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A metallosupramolecular polymer network is constructed by hierarchical self-assembly of a double-armed pillar[5]arene, a ditopic guest, and zinc ions, where host-guest recognition and metal-ligand coordination interactions play a crucial role.

The diagnostic criteria for Parkinson's disease (PD) remain complex, which is especially problematic for nonmovement disorder experts. A test is required to establish a diagnosis of PD with improved accuracy and reproducibility.The study aimed to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of tests using sniffer dogs to diagnose PD.A prospective, diagnostic case-control study was conducted in four tertiary medical centers in China to evaluate the accuracy of sniffer dogs to distinguish between 109 clinically established medicated patients with PD, 654 subjects without PD, 37 drug-naïve patients with PD, and 185 non-PD controls. The primary outcomes were sensitivity and specificity of sniffer dog's identification.In the study with patients who were medicated, when two or all three sniffer dogs yielded positive detection results in a sample tested, the index test sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios were 91% (95% CI: 84%-96%), 95% (95% CI: 93%-97%), and 19.16 (95% CI: 13.52-27.16) and 0.10 (95% CI: 0.05-0.17), respectively. The corresponding sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios in patients who were drug-naïve were 89% (95% CI: 75%-96%), 86% (95% CI: 81%-91%), and 6.6 (95% CI: 4.51-9.66) and 0.13 (95% CI: 0.05-0.32), respectively.Tests using sniffer dogs may be a useful, noninvasive, fast, and cost-effective method to identify patients with PD in community screening and health prevention checkups as well as in neurological practice. © 2022 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.

Metal sulfides have attracted much attentions as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of the high theoretical capacity. However, the poor electronic conductivity and large volume variation usually give rise to the rapid capacity decay and undesirable rate performance, severely hampering their practical application. Herein, a gradient selenium-doped hollow sandwich structured zinc sulfide/carbon (ZnS/C) composite (Se-HSZC) is designed and fabricated as long life-span and stable anode material for LIBs. The gradient Se-doping enhances the interfacial charge transfer in Se-HSZC, while the unique double carbon shell sandwich structure further greatly reduces the volume expansion and ensures the electron fast transportation. Consequently, the Se-HSZC anode presents outstanding rate capability (654 mAh g−1 at 2 A g−1) with remarkable reversible capacity (567 mAh g−1 after 1500 cycles at 4 A g−1) for the half battery. In particular, a reversible capacity of 457 mAh g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 is achieved after 50 cycles for the full battery with LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 as cathode. This work offers a promising design route of novel metal sulfides nanostructures for high performance LIBs.

In this paper, aiming at the problem that the ideal modeling point of the foot end deviates from the actual contact point due to the rolling effect of the semi-cylindrical foot end in leg hydraulics drive system (LHDS), a novel and relatively simple kinematics and statics correction algorithm is proposed. This algorithm can effectively improve the accuracy of LHDS kinematics and statics, and it is still applicable when the body and the contact surface are at different angles. Firstly, this paper deduces the kinematics and statics when the foot end of LHDS is regarded as the point foot, analyzes and calculates the deviation under common working conditions. Secondly, in view of this phenomenon, a kinematics correction algorithm based on virtual DOF and a statics correction algorithm based on translation theorem of forces are proposed respectively. Finally, the proposed algorithm is verified by LHDS performance test platform under various working conditions. The results show that after applying the kinematics correction algorithm, the trajectory deviation reduction rate of the hip joint is over 65%; after applying the statics correction algorithm, the deviation reduction rate of foot end contact force is over 43%. The related research results can be applied to any similar foot end, which has engineering application value.

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is the most widely used polymer to decorate inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) by the "grafting-to" method for antifouling properties. PEG also shows diverse supramolecular interactions with nanoparticle surfaces and polar molecules, suggesting that the physisorption between PEG chains and NPs cannot be ignored in the "grafting-to" process. However, the effect of physisorption of PEG to NPs on the process of chemisorption has been rarely studied. Herein, we report that unfunctionalized PEG is physically adsorbed on various NPs by polyvalent supramolecular interactions, adopting "loop-and-train-tail" conformations. We investigated the effect of molecular weight of PEG and ligands of the NPs on the conformation of PEG chains by experimental methods and simulation. It is demonstrated that the physisorption of PEG on NPs can facilitate the chemisorption in the initial stages but delays it in the later stages during the "grafting-to" process. This work provides a deeper understanding of the conformation of physisorbed PEG on NPs and the relationship between physisorption and chemisorption.

Assembly of the adenovirus capsid protein hexon depends on the assistance of the molecular chaperone L4-100K. However, the chaperone mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we found that L4-100K was involved in the hexon translation process and could prevent hexon degradation by the proteasome in cotransfected human cells. Two nonadjacent domains, 84-133 and 656-697, at the N-terminal and C-terminal regions of human adenovirus type 5 L4-100K, respectively, were found to be crucial and cooperatively responsible for hexon trimer expression and assembly. These two chaperone-related domains were conserved in the sequence of L4-100K and in the function of hexon assembly across different adenovirus serotypes. Different degrees of cross-activity of hexon trimerization with different serotypes were detected in subgroups B, C, and D, which were proven to be controlled by the interaction between the C-terminal chaperone-related domain of L4-100K and hypervariable regions (HVR) of hexon. Additionally, HVR-chimeric hexon mutants were successfully assembled with the assistance of the 1-697 mutant. Structural analysis of 656-697 by nuclear magnetic resonance and structural prediction of L4-100K using Robetta showed that the two conserved domains are mainly composed of α-helices and are located on the surface of the highly folded core region. Our research provides a more complete understanding of hexon assembly and guidance for the development of hexon-chimeric adenovirus vectors that will be safer, smarter, and more efficient. IMPORTANCE Adenovirus vectors have been widely used in clinical trials of vaccines and gene therapy, although some deficiencies remain. Chimeric modification of the hexon was expected to improve the potency of preexisting immune evasion and targeting, but in many cases, viral packaging is prevented by the inability of the chimeric hexon to assemble correctly. So far, few studies have examined the mechanisms of hexon trimer assembly. Here, we show how the chaperone protein L4-100K contributes to the assembly of the adenovirus capsid protein hexon, and these data will provide a guide for novel adenovirus vector design and development, as we desired.

Mass spectrometry measurements coupled with classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been conducted in recent years to understand the final stage of ion formation in electrospray ionization (ESI). Here, to characterize the ion formation mechanism in the recently developed droplet-assisted ionization (DAI) source, MD simulations with various conditions (solute number, temperature, ions, composition) were performed to help explain DAI-based measurements. The specific binding ability of cortisone with preformed ions (ions of sodium, cesium and iodide) in evaporating nanodroplets makes the ion formation process characteristic of both the ion evaporation and charge residue models (IEM and CRM, respectively). Most preformed ions are ejected with dozens of solvent molecules to form gas-phase ions by IEM, while clusters of one or more cortisone molecules with one or more preformed ions remain in the evaporating droplet to form gas-phase ions by CRM. As the ratio of cortisone molecules to preformed ions increases, the number of preformed ions held in the droplet without ejection by the IEM increases. In other words, increasing the molecular solute to preformed ion ratio in the droplet increases the fraction of gas-phase ions formed by CRM relative to IEM. The increase in CRM relative to IEM is accompanied by an increase in the calculated activation energy barrier, which can explain the activation energy measurements by DAI, where droplets without preformed ions exhibit higher activation energies for gas-phase ion formation than droplets containing large numbers of preformed ions.

Lithium-selenium (Li-Se) batteries have recently attracted increasingly attentions due to the high electronic conductivity and volumetric capacity of Se. However, the low selenium utilization and inferior electrode kinetics hamper the practical application of Li-Se batteries. In this work, a MoSe2@CNT/GO hybrid interlayer modified polypropylene (PP) (MoSe2@CNT/GO-PP) separator is designed to realize high-performance Li-Se batteries. The MoSe2@CNT/GO interlayer not only facilitates fast kinetic process by catalyzing the conversion of Li2Se, but also has strong chemisorption of Li2Se. These largely improve the selenium utilization. As a result, the Li-Se batteries with MoSe2@CNT/GO-PP separators exhibit a high reversible capacity of 547.2 mAh g−1 after 300 cycles at 0.5C and an excellent rate capability of 390.2 mAh g−1 at 5C. This work provides a new insight for enhancing the electrochemical performance of Li-Se batteries via modifying the separator.

Incorporating both preferential orientation of organic emitters in the emitting layer and high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) is a challenging issue in the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) field. In this study, a green thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitter 10-(4-(2-(3,5-di(pyridin-2-yl)phenyl)quinazolin-4-yl)phenyl)-10H-phenoxazine (2DPyPh-Qz) containing two 2-pyridyl groups to give both preferential emissive dipole orientation and high PLQY was developed based on a phenoxazine electron donor segment and a quinazoline electron acceptor segment. This new emitter has a higher horizontal dipole ratio of 79% and a higher PLQY of 96% compared to the reference emitter when doped in a host film. OLEDs fabricated with this emitter achieved good external quantum efficiency of ∼28% and current efficiency of 89.9 cd A−1, which are competitive figures among quinazoline-based TADF emitters.

Previous lectures have shown that to effectively explore Taiwan’s climate change or other relevant topics, long-term and stable observation datasets are required. We introduce the high-resolution grided precipitation dataset (TCCIP_PR), which was constructed by the Taiwan Climate Change projection and adaptation Information Platform (TCCIP) program from thousands of station records. Although, a high spatial-time relationship exists between the TCCIP_PR and the stations, a large uncertainty occurs over the complex terrain on the southwest windward side during the summer, due to sparse stations. To better understand the change in the extreme rainfall trends, we analyze 9 suitable indices from the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). Our result show that the extreme rainfall intensity and frequency have continuously increased for a long time, and the consecutive dry days have decreased in recent decades, particularly over southwest Taiwan. The regime change evaluations agree that the precipitation characteristics were amplified and become more unpredictable from the early (1960–2002) to the late (2003–2017) period. For future applications or research, the calculated results of the extreme indices can be found in the printed documentation and the online retrieval system.

The aim of the study was to compare the dose distributions of combined intracavitary and interstitial (IC/IS) brachytherapy with 3-catheter IC brachytherapy in treating locally advanced (stage IIB) cervical cancer.In total, 46 patients were included, each with stage IIB cervical cancer, local lesion sizes ≥5 cm, and tumors that had not regressed after 45 Gy/25 F external intensity-modulated radiotherapy. To identify the dosimetric advantage of delivering a local boost to high-risk (HR)-cervix in IC/IS, patients were divided into two groups: IC/IS and IC/IS + HR-cervix. The differences in dosimetric parameters were compared between the two groups. Comparisons were then made between the parameters of the four planning methods: IC (Point A), IC (three dimensional [3D]), IC/IS, and IC/IS + HR-cervix.In patients with IC/IS implants, the relative uterine tandem dwell time was significantly extended in the IC/IS + HR-cervix group, and the V150 and V200 volumes of HR-cervix were increased (all p 0.001), whereas the D90 and D100 values of the IC/IS + HR-cervix group were lower than those in the IC/IS group. In pairwise comparisons, HR-cervix V150 and V200 values were lowest in the IC/IS group, followed by the IC (3D), IC/IS + HR-cervix, and IC (Point A) groups. All differences were statistically significant (p 0.05), with the exception of IC/IS vs. IC (3D).When treating locally advanced cervical cancer (stage IIB, local residual volume ≥5 cm after external radiotherapy), the IC/IS + HR-cervix optimization method can meet the HR clinical target volume D90 dose requirement, normal tissue dose limits, and can escalate doses to local areas of the cervix.

Atmospheric aerosol nucleation contributes to around half of cloud condensation nuclei globally. Despite the importance for climate, detailed nucleation mechanisms are still poorly understood. Understanding aerosol nucleation dynamics is hindered by non-reactivity of force fields and high computational costs due to rare event nature of aerosol nucleation. Developing reactive force fields for nucleation systems are even more challenging than covalently bonded materials because of wide size range and high dimensional characteristics of non-covalent hydrogen bonding bridging clusters. Here we proposes a system transferable framework to train an accurate reactive force field (FF) based on deep neural network (DNN) and further bridges the DNN-FF based molecular dynamics (MD) with cluster kinetics model based on Poisson distributions of reactive events to overcome high computational costs from direct MD. We found that previously reported acid-base formation rates tend to be underestimated several times, emphasizing acid-base nucleation observed in multiple environments should be revisited.

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are considered as a promising large-scale energy storage system owing to the abundant and low-cost sodium resources. However, their practical application still needs to overcome some problems like slow redox kinetics and poor capacity retention rate. Here, a high-performance ZnSe/carbon fibers (ZnSe-CFs) anode is demonstrated with high electrons/Na+ transport efficiency for sodium-ion half/full batteries by engineering ZnSe/C heterostructure. The electrochemical behavior of the ZnSe-CFs heterostructure anode is deeply studied via in situ characterizations and theoretical calculations. Phase conversion is revealed to accelerate the “Zn-escape” effect for the formation of robust solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). This leads to the ZnSe-CFs delivering a superior rate performance of 206 mAh g−1 at 1500 mA g−1 for half battery and an initial discharge capacity of 197.4 mAh g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 for full battery. The work here heralds a promising strategy to synthesize advanced heterostructured anodes for SIBs, and provides the guidance for a better understanding of phase conversion anodes.

A low‐profile metasurface antenna with circularly polarized radiation and tailored anisotropic reflection is proposed in this letter. The metasurface antenna composed of excitation structure (microstrip line with coupling slot) and a metasurface layer. The metasurface functions for two goals, generating circularly polarized wave for radiation and tailoring reflection phase for scattering, respectively. The overall structure of the metasurface antenna is compact with a dimension of 0.67λ × 0.67λ × 0.05λ at 5 GHz. Numerical and measured results confirm that the metasurface antenna exhibits 11.1% −10 dB S11 bandwidth from 4.68 to 5.23 GHz, 10.8% 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth from 4.782 to 5.37 GHz and a maximum gain of 6.83 dBic. Besides, the metasurface antenna achieves anti‐phase reflection under orthogonal polarized incident waves at around 5 GHz. To demonstrate a potential application, 16 identical metasurface antennas are put in a 4 × 4 array. The metasurface antenna array achieves directive circularly polarized radiation with a maximum gain of 15 dBic. On the other hand, when under normal illumination, the scattering field of metasurface antenna array is redistributed due to phase cancelation, so that the backward radar cross section of the array is significantly reduced, which is applicable for military platform.