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Melanosomes in nature have diverse morphologies, including spheres, rods, and platelets. By contrast, shapes of synthetic melanins have been almost entirely limited to spherical nanoparticles with few exceptions produced by complex templated synthetic methods. Here, we report a non‐templated method to access synthetic melanins with a variety of architectures including spheres, sheets, and platelets. Three 1,8‐dihydroxynaphthalene dimers (4‐4′, 2‐4′ and 2‐2′) were used as self‐assembling synthons. These dimers pack to form well‐defined structures of varying morphologies depending on the isomer. Specifically, distinctive ellipsoidal platelets can be obtained using 4‐4′ dimers. Solid‐state polymerization of the preorganized dimers generates polymeric synthetic melanins while maintaining the initial particle morphologies. This work provides a new route to anisotropic synthetic melanins, where the building blocks are preorganized into specific shapes, followed by solid‐state polymerization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melanosomes in nature have diverse morphologies, including spheres, rods, and platelets. By contrast, shapes of synthetic melanins have been almost entirely limited to spherical nanoparticles with few exceptions produced by complex templated synthetic methods. Here, we report a non‐templated method to access synthetic melanins with a variety of architectures including spheres, sheets, and platelets. Three 1,8‐dihydroxynaphthalene dimers (4‐4′, 2‐4′ and 2‐2′) were used as self‐assembling synthons. These dimers pack to form well‐defined structures of varying morphologies depending on the isomer. Specifically, distinctive ellipsoidal platelets can be obtained using 4‐4′ dimers. Solid‐state polymerization of the preorganized dimers generates polymeric synthetic melanins while maintaining the initial particle morphologies. This work provides a new route to anisotropic synthetic melanins, where the building blocks are preorganized into specific shapes, followed by solid‐state polymerization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates automatic quality inspection for the components with a small diameter and deep aperture. An automatic pick-and-place system is constructed, which employs an endoscope to achieve better image quality aiming at the characteristics of the component. A coarse-to-fine contour extraction algorithm with four steps is presented to inspect the component’s quality. First, approximate locations of the targets are estimated using faster region-based convolutional neural networks (faster RCNN). Second, the corresponding edge image is obtained by using the multiscale probability boundary (mPb) detector. Third, edge enhancement is performed, which is based on the Brownian motion model. Fourth, the corresponding contours are finely extracted by edge grouping. A shape analyzing algorithm is utilized to classify the components based on the extracted contours. Comparison experiments fully demonstrate the superiority of the proposed inspection method over existing methods. Meanwhile, successful inspection results on challenging real-world image data prove that the system is of practical significance to industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defect engineering has emerged as an effective approach for modulating the electronic structure and physicochemical properties of carbon materials. Porous carbon materials with abundant defects are regarded as prospective electrode materials for capacitive deionization. Nevertheless, constructing defect-rich carbon materials and revealing the relationship between desalination capacity and intrinsic defects remains a daunting challenge. Herein, the defect-rich interconnected hierarchical porous carbon (IHPC) was fabricated via sol-gel method to form a supramolecular hydrogel containing highly dispersed K+ using coal, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and KOH as raw materials, followed by homogeneous activation. The spectroscopic studies coupled with density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the introduction of intrinsic defects can optimize the distribution of electron density to promote charge transfer, thereby enhancing saline ions adsorption. The plentiful adsorption sites, robust charge transfer kinetics and rapid ion diffusion derived from the multiple advantageous characteristics of IHPC facilitate a high desalination capacity of 31.25 mg g−1 in 800 mg L−1 NaCl solution. Meanwhile, it also presented excellent desalination performances in KCl (31.42 mg g−1), CaCl 2 (29.55 mg g−1), and MgCl 2 (26.65 mg g−1) solutions. The higher desalination capacity, rapid salt adsorption rate as well as outstanding cycling stability rank the IHPC as a potential candidate for capacitive deionization applications. • Defect-rich interconnected hierarchical porous carbons (IHPC) were prepared by homogeneous activation strategy. • Interconnecting hierarchical porous structures and abundant defects provide an abundance of adsorption sites. • The IHPC electrode reveals superior desalination capacity of 31.25 mg g−1 and high stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on human navigation has indicated that males and females differ in self-reported navigation strategy as well as objective measures of navigation efficiency. In two experiments, we investigated sex differences in navigation strategy and efficiency using an objective measure of strategy, the dual-solution paradigm (DSP; Marchette, Bakker, & Shelton, 2011). Although navigation by shortcuts and learned routes were the primary strategies used in both experiments, as in previous research on the DSP, individuals also utilized route reversals and sometimes found the goal location as a result of wandering. Importantly, sex differences were found in measures of both route selection and navigation efficiency. In particular, males were more likely to take shortcuts and reached their goal location faster than females, while females were more likely to follow learned routes and wander. Self-report measures of strategy were only weakly correlated with objective measures of strategy, casting doubt on their usefulness. This research indicates that the sex difference in navigation efficiency is large, and only partially related to an individual’s navigation strategy as measured by the dual-solution paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: allomelanin; anisotropy; DHN melanin; melanin; solid-state polymerization EN allomelanin anisotropy DHN melanin melanin solid-state polymerization 17221 17221 1 07/28/21 20210802 NES 210802 B Anisotropic synthetic melanins b have been generated by solid-state polymerization, as reported by Nathan C. Gianneschi et al. in their Research Article on page 17464. Ellipsoidal platelets of melanin, found to date only in biology, were obtained through pre-organizing the 4-4' dihydroxynaphthalene dimer as the building block, followed by solid-state oxidative polymerization to give polymeric melanin materials without changing their overall morphology. Ellipsoidal platelets of melanin, found to date only in biology, were obtained through pre-organizing the 4-4' dihydroxynaphthalene dimer as the building block, followed by solid-state oxidative polymerization to give polymeric melanin materials without changing their overall morphology. [Extracted from the article]

Allomelanin, anisotropy, DHN melanin, melanin, solid-state polymerization Keywords: allomelanin; anisotropy; DHN melanin; melanin; solid-state polymerization EN allomelanin anisotropy DHN melanin melanin solid-state polymerization 17361 17361 1 07/28/21 20210802 NES 210802 B Anisotrope synthetische Melanine b wurden durch Festkörperpolymerisation hergestellt, wie Nathan C. Gianneschi et al. in ihrem Forschungsartikel auf S. 17605 berichten. Titelbild: Anisotropic Synthetic Allomelanin Materials via Solid-State Polymerization of Self-Assembled 1,8-Dihydroxynaphthalene Dimers (Angew. [Extracted from the article]

Compositionally graded cylinders of Ti–Mn alloys were produced using the Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™) technique, with Mn content varying from 0 to 12 wt.% along the cylinder axis. The cylinders were subjected to different post-build heat treatments to produce a large sample library of α–β microstructures. The microstructures in the sample library were studied using back-scattered electron (BSE) imaging in a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and their mechanical properties were evaluated using spherical indentation stress–strain protocols. These protocols revealed that the microstructures exhibited features with averaged chord lengths in the range of 0.17–1.78 μm, and beta content in the range of 20–83 vol.%. The estimated values of the Young's moduli and tensile yield strengths from spherical indentation were found to vary in the ranges of 97–130 GPa and 828–1864 MPa, respectively. The combined use of the LENS technique along with the spherical indentation protocols was found to facilitate the rapid exploration of material and process spaces. Analyses of the correlations between the process conditions, several key microstructural features, and the measured material properties were performed via Gaussian process regression (GPR). These data-driven statistical models provided valuable insights into the underlying correlations between these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Stroke is a common and frequently occurring disease among middle-aged and elderly people, with approximately 55%−75% of patients remaining with upper limb dysfunction. How to promote the recovery of motor function at an early stage is crucial to the life of the patient. Objectives. This study aimed to investigate whether high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) of the primary motor cortex (M1) functional area in poststroke patients in the subacute phase is more effective in improving upper limb function than conventional tDCS. Methods. This randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial included 69 patients with subcortical stroke. They were randomly divided into the HD-tDCS, anodal tDCS (a-tDCS), and sham groups. Each group received 20 sessions of stimulation. The patients were assessed using the Action Research Arm Test, Fugl–Meyer score for upper extremities, Motor Function Assessment Scale, and modified Barthel index (MBI) pretreatment and posttreatment. Results. The intragroup comparison scores improved after 4 weeks of treatment. The HD-tDCS group showed a slightly greater, but nonsignificant improvement as compared to a-tDCS group in terms of mean change observed in function of trained items. The MBI score of the HD-tDCS group was maintained up to 8 weeks of follow-up and was higher than that in the a-tDCS group. Conclusion. Both HD-tDCS and a-tDCS can improve upper limb motor function and daily activities of poststroke patients in the subacute stage. This trial is registered with ChiCTR2000031314. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White matter alterations are frequently reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet the etiology is currently unknown. The objective of this investigation was to examine, for the first time, the impact of genetic and environmental factors on white matter microstructure in twins with ASD compared to control twins without ASD. Diffusion-weighted MRIs were obtained from same-sex twin pairs (6-15 years of age) in which at least 1 twin was diagnosed with ASD or neither twin exhibited a history of neurological or psychiatric disorders. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were examined across different white matter tracts in the brain, and statistical and twin modeling were completed to assess the proportion of variation associated with additive genetic (A) and common/shared (C) or unique (E) environmental factors. We also developed a novel Twin-Pair Difference Score analysis method that produces quantitative estimates of the genetic and environmental contributions to shared covariance between different brain and behavioral traits. Good-quality data were available from 84 twin pairs, 50 ASD pairs (32 concordant for ASD [16 monozygotic; 16 dizygotic], 16 discordant for ASD [3 monozygotic; 13 dizygotic], and 2 pairs in which 1 twin had ASD and the other exhibited some subthreshold symptoms [1 monozygotic; 1 dizygotic]) and 34 control pairs (20 monozygotic; 14 dizygotic). Average FA and MD across the brain, respectively, were primarily genetically mediated in both control twins (A = 0.80, 95% CI [0.57, 1.02]; A = 0.80 [0.55, 1.04]) and twins concordant for having ASD (A = 0.71 [0.33, 1.09]; A = 0.84 [0.32,1.36]). However, there were also significant tract-specific differences between groups. For instance, genetic effects on commissural fibers were primarily associated with differences in general cognitive abilities and perhaps some diagnostic differences for ASD because Twin-Pair Difference-Score analysis indicated that genetic factors may have contributed to ∼40% to 50% of the covariation between IQ scores and FA of the corpus callosum. Conversely, the increased impact of environmental factors on some projection and association fibers were primarily associated with differences in symptom severity in twins with ASD; for example, our analyses suggested that unique environmental factors may have contributed to ∼10% to 20% of the covariation between autism-related symptom severity and FA of the cerebellar peduncles and external capsule. White matter alterations in youth with ASD are associated with both genetic contributions and potentially increased vulnerability or responsivity to environmental influences. We worked to ensure sex and gender balance in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as living with a disability. The author list of this paper includes contributors from the location and/or community where the research was conducted and they participated in the data collection, design, analysis, and/or interpretation of the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intriguing catalytic properties of cerium-based materials have motivated the development of Ce-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). However, the controlled crystallization of Ce MOFs remains nascent due to complications with the high reduction potential of Ce4+ species. Modulators offer a route in other well-studied coordination networks to slow down crystallization processes to allow for corrective, uniform crystal growth. Herein, we report an investigation of modulator identity and concentration on the synthesis of a Ce-UiO-type MOF with 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid (NDC) as a linker. At low concentrations using both benzoic acid and trifluoroacetic acid, we observed a mononuclear Ce3+ MOF (NU-350) through single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. Higher modulator concentrations yielded pure-phase Ce-UiO-NDC, with uniform particle sizes observed with utilizing benzoic acid as a modulator. Moreover, we demonstrated the transferability of this synthesis through the pure-phase synthesis of Ce-UiO-66 with benzoic acid as a modulator. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy showed a single crystalline domain within Ce-UiO-NDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] The structural defects and oxygen-containing functional groups of carbon materials as electrode materials for supercapacitors or capacitive deionization devices are critical to their electrochemical performance. The tuning of surface oxygen-containing functional groups and carbon defects during pyrolysis is key to achieve a high performance in ion storage. Herein, quinonyl-dominant defective porous carbon is prepared by a pyrolysis and cross-linking route using lavender stem and potassium acetate as precursor. Benefiting from the presence of abundant defect and surface quinonyl groups, porous carbon shows an ultra-high specific capacitance of 401 F g−1 (1 A g−1) and a high capacitance retention of 63% at a high current density of 100 A g−1 in a KOH solution. Meanwhile, as a capacitive deionization electrode material, it also exhibited a high adsorption capacity of 25.5 mg g−1 in 500 mg L-1 NaCl solution at 1.2 V. Theoretical density functional theory (DFT) calculation demonstrates that surface quinonyl groups and carbon defects can synergistically facilitate the adsorption of K+ and Na+ during the charge/discharge process. This work provides a new perspective for understanding the role of surface oxygen-containing groups and intrinsic defects of porous carbon materials in electrochemical energy storage and desalination applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interactions between uranium and non‐innocent organic species are an essential component of fundamental uranium redox chemistry. However, they have seldom been explored in the context of multidimensional, porous materials. Uranium‐based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) offer a new angle to study these interactions, as these self‐assembled species stabilize uranium species through immobilization by organic linkers within a crystalline framework, while potentially providing a method for adjusting metal oxidation state through coordination of non‐innocent linkers. We report the synthesis of the MOF NU‐1700, assembled from U4+‐paddlewheel nodes and catecholate‐based linkers. We propose this highly unusual structure, which contains two U4+ ions in a paddlewheel built from four linkers—a first among uranium materials—as a result of extensive characterization via powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), sorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), in addition to density functional theory (DFT) calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interactions between uranium and non‐innocent organic species are an essential component of fundamental uranium redox chemistry. However, they have seldom been explored in the context of multidimensional, porous materials. Uranium‐based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) offer a new angle to study these interactions, as these self‐assembled species stabilize uranium species through immobilization by organic linkers within a crystalline framework, while potentially providing a method for adjusting metal oxidation state through coordination of non‐innocent linkers. We report the synthesis of the MOF NU‐1700, assembled from U4+‐paddlewheel nodes and catecholate‐based linkers. We propose this highly unusual structure, which contains two U4+ ions in a paddlewheel built from four linkers—a first among uranium materials—as a result of extensive characterization via powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), sorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), in addition to density functional theory (DFT) calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Porous carbons have been widely applied for capacitive energy storage, yet usually suffer from insufficient rate performance because of the sluggish ion transport kinetics in deep and multi-branched pores. Herein, we fabricated an interconnected microporous capacitive carbon (IMCC) by growing D (+)-glucosamine on bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofibers scaffold, followed by carbonization and activation. The BC nanofibers acted as a sacrificial template during pre-carbonization, facilitating the subsequent KOH permeation and homogeneous activation. By taking advantage of the interconnected microporous structure, the IMCC delivers a high capacitance of 302 F g−1 at 1 A g-1 and an excellent rate capability of 165 F g−1 at 100 A g-1 for aqueous supercapacitor, demonstrating its fast ion transport capability. Impressively, it also shows a superior gravimetric capacity of 177 mAh g-1 at 0.5 A g-1 and remains a high value of 72 mAh g-1 at 20 A g-1 as a cathode material for Zn-ion hybrid capacitor. This facile and cost-effective design strategy exhibits a great potential to construct carbohydrates-derived interconnected microporous carbon materials for high-rate energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dental follicles are necessary for tooth eruption, surround the enamel organ and dental papilla, and regulate both the formation and resorption of alveolar bone. Dental follicle progenitor cells (DFPCs), which are stem cells found in dental follicles, differentiate into different kinds of cells that are necessary for tooth formation and eruption. Runt‐related transcription factor 2 (Runx2) is a transcription factor that is essential for osteoblasts and osteoclasts differentiation, as well as bone remodeling. Mutation of Runx2 causing cleidocranial dysplasia negatively affects osteogenesis and the osteoclastic ability of dental follicles, resulting in tooth eruption difficulties. Among a variety of cells and molecules, Nel-like molecule type 1 (Nell-1) plays an important role in neural crest-derived tissues and is strongly expressed in dental follicles. Nell-1 was originally identified in pathologically fused and fusing sutures of patients with unilateral coronal synostosis, and it plays indispensable roles in bone remodeling, including roles in osteoblast differentiation, bone formation and regeneration, craniofacial skeleton development, and the differentiation of many kinds of stem cells. Runx2 was proven to directly target the Nell-1 gene and regulate its expression. These studies suggested that Runx2/Nell-1 axis may play an important role in the process of tooth eruption by affecting DFPCs. Studies on short and long regulatory noncoding RNAs have revealed the complexity of RNA-mediated regulation of gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. This ceRNA network participates in the regulation of Runx2 and Nell-1 gene expression in a complex way. However, non-study indicated the potential connection between Runx2 and Nell-1, and further researches are still needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orthodontic tooth movement is a mechanobiological reaction induced by appropriate forces, including bone remodeling. The mechanosensitive Piezo channels have been shown to contribute to bone remodeling. However, information about the pathways through which Piezo channels affects osteoblasts remains limited. Thus, we aimed to investigate the influence of Piezo1 on the osteogenic and osteoclast factors in osteoblasts under mechanical load. Cyclic stretch (CS) experiments on MC3T3-E1 were conducted using a BioDynamic mechanical stretching device. The Piezo1 channel blocker GsMTx4 and the Piezo1 channel agonist Yoda1 were used 12 h before the application of CS. MC3T3-E1 cells were then subjected to 15% CS, and the expression of Piezo1, Piezo2, BMP-2, OCN, Runx2, RANKL, p-p65/p65, and ALP was measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, western blot, alkaline phosphatase staining, and immunofluorescence staining. CS of 15% induced the highest expression of Piezo channel and osteoblast factors. Yoda1 significantly increased the CS-upregulated expression of Piezo1 and ALP activity but not Piezo2 and RANKL. GsMTx4 downregulated the CS-upregulated expression of Piezo1, Piezo2, Runx2, OCN, p-65/65, and ALP activity but could not completely reduce CS-upregulated BMP-2. The appropriate force is more suitable for promoting osteogenic differentiation in MC3T3-E1. The Piezo1 channel participates in osteogenic differentiation of osteoblasts through its influence on the expression of osteogenic factors like BMP-2, Runx2, and OCN and is involved in regulating osteoclasts by influencing phosphorylated p65. These results provide a foundation for further exploration of osteoblast function in orthodontic tooth movement. • 15% cyclic stretch is optimal for MC3T3 to express Piezo and osteoblast markers. • Piezo1 and Piezo2 channels were upregulated by cyclic stretch stimuli in MC3T3. • Blocking/activating Piezo1 regulates Piezo2. • Blocking/activating Piezo1 regulates BMP-2, OCN, Runx2, P-P65/P65, ALP activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional polymer separation membranes or coatings suffer from poor separation performance and serious failure in highly corrosive environments, due to their low chemical and mechanical stability. Herein, a simple electrospraying and electrospinning strategy was used to prepare flexible superhydrophobic carbon fiber membranes (FSCFM). The wettability of FSCFM was improved by forming a lotus leaf-like hierarchical rough structure on its surface. The FSCFM exhibited an excellent permeation flux of immiscible oil-water mixtures (up to 15,800 L m−2 h−1) and water-in-oil emulsions (over 5500 L m−2 h−1), while the separation efficiencies were always kept at more than 99 % after 25 consecutive separations. Even in corrosive environments, its separation performance did not show any degradation. Notably, except for recovering floating oil under external driving forces with excellent cyclic stabilities, FSCFM was also able to transport various corrosive solutions with high efficiencies (99.9 %). After multiple mechanical damages and bending cycles, the FSCFM remained superhydrophobic. It could also maintain its repellency in strong acids/bases, high salt solutions and even under high-temperature environments (94.5 °C). These superior properties make it a strong candidate for oil-water mixture/emulsion separation and non-destructive transport of highly corrosive fluids. [Display omitted] • Flexible superhydrophobic carbon fiber with a lotus leaf structure. • Excellent separation capability of oil-water mixtures and emulsions. • The separation performance in highly corrosive environments remains unchanged. • Excellent mechanochemical robustness and multifunctionality were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is utilized as one of the most popular consumer plastics worldwide, but difficulties associated with recycling PET have generated a severe environmental crisis with most PET ending its lifecycle in landfills. We report that zirconium‐based metal–organic framework (Zr‐MOF) UiO‐66 deconstructs waste PET into the building blocks terephthalic acid (TA) and mono‐methyl terephthalate (MMT) within 24 hours at 260 °C (total yield of 98 % under 1 atm H2 and 81 % under 1 atm Ar). Extensive structural characterization studies reveal that during the degradation process, UiO‐66 undergoes an intriguing transformation into MIL‐140A, which is another Zr‐MOF that shows good catalytic activity toward PET degradation under similar reaction conditions. These results illustrate the diversity of applications for Zr‐MOFs and establish MOFs as a new class of polymer degradation catalysts with the potential to address long‐standing challenges associated with plastic waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is utilized as one of the most popular consumer plastics worldwide, but difficulties associated with recycling PET have generated a severe environmental crisis with most PET ending its lifecycle in landfills. We report that zirconium‐based metal–organic framework (Zr‐MOF) UiO‐66 deconstructs waste PET into the building blocks terephthalic acid (TA) and mono‐methyl terephthalate (MMT) within 24 hours at 260 °C (total yield of 98 % under 1 atm H2 and 81 % under 1 atm Ar). Extensive structural characterization studies reveal that during the degradation process, UiO‐66 undergoes an intriguing transformation into MIL‐140A, which is another Zr‐MOF that shows good catalytic activity toward PET degradation under similar reaction conditions. These results illustrate the diversity of applications for Zr‐MOFs and establish MOFs as a new class of polymer degradation catalysts with the potential to address long‐standing challenges associated with plastic waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Candle soot-modified under-liquid superlyophobic fiber membrane. • USFM-15 had high porosity and selective wettability. • USFM-15 exhibited ultra-high oil–water mixture/emulsion separation properties. • USFM-15 had relatively high chemical stability and mechanical durability. Separation membranes with super-wettability are highly desirable for treating various oil/water contaminants. However, common fiber membranes suffer from single selectivity, poor stability and unsuitable pore structures, which cannot be easily modified to improve their separation performance in practice. Herein, an under-liquid superlyophobic fiber membrane (USFM) was prepared by a two-step approach, namely, spraying candle soot on an electrospun fiber membrane to form a rough structure and subsequently a thermal treatment step to improve stabilities. The obtained USFM-15 exhibits superamphiphilicity in air and under-liquid superlyophobicity after being pre-wetted by water and oil. With the synergy of suitable porosity and high selective wettability, the obtained membrane exhibited permeation fluxes of as high as 22,000 and 56,000 L m-2 h−1 with a separation efficiency of more than 99.5% for immiscible light/heavy oil/water mixtures. The USFM-15 also showed an excellent permeation flux for oil-in-water and water-in-oil emulsions of up to 4,000 and 20,000 L m-2 h−1, respectively. The separation efficiency of USFM-15 for emulsion was still more than 99.2% after 25 cycles. Moreover, the USFM-15 also has excellent reusability, high chemical stability and mechanical durability. The results of this study are expected to provide essential inspiration for designing, developing, and commercializing unique wetting materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on automatic inspection for the commonly used component called spring-wire socket. An automatic inspection system is built that adopts an endoscope to improve the imaging quality. To detect the low contrast targets in complex background, we adopt the pipeline of Faster R-CNN but with several improvements. The improved network specifies the targets in the form of quadrangular bounding box as opposed to previous methods that specify them by rectangular bounding box. With the quadrangular representation, additional shape and pose information is provided and unexpected overlaps and background disturbance could be avoided. In the network, an eight-dimensional (8-D) vector is designed to represent the quadrangular bounding box followed by the improved anchor mechanism in the region proposal network. And also, a novel overlap score calculation method is proposed. On the basis of the detection result, rules arisen from expertise are provided to determine the quality of the component in which way automatic quality inspection could be accomplished. The superiority of our detection network over existing ones is sufficiently demonstrated with the detection result of irregular targets in images captured in the industrial scenario. Meanwhile, successful inspection result proves that the system meets the industrial requirements in terms of both accuracy and speed and thus is of practical significance to industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isoreticular synthesis is a powerful tool to enhance specific attributes of a metal–organic framework (MOF). While the isoreticular expansion of MOF structure are prevalent in the literature, the compression of a topology holds great promise for separations due to the contracted pore apertures and/or cavities. Herein, we report the synthesis, characterization and Xe/Kr separation capability of a new Zr-based MOF, NU-1106, connected by the tetratopic linker 1,3,6,8-pyrene tetracarboxylate, which exhibits a compressed ftw topology compared to the extended ones reported previously. NU-1106 showed selective uptake of Xenon over Krypton, providing the potential for use for separations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Alveolar bone osteoporosis has attracted more and more attention because of its profound impact on stomatognathic function and treatment, but current treatments have not been targeted to alveolar bone and might even cause severe side effects. Thus, identifying the effects of anti‐osteoporosis agents on alveolar bone is essential. Icariin ameliorates metabolic dysfunction of long bones, but its effects on alveolar bone remain unclarified. Materials and methods: BMSCs were isolated from rat mandibles (mBMSCs). The osteogenic potential of mBMSCs and the signalling pathway involved under icariin treatment were measured by ALP and alizarin red staining, reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), Western blotting and immunofluorescence. Dual‐luciferase assay, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) and co‐immunoprecipitation were used to investigate the molecular mechanism. Ovariectomized and sham‐operated rats treated with or without icariin were analysed by micro‐CT, TRAP staining and calcein double labelling. Results: We found that icariin promoted osteoblast differentiation of mBMSCs. Furthermore, STAT3 was critical for icariin‐promoted osteoblast differentiation, as indicated by increased phosphorylation levels in icariin‐treated mBMSCs, while preventing STAT3 activation blocked icariin‐induced osteoblast differentiation. Mechanistically, icariin‐promoted transcription of the downstream osteogenic gene osteocalcin (Ocn) through STAT3 and STAT3 bound to the promoter of Ocn. Notably, icariin prevented the alveolar bone osteoporosis induced by oestrogen deficiency through promoting bone formation. Conclusions: For the first time, our work provides evidence supporting the potential application of icariin in promoting osteogenesis and treating alveolar bone osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To form hierarchical anode materials for fast lithium-/sodium storage, nanocrystallites SnO 2 (5 nm) on reduced graphene nanosheets (rGO) are successfully synthesized through ultrasonication and cryodesiccation, the as-produced SnO 2 /rGO clusters are homogeneously connected by carbon nanotube (CNT) through cryodesiccation. rGO with high specific surface area efficiently buffers the volumetric change and the pulverization of SnO 2 during lithiation/delithiation process. CNTs not only hinder the restack of SnO 2 /rGO clusters but also as conductive bridges connect the scattered SnO 2 /rGO clusters, which consequently improve the cycle stability and rate performance of samples. At the current density of 0.1 A g−1, SnO 2 /rGO/CNT sample presents the initial discharge and charge capacities of 1678.6 and 1091.2 mAh g−1. At 5 A g−1, SnO 2 /rGO/CNT sample delivers 434.7 mAh g−1 that is higher than SnO 2 /rGO sample with 251.7 mAh g−1. Moreover, the SnO 2 /rGO/CNT - LiCoO 2 full cell shows high capacity of 852.6 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 with a CE of 99.4%. The result indicates that CNTs can effectively achieve the integrity of the material by connecting other clusters of metal oxides and rGO. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a critical electrical connector component in the modern industrial environment, spring-wire sockets and their manufacture quality are closely relevant to equipment safety. These types of defects in a component are difficult to properly distinguish due to the defect similarity and diversity. In such cases, defect types can only be determined using cumbersome human visual inspection. To satisfy the requirements of quality control, a machine vision apparatus for component inspection is presented in this paper. With a brief description of the apparatus system design, our emphasis is put on the defect recognition algorithm. A multitask convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed for detecting those ambiguous defects. Compared with the image processing method in machine vision, the defect inspection problem is converted into object detection and classification problems. Instead of breaking it down into two separate tasks, we jointly handle both aspects in a single CNN. In addition, data augmentation methods are discussed to analyze their effects on defects recognition. Successful inspection results using the presented model are obtained using challenging real-world defect image data gathered from a spring-wire socket module inspection line in an industrial plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assembly of powdered materials into freestanding electrodes can avoid the usage of metallic current collectors and thus reduce the weight and cost of devices. In this work, we prepared robust, binder-free freestanding membrane electrodes consisting of a three-dimensional network of bacterial cellulose (BC) with acetylene black and activated carbon uniformly embedded. Filtration as a facile method was employed to prepare the highly hydrophilic and conductive porous network. This architecture facilitated electrolyte infiltration and significantly enhanced the electrolyte uptake (6 times of the entire electrode weight), which subsequently improved ion transport and reduced the contact resistance between electrode and electrolyte. Owing to the high porosity, excellent wettability and the efficient utilization of active material, the obtained freestanding electrode with a mass loading of 3 mg cm−2 delivered a high capacity of 276 F g−1 at 1 A g−1. It also exhibited an excellent cycle stability at 5 A g−1 without detectable capacity fading after 10,000 cycles in a two-electrode system. More importantly, a high specific capacitance of 167 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and a high energy density of 5.3 W h kg−1 at 163 W kg−1 with respect to the overall weight of electrode were achieved at a commercial level mass loading of 10 mg cm−2, which considerably outperformed common electrode using nickel foam as current collector. This work provided a facile and effective way in producing lightweight, low cost and high-performance electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel Category-aware Conv-Pooling module is proposed, which explores weak image tag annotation to extract spatial information. • Knowledge distillation strategy is adopted to force the feature of a student CADN to mimic that of a teacher CADN, leading to accuracy improvement. • As verified, weakly supervised defect detection is achieved and competitive results are obtained by using the proposed CADN method. • In CADN, human labeling effort, accuracy and speed are simultaneously considered, making the method practical in industrial applications. Large-scale data with human annotations is of crucial importance for training deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) to ensure stable and reliable performance. However, accurate annotations, such as bounding box and pixel-level annotations, demand expensive labeling efforts, which has prevented wide application of DCNN in industries. Focusing on the problem of surface defect detection, this paper proposes a weakly supervised learning method named Category-Aware object Detection network (CADN) to tackle the dilemma. CADN is trained with image tag annotations only and performs image classification and defect localization simultaneously. The weakly supervised learning is achieved by extracting category-aware spatial information in a classification pipeline. CADN could be equipped with either a lighter or a larger backbone network as the feature extractor resulting in better real-time performance or higher accuracy. To address the two conflicting objectives simultaneously, both of which are significant concerns in industrial applications, knowledge distillation strategy is adopted to force the learned features of a lighter CADN to mimic that of a larger CADN. Accordingly, the accuracy of the lighter CADN is improved while high real-time performance is maintained. The proposed approach is verified on our own defect dataset as well as on an open-source defect dataset. As demonstrated, satisfied performance is achieved by the proposed method, which could meet industrial requirements completely. Meanwhile, the method minimizes human efforts involved in image labelling, thus promoting the applications of DCNN in industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]