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LiDAR-based place recognition is crucial for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and autonomous driving. However, existing methods face challenges in achieving rotation invariance and are hindered by a large number of parameters and complex data preprocessing steps, such as ground point removal and extensive down-sampling. These limitations hinder their practical implementation in complex real-world scenarios. To address these challenges, we propose LR-Net, a lightweight and rotation-invariant place recognition network designed to handle large-scale raw point clouds. LR-Net tackles rotation invariance by efficiently capturing sparse local neighborhood information and generating rotation-invariant features through the analysis of spatial distribution and positional information within the local region. Furthermore, we enhance the network's feature perception by incorporating residual MLP structures to encode multi-level local region features, and integrating dual-attentional weighting blocks to emphasize important regions and features. Lastly, the Generalized-Mean pooling structure is utilized to aggregate the global descriptor, enabling efficient point cloud retrieval. Meanwhile, we introduce PRmate, an independent sub-network that effectively optimizes retrieval results by analyzing the descriptor similarity and location distribution of the top 25 matching candidates from the place recognition network. We extensively evaluated the proposed methods on four large-scale datasets, including both standardized point cloud scenes (Oxford RobotCar dataset and NUS In-house dataset) and raw point cloud scenes (MulRan dataset and Kitti odometry dataset). The experimental results demonstrate that LR-Net effectively attains rotation-invariance in place recognition and achieves state-of-the-art accuracy with a lightweight model size of 0.4 M parameters. Additionally, LR-Net eliminates the need for data preprocessing, as it can directly process raw point cloud data for stable place recognition and exhibits robustness against variations in point density and noise intensity, enhancing its suitability for challenging scenarios. Moreover, PRmate is compatible with all existing point cloud-based place recognition methods and improves their performance. These advantages make LR-Net and PRmate highly suitable for robotic applications that rely on LiDAR-based place recognition. Our code is publicly available on the project website (https://github.com/zhzhang023/LR-Net). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adoption of clean electric energy depends not only on administrative regulations, but also on public support, in particular, the public is willing to pay for environmental improvements. However, the increase of solar photovoltaic power generation willingness to pay (WTP) associated with higher education attainment and the identification of their causality has been missing. Present paper used the enactment of the Compulsory Schooling Law as an instrumental variable to solve the causal relationship between education and willingness to pay for photovoltaic power generation. The results are as follows:Heckman two-stage model and instrumental variable both confirmed that higher education has a positive impact on WTP for solar photovoltaic power generation. For each level of public education in the east, the WTP of photovoltaic power generation will increase by 7.540 CNY, 8.343 CNY and 8.343 CNY respectively, the central public will increase by 9.637 CNY, 10.775 CNY and 11.758 CNY, and the western public will increase by 12.723 CNY, 15.740 CNY and 17.993 CNY respectively. The positive influence of education level is smaller among the people who know the ladder price better, but it is bigger among the people who are male, older than 45 years old, healthier, higher income and stronger awareness of safe electricity use. The total socio-economic value of photovoltaic power generation is significantly different in eastern, central and western region China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter introduces an efficient registration method for large-scale point clouds with low overlap, which adopts a two-stage transformation learning process. In the first stage, we integrate a point-voxel encoding structure with an attention mechanism to predict rotation and point-wise importance weight. In the second stage, we employ a PointNet-based structure to estimate translation using optimized data. By adopting this two-stage procedure, our model can effectively learn rotation and translation separately, thereby increasing flexibility. We conducted extensive experiments on two large-scale indoor datasets (3Dmatch and S3DIS) and an outdoor dataset (KITTI odometry). The results demonstrate that our method outperforms traditional and deep learning-based approaches, achieving state-of-the-art performance in registration. Furthermore, our method exhibits superior generalization capabilities, highlighting its effectiveness in various registration scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] The performance of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) at sub-ambient temperatures is limited by the resistive interphases due to electrolyte decomposition, particularly on the anode surface. In this study, lithium fluorosulfonate (LFS) was added to commercial electrolytes to enhance the low-temperature electrochemical performance of LiFePO 4 (LFP)/graphite (Gr) pouch cells. The addition of LFS significantly reduced the charge transfer resistance of the anode, substantially extending the cycle life and discharge capacity of commercial LFP/Gr pouch cells at −10 and −30 °C. Compared with the capacity retention rate of the baseline electrolyte at −10 °C (80 % after 25cycles), the capacity retention rate of the LFS electrolyte after 100 cycles under 0.5 C/0.5 C was retained at 94 %. Further mechanistic studies showed that the LFS additive induced the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film comprising inorganic-rich LiF, Li 2 SO 4 , and additional organic fluorides and sulfides to maintain good stability at the Gr/electrolyte interface during low-temperature operation. LFS suppressed electrolyte decomposition by forming a robust and low-resistance SEI film on the anode. These results demonstrate that LFS is a promising electrolyte additive for low-temperature LFP/Gr pouch cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Point cloud-based retrieval for place recognition is essential in robotic applications like autonomous driving or simultaneous localization and mapping. However, this remains challenging in complex real-world scenes. Existing methods are sensitive to noisy, low-density point clouds and require extensive storage and computation, posing limitations for hardware-limited scenarios. To overcome these challenges, we propose LWR-Net, a lightweight place recognition network for efficient and robust point cloud retrieval in noisy, low-density conditions. Our approach incorporates a fast dilated sampling and grouping module with a residual MLP structure to learn geometric features from local neighborhoods. We also introduce a lightweight attentional weighting module to enhance global feature representation. By utilizing the Generalized Mean pooling structure, we aggregated the global descriptor for point cloud retrieval. We validated LWR-Net's efficiency and robustness on the Oxford robotcar dataset and three in-house datasets. The results demonstrate that our method efficiently and accurately retrieves matching scenes while being more robust to variations in point density and noise intensity. LWR-Net achieves state-of-the-art accuracy and robustness with a lightweight model size of 0.4M parameters. These efficiency, robustness, and lightweight advantages make our network highly suitable for robotic applications relying on point cloud-based place recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mixed ground-glass lung nodules are a high-risk factor for lung adenocarcinoma. This study aimed to analyze the value of SDCT electron density imaging in the detection of mixed ground-glass lung nodules (GGNs). Method: 150 patients with GGNs confirmed by chest SDCT and surgical pathology were retrospectively analyzed. GGNs were screened by two senior radiologists by the double-blind method based on conventional CT and SDCT electron density images. Average CT values and electron density (ED) values of GGNs were measured for all, solid and ground-glass. Result: Thirty pGGN cases determined by conventional CT were found to be mGGN on electron density images, including 23 in the invasive adenocarcinoma group (detection rate of 35.38%), which was significantly higher than that of the PGL group (14.89%, P < 0.05). In electron density images, average CT values and ED values in the PGL and invasive adenocarcinoma groups with pGGNs were no difference. The average CT value and ED value were significantly higher in the mGGN invasive adenocarcinoma group compared with the PGL group (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, ROC curve analysis of average CT value and ED value revealed AUC values for mGGN infiltration of 0.759 and 0.752. Conclusion: SDCT can improve GGN visualization and increase the detection rate of mGGN compared with conventional CT. Attention should be paid to invasive adenocarcinoma for lung GGNs detected as mGGNs with high average CT value or ED value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Modified low-temperature sulfated roasting is used to recycle spent graphite. • The purity of recycled graphite reached 99.55% and the recovery rate exceeds 94%. • Economical products Na 2 SO 4 and NaF can be obtained by treating wastewater and gas. • The valuable metal recovery rates are all over 99%. • The generated graphite shows excellent columbic efficiency and capacity retention. Recycling spent graphite in spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is crucial for lacking high-quality graphite and environmental protection. Here, an environmentally friendly and economical modified method based on sulfate roasting was proposed to recycle spent graphite via low temperature roasting at 250 °C with sodium fluoride as an assistant additive. Recycling leads to graphite with a high purity of 99.55 % and chemical structures for energy storage. Batteries manufactured in regenerated graphite deliver a high initial charge capacity of 333.9 mAh/g with an initial columbic efficiency of 85.71% and excellent capacity retention of 91.2% after 400 cycles. In addition, the waste produced in the method could be well treated, and by-products 177 g of sodium sulfate would be collected per 1 kg spent graphite and NaF, equivalent to 78.95% of the added amount obtained through wastewater and exhaust gas, respectively. The regenerated sodium fluoride will be re-applied to the recovery spent graphite. The loop-closed method shows great promise for the industrial-scale recycling of spent graphite for energy storage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safe fast‐charging lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) can be achieved by using LiFePO4 electrode and optimized electrolyte for the rapid development of electric vehicles. However, conventional carbonate electrolyte suffers resistive solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) that hampering the fast‐charging for LIBs. Herein, a multiple additive strategy, the combination of 1,3,2‐Dioxathiolane 2,2‐dioxide (DTD) and lithium difluorophosphate (DFP), is proposed to optimize the electrode interface for graphite (Gr)/LiFePO4(LFP) pouch cells under fast‐charging. Combining DTD with DFP can significantly reduce the charge transfer resistance of anode and greatly extend the lifespan of cells with >2400 cycles at a 2 C rate, which is much better than that of baseline and single additive based electrolytes with <1000 cycles. Further mechanistic studies revealed that proper sulfurized and phosphatized species are involved in the SEI film, which stabilizes lithium carbonate in the middle of SEI to avoid being attacked by Lewis acids. Multiple additive strategies optimize the interfacial structure and provide valuable guidance for the development of safe fast‐charging engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Point clouds scanned in the real-world environment, especially for cluttered indoor spaces, are often corrupted by extraneous points from sensor noise or missing points because of occlusion or partially overlapped situations. These problems reduce the performance of subsequent tasks, especially for point cloud registration. This paper proposes a learning-based network, Fore-Net, to efficiently filter out outlier points and retain only inlier points, which can promote the performance of subsequent algorithms by optimizing the quality of source data. We designed a dual space attention module in Fore-Net that can enrich the network's learning by aggregating information from both feature and cartesian spaces and realizing information exchange between point cloud pairs. In addition, the paper proposes two automatic labeling strategies that enable Fore-Net to be trained and tested to detect overlapping regions and denoise the point clouds using existing datasets without hand labeling. We comprehensively evaluated Fore-Net using two large-scale indoor datasets (the 3Dmatch and S3DIS datasets) and one synthetic dataset (the ModelNet40 dataset). The results showed that Fore-Net was more accurate and robust than the state-of-the-art approaches, and Fore-Net could generalize well in different types of indoor scenes. We further validated that by using Fore-Net as a pre-processing step, the performance of registration algorithms, whether classical methods or learning-based methods, could be promoted in the low-overlapping scenario; Fore-Net could also be used as an effective tool to denoise the point clouds of indoor scenes and objects. The results demonstrate Fore-Net's efficiency and compatibility, which will make it attractive for tasks relying on high-quality source data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft magnetic materials play a key role in developing integrated and miniaturized power electronics. However, it is still challenging to accurately evaluate the high-frequency (MHz) power loss of soft magnetic materials, which determines the energy efficiency of power electronics. In this paper, we firstly trace the high-frequency error origination in traditional electrometric method and propose a two-step calibration method for the system to compensate the phase angle discrepancy between exciting current and induced voltage. The first-step calibration eliminates the phase angle discrepancies caused by propagation delay of current and voltage probes, while the second-step calibration compensates residual phase angle discrepancies. A calibration factor k is defined to determine whether the second-step calibration is needed. The experimental results demonstrate that the system's phase discrepancy is compensated within 0.13°, enabling power loss measurement frequency up to 20 MHz that much higher than present apparatus. Our results will facilitate the development of high-frequency soft magnetic materials and promote the miniaturization of power electronics. [Display omitted] • Power loss measurement with two-step calibration method at high frequency. • The phase angle discrepancy of the system is within 0.13°. • Testing the power loss up to 20 MHz. • Error of power loss is below 5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph node dissection is critical in esophageal cancer. We investigated whether esophageal wire traction in three-hole thoracoscopic esophagectomy can improve the same. We retrospectively analyzed the data of 98 patients who underwent thoracoscopic esophagectomy in our center from January 2018 to July 2018: 36 patients with esophageal wire traction and 62 patients without traction (control group). The clearance time for left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes, thoracic bleeding volume, number of left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes, and complications were recorded. The observation group had a shorter clearance time for the left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes (15.8 ± 6.9 min vs. 20.00 ± 6.2 min), less thoracic bleeding (55.8 ± 30.2 mL vs. 70.7 ± 30.3 mL), and higher number of dissected left recurrent laryngeal lymph nodes (3.3 ± 1.4 vs. 2.5 ± 1.1) than the control group. There was no significant difference in the incidence of anastomotic leakage, pulmonary infection, arrhythmia, chylothorax, and nerve injury. Esophageal wire traction shortens the clearance time for the left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes, reduces thoracic bleeding, and improves the quality of left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph node dissection in three-hole thoracoscopic esophagectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient registration for large-scale scene point clouds is a basic capability that is essential for many real-world intelligence applications, such as autonomous driving or simultaneous localization and mapping. Because a large-scale scene point cloud has various characteristics such as large volumes of data, irregular local density, and limited overlapping, most existing approaches can only be trained and operated using small-scale point clouds. In this work, we propose a deep direct registration network, named DDRNet, to efficiently align the point clouds of large-scale scenes. The DDRNet consists of three parts: a local-spatially aware encoder that can efficiently aggregate posture information containing both local and spatial features; an attentional weighting module that allows our network to self-adaptively focus on overlapping areas; and a pyramid transformation decoder used to estimate transformation based on features having different resolutions. Also, we propose a partially-subsampled strategy, which is compatible with any learning-based registration method, to enable the network to be trained and tested in a self-supervised manner. We comprehensively validated our network's efficiency and robustness using four datasets: the ModelNet40, 3Dmatch, S3DIS, and the KITTI odometry datasets. The results demonstrate that our approach is more efficient and performs better than state-of-the-art methods, including both classical and learning-based methods, on large-scale scene data and object point cloud data, but with higher robustness to the variations in point density and overlapping. The efficiency and low registration error will make DDRNet attractive for substantial applications relying on a point cloud registration task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Registration aims at merging multiple scans to cover all scenes of a large environment. Thus, it is crucial to many civil infrastructure applications based on three-dimensional (3D) models. However, in many real-world scenarios, it is necessary to align point clouds with low-density or small overlaps. It is difficult to extract stable features and enough features for registration, whether keypoint features or overall posture features, under this condition. Existing methods cannot solve this problem well. This work proposed an end-to-end registration network that can self-adaptively focus on the overlap. The network learned to directly encode posture information from the overlapping area instead of using sparse keypoint correspondences, which makes the network more generalized and efficient. This work also proposed a self-supervised overlapping detector as an extension module to expand the use of this network to align large-scale point clouds of indoor building environments. The proposed detector is compatible with any registration approaches to promote their accuracy and efficiency further. The proposed network was experimentally demonstrated to outperform the state-of-the-art methods in registering sparse and low-overlapping point clouds, with higher robustness to point density and overlap ratio change. The proposed detector can reliably detect the overlapping area and empower the network to accurately align the sparse and low-overlapping point clouds of the large-scale indoor scene, thus simplifying and promoting laser scanning practices in civil infrastructure applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • FuP was first used as an electrolyte additive to stabilize NCM811/Gr. • NCM811/Gr cell with FuP delivers 90% capacity retention after 600 cycles. • The stable SEI films induced by FuP decrease the polarization and impedance of cell. • FuP can induce the formation of stable LiF, Li x PO y F z , and additional OP species. • FuP protects both the cathode and anode by forming robust SEI films. Ni-rich LiNi x Co y Mn 1−x−y O 2 /graphite batteries with Ni ≥ 0.8 have aroused great interest in high-energy–density Li-ion batteries. However, their practical applications still face huge challenges owing to severe capacity fading on unstable cathodic solid electrolyte interfaces (SEI). Herein, we propose an advanced electrolyte additive, tri(2-furyl)phosphine (FuP), to induce the simultaneous formation of robust SEI films on cathode and anode surfaces. This interphase can significantly improve the cyclability of commercial LiNi 0.8 Co 0.1 Mn 0.1 O 2 /graphite pouch cells at 45 °C and reduce cell impedance during cycling. The capacity retention rate of the cells with the FuP-based electrolyte can reach 90 % after 600 cycles, which is considerably better than that of baseline batteries (70 %). Mechanistic studies indicate that FuP suppresses the formation of fragile Li 2 CO 3 to generate more stable LiF, Li x PO y F z , and additional organic phosphorus species on the electrode surface, thereby preventing cation disorder and irreversible phase transitions. These results provide a facile and efficient strategy for enhancing the performance of Ni-rich Li-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • PDS activation process is enhanced by combination of UV and in-situ generated Fe2+. • SO 4 − and OH radicals are responsible for hypophosphite oxidation. • Ferric phosphate precipitates are the major phosphate recovery products. • Mechanism of hypophosphite oxidation and phosphorus recovery is proposed. • UV/Fe2+/PDS system has a promising future for hypophosphite recovery. Abstract Hypophosphite, a reducing agent, has been widely used in metallurgical industry, however, the effective treatment of hypophosphite wastewater with phosphorus recovery remains a challenge. In this work, various systems including control (anode oxidation), PDS, UV, Fe2+/PDS, UV/Fe2+/PDS systems were carried out and compared in terms of oxidation efficiency of hypophosphite and recovery efficiency of total phosphorus. The UV/Fe2+/PDS system demonstrated the optimal performance at the optimized conditions ([H 2 PO 2 −] = 10 mM; pH 0 = 3.0; Current intensity = 0.4 A; [K 2 S 2 O 8 ] = 20 mg/L) by analyzing the effects of the operating conditions of initial pH 0 , current intensity and K 2 S 2 O 8 concentration. The precipitates of the phosphate recovery products obtained at the optimized conditions were investigated by XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM, FTIR and XPS and the results confirmed that the precipitates were ferric phosphate with a high purity. Radical scavengers and ESR spectroscopy were applied to investigate the generated radicals in the UV/Fe2+/PDS system with the results showing that SO 4 − and OH radials were contributable to hypophosphite oxidation. The mechanism of hypophosphite oxidation and phosphorus recovery was proposed as three steps. Firstly, SO 4 − and OH radicals were generated by Fe2+/UV activation and anode, respectively. Secondly, the generated SO 4 − and OH radicals facilitated the oxidation of hypophosphite to phosphate. Thirdly, the oxidized phosphate was recovered by ferric ions with the formation of ferric phosphate precipitates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Abstract Capacitive deionization (CDI) has become a promising technology for water desalination due to its remarkable advantages including low operation cost, no secondary pollution and high rate of ion recovery. However, the majority of commercial CDI electrode materials are carbonaceous materials such as activated carbon with limited capacitance and high charge transfer resistance, which significantly hinders the wide application of CDI. Herein, we demonstrate a N -doped carbonaceous CDI electrode with a maximum ion electrosorption capacity of 19.9 mg/g, a low charge transfer resistance (1.17 Ω) and a robust regeneration performance (2800 min for 28 circles). The N-doped carbonaceous CDI electrode is the commercial activated carbon fiber (ACF) decorated with polyaniline (PANI) (ACF/PANI) electrode fabricated by in-situ electrochemical polymerization. The ACF/PANI electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The pseudocapacitance of ACF/PANI electrode significantly contributed to the effectively improved CDI performance that 90.0% of sodium storage was attributed to the capacitive process and the unique porous structure of ACF/PANI electrode contributed to the other 10.0% diffusion-controlled capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A novel ferrate (VI)-ozone integrated pretreatment process was proposed and applied herein for the first time in reclaimed water treatment. We demonstrated the synergistic effect of the ferrate (VI)-ozone integrated process in terms of •OH generation and its double-win effects on the improvement of water quality and fouling alleviation of ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. The concentration of •OH in the ferrate (VI) (0.15 mM)-ozone (10 mg/L) integrated case was almost 3-fold higher compared to the ferrate (VI) (0.15 mM) case, while no obvious •OH was detected in the pre-ozonation case (10 mg/L) in Milli-Q water. The reclaimed water quality was remarkably enhanced with the maximum removal efficiencies of 70.5% (DOC), 80.5% (UV 254), 25.6% (protein) and 65.5% (polysaccharide) in influent achieved by the integrated pretreatment of ozone (10 mg/L) and ferrate (0.15 mM). Biopolymers (molecular weight (MW) of 20–2000 kDa) were the main removed organics with the best removal efficiency of 92.6%. Additionally, membrane fouling was effectively mitigated and the normalized trans-membrane pressure (TMP) was maximally decreased by 89.5% obtained after the integrated pretreatment of ozone (10 mg/L) and ferrate (0.15 mM). The statistical analysis results demonstrated that the increased particle size and the effective reduction of organic matters with ferrate-ozone integrated pretreatment led to a porous fouling layer with high permeability and thus a remarkable reduction of TMP and resistances, which was also in agreement with the modeling results that cake blocking was significantly alleviated. Graphical abstract fx1 Highlights • The synergistic effect of ferrate-ozone with more •OH generated is confirmed. • Ferrate-ozone significantly improves the water quality of reclaimed water. • Ferrate-ozone pretreatment remarkably alleviates ceramic membrane fouling. • A more porous fouling layer is formed with ferrate-ozone pretreatment. • Cake-intermediate fouling is the main fouling mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We performed the technique of uniportal thoracoscopic McKeown esophagectomy. The incision was located in the fourth intercostal space on the right axillary midline. The right recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes were dissected. Four hemlocks were applied to clamp the proximal and distal ends of the aortic arch. The esophagus was suspended with purse-string at the level of the azygos vein arch to assist the dissection of the left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes. A silk thread was drawn out from the incision in order to remove the subcarinal lymph nodes. A thoracic drainage tube was placed at the back of the incision at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membrane fouling is still a critical problem restricting membrane applications in wastewater treatment. Herein, for the first time, the single and synergistic effects of in-situ ozonation and ferric chloride addition on membrane filterability of mixed liquor and ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fouling in wastewater treatment were quantitatively investigated by statistical analysis including factor analysis, redundancy analysis and canonical correlation analysis. The filterability score of mixed liquor had very strong positive linear correlation with total membrane fouling resistance. Both the membrane filterability of mixed liquor and the ceramic membrane fouling mitigation performance followed the order: in-situ ozonation (10 mg/L)/ferric chloride addition (45 mg/L) > ferric chloride addition (45 mg/L) > in-situ ozonation (10 mg/L) > control. Specifically, ferric chloride addition (45 mg/L) contributed to 45.8% of membrane fouling mitigation as a result of 52.2% of improvement of membrane filtration environment. In-situ ozonation (10 mg/L) contributed to 26.6% of membrane fouling mitigation as a result of 28.6% of improvement of membrane filtration environment. The combination of in-situ ozonation (10 mg/L) and ferric chloride (45 mg/L) further contributed to 26.6% of the mitigation of iron-related membrane fouling. O 3 in the case coupling in-situ ozonation with ferric chloride addition reduced the accumulation of Fe and mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) on the membrane surface and mitigated membrane fouling in comparison to the case with only ferric chloride addition. Our results demonstrated that the combination of in-situ ozonation and Fe dosing with ceramic membrane filtration in wastewater treatment could achieve the synergistic effect in terms of the improvement of membrane filterability of mixed liquor and mitigation of membrane fouling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferrate (VI) is a unique and “green” chemical that can be utilized for oxidation, disinfection and coagulation simultaneously in a single unit without producing by-product. Herein, for the first time, we reported the integrated process of ferrate (VI) pretreatment coupled with ceramic membrane reactor for mitigating membrane fouling in natural reclaimed water treatment. Membrane fouling was effectively mitigated by ferrate pretreatment with the maximum trans-membrane pressure (TMP) reduction of 81.8% achieved at ferrate dosage of 0.15 mM. Moreover, the fouling mechanism changed from intermediate-standard blocking to cake-intermediate blocking with ferrate pretreatment and the contribution of cake layer fouling was significantly diminished with increase of ferrate dosage (≤ 0.15 mM). Statistical analysis including redundancy analysis and clustering correlation analysis showed that chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and polysaccharide were the most important positive factors to R t with their correlation coefficients above 0.92 while SS and turbidity were the most important negative factors to R t with their correlation coefficients below − 0.87. Long-term filtration experiments also confirmed the membrane fouling control performance by ferrate with the significant extension of the onset of membrane fouling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integrated process of ozonation coupled with ceramic membrane filtration has been actively utilized to alleviate membrane fouling in water/wastewater treatment, however, the effect of ozonation on protein-based ceramic membrane fouling is still contradictory. Herein, for the first time, we reported the severe protein-based ceramic membrane fouling at high ozone dosage in the integrated process of ozonation coupled with ceramic membrane filtration and the related fouling mechanism was systematically explored. Ozonation at low dosage slightly mitigated membrane fouling, whereas severe membrane fouling occurred at high ozone dosage (10 mg/L for pre-ozonation; 4 and 10 mg/L for in-situ ozonation). At high ozone dosage, the trans-membrane pressure (TMP) remarkably increased (> 40 kPa) within 90 min and both hydraulically reversible and irreversible fouling contributed to the total membrane fouling resistance. Electro kinetic potential and particle size of the bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution were not the key factors affecting the aggravated membrane fouling at high ozone dosage. The remarkably deteriorated membrane fouling at high ozone dosage can be accounted for the formation of BSA crosslinks ascribed to the oligomerization and agglomeration of BSA and the intermolecular disulfide bridge formation with the crosslinks progressively accumulating on the membrane surface and in the membrane pores during filtration. The modeling results confirmed that the BSA-based membrane fouling mechanism was changed from cake-intermediate to cake-standard with ozonation at high ozone dosage. Meanwhile, the cake layer and/or gel layer played a more important role for the aggravated membrane fouling at high ozone dosage even though the contribution of pore blocking was also significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four pathways for cleaning of iron oxide-fouled membranes, namely i) proton (acid)-assisted, ii) ligand-promoted (citric acid), iii) reductive (ascorbic acid), and iv) ligand-promoted reductive (ascorbic acid-citric acid-mediated) were examined and their effectiveness were compared in this study. The cleaning effectiveness under oxic conditions followed the order: proton-assisted < ligand-promoted < reductive < ligand-promoted reductive. Iron oxide dissolution rate initially increased with increase of citrate concentration in the ascorbic acid-citric acid solutions but declined at higher citrate concentrations indicating that an intermediate citrate concentration was required for optimal cleaning. The mechanism of ligand-promoted reductive dissolution mediated by ascorbate and citrate was investigated through studies of dissolution behaviour under both oxic and anoxic conditions with citrate shown to have a mitigating effect on the consumption of oxygen, apparently by reducing the iron catalyzed oxidation of ascorbate. Kinetic modelling showed that the dynamics of dissolution could be reasonably well simulated with the inclusion of a surface > Fe(III)-citrate-Fe(II) ternary complex which facilitates the detachment of surface Fe(II). Use of dual reagents (ascorbic acid and citric acid) under oxic conditions is recommended for the cleaning of iron-fouled membranes in view of the extreme cleaning effectiveness though it is critical that cleaning conditions be carefully optimised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polymeric membrane has been widely used for the treatment of drinking water in China, and the total treating capacity has reached up to 3.8 million m3/d. However, the membrane breakage found in the membrane modules in many water treatment plants resulted in an increase in turbidity and bacterial amount in the membrane permeate. In this study, a membrane module running for 3 years in a full-scale application was examined in terms of the breaking positions and the numbers of the broken fibers. It was found that most of the breaking positions were mainly on the outlet side of the module and that the distance from these points to the outlet was about 1/10–2/10 length of the membrane module. The lab-scale tests showed that the increase of the numbers of the breaking fibers in the membrane module (the breaking fibers were from 1 to 4 of 75 fibers) resulted in the increase in turbidity, particle count and the amount of total bacteria and coliform bacteria. Meanwhile, the water quality after the filtration with broken membrane fibers was similar to the quality of the raw water, which indicated that once the membrane fiber breakage occurred in the membrane module, the quality of drinking water after membrane filtration was significantly affected. Furthermore, the breaking position closer to the outlet side of the membrane module exposed much higher microbiological risk than those in the middle or near the bottom side. A pilot scale test was conducted by using a membrane module with 6600 fibers, and the effect of the membrane breakage (1–4 broken fibers) on water quality was also investigated. The results indicated that periodical backwashing caused drastic fluctuation of turbidity, particle count and the bacterial amount in the permeate water, which might be due to the washing force and self-blocking action inside the hollow fibers. Moreover, there is a good quantitative relationship (R2= 0.945) between particle count and the bacterial amount, which indicated that an online detection of particle count can be used to evaluate the bacterial risk. It was also suggested that the online detection of particle count after backwashing within 100 s would be a quick and precise method to identify any fiber breakage in time. These results are very important for the safety issue in the application of polymeric membrane to water treatment plants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pre-ozonation or in-situ ozonation coupled with membrane filtration has been actively utilized for membrane fouling control in water treatment, however, the comparative analysis of these two ozonation processes on membrane fouling control has not been reported so far. In this study, the comparative effect of pre-ozonation and in-situ ozonation on mitigation of ceramic UF (ultrafiltration) membrane fouling caused by alginate was systematically investigated through characterization of TMP, fouling resistance, MW distribution, dissolved ozone concentration, the formation of hydroxyl radical and modeling. Results showed that both pre-ozonation and in-situ ozonation were effective in alleviating the cake layer fouling. Ozonation efficiently broke down the high molecular weight (MW) fractions (>150 kDa and 80–150 kDa) of alginate into the low MW fractions (6–80 kDa; 0.4–6 kDa and 0.1–0.4 kDa), reducing the membrane interception of alginate. Pre-ozonation achieved better fouling mitigation performance compared with in-situ ozonation at low ozone dosages of 2 and 4 mg/L. However, in-situ ozonation had better fouling control performance at high ozone dosage of 10 mg/L with the normalized TMP (ΔTMP) maintaining below 0.2 kPa after 60 min filtration. Besides, in-situ ozonation was more effective in hydraulically irreversible fouling control than pre-ozonation regardless of ozone dosage. Integration of in-situ ozonation and ceramic membrane filtration catalyzed ozone decomposition with the increased generation of hydroxyl radical, which further strengthened the oxidation of the accumulated foulants on the membrane surface and within the membrane pores and thus effectively alleviated the reversible and irreversible fouling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of in-situ ozonation on mixed liquor filterability and ceramic membrane fouling in wastewater treatment were systematically studied by evaluating the mixed liquor filterability with a factor analysis method, modeling the membrane fouling process with nine fouling models, and analyzing the mechanism of membrane fouling mitigation with a redundancy analysis method. In-situ ozonation had trade-off effects on the filterability of mixed liquor. On one hand, the filterability of mixed liquor was improved as a result of the remarkable reduction of mixed liquid suspended solids (MLSS), sludge volume after 30 min sedimentation (SV 30 ) and extractable extra-cellular polymeric substances (EPS). On the other hand, the filterability of mixed liquor deteriorated as a result of the obvious increase of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and soluble microbial products (SMP). The contribution of sludge properties (MLSS, SV 30 , EPS) to the filterability of mixed liquor was nearly doubled compared with that of the supernatant properties (DOC, SMP). The filterability of mixed liquor was effectively improved with increase of ozone dosage (≤5 mg/L). Meanwhile, membrane fouling was effectively mitigated by in-situ ozonation with the maximum normalized TMP (ΔTMP) reduction of 55.6% achieved at ozone dosage of 5 mg/L (1.3 mg-ozone/g-MLSS). The combined intermediate-standard model excellently fitted the experimental data at different ozone dosages and the alleviation of intermediate blocking mainly contributed to the fouling mitigation by in-situ ozonation (≤5 mg/L). The cake layer resistance was maximally reduced by 61.5% at ozone dosage of 5 mg/L mainly as a result of the significantly improved filterability of mixed liquor. The gel layer resistance was maximally reduced by 32.3% at ozone dosage of 5 mg/L mainly as a result of the direct oxidation of organic foulants deposited on membrane surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A transfer effect of musical training on listening to classic Chinese poems was confirmed for the first time. • We provide neuroscientific evidence for musician's advantages in processing segmental and suprasegmental information. • Musicians show increased attentional focus on speech and diminished demands on detecting incorrect vowels and integration costs for tone changes. Long-term rigorous musical training promotes various aspects of spoken language processing. However, it is unclear whether musical training provides an advantage in recognizing segmental and suprasegmental information of spoken language. We used vowel and tone violations in spoken unfamiliar seven-character quatrains and a rhyming judgment task to investigate the effects of musical training on tone and vowel processing by recording ERPs. Compared with non-musicians, musicians were more accurate and responded faster to incorrect than correct tones. Musicians showed larger P2 components in their ERPs than non-musicians during both tone and vowel processing, revealing increased focused attention on sounds. Both groups showed enhanced N400 and LPC for incorrect vowels (vs. correct vowels) but non-musicians showed an additional P2 effect for vowel violations. Moreover, both groups showed enhanced LPC for incorrect tones (vs. correct tones) but only non-musicians showed an additional N400 effect for tone violations. These results indicate that vowel/tone processing is less effortful for musicians (vs. non-musicians). Our study suggests that long-term musical training facilitates speech tone and vowel processing in a tonal language environment by increasing the attentional focus on speech and reducing demands for detecting incorrect vowels and integration costs for tone changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient implementation of a catalyst-integrated cathode-based heterogeneous electro-Fenton (HEF) process usually suffers from the conflict between the optimal potentials of the two targeted reduction reactions (O2 to H2O2 and metal(n+1)+ to metaln+). In addition, the residual H2O2 in the HEF effluent poses a potential environmental risk to aquatic ecosystems and would further make the HEF technology impractical. Herein, a tandem system of dual-cathode HEF and UV radiation is proposed to bypass these issues. In the dual-cathode HEF unit, the air-diffusion cathode (ADC) without aeration and the FeOCl-functionalized graphite felt (FeOCl/GF) perform their respective functions at different operating current densities (100 mA cm−2 for ADC and 5 mA cm−2 for FeOCl/GF) to achieve efficient H2O2 production, ˙OH formation and Fe(III) electroreduction simultaneously. Subsequently, the underutilized H2O2 in the HEF effluent will be reactivated in the UV module to eliminate the risk of oxidant residues while further improving the decontamination efficiency. Importantly, interesting antagonistic and synergistic phenomena governed by the cathodic current density of the ADC in this tandem system were also highlighted by constructing different standalone/coupled processes. The HEF/UV tandem strategy proposed in the present work offers a promising scheme for distributed wastewater treatment due to the demonstrated preeminent process efficiency, as well as the reagent- and residual-oxidant-free green chemistry concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of mixed liquor properties changed by ozonation especially with high dosages on membrane fouling is very complex and remains unclear. In this study, the effect of mixed liquor properties changed by ozonation especially with high dosages on ceramic ultrafiltration (UF) membrane fouling in wastewater treatment and the corresponding mechanism were systematically studied by characterization of the mixed liquor properties, hydraulic performance, the fouling layers and modeling at different ozone dosages (0, 2, 5, 10 mg/L). The membrane filterability of the mixed liquor after pre-ozonation (⩽5 mg/L) was enhanced and the corresponding membrane fouling was mitigated. After pre-ozonation, activated sludge had the better settleability and larger floc size. Meanwhile, there was a remarkable reduction of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), soluble microbial products (SMP) and extractable extra-cellular polymeric substances (EPS) after pre-ozonation and the removed organics were mainly belonged to the high molecular weight (MW) (1–10 kDa) and very high MW (10–200 kDa) substances. Intermediate blocking was the main membrane fouling during the mixed liquor filtration process and the best fouling mitigation performance was achieved for the sample with an intermediate ozone dosage of 5 mg/L (1.7 mg-ozone/g-mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS)). Meanwhile, the water quality of permeate was even better after pre-ozonation (⩽5 mg/L) with the lower DOC and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations. Severe cell lysis occurred with the significant increase of the released organics in the mixed liquor and the activated sludge had smaller floc size and worse settleability when the pre-ozonation dosage was above 10 mg/L, which in turn resulted in the deteriorated membrane fouling control performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ascorbic acid (Asc)-mediated cleaning of iron-fouled membranes from submerged membrane bioreactors (MBRs) dosed with iron salts for facilitation of phosphorus removal is investigated here with the cleaning process, involving the reductive dissolution of iron oxides on the membrane surface and within membrane pores, conducted under both oxic and anoxic conditions and in the presence of 1,10-phenanthroline, a strong Fe(II)-binding ligand. A significant reduction in cleaning effectiveness was observed when oxygen was present with kinetic modelling of key processes operating in this system indicating that the reduced effectiveness could be attributed to the Fe(III)-catalysed oxidation of ascorbate with Fe(III) being replenished by the relatively rapid heterogeneous oxidation of Fe(II). While either removal of oxygen or addition of Fe(II)-binding agents such as phenanthroline are effective in preventing the Fe(III)-catalysed oxidation of ascorbate, cleaning of iron oxide-fouled membranes under oxic conditions with frequent replenishment of freshly prepared Asc is recommended as a reasonable balance between cleaning effectiveness and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of continuously dosing membrane bioreactors (MBRs) with ferric chloride (Fe(III)) and ferrous sulphate (Fe(II)) on phosphorus (P) removal and membrane fouling is investigated here. Influent phosphorus concentrations of 10 mg/L were consistently reduced to effluent concentrations of less than 0.02 mg/L and 0.03–0.04 mg/L when an Fe(III)/P molar ratio of 4.0 and Fe/P molar ratio (for both Fe(II) and Fe(III)) of 2.0 were used, respectively. In comparison, effluent concentrations did not decrease below 1.35 mg/L in a control reactor to which iron was not added. The concentrations of supernatant organic compounds, particularly polysaccharides, were reduced significantly by iron addition. The sub-critical fouling time ( t crit ) after which fouling becomes much more severe was substantially shorter with Fe(III) dosing (672 h) than with Fe(II) dosing (1200–1260 h) at Fe/P molar ratios of 2.0 while the control reactor (no iron dosing) exhibited a t crit of 960 h. Not surprisingly, membrane fouling was substantially more severe at Fe/P ratios of 4. Fe(II) doses yielding Fe/P molar ratios of 2 or less with dosing to the aerobic chamber were found to be optimal in terms of P removal and fouling mitigation performance. In long term operation, however, the use of iron for maintaining appropriately low effluent P concentrations results in more severe irreversible fouling necessitating the application of an effective membrane cleaning regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cleaning strategies for iron-fouled membranes from submerged membrane bioreactors (MBRs) dosed with iron salts are investigated here. Severe membrane fouling resulting from iron dosing was observed with amorphous ferric oxyhydroxide particles and gelatinous assemblages containing Fe(III) bound to polysaccharide materials responsible particularly for irreversible membrane fouling. Sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) and citric acid, the most commonly used chemical cleaning agents, were not particularly effective in removing iron species from the membrane surface while the Fe(III) reducing agents ascorbic acid and sodium dithionite were very effective in removing iron-containing deposits under the conditions used in this study. In the presence of oxygen, the Fe(III)-catalysed oxidation of ascorbic acid and direct oxygen-mediated oxidation of dithionite control the dissolution rate constant. Use of NaOCl followed by ascorbic acid at concentrations of 10–20 mM is recommended as a reasonable balance between cleaning effectiveness and cost though further investigation of cleaning of fouled membranes from full scale MBRs is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperative communications enhance the performance of wireless networks by allowing nodes to cooperate with each other to achieve spatial diversity gains. To obtain cooperation gains, appropriate relay node(s) should be selected according to network topology and channel state information (CSI). However, in ad hoc wireless networks, the CSI is random, and the network topology is dynamic. This complicates relay selection, and in turn, makes it difficult to implement cooperative communications in ad hoc wireless networks. To tackle the issue, this paper proposes blind cooperative communications (BCC) for multihop ad hoc wireless networks. In BCC, intermediate nodes and the destination node in a multihop path first listen and cache the data from two-hop-away upstream nodes, and then combine the cached data with the data forwarded by the upstream to obtain diversity gains. The performance of BCC is evaluated by analysis and simulations to show that BCC can significantly increase the packet delivery ratio (PDR) and the average end-to-end throughput (AET). Compared with existing cooperation methods, BCC requires neither CSI and topology information nor additional signaling overheads, making it extremely easy to implement in dynamic multihop ad hoc wireless networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Polysulfone ultrafiltration membranes were prepared via the wet phase-inversion process with the same coagulation bath. Three different kinds of systems including polysulfone (PSF)/N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMAC)/poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP), PSF/DMAC/Ethanol ternary systems and PSF/DMAC/Ethanol/PVP quaternary system were used as casting solutions. The zero shear viscosity of the casting solutions was measured and the phase-inversion process was monitored by the light transmittance apparatus. The surface and cross-section morphology of the corresponding membranes were characterized by SEM. The water flux and the anti-pressure stability of the membranes were performed in the permeation experiment. The pore size and porosity of the fresh and pressurized membranes were calculated. These experimental results suggest that the PSF ultrafiltration membrane of a density gradient structure prepared from the quaternary system by using PVP and ethanol together in PSF/DMAC/Ethanol/PVP solution with the respective amounts of 3.05wt.%, 15.5wt.%, has a good anti-pressure stability and a relatively high water flux (only changed from 162L/m2 h to 155L/m2 h ) even by continuous operation (0.5MPa) for 200min, which is valuable as the sub-supporting membrane of composite membranes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The zero shear viscosity of two kinds of polysulfone (PSF) casting solutions and the morphology and permeability of their membranes prepared via the phase-inversion process were investigated. The zero shear viscosities, dominated by changing the concentration of PSF and the molecular weight of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) additive for the PSF/N, N-Dimethylacetamide (DMAC) binary system and PSF/DMAC/PVP ternary system respectively, were measured by a falling sphere viscometer. The cloud point of solutions was investigated in the cloud point experiment, and the phase-inversion process was monitored by the light transmittance apparatus. The surface and cross-section morphology of the corresponding membranes were characterized by SEM, and the water flux of the membranes was performed in the permeation experiment. Increasing the viscosity of the casting solution leads to the less porous surface and thick-skinned top-layer of the membrane. These experimental results are attributed to the mutable thermodynamic property of the system and the poor diffusion between components during the phase-inversion process, and finally results in the low water flux of PSF membranes. It suggests that the zero shear viscosity of the casting solution is one of the most important parameters for the morphology and permeability of membranes prepared via the phase-inversion process with the same coagulation bath. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • Ceramic membrane (CM) market is growing with many full-scale applications. • CM is superior to polymeric membrane–high stability & flux, long life, low fouling. • Physicochemical processes (e.g., ozonation) are effective for fouling control. • Catalytic (nano) CMs can enhance antifouling, and pollutant removal capability. • Cost analysis of CMs, fouling control & cleaning should be evaluated at full-scale. Application of ceramic membrane technology in water and wastewater is rapidly growing. Inherent advantages of ceramic membrane including chemical/thermal stability, low fouling propensity and long lifespan make ceramic membrane technology attractive, and the ceramic membrane market is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 12%. Ceramic membranes could be integrated with advanced oxidation processes such as in-situ ozonation that cannot be applied in the case of polymeric membrane due to their potential degradation during long-term exposure. In addition, the hybrid-ceramic membrane processes such as ceramic membrane bioreactor are superior to polymeric counterparts due to higher flux, higher pollutant removal, lower fouling rate and higher cleaning efficiency. Although ceramic membrane has high capital cost, life-cycle costs of ceramic and polymeric plants are comparable. Notably, full-scale ceramic membrane water/wastewater treatment plants have been installed in many countries such as Japan, USA, Singapore and United Kingdom. Given the attractiveness of this technology, performance of ceramic membrane is critically reviewed with a focus on their applications in water and wastewater treatment under mild conditions. In addition, fouling mechanisms and control strategies are elucidated and are compared with polymeric membranes. Importantly, for the first time, the status of full-scale applications and market prospects of ceramic membranes are critically analysed to show their future potential. Lastly, future research directions such as development of cost-effective ceramic membranes, understanding the biofouling evolution and economic evaluation of physicochemical processes for fouling control are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A novel tri-functional cycloaliphatic epoxy resin was synthesized starting from dicyclopentadiene. The chemical structures of the resultant epoxy resin and its precursor were characterized with FTIR spectroscopy, EEW, 1H NMR and Mass spectrographic analyses. The thermal and mechanical properties of the resulting polymer were evaluated with differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), thermo-gravimetric and thermal mechanical analysis. Compared to that of the common cycloaliphatic epoxy resin ERL-4221, the cured polymer of the novel epoxy resin exhibited lower thermal degradation temperature with much higher char yield and similar thermal expansion coefficient. These excellent overall performances make it a promising packaging material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are considered potential biomarkers in the pathogenesis and detection of several types of cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the role of hsa_circ_0000129 in the pathogenesis and molecular mechanism underlying breast cancer. A total of 68 pairs of breast cancer and corresponding paracancerous tissue samples, three different breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468) and a normal human breast cell line (MCF-10A) were used to investigate the expression of hsa_circ_0000129. The effect of hsa_circ_0000129 on cell proliferation, migration and colony formation was assessed in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 cells, along with the expression of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2). The results demonstrated that hsa_circ_0000129 expression was significantly higher in breast cancer tissues compared with normal tissues. In addition, high hsa_circ_0000129 expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis and a higher tumor-node-metastasis stage. Comparisons between the breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468) and MCF-10A cells indicated similar results. MCF-7 cells overexpressed with hsa_circ_0000129 significantly increased cell proliferation, migration and colony formation compared with the negative control group, the effects of which were reversed following hsa_circ_0000129 knockdown in MDA-MB-468 cells. Furthermore, EZH2 expression was positively associated with hsa_circ_0000129 expression. Taken together, the results of the present study suggest that hsa_circ_0000129 may represent a promising prognostic biomarker for breast cancer. In addition, the role of hsa_circ_0000129 in breast cancer cell lines indicates a mechanism for tumorigenesis, as well as a potent target for the treatment of malignant progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pedestrian stride-length estimation is a crucial piece of personal behavior data for many smartphone applications, such as health monitoring and indoor location. The performance of the present stride-length algorithms is suitable for simple gaits and single scenes, but when applied to sophisticated gaits or heterogeneous devices, their inaccuracy varies dramatically. This paper proposes an efficient learning-based stride-length estimation model using a smartphone to obtain the correct stride length. The model uses adaptive learning to extract different elements for changing and recognition tasks, including Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) modules. The direct fusion method maps the eigenvectors to the appropriate stride length after combining the features from the learning modules. We presented an online learning module to update the model to increase the SLE model's generalization. Extensive experiments are conducted with heterogeneous devices or users, various gaits, and switched scenarios. The results confirm that the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods and achieves an average 4.26% estimation error rate in various environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hyperhomocysteinemia has been reported in psoriasis. We investigated the effect of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), polymorphism and folic acid supplementation on serum homocysteine levels in psoriasis. Methods: Serum homocysteine levels were detected at baseline and at week 12 in 201 patients who were genotyped with MTHFR rs1801133 without and 93 psoriatic patients with folate supplement. Results: TT genotype carriers of MTHFR rs1801133 had significantly higher serum homocysteine levels at baseline and at week 12, a better PASI 75 response rate at week 8, and a higher PASI 90 response rate at week 12 than the CT and CC genotype carriers. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that serum homocysteine concentration at baseline was significantly associated with sex, weight, PASI score at baseline, and the rs1801133 genotype. The significant upregulation of serum homocysteine levels after treatment with methotrexate (MTX) was only observed in male CT and CC genotype carriers and female CC genotype carriers. In contrast, folic acid supplementation significantly decreased serum homocysteine levels after MTX treatment but only in male psoriatic patients. Conclusions: The effect of MTX on serum homocysteine levels was associated with the polymorphism of MTHFR rs1801133 and sex. Folic acid supplementation only decreased serum homocysteine levels in male psoriatic patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of the Fusarium head blight (FHB) is crucial for wheat yield protection, with precise and rapid FHB detection increasing wheat yield and protecting the agricultural ecological environment. FHB detection tasks in agricultural production are currently handled by cloud servers and utilize unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Hence, this paper proposed a lightweight model for wheat ear FHB detection based on UAV-enabled edge computing, aiming to achieve the purpose of intelligent prevention and control of agricultural disease. Our model utilized the You Only Look Once version 4 (YOLOv4) and MobileNet deep learning architectures and was applicable in edge devices, balancing accuracy, and FHB detection in real-time. Specifically, the backbone network Cross Stage Partial Darknet53 (CSPDarknet53) of YOLOv4 was replaced by a lightweight network, significantly decreasing the network parameters and the computing complexity. Additionally, we employed the Complete Intersection over Union (CIoU) and Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS) to regress the loss function to guarantee the detection accuracy of FHB. Furthermore, the loss function incorporated the focal loss to reduce the error caused by the unbalanced positive and negative sample distribution. Finally, mixed-up and transfer learning schemes enhanced the model's generalization ability. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed model performed admirably well in detecting FHB of the wheat ear, with an accuracy of 93.69%, and it was somewhat better than the MobileNetv2-YOLOv4 model (F1 by 4%, AP by 3.5%, Recall by 4.1%, and Precision by 1.6%). Meanwhile, the suggested model was scaled down to a fifth of the size of the state-of-the-art object detection models. Overall, the proposed model could be deployed on UAVs so that wheat ear FHB detection results could be sent back to the end-users to intelligently decide in time, promoting the intelligent control of agricultural disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, imaged-based localization has become a hotspot in indoor localization research due to its high accuracy and no additional infrastructure requirements. However, computational complexity and memory consumption are critical issues for terminal devices in natural large-scale indoor scenes. In this paper, we propose a system that takes advantage of built-in sensors, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS), and 3D model-based localization to overcome resource constraints. Furthermore, we propose a rough carrier six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) pose estimation and error analysis based on the pedestrian dead reckoning and attitude and heading reference systems (PDR/AHRS) with pedestrian motion constraints. We additionally recommend a geometric pose error propagation model to compute the 3D point pose uncertainty of corresponding 2D features on the query images and a matching pool to extract the activated points for determining the 2D-3D correspondence, which efficiently rejects the outlier through the geometric filter in the RANSAC loop of pose estimation. Moreover, based on the fusion of results from the MEMS-based and image-based localization, we can obtain an optimized carrier pose by using a dynamic reliability strategy to ensure the continuous robustness of the localization system and avoid failures when the matching lacks sufficient inliers. To evaluate the performance of the system, we conducted extensive experiments in large-scale indoor scenes. The results demonstrate that our image-based localization system generates excellent 2D-3D correspondence with the MEMS aid and that the proposed strategy obtains accurate 6-DoF poses in almost real time by using a smartphone. When compared to the conventional straightforward 2D-3D method (ACS) for localization accuracy and usability tests in various indoor scenes, the proposed method can save time by more than 80% and reduce translation and rotation errors by 27% and 10%, respectively. We also show that our new localization system has robust performance and stability for various indoor scenes and influences by different image resolutions and multiview gestures. Furthermore, our idea has a good application foreground, as 3D indoor data acquisition and pose estimation algorithms are compatible with the current state of data expansion for pedestrian navigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Partial oxidation of MoS 2 photoanode markedly improves its PEC performance. • The enhanced PEC performance was due to forming heterojunction of MoS 2 /MoO x. • The heterojunction could enhance charge separation and photocorrsion of MoS 2. • Complete inactivation of 106 CFU/mL E. coli was achieved with 0.5 V bias in 2 h. • The present approach is facile to fabricate large-scale MoS 2 -based photoanode. Here we present photoelectrochemical (PEC) bacterial inactivation properties of large−scale fabricable Ti/MoS 2 /MoO x photoanode with a strong solar light absorbance capacity. Specifically, by thermal oxidation of the as−prepared MoS 2 /Ti film at 250 °C for 15 min in aerobic condition, the visible light performance of photocurrent generation and Escherichia coli (E. coli) inactivation are markedly enhanced. Complete inactivation of 106 CFU/mL E. coli in NaCl electrolyte is achieved with 0.5 V bias in 2 h under visible light irradiation, and H 2 O 2 and O 2 − have been found as key reactive oxidative species to destroy E. coli. The bacteria inactivation performance of present photoanode is comparable with reported visible light photoanodes such as Cu 2 O or N-doped TiO 2. The markedly improved PEC performance and inhibited photocorrosion could be attributed to the formation of heterojunction of MoS 2 /MoO x on the surface due to thermal oxidation. Furthermore, the PEC E. coli inactivation performance and stability of the large dimensional electrode are evaluated in a scale−up reactor. As an example of self−sustainable PEC water treatment system powered by only solar panels, wastewater containing inorganic, organic, macromolecule and microbial pollutants is attempted to be treated employing the developed electrodes under illumination of LED lamps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The effects of music training on the processing of information accent and contrastive accent in Chinese speech stream were explored in this study, and it was discovered that long-term music training impacted the accent processing of distinct types of accent. • The accentuation processing was affected by its position in the sentence. • This study validates and expands the scope of the OPERA hypothesis, demonstrating that the influence of music training on language is applicable not just to Indo-European languages, but also to tonal languages, including Chinese processing. Previous studies found that prolonged musical training can promote language processing, but few studies have examined whether and how musical training affects the processing of accentuation in spoken language. In this study, a vocabulary detection task was conducted, with Chinese single sentences as materials, to investigate how musicians and non-musicians process corrective accent and information accent in the sentence-middle and sentence-final positions. In the sentence-middle position, results of the cluster-based permutation t-tests showed significant differences in the 574–714 ms time window for the control group. In the sentence-final position, the cluster-based permutation t-tests revealed significant differences in the 612–810 ms time window for the music group and in the 616–812 ms time window for the control group. These significant positive effects were induced by the processing of information accent relative to that of corrective accent. These results suggest that both groups were able to distinguish corrective accent from information accent, but they processed the two accent types differently in the sentence-middle position. These findings show that musical training has a cross-domain effect on spoken language processing and that the accent position also affects its processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B7‐H4 is a recently discovered member of B7 family that negatively regulates T‐cell immunity, specifically Th1 and Th17 cell responses. However, its role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis has yet to be determined. This study aims to investigate the effect of B7‐H4 polymorphism on the efficacy of methotrexate (MTX) and its mechanism in psoriasis. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms of B7‐H4 were genotyped in 310 psoriatic patients who received 12‐week MTX. The protein expression of B7‐H4 in platelets was characterized using immunofluorescence staining, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and flow cytometry techniques. We found that GG genotype carriers of B7‐H4 rs1935780 had a lower Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) 75 response rate and higher weight (p = 0.0245) and body mass index (p = 0.0185) than AA and AG genotype carriers. Multiple regression analysis showed that the PASI score at baseline (p = 0.01) and age at disease onset (p = 0.003) were positively correlated with PASI 75 response rate, while weight (p = 0.005) and the rs1935780 genotype (p = 0.003) were negatively associated with PASI 75 response rate. B7‐H4 was expressed in the platelet plasma membrane and cytoplasm. Furthermore, the expression of B7‐H4 protein in platelets was lower in good responders than in non‐responders and was upregulated considerably after 12‐week MTX or in vitro MTX stimulation in good responders. Collectively, these results demonstrate that psoriatic patients with GG genotype of B7‐H4 rs1935780 had a poorer response to MTX. Low expression of B7‐H4 protein in platelets correlated with better clinical outcomes of MTX in psoriasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Electrochemically activated peroxymonosulfate (PMS) pretreatment was applied. • PMS pretreatment effectively removed dissolved organic carbon. • Electrochemical activation of PMS generated •OH directly. • Membrane fouling of membrane distillation was greatly mitigated by PMS pretreatment. • The one-time dosing mode of PMS was better for membrane fouling control. Membrane distillation (MD) provides a potential method to supply large volumes of good quality potable water from surface water resources, avoiding the risk of long-term water shortages. However, the high abundance of dissolved natural organic matter (DOM) in surface water induces severe membrane fouling, which reduces productivity and increases energy consumption. Therefore, for the first time, electrochemically activated peroxymonosulfate (PMS) treatment was applied prior to the direct contact (DC)-MD process with the aim of reducing the deposition of organics and inorganics on the membrane and reducing membrane fouling. Results showed that supplying PMS continuously at a rate of 0.10 mM/min, eliminated 30.4% of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Furthermore, fluorescence parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis showed that >60% of two fluorescent substances were removed after 60 min of the electrochemically activated PMS pretreatment at a current density of 5 mA/cm2. Electrochemical activation of PMS generated •OH directly, facilitating the removal and degradation of DOM. In terms of the DCMD performance, almost no normalized flux decline was observed for the DCMS process after 0.01 mM/min pre-oxidation, while 44.8% flux decay occurred in the standalone DCMD treating raw surface water. Compared with continuous dosing, the use of a one-time dosing mode achieved a better outcome, as more small organic molecules generated in continuous dosing mode are not conducive to membrane fouling control. Therefore, electrochemically activated PMS could be an effective tool to mitigate membrane fouling in MD processes, although the characteristics of membrane and feed should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral images (HSIs) are pivotal in various fields due to their rich spectral–spatial information. While convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have notably enhanced HSI classification, they often generate redundant spatial features. To address this, we introduce a novel HSI classification method, OMDSC, employing 3D Octave convolution combined with multiscale depthwise separable convolutional networks. This method initially utilizes 3D Octave convolution for efficient spectral–spatial feature extraction from HSIs, thereby reducing spatial redundancy. Subsequently, multiscale depthwise separable convolution is used to further improve the extraction of spatial features. Finally, the HSI classification results are output by softmax classifier. This work compares the method with other methods on three publicly available datasets in order to confirm its efficacy. The outcomes show that the method performs better in terms of classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a disease that transformed from psoriasis (PsO), and its underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood. Overactivation of the immune system is a key factor driving inflammatory diseases. Our goal is to define the unbalanced subsets of peripheral blood CD4 +T cells between PsO and PsA patients. Blood samples from 43 patients (23 PsA and 20 PsO) and 36 healthy donors (HD) were studied. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were separated from blood and underwent fluorescent staining to assess CD4+T cell subsets by flow cytometry. We found that frequencies of various CD4+T cells including Th1, Th2, Th17, and Tfh were higher in the patients with PsO or PsA than those of healthy donors, indicating the general expansion of CD4+T cells in inflammatory conditions. More importantly, we observed the significant imbalance of Th1/Th2 between patients with PsO and PsA. Pearson correlation analysis showed that Th1/Th2 ratio was positively correlated with disease activity in psoriatic arthritis (DAPSA), Tfh/Tfr ratio was positively correlated with DAPSA score and visual analogue scale (VAS) score in PsA patients. Together, our results highlight the CD4+T cell changes in the transition from PsO to PsA, may contribute to early assessment and intervention. • Significant immune imbalance exist between PsO and PsA patients. • Th1/Th2 ratio and Tfh/Tfr ratio are positively correlated with DAPSA. • CD4+T cell subsets exchange may be a predictor of the progression from PsO to PsA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temperature coefficient is an important parameter for the thermo-electrochemical cells. It is divided into either the isothermal coefficient or thermal one. In view of the fact that there are some vague understandings to the temperature coefficients of a cell and its electrode, this paper used the Peltier heats on the interface between electrode and electrolyte to define the isothermal coefficient and thermal coefficient. The distinction between both of them is that the former is that the change in entropy of the standard hydrogen electrode with temperature is not taken into account, and the latter does. Logically, the isothermal coefficient is a special case of the thermal coefficient, and the latter seems to be a greater doctrinal point, with more practical significance. A type of isothermal single-fluid cell has been developed for more accurate measuring the temperature coefficient. This method can replace the early double-fluid cell in which the various polarizations caused by the temperature effect, liquid junction potential, etc., are hard to be avoided, resulting in the poor reproducibility. The definition and measuring method of the temperature coefficients in this paper are not only strict in theory but also makes operable. An experiment has been made on measure of the Peltier heats of the cupric sulfate/copper system at different concentrations, obtaining their thermal coefficients and isothermal coefficients more accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mevalonate-diphosphate decarboxylase (MVD) gene, a member of the mevalonate pathway, plays a critical role in regulating the biosynthesis of cholesterol, steroid hormones, and non-steroid isoprenoids. Previous studies have suggested that the MVD c.746 T > C mutation is a major pathogenic gene of porokeratosis (PK), an autoinflammatory keratinization disease (AIKD) with unclear pathogenesis, few effective treatments, and no suitable animal model. To investigate the function of MvdF250S/+ mutation, we developed a novel MvdF250S/+ mouse model carrying an equivalent point mutation to the most common genetic variation among Chinese PK patients (MVDF249S/+) using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, which exhibited reduced cutaneous expression of Mvd protein. In the absence of external stimulation, MvdF250S/+ mice did not display specific phenotypes. However, upon induction with imiquimod (IMQ), MvdF250S/+ mice exhibited decreased susceptibility to skin acute inflammation compared to wild-type (WT) mice, as evidenced by reduced cutaneous proliferation and lower protein levels of IL-17a and IL-1β. Additionally, after IMQ induction, the MvdF250S/+mice exhibited downregulated collagen generation and upregulated expression of Fabp3 compared to WT mice, whereas no significant changes in the key genes related to cholesterol regulation were found. Furthermore, the MvdF250S/+ mutation activated autophagy. Our findings provided insights into the biological function of MVD in the skin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]