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The widespread application of nonlinear power electronic devices in residential loads has resulted in significant harmonic distortions. Harmonic source modeling is of great importance since it is a prerequisite to estimate the harmonic pollution. In this paper, a dynamic harmonic coupled matrix model (HCMM) is proposed for the nonlinear home appliances. This model is adaptive to the load supply voltage conditions; therefore, the dynamic harmonic generating characteristics of nonlinear home appliances can be demonstrated by the proposed HCMM. Moreover, the HCMM derivation process is based on measurement, independent of the load equivalent circuit, which makes the proposed method most suitable for nonlinear home appliances with unknown circuit topologies. The widely linear complex partial least squares method, which has a fast speed and high robustness, is used to estimate the HCMM. A procedure to establish the HCMM for multistate home appliances is also proposed in this paper. Lab experiments were performed to verify the accuracy and validity of the proposed methodology. The aggregate harmonics caused by multiple nonlinear residential loads have been analyzed based on the proposed HCMM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper is concerned on the consensus problem of multiagent systems with random switching topologies, where the dwell time of each topology consists of fixed and random parts. Firstly, the consensus analysis of such multiagent systems is considered by a mode‐dependent Lyapunov function approach, whose conditions are developed in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Then, three kinds of consensus protocols based on random switching topologies are proposed, whose differences are also illustrated. Moreover, all the existence conditions of such consensus controllers are presented with solvable forms, where the dwell times and topology are both included and play important roles. Finally, the proposed consensus protocols are applied to a chemical process to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to assess the role of NETs in BPD of hyperoxia-induced rat model and the effect of heparin on alveolarization and vascular development in BPD. The neonatal rats exposed to 90% oxygen continuously for 7 days to mimic BPD, meanwhile, the rats were injected by different doses of histones to evaluate the impact on lung injury. The newborn rats exposed to hyperoxia were injected by different doses of heparin (250 U/kg, 500 U/kg) or anti-H4 antibody to evaluate the effect of heparin. Histones and hyperoxia impaired alveolarization with the increase of mean linear intercept (MLI) and the decrease of radial alveolar count (RAC), decreased lung angiogenesis with the decrease expression of VEGF, and increased the expression of NETs, histones and pro-inflammatory factor. However, low dose heparin (250U/kg) administration enhanced survival, improved alveolarization and vascular development in hyperoxia-induced BPD, as well as reduced expression of NETs, histones and pro-inflammatory factor. We concluded that heparin improves alveolarization and vascularization in BPD by inhibiting NETs. • We found heparin improves alveolarization and vascularization in BPD by inhibiting NETs. • Low dose heparin 250 U/kg alleviated overexpression of NETs, improved alveolarization and vascularization arrested caused by hyperoxia. • Treatment with low dose heparin 250 U/kg would not increasing risk of alveolar capillary bleeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compressible and flexible supercapacitors have aroused enormous interest of many scientific researchers for potential applications in wearable electronic products. However, the design and construction of the electrode with superior mechanical as well as electrical properties still face a lot of challenges. In present work, melamine foam/polypyrrole (MF/PPy) electrode with high deformation-tolerance and excellent electrochemical performance is prepared by in-situ interfacial polymerization of polypyrrole on commercial melamine foam, where PPy nanoparticles with size of 700 nm are uniformly anchored on the MF skeletons. The electrochemical characterizations show that the electrode exhibits excellent specific area capacitance of 2.685 F cm−2 at 2 mA cm−2 and good cyclic stability with more than 80% of capacitance remained after 3000 cycles. Furthermore, a symmetrical aqueous supercapacitor is assembled and exhibits an excellent energy density up to 75.95 μWh cm−2 at the power density of 5.82 mW cm−2 and excellent cycling stability as the current density increases by 10 times. Even under a high strain of 70%, about 95.76% of the initial capacitance is retained after 500 consecutive compressions. These outstanding performances enable the MF/PPy composite a promising candidate for potential applications in compressible and flexible electrochemical energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need for developing cost-effective methods for the treatment of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) due to its global emergence and potential risks. In this study, taking surface-defective BiOCl as an example, a strategy of surface oxygen vacancy modulation was used to promote the photocatalytic defluorination efficiency of PFOA under simulated sunlight irradiation. The defective BiOCl was fabricated by a fast microwave solvothermal method, which was found to induce more surface oxygen vacancies than conventional solvothermal and precipitation methods. As a result, the as-prepared BiOCl showed significantly enhanced defluorination efficiency, which was 2.7 and 33.8 times higher than that of BiOCl fabricated by conventional solvothermal and precipitation methods, respectively. Mechanistic studies indicated that the defluorination of PFOA follows a direct hole (h+) oxidation pathway with the aid of •OH, while the oxygen vacancies not only promote charge separation but also facilitate the intimate contact between the photocatalyst surface and PFOA by coordinating with its terminal carboxylate group in a bidentate or bridging mode. This work will provide a general strategy of oxygen vacancy modulation by microwave-assisted methods for efficient photocatalytic defluorination of PFOA in the environment using sunlight as the energy source. Unlabelled Image [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preterm ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (POHS) is a rare condition with only a few reported cases. The objective of this study is to investigate the clinical characteristics of 21 POHS cases (seven from China and 14 from the literature). Suspected patients (n = 7) were referred for further confirmation and data on demographics, family history, clinical manifestations (edema developed in the vulva, the hypogastric site and the upper leg), serum and sonographic assessments (ovarian cyst/cysts, gonadotropins, and estradiol levels), the natural course of patients were documented. We did not observe substantial differences in clinical manifestations among POHS patients from China relative to that from the literature. Preterm female newborns developed edema in the vulva, the hypogastric site and the upper leg at 30–39+6 weeks of post-conception age (PCA) as the major clinical manifestations. The characteristic also included high gonadotropins and estradiol, and ovarian cysts. This condition can self-resolve. Clinical manifestations of POHS patients from China are similar to those from the literature. The pathognomonic signs of POHS include vulvar, hypogastric, and upper leg edema developed at 30–39+6 PCA along with high gonadotropins and E2 values and the presence of ovarian cysts in preterm female newborns and the syndrome can self-resolve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diode lasers, especially 405 nm diode laser, as excitation sources offer new opportunities for laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection, but the lack of available derivatization reagents limits their widespread applications. Herein, a commercial fluorescent dye, 7-(diethylamino)coumarin-3-carboxylic acid (DEAC-C) was introduced as derivatization reagent and corresponding derivatization strategy for DEAC-C labeling sulfonamides was developed for 405 nm LIF detection. After systematic optimization, three sulfonamides including hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), chlorothiazide (CTZ) and chlortalidone (CTD) could be efficiently labeled by DEAC-C in the presence of cyanuric chloride and triethylamine (1.5%) in acetonitrile at 50 °C for 180 min. Based on the laboratory-built capillary electrophoresis-LIF system, a robust method was then proposed for the separation of DEAC-C labeled sulfonamides by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using the classic borax-SDS system. Under the optimized conditions, a baseline separation of three sulfonamides was achieved within 15 min, and the detection limits were determined to be 0.24, 0.29, and 0.23 nM for HCTZ, CTZ, and CTD, respectively. Furthermore, the developed MEKC-LIF method was validated using sulfonamide standards and spiked human urine sample and successfully applied for the analysis of three sulfonamides in complex pharmaceutical and physiological samples. Image 1 • Introducing DEAC-C as derivatization reagent for 405 nm LIF detection. • Developing derivatization strategy for DEAC-C labeling sulfonamides. • Proposing MEKC separation method for DEAC-C labeled sulfonamides. • MEKC-LIF method possessed excellent sensitivity and selectivity for sulfonamides. • MEKC-LIF analysis of sulfonamides in pharmaceutical and physiological samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myc target 1 (MYCT1), located at 6q25.2, is a crucial player in cancer development. While widely distributed in cells, its subcellular localization varies across different cancer types. As a novel c-Myc target gene, MYCT1 is subject to regulation by multiple transcription factors. Studies have revealed aberrant expression of MYCT1 in various cancers, impacting pivotal biological processes such as proliferation, apoptosis, migration, genomic instability, and differentiation in cancer cells. Additionally, MYCT1 plays a critical role in modulating tumor angiogenesis and remodeling tumor immune responses within the tumor microenvironment. Despite certain debated functions, MYCT1 undeniably holds significance in cancer development. In this review, we comprehensively examine the relationship between MYCT1 and cancer, encompassing gene structure, regulation of gene expression, gene mutation, and biological function, with the aim of providing valuable insights for cancer diagnosis and treatment. [Display omitted] • MYCT1 , a novel c-Myc target gene, is a crucial player in cancer development. • It affects pivotal biological processes in cancer cells. • It has shown the potential to function as an oncogene or as a tumor suppressor. • The role of MYCT1 in cancer may provide new ideas for cancer diagnosis and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A Wollaston-prism-based snapshot phase-shifting diffraction phase microscope system is proposed with nearly common-path in configuration and requires only a single shot to simultaneously acquire the phase-shifted interferograms. • The proposed system could accurately reconstruct a phase image with high spatial resolution and high slope range, making the system insensitive to environmental disturbance. • The phase-shifting interferometric measurement can be achieved in real time, allowing phase imaging of any dynamic process in a high vibration environment. • To the best of our knowledge, it is the first DPM which enables snapshot multi-step phase shifting measurement with the potential for general DPM-based phase measurement using different coherence light. We proposed a Wollaston-prism-based snapshot phase-shifting diffraction phase microscope (WP-SPDPM) for low-coherence snapshot quantitative phase imaging and videography. Wollaston prism separates two orthogonally linearly polarized beams with high degrees of polarization at a sufficiently small separation angle; one of the beams passing through a pinhole serves as the reference beam. Four phase-shifted interferograms are simultaneously acquired with a polarization camera to accurately retrieve a high spatial resolution phase map. The system is nearly common-path in configuration and can achieve a large slope range and high accuracy. In addition to the ability to resist environmental noise, the WP-SPDPM is suitable for phase measurement using low-coherence light. The accuracy and large measurable slope range of the proposed system is validated and compared experimentally with a commercial profilometer. We believe WP-SPDPM is a powerful tool for the accurate and robust quantitative phase measurement and has a significant potential of the real-time phase imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The UV-induced C-H activation mechanism is a good alternative catalytic cycle. • The re-coordination of CO to the Fe occurs before the releasing of H 2. • Benzene with strong electron-withdrawing group is favorable to the para -product. The heterobimetallic complex [(NHC)Cu-FeCp(CO) 2 ] ([LCu-Fp]) is an efficient and sustainable catalyst for C-H borylation under UV light irradiation, whereas the catalytic mechanism is still debating. One opinion is the thermal induced mechanism, in which Cu-Fe bond in [LCu-Fp] firstly dissociated by B-H activation, and then induced the decarbonylation of FpBpin by UV irradiation. The other is the UV-induced mechanism, the decarbonylation of [LCu-Fp] occurred before the Cu-Fe broken. In this work, detailed mechanism of UV-induced has been investigated by DFT calculations and compared with the thermal induced mechanism. Our calculated results show that both of them can occur under UV light irradiation at room temperature. The UV-induced mechanism contains four steps: CO dissociation, Cu-Fe bond breakage by B-H activation, C-H borylation, and H-H reductive elimination. In the last step, it is the re-coordination of CO to the Fe occurs before the releasing of H 2. The strong election-withdrawing substituent of benzene would increase the yield of para -product, whereas the election-donating substituent has little influence on the regioselectivity. Our calculation determines the detail mechanism of the title reaction and provides reasonable explanation for the regioselectivity of C-H borylation of substituted benzene, which would help for the widely usages of the heterobimetallic catalysts. The detailed mechanism of UV-induced decarbonylation of [LCu-Fp] in B-H activation process in C-H Borylation was investigated by DFT calculations and compared with the thermal-induced B-H activation process. Both of the two cases can occur under UV light irradiation at room temperature. The strong election-withdrawing substituent of benzene would increase the yield of para -product, whereas the election-donating substituent has little influence on the regioselectivity. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid materials of SnS 2 nanoparticles on graphene sheets (GS) were prepared by a facile one-step hydrothermal procedure. The as-obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), photoluminescence spectra (PL) and electrochemical equipment. The effects of GS on photoabsorption range, the apparent band gap, the separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, and concentration of hydroxyl radicals of SnS 2 were researched. The as-samples exhibited an enhanced absorption in the visible region (λ > 600 nm) with increasing the amount of graphene and the band gap was about to 2.11 eV. The photocatalytic activity of GS/SnS 2 is consistent with the results of photocurrents and concentration of hydroxyl radicals and the best ratio of graphene to SnS 2 is 1%. The graphene can effectively promote the separation of photo-induced carriers and thus strengthen the photocatalytic ability. Furthermore, excess graphenes will not favor the enhancement of photocatalytic activity. • Synthesis of graphene sheets/SnS 2 nanoparticles composites via a facile one-step hydrothermal procedure. • Effects of graphene concentration on photoelectronic and electrochemical properties. • Investigation of the concentration of •OH • Effects of the concentration of •OH on Photocatalytic activities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matrix stiffness has been demonstrated in many studies to adjust the biological behaviors of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, in the initial phase of bone restoration, MSCs will encounter a hypoxic microenvironment. Studying the connection existing between the matrix stiffness and biological behavior of MSCs under hypoxic condition can better simulate the microenvironment at the prime period of bone repairment. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) decalcified bone scaffolds with diverse stiffness [high stiffness (66.06 ± 27.83) MPa, medium stiffness (26.90 ± 13.16) MPa, and low stiffness (0.67 ± 0.14) MPa] but same microstructure have been prepared by controlling decalcification time. In addition, the decellularized bone scaffold was regard as control group and its stiffness was (230.93 ± 72.65) MPa. The viability, proliferation, infiltration, and osteogenic differentiation of MSCs seeded into these 3D demineralized bone scaffolds were systematically investigated under 100 μM CoCl2-simulated hypoxic and normoxic environments. The results showed that the viability, proliferation, and extracellular matrix (ECM) secretion of MSCs had no significant difference on scaffolds with diverse stiffness, but the degree of collagen deposition of MSCs gradually increased with the increase of scaffold stiffness both under normoxia and hypoxia. Compared to normoxia, the viability, proliferation, ECM secretion, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression, and osteogenesis of MSCs on the scaffolds with the same stiffness were evidently inhibited by hypoxia. Additionally, under hypoxic condition, the expression of VEGF and hypoxia inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) in MSCs on the low stiffness scaffold was markedly increased comparing to those on other groups. In summary, we found that the low-stiffness scaffold can improved the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of MSCs under hypoxic environment, which may help to explore efficient methods for bone defect repairing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • CT-US registration method based on block-matching. • Smart point selection for efficient registration. • Outlier rejection based on dominant set theory, including geometric and smoothness criteria. • Evaluation on 29 patient datasets. Graphical abstract Abstract In this work we present a fast approach to perform registration of computed tomography to ultrasound volumes for image guided intervention applications. The method is based on a combination of block-matching and outlier rejection. The block-matching uses a correlation based multimodal similarity metric, where the intensity and the gradient of the computed tomography images along with the ultrasound volumes are the input images to find correspondences between blocks in the computed tomography and the ultrasound volumes. A variance and octree based feature point-set selection method is used for selecting distinct and evenly spread point locations for block-matching. Geometric consistency and smoothness criteria are imposed in an outlier rejection step to refine the block-matching results. The block-matching results after outlier rejection are used to determine the affine transformation between the computed tomography and the ultrasound volumes. Various experiments are carried out to assess the optimal performance and the influence of parameters on accuracy and computational time of the registration. A leave-one-patient-out cross-validation registration error of 3.6 mm is achieved over 29 datasets, acquired from 17 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • CoFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles are confined in the intratubular pores of CMK-5. • Incorporation of appropriate content of CoFe 2 O 4 showed outstanding performance. • The unique peapod-like structure can remit excessive volume change effectively. • The contact between CMK-5 and CoFe 2 O 4 can shorten the transmission distance of ions. • Higher reversible capacity, excellent cycle life and rate performance were achieved. Abstract The CoFe 2 O 4 with spinel structure has been identified as a promising anode material of lithium-ion battery because of high theoretical capacity of 914 mAh g−1, low price, high chemical durability and environmental friendliness. However, the poor electrical conductivity and significant volume change in the charge and discharge process lead to a severe capacity dropping, hindering its application. The anode architecture with spinel CoFe 2 O 4 and mesoporous carbon CMK-5 (CoFe 2 O 4 @CMK-5) was designed through a controllable nanocasting process to overcome the problems. The CoFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles were restrained into the hexagonal tubular mesoporous of CMK-5. The enhanced electrochemical performance benefited from the unique peapod-like structure, which could confine CoFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles to prevent excessive volume expansion effectively. Moreover, the ordered hexagonal nanotube array could provide channels for electron transport and reserved space for electrolyte contact, enhancing cycling and rate performance. Thus, the CoFe 2 O 4 @CMK-5 displays superior retained specific capacity (836 mAh g−1) after 100 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Momordica charantia L. (Cucurbitaceae) is a popular vegetable and traditional folk medicine, that has been used for hundreds of years. In this study, three undescribed cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides furpyronecucurbitane A, goyaglycoside I and charantagenin F along with nine known compounds were isolated from the immature fruit of Momordica charantia L. Their structures were identified on the basis of extensive 1D, 2D NMR and HRESIMS spectroscopy analysis. All isolated compounds were examined for their anti-hepatic fibrosis activity against murine hepatic stellate cells (t-HSC/Cl-6) and anti-hepatoma activity against two kinds of liver cancer cell lines (HepG2 and Hep3B). Among them, karaviloside III exhibited excellent inhibitory activity against activated t-HSC/Cl-6 cells and cytotoxic activity against Hep3B and HepG2 cell lines with IC 50 values of 3.74 ± 0.13, 16.68 ± 2.07 and 4.12 ± 0.36 μ M, respectively, which may potential to be developed as a chemotherapy agent for treatment hepatic fibrosis or carcinoma and protection against both diseases. Graphical abstract Three undescribed triterpenes together with nine known compounds were isolated from the fruit of Momordica charantia L. Some of them showed significant anti-hepatic fibrosis activity and anti-hepatoma activity. Image 1 Highlights • Three unknown cucurbitane triterpenoids were isolated from Momordica charantia. L. • All the isolated compounds were tested for their anti-hepatic fibrosis and tumors activity. • Karaviloside III showed significant anti-hepatic fibrosis and tumors activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the this work is to develop mesoporous silica and amine modified sand loaded with iron (Fe) and copper (Cu) species from electroplating wastewater for a further removal of phosphorus (P) from wastewater. First, it is shown that Fe or Cu supported sand adsorbent can effectively remove phosphorus (P) from aqueous solutions. The influence of pH, initial ion concentration (C 0 ), contact time (t) on the adsorption of P by both sand adsorbents was studied. The maximum adsorption efficiency at room temperature reached 98% for the Fe-supported adsorbent under conditions of pH = 4, C 0  = 25 mg/L, t = 180min and 96.3% for the Cu-supported sand under conditions of pH = 2, C 0  = 5 mg/L, t = 120min respectively. The kinetics of P adsorption by the Fe or Cu supported sands followed the pseudo second-order kinetic model, while the adsorption isotherms fitted the Langmuir model. Based on the above results, an iron and copper co-supported sand adsorbent was prepared successfully by encapsulating Fe and Cu from a copper electroplating wastewater. In the meantime, Cu in the electroplating wastewater was reduced from 222 to 0.12 mg/L. This wastewater derived sand-based adsorbent had the same efficiency as the Fe-supported sand adsorbent. It was used to remove P from aqueous solution until the residual P in solution met China National Standard of WastewaterEmission. By this way, a dual approach to synergistically purify both anions and cations polluted wastewaters is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uveitis is a serious eye disease that usually damages young adult’s health. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs which regulate messenger RNA (mRNA) expression. It is predicted that rno-miR-30b-5p can regulate the expressions of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). In this study, the regulatory role of rno-miR-30b-5p in IL-10 and TLR4 gene expressions was validated using luciferase activity assay. Further, the inflammatory manifestation of the anterior segment and pathological examination of the eye were explored in experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) rats. Meanwhile, the levels of rno-miR-30b-5p in eye tissues, spleen, and lymph nodes were measured using quantitative PCR (Q-PCR). IL-10 and TLR4 in spleen and lymph nodes were further separately determined by using Q-PCR and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Moreover, rno-miR-30b-5p mimic and its inhibitor were separately transfected into purified T cells, and the levels of IL-10 and TLR4 were detected using PCR, flow cytometry, and ELISA techniques. Results indicate that rno-miR-30b-5p was downregulated in spleen, lymph nodes, and eye tissues whereas the expressions of IL-10 and TLR4 at mRNA and protein levels were upregulated. The levels of IL-10 and TLR4 were negatively correlated to rno-miR-30b-5p levels. The result of in vitro cell transfection experiment indicates that IL-10 and TLR4 expressions were inhibited at mRNA and protein levels after T cells incubated with rno-miR-30b-5p mimic. However, the IL-10 and TLR4 mRNA levels were upregulated in purified T cells from spleen and lymph nodes after treatment with miR-30b-5p antagonist. In addition, there was no evident change of IL-10 and TLR4 proteins in spleen and lymph node T cells between EAU control and negative treatment groups. Flow cytometry analysis revealed that rno-miR-30b-5p mimic could reduce the number of both IL-10 and TLR4 positive cells, whereas rno-miR-30b-5p inhibitor could increase the number of IL-10 and TLR4 positive cells. Our study demonstrates that rno-miR-30b-5p influences the development of uveitis by regulating the level of IL-10 and TLR4 positive cells, thereby playing a role in the pathogenesis of uveitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the effect of perceived stress and coping behaviors on quality of life and clinical outcomes in patients with ulcerative colitis.Methods: This is a prospective cohort study in a tertiary inflammatory bowel disease center in China. A total of 263 ulcerative colitis patients were enrolled consecutively between June 2013 and February 2015. The Perceived Stress Scale, the Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire, and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire were used to assess perceived stress, medical coping and quality of life at baseline. Patients were followed up for hospitalization due to relapse over a one-year period. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify whether perceived stress and medical coping behavior were related to quality of life and hospitalization.Results: Patients with invalid questionnaires (n = 6) and those lost to follow-up (n = 28) were excluded. A total of 229 ulcerative colitis patients (mean age 40.4 ± 12.6, 50.7% male) were included in the final analysis, and 23 patients had been hospitalized during the one-year follow-up period. After adjusting other associated variables, perceived stress (OR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.07 to 1.19) and acceptance-resignation behavior (OR: 1.41; 95% CI: 1.21 to 1.65) were independently associated with poor quality of life. Patients scoring highly for acceptance-resignation behavior (OR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.04 to 1.46) were more likely to be hospitalized during the one-year follow-up period.Conclusion: In patients with ulcerative colitis, identifying those who adopted more acceptance-resignation behavior and improving their medical coping behavior by psychotherapy could be helpful to achieve better quality of life and disease control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensively understanding the fate and transport of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in subsurface environment is crucial to assess its environmental impacts. In this work, column experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of physicochemical factors on the retention and transport of 14 C-labeled PFOA in saturated sand and limestone porous media. The retention of PFOA in limestone columns was higher than that in sand columns under the same solution chemistry conditions. This can be attributed to that the limestone had less negative zeta-potential and larger specific surface area than the sand. Changes in ionic strength (low to high) and cation type (Na + to Ca 2+ ) had little influences on the mobility of PFOA in sand porous media, but significantly enhanced the retention of PFOA in limestone porous media. Nearly no PFOA was retained in the sand columns, but relatively high levels of PFOA retention (28.7–48.4%) were achieved in the limestone columns. Higher input concentration resulted in lower PFOA retention in limestone porous media, reflecting the blocking effect of the sorption sites. The blocking effect was insignificant in sand porous media, probably because the experimental conditions were unfavorable for PFOA sorption on sand media. A two-site kinetic retention model effectively simulated both the breakthrough and retention behaviors of the PFOA in the sand and limestone porous media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methyltransferase-like 21C (METTL21C) is a member of the non-histone methyltransferase superfamily, which mainly mediates the methylation of lysine (Lys) residues. The main types of modification are Lys dimethylation and trimethylation. However, at present, most of the studies on METTL21C are focused on humans and mice, and there are few reports on poultry. Therefore, chicken embryo fibroblasts (DF-1) were selected as the object of study. To explore the function of chicken METTL21C (chMETTL21C) in the proliferation of DF-1 cells, flow cytometry and qPCR were used to detect the function of chicken METTL21C in the proliferation of DF-1 cells. The results showed that overexpression of METTL21C blocked the cell cycle in the G1max S phase, thus inhibiting cell proliferation. In addition, based on proteomic analysis, stable overexpression of METTL21C may inhibit the proliferation of DF-1 cells by mediating lysine trimethylation of proliferation-related proteins phosphorylated adapter RNA export protein (PHAX), nucleoside diphosphate kinases (NDPKs), eukaryotic transcription extension factor (eukaryotic translation elongation factor 1A,e EF1A), and inversin (Invs). Through immunoprecipitation (co-IP) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis, METTL21C-mediated PHAX Lys-381 methylation was confirmed to be involved in the regulation of DF-1 cell proliferation. The results of this study provide a reference for analyzing the methylation function of METTL21C and the mechanism of regulating the growth and development of chicken cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital image processing is widely used in the non-destructive diagnosis of plant nutrition. Previous plant nitrogen diagnostic studies have mostly focused on characteristics of the rice canopy or leaves at some specific points in time, with the long sampling intervals unable to provide detailed and specific “dynamic features.” According to plant growth mechanisms, the dynamic changing rate in leaf shape and color differ between different nitrogen supplements. Therefore, the objective of this study was to diagnose nitrogen stress levels by analyzing the dynamic characteristics of rice leaves. Scanning technology was implemented to collect rice leaf images every 3 days, with the characteristics of the leaves from different leaf positions extracted utilizing MATLAB. Newly developed shape characteristics such as etiolation area (EA) and etiolation degree (ED), in addition to shape (area, perimeter) and color characteristics (green, normalized red index, etc.), were used to quantify the process of leaf change. These characteristics allowed sensitive indices to be established for further model validation. Our results indicate that the changing rates in dynamic characteristics, in particular the shape characteristics of the first incomplete leaf (FIL) and the characteristics of the 3rd leaf (leaf color and etiolation indices), expressed obvious distinctions among different nitrogen treatments. Consequently, we achieved acceptable diagnostic accuracy (training accuracy 77.3%, validation accuracy 64.4%) by using the FIL at six days after leaf emergence, and the new shape characteristics developed in this article (ED and EA) also showed good performance in nitrogen diagnosis. Based on the aforementioned results, dynamic analysis is valuable not only in further studies but also in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of particle size and internal grain boundaries of Beta zeolites was investigated in n -pentane isomerization over bifunctional Pt/Beta catalysts, by comparing the catalytic performance of four as-synthesized Pt/Beta samples that possess an identical Pt loading (0.5 wt%), but use four distinct Beta zeolites. Three of them contain polycrystalline zeolites, consisting of nano-sized crystals with a similar size of 9–13 nm, but having different average particle sizes (i.e., 1340, 830, and 250 nm) and numerous internal grain boundaries, as found via high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The last catalyst contains single-crystalline zeolite, with an average particle size of 225 nm, and no observed internal grain boundaries. At low reaction temperature (<578 K), the particle size and internal grain boundaries do not change the apparent activity, because activity is controlled by reaction on the acid sites of the zeolite. At high reaction temperature (>614 K), a large particle size and the presence of internal grain boundaries significantly reduce the apparent activity, because of the extended diffusion path and additional diffusion barriers, which are probably caused by a mismatch in micropore alignment and gas-zeolite interfaces at these grain boundaries. Due to the small particle size and absence of internal grain boundaries, the observed activity for single-crystalline Beta can be 60–212% higher than for polycrystalline counterparts, even though it possesses a much weaker intrinsic acidity. This shows, remarkably, that single-crystalline zeolites with less internal grain boundaries can achieve a much higher catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Three‐phase unbalance is one of the most important power quality problems in the power system. When the system is working under unbalanced conditions, more losses and heating effects will be induced, and the system will become less stable, which is harmful to both utilities and customers. The most important thing for a seriously unbalanced system is to find out the main unbalanced source to take proper measures to mitigate the problem. In this paper, a method is proposed to indentify the main unbalanced source at the point of evaluation (POE) in the distribution power systems. Two extreme cases are analyzed in the paper by assuming that the unbalanced source to be totally from the POE upstream network or downstream network. Therefore, 2 corresponding analytical formulas are derived to reveal the relationship between the POE voltage unbalance factor (VUF) and the current unbalance factor (CUF). A method is then proposed to determine the contribution of the unbalanced source at the upstream and downstream networks based on the comparison between the derived VUFs and the actual VUF. Sensitivity analysis is implemented to show the robustness of the proposed method. The effectiveness and validity of the proposed method is illustrated by the IEEE 13‐bus test system and IEEE 37‐bus test system. It is shown that the estimation error of the proposed method is generally within 5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to quantify the groundwater contamination risk of Songhua River Basin by applying a novel approach of integrating public datasets, web services and numerical modelling techniques. To our knowledge, this study is the first to establish groundwater risk maps for the entire Songhua River Basin, one of the largest and most contamination-endangered river basins in China. Index-based groundwater risk maps were created with GIS tools at a spatial resolution of 30 arc sec by combining the results of groundwater vulnerability and hazard assessment. Groundwater vulnerability was evaluated using the DRASTIC index method based on public datasets at the highest available resolution in combination with numerical groundwater modelling. As a novel approach to overcome data scarcity at large scales, a web mapping service based data query was applied to obtain an inventory for potential hazardous sites within the basin. The groundwater risk assessment demonstrated that < 1% of Songhua River Basin is at high or very high contamination risk. These areas were mainly located in the vast plain areas with hotspots particularly in the Changchun metropolitan area. Moreover, groundwater levels and pollution point sources were found to play a significantly larger impact in assessing these areas than originally assumed by the index scheme. Moderate contamination risk was assigned to 27% of the aquifers, predominantly associated with less densely populated agricultural areas. However, the majority of aquifer area in the sparsely populated mountain ranges displayed low groundwater contamination risk. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that this novel method is valid for regional assessments of groundwater contamination risk. Despite limitations in resolution and input data consistency, the obtained groundwater contamination risk maps will be beneficial for regional and local decision-making processes with regard to groundwater protection measures, particularly if other data availability is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is established to generate pore networks within domains of arbitrary shape, as long as the domain can be mathematically described by a set of inequalities. In this method, a stochastic network algorithm is adopted to construct pore network skeletons, which are then cut into the desired shapes using a new pore network cutting algorithm. The latter can be embedded into other methods to transplant its ‘pore network cutting’ function. Using this method, pore networks with four archetypical two-dimensional shapes (namely, cross-sections of one-holed rings, trilobes, four-holed rings, and wheels) and four three-dimensional shapes (namely, spheres, cylinders, trilobes, and hollow cylinders) are constructed as examples. Then, some of these pore networks are applied to simulate diffusion and reaction in Pd/γ-alumina catalyst particles for hydrogenation of benzene to cyclohexane. It is shown that the randomness of the pore network and the external particle shape significantly affect the performance of catalysts, because of their impact on effective diffusivity and diffusion length, respectively, indicating that this structural information must be accounted for to achieve a model with high accuracy. The versatile method proposed in this article is ideal to study the effect of particle shape and pore network structure on the performance of porous materials for catalysis and other applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalytic depolymerization of lignin is still a challenge due to its low conversion and repolymerization of the reactive intermediates. Reductive depolymerization over supported nickel catalysts with probable surface acidic and basic properties is a very promising process. It is therefore very important to investigate the effect of acidity and basicity of the supports on catalytic reactivity. In this paper, we synthesized a series of nickel based catalysts supported on ZnO-Al 2 O 3 composites with varying Zn/Al atom ratios (Zn/Al = 2, 3, 5, ∞) and tested their catalytic performances over a model compound 2-phenoxy-1-phenylethanone containing β-O-4 bond. All these catalysts showed 100% conversion by reacting at 250 °C for 2 h under 2 MPa of H 2 . Higher selectivity towards ethylcyclohexane could be obtained over the catalyst Ni/ZnO-Al 2 O 3 -5. The possible cleavage pathways of selective oxidized β-O-4 ether linkage have been proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel one-step microRNA assay is developed based on a target-triggered loop-mediated isothermal amplification (TT-LAMP) mechanism, which enables the accurate detection of as low as 100 aM (1 zmol) microRNA with simple one-step operation by using only one-type of DNA polymerase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling facilitates the derivation of mouse epiblast stem cells (EpiSCs), as well as dramatically promotes EpiSC self-renewal. The specific mechanism, however, is still unclear. Here, we showed that IWR1, a Wnt/β-catenin signaling inhibitor, allowed long-term self-renewal of EpiSCs in serum medium in combination with ROCK inhibitor Y27632. Through transcriptome data analysis, we arrived at a set of candidate transcription factors induced by IWR1. Among these, Forkhead box D3 (Foxd3) was most abundant. Forced expression of Foxd3 could recapitulate the self-renewal-promoting effect of IWR1 in EpiSCs. Conversely, knockdown of Foxd3 profoundly compromised responsiveness to IWR1, causing extinction of pluripotency markers and emergence of differentiation phenotype. Foxd3 thus is necessary and sufficient to mediate self-renewal downstream of Wnt/β-catenin signaling inhibitor. These findings highlight an important role for Foxd3 in regulating EpiSCs and will expand current understanding of the primed pluripotency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, column experiments were conducted to investigate the transport characteristics of graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles in limestone media under various electrolytes, solution pH, and humic acid (HA) concentration conditions. In the limestone media, GO exhibited relatively low mobility with the mass recovery rate lower than 65.2%, even when solution ionic strength was low. The presence of HA enhanced its mobility. In addition, the presence of S 2- , a divalent anion, also promoted GO transport in limestone media compared to Cl − under similar ionic strength conditions through neutralizing more positive charge and thus diminishing the cation bridging. Solution pH showed slight effect on the transport of GO in limestone with the mass recovery range from 40.3% to 51.7%. Over all, decreases in solution pH, HA concentration and increases in solution ionic strength reduced the mobility of GO in the limestone media under the tested conditions. These results indicated both environmental conditions and media characteristics played important roles in controlling GO fate and transport in porous media. The one-site kinetic deposition model was applied to describe the interactions between the GO and limestone media and model simulations fitted the observed experimental data very well. As limestone is an important component of aquiferous media in subsurface, findings from this study elucidated the key factors and processes controlling the fate of GO particles in limestone media, which can inform the prediction and assessment of the risks of GO in groundwater environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High magnetic field (HMF) treatment is an important strategy to tune the physicochemical properties of traditional materials. Here, we take nickel ion doped In 2 O 3 nanocrystals as an example and report that the magnetization behavior of diluted magnetic semiconductors can be easily tuned by HMF treatment. It is experimentally demonstrated that the room temperature ferromagnetism of lowly-doped nanocrystals can be greatly enhanced by HMF treatment while the paramagnetic properties of highly-doped samples is almost un-changed. These magnetic transition behaviors after HMF treatment are attributed to the rearrangement of magnetic ordering and the increment of grain-boundary defects. Our research not only points out an effective approach to induce the transition of spin states of diluted magnetic semiconductors but also provides a potentially efficient route to endow other traditional materials with novel physical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare earth molybdate RE 2 MoO 6 (RE = Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) holds great promise as new candidate materials for thermal barrier coating applications. In this work, we systematically predict the equilibrium crystal structures, mechanical and thermal properties of RE 2 MoO 6 by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Lanthanide contraction can be still recognized in RE 2 MoO 6 and the lattice parameters as well as all bonding lengths will decrease will increasing atomic number of rare earth element. It is found that both bonding heterogeneity and polyhedral distortion are enhanced with RE element, leading to the complex variation of mechanical properties and thus strong anisotropy in both Young's and shear moduli. Moreover, all RE 2 MoO 6 molybdates present very low thermal conductivity from room temperature to elevated temperatures and the theoretical minimum thermal conductivities range from 0.769 to 0.805 W m−1 K−1. It is further demonstrated that phonon anharmonicity plays a dominant role in reduced thermal conductivities while intrinsic properties such as mass and structure may lead to increased thermal conductivity with rare earth element. This work suggests rare earth molybdates as thermal barrier coating materials and provides some insights into developing high-performance ceramics for thermal insulation applications. • Rare earth molybdates RE 2 MoO 6 (RE = Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) have been carefully recognized as new promising candidate materials for thermal barrier coating applications. • Equilibrium crystal structures, bonding characteristics, mechanical and thermal properties of RE 2 MoO 6 are systematically explored by using the first-principles calculations. • The inherent heterogeneity of chemical bonding is found to contribute most to the strong anisotropy of mechanical properties and the abnormal variation of thermal conductivities. • The negative contribution from phonon anharmonicity demonstrates the significance of local distortion rather than intrinsic parameters such as mass and density in decreasing thermal conductivity for design of high-performance thermal insulation ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sepsis is defined as a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by dysregulation of the host response to infection. There is still a lack of specific treatment for sepsis. Here, we report that Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF2) can reduce the mortality of sepsis by ameliorating the coagulation abnormalities. FGF2 was intraperitoneally injected into septic mice induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and then assessed for coagulation response, organ damage and survival. RAW264.7 cells with or without FGF2 pretreating were exposed to LPS, and then changes in coagulation related factors expression and signaling were tested. The findings showed that intraperitoneal injection of FGF2 inhibited coagulation activity, reduced lung and liver damage, and increased survival in septic mice. In RAW264.7 cells, LPS upregulated the expression of tissue factor (TF) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1); however, pretreatment with FGF2 prevented this upregulation, while FGF2 knockdown exacerbated TF upregulation. Moreover, FGF2 suppressing the AKT/mTOR/S6K1 signaling pathway in septic mice and RAW264.7 cells stimulated by LPS. This study revealed a therapeutic role of FGF2 in ameliorating the coagulation abnormalities during sepsis. • Intraperitoneal injection of FGF2 ameliorated the coagulation abnormalities in septic mice. • FGF2 pretreatment significantly reduced the expression of TF and PAI-1 induced by LPS in mice and macrophages. • FGF2 suppressing the AKT/mTOR/S6K1 signaling pathway in septic mice and RAW264.7 cells stimulated by LPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-efficient recycling of solid waste from the semiconductor or textile dyeing industry has been a challenge since these industrial waste not only brings a heavy burden to enterprises but also seriously affects our ecological environment. Here, a feasible method is proposed to recycle this solid waste by transferring it into high value-added ceramsites. They were prepared by using the third grade sand of cutting silicon (TGSCS) and textile dyeing sludge (TDS) as raw materials and composed mainly of SiO2-Al2O3. Through systematic analysis of the experimental results, it was concluded that the optimized ratios of the TGSCS and the TDS should range from 1:1.5 to 1:3, while the sintering temperature should be around 1150C. These lightweight ceramsites can have excellent properties of the cylinder compressive strength of 4.65 MPa and bulk density of 477 kg/m3. The potential expansion mechanism was thought to be related to both TGSCS and TDS as they reacted with Fe2O3 impurity to form CO2/CO gases. This work is to prepare lightweight ceramsites and to recycle solid waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the mechanism of rice growth, if nitrogen deficiency occurs, not only rice leaf but also sheath shows special symptoms: sheaths become short, stems appear light green, older sheath become lemon-yellowish. Nitrogen nutrition status of rice could be identified based on the differences of color and shape of leaf and sheath under different levels of nitrogen nutrition. Machine vision technology can be used to non-destructively and rapidly identify rice nutrition status, but image acquisition via digital camera is susceptible to external conditions, and the images are of poor quality. In this research, static scanning technology was used to collect images of rice leaf and sheath. From those images, 14 color and shape characteristic parameters of leaf and sheath were extracted by R, G, B mean value function and region props function in MATLAB. Based on the relationship between nitrogen content and the characteristics extracted from the images, the leaf R, leaf length, leaf area, leaf tip R, sheath G, and sheath length were chosen to identify nitrogen status of rice by using Support Vector Machine (SVM). The results showed that the overall identification accuracies of different nitrogen nutrition were 94%, 98%, 96% and 100% for the four growth stages, respectively. Different years of data were used for validation, identification accuracies were 88%, 98%, 90% and 100%, respectively. The results showed that additional sheath characteristics can effectively increase the identification accuracy of nitrogen nutrition status and the methodology developed in the study is capable of identifying nitrogen deficiency accurately in the rice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid growth of the amount of information, cloud computing servers need to process and analyze large amounts of high-dimensional and unstructured data timely and accurately. This usually requires many query operations. Due to simplicity and ease of use, cuckoo hashing schemes have been widely used in real-world cloud-related applications. However, due to the potential hash collisions, the cuckoo hashing suffers from endless loops and high insertion latency, even high risks of re-construction of entire hash table. In order to address these problems, we propose a cost-efficient cuckoo hashing scheme, called MinCounter. The idea behind MinCounter is to alleviate the occurrence of endless loops in the data insertion by selecting unbusy kicking-out routes. MinCounter selects the “cold” (infrequently accessed), rather than random, buckets to handle hash collisions. We further improve the concurrency of the MinCounter scheme to pursue higher performance and adapt to concurrent applications. MinCounter has the salient features of offering efficient insertion and query services and delivering high performance of cloud servers, as well as enhancing the experiences for cloud users. We have implemented MinCounter in a large-scale cloud testbed and examined the performance by using three real-world traces. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of MinCounter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A hybrids film for reduced graphene oxide with reduced graphene oxide quantum dots (rGO+rGOQDs) was simply prepared by irradiation in Ar atmosphere. The rGO+rGOQDs film has better photoconductivity properties compared to the reduced graphene oxide (rGO) film. The photocurrent responsivity and external quantum efficiency values for the rGO+rGOQDs film reach ~120 mA W −1 and ~34% at 1 V, respectively. The photoconductivity enhancement is attributed to the strong absorption of rGOQDs and the photogenerated charge transfering from rGOQDs to rGO film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acoustic temporal envelope (E) cues containing speech information are distributed across the frequency spectrum. To investigate the relative weight of E cues in different frequency regions for Mandarin sentence recognition, E information was extracted from 30 contiguous bands across the range of 80–7,562 Hz using Hilbert decomposition and then allocated to five frequency regions. Recognition scores were obtained with acoustic E cues from 1 or 2 random regions from 40 normal-hearing listeners. While the recognition scores ranged from 8.2% to 16.3% when E information from only one region was available, the scores ranged from 57.9% to 87.7% when E information from two frequency regions was presented, suggesting a synergistic effect among the temporal E cues in different frequency regions. Next, the relative contributions of the E information from the five frequency regions to sentence perception were computed using a least-squares approach. The results demonstrated that, for Mandarin Chinese, a tonal language, the temporal E cues of Frequency Region 1 (80–502 Hz) and Region 3 (1,022–1,913 Hz) contributed more to the intelligence of sentence recognition than other regions, particularly the region of 80–502 Hz, which contained fundamental frequency (F0) information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Widespread use of power-electronic devices leadsto serious harmonic distortion. • Harmonic forecasting cansupport system operating and strategy designing. • Strong time-varying uncertain features are described with less computing burden. • Correlation of multiple variables is considered to reduce the estimated deviation. • Probabilistic harmonic with statistical feature hascomprehensive applicability. Distributed energy resources (DER) and electrical loads have grown rapidly in response to concerns about energy sustainability and rising energy demand. However, to realize energy conversion, a large number of power electronic converters are used, resulting in serious harmonic issues in the distribution system. Meanwhile, the random and intermittent characteristics of DER and electrical load bring strong uncertainties to the distribution system. It not only affects the safe and stable operation but also leads to the new stochastic characteristics of harmonics. The study proposes a novel probabilistic harmonic power flow method that takes into account DER and electrical load uncertainties in order to effectively forecast and analyze the uncertain harmonic distortion. Firstly, the time-varying states with stochastic characteristics are determined to represent the uncertainties of electrical load, distributed photovoltaic power, and distributed wind power. The proposed method adapts to time-varying uncertain variable analysis while requiring less computation. Then, a novel constant-weight point estimate method based on the Nataf transformation is proposed to obtain the statistical features of the uncertainties. By simplifying the approximation process, the uncertain variable can be estimated more rapidly and effectively. Moreover, the interaction between multiple uncertain variables is also considered with the correlation coefficient matrix, which can analyze the harmonic coupling interaction in the system. Finally, the probabilistic harmonic power flow is developed considering the time-varying stochastic characteristic of uncertainties. On this basis, the proposed method can be used to forecast the harmonic distortion and also analyze the daily or seasonal statistical features. The proposed probabilistic harmonic power flow method's effectiveness is validated using real-field measured data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional suppositories sometimes fail in exerting their therapeutic activity as the base materials melt inside body cavities. Also they are not suitable to provide long term treatment. Biomedical grade silicone elastomers may be used to fabricate non-dissolvable suppositories to overcome these disadvantages. We kneaded 4 analgesics into the 2 kinds of silicone polymers at 1%, 5% and 10% drug loading, respectively, to test their mechanical properties and drug release profiles. The optimized drug-polymer combinations were used to fabricate suppositories, and three dimensional printing (3DP) was used to create the suppository moulds. Subsequently, the drug release profiles and biocompatibility of the suppositories were studied. It was found that, the mechanical properties of the drug laden silicone elastomers and the rate of drug release from the elastomers can be tuned by varying drug-polymer combinations. The silicone elastomers containing 1% (w/w) and 5% (w/w) diclofenac sodium were the optimal formulations with prolonged drug release and biocompatibility at cellular level. These properties, together with complex geometries offered by 3DP technique, potentially made the non-dissolving suppositories promising therapeutic agents for personalized medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As biomass wastes, Arundo donax Linn and pomelo peel were used as precursors for activated carbons (ALAC and PPAC) preparation by phosphoric acid activation. The pore structure and surface acidic functional groups of both carbons were characterized by nitrogen adsorption/desorption experiment, NH 3 -temperature-programmed desorption (NH 3 -TPD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). A batch of experiments was carried out to investigate the adsorption performances of ciprofloxacin under different conditions. Results showed that PPAC exhibited larger surface area (1252 m 2 /g) and larger portion of mesoporous, while ALAC was typical of microporous materials. Results from NH 3 -TPD suggested that ALAC was characteristic of more acidic functional group than PPAC. The maximum monolayer adsorption capability was 244 mg/g for ALAC and 400 mg/L for PPAC. Kinetics studies showed intra-particle diffusion was not the unique rate-controlling step. Boundary layer resistance existed between adsorbent and adsorbate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We fabricate Mg y Zn 1-y O metal-semiconductor-metal ultraviolet photodetectors by integrating Au electrodes (with different electrode spacings) onto a semiconductor film (Mg 0.20 Zn 0.80 O or Mg 0.42 Zn 0.58 O), prepared by the radio frequency magnetron sputtering deposition method. As expected, the Mg 0.20 Zn 0.80 O photodetectors have a larger responsivity than the Mg 0.42 Zn 0.58 O ones when the electrode spacing and bias voltage are constant. More interestingly, the responsivity of all the Mg y Zn 1-y O photodetectors increase with decreasing electrode spacing for the same bias. These results are well-understood in terms of the role played by the metal-semiconductor junction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the effect of circular-agriculture (CA) measures could be helpful to promote its scientific development. Previous research has focused on technological measures and their effects on the agricultural sector. However, economic measures can also promote the development of CA, and due to their correlation with socio-economic sectors, CA measures can impose effects on non-agricultural sectors and on the whole socioeconomic system. In this research, a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model was established to comprehensively reveal the effects of CA measures. In this model, measure simulation and environmental blocks were extended. The production tax was adopted as the economic measure for adjusting the development of CA. Both environmental and socioeconomic effects have been explored. Hebei Province in China was adopted as the study case. Three kinds of production tax adjustment scenarios were considered: a promotion-measure scenario (decreasing the production tax for CA sectors), an inhibition-measure scenario (increasing the production tax for traditional-agriculture sectors), and a hybrid-measure scenario (implementing the promotion- and inhibition-measures simultaneously). The results showed that all three scenarios could promote the development of CA. The inhibition and hybrid measures had positive effects on GDP, and all the scenarios could decrease the intensities of CO2, COD and NH3–N emissions and water resource consumption. In addition, higher measure intensity could bring more significant effects. • Economic measures can promote the development of circular agriculture (CA). • CA economic measure can improve the cleanliness of economic development. • Higher measure intensity can bring more significant effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many requirements have been proposed for pollution control in a legal, scientific and targeted way. At the critical stage of pollution prevention and control, refined management of industrial pollution is a way of achieving targeted pollution control. Focusing regional pollution reduction targets on industrial production processes with reduction emission potential is an effective way to achieve targeted control. We established a source-processing-end (S–P-E) coordinated model—SPECM—by collaboratively considering the whole-process of raw material-processing-end-of-pipe (EOP) chains and applied the model to the setting of medium- and long-term pollution control targets and selection of reduction options for various industries in Lanzhou, China. The results indicated that (1) chemical manufacturing-related industries are the key potential volatile organic compound (VOC) emission reduction industries in Lanzhou, accounting for approximately 89% of the total emission reduction potential; (2) metal furniture manufacturing and paper-making industries should strengthen processing optimization while also giving attention to material substitution; and (3) printing-related industries need collaborative control of their whole-process, especially material substitution enhancement. The SPECM method focuses on the reduction in industrial processes and proposes reduction options under different reduction targets. This new collaborative control method could facilitate the design of coordinated control schemes across industries under industrial emission reduction targets. Overall, our results could provide new ideas and guidance for the refined management of regional industrial pollution. [Display omitted] • Emission reduction focuses on production process improves the reduction targeting. • Collaborative control helps to design coordinated cross-industry control strategies. • VOC control in chemical manufacturing-related industries is urgent in Lanzhou. • Metal furniture manufacturing and paper industries should enhance process reduction. • Source reduction contributes greatly to VOC reduction in printing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the effect of circular-agriculture (CA) measures could be helpful to promote its scientific development. Previous research has focused on technological measures and their effects on the agricultural sector. However, economic measures can also promote the development of CA, and due to their correlation with socio-economic sectors, CA measures can impose effects on non-agricultural sectors and on the whole socioeconomic system. In this research, a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model was established to comprehensively reveal the effects of CA measures. In this model, measure simulation and environmental blocks were extended. The production tax was adopted as the economic measure for adjusting the development of CA. Both environmental and socioeconomic effects have been explored. Hebei Province in China was adopted as the study case. Three kinds of production tax adjustment scenarios were considered: a promotion-measure scenario (decreasing the production tax for CA sectors), an inhibition-measure scenario (increasing the production tax for traditional-agriculture sectors), and a hybrid-measure scenario (implementing the promotion- and inhibition-measures simultaneously). The results showed that all three scenarios could promote the development of CA. The inhibition and hybrid measures had positive effects on GDP, and all the scenarios could decrease the intensities of CO2, COD and NH3–N emissions and water resource consumption. In addition, higher measure intensity could bring more significant effects. • Economic measures can promote the development of circular agriculture (CA). • CA economic measure can improve the cleanliness of economic development. • Higher measure intensity can bring more significant effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal chalcogenides still suffer from the fast recombination of photoinduced charges and serious photo-corrosion when used as visible-light-responsive photocatalysts. The rationally designed photocatalysts should simultaneously possess high light-harvesting efficiency, fast charge separation, optimum redox ability and lasting stability, and this remains a big challenge. Herein, 0D WO 3 nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by using a deep eutectic solvents (DESs) pyrolysis method. And then 0D WO 3 NPs coupled 1D Mn 0.1 Cd 0.9 S (MCS) nanorods were introduced to construct the S-scheme 1D/0D MCS/W heterojunction cauliflower-shaped assemblies, which were developed by using a simple hydrothermal method. X-ray photoelectron spectra disclosed the formation of the S-W-O bond, indicating strong interfacial interaction between MCS and WO 3 at the heterojunction. The formed S-scheme 1D/0D MCS/W heterojunction cauliflower-shaped assemblies and the construction of internal electric field not only enhance visible light absorption, but also boost charge separation efficiency, and endow higher redox ability and long-term durability. Profiting from morphological and energy band structure synergy, the resultant MCS/W heterojunction assemblies exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic H 2 generation rate of 21.25 mmol h−1 g−1, which was 25 times higher than that of pristine MCS. This work provides new deep insights into the rational construction of S-scheme heterojunction assemblies based on morphology and band structure design to boost the photocatalytic performance. [Display omitted] • S-schemed 1D/0D Mn 0.1 Cd 0.9 S/WO 3 hierarchical heterojunction assemblies were constructed. • The interconnected flower-like skeletons effectively promote charge and mass migration. • The heterojunction displayed a stronger light-harvesting ability and optimum redox ability. • Highly improved separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes. • Visible-light driven photocatalytic H 2 evolution increased by 25.0 time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Harmonic couplings of residential loads between dominant voltages and currents are considered. • Probabilistic and time-varying harmonics are modeled to improve the modeling accuracy. • Decoupled formula is derived to solve harmonic power flow with residential loads. • High accuracy and efficiency probabilistic harmonic power flow method is introduced. With the improvement of living standards and economic growth, the electricity consumption of Chinese residents is increasing year by year. Due to the existence of many nonlinear devices in residential loads, a large number of time-varying harmonic currents are randomly injected into the residential distribution system (RDS), which makes it difficult for a single deterministic harmonic power flow (HPF) method to evaluate the probabilistic and time-varying harmonics of residential loads. In this paper, a piecewise probabilistic HPF method is proposed to evaluate the harmonic emission level. First, a piecewise probabilistic harmonic coupled model (HCM) is used to analyze the harmonic generated by residential loads, which can demonstrate the probabilistic and time-varying harmonic characteristics. Second, based on the HCM, a decoupled approach combing the graph theory and current injection method is established to calculate the HPF with residential loads. Third, based on the HCM and HPF calculation method, a field theory is used to evaluate the probabilistic harmonics of an unbalanced RDS. Field measurement results in different residential areas and simulation results in IEEE-13, 123, and 8500 test systems verify the accuracy, validity, and efficiency of the proposed model and calculation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategies based on virtual water have become a controversial measure to alleviate pressure on the water resource in regions with scarce water. Advocates of this approach highlight its potentially low cost and high efficiency, whereas opponents criticize its over-simplification and neglect of important factors other than water. Detailed analysis of the strategy's effects on water use and socioeconomic development is essential to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of the strategy, and to support its reasonable and scientific implementation. In the present study, we defined three virtual water strategy scenarios (i.e., reduce agricultural production, increase agricultural imports, and reduce production and increase imports simultaneously) and developed a computable general equilibrium model to simulate the effects of the scenarios. We chose China's Bohai Bay area, a rapidly developing region with scarce water, for a case study. We found that the virtual water strategy was a double-edged sword: it improved water conservation (water use decreased by 3.6%, 6.9%, and 3.2% under the three scenarios, respectively), but had negative effects on economic development, employment, and economic welfare. The scenario that only increased agricultural imports had the greatest negative impact on socioeconomic development, whereas the scenario that simultaneously decreased production and increased imports most effectively balanced the economic development and water conservation requirements. • The virtual water strategy (VWS) exerts negative effects on economic systems. • VWS produces tradeoffs between water conservation and economic development. • The dual-policy strategy could achieve a better tradeoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solving the increasing contamination from toxic heavy metal ions in wastewater is an imperative issue in photocatalysis research area. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) porous SrTiO 3 microspheres have been fabricated by a sol–gel-templating method using the agarose gel bead containing SrCO 3 granules as the template. The resultant SrTiO 3 microspheres, several tens of micrometers in diameter, exhibit a bimodal pore structure, in which the macropore about 70–150 nm in size stems from SrCO 3 granules and the mesopore about 3 nm is formed via removing the agarose fiber embedded in the composite microspheres. The porous framework of SrTiO 3 microspheres is assembled by regular single-crystalline SrTiO 3 nanocubes with an edge length of 100 ± 10 nm. The highly interconnected porous network renders numerous pathways for the rapid mass transport, strong adsorption of reactants and multi-reflection of incident light. Moreover, the as-prepared SrTiO 3 microspheres exhibit excellent photocatalytic performance for the Cr(VI) reduction under simulated sunlight, which can reduce nearly 100% Cr(VI) at pH 2 within 2 h and retain a relatively high reduction ability after six recycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of CO 2 to CO over SnS 2 was firstly reported. In this paper, the SnS 2 was synthesized successfully via a hydrothermal method and characterized by XRD, DRS and electrochemical equipment. The results indicate that it can respond to visible light and be probably capable of reducing CO 2 to CO without external bias. The property of reducing CO 2 was further checked out on GS analysis. The CO output reached 80 ppm at the temperature of 25 °C, but without temperature control, the yield came to 200 ppm, revealing the temperature plays a very important role in reducing CO 2 to CO. Except trace amount of CH 4 , the CO was the main product with nearly 100% selectivity. These attractive results make us believe that SnS 2 is promising candidate for the reduction of CO 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]