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The stability of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) cathodes is often severely damaged by impurity poisonings from Cr vapors. Here we report a medium entropy GdBa(Mn 0.2 Fe 0.2 Co 1.2 Ni 0.2 Cu 0.2)O 5+δ (ME-GBCO) double perovskite cathode, which exhibits remarkably improved Cr-tolerant ability. The polarization resistance (R p) of GBCO increases from ∼0.44 to ∼0.70 Ω cm2 after 20 h exposure to Cr in air at 700 °C. In contrast, R p value of ME-GBCO cathode increases from ∼0.16 to ∼0.24 Ω cm2 under the same condition. The enhanced operational stability is attributed to the in situ formed BaCoO 3-δ (BCO) nanoparticles on ME-GBCO surface, which is very inactive to Cr vapors. This work highlights that the configuration entropy modulation is an effective avenue for surface engineering and for the development of robust cathode materials for SOFCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare-earth site high entropy double perovskite oxides with different molar ratios have been evaluated as the cathodes for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC). The effect of configuration entropy on crystal structure, electrical conductivity, electrochemical performance and stability are investigated. Our results reveal that the activity of all high entropy oxides show enhanced electrochemical activity. Among them, the equimolar one (HEO) exhibits the highest activity with a low polarization resistance of 0.05 Ω cm2 at 700 °C. Moreover, it exhibits excellent stability in the CO 2 -containing atmosphere. The enhanced activity and operational stability can be attributed to reduced surface Ba segregation and the formation of active and robust BaCoO 3-δ nanoparticles on HEO surface, rather than BaCO 3 and Co 3 O 4 phases. This work indicates that configurational entropy engineering is very effective for rational surface composition regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A realistic and diversified training dataset (POL) is constructed by optical modeling for reflection obstructed image. • A progressive polarization based reflection removal network (P 2 R 2 Net) with up-to-date neural network units is proposed. • The improvement of the proposed method for real-world images is verified by comparisons with the state-of-the-art methods. • Robustness analysis on reflection-tainted synthesis images suggests our method possesses excellent generalization ability. The reflection effect is unavoidable when taking photos through glasses or other transparent materials, which introduces undesired information into pictures. Hence, removing the influence of reflection becomes a key problem in computer vision. One of the main obstacles of recent learning based approaches is the lacking of realistic training data. To address this issue, we introduce a new dataset synthesis method as well as a novel neural network architecture for single image reflection removal. First, we make use of the polarization characteristics of light into the synthesis of datasets, so as to obtain more realistic and diversified training dataset POL. Then, we design a novel Progressive Polarization based Reflection Removal Network (P 2 R 2 Net), which preliminary estimates the coarse background layer to guide the final reflection removal. We demonstrate that our method performs better than the state-of-the-art single image reflection removal methods through quantitative and qualitative experimental comparisons. Specifically, the average PSNR of our restored images selected from three representative benchmark datesets: "Real20", " SI R 2 " and "Nature" is improved at least 0.49 compared with existing methods and reaches to 24.52. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perovskite type SrCo 0.9 Ta 0.1 O 3-δ (SCT91) cathode exhibits high activity for oxygen reduction reactions, but the instability in Cr-containing atmosphere restricts its application in intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs). In this study, a B-site medium-entropy SrCo 0.5 Fe 0.2 Ti 0.1 Ta 0.1 Nb 0.1 O 3-δ (SCFTTN52111) cathode is proposed and investigated as a potential Cr-tolerance cathode. The electrochemical activity of pristine SCT91 cathode degrades rapidly in the presence of volatile chromium species. In contrast, SCFTTN52111 performs very stable. Chromium vapors prefer to react with segregated SrO species rather than Co 3 O 4 precipitates. Significant secondary phases of SrCrO 4 and Co 3 O 4 are detected on SCT91 electrode, while only trace by-products are found on medium-entropy cathode. The better Cr tolerance is closely related to the enhanced structural stability by medium-entropy engineering and reduced surface Sr segregations. This work sheds light on the development of robust cathodes for IT-SOFCs through rational design of configuration entropy. • A SrCo 0.9 Ta 0.1 O 3-δ derived medium-entropy cathode is developed. • Cr deposition on medium-entropy cathode is studied. • Cr vapors preferentially deposit on surface Sr rather than on Co 3 O 4 segregations. • Medium-entropy cathode shows significantly enhanced Cr tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic (As), a potent toxicant, is known to be a hepatotoxicant. Although As induced liver apoptosis and autophagy, the relationship between apoptosis and autophagy of hepatocytes caused by As remains largely unknown. 3-methyladenine (3-MA) and rapamycin can inhibit and promote autophagy of AML-12 cells, respectively. Hence, in this study, AML-12 cells were treated with different concentrations (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 μmol/L) of As 2 O 3 , and 5 mmol/L 3-MA or 100 nmol/L rapamycin were applied to distinguish the effect of autophagy on apoptosis in AML-12. Results showed that exposure to As induced cell apoptosis and autophagy, which were mediated by the significantly altered expression levels of autophagy markers (mTOR, LC3, PI3K and P62), and apoptosis markers (Bcl-2 and caspase-3). Further analysis indicated that a certain dosage of 3-MA and rapamycin decreased apoptosis and the caspase-3 expression, which suggested that As-induced autophagy regulated AML-12 cells apoptosis through the expressions of PI3K, mTOR, P62 and Bcl-2. • Arsenic enhanced autophagy and apoptosis in AML-12 cells. • Arsenic-induced autophagy modulated apoptosis in AML-12 cells. • Arsenic regulated AML-12 cells apoptosis through the expressions of PI3K, mTOR, P62 and Bcl-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perovskite type SrCo 0.9 Ta 0.1 O 3-δ (SCT10) is a promising cathode for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), but its stability towards Cr impurities is not yet exploited. Herein, the Cr deposition on the electrochemical performance of SCT10 cathodes is evaluated at 700 °C with a cathodic constant current density of 200 mA cm−2. Both polarization and impedance results reveal that Cr impurities lead to serious performance degradation, especially in wet condition. Significant morphology damages occur after Cr exposure and the formation of SrCrO 4 and Co 3 O 4 secondary phases on the cathode surface are determined, which greatly deteriorates the oxygen reduction kinetics and thereby the cathode activity. Our study highlights that surface Sr segregation plays a vital role for Cr deposition and special attention should be paid for the practical applications in SOFC. [Display omitted] • Cr deposition on SrCo 0.9 Ta 0.1 O 3-δ cathode is systematically studied. • Cr vapor preferentially reacts with segregated SrO rather than Co 3 O 4 species. • Cr deposition significantly deteriorates oxygen reduction kinetics. • SrCrO 4 and Co 3 O 4 secondary phases are formed on cathode surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a minimax path-based depth interpolation method. The algorithm computes for each target pixel varying contributions from reliable depth seeds, and weighted averaging is used to interpolate missing depths. Compared with state-of-the-art joint geodesic upsampling method which selects the K nearest seeds to interpolate missing depths with O ( Kn ) complexity, our method does not need to limit the number of seeds to K and reduces the computational complexity to O ( n ). In addition, the minimax path chooses a path with the smallest maximum immediate pairwise pixel difference on it, so it tends to preserve sharp depth discontinuities better. In contrast to the results of previous depth upsampling algorithms, our approach provides accurate depths with fewer artifacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing efficient and nonprecious electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial for the hydrogen generation via water splitting. Here we report the direct growth of heterostructural Ni 2 P–Fe 2 P hybrid electrocatalysts on NiFe foams. The redox engineered NiFe foam (rNF) significantly enhances the OER performance. Among prepared catalysts, Ni 2 P–Fe 2 P/rNF performs the highest OER activity, driving the current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm−2 at low overpotentials of 218 and 270 mV in 1 M KOH, respectively. Meanwhile, it can maintain 100 mA cm−2 for 24 h without obvious degradation. The morphology and composition of NFP/rNF after OER test were carefully studied. This work suggests that self-supported bimetal phosphides of NFP/rNF is an efficient and durable electrode material for water oxidation. Heterostructural Ni2P-Fe2P hybrid electrocatalysts were direct grown on NiFe foams, which show excellent oxygen evolution activity and stability. Image 1 • The formation of micro-sized pores on the skeleton of NiFe foam (NF) substrate can enlarge surface area. • The heterogeneous Ni2P-Fe2P structure provides plentiful active sites for OER. • The Ni2P-Fe2P/ rNF foam exhibits an extraordinary electro catalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that excess fluoride intake can result in fluorosis, which is a serious public health problem. TGF-β1 affects a wide variety of cellular activities and plays an important role in fluorosis. Recent literature proved that fluoride induces autophagy, however, the mechanism is still unclear, and the role of TGF-β1 in the fluoride-induced autophagy should be further illustrated. Therefore, in this study, plasmids and small interfering RNA (siRNA) were used to overexpress and silence the TGF-β1 expression in the osteoblasts cells. Our results demonstrated that sodium fluoride (NaF) (2.26 mg/L F-) exposure lead to a significant decrease in proliferation rate of mouse osteoblast cells in a dose-dependent manner with a concomitant increase in the expression levels of TGF-β1 and autophagic markers. Overexpression of TGF-β1 significantly increased the fluorescence intensity of MDCstained cells, the mRNA and protein expression levels of Beclin1 and LC3-II/I, with a concomitant decrease in p62. However, TGF-β1 silencing resulted in vice versa. In summary, we concluded that TGF-β1 plays a mediator role in NaF-induced autophagy of mouse osteoblast cells. In the future, TGF-β1-autophagy signaling network could be a new idea for the investigation of skeletal fluorosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both arsenic (As) and fluorine (F) are toxic substances widely found in the environment, which threaten to various organs of both human and animals, especially the kidney. In this study, to investigate the individual and combined effects of arsenic (15 mg/L As 2 O 3 (III)) and fluoride (100 mg/L NaF), arsenic (15 mg/L As 2 O 3 (III)) and fluoride-arsenic (15 mg/L As 2 O 3 (III)+100 mg/L NaF) on the renal autophagy during early life, a mouse model of gestationally exposed to As and/or F was established. The results showed that the mRNA expression levels of LC3, LC3I, LC3II, Beclin-1, ULK1, Atg13 and Atg14 were significantly increased with a concomitant decrease in mTOR and Bcl-2 up on individual exposure to As and F rather than in combined (As + F) exposure. In addition, the protein expression levels of LC3-II/LC3-I, Beclin-1, and LAMP1 were significantly increased with a concomitant decrease in mTOR and Bcl-2 in the mice subjected to individual exposure than the combined exposure. Based on the results, it was observed that renal tissue of mice was highly sensitive to F than As. Moreover, the toxicity of the combined (As + F) exposure was significantly lower than that of the individual exposure, which could be attributed due to the antagonism between As and F. • The exposure of fluoride and arsenic in the mother rats induced the autophagy in the kidney of the offspring mice. • Under the experimental conditions, the combination of As and F showed certain antagonistic effects. • The expression of autophagy negative regulator p62 is increased, which may be due to autophagic flow block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene-based conductive organic composites are a class of electrode materials with great potential for next-generation energy storage devices due to their good flexibility, high conductivity and abundant redox sites. Herein, a series of novel 7-aminoindole/rGO composites are successfully synthesized by a universal solvothermal method. With rGO as supporting framework, the morphology, structure and conductivity of the composites are optimized by the synergistic effect of 7-aminoindole and rGO to comprehensively enhance the electrochemical performance of the electrode. The obtained optimal electrode delivers a high specific capacitance of 391.88 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1. Simultaneously, the assembled symmetric device also exhibits an energy density of 11.97 Wh kg−1 at a power density of 325 W kg−1 and a super-long cycling stability (97.62%) after 25,000 cycles at a current density of 5 A g−1. Such measurement results strongly demonstrate that the synthesized novel composite electrodes have a great potential for application in new energy storage devices such as flexible electronics and wearable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]