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Cu is a well-known electrocatalyst for reducing CO2 to various products. However, unmodified Cu exhibits poor selectivity and activity for formate production. Our in situ Raman spectroscopy study d...

The local pH variation near the surface of CO2 reduction electrodes is important but hard to study. We develop a continuous-flow Raman electrochemical cell that enables the first experimental study of the local pH near a CO2 reduction gas diffusion electrode under reaction conditions. At zero current, CO2 chemically reacts with the 1 M KOH electrolyte at the interface to form HCO3- and CO32-. The local pH on the cathode surface is 7.2, and the HCO3- concentration profile extends a distance of 120 μm into the electrolyte, which verifies that the nominal overpotential reduction from using alkaline electrolyte originates from the Nernst potential of the pH gradient layer at the cathode/electrolyte interface. The CO2-OH- neutralization reaction and the pH gradient layer still persist, albeit to a reduced extent, at CO2 reduction current densities up to 150 mA/cm2.

Bismuth layer-structured BaBi2Nb2O9 (BBN) and BaBi2Ta2O9 (BBT) relaxor ferroelectric ceramics were explored as potential energy storage materials. Remarkable energy storage performances were obtained in both BBN and BBT ceramics, featured by large recoverable energy storage density (~0.84 J/cm3 and ~0.68 J/cm3) and high energy storage efficiency (~90% and ~94%), respectively. Furthermore, both the two ceramics exhibit good thermal and frequency stabilities. Delightedly, both the BBN and BBT ceramics can complete the discharge process within 0.15 μs, resulting in ultrahigh current density of 195 A/cm2 and 234 A/cm2 and excellent power density of 10.74 MW/cm3 and 12.89 MW/cm3, respectively. The obtained results suggest that BaBi2Nb2O9 and BaBi2Ta2O9 ceramics could have a promising future in energy storage applications. This study also demonstrates that the bismuth layer-structured relaxor ferroelectric ceramic can be considered as a novel potential lead-free energy storage materials, in addition to the widely studied pervoskite-structured relaxor ferroelectric ceramics.

The energetic chemical reaction between Zn(NO3 )2 and Li is used to create a solid-state interface between Li metal and Li6.4 La3 Zr1.4 Ta0.6 O12 (LLZTO) electrolyte. This interlayer, composed of Zn, ZnLix alloy, Li3 N, Li2 O, and other species, possesses strong affinities with both Li metal and LLZTO and affords highly efficient conductive pathways for Li+ transport through the interface. The unique structure and properties of the interlayer lead to Li metal anodes with longer cycle life, higher efficiency, and better safety compared to the current best Li metal electrodes operating in liquid electrolytes while retaining comparable capacity, rate, and overpotential. All-solid-state Li||Li cells can operate at very demanding current-capacity conditions of 4 mA cm-2 -8 mAh cm-2 . Thousands of hours of continuous cycling are achieved at Coulombic efficiency >99.5 % without dendrite formation or side reactions with the electrolyte.

BiFeO3–BaTiO3 (BF-BT)-based lead-free ferroelectric ceramic has attracted immense interest in energy storage applications due to its great spontaneous polarization (Pmax) strength. However, high remanent polarization (Pr) has become a serious obstruction for its practical application. In this work, Sm ions were doped into 0.67BiFeO3-0.33BaTiO3 (0.67Bi1-xSmxFeO3-0.33BaTiO3, BSxF-BT) to tailor the structure and energy storage properties. It was found that the doping of Sm ions effectively reduced Pr by enhancing the relaxor behavior of BF-BT ceramic, which produce an enhancement in the energy storage performance. Large recoverable energy storage density Wrec of 2.8 J/cm3 with moderate energy storage efficiency η of 55.8% (200 kV/cm) were achieved in the ceramics with x = 0.1. Moreover, the energy storage capabilities exhibited good stability at temperature (20–95 °C) and frequency (0.1–50 Hz). Furthermore, the ceramic also possessed a predominant discharge speed with a discharge time less than 0.1 μs in a circuit with a load of 200 Ω. These results showed that the Wrec and η of BF-BT ceramic could be availably promoted by the doping of Sm ions, which may be helpful for the enhancement of energy storage performance of BF-BT-based ceramics.

In June 2019, massive mortalities of cultured Penaeus vannamei occurred in a local farm in Hainan Province, China. The diseased shrimp displayed evident black gills. Three bacterial strains 20190611001, 20190611007 and 20190611022 were isolated from hepatopancreas and gills of the diseased shrimp and identified as Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae based on the sequence analysis of 16S rRNA and toxR genes. These three isolates showed haemolytic activities. Of them, strain 20190611022 isolated from hepatopancreas was selected and processed for pathogenic analysis. The calculated median lethal dose (LD50 ) was 9.75 ± 4.29 × 105 CFU/g (body weight) by challenging P. vannameivia reverse gavage. The diseased shrimp displayed enlarged hepatopancreatic tubules and sloughing of epithelial cells in tubular lumens. The strain 20190611022 was also characterized by the testing of API 20NE systems and antibiotic susceptibility. The results of disc diffusion test showed that strain 20190611022 was sensitive to chloramphenicol, compound sulfamethoxazole, cefoperazone, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime and cefuroxime. To our knowledge, this is the first report of isolation and characterization of Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae from natural diseased P. vannamei. Our findings can serve as a basis for further studies of its pathogenicity and provide technological support for disease controlling in shrimp aquaculture.

Developing electrolytes compatible with efficient and reversible cycling of electrodes is critical to the success of rechargeable Li metal batteries (LMBs). The Coulombic efficiencies and cycle lives of LMBs with ethylene carbonate (EC), dimethyl carbonate, ethylene sulfite (ES), and their combinations as electrolyte solvents show that in a binary-solvent electrolyte the extent of electrolyte decomposition on the electrode surface is dependent on the solvent component that dominates the solvation sheath of Li+ . This knowledge led to the development of an EC-ES electrolyte exhibiting high performance for Li||LiFePO4 batteries. Carbonate molecules occupy the solvation sheath and improve the Coulombic efficiencies of both the anode and cathode. Sulfite molecules lead to desirable morphology and composition of the solid electrolyte interphase and extend the cycle life of the Li metal anode. The cooperation between these components provides a new example of electrolyte optimization for improved LMBs.

A novel mass production method of lithium titanite (Li2TiO3) tritium breeder ceramic pebbles using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) assisted granulation method (APG) was proposed. A binder solution of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was used to modify the Li2TiO3 precursor powder. The powders with adhesive properties were prilled to form green pebbles (GPs) by spheronization at a low rotation speed and spraying with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), in several cycles. Then, the density and the crush load of the GPs were improved by high-speed rolling. Finally, the ceramic pebbles were produced by sintering. The phase, the microstructure, and the crush load of the ceramic pebbles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and with a universal tester, respectively.

Synthesis of fine Li2TiO3 powders via low-temperature solid-state reaction (LTSSR) was studied. Solid Li2CO3 and H2TiO3 were blended by planetary ball mill with deionized water as medium. Calcination of the milled powder at low temperature of 500 °C resulted in the formation of pure Li2TiO3 nanoparticles. Another Li2TiO3 powder was also prepared by the conventional solid-state reaction (SSR) and a good comparison between different routes was realized. The results show that the particle size of LTSSR powder is significantly decreased to 19.6 nm while the one obtained by SSR is 146.6 nm. Low temperature calcined powders have less agglomeration and higher sinterability, which can be sintered at lower temperature. Pebbles sintered from the LTSSR powders at 750 °C exhibit small grain size (650 nm), high relative density (85.1%) and satisfactory crush load (42.8 N), whereas the SSR pebbles can only be sintered above 950 °C with the relative density close to 80%. Besides, the LTSSR samples also have a higher conductivity at room temperature, indicating the lower tritium diffusion barrier in ceramics. It is confirmed that H2TiO3 rather than TiO2 is more appropriate for the solid-state reaction to produce Li2TiO3 powders with nano-size particles and favorable properties.

Polysaccharide has been considered as an important bioactive compound in Codonopsis lanceolata. High fat/high sucrose (HFHS) diet-induced insulin resistance is implicated in multiple metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), these metabolic diseases has become epidemic health issue worldwide. In this study, the effect of C. lanceolata polysaccharide (CLPS) on improving insulin sensitivity in chronic HFHS diet-fed mice was investigated. Our data indicates that CLPS significantly reduced fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting serum insulin (FINS) and insulin resistance index, in parallel with improved glucose and insulin tolerance impaired by HFHS diet. Impaired phosphorylation of PKB/Akt and hyperphosphorylation of IRS-1 at Ser307 were observed in the mice fed with HFHS diet, and those defects were also rescued by CLPS administration. In addition, CLPS caused a significant decrease in the level of malondialdehyde (MDA), and an increase in reduced glutathione (GSH)/oxidised glutathione (GSSG) ratio; concurrent with enhanced expression of antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), and activated Nrf2 signaling. In summary, these findings suggest that CLPS ameliorates HFHS diet-induced insulin resistance through activating anti-oxidative signaling pathway, providing new insights into the protective effects of C. lanceolata polysaccharide in metabolic disease.

Here, we report the quantitative electroreduction of CO2 to CO by a PNP-pincer iridium(i) complex bearing amino linkers in DMF/water. The electrocatalytic properties greatly depend on the choice of linker within the ligand. The complex 3-N is far superior to the analogues with methylene and oxygen linkers, showing higher activity and better selectivity for CO2 over proton reduction.

Background exergaming-based interventions (EbIs) have been proposed to improve older adults’ mobility and balance performance. However, the effectiveness of such interventions for older adults with Parkinson’s disease (OAPD) remains unclear. Methods seven databases (Web of Science, Medline, Academic Search Premier, CINAHL Complete, PsycINFO, PsychARTICLE and PubMed) were searched up to 7 April 2022. We assessed mobility and balance performance between EbIs groups and control groups or traditional physical training interventions (TPTIs) groups by comparing the outcomes of the Timed Up and Go (TUG), 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), gait velocity, stride length and Functional Gait Assessment (FGA). Results we scanned 1,190 articles and meta-analysed 19 trials (sample size = 781). In general, the results revealed statistical differences between EbIs groups and TPTIs groups in the TUG [mean difference (MD) = −1.030 s; 95% confidence interval (CI) = −2.029 to −0.031; P = 0.043; high quality of evidence], 6MWT (MD = 63.483 m; 95% CI = 9.542 to 117.425; P = 0.021; moderate quality of evidence), BBS (MD = 2.129; 95% CI = −1.293 to 2.965; P Conclusions EbIs are statistically better than TPTIs in improving OAPD’s performance in TUG, 6MWT, BBS and FGA, whereas only the change between EbIs and TPTIs in 6MWT can reach the value of minimal clinically important difference. Further studies are needed to better assess the effectiveness of exergaming-based interventions.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most prevalent and aggressive type of brain tumor in the central nervous system. Clinical outcomes for patients with GBM are unsatisfactory. Here, we aimed to identify novel, reliable prognostic factors for GBM. Cox and interactive analyses were used to identify hub genes from The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas datasets. After validation using various cohorts, survival analysis, meta-analysis, and prognostic analysis were performed. Coexpression and enrichment analyses were performed to elucidate the biological pathways of hub genes involved in GBM. ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT methods were applied to analyze the association of hub genes with the tumor microenvironment (TME). Paxillin (PXN) was identified as a hub gene with a high expression in GBM. PXN expression was negatively correlated with overall survival, progression-free survival, and disease-free survival in patients with GBM. Meta-analysis and Cox analysis revealed that PXN could act as an independent prognostic factor in GBM. In addition, PXN was significantly coexpressed with signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 and transforming growth factor β1 and participated in focal adhesion, extracellular matrix/receptor interactions, and the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT signaling pathway. The results of ESTIMATE and CIBERSORT analyses revealed that PXN was implicated in TME alterations, particularly the infiltration of regulatory T cells, activated memory T cells, and activated natural killer cells. PXN may be a reliable prognostic factor for GBM. Further studies are needed to validate these findings.

Background Clinical mobility and balance assessments identify older adults who have a high risk of falls in clinics. In the past two decades, sensors have been a popular supplement to mobility and balance assessment to provide quantitative information and a cost-effective solution in the community environment. Nonetheless, the current sensor-based balance assessment relies on manual observation or motion-specific features to identify motions of research interest. Objective The objective of this study was to develop an automatic motion data analytics framework using signal data collected from an inertial sensor for balance activity analysis in community-dwelling older adults. Methods In total, 59 community-dwelling older adults (19 males and 40 females; mean age = 81.86 years, SD 6.95 years) were recruited in this study. Data were collected using a body-worn inertial measurement unit (including an accelerometer and a gyroscope) at the L4 vertebra of each individual. After data preprocessing and motion detection via a convolutional long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network, a one-class support vector machine (SVM), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and k-nearest neighborhood (k-NN) were adopted to classify high-risk individuals. Results The framework developed in this study yielded mean accuracies of 87%, 86%, and 89% in detecting sit-to-stand, turning 360°, and stand-to-sit motions, respectively. The balance assessment classification showed accuracies of 90%, 92%, and 86% in classifying abnormal sit-to-stand, turning 360°, and stand-to-sit motions, respectively, using Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment-Balance (POMA-B) criteria by the one-class SVM and k-NN. Conclusions The sensor-based approach presented in this study provided a time-effective manner with less human efforts to identify and preprocess the inertial signal and thus enabled an efficient balance assessment tool for medical professionals. In the long run, the approach may offer a flexible solution to relieve the community’s burden of continuous health monitoring.

BACKGROUND Background: Although physical exercises can help older adults with Parkinson’s disease to retain their mobility function, older adults are less motivated to attend repeated and intensive physical training. Exergaming-based interventions have the potential to provide a more engaged and enjoyable therapy. However, few meta-analysis studies discussed the effectiveness of exergaming-based interventions on the mobility performance of older adults with Parkinson’s disease. OBJECTIVE Objective: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were conducted to examine the effectiveness of exergaming-based interventions on mobility performance in older adults with Parkinson’s disease. METHODS Methods: Seven databases (Web of Science, Medline, Academic Search Premier, CINAHL Complete, PsycINFO, PsychARTICLE, and PubMed) were searched to identify the RCTs which examined the effectiveness of exergaming on the mobility performance of older adults with Parkinson’s disease up to September 2021. Using meta-analysis, we assessed mobility performance between intervention groups and control groups by comparing basic mobility function with the Timed Up and Go (TUG), walking capability with 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), postural balance function with the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and gait ability with gait velocity, stride length, and the Functional Gait Assessment (FGA). RESULTS Results: After scanning 1110 articles, we identified and meta-analyzed 16 trials, including a total of 508 older adults with Parkinson’s disease. The results revealed statistical differences between intervention groups and control groups in the TUG (MD = -0.87; 95% CI = -1.60 to -0.15; P = .018), 6MWT (MD = 39.56; 95% CI = 1.21 to 77.91; P = 0.043), BBS (MD = 2.28; 95% CI = 1.42 to 3.14; P < .001), and FGA (MD = 1.40; 95% CI = -0.03 to 2.82; P = .054). The detectable clinically difference of the outcomes were discussed and the implications were provided. CONCLUSIONS Conclusions: Exergaming is superior to traditional training in improving PD older adults’ basic mobility skills, walking capability, and postural balance function, while it has an equal effect with traditional physical training in enhancing PD older adults’ gait ability.

Given the limited product variety of electrocatalytic CO

Background Barthel Index (BI) is one of the most widely utilized tools for assessing functional independence in activities of daily living. Most existing BI studies used populations with specific diseases (e.g., Alzheimer’s and stroke) to test prognostic factors of BI scores; however, the generalization of these findings was limited when the target populations varied. Objectives The aim of the present study was to utilize electronic health records (EHRs) and data mining techniques to develop a generic procedure for identifying prognostic factors that influence BI score changes among community-dwelling elderly. Methods Longitudinal data were collected from 113 older adults (81 females; mean age = 84 years, SD = 6.9 years) in Hong Kong elderly care centers. Visualization technologies were used to align annual BI scores with individual EHRs chronologically. Linear mixed-effects (LME) regression was conducted to model longitudinal BI scores based on socio-demographics, disease conditions, and features extracted from EHRs. Results The visualization presented a decline in BI scores changed by time and health history events. The LME model yielded a conditional R2 of 84%, a marginal R2 of 75%, and a Cohen’s f2 of 0.68 in the design of random intercepts for individual heterogeneity. Changes in BI scores were significantly influenced by a set of socio-demographics (i.e., sex, education, living arrangement, and hobbies), disease conditions (i.e., dementia and diabetes mellitus), and EHRs features (i.e., event counts in allergies, diagnoses, accidents, wounds, hospital admissions, injections, etc.). Conclusions The proposed visualization approach and the LME model estimation can help to trace older adults’ BI score changes and identify the influencing factors. The constructed long-term surveillance system provides reference data in clinical practice and help healthcare providers manage the time, cost, data and human resources in community-dwelling settings.

Falls have been recognized as the major cause of accidental death and injury in people aged 65 and above. The timely prediction of fall risks can help identify older adults prone to falls and implement preventive interventions. Recent advancements in wearable sensor-based technologies and big data analysis have spurred the development of accurate, affordable, and easy-to-use approaches to fall risk assessment. The objective of this study was to systematically assess the current state of wearable sensor-based technologies for fall risk assessment among community-dwelling older adults. Twenty-five of 614 identified research articles were included in this review. A comprehensive comparison was conducted to evaluate these approaches from several perspectives. In general, these approaches provide an accurate and effective surrogate for fall risk assessment. The accuracy of fall risk prediction can be influenced by various factors such as sensor location, sensor type, features utilized, and data processing and modeling techniques. Features constructed from the raw signals are essential for predictive model development. However, more investigations are needed to identify distinct, clinically interpretable features and develop a general framework for fall risk assessment based on the integration of sensor technologies and data modeling. Published version

ConspectusMolecular catalysts, often deployed in homogeneous conditions, are favorable systems for structure-reactivity correlation studies of electrochemical reactions because of their well-defined active site structures and ease of mechanistic investigation. In pursuit of selective and active electrocatalysts for the CO

Background: Lung cancer is a social problem of increasing concern, and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 80%–85% incidence of lung cancer. Cisplatin (DDP) is reported as a first-line ...

Deep convolutional networks have become a common tool for image generation and reconstruction. Unlike people who attribute their excellent performance to the prior information that they can learn from a large number of image samples, the author of Deep Image Prior (DIP) believes that the generator The network can capture a large number of low-level image statistical information before any learning, which means that this information may not be learned through a large number of data sets, and it verifies that the CNN network has a better capture of natural image distribution information. Ability to imitate. Inspired by the idea of DIP, can the deep convolutional network's ability to capture a large number of low-level image statistical information be used in image registration to capture the deformation field between the floating image and the target image to compensate for the traditional manual features and the common convolutional network features Limitations of information capture capabilities. Because the traditional optical flow registration method only relies on gray information and gradient-driven deformation registration, the registration result is not accurate enough. Therefore, we propose an optical flow medical image registration method based on the depth image prior. The generator network extracts feature information to generate the deformation field, and the discriminator of the GAN network is used to further accurately improve the deformation field to make it closer to the real deformation field. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm can effectively improve the registration accuracy, and its registration accuracy is better than Demons algorithm, medical image professional registration software Elastix and Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) Flow algorithm.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common mental illness characterized by persistent feeling of depressed mood and loss of interest. It would cause, in a severe case, suicide behaviors. In clinical settings, automatic MDD detection is mainly based on electroencephalogram (EEG) signals with supervised learning techniques. However, supervised-based MDD detection methods encounter two ineviTable bottlenecks: firstly, such methods rely heavily on an EEG training dataset with MDD labels annotated by a physical therapist, leading to subjectivity and high cost; secondly, most of EEG signals are unlabeled in a real scenario. In this paper, a novel semisupervised-based MDD detection method named MDD-TSVM is presented. Specifically, the MDD-TSVM utilizes the semisupervised method of transductive support vector machine (TSVM) as its backbone, further dividing the unlabeled penalty item of the TSVM objective function into two pseudo-labeled penalty items with or without MDD. By such improvement, the MDD-SVM can make full use of labeled and unlabeled datasets as well as alleviate the class imbalance problem. Experiment results showed that our proposed MDD-TSVM achieved F1 score of 0.85 ± 0.05 and accuracy of 0.89 ± 0.03 on identifying MDD patients, which is superior to the state-of-the-art methods.

Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction can in principle convert carbon emissions to fuels and value-added chemicals, such as hydrocarbons and alcohols, using renewable energy, but the efficiency of the process is limited by its sluggish kinetics1,2. Molecular catalysts have well defined active sites and accurately tailorable structures that allow mechanism-based performance optimization, and transition-metal complexes have been extensively explored in this regard. However, these catalysts generally lack the ability to promote CO2 reduction beyond the two-electron process to generate more valuable products1,3. Here we show that when immobilized on carbon nanotubes, cobalt phthalocyanine—used previously to reduce CO2 to primarily CO—catalyses the six-electron reduction of CO2 to methanol with appreciable activity and selectivity. We find that the conversion, which proceeds via a distinct domino process with CO as an intermediate, generates methanol with a Faradaic efficiency higher than 40 per cent and a partial current density greater than 10 milliamperes per square centimetre at −0.94 volts with respect to the reversible hydrogen electrode in a near-neutral electrolyte. The catalytic activity decreases over time owing to the detrimental reduction of the phthalocyanine ligand, which can be suppressed by appending electron-donating amino substituents to the phthalocyanine ring. The improved molecule-based electrocatalyst converts CO2 to methanol with considerable activity and selectivity and with stable performance over at least 12 hours. Individual cobalt phthalocyanine derivative molecules immobilized on carbon nanotubes effectively catalyse the electroreduction of CO2 to methanol via a domino process with high activity and selectivity and stable performance.

The past decade has seen the proliferation of health information portals; however, consumer acceptance of the portals has proven difficult and rate of use has been limited. This study developed a consumer acceptance model by integrating usability and social cognitive theories with the technology acceptance model to explain young Internet users’ acceptance of health information portals. Participants (n = 201) completed a self-report questionnaire measuring model constructs after attending a usability testing with a typical health information portal. Results showed that the hypothesized model accounted for 56 percent of the variance in behavioral intention to use the portal and explained consumer acceptance well. Both subjective usability and application-specific self-efficacy served as significant antecedents in the model, while application-specific self-efficacy also moderated the effect of subjective usability on perceived ease of use. The findings can help practitioners with the design and implementation of health information portals and other health informatics applications in support of consumer acceptance.

A comparative study between the microwave and conventional sintering of Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 biphasic ceramic pebbles was systematically performed. Comparing to samples sintered by conventional method, the microwave sintered samples exhibited homogeneous microstructure with uniform grain size distribution. In addition, the microwave sintered samples showed higher relative density (86.0% T.D.) and crush load (22.7 N). The results indicated that the microwave sintering process is a prospective method for fabricating Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 biphasic ceramic pebbles with excellent mechanical performance as tritium breeder materials.

Lithium metatitanate (Li2TiO3) ceramic pebbles were fabricated from the powder synthesised via low-temperature solid-state precursor method. Solid H2TiO3 and LiOH·H2O react chemically during ball milling process to form a nano-sized precursor powder. Pure β-Li2TiO3 powder can be obtained by calcining the precursor powder at 500 °C, which is half the temperature of conventional solid-state method. The synthesis process is simple and low-cost, which would be more available to achieve batch production among all feasible techniques. The low-temperature calcination will effectively avoid hard particle aggregates and poor sinterability caused by high-temperature heat treatment, which is conducive to prepare ceramics with good properties. The results show that the powder exhibits high sinterability with small particle size of 19 nm. The Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles sintered at 800 °C have small grain size (470 nm), high relative density (83%) and good crush load (45 N), which has great potential as tritium breeding materials for fusion reactors.

Carbon-based CsPbI3 perovskite solar cells (CsPbI3 C-PSCs) without hole-transporting materials have been attracting much attention because of their high stability. However, the electron transport l...

Background MicroRNAs have been reported to participate in the initiation and progression of retinoblastoma (RB), most common malignancy in children. The refractory mechanisms of chemoresistance and the toxicity of chemotherapies hindered the treatment especially on young children. Novel RB therapies are urgently required. MiR-506 is probed to be associated with the tumorigenesis of various cancers whilst the role of this miR in RB remains unclear. Methods Here, the impact of miR-506 on RB cell survival in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo was examined. MiR-506 expression was examined in human RB samples and cell lines as compared with healthy tissues and non-RB cells. EdU staining and colony formation assay were performed to determine the effect of miR-506 on RB cell growth. TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining and flow cytometry analysis were applied to detect the apoptotic cell number after miR-506 was downregulated in RB cells. Furthermore, dual-luciferase reporter assay was utilized to confirm the direct interaction between miR-506 and SIRT1 gene. Results MiR-506 expression was upregulated in 20 human RB samples from patients as well as in human RB cell lines, WERI-Rb1 and Y79, as compared to that in healthy tissues and non-RB cells. In contrast, the expression of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), known as NAD-dependent deacetylase, was downregulated in RB samples and cell lines. Aberrant reduced miR-506 expression impaired survival and proliferation of WERI-Rb1 and Y79 cells. The depletion of miR-506 expression promoted apoptosis of the two RB cell lines. The results of bioinformatics analysis and dual-luciferase assay exhibited that miR-506 targeted the 3'-untranslated region of SIRT1 on silencing purpose. The SIRT1 silencing lessened the miR-506 inhibition on RB cell proliferation and undermined apoptosis. Conclusion The results provided an insight into the role of miR-506 during RB development and offered potential pharmaceutical strategy for RB diagnosis.

Water splitting is an efficient strategy to produce purity hydrogen and convert intermittent electricity from renewable wind and solar sources. In this work, dense NiMoO4 micro-pillars arrays (MPAs) were in-situ grown on nickel foam (NF) through facile hydrothermal method, then the NiMoO4/NF were converted into NiMoO4–P/NF and NiFe/NiMoO4/NF via phosphating and electrodeposition method, respectively. The NiMoO4–P/NF electrode required small overpotentials of 34 mV@10 mA cm−2 and 130 mV@100 mA cm−2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The NiFe/NiMoO4/NF electrode exhibited excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity with overpotentials of 210 mV@10 mA cm−2 and 300 mV@100 mA cm−2. The overall water splitting using the anode-cathode couple of NiFe/NiMoO4/NF||NiMoO4–P/NF only consumes low voltages of 1.47 V@10 mA cm−2 for 100 h and 1.66 V@100 mA cm−2 for 50 h in 1 M KOH. The electronic modification and the well-designed hierarchical structure contribute the high energy-efficient and stabile overall water splitting.

The interphase layer between Li metal electrode and electrolyte is vital to the performance of Li metal batteries but is not adequately understood. To solve the efficiency and cyclability problems ...

The fast multi-pole indirect boundary element method (FM-IBEM) is proposed to efficiently solve the high-frequency and large-scale two-dimensional (2-D) elastic wave scattering in a fluid-saturated poroelastic heterogeneous medium. The diffracted wave fields are constructed by applying virtual distributed loads and fluid sources on the boundaries according to the single-layer potential theory, and the multi-pole moment and local expansion coefficients of 2-D Green's function are deduced based on Graf addition theorem. Numerical results illustrated that the proposed method can essentially reduce the calculation CPU time and the memory requirement. The 2-D scattering of elastic waves by a canyon and a group of cracks in a fluid-saturated poroelastic half-space is further investigated. It shows that the scattering characteristics are closely related to the incident frequency, porosity of the medium and special topography. There is a significant ground motion amplification effect around the canyon, while a group of cracks produce an isolation effect on the half-space surface motion.

An advanced core-shell ceramic pebble with Li4TiO4 pure phase core and Li2TiO3 nanostructured shell was prepared by a physical coating method. The phase compositions, morphology and microstructure of Li4TiO4–Li2TiO3 core-shell ceramic pebbles were investigated. We discovered that using chitosan solution to assist rolling coating helps to improve the coating uniformity of core-shell green pebbles. In addition, the results show that the obtained Li4TiO4–Li2TiO3 core-shell ceramic pebbles have a diameter of ∼1.1 mm, the shell thickness of ∼13 μm and density of 2.31 ± 0.03 g/cm3. It is also noted that the Li2TiO3 shell still maintains the nanostructure (∼80 nm) after sintering. This study provides a feasible method for preparing Li4TiO4–Li2TiO3 core-shell ceramic pebbles which have a great potential application for the test blanket module (TBM) of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

In this study, Li 2 O porous ceramic pebbles were synthesized by decomposing the xLi 2 CO 3 -yLiNO 3 precursor pebbles at low temperature. This efficient decomposition reaction was mainly attributed to the two-stage support decomposition of Li 2 CO 3 and LiNO 3 . The results indicated that the molar ratio of Li 2 CO 3 and LiNO 3 will directly affect the phase composition, pore structure and crush load of sintered pebbles. The high-purity Li 2 O ceramic pebbles sintered from Li 2 CO 3 –LiNO 3 precursor pebbles at 730 °C exhibits the open porosity of 24.8 ± 0.7%. The crush load of the ceramic reaches 21.18 ± 1.38 N although the structure was porous. The Li 2 O porous ceramics fabricated in this study will have potential application in tritium breeder materials.

Effects of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) on the formation of Li2TiO3 nanocrystals during ethanol-water solvothermal reactions were investigated. Addition of CTAB changed Li2TiO3 crystalline morphology from large to small aggregate particles due to the steric repulsion and electrostatic interaction of the CTAB ligands. Aggregate particle size of the Li2TiO3 precursor was reduced from 455.2 to 138.7 nm by preventing their agglomeration after CTAB addition. This was followed by sintering the green body prepared with the CTAB-modified precursor powders using an indirect wet method, then the nanostructured Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles were obtained at relatively low temperatures from 750 to 800 °C for 4 h. Nanostructured Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles had small grains and a large number of grain boundaries, which might potentially improve the radiation tolerance, tritium release rate, and mechanical properties of Li2TiO3 tritium breeder pebbles. In addition, grain growth mechanisms as function of different sintering temperatures, crush load as well as relative density of fabricated nanostructured Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles were also investigated.

In order to improve the shear behavior of hollow concrete block masonry, precast concrete anti-shear blocks were proposed to enhance the shear strength of hollow concrete block masonry. Four groups of hollow concrete block masonry triplets with precast concrete anti-shear blocks were tested under shear loading, and their behaviors were compared with a control group. The results show that as the height of precast concrete anti-shear blocks increases, the shear strength of the masonry increases. The maximum shear strength of masonry triplets with precast concrete anti-shear blocks was 234.48 percent higher than that of the control specimens. The shear strength of masonry triplets was mainly determined by the failure of hollow concrete block unit. The majority of specimens exhibited double shear failures; however, these failures showed characteristics of ductile failure to a certain extent. Based on the experimental results, a equation for calculating the shear strength of masonry with precast concrete anti-shear blocks was proposed.

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONSWe developed a model for predicting maximum hand grip strength. This model was derived from data on the maximum hand grip strength of a sample of Chinese adults in a standi...

In this paper, a method combining hydrolysis of tetrabutyl orthotitanate (TBOT) and solvothermal reaction was first used to fabricate nanostructured Li2TiO3 tritium breeder ceramic pebbles. Initially, superfine nanostructured Li2TiO3 powders were synthesized with average particle size of about 10 nm, according to TEM. The surface area of precursor particles synthesized via this method was found to be 115.85 m2/g by BET analysis, which is much larger than that of the product obtained using traditional methods. The results showed that precursor particles had high sintering activity. XRD pattern revealed that the phase transition temperature for monoclinic phase Li2TiO3 prepared by this method was nearly 450 °C, which was the lowest phase transition temperature reported among all wet chemical methods to date. Subsequently, investigation of ceramic sintering demonstrated that Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles with desired nano-crystalline sizes (27.98 ~ 55.03 nm) were obtained by sintering at 500 ~ 600 °C for 4 h. The possible mechanisms were proposed based on the reaction processes of TBOT hydrolysis, solvothermal reaction and sintering.

Li4SiO4 has been regarded as the vigorous competitors for tritium breeding materials due to its distinct advantages. In this work, Fine-grained Li4SiO4 pebbles were prepared by a combined sol–gel and hydrothermal method (SG–H method). According to our researches, hydrothermal treatment was helpful to gain the ultrafine powders, and two-step sintering process showed obvious advantages in the preparation of fine-grained Li4SiO4 pebbles. The related physical parameters of the samples were measured. Afterwards, thermal cycling tests were carried out to study the microstructure evolution and the variation of crushing load. SEM analyses and compression tests results indicated the Li4SiO4 pebbles obtained by SG–H method exhibited favorable stability under thermal cycling. It suggested that the obtained Li4SiO4 pebbles might meet the requirement of high service temperature in fusion reactor blanket.

Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) is a bacterial disease of marine shrimp that has caused severe economic losses to aquaculture producers in affected areas. AHPND was originally found to be caused by virulent strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VpAHPND). These pathogenic strains carry pirABvp genes, which produce a binary toxin and are located on pVA1-type plasmid. Subsequently, it was found that AHPND can also be caused by pathogenic strains of other Vibrio species including: V. harveyi-like, V. campbellii, V. punensis, and V. owensii, all of which harbor a pVA1-type plasmid. Here we hypothesize that the pVA1-type plasmid can be transferred horizontally among Vibrio species. We carried out laboratory studies confirming the horizontal transfer of pVA1-type plasmid from AHPND-causing V. campbellii strain 20130629003S01 (VcAHPND-3S01) to a non-AHPND V. owensii strain 20160513VC2W (Vo-VC2W). ANI analysis revealed that strain Vo-VC2W is closely related to the V. owensii strain XSBZ03 isolated from corals in the South China Sea. However, the pirABvp genes on the transferred plasmid were unstable and lost from the pVA1-type plasmid of Vo-VC2W after 2 sub-culture passages. The sequences of the pVA1-type plasmid in AHPND-Vc3S01 and ΔpirABvpVo-VC2W were highly homologous (99.9% identical), indicating that this plasmid acquired by the V. owensii was from the AHPND-V. campbellii strain. In addition, complete genome sequence of the ΔpirABvpVo-VC2W showed that it contains 2 chromosomes and 3 plasmids; its detailed genomic characteristics will provide relevant information for better understanding of a V. owensii isolate that harbors transferred pVA1-type plasmid.

Studying the restructuring behavior of doped catalyst materials under electrochemical reaction conditions is important for understanding the structure–property relationships and for developing design principles for better catalysts. As a well-known catalyst for both the cathode (H2 evolution reaction, HER) and anode (O2 evolution reaction, OER) reactions of water electrolysis, CoP can be made even more active by cationic or anionic substitution. However, the dependence of catalytic reactivity on substitutional doping has not been sufficiently understood in the context of restructuring under working conditions. In this work, cation (Fe)- and anion (S)-substituted CoP nanoparticles are synthesized, and their surface oxidation under ambient conditions and restructuring under HER and OER conditions are investigated. For Fe0.5Co0.5P, the Fe substituents are more easily oxidized than Co in the air; they are also more difficult to reduce under HER conditions in alkaline electrolyte, and the remaining Fe–OH speci...

Rechargeable zinc air batteries (ZABs) have gained considerable attention as a promising energy technique recently owing to their high theoretical energy and power density, safety and economic viability; however, the state-of-art ZABs have been plagued by two major drawbacks, unsatisfying achievable power density and low voltage efficiency. Our superwetting electrodes are hereby designed to circumvent these issues through controlling the O2 bubbles adsorption/evolution behavior at electrode surface while maintaining the outstanding electrocatalysis performance. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time the application of superwetting catalytic electrodes in the tri-electrode rechargeable ZABs. Two different functional electrodes, namely superaerophilic cobalt-incorporated nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes hybrid catalyst and superaerophobic NiFe-layered double hydroxide arrays, serve as exceptional catalysts for discharging and charging process respectively, thus achieving superior battery performance. The low-cost superwetting cathode pairs even exhibit a much better catalytic activity and durability than the combination of precious Pt/C and Ir/C catalysts. The as-assembled ZABs deliver a greatly improved peak power current of 245 mW cm−2 at 396 mA cm−2 over that of the ZABs composed of precious metal electrodes (186 mW cm−2), together with small polarization, high reversibility, and stability over long cycles. The design of superwetting electrode marks a general and effective strategy to achieve high-performance rechargeable ZABs.

The tritium release behavior of the Li4SiO4 pebbles and Li4SiO4 + 5 mol% TiO2 pebbles with small grain sizes was investigated. The tritium release results of Li4SiO4 pebbles with different grain sizes (0.3 μm and 1.5 μm) indicated that the grain size had little effect on the tritium release regardless of the difference in gas composition of purge gas. Moreover, the tritium release of small grained pebbles was dominated by the desorption process, since the addition of H2 to purge gas substantially affected the release behavior. The modified Li4SiO4 pebbles with addition of TiO2 exhibited enhanced water formation capacity due to the increased concentration of active point as the oxygen supplier. Obvious tritiated water release peaks around 690 °C could be observed from the Li4SiO4 + 5 mol% TiO2 pebbles under 0.1%H2+He purge gas. The modified Li4SiO4 pebbles also showed improved tritium release behavior, the tritium release peaks shifted to lower temperatures compared to Li4SiO4 pebbles.