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In order to better assist privately held companies in obtaining commercial credit financing, this article selected 1,000 Chinese privately held companies in the manufacturing industry that went public from 2008 to 2018 and discussed whether a company's political connections serve as a resource-promoting effect on its commercial credit financing. This article proposed relevant hypotheses based on theoretical analysis and performed the descriptive statistical analysis and Hausman test analysis on all variables based on the unbalanced panel data of public companies when designing the study. Then, this article used a fixed model for regression estimation of the main effects, and the results showed that a company's political connections significantly reduce its possibility of obtaining commercial credit from suppliers. This article further analyzed the regulatory effects of market environmental factors and corporate transparency-related boundary factors and concluded that the process of marketization, the degree of market competition, and the transparency of companies will significantly weaken the inhibiting effect of political connections on commercial credit financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to generate a denser focal stack, a cooperative generative adversarial network is proposed to learn the refocusing ability from light field imaging. To keep the axial continuity, the proposed framework is designed to learn features of a focal stack in both axial directions. Different from the classic generative adversarial network, our generative module consists of a forward prediction sub‐network and a backward prediction sub‐network, taking the forward‐and‐backward focal stacks as their inputs, respectively. The bi‐directional predictions are then fused by a weighting process, which is guided by an adversarial module. The proposed network is trained on light field focal stacks conducted via digital refocusing. Without loss of the refocus continuity, one can axial super‐resolve a focal stack by using the trained model. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on different types of focal stacks produced by both light fields and traditional camera shootings is validated. The experimental results indicate that the refocus variation of a focal stack can be well learned and predicted without a complete light field. Therefore, the proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional digital refocusing in terms of run‐time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With smartphone use widespread worldwide, smartphone addiction is an emerging epidemic. This study aims to investigate the prevalence of smartphone addiction among freshmen medical students and to explore its association with personal factors, mental health, and professional identity. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from October 10th to November 10th, 2020 and included 2,182 first-year college students at Wannan Medical College, China. The smartphone addiction test, professional identity, and a 12-item general health questionnaire were used for this cross-sectional survey. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was employed to examine the correlations between smartphone addiction and mental health and professional identity. Binary logistic regression analysis was carried out to assess the factors influencing smartphone addiction. Of the 2,182 students, 866 (39.7%) were identified as having smartphone addiction. The logistic regression analysis shows that four factors (professional identity scale, poor mental health, smartphone use before sleep, and perceived study pressure) were significantly associated with smartphone addiction. Conclusions: This cross-sectional study suggests that smartphone addiction is common among Chinese freshmen medical students. Smartphone addiction was common among the freshmen medical students surveyed. The findings imply that promotional programs, aimed at enhancing mental health and professional identity among freshmen medical students, help to reduce smartphone addiction in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calycosin is a dietary flavonoid with favorable activities, which seems to be inconsistent with its low circulating levels in vivo. To address this issue, we developed a strategy to understand calycosin distribution by integrating qualitative and quantitative analyses of calycosin and its metabolites in portal vein plasma, the liver, and systemic plasma after oral administration to rats. Consequently, 21 metabolites were characterized in total, including the first report of a reductive biotransformation and 14 new metabolites. Compared with the low levels of calycosin, calycosin glucuronides were predominant in circulation, and both the hepatic and intestinal regions contributed to the high exposure of these calycosin glucuronides. However, intestinal glucuronidation, prior to hepatic glucuronidation, plays a key role in the low circulating levels of calycosin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B 4 C-based composites were synthesized by spark plasma sintering using B 4 C、Ti 3 SiC 2 、Si as starting materials. The effects of sintering temperature and second phase content on mechanical performance and microstructure of composites were studied. Full dense B 4 C-based composites were obtained at a low sintering temperature of 1800 °C. The B 4 C-based composite with 10 wt% (TiB 2 +SiC) shows excellent mechanical properties: the Vickers hardness, fracture toughness, and flexural strength are 33 GPa, 8 MPa m1/2, 569 MPa, respectively. High hardness and flexural strength were attributed to the high relative density and grain refinement, the high fracture toughness was owing to the crack deflection and uniform distribution of the second phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) is an important technique for studying gene expression analysis, but accurate and reliable results depend on the use of a stable reference gene. This study proposes to test the expression stability of candidate reference genes in the callus of Saussurea laniceps, a unique Tibetan medicinal plant. Based on the S. laniceps callus transcriptome, eleven candidate reference genes, including TUA2, TUB3, TUB8, TIF3B1, TIF3H1, ELF5A, PP2AA2, UEV1D, UBL5, UBC36, and SKIP1), were validated for RT-qPCR normalization in the callus under abiotic stress (salt, cold, and UV) and hormone treatments (abscisic acid, MeJA, and salicylic acid). The stability of the candidate genes was evaluated in all the samples of S. laniceps. Comprehensive analysis of all samples showed that the best reference genes were UBC36 and UBL5. ELF5A and TIF3B1 were ranked as the most stable genes in the sample sets under abiotic stress. For hormone stimulation, UBC36 and TIF3H1 genes had the best stability. This study provides useful guidelines and a starting point for reference gene selection for expression analysis using RT-qPCR techniques in S. laniceps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether arteriosclerosis can influence the hypertension control remains incompletely understood. We hypothesized that higher arteriosclerosis may be associated with uncontrolled hypertension. Arteriosclerosis was assessed by carotid femoral artery pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV) and uncontrolled hypertension (systolic blood pressure [BP] ≥130 mm Hg or diastolic BP ≥80 mm Hg). The multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used for analysis. A total of 1,428 patients with essential hypertension (mean age 68 years, 49.6% male) were enrolled into the study from 2010 to 2017. The BP was uncontrolled in 50.7% of the participants and the mean level of CF-PWV was 12.3 m/s. All the cardiovascular risk factors were worse and CF-PWV was higher in patients with uncontrolled hypertension (all p < 0.05). Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analysis showed that CF-PWV as a continuous variable (odd ratio [OR] 1.093, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.046–1.142) was independently associated with uncontrolled hypertension, after male (OR 1.511) and total cholesterol (OR 1.167), followed by body mass index (OR 1.092), fasting plasma glucose (OR 1.075), and creatinine (OR 1.010) (all p < 0.05). As a binary variable, CF-PWV >12 m/s was also independently associated with uncontrolled hypertension (OR 1.690, 95% CI 1.320–2.164, p < 0.05). Arteriosclerosis is independently associated with uncontrolled BP in patients with hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to assess Chinese medical students' smartphone addiction and its effects on subhealth and insomnia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 14, 2020 to November 14, 2020 by administering an online questionnaire to Wannan Medical College students. Results: Of 2741 students who completed the survey, 1,447 (52.8%) had smartphone addiction. Medical specialty (p = 0.004), alcohol consumption (p = 0.001), smartphone use in bed (p = 0.000), depression (p = 0.000) and anxiety (p = 0.000) were strongly associated with smartphone addiction. The impacts of smartphone addiction on subhealth (p = 0.000) and insomnia (p = 0.000) were significant. Conclusion: This survey shows that the smartphone addiction detection rate among medical students was 52.8%. Students who did not like their medical specialty, consumed alcohol, used their smartphones in bed, and suffered from depression and anxiety had a higher smartphone addiction detection rate. The subhealth and insomnia of medical students are adversely associated with smartphone addiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Current research on activities of daily living (ADLs) disability has mostly focused on the analysis of demographic characteristics, while research on the microcharacteristics of individuals and the macroenvironment is relatively limited, and these studies solely concern the impact of air quality on individual health.Methods: This study innovatively investigated the impact of air quality on ADL disability by matching micro data of individuals from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study with data of urban environmental quality from 122 cities. In this study, an ordered panel logit model was adopted for the benchmark test, and the two-stage ordered probit model with IV was used for endogenous treatment.Results: This innovative study investigated the impact of air quality on ADL disability by matching individual micro data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study with urban environmental quality data for 122 cities. The results showed that air quality significantly increased the probability of ADL disability. The positive and marginal effect of air quality on moderate and mild disability was higher. Generally, the marginal effect of air quality on residents' health was negative. In terms of group heterogeneity, the ADL disability of individuals aged over 60 years, those in the high Gross Domestic Product (GDP) group, females, and those in the nonpilot long-term care insurance group was more affected by air quality, and the interaction between air quality and serious illness showed that the deterioration of air quality exacerbated the ADL disability caused by serious illness; that is, the moderating effect was significant.Conclusions: According to the equilibrium condition of the individual health production function, the ADL disability caused by a 1% improvement in air quality is equivalent to the ADL disability caused by an 89.9652% reduction in serious illness, indicating that the effect of improved air quality is difficult to replace by any other method. Therefore, good air quality can not only reduce ADL disability directly but also reduce serious illness indirectly, which is equivalent to the reduction of ADL disability. This is called the health impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurance marketing is a discipline that maximizes the benefits between policyholders and insurance companies. A big data-driven approach combined with insurance promotions can leverage a wealth of empirical data to develop new customers, motivate existing customers to engage in more activities, and retain existing customers. Insurance business involves a wide variety of scopes and types, and it is labor-intensive and resource-intensive to rely solely on insurance business personnel to process these tedious data. The data-driven approach can find correlations and perform automatic prediction matching according to the characteristics of insurance business data, which saves a lot of time and labor costs. This research uses data mining method and neural network method to mine insurance business data and predict insurance business. This method can accurately capture factors such as the type of insurance business and the amount of the policyholder. The research results show that data mining technology and neural network method have high accuracy and feasibility in predicting insurance business, the prediction error is within 2.38%, and the linear correlation exceeds 0.96. The method used in this study has high accuracy both in terms of new customers and retention of old customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the feasible strategies to enhance the photocatalytic properties of TiO2 is to broaden the visible light response range and accelerate the separation rate of photo-induced electron–hole (e−–h+) pairs by designing and synthesizing heterostructures using narrow-band-gap semiconductors. In this study, a ternary heterostructure based on MOF-derived TiO2 was first fabricated via the self-sacrificing template method followed by a two-step chemical bath process. The as-obtained CdS/ZnIn2S4/TiO2 ternary heterostructures exhibited better visible-light photocatalytic properties for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and tetracycline (TC) than single-component and dual-component systems. Among the ternary heterostructures, it was found that the CdS/ZnIn2S4/TiO2-II showed the highest photoreactivity of 95.3% for RhB removal and 91.8% for TC removal within 40 min. In addition, CdS/ZnIn2S4/TiO2-II could maintain its photocatalytic properties during the stability test. The improvement in photocatalytic properties is attributed to the reasonable construction of a ternary heterostructure, which significantly accelerates the separation and transport of photogenerated e−–h+ pairs, improves the specific surface area, and broadens the visible light response range. This study demonstrates a promising strategy for developing ternary heterostructures as effective photocatalysts for the degradation of organic pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a typical kind of high‐efficiency crystalline silicon (c‐Si) solar cell, amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell is stepping into mass production currently. It is of great significance to recover Ag from unqualified, broken, and end‐of‐life (EoL) SHJ solar cells. Herein, a facile method including alkaline chemical immersion and pyrolysis is developed. By immersing the solar cell into a sodium hydroxide (NaOH) aqueous solution for a period of time, Ag electrodes can be peeled off effectively. The increase of the concentration (Cs) and the temperature (Ts) of the NaOH solution shortens the peeling‐off time (tp) of the electrodes. It is deduced that the heated alkaline environment can accelerate the ester hydrolysis of the cured resin at the contact interface between Ag electrode and transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer, which weakens the bonding strength of the Ag electrode. After cleaning, drying, and milling, the peeled‐off Ag electrodes are pyrolyzed in the air at 500 °C for 60 min to remove the cured resin completely. As a result, Ag powder is obtained with high purity over 99% and almost without mass loss since it is not involved in any chemical reaction during the whole recovery process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Insects are often stressed by adverse factors in their natural environment. Temperature is a crucial driver of insect activity, adaptability, and distribution, and therefore, it greatly impacts the invasive success of alien pests. Bactrocera tau (Walker) is an invasive polyphagous herbivore of vegetables and fruits, now a pest of global importance. This study provides useful information about B. tau's cold- and heat tolerance to extremely low and high temperatures. Its different life stages (i.e., egg, larvae, pupae, and adult) had high survival rates under adverse temperatures spanning −5 to 0 °C and 39 to 42 °C. These findings suggest that B. tau possesses a wide temperature threshold range for survival, which likely contributes to its better establishment and expansion in new regions. Meanwhile, fitted curves were used to quantify B. tau's tolerance potential as a function of both stress intensity (heat or cold) and exposure duration. The information generated in this study will contribute to our understanding of thermal tolerance in B. tau and could also provide insights for devising phytosanitary control approaches. Bactrocera tau (Walker) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is a serious, economically important invasive pest that has spread and been established in many regions worldwide. Temperature is a crucial abiotic factor governing insect activity, fitness, and geographical distribution. Yet, surprisingly, the tolerance of B. tau to extreme cold and heat stress remains unclear. Here, we measured the supercooling point (SCP) of different life stages of B. tau. Further, several life stages of B. tau (egg, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd instar larvae, 1-day-old pupae, and 3-day-old adult) were subjected to six low temperatures (−9, −7, −5, −3, −1, and 0 °C) and six high temperatures (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44 °C) for various durations (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 h), and three-way survival–time–temperature relationships were investigated. We found that the SCPs differed significantly among different life stages of B. tau, being the lowest for SCP of eggs, at −25.82 ± 0.51 °C. There was no significant effect of sex on the mean SCPs of B. tau adults, except for 45- to 50-day-old flies. In addition, an interaction effect was uncovered between tested temperatures and exposure duration upon B. tau mortality at different life stages. Eggs exhibited the strongest cold tolerance, yet the weakest heat tolerance. The 3rd instar larvae were the most heat- and cold tolerant among larval stages, followed by the 2nd and 1st instar larvae. The upper limit of the chill injury zone (ULCIZ) for 3-day-old adult and 1-day-old pupae was −2.51 °C and −2.50 °C, respectively, while their corresponding lower limit of thermal injury zone (LLTIZ) was 39.39 °C and 38.29 °C. This paper presents valuable data to provide an integrated knowledge for understanding the cold and heat tolerance potential of B. tau and ensure the proper implementation of post-harvest phytosanitary protocols for this pest's disinfestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) has been recently identified as a notorious global crop pest that affects wheat production in China. Therefore, exploring preventive solutions based on agricultural strategies is a cost effective and eco-friendly approach in realizing sustainable pest management. The wheat–faba bean intercropping model mitigates the damage caused by wheat aphids, while the possible benefit of this pattern in the control of S. frugiperda remains unevaluated. To provide a fundamental basis for implementing this strategy in a wheat field for S. frugiperda management, this novel study attempted to extensively evaluate the effects of feeding wheat and faba bean plants on S. frugiperda performance and preference and to reveal the underlying mechanisms associated with the biochemical and morphological traits of the two host species. Our results suggested that the faba bean plants exhibited significant antibiosis on larvae and repellency to the females of S. frugiperda compared with wheat plants. Therefore, we concluded the potential usefulness of the faba bean plants as a push crop. These findings will facilitate the adoption of wheat and faba bean intercropping systems against S. frugiperda in the wheat-growing regions of China. Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), which attacked China in 2019, remains a significant threat to wheat production. Wheat–faba bean intercropping systems prevent damage caused by wheat aphids; however, the potential role in S. frugiperda control remains unclear. Here, the adaptability and preferences of S. frugiperda to wheat and its common intercropped plant, faba bean, were evaluated to implement an eco-friendly approach for S. frugiperda management. Their adaptability showed that both hosts could support S. frugiperda to complete their life cycle; however, the larvae performed worse on faba bean compared with on wheat. The biochemical analysis revealed that faba bean plants had lower contents of soluble sugars and total proteins but higher levels of phenolics and tannins than in wheat leaves. The gravid S. frugiperda preferred (during the preference assays) to oviposit on wheat rather than on faba bean plants in cage tests. The wheat odor was preferred over the faba bean odor in the Y-tube olfactometer bioassays. The morphological scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed increased trichome density on wheat leaves. Therefore, the faba bean plants displayed antibiosis on larvae and were repellent to female moths, thus, suggesting that faba bean plants could serve as a push crop to be intercropped with wheat for S. frugiperda control for wheat fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic anomalies generated by the ferromagnetic targets are usually buried within uncontrollable interference sources, such as the power frequency and random noises. In particular, the variability of the geomagnetic field and the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the magnetic anomalies cannot be avoided. In this paper, to improve the performance of magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) with a low SNR, we propose a novel structured low-rank (SLR) decomposition-based MAD method. In addition, a new framework based on the SLR and singular value decomposition (SVD) is constructed, dubbed SLR-SVD, and the corresponding working principle and implemented strategy are elaborated. Through comparing the SLR-SVD with two state-of-the-art methods, including principal component analysis and SVD, the results demonstrate that the proposed SLR-SVD can not only suppress the noise sufficiently, i.e., improving 55.26% approximately of the SNR, but also retain more boundary information of magnetic anomalies, i.e., decreasing approximately 68.05% of the mean squared error and improving approximately 28.47% of the structural similarity index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional and structural adaptation of common carotid artery could be one of the important causes of postflight orthostatic intolerance after microgravity exposure, the mechanisms of which remain unclear. Recent evidence indicates that long-term spaceflight increases carotid artery stiffness, which might present a high risk to astronaut health and postflight working ability. Studies have suggested that vascular calcification is a common pathological change in cardiovascular diseases that is mainly manifested as an increase in vascular stiffness. Therefore, this study investigated whether simulated microgravity induces calcification of common carotid artery and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms. Four-week-old hindlimb-unweighted (HU) rats were used to simulate the deconditioning effects of microgravity on cardiovascular system. We found that simulated microgravity induced vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) osteogenic differentiation and medial calcification, increased receptor activator of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) ligand (RANKL) and RANK expression, and enhanced NF-κB activation in rat common carotid artery. In vitro activation of the RANK pathway with exogenous RANKL, a RANK ligand, increased RANK and osteoprotegerin (OPG) expression in HU rats. Moreover, the expression of osteogenic markers and activation of NF-κB in HU rats were further enhanced by exogenous RANKL but suppressed by the RANK inhibitor osteoprotegerin fusion protein (OPG-Fc). These results indicated that the OPG/RANKL/RANK system modulates VSMC osteogenic differentiation and medial calcification of common carotid artery in simulated microgravity rats by regulating the NF-kB pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) has been widely used to remove cadmium (Cd) in contaminated water and soils via Cd-Ca substitution. The Cd incorporation into HAp afects its structure; however, the detailed mechanism remains unclear. In this study, a series of Cd-substituted hydroxyapatites were synthesized and characterized with various techniques. Cd incorporation causes a decrease in a- and c-lattice parameters due to the radius of Cd2+ being slightly smaller than that of Ca2+. As the Cd content increases, the particle sizes of the synthesized samples decrease and their specific surface areas increase. Raman bands shift linearly and the ν1(PO4) peak at 961 cm−1 becomes broadened with increasing Cd content. Change in X‑ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra of the P K-edge indicates distortion of phosphate with Cd incorporation. Total electron yield (TEY) spectra of the Ca L2,3-edge show a decrease in the octahedral symmetry, suggesting preferential occupancy of Cd over the Ca2 site. Extended X‑ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis of the Ca K-edge reveals no obvious change in the local environment of Ca induced by Cd incorporation. However, EXAFS analysis of the Cd K-edge indicates that the substituted Cd occupies one Ca2 site in hexagonal Ca2 positions at low-Cd contents [<10 mol% of Cd/(Cd+Ca)], while both Ca1 and Ca2 sites are occupied at higher Cd contents. This study provides atomistic insight into the mechanism for Cd incorporation in HAp, which will help develop an approach for effective Cd removal using HAp for environmental remediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, X-band microwave absorbing properties of gelcasted SiC-Si 3 N 4 ceramics with different hierarchical pore structures at both room temperature and high temperature were reported for the first time. Effects of pore structures, sample thickness and temperature on complex permittivity and microwave absorption performance of SiC-Si 3 N 4 ceramics were investigated systemically. The results suggested that the introduction of appropriate hierarchical pore structure was beneficial to improve the absorbing performance of the material. The minimum reflection loss value can reach -59.2 dB for the 3.8 mm thick sample at 8.35 GHz and room temperature. By elevating the temperature, the effective absorption bandwidth of porous SiC-Si 3 N 4 with a thickness of 3.0 mm covers the entire X-band. The excellent microwave absorbing property of porous SiC-Si 3 N 4 ceramics was attributed to the multiple reflections brought about by the existence of hierarchical pores, interfacial polarization between SiC and Si 3 N 4 grains, and defect dipole polarization in grains and grain boundaries. The good absorbing property and the clarification of absorbing mechanism of porous gelcasted SiC-Si 3 N 4 ceramics will provide a solid foundation for the development of porous SiC-based absorbing parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many important engineering systems can be classified as Euler–Lagrange (EL) systems. In this work we develop a new Proportional‐Integral‐Derivative (PID) ‐based tracking control solution for uncertain EL systems subject to actuation failures and saturation. Two set of control algorithms are developed using robust adaptive and neuroadaptive methods, which are shown to exhibit several salient features: (1) the control schemes are of PID form, hence is characterized with simplicity in structure and intuition in concept; (2) the PID gains in the scheme are automatically updated by analytic algorithms with no need for manual tuning, rendering the control scheme more user‐friendly; and (3) the developed control algorithms are robust against nonvanishing disturbances, adaptive to unknown virtual parameter and immune to partial actuation effectiveness faults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a real-world environment, not only can different levels of market expectations be triggered by factors such as macroeconomic policies, market operating trends, and current company developments have an impact on sector assets, but sector asset rises and falls are also influenced by a factor that cannot be ignored: market sentiment. Therefore, this paper uses LSTM to construct a forecasting model for industrial assets based on investor sentiment and public historical trading data of industry asset markets to determine future trends and obtains two conclusions: first, forecasting models incorporating investor sentiment have better forecasting effects than those without the incorporation of sentiment characteristics, indicating that the factor of investor sentiment should not be ignored when studying the problem of industry asset forecasting; secondly, investor sentiment quantified by different methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, official social media became a critical channel for the public to obtain pandemic information. No matter the positive function or negative effect of information dissemination, it involves the public's risk perception and behavior. This study was designed to contribute to the existing research on how official social media information quality (IQ) and risk perception (RP) affect preventive behavior (PB) and continued use behavior (CB) of official social media during the first wave of COVID-19.Methods: The required data were extracted from a national online survey of the Chinese Mainland during March 24-30 2020, a random sample was asked to participate in the survey (n = 666). Data analysis was performed using regression analysis, structural equation modeling, mediating effect analysis, and one-way ANOVA analysis.Results: The results show that IQ (10.010 ± 3.568) has direct and indirect positive impact on PB (9.475 ± 3.571), and has a low significant positive indirect impact on CB (3.739 ± 1.566). The IQ has a significant positive impact on RP (β = 0.548), which show that there is no "risk perception paradox" in COVID-19. Furth more, this study also provides new evidence indicating that RP mediates the relationship between IQ and PB. According to the region, gender, age and annual income, and there are significant differences in PB and CB.Conclusion: The study findings have remarkable implications for improving the information quality and public behaviors. Too high or too low level of risk perception is not conducive to pandemic prevention and control. Official social media should indirectly affect information flow through the reasonable supply of pandemic information and constantly improve the quality of pandemic information to avoid public's undue panic and excessive health concerns during this ongoing outbreak and subsequent national public emergency events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The micro-hole array machined by micro-electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) has been widely used in aerospace, electronic communication, and other industrial fields. However, due to the unavoidable electrode wear and the unstable discharge state during the electrode breakthrough, the electrode breakthrough detection is usually inaccurate, and the servo tracking performance is also poor, which has adverse effect on the machining efficiency and quality of micro-hole array. In the present study, a three-dimensional flow field model was established, and the gap flow field before and after electrode breakthrough based on the model was analyzed. Simulation results showed that the flow field pattern of dielectric was changed and the flow velocities in bottom gap increased in general after electrode broke through the workpiece, which enabled to analyze the influence of the variation in flushing mechanism of debris on the discharge state in breakthrough stage to some extent. A scheme was proposed for online detecting the breakthrough by monitoring the variations of the gap voltage and the electrode displacement, and the verification experiment was carried out. The proposed scheme has been shown to guarantee the electrode breakthrough, while in the same time controlling the distance of electrode feeding past the micro-hole outlet not exceeding 25 μm. In addition, a segmented servo strategy was proposed to ensure the machining performance of micro-hole array, and it was experimentally tested. This strategy could reduce the average machining time of micro-hole array by about 36% and ensure the machining quality of micro-hole outlet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, an analog synapse based on a nonvolatile field-effect transistor with amorphous ZrO2 dielectrics has been fabricated and demonstrated. The conductance modulation properties of the devices have been systematically evaluated. Due to the polarization switching dynamics of the ferroelectric-like amorphous ZrO2 dielectric, which is attributable to the voltage-driven oxygen vacancies and negative charges dipoles, the proposed ZrO2-based devices exhibit superior synaptic characteristics, including good symmetry and linearity for both potentiation and depression, with small cycle-to-cycle variations. The ratio of maximum conductance and minimum conductance (${G}_{max}/{G}_{min})$ of devices reaches 130, with conductance states over 30. Also, spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) has been mimicked in the devices successfully. Furthermore, based on the experimental STDP characteristics and conductance modulation properties of potentiation and depression, a spiking neural network architecture constructed by the proposed ZrO2-based synapses has been simulated. High offline and online learning accuracy of 94% and 87%, respectively, on the handwritten digits dataset, has been achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • We developed a novel type of magnetic phase-change microcapsules. • The microcapsules were based on an n -docosane core and a CaCO 3 /Fe 3 O 4 composite shell. • The microcapsules have a high latent-heat capacity for thermal energy storage. • The microcapsules exhibit a good adsorption ability to remove heavy metal ions and organic dyes. • The microcapsules show great potential for synchronous recovery of wastewater and waste heat. Contamination and waste heat are major issues in water pollution. Aiming at efficient synchronous recovery wastewater and waste heat, we designed a novel CaCO 3 -based phase-change microcapsule system with an n -docosane core and a CaCO 3 /Fe 3 O 4 composite shell. The system was fabricated through an emulsion-templated in situ precipitation approach in a structure-directing mode, resulting in a controllable morphology for the resultant microcapsules, varying from a peanut hull through ellipsoid to dumbbell shapes. The system has a significantly enlarged specific surface area of approximately 55 m2·g−1 with the CaCO 3 phase transition from vaterite to calcite. As a result, the microcapsule system exhibits improved adsorption capacities of 497.6 and 79.1 mg/g for Pb2+ and Rhodamine B removal, respectively, from wastewater. Moreover, increase in the specific surface area of the microcapsule system with a sufficient latent heat capacity of approximately 130 J·g−1 also resulted in an enhanced heat energy-storage capability and thermal conductance for waste-heat recovery. The microcapsule system also exhibits a good leakage-prevention capability and good multicycle reusability owing to the tight magnetic CaCO 3 /Fe 3 O 4 composite shell. This study provides a promising approach for developing CaCO 3 -based phase-change microcapsules with enhanced thermal energy storage and adsorption capabilities for efficient synchronous recovery of wastewater and waste heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the important indicators affecting individual's social participation and resource allocation, and it also plays an important role in the health shock of individuals. Faced by the trend of aging society, more and more nations across the world began to pay attention to prevent the risk of health shock of old adults. Methods: Based on the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2013, 2015 and 2018, this study uses path analysis and ologit model to empirically estimate the effects of SES and health shock on the activities of daily living (ADL) disability of old adults. Results: As a result, first, it was found that SES has significant impact on the disability of old adults. Specifically, economic conditions (income) plays dominant role. Economic status affects the risk of individual disability mainly through life security and health behavior. Secondly, SES significantly affecting health shock, with education and economic status showing remarkable impact, and there is an apparent group inequality. Furthermore, taking high education group as reference, the probability of good sight or hearing ability of the low education group was only 49.76% and 63.29% of the high education group, respectively, while the rates of no pain and severe illness were 155.50% and 54.69% of the high education group. At last, the estimation of path effect of SES on ADL disability indicates evident group inequality, with health shock plays critical mediating role. Conclusions: SES is an important factor influencing residents' health shock, and health shocks like cerebral thrombosis and cerebral hemorrhage will indirectly lead to the risk of individual ADL disability. Furthermore, among the multi-dimensional indicators of SES, individual income and education are predominant factors affecting health shock and ADL disability, while occupation of pre-retirement have little impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the photodetector manufactured using traditional semiconductor materials, such as HgCdTe and InGaAs, it is difficult to broaden the application range of such photodetectors due to their high cost and complex manufacturing process. PbSe colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) have the potential to shift the working range of photodetector from visible to infrared wavelength region, and it also has high photoresponsivity. Herein, we report the characterization of PbSe CQDs synthesized using a facile solution process, as well as the relationship between the size of nanocrystal and the reaction temperature. The films of PbSe CQDs are deposited using the layer-by-layer (LbL) spin-coating method, which is then used to fabricate the photoconductive device. The fabricated device is found to have an efficient response in a broad spectrum range of 400-2600 nm. The device maintains good responsivity of ~320 mA/W at room temperature. Its external quantum efficiency was quite high in the shorter wavelength infrared region, and it has approximately 14% external quantum efficiency (EQE) at 2520 nm. The device demonstrated excellent performance, confirming that PbSe colloidal quantum dots is a promising material for future broadband spectrum photodetectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the wave reflection and transmission caused by a single bar or trench with a cycloidal cross section. An exact solution was constructed, in terms of the Frobenius series, to the modified mild-slope equation (MMSE). The aforementioned solution was validated against a numerical solution based on the linear potential flow theory for a single bar or a single trench with maximum gradients below 1:1, and the two types of solutions agreed each other. The solution was then compared with a numerical solution to the MMSE for wave scattering by a parabolic bar, and the comparison showed that the two solutions were nearly identical when the two types of bars almost overlapped. However, a further comparison between the solution and a truncated Taylor series solution to the MMSE revealed that the latter was divergent because it overlooked a singularity in the MMSE. Finally, the influence of certain parameters of the bar or trench on the reflection coefficient were investigated. The peak value of the reflection coefficient was proportional to the relative bar height or trench depth, and the total reflection was proportional to the bar or trench steepness. The phase of the peak reflection coefficient increased (or shifted upward) with increasing submergence–width ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general, an air gap plays an important function in the magnetic core. It will enhance the stability of the inductance value of a reactor, increase the power density of the inductor, and optimize the properties of a high-frequency transformer. Hence, it is of great significance to study the influence of the air gap on the properties of magnetic cores. Based on a novel designed tester, the dynamic magnetic properties of the C-type amorphous (AMCC025) core and nanocrystalline (F3CC0125) core with different lengths of the air gaps are measured and analyzed when the cores are excited at different frequencies. In addition, the modified Steinmetz empirical formula which takes the fringing magnetic flux near the air gap into account is proposed. The calculated magnetic properties obtained from the modified formula show great agreement with the measured results. The average prediction error of the modified model is confined in 10%. Both the calculated and experimental results indicate that the influence of the fringing magnetic flux could be ignored when the length of the air gap is less than 5% length of the equivalent magnetic circuit. In particular, the frequency-dependent losses decrease to a minimum value and then increase with the increase in flux density accordingly. The modified loss model and results would be beneficial to the design of high-frequency inductors and transformer cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C26H41NO8, orthorhombic, P212121 (no. 19), a = 8.24370(10) Å, b = 13.1867(2) Å, c = 22.8490(4) Å, V = 2483.85(6) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0357, wRref(F2) = 0.0975, T = 169.99(10) K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A pH- & redox-responsive system was developed for CPT delivery. • CPT@Zein-FA improves the bioactivity of CPT against lepidopteran pests. • CPT@Zein-FA has baiting properties that accelerate the death of pests. Pesticides are critical to securing crop yields, but the extremely low utilization of conventional pesticides puts a serious strain on human development and the environment. Natural product pesticides meet the needs of sustainable development, but challenges like high costs and slow efficacy hinder their widespread use. Camptothecin (CPT) is a natural product with potent bioactivity for various insect pests, but its bioactivity for lepidopteran pests is limited due to the ring-opening in their alkaline midgut. To enhance CPT's efficacy, a nanopesticide CPT@Zein-FA, which consists of the plant-derived zein and ferulic acid (FA), was designed and verified to be able to improve the bioactivity of CPT against lepidopteran pests including Ostrinia furnacalis , Spodoptera frugiperda and Mythimna separata. The nanopesticide CPT@Zein-FA approximately 100 nm in size, exhibited uniform dispersion, strong adhesion, and stability. CPT@Zein-FA utilizes pH and redox dual response mechanisms to achieve protection in the midgut environment and release in the hemocoel/intracellular environment. With the help of zein bait, CPT@Zein-FA can also promote the feeding of insects and accelerate their death. Metabolomic analysis revealed CPT's lethal impact on insect metabolism by inhibiting nucleotide synthesis, disrupting body size and development through lipid metabolism and insect hormone synthesis inhibition. This work provides new ideas for the large-scale application of natural product pesticides and contributes to the sustainable development of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A rigorous theoretical model is developed for 3D stress concentration around a circular hole under remote biaxial loading. • The influences of stress ratio, thickness, and Poisson's ratio on stress concentration factor are investigated systematically. • The extension of the model to consider remote bending is discussed in detail. In this study, a theoretical model is proposed to analyze the stress concentration in a plate of finite thickness containing a circular hole under remote biaxial loading. The stresses in a plate with a circular hole under remote biaxial loading is a superposition of the stresses in the unperforated plate and the released stresses induced by opening the hole. For the latter, the stresses at the edge of the hole can be further decomposed into a spherical component and a deviatoric component. The solution due to a spherical component can be readily obtained but the solution due to a deviatoric component is hard to find. According to the literature, the solution of three-dimensional stress distributions in a plate of finite thickness containing a circular hole can be found by four potential functions. The available fundamental solutions of the potential functions satisfying the boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate contain numerous complicated integrals, which limits their application to the current problem. Nevertheless, these fundamental solutions can be found explicitly by constructing the orthogonal function, which is composed of the Bessel functions. A system of linear equations is established to satisfy the boundary conditions at the edge of the hole. Therefore, the stresses due to a deviatoric component are obtained by solving the linear simultaneous equations. The stress concentration factor calculated by the proposed model is validated with the available numerical and theoretical solutions. It is concluded that the stress ratio, the thickness of the plate, and Poisson's ratio have an important influence on the distribution of the stress concentration factor along the thickness of the plate, especially on the distribution near the surface. Moreover, the proposed model can be extended to analyze the stress concentration at the edge of a circular hole in a plate of finite thickness under remote bending. The model is efficient and reliable, and it can provide a powerful analytical method to analyze three-dimensional stress concentrations around holes under various remote loading in engineering. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Compounds 1 − 3 exhibit good photosensitivity and thermal sensitivity. • Compounds 1 − 3 exhibit amine induced color change properties. • A mixed matrix membrane was prepared as a UV chromophore. • Compounds 1 − 3 can serve as ink free and erasable printing media. Three polyoxometalate-viologen (POMV)-based organic-inorganic hybrid compounds were constructed, namely [CuII(Cbipy) 2 (4,4′ - bipy)](SiW 1 2 O 40)·1.5C 2 H 5 OH·2.5H 2 O (1), (HCbipy) 2 ·(β - Mo 8 O 26) (2) and (HCbipy) 2 ·(SiMo 1 2 O 40) (3). Compound 1 shows a leaf like Cu-Cbipy chain with Keggin anions occupying the grid. Compounds 2 and 3 are discrete structures. These compounds exhibit color-changing properties by different external stimuli, such as photochromic and thermochromism as well as detecting organic amines and even UV-light. This article characterized the phase purity and stability of the compound using PXRD and FT-IR, and characterized the photochromic and thermochromic properties of the compound using UV–vis absorption spectrum, EPR, XPS and DFT calculations. And the compound was subjected to different amine atmospheres for amine discoloration research. Finally, the photochromic performance is applied to inkless erasable printing, where the desired pattern can be clearly printed through ultraviolet radiation. These observations provide valuable insights into design and synthesize electrostatic attraction drove POMV-based crystalline materials as color-changing materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel double-layered hydrogel based on the polyacrylamide matrix, pen ink, and phase-change microcapsules was developed to construct a hydrogel-based evaporator for efficient and continuous seawater desalination. The n -eicosane (core)@crystalline TiO 2 (shell) phase-change microcapsules were fabricated through interfacial polycondensation, and the resulting phase-change microcapsules obtained a considerably high latent-heat capacity of 187 J·g−1. The upper layer of the hydrogel exhibits a high solar absorptivity of over 90 % due to the introduction of pen ink as a solar absorber, which helps the hydrogel-based evaporator to gain an excellent photothermal energy conversion capability. A high evaporation efficiency of 93.89 % was obtained for the developed hydrogel-based evaporator along with a high evaporation rate of 1.85 kg·m−2·h−1 under one-sun illumination. The phase-change microcapsules dispersed in the lower layer of the hydrogel can act as a latent heat-storage unit to store a great quantity of photothermal energy through melting phase change by the phase change material core. This imparts a consecutive evaporation capability to the developed hydrogel-based evaporator. As a result, its water production was increased by 11 % under 50-min one-sun illumination and 50-min non-illumination. [Display omitted] • We developed a new double-layered hydrogel based on polyacrylamide, phase-change microcapsules, and pen ink. • The hydrogel was used to fabricate a solar-driven evaporator for continuous and efficient desalination. • Pen ink and phase-change microcapsules enhance the solar energy utilization efficiency of the evaporator. • The hydrogel-based evaporator exhibits an improved yield in clean water under intermittent solar illumination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives (1,4-DHPs) are a class of drugs used to treat cardiovascular diseases, but these drugs can cause liver injury. To reveal the toxicity characteristics of these compounds, we used a series of assays, including cell viability, enzyme activity detection, and western blotting, to investigate the toxicity of seven kinds of 1,4-DHPs (0–100 μM) on HepG2 cells and establish 3D-QSAR model based on relevant toxicity data. After HepG2 cells were treated with 1,4-DHPs for 24 h, high-dose (100 μM) 1,4-DHPs decreased cell viability to varying degrees, while ROS and MDA contents were significantly increased, and ATP content was reduced. Moreover, with the concentration of 100 μM 1,4-DHPs (Nimodipine, Nitrendipine, Cilnidipine, and Manidipine) were markedly inhibited the phosphorylation levels of mTOR protein. The results of the 3D-QSAR model showed that the non-cross validation coefficient (R2) and cross validation coefficient (Q2) of the model were 0.982 and 0.652, respectively. Combined with external validation and the Williams diagram, the model showed good predictability and application domain. Based on the CoMSIA 3D contour map, the introduction of large volume and hydrogen bond receptor groups on the carbonyl oxygen side chains of the 1,4-DHPs ring 3- and 5- was beneficial for reducing the toxicity of 1,4-DHPs. The results of this study could supplement information on the cytotoxicity of 1,4-DHPs, and could provide theoretical support for predicting the toxicity of 1,4-DHPs. [Display omitted] • The model of 1,4-DHPs toxicity prediction is established by cytotoxicity test. • The method is used to predict the toxicity of 1,4-DHPs. • The model is built by the CoMSIA with good stability and predictive ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is promising for treating waste with high moisture, such as municipal sludge, and producing biocrude (a petroleum-like biofuel). However, a large amount of wastewater byproduct, HTL aqueous, is generated. The presence of hazardous compounds (e.g., phenolic compounds and nitrogenous organics) makes HTL aqueous the biggest bottleneck for full-scale implementation at treatment plants. This study investigated the adsorption of various pollutants, focusing on chemical oxygen demand (COD), in HTL aqueous to granular activated carbon (GAC), biochar, and hydrochar. It assessed the effect of pH, temperature, time, and adsorbent concentration on adsorption efficiency and identified proper adsorbent and process conditions for removing most of the pollutants from HTL aqueous. GAC showed the highest adsorption capacity (184 mg/g) for COD, surpassing biochar (44 mg/g) and hydrochar (42 mg/g). The adsorption of COD to all adsorbents followed pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich isotherm, suggesting that the adsorption of HTL aqueous pollutants is a heterogeneous and multilayer process, limited by chemosorption. The adsorption was endothermic, favored by elevated temperatures and neutral pH. This means adsorption is more efficient and economical for treating HTL aqueous that is a hot stream at the large-scale and it saves chemical needs. Lastly, GAC was highly efficient and selective in removing harmful pollutants, such as COD (up to 66%), total phenolic compounds (up to 94%), pyrazines (up to 99%), pyridines (up to 100%), and cyclic ketones (up to 95%) while preserving valuable volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and ammonia for subsequent recovery. Removal of potentially inhibitory compounds and preserving VFAs are crucial for carbon recovery in anaerobic biological treatment of HTL aqueous. The results suggested the necessity of optimizing adsorbent dose for maximizing removal of specific group of inhibitory compounds in full-strength HTL aqueous for enhancing downstream biological treatment. Lastly, this study established the groundwork for HTL aqueous adsorption, elucidating its effectiveness and mechanism for pollutant removal. [Display omitted] • The adsorption process fits pseudo-second-order kinetics and Freundlich isotherm. • The adsorption of HTL aqueous pollutants to all adsorbents was endothermic. • GAC was efficient in removing hazardous substances (phenols and N-heterocycles). • GAC can remove inhibitory compounds and keep volatile fatty acids for utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of biofilm is one of the important factors for bacteria to develop drug-resistant. A series of halogenated-pyrroles or pyrazoles containing thiazole groups as antibacterial agents were designed and synthesized to target biofilms. Among them, compound 8c showed antibacterial activity against various Gram-positive bacteria, particularly against vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis (MIC ≤0.125 μg/mL). Additionally, this compound significantly inhibited biofilm formation of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at sub-MIC doses. Furthermore, compound 8c exhibited significantly lower mammalian cell toxicity compared to pyrrolomycin C and its hepatic microsomal metabolic stability in various species was also evaluated. Further experiment on the infection model of Galleria mellonella proved that the compound was effective in vivo. [Display omitted] • Thiazolyl-halogenated pyrroles or pyrazoles were synthesized for the first time and displayed good antibacterial activity. • Compound 8c , 9b , 10a and 10b effectively inhibited staphylococcal and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm formation at sub-MICs. • Compound 8c showed acceptable PK property, reduced toxicity and effective in vivo activity on Galleria mellonella model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a key step in disposal and reutilization, sludge dewatering is very difficult, since extracellular polymers substances (EPS) binds the water, and compressible organic matter deforms and causes water filtration channels to collapse. Sludge dewaterability was demonstrated to enhance by carbonaceous skeleton (CSkel)-assisted thermal hydrolysis in our previously study. This work further investigated the assisting role of different types of CSkel in EPS decomposition during sludge thermal hydrolysis stage and channels reformation during press filtration stage. Two major types of CSkel, lignocellulosic waste (waste sawdust, waste straw, processing by-product) and protein-rich waste (shrimp shells, jatropha oil cake), were selected. The experimental results showed that in the thermal hydrolysis stage, the decomposition of lignocellulosic waste would increase fatty acids production by 28%, resulting in an acidic environment that reduced the total amount of three hydrophilic amino acids, i.e., glycine, serine and threonine. These promoted the release of water from the sludge. In the press filtration stage, average pore size of sludge was reduced by approximately 87% and nanoscale holes began to appear and increase. Assisting of CSkel rebuilt the filtration channels which brought good connectivity between the pores in sludge cake. Lignocellulosic waste proved significantly more effective than protein-rich waste in achieving a water removal rate of 88.63% under 1 MPa. This study provided a basis for selecting suitable CSkel to optimize sludge dewatering for subsequent utilization. [Display omitted] • After thermal hydrolysis assisted by lignocellulosic waste, the water removal rate of the sludge can be increased to 88.63% at 1 MPa, outperforming protein-rich waste in this respect. • In thermal hydrolysis stage, the decomposition of lignocellulosic waste promoted the production of fatty acids and amino acids, creating an acidic environment. • In an acidic environment, cell rupture was facilitated and the production of hydrophilic amino acids was inhibited, both of which favored water release. • With the assistance of CSkel, the average pore size of the sludge cake reduced by 87% and interconnected micro-/nano-pores served as rigid channels for water removal from sludge during press filtration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flower-like In(OH) 3 was synthesized by a facile homogeneous precipitation method and subsequently calcined at 300 °C to prepare nanosheets assembled 3D flower-like mesoporous In 2 O 3 , which was then modified with Au nanoparticles via sol-immobilization method to produce 3D hierarchical mesoporous Au/In 2 O 3 for ethanol detection. The as-prepared Au/In 2 O 3 were carefully characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM and XPS techniques. The flower-like structure was assembled by many ultrathin coarse mesoporous In 2 O 3 nanosheets, and Au nanoparticles with an average size of 3.3 nm were evenly dispersed on In 2 O 3 nanosheets. The 3D flower-like mesoporous 1%Au/In 2 O 3 has a high specific surface area of about 130 m2 g−1 and shows the best sensitivity to ethanol among the flower-like mesoporous Au/In 2 O 3 materials. It can sensitively detect ethanol gas at a relatively low temperature of 160 °C with a response of 115–50 ppm ethanol, increased by nearly 11 times compared to In 2 O 3 at 210 °C. The 3D flower-like mesoporous 1%Au/In 2 O 3 also has good selectivity to ethanol with response about 9.4, 26.1, 20.9 and 29.5 times higher than that to acetone, methanol, toluene and xylene, and it displays excellent linear relationship between the response and the ethanol concentration. The markedly improved sensitivity and selectivity of the 3D flower-like mesoporous 1%Au/In 2 O 3 results from both the electronic sensitization and chemical sensitization effects of Au nanoparticles. In short, the 3D flower-like mesoporous 1%Au/In 2 O 3 possesses excellent sensitivity, selectivity, repeatability, linear relationship and long-term stability at 160 °C. Therefore, the obtained 3D flower-like mesoporous 1%Au/In 2 O 3 has great potential for ethanol gas detection. [Display omitted] • 3D flower-like mesoporous In 2 O 3 was synthesized via facile precipitation and calcination process. • 3D flower-like mesoporous Au/In 2 O 3 was prepared by sol-immobilization method. • 3D flower-like mesoporous Au/In 2 O 3 showed excellent ethanol sensing performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Presenting anchor point alignment technique for strawberry ripeness detection. • Incorporating the Swin-B attention mechanism into the strawberry feature extraction model. • Employing the CARAFE module to upsample the detailed strawberry feature maps at the neck region. • Proposing the multi-scale training approach to improve the accuracy of identifying mini strawberry objects. • Proposed model surpasses the current models in terms of accuracy, while exhibiting reasonable parameter range and FLOPs. With the wave of agricultural modernization, deep learning technology has brought revolutionary changes to the vision system of strawberry picking robots. Yet, the morphological diversity of strawberries, small and dense targets, and high overlap scenes make the detection and ripeness classification of strawberries a great challenge. To solve these problems, we introduce a new task-aligned one-stage object detection (TOOD) mechanism. Firstly, we incorporate the Swin-B (Swin-Base) transformer module to enhance the feature extraction performance in the backbone network. Secondly, we replace the original feature pyramid network (FPN) with CARAFE-FPN, which utilizes advanced upsampling methods to enhance detection at different scales. A multi-scale training (MST) approach is applied to capture the small targets effectively. Additionally, the Augmentations library is utilized for dataset augmentation to enhance the model's generalization. Lastly, we refine the task alignment learning head and propose simple anchor alignment metric (S-aam) to reduce the impact of parameters on network performance for finding the optimal solutions. We collected a complex strawberry image dataset of more than 90,000 instances to test the method effectiveness in detecting strawberry ripeness. The results show that our model achieves 74.1% average precision (AP), 93.9% AP 50 , and 84.1% AP 75 , respectively. Our model shows the superior detection performance compared to most of models with fewer parameters and lower FLOPs. In addition, our model obtained the highest accuracy in detecting small strawberry targets. To prove the generalization of the model, we also verify it on COCO dataset, and the results show that the performance has been enhanced by 0.7% compared to the baseline. In summary, our proposed methods can be used to accurately identify ripe strawberries, which has the potential to be applied in strawberry picking robot system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Comparing MBBR and BCO start-up with HN-AD bacteria and activated sludge inoculation. • Startup time reduced by 80%, while TN removal rate increased by 27.6%. • The key HN-AD bacteria Alcaligenes were enriched by bacteria inoculation in MBBR. • Hydroxylamine reductase differentiates the nitrogen removal pathways in BCO and MBBR. To overcome poor ammonia tolerance and removal performance of bio-contact oxidation (BCO) reactor inoculated with activated sludge for high-ammonia nitrogen (NH 4 + -N) chemical wastewater treatment, this study compared inoculating heterotrophic nitrification-aerobic denitrification (HN-AD) bacteria in moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) with activated sludge inoculation in BCO reactor under simulated high NH 4 + -N conditions. Results revealed that MBBR achieved faster biofilm formation (20 days vs. 100 days for BCO) with notable advantages: 27.6 % higher total nitrogen (TN) and 29.9 % higher NH 4 + -N removal efficiency than BCO. Microbial analysis indicated optimal enrichment of the key nitrogen removal (NR) bacterium Alcaligenes , leading to increased expression of NR enzymes hydroxylamine reductase, ensuring the superior NR efficiency of the MBBR. Additionally, functional enzymes and genes analysis speculated that the NR pathway in MBBR was: NH 4 + -N → NH 2 OH → NO 3 - -N → NO 2 - -N → NO → N 2 O → N 2. This research offers a practical and theoretical foundation for extending HN-AD bacteria-inoculated MBBR processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Urine pretreatment is utilized to boost the MCFAs production for the first time. • 25% urine pretreatment promotes MCFAs production and selectivity by up to 4.3 times. • Urine pretreatment improves WAS degradation in anaerobic fermentation. • Urine pretreatment promotes the electron transfer efficiency from WAS to MCFAs. • Urine pretreatment boosts the solubilization, hydrolysis, acidification, and CE steps. Medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) represent a promising form of energy recovered from waste activated sludge (WAS) through anaerobic fermentation. However, the low WAS degradability hindered the MCFAs generation from WAS. In this study, urine pretreatment of 5 – 25 wt% was applied to enhance the MCFAs production in anerobic WAS fermentation with ethanol as an electron donor. Urine pretreatment (5 – 25 wt%) dose-dependently improved the MCFAs production by 0.8 – 3.3 times (from 2.4 to 4.4 – 12.8 g chemical oxygen demand (COD)/L) and enhanced the MCFAs selectivity by 0.8 – 3.5 times (from 12.2 % to 21.4 % – 54.4 %). Urine pretreatment (5 – 25 wt%) improved WAS degradation by up to 54.8 % and enhanced electron transfer efficiency from substrates (i.e. WAS and ethanol) to MCFAs by up to 18.6 %, which contributed to the improvement in MCFAs production. According to model-based analysis, the MCFAs production potential (P m) rose from 2.71 ± 0.09 g COD/L with 0 % urine pretreatment to 4.51 – 13.11 g COD/L with 5 – 25 wt% urine pretreatment, while the lag phase (λ) decreased from 5.30 d to 4.67 – 3.08 d, which may be the reason for the improved MCFAs production. Additionally, urine pretreatment significantly facilitated each step involved in the MCFAs generation, i.e. solubilization, hydrolysis, acidification, and chain elongation, by up to 600 %, 51 %, 17 %, and 42 %, respectively. This study for the first time reported an innovative method, urine pretreatment, enhances energy recovery by MCFAs from WAS through anaerobic fermentation, which potentially brings wastewater treatment plants economic and environmental profits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A rapid and sensitive colorimetric method was validated for determining tannins. • Fe@CN-20 was synthesized and mimicked activities of oxidase and laccase. • Detecting tannin in brandy required only dilution as pre-treatment. Traditional methods of tannins detection suffer from complex pretreatment, long detection time, and limited sensitivity. Modern techniques like liquid chromatography require expertise, involve tedious result processing, and lack effective data visualization. Therefore, there is a need for an alternative detection method that simplifies pretreatment and detection steps, reduces analysis time, and provides visualized results. In this study, a novel colorimetric sensor based on single-atom Fe nanozyme (Fe@CN-20) was developed for tannins detection. Fe@CN-20 exhibited laccase-like and oxidase-like activities, enabling simultaneous oxidation of tannins and a substrate called TMB. Tannins competed with TMB, allowing quantification of tannins content. The Fe@CN-20/TMB system provided a detection range of 5–100 mg/L tannic acid, with a detection limit of 0.13 mg/L (S/N = 3). Analysis time was approximately 30 min. The platform successfully quantified tannins in brandy, showing less than 5% deviation compared to the standard method. The sensor was simple, sensitive, rapid, and provided strong visualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Affinity peptides successfully mediates the self-assembly of multiple enzymes. • Multi-enzyme complexes enable in situ elimination of H 2 O 2 from the cascade system. • Multi-enzyme assembly facilitates Fe(II)/α-KG-dependent dioxygenase catalysis. • (2 S ,3 R ,4 S)-4-hydroxyisoleucine was produced via one-pot cascade reaction. Fe(II)/α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases (Fe(II)/α-KG DOs) are powerful biocatalysts for C H bond hydroxylation, generating diverse high-value molecules. An inadequate cosubstrate α-KG supply leads to low yields of the desired products. Currently, L -glutamate oxidase (LGOX) is used to generate α-KG and cascades with catalase (KatG) to eliminate H 2 O 2 (a by-product of LGOX), an inhibitor of Fe(II)/α-KG DOs. However, free enzymes still cause H 2 O 2 accumulation, inhibiting Fe(II)/α-KG DO activity. Here, we employed RIAD-RIDD short peptides to form LGOX-KatG specific 1:2 ratio self-assembled tri-enzyme units using a scaffold-free strategy to obtain structural insights via computational analysis and to avoid H 2 O 2 toxicity to achieve high yield of a promising anti-diabetic drug (2 S ,3 R ,4 S)-4-hydroxyisoleucine in a one-pot system. A conversion of >95 % was achieved at a 100 mM isoleucine within 7 h, with 2.00 g·L−1·h−1 space-time yield. This work provides a universal, industrially attractive approach for supplying a cosubstrate for Fe(II)/α-KG DO catalyzing hydroxylation. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anomaly detection aims at finding anomalies deviating from the normal data patterns. Virtually all anomaly detection methods create a model of the normal patterns before finding anomalies. In high-dimensional scenarios, due to the curse of dimensionality, it is difficult to construct the model of normal patterns in the full dimensional space. Subspace methods assuming that data can be characterized by low-dimensional manifolds have attracted a great deal of research. However, in unsupervised setting, unlabeled data is composed of both the normal and the abnormal data. The existence of anomalies might affect the establishment of the underlying normal subspaces. The undetermined number of the underlying subspaces also brings difficulties in subspace selection. To tackle the aforementioned problems, we come up with a weighted subspace anomaly detection (WSAD) method. We utilize correntropy to construct an objective function to mitigate the influence of the anomalies, which can be regarded as a weighting method for different data. Besides, we introduce an auxiliary variable with block sparsity regularization to achieve adaptive subspace selection, which can be regarded as a weighting method for different subspaces. After the normal underlying subspaces being established, we define the outlier scores by considering the deviation from the underlying subspaces, the local outlier score within subspaces, and the subspace scale. We use the half-quadratic theory to transform the optimization problem defined in WSAD, and apply alternating optimization to solve the transformed problem. Theoretically, we prove the convergence of the optimization algorithm. Experimentally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on both synthetic data and real datasets. • Propose a weighted subspace anomaly detection method for high-dimensional scenarios. • Employ correntropy to design a robust objective function to model normal subspaces. • Introduce a variable with block sparse constraint to adaptively select subspaces. • Prove the convergence and show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial fatty acid-producing strains are commonly engineered to improve their performance for industrial applications. However, it is challenging to efficiently and rapidly screen target strains for engineering. This study reported an in situ analytical platform using laser ablation electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LAESI-MS) for fast profiling of triacylglycerols in cellular lipid droplets of Aurantiochytrium sp. colonies cultured on agar plates. LAESI-MS approach allowed for the direct acquisition of a colony cell's characteristic fingerprint mass spectrum and MS/MS facilitated the identification of triacylglycerol species containing three fatty acyl groups. The fatty acid contents of colony cells were calculated based on the intensities of triacylglycerols from their characteristic fingerprint mass spectrum. A Python package called TAFA-LEMS (Triacylglycerol to Fatty Acid by LAESI-MS) was also developed to process the high-throughput MS data and extract fatty acid contents in colony cells. The results demonstrated that the LAESI-MS platform is fast, stable, and reproducible, with a data acquisition rate of ≤2 s per sampling point and ≤13.69% RSDs of the relative contents of fatty acids. In addition, LAESI-MS was successfully performed on the analysis of P. tricornutum and Y lipolytica strains. This in situ MS platform has the potential to become a common biotechnology platform for microbial strain engineering. [Display omitted] • A high-throughput screening platform for fatty acid-producing strains. • A Python package for the rapid processing of MS data. • This platform exhibited high stability, speed, and reproducibility. • It can serve as the common platform for breeding engineering strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultraviolet (UV) light and foodborne pathogenic bacteriais are an important risk to the environment's safety. They endanger human health, and also lead to outbreaks of infectious disease, posing great threats to global public health security, national economy, and social stability. The appearance of carbon dot (CD) nanozymes offers a new perspective to solve the problems of detection of UV light and pathogenic bacteria in environment. This paper reports the preparation of CDs with dual enzyme-like activities (superoxide dismutase activity and UV-induced oxidase activity). The product can catalyze the oxidation of the substrate 3, 3′, 5, 5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) under UV light (365 nm) to achieve rapid color development. Based on the excellent fluorescence properties of CDs, the colorimetric-fluorescence dual-channel real-time detection of UVA dose was realized, the mechanism underlying the catalytic oxidation of TMB by UV-induced oxidase CDs was also investigated. Furthermore, a portable CDs-TMB-PA hydrogel was prepared which could realize the real-time monitoring of UV in outdoor environment with the assistance of smartphone. Based on the pH dependency of the CD nanozymes and specific glycolytic response of the pathogenic bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, the direct, simple, quick, and sensitive typing and detection have been realized. This research offers new perspectives for studying CD nanozymes and their applications in UV and bacterial detection, demonstrating the remarkable potential of CD nanozymes in detecting environmental hazards. [Display omitted] • The yellow-green CDs with UV-induced oxidase activity have been prepared. • The dual-channel sensing system for the detection of UVA has been established. • The real-time monitoring of outdoor UV-light based on portable hydrogel. • The detection of E. coli triggered by glycolytic metabolism has been established. • The mechanism of UV-induced CDs catalytic oxidization of TMB was presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kashin–Beck disease (KBD) is an endemic osteochondropathy. Due to a lack of suitable animal or cellular disease models, the research progress on KBD has been limited. Our goal was to establish the first disease‐specific human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) cellular disease model of KBD, and to explore its etiology and pathogenesis exploiting transcriptome sequencing. HiPSCs were reprogrammed from dermal fibroblasts of two KBD and one healthy control donor via integration‐free vectors. Subsequently, hiPSCs were differentiated into chondrocytes through three‐week culture. Gene expression profiles in KBD, normal primary chondrocytes, and hiPSC‐derived chondrocytes were defined by RNA sequencing. A Venn diagram was constructed to show the number of shared differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between KBD and normal. Gene oncology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes annotations were performed, and six DEGs were further validated in other individuals by RT‐qPCR. KBD cellular disease models were successfully established by generation of hiPSC lines. Seventeen consistent and significant DEGs present in all compared groups (KBD and normal) were identified. RT‐qPCR validation gave consistent results with the sequencing data. Glycosaminoglycan biosynthesis—heparan sulfate/heparin; PPAR signaling pathway; and cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) were identified to be significantly altered in KBD. Differentiated chondrocytes derived from KBD‐origin hiPSCs provide the first cellular disease model for etiological studies of KBD. This study also provides new sights into the pathogenesis and etiology of KBD and is likely to inform the development of targeted therapeutics for its treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A laser based method was proposed to recycle back EVA from c-Si module. • A 1064 nm pulsed laser irradiation was demonstrated to debond the back EVA. • The debonded EVA was further mechanically peeled off completely. • Recycled EVA and remained solar cell were both undamaged by the laser. • Working mechanism was revealed by a physical model. Debonding of ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer is critical for recycling the end-of-life (EoL) crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules. The currently utilized methods are mainly based on EVA chemical dissolution or pyrolysis, which cannot recycle EVA and usually causes environmental problems. Here, a laser irradiation followed by mechanical peeling method was proposed to recycle the back EVA layer on the solar cell in the c-Si PV module. Specifically, after removing junction box, Aluminium (Al) frame and back-sheet from the c-Si module, a 1064 nm optical-fiber pulsed laser was utilized to pass through the back EVA and irradiate onto the cell/EVA bonding interface. The rear Al and silver (Ag) electrodes of the solar cell would absorb the laser pulse energy to induce a temperature rise across the cell/EVA interface, which could weaken the adhesive strength of the back EVA. The dependence of the debonding effect on the power density (P) and pulse repetition rate (PRR) of the laser was investigated carefully. When the laser parameters were controlled appropriately, the back EVA layer could be mechanically peeled off easily from the solar cell, and at the same time, the peeled-off EVA and the solar cell were both undamaged by the laser treatment. The EVA recycling can reduce possible environmental pollution risk greatly. The undamaged c-Si solar cell also provides possibility to be recycled completely in subsequent processes. The recycled EVA and solar cell both have great potential for reuse. Furthermore, for PV module with defective back-sheet, the method also offers an available way to remove the EVA adhesive for replacing the back-sheet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) is fundamental to many biological applications. But most classical MSA algorithms are difficult to handle large-scale multiple sequences, especially long sequences. Therefore, some recent aligners adopt an efficient divide-and-conquer strategy to divide long sequences into several short sub-sequences. Selecting the common segments (i.e. anchors) for division of sequences is very critical as it directly affects the accuracy and time cost. So, we proposed a novel algorithm, FMAlign, to improve the performance of multiple nucleotide sequence alignment. We use FM-index to extract long common segments at a low cost rather than using a space-consuming hash table. Moreover, after finding the longer optimal common segments, the sequences are divided by the longer common segments. FMAlign has been tested on virus and bacteria genome and human mitochondrial genome datasets, and compared with existing MSA methods such as MAFFT, HAlign and FAME. The experiments show that our method outperforms the existing methods in terms of running time, and has a high accuracy on long sequence sets. All the results demonstrate that our method is applicable to the large-scale nucleotide sequences in terms of sequence length and sequence number. The source code and related data are accessible in https://github.com/iliuh/FMAlign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]