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Chuanzhitongluo (CZTL), a traditional Chinese medicine mixture, is used in the recovery period of acute ischemic stroke (AIS), and effectively improves the prognosis of AIS patients. This study aims to evaluate whether CZTL regulates microglia polarization and inflammatory response to reduce brain damage in the acute phase of AIS.A mouse model of AIS was prepared by the photochemical method. Cerebral infarct volume was detected by 2,3,5-Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay was used to assess neuronal apoptosis. Gene expression profile change was explored by Gene chip. Inflammatory factors were analyzed by Protein microarray. The Immunofluorescence double-labeling assay was executed to elucidate the effects of CD16Results revealed that CZTL treatment alleviated the neurological impairment, reduced cerebral infarct volume, and inhibited neuronal apoptosis. CZTL altered gene expression profiles, which indicate that CZTL may be involved in regulating neuroinflammation. CZTL restrained inflammatory responses by down-regulated pro-inflammatory cytokines expression and enhanced anti-inflammatory cytokines level. Further experiments demonstrated that CZTL inhibited the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome, which decreasing the inflammatory response. In addition, CZTL promoted the transformation of microglia from M1 to M2 phenotype.These results indicate that CZTL alleviates neuroinflammation and brain damage after AIS in mice, which may be mediated by modulating microglia polarization.

The eastern Apis cerana (Ac) and the western Apis mellifera (Am) are two closely related and most economically valuable honeybee species managed extensively worldwide. However, how worker bees of Ac and Am are adapted to their colony organization remains to be uncovered. Here, we found that the expression level of gene encoding antennae-specific proteins 1 (ASP1, a key regulator in recognizing queen mandibular pheromone) was positively correlated with the colony sizes in both bee species, and the expression level in Am was higher than that in Ac, suggesting that ASP1 may play an important role in maintaining colony homeostasis. Using competitive binding assay, molecular docking, and site-directed mutagenesis, we then confirmed the good binding affinities of both Ac-ASP1 and Am-ASP1 to methyl p-hydroxy benzoate (HOB), and Val115 was the key amino acid. However, the affinity of Am-ASP1 was stronger than that of Ac-ASP1. EAG analysis further demonstrated that antennae of Am worker bees had faster depolarization and repolarization in response to HOB stimulation. Taken together, these findings indicate that the differences in expression levels and binding dynamics allow ASP1 recognizing HOB to potentially serve as a specific regulator of colony organization in Ac and Am.

Lung epithelial cells and fibroblasts play key roles in pulmonary fibrosis and are involved in fibrotic signaling and production of the extracellular matrix (ECM), respectively. Recently, 3D airway models consisting of both cell types have been developed to evaluate the fibrotic responses while facilitating cell-cell crosstalk. This study aimed to evaluate the fibrotic responses in these models using different fibrogenic agents, which are known as key events in adverse outcome pathways of pulmonary fibrosis. We quantified cell injury and several sequential steps in fibrogenesis, including inflammation, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), fibroblast activation, and ECM accumulation, using two different 3D airway models, the EpiAirway™-full thickness (Epi/FT) and MucilAir™-human fibroblast (Mucil/HF) models. In the Epi/FT model, fibrogenic agents induced the expression of inflammation and EMT-associated markers, while in the Mucil/HF model, they induced fibroblast activation and ECM accumulation. Using this information, we conducted gene ontology term network analysis. In the Epi/FT model, the terms associated with cell migration and response to stimulus made up a large part of the network. In the Mucil/HF model, the terms associated with ECM organization and cell differentiation and proliferation constituted a great part of the network. Collectively, our data suggest that polyhexamethyleneguanidine phosphate and bleomycin induce different responses in the two 3D airway models. While Epi/FT was associated with inflammatory/EMT-associated responses, Mucil/HF was associated with fibroblast-associated responses. This study will provide an important basis for selecting proper 3D airway models and fibrogenic agents to further research or screen chemicals causing inhalation toxicity.

Objective To explore the association between early neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (ENLR) and prognosis of anterior circulation large-vessel occlusion stroke (LVOS) after patients undergo endovascular treatment (EVT) with successful revascularization. Methods Patients who experienced acute anterior circulation LVOS and underwent EVT at Changzhou Second People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University between May 2017 and May 2020 were included in this retrospective study. We collected information about patients' baseline characteristics, medical history, laboratory test results, imaging data, and endovascular treatment outcomes, as well as data from follow-up at 3 months. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between ENLR and functional disease prognosis. A piecewise linear regression model was also applied to compute the threshold effect of ENLR on poor prognosis (defined as modified Rankin Scale score 3–6) at 3 months using a smoothing plot. Results Of 224 patients who received EVT during the study period, 160 patients were included in the analysis. After adjustments were made for potential confounders, multivariate analysis demonstrated a significant association between ENLR and poor prognosis at 3 months (odds radio 1.19; 95% confidence interval 1.07–1.32; P = 0.0016). An ENLR ≥9.75 was found to be significantly associated with poor prognosis at 3 months (odds ratio 1.54; 95% confidence interval 1.19–2.00; P = 0.0119). Conclusions Increased ENLR after successful revascularization is independently associated with poor prognosis. These findings suggest that ENLR could be used to inform treatment strategies for patients who experience anterior circulation LVOS.

Fault diagnosis technology has been developed to improve the reliability of fuel cell systems in pursuit of successful commercialization. In this study, a hybrid fault diagnosis method is proposed to improve diagnosable fault magnitudes and diagnostic accuracy. Six types of faults in the air supply system of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system were therefore defined and diagnosed according to the relevant components and locations as actuator, sensor, and piping faults. The proposed method applies an artificial neural network classifier as a data-based diagnostic tool within a model-based diagnosis method that relies upon residual patterns to address the limitations of the model-based diagnosis method (insufficient accuracy for initial fault diagnosis) and the data-based diagnosis method (need for a large dataset to generate a classifier). The proposed method is shown to improve the diagnostic accuracy and decrease the diagnosable fault magnitude compared to solely model-based and data-based methods. Moreover, the proposed method enables a faster diagnosis of air supply system faults, preventing loss of system efficiency and stack degradation. By providing fast and accurate diagnoses, the proposed method is expected to help develop an effective fuel cell health management system.

In this paper, the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) technology, under normal pressure conditions was adopts in this study to deposited ZnO films. The cheap zinc acetate, ammonium fluoride, and gallium chloride was used as Zn source, F source, Ga source and Cl source, respectively for deposited F, Cl, Al and Ga co-doped ZnO (FCAGZO) films. The influence of substrate temperature (Ts) on the morphology, structure, optical and electrical properties of ZnO thin films was studied. X-ray diffraction analysis shows that the Ts does not change the crystal structure of the ZnO film, and all films have a hexagonal wurtzite structure. With increase of Ts only the preferred orientation of the film changes from (1 0 0) to (0 0 2). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy further confirmed the successful doping of ZnO by F, Cl, Al, and Ga, which accounts for the enhancement in carrier concentration in the FCAGZO films over that of pristine ZnO. As Ts increases, the resistivity first decreases, and then gradually increases. When the optimal substrate temperature Ts = 400 °C, the prepared FCAGZO film has a resistivity of 1.47 × 10-3 Ωcm when rapid heat treatment in N2 atmosphere at 750 °C, and the average transmittance exceeds 85% in the range of 400–1400 nm.

(85-x)WC–15 wt%Al2O3–xTiC (x = 0, 1.5, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20 wt%) composites were prepared by vacuum hot-press sintering. The influence of TiC addition on the corrosion behaviour of WC–Al2O3 composites in 0.1 M NaOH solution was revealed. The results suggest that all the samples containing added TiC had the TiC phase and (W, Ti) C solid-solution phase, while the base composite had neither phase. With increasing added TiC content, the average grain size of WC decreased, and the relative density first increased and then decreased. Furthermore, the results suggest that the addition of TiC could noticeably increase the free corrosion potential and impedance and reduce the corrosion current density. However, the composite containing 20 wt% added TiC showed the opposite trend. Therefore, it can be concluded that the corrosion performance of the composites in an alkaline medium can be improved by adding an appropriate amount of TiC. The change in corrosion properties was caused by changes in the solid-solution phase, relative density, and TiO2 oxide film.

Let Γ be a smooth curve inside a two-dimensional rectangular region Ω. In this paper, we consider the Poisson interface problem − ∇ 2 u = f in Ω ∖ Γ with Dirichlet boundary condition such that f is smooth in Ω ∖ Γ and the jump functions [ u ] and [ ∇ u ⋅ n → ] across Γ are smooth along Γ. This Poisson interface problem includes the weak solution of − ∇ 2 u = f + g δ Γ in Ω as a special case. Because the source term f is possibly discontinuous across the interface curve Γ and contains a delta function singularity along the curve Γ, both the solution u of the Poisson interface problem and its flux ∇ u ⋅ n → are often discontinuous across the interface. To solve the Poisson interface problem with singular sources, in this paper we propose a sixth order compact finite difference scheme on uniform Cartesian grids. Our proposed compact finite difference scheme with explicitly given stencils extends the immersed interface method (IIM) to the highest possible accuracy order six for compact finite difference schemes on uniform Cartesian grids, but without the need to change coordinates into the local coordinates as in most papers on IIM in the literature. Also in contrast with most published papers on IIM, we explicitly provide the formulas for all involved stencils and therefore, our proposed scheme can be easily implemented and is of interest to practitioners dealing with Poisson interface problems. Note that the curve Γ splits Ω into two disjoint subregions Ω + and Ω − . The coefficient matrix A in the resulting linear system A x = b , following from the proposed scheme, is independent of any source term f, jump condition g δ Γ , interface curve Γ and Dirichlet boundary conditions, while only b depends on these factors and is explicitly given, according to the configuration of the nine stencil points in Ω + or Ω − . The constant coefficient matrix A facilitates the parallel implementation of the algorithm in case of a large size matrix and only requires the update of the right hand side vector b for different Poisson interface problems. Due to the flexibility and explicitness of the proposed scheme, it can be generalized to obtain the highest order compact finite difference scheme for non-uniform grids as well. We prove the order 6 convergence for the proposed scheme using the discrete maximum principle. Our numerical experiments confirm the sixth accuracy order of the proposed compact finite difference scheme on uniform meshes for the Poisson interface problems with various singular sources.

Dual-phase metallic glasses (DP-MGs), a special member of the MGs family, often reveal unusual strength and ductility, yet, their corrosion behaviors are not understood. Here, we developed a nanostructured Mg57Zn36Ca7 (at.%) DP-MG and uncovered its corrosion mechanism in simulated body fluid (SBF) at the near-atomic scale utilizing transmission electron microscope (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT). The 10-nm-wide Ca-rich amorphous phases allow oxygen propagation into the DP-MG, resulting in a micrometer thick hydroxides/oxides layer. This dense corrosion layer protects the DP-MG from further corrosion, enabling a corrosion rate that is 77% lower than that of Mg (99.99% purity).

Deuteration of hydrogen-bonded phase transition crystals can increase the transition temperatures due to the isotope effect. But rare examples show the opposite trend that originates from the structural changes of the hydrogen bond, known as the geometric H/D isotope effect. Herein, we report an organic crystal, diethylammonium hydrogen 1,4-terephthalate, exhibits a reversible structural phase transition and dielectric switching. Structural study shows the cations reside in channels formed by one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded anionic chains and undergo an order-disorder transition at around 206 K. The deuterated counterpart shows an elongation of the O···O hydrogen bond by about 0.005 A. This geometric isotope effect releases the internal pressure of the anionic host on the cation guests and results in a downward shift of the phase transition temperature by 10 K.

Heterosis, which describes the superior vigor and yield of F1 hybrids with respect to their parents, is observed in many rice hybrid crosses. The exploitation of heterosis is a great leap in the history of rice breeding. With advances in genomics and genetics, high-resolution mapping and functional identification of heterosis-associated loci have been performed in rice. Here we summarize advances in understanding the genetic basis of grain yield heterosis in hybrid rice and provide a vision for the genetic study and breeding application of rice heterosis in the future.

The distribution of welding residual stress is the basis of controlling environmental cracking failure in the joint area of steel pipeline. In this study, 3D actual-size finite element models were developed for X80 steel pipe to predict the welding stress field in four typical girth joints. Electrochemical measurements under multi-stage loading revealed the relationship among tensile stress level, dislocation multiplication, and corrosion. The increased number of weld passes reduced the peak residual stress, and the adopted fully automatic welding decreased the high-stress zone where dislocation multiplication might occur. Therefore, adopting automatic welding and moderately increasing the number of weld passes are recommended to control welding residual stress.

Precipitation-hardened high entropy alloys (HEAs) with carefully tuned compositions have shown excellent mechanical properties, demonstrating great potential for engineering applications. However, due to the lack of precise multiple phase diagrams, the composition design of multi-principal-component HEAs still inevitably relies on the extremely time-consuming trial-and-error approach. The present study, on the basis of powerful composition quantification ability of atom probe tomography (APT) technology, proposed a framework to guide the quantitative design of precipitation-hardened HEAs. In this framework, the elemental partitioning was used as a crucial route to avoid the thermodynamic challenge of designing precipitation-hardened HEAs. As a case study, the role of Ti/Al ratio in the design of γ-γ′ HEAs was predicted through the proposed framework and then validated by experimental studies. The framework predicted that when the total content of Ti and Al is fixed, a higher Ti/Al ratio makes γ-γ′ HEA stronger. APT and mechanical results agreed well with these predictions and validated the feasibility of the framework. These findings provided a new route to design the precipitation-hardened alloys and a deeper insight into the design of γ-γ′ HEA.

The multi-principal-component concept of high-entropy alloys (HEAs) generates numerous new alloys. Among them, nanoscale precipitated HEAs have achieved superior mechanical properties and shown the potentials for structural applications. However, it is still a great challenge to find the optimal alloy within the numerous candidates. Up to now, the reported nanoprecipitated HEAs are mainly designed by a trial-and-error approach with the aid of phase diagram calculations, limiting the development of structural HEAs. In the current work, a novel method is proposed to accelerate the development of ultra-strong nanoprecipitated HEAs. With the guidance of physical metallurgy, the volume fraction of the required nanoprecipitates is designed from a machine learning of big data with thermodynamic foundation while the morphology of precipitates is kinetically tailored by prestrain aging. As a proof-of-principle study, an HEA with superior strength and ductility has been designed and systematically investigated. The newly developed γ′-strengthened HEA exhibits 1.31 GPa yield strength, 1.65 GPa ultimate tensile strength, and 15% tensile elongation. Atom probe tomography and transmission electron microscope characterizations reveal the well-controlled high γ′ volume fraction (52%) and refined precipitate size (19 nm). The refinement of nanoprecipitates originates from the accelerated nucleation of the γ′ phase by prestrain aging. A deeper understanding of the excellent mechanical properties is illustrated from the aspect of strengthening mechanisms. Finally, the versatility of the current design strategy to other precipitation-hardened alloys is discussed.

Framelets (a.k.a. wavelet frames) are of interest in both theory and applications. Quite often, tight or dual framelets with high vanishing moments are constructed through the popular oblique extension principle (OEP). Though OEP can increase vanishing moments for improved sparsity, it has a serious shortcoming for scalar framelets: the associated discrete framelet transform is often not compact and deconvolution is unavoidable. Here we say that a framelet transform is compact if it can be implemented by convolution using only finitely supported filters. On the other hand, in sharp contrast to the extensively studied scalar framelets, multiframelets (a.k.a. vector framelets) derived through OEP from refinable vector functions are much less studied and are far from well understood. Also, most constructed multiframelets often lack balancing property which reduces sparsity. In this paper, we are particularly interested in quasi-tight multiframelets, which are special dual multiframelets but behave almost identically as tight multiframelets. From any compactly supported \emph{refinable vector function having at least two entries}, we prove that we can always construct through OEP a compactly supported quasi-tight multiframelet such that (1) its associated discrete framelet transform is compact and has the highest possible balancing order; (2) all compactly supported framelet generators have the highest possible order of vanishing moments, matching the approximation/accuracy order of its underlying refinable vector function. This result demonstrates great advantages of OEP for multiframelets (retaining all the desired properties) over scalar framelets., 33 pages, 20 figures

A custom-designed, wearable, lightweight, and passive exoskeleton was proposed to provide gravity support for industrial workers to reduce prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders, joint injures, and arthritis caused by repeatedly or persistently squatting task. The designed exoskeleton can act as a wearable chair to allow workers to squat for an extended period when performing prolonged tasks. The exoskeleton employs torsion springs to store energy harvested from the squatting motion, and the stored energy is released to help the workers stand up. Dimensions optimization designs based on the finite element analysis program were implemented for a lightweight of the device. Besides, the exoskeleton effectiveness was investigated by performing an ergonomic assessment on muscular activity, plantar pressure, endurance time, and comfort. The plantar pressure and electromyography of rectus femoris, biceps femoris, vastus medialis, and vastus laterals were measured in a simulated assembly task with the knee bend for three different angles (60°, 90°, 120°) under two conditions of with and without the exoskeleton. The endurance time was recorded in three different static squatting tasks. The comfort with the exoskeleton was recorded. Under the condition of wearing the exoskeleton, the average reduction of muscle activity was 44.8–71.5%, and the plantar pressure was 58.5–64.2%. The exoskeleton contributed to an increase in endurance time from 2.76 to 13.58 min. Moreover, 70% of the subjects exhibited a comprehensive exoskeleton comfort score of higher than 70. The experimental results demonstrated that this exoskeleton has good potential to reduce physical workload and increase endurance time during industrial assembly tasks.