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Although lithium metal is an ideal anode material for achieving high-energy-density lithium-based batteries, the uneven deposition/exfoliation process of lithium during cycling easily triggers the formation of lithium dendrites and dead lithium, which leads to a low Coulombic efficiency and safety issues. In this paper, a lithiophilic 3D copper mesh current collector is designed by using lithiophilic ZnO and pulsed current plating and is applied to a lithium metal battery composite anode. Under the action of the pulsed current field, the novel lithium metal composite anode battery achieved the homogeneous deposition of lithium ions. The lithium-to-copper half cells assembled with the 3DM Cu/ZnO current collector from the pulsed current deposition presented a Coulombic efficiency as high as 97.8% after 1 min of activation at 3 mA cm−2 follow by 10 cycles at a stripping current of 0.5 mA cm−2. Moreover, the symmetric cell could be stable for 1500 h at 1 mA cm−2 with a limited capacity of 1 mAh cm−2, and the assembled full cell (LiFePO4 as the cathode) maintained a Coulombic efficiency of about 90% for the 30th cycle at 1 C. This novel mechanism is an advanced strategy to improve cyclic stability and is crucial for designing stable lithium metal batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mathematical model for the pre-cooling process was established to solve the problems of the long pre-cooling time and uncertain parameters of cryogenic propellant tanks. The pre-cooling parameters of a 300 m3 liquid hydrogen tank at several cooling rates were calculated and analyzed. The results show that the liquid hydrogen flow required to pre-cool the gas in the tank, tank wall, accessories, and interlayer thermal insulation materials increases first and then decreases and that the liquid hydrogen flow needed to offset the heat leakage gradually increases with the temperature reduction. When the average cooling rate rose from 0.1 K/min to 1 K/min, the pre-cooling time was shortened from 2730 min to 273 min, and the consumption of liquid hydrogen decreased from 2115 kg to 2091 kg. Among the various heat loads, the inner tank wall and accessories consumed the most significant proportion of liquid hydrogen, accounting for 87.84% to 88.61%. The cooling capacity was derived from the liquid hydrogen's evaporation and the cryogenic hydrogen gas's heating process, of which the liquid hydrogen accounted for 23.00%. Considering the principle of safe operation, it is recommended that stepped pre-cooling in two or three stages based on the maximum cooling rate is conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A recent study reported that papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) was associated with increased adrenergic nerve density. Meanwhile, emerging evidence suggested that tumor-innervating nerves might play a role in shaping the tumor microenvironment. We aimed to explore the potential interaction between neuronal markers and tumor microenvironmental signatures through a transcriptomic approach. Methods: mRNA sequencing was conducted using five pairs of PTC and adjacent normal tissues. The Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA) was performed to calculate enrichment scores of gene sets related to tumor-infiltrating immune cells and the tumor microenvironment. The potential interaction was tested using the expression levels of a series of neuronal markers and gene set enrichment scores. Results: PTC tissues were associated with increased enrichment scores of CD8 T cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, mast cells, and checkpoint molecules. The neuronal marker for cholinergic neurons was positively correlated with CD8 T cell activation, while markers for serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons showed an inverse correlation. Conclusion: Distinct neuronal markers exerted different correlations with tumor microenvironmental signatures. Tumor-innervating nerves might play a role in the formation of the PTC microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite progress in the past decades, 3D shape acquisition techniques are still a threshold for various 3D face-based applications and have therefore attracted extensive research. Moreover, advanced 2D data generation models based on deep networks may not be directly applicable to 3D objects because of the different dimensionality of 2D and 3D data. In this work, we propose two novel sampling methods to represent 3D faces as matrix-like structured data that can better fit deep networks, namely (1) a geometric sampling method for the structured representation of 3D faces based on the intersection of iso-geodesic curves and radial curves, and (2) a depth-like map sampling method using the average depth of grid cells on the front surface. The above sampling methods can bridge the gap between unstructured 3D face models and powerful deep networks for an unsupervised generative 3D face model. In particular, the above approaches can obtain the structured representation of 3D faces, which enables us to adapt the 3D faces to the Deep Convolution Generative Adversarial Network (DCGAN) for 3D face generation to obtain better 3D faces with different expressions. We demonstrated the effectiveness of our generative model by producing a large variety of 3D faces with different expressions using the two novel down-sampling methods mentioned above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium–sulfur batteries have emerged as one of the promising next-generation energy storage devices. However, the dissolution and shuttling of polysulfides in the electrolyte leads to a rapid decrease in capacity, severe self-discharge, and poor high-temperature performance. Here, we demonstrate the design and preparation of a Mo2C nanoparticle-embedded carbon nanosheet matrix material (Mo2C/C) and its application in lithium–sulfur battery separator modification. As a polar catalyst, Mo2C/C can effectively adsorb and promote the reversible conversion of lithium polysulfides, suppress the shuttle effect, and improve the electrochemical performance of the battery. The lithium–sulfur battery with the Mo2C/C =-modified separator showed a good rate of performance with high specific capacities of 1470 and 799 mAh g−1 at 0.1 and 2 C, respectively. In addition, the long-cycle performance of only 0.09% decay per cycle for 400 cycles and the stable cycling under high sulfur loading indicate that the Mo2C/C-modified separator holds great promise for the development of high-energy-density lithium–sulfur batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impurity detection is an important link in the chain of food processing. Taking walnut kernels as an example, it is difficult to accurately detect impurities mixed in walnut kernels before the packaging process. In order to accurately identify the small impurities mixed in walnut kernels, this paper established an improved impurities detection model based on the original YOLOv5 network model. Initially, a small target detection layer was added in the neck part, to improve the detection ability for small impurities, such as broken shells. Secondly, the Tansformer-Encoder (Trans-E) module is proposed to replace some convolution blocks in the original network, which can better capture the global information of the image. Then, the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) was added to improve the sensitivity of the model to channel features, which make it easy to find the prediction region in dense objects. Finally, the GhostNet module is introduced to make the model lighter and improve the model detection rate. During the test stage, sample photos were randomly chosen to test the model's efficacy using the training and test set, derived from the walnut database that was previously created. The mean average precision can measure the multi-category recognition accuracy of the model. The test results demonstrate that the mean average precision (mAP) of the improved YOLOv5 model reaches 88.9%, which is 6.7% higher than the average accuracy of the original YOLOv5 network, and is also higher than other detection networks. Moreover, the improved YOLOv5 model is significantly better than the original YOLOv5 network in identifying small impurities, and the detection rate is only reduced by 3.9%, which meets the demand of real-time detection of food impurities and provides a technical reference for the detection of small impurities in food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

West Nile virus (WNV) causes annual outbreaks globally and is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in Unite States. In the absence of licensed therapeutics, there is an urgent need to develop effective and safe human vaccines against WNV. One of the major safety concerns for WNV vaccine development is the risk of increasing infection by related flaviviruses in vaccinated subjects via antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). Herein, we report the development of a plant-based vaccine candidate that provides protective immunity against a lethal WNV challenge mice, while minimizes the risk of ADE for infection by Zika (ZIKV) and dengue (DENV) virus. Specifically, a plant-produced virus-like particle (VLP) that displays the WNV Envelope protein domain III (wDIII) elicited both high neutralizing antibody titers and antigen-specific cellular immune responses in mice. Passive transfer of serum from VLP-vaccinated mice protected recipient mice from a lethal challenge of WNV infection. Notably, VLP-induced antibodies did not enhance the infection of Fc gamma receptor-expressing K562 cells by ZIKV or DENV through ADE. Thus, a plant-made wDIII-displaying VLP presents a promising WNV vaccine candidate that induces protective immunity and minimizes the concern of inducing ADE-prone antibodies to predispose vaccinees to severe infection by DENV or ZIKV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrate accumulation is a major factor for the secondary salinization of greenhouse soil in China. Our previous study pointed out that a low ratio of red:far-red light (R:FR) can improve salt tolerance in pakchoi under excessive nitrate stress. However, the nitrogen metabolism mechanism is still unclear. To detect the effect of a low R:FR ratio on nitrogen metabolism of pakchoi under excessive nitrate stress, two extra additions of nitrogen of 80 mmol·L−1 NO3− (H80) and 160 mmol·L−1 NO3− (H160) with/without a low R:FR ratio (R:FR = 0.7) were set, and the growth index, chlorophyll content, key enzymes in nitrogen metabolism, nitrate and glutamic acid content and NRT gene expression level of pakchoi leaves were examined. The results indicated that a low ratio of R:FR could alleviate the reduction in growth and chlorophyll content in pakchoi under high-level nitrogen stress (H80 and H160). The activity of nitrate reductase (NR), glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamine synthetase (GOGAT) decreased under H80 and H160 conditions, except of NR with the H80 treatment. The activity of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) increased under H80 treatment, but decreased under H160 treatment. However, the activity of GDH decreased further by reducing the ratio of R:FR. Excessive nitrate stress increased the nitrate content, and a low R:FR ratio could inhibit nitrate accumulation. However, the change in glutamic acid content was significantly increased under a low R:FR ratio without stress. Under the high-nitrogen level treatment (H160), the use of a low ratio of R:FR increased NRT gene expression. Therefore, a low R:FR ratio (R:FR = 0.7) could effectively promote the growth of pakchoi and improve its nitrogen metabolism, thus alleviating the stress effect of a high level of nitrogen in pakchoi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The detection of bifenthrin is closely related to the adsorption of SERS substrates. In this study, superparamagnetic Fe3O4@Au MNPs coated with GO were used to detect the adsorption and enrichment of bifenthrin molecules with benzene rings. Firstly, the thermal solvent method synthesized Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) with a particle size of ~250 nm. Next, polyethylene imide (PEI) was used as an intermediate layer to modify the surface of Fe3O4 to form a positively charged ultra-thin polymer middle layer. Next, the gold shell was developed by adsorption of ~20 nm AuNPs, without affecting the magnetic properties. Then, the additional amount of colloidal gold and GO on SERS performance was systematically studied. Using crystal violet (CV) as the probe, we investigated the SERS performance of composite nanomaterials. The lowest detected concentration reached 10−8 mol/L, confirming that the composite functional material had good SERS activity and magnetic properties. Finally, the substrate was used to detect bifenthrin in an acetone solution, and the lowest detection concentration was 10−8 mol/L. These results showed that the prepared GO/Fe3O4@Au MNPs were efficient SERS substrates that could detect bifenthrin pesticide residue with high sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: The microstructural alterations of the peripapillary choriocapillaris in high myopes remain elusive. Here, we used optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) to explore factors involved in these alterations. (2) Methods: This cross-sectional control study included 205 young adults' eyes (95 with high myopia and 110 with mild to moderate myopia). The choroidal vascular network was imaged using OCTA, and the images underwent manual adjustments to determine the peripapillary atrophy (PPA)-β zone and microvascular dropout (MvD). The area of MvD and the PPA-β zone, spherical equivalent (SE), and axial length (AL) were collected and compared across groups. (3) Results: The MvD was identified in 195 eyes (95.1%). Highly myopic eyes exhibited a significantly greater area for the PPA-β zone (1.221 ± 0.073 vs. 0.562 ± 0.383 mm2, p = 0.001) and MvD (0.248 ± 0.191 vs. 0.089 ± 0.082 mm2, p < 0.001) compared with mildly to moderately myopic eyes, and a lower average density in the choriocapillaris. Linear regression analysis showed that the MvD area correlated with age, SE, AL, and the PPA-β area (all p < 0.05). (4) Conclusions: This study found that MvDs represent choroidal microvascular alterations in young-adult high myopes, which were correlated with age, SE, AL, and the PPA-β zone. In this disorder, OCTA is important for characterizing the underlying pathophysiological adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil structure and its change are good indicators for soil quality and environmental stability, and land-use change is known to be an important factor that affects soil structure. We investigated the seasonal and temporal variability in the soil structure and evaluated soil erodibility under different land-use and land-management practices in the Mollisols region of Northeast China. We considered five land-use and land-management modes in the sloping land (5°), i.e., bare land (BL), natural vegetation restoration (NVR), artificial forest (AF), no-tillage (NT), and conventional tillage (CT). The bulk density (BD), aggregate size distribution, and aggregate stability (AS) were determined for each mode. Meanwhile, we estimated the runoff depth (RD) and sediment yield (SY) to assess the soil erodibility. The lowest BD in CT occurred in May, but no seasonal change in BD was observed in other treatments. After 15 years, the NVR and CT had increased BD values, while the BD of NT declined significantly over time. The >2 mm size fractions and the AS of NVR, NT, and CT were the largest in August, while those of BL decreased during the growing season. Furthermore, the >2 mm size fractions and the AS of BL, NT, and CT decreased over the long-term study period, but NVR and AF exhibited no significant inter-annual changes in the AS. The BD and AS in NVR and AF were greater than those in BL. After 15 years, the BD of NT and CT were not significantly different, but NT had a greater AS. The AS was greater in the subsurface soil than in the topsoil of NT and CT. Moreover, the NVR and NT had significantly reduced RD and SY compared with BL and CT. These results provide a scientific basis for choosing sustainable agriculture and land development modes to control soil erosion in Northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene and graphene-based materials gifted with high electrical conductivity are potential alternatives in various related fields. However, the electrical conductivity of the macro-graphene materials is much lower than their metal counterparts. Herein, we improved the electrical conductivity of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) based graphene assembled films (GAFs) by applying a series of compressive stress and systematically investigated the relationship between the compressive stress and the electrical conductivity. The result indicates that with increasing applied compressive stress, the sheet resistance increased as well, while the thickness decreased. Under the combined effect of these two competing factors, the number of charge carriers per unit volume increased dramatically, and the conductivity of compressed GAFs (c-GAFs) showed an initial increasing trend as we applied higher pressure and reached a maximum of 5.37 × 105 S/m at the optimal stress of 450 MPa with a subsequent decrease with stress at 550 MPa. Furthermore, the c-GAFs were fabricated into strain sensors and showed better stability and sensitivity compared with GAF-based sensors. This work revealed the mechanism of the tunable conductivity and presented a facile and universal method for improving the electrical conductivity of macro-graphene materials in a controllable manner and proved the potential applications of such materials in flexible electronics like antennas, sensors, and wearable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Late Paleozoic is an important epoch of coal-bed accumulation in the North China, particularly in its western segment, where a world-class coal field has been found and exploited for three decades. Coal-bearing layers recorded rapid Late Carboniferous to Early Permian sea-level rise that led to the evolution of the shallow marine tidal flat basin, followed by regression that resulted in the formation of deltaic facies. However, little attention has been paid to the tectonic factors that assisted in the coal accumulation processes, which have been demonstrated worldwide to be pivotal. In this study, we evaluate the significant influence of southward subduction of the middle segment of the Paleo-Asian Ocean (PAO) during Carboniferous to Early Permian deposition of coal-bearing neritic to deltaic successions in the western North China Block (NCB). We pinpoint a direct link between basin-filling evolution of the northwestern Ordos Basin and the progressive uplift of the Inner Mongolia continental arc triggered by the south-dipping subduction of the Solonker ocean plate. Sedimentary facies variation and paleocurrent reconstruction indicate sedimentary routing from the north to northeast. The petrology and detrital zircon geochronology of sampled sandstones indicate evolving provenances from a dominated cratonic basement to a mixed orogen and continental arc. The Carboniferous samples are generally quartz arenites and contain a large number of Archean to Paleoproterozoic zircons with small amounts of Paleozoic arc pluton components, indicating sediment supply dominated by the western NCB Precambrian basement. In contrast, the youngest sample of the Shanxi Formation is sub-litharenite, the age spectrum of which is characterized by the dominance of ca. 450 and 270 Ma ages, indicative of a high influx of Paleozoic arc detritus. This shift in sandstone petrology, detrital zircon distribution, and depositional setting allows us to link the shoaling of the Ordos Basin with mountain building and the unroofing of the continental arc, which enhances our understanding of both the subduction of the PAO and coal accumulation in the NCB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is aimed at developing novel analytical methods to accurately visualize the spatial distribution of various endogenous components in Arctium lappa L. (A. lappa) roots, and to precisely guide the setting of pre-treatment operations during processing technologies and understand plant metabolism process. The matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) imaging technology was used for visual demonstration of the in situ spatial distribution in A. lappa roots. This work consisted of four steps: matrix selection, section preparation, matrix coating, and MALDI-TOF MS imaging analysis. Consequently, eight saccharides, four caffeoylquinic acids, four flavonoids, six amino acids, one choline, and one phospholipid were imaged and four unidentified components were found. Saccharides were distributed in the center, whereas caffeoylquinic acids and flavonoids were mainly present in the epidermis and cortex. Furthermore, amino acids were mainly detected in the phloem, and choline in the cambium, while phosphatidylserine was found in the secondary phloem and cambium. This study demonstrated that MALDI-TOF MS imaging technology could provide a technical support to understand the spatial distribution of components in A. lappa roots, which would promote the processing technologies for A. lappa roots and help us to understand the plant metabolism process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentration distribution is essential for the emergency disposal of cryogenic fuel leakage. In the dispersion process of cryogenic gas, its concentration is greatly influenced by the atmospheric water vapor. The authors have presented an adiabatic mixing model to derive the concentration of the cryogenic gas, in which the value of water vapor density is obtained by referring to the NIST database continuously. However, it is difficult to achieve fast system response times for real-time monitoring systems when calling NIST. Thus, a simple algebraic model of water vapor density with high calculation efficiency is necessary. Based on the detection of temperature and the solution of water vapor partial pressure, a calculation model was developed. For a given initial ambient temperature and relative humidity, the dew point could be solved by Qian's correlation. By temperature comparisons of the mixture cloud, dew point, and triple point, the water vapor partial pressure can be calculated by the Goff–Gratch formulation. Then, the water vapor density during the temperature declining process can be derived via EOS. The results show that the model has high estimation accuracy, and has a close mean deviationof 0.08%to the IAPWS 95 of 0.03%. The increase in the computation efficiency was confirmed as +67% under nine testing points. The model facilitates the engineering utilization of the adiabatic mixing model for cryogenic fuel leakage monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the interfacial properties between the electrode materials and current collectors plays a significant role in lithium-ion batteries. Here, four kinds of electrolytic copper foils with roughness (Rz) values of 1.2, 1.5, 2.2, and 2.8 μm were prepared via an electropolishing technique. Reducing the roughness of the electrolytic copper foil can effectively improve the wettability of the anode slurry. The electrolytic copper foil with a roughness value of 1.2 μm shows the best coating uniformity of the graphite anode slurry. The battery with this electrolytic copper foil (Rz = 1.2 μm) as the current collector exhibits fifth-cycle capacities of 358.7 and 102.5 mAh g−1 at 0.2 and 3.0 C, respectively, showing excellent rate capability. In addition, at 0.5 C, the battery exhibits an initial discharge capacity of 319.5 mAh g−1 and a 100th-cycle capacity retention rate of 98.1%, demonstrating a high level of cycling performance. These results indicate that reducing the roughness of electrolytic copper foil can provide a feasible route to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer has been the most common cancer in women worldwide, and metastasis is the leading cause of death from breast cancer. Even though the study of breast cancer metastasis has been extensively carried out, the molecular mechanism is still not fully understood, and diagnosis and prognosis need to be improved. Breast cancer metastasis is a complicated process involving multiple physiological changes, and lung, brain, bone and liver are the main metastatic targets. Exosomes are membrane-bound extracellular vesicles that contain secreted cellular constitutes. The biogenesis and functions of exosomes in cancer have been intensively studied, and mounting studies have indicated that exosomes play a crucial role in cancer metastasis. In this review, we summarize recent findings on the role of breast cancer-derived exosomes in metastasis organotropism and discuss the potential promising clinical applications of targeting exosomes as novel strategies for breast cancer diagnosis and therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-source datasets, including the UAV-Lidar/Photogrammetry, InSAR, and field investigation data, have been used for revealing the complex surface displacement pattern and focal mechanism of the 2021 Maduo Mw 7.3 earthquake. First, a co-seismic surface deformation field was extracted from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images captured by ALOS-2 and Sentinel-1 satellites. Second, the SAR pixel offset tracking results were adopted to detect the initial location of the seismogenic fault. Then, the Lidar digital elevation model with high spatial resolution and field investigation were employed to refine and verify the location of the seismogenic fault. It was found that bifurcated strike-slip rupture should account for the 2021 Maduo earthquake. As indicated by the estimated faulting model based on the InSAR data, the maximal fault slip was ~6.2 m, occurring in the southeast of the main seismogenic fault, and five remarkable slip concentrations controlled the surface displacement of the 2021 Maduo earthquake. Furthermore, the co- and post-seismic InSAR deformation, dilatation, shear strain, Coulomb failure stress, and aftershock sequence suggest that the co-seismic rupture of the two main seismogenic faults have triggered the aseismic slip along the Changmahe fault. Lastly, according to the Coulomb failure stress change due to the historical earthquakes and the 2021 Maduo earthquake, the 1937 M 7.8 earthquake predominantly controlled the Coulomb failure stress change along the Kunlun fault, and the Xidatan-Alake Lake and Maqin segments had a higher risk of future earthquake than the other segments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shaft stability plays an important role in mine safety. Most of the previous studies focused on the stress analysis of shafts using monitoring data. Since the shaft wall state in the deep topsoil stratum is still not clear, the ultimate analysis method is adopted to study the bearing capacity and the strain of a large-diameter shaft wall in Yanzhou coal mine. First, the bearing capacity of the shaft wall is discovered. The value of the auxiliary shaft, main shaft and ventilating shaft is 22.22 MPa, 22.07 MPa and 21.73 MPa, respectively. Then, the ultimate strain of the shaft wall is obtained; the designed ultimate strain corresponding to those shafts is 1.468‰, 1.458‰ and 1.435‰, while the working ultimate strain is 2.078‰, 1.800‰ and 2.638‰, respectively. Since the working values are greater than the design values, the shaft walls need to be reinforced, which is consistent with the field situation. Finally, numerical analysis based on the finite difference method (FDM) is performed to investigate the evolution process of ultimate strain on the shaft wall. The results show the ultimate strain could provide a theoretical basis for safe service and management of a large-diameter shaft in a deep topsoil area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combination of microfluidic technology and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has the advantages of being label-free, fingerprint spectroscopy, and high sensitivity, which giving the combination great potential for rapid trace-level biological and environmental analysis. In this review, we summarized the recent progress in these two fields, e.g., microfluidics and SERS, including the basic strategies of a simple and versatile microfluidic-SERS detection system and its wide-ranging applications. Moreover, we listed the main challenges and future directions of the microfluidic-SERS systems; proposed on-chip applications beyond SERS; developed a more efficient, more sensitive, and more convenient microfluidic-SERS system; and formed a more complete on-site real-time detection technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an artificially synthesized perfluorinated chemical widely used in industries. It is often released into the environment without treatment, which causes pollution in groundwater. Recently, we have reported a rapid and efficient removal of PFOA in aqueous solution by using a fountain-strip dielectric barrier discharge reactor (SF-DBD). This design allows for the gaseous–liquid interaction to happen in a large space at atmospheric pressure, so it is a promising method to efficiently remove PFOA from water. Recently, we reported the effects of the process parameters, including power mode, pulse time, sinusoidal wave discharge, the discharge gas, initial concentration, pH, conductivity, and positive and negative discharges, on the efficiency of this method for PFOA degradation. Understanding the reaction mechanism is key to further improve the efficiency of the system. In this work, we reported the decomposition mechanism of the SF-DBD for PFOA degradation. The mass spectrum (MS) showed that PFOA was degraded to perfluoroheptanoic acid, perfluorohexanoic acid, perfluoropentanoic acid, perfluorobutanoic acid, perfluoropropionic acid, and trifluoroacetic acid after the plasma treatment. The optical emission spectroscope (OES) and the radical scavenger experiments indicated that the excited argon atoms and hydroxyl radicals played a major role in PFOA degradation, while the contributions from the solvated electrons (e−aq), superoxide anion radical (·O2−), and singlet oxygen (1O2) were negligible in initiating the cleavage reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth traits are crucial economic traits in the commercial pig industry and have a substantial impact on pig production. However, the genetic mechanism of growth traits is not very clear. In this study, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) based on the specific-locus amplified fragment sequencing (SLAF-seq) to analyze ten growth traits on 223 four-way intercross pigs. A total of 227,921 highly consistent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) uniformly dispersed throughout the entire genome were used to conduct GWAS. A total of 53 SNPs were identified for ten growth traits using the mixed linear model (MLM), of which 18 SNPs were located in previously reported quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions. Two novel QTLs on SSC4 and SSC7 were related to average daily gain from 30 to 60 kg (ADG30–60) and body length (BL), respectively. Furthermore, 13 candidate genes (ATP5O, GHRHR, TRIM55, EIF2AK1, PLEKHA1, BRAP, COL11A2, HMGA1, NHLRC1, SGSM1, NFATC2, MAML1, and PSD3) were found to be associated with growth traits in pigs. The GWAS findings will enhance our comprehension of the genetic architecture of growth traits. We suggested that these detected SNPs and corresponding candidate genes might provide a biological foundation for improving the growth and production performance of pigs in swine breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the characteristics of radio frequency dielectric barrier discharge (RF-DBD) using argon doped with nitrogen at atmospheric pressure, electrical and optical diagnoses of the discharge with different nitrogen ratios from 1% to 100% were carried out, and the self-organizing form of the filamentous plasma was studied through a transparent water electrode. At the same time, an ICCD camera was used to study the spatiotemporal evolution filamentous discharge during one cycle. Different from discharge using pure argon, using argon doped with nitrogen made the discharge change from glow discharge to filamentous discharge when the voltage increased to a certain value, and a higher nitrogen ratio made the filaments thicker and more sparsely arranged. Under different input power and nitrogen content conditions, several forms of glow discharge, hexagonal/irregularly arranged filamentous discharge and local filamentous discharge were obtained, all of which have potential applications to reduce the high cost of using inert gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work analyzed changes in the corrosion morphology and mechanical performance of 7085 aluminum alloy after outdoor exposures for different times in a humid and hot marine atmospheric environment. After one month of exposure, a pronounced corrosion of the alloy was observed. The corrosion product was mainly Al(OH)3, and the corrosion features were mainly pitting corrosion and intergranular corrosion (IGC). With the exposure time extended from 6 months to 12 months, the IGC depth increased from 114 μm to 190 μm. After a 1-year outdoor exposure in a humid and hot marine environment, the alloy's ultimate strength and yield stress remained nearly unchanged, while its elongation and area reduction decreased from the original 6% and 9%, respectively, to 3% and 5%. Moreover, the reasons for IGC and its effect on the mechanical performance was analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is still a key process in the modern refining area, in which nickel-contamination for an FCC catalyst could obviously increase the dry gas and coke yields and thus seriously affect the stability of the FCC unit. From the points of surface acidity modification and Ni-passivation, in this paper, a boron-modified FCC catalyst (BM-Cat) was prepared using the in situ addition method with B2O3 as a boron source and emphatically investigated its mechanism and performance of anti-nickel contamination. The mechanism research results suggested that, in calcination, boron could destroy the structure of the Y zeolite and thus decrease the total acid sites and strong acid sites of the Y zeolite from 291.5 and 44.6 μmol·g−1 to 244.2 and 32.1 μmol·g−1, respectively, which could obviously improve the dry gas and coke selectivity of the catalyst and thus enhance the nickel capacity for BM-Cat; on the other hand, under hydrothermal conditions, boron could react with NiO and form into NiB2O4, which could obviously raise the range of the reduction temperature for NiO from 350–600 °C to 650–800 °C and thus promote the nickel-passivation ability for BM-Cat. Therefore, evaluation results of heavy oil catalytic cracking indicated that, under the same nickel-contamination condition, in contrast to the compared catalyst (C-Cat), the dry gas yield, coke yield, and H2/CH4 of BM-Cat obviously decreased by 0.77 percentage points, 2.09 percentage points, and 13.53%, respectively, with light yield and total liquid yield increasing by 3.25 and 2.08 percentage points, respectively, which fully demonstrates the excellent anti-nickel contamination performance of BM-Cat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast and effective cleanup of oil spills remains a global challenge. A modified commercial sponge with superhydrophobicity, strong absorption capacity, outstanding magnetic response, and fire resistance were fabricated by a facile and inexpensive route of dip-coated melamine sponge carbonization. The low-cost petroleum asphaltene and kaolin nanoparticles were used as the dip-coating reagent. High absorption capacity of the fabricated sponges allowed rapid and continuous removal of oil contaminants. Taking advantage of the good refractory property, the sponges can be used in burning conditions and directly reused after burning out of the absorbed oil. Reusability tests showed that the modified sponges still maintained high absorption capacity (>85%) after six regeneration and reuse cycles. These characteristics make the fabricated sponge a promising aid to promote effective in situ burning cleanup of oil spills, contributing as a magnetic oil collector and a fire-resistant flexible boom. An example usage scenario of the sponges applied to in situ burning cleanup of oil spills is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of rare earth permanent magnet (PM) materials, more and more attention has been paid to the permanent magnet electrodynamic suspension (PM-EDS) structure. In this paper, the plate-type PM-EDS structure with an adjustable deflection angle of PM is researched, and the size of the PM is optimized. First, the second-order vector potential (SOVP) equation is established, and the analytical solutions of the electromagnetic forces and magnetic fields of the PM-EDS structure are obtained by analytical calculation. Secondly, the accuracy and reliability of the analytical model are verified by comparing the analytical calculation results with the finite element analysis (FEA) calculation results. Finally, the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm is used to optimize the size of the PM. The optimization results prove that the lift-to-drag ratio and lift-to-weight ratio of the suspension system are improved. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for the design of a PM-EDS train. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of manipulators can improve sustainable energy utilization efficiency and increase sustainable manufacturing practices for solar tracking systems and manufactures, and thus it is significant to guarantee a high tracking accuracy for manipulators. In this paper, an error-tracking adaptive iterative learning control (AILC) method is proposed for a constrained flexible-joint manipulator (FJM) with initial errors. Due to the existence of the repeated positioning drift, the accuracy of the actual manipulator and the sustainable energy utilization efficiency are affected, which motivates the error-tracking approach proposed in this paper to deal with the repeat positioning problem. The desired error trajectory is constructed, such that the tracking error can follow the desired error trajectory without arbitrary initial values and iteration-varying tasks. Then, the system uncertainties are approximated by the capability of fuzzy logic systems (FLSs), and the combined adaptive laws are designed to update the weight and the approximating error of FLSs. Considering the safety operation of the flexible-joint manipulator, both input and output constraints are considered, a quadratic-fractional barrier Lyapunov function (QFBLF) is constructed, such that the system output is always within the constrained region. Therefore, the proposed method can guarantee the output tracking accuracy of manipulators under arbitrary initial values and iteration-varying tasks and keep the system output within the constraints to improve the transient performance, such that the energy utilization and accessory manufacturing efficiency can be improved. Through the Lyapunov synthesis, it is proved that the tracking error can converge to zero as the number of iterations goes to infinity. Finally, comparative simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polysaccharides found in Lentinula edodes have a variety of medicinal properties, such as anti-tumor and anti-viral effects, but their content in L. edodes sporophores is very low. In this study, Fe2+ was added to the liquid fermentation medium of L. edodes to analyze its effects on mycelial growth, polysaccharide and enzyme production, gene expression, and the activities of enzymes involved in polysaccharide biosynthesis, and in vitro antioxidation of polysaccharides. The results showed that when 200 mg/L of Fe2+ was added, with 7 days of shaking at 150 rpm and 3 days of static culture, the biomass reached its highest value (0.28 mg/50 mL) 50 days after the addition of Fe2+. Besides, Fe2+ addition also enhanced intracellular polysaccharide (IPS) and exopolysaccharide (EPS) productions, the levels of which were 2.98- and 1.79-fold higher than the control. The activities of the enzymes involved in polysaccharides biosynthesis, including phosphoglucomutase (PGM), phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), and UDPG-pyrophosphorylase (UGP) were also increased under Fe2+ addition. Maximum PGI activity reached 1525.20 U/mg 30 days after Fe2+ addition, whereas PGM and UGP activities reached 3607.05 U/mg and 3823.27 U/mg 60 days after Fe2+ addition, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient showed a strong correlation (p < 0.01) between IPS production and PGM and UGP activities. The corresponding coding genes of the three enzymes were also upregulated. When evaluating the in vitro antioxidant activities of polysaccharides, EPS from all Fe2+-treated cultures exhibited significantly better capacity (p < 0.05) for scavenging -OH radicals. The results of the two-way ANOVA indicated that the abilities of polysaccharides to scavenge O2− radicals were significantly (p < 0.01) affected by Fe2+ concentration and incubation time. These results indicated that the addition of iron provided a good way to achieve desirable biomass, polysaccharide production, and the in vitro antioxidation of polysaccharides from L. edodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban water bodies have a cooling effect and alter the local urban thermal environment. However, current research is unclear regarding the relationships between factors such as the spatial density, area proportion, and distribution pattern of water bodies and the cooling effect of water on the local thermal environment. To clarify these relationships, it is critical to quantify and evaluate the influence these factors have on the cooling effect of water in the urban landscape. Therefore, we analyzed the cooling effect of different water bodies on the local thermal environment at the microscale by comparing their area proportions and distribution patterns using numerical simulations. Furthermore, we analyzed the day–night variation in the cooling effect of urban water bodies with different areas and distribution patterns. We used the area proportion, separation index (SI), and landscape shape index (LSI) to indicate the layouts of water bodies. The results showed that the cooling effect of a water body was higher during the day than at night. These results also showed that area proportion and LSI were positively correlated with the water body's cooling effect. However, the efficiency of the cooling effect gradually decreased with increasing area proportion. When the LSI increased, more areas within the region displayed larger cooling effect values, but the uniformity of the regional cooling diminished. Additional results showed that the cooling effect had no significant positive correlation with SI. A moderate SI could enhance the uniformity of the cooling effect in the region and link the cooling effect between water patches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anguillid herpesvirus 1 (AngHV) is an important viral pathogen affecting eel. This study was designed to investigate the potential molecular mechanisms and immune response elicited at the protein levels in the skin mucus of AngHV-infected Anguilla anguilla. Tandem mass tag (TMT)-labelling proteomics with the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for performing quantitative identification of the proteins. In addition, the quantitative protein amount was detected by parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) analysis. A total of 3486 proteins were identified, of which 2935 were quantified. When a protein fold change was greater than 1.3 or less than 0.76, it indicated a differentially expressed protein (DEP). Overall, 187 up-regulated proteins and 126 down-regulated proteins were detected, and most of the DEPs were enriched in the CAMs pathway, intestinal immune pathway, herpes simplex virus 1 infection pathway, phagosome pathway and p53 signaling pathway. The results of the DEPs detected by PRM were highly consistent with the results of the TMT-labelled quantitative proteomic analysis. The findings of this study provide an important research basis for further understanding the pathogenesis of AngHV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improvement of both the stability and economy of the four in-wheel motor drive (4IWMD) electric vehicle under complex drive cycles is currently a difficult problem in this field. A torque distribution method with the comprehensive goals of optimal torque distribution and energy efficiency, considering economy through energy efficiency for the 4IWMD electric vehicle, is proposed in this paper. Each component of the 4IWMD electric vehicle is modelled. The dynamic programming (DP) control algorithm is utilized for torque distribution between the front and rear in-wheel motors to obtain optimal torque distribution and energy efficiency in the 4IWMD electric vehicle. The simulation is performed on a co-simulation platform with the software of AVL Cruise and MATLAB/Simulink, considering a straight road. Compared to the fuzzy logic control algorithm, the simulation results are very promising, as the energy consumption of the electric vehicle was reduced by 22.68%, 20.73% and 21.84% under the WLTC, NEDC and customized IM240 driving cycle conditions, respectively, with the proposed DP control algorithm. The hardware-in-the loop (HIL) experimental results also indicate that the effectiveness of the proposed DP algorithm is verified under the NEDC, WLTC and IM240 driving cycles, when a straight road is considered. The proposed DP control algorithm not only reduces the vehicle energy consumption and guarantees the optimization of torque distribution, but also increases the driving range of the vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous pathogen that threats the majority of the world's population. Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP-1) and protein poly (ADP-ribosyl)ation (PARylation) regulates manifold cellular functions. The role of PARP-1 and protein PARylation in HCMV infection is still unknown. In the present study, we found that the pharmacological and genetic inhibition of PARP-1 attenuated HCMV replication, and PARG inhibition favors HCMV replication. PARP-1 and its enzymatic activity were required for efficient HCMV replication. HCMV infection triggered the activation of PARP-1 and induced the translocation of PARP-1 from nucleus to cytoplasm. PARG was upregulated in HCMV-infected cells and this upregulation was independent of viral DNA replication. Moreover, we found that HCMV UL76, a true late protein of HCMV, inhibited the overactivation of PARP-1 through direct binding to the BRCT domain of PARP-1. In addition, UL76 also physically interacted with poly (ADP-ribose) (PAR) polymers through the RG/RGG motifs of UL76 which mediates its recruitment to DNA damage sites. Finally, PARP-1 inhibition or depletion potentiated HCMV-triggered induction of type I interferons. Our results uncovered the critical role of PARP-1 and PARP-1-mediated protein PARylation in HCMV replication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EWT zeolite belongs to ultra-large pore zeolite with the 10MR and 21MR channels, which has good thermal stability, certain acid strength and good application prospects in petroleum refining and petrochemical reactions. However, EWT zeolite has fewer medium/strong acid sites, especially Brönsted acid sites, which makes it difficult to apply to acid-catalyzed reactions. The regulation of acid amount and distribution was achieved by boron and aluminum substitution into the siliceous framework of EWT. The physico-chemical properties of the samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, N2 adsorption-desorption, XRF, ICP, Py-IR, NH3-TPD and 11B & 27Al & 29Si MAS NMR. The results show that quantities of boron and aluminum elements can occupy the framework of [B,Al]-EWT to increase the density of medium and strong acid centers, with more acidity and Brönsted acid centers than EWT zeolite. In the reaction of glycerol with cyclohexanone, the conversion of the sample (U-90-08-10/U-90-H-HCl) is significantly higher than that of the EWT sample, approaching or exceeding the Beta zeolite. A catalytic activity study revealed a direct correlation between the Brönsted acidic site concentration and the activity of the catalyst. The U-90-08-10-H catalyst was also considerably stable in the catalytic process. This work shows, for the first time, that extra-large pore zeolites can be used in industrial acid-catalytic conversion processes with excellent catalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a thermal-switchable metamaterial absorber (TSMA) based on the phase-change material of vanadium dioxide (VO2). VO2 thin film was deposited on sapphire substrate by magnetron sputtering followed by vacuum annealing treatment. Then, the prepared VO2 film was sliced into tiny chips for thermal-switchable elements. The surface structure of TSMA was realized by loading four VO2 chips into a square metallic loop. The absorption frequency of TSMA was located at 7.3 GHz at room temperature and switched to 6.8 GHz when the temperature was heated above the critical phase transition temperature of VO2. A VO2-based TSMA prototype was fabricated and measured to verify this design. The design is expected to be used in metasurface antennas, sensors, detectors, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban residential building layouts have an impact on air temperature and thermal comfort. Research has shown that poorly designed building layouts can lead to thermal discomfort. Thus, it is crucial to analyze the relationship between residential building layouts and air temperature. We used the ENVI-met 3D microclimate model to simulate six typical residential building layouts and explore the diurnal and seasonal variations in air temperature. In addition, we used the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) as the evaluation index for the thermal comfort of different building layouts. The diurnal results showed that the air temperature of the parallel layout rose faster and fell faster, and these changes were more significant in summer. The results of the air temperature classifications indicated that the frequency of low-air-temperature areas in the parallel layout is approximately 12% smaller than that of the enclosed and semi-enclosed layouts, and the high-air-temperature area frequency is 11% higher than that of the enclosed and semi-enclosed layouts in summer. In winter, the frequency of low-air-temperature areas in the parallel layout is approximately 7% smaller than that of the enclosed and semi-enclosed layouts, and the high-air-temperature area frequency is 5% higher than that of the enclosed and semi-enclosed layouts. In combination with the PET results, we found that the enclosed layout is the optimal configuration. Moreover, in some cases, increased building height and vegetation lead to a reduction in air temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, research regarding the changes of the sulfur and nitrogen rates in Wuhan during the summer is limited. In this study, we analyzed the air quality in Wuhan, China, using water-soluble ion, gaseous precursor, and weather data. A Spearman correlation analysis was then performed to investigate the temporal changes in air quality characteristics and their driving factors to provide a reference for air pollution control in Wuhan. The results indicate that SO2 in the atmosphere at Wuhan undergoes secondary conversion and photo-oxidation, and the conversion degree of SO2 is higher than that of NO2. During the summers of 2016 and 2017, secondary inorganic atmospheric pollution was more severe than during other years. The fewest oxidation days occurred in summer 2020 (11 days), followed by the summers of 2017 and 2014 (25 and 27 days, respectively). During the study period, ion neutralization was the strongest in summer 2015 and the weakest in August 2020. The aerosols in Wuhan were mostly acidic and NH4+ was an important neutralizing component. The neutralization factors of all cations showed little change in 2015. K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ level changes were the highest in 2017 and 2020. At low temperature, high humidity, and low wind speed conditions, SO2 and NO2 were more easily converted into SO42− and NO3−. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional optical fiber-based twist sensing has the disadvantage of low sensitivity and difficulty of distinguishing the twist direction. Moreover, chiral isomerism may lead to sensing errors. In this paper, a six-hole helical microstructured optical fiber (HMSF) with a thin-gold-film-coat based on the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect was designed. The twist sensing characteristics of this fiber were further analyzed. Numerical calculation and analysis show that the combination of helical effect and SPR effect can design an HMSF-based sensor that is very sensitive to distortion. In the torsion range of ±300°, the distortion sensitivity can reach 2470.7 pm/(rad/m), and the linear correlation coefficient is 0.99996. Based on the special sensing mechanism, it has a good linear coefficient over a large range. Additionally, the direction of the twist can be easily discerned. The HMSF in this work not only has high sensitivity, high linearity, high fault tolerance rate, and a wide range of measurement, but is also easy to manufacture. Therefore, it is promising in the field of twist sensing and has a good application prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of vehicle–guideway coupled self-excited vibration is common in maglev train systems, which has a serious impact on the stability of maglev trains. The lower the track stiffness, the more likely it is to occur, the greater the harm to the maglev system, and the greater the difficulty in suppressing the vibration. To solve this problem, many conventional control schemes rely on the estimation of electromagnetic forces. However, considering the magnetic leakage flux in the suspension air gap and other reasons, the empirical electromagnetic force model is inaccurate, which increases the difficulty of suspension control under low track stiffness. Therefore, a more accurate electromagnetic force model based on least squares fitting is proposed in this paper, which can estimate the electromagnetic force more accurately without increasing the computational cost. On this basis, a control scheme based on feedback linearization theory was designed, and the control effect was tested on an experimental platform with low track stiffness. The experimental results showed that the proposed control scheme could achieve stable suspension with low track stiffness and could effectively solve the vehicle–guideway coupled vibration problem with a strong anti-interference ability. The research in this paper is of great significance for solving the problem of vehicle–guideway coupled vibration under low track mass/stiffness, which is believed to be used in the light-weight girders in the next generation of commercial maglev systems. This work also has an important reference value for suspension control algorithms based on electromagnetic force feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an artificially synthesized per-fluorinated chemical widely used in industry. It is often released into the environment without treatment and causes pollution in groundwater. In this paper, we employed a strip fountain dielectric barrier discharge (SF-DBD) plasma source to degrade PFOA from the water. The effects of power supply mode, discharge gases, pH, the conductivity of the solution, concentration, etc., on the degradation efficiency were studied. For a 200 mL sample of 75 mg/L PFOA, a 99% degradation efficiency with a 204.5 μg/kJ energy production rate was achieved using an average power of 43 W negative pulse argon plasma for 50 min at atmospheric pressure. The total organic carbon concentration (TOC) decreased by 63% after a 60 min treatment. The SF-DBD proves to be a promising and energy-saving technique to efficiently remove PFOA from water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CH4/CO2 replacement is of great significance for the exploitation of natural gas hydrate resources and CO2 storage. The feasibility of this method relies on our understanding of the CH4/CO2 replacement efficiency and mechanism. In this study, CH4/CO2 replacement experiments were carried out to study the distribution characteristics of CH4 and CO2 in hydrate-bearing sediments during and after replacement. Similar to previously reported data, our experiments also implied that the CH4/CO2 replacement process could be divided into two stages: fast reaction and slow reaction, representing CH4/CO2 replacement in the hydrate-gas interface and bidirectional CH4/CO2 diffusion caused replacement, respectively. After replacement, the CO2 content gradually decreased, and the methane content gradually increased with the increase of sediment depth. Higher replacement percentage can be achieved with higher replacement temperature and lower initial saturation of methane hydrate. Based on the calculation of CO2 consumption amounts, it was found that the replacement mainly took place in the fast reaction stage while the formation of CO2 hydrate by gaseous CO2 and water almost runs through the whole experimental process. Thus, the pore scale CH4/CO2 replacement process in sediments can be summarized in the following steps: CO2 injection, CO2 diffusing into sedimentary layer, occurrence of CH4/CO2 replacement and CO2 hydrate formation, wrapping of methane hydrate by mixed CH4-CO2 hydrate, continuous CO2 hydrate formation, and almost stagnant CH4/CO2 replacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building change detection is a prominent topic in remote sensing applications. Scholars have proposed a variety of fully-convolutional-network-based change detection methods for high-resolution remote sensing images, achieving impressive results on several building datasets. However, existing methods cannot solve the problem of pseudo-changes caused by factors such as "same object with different spectrums" and "different objects with same spectrums" in high-resolution remote sensing images because their networks are constructed using simple similarity measures. To increase the ability of the model to resist pseudo-changes and improve detection accuracy, we propose an improved method based on fully convolutional network, called multitask difference-enhanced Siamese network (MDESNet) for building change detection in high-resolution remote sensing images. We improved its feature extraction ability by adding semantic constraints and effectively utilized features while improving its recognition performance. Furthermore, we proposed a similarity measure combining concatenation and difference, called the feature difference enhancement (FDE) module, and designed comparative experiments to demonstrate its effectiveness in resisting pseudo-changes. Using the building change detection dataset (BCDD), we demonstrate that our method outperforms other state-of-the-art change detection methods, achieving the highest F1-score (0.9124) and OA (0.9874), indicating its advantages for high-resolution remote sensing image building change detection tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) shows promising perspectives explored in lighting, optical sensors, and biological therapies. Due to their unique feature of intense emissions in aggregated solid states, it smoothly circumvents the weaknesses in fluorescent dyes, which include aggregation-caused quenching of emission and poor photobleaching character. However, our present knowledge of the AIE phenomena still cannot comprehensively explain the mechanism behind the substantially enhanced emission in their aggregated solid states. Herein, to systematically study the mechanism, the typical AIEgens tetraphenylethene (TPE) was chosen, to elucidate its photophysical properties, the TPE in THF/H2O binary solvents, TPE in THF solvents depending on concentration, and the following direct conversion from a dissolved state to a precipitated solid state were analyzed. Moreover, the TPE derivatives were also investigated to supply more evidence to better decipher the generally optical behaviors of TPE and its derivatives. For instance, the TPE derivative was homogeneously dispersed into tetraethyl orthosilicate to monitor the variance of photophysical properties during sol–gel processing. Consequently, TPE and its derivatives are hypothesized to abide by the anti-Kasha rule in dissolved states. In addition, the factors primarily influencing the nonlinear emission shifting of TPE and its derivatives are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new energy source, gas hydrates have attracted worldwide attention, but their exploration and development face enormous challenges. Thus, it has become increasingly crucial to identify hydrate distribution accurately. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) can be used to detect the distribution of hydrate deposits. An ERT inversion network (ERTInvNet) based on a deep neural network (DNN) is proposed, with strong learning and memory capabilities to solve the ERT nonlinear inversion problem. 160,000 samples about hydrate distribution are generated by numerical simulation, of which 10% are used for testing. The impact of different deep learning parameters (such as loss function, activation function, and optimizer) on the performance of ERT inversion is investigated to obtain a more accurate hydrate distribution. When the Logcosh loss function is enabled in ERTInvNet, the average correlation coefficient (CC) and relative error (RE) of all samples in the test sets are 0.9511 and 0.1098. The results generated by Logcosh are better than MSE, MAE, and Huber. ERTInvNet with Selu activation function can better learn the nonlinear relationship between voltage and resistivity. Its average CC and RE of all samples in the test set are 0.9449 and 0.2301, the best choices for Relu, Selu, Leaky_Relu, and Softplus. Compared with Adadelta, Adagrad, and Aadmax, Adam has the best performance in ERTInvNet with the optimizer. Its average CC and RE of all samples in the test set are 0.9449 and 0.2301, respectively. By optimizing the critical parameters of deep learning, the accuracy of ERT in identifying hydrate distribution is improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the yield behavior of a woven carbon-fiber-reinforced silicon-matrix (C/SiC) composite under dynamic tensile loading. Experiments were carried out to obtain the tensile properties of the C/SiC composite at a strain rate range of 2 × 10−5/s to 99.4/s. A strain-rate-dependent yield criterion based on the distortional strain energy density theory is established to describe the yield behavior. The interval uncertainty is considered for a more reliable yield prediction. Experimental results show that the yield stress, elastic modulus, and yield strain of the C/SiC composite grow with the increasing strain rate. The failure mode transitions from progressive crack extension to uneven fiber bundle breakage. The predicted results by the yield criterion match well with experimental data. Experimental results are enveloped within the uncertainty level of 45% in the critical distortional energy density, corresponding to an uncertainty of 14% and 11% in the yield stress and yield strain, respectively. With the support of the proposed strain-rate-dependent yield criterion, the yield behavior of the C/SiC composite under dynamic loading conditions can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Histone demethylase JMJD2D is a multifunctional epigenetic factor coordinating androgen receptor activation, DNA damage repair, DNA replication, cell cycle regulation, and inflammation modulation. JMJD2D is also a well-established epigenetic facilitator in the progression of multiple malignant tumors, especially in colorectal cancer (CRC) and hepatocellular cancer (HCC). This review aims to summarize the mechanisms of JMJD2D in promoting CRC and HCC progression, which provides novel ideas for targeting JMJD2D in oncotherapy. JMJD2D promotes gene transcription by reducing H3K9 methylation and serves as a coactivator to enhance the activities of multiple carcinogenic pathways, including Wnt/β-catenin, Hedgehog, HIF1, JAK-STAT3, and Notch signaling; or acts as an antagonist of the tumor suppressor p53. Posttranslational modifications (PTMs) of histones are well-established contributors in a variety of biological functions, especially tumorigenesis. Histone demethylase JMJD2D (also known as KDM4D), a member of the JMJD2 subfamily, promotes gene transcription by antagonizing H3K9 methylation. JMJD2D is an epigenetic factor coordinating androgen receptor activation, DNA damage repair, DNA replication, and cell cycle regulation. Recently, the oncogenic role of JMJD2D in colorectal cancer (CRC) and hepatocellular cancer (HCC) has been recognized. JMJD2D serves as a coactivator of β-catenin, Gli1/2, HIF1α, STAT3, IRF1, TCF4, and NICD or an antagonist of p53 to promote the progression of CRC and HCC. In this review, we summarize the molecular mechanisms of JMJD2D in promoting the progression of CRC and HCC as well as the constructive role of its targeting inhibitors in suppressing tumorigenesis and synergistically enhancing the efficacy of anti-PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]