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The Chinese Loess Plateau has undergone extensive revegetation to restore degraded land and enhance carbon sequestration. However, soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestrated in the soil profiles of deep-rooted plants has not been fully studied. Here, we investigated the SOC within a 0–23 m profile in farmlands and apple orchards converted from farmlands with different ages (A5, <5 years; A10, ~10 years; A15, ~15 years; A20, >20 years) and the controlling factors on three loess tablelands (Changwu, Qingyang, and Luochuan). The results show that SOC stocks among farmlands and orchards showed no significant difference (p = 0.88); however, SOC stocks showed a trend with tree ages, i.e., a decrease for A5 and A10 but an increase for A15 and A20. For the vertical variability, the SOC stock was the highest within 0–1 m, regardless of the standing age; however, the SOC stock in this layer only accounted for 8.8% of the total SOC stock (97.93 ± 9.18 kg m−2). Climate accounted for 82% of the variations and controlled the changes in SOC in the 0–1 m range, while soil texture dominated the SOC in the soil below 1 m, accounting for 57% of the SOC variations. The variations in SOC in the thick, unsaturated zones provide implications for future land use management and the sustainability of apple orchards in arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Diabetic wounds are characterized by chronic trauma, with long-term non-healing attributed to persistent inflammation and recurrent bacterial infections. Exacerbation of the inflammatory response is largely due to increased levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this study, catalase (CAT) was used as a biological template to synthesize nanozyme-supported natural enzymes (CAT-Mn(SH) x) using a biomimetic mineralization method. Subsequently, polymyxin B (CAT-Mn(SH) x @PMB) was immobilized on its surface through electrostatic assembly. CAT-Mn(SH) x @PMB demonstrates the ability for slow and sustained release of hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S). Finally, CAT-Mn(SH) x @PMB loaded microneedles (MNs) substrate were synthesized using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), and named CAT-(MnSH) x @PMB-MNs. It exhibited enhanced enzyme and antioxidant activities, along with effective antibacterial properties. Validation findings indicate that it can up-regulate the level of M2 macrophages and reduce the level of pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Additionally, it promotes angiogenesis and rapid nerve regeneration, thereby facilitating wound healing through its dual anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects. Hence, this study introduces a time–space tissue-penetrating and soluble microneedle patch with dual anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects for the treatment of diabetic wounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The demographical and geographical distributions of health resources are important aspects of healthcare access. Few studies have been published on health resource allocation in TCM hospitals in China despite public equity concerns. Methods: This article uses the Gini coefficient and agglomeration degree to analyze the health resources of TCM hospitals in China according to demographic and geographic configuration conditions in order to study the equity of the health resources of TCM from 2009 to 2018. Results: From 2009 to 2018, all regions of the TCM health resources per ten thousand people and per ten thousand square kilometers showed overall upward trends. The overall equity of the health resource allocations of TCM hospitals in China tended to improve year by year. However, there were still great differences among regions. Generally, the equity of physical resource allocation was better than the equity of human resource allocation. Additionally, the equity of health resources in TCM hospitals allocated by population was better than it was by geographic region. Conclusions: It is necessary to further optimize the structure of TCM resource allocation, and enhance the equity of resource allocation among different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afforestation is beneficial to improving soil carbon pools. However, due to the lack of deep databases, the variations in soil carbon and the combined effects of multiple factors after afforestation have yet to be adequately explored in >1 m deep soils, especially in areas with deep-rooted plants and thick vadose zones. This study examined the multivariate controls of soil organic carbon (SOC) and inorganic carbon (SIC) in 0–18 m deep under farmland, grassland, willow, and poplar in loess deposits. The novelty of this study is that the factors concurrently affecting deep soil carbon were investigated by multiwavelet coherence and structural equation models. On average, the SOC density (53.1 ± 5.0 kg m−2) was only 12% of SIC density (425.4 ± 13.8 kg m−2), with depth-dependent variations under different land use types. In the soil profiles, the variations in SOC were more obvious in the 0–6 m layer, while SIC variations were mainly observed in the 6–12 m layer. Compared with farmland (SOC: 17.0 kg m−2; SIC: 122.9 kg m−2), the plantation of deciduous poplar (SOC: 28.5 kg m−2; SIC: 144.2 kg m−2) increased the SOC and SIC density within the 0–6 m layer (p < 0.05), but grassland and evergreen willow impacted SOC and SIC density insignificantly. The wavelet coherence analysis showed that, at the large scale (>4 m), SOC and SIC intensities were affected by total nitrogen-magnetic susceptibility and magnetic susceptibility-water content, respectively. The structural equation model further identified that SOC density was directly controlled by total nitrogen (path coefficient = 0.64) and indirectly affected by magnetic susceptibility (path coefficient = 0.36). Further, SOC stimulated the SIC deposition by improving water conservation and electrical conductivity. This study provides new insights into afforestation-induced deep carbon cycles, which have crucial implications for forest management and enhancing ecosystem sustainability in arid regions. [Display omitted] • Soil organic and inorganic carbon varied with land use types and soil depths. • Combined effects of multiple factors on soil carbon were studied at various scales. • Magnetic susceptibility increased the coherence between SOC and total nitrogen. • Water content increased the coherence between SIC and magnetic susceptibility. • We revealed the internal relationship between soil organic and inorganic carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) is a major life‐threatening complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo‐HSCT). Inflammatory signaling pathways promote T‐cell activation and are involved in the pathogenesis of GVHD. Suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 (SOCS1) is a critical negative regulator for several inflammatory cytokines. However, its regulatory role in T‐cell activation and GVHD has not been elucidated. Multiomics analysis of the transcriptome and chromatin structure of granulocyte‐colony‐stimulating‐factor (G‐CSF)‐administered hyporesponsive T cells from healthy donors reveal that G‐CSF upregulates SOCS1 by reorganizing the chromatin structure around the SOCS1 locus. Parallel in vitro and in vivo analyses demonstrate that SOCS1 is critical for restraining T cell activation. Loss of Socs1 in T cells exacerbates GVHD pathogenesis and diminishes the protective role of G‐CSF in GVHD mouse models. Further analysis shows that SOCS1 inhibits T cell activation not only by inhibiting the colony‐stimulating‐factor 3 receptor (CSF3R)/Janus kinase 2 (JAK2)/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) pathway, but also by restraining activation of the inflammasome signaling pathway. Moreover, high expression of SOCS1 in T cells from patients correlates with low acute GVHD occurrence after HSCT. Overall, these findings identify that SOCS1 is critical for inhibiting T cell activation and represents a potential target for the attenuation of GVHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein synthesis and semisynthesis offer immense promise for life sciences and have impacted pharmaceutical innovation. The absence of a generally applicable method for traceless peptide conjugation with a flexible choice of junction sites remains a bottleneck for accessing many important synthetic targets, however. Here we introduce the PALME (protein activation and ligation with multiple enzymes) platform designed for sequence-unconstrained synthesis and modification of biomacromolecules. The upstream activating modules accept and process easily accessible synthetic peptides and recombinant proteins, avoiding the challenges associated with preparation and manipulation of activated peptide substrates. Cooperatively, the downstream coupling module provides comprehensive solutions for sequential peptide condensation, cyclization and protein N/C-terminal or internal functionalization. The practical utility of this methodology is demonstrated by synthesizing a series of bioactive targets ranging from pharmaceutical ingredients to synthetically challenging proteins. The modular PALME platform exhibits unprecedentedly broad accessibility for traceless protein synthesis and functionalization, and holds enormous potential to extend the scope of protein chemistry and synthetic biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reinforced concrete (RC) split-foundation frame structures are widely used in mountainous areas. There are two grounding terminals with different heights in the split-foundation frame structures. Under the earthquake, the local damage phenomenon of the structures is severe due to the uneven stiffness distribution. It is one way to improve the seismic performance of the split-foundation frame structures to install steel braces in the upper embedding floor. According to the deformation characteristics of the upper embedding floor, three types of steel braces arrangement for the split-foundation frame structures were proposed: horizontal braces, V-type braces, and V- type + horizontal braces. Then based on the ratio of lateral stiffness of steel braces and concrete frame columns, the section of steel brace was designed. A quasi-static test was carried out to analyze the influence of steel braces on the failure mode of the RC split-foundation frame. The reasonable seismic waves were selected to carry out the nonlinear dynamic time history analysis. Then the seismic response and failure mode of the split-foundation frame structures with different braces arrangements were compared. On this basis, fragility analysis was carried out, and the earthquake-induced collapse resistance capacity of split-foundation frame structures with steel braces was preliminarily evaluated. The results show that the horizontal steel brace can improve the phenomenon of damage concentration of the split-foundation frame structures. Furthermore, setting V-shaped braces can significantly reduce the damage degree of the upper embedding end columns and change the phenomenon of locally severe damage of the split-foundation frame structures. Moreover, according to the design method proposed in this paper, setting steel braces can improve the seismic collapse resistance capacity of the split-foundation frame structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the heat transfer, an innovative origami channel heat exchanger is proposed and its performance is studied experimentally and numerically. The experimental results show the maximum temperature on the origami channels' pipe wall is 2.8 °C lower than that on the flat channel with the same the heat flux of 9500 W/m2. Additionally, the temperature difference across the pipe wall of the origami channel shows a reduction of 5.7 °C compared with that across the flat channel. The simulation results show the mean heat transfer coefficient of the origami channel increases by up to 331% compared to the flat channel with the 0.012 kg/s mass flow rate. Nevertheless, the origami channel leads to an extra energy consumption penalty. To evaluate overall performances of the origami channel, this paper introduces three dimensionless efficiency factors to quantify relevant costs in terms of energy, volume and mass. It is found that the origami channel achieves much higher dimensionless mass efficiency and volume efficiency but less dimensionless energy efficiency than the flat channel. The comprehensive evaluation, which considers all the three factors, reveals that the combined efficiency factor of origami channels with folding angles ranging from 65° to 75° improves by 80% to 95% compared to the flat channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The microstructure and mechanical anisotropy of additively manufactured CoCrNi medium-entropy alloys were studied after HIP and UIT. • HIP induces the formation of large number of Cr 2 O 3 particles, and transformation of LAGBs into HAGBs. • UIT contributed to the increase in the number of LAGBs and induced the transformation of columnar grains to equiaxed grains, thus decreasing the anisotropy of AM CoCrNi MEAs. The anisotropy properties of samples in different direction is found in additively manufactured (AM) CoCrNi medium-entropy alloys (MEAs). In this study, the laser direct energy deposition AM CoCrNi MEAs have been subjected to two alternative processing methods: hot isostatic pressing (HIP) and ultrasonic impact treatment (UIT). The effect of HIP and UIT on the microstructure, grain orientation, grain boundary distribution, phase distribution and mechanical properties of AM CoCrNi MEAs were systematically studied. The results show that HIP decreased the partial mechanical anisotropy of AM CoCrNi MEAs, and YS was significantly reduced. The main reason is that the HIP induces the formation of large number of Cr 2 O 3 particles, and transformation of low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) into high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs). Surprisingly, both the yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the AM CoCrNi MEAs were increased when the UIT was added after every laser deposition of one layer (UIT-1). This is due to the combined effect of quasi-static loading and ultrasonic oscillations of UIT, which results in the dislocation multiplication and the formation of a large number of substructures. In addition, the above strengthening phenomena also lead to decrease partial mechanical anisotropy of AM CoCrNi MEAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of multistrain systems has markedly expanded the prospects of using long biosynthetic pathways to produce natural compounds. However, the cooperative use of artificially engineered microbes to synthesize xenobiotic chemicals from renewable carbohydrates is still in its infancy. Here, a microbial system is developed for the production of high‐added‐value N‐heterocycles directly from glucose. Based on a retrosynthetic analysis, eleven genes are selected, systematically modulated, and overexpressed in three Escherichia coli strains to construct an artificial pathway to produce 5‐methyl‐2‐pyrazinecarboxylic acid, a key intermediate in the production of the important pharmaceuticals Glipizide and Acipimox. Via one‐pot tandem collaborations, the designed microbes remarkably realize high‐level production of 5‐methyl‐2‐pyrazinecarboxylic acid (6.2 ± 0.1 g L−1) and its precursor 2,5‐dimethylpyrazine (7.9 ± 0.7 g L−1). This study is the first application of cooperative microbes for the total biosynthesis of functionalized N‐heterocycles and provides new insight into integrating bioretrosynthetic principles with synthetic biology to perform complex syntheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, AISI 316L stainless steel part is obtained by laser metal deposition additive manufacturing method. The microstructure of the part was observed and analyzed by an optical microscope. The tensile mechanical properties and residual stress distribution of the part were tested by tensile test and the contour method. The results show that the bulk structure is mainly columnar crystal and equiaxed crystal, and the latter layer of laser metal deposition will form a remelted zone and heat-affected zone in the former deposition zone. Tensile test results show that the tensile strength of tensile specimens parallel to laser scanning direction and perpendicular to laser scanning direction is basically the same, but the elongation of the specimens perpendicular to the laser scanning direction is relatively better. The main reason is the different distribution characteristics of columnar crystals and equiaxed crystals in the two directions. Relatively large deformation occurs on the cut surface of the specimen after low-speed wire cut. The residual stress test results indicate that tensile stress is formed in the upper part and it reaches 315 MPa at the top surface. And compressive stress is formed at the part/substrate interface and the substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Esophageal carcinoma, with a increasing incidence, is one of the most aggressive carcinomas in gastrointestinal tract. Epidemiologic studies demonstrate an association of oral pathogens with multiple diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and gastrointestinal malignancies. Nevertheless, a causal relationship between oral pathogens and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has not been elucidated. Here, we found that Porphyromonas was significantly enriched in the saliva of patients with ESCC, compared with that in normal human. In vitro studies showed that Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) promoted the proliferation and motility of ESCC cells, as evidenced by up regulated expression of key molecules implicated in NF-κB signaling pathway. These findings, for the first time, demonstrated a role of oral pathogens in inducing ESCC tumorigenesis and metastasis, which might involve regulation of NF-κB signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, in order to achieve a better understanding of the strengthening mechanism in the commercially pure (CP) Ti welds, autogenously laser beam and laser-MIG hybrid welding of 4.2 mm thick CP-Ti plates were performed and the correlation between microstructure, texture distribution and the mechanical properties were systematically investigated. Microstructural coarsening and increase in microhardness were observed in the HAZ and WZ. The tensile test results suggested the base metal was the weak point of the joint for both welding conditions. The EBSD observations confirmed that a large number of 101¯2 and 112¯2 twin grains occurred in the HAZ and WZ of both welded joints, while a higher concentration of these twin grains were found in the laser-MIG hybrid joints. High concentration of the twin grain boundaries can act as barrier to stop dislocation slip during deformation and therefore contribute to the strengthening of the welds. The existence of very small twin grains and acicular α phase in HAZ and WZ would equivalently reduce the averaged grain size and therefore induce an increase in strength based on Hall-Petch's law. In addition, the averaged Schmid factor of BM is higher than that of the WZ and HAZ in both welding joints suggesting that the grain boundary sliding will take place preferably in BM during deformation so that the necking and fracture occurred in base metal during tensile tests of both welding joint specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Crack-free CoCrNi laser directed energy deposition additive parts successfully obtained at high heat input. • High-angular grain boundary stress concentrations and excessive oxygen content in the additive parts were the main reasons for the crack formation. • Three crack suppression strategies could be proposed from this study, namely, reducing the heat input, performing additive experiments under argon-filled environment, and decreasing the oxygen content of the powder. Laser-directed energy deposition (l -DED) additive manufacturing of the CoCrNi medium entropy alloy is prone to cracking, especially with high laser heat input. Electron backscatter diffraction analysis showed crack formation and stress concentration at the high-angle grain boundaries. In addition, element content test results exhibited a higher oxygen content in the additive parts with high laser heat input. Electron probe X-ray microanalysis indicated that the oxygen was distributed uniformly in the additive parts. Corresponding molecular dynamics simulation results revealed that an increase in oxygen content led to a decrease in the tensile strength of the additive parts. Two methods of argon-filled environment l -DED experiments and low-oxygen CoCrNi feeding power (argon gas atomization) were used. Results showed that the number and size of cracks were significantly reduced in the additive parts obtained by a high heat input process when the l -DED was conducted in an argon-filled atmosphere and when powders with lower oxygen content were used. For the crack-free additive parts, the ultimate tensile strengths reached 625 MPa with high laser heat input. Three crack suppression strategies could be proposed from this study, namely, reducing the heat input, performing additive experiments under argon-filled environment, and decreasing the oxygen content of the powder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new methodology using a direct method for obtaining the best found trajectory planning and maximum dynamic load-carrying capacity (DLCC) is presented for a 5-degree of freedom (DOF) hybrid robot manipulator. A nonlinear constrained multiobjective optimization problem is formulated with four objective functions, namely, travel time, total energy involved in the motion, joint jerks, and joint acceleration. The vector of decision variables is defined by the sequence of the time-interval lengths associated with each two consecutive via-points on the desired trajectory of the 5-DOF robot generalized coordinates. Then this vector of decision variables is computed in order to minimize the cost function (which is the weighted sum of these four objective functions) subject to constraints on joint positions, velocities, acceleration, jerks, forces/torques, and payload mass. Two separate approaches are proposed to deal with the trajectory planning problem and the maximum DLCC calculation for the 5-DOF robot manipulator using an evolutionary optimization technique. The adopted evolutionary algorithm is the elitist nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). A numerical application is performed for obtaining best found solutions of trajectory planning and maximum DLCC calculation for the 5-DOF hybrid robot manipulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chloride attack and carbonization are the main factors which affect the durability of concrete structures, and the respective theoretical models are systematically established. However, the quantitative analysis and models about the coupling effect of chloride attack and carbonization are less, so the precision and level of durability analysis of reinforced concrete are restricted. Diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) model can finely simulate the process of gas diffusion and condensation with randomness and fractal characteristics, which is suitable for revealing the durability evolution process of the chloride attack, carbonization, and the coupling action in concrete. Based on the principle of DLA, considering the factors such as diffusion depth, concrete properties, and exposure conditions which influence the characteristics of chloride diffusion and carbonization, as well as the coupling effect, an integrated DLA model is established. The concentration of carbon dioxide and chloride at any time and any location can be obtained and dynamically displayed based on the DLA model. The performance predict method for concrete and steel bars considering fatigue effect is presented based on DLA, according to the demand for bridge durability analysis. Numerical examples show that the method can dynamically and intensively simulate the durability evolution process of reinforced concrete bridge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of cloud storage and cloud computing technology, users tend to store data in the cloud for more convenient services. In order to ensure the integrity of cloud data, scholars have proposed cloud data integrity verification schemes to protect users' data security. The storage environment of the Internet of Things, in terms of big data and medical big data, demonstrates a stronger demand for data integrity verification schemes, but at the same time, the comprehensive function of data integrity verification schemes is required to be higher. Existing data integrity verification schemes are mostly applied in the cloud storage environment but cannot successfully be applied to the environment of the Internet of Things in the context of big data storage and medical big data storage. To solve this problem when combined with the characteristics and requirements of Internet of Things data storage and medical data storage, we designed an SM2-based offline/online efficient data integrity verification scheme. The resulting scheme uses the SM4 block cryptography algorithm to protect the privacy of the data content and uses a dynamic hash table to realize the dynamic updating of data. Based on the SM2 signature algorithm, the scheme can also realize offline tag generation and batch audits, reducing the computational burden of users. In security proof and efficiency analysis, the scheme has proven to be safe and efficient and can be used in a variety of application scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jerk is the time rate of acceleration and mainly represents the nonstationary component in high frequency band of the earthquake wave. The study on jerk and its response spectra can enhance the recognition of the nonstationary ground motion. The mechanical meaning and research value of jerk are described. Jerk is recommended to be solved by establishing state-space equations and Runge-Kutta method. The solution method of elastic and inelastic jerk response spectra under ground motion is established, and the accurate jerk spectrum should be calculated directly according to numerical computing instead of pseudo-acceleration spectrum. The characteristics of jerk response spectra are studied according to the influencing factors, such as site condition, amplification factor, ductility factor, and reduction factor. The concept of impact reduction factor is presented. The statistical results show that the jerk spectrum has similar rules as the acceleration spectrum, and the amplitude is relative to the predominant period, especially for structures with short or medium period. If the ductility is improved, the effective jerk will reduce obviously, and the impact reduction factor will be enhanced. Different from the strength reduction factor, the impact reduction factor is nearly not relevant to the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bubble flow control is a flow control mechanism commonly used in torus network. Bubble flow control ensures the orderly flow of packets in the ring by efficiently allocating intra-ring buffer resources and solves the intra-ring deadlock problem. However, inter-ring communication with bubble flow control is subject to strict limitations. When packets are communicated across the rings, starvation may occur, resulting in prolonged blocking within the ring. Inefficient inter-ring communication not only generates Head-of-Line blocking, but also affects the whole intra-ring communication through the backpressure mechanism. We propose a Transit Ring design that establishes an alternate ring link in the torus network by reusing free buffers in the router. By evacuating packets blocking inter-ring communication into the Transit Ring, starvation, as well as Head-of-Line blocking, in the network is eliminated. Compared to state-of-the-art bubble flow control, our proposed design improves saturation throughput by an average of 15.9% in a 4 × 4 torus network and 17.06% in an 8 × 8 torus network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The LaBaCo2O5+δ−x wt.% Bi2O3 (LBCO-xBi2O3, x=10, 20, 30, and 40) were prepared as composite cathodes for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) via the conventional mechanical mixing method. The effect of Bi2O3 on polarization resistance, overpotential, and long-term stability of the LBCO cathode was investigated. An effective sintering aid for LBCO cathode, Bi2O3 not only lowers its sintering temperature by ~200°C, but also improves the electrochemical performance within the intermediate temperature range of 600–800°C. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements showed that the addition of 20wt% Bi2O3 to LBCO exhibited the lowest area-specific resistance of 0.020Ωcm2 at 800°C in air, which was about a seventh of that of the LBCO cathode at the same condition. At a current density of 0.2Acm−2, the cathodic overpotential of LBCO-20Bi2O3 was about 12.6mV at 700°C, while the corresponding value for LBCO was 51.0mV. Compared to B2O3–Bi2O3–PbO frit, the addition of Bi2O3 significantly improved the long-term stability of cathode. Therefore, LBCO-20Bi2O3 can be a promising cathode for IT-SOFCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We fabricated amorphous composite coating by laser cladding plus remelting process. [•] We measured the corrosion resistance properties of the coating by EIS. [•] We measured the corrosion resistance properties of the BMGs ribbon for comparison. [•] A Warburg element can be drawn in the equivalent electrical circuit of the coating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Cost-effective mechanical mixing method used for preparing Cu–SDC cermet anodes. [•] Optimization of the cermet anodes microstructure and composition. [•] Outstanding low-temperature electrochemical performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A new path planning method based on obstacles for a grid map is proposed. • After optimization by convex hulls, the simple point set is generated. • The hierarchical obstacles are used to plan the path quickly in a small scope. • Multi-objective D* Lite algorithm is adopted to optimize the length and smoothness. • The path is smoothed by cubic Bezier curves to fit the real robot. In the past few decades, many results have been achieved in the research of mobile robot path planning, and they have been applied in simple scenarios, such as factory AGV, bank guide robot. However, path planning in highly dense and complex scenarios has become an important challenge for applications. Robots face dense map and complex obstacles and hardly find out an optimal path within a reasonable period, such as unmanned vehicles in freight ports and rescue robots in earthquake environment. Therefore, a multi-obstacle path planning and optimization method is proposed. In order to simplify complex environmental obstacles, the obstacles will be divided into basis obstacles and extension obstacles. Firstly, the basis obstacles and their contour point sets are determined according to the starting point and goal point. Furthermore, the basis obstacles are optimized by convex hulls, and then the corresponding basis point set is obtained. Secondly, the extension obstacles are determined by the basis point set, starting point and goal point, and then the corresponding extension point set is generated. After that, a path planner is designed by the multi-objective D* Lite algorithm for distance and smoothness in order to get reasonable and optimized path in a complex environment. Moreover, the path is smoothed by cubic bezier curves to fit the kinematic model of the robot. Finally, The proposed method conduct comparative experiments with other algorithms to verify its accuracy and computational efficiency of planning in complex environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: ZnO doping can significantly diminish the deleterious effect caused by impurities on the grain-boundary conduction of polycrystalline Ce0.8Gd0.2O1.9 electrolyte. Analysis by field emission transmission electron microscopy equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy reveals that the siliceous and ZnO phases are separately aggregated at the triple grain junction areas in ZnO-added specimens. This finding implies that the scavenging process does not occur via the expected formation of zinc silicates, but via a novel mechanism in which resistive siliceous phases strongly aggregate in non-wetting configurations induced by ZnO. A three-dimensional schematic is established to elucidate the role of ZnO in the CeO2–Gd2O3 system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In recent years, the development of computer technology has promoted the informatization and intelligentization of hospital management systems and thus produced a large amount of medical data. These medical data are valuable resources for research. We can obtain inducers and unknown symptoms that can help discover diseases and make earlier diagnoses. Hypertensive disorder in pregnancy (HDP) is a common obstetric complication in pregnant women, which has severe adverse effects on the life safety of pregnant women and fetuses. However, the early and mid-term symptoms of HDP are not obvious, and there is no effective solution for it except for terminating the pregnancy. Therefore, detecting and preventing HDP is of great importance. This study aims at the preprocessing of pregnancy examination data, which serves as a part of HDP prediction. We found that the problem of missing data has a large impact on HDP prediction. Unlike general data, pregnancy examination data have high dimension and a high missing rate, are in a time series, and often have many non-linear relations. Current methods are not able to process the data effectively. To this end, we propose an improved bi-LSTM-based missing value imputation approach. It combines traditional machine learning and bidirectional LSTM to deal with missing data of pregnancy examination data. Our missing value imputation method obtains a good effect and improves the accuracy of the later prediction of HDP using examination data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two methods for point and interval estimation of relative risk for log-linear exposure-response relations in meta-analyses of published ordinal categorical exposure-response data have been proposed. The authors compared the results of a meta-analysis of published data using each of the 2 methods with the results that would be obtained if the primary data were available and investigated the circumstances under which the approximations required for valid use of each meta-analytic method break down. They then extended the methods to handle nonlinear exposure-response relations. In the present article, methods are illustrated using studies of the relation between alcohol consumption and colorectal and lung cancer risks from the ongoing Pooling Project of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer. In these examples, the differences between the results of a meta-analysis of summarized published data and the pooled analysis of the individual original data were small. However, incorrectly assuming no correlation between relative risk estimates for exposure categories from the same study gave biased confidence intervals for the trend and biased P values for the tests for nonlinearity and between-study heterogeneity when there was strong confounding by other model covariates. The authors illustrate the use of 2 publicly available user-friendly programs (Stata and SAS) to implement meta-analysis for dose-response data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The composite cathodes LaBaCo2O5+δ -x wt.% Ag (LBCO-xAg, x =20, 30, 40, 50) were prepared by mechanical mixing method for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs). The experiment results indicated that the addition of a small amount of B2O3-Bi2O3-PbO (BBP) frit to LBCO-xAg can effectively improve the adhesion and strength of cathode membrane without damaging its porous structure. The BBP frit was proved effective for lowering the sintering temperature of LBCO-xAg to 900°C. According to the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cathodic polarization analysis, the LBCO-30Ag exhibited the best performance and the optimal BBP frit content was 2.5wt.%. For LBCO-30Ag with 2.5wt.% BBP frit, the area-specific resistance based on Sm0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (SDC) electrolyte decreased by about 57.6% at 700°C, 60.5% at 750°C and 75.9% at 800°C compared to LBCO, and its cathodic overpotential was 10.7mV at a current density of 0.2Acm−2 at 700°C, while the corresponding value for LBCO was 51.0mV. The addition of Ag and BBP frit to LBCO had no significant effect on the thermal expansion. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A superacid mesostructured catalyst was directly synthesized by adding sulfuric acid to mesoporous zirconia–silica synthesis mixtures, and was characterized by HRTEM, XRD, UV–Vis, nitrogen sorption, NH3–TPD, and Pyridine–FTIR. The XRD patterns and electron diffraction micrographs of the calcined samples showed the ordered mesoporous structure and tetragonal crystalline in frameworks. The ammonia TPD, pyridine in situ FTIR, and paraffin isomerization illustrated a new acidic property of the samples. The synthesis of the mesoporous materials, which have stable crystalline frameworks, high surface area, and strong acidity, is very likely to have important technological implications for catalytic reactions of large molecules. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Designing the electronic structures of the van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures to obtain high-efficiency solar cells showed a fascinating prospect. In this work, we screened the potential of vdW heterostructures for solar cell application by combining the group III–VI MXA (M = Al, Ga, In and XA = S, Se, Te) and elementary group VI XB (XB = Se, Te) monolayers based on first-principle calculations. The results highlight that InSe/Te vdW heterostructure presents type-II electronic band structure feature with a band gap of 0.88 eV, where tellurene and InSe monolayer are as absorber and window layer, respectively. Interestingly, tellurene has a 1.14 eV direct band gap to produce the photoexcited electron easily. Furthermore, InSe/Te vdW heterostructure shows remarkably light absorption capacities and distinguished maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 13.39%. Our present study will inspire researchers to design vdW heterostructures for solar cell application in a purposeful way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CNT-AlSi10Mg composites fabricated by SLM have drawn a lot attention in structural application due to its excellent strength, elasticity and thermal conductivities. A planetary ball milling method was used to prepare the carbon nanotube (CNT)-AlSi10Mg powders, and the CNT-AlSi10Mg composites were fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). The density, microstructure and mechanical properties of CNT-AlSi10Mg composites were studied. The density of the test samples increased at first and then decreased with increasing scan speed. When the laser scan speed was 800 mm/s, the test sample exhibited the highest density. The hardness increased by approximately 26%, and the tensile strength increased by approximately 13% compared to those values exhibited by the unreinforced AlSi10Mg. The grains of CNT-AlSi10Mg composite are finer than that in the AlSi10Mg. The CNTs were distributed along the grain boundaries of AlSi10Mg. Some of the CNTs reacted with Al element and transformed into Al4C3 during SLM, while some of the CNTs still maintained their tubular structure. The combination of CNTs and Al4C3 has a significant improvement in mechanical properties of the composites through fine grain strengthening, second phase strengthening, and load transfer strengthening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A composite coating with enhanced mechanical properties including high hardness and excellent wear resistance was produced by laser cladding of mixed Ni45 and high-carbon ferrochrome powders on an ASTM 1045 steel substrate. Different quantities, ranging from 10 to 50 wt.% of high-carbon ferrochrome powder were added to the Ni45 powder to investigate the effect of mixture content on the cladding performance. The microstructure of the coatings were examined using scanning electron microscope, and the wear resistance was compared using a wear tester apparatus among the different cases. The results showed that the microstructure of the coating with 30 wt.% high-carbon ferrochrome content was mainly fine solid solution phase. With the increase of high-carbon ferrochrome content to 40 wt.% and above, cracks appeared on the cladding surface due to a large amount of chromium carbides formed during the process. The microhardness was enhanced remarkably by laser cladding the composite coating on the 1045 substrate, with 2.4 times higher than the hardness of the substrate when 30 wt.% high-carbon ferrochrome content was added. The best wear performance was achieved when the high-carbon ferrochrome content was 30 wt.%, demonstrating the smallest surface roughness and depth of wear marks. With further increased high-carbon ferrochrome content, microcracking and delamination were observed on the worn surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local patch-based methods of object detection and pose estimation are promising. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, traditional red-green-blue and depth (RGB-D) patches contain scene interference (foreground occlusion and background clutter) and have little rotation invariance. To solve these problems, a new edge patch is proposed and experimented with in this study. The edge patch is a local sampling RGB-D patch centered at the edge pixel of the depth image. According to the normal direction of the depth edge, the edge patch is sampled along a canonical orientation, making it rotation invariant. Through a process of depth detection, scene interference is eliminated from the edge patch, which improves the robustness. The framework of the edge patch-based method is described, and the method was evaluated on three public datasets. Compared with existing methods, the proposed method achieved a higher average F1-score (0.956) on the Tejani dataset and a better average detection rate (62%) on the Occlusion dataset, even in situations of serious scene interference. These results showed that the proposed method has higher detection accuracy and stronger robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To autonomously move and operate objects in cluttered indoor environments, a service robot requires the ability of 3D scene perception. Though 3D object detection can provide an object-level environmental description to fill this gap, a robot always encounters incomplete object observation, recurring detections of the same object, error in detection, or intersection between objects when conducting detection continuously in a cluttered room. To solve these problems, we propose a two-stage 3D object detection algorithm which is to fuse multiple views of 3D object point clouds in the first stage and to eliminate unreasonable and intersection detections in the second stage. For each view, the robot performs a 2D object semantic segmentation and obtains 3D object point clouds. Then, an unsupervised segmentation method called Locally Convex Connected Patches (LCCP) is utilized to segment the object accurately from the background. Subsequently, the Manhattan Frame estimation is implemented to calculate the main orientation of the object and subsequently, the 3D object bounding box can be obtained. To deal with the detected objects in multiple views, we construct an object database and propose an object fusion criterion to maintain it automatically. Thus, the same object observed in multi-view is fused together and a more accurate bounding box can be calculated. Finally, we propose an object filtering approach based on prior knowledge to remove incorrect and intersecting objects in the object dataset. Experiments are carried out on both SceneNN dataset and a real indoor environment to verify the stability and accuracy of 3D semantic segmentation and bounding box detection of the object with multi-view fusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has accentuated the effects of extreme heat on health. Health insurance, functioning as a risk management tool, has the potential to alleviate these impacts. Consequently, this paper investigates the correlation between extreme heat events and the demand for health insurance in China. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we have observed a substantial increase in the likelihood of residents purchasing health insurance during extreme heat events. To be specific, for every extra day of extreme heat events annually, there is a 0.3% increase in the probability of purchasing health insurance. This effect is not uniform across different demographic groups. It is particularly pronounced among middle-aged and elderly individuals, rural residents, those with lower educational levels, higher income brackets, and individuals residing in underprivileged areas with limited access to green spaces and healthcare facilities. Furthermore, our study indicates that the increased frequency of extreme heat events not only impacts individuals' physical health but also triggers negative emotions, which in turn drive risk-averse behavior related to health insurance purchases. These findings carry substantial policy implications for mitigating the economic consequences of climate change. • Extreme heat increases the likelihood of residents purchasing health insurance. • Each additional day of extreme heat boosts health insurance purchases by 0.3%. • This effect varies among different populations. • Mechanistic analyses indicate extreme heat impacting physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual behavior intention inference is crucial for enabling escort robots to interact naturally with humans, which is very challenging due to the big inner-class similarity and the small intra-class distinguishability of successive actions in the assistive scenario. To attain a reliable behavior intention inference, not only the current state of behaviors is concerned, but also the semantic information in both spatial and temporal domains plays an important role. This paper presents a segmentation–detection–recognition hierarchical system to represent the spatio-temporal semantic features for formulating descriptions of body parts, trajectories and deep relationships of sub-behaviors. Specifically, a dense trajectory matching scheme based on temporal sampling and Binarized Normed Gradients (BING) algorithm is formulated to segment the 3-Dimensional (3D) behavior cubes, based on which, local trajectories are obtained by clustering dense trajectories according to the distance similarity, and the body parts are then detected by multi-kernel learning of the encoded local features. Moreover, a global three-stream context Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) is proposed for behavior classification by designing a texture module using expansion, connection and 1D convolution implementations. Based on transfer learning, scene information is also recognized efficiently. Finally, the semantic descriptors are modeled by two cascaded And-Or Graphs (AoGs) constraining the spatial scenarios and temporal sequences. Our unified approach is demonstrated on two public benchmarks containing long-term activities and on an escort robot for real-world applications. • A segmentation–detection–recognition hierarchical framework is proposed to infer behavior intentions for natural human–robot visual interaction. • We design an efficient body part detection scheme by segmenting 3D behavior cubes and fusing local features. • We present a new three-stream context CNN capturing global spatio-temporal relationships of sub-behaviors. • An inference model with two cascaded AoGs constraining spatial scenarios and temporal sequences is constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual-template-guided strategy is utilized to fabricate the electrocatalyst of NCS@Co/CoO x , and an excellent ORR performance and superb cycling durability for liquid and flexible solid-state ZABs with this catalyst are achieved. [Display omitted] • A dual-template-guided strategy is utilized to fabricate bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst. • Co/CoO/Co 3 O 4 nano-heterogeneous interfaces are in-situ formed in the network of NCS. • APTES-modified NCS facilitates the nucleation of ZIF-67 on support and the formation of CoO x. • Excellent ORR performance and superb cycling durability for ZABs with our catalyst. Developing highly efficient oxygen electrocatalysts is of vital importance for rechargeable Zn-air batteries (ZABs). Herein, Co/CoO x nano-heterojunctions encapsulated into nitrogen-doped carbon sheets (NCS@Co/CoO x) are fabricated via a dual-template-guided approach by using zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) as templates. The synergistic integration of structural and compositional advantages endows such catalyst with superior catalytic properties to benchmark noble-metal catalysts. To be specific, the hierarchical micro/mesopores affords massive mass transport channels and maximizes the exposure of accessible active sites, whereas the NCS matrix accelerates electron transfer and prevents the self-aggregation of active species during the electrocatalytic reaction. Moreover, abundant and synergistic Co-based active sites (CoO, Co 3 O 4 , Co-N x) greatly promote the catalytic activity. As the cathode of both liquid and flexible solid-state ZABs, excellent device properties are achieved, outperforming those assembled with commercial Pt/C+RuO 2 catalyst. This work presents a feasible and cost-effective strategy for developing oxygen electrocatalysts derived from ZIFs templates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the elasticity modulus of an epoxy molding compound (EMC), an electronic packaging polymer, under high-temperature air storage conditions, are discussed in this study. The elasticity modulus of EMC had two different compositions (different filling contents) under different temperatures (175, 200, and 225 °C) and aging times (100, 500, and 1500 h), which were analyzed by using dynamic mechanic analysis technology. The results revealed that the elasticity modulus increased in the thermal aging process, with an increase in the temperature and the aging time. The increments of the glassy and rubbery states were similar. However, the growing rate was significantly different, and the growth of the rubbery state was significantly higher than that of the glassy state. The filling content influenced the degree of aging of the materials significantly. At a low filling content, long-term aging under high temperatures completely changed the material structure, and the mechanical properties of the polymer were reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental perception is a vital feature for service robots when working in an indoor environment for a long time. The general 3D reconstruction is a low-level geometric information description that cannot convey semantics. In contrast, higher level perception similar to humans requires more abstract concepts, such as objects and scenes. Moreover, the 2D object detection based on images always fails to provide the actual position and size of an object, which is quite important for a robot's operation. In this paper, we focus on the 3D object detection to regress the object's category, 3D size, and spatial position through a convolutional neural network (CNN). We propose a multi-channel CNN for 3D object detection, which fuses three input channels including RGB, depth, and bird's eye view (BEV) images. We also propose a method to generate 3D proposals based on 2D ones in the RGB image and semantic prior. Training and test are conducted on the modified NYU V2 dataset and SUN RGB-D dataset in order to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm. We also carry out the actual experiments in a service robot to utilize the proposed 3D object detection method to enhance the environmental perception of the robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and preparation of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as self-sacrificed precursors/templates has been considered as a promising strategy in recent years for fabricating metal/carbon electrocatalysts with intriguing architectures and outstanding properties. However, the serious aggregation during the calcination and the poor electron conductivity are still obstacles for these electrocatalysts which need to be urgently solved. Herein, an in situ confinement pyrolysis protocol is reported to transform ZIF-67 nanocrystals on hollow carbon spheres (HCS) to cobalt and nitrogen-enriched carbon shell, resulting in the formation of hierarchical HCS@Co/NC. This is the first study of electrochemistry for HCS decorated with MOFs or MOFs derivatives. In the structure, metallic Co nanoparticles (NPs) and N species are strongly anchored and dispersed in the network of nanocarbon shell, which not only affords a boosting conductivity but also greatly alleviates the aggregation of active sites. Meanwhile, the unique structure with hollow feature provides an effective pathway for mass transport and shortens the transmission path of electrons. Thanks to the advantages of structure and composition, the HCS@Co/NC catalyst exhibits a superb performance of oxygen reduction reaction, which outperforms the commercial Pt/C benchmark. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-arc hybrid welding (LAHW), being a high-efficiency with excellent properties of high welding speed, deep penetration, and good bridging performance, has been paid close attention by domestic and overseas scholars. So far, the lack of suppression and detection of welding defects is still considered the critical technical obstacle that affects its welding quality, particularly for workpieces with industrial requirements. One vital method to conquer this challenging issue is the visual analysis technique with the combination of numerical simulation technique, which has been researched by abundant study outcomes. The primary target of detecting is to collect basic information and to understand the formation mechanism of welding defects. This review firstly describes welding defects online detection technology, such as high-speed image, electrical signal, acoustical signal, and optical signal detection technology. Then much emphasis has been placed on the internal mechanism of forming welding defects, including undercut, humping, porosity, and spatter defects. Particularly, the defect suppression methods are presented in order to restrain and address the welding defect problems. Finally, the current difficulties and potential remedies are discussed to supply an understanding on what still needs to be improved in the LAHW process. This comprehensive review is to offer guidance for those trying to reduce welding defects as they enhance the welding joints' quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previously suggested modifiable risk factors for prostate cancer could have resulted from detection bias because diagnosis requires a biopsy. We investigated modifiable risk factors for a subsequent cancer diagnosis among men with an initially negative prostate biopsy. Methods: In total, 10,396 participants of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study with an initial negative prostate biopsy after 1994 were followed for incident prostate cancer until 2017. Potential risk factors were based on previous studies in the general population. Outcomes included localised, advanced, and lethal prostate cancer. Results: With 1851 prostate cancer cases (168 lethal) diagnosed over 23 years of follow-up, the 20-year risk of any prostate cancer diagnosis was 18.5% (95% CI: 17.7–19.3). Higher BMI and lower alcohol intake tended to be associated with lower rates of localised disease. Coffee, lycopene intake and statin use tended to be associated with lower rates of lethal prostate cancer. Results for other risk factors were less precise but compatible with and of similar direction as for men in the overall cohort. Conclusions: Risk factors for future prostate cancer among men with a negative biopsy were generally consistent with those for the general population, supporting their validity given reduced detection bias, and could be actionable, if confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quickly and accurately identifying structural status after natural disasters plays crucial roles in disaster rescue. Previously, the authors developed a substructure identification method for shear structures, which uses the frequency responses of short structural acceleration responses to estimate structural parameters inductively. However, the numerical studies found that the method could only provide moderately accurate results. In this paper, a thorough uncertainty analysis is performed to reveal the key factors that influence its identification accuracy. Based on these results, a new substructure method is proposed herein, which utilizes the cross power spectrum densities of structural responses, estimated by the multi-taper method, to formulate substructure identification problems. The error analysis is also conducted for the multi-taper method based method, explaining why this method can significantly improve identification accuracy, compared with the frequency response based method. Moreover, although the multi-taper method based method is originally derived based on stationary structural responses, a further analysis shows that it can be extended to non-stationary responses, greatly broadening the method's application range. Finally, the simulation study of a 20-story shear structure and the shake table tests on a three-story bench-scaled structure are conducted, which verified that the proposed multi-taper method based method indeed significantly improves the substructure identification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laser-arc hybrid welding technology (LAHW), being a promising joining method, has paid close attention to the shipbuilding manufacturing with high quality. The behavior of droplet transfer exerts enormous influence on the weld appearance and dynamic process stability. However, there has been controversy whether high speed (v > 3 m/min) promotes or hinders the droplet transfer under high laser power. In this study, the influencing mechanism of the high speed (3~5 m/min) on the droplet transfer behavior based on a new droplet force theory was systematically investigated. Firstly, the welding speed affects the energy density, and the welding speed is inversely proportional to the amount of metal vapor. Metal vapor reaction force would decrease with the increasing of welding speed. In addition, the deviation of droplet was determined by the competition between metal vapor and surrounding gas. The exposure time between metal vapor and surrounding gas would be reduced as welding speed increased, which decreased the impact of metal vapor reaction force. Similarly, the droplet transfer frequency is related to the droplet force analysis. The droplet transfer period was shortened to 3.2 ms as welding speed increased to 5 m/min, and the transfer frequency was 312 Hz. This study can provide guidance on the process mechanism of high-power LAHW with high-speed, which will enhance process stability and improve weld quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Pt@SSZ-13@β with only spillover hydrogenation is designed and prepared. • Effects of hydrogenation modes on naphthalene hydrocracking are investigated. • Hydrogenation modes influence the reaction pathway of naphthalene hydrocracking. • Pt@SSZ-13@β gave higher yields to BTX than Pt/(SSZ-13@β) and (Pt/SSZ-13)@β. A Pt@SSZ-13@β core-shell catalyst is designed and successfully prepared for investigating the effects of spillover hydrogenation on hydrocracking of naphthalene. The Pt NPs encapsulated in SSZ-13 cages are inaccessible to naphthalene due to its lager size than the pore size of SSZ-13. Thus, hydrogenation functional over Pt@SSZ-13@β is mainly realized via spillover hydrogenation. Pt@SSZ-13@β exhibits higher selectivity to the desired BTX and less naphthenic products than (Pt/SSZ-13)@β and Pt/(SSZ-13@β) at above 90 % naphthalene conversion. These results indicate the hydrogenation modes resulting from the location of the supported Pt NPs in core-structure catalysts can affect the metal-acid balance, and the spillover hydrogenation can effectively suppress the deep hydrogenation of tetralin in hydrocracking of naphthalene, thereby changing the reaction path and improving the selectivity of BTX. In addition, Pt@SSZ-13@β shows a better sulfur-tolerant ability than Pt/(SSZ-13@β). This work provides a new synthetic strategy for preparing zeolite-based bifunctional catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel data-driven simulation-based diagnostic model is proposed to realize automatic and practical testability analysis (TA) of analog circuits. With this model and the corresponding methods, sufficient faults can be handily injected into the circuit under test and then be simulated to construct the sample data. Using these data, a kernel density estimation on ${K}$ -nearest neighbors classification algorithm and its leave-one-out cross-validation method are studied to evaluate the testability metrics. To handle the possible high false alarm caused by the faults that have similar samples with the fault-free case, two strategies are carried out by ignoring the faults in the ambiguity groups or/and using the posterior weights to determine the final classification results. Furthermore, a sample compression approach is proposed to reduce the computational cost. Experimental results show that more accurate and reasonable TA and verification can be achieved by comparing with the traditional testability models and the state-of-the-art classification methods. And the diagnostic application against a real circuit based on the simulation data can also reach a satisfactory level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When stimulated, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may differentiate into chondroblasts, adipocytes or osteoblasts. Leptin is an adipocyte-derived hormone, which regulates food intake and glucose homeostasis. The aim of the present study was to identify the potential role of mitogen-activated protein kinase in the leptin-induced growth of rabbit bone MSCs (rBMSCs). Various concentrations of leptin were used to culture rBMSCs and the viability of cells was observed as well as alterations in the phosphorylation state of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), c-Jun N-terminal kinase and p38. It was revealed that the growth of leptin-treated rBMSCs was primarily inhibited by phosphorylated ERK1/2, which was mediated by the leptin receptor. In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that leptin inhibits the growth of rBMSCs principally via the ERK1/2 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A feasible approach was developed for the synthesis of ordered mesoporous SBA-15-type materials using coal fly ash (CFA) as raw material. In the proposed approach, CFA was, firstly, activated by subcritical water with the addition of NaOH, which allowed an efficient extraction of silicon species from CFA under strong acidic conditions at near room temperature. Subsequently, in the synthesis system, using silicon extraction solution as the silicon precursor, the introduction of anhydrous ethanol as a co-solvent effectively inhibited the polymerization of silanol species and promoted their collaborative self-assembly with surfactant molecules by enhancing the hydrogen bond interactions. The resultant SBA-15 material had a high purity, high specific surface area (1014 m2/g) and pore volume (1.08 cm3/g), and a highly ordered mesostructure, and, therefore, exhibited an excellent removal efficiency (90.5%) and adsorption capacity (160.8 mg/g) for methylene blue (MB) from simulated wastewater. Additionally, the generation of surface acid sites from the homogenous incorporation of Al atoms onto the mesoporous walls of SBA-15 combined with the perfect retention of the ordered mesostructure endowed the obtained Al-SBA-15 material with a further boost in the removal performance of MB. The MB removal efficiency can reach ~100%, along with a maximum adsorption capacity of 190.1 mg/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]