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To decrease the sintering temperature of MgO-Y2O3 composites to avoid undesired grain coarsening, high reactive MgO-Y2O3 nanopowders were synthesized via microwave combustion method. The degree of combustion was enhanced effectively by adding an extra oxidant ammonium nitrate. The as-synthesized MgO-Y2O3 nanopowders, ~18 nm in size, showed high specific surface area of 64.55 m2/g and low agglomeration. Relative density of 98% was obtained when sintered at a low sintering temperature of 1350°C. The high reactivity can be attributed to the lower activation energy Q (131.13 kJ/mol), compared with samples without extra oxidant (192.97 kJ/mol). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decreasing the electrolyte thickness is an effective approach to improve solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) performance for intermediate-temperature applications. Sm 0.2 Ce 0.8 O 2− δ (SDC) powders with low apparent density of 32±0.3 mg cm −3 are synthesized by microwave combustion method, and SDC electrolyte films as thin as ~10 μm are fabricated by co-pressing the powders onto a porous NiO–SDC anode substrate. Dense SDC electrolyte thin films with grain size of 300–800 nm are achieved at a low co-firing temperature of 1200 °C. Single cells based on SDC thin films show peak power densities of 0.86 W cm −2 at 650 °C using 3 vol% humidified H 2 as fuel and ambient air as oxidant. Both the thin thickness of electrolyte films and ultra-fine grained anode structure make contributions to the improved cell performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, SiC ceramics was fabricated with AlN using B 4 C and C as sintering aids by a solid-state pressureless-sintered method. The effects of AlN contents on the densification, mechanical properties, phase compositions, and microstructure evolutions of as-obtained SiC ceramics were thoroughly investigated. AlN was found to promote further densification of the SiC ceramics due to its evaporation over 1800 °C, transportation, and solidification in the pores resulted from SiC grain coarsening. The highest relative density of 99.65% was achieved for SiC sample with 15.0 wt% AlN by the pressureless-sintered method at 2130 °C for 1 h in Ar atmosphere. Furthermore, the fracture mechanism for SiC ceramics containing AlN tended to transfer from single transgranular fracture mode to both transgranular fracture and intergranular fracture modes when the sample with 30.0 wt% AlN sintered at 1900 °C for 1 h in Ar. Also, SiC ceramics with 30.0 wt% AlN exhibited the highest fracture toughness of 5.23 MPa m 1/2 when sintered at 1900 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiC ceramics with graphene additives have been fabricated by a pressureless-sintered method. The effects of graphene contents on the densification, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, phase compositions, and microstructure evolutions of the SiC ceramics were investigated in detail. As the graphene content increased from 0 to 5.0 wt%, the relative density of the SiC samples monotonically decreased, the electrical conductivity monotonically increased, whereas the thermal conductivity initially increased and then decreased. The highest thermal conductivity of 145.14 W/(m K) was obtained for SiC sample with 2.0 wt% graphene sintered at 2130 °C for 1 h in Ar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High near-infrared reflecting nano pigments Y 6− x Nd x MoO 12 ( x ranges from 0 to 1.0) based on yttrium molybdate doped with Nd 3+ were synthesized by sol–gel. The pigments samples were characterized by means of TG-DTA, FTIR, XRD, SEM, UV–vis–NIR spectrophotometer and CIE L ∗ a ∗ b ∗ color measurement. The results showed that the pigments crystallized completely at 900 °C with particle size less than 100 nm. The substitution of Nd 3+ for Y 3+ in Y 6 MoO 12 induced the absorption in the region of 585–605 nm and as a result the color changed from yellow to yellow-green. The near-infrared reflectance and solar reflectance increased first and then decreased with increasing Nd 3+ content. When x = 0.8, the pigment exhibited an optimum NIR solar reflectance of 89.9%. The thermal and chemical stability of the pigments was also evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Y 2 O 3 stabilized HfO 2 ceramics with 5 mol% and 8 mol% Y 2 O 3 , respectively, were successfully fabricated by pressureless sintering at 1600 °C for 1 h. The phase distribution and transformation, microstructure, and relative density were investigated for Y 2 O 3 stabilized HfO 2 ceramics. Cubic phase was observed in the Y 2 O 3 stabilized hafnium dioxide while pure HfO 2 showed monoclinical phase only. The SEM images of fractured surface indicated two kinds of structures existed in modified HfO 2 , the solid solution region and uniform polygon grains, and some holes caused by Kirkendall effect. Refractoriness test showed that high temperature volumetric stability of the material can be effectively enhanced by adding Y 2 O 3 into HfO 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To detect the expression of cadherin-11 and its correlation with synovitis in osteoarthritis (OA), to explore the mechanism of over expression of cadherin-11 and its role in migratory or invasive capacity of fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS). Methods Synovitis severity was recorded according to Krenn’s scoring system in 25 osteoarthritis patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Cadherin-11 expression in OA synoviums and its correlation with synovitis score and systemic inflammation markers were explored. After induction with Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α),cadherin-11 expression on OA FLS was assessed by qPCR and western blot,the capacity of migration and invasion of OA FLS was tested by transwell assay, and matrix metalloproteinase-2 production was assessed with ELISA as cadherin-11 expression was up regulated after infection with cadherin-11 cDNA-containing lentivirus, also when cadherin-11 expression was knocked down after infection with cadherin 11 shRNA containing lentivirus. Results Cadherin-11 expression in OA synovium showed significant differences among different grades of synovitis. Cadherin-11 in the lining layer was positively correlated with hyperplasia of the lining layer, density of the resident cells, inflammatory infiltrate, total synovitis score and D-dimer. Cadherin-11 in the sublining layer was positively correlated with the density of the resident cells, inflammatory infiltrate, total synovitis score and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. IL-1β or TNF-α could up-regulate cadherin-11 expression on OA FLS at transcriptional and protein level. Over expression of cadherin-11 increased migratory or invasive capacity of OA FLS, while cadherin-11 knock down reduced migratory or invasive capacity and MMP-2 production in OA FLS. Conclusion The over expression of cadherin-11 in osteoarthritis is positively correlated with synovitis severity, and can be driven by proinflammatory cytokines on OA FLS; cadherin-11 increases migratory or invasive capacity and MMP-2 production of fibroblast-like synoviocytes of osteoarthritis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous BN/Si 3 N 4 composites with different Y 2 O 3 –MgO nanopowders have been fabricated by a pressureless sintering method. The densification, phase evolution, microstructure, mechanical properties and dielectric properties of the BN/Si 3 N 4 composites were investigated. The density and mechanical properties of the porous BN/Si 3 N 4 composite ceramics firstly increased with addition of Y 2 O 3 –MgO up to 20 wt% and then decreased, while the dielectric properties gently declined as the Y 2 O 3 –MgO contents increased. For the porous BN/Si 3 N 4 composites with 20 wt% Y 2 O 3 –MgO nanopowders, the porosity, flexural strength and dielectric constant reached 21.9%, 243.6 MPa and 5.5, respectively, which indicated that the composites could be one of the candidates for wave-transparent applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To obtain fine grained Y2O3–MgO composites for infrared application, the kinetics of Y2O3–MgO nanopowders (~50nm) during microwave sintering process was analyzed to track details of densification evolution. Finer structure and higher density were exhibited during microwave sintering process compared with conventional sintering process. The values of grain growth exponent n indicate that grain boundary diffusion is the main migration mechanism for microwave sintering when sintering temperature is below 1300°C, while volume diffusion and grain boundary diffusion coexist at higher temperature (1400°C). The calculated grain growth activation energy of microwave sintered samples (108.22kJ/mol) is much lower than that of conventional sintered ones (160.42kJ/mol), indicating that microwave sintering process can effectively promote the densification. Based on the kinetic analysis data, microwave sintering parameters were optimized, and Y2O3–MgO composites with an average grain size of ~300nm and Vickers hardness of 11.2±0.3GPa were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The majority of membrane and secreted proteins, including many developmentally important signalling proteins, receptors and adhesion molecules, are cotranslationally N-glycosylated in the endoplasmic reticulum. The structure of the N-glycan is invariant for all substrates and conserved in eukaryotes. Correspondingly, the enzymes are conserved, which successively assemble the glycan precursor from activated monosaccharides prior to transfer to nascent proteins. Despite the well-defined biochemistry, the physiological and developmental role of N-glycosylation and of the responsible enzymes has not been much investigated in metazoa. We identified a mutation in the Drosophila gene, xiantuan (xit, CG4542), which encodes one of the conserved enzymes involved in addition of the terminal glucose residues to the glycan precursor. xit is required for timely apical constriction of mesoderm precursor cells and ventral furrow formation in early embryogenesis. Furthermore, cell intercalation in the lateral epidermis during germband extension is impaired in xit mutants. xit affects glycosylation and intracellular distribution of E-Cadherin, albeit not the total amount of E-Cadherin protein. As depletion of E-Cadherin by RNAi induces a similar cell intercalation defect, E-Cadherin may be the major xit target that is functionally relevant for germband extension. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Wavelet analysis and ICA are applied for recognition of overlapped spectra. [•] Wavelet analysis extracts the features of the spectra and amplifies differences. [•] ICA analysis is used to separate single component before linear regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this report, we examined the gene expression related to carotenoid transport for a silkworm F1 hybrid with yellow cocoon generated by crossing two white-cocoon strains, Qiubai and 12-260. Our results showed that, in Qiubai, Cameo2, a transmembrane protein gene belonging to the CD36 family genes, was expressed normally in the silk gland, but no intact carotenoid-binding protein (CBP) mRNA (only the truncated CBP mRNA) was detected in the midgut. In 12-260, we detected the intact CBP mRNA expression in the midgut, but no Cameo2 expression in the silk gland. Regarding the F1 hybrid from crossing Qiubai and 12-260, both Cameo2 and intact CBP mRNA expressed normally in the silk gland and midgut. HPLC detection confirmed that in the F1 hybrid the carotenoids could be absorbed from dietary mulberry leaves through the midgut and transferred to silk gland via the hemolymph, which eventually colored cocoons into yellow. We also identified four CBP mRNA isoforms expressed in the midgut of the F1 hybrid, subsequently named as variants 5–8. Our results provide further evidences for the roles of Cameo2 and CBP in the formation of yellow cocoon of silkworm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] The starch/acrylonitrile copolymer was used for dynamic adsorption of copper ions. [•] The penetrating curve was fitted and its corresponding equation was . [•] The optimal technical parameters for dynamic adsorption were discussed. [•] The adsorption kinetics equation was established as . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Boron carbide ceramics used as neutron absorbing materials in fast breeder reactor were fabricated with boron carbide powders and different rare-earth oxide additives by pressureless sintering. The effects of rare-earth oxide as well as phenolic resin on densities and mechanical properties of the composites were studied. The addition of Dy2O3, Eu2O3, and Sm2O3 was found to be beneficial in the densification of B4C ceramics. B4C with 4wt% rare-earth oxide and 18wt% phenolic resin, exhibiting bulk density of 90–96% T.D., flexural strength of 276–358MPa, could be prepared by pressureless sintering at 1960–2080°C, which are capable of meeting the requirement of fast breeder reactor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• DL combined with PEMS and OBD for building prediction model of vehicle emissions. • An innovative attention encoding structure was proposed to accelerate convergence. • An automatic elimination method for the outliers in the PEMS data was proposed. • An early warning system of high vehicle emissions was proposed. • A model that can be trained with lab tests to predict on-road results was proposed. Portable emission measurement system (PEMS) testing, which is the most accurate measurement method for vehicle emissions, has been included into the regulations of vehicle emission standards in various countries. However, PEMS is expensive, and in the long-term measurement process, the monitoring data will exhibit outliers, which is a drift phenomenon. In addition, as a measurement method, it cannot prevent the occurrence of high vehicle emissions. To solve the above problem, this study proposes a parallel attention-based long short-term memory (PA-LSTM) for building an emission prediction model using PEMS and on board diagnostics (OBD). According to the characteristics of the real vehicle road test and bench test data, the PA-LSTM model adopts a parallel spatial attention coding mechanism, combined with a temporal attention decoding mechanism. Qualitative and quantitative experimental results show that the PA-LSTM model can achieve a more accurate prediction of vehicle emissions compared with other popular models, and the proposed model can eliminate outliers and restrain the offset of the zero levels in the PEMS data. The most significant thing is that the PA-LSTM model can foresee about the possible high vehicle emissions in the future and provide timely feed-back to the emission control system of the vehicle engine, so as to make corresponding control measurements in time and avoid the occurrence of high emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly orientated Co-doped Zn( Mg, Cd) O thin films have been prepared on Si (001) substrate using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Our results indicate that Mg and Cd-doping can tune the bandgap of ZnO thin film. Apparent room-temperature ferromagnetism is observed in these films, which can be modified by the bandgap of ZnO. A narrow bandgap enhances the ferromagnetism of the films through the Cd-doping, and wide bandgap does the opposite through the Mg-doping, which may be ascribed to the ferromagnetic ( FM) exchange interaction between the 3 d states of magnetic Co ions and the impurity band. These experimental results provide some new evidence that the ferromagnetism in Co: ZnO is closely related to crystal defects and improve our knowledge about ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic oxides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Excitonic effects in Cu-chalcogenides are explicitly calculated by the Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) • Electronic mechanism of the moderate-strength excitonic binding. • Justification of a simple single-particle approach for reproducing the experimental observations. Excitonic effect can usually significantly enhance the optical absorption coefficient in wide-gap insulators. Cu-chalcogenides are widely used as thin-film solar cell absorbers due to their high light utilization efficiency. Theoretical investigations on the excitonic absorption in Cu-chalcogenides are rare because of the complicated two-particle nature of an exciton. Here, we theoretically evaluate the continuum-excitonic effect in CuGaS 2 and CuInS 2 by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation. Despite the large bandgap of 2.4 eV for CuGaS 2 , the excitonic effect induces moderate absorption enhancement when compared with the single-particle scenario. Moreover, the experimental results are better reproduced using the latter approach, indicating that the intrinsic excitonic effect is nearly suppressed in the practical experiments. The moderate intrinsic excitonic effect and its further suppressing in the experiments are explained by strong electronic screening effects in these materials. Justification of the simple single-particle approach would be convenient for future theoretical studies, which otherwise require more complex methods with more expensive computational efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dots (CDs) are one of the carbon-based materials with remarkable optical properties, good water dispersibility and high biocompatibility. However, few studies have emphasized the intrinsic photodynamic and anticancer properties of CDs. Herein, we used CDs as photosensitizers to explore their photodynamic therapy (PDT) effect on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells. The obtained CDs had an effective cellular internalization capacity and possessed good biocompatibility in both CAL-27 and UM1 cells. After irradiation, the CDs showed obvious photodynamic effects on the test cells, which were confirmed by apoptosis analysis. In addition, the CDs exhibited excellent intracellular ROS generation under irradiation, and the subsequent induced cell death may be related to a lysosome-associated pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of genistein on cytokines or growth factor-induced proliferation and transformation phenotype of rheumatoid arthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (RA-FLS). RA-FLS were primarily cultured. With respective stimulation of IL-1β, TNF-α, and EGF, genistein was applied to elucidate its effect on synoviocytes' growth number, cell proliferation assay, cell cycle using cell counts, H-TdR incorporation and flow cytometry, the colony numbers under anchorage-independent condition, and the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 in synovial fibroblasts. EGF, IL-1β, and TNF-α increased H incorporation in RA-FLS, respectively. EGF augmented clone numbers of RA-FLS under anchorage-independent condition and not IL-1β and TNF-α. Genistein had an inhibitory role on cell number and H-TdR incorporation of RA-FLS stimulated with IL-1β, TNF-α and EGF; genistein arrested the cell cycle at G restriction point; genistein decreased colony numbers under anchorage-independent condition stimulated by EGF in serum condition. IL-1β or TNF-α increased expression of MMP-9 and MMP-2 in rheumatoid synoviocytes; EGF stimulated expression of MMP-9 but not of MMP-2; genistein suppressed production of MMP-9 more than MMP-2 induced by IL-1β or TNF-α; rMMP-9, rMMP-2, or their inhibitors had no effect on the H-TdR incorporation of synovial cells. Erk1/2 inhibitor (PD098 059) had obvious inhibitory effect on the H incorporation induced by TNF-α or IL-1β; inhibitors of JNK (SP600 125) had no significant effect on the H incorporation. While pretreatment with PD098059 had no marked inhibitory effect on MMP-9 expression induced by TNF-α or IL-1β, SP600125 decreased significantly the MMP-9 expression induced by TNF-α or IL-1β. Neither PD098059 nor SP600 125 could inhibit the MMP-2 expression induced by TNF-α or IL-1β. Genistein inhibited IL-1β, TNF-α or EGF-induced proliferation and MMP-9 expression in fibroblast-like synoviocytes of rheumatoid arthritis; the proliferation of RA-FLS was mediated by Erk1/2 but not JNK activation, while JNK activation was involved in the signal transduction pathway leading to MMP-9 expression in rheumatoid synoviocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Nonnegative matrix factorization has been widely used in many areas and has been applied for component recognition with three dimensional fluorescence spectra recently. However, nonnegative matrix factorization is a nonconvex programming in the iteration process, thus the solution is dependent on the initial values and consequently not unique. Up to now, an effective global convergent algorithm is still absent. In this work, we propose an initialization scheme based on independent component analysis. Compared with other initialization schemes, the optimal solution of nonnegative matrix factorization based on independent component analysis is much better and it is demonstrated by typical experiments of component recognition with three-dimensional fluorescence spectra. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, cement based piezoelectric composites have been prepared from Portland cement with the addition of 70 vol.% of PZT powders and various amounts of modified CNTs ranging from 0 to 1.3 vol.%. The CNTs act as a conductive filler dispersed in the cement matrix, improving the poling efficiency of the composites and enabling the poling process to be carried out at room temperature, in contrast to the 120 °C required for the PZT/cement composites without CNTs. The addition of CNTs significantly enhanced the piezoelectric properties of the composites. With a CNT content of 0.3 vol.%, the CNTs/PZT/cement composite showed the highest piezoelectric strain factors (d 33) of 62 pC/N and piezoelectric voltage factors (g 33) 60 × 10−3 Vm/N, which are the promising characteristics for its potential use in the smart civil engineering structures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Mid-infrared ZnGeP2 single crystal was successfully grown by the vertical Bridgman technique under the condition of spontaneous nucleation. By the X-ray Fluorescence analysis method, the constitution of Zn, Ge and P in as-grown ZnGeP2 single crystal was measured. Its defects were studied with an optical microscope. The laser damage threshold of ZnGeP2 crystals was measured to be 55.67MW/cm2 at the wavelength of 1064nm. The transmission spectra of ZnGeP2 were measured at room temperature. By annealing treatment in vacuum, ZnGeP2 powder and a pressure, its optical absorption in the region 0.7–2.5μm was found to decrease. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An efficient method is proposed for determining the chemical rank of three-way fluorescence data arrays. At first, the original three-way fluorescence data arrays are preprocessed by Monte Carlo simulation and a new set of data arrays is generated. The new set of data arrays obtained does not only keep all the useful information, but the noises from the common background are largely removed, which results in the improvement of the signal to noise ratio of the data and is beneficial for the later frequency analysis. Then, we perform singular value decomposition over the new data and frequency analysis on the subsequent eigenvectors, with which it is very easy to distinguish the spectra from the noises. Furthermore, a new quantity frequency localization is introduced to quantify the frequency characteristics of the eigenvectors. With this quantity, we can easily and accurately select out the spectra from the mess of data. The feasibility of the method is verified by determining the chemical rank of two-component mixtures with simple calculation procedures and high efficiency. Finally, the efficiency of our method is further illustrated by comparison with the core consistency diagnostic (CORCONDIA) method in the analysis of mixtures with different concentration and different number of components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) fiber was prepared by sol–gel method using water as the solvent. The spinnable YAG sol was synthesized using Al powder, Y(CH3COOH)3·4H2O and HCl as precursors, polyethylene oxide as viscosity adjusting agent. Gel fibers with diameter of 5–10μm were prepared from the YAG sol by using centrifugal spinning technique. YAG crystalline fibers were obtained by drying gel fibers and heat-treating at selected temperature. TG/DTA analysis showed an exotherm at 906°C attributed to formation of YAG phase and weight loss of 45% at 1000°C. XRD and FT-IR analysis showed that phase-pure YAG can be formed at 900°C, and no other intermediate was observed. The grain size of YAG fibers increased from 25 to 220nm and tensile strength decreased rapidly from 970 to 380MPa when the sintering temperature increased from 900 to 1550°C. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The deposition process of hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC) film greatly affects its frictional properties. In this study, CH3 radicals are selected as source species to deposit hydrogenated DLC films for molecular dynamics simulation. The growth and structural properties of hydrogenated DLC films are investigated and elucidated in detail. By comparison and statistical analysis, the authors find that the ratio of carbon to hydrogen in the films generally shows a monotonously increasing trend with the increase of impact energy. Carbon atoms are more reactive during deposition and more liable to bond with substrate atoms than hydrogen atoms. In addition, there exists a peak value of the number of hydrogen atoms deposited in hydrogenated DLC films. The trends of the variation are opposite on the two sides of this peak point, and it becomes stable when impact energy is greater than 80 eV. The average relative density also indicates a rising trend along with the increment of impact energy, while it does not reach the saturation value until impact energy comes to 50 eV. The hydrogen content in source species is a key factor to determine the hydrogen content in hydrogenated DLC films. When the hydrogen content in source species is high, the hydrogen content in hydrogenated DLC films is accordingly high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lanthanum strontium manganite ((La0.8Sr0.2)0.9MnO3; LSM) powder was successfully synthesized by an aqueous gel-casting technique, using carbonaceous precursors. Both thermal and X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that the gel-casting LSM powder formed a single perovskite phase at 850°C, which is 100°–150°C lower than that of the LSM powder prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction route. The significantly reduced phase formation temperature of the gel-casting LSM powder is most likely due to the homogeneously distributed and immobilized precursor particles in a polymeric network, promoting the sintering and crystallization process. The LSM electrode prepared by the gel-cast LSM powder showed good electrocatalytic activity for the O2 reduction reaction for solid oxide fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erbium activated SiC/SiO2 nanocomposites doped with Er3+ concentrations ranging from 1 to 4mol% were prepared by pyrolysis of sol–gel derived precursors. The gels were obtained from modified silicon alkoxides containing Si–CH3 and Si–H groups. Thin discs obtained from the monolithic xerogels were pyrolyzed in an alumina tubular furnace in flowing Ar (100ml/min) at 800, 1000, 1200 and 1300°C. The samples were investigated by absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopies. Emission in the C-telecommunication band was observed at room temperature for all the samples upon continuous-wave excitation at 980 or 514.5nm. The shape of the emission band corresponding to the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition is found to be independent both on Erbium content and excitation wavelength, with a Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) of 48nm. By increasing the pyrolysis temperature the intensity of the luminescence increases and the electronic bandgap energy decreases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Eu2+-doped silicon oxycarbide (SiCO) luminescent glasses were prepared by pyrolysis of gel precursors. Gel samples, doped with Eu3+, obtained by co-hydrolysis of thriethoxysilane (TH) and diethoxysilane (DH) in the molar ratio TH/DH=2 were synthesized and fired in argon atmosphere in the temperature range 200–1200 °C. The luminescent characteristics of europium doped SiCO glasses were studied as a function of the pyrolysis temperature and europium atomic concentration. A broad emission band peaked in the blue part of the visible spectrum, due to the 4f65d1(eg)→4f7 transition of Eu2+ ions, was detected after thermal processing at 400 °C. These results suggest that the reduction of Eu3+ to Eu2+ occurs in situ and can be related to the evolution of reducing species during the pyrolysis process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A novel hydroxyapatite bioceramic composite with C-fibre as reinforcement was fabricated by hot pressing. With the increase of C-fibre content, the bending strength and fracture toughness of composites increased, attaining a peak value of 119.9 and 1.22 MPa.m1/2 at 0.3 wt.% and 0.1 wt.% C-fibre addition respectively. After reaching the peak values, both bending strength and fracture toughness decreased. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Rice is the principal food for over half of the population of the world. With its genome size of 430 megabase pairs (Mb), the cultivated rice species Oryza sativa is a model plant for genome research. Here we report the sequence analysis of chromosome 4 of O. sativa, one of the first two rice chromosomes to be sequenced completely. The finished sequence spans 34.6 Mb and represents 97.3% of the chromosome. In addition, we report the longest known sequence for a plant centromere, a completely sequenced contig of 1.16 Mb corresponding to the centromeric region of chromosome 4. We predict 4,658 protein coding genes and 70 transfer RNA genes. A total of 1,681 predicted genes match available unique rice expressed sequence tags. Transposable elements have a pronounced bias towards the euchromatic regions, indicating a dose correlation of their distributions to genes along the chromosome. Comparative genome analysis between cultivated rice subspecies shows that there is an overall syntenic relationship between the chromosomes and divergence at the level of single-nucleotide polymorphisms and insertions and deletions. By contrast, there is little conservation in gene order between rice and Arabidopsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study on the manipulation and cutting of carbon nanotubes in order to examine whether one can move a nanocomponent from one site to another by using the tip of atomic force microscope (AFM). Way that this technique may also be valuable for providing the constructive materials of nanofabrication; Observation of some new phenomena have been during the process; Results which show that carbon nanotubes present a feature of deformation combining bending and distortion when subjected to large mechanical forces exerted by the tip of AFM.

• Solvent resistant membrane distillation was tested for organic wastewater separation. • Hydrophobic ceramic membranes were obtained through chemical grafting. • The grafted membranes performed excellently in water-dimethyl sulfoxide separation. • Rejection >98% can be achieved for a feed containing <65 wt% dimethyl sulfoxide. • The permeate product can be sent to bioreactor if feed concentration is <20 wt%. The treatment of organic waste or wastewater with high organic solvent content has been challenging in industries as it cannot be done effectively using conventional wastewater treatment technologies such as biodegradation and advanced oxidation process. Solvent resistant membrane distillation (SR-MD) was proposed as an energy-efficient alternative to treat these waste streams but its application is hampered by the lack of solvent-resistant membranes, and there is a research gap in studying the feeds with water-solvent mixtures. In this work, ceramic tubular membranes with different pore sizes and structures were molecularly grafted with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane to obtain hydrophobic ceramic membranes for SR-MD. The modified membranes exhibited excellent hydrophobicity and solvent resistant properties, and they were tested for SR-MD performance with a wide range of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) feed concentrations, from 3.5 to 85 wt%. The membranes exhibited a high DMSO rejection of >98% and the separation factor of >170, with permeation flux >4.4 kg m−2 h−1 when the DMSO concentration in feed was below 65 wt%. The separation performance was found strongly dependent on the evaporation step and the vapour-liquid equilibrium near the interface. The DMSO rejection was also comparable to pervaporation while the permeation flux was much higher at the feed concentration of 50 wt%. This study establishes the strategy of using SR-MD as a promising membrane process in treating complex industrial wastes with high organic solvent content. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowded scene surveillance can significantly benefit from combining egocentric-view and its complementary top-view cameras. A typical setting is an egocentric-view camera, e.g., a wearable camera on the ground capturing rich local details, and a top-view camera, e.g., a drone-mounted one from high altitude providing a global picture of the scene. To collaboratively analyze such complementary-view videos, an important task is to associate and track multiple people across views and over time, which is challenging and differs from classical human tracking, since we need to not only track multiple subjects in each video, but also identify the same subjects across the two complementary views. This paper formulates it as a constrained mixed integer programming problem, wherein a major challenge is how to effectively measure subjects similarity over time in each video and across two views. Although appearance and motion consistencies well apply to over-time association, they are not good at connecting two highly different complementary views. To this end, we present a spatial distribution based approach to reliable cross-view subject association. We also build a dataset to benchmark this new challenging task. Extensive experiments verify the effectiveness of our method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the utmost utilization of remote sensing and geophysics in the exploration of potash deposit in China. It discusses geophysics in relation to gamma-spectrometric well-logging, airborne radiometry and gravity. It further mentions that remote sensing anomalies related to gypsum and salt were extracted and a model of remote sensing was built in the Yarkend basin in China.

[Display omitted] • DMFC with M−N−C and Pt/C hybrid CCL showed a high performance at 10 M CH 3 OH. • ROS produced by M−N−C in ORR and Fenton reaction oxidized methanol nearby Pt/C. • Methanol electrochemical oxidation on Pt/C was depressed by M−N−C. • Cu-N-C is the best catalyst with a high H 2 O 2 yield and strong peroxide activity. • Hybrid CCLs provide a new strategy for DMFCs with a high energy density. Pt/C based direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) always suffer from a serious methanol crossover under a high concentration of methanol solution. In this paper, we report a novel hybrid cathode catalytic layer (CCL) consisting of a physical blend of Pt/C and Fe-N-C. DMFC based on the hybrid CCL with an optimized loadings (0.25 mg cm−2 Fe-N-C and 2 mg Pt cm-2Pt/C) outputs a high power density of 28.87 mW cm−2 at 10 M methanol, and the single Pt/C based cell only shows a low power density of 12.04 mW cm−2 in comparison. Such a large improvement attributes to the increasing amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is produced by Fe-N-C via an incomplete four-electron transfer process in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Inspired by this strategy, several M−N−C catalysts were synthesized, among which Cu-N-C shows the most brilliant performance to enhance the methanol tolerance of Pt/C. The peak power density of DMFC with Cu-N-C based hybrid CCL exceeds 31 mW cm−2 at 10 M methanol, which is superior to that of cells with Fe-N-C based hybrid CCL. This work provides a new approach for designing DMFCs with high energy density, which is practical for applications of portable power devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to increase the precision and effectiveness of power system analysis and fault diagnosis, this study aims to assess the power systems in the energy sector while utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and environmental social governance (ESG). First, the ESG framework is presented in this study to fully account for the effects of the power system on the environment, society, and governance. Second, to coordinate the operation of various components and guarantee the balance and security of the power system, the CNN-BiLSTM power load demand forecasting model is built by merging convolutional neural network (CNN) and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM). Lastly, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to introduce and optimize the deep belief network (DBN), and a power grid fault diagnostic model is implemented using the PSO technique and DBN. The model's performance is assessed through experimentation. The outcomes demonstrate how the CNN-BiLSTM algorithm significantly increases forecasting accuracy while overcoming the drawback of just having one dimension of power load data. The values of 0.054, 0.076, and 0.102, respectively, are the root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Effective processing of large-scale nonlinear data is achieved in the area of power grid fault diagnosis, resulting in prediction accuracy of 96.22% and prediction time of only 129.94 s. This is clearly better than other algorithms and increases fault prediction efficiency and accuracy. Consequently, the model presented in this study not only produces impressive results in fault diagnosis and load demand forecasting, but also advances the field of power system analysis in the energy industry and offers a significant amount of support for the sustainable and intelligent growth of the energy industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method of Al 2 O 3 whiskers addition is provided to simultaneously enhance the forming accuracy, and mechanical and tribological performances of translucent glass-ceramics manufactured through vat photopolymerization 3D printing. Al 2 O 3 whiskers (0–15 wt%) were added to a self-prepared fluorapatite glass-ceramic as a raw material. The results demonstrated that the addition of Al 2 O 3 whiskers significantly improved the forming accuracy, mechanical and tribological performances of fluorapatite (FAp) glass-ceramics. The dimensional error of the formed samples decreased by approximately 56% with the addition of 15 wt% Al 2 O 3 whiskers. The glass-ceramics containing 10 wt% Al 2 O 3 whiskers exhibited a flexural strength and fracture toughness of 220.3 ± 13.7 MPa and 1.81 ± 0.18 MPa·m1/2, respectively, representing a 44.1% and 111.8% increase compared to pure FAp glass-ceramics. Furthermore, the addition of Al 2 O 3 whiskers led to reduced wear volume in both the glass-ceramics and titanium balls used as counterparts, indicating improved tribological compatibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first application of microdialysis technique combined with newly developed HPLC-MS/MS assay in the pharmacokinetic study of dexmedetomidine(DEX). • HPLC–MS/MS method was established with liquid–liquid extraction process for microdialysate samples. • The approach was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study in rats. Dexmedetomidine, as a safe sedative, mainly exerts on the central nervous system particularly in the locus coeruleus producing arousable sedation with potential analgesic and anxiolytic effects. The quantification and pharmacokinetic investigation of dexmedetomidine in the central nervous system have been described rarely. In order to estimate the unbound dexmedetomidine concentrations in brain extracellular fluid and blood simultaneously, we employed microdialysis technique as a sampling method and primarily established a rapid, sensitive and selective high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry method (HPLC-MS/MS). Dexmedetomidine and the internal standard (dexmedetomidine-d4) were extracted in liquid–liquid extraction procedure with ethyl acetate from 10 μL of alkalinized microdialysate sample. After evaporation under nitrogen at room temperature, the analytes were reconstituted in acetonitrile and transferred to be detected. HPLC was performed on an Agilent Poroshell 120 Hilic column (4.6 × 100 mm, 2.7 μm) with isocratic elution at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min by 0.1% formic acid/acetonitrile (60:40, v/v). The detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode using the respective [M+H]+ ions m / z 201.2 to m / z 95.1 for DEX and m / z 205.2 to m / z 99.1 for IS (DEX-d4). The concentration–response relationship was of good linearity over a concentration range of 1.00–1000.00 ng/mL with the correlation coefficient above 0.999. The lower limit of quantification was 1.00 ng/mL with a relative standard deviation of less than 20%. The intra- and inter-day accuracy were within ±5.00% and precision was <7.23%. The recoveries of dexmedetomidine in microdialysates were 76.61–93.38%. The validated HPLC-MS/MS method has been successfully applied to study the pharmacokinetics of dexmedetomidine in rats after a caudal vein administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: SiBON fiber precursor was successfully synthesized through sol–gel method when distilled water was used as solvent, boric acid (H3BO3), melamine (C3H6N6) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) were used as raw materials. The precursor was nitrogenized in N2 at 1400–1800°C to prepare SiBON fiber. The chemical bonds structure, the micrograph and the elemental distribution of SiBON fiber have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results showed: (1) the best nitrogenization temperature of SiBON fiber precursor was 1800°C; (2) SiBON fiber was amorphous materials of nitrides containing a small quantity of SiO2 and BN crystals; (3) bonds of BN, BOSi, BNSi and SiOSi existed in the SiBON fiber. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A series of nickel substituted copper ferrite nanocrystals (Ni x Cu 1-x Fe 2 O 4 , x = 0 , 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.5 , 0.7) were synthesized by co-precipitation technique. The prepared powders were calcined twice at 900 °C (pre-calcination) and 1100 °C (post-calcination) respectively. The structural, morphological and magnetic properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), respectively. XRD analysis shows that all the samples have a single-phase cubic spinel structure. The crystallite size was calculated by using Debye-Scherrer's formula. It was observed that the crystallite size decreases with the increasing nickel (Ni) content and increases after post-calcination. The saturation magnetization increased with the increasing Ni content, whereas the coercivity decreased. The saturation magnetization further increased after post-calcination. The parameters such as dielectric constant, dielectric loss and ac conductivity were also studied in the frequency range from 1 to 12 GHz. The complex dielectric permittivity of Ni x Cu 1-x Fe 2 O 4 nanocrystals was decreased with the increasing Ni contents and as well as after post calcination. Furthermore, the dielectric loss tangent and ac conductivity also decreases with the increasing Ni contents and as well as after post calcination. Image 1 • Co-precipitation technique is used to synthesis Ni x Cu 1-x Fe 2 O 4 (x = 0 , 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.5 , 0.7). • Structural and morphological investigation confirmed spinel structure of Ni x Cu 1-x Fe 2 O 4. • The particle size decreases with the increasing nickel content. • Magnetic properties improved with the addition of nickel contents and after post-calcination. • Complex permittivity decreases with increasing nickel contents and after post-calcination as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuromuscular blockers (NMBs) selectively block neuromuscular transmission at the N2-nicotinic receptor on motor neurons to paralyze skeletal muscles, and are mainly used to facilitate tracheal intubation and surgical procedures. Rapid reversal is necessary in clinical practice to avoid profound block and reduce recovery time. Adamgammadex sodium is a modified γ-cyclodextrin derivative consisting of a lipophilic core and a hydrophilic outer end that forms an inactive tight inclusion complex with free molecules of rocuronium and vecuronium. In preclinical study, adamgammadex produced a concentration-dependent reversion effect of neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium in beagle dogs. Furthermore, adamgammadex had a less potential side effects than sugammadex and other clinical used neuromuscular block antagonists. In this study, the objective was to assess the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of single intravenous injection of adamgammadex in healthy volunteers. Approved by the China Food and Drug Administration, 52 healthy volunteers (half male and half female) were enrolled in this single-center, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study. No serious adverse effects were happened in this study. The overall frequency of adverse effects in adamgammadex was similar for that in placebo, and there was no specific adverse effect in adamgammadex. All of the volunteers bearing the adverse effects were recovered to normal without any treatment or intervention. In pharmacokinetic study, the value of half-time, T max , and clearance were not changed significantly, and the C max and AUC 0–∞ increased with a similar ratio of the escalating doses. For dose proportionality analysis of adamgammadex, the estimate of slope was close to 1, and it was not significantly different from 1 after doses (AUC 0-∞ , 0.9965 [90%CI, 0.9468, 1.046]; C max , 0.9462 [90%CI, 0.8800, 1.012]). Therefore, adamgammadex exposure in plasma increased in a dose- proportional manner. The urinary route is a significant excretory pathway for adamgammadex, and it is mostly completed at 8 h. All the results in this study showed that adamgammadex may be a novel safe neuromuscular blockade reversal agent. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: β-arrestin-2(Arr2) functions as an anti-apoptotic factor and affects cell proliferation, but its downstream molecular pathway in endometrial carcinoma (EC) is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the stable overexpression of Arr2 on the proliferation and apoptosis of human EC heterotransplants and the expression of associated molecules, including Toll-like receptor 2(TLR2), serine-threonine kinase Akt (Akt), glycogen synthase kinase-3β(GSK3β) and some typical inflammatory cytokines such as NF-κB p56, TNF-α and IL-6 & IL-8.Methods: Human EC cell line Ishikawa, stably transfected with Arr2 full-length plasmid, was injected subcutaneously into nude mice. They were treated with 0, 10, 20 mg/kg paclitaxel and the volume and weight of the tumor tissue were measured and calculated. The necrotic index were assessed by H&E staining and microscopic observation. The levels of caspase-3, caspase-9, TLR2, NF-κB p56, Akt, GSK3β were measured by western blot, and the levels of TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8 were measured by real-time PCR.Results: We found that Arr2 overexpression promoted the growth of human EC heterotransplants. Arr2 attenuated the promotion of caspase-3 and caspase-9 by paclitaxel and mediated the increase of TLR2 and several inflammatory cytokines. The levels of Akt and GSK3β were not affected.Conclusion: Arr2 overexpression was associated with the increase of TLR2 and several inflammatory factors, meanwhile inhibited paclitaxel-induced anti-tumor effect on human EC heterotransplants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical remote sensing systems (RSSs) for monitoring vehicle emissions can be installed on any road and provide non-contact on-road measurements, that allow law enforcement departments to monitor emissions of a large number of on-road vehicles. Although many studies in different research fields have been performed using RSSs, there has been little research on the automatic recognition of on-road high-emitting vehicles. In general, high-emitting vehicles and low-emitting vehicles are classified by fixed emission concentration cut-points, that lack a strict scientific basis, and the actual cut-points are sensitive to environmental factors, such as wind speed and direction, outdoor temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and so on. Besides this issue, single instantaneous monitoring results from RSSs are easily affected by systematic and random errors, leading to unreliable results. This paper proposes a method to solve the above problems. The automatic and fast-recognition method for on-road high-emitting vehicles (AFR-OHV) is the first application of machine learning, combined with big data analysis for remote sensing monitoring of on-road high-emitting vehicles. The method constructs adaptively updates a clustering database using real-time collections of emission datasets from an RSS. Then, new vehicles, that pass through the RSS, are recognized rapidly by the nearest neighbor classifier, which is guided by a real-time updated clustering database. Experimental results, based on real data, including the Davies-Bouldin Index (DBI) and Dunn Validity Index (DVI), show that AFR-OHV provides faster convergence speed and better performance. Furthermore, it is not easily disturbed by outliers. Our classifier obtains high scores for Precision (PRE), Recall (REC), the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC), and the Area Under the Curve (AUC). The rates of different classifications of excessive emissions and self-adaptive cut-points are calculated automatically in order to provide references for law enforcement departments to establish evaluation criterion for on-road high-emitting vehicles, detected by the RSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To balance the permeability-selectivity trade-off effect of the polyamide nanofiltration membrane, interfacial polymerization regulation strategy is widely used to optimize the physicochemical structure of the polyamide film. In the present work, the compound additives of phytic acid and ferric chloride were added into the aqueous phase to regulate the interfacial polymerization process. On the one hand, a lot of piperazine monomers will be adsorbed around the phytic acid molecules due to the electrostatic interaction between phosphoric acid groups and amino groups. Meanwhile, the phytic acid molecules and ferric ions can form a complex in the piperazine solution, which results in a low diffusion rate of the other piperazine monomers without adsorbed on the phytic acid and ferric chloride complex due to steric hindrance. The synergistic effect of electrostatic interaction and steric hindrance leads to the optimized nanofiltration membrane with a thinner and looser polyamide structure. The best-performing nanofiltration membrane exhibits an approximately four-fold water permeance (28.4 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) compared with the controlled M0 nanofiltration membrane (6.5 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) without obviously sacrificing the Na 2 SO 4 rejection (96.9 %). This simple interfacial polymerization regulation strategy provides a novel insight for the preparation of high-performance NF membrane. Phytic acid&FeCl3 compound additives-regulated interfacial polymerization. [Display omitted] • Phytic acid and ferric chloride were employed to regulate interfacial polymerization. • The compound additives can inhibit piperazine monomer diffusion. • The nanofiltration membrane shows a thin and loose polyamide layer. • The optimized membrane exhibits high water permeance and Na 2 SO 4 rejection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the epoxy-based composites filled with 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (KH-550) modified binary filler of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) flakes and h-BN whiskers were fabricated, and the thermal and dielectric properties of composites were systematically investigated. Adding h-BN whiskers to the filler could effectively form heat conduction paths and improve the phonon transmission efficiency, thereby improving the thermal conductivity of the composites. According to our results, the thermal conductivity of composite with 27 wt% h-BN flakes and 3 wt% h-BN whiskers reached up to 0.819 W·m−1·K−1, which was 3.9 times that of pure epoxy resin. At the same time, the dielectric loss value and dielectric constant of this composite at 1 MHz were 0.02678 and 4.55, respectively, while pure epoxy resin were 0.03602 and 4.33. In addition, introducing h-BN whiskers into the matrix could effectively improve the thermal stability and heat dissipation performance of composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SiCN(Fe)/Si 3 N 4 composite ceramics containing C, β-SiC and α-Fe were designed by impregnating polysilazane followed by pyrolysis at 1–5 times with porous silicon nitride matrix. After the heat treatment, these new phases gradually formed and filled in the pores of the matrix to form a large whole. They bond together to facilitate the formation of conductive networks, which can improve the storage and transport capacity of the charge, thus improving the dielectric properties of the material. In this way, the highest dielectric and magnetic loss tangent values were achieved as 0.49 and 0.29 after third and fourth cycles, respectively. The electromagnetic wave can be absorbed ~80–90% in the range of 8–18 GHz with the thickness of 2 mm. The minimum reflectivity was −12.5 dB at 16 GHz with the thickness of 5 mm, showing >90% electromagnetic wave absorption at this frequency. Targeted Design of SiCN(Fe)/Si 3 N 4 Microwave Absorbing Composite Ceramics. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melphalan is an efficient chemotherapeutic agent for retinoblastoma (RB) in clinical practice. However, the problems of drug resistance and poor prognosis caused by long-term treatment of melphalan should not be ignored. At present, it is urgent to find a therapeutic strategy to enhance the curative effect to solve the need for clinical treatment of RB to protect eyesight. Herein, we propose an effective strategy to encapsulate melphalan and black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs) with high-biocompatibility liposomes for photothermal therapy (PTT) to enhance cell killing. BPQDs and melphalan were encapsulated using liposomes with a similar structure to the cell membrane, and a lipid nanoparticle with both photothermal and chemical inhibition effects was prepared. The obtained nanoparticle has a spherical shape (particle size range of 82–180 nm) and good stability (encapsulation efficiencies of melphalan of 40 % and BPQDs of 43.7 %). Its temperature increased to 65 °C within 10 min under a 2 W/cm2 laser at 808 nm, exerting photothermal and synergistic effects with melphalan to induce apoptosis of tumor cells. As expected, the prepared nanoparticle effectively inhibits tumor proliferation, upregulates the ki67 expression level, and has an excellent PTT effect on the orthotopic xenograft of WERI-RB-1 cells. • Melphalan and BPQDs combined into a lipid-nanoparticle system has a spherical shape and good stability. • BPQDs-based nanoparticles have excellent photothermal properties under a 2 W/cm2 laser at 808 nm. • BPQDs-based nanoparticles inhibit cell proliferation and reduce killing of BPQDs in the orthotopic xenograft RB tumor. • This work provides new insight to develop a strategy for enhancing melphalan's curative effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Characteristics of PM 2.5 components, VOCs during the haze and dust period were investigated. • SOC were estimated by EC tracer method. • SOA formation were enhanced during dust episode. • Photochemical reactions were responsible for the enhanced SOA formation. To investigate the effect of frequently occurring mineral dust on the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), 106 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), trace gas pollutants and chemical components of PM 2.5 were measured continuously in January 2021 in Wuhan, Central China. The observation period was divided into two stages that included a haze period and a following dust period, based on the ratio of PM 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations. The average ratio of secondary organic carbon (SOC) to elemental carbon (EC) was 1.98 during the dust period, which was higher than that during the haze period (0.69). The contribution of SOA to PM 2.5 also increased from 2.75% to 8.64%. The analysis of the relationships between the SOA and relative humidity (RH) and the odd oxygen (e.g., O X = O 3 + NO 2) levels suggested that photochemical reactions played a more important role in the enhancement of SOA production during the dust period than the aqueous-phase reactions. The heterogeneous photochemical production of OH radicals in the presence of metal oxides during the dust period was believed to be enhanced. Meanwhile, the ratios of trans-2-butene to cis-2-butene and m-/p-xylene to ethylbenzene (X/E) dropped significantly, confirming that stronger photochemical reactions occurred and SOA precursors formed efficiently. These results verified the laboratory findings that metal oxides in mineral dust could catalyse the oxidation of VOCs and induce higher SOA production. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With advantages of light weight, good thermal stability and strong oxidation resistance, SiCN ceramic is a promising material for application related to dielectric and microwave absorption function. Precisely, SiCN ceramic, as a good absorbing material, is able to enhance the microwave absorption properties when coupled with other absorbers as the matrix. The present study aims to fabricate SiCN(CNTs) composite ceramics by dispersing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into SiCN ceramic matrix, in order to improve the electrical conductivity and strengthen the microwave absorption effect in alternating electric field of SiCN based composite ceramics. The phase composition, microstructure, chemical composition, electromagnetic parameters and microwave absorption properties of SiCN (CNTs) pyrolyzed at different temperatures were analyzed. The results show that the optimum RL -38.40 dB at 18 GHz was obtained in the sample with a thickness of 4.4 mm, where the effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) was 1.3 GHz, when the pyrolysis temperature was fixed at 1100 °C. By further increasing the sample thickness to 4.7 mm, a wider EAB of 2.16 GHz was revealed. Overall, the microwave absorption properties of SiCN(CNTs) shows significant enhancement compared to SiCN ceramics, demonstrating that with excellent absorbing properties, thin thickness, light weight and wide EAB, SiCN (CNTs) has huge potential as a competitive absorbing material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nano-sized neodymium doped aluminum lutetium garnet (LuAG:Nd) phosphors well crystallized with particle size of around 100–130 nm were successfully synthesized via microwave-induced solution combustion method. The optimal crystallization temperature of LuAG:Nd was determined at 900 °C based on controlled trials. XRD results showed an obvious distortion in lattice parameters of LuAG, which could be confirmed by the shift of diffraction peak towards lower degrees with Nd concentration increasing. Another evidence for successful doping of neodymium was the absorption line at around 808 nm in the absorption spectra, which could result from the Nd3+ 4I 9/2 -4F 5/2 transition. Furthermore, the near-infrared spectra showed that the quenching concentration of Nd3+ in prepared LuAG:Nd polycrystalline samples with the highest intensity of 1064 nm was at 5 mol%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]