parameter optimization strategies is proposed. Due to the optimization and design, the system maintains a balance among characteristic parameters and can achieve a 360 ∘ × ( 40 ∘ − 95 ∘ ) field of view with a 4.34 mm focal length, an f -number of 4.5, and an F − θ distortion of less than 0.5%. Experimental results verify the parameters and demonstrate that the distortion is less than 0.8%, except in some areas with mechanical damage on the ogive surface.

Understanding the co-occurrence of multiple ecosystem services within farming systems and how they are associated across space are relatively new topics. Quantifying ecosystem services and their interactions as dependent on cropland management can help to formulate a more effective and sustainable land use management system. However, current academic efforts and cropland management practices based on the perspective of ecosystem services bundles and tradeoffs remain limited, especially in developing countries. This paper aimed to integrate ecosystem services into cropland protection and functional zoning. Taking Cixi County in the Hangzhou Bay area, China, as the case study area, five typical ecosystem services (food supply, carbon sequestration, hydrological regulation, soil fertility and recreation potential) delivered by croplands and their correlations were quantitatively assessed. The results demonstrated a heterogeneous spatial pattern of multiple ecosystem services and diverse interactions between them, which depended on regional specific conditions and agricultural activities. Further, we adopted the framework of ecosystem services bundles as a planning tool to support the spatial strategy of cropland management. Cropland protection priority and functional zoning were determined by hotspot analysis and clustering algorithms, respectively. The croplands in Cixi were classified into three protection grades and a zoning scheme comprising four functional types with policy guidelines was proposed based on the spatial cluster results. The integrative approach used in this study is applicable to supplement the current cropland management actions by incorporating the perspective of ecosystem services tradeoff and bundles.

This paper reviews the book of A Study of Metonymy through the Lens of Rhetorical Criticism. In this book, the author, Li Ke, tries to analyze and evaluate metonymy through the lens of rhetorical criticism, and proposes a new research paradigm called critical metonymy analysis based on which metonymic competence is well constructed that can be applied to teaching practice. He finds that the research horizon of metonymy has been mainly confined to traditional linguistics in the past, hardly involving interdisciplinary research. Besides, domestic studies are inclined to merely introduce western research achievement, lacking original theories and research methods. Therefore, this book is of great value in both theoretical and practical aspects. Besides the advantages, this book can be refined by adding objects of critical metonymy analysis to extend its linguistic data. In addition, it can also be improved by classifying and analyzing these data systematically.

In this work, a series of novel organosoluble copoly(arylene ether nitriles) containing thioether moiety (PENS) were synthesized via nucleophilic aromatic substitution polymerization of 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile with bisphenol A and sodium sulfide nonahydrate, using N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone as solvent in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate. The chemical structures of PENS were characterized by FTIR and 1H NMR. The derived copolymers showed high glass transition temperatures in the range of 167–178 °C and excellent thermal stability with the 5% weight loss temperatures ranging from 465 °C to 503 °C. Meanwhile, all of the PENS were amorphous and can be readily cast into transparent films with a tensile strength exceeding 77 MPa and a breaking elongation over 4.8%.In addition, the dielectric constant of all the PENS copolymers showed weak frequency dependence, the dielectric loss showed slight decrease with increasing frequency over the range of 100 Hz to 200 kHz. Therefore, this kind of organosoluble copoly(arylene ether nitriles) containing thioether moiety could be a good candidate as matrix resins for high-performance polymeric materials.

In this report, flexible cross-linked polyarylene ether nitrile/functionalized barium titanate(CPEN/F-BaTiO3) dielectrics films with high permittivitywere prepared and characterized. The effects of both the F-BaTiO3 and matrix curing on the mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties of the CPEN/F-BaTiO3 dielectric films were investigated in detail. Compared to pristine BaTiO3, the surface modified BaTiO3 particles effectively improved their dispersibility and interfacial adhesion in the polymer matrix. Moreover, the introduction of F-BaTiO3 particles enhanced dielectric properties of the composites, with a relatively high permittivity of 15.2 and a quite low loss tangent of 0.022 (1 kHz) when particle contents of 40 wt % were utilized. In addition, the cyano (–CN) groups of functional layer also can serve as potential sites for cross-linking with polyarylene ether nitrile terminated phthalonitrile (PEN-Ph) matrix and make it transform from thermoplastic to thermosetting. Comparing with the pure PEN-ph film, the latter results indicated that the formation of cross-linked network in the polymer-based system resulted in increased tensile strength by ~67%, improved glass transition temperature (Tg) by ~190 °C. More importantly, the CPEN/F-BaTiO3 composite films filled with 30 wt % F-BaTiO3 particles showed greater energy density by nearly 190% when compared to pure CPEN film. These findings enable broader applications of PEN-based composites in high-performance electronics and energy storage devices materials used at high temperature.

Digital Moiré technique is adopted in partial compensation interferometer (PCI) for high-precision testing of figure error of the aspheric surfaces. The figure error of the measured aspheric is obtained by a series of calculation with the real interferogram and ideal interferograms generated by computer. The dense interference fringes at the exit pupil make it difficult to align the PCI. On the contrary, digital Moire fringes composed from real and ideal interferograms are sparse and corresponding to the figure error of the measured aspheric, making it easier to align the PCI. Generally, digital Moire technique is processed on the computer, resulting in slow processing speed and difficult display in real time. Digital Signal Processor (DSP) can be used to implement digital Moire technique and display digital Moire fringes in real time with its powerful processing capacity. In this paper, digital Moire technique is implemented on the TMS320C6455 DSP. The hardware system consists of a DSP module, a CCD camera and a monitor. Finally we experimentally obtain the digital Moire image, and further analyze how to align the PCI theoretically.

Aspheric optical components are the indispensable part of modern optics systems. With the constant development of aspheric optical fabrication technique, the systems with large aperture convex aspheric optical components are widely used in astronomy and space optics. Thus, the measurement of the figure error of the whole convex aspherical surface with high precision comes to be a challenge in the area of optical surface manufacture, and surface testing method is also very important. This paper presents a new partial compensating system by the combination of a refractive lens and a reflective mirror for testing convex aspherical surface. The refractive lens is used to compensate the aberration of the tested convex asphere partially. The reflective mirror is a spherical mirror which is coaxial to the refractive lens and reflecting the lights reflected by the tested convex asphere back to the convex asphere itself. With the long focal length and large aperture system we can realize a lighter and more compact system than the refractive partial compensating system because the spheric reflective mirror is more easily to realize and can bending the light conveniently.