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Most photochromic ceramics can back up post-irradiation to achieve color state transition. Unfortunately, color recovery usually requires exposure of material to external physical fields (such as light and heat), which severely limits the application as a convenient energy building material such as smart windows. Here, we report a kind of sodium niobate translucent ceramics whose photochromic effect can be completely self-recoverable without any external physical field stimulation. Based on the analysis of time-response transmittance, up-conversion emission spectra and thermoluminescence spectra, the behavior of carrier migration and trap capture/release in the process of self-recovery photochromic reaction has been proposed. It is believed that the emergence of intermediate trap level is an important factor to produce this spontaneous behavior. Moreover, by controlling the amount of rare earth doping and designing two types of materials with different carrier behaviors, Sm/Er-codoped NaNbO3 ceramics are regarded as an appropriate candidate for tracing the time of light irradiation and intelligent regulation of smart building materials. This work can promote the fundamental understanding and practical applications of self-recoverable photochromic bulk materials.

Cytokine storm induced by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a major pathological feature of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and a crucial determinant in COVID-19 prognosis. Understanding the mechanism underlying the SARS-CoV-2-induced cytokine storm is critical for COVID-19 control. Here, we identify that SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a and host hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) play key roles in the virus infection and pro-inflammatory responses. RNA sequencing shows that HIF-1α signaling, immune response, and metabolism pathways are dysregulated in COVID-19 patients. Clinical analyses indicate that HIF-1α production, inflammatory responses, and high mortalities occurr in elderly patients. HIF-1α and pro-inflammatory cytokines are elicited in patients and infected cells. Interestingly, SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a induces mitochondrial damage and Mito-ROS production to promote HIF-1α expression, which subsequently facilitates SARS-CoV-2 infection and cytokines production. Notably, HIF-1α also broadly promotes the infection of other viruses. Collectively, during SARS-CoV-2 infection, ORF3a induces HIF-1α, which in turn aggravates viral infection and inflammatory responses. Therefore, HIF-1α plays an important role in promoting SARS-CoV-2 infection and inducing pro-inflammatory responses to COVID-19.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to explore the effects on type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal hormones, and adipokines after the small intestinal bypass of different biliopancreatic limb (BPL) lengths in non-obese type 2 diabetic rats. METHOD Small intestinal bypass with the BPL length at 10cm, 20cm, 30cm, and 40cm, respectively, and sham surgery were performed in non-obese GK rats. Fasting serum was collected at 2 days preoperatively and 1, 3, 6, and 9 weeks postoperatively. Body weight and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were measured during the experiment. Glycated hemoglobin (GHb), fasting insulin (FINS), C-peptide, ghrelin, leptin, adiponectin, and somatostatin were measured postoperatively. RESULT Rats with a bypassed length of 40cm died within 5-9 weeks. No statistically significant was observed in body weight between the sham group and the bypass groups at the 9th week postoperatively. FBG, GHb, FINS, C-peptide, and HOMA-IR in the bypass groups were lower than those in the sham group postoperatively and were negatively correlated with BPL length. Ghrelin and leptin declined compared with preoperative but were not associated with BPL length. Adiponectin of the bypass groups increased after operation and was positively correlated with BPL length. Somatostatin remained stable among groups during the experiment. CONCLUSION Ghrelin and leptin of non-obese GK rats decreased postoperatively without a linear relationship with the BPL length, while adiponectin increased with positively correlation with the BPL length. In addition, somatostatin remained steady after small intestinal bypass. Further studies are expected to confirm the effect of the BPL length of small intestinal bypass on gastrointestinal hormones and adipokines.

Traditional power market risk studies focus on systematic risk analysis which relies on value-at-risk (VaR) or conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) to measure potential financial losses resulting from renewable generation uncertainties. However, systematic risk only reflects the risk of a single entity and cannot capture the systemic risk which measures the risk contribution from a market participant to the overall market or the risk connection between two different market participants. With the rapid integration of renewable energy resources, it is essentially important to identify which renewable assets contribute a higher risk to market operations. Therefore, we propose two systemic risk measures, Contagious VaR (CoVaR) and marginal CoVaR (ΔCoVaR), to construct the risk connection network of the energy market under high renewable penetrations. Then, based on ΔCoVaR, a new index called normalized ΔCoVaR is built for market operators to evaluate the per MW impact on ΔCoVaR. Further, this paper proposes two approaches to manage the systemic risk in a day-ahead (DA) market, depending on regulation purposes. Finally, the proposed risk measures and management methods are applied to analyze a DA market with over 30% renewable energy penetration in a modified IEEE 118-bus system.

In this work, Tb doped (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 transparent ceramics were fabricated by a solid-state reaction method. The prepared samples not only exhibit high transmittance (67 % in visible light region and 73 % in IR region), but also show tunable transmittance ratio and luminescent modulation behavior via photochromic reactions. Specifically, the optical transmittance and luminescence intensity can be reversibly modulated by using 407 nm irradiation (20 s) and thermal stimulus (150 °C for 10 s) interchangeably. Their maximum transmittance and luminescence switching contrast are 26.29 % and 92.67 %, respectively. In addition, the various applications of optical data storage including process of data writing/erasing and optical marking have been depicted. The (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3: xTb transparent ceramics as a novel class of solid-state multifunctional materials would offer the prospect of enlarging the applications of photochromic ferroelectric materials.

Solid-state inorganic luminescent photochromics have potential applications in high-density optical storage fields due to their good chemical and thermal stability. However, the failure in simultaneously achieving a high luminescent contrast and non-destructive readout capability restricts their practical applications. Herein, a new and unique route of avoiding the crosstalk between the photochromic absorption and luminescent excitation energy is proposed to design high-performance photochromic materials via the non-linear optical process of upconversion. The fabricated novel rare earth orthoniobate photochromics (RNbO4, where R = Yb, Er, Tm or Ho) with self-activated upconversion emissions exhibit reversible coloring-bleaching processes upon light stimuli (365 and 405 nm). Benefiting from the lower excitation energy and larger anti-Stokes shift of upconversion, the secondary absorption to an excitation energy of 980 nm can be effectively avoided. A non-destructive luminescence readout can then be realized whilst maintaining a near 100% luminescent switching contrast (99.2%), which is superior to conventional downshifting or downconversion readout approaches. A developed prototype storage memory with a single-level cell can be visually displayed in bright or dark fields by commercially available 365 nm (writing), 405 nm (erasing) and 980 nm (reading) lasers. These results provide new insights into future high-performance inorganic photochromic materials and promote their practical applications in advanced optical storage.

The coupling of photochromic properties and ferroelectrics has captured increasing interest in field of photoelectric devices. However, it is still a challenge to achieve excellent photochromic properties and energy storage performances in a ferroelectric material at the same time. Here, a novel photoelectric multifunctional material of (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3:0.05Eu is obtained. Under visible light irradiation, the sample can effectively absorb and store visible light, showing a reversible photochromic reaction. Eu3+ doping well achieves the readout of visible light storage by tuning luminescence emission intensity, and the luminescent modulation ratio is up to 84%. Meanwhile, a recoverable energy storage density of 2.02 J cm−3, high energy storage efficiency of 75.4%, and fast discharge speed (80 ns) are simultaneously acquired because of Eu3+ doping-induced transition of normal ferroelectric to relaxor ferroelectric. The unique combination of photochromic properties and energy storage performances in ferroelectrics opens the door to the development of photoelectric multifunctional devices.

Rational control of photoluminescence against a change in temperature is important for fundamental research and technological applications. Herein, we report an anomalous temperature dependence of ...

The intriguing coupling interactions between photochromism and ferroelectric polarization were firstly observed in Sm doped (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 piezoceramics. After 407 nm irradiation, the maximum polarization (Pmax) and remanent polarization (Pr) intensities were dramatically decreased, whereas the coercive field, leakage current and photocurrent showed the remarkable increase. The variations of the polarization and photocurrent can be reversibly converted by alternating light irradiation and thermal stimulus, suggesting good polarization switching performance. This work provides a new route to effectively modulate ferro-/piezoelectric and photocurrent properties of ferroelectric materials by the non-contact remote control of light.

Purpose Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer, and the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Dysregulation of microRNAs has been shown to modulate glucose metabolic reprogramming in CRC. However, the functional role of miR-4999-5p in the CRC glucose metabolic shift has not been characterized. Patients and methods The levels of miR-4999-5p and PRKAA2 were evaluated by RT-qPCR. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were conducted to evaluate the prognostic value of miR-4999-5p. Cell proliferation was assessed using the CCK-8 and colony formation assays. Extracellular acidification rate, glucose uptake, cellular glucose-6-phosphate level, and lactate production were evaluated to assess the effects of miR-4999-5p on CRC glycolysis. Dual-luciferase reporter assay was conducted to investigate the direct interaction between miR-4999-5p and PRKAA2. Mouse xenograft models were established to assess the functions of miR-4999-5p in vivo. Results miR-4999-5p was highly expressed in CRC tissues and cell lines. In addition, miR-4999-5p was associated with tumor differentiation and TNM stage, and elevated expression of miR-4999-5p was an independent predictor of poorer overall survival. Furthermore, miR-4999-5p promoted cell proliferation and glycolysis in CRC. miR-4999-5p targeted PRKAA2 to exert its tumor-promoting functions, and PRKAA2 knockdown rescued decreased cell proliferation and glycolysis in miR-4999-5p-silenced CRC cells. In vivo experiments showed that miR-4999-5p promoted CRC growth. Conclusion miR-4999-5p facilitated cell growth and glucose metabolic reprogramming through direct targeting of PRKAA2. Our results showed that miR-4999-5p may be a novel prognostic marker and therapeutic target for CRC.

The (1-x) K0.5Na0.5NbO3-xNa0.5Er0.5TiO3 [(1-x)KNN-xNET] ceramics were fabricated by the traditional solid state reaction method. The effects of the NET content on their phase structure, microstructure, photochromism and photo-switching properties were systematically studied. The samples show bright green emission (530 nm, 551 nm) and red emission (660 nm) under 980 nm stimulation at room temperature. Upon visible light irradiation (407 nm), these samples change their color from the initial pale yellow to dark grey. And, luminescence emission intensity can be easily modulated by adjusting the degree of color change. In particular, the color and up-conversion emission can return its initial state by 230 °C thermal stimulation, showing excellent reversibility. These results make it potential applications in many fields such as luminescence switching and optical storage materials as a kind of multifunctional material.

For luminescent photochromic materials, the optical properties of lanthanide (Ln) ions, including emission color, excitation mode and lifetime, are extremely important in optical information storage and recording. Conventional dopants of single Ln ions generally display unicolor and unimodal emission, leading to low-level luminescence modulation and information readout. Therefore, it is urgent to develop multicolor and multimodal luminescence modulation in a single photochromic material, thus well modulating luminescent readout capability. In this study, superior multicolor emissions (red-green), multimodal properties (downshifting/upconversion) and tunable luminescent switching contrast were successfully obtained in Bi2.5Na0.5Nb2O9-based ferroelectric materials by dual-lanthanide ion doping (Pr/Er). Red/green emission ratios can be continuously tuned from red, orange and yellow to green range via controlling the excitation wavelengths and doped concentrations. Correspondingly, the luminescent switching contrast (ΔRt) gradually increases from 29% to 93% with increasing excitation wavelength upon visible irradiation (407 nm), while the ΔRt values decrease with emission wavelengths, which can be well explained by the Dexter energy transfer model. These findings offer a guide to designing tailored luminescence modulation behavior of luminescent photochromic materials for wide application in optical storage and switching devices.

Summary To evaluate the effects of two different reconstruction routes (the posterior mediastinal route (PR) and the retrosternal route (RR)) on the surgical outcomes of patients after esophagectomy for esophageal carcinoma. PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus were searched from database inception to March 2021. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and case–control trials on the surgical outcomes of patients undergoing esophagectomy via one of the two routes were included. RevMan 5.3 software was used for the meta-analysis. In total, 19 studies were included, 8 were RCTs and 11 were case–control studies. The meta-analysis showed that among the case–control trials, the PR had reduced rates of anastomotic leakage [odds ratio (OR) = 0.56, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.43, 0.74), P

Back-streaming neutrons from the spallation target of the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) that emit through the incoming proton channel were exploited to build a white neutron beam facility (the so-called Back-n white neutron source), which was completed in March 2018. The Back-n neutron beam is very intense, at approximately 2*10^7 n/cm^2/s at 55 m from the target, and has a nominal proton beam with a power of 100 kW in the CSNS-I phase and a kinetic energy of 1.6 GeV and a thick tungsten target in multiple slices with modest moderation from the cooling water through the slices. In addition, the excellent energy spectrum spanning from 0.5 eV to 200 MeV, and a good time resolution related to the time-of-flight measurements make it a typical white neutron source for nuclear data measurements; its overall performance is among that of the best white neutron sources in the world. Equipped with advanced spectrometers, detectors, and application utilities, the Back-n facility can serve wide applications, with a focus on neutron-induced cross-section measurements. This article presents an overview of the neutron beam characteristics, the experimental setups, and the ongoing applications at Back-n., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures

Residential loads, especially heating, ventilation, and air conditioners (HVACs) and electric vehicles (EVs) have great potentials to provide demand flexibility which is an attribute of Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB). Under this new paradigm, first, EV and HVAC aggregator models are developed in this paper to represent the fleet of GEBs, in which the aggregated parameters are obtained based on a new approach of data generation and least-squares parameter estimation (DG-LSPE), which can deal with heterogenous HVACs. Then, a tri-level bidding and dispatching framework is established based on competitive distribution operation with distribution locational marginal price (DLMP). The first two levels form a bilevel model to optimize the aggregators payment and to represent the interdependency between load aggregators and the distribution system operator (DSO) using DLMP, while the third level is to dispatch the optimal load aggregation to all residents by the proposed priority list-based demand dispatching algorithm. Finally, case studies on a modified IEEE 33-Bus system illustrate three main technical reasons for payment reduction due to demand flexibility: load shift, DLMP step changes, and power losses. They can be used as general guidelines for better decision-making for future planning and operation of demand response programs.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a newly emerged coronavirus, and has been pandemic since March 2020 and led to many fatalities. Vaccines represent the most efficient means to control and stop the pandemic of COVID-19. However, currently there is no effective COVID-19 vaccine approved to use worldwide except for two human adenovirus vector vaccines, three inactivated vaccines, and one peptide vaccine for early or limited use in China and Russia. Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 are in urgent need. Researchers around the world are developing 213 COVID-19 candidate vaccines, among which 44 are in human trials. In this review, we summarize and analyze vaccine progress against SARS-CoV, Middle-East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2, including inactivated vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, subunit vaccines, virus like particles, nucleic acid vaccines, and viral vector vaccines. As SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV share the common genus, Betacoronavirus, this review of the major research progress will provide a reference and new insights into the COVID-19 vaccine design and development.

Excessive inflammatory responses induced upon SARS-CoV-2 infection interlocks with severe symptoms and acute lung injury in patients with Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Revealing the mechanism underlying the control of SARS-CoV-2-triggered immune-inflammatory responses would help us to understand the pathological process and guide clinical treatment. However, the effect of the NLRP3 inflammasome on regulating SARS-CoV-2-induced inflammatory responses has not been reported. Here, we revealed a distinct mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein promotes the NLRP3 inflammasome activation to induce hyperinflammation. We demonstrated that N protein facilitates the maturation of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and IL-6 and induces proinflammatory responses in cultured cells and mice tissues. In team of molecular mechanism, N protein interacts directly with NLRP3 protein, promotes the binding of NLRP3 with ASC, and facilitates the assemble of the inflammasome complex. More importantly, N protein aggravates lung injury, accelerated death in sepsis and acute inflammation mouse models, and promotes IL-1β and IL-6 activation in mice. Notably, N-induced lung injury and cytokine production were blocked by Ac-YVAD-cmk, an inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Therefore, this study revealed a distinct mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 N protein promotes the NLRP3 inflammasome activation and induces excessive inflammatory responses.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the first pandemic caused by coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Currently, there is no effective anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug approved worldwide for treatment of patients with COVID-19. Therapeutic options in response to the COVID-19 outbreak are urgently needed. To facilitate the better and faster development of therapeutic COVID-19 drugs, we present an overview of the global promising therapeutic drugs, including repurposing existing antiviral agents, network-based pharmacology research, antibody development and traditional Chinese medicine. Among all these drugs, we focus on the most promising drugs (such as favipiravir, tocilizumab, SARS-CoV-2 convalescent plasma, hydroxychloroquine, Lianhua Qingwen, interferon beta-1a, remdesivir, etc.) that have or will enter the final stage of human testing—phase III–IV clinical trials.

The high penetration of renewable energy incurs serious power fluctuations in the power system. Large scale electric vehicles (EVs) under the centralized control are able to provide considerable regulation capacity for the power system. In existing modeling methods for centralized EVs, the accurate control results for the regulation services were achieved by modeling each EV individually. However, the computational complexity was a serious problem for modeling large scale EVs. In this paper, a reduced modeling method for centralized EVs is developed by describing a population of EVs with a partial differential equation (PDE). This PDE modeling method uses a finite number of state-of-charge (SOC) intervals to describe the flows of charging EVs, idle EVs and discharging EVs. Considering the three connecting states (CNS) of EVs, this PDE modeling method realizes the power regulation for centralized EVs by changing the CNS of EVs located in different SOC intervals. Comparative simulations validate that the PDE modeling method for large scale centralized EVs achieves high control accuracy and high computational efficiency.

Quantitative evaluation of the steel corrosion in cables is significant for the safe operation of cable-supported bridges. The magnetic flux (MF) examination shows great potential to detect the corrosion defect, or loss of metallic cross-sectional area (LMA). An LMA defect in steel cables can be measured accurately when it is longer than a certain length. However, for defects in early stage, where the length of corrosion area is short, the MF examination may produce unacceptable error. In this study, the effect of defect length on the MF examination for corrosion detection of bridge cables is investigated through theoretical analysis and model experiments. An original analytical model to quantify the influence of defect length is proposed based on the equivalent magnetic circuit method. Then, MF examination experiments are performed on a series of cable models with different defect lengths and locations to verify the analytical model. Further, parameter study is conducted based on the proposed analytical model to clarify the mechanism of the defect-length effect. The results show that the area loss caused by short corrosion damage will be underestimated if the defect-length effect is neglected, and this effect can be quantified efficiently with the proposed analytical model.

Dielectric materials with high energy-storage density and efficiency have great potential applications in modern electric and electronic devices. In this work, a series of 0.9(0.94Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-0.06BaTiO3)-0.1NaNbO3 (BNT-BT-NN) ferroelectric thin films were deposited on LaNiO3 (LNO) bottom electrodes by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. The effects of different annealing temperature on microstructure, dielectric property and energy-storage performance of these thin films were studied in detail. Post-deposition annealing of BNT-BT-NN thin films at an appropriate temperature of 650 °C was found to greatly improve the film structure and enhance the electrical characteristics, such as dense structure, smooth surface, low leakage current density, high breakdown strength (BDS) and large difference between maximum and remanent polarization. As a result, a huge energy-storage density of 32 J/cm3 and a large energy-storage efficiency of 90% were achieved under 3170 kV/cm in the thin film which was annealed at 650 °C. Moreover, the thin film exhibited a stable energy-storage performance under different temperature and frequency. Therefore, BNT-BT-NN thin film with proper annealing temperature is a promising candidate for high energy-storage capacitors.

We identified a case of fatal acute respiratory disease from household transmission of human adenovirus type 55 (HAdV-55) in Anhui Province, China. Computed tomography showed severe pneumonia. Comparative genomic analysis of HAdV-55 indicated the virus possibly originated in Shanxi Province, China. More attention should be paid to highly contagious HAdV-55.

Highlights • ZnO/ZnS nanostructures with type-II heterojunction are successfully synthesized. • Heterojunction nanotube exhibits better sonophotocatalysis than nanorod. • Effect of morphology on piezoelectric is experimentally and simulatively studied. • Morphology engineering can affect sonophotocatalysis through turning piezoelectric., Sonophotocatalysis is one of the most significant outcomes of the exploration of the interaction between piezoelectric field and charge carriers, which exhibits potential applications in dye degradation, water splitting, and sterilization. Although several heterojunction catalysts have been applied to improve the sonophotocatalytic capability, the importance of the morphology on the sonophotocatalytic capability has not been emphasized. In this study, brush-like ZnO nanorod arrays are synthesized on a stainless-steel mesh and subsequently vulcanized into ZnO/ZnS core–shell nanorod arrays to investigate the sonophotocatalytic capability of the heterojunction. The sonophotocatalytic capability increases from 25.1% to 45.4% through vulcanization. Afterward, the ZnO/ZnS nanorods are etched to ZnO/ZnS nanotubes without affecting the crystallography and distribution of the ZnS nanoparticle shell, further improving the capability to 63.3%. The improvement can be ascribed to the coupling effect of the enhanced piezoelectric field and the reduced migration distance, which suppresses the recombination of photoexcited electron–hole pairs while transforming the morphology from nanorod to nanotube, as proven by the electron spin resonance test and numerical simulations. This study explores a novel approach of morphology engineering for enhancing the sonophotocatalytic capability of heterojunction nanoarrays.

Rare earth doped photochromic materials reveal great potential applications in optical memory storage devices due to their excellent reversible luminescence modulation behavior. Nevertheless, the unicolor emission and unimode luminescence modulation in photochromic materials by singly doped rare earth ions difficultly realize the effective optical data readout, then restricting their practical applications in display technology and multifunctional optical devices. Here, the multicolor and multimode luminescent modulation based on photochromic reactions were successfully obtained in Tb3+/Eu3+ co-doped (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 system, utilizing the energy transfer engineering. The obtained samples exhibit excellent optical transparent (48% in visible light region and 61% in IR region) and multicolor emission from green, yellow-green, yellow, orange to red. After light irradiation, the emission intensity at 546 nm (green emission) and 612 nm (red emission) decreased significantly. The maximum luminescence switching contrast reach up to 68.93% (ΔRIgreen) of x = 0.004, and 69.77% (ΔRIred) of x = 0.016, respectively. The luminescence modulation ratio shows strong dependence on excitation wavelength and Eu contents, and optical transparent can also realize an effective reversible modulation based on photochromic reaction. The energy transfer from Tb3+ to Eu3+ forming two luminescent centers, then part of the energy is absorbed by color centers, which is the source of the multicolor emission and multimode luminescent modulation. These results may provide a new insight for designing multifunction transparent optical storage devices.

Sm-modified Na0.5Bi2.5Nb2O9 ceramics can simultaneously exhibit both visible light-driven photochromism and photoluminescence. Upon visible light irradiation, these materials change their color from green to dark gray, while exhibiting a strong red emission at 603 nm due to the 4G5/2 → 6H7/2 transition, whose emission intensity strongly depends on the irradiation wavelength, intensity, and time, and significantly decreases with increasing irradiation time and intensity. By alternating visible light or sunlight (λ > 400 nm) irradiation and thermal stimulus, both luminescence and absorption intensity can be reversibly switched without any significant degradation between the two colored and bleached states, with excellent reproducibility. On the basis of the trapped charge carrier and exponential relaxation decay models, we herein provide a detailed understanding of the photochromism and luminescence modulation mechanisms.

Liang Zhang, Qiang Wang, Lin Wang, Jian Shen, Qiwei Zhang, Changtai Sun Department of Orthopedics, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology, People’s RepublicofChina Objective: Percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) is a surgical procedure that has been widely used to treat patients suffering from osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs). The procedure involves injection of bone cement into a fractured vertebra. In this study, we investigated whether the distribution of the cement in the vertebral body is related to the occurrence of recompression after surgery. Patients and methods: A total of 172 patients diagnosed with OVCF, from January 2008 to June 2013, were retrospectively reviewed. Fifty of these patients experienced recompression after surgery during the follow-up period (recompression group), and 122 patients had no recompression observed during the follow-up period (control group). Statistical analysis was performed to compare clinical and operative parameters between these two groups. Results: Differences were found in bone cement distribution between the recompression group and control group (P=0.001). Patients with bone cement distributed around both upper and lower endplates had a significantly less incidence of recompression (4/50 patients), when compared to other patterns of cement distribution (eg, below upper endplate, above lower endplate, and in the middle of vertebral body). The logistic multiple regression analysis also indicated that patients with bone cement distributed around both the upper and lower endplates had a lower risk of recompression when compared to patients with bone cement distributed in the middle of vertebral body (odds ratio =0.223, P=0.003). Conclusion: We herein suggest that the control of bone cement distribution during surgery provides beneficial effects on reducing the risks of recompression after PVP treatment in patients with OVCF. Keywords: elderly, OVCF, PVP, bone cement

In this paper, we reported a new photosensitive material, Sm doped K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) ceramics, fabricated using a solid-sate reaction method, which exhibits both photochromism and luminescence switching properties. By alternating visible light irradiation (λ > 407 nm) and thermal stimulus, the samples show a reversible color change from the initial green to pale gray. Interestingly, luminescence emission intensity can be effectively tuned using photochromic reactions. Furthermore, the luminescence switching degree strongly depends on the firing temperature. These results suggest that KNN-based perovskite oxides with photochromism, luminescence switching and ferroelectric energy storage properties are particularly attractive for optical data storage applications as multi-functional materials.

Luminescence modulation based on photochromic reactions is always considered to be a promising method to achieve nondestructive readout in photochromic materials. Generally speaking, two conventional strategies have been widely used to achieve this target: tuning the absorption bands and adjusting luminescent quenching mechanisms. In this paper, we found a new strategy to improve effectively luminescence readout capability in Er/Yb codoped NBN-based solid-state inorganic photochromics by using a two-photon absorption mode of luminescent centers. Upon alternating visible light irradiation (407 nm) and the thermal stimulus, the materials exhibited a high luminescence switching contrast ratio (ΔRt = 86%), excellent reversibility, and significantly improved luminescent efficiency (22 times). Most importantly, the photochromic reaction process can be efficiently read out using the two-photon absorption (or up-conversion) mode without inducing any new reactions, showing extremely low destruction on information recording (destruction degree

Luminescent switching materials upon photochromic reactions have potential applications in optical switching and high-density optical data storage in optoelectronic devices. To avoid interference and destruction of information in practical data storage applications, a nondestructive luminescence readout is essential. However, it is still unclear how to select the optimized excitation and emission bands to avoid the photochromic reaction during the “reading” process while maintaining high luminescence contrast and stability in inorganic photochromic materials. On the basis of the nonradiative energy transfer mechanism, Ho3+ ions were introduced into the Na0.5Bi2.5Nb2O9 host to obtain efficient luminescence switching due to their special excitation (451 nm) and emission (547 nm) characteristics. Under 407 nm irradiation (“writing”), the photochromic phenomenon can be effectively read out by measuring the changes in the luminescence emission intensity. The luminescence switching contrast increased up to 94%. Importantly, the excitation and emission energies did not significantly induce new photochromic reactions, causing less destruction to the material and the luminescence readout process. This outcome is superior to our previously reported results. Furthermore, the luminescence switching properties exhibit hardly any degradation after undergoing several cycles of the “writing”, “reading” and “erasing” processes, indicating excellent reversibility.

Backgroud Given the increasing morbidity and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC), it is urgent to develop a noninvasive screening strategy for early diagnosis of CRC. Altered IgG glycosylation is associated with CRC progression, whereas the association of IgG isomeric glycosylation with CRC were not investigated. Methods Methylamidation of IgG N-glycans was conducted prior to PGC-based nanoLC-ESI-MS/MS analysis. Data processing was operated by a self-developed application based on MATLAB solution. Statistical analysis including K–S test, t-test, ROC curve and OPLS-DA were successively performed. Additionally, an independent set was utilized to validate the results. Results Total 28 IgG glycans and 79 compositional isomers were identified, over half of which are firstly identified so far. Statistical analysis showed that CRC associates with increase in IgG agalactosylation, decrease in IgG sialylation and fucosylation of sialylated glycans. Additionally, it was found that three compositional isomers (H3N4F1-a, H3N4F1-b and H4N3S1F1-e) could distinguish CRC and early stages from controls with an accurate area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. Significantly, these results were validated in an independent set by multivariate statistical analysis. Conclusions This is the first comprehensively profiling of isomer-specific IgG N-glycosylation, which could differentiate normal controls from colorectal disease patients. The candidate IgG glyco-biomarkers provide important screening indicators for early diagnosis of CRC. General significance Colorectal cancer progression is strongly associated with isomer-specific IgG N-glycosylation.

The high penetration of large-scale renewable generations challenges the stability of power systems. It is likely to causes frequency fluctuations due to the intermittent nature. Demand Response (DR) has received much attention because it balances generation and demand with flexibility. Unlike the costly conventional spinning reserve, thermostatically controlled load (TCL) can be controlled to provide frequency regulation service with little impact on customer comfort. A progressive demand control strategy is proposed in this paper for the system frequency regulation. In particular, the state shift priority method is proposed to optimally control loads without compromising customer comfort. The operation-cycle based random recovery method is developed to mitigate the load rebound. Case studies are conducted to validate that TCLs can provide a fast and smooth frequency regulation via the proposed control strategy.

The neutron capture cross sections are very important in the field of nuclear device design and basic physics research. Hydrogen-free liquid scintillator such as C6D6 detectors are widely used in the neutron capture cross-sectional measurements for the low neutron sensitivity and fast time response. The Back-n white neutron source at China Spallation Neutron Source is the first spallation white neutron source in China, and it is suitable for neutron capture cross-sectional measurement. A C6D6 detector system was built in the Back-n experimental station. The pulse height weighting technique was used to determine the system’s detection efficiency. The response to gamma rays of the C6D6 detector was measured, and the energy resolution function was determined. Monte Carlo simulation with Geant4 code was carried out to get the weighting function of this C6D6 detector system. Additionally, the systematic uncertainty of the weighting function was also determined. According to the experimental and simulation results, this C6D6 detector system can be used to measure neutron capture cross section.

The Back-n white neutron beam line, which uses back-streaming white neutrons from the spallation target of the China Spallation Neutron Source, is used for nuclear data measurements. A Micromegas-based neutron detector with two variants was specially developed to measure the beam spot distribution for this beam line. In this article, the design, fabrication, and characterization of the detector are described. The results of the detector performance tests are presented, which include the relative electron transparency, the gain and the gain uniformity, and the neutron beam profile reconstruction capability. The result of the first measurement of the Back-n neutron beam spot distribution is also presented., Comment: 31 pages, 18 figures

The intriguing coupling interactions between photochromism and ferroelectric polarization were firstly observed in Sm doped (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 piezoceramics. After 407 nm irradiation, the maximum polarization (Pmax) and remanent polarization (Pr) intensities were dramatically decreased, whereas the coercive field, leakage current and photocurrent showed the remarkable increase. The variations of the polarization and photocurrent can be reversibly converted by alternating light irradiation and thermal stimulus, suggesting good polarization switching performance. This work provides a new route to effectively modulate ferro-/piezoelectric and photocurrent properties of ferroelectric materials by the non-contact remote control of light.

Photothermal microactuators are often used as microswitches or microgrippers in micro-electromechanical systems, whereas it is difficult to fabricate three-dimensional microactuators with a high aspect ratio, since the gravity may lead to undesired deformations during printing processes. In this work, we reported a 3D printing / UV curing process flow in the support of a hydrogel to obtain a photothermal microactuator with a high-aspect-ratio polyline waveguiding structure. The waveguiding structure also served as the driving arm. The temperature parameter was investigated by the Finite Element Method while the experiment was carried out to study the temperature and displacement during the laser actuation. A demonstration showed the driving arm achieves a free-end displacement of 133.2 µm driven by 90 mW laser (46.1°C). This study helps obtain waveguiding photothermal microactuators with integrated and more complex multi-dimensional structures.

In the past few decades, many bridges have been built. How to ensure the safety and durability of these bridges has become an important issue in the field of bridge engineering. Among them, the loss of the cross-sectional area of cables is a common damage and severely area loss-induced damage in bridge cables could break wires to cause bridge failures. The loss of metal area refers to corrosion inside the cable, missing wire or broken wire of the cable within a certain length of the longitudinal direction. These all make detection a very important issue for the health and maintenance of bridge cables. Magnetic flux examination can be used in analyzing the collected signals and solving many problems in the magnetic field. In this study, magnetic flux examination was used to detect the bridge cable defects based on its good performance in detecting wire rope defects. Theoretical derivation for a quantitative identification method has been finished recently. Finite element simulation and laboratory experiments were performed to evaluate the quantitative identification method and identify the uniform corrosion damage of steel wires. The characteristics of the magnetic flux detection signal of the cables in different types of defects and different equipment parameters’ influence were investigated. Furthermore, the proposed defect length coefficient was used to correct the magnetic flux signal, and it is proved that the defect length coefficient is effective in improving the accuracy of quantitative identification of short defects in the experiment.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness, safety and survival outcome of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) versus surgical resection for treating single hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with Child-Pugh B cirrhosis. Methods: A hospital-based retrospective study with 146 patients diagnosed with single HCC with Child-Pugh B cirrhosis from July 2010 to July 2018 was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital. A total of 49 patients underwent TACE combined with HIFU (the combined group), and 97 patients underwent surgical resection (the resection group). Of them, 22 patients undergoing TACE combined with HIFU and 45 patients undergoing surgical resection had small HCC (tumor diameter ≤3 cm). The overall survival (OS) time, progression-free survival (PFS) time and postoperative complications were compared between the two groups. Results: In the single HCC tumor cohort, there was no significant difference in OS between the two groups [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.6379; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.3737 to 1.089; P = .0995], while the resection group showed an obvious superiority to the combined group regarding PFS (HR = 0.3545; 95% CI = 0.2176-0.5775; P

High luminescent switching contrast of photochromic materials is extremely important in improving the sensitivity and resolution of optical switches and high-density optical data storage devices. To date, conventional methods, such as tuning absorption and emission bands based on electron or resonance energy transfer mechanisms in well-known organic photochromic molecules or compounds, have routinely been adopted to tune luminescent switching behavior. However, these strategies and mechanisms are not effectively applied to luminescence switching in inorganic materials because their crystal structures differ strongly from those of organic materials. In this paper, we report a new method to significantly tune the luminescent switching contrast by modifying the excitation energy of luminescent centers in a newly synthesized photochromism material: Na0.5Bi4.5Ti4O15:Re (Re = Sm, Pr, Er). A significant enhancement of luminescence switching contrast was achieved when the luminescent centers were excited by low e...

In this work, (111)-oriented (Pb0.99Nb0.02)(Zr, Sn, Ti)0.98O3 (PNZST) antiferroelectric thin films, which located in the tetragonal phase region (PNZSTT) and the orthorhombic phase region (PNZSTO), respectively, were successfully fabricated on platinum-buffered silicon substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The microstructure, dielectric properties, electric field induced phase transition, associated with the energy-storage performance and pyroelectric energy harvesting behavior (by Olsen cycle) were studied systemically. The PNZSTT thin film showed a diffused field-induced antiferroelectric–ferroelectric (AFE–FE) phase switching with a slim double hysteresis loop, while the PNZSTO film demonstrated an AFE–FE phase switching with a square double hysteresis loop. A maximum recoverable energy-storage density of 16.4 and 12.4 J/cm3 were obtained in the PNZSTT and PNZSTO film, respectively. Moreover, a huge harvested energy density per cycle of W = 7.35 and 5.35 J/cm3 was also predicted in the PNZSTT and PNZSTO film at 1 kHz, respectively. The good energy-storage performance and giant thermal-electrical energy harvesting effect of the PNZST antiferroelectric thin films maybe make a great impact on the modern energy-storage technology and the thermal-electrical energy harvesting applications.

Introduction.A new generation of iCT scanner, Airo®, has been introduced. The purpose of this study is to describe how Airo facilitates minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MIS-TLIF).Method. We used the latest generation of portable iCT in all cases without the assistance of K-wires. We recorded the operation time, number of scans, and pedicle screw accuracy.Results. From January 2015 to December 2015, 33 consecutive patients consisting of 17 men and 16 women underwent single-level or two-level MIS-TLIF operations in our institution. The ages ranged from 23 years to 86 years (mean, 66.6 years). We treated all the cases in MIS fashion. In four cases, a tubular laminectomy at L1/2 was performed at the same time. The average operation time was 192.8 minutes and average time of placement per screw was 2.6 minutes. No additional fluoroscopy was used. Our screw accuracy rate was 98.6%. No complications were encountered.Conclusions. Airo iCT MIS-TLIF can be used for initial planning of the skin incision, precise screw, and cage placement, without the need for fluoroscopy. “Total navigation” (complete intraoperative 3D navigation without fluoroscopy) can be achieved by combining Airo navigation with navigated guide tubes for screw placement.