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In the context of advancing flexible electronic technologies, conductive ink has garnered significant scholarly interest. Wherein, metal-organic decomposition (MOD) ink composed of silver precursors, complexing agents, and volatile organic solvents, has been widely studied due to its advantages such as simple preparation, long shelf life, high jetting stability, and low-temperature processing. However, the volumetric reduction of MOD ink frequently surpasses 80%, which typically could lead to multiple voids and breaks in the conductive film, resulting in poor conductivity. Meanwhile, a high temperature of above 180 °C is usually required for the MOD ink to be converted into conductive film. Nevertheless, it is imperative for the ink to be deposited onto substrates at low temperatures. Herein, a low temperature conducting ink with multiple silver source precursors has been developed. The results show that after sintering at 100 °C for 40 min on a polyimide (PI) substrate, the resistivity of the silver film was 16.8 µ Ω cm, which is only ten times higher than that of bulk silver, and the silver film with good uniformity and conductivity can be formed. Defects, such as voids and cracks, are significantly reduced through the gradient decomposition of different silver source during the sintering process. The formula of ink and the effects of sintering temperature on the microstructure and electrical properties of silver ink thin films have been studied in details using XRD, SEM, EDX, and four-probe techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The corrosion damage of an epoxy coating/metal system was accelerated by different cyclic tests. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), optical microscopy, laser microscopy, adhesion measurement, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were employed to reveal the degradation processes of the coating/metal system in these tests. The results showed that the test of cyclic polarization in immersion dramatically accelerated the corrosion of the metallic substrate. It is interesting that the alternating simple immersion and UV irradiation could slightly retard the coating damage in the first 15 days, whereas the alternating UV irradiation in air and electrochemical polarization in immersion could speed up the damage, which might better simulate the degradation of the coating/steel system in the marine tidal zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study was to use a new interpretable machine-learning framework based on max-logistic competing risk factor models to identify a parsimonious set of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that play a pivotal role in the development of colorectal cancer (CRC). Transcriptome data from nine public datasets were analyzed, and a new Chinese cohort was collected to validate the findings. The study discovered a set of four critical DEGs - CXCL8, PSMC2, APP, and SLC20A1 - that exhibit the highest accuracy in detecting CRC in diverse populations and ethnicities. Notably, PSMC2 and CXCL8 appear to play a central role in CRC, and CXCL8 alone could potentially serve as an early-stage marker for CRC. This work represents a pioneering effort in applying the max-logistic competing risk factor model to identify critical genes for human malignancies, and the interpretability and reproducibility of the results across diverse populations suggests that the four DEGs identified can provide a comprehensive description of the transcriptomic features of CRC. The practical implications of this research include the potential for personalized risk assessment and precision diagnosis and tailored treatment plans for patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic nephropathy (DN), the principal pathogeny of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is related to metabolic disorders, chronic inflammation, and oxidative stress. It was reported that high expression of interleukin-17A (IL-17A) was intimately related to the progression of DN, and targeting IL-17A exhibited regulating effects on inflammation and autoimmunity but had only limited impact on the oxidative stress damage in DN. Recent studies showed that interleukin-22 (IL-22) could inhibit mitochondrial damage and inflammatory response. Thus, the cytokine IL-22 was first fused to anti-IL-17A antibody for endowing the antibody with the anti-hyperglycemia and anti-inflammation activity. Our study demonstrated that the fusion molecule, anti-IL17A/IL22 fusion protein, could not only lead to the increase of M1 macrophages and the decrease of M2 macrophages, further improving the immune microenvironment, but also prevent the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential by reducing the production of ROS in murine DN model. In addition, the fusion protein could block TRAF6/NF-κB and AKT/ROS/TXNIP signaling pathways, further synergistically restraining the production of NLRP3, thus suppressing the inflammatory response and playing beneficial effect on slowing down the progression of DN. In conclusion, our findings demonstrated that the bifunctional IL-17A antibody and IL-22 fusion protein were of great benefit to DN, which highlighted a potential therapeutic strategy. Key points: • Anti-IL17A/IL22 fusion protein could improve the immune microenvironment and reduce the production of ROS. • Anti-IL17A/IL22 fusion protein could block TRAF6/NF-κB and AKT/ROS/TXNIP signaling pathways and then restrain the activation of NLRP3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual-regulation strategy of adopting B/N codoped carbon nanotube-encapsulated nickel nanoparticles (Ni@BNCNT) as a sulfur host and separator coating is proposed for high-performance Li-S batteries. On the cathode side, the 3D conductive network structure of Ni@BNCNT is favorable for high sulfur utilization, and the collaboration between polar metal Ni nanoparticles (NPs) and doped B/N elements facilitates the chemical adsorption of Li polysulfides (LiPSs). In addition, these metal Ni NPs exhibit a satisfactory catalytic effect on the polysulfide conversion. Moreover, using the Ni@BNCNT interlayer can further capture the soluble LiPSs, make them convert quickly, and prevent them from diffusing toward the anode side. The Li-S batteries simultaneously equipped with a S/Ni@BNCNT cathode and Ni@BNCNT interlayer show high reversible capacity and good cycle stability. Additionally, even at a sulfur loading of 3.5 mg cm−2 and an electrolyte/sulfur ratio of 3 μL mg−1, excellent battery performance can be achieved. We believe that this work offers a new strategy based on combining a catalytic host and separator coating to construct high efficiency Li S batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The self-regulation theory suggests that self-monitoring is a crucial factor in the progress of goal pursuit. Based on this theory, we explored the influence and mechanism of time management disposition and self-monitoring in relation to procrastination. In the study sample of 503 Chinese college students, we found that procrastination was negatively correlated with time management disposition and self-control, time management disposition was significantly and positively correlated with self-control, and self-monitoring was not significantly correlated with the other variables. Time management disposition was found to play a partially mediating role between self-control and procrastination, whereas indirect relationship between self-control and procrastination through time management disposition was moderated by self-monitoring, namely, self-monitoring moderated the effect of time management disposition on procrastination. The results of this study suggest that self-monitoring can strengthen or weaken the inhibition effect of self-control on procrastination thought time management disposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the problem of exponential synchronisation between time-delay spatiotemporal network and target system is studied. Based on the Lyapunov stability principle, the Lyapunov–Krasovskii generic function with exponential form is designed, and the form of the synchronisation controller is determined, so that the exponential synchronisation is realised between the time-delay spatiotemporal network and the target system. In simulation, Fisher–Kolmogorov system is further selected as the network node to verify the rationality of synchronisation scheme. This technology fully considers the effect of time delay on network synchronisation performance, making the synchronisation scheme more practical. In addition, exponential synchronisation technology can effectively adjust the rate of network synchronisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a class of smoothing penalty functions is proposed for optimization problems with equality, inequality and bound constraints. It is proved exact, under the condition of weakly generalized Mangasarian–Fromovitz constraint qualification, in the sense that each local optimizer of the penalty function corresponds to a local optimizer of the original problem. Furthermore, necessary and sufficient conditions are discussed for the inverse proposition of exact penalization. Based on the theoretical results in this paper, a class of smoothing penalty algorithms with feasibility verification is presented. Theories on the penalty exactness, feasibility verification and global convergence of the proposed algorithm are presented. Numerical results show that this algorithm is effective for nonsmooth nonconvex constrained optimization problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine in the development and progress in human cancer. TNF-α polymorphisms have been confirmed to influence the risk for several types of cancer, however, the associations between TNF-α polymorphisms and breast cancer (BC) remain controversial and ambiguous. The aim of this meta-analysis is to explore more precise estimations regarding this point. Electronic searches of several databases were conducted for all online publications on the associations between TNF-α-238, -308, -857, -863, -1031, -1210 polymorphisms and BC through March 2011. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated to assess the strength of these associations in fixed- and random-effect models with Review manager 5.0. A total of 17 studies with 44,442 BC patients and 49,926 controls involved were identified. This meta-analysis showed no significant association between TNF-α-308 polymorphism and BC (AA + GA vs. GG: OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.82-1.09) in overall and (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 0.61-3.40) Asian populations, however, a negative association was shown in Caucasian subgroup (OR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.85-0.97). As regards the TNF-α-238 polymorphism, the OR values (95% CI) were 0.99 (0.94-1.05), 0.94 (0.78-1.14), and 1.00 (0.95-1.05) for the overall, Asian, and Caucasian studies, respectively. No significant associations were found for other polymorphisms. Furthermore, there was a coincidence in the sensitivity analysis of these associations. No publication bias was detected in this study. To sum up, no significant associations were found between the TNF-α-308, -238, -857, -863, -1031, -1210 polymorphisms and the risk for BC in overall populations, whereas a negative association was found between TNF-α-308 polymorphism and BC in Caucasian populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum systems can display the quantum chaos characteristics under non-rotating wave approximation. Because of the complex multi-body effect, the inevitability of coupling with the environment and the existence of uncertainty relation, some parameters in quantum system are often uncertain. In order to determine the properties of quantum system, we need to accurately measure any parameters in the system. In this work, we first analyse the characteristics of quantum bits interacting with a single-mode radiation field. On this basis, we design a unique technique to accurately measure the uncertain parameter in the quantum bits. Finally, we complete the synchronization transmission of signal in quantum bits based on the sliding mode control technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To shed light on the spectroscopic energy-smearing mechanism of the recently developed technique for multi-element analysis (e.g., forensic tests on artworks), which is called plume laser-induced fluorescence, practically computer simulations need to be accurate and fast enough for generating wide-range excited-state potential energy surfaces (PESs) from equilibrium to dissociation of large (non-equilibrated) atomic clusters. Currently, all the very high-level post-Hartree-Fock theories (e.g., coupled-cluster theory) are computationally too expensive for this purpose (e.g., taking at least ~ 23 years). After considering the extensive applications of time-dependent density-functional theory (TD-DFT) in computing the optical properties of many-body systems, we wonder how TD-DFT performs in the wide-range-PES generations because no such TD-DFT application is found by us in the literature (perhaps due to its insufficient static/non-dynamical correlation energy). In this work, we carried out TD-DFT calculations on beryllium atomic clusters from Be1 to Be50 (in contrast to open-shell H2 or Li2 system, we think the individual closed-shell Be systems at the dissociation limit could help TD-DFT to describe the static/non-dynamical correlation. For example, it is usually considered that Be2 has zero non-dynamical correlation energy in the literature) with and without Tamm-Dancoff approximation (TDA). Electronic excited-state properties (e.g., PES, equilibrium position, dissociation energy, fork intersection) associated with 2s → 2p are systematically investigated at a total of 48 levels of TD-DFT. Our calculations are thoroughly benchmarked against experimental results and (very) high-level theoretical values. In short, we find that for accurate simulations, it is necessary to use diffuse basis sets and the TDA approximation. TD-DFT with the small basis set 3-21+G* took ~ 2 min to finish a single-point excitation energy calculation on a linear Be50 (a toy model), while the large basis set 6-311+G(2df,2p) took 30 min. By contrast, a couple-cluster theory EOM-CCSD with 6-311+G(2df,2p) took 2.5 h to do the same but merely for a smaller linear Be10. In general, we suggest that TD-DFT:TDA with 3-21+G* should be practically fast and accurate enough for emulating our desired wide-range excited-state PESs of large Be atomic clusters (including conical intersection points of close energies) in the future studies. Nevertheless, benchmarking work on (much) larger sizes of Be clusters will always be more desirable whenever its computational costs at very high level of theories becomes more tractable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]