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Based on the engineering background of 1353 working face in Daizhuang Coalmine, the paper identifies three primary issues with the working face mining process: conventional pressure relief means are limited, risk of impact and the length of working face changes, It also proposes comprehensive control measures to improve the blasting roof cutting scheme, optimize mining speed and the location of the stopping line. The three improvement measures mentioned above are simulated numerically, and the effects of the drilling and blasting plan, mining speed, and stopping line location on stress distribution are determined. The results show that by implementing the three improvement measures, the stress variation interval can be efficiently controlled and the working face's production safety can be increased. Finally, it is determined that the 1353 working face of Daizhuang Coalmine adopts the pressure relief method of drilling on one side and cutting the roof 20 m deep on the other side, and the mining speed of the working face is 3 m/day and the length of the stopping line is 85 m. Based on the on-site monitoring results, the implementation of comprehensive treatment measures can effectively improve the surrounding rock state of 1353 working face, which has certain guiding significance for the mining of irregular working face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) refers to a distinct class of circular DNA molecules that exist independently from linear chromosomal DNA. Extensive evidence has firmly established the significant involvement of eccDNA in cancer initiation, progression, and evolutionary processes. However, the relationship between eccDNA and brain aging remains elusive. Here, we employed extrachromosomal circular DNA sequencing (Circle-seq) to generate a comprehensive dataset of eccDNA from six brain structures of both young and naturally-aged mice, including the olfactory bulb, medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, caudate putamen, hippocampus, and cerebellum. Furthermore, through database annotation, we characterized the properties of mouse brain eccDNA, thereby gaining insights into the potential functions of eccDNA in the mouse brain. In conclusion, our study addresses a previously unexplored area by providing a comprehensive molecular characterization of eccDNA in brain tissues. The data presented in the study can be used as a fundamental resource to associate the molecular phenotypes of eccDNA with brain aging and gain deep insights into the biological role of eccDNA in mammalian brain aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution integration of large-scale and long-term anthropogenic nutrient discharge data is crucial for understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of pollution and identifying intervention points for pollution mitigation. Here, we establish the MEANS-ST1.0 dataset, which has a high spatiotemporal resolution and encompasses anthropogenic nutrient discharge data collected in China from 1980 to 2020. The dataset includes five components, namely, urban residential, rural residential, industrial, crop farming, and livestock farming, with a spatial resolution of 1 km and a temporal resolution of monthly. The data are available in three formats, namely, GeoTIFF, NetCDF and Excel, catering to GIS users, researchers and policymakers in various application scenarios, such as visualization and modelling. Additionally, rigorous quality control was performed on the dataset, and its reliability was confirmed through cross-scale validation and literature comparisons at the national and regional levels. These data offer valuable insights for further modelling the interactions between humans and the environment and the construction of a digital Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roll bonding is feasible to fabricate T2 copper (Cu)/ stainless steel (SS) composite thin trips, which have great potential for use in micromanufacturing, robotics, aerospace, and other applications. However, the effective bonding of Cu and SS could be hindered by limited diffusion of the elements and uncoordinated deformation of the metal matrices. In this study, Cu/SS composite strips with 0.24 mm thickness were prepared by the two-pass cold rolling process with intermediate annealing at 400 ~ 1000℃. The influences of the intermediate annealing process on the tensile and peeling strength were investigated. Finite element simulation and microstructure evaluation were carried out to analyze the deformation behaviors and bonding mechanisms of the strips. The results indicate that the deformation coordination in the second-pass rolling and the bonding strength were improved by appropriate intermediate annealing processes. The difference in the deformation resistance between Cu and SS became the lowest by intermediate annealing at 1000℃, while the deformation of Cu and SS was severely uncoordinated by annealing at 600℃. The peel strength and elongation of the strips annealed at 1000℃ were 11.65 ± 0.7N/mm and 34.8 ± 1.3% after the second-pass rolling, which were 79.23% and 6.64 times higher than the strips manufactured without intermediate annealing, respectively. In this work, Cu/SS thin strips with high bonding strength and ductility were successfully manufactured by appropriate intermediate annealing process, and the bonding mechanisms were systematically discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of P-stereogenic heterocycles has been widely recognized with their extensive use as privileged chiral ligands and bioactive compounds. The catalytic asymmetric synthesis of P-stereogenic phosphindane derivatives, however, remains a challenging task. Herein, we report a catalytic kinetic resolution of phosphindole oxides via rhodium-catalyzed diastereo- and enantioselective conjugate addition to access enantiopure P-stereogenic phosphindane and phosphindole derivatives. This kinetic resolution method features high efficiency (s factor up to >1057), excellent stereoselectivities (all >20:1 dr, up to >99% ee), and a broad substrate scope. The obtained chiral phosphindane oxides exhibit promising therapeutic efficacy in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), and compound 3az is found to significantly inhibit renal cyst growth both in vitro and in vivo, thus ushering in a promising scaffold for ADPKD drug discovery. This study will not only advance efforts towards the asymmetric synthesis of challenging P-stereogenic heterocycles, but also surely inspire further development of P-stereogenic entities for bioactive small-molecule discovery.P-stereogenic heterocycles are privileged chiral ligands and bioactive compounds, but the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of P-stereogenic phosphindane derivatives is challenging. Here, the authors report a catalytic kinetic resolution of phosphindole oxides via rhodium-catalyzed diastereo- and enantioselective conjugate addition to access enantiopure Pstereogenic phosphindane and phosphindole derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau stands as the loftiest geographical area on our planet, frequently denoted as the "Crown of the Globe." To acquire an exhaustive comprehension of the heavy metal contamination situation in the topsoil of Maqin County, Qinghai Province, a total of 1616 surface soil specimens were gathered across a 6300 km2 area. An examination was carried out on 12 metallic elements to investigate the impact of diverse geological contexts, soil categorizations, and land utilization practices on the levels of heavy metals. Additionally, the fundamental factors contributing to these trends were probed. The findings unveiled that the mean levels of the 12 metallic elements in the topsoil of Maqin County surpassed or equaled the baseline values of soil heavy metal concentrations within the research region. The coefficients of variation (CV) values for Hg, Sb, Ni, and Pb exceeded 30%, with Hg showing strong variation. The overall pollution level in the study area was classified as mild, posing a moderate ecological risk. In this study, we performed a multi-factor analysis of the significant differences in heavy metal concentrations among different geological backgrounds, soil types, and land-use types. The results showed that geological background had extremely significant impacts on elements such as Ba, Be, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Sb, Tl, and Zn (p < 0.01). Soil type had an extremely significant influence on Be, Cd, Cu, and Zn (p < 0.01), as well as a significant influence on Ba (p < 0.05). Land-use type had an extremely significant impact on Ba (p < 0.01) and a significant impact on Cd (p < 0.05). Building upon the amalgamation of the outcomes from the Pearson correlation analysis, it was inferred that the main source of heavy metals in Maqin County, Qinghai Province, was the geological background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance assessment is crucial for managing the health of complex systems, including single-agent and multi-agent systems. However, research on the latter has been relatively sparse. Approaches to assessing system performance must consider both assessment result accuracy and process explainability, especially in cases with small or unbalanced samples, which limits the application of data-driven approaches. In this paper, the Belief Rule Base (BRB) grey-box expert system is adopted to assess the performance of leader-following multi-agent systems subject to switching topologies and unpredictable disturbances. By fusing historical data and expert knowledge, the precision of assessment results and the traceability of the assessment process are balanced. Two time-varying features based on the states and distributed communication characteristics of the leader-following MASs are designed as model input. The robustness of the feature matching degree is quantitatively analysed, and the obtained robustness factors can reflect their effectiveness on the final performance utility produced by the BRB model. This approach helps raise the cognitive ability of specialists and devise more rational model structures and initial parameters. In comparative studies, better prediction accuracy of the proposed BRB performance assessment model is demonstrated compared to other classical models based on small training samples, while avoiding an opaque inference process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extrachromosomal circular DNAs (eccDNAs) carrying random genomic segments are broadly found across different cancer types, but their molecular functions and impact in gastric cancer (GC) are rarely known. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential role of eccDNA in GC. Using the Circle-seq strategy, we observed the eccDNA abundance in gastric cancer tissues (GCT) was aberrantly higher than that of normal adjacent tissues (NAT). The high abundance of eccDNAs carrying oncogene-segments in GCT may represent the DNA damage products of amplified oncogenes. Analysis of GCT over-represented eccDNA carrying enhancer (eccEnhancer) based on data from FANTOM5 project combined with TCGA database suggested the GC over-represented eccEnhancers may contribute to development of GC. GC over-represented eccDNAs carrying pre-miRNA (eccMIR) were enriched to multiple cancer-relevant signal pathways by KEGG analysis. We then synthesized the top six GC over-represented eccMIRs and found four of them enabled high expression of miRNAs and down-regulation of miRNA-target genes in MGC803 cells. Furthermore, we observed the inheritance of GC over-represented eccMIRs benefited host cell proliferation and promoted the aggressive features of host cells. Altogether, this study revealed the GC over-represented eccDNAs carrying functional genomic segments were related to the carcinogenesis of GC and presented the capability to facilitate cancer progression, suggesting the cancerous eccDNAs may serve as a dynamic reservoir for genome plasticity and rapid adaptive evolution of cancer. Therefore, blocking the pathways for eccDNAs generation may provide a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of gastric cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we propose a novel multi-modal brain–computer interface (BCI) system based on the threshold discrimination, which is proposed for the first time to distinguish between SSVEP and MI potentials. The system combines these two heterogeneous signals to increase the number of control commands and improve the performance of asynchronous control of external devices. In this research, an electric wheelchair is controlled as an example. The user can continuously control the wheelchair to turn left/right through motion imagination (MI) by imagining left/right-hand movement and generate another 6 commands for the wheelchair control by focusing on the SSVEP stimulation panel. Ten subjects participated in a MI training session and eight of them completed a mobile obstacle-avoidance experiment in a complex environment requesting high control accuracy for successful manipulation. Comparing with the single-modal BCI-controlled wheelchair system, the results demonstrate that the proposed multi-modal method is effective by providing more satisfactory control accuracy, and show the potential of BCI-controlled systems to be applied in complex daily tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor surface quality is one of the main problems for the forming and application of magnesium alloys. In this study, electric pulse and ultrasonic vibration were simultaneously applied to the incremental sheet forming (ISF) process of magnesium alloys, and the effect of electric pulse–ultrasonic composite energy field on the surface quality was investigated. Compared with electric pulse–assisted forming, a composite energy field could reduce the forming force under any condition and improve the surface quality at the condition of higher current frequency (≥ 350 HZ), lower step depth (0.1 mm), and keep the effective current density less than 30 A/mm2. The maximum percentage decrease in forming force and surface roughness is about 20 and 50%, respectively. Moreover, although the surface quality can be improved by ultrasonic energy in both directions, the effect is more significantly in direction perpendicular to the feed direction than that in the direction parallel to the feed direction. The repeated rolling caused by ultrasonic vibration is benefit to the rearrangement of the surface gully and makes the surface profile height distribution relatively uniform. The surface quality also would be aggravated due to the dynamic impact of the ultrasonic vibration and serious surface oxidative, which caused by excessive temperature increasing at the condition of high current density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is related to a dysregulation of mitophagy, a process that is not fully understood. Parkin-related mitophagy can sustain mitochondrial homeostasis and hepatocyte viability. Herein, we report that selenoprotein M (SELENOM) plays a central role in maintaining mitophagy in high-fat diet (HFD)-mediated NAFLD. We show that SELENOM was significantly downregulated in the liver of HFD-fed mice. SELENOM deletion aggravated HFD-mediated hepatic steatosis, inflammation, and fibrosis; accompanied by enhanced fatty acid oxidation and oxidative stress in the liver. Molecular analyses show that lipotoxicity was related to increased mitochondrial apoptosis as evidenced by enhanced mitochondrial ROS production, and attenuation of mitochondrial potential in the liver of HFD-fed SELENOM−/− mice. Additionally, SELENOM deletion reduced mitophagy and aggravated hepatic injury in NAFLD. Mechanistically, SELENOM overexpression activated Parkin-mediated mitophagy to reduce mitochondrial apoptosis and remove HFD-damaged mitochondria. We further found that SELENOM regulates Parkin expression via the AMPKα1–MFN2 pathway; blockade of AMPKα1 prevented SELENOM activation of Parkin-mediated mitophagy. Our work identified SELENOM downregulation as a possible explanation for the defective mitophagy in NAFLD. Thus, targeting SELENOM may be potential new therapeutic modalities for NAFLD treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable information on building rooftops is crucial for utilizing limited urban space effectively. In recent decades, the demand for accurate and up-to-date data on the areas of rooftops on a large-scale is increasing. However, obtaining these data is challenging due to the limited capability of conventional computer vision methods and the high cost of 3D modeling involving aerial photogrammetry. In this study, a geospatial artificial intelligence framework is presented to obtain data for rooftops using high-resolution open-access remote sensing imagery. This framework is used to generate vectorized data for rooftops in 90 cities in China. The data was validated on test samples of 180 km2 across different regions with spatial resolution, overall accuracy, and F1 score of 1 m, 97.95%, and 83.11%, respectively. In addition, the generated rooftop area conforms to the urban morphological characteristics and reflects urbanization level. These results demonstrate that the generated dataset can be used for data support and decision-making that can facilitate sustainable urban development effectively. Measurement(s) building rooftop area Technology Type(s) computational modeling technique Sample Characteristic - Environment city Sample Characteristic - Location China [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive models for clinical outcomes that are accurate on average in a patient population may underperform drastically for some subpopulations, potentially introducing or reinforcing inequities in care access and quality. Model training approaches that aim to maximize worst-case model performance across subpopulations, such as distributionally robust optimization (DRO), attempt to address this problem without introducing additional harms. We conduct a large-scale empirical study of DRO and several variations of standard learning procedures to identify approaches for model development and selection that consistently improve disaggregated and worst-case performance over subpopulations compared to standard approaches for learning predictive models from electronic health records data. In the course of our evaluation, we introduce an extension to DRO approaches that allows for specification of the metric used to assess worst-case performance. We conduct the analysis for models that predict in-hospital mortality, prolonged length of stay, and 30-day readmission for inpatient admissions, and predict in-hospital mortality using intensive care data. We find that, with relatively few exceptions, no approach performs better, for each patient subpopulation examined, than standard learning procedures using the entire training dataset. These results imply that when it is of interest to improve model performance for patient subpopulations beyond what can be achieved with standard practices, it may be necessary to do so via data collection techniques that increase the effective sample size or reduce the level of noise in the prediction problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term continuous cropping is a common practice in facility vegetable production, which has an adverse effect on cucumber yield and quality. Soil fungi are of great significance for creating a normal soil ecological environment. However, the impact of continuous cropping on cucumber quality and soil fungal community has yet to be understood. In this study, we evaluated the effects of continuous cropping on cucumber using high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed that the extension of continuous cropping would increase nitrate and total acidity of cucumber, while the contents of vitamin C (VC), soluble sugar, and protein were decreased. The increase of continuous cropping duration also reduced the fungal diversity of the cucumber soil. For example, the activity of three dominant fungal phylums, Ascomycota, Aphelidiomycota, and Basidiomycota, decreased with the extension of planting years. The relative abundance of the two fungi species (Remersonia_thermophila, Mortierella_oligospora) was negatively correlated with the contents of available phosphorus and available potassium (P < 0.05). Redundancy analysis (RDA) found that soil electrical conductivity (EC), available phosphorus (AP), and pH accounted for the top three major factors of fungal community structure changes. The soil fungal community was changed during the continuous cucumber cultivation, which might be the result of the combined cultivation period of cucumber and excessive application of chemical fertilizers (nitrogen fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer, etc.). Our study provides a theoretical basis for the understanding of the impact of continuous cropping in cucumber facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deoxyribozyme (or denoted as DNAzyme), which is produced by in vitro screening technology, has gained extensive research interest in the field of biomedicine due to its high catalytic activity and structure identification. This review introduces the structural characteristics of RNA-cleaving DNAzyme and its application potential in cancer gene therapy, which plays a significant role in cancer-related gene inactivation by specifically cleaving target mRNA and inhibiting the expression of the corresponding protein. However, the low delivery efficiency and cellular uptake hindered the widespread usage of DNAzyme in gene therapy of cancers. Emerging nanotechnology holds great promise for DNAzyme to overcome these obstacles. This review mainly focuses on DNAzyme-based nanotherapeutic platforms in gene therapy of cancers, including oncogene antagonism therapy, treatment resistance gene therapy, immunogene therapy, and antiangiogenesis gene therapy. We also revealed the potential of DNAzyme-based nanotherapeutic platforms as emerging cancer therapy approaches and their security issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) pollution in plastic shed soils has become increasingly severe, posing a great threat to human health and social stability. Phytoremediation of cadmium pollution is an environmentally friendly and inexpensive remediation method. In this study, maize (Zea mays L.) was selected as the phytoremediation crop by a potted method, and the bioavailability of cadmium was investigated by adding exogenous elemental sulfur. The relationships among the sulfur content, maize growth, cadmium accumulation, and soil parameters were systematically studied. The results showed that, with the supplement of sulfur, the soil pH and activities of soil enzymes (urease, catalase, and sucrase) decreased gradually, and the available heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Zn, and Cu) in soil showed an upward trend. The optimal cadmium enrichment was achieved under T2 by increasing both the biomass of the maize plant and the cadmium concentration in roots and stems. However, T3 and T4 significantly inhibited the growth of maize roots and shoots, leading to a much lower plant biomass compared with that of CK (sulfur-free treatment) and T2. In addition, the cumulative cadmium was not increased because of the low accumulation of cadmium in some parts of the plant. Correlation analyses showed that the sulfur content was negatively correlated with soil pH and maize biomass (P < 0.01), and the cadmium content of whole maize was positively correlated with the dry weight of maize (P < 0.05) and the cadmium content in roots and stems (P < 0.01). In summary, to optimize cadmium phytoremediation of the plastic shed soil, an appropriate concentration of sulfur should be selected in practical applications to ensure that the biomass of the maize is maximized, and the cadmium concentration in different parts of the maize is increased or stabilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan largely moved away from nuclear power generation and turned back towards an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels. As a result, the pace towards reaching emission reduction targets has largely slowed down. This situation indicates that higher emissions will continue to be generated if there is no appropriate and efficient measurement implemented to bridge the energy demand gap. To contribute adequate mitigation policies, a detailed inventory of both CO2 emissions and socioeconomic factors, both at the national and regional level, should be issued. Thereby, this work contributes to a time-series emission with a record of 47 prefectures in Japan as well as their associated socioeconomic features. The compiled emission inventory is based on three major fossil fuels and 26 sectors with careful emission allocations for regional electricity generation. This dataset is uniformly formatted and can be expected to provide vital information to set regional reduction allowances and sectoral reduction priorities. Measurement(s) carbon dioxide emission • Socioeconomic Indicator Technology Type(s) fossil fuel power plant • digital curation Factor Type(s) prefectural carbon emission Sample Characteristic - Environment anthropogenic environment Sample Characteristic - Location Japan Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12487604 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protecting the environment and enhancing food security are among the world's greatest challenges. Fish consumption is widely considered to be the single significant dietary source of methylmercury. Nevertheless, by synthesizing data from the past six decades and using a variety of models, we find that rice could be a significant global dietary source of human methylmercury exposure, especially in South and Southeast Asia. In 2013, globalization caused 9.9% of human methylmercury exposure via the international rice trade and significantly aggravated rice-derived exposure in Africa (62%), Central Asia (98%) and Europe (42%). In 2016, 180 metric tons of mercury were generated in rice plants, 14-fold greater than that exported from oceans via global fisheries. We suggest that future research should consider both the joint ingestion of rice with fish and the food trade in methylmercury exposure assessments, and anthropogenic biovectors such as crops should be considered in the global mercury cycle. Fish consumption is considered to be the only significant dietary source of MeHg. Here the authors show that rice could also be a significant global dietary source, especially in South and Southeast Asia. International rice trade and joint ingestion of fish and rice could aggravate the MeHg exposure levels in many areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The petrol truck routing problem is an important part of the petrol supply chain. This study focuses on determining routes for distributing petrol products from a depot to petrol stations with the objective of minimizing the total travel cost and the fixed cost required to use the trucks. We propose a mathematical model that considers petrol trucks returning to a depot multiple times and develop a heuristic algorithm based on a local branch-and-bound search with a tabu list and the Metropolis acceptance criterion. In addition, an approach that accelerates the solution process by adding several valid inequalities is presented. In this study, the trucks are homogeneous and have two compartments, and each truck can execute at most three tasks daily. The sales company arranges the transfer amount and the time windows for each station. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by comparing its results with the optimal results. In addition, a real-world case of routing petrol trucks in Beijing is studied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil and gas pipeline networks are a key link in the coordinated development of oil and gas both upstream and downstream. To improve the reliability and safety of the oil and gas pipeline network, inspections are implemented to minimize the risk of leakage, spill and theft, as well as documenting actual incidents. In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles have been recognized as a promising option for inspection due to their high efficiency. However, the integrated optimization of unmanned aerial vehicle inspection for oil and gas pipeline networks, including physical feasibility, the performance of mission, cooperation, real-time implementation and three-dimensional (3-D) space, is a strategic problem due to its large-scale, complexity as well as the need for efficiency. In this work, a novel mixed-integer nonlinear programming model is proposed that takes into account the constraints of the mission scenario and the safety performance of unmanned aerial vehicles. To minimize the total length of the inspection path, the model is solved by a two-stage solution method. Finally, a virtual pipeline network and a practical pipeline network are set as two examples to demonstrate the performance of the optimization schemes. Moreover, compared with the traditional genetic algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm, the self-adaptive genetic simulated annealing algorithm proposed in this paper provides strong stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterologous biosynthesis has been long pursued as a viable approach for high efficiency production of natural products with various industrial values. Conventional methods for heterologous biosynthesis use the mono-culture of an engineered microbe for accommodating the whole target biosynthetic pathway to produce the desired product. The emergence of modular co-culture engineering, which divides the pathway between multiple co-culture strains, presents a new perspective to conduct heterologous biosynthesis and improve the bioproduction performance of natural products. This review highlights recent advances in utilizing the modular co-culture engineering approaches to address the challenges of plant and fungal natural product biosynthesis. Potential directions for future research in this promising field are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-dimensional uniform zinc antimonide (ZnSb) nanorods were successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method using ethylenediamine (en) as a “shape modifier” for the controlled synthesis of nanorods. These ZnSb nanorods show hexagonal phase and good crystallinity in nature. Also, they exhibited the average size of lengths and diameters for 1.4 µm × 170 nm. Based on the crystal structures and morphologies evolution of ZnSb nanorods, the formation mechanism of ZnSb nanorods has been proposed to be that the nanosized clusters nucleated first and then to the orientation growth depending on en molecular template, namely, a solvent coordinating molecular template mechanism. The electrochemical properties of the ZnSb nanorods are investigated as anodes for lithium-ion battery, which exhibit high reversible lithium storage capacity (478.5 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles) and superior electronic conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uniform antimony (Sb) nanotubes were successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method without the need for any surfactants or templates. The Sb nanotubes are confirmed to be pure rhombohedral phase and have better crystallinity. These nanotubes show middle-hollow and open-ended structures, as well as multi-walled structures with the wall thickness of about 10 nm. Also, they have an average size of the diameter of about 50 nm and the length of about 350 nm. On the basis of the structural and morphological studies, a possible rolling mechanism is proposed to explain the formation of Sb nanotubes. It is expected that uniform Sb nanotubes can further be used in wide applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ascorbic acid was used to modify to chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene films transferred onto SiO substrate. Residual polymer (polymethyl methacrylate), Fe, Cl, HO, and O affected the electrical and thermal properties on graphene during the transfer or device fabrication processes. Exposure of transferred graphene to ascorbic acid resulted in significantly enhanced electrical properties with increased charge carrier mobility. All devices exhibited more than 30% improvement in room temperature carrier mobility in air. The carrier mobility of the treated graphene did not significantly decrease in 21 days. This result can be attributed to electron donation to graphene through the −OH functional group in ascorbic acid that is absorbed in graphene. This work provides a method to enhance the electrical properties of CVD-grown graphene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu(111) is a suitable substrate for sixfold graphene domain synthesis, as confirmed theoretically and experimentally. However, an undulate striped structure, where stretched flower-like or approximate diamond-shaped graphene domains had formed, appeared on Cu(111) after annealing and growth in our study. Graphene domains were stretched along the undulate stripes. The Cu surface coated with graphene domains was flatter than the surrounding undulate striped structure. Oxygen plasma was used to remove the graphene coating, and the exposed Cu was also flat. We propose that slight steps formed on Cu(111) in the annealing process. The faster rate of graphene growth along these steps contributed to the stretching domain shape. Furthermore, the release of internal stress or the shrinking of Cu during cooling promotes the expansion step to form an undulate striped structure. However, the coated Cu step motion is limited by graphene. Consequently, the resulting surface is flat, thereby clearly indicating a graphene-Cu interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of graphene domain synthesis explains the main graphene growth process. Size-limited graphene growth caused by hydrogen is studied to achieve efficient graphene synthesis. Graphene synthesis on Cu foils via the chemical vapor deposition method using methane as carbon source is limited by high hydrogen concentration. Results indicate that hydrogen affects graphene nucleation, the growth rate, and the final domain size. Considering the role of hydrogen as both activator and etching reagent, we build a model to explain the cause of this low graphene growth rate for high hydrogen partial pressure. A two-step method is proposed to control the graphene nucleation and growth rate separately. Half the time is required to obtain similar domain size compared with single-step synthesis, indicating improved graphene synthesis efficiency. The change of the partial pressure and transmission time between the two steps is a factor that cannot be ignored to control the graphene growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the injection of electron is an effective strategy to improve the performance of polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). In this work, we reported a 286% improvement in current efficiency (CE) of PLEDs by using double-layered alkali halide electron injection layer (EIL) NaCl/LiF instead of LiF. A significant enhancement of electron injection was observed after inserting the NaCl layer. To understand the mechanism of such improvement, the devices with KBr/LiF and CsF/LiF as EILs were also investigated. Experimental results show that metal cation migrated under the effect of built-in electric field (Vbi), which plays the main role on the improvement of electron injection in PLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) represents the gold standard for nodal staging in PCa and is recommended for patients with a probability of lymph node invasion (LNI) >5%. However, the therapeutic role of PLND and its extent remains a debate. In this study, data of 20,668 patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) with and without PLND from SEER database between 2010 and 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients had a risk of LNI >5% according to 2012-Briganti nomogram. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance baseline characteristics between patients with and without PLND. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression were used to evaluate the impacts of the PLND and its extent on cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). In overall cohort, patients with PLND were associated with more aggressive clinicopathologic characteristics and had poorer survival compared to those without PLND (5-year CSS rate: 98.4% vs. 99.7%, p < 0.001; 5-year OS rate: 96.3% vs. 97.8%, p < 0.001). In the post-PSM cohort, no significant difference in survival was found between patients with and without PLND (5-year CSS rate: 99.4% vs. 99.7%, p = 0.479; 5-year OS rate: 97.3% vs. 97.8%, p = 0.204). In addition, the extent of PLND had no impact on prognosis (all p > 0.05). Subgroup analyses reported similar negative findings. In conclusion, neither PLND nor its extent was associated with survival in North American patients with a risk of LNI >5%. The cut-off point of 5% probability of LNI might be too low to show benefits in survival in patients underwent PLND. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphology of perovskite light-absorption layer plays an important role in the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In this work, BiFeO3 (BFO) nanostructures were used as additive for CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) via anti-solvent method. The addition of BFO nanostructures greatly enhanced the crystallinity, grain size and film uniformity of MAPbI3. As a result, the charge carrier mobility and electron diffusion length increased, leading to the increase of the short circuit current (JSC) of PSCs. This work provides a very simple but effective approach to improve the morphology of perovskite layer for efficient PSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reductions in persistent HPV infection and related diseases occurrence have been proved among vaccinated males. However, little was known on awareness of HPV and the vaccine in males, especially in high-risk subgroups such as men who have sex with men (MSM), in China. A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted in MSM from 10 selected cities in mainland China. HPV awareness and vaccination acceptability were investigated through interviews and questionnaires. In total, 3057 eligible participants aged 18 years older from 10 cities were investigated. Only 20.6% (629/3057) of them had ever heard of HPV and 4.8% (146/3057) had heard of HPV vaccine. Factors that potentially influence willingness for HPV vaccination were found to be safety of the vaccine (54.2%, 1656/3057) and severity of HPV infection (52.3%, 1599/3057). After education, 97.8% (2882/2946) of participants would like to pay for HPV vaccination, and only a minority of them (2.5%, 75/2946) would like to afford more than 2000 RMB. Our results showed that the awareness on HPV and the vaccine were quite poor among MSM in mainland China. To promote the application of HPV vaccination in male populations, appropriate information delivery and education on HPV infection and health should be enhanced as well as in females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury (Hg) exposure poses substantial risks to human health. Investigating a longer chain from economic activities to human health can reveal the sources and critical processes of Hg-related health risks. Thus, we develop a more comprehensive assessment method which is applied to mainland China—the largest global Hg emitter. We present a map of Hg-related health risks in China and estimate that 0.14 points of per-foetus intelligence quotient (IQ) decrements and 7,360 deaths from fatal heart attacks are related to the intake of methylmercury in 2010. This study, for the first time, reveals the significant impacts of interprovincial trade on Hg-related health risks across the whole country. For instance, interprovincial trade induced by final consumption prevents 0.39 × 10−2 points for per-foetus IQ decrements and 194 deaths from fatal heart attacks. These findings highlight the importance of policy decisions in different stages of economic supply chains to reduce Hg-related health risks. Mercury (Hg) is a global neurotoxic pollutant and has a long chain from economic activities to human health risks. Here the authors presented a map of Hg-related health risks in China and found significant impacts of interprovincial trade on health risks, such as the prevention of deaths from fatal heart attacks by the trade induced by final consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing evidences have revealed a close interaction between the intestinal microbes and host growth performance. The shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) gut harbors a diverse microbial community, yet its associations with dietary, body weight and weaning age remain a matter of debate. In this study, we analyzed the effects of different dietary (fishmeal group (NC), krill meal group (KM)) and different growth stages (age from 42 day-old to 98 day-old) of the shrimp on the intestinal microbiota. High throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes of shrimp intestinal microbes determined the novelty of bacteria in the shrimp gut microbiota and a core of 58 Operation Taxonomic Units (OTUs) was present among the shrimp gut samples. Analysis results indicated that the development of the shrimp gut microbiota is a dynamic process with three stages across the age according to the gut microbiota compositions. Furthermore, the dietary of KM group did not significantly change the intestinal microbiota of the shrimps compared with NC group. Intriguingly, compared to NC group, we observed in KM group that a fluctuation of the shrimp gut microbiota coincided with the shrimp body weight gain between weeks 6-7. Six OTUs associated with the microbiota change in KM group were identified. This finding strongly suggests that the shrimp gut microbiota may be correlated with the shrimp body weight likely by influencing nutrient uptake in the gut. The results obtained from this study potentially will be guidelines for manipulation to provide novel shrimp feed management approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body mass index (BMI) has been shown to be associated with host susceptibility to several infections. However, the link between BMI and the risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection has been sparsely studied in China and in worldwide. Based on the baseline survey of a population-based, prospective study in rural China, the association between BMI and TB infection among adults was estimated by means of cross-sectional analysis. TB infection status was tested using QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT), a commercial of interferon-γ release assay (IGRA). Totally, 17796 eligible participants aged ≥18 years from 4 study sites, were included in the analysis. 21.76% (3873/17796) were observed to be QFT positive. Age and gender standardized prevalence ranged from 16.49% to 23.81% across the study sites. 42.19% study participants were obese/overweight with BMI ≥ 24.0 kg/m2. BMI ≥ 28.0 kg/m2 was observed to be independently associated with QFT positivity (adjusted odds ratio: 1.17, 95% confidence interval: 1.04-1.33). The strength of the association was found to be geographically diversity, which might be explained, at least partly, by the varied local TB epidemic status. Our results suggest that individuals with obesity might be one important target population for TB infection control in rural China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]