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International audience; A nonhomogeneous hidden Markov model (NHMM) is used to stochastically simulate summer (June–August) daily precipitations in the middle and low reaches of the Yangtze River in Eastern China, with driving forcing from three global climate models (GCMs). Simulations cover the historical period from 1961 to 2005 and from 2006 to 2100 following the RCP4.5 scenario. The model is first evaluated against data from the regional observation network. The results show that NHMM effectively enhances the ability of GCMs in simulating summer daily rainfall in the region. For future projection at different time horizons of the 21st century, the spectral distribution of regional precipitations (in function of their intensity) shows consistent changes with a decrease of occurrence probability for light rain (10 mm/day). Among variables of interest, total precipitation (PRCPTOT), precipitation intensity, the number of rainy days for daily precipitation exceeding 10 mm (R10mm) and 95th percentile of precipitation (P95), all show a gradually increasing trend in the 21st century, and geographically an eastward gradient with smaller increase (or even weak decrease) for the west and larger increase for the east. It is noted that obvious changes occur in the eastern region with 95% significance level, and PRCPTOT or R10mm increases by 40–60% in the late 21st century. Further quantitative assessment is performed for global warming of 1.5 and 2°C. The half‐degree additional warming makes R10mm change by −3.7, 2.4 and 12.1% over western, central and eastern regions, respectively.

Telomere length (TL) is an index of cellular aging and can predict the incidences of many age-related diseases. Change of TL might be affected by environmental pollution and individual's genetic background. In this cohort study, we aimed to evaluate the associations between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposure and longitudinal TL shortening, and investigate whether genetic variations in TERT-CLPTM1L can modify these associations. We measured the baseline concentrations of twelve urinary PAH metabolites and genotyped six variants at TERT-CLPTM1L among 1243 coke-oven workers. The relative leukocyte TL was detected in both baseline and follow-up (4 years later) visits. The TL shortening were estimated by TL decline and TL ratio. We found that the urinary level of 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP) had significant dose-response relationships with increased TL decline [β(95%CI) = 0.078(0.023, 0.133), P = 0.005] and TL ratio [β(95%CI) = 0.096(0.037, 0.155), P = 0.002]. Besides, urinary 1-hydroxynaphthalene (1-OHNa) was marginally dose-related with elevated TL decline [β(95%CI) = 0.053(-0.001, 0.107), P = 0.055] and TL ratio [β(95%CI) = 0.057(-0.002, 0.116), P = 0.058]. Analyses of TERT-CLPTM1L variants showed that the rs401681 and rs465498 could modify the effect of 1-OHP on increasing TL decline (Pinteraction = 0.012 and 0.035, respectively) and TL ratio (Pinteraction = 0.014 and 0.067, respectively), which were pronounced among rs401681TT and rs465498CC carriers, but not seen among rs401681TC + CC and rs465498CT + TT carriers. In conclusion, elevated exposure to PAHs can accelerate the TL shortening and this effect can be modified by TERT-CLPTM1L variants. These results may add potential evidence for gene-environment interactions on dynamic changes of telomere length. Further studies are warranted to validate these findings and uncover the underlying mechanisms.

Polyoxometalates have been proved to be the significant electronic transfer medium to improve the power conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells based on our previous works. However, the morphology of polyoxometalates dramatically affects the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. In this work, we develop a strategy of utilizing hollow polyoxometalate nanocrystals to improve the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. The hollow polyoxometalate nanocrystals and rhombic dodecahedral polyoxometalate nanocrystals are synthesized and then composited with TiO2 to obtain two kinds of high dispersed polyoxometalate nanocrystals composites. The images of transmission electron microscopy and element mappings confirm that hollow polyoxometalate nanocrystals and rhombic dodecahedral polyoxometalate nanocrystals are uniformly distributed in TiO2 composites. The improved morphology with well-defined structures may provide more active sites for polyoxometalates to achieve faster charge separations and less charge recombinations in dye-sensitized solar cells. In addition, the films with hollow polyoxometalate nanocrystals have better dye loading than those with pristine TiO2. Finally, the dye-sensitized solar cells based hollow polyoxometalate nanocrystals and rhombic dodecahedral polyoxometalate nanocrystals exhibit the efficiency of 8.06% and 7.28%, respectively, which are 34% and 21% higher than those based pristine TiO2 (6.00%).

Background No previous study has investigated the association between oolong tea consumption and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), we aim to elucidate the association between oolong tea consumption and ESCC and its joint effects with a novel composite index. Methods In a hospital-based case-control study, 646 cases of ESCC patients and 646 sex and age matched controls were recruited. A composite index was calculated to evaluate the role of demographic characteristics and life exposure factors in ESCC. Unconditional logistic regression was used to calculate the point estimates between oolong tea consumption and risk of ESCC. Results No statistically significant association was found between oolong tea consumption and ESCC (OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 0.94–2.05). However, drinking hot oolong tea associated with increased risk of ESCC (OR = 1.60, 95% Cl: 1.06–2.41). Furthermore, drinking hot oolong tea increased ESCC risk in the high-risk group (composite index> 0.55) (OR = 3.14, 95% CI: 1.93–5.11), but not in the low-risk group (composite index≤0.55) (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 0.74–1.83). Drinking warm oolong tea did not influence the risk of ESCC. Conclusions No association between oolong tea consumption and risk of ESCC were found, however, drinking hot oolong tea significantly increased the risk of ESCC, especially in high-risk populations.

To investigate the structural characteristics and mechanical properties of minerals in vanadium-titanium sinter, the 3D microstructures of the sinter were reconstructed by serial sectioning in conjunction with computer-aided 3D reconstruction techniques The results show that hematite and magnetite in vanadium-titanium sinter will grow along the longitudinal axis direction and act as a scaffold. The size of magnetite crystals in vanadium-titanium sinter is much smaller than that in traditional sinter. The calcium ferrite in vanadium-titanium sinter is columnar-like, while that in traditional sinter is needle-like. The decreasing order of the microhardness value of minerals in the two sinters is hematite, calcium ferrite, magnetite and silicate, while the fracture toughness value from highest to lowest is calcium ferrite, hematite, magnetite and silicate. The comprehensive hardness value and comprehensive fracture toughness value of vanadium-titanium sinter are both less than these of traditional sinter.

Nowadays, the rapid consumption of fossil energy has led to global energy shortage. At present, more than 80% of the energy consumed globally is derived from non-renewable fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. The burning of fossil fuels will also bring about a series of problems such as the greenhouse effect, the falling quality of global air, the formation of acid rain and the pollution of water bodies. Therefore, whether new energy sources that can replace fossil energy can be found has become an increasingly popular concern problem. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a new type of renewable energy source have attracted wide attention in recent years, because of their simple fabrication process, low production costs, relatively high photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE), and being environmentally safe. But the recombinations of photogenerated electrons holes are seriously affected the photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSSCs. Polyoxometalates (POMs) are a class of metal oxide clusters with the highest oxidation state of tungsten, molybdenum or vanadium. Due to their structural diversity and unique physicochemical properties, they have been applied in catalysis, photochemistry, biology and medicine. However, due to POMs have excellent photoelectrochemical properties, which can be used as an excellent electronic extractant in the photoanode of DSSCs. Here, the sandwich-type polyoxometalates compound K15{K3[(A-α-PW9O34)2Fe2(C2O4)2]}·29H2O with the intramolecular electron transfer properties is composited with TiO2 by sol-gel method to prepare a POM@TiO2 composite photoanode. The energy band structure of the polyoxometalate is studied by optical and electrochemical measurements. The result shows that the LUMO energy level (-0.06 V) of the sandwich-type polyoxometalates is lower than that of TiO2 and the optical band gap is 2.28 eV. The performance test shows that the DSSC efficiency of POM@TiO2 composite photoanode production reached 6.33%, which is 15% higher than that of battery whose anode is pure TiO2 (5.52%). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), dark current tests and voltage decay curve tests demonstrate that sandwich-type POMs effectively suppress electron-hole recombinations and increase electron lifetime. The incident monochromatic photon-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) test further demonstrates that the introduction of the POMs increases the monochromatic conversion efficiency (from 35% to 53%).

For stable and flexible manipulation, realizing parallel grasping and large output stroke simultaneously has become a key issue in the researches on micro-grasping system. The typical solution is to use compliant orthogonal displacement amplification mechanism (such as bridge-type mechanism), in which the flexure hinges are generally axial load-dominated, whereas the deflection of traditional straight-axis flexure hinges is not related to the axial load under small deflection assumption. In this study, a bridge-type mechanism with circular-axis leaf-type (CALT) flexure hinges is designed, analyzed and validated. Through modeling the generalized displacements of CALT flexure hinge, the positive direction of its axis in the bridge-type mechanism is designed. The precise models of load relations for the CALT flexure hinges in the bridge-type DAM are established, and the multi-objective parametric optimization is further given. Small deflection-based static FEA results verify the generalized displacements’ models of CALT flexure hinge as well as the parametric optimization result. Compared with the corresponding bridge-type mechanism with the largest output displacement in the traditional researches, the output displacement of optimal result is improved effectively. For the design validation, the optimal design result is further applied to construct a piezoelectric-driven microgripper, which grasps parallelly and enlarges the output stroke simultaneously.

This paper presents a dynamic local athermalisation method for longwave infrared (LWIR) optical systems; the proposed design uses a deformable mirror and is based on active optics theory. A local athermal LWIR optical system is designed as an example. The deformable mirror is tilted by 45° near the exit pupil of the system. The thermal aberrations are corrected by the deformable mirror for the local athermal field of view (FOV) that ranges from −40 °C to 80 °C. The types of thermal aberrations are analysed. Simulated results show that the local athermal LWIR optical system can effectively detect targets in the region of interest within a large FOV and correct thermal aberrations in actual working environments in real time. The system has numerous potential applications in infrared detection and tracking, surveillance and remote sensing.

The homogeneous hidden Markov model (HMM), a statistical pattern recognition method, is introduced in this paper. Based on the HMM, a 53-yr record of daily precipitation during the flood season (April–September) at 389 stations in East China during 1961–2013 is classified into six patterns: the South China (SC) pattern, the southern Yangtze River (SY) pattern, the Yangtze–Huai River (YH) pattern, the North China (NC) pattern, the overall wetter (OW) pattern, and the overall drier (OD) pattern. Features of the transition probability matrix of the first four patterns reveal that 1) the NC pattern is the most persistent, followed by the YH, and the SY is the least one; and 2) there exists a SY–SC–SY–YH–NC propagation process for the rain belt over East China during the flood season. The intraseasonal variability in the occurrence frequency of each pattern determines its start and end time. Furthermore, analysis of interdecadal variability in the occurrence frequency of each pattern in recent six decades has identified three obvious interdecadal variations for the SC, YH, and NC patterns in the mid–late 1970s, the early 1990s, and the late 1990s. After 2000, the patterns concentrated in the southern region play a dominant role, and thus there maintains a “flooding in the south and drought in the north” rainfall distribution in eastern China. In summary, the HMM provides a unique approach for us to obtain both spatial distribution and temporal variation features of flood-season rainfall.

Vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of three tandem cylinders are numerically studied using the immersed boundary method. Cylinders are free to vibrate in the cross-flow direction. The Reynolds number is Re = 100 and the reduced velocity is U r = 3 ∼ 80 . Six spacing ratios are selected in the range L ∕ D = 1 . 2 ∼ 5 . 0 . The mass ratio is m ∗ = 2 . 0 , while the damping ratio is set as zero for achieving large vibration amplitudes. The characteristics of the vibration amplitude, drag and lift forces, lift frequency, phase difference between displacement and lift, and the wake patterns are discussed. It is found that, in the case with small L ∕ D , large-amplitude vibrations of the cylinders are excited due to strong wake-cylinder interference. However, in the cases with large L ∕ D , the vibration responses of the upstream cylinder resemble those of an isolated cylinder indicating vanishing interference from the downstream cylinders. While, the two downstream cylinders attain large vibration amplitudes even at high reduced velocities. A wake pattern, T+S, i.e. the cylinders alternately shed triple vortices and a single vortex in a vibration cycle, is observed. This wake pattern is caused by the asymmetric vibration of the cylinders and transverse dislocation of the equilibrium positions. With increasing L ∕ D , two different vibration patterns are observed: wake-induced galloping (WG) for the small- L ∕ D case ( L ∕ D = 1 . 2 ) and vortex-induced vibration (VIV) for the moderate- to large- L ∕ D cases ( L ∕ D = 1 . 5 ∼ 5 . 0 ). The major characteristic feature of WG, distinct to VIV, are the divergent vibrations of the cylinders with the increasing reduced velocity. The mechanism of WG is elucidated by analyzing the complex but stable interactions between vortices and cylinders. Three pivotal factors are identified: the ‘perfect’ timing between vortex-shedding and cylinder motion, the transverse dislocation of the equilibrium positions, and the low and decreasing vibration frequency.

Molybdenum carbide/molybdenum nitride hybrid N-doped graphene (abbreviated as Mo2C/MoN/NG), as an efficient electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), was synthesized via simple ion-exchange resin synthesis followed by a two-step annealing process, which increased the dispersion degree of the electrocatalyst’s active sites on the support skeleton and simplified the synthetic conditions. Additionally, N-doped graphene (NG) enhanced the electron transfer and reduced the inner resistance. The material has a graphene-like morphology and highly dispersed Mo2C/MoN nanoparticles about 2 nm in diameter on the NG. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed that Mo2C/MoN/NG consisted of Mo2C and MoN composited together. Finally, Mo2C/MoN/NG exhibited remarkable performance as an electrocatalyst for the HER with a small overpotential of 78.82 mV and a small Tafel slope of 39.3 mV·dec−1 in a 0.5 mol·L−1 H2SO4 solution. Its activity was approximately 30% lower than that of 20% Pt/C and 60% higher than that of NG. Also, it exhibited a low onset overpotential of 24.82 mV, which is similar to the theoretical HER potential. Our work provides a foundation for advanced HER applications of molybdenum compounds.

In this work, the nanomaterial Co3O4-WC-CN/rGO (CN is nitrogen-doped carbon; rGO is reduced graphene oxide), as an efficient alternative to platinum for the counter electrode (CE), has been prepared by the high temperature calcination of the Na6H2W12O40·H2O (H2W12) embedded metal-organic framework in argon gas and air atmosphere. It shows high catalytic activity as the CE in the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which is due to the excellent catalytic activity of Co3O4-WC and high conductivity of rGO. The photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of DSSC with Co3O4-WC-CN/rGO as the CE is 7.38%, which is superior to that of Pt as the CE (η = 6.85%).

In this work, 60 mm thick Ti-6Al-4V plates were joined by narrow-gap multi-pass gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) technology to investigate microstructure and deformation resistance of joints. Depending on cooling condition, mixed weld microstructure consists of stable α phase, martensite α′ phase and few retained β phase. Hardness of joined parts is higher than base metal (BM) mainly contributed by martensite strengthening. A simplified model was established to reveal microstructure evolution during welding thermal cycle. It can also demonstrate that different thermal action effect is responsible for distinct microstructure forms especially martensite α′, which varies hardness in different regions of joints.

In a piezoelectric-driven microgripper, obtaining parallel grasping and enlarging grasping stroke are important. This paper presents the nonlinear analysis and optimal design of a novel orthogonal displacement amplification mechanism (DAM)-based piezoelectric-driven microgripper without using traditional bridge-type mechanism or multi-stages DAM, which realizes parallel grasping and displacement amplification simultaneously in compact configuration and benefits further miniaturization. The structural design of proposed microgripper is given, in which a novel orthogonal DAM is used as the intermediate mechanism. The geometrical nonlinearity analysis of novel orthogonal DAM is conducted, including the finite difference-based analysis, the variance-based global sensitivity analysis and the correlation analysis. Based on the nonlinear analysis results, a static constraint restricting the large deflection geometrical nonlinearity degree is established. An optimal design framework of the proposed microgripper is further formulated, which maximizes the grasping movements with considering the property of piezoelectric stack actuator, the nonlinear geometric constraints, the established static constraints as well as the dynamic constraint. A design example verifies the optimal design framework, which can reduce the negative effect of large deflection nonlinearity on the orthogonal movement transformation without requiring specific experience. Experimental tests are used to verify the parallel grasping and the displacement amplification of microgripper.

Fluid–structure interactions of non-circular prisms are of significance from a scientific and practical viewpoint. In this paper, we present a new experimental observation of flow-induced vibrations and associated spectral characteristics of a transversely oscillating D-section prism at an angle of attack α varying from 0° to 180°, where α = 0° and 180° represent the configuration with the upstream curved and flat part, respectively. The Reynolds number range is 530–9620, and the reduced velocity range is 1–32, based on the projected prism width in the crossflow direction. The mass ratio of the prism is 11.35, and the structural damping ratio in still water is 0.0036. Based on the response amplitudes and spectral traits, the D-prism exhibits the typical vortex-induced vibration (VIV) at α = 0°–30°, the first transition response at α = 45°–60°, the small-amplitude VIV response at α = 105°–135°, the second transition response at α = 150°–165°, the combined VIV-galloping response at α = 90°, and the pure galloping at α = 75° and 180°. The second transition response between low- and high-amplitude branches is found to be hysteretic and intermittent. Flow physics behind the D-prism responses are further elucidated by the wake patterns based on a high-speed camera and the flow velocity spectra downstream of the prism.

Facing the exponential growth of data digital communications and the advent of artificial intelligence, there is an urgent need for information technologies with huge storage capacity and efficient computing processing. However, the traditional von Neumann architecture and silicon-based storage and computing technology will reach their limits and cannot meet the storage requirements of ultrasmall size, ultrahigh density, and memory computing. Considering these issues, organic material resistance switching memory and memristor devices have become promising candidates for high-density storage, logic computing, and neuromorphic computing because of their advantages of fast speed, high energy efficiency, nonvolatile storage, and low cost. In this article, the working mechanism, material design strategy, and device performance of organic memory and memristors are reviewed.

Tungsten carbides materials exhibit highly efficient activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) as promising non-precious electrocatalysts. Herein, a N-doped graphene (NG) supported tungsten carbides composite material (WxC/NG-10, x = 1, 2, x is stoichiometric number of W, 10 is the mole quantity of tungsten in the precursors, mmol) was directly synthesized with a simple method by two-step calcining the mixture of sodium tungstate dihydrate (Na2WO4·2H2O), dicyandiamide (DCDA) and glucose anhydrous (GA), which was characterized by HRTEM, FE-SEM, XRD, XPS, EDX, BET and Raman, and estimated the electrocatalytic activity by the LSV, Tafel curves, and electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS). The investigations indicate that WxC/NG-10, as an electrocatalyst for HER, achieves a lower overpotential of only 77.82 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 45.95 mV dec−1 in 0.5 mol L−1 H2SO4 aqueous. Additionally, the WxC/NG-10 has also possessed an electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity in 1.0 mol L−1 KOH aqueous with a lower overpotential of 467.6 mV and a Tafel slope of 36.2 mV dec−1. And after 10000 cycles the electrocatalytic active of WxC/NG-10 decrease 24.63% and 19.35% for HER and OER, respectively. The modification of WxC has improved the activity of NG materials in electrocatalytic applications.

In this paper, an Ag-doped WO3 (and MoO3) composite has been prepared by following a simple micelle-directed method and high-temperature sintering route. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV/Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques. The photocatalytic experiments reveal that their oxygen-production rates are up to 95.43 μmol (75.45 μmol) for Ag-doped WO3 (MoO3), which is 9.5 (7.3) times higher than that of pure WO3: 9.012 μmol (MoO3: 9.00 μmol) under visible-light illumination (λ≥420 nm), respectively. The improvement of their photocatalytic activity is attributed to the enhancement of their visible-light absorption and the separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers by Ag doping. Moreover, Ag-doped WO3 (MoO3) also shows excellent adsorption of rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution, with maximum adsorption capacities towards RhB and MB of 822 and 820 mg g−1 for Ag-doped WO3, and 642 and 805 mg g−1 for Ag-doped MoO3, respectively.

The serious electron recombination occurring in TiO2/quantum dot sensitizer/electrolyte interface is the key reason for hindering the further efficiency improvement of QDSCs. Polyoxometalate(POM) can be as electron transfer media to decreasing electron recombination of photoelectric device, which is due to the excellent oxidation reduction properties and thermostability. So in this paper, POM/TiO2 electronic interface layer prepared by a simple layer-by-layer self-assembly method is added between FTO and mesoporous TiO2 in the photoanode of the QDSCs, and their effects on the photovoltaic performance are systematically investigated. The photovoltaic experimental results and electron transmission mechanism explanation show that POM/TiO2 electronic interface layer in the QDSCs can obviously suppress the electron recombinations, increase the electron lifetime and result in smoother electron transmission. In summary, the best conversion efficiency of QDSCs with POM/TiO2 electronic interface layers are increased to 8.02%, which are improved by 25.1% compared to the QDSCs without POM/TiO2. This work firstly builds an electron transfer bridge between FTO and quantum dot sensitizer and paves the way for the further efficiency improvement of QDSCs.

Ting Gui, Ping Peng, Xinyan Liu, Li Jin, Weilin Chen Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China Precis: During the management of cesarean scar pregnancy, gestational mass size >6cm, uterine scar thickness 70cm/s, and resistance index 6cm, uterine scar thickness 70cm/s, and RI

Polyoxometalate (POM) has already been confirmed to act as an effective electron-transfer mediator for improving the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on our studies. However, it may be limited by the agglomeration of the polyoxoanions. In this paper, we improve our previous synthesis strategy by breaking the MOFs with POMs as the secondary building units ([Ni(bpp)(H2O)2]3[P2W18O62]·24H2O(1) and H6[Cu3(H2O)6(P2W18O62)2(3-dpye)6]·28H2O (2)) to design and synthesize small-size and high-dispersive POM nanoparticles by means of compositing with TiO2 via the calcination to remove the organic ligand. TEM and element mapping confirm that P2W18O626- (denoted as P2W18) nanoparticles with the diameter of ~1 nm are uniformly distributed in TiO2 composites. The loading amount (wt%) of POM in MOFs achieves 75.67%. The small-size and high-dispersive P2W18 nanoparticles may provide more active sites and specific surface areas for improving the PCE of DSSCs. Finally, the investigations indicate that the PCE of composite P2W18·NiO@TiO2 photoanodes is up to 7.56%, which were 26% higher than the pristine TiO2 based photoanodes.

Photosensitizers play a crucial role in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (p-DSSCs). In this study, we first introduced two Dawson-type transition metal-substituted polyoxometalate dyes to co-sensitize the NiO electrode and achieved an overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.0464%, which is the highest value reported for inorganic photosensitizers in p-DSSCs.

Salinity levels and drought status of coastal wetlands may be strongly affected by climate change, and changes in the nitrogen cycle of mangrove wetlands may also be affected. We established combinations of three salinity and water levels with applied stable isotope 15N to study the δ15N distributions in the sediment and plants of a greenhouse-based simulated mangrove Aegiceras corniculatum wetland system. The stable isotope 13C and 15N, C and N contents and the C:N ratio were determined. Results showed that increasing in salinity significantly increased the δ13C value in plant organs. The δ15N value of plant organs increased with increasing water level in low salinity (10‰) and medium salinity (20‰) treatment groups but not in the high salinity (30‰) treatment group. This may attributed to A. corniculatum adjusting the δ15N distribution in different organs in response to high salinity stress. Compared to the δ13C, the δ15N values of plant were strongly affected by salinity and water level treatments, indicating that the behavior of N cycle was somewhat different than the C cycle, and affected by the combined effects of both salinity and water level. Most of 15N absorbed by plant tissues were in leaves except for the highest salinity and high water level treatment, showing at increasing water level, the proportion of 15N increased in root. Overall, the measured indicators exhibited different responses to salinity level and water level, suggesting that the changes in salinity and water levels have an impact on N cycling processes of wetland systems.

Sandwich-type polyoxometalates K6Na2Ni2[Ni4(H2O)2(SiW9O34)2]·30H2O(Ni4), K6Na2Co2[Co4(H2O)2(SiW9O34)2]·30H2O(Co4) and K10[Ni(H2O)2(γ-SiW10O35)2]·13.25H2O(Ni1) were doped into TiO2 separately and applied as photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) for the first time, enhancing the current intensity and photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cells. The TiO2 and POM@TiO2 used in this paper were synthesized by a modified sol–gel method. The Jsc of pure P25 is 15.84 mA cm−2, the Voc is 0.637 V, the FF is 0.564, and the η is 5.69%. The Jsc of the prepared TiO2 is 16.48 mA cm−2, the Voc is 0.68 V, the FF is 0.537 and the η is 6.01%, which is a higher efficiency than that of pure P25, therefore the POMs@TiO2 were directly used in photoanodes without being formed into composites with P25 in this paper. The Jsc of 0.8% Ni4@TiO2 is 18.79 mA cm−2, the Voc is 0.71 V, the FF is 0.595 and the η is 7.94%, which is 32.1% higher than that of the prepared TiO2 based DSSC. 0.8% Co4@TiO2 and 0.8% Ni1@TiO2 modified photoanodes obtained power conversion efficiencies of 6.22% and 6.17%. The electron lifetimes of the self-prepared TiO2 and 0.8% Ni4@TiO2 are 13.5 ms and 28 ms respectively, calculated from a bode plot. Among the three kinds of sandwich-type POMs mentioned in this paper, the 0.8% Ni4 modified photoanode in DSSCs exhibited the best performance in enhancing light harvesting and reducing electron recombination. The energy levels of Ni4 were also investigated.

Background: The objective of the current study was to validate the prognostic staging system (PS) proposed in AJCC 8th edition staging manual among patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and patients with invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) respectively, and to compare the predictive performances of PS in both cohorts. Method: Patients diagnosed with IDC and ILC from 2010 to 2015 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database were retrospectively identified. Patients were restaged according to anatomic staging system (AS) and PS. Disease-specific survival (DSS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated by Kaplan-Meier method. The predictive performances of different staging systems were quantified and compared based on Harrell’s concordance index (C-index) and Akaike information criterion (AIC) calculated from Cox models. New staging score systems were established by assigning points to DSS-associated prognostic factors to improve risk stratification. Results: A total of 184,541 female patients were included in the final analyses, with 166,084 (90%) cases in the IDC cohort while 18,475 (10%) cases in the ILC cohort. Stage distribution and survival outcomes of different stages were showed in Table1. In IDC cohort, the PS (C-index, 0.8281; AIC, 110274.5) showed superiority in risk stratification compared with the AS (C-index, 0.8125; AIC, 112537.0; P Conclusion: Compared with AS, the PS provided more accurate stratification for patients with IDC, but not for patients with ILC. The AS+GEP score system may fit ILC tumors better. Further investigation was needed to refine tumor staging. Table1. Distribution and survival outcomes by anatomic stages and prognostic stages in IDC cohort(N=166,084) and ILC cohort(N=18,475).StageIDC cohortILC cohortN (%)4-year DSS4-year OSN (%)4-year DSS5-year OSASIA85807(51.7)98.7195.687779(42.1)99.2395.99IB4500(2.7)97.7495.63326(1.8)98.6394.57IIA38186(23.0)95.2591.314596(24.9)97.4392.75IIB19762(11.9)91.2387.282628(14.2)96.3492.13IIIA10879(6.6)84.5381.462010(10.9)92.0587.14IIIB2831(1.7)75.3368.83202(1.1)74.6568.15IIIC4119(2.5)71.8267.22916(5.0)77.5573.94PSIA102448(61.7)98.8695.7012156(65.9)98.8095.27IB25722(15.5)95.7292.203553(19.3)95.4991.22IIA17329(10.4)91.0087.13757(4.1)95.1189.06IIB6599(4.0)86.7183.40541(2.9)91.6886.15IIIA7092(4.3)82.3078.281049(5.7)83.0177.15IIIB3431(2.1)76.0071.12313(1.7)72.3369.12IIIC3463(2.1)57.4352.3887(0.5)52.5348.09 Table 2. Univariate and multivariate analyses for factors associated with DSS and point assignment in ILC cohort.FactorUnivariate analysisMultivariate analysisModel AS+GModel AS+GEPHRPHRPHRPPointStageIA1/11/0IB1.84 Citation Format: Shuning Ding, Jiayi Wu, Caijin Lin, Lisa Andriani, Weilin Chen, Deyue Liu, Li Zhu. Comparison of the AJCC eighth edition prognostic stage and anatomic stage in different histological breast cancer types and proposal of a novel score system [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-06-23.

The original version of the article unfortunately contained translation errors throughout the text. Hence the corrected Obituary is published in this erratum.

Photocatalysis, a promising technology platform to address the environmental problems, has been attracting considerable attention. In this paper, Ag/AgxH3–xPMo12O40 (simplified as Ag/AgHPMo12) nanowires have been synthesized by a facile solid reaction route and in situ photodeposited method. The results of SEM and TEM indicate that the diameters of AgHPMo12 nanowires are about 45 ± 10 nm, and Ag nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 5–15 nm are uniformly anchored on the surface of AgHPMo12 nanowires. The Ag content in the Ag/AgHPMo12 composite was manipulated by the light irradiation time (Ag/AgHPMo12-x; x stands for the irradiation time; x = 2, 4, 6, 8 h, respectively). With increasing irradiation time, the light absorption of as-synthesized samples in the visible region was gradually enhanced. The Ag/AgHPMo12-4 exhibits the best photocatalytic performance for the degradation of methyl orange and reduction of Cr2O72– under visible-light (λ > 420 nm) irradiation. The study of the photocatalytic mec...

Objectives Muscle cell necrosis is the most common pathological manifestation of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. Evidence suggests that glycolysis might participate in it. However, the mechanism is unclear. This study aimed to determine the role of glycolysis in the muscle damage that occurs in DM/PM. Methods Mass spectrometry was performed on muscle lesions from DM/PM and control subjects. The expression levels of pyruvate kinase isozyme M2 (PKM2), the nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and pyroptosis-related genes in muscle tissues or plasma were determined by real-time PCR, western blot analysis, IF and ELISA. In addition, IFNγ was used to stimulate myotubes, and the relationships among PMK2 expression, NLRP3 inflammasome activation and pyroptosis were investigated. Results Mass spectrometry and bioinformatics analysis suggested that multiple glycolysis processes, the NLRP3 inflammasome and programmed cell death pathway-related proteins were dysregulated in the muscle tissues of DM/PM. PKM2 and the NLRP3 inflammasome were upregulated and positively correlated in the muscle fibres of DM/PM. Moreover, the pyroptosis-related proteins were increased in muscle tissues of DM/PM and were further increased in PM. The levels of PKM2 in muscle tissues and IL-1β in plasma were high in patients with anti-signal recognition particle autoantibody expression. The pharmacological inhibition of PKM2 in IFNγ-stimulated myotubes attenuated NLRP3 inflammasome activation and subsequently inhibited pyroptosis. Conclusion Our study revealed upregulated glycolysis in the lesioned muscle tissues of DM/PM, which activated the NLRP3 inflammasome and leaded to pyroptosis in muscle cells. The levels of PKM2 and IL-1β were high in patients with anti-signal recognition particle autoantibody expression. These proteins might be used as new biomarkers for muscle damage.

Multi-component tungsten carbide-based hybrid materials featuring different heteroatom dopants coated with X,N dual-doped carbon layers (X/W

Previous studies have recommended harvesting a large number of lymph nodes (LNs) to improve the survival of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). These studies or clinical guidelines focus on the total harvested LNs during lymphadenectomy; however, the extent of LN dissection (LND) required in patients with ESCCs remains controversial. The present study proposed a novel individualized adequate LND (ALND) strategy to compliment current guidelines to improve individualized therapeutic efficacy. For N0 cases, ALND was defined as an LN harvest of >55% of the LNs from nodal zones adjacent to the tumor location; and for N+ cases, ALND was defined as 8, 8, 8, 8 or 16 LNs dissected from the involved cervical, upper, middle, lower and celiac zones, respectively. Retrospective analysis of the ESCC cohort revealed that the ALND was associated with improved patient survival [hazard ratio (HR)=0.45 and 95% CI=0.30–0.66)]. Stratified analyses revealed that the protective role of ALND was prominent, with the exception of higher pN+ staged (pN2-3) cases (HR=0.52, 95% CI=0.23–1.18). Furthermore, ALND was associated with improved survival in local diseases (T1-3/N0-1; HR=0.50, 95% CI=0.30–0.84) and locally advanced diseases (T4/Nany or T1-3/N2-3; HR=0.32, 95% CI=0.15–0.68). These findings suggested that the proposed ALND strategy may effectively improve the survival of patients with ESCC.

Objective: Essential metals play important roles in the carcinogenic process. However, seldom longitudinal investigations have evaluated their roles in lung cancer development. We aimed to investigate the associations between multiple essential metals and lung cancer incidence and to explore the potential mechanisms. Methods: A nested case-control study of 440 incident lung cancer cases and 1:3 frequency matched 1320 healthy controls from the Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort was conducted. The baseline plasma concentrations of 11 essential metals (cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, rubidium, selenium, strontium, stannum, vanadium, and zinc) were measured, and their associations with lung cancer incidence were estimated. Effect of positive metal (zinc) on 4-year telomere attrition was then evaluated among an occupational cohort of 724 workers. We also assessed the transcriptional regulation effects of plasma zinc on mRNA expression profiles, and the expressions of zinc-related genes were further compared in pair-wised lung tumor and normal tissues. Results: Elevated plasma level of zinc was associated with lower incident risk of lung cancer [OR (95% CI) = 0.89 (0.79, 0.99)] and decreased 4-year telomere attrition [β (95% CI) = −0.73 (−1.27, −0.19)]. These effects were pronounced among males. In particularly, zinc could regulate the expressions of 8 cancer-related genes, including SOD1, APE, TP53BP1, WDR33, LAPTM4B, TRIT1, HUWE1, and ZNF813, which were over-expressed in lung tumor tissues. Conclusions: We propose that high plasma zinc could prevent incident lung cancer, probably by slowing down telomere attrition and regulating the expressions of cancer-related genes. These results provided a new insight into lung cancer prevention. Keywords: Essential metals, Zinc, Lung cancer, Cohort study, Telomere attrition, Gene expression

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease with unknown etiology, characterized by vasculopathy, inflammation, and extensive fibrosis in the skin and organs. Fibrosis is the hallmark of SSc and contributes to its high mortality. In recent years, with the in-depth study of the epigenetics of SSc (DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNA), the DNA methylation and miRNA has been the most widely studied. Abnormal DNA methylation can influence the function of vascular endothelial cells, CD4+ T cells, and fibroblasts in SSc. MiRNAs in serum is closely related to autoantibodies, SSc disease activity and complications, and miRNAs in fibroblasts can directly affect the activation of fibroblasts.系统性硬化症(systemic sclerosis，SSc)是一类病因不明的自身免疫性疾病，以血管病变、炎症和皮肤及各器官广泛纤维化为主要特征。纤维化是SSc的标志，也是导致其高病死率的主要原因。近年来，SSc的表观遗传学(DNA甲基化、组蛋白修饰和非编码RNA)得到了深入的研究，其中以DNA甲基化和微小RNA(microRNA，miRNA)的研究最为广泛。DNA甲基化异常可影响SSc的血管内皮细胞、CD4+T细胞和成纤维细胞的功能。血清中的miRNAs与自身抗体、SSc疾病活动度和并发症密切相关，成纤维细胞中的miRNAs可直接影响成纤维细胞的活化。.

Three-dimensional flow characteristics around a horizontal circular cylinder near a plane boundary are investigated using a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) at the Reynolds number of 350. The cylinder has a gap-to-diameter ratio G/D = 0.2, 0.6 and 1.0, with a boundary layer thickness-to-diameter ratio δ/D = 0, 0.7 and 1.6. The hydrodynamic forces, pressure distributions, vortex shedding patterns, wake transitions and flow three-dimensionality features are presented and discussed. The hydrodynamic forces and pressure distributions are strongly dependent on G/D and δ/D. The mean drag coefficient decreases with increasing δ/D, whereas the mean lift coefficient increases with decreasing G/D. The pressure coefficient distribution around the cylinder changes from being asymmetric to symmetric as G/D is increased from 0.2 to 1.0, resulting in a development from the suppressed state to the fully developed state of the vortex shedding. As for the vortex dynamics, the strength and size of primary vortices decrease with increasing δ/D. The crossing trajectories exhibiting an inversion on the position of clockwise and counterclockwise vortices can only be observed in the wake when G/D is greater than a critical value below which the vortex shedding is completely suppressed, and when the cylinder is partially immersed into the boundary layer (G/D

The prediction of building energy consumption plays a crucial role in building energy management and conservation because it contributes to effective building operation, energy efficiency evaluation, fault detection and diagnosis, and demand side management. Although a large number of energy prediction methods have been proposed, each method has its pros and cons and still exhibits the potential to be improved. This study proposes an evolutionary double attention-based long short- term memory model and introduces binary features by using feature combination. The proposed model is adopted to analyse the building energy consumption data of a green building in Shenzhen, China. The prediction performance of the proposed hybrid model measured via root-mean-square-error and mean absolute error are 4.02 and 2.87 respectively, which are evidently better than those of the base models. Results also show that an attention mechanism can improve the efficiency of the long short-term memory algorithm with which the model uses the input time series data. Meanwhile, binary features exert a significant effect on energy consumption. The proposed model is valuable to researchers and practitioners. It helps researchers apply artificial intelligence-based methods to building energy prediction from the perspective of paying selective attention to input data. Practitioners will benefit from developing accurate diagnosis of building energy efficiency and decision support for building retrofitting.

Fundus examination plays an important part in a medical setting. The fundus camera is one of the detection instruments used in obtaining fundus images, which can reflect information about disease and other conditions. However, traditional fundus cameras have many disadvantages in regard to data sharing, image recognition, and processing, as well as doctor-patient communication. In recent years, mobile medical systems have gradually become more prevalent in medical and health system environments. In this paper, we propose a design method for a smartphone fundus camera consisting of an illumination system and an imaging system. The end of the system can be combined with a smartphone to take the fundus images directly. We manufactured a prototype, designed an artificial eye model, and carried out a series of experiments. The results show that we can get fundus images clearly, and the imaging system will be able to correct refractive errors ranging from − 8 D ∼ + 8 D . The spatial resolution of the system is up to 15 µm. This is a portable device with an overall size of 160 m m × 160 m m × 80 m m and a weight of 540 g. It has the advantages of lower price, simple operation, high resolution, and compact size, making it suitable as a portable ocular monitoring device.

Over the years, transition metal-based hybrids have been advocated as one of the most promising classes of non-noble catalysts and investigated exclusively for the electrocatalytic triiodide reduction reaction (IRR) or hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, there is lack of effective strategy to address their site accessibility, intrinsic activity and structural stability issues, and their successful utilization as bifunctional catalysts of IRR and HER is rarely explored. Herein, presented is a multimetal-based carbon nanotube hybrid (CoFeNiMo@NCNT), synthesized from a novel polyoxometalate (POM)-intercalated layered double hydroxide (LDH) pyrolysis strategy, as an efficient catalyst for IRR and HER. During both electrochemical IRR and HER, the regulated NCNT provides a highway for electron migration and acts as a network for I3−/H+ adsorption. Benefitting from the features of porous structure, multimetal component and fast electron transfer, the CoFeNiMo@NCNT catalyst delivers a high power conversion efficiency of 6.46 % when assembled as counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cell, superior to Pt benchmark. Furthermore, it mediates efficient HER with a relatively small overpotential of 209.9 mV at 10 mA cm-2. The strategy to achieve tunable catalytic properties via in situ pyrolysis well-defined inorganic materials paves a new way to design cost-effective and efficient bifunctional catalysts.

Anthropogenic warming may impact mean and extreme precipitation trends by enhancing the water cycle, potentially bringing threats to human societies. The design of national-level policy for disaster prevention and mitigation depends on the reliable detection of anthropogenic forcing in mean and extreme precipitation changes there. The anthropogenic signal might be obscured by strong internal variability at a regional scale. The goal of this study is to investigate the emergence of anthropogenic signal in mean and extreme precipitation trends across China by using two large ensembles (CanESM2-LE and Community Earth System Model (CESM)-LE) of simulations during 1961–2010. Results show that the signal could not be detected in either mean or extreme precipitation trend during the current climate period (1961–2010). Following the RCP8.5 scenario, the signal is projected to emerge in mean precipitation around the 2020s and 2030s in the CanESM2-LE and CESM-LE, respectively, much earlier than in extreme precipitation. For extreme precipitation, the signal could be steadily detected no earlier than the 2030s for CanESM2-LE and the 2040s for CESM-LE. These projected times of emergence in precipitation changes highlight the urgency of preparing for an uncharted hydrological future dominated by anthropogenic warming.

Induction of type I interferon is a fundamental cellular response to viral infection. Interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) plays an essential role in Toll-like receptor (TLR) and retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) mediated induction of type I interferon and host antiviral responses. However, posttranslational regulation of IRF3 remains to be fully understood. In this study, we identified E3 ubiquitin ligase Casitas B-lineage lymphoma (c-Cbl) as a negative regulator for IRF3 protein stability and IFN-β signal pathway. Knockdown of c-Cbl expression by small interfering RNA enhanced virus-induced IFN-β production as well as cellular antiviral response, whereas overexpression of c-Cbl inhibited virus-induced IFN-β signaling. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments demonstrated that c-Cbl interacted with IRF3 via TKB domain of c-Cbl and IRF association domain of IRF3, promoting K48-linked polyubiquitination and proteasomal degradation of IRF3. Therefore, our findings suggest that c-Cbl negatively regulates IFN-β signaling and cellular antiviral response by promoting IRF3 ubiquitination and degradation, providing a new mechanism for control of type I interferon induction.

Lymph node metastasis (LNM) is one of the major prognostic factors for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). However there is no consensus regarding the prognostic significance of the location of LNM. Therefore, a novel classification was proposed to identify the lymph node (LN) stations which may be useful in predicting prognosis. A total of 260 ESCC patients were enrolled in this prospective study. The prognostic values of LNM in different lymph node (LN) stations were evaluated by random survival forests (RSF). Their prognostic significance was examined by Cox regression and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). The three most frequently involved LN stations were station 16 (24.49%), station 1 (22.22%) and station 2 (21.05%). Stations 1, 2, 8M, 8L and 16 were grouped as dominant LN stations (DLNS) which showed higher values in predicting overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) than the remaining LN stations, which we define as non-dominant LN stations (N-DLNS). LNM features of DLNS (number of positive LN stations, number of positive LNs and LN ratio), but not those from N-DLNS, served as independent prognostic factors (P

In this work, two kinds of polyoxometalate (POM) nanoparticles with controlled shapes and structures were synthesized by micelle directed method and then composited with TiO 2 via calcination to remove the surfactants owing to the excellent electronic storage and transmission ability of POM, finally obtaining two kinds of TiO 2 composites with highly dispersed and small-sized POM nanoparticles (∼1 nm). The TiO 2 composites were then induced into the photoanodes of dye-sensitized (N719) solar cells (DSSCs). The separation of electron-holes becomes more favorable due to the nanostructure and high dispersion of POM which provide more active sites than pure POM tending to agglomeration. The TiO 2 composite photoanodes finally yielded the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.4% and 8.2%, respectively, which were 42% and 39% higher than the pristine TiO 2 based anodes. In addition, the mechanisms of POM in DSSC are proposed.

In the compact micro-grasping system, the combination of precisely orthogonal movement transformation, displacement amplification and simple structure is important. The typical solution of the combination issue requires bidirectional symmetric input forces/displacements. However, under a certain driving condition, numerous actuators used in micro-manipulation only supply unidirectional input froce/displacement for the driven mechanism, which makes the typical solution infeasible. In this study, a novel compliant orthogonal displacement amplification mechanism (DAM) is proposed to solve the combination issue for numerous actuators used in micro-grasping. The proposed mechanism is a triangulation amplification-based mechanism with undetermined structural parameters. The number of the undetermined parameters and the solution principle are analyzed. The design process is presented. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to verify the design method. The FEA results show that, for the design examples, the errors evaluating the orthogonal movement transformation are smaller than 0.56ź% and 0.15 % respectively, and the displacement amplification ratios are larger than 4.6. The orthogonal displacement amplification is realized. A precise model of the displacement amplification ratio is derived. The dynamic performances of the proposed orthogonal DAM are modeled and FEA verified. Furthermore, a microgripper utilizing the proposed mechanism is presented. The performances of the gripper, including the displacement amplification and the parallel movement of the jaws, are verified by FEA and experiments.

The {Mn 4 O 5 Ca} cluster of photosystem II is a well-known cubane-like transition-metal (TM) cluster that plays important roles in solar energy conversion. The artificial synthesis of cubane-like TM clusters and their interesting potential applications have been widely studied. Most of them were isolated by use of organic ligands, and therefore their potential applications were essentially restricted to organic solvents because of their limited stability in aqueous solution. In recent decades, lacunary polyoxometalates (POMs) composed of W VI /Mo VI centers have been used to replace organic ligands as stable and oxidative-resistant pure-inorganic multidentate ligands to construct water-soluble and water-stable molecular clusters. In the course of the mimicking of the {Mn 4 O 5 Ca} subsite of photosystem II, significant advances have already been made in POM-assisted artificial synthesis of TM cubanes. Compared with classic cubane-like TM clusters, these POM-based TM cubane clusters can not only dissolve in organic solvents by virtue of a simple phase-transfer reaction but also display excellent aqueous stability. Consequently, the synthesis of these pure-inorganic cubane clusters offers a great opportunity for expanding the applications of cubane-like TM clusters. This review focuses on the synthetic strategies for, structures of, and applications of these POM-based TM cubane clusters, particularly highlighting how POMs can be used as the inorganic ligands to construct cubane-like TM clusters. The purpose of this review is to give a representative and comprehensive overview of the work done so far in this emerging field.

Tandem dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells (DSPECs) for water splitting are a promising method for sustainable energy conversion but so far have been limited by their lack of aqueous stability and photocurrent mismatch between the cathode and anode. In nature, membrane-enabled subcellular compartmentation is a general approach to control local chemical environments in the cell. The hydrophobic tails of the lipid make the bilayer impermeable to ions and hydrophilic molecules. Herein we report the use of an organic donor-acceptor dye that prevents both dye desorption and semiconductor degradation by mimicking the hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties of lipid bilayer membranes. The dual-functional photosensitizer (denoted as BH4) allows for efficient light harvesting while also protecting the semiconductor surface from protons and water via its hydrophobic π linker. The protection afforded by this membrane-mimicking dye gives this system excellent stability in extremely acidic (pH 0) conditions. The acidic stability also allows for the use of cubane molybdenum-sulfide cluster as the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst. This system produces a proton-reducing current of 183 ± 36 μA/cm(2) (0 V vs NHE with 300 W Xe lamp) for an unprecedented 16 h with no degradation. These results introduce a method for developing high-current, low-pH DSPECs and are a significant move toward practical dye-sensitized solar fuel production.

Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) photoelectrodes hold great promise for new energy and environmental applications, from water splitting to photoelectronic devices. Here, we show an efficient polyoxometalate assistance strategy for the design and fabrication of MOS composite photoelectrodes with light enhanced conductivity. Four types of MOS based photoelectrodes were fabricated by a simple wet chemistry method through bounding TiO2, SnO2, WO3, and ZnO with keplerate-type polyoxometalate (NH4)42[MoVI72MoV60O372(CH3COO)30(H2O)72] ({Mo132}), respectively. In these photoelectrodes, {Mo132} may act as a photo-induced electron acceptor/donor to accelerate electron transfer and then improve their conductivity efficiently. We further demonstrated that the 5% {Mo132}/TiO2 modified photoanode, in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), exhibits a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.94% (31% improvement compared with that of the TiO2-based cell (6.06%)).

A Keggin-type polyoxometalate H3PW12O40 (PW12) was firstly incorporated into the harmless porous metal organic framework MIL-101(Fe) resulting in POM@MOF composite material (denoted as PW12@MIL-101). The material was synthesized by a one-pot solvothermal reaction of H3PW12O40, FeCl3·6H2O and terephthalic acid (H2bdc). The composite was characterized by FTIR, XRD, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry, SEM, EDS, 31P NMR and nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms. These results demonstrated the successful insertion of H3PW12O40 within the cavities of MIL-101(Fe). The adsorption rate of the isolated MIL-101 was up to 30.7% and 28.3% for cationic dyes methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB), and 82% for anionic dye methyl orange (MO) within 30 min. However, the dye adsorption capacity of MIL-101 has greatly changed by introducing highly electronegative polyoxoanions into the cages of MIL-101. The adsorption rate of PW12@MIL-101 composite was able to reach 99% and 96% for cationic dyes MB and RhB, and 16% for anionic dye MO in the initial 5 min. Surprisingly, the composite not only exhibited a large-scale adsorption capacity of 473.7 mg g−1 for MB, but also could quickly remove 97.3% MB from the dye solution with 1 ppm (1 mg L−1). Furthermore, this material could be easily desorbed for reuse, and the structure of the composite was intact during the adsorption experiment. Thus, it is a promising and environmentally friendly adsorbent for removing cationic organic pollutants in dye-wastewater.

A pure inorganic donor–acceptor (D–A) type polyoxometalate K6H4[α-SiW9O37Co3(H2O)3]·17H2O (SiW9Co3)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO) nanocomposite was employed to dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) for the first time, building up a wide spectrum for the photoanode of a DSSC. Raman, XRD, TEM, and EDS have proved that SiW9Co3 was loaded on RGO, and then the SiW9Co3/RGO doped nanocomposite in P25 was applied to be the photoanode of the DSSCs. In this paper the performance of SiW9Co3/RGO-3@P25 is the best. The Jsc of pure P25 is 13.74 mA cm−2, Voc is 0.679 V, FF is 0.598 and η is 5.37%, while the Jsc of SiW9Co3/RGO-3@P25 is 17.5 mA cm−2, Voc is 0.705 V, FF is 0.558 and η is enhanced to 6.88%, which is 28.05% higher than for a pure P25-based cell in a DSSC. OCVD indicates that SiW9Co3/RGO can delay the electron–hole recombination. In a Bode plot the electron lifetimes of SiW9Co3/RGO-3@P25 and P25 are 4.86 ms and 3.81 ms respectively, which also further clarifies that the SiW9Co3/RGO doped nanocomposite can extend the lifetime of electrons and also plays an important role in the photoanode of the DSSCs. This result is beneficial to the application of DSSCs in future industry.

Background: The effect of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) on pregnancy outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients is still ambiguous. This study aimed to analyze pregnancy outcomes of IVF with or without OHSS in Chinese patients. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was undertaken to compare pregnancy outcomes between 190 women with OHSS and 197 women without OHSS. We examined the rates of clinical pregnancy, multiple pregnancies, miscarriage, live birth, preterm delivery, preterm birth before 34 weeks' gestation, cesarean delivery, low birth weight (LBW), and small-for-gestational age (SGA) between the two groups. Odds ratios (OR s) and 95% confidence intervals (CI s) of measure of clinical pregnancy were also analyzed. Results: The clinical pregnancy rate of OHSS patients was significantly higher than that of non-OHSS patients (91.8% vs. 43.5%, P < 0.001). After controlling for drug protocol and causes of infertility, the adjusted OR s of moderate OHSS and severe/critical OHSS for clinical pregnancy were 4.65 (95% CI, 1.86–11.61) and 5.83 (95% CI, 3.45–9.86), respectively. There were no significant differences in rates of multiple pregnancy (4.0% vs. 3.7%) and miscarriage (16.1% vs. 17.5%) between the two groups. With regard to ongoing clinical pregnancy, we also found no significant differences in the rates of live birth (82.1% vs. 78.8%), preterm delivery (20.9% vs. 17.5%), preterm birth before 34 weeks' gestation (8.6% vs. 7.9%), cesarean delivery (84.9% vs. 66.3%), LBW (30.2% vs. 23.5%), and SGA (21.9% vs. 17.6%) between the two groups. Conclusion: OHSS, which occurs in the luteal phase or early pregnancy in IVF patients and represents abnormal transient hemodynamics, does not exert any obviously adverse effect on the subsequent pregnancy.

The immersed boundary method was utilised to numerically investigate the flow-induced vibrations (FIV) of two elastically mounted side-by-side circular cylinders in a uniform flow with low Reynolds numbers. Six distinct near-wake patterns were observed; the irregular (IR) pattern, the in-phase synchronized (IS) pattern, the anti-phase synchronized (AS) pattern, the biased anti-phase synchronized (BAS) pattern, the out-of-phase flip-flopping (OFF) pattern, and the hybrid (HB) pattern. A detailed analysis on the asymmetric vibration and symmetry hysteresis phenomena was conducted by focusing on the near-wake patterns and the interaction between the cylinders. Results show that the asymmetric vibrations of the cylinders are closely related with the stably biased gap flow and the resulting narrow-wide near-wake pattern. While the symmetry hysteresis is caused by the coexistence of two distinct near-wake patterns – the IS and the BAS patterns. The transition processes of BAS to IS and IS to BAS were illustrated by using the long-time histories of the lift coefficients, the combined lift coefficient and the phase differences of lift and displacement. Results on hydrodynamic forces and the vibration responses show that the HB pattern is a combination of IS, OFF and AS patterns with a very long period.