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In our work, MnTiO 3 was synthesized using the simple conventional solid-state method. We report in-situ induced Mn-defect within MnTiO 3 layered oxide through charging process. It performs good cycling stability which can obtain 115 mA h/g even at 400 mA g−1 after 450 cycles and the discharge capacity reaches up to 233.8 mAh/g at 100 mA g−1 when Mn-defect MnTiO 3 was employed as the cathode material for AZIBs. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation was used to further research the corresponding Zn2+ intercalation-deintercalation behaviors, it indicated that the presence of Mn defects enhances the conductivity of MnTiO 3. [Display omitted] Layered manganese-based cathode materials are considered as one of the promising cathodes benefit from inherent low manufacturing cost, non-toxic and high safety in aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). However, the sluggish reaction kinetics within layered cathodes is inevitable due to the poor electrical/ionic conductivity. Herein, MnTiO 3 is reported as a new cathode material for AZIBs and in-situ induced Mn-defect within MnTiO 3 during the first charging is desirable to improve the reaction kinetics to a great extent. Additionally, DFT calculations further demonstrate that MnTiO 3 with manganese defects exhibits a uniform charge distribution at the defect sites, enhancing the attraction towards H+ and Zn2+ ions. Furthermore, it performs good cycling stability which can obtain 115 mA h g−1 even at 400 mA g−1 after 450 cycles and the discharge capacity reaches up to 233.8 mAh/g at 100 mA g−1 when Mn-defect MnTiO 3 was employed as the cathode. This research could provide a new method for the development and mechanism research of cathode materials for AZIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Syllable frequency effects in spoken word production have been interpreted as evidence that speakers store syllable-sized motor programmes for phonetic encoding in alphabetic languages such as English or Dutch. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying the syllable frequency effect in Chinese spoken word production remains unknown. To investigate the locus of the syllable frequency effect in spoken Chinese, this study used a picture–word interference (PWI) task in which participants were asked to name the picture while ignoring the distractor word. The design included two variables: the syllable frequency of the target words (high vs. low) and the phonological relationships between distractor and target words (shared atonic syllable or not; related vs. unrelated). We manipulated mixed token and type syllable frequency in Experiment 1, and token syllable frequency but controlled type syllable frequency in Experiment 2. The results showed a facilitation effect of mixed syllable frequency and a similar facilitation effect of token syllable frequency. Importantly, the syllable frequency effect was found to be independent of the phonological facilitation effect. These results suggest that token syllable frequency played a dominant role in the observed facilitation effect, providing evidence that the syllable frequency effect arises in the phonetic encoding of Chinese spoken word production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The clinical value and molecular characteristics of tumor differentiation in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remain unclear. There is a lack of a related molecular classification prediction system based on pathological images for precision medicine. Methods: Integration of epidemiology, genomics, experiments, and deep learning to clarify the clinical value and molecular characteristics, and develop a novel OSCC molecular classification prediction system. Results: Large-scale epidemiology data (n = 118,817) demonstrated OSCC differentiation was a significant prognosis indicator (p < 0.001), and well-differentiated OSCC was more chemo-resistant than poorly differentiated OSCC. These results were confirmed in the TCGA database and in vitro. Furthermore, we found chemo-resistant related pathways and cell cycle-related pathways were up-regulated in well- and poorly differentiated OSCC, respectively. Based on the characteristics of OSCC differentiation, a molecular grade of OSCC was obtained and combined with pathological images to establish a novel prediction system through deep learning, named ShuffleNetV2-based Molecular Grade of OSCC (SMGO). Importantly, our independent multi-center cohort of OSCC (n = 340) confirmed the high accuracy of SMGO. Conclusions: OSCC differentiation was a significant indicator of prognosis and chemotherapy selection. Importantly, SMGO could be an indispensable reference for OSCC differentiation and assist the decision-making of chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research on the interference of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) array antennas focuses on the single interference effect and the improvement of interference hardware capability, while the multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) interference model and mechanism remain to be fully studied. Aiming at this problem, this paper analyzes the preconditions for the definition of anti-jamming degrees of freedom and the characteristics of super-DOF interference through formula derivation and simulation. First, by analyzing the influence of the number of interfering signals on the angular resolution, the prerequisite of the definition of anti-interference degrees of freedom in the airspace is proposed. Second, the definition of anti-interference degrees of freedom is used to calculate the change rule of the critical power of the interference under different numbers of interfering signals. Finally, the influence of super-DOF interference on the array antenna is analyzed. The results show that the prerequisite for the anti-interference freedom of the array antenna is that the distribution interval of the interfering signal is greater than 15°, taking a four-array element uniform circular array antenna as an example. The critical interference power of the array antenna decreases by about 15 dB when the number of interfering signals exceeds the degrees of freedom of the array antenna's interference immunity, provided that the interference resolution is satisfied. The conclusions of this paper give the critical power change rule of multi-DOF interference and the effect of super-DOF interference, as well as the prerequisites for the setting of interference signals, which can be used, for example, in the deployment of distributed interference sources and the development of anti-jamming algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study investigated the biological role of miR-367-3p upregulation in bladder cancer and verified the mutual relation between miR-367-3p and RAB23. Materials and methods: Expression levels of miR-367-3p were determined by RT–qPCR in bladder cancer cell lines and human bladder cancer tissues. The effects of miR-367-3p on proliferation, migration and invasion were evaluated by cell colony formation assays, wound healing assays and trans-well assays, respectively. The effects of miR-367-3p and RAB23 on cisplatin sensitivity of bladder cancer cells were assessed by CCK-8 assay. The expression of its target-RAB23 was determined by western blotting in T24, 5637. Plasmids used in dual-luciferase assays were constructed to confirm the action of miR-367-3p on downstream target-RAB23 in T24 cells. And also, the role of miR-367-3p in tumorigenesis was also confirmed in nude mouse models. Results: The downregulation of miR-367-3p was observed in human bladder cancer tissues. MiR-367-3p downregulation positively correlated with tumor stage and tumor grade. MiR-367-3p overexpression in T24, 5637 cells suppressed the proliferation, migration, and invasion of bladder cancer cells in vitro while decreasing IC50 values under T24 and 5637 cisplatin treatment conditions. RAB23 was shown to be upregulated in bladder cancer tissues and cell lines. MiR-367-3p directly bound to the 3′ UTR of RAB23 in T24 cells. RAB23 was potentially accounted for the aforementioned functions of miR-367-3p. Tumor formation experiments in nude mouse models confirmed that overexpression of miR-367-3p could inhibit tumor growth and invasion in vivo. Conclusions: miR-367-3p acts as a tumor suppressor in bladder cancer by downregulating RAB23 signaling. We conjecture that miR-367-3p-mediated downregulation of RAB23 expression may be a new therapeutic strategy for bladder cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrospinning is a simple and effective technique for preparing carbon nanofibers. However, carbon nanofiber materials have some drawbacks, such as low specific surface area, small pore size, and low porosity, which can affect the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. This article proposes a preparation method for a multi-level porous structure for thick electrodes. Sponge-like nanofibers are formed through electrospinning by adding a certain amount of PMMA to the polyacrylonitrile mixed spinning solution after doping with heteroatoms. After reverse hanging pre-oxidation and carbonization, a hierarchical porous, highly conductive, and flexible carbon nanofiber sponge is obtained. After testing, at a current density of 0.25 A g−1, its specific capacitance reached 207 F g−1. As the power density increased from 250 W kg−1 to 3997.89 W kg−1, the energy density changed from 28.73 W h kg−1 to 8.44 W h kg−1, demonstrating that the porous active carbon nanofiber sponge electrode has a significant energy storage advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Accurate assessment of the clinical staging is crucial for determining the need for radical prostatectomy (RP) in prostate cancer (PCa). However, the current methods for PCa staging may yield incorrect results. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze independent predictors of postoperative upstaging of intraprostatic cancer. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from intraprostatic cancer patients who underwent radical surgery between March 2019 and December 2022. Intraprostatic cancer was defined as a lesion confined to the prostate, excluding cases where multiparameter magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) showed the lesion in contact with the prostatic capsule. We assessed independent predictors of extraprostatic extension (EPE) and analyzed their association with positive surgical margin (PSM) status. In addition, based on the distance of the lesion from the capsule on mpMRI, we divided the patients into non‐transition zone and transition zone groups for further analysis. Results: A total of 500 patients were included in our study. Logistic regression analysis revealed that biopsy Gleason grade group (GG) (odds ratio, OR: 1.370, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.093–1.718) and perineural invasion (PNI) (OR: 2.746, 95% CI: 1.420–5.309) were predictive factors for postoperative EPE. Both biopsy GG and PNI were associated with lateral (GG: OR: 1.270, 95% CI: 1.074–1.501; PNI: OR: 2.733, 95% CI: 1.521–4.911) and basal (GG: OR: 1.491, 95% CI: 1.194–1.862; PNI: OR: 3.730, 95% CI: 1.929–7.214) PSM but not with apex PSM (GG: OR: 1.176, 95% CI: 0.989–1.399; PNI: OR: 1.204, 95% CI: 0.609–2.381) after RP. Finally, PNI was an independent predictor of EPE in the transition zone (OR: 11.235, 95% CI: 2.779–45.428) but not in the non‐transition zone (OR: 1.942, 95% CI: 0.920–4.098). Conclusion: PNI and higher GG may indicate upstaging of tumors in patients with intraprostatic carcinoma. These two factors are associated with PSM in locations other than the apex of the prostate. Importantly, cancer in the transition zone of the prostate is more likely to spread externally through nerve invasion than cancer in the non‐transition zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave pyrolysis features with different heating mechanisms and heat transfer directions from traditional pyrolysis with furnace heating, which might impact evolution of volatiles and nature of biochar in varied ways. This was investigated in this study by pyrolysis of wet and dried banana peel with microwave heating and furnace heating at 400 and 600 °C in a fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that microwave pyrolysis could drastically promote gasification of volatiles to form significantly more gases like H 2 via dehydrogenation and CO via cracking and decarbonylation. This was especially evident in the pyrolysis of wet banana peel with abundant water as the heat transfer medium. The dominance of cracking/gasification of volatiles in microwave pyrolysis was due to the rapid heating and the minimized heat transfer limitation, which suppressed the secondary condensation and thus diminished the formation of bio-oil and biochar. Microwave pyrolysis also favored the cracking of the cellulose/hemicellulose-derived aliphatic organics via cracking but promoted the formation of phenolics via cracking of lignin in banana peel. Moreover, the excessive cracking reactions in the microwave pyrolysis led to the biochar of more excellent thermal stability, lower abundance of oxygen-containing functionalities like C O and more rugged morphology than that with furnace heating source. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three component construction of conjugated 1,3‐dienes bearing oxindoles or isoquinolinediones from alkenylated aryl iodides, allenes and diazo compounds via a palladium catalyzed sequential alkene/allene/carbenoid insertion reaction was developed. Three C−C bonds were formed in high order, offering access to multi‐substituted dienes in high yields and up to >20:1 E/Z selectivities. The reaction features excellent functional groups tolerance under mild conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) can provide morphological information about the structure and function of the brain in the same scanning process. It has been widely used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Purpose: To capture the anatomical changes in the brain caused by AD/MCI, deep learning‐based MRI image analysis methods have been proposed in recent years. However, it is observed that the performance of most existing methods is limited as they only construct a single type of deep network and ignore the significance of other clinical information. Methods: To make up for these defects, an ensemble framework that incorporates three types of dedicatedly‐designed convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and a multilayer perceptron (MLP) network is proposed, where three CNNs with entropy‐based multi‐instance learning pooling layers have more reliable feature selection abilities. The dedicatedly‐designed base classifiers can make use of the heterogeneous data, and empower the framework with enhanced diversity and robustness. In particular, to consider the interactions among the base classifiers, a novel multi‐head self‐attention voting scheme is designed. Moreover, considering the chance that MCI can be transformed to AD, the proposed framework is designed to diagnose AD and predict MCI conversion simultaneously, with the aid of the transfer learning technique. Results: For performance evaluation and comparison, extensive experiments are conducted on the public dataset of the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). The results show that the proposed ensemble framework provides superior performance under most of the evaluation metrics. Especially, the proposed framework achieves state‐of‐the‐art diagnostic accuracy (98.61% for the AD diagnosis task, and 84.49% for the MCI conversion prediction task). Conclusions: These promising results demonstrate the proposed ensemble framework can accurately diagnose AD patients and predict the conversion of MCI patients, which has the potential of clinical practice for diagnosing AD and MCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threats of cyberattacks have penetrated from disclosing critical user information to destroying/manipulating industrial control systems. Study on data security during network transmission has raised increasing attention in the systems and control community, which is found very necessary and timely in the context of Industry 4.0. In most existing approaches, the protection of the transmitted data from eavesdropping attacks and the detection of malicious integrity attacks are usually carried out separately. In this study, an integrated data-driven framework applicable at the control level is proposed to deal with secure transmission and attack detection simultaneously. In the framework, a secure correlation-based encryption/decryption approach and a trustworthiness judgement approach are proposed. Comprehensive discussions are made regarding the analysis of the sensitivity to attacks, the introduced time delay, and the design degree-of-free. Executable algorithms are presented, corresponding to which hardware is modularized and can work standalone independent from the configuration of the monitoring and control systems or any third-party authentication agencies. Evaluation results on a simulated two-area frequency-load control power grid system are provided to show the effectiveness and performance of the proposed approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In China, the quantity of physical activity differs from that in Western countries. Substantial uncertainty remains about the relevance of physical activity for cancer subtypes among Chinese adults. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association between total daily physical activity and the incidence of common types of cancer. Methods: A total of 53,269 participants aged 30–79 years were derived from the Wuzhong subcohort of the China Kadoorie Biobank study during 2004–2008. We included 52,938 cancer-free participants in the final analysis. Incident cancers were identified through linkage with the health insurance system and death registries. Cox proportional hazard models were introduced to assess the associations of total daily physical activity with the incidence of 6 common types of cancer. Results: During a follow-up of 10.1 years, 3,674 cases of cancer were identified, including 794 (21.6%) from stomach cancer, 722 (19.7%) from lung cancer, 458 (12.5%) from colorectal cancer, 338 (9.2%) from liver cancer, 250 (6.8%) from breast cancer, and 231 (6.3%) from oesophageal cancer. Compared to the participants in the lowest quartile of physical activity levels, those in the highest quartile had an 11% lower risk for total cancer incidence (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.81–0.99), 25% lower risk for lung cancer incidence (HR: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.60–0.94), and 26% lower risk for colorectal cancer incidence (HR: 0.74, 95% CI: 0.55–1.00). There were significant interactions of physical activity with sex and smoking on total cancer (both P for interaction < 0.005), showing a lower risk for females and never smokers (HR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.87–0.98 and HR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87–0.98, respectively). Conclusions: Higher physical activity levels are associated with a reduced risk of total, lung, and colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrolysis is a thermochemical route for converting waste plastics into hydrocarbons that might be further upgraded to fine chemicals via the process such as hydrotreatment. In this study, the pyrolysis of five typical plastics (PE, PP, PVC, PS and PET) and steam reforming of their derived volatiles were coupled in one process, named as pyro-reforming. The reaction behaviors, especially the property of their derived cokes, in the pyro-reforming were investigated. The results indicated that the volatiles from the pyrolysis of PE had the highest reactivity with steam to produce H 2 of the highest yield, followed by that of PP, PVC, PET and PS. The Cl in PVC promoted nickel sintering, enhanced formation of heavy aromatics through aromatization. Moreover, the existence of Cl interrupted formation of carbon nanotube, forming the highest amount of coke with hemp rope-like fiber form of very coarse surface. This was very different from the carbon nanotube form of coke with smooth surface and uniform outer/inner diameters from the pyro-reforming of PE or PP. The pyro-reforming of PET or PS generated mainly the aromatic intermediates that were chemically more inert in steam reforming, forming polymeric type of coke with no carbon nanotube morphology and very low crystallinity. The light organics in pyrolytic products could be reformed to provide hydrogen for hydrotreatment of the heavier ones. [Display omitted] • H2 yield in pyro-reforming follows the order: PE > CEL > PP > PVC > PET > PS. • Cl in PVC promotes Ni sintering, aromatization and formed coke of highest amount. • PET/PS pyrolysis forms chemically inert aromatics that are difficult to be reformed. • PE/PP/PVC coke contains carbon crystal and aliphatic ones in nanotube/twine form. • Coke of PET/PS is polymeric type with amorphous morphology and low crystallinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lung cancer is currently the most frequent cancer in Jiangsu Province, China, and the features of cancer distribution have changed continuously in the last decade. The aim of this study was to analyse the trend of the incidence of lung cancer in Jiangsu from 2009 to 2018 and predict the incidence from 2019 to 2030.Methods: Data on lung cancer incidence in Jiangsu from 2009 to 2018 were retrieved from the Jiangsu Cancer Registry. The average annual percentage change (AAPC) was used to quantify the trend of the lung cancer age-standardized rate (ASR) using Joinpoint software. Bayesian age-period-cohort models were used to predict lung cancer incidence up to 2030.Results: In Jiangsu, the lung cancer crude rate increased from 45.73 per 100,000 in 2009 to 69.93 per 100,000 in 2018. The lung cancer ASR increased from 29.03 per 100,000 to 34.22 per 100,000 during the same period (AAPC = 2.17%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.54%, 2.80%). Between 2019 and 2030, the lung cancer ASR is predicted to decrease slightly to 32.14 per 100,000 (95% highest density interval [HDI], 24.99, 40.22). Meanwhile, the ASR showed a downward trend in males and rural regions while remaining stable in females and urban regions.Conclusion: We predict that the incidence of lung cancer in Jiangsu will decrease in the next 12 years, mainly due to the decrease in males and rural areas. Therefore, future lung cancer prevention and control efforts should be focused on females and urban regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a patient survey, pulsed dye laser (PDL) treatment of epistaxis for hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) patients was evaluated after initial referral. Subsequently, due to the COVID pandemic, a natural experimental set-up allowed assessment of an enforced withdrawal of treatment. A total of 34 subjects were identified as undergoing PDL for HHT-related epistaxis. They were surveyed to look at the effectiveness of PDL treatment after initial referral and at the effect of delay to treatment during COVID on epistaxis and the associated quality of life. The survey also examined the comparison to other available treatments. Retrospective pre-COVID Epistaxis Severity Scores (ESS) were compared to post-COVID data to assess the effect of treatment withdrawal. The patients were then followed up after resumption of their treatment to assess the ensuing change in ESS. After initial referral, frequency and severity of epistaxis decreased. Fifty-six percent of patients experienced several bleeds per day before treatment, compared to 12% after. 88% of patients had episodes of epistaxis longer than 5 min, which was halved to 44% after treatment. Average ESS pre-COVID was 4.42 compared to 5.43 post-COVID delay, with a significant statistical difference (p = 0.02). On resumption of treatment, average ESS reduced to below pre-COVID levels at 4.39 after only 2 sessions. Seventy-six percent of patients found that withdrawal of PDL during COVID diminished their quality of life. PDL treatment of nasal mucosal telangiectasia reduces the frequency and duration of epistaxis. The ESS is reduced following treatment with PDL and quality of life subjectively improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, whole lung lavage slowed the rate of lung function decline at one-, two- and four-year follow up in men with pneumoconiosis when compared to their co-workers. Despite recognized weaknesses in the presentation of the information, we conclude that this procedure may show promise in altering the natural history of pneumoconiosis. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the role of whole lung lavage (WLL) in the treatment of pneumoconiosis and compare changes in lung function over time in treated and untreated miners. Methods: We systematically reviewed and identified eight controlled studies with treated and comparison groups with lung function tests before WLL and a year or more later. Two hundred ninety-two patients were included in our meta-analysis. Results: Studies consistently showed a slowing of the rate of lung function decline with WLL at 1, 2, and 4 years. In some reports, details of the population under study, reliability of lung function tests, the adequacy of matching, technical aspects of the procedure, and adverse effects associated with WLL were not available. Conclusions: Despite recognized weaknesses in the presentation of information, this procedure may show promise in altering the natural history of pneumoconiosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic municipal waste is a mixture of carbonaceous feedstock and cross-interaction of volatiles in their co-pyrolysis has been well documented, but quantifying their extent of interactions in co-pyrolysis is difficult. In this study, the ratio of char yield from co-pyrolysis to calculated average of pyrolysis of single feedstock was used as an indicator to probe the interaction in co-pyrolysis of every two typical carbonaceous wastes (sawdust, rice, spinach, chicken manure, office paper, corrugated paper, plastic bottles/films, fiber towel) at 550 °C. The results indicated that the co-pyrolysis of sawdust and corrugated paper had the highest degree of interaction (0.44). Sawdust and rice with ash-rich feedstock (spinach, chicken manure and office paper) resulted in dominance of gasification reactions to reduce char production in co-pyrolysis process. In comparison, the organics from the degradation of spinach and corrugated/office paper could react with the derivatives (mostly radicals) of plastic bottle (PET), plastic film (PE) or fiber towel (polyesters) via secondary condensation to generate more char. The chicken manure with high ash content hardly forms char of enhanced yield during its co-pyrolysis with other feedstocks. The enhancing char yield through secondary condensation generally resulted in additional oxygen-containing deposit on char and reduced thermal stability, which was the opposite to the formation of char with dominance of gasification. Co-pyrolysis of varied feedstock also led to change of morphologies of char via filling mechanism or formation of organics. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is by far the deadliest type of cancer. Inflammation is one of the important risk factors in tumor development. However, it is not yet clear whether deterioration in pancreatic cancer patients is related to inflammation, as well as the underlying mechanism. In addition, JNK is abnormally activated in pancreatic cancer cells and the JNK inhibitor C66 reduces the inflammatory microenvironment in the tumor. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the role of C66 in the proliferation and migration of pancreatic cancer. Our results showed that various inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-15, were more expressed in pancreatic cancer than in the matching normal tissue. Furthermore, C66, a curcumin analogue with good anti-inflammatory activity, inhibited the proliferation and migration of pancreatic cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner, and effectively inhibited the expression of the above inflammatory factors. Our previous research demonstrated that C66 prevents the inflammatory response by targeting JNK. Therefore, in this study, JNK activity in pancreatic cancer cells was investigated, revealing that JNK was highly activated, and the treatment with C66 inhibited the phosphorylation of JNK. Next, shJNK was used to knockdown JNK expression in pancreatic cancer cells to further confirm the role of JNK in the proliferation and migration of this tumor, as well as in the inflammatory tumor microenvironment (TME). The results demonstrated that JNK knockdown could significantly inhibit the proliferation and migration of pancreatic cancer. Moreover, the low JNK expression in pancreatic cancer cells significantly inhibited the expression of various inflammatory factors. These results indicated that C66 inhibited the progression of pancreatic cancer through the inhibition of JNK-mediated inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hierarchical porous carbon materials (HPC) derived from coal tar pitch are synthesized through a one-step carbonization and activation method using CaO as the hard template. The influence of activator dosage, activation time and temperature on the morphology, pore structure and supercapacitor performances has been systematically researched. The synthesized carbon materials are characterized using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The as-prepared HPC samples consist of irregular dense carbon blocks. The optimal HPCs-0.5-600-2 possesses a large surface area (1388.62 m2 g−1) with a hierarchical pore structure and moderate heteroatom content. The HPCs-0.5-600-2 electrode manifested a high specific capacitance of 329 F g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 and a good rate capability (71.4% retention at 50 A g−1) in the three electrode system. The symmetric supercapacitor assembled with HPCs-0.5-700-2 electrodes delivers an energy density of 6.45 W h kg−1 and a power density of 483.7 W kg−1, and also shows a cycle life with a capacitance retention rate of 56.9% at 10 A g−1 after 4000 cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Numerical results for liquid metal Magnetohydrodynamics duct flows in a fringing magnetic field. • Analysis of recirculation flow in blanket access duct. • Construction of a pressure drop correlation. • Characterization of the effect of Hartmann number, Reynolds number and magnetic field gradient on flow characteristics. In liquid metal (LM) magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in the access ducts of a breeding blanket of a fusion power reactor, the spatially varying fringing magnetic field can be responsible for high MHD pressure drop, which is one of the blanket feasibility issues. In this study, the velocity field and the pressure drop of the LM MHD flow in a square non-conducting duct have been characterized via numerical computations with COMSOL Multiphysics for the case of a non-uniform magnetic field that decreases in the flow direction. In the computations, four configurations of the fringing magnetic field varying in magnetic field gradient and a wide range of Hartmann (1000< Ha <10,000) and Reynolds (1000< Re <10,000) numbers have been employed. A total of 80 cases were computed providing a database for construction of a pressure drop correlation. The obtained correlation relates the pressure drop coefficient k to Ha, Re and the magnetic field gradient with a high accuracy with the coefficient of determination R -squared of 0.9967. Detailed analysis has been performed on the effect of the flow parameters and the magnetic field gradient on the recirculation flow bubble, which was found to form in the flow in most of the computed cases due to strong 3D MHD effects caused by the magnetic field gradient. Strong inertia effects have been found at higher Re and lower Ha numbers by comparing computed results between full and inertialess flow models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data-driven fault diagnosis techniques are frequently applied to ensure the reliability and safety of industrial systems. However, as a common challenge, the class-imbalance problem reduces the performance of data-driven methods due to the lack of data information. We propose a weighted modified conditional variational auto-encoder (WM-CVAE) as a novel data augmentation technique to tackle the issue. The modified structure can alleviate the existing Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence vanishing by an adaptive loss. Meanwhile, kernel mean matching (KMM) is proposed on weight computation to reduce the negative effect of dissimilar generated samples. Constructing the WM-CVAE data augmentation framework can effectively improve the data quality and learning capability in class-imbalance fault diagnosis. To validate the proposed WM-CVAE model, three real-world industrial datasets are used as study objects, and the random forest is used as the base learner in the fault classification tasks. The diagnostic results demonstrate that the proposed WM-CVAE data augmentation framework can improve learning results in class-imbalance fault diagnosis. • A general adaptive loss-based learning algorithm to solve the KL divergence vanishing problem widely existing in the original CVAE generators. • An adaptive weight case is proposed as an example to be analyzed and validated on real-world class-imbalance fault diagnosis datasets. • Kernel mean matching is applied to realize weight assignment by metric learning. • Research results show the WM-CVAE data augmentation approach is excellent for class-imbalance fault diagnosis tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Much more coke forms in upper-layer Ni/KIT-6 in steam reforming of acetic acid. • Used Ni/KIT-6 is more effective to inhibit coking than fresh counterpart Ni/KIT-6. • More O-containing species form over used catalyst via influence from original coke. • O-containing species pass down to lower layer and promote polymeric coke formation. • Used catalyst in upper layer reduces the stability and crystallinity of coke. Deactivated or coked catalyst from steam reforming may not always be treated as a solid waste, which might be potentially used as a sacrificial or protective layer of catalyst for reducing coke formation of catalyst in the lower bed in the same steam reforming process. In this study, steam reforming of acetic acid over Ni/KIT-6 at 600 °C was conducted with used Ni/KIT-6 in upper layer and freshly reduced Ni/KIT-6 in lower layer (dual-bed system). The results suggested that significantly more coke (3 to 4 times) formed on upper-layer catalyst (used or fresh catalyst) than on lower-layer fresh catalyst. The upper-layer used catalyst was more effectively than counterpart of fresh catalyst for mitigating coking in lower-layer catalysts. The in-situ IR technique suggested that carbonaceous species on the used catalyst impacted or reacted with the intermediates newly formed, generating more oxygen-containing species with functionalities like C O C and C O of anhydride or ketones/aldehyde form. These oxygen-containing species could polymerize/condense and pass down to the lower bed, forming more polymeric coke of lower thermal stability. Differently, more unsaturated hydrocarbon species formed on the upper-layer fresh catalyst, making the coke of highly aromatic nature with a higher thermal stability and crystallinity. Additionally, modification of reaction intermediates with the used catalyst in upper layer also formed carbon nanotubes of irregular structures with coarse surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] Three-dimension (3D) porous carbon-sheet microspheres (PCSMs) are prepared through coating coal tar pitch on basic zinc carbonate microspheres followed by in situ ZnO template carbonization and KOH activation. The as-prepared PCSMs show microsphere morphology composed of petal-like carbon nanosheets, which have large specific area (1359.88–2059.43 m2 g−1) and multiscale pores (mainly micropores and mesopores). As the supercapacitor electrodes, the 3D PCSMs present a good electrochemical performance with a large specific capacitance of 313 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and high rate capability of 81.9% capacitance retention when increasing the current density up to 50 A g−1 in a three-electrode system. In addition, the energy density can reach up to 18.79 Wh kg−1 at a high power density of 878.4 W kg−1 for PCSMs-0.2a symmetrical supercapcitor in 1 M Na 2 SO 4 electrolyte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A digital twin (DT) is classically defined as the virtual replica of a real-world product, system, being, communities, even cities that are continuously updated with data from its physical counterpart, as well as its environment. It bridges the virtual cyberspace with the physical entities and, as such, is considered to be the pillar of Industry 4.0 and the innovation backbone of the future. A DT is created and used throughout the whole life cycle of the entity it replicates, from cradle to grave, so to speak. This article focuses on the present state of the art of DTs, concentrating on the use of DTs in industry in the context of smart manufacturing, especially from the point of view of plantwide optimization. The main capabilities of DTs (mirroring, shadowing and threading) are discussed in this context. The article concludes with a perspective on the future. This article is part of the theme issue 'Towards symbiotic autonomous systems'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral isotretinoin is the first‐line treatment of severe nodular acne. However, patients presenting ineffective or poor effective to oral isotretinoin are still a clinical problem, and its molecular genetic mechanisms remain unclear. Aims: To compare the transcriptome profiles of isotretinoin‐effective and isotretinoin‐ineffective severe acne vulgaris patients and analyze the potential physiological roles to better understand the mechanisms of isotretinoin efficacy differences. Patients/Methods: Peripheral blood of 43 patients with severe acne was collected before treatment. After 8‐week isotretinoin, patients presented effective and ineffective to isotretinoin treatment were selected and their pretreatment peripheral blood was analyzed. High‐throughput sequencing was used to detect gene expression profiles. Gene Ontology and KEGG were used to perform functional annotation and pathway enrichment analysis. Results: Ten acne patients (3 male and 7 female, age 31 ± 9.2) presented effectiveness by oral isotretinoin and 10 acne patients (4 male and 6 female, age 28 ± 7.7) presented ineffectiveness were included. Comparison of gene profiles of isotretinoin‐effective and isotretinoin‐ineffective patients revealed 2779 differentially expressed genes: 2723 upregulated and 56 downregulated. Differentially expressed genes were enriched in RNA degradation pathway, autophagy pathway, protein ubiquitination pathway, protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum pathway, T‐cell receptor signaling pathway, spliceosome pathway, mRNA surveillance pathway, cell cycle pathway, long‐term potentiation pathway, and FoxO signaling pathway. Conclusion: Transcriptome expression differences not only participated in the acne pathogenesis, but also influenced the isotretinoin therapeutic effects. These findings might provide some evidence for exploring individualized therapy for acne patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to study the flow law of smoke generated by fire after passing through several top structures such as smoke barriers, FSD numerical simulation method was used to compare the smoke spreading situation of the long-narrow space model in the case of no smoke barrier, single smoke barrier and multi smoke barrier. The velocity field distribution of smoke migration and the flow rate change in different sections were studied. The results showed that the time for smoke to reach the end of the long-narrow space were 15.9 s, 17.1 s, 18.8 s and 25.5 s, respectively, in the case of no smoke barrier and 1, 2 and 4 smoke barriers. The reason why smoke barriers retarded the smoke spreading was that the top structures such as smoke barriers could reduce the relative flow velocity of smoke layer and lower air layer, which reduced the entrainment of air and the amount of flue gas generated; the retarding effect of multi smoke barrier was better than that of single barrier, and the smoke spreading speed was slower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical activation of biomass with H 2 O or CO 2 is an important method for producing activated carbon (AC). Activation of biomass with CO 2 or H 2 O follows varied mechanisms and the use of mixed CO 2 /H 2 O might show potential synergistic effects for creating pores. This was investigated by activation of lignin-derived biochar with H 2 O, CO 2 and their mixture. The results demonstrated that H 2 O as an activator was much more effective than CO 2 for generation of pores (804.1 m2g−1 versus 516.1 m2g−1in CO 2), especially mesopores (40% versus 14% in CO 2). This was achieved via enhancing cracking/gasification reactions of the biochar with H 2 O. The synergistic effect of CO 2 and H 2 O for activation of the lignin-derived biochar was insignificant as cracking/gasification reactions were not enhanced, leading to remarkably lower specific surface area of the AC (674.8 m2g−1) than that with H 2 O as an activator alone. Competitive adsorption of CO 2 and H 2 O existed and preferable adsorption of CO 2 hindered deoxygenation of the biochar with H 2 O. The in-situ IR characterization indicated that CO 2 presence suppressed decarbonylation reactions, retaining more oxygen species in form of C O, while it was the opposite in H 2 O. Additionally, activation with H 2 O formed numerous round-shape dents on surface of activated carbon, while the activation with CO 2 formed the characteristic round edges. The AC activated with H 2 O showed superior capability for adsorption of phenol than that activated with CO 2 or mixed H 2 O/CO 2. [Display omitted] • H 2 O is more effective than CO 2 for cracking, forming less activated carbon (AC). • Synergistic effect of CO 2 /H 2 O is insignificant as creating pores are not enhanced via cracking. • Competitive while preferable adsorption of CO 2 hinders activation with H 2 O. • CO 2 is not as active as H 2 O for cracking of C O in intermediates and for creating pores. • AC activated with H 2 O is superior for adsorbing phenol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data centers are fundamental facilities that support high-performance computing and large-scale data processing. To guarantee that a data center can provide excellent properties of expanding and routing, the interconnection network of a data center should be designed elaborately. Herein, we propose a novel structure for the interconnection network of data centers that can be expanded with a variable coefficient, also known as a variable expanding structure (VES). A VES is designed in a hierarchical manner and built iteratively. A VES can include hundreds of thousands and millions of servers with only a few layers. Meanwhile, a VES has an extremely short diameter, which implies better performance on routing between every pair of servers. Furthermore, we design an address space for the servers and switches in a VES. In addition, we propose a construction algorithm and routing algorithm associated with the address space. The results and analysis of simulations verify that the expanding rate of a VES depends on three factors: n, m, and k where the n is the number of ports on a switch, the m is the expanding speed and the k is the number of layers. However, the factor m yields the optimal effect. Hence, a VES can be designed with factor m to achieve the expected expanding rate and server scale based on the initial planning objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Qualification of the MHD flow in the inlet manifold of the liquid metal blanket. • Pressure drop correlation for 3D MHD pressure drop in the manifold. • Characterization of flow parameters on recirculation and flow development length. • Analysis of the force balance in the MHD manifold flow. Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in a manifold of a liquid metal blanket can significantly contribute to the blanket pressure drop, which is a feasibility issue for almost all liquid metal blanket concepts. Here, optimization studies for a prototypic inlet manifold that feature flow expansion are performed for three expansion angles, θ = 45°, 60° and 75°, expansion ratio of 4, and a wide range of Hartmann (H a) and Reynolds () numbers: 1000 < Ha < 10 , 000 , and 50 < Re < 10 , 000 aiming at the MHD pressure drop reduction and a more uniform flow distribution at the exit of the manifold. The 150 flow cases computed with COMSOL Multiphysics in 3D provide an extended database for the pressure drop coefficient, which was used to construct a correlation for the 3D MHD pressure drop. In addition, many data analyzes were performed to characterize the flow inside the manifold and access the most important flow characteristics, such as the recirculation flow bubble that appears when the liquid metal enters the expansion region and the flow development length as a function of H a , R e and θ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrolysis of biomass typically involves intensive dehydration, cracking, secondary condensation, etc. It is known that these reactions could be accelerated or suppressed with externally added acidic/basic sites presenting on surface of a biomass feedstock, which is expected to impact evolution of pyrolytic products and pyrolysis kinetics. This was investigated herein by pyrolysis of the poplar sawdust loaded with H 2 SO 4 or NaOH at 600 °C. The results indicated that H 2 SO 4 presence enhanced charring of the volatiles including sugars, sugar-derivatives and some lignin-derivatives via dehydration, polymerization, etc. This enhanced biochar production while diminished bio-oil formation and abundance of most of the organics in bio-oil including carboxylic acids, heavy tar (i.e. π-conjugated aromatics), etc. Nevertheless, H 2 SO 4 did not lead to substantial removal of hydrogen and oxygen in the biochar, but increased the activation energy (Ea) of the pyrolysis from 162.6 kJ/mol in pyrolysis of unloaded sawdust to 194.7 kJ/mol. In converse, NaOH promoted cracking/gasification of biochar and the volatiles including heavy tar, forming dominantly gases. NaOH presence also made structures of the semi-char (biochar precursor) more fragmented, reducing the Ea for pyrolysis to 135.7 kJ/mol. The in-situ IR characterization of the pyrolysis process showed that H 2 SO 4 promoted removal of -OH via dehydration or transformation to C O and the further condensation of C O, but not dehydrogenation of -C-H. NaOH promoted mainly deoxygenation and cracking of the sugary structures but not dehydration of -OH to carbonyls. [Display omitted] • H 2 SO 4 enhances charring to form more biochar, while NaOH promotes cracking to gas. • Both H 2 SO 4 and NaOH diminish tar formation via condensation to solids or cracking. • Charring-H 2 SO 4 reserves H and O in biochar, while cracking-NaOH enhances aromatization. • Activation energy in pyrolysis is enhanced with H 2 SO 4 , while decreased with NaOH. • DRIFTS shows H 2 SO 4 does not promote dehydrogenation, while NaOH suppresses dehydration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • IL-25 promotes Th2-type reaction in oral lichen planus. • IL-25 correlates with disease severity in oral lichen planus. • IL-25 highly involved in reticular subtype of oral lichen planus than erosive ones. Abstract Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between IL-25 expression and disease severity, and the potential immunoregulatory role of IL-25 expression in oral lichen planus (OLP). Materials and Methods The oral mucosal tissue samples obtained from OLP patients and healthy controls (HCs) were analyzed for IL-25 expression by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and immunohistochemistry. Recombinant IL-25 was used to stimulate OLP patient-derived CD4 + T cells, and then IL-4 secretion and mRNA expression were evaluated by ELISA and qPCR, respectively. The efficiency of the siRNA-mediated knockdown of IL-25R expression in oral keratinocytes was determined by qPCR and Western blotting. Human oral keratinocyte cells were cultured with the recombinant human cytokines IL-25, IL-17 A and IL−17 F. The production of associated cytokines by keratinocytes was determined b y qPCR. Statistical analyses of quantitative data were performed using SPSS software. Results The IL-25 and IL-4 mRNA levels were elevated and correlated significantly with each other in specific OLP subtype lesions compared to HCs, while the numbers of IL-25 positive cells were also increased in local OLP lesions as compared to HCs. In vitro culture with recombinant IL-25 could significantly promote CD4 + T cells from both subtypes of OLP to produce IL-4 mRNA and remarkably elevate supernatant IL-4 levels in reticular OLP CD4 + T cell cultures, which may be attributed to the elevated expression of IL-25R in local OLP lesions. Statistical analyses demonstrated that the simultaneously increased levels of IL-4, CXCL8 and CCL20 in keratinocytes were induced by IL-25 but not IL-17 A or IL−17 F. Decreasing IL-25R subunit expression by siRNA-mediated knockdown significantly blocked the expression of all cytokine-produced inflammatory mediators in oral keratinocytes. Conclusions In OLP lesions, IL-25 can function to mediate the Th2 response in specific disease subtypes, which may be an important cause of OLP disease chronicity and persistent inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Experiments were performed on notched connections and CLT-concrete composite floors. • Analytical method based on γ-method is suitable for CLT-concrete composite floors. • 3D FE-models for notches and composite floors were developed and validated. • Influence of notch depth on connections and composite floors were investigated. Abstract The aim of the paper is to gain data on the mechanical behaviour of CLT-concrete composite floors and subsequently to check if commonly adopted analysis methods are suitable for this particular type of structure. The studies are conducted through laboratory tests, analytical models and numerical modelling. In the shear tests, the notched connections presented considerable stiffness and shear capacity, and failed eventually with shear fracture in the concrete. The bending test results showed that the CLT-concrete composite floors with notched connections had a very high composite action. At the moment of failure, all notched connections along the span remained nearly undamaged, and only one fine concrete crack appeared at the notch near the support. The paper also presents a theoretical calculation method based on the well-known γ-method, which is suitable for CLT-concrete composite floors. In particular, for the composite floors with 5-layer-CLT panel, a model using a combined distributed stiffness is introduced to take account of the stiffness of both the mechanical fasteners and the CLT's cross layer, which extends the validity range of the γ-method to composite systems made of CLT panels with more than three layers. Three-dimensional FE-models for CLT-concrete notched connections and for composite floors are developed using the commercial finite element programme ABAQUS. With the FE-models calibrated with experimental results, parametric studies are conducted to investigate the influence of the notch depth on the mechanical performance of both notched connections and CLT-concrete composite floors. It is concluded that the stiffness of notched connections increases linearly with the depth of the notch, while it is not this case for the shear capacity. The variation of notch depth within the investigated range, i.e. 15 mm to 35 mm, is found to have no significant influence on the load-deflection response of composite floors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of noble-metal-free heterogeneous catalysts that can catalyze the solvent-free oxidation of C–H bonds with molecular oxygen as an oxidant is a profound challenge. Herein we report a facile strategy for the synthesis of a porous graphitic carbon encapsulated cobalt composite (Co@C800) via the pyrolysis of a phenolic resin containing Co2+. Catalyst Co@C800 is highly active in the selective aerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons under mild and solvent-free conditions (120 °C, 0.8 MPa O2, 5 h), showing the best conversion of 60.7% with 95.7% selectivity, and can be stably reused at least 6 times. The full catalyst characterization and experimental tests demonstrate that the basic porous graphitic carbon and highly dispersed CoOx particles can be responsible for the good catalytic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO 2 and H 2 O are two important activators in production of activated carbon (AC) via physical activation method. They could oxidize the carbonaceous species in biochar or biomass via varied mechanisms and might also impact environments as well as the pore structures and evolution of functionalities of AC in different ways. In this study, the activations of the biochar from pyrolysis of cellulose with H 2 O, CO 2 or mixed H 2 O/CO 2 were performed. The results demonstrated that H 2 O as an activator led to higher weight loss than that of CO 2 during the activation, originating from its higher efficiency for oxidation of the aliphatic structures in biochar to –OH and their further removal via deoxygenation or dehydration. Activation with CO 2 made the AC more oxygen-rich, due to the retainment of abundant oxygen-containing functionalities, which suppressed further oxidation of carbon species and led to formation of main micropores. The higher capability of H 2 O for deoxygenation made the AC more carbon-rich with much more developed pore structures as well as higher proportion of mesopores and thus the superior capability for adsorption of phenol. In addition, during the activation in either CO 2 or H 2 O, the unsaturated aldehyde/ketone and C-O-C structures was thermally more stable than lactones, saturated aliphatic acids and aliphatic aldehydes. The life cycle analysis (LCA) suggested that CO 2 activation showed lower impact on environment by reducing emissions and consumption of fossil fuel. [Display omitted] • Carbon yield is lower in activation of biochar from cellulose in H 2 O than in CO 2. • CO 2 makes activated carbon (AC) O-rich, due to lower capability for deoxygenation. • AC obtained with H 2 O has more developed pore structure of mesopores than with CO 2. • C C–C O and C–O–C on AC are more stable than saturated lactones/acids/aldehydes. • LCA indicates that CO 2 activation shows lower impact on environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resorcinol-melamine-formaldehyde (RMF) resin as a promising carbon precursor has aroused wide public concern due to its low cost, high nitrogen content, and ease of industrial production. In this work, the tank-like resorcinol–melamine-formaldehyde (RMF) resin spheres are synthesized via the hydrothermal method with the F127 assisting, and tank-like porous carbon spheres (TPCSs) are further prepared by pre‑carbonization and KOH treatment. The F127 is crucial in the formation of tank-like resin spheres and the influence of KOH dosage and activation temperature on morphology, particle size and structure-activity relationships for resin-based carbon spheres are explored in detail. The particle size of RMF resin and TPCSs-X-Y mainly locate at 1.75–2.75 μm and 1–1.8 μm, respectively. TPCSs-2-600 possesses a specific surface area of 1338 m2 g−1 and a high N content of 11.49 %. The specific surface area of resin-based carbon materials initially increases and then decreases with increasing KOH activator, which affects the specific capacitance in a similar trend. The rate performance of resin-based porous carbon materials gets better with increasing KOH dosage due to enhanced ion transport ability resulting from pore size getting larger. Increasing activation temperature enhances the specific surface area and pore size of the carbon electrode, but the specific capacitance reduces gradually in three-electrode system. The cycle stability of TPCSs-2-600 can be 87.8 % after 10,000 times charge-discharge cycles at 10 A g−1 in two-electrode system, and the symmetric supercapacitor assembled with TPCSs-2-700 electrode shows a good energy density of 6.68 Wh kg−1 with a power density of 484 W kg−1 in 6 M KOH aqueous electrolyte. [Display omitted] • Tank-like resin spheres were successfully prepared via hydrothermal method. • The F127 played a key role on morphology of tank-like resin. • Tank-like porous carbon spheres with N and O co-doping were obtained by KOH activation • TPCSs-2-600 possessed an outstanding specific capacitance of 328 F g−1 at 1 A g−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Snail family transcriptional repressor 2 (SNAI2) is a key regulator of partial epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (p‐EMT) and is associated with tumorigenesis. Whether SNAI2 promotes oral leukoplakia (OLK) malignant transformation by modulating p‐EMT is unclear. Materials and Methods: This study utilized two clinical datasets (GSE26549 and GSE85195) from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, cytological experiments, and a 4‐nitroquinoline 1‐oxide‐induced mice model to explore the role of SNAI2 in OLK malignant transformation. Results: The clinical cohort found SNAI2, as a risk factor (HR = 2.50, 95% CI: 1.08–5.79, p = 0.033), could promote OLK malignant transformation (p = 0.012). Cytological experiments indicated that SNAI2 overexpression promoted DOK cell proliferation, invasion, migration, and increase the protein expression of p‐EMT relative signatures, whereas SNAI2 silencing has opposite effects. Furthermore, the mice model and clinical datasets demonstrated the expression of SNAI2 and p‐EMT relative signatures were increased with OLK malignant transformation. And SNAI2 was strongly correlated with p‐EMT. Besides, co‐expressed genes of SNAI2 were also enriched in p‐EMT relative biological processes and signaling pathways. Conclusions: p‐EMT plays a significant role in promoting the OLK malignant transformation. As an important regulator of p‐EMT, SNAI2 could be a target to block the OLK malignant transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of amino acid-paired dipyridine polymers were synthesized and firstly used as metal- and halogen-free heterogeneous organocatalysts for chemical fixation of CO 2 into cyclic carbonates. Glutamic acid (Glu)-paired dipyridine polymer (Pbpy-Glu) possesses the highest catalytic efficiency for cycloaddition reaction under solvent-free conditions, and provides a reasonable recycled process. The mechanism investigation based on the FTIR analysis of catalyst intermediates suggests that the intermolecular synergistic effect involving the -N + ions in pyridine, COO – groups in Glu, as well as the COO ⋯ H 3 N ion pairs contributes to the good catalytic performance of Pbpy-Glu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel method for nonlinear parameter identification of partially composite beams using long-gauge strain responses is proposed in this paper. Firstly, theoretical analysis shows that neutral axis position of timber beam and concrete slab can be estimated by measured long-gauge strain and material properties. Then, distribution of curvature, bending stiffness, deflection and interface slip can be determined by identified neutral axis position. Secondly, timber-concrete composite beams connected by ductile connectors with different degree of composite action are designed to verify the presented method. Experimental results show that the estimated parameters (neutral axis position, bending stiffness and interface slip) can clearly reflect and quantify the deterioration process of partially composite beams. Meanwhile, both global and local responses can be predicted by long-gauge strain sensors. The predicted responses (deflection at mid-span and strain along the beam height) agree well with the test results when partially composite action is considered, the errors will be unacceptable without considering partially composite action. Hence, the presented method can be utilized for better understanding of mechanical properties of partially composite beams and performance assessment of existing composite structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical behavior of the shear connections has a significant influence on both the load-carrying capacity and the bending stiffness of timber-concrete composite (TCC) beams. All the studies reported so far have concentrated on the performance of TCC connections in mature concrete. The performance of shear connections for TCC beams at early concrete ages, however, has not been investigated yet. This information is essential to evaluate the structural behavior of TCC floors or bridges during construction. In this paper, a total of 18 push-out tests with concrete ages ranging from 12 h to 28 days are performed, to investigate the early-age performance of lag screw shear connections in the lightweight concrete. Development of concrete strength with time is also analyzed. At the concrete ages shorter than 7 days, both the stiffness and strength of the screw connectors increase evidently with time, which follows the same growth trend with the concrete strength. After a 7-day cure, screw shear connections reach almost 100% of both the 28-day serviceability slip modulus and shear strength. Material properties of the glulam and the screw fastener are decisive in the shear performance of connections when the concrete hardens to some degree. Based on the experimental results, the accuracy of the design methods proposed in Eurocode 5 is evaluated. In addition, by non-linear regression of the experiment data, expressions to predict the development of load-carrying capacity and serviceability slip modulus for screw shear connections before 28 days are established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choline phosphate (CP) containing polymers modified surfaces have been shown good resist to the adhesion of proteins while prompt the attaching of mammalian cells due to the dipole pairing between the CP groups of the polymer and the phosphorylcholine (PC) groups on the cell membrane. However, the antifouling activities of CP modified surface against microbes have not been investigated at present. In addition, CP containing polymers modified surface with different molecular architectures has not been prepared and studied. To this end, glass slides surface modified with two different 2-(meth-acryloyloxy)ethyl cholinephosphate (MCP) containing polymer (PMCP) structures, i.e. brush-like (Glass-PMCP) and bottle brush-like (Glass-PHEMA-g-PMCP) architectures, were prepared in this work by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). The surface physichemical and antifouling properties of the prepared surfaces were characterized and studied. The Glass-PMCP shows improved antifouling properties against proteins and bacteria as compared to pristine glass slides (Glass-OH) and glass slides grafted with poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (Glass-PHEMA). Notably, a synergetic fouling resistant properties of PHEMA and PMCP is presented for Glass-PHEMA-g-PMCP, which shows superior antifouling activities over Glass-PHEMA and Glass-PMCP. Furthermore, glass slides containing PMCP, i.e. Glass-PMCP and Glas-PHEMA-g-PMCP, decrease platelet adhesion and prevent their activation significantly. Therefore, the combination of antifouling PHEMA and PMCP into one system holds potential for prevention of bacterial fouling and biomaterial-centered infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The small molecular organics in bio-oil could not be effectively transformed into hydrocarbons with long aliphatic chains or aromatic rings via hydrotreatment, but they could be reformed with steam to generate hydrogen for the hydrotreatment. In this study, the pyrolysis of cellulose coupled with steam reforming of volatiles of small molecular size were performed at 400–600 °C over Ni/Al 2 O 3 catalyst, which is termed as a pyro-reforming process for simultaneous production of hydrogen and heavy organics for further production of biofuels. The results indicated that the effective reforming of small volatiles became dominant at 600 °C. The coke formed at the low temperatures was mainly polymeric coke of aliphatic nature with low thermal stability, low carbon crystallinity, high reactivity towards oxidation and high hydrophilicity. Increase of temperature to 600 °C reduced the formation of coke (from maximum of 15.0%–12.8%) and suppressed the formation of polymeric coke by promoting gasification of precursors of coke. This enhanced formation of catalytic coke with amorphous morphology as well as defective ring structures. However, homogeneous polymerization of volatiles also took place, forming amorphous coke between catalyst particles. Formation of polymeric coke should be tackled for the successful implementation of pyro-reforming process. [Display omitted] • Pyro-reforming of cellulose to H 2 and heavy organics occurs effectively at 600 °C. • Coke formed at 400 °C is polymeric, originating from polymerization of volatiles. • More thermally stable catalytic coke while less polymeric coke forms at 600 °C. • Ratio of aliphatic coke decreases at higher temperature, but it is not negligible. • Homogeneous polymerization of volatile occurs and fills gap of catalyst particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behçet's disease (BD) behaves similarly to Crohn's disease (CD) when the bowel is involved. Computed tomography enterography (CTE) can accurately show intestinal involvement and obtain body composition data. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether CTE could improve the ability to distinguish between intestinal BD and CD. This study evaluated clinical, laboratory, endoscopic, and CTE features on first admission. Body composition analysis was based on the CTE arterial phase. The middle layers of the L1–L5 vertebral body were selected. The indicators assessed included: the area ratio of visceral adipose tissue (VAT)/subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) (VSR) in each layer, the total volume ratio of VAT/SAT, the quartile of VAT attenuation in each layer and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the VAT area for each patient was also calculated. Two models were developed based on the above indicators: one was a traditional model (age, gender, ulcer distribution) and the other was a comprehensive model (age, gender, ulcer distribution, proximal ileum involvement, asymmetrical thickening of bowel wall, intestinal stenosis, VSRL4, and CV). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the traditional (sensitivity: 80.0%, specificity: 81.0%) and comprehensive (sensitivity: 95.0%, specificity: 87.2%) models were 0.862 and 0.941, respectively (p = 0.005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of the logistic system is one of the most important aspects in regional economy, and the freight volume is the biggest part of the logistic system. In this paper, an information granulation method is introduced to represent the freight volume in a fuzzy manner. After the characteristic features have been extracted from the raw time-series data and represented as information granules, the granules are modeled with the support vector machine (SVM). In consideration of both algorithm efficiency and prediction accuracy, an efficient version of SVM called least square (LS) SVM is employed and integrated with a parameter optimization algorithm, the particle swarm optimization. Simulation results on a real dataset illustrate the performance of the proposed method, and comparison studies are carried out with LS and partial LS-based methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Pyro-reforming of sawdust co-produces H 2 and heavy organics effectively above 550℃. • Small acids and ketones are reformed while furans, anhydrate sugars, phenols retain. • Coking from cracking/polymerization of volatiles reached the maximum at 500℃. • Dominant reforming at 650℃ aids coke elimination and forms nanotube coke. • Coke at lower temperature is amorphous and more aliphatic with low crystallinity. In hydrotreatment of bio-oil, it is difficult to convert the aliphatic compounds with the carbon number less than four into liquid fuel via hydrodeoxygenation. Thus, ideally, the very light organics of bio-oil could be reformed to generate hydrogen for further upgrading the heavier organics in bio-oil to biofuel or fine chemicals. In this study, the pyrolysis of poplar sawdust coupled with the simultaneously steam reforming of the bio-oil (pyro-reforming) were studied over Ni/SBA-15 catalyst at the medium temperature range from 450 to 650 °C for transforming mainly the light aliphatic compounds into H 2. The results showed that the effective steam reforming of the aliphatic compounds like carboxylic acid and small aldehydes/ketones took place to remarkable extent from 550 °C, while the furans, anhydrate sugars, light phenols and heavy phenolics of fused ring structures could be largely retained in the resulting bio-oil. Coking reached the maximum with increasing temperature to 500 °C from cracking/polymerization of the volatiles. Further increase of temperature to 650 °C accelerated steam reforming and gasification of precursors of coke, shifting the morphology of coke from amorphous form to unregular carbon nanotube structures (stringed beads-like) and making the coke more aromatic and more resistant to oxidation. Nevertheless, in overall, the coke produced from 450 to 650 °C was aliphatic with low C/H ratio, low thermal stability and low crystallinity, originating from the significant contribution from the aliphatic compounds in the bio-oil for coking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) can obtain the geological information by using the electrical difference between the abnormal body and the background field. Full waveform inversion (FWI) can process radar data and obtain a more accurate distribution of relative permittivity. However, when the electrical parameters between the anomalous body and the background field are quite different, the wavefield information is seriously disturbed. In that case, the FWI method can not obtain accurate physical parameters, which is worse for common-offset GPR because of the lack of illumination angles and of wavenumber coverage. To solve this problem, a novel GPR FWI method is proposed to improve the stability of inversion using a special source wavelet and multiple integral wave-field transform. The manuscript is composed as follows: first, a special wavelet is used to improve the gradient in FWI. Then the integral wave-field transform can provide low-frequency information of data. This process can make full use of the low-frequency components hidden in the original data, obtain the large-scale relative permittivity distribution structure, and reduce the instability of the full waveform inversion. Finally, three simulation examples and a practical example verify the effectiveness of the method. Especially when there is a large difference between the dielectric parameters of the abnormal body and the background field (more than ten times or even dozens of times), the proposed FWI algorithm can still obtain stable results. • A robust method is proposed to implement the full waveform inversion. • The special source wavelet and integral transform make full waveform inversion method more stable. • This method performs well for high contrast medium and for common-offset GPR data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The northern pike is one of the important economic fish in Xinjiang, China. However, its survival and the expansion of aquaculture areas have been seriously affected by the increase in water temperature caused by global warming and the extremely high temperature in summer. Therefore, screening molecular markers and candidate genes will be helpful for the selection of heat tolerance of the northern pike, which will be beneficial to its better survival and expansion. In this study, the heat tolerance and cumulative survival time of the northern pike were measured under high temperature stress (26 °C ~ 35 °C). Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was used to analyze the loci and genes related to heat tolerance of the northern pike. A total of 77,617 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were obtained through genotyping by sequencing (GBS) and used for subsequent GWAS analysis. 9 significant SNPs were obtained from GWAS analysis, which were assigned to eight chromosomes. By analyzing these significant SNPs, we predicted four candidate genes (clstn2 , htr4 , atp13a3 and schip1) related to respiration, ion channels, or obesity. The heat tolerance of the northern pike was determined by a variety of mechanisms regulated by various genes. The results observed in this study provide insights into the genetic basis of heat tolerance in the northern pike and contribute to the cultivation of heat-resistant fry. • This is the first time to conduct GWAS analysis on the heat tolerance of the northern pike. • A total of 77,617 SNPs were obtained through GBS for subsequent GWAS analysis. • Nine significant SNPs and four candidate genes related to long-term survival under high temperature stress were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mechanical behavior and the law of moment redistribution of the partially encased continuous composite beam (PECCB) are investigated in this paper. One common continuous composite beam and three PECCBs were tested. The main variable parameter of the three PECCB specimens is the amount of longitudinal reinforcement in the concrete slab of hogging moment region. Owing to the contribution of the web encasement, PECCBs have much slower crack propagation speed in the hogging moment region and higher ultimate capacity. The web encasement also contributes to postponing the yielding of the bottom flange, and therefore prevents local buckling in the steel girder. As the amount of reinforcement in the concrete slab of hogging moment region increases, the degree of moment redistribution of PECCBs decreases. On the basis of analyzing the moment redistribution requirement for plastic design and the ultimate rotation capacity of hogging moment section, the required and available moment redistribution factors of PECCBs are obtained. A parameter R p is introduced to evaluate the relative relationship between the longitudinal reinforcement in the concrete slab and the rest part of the partially encased section, and the value of R p should be restricted within 0.35 to enable full moment redistribution for plastic design of PECCBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the effect of different contents of Cr on the isothermal structure transformation of FeO is systematically studied by a thermogravimetric analyzer, and it is found that the temperature range of eutectoid transformation of FeO in Fe–Cr alloy is 300–500 °C. Combined with the experimental data, the kinetic model of isothermal phase transformation of FeO is established based on Johnson–Mehl–Avrami–Kolmogorov equation, and the time–temperature–transformation curve of isothermal transformation of FeO is predicted, which follows the law of C curve, and the C curve shifts backward with the increase of Cr content. Therm‐calc thermodynamic software calculates the Fe–O phase diagrams of different Cr contents. Combined with the experimental results, the effect mechanism of Cr content on FeO eutectoid transformation is clarified. With the increase of Cr content, the stability of FeO decreases, and under the same isothermal temperature and time, high Cr content has greater undercooling, a higher driving force of phase transition, and the starting time of eutectoid transformation is earlier than that of lower Cr content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate prediction of the remaining useful life (RUL) of lithium-ion battery is of great significance for the reliability of electronic equipment. In the conventional approaches, there are notable challenges in the RUL prediction for a single battery lacking historical data. To predict the battery's RUL under the condition of unlabeled small sample data and to describe the uncertainty of the parameter estimation in the degradation model, a novel adaptive approach based on Kalman filter and expectation maximum with Rauch–Tung–Striebel (KF-EM-RTS) is proposed to predict the battery's RUL. Specifically, without RUL labels and offline training, an online KF adaptive-update model based on the Wiener process is proposed for a single battery, in which the uncertainty of parameter estimation is described. Furthermore, the unknown model parameters can be adaptively estimated using EM-RTS to overcome the constraints of strong Markov characteristics, the convergence of which is proved. The real-world battery dataset provided by NASA Ames research center is applied to verify the proposed RUL prediction approach. Experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms the existing conventional data-driven approaches for predicting the battery's RUL. • The KF-EM-RTS is proposed to predict the battery's RUL under the situation of unlabeled small sample data. • The unknown parameters in the dynamic degradation model can be adaptively estimated. • The uncertainty of the parameter estimation is described by a probability density function. • The optimal unknown model parameters are obtained with solid theoretical foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) is of vital significance in the prognostics health management (PHM) tasks. To deal with the reverse time series and to reflect the difference in RUL prediction results at different time instances, this paper proposes a novel bidirectional gated recurrent unit with temporal self-attention mechanism (BiGRU-TSAM) to predict RUL. Specifically, a novel approach is proposed where each of the considered time instance is assigned a self-learned weight according to the degree of significance. Furthermore, the parameter update process of the TSAM is obtained with solid theoretical foundation, and as a sign of interpretability, it is shown that the assigned weights can remain consistency over several independent training processes. On this basis, the BiGRU-TSAM is applied to predict RUL online. An aircraft turbofan engine dataset and a milling dataset are applied to verify the proposed RUL prediction approach. The experimental results show the superiority of the proposed approach over the existing ones based on machine learning and deep learning. • It is proposed to predict RUL with the aid of a novel BiGRU-TSAM network. • Each of the considered time instance is assigned a self-learned weight. • The parameter update process of the TSAM layer is obtained. • The assigned weights can remain consistency over several independent training processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]