Search

In this article, Co-doped Na3V2-xTix(PO4)2F3(NVTPF x = 0, 0.1, 0.5, 0.7) sodium ion battery anode material was prepared by one-step hydrothermal method and it was coated with graphene. The crystal structure and morphology of NVTPF cathode material were characterized by scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffractometer. The results show that the particle diameter of the sample becomes smaller and the shape gradually becomes regular with the increase of Ti doping amount. The graphene coating did not change the crystal structure of NVTPF, but it was helpful to improve its electrochemical performance. The substitution of Ti4+ for V3+ contributes to improve the electronic conductivity and diffusion coefficient of sodium ions, reduce the charge transfer impedance, and accelerate the reaction kinetics of NVTPF electrode, thus significantly improving the cycling stability of NVTPF electrode. Among the four groups of materials, Na3v1.5Ti0.5(PO4)2F3 has the best electrochemical performance. At 1C, the specific capacity of initial discharge is 53.4 mAh/g, and the capacity retention rate of 35 cycles is 72.3%. The graphene coated NVTPF has a discharge capacity of 125.9mAh/g for the first cycle and 44.8mAh/g for 35 cycles at 1C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object detection, which is one of the most fundamental visual recognition tasks, has been a hotspot in computer vision. CNN (Convolutional Neural Networks) have been widely employed for building detector. Due to the success of RPN (Region Proposal Network), the two-stage detectors get both classification accuracy and precise regression bounding boxes. However, they still struggle in small-size object detection. In this paper, we present a deep network, namely Spatial Fine-Grained Network (SFGN). The SFGN that exploits Spatial Fine-Grained Features (SFGF) concatenates the higher resolution features, which is fine-grained with the low resolution features and high-level semantic by stacking spatial features for fine-grained features. An enhanced region proposal generator is proposed to get the objectless for small object to obtain a small set of proposal. The contextual information surrounding the region of interest is embedded using local spatial information for increasing the useful information and discriminating the background. For improving the detection performance, we use a simple yet surprisingly effective online hard example mining (OHEM) algorithm for training region proposal generator. It embeds an efficiently implemented soft non-maximum suppression (soft-NMS) for replacing with tradition NMS to obtain consistent improvements without increasing the computational complexity in inference. On PASCAL VOC 2007 and PASCAL VOC 2012 datasets, our SFGN improves baseline model from 81.2% mAP to 80.6% mAP. On MS COCO dataset, SFGN also performs better than baseline model. As intuition suggests, our detection results provide strong evidence that our SFGN improves detection accuracy, especially in small object test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) for patients with gastric cancer undergoing minimally invasive surgery (MIS). We searched the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, CNKI, VIP, WanFang, and CBM for relevant RCTs from the database inception until December 2021, for studies that compared the ERAS and traditional care (TC) in MIS for gastric cancer. A total of 25 RCTs comprising 2809 patients were included in this study. When compared with the traditional care TC group, the ERAS group had a shorter postoperative hospital stay [MD = −1.88,95%CI (−2.22, −1.55), P < 0.00001] and an earlier time at first postoperative flatus [MD = −18.12,95%CI (−21.45,-14.80), P < 0.00001] along with lower medical costs [SMD = −0.64, 95% CI (−0.85, −0.43), P < 0.00001] and an overall reduction in postoperative complication rates [RR = 0.55, 95% CI (0.44, 0.69), P < 0.00001]. However, the difference in the readmission rates was not significant. ERAS can shorten the postoperative hospital stay, hasten the first postoperative flatus and reduce medical costs and overall postoperative complication rate without increasing readmission rates. Therefore, the ERAS protocol is preferable for gastric cancer patients undergoing MIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Co-doped Na3V2−xCox(PO4)2F3(x = 0,0.1,0.5,0.7) sodium ion battery anode material was prepared by one-step hydrothermal method, and Na3V1.5Co0.5(PO4)2F3 anode material coated with graphene was also prepared. It is confirmed that moderate Co2+ doping can improve the electrochemical performance of NVPF. Among all samples, Na3V1.5Co0.5(PO4)2F3@Graphene shows the best rate and cycle performance. It exhibits the highest specific capacity of 91.5 and 48.8 mAh/g at 1C, respectively when x = 0.5, after coating graphene, the charge-discharge specific capacities of 1C cycle are 128.2 mAh/g and 63.5 mAh/g for the first time, and 62.2 mAh/g and 45.1 mAh/g for 45 weeks.The performance results show that the excellent electrochemical performance of Na3V1.5Co0.5(PO4)2F3@Graphene can be attributed to the increase in electronic conductivity and ion diffusion coefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folic acid is critical to maintaining normal male reproductive function. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays a crucial role in folic acid deficiency. Studies have shown that Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) is involved in ER stress, but the specific mechanism in male reproduction is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of folic acid deficiency on spermatogenesis and elucidate the underlying mechanisms. C57BL/6 mice fed with folic acid deficiency induced diet(0.3 mg/kg) were used. A significant decrease in the sperm concentration in the folic acid deficiency group was observed. Meanwhile, folic acid deficiency decreased Cav-1 expression in the testis tissue and increased endoplasmic reticulum stress-related PERK, eIF2α, ATF4, CHOP gene expression. Our results suggest that folic acid deficiency can affect male reproduction through the Cav-1-PERK-eIFα-ATF4-CHOP pathway. Abbreviations: ATF4: activating transcription factor 4; Ca2+: calcium ion; Cav-1: Caveolin-1; CCK-8: cell counting kit-8; CHOP: CCAAT-enhancer-binding protein homologous protein; DNA: Deoxyribonucleic acid; DSB: double strand breakage; eIF2α: eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2 alpha; ER: endoplasmic reticulum; FD: folic acid deficiency; FITC: fluorescein isothiocyanate; HE: hematoxylin and eosin; H3K4me3: histone H3 lysine 4 trimethylation; PERK: protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase; PI: propidium iodide; RT-qPCR: quantitative reverse transcription PCR; TUNEL: TdT mediated dUTP Nick End Labeling [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ferroelectric, lead-free perovskite sodium bismuth titanate-barium titanate (BNT-BT) has excellent electrical performance and is now recognized as a possible alternative material for lead zirconate titanate (PZT). It can be doped with some active elements to form a solid solution with a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), where the solid solution has high dielectric properties and high energy storage performance. In this paper, the research results of BNT-BLT, BNT-BLZT, BNT-BSLZT, BNT-BMNLT and BNT-BST-KNN ceramic materials are summarized, and the influence of their doping mode on the phase structure and electrical properties are analyzed. The study found a rhombohedral and tetragonal phase coexistence region, where the tolerance factor value of ceramics is between 0.7530 and 0.7803. Moreover, the energy storage density of antiferroelectric ceramics increases with the expansion of the MPB region and is affected by the dielectric constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[(Bi1/2Na1/2)0.92Ba0.05La0.02](Mg1/3Nb2/3)xTi(1-0.5x)O3(BNT-BLMNT, x = 0.01, 0.03,0.05,0.07) lead-free anti-ferroelectric ceramics were synthesized by a conventional solid-state. The effects of B-doped Mg4Nb2O9 groups on phase structures, compositional distribution and electrical properties of BNT-BLMNT ceramics were systematically investigated to further understand the mechanism of phase transition.It was found that the grain size of ceramic materials tends to decrease and the distribution becomes more uniform, indicating that Mg4Nb2O9 is conducive to the synthesis of ceramic materials in this system and effectively improves the grain size and distribution of this material with the increase of B-doped Mg4Nb2O9 group content. According to SEM and XRD analysis, Mg4Nb2O9 was completely dissolved in the ceramic crystal, forming a solid solution, all of which were of a single perovskite crystal structure.With the increase of it's content, the remnant polarization (Pr) decreased significantly, from 38.9 µC/cm2(x = 0.01) to 10.4 µC/cm2(x = 0.05), and the difference between the maximum polarization(Pmax) and the remnant polarization(Pr) became larger and larger, indicating that the addition of Mg and Nb elements increased the transition trend of the anti-ferroelectric phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1−x)Bi1/2Na1/2TiO3–xBa1/2Sr1/2TiO3–0.05KNaNbO3 (BNT–BST–KN, x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07) lead-free anti-ferroelectric ceramics were synthesized by a conventional solid-state. The hysteresis loop of the ceramic at different temperature under 70 kV/cm electric field was analyzed. In this paper, the energy storage properties of BNT–BST–KNN ceramics are studied. It was found that the addition of Sr element helps to improve the electric field strength tolerance and the breakdown resistance performance the material, so as to improve its energy storage density. At room temperature, the P–E curves of the materials in the system basically show a double hysteresis loop, and with the increase of temperature, the characteristics of the double hysteresis curve are particularly obvious. The ceramics exist in the ferroelectric–antiferroelectric coexistence phase region near 303 K, namely the morphotropic phase boundary region. It shows that the ceramic has anti-ferroelectric characteristics at room temperature, and is a typical anti-ferroelectric material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1-x)Bi1/2Na1/2TiO3-xBa1/2Sr1/2TiO3-0.05KNaNbO3(BNT-BST-KNN, x = 0.01, 0.03,0.05,0.07) lead-free anti-ferroelectric ceramics were synthesized by a conventional solid-state. The effects of co-doping of Sr element and KNN group on phase structures, compositional distribution and electrical properties of BNT-BST-KNN ceramics were systematically investigated to further understand the mechanism of phase transition. It was found that the grain size decreased obviously, indicating that the addition of Sr element inhibited the grain growth. According to SEM and XRD analysis, the components of the samples obtained were all perovskite phase structure, and the coke free green stone was equal to other heterophases, indicating that K1+, Na1+, Nb4+ and Sr2+ ions successfully diffused into the crystal lattice of BiNaTiO3-BaTiO3 and formed a uniform solid solution. It shows that the doping of Sr element and KNN effectively promotes the transformation of trigonal phase to tetragonal phase. From the analysis results, the doping of Sr element and KNN effectively reduces the dielectric loss of the materials, and the dielectric property stability is greatly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[(Bi1/2Na1/2)0.94Ba0.06]0.97La0.02TiO3 (BNT-BLT) lead-free anti-ferroelectric ceramics were synthesized by a conventional solid-state.By analyzing TGA and DSC curves, the material should be calcined at about 800 °C. The effects of different milling time on the microstructure of the materials were also studied. Microstructures analysis and the calculation from the X-ray diffraction results reveal that the milling time of BNT-BLT ceramic should be controlled within a reasonable range, around 15 h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with urothelial carcinoma (UC) of the bladder have a high risk of death in China. However, a lack of comprehensive molecular profiling in Chinese Han population hinders the development of targeted therapies for bladder cancer. In our present study, we collected fresh bladder tumors from low-grade (T1, N0, M0, G1) non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients (n = 16) and high-grade (T2-4, N0, M0, Gx) muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) patients (n = 16) with their paired normal bladder tissues, and subjected the total genomic DNAs to targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) for 94 cancer-associated genes. NGS results showed that 30.9% of detected genes (29/94) was mutated in 32 urothelial carcinoma bladder tissues. Furthermore, our results and ICGC database showed that FGFR3, KMT2D, TP53, KDM6A, and ARID1A were the most frequently mutated genes in UC patients. Of note, NMIBC and MIBC displayed distinguishable genomic alterations. FGFR3, KMT2D, AKT1, ARID1A, and STAG2 were the most frequently mutated genes in NMIBC patients, whereas mutations of TP53, CREBBP, FGFR3, KDM6A, KMT2D, and ARID1A were frequently detected in MIBC. Intriguingly, gene ontology and clustering analysis revealed that these frequently mutated genes were highly enriched in signaling pathways responsible for cancer development. Taken together, the mutation frequency of genes associated with UC development in NMIBC and MIBC was screened out in Chinese Han population and elucidation of the related mechanisms provides theoretical basis and technical support for the development of early diagnosis and therapeutic strategies in UC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who suffers renal angiomyolipoma (AML) has a low quality of life. It is widely known that genetic factors including TSC2 mutation contribute to certain populations of renal AML-bearing patients. In this study, we are the first to identify novel TSC2 mutations in one Chinese renal epithelioid AML patient: c.2652C>A; c.2688G>A based on sequencing result from biopsy tissue. These two somatic mutations cause a translational stop of TSC2, which leads to mTORC1 activation. Given the fact that activation of mTORC1 ensures cell growth and survival, we applied its inhibitor, FDA-approved everolimus, to this woman. After months of treatment with everolimus, Computer-Tomography (CT) scan results showed that everolimus successfully reduced tumor growth and distal metastasis and achieved partial response (PR) to everolimu according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST version 1.1). Further Blood Routine Examination results showed the concentration of red cell mass, hemoglobin, white blood cell (WBC), platelets and hematocrit (HCT) significantly returned to normal levels indicating patients with these two TSC2 mutations could be effectively treated by everolimus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been revealed to play vital roles in modulating gene expression and participate in several pathological responses including gastric cancer (GC). However, the larger numbers of the circRNAs in GC progression remain undetermined. In the present study, four GC related circRNAs expression profiles from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were enrolled. We identified hsa_ circRNA_00067997 (circ_0067997) as an oncogene in GC. qRT-PCR was used to validate the expression of circ_0067997 in GC tissues and cell lines. The results revealed that circ_0067997 was upregulated in GC, and high circ_0067997 expression was associated with the poor overall survival rate of GC patients. Knockdown of circ_0067997 significantly reduced cell viability, inhibited colony formation, and attenuated invasive ability, whereas overexpression of circ_0067997 exhibited opposed effects. Circ_0067997 was identified to be a sponge for miR-515-5p directly. Moreover, XIAP was demonstrated to be targeted and regulated by miR-515-5p. In conclusion, circ_0067997 was identified to be an oncogene in GC by regulating miR-515-5p/XIAP axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methacrylate functional monomers containing polymerisable double bonds and sulphhydryl group were synthesised using (methyl) hydroxyethyl (propyl) acrylate and mercaptopropionic acid as precursors with benzene (toluene, ethyl acetate, ether) as solvent and aqueous agent, p-toluene sulphonic acid as catalyst, hydroquinone as polymerisation inhibitor. The yield of methacrylate functional monomers was more than 90%. The structure and purity of methacrylate functional monomers was characterised by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The precursor material source is of low cost and widely available, and the product did not need to be purified by a special method, which means that it can be directly used for the synthesis of vinyl branched polymer. Therefore, the price of vinyl branched polymer can be greatly reduced and the application range of vinyl branched polymer can be greatly expanded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fast neutron radiography (FNR) system based on the high-intensity deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion generator (HINEG) facility, which employs a high-intensity D-T fusion generator, was designed. To determine the optimal design of the FNR system, the influence of key parameters [the scattered neutron ratio ns (ratio of scattered neutrons and total neutrons at image detection system), collimator ratio L/D, distance between the sample and image detector t, and sample thickness d] on the spatial resolution and image contrast of the system was analyzed using the FLUKA code. The design parameters were optimized to reduce scattering and thus ensure better spatial resolution. The FNR system was constructed for HINEG according to the optimal design parameters, and FNR experiments were conducted to validate the simulation results and evaluate the actual spatial resolution. The experimental results showed that the spatial resolution of this FNR system is approximately 0.5 mm, which is in agreement with the calculation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long counters are widely used for monitoring neutron fluence owing to their constant response in a wide energy range. In this study, an extended long counter named FDS-LC (FDS Long Counter), having a flat response over a wide neutron energy range from 1 keV to 20 MeV, was developed to monitor high neutron fluence. The geometry and basic structure of FDS-LC was optimized by using Monte Carlo simulations, and it consists of the BF3thermal neutron counter, the inner and outer polyethylene moderators, borated polyethylene absorption layer, and chromium and lead metal neutron multiplier. The parameters such as the effective center, the energy response, and the angluar response of the FDS-LC were estimated using Super Monte Carlo code. The experimental validation of these parameters were performed by using241Am-Be source and T(d, n)3He neutron source at the China Institute of Atomic Energy in Beijing. The results showed that the fluctuation of the response in the energy range from 1 keV to 20 MeV was less than 12% and the effective center positions were approximately equal toThe comparison of the simulation and experimental results of the angular response function showed good agreement with a maximum deviation less than 15.7%. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

[(Bi1/2Na1/2)0.94Ba0.06](1–1.5x)LaxTiO3(BNT-BLT, x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06) lead-free anti-ferroelectric ceramics were synthesized by a conventional solid-state reaction method. The microstructure and the electrical properties of BNT-BLT were investigated. The X-ray diffraction patterns reveal that the BNT-BLT ceramic is constituted by a single perovskite structure phase. The average grain size of the ceramic samples gradually decreases with increasing La content, reducing the ferroelectric properties of the material and enhancing its anti-ferroelectric properties. TheP-Ehysteresis loops of BNT-BLT ceramics at an electric field of 36 kV/cm indicate that both the saturation polarization (Ps) and the remnant polarization (Pr) decrease as the La doping increases. These properties indicate that BNT-BLZT ceramics are a promising lead-free anti-ferroelectric material for applications in energy-storage capacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

[(Bi1/2Na1/2)0.92Ba0.05La0.02][SnxZr(0.95-x)Ti0.05]O3(BNT-BLSZT, x = 0, 0.03, 0.06, 0.09) lead-free ferroelectric ceramics synthesized by a conventional solid-state reaction method exhibit high crystallinity and high density at 1150°C. The microstructure and the electrical properties of BNT-BLSZT were investigated. The X-ray diffraction patterns reveal that the BNT-BLSZT ceramic is constituted by a single perovskite structure phase. The average grain size of the ceramic samples slightly increases with increasing Sn content, TheP-Ehysteresis loops of BNT-BLZST ceramics at 50 kV/cm indicate that both the saturation polarization (Ps) and the remnant polarization (Pr) decrease with increasing Sn-doping. It shows that Sn-doping is useful to improve energy storage density of the ceramics. These properties indicate that BNT-BLZST ceramics are a promising lead-free anti-ferroelectric material for applications in energy-storage capacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract This paper proposes a novel concept and methodology to study longitudinal wave propagation in entangled metallic wire material (EMWM), a porous structural network consisting of spatial helix wires. The numerical model of EMWM is constructed using representative volume elements (RVE) obtained through X-ray tomography and skeletonization of a standard specimen. By increasing the approximate periodic boundary, the improved wave and finite ele-ment method (WFE) is employed to model EMWM as approximately periodic structures, allowing for numerical simulations of wave propagation characteristics. Frequency bands and resonance modes of EMWM are calculated to analyze the characteristics of one-dimensional wave propagation. The numerical results show that EMWM exhibits unique frequency band characteristics compared to typical periodic porous materials. In the frequency range of 15 to n n 35 kHz, the first pass band corresponds to the tensile-compressive motion of the entire specimen, while the higher pass bands correspond to localized vibrations within the spatial wires. Additionally, the frequency bands can be adjusted across a wide range based on the relative density of EMWM specimens. The improved WFE method and obtained numerical data can facilitate the application of EMWM on high frequency vibration isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Bi0.46Na0.46Ba0.05La0.02)ZrxTi(1-x)O3(BNBLZT,x= 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07) lead-free anti-ferroelectric ceramics were synthesized by conventional solid-state reaction method. Microstructures and electrical properties of BNBLZT were investigated. Calculation from the X-ray diffraction results reveals that BNBLZT ceramic possesses a single perovskite structure phase. All BNBLZT ceramics show high density and the grain sizes decrease slightly with the addition of Zr concentration. In addition, theP-Ehysteresis loops measured at room temperature show that the largest energy-storage densityWmaxis 1.89 J/cm3. The temperature dependence of dielectric permittivity ϵrand dielectric loss tanδ illustrate that the addition of Zr can improve the piezoelectric properties of BNBLZT ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

0.96Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.04PbZrO3(PNN-PZ) ceramics prepared via columbite method exhibit high crystallinity and high density, typical relaxor behavior is demonstrated by the dielectric data. The high dielectric tunability (˜87%) and low dielectric loss (˜0.007) were obtained for PNN-PZ at room temperature around 30kV/cm and 1 kHz, at fields below 13kV/cm, a double-wells model work well between tunability and dc bias electric field, in contrast, at all fields, the thermodynamic model can do better in fitting the dielectric nonlinear tunability behavior of the PNN-PZ ceramics than the double-wells model. These properties indicate that PNN-PZ ceramics might be a promising candidate for tunable materials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Erythropsis kwangsiensis (Sterculiaceae), a wild endangered tree that grows in South China, is an economically important species. There is scant information available on the chloroplast (cp) genome of this species. The present study is the first to analyze the cp genome of E. kwangsiensis using genome skimming. The whole cp genome is 160,836 bp long with 131 genes, including 84 protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA genes, and 8 rRNA genes. The GC content is 37.0%. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close relationship to Firmiana colorata. This data will be useful for future investigations of conservation genetics and potential applications in breeding new varieties of this endangered and economically important tree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preparative synthesis of cholest-4-en-3α,6β- and -3α,6α-diols 10 and 15 using cheap reagents and simple working-up procedures without chromatography on a multigram scale is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]