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2D materials have attracted considerable attention in the past decades for their unique properties, making the understanding of their nucleation process key to effective synthesis. Traditional explanations of thin‐film growth, focusing on the competition between atom interactions at the interface and within layers, often fall short of explaining real experimental results. Herein, a penetrated nucleation mechanism is proposed for 2D materials growth on metal substrates, taking into account the role of metal substrate atoms. This approach leads to a better understanding of how the surface shape evolves in two specific ways during growth in real experimental findings. Supported by detailed first‐principles simulations of boron on metal substrates and thermodynamic analyses of other studies involving metals and nonmetals, the above‐proposed mechanism is validated. Moreover, a broad strategy for growing large‐scale 2D materials on metal surfaces without creating undesired alloy layers is also presented, by adjusting the interfacial interactions by surface passivation, validated by existing experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safe traffic is an important part of sustainable transportation. Road traffic accidents lead to a large number of casualties and property losses every year. Current research mainly studies some types of traffic accidents and ignores other types of traffic accidents; therefore, taking various types of road traffic accidents as a whole, an overall study of their influencing factors is urgently needed. To improve road traffic safety, taking various types of road traffic accidents as a whole, this paper analyzes the influencing factors and finds out the causative factors of road traffic accidents. A new index system of road traffic accident influencing factors is constructed based on the existing literature and real traffic data, and their subjective weights and objective weights are obtained by the analytic hierarchy process based on the subjective data and the normalization of the actual traffic data for Yizheng City, Yangzhou, China from January 2020 to December 2020, where the subjective weights are the main weights, and comprehensive weights are obtained by the minimum discrimination information principle correcting the subjective weights with the objective weights. Finally, the global weights, their ranks, and their weight differences are obtained. The main findings are as follows: (1) compared with the real traffic data, experts generally overestimate the impact of road factors on traffic accidents and underestimate the impact of human factors on traffic accidents; (2) in the first-level, human factors and road factors are the causative factors; (3) in the second-level, "motor vehicle drivers' misconduct", "road condition", and "road section" are the causative factors; and (4) in the third-level, "slippery road", "rain and snow weather", "intersection", and "untimely braking" are the causative factors. The research results can provide some scientific basis for improving road traffic safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the relationship between vehicle speed and the risk of sustaining a life-threatening injury has garnered continual attention. This study seeks to gain deep insight into the relationship between two-vehicle speeds and the risk of serious injury at intersections. The 2016–2018 crash data that occurred at intersections from the US Crash Report Sampling System (CRSS) were examined. We present a more general framework that allows the crash risk to be simultaneously linked to a universal two-dimensional variable of two-vehicle speeds, instead of the one-dimensional variable of impact speed calculated according to crash types in the existing literature. The results indicate that the risk of serious injury for head-on crashes in the medium-speed zone is mainly influenced by the faster vehicle although having little relation to the slower vehicle. More importantly, we find that the marginal relationship between the two-vehicle speeds and the crash risk is non-monotonic for angle and rear crashes. Finally, appropriate measures are suggested to reduce the crash risk at intersections, including alerting the driver not to cross intersections at exceedingly low speed, assisting the driver in making an emergency response at a medium speed, and warning the driver not to operate at a very high speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) pneumonia has become an increasingly important public health problem. Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic modifications are critical in the host immune defence against pathogen infection. In this study, we found that S. aureus infection induces the expression of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) in a dose‐dependent manner. Furthermore, by using a S. aureus pneumonia mouse model, we showed that the HDAC6 inhibitor, tubastatin A, demonstrates a protective effect in S. aureus pneumonia, decreasing the mortality and destruction of lung architecture, reducing the bacterial burden in the lungs and inhibiting inflammatory responses. Mechanistic studies in primary bone marrow‐derived macrophages demonstrated that the HDAC6 inhibitors, tubastatin A and tubacin, reduced the intracellular bacterial load by promoting bacterial clearance rather than regulating phagocytosis. Finally, N‐acetyl‐L‐ cysteine, a widely used reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenger, antagonized ROS production and significantly inhibited tubastatin A‐induced S. aureus clearance. These findings demonstrate that HDAC6 inhibitors promote the bactericidal activity of macrophages by inducing ROS, an important host factor for S. aureus clearance and production. Our study identified HDAC6 as a suitable epigenetic modification target for preventing S. aureus infection, and tubastatin A as a useful compound in treating S. aureus pneumonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The proximity to tumor cells is pivotal to the anti-tumor functions of CD8+ T cells, but the mechanism underlying the regulation of CD8+ T cell spatial distribution remains elusive. Here, we utilize the cellular neighborhood algorithm to identify the spatial architectures that regulate the localization and inter-cellular communication of CD8+ T cells in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The presence of CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, and other lymphocytes in the same cellular neighborhoods were identified as one type of spatial architecture that restricted the proximity of CD8+ T cells to tumor cells and heralded a poor prognosis. In such architecture, CD8+ T cells tended to aggregate around themselves and CD4+ T cells instead of approaching tumor cells. In this study, we identified a spatial architecture for the regulation of CD8+ T cells and deciphered a novel immune evasion mechanism of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in a topologically regulated manner. The anti-tumor function of CD8+ T cells is dependent on their proximity to tumor cells. Current studies have focused on the infiltration level of CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment, while further spatial information, such as spatial localization and inter-cellular communication, have not been defined. In this study, co-detection by indexing (CODEX) was designed to characterize PDAC tissue regions with seven protein markers in order to identify the spatial architecture that regulates CD8+ T cells in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The cellular neighborhood algorithm was used to identify a total of six conserved and distinct cellular neighborhoods. Among these, one unique spatial architecture of CD8+ T and CD4+ T cell-enriched neighborhoods enriched the majority of CD8+ T cells, but heralded a poor prognosis. The proximity analysis revealed that the CD8+ T cells in this spatial architecture were significantly closer to themselves and the CD4+ T cells than to the tumor cells. Collectively, we identified a unique spatial architecture that restricted the proximity of CD8+ T cells to tumor cells in the tumor microenvironment, indicating a novel immune evasion mechanism of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in a topologically regulated manner and providing new insights into the biology of PDAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammasome activity is important for the immune response and is instrumental in numerous clinical conditions. Here we identify a mechanism that modulates the central Caspase-1 and NLR (Nod-like receptor) adaptor protein ASC (apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a CARD). We show that the function of ASC in assembling the inflammasome is controlled by its modification with SUMO (small ubiquitin-like modifier) and identify that the nuclear ZBTB16 (zinc-finger and BTB domain-containing protein 16) promotes this SUMOylation. The physiological significance of this activity is demonstrated through the reduction of acute inflammatory pathogenesis caused by a constitutive hyperactive inflammasome by ablating ZBTB16 in a mouse model of Muckle-Wells syndrome. Together our findings identify an further mechanism by which ZBTB16-dependent control of ASC SUMOylation assembles the inflammasome to promote this pro-inflammatory response. Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes, including the protein ASC, that assemble in response to inflammatory stimulation. Here the authors characterise the regulation of ASC during inflammasome formation and show the involvement of SUMOylation and zinc-finger and BTB domain-containing protein 16 (ZBTB16). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The axial flux permanent magnet synchronous motor (APMSM) has the advantages of short axial size, high efficiency, and high power density. However, the three-dimensional magnetic circuit structure of this type of motor results in a longer calculation time, which is not conducive to rapid design and optimization. In order to quickly and accurately complete the preliminary calculation and optimization of axial flux permanent magnet synchronous motors, this paper proposes an improved equivalent calculation method for two-dimensional multi-layer linear motors. This method is based on the traditional two-dimensional multi-layer linear motor equivalent method, taking into account the complexity of geometric model establishment and simulation condition settings and applying the principle of analogy to achieve significant simplification of geometric modeling and simulation settings. The article elaborates on the correlation and differences between the proposed method and existing methods and verifies the calculation accuracy through finite element calculation. The results indicate that the improved two-dimensional multi-layer linear motor equivalent calculation method proposed in this article can significantly reduce calculation time while ensuring calculation accuracy and has good application prospects in preliminary design and parameter optimization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image captioning has become a hot topic in artificial intelligence research and sits at the intersection of computer vision and natural language processing. Most recent imaging captioning models have adopted an "encoder + decoder" architecture, in which the encoder is employed generally to extract the visual feature, while the decoder generates the descriptive sentence word by word. However, the visual features need to be flattened into sequence form before being forwarded to the decoder, and this results in the loss of the 2D spatial position information of the image. This limitation is particularly pronounced in the Transformer architecture since it is inherently not position-aware. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a simple coordinate-based spatial position encoding method (CSPE) to remedy this deficiency. CSPE firstly creates the 2D position coordinates for each feature pixel, and then encodes them by row and by column separately via trainable or hard encoding, effectively strengthening the position representation of visual features and enriching the generated description sentences. In addition, in order to reduce the time cost, we also explore a diagonal-based spatial position encoding (DSPE) approach. Compared with CSPE, DSPE is slightly inferior in performance but has a faster calculation speed. Extensive experiments on the MS COCO 2014 dataset demonstrate that CSPE and DSPE can significantly enhance the spatial position representation of visual features. CSPE, in particular, demonstrates BLEU-4 and CIDEr metrics improved by 1.6% and 5.7%, respectively, compared with a baseline model without sequence-based position encoding, and also outperforms current sequence-based position encoding approaches by a significant margin. In addition, the robustness and plug-and-play ability of the proposed method are validated based on a medical captioning generation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA) mutation carriers are at an increased risk for breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers. However, the role of BRCA is unclear in colorectal cancer; the results regarding the association between BRCA gene mutations and colorectal cancer risk are inconsistent and even controversial. This study aimed to investigate whether BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations are associated with colorectal cancer risk. Methods: In this systematic review, we searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Library databases, adhering to PRISMA guidelines. Study quality was assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS). Unadjusted odds ratios (ORs) were used to estimate the probability of Breast Cancer Type 1 Susceptibility gene (BRCA1) and Breast Cancer Type 2 Susceptibility gene (BRCA2) mutations in colorectal cancer patients. The associations were evaluated using fixed effect models. Results: Fourteen studies were included in the systematic review. Twelve studies, including seven case–control and five cohort studies, were included in the meta-analysis. A significant increase in the frequency of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations was observed in patients with colorectal cancer [OR = 1.34, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02–1.76, P = 0.04]. In subgroup analysis, colorectal cancer patients had an increased odds of BRCA1 (OR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.10–2.01, P = 0.01) and BRCA2 (OR = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.06–2.30, P = 0.02) mutations. Conclusions: BRCA genes are one of the genes that may increase the risk of developing colorectal cancer. Thus, BRCA genes could be potential candidates that may be included in the colorectal cancer genetic testing panel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The current methods for assessing tumor microenvironments (TMEs) using cellular markers and cell density-based assays do not identify the primitive phenotypes of single cells with multilineage selectivity or functional or cellular spatial information in tissues. Here, we combined the strategy of multiplex IHC imaging and cytometry-based cell quantification to assess multiple lineage-selective and functional phenotypic biomarkers and deeply dissect the state of immune complexity in the TME in association with clinical outcomes. Our findings showed that the percentage of CD8+ T cells expressing the T cell exhaustion marker PD-1 and/or the high expression of the checkpoint PD-L1 among CD68+ cells was associated with poor prognosis. The prognostic value of this combined approach is greater than that of lymphocyte and myeloid cell density analyses. Furthermore, a spatial analysis revealed that the abundance of PD-L1+CD68+ tumor-associated macrophages correlated with PD-1+CD8+ T cell infiltration levels. Our findings further strengthen the evidence for applying IHC imaging and cytometry-based cell analyses in precision medicine. Immune complexity status in the TME has been linked to clinical outcomes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients. TME assessments with current cell marker and cell density-based analyses do not identify the original phenotypes of single cells with multilineage selectivity, the functional status of the cells, or cellular spatial information in the tissues. Here, we describe a method that circumvents these problems. The combined strategy of multiplexed IHC with computational image cytometry and multiparameter cytometric quantification allows us to assess multiple lineage-selective and functional phenotypic biomarkers in the TME. Our study revealed that the percentage of CD8+ T lymphoid cells expressing the T cell exhaustion marker PD-1 and the high expression of the checkpoint PD-L1 in CD68+ cells are associated with a poor prognosis. The prognostic value of this combined approach is more significant than that of lymphoid and myeloid cell density analyses. In addition, a spatial analysis revealed a correlation between the abundance of PD-L1+CD68+ tumor-associated macrophages and PD-1+CD8+T cell infiltration, indicating pro-tumor immunity associated with a poor prognosis. These data highlight the implications of practical monitoring for understanding the complexity of immune cells in situ. Digital imaging and multiparameter cytometric processing of cell phenotypes in the TME and tissue architecture can reveal biomarkers and assessment parameters for patient stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature pyramid networks and attention mechanisms are the mainstream methods to improve the detection performance of many current models. However, when they are learned jointly, there is a lack of information association between multi-level features. Therefore, this paper proposes a feature pyramid of the multi-level local attention method, dubbed as MLA-Net (Feature Pyramid Network with Multi-Level Local Attention for Object Detection), which aims to establish a correlation mechanism for multi-level local information. First, the original multi-level features are deformed and rectified using the local pixel-rectification module, and global semantic enhancement is achieved through the multi-level spatial-attention module. After that, the original features are further fused through the residual connection to achieve the fusion of contextual features to enhance the feature representation. Extensive ablation experiments were conducted on the MS COCO (Microsoft Common Objects in Context) dataset, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method with a 0.5% enhancement. An improvement of 1.2% was obtained on the PASCAL VOC (Pattern Analysis Statistical Modelling and Computational Learning, Visual Object Classes) dataset, reaching 81.8%, thereby, indicating that the proposed method is robust and can compete with other advanced detection models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rho family mechano-signaling through the actin cytoskeleton positively regulates physiological TEAD/YAP transcription, while the evolutionarily conserved Hippo tumor suppressor pathway antagonizes this transcription through YAP cytoplasmic localization/degradation. The mechanisms responsible for oncogenic dysregulation of these pathways, their prevalence in tumors, as well as how such dysregulation can be therapeutically targeted are not resolved. We demonstrate that p53 DNA contact mutants in human tumors, indirectly hyperactivate RhoA/ROCK1/actomyosin signaling, which is both necessary and sufficient to drive oncogenic TEAD/YAP transcription. Moreover, we demonstrate that recurrent lesions in the Hippo pathway depend on physiological levels of ROCK1/actomyosin signaling for oncogenic TEAD/YAP transcription. Finally, we show that ROCK inhibitors selectively antagonize proliferation and motility of human tumors with either mechanism. Thus, we identify a cancer driver paradigm and a precision medicine approach for selective targeting of human malignancies driven by TEAD/YAP transcription through mechanisms that either upregulate or depend on homeostatic RhoA mechano-signaling. Crosstalk between the p53 and Hippo pathway has been reported in different physiological contexts. Here, the authors show that p53 DNA contact mutations upregulate TEAD/YAP transcription indirectly and transform cells via hyperactivation of RhoA/ROCK/actomyosin signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The current second-line treatment of advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma remains unsatisfactory. Anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody combined with anti-angiogenic therapy shows anti-tumor activity and synergistic effect. We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of the combination therapy of camrelizumab, apatinib, and S-1 in patients with gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Methods: In this open-label, single-arm, phase 2 trial, in each 21-day cycle, eligible patients received 200 mg intravenous camrelizumab in the first day, 500 mg oral apatinib once daily continuously, and specific dose oral S-1 in the first 14 days until the trial was discontinued disease progression, development of intolerable toxicity, or withdrawal of consent. The primary endpoint was objective response rate. The secondary endpoints were disease control rate, progression-free survival and overall survival, and safety. This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04345783. Results: Between May 2019 and August 2020, we enrolled a total of 24 patients in this trial. At the data cutoff (December 1, 2020), the median follow-up duration was 8.13 months. Seven of 24 (29.2%, 95%CI 14.9–49.2%) patients reached objective response. The median-progression-free survival was 6.5 months (95%CI 6.01–6.99) and the median overall survival was not reached. Grade 3 or 4 adverse events occurred in 6 (25.0%) patients, including elevated transaminase, thrombocytopenia, fatigue, proteinuria, and intestinal obstruction. No serious treatment-related adverse events or treatment-related deaths occurred. Conclusions: In this trial, the combination of camrelizumab, apatinib, and S-1 showed promising anti-tumor activity and manageable toxicity as a second-line therapy in patients with advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, regardless of PD-L1 expression. Clinical trial registration: NCT04345783. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mn2+ emission tends to saturate under irradiation of high flux light, which is first caused by its long decay lifetime ascribing to the spin-forbidden transition of 4T1 → 6A1. Coupling with hetero-transition metal ions to alter the spin state of Mn2+ is a potential way to improve it. In this research, we attempt to provide evidence for the exchange coupling interaction between Mn2+ and Cr3+ in the ZnGa2O4 material and figure out the lifetime variation of Mn2+ emission. A faster decay of Mn2+ emission is achieved when elevating the Cr3+ concentration rather than the Mn2+ concentration, and the dominant cause of energy transfer from Mn2+ to Cr3+ is ruled out. Electron spin resonance results illustrate the stronger spin relaxation of Mn2+ 3d electrons imposed by Cr3+ than that imposed by the other Mn2+ ions. These phenomena suggest the existence of coupling between Mn2+ and the neighboring Cr3+, which is evidenced by the first principles calculation. It is further convinced by the total spin quantum number for the Mn2+, Cr3+ singly doped, and codoped systems, which is close to 3/2, 3/2, and 5/2, respectively, according to the derived magnetic susceptibility data. This research proposes a strategy for anti-saturating the Mn2+ emission in phosphors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transverse-flux motor, which has the advantage of high torque density, has become one of the research focuses of direct-drive motors for low speed and high-torque industrial applications. This paper aimed to propose a transverse-flux flux-reversal motor with consequent-pole configuration (TF-CFRM), which has a robust rotor structure and provides high torque density by using fewer expensive NdFeB permanent magnets. Firstly, the basic structure and running work principle of the TF-CFRM are introduced. Secondly, the analytical expression of electromagnetic torque is derived from a simplified 3D-equivalent magnetic-circuit model. Then, the preliminary optimization of the basic dimension is accomplished by the finite element method to improve the torque density. At last, the electrical performances, e.g., the torque density, overload capability, and power factor of the proposed TF-CFRM are analyzed and compared with those of the transverse-flux flux-reversal motor (TF-FRM) and traditional flux-reversal motor (FRM). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discriminative correlation filters (DCFs) have shown promising tracking performance in recent years thanks to the powerful representation ability of deep features. However, a large number of target‐irrelevant channels in deep features limits the tracking performance and increases the computational cost. To eliminate the negative impact of noisy channels and improve the utilization efficiency of deep features in DCF‐based trackers, we present an adaptive feature channel selection method for robust visual tracking. Our method adaptively chooses the most discriminative channels to learn a more robust target appearance model, which is achieved by evaluating the energy relationship between background and foreground in each feature channel. Moreover, according to the feedback of channel selection, an adaptive model update strategy is proposed to alleviate the model degradation problem caused by incorrect model updating. Extensive experimental results obtained on five popular tracking benchmarks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and its superiority over the state‐of‐the‐art trackers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By introducing a reactive oxygen species (ROS) triggered leaving group (arylboronic acid) to the parent PROTACs, ROS-responsive Pre-PROTACs were designed and evaluated. Pre-PROTAC (7) efficiently degraded the target protein BRD3 according to ROS levels. Our research provides an effective approach to control PROTAC activation by the endogenous ROS-related microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are widely used in treating various diseases. However, lack of a reliable evaluation approach to characterize the potency of MSCs has dampened their clinical applications. Here, a function‐oriented mathematical model is established to evaluate and predict the regenerative capacity (RC) of MSCs. Processed by exhaustive testing, the model excavates four optimal fitted indices, including nucleus roundness, nucleus/cytoplasm ratio, side‐scatter height, and ERK1/2 from the given index combinations. Notably, three of them except ERK1/2 are cell appearance‐associated features. The predictive power of the model is validated via screening experiments of these indices by predicting the RC of newly enrolled and chemical inhibitor‐treated MSCs. Further RNA‐sequencing analysis reveals that cell appearance‐based indices may serve as major indicators to visualize the results of integration‐weighted signals in and out of cells and reflect MSC stemness. In general, this study proposes an appearance data‐driven predictive model for the RC and stemness of MSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of rare‐earth free luminescent materials with blue‐light‐excitable characteristic is of great importance for solid‐sate lighting applications. Herein, a Cu(I)‐based 0D luminescent hybrid (1,3‐dppH2)2Cu4I8∙H2O is synthesized by a facile solution method, and it shows the orange‐red emission peaking at 625 nm upon 460 nm excitation. The structure‐related luminescence mechanism has been elaborated by experimental and theoretical investigations. Moreover, the emission intensity remains unchanged even after continuous water treatment for 60 days due to the improved structural stability originating from intermolecular π–π interaction between organic cations. A warm white light‐emitting diode (LED) device with the color rendering index of 91.4% has been fabricated by combining the 440 nm LED chip, green‐emitting Lu3Al5O12:Ce3+, and (1,3‐dppH2)2Cu4I8∙H2O. This work provides a new design route towards 0D cuprous halide materials and will initiate more exploration of their intrinsic luminescence mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been reported to be associated with NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Therefore inhibiting inflammasome activation could be a new approach to treat IBD. Inflammasome inhibitors NLRP3-IN-2, JC124, and 3,4-methylenedioxy-β-nitrostyrene (MNS) were previously reported to exert anti-inflammatory effects in various disease models but not in the dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)–induced colitis model. Here, we showed that MNS was more efficient in inhibiting the secretion of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) by blocking oligomerization of apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) than NLRP3-IN-2 and JC124. To investigate the protective effects of MNS on enteritis, we administered intragastric MNS to DSS-induced colitis mice. The results demonstrated that MNS attenuated DSS-induced body weight loss, colon length shortening, and pathological damage. In addition, MNS inhibited the infiltration of macrophages and inflammatory cells and reduced IL-1β and IL-12p40 pro-inflammatory cytokines but had no significant effect on tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and IL-6. Furthermore, we also found that the differentiation of IL-17A+interferon-γ (IFN-γ)+CD4+ T cell was decreased in the colon after MNS treatment, which might be mediated by IL-1β, etc. cytokine release. Taken together, MNS alleviated DSS-induced intestinal inflammation by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation, which may function as an effective therapeutic for IBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical severity of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) respiratory infection correlates with antibacterial gene signature. S. aureus infection induces the expression of an antibacterial gene, as well as a central stress response gene, thus activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3). ATF3-deficient mice have attenuated protection against lethal S. aureus pneumonia and have a higher bacterial load. We tested the hypothesis that ATF3-related protection is based on the increased function of macrophages. Primary marrow-derived macrophages (BMDM) were used in vitro to determine the mechanism through which ATF3 alters the bacterial-killing ability. The expression of ATF3 correlated with the expression of antibacterial genes. Mechanistic studies showed that ATF3 upregulated antibacterial genes, while ATF3-deficient cells and lung tissues had a reduced level of antibacterial genes, which was accompanied by changes in the antibacterial process. We identified multiple ATF3 regulatory elements in the antibacterial gene promoters by chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis. In addition, Wild type (WT) mice had higher F4/80 macrophage migration in the lungs compared to ATF3-null mice, which may correlate with actin filament severing through ATF3-targeted actin-modifying protein gelsolin (GSN) for the macrophage cellular motility. Furthermore, ATF3 positively regulated inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-12p40 might be able to contribute to the infection resolution. These data demonstrate a mechanism utilized by S. aureus to induce ATF3 to regulate antibacterial genes for antimicrobial processes within the cell, and to specifically regulate the actin cytoskeleton of F4/80 macrophages for their migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Current studies aim to target tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) to alleviate immunosuppression and inhibit tumor growth. However, the specific mechanisms that drive TAMs to impede T cell migration into and within tumors are still unclear. Here, we found that after pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)-bearing mice were treated with clodronate liposomes, the numbers of BrdU-incorporated and Ki-67+-proliferating macrophages were reduced, which might be maintained by local proliferation. Clodronate liposomes treatment could alter the macrophages that foster CD8+ T cell infiltration, promote CD8+ T cell spatial redistribution in tumors, and suppress PDAC growth. This study suggests that depletion of macrophages may increase CD8+ T cell infiltration and promote CD8+ T cell spatial redistribution in tumors, contributing to the antitumor effect. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play crucial roles in cancer progression, but the contributions and regulation of different macrophage subpopulations remain unclear. Here, we report a high level of TAM infiltration in human and mouse pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) models and that the targeting of proliferating F4/80+ macrophages facilitated cytotoxic CD8+ T-cell-dependent antitumor immune responses. A well-defined KPC-derived PDAC cell line and the murine Panc02 PDAC cell line were used. Treatment of PDAC-bearing mice with clodronate liposomes, an agent that chemically depletes macrophages, did not impact macrophage subpopulations in the local tumor microenvironment (TME). However, further investigation using both BrdU and Ki67 to evaluate proliferating cells showed that clodronate liposomes treatment reduced proliferating macrophages in the KPC and Panc02 models. We further evaluated the distance between CD8+ T cells and PanCK+ tumor cells, and clodronate liposomes treatment significantly increased the number of CD8+ T cells in close proximity (<30 µm) to PanCK+ PDAC cells, with increased numbers of tumor-infiltrating IFN-γ+CD8+ T cells. This study suggests that targeting proliferating tumor-infiltrating macrophages may increase CD8+ cytotoxic lymphocyte (CTL) infiltration and facilitate the spatial redistribution of CD8+ T cells in tumors, contributing to the antitumor effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the complexity and highly heterogeneous nature of the microenvironment and its effects on antitumor immunity and cancer immune evasion, the prognostic value of a single immune marker is limited. Here, we show how the integration of immune checkpoint molecule expression and tumor-associated immune cell distribution patterns can influence prognosis prediction in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. We analyzed tissue microarray (TMA) data derived from multiplex immunohistochemistry results and measured the densities of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ and FOXP3+ immune cells and tumor cells (PanCK+), as well as the densities of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1)+ and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)+ cells in the peritumor and intratumor subregions. We found a higher density of infiltrating CD8+ and FOXP3+ immune cells in the peritumoral compartment than in the intratumoral compartment. In addition, unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis of these markers revealed that the combination of high CD8/FOXP3 expression, low PD-1 and PD-L1 immune checkpoint expression, and lack of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation could be a favorable predictive marker. On the other hand, based on the clustering analysis, low CD8/FOXP3 and immune checkpoint (PD-1 and PD-L1) expression might be a marker for patients who are likely to respond to strategies targeting regulatory T (Treg) cells. Furthermore, an immune risk score model was established based on multivariate Cox regression, and the risk score was determined to be an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC patients. These results indicate that the immune context is heterogeneous because of the complex interactions of different components and that using multiple factors in combination might be promising for predicting the prognosis of and stratifying NSCLC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rho family mechano-signaling through the actin cytoskeleton positively regulates physiological TEAD/YAP transcription, while the evolutionarily conserved Hippo tumor suppressor pathway antagonizes this transcription through YAP cytoplasmic localization/degradation. The mechanisms responsible for oncogenic dysregulation of these pathways, their prevalence in tumors, as well as how such dysregulation can be therapeutically targeted are not resolved. We demonstrate that p53 DNA contact mutants in human tumors, indirectly hyperactivate RhoA/ROCK1/actomyosin signaling, which is both necessary and sufficient to drive oncogenic TEAD/YAP transcription. Moreover, we demonstrate that recurrent lesions in the Hippo pathway depend on physiological levels of ROCK1/actomyosin signaling for oncogenic TEAD/YAP transcription. Finally, we show that ROCK inhibitors selectively antagonize proliferation and motility of human tumors with either mechanism. Thus, we identify a cancer driver paradigm and a precision medicine approach for selective targeting of human malignancies driven by TEAD/YAP transcription through mechanisms that either upregulate or depend on homeostatic RhoA mechano-signaling. Crosstalk between the p53 and Hippo pathway has been reported in different physiological contexts. Here, the authors show that p53 DNA contact mutations upregulate TEAD/YAP transcription indirectly and transform cells via hyperactivation of RhoA/ROCK/actomyosin signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to lack of high-level evidences, prophylactic subcutaneous drainage has so far not been recommended in relevant guidelines as a countermeasure against incisional infections. This meta-analysis aims to clarify the efficacy of subcutaneous drainage in reducing incisional infections in colorectal surgeries. Methods: Cochrane Library, Embase, and PubMed were searched for randomized controlled trials comparing the incidence rate of incisional infections between patients receiving prophylactic subcutaneous drainage (interventions) and those not receiving (controls) after digestive surgeries. Results from included RCTs were pooled multiple times according to different surgical types. Heterogeneity, publication bias, and certainty of evidences were estimated. Results: Eight randomized controlled trials were included. Three RCTs each included patients receiving all sorts of digestive surgeries (gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, and pancreatic); pooled incisional infection rates between the drainage group and the control group were not significantly different (RR = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.48–1.21, p = 0.25). Four RCTs included patients receiving colorectal surgeries; pooled incisional infection rate in the drainage group was significantly lower than that in the control group (RR = 0.34, 95%CI: 0.19–0.61, p = 0.0004). Four RCTs included patients receiving upper GI and/or HBP surgeries; pooled incisional infection rates in the drainage group and the non-drainage group were not significantly different (RR = 0.85, 95%CI: 0.54–1.34, p = 0.49). Conclusions: Prophylactic subcutaneous drainage significantly reduces post-operative incisional infections in colorectal surgeries but was not efficacious in digestive surgeries in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transverse flux machines can achieve high force density by reducing the pole pitch because of the decoupling of electric and magnetic loadings. But the main flux linkage interlinking with the armature coils will decrease as the pole pitch reduces, resulting in motor performance degradation. Unlike the approaches adopted by many literatures to suppress the leakage flux, this article proposes a novel dual-consequent-pole transverse flux linear machine by adopting dual-PM structure. Without increasing the occupied volume, the coil flux linkage is enhanced and the force density can be further improved. At first, the basic configuration and operation principle are introduced at first. Then the leading parameter influence on the force density is investigated. The electromagnetic performance of the proposed machine is investigated by three-dimensional finite element analysis and is compared with its counterparts. The field distribution, winding flux linkage, back electromotive force, detent force, and thrust force are emphasized as well as the efficiency and power factor. Finally, a prototype machine is constructed and tested to validate the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence suggests that tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs) in the tumor microenvironment (TME) serve as promising therapeutic targets. CXCL8 (IL-8) may also be a potential therapeutic target in cancer. CXCL8 is a potent chemotactic factor for neutrophils, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and monocytes, which are considered immunosuppressive components in cancer-bearing hosts. Here, we identified the TME-related gene CXCL8 in a high-ImmuneScore population that contributed to better survival in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. An integrated gene profile and functional analysis of TIC proportions revealed that the dendritic cell (DC) activation markers CD80, CD83, and CD86 were positively correlated with CXCL8 expression, suggesting that CXCL8 may be functional as antitumor immune response status in the TME. The gene signature was further validated in independent GSE14333 and GSE38832 cohorts from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). To test the differential contributions of immune and tumor components to progression, three CRC cell lines, CT26, MC38 and HCT116, were used. In vitro results suggested no significant growth or survival changes following treatment with an inhibitor of the CXCL8 receptor (CXCR1/2) such as reparixin or danirixin. In vivo treatment with danirixin (antagonists of CXCR2) promoted tumor progression in animal models established with CT26 cells. CXCR2 antagonism may function via an immune component, with CXCR2 antagonist treatment in mice resulting in reduced activated DCs and correlating with decreased Interferon gamma (IFN-γ) or Granzyme B expressed CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, CXCL8 induced DC migration in transwell migration assays. Taken together, our data suggested that targeting the CXCL8-CXCR2 axis might impede DC activation or recruitment, and this axis could be considered a favorable factor rather than a target for critical antitumor effects on CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a novel dual-consequent-pole transverse flux motor and its analytical model are proposed. Differ from existed transverse flux machines, the proposed motor owns core-tooth-to-magnet types of the consequent-pole configuration on both stator and rotor. This unique motor configuration improves the no-load permanent magnet flux linkage interlinking with armature winding, thus leading to an enhanced torque density. The structure and working principle of the proposed motor are introduced as the first half part. Then, based on the combination of equivalent magnetic circuit method and subdomain method, an analytical modeling method is proposed to estimate the electromagnetic performance of the proposed motor. The parameters of the equivalent magnetic circuit model, e.g., the magnetomotive force and reluctances are calculated based on the subdomain model technique, considering the influence of the cores’ saturation and the axial end effect during calculation. Based on the magnetic field distribution result, the electromagnetic performance is estimated. The analytical results are verified by both the finite-element method and the prototype experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibrosis after skeletal muscle injury is common in sports and can cause irreversible damage to the biomechanical properties of skeletal muscle. Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been validated to act as important modulators in the fibrosis of various organs. Here, we reported a novel lncRNA (the skeletal muscle fibrosis‐associated transcript 1, lnc‐MFAT1), which was highly expressed in skeletal muscle fibrosis. We demonstrate that lnc‐MFAT1 knockdown can reduce TGFβ‐induced fibrosis in vitro and attenuate skeletal muscle fibrosis after acute contusion in mice. Further study showed that lnc‐MFAT1 acted as a competitive endogenous RNA of miR‐135a‐5p. Besides, the miR‐135a‐5p inhibition obviously promoted TGFβ‐induced fibrosis in vitro via enhancing its target genes Tgfbr2/Smad4. Moreover, we discovered that lnc‐MFAT1 regulates Tgfbr2/Smad4 expression by sponging miR‐135a‐5p to exert competing endogenous RNA function, resulting in TGFβ pathway activation. In conclusion, our study identified a crucial role of lnc‐MFAT1‐miR‐135a‐Tgfbr2/Smad4 axis in skeletal muscle fibrosis, providing a promising treatment option against skeletal muscle fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a fundamental task in computer vision, object detection has long been a challenging visual task. However, current object detection models lack attention to salient features when fusing the lateral connections and top-down information flows in feature pyramid networks (FPNs). To address this, we propose a method for object detection based on an enhanced bi-directional attention feature pyramid network, which aims to enhance the feature representation capability of lateral connections and top-down links in FPN. This method adopts the triplet module to give attention to salient features in the original multi-scale information in spatial and channel dimensions, establishing an enhanced triplet attention. In addition, it introduces improved top and down attention to fuse contextual information using the correlation of features between adjacent scales. Furthermore, adaptively spatial feature fusion and self-attention are introduced to expand the receptive field and improve the detection performance of deep levels. Extensive experiments conducted on the PASCAL VOC, MS COCO, KITTI, and CrowdHuman datasets demonstrate that our method achieves performance gains of 1.8%, 0.8%, 0.5%, and 0.2%, respectively. These results indicate that our method has significant effects and is competitive compared with advanced detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a dual-consequent-pole transverse flux motor and its electromagnetic design method are proposed. Both the stator and rotor of the proposed motor are designed to own the consequent-pole configurations. The unique motor structure improves the space utilization and the torque density. Firstly, the detailed structure and principle are introduced, and the development of the torque density of the proposed motor is discussed. Secondly, the electromagnetic design method's theory, considerations and flow process are listed. Then, the selections of some main structure parameters are proposed (e.g., pole-pitch, thickness of PMs and pole-arc coefficients of PMs). The electromagnetic performances of the proposed motor are compared with the existed transverse flux machines. At last, a prototype is manufactured and some primary experiments are done to verify and evaluate the proposed motor topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the performance of thin-film transistors (TFTs) with amorphous oxide semiconductors (AOSs) has been substantially improved. However, the device reliability under negative bias illumination/temperature stress (NBI/TS) remains a critical issue. Herein, a Cd and Sc co-doped In2O3 semiconductor (CdScInO) is developed for improving the NBI/TS stability of TFTs. The mobility, subthreshold swing, and on/off ratio of the CdScInO TFT are 15.9 cm2 V−1 s−1, 89 mV dec−1 and ∼107, respectively. More interestingly, the CdScInO TFTs exhibit excellent stability under NBTS at 80 °C or under NBIS with red light or green light illumination, while a threshold voltage shift of only −0.91 V is observed under NBIS with blue light illumination for 3600 s. First-principles calculations show that the Cd dopants cause the formation of holes, which can be bound with oxygen vacancies (VOs) to form Cd–VO pairs. Furthermore, the density of states near the valence band maximum decreases due to the upward repulsion between the O p states and the Cd d states. Thus, the activation of VO or electron donor defects is suppressed, which explains the NBI/TS stability improvement for CdScInO TFTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the small size, high density, and background noise associated with strip surface defects, the current object detection model commonly faces limitations in performance. To address this issue, we propose a spatial-to-depth feature-enhanced detection method called STD-Detector. The method consists of two types STD-Conv-A and STD-Conv-B. First, the STD-Conv-A module is used in the backbone feature extraction network to expand the field of perception and enable the model to learn a wider range of background information. Then, the STD-Conv-B module is used for feature fusion networks to improve the expression of output features. In addition, we incorporate the convolutional block attention module to mitigate background interference and enhance the performance of the model. Finally, experimental results on the NEU-DET dataset show that our method achieves a mean average precision of 82.9%, which represents a 3.9% improvement over the baseline. Compared with the state-of-the-art model, our method exhibits greater competitiveness in detecting strip surface defects. Moreover, experimental results on the road surface defect dataset show that our method has good robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread use of speech-based texting while driving has become a common phenomenon. However, there are few studies directly researching on the impacts of speech-based texting on driving performance. The objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of speech-based texting on drivers' braking behavior. Forty-seven valid participants drove a high-fidelity driving simulator in a car-following scenario using speech-based texting as well as two other conditions: hands-free phone conversation and baseline (no secondary task). The Weibull accelerated failure time (AFT) model and the Lognormal AFT model were developed for the brake reaction time (BRT) in the brake reaction stage and the speed reduction time (SRT) in the deceleration stage, respectively. The developed models showed that vehicle dynamic variables, mobile phone use conditions, and self-reported frequency of mobile phones use while driving had statistically significant effects on BRT and SRT. Compared to the baseline, hands-free phone conversation and speech-based texting caused a 33.4% and 46.7% increment in the BRT, and an 8.7% and 15.4% decrement in the SRT. The results indicated that the speech-based texting task is more dangerous than the hands-free phone conversation task. These findings demonstrated that speech-based texting while driving was very harmful to driving performance and should be banned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a dangerous behaviour for pedestrians and nonmotorized vehicles to cross intersections without waiting when they arrive at intersections during the red-light period. This paper investigates three typical signalized major-major intersections in the center of Beijing, by collecting and analyzing 1368 samples of pedestrians and nonmotorized vehicles. A random parameter logit model (RPLM) is established, with immediate red-light running (IRLR) behaviour as the dependent variable. The results show that the number of people waiting upon arrival, number of people crossing upon arrival, traffic mode, motor vehicle phase upon arrival, and speed change upon arrival have significant effects on IRLR behaviour. Accordingly, we suggest enforcing education administration on cyclists to reduce cyclists' IRLR behaviour. Thus, people's red-light running (RLR) behaviour will further decrease with fewer cyclists' IRLR behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) with ScInO or MgScInO semiconductors were fabricated with the annealing temperature of only 150 °C. Compared with ScInO TFT, MgScInO TFT exhibited much better stability under negative-bias temperature stress (NBTS) at 60 °C with negative turn-on voltage (${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$) shift of −0.6 V at the initial stress stage (≤;900 s) and then positive $V_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ shift (>900 s). First-principles calculations show that the oxygen vacancies (${V}_{\text {O}}$) tend to be bounded with Mg and form Mg– ${V}_{\text {O}}$ pairs with activating (or binding) energy of greater than 0.1369 eV, which is ascribed to the NBTS stability improvement for MgScInO TFT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid urbanization and high traffic accident frequency have received many researchers’ attention. It is important to reveal how urban infrastructures and other risk factors affects the traffic accident frequency. A growing amount of research has examined the local risk factors impact on traffic accident frequency at certain time. Some studies considered these spatial influences but overlooked the temporal correlation/heterogeneity of traffic accidents and related risk factors. This study explores risk factors’ influence on urban traffic accidents frequency while considering both the spatial and temporal correlation/heterogeneity of traffic accidents. The study area is split into 100 equally sized rectangle traffic analysis zones (TAZs), and the urban traffic accident frequency and attributes in each TAZ are extracted. The linear regression model, spatial lag model (SLM), spatial error model (SEM) and time-fixed effects error model (T-FEEM) are established and compared respectively. The proposed methodologies are illustrated using ten-month traffic accident data from the urban area of Guiyang City, China. The results reveal that the time-fixed effects error model, which considers both spatial and temporal correlation/heterogeneity of traffic accidents, is superior to other models. More traffic accidents will happen in those TAZs that have more hospitals or schools. Moreover, hospitals have a greater influence on traffic accidents than schools. Because of the location in the margin of the city, those TAZs that have passenger stations have more traffic accidents. This study provides policy makers with more detailed characterization about the impact of related risk factors on traffic accident frequencies, and it is suggested that not only the spatial correlation/heterogeneity but also the temporal correlation/heterogeneity should be taken into account in guiding traffic accident control of urban area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic levitation positioning system (MLPS) is considered to be the state of the art in inspection and manufacturing systems in vacuum. In this paper, a magnetic gravity compensator with annular magnet array (AMA-MGC) for MLPS is proposed. Benefiting from the double-layer annular Halbach magnet array on the stator, the proposed AMA-MGC possesses the advantages of symmetrical force, high force density and small force fluctuation. Firstly, the basic structure and operation principle of the AMA-MGC are introduced. Secondly, the basic characteristics of the AMA-MGC such as magnetic field distribution, levitation force, parasitic force and parasitic torque are analyzed by the three-dimensional finite element analysis (3-D FEA). Thirdly, the influence of structural parameters on force density and force fluctuation is investigated, which is conductive to the design and optimization of the AMA-MGC. Finally, a prototype of the AMA-MGC is constructed, and the experiment shows good agreement with the 3-D FEA results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time semantic segmentation has been challenging, and the fusion of features from different branches remains crucial to improvement. The two-branch structure has shown promising results in real-time semantic segmentation. However, upsampling feature maps from the semantic branch to match the detail branch leads to a loss of object feature information and compromises segmentation accuracy. We propose a deep bilateral fusion and bilateral embedded network (BFBE-Net) based on the encoder–decoder structure for real-time semantic segmentation to address these issues. The BFBE-Net adopts a two-branch design in the encoder, with a top-down fusion module and a bottom-up fusion module designed to integrate multi-scale context information in the channel dimension, and assigns different weights to detailed information and semantic information to enhance information characteristics. In the decoder, a bilateral embedded attention module under the guidance of spatial and channel attention integrates semantic and spatial features, gradually upsampling feature maps to reduce the loss of feature information. In addition, an enhanced aggregation pyramid pooling module is designed to efficiently extract contextual information by combining depth-wise asymmetric convolution. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on two benchmark datasets, Cityscapes and CamVid, achieving 78.5% mean intersection over union (mIoU) at 82 frames per second (FPS) on the Cityscapes test set and 79.2% mIoU at 131 FPS on the CamVid test set. The proposed BFBE-Net not only improves segmentation accuracy but also ensures real-time performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deeplab series semantic segmentation algorithms extract target semantic features using deep layers of a convolutional neural network, resulting in target features lacking detailed information, such as edges and shapes extracted by shallow layers. Deeplabv3plus uses atrous convolution to obtain feature maps, which lose some image information. All of the above have an impact on segmentation performance improvement. In response to these issues, which reduce segmentation performance, we propose an image semantic segmentation algorithm based on a multi-expert system that builds multiple expert models based on the Deeplabv3plus network architecture. For the target image, each expert model makes independent judgments, and the segmentation results are obtained through the ensemble learning of these expert models. Expert model 1 employs the proposed attention-based atrous spatial pyramid pooling (C-ASPP) module to capture richer global semantic information via a parallel attention mechanism and ASSP module. Expert model 2 designs a feature fusion-based decoder that uses a feature fusion approach to obtain detailed information. Expert model 3 introduces a loss function in the Deeplabv3plus network for supervised detailed information loss. The final segmentation results are generated by adjudicating the results derived by the different expert models, which improves the segmentation performance by compensating for the loss of detailed information and enhancing the semantic features. Evaluated on the commonly used semantic segmentation datasets PASCAL VOC 2012 and CamVid, the algorithm's mIoU reached 82.42% and 69.18%, respectively, which were 2.46% and 1.82% higher than Deeplabv3plus, proving the better segmentation performance of the algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tin (Sn) halide perovskite absorbers have attracted much interest because of their nontoxicity as compared to their lead (Pb) halide perovskite counterparts. Recent progress shows that the power conversion efficiency of FASnI3 (FA = HC(NH2)2) solar cells prevails over that of MASnI3 (MA = CH3NH3). In this paper, we show that the organic cations, i.e., FA and MA, play a vital role in the defect properties of Sn halide perovskites. The antibonding coupling between Sn-5s and I-5p is clearly weaker in FASnI3 than in MASnI3 due to the larger ionic size of FA, leading to higher formation energies of Sn vacancies in FASnI3. Subsequently, the conductivity of FASnI3 can be tuned from p-type to intrinsic by varying the growth conditions of the perovskite semiconductor; in contrast, MASnI3 shows unipolar high p-type conductivity independent of the growth conditions. This provides a reasonable explanation for the better performance of FASnI3-based solar cells in experiments with respect to the MASnI3-based solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the enumeration of the triangular lattice fragments, we have systematically investigated the graphene clusters (CnHm, n = 14 – 24) with various sizes and shapes, whose structural stabilities and electronic properties are studied by the Hückel molecular orbital (HMO) method and the first-principles calculation. According to the formation energies, we show the structural stabilities of the clusters are closely related to the shape and size, as well as the chemical potential of hydrogen. The energy gaps obtained from the HMO method are in the same trend with the ones calculated by the first-principles calculations, indicating the effective screening of the gap minimum and maximum in a fast speed. There is a general decreasing of the energy gaps with the size increment due to the quantum confinement, meanwhile, the gaps are also highly dependent on the shape of the clusters for those with the same number of carbon atom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we describe a flat-type vertical-gap passive magnetic levitation vibration isolator (FVPMLVI) for active vibration isolation system (AVIS). A dual-stator scheme and a special stator magnet array are adopted in the proposed FVPMLVI, which has the effect of decreasing its natural frequency, and this enhances the vibration isolation capability of the FVPMLVI. The structure, operating principle, analytical model, and electromagnetic and mechanical characteristics of the FVPMLVI are investigated. The relationship between the force characteristics (levitation force, horizontal force, force ripple, and force density) and major structural parameters (width and thickness of stator and mover magnets) is analyzed by finite element method. The experiment result is in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a transverse-flux flux-reversal linear motor (TF-FRLM) is proposed. With magnets on the primary side, the proposed motor is suitable for long-stroke application, benefiting from easy manufacturing and low-cost secondary cores. First, the basic structure and operating principle of the proposed motor are presented. Then, the expressions of back electromotive force (EMF) and electromagnetic thrust are obtained by an equivalent magnetic circuit model. Third, for saving computation time, a simplified half-phase model with a symmetry boundary is employed in the 3-D finite-element analysis (FEA) to investigate the TF-FRLM, and the field distribution, the back EMF, the detent force, as well as the thrust force are emphasized. Finally, a prototype is constructed, and experiments show good agreement with the FEA results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

B sheets have been intently studied, and various candidates with vacancies have been reported in theoretical investigations, including their possible growth on metal surfaces. However, a recent experiment reported that the borophene formed on a Ag (111) surface consisted of a buckled triangular lattice without vacancies. Our calculations propose a novel nucleation mechanism of B clusters and emphasize the B-Ag interaction in the growth process of borophene, demonstrating the structural evolution of triangular fragments with various profiles and vacancy distributions. Compared with the triangular lattice without vacancies, we have confirmed that the sheet energetically favored during the nucleation and growth is that containing 1/6 vacancies in a stripe pattern, whose scanning tunneling microscopy image is in better agreement with the experimental observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transverse flux motors are of great interest in the low-speed high-torque direct-drive applications. In this paper, a novel transverse-flux flux-reversal motor structure is presented, which is more suitable than conventional transverse-flux motors when cost and torque density are both considered. The basic structure and operating principle are introduced. The three-dimensional (3-D) equivalent magnetic circuit model is established to obtain the expression of electromagnetic torque. A 3-D finite element model is built to analyze the influence of structure parameters on the torque density. A prototype is designed and manufactured based on the analysis result of finite element method (FEM), the experiments of no-load back-electromotive force and load torque are carried out. The experimental results agree with the results of FEM, which verifies the accuracy of FEM analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]