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The seismic attributes of water‐rich sandstone contain much information about the rock's physical properties and seismic wave parameters. They are commonly used to predict the rock's physical properties (e.g. porosity). However, the seismic attributes of water‐rich sandstone are affected by porosity, water saturation and thickness. To eliminate the influence of thickness on the porosity prediction of water‐rich sandstone and improve the accuracy of the porosity prediction, the authors propose a Lambert W–R transform method to isolate the contribution of thickness and porosity from seismic attributes. First, a rock physical model is used to calculate the equivalent elastic parameters of water‐rich sandstones with different porosity values and water saturation levels. Second, the seismic attribute dataset of water‐rich sandstone is established by forward modelling the seismic response of the wedge‐shaped water‐rich sandstone model, and the selection of sensitive physical properties is completed. Then, the transformation parameters (ζAhRs and ηAhRs) are obtained by Lambert W–R transformation, which is exponentially related to instantaneous amplitude. ζAhRs and ηAhRs are sensitive to thickness and porosity, respectively. Finally, an interpretative template for porosity prediction of water‐rich sandstone is established by cross‐plot analysis (ζAhRs and ηAhRs) and verified by a practical case. The verification results show that the porosity predicted by the interpretation template is consistent with drilling fluid consumption. However, it is lower than the porosity of logging constrained P‐wave impedance inversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a primary diabetic complication ascribed to the pathological changes in renal microvessels. This study investigated the nuclear factor erythroid 2‐related factor 2 (Nrf2)/Kelch ECH associating protein (Keap1)/antioxidant response element (ARE) signaling pathway impact of chitooligosaccharides (COS) with a certain degree of polymerization (DP) on DN mouse models and high glucose‐damaged human kidney 2 (HK‐2) cells. The findings indicated that COS effectively reduced the renal function indexes (uric acid [UA], urinary albumin excretion rate [UAER], urine albumin‐to‐creatinine ratio [UACR], blood urea nitrogen [BUN], and creatinine [Cre]) of DN mice. It increased (p <.05) the superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px), and catalase (CAT) antioxidant enzyme activity in the serum and kidneys, and decreased (p <.05) the malondialdehyde (MDA) content. The mechanistic investigation showed that COS significantly increased (p <.05) Nrf2 and downstream target gene (GCLM, GCLC, HO‐1, and NQO‐1) expression, and substantially decreased (p <.05) Keap1 expression. The protein level was consistent with the messenger RNA (mRNA) level in in vitro and in vivo models. The docking data indicated that COS and Keap1 protein binding included six hydrogen bond formation processes (Gly364, Arg415, Arg483, His436, Ser431, and Arg380). The COS intervention mechanism may be related to the Nrf2/Keap1/ARE antioxidant pathway. Therefore, it provides a scientific basis for COS application in developing special medical food for DN patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lambert–Eaton myasthenic syndrome (LEMS) is a rare paraneoplastic neurological syndrome of the neuromuscular transmission. The symptoms often progress slowly and can be misdiagnosed in early stage. Seropositive SOX‐1 antibodies are support for the diagnosis of LEMS and have high specificity for small cell lung cancer (SCLC). In this paper, we report a case of a 56‐year‐old man with smoking history who was admitted to hospital with progressive muscle weakness of the proximal legs. LEMS was diagnosed by repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS) testing and seropositive SOX‐1 antibodies. Primary screening with chest computed tomography (CT) and integrated PET/CT did not reveal any tumor. After continuous follow‐up, SCLC was found by chest CT and confirmed with pathological examination 10 months after the diagnosis of LEMS. Long‐term follow‐up and screening for occult SCLC in LEMS patients with positive SOX‐1 antibodies are very important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: Rationally developing efficient and durable bifunctional catalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical for rechargeable zinc‐air batteries (ZABs). Herein, a bead‐like CoSe2@NC@NCNFs bifunctional catalyst was designed and fabricated by confining cubic CoSe2 nanoparticles to three‐dimensional (3D) porous MOFs‐derived nitrogen‐doped carbon (NC) and one‐dimensional (1D) N‐doped carbon nanofibers (NCNFs) through a facile encapsulate strategy. The 1D/3D continuous network structure contributes to the improvement of specific surface area and electronic conductivity, while the strong synergistic effect between CoSe2 sites and Co‐Nx‐C sites can effectively enhance electron/mass transfer and reduce the diffusion resistance. The as‐constructed CoSe2@NC@NCNFs catalyst exhibits high catalytic activity and stability toward ORR/OER with a high half‐wave potential of 0.80 V (vs. RHE) in ORR and a low overpotential of 280 mV at 10 mA·cm−2 in OER. More encouragingly, the rechargeable ZABs with CoSe2@NC@NCNFs cathode deliver high peak power densities (126.8 mW·cm−2), large specific capacities (763.1 mA·h·g−1), and robust charge‐discharge cycling stability over 240 cycles. This study provides a facile strategy for designing efficient bifunctional catalysts for rechargeable energy conversion applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to establish a self‐equilibrium configuration is vital for further kinematics and dynamics analyses of tensegrity mechanism. In this study, for investigating tensegrity form‐finding problems, a concise and efficient dynamic relaxation‐noise tolerant zeroing neural network (DR‐NTZNN) form‐finding algorithm is established through analysing the physical properties of tensegrity structures. In addition, the non‐linear constrained optimisation problem which transformed from the form‐finding problem is solved by a sequential quadratic programming algorithm. Moreover, the noise may produce in the form‐finding process that includes the round‐off errors which are brought by the approximate matrix and restart point calculating course, disturbance caused by external force and manufacturing error when constructing a tensegrity structure. Hence, for the purpose of suppressing the noise, a noise tolerant zeroing neural network is presented to solve the search direction, which can endow the anti‐noise capability to the form‐finding model and enhance the calculation capability. Besides, the dynamic relaxation method is contributed to seek the nodal coordinates rapidly when the search direction is acquired. The numerical results show the form‐finding model has a huge capability for high‐dimensional free form cable‐strut mechanisms with complicated topology. Eventually, comparing with other existing form‐finding methods, the contrast simulations reveal the excellent anti‐noise performance and calculation capacity of DR‐NTZNN form‐finding algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zn metal anodes, the key to aqueous zinc‐based energy storage, are plagued by dendrites and sluggish kinetics, which are closely related to the Zn plating process and restricted charge carriers exchange. Herein, a strategy of charge carriers enrichment during Zn plating by employing zincophilic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on Zn electrodes for dendrite‐free Zn anodes under ultrahigh current density is reported. The CNTs enable an electric double layer to effectively facilitate the enrichment of charge carriers and the refinement of the electric field distribution at the CNTs–Zn interface, displaying unique advantages in enhancing Zn2+ transfer dynamics and planar Zn deposition. The extra capacitive interfacial process boosts Zn deposition kinetics to afford ultrahigh‐rate Zn plating and stripping by decreasing both electrochemical polarization and concentration polarization. As a consequence, reversible Zn stripping and plating at an ultrahigh current density of 50 mA cm−2 and a remarkable discharging depth of 97% are reached. Zn ion hybrid supercapacitors achieve stable cycling at 50 mA cm−2 for 10 000 cycles. This paper offers mechanistic insight for advanced Zn anodes supporting high‐rate charge/discharge with large capacities and enlightens the design of metal anodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rational design of bifunctional catalysts with excellent activity and stability toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is essential for rechargeable Zn‐air batteries (ZABs). In this study, a facile coordination bridging strategy is proposed to construct bifunctional Co‐CoN4 hybrid active sites embedded in porous N‐rich carbon nanolamellas (denoted as Co‐CoN4@NCNs) for both the ORR and OER. Synchrotron X‐ray absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations reveal that the increased intrinsic ORR/OER activities can be attributed to the efficient interfacial charge transfer between the atomic CoN sites and metallic Co sites due to their robust electronic correlation. In situ Raman spectroscopy confirms that the OER activity depends on the CoOOH intermediates formed during the reaction. Co‐CoN4@NCNs exhibits superior bifunctional catalytic performance for the ORR (E1/2 = 0.83 V) and OER (η = 310 mV at 10 mA cm−2) conducted in alkaline media. The assembled rechargeable Co‐CoN4@NCNs‐based ZAB displays an open‐circuit voltage of 1.47 V, peak power density of 118.8 mW cm−2, specific capacity of 776.7 mAh g−1, and outstanding cycling stability over 1500 cycles. The regulation of the interfacial electronic properties can contribute to the rational design of bifunctional electrocatalysts used in rechargeable metal‐air batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Automatic segmentation of 3D objects in computed tomography (CT) is challenging. Current methods, based mainly on artificial intelligence (AI) and end‐to‐end deep learning (DL) networks, are weak in garnering high‐level anatomic information, which leads to compromised efficiency and robustness. This can be overcome by incorporating natural intelligence (NI) into AI methods via computational models of human anatomic knowledge. Purpose: We formulate a hybrid intelligence (HI) approach that integrates the complementary strengths of NI and AI for organ segmentation in CT images and illustrate performance in the application of radiation therapy (RT) planning via multisite clinical evaluation. Methods: The system employs five modules: (i) body region recognition, which automatically trims a given image to a precisely defined target body region; (ii) NI‐based automatic anatomy recognition object recognition (AAR‐R), which performs object recognition in the trimmed image without DL and outputs a localized fuzzy model for each object; (iii) DL‐based recognition (DL‐R), which refines the coarse recognition results of AAR‐R and outputs a stack of 2D bounding boxes (BBs) for each object; (iv) model morphing (MM), which deforms the AAR‐R fuzzy model of each object guided by the BBs output by DL‐R; and (v) DL‐based delineation (DL‐D), which employs the object containment information provided by MM to delineate each object. NI from (ii), AI from (i), (iii), and (v), and their combination from (iv) facilitate the HI system. Results: The HI system was tested on 26 organs in neck and thorax body regions on CT images obtained prospectively from 464 patients in a study involving four RT centers. Data sets from one separate independent institution involving 125 patients were employed in training/model building for each of the two body regions, whereas 104 and 110 data sets from the 4 RT centers were utilized for testing on neck and thorax, respectively. In the testing data sets, 83% of the images had limitations such as streak artifacts, poor contrast, shape distortion, pathology, or implants. The contours output by the HI system were compared to contours drawn in clinical practice at the four RT centers by utilizing an independently established ground‐truth set of contours as reference. Three sets of measures were employed: accuracy via Dice coefficient (DC) and Hausdorff boundary distance (HD), subjective clinical acceptability via a blinded reader study, and efficiency by measuring human time saved in contouring by the HI system. Overall, the HI system achieved a mean DC of 0.78 and 0.87 and a mean HD of 2.22 and 4.53 mm for neck and thorax, respectively. It significantly outperformed clinical contouring in accuracy and saved overall 70% of human time over clinical contouring time, whereas acceptability scores varied significantly from site to site for both auto‐contours and clinically drawn contours. Conclusions: The HI system is observed to behave like an expert human in robustness in the contouring task but vastly more efficiently. It seems to use NI help where image information alone will not suffice to decide, first for the correct localization of the object and then for the precise delineation of the boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of low‐cost multifunctional electrocatalysts with high activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is critical for the advancement of sophisticated energy conversion and storage devices. Herein, a trifunctional Ni(S0.51Se0.49)2@NC catalyst is designed and fabricated using a dianionic regulation strategy. Synchrotron radiation X‐ray absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations reveal that simultaneous sulfidation and selenization can induce the electronic delocalization of Ni(S0.51Se0.49)2 active sites to enhance the adsorption of *OOH/*OH intermediate for ORR/OER and H* intermediate for HER. The OER and HER mechanisms are revealed by in situ Raman spectroscopy. The Ni(S0.51Se0.49)2@NC exhibits trifunctional catalytic activity for the HER (111 mV at 10 mA cm−2), OER (320 mV at 10 mA cm−2), and ORR (half‐wave potential of 0.83 V). The rechargeable zinc–air batteries (ZABs) exhibit an open‐circuit voltage of 1.46 V, a specific capacity of 799.1 mAh g−1, and excellent stability for 1000 cycles. The water electrolytic cell using Ni(S0.51Se0.49)2@NC electrodes delivers a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at a cell voltage of 1.59 V, and it can be powered using the constructed ZABs. These findings contribute to developing low‐cost and efficient non‐noble metal multifunctional catalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Short‐term, high altitude (HA) exposure raises pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) and decreases left ventricular volumes. However, relatively little is known of the long‐term cardiac consequences of prolonged exposure in Chinese Han lowlanders, a highly adapted HA population. Aims: We studied cardiac structure and function by echocardiography to investigate short‐term adaptation and potential long‐term cardiac remodeling. Methods: This study included 301 healthy subjects of short‐term exposure (STE), acclimatized Chinese Han lowlanders (AL) at HA, native Tibetans (NT), and sea level residents (SLR) with 75, 77, 69, and 80 participants, respectively. All groups underwent standard echocardiography. Results: Compared with SLR, systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate of STE and AL did not significantly increase following HA exposure, but SBP in STE was lower than AL. In lowlanders, HA exposure enlarged right heart and pulmonary artery (PA), reduced left ventricular (LV) diastolic function. This decrease in LV diastolic function increased with exposure time. Compared with SLR, ejection fraction did not change significantly in STE, but decreased in AL. Interventricular septal end‐diastolic thickness (IVSd) increased both in STE and AL compared with SLR. Compared with NT, AL population had higher SBP and the greater diameter of PA. Conclusions: In Chinese Han lowlanders, exposure to HA enlarged right ventricle and decreased the diastolic function of LV. LV systolic function was preserved after short‐term HA exposure but decreased after long‐term HA exposure. It was possible to speculate that ethnicity contributed to the observed difference in heart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfiltration (MF) is a promising technique widely applied in the separation of solid–liquid mixtures. However, the potential application of MF was not explored much in the purification of tobacco extracts liquid. To be efficient, it necessitates having an assessment of the fouling mechanisms involved in MF processing. In this work, a thorough design of experiments was carried out to investigate various operating conditions, while specifying their effects on permeate flux were studied. Both single‐stage and multistage Hermia models were used to elucidate the fouling mechanisms. The results of the single‐stage Hermia model showed that cake layer formation was the dominant model, yet with fitting accuracy lower than 0.9; the type of fouling mechanism does relate to the operating conditions. Subsequently, the multistage Hermia model was used for determining the fouling mechanism during different time stages. It was found that the determinant coefficients R2 were significantly increased and multiple fouling mechanisms could be coupled or occurred simultaneously. A ternary plot was established to visualize the contribution of each model and to bridge the relationship between the fouling mechanism and the operating conditions. Therefore, the proposed method is a valid, convenient tool when selecting optimal operating conditions with the lowest irreversible fouling. The flux recovery of fouled membranes exceeded 95% after successive cleaning with deionized water, a 1 wt% NaOH + 0.5 wt% SDS mixed solution, and a 0.5% (vol/vol) HNO3 solution. Practical Applications: Ceramic microfiltration membrane could separate tiny particles and macromolecules from tobacco extracts liquid (TEL) while it can keep most of active ingredients. The present study aims to have a better understanding of the complex membrane fouling mechanism in the MF processing of TEL. The fouling mechanism involved in the MF of TEL was firstly reported and a new method to bridge operating conditions and the fouling mechanism was proposed. It demonstrated that it is feasible to reduce irreversible membrane fouling by changing operating conditions during the initial stage of the MF processing. Identification of fouling mechanisms in the present study could be used to postpone fouling of the membranes by optimizing the operating parameters, and reduce irreversible membrane fouling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rechargeable Zn‐MnO2 batteries are boosted by the reversible intercalation reactions in mild aqueous electrolytes, but they still suffer from cathode degradation. Herein, Zn‐MnO2 batteries with high durability and high energy density are achieved by supplementing MnO2 deposition and dissolution in a mild aqueous electrolyte. The main finding is that adjusting Mn2+ concentration to a critical range enables a reversible MnO2/Mn2+ redox conversion without the involvement of oxygen evolution. This can recycle the by‐products from MnOOH disproportionation (MnOOH → MnO2 + Mn2+), resulting in a battery with extremely high durability (16 000 cycles without obvious capacity fading), high energy density (602 Wh kg−1 based on the active mass of the cathode), and high‐rate capacity (430 mAh g−1 at 19.5 A g−1). The utilization of a 3D carbon nanotube foam skeleton can accommodate the volume change during MnO2 deposition/dissolution and provide paths for efficient charge and mass transport. This work provides a feasible way to push the development of Zn‐MnO2 batteries in mild aqueous electrolytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The present study aimed to investigate and compare the psychometric properties of the National Eye Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire‐25 (NEI VFQ‐25) and the Visual Function Index‐14 (VF‐14) in a large sample of patients with cataracts. Methods: A total of 1052 patients with bilateral age‐related cataracts were recruited in the study. Patients with other comorbidities that severely impacted vision were excluded. Participants completed the two questionnaires in random order. Classical test theory and Rasch analyses were used to assess the psychometric properties of the questionnaires. Results: Complete data were obtained from 899 patients. The mean overall index score on the NEI VFQ‐25 was 76.1 ± 19.0, while that on the VF‐14 was 46.5 ± 15.0. Cronbach's α‐values for the NEI VFQ‐25 and VF‐14 were 0.89 and 0.95, respectively. Ceiling effects were observed on nine of the 12 subscales in the NEI VFQ‐25. The correlation between total scores on the NEI VFQ‐25 and VF‐14 was moderate (r = 0.600; p < 0.001), and subscales of the NEI VFQ‐25 were weakly or moderately correlated with the similar domains on the VF‐14. Rasch analysis revealed ordered category thresholds and sufficient person separation for both instruments, while the two questionnaires had critical deficiencies in unidimensionality, targeting and differential item functioning. Conclusion: Neither the NEI VFQ‐25 nor VF‐14 is optimal for the assessment of vision‐related quality of life in typical Chinese patients with cataracts. The potential deficiencies of the questionnaires should be taken into consideration prior to application of the instruments or interpretation of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polybutyrolactam (PBL), known as polyamide 4 with high performance, was synthesized using CO2 by combining organic promoters in suspension to overcome the limitations of traditional bulk polymerization and improve the thermal stability. Upon increasing the amount of paraffin oil or sodium dodecyl sulfate, which proved to be the most suitable medium and dispersant, or increasing the concentration of alkaline catalyst and CO2, or the rate of stirring, the inherent viscosity increased first and then decreased, while the yield did not follow the same trend. Adding 18‐crown‐6 ether greatly increased the yield but decreased the inherent viscosity, contrary to the trend that was reported for bulk polymerization. The yield and inherent viscosity both increased with increasing concentration of tetramethyl ammonium chloride. PBL particles were loosely structured and presented improved thermal stability compared with any other report on suspension polymerization. This study provides a promising method to produce PBL with high performance on a large scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragility fractures have a limited capacity to regenerate, and impaired fracture healing is a leading cause of morbidity in the elderly. The recent identification of a highly purified bona fide human skeletal stem cell (hSSC) and its committed downstream progenitor cell populations provides an opportunity for understanding the mechanism of age‐related compromised fracture healing from the stem cell perspective. In this study, we tested whether hSSCs isolated from geriatric fractures demonstrate intrinsic functional defects that drive impaired healing. Using flow cytometry, we analyzed and isolated hSSCs from callus tissue of five different skeletal sites (n = 61) of patients ranging from 13 to 94 years of age for functional and molecular studies. We observed that fracture‐activated amplification of hSSC populations was comparable at all ages. However, functional analysis of isolated stem cells revealed that advanced age significantly correlated with reduced osteochondrogenic potential but was not associated with decreased in vitro clonogenicity. hSSCs derived from women displayed an exacerbated functional decline with age relative to those of aged men. Transcriptomic comparisons revealed downregulation of skeletogenic pathways such as WNT and upregulation of senescence‐related pathways in young versus older hSSCs. Strikingly, loss of Sirtuin1 expression played a major role in hSSC dysfunction but re‐activation by trans‐resveratrol or a small molecule compound restored in vitro differentiation potential. These are the first findings that characterize age‐related defects in purified hSSCs from geriatric fractures. Our results provide a foundation for future investigations into the mechanism and reversibility of skeletal stem cell aging in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Chitooligosaccharides (COS) with different degree of polymerisation (DP) have different physiological activities such as anti‐tumour and anti‐hyperlipidemia activities. However, the digestive process might lead to the change of DP of COS as well as cause the change of physiological activities in vivo. In this study, two in vitro digestion models (static and dynamic) were used to investigate digestion behaviours of COS and the influencing factors during digestion with or without food matrix. The results showed that COS with DP 2–5 were indigestible and COS with DP 6–10 degraded with time during gastric and intestinal digestion. Pepsin, pancreatin and lipase were the main factors leading to degradation. Food matrix could protect COS with DP 6–10 from degradation during gastric digestion. However, the degradation of COS with DP 6–10 accelerated and the degradation of COS with DP 5 occurred during intestinal digestion with food matrix due to pancreatin, lipase and bile salt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Destructive bone diseases caused by osteolysis are increasing in incidence. They are characterized by an excessive imbalance of osteoclast formation and activation. During osteolysis, the activation of nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) and mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways are triggered by receptor activator of NF‐κB ligand (RANKL), inflammatory factors, and oxidative stress. Previous studies have indicated that the common flavanone glycoside compound hesperetin exhibits anti‐inflammatory and antioxidant activity by inhibition of NF‐κB and MAPK signaling pathways. However, the direct relationship between hesperetin and osteolysis remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effects of hesperetin on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced osteoporosis and elucidated the related mechanisms. Hesperetin effectively suppressed RANKL‐induced osteoclastogenesis, osteoclastic bone resorption, and F‐actin ring formation in a dose‐dependent manner. It also significantly suppressed the expression of osteoclast‐specific markers including tartrate‐resistant acid phosphatase, matrix metalloproteinase‐9, cathepsin K, c‐Fos, and nuclear factor of activated T‐cells cytoplasmic 1. Furthermore, it inhibited osteoclastogenesis by inhibiting activation of NF‐κB and MAPK signaling, scavenging reactive oxygen species, and activating the nuclear factor E2 p45‐related factor 2/heme oxygenase 1 (Nrf2/HO‐1) signaling pathway. Consistent with in vitro results, hesperetin effectively ameliorated LPS‐induced bone loss, reduced osteoclast numbers, and decreased the RANKL/OPG ratio in vivo. As such, our results suggest that hesperetin may be a great candidate for developing a novel drug for destructive bone diseases such as periodontal disease, tumor bone metastasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis. Hesperetin suppresses receptor activator of NF‐κB ligand (RANKL)‐induced osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption through repressing the activity of the nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) and mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPKs) signaling pathways and activating the Nrf2/HO‐1 signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we have developed an efficient three‐component reaction for the synthesis of pyrano[3,2‐c]pyridine derivatives from the reaction of aromatic aldehydes, tert‐butyl 2,4‐dioxopiperidine‐1‐carboxylate, and N‐methyl‐1‐(methylthio)‐2‐nitroethylen‐1‐amine in [BMIM]BF4 medium. The advantages of this method were readily available starting materials, simple reaction conditions, and satisfactory yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive Summary: Rationally developing efficient and durable bifunctional catalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical for rechargeable zinc‐air batteries (ZABs). Herein, a bead‐like CoSe2@NC@NCNFs bifunctional catalyst was designed and fabricated by confining cubic CoSe2 nanoparticles to three‐dimensional (3D) porous MOFs‐derived nitrogen‐doped carbon (NC) and one‐dimensional (1D) N‐doped carbon nanofibers (NCNFs) through a facile encapsulate strategy. The 1D/3D continuous network structure contributes to the improvement of specific surface area and electronic conductivity, while the strong synergistic effect between CoSe2 sites and Co‐Nx‐C sites can effectively enhance electron/mass transfer and reduce the diffusion resistance. The as‐constructed CoSe2@NC@NCNFs catalyst exhibits high catalytic activity and stability toward ORR/OER with a high half‐wave potential of 0.80 V (vs. RHE) in ORR and a low overpotential of 280 mV at 10 mA·cm−2 in OER. More encouragingly, the rechargeable ZABs with CoSe2@NC@NCNFs cathode deliver high peak power densities (126.8 mW·cm−2), large specific capacities (763.1 mA·h·g−1), and robust charge‐discharge cycling stability over 240 cycles. This study provides a facile strategy for designing efficient bifunctional catalysts for rechargeable energy conversion applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous silicon nanowires (PSiNWs) array is a promising material for development of integrated gas sensors operating at room temperature. This work reports the fabrication of PSiNWs assembly with different structural features and its effect on gas‐sensing performance. Bundling and well separating PSiNWs arrays are fabricated by MACE method, respectively, based on the effective modulation of surface wettability of the initial Si substrate. The HF pretreatment creates a hydrophobic surface favorable for deposition of irregular Ag nanoflakes and then for the formation of bundling PSiNWs array. In contrast, the PSiNWs with well lateral separation are formed based on the predeposited uniform Ag nanoparticles on a hydrophilic Si surface. The PSiNWs array featured by tip‐clusters is proved to be highly effective in achieving highly sensitive and rapid response to NO2 gas at room temperature. Satisfying dynamic characteristic and selectivity are meanwhile observed for the bundling array. The formation of the bundling or separating of PSiNWs is discussed in terms of the force balance of individual nanowire, which is further correlated with non‐uniform distribution of Ag nanoclusters caused by H‐termination. Meanwhile, high sensing performance of bundling nanowires is analyzed based on the structural promotion of the unique configuration of tip‐cluster to sensing response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Microfiltration (MF) is a promising technology in soy sauce clarification. However, serious membrane fouling always lead to high operation costs, which restrict the application of the microfiltration technology. In this study, a spiral wound polyvinylidene fluoride membrane was used to explore the influences of processing conditions on membrane fouling mechanisms under total recycle mode in pilot scale. Results showed that the permeate soy sauce nearly preserved the whole nutrition and flavor substances, and the turbidity values remained below 2 NTU during 6 months' room temperature storage. Cake layer and concentration polarization resistance dominated the fouling resistances, which were influenced by operating conditions significantly. A semi‐empirical mathematical model was further proposed to quantitatively describe these influences. The predicted values of the model were consistent with the experimental data with a deviation about 10%. This is helpful for the application of membrane technology in soy sauce clarification process. Practical applications: Microfiltration provides soy sauce products with superior clarity. Meanwhile, it keeps most of the flavor and nutrition substances. The aim of this study is to clarify the membrane fouling mechanisms and reducing the membrane fouling in soy sauce clarification. The fouling resistance was analyzed to investigate the influences on membrane fouling under different operating parameters. The novel proposed mathematical model could be used to predict the permeate flux and describe the filtration status under different operating parameters. This study provides a theoretical basis in reducing the membrane fouling for process optimization in soy sauce microfiltration clarification. Moreover, it helps to improve the product quality and production efficiency in soy sauce microfiltration industrial application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrodriven bilayer actuator is designed and fabricated by spin-coating a reduced graphene oxide solution onto a polymer substrate. The bonded interface properties, electrical and thermal conductivities are characterized through scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The bilayer actuator exhibits fast and large bending response when a direct current voltage is applied to the graphene layer. Whereas it exhibits oscillation when an alternating current voltage is applied to the bilayer actuator. The effects of the layer structure and the electro-operation methods on the bending motions are studied. Two new actuation modes are explored to broaden the applications of electrodriven bilayer actuator, which are achieved by the actuator structure design and the driven current control. Electrically responsive graphene bilayer soft actuator provides the potential applications in the fields of thin-film electronics, sensors, and energy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a system to explore the effects of pressure and fluid viscosity on the dispersion and attenuation of fully saturated tight sandstones, especially at seismic frequencies. Calibration of the new system revealed that the system can operate reliably at frequencies of [2-200, 106] Hz. Tight sandstone with a 'crack-pore' microstructure was tested under nitrogen gas (dry), brine, and glycerin saturation. A frequency-dependent effect was not found for the dry case. However, apparent dispersion and attenuation for the undrained/unrelaxed transition was clearly observed for sample under brine or glycerin saturation, the magnitude of which was largely suppressed by increasing effective pressure. The measurement results illustrated that increasing the fluid viscosity or the effective pressure will shift the dispersion curve to the lower frequency range. A simple squirt-flow model with dual-porosity scheme was used to compare with the measurement results. Although the estimated values deviated slightly from the data, the trend fitted the saturated data relatively well, especially at low effective pressures. Therefore, considering the crack-pore microstructure of the tight sandstone, dispersion and attenuation are induced predominantly by the squirt-flow stiffening effect from cracks to pores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maillard reaction products ( MRP) were prepared from an aqueous chicken bone hydrolysate ( CBPH) - galactose systems by heating at 100 °C for up to 7.5 h without pH control, and then separated into the <3-, 3- to 10- and >10- kDa fractions using ultrafiltration. Antioxidant capacity and spectral properties of these MRP fractions were studied. The scavenging activity towards DPPH and hydroxyl radicals as well as reducing power of each MRP fraction increased with the heating time, in accordance with the increase in UV absorbance, browning and fluorescence intensity. For the same MRP, the fraction with high molecular weight ( MW) demonstrated the stronger radical scavenging activity and reducing power than that with low MW. Radical scavenging activities of MRP fractions largely depended on their MW, while their reducing powers were more related to the reaction progress. These results suggested that antioxidant capacity of MRP fractions should be positively related to its molecular size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In an attempt to overcome several hurdles that exist in organ segmentation approaches, the authors previously described a general automatic anatomy recognition (AAR) methodology for segmenting all major organs in multiple body regions body-wide [J. K. Udupa et al., "Body-wide hierarchical fuzzy modeling, recognition, and delineation of anatomy in medical images," Med. Image Anal. 18(5), 752-771 (2014)]. That approach utilized fuzzy modeling strategies, a hierarchical organization of organs, and divided the segmentation task into a recognition step to localize organs which was then followed by a delineation step to demarcate the boundary of organs. It achieved speed and accuracy without employing image/object registration which is commonly utilized in many reported methods, particularly atlas-based. In this paper, our aim is to study how registration may influence performance of the AAR approach. By tightly coupling the recognition and delineation steps, by performing registration in the hierarchical order of the organs, and through several objectspecific refinements, the authors demonstrate that improved accuracy for recognition and delineation can be achieved by judicial use of image/object registration. Methods: The presented approach consists of three processes: model building, hierarchical recognition, and delineation. Labeled binary images for each organ are registered and aligned into a 3D fuzzy set representing the fuzzy shape model for the organ. The hierarchical relation and mean location relation between different organs are captured in the model. The gray intensity distributions of the corresponding regions of the organ in the original image are also recorded in the model. Following the hierarchical structure and location relation, the fuzzy shape model of different organs is registered to the given target image to achieve object recognition. A fuzzy connectedness delineation method is then employed to obtain the final segmentation result of organs with seed points provided by recognition. The authors assess the performance of this method for both nonsparse (compact blob-like) and sparse (thin tubular) objects in the thorax. Results: The results of eight thoracic organs on 30 real images are presented. Overall, the delineation accuracy in terms of mean false positive and false negative volume fractions is 0.34% and 4.02%, respectively, for nonsparse objects, and 0.16% and 12.6%, respectively, for sparse objects. The two object groups achieve mean boundary distance relative to ground truth of 1.31 and 2.28 mm, respectively. Conclusions: The hierarchical structure and location relation integrated into the model provide the initial pose for registration and make the recognition process efficient and robust. The 3D fuzzy model combined with hierarchical affine registration ensures that accurate recognition can be obtained for both nonsparse and sparse organs. Tailoring the registration process for each organ by specialized similarity criteria and updating the organ intensity properties based on refined recognition improve the overall segmentation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Whole-body positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has become a standard method of imaging patients with various disease conditions, especially cancer. Body-wide accurate quantification of disease burden in PET/CT images is important for characterizing lesions, staging disease, prognosticating patient outcome, planning treatment, and evaluating disease response to therapeutic interventions. However, body-wide anatomy recognition in PET/CT is a critical first step for accurately and automatically quantifying disease body-wide, body-region-wise, and organwise. This latter process, however, has remained a challenge due to the lower quality of the anatomic information portrayed in the CT component of this imaging modality and the paucity of anatomic details in the PET component. In this paper, the authors demonstrate the adaptation of a recently developed automatic anatomy recognition (AAR) methodology [Udupa et al., "Body-wide hierarchical fuzzy modeling, recognition, and delineation of anatomy in medical images," Med. Image Anal. 18, 752-771 (2014)] to PET/CT images. Their goal was to test what level of object localization accuracy can be achieved on PET/CT compared to that achieved on diagnostic CT images. Methods: The authors advance the AAR approach in this work in three fronts: (i) from body-regionwise treatment in the work of Udupa et al. to whole body; (ii) from the use of image intensity in optimal object recognition in the work of Udupa et al. to intensity plus object-specific texture properties, and (iii) from the intramodality model-building-recognition strategy to the intermodality approach. The whole-body approach allows consideration of relationships among objects in different body regions, which was previously not possible. Consideration of object texture allows generalizing the previous optimal threshold-based fuzzy model recognition method from intensity images to any derived fuzzy membership image, and in the process, to bring performance to the level achieved on diagnostic CT and MR images in body-region-wise approaches. The intermodality approach fosters the use of already existing fuzzy models, previously created from diagnostic CT images, on PET/CT and other derived images, thus truly separating the modality-independent object assembly anatomy from modality-specific tissue property portrayal in the image. Results: Key ways of combining the above three basic ideas lead them to 15 different strategies for recognizing objects in PET/CT images. Utilizing 50 diagnostic CT image data sets from the thoracic and abdominal body regions and 16 whole-body PET/CT image data sets, the authors compare the recognition performance among these 15 strategies on 18 objects from the thorax, abdomen, and pelvis in object localization error and size estimation error. Particularly on texture membership images, object localization is within three voxels on whole-body low-dose CT images and 2 voxels on body-region-wise low-dose images of known true locations. Surprisingly, even on direct body-region-wise PET images, localization error within 3 voxels seems possible. Conclusions: The previous body-region-wise approach can be extended to whole-body torso with similar object localization performance. Combined use of image texture and intensity property yields the best object localization accuracy. In both body-region-wise and whole-body approaches, recognition performance on low-dose CT images reaches levels previously achieved on diagnostic CT images. The best object recognition strategy varies among objects; the proposed framework however allows employing a strategy that is optimal for each object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the impacts of dairy processing conditions on the γ-aminobutyric acid ( GABA) content and the effect of GABA on the quality of the resulting yoghurt. Serial concentrations of GABA (0.05-1.0%, w/w, milk basis) were designed during the preparation of yoghurt. Colour and physicochemical and rheological properties of yoghurt were also examined. The results indicated that the fermentation process had no significant influence on GABA content. The GABA level greatly improved the texture properties of the resulting product at a concentration of 0.5% (w/w), whereas higher GABA concentrations impaired the texture. The lightness (L) value of yoghurt also increased in line with the GABA concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degree of polymerization ( DP) 6-8 chitooligosaccharides are edible hydrolyzates from chitosan and possess excellent bioactivities, especially for a potential antitumor ingredient. The objective of this study was to develop a promising enzymatic attempt for DP 6-8 chitooligosaccharides preparation. Chitosan (2%, w/v) was dissolved in acetic acid. Sequentially, six types of nonspecific enzymes were used to compare chitosanolytic activities under the optimum conditions. Results indicated that cellulase was most capable of hydrolysis, whereas others were slightly acted. The phenomenon resulted from the glycosidic bonds that existed in the chitosan. Based on preliminary experiments, cellulase and chitosanase were combined employing to digest chitosan. The enzyme mixture promoted the hydrolysis degree and the yield of resulting chitooligosaccharides were measured through high-performance liquid chromatography. Data showed that the highest yield of DP 6-8 chitooligosaccharides reached to 79.8% w/w by hybrid enzymes adding simultaneously at pH 5.3 and 45°C after 6 h. Practical Applications Chitooligosaccharides are widely used in the pharmaceutical, food industry and agricultural field because of its excellent and specific bioactivities, depending on the degrees of polymerization ( DPs) of chitooligosaccharides. For instance, chitooligosaccharides with DP 6-8 have potential antitumor activity that could be used as ingredients for pharmaceutical drugs, health-care food and formula products. Another very important potential application of chitooligosaccharides with DP 6-8 is as a potent plants elicitor that could be an environment-friendly biological stress-resistant agent to replace chemical reagents in the agricultural field. Hence, the study of preparation methods of chitooligosaccharides with DP 6-8 is important and valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction of accessible boronic acid functionality into metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) might to endow them with desired properties for potential applications in recognition and isolation of cis -diol containing biomolecules (CDBs). However, no investigation is found to address this topic until now. Herein, Cr-based MOFs of MIL-100 (MIL stands for Materials from Institut Lavoisier) integrated with different pendent boronic acid group (MIL-100-B) are reported. This new functional material is successfully prepared using a simple metal-ligand-fragment coassembly (MLFC) strategy with isostructure to the parent MIL-100 as verified by X-ray diffraction characterization. The integration and content tunability of the boronic acid group in the framework are confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and 11B NMR. Transmission electron microscopy reveals that MIL-100-B can evolve into well-defined morphology and nanoscale size at optimized boronic acid incorporating level. The obtained MOFs exhibit comparable surface areas and pore volumes with parent MIL-100 and present exceptional chemical stability in a wide pH range. The inherent boronic acid components in MIL-100-B can effectively serve as the recognition units for the cis -diol moieties and consequently enhance the capture capabilities for CDBs. The exceptional chemical stability, high porosity, and good reusability as well as the intrinsic cis -diol moieties recognition function prefigure great potential of the current MIL-100-B in CDBs purification, sensing, and separation applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This work presents a theoretical study of the diafiltration and concentration processes on xylo-oligosaccharides (XOs) syrup using nanofiltration (NF). In our previous study of the separation performance of the NF process on XOs syrup, the models of flux ( Jv) and observed retention ( Robs) of an NF membrane have been established. In the present study, these models were employed to construct the balance equations of syrup volume and XOs concentration in a feed tank. In experiments, the constant-volume continuous diafiltration (CVCD) and the discontinuous diafiltration processes were implemented. In CVCD simulation, the flux curve predicted by the model agreed well with the experimental data. In discontinuous diafiltration simulation, the calculated total content of XOs was 94.5%, which was about 1.5% less than the experimental result (96.11%) given by discontinuous diafiltration operation on a XOs syrup with initial XOs content 83.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary • Phosphate is essential for many cellular processes including the light reactions of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis results in the production of triose phosphates that are transported across the chloroplast envelope to the cytosol in counterexchange for phosphate. Until recently, members of the plastid phosphate transport family, which mediate the exchange of phosphate for phosphorylated compounds, were the only proteins known to transport phosphate into the chloroplast. • Here, we characterized a phosphate transporter, MtPHT2;1 of Medicago truncatula. Transient expression of an MtPHT2;1-GFP fusion protein indicates that MtPHT2;1 is located in the chloroplast envelope. • The phosphate transport activity of MtPHT2;1 was assayed in yeast where the protein mediates phosphate uptake with a Km for phosphate of 0.6 mm and a pH optimum of 3–4. • MtPHT2;1 is expressed in all the photosynthetic tissues of the plant and transcript levels are also influenced by light, development and phosphate status of the plant. The phosphate transport activity and location in the chloroplast envelope membrane suggest a role for MtPHT2;1 in phosphate transport into the chloroplast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study which examined the stomatal development in wild-type Arabidopsis leaves. Review of related studies; Materials and methods; Overview of cell types and divisions leading to stomatal differentiation; Details on the guard cell and stomatal development.

In this work, the first quantum Ansätze for the statistical relational learning on knowledge graphs using parametric quantum circuits are proposed. Two types of variational quantum circuits for knowledge graph embedding are introduced. Inspired by the classical representation learning, latent features for entities are first considered as coefficients of quantum states, while predicates are characterized by parametric gates acting on the quantum states. For the first model, the quantum advantages disappear when it comes to the optimization of this model. Therefore, a second quantum circuit model is introduced where embeddings of entities are generated from parameterized quantum gates acting on the pure quantum state. The benefit of the second method is that the quantum embeddings can be trained efficiently meanwhile preserving the quantum advantages. It is shown that the proposed methods can achieve comparable results to the state‐of‐the‐art classical models, for example, RESCAL, DistMult. Furthermore, after optimizing the models, the complexity of inductive inference on the knowledge graphs might be reduced with respect to the number of entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the flavor of microbone meal, Flavourzyme was adopted to hydrolyze the meal and the hydrolysis conditions were optimized with the response surface method. The ANOVA results showed that the degree of hydrolysis (DH) of the microbone meal was significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by the amount of enzyme and hydrolysis time. In addition, the bitter and umami tastes of the microbone meal were significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by hydrolysis time and amount of enzyme, respectively. The optimization results showed that the optimal hydrolysis conditions were a Flavourzyme amount of 10.36%, hydrolysis temperature of 59.60°C, hydrolysis time of 5.84 hr, and pH of 7.75. The corresponding DH, bitter, and umami taste of the hydrolysate were 4.11%, 0.80 cent, and 1.90 cent, respectively. Characteristic volatile flavor compounds of the hydrolysate indicated that the Flavourzyme hydrolysis increased the meaty flavor of the microbone meal. Practical applications: The obvious fishy smell and less meaty taste limited the microbone meal being mainly used in feeds. To broaden the applications of microbone meal in other fields, the Flavourzyme was adopted to improve its flavor. The Flavourzyme hydrolysis conditions were optimized with response surface method. The obtained hydrolysis conditions will benefit not only future investigations of animal bone by‐products applications, but also bone meal related product development. We believe that our findings could be of interest to meat related research units and enterprises by virtue of providing an alternative flavor improvement processing for bone meal application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, little is known about the mechanical properties of filamentous fungal hyphae. To study this topic, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure cell wall mechanical properties of the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Wild type and a mutant strain (deltacsmA), lacking one of the chitin synthase genes, were grown in shake flasks. Hyphae were immobilized on polylysine-coated coverslips and AFM force--displacement curves were collected. When grown in complete medium, wild-type hyphae had a cell wall spring constant of 0.29 +/- 0.02 N/m. When wild-type and mutant hyphae were grown in the same medium with added KCl (0.6 M), hyphae were significantly less rigid with spring constants of 0.17 +/- 0.01 and 0.18 +/- 0.02 N/m, respectively. Electron microscopy was used to measure the cell wall thickness and hyphal radius. By use of finite element analysis (FEMLAB v 3.0, Burlington, MA) to simulate AFM indentation, the elastic modulus of wild-type hyphae grown in complete medium was determined to be 110 +/- 10 MPa. This decreased to 64 +/- 4 MPa for hyphae grown in 0.6 M KCl, implying growth medium osmotic conditions have significant effects on cell wall elasticity. Mutant hyphae grown in KCl-supplemented medium were found to have an elastic modulus of 67 +/- 6 MPa. These values are comparable with other microbial systems (e.g., yeast and bacteria). It was also found that under these growth conditions axial variation in elastic modulus along fungal hyphae was small. To determine the relationship between composition and mechanical properties, cell wall composition was measured by anion-exchange liquid chromatography and pulsed electrochemical detection. Results show similar composition between wild-type and mutant strains. Together, these data imply differences in mechanical properties may be dependent on varying molecular structure of hyphal cell walls as opposed to wall composition.