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3D printing technology is widely used in the manufacturing of fine ceramic fields due to its simple operation, rapid molding, and applications in preparation of complex structures. In this paper, the characteristics of different 3D printing technologies in ceramic preparation were reviewed based on the material morphology of 3D printing ceramics. The application and mechanism of binder and dispersant applied in direct ink writing, stereolithography and inkjet printing 3D printing technology of ceramics were introduced, and these additive components of water based and non-water based were summarized and discussed, aiming to provide reference for the preparation of high-performance ceramic samples via 3D printing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial photosynthesis can provide valuable fuels and positively impact greenhouse effects, via transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) into hydrocarbons using semiconductor‐based photocatalysts. However, the inefficient charge‐carrier dissociation and transportation as well as the lack of surface active sites are two major drawbacks to boosting their activity and selectivity in photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Recently, ReS2 has received tremendous attention in the photocatalysis area due to its intriguing physicochemical properties. Nevertheless, the application of ReS2 in photocatalytic CO2 reduction is scarcely covered. Herein, a heterojunction formed between ReS2 nanosheets and CdS nanoparticles is reported, achieving an apparently raised CO production of 7.1 μmol g−1 and high selectivity of 93.4%. The as‐prepared ReS2/CdS heterojunction exhibits strengthened visible‐light absorption, high‐efficiency electron–hole pair separation/transfer, and increased adsorption/activation/reduction of CO2 on in situ created sulfur vacancies of ReS2, thus all favoring CO2 photoreduction. These are corroborated by advanced characterization techniques, e.g., synchrotron‐based X‐ray absorption near‐edge structure, and density functional theory–based computations. The findings will be of broad interest in practical design and fabrication of surface active sites and semiconductor heterojunctions for applications in catalysis, electronics, and optoelectronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of poly (acrylic acid) copolyester/graphene latices were prepared by in-situ polymerization using graphene, acrylic acid (AA), methyl acrylate (MA) and ethyl acrylate (EA) as raw materials, and a composite electrode sheet was prepared by a fabric impregnation method. The effects of graphene and monomer contents on the electrical conductivity, flexibility, mechanical properties and electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring performance of the composite electrode sheet were investigated by using Ohm meter, differential scanning calorimetry, universal material testing machine and EEG tester, and its morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The results indicated that the prepared composite electrode sheet exhibited good flexibility at a graphene content of 46. 5 wt%, a reaction temperature of 80 °C, a reaction time of 3 h, and an AA/MA/EA volume ratio of 0.2/1/1.8. In this composite electrode sheet, and the fabric was made from the non-woven fabric impregnated by copolyester emulsion. This composite electrode sheet exhibits good electrical conductivity and mechanical strength at room temperature and is suitable for the use in EEG monitoring, and its signal intensity and stability for EEG is similar to the commercial Ag/AgCl electrode. There is no conductive paste needed for this composite electrode, so it is more convenient for use without any skin contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic CO2 reduction is an effective means to generate renewable energy. It involves redox reactions, reduction of CO2 and oxidation of water, that leads to the production of solar fuel. Significant research effort has therefore been made to develop inexpensive and practically sustainable semiconductor‐based photocatalysts. The exploration of atomic‐level active sites on the surface of semiconductors can result in an improved understanding of the mechanism of CO2 photoreduction. This can be applied to the design and synthesis of efficient photocatalysts. In this review, atomic‐level reactive sites are classified into four types: vacancies, single atoms, surface functional groups, and frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs). These different photocatalytic reactive sites are shown to have varied affinity to reactants, intermediates, and products. This changes pathways for CO2 reduction and significantly impacts catalytic activity and selectivity. The design of a photocatalyst from an atomic‐level perspective can therefore be used to maximize atomic utilization efficiency and lead to a high selectivity. The prospects for fabrication of effective photocatalysts based on an in‐depth understanding are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the reliability of the attitude determination system with redundant gyroscopes, this article proposes a gyroscope fault accommodation method using a bank of dedicated Kalman filters. The redundant gyroscopes are divided into several groups and then a dedicated Kalman filter is designed for each group of gyroscopes. The residuals generated by the dedicated Kalman filters indicate the consistency levels between the measurements of the star sensor and the gyroscopes. Based on the estimation results provided by the Kalman filters, a fault accommodation method using online selection strategy is proposed to attenuate the effect of the fault. Numerical simulations are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doping with oxygen vacancies and Ti3+ and engineering of the crystal morphology for exposing highly reactive facets have been demonstrated as important approaches to decrease the band gap of TiO2 and establish surface heterojunctions to enhance the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 under simulated solar light. The highly reactive facets can impact not only the CO2 reduction but also the TiO2 modification. Herein, atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) cold plasma, a green method with no environmentally hazardous reducing agents, was developed to achieve the self-doping of a TiO2 single crystal film with exposed highly reactive facets. This method combines the advantages of the special facets and crystal defects. The characterization results indicate that the DBD cold plasma method achieves the modification of the TiO2 film. The samples show remarkable improvement in reducing CO2 and H2O to CO and CH4 under simulated solar light, with yields reaching 0.075 micromol per m2 and 0.015 micromol per m2, respectively. The formation mechanisms of the method for TiO2 modification and CO2 reduction are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The red leaf coloration of Empire Red Leaf Cotton (ERLC) (Gossypium hirsutum L.), resulted from anthocyanin accumulation in light, is a well known dominant agricultural trait. However, the underpin molecular mechanism remains elusive. To explore this, we compared the molecular biological basis of anthocyanin accumulation in both ERLC and the green leaf cotton variety CCRI 24 (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Introduction of R2R3-MYB transcription factor Rosea1, the master regulator anthocyanin biosynthesis in Antirrhinum majus, into CCRI 24 induced anthocyanin accumulation, indicating structural genes for anthocyanin biosynthesis are not defected and the leaf coloration might be caused by variation of regulatory genes expression. Expression analysis found that a transcription factor RLC1 (Red Leaf Cotton 1) which encodes the ortholog of PAP1/Rosea1 was highly expressed in leaves of ERLC but barely expressed in CCRI 24 in light. Ectopic expression of RLC1 from ERLC and CCRI 24 in hairy roots of Antirrhinum majus and CCRI 24 significantly enhanced anthocyanin accumulation. Comparison of RLC1 promoter sequences between ERLC and CCRI 24 revealed two 228-bp tandem repeats presented in ERLC with only one repeat in CCRI 24. Transient assays in cotton leave tissue evidenced that the tandem repeats in ERLC is responsible for light-induced RLC1 expression and therefore anthocyanin accumulation. Taken together, our results in this article strongly support an important step toward understanding the role of R2R3-MYB transcription factors in the regulatory menchanisms of anthocyanin accumulation in red leaf cotton under light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Green leaf litter (GL) experienced a faster decay than senescence leaf litter (SL). • The temperature sensitivity (Q 10) of decomposition of GL was lower than that of SL. • The Q 10 of litter decomposition was negatively controlled by litter quality. • The faster litter decay after warm was due to reduced microbial carbon use efficiency. In the context of climate change, more frequent and severe extreme climate events are expected, which could lead to increased leaf fall before senescence. The decomposition of those abnormal fallen leaf litters may play a pivotal role in affecting the carbon (C) cycle in terrestrial ecosystems. Nevertheless, how their decomposition responds to temperature increase has rarely been studied, which limits the accurate estimation of the response of soil C dynamics to global warming and associated feedback. In the present study, green leaves (GL) were used to represent abnormal fallen leaf litters, and we compared the temperature sensitivity (Q 10) of the decomposition of GL with that of the corresponding senescent litters (SL) from nine species, which are widely distributed in subtropical China. Results showed that GL experienced a faster decomposition than SL. Conversely, the Q 10 of GL decomposition was significantly lower than that of SL decomposition. We also found that the Q 10 values of litter decomposition correlated positively with the C:N ratio and the lignin:N ratio, which supported the "C quality temperature" hypothesis. Furthermore, Q 10 was negatively controlled by phospholipid fatty acids of total microbes, fungi, and bacteria in soils. Experimental warming evidently increased the metabolic quotient of litter decomposition (q CO 2); a greater increase occurred in the decomposition of SL rather than that of GL. A positive correlation between Q 10 and warming-induced relative change in q CO 2 was also detected. We highlighted that the increasing inputs of abnormal fallen leaf litters caused by climate change could decrease the Q 10 of litter decomposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Black spot disease in tree peony caused by the fungal necrotroph A. alternata, is a primary limiting factor in the production of the tree peony. The intricate molecular mechanisms underlying the tree peony resistance to A. alternata have not been thoroughly investigated. Results: The present study utilized high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology to conduct global expression profiling, revealing an intricate network of genes implicated in the interaction between tree peony and A. alternata. RNA-Seq libraries were constructed from leaf samples and high-throughput sequenced using the BGISEQ-500 sequencing platform. Six distinct libraries were characterized. M1, M2 and M3 were derived from leaves that had undergone mock inoculation, while I1, I2 and I3 originated from leaves that had been inoculated with the pathogen. A range of 10.22–11.80 gigabases (Gb) of clean bases were generated, comprising 68,131,232 − 78,633,602 clean bases and 56,677 − 68,996 Unigenes. A grand total of 99,721 Unigenes were acquired, boasting a mean length of 1,266 base pairs. All these 99,721 Unigenes were annotated in various databases, including NR (Non-Redundant, 61.99%), NT (Nucleotide, 45.50%), SwissProt (46.32%), KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, 49.33%), KOG (clusters of euKaryotic Orthologous Groups, 50.18%), Pfam (Protein family, 47.16%), and GO (Gene Ontology, 34.86%). In total, 66,641 (66.83%) Unigenes had matches in at least one database. By conducting a comparative transcriptome analysis of the mock- and A. alternata-infected sample libraries, we found differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that are related to phytohormone signalling, pathogen recognition, active oxygen generation, and circadian rhythm regulation. Furthermore, multiple different kinds of transcription factors were identified. The expression levels of 10 selected genes were validated employing qRT-PCR (quantitative real-time PCR) to confirm RNA-Seq data. Conclusions: A multitude of transcriptome sequences have been generated, thus offering a valuable genetic repository for further scholarly exploration on the immune mechanisms underlying the tree peony infected by A. alternata. While the expression of most DEGs increased, a few DEGs showed decreased expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• COVID-19 can cause a series of clinical symptoms. • The lung is the organ most affected by infection of SARS-CoV-2. • Interventions should be implemented to help recovery of healthcare workers with COVID-19. This study aimed to evaluate the recovery of functional fitness, lung function, and immune function in healthcare workers (HCWs) with nonsevere and severe COVID-19 at 13 months after discharge from the hospital. The participants of "Rehabilitation Care Project for Medical Staff Infected with COVID-19" underwent a functional fitness test (muscle strength, flexibility, and agility/dynamic balance), lung function test, and immune function test (including cytokines and lymphocyte subsets) at 13 months after discharge. The project included 779 HCWs (316 nonsevere COVID-19 and 463 severe COVID-19). This study found that 29.1% (130/446) of the HCWs have not yet recovered their functional fitness. The most affected lung function indicator was lung perfusion capacity (34% with diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide-single breath <80%). The increase of interleukin-6 (64/534, 12.0%) and natural killer cells (44/534, 8.2%) and the decrease of CD3+ T cells (58/534, 10.9%) and CD4+ T cells (26/534, 4.9%) still existed at 13 months after discharge. No significant difference was found in the HCWs with nonsevere and severe COVID-19 regarding recovery of functional fitness, lung function, and immune function at 13 months after discharge. The majority of Chinese HCWs with COVID-19 had recovered their functional fitness, lung function, and immune function, and the recovery status in HCWs with severe COVID-19 is no worse than that in HCWs with nonsevere COVID-19 at 13 months after discharge from the hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Novel Ni-based metal–organic framework (MOF)/CdS with outstanding performance for photocatalytic hydrogen generation. • Numerous atomically dispersed Ni-N 4 reduction sites confined in MOF boosting the photocatalytic activity. • The process of electron-hole separation and migration greatly facilitated by MOF. The depletion of traditional fossil fuels and related environmental issues have increased the demand for clean and sustainable energy resources to achieve carbon neutrality. Active, robust and cheap photocatalysts are required for large-scale photocatalytic H 2 evolution reaction (p-HER), which transforms solar energy into chemical energy. Here we report the decoration of Ni-imidazole framework (NiIm) with CdS nanorods for p–HER. The p–HER rate of CdS/NiIm hybrid sharply increased by about 14.23 times to 21,712 µmol h−1 g–1 when compared with that of CdS alone. Physicochemical characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal strong interactions at the CdS/NiIm interface and the presence of numerous Ni–N 4 active sites on NiIm leading to the significant performance enhancement. This work demonstrates that NiIm acts as an affordable and abundant co-catalyst that remarkably enhances the p–HER, and enlightens the further development in the design and preparation of metal−organic framework-based materials for various applications in photocatalysis and related subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies had described the health consequences of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) especially in those with severe infections after discharge from hospital. Moreover, no research had reported the health consequences in health care workers (HCWs) with COVID-19 after discharge. We aimed to investigate the health consequences in HCWs with severe COVID-19 after discharge from hospital in Hubei Province, China.Methods: We conducted an ambidirectional cohort study in "Rehabilitation Care Project for Medical Staff Infected with COVID-19" in China. The participants were asked to complete three physical examinations (including the tests of functional fitness, antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and immunological indicators) at 153.4 (143.3, 164.8), 244.3 (232.4, 259.1), and 329.4 (319.4, 339.3) days after discharge, respectively. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, t test, one-way ANOVA, χ2, and Fisher's exact test were used to assess the variance between two or more groups where appropriate.Results: Of 333 HCWs with severe COVID-19, the HCWs' median age was 36.0 (31.0, 43.0) years, 257 (77%) were female, and 191 (57%) were nurses. Our research found that 70.4% (114/162), 48.9% (67/137), and 29.6% (37/125) of the HCWs with severe COVID-19 were considered to have not recovered their functional fitness in the first, second, and third functional fitness tests, respectively. The HCWs showed improvement in muscle strength, flexibility, and agility/dynamic balance after discharge in follow-up visits. The seropositivity of IgM (17.0% vs. 6.6%) and median titres of IgM (3.0 vs. 1.4) and IgG (60.3 vs. 45.3) in the third physical examination was higher than that in the first physical examination. In the third physical examination, there still were 42.1% and 45.9% of the HCWs had elevated levels of IL-6 and TNF-α, and 11.9% and 6.3% of the HCWs had decreased relative numbers of CD3+ T cells and CD4+ T cells.Conclusion: The HCWs with severe COVID-19 showed improvement in functional fitness within 1 year after discharge, active intervention should be applied to help their recovery if necessary. It is of vital significance to continue monitoring the functional fitness, antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and immunological indicators after 1 year of discharge from hospital in HCWs with severe COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The rapid on-line temperature monitoring can be realized with a dynamic ANN model. • The dynamic ANN model predicts the inner wall temperature with acceptable accuracy. • The time delay of heat transfer is well described by time series parameter. • The measurements on outer wall are evaluated by an important analysis. • An asymmetrical layout is proposed to achieve a balance between cost and accuracy. Thermal fatigue, mainly caused by thermal stratification, is one of the major factors for reliability degradation of surge lines in nuclear power plants and is well managed through on-line temperature monitoring. However, the vast amount of outer wall temperature data generated by on-line temperature monitoring requires an efficient way of calculating the inner wall temperature. In this paper, the time-varying inner wall temperature is predicted rapidly and precisely using a dynamic artificial neural network model based on outer wall temperature and flow velocity. By optimizing the length of time series, the time delay of heat transfer between the inner wall and outer wall temperature is fully considered in the dynamic model. Consequently, the best root mean squared error of the temperature prediction is as low as 3.78. More importantly, the importance analysis based on dynamic model is also performed to quantify the importance of outer wall temperature variables, which can be used to optimize the arrangement of outer wall temperature measurement points for further applications under different circumstances to reduce cost while maintain high prediction accuracy. The results in this study will be helpful for the optimization of measurement points arrangement and rapid on-line thermal fatigue evaluation of nuclear power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thinning and understory removal, which are commonly used in forest management, are expected to affect litter decomposition. However, little is known about how litter decomposition rates change in stands subject to both thinning and understory removal. This knowledge gap is urgent to be filled because the two practices are often applied simultaneously. In the present study, an experiment containing a complete factorial combination of thinning and understory removal was arranged in a Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) plantation. Litter decomposition rate was determined by using litter bags, and litter bags with different mesh sizes (0.1 mm and 2 mm) were used to identify the effect of soil mesofauna on decomposition. The temperature, moisture, and microbial abundance of surface soil were also measured. Results showed that thinning did not change litter decomposition rate, partly because of the unresponsive soil temperature, moisture, and abundance of microbial groups following thinning. Understory removal markedly restricted litter mass loss by more than 20%. Despite an obvious decrease in soil microbial abundance following understory removal, this should not account for why understory removal lowered litter decomposition rate, because this negative effect on litter mass loss disappeared when soil mesofauna was excluded. In addition, no interaction between thinning and understory removal was detected on litter decomposition. We emphasized that (1) Understory removal retard litter decomposition by suppressing the activity of soil mesofauna rather than by reducing microbial abundance; (2) Understory removal caused an equal reduction in litter mass loss regardless of thinning treatment. We believe that these results provide an important guidance for evaluating the effect of thinning and understory removal on some ecological processes associated with litter decomposition (i.e. soil formation and CO 2 emission from the soil to the atmosphere) in a fir plantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Podophyllotoxin is a compound with clinical effects, such as anticancer and antiacromegaly effects, but its systemic toxicity has led to extremely limited clinical application., Methods: Using the toxicological evidence chain (TEC) as a research method, our team constructed, for the first time, a rat model in which podophyllotoxin caused ovarian damage and investigated the mechanism of the toxic effects of podophyllotoxin on the ovaries., Results: The rats presented different degrees of diarrhoea, body surface bruising, and petechiae, and the serum biochemical results revealed significant changes in the activities of the oxidative stress indicators SOD and MDA and the levels of the inflammatory indicators TNF-α and IL-1β. The pathological results suggested that the rat ovaries were significantly damaged, and the histological results revealed Th17 cell differentiation, necroptosis, Hspa9 expression, and other pathways or targets related to inflammation, necroptosis/apoptosis or autophagy., Conclusion: Podophyllotoxin exerts toxic effects by altering autophagy through the AMPK/TSC1/mTOR/ULK1 signalling pathway. This study provides new insights into the mechanism of the toxic effects of podophyllotoxin and new ideas for the clinical application of podophyllotoxin., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Strong associations have been demonstrated between chronic musculoskeletal pain, pain-related fear-avoidance (FA) of activities of daily living, and functional disability. The Fear Avoidance Components Scale (FACS) is a patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure, which was designed to evaluate cognitive, emotional, and behavioural dimensions of FA. Objective: The study aims were to translate the English version of the FACS into Simplified Chinese and then to examine its psychometric properties. Methods: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the FACS from English to Chinese was performed with standard methodology. A group of 330 subjects with chronic musculoskeletal pain completed the FACS-Chi and additional FA-related PRO measures. The FACS-Chi was then completed a second time, 1 week later. Results: The FACS-Chi showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.920) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.918). A confirmatory factor analysis of the 2-factor model determined in the original English version of FACS revealed an acceptable fit. Strong correlations were found between FACS-Chi scores and other PRO measures of perceived level of disability, pain catastrophizing, and pain-related anxiety ( p < 0.001 for all analyses). Conclusions: The FACS-Chi demonstrated good psychometric properties, including excellent test-retest reliability and internal consistency and satisfactory construct validity. The FACS-Chi may be a useful measure of pain-related FA in Chinese-speaking patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhongyi Tu et al.)