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Yttrium-stabilized zirconia-based electrochemical gas sensors have good application prospects in NO high-temperature detection systems due to their stability under extreme conditions. In this study, an LaMO3 (M: Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) perovskite was prepared using the sol–gel method as the electrode material for an yttrium-stabilized zirconia-based electrochemical sensor for the selective detection of NO. The influence of M-site metals on the electrode performance was revealed through various experimental characterization studies and first-principles calculations. The results indicate that the response values of the different M-site metal perovskites can be arranged in the following order: LaCrO3 > LaMnO3 > LaFeO3 > LaNiO3 > LaCoO3. Among them, LaCrO3 exhibits a response value of −64.11 mV to 100 ppm NO, with high sensitivity (−41.19 mV per decade) and high selectivity. Further research has demonstrated that the number of oxygen vacancies and response values in these perovskite materials follow the same order. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicated that LaCrO3 exhibited the lowest polarization resistance, and that these changes promoted the adsorption and reaction of NO on the electrode. Finally, the mechanism of NO adsorption on the LaCrO3 surface was revealed using density functional theory calculations. This study not only provides a new approach for selecting high-performance electrode materials but also reveals the fundamental impact of M-site metals on the performance of perovskites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is intended to explore the effect of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) activation on lipid accumulation in the diabetic kidney. A type 1 diabetic rat model was established by STZ intraperitoneal injection. Cobalt chloride (CoCl2) and YC-1 were used as the HIF-1α activator and antagonist, respectively. CoCl2 treatment significantly increased HIF-1α expression, accelerated lipid deposition, and accelerated tubular injury in diabetic kidneys. In vitro, CoCl2 effectively stabilized HIF-1α and increased its transportation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, which was accompanied by significantly increased lipid accumulation in HK-2 cells. Furthermore, results obtained in vivo showed that HIF-1α protein expression in the renal tubules of diabetic rats was significantly downregulated by YC-1 treatment. Meanwhile, lipid accumulation in the tubules of the DM + YC-1 group was markedly decreased in comparison to the DM + DMSO group. Accordingly, PAS staining revealed that the pathological injury caused to the tubular epithelial cells was alleviated by YC-1 treatment. Furthermore, the blood glucose level, urine albumin creatinine ratio, and NAG creatinine ratio in the DM + YC-1 group were significantly decreased compared to the DM + DMSO group. Moreover, the protein expression levels of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in diabetic kidneys were decreased by YC-1 treatment. Our findings demonstrate that the activation of HIF-1α contributed to interstitial injury in a rat model of diabetic nephropathy and that the underlying mechanism involved the induction of lipid accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Framing effects are a phenomenon where individuals respond differently to equivalent information presented in a positive or negative manner. Whether framing effects within audit evidence affect auditor judgment is unknown. We conduct a simulated client inquiry experiment to investigate whether the framing of an inquiry evidence item (positive versus negative) and the timing of the frame within the inquiry evidence series (at the beginning versus end) influences auditor judgment. More consistent with attribute framing than belief-adjustment predictions, our findings suggest a primacy effect where participants who receive a positive frame at the beginning of the inquiry are less likely to change their initial assessments of misstatement than participants who receive a "neutral" perspective (i.e., both positive and negative frames simultaneously). Our results imply that positively framed initial evidence, relative to other settings, may constrain auditors' consideration of subsequent evidence when making judgments about the account in question. Data Availability: Data are available from the authors on request. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents computational methods to aid the creation of LEGO®1 sketch models from simple input images. Beyond conventional LEGO® mosaics, we aim to improve the expressiveness of LEGO® models by utilizing LEGO® tiles with sloping and rounding edges, together with rectangular bricks, to reproduce smooth curves and sharp features in the input. This is a challenging task, as we have limited brick shapes to use and limited space to place bricks. Also, the search space is immense and combinatorial in nature. We approach the task by decoupling the LEGO® construction into two steps: first approximate the shape with a LEGO®-buildable contour then filling the contour polygon with LEGO® bricks. Further, we formulate this contour approximation into a graph optimization with our objective and constraints and effectively solve for the contour polygon that best approximates the input shape. Further, we extend our optimization model to handle multi-color and multi-layer regions, and formulate a grid alignment process and various perceptual constraints to refine the results. We employ our method to create a large variety of LEGO® models and compare it with humans and baseline methods to manifest its compelling quality and speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]