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Mimetic enzymes are devised as alternates or supplements of natural enzymes in broad fields but regulating their activities in a switchable manner remains challenging. Herein, we proposed an enzymatic self-assembly/disassembly strategy to address this issue. A peptide molecule NapFFEYIH (YH) was rationally designed which, after self-assembling into nanofibers, lined up the histidine moieties to form active hydrolysis centers for mimicking hydrolase activity. Enzymatic dephosphorylation of NapF-FEYpIH (YpH) by alkaline phosphatase to yield YHalso turned “ON” the hydrolase activity. In turn, phosphorylation of YHby phosphokinase epidermal growth factor receptor to yield YpHdisassembled the nanofibers and thus turned the activity “OFF”. As such, the “ON”/“OFF” of the mimetic hydrolase activities could be regulated under physiological conditions through ALP/EGFR-mediated self-assembly/disassembly of histidine nanofibers. This work provides a feasible strategy for the on-demand fabrication of artificial enzymes with controllable and superior activities.

With the development of detection and identification technology, infrared stealth is of great value to realize anti-reconnaissance detection of military targets. At present, infrared stealth materials generally have deficiency, such as complex structure, inconvenient radiation regulation and cumbersome preparation steps, which greatly limit the practical application of infrared stealth materials. In view of the above deficiency of infrared stealth materials, we proposed a kind of multilayer film for infrared stealth using VO2thermochromism based on the temperature response mechanism of tuna to adjust its color, and through the intelligent reversible radiation regulation mechanism to meet the infrared stealth requirements of tanks in different actual scenes. The results show that when the temperature increases from 300 K to 373 K, the peak emissivity of the film decreases from 94% to 20% in the 8–14 µm band after structural optimization, which can realize the infrared stealth of the high temperature target in the 8–14 µm band. The average emissivity of the multilayer film for infrared stealth at 3–5 µm and 8–14 µm band can be reduced to 34% and 27% at 373 K, and the peak emissivity at 5–8 µm band can reach 65%, realizing dual-band infrared stealth in the 3–5 µm and 8–14 µm bands and heat dissipation in the 5–8 µm band. The multilayer film for infrared stealth based on VO2thermochromism designed by the authors can meet the characteristics of simple film structure, convenient radiation regulation and simple preparation.

For the tunnel construction, the RC central diaphragms take a long time to close and is not easy to reuse. These problems can be solved effectively if temporary steel structure supports are used instead of traditional concrete partition supports. Based on Xicheng Mountain tunnel project, this paper analyzes the ultimate bearing capacity of four types of steel structures by numerical simulation. The results show that it is feasible to apply prefabricated temporary steel support structure to tunnel construction. Prefabricated temporary steel support structure is fast installation and easy to reuse; the ultimate bearing capacity of the joint with diagonal braces is 40% higher than that of the joint without diagonal braces.

Selective absorptive nanofluid can pre-absorb certain sunlight wavelength that cannot be used by PV and transmits remaining sunlight to the surface of PV, which can decouple PV from the thermal receiver spatially. In order to improve the harvesting of electricity and high-temperature thermal nanofluid, it is important to design an optimal optical filter window (transmit sunlight with wavelengths of 732–1067 nm to the surface of the photovoltaic cell and absorb the remaining sunlight). However, designing optimal optical filter is facing following challenges: (1) inherently narrow selective absorptivity property of single nanoparticle; (2) simplified numerical calculation method calculating transmittance; (3) ignoring the shape of the nanoparticle. In this study, the idea of using multiple nanoparticles coupling effect to design an optical filter is proposed, which can superimpose the narrow absorption bandwidth of different nanoparticles to obtain a wide absorption bandwidth of the whole system. In addition, an improved transmission method considering light-matter interaction at air/vessel and liquid/vessel interfaces is adopted to compute the transmittance. The results calculated by improved transmission method are more accurate than widely used traditional Lambert-Beer law, which is verified by experimental test. Furthermore, the effect of nanoparticle shape on spectral transmittance is also investigated, which shows that spiny Ag can approximately extend absorbance from 400 nm to 600 nm compared to nanosphere silver. Finally, the results show that optical filter efficiency of nanofluids with multiple nanoparticles coupling (Ag, spiny Ag, ZnO, ITO) can reached up to 35%.

The splitting of carbon dioxide through the two-step solar thermochemical cycle presents enormous potential, for it holds the dual functionalities of solar fuel production and carbon-based energy recovery. However, the industrialization of this technology is impeded by two critical factors: The absence of fully developed oxygen carriers and advanced reaction devices that deliver exceptional performance. In order to identify a potentially effective oxygen carrier, 50 wt% NiO-modified CoFe2O4is selected as the active component and characterized by means of thermogravimetry, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy, so as to clarify its oxygen exchange capacity, micromorphology and elemental composition in high-temperature thermochemical cycles. Further, nanoparticle-coated foam-structured materials are prepared in combination with SiC ceramic foam for experimental testing in a high-flux solar reactor. The results indicate that a peak CO yield of 1.96 mL min−1g−1can be gained in a 1500–1250 K preliminary test, demonstrating the application potential of the material. In contrast to conventional redox materials, the CO2activity of the materials synthesized in this study exhibits an enhancement with rising oxidation temperature. It means that isothermal cycles can potentially achieve higher conversion and fuel yield than non-isothermal cycles, while simultaneously reducing the amount of irreversible heat loss during high-temperature cycling. Although the estimated steady-state thermal efficiency of the solar reactor can reach up to 42%, further optimization of the reactor design is necessary to enhance energy conversion efficiency, as it is partially limited by the dimensions of the reaction chamber.

The highly reflective solar radiation of passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) increases heating energy consumption in the cold winter. Inspired by the temperature-adaptive skin color of chameleon, we efficiently combine temperature-adaptive solar absorption and PDRC technology to achieve “warm in winter and cool in summer”. The temperature-adaptive radiative cooling coating (TARCC) with color variability is designed and fabricated, achieving 41% visible light regulation capability. Comprehensive seasonal outdoor tests confirm the reliability of the TARCC: in summer, the TARCC exhibits high solar reflectance (∼93%) and atmospheric transmission window emittance (∼94%), resulting in a 6.5 K subambient temperature. In the winter, the TARCC’s dark color strongly absorbs solar radiation, resulting in a 4.3 K temperature rise. Compared with PDRC coatings, the TARCC can save up to 20% of annual energy in midlatitude regions and increase suitable human hours by 55%. With its low cost, easy preparation, and simple construction, the TARCC shows promise for achieving sustainable and comfortable indoor environments.

The ubiquitin-proteasome system governs a wide spectrum of cellular events and offers therapeutic opportunities for pharmacological intervention in cancer treatment. Renal clear cell carcinoma represents the predominant histological subtype and accounts for the majority of cancer death related to kidney malignancies. Through a systematic survey in the association of human ubiquitin-specific proteases with patient prognosis of renal clear cell carcinoma and subsequent phenotypic validation, we uncovered the tumor-promoting role of USP35. Biochemical characterizations confirmed the stabilizing effects of USP35 towards multiple members of the IAP family in an enzymatic activity-dependent manner. USP35 silencing led to reduced expression levels of IAP proteins, which were accompanied with increased cellular apoptosis. Further transcriptomic analysis revealed that USP35 knockdown affected the expression levels of NRF2 downstream transcripts, which were conferred by compromised NRF2 abundance. USP35 functions to maintain NRF2 levels by catalyzing its deubiquitylation and thus antagonizing degradation. NRF2 reduction imposed by USP35 silencing rendered renal clear cell carcinoma cells increased sensitivity to ferroptosis induction. Finally, induced USP35 knockdown markedly attenuated xenograft formation of renal clear cell carcinoma in nude mice. Hence, our findings reveal a number of USP35 substrates and uncover the protecting roles of USP35 against both apoptosis and ferroptosis in renal clear cell carcinoma.

Perovskite solar cell has the advantages of low dosage of toxic materials, flexibility and consumer-oriented, which has significant development potential. Nanophotonic structure shows superior performance to common geometrical structure in controlling light transfer, which can capture and trap light, and thus improving the light absorption while reducing its thickness. In this work, novel wavelength-sized hierarchical nanohole is devised toward maximum broadband light absorption. The hierarchical nanohole can excite quasi-guided modes to improve light absorption, the electric field distribution is shown and demonstrated. The proposed perovskite solar cells with hierarchical nanohole outperform a planar solar cell by 17% in JSCand outperform a perovskite solar cell with one nanohole reference by 6.7% in JSC. In addition, the effects of hierarchical nanohole geometry on performance of perovskite solar cell are investigated. Overall, this work provides a new design for the ultra-thin perovskite solar cell with high energy conversion efficiency.

Background: The purpose of this study was to introduce an “eight-step modularized procedure (M-RET)” for trans-subxiphoid robotic extended thymectomy for patients with myasthenia gravis (MG). Its safety and feasibility were further verified in this study. Materials and methods: This retrospective study included 87 consecutive MG patients who underwent trans-subxiphoid robotic extended thymectomy at our institution between September 2016 and August 2021. According to different resection models, patients were divided into two groups: traditional trans-subxiphoid robotic extended thymectomy group (T-RET group) and eight-step modularized technique group (M-RET group). Baseline demographic characteristics and operation-related parameters were collected and compared between the two groups. Results: There were 41 (47.1%) patients in the M-RET group and 46 (52.9%) patients in the T-RET group. The M-RET group resected a greater amount of mediastinal adipose tissues and required more dissection time (median and interquartile range: 135.0, 125.0 to 164.0 v.120.0, 105.0 to 153.8, P= 0.006) compared with the T-RET group. There were no statistically significant differences in terms of the intraoperative blood loss, duration of chest drainage, length of hospital stay, and postoperative complications between the two groups. There was no mortality or conversion in each of the two groups and all patients recovered well upon discharge. Conclusion: The eight-step modularized technique of trans-subxiphoid robotic extended thymectomy was verified to be a safe, effective, radical procedure, which offers unique superiority over ectopic thymic tissue resection. Graphical abstract:

This paper proposes a navigation situation assessment method for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) in a cooperative hunting environment. By virtue of the repulsion function expressed in the artificial potential field, the navigation situation of hunting ASVs and target ASVs is firstly described. And the hunting situation is also constructed to describe the cooperative hunting. Based on the navigation situation and the hunting situation, a navigation situation assessment method for cooperative hunting of multiple ASVs is designed, where the number of hunting vehicles and the hunting radius can be successfully computed. Simulation results show that this proposed situation assessment method can give an optimised formation pattern and provide an effective reference for cooperative hunting of ASVs.

AbstractThe coating technology of tungsten on carbon/carbon (C/C) composite is an important issue for fusion experimental device components. In this study, an interlayer of chemical vapor deposition SiC between tungsten coating and C/C substrate was used. A tungsten coating 320 μm thick was successfully deposited on SiC-coated C/C substrate by inert plasma spray. The microstructure, roughness, and constituents of W-SiC-C/C composite materials were investigated using a scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope, X-ray diffractometer, and atomic force microscope. The tungsten coating structure that may prevent crack propagation essentially consisted of a stacked lamellar columnar microstructure and particle cluster microstructures. The interfaces between the tungsten and SiC coating and between the SiC coating and the C/C were clear. The SiC interlayer acts as a barrier for carbon and tungsten diffusion. The thermal conductivity of the system was calculated by the mixture rule, which was 47.33 to 82.35 W/(m·K). The thermal expansion coefficient of W-SiC-C/C was negative at room temperature and up to 1.5 × 10−6/K for elevated temperature.

As an efficient natural selection nutrient transport system, biomimetic leaf hierarchical porous structure has unique advantages in material transportation and energy transfer. Biomimetic leaf hierarchical porous structure has been widely used in solar thermochemical reactions, photocatalysis, and energy storage. To improve the thermal efficiency and reduce the power consumption, the authors introduce the idea of bionic leaf hierarchical porous structure packed-bed latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) system. Under the same porosity, the diameter of the PCM capsules is designed to change along the flow direction to optimize the thermal performance. The effects of velocity on temperature distribution, pressure drop, liquid fraction, and thermal storage capacity of the conventional uniform model and bionic leaf hierarchical porous model are analyzed. The results show that the bionic leaf hierarchical porous structure can thin the thickness of the thermocline, reduce the pressure drop, increase the heat transfer area, and improve the thermal response of the packed-bed compared with the conventional uniform model. The maximum increases of liquid fraction and completion rate are 36.6% and 20.3% with pressure drop reduction of 25 Pa, respectively. The maximum decrease of the above-melting point (MP) thermocline is 51.7% as well. These results provide suggestions to optimize the packed-bed LHTES system and improve its thermal performance under practical conditions.

Purpose: A combination of highly conductive porous media and nanofluids is an efficient way for improving thermal performance of relevant applications. For precisely predicting the flow and thermal transport of nanofluids in porous media, the purpose of this paper is to explore the inter-phase coupling numerical methods. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method, this study combines the convective flow, non-equilibrium thermal transport and phase interactions of nanofluids in porous matrix and proposes a new multi-phase LB model. The micro-scale momentum and heat interactions are especially analyzed for nanoparticles, base fluid and solid matrix. A set of three-phase LB equations for the flow/thermal coupling of base fluid, nanoparticles and solid matrix is established. Findings: Distributions of nanoparticles, velocities for nanoparticles and the base fluid, temperatures for three phases and interaction forces are analyzed in detail. Influences of parameters on the nanofluid convection in the porous matrix are examined. Thermal resistance of nanofluid convective transport in porous structures are comprehensively discussed with the models of multi-phases. Results show that the Rayleigh number and the Darcy number have significant influences on the convective characteristics. The result with the three-phase model is mildly larger than that with the local thermal non-equilibrium model. Originality/value: This paper first creates the multi-phase theoretical model for the complex coupling process of nanofluids in porous structures, which is useful for researchers and technicians in fields of thermal science and computational fluid dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bionics provides a positive and beneficial impact on the development of various materials and systems, which has been widely used in energy storage, heat transfer enhancement, and solar thermochemical reactions. In this paper, the idea of heat storage unit with biomimetic alveoli structure is proposed and introduced to increase the heat transfer area and improve the thermal performance of the packed-bed latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) system. The effects of heat storage unit structure on temperature distribution, liquid fraction, thermal storage capacity, and other performance indexes of the conventional model and biomimetic model are analyzed. The numerical results indicate that the biomimetic alveoli structure can improve the thermal response of heat storage unit, increase the specific surface area, and achieve a faster heat storage process of the packed-bed compared with the conventional structure. Among various existing models, the double-cell model has a significant improvement. Compared with the conventional model, the maximum increase of liquid fraction and charging efficiency are 9.8% and 6.4%, respectively. This study can provide references to optimize packed-bed LHTES and improve its thermal performance under practical conditions.

Understanding of the kinase-guided signaling pathways requires the identification and analysis of phosphosites. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based phosphoproteomics is a rapid and highly sensitive approach for high-throughput identification of phosphosites. However, phosphosite determination from MS data with a single protease is more likely to be ambiguous, regardless of the strategy used for phosphopeptide detection. Here, we explored the application of LysargiNase, which was recently reported to mirror trypsin in specificity to cleave arginine and lysine residues exclusively at the N-terminal side. We found that the combination of trypsin and LysargiNase mirror spectra resulted in higher ion coverage in MS2spectra. The median ion coverage values of b ions in tryptic spectra, LysargiNase spectra, and combined spectra are 8.3, 20.5, and 25.0%, respectively. As for the median ion coverage of y ions, these values are 27.8, 10.0, and 32.3%. Higher ion coverage was helpful to pinpoint the precise phosphosites. Compared to trypsin alone, the combined use of trypsin and LysargiNase mirror spectra enabled 67.1% of mirror spectra with unreliable scores (confidence score <0.75) to become reliable (confidence score ≥ 0.75). Meanwhile, all of the mirror peptide-spectrum matches (PSMs) with multiple potential phosphosites from trypsin and LysargiNase digests could be assigned one precise phosphosite after applying the combination strategy. Besides, the combination strategy could identify more novel phosphosites than the union strategy did. We synthesized three phosphopeptides corresponding to the three novel phosphosites and validated the reliability of the identification. Taken together, our data demonstrated the distinctive potential of the combination strategy presented here for unambiguous phosphosite localization (Project accession PXD011178).

The voids from less ordered stack rather than in-plane defects and interlayer galleries were confirmed to contribute to the large water permeability of membranes assembled from delaminated MXene nanoflakes. The voids can be controlled viadeposit rate of MXene nanoflakes.

Ubiquitin ligases (E3s) serve as key regulators for the ubiquitylation-mediated pathway. The identification of the corresponding relationship between E3 and its substrates is challenging but required for understanding the regulatory network of ubiquitylation. The low abundance of ubiquitinated conjugates and high redundancy of E3 substrate regulation made the screening pretty hard. Herein, we combined SILAC-based quantitative proteomics with two contrary genetic methods (overexpression and knockout) in theory for E3 (Hrt3, the F-box subunit of the SCF complex) substrate screening. The knockout method could not overcome the constraint mentioned above, while the overexpression approach turned on the access to the potential substrates of E3. Subsequently, we obtained 77 candidates, which are involved in many critical biological processes and need to be verified in the future. Within these candidates, we confirmed the relationship between one of the candidates Nce103 and Hrt3 and linked Hrt3 with oxygen sensitivity and oxidative stress response in which Nce103 took part as well. This research is also beneficial for understanding the impact of oxygen supply on regulation of yeast growth through the ubiquitination of Nce103.

Mass spectrometry (MS)-based identification of ubiquitinated sites requires trypsin digestion prior to MS analysis, and a signature peptide was produced with a diglycine residue attached to the ubiquitinated lysine (K-ε-GG peptide). However, the missed cleavage of modified lysines by trypsin results in modified peptides with increased length and charge, whose detection by MS analysis is suppressed by the vast majority of internally unmodified peptides. LysargiNase, the mirrored trypsin, is reported to cleave before lysine and arginine residues and to be favorable for the identification of methylation and phosphorylation, but its digestive characteristics related to ubiquitination are unclear. Herein, we tested the capacity of the in-house developed acetylated LysargiNase (Ac-LysargiNase) with high activity and stability, for cleaving ubiquitinated sites in both the seven types of ubiquitin chains and their corresponding K-ε-GG peptides. Interestingly, Ac-LysargiNase could efficiently cleave the K63-linked chain but had little effect on the other types of chains. Additionally, Ac-LysargiNase had higher exopeptidase activity than trypsin. Utilizing these features of the paired mirror proteases, a workflow of trypsin and Ac-LysargiNase tandem digestion was developed for the identification of ubiquitinated proteins. Through this method, the charge states and ionization capacity of the unmodified peptides were efficiently reduced, and the identification of modified sites was consequently increased by 30% to 50%. Strikingly, approximately 15% of the modified sites were cleaved by Ac-LysargiNase, resulting in shorter K-ε-GG peptides for better identification. The enzyme Ac-LysargiNase is expected to serve as an option for increasing the efficiency of modified site identification in ubiquitome research.

The non-uniformity temperature field of direct solar thermochemical reactors severely decreases the energy conversion efficiency of solar-to-fuel. Inspired by the physical mechanism by which the human ear can collect more sound waves, associating the similarity between sound waves and electromagnetic waves in the fluctuation equation as well as the propagation law, with the considering of the minimum Gibbs free energy principle, a biomimetic human ear solar thermochemical reactor is initially proposed to improve the energy conversion efficiency of solar-driven steam methane reforming. A numerical analytical model of solar thermochemical reaction is developed by Monte Carlo raying method combined with thermochemical reaction kinetics. The results show that the biomimetic human ear solar thermochemical reactor can effectively regulate the radiative intensity and temperature field to match the minimum Gibbs free energy principle, which in turn can obtain the methane conversion efficiency of 91.18 % and energy storage efficiency of 60.42 %, while the maximum improvement of solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency and hydrogen generation rate can reach 6.86 % and 20.67 % respectively.

ABSTRACTThe present study revealed the role of earthworm-effective microorganisms (EM) in converting sewage sludge and cassava dregs into a valuable product. Sewage sludge was toxic to earthworm, therefore it was mixed with cassava dregs in 80:20 proportions (dry weight). Treatments included mixed substrate inoculated versus not inoculated with EM and treated with or without earthworms. The pH, total organic carbon, total nitrogen, and C:N ratio decreased from the initial measurements in the range of 17.43–18.46%, 25.48–33.82%, 19.60–25.37%, and 6.68–14.05% respectively; but electrical conductivity and available phosphorus increased in the range of 113.47–158.16% and 42.42–57.58%, respectively. In addition, they interactively increased total phosphorus from 19.84–63.01% and potassium from 16.41–50.78%, and decreased the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons content of substrate from 21.17% to 32.14% with an increase in earthworms from 51.71 to 57.69, respectively. Earthworms and EM could be used together as an efficient method for co-composting sewage sludge plus cassava dregs in the tropics. This could be expected to result in stabilization of waste, increase in nutrients, and reduction of pollutant content.Implications: The first reports of interaction of earthworms and effective microorganisms in the treatment of sewage sludge and cassava dregs in the tropics. Co-composting was an efficient technology for treating sewage sludge and cassava dregs at the same time, in the tropics. The survival rate of the earthworms both> 95%, the highest number of cocoons (640.33) and hatchlings (4694.33) both in EW+EM (Earthworms added and EM inoculated) treatment. Earthworms and EM (Only EM inoculated) interactively increased total phosphorus and potassium content, and decreased the PAH content of substrate with increase in earthworms.

This paper establishes an evaluation index system for the management level of water conservancy construction supervision units. For the problem that the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) cannot provide more reasonable weights, the idea of variable weight processing is introduced. Variable weight processing is based on the AHP to determine the constant weight vector of evaluation indexes. This paper studies the evaluation of the management level of water conservancy construction supervision units based on the variable weight fuzzy theory, and finally proves the rationality and effectiveness of the method with examples.

Water is one of the essential resources to production and living. Agriculture, industry, and living are considered as the direct water consumption. This paper employs the concept of marginal product value to estimate the water consumption marginal benefits in Henan Province. We use data on agricultural water consumption, industrial water consumption, and domestic water consumption of 18 cities in Henan Province surveyed from 2006 to 2013 and considered the Cobb–Douglas production function. The results showed that, during the study period, except for the marginal benefit of agriculture in high developed area, the industrial and domestic water use increased, and the industrial and domestic water use benefits were much higher than agricultural. At the same time, the benefit of the developed area was higher than the developing area. The benefits of agricultural water consumption and industrial water consumption in high developed area have made great improvements gradually, while benefits in low developed area have made small changes; but the benefits of domestic water consumption presented the opposite trend. For the moment, the water consumption marginal benefit still has climbing space. The results are needed for determining the ways in which scarce water resources could be assigned to different areas and sectors.

Ni–Co/WC composite coating was fabricated on ZG45 steel substrate through vacuum sintering cladding technology. Its microstructure, composition, and three-point bending behavior were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, X-ray diffraction, and mechanical testing. Results show that the distribution of WC particles presents a 3D net-like shape. A metallurgical fusion area is observed at the interface between the composite coating and the substrate. The entire coating consists of a composite coating area, a transition area, and a diffusion fusion area. The main phases of the coating are WC, Cr7C3, Cr23C6, Ni3Si, FeNi3, and Ni–Co solid solution. Three-point bending results reveal that the softness coefficient of the whole sample when the composite coating was in a compressive stress state was larger than that when the composite coating was in a tensile stress state. The bending strength of the sample is 520 MPa when the composite coating is in a compressive stress state. This value is 66 % higher than that when the composite coating is located at the bottom. The cracks simultaneously extend to the substrate and interface when the composite coating was in a compressive stress state and to the substrate when the composite coating was in a tensile stress state. The fracture of the composite area is brittle, and the substrate fracture is ductile.

In recent years, the frequency and intensity of drought in China are on the rise, and most of the major grain producing provinces are situated in the drought-prone areas, so agricultural drought has become one of the main factors restricting the agricultural production in China. In this paper, with Henan province being taken as the research area, the change trend of agricultural drought area of Henan province was analyzed, and the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of Henan province were evaluated based on the regional agricultural drought index. The research showed that the inter-annual change of agricultural drought index showed a decreasing trend year by year (tendency rate was –0.12/10a), indicating that the drought degree decreased year by year. The east and south of North Henan, east and north of Eastern Henan, and north and east of Central Henan were mild drought-prone areas; the east of Western Henan, west and north of North Henan, and west of Central Henan were moderate drought-prone areas; the west of North Henan, west of Western Henan, and north of South Henan were severe drought-prone areas. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creative commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

It is an efficient way of dynamic characteristics and driving factors analyses of groundwater system to make clear of groundwater cycle and its influence degree by anthropogenic activities. First of all, the temporal and spatial variation law of groundwater level was analyzed based on the measured data of groundwater level in People’s Victory Canal Irrigation District in 1993–2013; then, the influence degree of each influencing factor on the groundwater level was quantified by using correlation analysis; finally, the dominant driving factors influencing the evolution of groundwater level were determined using grey relational analysis. The results show that the groundwater level decreased with the decrease of precipitation, and decreased with the decrease of irrigation water from the Canal, and decreased with the increase of groundwater exploitation. Human activities played a dominant role in the variation of groundwater, and the irrigation water of wells as well as the mining of groundwater for living and industrial use was the dominant driving factors of the variation of groundwater level in the study area.

Evaluation of lake ecological security is important for sustainable management of lakes and regional ecological environment construction. Dongting Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in China; its ecological security directly threatens the ecological security of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In this paper, the ecological security evaluation index system of the Dongting Lake is constructed, including target layer (first order), criterion layer (second order), and index layer (last order). The target layer is the ecological security of the lake, the standard layer includes five indicators, and the index layer includes 11 indicators. The comprehensive evaluation method is used to evaluate the ecological security of the Dongting Lake by assessing all indexes of every layer. The weight of each index is determined by analytic hierarchy process. The evaluation results showed that the ecological security score of the Dongting Lake is 58 points, belonging to sub-security level. At present, the Dongting Lake has problems of low ecological water level, reduced lake surface area, eutrophication, and reduced lake storage capacity. Therefore, in future, the industrial and domestic pollution sources should be controlled, and the carrying capacity of water environment should be improved.

Jet quenching is a powerful tool to study medium properties of relativistic heavy ion collisions via jet-medium interactions. Jet quenching studies have so far focused on high transverse momentum (pT) particle suppression. Jet shapes at low to intermediate pT, containing rich information on jet-medium interactions, have been less explored. In this talk, I will present a recent study, using a multiphase transport (AMPT) model, of effects on particle correlations from collisional energy loss of partons traversing the heavy ion medium. We follow the parton cascading history so that medium partons (associated particles) which have interacted with a high-pTprobe parton (hard probe trigger particle) can be uniquely identified and hence no subtraction of combinatorial background is needed. Results on particle correlation shapes will be presented as a function of pT, the number of parton-parton collisions suffered by the probe parton, and the azimuthal angle of the probe parton relative to the reaction plane. These results reveal pathlength dependence of collisional energy loss.

One important aspect in many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is time synchronisation. There are still some problems to be solved for time synchronisation, such as error and imbalance of time synchronisation precision, causing the fluctuations among nodes' time and being even worse for those with a larger number of hops, producing unstable communication links for the network. In this paper, we introduce an extensible time synchronisation protocol (ETSP) for WSNs and nodes get synchronised through time stamps from the root node directly or indirectly. We improve the least square method for linear regression to get better performance of time drift and spread the time information from the root node to the whole network. The proposed method reduces fluctuations in terms of time among nodes especially for the nodes far from the root, enhancing stability in large-scale networks. Simulation and experimental results show good performance of our method.

Neoadjuvant Rectal Score (NAR score) is a short-term endpoint developed for clinical trials involving rectal cancer. It can be used as an early evaluation of neoadjuvant treatment response. In this study, we aim to develop a machine learning model based on radiomics features extracted from T2w magnetic resonance images (MRI) obtained pre-operatively to predict for two different binary outcomes, NAR>16 and NAR<8.

In the methane dry reforming driven by concentrated solar energy, the challenges that restrict efficient solar energy conversion mainly include regulating the solar energy to match the solar thermochemical reaction on-demand, optimization of catalytic carrier structures and preparation of high-performance catalysts. The mismatch between energy and flow in a thermochemical reactor has important consequences for solar energy storage efficiency. To improve the solar thermochemical performance, the idea of using a biomimetic bone porous structure as a catalyst carrier is proposed to achieve flow and energy matching in a thermochemical reactor. The methods of Monte Carlo ray tracing and user-defined functions are used to establish thermochemical analysis model. A solar heat flux experimental system is built to determine the real concentrated solar heat flux. The effects of different pore size combinations and Gaussian-like inlet flow on the methane reforming performance are studied. The experiment system obtains a uniform light spot of 40 mm at Pe = 7.0 kW with the peak flux density of 3086.73 kW/m2. The results indicate that by the introduction of a biomimetic bone porous structure to optimize flow and energy matching, the energy storage efficiency and methane conversion rate can be improved by 2.17 % and 8.97 %, respectively. This research provides a novel approach for efficient solar energy conversion and storage in solar thermochemical reactor.

Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) overexpression induces several disorder symptoms in nerve systems, and therefore long-term tracing of FAAH activity in vivois of high importance but remains challenging. Current bioluminescence (BL) methods are limited in detecting FAAH activity within 5 h. Herein, by rational design of a latent BL probe (d-Cys-Lys-CBT)2(1), we developed a “smart” method of intracellular reduction-controlled self-assembly and FAAH-directed disassembly of its cyclic d-luciferin-based nanoparticles (i.e., 1-NPs) for persistent BL imaging of FAAH activity in vitro, in cells, and in vivo. Using aminoluciferin methyl amide (AMA), Lys-amino-d-luciferin (Lys-Luc), and amino-d-luciferin (NH2-Luc) as control BL probes, we validated that the persistent BL of 1from luciferase-expressing cells or tumors was controlled by the activity of intracellular FAAH. With the property of long-term tracing of FAAH activity in vivoof 1, we envision that our BL precursor 1could probably be applied for in vivoscreening of FAAH inhibitors and the diagnosis of their related diseases (or disorders) in the future.

The propositions of bionics have led to the evolution of engineering technologies, such as solar energy utilization and thermal energy storage. Inspired by the idea of the natural calabash structure concept, the present study designed and proposed the bionic-calabash-shaped capsule to enhance the thermal performance of phase change material (PCM) capsules used in thermal energy storage (TES). The melting properties and flow characteristics of three capsules with different shapes were investigated numerically and experimentally. A visualized experimental system was established to observe the melting front of the bionic-calabash-shaped capsule during the constrained melting process. Experimental and numerical results indicated that the throat of bionic-calabash encapsulation accelerated the constrained melting process, and the constrained melting time of bionic-calabash-shaped capsules was reduced by 18.2% compared to that of the sphere capsule. The drag coefficient of the novel structure capsule was 34.2% lower than that of the spherical capsule. The bionic-calabash-shaped capsule, with geometric parameters of L/R = 1.53 and L/r = 2.53, was inferred to be the optimal structure for heat storage based on the optimization analysis of the thermal behavior and flow peculiarities.

As a nature production the lightweight honeycomb is used as a fin to increase the contact area with the PCM and improve its overall thermal conductivity. In this paper the effects of different honeycomb core shapes, sizes, and arrangements on melting under natural convection were investigated to determine the optimal honeycomb cell parameters. In this study, transient simulations based on VOF and enthalpy-porosity methods are developed, and the results show that compared with heat conduction, the melting time under natural convection conditions can be reduced. By analyzing different shapes, it is discovered that the melting effects of triangles, trapezoids, rectangles, and rhombuses are better than that of hexagons, the triangular melting time is reduced by 23.1%. The orthogonal experiments show that the ranking order of the effects on melting time and natural convection is Ra > Shape > LHR. Furthermore, the optimal honeycomb hole core parameters are obtained from the analysis of a single factor. Compared with the hexagonal honeycomb fin, a battery's PCM with an optimal triangular honeycomb fin under natural convection exhibits a 23.3% increase in terms of temperature decrease.

Improving the growth and immune responses are important to enhance the production efficiency of cultured juvenile sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. Here, 300 sea cucumbers (2.31 ± 0.01 g) were fed artificial diets with four concentrations of dietary chromium picolinate (Cr-Pic) supplementation (0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 mg/kg) for 56 days. The growth performance, digestive enzyme activity (lipase, amylase and pepsin), expressions of growth-related genes (MAPK-7and c-myc), and immune and antioxidant capacity were subsequently assessed. The present study found that final body weight, body weight gain and specific growth rate first increased and then declined with the increase of dietary Cr-Pic supplementation, while the highest values were observed in group 0.6 mg/kg. Consistently, significantly greater feed intake and significantly lower feed conversion ratio occurred in group 0.6 mg/kg than those in control group. Significantly better activities of lipase and amylase, and significantly higher expressions of genes MAPK-7and c-mycwere detected in group 0.6 mg/kg than those in control group. These results suggest that dietary Cr-Pic supplementation greatly improves the food utilization and expressions of growth-related genes, which consequently promotes the growth of sea cucumbers. Further, the activities of immune enzymes (alkaline phosphatase and lysozyme) and antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity) in group 0.6 mg/kg were all significantly higher than those in control group. This indicates that dietary Cr-Pic supplementation significantly facilitates the immune and antioxidant capacity of sea cucumbers. In conclusion, we suggest dietary Cr-Pic supplementation with 0.6 mg/kg is the optimal level contributing to the growth and non-specific immune responses in the juvenile sea cucumber.

Selectively inducing lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP) is a promising strategy for cancer therapy. But integrating alkaline phosphatase (ALP)‐instructed self‐assembly and lysosome‐targeting to induce LMP for selective killing of cancer cells was not reported. Herein, a pyrene‐peptide conjugate Py‐Phe‐Phe‐Glu‐Tyr(H2PO3)‐Gly‐lyso (Py‐Yp‐Lyso) is rationally designed and demonstrated for its lysosome‐targeting cytotoxicity on cancer cells, together with its pyrene (Py) excimer fluorescence turning “on” at 480 nm. In vitro results showed that, Py‐Yp‐Lyso is efficiently dephosphorylated by ALP to yield Py‐Phe‐Phe‐Glu‐Tyr‐Gly‐lyso (Py‐Y‐Lyso) which self‐assembles into nanofibers. Cell experiments verified that, after being taken up by HeLa cells, the excimer fluorescence of Py‐Yp‐Lyso assemblies has turned “on” and the assemblies specifically target the lysosomes, inducing LMP and ultimate cancer cell death. In vivo experiments indicated that Py‐Yp‐Lyso has the highest inhibition effect on HeLa tumors among the four compounds studied. This is anticipated for applying Py‐Yp‐Lyso to treat cancers in the clinic in the future. A pyrene‐peptide conjugate Py‐Phe‐Phe‐Glu‐Tyr(H2PO3)‐Gly‐lyso (Py‐Yp‐Lyso) is designed for lysosome‐targeting cytotoxicity on cancer cells, together with its pyrene excimer fluorescence turning “on” at 480 nm.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), used in clinical practice, is offered to couples that may suffer from a monogenetic disorder, chromosome aneuploidy, or X-linked disease. However, blastomere biopsy, as an indispensable manipulation during the PGD procedure has not been assessed for its long term health implications. Using a mouse model, we investigated the effect of blastomere biopsy of in vitro cultured four-cell embryos on preimplantation development efficiency, postnatal growth, and physiological and behavioral activity compared with control, non-biopsied embryos. The mice generated after blastomere biopsy showed weight increase and some memory decline compared with the control group. Further protein expression profiles in adult brains were analyzed by a proteomics approach. A total of 36 proteins were identified with significant differences between the biopsied and control groups, and the alterations in expression of most of these proteins have been associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore hypomyelination of the nerve fibers was observed in the brains of mice in the biopsied group. This study suggested that the nervous system may be sensitive to blastomere biopsy procedures and indicated an increased relative risk of neurodegenerative disorders in the offspring generated following blastomere biopsy. Thus, more studies should be performed to address the possible adverse effects of blastomere biopsy on the development of offspring, and the overall safety of PGD technology should be more rigorously assessed.

Daytime radiative cooling is an energy-free pathway to achieve cooling performance. Current radiative cooling materials with periodic photonic structures are facing a huge challenge in terms of scale expansion owing to complex preparation technology and high cost. Herein, we proposed the idea of using biomimetic wrinkle structure combined with optimized particles to achieve the efficient optical property regulation of both the solar band and “atmospheric window” band. On this basis, a large-scale radiative cooling coating with the biomimetic structure of human skin natural wrinkle, comprising high concentrations of BaSO4and SiO2particles, was demonstrated. The coating with a thickness of ~100 µm reflected ~95% of solar irradiance, and the emissivity in the “atmospheric window” band was ~96%. At noontime (11:00–13:00), in a populous area located at sea level, the average effective cooling power of ~89.6 W/m2was recorded, and the maximum sub-ambient temperature drop can reach 8.1 °C. An outdoor-building test conducted over a year showed that the maximum average indoor air temperature of the building painted with the coating was reduced by 6.2 °C and the maximum power-saving rate of air-conditioning exceeded 50%. Our work provided a new idea for designing, fabrication, and application of high-performance radiative cooling materials.

Charged hadrons (0.15 &lt; p_⊥ &lt; 4 GeV/c) associated with a large p_⊥ trigger particle (4 &lt; p^trig_⊥ &lt; 6 GeV/c) are statistically reconstructed in the large acceptance STAR TPC for p+p and Au+Au collisions at _⊥ of these hadrons from p+p to central Au+Au collisions is observed. The away-side distribution is found to be significantly softened in central Au+Au with respect to p+p collisions. The results are consistent with modification of jets in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC.

It is observed that K⁻/π in A + A and possibly p + p and &barp; + p collisions follows interesting systematics in ω, the pion transverse energy per unit of rapidity and transverse overlap area. The systematics show a linear increase of K⁻/π with ω in the AGS and SPS energy regime and a saturation at RHIC energy. The systematics indicate that ω might be the relevant variable underlying K⁻/π. At high energy, the ω variable is related to the gluon saturation scale in high density QCD, and perhaps to the initial energy density in the Bjorken picture.

Solar−coal hybrid power generation (SCHPG) system is one of the interesting solutions for solar power generation. This research aims to find a more viable integration mechanism of solar energy into a coal‐fired thermal power plant in terms of techno‐economic and ecology perspective. Performance of the 300 MW SCHPG system in the nominal and part‐load condition is analyzed under three different integration mechanisms. Numerical simulation of 300 MW SCHPG system is investigated under four different cases using a thermal balance approach. Operation modes of fuel‐saving (FS) and power‐boosting (PB) are considered for each case. Among the proposed cases, Case 4 is obtained as a good operation performance, which is recommended as the main case. The solar energy in Case 4 is used for evaporating feedwater and steam superheating, and steam reheating. Results show that the optimal aperture area of the heliostat solar field is 330 330 m2, and the minimum levelized cost of electricity is 0.1847 USD kWh−1. In Case 4, thermal efficiency is increased by 7.19% with standard coal consumption reduced by 45.3 g kWh−1compared to a reference power plant. In the SCHPG system, coal consumption is reduced by 26.8 tons h−1in FS mode, whereas power output is increased 30 MW h−1in PB mode. Integrating a solar tower concentrating solar power (CSP) technology into a conventional thermal power plant is a promising way for ecological power generation with coal consumption and pollutant emissions reduction in near and midterm.

Antibody‐based medicines and nanomedicines are very promising for cancer therapy due to the high specificity and efficacy of antibodies. However, antibody‐drug conjugates and antibody‐modified nanomaterials frequently suffer from low drug loading and loss of functions due to the covalent modification of the antibody. A novel and versatile strategy to prepare supramolecular nanomaterials by the coassembly of an affibody (antiHER2) and drug‐peptide amphiphiles is reported here. During the enzyme‐instructed self‐assembly process, the drug‐peptide amphiphile can coassemble with the affibody, resulting in supramolecular nanofibers in hydrogels. The drug loading in the supramolecular nanofibers is high (>30 wt%), and the stability of antiHER2 is significantly improved in the nanofibers at 37 °C (>15 d in vitro). The supramolecular nanofibers exhibit high affinity for HER2+ cancer cells and can be efficiently taken up by these cells. In a mouse tumor model, the supramolecular nanofibers abolish HER2+ NCI‐N87 tumor growth due to the good accumulation and retention of nanofibers in tumor. This study provides a novel strategy to prepare nanomedicines with high drug loading and high specificity. A versatile strategy to preparesupramolecular nanomaterials by the coassembly of an affibody and drug‐peptide amphiphiles is reported here. The nanomaterials exhibit high drug loadings (>30 wt%), good affinity for HER2+ cancer cells, and excellent antitumor effect. This study provides a novel strategy to prepare nanomedicines with high drug loading and high specificity.