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Development of live shopping has introduced a new form of celebrity endorsement. This study examines the impact of negative news related to streamers on viewers' purchasing behaviour during live streaming, considering different types of negative news. Drawing on research related to celebrity endorsement and information dissemination, this study presents the results from one natural experiment and four lab experiments. The findings suggest that negative news about streamers, as well as their responses to such news, positively influence viewers' purchasing behaviour during live streaming, which is mediated by their visit to the live streaming. Furthermore, the study reveals that negative news related to streamers' personal behaviour has a more positive impact than negative news related to the product they are selling. The positive effect of response to negative news is weakened when the response seems to protect the wrongdoers. This study contributes to the development of endorsement theory, retests the model of the endorser effect, and expands the literature about celebrity scandals. Additionally, the findings provide practical suggestions for retailers and streamers who are dealing with negative news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractStreamers have become a crucial component of consumers’ live shopping experience. Reviewers will transfer their emotions about the streamer to the product-after review. We innovatively verified the reverse effect of reviewers’ sentiment tendency toward streamer on the product sustained sale in the streamer’s live streaming. Results from a field data set and three lab experiments show that reviewers’ positive sentiment tendency toward the streamer has a negative effect on the readers’ purchase intention when the streamer resale this product in his live streaming. While reviewers’ negative sentiment tendency toward the streamer can enhance readers’ purchase intention to the product resold in the streamer’s live streaming. These effects are separately mediated by readers’ trust in the review and their empathy to the streamer. And the two mediators are moderated by the streamer’s expertise. Our findings expand the literatures about reviews’ emotions and suggest implications for streamers, retailers, and review platforms faced with the task of managing live-shopping reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traffic transfer between social media and E-commerce platforms is essential to the retailers in the E-commerce platform and the platform itself. Drawing on the affordance theory, this study presents the results from three experiments based on two kinds of social media (with or without E-commerce widow) to demonstrate the role of social media recommendation pages’ affordance on the visitors’ usage and sharing intention to the product link attached to the content. The result shows that traffic transfer exists between social media and E-commerce platforms. Moreover, the higher the level of social media affordances (visibility, editability, persistence, association), the higher the willingness of visitors to transfer from social media to E-commerce platforms. This change in traffic volume is mediated by the visitors’ relationship strength and perceived trust in the blogger and the platform. This study expands the research on affordance theory to the area of traffic transfer. Additionally, this study has also enriched the existing literature on cross-platform traffic imports in social E-commerce. The results will guide both content operators and retailers who wish to use social media to increase sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the mechanical performance reduction caused by excessive phosphorus content in the halogen-free flame-retardant EP has been an obstacle to its extensive application. This study presents the effective synthesis of a novel flame-retardant BDD with great efficiency, achieving an optimum phosphorus level of merely 0.25 wt %. The structure of BDD was verified by FTIR, 1H NMR, 31P NMR and XPS spectra. To investigate the flame-retardant properties of BDD, several EPs with various phosphorus levels were synthesized. The addition of phosphorus to the EP significantly increases its LOI value from 25.8% to 33.4% at a phosphorus level of 0.25 wt%. Additionally, the resin achieves a V-0 grade in the UL 94 test. The P-HRR and THR of the modified resin measured by the cone calorimeter are also significantly reduced. At the same time, the addition of a modest quantity of BDD has a minimal impact on the mechanical properties of epoxy resin. This study shows that the removal of hydroxyl groups significantly enhances the fire resistance of phosphate-based flame retardants, thereby providing a novel approach to synthesizing efficient flame retardants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless traffic prediction is vital for intelligent cellular network operations, such as load-aware resource management and predictive control. Traditional centralized training addresses this but poses issues like excessive data transmission, disregarding delays, and user privacy. Traditional federated learning methods can meet the requirement of jointly training models while protecting the privacy of all parties' data. However, challenges arise when the local data features among participating parties exhibit inconsistency, making the training process difficult to sustain. Our study introduces an innovative framework for wireless traffic prediction based on split learning (SL) and vertical federated learning. Multiple edge clients collaboratively train high-quality prediction models by utilizing diverse traffic data while maintaining the confidentiality of raw data locally. Each participant individually trains dimension-specific prediction models with their respective data, and the outcomes are aggregated through collaboration. A partially global model is formed and shared among clients to address statistical heterogeneity in distributed machine learning. Extensive experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate our method's superiority over current approaches, showcasing its potential for network traffic prediction and accurate forecasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis work introduces the novel analysis of the bending behavior of a composite doubly curved panel made of graphene origami (GOri)-enabled auxetic metal metamaterials (GOEAMs) subjected to external mechanical force. The motivation for this study stems from the many applications of such structures in the field of aeronautics. These materials have mechanical and structural properties that continuously vary. This study is the first to examine the effects of an instantaneous external shock on the bending response of a composite doubly curved panel made of GOEAMs due to the extraordinary properties of these advanced materials. The mathematical governing equations are obtained from the higher-order shear deformation theory and are solved using the Laplace transform method (LTM) and the analytical solution procedure (ASP). After solving the equations, the results of the current system are compared to those of a previously published work, revealing a significant level of concurrence between the two sets of data. This study presents a machine learning approach that utilizes a deep neural network (DNN) with input, hidden, and output layers, as well as independent variables and other relevant factors. The aim is to provide an efficient computational technique for solving engineering issues. This is achieved by the use of mathematical modeling and the verification of the current output’s outcomes. Additionally, a database is supplied for an in-depth examination of this structure’s suitability for aeronautical purposes. The database contains comprehensive bending information, including normal, shear, and displacement fields in various directions, specifically for the GOEAMs subjected to external shock loading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The configuration of rotors significantly impacts the aerodynamic efficiency and noise emission of multicopters. To date, there are no general guidelines regarding how many blades a rotor should use for optimal aerodynamic performance and minimum noise emission. From the perspectives of aerodynamics and acoustics during the hovering condition, two key parameters, i.e., figure of merit (FM) and overall sound pressure level (OASPL), are evaluated to determine the optimal blade number (BN). The number of blades chosen in this study is BN = 2–6, which is largely observed in commercial multicopters. A genetic algorithm was developed to optimize blade design for each BN-rotor configuration. The individuals are evaluated by steady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and acoustic analogy for optimizations, and the detailed analyses of optimal ones are further explored by unsteady CFD simulations. The planform of the baseline blade is maintained, and the radial distribution of twist angles is the parameter for optimization. While generating the same thrust, the value of FM keeps increasing as the number of blades increases from 2 to 4, after which the FM value reaches a plateau. The value of OASPL keeps decreasing as the number of blades increases. The reason for the FM and OASPL value trends vs blade number is explained with the numerical simulation results, and a general design rule is suggested at the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic pulmonary infection caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a common lung disease with high mortality, posing severe threats to public health. Highly resistant biofilm and intrinsic resistance make P. aeruginosa hard to eradicate, while powerful virulence system of P. aeruginosa may give rise to the recurrence of infection and eventual failure of antibiotic therapy. To address these issues, infection-microenvironment responsive nanoparticles functioning on biofilm eradication and virulence inhibition were simply prepared by electrostatic complexation between dimethylmaleic anhydride (DA) modified negatively charged coating and epsilon-poly(l -lysine) derived cationic nanoparticles loaded with azithromycin (AZI) (DA-AZI NPs). Charge reversal responsive to acidic condition enabled DA-AZI NPs to successively penetrate through both mucus and biofilms, followed by targeting to P. aeruginosa and permeabilizing its outer/inner membrane. Then in situ released AZI, which was induced by the lipase-triggered NPs dissociation, could easily enter into bacteria to take effects. DA-AZI NPs exhibited enhanced eradication activity against P. aeruginosa biofilms with a decrease of >99.999% of bacterial colonies, as well as remarkable inhibitory effects on the production of virulence factors and bacteria re-adhesion & biofilm re-formation. In a chronic pulmonary infection model, nebulization of DA-AZI NPs into infected mice resulted in prolonged retention and increased accumulation of the NPs in the infected sites of the lungs. Moreover, they significantly reduced the burden of P. aeruginosa , effectively alleviating lung tissue damages and inflammation. Overall, the proposed DA-AZI NPs highlight an innovative strategy for treating chronic pulmonary infection. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study sought to investigate the effect of nimotuzumab combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT + Nim) on T lymphocyte subsets in middle-advanced CC. Firstly, patients with middle-advanced CC were administered CCRT or CCRT + Nim. Next, levels of T lymphocytes in peripheral blood of CC patients pre- or post-treatment and healthy females were determined by flow cytometry. The short-term efficacy was evaluated, and overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients were recorded. In addition, the correlation of T lymphocyte subsets post-treatment with OS/PFS was assessed with Pearson analysis. CC patients exhibited decreased total T cells/T helper cells/CD4+/CD8+ ratio and increased T suppressor cells/Tregs in peripheral blood. Meanwhile, CCRT and CCRT + Nim improved T lymphocyte subset imbalance, with CCRT + Nim exhibiting better efficacy. CCRT + Nim exhibited better short-term efficacy and higher PFS than CCRT, with no evident difference in OS. The levels of total T cells/T helper cells/T suppressor cells/Tregs were not significantly-correlated with OS/PFS, and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio was correlated with PFS but not OS. Collectively, CCRT + nimotuzumab ameliorate the imbalance of T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of middle-advanced CC patients, and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio after therapy is correlated with PFS. What is already known on this subject? The utilisation of Nimotuzumab targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) as an efficient treatment for middle-advanced cervical cancer (CC) has garnered the attention of numerous researchers over the years. T cells represent a major immune cell type in the tumour microenvironment and serve as the basis for maintaining cellular immune functions. What do the results of this study add? Our findings revealed that nimotuzumab combined with CCRT improves the abnormality of T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of patients with middle-advanced CC, such that the CD4+/CD8+ ratio after treatment was significantly correlated with progression-free survival (PFS). What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? CCRT of CC may have a short-term negative impact on the peripheral T-cell immune micro-environment, and the combination of nimotuzumab, cisplatin-based chemotherapy, and radiotherapy enhances the frequency of Tregs in peripheral blood. Our findings illustrated that nimotuzumab combined with CCRT can improve the imbalance of T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of patients with middle-advanced CC. A better understanding of the mechanisms of these therapies will optimise the selection of patients most likely to benefit from treatment, serving as a reference for further research on the relationship between EGFR-specific T cells and clinical benefit in patients treated with nimotuzumab in combination with CCRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the disadvantages of low fragrance threshold and high volatility of pyrrole monomer under high‐temperature process in tobacco or food, it cannot meet the market requirements. In order to develop pyrrole flavour precursors, 2,5‐dimethyl‐N‐pyrroleacetic acid was synthesized by the Paal–Knorr reaction using 2,5‐hexanedione and glycine as raw materials. Various pyrrole fragrance precursors such as 2‐ethyl‐4‐oxo‐4H‐pyran‐3‐yl 2‐(2,5‐dimethyl‐1H‐pyrrol‐1‐yl)acetate (5a), 4‐formyl‐2‐methoxyphenyl 2‐(2,5‐dimethyl‐1H‐pyrrol‐1‐yl)acetate (5b), pyridine‐2‐ylmethyl 2‐(2,5‐dimethyl‐1H‐pyrrol‐1‐yl)acetate (5c) and thiophen‐2‐ylmethyl 2‐(2,5‐dimethyl‐1H‐pyrrol‐1‐yl)acetate (5d) were synthesized by esterification from 2,5‐dimethyl‐N‐pyrroleacetic acid with ethyl maltol, vanillin, 2‐pyridinemethanol and 2‐thiophenemethanol, respectively. As part of the study, IR, NMR and HRMS were used to characterize the target compounds. Using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry‐olfactometer (GC–MS‐O), the pyrrole esters obtained were evaluated for the characteristics of their aromas. The thermal stability was analysed using thermogravimetric analysis and pyrolysis gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. In addition, the pyrolysis mechanism was speculated. With TG‐DTG results, the main mass loss phase of 5a occurred between 108°C and 450°C, with a dramatic mass loss reduction of 83.07%. At 118.60°C and 450°C, 5b showed a mass loss reduction of 60.80%. Furthermore, according to the Py‐GC/MS analysis results, compounds 5a and 5b formed 8 and 7 pyrolysis products. The main pyrolysis products of 5a and 5b were 1‐ethyl‐2,5‐dimethyl‐1H‐pyrrole, ethyl maltol, and vanillin, which are all aroma components used to blend cigarette smoke, can slow down the rate at which aromas are lost and mask unpleasant smoke. Study results provide a reference for the tobacco industry to further develop new high‐temperature release aroma ingredients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-holonomic wheeled robots (NWR) comprise a type of robotic system; they use wheels for movement and offer several advantages over other types. They are efficient, highly, and maneuverable, making them ideal for factory automation, logistics, transportation, and healthcare. The control of this type of robot is complicated, due to the complexity of modeling, asymmetrical non-holonomic constraints, and unknown perturbations in various applications. Therefore, in this study, a novel type-3 (T3) fuzzy logic system (FLS)-based controller is developed for NWRs. T3-FLSs are employed for modeling, and the modeling errors are considered in stability analysis based on the symmetric Lyapunov function. An observer is designed to detect the error, and its effect is eliminated by a developed terminal sliding mode controller (SMC). The designed technique is used to control a case-study NWR, and the results demonstrate the good accuracy of the developed scheme under non-holonomic constraints, unknown dynamics, and nonlinear disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photon-mode ultracapacity storage media made of inorganic photochromic luminescent materials are highly anticipated, and widely explored in the development of new optical data storage (ODS) technologies. Despite some recent breakthroughs, the optical storage capacity of defect-rich photochromics is still limited to low luminescent readout abilities. Herein, oxygen vacancy rich and bismuth doped K 0.5 Na 0.5 NbO 3 :Eu3+ ceramics were designed, and synergistically boost the luminescence intensity, photochromic efficiency, and luminescent modulation properties, then effectively improving the luminescence readout abilities. The luminescence modulation ratio reaches up to 97.5% from 68.4% with the increase of oxygen vacancy concentrations due to hetero-valent bismuth doping, accompanied by high photochromic efficiency (35.7% from 21.9%) and excellent reproducibility. These results demonstrate that the synergistic engineering of oxygen vacancy and doping is a promising strategy for obtaining high-performance photochromic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have evaluated the preoperative factors predicting the surgical difficulty of robotic distal pancreatectomy (RDP). This study aims to explore such factors and provide guidance on the selection of suitable patients to aid surgeons lacking extensive experience in RDP. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on consecutive patients who underwent RDP to identify preoperative factors predicting surgical difficulty. High surgical difficulty was defined by both operation time and intraoperative estimated blood loss exceeding their median, or by conversion to laparotomy. Results: A total of 161 patients were ultimately enrolled, including 51 patients with high levels of surgical difficulty. Multivariate analysis revealed that male sex [OR (95% CI): 4.07 (1.77,9.40), p = 0.001], body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m2 OR (95% CI): 2.27 (1.03,5.00), p = 0.042], tumors located at the neck of the pancreas [OR (95% CI): 4.15 (1.49,11.56), p = 0.006] and splenic artery type B [OR (95% CI): 3.28 (1.09,9.91), p = 0.035] were independent risk factors for surgical difficulty. Regarding postoperative complications, high surgical difficulty was associated with the risk of overall complications and pancreatic fistula (grade B/C) (49.0% vs. 22.7%, p < 0.001; 39.2% vs. 19.1%, p = 0.006). Conclusion: Male sex, body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m2, tumor located at the neck of the pancreas and splenic artery type B are associated with a high RDP difficulty level. These factors can be used preoperatively to assess the difficulty level of surgery, to help surgeons choose patients suitable for them and ensure surgical safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study sought to investigate the effect of nimotuzumab combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT + Nim) on T lymphocyte subsets in middle-advanced CC. Firstly, patients with middle-advanced CC were administered CCRT or CCRT + Nim. Next, levels of T lymphocytes in peripheral blood of CC patients pre- or post-treatment and healthy females were determined by flow cytometry. The short-term efficacy was evaluated, and overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients were recorded. In addition, the correlation of T lymphocyte subsets post-treatment with OS/PFS was assessed with Pearson analysis. CC patients exhibited decreased total T cells/T helper cells/CD4+/CD8+ ratio and increased T suppressor cells/Tregs in peripheral blood. Meanwhile, CCRT and CCRT + Nim improved T lymphocyte subset imbalance, with CCRT + Nim exhibiting better efficacy. CCRT + Nim exhibited better short-term efficacy and higher PFS than CCRT, with no evident difference in OS. The levels of total T cells/T helper cells/T suppressor cells/Tregs were not significantly-correlated with OS/PFS, and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio was correlated with PFS but not OS. Collectively, CCRT + nimotuzumab ameliorate the imbalance of T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of middle-advanced CC patients, and the CD4+/CD8+ ratio after therapy is correlated with PFS. What is already known on this subject? The utilisation of Nimotuzumab targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) as an efficient treatment for middle-advanced cervical cancer (CC) has garnered the attention of numerous researchers over the years. T cells represent a major immune cell type in the tumour microenvironment and serve as the basis for maintaining cellular immune functions. What do the results of this study add? Our findings revealed that nimotuzumab combined with CCRT improves the abnormality of T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of patients with middle-advanced CC, such that the CD4+/CD8+ ratio after treatment was significantly correlated with progression-free survival (PFS). What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? CCRT of CC may have a short-term negative impact on the peripheral T-cell immune micro-environment, and the combination of nimotuzumab, cisplatin-based chemotherapy, and radiotherapy enhances the frequency of Tregs in peripheral blood. Our findings illustrated that nimotuzumab combined with CCRT can improve the imbalance of T lymphocyte subsets in peripheral blood of patients with middle-advanced CC. A better understanding of the mechanisms of these therapies will optimise the selection of patients most likely to benefit from treatment, serving as a reference for further research on the relationship between EGFR-specific T cells and clinical benefit in patients treated with nimotuzumab in combination with CCRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) arrays are practical solutions to the low and unreliable power output of a single PEH. However, most PEH circuits are developed for addressing the one-channel ac input from a single PEH. In this article, an extensible rectifier-less synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (ReL-SSHI) array interface with the maximal power point tracking (MPPT) function to manage the multiple ac inputs from the PEH arrays is designed. The ac–dc conversion is performed by the ReL-SSHI topology with passive peak switches featured with self-powered characteristic and fast cold-start. Only one shared inductor is employed, greatly reducing the circuit volume and cost. The MPPT module for each channel is implemented by a simple envelope detector and an ultra-low power hysteresis controller and achieves continuous energy extraction by adapting the fractional normal-operation voltage method. A developed discrete array interface able to handle three PEHs effectively executes the MPPT for each channel with the uphill and downhill response speeds of 2.0 and 7.1 V/s, and a maximal MPPT efficiency of 97.1%. This circuit boosts the power output by 485% compared with that by the traditional full-bridge rectifier, around 33% higher than that from existing synchronous electric charge extraction array interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coal is the primary energy source in China, while underground mining is the mainstream way of coal mining. By triggering surface movement and deformation, underground mining can cause damage to arable land, buildings, roads, and so on, which is detrimental to the ecological environment in the mining area. In order to assess the severity of damage caused by this to the ground buildings and ecological environment in the mining area, it is necessary to predict mining-induced surface subsidence before the mining activities are carried out. Currently, the most used prediction method is the Probability Integral Method. It is based on probabilistic theory to mathematically demonstrate that the surface downwelling caused by underground extraction conforms to normal distribution. However, there is a lack of validation with measured subsidence basin data. Since the 1960s, China has been paying increased attention to the study of mining subsidence. However, there are still few network stations built across China to monitor subsidence basin. Herein, SPSS software is applied to re-analyze these valuable historical data. By analyzing the observation results and comparing them with the calculation results as obtained by using the probability integral method, it can be found out that the surface subsidence in the center of the subsidence basin conforms to normal distribution, not the subsidence at the edge of the subsidence basin. Therefore, it is inevitable for errors to occur at the edge of the subsidence basin when the normal distribution function is used as the mining influence function to calculate the surface subsidence. This conclusion is expected to provide practical reference for the prediction of surface subsidence in coal mines, and this experience can be extended to the mining of other solid minerals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) arrays are promising in many application scenarios. However, few interface circuits have been developed to manage the multiple ac inputs from PEHs. This article proposes an extensible parallel synchronized switch harvesting on inductor array interface scheme to realize a multiinput conversion from PEH arrays. We develop a split-inductor-capacitor topology that can extract electrical energy from multiple PEHs. The proposed circuit topology effectively handles the inductor access conflict in the cases of PEHs with close, identical, and opposite vibration phases, insensitive to ac input phase changes. For demonstrating the capability of dealing with multiple ac inputs from PEHs and the enhancement effect on power output, we construct and test a self-powered three-channel array circuit with the passive peak detection function. Excited by sinusoidal vibrations, our circuit effectively avoids the energy return and efficiently achieves the power combination of the three PEHs. Compared with the classic full-bridge circuit, the proposed circuit helps increase the power output by 4.8 times. Also, to show the universality of the circuit, the circuit's operation under various excitations istested and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the high-temperature fatigue failure mechanism, this study proposes the use of the maximum shear strain range of crystal slip systems as the fatigue damage parameter and improves the Manson-Coffin equation accordingly. An Inconel-625 bellows model is constructed using the ANSYS Workbench platform for thermo-mechanical coupled analysis (temperature of 650 °C, displacement load of 7 mm, internal pressure of 0.3 MPa). Stress tests, including circumferential and axial stress, are conducted on the bellows to verify the accuracy of the finite element model. The six strain components in the model are extracted, and the improved Manson-Coffin equation is applied to calculate the fatigue life of the high-temperature bellows, resulting in a value of 12,318 cycles. Additionally, high-temperature fatigue life tests are performed on the Inconel-625 bellows under the conditions of 650 °C, 7 mm displacement load, and 0.3 MPa internal pressure, yielding a measured fatigue life of 9163 cycles. By comparing the experimental results of this study with those from relevant literature and plotting error band charts, it is demonstrated that the results obtained using the improved Manson-Coffin equation fall within a two-fold error band, validating the applicability of the improved Manson-Coffin equation for calculating the high-temperature fatigue life of bellows with different temperatures and models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Facile synthesis and detailed characterization. • High catalytic activity and substrate selectivity. • Prominent recyclability and superior stability. • Extremely simple separation procedure and efficient scaled-up process on a simple fixed-bed reactor. Acid-base bifunctional catalysis represents a significant approach for achieving enzyme-like catalytic activity. In this study, we present a concise and direct approach for constructing acid-base bifunctional aramid fiber catalysts, enabling one-pot tandem deacetalization-Knoevenagel reactions in an aqueous environment. The fiber catalysts were conveniently prepared from commercially available aramid fiber using a straightforward two-step procedure, and comprehensively characterized using various detection techniques. Additionally, the acid-base cooperativity of the AF catalyst was effectively controlled through the manipulation of the acid-base ratios within the catalysts. Notably, the AF-SN1/2 catalyst exhibited superior catalytic activity in the one-pot tandem deprotection-Knoevenagel reaction at room temperature, resulting in the production of high yields. Moreover, the AF-SN1/2 catalyst demonstrated exceptional recyclability and performed admirably in a scaled-up experiment utilizing a straightforward fixed-bed reactor. These findings suggest that the AF-SN1/2 catalyst holds significant promise for future applications in cleaner industrial processes. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous catalysis is an important way to realize green chemistry. Developing excellent heterogeneous catalysts by using appropriate supports is still a mainstream research area. Polyacrylonitrile fiber (PANF), a common textile material in our daily life, has excellent advantages of low cost, high strength, light density, mildew resistance, etc. Furthermore, PANF can be knitted into varieties of shapes, making them very suitable for fixed‐bed catalysis in industries. Consequently, PANF is a fine raw material for the synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts. Therefore, more and more PANF‐based heterogeneous catalysts had been developed and applied to various of reaction systems. In this paper, the research progress of PANF‐based catalysts was reviewed, and the research progress of different PANF catalytic systems and their applications in green chemistry were emphatically introduced, which provided reference to the development of PANF‐supported catalytic technology. Finally, the catalytic system supported by PANF is summarized and prospected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of pelvic packing (PP) in pelvic fracture patients with hemodynamic instability.Materials and Methods: Three databases-PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library-were systematically searched to identify studies presenting comparisons between a protocol including PP and a protocol without PP. Mortality, transfusion requirement and length of hospitalization were extracted and pooled for meta-analysis. Relative risk (RR) and standard mean difference (SMD), along with their confidence intervals (CIs), were used as the pooled statistical indices.Results: Eight studies involving 480 patients were identified as being eligible for meta-analysis. PP usage was associated with significantly reduced overall mortality (RR = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.47-0.79, p < 0.01) as well as reduced mortality within 24 h after admission (RR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.26-0.69, p < 0.01) and due to hemorrhage (RR = 0.26, 95% CI = 0.14-0.50, p < 0.01). The usage of PP also decreased the need for pre-operative transfusion (SMD = - 0.44, 95% CI = - 0.69 to - 0.18, p < 0.01), but had no influence on total transfusion during the first 24 h after admission (SMD = 0.05, 95% CI = - 0.43-0.54, p = 0.83) and length of hospitalization (ICU stay and total stay).Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicates that a treatment protocol including PP could reduce mortality and transfusion requirement before intervention in pelvic fracture patients with hemodynamic instability vs. angiography and embolization. This latter technique could be used as a feasible and complementary technique afterwards.Level Of Evidence:3: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chirality is a particularly important concept in nature and exists at all length scales, ranging from the molecular level to the supramolecular level. Over the last two decades, various design strategies have been developed to construct chiral materials based on perylene diimides (PDIs) and to mimic the chiral assembly process in biological systems, but applications of these chiral aggregates are still at an early stage. This Minireview summarizes recent progress in the synthesis and properties of chiral PDIs. The chirality in PDI‐based materials can be generated by three different approaches: from the twisted planes of PDIs, the chiral substituents of PDIs, and the co‐assembly of achiral PDIs and chiral guests. A comprehensive understanding of the applications of chiral PDIs as well as potential future developments is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chirality is a particularly important concept in nature and exists at all length scales, ranging from the molecular level to the supramolecular level. Over the last two decades, various design strategies have been developed to construct chiral materials based on perylene diimides (PDIs) and to mimic the chiral assembly process in biological systems, but applications of these chiral aggregates are still at an early stage. This Minireview summarizes recent progress in the synthesis and properties of chiral PDIs. The chirality in PDI‐based materials can be generated by three different approaches: from the twisted planes of PDIs, the chiral substituents of PDIs, and the co‐assembly of achiral PDIs and chiral guests. A comprehensive understanding of the applications of chiral PDIs as well as potential future developments is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classification and topic modeling are popular techniques in machine learning that extract information from large-scale datasets. By incorporating a priori information such as labels or important features, methods have been developed to perform classification and topic modeling tasks; however, most methods that can perform both do not allow for guidance of the topics or features. In this paper, we propose a novel method, namely Guided Semi-Supervised Non-negative Matrix Factorization (GSSNMF), that performs both classification and topic modeling by incorporating supervision from both pre-assigned document class labels and user-designed seed words. We test the performance of this method on legal documents provided by the California Innocence Project and the 20 Newsgroups dataset. Our results show that the proposed method improves both classification accuracy and topic coherence in comparison to past methods such as Semi-Supervised Non-negative Matrix Factorization (SSNMF), Guided Non-negative Matrix Factorization (Guided NMF), and Topic Supervised NMF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Apple ring rot is a disease caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea that severely reduces apple yield. Currently, management of this disease relies primarily on chemical fungicides. However, chemical fungicides cause fruit contamination. Here we report that berberine, an alkaloid extracted from medicinal plant Coptis chinensis, can efficiently inhibit the B. dothidea isolates collected from different regions in China. The 50% effective concentration (EC50) and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of berberine for B. dothidea were 8.4 ∼ 9.8 μg mL−1 and 17.1 ∼ 20 μg mL−1, respectively. Scanning electronic microscope showed efficient inhibition of berberine against the hyphal growth of B. dothidea. Conductivity analysis revealed that berberine increased the membrane permeability of B. dothidea. Remarkably, berberine repressed the activities of succinate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase, two enzymes participating in energy metabolism. In vitro experiments revealed strong inhibition of berberine against the B. dothidea on detached fruits. Field trials showed 78.27% inhibition rate of berberine toward B. dothidea. Collectively, berberine is a promising natural fungicide to control apple ring rot because of its high efficacy, low cost, and safety to human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Twinning deformation is dominant for Mg-2Zn-0.85Y alloy during cryo-rolling. • Bimodal grain structure can be formed by twinning-induced recrystallization. • Mg-Zn-Y alloy with bimodal structure has a good balance of mechanical properties. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the hot-rolled and cryo-rolled Mg-2Zn-0.85Y (wt.%) alloys before and after annealing were studied comparatively. The results show that the cryo-rolled alloy after annealing exhibits a strength and plasticity product of up to 6885 MPa·%, which is the highest among these alloys. The good combination of strength and ductility is mainly attributed to the bimodal grain structure with a weakened texture. Recrystallization primarily occurs in grains with <11 2 ¯ 0>/30.1° twinning, but not in the grains without <11 2 ¯ 0>/30.1° twinning, resulting in the formation of the bimodal structure. The cryo-rolling process could become a promising method for regulating the microstructure and properties of magnesium alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convergent methods available for convolutional dictionary learning (CDL) are the proximal gradient method (PGM) and the inertial proximal gradient method (IPGM). However, it is not trivial and heuristic for IPGM to set the step size and inertia parameter, and IPGM produces local minima and oscillating solutions. To address these issues, in this paper, we introduce a dry friction, which has an oscillation-alleviating property. Specifically, the proposed IPGM with dry friction (IPGM-DF) generates the composite proximal mappings, whose construction and optimization solver are two challenges. An auxiliary function is designed to construct the composite proximal mappings, whose optimization problem is solved by the alternating direction method of multipliers. Fortunately, IPGM-DF obtains the formulas of the step size and inertia parameter. The finite convergence of IPGM-DF is proved. Experimental results of image reconstruction, separation, and fusion demonstrate the superiority of IPGM-DF over IPGM and the state-of-the-art methods. For image reconstruction, the objective function value of IPGM-DF is reduced by about 38.708% than that of IPGM. Throughout alleviating oscillations, IPGM-DF obtains a much lower value of the objective function than IPGM, which indicates that IPGM-DF jumps out of the local minima of IPGM. In addition, the average PSNR of IPGM-DF is about 3.5 dB larger than that of IPGM and the state-of-the-art methods. The code is available. • An inertial proximal gradient method with dry friction (IPGM-DF) is proposed for convolutional dictionary learning. • IPGM-DF can automatically calculate the step size and inertia parameter. • IPGM-DF can alleviate oscillations and jump out of the local minimum of the proximal gradient method. • IPGM-DF is applied to the image reconstruction, separation, and fusion task. • The experimental results of image processing demonstrate that IPGM-DF is superior to SOTA methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A series of bisubstrate NNMT inhibitors are designed and synthesized. • Modifications at the N7 site of deazaadenine with various substitutions are well tolerated and lead to novel potent NNMT inhibitors. • Among the analogs, compound 3–12 demonstrated potent NNMT inhibitory activity as well as good selectivity over a panel of methyltransferases. Nicotinamide N -methyltransferase (NNMT) catalyzes the transfer of a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to nicotinamide (NAM) and other pyridine-related compounds and is involved in various metabolic processes in the human body. In addition, abnormal expression of NNMT occurs under various pathological conditions such as cancer, diabetes, metabolic disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases, making it a promising drug target worthy of in-depth research. Small-molecule NNMT inhibitors with high potency and selectivity are necessary chemical tools to test biological hypotheses and potential therapies. In this study, we developed a series of highly active NNMT inhibitors by modifying N7 position of adenine. Among them, compound 3 – 12 (IC 50 = 47.9 ± 0.6 nM) exhibited potent inhibitory activity and also had an excellent selectivity profile over a panel of human methyltransferases. We showed that the N7 position of adenine in the NNMT bisubstrate inhibitor was a modifiable site, thus offering insights into the development of NNMT inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous catalysis is an important branch of sustainable chemistry. In this work, a series of polyacrylonitrile fiber (PANF) fiber catalysts (PANF-E, PANF-EDs, and PANF-D) with different catalytic micro-environments are developed and characterized by elemental analysis, Fourier-transfer infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric/differential scanning calorimetry analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and mechanical strength measurements to demonstrate the successful immobilization of the different amines as well as evaluate the physical strength and thermal stability of the fiber catalysts at different stages. The catalytic activities of the fiber catalysts are tested by one-pot three-component Knoevenagel-Michael reaction to the synthesis of substituted 2-amino-4H-chromenes in which the influences of surface polarities, kinds and proportions of functional groups on the fiber catalysts activities were investigated. Among the prepared catalysts, the PANF-D with higher density of tertiary amino group and hydrophilic micro-environment exhibited the best catalytic activity to efficiently catalyze the three-component reaction in water with excellent substrate suitability (92-98%). In addition, the catalyst can be easily separated from the catalytic system and conveniently reused at least ten times. Moreover, the PANF-D performs well in scaled-up experiment in a simple fixed-bed reactor with a yield of 97% which allows it to have great potential for further cleaner industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparation and application of P(DMDAAC-MAA)/Ag/ZnO composite and its antimicrobial mechanism. [Display omitted] • A novel kind of "friendly" antibacterial material was prepared by in-situ method. • P(DMDAAC-MAA)/Ag/ZnO composite was assembled into uniform flower-like morphology. • Ag/ZnO and N+ endowed leather with good antibacterial and anti-mildew properties. • Avoid using leather antibacterial material which contains harmful substances. Leather is easy to breed colonies or mildew during the storage process, destroy the fiber structure, and affect human health. The antibacterial treatment of leather is usually through adding antimicrobials during the re-tanning process. However, traditional leather antibacterial agent has benzene, sulfur and other harmful substances. In recent years, they have been banned in the process of making leather. In this study, poly(dimethyl diallyl ammonium chloride-methacrylic acid)/silver deposited ZnO composite was prepared by in-situ method and used in leather re-tanning process. The self-assembly behavior occured between silver deposited ZnO and polymer with the flower-like morphology formed via the situ polymerization. After re-tanning process, Ag/ZnO and N+ in the composite provide leather with efficient antibacterial, anti-mildew and physical properties. Meanwhile, there were no harmful substances in the composite compared with traditional leather antibacterial agent, which was a kind of "friendly" antimicrobial material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work has been developed to study the effect of fiber catalyst surface polarity on catalyst performance. Taking 4-dimethyl amine pyridine (DMAP) derivative functionalized polyacrylonitrile fiber catalyst (PANDMAPF) as the template catalyst, its surface property was adjusted through the introduction of phenyl and hydroxyl groups on PANDMAPF. Elemental analysis (EA), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and mechanical strength test are used to characterize and demonstrate the successful synthesis of different fiber catalysts. The catalytic performance of different fiber catalysts was tested by the reaction of one-pot three-component synthesis 2-amino-2-chromenes. The results showed that reducing the surface polarity of the catalyst could not only improve the activity of the catalyst, but also make the three-component reaction which could only be carried out in high polar solvents (water and methanol), but also proceed effectively in lower polar solvents (such as ethanol and n-butanol). Therefore, the activity and selectivity of the catalyst can be effectively regulated by introducing different polar auxiliary functional groups on the surface of the fiber catalyst, which provides a theoretical basis for the design and synthesis of high activity and selectivity fiber catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The smart grid will play an important role in the future city to support the diversified energy supply. Wireless communication, the most cost-effective alternative to the traditional wire-lines, promises to provide ubiquitous bi-direction information channel for smart grid devices. However, due to the complex environment that smart grid devices located in, the wireless link is easily been interfered with and therefore appears strong stochastic features. Considering different smart grid application traffics have different and strict reliability requirements, the confidence interval lower boundary is more suitable to represent the worst-case reliability of the stochastic wireless link quality and trustworthy for judging whether the link quality is qualified for the next transmission. In this paper, we propose a Long-Short-Term-Memory (LSTM) based link quality confidence interval lower boundary prediction for the smart grid. According to the analysis of the characteristics of the wireless link, we employ the wavelet denoising algorithm to decompose the signal-to-noise ratio time series into the deterministic part and the stochastic part for training two LSTM neural networks. Then, the deterministic part and the variance of the stochastic part are predicted respectively. Lastly the confidence interval boundary is calculated. To verify the performance of the proposed LQP method, real-world experiments are carried out and the results show that our method is more accurate and trustworthy in comparison with other link quality prediction methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Joint optimization of natural gas pipeline leak aperture identification and localization based on the transformer architecture. • Improved self-attention mechanism effectively extracts features for both leak aperture identification and localization tasks. • Enhanced transformer's feed-forward mechanism for feature enhancement. • A visualization algorithm using deep learning techniques is used to preliminarily validate the reliability of the model. This study proposes a joint learning end-to-end dual-stream transformer structure based on enhanced external attention and improved feedforward mechanisms (EEA-JL) to address the problem of simultaneous leakage aperture recognition and localization in gas pipelines under noisy backgrounds. The EEA-JL structure can effectively improve the accuracy of leakage aperture recognition and localization in a single model. Traditional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recursive frameworks (RNNs) have limitations in extracting leakage features and analyzing positional information, making it difficult to capture the correlation coupling between different leakage apertures and positions. The EEA-JL structure incorporates a self-attention mechanism with two external linear neural memory units to analyze the correlation between samples and deepen the understanding of different leakage scenarios. Additionally, the multi-scale soft-threshold denoising module (MSSD) adaptively estimates the noise threshold of signals under different leakage conditions to achieve denoising. Through simulation experiments on a 169-meter oil and gas pipeline leakage detection system platform and comparison with other advanced methods, the EEA-JL model achieves a precision rate and R 2 s c o r e of 99.7% and 0.993, respectively, in aperture recognition and localization, with an average positioning error controlled within 1.26 m, demonstrating its guiding significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most rural wastewater treatment facilities require electricity to maintain operation. Traditional fossil energy consumption increases the environmental load and greenhouse gas emissions. Wind-solar power generation is widely recognized as a renewable energy technology. However, conventional wind-solar power systems need batteries to store energy, which can lead to secondary pollution. Additionally, the alternating aerobic and anaerobic process were crucial for nitrogen and phosphorus removal, and some distributed wastewater treatment systems do not require continuity operation. Therefore, this study reports on a wind–solar power generation mode without batteries (Mode-II) to control and drive a bioecological rural domestic wastewater treatment system with a scale of 0.5 m³/day. By logic control, the inspired combination of power generation capacity and treatment process requirements was realized. The effluent COD cr , NH 4 +-N, and TN concentrations were 14.63 ± 7.02, 1.39 ± 1.63, and 8.65 ± 4.02 mg/L, with removal rates of 89.01 ± 4.15%, 88.58 ± 2.28%, 75.47 ± 8.84%, respectively. From the perspective of environmental load and carbon emissions, based on life cycle assessment theory, this novel approach was compared with the traditional wind–solar power generation driven mode with battery storage (Mode-I) and mains power driven mode (Mode-III). The environmental load and carbon emissions of Mode-II were 1.08 kPt and 2836 kg CO 2 eq by end-of-life (25 years), the lowest of the three modes. Compared with the mains power drive mode, the environmental load and carbon emissions of Mode-II can be repayment until years 6 and 2. The supercapacitors and solar panels were the main source of environmental load and carbon emissions for Mode-II. Overall, Mode-II was found to be the most environmentally friendly mode all over the China, which is expected to be promoted in the field of rural wastewater treatment. [Display omitted] • Battery-free clean energy generation mode was suit for rural wastewater treatment. • Environmental load and carbon emission were used to quantify the advantage. • Climate change human health and human toxicity were the main impact factors. • Battery-free mode was most eco-friendly compared with traditional power supply mode. • Environmental and carbon load of battery-free mode were 1.08 kPt and 2836 kg CO 2 eq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Oriented design, facile synthesis and detailed characterization of the novel bifunctionalized fiber catalyst. • Highly selectively catalytic activity for CO 2 cycloaddition with epichlorohydrin under mild conditions. • Simple separation procedure and excellent recyclability of the fiber catalyst-mediated system. Converting CO 2 into useful chemical materials has uniquely high value in both chemical and resource-oriented sense. In this work, several kinds of bifunctional polyacrylonitrile fiber catalysts were developed and applied to selectively catalyze the fixing of CO 2 with epichlorohydrin. Compared to the synergistic effect, the surface polar effect is the major influence factor for the catalytic activity of the fiber catalyst, which is different from other support catalysts and has been explained detailly in this work. Among the synthesized fiber catalysts, benzylamine and N , N' -dimethyl- N -(4-pyridyl)-1,3-propanediamine (DA) bifunctionalized fiber (PAN BD F) has excellent high catalytic activity for its lower polar microenvironment. Different PAN BD Fs with various benzylamine and DA modified degrees were prepared to inspect the influences of benzylamine and DA amounts on the catalytic activity. PAN BD F (benzylamine and DA modified degrees are 0.93 mmol/g and 0.16 mmol/g, respectively) can complete the reaction of epichlorohydrin and CO 2 (97% conversion) under 0.1 mol% catalyst dosage at 80 °C with a CO 2 balloon. Under very low catalyst amount (0.0125 mol%), it can also effectively catalyze the reaction with 56% conversion and the TOF reaches up to 9333.3 h−1. Furthermore, the fiber catalyst can be reused at least five times which indicates a potential to value-added chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxins are two types of neurotoxins from venomous animals and functionally important molecules in the neurosciences; however, their experimental characterization is difficult, time-consuming, and costly. Therefore, bioinformatics tools that can identify presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxins would be very useful for understanding their functions and mechanisms. In this study, we propose Pippin, a novel machine learning-based method that allows users to rapidly and accurately identify these two types of neurotoxins. Pippin was developed using the random forest (RF) algorithm and evaluated based on an up-to-date dataset. A variety of sequence and motif features were combined, and a two-step feature-selection algorithm was employed to characterize the optimal feature subset for presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxin prediction. Extensive benchmark tests illustrate that Pippin significantly improved predictive performance as compared with six other commonly used machine-learning algorithms, including the naïve Bayes classifier, Multinomial Naïve Bayes classifier (MNBC), AdaBoost, Bagging, K -nearest neighbors, and XGBoost. Additionally, we developed an online webserver for Pippin to facilitate public use. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first webserver for presynaptic and postsynaptic neurotoxin prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For solving the problems of the poor electronic conductivity and volume change of sulfur particles, the shuttle effect of the soluble polysulfides, we design multifunctional host materials for the element sulfur by using hollow graphene and SnO2 composite spheres (HGSn). In this multifunctional host materials, graphene can significantly improve the electronic conductivity and the hollow sphere structure of HGSn proved by TEM can buffer the volume change of the discharge and charge products. Moreover, HGSn could provide physical adsorption and chemical affinity by forming C=S bond and S–Sn–O bond to greatly alleviate the polysulfide shuttle effect, which were represented by UV–Vis and FT-IR spectra, respectively. As a result, the as-prepared HGSn/S electrodes exhibit good electrochemical performance with high sulfur loading of 2.25 mg cm−2. The discharge specific capacity is 706.82 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles and 604.93 mAh g−1 after 350 cycles at 0.2C, and the capacity retention is 80.90% and 69.37% with average capacity attenuation of 0.096% and 0.088% for each cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteria in biofilms are more resistant to antibacterial agents than bacteria in planktonic form. Hence, antibacterial agents should be able to eradicate biofilms to ensure the best outcomes. Little is known about how well many antibacterial agents can disrupt biofilms. In this study, we compared sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS), rhamnolipids (RHL), and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for their ability to eradicate mature biofilms and inhibit new biofilm formation against Helicobacter pylori, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus mutans. SDS and RHL effectively inhibited formation of five bacterial biofilms in a dose-dependent manner, even at concentrations below the minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs), suggesting that their antibiofilm activities are unrelated to their antibacterial activities. In contrast, NAC at certain concentrations promoted biofilm formation by all bacteria except P. aeruginosa, whereas at supra-MIC concentrations, it inhibited biofilm formation against the four bacteria, suggesting that its antibiofilm activity depends on its antibacterial activity. NAC was ineffective at eradicating mature H. pylori biofilms, and it actually promoted their formation at concentrations >10 mg/mL. Our results suggest that RHL is superior at eradicating biofilms of H. pylori, E. coli, and S. mutans; SDS is more effective against S. aureus biofilms; and NAC is more effective against P. aeruginosa biofilms. Our results may help determine which antibiofilm agents are effective against certain bacterial strains and develop agents effective against specific bacterial threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new method for treating neglected hip dislocation with limb length discrepancy by using external fixation-assisted pre-reduction.Methods: Thirteen patients admitted between January 2010 to February 2018 with a mean duration from injury to surgery of 5.0 ± 2.1 months and an average preoperative leg-length discrepancy of 7.7 ± 2.3 cm were enrolled in this study. The dislocation and associated acetabular fracture type, clinical outcomes and residual limb length discrepancy were evaluated.Results: All patients had posterior dislocations, and nine patients presented with acetabular fractures and were followed-up for at least 12 months. The average traction duration of external fixators was 28.8 ± 8.0 days and all patients received second-stage open reduction and internal fixation. Six patients showed residual limb length discrepancy within 2 cm. Patients showed significant improvement in hip function and pain relief. Complications including avascular femoral head necrosis and osteoarthritis occurred in three patients.Conclusion: Effective correction of limb length discrepancy and improved function were observed in patients with neglected hip dislocations and limb equality using traction by external fixation combined with second-stage open reduction. Further follow-up is required to determine long-term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bifunctional interlayer prepared by the polypyrrole-coated vapor-grown carbon fiber was proposed for efficiently capturing polysulfide in Li–S battery (VGPY). The as-prepared bifunctional VGPY interlayer not only can physically adsorb the polysulfide but also can reduce the polarization of the sulfur cathode. The Li–S battery used bifunctional VGPY interlayer shows the first discharge capacity of 1204.51 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C, which is 426.56 mAh g−1 high than that without the interlayer, and the Li–S batteries capacity maintained at 1262.56 mAh g−1 at the current density of 0.1 C and 853.71 mAh g−1 at 0.5 C, respectively, after 300 cycles, demonstrating excellent cycle stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cobalt-free manganese-based lithium-rich layered oxides (LLOs) have garnered research attention as prospective lithium-ion cathode materials owing to their large specific capacity and low price. However, their large-scale application is hindered by their low Coulombic efficiency, poor cycling performance, voltage attenuation, and structural phase transition. To address these issues, the LLO structure is modified via Ti doping at the manganese site herein. Ti-doped Li1.2Mn0.6−xTixNi0.2O2 (x = 0, 0.03, 0.05, 0.10, and 0.15) is prepared using the high-temperature solid-state method. The Ti-doped Li1.2Mn0.6Ni0.2O2 is calculated via first principles. The results show that Ti4+ doping improves the cycle stability and rate performance of Li1.2Mn0.6Ni0.2O2. Electrochemical test results show that the sample exhibits enhanced electrochemical performance when the Ti doping amount is 0.05. The discharge specific capacity at 0.1C is 210.4 mAh·g−1, which reaches 191.1 mAh·g−1 after 100 cycles, with a capacity retention rate of 90.7%. This study proves the feasibility of using cheap cobalt-free LLOs as cathode materials for LIBs and provides a novel system for exploiting low-cost and high-performance cathode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For degradable magnesium alloy stents, excellent corrosion resistance and rapid endothelialization are two essential properties. In this paper, we plan to use a copper-loaded chitosan coating to accelerate the endothelialization process of the stent, which not only improves the biocompatibility of the magnesium alloy stent, but also its corrosion resistance by improving the service environment in vivo. Copper is an impurity in magnesium alloys, so how copper-containing coatings affect the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloy stents is the focus of this paper. The corrosion properties of the material were characterized by electrochemical experiments, immersion experiments, and in vitro cellular experiments characterized the effect of the copper-loaded coating on endothelial cells. The results showed that the I corr of the copper-loaded chitosan coated sample and the I corr of the unloaded copper chitosan coated sample were both in the order of 10−8, and the decrease of the corrosion resistance of the magnesium alloy by the copper-containing chitosan composite coating was not significant, and it still had a protective effect on the magnesium alloy substrate. During the immersion process, magnesium and copper ions were slowly released, followed by the hydrogen released. In addition, the weight loss rate of different coated samples presented the tendency of slower at inital, faster at last, and the weight loss rate of 0.041% for the copper-loaded chitosan coated sample was not significantly different from that of 0.035% for the unloaded copper coating group, after 28 days of immersion. The in vitro degradation products of the copper-loaded composite coating on the surface of magnesium alloy were also analyzed by XRD and EPMA, which included M g (O H) 2 , M g 3 (P O 4) 2 and C a 3 (P O 4) 2 ; in addition the degradation process was analyzed. The cellular experiments results showed that the copper-loaded magnesium alloy had a proliferation rate of 243.0% for endothelial cells, which indicated that the copper-loaded coating could endow magnesium alloy stent a good biofunctional properties. • For endowing biofunction to Mg alloy stent, a copper-loaded chitosan coating is prepared on its surface for the first time. • The copper ion loaded to coating does not effect corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys significantly. • It is inferred that copper-loaded coating endows the magnesium alloy material excellent endothelialization potential. • The degradation mechanism of magnesium alloy treated by copper-loaded coating is elucidated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hollow graphene spheres are successfully prepared and employed as the separator coating materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. The hollow graphene spheres coated separator has been proven an efficient trap to adsorb and block polysulfide, greatly alleviating the shuttle effect. In the case of using elemental sulfur as cathode active material and the weight of the diaphragm is only increased by 10.3%, the lithium-sulfur battery with hollow graphene spheres coated separator delivers a high initial specific capacity of 1172.3 mAh g−1 at the current density of 0.2 C, and the discharge capacity remains at 829.6 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles with a capacity decay of 0.146% per cycle, showing excellent electrochemical performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibiotics resistance of H. pylori has been increasing constantly accompanied with decreasing clearance rate clinically, which is demonstrated to be closely related to biofilms with higher resistance than planktonic bacteria for the dense extracellular polymeric substances. Rhamnolipid (RHL) is proved to not only damage the structure of biofilm, but also potentially inhibit bacterial adhesion. To investigate if RHL could promote eradicating rate of the conventional triple therapy to H. pylori biofilm and hence attenuate the resistance and relapse of H. pylori , first-line antibiotics clarithromycin (CLR), amoxicillin (AMX) or/and proton pump inhibitor (PPI) involved single, dual or triple therapies were compared with RHL-containing drug combinations on eradicating H. pylori biofilm. The residual biofilm biomass, the survival of bacteria inside the remaining biofilm and the planktonic bacteria dispersed from the biofilm after treatment were tested. Combination with RHL significantly improved the ability of antibiotics to eradicate H. pylori biofilm, especially RHL combined with AMX and PPI could eradicate more than 95% of biofilm showing much more effective ability than the conventional triple therapy CLR + AMX + PPI. Additionally, the combination of RHL and antibiotics could effectively inhibit the biofilm formation at lower concentration. Thus, RHL might be used as a potential antibiotic adjuvant on anti- H. pylori therapy to enhance eradicating ability of antibiotics to biofilms. • RHL enhances the effect of antibiotics on eradicating H. pylori biofilms and inhibiting biofilm formation. • RHL effectively decreases the survival rate of H. pylori dispersed from the biofilms. • RHL can be developed as an antibiotic adjuvant for anti- H. pylori therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resistance of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) to conventional antibiotic treatments becomes prevalent recently. The biofilm formation was found to be highly correlated with the antibiotic resistance of H. pylori in the last decades. Moreover, H. pylori colonizes on the digestive tract epithelium located under the mucus layers, which further reduces therapeutic efficacy as mucus layers trap and remove exogenous substances including drugs. Herein, we reported a novel lipid polymer nanoparticles (LPNs) to overcome both biofilm and mucus layers obstruction. LPNs employed chitosan nanoparticle (CS NPs) as the core, mixed lipid layer containing rhamnolipids (RHL) as the shell and the surface of LPNs was further modified with DSPE-PEG2000 to improve hydrophilicity. Clarithromycin (CLR), a first-line drug for H. pylori infection, was encapsulated in LPNs. LPNs, especially the formulation utilizing 100% of RHL as the lipid shell, exhibited excellent eradicating ability to H. pylori biofilm, which was mainly reflected in the significant reduction of biofilm biomass and viability, destruction of biofilm architecture and elimination of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). The anti-biofilm activities of LPNs are related to: 1) the disrupting effect of RHL on biofilm matrix; 2) antibacterial effects of CLR and CS NPs on biofilm bacteria and 3) inhibitory effects of CS NPs and RHL on bacteria adhesion and biofilm formation. Furthermore, PEGylated LPNs could rapidly penetrate through mucus without interacting with mucins and effectively eradicate H. pylori biofilm under mucus layer. In conclusion, a novel approach of drug-containing LPNs that could penetrate through mucus layers and effectively eradicate H. pylori biofilm provides new ways to treat persistent H. pylori infections. Unlabelled Image • LPNs consisted of a chitosan nanoparticle core and a PEGylated rhamnolipid shell with clarithromycin loaded in. • LPNs effectively eradicated H. pylori biofilm, inhibited H. pylori adhesion and biofilm formation. • LPNs demonstrated well mucus-penetrating ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A supramolecular circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) system was constructed based on the co-gelation of an achiral tetraphenylethylene derivative and chiral organic gelators of glutamic acid in chloroform. Adjusting the stoichiometric ratio was found to be an effective strategy for regulating the handedness of CPL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Two fiber supported tertiary amine catalysts were prepared by immobilization of 3-dimethylamino-1-propylamine (PAN D F) and 3-dimethylamino- N -methylpropylamine (PAN T F) on polyacrylonitrile fiber. Both fiber catalysts contain polar microenvironments constructed by amide groups, tertiary amine groups and unreacted cyano groups. The difference between the two catalysts lies in that the PAN D F contains hydrogen bond network while the PAN T F does not. Employing Knoevenagel condensation as a model reaction, the cooperative action of immobilized tertiary amines with hydrogen bonds was evaluated in detail. At the same time, the aggregation of reactants in the polar microenvironment under different solvents was also investigated. The results showed that hydrogen bonds and the supporting basic groups can promote the reaction by the synergistic catalytic effect in most solvents. The catalysts displayed different catalytic behaviors in solvents with different polarities. The catalysts can achieve highly efficient catalytic activity in the more polar solvents which were well compatible with the catalysts. Moreover, the reaction can also occur in less polar solvents due to their incompatible property with the fiber catalysts, which can compel the polar reactants to accumulate on the fiber surface with strong polar microenvironment. Highlights • Two types of microenvironment were constructed on the surface of polyacrylonitrile fiber. • Hydrogen bond has a synergistic catalytic effect with the immobilized basic group in most solvents. • The polar microenvironment on the surface of fiber catalyst can gather reactant in less polar solvents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of reusable and tunable polyacrylonitrile fiber supported catalysts that make use of the cooperative interplay between N -heterocyclic carbene (NHC) Au(III) and amino groups have been developed for synthesis of secondary propargylamines. The yield using immobilized NHC-Au(III) as catalyst is twice as much as that of its small molecule counterpart. Moreover, implementation of a flow system with polyacrylonitrile fiber supported NHC-Au(III) as catalyst leads to a short retention time of 3.3 min and an efficient productivity of 27 mmol/h. The highly catalytic activity of this catalyst is ascribed to the unique hydrophilic microenvironment consisting of NHC-Au(III), -NH 2 and -CN groups in the surface of fiber catalyst. In this microenvironment, the adjacent NHC - Au(III) and amino groups promote the formation of gold-acetylide complex cooperatively with turnover numbers (TON) up to 5200. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering morphology and doping heteroatom are regarded as effective strategies for boosting the electrocatalytic performances of the transition-metal phosphides (TMPs). Herein, an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst, the hollow core-shell nanostructured Fe–CoP@DPA composite consisting of Fe–CoP nanoparticles confined in a dopamine-derived carbon shell was synthesized through a one-step direct phosphorization method. With the merits of the unique hollow structure and efficient synergistic catalytic effect, the Fe–CoP@DPA delivers superior bifunctional ORR/OER activity. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation illustrates that Fe doping can upshift the d-band center of Fe–CoP@DPA, thereby enhancing the adsorption of intermediates during catalysis. The Li–O 2 batteries with well-designed Fe–CoP@DPA cathode display an excellent long cycling stability of 282 cycles with a fixed capacity of 500 mAh g−1 at 200 mA g−1 and a high discharge specific capacity of 18208.5 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1. Rational designing the hollow nanostructured electrocatalyst with heteroatom doping will inspire the development of advanced cathode in Li–O 2 batteries. • The hollow nanostructured Fe–CoP@DPA was prepared through a facile phosphorization strategy. • The Fe–CoP@DPA catalyst exhibited excellent bifunctional electrocatalytic activity. • The Fe–CoP@DPA cathode showed a high specific capacity of 18208.5 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]