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Porous MnO2 was uniformly electrodeposited on nickel foam in MnSO4 solution, which was applied as the electrode of supercapacitors. The nucleation/growth mechanisms of porous MnO2 were investigated firstly. Then two kinds of electrochemical measuring technologies, corresponding to the cycle voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge, were adopted to assess the electrochemical performance of MnO2 electrodes. The results demonstrated that the deposition of MnO2 on nickel foam included four stages. Prior to the deposition, an extremely short incubation period of about 2 s was observed (the first stage). Then the exposed nickel foam was instantly covered by a large number of MnO2 crystal nuclei and crystal nuclei connected with each other in a very short time of about 3 s (the second stage). Nucleation predominated in the second stage. The sharply rise of current was caused by the increase in substrate surface area which due to nucleation of MnO2. Grain boundaries grew preferentially due to their high energy, accompanied with a honeycomb-like structure with the higher surface area was formed. However, accompanied with the electrochemical reactions gradually diffusion-controlled, the current presented the decline trend with increasing the time (the third stage). When the electrochemical reactions were completely diffusion-controlled, the porous MnO2 coating with an approximately constant surface area was formed (the fourth stage). MnO2 coatings deposited for different time (30, 60, 120, 300 s) exhibited a similar specific capacitance (CV: about 224 F/g; galvanostatic charge-discharge: about 264 F/g). Comparatively speaking, the value of MnO2 deposited for 600 s was highest (CV: 270 F/g; galvanostatic charge-discharge: 400 F/g). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an integrated control strategy for a starter/generator (S/G) system based on five-phase dual-stator winding induction machine (FPDWIM). The FPDWIM has a cage-type rotor and two sets of stator windings. One is a five-phase control winding (CW), and the other is a five-phase power winding (PW). In the starting mode, the FPDWIM works as a motor. The CW provides both active power and reactive power to drive the engine. In the generating mode, the CW mainly handles reactive power while the PW outputs active power. To achieve the integration of the starting and generating controls, indirect CW-flux-oriented control (ICWFOC) to operate in both starting and generating modes is proposed in this paper. In starting mode, the CW current and flux are controlled to output a constant starting torque; while in the generating mode, both CW and PW dc bus voltages are regulated. In this way, the principles and structures of the control strategies in both modes are compatible, resulting in a simpler implementation and improved performance. With the proposed control strategy, the system can complete the starting–generating operation with a smoother transition process. Simulation and experimental results are compared to validate the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strand displacement DNA synthesis is essential for DNA replication. Gp90, the sole DNA polymerase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage 1, can bypass multiply DNA lesions. However, whether it can perform strand displacement synthesis is still unknown. In this work, we found that gp90 exo― could perform strand displacement synthesis, albeit its activity and processivity were lower than those of primer extension. Gp90 exo― itself could not unwind Y-shaped or fork DNA. Tail and gap at DNA fork were necessary for efficient synthesis. High GC content obviously inhibited strand displacement synthesis. Consecutive GC sequence at the entrance of fork showed more inhibition effect on DNA synthesis than that in the downstream DNA fork. The fraction of productive polymerase and DNA complex (A values) was higher for fork than gap; while their average extension rates (k p values) were similar. However, both A and k p values were lower than those for the primer/template (P/T) substrate. The binding of gp90 exo― to fork was tighter than P/T or gap in the absence of dATP. In the presence of dATP to form ternary complex, the binding affinity of gp90 exo― to P/T or gap was increased compared with that in the binary complex. Abasic site, 8-oxoG, and O 6-MeG inhibited and even blocked strand displacement synthesis. This work shows that gp90 exo― could perform strand displacement DNA synthesis at DNA fork, discovering the presence of new functions of PaP1 DNA polymerase in DNA replication and propagation of PaP1. • Gp90 exo― could perform strand displacement DNA synthesis. • Tail and gap at DNA fork were necessary for efficient synthesis. • High GC content and DNA lesions obviously inhibited strand displacement synthesis. • E. coli Pol I KF exo― and Pol T7 ― could perform this synthesis, but Dpo4 and hPol ι could nearly not. • This work discovers new functions of polymerase in DNA replication and propagation of PaP1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preschool age is an important period in the development of children's emotional abilities. The face and body are both vital carriers of emotional information and adults readily match the emotional cues coming from these two modalities. However, it is unknown whether preschoolers have this ability or not. In the current study, 36 preschoolers (22 boys, aged 44–73 months old) participated in an emotional facial and bodily matching test including angry, happy, and neutral expressions (Experiment 1) and an eye-tracking experiment (Experiment 2). The results show that: (1) preschoolers can accurately match three categories of facial and bodily expressions of emotion (all matching rates were above 93% in Experiment 1); (2) robust emotional matching was observed across conditions in Experiment 2. That is, the eye-tracking indexes including the total fixation duration, the first fixation duration, and the fixation count, all indicated that the preschoolers more thoroughly processed bodily expressions of emotion which were congruent to the facial expressions compared to incongruent bodily expressions of emotion. This study shows that the ability to match facial and bodily expressions of emotion develops at an early age. Preschool children have already reached a high level of this ability. Plain Language Summary: The preschool age is an important period in the development of children's emotional abilities. The face and body are both vital carriers of emotional information and adults readily match the emotional cues coming from these two modalities. However, it is unknown whether preschoolers have this ability or not. In the current study, thirty-six preschoolers (22 boys, aged 44-73 months old) participated in an emotional facial and bodily matching test including angry, happy, and neutral expressions (Experiment 1) and an eye-tracking experiment (Experiment 2). The results show that: (1) preschoolers can accurately match three categories of facial and bodily expressions of emotion (all matching rates were above 93% in Experiment 1); (2) robust emotional matching was observed across conditions in Experiment 2. That is, the eye-tracking indexes including the total fixation duration, the first fixation duration, and the fixation count, all indicated that the preschoolers more thoroughly processed bodily expressions of emotion which were congruent to the facial expressions compared to incongruent bodily expressions of emotion. This study shows that the ability to match facial and bodily expressions of emotion match develops at an early age. Preschool children have already reached a high level of this ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The further development of wireless power transfer technology is hindered by the limiting relationship between transmission distance, transmission efficiency, and size of the coupling mechanism. Thus, a feasible solution was provided by one-way single-wire power transfer. First, a horn-type mode conversion device was proposed in this study by analyzing the principle of one-way single-wire power transfer. Second, the system structure was designed to save materials and reduce the volume of space. The transmission efficiency of the system was improved, and the operating frequency was reduced by optimizing the parameters of the mode conversion device. Finally, the feasibility and structural applicability of the one-way single-wire power transfer method proposed in this study were proved by the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a five-phase dual random space vector pulsewidth modulation (FPDR-SVPWM) strategy with an optimized probability density function (PDF) for a five-phase voltage-source inverter, and its performance and evaluation are also analyzed. Based on the nearest four vectors modulation method, the FPDR-SVPWM strategy, combined with random switching frequency and random zero vector, is investigated to significantly reduce the amplitude of high-order harmonics near the switching frequency and its integer multiples. For the nonsinusoidal power supply, third harmonic injection is introduced in this modulation strategy as well. Considering the effect of random numbers on the performance, an optimized Beta distribution is studied in detail. In order to analyze harmonic dispersion degree qualitatively and quantitatively, the power spectral density and the harmonic spread factor are both employed to assess the performance of the FPDR-SVPWM strategy. A series of results of simulation in MATLAB and experiments based on field programmable gate array demonstrate that the proposed modulation strategy is correct and valid, and it distributes high-order harmonics into a wide range without affecting the fundamental wave and third harmonic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to adapt to the single power supply system of an aircraft, this paper proposes and investigates a novel dual-winding fault-tolerant (DF) motor drive system based on the redundancy bridge arm for aerospace applications. The proposed DF motor offers the advantages of magnetic isolation, physics isolation, thermal isolation, and small cogging torque ripple, inhibiting the short-circuit current and high fault tolerance. The proposed DF motor drive can adapt to the single power supply system of the aircraft, reduce the drive cost, and reduce the number of independent power sources and power switches. In addition, it can improve the power density, the reliability, and the utilization rate of the drive. At the same time, the drive system has stronger fault-tolerant ability, and it can achieve the fault-tolerant control for a one-phase-winding fault or a multiphase-winding fault. To realize the short-circuit fault diagnosis performance, the diagnosis and processing method of the short-circuit fault has been investigated. Then, to realize the short-circuit fault-tolerant performance, a novel space vector pulsewidth modulation (SVPWM) fault-tolerant control strategy based on the short-circuit fault diagnosis and processing method is proposed. Finally, the performances of the DF motor drive have been verified by experiments. The research results verify the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed DF motor drive system based on the redundancy bridge arm and the SVPWM fault-tolerant control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual stator-winding induction generator (DWIG) is one kind of emerging multiport electrical machine. It has become a promising direction in the last two decades, especially for stand-alone power systems and renewable energy power systems. This paper mainly focuses on the DWIG with similar-poles stator windings and cage-type rotor. An overview of DWIG and its system is given. Recent advances of this generator in system topologies, mathematical model, optimal design, control strategies, and performance analysis are presented. The developments and potential applications of the DWIG-based system are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil spill incidents occur frequently and threaten ecosystems and human health. Solid-phase microextraction allows direct alkane extraction from environmental matrices to improve the limit of detection but is unable to measure alkanes on site. A biological-phase microextraction and biosensing (BPME-BS) device was developed by immobilising an alkane chemotactic Acinetobacter bioreporter ADPWH_alk in agarose gel to achieve online alkane quantification with the aid of a photomultiplier. The BPME-BS device had a high enrichment factor (average 7.07) and a satisfactory limit of detection (0.075 mg/L) for alkanes. The quantification range was 0.1–100 mg/L, comparable to a gas chromatography flame ionisation detector and better than a bioreporter without immobilisation. ADPWH_alk cells in the BPME-BS device maintained good sensitivity under a wide range of environmental conditions, including pH (4.0–9.0), temperature (20–40 °C), and salinity (0.0–3.0%), and its response remained stable within 30 days at 4 °C. In a 7-day continual measurement, the BPME-BS device successfully visualised the dynamic concentration of alkanes, and a 7-day field test successfully captured an oil spill event, helping in source apportionment and on-scene law enforcement. Our work proved that the BPME-BS device is a powerful tool for online alkane measurement, showing substantial potential for fast detection and rapid response to oil spills on site and in situ. [Display omitted] • First alkane online detection device using immobilized bioreporters. • Detection limit of 0.075 mg/L and quantification range of 0.1–100 mg/L for alkanes. • Stable performance under pH 4.0–9.0, temperature 20–40 °C, salinity 0.0–0.3%. • Long shelf-life of 30 days at 4 °C. • Successful oil spill recognition in field test for water quality management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To adapt to the single power supply system of the aircraft, this study proposes and investigates a novel fault‐tolerant drive system based on the redundancy bridge arm for aerospace applications. The proposed fault‐tolerant drive system adopts a dual‐winding fault‐tolerant (DF) motor; the DF motor offers the advantages of magnetic isolation, physical isolation, thermal isolation, small cogging torque ripple, inhibiting the short‐circuit current and high fault tolerance. The proposed fault‐tolerant drive can adapt to the single power supply system of the aircraft, reduce the drive cost, and cut down the number of independent power sources and power switches. In addition, it can improve the power density, reliability, and the utilisation rate of the drive system. To realise the open‐circuit fault diagnosis performance, the diagnosis and processing method of the open‐circuit fault has been investigated. Then, to realise the fault‐tolerant performance, a novel space‐vector pulse‐width modulation (SVPWM) fault‐tolerant control strategy is proposed. Finally, the performances of the fault‐tolerant drive have been verified by simulations and experiments. The research results verify the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed fault‐tolerant drive system based on the redundancy bridge arm and SVPWM fault‐tolerant control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Battery state-of-health (SoH) estimation is a critical function in a well-designed battery management system (BMS). In this paper, the battery SoH is detected based on the dynamic characteristic of the charging current during the constant-voltage (CV) period. Firstly, according to the preliminary analysis of the battery test data, the time constant of CV charging current is proved to be a robust characteristic parameter related to the battery aging. Secondly, the detailed expression of the current time constant is derived based on the first order equivalent circuit model (ECM). Thirdly, the quantitative correlation between the normalized battery capacity and the current time constant is established to indicate the battery SoH. Specifically, for the uncompleted CV charging process, the logarithmic function-based current time constant prediction model and the reference correlation curve are established to identify the battery capacity fading. At last, experimental results showed that regardless of the adopted data size, the correlation identified from one battery can be used to indicate the SoH of other three batteries within 2.5% error bound except a few outliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the five-phase dual stator-winding induction generator dc generating system with the static excitation controller is presented, and two kinds of control strategies for this system are proposed. In this generator, the cage-type rotor is employed, and two sets of five-phase windings are placed in the stator, namely, the power winding and control winding. Using the instantaneous power theory, the control-winding-flux-oriented control (CWFOC) strategy without harmonic injection is obtained. To improve power density, the CWFOC with harmonic injection is proposed as well. For these two strategies, the detailed implementation is studied. The results (simulation and experiment) support the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed control strategies, and the corresponding results show that, using the CWFOC strategy with harmonic injection, the output power of this system can be improved by about 11%. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the performance of the dual stator-winding induction generator (DWIG) variable frequency ac (VFAC) generating system with unbalanced loads is analyzed, and an asymmetrical operation analysis method based on a three-port load network model is proposed. This method has four key steps: (1) deriving the three-port load network model for three-phase four-line unbalanced loads; (2) establishing the positive sequence, negative sequence, and zero sequence equivalent circuits for the DWIG; (3) combining the above model and circuits together to obtain the system whole equivalent model; and (4) writing the corresponding equations and solving them. The experimental results and the calculation results are almost consistent, which proves that the proposed method is correct and valid, and the DWIG VFAC generating system with unbalanced loads has a good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Graphdiyne (GDY), which is an sp- and sp2-hybridized 2D graphene-like material, shows an abundant fully π-conjugated system and excellent conductivity. In addition, water-soluble pillar[5]arene (WP5) displays outstanding host–guest recognition properties. Therefore, the electrochemical sensing system of WP5–GDY, constructed via strong π–π stacking between WP5 and GDY, shows prominent conductivity and a supramolecular recognition ability. Hence, the ultrasensitive and robust electrochemical determination of methylamphetamine (MA) was developed using the novel composite of WP5–GDY for the first time. For MA detection, the electrochemical sensor showed a linear response range of 0.05–30.0 μM and a detection limit of 0.016 μM (S/N = 3). The host–guest mechanism between WP5 and MA was studied via binding constant (Ka) measurements, molecular docking, and 1H NMR analysis. The developed electrochemical sensing platform was also successfully used to detect MA in human urine samples, which confirms its potential applications in the detection of drugs of abuse, illicit drugs and misused prescriptions, which will protect public health, social stability and global security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from parental cells could communicate with neighboring or distant recipient cells. The components in EVs, especially non-coding RNAs, including microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and circular RNAs, could regulate the functions of the recipient cells. Meanwhile, EVs could also be used as valuable biomarkers and drug delivery carriers. Moreover, environmental toxicants may alter EVs components and regulate EVs-mediated pathogenesis of various diseases. In this review, we mainly summarized the roles of EV-derived non-coding RNAs in the regulation of cell dysfunctions in various adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preeclampsia (PE), gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and miscarriage. Moreover, the effects of environmental toxicants on the components and functions of EVs, as well as on their regulatory roles in these diseases, were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the effect of temperature and crystallinity on the thermal conductivity was investigated in a series of polyethylenes (PEs) with different crystallinities including high-density polyethylene (HDPE), medium-density polyethylene (MDPE), linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE). It was found that the applied ambient temperature has a significant effect on the thermal conductivity. At −20~100 °C, the thermal conductivity of PE showed a linearly decline with the increase of temperature. The thermal properties of a series of PE samples were also investigated by differential scanning calorimeter. The results showed that the higher the crystallinity, the higher the thermal conductivity of polyethylene. However, above the melting point, thermal conductivity of all PE samples tended to be the same, with a value of about 0.21 W/m·K. Based on the crystallinity and temperature, an empirical formula was proposed to predict the thermal conductivity of PEs with an error within 3%, which was also consistent with the results of other reported thermal conductivity of PEs. This work can guide the design of thermally conductive polymers in the future. [Display omitted] • Negative T-dependence of PE thermal conductivity is explained by phonon theory. • An empirical formula for calculating the thermal conductivity of PE is proposed. • The formula calculates thermal conductivity of PE within 3% error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel one-way single-wire power transfer structure is proposed. Different from the traditional single-wire power transfer system, power is one-way transmitted from the power source to the load, and no loop is constituted. The structure of one-way single-wire power transfer is studied in detail, and the influences of its length and shapes on the transmission efficiency are determined. Research shows that the length of the receiving structure plays a key role in improving the system's efficiency, while the transmitting structure has a little effect. Based on ensuring transmission efficiency, the space volume optimization method is further applied. The expression of electromagnetic field distribution is derived theoretically, and the proposed structure is verified by simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polynuclear platinum(II) complexes represent a class of great prospective Pt-based antitumor drugs that may expand the antitumor spectrum and overcome the clinical problems of drug resistance and side effects of platinum-based drugs. Herein, a novel star-shaped trinuclear platinum(II) complex [Pt3(L–3H)Cl3] (1, L = 2,4,6-tris[(2-hydroxybenzyl)(2-pyridylmethyl)amine]-1,3,5-triazine) and its monomer [Pt(L′–H)Cl] (2, L′ = (2-hydroxybenzyl)(2-pyridylmethyl)amine) were synthesized and characterized. The in vitro antiproliferative activities of complexes 1 and 2 against a panel of human cancer cell lines including MDA-MB-231 (triple-negative breast cancer, TNBC), MCF-7 (breast), HepG-2 (liver), and A549 (lung) were investigated. The results revealed that 1 exhibited much higher antiproliferative properties than its monomer 2 against the tested cell lines. Importantly, 1 possessed 3.3-fold higher antiproliferative activity as compared with cisplatin against the TNBC cell line MDA-MB-231. Another TNBC cell line MDA-MB-468 is also sensitive to 1. The results indicated that 1 might have the potential to act as a candidate for the treatment of TNBC. Cellular uptake and distribution studies showed that 1 could pass through the membrane of cells and enter into cells and mainly accumulate in the nuclei and mitochondria. 1 could bind to DNA in a cooperative groove-electrostatic-platinating binding mode and induce stronger DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and damaging effects on MDA-MB-231 than cisplatin (upregulation of γ-H2AX). Moreover, the DNA damage could not be easily repaired (upregulation of p53), which would exert a much positive influence on the overcoming of drug resistance. Additionally, flow cytometry studies showed that 1 arrested the cell cycle in the G0/G1 phase, induced mitochondrial membrane depolarization, increased ROS generation, and induced cell apoptosis. The results demonstrated that 1 could target simultaneously mitochondria and nuclei that gave rise to mitochondrial injury and DNA damage and ultimately efficiently promote the apoptotic death of tumor cells. Further mechanistic studies showed that 1 induced MDA-MB-231 cell apoptosis via the p53-mediated mitochondrial pathway by upregulating Bax and cytochrome c and downregulating Bcl-2 proteins, leading to the activation of caspase-3 and upregulation of the cleaved-PARP level. Taken together, 1 with such a synergic mechanism has great potential to be an effective anticancer agent that can overcome treatment resistance in TNBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vicarious calibration is a well-developed method for electro-optical (EO) sensor calibration that has been used since the early 1980s. The radiometric calibration of reflectance solar band is mainly applied to reflection inversion. In this paper, a radiometric calibration-reflectance inversion (RCRII) model is proposed as an improved vicarious calibration method. Taking the reflectance of grayscale targets with constant spectrum, suitable uniformity, and near-Lambertian characteristics as the known information, the grayscale target calibration is realized, and the initial value of calibration coefficient and offset are calculated. Then, the adjacency effect is evaluated and corrected by reflectance inversion, and the results are fed back to the calibration process to realize the iterative process of calibration inversion rescaling. The results indicate that the absolute difference between the reflectance calculated with the RCRII model and measured reflectance is less than 0.01. By comparing with Sentinel-2A images, it is cross-verified that the difference of radiance between them is within 4%, and the absolute reflectance difference is less than 0.01, in the range of 0.1~0.3 reflectance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BPDE up-regulates lnc-HZ11, which down-regulates EGR1/NF-κB/CXCL12 pathway and suppresses trophoblast cell migration/invasion at intracellular levels. BPDE promotes donor trophoblast cells to secrete more EV-HZ11, which suppresses migration/invasion of the recipient trophoblast cells at intercellular levels, and is associated with unexplained miscarriage. Knockdown of murine lnc-Hz11 by EV-AS-Hz11 could efficiently alleviate miscarriage in BaP-exposed mice. The levels of EV-HZ11 in serum could predict the risk of miscarriage. [Display omitted] • BPDE up-regulates lnc-HZ11, which suppresses EGR1/NF-κB/CXCL12 and migration/invasion of trophoblast cells. • BPDE or lnc-HZ11 promotes trophoblast cells to secrete more EV-HZ11. • EV-HZ11 is transferred from donor cells to recipient cells and suppresses their migration/invasion. • Lnc-HZ11 and EV-HZ11 are closely associated with miscarriage. • Knockdown of murine lnc-Hz11 recovers migration/invasion and alleviates mouse miscarriage. • EV-HZ11 in serum predicts miscarriage risk. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) mediate the intercellular crosstalk by transferring functional cargoes. Recently, we have discovered that BaP/BPDE exposure suppresses trophoblast cell migration/invasion and induces miscarriage, which are also regulate by lncRNAs at intracelluar levels. However, the EVs-mediated intercellular regulatory mechanisms are completely unexplored. Specifically, whether EVs might transfer BPDE-induced toxic lncRNA to fresh recipient trophoblast cells and suppress their migration/invasion to further induce miscarriage is completely unknown. In this study, we find that BPDE exposure up-regulates a novel lnc-HZ11, which suppresses EGR1/NF-κB/CXCL12 pathway and migration/invasion of trophoblast cells. Intercellular studies show that EV-HZ11 (lnc-HZ11 in EVs), which is highly expressed in BPDE-exposed donor cells, suppresses EGR1/NF-κB/CXCL12 pathway and migration/invasion in recipient cells by transferring lnc-HZ11 through EVs. Analysis of villous tissues collected from UM (unexplained miscarriage) patients and HC (healthy control) group shows that the levels of BPDE-DNA adducts, lnc-HZ11 or EV-lnc-HZ11, and EGR1/NF-κB/CXCL12 pathway are all associated with miscarriage. Mouse assays show that BaP exposure up-regulates the levels of lnc-Hz11 or EV-Hz11, suppresses Egr1/Nf-κb/Cxcl12 pathway, and eventually induces miscarriage. Knockdown of lnc-Hz11 by injecting EV-AS-Hz11 could effectively alleviate miscarriage in BaP-exposed mice. Furthermore, EV-HZ11 in serum samples could well predict the risk of miscarriage. Collectively, this study not only discovers EVs-HZ11-mediated intercellular mechanisms that BaP/BPDE suppresses trophoblast cell migration/invasion and induces miscarriage but also provides new approach for treatment against unexplained miscarriage through EV-HZ11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the challenging person re-identification (Re-ID) task under the cloth-changing scenario, where the same identity (ID) suffers from uncertain cloth changes. To learn cloth- and ID-invariant features, it is crucial to collect abundant training data with varying clothes, which is difficult in practice. To alleviate the reliance on rich data collection, we reinforce the feature learning process by designing powerful complementary data augmentation strategies, including positive and negative data augmentation. Specifically, the positive augmentation fulfills the ID space by randomly patching the person images with different clothes, simulating rich appearance to enhance the robustness against clothes variations. For negative augmentation, its basic idea is to randomly generate out-of-distribution synthetic samples by combining various appearance and posture factors from real samples. The designed strategies seamlessly reinforce the feature learning without additional information introduction. Extensive experiments conducted on both cloth-changing and -unchanging tasks demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method, consistently improving the accuracy over various baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Person re-identification (Re-ID) has demonstrated remarkable performance when trained on accurately annotated data. However, in practical applications, the presence of annotation errors is unavoidable, which can undermine the accuracy and robustness of the Re-ID model training. To address the adverse impacts of label noise, especially in scenarios with limited training samples for each identity (ID), a common approach is to utilize all the available sample labels. Unfortunately, these labels contain incorrect labels, leading to the model being influenced by noise and compromising its performance. In this paper, we propose an Instance Credibility-based Label Refinement and Re-weighting (ICLR) framework to exploit partially credible labels to refine and re-weight incredible labels effectively. Specifically, the Label-Incredibility Optimization (LIO) module is proposed to optimize incredible labels before model training, which partitions the samples into credible and incredible samples and propagates credible labels to others. Furthermore, we design an Incredible Instance Re-weight (I 2 R) strategy, aiming to emphasize instances that contribute more significantly and dynamically adjust the weight of each instance. The proposed method seamlessly reinforces accuracy without requiring additional information or discarding any samples. Extensive experimental results conducted on Market-1501 and Duke-MTMC datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method, leading to a substantial improvement in performance under both random noise and pattern noise settings. Code will be available at https://github.com/whut16/ReID-Label-Noise. • Inevitable label noise affects the performance of Re-ID. • All samples are partitioned and optimized before training, emphasizing the cleanliness of the data. • Dynamically adjusting the weight of each instance fosters the reuse and re-weighting of all available samples. • The improvement achieved by our proposal under random and pattern noise is noteworthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retinoic acid receptors (RAR) belong to the same nuclear receptor superfamily as thyroid hormone receptors (TR) that were previously shown to be modulated by dietary soy protein isolate (SPI). This study has examined the effect of dietary SPI and isoflavones (ISF) on hepatic RAR gene expression and DNA binding activity. In Expt. 1, Sprague-Dawley rats were fed diets containing 20% casein or 20% alcohol-washed SPI in the absence or presence of increasing amounts of ISF (5-1250 mg/kg diet) for 70, 190, or 310 d. In Expt. 2, weanling Sprague-Dawley rats were fed diets containing 20% casein with or without supplemental ISF (50 mg/kg diet) or increasing amounts of alcohol-washed SPI (5, 10, and 20%) for 90 d. Intake of soy proteins significantly elevated hepatic RARbeta2 protein content dose-dependently compared with a casein diet, whereas supplemental ISF had no consistent effect. Neither RARbeta protein in the other tissues measured nor the other RAR (RARalpha and RARgamma) in the liver were affected by dietary SPI, indicating a tissue and isoform-specific effect of SPI. RARbeta2 mRNA abundances were not different between dietary groups except that its expression was markedly suppressed in male rats fed SPI for 310 d. DNA binding activity of nuclear RARbeta was significantly attenuated and the isoelectric points of RARbeta2 were shifted by dietary SPI. Overall, these results show for the first time, to our knowledge, that dietary soy proteins affect hepatic RARbeta2 protein content and RARbeta DNA binding activity, which may contribute to the suppression of retinoid-induced hypertriglyceridemia by SPI as reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A fusion mechanism for global feature and local object-level feature is proposed. • The mechanism relies on the spatial information of the objects in the image. • Global features and local features are adaptively fusion by attention. • The fused features are decoded captions during generating captioning. Although attention mechanisms are exploited widely in encoder-decoder neural network-based image captioning framework, the relation between the selection of salient image regions and the supervision of spatial information on local and global representation learning was overlooked, thereby degrading captioning performance. Consequently, we propose an image captioning scheme based on adaptive spatial information attention (ASIA), extracting a sequence of spatial information of salient objects in a local image region or an entire image. Specifically, in the encoding stage, we extract the object-level visual features of salient objects and their spatial bounding-box. We obtain the global feature maps of an entire image, which are fused with local features and the fused features are fed into the LSTM-based language decoder. In the decoding stage, our adaptive attention mechanism dynamically selects the corresponding image regions specified by an image description. Extensive experiments conducted on two datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Superhydrophobic surface is prepared with desired anti-icing property. • Micro/nano-structures and organic layer are developed on the surface. • Water contact angle of 161° is obtained, with the freezing delay time of 93 min. • Well-designed cool material with anti-icing property is successfully prepared. • Cooling property of 8 °C with the NIR reflectance of 75.6% is achieved. Micron/nano-structures and surface layer enriched with organic groups were flexibly obtained through the non-solvent induced phase separation method. A combination of surface roughness and surface chemistry enabled the surface with superhydrophobic performance, which contributed to excellent anti-icing property. Herein, the simultaneous application of fluorine-modified titanium dioxide (TiO 2) and fumed silicon (SiO 2) contributed to the superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle of 161°, as well as the freezing delay time of about 93 min. Simultaneously, this desirable anti-icing property based on the superhydrophobic surface was combined with excellent reflective performance to fabricate well-designed cool materials. The cooling property of the as-prepared cool material, which presented high solar reflectance of 101.1% in visible (VIS) light wavelength and 75.6% in the near infrared (NIR) light wavelength, was estimated to be 8 °C lower than that of pristine polymer matrix. Hence, superhydrophobic surface with desirable anti-icing property was successfully obtained, and the simultaneous cooling property might highlight its outdoor applicability in the locations both experiencing cold winter and sunny summer. For instance, the superhydrophobic material combined with the anti-icing and cooling performance is expected to be utilized as roofing materials, as well as station antenna covers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The characteristics of induced current in nine different cables coupled to the circular double ring lightning impulse field are summarized in time-domain and frequency-domain. • Influence of the grounding methods of the shielding layer on induced surges is revealed. • Grounding one end of the shielding layer suppresses electrostatically induction in the cable. • The optimum shielding method for double shielding layer cable is grounding the two sides of the outer shielding layer and a single side of the inner shielding layer. The lightning-induced current in the cable can be reduced by using appropriate shielding methods. A circular double ring lightning impulse magnetic field is created by injecting 8/20 μs standard lightning surge current into the coil, which is coupled to 9 types of measured cables, including cable without shielding layer (SL), single SL and double SL cables. The effect of shielding on the lightning surge current is evaluated for various shielding strategies. This study's findings demonstrate that grounding both SL sides efficiently lowers the induced current in cables, which is 80% less than the induced current when the SL is not grounded. Grounding both sides of the outer SL and one side of the inner SL is the optimum shielding approach for double SL cable. Furthermore, grounding one side of the SL suppresses electrostatic induction between the circular double ring lightning impulse magnetic field and the cable but has no significant shielding effect. Ultimately, some engineering recommendations, presented through a comparison of different shielding methods with related work, are proposed in this paper. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Under bare-dry cultivation and medium nitrogen rate, upland rice and paddy rice can get the higher yield. • The appearance quality and nutrition quality of upland rice can be improved by bare-dry cultivation and medium and upper-middle nitrogen rate. • The effect of increasing nitrogen application on 1000-grain weight of upland rice and paddy rice is different. • Yield and the cooking and nutrition quality of upland rice were less sensitive to nitrogen than that of paddy rice. The study of water-nitrogen (N) interaction to improve crop drought resistance and reduce environmental pollution has increasingly become a hot topic. However, the response of yield and quality of paddy rice and upland rice to N nutrition under different irrigation regimes is little known. Continuous flooding cultivation (CF, control) and bare-dry cultivation (BD) were used to cultivate paddy rice cultivar Yangjing 687 (japonica) and upland rice cultivar Zhonghan 3 (japonica), and 3 N application rates, 140 (low N, LN), 210 (normal N, NN) and 280 kg ha−1(high N, HN), were set for each irrigation regime. The results showed that under BD and CF irrigation regimes, the yield of paddy rice was the highest at NN, while that of upland rice was the highest at BD with NN and at CF with HN, breakdown viscosity was the highest and setback viscosity was the lowest for paddy rice at LN and for upland rice at NN. Increasing N application, the chalky kernels percentage and the chalkiness of upland rice increased first and then decreased, while that of paddy rice decreased under BD and increased under CF. Compared with CF, BD made the seed setting percentage and 1000-grain weight of upland rice and paddy rice different, and improved the appearance and nutritional quality of upland rice. The correlation between the cooking and nutritional quality and leaf N content of upland rice was lower than that of paddy rice. These results suggest that the yield and cooking quality of upland rice were high under BD with NN, and the paddy rice yield was high under BD with NN or CF with NN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among human four Y-family DNA polymerases, hPol ι is exceptionally error-prone in DNA synthesis. 6 mA plays significant roles in epigenetic regulation of numerous biological processes. Nonetheless, its effects on DNA replication by hPol ι is still unclear. In this work, we found that 6 mA and Hyp, the intermediate of 6 mA, inhibited the replication of DNA by hPol ι. 6 mA lost priority in extension beyond 6 mA:T pair, partially reducing dTTP incorporation efficiency and inhibiting next-base extension. Hyp was prone to dCTP incorporation and extension beyond Hyp:C instead of Hyp:T pair. Statistically, 6 mA primarily reduced the burst incorporation rate (k pol) and slightly increased the dissociation constant (K d,dTTP). However, Hyp mainly increased the K d,dCTP yet did not affect the k pol , both reducing the burst incorporation efficiency (k pol / K d,dCTP). 6 mA together with Hyp weakened the binding affinity of hPol ι to DNA in binary or ternary complex. The misincorporation opposite 6 mA or Hyp further weakened this binding affinity. The methyl group in 6 mA doesn't almost affect the H-bond formation with dTTP, therefore mildly inhibiting dTTP incorporation. As an analogue of G, Hyp can form only two H-bonds with dCTP, thus reducing dCTP incorporation. This work provides a new insight in how the epigenetically modified 6 mA and its intermediate Hyp affect replication of DNA by human DNA polymerase ι. Image 1 • 6 mA and its intermediate Hyp inhibited DNA replication by hPol ι. • 6 mA reduced dTTP incorporation efficiency and lost extension priority. • Hyp was prone to dCTP incorporation and extension beyond Hyp:C pair. • 6 mA and Hyp weakened the binding affinity of hPol ι to DNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• MOF nanoshell materials are "star" platforms in biomedicine. • Preparation strategies of MOF nanoshell materials are systematically reviewed. • Drug delivery, biosensing, bioimaging and cancer therapy are involved. • Challenge and future development are prospected. The integration of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and nanoshells to construct MOF nanoshell structures offers promising therapeutic platforms for biomedical applications. These MOF nanoshells, which encompass hollow-shells, core-shells, and yolk-shells, exhibit not only the inherent benefits of MOFs, such as large specific surface area, high pore volume, adjustable pore size, rapid cargo transfer and diffusion, excellent biocompatibility, and biodegradability, but also the structural advantages of nanoshells, including a large cavity, high loading capacity, and protective effects. Consequently, MOF nanoshells emerge as ideal materials for biomedical applications. The incorporation of functional nanoparticles or chemotherapeutic molecules with MOF nanoshells enables multi-component synergy due to their adjustable structures, components, and surface modifications, an aspect unattainable by single-component materials. This review article systematically introduces the synthesis strategies for various MOF nanoshells and delves into their applications in biomedicine, including drug delivery, biosensing, bioimaging, and cancer therapy. Finally, the challenges, suggestions, and future prospects of MOF nanoshell structures are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and its ultimate metabolite BPDE (benzo(a)pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol-9,10-epoxide) are typical persistent organic pollutants and endocrine disrupting chemicals. BaP/BPDE exposure might cause human trophoblast cell dysfunctions and induce miscarriage. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely elusive. In this study, we found that BPDE exposure induced human trophoblast cell pyroptosis by up-regulating NLRP3/Caspase1/GSDMD pathway. We also identified that lnc-HZ14 was highly expressed in BPDE-exposed trophoblast cells and in recurrent miscarriage (RM) vs healthy control (HC) villous tissues. Lnc-HZ14 promoted trophoblast cell pyroptosis by promoting IRF1-mediated ZBP1 transcription, increasing METTL3-mediated m6A methylation on NLRP3 mRNA and its stability, and also enhancing ZBP1/NLRP3 protein interactions. Knockdown of lnc-HZ14/ZBP1/NLRP3 axis could efficiently alleviate BPDE-induced trophoblast cell pyroptosis. Higher level of pyroptosis, as indicated by the up-regulation of lnc-HZ14/ZBP1/NLRP3 axis, was found in RM vs HC villous tissues. In BaP-exposed mouse model, BaP exposure induced placental tissue pyroptosis and miscarriage by up-regulating murine Zbp1/Nlrp3 axis, and knockdown of Nlrp3 could efficiently reduce placenta pyroptosis and alleviate BaP-induced mouse miscarriage. Serum IL-1β protein level might act as a promising indicator to predict the risk of miscarriage. These findings provided new insights into BaP/BPDE-induced trophoblast cell pyroptosis and miscarriage and might be helpful for further assessment of the toxicological effects of BaP/BPDE on the female reproduction. [Display omitted] • BPDE induced trophoblast pyroptosis by up-regulating lnc-HZ14/ZBP1/NLRP3 axis. • Lnc-HZ14 promoted ZBP1 transcription, increased NLRP3 mRNA stability, and enhanced ZBP1/NLRP3 interactions. • Higher level of pyroptosis was found in RM vs HC villous tissues. • BaP induced murine placenta pyroptosis and mouse miscarriage via Zbp1/Nlrp3 axis. • IL-1β protein level in serum might predict the risk of miscarriage [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photodynamic therapy (PDT)-mediated antitumor immune response depends on oxidative stress intensity and subsequent immunogenic cell death (ICD) in tumor cells, yet the inherent antioxidant system restricts reactive oxygen species (ROS)-associated oxidative damage, which is highly correlated with the upregulated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and the downstream products, such as glutathione (GSH). Herein, to overcome this dilemma, we designed a versatile nanoadjuvant (RI@Z-P) to enhance the sensitivity of tumor cells to oxidative stress via Nrf2-specific small interfering RNA (siNrf2). The constructed RI@Z-P could significantly amplify photooxidative stress and achieve robust DNA oxidative damage, activating the stimulator of interferon genes (STING)-dependent immune-sensing to produce interferon-β (IFN-β). Additionally, RI@Z-P together with laser irradiation reinforced tumor immunogenicity by exposing or releasing damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), showing the prominent adjuvant effect for promoting dendritic cell (DC) maturation and T-lymphocyte activation and even alleviating the immunosuppressive microenvironment to some extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional state-of-charge (SoC) estimation methods based on the equivalent circuit model (ECM) integrate all state variables into one augmented state vector. However, the correlations between RC voltages and SoC degrade the stability and accuracy of the estimates. To address this problem, this paper presents an adaptive SoC estimation method based on the split battery model, which divides the conventional augmented battery model into two submodels: the RC voltage submodel and the SoC submodel. Hence, the cross interference between RC voltages and SoC is reduced, which effectively reduces the oscillation in the estimation and improves the estimation accuracy. In addition, the adaptive algorithm is applied on the SoC submodel to improve the system robustness to noise disturbances. A case of a second-order ECM is analyzed and two types of Lithium-ion batteries are employed to verify the universality of the proposed method. Experimental results show that the undesired oscillation is eliminated during the convergence stage and the maximum SoC error is within 1% over a wide SoC range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keypoint-based object detection achieves better performance without positioning calculations and extensive prediction. However, they have heavy backbone, and high-resolution is restored using upsampling that obtain unreliable features. We propose a self-constrained parallelism keypoint-based lightweight object detection network (SCPNet), which speeds inference, drops parameters, widens receptive fields, and makes prediction accurate. Specifically, the parallel multi-scale fusion module (PMFM) with parallel shuffle blocks (PSB) adopts parallel structure to obtain reliable features and reduce depth, adopts repeated multi-scale fusion to avoid too many parallel branches. The self-constrained detection module (SCDM) has a two-branch structure, with one branch predicting corners, and employing entad offset to match high-quality corner pairs, and the other branch predicting center keypoints. The distances between the paired corners' geometric centers and the center keypoints are used for self-constrained detection. On MS-COCO 2017 and PASCAL VOC , SCPNet's results are competitive with the state-of-the-art lightweight object detection. https://github.com/mengdie-wang/SCPNet.git. • SCPNet can speed inference, drop parameters, and obtain more accurate boundary boxes. • PMFM for feature extraction can maintain high-resolution and widen receptive field. • SCDM proposes the distance constraint between geometric centers and center keypoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• LA-CaO 2 @PDA are synthesized to achieve pH-responsive NO release. • The generated NO can aggravate intracellular Ca2+ overload and oxidative stress. • LA-CaO 2 @PDA provokes strong immunogenic cell death and antitumor immune response. • Significant inhibition on primary and distant tumor growth has been demonstrated. L-arginine (LA) as a semiessential amino acid within human body has shown great promise in cancer therapy since it can continuously generate nitric oxide (NO) in the presence of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) or reactive oxygen species (ROS). However, NO production efficiency in tumor tissue is severely restricted by the hypoxic and H 2 O 2 -deficient tumor microenvironment (TME). Herein, mesoporous calcium peroxide (CaO 2) with the ability of supplying O 2 /H 2 O 2 has been prepared to encapsulate and oxidize LA to achieve controllable local release of NO in the acidic TME. Interestingly, the generated NO can aggravate the abnormal retention of Ca2+ in cells, thus resulting in amplified oxidative stress and immunogenic cell death. To improve the stability of CaO 2 in the body fluid, polydopamine (PDA) is further introduced to coat on the surface of LA-CaO 2 and its high photothermal conversion property will reinforce the immunogenic dying of tumor cells. Such a NO-enhanced phototherapeutic nanoplatform, LA-CaO 2 @PDA, exhibit the most effective treatment in inhibiting primary and distant tumor growth and suppressing lung metastasis of 4T1 tumor by provoking a strong antitumor immune response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A partial aperture onboard calibration method can solve the onboard calibration problems of some large aperture remote sensors, which is of great significance for the development trend of increasingly large apertures in optical remote sensors. In this paper, the solar diffuser reflectance degradation monitor (SDRDM) in the onboard calibration assembly (CA) of the FengYun-4 (FY-4) advanced geostationary radiance imager (AGRI) was used as the reference radiometer. It was designed for measuring the partial aperture factor (PAF) for the AGRI onboard calibration. First, the linear response count variation relationship between the two was established under the same radiance source input. Then, according to the known bidirectional reflection distribution function (BRDF) of the solar diffuser (SD) in the CA, the relative reflectance ratio coefficient between the AGRI observation direction and the SDRDM observation direction was calculated. On this basis, the response count value of the AGRI and the SDRDM was used to realize the high-precision measurement of the PAF of the AGRI B1~B3 bands by simulating the AGRI onboard calibration measurement under the illumination of a solar simulator in the laboratory. According to the determination process of the relevant parameters of the PAF, the measurement uncertainty of the PAF was analyzed; this uncertainty was greater than 2.04% and provided an important reference for the evaluation of the onboard absolute radiometric calibration uncertainty after launch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution from bus exhaust (one of main sources of urban haze) in Shantou City, Guangdong Province was surveyed, and the purification effect of a new device for removing soot particulates from bus exhaust was analyzed. The results show that the smoke intensity of all buses surveyed averages 3.59 m - 1, exceeding the limit, and the maximum is 5.7 times higher than the limit. Among the buses inspected, the smoke intensity of 37% of buses is not up to standard. The removal rate of soot particulates from various buses equipped with the purification device averages 63.6%, and some buses are up to standard after their exhaust are purified, showing that the device has good purification effect. Therefore, installing the purification device in a bus is an effective way to control air pollution from bus exhaust and haze in a city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 Z-scheme composites were synthesized by in-situ calcination and hydrothermal method and the novel g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 /NCQs was constructed by introducing nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (NCQs) on the interface of g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 catalyst. UV–vis spectroscopy data showed that the improved visible light utilization efficiency of the catalyst is attributed to the composition of g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 Z-scheme heterojunction and the addition of NCQs. Photocurrent response analysis and fluorescence intensity measurements showed that the high separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs in the g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 /NCQs composite. In addition, the excellent structural stability of g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 /NCQs can be proved by the analysis data of cycle experiments and XRD diffraction peaks of catalysts before and after experiments. Obviously, the above experimental data and analysis demonstrated the outstanding photocatalytic activity of g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 /NCQs. Free radical capture experimental data analysis confirmed that superoxide ion radicals (·O 2 −) and holes (h+) play a major role in the reaction process, and the possible photocatalytic mechanism of g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 /NCQs was proposed to further understand its enhanced photocatalytic activity. Image 1 • g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 /NCQs was synthesized by in-situ calcination and physical deposition. • The excited electron-hole pairs of g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6 /NCQs were effectively separated. • The introduction of NCQs greatly improved the catalytic activity of g-C 3 N 4 /Bi 2 WO 6. • The possible migration pathways of charge carriers were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dpo4 is a representative model of Y-family DNA polymerase and is therefore one of the most intensively studied DNA polymerase. 6 mA, an epigenetic marker, plays important roles in regulation of various biological processes. However, its effects on DNA replication by Dpo4 is completely unknown. Here, we found that 6 mA and its intermediate Hyp inhibits primer extension by Dpo4, showing an obvious blockage just one nucleotide before 6 mA or Hyp. 6 mA reduces dTTP incorporation efficiency, next-base extension efficiency, binding affinity of DNA to Dpo4, binding affinity of dTTP to Dpo4-DNA complex, the fraction of productive Dpo4 or productive ternary complex, and the burst incorporation rate, explaining the inhibition effects of 6 mA on DNA replication by Dpo4. Hyp is similar to G and dCTP is preferentially incorporated opposite Hyp by Dpo4, resulting in A:T to G:C mutation. Relative to dTTP incorporation opposite unmodified A, Hyp reduces dCTP incorporation efficiency, next-base extension efficiency, the priority in extension beyond correct pair, binding affinity of Dpo4 to DNA, binding of dCTP to Dpo4-DNA complex, and the burst incorporation efficiency, explaining the inhibition effects of Hyp on DNA replication by Dpo4. This work provides insight in the effects of epigenetically modified 6 mA and Hyp on DNA replication by a representative Y-family DNA polymerase Dpo4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]