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Safflower yellow is an extract of the famous Chinese medicine Carthamus tinctorious L, and safflower yellow injection (SYI) is widely used clinically to treat angina pectoris. However, there are few studies on the anti-myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury effect of SYI, and its mechanisms are unclear. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the protective effect of SYI on myocardial I/R injury and explore its underlying mechanisms. Male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into a control group, sham group, model group, and SYI group (20 mg/kg, femoral vein injection 1 h before modeling). The left anterior descending coronary artery was ligated to establish a myocardial I/R model. H9c2 cells were exposed to oxygen–glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R) after incubation with 80 μg/mL SYI for 24 h. In vivo, TsTC, HE, and TUNEL staining were performed to evaluate myocardial injury and apoptosis. A kit was used to detect superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) to assess oxidative stress. In vitro, flow cytometry was used to detect the reactive oxygen species (ROS) content and apoptosis rate. Protein levels were determined via Western blotting. Pretreatment with SYI significantly reduced infarct size and pathological damage in rat hearts and suppressed cardiomyocyte apoptosis in vivo and in vitro. In addition, SYI inhibited oxidative stress by increasing SOD activity and decreasing MDA content and ROS production. Myocardial I/R and OGD/R activate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, as evidenced by increased expression of activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6), glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78), cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteinase caspase-12, and C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP), which were all inhibited by SYI. SYI ameliorated myocardial I/R injury by attenuating apoptosis, oxidative damage, and ER stress, which revealed new mechanistic insights into its application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disorder and disaster evolution characteristics of ascensional airflow fires in mine ventilation systems has been the focus of mine fire research. In this work, through repeated experiments, the variation characteristics of the temperature and air volume in the main and side branches of an ascensional airflow fire were obtained under different ventilation capacities. Using the TF1M(3D) software to solve the problems of mine physical ventilation and combined with the analysis of an example, the variation in the ascensional airflow fire and the process of disordered airflow in the ventilation system in an entire area mine were described in detail. Fire combustion served as the power source for uncontrolled energy release, and its fire pressure interacted with the thermal resistance of the mine ventilation, directly causing airflow disorder. As the fire intensified, the ascensional airflow fire caused the airflow in the side branch to decrease, stagnate, or reverse. Improving the fan supply capacity can not only help reduce the increase in the ventilation thermal resistance of the side branch but also help avoid the airflow reversal of the side branch. From the regular variation characteristics, the theoretical results were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The erosion of igneous rocks affects the structural and spontaneous combustion characteristics of coal. A series of tests were conducted, including programmed heating, thermogravimetric analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, low-temperature nitrogen adsorption, and pressed mercury experiments on samples from primary coal and coal eroded by igneous rocks from the Tashan Mine and Xiaonan Mine within the same coal seam. Based on these experiments, we analyzed various properties of coal, such as the oxidation characteristics, spontaneous combustion limit, active functional group content, chemical structure, and pore structure, from both macroscopic and microscopic perspectives. The results indicated significant trends after the erosion of igneous rocks: (1) there were increases in the oxygen consumption rate, as well as the CO and CO2 release rates; (2) the upper limit of air leakage intensity increased, the minimum thickness of floating coal decreased, and the lower limit of oxygen volume fraction decreased; (3) there was a decrease in the activation energy required for coal ignition; (4) there was a decrease in the active functional group content while improving the structural stability; and (5) there were the alterations in the pore structure of coal. These promoted the oxidation reactions between oxygen and the active groups within the coal matrix, increasing the propensity for spontaneous combustion, particularly in the igneous rocks with low oxidation activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, energy-preserving schemes based upon the discrete gradient are used to numerically solve the semilinear wave equation under periodic boundary conditions, Dirichlet boundary conditions and Neumann boundary conditions. Both the integral form and the evolutionary behaviour of the energy depend on the associated boundary conditions. The wave equations are semi-discretized in different manners for different boundary conditions such that the Hamiltonian functions of the resulting semi-discrete Hamiltonian systems are the discrete analogue of the original energy. Furthermore, the Hamiltonian functions of the resulting semi-discrete systems have similar evolutionary behaviours as the original energy. It is noted that the semi-discrete system exhibits an oscillatory structure. Subsequently, the semi-discrete approximation of the energy evolution as well as the oscillatory structure is passed to the fully-discrete problem by applying extended discrete gradient formula in the temporal direction. Numerical experiments are carried out to show the effectiveness of the new schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Beta-diversity quantitatively measures the difference among microbial communities thus enlightening the association between microbiome composition and environment properties or host phenotypes. The beta-diversity analysis mainly relies on distances among microbiomes that are calculated by all microbial features. However, in some cases, only a small fraction of members in a community plays crucial roles. Such a tiny proportion is insufficient to alter the overall distance, which is always missed by end-to-end comparison. On the other hand, beta-diversity pattern can also be interfered due to the data sparsity when only focusing on nonabundant microbes. Results: Here, we develop Flex Meta-Storms (FMS) distance algorithm that implements the "local alignment" of microbiomes for the first time. Using a flexible extraction that considers the weighted phylogenetic and functional relations of microbes, FMS produces a normalized phylogenetic distance among members of interest for microbiome pairs. We demonstrated the advantage of FMS in detecting the subtle variations of microbiomes among different states using artificial and real datasets, which were neglected by regular distance metrics. Therefore, FMS effectively discriminates microbiomes with higher sensitivity and flexibility, thus contributing to in-depth comprehension of microbe–host interactions, as well as promoting the utilization of microbiome data such as disease screening and prediction. Availability and implementation: FMS is implemented in C++, and the source code is released at https://github.com/qdu-bioinfo/flex-meta-storms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neuropathic pain (NP) caused by the injury or dysfunction of the nervous system is a chronic pain state accompanied by hyperalgesia, and the available clinical treatment is relatively scarce. Hyperalgesia mediated by pro‐inflammatory factors and chemokines plays an important role in the occurrence and maintenance of NP. Data treatment: Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review of experimental NP (PubMed Medline), in order to find the mechanism of inducing central sensitization and explore the intervention methods of hyperalgesia caused by real or simulated injury. Result: In this review, we sorted out the activation pathways of microglia, astrocytes and neurons, and the process of crosstalk among them. It was found that in NP, the microglia P2X4 receptor is the key target, which can activate the mitogen‐activated protein kinase pathway inward and then activate astrocytes and outwardly activate neuronal tropomyosin receptor kinase B receptor to activate neurons. At the same time, activated neurons continue to maintain the activation of astrocytes and microglia through chemokines on CXCL13/CXCR5 and CX3CL1/CX3CR1. This crosstalk process is the key to maintaining NP. Conclusion: We summarize the further research on crosstalk among neurons, microglia, and astrocytes in the central nervous system, elaborate the ways and connections of relevant crosstalk, and find potential crosstalk targets, which provides a reference for drug development and preclinical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the effect of Yangxin Shengmai (Heart-nourishing Pulse-engendering) Granule (YXSM Granule) on rats with coronary heart disease complicated with anxiety and depression through BDNF/TrKB pathway. Methods 124 SD rats were randomly divided into the blank group (n =14) and the model group (n =110). Except for the blank group, the depression model was established with Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress (CUMS) for 28 days. On the 15th day, the myocardial infarction reperfusion model was established by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery. Among the rat models, 14 rats were operated but not ligated, and they were set as the sham operation group; the others were randomly divided into model group and low-, medium- and high-dose (2.1,4.2,8.4 g/kg) YXSM Granule groups and 0.29 g/ kg Compound Danshen tablet + Fluoxetine (CDST+Flu) group. After intragastric administration for 2 weeks, the rats in each group undergone behavioral tests. The myocardial injury, left ventricle diameter (LVD) and left ventricular wall thickness (LVWT) were observed by HE staining, the protein expression levels of BDNF, TrKB and CD34 in myocardial tissue were detected by immunohistochemistry, and the protein expression levels of BDNF, TrKB and p-TrKB in hippocampus were detected by Western blotting. Results Compared with the sham group, the frequency of entering the central area of the open field and the total time spent and total distance travelled in the movement track in the model group were significantly reduced (P < 0.01), and the frequency and proportion of time spent in the open arm of the elevated cross maze were significantly reduced. Compared with the model group, the frequency of entering the central area of the open field and the total time spent and distance travelled in the movement track in all YXSM Granule groups and CDST+ Flu group were significantly increased (P<0.01), and the frequency and proportion of time spent in the open arm of the elevated cross maze were significantly increased, but with no significant difference. Compared with the sham operation group, in the model group, the degree of myocardial injury and LVD were significantly increased (P<0. 01), the LVWT and the protein expression levels of BDNF, TrKB and CD34 in myocardial tissue and BDNF and p-trkb/TrKB in hippocampus decreased significantly (P<0.05, P<0.01). Compared with the model group, the degree of myocardial injury was significantly improved, the LVD was significantly reduced (P<0.01), the LVWT and the protein expression levels of BDNF, TrKB and CD34 in myocardial tissue and BDNF and p-TrKB/ TrKB in hippocampus were significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01) in all the other groups. Conclusion YXSM Granule seems to improve the cardiac function and alleviate depressive symptoms in rats with coronary heart disease with anxiety and depression, which may play a cardioprotective and antidepressant role by activating BDNF/TrKB signal pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the division of coal spontaneous combustion stages and the selection of indicator gases is significant to the safe production of coal mines. In this study, the characteristic temperature of coal spontaneous combustion, the generation law of indicator gases, the combustion process, and the division of the combustion stages of coal samples taken from Hongqingliang (HQL) and Dayan (DY) mines were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis experiment, indicator gas detection experiment, and coal oxidation spontaneous combustion experiment. The results of the thermogravimetric analysis experiment showed that the pyrolysis temperatures of the HQL and DY coals were 115.76°C and 131.80°C, and the ignition temperatures were 337.74°C and 360.18°C, respectively. The indicator gas detection results showed that the first-appearance temperature of C2H4 was 85°C for the HQL and DY coals, whereas the first-appearance temperature of C2H6 varied: 115°C for the HQL coal and 130°C for the DY coal. The first-appearance temperatures of C2H2 were 180°C and 195°C for the HQL and DY coals, respectively. The experiments on coal oxidation spontaneous combustion showed that the spontaneous combustion period of the HQL and DY coals were 35.45 and 42.3 days, respectively. The heating process during combustion could be divided into four stages: a latent period of spontaneous combustion, a slow spontaneous heating period, an accelerated spontaneous heating period, and a period of combustion. The critical temperature of each stage showed a good correlation with the incipient temperature of the indicator gases, namely C2H2, C2H4, and C2H6, and the appearance of the above gases can be used to characterize the degree of spontaneous combustion of coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dispersion stability and wettability of suspension concentrates are beneficial for improvement of the utilization rate of pesticides. Herein, four kinds of novel organosilane-modified polycarboxylate dispersants P(AA3-APEG1-Six) with different silicone contents ranging from 0 to 0.5 mol were successfully synthesized using acrylic acid (AA), allyl polyethoxyether (APEG-1000) and organosilicon modifier 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propylmethacrylate (MAPTMS) as monomers, and their surface properties were systematically investigated. Meanwhile, 25% tebuconazole (TEB) suspension concentrate (SC) was milled with the four P(AA3-APEG1-Six (SCP(AA3-APEG1-Six)), and the influences of P(AA3-APEG1-Six) on the zeta potential, particle size, suspension rate and rheological behaviors of the 25% TEB SC were also studied. The results showed that P(AA3-APEG1-Si0.5) had the lowest surface tension by maintaining an AA:APEG-1000 mole ratio of 3 : 1, and changing the MAPTMS additive amount from 0 to 0.5 mol. Additionally, the obtained TEB SCP(AA3-APEG1-Six) system exhibits shear thinning behavior under high shearing rate, showing typical features of a pseudo-plastic non-Newtonian fluid, which conforms to the Power-law model. More importantly, the SCP(AA3-APEG1-Six), especially for P(AA3-APEG1-Si0.5), exhibited relatively minimum change in particle size and zeta potential compared to that of the unmodified polymers, and displayed superior suspension rate. Significantly, TEB SCP(AA3-APEG1-Six) showed excellent wetting and spreading behavior on plant leaves, which contributes to obviously improving pesticide utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuropathic pain (NP) is a common type of chronic pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system. This condition imposes a considerable economic burden on society and patients. Daphnetin (DAP) is a natural product isolated from a Chinese medicinal herb with various pharmacological activities, such as anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. However, the underlying mechanisms of these effects are not fully understood. In the present study, we aimed to investigate DAP's anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects and explore the underlying mechanisms of action. The NP model was established as chronic constrictive injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve, and pain sensitivity was evaluated by measuring the mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) and thermal withdrawal threshold (TWT). The activation of microglia in the spinal dorsal horn was measured via immunofluorescence staining. Protein levels were measured using a western blot assay. Using a mass-spectrometry proteomics platform and an LC-MS/MS-based metabolomics platform, proteins and metabolites in spinal cord tissues were extracted and analyzed. DAP treatment ameliorated the MWT and TWT in CCI rats. The expression of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α was inhibited by DAP treatment in the spinal cords of CCI rats. Moreover, the activation of microglia was suppressed after DAP treatment. The elevation in the levels of P2X4, IRF8, IRF5, BDNF, and p-P38/P38 in the spinal cord caused by CCI was inhibited by DAP. Proteomics and metabolomics results indicated that DAP ameliorated the imbalance of glycerophospholipid metabolism in the spinal cords of CCI rats. DAP can potentially ameliorate NP by regulating microglial responses and glycerophospholipid metabolism in the CCI model. This study provides a pharmacological justification for using DAP in the management of NP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel superhydrophobic electro-conductive coating with liquid metal (Ga 90 In 10 ) and ZnO nano-petals is fabricated by integrating the methods of spraying, crystal growth and low surface energy modification. The results indicate that the paper-based surface could be superhydrophobic in cold environment and successfully realize uni-directional ice driving with the help of thermal gradient. We anticipate that the combination of excellent superhydrophobic performance of the composite structure with inherent conductive advantage of liquid metal will find a vast application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To isolate the focused near-field excitation at the probe apex from the contribution of the far-field illumination, a novel metallic probe which consisted of a taper cylinder tip and a couple of curved nanoslits on the probe base was designed. The local field enhancement and confinement performance varying with the structure parameters of the probe and the type of substrates were investigated by means of finite-difference time-domain simulation. With the optimized probe working in probe-substrate coupling mode, the local electric field intensity at the probe apex can be effectively enhanced by more than 500 times compared to the incident field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spontaneous combustion of coal in goaf areas is a significant natural disaster encountered during coal mining operations. To investigate the oxygen consumption characteristics of different coal types, we conducted TG experiments and closed oxygen consumption experiments using seven coal samples exhibiting various degrees of metamorphism. The findings revealed the following key observations: During the oxidation combustion process of coal, the absorbed heat originates from the physical and chemical adsorption of coal and oxygen. The first exothermic peak on the DSC curve represents the maximum combustion temperature of volatile matter and signifies the initiation of coal burning. Coal with higher ignition temperatures is less prone to spontaneous combustion. Analyzing the thermogravimetric curves, we observed that the ignition temperatures of 15# coal and 8+9# coal predominantly extracted from Duanwang Coal Mine are higher compared to the ignition temperature of the 4# coal seam (known for its susceptibility to spontaneous combustion) in Jiudaoling Coal Mine, Liaoning. This observation aligns with their nonspontaneous combustion characteristics. In the closed oxygen consumption experiment, we determined the volume oxygen consumption attenuation coefficients for the main mining areas' 8+9# and 15# coal seams as 3.9001 × 10 − 4 and 3.83559 × 10 − 4 , respectively. Additionally, the critical oxygen consumption concentrations were measured as 15.71% and 16.78%. The shortest spontaneous combustion periods were determined to be 119.24 days and 121.25 days, respectively, for the aforementioned coal seams. To mitigate spontaneous combustion, the addition of inhibitors is necessary. The selection of an appropriate inhibitor depends on the increase in ignition activation energy. Notably, coal samples treated with a 15% MgCl2 inhibitor exhibited the highest increase in ignition activation energy. Hence, we concluded that a 15% MgCl2 inhibitor is the most suitable ratio for preventing spontaneous combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Paper proposed traffic prediction based on vehicle detection from aerial images. • Predictors (road characteristics and image timestamps) were captured from aerial images. • The model proposes a coefficient of transformation (day to year) for image-based counts. • Predicted Image-based AADTs are close to the observed traffic counts. Around the world, metropolitan areas invest in infrastructure for traffic data collection, albeit focusing on highway networks, thus limiting the amount of data available on inner-city roads. For this purpose, various modelling techniques have been developed to interpolate traffic counts spatially and temporally across an entire road network. However, the predictive accuracy of these models depends on the quality and coverage of traffic count data. In this study, we extend the power of spatio-temporal interpolation models with vehicle detection from aerial images, developing a new approach to estimate Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) across all roads in an urban area. Using Google aerial images, we extracted the number of vehicles on a road segment and treated these values as observed traffic counts collected over a short period of time. This information was used as input and merged with traffic count data at stations with longer record lengths to predict traffic on all urban roads. This approach was compared against a hold-out sample of roads with observed traffic count data and images, indicating an R-squared (R2) = 90% and RMSE = 7675 between predicted and observed daily traffic counts and R2 = 58% and RMSE = 18918 between observed and predicted AADT. The higher prediction accuracy for daily traffic indicates the power of the proposed method for predicting daily values from images; while the lower accuracy of AADT prediction stresses the need for longer-term data to achieve accurate annual averages based on counts derived from images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on unilateral total internal reflection illumination, a tip spectral response detection setup is built. This provides an experimental method for revealing the spectral response and resonance band, which are significant in investigating optical properties and the field enhancing mechanism. The spectral responses of silicon tips coated with gold and silver are detected. These tips are then used in tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) detection under 532 nm excitation to demonstrate the effect of resonant excitation on field enhancement. The corresponding relationship between the measured spectral response and the tip’s enhancement performance in TERS is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under-dispersed count data often appear in clinical trials, medical studies, demography, actuarial science, ecology, biology, industry and engineering. Although the generalized Poisson (GP) distribution possesses the twin properties of under- and over-dispersion, in the past 50 years, many authors only treat the GP distribution as an alternative to the negative binomial distribution for modeling over-dispersed count data. To our best knowledge, the issues of calculating maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of parameters in GP model without covariates and with covariates for the case of under-dispersion were not solved up to now. In this paper, we first develop a new minimization–maximization (MM) algorithm to calculate the MLEs of parameters in the GP distribution with under-dispersion, and then we develop another new MM algorithm to compute the MLEs of the vector of regression coefficients for the GP mean regression model for the case of under-dispersion. Three hypothesis tests (i.e., the likelihood ratio, Wald and score tests) are provided. Some simulations are conducted. The Bangladesh demographic and health surveys dataset is analyzed to illustrate the proposed methods and comparisons with the existing Conway–Maxwell–Poisson regression model are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuropathic pain (NP) is a common pain disease that seriously affects the quality of life and physical and mental health of patients. Daphnetin is extracted from the Daphne giraldii Nitsche and has the structure of 7,8-dihydroxy coumarin. As a natural product, daphnetin displays a wide range of pharmacological activities, such as analgesia and anti-inflammatory activities, but whether it is able to improve NP through anti-inflammatory effects is unknown. Therefore, this paper intends to investigate the mechanism of daphnetin in improving NP rats affected by the intrathecal injection of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) from the perspective of anti-inflammation. Our results showed that daphnetin significantly improved hyperalgesia in NP rats. Daphnetin inhibited the activation and polarization of glial cells and neurons in the spinal cord of NP rats and reduced the expression of mRNA and protein of inflammatory factors and chemokine pairs in the spinal cord. Daphnetin inhibited the polarization of human microglia cell 3 (HMC3) cells and human glioma cells (U251) cells toward M1 microglia and A1 astrocytes, respectively, and induced the conversion of M1 microglia and A1 astrocytes to M2 microglia and A2 astrocytes, respectively. In conclusion, daphnetin ameliorates NP by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory factors and chemokines and the polarization of glial cells in the spinal cord of NP rats. This study provides a theoretical basis for the treatment of NP with daphnetin to expand the clinical application of daphnetin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We find and verify that unidirectional surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are highly excited by subwavelength metallic gratings with back-side illumination around the plasmonic critical angle (PCA). The conditions and physical origins of the SPP excitation around the PCA are clarified. Moreover, the experimental results support our numerical calculations very well. Potential applications are also suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Increasing evidences have shown that dissolved organic components are responsible for the significant C and N exports from terrestrial ecosystems to the surrounding aquatic ecosystems and very sensitive to CO2 enrichment. However, there is still a lack of direct evidence about CO2-led effects on these components at the ecosystem scale, especially in wetlands. We, therefore, simultaneously investigated the contents of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved nitrogen (DN) in the surface water and soil layer in a paddy field under FACE facility in Eastern China. Elevated CO2 significantly increased the contents of DOC and DN in the surface water by 18.0% and 14.3% on average. Elevated CO2 also increased DOC content in the soil, but decreased DN content. The contents of DOC and DN in the soil–water interface of 0–1cm soil layer were on average 22.4% and 47.5% higher than in the 5–15cm soil layer. Besides, significant higher DOC and DN contents existed in the soil porewater than in the surface water. Due to multiple drainage regime and rainstorm-induced runoffs in rice cropping regions, CO2-led DOC and DN increments in the surface water may increase C and N exports from paddies to the surrounding aquatic ecosystems under future climate patterns. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copper powder has excellent electrical conductivity, but is easily oxidized by air. This limits its application in printed circuits and related fields. In this paper, graphene was grown in-situ on the surface of dendritic copper powder in order to improve the powders' oxidation resistance and maintain its high electrical conductivity. Firstly, dendritic copper powder with a diameter of about 100-200 nm was prepared by electrochemical deposition. Then, the powder was coated with an amorphous carbon film by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) using C 2 H 2 at 350 °C. Finally, the amorphous carbon film was transformed into graphene at 850 °C, and dendritic copper powder coated with graphene was obtained. TG-DTA and electrical resistivity measurements showed that the oxidation resistance temperature of dendritic copper powder can be increased from 213.7 °C to 283.4 °C and the resistivity can be reduced from 0.00544 Ω·cm to 0.00308 Ω·cm by in-situ growth of graphene on the surface of copper powder. The in-situ synthesis of graphene is expected to promote the wide application of copper powder in areas requiring high electrical conductivity and oxidation resistance. [Display omitted] • Amorphous carbon is deposited at low temperature and converted into graphene at high temperature. • The oxidation resistance temperature of dendritic copper powder increase 69.7 °C by in-situ growth of graphene. • The resistivity reduced from 0.00544 Ω·cm to 0.00308 Ω·cm by in-situ growth of graphene on the surface of copper powder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new integral evolution formula of boundary value problem for wave equations of the form u t t (x , t) + L (x , D) u (x , t) = f (x , t). By introducing the operator functions, e.g., ϕ -functions, and using the Duhamel's principle, a compact integral evolution formula is established for inhomogeneous wave equations. The derivation is based on Duhamel's principle and the theory of operational calculus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we report a simple but effective nose/tongue-mimic sensor array based on HAuCl4/3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) for colorimetric discrimination and determination of antioxidants. Two concentrations of HAuCl4 were employed as receptor units to construct the colorimetric sensor array. The sensing strategy is based on the fact that HAuCl4 with different concentrations (0.08 and 0.03 mM) could oxidize TMB to oxidized TMB (oxTMB), resulting in a blue and green color solution, respectively, corresponding to an absorption peak centered at 440 nm and 657 nm. However, the presence of different antioxidants could cause the reduction in HAuCl4, leading to the fading of the blue and green color and the decrease in the absorbance at 440 nm and 657 nm to varying degrees. Based on the above phenomena, by taking advantage of linear discriminant analysis (LDA), five antioxidants (i.e. ascorbic acid (AA), melatonin (MT), uric acid (UA), tannic acid (TCA), and glycine (Gly)) at five concentrations (200, 120, 60, 20, and 1 nM) were successfully discriminated both in buffer and serum. More importantly, this approach is simple, fast, and without the use of any nanomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daphnetin is a natural product with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties. Reports have found that it has a strong analgesic effect; however, its analgesic mechanism is unknown. We explored the effect and mechanism of daphnetin on neuropathic pain (NP). The rat model of NP was established by ligation of the sciatic nerve. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups: Control, Model, Sham, morphine (0.375 mg/kg), and daphnetin (0.0625 and 0.025 mg/kg). Rats were intrathecally injected with drugs or normal saline once daily for three days. Hyperalgesia was evaluated by mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) and thermal withdrawal threshold (TWT). Protein levels were detected using ELISA, immunofluorescence, and western blotting. Compared to the Model group, daphnetin improved TWT (46.70 °C vs. 42.20 °C) and MWT (45.60 g vs. 23.60 g), reduced the expression of interleukin-1β (0.99 ng/g vs. 1.42 ng/g), interleukin-6 (0.90 ng/g vs. 1.52 ng/g), and tumor necrosis factor-α (0.93 ng/g vs. 1.52 ng/g) in the sciatic nerve. Daphnetin decreased the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) (0.47-fold), phosphorylated inhibitor of NF-κB (p-IKBα) (0.29-fold), nuclear factor kappaB (NF-κB) (0.48-fold), glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) (0.42-fold), CXC chemokine ligand type 1 (CXCL1) (0.84-fold), CXC chemokine receptor type 2 (CXCR2) (0.78-fold) in the spinal cord. Daphnetin alleviates NP by inhibiting inflammation and astrocyte activation in the spinal cord, providing theoretical support for the extensive clinical treatment of NP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crop leaf color is tightly connected with its meteorological environment. Color gradation skewness-distribution (CGSD) parameters can describe the information of leaf color more accurately, systematically, and comprehensively from five dimensions. We took photographs of pepper growing in the greenhouse at a fixed time every day and observed the meteorological factors. The results showed that the CGSD parameters were significantly correlated with meteorological factors, especially with the accumulated temperature, which showed the strongest correlation. Since the relationship between canopy leaf color and accumulated temperature is nonlinear, the piecewise inversion models were constructed by taking the stationary point of the high-order response model of Gskewness to accumulated temperature as the point of demarcation. The rate of outliers had decreased by 57.72%; moreover, the overall inversion accuracy had increased by 3.31% compared with the linear model directly constructed by the stepwise regression. It was observed that the pepper in the greenhouse had a different response to the same meteorological environmental stimulus before and after the stationary point. This study will provide a new method for constructing crop growth models in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the delayed release characteristics of CO gas in the initial stage of the low-temperature oxidation of coal, closed oxygen consumption experiments were conducted on coal samples taken from the Hongqingliang coal mine, and the corresponding relationship between the CO concentration and time in the initial stage of the experimental reaction was analyzed. A physical adsorption model of the macromolecules in coal for O2 and CO was established, and the difference in the competitive adsorption between the CO and O2 gas molecules on the coal surface was analyzed from a microscopic perspective using the grand canonical ensemble Monte Carlo simulation. The results showed a delayed CO release phenomenon in the initial stage of the reaction in all the experiments, and the delayed time of CO release was negatively correlated with the temperature; the relationship between the adsorption amounts of CO and O2 in the molecular structure model of coal was CO > O2. With increasing temperature, the adsorption capacity of the two gases decreased. Under the same conditions, there was competitive adsorption of the mixture of CO and O2 by coal, with the adsorption capacity of CO being much greater than that of O2. The adsorption of CO gas molecules by coal played an inhibitory role in the release of CO gas in the initial oxidation stage. The study results are expected to help understand the CO generation characteristics in the goaf of coal seam working faces and thus prevent coal mine disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although deep learning-based RGB-D salient object detection methods have achieved impressive results in the recent years, there are still some issues need to be addressed including multi-modal fusion and multi-level aggregation. In this paper, we propose a bifurcated multi-modal fusion network (BMFNet) to address these two issues cooperatively. First, we design a multi-modal feature interaction (MFI) module to fully capture the complementary information between the RGB and depth features by leveraging the channel attention and spatial attention. Second, unlike the widely used layer-by-layer progressive fusion, we adopt a bifurcated fusion strategy for all the multi-level unimodal and cross-modal features to effectively reduce the gaps between features at different levels. For the intra-group feature aggregation, a multi-modal feature fusion (MFF) module is designed to integrate the intra-group multi-modal features to produce a low-level/high-level saliency feature. For the inter-group aggregation, a multi-scale feature learning (MFL) module is introduced to exploit the contextual interactions between different scales to boost fusion performance. Experimental results on five public RGB-D datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our proposed network. The code and prediction maps will be available at https://github.com/ZhangQing0329/BMFNet • We propose a bifurcated multi-modal fusion network for RGB-D saliency detection. • We design an MFI module to capture the complementary information of RGB and depth. • We use a bifurcated fusion strategy to reduce the gaps between multi-level features. • The proposed method performs competitively against the recent methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dispersants play an important role in improving the physical stability of the suspension. In this work, four polyurethane dispersants (PUDs) were successfully designed and synthesized by adjusting the dosage of DMPA and terminating with PEG (600, 800, 1000) through prepolymer dispersion method. Subsequently, 430 g/L tebuconazole suspension concentrate (SC) was selected to investigate the effects of different PUDs on the Zeta potential, particle size, suspension rate, viscosity, absorbance ratio and rheological properties. The results showed that the suspension system was the most stable when the dispersant dosage was 4 wt%. And the dispersion stability of tebuconazole SC prepared with PUD8–600 (8 wt% DMPA) is higher than that of prepared with PUD5–600 (5 wt% DMPA). Furthermore, the dispersion stability of tebuconazole SC is also significantly related to the molecular weights of PEG, in which that PEG-800 end-capped dispersant (PUD8–800) displayed best dispersion stability with low viscosity (187 mPa·s) and zeta potential (- 40.6 mV). [Display omitted] • Four new polyurethane dispersants (PUDs) were developed through PEGylated strategy. • The four PUDs exhibited synergistic effects of electrostatic repulsion and steric hindrance. • The four PUDs were applied to improving the dispersion stability of 430 g/L tebuconazole SC. • SC-PUD8-800 which with 8 wt% DMPA and PEG 800 showed the most superior dispersion stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A two-step modal emission model for HEVs was developed using real-driving emissions. • The HEV can achieve over 50% CO 2 and CO emission reduction in on-road tests. • The model was applied to large real-driving datasets from Toronto and Beijing. • Emission reductions were lower for Toronto, which has more aggressive driving. • The study highlights the conditions where HEV can yield the most emission benefits. This study tested exhaust emissions and fuel consumption for a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in real-world conditions using a portable emissions measurement system (PEMS). A gradient boosting model was developed to predict the electric motor's operation and emissions using only vehicle kinematic data. The model was applied to estimate the potential emission reductions that would be achieved with HEVs compared to conventional vehicles, using two large real-driving activity datasets collected in Greater Toronto and Metropolitan Beijing. The emission reductions estimated for Toronto were 21.6%, 31.3%, and 53.0% for CO 2 , CO, and NO x , and 41.0%, 28.9%, and 68.5% for Beijing. We observed higher emission reductions for CO 2 and NO x under low power demand vehicle operations, which occur more frequently in Beijing, while more aggressive driving was noted in Toronto, leading to smaller estimated benefits of HEVs. Compared to previous studies, our explainable gradient boosting model improved prediction accuracy and robustness substantially by achieving an average Pearson correlation of 0.741 from cross-validation. This study goes beyond an analysis of HEV emissions from engine and motor operations by applying real-world driving data from two large metropolitan areas to the model. By doing so, a novel investigation of the traffic situations, roads, and driving behaviours that yield the highest emission benefits for HEVs was conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Fresnel diffraction of resonant diffraction grating is studied on the basis of the modal method, and it shows that the conventional fractional Talbot effect can still occur by choosing appropriate parameters. The Fresnel diffraction distributions of the resonant diffraction gratings with periods between λ and 4λ are analyzed, and the diffraction fields exhibit periodicity in both grating direction and the propagating direction. The experiment is carried out to verify the simulation results of the quasi-fractional Talbot effect of the resonant diffraction grating. This effect has potential application in lithography for high-resolution patterning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background and aims: Mineral cycling plays a critical role in wetland ecosystem functions and can be affected by environmental changes, such as CO enrichment. Learning the responses of mineral bioavailability in wetlands to elevated CO under field conditions will provide enormous benefits to the assessment of climate change impacts on wetland ecosystems. Methods: A free-air CO enrichment (FACE) experiment was conducted in a rice ecosystem in Jiangsu, China, with two nitrogen (N) application levels. Responses of K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Si in this ecosystem were investigated in situ. Results: CO enrichment increased rice biomass Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Si regardless of N application levels. Dissolved mineral contents in surface water and available mineral contents in the 0-15 cm soil layer were higher in the FACE plots than in the ambient under both N levels. Elevated CO reduced the pH values of the 0-15 cm soil layer and surface water, but increased the cation exchange capacity of the soil layer. The effects of N treatment and its interaction with CO enrichment were mostly insignificant on the above parameters. Conclusions: Our results indicate that CO enrichment can enhance mineral bioavailability in a rice ecosystem through accelerating mineral transformation from the bio-inactive reservoirs to the bioactive ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any disturbance in the ventilation system of a mine during a coal and gas outburst can lead to secondary disasters. This is because, on the one hand, the expansion power of the outburst source makes the airflow in the ventilation system countercurrent, causing the gas in this system to exceed the allowable limit. On the other hand, the airflow density changes because of the outburst and the consequent airflow mixing in the mine roadway, thereby changing the natural wind pressure. From this, the concept of natural gas wind pressure is proposed, and a calculation method for this pressure in a 3D model mine ventilation system is derived. For the "11.10" major coal and gas outburst that occurred in Shizhuang Coal Mine in Qujing, Yunnan Province, the entire process of the counter flow and gas dispersion flow in the main and auxiliary shafts is analyzed using the TF1M 3D simulation program, including the dynamic change in the natural wind pressure in the mine in each stage. The simulation shows that during the gas outburst period, the natural gas pressure of the countercurrent circuit is greater than that of the main fan. Between 140 s and 225 s following the outburst, the natural wind pressure once overcomes the fan pressure and reverses the airflow in the 1824 transport roadway, and the gas is withdrawn from the 1727 service point. Evidently, the natural pressure of the gas produced by the outburst affects the mine ventilation system. In the event of a coal and gas outburst in a private village coal mine, if the natural gas wind pressure can be reasonably utilized and the main fan stopped or the entire mine reversed in time, casualties may be minimized. Scholars studying coal and gas outburst mines should pay attention to mine airflow disorder due to the varying natural gas wind pressure when an outburst occurs and perform simulation drills of the outburst beforehand. Thus, a scientific emergency management plan for mine disaster prevention and reduction can be formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miniaturized ultraviolet spectrometer is promising for on-site accurate detections. In this work, a high-resolution on-chip ultraviolet spectrometer is designed and analyzed. MgF 2 and Al 2 O 3 are selected as the substrate and core material of the waveguide, respectively, resulting in a low bending loss of 1.5 dB/cm at a radius of 3 μ m and wavelength of 278 nm. The spectrometer is designed as a cascaded structure composed of ultra-compact multi-diffraction order arrayed waveguide gratings and low-loss microrings. The cascaded structure exhibits a high wavelength resolution of 0.048 nm (the spectral resolution of the structure is 6.8 cm−1, quality factor is 5790) and low insertion loss of 3.98 dB ∼ 7.55 dB, comparable to the performance of the lens-based ultraviolet Raman spectroscopy systems. This work may pave the way for the development of ultra-compact chip-based ultraviolet spectrometers. • High resolution Cascaded AWG-MRR structure UV spectrometer. • Low-loss MgF 2 -Al 2 O 3 ultraviolet waveguide structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fe(III) oxides have been investigated to accelerate anaerobic methanogenic degradation of complex organic compounds. However, the critical role linked to the characteristics of different types of Fe(III) oxides is still unclear. Study presented here performed a side-by-side comparison of four types of Fe(III) oxides including Fe(III)-citrate, ferrihydrite, hematite and magnetite to evaluate their effectiveness in methanogenic degradation of phenol. Results showed that, amorphous Fe(III)-citrate group showed the fastest phenol degradation and Fe2+ release among all the groups, followed by poorly crystalline ferrihydrite. Although Fe(III)-citrate group also showed the fastest methane production rate, the efficiency of electron recovery in methane production was only 58–78%, which was evidently lower than that in both crystalline hematite (86–89%) and magnetite (93–97%) groups. Methane production rate with non-conductive ferrihydrite was nearly same as that with conductive magnetite, both of which were significantly higher than that with semi-conductive hematite. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that sludge collected from hematite and magnetite group still respectively presented a relatively intact characteristic spectra involved in hematite and magnetite. Differently, the characteristic spectra involved in ferrihydrite was not evident in sludge collected from ferrihydrite group, whereas the characteristic spectra involved in magnetite was detected. Microbial community analysis showed that, both Fe(III)-citrate and ferrihydrite specially enriched Fe(III)-reducing bacteria capable of degrading phenol into fatty acids (Trichococcus and Caloramator) via dissimilatory Fe(III) reduction. Fe(III)-citrate also stimulated the growth of Syntrophus capable of degrading phenol/benzoate into acetate and proceeding direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET). In magnetite and hematite group, the abundance of Enterococcus species evidently increased, and they might proceed DIET with Methanothrix species in syntrophic conversion of fatty acids into methane. • Methanogenic degradation of phenol with four types of Fe(III) oxides was compared. • Fe(III)-Citrate/ferrihydrite enriched phenol-degrading Fe(III)-reducing bacteria. • Fe(III)-Citrate stimulated the growth of Syntrophus capable of proceeding DIET. • Magnetite/hematite promoted potential DIET between Enterococcus and Methanothrix. • Secondary mineralization of transformation of ferrihydrite to magnetite was observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Logic NOT and AND gates with a footprint of 1.2 × 1.2 μm2 is designed. • The respond time of our devices is less than 0.25 ps. • The devices keep functional when pixel side length varies from 112 to 125 nm. • Both gates have good tolerance for Input phase difference. We have designed high-speed ultra-compact all-optical NOT and AND gates operating at 1550 nm on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) by a multi-objetice particle swarm optimized inverse-design method. The two gates have a similar four-port structure based on an extremely small area of 1. 2 × 1. 2 µm2. The ultra-small size of device leads to a short respond time less than 0.25 ps. Benefiting from the global optimization of our inverse-design method, our devices have a good tolerance on phase changes of input light. The not gate could keep working while the phase difference of input ranges from 0 to 0.3 π. The situation for AND gate is −0.25 to 0.75 π. Also the maximum contrast ratio is 7.16 dB for the NOT gate and 3.98 for the AND gate, respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate that the design method could have tolerance for small changes in device geometry, which means that our logic gates could remain functional while the pixel side length ranges from 112 to 125 nm. The tiny size, fast response and high robustness make our devices promising for future photonic-integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A year-long campaign measured ultrafine particle and black carbon concentrations. • Land use regression models developed using land use parameters. • Deep learning models developed using digital satellite view images. • Combining land use regression and deep learning models resulted in best performance. • Residential instability was associated with elevated pollution concentrations. Concentrations of outdoor ultrafine particles (UFP; <0.1 µm) and black carbon (BC) can vary greatly within cities and long-term exposures to these pollutants have been associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes. This study integrated multiple approaches to develop new models to estimate within-city spatial variations in annual median (i.e. average) outdoor UFP and BC concentrations as well as mean UFP size in Canada's two largest cities, Montreal and Toronto. We conducted year-long mobile monitoring campaigns in each city that included evenings and weekends. We developed generalized additive models trained on land use parameters and deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models trained on satellite-view images. Using predictions from these models, we developed final combined models. In Toronto, the median observed UFP concentration, UFP size, and BC concentration values were 16,172pt/cm3, 33.7 nm, and 1225 ng/m3, respectively. In Montreal, the median observed UFP concentration, UFP size, and BC concentration values were 14,702pt/cm3, 29.7 nm, and 1060 ng/m3, respectively. For all pollutants in both cities, the proportion of spatial variation explained (i.e., R2) was slightly greater (1–2 percentage points) for the combined models than the generalized additive models and a greater (approximately 10 percentage points) than the deep CNN models. The Toronto combined model R2 values in the test set were 0.73, 0.55, and 0.61 for UFP concentrations, UFP size, and BC concentration, respectively. The Montreal combined model R2 values were 0.60, 0.49, and 0.60 for UFP concentration, UFP size, and BC concentration models respectively. For each pollutant, predictions from the combined, deep CNN, and generalized additive models were highly correlated with each other and differences between models were explored in sensitivity analyses. Predictions from these models are available to support future epidemiological research examining long-term health impacts of outdoor UFPs and BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of androgens on chronic heart failure (CHF) in a rat model. A total of 120 Sprague Dawley male rats were randomly divided into the following groups: (A) sham operation group, (B) castrated group, (C) heart failure (HF) group, (D) castrated + HF group, and (E) castrated + HF + testosterone (T) replacement therapy group. There were 20 rats in group A, and 25 rats in the other groups. Surgical castration was performed on groups B, D and E, and T replacement therapy was administered to group E. Groups C, D and E were treated with doxorubicin hydrochloride to prepare the CHF animal model. The insulin sensitivity index (ISI) was calculated from fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin levels. Echocardiography was performed. Venous blood was collected for plasma T level test. Myocardial tissue was used for apoptosis index analysis. The expression levels of myocardial insulin receptor (IR) and insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) were measured by reverse transcription semi-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Compared with group A, the T level and ISI decreased, whereas the expression level of IR and IRS-1 were increased in the CHF group (P<0.05). Following castration, the T level and ISI were significantly decreased, and the expression of IR and IRS-1 were increased compared with the uncastrated CHF rats (P<0.01). Following androgen administration, the ISI increased, expression of IR and IRS-1 decreased, and the myocardial apoptosis index decreased (P<0.05). Taken together, these results demonstrated that androgen supplementation could improve insulin resistance and affect the expression of IR and IRS-1 in CHF, thereby reducing myocardial apoptosis and improving cardiac function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant efforts have been made to assess the impact of tillage regimes on crop yields and/or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across single crop growing season. However, few studies have quantified the impact across a whole rotation cycle in multiple cropping systems. Utilizing on a long-term tillage experiment with the rice–wheat rotation system in East China, we examined the GHG emissions under different tillage practices with or without crop straw incorporation. Results showed that compared to the no-straw control, straw incorporation increased wheat yield by 28.3% ( P < 0.05), irrespective of tillage practices, but had no significant effect on rice yield. Although straw incorporation did not significantly affect CH 4 emissions during the wheat season and N 2 O emissions during the whole rice–wheat cycle, it significantly stimulated CH 4 emissions by 98.8% ( P < 0.01) during the rice season. Also, there were no significant differences in CH 4 and N 2 O emissions between tillage practices during the wheat season. Compared to plowing, rotary tillage increased CH 4 emissions significantly by an average of 38.8% ( P < 0.01) but had no significant impacts on N 2 O emissions during the rice season. Across the rotation cycle, annual yield-scaled global warming potential of CH 4 and N 2 O emissions under no-tillage plus rotary tillage was 26.8% ( P < 0.01) greater than that of rotary tillage plus plowing with or without straw incorporation. Significant interactions between soil tillage and straw management practices were found on annual GHG emissions, but not on crop yields. Together, these results indicate that plowing in the rice season plus rotary tillage in the wheat season may reduce GHG emissions while increasing crop yield in rice–wheat cropping areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from paddy field have primarily focused on the post-transplanting period, however, recent researches raise new concerns about GHGs emission from rice nursery. In this study, CH 4 and N 2 O fluxes were determined from different nurseries under major rice cropping systems in China. The tested nurseries included flooded nursery (FN), moist nursery (MN) and dry nursery (DN). Methane emissions from FN were significantly higher than those from MN and DN under all the rice cropping systems. When comparing with FN, MN decreased total CH 4 emissions by 74.2%, 72.1% and 49.6% under the rice–upland rotation cropping system (RUR), and the double rice cropping system for the early rice (EDR) and the late rice (LDR), respectively. DN decreased CH 4 emissions by 99.2%, 92.0%, 99.0% and 78.6% compared to FN under the single rice cropping system (SR), RUR, EDR and LDR, respectively. When comparing with FN, MN and DN increased N 2 O emissions by 58.1–134.1% and 28.2–332.7%, respectively. Ultimately, compared with FN across the cropping systems, MN and DN decreased net global warming potentials (GWPs) of CH 4 and N 2 O by 33–68% and 43–86%, respectively. The mitigating effect of MN and DN on total GWPs varied greatly across the systems, ranging from 30.8% in the LDR to 86.5% in the SR. Chinese actual emission from rice nurseries was reduced to 956.66 × 10 3 t CO 2 eq from the theoretical estimate of 2242.59 × 10 3 t CO 2 eq if under the flooded nursery scenario in 2012. Taking into account the large rice nursery area (2032.52 × 10 3 ha) in China, the results of this study clearly indicate the importance to estimate and mitigate GHGs emission from flooded rice nursery. Being effective to reduce GHG emissions and increase rice yield, dry nursery technique is a promising candidate for climate smart rice cropping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kitchen wastes (KW) have been widely investigated for bio-ethanol production, while no study utilizes KW as ethanol source to stimulate the methanogenic communities to perform direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET), since the excess acidity contained after the biological ethanol-type fermentation pretreatment (BEFP) can seriously inhibit the DIET-based syntrophic metabolism. In this study, a strategy that utilized waste activated sludge (WAS) as co-substrate to relieve the excess acidity after BEFP during anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) was proposed. The results showed that, under the mixed ratio of 1:2 and 1:5 (KW:WAS, volume ratio), both methane production and organic compound removal evidently increased, compared with that treating the sole WAS. Conversely, under the other mixed ratios (sole KW, 5:1, 2:1 and 1:1), no methane but the evident hydrogen production was detected, and syntrophic metabolism of organic acids and alcohols was prevented. Three-dimensional excitation emission matrix (3D-EEM) analysis showed that the protein-like organic compounds contained in both KW and WAS were effectively degraded. Furthermore, the maximum methane production potential from WAS during AcoD (260.5 ± 4.1 and 264.3 ± 2.7 mL/g-COD) was higher than that treating sole WAS (250.8 ± 0.1 mL/g-COD). Microbial community analysis showed that, some genera capable of metabolizing the complex organic compounds with the reduction of the elemental sulfur or equipped with the electrically conductive pili were specially enriched during AcoD under the mixed ratio of 1:2 and 1:5. They might proceed DIET with methanogens, such as Methanosarcina and Methanospirillum species, to maintain the syntrophic metabolism effective and stable, since the abundance of both Methanosarcina and Methanospirillum species evidently increased. Image 1 • Kitchen wastes (KW) as bio-ethanol source were used to establish DIET. • Waste activated sludge (WAS) relieved excess acidity in KW after ethanol production. • Degradation of both KW and WAS was enhanced during anaerobic co-digestion. • Some sulfur-reducing genera and genera equipped with e-pili were specially enriched. • Abundance of both Methanosarcina and Methanospirillum significantly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photonic spin–orbit interactions (SOI) provide a new design paradigm of functional nanomaterials and nanostructures, and have especially accelerated advances in spin–orbit photonics. The berry phase or the geometric phase, a salient property of SOI, plays a vital role in this process. Thus, the characterization of photonic SOI processes together with the Berry phase is highly demanded for studies such as the optical spin‐Hall effect, spin‐to‐vortex conversion, and Rashba effect. Here, a spin‐selective and phase‐resolved near‐field microscopic method is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for real‐time probing and direct visualization of photonic SOI at mesoscale, and a 3D tomographic technique for imaging the spatial evolutions of the optical phases is also properly realized. By analyzing a metallic metasurface as a spin‐to‐vortex conversion platform, the abrupt geometric phase and the spatially evolutional dynamic phases are directly measured and intuitively illustrated. This work provides a powerful tool for the study of spin–orbit phenomena in near‐field optics, and can hold the promise for directly exploring the spin‐dependent surface states in plasmonics and photonic topological insulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]