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Excessive anthropogenic phosphorus (P) emissions put constant pressure on aquatic ecosystems. This pressure can be quantified as the freshwater eutrophication potential (FEP) by linking P emissions, P fate in environmental compartments, and the potentially disappeared fraction of species due to increase of P concentrations in freshwater. However, previous fate modeling on global and regional scales is mainly based on the eight-direction algorithm without distinguishing pollution sources. The algorithm fails to characterize the fate paths of point-source emissions via subsurface pipelines and wastewater treatment infrastructure, and exhibits suboptimal performance in accounting for multidirectional paths caused by river bifurcations, especially in flat terrains. Here we aim to improve the fate modeling by incorporating various fate paths and addressing multidirectional scenarios. We also update the P estimates by complementing potential untreated point-source emissions (PSu). The improved method is examined in a rapidly urbanizing area in Taihu Lake Basin, China in 2017 at a spatial resolution of 100 m × 100 m. Results show that the contribution of PSu on FEP (62.6%) is greater than that on P emissions (58.5%). The FEP is more spatially widely distributed with the improved fate modeling, facilitating targeted regulatory strategies tailored to local conditions.

Temperature is a key factor affecting the safety of the Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. Therefore, real-time thermal fault diagnosis is becoming more and more prominent, as battery faults can lead to local overheating and thermal runaway in severe cases. This article proposes a Chebyshev–Galerkin-based thermal fault detection and localization framework for the pouch-type Li-ion battery under limited sensing. First, the Chebyshev function is used to construct the spatial basis functions with global and orthonormal properties. Under the time–space (T-S) separation framework, the time coefficients can be derived through the Galerkin method using six sensors. Then, by decomposing the time coefficients using the independent component analysis, the temporal and spatial reference statistics can be formed for real-time fault detection. Finally, considering the detected fault snapshots, the thermal fault location can be identified by finding the maximum contributed position through T-S synthesis. Simulations and experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Hydrophobicity detection is of great significance to the condition monitoring of composite insulators, is an important guarantee for the safe operation of transmission lines. Therefore, this article proposes a hydrophobicity diagnosis method based on an improved residual neural network. The method consists of an improved residual neural network, an image quality booster, and an image enhancement module. Among them, the improved residual network reduces the convergence time of the model by adding the Focus algorithm. The image quality booster uses a deconvolution algorithm to effectively solve the image distortion problem. At the same time, the image enhancement module improves the generalization ability of the model through the GEM algorithm. On the other hand, the method locates the diagnostic area of composite insulators in a weakly supervised manner and is able to evaluate the hydrophobicity level of insulators at different locations simultaneously. Field tests show that this method can well meet the actual maintenance needs and eliminate the judgment difference of manual detection. Compared with current hydrophobic detection models, the method has greater advantages in terms of detection accuracy and operating speed.

The increasing application of synthetic fertilizer has tripled nitrogen (N) inputs over the 20th century. N enrichment decreases water quality and threatens aquatic species such as fish through eutrophication and toxicity. However, the impacts of N on freshwater ecosystems are typically neglected in life cycle assessment (LCA). Due to the variety of environmental conditions and species compositions, the response of species to N emissions differs among ecoregions, requiring a regionalized effect assessment. Our study tackled this issue by establishing regionalized species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) of freshwater fish against N concentrations for 367 ecoregions and 48 combinations of realms and major habitat types globally. Subsequently, effect factors (EFs) were derived for LCA to assess the effects of N on fish species richness at a 0.5 degree × 0.5 degree resolution. Results show good SSD fits for all of the ecoregions that contain sufficient data and similar patterns for average and marginal EFs. The SSDs highlight strong effects on species richness due to high N concentrations in the tropical zone and the vulnerability of cold regions. Our study revealed the regional differences in sensitivities of freshwater ecosystems against N content in great spatial detail and can be used to assess more precisely and comprehensively nutrient-induced impacts in LCA.

Infrared imaging technology, as an effective on-site condition monitoring means of equipment, is widely used in the maintenance task of insulators. Accurate segmentation of insulators in infrared images is of great significance for temperature data acquisition and fault diagnosis. The presence of multiple electrical devices in the infrared image substantially increases the difficulty of insulator instance segmentation. Moreover, segmentation methods based on pixel-level sample annotation consume a lot of time and resources. Therefore, a box-supervised instance segmentation method for insulator infrared images based on shuffle polarized self-attention (SPSA) is proposed. Firstly, an adaptive positive and negative sample matching mechanism is designed in an anchor-free detector, which adaptively adjusts the constraint range of sample matching according to the inherent characteristics of the insulator. Secondly, an SPSA module is embedded in the mask branch to improve the segmentation accuracy of insulator infrared images by feature shuffling and polarized filtering. Thirdly, the insulator weakly supervised segmentation is realized with box annotations by introducing a pairwise loss term and a projection loss term in the training strategy. The experiments show that the proposed method displays superior segmentation performance compared with other advanced method algorithms, which can effectively improve the intelligence of insulator fault diagnosis in transmission lines.

The necessary step of directly adding hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into the detection system in traditional immunoassays hampers their applications as a portable device for point-of-care analysis due to the unstable liquid form of H2O2. Herein, a strategy of self-supplying H2O2and signal amplification triggering by copper peroxide nanodots encapsulated (CPNs) in metal–organic frameworks (ZIF-8) was proposed in an immunoassay for dual-signal detection of bisphenol A (a typical emerging organic pollutant), which was further fabricated as a lab-in-a-tube device integrated with a smartphone sensing platform. Herein, CPNs@ZIF-8 was modified on the antibody against bisphenol A; after the competitive binding of analytes, coating antigens, and antibodies, the released H2O2and Cu2+from encapsulated CPNs under the acidic condition will trigger a Fenton-like reaction to generate ·OH for oxidization of TMB; meanwhile, Cu2+could quench the fluorescence of GSH-Au NCs, resulting in dual-mode signals for measurements. Most importantly, self-supplying H2O2with high stability was undertaken by CPNs, and the remarkably increased signal molecule (CPN) loading was ascribed to the excellent capacity of metal–organic frameworks (ZIF-8). In addition, good recoveries were obtained from a colorimetric/fluorescent dual-mode strategy. The constructed device demonstrated great potential as a universal platform for rapid detection of various environmental contaminants using corresponding antibodies relying on its performance of satisfactory stability, sensitivity, and accuracy.

ABSTRACTTargeted therapy is an important therapeutic strategy currently, however, the development of targeted therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is relatively lagging. Cullin 4A (CUL4A) was reported to be overexpressed in NPC; nevertheless, the specific role of CUL4A remains unrevealed. NPC cells and tumor-bearing mice were cultivated to explore the role and mechanism of CUL4A in NPC. After evaluating CUL4A levels in NPC cells, functional experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of CUL4A knockdown and overexpression on cell proliferative, invasive and migratory aptitude as well as NF-κB signaling. Following the GeneMANIA database predicted that protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) was downstream of CUL4A, the mediated role of PRMT5 in the regulation of CUL4A on cells was then determined. Moreover, the tumor volumes and weights of tumor-bearing mice were recorded, and the levels of proliferation-, migration-, and NF-κB signaling-related proteins in the tumor were determined. Herein, CUL4A was enhanced in NPC cells, and its knockdown and overexpression separately suppressed and promoted cell proliferative, invasive, and migratory aptitude as well as NF-κB signal activation. Novelty, PRMT5 knockdown reversed the influences of CUL4A overexpression on these aspects. In addition, its knockdown likewise reversed the facilitating impact of CUL4A expression on tumor growth and declined the expression levels of proliferation-, migration-, and NF-κB signaling-related protein in the tumor. Together, this paper indicated that CUL4A promoted the proliferative, invasive, and migratory aptitude of NPC cells as well as tumor growth by promoting PRMT5 to activate NF-κB signaling.

After being incubated with animal and human liver microsomes, metabolites of phase I and II were investigated. A comparison was performed by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time-of-flight coupled to mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q/TOF). Consequently, a total of four phase I metabolites and three glucuronide binding metabolites of T-2 toxin were discovered. Although a significant metabolic difference was observed among six species, HT-2 toxin was the major product in all species. In addition, the in vivo metabolism of T-2 toxin after oral administration was also investigated in chickens, In total, 18 metabolites were detected, of which 13 were novel, to our knowledge, and reported for the first time. To elucidate the structures of these metabolites, besides accurate mass data from their MS and MS2spectra, online hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange technique was also carried out. These new metabolites were regarded as 3′-hydroxy-T-2 3-sulfate, 3′-hydroxy-HT-2 3-sulfate, 4′-hydroxy-HT-2, 3′,4′-dihydroxy-HT-2, 4′-carboxyl-T-2, 4′-carboxyl-HT-2, 4′-carboxyl-4′-hydroxy-T-2, and their isomers, implying that T-2 toxin was metabolized more extensively in animals than previously thought. Furthermore, 3′-hydroxy-HT-2, 4′-carboxyl-T-2, 3′-hydroxy-T-2, HT-2 toxin, and neosolaniol were identified to be the major metabolites of T-2 toxin in chickens. The present study expands existing knowledge about T-2 toxin metabolism, informing assessments of the impact T-2 toxin exposure and metabolism on health.

Vitamin D deficiency and disability are both prevalent among older adults. However, the association between them has rarely been investigated in oldest-old subjects (aged ≥ 80 years) and the causality remains unclear. This study aimed to elucidate the causal effect of vitamin D on the incident risk of disability in activities of daily living (ADL) among Chinese oldest-old based on the 2012-2018 Chinese Healthy Ageing and Biomarkers Cohort Study (HABCS).

To explore differences of zearalenone (ZEN) metabolism between various species, phase I and II metabolism by liver microsomes of animals and human were investigated using ultra high-pressure liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q/TOF MS). A total of 24 metabolites were identified, among which 12 were reported for the first time. Reduction, hydroxylation, and glucuronidation were the major metabolic pathways of ZEN, and significant differences in various species were also observed. Reduction was the main reaction in swine and human, whereas hydroxylation was predominant in rats, chickens, goats, and cows in in vitro systems. Furthemore, in vivo metabolism of ZEN in rats and chickens was investigated, and 23 and 6 metabolites were identified in each species, respectively. Reduction, hydroxylation, and glucuronidation were the major metabolic pathways in rats, while reduction and sulfation predominated in chickens. These results further enrich the biotransformation profile of ZEN, providing a helpful reference for assessing the risks to animals and humans.

Ginsenosides accumulation responses to temperature are critical to quality formation in cold-dependent American ginseng. However, the studies on cold requirement mechanism relevant to ginsenosides have been limited in this species.

Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides worldwide, but there is mounting evidence demonstrating that they have adverse effects on nontarget organisms. However, little is known about the extent of environmental neonicotinoids contamination in China. In this study, a total of 693 honey samples from across China, from both Apis meliferaand Apis cerana, were analyzed to examine neonicotinoid concentrations and their geographical distribution, and correlation with the primary plant species from which the honey was obtained. Furthermore, chronic and acute exposure risk and risk ranking for humans eating honey were investigated, and risks to bees were also considered. The results revealed that 40.8% of the samples contained at least one of the five neonicotinoids tested. Honeys from commercial crops were found to be more frequently contaminated with neonicotinoids than those from noncommercial crops. Honey samples from Apis melliferawere more frequently contaminated than those from Apis cerana. The concentrations of neonicotinoids found in honey overlapped with those that have been found to have significant adverse effects on honeybee health. The dietary risk assessments indicated that the levels of neonicotinoids detected in honey were likely to be safe for human consumption.

Tin selenides have been attracting great attention as anode materials for the state-of-the-art rechargeable sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) due to their high theoretical capacity and low cost. However, they deliver unsatisfactory performance in practice, owing to their intrinsically low conductivity, sluggish kinetics and volume expansion during the charge-discharge process. Herein, we demonstrate the synthesis of SnSe2nanocrystals coupled with hierarchical porous carbon (SnSe2NCs/C) microspheres for boosting SIBs in terms of capacity, rate ability and durability. The unique structure of SnSe2NCs/C possesses several advantages, including inhibiting the agglomeration of SnSe2nanoparticles, relieving the volume expansion, accelerating the diffusion kinetics of electrons/ions, enhancing the contact area between the electrode and electrolyte and improving the structural stability of the composite. As a result, the as-obtained SnSe2NCs/C microspheres show a high reversible capacity (565 mA h g−1after 100 cycles at 100 mA g−1), excellent rate capability, and long cycling life stability (363 mA h g−1at 1 A g−1after 1000 cycles), which represent the best performances among the reported SIBs based on SnSe2-based anode materials.

Apocynum venetumhas a long history as a Chinese traditional tea. As one of the major components, polysaccharides from Apocynum venetumleaves were extracted with acid (HCl), distilled water and alkaline (NaOH) to study the effect of the extraction solvents on their chemical composition and biological activities in this work. Monosaccharide composition revealed that polysaccharides from acidic and distilled water extraction were pectic polysaccharides, while those from alkaline extraction consisted of pectin and hemicellulose. Chemical analysis and FT-IR spectra indicated the co-extraction of protein and polyphenol contents in alkaline extracted polysaccharides, which exhibited strongest antioxidant and digestive enzyme inhibition activities. The antioxidant capacities were 185.26–286.30 mg TE/g for DPPH radical scavenging, 409.06–502.00 mg TE/g for ABTS radical scavenging, and 152.12–260.70 mg TE/g sample for reducing power assay, respectively. The lowest IC50for α-glucosidase and lipase inhibition activities were 16.75 μg/mL and 820 μg/mL, respectively. Further purification of alkaline extracts was carried out and characterized. The results showed that acid hydrolysis could successfully reduce polyphenol and protein contents, and purified polysaccharides showed even higher antioxidant activities and α-glucosidase inhibition activity. These results provide a scientific support for functional application and extraction of polysaccharides from Apocynum venetumleaves.

Brown macroalgae are an important source of polyphenols with multiple health functions. In this work, polyphenol extracts from Lessonia trabeculatewere purified and investigated for the antidiabetic activity in vitro and in vivo. The purified polyphenol extracts exhibited good antioxidant activities, α-glucosidase and lipase inhibition activities (IC50< 0.25 mg/mL). The HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS/MS analysis indicated that the compounds in polyphenol extracts were mainly phlorotannin derivatives, phenolic acid derivatives, and gallocatechin derivatives. In vivo, C57BL/6J rats treated with polyphenol extracts for 4 weeks had lower fasting blood glucose levels, insulin levels, as well as better serum lipid profiles and antioxidant stress parameters, compared with the diabetic control (DC) group. Histopathology revealed that polyphenol extracts preserved the architecture and function of the liver. Short-chain fatty acid contents in rats’ fecal samples with polyphenols administration were significantly recovered as compared with the DC group. Furthermore, the gut microflora of rats was investigated with high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing and results indicated that polyphenol extracts had a positive effect on regulating the dysbiosis of the microbial ecology in diabetic rats. All of the results from the study provided a scientific reference of the potentially beneficial effects of L. trabeculatepolyphenols on diabetes management.

Fraudulent acts regarding honey authenticity that use Apis melliferahoney as a substitute for Apis ceranahoney have garnered considerable concern in China and triggered a trust crisis from consumers. In this study, untargeted metabolomics analysis was carried out based on volatile fractions in honey from A. ceranaand A. melliferausing headspace gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS). Honey from A. ceranaand A. melliferawas discriminated by HS-GC-IMS profiling, principal component analysis, and orthogonal partial least-squares discrimination analysis. Tentative markers were identified from p-values and the variable importance in projection analysis and confirmed using the retention index, mass fragments, and reference standards by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). A targeted method was established using the headspace solid phase coupled with microextraction GC–MS (HS-SPME-GC–MS) to quantitate the markers. The results demonstrated that the developed untargeted and targeted metabolomics approach performed well when discriminating honey from A. ceranaand A. mellifera.

Water fracturing is widely employed as a reservoir-stimulating technology for the recovery of unconventional oil and gas. However, the process suffers from massive water consumption and environmental concerns. Therefore, alternative fracturing fluids are desired. In recent years, fracturing with CO2was proposed to embrace multiple benefits, including carbon storage, enhanced recovery, etc. Herein, based on specially designed facilities and new analytical methodologies, we present multiscale and quantitative investigations on the fracturing mechanism and behavior of CO2and water. It was demonstrated that because of the high leak-off of CO2, shear fractures can be readily induced, which facilitated the formation of tensile and mixed fractures, leading to effective fracturing, complex networks, and greater stimulated reservoir volume. Finally, a 4- to 20- fold increase in tight oil production could be achieved by CO2fracturing in field tests with five wells.

The development of a simple and sensitive method for glucose determination is significant in the early diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. However, current analytical approaches have various defects in their applications. Here, an attractive chemiluminescence-based sensor is developed for one-step and rapid detection of glucose in human urine. In this work, a 2D metal–organic framework (2D-MOF) nanosheet with peroxidase activity was first synthesized, which could catalyze the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and further oxidize luminol to produce a strong chemiluminescence signal. Then, luminol and glucose oxidase (GOD) were successively labeled on the 2D-MOF nanosheet, obtaining a simple chemiluminescence-functionalized sensor (Co-TCPP(Fe)@luminol@GOD). When Co-TCPP(Fe)@luminol@GOD was introduced to the detection system containing glucose, substantial H2O2was released under the catalysis of GOD on Co-TCPP(Fe). Then, the produced H2O2was decomposed by the 2D-MOF nanosheet, and the luminol on Co-TCPP(Fe)@luminol@GOD was further oxidized, generating a chemiluminescence signal, finally achieving rapid determination of glucose. Under the optimized condition, fabrication of 2D-MOF nanosheets as sensitive glucose sensors exhibited good performance during the process: (i) good sensitivity (LOD, 10.667 μg/L) with a wide linear range (32–5500 μg/L); (ii) satisfactory accuracy (recoveries, 89–121.2%; CV, 3.5–7.4%); (iii) low cost; and (iv) simple operation. Our proposed method here has the potential for screening glucose in various human urine samples from hospitals.

Air pollution and its adverse effects on public health remain a considerable problem in China, where policies have been implemented to improve the situation. We aimed to estimate the disease burden associated with particulate matter (PM)2·5across China for 2020 and 2030 to identify the populations and regions most at risk, quantify the health benefits of air quality improvement targets, and determine the effect of population growth and ageing on this disease burden.

Tuning reactive metal-support interaction (RMSI) is a promising approach to optimizing catalytic active sites viathe electronic, geometric and compositional effects. In general, the RMSI is conducted on the reducible oxides viaa high-temperature reaction (>550 °C). Herein we report a strong RMSI between Pt single atom (PtSA) and non-oxide-based g-C3N4built by an in-situphotocatalytic reduction method at a sub-zero temperature. The experimental observation confirms that the rich N vacancies in g-C3N4produce an obvious electron-deficient effect, which greatly enhances the RMSI. This strong RMSI contributes to the highest PtSA coverage density of 0.35 mg m−2reported to date in carbon-based materials and outstanding H2-evolution activity of 174.5 mmol g−1h−1perPtSA relative to those on the electron-rich g-C3N4. The structure simulation reveals that the RMSI can not only stabilize the PtSA on the electron-deficient g-C3N4viathe strong chemical bond between PtSA and the two-coordinated C (C2C) sites caused by the N vacancies, but also promises the PtSA with an optimized electronic and geometric structures for capturing photogenerated electrons and producing H2. This finding opens a new channel for designing and manipulating single atom-loaded photocatalyst viathe RMSI at a sub-zero low temperature.

In this paper, the reasons for cracking in the longitudinal and spiral of Q125 casing in ultra-deep wells (UDWs) at the Tarim Oilfield were investigated for the first time ever. Up to know an evaluation of Q125 casing materials of UDWs were were limited to comparisons with WSP-2T and P110 via performance tests. In addition, an applicability evaluation of UDWs was carried out using MPC software and theoretical calculations. The results show that mechanical damage and stress corrosion cracking are the principal causes for longitudinal cracking. Spiral cracking can be the result of the manufacturing process. It should be added that the material out of which Q125 casing is produced manifests high strength, low toughness and great sensitivity to cracks, stress corrosion and low allowable limit crack size (ALCS) when compared with WSP-2T and P110. Owing to the complicated field environment of UDWs at the Tarim Oilfield, the causes of cracking failure have been analyzed, with the result that WSP-2T casing of a similar strength to Q125 casing ought to be selected in UDWs rather than Q125 casing with high strength and low toughness, which is significant for the development of UDWs at the Tarim Oilfield.

With its inherent zig-zag layered structure and open framework, Na2Ti3O7(NTO) is a promising anode material for potassium-ion batteries (KIBs). However, its poor electronic conductivity caused by large band gap (∼3.7 eV) usually leads to low-performance KIBs. In this work, we synthesize the fluff-like hydrogenated Na2Ti3O7(HNTO) nanowires grown on N-doped carbon sponge (CS) as a binder-free and current-collector-free flexible anode for KIBs (denoted as HNTO/CS). High-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron spin-resonance spectroscopy (ESR) confirm the existence of Ti–OHs and O vacancies in HNTO. The first-principles calculation discloses that both Ti–OHs and O vacancies are equivalent to n-type doping because they can shift the Fermi level up to the conduction band, thus leading to a higher electronic conductivity and better performance for KIBs. In addition, the N-doped CS can further reinforce the conductivity and avoid the aggregation of HNTO nanowires during cycling. As a result, the as-made HNTO/CS can deliver a capacity of 107.8 mAh g–1at 100 mA g–1after 20 cycles, and keep the capacity of 90.9% and 82.5% after 200 and 1555 cycles, respectively, much better than the samples without hydrogenation treatment or N-doped CS and reported KTixOy-based materials. Our work highlights the importance of hydrogenation treatment and N-doped CS in enhancing the electrochemical property for KIBs.

The development of highly efficient and durable electrocatalysts for high-performance overall water-splitting devices is crucial for clean energy conversion. However, the existing electrocatalysts still suffer from low catalytic efficiency, and need a large overpotential to drive the overall water-splitting reactions. Herein, we report an iridium–tungsten alloy with nanodendritic structure (IrW ND) as a new class of high-performance and pH-universal bifunctional electrocatalysts for hydrogen and oxygen evolution catalysis. The IrW ND catalyst presents a hydrogen generation rate ∼2 times higher than that of the commercial Pt/C catalyst in both acid and alkaline media, which is among the most active hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts yet reported. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the high HER intrinsic catalytic activity results from the suitable hydrogen and hydroxyl binding energies, which can accelerate the rate-determining step of the HER in acid and alkaline media. Moreover, the IrW NDs show superb oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity and much improved stability over Ir. The theoretical calculation demonstrates that alloying Ir metal with W can stabilize the formed active iridium oxide during the OER process and lower the binding energy of reaction intermediates, thus improving the Ir corrosion resistance and OER kinetics. Furthermore, the overall water-splitting devices driven by IrW NDs can work in a wide pH range and achieve a current density of 10 mA cm–2in acid electrolyte at a low potential of 1.48 V.

A model integrating deep learning radiomics scores obtained from multiparametric dual-energy CT with α-fetoprotein levels of more than 100 ng/mL accurately predicted the macrotrabecular-massive subtype of hepatocellular carcinoma.

C28H29N3O3, triclinic, P1̄ (no. 2), a= 8.2887(3) Å, b= 14.1977(5) Å, c= 21.3385(7) Å, α= 107.142(3)°, β= 92.773(3)°, γ= 104.240(3)°, V= 2305.97(15) Å3, Z= 4, Rgt(F2) = 0.0555, wRref(F2) = 0.1620, T= 100(1) K.

The lack of information on HT-2 toxin leads to inaccurate hazard evaluations. In the present study, toxicokinetic studies of HT-2 toxin were investigated following intravenous (iv) and oral administration to rats at dosages of 1.0 mg per kilogram of body weight. After oral administration, HT-2 toxin was not detected in plasma, whereas its hydroxylated metabolite, 3′-OH HT-2 was identified. Following iv administration, HT-2 toxin; its 3′-hydroxylated product; and its glucuronide derivative, 3-GlcA HT-2, were observed in plasma, and the glucuronide conjugate was the predominant metabolite. To explore the missing HT-2 toxin in plasma, metabolic studies of HT-2 toxin in liver microsomes were conducted. Consequently, eight phase I and three phase II metabolites were identified. Hydroxylation, hydrolysis, and glucuronidation were the main metabolic pathways, among which hydroxylation was the predominant one, mediated by 3A4, a cytochrome P450 enzyme. Additionally, significant interspecies metabolic differences were observed.

An optimization method of NBD-F derivatization has been developed for the determination of proline in honey using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. To determine the free proline in different samples of honey, ultrasound extraction was performed using 0.1 M borate buffer solution as the extraction solvent. Chromatographic separation was performed on a XDB C18 column (150 × 4.6 mm i.d.) using 0.1 M sodium acetate buffer solution (pH 7.2) : methanol : tetrahydrofuran (900 : 95 : 5, respectively, v/v/v) as mobile phase A and methanol as mobile phase B at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min−1with a run time of 10 min. The assay was linear over a range of 0.15 μg mL−1to 100.00 μg mL−1with a lower limit of detection of 3.00 mg kg−1, and recoveries were greater than 90%. The intra-day and inter-day precision was less than 4%. This method was successful in determining free proline in honey, ranging from 80.5 mg kg−1to 426.4 mg kg−1in different honey samples.

A comprehensive liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS)-based metabolomics approach was developed to discriminate honey harvested from Apis mellifera ligusticaSpinola (A. mellifera) and Apis cerana ceranaFabricius (A. cerana). Based on an untargeted strategy, ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization quadrupole orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC Q-Orbitrap) was combined with chemometrics techniques to screen and identify tentative markers from A. melliferaand A. ceranahoney. In targeted metabolomics analysis, a sensitive method of solid-phase extraction followed by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was established for quantifying three markers, and the results showed that 3-amino-2-naphthoic acid and methyl indole-3-acetate could be considered markers of A. ceranahoney, as they were present in higher amounts in A. ceranahoney than in A. melliferahoney, whereas kynurenic acid was determined to be a marker of A. melliferahoney. This work highlights critical information for the authentication of A. ceranaand A. melliferahoney.

An improved HPLC method was developed for the simultaneous determination of nucleosides in bee pollen samples of various floral origins. Bee pollen samples were dissolved in 35 mL pure water by agitation on a vortex mixer followed by ultrasonic-assisted extraction prior to quantitative analysis. HPLC conditions were optimized and good linearity (r2> 0.999) was obtained over the investigated concentration ranges. Precision was evaluated by intra- and inter-day assays and RSD values were below 3.15%. Accuracies ranged from 82.7% to 124.7%, respectively. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the analysis of nucleosides in bee pollen samples and could be used for routine analysis as the standard method.

A rapid method for the analysis of melamine in royal jelly (RJ) and RJ lyophilized powder (RJLP) was developed using ion‐pair RP‐HPLC coupled with UV detector. The method utilized an optimized buffer system to avoid the elution of melamine near the column void volume and improve retention of melamine in a generic C8 chromatographic column. In addition, sample preparation included deproteination, ultrasonic‐assisted extraction, and cleanup on a mixed‐mode cation exchange extraction cartridge. The extraction procedure was optimized with regard to the amount of extraction solvent and the duration of sonication for RJ and RJLP samples. The following criteria were used to validate the HPLC–UV detection method: selectivity, linearity, precision, LOD, and LOQ. Correlation coefficient was higher than 0.999 by applying the linear regression model based on the least square method with a weighting factor (1/x). Precision was evaluated as repeatability and intermediary precision with RSD of less than 15%. The mean percentage recoveries of melamine were varied from 72.5 to 90.5% for RJ and RJLP. This approach will be of particular utility for the evaluation of melamine residue level and routine monitoring of melamine in RJ and RJLP samples.

A method for the quantitative determination of seven fluoroquinolone antibacterial agents (FQs) used in beekeeping,viz.ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, ofloxacin, pefloxacin, danofloxacin, enrofloxacin, and difloxacin, in royal jelly samples was developed on the basis of high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Sample preparation included deproteination, ultrasonic‐assisted extraction with a mixed inorganic solution of monopotassium phosphate (KH2PO4) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium salt (Na2EDTA), and clean‐up on a solid‐phase extraction cartridge. The extraction procedure was optimized with regard to the amount of inorganic solvent and the duration of sonication for royal jelly as a complicated matrix. Overall recoveries for FQs ranged from 85.9 to 99.1% for royal jelly with standard deviations between 2.79 and 6.27%. Limits of quantification were 2–40 ng/g for seven FQs in royal jelly. A total of 57 real royal jelly samples collected from beekeepers and supermarkets were analyzed. The three most abundant honeybee‐use FQs,i. e.ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and norfloxacin, were determined in some royal jelly samples in concentrations ranging from 11.9 to 55.6 ng/g. Unexpectedly, however, difloxacin was found at concentrations of about 46.8 ng/g in one sample although it is rarely used in beekeeping. The presented method was successfully applied to quantify FQs in real royal jelly samples.

The multi-metallene with an ultrahigh surface area has great potential in precise tuning of surface heterogeneous d-electronic correlation by surface strain effect for the distinctive surface electronic structure, which is a brand new class of promising 2D electrocatalyst for sustainable energy device application. However, achieving such an atomically thin multi-metallene still presents a great challenge. Herein, we present a new synthetic method for an atomic-level palladium-iridium (PdIr) bimetallene with an average thickness of only ∼1.0 nm for achieving superior catalysis in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the formic acid oxidation reaction (FAOR). The curved PdIr bimetallene presents a top-ranked high electrochemical active area of 127.5 ± 10.8 m2gPd+Ir−1in the reported noble alloy materials, and exhibits a very low overpotential, ultrahigh activity and improved stability for HER and FAOR. DFT calculation reveals that the PdIr bimetallene herein has a unique lattice tangential strain, which can induce surface distortion while concurrently creating a variety of concave-convex featured micro-active regions formed by variously coordinated Pd sites agglomeration. Such a strong strain effect correlates the abnormal on-site active 4d10-t2g-orbital Coulomb correlation potential and directly elevates orbital-electronegativity exposure within these active regions, resulting in a preeminent barrier-free energetic path for significant enhancement of FAOR and HER catalytic performance.This work reports the first-time synthesis of palladium-iridium bimetallene with lattice tangential strain, which achieves superior catalysis for hydrogen evolution reaction and formic acid oxidation reaction.

A rapid and sensitive method for the determination of 4‐fluoro‐3‐phenoxybenzaldehyde cyanohydrin (FPBC) and 4‐fluoro‐3‐phenoxy‐benzaldehyde (FPB) in honey samples using ultrasonically assisted extraction and gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC–ECD) has been developed. The different factors affecting the efficiency of the extraction were carefully optimized. The honey sample was extracted with a mixture of hexane and dichloromethane (v/v, 1:1) utilizing the ultrasonically assisted technique and cleaned up by solid‐phase extraction on Oasis HLB cartridges. The eluate was evaporated to dryness and residues were reconstituted to 1.0 mL with hexane and determined by GC–ECD. The calibration curves of fortified samples showed acceptable linear response (R2>0.99) over a range of 3–100 ng/g for FPBC and FPB in seven replicate determinations of six concentrations, respectively, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a lack‐of‐fit test was performed to validate the regression data. Overall average recoveries ranged from 90.9 to 106.2% for honey samples. The detection limits were 0.9 ng/g for FPBC and 1.0 ng/g for FPB, respectively. This method can be successfully applied to routine determination of two degradation products of flumethrin in honey samples.

An important concept proposed in the early stage of robot path planning field is the shrinking of the robot to a point and meanwhile expanding of the obstacles in the workspace as a set of new obstacles. The resulting grown obstacles are called the Configuration Space (Cspace) obstacles. The find-path problem is then transformed into that of finding a collision free path for a point robot among the Cspace obstacles. However, the research experiences obtained so far have shown that the calculation of the Cspace obstacles is very hard work when the following situations occur: 1. both the robot and obstacles are not polygons and 2. the robot is allowed to rotate. This situation is even worse when the robot and obstacles are three dimensional (3D) objects with various shapes. Obviously a direct path planning approach without the calculation of the Cspace obstacles is strongly needed. This paper presents such a new real-time robot path planning approach which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first one in the robotic community. The fundamental ideas are the utilization of inequality and optimization technique. Simulation results have been presented to show its merits.

The main challenge for lithium–oxygen (Li–O2) batteries is their sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) kinetics and high charge overpotentials caused by the poorly conductive discharge products of lithium peroxide (Li2O2). In this contribution, the cesium lead bromide perovskite (CsPbBr3) nanocrystals were first employed as a high-performance cathode for Li–O2batteries. The battery with a CsPbBr3cathode can exhibit the lowest charge overpotential of 0.5 V and the best cycling performance of 400 cycles among all the reported perovskite-based Li–O2cells, which represents a new benchmark. Most importantly, the density functional theory (DFT) calculations further prove that the rate limitation step during OER processes is the decomposition of LiO2to form O2and Li+, and the weak adsorption strength between CsPbBr3surfaces and LiO2results in a low charge overpotential for the CsPbBr3-based Li–O2battery. This work first demonstrates the good potential of CsPbBr3for application in metal–air batteries.

C24H21NO5S, monoclinic, P21/c(no. 14), a= 7.7790(16) Å, b= 22.726(5) Å, c= 12.755(3) Å, β= 107.15(3)°, V= 2154.6(9) Å3, Z= 4, Rgt(F2) = 0.0453, wRref(F2) = 0.1371, T= 293.15 K.