Search

Amorphous aerogels with the microscopic nanoscale three-dimensional meshes provide superb platforms for investigating unique physicochemical properties. In order to enhance the physical, thermal and mechanical performances, one efficient and common approach is integrating diverse functional materials. Herein, we report a simple strategy to fabricate the amorphous silicon doped Y2O3 aerogels with the post-gelation method under the N2/EtOH supercritical atmosphere. The impact of Si concentration on the nonlinear optical properties is investigated for the first time. The maximum modulation depth is 1.65 % with a saturation intensity of 0.78 MW cm−2 with the 1-ps laser excitation at 1590 nm. Finally, we incorporated the silicon-doped Y2O3 aerogel based saturable absorber (SA) into an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) and achieved various mode-locking operations at different wavelengths in the super C band, in terms of the conventional soliton, harmonic soliton molecules pulses, and dual-wavelength soliton mode-locking. Overall, this work confirms that amorphous silicon-doped Y2O3 aerogels are good nonlinear optical materials and pave a way for the ultrafast photonic and nonlinear optical applications with amorphous materials in near future.

IntroductionMetaraminol is a sympathomimetic amine vasopressor that can be administrated through a peripheral venous access. However, limited evidence restricts its application in critically ill patients. This study aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of peripheral metaraminol infusion in patients with neurological conditions.MethodsPatients who received peripheral metaraminol infusion between May 2019 and April 2022 were recruited. Data on baseline characteristics, clinical parameters, and infusion-related complications were retrospectively collected and analyzed.Results273 patients who received metaraminol were enrolled. Of these, 35 (12.8%) patients required central venous catheter insertion due to inability in achieving hemodynamic stability following peripheral metaraminol monotherapy. In 29,574.2 hours of vasopressor infusion, metaraminol infusion resulted achievement of the target blood pressure 73.4% of the time. Meanwhile, adverse events occurred in 5 patients and resolved after local tissue treatment.DiscussionMetaraminol could provide hemodynamic support and avoid complications associated with a central venous catheter and delay in vasopressor administration. Through careful and close monitoring, peripheral metaraminol infusion is safe and feasible for patients with neurological conditions. Future large-scale, prospective, multicenter studies are needed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of metaraminol infusion through a peripheral intravenous catheter.

The risk-informed safety margin is a new safety concept of nuclear power industry in recent ten years. The calculation framework and the quantification technology under the Monte Carlo method of the riskinformed safety margin were studied. The riskinformed safety margin quantification technology of the station blackout (SBO) accident of nuclear power plant was focused on with the Monte Carlo sampling method. The simplified thermal hydraulic model of nuclear power plant was established with reference parameters of SBO accident in the simplified pressurized water reactor (PWR) model in the INL’s (Idaho National Laboratory) RISMC research. And the calculation process of the riskinformed safety margin based on Monte Carlo sampling method was determined. The number of scenarios generated by Monte Carlo sampling was essential to ensure the acceptability of the accuracy of the calculation results, and the accuracy of estimated value of probability safety margin would be higher if we establish more scenarios. The sampling times estimation method and the reliability calculation method of Monte Carlo were referenced, and a quantitative method of riskinformed safety margin with Monte Carlo sampling was proposed. The sampling times estimation method under the given error was given. According to the uncertainty calculation method of the riskinformed safety margin with Monte Carlo method and the estimation process of sampling times in Monte Carlo, the sampling times were determined by relative error and absolute error respectively. The results show that absolute error is equal to 001 with the 4 706 sampling times, and relative error is equal to 5% with the 9 604 sampling times in the riskinformed safety margin in SBO accident. The mean value and standard deviation of the failure probability of nuclear fuel cladding were calculated with these two sampling times. At this stage with the usual calculation of resource allocation, it is suggested that when the average failure probability of nuclear fuel cladding is larger than 01, the sampling times with 5% relative error should be selected. And when the mean value of failure probability of nuclear fuel cladding is equal to or lesser than 01, the sampling times with relative error equal to 10% could be used. The change of the mean value of failure probability of nuclear fuel cladding under the Latin hypercube sampling and random sampling method was studied. The relationship of the mean value with the recovery time of emergency diesel engine under different distributions was researched too. The calculation results indicate that the different sampling methods and different normal distributions have significant effects on mean value and standard deviation of the failure probability of the nuclear fuel cladding.

S-SDDS-B matrices is a subclass of P-matrices which contains B-matrices. New error bound of the linear complementarity problem for S-SDDS-B matrices is presented, which improves the corresponding result in [1]. Numerical examples are given to verify the corresponding results.

In the construction of super high-rise buildings, building machines (BMs) are increasingly replacing traditional climbing frames. Building machine jacking operation (BMJO) is a high-difficulty and high-risk stage in the construction of the top mold system. To guarantee the operational safety of the BMJO and to enhance its intelligent control level, a digital twin (DT)-based monitoring method for the operation status of the BMJO is proposed. Firstly, a DT framework for monitoring the operation status of the BMJO is presented, taking into account the operational characteristics of the BM and the requirements of real-time monitoring. The functions of each part are then elaborated in detail. Secondly, the virtual twin model is created using Blender's geometric node group function; artificial neural network technology is used to enable online prediction of the structural performance of the BMJO and a motion model is established to realize a real-time state mapping of the BMJO. Finally, taking a BM project as an example, the DT system is established in conjunction with the project to verify the feasibility of the DT framework for monitoring the state of the BMJO. It is proved that the prediction results have high accuracy and fast analysis speed, thus providing a new way of thinking for monitoring and controlling the safe operation of the BMJO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract 2D organic molecular crystals (2DOMCs) are promising materials for the fabrication of high‐performance optoelectronic devices. However, the growth of organic molecules into 2DOMCs remains a challenge because of the difficulties in controlling their self‐assembly with a preferential orientation in solution‐process crystallization. Herein, fullerene is chosen as a model molecule to develop a supramolecular gel crystallization approach to grow large‐area 2DOMCs by controlling the perfect arrangement on the {220} crystal plane with the assistance of a gelated solvent. In this case, the gel networks provide tuneable confined spaces to control the crystallization kinetics toward the growth of dominant crystal faces by their inhibiting motions of solvent or solute molecules to enable the growth of perfect crystals at appropriate nucleation rates. As a result, a large‐area fullerene 2DOMC is produced successfully and its corresponding device on a flexible substrate exhibits excellent bendable properties and ultra‐high weak light detection ability (2.9 × 1011 Jones) at a 10 V bias upon irradiation with 450 nm incident light. Moreover, its photoelectric properties remain unchanged after 200 cycles of bending at angles of 45, 90, and 180°. These results can be extended to the growth of other 2DOMCs for potentially fabricating advanced organic (opto)electronics.

BACKGROUND From 1986 to 2007, different grades of trace gold certified reference materials (background grade, anomaly grade, medium grade and high grade) and mineral gold certified reference materials (mineralization grade, cutoff grade and concentrate grade) had been developed by IGGE and used for regional geochemical survey, mineral exploration and evaluation, mining and smelting. With the increase of the service life period and the consumption of recent years, most of the gold certified reference materials has been used up or almost used up. New gold standard materials need to be developed urgently. OBJECTIVES To develop a new gold certified reference material and compare it with the original gold certified reference material. METHODS The trace gold certified reference materials in 7 levels and mineral gold certified reference materials in 3 levels were prepared in strict accordance with relevant specifications. The collected candidates were sampled from different types of deposits and different matrices. The collected candidates were prepared through coarse crushing, drying, composite configuration, fine crushing, sieving, blending and other steps. After the particle size inspection, the cumulative content of the sample with a particle size of 0.74μm reached more than 99%, which met the requirements of the specifications. 25 bottle samples of each grade were randomly selected. Homogeneity testing was carried out by ICP-MS, FAAS and GFAAS. RESULTS The relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 10%, and the F values of the variance test were less than the one-tailed critical value F0.05(24, 25) of 1.98, indicating that the sample uniformity was good. During the one-year investigation period, no significant changes in statistical significance were found in the fixed value components, which proved that the stability of the sample was good. Five highly experienced and skilled laboratories in geology gold samples testing in CHN were invited to evaluate the gold certified reference materials by classically reliable analytical methods. The original data conformed to the normal distribution after statistical inspection and the suspicious values were eliminated. The arithmetic mean was used as the standard value, and the uncertainty was evaluated in detail, in accordance with the latest specifications. The certified value of the copied standard material was accurate and reliable, and the uncertainty was reasonable. It was approved as a national first-level standard material in 2019. Compared with the original batch, the certified values of the two batches were basically the same, and the standard deviation of the fixed value data showed a shrinking trend, which met the requirements for copying standard materials. CONCLUSIONS This series of gold standard materials has a wide content range, and meets the value comparison and analysis monitoring of different content levels. Moreover, it has good applicability, and meets the needs of geological and mineral research, regional geochemical investigation, gold mine exploration and evaluation.

Abstract Background Endothelial glycocalyx loss is integral to increased pulmonary vascular permeability in sepsis-related acute lung injury. Protectin conjugates in tissue regeneration 1 (PCTR1) is a novel macrophage-derived lipid mediator exhibiting potential anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving benefits. Methods PCTR1 was administrated intraperitoneally with 100 ng/mouse after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenged. Survival rate and lung function were used to evaluate the protective effects of PCTR1. Lung inflammation response was observed by morphology and inflammatory cytokines level. Endothelial glycocalyx and its related key enzymes were measured by immunofluorescence, ELISA, and Western blot. Afterward, related-pathways inhibitors were used to identify the mechanism of endothelial glycocalyx response to PCTR1 in mice and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) after LPS administration. Results In vivo, we show that PCTR1 protects mice against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis, as shown by enhanced the survival and pulmonary function, decreased the inflammatory response in lungs and peripheral levels of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and interleukin-1β. Moreover, PCTR1 restored lung vascular glycocalyx and reduced serum heparin sulphate (HS), syndecan-1 (SDC-1), and hyaluronic acid (HA) levels. Furthermore, we found that PCTR1 downregulated heparanase (HPA) expression to inhibit glycocalyx degradation and upregulated exostosin-1 (EXT-1) protein expression to promote glycocalyx reconstitution. Besides, we observed that BAY11-7082 blocked glycocalyx loss induced by LPS in vivo and in vitro, and BOC-2 (ALX antagonist) or EX527 (SIRT1 inhibitor) abolished the restoration of HS in response to PCTR1. Conclusion PCTR1 protects endothelial glycocalyx via ALX receptor by regulating SIRT1/NF-κB pathway, suggesting PCTR1 may be a significant therapeutic target for sepsis-related acute lung injury.

BackgroundBoth venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) and percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy (PMT) are increasingly used to treat acute life-threatening pulmonary embolism (PE). However, there are little data regarding their effectiveness. This study aimed to present the short-term outcomes after managing nine patients with acute life-threatening massive or submassive PE by VA-ECMO with or without complemented PMT and propose a preliminary treatment algorithm.MethodsThis study was a single-center retrospective review of a prospectively maintained registry. It included nine consecutive patients with massive or submassive pulmonary embolism who underwent VA-ECMO for initial hemodynamic stabilization, with or without PMT, from August 2018 to November 2021.ResultsMean patient age was 54.7 years. Four of nine patients (44.4%) required cardiopulmonary resuscitation before or during VA-ECMO cannulation. All cannulations (100%) were successfully performed percutaneously. Overall survival was 88.9% (8 of 9 patients). One patient died from a hemorrhagic stroke. Of the survivors, the median ECMO duration was 8 days in patients treated with ECMO alone and 4 days in those treated with EMCO and PMT. Five of nine patients (55.6%) required concomitant PMT to address persistent right heart dysfunction, with the remaining survivors (44.4%) receiving VA-ECMO and anticoagulation alone. For survivors receiving VA-ECMO plus PMT, median hospital lengths of stay were 7 and 13 days, respectively.ConclusionsAn ECMO-first strategy complemented with PMT can be performed effectively and safely for acute life-threatening massive or submassive PE. VA-ECMO is feasible for initial stabilization, serving as a bridge to therapy primarily in inoperable patients with massive PE. Further evaluation in a larger cohort of patients is warranted to assess whether VA-ECMO plus PMT may offer an alternative or complementary therapy to thrombolysis or surgical thrombectomy.Type of ResearchSingle-center retrospective review of a prospectively maintained registry.

The effects of inoculating plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and soil water deficits on crop growth and physiology remain largely unknown. Here, the responses of leaf gas exchange, growth, and water use efficiency (WUE) of tomato plants to Bacillus pumilus (B.p.) inoculation under four irrigation strategies (I1-I4) were investigated in a greenhouse. Results showed that soil water deficits, especially at I4 (20%, v/v), significantly decreased leaf stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (Tr), and photosynthetic rate (An), and the decrease of gs and Tr were more pronounced than An. Reduced irrigation regimes significantly lowered dry matter and plant water use both in the non-B.p. control and the B.p. plants, while reduced irrigation significantly increased plant WUE, and B.p. inoculation had little effect on this parameter. Synergistic effects of PGPR and deficit irrigation on leaf gas exchange, leaf abscisic acid content, and stomatal density were found in this study, and specifically, B.p. treated plants at I4 possessed the highest WUE at stomatal and leaf scales, suggesting that B.p. inoculation could optimize water use and partly alleviate the negative effects of soil water deficit. These findings provide useful information for effective irrigation management and the application of PGPR in agriculture in the future.

Amorphous aerogels with the microscopic nanoscale three-dimensional meshes provide superb platforms for investigating unique physicochemical properties. In order to enhance the physical, thermal and mechanical performances, one efficient and common approach is integrating diverse functional materials. Herein, we report a simple strategy to fabricate the amorphous silicon doped Y2O3 aerogels with the post-gelation method under the N2/EtOH supercritical atmosphere. The impact of Si concentration on the nonlinear optical properties is investigated for the first time. The maximum modulation depth is 1.65 % with a saturation intensity of 0.78 MW cm−2 with the 1-ps laser excitation at 1590 nm. Finally, we incorporated the silicon-doped Y2O3 aerogel based saturable absorber (SA) into an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) and achieved various mode-locking operations at different wavelengths in the super C band, in terms of the conventional soliton, harmonic soliton molecules pulses, and dual-wavelength soliton mode-locking. Overall, this work confirms that amorphous silicon-doped Y2O3 aerogels are good nonlinear optical materials and pave a way for the ultrafast photonic and nonlinear optical applications with amorphous materials in near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arterial stiffness has been proved to be an important parameter in the evaluation of cardiovascular diseases, and Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) is a strong indicator of arterial stiffness. Compared to regional PWV (PWV among different arteries), local PWV (PWV within a single artery) outstands in providing higher precision in indicating arterial properties, as regional PWVs are highly affected by multiple parameters, e.g., variations in blood vessel lengths due to individual differences, and multiple reflection effects on the pulse waveform. However, local PWV is less-developed due to its high dependency on the temporal resolution in synchronized signals with usually low signal-to-noise ratios. This paper presents a method for the noninvasive simultaneous measurement of two local PWVs in both left and right radial arteries based on the Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) technique via correlation analysis of the pulse pairs at the fossa cubitalis and at the wrist. Based on the measurements of five male volunteers at the ages of 19 to 21 years old, the average left radial PWV ranged from 9.44 m/s to 12.35 m/s and the average right radial PWV ranged from 11.50 m/s to 14.83 m/s. What is worth mentioning is that a stable difference between the left and right radial PWVs was observed for each volunteer, ranging from 2.27 m/s to 3.04 m/s. This method enables the dynamic analysis of local PWVs and analysis of their features among different arteries, which will benefit the diagnosis of early-stage arterial stiffening and may bring more insights into the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND With the increased attention paid for the construction of ecological civilization, a comprehensive survey of natural resources is imperative, and new requirements for biological reference materials have also been put forward. At present, relevant research work has been widely carried out. The comprehensive investigation of natural resources, agricultural products and food safety evaluation all need to accurately test the element composition of biological samples, and biological reference materials are needed as the basis for the comparison and traceability of biological components. The demand for biological matrix reference materials has increased significantly. As one of the main foods, the food safety of rice has been paid more and more attention. It is of great practical significance to carry out accurate analysis of the chemical components in rice. Therefore, the demand for rice is particularly prominent, but the rice reference materials for composition analysis are still lacking. OBJECTIVES To develop rice certified reference material (GBW10010a) and compare it with the data characteristics of GBW10010. METHODS The rice certified reference material (GBW10010a) was prepared in strict accordance with relevant specifications. The collected candidates were prepared through coarse crushing, drying, fine crushing, sieving, blending and other steps. The particle size distribution was detected by BT-9000ST laser particle size analyzer. 15 bottle samples were randomly selected and homogeneity testing was carried out by ICP-MS and ICP-OES, etc. The data were statistically calculated by one-way ANOVA, indicating good homogeneity of the samples. The long-term stability of the standard material under the specified storage conditions was investigated. The linear model was used to evaluate the stability of the sample. The determination of 60 components was carried out by means of ICP-MS, ICP-OES, AFS, COL, VOL, XRF, IC and other Analytical test methods. RESULTS The rice reference material prepared in this research has diverse fixed value components, accurate and reliable measurement values, and meet the requirements of national first-level reference material. GBW10010a has a total of 54 main trace elements. 39 elements have certified values and uncertainties and 15 elements only have reference values. The content of heavy metal elements such as As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Zn in GBW10010a decreased significantly, among which Cd, Cu, and Zn decreased by about 39%, 43% and 38.7%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS To a certain extent, the values reflects the improvement of farmland ecological environment. Compared with the original GBW10010, the total number of certified value elements has increased by 6 items, including Ag and Nb (Nb gives reference values). Moreover, the uncertainty of each element is reduced, including biological-related elements Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mo, Na, P, Pb, Se, and Zn. The reduction indicates the technological advancement of the geological analysis and the improvement of the certified value level. In addition, the content of heavy metal elements in GBW10010a decreased significantly, reflecting the improvement of farmland ecological environment. The designated elements of the reference materials cover most of the main and trace elements with biological effects, and are suitable for the calibration of analytical instruments, evaluation of analytical methods, and monitoring analytical quality during agricultural ecological environment geochemical surveys and evaluation, biological sample analysis, agricultural product quality and food safety evaluation.

Mid-infrared (MIR) photonics has attracted tremendous interest because of its broad applications at atmospheric windows. In this work, we report high-performance MIR photonics based on large-scale and good-quality monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). The open-aperture Z-scan measurement on the nonlinear saturable absorption features shows that the as-grown monolayer MoS2 possesses a modulation depth of 26% and a low saturable intensity of 271 kW/cm2, enabling its application as an excellent saturable absorber for the MIR pulse generation. This is further evident by the measured high effective nonlinear absorption coefficient βeff (−16 cm/MW). In addition, the two-photon absorption coefficient and the nonlinear refractive index of monolayer MoS2 are also determined by the closed-aperture Z-scan technology. As an application, we demonstrate a passively Q-switched Tm,Ho:CaLu0.1Gd0.9AlO4 (Tm,Ho:CLGA) disordered crystal laser at 2.1 μm by using the monolayer MoS2 as the saturable absorber for the first time, producing a minimum pulse width of 765 ns and a pulse repetition rate of 36 kHz. Our results demonstrate that large-scale monolayer MoS2 is a promising candidate for the MIR photonic applications.

When solving traveling salesman problem (TSP), the ant colony algorithm is easy to fall into local optimum and convergence speed is slow, a double-type ant colony algorithm considering dynamic guidance and neighborhood interaction is proposed. Firstly, the algorithm combines the dynamic guidance strategy to increase the dynamic pheromone belonging to the path of the largest spanning tree in the early iteration, thereby effectively increasing the diversity of the population; adding the dynamic pheromone belonging to the path of the minimum spanning tree in the late iteration to accelerate the convergence speed. Furthermore, the ants are divided into two categories, which are integrated into the neighborhood interaction strategy, and the second type of ants improve the state transition and the local pheromone update formula through the attraction factors, and use the MMAS (max-min ant system) pheromone restriction strategy, which not only improves the convergence, but also prevents the algorithm from early stagnation. The experimental results of solving the TSP test set and compared with other improved ant colony algorithms show that the improved algorithm can effectively accelerate the convergence speed and avoid falling into local optimum, thus obtaining a more accurate solution, especially in the case of large-scale TSP problems, the effect is more significant.