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The mechanical, thermodynamic, and electronic characters of TiFe intermetallic compounds were examined on basis of density functional theory. The stability of TiFe at 0–100 GPa was proved by phonon spectrum and the born mechanics stability criterion. Firstly, the results of Poisson's ratio, B/G and Cauchy pressure showed TiFe is a ductile material under high pressure. The elastic anisotropy index AU indicated TiFe is an anisotropic material, and its degree of anisotropy decreases with increasing pressure. Furthermore, empirical formulas were employed to calculate the Debye temperature, minimum thermal conductivity, and melting point of TiFe. Finally, the band structure illustrated that TiFe maintains stable metallic properties under 0–100 GPa. These calculated results might have important reference significance for the industrial application in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an antimicrobial cellulose acetate composite nanofiltration membrane was successfully prepared via in-situ hybridization by anchoring silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) onto the surface of the cellulose acetate nanofiltration membranes for water treatment. DETA monomer was used as a reducing agent to reduce Ag+ in AgNO3 to AgNPs, while the primary amine group of Diethylenetriamine (DETA) monomer can react with 1,3,5-Trimesoyl chloride (TMC) to form a polyamides layer. As a result, the cellulose acetate nanofiltration membranes modified by AgNPs exhibited smoother surfaces and improved hydrophilicity, which resulted in enhanced permeability and resistance to fouling. The flux of the membrane increased from 12 to 37.7 L/m2h, and the FRR values of the membrane increased from 98.4 to 100% respectively in 3.5 cycles. Owing to robust electrostatic interaction between AgNPs and carboxyl groups of the cellulose acetate support, the membranes showed stable separation performance. Over extended operational periods, the membrane retained 37.7 L/m2h of flux and 92% of Na2SO4 retention rate. Benefiting from the broad-spectrum antibacterial properties of silver, the membranes showed an excellent bactericidal rate of E. coli and S. aureus (> 99%). This work provided a new method for preparing cellulose acetate nanofiltration membranes with excellent antibacterial and separation performance. It also paved a new avenue to water treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the important factors in coronary artery thrombosis, endothelial injury and M1 macrophage polarization are closely related to the expression of miR-34a-5p. Exosomes in plasma are mainly derived from platelets and play an important role in thrombosis. Based on these facts, this study was conducted to investigate the acting mechanism of platelet-derived exosomes (PLT-exo) in the effects of endothelial injury and M1 macrophage polarization on coronary artery thrombosis. Firstly, rats were divided into the sham-operated group and the coronary microembolization (CME) group, and their plasma-derived exosomes were extracted to detect the expression of miR-34a-5p. Next, the PLT-exo were extracted from healthy volunteers and then co-cultured with ox-LDL-induced endothelial cells and LPS-induced macrophages, respectively. Subsequently, the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and ICAM-1 in endothelial cells was measured, and the level of markers related to M1 macrophage polarization and Sirt1/NF-κB pathway was detected. Finally, the above indicators were examined again after PLT-exo combined with miR-34a-5p mimic were co-cultured with endothelial cells and macrophages, respectively. The results demonstrated that the expression of miR-34a-5p in the CME group was up-regulated compared with the sham-operated group. In cell experiments, PLT-exo modulated the Sirt1/NF-κB pathway by inhibiting the expression of intracellular miR-34a-5p and down-regulated the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, and ICAM-1 in endothelial cells and M1 macrophage polarization. After the transfection with miR-34a-5p mimic, endothelial cell inflammatory injury and M1 macrophage polarization increased to varying degrees. In conclusion, PLT-exo can alleviate coronary artery thrombosis by reducing endothelial cell inflammation and M1 macrophage polarization via inhibiting miR-34a-5p expression. In contrast, miR-34a-5p overexpression in PLT-exo may exacerbate these pathological injuries in coronary artery thrombosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music streaming services are increasingly popular among younger generations who seek social experiences through personal expression and sharing of subjective feelings in comments. However, such emotional aspects are often ignored by current platforms, which affect the listeners' ability to find music that triggers specific personal feelings. To address this gap, this study proposes a novel approach that leverages deep learning methods to capture contextual keywords, sentiments, and induced mechanisms from song comments. The study augments a current music app with two features, including the presentation of tags that best represent song comments and a novel map metaphor that reorganizes song comments based on chronological order, content, and sentiment. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated through a usage scenario and a user study that demonstrate its capability to improve the user experience of exploring songs and browsing comments of interest. This study contributes to the advancement of music streaming services by providing a more personalized and emotionally rich music experience for younger generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type A acute aortic dissection (TA-AAD) patients are prone to life-threatening complications and death. This study aimed to analyze the association between eosinophil (EOS) recovery and clinical outcomes in TA-AAD. A total of 274 patients with TA-AAD were eligible for inclusion, and 54 patients died within 1 month. The patients with poor clinical outcomes showed significantly lower EOS count within 8 days after surgery. The time-dependent ROC analysis showed that EOS recovery days predicted 1-month death with an AUC of 0.886 and a cutoff of 6 days. EOS recovery within 6 days was associated with a lower incidence of postoperative infection, a poorer prognosis, and a lower risk of 1-month and 6-month mortality than those requiring more recovery days. Collectively, postoperative early recovery of EOS predicted lower mortality and better prognosis and may be applied as an effective, rapid, and simple tool for the risk stratification and prognostic prediction of patients with TA-AAD. Clinical trial registration number: NCT05409677. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets were prepared in NaNO3 solution by cathode glow discharge electrolysis (CGDE) technique, in which Co sheet and Pt needle were regarded as anode and cathode, respectively. The formation mechanism of β-Co(OH)2 was discussed in detail, and the electrochemical performance was investigated as an electrode material for the pseudocapacitor. The results showed that the obtained β-Co(OH)2 has a single phase of the hexagonal brucite-like nanosheets with an angle of adjacent edges of 120°, side length of 400–500 nm, and thickness of 10-20 nm. The average pore size and specific surface area are 33.1 nm and 122.1 m2 g−1, respectively. The β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets exhibit a high specific capacitance of 335 F g−1 and excellent capacity retention of 77.1% after 3000 charge-discharge cycles at 1 A g−1. CGDE offers a simple, fast, highly effective, and green strategy for the preparation of β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets. The prepared β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets can be used as an alternative electrode material for supercapacitors. Highlights: β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets with hexagonal structure were prepared in NaNO3 solution by using CGDE. The preparation mechanism was discussed based on emission spectra, solution pH and structural characterization. The specific surface area and average pore size of nanosheets are 122.1 m2 g−1 and 33.1 nm, respectively. β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets has 335 F g−1 specific capacitance and 77.1% capacity retention after 3000 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were prepared in Na2SO4 solution with adding ethanol via cathode glow discharge electrolysis (CGDE) plasma using sacrificial anode as a source of Ag+ ions, in which Ag foil and Pt needle were served as anode and cathode, respectively. The physical characteristic of CGDE was investigated by current-voltage curve and oscilloscope. Ag NPs were characterized by XRD, UV-Vis, SEM/EDX, TEM and XPS. The preparation mechanism was discussed. The results showed that at 520–620 V discharge, the high energetic electrons impact water at plasma-liquid interface to form many active species, i.e., H•, O•, OH•, eaq–, OH– and H2O2. Adding 15 mL ethanol into the 150 mL electrolyte can trap oxidizing agent OH• and suppress producing AgOH/Ag2O. High purity Ag NPs are fabricated via the reduction of Ag+ ions by eaq– and H• in plasma cathode. Compared with other plasma-liquid interface technique, CGDE offers a simple, fast, high effective and environment friendly method for the synthesis of Ag NPs. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) were prepared in Na2SO4 solution with adding ethanol via cathode glow discharge electrolysis plasma using sacrificial anode as a source of Ag+ ions, in which Ag foil and Pt needle were served as anode and cathode, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of the new crown epidemic has deepened people's awareness of the importance of antibacterial and antiviral materials. It is imperative to develop applicable and economical antibacterial materials. In this work, we have proposed a facile method to prepare plant fibers with prominent antibacterial and antiviral performance. In the proposed strategy, the fiber design and in situ assembly of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were applied to improve the antibacterial and antiviral performance of plant fibers. Mechanical refining split the fibers and made them conformable; in this instance, polydopamine (PDA) was precipitated onto the fiber surface by the oxidative polymerization of dopamine and linked closely with cellulose hydroxyl groups, while AgNPs were in situ grown on the PDA coatings; PDA acted as a bonder to link fibers and AgNPs together. Benefiting from the high AgNP loadings and strong bond between AgNPs and fibers, the fibers showed excellent antibacterial and antiviral performance. This study provides a novel route for improving the antibacterial performance of plant fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complex characteristics of chaotic system, such as initial value sensitivity, periodicity and pseudo-randomness, chaotic sequences generated by chaotic system is very suitable for image data encryption after appropriate processing. This paper focuses on chaotic image encryption based on the improved Joseph algorithm, and proposes a hyperchaotic image encryption system based on N + 2 ring Joseph algorithm and reversible cellular automata. The initial value of the chaotic system is generated by the SHA-512 hash value of the original image, which makes the proposed encryption algorithm highly sensitive to the original image. In addition, the proposed N + 2 ring Joseph algorithm is formed by N chaotic sequences rolling forward like gears when scrambling each pixel position of the image. It greatly hides the pixel information of the original text, and increases the scrambling effect and the difficulty of being cracked. Furthermore, in the diffusion stage, we add the reversible cellular automata technology. On the basis of image shuffling, each pixel is further associated with other pixels, so that small changes of in pixel values can produce an avalanche effect. Finally, we conducted simulation experiments and safety analysis. The results illustrate that the encryption algorithm proposed in this paper has good encryption performance, and can effectively resist statistical attacks, differential attacks, known plaintext attacks, ciphertext only attacks, select plaintext attacks and select ciphertext attacks. In conclusion, it is a practical and secure image encryption algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anions are always considered to explain most of the cellulose dissolution in the ionic liquid; where electron donor theory is always used to elaborate cellulose dissolution in the ionic liquids with different anions. However, the theory does not apply to ionic liquids with different alkyl chain anions. Herein, the hydrogen bond theory was proposed to further explain cellulose dissolution by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. 1-allyl-3-methylimidazole carboxylate ionic liquids with different alkyl chains including ([Amim][HCOO], [Amim][CH3COO], [Amim][CH3CH2COO], [Amim][CH3CH2CH2COO]) were investigated. The DFT results indicated that the alkyl chains of the anions directly affect the hydrogen bond and the interaction energy between the cations and anions; where the length of the hydrogen bonds between cation and anion is the most predominant factor for determining the polarity parameter β value of the ionic liquid itself and therefore governing cellulose dissolution. Moreover, a shorter length of hydrogen bonds between the anions of ionic liquid and cellobiose referred to a better solubility of cellulose in the ionic liquids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve a breakthrough in the application of cold caustic extraction, it is necessary to limit the amount of alkali and to dissolve the hemicelluloses sufficiently. A NaOH/ZnO aqueous solution system was used to separate hemicelluloses from bleached bamboo pulp efficiently and selectively. The NaOH/ZnO process proved to be more successful in the removal of hemicelluloses. Under the conditions of 0.5% ZnO concentration, the NaOH/ZnO aqueous solution system decreased the hemicelluloses content to 4.99%, which was lower than 7.46% of the control sample treated with NaOH alone at the same 7% NaOH concentration. Correspondingly, the NaOH/ZnO system led to an increase in alpha-cellulose content with significantly improved hemicelluloses removal efficiency and selectivity. As a result of the NaOH/ZnO process, a higher degree of polymerization was observed, and the cellulose I structure was always maintained, which provided good benefits for the subsequent utilization of cellulose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, bleached chemical pulp from hardwood was treated with different carboxylic acid choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents (CA/ChCl DESs) including formic acid, acetic acid, ethanedioic acid, propanedioic acid and choline chloride. The dissolution and degradation of cellulose and hemicellulose in chemical pulps in these DESs were analyzed, while the relationships between the polarity parameters of DESs and the degradation and dissolution of cellulosic fibers were discussed. The results show that dicarboxylic acids/ChCl were more conducive to the solubility and degradation of cellulosic fibers compared to monocarboxylic acids/ChCl at a higher temperature. In addition, the increase in alkyl of the CA could reduce the solubility to cellulosic fiber. The further study reveals that the dissolution and degradation of cellulosic fibers are generally governed both by temperature and the ability of DESs hydrogen bond acidity (α), while temperature shows little effect on α. However, no remarkable relationships were found between the DESs hydrogen bond basicity (β) and cellulose degradation and dissolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robot learning from demonstration (RLfD) is a technique for robots to derive policies from instructors' examples. Although the reciprocal effects of student engagement on teacher behavior are widely recognized in the educational community, it is unclear whether the same phenomenon holds for RLfD. To fill this gap, we first design three types of robot engagement behavior (gaze, imitation, and a hybrid of the two) based on the learning literature. We then conduct, in a simulation environment, a within-subject user study to investigate the impact of different robot engagement cues on humans compared to a "without-engagement" condition. Results suggest that engagement communication has significantly negative influences on the human's estimation of the simulated robots' capability and significantly raises their expectation towards the learning outcomes, even though we do not run actual imitation learning algorithms in the experiments. Moreover, imitation behavior affects humans more than gaze does in all metrics, while their combination has the most profound influences on humans. We also find that communicating engagement via imitation or the combined behavior significantly improves humans' perception towards the quality of simulated demonstrations, even if all demonstrations are of the same quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "Investigating the Effects of Robot Engagement Communication on Learning from Demonstration" published in the International Journal of Social Robotics. The correction provides the missing funding information for the research, which was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China. The correction notice also includes an apology for any inconvenience caused and a statement from Springer Nature regarding jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. The authors of the article are Mingfei Sun, Zhenhui Peng, Meng Xia, and Xiaojuan Ma. [Extracted from the article]

Aqueous EmimAc has been proved as a novel solvent for the selective separation of hemicellulose from chemical pulp. In this work, aqueous NaOH (NaOH-a) has been incorporated into the EmimAc solution to improve the hemicellulose separation. The interaction between NaOH-a and EmimAc has been investigated. In contrast to EmimAc/H2O system, EmimAc/NaOH-a shows better separation of hemicellulose from chemical pulp. In this case, introduction of NaOH with concentration 3–5% has negligible effect on crystal structure and DP of cellulose. Moreover, a dilute NaOH (3–5%) introduction can reduce the viscosity of the pulp-EmimAc/NaOH-a system, which is beneficial for the subsequent separation process. In addition, concentrated NaOH-a (7–10%) will lead to a substantial cellulose dissolution and therefore significant viscosity increase. The further study indicates that addition of NaOH to the aqueous EmimAc can weaken the acidity of hydrogen bond (α) and increase the net basicity (β − α), which are beneficial for the hemicellulose separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the wide adaptability to samples in various states, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy has attracted increasing attention. In the present work, it was firstly used to analyze lignocellulosic biomass material and develop the possible use for rapid detection. Through the analysis of the spectra, it was observed that the extremely pure microcrystalline cellulose, filter paper and purchased xylan have almost no absorption, whereas the chemical pulps, dissolving pulps and extracted hemicellulose with residual trace impurities show a weak absorption in the range from 200 nm to 400 nm. The prominent sensitivity to the trace impurities, such as residual lignin, makes the UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy a potential tool for the rapid detection of the purity of cellulose and hemicellulose. As for lignin, the spectrum is characterized by a broader strong absorption at 250–280 nm and 280–350 nm, of which the latter is similar to UV absorption spectra. In addition, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy can be potentially used in monitoring lignin-like substance formation in the biomass engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a simple two-stage pretreatment (TSP) was utilized to improve hemicellulose separation and alleviate lignin condensation and therefore facilitate hemicellulose extraction and subsequent kraft pulping. In contrast to single-stage pretreatment, TSP showed a significant improvement for hemicellulose extraction and hemicellulose degradation and provided an almost identical cellulose loss. The hemicellulose separation efficiency was significantly improved using TSP with 60 min first followed by 30 min. More importantly, proper pretreatment is beneficial to the subsequent delignification; extensive pretreatment can retard delignification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, chemical pulp was used to prepare hazy transparent films, and the effects of hemicellulose content on carboxyl group formation during TEMPO-(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl) mediated oxidation, and the properties of the film prepared from the chemical pulp were evaluated. The hemicellulose content exhibited a negligible effect on carboxyl content formation, while prior alkaline extraction significantly enhanced the selective oxidation indicating a substantial increase of carboxyl group. The prior alkaline extraction and TEMPO-mediated oxidation initiated severe hemicellulose removal and fiber swelling, and therefore promoted the subsequent ultrasonic fibrillation. The optical transmittance of the film prepared from the chemical pulp was near-constant at ~ 89%, while the haze increased slightly from 85 to 94%, when the hemicellulose content was increased from 6.7 to 19.2%. Conversely, the presence of hemicellulose significantly impaired the film surface properties, possibly due to the large size of the cellulose fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the detrimental effects induced by transition metals on oxygen delignification, it is necessary to explore effective cellulose protector for improving the oxygen delignification efficiency. In this work, chitosan/tripolyphosphate microspheres (C/TPP) with different size were prepared and introduced for alleviating the transition metal ions effects on cellulose degradation. The results showed that both size and amount of C/TPP had a significant effect on cellulose degradation but negligible influence on lignin; C/TPP with suitable amount and smaller size was favored for cellulose protection and thus selectivity improvement. C/TPP is found to be comparable to MgSO4 and more outstanding for the pulps with extra metals; in this case, C/TPP leads only a marginal impairment in lignin degradation and removal, but provides a significant improvement for cellulose viscosity. Moreover, C/TPP is substantially more effective when is used in a combination with MgSO4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, cellulose films or nanopapers have aroused great attention due to their potential for utilization in photoelectric materials. In this study, transparent cellulose films were prepared from TEMPO-oxidized cellulose fibers by the casting method after they were ultrasonicated to improve the light transmittance and haze. It was found that powerful ultrasonication initiated severe cellulose fiber flattening, fibrillation, and breakage. Therefore, films with compact structures and smooth surfaces could be prepared, resulting in high transparency and tensile strength. However, excessive ultrasonic treatment caused transmittance haze loss. By controlling the ultrasonic power within the range of 180–360 W, transparent films (transmittance of ~ 90%) with 51–76% haze were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Herein, we studied the effects of pretreatment with glucanase (G), xylanase (X), and their combinations [G/X mixtures or sequential addition (G-X and X-G)] on the efficiency of ionic liquid/water (IL/w)—promoted extraction of hemicelluloses from paper-grade pulp. Mild G pretreatment effectively increased the efficiency and selectivity of hemicellulose removal, whereas severe G pretreatment resulted in high glucose loss and low selectivity. Under optimized conditions, G and X pretreatments achieved similar removal efficiencies, especially in IL/w systems with high water content (25 and 20%), whereas the former was inferior to the latter at low water content (15%). Simultaneous G/X treatment achieved more efficient and selective hemicellulose removal than sequential G-X and X-G treatments, with the former sequence outperforming the latter. Finally, sequential extraction with IL/w-20 and IL/w-15 allowed extremely effective hemicellulose removal, decreasing the xylose content of pulp to 1.5%.Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bike sharing systems are booming globally as a green and flexible transportationmode, but the flexibility also brings difficulties in keeping the bike stations balanced with enough bikes and docks. Understanding the spatio-temporal bike trip patterns in a bike sharing system, such as the popular trip origins and destinations during rush hours, is important for researchers to design models for bike scheduling and station management. However, due to privacy and operational concerns, bike trip data are usually not publicly available in many cities. Instead, the station feeds about real-time bike and dock number in stations are usually public, which we refer to as bike sharing system open data. In this paper, we propose an approach to infer the spatio-temporal bike trip patterns from the public station feeds. Since the number of possible trips (i.e., origin-destination station pairs) is much larger than the number of stations, we define the trip inference as an ill-posed inverse problem. To solve this problem, we identify the sparsity and locality properties of bike trip patterns, and propose a sparse and weighted regularization model to impose both properties in the solution. We evaluate our method using real-world data fromWashington, D.C. and New York City. Results show that our method can effectively infer the spatio-temporal bike trip patterns and outperform the baselines in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing removal of hemicelluloses from cellulosic fibers is of decisive importance for producing high-purity cellulose. In this study, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was added to a cold caustic extraction (CCE) process to promote removal of hemicelluloses from a softwood sulfite dissolving pulp. The content of hemicelluloses was considerably decreased from 11.4 % in the original sample to 5.3 % in the PEG/CCE-treated sample under the studied conditions. This positive result of PEG addition can be explained by (1) improved inward penetration and diffusion of NaOH into the fiber structure and outward diffusion of hemicelluloses from the fiber structure to the bulk phase, and (2) enhanced fiber swelling due to inclusion of PEG in the fiber walls and improved NaOH diffusion. Moreover, the effects of PEG/CCE treatment on the distribution of hemicelluloses in the fiber walls and the molecular weight of the residual hemicelluloses in the resulting pulp were investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellulase treatment for decreasing viscosity of cellulose (dissolving pulp) is a promising approach to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, such as hypochlorite in the dissolving pulp manufacturing process. In this study, the use of an endoglucanase-rich cellulase to replace the hypochlorite for this purpose and its improvements of the Fock reactivity were investigated. The results showed that at a given viscosity level, the replacement of hypochlorite treatment with a cellulase treatment in the bleach plant under otherwise the same conditions led to a higher Fock reactivity (72.0 vs 46.7 %). These results were due to the enzymatic peeling/etching mechanism, which partially peeled the primary wall of the fibers, thus improving the accessibility of fibers. The improved accessibility of the enzymatic treated pulp was supported by the positive fiber morphological changes determined, based on the SEM, BET and WRV methods. The alkali solubility results further supported the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processability and quality of viscose are mainly influenced by the properties of dissolving pulps. Acid sulfite (AS) and prehydrolysis kraft (PHK) are the main commercial processes for the production of dissolving pulps. In this paper, the properties of dissolving pulps obtained from the AS and PHK processes, with respect to purity, molecular weight distribution (MWD), porosity, surface area, accessibility and reactivity, were comparatively evaluated. The results indicated that the PHK pulps had higher α-cellulose, lower S/S content, and narrower MWD than the AS pulps, which can be ascribed to the different reaction mechanisms in the acid and alkaline pulping processes. The traditional parameters (S/S, α-cellulose and intrinsic viscosity) were insufficient to evaluate the pulp quality when comparing with dissolving pulps from different pulping processes. The Fock reactivity and the Chinese filterability tests were applied to evaluate their end-use properties in the rayon production process. The AS pulps had better accessibility than the PHK pulps (larger pore size and volume and thinner primary wall), supporting the conclusion that the AS samples exhibited higher reactivity that the PHK samples. The results from the Fock reactivity and Chinese filterability corresponded well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of sleep may be a reflection of an elderly individual's health state, and sleep pattern is an important measurement. Recognition of sleep pattern by itself is a challenge issue, especially for elderly-care community, due to both privacy concerns and technical limitations. We propose a novelmulti-parametric sensing system called sleep pattern recognition system (SPRS). This system, equipped with a combination of various non-invasive sensors, can monitor an elderly user's sleep behavior. It accumulates the detecting data from a pressure sensor matrix and ultra wide band (UWB) tags. Based on these two types of complementary sensing data, SPRS can assess the user's sleep pattern automatically via machine learning algorithms. Compared to existing systems, SPRS operateswithout disrupting the users' sleep. It can be used in normal households with minimal deployment. Results of tests in our real assistive apartment at the Smart Elder-care Lab are also presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a previous study by the authors, it was found that benzene-ethanol extraction (BAE) could remove some of the lignin fragments from pretreated bamboo substrate and therefore cause a decrease in the lignin content of the substrate. In the present study, lignin was isolated by dioxane extraction of enzyme hydrolysis of ball-milled substrate (CEL method), and the effects of BAE on lignin molecular weight (MW) were determined. Results indicated that hydrothermal pretreatment could facilitate lignin isolation substantially when CEL method was used. Lignin fragments with low MW were more sensitive to BAE, and therefore, evident increase in both weight average molecular weight (Mw) and number average molecular weight (Mn) was observed; especially, the increase rate of Mn was more than 2.5 times of Mw when degradation prevailed. However, subtle changes were found in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectra between the lignin samples with and without BAE; the solubility of lignin in benzene-ethanol solution was more dependent on the MW level than on the functional groups in lignin structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was to determine the effect of fiber hornification on the viscosity decrease of prehydrolysis kraft-based dissolving pulp using a commercial endoglucanase-rich cellulase. Three pulp samples, namely never-dried (ND), air-dried (AD) and oven-dried (OD), were used. The results showed that the enzymatic performance in the viscosity decrease was affected by the fiber history: the ND sample showed the strongest viscosity drop, followed by the AD sample, and the lowest was obtained from the OD sample. These results were explained by the concept of cellulose accessibility to cellulase (CAC), which decreased with the increasing degrees of hornification (DH) in the order of ND, AD and OD samples. The CAC of the samples and the cellulase adsorption on the samples were highly correlated to the DH, which consequently influenced the enzymatic treatment efficiency in viscosity control. The kinetics of the viscosity decrease during the cellulase treatment, showed an initial rapid phase, followed by a slow phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to trace pseudo lignin formation during the hydrothermal pretreatment of holocellulose and elaborate the structure of the isolated pseudo lignin. The results showed that XPS could detect the trace amounts of pseudo lignin in the pretreated holocellulose substrate by quantitative determination of carbon (C) and oxygen (O), while fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and solid-state cross polarisation magic angle spinning carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (CP/MAS C-NMR) almost had no responses. After extensive pretreatment, C increased from 8.9 to 23.0 %, O/C decreased from 0.68 to 0.54 along with an increase of Klason lignin of the pretreated holocellulose from 1.0 to 6.2 %. As for isolated pseudo lignin, both O and O were involved, whereas only O involved in reference lignin and O in holocellulose sample. In comparison to reference lignin, pseudo lignin was rich in C and less in C, suggesting that more cyclic structures and hydroxyl groups were present in the pseudo lignin. The FT-IR and NMR results identified the presence of more aliphatic structures in the pseudo lignin, especially those formed initially; while the subsequent pretreatment could modify the aliphatic toward to aromatic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron beam irradiation (EBI) can degrade lignocellulosic materials and thus be used as a pretreatment method for efficient enzymatic hydrolysis. This research is mainly concerned with the degradation of cellulose and hemicelluloses when bamboo chips are exposed to various doses of EBI. The results show that cellulose degradation occurred continuously but without a gradual drop of the crystalline index with irradiation dose ranging from 0 to 50 kGy; meanwhile, no significant changes were observed in the molecular weight of hemicelluloses. An obvious relationship was found between irradiation dose and cellulose degradation, which could be used to control cellulose degradation by adjusting the EBI dose. Furthermore, the difficulty of cellulose depolymerization [G(s)] in bamboo chips by exposure to EBI was calculated as 0.052 µmol/J. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oesophageal cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers and is the sixth leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Approximately 70% of global oesophageal cancer cases occur in China, with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) being the histopathological form in the vast majority of cases (>90%). Currently, there are limited clinical approaches for the early diagnosis and treatment of ESCC, resulting in a 10% five-year survival rate for patients. However, the full repertoire of genomic events leading to the pathogenesis of ESCC remains unclear. Here we describe a comprehensive genomic analysis of 158 ESCC cases, as part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium research project. We conducted whole-genome sequencing in 17 ESCC cases and whole-exome sequencing in 71 cases, of which 53 cases, plus an additional 70 ESCC cases not used in the whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing, were subjected to array comparative genomic hybridization analysis. We identified eight significantly mutated genes, of which six are well known tumour-associated genes (TP53, RB1, CDKN2A, PIK3CA, NOTCH1, NFE2L2), and two have not previously been described in ESCC (ADAM29 and FAM135B). Notably, FAM135B is identified as a novel cancer-implicated gene as assayed for its ability to promote malignancy of ESCC cells. Additionally, MIR548K, a microRNA encoded in the amplified 11q13.3-13.4 region, is characterized as a novel oncogene, and functional assays demonstrate that MIR548K enhances malignant phenotypes of ESCC cells. Moreover, we have found that several important histone regulator genes (MLL2 (also called KMT2D), ASH1L, MLL3 (KMT2C), SETD1B, CREBBP and EP300) are frequently altered in ESCC. Pathway assessment reveals that somatic aberrations are mainly involved in the Wnt, cell cycle and Notch pathways. Genomic analyses suggest that ESCC and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma share some common pathogenic mechanisms, and ESCC development is associated with alcohol drinking. This study has explored novel biological markers and tumorigenic pathways that would greatly improve therapeutic strategies for ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of lexical-semantic relations aim to understand the mechanism of semantic memory and the organization of the mental lexicon. However, standard paradigmatic relations such as 'hypernym' and 'hyponym' cannot capture connections among concepts from different parts of speech. WordNet, which organizes synsets (i.e., synonym sets) using these lexical-semantic relations, is rather sparse in its connectivity. According to WordNet statistics, the average number of outgoing/incoming arcs for the hypernym/hyponym relation per synset is 1.33. Evocation, defined as how much a concept (expressed by one or more words) brings to mind another, is proposed as a new directed and weighted measure for the semantic relatedness among concepts. Commonly applied semantic relations and relatedness measures do not seem to be fully compatible with data that reflect evocations among concepts. They are compatible but evocation captures MORE. This work aims to provide a reliable and extendable dataset of concepts evoked by, and evoking, other concepts to enrich WordNet, the existing semantic network. We propose the use of disambiguated free word association data (first responses to verbal stimuli) to infer and collect evocation ratings. WordNet aims to represent the organization of mental lexicon, and free word association which has been used by psycholinguists to explore semantic organization can contribute to the understanding. This work was carried out in two phases. In the first phase, it was confirmed that existing free word association norms can be converted into evocation data computationally. In the second phase, a two-stage association-annotation procedure of collecting evocation data from human judgment was compared to the state-of-the-art method, showing that introducing free association can greatly improve the quality of the evocation data generated. Evocation can be incorporated into WordNet as directed links with scales, and benefits various natural language processing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lack of reliable data treatment method has been for several decades the bottleneck of viscosity measurement by disturbance amplitude damping method of shock waves. In this work the finite difference method is firstly applied to obtain the numerical solutions for disturbance amplitude damping behavior of sinusoidal shock front in inviscid and viscous flow. When water shocked to 15 GPa is taken as an example, the main results are as follows: (1) For inviscid and lower viscous flows the numerical method gives results in good agreement with the analytic solutions under the condition of small disturbance ( a / λ=0.02); (2) For the flow of viscosity beyond 200 Pa s ( η = κ) the analytic solution is found to overestimate obviously the effects of viscosity. It is attributed to the unreal pre-conditions of analytic solution by Miller and Ahrens; (3) The present numerical method provides an effective tool with more confidence to overcome the bottleneck of data treatment when the effects of higher viscosity in experiments of Sakharov and flyer impact are expected to be analyzed, because it can in principle simulate the development of shock waves in flows with larger disturbance amplitude, higher viscosity, and complicated initial flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research outlined here includes constitution of the differential gene expression profile by means of oligonucleotide gene microarray and functional analysis of the target gene for coronary heart disease (CHD). In a microarray screening experiment, the predominance of inflammation- and immune-related genes is presented in the expression profile of 107 differential genes based on the analysis of gene ontology and gene pathway. IL-B, an inflammatory factor, is identified as one of the genes that were markedly up-regulated in CHD. The plasma level of IL-8 is significantly raised in patients with CHD (n = 30) compared with healthy controls (n = 40), which underscores the clinical relevance of the in vitro finding. The further functional analysis shows that IL-B affects platelet aggregation percentage, expression of CD62p and platelet aggregation morphology in 12 healthy volunteers to some extent. These findings suggest the relevance of inflammation and immune responses to CHD at the DNA level. Moreover, IL-8 may be involved in the pathogenesis of CHD through the pathway of platelet activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of marine source rocks in the Tarim Basin is debated vigorously. The intention of this paper is to investigate the asphaltenes in heavy oils from the Lunnan and Tahe oilfields and Well TD2 with ruthenium-ions-catalyzed oxidation technique (RICO), in order to explore its role in oil-oil and oil-source correlations. The RICO products included n-alkanoic acids, α, ω-di-n-alkanoic acids, branched alkanoic acids, tricyclic terpanoic acids, hopanoic acids, gammacerane carboxylic acid , regular sterane carboxylic acids and 4-methylsterane carboxylic acids. The n-alkyl chains and biomarkers bounded on the asphaltenes were of unsusceptibility to biodegradation. The distribution and absolute concentrations of n-alkanoic acids in the RICO products of heavy oils from the Lunnan and Tahe oilfields are different from those of Well TD2. The biomarkers bounded on the asphaltenes, especially steranes, have a distribution trend similar to that of the counterparts in saturates. The sterane carboxylic acids and 4-methylsterane carboxylic acids in the RICO products of heavy oils from the Lunnan and Tahe oilfields, dominated by C30 sterane and C31 4-methylsterane carboxylic acids, respectively, are significantly different from those of the heavy oils of Well TD2, whose dominating sterane and 4-methylsterane carboxylic acids are C28 sterane and C29 4-methylsterane acids, respectively. The RICO products of the asphaltenes further indicate that the Middle-Upper Ordovician may be the main source rocks for heavy oils from the Lunnan and Tahe oilfields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid sterility is a major obstacle to the development of superior inter-subspecific hybrids between indica and japonica subspecies of Asian-cultivated rice. To overcome hybrid sterility, we introduced four japonica alleles (S-j) at Sa, Sc, f5, and S32 loci from Nipponbare into 9311 through marker-assisted backcross breeding, and four improved lines were obtained. Three wide-compatibility lines 9311(S5-n), 9311(f5-n), and 9311(S5-n+f5-n) previously constructed were used as control and parental line of hybridization. By crossing with 9311(S5-n+f5-n), two pyramiding lines 9311(Sa+S5-n+f5-n) and 9311(S32+Sa+S5-n+f5-n) were obtained. To evaluate the gene effect of pollen fertility and spikelet fertility, the near-isogenic lines (NILs) harboring S5-n, f5-n, Sa, Sc, f5, or S32 and three pyramiding lines with S5-n+f5-n, Sa+S5-n+f5-n, or S32+Sa+S5-n+f5-n were testcrossed to six japonica varieties. The results showed that single-gene f5, f5-n, S32, and S5-n could significantly improve spikelet fertility in majority of indica-japonica hybrids. Single-gene Sa and Sc could significantly improve spikelet fertility in part of indica-japonica hybrids. Moreover, the pyramiding lines exhibited significantly higher spikelet fertility than the control in indica-japonica hybrids. A significant increase in spikelet fertility (31.4–55%) was observed in three- or four-gene pyramiding lines. Our results provide an effective approach to exploiting heterosis between indica and japonica subspecies, which had a profound implication in rice breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]