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To prevent hydrates from forming during the pressure reduction process in natural gas pressure reduction stations (i.e., city gate stations, CGS), fuel-intensive preheating methods are normally adopted, leading to high fuel consumption and carbon emissions. In this study, an innovative preheating system for natural gas is proposed, which is called the "Direct Geothermal Heating System" (DGHS). The main idea is to inject high-pressure natural gas into geothermal wells before the throttling valve; thus, natural gas is directly heated by the surrounding strata when it flows through the geothermal well. A proper temperature for natural gas should be ensured, as natural gas goes back to the ground for pressure regulation. The idea is performed based on the preheating configuration using coaxial deep borehole heat exchangers (DBHE). A mathematical model describing the flow and heat transfer processes of DGHS through DBHE is established to study its heat transfer characteristics. Additionally, the environmental and economic benefits of the proposed configuration are also investigated. Through the CGS case in this paper, the findings indicate that, over the fifteen years of preheating with a DBHE depth of 2000 m and inlet flow rate of 4.39 × 107 Nm³/year, the outlet temperature of the throttling valve remains within the range of 17 °C–37 °C, meeting the heating requirement of CGS. Among fifteen preheating cycles, the average peak heating power of the DBHE reaches 105.78 kW. In addition, in the 15th year, the proposed system has a 1/3 cost of a traditional line heater, along with a reduction of 46.43 × 105 kg in CO 2 emission. The DGHS for natural gas is easy to establish and operate; once it is promoted on a large scale, it will produce huge economic and environmental benefits. [Display omitted] • A new Direct Geothermal Heating System for preheating natural gas is introduced. • Coaxial deep borehole heat exchangers replace traditional line heaters for natural gas preheating. • Analyzed the heat transfer characteristics and environmental-economic benefits of the system. • After 15 cycles, the system costs one-third of traditional heaters and cuts CO 2 emissions by 4.643 million kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advantages of double-layer electrode are available in the literature about single electrolysis of H 2 O and CO 2 using solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC). However, for the co-electrolysis of CO 2 and H 2 O, the influence of the structural parameters of the double-layer electrode on the co-electrolysis performance has been still unclear. In this study, a multi-scale model describing the co-electrolysis process of CO 2 and H 2 O in SOEC is adopted. After model validation, a comparison of the performance of SOEC between a single-layer cathode and a double-layer cathode is conducted with different inlet flow rates. Moreover, parametric analyses are performed to investigate the effects of the thickness and porosity of cathode diffusion layer (CDL) and the internal composition of cathode function layer (CFL). The results show that when the CDL porosity increases from 0.45 to 0.65, the conversion ratio of H 2 and CO increase by 10.17 % and 10.24 %, respectively. The optimal thickness of CDL (200 μm) for enhancing the durability of the cell and the preferable internal composition of CFL for improving the co-electrolysis performance are found within the scope of this study. This numerical analysis can provide guidance for the design of the double-layer cathode and the optimization of the co-electrolysis performance. [Display omitted] • A multi-scale model is applied for describing co-electrolysis process of CO 2 and H 2 O in SOEC. • The co-electrolysis performance with a single-layer and a double-layer cathode is compared. • The effects of porosity of cathode diffusion layer and internal composition of cathode function layer are discussed. • This numerical analysis can provide guidance for the design of cathode-supported SOEC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalography (EEG) emotion recognition is an important task for brain–computer interfaces. The time, frequency, and spatial domains of EEG signals have been widely studied. However, these methods often ignore the spatial and temporal correlations in dual modules, resulting in insufficient emotional representations. In this paper, a dual module EEG emotion recognition method based on an improved capsule network and residual Long-Short Term Memory (ResLSTM) is proposed. Using an improved capsule network as the spatial module is more advantageous in learning specific EEG spatial representations. The ResLSTM of the temporal module inherits the information flow from the upper spatial module and conducts complementary learning of the spatiotemporal dual module features through residual connections, thus obtaining more discriminative EEG features and ultimately boosting the classification capabilities of the model. The average accuracy of arousal, valence, and dominance on the DEAP dataset reached 98.06%, 97.94%, and 98.15%, respectively. The DREAMER dataset's average accuracy of arousal, valence, and dominance reached 94.97%, 94.71%, and 94.96%, respectively. The results of our experiments indicate that our method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches. • Enhances EEG-based emotion recognition by extracting complementary spatiotemporal features with improved capsule networks and ResLSTM. • The optimizing spatial module captures fundamental positional information while preserving local spatial details. • Experimental results on two public datasets demonstrate its superiority over state-of-the-art models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boron nitride/silicon nitride (BN/Si 3 N 4 ) composite ceramics were fabricated via the in-situ nitridation of boron (B) and silicon (Si) powders in forming gas (95%N 2 /5%H 2 ) at 1390 °C. The effect of the B content on the phase composition, microstructure, density/porosity, machinability as well as mechanical properties of nitridized BN/Si 3 N 4 composite ceramics was investigated. The addition of B slightly increased the nitridation degree of the Si and B powders mixture, and improved the ratio of the β-Si 3 N 4 phase significantly at low B contents. B powders may have acted as a nucleating agent to promote the formation of β-Si 3 N 4 crystals. A core-shell Si 3 N 4 /BN structure was revealed by the TEM technique, and the number of BN layers increased with the increase of the B content. The in-situ BN formed by the nitridation of B played a similar role with the BN directly added in enhancing the machinability of the BN/Si 3 N 4 composite ceramics. The method of the in-situ nitridation of B is also effective to prepare SiC fiber-reforced BN/Si 3 N 4 ceramic matrix composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Limb length discrepancy (LLD) is common in patients with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) and may influence the psychological status of these patients. The present study aims to investigate depression and anxiety in DDH patients with different extents of LLD and to assess the effect of LLD correction on these two psychological factors.Methods: 161 patients with DDH were recruited and divided into two groups based on whether they could perceive LLD preoperatively. The patients who could not perceive LLD were assigned to group N, and those who could perceive LLD were assigned to group P. Depression/anxiety, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scores and LLD were assessed one week before, six months and two years after total hip arthroplasty (THA).Results: Depression and anxiety were significantly higher in group P patients compared to group N patients. The patients in group N presented significant improvement in depression and anxiety six months after arthroplasty, while DDH patients in group P did two years after arthroplasty. Correlation analyses revealed their improvement was associated with pain relief and improved hip function in both groups of patients and was also related to changes in the perception of LLD in group P patients.Conclusions: Depression and anxiety levels were higher in DDH patients with perceived LLD. Their improvement was related to pain relief and improved hip function following THA. In DDH patients with perceived LLD, a change in the perception of LLD also played a part in their improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study investigates the efficacy of ureteral reconstruction using a spiral bladder muscle flap with vascular pedicles (ie, the superior vesical arteries) to repair full-length ureteral defects and explores a surgical approach for repairing long ureteral defects (>20 cm) using a bladder muscle flap. Technical Considerations: The characteristics of the ureteral reconstruction surgery include the following: (1) Surgeons fully expose the bladder in the retroperitoneal space. (2) While dissecting the superior vesical arteries, the integrities of the blood vessel trunk and the primary branches are maintained as much as possible. (3) While preparing the bladder muscle flap, the surgeons make an S-shaped cut along the route of the superior vesical arteries along the bladder. In general, the basal width of the muscle flap is approximately 2-3 cm in length, and the total length is approximately 1-2 cm longer than the defective ureter. (4) During the surgery, kidney descent and fixation and psoas hitch are performed to reduce end-to-end anastomotic tension. (5) The addition of a submucosal tunnel to prevent postoperative ureteral reflux is unnecessary. (6) A pedicled greater omentum graft is transferred to cover the reconstructed ureter to enhance blood supply when necessary. Conclusion: Ureteroplasty using a spiral bladder muscle flap with vascular pedicles (ie, the superior vesical arteries) is an ideal treatment to repair full-length ureteral defects. Moreover, this technique is particularly useful for ureteral defects longer than 20 cm. This procedure should be strongly promoted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • Assessing variants in non-canonical splicing sites is important during the process of exome sequencing-based primary hyperoxaluria diagnosis. • Capture sequencing-based copy number variant detection should be conducted in patients undergoing exome sequencing to diagnose suspected primary hyperoxaluria. • Exome sequencing will become a standard approach to diagnosing primary hyperoxaluria in pediatric urolithiasis patients. Next generation sequencing-based exome sequencing can be used to identify genetic abnormalities in patients believed to be suffering from primary hyperoxaluria. We outline our efforts to improve the diagnostic capacity of exome sequencing for these patients. We conducted a retrospective analysis of exome sequencing data from 77 pediatric urolithiasis patients with hyperoxaluria of unknown origin. Canonical exome sequencing analysis was performed to identify pathogenic variants in three known primary hyperoxaluria-related genes (AGXT , GRHPR , HOGA1) as per the guidelines of the American College of Medical Genetics. Then, extended exome sequencing analyses of 5′-untranslated region, non-canonical splicing site and copy number variant were performed on patients with negative diagnostic results in these three genes. Canonical exome sequencing analyses led to the diagnosis of primary hyperoxaluria in 20/77 (26%) patients, including eight, four, and eight patients diagnosed with type 1, 2 and 3 primary hyperoxaluria, respectively. Non-canonical splicing site analyses discovered a pathogenic variant in the HOGA1 gene, which led to the diagnosis of six additional patients with type 3 primary hyperoxaluria, while copy number variant analyses from exome sequencing data identified a 1.8 kb copy number loss that impacted the AGXT gene, resulting in the diagnosis of an additional type 1 primary hyperoxaluria case. Extended non-canonical splicing site and copy number variant analyses improve the diagnostic yield of canonical exome sequencing analysis for primary hyperoxaluria from 26% (20/77) to 35% (27/77) in 77 pediatric urolithiasis patients with hyperoxaluria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a photovoltaic–thermal (PVT) solar collector, a small percentage of the absorbed solar radiation can be converted into electricity and the rest become heat. The heat could be collected through various working mediums. It is of great practical significance to study PVT system and improve its performance further. In this study, an experimental PVT system using MPCM (Microencapsulated Phase Change Material) slurry as the cooling medium was designed and established. The comprehensive performance of the PVT system was studied. The measured electrical and thermal efficiency of the PVT system using MPCM slurry or tap water under various conditions were compared. Moreover, the MPCM slurry was also used as the working fluid in an outdoor PVT system. The practical performance was compared with those of a traditional water-cooled PVT system and a similar system with PCM layer. The results showed that increasing the flow rates of the MPCM slurry could reduce the temperature of PV cell and improve the thermal and electrical efficiency. The performance of the present PVT system using MPCM slurry is better than that using pure tap water or water with a PCM layer. The average electrical efficiency and the maximum thermal efficiency of the system can effectively increase by 0.8% and 13.5% respectively. The slurry containing low concentration MPCM could enhance the performance, indicating the feasibility of the actual application in solar PVT system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), as a high thermal conductive filler, has been widely used to construct thermal transport network in polymers. However, anisotropic thermal property of BN and its conventional thermal conductive network usually lead to high thermal conductivity in one direction that limits the overall heat dissipation effect. Herein, we report a novel radially aligned three-dimensional boron nitride nanosheets/epoxy composite for thermal interface materials via radial freeze-casting method. The as-prepared composite with radially aligned boron nitride nanosheets lamellae exhibits bidirectional high thermal conductivity, with 4.02 W m−1 K−1 in the through-plane direction and 3.87 W m−1 K−1 in the in-plane direction even at low BNNS loading (e.g., 15 vol%), respectively. Besides, excellent electronic insulation property and shape stability can also meet the requirements of isotropic TIM in thermal management. We investigated the fabrication of radially aligned 3D boron nitride nanosheets (BNNS)/epoxy composite for TIM via radial freeze-casting method. The as-prepared composite with radially aligned lamellae structure provides effective thermal transport pathways in both through-plane and in-plane directions, endowing bidirectional high thermal conductive property, 4.02 W m−1 K−1 in the through-plane direction and 3.87 W m−1 K−1 in the in-plane direction at low loading ratio of BN (15 vol%), respectively. Image 1 • Polymer/BN composites prepared via freeze-casting method commonly show anisotropic thermal conductive properties. • Thermal interface materials present high thermal conductivities at low BN ratio. • Bidirectional high thermal conductive composites are obtained from radial freeze-casting method. • Bidirectional orientation of BN increases thermal conductivity. • Radially aligned lamellae structure provides bidirectional phonon transport pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric motors, converting electrical energy into mechanical energy, are widely utilized as the primary power source for electromechanical equipment. However, the huge energy consumption of electric motors makes their energy efficiency improvements crucial for achieving greenhouse gas reduction goals. As a result, low-efficiency asynchronous motors are being eliminated, while their high-value recycling has subsequently become a key issue. Remanufacturing offers a promising solution to upgrade low-energy efficiency asynchronous motors to high-energy efficiency permanent magnet synchronous motors, but its environmental benefits are unclear. A novel dynamic assessment model that integrates life cycle assessment and lifetime distribution modeling to evaluate the environmental benefits of motor remanufacturing is established. A manufacturing and four remanufacturing scenarios based on the damage profile of individual motor components are developed. The results demonstrate that motor remanufacturing can significantly reduce carbon emissions by 26.75%–65.13%. The model was also applied to various recycling scenarios and synchronous motor market penetration levels to provide a long-term environmental benefit in the motor industry in China by 2040. Findings suggest that the motor remanufacturing industry can achieve peak carbon reduction in 2035 and 2033 under the medium and high market penetration scenarios, respectively. It's also disclosed that remanufacturing offers considerable material savings (36%–73%), energy savings (28%–63%), and water savings (34%–88%). The environmental benefits of motor remanufacturing industry are quantified for the first time, demonstrating its effectiveness in facilitating a green and low-carbon transition. The dynamic assessment methodology system constructed in this research can provide a theoretical framework and research ideas for the environmental impact assessment of other end-of-life product management. [Display omitted] • Dynamic simulation for life cycle environmental impact of motor remanufacturing. • Four remanufacturing scenarios based on different motor component profiles. • Remanufacturing significantly lower carbon emissions by 26.75%–65.13%. • Remanufacturing saves 36%–73% of materials, 28%–63% of energy and 34%–88% of water. • Motor remanufacturing is effective for achieving a green and low-carbon transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • miR-326 is downregulated in ADPC and CRPC tissues compared to BPH tissues. • Downregulation of miR-326 is associated with poor prognosis of PCa patients. • Overexpression of miR-326 inhibits PCa cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. • MUC1 is a direct target for miR-326 and overexpressed in PCa tissues. • miR-326/MUC1 axis regulates PCa progression partially via JUK signaling. Abstract Accumulating evidence suggests that microRNA-326 (miR-326) serves as a tumor suppressor in the initiation and progression of several human malignancies. However, the biological function and underlying molecular mechanism of miR-326 in prostatic carcinoma (PCa) remains largely unknown. In the present study, we found that miR-326 expression level was significantly downregulated in both primary PCa and castration-resistant PCa (CRPC) tissue samples as detected by qRT-PCR. Downregulation of miR-326 was closely associated with aggressive progression and poor prognosis of primary PCa patients. Gain- and lose- functional experiments revealed that forced expression of miR-326 significantly inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion, induced G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, and promoted apoptosis in PCa cells in vitro, whereas, knockdown of miR-326 expression showed the opposite results. Overexpression of miR-326 also suppressed tumor growth in xenografted nude mice in vivo. Moreover, Luciferase reporter, qRT-PCR, and western blot assays identified that the 3'-untranslated region (3'-UTR) of Mucin1 (MUC1) was a direct target region of miR-326. Spearman's correlation analysis also confirmed an inverse relationship between miR-326 and MUC1 expressions in primary PCa tissue samples. In addition, restoration of MUC1 expression effectively abrogated the inhibitory effects of miR-326 on PCa proliferation, invasion and migration through the activation of JNK signaling pathway. Therefore, these data indicated that miR-326 functioned as a tumor suppressor in PCa by negatively regulating MUC1, and that miR-326 might serve as a potential therapeutic candidate for PCa treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activated carbon with a high adsorption capacity was prepared using reed from the Yellow River Delta of China as a low-cost raw material. The adsorption-desorption behavior of methylene blue (MB) onto the reed activated carbon (RAC) was studied in detail. The structure of RAC was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption analysis. Based on a good fitting with the Langmuir isotherm model, and pseudo second-order kinetics, the adsorption behavior of MB on RAC can be considered mainly to be the monolayer adsorption process, and is related to the chemical functional groups on the surface of carbon. The maximum adsorption capacity of RAC obtained from the Langmuir isotherm equation at 30 °C is 704.23 mg/g. The high adsorption capacity can be attributed to its low polarity, numerous types of surface functional groups, high surface area and pore volume, and a hierarchal porous structure. The regenerating rate of the spent RAC saturated with MB was 85.15% after one regeneration cycle, indicating a good potential for commercial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiconducting photocatalysts composited with noble nanometals can be regarded as one of effective strategies to enhance the photocatalytic activity, attributed to a synergy of heterojuction formation and surface plasmon resonance effect. However, the dosage of nanometal in the composite for achieving an optimal performance is commonly larger than 10 wt%, causing high cost in raw materials. In this work, a composite photocatalyst of flower-like bismuth tungstate (Bi 2 WO 6) nanosheets decorated by low-dosage silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) with the excellent photocatalytic activity for sulfamethoxazole (SMX) degradation was prepared. Further, the morphological and structural characteristics, chemical compositions, and photoelectrical properties of this composite photocatalyst (Ag/Bi 2 WO 6) were investigated. Different loading amounts of Ag NPs (1, 3 and 5 wt%) in Ag/Bi 2 WO 6 were modulated, and when the dosage of Ag NPs was controlled to be only 3 wt%, the composite photocatalyst exhibited the most efficient degradation that 95.04% of SMX was removed within 60 min under visible light irradiation, which has around 3 times enhancement compared to single Bi 2 WO 6. The sacrificial agent experiment indicated that •O2− and •OH are the main active substances in the photocatalytic degradation of SMX. And the cyclic experiment further confirmed the Ag/Bi 2 WO 6 composite with high stability and reusability. The photocatalytic mechanism was verifiably proposed that the enhanced degradation performance was derived from more effective light absorption and photogenerated charge separation by loading Ag NPs onto Bi 2 WO 6. Our primary results provide a basic platform for exploring the high catalytic-activity photocatalysts with low-dosage noble nanometals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact high-temperature superconducting (HTS) low-pass filter (LPF) with an ultra-wide stopband and a sharp transition band is designed by integrating the fifth-order low-pass filter branch and closed loop cross-coupled (CLCC) microstrip structure. The fifth-order low-pass filter consists of two radial-stubs (RSs), one butterfly-shaped stub (BSs), and two T-shaped stubs (TSs), which can introduce five transmission zeros (TZs) with independently controllable frequency and position, so as to obtain good sideband suppression or upper stopband characteristics. The CCLC microstrip circuit is composed of cascaded high and low impedance microstrip lines, which can widen the width of the upper stopband and realize the ultra-wide stopband characteristic. The operating mechanism of the fifth-order LPF resonator and the CLCC microstrip structure are analyzed by the LC equivalent circuit models. The implemented LPF on a 0.5-mm thick MgO wafer with double-sided YBCO films demonstrates 1-dB cut-off frequency (f c) at 2 GHz and 0.12 GHz narrow transition bandwidth from −1dB to −40 dB. The measured results show a 30-dB harmonic suppression from 1.08 f c to 11.7 f c i.e., above 23 GHz, a steep roll-off rate of 326 dB/GHz, an in-band insertion loss (IL) <0.10 dB, and a miniaturized size of 0.24 λ gc × 0.08 λ gc (λ gc is the guided wavelength at the cut-off frequency). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In-situ growth of superlattice structure Cu 2 S nanoparticles on MoS 2 nanosheets has been achieved. • l -cysteineconjugated with sulfur defects on exfoliated MoS 2 nanosheets was exhaustively studied. • The intense interfacial effects are formed between Cu 2 S and MoS 2 for 2-Cu 2 S-MoS 2 sample. • 2-Cu 2 S-MoS 2 shows enhanced photoreduction efficiency of Cr(VI) and superior stability. • The strategy is extended to successfully construct CdS-MoS 2 and ZnS-MoS 2 heterojunctions. For obtaining ultra-fine Cu 2 S nanoparticles with reduced recombination of their photogenerated electron/hole pairs, in-situ growth of Cu 2 S nanoparticles on exfoliated MoS 2 nanosheets was achieved in this study. We have exhaustively studied l -cysteine in-situ conjugation with sulfur defects on the surface of MoS 2 nanosheets, which makes particle-level superlattice structured Cu 2 S nanoparticles (average 6.2 nm) well disperse on MoS 2 nanosheets. Further, XPS and Raman analysis confirm that the intense interfacial effects are formed between Cu 2 S and MoS 2 for the 2-Cu 2 S-MoS 2 composite, which significantly promote separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and prolong their lifetime, as shown by PL and TRPL. As a result, 2-Cu 2 S-MoS 2 exhibits the fastest photoreduction rate of Cr(VI) (0.0058 min−1) under visible light irradiations, which are almost 8.3 times and 2.9 times higher than that of MoS 2 nanosheets (0.0007 min−1) and pure Cu 2 S (0.002 min−1), respectively. Meanwhile, 2-Cu 2 S-MoS 2 also possesses an optimal composite proportion between Cu 2 S and MoS 2 , which presents outstanding photocatalytic activity among series of x-Cu 2 S-MoS 2 composites. The photoreduction mechanism of Cr(VI) is investigated in detail. As a matter of fact, l -cysteinecoupled with sulfur defects on MoS 2 nanosheets could produce the coordination inner heterojunction interface of 2-Cu 2 S-MoS 2 samples, which greatly improves migration efficiency of photoinduced carriers and ultimately endows it outstanding photoreduction activities. Furthermore, the strategy was extended to fabricate CdS-MoS 2 and ZnS-MoS 2 heterojunctions, implying that this strategy is of promising potentials for designing more active metal sulfides heterojunction photocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twisted macro-bend coupling method TMBCM is a simple sensing approach which owns no signal processing or other complex methods. This article highlight the approach towards plane-in-out displacement sensor using plastic optical fiber. In TMBCM method, when fiber becomes dragging the bend radius of fiber will change and macro-bend loss will rise. The twisted coupling method employed to couple intensity in receiving fiber and calibrated throughout according to displacement drifting. In the experiment, we developed one twisted circular-bend on a single light transmitting fiber and achieved displacement up to ±70 mm on both sides of Plane-in-out. However, the cascading of the TMBCM system is introduced and achieved a wide range plane-in-out displacement sensor up to ±140 mm. As compared to the laser-based system and other techniques, the designed sensor is simple, cheap and easy to assemble. Whereas, cascading the TMBCM can be also used for simultaneous measurement of two different physical parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]