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Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary malignancy of the liver. Although the RNA modification N6-methyladenine (m6A) has been reported to be involved in HCC carcinogenesis, early diagnostic markers and promising personalized therapeutic targets are still lacking. In this study, we identified that 19 m6A regulators and 34 co-expressed lncRNAs were significantly upregulated in HCC samples; based on these factors, we established a prognostic signal of HCC associated with 9 lncRNAs and 19 m6A regulators using LASSO Cox regression analysis. Kaplan-Meier survival estimate revealed correlations between the risk scores and patients' OS in the training and validation dataset. The ROC curve demonstrated that the risk score-based curve has satisfactory prediction efficiency for both training and validation datasets. Multivariate Cox's proportional hazard regression analysis indicated that the risk score was an independent risk factor within the training and validation dataset. In addition, the risk score could distinguish HCC patients from normal non-cancerous samples and HCC samples of different pathological grades. Eventually, 232 mRNAs were co-expressed with these 9 lncRNAs according to GSE101685 and GSE112790; these mRNAs were enriched in cell cycle and cell metabolic activities, drug metabolism, liver disease-related pathways, and some important cancer related pathways such as p53, MAPK, Wnt, RAS and so forth. The expression of the 9 lncRNAs was significantly higher in HCC samples than that in the neighboring non-cancerous samples. Altogether, by using the Consensus Clustering, PCA, ESTIMATE algorithm, LASSO regression model, Kaplan-Meier survival assessment, ROC curve analysis, and multivariate Cox's proportional hazard regression model analysis, we established a prognostic marker consisting of 9 m6A regulator-related lncRNAs that markers may have prognostic and diagnostic potential for HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The role of multifidus in the biomechanics of lumbar spine remained unclear. Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the role of multifidus in the modeling of lumbar spine and the influence of asymmetric multifidus atrophy on the biomechanics of lumbar spine. Methods: This study considered five different multifidus conditions in the trunk musculoskeletal models: group 1 (with entire multifidus), group 2 (without multifidus), group 3 (multifidus with half of maximum isometric force), group 4 (asymmetric multifidus atrophy on L5/S1 level), and group 5 (asymmetric multifidus atrophy on L4/L5 level). In order to test how different multifidus situations would affect the lumbar spine, four trunk flexional angles (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90°) were simulated. The calculation of muscle activation and muscle force was done using static optimization function in OpenSim. Then, joint reaction forces of L5/S1 and L4/L5 levels were calculated and compared among the groups. Results: The models without multifidus had the highest normalized compressive forces on the L4/L5 level in trunk flexion tasks. In extreme cases produced by group 2 models, the normalized compressive forces on L4/L5 level were 444% (30° flexion), 568% (60° flexion), and 576% (90° flexion) of upper body weight, which were 1.82 times, 1.63 times, and 1.13 times as large as the values computed by the corresponding models in group 1. In 90° flexion, the success rate of simulation in group 2 was 49.6%, followed by group 3 (84.4%), group 4 (89.6%), group 5 (92.8%), and group 1 (92.8%). Conclusions: The results demonstrate that incorporating multifidus in the musculoskeletal model is important for increasing the success rate of simulation and decreasing the incidence of overestimation of compressive load on the lumbar spine. Asymmetric multifidus atrophy has negligible effect on the lower lumbar spine in the trunk flexion posture. The results highlighted the fine-tuning ability of multifidus in equilibrating the loads on the lower back and the necessity of incorporating multifidus in trunk musculoskeletal modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Interstitial nephritis related to novel oral anticoagulants was only reported in sporadic case reports and none was accompanied by anticoagulants related nephropathy (ARN). Case Report: We presented here a case of biopsy-proven subacute interstitial nephritis (SubAIN) accompanied by ARN after oral dabigatran to alarm clinicians. This case manifested with gross hematuria, acute kidney injury, slightly prolonged thrombin time, moderate anemia, moderate proteinuria, a large quantity of intratubular hemoglobin casts confirmed by hemoglobin antibody immunohistochemical staining which presumed to occur around 1 week after dabigatran and subacute interstitial nephritis accompanied by focal proliferative glomerulonephritis. Serum creatinine level did not continue to elevate after discontinuation of the oral anticoagulant. With the subsequent supportive therapy, it decreased to some extent then reduced to normal with the help of prednisone (half of the full dose). Conclusions: When we came across a patient who manifested as hematuria or acute kidney injury with a history of anticoagulants usage, we should think of ARN and pay more attention on history collection. Secondly, subacute interstitial nephritis may coexist with ARN. Thirdly, hemoglobin immunohistochemical staining may be helpful to make it clear whether the intra-tubular protein casts came from red blood cells. In addition, for those patients who may have decreased kidney function, anticoagulants dose should be reduced to prevent the occurrence of ARN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire detection methods based on the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have advantages of high accuracy, wide coverage and robustness, receiving significant attention from researchers. Among CNN‐based methods, ResNet has achieved better performance than other CNN frameworks in fire detection system, since it uses stacked residual blocks to enlarge the receptive field to overcome the vanishing gradient problem with residual learning. The merits of ResNet can be attributed to the similarity between ResNet and the single‐step explicit solver for Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs), for example, the Euler method. Motivated by the theory of numerical ODE that a multi‐step implicit solver has higher accuracy than a single‐step explicit solver, the Multi‐step Implicit Adams predictor‐corrector (MIAPC) network for fire detection is proposed. The MIAPC method is first mapped to a corresponding predictor‐corrector Adams block which achieves higher accuracy than a single‐step explicit solver. Then, Adaptive Feature Fusion (AFF) and the Spatial Attention Layer (SAL) are utilized to extract hierarchical features from stacked predictor‐corrector Adams blocks, forming the corresponding Adams module. Finally, the 4 Adams modules which are made of 4, 6, 8, 10 predictor‐corrector Adams blocks and followed by AFF and SAL form the crucial ODE‐based approximation part in the proposed network. By adding a simple feature extraction and detection in front of and after the ODE‐based approximation part, the MIAPC network is built. Experiments demonstrate that the method achieves 87% accuracy in the challenging test dataset, outperforming existing methods by at least 6%. Besides, the 5.3M model size with inference speed of 4.7 frames/second in CPU and 65.7 frames/second in GPU enables the proposed method to be used in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmonic photodetection based on the hot-electron generation in nanostructures is a promising strategy for sub-band detection due to the high conversion efficiencies; however, it is plagued with the high dark current. In this paper, we have demonstrated the plasmonic photodetection with dark current suppression to create a Si-based broadband photodetector with enhanced performance in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) region. By hybridizing a 3 nm Au layer with the spherical Au nanoparticles (NPs) formed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on Si substrate, a well-behaved ITO/Au/Au NPs/n-Si Schottky photodetector with suppressed dark current and enhanced absorption in the SWIR region is obtained. This optimized detector shows a broad detection beyond 1200 nm and a high responsivity of 22.82 mA/W at 1310 nm at −1 V, as well as a low dark current density on the order of 10−5 A/cm2. Such a Si-based plasmon-enhanced detector with desirable performance in dark current will be a promising strategy for realization of the high SNR detector while keeping fabrication costs low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The ore-bearing diorite and gabbro-diorite of the Yundunkala deposit formed at ∼ 401 Ma. • The ore-bearing magmas are hybrid. • The Yundunkala deposit formed at an island arc environment. Ongoing exploration in East Junggar, Northwest China, has led to the discovery of the intrusion-related Yundukala Au–Cu–Co deposit. The alteration and mineralization in the Yundukala deposit are closely related to diorite and gabbro-diorite, whereas the geochemical features of these ore-related plutons are still unclear. In this study, in order to unlock the nature of the ore-forming magmas, zircon U–Pb dating, whole-rock major and trace elemental and Sr–Nd isotope analysis, as well as zircon O–Hf isotope analysis, were conducted. Our results show that diorite and gabbro-diorite were both generated in the Early Devonian, with ages being 401.3 ± 3.8 Ma and 401.6 ± 4.5 Ma, respectively. Geochemically, they are all characterized by LREE-enriched patterns in chondrite-normalized REE diagrams, and evident enrichment of Rb, U and K and depletion of Nb and Ta contents in primitive mantle-normalized patterns, although the degrees of enrichment and depletion are variable. Isotopically, the diorite and gabbro-diorite display relatively high initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.704966–0.707395) and positive ε Nd (t) (1.29–3.84) of whole-rock, as well as positive zircon δ18O (5.3–8.9 ‰) and ε Hf (t) (2.4–18.8). These lines of evidence collectively indicate that these magmatic rocks were generated by mixing between mantle- and crustal-derived melts, and were emplacement in an island arc environment. The magma mixing during the formation of ore-bearing diorite and gabbro-diorite might bring abundant sulfur and metals, thus favoring the formation of Au–Cu–Co mineralization. This work emphasizes that further mineral exploration in East Junggar needs to pay attention to the Early Devonian granitoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nanoporous Cu with tunable pore size (20–50 nm) are synthesized through chemical dealloying of the Mg65Cu25Gd10 metallic glass in sulfuric acid solution. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated the formation of mixing structures consisting of amorphous matrix and fcc-Cu ligaments with nanoporous structure in the dealloyed samples. The nanoporous alloy obtained shows superior catalytic activity in degrading phenol-containing wastewater, e.g., the degradation rate increases by 2–4 times as compared to the un-dealloyed Mg-based metallic glass. It was also found that surface wettability plays an important role in degradation, which results in a better catalytic performance in the sample with coarser nanoporous structure although it has relatively less specific surface area as compared to the samples with finer pores. Finally, the mechanism for degradation of phenol is discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Al–water reaction has attracted considerable attention in the past few years, because it is an economically viable way to supply hydrogen for portable and kW-grade fuel cells. The water type is found to have a significant impact on Al–water reaction. In this work, the effect of trace species in water on Al–water reaction is investigated systematically. It is found that the trace organic acids originated from the decay of botanies and animals in nature and trace F− ions, rather than other cations and anions, play a key role in the reaction dynamics of Al with water. The mechanism analyses reveal that the organic acids and F− ions form complexes with aluminol groups on Al particle surfaces to impede the hydration process of Al surface oxide film and retard the reaction of Al with water. The present results imply that a suitable water should be chosen for the Al–water reaction to generate hydrogen. At the same time, the organic acids and trace F− ions could be used as the agents to prevent undesirable Al–water reaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Catharanthus roseus is a well-known traditional herbal medicine for the treatment of cancer, hypertension, scald, and sore in China. Phytochemical investigation on the twigs and leaves of this species led to the isolation of two new monoterpene indole alkaloids, catharanosines A (1) and B (2), and six known analogues (3–8). Structures of 1 and 2 were established by 1H-, 13C- and 2D-NMR, and HREIMS data. The absolute configuration of 1 was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Compound 2 represented an unprecedented aspidosperma-type alkaloid with a 2-piperidinyl moiety at C-10. Compounds 6–8 exhibited remarkable Cav3.1 low voltage-gated calcium channel (LVGCC) inhibitory activity with IC50 values of 11.83 ± 1.02, 14.3 ± 1.20, and 14.54 ± 0.99 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A total of 115 endophytic bacteria were isolated from root nodules of the wild legume Sphaerophysa salsula grown in two ecological regions of Loess Plateau in China. The genetic diversity and phylogeny of the strains were revealed by restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing of 16S rRNA gene and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR. Their symbiotic capacity was checked by nodulation tests and analysis of nifH gene sequence. This is the first systematic study on endophytic bacteria associated with S. salsula root nodules. Fifty of the strains found were symbiotic bacteria belonging to eight putative species in the genera Mesorhizobium, Rhizobium and Sinorhizobium, harboring similar nifH genes; Mesorhizobium gobiense was the main group and 65 strains were nonsymbiotic bacteria related to 17 species in the genera Paracoccus, Sphingomonas, Inquilinus, Pseudomonas, Serratia, Mycobacterium, Nocardia, Streptomyces, Paenibacillus, Brevibacillus, Staphylococcus, Lysinibacillus and Bacillus, which were universally coexistent with symbiotic bacteria in the nodules. Differing from other similar studies, the present study is the first time that symbiotic and nonsymbiotic bacteria have been simultaneously isolated from the same root nodules, offering the possibility to accurately reveal the correlation between these two kinds of bacteria. These results provide valuable information about the interactions among the symbiotic bacteria, nonsymbiotic bacteria and their habitats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: ZrO2 ceramics usually have nonuniform microstructures due to the agglomeration of fine ZrO2 powders. In this paper, the thermal conductivity of porous ZrO2 ceramics with different microstructures was investigated by the laser-flash method. It was found that the thermal conductivity of porous ZrO2 ceramics with uniform microstructure was clearly lower than that of ceramics with nonuniform microstructure. Scanning electron microscopy observations showed that porous ceramics with nonuniform microstructures have wider pore and grain size distributions, relative to those with uniform microstructures. Theoretical analyses were done to model the thermal conductivity of porous ceramics using an effective medium approach. These analyses revealed that matrix grain size distribution has a significant impact on the thermal conductivity of porous ceramics, while the effect of pore size distribution is negligible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Previous experiments showed that γ-Al2O3-modified Al powder could continuously react with water and generate hydrogen at room temperature under atmospheric pressure. In this work, a possible physicochemical mechanism is proposed. It reveals that a passive oxide film on Al particle surfaces is hydrated in water. OH− ions are the main mobile species in the hydrated oxide film. When the hydrated front meets the metal Al surface, OH− ions react with Al and release H2. Because of the limited H-soluble capacity in small Al particles and the low permeability of the hydrated oxide film toward H+ species, H2 molecules accumulate and form small H2 gas bubbles at the Al:Al2O3 interface. When the reaction equilibrium pressure in H2 bubbles exceeds a critical gas pressure that the hydrated oxide film can sustain, the film on the Al particle surfaces breaks and the reaction of Al with water continues. As the surface oxide layer on modified Al particles has a lower tensile strength, the critical gas pressure in H2 bubbles is lower so that under an ambient condition, the reaction of modified Al particles with water is continuous. The proposed mechanism was further confirmed by a new experiment showing that the as-received Al powder could continuously react with water at temperatures above 40°C and under low vacuum, because the vacuum makes the critical gas pressure in H2 bubbles decrease as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Organic light-emitting diodes with ultra thin Rubrene layer have been fabricated with the structure of ITO/hole-transport layer/Rubrene/AlQ/LiF/Al. The hole-transport layer are copper phthalocyanine (CuPc), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with polystrenesulphonic acid (PEDOT: PSS), poly(N-vinyl carbazole) (PVK), and N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPB), respectively. Compared with the other two devices, when 5,6,11,12-tetraphenylnaphthacene (Rubrene) is inserted between PVK (or NPB) and tris(8-quinolinolato)aluminum (AlQ), Rubrene’s emission get enhanced. The energy transfer mechanism among PVK (NPB), AlQ and Rubrene are revealed by the absorption and emitting spectra. Moreover, the enhancement of Rubrene’s emission can also be ascribed as an organic quantum well structure’s trap effection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A unidirectional porous glass structure coated with a nanometer TiO2 thin film on pore walls was successfully fabricated by a two-step process. Firstly, a water-based slurry of sheet glass was frozen while controlling the growth direction of ice crystals, and then sublimation of the ice under vacuum formed the green body. The green body was subsequently sintered to produce porous glass with unidirectional pores. Secondly, the sintered porous glass was infiltrated by a titanium (IV) butoxide solution, and then dried and calcined at a moderate temperature to generate a nanometer TiO2 film on pore walls. The present porous glass with nanometer TiO2 has more total surface area than the TiO2 film on glass plates, which is believed to be more effective in the phtotocatalysis application for air or water purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with multiple hole-trapping-layer (HTL) structures, which consist of N,N′-bis-(1-naphthyl)-N, N′-diphenyl-1,1′-biphenyl 4,4′-diamine (NPB), bathocuproine (BCP) and tris(8-hydroxy-quinoline)aluminum (Alq3) have been fabricated. The emitting zone of the device with the structure of ITO/[NPB/BCP] n /Alq3/LiF/Al can be changed by the number n of HTL. The effect of the multiple HTL structure upon the performance of OLEDs with tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum as the emitting material has been investigated. Compared with the brightness of the conventional green emitting diode without the multiple HTL structure, that of the diode with periodic number of five has been increased from 2512.8cd/m2 to 8661.0cd/m2. Such an improvement in the device performance was attributed to the improved hole–electron balance, which can be further attributed to the introduction of the multiple HTL structure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A white-light-emitting device has been fabricated with a structure of ITO/NPB/BCP/Alq3/LiF/Al. The hole blocking layer(BCP) result in a mixture of lights from NPB molecules (blue-light) and Alq3 molecules (olivine-light), thereby producing white-light emission. The chromaticity can be readily adjusted by only varying the thickness of the BCP layer. The CIE coordinates of the device are largely insensitive to the driving voltages. The maximum brightness is 5740cd/m2, the EL efficiency is 2.12cd/A at the applied voltage of 18V. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Porous ZrO2 ceramics were fabricated by adding Zr(OH)4 hard agglomerates to ZrO2 powder, followed by pressureless sintering. The mechanical properties of porous ceramics sintered from pure ZrO2 powder were poor. The addition of Zr(OH)4 increased the strength and fracture toughness of the porous ZrO2 ceramics for sintered specimens containing lower porosity. However, the Young’s modulus had little change so that the strain to failure of porous ZrO2 ceramics increased with the incorporation of Zr(OH)4. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations revealed that microstructures of the green compacts prepared from pure ZrO2 powder were nonuniform due to the ZrO2 soft agglomeration, which resulted in a localized nonuniform shrinkage during densification. The localized nonuniform shrinkage led to a weaker grain bonding and degraded the mechanical properties of porous ZrO2 ceramics. In this work, we found that this microstructure nonuniformity could be eliminated by the addition of Zr(OH)4, because the bimodal particle size distribution confined the formation of ZrO2 soft agglomerates due to a space constraint and an internal friction between the Zr(OH)4 hard agglomerates during compaction. As Zr(OH)4 decomposed into ZrO2 grains during heating, the Zr(OH)4 hard agglomerates disappeared before sintering occurred. The present study indicates that Zr(OH)4 hard agglomerate is a unique agent to improve the mechanical properties of porous ZrO2 ceramics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Exposure to different concentration levels of fatty acids (FAs) may have an impact on depression. However, previous studies using individual FAs may not reflect the performance of mixtures of various FAs, and the associations of FA patterns with depression remain unclear. Methods: We conducted the cross-sectional analysis in 792 adults aged 18 and older with available serum FAs and depression screening data in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2012. The serum concentrations of thirty FAs were measured using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and their percentage compositions were subsequently calculated. Depression was defined as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score ≥ 10. We employed principal component analysis to derive serum FA patterns. We examined the association between these patterns and depression in the overall population and various subgroups through survey-weighted logistic regression. Results: Four distinct patterns of serum FAs were identified: 'high eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA); low docosatetraenoic acid (DTA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) n-6', 'high long-chain saturated FA and long chain FA', 'low median-chain saturated FA and myristoleic acid' and 'low capric acid and lauric acid; high gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and stearidonic acid (SDA)' pattern. Individuals in the high tertile of 'high EPA and DHA; low DTA and DPA n-6' pattern score had 0.46 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.93) lower odds of developing depression compared to individuals in the lowest tertile after adjusting for confounders such as age, sex, physical activity and total energy intake, etc. The odds ratio (OR) of depression was increased in the population with the highest tertile of 'low capric acid and lauric acid; high GLA and SDA' pattern (OR: 2.45, 95% CI: 1.24, 4.83). In subgroup analyses, we observed that the association between 'high EPA and DHA; low DTA and DPA n-6' and depression persisted among specific demographic and lifestyle subgroups, including females, non-Mexican Americans, non-obese, those aged over 60 years, smokers and drinkers. Similarly, 'low capric acid and lauric acid; high GLA and SDA' showed stable associations in female, non-Mexican Americans and smokers. Conclusions: Serum FA patterns are associated with depression, and their relationships vary across sex, race, BMI, age, smoking and drinking subgroups, highlighting the importance of considering specific FA patterns within these demographic and lifestyle categories. Utilization of combined FA administration may serve as a mitigation measure against depression in these specific populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of InGaAs quantum wells (QWs) epitaxially on InP substrates is of great interest due to their wide application in optoelectronic devices. However, conventional molecular beam epitaxy requires substrate temperatures between 400 and 500 °C, which can lead to disorder scattering, dopant diffusion, and interface roughening, adversely affecting device performance. Lower growth temperatures enable the fabrication of high-speed optoelectronic devices by increasing arsenic antisite defects and reducing carrier lifetimes. This work investigates the low-temperature epitaxial growth of InAs/GaAs short-period superlattices as an ordered replacement for InGaAs quantum wells, using migration-enhanced epitaxy (MEE) with low growth temperatures down to 200–250 °C. The InAs/GaAs multi-quantum wells with InAlAs barriers using MEE grown at 230 °C show good single crystals with sharp interfaces, without mismatch dislocations found. The Raman results reveal that the MEE mode enables the growth of (InAs)4(GaAs)3/InAlAs QWs with excellent periodicity, effectively reducing alloy scattering. The room temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) measurement shows the strong PL responses with narrow peaks, revealing the good quality of the MEE-grown QWs. The RT electron mobility of the sample grown in low-temperature MEE mode is as high as 2100 cm2/V∗s. In addition, the photoexcited band-edge carrier lifetime was about 3.3 ps at RT. The high-quality superlattices obtained confirm MEE's effectiveness for enabling advanced III-V device structures at reduced temperatures. This promises improved performance for applications in areas such as high-speed transistors, terahertz imaging, and optical communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatiotemporal evolution of photogenerated charge carriers on surfaces and at interfaces of photoactive materials is an important issue for understanding fundamental physical processes in optoelectronic devices and advanced materials. Conventional optical probe-based microscopes that provide indirect information about the dynamic behavior of photogenerated carriers are inherently limited by their poor spatial resolution and large penetration depth. Herein, we develop an ultrafast scanning electron microscope (USEM) with a planar emitter. The photoelectrons per pulse in this USEM can be two orders of magnitude higher than that of a tip emitter, allowing the capture of high-resolution spatiotemporal images. We used the contrast change of the USEM to examine the dynamic nature of surface carriers in an InGaAs/InP avalanche photodiode (APD) after femtosecond laser excitation. It was observed that the photogenerated carriers showed notable longitudinal drift, lateral diffusion, and carrier recombination associated with the presence of photovoltaic potential at the surface. This work demonstrates an in situ multiphysics USEM platform with the capability to stroboscopically record carrier dynamics in space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grasping force control is important for multi-fingered robotic hands to stabilize the grasped object. Humans are able to adjust their grasping force and react quickly to instabilities through tactile sensing. However, grasping force control through tactile sensing with robotic hands is still relatively unexplored. In this paper, we make use of tactile sensing for multi-fingered robot hands to adjust the grasping force to stabilize unknown objects without prior knowledge of their shape or physical properties. In particular, an online detection module based on Deep Neural Network (DNN) is designed to detect contact events and object material simultaneously from tactile data. In addition, a force estimation method based on Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is proposed to compute the contact information (i.e., contact force and contact location) from tactile data. According to the results of tactile sensing, an object stabilization controller is then employed for a robotic hand to adjust the contact configuration for object stabilization. The spatio-temporal property of tactile data is exploited during tactile sensing. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed framework is evaluated in a real-world experiment with a five-fingered Shadow Dexterous Hand equipped with BioTac sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Eleven new ent -labdane diterpenoids were isolated from C. odontochila. • Their absolute configurations were established by ECD, [ α ] D and X-ray methods. • One ent -labdane and four ent- kauranes showed α -glucosidase inhibitory activity. • Compounds 12 and 16 were mixed-type inhibitors with K i of 334.1 and 589.2 μM. • Docking study disclosed the importance of the carboxyl group at C-4 position. Eleven new ent -labdane diterpenoids, cheodontoins A-K (1 – 11), and thirteen known diterpenoids involving two ent -labdanes (12 – 13) and eleven ent- kauranes (14 – 24), were isolated from the active part of Chelonopsis odontochila (Lamiaceae) under the guidance of bioassay. The structures of cheodontoins A-K (1 – 11) were elucidated by extensive HRESIMS, 1D and 2D NMR, [ α ] D and ECD experiments, X-ray diffraction and quantum calculation. Interestingly, five nor- ent- labdanes (9 – 13) were obtained from this genus for the first time. One ent -labdane diterpenoid (12) and four ent- kaurane diterpenoids (16 , 19 , 23 , and 24) showed α -glucosidase inhibitory activity with IC 50 values of 326.5 ± 3.5, 599.1 ± 13.8, 620.1 ± 16.1, 185.0 ± 4.2, and 190.7 ± 11.6 μM, respectively. Compounds 12 and 16 were α -glucosidase mixed-type inhibitors with K i values of 334.1 and 589.2 μM according to the enzyme kinetics using Lineweaver-Burk and Dixon plots. Docking study manifested that compounds 12 and 23 well located in the catalytic pocket of α -glucosidase by hydrophobic effects with Trp1355, Trp1369, Phe1427, Phe1559, and Phe1560 residues. This study provides new insights for the antidiabetic effects of C. odontochila with ent -labdane and ent -kaurane diterpenoids as the active constituents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the preparation of a composite from a mixture of zirconium, silicon and a compound via reactive hot pressing. Measurement of the bending strength and fracture toughness; Microstructure of the composite; Agglomerates of compounds in the size ranges of zirconium and silicon; Model of the microstructure formation mechanism.

[Display omitted] • High-rate solid-state supercapacitors were assembled by the integrated Fe-NiCoP/CC cathode and VN/CNT/CC anode respectively. • The doped Fe ions in NiCoP significantly improve the electronic conductivity and adsorption capacity of OH−. • The integrated electrodes and solid-state supercapacitors show excellent electrochemical performance and EMI shielding. The development of flexible and wearable electronics subjects to the limited energy density and accompanying electromagnetic pollution. With a high theoretical specific capacity, nickel–cobalt bimetallic phosphide (NiCoP) is considered to be potential cathode materials for supercapacitor. However, the pristine NiCoP fails to display excellent electrochemical performance due to its inferior rate performance and cycling stability. Herein, we design Fe doped NiCoP nanowire arrays on carbon cloth (Fe-NiCoP/CC) as the cathode for supercapacitors. The introduced Fe doping enable to increase in the electronic conductivity and enhance the adsorption of OH−, supported by the density functional theory (DFT) analysis. As a result, Fe-NiCoP/CC electrode displays a high areal capacity of 3.18 F cm−2 at 1 mA cm−2, superb rate capability (86.3 % capacity retention at 20 mA cm−2) and outstanding structure stability, superior to the NiCo/CC, FeNiCo/CC, and NiCoP/CC counterparts. Moreover, the assembled Fe-NiCoP/CC||VN/CNT/CC hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) device delivers a high energy density of 176.9 μWh cm−2 at the power density of 750 μW cm−2. More importantly, the designed electrodes and assembled HSC device exhibits excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance. This design concept presented in this paper can provide insights into the construction of multifunctional and high-performance flexible electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) reinforced copper (Cu) matrix composites were fabricated by a simple procedure of rotating mixing and then spark plasma sintering (SPS). It was found that addition of SWCNTs as low as 0.05 wt% can increase the ultimate tensile strength (223.5 MPa) and elongation rate (48.0%) of composites by 20.8% and 57.9%, respectively, relative to those (185 MPa and 30.4%) of pure Cu material, while the composite electrical conductivity retained a high value of 94.3% International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS). Mechanism analyses revealed that there are nanometer Ni particles tightly attached to SWCNTs, which were formed in situ during SWCNT growth by arc discharge method. These nanometer Ni particles promoted the bonding between SWCNTs and Cu matrix, leading to a fracture-mode change from intergranular in pure Cu material to ductile in the composites. The related factors to influence the microstructure of composites were discussed as well. • Ni nanoparticles were formed in situ and tightly attached to SWCNT surfaces. • Addition of 0.05 wt% SWCNTs greatly increased both of strength and elongation of Cu. • A fracture-mode change occurs from intergranular in pure Cu to ductile in composites. • Load transfer is main mechanism responsible for enhancement in mechanical property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asteroseismology is a powerful tool for probing the inner structure and determining the evolutionary status and the fundamental parameters of stars. The oscillation spectra of slowly pulsating B (SPB) stars show almost uniform period spans, whose pattern is sensitive to the structure of the μ-gradient shell beyond the central convective core and hence can be used to efficiently describe their shapes and constrain the convective core. The SPB star KIC 8324482 was observed by Kepler for over 1470 days with a long-cadence pattern. Nearly equidistant period spacing patterns are found for the 14 connective dipolar modes that are extracted from the oscillation spectrum by Zhang et al. In the present work, we analyze them in depth with the χ2-matching method and determine their χ2-minimization models (CMMs). Based on those calculated CMMs, we find that KIC 8324482 is a young (Myr), metal-poor (dex), and intermediate-mass () star with a convective core of in mass and in radius and with a surface rotation velocity. The central hydrogen abundance is of. Asteroseismic analyses indicate that the "propagation time" of g-mode in KIC 8324482 is of μHz. To well match with the observed period spacing pattern, an extra diffusion mixing () should be considered, but the normal core overshooting fov must be fixed as zero in the best-fitting model. Such ultraweak mixing beyond the convective core corresponds to a fast rotation that is about 20–30 times the asteroseismic suggested rotation Ωrot ≃ 0.2 μHz, if it is thought of as shear mixing induced completely by differential rotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zhaheba ophiolite is an ocean relic of the Zhaheba-Aermantai oceanic slab, a branch of the early Paleozoic Paleo-Asian Ocean. The peridotites consist mainly of harzburgite, lherzolite and minor dunite, chromitite. This study describes the whole-rock geochemistry and mineral chemistry of the Zhaheba peridotite and chromitite for the purpose of constraining their tectonic environment and genesis. The major oxides and the trace element concentrations of the peridotites are comparable with abyssal peridotite, but fall outside the field of SSZ (suprasubduction zone) peridotite and the fore-arc peridotite. The massive chromites belong to the high-Cr group, with an average Cr# (Cr/(Cr + Al)) atomic ratio) value of chromian spinel of 0.77, whereas the average Mg# value is 0.60. The disseminated chromites give a lower concentration of Cr2O3 (38.96–42.15 wt.%, average 40.35 wt.%) and lower Cr# values (0.50–0.56, average 0.53), but slightly higher contents of MgO (13.23 wt.%) and Mg# (0.61) than the massive chromites. In the diagrams of Cr#-Mg#, NiO-Cr# and TiO2-Cr#, the massive chromites fall in the field of boninite, and the disseminated chromite in the peridotite plot fall in the field of abyssal peridotite and mid-oceanic ridge basalt (MORB). The massive chromitites, with high-Cr, display a boninite affinity, whereas the disseminated chromite plot in the high-Al and abyssal peridotite type field may be generated by the extension of the Zhaheba ocean in the MOR environment then experienced deep subduction and exhumation. The calculated degrees of partial melting for the massive chromites are 21%−22%, and for the disseminated chromites in peridotites the degrees are 17%−18%. The calculated values of fO2 for the massive chromites range from −1.44 to +0.20, and the values for the disseminated chromites range from −0.32 to +0.18. The inferred parental melt composition for massive chromitite falls in the field of boninite in an arc setting, whereas the disseminated chromite in peridotites are in the field of a MORB setting. This indicates that the parental magmas of the former were more refractory than the latter. A two-stage evolution model for the chromites was proposed, in which disseminated chromites were first formed in an MOR environment and then modified by later-stage melts and fluids, and formed massive chromites were formed in an SSZ setting during intra-oceanic subduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Spoken language based natural Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) requires robots to have the ability to understand spoken language, and extract the intention-related information from the working scenario. For grounding the intention-related object in the working environment, object affordance recognition could be a feasible way. To this end, we propose a dataset and a deep CNN based architecture to learn the human-centered object affordance. Furthermore, we present an affordance based multimodal fusion framework to realize intended object grasping according to the spoken instructions of human users. The proposed framework contains an intention semantics extraction module which is employed to extract the intention from spoken language, a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based object affordance recognition module which is applied to recognize human-centered object affordance, and a multimodal fusion module which is adopted to bridge the extracted intentions and the recognized object affordances. We also complete multiple intended object grasping experiments on a PR2 platform to validate the feasibility and practicability of the presented HRI framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were prepared by arc discharge evaporation of a carbon electrode containing Fe catalyst so that there are an amount of iron nanoparticles attached tightly on SWCNTs. The iron oxide nanoparticle coated SWCNT composite was prepared in situ by oxidizing the above as-grown SWCNTs in air at 350°C, which was used as an adsorbent for As 5+ removal from water. It was found that the maximum As 5+ adsorption capacity of the composite was 42.30 mg g −1 at pH 8 and 49.65 mg g −1 at pH 4, respectively. The kinetics data were best fitted with a pseudo-second order, thus suggesting chemical adsorption on the surface and pores of iron oxide nanoparticles. The adsorption isotherm obtained at pH 8 was best fitted to the Freundlich model, therefore a non-ideal adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces for As 5+ ions on iron oxide nanoparticles was proposed. The firm web structure with high adsorption capacity makes the composite a promising adsorbent for arsenic removal in contaminated water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-sized fuel cell has tremendous potential and broad market prospect in the field of portable devices, but its hydrogen source with compact structure and stable and high purity hydrogen supply remains an issue for commercialization. In this research, a novel in situ hydrogen production material Al–BiCl 3 composite is developed via ball milling method, and its hydrogen production performance is evaluated in terms of induction time, storage stability, hydrogen production rate and hydrogen yield. The results demonstrate that Al–BiCl 3 has excellent hydrogen production performance and its hydrogen yield can reach 85 % within 2.3 h. During ball milling process, many surface cracks and active surface are produced and some BiCl 3 is reduced to metal Bi by Al, resulting in the high hydrolysis activity of Al–BiCl 3. Prolonging milling time can promote the formation of surface cracks and Bi, enhancing the activity of Al–BiCl 3. The hydrogen production mechanisms of Al–BiCl 3 are attributed to pitting and microgalvanic effect between Al and Bi. Taking into account hydrogen production performance, cost and safety, Al-10 wt% BiCl 3 milled for 1 h is a suitable and potential in situ hydrogen production material for small-sized fuel cells. [Display omitted] • Al–BiCl 3 composite was prepared and its H 2 production performance was evaluated. • Al–BiCl 3 composite has no induction time and its H 2 yield can reach 85 % within 2.3 h. • AlOOH can increase H 2 yield and recover the reactivity of Al–BiCl 3 stored in air. • Pitting and microgalvanic effect were the H 2 production mechanisms of Al–BiCl 3. • Al-10 wt% BiCl 3 is a promising H 2 production material for small-sized fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the scattering of light and the influence of different water types, underwater images usually suffer from different type of hybrid degradation, e.g. color distortion, blurred details and low contrast. Existing underwater image enhancement methods are weak at handling hybrid degradation simultaneously, resulting in low quality results. Inspired by the fact that wavelet-based enhancement methods can correct color and enhance details in frequency domain and the color compensation prior can compensate missing color information in spatial domain, we design the Multi-level Wavelet-based Underwater Image Enhancement Network (MWEN) with the color compensation prior to enhance image in both frequency domain and spatial domain. Specifically, we integrate the multi-level wavelet transform and the color compensation prior into a multi-stage enhancement framework, where each stage consists of a Multi-level Wavelet-based Enhancement Module (MWEM), a Color Compensation Prior Extraction Module (CCPEM) and a color filter with prior-aware weights. The MWEM decomposes image features into low frequency and high frequency by a wavelet transform, and then enhances them by a low frequency enhancement branch and several high frequency enhancement branches, respectively. The low frequency reduces the color distortion of different water types using Instance Normalization for style transfer, while the high frequency enhancement enhances sparse details using a non-local sparse attention mechanism. After the inverse wavelet transform, the preliminary enhanced result by the MWEM is obtained. Then, the color filter whose weights are customized by the color compensation information extracted from the CCPEM dynamically is applied to output of the MWEM for color compensation. Such an operation enables network to adapt to hybrid degradation and achieve better performance. The experiments demonstrate MWEN outperforms existing UIE methods quantitatively and qualitatively. • A new Multi-level Wavelet-based Underwater Image Enhancement Network is proposed. • A new Multi-level Wavelet-based Enhancement Module is proposed. • A new Color filter inspired by color compensation prior is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variational iteration method newly plays a crucial role in establishing new integral equations. The Lagrange multipliers of the method serve kernel functions of the Volterra integral equations. A concept of an optimal integral equation is proposed. Then nonlinear examples are used to show the strategy’s efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanically flexible optoelectronic devices and systems can enable a much broader range of applications than what their rigid counterparts can do, especially for novel bio-integrated optoelectronic systems, flexible consumer electronics and wearable sensors. Inorganic semiconductor could be a good candidate for the flexible PD when it can keep its high performance under the bending condition. Here, we demonstrate a III–V material-based flexible photodetector operating wavelength from 640 to 1700 nm with the high detectivity of 5.18 × 1011 cm‧Hz1/2/W and fast response speed @1550 nm by using a simply top-to-down fabrication process. The optoelectrical performances are stable as the PDs are exposed to bending cycles with a radius of 15 mm up to 1000 times. Furthermore, the mechanical failure mode of the PD is also investigated, which suggests that the cracking and delamination failure mode are dominant in bending up and bending down direction, respectively. Such a flexible III–V material-based PD and design with stable and high performance could be a promising strategy for the application of the flexible broad spectrum detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-temperature nitridation is commonly thought of as a necessary process to obtain N-polar GaN films on a sapphire substrate. In this work, high-quality N-polar GaN films were grown on a vicinal sapphire substrate with a 100 nm high-temperature (HT) AlN buffer layer (high V/III ratio) and without an intentional nitriding process. The smallest X-ray full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of the (002)/(102) plane were 237/337 arcsec. On the contrary, N-polar GaN film with an intentional nitriding process had a lower crystal quality. In addition, we investigated the effect of different substrate treatments 1 min before the high-temperature AlN layer's growth on the quality of the N-polar GaN films grown on different vicinal sapphire substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common chronic musculoskeletal disorder that seriously affects quality of life. The percutaneous endoscopic lumbar diskectomy (PELD) technique was developed to address spinal nerve root compression through direct visualization of pathological findings while minimizing tissue destruction upon exposure. It is an effective and safe treatment for LDH. However, recurrent LDH is a major concern after lumbar discectomy for primary LDH. A considerable number of clinical studies have reported that patients with LDH with radiculopathy could benefit from manual therapy. Shi's manual therapy (SMT) was established based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory and has been shown to have a superior effect in alleviating muscle tension and loosening joints to improve lumbar and leg pain, radiculopathy, stiffness, activity discomfort, and related disorders. However, there is a lack of high-quality clinical evidence to support this conclusion. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the combination of Shi's manual therapy (SMT) and PELD for LDH with radiculopathy.Methods/design: A multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a 1-year follow-up period will be performed. A total of 510 participants with LDH with radiculopathy will be recruited from four clinical centers. The sample size was estimated, and statistical analysis will be performed and supervised by biostatisticians from an independent third-party research institution. Two hundred fifty-five subjects will be randomly allocated to each group. The subjects in the control group will undergo PELD. Participants in the intervention group will be treated with a combination of SMT and PELD. Recurrence rate is the primary endpoint and the survival analysis of recurrence rate is the secondary endpoint, and the primary analysis of recurrence rate is the chi-square test and the secondary analysis of recurrence rate is survival analysis. The primary outcome measure is the recurrence rate of LDH with radiculopathy at the 1-year follow-up after treatment. The secondary outcome measures will be the ODI score, the VAS score for pain for the lumbar spine and lower limbs, the straight leg raise angle, the stability of the operated lumbar segment, and the SF-36 scores. Assessments will occur at baseline, postoperation, and 1 week, 4 weeks, 13 weeks, 26 weeks, and 1 year postoperation. In addition, adverse events related to clinical symptoms and signs and the results of laboratory tests will be documented during the clinical trials.Discussion: This study will provide reliable evidence of the effectiveness and safety of the combination of SMT and PELD for LDH with radiculopathy. If the results are favorable, it is expected that patients with LDH with radiculopathy will benefit from this study, and many patients could gain a good alternative treatment for LDH with radiculopathy.Trial Registration: China Registered Clinical Trial Registration Center ChiCTR2000036515 . Registered on 13 November 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dendritic cells (DCs), as the most powerful antigen presenting cells, play a critical role in regulating immune response and anti-tumor process. However, the immunosuppressive cells and factors resided in the tumor microenvironment (TME) pose various challenges that can subvert competent DC function comprising antigen presentation and immune initiation. In this setting, developing potent strategies to improve the function of DCs is critically required for improving the efficacy of tumor immunotherapy. Autophagy is found to be closely associated to the various functions of DCs under physiological and pathological conditions. Especially, nanomaterials (NMs) can engage in the disorder and regularity of autophagy to modulate their metabolism and function of DCs. Reasonable design of nanomaterials with autophagy regulation is of great significance to activate DCs and enhance its immunological functions, provoking robust and durable antitumor immunity. In this review, we study the design and optimization of nanomaterials with the function of regulating DCs autophagy, discuss the main mechanism of DCs autophagy induced by nanomaterials and its application in tumor immunotherapy, promoting the progress and development of cancer immunotherapy strategies in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile route was used to modify Al particle surfaces by putting Al particles into an Al( OH)3 suspension, which was produced by the reaction of Al powder with water under vacuum at a mild temperature, then drying and heat-treating under vacuum at elevated temperature. The modified Al powder has a good reaction activity with water to generate hydrogen, and its reaction rate depends on the sizes of Al particles used to produce Al( OH)3 suspension. The reaction induction time of the modified Al powder prepared using the Al( OH)3 suspension produced by the reaction of Al with water is obviously shorter than that prepared using the Al( OH)3 suspension formed by the direct addition of a commercial Al( OH)3 powder, because the in situ formed Al( OH)3 has a finer microstructure. As the present method has no complicated processing procedure and the Al-water reaction byproduct can be reused to modify Al, it is an economically viable way to fabricate the activated Al powder for commercial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image dehazing is an improtant image pre-processing step for many computer vision tasks with many proposed methods using convolutional neural networks. Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) are a powerful mathematical tool in social and natural science, leading to better understanding, prediction, and use of information systems. Because prior knowledge has demonstrated its effectiveness in many practical domains, we design a Visual Attention Network (VAN) and an ODE-inspired Network (ODEN) based on prior knowledge. Then, we develop a multi-model fuzzy fusion strategy, which integrates results predicted by the prior-based Visual Attention Network (VAN) and the ODE-inspired Network (ODEN) into a single network to leverage their respective strengths in improving the dehazing performance. First, to utilize the haze-related prior for dehazing, the VAN removes haze with the help of the haze attention map. Then, to improve performance of stacked residual blocks inspired by the first-order Euler method in ODE-based methods, the ODEN is built by only 3 Runge–Kutta Modules (RKM), each of which not only is related to the stable fourth-order Runge–Kutta method implemented in the Runge–Kutta Block (RKB), but also combines the RKB with an attention mechanism. Finally, an attention based fusion mechanism is used to fuse results estimated by the ODEN and the VAN based on the multi-level features extracted by a pretrained ResNeXt. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of visual effects and accuracy. The average PSNR and SSIM on three public datasets are 31.36 and 0.9766, respectively, which are better than the compared state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has been recommended as minimally invasive treatment for patients with symptomatic benign thyroid nodules (BTNs) because of the large number of clinical applications. This retrospective observational study sought to evaluate the clinical outcomes of RFA for BTNs. From 2014 to 2019, a sample size of 1289 patients treated by RFA were 262 ones with solid nodules and 1027 ones with cystic-solid nodule, respectively. The efficacy including the nodule maximal diameter reduction ratio (MDRR), the volume reduction ratio (VRR) and the cosmetic scores reduction ratio (CSRR). The results of the nodule MDRR and VRR in the cystic-solid nodule group were significantly better than those in the solid nodule group at the 3rd and 6th month, and the CSRR in the two groups showed statistically significant difference at the 3rd month. In a word, RFA is an effective method for symptomatic benign solid or cystic-solid nodules. The achieved MDRR and VRR in the cystic-solid nodule group were significantly better than those in the solid nodule group at the 3rd and 6th month. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

InAsSb/AlGaSb systems have potential in mid-wavelength infrared detection and laser fields. Thus, their heteroepitaxial crystal quality and heterointerface are of great importance. Herein, the quantum well structure based on InAs0.8Sb0.2/Al0.2Ga0.8Sb was grown by interruption with and without Sb2 soaking methods by molecular beam epitaxy to optimize the interface quality and adjust the heterostructure strain. Narrow and well-defined satellite peaks in high-resolution x-ray diffraction patterns manifest good crystal quality of the sample with 15 s Sb2 soaking interruption. The relaxation of sample A without Sb2 soaking interruption is ∼23% calculated by the reciprocal space mappings, while there is no relaxation found in sample B with 15 s Sb2 soaking. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy were carried out. They showed sharp and coherent heterointerfaces generated by adding interruptions with an Sb2 overpressure before and after InAsSb layer growth. Furthermore, the atomic force microscopy images of a 5 × 5 μm2 scan area show that the surface of sample B with Sb2 soaking contains atomic steps with a root-mean-square roughness of 1.44 Å. The photoluminescence peaks of the samples located in the range of 3–4 µm show that these InAsSb/AlGaSb material systems have potential applications in mid-wavelength optoelectrical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ti 2 Nb 10 O 29 (TNO) anchored on melamine carbon foam was synthesized. • Self-supported and flexible TNO@MCF could keep stable 3D conductive network. • TNO@MCF showed remarkable high-rate capacity and superior cycling stability. • TNO@MCF still showed reversible capacities of 315 mA h g−1 after 100 times of compression-rebound. Assembling active materials on flexible conductive matrixes for fabricating high-rate, self-supported and durable anodes is essential for the development of high-power flexible lithium-ion batteries. In this study, we report an efficient combinational strategy for producing hybrid composites (TNO@MCF) of Ti 2 Nb 10 O 29 (TNO) anchored on melamine carbon foam (MCF) via a hydrothermal method. The N -doped MCF not only showed good electronic conductivity and flexibility, but also improved the ion transport performance of the composites. The TNO@MCF electrode exhibited remarkably high rate capacities (327 mA h g−1 at 1 C, and 205 mA h g−1 at 40 C) and excellent cycling stability with a high capacity retention of 81.4% after 1000 cycles at 10 C. After 100 compression-rebound cycles, the TNO@MCF electrode showed a reversible capacity of 315 mA h g−1 at 1 C and exhibited a capacity retention of 72.3% for 1000 cycles at 10 C. This compressible structure design could provide guidelines for manufacture of other flexible electrodes for energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semiconducting metal oxide-based nanowires (SMO-NWs) for gas sensors have been extensively studied for their extraordinary surface-to-volume ratio, high chemical and thermal stabilities, high sensitivity, and unique electronic, photonic and mechanical properties. In addition to improving the sensor response, vast developments have recently focused on the fundamental sensing mechanism, low power consumption, as well as novel applications. Herein, this review provides a state-of-art overview of electrically transduced gas sensors based on SMO-NWs. We first discuss the advanced synthesis and assembly techniques for high-quality SMO-NWs, the detailed sensor architectures, as well as the important gas-sensing performance. Relationships between the NWs structure and gas sensing performance are established by understanding general sensitization models related to size and shape, crystal defect, doped and loaded additive, and contact parameters. Moreover, major strategies for low-power gas sensors are proposed, including integrating NWs into microhotplates, self-heating operation, and designing room-temperature gas sensors. Emerging application areas of SMO-NWs-based gas sensors in disease diagnosis, environmental engineering, safety and security, flexible and wearable technology have also been studied. In the end, some insights into new challenges and future prospects for commercialization are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work indicated that γ- Al2 O3 modified Al powder could react with water and generate hydrogen under ambient conditions. In this work, an ultrasonic dispersion procedure was used to disperse and mix the Al and γ- Al2 O3 powders. It was found that γ- Al2 O3 modified Al powder prepared by the ultrasonic procedure has a higher hydrogen-generation speed than that prepared by a traditional ball-milling method. Microstructure analyses showed that the ultrasonic procedure greatly eliminated the agglomeration of Al and γ- Al2 O3 powders so that γ- Al2 O3 grains covered Al particle surfaces more uniformly. This implies that a favorable processing procedure is the key to obtain high performance modified Al powder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen generation via Al‐water reaction promoted by special catalysts has great potential, which can provide hydrogen source for portable fuel cells. In this work, we use wet chemical reduction method to prepare a high‐activity Fe/AlOOH composite with better stability and demonstrate its usage as a catalyst for Al‐water reaction. It is found that Fe/AlOOH composite not only significantly promotes the Al‐water reaction but also shortens the induction time. The catalytic activity of Fe/AlOOH directly correlated with its active area, which, in turn, is closely related to the AlOOH:Fe molar ratio. In addition, increasing the weight content of Fe/AlOOH, reaction temperature, and the Al:water ratio improve the hydrogen generation performance of Al‐water reaction. Mechanism analyses show that water dissociation on AlOOH surface and galvanic microinteractions between Fe and Al promotes the hydration of surface passivating oxide film of Al particle, which improves the Al‐water reaction dynamics. The present work provides a new way to produce hydrogen from Al‐water reaction for portable devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common urological malignancies occurring in adult human kidneys worldwide. Recent research on antitumor drugs has focused on plant extracts, a class of compounds that play critical roles in cancer treatment. The present study aimed to investigate the potential antitumor effect of ginkgolic acid (GA) in RCC. Transwell invasion assay, cell counting kit-8 assay and flow cytometry were used to measure cell migration, cell viability and apoptosis, respectively. A network pharmacology approach was applied to identify pathway information, combining molecular docking techniques to screen for key target information. In the present study, GA inhibited the viability and proliferation of RCC cells (786-O and A498), both in vitro and in vivo, via G1 arrest. GA also reduced RCC cell invasion and migration. In addition, the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) was identified as a critical target protein of GA, which significantly inactivated EGFR signaling in RCC (P<0.05). Collectively, the present study provided evidence that GA exerts its anticancer function by directly targeting the EGFR signaling pathway, revealing the potential of GA therapy for RCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mitotic serine/threonine kinase aurora kinase-A (AURKA) has been identified as carcinogenic in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). AURKAPS1, a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), is the pseudo-gene of AURKA, which play important roles in the cancer. Its underlying functions and mechanisms in liver cancer progression remain largely unknown. The mRNA expression of AURKAPS1 in HCC tumor tissues was significantly higher, which is associated with tumor size and TNM stage. The high expression of AURKAPS1 promotes cell movement, migration and invasion. AURKAPS1 can increases the protein expression of RAC1, promotes the activation of ERK, and enhance the formation of membrane ruffles by binding with miR-182, miR-155 and miR-142 competively. Thus, AURKAPS1 could be a useful marker, and the combination of AURKAPS1/miRNAs (miR-142, miR-155 and miR-182) may be a new theoretical basis for the treatment of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have vastly expanded our view of RNA world in intracellular signal regulating networks. Here, we functionally characterized a normally highly expressed miRNA, miR-30a-5p (MIMAT0000087), which exhibits downregulated expression profiles in prostate cancer samples. MiR-30a-5p knockdown and overexpression in PC-3 cell line alters cell proliferation supporting a tumour suppressor role. We also discovered that PCLAF is the direct target of miR-30a-5p. Notably, PC-3 cell proliferation is inhibited by miR-30a-5p/PCLAF axis. miR-30a-5p represents a novel molecule of functionally important miRNAs which may shed light on the novel therapeutic targets for prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Provide correct relative order of acidity among the hydroxyl groups in oxyluciferin. • Propose the mechanism of determining major emissive species. • Explain blue-shift of emission spectra based on existence of dominant dianion in basic pH. • Explain the dependence of the emission colors on the excitation energy. The magnitude of the acidity of the oxyluciferin in water in the ground and excited state is investigated, and it is found for the first time using computational approach that the enol group of the phenol-enol species is the most acidic in the ground state, but the deprotonation of the phenol of the phenol-keto form is the most favored in the excited state. The relative order of the acidity among the hydroxyl groups in the oxyluciferin is attributed to the sequence of the O H bond lengths in the enol and phenol group of the phenol-enol form, and the phenol group of the phenol-keto species. The mechanism of determining the dominant emissive species in the excited state is proposed, and the dependence of emission light colors on the photoexcitation energy is elucidated by the high relative concentration of six chemical forms in the ground state and the absorption efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To compare the immediate and short term effectiveness of Shi's Daoyin therapy (DT) rather than the Melbourne Protocol (MP) in terms of pain, mobility, and isometric strength of cervical muscles in nonacute nonspecific neck pain patients. Material and Methods. A total of 114 nonacute nonspecific neck pain patients aged 20~50 years were recruited and randomly assigned to be treated by either Shi's DT or the MP. 56 cases and 54 cases received treatment for 3 weeks and were evaluated before and after intervention and at 3-week follow-up in Shi's DT group and MP group, respectively. The outcome measures were Chinese version of the Neck Disability Index (NDI), cervical range of motion (ROM), maximal voluntary isometric force (MVIF), and pain intensity (Numeric Pain Rating Scale, NPRS). Results. All outcomes of both groups showed statistically significant improvements after the intervention and at 3-week follow-up (P < 0.05), while no statistically significant difference was found in NDI between groups. When followed up after 3 weeks, the ROM in axial rotation was significantly greater in the Shi's DT group (P < 0.05), and the NPRS in the Shi's DT group was significantly lower than the MP group (P < 0.05). At the end of the treatment period, the MVIF in lateral bending in the Shi's DT group had a lower value (P = 0.044) than in the MP group, but there was no significant difference in flexion and extension between the two groups. Conclusions. Both Shi's DT and MP groups demonstrated an obvious reduction in pain intensity and improvements in neck mobility after a short term follow-up period. The improvement of Shi's DT in disability and pain during functional activities is generally similar to that of the MP for the treatment of nonacute nonspecific neck pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]