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This paper is concerned with the inverse scattering of the rough surfaces with multi-frequency phase and phaseless measurements. We present a high-order recursive iteration method based on the homotopy iteration technique to reconstruct the rough surfaces. The convergence for the multi-frequency homotopy iteration method is obtained under some conditions. Some numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dezhou donkey is one of the representative local breeds in China, which is mainly divided into two strains: Sanfen and Wutou. There are obvious differences in coat color between the two strains. The former shows light points around the eyes, around the muzzle and under the belly, while the latter is completely solid black. In this study, genome‐wide association analysis was performed for the differences in coat color traits between the Sanfen (n = 97) and Wutou (n = 108) strains using a novel donkey 40K liquid chip developed based on GenoBaits technology, to identify genomic regions and causal genes that could explain this variation. We also used FST and The cross‐population composite likelihood ratio test (XPCLR) analyses to explore selected regions related to coat color differences. We identified one significant region on chromosome 15, with the most significant SNP located within the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) gene. At the same time, both FST and XPCLR methods detected the same selected region on chromosome 15, and ASIP was the gene with the strongest signal. ASIP and melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) control the ratio of eumelanin to pheomelanin through their protein activity. They are deeply involved in the process of melanosome organation and melanogenesis, thus affecting mammals' coat color variation. We used a range of genome‐wide approach to identify the genetic basis of coat color variation in Dezhou donkeys. The results provide a supplement to the color variation study in Chinese donkeys at the genome‐wide level, and preliminarily verified the reliability of the Molbreeding Donkey No. 1 40K liquid chip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eucommiae Folium (Duzhongye) is a traditional Chinese medicine with a long history of use in China. However, its quality‐marker in Chinese Pharmacopoeia is poorly defined nowadays. The study, therefore, conducted an ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with hybrid quadrupole‐orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry analysis to obtain accurate data. The obtained data were then compared with the authentic standards library using Xcalibur 4.1 software package and TraceFinder General Quan. Through the comparison, the study has putatively identified 26 bioactive compounds, which include 17 flavonoid derivatives (catechin, quercetin 3‐gentiobioside, quercetin 3‐O‐β‐D‐glucose‐7‐O‐β‐D‐gentiobioside, taxifolin, myricetin 3‐O‐galactoside, myricitrin, hyperoside, rutin, isoquercitrin, quercetin 3‐O‐β‐xylopyranoside, quercitrin, isorhamnetin 3‐O‐β‐D‐glucoside, quercetin, kaempferol, S‐eriodictyol, S‐naringenin, and phloridzin), four caffeoylquinic acids (neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid A, and isochlorogenic acid C), two alkaloids (vincamine and jervine), one lignan (pinoresinol), one xanthone (cowaxanthone B), and one steroid (cholesteryl acetate). Of these, flavonoid isoquercitrin is recommended as the new and additional pharmacopeia quality‐marker candidate, which can not only overcome the unreliability of old quality‐marker but also recognize the possible counterfeit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the influence of physical possession type (owned vs. accessed) of vehicles (new energy vs. combustion engine) on consumers' energy conservation behaviors, the serial mediating roles of psychological ownership and perceived responsibility, as well as the moderating effect of naming strategy (i.e., giving products anthropomorphized names). The findings are from a survey study and two experimental studies in this research, specifically indicating that compared to owned vehicles, consumers exhibit diminished energy conservation behaviors and intentions when consumers use accessed vehicles (e.g., rented vehicles); the effect is established only in the case of combustion engine vehicles. The diminished psychological ownership, and subsequently decline in perceived responsibility while using accessed vehicles is the underlying mechanism. Furthermore, the detrimental sustainable effect of using accessed combustion engine vehicles can be mitigated by using naming strategy. The results have significant theoretical and practical implications for marketing researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytophenol dimerization, which is a radical-mediated coupling reaction, plays a critical role in many fields, including lignin biosynthesis. To understand the reaction, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical was used to initiate a series of phytophenol dimerization reactions in methanol. The products were identified using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS/MS) analysis in situ. The identified products mainly included biphenols, magnolol, honokiol, gingerol 6,6′-dimers, 3,6-dimethoxylcatechol β,β′ dimer, euphorbetin, bis-eugenol, dehydrodiisoeugenol, trans-ε-viniferin, (+) pinoresinol, and (−) pinoresinol. Structure–function relationship analysis allowed four basic rules to be defined: meta-excluded, C–C bonding domination, ortho-diOH co-activation, and exocyclic C=C involvement. The exocyclic C=C involvement, however, required conjugation with the phenolic core and the para-site of the -OH group, to yield a furan-fused dimer with two chiral centers. Computational chemistry indicated that the entire process was completed via a radical coupling reaction and an intramolecular conjugate addition reaction. Similar results were also found for the horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-catalyzed coniferyl alcohol dimerization, which produced (+) and (−) pinoresinols (but no (−) epipinoresinol), suggesting that the HRP-catalyzed process was essentially an exocyclic C=C-involved phytophenol dimerization reaction. The reaction was highly diastereoselective. This was attributed to the intramolecular reaction, which prohibited Re-attack. The four basic rules and diastereoselectivity can explain and even predict the main products in various chemical and biological events, especially oxidase-catalyzed lignin cyclization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the high penetration of photovoltaic (PV) and electric vehicle (EV) charging and replacement power stations connected to the distribution network, problems such as the increase of line loss and voltage deviation of the distribution network are becoming increasingly prominent. The application of traditional reactive power compensation devices and the change of transformer taps has struggled to meet the needs of reactive power optimization of the distribution network. It is urgent to present new reactive power regulation methods which have a vital impact on the safe operation and cost control of the power grid. Hence, the idea that applying the reactive power regulation potential of PV and EV is proposed to reduce the pressure of reactive power optimization in the distribution network. This paper establishes the reactive power regulation models of PV and EV, and their own dynamic evaluation methods of reactive power adjustable capacity are put forward. The model proposed above is optimized via five different algorithms and approximated through the deep learning when the optimization objective is only set as line loss and voltage deviation. Simulation results show that the prediction of deep learning has an incredible ability to fit the Pareto front that the intelligent algorithms obtain in practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to detect potential crosstalk genes, pathways and immune cells between periodontitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Chronic periodontitis (CP, GSE156993) and COPD (GSE42057, GSE94916) datasets were downloaded. Differential expressed genes (DEGs; p < 0.05) were assessed and screened for overlapping results, following functional pathway enrichment analyses (p < 0.05). The xCell method was used to assess immune cell infiltration relationship between CP and COPD. Features of the detected cross-talk genes were revealed using conventional Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) algorithm in R project. Receiver-operating characteristic curves were applied to evaluate the predictive value of the genes. Furthermore, Pearson correlation analysis was performed on crosstalk markers and infiltrating immune cells in CP and COPD, respectively. Results: A total of 904 DEGs of COPD and 763 DEGs of CP were acquired, showing 22 overlapping DEGs between the two diseases. Thereby 825 nodes and 923 edges were found in the related protein–protein-interaction network. Eight immune cell pairs were found to be highly correlated to both CP and COPD (|correlation coefficients |> 0.5 and p-value < 0.05). Most immune cells were differently expressed between COPD and CP. RFE identified three crosstalk genes, i.e. EPB41L4A-AS1, INSR and R3HDM1. In correlation analysis, INSR was positively correlated with Hepatocytes in CP (r = 0.6714, p = 0.01679) and COPD (r = 0.5209, p < 0.001). R3HDM was positively correlated with Th1 cells in CP (r = 0.6783, p = 0.0153) and COPD (r = 0.4120, p < 0.01). Conclusion: EPB41L4A-AS1, INSR and R3HDM1 are potential crosstalk genes between COPD and periodontitis. R3HDM was positively correlated with Th1 cells in both diseases, while INSR was positively correlated with Hepatocytes in periodontitis and COPD, supporting a potential pathophysiological relationship between periodontitis and COPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Although previous studies have reported the significant associations of sleep quality with gait speed and falls, the mechanisms underlying these associations are unclear. We aimed to examine the gender-specific associations of sleep quality with gait speed and falls among older adults and to explore the possible mediating effect of muscle strength on these relationships. Methods: Data were taken from wave 6 (2012–2013) of the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), including 7,664 participants aged 60 years and older. Sleep quality and falls were assessed by self-report. Gait speed was measured by the "timed walking test" and then adjusted by height. As an indicator of overall muscle strength, grip strength was measured by using the Smedley dynamometer. Baron and Kenny's causal steps and the Karlson/Holm/Breen method were used to examine the mediating effect. Results: Higher sleep quality was associated with the higher level of gait speed (β = 0.008, p = 0.031 in men; β = 0.008, p = 0.017 in women) and with lower prevalence of falls (OR = 0.878, 95% CI: 0.773, 0.998 in men; OR = 0.874, 95% CI: 0.792, 0.965 in women). Grip strength mediated these associations in men but not in women, and the mediating effects of grip strength can explain 23.74 and 11.01% of the total effect of sleep quality on gait speed and falls, respectively. Conclusion: Our findings help explain the mechanism underlying the associations of sleep quality with gait speed and falls. Effort to maintain the mobility of the older men should focus on improving both sleep quality and muscle strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (CFLVADs) routinely operate at a constant speed for the support of a failing heart, which decreases the pulsatility in the arteries. Some late complications could be related to a long-term lack of pulsatility. Modulating the CFLVAD speed is a solution to enhance the pulsatility. The purpose of this study is to modulate multiple varying speed patterns and investigate their effects on the ventricle and vascular system. A cardiovascular coupling numerical model is developed to provide a simulation platform for testing the varying speed patterns. The varying speed patterns are modulated by combining the shape, amplitude, frequency, phase shift, and pulsatile duty cycle of the speed profile. The influence of varying speed support is examined by analyzing the indexes of pulsatility, indexes of ventricular unloading, and hemodynamic variables. The results show that the synchronous counterpulsation pattern can effectively reduce the ventricular unloading indexes, whereas the low-frequency asynchronous pattern can effectively increase the vascular pulsatility indexes. Also, the hemodynamics with synchronous varying speed support is more physiological than that with asynchronous varying speed support. This study provides valuable insight for further optimization of varying speed modulation by weighing vascular pulsatility, ventricular unloading, and hemodynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The treatment effects and safety of ear acupressure (EAP) for patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) have yet to be clarified. Objective. To evaluate the effects and safety of EAP in AR patients. Design. Systematic review of published studies. Methods. A total of 24 English and Chinese databases (PubMed, EMBASE (Excerpta Medical Database), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, Informit, ScienceDirect, LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences), ProQuest, AMED, Blackwell Synergy, PsycINFO, Panteleimon, AcuBriefs, KoreaMed, IndMed, Ingenta, mRCT, ISI Web of Knowledge, ERIC, VIP Information (http://www.cqvip.com), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (http://www.cnki.net), Cochrane Library, Chinese Cochrane Centre Controlled Trials Register Platform, and Wanfang Chinese Digital Periodical and Conference Database) were searched from their respective inceptions to August 2020 to collect randomized controlled trials of ear acupressure for allergic rhinitis. We performed literature inclusion, data extraction, and trial quality evaluations. Methodological quality was assessed according to the Cochrane Handbook. Revman5.3 was used for all analyses. Results. A total of 203 trials were identified and eleven studies involved 1094 participants aged 3–70 years. EAP was better than control group interventions in terms of effectiveness (risk ratio (RR): 0.51; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.36–0.70; P < 0.0001). EAP was superior to sham EAP in terms of improvement of the total nasal symptom score (RR: −0.50; 95% CI: −0.96–0.05; P = 0.03), sneezing score (RR: −0.36; 95% CI: −0.59–0.12; P = 0.003), global QoL score (RR: 0.42; 95% CI: 0.04–0.08; P = 0.03), and eye symptom score (RR: −0.36; 95% CI: −0.67–0.05; P = 0.02). Conclusions. Despite the positive results, it is premature to confirm the efficacy of EAP for treating AR. More high-quality studies are needed to confirm safety and efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) enables the client to outsource its encrypted database to the untrusted server, while maintaining the ability to efficiently search over it. However, most of the existing solutions focus mainly on exact keyword search. That is, it will fail to fetch the desired result even though mild typos. To this end, SSE with fuzzy keyword search has attracted considerable concerns in the literature. We note that the current works support merely single-client setting. How to design fuzzy keyword search-based SSE scheme in the multi-client setting is still open. In this work, we first introduce a dynamic multi-client fuzzy keyword search scheme by employing Intel SGX, which can achieve forward privacy at the expense of multiple trapdoors communication. The proposed construction can reduce client-side computation and communication overload with the aid of Intel SGX. Furthermore, we present an enhanced multi-client fuzzy keyword search scheme that achieves forward privacy even in the presence of the corrupted user. The evaluation of security and efficiency indicates that our schemes are capable of meeting the desired security level and are well-suited for real-world applications. • We propose a dynamic multi-client fuzzy keyword search SSE scheme named MUFKS by integrating Intel SGX and multi-client SSE. Specifically, the client generates the corresponding trapdoors of fuzzy set with the aid of Intel SGX, which reduces the communication overload between the client and the server. Further, the decryption of the matched (encrypted) identifiers are performed by enclave. Thus, the client-side cost in MUFKS is almost equal to that of traditional exact search. • We propose an enhanced multi-client fuzzy keyword search scheme (MUFKS++), which features forward privacy in multi-client setting by state-chain technique. By applying randomized state method in, the search cost can be optimized in MUFKS ++, achieving efficient search without the need for additional decryption operations. • We prove the security of our proposed schemes and compare them with existing work. The results show that our schemes can achieve efficient fuzzy keyword search while satisfying the desirable security guarantee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A biocompartible covalent triazine framework (CTF) based SPME fiber was developed. • The CTF fiber showed high-coverage capture capacity for in vivo plant metabolites. • A total of 100 plant metabolites were identified using the CTF/GC-QTOF-MS method. • The cabbage possesses different nutrient characteristics in different growth stages. • Significant difference in plant metabolism was found after fipronil exposure. An in vivo solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber with high-coverage capture capacity of plant endogenous substances based on the porous covalent triazine framework (CTF) material was developed. The CTF fiber coupled with gas chromatographic quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (GC-QTOF-MS) analysis was used for monitoring untargeted endogenous metabolites in living Chinese cabbage plants (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis Makino (var. communis Tsen et Lee)). A total of 100 endogenous substances were identified, mainly including aldehydes, ketones, acids, alcohols, phenols, alkanes, alkenes, esters, isorhodanates, nitriles, as well as indole and its derivatives. Using the in vivo metabolites analysis method, Chinese cabbage plants at different growing stages demonstrated significantly statistical differences in plant metabolism. In addition, metabolic dysregulation of Chinese cabbage plants under fipronil pesticide contamination was observed. To summarize, the proposed approach provides a feasible method to capture metabolic information in living vegetables and for risk assessment of pesticide use during agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing underground coal gasification (UCG)-based hydrogen production (UCG-H 2) is expected to alleviate hydrogen supply and demand contradiction, but its energy consumption and environmental impact need to be clarified. In this paper, comparative study of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between UCG-H 2 and typical surface coal gasification (SCG)-based hydrogen production (SCG-H 2) is carried out using life cycle assessment method. Result shows energy consumption of UCG-H 2 is only 61.2% of that of SCG-H 2 , which is 1,327,261 and 2,170,263 MJ respectively, reflecting its obvious energy saving advantage. 80% capture rate can achieve an appropriate balance between energy consumption and emissions. Under this capture rate, emissions of UCG-H 2 and SCG-H 2 are roughly equivalent, which are 207,582 and 197,419 kg CO 2 -eq respectively. Scenario analysis indicates energy consumption in hydrogen industry can reduce by 38.8% when hydrogen production is substituted by UCG with CCS to fully meet demand of 21 Mt in 2030. • Consumption and emissions of UCG-H 2 and SCG-H 2 are first compared using LCA method. • Energy consumption of UCG-H 2 is only 61.2% of that of SCG-H 2. • Implementing CCS reduces GHG emissions of UCG-H 2 to be roughly equivalent to SCG-H 2. • 80% capture rate can achieve a balance between energy consumption and emissions. • Applying UCG-H 2 can reduce energy consumption by 38.8% in selected scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for H 2 increases rapidly with the gradual recognition of the potential of H 2 as an important secondary energy. At present, coal gasification is the main way to obtain hydrogen on a large scale and at a low cost in China. The underground coal gasification (UCG), as a kind of in-situ utilization technology that can exploit the unreachable deep coal resources, could become an alternative H 2 production pathway. This paper presents comparative study of energy utilization and resource consumption in H 2 production by UCG and typical surface coal gasification (SCG) technology, namely Lurgi fixed bed gasification, with 1.2 billion Nm3/a throughput of H 2 as example, to offer corresponding data support. The efficiency and the amount of resources consumed in constructing and operating each coal-to-hydrogen system under different conditions have been researched from exergetic point of view, which is not reported in existing literatures. In this paper, the exergy efficiency is calculated to be 40.48% and 40.98% for hydrogen production using UCG and SCG. The result indicates the competitiveness of UCG in the field of hydrogen production comparing with widely used coal gasification technology. The resource consumption is measured by cumulative exergy consumption (CExC), which is 8.17E+10 MJ and 6.57E+10 MJ for H 2 production from UCG and SCG. The result shows that although the H 2 production from UCG has higher CExC, it can significantly reduce the resource consumption of equipment comparing with H 2 production from SCG, indicating its advantage in total investment. It is found that the exergy efficiency increases with the rise in H 2 O-to-O 2 and O 2 -to-CO 2 ratio, while the value of CExC decreases with the appreciation of H 2 O-to-O 2 ratio yet increases as the O 2 -to-CO 2 ratio rises. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of production capacity reveals that the exergy efficiency gap and CExC gap between hydrogen production by UCG and SCG diminishes at smaller scale production capacities, showing that UCG is more suitable for small-scale hydrogen production. • A resource consumption comparison of H 2 production from UCG and SCG is conducted. • Exergy is analyzed with 1.2 billion Nm3/a throughput of H 2 as example. • Exergy efficiency of UCG-H 2 reaches 40.48%, comparable to 40.98% for SCG-H 2. • UCG-H 2 significantly reduces CExC of equipment compared to SCG-H 2. • Effects of key operational parameters on system's performances are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, a heterogeneous pore decoration strategy on a hydrophobic microporous polymer is presented. The smaller pores in the material were completely decorated with hydrophilic polydopamine while most of the larger ones survived after modification, leading to its hydrophobic–hydrophilic hybrid properties and high-coverage capture ability of metabolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, researches have been involving in improving and optimizing solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique to fit the growing environmental analysis demand. But it is more significant now to introduce meaningful information into the analysis line instead of improving every step in SPME. Herein, we design a carbon dots (CDs) based SPME platform and report its unique application in selective early screening and sensitive detection of 2-nitroaniline. The fluorescence quenching state of the CDs fiber after extraction could be used to prejudge whether an environmental sample contains 2-nitroaniline exceeding the maximum permitted level (30 μg L−1) regulated by the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection or not. Photo-induced electron transfer (PET) is believed to be the primary quenching route that leads to electron transfer from the electron-rich CDs to the electron-deficient analyte. A preliminary in vivo study on Daphnia magna and a 2-nitroaniline assay in environmental water and biofluid samples suggested the safety and the excellent qualitative ability of the proposed platform. As a result, the innovative incorporation of fluorescence sensing and SPME not only achieves the information imbedding of environmental analysis system, but also combines the advantages of two techniques including early visual-screening, reusability (≥50 times), high specificity and excellent quantitative ability (detection limit: 0.011 μg L−1). We believe this study can open new avenues in the field of environmental toxicant monitoring. Image 1 • A carbon dots (CDs) based solid-phase microextraction (SPME) platform was designed. • Nitroaniline's concentration level could be prejudged by the device's fluorescence. • The quenching point of the CDs fiber could be tuned as needed. • 2-Nitroaniline in urine/environmental samples was visual-screened and quantified by GC-MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potato onion has facilitating effect on tomato seedlings; however, the mechanisms underlying the facilitating effect remain unknown. Here, we examined the effects of potato onion leaf volatiles and leachates on tomato seedling growth, and performed a transcriptomic comparison of two potato onion cultivars with different facilitating potentials ('Suihua': higher facilitating potential; 'Qitaihe': lower facilitating potential). Potato onion leaf volatiles and leachates decreased the stem length, but increased the shoot dry matter of tomato seedlings. Transcriptomic analysis showed that 640 genes were differentially expressed (DEGs) between 'Suihua' and 'Qitaihe.' DEGs related to photosynthesis, energy metabolism, and hormone metabolism were higher expressed in 'Suihua' compared to that in 'Qitaihe,' whereas genes related to phenylpropanoid metabolism and disease resistance were lower expressed. Pathway analysis showed the DEGs mainly participated in Metabolism, Biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and Plant hormone signal transduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During development of multicellular organisms, morphogen is a kind of signaling molecules produced at a local region and transported into a development field, which acts as dose-dependent regulators of gene expression, directs and controls cellular differentiation. Some experiments showed that during embryo development, dynamical processes of morphogen transport always accompany the tissue growth. However, how tissue growth affects morphogen gradients remains to be explored. To answer this problem, we propose a reaction-diffusion-convection model for morphogen transport. For this model, we mainly investigate local accumulation times (LATs) of morphogen gradients, which are a measure for time of forming the steady state of morphogen gradients. In this paper, we simplify the method of calculating the LATs and use this method to obtain analytic expressions of the LATs for uniform and linear growth, respectively. Besides, for tissue nonuniform growth, we apply an approximation method of the LATs to study them. This paper shows that tissue growth can shorten the LATs of morphogen gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new square-planar Pt(II) complexes based on phenylacetylene ligand were prepared. Both complexes exhibit reversible mechanoluminescent property and can be used to develop rewritable data recording devices. [Display omitted] • Two Pt(II) complexes with reversible and reproducible mechanoluminescent property were prepared. • The luminescent response of two complexes to mechanical grinding exceeded 150 nm. • The mechanism of mechanoluminescent property is clearly revealed. • Both complexes have been successfully used to develop the rewritable data recording device. Two platinum(II) complexes, Pt(DiClBpy)(C CC 6 H 5) 2 (1) and Pt(DiBrBpy)(C CC 6 H 5) 2 (2) based on 4,4′-dichloro-2,2′-bipyridine (DiClbpy), 4,4′-dibromo-2,2′-bipyridine (DiBrbpy) and phenylacetylene ligands were synthesized and characterized. Both complexes display reversible and reproducible mechanochromic and mechanoluminescent properties with the luminescence red-shift exceeding 150 nm. Systematic studies on crystal structure, luminescence spectra, and PXRD demonstrate that the mechanochromic and mechanoluminescent properties of 1 and 2 are attributed to the formation/elimination of intermolecular Pt-Pt interactions during mechanical grinding/vapor absorption process, which lead to the transformation of the lowest energy excited states between MLCT and MMLCT transitions. In addition, based on such property, 1 and 2 were used as starting functional material to successfully develop the rewritable data recording device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underground coal gasification (UCG) can be adopted to convert unminable coal resources into synthesis gas for use in the production of electricity, fuels, and chemicals. UCG is a promising technology with many health, safety, and environmental advantages over conventional mining techniques. It is of great scientific significance to study the mineral transformation and identify the typical minerals in certain process conditions, because it may help to ensure the stable operation of the gasification processes and improve the utilization efficiency of coal seams. The presence of coal partings has an important impact on mineral transformation. In this paper, the UCG process has been subdivided into pyrolysis, reduction, and oxidation stages, and the progressive coal conversion products were prepared. Ulanqab lignite was used as the test coal. The minerals in the coal transformation products were identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with an energy-dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS). The thermodynamic equilibrium simulation software, FactSage 7.2, was used to calculate the relevant phase diagram to assist in understanding the mineral transformations. The experimental results indicate that the different iron-bearing minerals occur in raw coal and non-coal partings which are nontronite (Na 0.3 Fe 2 Si 4 O 10 (OH) 2.4H 2 O) and glauconite (K (Fe, Al) 2 (Si, Al) 4 O 10 (OH) 2) respectively. Pyrrhotite is the main iron-bearing mineral in the pyrolysis products. In the reduction stage, the relative content of Al 2 O 3 is increased due to the presence of non-coal partings, which reacts with FeO to produce hercynite (FeAl 2 O 4) at a temperature above 1100 °C. When the temperature increases to 1300 °C, hercynite is converted to the thermodynamically-stable cordierite (Fe 2 Al 4 Si 5 O 18). In the oxidation stage, mullite (Al 6 Si 2 O 13) is produced when the oxidation temperature reaching 1300 °C, which could be used to reflect the underground reaction conditions in the coal seam. The phase diagram of (SiO 2) 6.2 Al 2 O 3 -CaO-Fe 2 O 3 proves that mullite and anorthite (CaAl 2 Si 2 O 8) are the dominant minerals when the mole fraction of (SiO 2) 6.2 Al 2 O 3 is above 0.7. In addition, the ash melting point rises with an increase of Si and Al content in the presence of non-coal partings. Unlabelled Image • The different iron-bearing minerals occur in raw coal and non-coal partings which are nontronite (Na 0.3 Fe 2 Si 4 O 10 (OH) 2.4H 2 O) and glauconite (K (Fe, Al) 2 (Si, Al) 4 O 10 (OH) 2) respectively. • In the reduction stage, the relative content of Al 2 O 3 is increased due to the presence of non-coal partings, which reacts with FeO to produce hercynite (FeAl 2 O 4) at a temperature above 1100 °C. • In the oxidation stage, mullite (Al 6 Si 2 O 13) is produced when the oxidation temperature reaching 1300 °C, which could be used to reflect the underground reaction conditions in the coal seam. • The phase diagram of (SiO 2) 6.2 Al 2 O 3 -CaO-Fe 2 O 3 proves that mullite and anorthite (CaAl 2 Si 2 O 8) are the dominant minerals when the mole fraction of (SiO 2) 6.2 Al 2 O 3 is above 0.7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The exploitation of desired materials with specific properties for water remediation has become an irresistible trend. Generally, materials favorable to the elimination of hazardous contaminants are always beneficial to the detection of these compounds. Nevertheless, few researches combined these two procedures into a treating line. Therefore, a Prussian blue nanoparticles-doped graphene oxide (PBGO) composite was successfully synthesized and prepared as a solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coating for pollutant detection and a three-dimensional (3D) aerogel for contaminant removal in this study. Owing to its highly conjugated structure, abundant oxygen sites and periodical cyano groups, the composite achieved satisfactory enrichment capacity towards specific pollutants. The combination of elimination and determination of organic contaminants by using the PBGO composite not only possessed satisfactory performance but also avoided the separation process and secondary pollution. Finally, the PBGO SPME coating was utilized for the sensitive detection of several hazardous contaminants in environmental water samples with satisfactory recoveries. We think the combination of a PBGO composite with the green sample pretreatment technique (SPME) and pollutant elimination will not only help to facilitate the improvement in analytical fields, but also provide a secondary pollution-free way to explore the adsorption properties of adsorptive materials for environmental contaminants. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • A PBGO composite was synthesized and fabricated as SPME coating and 3D aerogel. • The composite achieved sensitive and selective adsorption ability to specific pollutants. • The composite possessed favorable detection and removal performance towards the pollutants. • The SPME coating was used for detection of contaminants in environmental water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Analysis of organic pollutants is usually accomplished in centralized laboratories. However, the time-delayed and time-consuming process is insufficient and risky for precisely detection due to the contamination of vials, the losses of analytes during transportation and storage. Herein, a rapid and highly sensitive on-site detection approach was developed without using any vials by coupling an on-site pre-equilibrium solid phase microextraction (SPME) sampling method with a portable gas chromatography mass spectrometer (portable GC-MS), for the determination of three families of persistent organic pollutants (polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Based on sampling-rate (SR) calibration method, the concentrations of target analytes in aquatic systems could be easily determined. Limits of detection (LODs) in the low parts-per-tillion levels (≤5.25 ng·L−1) were obtained for most of the investigated analytes with a total analysis time only ∼30 min. The proposed on-site detection approach was then successfully applied in the determination of persistent organic pollutants in real aquatic environment. A comparable result obtained by liquid extraction (LE) equipped with laboratorial GC-MS demonstrated the accuracy of the on-site detection method. In general, this study demonstrated a rapid and highly sensitive on-site approach, avoiding any risks of contamination during sampling and analysis, for determination of POPs as well as the potential applications for other organic pollutants in aquatic phase. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • An on-site detection approach is developed based on SPME sampling technique. • The method avoids the contamination, losses, time-delayed and time-consuming issues. • The total analysis time is only ∼30 min. • Lower LODs are obtained comparing with existing on-site detection methods. • A great application potential for other analytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recent works of designing excellent adsorbents emphasized on the specific surface areas and porosities of the materials. This study presents the influence of morphological modulation on extraction efficiencies of materials for the first time. Sea urchin-like nanoporous carbon (NPC), derived from metal organic framework (MOF), was synthesized and fabricated as solid phase microextraction (SPME) device. The morphological modulated structure of the NPC, with enhanced effective adsorption sites produced by the pointed and sharp edges, could improve the extraction efficiencies of the NPC. Comparing with the unmodulated one, NPC with morphological modulation possessed higher extraction efficiencies (2 flod) as well as accelerated sampling rates (5 flod) on benzene series compounds (BTEX), improving the sensitivity of the sampling method (limits of detection ranged from 0.08 ng L−1 to 0.36 ng L−1). Moreover, it was also the first time that the moisture sensitive MOF-derived NPC was exploited as the SPME adsorbent. In general, this study was expected to be an important advance in broadening the approaches on designing a superior SPME adsorbents not only emphasizing on the specific surface area as well as porosity but also the morphology. Highlights • The morphological modulated MOF-derived nanoporous carbon was synthesized. • Novel SPME fiber was fabricated with the nanoporous carbon and silicone sealant. • The unique morphology remarkably improved extraction performance and sampling rates. • The fiber was employed for the determination of BTEX in real aqueous samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The micro-grid with combined cooling, heating, and power supply system (CCHP) is a complex integration that assembles various distributed generators (DGs). The motivation of this paper is to select a reasonable configuration of DGs for a CCHP-MG by means of uncertainties models, improved operation strategy and algorithm. The DGs in a CCHP-MG are composed of wind turbine (WT), photovoltaic (PV), battery energy storage (BES) system, biomass gasification (BG), Stirling engine, heat exchanger, absorption chiller, electric heater and cooler. In terms of uncertainties models, the uncertainties of variations in wind speed, solar irradiance, temperature, and load demand are considered with 8760 h of a whole year. The paper proposes a multi-objective optimization model for the CCHP-MG system under three objectives associated with the minimized system cost, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and power waste. In this study, the double-layer operation strategy is raised for replacing the conventional objective of loss of energy supply probability (LESP) in the CCHP-MG system. Based on the non-dominated sorting genetic III (NSGA-III) algorithm, methods of 1/8 unit sphere and angular distance are proposed for an improved NSGA-III algorithm (INSGA-III) to increase computational efficiency and avoid local convergence. Finally, the multiple analysis and comparisons demonstrate that the cooperation of the double-layer operation strategy and INSGA-III has better performance with superiorities of economy and reliability. The results in the case study show that the system cost, GHG emission, and energy waste of the selected CCHP-MG system respectively reached 85.23, 72446.7, and 7690.46. The study confirms that the improved operation strategy, INSGA-III algorithm, and multiple analysis framework can be extended to design CCHP-MG system in other places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was undertaken to investigate the structure, electrical conductivity and dielectric properties of low-rank coals during microwave pyrolysis. The mechanism of dielectric response during microwave pyrolysis was also discussed. The pyrolysis conditions were a microwave power of 800 W and different radiation times; dielectric properties were measured using a vector network analyzer at a frequency of 2450 MHz, and the electrical conductivity was measured using a four-probe resistivity tester. Results show that with increasing microwave radiation time, the functional groups gradually cracked and fell off, and the structural order was gradually enhanced. In addition, the order of the structure increased the number of sp 2 -hybridized carbon atoms on a single plane and increased the delocalized electrons between the graphite crystal planes. The complex relative permittivity and resistivity of the semi-cokes exhibited a significant dependence on microwave radiation time and pyrolysis temperature, especially after 15 min of microwave radiation. By comparing the calculated and measured values of imaginary parts, it could be deduced that the electric conductive loss is also an important part of the microwave attenuation mechanism in the process of microwave pyrolysis, as important as the relaxation loss and the interface polarization loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to measure the quantum correlation of a bipartite state quickly, an easy method is to construct a test matrix through the commutations among the blocks of its density matrix. Then, the Frobenius norm of the test matrix can be used to measure the quantum correlation. In this paper, we apply the measurement by Frobenius norm ( to the dynamics evolution of the non-Markovian quantum system and compare it with the typical quantum discord ( proposed by Ollivier and Zurek. The research results show that can indeed measure the quantum correlation of a bipartite state as same as . Further studies find that there are still differences between the two measurements: in some regions, when is zero, is not zero. It indicates that is more detailed than to measure quantum correlation of a bipartite state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest coal gasification market in the world. The gasifiers have been commercialized for producing syngas for coal-to-liquids, coal-to-olefin, and coal-to-substitute natural gas. During coal gasification at high temperature and pressure, the differences in reactivity of organic matter in coal are almost negligible; however, the transformation behaviour of minerals is important to the stability of the process. Detailed knowledge of the mineralogical properties of ash and slag is essential for optimizing the operational parameters. It is also significant for determining the influence of the solid wastes on the environment: for example, trace elements carried in bottom slag, fly ash, condensate water, and gaseous products migrate to natural water and soil and into the atmosphere. With this in mind, the mineralogy of ash and slag from typical coal gasification processes in China are reviewed, including the transformation of minerals typically found in coal, and the effects of operating conditions on mineral transformation and melting/slagging behaviour of minerals during gasification process. In addition, trace element migration behaviour in commercialized gasifiers is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed mineralogical information from underground coal gasification (UCG) is essential to better understand the chemical reactions far below the surface. It is of great scientific significance to study the mineral transformation and identify the typical minerals in certain process conditions, because it may help to ensure the stable operation of gasification processes and improve the utilization efficiency of coal seams. The transformation of iron-bearing minerals has the typical characteristics during the UCG process and is expected to indicate the process parameters. In this paper, UCG progress was subdivided into pyrolysis, reduction and oxidation stages, and the progressive coal conversion products were prepared. Two types of lignite with different iron contents, Ulankarma and Ulanqab coals, were used in this study. The minerals in the coal transformation products were identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a scanning electron microscope coupled with an energy-dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS). The thermodynamic calculation performed using the phase diagram of FactSage 7.1 was used to help to understand the transformation of minerals. The results indicate that the transformation behavior of iron-bearing minerals in the two lignites are similar during the pyrolysis process, in which pyrite (FeS2) in the raw coal is gradually converted into pyrrhotite (Fe1-xS). In the reduction stage, pyrrhotite is transformed into magnetite (Fe3O4) and then changes to FeO. The reaction of FeO and Al2O3 in the low iron coal produces hercynite above 1000 °C because of the difference in the contents of Si and Al, while in the high iron coal, FeO reacts with SiO2 to generate augite (Fe2Si2O6). When the temperature increases to 1400 °C, both hercynite and augite are converted to the thermodynamically-stable sekaninaite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of functional groups into metal organic frameworks has great potential for enhancement in adsorption performance of nitrosamines using solid phase microextraction (SPME). However, pre-functionalization and post-modification generally suffer from the same limitation that the additional functional groups occupy the free volume and thereby decreasing pore volume and special surface area. Herein, we use a modulator-induced defect-formation strategy to prepare the 8-aminocaprylic acid doped UIO-66 (Am-UIO-66) with high adsorption capacity of nitrosamines. Then, the as-synthesized UIO-66 and Am-UIO-66 were fabricated as SPME fibers exhibiting good adsorption capacity towards nitrosoamines. The reason was that the 8-aminocaprylic acid creates structural defects and additional pore spaces of Am-UIO-66, thus increases the specific surface area as well as pore volume. Finally, the Am-UIO-66-coated SPME fiber was successfully applied to the determination of nitrosamines migration from latex gloves and achieved good linearity (20–2000 ng L −1 ), satisfactory recoveries (85.2–112.8%) and rather low LODs (2.61–6.12 ng L −1 ), by coupling with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adsorption capacity is the major sensitivity-limited factor in solid-phase microextraction. Due to its light-weight properties, large specific surface area and high porosity, especially tunable pore structures, the utilization of porous organic polymers as solid-phase microextraction adsorbents has attracting researchers' attentions. However, these works mostly concentrated on the utilization of specific porous organic polymers for preparing high-performance solid-phase microextraction coatings. The relationship between pore structures and adsorption performance of the porous organic polymers still remain unclear. Herein, three porous organic polymers with similar properties but different pore distributions were prepared by condensation polymerization reaction of phloroglucinol and terephthalaldehyde, which were fabricated as solid-phase microextraction coatings subsequently. The adsorption capacity of the porous organic polymers-coated fibers were evaluated by using benzene and its derivatives (i.e.,benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and m -xylene) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as the target analytes. The results showed that the different adsorption performance of these porous organic polymers was mainly caused by their different pore volumes instead of their surface areas or pore sizes. Finally, the proposed method by using the mesoporous organic polymer coating was successfully applied to the determination of benzene and its derivatives in environmental water samples. As for analytical performance, high pre-concentration factors (74–2984), satisfactory relative recoveries (94.5 ± 18.5–116.9 ± 12.5%), intraday precision (2.44–5.34%), inter-day precision (4.62–7.02%), low limit of detections (LODs, 0.10–0.29 ng L −1 ) and limit of quantifications (LOQs, 0.33–0.96 ng L −1 ) were achieved under the optimal conditions. This study provides an important idea in the rational design of porous organic polymers for solid-phase microextraction or other adsorption applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secure deduplication and data auditing are significant in improving the resource utilization and data integrity protection of data outsourcing services. However, existing audit-enabled deduplication schemes cannot implement block-level deduplication over audit tags since they contain file information, and have to bear the consequent storage burden. Also, they suffer from the low coupling problem caused by the difference in optimal data chunking between deduplication and auditing. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based compact audit-enabled deduplication scheme in decentralized storage. Specifically, we introduce the concept of N -ary tag commitment tree (NTCT), which integrates the information of all data blocks into a file authenticator to support integrity verification and enable block-level deduplication over audit tags. On this basis, we propose a blockchain-based compact audit-enabled deduplication protocol, which adopts an aggregatable vector commitment to generate audit tags, thereby overcoming the low coupling problem between deduplication and auditing. Notably, data users can outsource the task of tag generation to storage servers. Meanwhile, the capabilities of duplication detection, proof of ownership (PoW), and integrity verification are integrated into audit tags to reduce tag redundancy. Furthermore, we present an update protocol to allow data users to achieve a lightweight data update without uploading the entire new data. Finally, security analysis and performance evaluation demonstrate that our scheme is practical. • We design a novel authentication data structure, namely NTCT, which employs aggregatable vector commitment to integrate the information of all blocks into a single file authenticator, enabling block-level deduplication over block tags while providing integrity verification for outsourced data. • We propose a compact audit-enabled deduplication protocol, which not only addresses the low coupling problem caused by the difference in optimal data chunking between deduplication and auditing, but also achieves more efficient space-saving by integrating the capabilities of duplicate detection, PoWs, and integrity verification into the same block tags. • We introduce a lightweight data update protocol for NTCT-based compact deduplication and auditing, which allows data users to update their data by replacing the target blocks with new ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents the fundamental report of the survey of genome-wide changes of four Chinese indigenous donkey breeds, Dezhou (DZ), Guangling (GL), North China (NC), and Shandong Little donkey (SDL), and the findings will prove usefully for identification of biomarkers that perhaps predict or characterize the growth and coat color patterns. Three genomic regions in CYP3A12, TUBGCP5, and GSTA1 genes, were identified as putative selective sweeps in all researched donkey populations. The loci of candidate genes that may have contributed to the phenotypes in body size (ACSL4, MSI2, ADRA1B, and CDKL5) and coat color patterns (KITLG and TBX3) in donkey populations would be found in underlying strong selection signatures when compared between large and small donkey types, and between different coat colors. The results of the phylogenetic analysis, FST, and principal component analysis (PCA) supported that each population cannot clearly deviate from each other, showing no obvious population structure. We can conclude from the population history that the formation processes between DZS and NC, GL, and SDL are completely different. The genetic variants discovered here provide a rich resource to help identify potential genomic markers and their associated molecular mechanisms that impact economically important traits for Chinese donkey breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents the preparation and the characterizations of six tri-metal centered metal-organic frameworks (tM-MOFs) as solid-phase microextraction (SPME) adsorbents. Possessing different proportions of Al, Ga and In atoms in their frameworks, the tM-MOF-based SPME coatings exhibited different extraction performance towards the organic pollutants. Extraction results showed that the M4 (Al 0.593 Ga 0.167 In 0.240 (O 2 C 2 H 4 )(h 2 fipbb)) coating exhibited the best enrichment ability among six tM-MOFs. In addition, it showed better extraction efficiency towards the analytes than three single-metal centered MOFs coatings and a commercial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coating. The adsorption process of the M4 coating was physical adsorption and it was mainly affected by the diffusion process of the compound from the sample to the material, which is the same with the adsorption processes of the single-metal centered MOFs coatings. Under optimal conditions (extraction time, 3 min; NaCl concentration, 25% (w/v); desorption temperature, 270 °C; extraction temperature, 30 °C), the M4 coating achieved low detection limits (0.13–0.88 ng L −1 ) and good linearity (5–2000 and 5–5000 ng L −1 ) for benzene series compounds. The repeatabilities (n = 5) for single fiber were between 4.3 and 8.1%, while the reproducibilities (n = 3) of fiber-to-fiber were in the range of 7.9–12.7%. Finally, a M4 coated SPME fiber was successfully applied to the analysis of environmental water samples with satisfactory recoveries (80.8%–119.5%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fiber coating is the key part of the solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique, and it determines the sensitivity, selectivity, and repeatability of the analytical method. In this work, amine (NH)-functionalized material of Institute Lavoisier (MIL)-53(Al) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized, characterized, and applied as the SPME fiber coating for efficient sample pretreatment owing to their unique structures and excellent adsorption properties. Under optimized conditions, the NH-MIL-53(Al)-coated fiber showed good precision, low limits of detection (LODs) [0.025-0.83 ng L for synthetic musks (SMs) and 0.051-0.97 ng L for organochlorine pesticides (OCPs)], and good linearity. Experimental results showed that the NH-MIL-53(Al) SPME coating was solvent resistant and thermostable. In addition, the extraction efficiencies of the NH-MIL-53(Al) coating for SMs and OCPs were higher than those of commercially available SPME fiber coatings such as polydimethylsiloxane, polydimethylsiloxane-divinylbenzene, and polyacrylate. The reasons may be that the analytes are adsorbed on NH-MIL-53(Al) primarily through π- π interactions, electron donor-electron acceptor interactions, and hydrogen bonds between the analytes and organic linkers of the material. Direct immersion (DI) SPME-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry methods based on NH-MIL-53(Al) were successfully applied for the analysis of tap and river water samples. The recoveries were 80.3-115% for SMs and 77.4-117% for OCPs. These results indicate that the NH-MIL-53(Al) coating may be a promising alternative to SPME coatings for the enrichment of SMs and OCPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although nanotechnology has offered effective and efficient solutions for environmental remediation, the full utilization of sustainable energy and the avoidance of secondary pollution are still challenges. Herein, we report a two-step modification strategy for TiO2 nanoparticles by first forming a thin, surface-adherent polydopamine (PDA) shell onto the nanoparticles and then assembling core-shell nanoparticles as a photodegradation coating. The composite coating modified from TiO2 could not only realize the highly efficient utilization of photons from the visible region but also avoid the secondary pollution of nanoparticles during application. Additionally, improvements in the adsorption ability after modification greatly facilitated the photocatalytic process of the modified materials. A preliminary in vivo study on Daphnia magna and a wastewater treatment experiment suggest that treatment with the composite coating can effectively eliminate fluorene and significantly reduce its lethality. We believe the two-step modification scheme can open new avenues for the facile modification of nanomaterials for designed purposes, especially in the field of environmental remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the absorption and dispersion properties of the three levels A -type superconducting quantum circuit driven by a pump field and a relatively weak probe field being applied to the different transitions. We find that the decoherence time between levels is critical to the observation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in superconducting quantum circuit. When the total decoherence time is fixed, it is necessary to ensure better coherence between levels |3⟩ ↔ |2⟩ than |3⟩ ↔ |1⟩ so as to exhibit obvious EIT. Furthermore, under given probe field, the bigger the Rabi frequency of probe field is, the wider the window of EIT, the easier to observe the transparency window. At this moment, however, slow light is inconspicuous and not conductive to optical information memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF-MS was used to study how lacasse catalyzes phytophenol substrate to occur furanocyclic dimerization. • Substrate was suggested to bear a C=C bond at -OH para -position and conjugating with phenol core. • Coumaran linkage, one type of furanocyclic dimerization, shows "7,8 diastereoselectivity" character for Re -attack lack. • Another type, i.e., dioxabicyclo[3.3.0]octane linkage, shows both "7,8 diastereoselectivity" and " cis- 8H,8′H" characters. • The " cis- 8H,8′H" character is attributed to energy gap between normal and twist envelop conformations. Lacasse can transform phytophenol into furanocyclic dimers, including coumaran linkage dimer and 3,7-dioxabicyclo[3.3.0]octane linkage dimer. However, the substrate specificity and diastereoselective process remain unknown until now. The study therefore selected a series of monomeric phytophenol isomers or analogues as substrates to interact with laccase from Trametes versicolor (Lac TV). The products were rapidly identified by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass-spectrometry. On this basis, 9 dimerization reactions were established for a systematical structure–function relationship analysis. Through analysis, it can be concluded that, phytophenol furanocyclic dimerization requires a specific substrate structure, i.e., a C=C bond sitting at the -OH para -position and also conjugating with the phenolic core. The coumaran linkage dimerization presents "7,8 diastereoselectivity" character; while the 3,7-dioxabicyclo[3.3.0]octane linkage dimerization shows not only "7,8 diastereoselectivity" character but also " cis- 8H,8′H" character. The former character is attributed to the intramolecular nucleophilic addition which always prevents the Re -attack. The latter character however is caused by a substantial energy gap between normal envelop conformation and twist envelop conformation. All these findings can help to efficiently utilize Lac TV tool for phytophenol biosynthesis in chemistry fields. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene, a novel class of carbon nanostructures, has received great attention as sorbents due to its fascinating structures, ultrahigh specific surface area, and good extraction ability. In this paper, a new type of hierarchical graphene was synthesized through employing a mild and environment-friendly method. Such 3D interconnected graphene own a high specific surface area up to 524 m 2 g −1 , which is about 2.5 fold larger than the graphene, since the synthetic material has interlayer pores between nanosheets and in-plane pores. Then a superior solid-phase microextraction fiber was fabricated by sequentially coating the stainless steel fiber with silicone sealant film and hierarchical graphene powder. Since the novel hierarchical graphene possessed large surface area and good adsorption property, the as-prepared fiber exhibited good extraction properties of the organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). As for the analytical performance, the as-prepared fiber achieved low detection limits (0.08–0.80 ng L −1 ) and wide linearity (10–30,000 ng L −1 ) under the optimal conditions. The repeatability (n=5) for single fiber were between 5.1% and 11%, while the reproducibility (n=3) of fiber-to-fiber were range from 6.2% to14%. Moreover, the fiber was successfully applied to the analysis of OCPs in the Pearl River water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of knitting aromatic polymers (KAPs) were successfully synthesized using a simple one-step Friedel-Crafts alkylation of aromatic monomers and were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Then, as-synthesized KAPs with large surface areas, unique pore structures and high thermal stability were prepared as solid-phase microextraction (SPME) coatings that exhibited good extraction abilities for a series of benzene compounds (i.e., benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and m -xylene, which are referred to as BTEX) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Under the optimized conditions, the methodologies established for the determination of BTEX and PAHs using the KAPs-triPB and KAPs-B coatings, respectively, possessed wide linear ranges, low limits of detection (LODs, 0.10–1.13 ng L −1 for BTEX and 0.05–0.49 ng L −1 for PAHs) and good reproducibility. Finally, the proposed methods were successfully applied to the determination of BTEX and PAHs in environmental water samples, and satisfactory recoveries (93.6–124.2% for BTEX and 77.2–113.3% for PAHs) were achieved. This study provides a benchmark for exploiting novel microporous organic polymers (MOPs) for SPME applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian double-muscled Large White pigs are characterized by notable muscle mass, showing high daily gain and lean rate and good meat quality. In order to identify the major genes or proteins involved in muscle hyperplasia and hypertrophy, three pairs of full-sib pigs with extreme muscle mass difference from Canadian Large White were selected as experimental animals at 3 months age. The phenotypic differences of longissimus dorsi muscles (LD) were investigated with microarray and proteomics (2-DE, MALDI-TOF-MS), and results were verified by real-time PCR and western bolting respectively. The gene expressing profiling identified 57 and 260 and 147 differently expressed genes (DEGs) from the three pairs respectively with Bayesian statistics and significant analysis of microarrays (SAM) (p < 0.05, q < 0.05, fold > 2). From the network of these DEGs, some major genes were displayed, such as EGF, PPARG, FN1, SERPINE1, MYC, JUN, involved in Wnt, MAPK and TGF-β signal pathway respectively, which mainly participated in cell differentiation and proliferation. In parallel, proteomics analyses revealed 50 differently expressed protein (DEP) spots with mass spectrum, and 33 spots of them were found annotated, which took part in energy metabolism and the structure and contraction of muscle fiber. In brief, our integrated study provides a good foundation for the further study on the genetic mechanism of the double muscle traits in pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microporous organic polymers (MOPs) have emerged as a new class of functional porous materials with unique characteristics and potential uses in diverse areas. However, the field of MOPs for gas chromatographic (GC) separations has not been well explored. Herein, a MOP namely KAPs-1 was dynamic coated onto a capillary column for the first time. The fabricated column exhibited a nonpolar nature and the column efficiency for n -dodecane was up to 7769 plates m −1 . The KAPs-1 coated column showed high GC separation performance for a series of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including the challenging ethylbenzene and xylene isomers, which could not be resolved at baseline on the commercial 5% phenyl polysiloxane stationary phase. Moreover, the relative standard deviations for five replicate determinations of the studied analytes were 0.0–0.6%, 0.9–3.2%, 1.1–5.9%, 0.8–3.7% for retention time, peak area, peak height and peak width, respectively. To investigate the interaction between some analytes and the stationary phase, thermodynamic and kinetic parameters were also evaluated. The results of this study show it is very promising to utilize MOPs as stationary phases for capillary GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chloride-rich environments including seawater and de-icing salt solutions may lead to severe physical damage to cementitious materials, especially considering the special service environment such as semi-immersion exposure for some concrete structures. The physical degradation behaviour of cement mortars at three different relative humidity (RH) levels was investigated based on changes in physical appearances, dynamic elastic modulus and microstructural analysis. Experimental results showed that RH at 65 ± 5% resulted in obvious salt precipitations on the top region of the tested cement mortar specimens when semi-immersed in NaCl and seawater solutions. Besides, this RH level led to cracks and fractures of specimens with exposure to MgCl 2 and CaCl 2 solutions, which are closely related to the formation of expansive products, expressed as 0.4MgCO 3 ·5.4 Mg(OH) 2 ·MgCl 2 ·6H 2 O and CaCl 2 ·CaCO 3 ·nH 2 O respectively, as confirmed by the microstructural analysis. Interfacial transition zones within binding matrices and sharp edges of specimens are more likely to suffer from salt precipitations. Corresponding different chloride-induced degradation processes owing to various cations or co-existence of various ions in seawater were also proposed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report the successful utilization of the stepwise ligand exchange strategy for the improvement of adsorption ability of a series of bio-MOFs. The fast extraction rate and the different adsorption performances of the three bio-MOF coatings were dominated by their pore structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesoporous TiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesized with the hydrothermal method and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Then a superior solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was fabricated by sequentially coating the stainless steel fiber with silicone sealant film and mesoporous TiO 2 powder. The developed fiber possessed a homogeneous surface and a long life-span up to 100 times at direct immersing (DI) extraction mode. Under the optimized conditions, the extraction efficiencies of the self-made 17 μm TiO 2 fiber for six organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were higher than those of the two commercial fibers (65 μm PDMS/DVB and 85 μm PA fibers) which were much thicker than the former. As for analytical performance, low detection limits (0.08–0.60 ng L −1 ) and wide linearity (5–5000 ng L −1 ) were achieved under the optimal conditions. The repeatabilities ( n = 5) for single fiber were between 2.8 and 12.3%, while the reproducibilities ( n = 3) of fiber-to-fiber were in the range of 3.7–15.7%. The proposed fiber was successfully applied to the sensitive analysis of OCPs in real water samples and four of the six analytes were detected from the rainwater and the lake water samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have received great attention as novel sorbents due to their fascinating structures and intriguing potential applications in various fields. In this work, a MIL-101(Cr)-coated solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fiber was fabricated by a simple direct coating method and applied to the determination of volatile compounds (BTEX, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m -xylene and o -xylene) and semi-volatile compounds (PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) from water samples. The extraction and desorption conditions of headspace SPME (HS-SPME) were optimized. Under the optimized conditions, the established methods exhibited excellent extraction performance. Good precision (<7.7%) and low detection limits (0.32–1.7 ng L −1 and 0.12–2.1 ng L −1 for BTEX and PAHs, respectively) were achieved. In addition, the MIL-101(Cr)-coated fiber possessed good thermal stability, and the fiber can be reused over 150 times. The fiber was successfully applied to the analysis of BTEX and PAHs in river water by coupling with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The analytes at low concentrations (1.7 and 10 ng L −1 ) were detected, and the recoveries obtained with the spiked river water samples were in the range of 80.0–113% and 84.8–106% for BTEX and PAHs, respectively, which demonstrated the applicability of the self-made fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new square-planar platinum (II) complex, Pt(Me 3 SiC≡CbpyC≡CSiMe 3)(C CC 6 H 4 –Me-4) 2 (1) was synthesized and characterized. This complex has a series of metastable structures, including seven orange solvated species, red 1 ·½(ClCH 2 CH 2 Cl), dark-brown 1B , black 1 ·¼(CH 2 Cl 2) and 1 ·½(CH 3 OH), red-brown 1H and solvent-free amorphous 1G. Among them, 1B , 1H , 1G , 1 ·¼(CH 2 Cl 2) and 1 ·½(CH 3 OH) display the long-wavelength NIR luminescence with emission beyond 900 nm. Complex 1 exhibits interesting triple-stimuli-responsive luminescence switching properties. First, 1 shows the reversible vapochromic and vapoluminescence properties between different metastable structures. Upon heating, all species of 1 change to a same solvent-free sample 1H , which emits the NIR luminescence peaked at 988 nm and can be reversibly converted back to the original species by exposure to specific VOC vapor. Furthermore, 1 also shows reversible mechanoluminescence property that all species of 1 will change to a brown amorphous 1G after grinding with its emission wavelength peaked at 954 nm. Systematic studies revealed that the vapor-, thermo-, and mechanical-grinding-triggered triple-stimuli-responsive luminescence switching property of 1 is due to the structural conversion and resultant changes of the lowest-energy excited states. Interestingly, the stacking structure and solvated molecule can influence the responses of metastable structures of 1 to heating or mechanical grinding. In addition, complex 1 can be used for visual recognition of CH 3 CN and 1,2-dichloroethane vapors as well as the development of simple rewritable data recording device. [Display omitted] • Triple-stimuli-responsive luminescence switching properties of Pt(II) complex. • The mechanisms of luminescence switching behaviour were clearly revealed. • Complex 1 was successfully applied to the development of VOC sensor and data rewritable recording device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We study defect solitons (DSs) and their stability in optically induced kagome photonic lattices with a defect in photovoltaic–photorefractive crystals. We show that these DSs exist only in the semi-infinite gap when the defect is positive and both in the semi-infinite gap and the first gap when the defect is negative. For a positive defect, DSs are stable in the low power region and unstable in the high power region. For a negative defect, DSs in the semi-infinite gap are stable in the moderate power region and unstable in the high and low power regions. In the first gap, DSs are stable in the all power region for the low negative defect depth and in the high power region for the high negative defect depth. We find that the stable region of DSs increases with the defect depth when the defect is positive and decreases with an increase in the defect depth when the defect is negative. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To determine the sex-specific associations of handgrip strength (HGS) and asymmetry with incident multimorbidity and examine whether these relationships differ by sex. Prospective cohort study. Secondary analyses of data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, waves 2-8). The analytic sample included 3977 participants (51.4% female) aged ≥50 years who had data for HGS on both hands and were living without multimorbidity at baseline. HGS was assessed with a handheld dynamometer. Individuals in the lowest tertile of sex-specific age-adjusted HGS were defined as having low HGS. The largest HGS readings from the nondominant and dominant hand were used to calculate HGS ratio [nondominant HGS (kg)/dominant HGS (kg)]. Those with HGS ratio <0.90 or >1.10 had any HGS asymmetry. Further, those with HGS ratio <0.90 had dominant HGS asymmetry, whereas those with HGS ratio >1.10 had nondominant HGS asymmetry. Multimorbidity was defined as the coexistence of ≥2 chronic diseases. Cox proportional hazards regression models were conducted for analyses. Low HGS was associated with multimorbidity among older men [hazard ratio (HR) 1.20, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.40] and women (HR 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.38). No significant effect modification by sex was observed (P -interaction =.71). HGS asymmetry increased the risk of multimorbidity in women only (HR 1.23, 95% CI 1.07-1.41). The relationship between HGS asymmetry and multimorbidity risk differed by sex (P -interaction =.01). Similarly, both dominant HGS asymmetry (HR 1.21, 95% CI 1.05-1.40) and nondominant HGS asymmetry (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.03-1.68) were related to incident multimorbidity in women only. There was a significant interaction between dominant HGS asymmetry and sex (P -interaction =.02). Examining HGS asymmetry in HGS test protocols can provide novel insights for the predictive power of HGS in the accumulation of diseases, particularly in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, the portable NIR spectrometer combined LDA and PLS two different chemometrics methods to detect the variety, authenticity and internal chemical composition of Fritillariae cirrhosae. [Display omitted] • Rapid analysis of components and categories of Fritillaria cirrhosae by portable NIR spectrometer. • The effects of various spectral pretreatment methods on the model performance were compared. • The results showed the developed models were robust and accurate. This paper mainly focuses on the feasibility of rapidly identifying Fritillariae cirrhosae varieties, distinguishing its authenticity and detecting its components by using a portable near infrared (NIR) spectrometer. Five different varieties of Fritillariae cirrhosae, five common counterfeits and two main components (ethanol-soluble extractives and total alkaloids) were studied. The reference values of ethanol-soluble extractives were determined by hot dip method and the reference value of total alkaloid was determined by ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometry (UV–Vis). Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) algorithm was used to identify the sources of different varieties of Fritillariae cirrhosae and the common counterfeits of Fritillariae cirrhosae, respectively. As a result, the best models seemed to be effective, with accuracy of the two models' prediction sets reaches 83.33% and 90.91%, respectively. The partial least squares regression (PLSR) algorithm was used to relate the sample spectra with the reference values of ethanol-soluble extractives and total alkaloid content. Coefficient of determination of prediction (R2p) and root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) obtained were 0.8562 and 0.3911; 0.6917 and 0.0117, for ethanol-soluble extractives and total alkaloid content, respectively. The results showed that the portable NIR spectrometer could evaluate the quality of Fritillariae cirrhosae with high efficiency and practicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]