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Architects should consider the aesthetic experience of potential users when designing architectures. Previous studies have shown that subjective aesthetic judgment of architectures is influenced by structure features, and Western observers prefer structures that have curvilinear contours, high ceilings, and open space. The building styles, however, vary across cultures, and it remains unclear whether the preference for contours, ceiling height, and openness exist across cultures. To investigate this issue, this study analyzes the aesthetic judgment of Chinese observers, and the results demonstrate that Chinese observers also prefer high ceilings and open space. Preference for curvilinear contours, however, interacts with ceiling height and openness. Simple effect analysis reveals that Chinese observers prefer curvilinear contours only when the ceiling is low and the space is closed. In sum, these results suggest that preference for high ceilings and open space is robust for Chinese observers, but the preference for curvilinear contours is less reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASP homolog associated with actin, membranes, and microtubules (WHAMM) is a vertebrate protein functioning in membrane tubulation for intracellular membrane trafficking and specific organelle formation. Composed of multiple domains, WHAMM can bind to membrane and microtubule (MT) and promote actin polymerization nucleation. Previous work revealed that WHAMM's activity to promote actin nucleation is repressed upon binding to MTs. Here, we discovered that WHAMM interacts with αβ-tubulin through a small peptide motif within its MT-binding domain. We reconstructed a high-resolution structure of WHAMM's MT-binding motif (MBM) assembling around MTs using cryo-electron microscopy and verified it with chemical cross-linking and mass spectrometry analysis. We also detected a conformational switch of this motif between the non-MT-bound state and the MT-bound state. These discoveries provide new insights into the mechanism by which WHAMM coordinates actin and MT networks, the two major cytoskeletal systems involved in membrane trafficking and membrane remodeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic is one of the well-known methods for surface roughness measurement, but small roughness will only lead to a subtle variation of transmission or reflection. To explore sensitive techniques for surfaces with small roughness, nonlinear ultrasonic measurement in through-transmission and pulse-echo modes was proposed and studied based on an effective unit-cell finite element (FE) model. Higher harmonic generation in solids was realized by applying the Murnaghan hyperelastic material model. This FE model was verified by comparing the absolute value of the nonlinearity parameter with the analytical solution. Then, random surfaces with different roughness values ranging from 0 μm to 200 μm were repeatedly generated and studied in the two modes. The through-transmission mode is very suitable to measure the surfaces with roughness as small as 3% of the wavelength. The pulse-echo mode is sensitive and effective to measure the surface roughness ranging from 0.78% to 5.47% of the wavelength. This study offers a potential nondestructive testing and monitoring method for the interfaces or inner surfaces of the in-service structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, orderly arranged bamboo-like mesoporous silica materials were prepared using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the template and n-hexanol as the long-chain alcohol cosurfactant. The ordered meso-structure was characterized by XRD analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, Hitachi S4800), transmission electron microscopy, BET and IR spectroscopy analysis. The effects of the CTAB/n-hexanol molar ratio(R), length of the hydrophobic chain with a terminating hydroxyl group on the long-chain alcohol cosurfactant, parity of the hydrophobic carbon atoms on the surface topography, specific surface area, and pore size of the powder were investigated. The results showed that when the molar ratio = 1, the mesoporous silica presented neatly arranged bamboo segment lengths of 19.6–23.9 μm, platycodon grandiflorum widths of 2.13–3.32 μm, pore size of 3.04 nm, and surface area of 820.034 m2/g. Increasing or decreasing the amount of n-hexanol directing led to denser or looser lateral molecular interactions between CTAB and the co-structure-directing agents that respectively reduced or increased the pore size, with the latter resulting in the formation of spherical particles. When n-hexanol was replaced by n-heptanol or n-octanol, the pore size and surface area of the mesoporous silica decreased significantly with the increase in the hydrophobic chain length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their excellent properties, polymides (PIs) result promising as high-performance materials in different technological fields. In this research, both micron-sized tubular mesoporous silica (mSiO2) and double-tube tubular diatomite particles with cadmium sulfide quantum dots are prepared by chemical deposition method. A cluster of type fluorescent particles is prepared by self-assembling carbon quantum dots (CDs) on the inner surface of the above materials. Then, a fluorescent polyimide film is prepared by uniform dispersion of fluorescent particles. The study of different properties of the film becomes then mandatory to evaluate possible application perspectives. Therefore, after synthesizes, all samples were investigated in term of chemical structure, microstructure and fluorescence properties by infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and fluorescence spectrophotometry. Fluorescence performance of diatomite-based fluorescent particles (diatomite@CdS@CDs) results not as good as the mSiO2-based fluorescent particles (mSiO2@CdS@CDs) ones; the mechanical properties of the composite film deteriorate as the content of the inorganic component increases. The performance of PI/mSiO2@CdS@CDs is 7.6 times the PI/diatomite@CdS@CDs ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• ·A novel AORP for rapid removal of TCA from water. • ·In situ synthesis of MOF on HMONs was used as catalyst carrier. • ·The encapsulation of HRP is beneficial to increase its utilization rate. • ·TCA decarboxylation and dechlorination were simultaneously achieved. As a common pollutant in the environment, trichloroacetic acid (TCA) is difficult to be completely degraded by common advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) due to its high C-Cl bond content. Advanced oxidation–reduction processes (AORPs) may improve the degradation performance of TCA. In this work, we use Fe0Ni0 bimetal as reducing catalyst, hollow mesoporous silicone nanoparticles (HMONs) modified by ZIF-8 as immobilized carrier, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and Fe0Ni0 were fixed in the carrier to form a AORP system for degradation of TCA. The effects of temperature, pH, H 2 O 2 concentration, doping ratio on the degradation performance of the catalyst and the degradation mechanism of the composite catalyst were investigated. Degradation experiments showed that H· and OH· were present in the dual system, dechlorination and decarboxylation exist at the same time. Under the condition of 55 °C and pH = 4, 30 mg Fe0Ni0 and 20 mg immobilized enzyme shows the best degradation on TCA, and 81.48 % of 20 mg·L−1 TCA could be degraded by 2 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Photocatalytic activity and morphology of Bi 2 WO 6 was related to the synthesis method. • Diatomite has an intense absorption band, which improves the photocatalytic performance. • The photocatalytic degradation kinetics of MXC confirmed the experimental results. • Dechlorination reaction is the first step of the MXC degradation. Herein, diatomite@Bi 2 WO 6 photocatalyst was successfully prepared by co-precipitation method. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) measurement. The photocatalytic performance of diatomite@Bi 2 WO 6 was evaluated by degradation of methoxychlor (MXC) under visible light irradiation. The results showed that under visible light irradiation, the maximum MXC removal rate of diatomite@Bi 2 WO 6 was 90.09% within 6 h, which was much higher than that of the pure Bi 2 WO 6 and the kinetics of the MXC degradation by the samples were found to follow the first-order kinetics. The dominant factors, such as MXC initial concentration, illumination intensity and pH were investigated and the possible reaction mechanism of diatomite@Bi 2 WO 6 degradation of MXC was discussed. In addition, the stability and recyclability properties were also studied and the results suggested diatomite@Bi 2 WO 6 is highly suitable for practical applications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the green and environmentally friendly pearlescent pigment particles of the core-shell type kieselguhr@TiO 2 @TiO 2-x composite were prepared via sol-gel deposition method, the surface of kieselguhr coated by TiO 2 , and then the surface of the composites was coated with TiO 2-x by the technique of co-precipitation and the route of pyrolysis of the hydrazine salt. Orthogonal design method was employed to study the effects of different operating parameters on properties of the core-shell type kieselguhr@TiO 2 @TiO 2-x composite. Due to characteristics of large specific surface with a lot of hydroxyl groups, the composite pigment were coated with Carbon dots with the assistance of (3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (APS). Thus, the prepared composite pigment was mixed with citric acid and APS followed by hydrothermal reaction at 180 °C to generate carbon quantum dots coated composite pigment (kieselguhr@TiO 2 @TiO 2-x @CDs). The obtained kieselguhr@TiO 2 @TiO 2-x @CDs composite were characterized by X ray powder diffraction (XRD), element analysis, Raman spectra analysis, Hitachi s4800 field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X ray photoelectron spectroscopy (EDS) and TG-DTA respectively. And the color instrumental measurement was used to determine L*, a* and b* value of a pigment to evaluate the color brightness of the core-shell type kieselguhr@TiO 2 @TiO 2-x composite. In addition, the MTT method, also known as MTT colorimetry, is a way of detecting cell survival and growth, which was employed to study in vitro cytotoxicity of their composite particles against mouse peritoneal macrophages for evaluation of their green application. • "Green" pearlescent pigments were obtained via sol-gel with TiO 2 on kieselguhr. • [Ti(C 4 H 4 O 4) 2 0.85 ·2Ti 2 O 3 ·6N 2 H 4 ·3H 2 O is at the best obtained in 1.5 h at 40 °C. • An adequate temperature is mandatory to obtain smooth and dense coating layer. • The obtained black kieselguhr@TiO 2 @TiO 2-x @CDs particles show low cytotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]