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Vessel emissions have contributed a great deal to air quality deterioration in China. Hence, the Chinese government has promulgated a series of stringent emission regulations. It is in this context that vessel emission control technology research is in full swing. In particular, during the 13th Five-Year Plan, the air pollution control technology of vessels has greatly improved. Vessel emission control has followed two main governance routes: source emission reduction and aftertreatment technology. Source control focuses on alternative fuels, with two main directions, the development of new fuels and the modification of existing fuels. Moreover, after-treatment technologies have also been developed, including wet desulfurization technology using seawater or alkaline liquids as wet washing liquids and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for the control of NOx emission. Due to China's increasingly stringent emissions standards and regulations, work on the development of clean alternative fuels and further upgrading the collaborative application of after-treatment technologies to meet the near-zero-emissions requirements of vessels is still necessary.

An emerging view regarding cancer metabolism is that it is heterogeneous and context-specific, but it remains to be elucidated in breast cancers. In this study, we characterized the energy-related metabolic features of breast cancers through integrative analyses of multiple datasets with genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and single-cell transcriptome profiling. Energy-related metabolic signatures were used to stratify breast tumors into two prognostic clusters: cluster 1 exhibits high glycolytic activity and decreased survival rate, and the signatures of cluster 2 are enriched in fatty acid oxidation and glutaminolysis. The intertumoral metabolic heterogeneity was reflected by the clustering among three independent large cohorts, and the complexity was further verified at the metabolite level. In addition, we found that the metabolic status of malignant cells rather than that of nonmalignant cells is the major contributor at the single-cell resolution, and its interactions with factors derived from the tumor microenvironment are unanticipated. Notably, among various immune cells and their clusters with distinguishable metabolic features, those with immunosuppressive function presented higher metabolic activities. Collectively, we uncovered the heterogeneity in energy metabolism using a classifier with prognostic and therapeutic value. Single-cell transcriptome profiling provided novel metabolic insights that could ultimately tailor therapeutic strategies based on patient- or cell type-specific cancer metabolism.

Anion redox chemistry is an essential component of many high energy density electrode materials, while accompanying with voltage hysteresis and fade, which currently hinders its widespread use. Here we demonstrate cation-synergy stabilizing anion redox of Chevrel phase Mo6S8 in aluminum ion battery. EELS and XAS reveal that S is fully reduced, and Mo6 cluster is firstly oxidized and then reduced with Al3+ ions insertion, which originates from the contraction and elongation of Mo-Mo bond in Mo6 cluster verified by atomic-resolved imaging. DFT calculations uncover that the energy level of [Mo-Mo]* antibonding orbitals is lifted and fell by Mo-Mo bond evolution, resulting in the synergetic cationic and anionic redox, which contributes to the stable structure upon cycling. Our work figures out the electrochemical redox mechanism of Mo6S8 in aluminum ion batteries and provides implications generally for the design of materials employing anion redox chemistry.

Summary Memristive devices offer desirable voltage-regulated conductance switching and promise to address zettabyte storage challenges in the big-data era. Generally, most of these reported devices use amorphous solids, where the structural and compositional inhomogeneity is regarded as the origin of stochastic variability. Self-assembling peptide crystals with solution-processed fabrication, controllable morphologies, and structural stability are therefore a promising candidate to address the reliability issues. Here we report a planar diffusive memristor that possesses reliable switching characteristics based on a quasi-one-dimensional crystallized material: diphenylalanine (FF) microrod (MR). This element offers a preferential ion migration path, confining conductive filaments in a defined crystalline surface and therefore reducing programming stochasticity. Ion transport confinement along FF MR was observed via in situ electrostatic force microscopy technique. Additionally, FF MR memristor with high switching uniformity and reproducible relaxation dynamic provides an ideal hardware platform for reliable nociceptor emulation and hardware identification of four-bit decimal numbers.

Cyclina sinensis is an edible clam widely distributed along the coastal waters of Asia. In the present study, a polysaccharide (CSP-1) isolated from C. sinensis was purified by a DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow column, and it had an average molecular weight of 3.8 × 105 Da and a prevalent component monosaccharide of Glc. The results of methylation analysis and 1D/2D NMR indicated that CSP-1 was a glycogen constructed with α-1,4-Glc and branched at C-6 every 9 Glc residues. In addition, Cong red test suggests CSP-1 was not a helical conformation, and irregular and spherical lumps were observed by AFM. Moreover, CSP-1 was found to possess potent immunostimulatory activity on the basis of its significant abilities to enhance NO production and cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6) secretion in RAW 264.7 macrophages.

C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important biomarker for acute inflammation and infection and widely used clinically for the assessment of various diseases and the monitoring of patients’ conditions. At present, the clinical test methods for CRP mainly include immunoturbidimetry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and lateral flow assays. In recent years, developments in analysis theory and improvements in materials science have resulted in the continual emergence of analytical methods and techniques, such as biosensor technology and microfluidics. In this paper, we summarized the development and application of CRP analytical methods and focus on the developments during the last five years. In addition, we predicted the research directions for novel CRP assays and provide new ideas for the development of CRP analytical methods with high sensitivity and specificity that can meet clinical needs.

Regret is a common negative emotion in daily life, and long-term immersion in regret affects mental health. Therefore, to regulate and reduce regret is of wide concern. The current fMRI study aimed to investigate whether outcome anticipation before decision-making could reduce regret and its neural correlates. In the task, participants were asked to anticipate the possible poor outcomes of subsequent decisions, such as missing rewards and meeting punishment, and then made sequential risk-taking decisions. Behavioral results showed that outcome anticipation before decision-making could decrease the intensity of regret, that is, participants felt less regret when they anticipated the outcome before decision-making (anticipation condition, Ant), compared to making sequential risk-taking decisions without any anticipation of the outcome in advance (non-anticipation condition, NAnt). Consistently, at the neural level, stronger activities of ventral striatum (VS) and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and greater VS-dmPFC functional connectivity were observed in Ant relative to NAnt. Moreover, the activity of dmPFC was negatively correlated with the intensity of regret in Ant. The current study highlighted that outcome anticipation before decision-making could regulate regret effectively, and dmPFC played a vital role in this process.

New drugs are urgently required for the treatment of infections due to an increasing number of new strains of diseases-causing pathogens and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. A library of drugs approved by Food and Drug Administration was screened for efficacy against Vibrio vulnificus using antimicrobial assays. We found that otilonium bromide showed potent antimicrobial activity against V.vulnificus and had a synergistic effect in combination with antibiotics. Field emission transmission electron microscope images revealed that otilonium bromide caused cell division defects in V.vulnificus. Moreover, it significantly inhibited V.vulnificus swarming motility and adhesion to host cells at concentrations lower than the minimum inhibitory concentration. To investigate its inhibitory action mechanisms, we examined the effect of otilonium bromide on the expression levels of several proteins crucial for V.vulnificus growth, motility, and adhesion. It decreased the protein expression levels of cAMP receptor protein and flagellin B, but not HlyU or OmpU. In addition, otilonium bromide significantly decreased the expression levels of outer membrane protein TolCV1, thus inhibiting RtxA1 toxin secretion and substantially reducing V.vulnificus cytotoxicity to host cells. Collectively, these findings suggest that otilonium bromide may be considered as a promising candidate for treating V.vulnificus infections.

INTRODUCTION: The objective of current study was to develop and validate comprehensive nomograms for predicting the survival of young women with breast cancer. METHODS: Women aged

To explore the possible roles of metallothioneins (MTs) played in cadmium (Cd) accumulation of water spinach, three IaMT genes, IaMT1, IaMT2 and IaMT3 in a high-shoot-Cd (T308) and a low-shoot-Cd accumulation cultivar (QLQ) were cloned, characterized, and quantitated. Gene expression analysis suggested that the expression of the IaMTs was differentially regulated by Cd stress in different cultivars, and T308 showed higher MTs expression overall. Furthermore, only shoot IaMT3 expression was cultivar dependent among the three IaMTs. Antioxidant analysis showed that the high production of IaMTs in T308 should be associated with its high oxidation resistance. The role of IaMTs in protecting against Cd toxicity was demonstrated in vitro via recombinant E. coli strains. The results showed that IaMT1 correlated with neither Cd tolerance nor Cd accumulation of E. coli, while IaMT2 conferred Cd tolerance in E. coli, IaMT2 and IaMT3 increased Cd accumulation in E. coli. These findings help to clarify the roles of IaMTs in Cd accumulation, and increase our understanding of the cultivar-dependent Cd accumulation in water spinach.

Motivated by a long-standing gap between inventory theory and practice, we study online inventory models with unknown cyclic demand distributions. We design provably efficient reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms that leverage the structure of inventory problems. We apply the standard performance measure in online learning literature, regret, which is defined as the difference between the total expected cost of our policy and the total expected cost of the clairvoyant optimal policy that has full knowledge of the demand distributions a priori. This paper analyzes, in the presence of unknown cyclic demands, the lost-sales model with zero lead time, and the multi-product backlogging model with positive lead times, fixed joint-ordering costs and order limits. For both models, we first introduce episodic models where inventory is discarded at the end of every cycle, and then build upon these results to analyze non-discarding models. Our RL policies HQL and FQL achieve ~O(T^(1/2)) regret for the episodic lost-sales model and the episodic multi-product backlogging model, matching the regret lower bound that we prove in this paper. For the non-discarding models, we construct a bandit learning algorithm on top of the previous RL algorithms, named Meta-HQL. Meta-HQL achieves ~O(T^(1/2)) regret for the non-discarding lost-sales model with zero lead time, again matching the regret lower bound. For the non-discarding multi-product backlogging model, our policy Mimic-QL achieves ~O(T^(5/6)) regret bound. Our policies remove the regret dependence on the cardinality of the state-action space for inventory problems, which is an improvement over existing RL algorithms. We conducted experiments with a real sales dataset from Rossmann, one of the largest drugstore chains in Europe, and also with a synthetic dataset. For both sets of experiments, our policy converges rapidly to the optimal policy and dramatically outperforms the best policy that models demand as i.i.d. instead of cyclic.

Solid amine materials are promising adsorbents for CO2 capture from biogas, flue gas and other similar gas mixture. Here, tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA)-impregnated porous polymeric resin (ADS-17) with very high CO2 adsorption capacity was successfully prepared. Its CO2 separation performance from simulated biogas was investigated by breakthrough experiments. And the influence of parameters such as TEPA loading, adsorption temperature and flow rate on the adsorption behaviours were studied in detail. The optimal TEPA loading was 40 wt% (ADS-17–40%TEPA) and the CO2 adsorption capacity of this adsorbent reached the optimal value (ca. 264.2 mg▪g−1) at the flow rate of 200 mL▪min−1. The CO2 adsorption capacity of ADS-17–40%TEPA had no pronounced change from 25 °C to 70 °C, but it decreased obviously when the adsorbent was heated to 90 °C. At 100 °C, the adsorption capacity became negligible. According to detailed characterization, it was inferred that the pores of ADS-17–40%TEPA in the range of 13–115 nm were probably responsible for CO2 diffusion. In addition, ADS-17–40%TEPA possessed good reversibility and the CO2 adsorption capacity was nearly stable after two adsorption–desorption cycles. ADS-17–40%TEPA with high and fast CO2 adsorption exhibits a very promising application in CO2 separation from biogas.

Cochlear implant (CI) users have been shown to be more susceptible to the variations in speech production encountered in everyday listening, in which speaking rate, amplitude, duration, and voice pitch information may be quite variable, depending on the production context. Such variations may be further enlarged by the background noise, especially dynamic noise. The limited spectral resolution provided by the CI limits perception of voice pitch, which is an important cue for speech prosody and for tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese. In this study, the effect of varying speaking rates and styles and background noise on speech understanding was investigated in Mandarin-speaking CI and normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Thirteen (5 male and 8 female, age 19–62 years) Mandarin-speaking, post-lingually deafened adult CI patients using their clinical processors and 9 (5 male and 4 female, age 23–59 years) NH subjects listening to unprocessed speech. Five different types of speech variations, including 3 speaking rates (slow, normal, fast) and 2 speaking styles (emotional, shouted) were presented with two masking noises (speech-shaped steady state noise-SSN or six-talker babble). Speech reception threshold, defined as the signal-to-noise ratio producing 50% correct word-in-sentence recognition using Mandarin Speech Perception materials was measured. NH listeners performed significantly better (16.7 dB) than CI patients across all conditions regardless of speech variations and noise types. CI patients’ performance deficit was highly dependent on speech rate and noise type; the deficit was smallest (11.7 dB) when slowly-spoken speech was presented in SSN and largest (20.6 dB) when shouted speech was presented in six-talker speech babble. NH listeners performed significantly better in speech babble than in SSN for all speech variations, while CI patients performed similarly in both noise types. The use of clear and slowly-spoken speech in the laboratory setting may largely underestimate CI patients’ performance deficits in real-world listening conditions, where acoustic variations introduced by speech variations and dynamic noise may present additional challenges.

Summary Lithium-ion batteries with high energy density are being intensively pursued to meet the ever-growing demand for energy storage. However, the increase in energy density often comes with an elevated instability of electrode materials, causing major concerns about the reliability and safety of lithium-ion batteries. Here, we report a strategy for stabilizing cathode materials by modulating the vacant lattice sites on the particle surface. Using the high-voltage Li[Ni0.5Mn1.5]O4 as an example, we demonstrate that introduction of a 10-nm epitaxial surface layer with Al3+ in the empty 16c octahedral sites of the spinel Li[Ni0.5Mn1.5]O4 suppresses structural degradation during cycling by increasing the surface stability without interfering with the Li+ diffusion around the Al3+ sites. Control of the Al3+ concentration in the surface region was shown to be a facile process. The process was shown to stabilize long-term cycling of Li[Ni0.5Mn1.5]O4 to 5 V versus Li+/Li0.

Orthorhombic phase of niobium pentoxide (T-Nb2O5) has been considered as a potential anode material for sodium ion batteries (NIBs), because it can intercalate a large amount of sodium ion reversibly and durably without structural disruption. However, the inherent deficiency of low electrical conductivity results in a low reversible capacity and poor cycling stability. Here, we achieved the superior sodium storage performance of Nb2O5 by rational design self-supported 3D porous reticular Nb2O5@Carbon (Nb2O5@3D PRS) thin film with interpenetrating network. The film was prepared by a facial electrostatic spray deposition (ESD) technique. The Nb2O5@3D PRS displays outstanding electrochemical performance, especially long cycle life: it can still deliver a specific capacity of 130 mAh g-1 after 7500 times chare/discharge at high rate of 10 C. Furthermore, Na3V2(PO4)3//Nb2O5 full cells were assembled, the full cell displays a remarkable capacity retention of 105 mAh g-1 after 500 cycles at 10 C. The excellent sodium storage performance of the Nb2O5@3D PRS is ascribed to the synergistic effect of the unique porous structure, the nanosized Nb2O5 particles encapsulated in the carbonaceous matrix, which facilitates the electrochemical kinetics between the Nb2O5 and electrolyte. In addition, the key problems of Na ion insertion in Nb2O5, such as the low degree of reversibility are mitigated. Notably, this method is a general process and can be extended to prepare other electrode materials with 3D porous interpenetrating structure for energy storage application.

The size and morphology of irregular particles are essential parameters for a variety of industrial processes. The backward interferometric speckle imaging technique can be applied to measure the relevant parameters of opaque irregular particles. To verify the accuracy of the backward interferometric speckle imaging technique, an elaborately designed experimental system was used to combine a backward interferometric speckle imaging system with a digital inline holography (DIH) system to characterise the same pulverised coal particles for quantitative comparison. The results of the backward interferometric speckle imaging were in good agreement with those of DIH in terms of particle size and morphology. In the backward interferometric speckle imaging system, the laser illumination and recording system are configured on the same side, and therefore only one window is required during measurement. This facilitates its instrument integration and provides significant potential for industrial applications involving powder processing.

The self-healing performance with the improved corrosion resistance of novel CeO2-sealed micro-arc oxide (MAO) film on Al alloy was studied in this work for the first time. There are three steps involved, including: (1) Preparing porous film by performing MAO treatment on Al alloy with the average thickness of ~15 μm; (2) loading corrosion inhibitor by soaking MAO sample in Ce(NO3)3 solution to fulfill micropores-sealing process; (3) evaluating the self-healing ability of the sealed MAO film in acidic, alkaline and neutral solutions by scratch tests. The experimental results indicated that the corrosion inhibitor was characterized to be CeO2 which can locally fill the micropores to seal the MAO film. The optimized CeO2-sealed MAO film owned the lower porosity and the improved the corrosion resistance, which can be testified from the corrosion current density (Icorr) decreased by 2 orders of magnitude compared with the MAO film. Furthermore, the micropores in the MAO film acted as microcontainers to hold corrosion inhibitor to make CeO2-sealed MAO film showed self-healing ability. In the acidic environment (pH = 2 (8 mL/L H2SO4 + 20 mL/L H2O2)), the novel CeO2-sealed film exhibited positive self-healing effect morphologically with improved corrosion test result, and the underlying self-healing mechanism was discussed in detail.

Decapod iridescent virus 1 (DIV1) is a new virus discovered in recent years that infects farmed shrimp. DIV1 is highly infectious and causes substantial economic loss to the aquaculture industry of China. To prevent and control the spread and outbreak of DIV1 in a timely manner, it is necessary to establish an efficient method for DIV1 diagnosis. In this study, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and quantitative real-time loop-mediated isothermal amplification (qLAMP) detection methods were established based on the specific sequence of the viral ATPase gene. The results indicated that the minimum detection limits of qPCR and qLAMP were 1.9 × 101 copies/μL and 1.9 × 102 copies/μL, respectively; the designed primer had good specificity for DIV1 and did not react with 13 other viruses, including white spot syndrome virus (WSSV), Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP), acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), infectious hypodermal and haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV), etc. A total of 43 clinical samples suspected of DIV1 infection were diagnosed by qPCR and qLAMP. Our qPCR demonstrated results consistent with a qPCR assay published previously, and the diagnostic sensitivity (DSe) and diagnostic specificity (DSp) of qLAMP were 85.71% and 100%, respectively. This result indicates that qPCR and qLAMP have good accuracy in the detection of DIVI in clinical samples. As established in this study, qPCR and qLAMP combined with a comprehensive comparative analysis can provide effective new solutions for the detection of DIV1.

This paper addresses the position control of valve-controlled cylinder system employed in hydraulic excavator. Nonlinearities such as dead zone, saturation, discharge coefficient and friction existed in the system are highlighted during the mathematical modeling. On this basis, simulation model is established and then validated against experiments. Aim for achieving excellent position control performances, an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is presented to search for the optimal proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller gains for the nonlinear hydraulic system. The proposed algorithm is a hybrid based on the standard PSO algorithm but with the addition of selection and crossover operators from genetic algorithm in order to enhance the searching efficiency. Furthermore, a nonlinear decreasing scheme for the inertia weight of the improved PSO algorithm is adopted to balance global exploration and local exploration abilities of particles. Then a co-simulation platform combining the simulation model with the improved PSO tuning based PID controller is developed. Comparisons of the improved PSO, standard PSO and Phase Margin (PM) tuning methods are carried out with three position references as step signal, ramp signal and sinusoidal wave using the co-simulation platform. The results demonstrated that the improved PSO algorithm can perform well in PID control for positioning of nonlinear hydraulic system.

For studying the mechanism related to the microscopic internal structure of porous carbon additives in lead-carbon batteries, we conducted the electrochemical experiments with a three-electrode system on a lead-doped mesopore-dominated porous carbon (Pb@MC) composite in a Pb2+ containing H2SO4 electrolyte. Through the electrochemical measures, lead particles on the external surface of carbon could be not only electrodeposited into the nano-sized pores of carbon, but also attached on the pore wall with atomic state, which was observed for the first time by using High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) and Aberration Corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (ABF-STEM) with the help of ultrathin sectioning. The nano-lead electrodeposits on the internal surface of carbon didn’t grow up because they were confined by the nano-sized pores of carbon. These nano-lead deposits could not only effectively inhibit the hydrogen evolution, but also contribute the pseudocapacitance and enhance the reversible reaction of Pb/PbSO4, and thus result in the longer cycle performance of lead-carbon batteries.

Simultaneous measurement of bubble size and its transient growth is of great importance for the study of bubble dynamics. Current methods based on Lagrangian tracking strategy cannot resolve nanoscale bubble growth within a short time interval. We have developed phase critical angle scattering (PCAS) and the theoretical derivation reveals the capability of PCAS to realize it. Nine air bubble cases are simulated based on a Lorenz-Mie scattering algorithm, and the results show that PCAS technique has a high resolution in size variation down to several nanometers and high accuracy with errors within 9%. Then the PCAS technique is applied to measure single growing bubble generated by electrolysis. By comparing the size measurement reults with results of the microscopic imaging, the size measurement accuracy of PCAS is evaluated to be around 7%. The PCAS technique has great potential in the characterization of bubble-like particle dynamics.

Using a sulfated polysaccharide from the gonad of pacific abalone (AGSP), a novel polysaccharide-Fe(III) complex, AGSP-Fe(III), was synthesized, and it was characterized by a series of methods including ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results showed that AGSP-Fe(III) was formed by the Fe-O bond between sulfate, carboxyl, and hydroxyl groups in AGSP and Fe, its particle size reached a maximum of 200 nm after aggregating, and its surface morphology presented relatively regular columnar or spherical. Moreover, the iron release of AGSP-Fe(III) during simulated gastrointestinal digestion was exhibited, and its good iron supplementary efficiency was also shown using Caco-2 cells. In addition, compared to FeCl3, AGSP-Fe(III) showed better solubility and stability in the presence of polyphenol/trypsin. The present study demonstrated the potential of AGSP-Fe(III) as a novel iron supplement.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Acute alcohol intoxication(AAI) is a frequent emergency, but therapeutic drugs with superior efficacy and safety are lacking. Panax ginseng(PG) and Hippophae rhamnoides (HR) respectively has a wide application as a complementary therapeutic agent in China for the treatment of AAI and liver injury induced by alcohol. We investigated the effects of aqueous extracts from PG and HR (AEPH) on AAI mice and identified its underlying mechanisms. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Models of AAI were induced by intragastric administration of ethanol (8g/kg). Seventy-two Specific pathogen-free (SPF) male Kunming mice were randomly divided into six groups: normal group, positive control group, AEPH of low dosage (100mg/kg) group, AEPH of medium dose (200mg/kg) group, AEPH of high dosage (400mg/kg) group and model group. The mice were treated with metadoxine (MTD, 500mg/kg) and AEPH. Thirty minutes later, the normal group was given normal saline, while the other groups were given ethanol (i.g., 8g/kg).The impact of AEPH was observed. In the same way, another seventy-two Kunming mice were randomly divided into six groups equally. The blood ethanol concentration at 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3 and 6hours after ethanol intake was determined by way of gas chromatography. The activity of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) and microsomal ethanol oxidase (EO) in liver, and the concentration of β-endorphin (β-EP), leucine-enkephalin (LENK) in the brain were determined by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent serologic assay (ELISA). RESULTS: AEPH markedly prolonged alcohol tolerance time and shortened sober-up time after acute ethanol administration. AEPH decreased blood ethanol levels in six tests after ethanol intake. The 7-day survival rate of AEPH group was obviously superior to model group. AEPH increased the activities of ADH, ALDH, and decreased EO activity in liver. The crucial find was that AEPH markedly decreased β-EP and LENK concentration in the brain. CONCLUSIONS: AEPH can markedly increase the levels of ADH, ALDH, decrease EO activity in liver and decrease the concentration of β-EP and LENK in the brain to against acute alcohol intoxication in mice.Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Language: en

WO 3 microspheres with hierarchical architectures were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method in the presence of K 2 SO 4 and H 2 C 2 O 4 with a molar ratio of 1:1, accompanied by WO 3 products mediated by only K 2 SO 4 or H 2 C 2 O 4 . The effect of surfactants on product morphology was investigated by means of XRD, SEM, XPS and BET measurements. Structural characterizations demonstrate that WO 3 microspheres mediated by complexing surfactants are assembled by numerous one-dimensional hexagonal nanorods with single crystal. Based on the comparative studies, WO 3 microspheres mediated by complexing surfactants show the highest effective surface area and optimal morphology distribution, leading to an excellent NO 2 gas sensing properties.

To investigate the effect of lignin in the cultivar-dependent Cd detoxification of Brassica chinensis L., Cd and lignin contents, lignin composition and laccase genes expressions in low-Cd-accumulating (LAJK) and high-Cd-accumulating (HAJS) cultivars grown under control (CK) and 25 μM Cd-treatment were determined. The results showed that lignin combined about 14 % of total Cd in both LAJK and HAJS. LAC genes were more up-regulated in HAJS than in LAJK, indicating that the LAC genes were involved in the cultivar-dependent lignin functions. Higher β-aryl ether (A) proportion in the lignin side chain region in LAJK than in HAJS were observed, whereas resinol (B) and phenylcoumaran (C) constitute much higher proportions in HAJS than in LAJK. Chemical calculation to estimate Cd affinity associating with lignin side chain region displayed that i) β-aryl ether (A) exhibited major coupling with lignin aromatic region; ii) resinol (B) and phenylcoumaran (C) displayed major participation in complexation with Cd. We therefore conclude that Cd compartmentalization in the secondary cell wall (SCW) by coupling with lignin side chain region is responsible for Cd detoxification related to cultivar-dependent Cd accumulation of Brassica chinensis. This is the first study on lignin composition in relation to Cd retention mechanisms in SCW.

Single-atom metal dispersed on graphene materials are highly desired in various fields such as energy conversion/storage, catalysis and nanoelectronics. However, the fabrication of such materials with high loading level is still challenging, as the conventional pyrolysis protocol usually leads to metal agglomeration due to the poor thermal stability of metal precursors and the high surface energy of single-atom metals. Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication of single-atom Cu dispersed on graphene (Cu/G) with ultrahigh Cu loading of 5.4 wt%, using a unique confined self-initiated dispersing protocol. It is revealed that Cu is introduced into graphene matrix via highly active gaseous Cu-containing intermediate, which results in abundant and well-dispersed Cu-containing moieties. This Cu/G material with ultrahigh loading level as an electrocatalyst presents remarkable activity towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) due to the abundant and highly dispersive Cu single atoms, even outperforming the commercial Pt/C. Our findings not only facilitate the development of single-atom metal dispersed on graphene materials but also highlight the importance of tuning active site structures in non-noble metal electrocatalysis.

File replication and replica management are effective strategies to ensure file availability and improve the efficiency of user access in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. In this paper, inspired by the replica population model in population ecology, we propose a replica population organizing strategy for unstructured P2P networks. We model the activities of a P2P node from a time-and-space perspective, and model a file?s availability from the perspective of node accessibility. The strategy automatically adjusts the relationship between the replica population and the environment, as well as the relationship between the replica population and the demand of users. Replica reproduction is well controlled by the strategy to adapt to the dynamic nature of P2P networks. We employ a push-pull approach, which enables replicas to change adaptively, both in their quantity and their distribution. Experimental results show that our strategy is able to adapt to the dynamic P2P environments. It effectively improves file availability, boosts retrieval efficiency, and meanwhile reduces the cost in network bandwidth. Display Omitted We present a node?s time-and-space as well as accessibility perspectives.We build an ecological model for replica management using the two perspectives.We propose a replica lifecycle management mechanism to manage storage space.

It is still a challenge to identify mixed polysaccharides isolated from biological tissues. The present study aimed to develop a protocol that allowed for quick characterization of mixed polysaccharides by selecting Cyclina sinensis polysaccharides as test beds. Disaccharides were gradually released by graded acid hydrolysis, separated with 3 kDa molecular weight cut-off membrane, and analyzed by HPLC-ESI-MSn. Furthermore, the monosaccharide composition of the filtrate during the gradient acid hydrolysis process and the final retentate were also determined to provide composition information of these disaccharides. Thus, 6 disaccharides were detected and identified, indicating the existence of polysaccharides constructed of corresponding repeated disaccharide fragments in C. sinensis. The present study demonstrated a potential strategy to characterize mixed polysaccharides without separation and purification.

Background Neuroendocrine system plays a critical role in regulating the immune system, and therefore the progression and prognosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) may be largely influenced and reflected by immune cell levels. Lymphocytes are crucial immune cells that correlate with tumorigenesis and tumor progression, and lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood, which include CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, B cells and NK cells, are reported to reflect tumor prognosis and progression in various cancer types. We thus speculated that peripheral lymphocyte subset proportion may reflect the state of progression and predict tumor prognosis of pNETs. Methods A retrospective, follow-up cohort study consisting 73 patients diagnosed as pNETs was conducted. Flow cytometry was performed to analyze peripheral lymphocyte subsets. Ultivariate analyses were performed using the stepwise Cox hazards model, and Kaplane-Meier methods and log-rank tests were used for the comparison of survival rates, Mann-Whitney U test were used for analyses of the correlation between lymphocyte subset percentage and clinicopathologic parameters. Results pNET patients with distant metastasis were associated with lower CD3+ T cell (p = 0.003), lower CD4+ T cell (p = 0.006) and higher NK cell (p = 0.003) percentage in peripheral blood. Lower percentage of CD3+, CD4+ T cells, B cells and higher percentage of NK cells in peripheral blood were associated with shorter progression-free survival (PFS). Distant metastasis (HR = 29.194, 95%CI: 6.865 to 124.144 p Conclusions CD3+, CD4+ T cell and NK cell percentage in peripheral blood may reflect the the status of distant metastasis in pNET patients. The percentage of peripheral B cells cells may independently predict the progression of pNET patients with or without distant metastasis, making them promising clinical indicators to instruct the frequency for reexaminations after primary medical treatment. Legal entity responsible for the study Yitao Gong. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure The author has declared no conflicts of interest.

The rural-to-urban migrant children’s education predicament in China’s major cities is well known. While the hukou system has been widely criticized for depriving many migrant children of quality education in recent years, we suggest that this is only the tip of the iceberg. The principal obstacle faced by the migrant children is China’s rural-urban dual system, which is the foundation of contemporary Chinese development. This article intends to shed light on the plight of these migrant children by elaborating on the relationship between the Chinese rural-urban dual system and the practice of development in China. The article concludes that these migrant children, stranded between the two systems, are the de facto victims of Chinese development, which has been based on a long-maintained “one country, two societies” strategy since the 1950s

Direct epoxidation of propylene (C3H6) with oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2) over gold catalysts is an efficient and environmentally benign process to produce propylene oxide (PO). Herein, Au/TS-1 was used to catalyze propylene epoxidation, and its pretreatment effect under different gas atmospheres was carefully investigated. The results showed that Au/TS-1 pretreated with H2-C3H6 exhibited much better catalytic performance than that pretreated with single-component gas of H2, O2 and C3H6, dual-component gas of H2-O2 and O2-C3H6, and feed gas of H2+O2+C3H6. UV/vis/NIR spectra, O2-TPO-MS and 29Si NMR indicated that the pretreatment of Au/TS-1 using H2-C3H6 led to hydrophobic catalyst surfaces functionalized by hydrocarbon species, consequently facilitating the C3H6 adsorption and PO desorption. HAADF-STEM showed that H2-C3H6 pretreatment caused the formation of small Au nanoparticles (NPs) with an average size of ˜2.1 nm. The common effect of small Au NPs and hydrophobic surface was speculated to be responsible for the excellent catalytic performance of Au/TS-1 pretreated with H2-C3H6.

Aiming at shortcomings in feedback information aggregation and trust decision in existing trust models, a novel trust model, named @Trust, is proposed for structured P2P networks. @Trust calculates the node's credibility of service, feedback and arbitration based on the evaluations of the specific service which were arbitrated according to the rule of majority in human society, to enhance the model against the malicious peers. @Trust also involves the applying of the credibility of specific services and the punishment mechanism to improve the trust decision and to resist the repeated attacks of the malicious peers. The simulation results show that @Trust has advantages in distinguishing out the false feedback and resisting the malicious peers, and thus improves the availability of P2P networks.