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Many new specimens (36 in total) of gastropods were collected from the Ordovician Alai Formation of the Chiatsun Group at Jiacun village, Nyalam County, southern Xizang (Tibet). These gastropods comprise five species assigned to two genera, including Maclurites parviumbilicatusYu, M. cf. nyalamensisYu, M. cf. xizangensisYu, M. cf. subconicusYu, and “Hormotoma” ordosensisYu, forming a Maclurites-“Hormotoma” association. All the species are described in detail herein, and some of which are redefined. This fauna is of middle to late Darriwilian age, and palaeoecologically characterised by species of shallow-water within the photic zone. A comparison of the Macluritescommunity with the contemporary gastropod fauna from the Zhuozishan Formation exposed along the west margin of the North China Block shows a close palaeogeographical affinity. The occurrences of Ordovician gastropods from China are analyzed biogeographically and the results reveal that the peri-Gondwana gastropod faunal turnover event was initiated during the Middle to Late Ordovician transition. The coincident faunal turnover and the lithofacies changes in the Himalaya and western margin of North China suggest that tectonic activities and relative sea-level changes may account for the biogeographical affinities of some specific fossil groups in peri-Gondwanan regions.

Converting CO2into valuable chemicals via sustainable energy sources is indispensable for human development. Photothermal catalysis combines the high selectivity of photocatalysis and the high yield of thermal catalysis, which is promising for CO2reduction. However, the present photothermal catalysts suffer from low activity due to their poor light absorption ability and fast recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes. Here, a TiO2@Bi2WO6heterojunction photocatalyst featuring a hierarchical hollow structure was prepared by an in situ growth method. The visible light absorption and photothermal effect of the TiO2@Bi2WO6photocatalyst is promoted by a hierarchical hollow structure, while the recombination phenomenon is significantly mitigated due to the construction of the heterojunction interface and the existence of excited Bi(3–x)+sites. Such a catalyst exhibits excellent photothermal performance with a CO yield of 43.7 μmol h–1g–1, which is 15 and 4.7 times higher than that of pure Bi2WO6and that of physically mixed TiO2/Bi2WO6, respectively. An in situ study shows that the pathway for the transformation of CO2into CO over our TiO2@Bi2WO6proceeds via two important intermediates, including COO–and COOH–. Our work provides a new idea of excited states for the design and synthesis of highly efficient photothermal catalysts for CO2conversion.

In order to deal with the issue of low sensitivity to biomolecules concentrations in traditional optical fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors, a fiber SPR deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) biosensor was developed, which is based on an amino-functionalized Zr-based metal–organic framework (MOF) (UIO-66-NH2)-modified heterogeneous core structure. Porous material UIO-66-NH2 facilitates electron transfer and amplifies the SPR effect, resulting in a heightened sensitivity for the detection of DNA hybridization. This can be attributed to the material’s advantageous characteristics, including a substantial specific surface area, an excellent water stability, and a pronounced affinity for probe-DNA (pDNA). The DNA biosensor presented in this study demonstrates enhanced sensitivity as a result of the covalent attachment of MOFs to pDNA, hence increasing the number of binding sites available for target DNA (tDNA). The optical fiber SPR biosensor, which has been modified with UIO-66-NH2, exhibits remarkable capabilities in detecting DNA concentrations ranging from 1 pM to $1 ~\mu \text{M}$ . It demonstrates a sensitivity of −7.72 nm/log ( $\mu \text{M}$ ) and achieves a detection limit of 3 pM. In addition, the DNA biosensor has exceptional performance in terms of specificity and durability, rendering it a highly favorable option for utilization in several fields, such as drug delivery, protein identification, and environmental surveillance.

The traditional 3D object retrieval (3DOR) task is under the close-set setting, which assumes the categories of objects in the retrieval stage are all seen in the training stage. Existing methods under this setting may tend to only lazily discriminate their categories, while not learning a generalized 3D object embedding. Under such circumstances, it is still a challenging and open problem in real-world applications due to the existence of various unseen categories. In this paper, we first introduce the open-set 3DOR task to expand the applications of the traditional 3DOR task. Then, we propose the Hypergraph-Based Multi-Modal Representation (HGM $^{2}$2 R) framework to learn 3D object embeddings from multi-modal representations under the open-set setting. The proposed framework is composed of two modules, i.e., the Multi-Modal 3D Object Embedding (MM3DOE) module and the Structure-Aware and Invariant Knowledge Learning (SAIKL) module. By utilizing the collaborative information of modalities derived from the same 3D object, the MM3DOE module is able to overcome the distinction across different modality representations and generate unified 3D object embeddings. Then, the SAIKL module utilizes the constructed hypergraph structure to model the high-order correlation among 3D objects from both seen and unseen categories. The SAIKL module also includes a memory bank that stores typical representations of 3D objects. By aligning with those memory anchors in the memory bank, the aligned embeddings can integrate the invariant knowledge to exhibit a powerful generalized capacity toward unseen categories. We formally prove that hypergraph modeling has better representative capability on data correlation than graph modeling. We generate four multi-modal datasets for the open-set 3DOR task, i.e., OS-ESB-core, OS-NTU-core, OS-MN40-core, and OS-ABO-core, in which each 3D object contains three modality representations: multi-view, point clouds, and voxel. Experiments on these four datasets show that the proposed method can significantly outperform existing methods. In particular, the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art by 12.12%/12.88% in terms of mAP on the OS-MN40-core/OS-ABO-core dataset, respectively. Results and visualizations demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively extract the generalized 3D object embeddings on the open-set 3DOR task and achieve satisfactory performance.

The overuse of non-renewable resources to meet rising energy demands has significantly impacted the environment, necessitating the shift to renewable energy sources. Lignocellulosic biorefineries present a sustainable alternative, producing valuable products. With limited reports on the optimal deep eutectic solvent (DES) pretreatment of Napier grass, this study focuses on optimizing and assessing the recyclability of three different DES pretreatments to enhance sugar and ethanol yields from biomass. Three DES were synthesized by combining choline chloride with lactic acid, glycerol, and urea. The physical properties of these DES were analyzed, followed by the optimization of pretreatment conditions using response surface methodology and one-factor-at-a-time approaches. The optimization considered solid loading (1:20 to 1:5, w/w), temperature (80 °C to 130 °C), and time (0.5 h to 5 h) to maximize sugar concentration. The optimal pretreatments improved cellulose content in the pretreated biomass, enhancing sugar yield in the order: alkaline DES > acidic DES > neutral DES. Ethanol fermentation of pretreated biomass using Saccharomyces cerevisiaeshowed higher ethanol yields from choline chloride: urea (15.87 g/L), followed by choline chloride: glycerol (14.03 g/L), and choline chloride: lactic acid (13.18 g/L). This study highlights the effectiveness of acidic, alkaline, and polyol-based DES in pretreating biomass, enhancing sugar yield up to 1.6-fold compared to native biomass. Recyclability studies showed decreased efficiency and reduced sugar yield over successive cycles, indicating the need for a purification step. Overall, this research demonstrates the potential of three different DES pretreatments in significantly improving sugar and ethanol yields from Napier grass and underscores the economic viability of DES recycling for industrial applications. These findings could inspire future research in developing advanced techniques for purifying used DES before recycling in biomass processing.

Colloidal chemistry holds promise to prepare uniform and size-controllable pre-catalysts; however, it remains a challenge to unveil the atomic-level transition from pre-catalysts to active catalytic surfaces under the reaction conditions to enable the mechanistic design of catalysts. Here, we report an ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study, coupled with in situ environmental transmission electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and theoretical calculations, to elucidate the surface catalytic sites of colloidal Ni nanoparticles for CO2hydrogenation. We show that Ni nanoparticles with phosphine ligands exhibit a distinct surface evolution compared with amine-capped ones, owing to the diffusion of P under oxidative (air) or reductive (CO2+ H2) gaseous environments at elevated temperatures. The resulting NiPxsurface leads to a substantially improved selectivity for CO production, in contrast to the metallic Ni, which favors CH4. The further elimination of surface metallic Ni sites by designing multi-step P incorporation achieves unit selectivity of CO in high-rate CO2hydrogenation.

AE-CuNCs with excellent fluorescence were prepared by a templated method.

Ultrasound assisted casting method was applied to preparing B4Cp/Al composites with the addition of B element by adding KBF4into Al−B4C−K2TiF6system. The effects of B element addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties as well as the reaction mechanism at the interface of composites were investigated. Experimental results showed that B element addition altered the B4Cp/Al interface, induced more small-sized TiB2particles to distribute within the matrix. Therefore, cavitation and acoustic flow effects of the melt were intensified, which led to the breaking of B4C clusters and finally led to the homogeneous microstructure and better mechanical properties of the composites.

The epoxidation reaction over titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) zeolites is a green way to produce epoxides that are important intermediates for chemicals. Nevertheless, the conventional microporous TS-1 zeolite shows limited diffusion ability for bulky molecules, leading to poor activity and low selectivity. Constructing hierarchical porosity in microporous materials is an effective strategy to enhance the diffusion properties of catalysts. However, there are few reports on the design and synthesis of TS-1 zeolites with hierarchical structure featuring multilevels, interconnectivity, and regularity for efficient diffusion and epoxidations. Herein, hierarchical TS-1 zeolites with ordered macro–meso–microporosity (OMMM-TS-1) are obtained by a method combining a templated effect of ordered macro–mesoporous matrices and a confined in situ crystallization process. The OMMM-TS-1 possesses ordered macropores with tunable size (∼200–600 nm), ordered mesopores (∼8 nm), and intact micropores (∼0.5 nm). The OMMM-TS-1 achieves a cyclooctene conversion as 3.6 times and 1.8 times and a selectivity to epoxy product as 1.6 times and 1.3 times higher than the conventional TS-1 (C-TS-1) and nanosized TS-1 (Nano-TS-1) zeolites, respectively. The OMMM-TS-1 also outperforms the C-TS-1 and Nano-TS-1 zeolites in epoxidations of a series of alkenes. Such a novel hierarchical structure can be applied in the design and synthesis of many other catalysts.

The newly developed CaCO3/SiO2-composite bone scaffold has high compressive strength, yet the influences of alterations to its surface properties on cell behaviors remain unclear. We introduce two methods individually and sequentially to modify the surface topography and to deposit a polymerized thin layer. Three parameters of CO2 laser were tested to flatten and also create various micropatterns on the ceramic surfaces. Two kinds of thin layers were deposited by plasma on untreated and laser-treated scaffolds to change the surface properties. The results of cell growth assay indicated that the modifications affected the cell viabilities and growth patterns.

Most existing point cloud completion methods suffer from the discrete nature of point clouds and the unstructured prediction of points in local regions, which makes it difficult to reveal fine local geometric details. To resolve this issue, we propose SnowflakeNet with snowflake point deconvolution (SPD) to generate complete point clouds. SPD models the generation of point clouds as the snowflake-like growth of points, where child points are generated progressively by splitting their parent points after each SPD. Our insight into the detailed geometry is to introduce a skip-transformer in the SPD to learn the point splitting patterns that can best fit the local regions. The skip-transformer leverages attention mechanism to summarize the splitting patterns used in the previous SPD layer to produce the splitting in the current layer. The locally compact and structured point clouds generated by SPD precisely reveal the structural characteristics of the 3D shape in local patches, which enables us to predict highly detailed geometries. Moreover, since SPD is a general operation that is not limited to completion, we explore its applications in other generative tasks, including point cloud auto-encoding, generation, single image reconstruction, and upsampling. Our experimental results outperform state-of-the-art methods under widely used benchmarks.

Point cloud completion concerns to predict missing part for incomplete 3D shapes. A common strategy is to generate complete shape according to incomplete input. However, unordered nature of point clouds will degrade generation of high-quality 3D shapes, as detailed topology and structure of unordered points are hard to be captured during the generative process using an extracted latent code. We address this problem by formulating completion as point cloud deformation process. Specifically, we design a novel neural network, named PMP-Net++, to mimic behavior of an earth mover. It moves each point of incomplete input to obtain a complete point cloud, where total distance of point moving paths (PMPs) should be the shortest. Therefore, PMP-Net++ predicts unique PMP for each point according to constraint of point moving distances. The network learns a strict and unique correspondence on point-level, and thus improves quality of predicted complete shape. Moreover, since moving points heavily relies on per-point features learned by network, we further introduce a transformer-enhanced representation learning network, which significantly improves completion performance of PMP-Net++. We conduct comprehensive experiments in shape completion, and further explore application on point cloud up-sampling, which demonstrate non-trivial improvement of PMP-Net++ over state-of-the-art point cloud completion/up-sampling methods.

Fifth-generation (5G) millimeter-wave (MMW)/sub-THz signals over a two-way fiber-wireless system using single-carrier optical modulation for downstream and phase modulation (PM) scheme for upstream are proposed and implemented for the first time. Compared to multi-carrier optical modulation, using single-carrier optical modulation in downlink is attractive because it can suppress RF power fading due to fiber dispersion and interference caused by optical beating from multiple carriers. Furthermore, compared to intensity modulation scheme, using PM scheme with remotely injection-locked distributed feedback laser diode in uplink is attractive because it enables high robustness to noise and distortion. Through 40-km single-mode fiber, 500-m free-space optical, and 2-m/1-m/0.5-m (downstream)/4-m (upstream) RF wireless cascaded-medium, 5G new radio (NR) MMW/sub-THz signals are transported with low bit error rates and clear constellations in downlink/uplink performance. Such a newly-built two-way 5G NR fiber-wireless system shows promise to perform 5G NR evolution in MMW and sub-THz frequencies, which has significant impacts on fiber-wireless integration.

Fifth-generation (5G)-based triple-wavelength visible laser light communication (VLLC)-underwater wireless laser transmission (UWLT) and laboratory-lighting convergent systems with 30 Gbit/s high aggregate transmission rates and 752 lux laboratory-level white-light illumination is successfully achieved. It exhibits a 5G-based triple-wavelength VLLC-UWLT and laboratory-lighting convergence using a red/green/blue (R/G/B) triple-wavelength as a presentation. RGB laser diodes with three-stage injection locking scheme modulate 5G millimeter-wave (MMW) 10-Gbit/s/24-GHz signals and afford high cumulative data rates with high-intensity laboratory-lighting. Over a cross-medium of 10-m VLLC with 8.8-m ocean water-air-ocean water links, satisfactorily low bit error rate (<3.8 × 10−3 forward error correction limit) with clear constellations and error vector magnitude (<12.5% required limit) are obtained. Through 3-m liquid light guide transmission, high-intensity white-lighting at laboratory-level is acquired. Such demonstrated 5G-based triple-wavelength VLLC-UWLT and laboratory-lighting convergent system shows promise as it develops the scenario realized by the 5G MMW signal through the VLLC with UWLT convergence, and also affords the dual-functionality of high-speed VLLC-UWLT transmission with high-intensity laboratory-lighting.

Iridium-based electrocatalysts remain the only practical anode catalysts for proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis, due to their excellent stability under acidic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), but are greatly limited by their high cost and low reserves. Here, we report a nickel-stabilized, ruthenium dioxide (Ni-RuO2) catalyst, a promising alternative to iridium, with high activity and durability in acidic OER for PEM water electrolysis. While pristine RuO2showed poor acidic OER stability and degraded within a short period of continuous operation, the incorporation of Ni greatly stabilized the RuO2lattice and extended its durability by more than one order of magnitude. When applied to the anode of a PEM water electrolyser, our Ni-RuO2catalyst demonstrated >1,000 h stability under a water-splitting current of 200 mA cm−2, suggesting potential for practical applications. Density functional theory studies, coupled with operando differential electrochemical mass spectroscopy analysis, confirmed the adsorbate-evolving mechanism on Ni-RuO2, as well as the critical role of Ni dopants in stabilization of surface Ru and subsurface oxygen for improved OER durability.

Nickel–cobalt oxide is considered as a promising anode for lithium-ion battery, owing to its high specific capacity, simple synthesis process and high safety. However, like most transition metal oxide anode materials, nickel–cobalt oxide suffers from poor conductivity, easy agglomeration and large volume expansion in the charging and discharging process, causing an inferior cycling lifespan. Here we report a structure design that CoNiO2particles are ingeniously interlaced on carbon nanotubes by a simple solvothermal method. These nanotubes are irregularly intertwined to obtain an independent electrode structure with high electronic conductivity, which can also alleviate the notorious volume expansion. Consequently, the corresponding lithium-ion battery shows superior electrochemical performance. It provides a discharge capacity of 1213.7 mAh g−1at 0.5 A g−1, and can be stable over 100 cycles with a capacity retention of 96.45%. Furthermore, the battery can also deliver a reversible capacity of 544.8 mAh g−1at the high current density 3 A g−1. This work provides a unique idea for the performance improvement of nickel–cobalt oxide anode for lithium-ion batteries.

Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock for value-added chemicals and fuel additives. It offers a sustainable solution to the problems of carbon emissions and waste management. This review article focuses on the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to levulinic acid, which is a versatile platform chemical with carboxylic and ketone groups that has the potential to produce a wide range of value-added products. Levulinic acid and its derivatives are used in a variety of applications, from fragrant products to flavoring agents, and even as an oxygenator in diesel engines. The article covers the major processes involved in the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass, including pretreatment, hydrolysis, and dehydration, with a focus on the different catalysts and reaction conditions used to optimize yield and selectivity. The review also discusses the challenges associated with the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass and the strategies employed to overcome them, such as the use of co-solvents, catalyst modification, and process integration. Additionally, the article highlights recent developments in the field, including the use of novel catalysts and technologies, and provides insights into future research directions.

An integrated fiber-free-space optical (FSO)-fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) sub-THz link through a cross-media of 20 km single-mode fiber (SMF), 500 m optical wireless, and 0.5 m RF wireless is proposed and successfully implemented. 5G NR communication operates effectively with four sub-THz frequencies of 150, 175, 200, and 225 GHz. Each sub-THz frequency carries a 21.528-Gbps 32-QAM-OFDM signal. By transmitting four 5G sub-THz signals, an integrated fiber-FSO-wireless link with high aggregate data rates of 86.112 Gbps (21.528 Gbps × 4) is realized. It is an innovative link to extend 5G communications to 86.112 Gbps data rates over long-haul wired/wireless transmission. Satisfactorily low bit error rate (<3.8 × 10−3 forward error correction limit) and error vector magnitude (<10%) show that this newly demonstrated fiber-FSO-wireless link is promising for 5G NR communication in sub-THz band. It exhibits an excellent fiber-FSO-5G NR sub-THz link with the vantages of high accumulative data rates, long-haul wired-wireless transmission, and low complexity.

Visual representation learning is ubiquitous in various real-world applications, including visual comprehension, video understanding, multi-modal analysis, human-computer interaction, and urban computing. Due to the emergence of huge amounts of multimodal heterogeneous spatial/temporal/spatial-temporal data in the big data era, the lack of interpretability, robustness, and out-of-distribution generalization are becoming the challenges of the existing visual models. The majority of the existing methods tend to fit the original data/variable distributions and ignore the essential causal relations behind the multi-modal knowledge, which lacks unified guidance and analysis about why modern visual representation learning methods easily collapse into data bias and have limited generalization and cognitive abilities. Inspired by the strong inference ability of human-level agents, recent years have therefore witnessed great effort in developing causal reasoning paradigms to realize robust representation and model learning with good cognitive ability. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive review of existing causal reasoning methods for visual representation learning, covering fundamental theories, models, and datasets. The limitations of current methods and datasets are also discussed. Moreover, we propose some prospective challenges, opportunities, and future research directions for benchmarking causal reasoning algorithms in visual representation learning. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of this emerging field, attract attention, encourage discussions, bring to the forefront the urgency of developing novel causal reasoning methods, publicly available benchmarks, and consensus-building standards for reliable visual representation learning and related real-world applications more efficiently.

•Fe3O4@TatTpa adsorbent for alkylphenols was prepared by an in-situself-assembly method.•Effective extraction performance for alkylphenols was achieved based on hydrogen bonding, π-π and hydrophobic interactions.•Fe3O4@TatTpa -MSPE-HPLC method for alkylphenols was validated and applied in real food sample analysis.

Intermetallic compounds with ordered crystal structures are attractive materials with extensive applications in many fields. PtSn4, the most Sn-rich Pt–Sn intermetallic compound discovered so far, has special physical and catalytical properties because of the “Sn–Pt–Sn” layered crystal structure. However, studies on the property of PtSn4have been limited to the single crystal due to the lack of success in preparing PtSn4nanomaterials. Here, starting from Sn nanoparticles, we demonstrated the preparation of monodisperse pure-phase PtSn4intermetallic nanodisks (PtSn4NDs) based on a galvanic replacement mechanism. The structure of the as-synthesized PtSn4NDs was carefully characterized and analyzed. A systematic study on the PtSn4formation mechanism and kinetics confirms that the galvanic replacement mechanism governs the formation of PtSn4NDs. In electrocatalytic furfural reduction, PtSn4NDs effectively suppress the major competitive hydrogen evolution reaction and show faradaic efficiency superior to Pt nanoparticles.

Background This study aimed to investigate the expression pattern and prognostic significance of HOXB13 in rectal cancer.Methods HOXB13 expression in rectal cancer and normal adjacent tissues was detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry, and its clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were statistically tested. Furthermore, we evaluated the association between tumor immune infiltrating cells and HOXB13 using the tumor immune estimation resource (TIMER) database. The potential biological mechanism associated with HOXB13 overexpression was investigated by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA).Results The expression of HOXB13 messenger RNA and protein in human rectal cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in the normal adjacent tissues (P< 0.05). HOXB13 expression was significantly correlated with depth of invasion, lymphatic invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and pathological tumor node metastasis stage (P< 0.05). Kaplan–Meier survival curves confirmed that HOXB13 overexpression was correlated negatively with overall survival and disease-free survival in rectal cancer (P< 0.05). Also, multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that HOXB13 expression, age, and lymphatic invasion were independent prognostic factors in rectal cancer (P< 0.05). Plus, the results from the TIMER database indicated that HOXB13 expression has a significant association with several immune cell infiltrates. Finally, the GSEA results indicated that HOXB13 participated in the various immune-associated processes, including natural killer cell-mediated cytotoxicity and the T-cell receptor signaling pathway.Conclusion Our study showed an essential role of HOXB13 in rectal cancer immunity and prognosis. Significantly, the overexpression of HOXB13 leads to the worse prognosis for patients with rectal cancer, which will contribute to understanding molecular mechanisms associated with tumor pathogenesis and prognosis in this disease.

Graphical Abstract:

Catalytic oxidative desulfurization (ODS) using titanium silicate catalysts has emerged as an efficient technique for the complete removal of organosulfur compounds from automotive fuels. However, the precise control of highly accessible and stable-framework Ti active sites remains highly challenging. Here we reveal for the first time by using density functional theory calculations that framework hexa-coordinated Ti (TiO6) species of mesoporous titanium silicates are the most active sites for ODS and lead to a lower-energy pathway of ODS. A novel method to achieve highly accessible and homogeneously distributed framework TiO6active single sites at the mesoporous surface has been developed. Such surface framework TiO6species exhibit an exceptional ODS performance. A removal of 920 ppm of benzothiophene is achieved at 60°C in 60 min, which is 1.67 times that of the best catalyst reported so far. For bulky molecules such as 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (DMDBT), it takes only 3 min to remove 500 ppm of DMDBT at 60°C with our catalyst, which is five times faster than that with the current best catalyst. Such a catalyst can be easily upscaled and could be used for concrete industrial application in the ODS of bulky organosulfur compounds with minimized energy consumption and high reaction efficiency.Titanium silicate catalysts with highly accessible and homogeneously distributed framework TiO6active single sites at the mesoporous surface were obtained by engineering electrostatic interface, exhibiting unprecedented deep oxidative desulfurization performance.

This study evaluated the feasibility of manufacturing particleboard from the combinations of insect (black soldier fly larvae) rearing residue and rice husks at different ratios using citric acid/tapioca starch as a natural binder. Physical and mechanical properties of particleboards including density, moisture content, water absorption, thickness swelling, modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, internal bond strength, and screw withdrawal resistance were investigated. The results showed that the increase of insect rearing residue significantly increased the water absorption and thickness swelling and decrease the modulus of rupture. The modulus of elasticity, internal bond strength, and screw withdrawal resistance was slightly enhanced when the ratio of insect rearing residue was increased from 10 to 30 wt% with a corresponding reduced ratio of rice husk in the particleboards. Nevertheless, the modulus of elasticity, internal bond strength, and screw withdrawal resistance remarkably decreased when the ratio of insect rearing residue in the boards was over 30 wt%. Among all prepared particleboards, only particleboard B which was composed of 20 wt% insect rearing residue, 50 wt% rice husk, and 30 wt% binder met all the JIS A 5908 requirements for basic particleboard type 8. Based on the results, although further improvements are required, using insect rearing residue combined with agroindustrial wastes for particleboard manufacturing is feasible and possesses the patentability to mitigate the issues associated with deforestation and shortage of raw materials.

This study reviewed EC studies in China. A total of 1,982 journal articles published between 2001 and 2020 were collected from the Web of Science database. In addition, it referred to the Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and divided the research period into five-year stages. The BibExcel, UCINET, and SPSS software programs were used to conduct co-word analysis. The results indicated that (1) Stages I–IV comprised 4, 3, 4, and 4 clusters, respectively. (2) Consumer's personalized demands were considered in EC development activities ranging from the initial EC infrastructure construction to the integration of artificial-intelligence-related technology. (3) Topics regarding consumer behaviors were centered on Stages II and III, which indicated that the research on these topics was mature. (4) Stage IV explored the new research topic of integrating smart technology into the EC and indicated the characteristics of the e-market.

In this work, we construct Na2Li2Ti6O14@LiAlO2(NLTO-L) composites by a simple ball milled process and post-calcination in air atmosphere to improve the electrochemical performance. The thickness of the LiAlO2coating layer is approximate 2 nm. The morphology and particle size of Na2Li2Ti6O14are not dramatically altered after LiAlO2coating. All samples display similar particles with a size range from 150 to 500 nm. The LiAlO2coating can supply fast charge transmission paths with good insertion/extraction dynamics of lithium ions and provide an excellent rate performance and cycle performance of as-prepared Na2Li2Ti6O14@LiAlO2anodes. Therefore, LiAlO2coating efficiently enhances the rate performance and cycle performance of Na2Li2Ti6O14anode, even at large current densities. As a result, Na2Li2Ti6O14@LiAlO2(5 wt%) reveals remarkable rate properties with reversible charge capacity of 238.7, 214.7, 185.8, 168.5 and 139.8 mAh g−1at 50, 100, 200, 300 and 500 mA g−1, respectively. Na2Li2Ti6O14@LiAlO2(5 wt%) also possesses a good cycle performance with a de-lithiation capacity of 166.5 mAh g−1at 500 mA g−1after 200 cycles. Nonetheless, the corresponding de-lithiation capacity of pure Na2Li2Ti6O14is only 140.1 mAh g−1. Consequently, LiAlO2coating is an efficient approach to enhance the electrochemical performances of Na2Li2Ti6O14.

ABSTRACTWe use the gravimetric method to estimate the specific yield of an unconfined aquifer at five observation stations on the Zhoushui River alluvial fan in central Taiwan. The principle of this method is to use the ratio of the observed gravity and simulated gravity to find the specific yield. In terms of observed gravity acquisition, we used an FG-5 absolute gravimeter to collect observations in two different periods at each gravity observation station; in terms of simulated gravity computation, we considered both the Bouguer and terrain correction methods to derive the simulated gravity. During the gravity survey at the Shin-Ming OFfice (SMOF) station, the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technique was performed simultaneously to obtain a better groundwater surface around the SMOF station. The results show that the specific yield of the five gravity observation stations are between 0.1 and 0.3, indicating that the Zhoushui River alluvial fan has good groundwater resources in an unconfined aquifer. The compound well pumping tests agree well with the specific yield results obtained from the gravimetric method. In addition, if ERT surveys can be used to obtain a better groundwater surface, a more accurate specific yield can be acquired.

Taiwan is located in a region with a tropical/subtropical oceanic climate characterized by high temperatures and humidity, which significantly affects the milk production, health, and reproduction of dairy cows. Most dairy herds in Taiwan have utilized semen of superior foreign sires from countries in temperate climate, mainly from USA and Canada. However, the performance of daughters in Taiwan of those foreign sires may differ from those in temperate countries. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of foreign sire semen in Taiwan's dairy herds, and to compare the PTAs of those sires in both Taiwan and their original countries. Data and pedigree from the Dairy Herd Improvement program (DHI) were collected between 2009 and 2021. In total, 108,348 lactation records from 54,269 cows and 76,024 animals in the pedigree were obtained from 120 herds. Traits to evaluate include milk yield (MY), milk fat percentage (MF%), milk fat yield (MFY), milk protein percentage (MP%), and milk protein yield (MPY) standardized to 305d-2X yield. The herd-year-season and lactation were considered as fixed effects in the model with additive genetic effect and permanent environmental effect as random effects. In addition, an extra fixed effect, physical situation of lactation (PSL), was included to account for abnormal physiology or subclinical mastitis in those dairy cows. The ASReml program was used to estimate the variance and covariance components as well as heritability and correlation with multiple-trait animal models. Not only the accuracy of predicted transmitting ability (PTATW) ≥ 75% of those superior foreign sires using DHI data and their PTAs obtained from the original countries (PTAInt) were compared, but also the rank correlation between PTATWand PTAIntwas also calculated. The results indicated that only when the accuracy of PTATWincreased to 90%, a moderate correlation was observed. Moreover, PTATWand PTAIntof all the sires with an accuracy of PTATW≥ 75% were tracked to the lactation performance of their daughters in Taiwan using regression analysis. The results showed that selecting sires with an increase of 1 kg in PTATWand in PTAIntwould increase the average production of their daughters in Taiwan's dairy herds by 1.620 kg and 0.213 kg in milk yield, 1.328 kg and 1.201 kg in fat yield, and 1.493 kg and 0.550 kg in protein yield, respectively. Therefore, selecting offspring through PTATWof sires is much more efficient, and increasing the number of daughters for each sire and their DHI records would improve the accuracy of PTATWprediction and ranking, making it an important indicator for selecting progeny in Taiwan dairy herds.

Purpose To study in detail the expression pattern and prognostic significance of TMPRSS4 in colorectal cancer.Methods The expression of TMPRSS4 protein was determined using Western blot in the colorectal cancer tissues and normal tissues. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the TMPRSS4 expression in colorectal cancer tissues, and the clinicopathologic characteristics and prognostic significance were analyzed.Results TMPRSS4 overexpression was associated with tumor budding, lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, cancerous emboli, infiltration depth, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and tumor node metastasis stage (P< 0.05 for all). Interestingly, TMPRSS4 expression in the tumor budding, tumor emboli, lymph node, and liver metastatic tumor samples was higher than in the paired primary tumors. In contrast, TMPRSS4 overexpression is inversely correlated with both the overall survival and the disease-free survival of the patients with colorectal cancer (P< 0.05 for both). Also, we found that TMPRSS4 is only of significance in predicting the prognosis of stage III and IV colorectal cancer, not stage I and II.Conclusions TMPRSS4 was shown to be involved in the whole process of metastasis from tumor budding to lymph node and/or distant metastasis in colorectal cancer and predicted the unfavorable prognosis of stage III–IV, indicating that it is a novel target for the precise treatment of colorectal cancer with lymph node or distant organ metastasis.

Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides in modern agriculture, and their residues have been found in the environment and food. Previous studies reported that neonicotinoids exert toxic effects in various tissues, but whether they interfered with the female reproductive process remains unknown. In our present research, thiamethoxam was selected as a representative neonicotinoid to establish a mouse toxicity model with gavage. We found that thiamethoxam decreased the ovarian coefficient and disrupted the expression of female hormone receptors, subsequently affecting follicle development. Ovarian granulosa cells from the thiamethoxam exposure group underwent a high level of apoptosis. Using transcriptome analysis, we showed that thiamethoxam exposure altered the expression of multiple oocyte genes related to inflammation, apoptosis, and endoplasmic reticulum stress. Thiamethoxam also adversely affected oocyte and embryo development. Western blotting and fluorescence staining results confirmed that thiamethoxam affected the integrity of DNA, triggered apoptosis, promoted oxidative stress and endoplasmic reticulum stress, and impaired mitochondrial function. Collectively, our results indicated that thiamethoxam exposure disrupts ovarian homeostasis and decreases oocyte quality via endoplasmic reticulum stress and apoptosis induction.

•A SPE-HPLC-MS/MS method for simultaneous analysis of six-category pharmaceuticals.•Two water portions were adjusted to pH 3 and 9 but both spiked with 0.2 g Na2EDTA.•Quantified 94 compounds of 6 categories had low LODs and sound recovery rate.•A series of field water samples were tested with 41 quantified compounds.•Overlapped compounds between pH 3 and 9 had values without significant differences.

CoNi/Ni multisegmented cylindrical nanowires were synthesized viaan electrochemical route. The wires are 140 nm in diameter, with 1000 nm long Ni segments and CoNi segments between 600 and 1400 nm in length. The magnetic configuration was imaged by XMCD-PEEM in the demagnetized state and at remanence after magnetizing axially and perpendicularly. Ni segments, with cubic crystal symmetry, show an axial magnetic configuration with a small curling component at the surface. In turn, CoNi segments, with hexagonal crystal symmetry and a strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy perpendicular to the nanowires, show a single vortex state in the shorter segments and multivortex or multitransverse magnetic configurations in medium and long segments, respectively. A detailed study by micromagnetic simulations reveals that the magnetic configuration is determined mainly by the coupling between soft Ni and harder CoNi segments. For short CoNi segments, Ni segments are magnetostatically coupled and the chirality of the single vortex formed in CoNi remains the same as that of the curling in neighboring Ni segments. For longer CoNi segments, the remanent state is either the multivortex or multitransverse state depending on whether the previously applied field was parallel or perpendicular to the magnetocrystalline axis. The results point out the relevance of the cylindrical geometry to promote the occurrence of complex magneto-chiral effects and provide key information for the design of cylindrical magnetic nanowires for multiple applications.

Two new species and one new record of spinoseMycenawere discovered in Taiwan. They are characterized by the presence of unicellular and erect spinose pilesetae on the surface of the pileipellis. The two new species (M.turandotianaandM.fengguan) have pileocystidia originating from hyphae of the pileipellis and thin-walled pileocystidia, while the new record (M.brunneisetosa) has thick-walled pileocystidia. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that the spinose structures in theseMycenaresulted from convergent evolution.

A sustainable and transition metal-free approach for C3 chalcogenation and chalcogenocyanation of imidazopyridines with KXCN (X = S or Se) has been developed under mild conditions. Importantly, this reaction was performed in the presence of catalytic iodine in aqueous medium, which afforded either chalcogenated or chalcogenocyanated imidazopyridines under temperature control. The current protocol featured a broad substrate scope, transition metal-free and organic solvent-free conditions, operational convenience, and gram-scale production.

In this paper, a reflective fiber sensing system combined with a fiber loop ringdown technique for temperature detection is proposed. A fiber Bragg grating (FBG) with an initial center wavelength of 1543.33 nm was set as the sensor head. The experimental results showed that the average sensitivity of temperature was 1.003 µs/°C in the temperature range of 30–38°C, and the resolution was 0.007°C, which is 14 times better than the current FBG sensing demodulator. In addition, the system has the advantages of simple structure, low cost, and insensitivity to optical power fluctuation.

A real-time quantitative analytical approach, differential mobility analysis coupled to gas-phase Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (DMA/FTIR), is demonstrated for an aerosol spray-based synthesis of functional nanoparticles. Calcium oxide nanoparticle (CaO-NP) is chosen as the representative functional nanoparticle. The results show that a direct gas-phase characterization of the temperature-dependent transformation of aerosol spray to CaO-NP was achieved using DMA/FTIR. The changes in mobility size distributions and number and mass concentrations of the aerosol spray versus the precursor concentration were successfully quantified in the aerosol state. The synthesized CaO-NP demonstrated a remarkably high catalytic activity in colloidal form toward the transesterification of methyl hydroxyphenyl propionate (MHPP), the model catalytic application in the study. A maximum of ≈19 times of the MHPP conversion was achieved in comparison to the results without CaO-NP. Our work presents a proof of concept for aerosol spray-based controlled synthesis of functional nanoparticles with real-time monitoring using DMA/FTIR for applications in catalyst development.

The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s (IASLC’s) proposal to recategorize the residual tumor (R) classification for resected NSCLC needs validation.

The aim of this study was to characterize cupular deformation by calculating the degree of cupular expansion and cupular deflection using a finite element model of bilateral human semicircular canals (SCCs). The results showed that cupular deflection responses were consistent with Ewald’s II law, whereas each pair of bilateral cupulae simultaneously expanded or compressed to the same degree. In addition, both the degree of cupular expansion and cupular deflection can be expressed as the solution of forced oscillation during head sinusoidal rotation, and the amplitude of cupular expansion was approximately two times greater than that of cupular deflection. Regarding the amplitude frequency and phase frequency characteristics, the amplitude ratios among the horizontal SCC, the anterior SCC, and the posterior SCC cupular expansion was constant at 1:0.82:1.62, and the phase differences among them were constant at 0 or 180° at the frequencies of 0.5–6 Hz. However, both the amplitude ratio and the phase differences of the cupular deflection increased nonlinearly with the increase of frequency and tended to be constant at the frequency band between 2 and 6 Hz. The results indicate that the responses of cupular expansion might only be related to the mass and rigidity of three cupulae and the endolymph, but the responses of cupular deflection are related to the mass, rigidity, or damping of them, and these physical properties would be affected by vestibular dysfunction. Therefore, both the degree of cupular expansion and cupular deflection should be considered important mechanical variables for induced neural signals as these variables provide a better understanding of the SCCs system’s role in the vestibulo-ocular reflex during the clinical rotating chair test and the vestibular autorotation test. Such a numerical model can be further built to provide a useful theoretical approach for exploring the biomechanical nature underlying vestibular dysfunction.

The optical properties have been numerically investigated in crystalline silicon nanoholes array for various structural parameters. We have demonstrated that the light absorption can be greatly enhanced in silicon nanoholes array especially for long wavelength absorption compared with single diameter nanoholes array. We have also obtained the optimal parameters for absorption wavelength control, at which the photocurrent enhancement factors have been achieved to be 14.43% compared to silicon thin film. Furthermore, the underlying mechanism of the absorption enhancement in dual-diameter nanoholes array has been discussed.

ObjectivesFemale sex is an inconsistent ischaemic stroke risk factor in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We hypothesised that the ischaemic stroke risk varies with age among women compared with men.MethodsWe retrieved the patients with newly diagnosed AF during 2001–2013 from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients with missing information, age <20 years, history of valvular heart disease and surgery, rheumatic heart disease, hyperthyroidism or anticoagulation and/or antiplatelet use were excluded. Propensity score matching (PSM) included patient comorbidities, medications and index date stratified by age and sex groups. Primary outcome was defined as ischaemic stroke at follow-up.ResultsAfter exclusion criteria, 87 369 men and 71 853 women remained for analysis (aged 73.1±14.4 years). After 1:1 PSM, we included 59 583 men (aged 73.5±13.7 years) and 59 583 women (aged 73.4±13.8 years) for analysis. We also stratified patients by age. The ischaemic stroke risk varied with age in women compared with men: lower in the ≤55 years (subdistribution HR (SHR)=0.75, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.90) and 56–65 years (SHR=0.87, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.98) groups, neutral in the 66–75 years group (SHR=1.01, 95% CI 0.94 to 1.08) and adverse in the >75 years group (SHR=1.14, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.19).ConclusionsThe female/male ischaemic stroke risk ratio varied with age. Only women aged >75 years had a higher risk, whereas women aged <65 years had a lower risk compared with men. These findings challenge the ‘sex category’ component of the CHA2DS2-VASc score, used to make decision regarding anticoagulation treatment in AF patients.

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) play an important role in pediatric diseases; however, there are limited data about LRTIs in Southern Taiwan. This study aimed to investigate the clinical and epidemiological data of LRTIs in this area.

Infective endocarditis (IE) due to Pseudomonas aeruginosais rare and accounts for only about 3% of all patients with this disease. Most infections are associated with the use of intravenous drugs. Patients with P. aeruginosa-related IE who do not use intravenous drugs are extremely rare. We carried out a review of the literature to identify the nature and risk factors of this disease.

The SalmonellaPathogenicity Islands (SPIs) play crucial roles in the progression of Salmonellainfection. In this study, we constructed an improved λ Red homologous recombination system to prepare single and triple deletion mutants of three prominent SPIs (SPI-1, 2, and 3), aiming at the impact of deletion on morphology, carbon source metabolism, adhesion and invasion capacity, in vivocolonization, and immune efficacy in chicks. Our examination revealed that the surface of the single deletion mutants (SM6ΔSPI1, ΔSPI2, and ΔSPI3) exhibited a more rugged texture and appeared to be enveloped in a layer of transparent colloid, whereas the morphology of the triple deletion mutant (SM6ΔSPI1&2&3) remained unaltered when compared to the parent strain. The carbon metabolic spectrum of the SPI mutants underwent profound alterations, with a notable and statistically significant modification observed in 30 out of 95 carbon sources, primarily carbohydrates (17 out of 30). Furthermore, the adhesion capacity of the four mutants to Caco-2 cells was significantly reduced when compared to that of the parent strain. Moreover, the invasion capacity of mutants SM6ΔSPI1 and SM6ΔSPI1&2&3 exhibited a substantial decrease, while it was enhanced to varying degrees for SM6ΔSPI3 and SM6ΔSPI2. Importantly, none of the four mutants induced any clinical symptoms in the chicks. However, they did transiently colonize the spleen and liver. Notably, the SM6ΔSPI1&2&3 mutant was rapidly cleared from both the spleen and liver within eight days post-infection and no notable pathological changes were observed in the organs. Additionally, when challenged, the mutants immunized groups displayed a significant increase in antibody levels and alterations in the CD3+CD4+and CD3+CD8+subpopulations, and the levels of IL-4 and IFN-γ cytokines in the SM6ΔSPI1&2&3 immunized chicken serum surpassed those of other groups. In summary, the successful construction of the four SPI mutants lays the groundwork for further exploration into the pathogenic (including metabolic) mechanisms of SPIs and the development of safe and effective live attenuated Salmonellavaccines or carriers.

Anesthetic agents used during deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery might interfere with microelectrode recording (MER) and local field potential (LFP) and thus affect the accuracy of surgical target localization. This review aimed to identify the effects of different anesthetic agents on neuronal activity of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) during the MER procedure.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) elicits a dense stromal response that blocks vascular access because of pericyte coverage of vascular fenestrations. In this way, the PDAC stroma contributes to chemotherapy resistance in addition to causing other problems. In order to improve the delivery of gemcitabine, a first-line chemotherapeutic agent, a PEGylated drug-carrying liposome was developed, using a transmembrane ammonium sulfate gradient to encapsulate the protonated drug up to 20% w/w. However, because the liposome was precluded from entering the xenograft site due to the stromal interference, we developed a first-wave nanocarrier that decreases pericyte coverage of the vasculature through interference in the pericyte recruiting TGF-β signaling pathway. This was accomplished using a polyethyleneimine (PEI)/polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSNP) for molecular complexation to a small molecule TGF-β inhibitor, LY364947. LY364947 contains a nitrogen atom that attaches, through H-bonding, to PEI amines with a high rate of efficiency. The copolymer coating also facilitates systemic biodistribution and retention at the tumor site. Because of the high loading capacity and pH-dependent LY364947 release from the MSNPs, we achieved rapid entry of IV-injected liposomes and MSNPs at the PDAC tumor site. This two-wave approach provided effective shrinkage of the tumor xenografts beyond 25 days, compared to the treatment with free drug or gemcitabine-loaded liposomes only. Not only does this approach overcome stromal resistance to drug delivery in PDAC, but it also introduces the concept of using a stepwise engineered approach to address a range of biological impediments that interfere in nanocancer therapy in a spectrum of cancers.

The pretreatment of the Cu(In,Ga)Se2(CIGS) absorption layer using an alkali element can effectively improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of CIGS solar cells. Here, we propose using NaF layer pretreatment below the CIGS absorption layer deposited by a three-stage process. Sodium ions in NaF can effectively suppress the diffusion of Ga elements and form a steep gradient backscatter layer on the back of the CIGS absorption layer, thereby passivating solar cell defects, inhibiting carrier recombination, promoting carrier transmission and collection, improving open circuit voltage (VOC), short circuit current (Jsc), and filling factor (FF), and further improving the PCE.