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Purpose: Tertiary lymphoid structures (TLSs) and CD8 + T-cells are potential prognostic indicators for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We established a novel scoring system for evaluating the risk for PDAC based on TLS- and CD8 + T-cell-related genes. Methods: We analyzed single-cell sequence data from PDAC patients in the Genome Sequence Archive. Bioinformatics and machine algorithms established and validated a scoring method (T-C score) based on PDAC survival-related genes highly expressed in TLSs and CD8 + T-cells. Patients were stratified into the low- and high-T-C score groups. Differences in survival, pathway enrichment, mutation status, immune cell infiltration, expression of immune checkpoint-associated genes, tumor stemness, and response to antitumor therapy were compared through computer simulation methods. Results: Overall survival differed significantly between the training and validation cohorts’ low- and high-T-C score groups. The low-T-C score group correlated with lower tumor mutation burden and lower levels of tumor stemness compared with the high-T-C score group. Patients with lower T-C scores exhibited advantages in immunotherapeutic responses and might be more sensitive to the chemotherapeutic regimen and multi-kinase inhibitors. Conclusion: The T-C score could serve as an effective model for predicting the survival and therapeutic responses of patients with PDAC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colorectal cancer (CRC) prevention requires early detection and removal of adenomas. We aimed to develop a computational model for real-time detection and classification of colorectal adenoma. Computationally constrained background based on real-time detection, we propose an improved adaptive lightweight ensemble model for real-time detection and classification of adenomas and other polyps. Firstly, we devised an adaptive lightweight network modification and effective training strategy to diminish the computational requirements for real-time detection. Secondly, by integrating the adaptive lightweight YOLOv4 with the single shot multibox detector network, we established the adaptive small object detection ensemble (ASODE) model, which enhances the precision of detecting target polyps without significantly increasing the model's memory footprint. We conducted simulated training using clinical colonoscopy images and videos to validate the method's performance, extracting features from 1148 polyps and employing a confidence threshold of 0.5 to filter out low-confidence sample predictions. Finally, compared to state-of-the-art models, our ASODE model demonstrated superior performance. In the test set, the sensitivity of images and videos reached 87.96% and 92.31%, respectively. Additionally, the ASODE model achieved an accuracy of 92.70% for adenoma detection with a false positive rate of 8.18%. Training results indicate the effectiveness of our method in classifying small polyps. Our model exhibits remarkable performance in real-time detection of colorectal adenomas, serving as a reliable tool for assisting endoscopists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of three different alkalis, namely ammonia (NH4OH), ethylenediamine (EDA), and tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH) on the stability of colloidal silica, with pH controlled within the range of 8–11. As a result, NH4OH greatly promotes the stability of silica sol at first due to the strong solvation ability of NH4+ and then the stability begins to decrease because the electric double layer of silica is compressed. The addition of EDA into silica system leads to a reduction in the stability evidently followed by a slight increase, which can be explained by the cationic bridging effect of the ethylenediammonium cations. Meanwhile, the effect of TBAOH on silica dispersion is analogous to EDA, mainly caused by the hydrophobic and steric effects. The abovementioned relevant stability mechanisms are involved in non-DLVO theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a modeling method for predicting the internal structure of three-dimensional (3D) angle-interlock woven fabric. Inspired by the digital element method, the numerical model of micro-scale was established by using truss element. The numerical model was compared with the Computed Tomography (CT) cross-sectional scan of the actual fabric sample, and the results were consistent. The mechanical properties of the 3D angle-interlock woven fabric is closely related to the fabric’s structure. Therefore, by changing the tension at both ends of the yarn tows to explore the influence on the yarn tows’ geometry, it was found that different tensions affects the cross-sectional areas and crimp angles of the yarn tows. On the basis of fabric forming, multi-shape molds were designed to press the fabric into different shapes, which were semi-hexagonal, arc-shaped and L-shaped. The results of numerical simulation showed that the fabric will undergo inter-layer slip when compressed, especially in the region where the mold deformation is large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accuracy of the original YOLOv5 algorithm in detecting whether power company employees are wearing helmets is low due to the complex monitoring scenarios in the power warehouse and the small size of the helmets. As a result, it cannot be applied to actual operations. To address this issue, we developed the MCX-YOLOv5 helmet detection algorithm. Our model utilizes the YOLOv5 architecture and integrates a Coordinate-Spatial Attention Module (CSAM) to effectively filter the spatiotemporal data of the feature inputs. Additionally, we implement a Multi-scale Asymmetric Convolutions (MAConv) downsampling module to improve the algorithm's sensitivity to feature scale variations. To address the challenge of task information cross-coupling in coupled heads, we propose a decoupled head that is less heavy than YOLOv6 as a substitute. Our enhanced model achieved a 2.7% rise in the mean Average Precision at 50 (mAP50) and a 4.9% improvement in mAP75 on our self-developed database through multiple experiments, with just a minimal increase in parameters. Our model has yielded significant performance improvements on the Kaggle open-source Hard Hat Workers Detection dataset (HHWD), the public Safety Helmet Wearing Dataset (SHWD), and the PASCAL Visual Object Classes (VOC) dataset. These results highlight the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm in achieving higher accuracy for safety helmet wear detection in storage scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the effect of axial yarns on progressive bending damage of braided composite tubes is predicted by simulation. In this paper, Abaqus mesoscopic finite element simulation of lateral collapse of biaxial and triaxial braided composite tubes is carried out. Firstly, the specific material parameters of impregnated yarn and resin were determined by micro-scale periodic unit cell (RUC) model and experiment, and the material properties of resin matrix and impregnated yarn were defined. In the simulation, the resin failure process was simulated according to the ductility and shear damage criteria, and the damage of fiber reinforcement was predicted according to the Hashin criteria. The simulation results show a good correlation with the experimental results, indicating that the Abaqus simulation model established in this paper can further explain the bending damage evolution behavior of biaxial and triaxial braided pipes, and further understand the damage mechanism of braided composite tubes. At the same time, the addition of axial yarn greatly improves the bearing stress and energy absorption capacity of braided composite tube. Finally, the experimental and simulated damage profiles of the two samples were compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employed infrared thermography to investigate the fatigue properties of plain-woven composites under various off-axis orientations. The specimens underwent constant amplitude fatigue loading at stress levels set at 80%, 75%, and 70% of the ultimate tensile strength, maintaining a stress ratio of 0.1. The experimental findings indicated a decline in both tensile strength and fatigue life as the off-axis angle increased. Among the four off-axis specimens, only the 45° off-axis samples demonstrated stiffness enhancement under low-stress fatigue loading. This enhancement was attributed to the rotational reorientation of fibers, compensating for the stiffness reduction caused by fatigue damage. Infrared thermography identified damage in off-axis specimens primarily at the edges due to the free-edge effect. Furthermore, interrupted specimens were tested late in the fatigue life, revealing more pronounced damage at the specimen edges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A trajectory comparison method is proposed to study the impact of back-gate radiation on single-event effects (SEE) of ultrathin body and buried oxide (UTBB) fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) MOSFETs using Synopsys Sentaurus technology computer-aided design (TCAD) tools. Based on the series coupling capacitance model of the threshold voltage, the influence of device parameters such as buried oxide (BOX) thickness, ground plane doping and back biasing on the back-gate radiation effect is analyzed. The electrostatic potential difference between the BOX/substrate interface and substrate region decreases due to the reduced width of the substrate depletion region caused by back-gate radiation, leading to a positive shift in the threshold voltage and a decrease in the transient leakage current. The back-gate radiation effect is enhanced with reduced BOX layer thickness and ground-plane doping. UTBB FDSOI devices under reverse back biasing from 0 V to −0.5 V, which expands the depletion region, show a more dramatic decrease in the transient leakage current than those under forward back biasing. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the SEE mechanism of UTBB FDSOI devices and are helpful in radiation hardness optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the event-triggered quasi-synchronization for discrete Markov jump neural networks (MJNNs). Considering that the slave system cannot capture synchronously master system modes in real-world applications, a hidden Markov model is introduced to describe the resultant mode mismatches. To pursue a desired balance between the synchronization performance and the event-triggered transmission, a more general event-triggered protocol is constructed by developing the threshold parameter as a diagonal matrix. Subsequently, the sufficient condition for event-triggered quasi-synchronization of MJNNs is proposed with the assistance of Lyapunov techniques. Moreover, resorting to an iterative algorithm and the linear matrix inequality, the tighter error bound is obtained. Finally, a numerical example demonstrates effectiveness of the control scheme via a comparison of conservatism between the proposed approach and the existing one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mg/Al composites were successfully fabricated by the differential temperature + asymmetrical rolling (DTAR) and the isothermal + symmetrical rolling (ISR), respectively. The effects of DTAR and ISR on the tensile properties, bonding strength, interface morphology, and microstructure of composite plates were investigated. The results indicated that grains near the Mg layer of the Mg/Al interface were fine and equiaxed because of the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization on the Mg layer. In contrast, the grains at the center and near the Al side interface were elongated. DTAR enhanced the recrystallization degree of Mg side grains. The tensile properties and bonding strength of the composite plates increased gradually with increase in reduction rate, while the interface morphology was gradually flat with increase in reduction rate. The ultimate tensile strength of DTAR sample reaches 205 MPa, which is 25% higher than that of ISR sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methylene blue (MB), as a typical pollutant in industrial dyestuff wastewater, has caused serious water pollution. Therefore, reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/TiO2 nanocomposites were synthetized by a simple hydrothermal technique and used as photocatalyst to degrade MB. It was illustrated when TiO2 nanoparticles were loaded 5wt.% rGO framework, nanocomposite had a huge specific surface area of 176.45 m2 g−1 and the average pore size of 4.25 nm. Effects of the rGO fraction in rGO/TiO2 photocatalyst, the rGO/TiO2 photocatalyst content, the initial pH, and the initial MB concentration on MB degradation efficiency were studied. The degradation efficiency about 98.18% was acquired at 5rGO/TiO2 content of 0.4 g L−1, pH = 6, MB concentration of 60 mg L−1. The degradation efficiency of 5rGO/TiO2 for MB was still as high as 86.24% after the tenth cycles, demonstrating rGO/TiO2 nanocomposites were useful for the practical application. The potential photocatalytic mechanism of rGO/TiO2 for MB degradation was immediate oxidative degradation procedure, and the combined action of O 2 ∙ - , OH ∙ and h+ can contribute to the photocatalytic degradation of MB. Furthermore, the photocatalytic degradation kinetic of rGO/TiO2 for MB under UV irradiation was first-order model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low crystallization rate and long molding time of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) restricts its application in the field of engineering plastics. PET/graphene oxide (GO) composites were synthesized through in situ polymerization method with dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), ethylene glycol (EG) as reactants and GO as filler in order to overcome the above shortcomings. Influence of GO on the crystallization performance of PET was investigated. It was revealed GO raised the crystallization temperature and crystallization rate of PET, demonstrating the excellent nucleation capability of GO. The mechanism of PET nucleation induced by GO was investigated by Avrami equation and Hoffman-Lauritzen theory. It was obvious the crystallization behavior of PET was improved by reducing the free energy of nucleation and the fold surface free energy of PET caused by GO. Moreover, the non-isothermal kinetics of thermal decomposition of PET and PET/GO composites were studied by Friedman method. It was obvious that all of PET and PET/GO composites exhibited a fine thermal stability with no significant mass loss observed up to 370 °C (< 0.5%). The addition of GO improved the thermal stability of PET through raising the apparent activation energy, inhibiting the escape of volatile products and absorbing the degradation products in PET thermal decomposition procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical resistivity imaging seeks to reconstruct conductivity model of subsurface water-bearing body for disaster reduction and resource protection. Since its high non-linearity, the inverse problem relying mainly on linear least-square method may inclined to consider much deeper adoption of non-linear algorithm. Ant colony optimization (ACO) is a standard probabilistic algorithm used to find optimal paths. Since the direct application of the ACO is unstable, there are many false anomalies, and prior information needs to be applied according to the laws of physical properties. This study proposed a priori constrained approach to improving ant colony optimization method wherein prior information is included as regularization term in search process. First, we introduce foraging path smoothness into objective function to reduce non-uniqueness. On this basis, smooth constraint of resistivity is added into visibility and inequality constraint is added into pheromone intensity, by which some unnecessary nodes of foraging paths are avoided form selecting by ants. Finally, the strategy of global minimum is introduced in the process of updating pheromone. Forward modeling of each ant selected is parallel calculated via shared-memory computing strategy. Taking into account of those, the direction of global minimum is maintained and the search efficiency is improved greatly, which makes the constrained ACO feasible for the 3-D resistivity inversion. Both numerical experiments and field application is conducted to evaluate this method and illustrate that we can obtain the improved inversion results of subsurface water-bearing body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-voltage soft actuators with large displacement, long actuation durability, and fast response time have aroused great attention in soft robotics, wearable devices, haptic devices, and implantable or disposal biomedical devices. Herein, we report a low-voltage electroactive ionic soft actuator based on the sulfonated cellulose nanowhisker (SCN), microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), ionic liquids (IL), and graphene nanoplatelet (GN). The proposed SCN/MFC-IL-GN (0.1wt%) actuator demonstrated a large bending displacement (6.6 mm under ± 1 V sinusoidal input signal at 0.1 Hz, low driving voltage (as low as 0.25 V), wide actuation frequency (0.1 to 5.0 Hz), and long actuation durability (96.7% retention for 1 h), all of which stemmed from the strong crosslinking and ionic interactions among the functional sulfonated groups of SCN, hydroxyl groups of MFC, IL, and GN. Furthermore, the designed actuator was successfully employed to imitate the human finger's behaviors including turning on/off the flashlight and sliding electronic photographs on a smart phone screen. Therefore, the proposed SCN/MFC-IL-GN actuator has great potential in artificial muscles, soft robots, haptic devices, and wearable devices because of its low excitation voltage, large bending displacement, long actuation durability, and biofriendly property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is indispensable to explore the appropriate level of surface residual stress to enhance the wear resistance of coated tools. TiAlSiN-coated carbide tools with dissimilar surface residual compressive stresses (− 300 ~ − 600 MPa) are acquired via micro-sandblasting, which are used in the high-speed sliding friction experiments and turning experiments. The influence of residual stress on the sliding wear and cutting wear performance of TiAlSiN coated tools is investigated. The results show that with the improvement of surface residual compressive stress (absolute value), the friction coefficient and wear rate are reduced. The sliding wear resistance of the coated tool is enhanced. In addition, the cutting performance of the tool is also improved with the increase of residual compressive stress (absolute value). However, the excessive surface residual compressive stresses (absolute value) can lead to severe coating peeling, which in turn impairs the capability of wear resistance. The TiAlSiN-coated carbide tool with the stress of − 500 MPa presents the best wear resistance in the high-speed sliding wear and cutting wear process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We systematically investigated the coupling effects of the water-surface interactions and electric field on electrohydrodynamics behaviors of nanodroplets based on molecular dynamics simulations. The coupling effects have been not addressed in previous works. Our results indicate that the combination of the water–surface interactions with the electric field influences significantly the contact characteristics of droplets on the surface and their shape evolution. The droplets negligibly deform at weak electric field. The enhancement of the water-surface interactions remarkably increases the critical electric field to induce large deformation of droplets. The deflection of dipole orientation of the interfacial water molecules owing to the electric field is suppressed by improving the water-surface interactions. The average number of hydrogen bonds per interfacial water molecule increases with the surface-water interactions at fixed electric field. Additionally, the critical field strength inducing the decrease of the number of hydrogen bonds also increases due to the enhancement of the water–surface interactions. It can be related to the proportion of water molecules close to three phase boundary to the number of interfacial water molecules and the water density in the interfacial region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Previous studies have explored prediction value of serum metabolites in neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (NCRT) response for rectal cancer. To date, limited literature is available for serum metabolome changes dynamically through NCRT. Objectives: This study aimed to explore temporal change pattern of serum metabolites during NCRT, and potential metabolic biomarkers to predict the pathological response to NCRT in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) patients. Methods: Based on dynamic UHPLC-QTOF-MS untargeted metabolomics design, this study included 106 LARC patients treated with NCRT. Biological samples of the enrolled patients were collected in five consecutive time-points. Untargeted metabolomics was used to profile serum metabolic signatures from LARC patients. Then, we used fuzzy C-means clustering (FCM) to explore temporal change patterns in metabolites cluster and identify monotonously changing metabolites during NCRT. Repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and multilevel partial least-squares discriminant analysis (ML-PLS-DA) were performed to select metabolic biomarkers. Finally, a panel of dynamic differential metabolites was used to build logistic regression prediction models. Results: Metabolite profiles showed a clearly tendency of separation between different follow-up panels. We identified two clusters of 155 serum metabolites with monotonously changing patterns during NCRT (74 decreased metabolites and 81 increased metabolites). Using RM-ANOVA and ML-PLS-DA, 8 metabolites (L-Norleucine, Betaine, Hypoxanthine, Acetylcholine, 1-Hexadecanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, Glycerophosphocholine, Alpha-ketoisovaleric acid, N-Acetyl-L-alanine) were further identified as dynamic differential biomarkers for predicting NCRT sensitivity. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of prediction model combined with the baseline measurement was 0.54 (95%CI = 0.43 ~ 0.65). By incorporating the variability indexes of 8 dynamic differential metabolites, the prediction model showed better discrimination performance than baseline measurement, with AUC = 0.67 (95%CI 0.57 ~ 0.77), 0.64 (0.53 ~ 0.75), 0.60 (0.50 ~ 0.71), and 0.56 (0.45 ~ 0.67) for the variability index of difference, linear slope, ratio, and standard deviation, respectively. Conclusion: This study identified eight metabolites as dynamic differential biomarkers to discriminate NCRT-sensitive and resistant patients. The changes of metabolite level during NCRT show better performance in predicting NCRT sensitivity. These findings highlight the clinical significance of metabolites variabilities in metabolomics analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triaxial braided composites employed as structural components need to be drilled for mechanical connections. This study is to investigate the thrust force, temperature elevation, and drilling-induced damages with varying machining parameters in the drilling of triaxial braided CFRP. A high-resolution infrared thermography was carried out to capture the temperature of the panel side surface and the drill-exit surface of CFRP. The damage characteristic of drilled hole was evaluated, and a relationship between force, temperature, and hole damage was established. The obtained results indicate that the temperature of triaxial braided CFRP was mainly transferred along the fiber direction. The temperature isothermal at the drill-exit surface developed from polygonal to roughly circular with the increase of drilling depth. The braided yarns tended to deflect, and induced poorly cut fibers due to the more heat generation with the low feed, making the matrix behaved from brittle to ductile and therefore resulting in more burrs. The increase of spindle speed could restrain the burrs. A larger thrust force with high feed will result in fiber-resin debonding and more tearing defects. The delamination occurred at the interface of fiber bundles at the outermost layer with high thrust force and cracks propagated along the yarn direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel gas diffusion electrode (GDE) electrolyzer has been constructed to convert CO2 into CO, with chlorine (Cl2) and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) produced as the by-products. Using this method, the product value yielded from CO2 electrolysis can be increased substantially. In contrast to the conventional GDE electrolyzer, we use a cation-exchange membrane as the diaphragm to separate the cathode from the anode compartment, and use NaCl aqueous solution as the anolyte. During the electrolysis process, CO2 is reduced to CO on the cathode, with CO32− generated accompanied with CO formation. On the anode, Cl− is oxidized to Cl2. Na+ in the anode chamber transfers through the cation-exchange membrane, and migrates into the catholyte. Thus, Na2CO3 can be obtained owing to the co-existing of Na+ and CO32− in the catholyte. Using this method, CO32− penetrating through the anion-membrane can be avoided. This problem has been considered as the crucial obstacle that impedes the practical utilization of the conventional GDE electrolyzer. Our designed GDE electrolyzer has a promising application perspective in the phosgene chemical industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a green plasticizer, the industrial production of dioctyl terephthalate (DOTP) is still facing the problem of high energy consumption. To optimize the production process and reactor, it is essential to understand the kinetic behavior of reaction system. In this work, the two-step consecutive esterification of solid terephthalic acid (PTA) and 2-ethylhexanol (2-EH) catalyzed by tetrabutyl titanate was studied. First, the equilibrium constants and enthalpies of the two-step reaction were experimentally determined and validated by the group contribution methods. Then, a pseudohomogeneous kinetic model was developed, and the reaction order of PTA was corrected to reflect its solid phase characteristic. Non-isothermal kinetic experiments were carried out under different initial feed molar ratios and catalyst concentrations, and the kinetic parameters in the model were estimated by mathematical regression. The model predicted data agreed well with the experimental data. Finally, the analyses of reaction rate showed that the first-step reaction was the rate-controlling step of the whole esterification process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We dedicate to the investigation of asynchronous sliding mode control (SMC) for Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy Markov jump systems. By constructing a special threshold parameter, a novel dynamic event-triggered scheme (DETS) is proposed to save computation resources. Considering those data dropouts, time delays and environmental disturbances, we use hidden Markov model to represent the resultant asynchronization between the sliding mode controller and the controlled system. Then, by constructing the Lyapunov functional, we provide a sufficient condition for closed-loop system stochastic stability and deduce a SMC law with DETS. The system trajectories are forced into the proposed sliding manifold under the dynamic event-triggered SMC law. Finally, an illustrative example is provided, indicating that the presented theoretical results are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Halide perovskite nanocrystals are potential catalysts for CO2 photoreduction, while, the strong radiative recombination and insufficient stability limit their catalytic performance and application. Herein, we report that layered double hydroxide nanosheets activate CsPbBr3 nanocrystals (CLDH) for enhanced photocatalytic CO2 reduction. These CLDH heterojunctions show the remarkably enhanced CO2 photoreduction performance; without cocatalyst and sacrificial agent, the average electron consumption rate of CLDH (49.16 μmol·g−1·h−1) is approximately 3.7 times higher than that of pristine CsPbBr3. Also, CLDH catalyst exhibits a robust stability after ten cycles over 30 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The bioaccumulation of mercury (Hg) in aquatic ecosystem poses a potential health risk to human being and aquatic organism. Bioaccumulations by plankton represent a crucial process of Hg transfer from water to aquatic food chain. However, the current understanding of major factors affecting Hg accumulation by plankton is inadequate. In this study, a data set of 89 aquatic ecosystems worldwide, including inland water, nearshore water and open sea, was established. Key factors influencing plankton Hg bioaccumulation (i.e., plankton species, cell sizes and biomasses) were discussed. The results indicated that total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in plankton in inland waters were significantly higher than those in nearshore waters and open seas. Bioaccumulation factors for the logarithm of THg and MeHg of phytoplankton were 2.4–6.0 and 2.6–6.7 L/kg, respectively, in all aquatic ecosystems. They could be further biomagnified by a factor of 2.1–15.1 and 5.3–28.2 from phytoplankton to zooplankton. Higher MeHg concentrations were observed with the increases of cell size for both phyto- and zooplankton. A contrasting trend was observed between the plankton biomasses and BAFMeHg, with a positive relationship for zooplankton and a negative relationship for phytoplankton. Plankton physiologic traits impose constraints on the rates of nutrients and contaminants obtaining process from water. Nowadays, many aquatic ecosystems are facing rapid shifts in nutrient compositions. We suggested that these potential influences on the growth and composition of plankton should be incorporated in future aquatic Hg modeling and ecological risk assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic hydrogen production by overall water solar-splitting is a prospective strategy to solve energy crisis. However, the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs deeply restricts photocatalytic activity of catalysts. Here, the in-situ transient photovoltage (TPV) technique was developed to investigate the interfacial photogenerated carrier extraction, photogenerated carrier recombination and the interfacial electron delivery kinetics of the photocatalyst. The carbon dots/NiCo2O4 (CDs/NiCo2O4) composite shows weakened recombination rate of photogenerated carriers due to charge storage of CDs, which enhances the photocatalytic water decomposition activity without any scavenger. CDs can accelerate the interface electron extraction about 0.09 ms, while the maximum electron storage time by CDs is up to 0.7 ms. The optimal CDs/NiCo2O4 composite (5 wt.% CDs) displays the hydrogen production of 62 µmol·h−1g−1 and oxygen production of 29 µmol·h−1g−1 at normal atmosphere, which is about 4 times greater than that of pristine NiCo2O4. This work provides sufficient evidence on the charge storage of CDs and the interfacial charge kinetics of photocatalysts on the basis of in-situ TPV tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of fiber weave material is highly affected by the fiber orientation. This characteristic becomes obviously when we compare the composite laminates materials in different orientations of the same braiding mode, which leads to the anisotropy of the material mechanical properties. In this work, we propose a concise and efficient method for measuring the fiber orientation on plain weave carbon fiber and 2-D carbon fiber braided composites with angles. Our image acquisition method is making use of the phenomenon that the carbon fiber material has strong light specular reflection, image fusion algorithm perfect the texture of reflective part. Using image processing and computational geometry techniques to calculate the orientation. The results calculated are efficiency for fiber orientations with a remarkably stability. The method was built pure carbon fiber weave, with some small parameters tuning, it can be effectively applied to most plain weave carbon fiber and 2-D carbon fiber braided composites with angles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic oxidation of organic molecules into highly value-added products is an innovative and challenging research which has gradually attracted remarkable attention of scientists. In this work, it is demonstrated that the COF-TpPa with keto-enol tautomerism equilibrium structure shows excellent performance (yield>99% after 8 h) in the selective photocatalytic oxidative coupling of amines to imines under visible light irradiation. It is revealed that three kinds of reactive oxygen species (superoxide radical, hydroxyl radical and singlet oxygen) participate in this photocatalytic oxidation reaction. In addition, hydrogen protons cleaved from the benzyl are proven to be reduced to hydrogen in the conduction band of COF-TpPa in anaerobic atmosphere, accompanied with the formation of imines. The direct hydrogen evolution from amine provides an effective way to extract clean energy from organic molecule as well as the production of value-added chemicals. As a contrast, COF-LZU1 with similar structure and chemical composition to COF-TpPa but without keto-enol tautomerism exhibits worse optical properties and photocatalytic performance. It is also demonstrated that keto-enol tautomerism favors the adsorption of benzylamine based on the characterization results and theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient hydrogen production via photocatalysis with high utilization efficiency of Pt cocatalyst is of great importance for sustainable development. In this work, we report an in situ auto-reduction strategy to encapsulate highly dispersed Pt clusters inside the cages of MIL-125-NH2. The amino groups in MIL-125-NH2 first react with formaldehyde to form reducing groups (i.e.,–NH-CH2OH), which can in situ auto-reduce the confined Pt2+ ions to ultrasmall Pt clusters within the cavities. With optimized Pt content, photocatalytic H2 production over the obtained Pt(1.5)/MIL-125-NH-CH2OH catalyst with 1.43 wt.% Pt loading achieved as high as 4,496.4 µmol·g−1·h−1 under visible light (λ > 420 nm) due to the facilitated transfer and separation of the photo-induced charger carriers arising from the synergetic effects between highly dispersed Pt clusters and MIL-125-NH-CH2OH framework. This in situ auto-reduction strategy may be extended to encapsulate various kinds of metal or alloy clusters/nanoparticles within amino-functioned metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with superior properties and excellent performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient approaches for slope reliability computation with spatially variable soil properties are of great interest. In this paper, an advanced first-order second-moment method (AFOSM) combined with the limit equilibrium method (LEM) is adopted for efficient slope reliability analysis considering cross-correlated random fields of shear strength parameters. In the slope reliability analysis, random fields of the soil shear strengths are locally discretized along the slip surface. A systematic framework is presented for constructing a full correlation matrix incorporating both autocorrelation and cross correlation for the shear strength parameters in multiple soil layers, which could be useful for multi-layered slope reliability analysis involving cross-correlated spatially variable soil properties. A single-layered c–φ slope and a two-layered c–φ slope are investigated to illustrate and validate the proposed approach. As regards the examples, parametric studies show that slope reliability decreases with an increase in the autocorrelation distance and the cross-correlation coefficient between c and φ. Moreover, the effect of the vertical autocorrelation distance on the slope reliability is much more significant than that of the horizontal autocorrelation distance. The directly searched minimum reliability indices are all smaller than those computed with the deterministic critical slip surface. The slope reliability indices are affected by the number of slices, however, if a sufficient number of slices are used to represent the random field, increasing the number of slices does not significantly affect the reliability indices. The AFOSM is quite efficient for slope reliability analysis with spatially variable soil properties and its accuracy is satisfactory compared to the MCS. Although only a two-layered slope is considered in the illustrative example for convenient demonstration and easy understanding, the AFOSM is generally applicable to slopes with multiple soil layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we simulate the electrical characteristics of the n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) transistor in a 65-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) inverter under the actions of heavy ions with different linear energy transfers (LET). We analyze the influence of incident ions with different LETs on a device using technology computer-aided design (TCAD) software, and aim to establish an HSPICE sub-circuit model containing the relationship between the electrical properties of a device and the LET of an incident ion for circuit-level HSPICE simulation. Based on the SEE funnel mechanism, we propose an analytical model to describe the relationship between the charge collected by the NMOS drain and the LET of the incident ion, and build an HSPICE model based on this analytical model. With such a model, the influence of incident ions with different circuit-level LETs can be determined from HSPICE simulation. In addition, good agreement with simulation results is reached, proving the reasonableness of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiO2@TiO2-Ag (STA) microspheres decorated with Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were prepared and assembled into the photoanode. The photoanode composed of STA microspheres and TiO2 nanoparticles (P25) was prepared by doctor blade method. UV–vis measurement indicates that the introduction of a few STA microspheres observably enhances the light scattering and capturing ability of the photoanode. The photoelectric conversion efficiency of the DSSCs with 2wt% STA photoanode increased to 7.4% from 4.3% comparing with pure P25 TiO2 nanoparticles. The configuration DSSCs have the maximum short circuit current density (Jsc) of 16.0 mA cm−2 and open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.780 V, which are significantly higher than the pure TiO2 DSSCs. The significant improvement of the DSSCs performance can be due to the synergistic effect of the superior light scattering of STA and the localized surface plasma resonance (LSPR) effect of Ag NPs modified on the microspheres surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well-shaped sulfated titania nanofibers were prepared by impregnation of hydrogen titanate with (NH4)2S2O8 and calcination. Various characterization results showed that sulfated titania nanofibers consisted of smooth-surface and long-size fibers with the diameter of dozens of nanometers. Moreover, acid characteristics of sulfated titania nanofibers exhibited the high acid content, multi-strength acid sites and large Brønsted/Lewis acid ratio. In low-viscosity esterification, sulfated titania nanofibers had 1.2 ~ 2.1 times the reaction rate of other sulfated titania and other typical solid acids. Simultaneously, sulfated titania nanofibers possessed the higher DS value of product than those by other solid acids in highly viscous cellulose acetylation (2.41 versus 2.06 ~ 2.21). Besides these, sulfated titania nanofibers could show the excellent recycling performance in viscous acid-catalytic reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty will inevitably be introduced into the structural analysis, while randomness is an important manifestation of uncertainty. Based on the random field theory, the correlated random fields of the Koyna gravity dam were realized, and the influence of the randomness of material parameters on the nonlinear responses of the gravity dam was investigated. A concrete continuum crack model was employed to describe the nonlinear mechanical behavior of gravity dams under static and dynamic loads. To avoid the contingency caused by the initial random samples, the comparisons of the nonlinear dynamic responses of the dam are based on the statistical analysis of a large number of random fields. The parameter sensitivity analysis is first implemented, and then, the nonlinear responses of the proposed correlated random field model and the conventional random variable-based model are comprehensively compared. The analysis showed that the randomness and spatial correlation of materials would affect the seismic performance of gravity dams, which should be considered in structural design and seismic risk analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a graphene oxide nanoribbons/chitosan (GONRs/CTS) composite membrane was successfully prepared by encapsulating CTS into GONRs, which were unzipped from multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The GONRs/CTS composite membrane so prepared was characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The effects of the experimental conditions such as the pH (2‒7), adsorbent dosage (10‒50 mg), experimental time (5 min–32 h), uranium concentration (25‒300 mg∙L–1), experimental temperature (298 K‒328 K) on the adsorption properties of the composite membrane for the removal of U(VI) were investigated. The results showed that the U(VI) adsorption process of the GONRs/CTS composite membrane was pH-dependent, rapid, spontaneous and endothermic. The adsorption process followed the pseudosecondary kinetics and Langmuir models. The maximum U(VI) adsorption capacity of the GONRs/CTS composite membrane was calculated to be 320 mg∙g−1. Hence, the GONRs/CTS composite membrane prepared in this study was found to be suitable for separating and recovering uranium from wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the layoff behavior, a typical people dimension of corporate social performance (CSP), of family firms from a place-based perspective. We theorize that a place-based culture within family firms ensures that all organizational members share a deep sense of connection with the place of operations which makes them inherently care about their impact on society. Using data on layoffs of 2000 largest US firms between 1994 and 2007, we find that family firms do indeed exhibit a lower tendency to lay off employees in comparison to non-family firms; this relationship is particularly strong in 'places' with low population where the negative social externalities related to layoffs tend to be higher. Further post hoc analyses indicate that family firms have a strong place-based culture which can provide resource-based competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to control exoskeleton to act synchronously with the user for movement assistance. A knee exoskeleton was constructed for gait rehabilitation training, and a control method based on adaptive frequency oscillator (AFO) was presented for swing motion of knee exoskeleton. Firstly, during the learning mode, the user flexed and extended with the exoskeleton leg together, and the exoskeleton leg was not actuated. The phase of the exoskeleton angle extracted, and the envelope curve of the user's EMG is generated based on AFO. Then, during power-assisted mode, the assistive torque is generated according to the angle phase on-line and the restructuring muscle torque. At last, the assistive torque as a feedback signal was input to the admittance model for the swing control of the knee exoskeleton. The experiments of swing control showed that knee exoskeleton can follow the user's motion well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endotoxemia induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is an extremely severe syndrome identified by global activation of inflammatory responses. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) play an important role in the development of endotoxemia. Histone hypercitrullination catalyzed by peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs) is a key step of NET formation. We have previously demonstrated that simultaneous inhibition of PAD2 and PAD4 with pan-PAD inhibitors can decrease NETosis and improve survival in a mouse model of LPS-induced endotoxic shock. However, the effects of PAD2 specific inhibition during NETosis and endotoxic shock are poorly understood. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate the effect of the specific PAD2 or PAD4 inhibitor on LPS-induced endotoxic shock in mice. We found that PAD2 inhibition but not PAD4 inhibition improves survival. Also, the levels of proinflammatory cytokines and NETosis were significantly reduced by PAD2 inhibitor. To our knowledge, this study demonstrates for the first time that PAD2 inhibition can reduce NETosis, decrease inflammatory cytokine production, and protect against endotoxin-induced lethality. Our findings provided a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of endotoxic shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the application of semi-theoretical models to predict peak discharges for breached embankment dams, it is often encountered to be lack of necessary model parameters such as breach height. In order to solve this deficiency and improve the application of the semi-theoretical models for estimating the peak discharge, a mathematical relation is proposed to predict the breach height (Hb) using the water depth above breach bottom (Hw) based on a subset of a composite database (72 historical dam failures). The breach height relation has a high coefficient of determination (R2) when it is applied in the composite database. Using the prediction by the breach height relation as a substitute for the observation, these semi-theoretical models used here produce similar results in terms of both prediction accuracy and uncertainty. Moreover, the dispersion of the flood peak discharge predicted by forecasting models is weakened and the skewness is improved by adopting the breach height relation. Therefore, the application of semi-theoretical models to predict peak discharges can be improved obviously. So, it is found that the breach height using the proposed relation can be a satisfactory substitute when the observed value of Hb is unavailable in a dam failure. Besides, the prediction accuracy will decrease slightly with the increase of database, but the decrease is limited. It should be noted that the proposed breach height relation is only suitable for predicting the height of embankment dam breach in principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transverse bending damage morphologies of carbon fiber composite tubes with different ply structures were investigated by the micro-XCT characterization. Structural effects of the plain, twill and winding on the damage mechanism were analyzed. The experimental results present fiber-resin cracking, interlayer delamination and fiber tows breakage with structural deformation from the peak load to final catastrophic failure. Woven fabric plies in the plain and twill composite tubes cannot be effectively slipped because of their tight interlaced structures, which makes the load propagate along the warp and weft fiber tows, resulting in more fiber tows breakage under bending-induced stretching. There is no interlaced effect on the failure mechanism for the winding tubes, resulting in a fact that the bending load can only be transferred from the fiber-resin or the layer-to-layer interface, with more interlaminar slippage and obvious springback behaviors under in-plane shear. For investigating the interlaced effect on failure mechanism, plain and winding models under transverse bending were established using continuous shell elements, and different constitutive description were used to simulate interlayer failure and intra-layer failure behaviors. By comparing the numerical results with the experimental ones, the influence of the fabric structure on the failure behavior of the tube were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to reduce the potential toxicity to the environment after treatment of radioactive waste water, an eco-friendly graphene oxide nanoribbons/chitosan (GONRs-CTS) composite was prepared and utilized for adsorption of Th(IV) from aqueous solution. The GONRs-CTS adsorbent was characterized by XRD, FTIR and SEM, indicating that GONRs-CTS contains a large amount of oxygen-containing groups and chitosan was successfully attached to the GONRs surface. The Th(IV) adsorption on GONRs-CTS was endothermic and spontaneous, with the maximum single layer adsorption capacity was 140.6 mg g−1 at pH = 3.0, in the contact time of 12 h. The adsorption process was consistent with pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Langmuir isotherm model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) with anti-CD19 have shown great promise in the treatment of relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is the most significant and life-threatening side effect. This individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis is to investigate the association of severe CRS with CAR-T dose and baseline factors.Methods: We collected the individual patient-level data of 237 patients with NHL or ALL from 16 published papers. A logistic model was used to analyze the association of severe CRS incidence with CAR-T dose and baseline factors including age and baseline tumor burden. A generalized additive model (GAM) with logit link function was used to estimate the nonlinear response for severe CRS incidence with CAR-T dose and baseline factors.Results: Severe CRS incidence was positively associated with current proposed CAR-T treatment infusion dose at a range of 0.2 × 106-5.0 × 106 T cells per kg of body weight in patients less than or equal to 25 years old. For patients over 25 years old the association was not significant. Significant association between severe CRS incidence and baseline tumor burden was also shown in this study.Conclusions: Our results provide novel insights that association between CAR-T treatment dose and severe CRS incidence only exists in patients less than or equal to 25 years old. Severe CRS incidence is associated with baseline tumor burden which indicates that tumor burden needs to be controlled with induced chemotherapy before CAR-T treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel numerical simulation framework using meso-scale finite element model is developed to predict the mechanical properties and damage mechanisms for one-layer biaxial braided composite tubes with gradient braided structures in axial direction, which involves braided reinforcements with an evolution of braiding angle. To bridge the relationships between the braiding procedure and geometric model, this paper develops an automatic algorithm that generates the geometric model with requiring braiding parameters as input parameters. The braided fabric model is generated by circularly arraying the yarn model, which is established by sweeping varying cross-sections along the centerline with the control of guidelines. The geometric model of matrix pockets is obtained by extracting the fabric model from the whole geometric model of composite tube. After that, a braiding yarn mesh in hexahedron format and co-node matrix mesh in tetrahedron format are generated from the assembled braided fabric and matrix pockets. The framework established in this paper is validated by comparison with the experimental results of the composite tubes with braiding angles from 36.6° to 49.6° subjected to quasi-static axial compression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the radial gradient structural effect on energy absorption and failure behavior of braided composite tubes. Two-layer tubular braided fabrics were fabricated using over-braiding technology with three types of radial gradient configurations in terms of uninform, descending and ascending pattern. The structure of surface layer touching with indenter roll was found to have a significant role on the bending behavior and failure mode. The composite tube possessing the small angle surface layer tends to fail in top-surface mode characterized by compression damage in contact area between indenter roll and tube. With the increasing of the braiding angle in surface layer, the bottom-surface failure mode characterized by penetrating crack in circumferential direction was observed, which accompanies abruptly loading drop and loss of energy absorption capacity. In addition, the tube in descending gradient pattern contributes to higher flexural modulus and peak load due to high fiber volume fraction, while keeps top-surface failure mode because of load spreading ability provided by surface layer with small braiding angle. The results show that a proper selection of stacking sequence and braiding angle in multi-layer braided tube is capable of effectively enhancing the energy absorption of tubal structures under bending load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Anastomotic leakage is still one of the most dreaded complications after anterior resection for rectal cancer. This study aimed to identify risk factors for anastomotic leakage and to create a nomogram for precise prediction of anastomotic leakage after anterior resection for rectal cancer.Methods: Two thousand six hundred eighteen consecutive patients who underwent anterior resection for rectal cancer with primary anastomosis, with or without diverting stoma, were retrospectively analyzed as a training dataset. Univariate and multivariable Cox regression analyses were used to determine independent risk factors associated with anastomotic leakage. A nomogram was constructed to predict anastomotic leakage. Data containing 611 patients were prospectively collected as a test dataset. The performance of the nomogram was evaluated by using a bootstrapped-concordance index and calibration plots.Results: The rate of clinical anastomotic leakage was 9.3% in the training dataset. Multivariate analysis identifies the following variables as independent risk factors for anastomotic leakage: gender (male) (odds ratio (OR) = 2.286), distance of tumor to anal verge (OR = 0.791), tumor size (OR = 1.175), operating time (OR = 1.009), diabetes mellitus (OR = 1.704), laparoscopic surgery (OR = 0.445), anastomotic bleeding (OR = 13.46), and diverting stoma (OR = 0.386). We created a nomogram with high discriminative ability (concordance index, 0.722). The area under the curve value, which evaluated the predictive performance of external validation, was 0.723.Conclusions: A protective diverting stoma and laparoscopic surgery significantly decrease the risk of anastomotic leakage. Our nomogram was a useful tool for precise prediction of anastomotic leakage after anterior resection for rectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics and mechanism of single-event transients in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) were analyzed using Sentaurus technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations based on the bipolar amplification effect. The results show that a typical single pulse mode of the transient leakage current is observed. The peak current and collected charge increase approximately linearly with increase of the linear energy transfer. The electric field in the depletion region of the FinFET body-drain junction increases significantly when the drain bias increases, resulting in a sharp increase in the drift current until reaching the saturation state. The variation of the bipolar gain and transient current with the position of incidence of the particle shows good consistency, reaching a maximum in the FinFET drain region, which indicates that the drain depletion region of SOI FinFETs is most sensitive to heavy-ion irradiation due to the bipolar amplification effect. The bipolar gain increases with decrease of the gate length and increase of the fin height and width. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds light on the incongruent findings concerning the relationship between family involvement and firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR). While prior studies have mainly taken the perspective of families’ socioemotional wealth preservation, we approach this relationship from the perspective of behavioral agency theory, highlighting the important role played by CEOs’ family memberships. Specifically, we posit that family firms are more likely to invest in CSR when their CEOs are members of the controlling families. Furthermore, we examine how family firms can employ long-term incentives to encourage non-family CEOs to act in the interests of the controlling families to preserve SEW and thus enhancing family firms’ CSR performance. We tested our hypotheses using hand-collected data of family firms included in the S&P 500 index, in the period of 2003-2010. The empirical findings support our hypotheses that (a) family firms with family members as the CEOs have better CSR performance and (b) family firms tend to provide a high level of long-term incentives to non-family than family CEOs. In addition, long-term incentives strongly motivate CEOs to improve firms’ CSR performance, regardless of their family memberships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper investigates the lateral performance of temporary structures, which consist of slender members and corresponding joints, under both vertical and horizontal loads. The ultimate bearing capacity, failure modes and the strain distribution of members are illustrated. Experimental results indicate that the lateral stability of the temporary structures is weaker than the vertical stability. Diagonal bracings are the main load-bearing members which resist horizontal loads while the horizontal bars are used to keep stress low. Based on the joint mechanical parameters and the probabilistic models of initial geometric imperfection, the stochastic finite element models (SFEMs) using the Monte Carlo method have been established. The models can consider the semi-rigid performances of joints and initial geometric imperfection. The numerical results demonstrate consistency with structural tests data. Moreover, the influences of structural layers and spans are analysed based on the SFEM. Multiple factors, including spans, layers and upper vertical loads, should be considered when the lateral capacity of temporary structures is calculated. A rapid prediction formula of the lateral stability of temporary structure has been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]