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In the chemical looping gasification (CLG) process, support material is used to improve the mechanical strength and thermal stability of the oxygen carrier (OC). The presence of a support material can affect the properties and performance of the OC, which influences the synthesis gas generation pathways. In this work, the density functional theory calculations were applied to investigate the reaction mechanisms and syngas formation during CLG, while Fe2O3is used with support Al2O3or TiO2as oxygen material. Adsorption and reaction pathways of C atom and main constituents in syngas (CO, H2, and H2O) on the surface of the composite carrier were studied. The reaction pathway and energy transformation regarding oxidation of C atom and CO on the composite carrier’s surface were calculated and evaluated. The results indicate that CO desorption and COO* formation on the Fe2O3/Al2O3surface were the rate-limiting steps that affect the conversion of C and CO under the studied conditions. In addition, the coadsorption of H2O and CO on composite carrier’s surfaces and possible reaction pathways of them were assessed to compare performance of the two studied composite carriers. The results indicate that formation of the carboxyl intermediate is the dominant pathway during coadsorption of H2O and CO and further conversion on the Fe2O3/Al2O3surface. On the other hand, formation of the formate as an intermediate on surface composite carrier Fe2O3/TiO2was easier and more direct because of its highest energy barrier, which is only 2.01 eV. Therefore, Fe2O3/Al2O3can enhance particle adsorption and capture, while Fe2O3/TiO2was more suitable for improving water–gas shift reaction performance. These results are essential to the design and optimization of cost-effective composite materials for enhancing performance and sustainability in chemical looping processes.

There is growing acknowledgment that the properties of the electrochemical interfaces play an increasingly pivotal role in improving the performance of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, we present, for the first time, direct dynamic spectral evidence illustrating the impact of the interaction between interfacial water molecules and adsorbed hydroxyl species (OHad) on the HER properties of Ni(OH)2using Au/core-Ni(OH)2/shell nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. Notably, our findings highlight that the interaction between OHadand interfacial water molecules promotes the formation of weakly hydrogen-bonded water, fostering an environment conducive to improving the HER performance. Furthermore, the participation of OHadin the reaction is substantiated by the observed deprotonation step of Au@2 nm Ni(OH)2during the HER process. This phenomenon is corroborated by the phase transition of Ni(OH)2to NiO, as verified through Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The significant redshift in the OH-stretching frequency of water molecules during the phase transition confirms that surface OHaddisrupts the hydrogen-bond network of interfacial water molecules. Through manipulation of the shell thickness of Au@Ni(OH)2, we additionally validate the interaction between OHadand interfacial water molecules. In summary, our insights emphasize the potential of electrochemical interfacial engineering as a potent approach to enhance electrocatalytic performance.

Ammonia, a feedstock platform for fertilizer and pharmaceutical production, is regarded as a zero-carbon energy carrier. The electrochemical synthesis of ammonia, powered by clean and renewable electricity, has garnered increased attention as an alternative to the Haber-Bosch process. Very recently, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have become highly effective electrocatalysts for such electrochemical transformation, where the isolated metal sites ensure the high atomic utilization efficiency as well as the prevention of nitrogen-nitrogen coupling. In this review, we focus on the recent progress of single-atom catalysts in electrochemical ammonia synthesis and briefly introduce nitrogen cycles in both natural and artificial ecosystems, followed by a discussion of catalyst design by theoretical and experimental methods. Synthesis routes from different nitrogen sources, including dinitrogen (N2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), are also highlighted. Besides, the catalysis dynamics as an indispensable section is presented and discussed in-depth. Finally, we tackle challenges and offer perspectives, aspiring to provide insightful guidance for researchers in this community striving for advanced ammonia electrosynthesis.

In this paper, we consider an enriched cut finite element method (ECFEM) with interface-unfitted meshes for solving Stokes interface equations consisting of two incompressible fluids with different viscosities. By approximating the velocity with the enriched P 1 element and the pressure with the P 0 element, and stabilizing the Galerkin variational formulation with suitable ghost penalty terms, we propose the new ECFEM and prove that it is well-posed and has the optimal a priori error estimate in the energy norm. All derived results are independent of the interface position. Moreover, compared with other conforming finite element methods with the optimal rate in convergence, the proposed scheme here not only has the minimum degrees of freedom, but also avoids using the derivative of the pressure in the penalty term. The presented numerical examples validate the theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-nitrogen-carbon single-atom catalysts (M-N-C SACs) have emerged as a highly promising material for ammonia synthesis from electrocatalytic nitrate reduction due to their isolated metal site and capacity to prevent the N–N coupling. However, understanding the structure-activity relationship at molecular level remains challenging because of the inhomogeneous MNxstructure presented in current synthesized M-N-C catalysts. In this study, we utilized metal phthalocyanine (MPc) as a model platform catalyst containing a uniform and well-defined MN4center to unravel their intrinsic activity tendency toward ammonia synthesis from nitrate reduction, both experimentally and theoretically. Our experimental results exhibit a significant activity difference for ammonia production in the order of FeN4> CuN4> NiN4> MnN4> CoN4> ZnN4, and among which the FeN4site delivers much higher faradic efficiency and the highest turnover frequency of 83.3% and 4395.2 h–1at –1.0 V vs. RHE, respectively. Density-functional theory calculations indicates that, compared to CoN4and MnN4, the FeN4site not only has appropriate adsorption strength for NOxintermediate species, but also has certain inhibitory effects on hydrogen evolution reaction process. These findings provide systematic and reliable guidance for catalyst synthesis toward nitrate reduction to NH3from both the experimental and computational perspectives.

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau experienced a unique geological evolution during the Jurassic, driven by the termination of the Palaeotethys and the reduction of the Neotethys. The Indian Plate separated from the northern margin of Gondwana and drifted northward from the Southern Hemisphere. Given that the timing of strata serves as the basis for reconstructing geological history, the present work aimed to develop a new multiple stratigraphic and chronologic framework for the Jurassic strata of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau region via a synthesis of the material on lithostratigraphy, palaeontology, iso-radiometric dating, magnetostratigraphy, and other techniques with an emphasis on recent progress and findings. The new framework included the Jurassic System from the four major subdivisions of the plateau: the Baryan Har, Qiangtang, Lhasa-Gandise, and Southern Xizang (Himalaya). Ultimately, a more complete, refined biostratigraphic sequence was proposed, comprising the most common fossils in the plateau and those that are stratigraphically significant for the Jurassic stratigraphy, including ammonites, bivalves, brachiopods, foraminifera, radiolarians, and dinoflagellate cysts for the marine strata, and pollen and spores, and charophytes for the terrestrial sediments. This biostratigraphic framework was correlated with the Jurassic international standard zonation of the Geological Time Scale 2020 via standard or representative species or genera of ammonites. Based on this framework, we constructed a lateral correlation of the Jurassic strata between different basins of the plateau. The palaeontologic correlation in the present work shows that the Lhasa-Gandise Block had a closer relationship with the Qiangtang Block than with the Southern Xizang Himalaya during the Jurassic Period. Meanwhile, the Lhasa-Gandise Block and Qiangtang Block shared similar marine fauna features of the north marginal East Tethys. This contrasts the opinion suggesting that the Yarlung Zangbo Tethys was a small back-arc basin. A combination of stratigraphical, palaeontological, and sedimentological analyses implies that the Bangong Co-Nujiang Tethys may have begun rifting in the Late Triassic, evolving to the birth at the late Early Jurassic with the formation of ocean crust. However, this resulted in failure after it grew into the climax at the end of the Middle Jurassic when the Qiangtang Block began subducting under the Lhasa-Gandise Block. In the Early Cretaceous, the two blocks finally merged.

In this paper, we consider the high order method for solving the linear transport equations under diffusive scaling and with random inputs. To tackle the randomness in the problem, the stochastic Galerkin method of the generalized polynomial chaos approach has been employed. Besides, the high order implicit-explicit scheme under the micro-macro decomposition framework and the discontinuous Galerkin method have been employed. We provide several numerical experiments to validate the accuracy and the stochastic asymptotic-preserving property.

The pyrolysis characteristics of lignin (De–alkaline) were evaluated using TG/DSC–FTIR and TG–MS. TGA experiments indicated that the pyrolysis of lignin (De–alkaline) proceeded in three stages between 303.15 to 1173.15 K, and the thermographs shifted to higher temperatures with increasing heating rate from 10 to 40 K·min−1. Gases FTIR correspondingly showed that the characteristic absorption peaks of corresponding functional groups increased with the increase of pyrolysis temperature at 423, 623, 823, and 1023 K. For TG–MS tests, H2, CH4, CO, and CO2were mainly produced in the temperature range 500–700 K, and CO and CO2were also produced between 950 and 1050 K. The kinetic triplets of lignin (De–alkaline) pyrolysis were estimated by Flynn–Wall–Ozawa, Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose, Coats–Redfern, and integral Master–plots methods. The activation energy of three stages used to calculate the experimental curve was the average value of FWO and KAS methods (58.95, 206.19, and 317.17 kJ·mol−1, respectively). Kinetic reaction mechanisms predicted using the integral Master–plots were f(α) = (1–α)1.3, f(α) = (1–α)3.9, and f(α) = 2.7(1–α)[–ln(1–α)](1–1/2.7)for the three stages, respectively. This study provides a theoretical and practical guideline to meeting the engineering challenges based on the pyrolysis of lignin from papermaking wastewater.

The biomass chemical looping gasification with the integrated gasification combined cycle (BCLG-IGCC) power generation system synergistically integrates biomass chemical looping gasification (BCLG) technology and the integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) system. This comprehensive integration presents an efficient way for producing high-caliber synthesis gas, thereby exemplifying a sophisticated, environmentally conscious, and highly efficient power generation technique. This research establishes and investigates the model of the BCLG-IGCC system and investigates the gasification performance of the BCLG system under four operational parameters: various biomass fuels, gasification temperature (TFR), steam-to-biomass ratio (ε), and oxygen carrier-to-biomass ratio (OC/B). The power generation of the BCLG-IGCC system was researched under different load (i.e., 50%, 75%, and 100%). Energy and exergy analyses were conducted on the system to assess the thermodynamic performance. The energy efficiency of the BCLG-IGCC system is 42.7%, exceeding the typical energy efficiency range of 40–42% associated with traditional IGCC systems.

Biomass chemical looping gasification (BCLG) is a promising gasification technology. In this study, a solar energy-assisted BCLG cogeneration system combined with a gas turbine and an organic Rankine cycle system was proposed and simulated using Aspen Plus software. The effects of gasification temperature (TG), steam-to-biomass ratio (rS/B), and oxygen-to-biomass ratio (λO/B) on the BCLG process were studied using pine sawdust, bagasse, and rice husk as gasification fuels. The results showed that pine sawdust, having higher C and H content, was the best gasification fuel, and its best simulation conditions were TG= 700 °C, rS/B= 0.5, and λO/B= 0.18. The effect of the compressor pressure ratio (ε) on the BCLG-GT system was studied. The results showed that there was an optimal εvalue for the best system performance. A solar energy source was introduced to explore the influence of solar radiation intensity (SI) on the Solar-BCLG-GT system. The results showed that as the SI increased, the network of the system improved but the efficiency decreased. Nevertheless, the energy efficiency of the new system was 3.27% higher than that of the BCLG-GT system under an annual average SI of 600 W/m2. Finally, the ORC was introduced to explore the influence of different organic fluids on the novel Solar-BCLG-GT-ORC system. The results showed that a BCLG-GT power generation system without solar drive produces 1082.7 kW, which is higher than the 332.8 kW generated by traditional BFPP power plants. The energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of the BCLG-GT system are 27.91% and 24.74%, respectively, surpassing the 9.55% and 8.33% of BFPP plants. Additionally, the cogeneration system driven by solar energy achieves energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of 31.18% and 29.07%, respectively. Compared to the BCLG-GT system without solar drive, these represent increases of 3.27% and 4.33%, respectively, demonstrating its considerable potential for future development.

We analyze the local structure of the moduli space of genus one stable quasimaps. Combining it with the p-fields theory developed by Chang and Li (2020), we prove the splitting formula for the virtual cycle of stable quasimaps to complete intersections in ℙn.

The reconstruction of subsurface ocean temperature using sea surface observations and in situ Argo measurements is an important yet challenging task. The availability of long-term and high-resolution sea surface remote sensing, combined with advancements in deep learning technology, has opened new opportunities for studying subsurface temperature (ST) reconstruction. In this study, a novel spatial–temporal Siamese convolutional neural network (SSCNN) is proposed to improve the accuracy of ST reconstruction in the Indian Ocean. First, considering the distinctions of temperature characteristics among different sea areas, a multiscale division scheme based on the correlation coefficient of integral ST is designed for refined reconstruction modeling. Second, since ocean heat is significantly affected by solar radiation, asymmetric convolutional operation with rectangular patches and kernels is designed to capture the information characteristics in longitude and latitude directions, respectively. Third, given the temporal changes and correlations of ocean temperature, an SSCNN with shared parameters is proposed for multiview feature mining and accurate temperature structure reconstruction. The reconstructed results provide a precise depiction of the subsurface Indian Ocean dipole (sub-IOD)’s evolution, including the spatial distribution of positive and negative anomaly signals and its temporal changes. It demonstrates that the subsurface dipole index series obtained from SSCNN reconstruction is consistent with that from International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) observation, remaining within a reasonable error range. Comparative experiments indicate that the SSCNN model surpasses other existing methods in terms of higher accuracy and smaller error. Overall, this study provides a promising approach for effectively reconstructing the ST using deep learning methods and offers valuable insights for analyzing the evolution of subsurface positive dipole in Indian Ocean.

The international array for real-time geostrophic oceanography (Argo) project is committed to rapidly and precisely acquiring comprehensive 3-D data on ocean temperature and salinity, which is crucial for monitoring ocean climate change and natural phenomena. During the buoy observation, environmental factors, human mistakes, and equipment malfunctions can cause abnormalities such as density inversion and spike, and thus detecting the errors in Argo data is significant to ensure its reliability and applicability. Traditional methods mainly rely on the knowledge and judgment of marine experts, ensuring high accuracy but requiring large amounts of effort. Machine-learning methods are used for automatic Argo data error detection, while they still struggle with extracting deep and discriminative features from profiles. Recently, deep-learning methods have received increasing attention in this field, yet their effectiveness have not been widely explored, faced with challenges of imbalanced samples, joint detection, and complicated patterns. In this article, a novel vertical attention-based siamese ConvLSTM (VAS-CLSTM) network is proposed for the accurate error detection of Argo data. First, an oversampling approach with optimized deep clustering based on inheritance theory and Mahalanobis distance is designed to effectively augment the error samples. Second, a siamese convolutional long–short-term memory (ConvLSTM) network with contextual connection and spatial–temporal adjacent profile search is built to learn interactively from temperature and salinity profiles. Third, a depth-based vertical attention mechanism with grouped weights and vertical trends is proposed for adaptive modeling and flexible learning. Experimental results of North and South Atlantic datasets show that the proposed VAS-CLSTM method effectively improves the accuracy and reliability of error detection in Argo observation data.

In this paper, conventional thermogravimetric analysis and a new congruent–mass thermogravimetric analysis were used to study the reaction mechanism of the co-pyrolysis process of coal and biomass in the thermogravimetric analyzer, the effects of heating rate and carrier gas flow rate on co-pyrolysis were investigated, and kinetic analysis was conducted for the major pyrolysis stages to explore whether there was a synergistic effect in the co-pyrolysis process. The surface morphology of pyrolytic coke was evaluated by the fractal dimension method. The results show that congruent–mass thermogravimetric analysis can compare the interactions in the co-pyrolysis process more intuitively and reduce the influence of initial mass on the determination of interaction relationship. Synergistic effect appears in co-pyrolysis of coal and biomass. With the increase of heating rate, the thermogravimetric hysteresis appeared and the thermogravimetric curve gradually moved to the high temperature region. With the increase of carrier gas flow rate, the synergistic effect weakens. The kinetics of different reaction stages was analyzed by Coats–Redfern method; the results show that the activation energy required in the main co-pyrolysis stage of the mixture is lower than that in the pyrolysis stage alone. The micromorphology shows that biomass coke has a more developed pore structure than coal, and the box dimension indicates that co-pyrolysis increases the surface irregularity of coke. It is of great significance to judge the interaction mechanism of two or even multiple mixed samples in the process of co-pyrolysis.

We consider the mixed discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element approximation of the Stokes equation and provide the analysis for the [Pk]d-Pk-1element on the tensor product meshes. Comparing to the previous stability proof with [Qk]d-Qk-1discontinuous finite elements in the existing references, our first contribution is to extend the formal proof to the [Pk]d-Pk-1discontinuous elements on the tensor product meshes. Numerical inf-sup tests have been performed to compare Qkand Pktypes of elements and validate the well-posedness in both settings. Secondly, our contribution is to design the enhanced pressure-robust discretization by only modifying the body source assembling on [Pk]d-Pk-1schemes to improve the numerical simulation further. The produced numerical velocity solution via our enhancement shows viscosity and pressure independence and thus outperforms the solution produced by standard discontinuous Galerkin schemes. Robustness analysis and numerical tests have been provided to validate the scheme’s robustness.

Argo observations are spatially sparse and temporally uneven, whereas satellites can provide high-resolution and continuous observations at the sea surface. The reconstruction of subsurface thermohaline structure using multisource remote sensing data is thus of great significance for investigating the ocean interior dynamics. Aiming at the existing problems of temporal feature extraction and nonlinear relationship fitting, this article proposes a multivariate temporal self-attention network (MTSAN) to effectively reconstruct the subsurface temperature anomaly (STA) and subsurface salinity anomaly (SSA) in the Pacific Ocean. The model integrates multisource remote sensing data, including sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity (SSS), wind speed, absolute dynamic topography (ADT), and significant wave height (SWH). In order to better extract the complex small- and medium-scale signals, a two-branch asymmetric residual module based on dilation causal convolution is designed to enhance the representation ability. Moreover, zonal weighted loss function with comprehensive indicators is proposed, in order to minimize the real error of grids and raise the accuracy of self-attention network. MTSAN reconstructs the STA and SSA during the El Ni $\tilde {\mathrm {n}}\text{o}$ event, and the results show that it has good performance for spatial distribution, vertical variation, and temporal extension. The overall $R^{2}$ and RMSE of STA are 0.536 and 0.241 °C, respectively, and the overall $R^{2}$ and RMSE of SSA are 0.645 and 0.037 psu, respectively. In addition, the results of comparison experiments illustrate the superiority of MTSAN over other machine learning and deep learning-based methods. Overall, we provide a new temporal self-attention approach to accurately reconstruct the 3-D thermohaline structure using high-resolution quasi-real-time satellite observations.

Moisture contribution and transport pathways for Central Asia (CA) are quantitatively examined using the Lagrangian water cycle model based on reanalysis and observational data to explain the precipitation seasonality and the moisture transport variation during 1979–2015. Westerly-related (northwesterly and westerly) transport explains 42% of CA precipitation and dominates in southwest CA, where precipitation is greatest in the cold season. Southeast CA, including part of Northwest China, experiences its maximum precipitation in the warm season and is solely dominated by southerly transport, which explains about 48% of CA precipitation. The remaining 10% of CA precipitation is explained by northerly transport, which steadily impacts north CA and causes a maximum in precipitation in the warm season. Most CA areas are exposed to seasonally varying moisture transport, except for southeast and north CA, which are impacted by southerly and northerly transport year-round. In general, the midlatitude westerlies-driven transport and the Indian monsoon-driven southerly-related transport explain most of the spatial differences in precipitation seasonality over CA. Moreover, the contribution ratio of local evaporation in CA to precipitation exhibits significant interdecadal variability and a meridionally oriented tripole of moisture transport anomalies. Since the early 2000s, CA has experienced a decade of anomalously low local moisture contribution, which seems jointly determined by the weakened moisture contribution from midlatitudes (the Atlantic, Europe, and CA itself) and the enhanced contribution from high latitudes (West Siberia and the Arctic) and tropical areas (South Asia and the Indian Ocean).

Developing the oxygen carriers with large oxygen carrying capacity, high reactivity, and strong cycle stability is one of the research focuses in the chemical looping combustion technology. In this study, the effect of spinel-structured K3FeO4on the reactivity of Fe-based oxygen carrier was investigated based on the density functional theory involving the electronic structural properties such as the density of states, adsorption energy, and activation energy. The results show that when the K3FeO4is loaded on the α-Fe2O3(001) surface, the microscopic electronic structure of α-Fe2O3(001) surface is changed, the Fe–O bond on the surface is elongated, the O-porbital electrons transition to a higher energy level, and the electron activity of oxygen atom is improved. The energy barriers of CO reaction with the surface lattice oxygen show a decreasing trend at the three lattice oxygen sites after the loading of K3FeO4which can improve the activity of surface oxygen atoms and make the breakage of Fe–O bond via elongation easier with less energy required. In addition, CO can bond with the more active oxygen atom in K3FeO4, and also can combine with the O2 atom to form a new C–O bond, by which CO is adsorbed on the surface in the form of bidentate carbonate that would be decomposed and released as CO2.

A biomass-based chemical looping gasification-integrated power generation cycle model that combines biomass chemical looping gasification (BCLG) and an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) was established using Aspen Plus software. The reliability of the proposed model was verified according to the experimental data. The exergy balance of the BCLG process was analyzed in detail, and the exergy efficiency of the chemical looping gasification process of pine sawdust, rice stalk, and corn stalk was compared. The influence of the main operating conditions, such as the gasification temperature, oxygen-to-biomass ratio (λ), and steam-to-biomass ratio (S/B), on BCLG progress was investigated when the whole system was researched at the steady state. The results indicate that the optimal operating conditions were a gasification temperature of 850 °C, a λ of 0.1, and an S/B of 0.4, the heat balance could be maintained, and the system could achieve higher energy efficiency and exergy efficiency, which were 44.74 and 40.37%, respectively. In addition, the BCLG–IGCC system-coupled solar energy under two frameworks was studied and analyzed. Solar energy was used to provide the heat for the compressed air for the gas turbine or produce additional steam to supply the low-pressure steam turbine for power generation. Among the above two, using solar energy to heat compressed air for the gas turbine was a better way to use solar energy.

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Submarine piggyback pipeline is an important tool for oil and gas transport, especially, in the marginal oil field. When the scour happens in the seabed, the pipeline slides easily, which may cause the pipeline failure. The dynamic slope angle is one of the most important characteristics of the scour. In this work, the dynamic slope angles of the sandy seabed under piggyback pipelines in steady flow are investigated experimentally and numerically in detail. The physical experiments are conducted in an annular flume and the numerical simulations are carried out using a two-phase flow model which is resolved by the finite volume method (FVM). In the numerical model, the free surface is tracked by the volume of fluid (VOF), and both bed and suspended loads are considered in the scour module. Depending on the comparison and convergence analysis, the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results. The results indicate that the dynamic slope angle is significantly affected by the incoming flow velocity, gap-ratio, spacing-ratio and pipe diameter. With the reduction of gap-ratio and space-ratio, the upstream dynamic slope angle αincreases slightly, but the downstream dynamic slope angle βdecreases. With the increase of the grain Reynolds number, the angle αincreases slightly, but the angle βdecreases severely. The conclusions drawn from this paper could provide the reference for the design of submarine piggyback pipeline.

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ABSTRACTOvarian cancer (OC) is the fifth most common female malignant tumor and the leading cause of cancer-related death in women worldwide. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the predominant type of OC. Investigating the mechanism underlying tumorigenesis and progression of EOC is urgent. Our previous research has shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) CDKN2A-AS1 is upregulated in EOC tissues and cells. Furthermore, we have predicted that CDKN2A-AS1 is associated with the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-SMAD signaling pathway, which is negatively regulated by the sclerostin domain containing 1 (SOSTDC1). Therefore, we conjecture that the CDKN2A-AS1 regulate BMP-SMAD signaling pathway via interacting with SOSTDC1, which need more investigation. Moreover, the functions of the BMP-SMAD signaling pathway and the SOSTDC1 on EOC are still unclear. Herein, we unearthed that CDKN2A-AS1, BMP2/4/7, SMAD1/5/9 and phosphorylation of SMAD1/5/9 (p-SMAD1/5/9) were upregulated in EOC tissues and cells, whereas SOSTDC1 was downregulated in EOC tissues and cells. We firstly demonstrated that CDKN2A-AS1 bound directly with the SOSTDC1. CDKN2A-AS1 downregulated the expression of SOSTDC1, but upregulated the expression of BMP2/4/7, SMAD1/5/9, and p-SMAD1/5/9. CDKN2A-AS1 promoted the proliferation, migration, invasion of EOC cells and tumor growth in vivo, whereas SOSTDC1 inhibited the proliferation, migration, invasion of EOC cells. Knockdown SOSTDC1 rescued the inhibitory effect of si-lncRNA CDKN2A-AS1 on the EOC cells proliferation, migration and invasion. These results demonstrated that CDKN2A-AS1activated the BMP-SMAD signaling pathway by directly bind with SOSTDC1 to promote EOC tumor growth. CDKN2A-AS1/SOSTDC1 axis may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for EOC treatment.

The inhomogeneous microstructure and its change by annealing for an AlSi10Mg lattice structure with a body-centered cubic unit cell additively manufactured via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) were investigated. The as-built lattice structure exhibited a cellular microstructure consisting of a number of primary α-Al phases decorated with α-Al/Si eutectic structure. The developed microstructure varied depending on the locations of the node and strut parts of the lattice structure. At the location near the bottom surface of the node part, the cellular microstructure became coarser and more equiaxed than those at the location near the top surface. At the location near the bottom surface of the strut part, the columnar α-Al phases were often elongated along the direction of the strut part. After the annealing at 300 °C for 2 h, numerous Si particles finely precipitated within the primary α-Al phases and coarsening of the eutectic Si phases occurred. After the annealing at 530 °C for 6 h, the microstructural characteristics changed significantly. A significant coarsening of the Si particles and the formation of Fe-containing intermetallic phase (β-AlFeSi) with a plate-shaped morphology occurred. The microstructures became homogeneous in the whole area of the lattice structure annealed at 530 °C for 6 h.

To investigate the correlation between high-risk human papillomavirus (HR HPV)-negative cervical lesions and cervical microenvironment in Inner Mongolia, China, and to find the pathogenic factors of HR HPV-negative cervical lesions.

A first and detailed foraminiferal biostratigraphic work on the lower part of the Zongshan Formation (Limestone I and Calcareous Marl I sequence) in the Chaqiela section, Gamba, southern Tibet, allows the recognition of three latest Coniacian to middle Campanian planktic foraminiferal biozones: Dicarinella asymetricaTotal Range Zone, Globotruncanita elevataPartial-Range Zone, and Contusotruncana plummeraeInterval Zone. The base and top of the Santonian Stage in the Chaqiela section were placed at the lowest occurrence (LO) of Globotruncana linneianaand the highest occurrence (HO) of Dicarinella asymetrica, respectively. The deposition of the latest Coniacian to middle Campanian sediments of the lower Zongshan Formation in the Chaqiela section seems to have been continuous or at least without any major gap based on the planktic foraminiferal biozones and events.

Herein, 10-fold electrochemiluminescence (ECL) enhancement from a porous SnO2nanocrystal (SnO2NC) xerogel (vs discrete SnO2NCs) was first observed with NO3–as a novel coreactant. This new booster phenomenon caused by pore characteristic was defined as “pore confinement-induced ECL enhancement”, which originated from two possible reasons: First, the SnO2NC xerogel with hierarchically porous structure could not only localize massive luminophore near the electrode surface, more importantly, but could accelerate the electrochemical and chemiluminescence reaction efficiency because the pore channels of xerogel could promote the mass transport and electron transfer in the confined spaces. Second, the NO3–could be in situ reduced easily to the active nitrogen species by means of the pore confinement effect, which could be served as a new coreactant for nanocrystal-based ECL amplification with the excellent stability and good biocompatibility. As a proof of concept, a facile and sensitive sensing platform for SO32–detection has been successfully constructed upon effectively quenching of SO32–toward the SnO2NC xerogel/NO3–ECL system. The key feature about this work presented a grand avenue to achieve the strong ECL signal, especially from weak emitters, which gave a fresh impetus to the construction of new-generation of surface-confined ECL platform with potential applications in ECL imaging and sensing.

Ureteral obstruction causes injury of the renal tissues and can irreversibly progress to renal fibrosis, with atrophy and apoptosis of tubular cells. The goal of the current study was to examine the effects of rhein on the apoptosis o renal tubular cells as well as renal fibrosis using a rodent model of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO). UUO was induced through ureteral ligation, then animals received treatments with rhein or vehicle. The control rats only received sham operation. The renal tissue was harvested 1 week after surgery for assessment of kidney fibrosis. The expressions of collagen I and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), as well as the severity of renal tubular apoptosis and fibrosis were time-dependently increased following UUO. Treatments with rhein partially inhibited such responses. Renal interstitial fibrosis was associated with STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) phosphorylation as well as altered expressions of Bax and Bcl2, both apoptosis-related proteins. Treatment with rhein also partly blocked these responses. These findings demonstrated that rhein mitigated apoptosis of renal tubular cell as well as renal fibrosis in a UUO rodent model. This curative effect is likely mediated via suppression of STAT3 phosphorylation.

A series of global major geological and biological events occurred during the Permian Period. Establishing a highresolution stratigraphic and temporal framework is essential to understand their cause-effect relationship. The official International timescale of the Permian System consists of three series (i.e., Cisuralian, Guadalupian and Lopingian in ascending order) and nine stages. In China, the Permian System is composed of three series (Chuanshanian, Yansingian and Lopingian) and eight stages, of which the subdivisions and definitions of the Chuanshanian and Yangsingian series are very different from the Cisuralian and Guadalupian series. The Permian Period spanned ∼47 Myr. Its base is defined by the First Appearance Datum (FAD) of the conodont Streptognathodus isolatusat Aidaralash, Kazakhstan with an interpolated absolute age 298.9±0.15 Ma at Usolka, southern Urals, Russia. Its top equals the base of the Triassic System and is defined by the FAD of the conodont Hindeodus parvusat Meishan D section, southeast China with an interpolated absolute age 251.902±0.024 Ma. Thirty-five conodont, 23 fusulinid, 17 radiolarian and 20 ammonoid zones are established for the Permian in China, of which the Guadalupian and Lopingian conodont zones have been served as the standard for international correlation. The Permian δ13Ccarbtrend indicates that it is characterized by a rapid negative shift of 3–5‰ at the end of the Changhsingian, which can be used for global correlation of the end-Permian mass extinction interval, but δ13Ccarbrecords from all other intervals may have more or less suffered subsequent diagenetic alteration or represented regional or local signatures only. Permian δ18O{ainpatite} studies suggest that an icehouse stage dominated the time interval from the late Carboniferous to Kungurian (late Cisuralian). However, paleoclimate began to ameriolate during the late Kungurian and gradually shifted into a greenhouse-dominated stage during the Guadalupian. The Changhsingian was a relatively cool stage, followed by a globally-recognizable rapid temperature rise of 8–10°C at the very end of the Changhsingian. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio trend shows that their values at the beginning of the Permian were between 0.70800, then gradually decreased to the late Capitanian minimum 0.70680–0.70690, followed by a persistent increase until the end of the Permian with the value 0.70708. Magenetostratigraphy suggests two distinct stages separated by the Illawarra Reversal in the middle Wordian, of which the lower is the reverse polarity Kiaman Superchron and the upper is the mixed-polarity Illawarra Superchron. The end-Guadalupian (or pre-Lopingian) biological crisis occurred during the late Capitanian, when faunal changeovers of different fossil groups had different paces, but generally experienced a relatively long time from the Jinogondolella altudensisZone until the earliest Wuchiapingian. The end-Permian mass extinction was a catastrophic event that is best constrained at the Meishan section, which occurred at 251.941±0.037 Ma and persisted no more than 61±48 kyr. After the major pulse at Bed 25, the extinction patterns are displayed differently in different sections. The global end-Guadalupian regression is manifested between the conodont Jinogondolella xuanhanensisand Clarkina dukouensiszones and the end-Changhsingian transgression began in the Hindeodus changxingensis-Clarkina zhejiangensisZone. The Permian Period is also characterized by strong faunal provincialism in general, which resulted in difficulties in inter-continental and inter-regional correlation of both marine and terrestrial systems.

When dewatering and resurrecting natural gas-flooded wells, sand-out problems can pose a serious hazard to downhole tools. At present, the downhole cyclone has more research on the separation of large particles of 60–70 µm, which is a serious hazard, but there is little research on the separation of fine particles of 10 µm. To improve the separation efficiency of downhole fine sand particles, this paper designs a new type of axial cyclone, in which a spiral fin is installed at the axis of the cyclone to improve the strength of the cyclone inner cyclone flow through the spiral fin so that the fine particles involved in the inner cyclone flow are thrown back into the outer cyclone flow area. This paper combines theoretical analysis, experimental study, and numerical simulation to compare and analyze the fluid transport law and internal flow field characteristics in the new cyclone and the basic cyclone, and the results show that the separation efficiency of the new cyclone for 10 µm fine particles is significantly improved and the pressure drop is slightly increased. In this paper, we also optimized the structural parameters such as envelope diameter, pitch, and length of the spiral fins. The separation performance is optimal when the envelope diameter is 10 mm, pitch is 40 mm and length is 240 mm, and the separation efficiency of 10 µm fine particles can reach 65.1%, which is a year-on-year increase of 99.1% compared with the basic separator, and the pressure drop is 0.231 MPa, which is a year-on-year increase of 31.2%.

The characterization and comparison of sludge ashes at various ashing temperatures were carried out to study the relationship between the ashing fusibility, physicochemical properties, and thermogravimetric characteristics. The low temperature ashes were black gray and had the characteristic of the coexistence of irregular and rounded particles, which contained a certain proportion of residual unburned combustible material. As the ashing temperature increased, the flake-like crystals transformed into long columns with a compact arrangement. Agglomeration of the ash samples became significant and provided the supporting effect of a skeleton structure. The ash samples at a low ashing temperature had lower ash characteristic temperatures. As the ashing temperature increased, the characteristic temperature increased, which implied that the minerals with high melting points provided the supporting effect of a skeleton structure. The main mineral compositions of the ash samples at the low ashing temperature were quartz, berlinite, magnetite, calcite, calcium pyrophosphate, and muscovite, while at the high ashing temperature, the main minerals were whitlockite, orthoclase, anorthite, anhydrite, and quartz. During the thermogravimetric analysis, the weight loss processes were characterized by a three-stage thermal degradation reaction, as follows: (1) dehydration process and decomposition of light organic volatiles, (2) comprehensive effect from the combustion of unburned combustible residues, the dehydroxylation reaction, and the desulfurization process, and (3) potential anhydrite decomposition. Because phosphorus was chemically combined with calcium preferentially, phosphorus played an important role in the sulfur release, expressed as SO3. When the sewage sludge ashes were rich in phosphorus, anhydrite could be reacted with abundant berlinite, forming whitlockite and aluminum sulfate, and the decomposition of aluminum sulfate resulted in the volatilization of sulfur, expressed as SO3. However, the anhydrite remained constant and the sulfur was difficult to volatilize if there was a lack of phosphorus in the sewage sludge ashes.

IMPORTANCE: Although physician visual assessment (PVA) of stenosis severity is a standard clinical practice to support decisions for coronary revascularization, there are concerns about its accuracy. OBJECTIVE: To compare PVA with quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) as a means of assessing stenosis severity among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in China. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A cross-sectional study (2012-2013) of a random subset of 1295 patients from the China Patient-centered Evaluative Assessment of Cardiac Events (PEACE) Prospective PCI Study was carried out. The PEACE Prospective PCI study recruited a consecutive sample of patients undergoing PCI at 35 hospitals in 18 provinces of China. The coronary angiograms of this subset of participants were reviewed using QCA by 2 independent core laboratories blinded to PVA readings. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Differences between PVA and QCA assessments of stenosis severity for lesions for which PCI was performed and variation of these differences among hospitals and physicians, stratified by the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). RESULTS: In patients without AMI, the mean (SD) age was 62 (10) years, and 217 (31.5%) were women; in patients with AMI, the mean (SD) age was 60 (11) years, and 153 (25.2%) were women. The mean (SD) percent diameter stenosis by PVA was 16.0% (11.5%) greater than that by QCA in patients without AMI and 10.2% (12.3%) in those with AMI (P < .001 for both comparisons). In patients without AMI, of 837 lesions with 70% or more stenosis by PVA, 427 (50.6%) were less than 70% by QCA; in patients with AMI, similar patterns were observed to a lesser extent. Among patients without AMI, only 4 (0.47%) lesions were additionally assessed with fractional flow reserve. Among 30 hospitals, the difference between PVA and QCA readings of stenosis severity varied from 7.6% (95% CI, 0.4%-14.7%) to 21.3% (95% CI, 17.1%-24.9%) among non-AMI patients. Across 57 physicians, this difference varied from 6.9% (95% CI, −1.4%-15.3%) to 26.4% (95% CI, 21.5%-31.4%). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: For coronary lesions treated with PCI in China, PVA reported substantially higher readings of stenosis severity than QCA, with large variation across hospitals and physicians. These findings highlight the need to improve the accuracy of information used to guide treatment decisions in catheterization laboratories.

In view of the severity of oceanic pollution, based on the finite volume coastal ocean model (FVCOM), a Lagrangian particle-tracking model was used to numerically investigate the coastal pollution transport and water exchange capability in Tangdao Bay, in China. The severe pollution in the bay was numerically simulated by releasing and tracking particles inside it. The simulation results demonstrate that the water exchange capability in the bay is very low. Once the bay has suffered pollution, a long period will be required before the environment can purify itself. In order to eliminate or at least reduce the pollution level, environmental improvement measures have been proposed to enhance the seawater exchange capability and speed up the water purification inside the bay. The study findings presented in this paper are believed to be instructive and useful for future environmental policy makers and it is also anticipated that the numerical model in this paper can serve as an effective technological tool to study many emerging coastal environment problems.

Hypertension is common in China and its prevalence is rising, yet it remains inadequately controlled. Few studies have the capacity to characterise the epidemiology and management of hypertension across many heterogeneous subgroups. We did a study of the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in China and assessed their variations across many subpopulations.

Background:Oral docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) + aspirin therapy has been shown to reduce periodontal probing depth (PD) and local inflammatory mediators in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) among patients with untreated chronic periodontal disease. Whether DHA + aspirin therapy influences specific bacterial burden in this setting is unknown. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of DHA with low‐dose aspirin therapy on periodontal bacterial profile in patients with periodontitis. Methods:Fifty‐five adults with moderate‐to‐severe periodontitis were enrolled in a randomized, 3‐month double‐masked, placebo‐controlled trial of daily 2 g DHA or placebo capsules enriched with 81 mg aspirin; 46 enrollees completed the trial. In addition to clinical measurements and GCF sampling, subgingival plaque samples were collected from four posterior sites in all participants and analyzed by the checkerboard DNA–DNA hybridization technique. Presence of 40 periodontal bacterial species at baseline and 3 months was semiquantitatively estimated. Results:Despite broad improvements in clinical parameters, total bacteria and individual species counts in dental plaque did not differ significantly between baseline and 3 months in either group (P>0.1 for all). A modest effect of DHA + aspirin on Porphyromonas gingivaliscounts was associated with 14% (95% confidence interval: 3% to 35%) of the observed benefit of DHA on PD. DHA + aspirin had no significant effect on individual plaque bacterial counts in unadjusted models or those adjusted for age, sex, and race (P>0.1 for all). Conclusions:This pilot randomized, controlled trial suggests that DHA + aspirin therapy improves periodontitis largely by modulating host inflammatory response. Changes in individual species levels in subgingival plaque microbiota were not detectable; however, a small portion of the benefit appears to stem from changes in P. gingivalislevels in the DHA + aspirin treatment group. Whether this change in P. gingivalislevels leads to biofilm alteration with reversal of dysbiosis requires further longitudinal and more specific investigations.

As one of the most critical features on the earth's surface, coastal zone mandates high-quality extraction of its representative feature, the coastline. Prior methodologies primarily emphasize on edge and small-scale information. However, during large-scale image processing, misclassification might occur due to the difficulty in determining whether a local area belongs to the land or sea. To address this, we propose a deep learning-based multiscale coastline extraction algorithm in this study. It comprises a multiscale coastal zone dataset built upon a tile map service structure and a scene classification-based multiscale coastal zone classifier, employing quadtree decomposition to identify coastal zones from low to high levels. Contrasting with conventional semantic segmentation, the scene classification network, owing to its larger receptive field, can accurately discern land and sea. This accuracy is further enhanced by using quadtree decomposition to process images with lower resolution and larger coverage. The results suggest that our proposed method effectively eliminates confusing features, with the overall experimental classification accuracy attesting to the effectiveness of our approach, yielding a 6% improvement. Moreover, the screening process in this study significantly reduces the number of input samples for the segmentation network, thus boosting computational speed.

AbstractAn investigation was performed to analyze the liquid film distributions of sheet flow on the surface of a horizontal round tube in a falling film evaporator using the commercial computational fluid dynamic code Fluent 6.3.26. A two-dimensional multi-phase flow model was developed under adiabatic condition. The temporal variation of flowing process of sheet flow and the steady film thickness distribution in the circumferential direction were analyzed in detail. The main objective has focused on the effects of multiple factors on the film thickness distribution. It was found that the whole process of liquid film flowing along the horizontal tube surface includes the transient sub-process and steady-state sub-process, and the former can be divided into five stages to be analyzed. The obviously asymmetric distribution of film thickness, which is contradictory to the Nusselt theory, is captured by the simulation results. Multiple factors have effects on the film thickness distribution. The film thickness increases with the increase in film Reynolds number. The big inter-tube spacing is capable of inducing high momentum and increasing the impact velocity of liquid film on the top of the tube, which results in the thinner distribution of liquid film layer around the perimeter of the horizontal tube. The film thickness becomes thinner as tube diameter increases. The effect of tube diameter is minor and the further increment of tube diameter shows few values to the improvement of heat and mass transfer.

Exercise self-efficacy is a strong predictor of physical activity behavior. We explored correlates of change in exercise self-efficacy in a trial of tai chi in heart failure. Baseline walk test and fatigue were associated with change in self-efficacy. Improvements in self-efficacy were seen in tai chi group compared with control.

A modified Gauss-Markov model with weighted constraints was constructed by combining satellite altimeter and tide gauge records. Vertical motion rates of nine tide gauge stations around the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea are estimated. This is the first time systematic estimates have been derived in this region. Downward trends were seen at the six tide gauge stations located at Tanggu, Longkou, Laohutan, Bayuquan, Xiaochangshan, and Yantai; with vertical motion rates of −1.82±0.50, −1.65±0.46, −0.88±0.42, −0.58±0.62, −0.13±0.43, and −0.01±0.43 mm/yr, respectively. Upward trends were seen at the three tide gauge stations located at Qinhuangdao, Huludao and Chengshantou; with vertical motion rates of 1.12±0.46, 0.55±0.49 and 0.26±0.44 mm/yr, respectively. There was significant subsidence in Tanggu and Longkou, and a rising trend in Qinhuangdao. According to our results, the rate of sea level rise calculated from these tide gauge records can be improved using a more accurate measurement of the land elevation accounting for lifting or subsidence. The model derived can be used to estimate vertical motions of tide gauge stations, and can be widely applied to revise the benchmark levels of tide gauges.

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) testing is widely used to inspect and characterize defects in storage tank floors, pipelines and other structures. In this paper, magnetic flux leakage testing technology is applied to the horizontal product oil underground tank wall inspection. The artificial defects were prefabricated on the tank wall such as corrosion pits, grooving and other artificial defects to simulate the corrosion, cracks and other actual defects in actual working conditions. The experimental research of the mutual influence between magnetic flux leakage and defects’ parameters were carried out, such as the depth and width of cracks, and depth and diameter of corrosion pits. Then the relationship between the defect’s parameter and magnetic field amplitude was obtained. The experimental results showed that, whether corrosion or crack, the depth is a very important factor affecting the leakage magnetic field amplitude. Especially for crack, width, length and the inclination angle between crack and magnetic field had great influence on the detection of the cracks, and too small angle to lead to misjudgment and undetected of crack. Therefore, single direction inspection may lead to undetected in engineering practice.

The objective was to investigate the expression of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) family members in the mouse uterus during the estrous cycle by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunohistochemistry. Uterine samples from Swiss ICR mice were collected and dissected free of surrounding tissue. One uterine horn was snap frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately after collection and stored at −80 °C for RNA extraction, and the other was fixed in 40 mg/ml paraformaldehyde at room temperature for immunolocalization of BMP2 protein. Real-time PCR analysis showed that the expression level of Bmp2was significantly higher at proestrus than at estrus and metestrus (P<0.05). The relative abundance of Bmp4exhibited significant fluctuations, but there were no statistically significant differences between the expression levels of Bmp2and Bmp4(P>0.05). The expression levels of Bmpr1aand Bmpr2remained unchanged during estrous cycles. However, the level of Bmpr1bmRNA decreased significantly at estrus (P<0.05), increasing subsequently at metestrus. Furthermore, the level of Bmpr1bmRNA was significantly lower than those of Bmpr1aand Bmpr2mRNA at the corresponding stages (P<0.05). All three receptor-regulated Smads (R-Smads) detected were differentially expressed in the mouse uterus and the expression levels of Smad1and Smad5were significantly higher than that of Smad8(P<0.05). In addition, the expression level of Smad4did not change substantially throughout the estrous cycle. Immunohistochemical experiments revealed that BMP2 protein was differentially expressed and localized mainly in the uterine luminal and glandular epithelial cells throughout the estrous cycle. In conclusion, our results provide information about the variation in the mRNA levels of Bmp2and Bmp4and related components of the BMP signaling pathway. The data provide quantitative and useful information about the roles of endometrial BMP proposed and demonstrated by others, such as the degradation and remodeling of the endometrium.

In this paper, a novel metal structure that integrates double continuous Au films and double aligned gold (Au) non-close-packed ellipsoidal nanoparticle arrays is proposed. The optical features of this structure are simulated by using the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (3D-FDTD) method. Bimodal plasmonic resonances with the highest transmission up to 74% and 66% (corresponding to the short and long-wavelength, respectively) are achieved. This proposed structure with sub-wavelength size may provide fascinating applications in optoelectronic devices such as transparent conductors and conductive devices, slow light devices, highly sensitive sensors.

A novel plasmonic passband filter consisting of metal-insulator-metal perforated with an array of rectangular grooves and circular holes is proposed and demonstrated. The transmission property of the proposed structure is obtained by employing the finite difference time domain with perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary condition. The result reveals that a passband with high transmission can be achieved. And the transmission peak position can be efficiently tuned by changing the factors of the structure, such as the sizes of circular holes and grooves. The proposed filter has potential applications for integrated optoelectronic devices due to its miniaturized size.

We propose and theoretically study a novel plasmonic nanostructure composed of two malposed silver (Ag) triangular nanocylinder arrays by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The excitation of the localized surface plasmons (LSPs) of the metal triangular nanocylinders, and the strong interaction coupling between LSPs contribute to the enhanced transparency in the visible and near-in region (NIR). The transparency response in the proposed nanostructure is modified by changing the gap distances between two adjacent triangular nanocylinders, and the dielectric environments. The tunable enhanced optical transparency of the proposed nanostructure provides potential applications in sensors and plasmonic filters.

The underground oil tanks are usually ellipsoid shaped and horizontal placed, in order to inspect the underground oil tanks using MFL method, a magnetization structure contains three sub parts was designed for curvature plates, the impact by the uneven placement sensors was analyzed, a new channel independent calibration method was raised. The calibration method, as well as the digital signal processing method was programmed in the inspection software, then a motor drive walking device was designed, at last the inspection device was established. Through comparison of channel independent and identical calibration methods, the experiment result using channel independent calibration method has better precision of about 1/3 discovery rate.