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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.

We aimed to explore the function and competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) pathway of MAFG-AS1 in breast cancer.qRT-PCR assay identified the expression of MAFG-AS1, miR-3612 and FKBP4. We used Western blot analysis to test the autophagy related protein levels in breast cancer cells. Functional assays such as Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) assay, BrdU proliferation assay, Caspase-3 activity detection were used to identify the function of MAFG-AS1, miR-3612 and FKBP4 in breast cancer cells. Mechanism assays were used to verify the interacting relationship among MAFG-AS1, miR-3612 and FKBP4, including RNA pull down assay, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay and luciferase reporter assay.MAFG-AS1 and FKBP4 were both up-regulated in breast cancer tissues. MAFG-AS1 could function as an oncogene in breast cancer to activate cell proliferation, and inhibit cell apoptosis and autophagy. Meanwhile, MAFG-AS1 could sponge miR-3612 to elevate the expression of FKBP4. Besides, FKBP4 could activate the cell proliferation and inhibit cell apoptosis and autophagy, which could relieve the inhibitory effect of miR-3612 on breast cancer cells.MAFG-AS1 could activate breast cancer progression via modulating miR-3612/FKBP4 axis in vitro.

The aim of this trial was to address whether elective ipsilateral upper-neck irradiation (UNI) sparing the uninvolved lower neck provides similar regional relapse-free survival compared with standard whole-neck irradiation (WNI) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.This open-label, non-inferiority, randomised, controlled, phase 3 trial was done at three Chinese medical centres. Patients aged 18-65 years with untreated, non-keratinising, non-distant metastatic (M0) nasopharyngeal carcinoma; with N0-N1 disease (according to International Union Against Cancer-American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM classification, seventh edition); and a Karnofsky performance status score of 70 or higher were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive elective UNI or WNI of the uninvolved neck. Total radiation doses of 70 Gy (for the primary tumour volume and the enlarged retropharyngeal nodes), 66-70 Gy (for the involved cervical lymph nodes), 60-62 Gy (for the high-risk target volume), and 54-56 Gy (for the low-risk target volume) were administered in 30-33 fractions, five fractions per week. Patients with stage II-IVA disease were recommended to receive combined intravenous cisplatin-based chemotherapy (either induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone). Randomisation was done centrally by the Clinical Trials Centre of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre by means of a computer-generated random number code with a block size of four. Patients were stratified according to treatment centre and nodal status. Investigators and patients were not masked to treatment allocation. The primary endpoint was regional relapse-free survival in the intention-to-treat population. Non-inferiority was indicated if the upper limit of the 95% CI of the difference in 3-year regional relapse-free survival between the UNI and WNI groups was within 8%. Adverse events were analysed in the safety population (defined as all patients who commenced the randomly assigned treatment). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02642107, and is closed.Between Jan 22, 2016, and May 23, 2018, 446 patients from 469 screened were randomly assigned to receive UNI (n=224) or WNI (n=222). Median follow-up was 53 months (IQR 46-59). 3-year regional relapse-free survival was similar in the UNI and WNI groups (97·7% [95% CI 95·7-99·7] in the UNI group vs 96·3% [93·8-98·8] in the WNI group; difference -1·4% [95% CI -4·6 to 1·8]; pElective UNI of the uninvolved neck provides similar regional control and results in less radiation toxicity compared with standard WNI in patients with N0-N1 nasopharyngeal carcinoma.Sun Yat-sen University Clinical Research 5010 Program, the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, and the Overseas Expertise Introduction Project for Discipline Innovation.For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

A novel type of phosphorus doped Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets (P-Ti3C2Tx) is synthesized via a facile and controllable strategy of annealing MXene nanosheets with the presence of sodium hypophosphite. A combination of theoretical density functional theory calculation and experimental X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy discloses that the doped P atoms are prone to fill into Ti vacancies first due to their lowest formation free energy (ΔGP* = −0.028 eV·A−2) and next to bond with surface terminals on MXene layers (ΔGP* = 0.013 eV·A−2), forming P-C and P-O species, respectively. More importantly, the as-obtained P-Ti3C2Tx is, for the first time, investigated as the electrode material for supercapacitors, demonstrating a significantly boosted electrochemical performance by P doping. As a result, P-Ti3C2Tx electrode delivers a high specific capacitance of 320 F·g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A·g−1 (much higher than 131 F·g−1 for undoped MXene), an ultrahigh rate retention of 83.8% capacitance at 30 A·g−1, and a high cycling stability over continuous 5000 cycles.

The wide application of electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) is restricted by its low energy density. Such a bottleneck is hopefully tackled via engineering the carbon surface chemistry to kinetically inhibit the electrolyte decomposition and effectively extend the cell voltage of the EDLC. Here, we propose a facile carbon surface passivation strategy by rational functionalization with fluorine-containing functional groups. Evidenced by electrochemical measurements, the fluorinated activated carbon (F-AC) could tolerate a wider voltage window in commercially available organic electrolyte compared with the commercial activated carbon (AC). The theoretical simulation further verifies that the F-AC displays much increased activation energy for the formation of intermediate products, thereby dynamically hindering the electrolyte decomposition on the carbon surface. The F-AC based EDLC exhibits a remarkable voltage expansion from 2.7 V to 3.3 V and excellent cycling stability of 98.3% capacitance retention after 20000 cycles. A high energy density of 43.3 Wh kg−1 is achieved at the power density of 135 W kg−1, which is about 1.5-fold enhancement compared with the AC based counterpart, outperforming most of the reported organic EDLCs. These inspiring results bring fundamental insights into the regulation of voltage window, which will stimulate the design of high-performance energy storage devices.

Potassium-selenium (K-Se) batteries have attracted significant attention as one of the most promising alternatives of lithium-ion storage systems owing to high energy density and low cost. In the design of Se-based cathode materials, however, the low utilization rate of active Se and the rapid dissolution of polyselenides seriously weaken the capacity and cycle stability. Therefore, how to make full use of Se species without loss during the charge and discharge process is the key to design high-performance Se-based cathode. In this paper, a 3D “water cube”-like Se/C hybrid (denoted as Se−O−PCS) is constructed with the assistance of Na2CO3 templates. Thanks to the abundant carbonate groups (CO32−) originated from the Na2CO3 templates, the molten Se species are firmly anchored into the pore of carbon skeleton by strong C−O−Se bonding. Thus, this unique Se−O−PCS model not only improves the utilization of active Se species, but also can reduce the contact with the electrolyte to inhibit the shuttle effect of polyselenides. Moreover, flexible carbon skeleton gives Se-O-PCS hybrid a good electrical conductivity and excellent structural robustness. Consequently, the resultant Se−O−PCS hybrid is endowed with an obviously enhanced K-ions storage property.

In this paper, the affine formation control problem for multi-agent systems with prescribed convergence time is investigated. Firstly, on the basis of a time-varying scaling function, a distributed continuous control algorithm is designed, under which a stationary affine formation of the nominal configuration is able to be achieved within a prescribed time. Secondly, to track a time-varying formation within the prescribed time, a distributed control protocol is proposed by employing a leader–follower control strategy. Furthermore, the boundary layer technique is adopted to avoid chattering effect. Finally, simulation examples are provided to demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed design.

The development and optimization of transition metal-based bifunctional electrocatalysts for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are critical for high-efficient water splitting. Herein, we propose a carbon dots-oriented strategy for fabricating nitrogen-doped carbon dots/fungus-like CoP microsphere composite on Ni foam (CoP-NCDs/NF). Owing to its unique structure and the strong interactions between carbon dots and CoP, the newly developed CoP-NCDs/NF electrode exhibits significantly enhanced HER and OER bifunctional catalytic activities, with overpotentials as low as 103 and 226 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, respectively. Accordingly, the CoP-NCDs/NF displays excellent overall water splitting performance with a low cell voltage of 1.55 V at 10 mA cm−2 and great stability in a two-electrode alkaline electrolyzer. This study provides an alternative pathway on rationally designing and fabricating carbon dots-based materials for high performance water electrolysis and other energy conversion fields.

Enhancing pseudocapacitance of Ti3C2Tx MXene-based electrode materials induced by sufficient surface terminating groups (such as Ti–O bonding) becomes one promising way for fabricating high energy-density supercapacitors. However, most of terminating group activity cannot be excited well in the multilayer Ti3C2Tx due to the layer stacking feature, which limits its further performance improvement. In this paper, a CQDs@Ti3C2Tx hybrid material is synthesized by modifying few-layer Ti3C2Tx MXene matrix with highly dispersed carbon quantum dots (CQDs). In this unique hybrid model, the Ti3C2Tx MXene matrix with high conductivity and high specific surface area is just like the “paddy field”, which not only promotes the charge rapid transfer, but also provides the high double layer capacitance by ion adsorption. More importantly, the CQDs act as “rice seedlings” firmly anchored to the Ti3C2Tx matrix, and greatly stimulate the activity of the termination groups of Ti3C2Tx. As expected, this hybrid achieves a harmonious coexistence of high conductivity and high pseudocapacitance. As a result, the CQDs@Ti3C2Tx electrode delivers high reversible capacitances of 441.3 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and 310.1 F g−1 at 20 A g−1, and a relatively stable cyclability with almost 100% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles at 10 A g−1.

For lithium-ion capacitors, electrode potential tuning has been widely regarded as an efficient technology to improve their performance where the anode is usually pre-lithiated for desired potentials. However, the attention on the cathode is quite rare which denies the further excavation of this promising strategy. Herein, we reported the precious regulation of the potential of a cathode made of nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets to fully leverage the merit of the electrode materials and the electrolyte potential window. Specifically, the nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets in the optimized potential range of 1.6–4.5 V vs Li/Li+ show a specific capacity of around 150 mA h g−1 at 0.2 A g−1, which is four-time higher than that of the typical activated carbon cathode without potential tuning, and could be stably cycled for over 10 000 cycles without obvious decay. After pairing with a pre-lithiated anode, the as-assembled lithium-ion capacitors based on such a cathode can lead to simultaneously optimize the specific capacitance and voltage window of the device that contributes to a 17-fold increase in energy density, large power density, and long-term stability. The simple and effective strategy demonstrated here may inspire an alternative avenue to regulate the real performance of hybrid energy storage devices.

Bankruptcy prediction and credit scoring are major problems in financial distress prediction. Studies have shown that prediction models can be made more effective by performing data preprocessing procedures. Moreover, classifier ensembles are likely to outperform single classifiers. Although feature selection, instance selection, and classifier ensembles are known to affect final prediction results, their combined effects on bankruptcy prediction and credit scoring problems have not been fully explored. This study compares the performance of three feature selection algorithms, three instance selection algorithms, four classification algorithms, and two ensemble learning techniques. The results obtained using five bankruptcy prediction and five credit scoring datasets indicate that by carefully considering the combination of these three factors, better prediction models can be developed than by considering only one related factor.

The reconstruction of level-of-detail 2 (LOD-2) buildings has drawn considerable attention over the past two decades. Since completely automatic reconstruction approaches still face many difficulties in industry solutions, efficient and robust interactive modeling tools are of huge demand. This paper proposes an interactive LOD-2 modeling approach that can generate boundary-precise and topology-correct building models efficiently from Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Digital Orthophoto Map (DOM) data. Click-based saliency segmentation is first adopted to extract the outline of building primitives, where both photometric and geometric information are unified. Those outlines decompose the complex-shaped buildings into predefined primitive types. The primitives are then further enriched with other semantic key points, which are essential for inferring the primitives’ shapes and positions. Finally, the models can be built based on the constructive solid geometry and assembly of partial primitives into complex buildings. The order of the primitives can be irrelevant, and the sketches and semantic key points do not necessarily be perfect. Users only need very few and simple operators to generate the integral models, mostly several clicks on a 2D platform. Experimental results on various dataset demonstrate the proposed approach can minimize the amount of interaction while maintaining the ability to deal with various roof types. The integral model quality indices at pixel and object level achieve the precision of 92.3% and 82.5%, accordingly.

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) with high theoretical capacities are promising anode candidates for sodium ion batteries (SIBs), which yet suffers from inferior cycling stability and rate capability due to large volume change and sluggish transport kinetics during the sodiation/desodiation processes. Herein, a general strategy is developed to fabricate ultrafine TMOs nanoparticles encapsulated in nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers (uf-TMOs@N-CNFs, M = Fe, Mn, Zn, etc.) as advanced anodes for SIBs. The uf-TMOs@N-CNFs are facilely synthesized via an in-situ electrospinning and subsequent carbonization strategy, among which polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) is employed as an effective dispersant to suppress metal agglomeration and control the size of TMOs. Benefiting from the intimate interaction between ultrafine TMOs and conductive N-CNFs substrates, the uf-TMOs@N-CNFs can efficiently mitigate the aggregation and pulverization of TMOs, facilitate electron/ion transfer, and boost pseudocapacitive charge storage, leading to superior sodium storage performance, including satisfactory reversible capacity, excellent rate capability, and durable cycling stability. Interestingly, the obtained uf-TMOs@N-CNFs membranes also exhibit excellent flexibility to serve as self-supported and flexible electrodes, demonstrating great potential for flexible SIBs. The present work provides a general and feasible method to construct robust and flexible electrodes for energy storage devices.

Because of their capability of rapid lithium uptake/release and robust capacitive energy storage, hierarchically porous carbon frameworks are widely regarded as promising electrode materials for lithium-ion capacitors. The current technologies for their syntheses involve either a heavily corrosive KOH activation or harsh template-removing processes exerting heavy environmental burdens. To surmount these drawbacks, we, herein, report the production of such an architecture by simply carbonizing petroleum asphalt with KHCO3 contributing to hierarchically porous frameworks with high specific surface area in a non-corrosive condition. The microporous carbon nanosheets are curved to give mesopores and interconnected for macropores. Because of these structural merits, the rate-capable lithium storage is realized and the capacitive performance is three-times higher than that of widely used activated carbon cathodes. Furthermore, the lithium-ion capacitors simultaneously using these materials as the anode and cathode can deliver a high energy density of 112 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 260 W kg− and present an energy density of 48 Wh kg−1 at a high-power density of 52 kW kg-1. The versatile capabilities provided by the mild and low-cost carbon materials may find an alternative strategy for the real application of lithium-ion capacitors and other hybrid devices.

Occlusion problems cause many holes on scanned object surfaces in terrestrial laser scanning point clouds. The existing simulation methods, based on the properties of structural continuity, cannot recover the missing details. Previous studies have focused on co-registration in terms of using multi-source. However, the repairing accuracy of co-registration is insufficient to support subsequent reconstruction. Thus, one of the main contributions of our work is to present an effective fusion method to enhance details. A multi-view-projection-based vacancy filling strategy is leveraged to repair the integrity of the details. Subsequently, the multi-source data are accurately connected by the Laplace differential domain fusion approach. Specifically, in the first step, the proposed method detects 3D holes individually from the 3D and 2D interconversions, and then extracts the corresponding complementary point clouds from different sources. Subsequently, the Laplace differential coordinates are exploited to describe the repairing data in order to recover the associations as accurately as possible. The practicality of our method is demonstrated on realistic point clouds from multiple sensor surveys. The performance of our method is impressive in terms of the repairing completeness, with average values up to 82%. These positive experimental results demonstrate the feasibility, practicality, and potential of the proposed solution.