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Abstract Using acrylic acid advanced ester and styrene as raw materials, the long-chain polyester polymer, polyacrylic acid advanced ester-styrene pour point depressant (P-PPD), was synthesized by molecular design, and its structure was characterized by infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. In addition, this study experimentally investigated the effect of P-PPD on the phase equilibrium and induction time of natural gas hydrate inhibitors in deionized water (DW) and crude oil/water (O/W) systems, respectively. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and mono ethylene glycol (EG) were selected as representatives of kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHIs) and thermodynamic hydrate inhibitor (THIs), respectively. The results exhibit that P-PPD played a sight role in the phase equilibrium of hydrate, while the addition of P-PPD significantly prolonged the induction time of methane hydrate both in O/W + PVP, OW + EG and O/W + PVP + EG system, indicating that the addition of as-synthesized PPD has a synergistic inhibition effect on the nucleation ability of methane hydrate and can prevent hydrate from formatting during oil and gas transport process, and thus guarantee the flow assurance. The findings of this work will provide a data reference for the hybrid use of hydrate inhibitors and pour point depressants in oil and gas transport.

Monitoring of microvascular calcification (MC) is essential for the understanding of pathophysiological processes and the characterization of certain physiological states such as drug abuse, metabolic abnormality, and chronic nephrosis. In this work, we develop a novel and effective time-resolved photoacoustic microscopy (TR-PAM) technology, which can observe the obvious microvascular bio-elastic change in the development process of the MC owing to the calcium deposition along vascular walls.The feasibility of the TR-PAM imaging was validated using a group of agar phantoms and ex vivo tissues. Furthermore, MC pathological animal models were constructed and imaged in situ and in vivo by the TR-PAM to demonstrate its capability for the bio-mechanical monitoring and characterization of MC, and experimental results were consistent with the pathological knowledge. The feasibility study of monitoring MC by the TR-PAM proves that this technique has potential to be developed as a superficial microvascular bio-mechanical assessment method to supplement current clinical strategy for prediction and monitoring of some diseases.

In widely studied organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites, the organic component tends to volatilize and decompose under high temperatures, oxygen, and humidity, which adversely affects the performance and longevity of the associated solar cells. In contrast, all-inorganic perovskites demonstrate superior stability under these conditions and offer photoelectric properties comparable to those of their hybrid counterparts. The potential of tandem solar cells (TSCs) made from all-inorganic perovskites is especially promising. This review is the first to address recent advancements in TSCs that use all-inorganic perovskites and crystalline silicon (c-Si), both domestically and internationally. This work provides a systematic and thorough analysis of the current challenges faced by these systems and proposes rational solutions. Additionally, we elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of all-inorganic perovskites and their TSCs when combined with c-Si, summarizing the corresponding patterns. Finally, we outline future research directions for all-inorganic perovskites and their TSCs with c-Si. This work offers valuable insights and references for the continued advancement of perovskite-based TSCs.

Summary: DeepContact is a deep learning software for high-throughput quantification of membrane contact site (MCS) in 2D electron microscopy images. This protocol will guide users through incorporating available DeepContact models in Amira’s artificial intelligence module, thereby allowing invoking of DeepContact functions in organelle segmentation and quantifying of MCS with a user-friendly graphical user interface of Amira software.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Liu et al. (2022).1 : Publisher’s note: Undertaking any experimental protocol requires adherence to local institutional guidelines for laboratory safety and ethics.

ABSTRACT: Low-temperature conditions influence cattle productivity and survivability. Understanding the metabolic regulations of specific cattle breeds and identifying potential biomarkers related to cold challenges are important for cattle management and optimization of genetic improvement programs. In this study, 28 Inner-Mongolia Sanhe and 22 Holstein heifers were exposed to −25°C for 1 h to evaluate the differences in metabolic mechanisms of thermoregulation. In response to this acute cold challenge, altered rectal temperature was only observed in Holstein cattle. Further metabolome analyses showed a greater baseline of glycolytic activity and mobilization of AA in Sanhe cattle during normal conditions. Both breeds responded to the acute cold challenge by altering their metabolism of volatile fatty acids and AA for gluconeogenesis, which resulted in increased glucose levels. Furthermore, Sanhe cattle mobilized the citric acid cycle activity, and creatine and creatine phosphate metabolism to supply energy, whereas Holstein cattle used greater AA metabolism for this purpose. Altogether, we found that propionate and methanol are potential biomarkers of acute cold challenge response in cattle. Our findings provide novel insights into the biological mechanisms of acute cold response and climatic resilience, and will be used as the basis when developing breeding tools for genetically selecting for improved cold adaptation in cattle.

Exosomes distributed by extracellular vesicles carry various information highly consistent with cells, becoming a new type of biomarker for tumor screening. However, although conventional characterization technologies can quantify size and morphology for exosomes, they are limited in related fields such as function tracing, protein quantification at unit point, and microstructural information. In this paper, firstly, different exosome characterization methods are systematically reviewed, such as dynamic light scattering, nanoparticle tracking analysis, flow cytometry, electron microscope, and emerging super-resolution imaging technologies. Then, advances in applications are described one by one. Last but not least, we compare the features of different technologies for exosomes and propose that super-resolution imaging technology can not only take into account the advantages of conventional characterization techniques but also provide accurate, real-time, and super-resolution quantitative analysis for exosomes. It provides a fine guide for exosome-related biomedical research, as well as application in liquid biopsy and analysis techniques.

To optimize the utilization of solar energy in the latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) system, this study conducts exergy analysis on a paraffin-solar water shell and tube unit established in the literature to evaluate the effects of different inclination angles, inlet temperatures, original temperatures, and fluid flow rates on the exergy and exergy efficiency. Firstly, the thermodynamic characteristics of the water and the natural convection effects of the paraffin change with different inclination angles. When the inclination angle of the heat storage tank is less than 30°, the maximum exergy inlet rate rises from 0 to 144.6 W in a very short time, but it decreases to 65.7 W for an inclination angle of 60°. When the inclination angle is increased from 0° to 30°, the exergy efficiency rises from 86% to 89.7%, but it decreases from 94% to 89.9% with the inclination angle from 60° to 90°. Secondly, under the condition that the inclination angle of the energy storage unit is 60°, although increasing the inlet temperature of the solar water enhances the exergy inlet and storage and reduces the charging time, it increases the heat transfer temperature difference and the irreversible loss of the system, thus reducing the exergy efficiency. As the inlet water temperature is increased from 83 to 98 °C, the exergy efficiency decreases from 94.7% to 93.6%. Moreover, increasing the original temperature of the LHTES unit not only reduces the exergy inlet and storage rates but also decreases the available work capacity and exergy efficiency. Finally, increasing the inlet water flow rate increases the exergy inlet and storage rates slightly. The exergy efficiency decreases from 95.6% to 93.3% as the unit original temperature is increased from 15 to 30 °C, and it is enhanced from 94% to 94.6% as the inlet flow rate is increased from 0.085 to 0.34 kg/s with the unit inclination angle of 60°. It is found that arranging the shell and tube unit at an inclination angle is useful for improving the LHTES system’s thermal performance, and the exergy analysis conducted aims to reduce available energy dissipation and exergy loss in the thermal storage system. This study provides instructions for solar energy utilization and energy storage.

Low level laser therapy (LLLT) improves the therapeutic effectiveness of stem cell therapy for neurological injury through its ability to enhance stem differentiation and protect against neuronal apoptosis through its antioxidation effects. However, the specific mechanisms governing these effects are poorly defined. In this study, we investigated the effects of LLLT on stem cell differentiation at the molecular level, oxidative stress balance, and inflammatory factors to provide theoretical support for its clinical application. Cell viability was assessed via MTT assays. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), total superoxide dismutase (SOD), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were used to evaluate oxidative stress levels. Western blot analysis was used to quantitatively investigate protein expression. The levels of secreted proteins and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) expression were measured by ELISA. Compared to LLLT at 808 nm, LLLT at 635 nm enhanced the proliferation of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUCMSCs). The rates of proliferation markedly increased at a power density 20 mW/cm2. LLLT enhanced the antioxidant capacity and caused no inflammation in normal cells. Markers of neural precursors were more highly expressed at 808 nm when combined with inducers for 3 d, compared to the more modest increases observed at 635 nm. The expression of neuN on day 7 also increased, most notably when LLLT at 808 nm was combined with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)/injured cerebrospinal fluid (iCSF). ELISA assays showed that LLLT at 808 nm with CSF/iCSF also increased the differentiation of hUCMSCs into neurons. LLLT at 808 nm combined with inducers promoted the differentiation into neurons and increased the rate of neuronal differentiation.

This article is devoted to providing a new feasible route to realize carbon dioxide reduction and resource utilization. With the wide electrochemical window, high thermal stability and fast mass transfer rate of molten salt electrolyte, new carbon-based materials can be synthesized on the surface of the inexpensive Fe cathode. EDS (Electron-Dispersive-Spectroscope), SEM (Scanning-Electron-Microscope) and BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) analyzers are selected to detect the critical element, microstructures and specific surface area of the new carbon-based materials generated via electrolysis. It is demonstrated that eutectic carbonates’ electrochemical reduction, ranging from 450 °C to 750 °C prefers to produce carbons with no high-value structure. While carbon products are observed with honeycomb-like and platelet structures at 450 °C with an increase in current density. Additionally, the feedstock CO2 could be converted into carbon-based materials with high value such as high surface area carbon, spherical carbon and cellular porous carbon production by optimizing the electrolysis parameters of temperature, current density and molten salt conformation. This paper shows a viable way for one-pot CO2 utilization and facile production of micro-scale structure carbon materials, in line with the concept of sustainable development.

Solar energy coupling with energy storage is a popular technology in the energy field. How to achieve the high-efficiency application of solar energy is very important. Energy storage technology is the key issue in this aspect. Latent heat storage is a more efficient energy storage. In this paper, a visualization experimental platform of a latent heat storage system has been designed, and some performance data have been obtained. Hot water has been used as the heat transfer fluid, and paraffin wax has been used as the phase change material. The inclination angle of the tank is varied from the horizontal direction (0°) to the vertical direction (90°) by a step of 30°. The melting performance has been studied for three cases with inlet water temperature of 356 K, 361 K, and 366 K. The result shows that the inclination angle of the tank has a great influence on the melting process of the phase change material, and the temperature distribution of the material is obviously different. The result also shows that the testing point temperature (for testing point 1) varied from 341.31 K to 342.18 K when the inclination angle was 30° and 90°, respectively. However, the temperature of testing point 4 varied from 321.76 K to 335.03 K when the inclination angle was 30° and 90°, respectively. The results of this paper can provide a reference for the future pipe design and storage efficiency of latent heat storage systems.

Climate warming and environmental problems caused by the excessive consumption of fossil energy and massive CO2 emissions have seriously damaged the human living environment. This paper develops a new green, efficient, and environmentally friendly CO2 capture and conversion method, which is a crucial way to alleviate the greenhouse effect. In this study, alkali metal carbonates (and the corresponding hydroxides) are fused and blended to construct a liquid molten salt electrolyte system with excellent performance, which is applied to synthesize carbon materials or carbon-based fuel gas. By regulating the electrolyte composition and electrolysis parameters, carbon-based fuels with different micro-morphologies and compositions can be prepared in a controllable manner. In pure Li2CO3 electrolyte, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a high value are synthesized at 750 °C with, initially, 10 mA/cm2 and, finally, with 100 mA/cm2. Carbon spheres are obtained in Li-Ca-Ba at 750 °C with 200 mA/cm2, while honeycomb carbon is generated in the electrolyte of Li-Na-K at 450 °C with 450 mA/cm2. Syngas (33.6%) or CH4-rich fuel gas (40.1%) can also be obtained by adding LiOH into the electrolyte under 500 °C at 2.0 V and 3.2 V, respectively. This paper provides a new way of utilizing CO2 resources and a new sustainable green development.

Multi-label aerial scene image classification is a long-standing and challenging research problem in the remote sensing field. As land cover objects usually co-exist in an aerial scene image, modeling label dependencies is a compelling approach to improve the performance. Previous methods generally directly model the label dependencies among all the categories in the target dataset. However, most of the semantic features extracted from an image are relevant to the existing objects, making the dependencies among the nonexistant categories unable to be effectively evaluated. These redundant label dependencies may bring noise and further decrease the performance of classification. To solve this problem, we propose S-MAT, a Semantic-driven Masked Attention Transformer for multi-label aerial scene image classification. S-MAT adopts a Masked Attention Transformer (MAT) to capture the correlations among the label embeddings constructed by a Semantic Disentanglement Module (SDM). Moreover, the proposed masked attention in MAT can filter out the redundant dependencies and enhance the robustness of the model. As a result, the proposed method can explicitly and accurately capture the label dependencies. Therefore, our method achieves CF1s of 89.21%, 90.90%, and 88.31% on three multi-label aerial scene image classification benchmark datasets: UC-Merced Multi-label, AID Multi-label, and MLRSNet, respectively. In addition, extensive ablation studies and empirical analysis are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the essential components of our method under different factors.

NORX is a permutation-based authentication scheme which is currently a third-round candidate of the ongoing CAESAR competition. The security bound of NORX is derived from the sponge construction applied to an ideal underlying permutation. In this paper, we show that the NORX core permutation is non-ideal with a new distinguishing attack. More specifically, we can distinguish NORX64 permutation with 248.5 queries and distinguish NORX32 permutation with 264.7 queries using carefully crafted differential-linear attacks. We have experimentally verified the distinguishing attack on NORX64 permutation. Although the distinguishing attacks reveal the weakness of the NORX permutation, it does not directly threat the security of the NORX authenticated encryption scheme.

Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle are well-adapted to low-temperature conditions, but the metabolic mechanisms underlying their climatic resilience are still unknown. Based on the 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance platform, 41 metabolites were identified and quantified in the serum of 10 heifers under thermal neutrality (5 °C), and subsequent exposure to hyper-cold temperature (−32 °C) for 3 h. Subsequently, 28 metabolites were pre-filtrated, and they provided better performance in multivariate analysis than that of using 41 metabolites. This indicated the need for pre-filtering of the metabolome data in a paired experimental design. In response to the cold exposure challenge, 19 metabolites associated with cold stress response were identified, mainly enriched in “aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis” and “valine, leucine, and isoleucine degradation”. A further integration of metabolome and gene expression highlighted the functional roles of the DLD (dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase), WARS (tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase), and RARS (arginyl-tRNA synthetase) genes in metabolic pathways of valine and leucine. Furthermore, the essential regulations of SLC30A6 (solute carrier family 30 (zinc transporter), member 6) in metabolic transportation for propionate, acetate, valine, and leucine under severe cold exposure were observed. Our findings presented a comprehensive characterization of the serum metabolome of Inner-Mongolia Sanhe cattle, and contributed to a better understanding of the crucial roles of regulations in metabolites and metabolic pathways during cold stress events in cattle.

The performance of the material is determined by its structure, i.e., the composition of the material elements of the atomic structure, the molecular structure, and atoms or molecules in space arrangement and the aggregation characteristics. The microstructure of the material has important implications for the material performance. In this paper, five phase change materials, potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, and the composites of KNO3-NaNO3/graphite (3%, 6%, and 9%), have been studied by the experiment, and the aim is to improve the storage performance of the solar storage system. The results show that potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate are significantly different in microstructure, that is, potassium nitrate is a layered structure and the sodium nitrate is a network structure. And, the graphite as additives can be physically combined with the molten salts, which leads to a different performance and distribution in the mixture. Therefore, it is an effective method in improving the performance of molten salts by using graphite as the supporting material. The results can provide a reference to future choose for solar storage materials.

Black fungus is a homologous fungus of medicine and food. Its nutrient content determines the health value, and the accumulation of nutrients is easily affected by the substitute materials. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of corn stalks as a cultivation substitution material for sawdust on macronutrients, micronutrients, and functional components of black fungus. The results reported that corn stalks could significantly increase the content of ash, protein, copper, and iron in black fungus, but reduce the content of zinc, magnesium, manganese, and colloidal substances; corn stalks had less effect on melanin and polyphenols; its effect on water, total sugar, reducing sugar, crude fiber, and total flavonoids was insignificant. Therefore, the study provided a theoretical basis for the cultivation of black fungus with corn stalks.

Improvement for carcass traits related to beef quality is the key concern in beef production. Recent reports found that epigenetics mediates the interaction of individuals with environment and nutrition. The present study was designed to analyze the genetic effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in seven epigenetic-related genes (DNMT1, DNMT3a, DNMT3b, DNMT3L, Ago1, Ago2, and HDAC5) and two meat quality candidate genes (CAPN1 and PRKAG3) on fourteen carcass traits related to beef quality in a Snow Dragon beef population, and also to identify SNPs in a total of fourteen cattle populations. Sixteen SNPs were identified and genotyped in 383 individuals sampled from the 14 cattle breeds, which included 147 samples from the Snow Dragon beef population. Data analysis showed significant association of 8 SNPs within 4 genes related to carcass and/or meat quality traits in the beef populations. SNP1 (13154420A>G) in exon 17 of DNMT1 was significantly associated with rib-eye width and lean meat color score (pG) of DNMT3a was significantly associated with six beef quality traits. Those individuals with the wild-type genotype AA of DNMT3a showed an increase in carcass weight, chilled carcass weight, flank thicknesses, chuck short rib thickness, chuck short rib score and in chuck flap weight in contrast to the GG genotype. Five out of six SNPs in DNMT3b gene were significantly associated with three beef quality traits. SNP15 (45219258C>T) in CAPN1 was significantly associated with chuck short rib thickness and lean meat color score (p

Concentrating solar power plant coupling with energy storage is a new and emerging technology, which can solve two issues, that is, low flux density and intermittent of solar energy. Heat transfer characteristics of the storage tank in this system have a key effect on the system’s efficiency and cost. In this article, the heat transfer performance of a phase change thermal storage tank has been proposed, and the temperature distribution and liquid fraction of phase change material in the tank has numerically been investigated. The results show that the temperature increases with the increasing charge time. The results also show that there is a phase change process at the charge time of 200 min, and no phase change for the charge time of 250 and 300 min. The results of this article can provide a reference for future design and optimal operation of the storage tank in concentrating solar power plant.

Concentrating characteristics of the sunlight have an important effect on the optical-thermal conversion efficiency of solar concentrator and the application of the receiver. In this paper, radiation flux in the focal plane and the receiver with three focal lengths has been investigated based on Monte Carlo ray-tracing method. At the same time, based on the equal area-height and equal area-diameter methods to design four different shape receivers and numerical simulation of radiation flux distribution characteristics have also been investigated. The results show that the radiation flux in the focal plane increases with decreasing of the focal length and the diameter of the light spot increases with increasing of the focal length. The function of the position with a maximum of radiation flux has been obtained according to the numerical results. The results also show that the radiation flux distribution of cylindrical receiver has the best performance in all four receivers. The results can provide a reference for future design and application of concentrating solar power.

Arachnomelia syndrome (AS), mainly found in Brown Swiss and Simmental cattle, is a congenital lethal genetic malformation of the skeletal system. In this study, a network-based disease gene prioritization approach was implemented to rank genes in the previously reported ∼7 Mb region on chromosome 23 associated with AS in Simmental cattle. The top 6 ranked candidate genes were sequenced in four German Simmental bulls, one known AS-carrier ROMEL and a pooled sample of three known non-carriers (BOSSAG, RIFURT and HIRMER). Two suspicious mutations located in coding regions, a mis-sense mutation c.1303G>A in the bystin-like (BYSL) gene and a 2-bp deletion mutation c.1224_1225delCA in the molybdenum cofactor synthesis step 1 (MOCS1) gene were detected. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the mutation in MOCS1 was more likely to be the causative mutation. Screening the c.1224_1225delCA site in 383 individuals from 12 cattle breeds/lines, we found that only the bull ROMEL and his 12 confirmed progeny carried the mutation. Thus, our results confirm the conclusion of Buitkamp et al. that the 2-bp deletion mutation c.1224_1225delCA in exon 11 of the MOCS1 gene is causative for AS in Simmental cattle. Furthermore, a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was developed to detect the causative mutation.