Search

The transportation industry plays a key role in reducing urban emissions of air pollutants and energy consumption. The transition from traditional fossil fuel-based vehicles (TFFBVs) to new energy vehicles (NEVs) is critical to China's strategic goal of reaching peak carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060. On the basis of the environmental status and development of NEVs in Chongqing in 2020, we designed scenarios for replacing TFFBVs in Chongqing with NEVs according to targets such as the number of proposed NEVs in China's 14th Five-Year Plan. Following this, we evaluated the environmental and health benefits of NEVs and their monetary value using exposure–response and disease–cost methods. Replacing 18%, 35%, and 50% of TFFBVs with NEVs can create health benefits of approximately CNY 11.391 billion, CNY 21.696 billion, and CNY 30.443 billion, accounting for 4.56%, 8.68%, and 12.18%, respectively, of Chongqing's GDP in 2020. These amounts exceed the cost of government subsidies. Greater health benefits were derived from reducing the toxic emissions of nitrogen dioxide (NO2); the reduction in deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases created the best benefits for health endpoints, exceeding a 59% reduction in all three scenarios. Our study provides empirical support for promoting NEVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parts of working machinery have always suffered from various working conditions in the process of use (e.g., high temperature, high humidity, and high pressure) that may generate flaws, pitting, thermal fatigue crack and other types of defects on the surface or inside. Because these tiny defects carry big safety risks, regular detection is necessary to ensure the reliability of the production equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As high voltage pulse power capacitors, ceramic capacitors are widely used in high voltage pulse generators, trigger circuits, laser generators, and other fields. The capacitance of ceramic capacitors is closely related to the direct current (DC) bias voltage. However, the current capacitance measurement methods can only achieve a DC bias of 1 kV, which cannot meet the measurement requirements in high voltage environments. This paper proposes a capacitance measurement method that can accurately measure the capacitance under a DC bias of 3 kV. This method decouples the high DC bias voltage and high frequency alternating small signals and realizes low voltage calibration and high voltage isolation. The experimental results show that the proposed method measures the capacitance under a DC bias of 3 kV with a relative error within ±1%, which makes it possible to accurately quantify the capacitance hysteresis deviation in the process of increasing and decreasing back the voltage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteosarcoma (OS) is a tumour with a high malignancy level and a poor prognosis. First-line chemotherapy for OS has not been improved for many decades. Bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) regulate histone acetylation in tandem, and BET and HDACs have emerged as potential cancer therapeutic targets. Methods: Cell proliferation, migration, invasion, colony formation, and sphere-forming assays were performed with the two inhibitors alone or in combination to evaluate their suppressive effect on the malignant properties of OS cells. Apoptosis and the cell cycle profile were measured by flow cytometry. The synergistic inhibitory effect of OTX015/WT-161 on tumours was also examined in a nude mouse xenograft model. Results: The combined therapy of OTX015/WT-161 synergistically inhibited growth, migration, and invasion and induced apoptosis, resulting in G1/S arrest of OS cells. Additionally, OTX015/WT-161 inhibited the self-renewal ability of OS stem cells (OSCs) in a synergistic manner. Further mechanistic exploration revealed that the synergistic downregulation of β-catenin by OTX015-mediated suppression of FZD2 and WT-161-mediated upregulation of PTEN may be critical for the synergistic effect. Finally, the results of an in vivo assay showed that tumour xenografts were significantly decreased after treatment with the OTX015/WT-161 combination compared with OTX015 or WT-161 alone. Conclusions: Our findings in this study demonstrated that OTX015 and WT-161 had synergistic anticancer efficacy against OS, and their combination might be a promising therapeutic strategy for OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metabolic change of tumor cells is an extremely complicated process that involves the intersection and integration of various signal pathways. Compared with normal tissues, cancer cells show distinguished metabolic characteristics called metabolic reprogramming, which has been considered as a sign of cancer occurrence. With the deepening of tumor research in recent years, people gradually found that amino acid metabolism played crucial roles in cancer progression. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are implicated in many important biological processes, were firstly discovered dysregulating in cancer tissues and participating in extensive regulation of tumorigenesis. This review focuses on the reprogramming of amino acid metabolism in cancers and how lncRNAs participate in the regulatory network by interacting with other macromolecular substances. Understanding the functions of lncRNA in amino acid reprogramming in tumors might provide a new vision on the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and the development of new approaches for cancer therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Breast cancer metastasis suppressor 1 like (BRMS1-like)was first reported to be a component of the Sin3-HDAC complex, but the role in the progression of cancers was largely unknown. Our previous study reported that BRMS1L promoted the metastasis of breast cancer through facilitating the recruitment of HDAC complex to the promoter FZD10, and hence suppressing the transcription of FZD10. Methods: In this study, we detected the expression level of BRMS1L in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The effect of BRMS1L in TE-1D (knockdown) and ECA-109 (overexpression) cell lines was explored by transwell assays, wound healing assays, and cell adhesion assays. Quantitative real‑time PCR, Western blot analysis, and luciferase assays were used to detect the interaction of the CBP/P300-BRMS1L-ITGA7 axis. Results: In the present study, we found that knockdown of BRMS1L promoted the migration, invasion, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT). Conversely, overexpression of BRMS1L inhibited the migration and invasion of ESCC. Mechanistically, BRMS1L exerted their metastasis-suppressing role via transcriptionally repress ITGA7 expression. Moreover, we revealed that CBP/p 300 regulated the expression of BRMS1L and might be responsible for the down-regulation of BRMS1L in ESCC. Conclusion: Collectively, we identified the role of CBP/p300-BRMS1L-ITGA7 axis in the metastasis of ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wafer design of a widely tunable InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (VECSEL) at 1,064 nm was presented. A GaAs/AlAs based double-band mirror (DBM) was employed to yield sufficient reflectivity ( $$>$$ 0.999) over 118 nm wavelength coverage, which is 54 nm wider than that of a usually used distributed Bragg reflector. In the active region, an antiresonant subcavity, formed by the DBM and the air-semiconductor interface, was introduced to produce extended longitudinal confinement factor, and two kinds of InGaAs quantum wells with different In composition were used to expand the material gain. As a result, a broadband gain spectrum of the semiconductor wafer with 85 nm FWHM bandwidth was obtained, and this was valuable for broadband performance of a tunable VECSEL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly efficient stacked organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) have been fabricated using Mg:Alq3:BCP/WO3 as a novel intermediate layer, which connects two identical emissive units. The stacked OLEDs consisting of NPB/Alq3 exhibited high current efficiency and brightness characteristics over conventional single-unit device. At 200 mA/cm2, the current efficiency of the stacked OLEDs using the intermediate layers of Mg:Alq3:BCP/WO3 were about 6.85 cd/A, doubling that of the conventional device. The results may prove the method to be effective to enhance the current efficiency and brightness of OLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tensile force on the hanger cables of a suspension bridge is an important indicator of the structural health of the bridge. Tensile force estimation methods based on the measured frequency of the hanger cable have been widely used. These methods empirically pre-determinate the corresponding model order of the measured frequency. However, because of the uncertain flexural rigidity, this empirical order determination method not only plays a limited role in high-order frequencies, but also hinders the online cable force estimation. Therefore, we propose a new method to automatically identify the corresponding model order of the measured frequency, which is based on a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)-based Bayesian approach. It solves the limitation of empirical determination in the case of large flexural rigidity. The tensile force and the flexural rigidity of cables can be calculated simultaneously using the proposed method. The feasibility of the proposed method is validated via a numerical study involving a finite element model that considers the flexural rigidity and via field application to a suspension bridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an optically pumped semiconductor disc laser, which is always with a multiple layer active region and a large spot size, the spontaneous emission of quantum wells will be trapped by the waveguide caused by the multiple layer, travel a long excited distance relative to the surface-emitting mode and be subsequently amplified. Here we demonstrate a new mechanism for the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE): the etalon effect of the sub-cavity formed by the bottom distributed Bragg reflector and the top air–semiconductor interface. The spectral characteristics of this ASE including its temperature dependence, pump power dependence and observing angle dependence are experimentally studied, and the results are in good agreement with the theoretical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]