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To enhance the amine-sensitivity of intelligent films for accurate monitoring of chilled meat freshness, different additions (0, 1, 2, 3 wt%) of MIL-100(Fe) were incorporated into the matrix composed of anthocyanins (ANs) and pectin (P). Results indicated that the tensile strength, thermal stability, barrier performance and absorption capacity of the films with MIL-100(Fe) were improved significantly (p < 0.05). Especially, the film with 2 % MIL-100(Fe) exhibited the best performance due to its compact structure and the highest crystallinity. Additionally, adsorption isotherms of the films with MIL-100(Fe) were fitted on the Langmuir and the Freundlich isotherm, and adsorption kinetics were fitted on the pseudo-second-order model and Elovich model, respectively (R 2 > 0.96), suggesting a combined mechanism of chemisorption and intraparticle diffusion. Besides, when the films were exposed in ammonia environment, they changed color from purple to blue-violet, finally to green. Ultimately, film with 2 % MIL-100(Fe) was used to monitor the chilled meat freshness, as expected, similar color variation was observed at three stages of meat freshness (fresh, sub-fresh, and spoiled), which enabled the accurate differentiation of meat freshness. Thus, films with MIL-100(Fe) demonstrated the potential to be amine-sensitive intelligent packaging for monitoring chilled meat freshness in real time. [Display omitted] • MIL-100(Fe) was integrated in anthocyanins/pectin films as a function filler. • MIL-100(Fe) could enhance the physical properties of the films(p < 0.05). • MIL-100(Fe) enhanced amine-sensitive performance of films with chemisorption. • The film could accurately differentiate meat freshness(fresh, sub-fresh, spoiled). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Ventricular segmentation is of great importance for the heart condition monitoring. However, manual segmentation is time‐consuming, cumbersome, and subjective. Many segmentation methods perform poorly due to the complex structure and uncertain shape of the right ventricle, so we combine deep learning to achieve automatic segmentation. Method: This paper proposed a method named U‐Snake network which is based on the improvement of deep snake together with level set to segment the right ventricular in the MR images. U‐snake aggregates the information of each receptive field which is learned by circular convolution of multiple dilation rates. At the same time, we also added dice loss functions and transferred the result of U‐Snake to the level set so as to further enhance the effect of small object segmentation. Our method is tested on the test 1 and test 2 datasets in the right ventricular segmentation challenge (RVSC), which shows the effectiveness. Results: The experiment showed that we have obtained good result in the RVSC. The highest segmentation accuracy on the right ventricular test set 2 reached a dice coefficient of 0.911, and the segmentation speed reached 5 fps. Conclusions: Our method, a new deep learning network named U‐snake, has surpassed the previous excellent ventricular segmentation method based on mathematical theory and other classical deep learning methods, such as Residual U‐net, Inception CNN, and Dilated CNN. However, it can only be used as an auxiliary tool instead of replacing the work of human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of China's "double carbon" goal, it is essential to better understand the carbon accounting and control factors in complex terrain areas. Guizhou Province, as one of the provinces with the most typical karst landform development in Southwest China, has been regarded as an important carbon pool. Nevertheless, it is not clear how the change in soil organic carbon density (SOCD) is influenced by the combined effects of natural factors and human activities at the provincial scale. This study used geostatistical methods to explore the spatial pattern of SOCD, and the factors affecting SOCD were analyzed using classical statistics, correlation analysis, random forest model, and structural equation model methods. Additionally, soil organic carbon (SOC) storage under typical land use types in Guizhou Province was also estimated. The results showed that the SOCD of two soil layers (0–10 cm and 10–20 cm) in Guizhou Province had medium-intensity variation. Spatially, SOCD displayed a distribution pattern of high values in the west and low values in the north and south. The SOC storage (0–20 cm) of woodland, arable land, garden land and grassland in Guizhou Province was 476.47 Tg C, 139.8 Tg C, 22.53 Tg C, and 7.66 Tg C, respectively. Altitude had the greatest indirect effect on SOCD at the two soil depths. Human disturbance and light intensity directly impacted SOCD at only 0–10 cm soil depth. Slope position, slope and mean annual precipitation indirectly affected SOCD through human disturbance. Our research provides a reliable reference value for the in-depth understanding of the regional carbon cycle and the formulation and implementation of regional carbon sink strategies. • Spatial pattern of SOCD in Guizhou Province was studied. • The total SOC storage of topsoil in Guizhou Province was estimated. • The relationship between SOCD and influencing factors was analyzed. • Controlling factors affecting the SOCD level were determined. • The influence paths of various factors on SOCD were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SOC has strong spatial variability due to complex topography and landscape. • Effects of environmental factors on SOC variations were explored. • Altitude, rocky desertification and land use are the key factors affecting SOC level. • Rocky desertification control is a major means to increase soil carbon sequestration. Global karst landforms account for about 15 % of the land area. The development of karst landforms in southwest China accounts for>1/3 of the country's land area, and is considered to be an important carbon storage with considerable carbon sequestration potential to alleviate global warming. Clarifying the response mechanism of soil organic carbon (SOC) to different controlling factors is of great significance to formulate and implement regional carbon sink strategies. Based on 517 soil samples in Guizhou Province, this study used geostatistical methods to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of SOC in Guizhou Province. The effects of altitude, land use, soil type, slope direction, slope position, slope gradient and rock exposure rate on the spatial variability of SOC in karst areas were quantitatively compared by statistical analysis methods. The results showed that the mean value of SOC content in Guizhou Province was 19.59 g/kg, and the coefficient of variation was 69.11 %, showing moderate-intensity variation. Spatially, the SOC content in Guizhou Province showed a declining trend from west to east, with the low-value areas predominantly distributed in the south and north areas. The semi-variogram model showed that the nugget coefficient C 0 /(C 0 + C) was < 25 %, and the SOC in the study area had a strong spatial autocorrelation. The artificial neural network analysis showed that the important coefficients of each independent variable on SOC level were as follows: altitude (0.355) > slope gradient (0.255) > rock exposure rate (0.166) > land use (0.08) > slope position (0.059) > slope direction (0.043) > soil type (0.041). This research suggests that the provincial government should pay attention to the control of rocky desertification and the development of modern low-carbon agriculture in the work of increasing soil carbon sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polypropylene has great potential as a thermoplastic insulation material for high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable. However, its mechanical properties restrict its application, particularly at low temperature. In this paper, isotactic polypropylene (iPP) with the β-nucleating agent WBG was prepared by the melt blending method. The crystallinity, β-crystal proportion and crystalline morphology were analyzed by wide-angle X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy and polarized optical microscopy. The results showed that the crystallinity and β-crystal proportion increased as the WBG concentration increased. Three types of β-crystal morphology, namely β-spherulite, flower-like agglomerate and β-quasi-spherulite, were sequentially obtained with increasing WBG concentration. The mechanical properties, space charge distribution, thermally stimulated discharge current and DC electrical breakdown strength were investigated. Compared with pure iPP, the Izod impact strength and DC breakdown strength of iPP/0.1%WBG were improved by 238 and 16%, respectively, and the fracture energy and brittleness temperature of iPP/0.3%WBG were improved by 420 and 80%, respectively. In addition, the space charge accumulation was suppressed in the range of 0.1–0.5 wt% WBG. Chain coupling between the β-crystals and the amorphous phase, particularly in the flower-like agglomerates, was considered to play an important role in improving the mechanical and electrical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Novel sequence motifs detection is becoming increasingly essential in computational biology. However, the high computational cost greatly constrains the efficiency of most motif discovery algorithms. Results: In this paper, we accelerate MEME algorithm targeted on Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) Architecture and present a parallel implementation of MEME called MIC-MEME base on hybrid CPU/MIC computing framework. Our method focuses on parallelizing the starting point searching method and improving iteration updating strategy of the algorithm. MIC-MEME has achieved significant speedups of 26.6 for ZOOPS model and 30.2 for OOPS model on average for the overall runtime when benchmarked on the experimental platform with two Xeon Phi 3120 coprocessors. Conclusions: Furthermore, MIC-MEME has been compared with state-of-arts methods and it shows good scalability with respect to dataset size and the number of MICs. Source code: https://github.com/hkwkevin28/MIC-MEME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photocatalytic oxidation of contaminants in water has recently gained extensive attentions. In this study, Cu2+ - doped BiOCl microsphere photocatalysts were prepared using solvothermal method. The effects of Cu2+ doping ratio on the morphological structures and photoelectric and photocatalytic properties of BiOCl were studied in detail. Results showed that Cu2+ doping affected the particle size of BiOCl microspheres. The introduction of Cu2+ ions gradually increased the light absorption range and decreased the electron recombination rate of photocatalysts as shown by ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflection and photoluminescence spectra. The best doping ratio was 0.25 Cu2+-BiOCl, showing the highest photocatalytic activity for rhodamine B (14.25 time higher than BiOCl) and a good inhibition of algal growth. The main reactants in the photocatalytic system were·OH and h+ (electron holes). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further demonstrated that the doping of Cu2+ ions made the photogenerated carriers in BiOCl easier to generate and ensured the charge was transferred more rapidly. In conclusion, a novel high-efficiency multifunctional photocatalyst is proposed for the efficient organic pollutants removal and algae growth inhibition from water. [Display omitted] • Cu2+ - doped BiOCl photocatalyst was prepared using a solvothermal method. • The best photocatalytic oxidation performance for RhB was exhibited by 0.25-Cu-BiOCl. • Cu-BiOCl photocatalyst can be used as a novel multifunctional photocatalyst. • The photocatalytic mechanism of RhB removal and algal inhibition by Cu-BiOCl was elucidated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a lethal disease with extremely high mortality. Although surgical resection is the optimal therapeutic approach for PC, about 30%-40% of those patients are not candidates for surgical resection when diagnosed. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy also could not claim a desirable effect on PC. The application of interventional radiology approaches is limited by unavoidable damage to the surrounding vessels or organs. By the superiority of mechanism and technology, IRE could ablate the tumor by creating irreversible pores on the membrane of PC cells with other tissues like vessels and pancreatic ducts untouched. This consensus gathers the theoretical basis and clinical experience from multiple Chinese medical centers, to provide the application principles and experience from Chinese experts in the IRE field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile strategy based on the boronate affinity and polydopamine coating was proposed for the preparation of surface molecularly imprinted polymer microspheres using naringin as the glycoside template. The poly(methacrylic acid‐co‐methyl methacrylate‐co‐ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate) microspheres were firstly synthesized as inner cores by suspension polymerization method, and then functionalized with 3‐aminophenylboronic acid. The imprinted shell layer was obtained by self‐polymerization of dopamine on the surface of boronic acid‐functionalized polymer microspheres after reversible immobilization of naringin. The resultant surface molecularly imprinted microspheres showed good imprinting efficiency and recognition specificity toward the template molecule in aqueous environment. The isothermal and kinetic adsorption behaviors of the polymers were investigated. The results showed that the covalent surface imprinted microspheres possessed homogeneous recognition sites, strong adsorption affinity, and rapid rebinding kinetics. In addition, the surface imprinted microspheres were utilized as the sorbents of solid phase extraction to successfully separate and enrich naringin from Citri Grandis extract, and the recovery of naringin in eluting solution reached 84.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the dynamics of bidensity slurries on an incline. The particle-fluid mixture consists of two species of negatively buoyant particles that have roughly the same size but significantly variant densities. This mismatch in particle densities induces or prevents settling depending on the relative amount of heavy to light particles, leading to complex regimes also found in the monodisperse case. In addition, when settling effects dominate within the thin film, we observe the phase separation down the incline between the particles and the liquid, as well as between two particle types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]