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In this paper, the (signless) Laplacian spectral moment of a uniform hypergraph is expressed by the parameters of some subhypergraphs and the trace of its adjacency tensor. For d = k + 2 , ... , 2 k , we give the explicit expression of the d -th order (signless) Laplacian spectral moment of a k -power hypergraph, which is represented by the vertex degrees of graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the demand of outdoor displays grows, light-emitting diodes characterized by multifunction with water resistance, anti-reflection, and self-cleaning have gradually become an important and active research area. Herein, the rose petal epidermal microstructures have been employed as inspiration in flexible semitransparent encapsulation for quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs). This bio-inspired encapsulation not only effectively blocks the water and oxygen, but is easily self-cleaned by removing the physically adhered dusts because of its superhydrophobic surface. Moreover, the rose petal-inspired encapsulation also possesses strong anti-reflection ability for visible light due to its microstructure engraved on the surface. As a result, the semitransparent QLEDs with the rose petal-inspired encapsulation show a high brightness of 28637 cd/m2 as well as excellent self-cleaning and anti-reflection capacities. Thus, this work offers an effective encapsulation strategy for QLEDs and also other flat-panel light-emitting diodes to adapt to outdoor applications via utilizing biological microstructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show how all eigenvalues of a power hypergraph G (k) can be generated from the eigenvalues of signed subgraphs of the underlying graph G. This fixes an incorrect statement in the case of power hypergraphs from Cardoso et al. (2020) [1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of microplastics in the ecological environment, serving as carriers for other organic pollutants, has garnered widespread attention. These microplastics exposed in the environment may undergo various aging processes. However, there is still a lack of information regarding how these aged microplastics impact the environmental behavior and ecological toxicity of pollutants. In this study, we modified polystyrene microplastics by simulating the aging behavior that may occur under environmental exposure, and then explored the adsorption behavior and adsorption mechanism of microplastics before and after aging for typical triazine herbicides. It was shown that all aging treatments of polystyrene increased the adsorption of herbicides, the composite aged microplastics had the strongest adsorption capacity and the fastest adsorption rate, and of the three herbicides, metribuzin was adsorbed the most by microplastics. The interactions between microplastics and herbicides involved mechanisms such as hydrophobic interactions, surface adsorption, the effect of π-π interactions, and the formation of hydrogen bonds. Further studies confirmed that microplastics adsorbed with herbicides cause greater biotoxicity to E. coli. These findings elucidate the interactions between microplastics before and after aging and triazine herbicides. Acting as carriers, they alter the environmental behavior and ecological toxicity of organic pollutants, providing theoretical support for assessing the ecological risk of microplastics in water environments. [Display omitted] • Heat, UV, biological, and combined aging treatments were applied to polystyrene. • The adsorption capacity of aged polystyrene is greater than that of the original. • Adsorption involves hydrophobicity, hydrogen bonds, π-π, and surface interactions. • Aged polystyrene's toxicity to E. coli rises after herbicide adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we give a reduction formula for the characteristic polynomial of k -uniform hypergraphs with pendant edges, and use the reduction formula to derive the explicit expression for the characteristic polynomial and all distinct eigenvalues of k -uniform loose hyperpaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two Brualdi-type eigenvalue inclusion sets are presented, which are characterized by the girth of the digraph associated with a tensor and are proved weaker than the conditions of Brualdi-type eigenvalue inclusion sets given by Bu et al. (2015) [7]. As applications of the above results, the conditions of nonsingularity and positive definiteness of tensors are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used hydrothermal extraction to obtain gelatin from tuna processing by-products. After treatment, the yield (w /w dry weight) of gelatin from skins and bones were 70.22 ± 2.07 % and 28 ± 3.03 %, respectively. Enzymatic hydrolysis using alkaline protease and pancreatin converted the gelatins into peptides, with the content of oligopeptide up to 87.67 ± 1.44 %. The tuna bone gelatin peptides exhibiting higher scavenging abilities against hydroxyl radicals (·OH−), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl radical (DPPH ·), and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) compared to tuna skin gelatin peptides. Gelatin peptides were chelated with CaCl 2 at 50 °C for 60 min, pH 8.0, and a 1:2 peptide-to‑calcium ratio, achieving a maximum calcium binding capacity of 56.70 ± 1.67 %. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy indicated the participation of amino and carboxyl groups in the reaction. These findings provide technical and theoretical support for the development of calcium-chelated gelatin peptides. • The amino acid composition of tuna skin and fish bone gelatin was clarified. • Collagen polypeptides with high antioxidant activity were prepared. • The method of chelating collagen polypeptides with calcium was established. • The structure of peptide-calcium chelates were identified and analyzed by infrared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Exogenous materials enhance anaerobic digestion by boosting extracellular electron transfer (EET). • Different promotion mechanisms in anaerobic digestion are summarized. • Conductivity and redox reaction are the predominant ways exogenous materials mediate EET. • Different EET facilitation mechanisms promote different stages of anaerobic digestion. • Individual materials may promote EET through multiple mechanisms. The efficiency of energy transfer among microorganisms presents a substantial hurdle for the widespread implementation of anaerobic digestion techniques. Nonetheless, recent studies have demonstrated that enhancing the extracellular electron transfer (EET) can markedly enhance this efficiency. This review highlights recent advancements in EET for anaerobic digestion and examines the contribution of external additives to fostering enhanced efficiency within this context. Diverse mechanisms through which additives are employed to improve EET in anaerobic environments are delineated. Furthermore, specific strategies for effectively regulating EET are proposed, aiming to augment methane production from anaerobic digestion. This review thus offers a perspective on future research directions aimed at optimizing waste resources, enhancing methane production efficiency, and improving process predictability in anaerobic digestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inkjet printing of graphene-based materials represents a highly promising deposition method, as benefits of its flexibility for graphical printing and simple operation process. However, the huge challenge associated with inkjet printing of graphene-based inks is to overcome the coffee ring effect, which results in ununiformity of the printed pattern. In this paper, we innovatively demonstrate a novel and facile pre-deposition assisted strategy for inkjet printing of graphene ink. By simply pre-depositing an ethanol layer, a series of procedures including homogenization, solvent exchange, post-stretching, and air drying would take place, leading to uniform deposition of graphene nanosheets with a denser structure. The as-printed pattern was proved to have a flatter surface. Subsequently, the approach was applied to construct an interdigital capacitance pressure sensor with a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. Such sensors showed high sensitivity (the relative capacitance change reached 33 under 10000 Pa), low detection limits (clearly perceive the weight of 0.1 g), and excellent stability. Notably, it exhibited negligible thermal hysteresis and decreased performance compared with the sensor fabricated by direct printing, which stems from its compact structure and lower air content. The method we proposed opens up opportunities for practical applications of inkjet printing low-cost graphene-based electronic devices with desirable performance. [Display omitted] • Proposing a novel strategy for inkjet printing graphene-based pressure sensor that can alleviate the coffee ring effect. • Uniform surface reduces the randomness of the topography, making the properties of the printing devices more controllable. • Densifying the printed lines, thus improving the conductivity of the electrodes. • Facile operation and environmentally-friendly processes make the strategy more practical. • Enhancing the sensitivity and stability, decreasing the thermal hysteresis of the as-printed graphene-based sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In recent years, many endogenous peptides have been identified by screening combinatory phage display peptide library, which play important roles in the process of angiogenesis. A heptapeptide, ATWLPPR, binds specifically to NRP-1 and selectively inhibits VEGF165 binding to VEGFR-2. Another heptapeptide, NLLMAAS, blocks both Ang-1 and Ang-2 binding to Tie-2 in a dose-dependent manner. In the present study, we aimed to connect ATWLPPR (V1) with NLLMAAS (V2) via a flexible linker, Ala-Ala, to reconstruct a novel peptide ATWLPPRAANLLMAAS (V3). We firstly investigated the anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic effects of peptide V3 on sarcoma S180 and hepatoma H22 bearing BALB/c nude mice. Mice were continuously subcutaneously administrated with normal saline, V1 (320μg/kg/d), V2 (320μg/kg/d), V1 + V2 (320μg/kg/d), and V3 (160, 320 and 480μg/kg/d), for 7 days. Treatment with peptide V3 could significantly reduce the tumor weight and volume. Pathological examination showed that the tumors treated with peptide V3 had a larger region of necrosis than that of peptide V1, V2, and V1 + V2 at the same dose. A significant decrease of microvessel density (MVD) in a dose-dependent manner was observed in each group of peptide V3. The results of pathological examination on normal tissue, lung, heart, liver, spleen, kidney and white blood cells showed that peptide V3 might have no significant toxicity. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that peptide V3 could be more effective on inhibiting tumor growth and angiogenesis than that of V1, V2, and V1 + V2. Peptide V3 could be considered as a novel chimeric peptide with potent anti-tumor activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] Nowadays, dealing with the complex oil/water contamination that contains both oil/water mixtures and emulsions with desirable performance remains a huge challenge. Complicated fabrication procedures, low flux, and efficiency are shortcomings of the known materials. Herein, a facile and effective laser-assisted strategy is proposed to prepare super-hydrophobic graphene/PDMS paper (L-G-P), which perfectly takes advantage of both naturally strong capillary of paper tissue and high-quality graphene. Specifically, graphene is obtained by reducing graphene oxide via laser irradiation, which avoids introducing chemical reducing agents that are either hazardous or hard to separate. Meanwhile, the super-intensive instantaneous energy would create abundant defects on graphene sheets, thus the specific surface area increased by 25%. As for oil/water mixtures, the efficient sorption/separation can realize over 99.99% deep clean, meanwhile showing excellent durability after repeated cycles. As for water-in-oil emulsions, the high separation flux of surfactant-stabilized emulsions could reach 4421 L m−2 h−1 with an efficiency up to 99.85%. Moreover, the mechanical property of the composite was 80.50% stronger than uncoated paper tissue. The proposed L-G-P with durable and efficient oil/water separation performance is a promising material for practical applications for treating oil-contaminated wastewater in harsh environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 125 mg/L fulvic acid improved the methane yield by 51.72 % in anaerobic digestion. • Fulvic acid acted as an electron mediator among microorganisms in anaerobic digestion. • Interspecific electron transfer mediated by fulvic acid reinforced carbon recovery. • Fulvic acid enhanced microbial metabolic activity through oxidative phosphorylation. Fulvic acid, prevalent in humus derived from the anaerobic digestion of kitchen wastewater, is crucial in organic matter transformation. However, its effects and underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, the fate of anaerobic digestion of artificial and kitchen wastewater with different fulvic acid contents was investigated. The results showed that 125 mg/L fulvic acid resulted in a 64.02 and 51.72 % increase in methane production in synthetic and kitchen wastewater, respectively. Fulvic acid acted as an electron mediator and increased substrate oxidation by boosting NAD and ATP levels, thereby increasing microbial metabolic rates and ensuring an adequate substrate for methane generation. Isotope analysis suggested that fulvic acid boosts the conversion of volatile fatty acids to methane via the interspecies electron transfer pathway. Gene expression analysis revealed that cytochrome c, FAD, and other electron transport coenzymes were upregulated by fulvic acid, thereby enhancing substrate utilisation and biogas quality. Fulvic acid presented a dual stimulatory and inhibitory effect on anaerobic digestion, with concentrations over 125 mg/L diminishing its positive impact. This dual effect may stem from the properties and concentrations of fulvic acid. This study revealed the effect mechanism of fulvic acid and provided insights into the humus performance in anaerobic digestion [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Standard PIM analyzers employ 2 PAs, making them expensive measurement instruments. • PA is a very expensive and its price is proportional to its operating frequency. • This research makes PIM measurement affordable by using single PA. • Presented system has a residual PIM of - 104.5 d B m. • PIM of any DUT from - 60 to - 94.5 d B m @ 43 d B m can measure using the presented analyzer. The growing number of cellular devices and the introduction of high-speed data affect the network performance of mobile communication systems. Evaluation of passive intermodulation (PIM) phenomenon in the field of microwaves and mobile communications improve system performance. Typically, the PIM of the device-under-test (DUT) is measured using a set-up that involves two power amplifiers (PA), making it an expensive measurement set-up. This research aims to make PIM measurements cost-effective by using a single PA. Reflected (RFL) PIM distortion measured for two different DUTs, i.e., circulator and a microstrip (MS) line containing radio frequency interference (RFI) shielding gasket, using the presented and standard techniques. The presented PIM analyzer has a residue PIM of - 104.5 d B m. Comparison and error analysis suggested that the presented single PA method is feasible for DUTs having PIM between - 60 and - 94.5 d B m at 43 d B m input power. The residual PIM of the presented analyzer is high compared to the standard PIM analyzers; it is investigated that IM generated by the PA is the leading cause of this higher residual PIM product (RPIM). The proposed method will reduce overall system cost and size; it will also improve the battery efficiency of portable and desktop PIM analyzers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intimately coupled photocatalysis and biodegradation (ICPB) is a novel wastewater treatment technique that has potential applications in refractory degradation. This paper reports a synergistic degradation protocol that allowing the transfer of photoelectrons between photocatalysts and microbes without supplementary electron donors or improving the loading rate of the photocatalysts. As a result, a degradation rate of ∼94% was sustained for 400 h in a perturbation setup with a hydraulic retention time of 4.0 h. We achieved the degradation of β-apo-oxytetracycline, a stable antimicrobial intermediate compound (half-life of 270 d in soil interstitial water), within 10 min, and no accumulation was observed. Moreover, the required loading rate of the photocatalyst was dramatically reduced to 18.3% compared to previous reports which mentioned much higher rates. The results of our study provided a new strategy to improve the degradation efficiency of oxytetracycline and give new insight into the degradation mechanism of the bio-photocatalytic degradation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A series of novel peptides from various motifs of Asterina pectinifera cyclin B and their derivatives conjugated to HIV-Tat49–57 were designed and synthesized. Their bioactivities on two human cancer cell lines were determined. Among them, Tat-a5 (KAQIRAMECNILGRKKRRQRRR) exhibited significant cytotoxic effects on cancer cell lines EC-9706 and HCT-116. Tat-a5 could arrest cancer cells at G2/M phase and make them apoptotic. Our results suggested that Tat-a5 could be a novel leading peptide with anticancer activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]