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Precious metals are core assets for the development of modern technologies in various fields. Their scarcity poses the question of their cost, life cycle and reuse. Recently, an emerging catalysis employing contact-electrification (CE) at water-solid interfaces to drive redox reaction, called contact-electro-catalysis (CEC), has been used to develop metal free mechano-catalytic methods to efficiently degrade refractory organic compounds, produce hydrogen peroxide, or leach metals from spent Li-Ion batteries. Here, we show ultrasonic CEC can successfully drive the reduction of Ag(ac), Rh3+, [PtCl4]2-, Ag+, Hg2+, Pd2+, [AuCl4]-, and Ir3+, in both anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The effect of oxygen on the reaction is studied by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and ab-initio simulation. Combining measurements of charge transfers during water-solid CE, EPR spectroscopy and gold extraction experiments help show the link between CE and CEC. What's more, this method based on water-solid CE is capable of extracting gold from synthetic solutions with concentrations ranging from as low as 0.196 ppm up to 196 ppm, reaching in 3 h extraction capacities ranging from 0.756 to 722.5 mg g−1 in 3 h. Finally, we showed CEC is employed to design a metal-free, selective, and recyclable catalytic gold extraction methods from e-waste aqueous leachates. Currently, precious metal recovery from e-waste water is usually performed by liquid extraction or sorbent processes. Here, the authors show the untapped potential of dielectric insulators as catalysts for the 1-step selective recovery of gold in aqueous solutions by contact-electrocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual masking plays a crucial role in optimizing distortion position and intensity in information hiding. However, existing studies on stereoscopic visual masking effects are insufficient and may not align with human perceptual thresholds. This paper aims to fill this research gap by conducting psychophysical experiments to investigate binocular target-to-target visual masking effects that leverage the perceptual mechanisms of the human eye, leading to precise determination of masking thresholds. The experiments involve adjusting the orientation of noise gratings in two scenarios: binocular combination and binocular rivalry, and quantitatively measure the masking thresholds for various binocular noise orientations. Experiment I focuses on investigating the intraocular target-to-target orientation modulation effects in binocular combination, while Experiments II and III explore the interocular target-to-target masking effects and orientation modulation effects in binocular rivalry. The findings indicate that the target-to-target masking effects can increase stereoscopic visual masking thresholds by 23% to 65% compared to previous context-to-target masking effects, while ensuring the noise remains invisible. These findings have practical implications for information hiding technologies related to stereoscopic images and videos. By selecting the orientation, position, and intensity for distortion, improvements can be made in metrics such as embedding strength and capacity while ensuring high-quality display. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the influence of manufactured sand content on the flexural performance of self-compacting lightweight aggregate concrete (SCLC) beams, five SCLC beams with different manufactured sand dosage have been designed and fabricated for four-point bending tests. The workability and mechanical properties of the concrete mixture of each test beam are tested. It is observed that with the increase in the manufactured sand content, the workability of SCLC meets the standard requirements, and the mechanical properties are improved. The load–deflection curve, crack distribution pattern, and average strain of section are obtained through the four-point bending tests. The results reveal that the bending process of each test beam can be divided into three stages: uncracked stage, working stage with cracks, and failure stage. The average strain of section conforms to the assumption of plane section, and the load–deflection curve of each test beam is basically similar. With the increase in the manufactured sand content, the SCLC beam specimens exhibit more secondary cracks and more uniform crack distribution. Under the same level of load before yield, the maximum crack width decreases. The ultimate bearing capacity becomes maximum when the content of manufactured sand is 80%, which is 6.62% higher than that of SCLC beam with entire river sand. The plasticity coefficient of the resistance moment of the section is fitted by the experimental value, and the calculated value of cracking moment is in good agreement with the experimental value. Using the calculation formula for the maximum crack width of lightweight aggregate concrete and the fitting formula for the inhomogeneity coefficient of steel strain, the maximum crack width of each test beam is determined, which is in good agreement with the experimental value. Based on the test results and the calculated flexural bearing capacity, the optimal dosage of manufactured sand of SCLC concrete is obtained to be 60–80%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulation of oxygen vacancies (Vo) concentration has become an important research direction for further improving the resistance switching (RS) performance of materials and developing RS memory devices. In this study, the Pt/Hf0.05Zr0.05O2/LaNiO3 (Pt/HZO/LNO) structure is prepared via a sol-gel method using LNO as the oxide electrode and Vo reservoir layer. Pt/HZO/Pt and Pt/HZO/LiNbO3(LN)/LNO structures are also prepared as a comparison. The current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and RS effects of these materials are presented in detail. Both the Pt/HZO/Pt and Pt/HZO/LNO structures demonstrate obvious RS effect, and their RS mechanisms can be attributed to the formation of a Vo conductive-filament (CF) channel. However, in the Pt/HZO/LNO structure, Vo originate from two mechanisms under different negative voltages, i.e., from the HZO itself and through injection into HZO from LNO, resulting in its RS characteristics being different from the Pt/HZO/Pt structure. Excessive Vo injected into HZO from the LNO layer leads to a further decrease in the resistance of the Pt/HZO/LNO structure under a negative electric field. Moreover, there is no significant RS effect in the Pt/HZO/LN/LNO structure because it is difficult to form CF channel in the LN film. Highlights: The Hf0.5Zr0.5O2(HZO) film and HZO/LaNiO3 hetero-structures were prepared via sol-gel method. The influence of metal and oxide electrodes on the resistance switching (RS) effect was investigated. Oxygen vacancies (Vo) originate from two mechanisms due to the use of oxide electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In this study, we constructed and validated models based on deep learning and radiomics to facilitate preoperative diagnosis of cervical lymph node metastasis (LNM) using contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT). Materials and methods: CECT scans of 100 patients with OSCC (217 metastatic and 1973 non-metastatic cervical lymph nodes: development set, 76 patients; internally independent test set, 24 patients) who received treatment at the Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology between 2012 and 2016 were retrospectively collected. Clinical diagnoses and pathological findings were used to establish the gold standard for metastatic cervical LNs. A reader study with two clinicians was also performed to evaluate the lymph node status in the test set. The performance of the proposed models and the clinicians was evaluated and compared by measuring using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), accuracy (ACC), sensitivity (SEN), and specificity (SPE). Results: A fusion model combining deep learning with radiomics showed the best performance (ACC, 89.2%; SEN, 92.0%; SPE, 88.9%; and AUC, 0.950 [95% confidence interval: 0.908–0.993, P < 0.001]) in the test set. In comparison with the clinicians, the fusion model showed higher sensitivity (92.0 vs. 72.0% and 60.0%) but lower specificity (88.9 vs. 97.5% and 98.8%). Conclusion: A fusion model combining radiomics and deep learning approaches outperformed other single-technique models and showed great potential to accurately predict cervical LNM in patients with OSCC. Clinical relevance: The fusion model can complement the preoperative identification of LNM of OSCC performed by the clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious diseases are caused by various pathogenic microorganisms that break through the human immune barrier, then reproduce and mutate in human cells, thus causing invasive disease. Despite many recent scientific and technological advances in fields, such as genetics, chemistry, and protein engineering, and in the efficiency of drug research and development, the discovery and development of novel and potent anti-infectious disease agents have still lagged behind. It is often challenging to keep up with the emergence and mutation of new pathogenic microorganisms, which leads to the emergence of more resistant pathogenic microorganisms. The emergence of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorogens with high luminescence yields and high reactive oxygen species (ROS) production rates provides scientists with a new strategy for the prevention and treatment of pathogenic microorganisms. Due to their advantages in terms of brightness, biocompatibility, photostability, and positive correlation, AIE fluorogens (AIEgens) have great potential in biological applications. This review presents a systemic overview of recent progress in AIEgen-based platforms for the photodynamic therapy (PDT) of infectious diseases, which has emerged as a promising noninvasive alternative to traditional antibiotics for combating the drug resistance of infectious diseases. This review is mainly divided into two parts according to the type of pathogenic microorganisms: a section on bacterial and fungal infections (e.g., eye, skin, oral cavity, and blood infections), and a section on viral infections. The future prospects and potential clinical applications of AIEgens are also discussed in detail. In addition to motivating further interest in this field, this review is intended to promote ideas for the further exploration of AIEgens and the development of more advanced AIEgens in a broader range of biomedical and clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The supernatant fluid and sludge produced by traditional polyacrylamide flocculant (PAM) flocculation of municipal sewage emit a strong odor, and the dewatering performance of flocculant flocculating sludge based on acrylamide as the main synthetic raw material remains undesirable. In this study, we investigated a new green bioflocculant called SDF. This bioflocculant was made using 3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl-modified starch as the raw material, acrylamide as the monomer, cerium nitrate as the initiator, and dextrin and bone gum as fillers. The results of the study indicated that the SDF-flocculated sludge exhibited a larger pore structure, superior dewatering performance, and a lower intensity of malodorous substances in the supernatant compared to PAM. Furthermore, it was found that the component with the strongest odor in the supernatant detected through purge and trap-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry was ethanethiol, and it was observed that the signal intensity released from the SDF supernatant was 30.62% lower on the first day and 7.91% lower cumulatively over the course of 7 days when compared to PAM. As a consequence, the SDF materials offer promising potential for treating odorous gas and reducing sludge in sewage treatment plants due to their easy fabrication, low cost, and superior dewatering performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: A series of radiotracers targeting fibroblast activation protein (FAP) with great pharmacokinetics have been developed for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Nevertheless, the use of dominant PET tracers, gallium-68–labeled FAPI derivatives, was limited by the short nuclide half-life and production scale, and the therapeutic tracers exhibited rapid clearance and insufficient tumor retention. In this study, we developed a FAP targeting ligand, LuFL, containing organosilicon-based fluoride acceptor (SiFA) and DOTAGA chelator, capable of labeling fluorine-18 and lutetium-177 in one molecular with simple and highly efficient labeling procedure, to achieve cancer theranostics. Methods: The precursor LuFL (20) and [natLu]Lu-LuFL (21) were successfully synthesized and labeled with fluorine-18 and lutetium-177 using a simple procedure. A series of cellular assays were performed to characterize the binding affinity and FAP specificity. PET imaging, SPECT imaging, and biodistribution studies were conducted to evaluate pharmacokinetics in HT-1080-FAP tumor-bearing nude mice. A comparison study of [177Lu]Lu-LuFL ([177Lu]21) and [177Lu]Lu-FAPI-04 was carried out in HT-1080-FAP xenografts to determine the cancer therapeutic efficacy. Results: LuFL (20) and [natLu]Lu-LuFL (21) demonstrated excellent binding affinity towards FAP (IC50: 2.29 ± 1.12 nM and 2.53 ± 1.87 nM), compared to that of FAPI-04 (IC50: 6.69 ± 0.88 nM). In vitro cellular studies showed that 18F-/177Lu-labeled 21 displayed high specific uptake and internalization in HT-1080-FAP cells. Micro-PET, SPECT imaging and biodistribution studies with [18F]/[177Lu]21 revealed higher tumor uptake and longer tumor retention than those of [68 Ga]/[177Lu]Ga/Lu-FAPI-04. The radionuclide therapy studies showed significantly greater inhibition of tumor growth for the [177Lu]21 group, than for the control group and the [177Lu]Lu-FAPI-04 group. Conclusion: The novel FAPI-based radiotracer containing SiFA and DOTAGA was developed as a theranostics radiopharmaceutical with simple and short labeling process, and showed promising properties including higher cellular uptake, better FAP binding affinity, higher tumor uptake and prolong retention compared to FAPI-04. Preliminary experiments with 18F- and 177Lu-labeled 21 showed promising tumor imaging properties and favorable anti-tumor efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implanting artificial organelles in living cells is capable of correcting cellular dysfunctionalities for cell repair and biomedical applications. In this work, phase-separated bienzyme-loaded coacervate microdroplets are established as a model of artificial membraneless organelles in endothelial dysfunctional cells for the cascade enzymatic production of nitric oxide (NO) with a purpose of correcting cellular NO deficiency. We prepared the coacervate microdroplets via liquid-liquid phase separation of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes, in which glucose oxidase/horseradish peroxidase-mediated cascade reaction was compartmented. After the coacervate microdroplets were implanted in NO-deficient dysfunctional cells, the compartments maintained a phase-separated liquid droplet structure, which facilitated a significant enhancement of NO production in the dysfunctional cells. The recovery of NO production was further exploited to inhibit clot formation in blood plasma located in the cell suspension. This demonstrated a proof-of-concept design of artificial organelles in dysfunctional cells for cell repair and anticoagulation-related medical applications Our results demonstrate an approach for the construction of coacervate droplets through phase separation for the generation of artificial membraneless organelles, which can be designed to provide an array of functionalities in living organisms that have the potential to be used in the field of cell engineering and medical therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brilliant X- and γ-ray sources with ultrashort duration are widely pursued in fundamental science, industry and medicine. Compact femtosecond X-ray sources based on relativistic electrons accelerated by the laser wakefield in gases have performed outstandingly. Their energy conversion efficiency from laser to hard X-ray photons (>10 keV) is, however, limited to 10−7–10−5. Here we report the high-yield generation of hard X-ray flashes from targets made of carbon nanotubes, instead of gases. Orders-of-magnitude more electrons, accelerated to relativistic energy, are strongly wiggled inside a micrometre-scale, near-critical density plasma formed by the nanotube target, emitting 1012 high-energy photons per shot. The yield of hard X-rays exceeds 1010 photons per joule, corresponding to an unprecedented efficiency of 10−3. Irradiated by upcoming 10-PW-class lasers, such targets can deliver 10-MeV photons with brightness outperforming existing sources by two orders of magnitude. Compact laser-wakefield-driven X-ray sources show promise but suffer from poor conversion efficiency. New research demonstrates high-yield, hard X-rays generated by using carbon nanotube targets, instead of gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and construction of synthetic prototissues from integrated assemblies of artificial protocells is an important challenge for synthetic biology and bioengineering. Here we spatially segregate chemically communicating populations of enzyme-decorated phospholipid-enveloped polymer/DNA coacervate protocells in hydrogel modules to construct a tubular prototissue-like vessel capable of modulating the output of bioactive nitric oxide (NO). By decorating the protocells with glucose oxidase, horseradish peroxidase or catalase and arranging different modules concentrically, a glucose/hydroxyurea dual input leads to logic-gate signal processing under reaction-diffusion conditions, which results in a distinct NO output in the internal lumen of the model prototissue. The NO output is exploited to inhibit platelet activation and blood clot formation in samples of plasma and whole blood located in the internal channel of the device, thereby demonstrating proof-of-concept use of the prototissue-like vessel for anticoagulation applications. Our results highlight opportunities for the development of spatially organized synthetic prototissue modules from assemblages of artificial protocells and provide a step towards the organization of biochemical processes in integrated micro-compartmentalized media, micro-reactor technology and soft functional materials. A challenge for synthetic biology is the design and construction of prototissue. Here, the authors spatially segregate layers of enzyme-decorated coacervate protocells as a model prototissue capable of chemical signal processing and modulating outputs of nitric oxide to inhibit blood clot formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminescent MOFs with dual or multiple emission centers can act as multi-target and self-calibrating probes to selectively detect environment pollutants with high precision. In this paper, we synthesized Ln3+@Zn-MOF (Ln3+ = Eu3+ and Tb3+) with dual emission characteristics by post-encapsulation Ln3+ ions into Zn-MOF. The fluorescence sensing experiments show that Eu3+@Zn-MOF can be used as a multi-functional and self-calibrating probe to selectively detect 4-nitroaniline (4-NA) and Fe3+ ions with high sensitivity, good anti-interference and repeatability. The LOD is 6.01 μM and 60.99 μM for 4-NA and Fe3+ ions, respectively. Compared to the pristine Zn-MOF, Eu3+@Zn-MOF exhibits the higher sensitivity and accuracy in detection application. Further studies on UV–vis adsorption spectra show that the possible fluorescence quenching mechanism are the competitive absorption of excitation light between MOF and the analytes. And this work presents a promising strategy to prepare dual emissions probes for effective detection of environment pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use patterns (LUPs) are the form in which various land use types are combined spatially, evidently impacting soil water. However, the influence mechanism by which LUPs form remains unclear. In this study, the soil water content (SWC) in the 0–160-cm soil depth was observed in shrubland (SL), mature forestland (MF), grassland (GL) and young forestland (YF) sites on four slopes with different LUPs in the Yangjuangou catchment of the Chinese Loess Plateau. The SWC in SL-YF-SL (13.28%) was significantly greater than that in YF-MF (9.93%), MF-GL-YF (10.38%) and SL-MF (10.83%) and was temporally stable during the study period. The spatial distribution of SWC along the slope differed among the four LUPs. Vegetation characteristics and soil texture mainly determined the spatial variations in SWC in the shallow soil layers (0–40 cm), while topographic factors were the determinants in the deep soil layers (60–160 cm) as well as in the entire soil profile (0–160 cm). The significance of SWC differences among the various land use patterns increased with decreasing precipitation during the growing seasons. YF-MF (77.8 mm) and SL-YF-GL (73.9 mm) required more rainwater than SL-MF (68.2 mm) and MF-GL-MF (67.5 mm) to compensate for the loss of soil water on the monthly scale during the rainy season. Therefore, vegetation restoration should consider land use patterns on hillslopes for soil water conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word similarity task is used to calculate the similarity of any pair of words, and is a basic technology of natural language processing (NLP). The existing method is based on word embedding, which fails to capture polysemy and is greatly influenced by the quality of the corpus. In this paper, we propose a multi-prototype Chinese word representation model (MP-CWR) for word similarity based on synonym knowledge base, including knowledge representation module and word similarity module. For the first module, we propose a dual attention to combine semantic information for jointly learning word knowledge representation. The MP-CWR model utilizes the synonyms as prior knowledge to supplement the relationship between words, which is helpful to solve the challenge of semantic expression due to insufficient data. As for the word similarity module, we propose a multi-prototype representation for each word. Then we calculate and fuse the conceptual similarity of two words to obtain the final result. Finally, we verify the effectiveness of our model on three public data sets with other baseline models. In addition, the experiments also prove the stability and scalability of our MP-CWR model under different corpora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with rheumatic diseases are often more susceptible to different bacteria and viruses because of immune impairment, but it is not clear whether there is a higher risk of infection and a more serious course of disease for novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). We performed this systematic review and meta analysis to assess the risk and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic diseases compared with the general population. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science databases from January 1, 2020 to October 20, 2020 to determine epidemiological information related to patients with rheumatic diseases and COVID-19, including clear risk estimate or data that could be converted and extracted. We included 26 observational studies, totaling about 2000 patients with rheumatic diseases of whom were infected with COVID-19. Meta-analysis showed that the risk of COVID-19 infection in rheumatic patients was significantly higher than that in the general population (OR = 1.53, 95% CI 1.24–1.88, P = 0.000). In terms of hospitalization and severe clinical outcomes associated with COVID-19, we found that rheumatic patients showed similar results to the reference population (hospitalization OR = 1.36, 95% CI 0.81–2.29, P = 0.247; admitted to ICU OR = 1.94, 95% CI 0.88–4.27, P = 0.098; death OR = 1.29, 95% CI 0.84–1.97, P = 0.248). The presence of comorbidities, hypertension, lung diseases were significantly associated with the increased risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization in rheumatic patients and anti-TNF drugs were associated with lower hospitalization risk. Older age was related to severe COVID-19. Our meta-analysis indicated that rheumatic patients were at a higher risk of COVID-19 infection but might not lead to a more serious disease process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) is a novel coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. High adaptive plasticity on the spike protein of SASR-CoV-2 enables it to transmit across different host species. In the present study, we collected 2092 high-quality genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 from 160 regions in over 50 countries and reconstructed their phylogeny. We also analyzed the polymorphic interaction between spike protein and human ACE2 (hACE2). Phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 suggests that SARS-CoV-2 is probably originated from a recombination event on the spike protein between a bat coronavirus and a pangolin coronavirus that endows it humans infectivity. Compared with other regions in the S gene of SARS-CoV-2, the direct-binding sites of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) is more conserved. We focused on 3,860 amino acid mutations in spike protein RBD (T333-C525) of SARS-CoV-2 and simulated their differential stability and binding affinity to hACE2 (S19-D615). The results indicate no preference for SARS-CoV-2 infectivity on people of different ethnic groups. The variants in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 may also be a good indicator demonstrating the transmission route of SARS-CoV-2 from its natural reservoir to human hosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammalian orthoreoviruses (MRVs) infect almost all mammals, and there are some reports on MRVs in China. In this study, a novel strain was identified, which was designated as HLJYC2017. The results of genetic analysis showed that MRV HLJYC2017 is a reassortant strain. According to biological information analysis, different serotypes of MRV contain specific amino acid insertions and deletions in the σ1 protein. Neutralizing antibody epitope analysis revealed partial cross-protection among MRV1, MRV2, and MRV3 isolates from China. L3 gene recombination in MRV was identified for the first time in this study. The results of this study provide valuable information on MRV reassortment and evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sentiment lexicon is used to judge the sentiments of words and plays a significant role in sentiment analysis. Existing sentiment lexicons ignore the sentimental ambiguity of words in different contexts and only assign sentiment positive or negative polarity for words. In this paper, we propose an automatic method for the construction of the domain-specific sentiment lexicon (SDS-lex) to avoid sentimental ambiguity, which incorporates the sentiment information not only from the existing lexicons but also from the corpus by using our improved TF-IDF algorithm (ITF-IDF). The ITF-IDF algorithm calculates the sentiment of words by considering both the importance of words and the distribution of different part-of-speech (POS) in a corpus labeled with different sentiment tendencies. Experiments on real-world datasets show that our constructed lexicon improves the sentimental ambiguity and outperforms many existing lexicons in terms of the coverage and the accuracy when performing text sentiment classification tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study that empirically investigates the associations between left-behind experience in childhood and the quality of employment in adulthood for young rural-to-urban migrants in China, a population known as new-generation migrants. Toward this end, we consider several indicators of employment quality, including wages, employee benefits, work intensity and employment stability, and explore the possible channels between the childhood left-behind experience and employment quality indicators. Our 2013 Migrant Worker Survey shows that 40% of young migrants (n = 1802) have been left-behind for more than 6 months before 16 years of age and 7% of new-generation migrants have childhood left-behind experience for at least 3 years. Through empirical analysis, we find that the childhood left-behind experience, especially long-term experience, adversely affects the wages and employment stability of young migrants. In addition, the results of this study show that long-term left-behind experience is adversely associated with correlates of human capital, especially mental health, which subsequently affects adulthood employment quality. Policies should be improved to decrease the occurrence of left-behind children and, when this cannot be avoided, programs and services are required to reduce the negative effects of childhood left-behind experience on new-generation migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nano-Fe3O4/graphene oxide (MGO) was composited and applied to the micro-aerobic sludge for the treatment of the mid-stage pulping effluent, eliminating the adverse effect of using the single nano-Fe3O4 and GO. Effects of MGO on treatment efficiency, sludge physicochemical performance, microbial community during the acclimation process and electron transport activity were studied. The results indicated that CODCr removal rate, flocculating performance and settleability of the sludge were obviously promoted by the addition of MGO compared to that of blank, GO and Fe3O4. The presence of MGO conduced to form a stable co-metabolic microbial community and enhance the electron transfer activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), a member of the genus Alphacoronavirus, is the predominant cause of severe enteropathogenic diarrhea in swine. A simple, rapid, specific, and sensitive method is critical for monitoring PEDV on pig farms. In this study, a simple and rapid lateral flow immunoassay detection system that integrates europium (Eu) (III) chelate microparticles was developed to identify PEDV in fecal swabs. This newly developed diagnostic sandwich immunoassay utilizes lateral flow test strips (LFTSs). The fluorescence peak heights of the test line (HT) and the control line (HC) were measured using a fluorescence strip reader, and the HT/HC ratio was used for quantitation. The limit of detection of PEDV with this LFTS was ??ten times the median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) per mL??. Fecal swab samples were used to determine the cutoff value. Field samples, various PEDV strains and other viruses were used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the Eu (III) chelate microparticle-based LFTSs, which were 97.8% and 100%, respectively, with a cutoff value of 0.05, as compared with reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). In samples from piglets experimentally infected with PEDV, the results were in high agreement with those obtained by RT-PCR. Epidemiological surveillance of PEDV using the LFTSs ??in areas threatened by African swine fever virus?? suggested that the PEDV positive rate on pig farms had significantly decreased, mainly due to the implementation of strict biosecurity measures. The results indicate that the Eu (III) chelate microparticle-based LFTS system is a rapid, sensitive, and reliable method for the identification of PEDV, indicating its suitability for epidemiological surveillance of PEDV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies showed albumin at diagnosis could be used to predict outcome in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), but whether albumin could improve the international prognostic index (IPI) risk stratification remains unknown. Herein, we retrospectively analyzed 440 de novo DLBCL patients in this study. The cutoff value of albumin was 39.2 g/L. Patients with high serum albumin showed superior OS and PFS (p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively). According to IPI, there were 163 patients (37.0%) in low-risk group, 107 (24.3%) in low-intermediate risk group, 114 (25.9%) in high-intermediate risk group and 56 (12.7%) in high-risk group. Further analysis showed high albumin could identify a subgroup of patients with extremely superior OS and PFS in low IPI risk patients (p = 0.022 and p = 0.034, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that high albumin was an independent prognostic factor for OS (relative ratio [RR] 0.122; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.021-0.715, p = 0.020) and trend for PFS (RR 0.417; 95% CI 0.168-1.035, p = 0.059). In conclusion, our study suggests that albumin at diagnosis is a simple and effective prognostic factor in DLBCL patients, allowing the identification of a superior outcome subgroup in low-risk patients, which may help to guide treatment in clinical trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spray paint exhaust gas contains recalcitrant volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX). Treating BTX with a biofilter often achieves unsatisfactory results because the biofilter lacks efficient microbial community. In this work, three strains for BTX degradation were isolated and identified as Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis by using 16S rRNA sequencing technology. A consortium of highly efficient microbial community was then constructed on a stable biofilm to treat BTX in a biofilter. A relatively suitable ratio of P. putida, B. cereus and B. subtilis was obtained. An efficiency of over 90% was achieved in the biofilter with VOC concentration of 1000 mg/m3 through inoculation with the microbial community after only 10 days of operation. Thus, fast start-up of the biofilter was realised. Analysis of intermediate products by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry indicated that BTX was degraded into short-chain aldehydes or acids via ring opening reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) is a novel coronavirus that can cause vomiting and watery diarrhea in pigs and death in piglets. Since PDCoV was first detected in 2009 in Hong Kong, the prevalence of PDCoV has increased in recent years, resulting in serious economic losses to the swine industry. The coronavirus spike (S) protein is an antigen that has been demonstrated to contain epitopes that induce neutralizing antibodies. The presence of serum and milk IgA antibodies against pathogens that replicate primarily on mucosal surfaces is important for mucosal immunity. Here, an indirect anti-PDCoV IgA antibody enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (PDCoV S1 IgA ELISA) using the purified S1 portion of S protein as the coating antigen was developed to detect PDCoV IgA antibodies in serum and sow's milk. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed high specificity and sensitivity of the PDCoV-S1-IgA-ELISA based on samples confirmed by IFA. Anti-PDCoV IgA antibodies in 152 serum samples and 65 milk samples collected from six farms that had experienced diarrhea outbreaks within previous last two years were detected by this assay, and 62.5% of the serum samples and 100% of the milk samples were positive for PDCoV. The indirect ELISA method established in this study will provide a convenient tool for measurement of serum and milk IgA levels against PDCoV in pig herds, rapid detection of PDCoV infection in pigs, and evaluation of the immunogenicity of vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this meta-analysis was to assess the dental health status of children with ASD in terms of decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth (DMFT) and decayed, missing, and filled deciduous teeth (dmft). PubMed, Embase, psycINFO, and Cochrane library were searched for studies published until September 2018. A random-effects model was applied to estimate the pooled results.Nine studies comprising 532 children with ASD and 622 controls were included. No significant differences between children with ASD and controls were observed for DMFT and dmft in the world. Subgroup analyses revealed that children with ASD had a significantly higher dmft index than that of controls in Asia.Children with ASD have a worse dental health status than healthy children in Asia, but caution is necessary given the limited studies available for analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the recent years, exploring new materials with the photocatalytic functions is a hot research subject, but most of the photocatalysts need an excitation source during the photocatalytic process. In this work, we report the double-perovskite La2MgTiO6:Eu2+ phosphor having the purple-blue afterglow luminescence. Our PL results show that the samples upon excitation at the UV light can show a broad Eu2+ band with the maximum emission intensity at 387 nm. The afterglow range is found to match with the UV absorption region of the TiO2. As a result, we design the UV converted Eu2+ afterglow composite by serving the La2MgTiO6:Eu2+ phosphor as a ceramic substrate to immobilize the TiO2. The photocatalytic experiments reveal the afterglow behavior of La2MgTiO6:Eu2+ phosphor can continuously provide the UV photons to the TiO2 absorption, leading to a continuous-photocatalytic methyl orange degradation in the absence of UV irradiation. Together with the photocatalytic process under the UV irradiation and after removal off the excitation source, a maximum photocatalytic time of 3.5 h is detected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the formation process of Ni-Nb-Al metallic glasses. To this end, a long-range n-body potential was constructed for the Ni-Nb-Al ternary metal system, and applied to atomistic simulations. The simulations not only showed the physical origins of the amorphous phase formation, but also quantitatively predicted a hexagonal compositional region that energetically favors the glass formation. The energy difference between the solid solution and metallic glass, which generates the amorphization driving force (ADF), was suggested to indicate the glass-formation ability (GFA) of each alloy. Based on the computed ADFs, the Ni55Nb25Al20 alloy exhibited the highest GFA among the Ni-Nb-Al members, implying that the glass formed by this amorphous alloy is more thermodynamically stable than other alloys in the system. In a Voronoi tessellation analysis, the knee point of the coordination-number distribution curve corresponded to the glass-formation region of the Ni-Nb-Al system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review summarizes the effects of vegetation on runoff and soil loss in three dimensions: vertical vegetation structures (aboveground vegetation cover, surface litter layer and underground roots), plant diversity, vegetation patterns and their scale characteristics. Quantitative relationships between vegetation factors with runoff and soil loss are described. A framework for describing relationships involving vegetation, erosion and scale is proposed. The relative importance of each vegetation dimension for various erosion processes changes across scales. With the development of erosion features (i.e., splash, interrill, rill and gully), the main factor of vertical vegetation structures in controlling runoff and soil loss changes from aboveground biomass to roots. Plant diversity levels are correlated with vertical vegetation structures and play a key role at small scales, while vegetation patterns also maintain a critical function across scales (i.e., patch, slope, catchment and basin/region). Several topics for future study are proposed in this review, such as to determine efficient vegetation architectures for ecological restoration, to consider the dynamics of vegetation patterns, and to identify the interactions involving the three dimensions of vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigations on seasonal and spatial distribution of 12 selected wastewater-marking pharmaceuticals (WWMPs) belonging to different therapeutic classes were conducted in three major urban rivers of Yangpu District, Shanghai, East China. The potential mechanisms for the removal of WWMPs in the rivers were also experimentally investigated. The detection frequencies of most WWMPs were in the range of 56-100%, with the exception of clofibric acid, which was not detected during the storm events. The median concentrations ranged from not detected to 5821 ng/L (caffeine) and the maximum concentration was 8662 ng/L, found in caffeine. Part of WWMPs such as paracetamol and caffeine showed significant seasonal variation ( P < 0.05), while most of pharmaceuticals displayed limited concentration fluctuation under different seasons for relative low levels. The spatial pattern of most WWMPs has not showed obvious difference in the three rivers ( P > 0.05). WWMPs could come from different sources, such as wastewater treatment plants, hospitals, untreated domestic wastewater, or some unknown sources. Lab-scale tests showed that the biodegradation and adsorption were the main removal pathways for WWMPs with lesser contribution from photodegradation and hydrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In arid and semi-arid regions, soil moisture in particular is a key integrative state variable that is linked to a range of hydrological, ecological, climatic, and geological processes; however, it is usually highly variable in space and time. To overcome this issue, it is necessary to study the temporal stability of soil moisture. Here, we intend to take a soil moisture temporary stability analysis for the typical hilly and gully re-vegetated areas in the Loess Plateau. Using cumulative frequency distribution, the relative difference, and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient to conduct temporal stability analysis for the soil moisture at five slope transects of a typical hilly and gully re-vegetated loess catchment during the rainy season of 2012. We found the soil moisture spatial distribution pattern for the small, typical hilly and gully re-vegetated Loess Plateau catchment to be stable. However, it is not always easy to find sites representative of the catchment average moisture content under different conditions; but it is easier to find sites with extremely high water content in the slopes. A new method for identifying temporally stable locations in typical re-vegetated hilly and gully loess areas is needed. The relationships between soil moisture and other catchment conditions for the diagnosis of representative sites must also be determined. The pattern stability and type stability of soil moisture guarantees that sampling comparisons in this area can be conducted at different times to compare the differences between various land cover types, especially with regard to deep soil depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Torque teno sus virus 1 (TTSuV1) has a non-enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense circular DNA genome, and it is widely distributed in pigs. Open reading frame 1 (ORF1) of TTSuV1 can be transcribed into mRNA and then translated into protein; however, its promoter has not yet been identified. We used a dual-luciferase reporter system, involving pGL3-Basic and pRL-TK, to identify the promoter of TTSuV1 ORF1. Our results revealed that the sequence between nucleotides 196 and 525 promoted the transcription of the firefly luciferase gene. The core sequence of the promoter was between nucleotides 250 and 400. A comparison of the identified TTSuV1 ORF1 promoter with that from cytomegalovirus (CMV) suggested that the two promoters were similar in strength. Our findings provide new information regarding the molecular biology of TTSuV1 and have revealed a new promoter that can be used in plasmids for numerous applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coastal areas, excessive exploitation of groundwater causes seawater intrusion. In artificial recharge of aquifer remediation process, the replacement of saltwater and freshwater with each other causes colloid release, and permeability also decreases. In this paper, the aquifer samples containing minimal clay mineral (mainly illite) in Dagu River aquifer were used. Adopting horizontal column experiments, we studied the influences of seepage velocity and ionic strength on particle release, as well as the relationship between them. In the column experiments, the Critical Salt Concentration (CSC) of the Dagu River aquifer was determined as 0.05 mol L approximately. This result was basically consistent with the DLVO theoretical calculation. For the constant seepage velocity, the salinity descending rate and partical release were slower, and the peak of particle concentration was lower. However, the total amount of released particles was almost constant at different salinity descending rate. For constant salinity descending rates, the peak of particle concentration decreased as seepage velocity increased, but the total amount of released particles rose up. The experiments also indicated the existence of a critical seepage velocity, which dropped with the decrease of salt concentration. When the concentration of NaCl solution decreased from 0.17 mol L to 0.06 mol L, the critical seepage velocity decreased from 3 cm min to 2.5 cm min, which is consistent to the results predicted by DLVO theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platinum nanoparticles (NPs) are reported to mimic various antioxidant enzymes and thus may produce a positive biological effect by reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels. In this manuscript, we report Pt NPs as an enzyme mimic of ferroxidase by depositing platinum nanodots on gold nanorods (Au@Pt NDRs). Au@Pt NDRs show pH-dependent ferroxidase-like activity and have higher activity at neutral pH values. Cytotoxicity results with human cell lines (lung adenocarcinoma A549 and normal bronchial epithelial cell line HBE) show that Au@Pt NDRs are taken up into cells via endocytosis and translocate into the endosome/lysosome. Au@Pt NDRs have good biocompatibility at NDR particle concentrations lower than 0.15 nΜ. However, in the presence of HO, lysosomelocated NDRs exhibit peroxidase-like activity and therefore increase cytotoxicity. In the presence of Fe, the ferroxidase-like activity of the NDRs protects cells from oxidative stress by consuming HO. Thorough consideration should be given to this behavior when employing Au@Pt NDRs in biological systems. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, fumed silica has been used as smoke suppression and flame-retardant synergism in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) composites based on ammonium polyphosphate (APP). And, the synergistic smoke suppression property and flame-retardant effect of fumed silica in flame-retardant TPU composites are mainly intensively investigated by several methods, including smoke density test (SDT), cone calorimeter test (CCT), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), limiting oxygen index, and thermogravimetric analysis. The results of SDT show that fumed silica can significantly decrease smoke production of flame-retardant TPU composites. The results of CCT present that the addition of fumed silica can effectively reduce smoke production rate, total smoke release, smoke factor, heat release rate, and mass loss in the combustion process of flame-retardant TPU composites. The SEM results show that fumed silica can improve the quality of char residue after cone calorimeter test. All the results show that fumed silica is an effective smoke suppression agent and a good flame-retardant synergism with APP in TPU composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this work was to investigate the synergistic effect of expandable graphite (EG) and aluminum hypophosphite (AHP) on the flame retardancy of silicone rubbers (SR). The synergistic effects of EG with AHP in halogen-free flame-retardant SR composites have been studied by cone calorimeter test (CCT), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and the thermogravimetric analysis/infrared spectrometry (TG-IR). The CCT results showed that AHP and EG can effectively reduce the flammable properties including peak heat release rate, total heat release, smoke production rate, total smoke release, and smoke factor. An improvement of thermal stability of SR/AHP/EG was also observed. The experimental observations from digital photographs give positive evidence of the synergistic effects between AHP with EG. The TG results reveal that SR/AHP/EG samples show slower thermal degradation rate and higher thermal stability at high temperature than SR sample. The TG-IR results showed that the addition of AHP and EG significantly decreased the combustible gaseous products such as hydrocarbons. These attractive features of SR/AHP/EG suggest that the method proposed herein is a good approach to prepare very effective flame retardants and corresponding super flame-retarding SR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) capsid (Cap) protein is the primary protective antigen responsible for inducing PCV2-specific protective immunity, so it is a desirable target for the development of recombinant subunit vaccines to prevent PCV2-associated diseases. Interleukin 2 (IL-2) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), used as immune adjuvants, have been shown to enhance the immunogenicity of certain antigens or vaccines in various experimental models. In this study, five different subunit vaccines (the PCV2-Cap, Cap-PoIL-2, PCV2-Cap + PoIL-2, Cap-PoGM-CSF, and PCV2-Cap + PoGM-CSF vaccines) were prepared based on baculovirus-expressed recombinant proteins. The immunogenicity of these vaccines was evaluated to identify the immunoenhancement by PoIL-2 and PoGM-CSF of the Cap-protein-based PCV2 subunit vaccine in mice. The PCV2-Cap + PoIL-2, Cap-PoGM-CSF, PCV2-Cap + PoGM-CSF, and PCV2-Cap vaccines induced significantly higher levels of PCV2-specific antibodies than the Cap-PoIL-2 vaccine, whereas there was no apparent difference between these four vaccines. Our results indicate that neither PoIL-2 nor PoGM-CSF had effect on the enhancement of the humoral immunity induced by the PCV2-Cap vaccine. Furthermore, the PCV2-Cap + PoIL-2, Cap-PoGM-CSF, and PCV2-Cap + PoGM-CSF vaccines elicited stronger lymphocyte proliferative responses and greater IL-2 and interferon gamma (IFN-γ) secretion. This suggests that PoIL-2 and PoGM-CSF substantially augmented the Th1-biased immune response to the PCV2-Cap vaccine. Following challenge, the viral loads in the lungs of the PCV2-Cap + PoIL-2-, Cap-PoGM-CSF-, and PCV2-Cap + PoGM-CSF-treated groups were dramatically lower than those in the Cap-PoIL-2- and PCV2-Cap-treated groups, indicating that the three vaccines induced stronger protective effects against challenge. These findings show that PoIL-2 and PoGM-CSF essentially enhanced the Th1-biased protective efficacy of the PCV2-Cap vaccine when coadministered with the protein or delivered as Cap-PoGM-CSF, and that the 'antigen-cytokine'- or 'antigen + cytokine'-based vaccines that we report here provide new basis for the development of safer and more effective vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]