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The GSK3/SHAGGY‐like kinase plays critical roles in plant development and response to stress, but its specific function remains largely unknown in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In this study, we investigated the function of TaGSK3, a GSK3/SHAGGY‐like kinase, in wheat development and response to stress. Our findings demonstrated that TaGSK3 mutants had significant effects on wheat seedling development and brassinosteroid (BR) signalling. Quadruple and quintuple mutants showed amplified BR signalling, promoting seedling development, while a sextuple mutant displayed severe developmental defects but still responded to exogenous BR signals, indicating redundancy and non‐BR‐related functions of TaGSK3. A gain‐of‐function mutation in TaGSK3‐3D disrupted BR signalling, resulting in compact and dwarf plant architecture. Notably, this mutation conferred significant drought and heat stress resistance of wheat, and enhanced heat tolerance independent of BR signalling, unlike knock‐down mutants. Further research revealed that this mutation maintains a higher relative water content by regulating stomatal‐mediated water loss and maintains a lower ROS level to reduces cell damage, enabling better growth under stress. Our study provides comprehensive insights into the role of TaGSK3 in wheat development, stress response, and BR signal transduction, offering potential for modifying TaGSK3 to improve agronomic traits and enhance stress resistance in wheat. Summary statement: Our findings elucidated the redundant role of TaGSK3 in wheat brassinosteroid (BR) signalling and developmental phenotypes, as well as its unique ability to enhance heat resistance independently of the BR signal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Butyl butyrate is a short‐chain fatty acid ester (C8) with a fruity aroma. It has broad prospects in the fields of foods, cosmetics and biofuels. At present, butyl butyrate is produced by chemical synthesis in the industry, but it is highly dependent on petroleum‐based products. The growing concerns regarding the future scarcity of fossil fuels have been strongly promoted the transition from traditional fossil fuels and products to renewable bioenergy and biochemicals. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a green biochemical technology to replace traditional petroleum‐based materials. In recent years, microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and Clostridium have been engineered to serve as cell factories for the sustainable one‐pot production of short‐chain fatty acid esters, including butyl butyrate. This opinion highlights the recent development in the use of lipases and alcohol acyltransferases (AATs) for butyl butyrate production in microbial fermentation, as well as future perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In adverse environments, the number of fertilizable female gametophytes (FGs) in plants is reduced, leading to increased survival of the remaining offspring. How the maternal plant perceives internal growth cues and external stress conditions to alter FG development remains largely unknown. We report that homeostasis of the stress signaling molecule nitric oxide (NO) plays a key role in controlling FG development under both optimal and stress conditions. NO homeostasis is precisely regulated by S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR). Prior to fertilization, GSNOR protein is exclusively accumulated in sporophytic tissues and indirectly controls FG development in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). In GSNOR null mutants, NO species accumulated in the degenerating sporophytic nucellus, and auxin efflux into the developing FG was restricted, which inhibited FG development, resulting in reduced fertility. Importantly, restoring GSNOR expression in maternal, but not gametophytic tissues, or increasing auxin efflux substrate significantly increased the proportion of normal FGs and fertility. Furthermore, GSNOR overexpression or added auxin efflux substrate increased fertility under drought and salt stress. These data indicate that NO homeostasis is critical to normal auxin transport and maternal control of FG development, which in turn determine seed yield. Understanding this aspect of fertility control could contribute to mediating yield loss under adverse conditions. Maternal nitric oxide homeostasis restricts auxin supply to the female gametophyte, disrupting its development under both optimal and stress conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface structure and composition of pre-catalysts play a critical role in the surface reconstruction process toward active species during the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Surface modified methods can accelerate the OER process of alloy ribbons, but the understanding of pre-catalysts and the structure/reactivity of the reconstruction (active) species is still insufficient. Herein, we report a two-step dealloyed Ni–Fe–P alloy ribbon as a highly efficient OER electrocatalyst. By adjusting the surface-derived component, we could regulate Ni/Fe hydroxide active species on the Ni–Fe–P alloy ribbon, enhancing the OER performance. The oxidation and release of P driven by dealloying plays a key role in constructing optimal β-NiOOH/FeOOH catalytic species on Ni–Fe–P. The optimal β-NiOOH/FeOOH active species enables Ni–Fe–P alloy to obtain a 104 mV of reduction in overpotential (at 10 mA cm−2) and a 78-fold increase in current density (at overpotential: 300 mV) compared to undealloyed Ni–Fe–P. Our work provides valuable insights into the relationship between the surface structure/composition of alloy bulk electrocatalysts and surface-reconstructed species and a rational design of a surface treatment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Butyl butyrate has broad applications in foods, cosmetics, solvents, and biofuels. Microbial synthesis of bio-based butyl butyrate has been regarded as a promising approach recently. Herein, we engineered Clostridium tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755 to achieve de novo biosynthesis of butyl butyrate from fermentable sugars. Through introducing the butanol synthetic pathway (enzyme AdhE2), screening alcohol acyltransferases (AATs), adjusting transcription of VAAT and adhE2 (i.e., optimizing promoter), and efficient supplying butyryl-CoA, an excellent engineered strain, named MUV3, was obtained with ability to produce 4.58 g/L butyl butyrate at 25 °C with glucose in serum bottles. More NADH is needed for butyl butyrate synthesis, thus mannitol (the more reduced substrate) was employed to produce butyl butyrate. Ultimately, 62.59 g/L butyl butyrate with a selectivity of 95.97%, and a yield of 0.21 mol/mol was obtained under mannitol with fed-batch fermentation in a 5 L bioreactor, which is the highest butyl butyrate titer reported so far. Altogether, this study presents an anaerobic fermentative platform for de novo biosynthesis of butyl butyrate in one step, which lays the foundation for butyl butyrate biosynthesis from renewable biomass feedstocks. • Development of an upp /5-FU counter-selection system for efficient iterative genome-editing in C. tyrobutyricum. • Establishment of the de novo biosynthetic pathway of butyl butyrate from fermentable sugars in C. tyrobutyricum. • Mannitol as substrate for efficiency butyl butyrate production at a low temperature of 25°C. • Performed fermentation strategy with fed-batch fermentation in 5 L bioreacter for high level of butyl butyrate production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst (oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER)), spinel copper cobaltite (CuCo2O4) is attracting significant research interest owing to the tailored Co, Cu electronic structure and ease of adjusting the electrochemically active area. However, its poor OER performance (>300 mV at 10 mA cm−2) limits its practical application for rechargeable zinc–air batteries. Therefore, we construct a CuCo2O4/NiFe LDH oxide/hydroxide interface to tune the properties of Ni, Fe and Co for enhancing OER activity and decreasing the charging overpotential of rechargeable zinc–air batteries. The obtained electrocatalysts show a low overpotential of 251 mV (10 mA cm−2), which is 91 mV lower than the overpotential (342 mV) of CuCo2O4. By in situ Raman, XPS and electrochemical analyses, we ascribe the enhanced OER activity to the increasing Ni/Fe oxidation state triggered by the charge transfer of Ni/Fe and Co, which prompts CuCo2O4/NiFe LDH to rapidly form an active surface layer. Benefiting from enhanced OER performance, zinc–air batteries with a CuCo2O4/NiFe LDH electrode display a high round-trip efficiency with a low voltage gap of ∼0.78 V (10 mA cm−2) due to the obvious decrease in the charging overpotential. These results suggest the importance of tuning the charge transfer on interfaces for designing high-efficiency electrocatalysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding invasion mechanisms or identifying their potential outcomes has been a longstanding objective of invasion. Many recent empirical and theoretical works tend to frame a perspective of invasion biology within the field of coexistence theory. With increasing emphasis on indirect competitions, more researches hold that niche departure, intransitive loop structure or the integration of these two would be the potential mechanisms to promote native coexistence. But how invasion dynamics rely on these key properties of native competitive network is seldom investigated. Here, we introduce one alien species to a three-species competition system. By setting the structure of coexistence coefficient matrix, we consider three native coexistence mechanisms. After analyzing the equilibrium consequences of alien species invasion under these three mechanisms, we have found that (1) in the native communities supported by strong niche differentiation, alien species can certainly establish their population but would not pose great destruction to native species. (2) Invasion exclusion would happen in the community maintained by intransitive competition loop. However, whether alien species coexist with or exclude resident populations depends on both intraspecific and interspecific competition of invader. (3) The community assembled by the combination of these two mechanisms are most resistant to invasion, and where invasion consequences are more diverse. (4) Finally, the species long-term steady state and short-term respond always keep consistent. We have explicitly situated invasion process within the recent coexistence framework. Our results would broaden the understanding of invasion mechanisms and provide insights into the combination of invasion and coexistence theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is known and objective: Many antibiotics are well known for being associated with adverse events (AEs) of central nervous system, ceftazidime/avibactam (CAZ/AVI) is a novel β‐lactam/β‐lactamase inhibitor combinations. In this commentary, we analyzed reports of nervous system disorders associated with CAZ/AVI, meropenem, imipenem, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, and cefepime in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Adverse Event Reporting System database from January 2015 to March 2022. Comment: The reporting odds ratios (RORs) method was used to detect the safety signals. Up to 15.62% of CAZ/AVI AEs exhibit nervous system disorders associated with CAZ/AVI. A nervous system disorder signal was detected for CAZ/AVI compared with meropenem, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone. Compared with meropenem, imipenem, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone, encephalopathy, myoclonus, reported with CAZ/AVI exhibited significant RORs. What is new and conclusion: This study found that CAZ/AVI showed a relatively stronger sign nervous system disorder than meropenem, ceftazidime, and ceftriaxone in the real world. The poor clinical outcome of these events should attract clinical attention, especially for patients with older than 65 years old and long treatment courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instance segmentation aims to locate targets in the image and segment each target at the pixel level, which is one of the most important tasks in computer vision. Mask R‐CNN is a classic method of instance segmentation, but we find that its predicted masks are unclear and inaccurate near contours. To cope with this problem, we draw on the idea of contour matching based on distance transformation image and propose a novel loss function called contour loss. Contour loss is designed to specifically optimise the contour parts of the predicted masks, thus can assure more accurate instance segmentation. To make the proposed contour loss be jointly trained under modern neural network frameworks, we design a differentiable k‐step distance transformation image calculation module, which can approximately compute truncated distance transformation images of the predicted mask and the corresponding ground‐truth mask online. The proposed contour loss can be integrated into existing instance segmentation methods such as Mask R‐CNN, and combined with their original loss functions without modification of the structures of inference network, thus has strong versatility. Experimental results on COCO show that contour loss is effective, which can further improve instance segmentation performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a pleiotropic regulator, Antibiotic resistant protein B (AbrB) was reported to play important roles in various cellular processes in Bacilli and some Clostridia strains. In Clostridium tyrobutyricum, abrB (CTK_C 00640) was identified to encode AbrB by amino acid sequence alignment and functional domain prediction. The results of abrB deletion or overexpression in C. tyrobutyricum showed that AbrB not only exhibited the reported characteristics such as the negative regulation on sporulation, positive effects on biofilm formation and stress resistance but also exhibited new functions, especially the negative regulation of carbon metabolism. AbrB knockout strain (Ct/ΔabrB) could alleviate glucose-mediated carbon catabolite repression (CCR) and enhance the utilization of xylose compared with the parental strain, resulting in a higher butyrate titer (14.79 g/L vs. 7.91 g/L) and xylose utilization rate (0.19 g/L·h vs. 0.02 g/L·h) from the glucose and xylose mixture. This study confirmed the pleiotropic regulatory function of AbrB in C. tyrobutyricum, suggesting that Ct/ΔabrB was the potential candidate for butyrate production from abundant, renewable lignocellulosic biomass mainly composed of glucose and xylose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic fluid identification plays an important role in reservoir exploration and development. Natural vertical fractures are common in carbonate rocks, it is essential to consider fracture-induced anisotropy in the fluid identification of fractured carbonate reservoirs. We have developed a novel Bayesian elastic impedance variation with an angle and azimuth (EIVAZ) inversion approach for directly estimating the fracture fluid indicator (FFI), which can avoid cumulative errors produced in the indirect calculation process. Under the assumption of weak anisotropy and a small incident angle, we first derive a new approximate PP-wave coefficient for horizontal transverse isotropic (HTI) media. Analysis shows that the new approximation has reasonable accuracy at angles of incidence less than 30°. To estimate the FFI from observed azimuthal P-wave seismic reflection data, we further deduce the azimuthal EI equation and establish a two-step inversion workflow. Finally, the proposed approach is demonstrated by tests on a synthetic data example and a field data set of a fractured carbonate reservoir in the Sichuan Basin (China). Results show that the model parameters can be reasonably estimated even with moderate noise levels. The estimated FFI and quasi-normal fracture weakness show relatively high values at the location of reservoirs, which reliably indicate a fractured gas-bearing reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different environmental policies create different incentives for emission reduction. The paper examines the effect of two environmental policies, the emission abatement subsidy and emission tax policies, on a market with manufacturer investment in a green technology to reduce emission. Compared to environmental taxation, the results show that the subsidy policy offers a greater incentive to abate emission and yields higher industry profit. However, regarding social welfare, the subsidy policy leads to lower social welfare and environmental performance than the tax policy when emission is highly damaging to the environment and emission abatement is sufficiently costly. From the industrial perspective, increasing technological efficiency is not necessarily beneficial even if it is costless as the government will adjust the environmental policy accordingly for social welfare optimization, may at the manufacturer's expense. Finally, extensions considering a combined policy (both subsidy and tax), a multiplicative emission cost function, and the problem in a supply chain context are performed to check the robustness of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Two copies of adhE2 improved butyl butyrate synthesis in Clostridium tyrobutyricum. • Inactivation of CAT1 elevated the carbon flux into the butyl butyrate synthetic pathway. • Appropriately reducing the concentration of nitrogen sources is conducive to butyl butyrate synthesis. • Fed-batch fermentation with two-stage tempterature shift strategy resulted in high butyl butyrate production. Butyl butyrate has a wide range of applications as flavors, solvents, and biofuels. Green production of butyl butyrate by microorganism fermentation in an industry level attracts great attention on the basis of bio-refinery. In this study, a dark horse Clostridium tyrobutyricum was employed for de novo production of butyl butyrate. Herein, reinforcement of EMP and butyl butyrate fermentation pathways (e.g., pfkA , pykA , crt - hbd - bcd / etfAB , adhE2 and VAAT) and regulation of carbon distribution towards butyl butyrate (e.g., CAT1 inactivation or overexpression of NADPH-dependent hbd1) were conducted in C. tyrobutyricum (MUV3) to enhance butyl butyrate production. The outstanding strain MV12 generated 1.8-fold butyl butyrate production compared to the initial strain MUV3. Subsequently, organic nitrogen source concentration was optimized, 21.1 g/L and 30.1 g/L butyl butyrate were obtained in 37 °C and 25 °C, respectively. Ultimately, fed-batch with two-stage temperature shift fermentation was performed for high titer and yield of butyl butyrate production (142.6 g/L titer and 0.28 mol/mol yield) from mannitol. Hence this study presented a microbial fermentation platform for butyl butyrate or other value-added chemicals production from renewable resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Zinc (Zn) is an important nutrient for human beings, which is also an essential micronutrient for crop growth. This study investigated the role of Zn in coordinating the mineral elements absorption in modern wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars with a new developed method. Results: A method was developed, and showed a robust capability to simultaneously investigate seven mineral elements uptake in wheat seedling. With this method, we found low Zn supply (< 1 μM) promoted the absorption of potassium (K), magnesium (Mg) and manganese (Mn) in wheat seedling, while high Zn supply (> 1 μM) significantly inhibited the absorption of these elements. Cultivars with the green genes (Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b) showed a higher uptake capability on ammonium (NH4+), and cultivars with Rht-B1b allele can uptake more phosphors (P), K, calcium (Ca), Mn and Zn compared to cultivars with Rht-D1b. Further analysis indicated higher uptake capability of NH4+ in cultivars contained Rhts was independent of Zn. Conclusion: The key role of Zn in coordinating for mineral elements absorption was identified in modern wheat cultivars, providing the reference for Zn application in wheat. Meanwhile, this study provides a robust method for quantifying the absorption of mineral elements, which may be adopted into the broadly investigations on the coordinated nutrients absorption of plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The nucellus tissue in flowering plants provides nutrition for the development of the female gametophyte (FG) and young embryo. The nucellus degenerates as the FG develops, but the mechanism controlling the coupled process of nucellar degeneration and FG expansion remains largely unknown.The degeneration process of the nucellus and spatiotemporal auxin distribution in the developing ovule before fertilization were investigated in Arabidopsis thaliana.Nucellar degeneration before fertilization occurs through vacuolar cell death and in an ordered degeneration fashion. This sequential nucellar degeneration is controlled by the signalling molecule auxin.Auxin efflux plays the core role in precisely controlling the spatiotemporal pattern of auxin distribution in the nucellus surrounding the FG. The auxin efflux carrier PIN1 transports maternal auxin into the nucellus while PIN3/PIN4/PIN7 further delivers auxin to degenerating nucellar cells and concurrently controls FG central vacuole expansion. Notably, auxin concentration and auxin efflux are controlled by the maternal tissues, acting as a key communication from maternal to filial tissue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Na‐ion hybrid capacitors (NICs) are known for their potential to integrate high power and energy density along with superior lifespan into a single energy storage device. However, the practical implementation of NICs is delayed due to their inadequate energy densities (<100 Wh kg−1), which is a result of the lack of anodes with rapid Na‐ion diffusion kinetics to match the cathodes. To accelerate Na‐ion diffusion kinetics, cobalt‐doped TiO2 (CoxTi1−xOy) nanosheet anodes with reconstructed low‐energy barrier channels for Na‐ion transfer are designed. Crystal defects, including nanointerfaces, Ti interstitials, and oxygen vacancies, are intentionally introduced to the CoxTi1−xOy structure to improve its conductivity and induce pseudocapacitive‐type Na‐ion storage. Moreover, these crystal defects subtly alter the Na‐ion transfer pathways in the bulk CoxTi1−xOy and reduce the energy barrier, as confirmed by density functional theory (DFT) simulations. Rapid Na‐ion diffusion kinetics can minimize the kinetics discrepancy between anodes and cathodes, presenting great potential for achieving high‐performance anodes for NIC applications. When integrated with activated carbon/reduced graphene oxide composite (AC/rGO) cathodes, the fabricated NICs demonstrate remarkable energy density (164 Wh kg−1 at 31 W kg−1), power density (8307 W kg−1 at 56 Wh kg−1), and an ultralong lifespan (83% capacity retention after 15000 cycles). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In microseismic monitoring, achieving an accurate and efficient first-arrival picking is crucial for improving the accuracy and efficiency of microseismic time-difference source location. In the era of big data, the traditional first-arrival picking method cannot meet the real-time processing requirements of microseismic monitoring process. Using the advanced idea of deep learning-based end-to-end classification and the prominent feature extraction advantages of a fully convolution neural network, this paper proposes a first-arrival picking method of effective signals for microseismic monitoring based on UNet++ network, which can significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of first-arrival picking. In this paper, we first introduced the methodology of the UNet++-based picking method. And then, the performance of the proposed method is verified by the experiments with finite-difference forward modeling simulated signals and actual microseismic records under different signal-to-noise ratios, and finally, comparative experiments are performed using the U-Net-based first-arrival picking algorithm and the Short-Term Average to Long-Term Average (STA/LTA) algorithm. The results show that compared to the U-Net network, the proposed method can obviously improve the first-arrival picking accuracy of the low signal-to-noise ratio microseismic signals, achieving significantly higher accuracy and efficiency than the STA/LTA algorithm, which is famous for its high efficiency in traditional algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Demonstrating a dealloyed Ni-Fe-B-Si-P amorphous electrocatalyst. • Intrinsic activity plays a crucial role for OER performance in dealloyed ribbons. • Dealloying shortens the evolution path (Ni0 → Ni2+ → Ni3+ → Ni4+) toward Ni4+ species. • The oxidation and leaved of B, P, and Si promote the surface reconstruction in OER. Designing high-efficiency and freestanding electrocatalysts hold immense importance in addressing the limitations of powdered electrocatalysts and accelerating the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in advancing energy technologies. While dealloyed amorphous ribbons have been shown to be active and self-supporting electrocatalysts toward OER, the underlying enhancement mechanism remains unclear. Here, we developed a dealloyed Ni-Fe-B-Si-P amorphous electrocatalysts with a mixed oxide layer (including oxo-anions: phosphate, silicate, and borate). The dealloyed oxide layer optimizes the surface properties and chemical local environment of the amorphous ribbon, then shortens the multistep evolution path (Ni0 → Ni2+ → Ni3+ → Ni4+) toward Ni4+ species during the surface reconstruction process and decreased energy barriers for the dealloyed Ni-Fe-B-Si-P electrocatalyst during OER. Benefiting from the changes, the dealloyed Ni-Fe-B-Si-P enables a 56-fold increase in current density (at overpotential: 320 mV) and an 8-fold increase in turnover frequency values compared to undealloyed Ni-Fe-B-Si-P, demonstrating the major effect of the intrinsic activity on the OER performance of the dealloyed ribbon. This work sheds light on the enhancement mechanism of amorphous bulk electrocatalysts and offers valuable insights into the rational design of amorphous components and surface treatment processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Determine deformation control benchmark of phyllite tunnel based on process. • Deformation control benchmark should consider the large deformation levels. • Determine Secondary lining construction time considering large deformation levels. • Suggestions for the design and construction of high geo-stress phyllite tunnels. The design and construction of squeezing phyllite tunnels present significant challenges, particularly in deformation control benchmarking and determining the appropriate timing for secondary lining construction. This study focuses on the squeezing phyllite tunnel of Chengdu-Lanzhou Railway and aims to calculate its reserved deformation and deformation control benchmark. Deformation measurement data and characteristics are analyzed, along with the time course characteristics of tunnel deformation and the principles of secondary lining timing. Statistical regression of the field data is conducted to determine the appropriate timing for secondary lining construction under different conditions considering a certain assurance rate. The results indicate that the tunnel deformation obeys a normal distribution; a 95% interval estimate of the mean value can be used as the limit for reserved deformation. The total benchmark is established based on the deformation control benchmark of the Chengdu-Lanzhou Railway tunnel with side wall convergence as the criterion. Following the same criterion, the cumulative deformation percentage of the construction stage is established as the process control benchmark. The secondary lining should be applied after reaching a deformation rate corresponding to 95% of the deformation of the first stable stage, ensuring reduced secondary lining load and long-term stability. With an 80% assurance rate obtained from statistical regression, the determined deformation rate under different large deformation levels and sections is used to determine the final secondary lining construction time. The secondary lining construction time for sections with slight, medium, and severe large deformation sections is determined to be 45–55, 55–60, and 80–90 days, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Heterologous α-amylases were screened and expressed in C. tyrobutyricum. • α-glucosidase was co-expressed with α-amylases for better starch hydrolyzation. • Engineered C. tyrobutyricum produced up to 27.0 g/L butyrate from cassava starch. • 26.8 g/L butyl butyrate was produced from cassava starch by the engineered strain. Clostridium tyrobutyricum has been successfully engineered to produce butyrate, butanol, butyl butyrate, and γ-aminobutyric acid. It would be interesting to produce bio-chemicals and bio-fuels directly using starch from non-food crop, e.g., cassava, by engineered C. tyrobutyricum. In this study, heterologous α-amylases were screened and expressed in C. tyrobutyricum , resulting in successfully starch hydrolyzation. Furthermore, α-glucosidase (AgluI) was co-expressed with α-amylases, resulting in enhancement in the capacity of starch hydrolyzation and butyrate production. When increasing the cassava starch concentration to 100 g/L, the engineered strain CTAA05 produced 27.0 g/L butyrate. In addition, when introducing butyl butyrate synthetic pathway, strain MU3-AAV produced 26.8 g/L butyl butyrate with 100 g/L cassava starch as substrate. This study showed a generalizable framework to engineered anaerobes for anaerobic production of bio-chemicals and bio-fuels from starchy biomass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: With the increasing offshore wind farms connected into large power grid by VSC‐HVDC, the system equivalent inertia has been further reduced, which has brought new challenges to the safe operation of the system. In this article, we proposed a novel strategy to coordinate the rotational kinetic energy of variable speed wind turbines and the capacitor energy of VSC‐HVDC to support the main power system frequency. Selection of controller parameters is discussed to improve the frequency control effect. This strategy reduces the rate of change of frequency and improves the frequency nadir, which also limit the wind turbine rotor speed variation range to maintain its stable operation. The proposed strategy can also reduce the secondary frequency drop to a large extent. The proposed strategy is verified by using a power system model in MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation results show that the proposed method can effectively utilize the frequency control capability of VSC‐HVDC and the wind farm to maintain frequency stability of the power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Study the urban delivery problem considering uncertain assembly time. • Formulate the problem to a chance-constrained programming problem. • An algorithm consisting of two sub-heuristics is proposed to solve the problem. • Comprehensive numerical experiments with real dataset are performed. This paper studies a stochastic programming problem to minimize the total completion time consists of the travel time and the assembly time, for a new class of urban delivery problems. The problem is formulated into a chance-constrained programming problem and the probability distribution characteristics of the uncertainty of product assembly time are obtained using a statistical learning method. Then the original chance-constrained programming problem can be converted into an equivalent deterministic programming problem. Subsequently, an algorithm consisting of two sub-heuristics is proposed to solve the deterministic problem. Finally, comprehensive numerical experiments with real dataset show the superiority of the model and the algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Numerous microRNAs (miRNAs) are aberrantly expressed in breast cancer, and the dysregulation of miRNAs may affect the aggressiveness of this cancer. Aberrant expression of miRNA-937 (miR-937) in gastric and lung cancers has been reported, which plays tumor-suppressive or oncogenic roles in carcinogenesis including cancer progression. Our purpose was to investigate the involvement of miR-937 in breast cancer progression. Patients and methods: The expression profile of miR-937 in breast cancer was assessed by reverse-transcription quantitative PCR. Biological effects of miR-937 upregulation on the malignant characteristics of breast cancer cells were determined in a series of functional experiments. The direct target of miR-937 in breast cancer cells was also identified. Results: Herein, the expression levels of miR-937 were notably lower in breast cancer, and its underexpression was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. Patients with breast cancer underexpressing miR-937 showed shorter overall survival than did patients with breast cancer overexpressing miR-937. Proliferation, migration, and invasiveness of breast cancer cells were evidently suppressed by miR-937 upregulation. In addition, ectopic miR-937 expression hindered breast cancer tumor growth in vivo. Forkhead box Q1 (FOXQ1) mRNA was found to be a direct target of miR-937 in breast cancer. FOXQ1 turned out to be overexpressed in breast cancer tissues, and its overexpression negatively correlated with miR-937 expression. Moreover, silencing of FOXQ1 recapitulated the tumor-suppressive effects of miR-937 overexpression on breast cancer cells. Notably, FOXQ1 restoration abrogated the miR-937-mediated suppression of proliferation, migration, and invasiveness of breast cancer cells. Conclusion: These results collectively revealed that miR-937 acts as a tumor suppressor in breast cancer and restrains cancer progression by directly targeting FOXQ1 mRNA. These data suggest that targeting of the novel miR-937–FOXQ1 axis is an attractive therapeutic method against breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Proline addition improved the tolerance of C. acetobutylicum to multiple inhibitors. • The proline biosynthesis was enhanced by overexpressing proA , proB and proC. • The ability of scavenging reactive oxygen species in 824(proABC) was improved. • Undetoxified lignocellulosic hydrolysates can be used for butanol production. Abstract When lignocellulosic biomass was used for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation, several lignocellulose-derived inhibitors, which are toxic to Clostridium acetobutylicum , were generated during acid hydrolysis process and seriously hindered the industrialization of lignocellulosic butanol. In this study, an engineered strain 824(proABC) with significantly improved tolerance to multiple lignocellulose-derived inhibitors (formic acid and phenolic compounds) was constructed by strengthening the proline biosynthesis. The engineered strain exhibited more effective synthesis ability of proline and scavenging ability of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Consequently, the butanol produced by 824(proABC) was 1-, 2.4- or 3.4-fold higher than that of the wild type strain when using the undetoxified hydrolysate of soybean straw, rice straw or corn straw as the substrate, respectively. Therefore, enhancing the proline biosynthesis can be used as an effective strategy to improve the tolerance of C. acetobutylicum to multiple lignocellulose-derived inhibitors, and 824(proABC) has great potential to produce butanol from undetoxified lignocellulosic hydrolysates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The wide adoption of third-party hardware Intellectual Property (IP) cores including those from untrusted vendors have raised security concerns for system designers and end-users. Existing approaches to ensure the trustworthiness of individual IPs rarely consider the entire SoC design, especially the IP interactions through SoC bus. These methods can hardly identify malicious logic (or design flaws) distributed in multiple IPs whereas individual IPs fulfill security properties and can pass the security testing/verification. One possible solution is to treat the SoC as one IP core and try to verify security properties of the entire design. This method, however, suffers from scalability issues due to the large size of SoC designs with multiple IP cores integrated. In this paper, we present a scalable SoC bus verification framework trying to verify the security properties of SoC bus implementation where the bus protocol plays the role of the golden reference. More specifically, finite state machine (FSM) models will be constructed from the bus implementation and the trustworthiness will be verified based on the property set derived from the bus protocol and potential security threats. Along with IP level formal verification solutions, the proposed framework can help ensure the security of large-scale SoCs. Experimental results on ARM AMBA Bus demonstrate that our approach is applicable and scalable to prevent information leakage and denial-of-service (DoS) attack by verifying security properties. Highlights • Formal specifications at SoC level are developed considering bus protocol and Trojan. • The finite state machine of the whole SoC is extracted utilizing gate-level netlist. • The entire SoC is secured considering attacks utilizing normal bus communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Thirty sesamol ester derivatives were prepared, and their anti-plant pathogenic oomycete activity was reported for the first time. • The stereochemical configurations of compounds 3k and 5f were unambiguously confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. • Eight compounds 3j, 3k, 3m, 3p, 5g, 5i, 5l, and 5m showed more potent anti-oomycete activity than that of the positive control zoxamide. • Overall, the anti-oomycete activity of 1-acyloxysesamol derivatives was higher than that of 1-sulfonyloxysesamol derivatives. • Some interesting structure-activity relationships of these sesamol ester compounds were also observed. In order to explore novel natural product-based anti-oomycete agent, sixteen 1-sulfonyloxysesamol derivatives (3a-p) and fourteen 1-acyloxysesamol derivatives (5a-n) were designed and prepared, and structurally confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HRMS, and melting point. The stereochemical configurations of compounds 3k and 5f were unambiguously confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Moreover, we assessed the target compounds 3a-p and 5a-n as anti-oomycete activity against a serious agricultural disease of Phytophthora capsici by using the mycelial growth rate method. Among the thirty sesamol ester derivatives determined, eight compounds 3j, 3k, 3m, 3p, 5g, 5i, 5l , and 5m showed more potent anti-oomycete activity than that of the positive control zoxamide (EC 50 = 23.79 mg/L), and the EC 50 values of 13.80, 17.65, 11.80, 12.70, 17.71, 9.53, 21.94, and 15.43 mg/L, respectively. Especially compound 5i exhibited the best anti-oomycete activity against P. capsici with EC 50 value of 9.53 mg/L. Overall, the anti-oomycete activities of 1-acyloxysesamol derivatives is higher than that of 1-sulfonyloxysesamol derivatives. It is proved that the introduction of the acyl group at hydroxyl position of sesamol is more beneficial to improve its anti-oomycete activity than that of the sulfonyl group. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermosetting polymers possess high dimensional stability, chemical resistance and thermal stability, and they are indispensable for many applications. However, conventional thermosetting polymers cannot be reprocessed and reshaped due to their permanent cross-linked structure. Therefore, recycling of thermosetting polymers is a serious challenge. Degrading thermosetting polymers into soluble oligomers and reuse of the oligomers in new resin systems may provide a favorable way to solve this problem. In this work, we developed an efficient method for chemical degradation of anhydride-cured epoxy using environmentally benign phosphotungstic acid (HPW) aqueous solution as the catalyst system at a mild reaction temperature of 190 °C. During reaction, the ester bond in the cross-linked structure was selectively cleaved, and the thermosetting polymer was fully converted to oligomers that contain multifunctional reactive groups. When the decomposed matrix polymer (DMP) was used as a reactive ingredient and added up to 40 wt% in the preparation of a new anhydride-cured epoxy curing system, the resulting cross-linked polymers still retained the mechanical properties of the neat polymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the optimal pricing strategy employed by restaurants in cooperation with third-party websites. Using a mixed game model that consists of a Nash game among multiple restaurants and a Stackelberg game between these restaurants and a third-party website, this paper describes the cooperation and competition among the participants. Results suggest that the restaurants may not always provide price discounts for the third-party website because of the switching behaviors of their offline loyal customers. Moreover, the cooperation between a restaurant and a third-party website is encouraged only when the number of loyal customers is smaller than a threshold, which also depends on restaurant capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To meet the demands of green logistics while considering the time-dependent effects caused by traffic congestion, we establish a time-dependent green vehicle routing problem with time windows model for cold chain logistics. This model aims to minimize the total cost, including the transportation cost, refrigeration cost, carbon emission cost, and labor cost. Vehicles are allowed to wait to avoid a bad traffic environment after completing their services to customers. To solve the model, we develop a two-stage hybrid search algorithm. In the first stage of this algorithm, an adaptive large neighborhood search technique is used to determine the vehicle route, while in the second stage, a shortest-path algorithm is used to determine the departure time of the vehicles from customer's node. Finally, numerical experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness and superiority of our model and the proposed hybrid search algorithm by comparing with the standard instances and large-scale instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Platform-based Worry-Free Shopping (WFS) is an emerging retail service system developed by online platforms. Online retailers on such platforms can actively decide whether to provide WFS services for consumers. If WFS service is offered, a WFS logo will be displayed on the product information page by the platform. Although WFS can enhance consumers' willingness to pay, it incurs cost for online retailers and may cause more product returns due to valuation bias. This paper investigates when an online retailer on a platform should offer customers WFS, and it explores the detailed effects of WFS on the retailer, platform, customers, and society. We find that both the retailer and platform do not necessarily benefit from WFS. Although the platform can take a "hands-off" attitude towards the retailer in most cases, they may have conflicting interests while providing WFS, so we have developed a mechanism to coordinate their benefits. Our results explain why the platform develops such a WFS service system, and when it should incentivize the online retailer to offer WFS to customers. Furthermore, WFS always hurts customers when the valuation bias is small, while it may favor the society when the WFS cost is low. In extensions, we verify the robustness of our results and also get new insights. First, a small product salvage value motivates the platform to encourage the retailer to offer WFS. Second, though a larger proportion of overestimating customers always benefits the platform, it may hurt the retailer when it is less than a threshold. Finally, a larger heterogeneity in valuation increment allows the retailer to charge higher price and benefits the platform. • This paper studies platform-based Worry-Free-Shopping (WFS) in electronic commerce. • We find the retailer's optimal WFS strategy may not benefit the platform. • Providing WFS does not always benefit the retailer, platform, customers, and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using a facile spray drying method, we fabricated a stable filamentous coaxial microelectrode of olivine LiFePO4, which delivers an excellent electrochemical performance in Li-ion batteries. Due to its simple structure, the microelectrode is a perfect model to study electrochemical reactions, even through in situ electrochemical measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To analyze the electric parameters of a pulsed power supply (PPS) system and their influence on muzzle velocity, a stable and reliable 200-kJ compact PPS system used for electromagnetic railgun system has been developed. The PPS system consists of ten modules, and each module is comprised of a high energy density capacitor (3270 $\mu $ F/3.5 kV), 4-in thyristor, a pulse shaping inductor (1.5 $\mu $ H), and a crowbar diode. At the same time, a railgun circuit model for simulation was established. In this model, velocity skin effect, current skin effect, and friction were taken into consideration. Some electromagnetic launching experiments were carried out to verify the correctness of the railgun circuit model. Influence of different electric parameters of PPS on muzzle velocity was analyzed by the computer aided circuit design program PSPICE based on this model. The parameters include capacitance, equivalent series resistance (ESR) of the capacitor, inductance, and jitter time of the thyristor. The simulation results show that the ESR is the most critical influencing factor (the deviation of velocity is −4.286% when the ESR is 5 m $\Omega $ ). The following is the change of the capacitance (the deviation of velocity is −3.827% when the capacitance decreases to 95%C0). In the meantime, the changes of the resistance of inductor do have an influence on muzzle velocity (the deviation of velocity is −0.908% when the resistance of inductor is 1 m $\Omega $ ). However, the changes of inductance and the jitter time of the thyristor impose no significant effect on muzzle velocity. The conclusions provide reference to the overall optimization of PPS design and quality control of the manufacturing process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Emerging advanced technologies enable logistics service providers (LSPs) to offer supply chain services, such as inventory management, rather than only shipping services. In the traditional retailer-led system, the retailer makes the ordering and transshipment decisions and outsources shipping to the LSP, but this paper studies an LSP-led preventive transshipment system where the LSP is the decision-maker, providing the optimal ordering and transshipment policy solution to the online retailer. An optimal two-threshold transshipment policy is proposed for the LSP-led system. The LSP has lower operational cost for transshipment than the retailer, so one may expect that the LSP can bear more risk of mismatch between the transshipment and uncertain demand, leading the LSP to be more aggressive in transshipment. Interestingly, the analysis reveals that the transshipment quantity chosen by the LSP is not necessarily high. The LSP will transfer less inventory between distribution centers than the retailer if the delivery cost or transshipment cost of the LSP, or the lost sale cost, holding fee, or selling price of the retailer are high. Based on real industrial data, the evaluation result shows that preventive transshipment in the LSP-led system can bring an average increase of 40.33% (even 93.31% for products with high demand uncertainty in the first selling period) in the total profit of the retailer and the LSP over the non-transshipment scenario. Importantly, even if the transshipment cost is the same for both the retailer and LSP, using the optimal policy decided by the LSP rather than the retailer will generate a profit improvement of 6.37%. • An LSP-led preventive transshipment system where the LSP is the decision-maker. • An optimal two-threshold transshipment policy is proposed. • A linear transshipment contract coordinates the transshipment policy in two systems. • The performance of the two systems is evaluated on real industrial data. • The policy decided by the LSP can improve the system profit by 6.37%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of new drugs requires the development of improved animal models for drug testing. The Chinese tree shrew is considered to be a realistic candidate model. To assess the potential of the Chinese tree shrew for pharmacological testing, we performed drug target prediction and analysis on genomic and transcriptomic scales. Using our pipeline, 3,482 proteins were predicted to be drug targets. Of these predicted targets, 446 and 1,049 proteins with the highest rank and total scores, respectively, included homologs of targets for cancer chemotherapy, depression, age-related decline and cardiovascular disease. Based on comparative analyses, more than half of drug target proteins identified from the tree shrew genome were shown to be higher similarity to human targets than in the mouse. Target validation also demonstrated that the constitutive expression of the proteinase-activated receptors of tree shrew platelets is similar to that of human platelets but differs from that of mouse platelets. We developed an effective pipeline and search strategy for drug target prediction and the evaluation of model-based target identification for drug testing. This work provides useful information for future studies of the Chinese tree shrew as a source of novel targets for drug discovery research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Studies the storage policy for items in forward areas with limited open locations. • Investigates the effect of already stored items on the optimal storage policy. • A two-stage algorithm provides high quality solutions quickly. • The algorithm is verified by a real case study and generates a 10% improvement. • The performance of the algorithm is quite robust for various routing policies. In e-commerce warehouses, replenishment operations involve the transportation of ordered items from reserve areas to forward picking areas. In this paper, we study where to store these items (called newly arrived items) in open storage locations in forward picking areas prior to picking to minimize the total travel distance for given picking orders. The locations occupied by items previously stored in the forward area are not available. The problem is formulated as an integer program and proved to be NP-hard. We propose a two-stage decomposition algorithm, showing that it provides high-quality solutions quickly. Compared with methods proposed in the literature and used in practice, the travel distance is substantially reduced. Also, our numerical study shows that considering the constraint that items have previously been stored, which has often been ignored in previous research, can improve the picking performance by more than 5 %. We apply our proposed algorithm to real data from a Chinese 3PL retailer to show that it significantly outperforms the policy the company currently uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The memory effect of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) was first discovered in LiFePO4, but its origin and dependence are still not clear, which is essential for regulating the memory effect. In this paper, a home-made spray drying device was used to successfully synthesize LiFePO4 with an average particle size of about 1 μm, and we studied the influence of spray drying temperature on the memory effect of LiFePO4 in LIBs. The results showed that the increasing of spray drying temperature made the memory effect of LiFePO4 strengthen from 1.3 mV to 2.9 mV, while the capacity decreased by approximately 6%. The XRD refinement and FTIR spectra indicate that the enhancement of memory effect can be attributed to the increment of Li–Fe dislocations. This work reveals the dependence of memory effect of LiFePO4 on spray drying temperature, which will guide us to optimize the preparation process of electrode materials and improve the management system of LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different music training involves different hand coordination levels and may have a significant influence on brain oscillation for the executive function. However, few research has focused on the plasticity of executive function and the brain oscillation modulated by different musical instrument training modules. In this study, we recruited 18 string musicians, 20 pianists, and 19 non-musicians to perform a bimanual key pressing task during EEG recording. Behavioral results revealed that pianists have the highest accuracy and the shortest response time, followed by string musicians and non-musicians (p < 0.05). Time-frequency analyses of EEG revealed that pianists generated significantly greater theta power than the other groups from 500 ms to 800 ms post-stimulus in mid-central, frontal brain areas, and motor control areas. Functional connectivity analyses found that the pianists showed significantly greater connectivity in the frontal-parietal area in theta band based on phase-locking value analysis, which suggests that piano training improves executive function and enhances the connectivity between prefrontal and mid-central regions. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the effects of different music training on executive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Li‐ion batteries, the origin of memory effect in Al‐doped Li4Ti5O12 has been revealed as the reversible Al‐ion switching between 8a and 16c sites in the spinel structure, but it is still not clear about that for olivine LiFePO4, which is one of the most important cathode materials. In this work, a series of Na‐doped and Ti‐doped LiFePO4 are prepared in a high‐temperature solid‐state method, electrochemically investigated in Li‐ion batteries and characterized by X‐Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Magic‐Angle‐Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (MAS NMR). Compared with non‐doped LiFePO4, the Ti doping can simultaneously suppress the memory effect and the Li−Fe anti‐site, while they are simultaneously enhanced by the Na doping. Meanwhile, the Ti doping improves the electrochemical performance of LiFePO4, opposite to the Na doping. Accordingly, a schematic diagram of phase transition is proposed to interpret the memory effect of LiFePO4, in which the memory effect is attributed to the defect of Li−Fe anti‐site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Trace Nb refines primary recrystallization significantly. Growth of primary grain slowed down with the increase of Nb content. • The evolutions of typical textures under different Nb contents during primary recrystallization were studied. • More grains with deviated Goss {1 1 0}〈0 0 1〉 and {1 1 0}〈1 1 2〉 texture in primary recrystallization would form secondary recrystallization, which resulting in the deterioration of magnetic properties. The influence of Nb content on the primary recrystallization microstructure, crystallographic texture and magnetic properties of grain-oriented silicon steel manufactured by low-temperature slab reheating were studied. The results show that the effect of grain refining was enhanced with the increase of Nb content. With the increase of Nb content, the total contents of texture {1 1 1}〈1 1 2〉 and {1 1 4}〈4 8 1〉 in primary recrystallization which are beneficial to the secondary recrystallization increased, but the contents of deviated Goss component and adverse textures with abnormal growth ability in primary recrystallization also increased, which led to the deterioration of magnetic properties. By adding 0.005% Nb, the average size of the primary grain reduced to 23 μm, the content of {1 1 0}〈1 1 2〉 increased slightly and the least deviated Goss nuclei were obtained, therefore the final product had the sharpest {1 1 0}〈0 0 1〉 texture of secondary recrystallization and the best magnetic properties with B 800 = 1.873 T , P 1.7/50 = 1.21 W/kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synovial sarcomas are rare tumors and account for only 3% of cardiac malignancies. In this report, we present a case of a primary synovial sarcoma of the left ventricle. (J Card Surg 2010;25:288-290) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• scrA , scrB and scrK were successfully overexpressed in C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755. • The cane molasses could be utilized efficiently by C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755/ scrBAK. • The medium composition and initial sugar concentration were optimized. • 45.71 g/L butyrate at a yield of 0.39 g/g was obtained in fed-batch fermentation. The sucrose metabolic genes (scrA, scrB and scrK) from C. acetobutylicum ATCC 824 were successfully overexpressed in C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755, endowing it with the ability to co-utilize sucrose, fructose and glucose in the cane molasses. As a result, the engineering strain C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755/ scrBAK produced 18.07 g/L and 18.98 g/L butyric acid when sucrose and cane molasses were used as the carbon source, respectively. Furthermore, the medium composition and initial cane molasses concentration were optimized to make full use of the untreated cane molasses. Based on these results, 45.71 g/L butyric acid with a yield of 0.39 g/g was obtained in fed-batch fermentation, and the feedstock cost of using untreated cane molasses was decreased by ~47% when compared with the conventional glucose fermentation. This study demonstrated the potential application of C. tyrobutyricum ATCC 25755/ scrBAK for economic butyric acid production from untreated cane molasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Phytic acid and H 2 SO 4 are used to synthesize the Nano-sized CoNi 2 S 4 with graphene. • CoNi 2 S 4 nanosheets were immobilized on graphene by coordination of S and P atoms. • The morphology of NiCo precursor could be tuned from nanowires to nanosheets. • The hybrid supercapacitor exhibits outstanding electrochemical performance. • The rate performance of CoNi 2 S 4 are improved by S and P doped graphene. The transition metal hydroxides/sulfides have been regarded as novel high-efficient electrode materials due to its superior Faradic activity. However, the aggregation problem and poor rate performance severely hinder the practical application in supercapacitors. Herein, morphologically confined hybridization of tiny CoNi 2 S 4 nanosheets into S, P co-doped graphene (DGNCS) is designed and fabricated from NiCo-OH precursor (NCO) nanowires via a mild multi-step hydrothermal method and sulfofication. The S, P co-doped graphene (DG) serves as the conductive pathway and skeleton support and provides abundant coordination atoms to prevent the aggregation and improve the structural stability. The CoNi 2 S 4 nanosheets serves as the main active components and provides abundant active sites to enhance the electrochemical performance. Owing to the synergistic effect of each components, the as-prepared DGNCS electrode delivers a specific capacitance of 1136.5 F g−1 (126.28 mAh g−1) at 2 A g−1 and a satisfactory capacitance retention of 70.1% after 5000 cycles at 15 A g−1. In addition, the rate performance of DGNCS (38.58%) increased by 2.44 times compared with the pure NCS (CoNi 2 S 4). Furthermore, the fabricated asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) device assembled with active graphene and the as-obtained DGNCS achieves a maximum energy density of 25.62 Wh kg−1 and an outstanding power density of 8000 W kg−1. Moreover, the ASC device shows an excellent cycling stability of 86.49% capacitance retention after 5000 cycling at 5 A g−1. Outstanding electrochemical performance confirms the effectiveness of the fabricating strategy, providing a new pathway for further design of a novel composite electrode for next generation energy storage devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tubulopapillary hidradenoma-like tumor of the mandible is extremely rare, with only 3 cases published in the English-language literature. The clinicopathological characteristics and histogenesis of this tumor are unclear. Few pathologists and perhaps fewer clinicians are familiar with this entity, and it is likely underrecognized and under-reported. Herein, we present two additional cases, both misdiagnosed as malignancies preoperatively and postoperatively by different unwary pathologists. Awareness and knowledge of this enigmatic entity and its clinical and radiographic features, together with careful morphological assessment should enable the correct diagnosis and prevent unnecessary treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stabilizing electrolytes for high‐voltage lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is crucial yet challenging, as they need to ensure stability against both Li anodes and high‐voltage cathodes (above 4.5 V versus Li/Li+), addressing issues like poor cycling and thermal runaway. Herein, a novel gem‐difluorinated skeleton of ionic liquid (IL) is designed and synthesized, and its non‐flammable electrolytes successfully overcome aforementioned challenges. By creatively using dual salts, fluorinated ionic liquid and dimethyl carbonate as a co‐solvent, the solvation structure of Li+ ions is efficiently controlled through electrostatic and weak interactions that are well unveiled and illuminated via nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. The as‐prepared electrolytes exhibit high security avoiding thermal runaway and show excellent compatibility with high‐voltage cathodes. Besides, the solvation structure derives a robust and stable F‐rich interphase, resulting in high reversibility and Li‐dendrite prevention. LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2/Li LMBs (4.5 V) demonstrate excellent long‐term stability with a high average Coulombic efficiency (CE) of at least 99.99 % and a good capacity retention of 90.4 % over 300 cycles, even can work at a higher voltage of 4.7 V. Furthermore, the ultrahigh Ni‐rich LiNi0.88Co0.09Mn0.03O2/Li system also delivers excellent electrochemical performance, highlighting the significance of fluorinated IL‐based electrolyte design and enhanced interphasial chemistry in improving battery performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stabilizing electrolytes for high‐voltage lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is crucial yet challenging, as they need to ensure stability against both Li anodes and high‐voltage cathodes (above 4.5 V versus Li/Li+), addressing issues like poor cycling and thermal runaway. Herein, a novel gem‐difluorinated skeleton of ionic liquid (IL) is designed and synthesized, and its non‐flammable electrolytes successfully overcome aforementioned challenges. By creatively using dual salts, fluorinated ionic liquid and dimethyl carbonate as a co‐solvent, the solvation structure of Li+ ions is efficiently controlled through electrostatic and weak interactions that are well unveiled and illuminated via nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. The as‐prepared electrolytes exhibit high security avoiding thermal runaway and show excellent compatibility with high‐voltage cathodes. Besides, the solvation structure derives a robust and stable F‐rich interphase, resulting in high reversibility and Li‐dendrite prevention. LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2/Li LMBs (4.5 V) demonstrate excellent long‐term stability with a high average Coulombic efficiency (CE) of at least 99.99 % and a good capacity retention of 90.4 % over 300 cycles, even can work at a higher voltage of 4.7 V. Furthermore, the ultrahigh Ni‐rich LiNi0.88Co0.09Mn0.03O2/Li system also delivers excellent electrochemical performance, highlighting the significance of fluorinated IL‐based electrolyte design and enhanced interphasial chemistry in improving battery performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We found the nickel-based phosphides are actually acting as pre-electrocatalysts in OER, and also in battery reactions of rechargeable Zn-air batteries, which are well disclosed by detailed experimental and theoretical investigations. [Display omitted] Zinc-air batteries (ZnABs) with high theoretical capacity and environmental benignity are the most promising candidates for next-generation electronics. However, their large-scale applications are greatly hindered due to the lack of high-efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts. Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) have been reported as promising electrocatalysts. Notably, (Ni 1 −x Cr x) 2 P (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.15) is an unstable electrocatalyst, which undergoes in-situ electrochemical oxidation during the initial oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and even in the activation cycles, and is eventually converted to Cr-NiOOH serving as the actual OER active sites with high efficiency. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations and experimental results elucidate that the OER performance could be significantly promoted by the synergistic effect of surface engineering and electronic modulations by Cr doping and in-situ phase transformation. The constructed rechargeable ZnABs could stably cycle for more than 208 h at 5 mA cm−2, while the voltage degradation is negligible. Furthermore, the developed catalytic materials could be assembled into flexible and all-solid-state ZnABs to power wearable electronics with high performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]