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Situating affect in the soundscapes of suona as a Chinese musical instrument in various media, this study investigates how these mediated soundscapes shape social ideologies, hierarchies of cultures, and social resistance in ancient and contemporary China. Several mediated soundscapes are tapped into, including (1) the poem titled "To the Tune of Seeing the Emperor-Ode to the Trumpet"; (2) a TV program demonstrating how suona can be "languaging" in localized contexts; (3) a famous movie titled "Song of the Phoenix" capturing the contestation of affective regimes represented by the Chinese conventional versus the Western modern; (4) works of a well-known rock band, the Second-Hand Rose, showing how two differing affective regimes were conflated. In examining these mediated soundscapes, this study showcases how stratifications of cultures as the high versus the low, the conventional versus the modern, vernacularism versus globalism are constructed, resisted, and transmuted via competition and conflation of affective regimes in Chinese media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective hydrogenation of functionalized nitroarenes to anilines employed with heterogeneous catalysts is a significant process and widely applied in chemical industry. However, designing high‐performance catalysts for these processes remains challenging. Recently, notable advancements have been achieved in synthesis methodologies, characterization techniques, and theoretical calculations, offering opportunities to gain insights into mechanisms. This review summarizes the recent progress in understanding the mechanistic aspects of selective hydrogenation catalysis for functionalized nitroarenes. We initiate by delving into the structure‐performance relationship, with the aim of providing a comprehensive understanding of mechanistic and kinetic details in the selective hydrogenation of functionalized nitroarenes. Subsequently, we introduce various strategies for designing high‐performance catalysts, categorizing them into three key aspects: isolating active sites, synergizing active sites and regulating local environments of active sites. Finally, we conclude with a concise overview of the current state of this field and provide a forward‐looking perspective for future studies, emphasizing the high‐performance design and manipulation of catalysts to achieve precise control over selectivity towards target products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 (NBT) ceramic is a potential dielectric material for the manufacture of high-performance dielectric ceramic capacitors due to its high polarization and environmentally friendly characteristics. In this work, (1– x)(0.70Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 –0.30SrTiO 3)– x Bi(Ni 0.5 Hf 0.5)O 3 (NBST– x BNH) ceramics have been prepared based on the strategy of refining grain size and inducing polar nano-regions (PNRs). As a result, the NBST–0.15BNH ceramic achieved large energy density and efficiency (W rec = 4.11 J/cm3, η = 82.1%) at a low electric field of 240 kV/cm. This performance is outstanding compared to existing reports at similar breakdown electric fields. The introduction of Sr2+ enabled the NBST to have a high relaxation property, and the introduction of BNH induced PNRs, which ensured the high energy storage efficiency of the ceramics. BNH doping refined grain size, which contributed to the large breakdown electric field strength of the ceramics. In addition, stability tests showed that the NBST–0.15BNH ceramic had excellent thermal and frequency stability. The ceramic also demonstrated a fast discharge rate (t 0.9 = 148 ns) in the charge-discharge test. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 (NBT) ceramic is a potential dielectric material for the manufacture of high-performance dielectric ceramic capacitors due to its high polarization and environmentally friendly characteristics. In this work, (1– x)(0.70Na 0.5 Bi 0.5 TiO 3 –0.30SrTiO 3)– x Bi(Ni 0.5 Hf 0.5)O 3 (NBST– x BNH) ceramics have been prepared based on the strategy of refining grain size and inducing polar nano-regions (PNRs). As a result, the NBST–0.15BNH ceramic achieved large energy density and efficiency (W rec = 4.11 J/cm3, η = 82.1%) at a low electric field of 240 kV/cm. This performance is outstanding compared to existing reports at similar breakdown electric fields. The introduction of Sr2+ enabled the NBST to have a high relaxation property, and the introduction of BNH induced PNRs, which ensured the high energy storage efficiency of the ceramics. BNH doping refined grain size, which contributed to the large breakdown electric field strength of the ceramics. In addition, stability tests showed that the NBST–0.15BNH ceramic had excellent thermal and frequency stability. The ceramic also demonstrated a fast discharge rate (t 0.9 = 148 ns) in the charge-discharge test. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow past an inclined cylinder is simulated using large eddy simulations to study the three-dimensional wake flow effects on the forces on the cylinder at Re = 3900. Four inclination angles of α = 0°, 30°, 45°, and 60° are considered. The validity of the independence principle (IP) at the four investigated angles is examined. The results suggest that IP can predict the vortex shedding frequency at 0° ≤ α ≤ 60°, while it fails to predict the drag, lift, and pressure coefficients variations because the three-dimensional effect is neglected for IP. A comprehensive analysis is performed to provide insights into the three-dimensional effects on the drag and lift forces caused by α. The flow velocities, the Reynolds stress, and the spanwise characteristic length of the flow structures are discussed in detail. It is found that the recirculation length reaches its maximum at α = 45°, which results in the smallest drag coefficient and lift force amplitudes. The spanwise characteristic lengths of the vortices are similar for all cases, while spanwise traveling patterns are observed only for α > 0°. A force partitioning analysis is performed to quantify the correlations between the forces and the spanwise and cross-spanwise vortices. It reveals that for α = 30°, the drag force becomes dominated by the cross-spanwise vorticity. With the increasing α, the dominant contribution gradually changes from the cross-spanwise to the spanwise vorticity, and the cross-spanwise vorticity contribution to the drag force further becomes negative at α = 60°. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Remarkable structure sensitivity of DADNP hydrogenation over Ni catalysts. • Two competitive reaction routes for the formation of TAP from DADNP. • Microkinetics model well describing size-dependent kinetics of DADNP hydrogenation. • Increasing k´ TAP2 / k´ TAP1 with the increasing Ni particle sizes. • More favorable flat adsorption of DADNP on larger sized Ni catalyst. Designing cost-effective Ni-based catalysts with satisfactory performance for the hydrogenation of 2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyridine (DADNP) to 2,3,5,6-tetraaminopyridine (TAP) is highly essential for producing high-performance poly (pyridobisimidazole) but remains a great challenge due to the limited mechanistic and kinetics understandings. Herein, a series of differently sized Ni catalysts but similar electronic properties are synthesized to explore the size-dependent kinetics behaviors of the hydrogenation of DADNP via two competitive routes. The results unravel that the hydrogenation of DADNP to TAP via the route 2, i.e., the formation of TAP from the direct hydrogenation of DADNP without being intermediated by the 2,3,6-triamino-5-nitropyridine (TANP), appears to be more prominent on larger sized Ni catalysts. Microkinetics studies based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson model indicate that the ratio of the TAP formation rates via these two routes, i.e., k´ TAP2 / k´ TAP1 , increases with the increasing Ni particle size, confirming the more favorable formation of TAP via the route 2 on larger sized Ni catalysts. These size-dependent kinetics behaviors are further rationalized by DFT calculations, which reveal that the simultaneous activation of both nitro groups of DADNP via flat adsorption is more likely to occur on the larger size Ni catalysts than that on the smaller sized ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To explore the roles of Annexin A2 (ANXA2) on hepatocyte pyroptosis and hepatic fibrosis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and underlying molecular mechanism.Methods: Bioinformatics analyses were performed on transcriptome data of liver tissues from mice and patients with liver fibrosis for screening the hepatocyte pyroptosis-related differential genes. The in vivo NASH mouse model and in vitro NASH cellular model were established. The expression levels of Anxa2/ANXA2 were quantified. Then, the upstream transcription factor of Anxa2 was screened by ChIP-Seq and experimentally verified. The effects of the p-STAT3/ANXA2 axis on Caspase-1 mediated pyroptosis and fibrosis were explored by in vivo and in vitro experiments.Results: Bioinformatics analyses suggested that the expression of Anxa2/ANXA2 was significantly up-regulated in liver tissues of both NASH mice and patients scoring with high pyroptotic activity. Experimental data showed that the ANXA2 expression was positively associated with the development of hepatocyte pyroptosis and fibrosis. As a transcription factor of ANXA2, p-STAT3 can bind to the promoter of Anxa2 and promote its transcription. The inhibition of p-STAT3 can significantly suppress hepatocyte pyroptosis and fibrosis, which was significantly reversed after the over-expression of Anxa2. Caspase-1 was verified as the player of the p-STAT3/ANXA2 axis to promote pyroptosis and fibrosis. By specifically inhibiting Caspase-1, the promotion effect of the p-STAT3/ANXA2 axis on pyroptosis and fibrosis can be significantly weakened.Conclusion: The p-STAT3 promoted Anxa2 expression at the transcription level, thus activating the Caspase-1 mediated hepatocyte pyroptosis and fibrosis in NASH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asset or wealth management is a booming business in Mainland China. In a civil law system, how do Chinese law and Chinese courts deal with disputes arising out of an asset management relationship, in the absence of the branch of law of equity and trusts? The Chinese lawmakers, regulatory bodies, judges and asset management institutions are faced with challenging legal issues. Who is the owner of the assets under management? What is the nature of the relationship between the investor and the asset manager? Is an investor of an asset management product a consumer? This paper investigates the developments, the current position and the possible future of the law and practice concerning the legal issues that may arise out of the investor-manager relationship in the asset management businesses in Mainland China. The paper would also shed light on how Chinese law and courts deal with issues that would call for the intervention of the principles of equity and trusts in common law jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise detection of pathological type I collagen is critical for diagnosing and prognosticating various diseases such as fibrosis and tumors. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is emerging as a promising high-resolution imaging technique, yet the intricate process of covalently modifying antibodies often results in SERS probes with diminished selectivity. We herein for the first time report the development of dual SERS peptide probes, Ag@R1@PCTP (S-P) and Ag@R2@ICTP (S-I), which integrate collagen targeting peptides (CTPs), Raman reporters, and silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) for specific imaging of pathological type I collagen in connective tissues. The S-P/S-I dual SERS peptide probes displayed distinct peaks at 2154 cm−1 and 2227 cm−1 in the Raman silent region with no overlap, showcasing their capability for multiplex imaging free from cross-interference. The SERS peptide probe S-P is specifically tuned to target pathological collagen, excluding intact collagen, while S-I effectively recognizes type I collagen in both its pathological and healthy states. The S-P/S-I probes have exhibited outstanding effectiveness in identifying pathological type I collagen across various connective tissues and have been successfully applied for imaging this collagen in a variety of cancer tissues. The innovative dual SERS peptide probes offer a highly specific and robust tool for imaging pathological type I collagen in tissues, presenting significant potential for the accurate diagnosis and treatment of a range of collagen-related diseases. • A highly specific sensor for SERS imaging of pathological type I collagen was established. • SERS peptide probes S-P and S-I showed selective identification of pathological collagen and type I collagen, respectively. • Dual SERS peptide probes have been effectively deployed for targeting pathological type I collagen in diverse tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical bone defects are often caused by high energy injury and are easily complicated by bacterial infection. An ideal bone repair material should promote bone regeneration and prevent bacterial infection. In this study, a multifunctional photothermal scaffold was developed: bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2)/polylactic-glycolic acid copolymers (PLGA) microspheres were prepared by a double emulsion method and then coated on the scaffolds prepared using a mixture of black phosphorus nanosheets (BPs) and PLGA, to form BMP-2@BPs scaffolds. The structural and photothermal properties of the composite scaffolds were characterized. The BMP-2@BPs scaffolds demonstrated good biocompatibility in both in vitro and in vivo experiments. The BMP-2@BPs scaffolds promoted osteogenic differentiation through a combination of BMP-2 release and upregulation of the expression of heat shock proteins by the radiation of near-infrared (NIR) light, which further upregulated the expression of osteogenesis-related genes. In addition, BPs demonstrated antibacterial effects under the mediation of NIR, which is beneficial for the prevention of clinical bacterial infections. In summary, the BMP-2@BPs scaffold was a multifunctional photothermal scaffold that could accelerate bone regeneration and act against bacteria. This study provides a new perspective for the treatment of bone defects and infectious bone defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the limitation of graphene processing technology, the prepared graphene inevitably contains various defects. The defects will have a particular influence on the macroscopic characteristics of the graphene. In this paper, the defect-based graphene nanoresonators are studied. In this study, the resonant properties of graphene were investigated via molecular dynamic simulations. The effect of vacancy defects and hole defects at different positions, numbers, and concentrations on the resonance frequency of graphene nanoribbons was studied. The results indicated that single monatomic vacancy has no effect on graphene resonant frequency, and the concentration of the resonant frequency of graphene decreases almost linearly with the increase of single-atom vacancy concentration. When the vacancy concentration is 5%, the resonance frequency is reduced by 12.77% compared to the perfect graphene. Holes on the graphene cause the resonance frequency to decrease. As the circular hole defect is closer to the center of the graphene nanoribbon, not only does its resonant frequency increase, but the tuning range is also expanded accordingly. Under the external force of 10.715 nN, the resonant frequency of graphene reaches 429.57 GHz when the circular hole is located at the center of the graphene nanoribbon, which is 40 GHz lower than that of single vacancy defect graphene. When the circular hole is close to the fixed end of graphene, the resonant frequency is 379.62 GHz, which is 90 GHz lower than that of single vacancy graphene. When the hole defect is at the center of nanoribbon, the frequency tunable range of graphene reaches 120 GHz. The tunable frequency range of graphene is 100.12 GHz when the hole defect is near the fixed ends of the graphene nanoribbon. This work is of great significance for design and performance optimization of graphene-based nanoelectro-mechanical system (NEMS) resonators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroptosis is a regulated cell death pathway which depends on iron. Ferroptosis can be induced by limiting intracellular glutathione (GSH) synthesis, or inhibiting the activity of GPX4, or increasing intracellular accumulation of PE-AA-OOH, all of which involve NADPH. Therefore, NADPH depletion, excessive PE-AA-OOH, and GPX4 deficiency are generally considered to be the main characteristics of ferroptosis. In this research, the novel self-assembly nanomicelles modified by maltose ligand (Malt-PEG-Abz@RSL3) with superior nano characteristics were designed and fabricated. Malt-PEG-Abz@RSL3 micelles achieved active targeted drug delivery due to the high expression of glucose transporter (GLUT) and high uptake by HepG2 cells. Maltose-polyethylene glycol broke to release RSL3 for inhibiting GPX4 activity when Malt-PEG-Abz@RSL3 micelles entered the cells. Meanwhile, key coenzyme NADPH that participated in synthesis of GSH and Trx(SH)2 was depleted by azobenzene moiety, resulting in decreasing GSH and Trx(SH)2, which dually induced ferroptosis in tumour cells and promoted cell apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subsea jumper, a crucial pipeline connector facilitating liquid transport between underwater structures, experiences dynamic alterations in flow direction, rate, and phase volumes owing to its distinctive design. These complex flow characteristics can trigger flow-induced vibrations, potentially causing fatigue damage to the jumper. This paper explores the multiphase flow patterns (oil, gas, and water) in a rigid M-shaped subsea jumper under varied mixing velocities (2–4 m/s) and different volume fractions of each phase (0.1–0.7). It analyzes the factors influencing structural vibration response. The findings reveal diverse flow patterns within the jumper, each exhibiting distinct characteristics based on flow parameters. Concurrently, spatiotemporal oscillations from fluid dynamics impact each bend. Pressure on jumper walls gradually diminishes with changing flow direction. Furthermore, the study performs structural modal and frequency domain analyses of pulsating pressure to evaluate potential resonance conditions. The results of this paper contribute to a deeper understanding of the multiphase flow characteristics in jumpers, offering valuable insights to enhance the reliability of underwater oil and gas production. • The three-phase flow pattern evolution of oil, gas, and water in the M-shaped jumper was studied through simulation. • The flow characteristics of slug flow induced by multiphase flow in the jumper were investigated. • Explored the pressure drop characteristics of oil, gas, and water flow in the jumper at different flow rates. • Through one-way fluid-structure interaction, the jumper's vibration under multiphase flow was obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The collection of a substantial video dataset of the fibre rope in oceanographic winch winding process is built. The semantic segmentation algorithm was applied to fault detection in the fibre rope arrangement, and the performance of different models under various construction methods was validated for fault detection. • A model selection method was proposed. This method constructs evaluation indicators and assessment system to adapt models for varying engineering requirements. • Analysis scenarios were established for real-time monitoring during the maritime voyage of ships, for off-ship video analysis specifically targeting fault analysis, and for small detection devices used in embedded systems. • The training of the model underwent evaluation from various perspectives, affirming both the reliability and the practicality of the assessment approach. The quality of synthetic fibre rope arrangement is crucial for the orderly and efficient launch and recovery of marine exploration equipment in oceanographic winch systems. However, due to the unique properties of synthetic fibre ropes, faults are prone to occur during the rope winding process. This paper proposes a framework for fault detection method selection of oceanographic multi-layer winch fibre rope arrangement. An autonomous image dataset is used to train and evaluate the effectiveness and performance of various semantic segmentation models. Based on the performance metrics, a training model selection framework is proposed. The results of the fault detection method demonstrate that deep learning semantic segmentation algorithms perform well in the detection of rope winding arrangement faults. This evaluation framework provides guidance for the best model selection under various detection scenarios. It has made contribution to the fault detection and safe operation of oceanographic multi-layer winch fibre rope arrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study models different formal channel structures under government subsidy. • The study considers both price insensitive/sensitive overall collection quantity. • It concludes the positive influence of the subsidy on the formal channel. • Deriving optimal subsidies from the aspect of minimizing informal channel's profit. • Exploring optimal formal channel structures for formal recyclers and the government. This study aims to analyze the influence of Chinese government subsidy on e-waste treatment formal and informal reverse supply chains (RSC) and to explore the optimal formal channel structure. Under the formal recycler-Stackelberg game, we establish three game theory models respectively under the conditions of price insensitive and price sensitive overall collection quantity. In each model, a dual-channel RSC, the green technology investment decision of formal recycler and a subsidy for formal recycler are modelled. Besides, the three models are different in collectors and collection effort implementers of the formal channel. Through mathematical modelling and comparison analysis, the study concludes that the best choice for the formal recycling enterprises is to establish its own collection channel or centralize other independent collection channels. Under the condition of price insensitive overall collection quantity, the suboptimal choice is to implement collection effort positively. Under the condition of price sensitive overall collection quantity, the suboptimal choice is to outsource the collection effort when formal recycling enterprises benefit more from the collection effort. And the phenomenon is more outstanding when the overall collection quantity can be greatly improved by the collection price. For governments, they are recommended to prudently implement the subsidy and determine the amount of subsidy because the subsidy may benefit informal channels and the effectiveness of the subsidy varies along with formal channel structures. This study is beneficial for the promotion of formal RSC by providing the optimal channel structure for formal recycling enterprises and indicating the optimal subsidy for governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To analyse the relationship between multiple anatomic characteristics of the knee (tibia and femur) and isolated meniscal injury in women and men. Methods: Forty-seven patients with isolated medial meniscal injuries, 62 patients with isolated lateral meniscal injuries, and 70 control subjects were included. Medial posterior tibial slope (MTS), lateral posterior tibial slope (LTS), medial tibial plateau depth (MTD), coronal tibial slope (CTS), femoral notch width (NW), femoral condylar width (FCW), intercondylar notch depth (ND), femoral notch width index (NWI), intercondylar notch shape index (NSI), and cruciate ligaments tensity (CLT) were measured from magnetic resonance images. Anatomic characteristics differing between groups were compared, and risk factors for isolated meniscal injury were identified by multivariate forward stepwise logistic regression for men and women separately. Results: Risk factors for an isolated medial meniscal injury were a steeper MTS and a lowered MTD in men, and a steeper MTS and an increased NWI in women. Risk factors for isolated lateral meniscal injury were a steeper LTS and an increased NW in men, and a steeper LTS and a lowered ND in women. Risk factors for both medial and lateral meniscal injuries were a higher CTS, an increased NWI, and a looser CLT in men, and a higher CTS, an increased NSI, and a looser CLT in women. Conclusion: The anatomic characteristics of the tibial plateau, femur, and cruciate ligaments influence the risk of suffering isolated meniscal injury, and the risk factors differ between men and women. This study provides a reference for developing identification criteria for those at risk of isolated meniscal injury. Level of evidence: III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroelectric materials with the typical perovskite structure are widely used in capacitors, ultrasonic devices, oil drilling, transducers, and other fields. Lead-lanthanum-zirconium-titanate ceramics co-doped with Sn and Ba, have been widely investigated. However, there is little attention has been focused on the dielectric properties of barium-lanthanum-zirconium-titanate. Thus, in this work, Sn doped Ba0.955La0.03Zr0.02Ti0.98O3 ferroelectric ceramics were prepared via a classical high-temperature solid state reaction. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the surface appearance of ceramics. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns at room temperature, indicate that the ceramics are well crystallized. Impedance properties and dielectric properties reflect the characteristic of typical high temperature dielectric relaxation behavior. The conductive activation energy and the relaxation activation energy are obtained through the calculation of the Arrhenius law. The fitting results show that the dielectric relaxation behavior at high-temperature, was related to the oxygen defect. The electrical modulus verified the partial short-range carrier migration, also contribute to the high-temperature dielectric properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ba0.985La0.015Ti0.9Sn0.1O3 ceramic has been prepared by a cost-effective solid-state reaction method. Preliminary room-temperature X-ray diffraction indicates that the crystallization of the ceramic is good. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy was used to study the microstructure of ceramic. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to characterize the oxygen vacancies. Dielectric properties and impedance spectroscopy reflected the characteristic of relaxor-type behavior. Modified Curie–Weiss law was used to evaluate the relaxor behavior. The fitting result of the relaxation parameter λ = 1.4, which verifies their relaxor property. Jonscher's power law was used to analyze the behavior of alternating current conductivity. The Arrhenius law was used to calculate the relaxor activation-energy (Ea) and the conduction activation-energy (Ec). The fitting results show that the Ea and Ec are 1.1 and 1. 13 eV, respectively. These values demonstrate that the high-temperature relaxor behavior was attributed to the double ionized oxygen vacancies. The electric field versus polarization curve reflects the energy-storage property of it. The maximum recoverable energy-storage density is 2.14 J/cm3, and the energy-storage efficiency is 67.65%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Computing and Artificial Intelligent technology has changed the ecosystem of advertising industry and social economy. Observations on social changes can help enterprises and advertisers better adapting to this pervasive computing age. This study aims to examine the lifestyles of the new urban middle class in emerging market and their attitudes towards advertising. We carried out an investigation in four Tier-1 cities in China and identified six comprehensive lifestyle factors: trendy and success-driven, "Western is best," petty bourgeoisie lifestyle, money conscious, lifestyle of health and sustainability, and pragmatic struggling lifestyle; and further segmented new urban middle-class consumers into four groups: experiencers, strivers, trendy achievers, and pragmatists. The attitudes of four lifestyle segments towards advertising have been examined. The study provides precise user portraits of the growing middle-class consumers and intra-class differences in the emerging market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to deeply study the actual contact state of sealed relay contact surface, restore the contact spots of contact pair, and make up for the deficiency of establishing contact model of contact pair only by theoretical simulation. In this paper, the electrical contact high‐speed camera system is selected to record the kinematic parameters during the pull‐in process of the contact, and the deflection angle and deformation amount when the contact is complete are calculated. The surface height of the contact surface is collected through the non‐contact morphology scanner, and the actual contact morphology is corrected and restored. Finally, the actual contact spots are analyzed by reconstructing the contact difference‐plane. The method studied in this paper can provide a reference for the further study of contact analysis. Establishing the actual contact state of the contact pair of the micro level has a certain guiding role in the establishment of the contact resistance model. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An online scheduling problem on a bounded parallel-batch machine to minimize the maximum weighted flow-time is considered in this paper. Jobs arrive over time with the identical processing time. The maximum ratio between the weights of any two jobs is w. The parallel-batch machine can process at most b jobs simultaneously as a batch, and the jobs in a batch have the same starting time and the same completion time. For this problem, a deterministic online algorithm is presented. The algorithm is showed to be the best possible with a competitive ratio of 4 w + 1 + 1 2 when w ∈ [ 1 , 2 ] , and to have a competitive ratio not greater than w when w ∈ (2 , + ∞) . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), as seed cells, have played an important role in bone defect repair. However, efficiently amplifying and inducing BMSCs in vitro or vivo remains an urgent problem to be solved. Electrical stimulation has been beneficial to the proliferation and differentiation of BMSCs, but current electrical stimulation methods have a critical disadvantage in that they usually burn the skin. g-C3N4/rGO, a new photosensitive material, can produce photocurrent under natural light irradiation, thus reducing energy consumption. Our purpose was to explore whether this photocurrent can promote the proliferation and differentiation of BMSCs. g-C3N4/rGO synthesised under high temperature and pressure had negligible cytotoxicity as confirmed by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium to BMSCs. Better osteogenesis was found in the blue light material group than in the light-shielding material group, exhibited by alizarin red staining, alkaline phosphatase activity, Western-Blot, and RT-qPCR. Animal experiments showed that the bone repair potential of the material group was significantly higher than that of the non-material group. Overall, we conclude that g-C3N4/rGO is a new non-toxic photosensitive material which can rapidly induce BMSCs into osteoblasts, accelerating bone regeneration and providing us with a feasible method of rapid bone repair. This study presents a material in osteogenic treatment: g-C3N4/rGO. The material showed no obvious cytotoxicity, and internal photocurrent could be excited by blue light to significantly stimulate osteogenesis, providing an effective method for clinical bone defect repair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• 0.80NN-0.20BNH ceramic achieved large W rec of 6.45 J/cm3 and an η of 82.72 %. • 0.8NN-0.2BNH ceramics displayed high power density (P D = 215 MW/cm3). • 0.8NN-0.2BNH ceramics displayed large current density (C D = 1346 A/cm2). • 0.8NN-0.2BNH ceramics show excellent stability of frequency and temperature. (1- x)NaNbO 3 - x Bi(Ni 0.5 Hf 0.5)O 3 [(1- x)NN- x BNH, x = 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25] lead-free ferroelectric ceramics were fabricated via a standard solid-phase reaction method, in order to obtain superior energy storage properties. BNH is introduced into the NN lattice to limit grain growth and improve the breakdown field strength as a second component. As the results indicate, a high W rec of 6.45 J/cm3 and a breakdown field strength (E b) of 380 kV/cm were achieved for the 0.80NN-0.20BNH ceramic, which was dependent on the nonequivalent replacement at the B site. In addition, the ceramics maintain significant stability over a frequency range of 10 Hz to 1000 Hz and temperature intervals from 30 up to 120 °C. Exceptional charge/discharge properties of high power density (P D = 215 MW/cm3) and current density (C D = 1346 A/cm2) along with an ultra-fast discharge rate (54 ns) were acquired. These results demonstrate that the 0.80NN-0.20BNH ceramic is an energy storage material with high potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel control and prediction algorithm is proposed to solve the problem of decoupling control and response delay in the AHC system of electric winch, which effectively improves the compensation accuracy and response speed of the AHC system. The innovation of the control strategy is mainly as follows: 1) Long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network is used for predicting the ship heave motion. The Bayesian algorithm is used to optimize the hyperparameters to improve the prediction accuracy.2) In the design of the AHC controller, the main speed feedforward is used to directly govern the system's output. The position loop adopts the active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) to improve the anti-disturbance and position-tracking ability of the AHC system.3) For the numerous parameters of ADRC, the chaotic particle Swarm optimization (CPSO) algorithm is used to tune parameters. The simulation results show that the algorithm is effective in improving the robustness and compensation efficiency of the system. Finally, the experiment is carried out on the AHC experimental platform of the full-size winch. The compensation results before and after prediction are compared and analyzed. • This paper adopts BO-LSTM to improve the accuracy of ship heave motion prediction. • AHC controller adopts the main speed feedforward to direct control system output. • The position loop uses CPSO for parameter tuning of ADRC controller. • The mathematical model of winch driven by asynchronous motor is deduced completely. • The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified on a full-size winch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumour-derived exosomes (TDEs) play an important role in tumourigenesis and progression by regulating components in the tumour microenvironment (TME), however, the role of TDE-related immune genes in hepatocellular carcinoma is not fully known. We systematically analysed TDE genes from ExoCarta and immune genes from Immport,Machine learning ultimately identified eight TDE-related prognostic immune genes and used them as the basis for constructing a risk model, which was constructed to better predict patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) compared with published prognostic models. There were significant differences between the high and low risk groups in terms of biological functioning. Low-risk group were more sensitive to immunotherapy, the sensitivity to oxaliplatin and cisplatin differed between the high- and low-risk groups, and knockout of the core gene RAC1 limited the malignant biological behaviour of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. In conclusion, TIRGs are effective in predicting the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and provide a new perspective on immunotherapy and chemotherapy for patients. [Display omitted] • TDEs-related prognostic immune genes are closely associated with hepatocellular carcinoma prognosis and immune infiltration. • TDEs-related prognostic immune genes can better identify the prognostic status of hepatocellular carcinoma patients. • The low-risk group was sensitive to oxaliplatin and the high-risk group was sensitive to cisplatin. • Low-risk group is more sensitive to immunotherapy. • Knockdown of the core gene RAC1 limits the malignant behaviour of hepatocellular carcinoma cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type I collagen, the most abundant and arguably the most complex molecule in the human body, is an ABB heterotrimer that self-assembles to form well-defined nanofibers. We herein for the first time report the construction of peptides that could simultaneously mimic the heterotrimer composition and the self-assembly features of Type I collagen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a frequent and severe microvascular complication associated with oxidative stress of diabetes mellitus. A novel astaxanthin-based natural antioxidant nanosystem, namely AST-GLU-LIP, with preferential renal uptake and bioavailability were prepared and applied for treatment of diabetic nephropathy in rats. Our results of kidney-targeted evaluation showed that glucose-PEG 600 -DSPE ligand modified AST liposomes could be specifically transported by overexpressed GLUT1 on the membrane of glomerular mesangial cells and achieved excellent kidney-targeted drug delivery. In addition, the results of pharmacodynamics and therapeutics in DN rats demonstrated that AST-GLU-LIP could improve the bioavailability and antioxidant capacity of AST to scavenge redundant ROS induced by oxidative stress. AST-GLU-LIP could also significantly improve the renal pathological morphology to protect the kidney as a therapeutic drug for diabetic nephropathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sipunculid worm Sipunculus nudus is a widely distributed, commercially important marine mollusc. Oogenesis and sex determination/differentiation are important steps in S. nudus reproduction. However, the molecular mechanisms of oogenesis and sex determination/differentiation in S. nudus are unclear. We successfully generated a high‐quality de novo assembled and annotated transcriptome of oocytes from coelomic fluid (OC), oocytes from nephridium (ON) and spermatozeugmata from coelomic fluid (SC) of S. nudus using the Illumina sequencing platform. There were 17,720 and 17,030 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in OC vs. ON and OC vs. SC respectively. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the DEGs in these two groups were enriched in ribosome, thyroid hormone synthesis, apelin signalling pathway and cellular senescence. Critical genes that play essential roles in sex determination/differentiation were found, including foxl2, fem‐1, dmrt1, ftz‐f1 and sox9. This may largely contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of oogenesis and sex determination/differentiation in S. nudus and laid a foundation for further in‐depth studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nickel sulfide (NiS) nanoparticles were anchored on the mesoporous graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) by one-pot calcination with sulfur powder as sulfur source and pore-forming agent. It is the first attempt to use the g-C3N4/NiS as a counter electrode (CE) for quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells. The g-C3N4/NiS co-catalyst based on 0.74 wt% NiS loading for Sn2− reduction obtained a low interface charge transfer resistance (Rct) of 1.08 Ω. The power conversion efficiency of the QDSSC assembled with ZnSe/CdS/CdSe/ZnSe-sensitized TiO2 photoanode and g-C3N4/NiS CE is up to 5.64%, which is 3.05 times as high as that of pure g-C3N4 CE. The enhancement of cell efficiency is attributed to the synergistic effects of excellent morphology of g-C3N4 and its co-catalysis with NiS nanoparticles. The mesoporous architecture contributes a large specific surface area and fast electrolyte transfer channels, and the coupling of g-C3N4 with NiS promotes the transfer of charge between the interface g-C3N4/NiS and electrolytes. The presented strategy for fabricating mesoporous architecture with g-C3N4/NiS uses low-cost raw materials and a simple preparation method, which provides a feasible route to enhance the electrocatalytic activity of g-C3N4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the calculation of the surface roughness parameter is mainly based on the surface height data of the rectangular region, which results in the nonrectangular relay contact surface topography acquisition being limited to a certain local area, and it is difficult to characterize the overall topography state of contacts. In this paper, a method of fitting the rotation roughness parameter is proposed, which is to fit the roughness parameter of the largest inscribed square of contact surface under different rotation angles, and finally, a comprehensive roughness parameter value characterizing the whole circular contact surface is obtained. The Tamura feature analysis method is used to calculate the rotation roughness parameters of the circular contact at various angles. The effective area for calculating the surface roughness of circular contacts is increased from 63.66 to 99.14%. By calculating the moving Hurst index, the rotation roughness parameters of each angle are proven to conform to the fractional Brownian motion, and the rotation roughness parameters are fitted accordingly. Finally, the validity of the fitting parameters is verified by a neural network, which provides a feasible method for comprehensively characterizing the overall topography of circular contact. © 2020 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass-derived porous carbon is widely used in supercapacitors, carbon dioxide capture and lithium–sulfur batteries owing to its advantages such as wide sources, low cost and good stability. However, it is rarely used in quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs). Here, glucose-derived porous carbon was obtained by hydrothermal carbonization followed with high-temperature KOH activation, and employed as an efficient counter electrode (CE) for QDSCs. The CV, EIS and Tafel-polarization analysis showed that porous carbon exhibits excellent catalytic activity for reduction of Sn2−. The CE based on porous carbon activated at 900 °C (C900) presents best performance with interface charge transfer resistance (Rct) of 2.4 Ω cm2 due to the synergy between high graphitization degree and large specific surface area. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the QDSCs assembled with a CdS/CdSe sensitized TiO2 photoanode and the C900 CE is up to 5.61% under one sun illumination. The excellent catalytic activity of C900 is attributed to its large specific surface area and porous structure and high degree graphitization. This suggests that glucose-derived porous carbon can become a potential low-cost and efficient CE material for QDSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The energy and exergy performance of R513a as a drop-in replacement for R134a in a refrigeration system is investigated. • The contributions of the individual components to the exergy destruction rate increase have been identified. • A system with drop-in R513a demonstrates reduced capacity and efficiency under a majority of operating conditions. • The compressor was the largest contributor to the irreversibility when R513a was used as a drop-in replacement for R134a. R513a (XP10), a mixer of 56% R1234yf (C 3 H 2 F 4) and 44% R134a (CH 2 FCF 3), has similar thermophysical characteristics to R134a but only half of its global warming potential (GWP). This paper uses an economized-cycle vaper compression refrigeration system as an example to investigate the energy and exergy performance of R513a used as a drop-in replacement for R134a. Differing from previous research, this study examines the entire system operating zone to identify the performance differences in terms of capacity, COP, exergy destruction rate, and exergy efficiency between R513a and R134a systems. The analysis found that a system with drop-in R513a demonstrates reduced capacity by up to 12% and efficiency (up to 9% with COP and 14% with exergy efficiency) under a majority of operating conditions, while exhibiting less irreversibility (5% to 13%) under high-ambient, high-space temperature conditions and better exergy efficiency of 3% in low-ambient conditions. In addition, the contribution of each individual component to the exergy destruction rate at various operating conditions is identified. To improve the energy and exergy efficiency of a R513a system, the analysis results indicate that the compressor is the first component that should be redesigned or reselected, followed by the economizer, valves, and evaporator. The condenser influence is negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the dissipativity and synchronization control of fractional‐order memristive neural networks (FOMNNs) with reaction‐diffusion terms. By means of fractional Halanay inequality, Wirtinger inequality, and Lyapunov functional, some sufficient conditions are provided to ensure global dissipativity and exponential synchronization of FOMNNs with reaction‐diffusion terms, respectively. The underlying model and the obtained results are more general since the reaction‐diffusion terms are first introduced into FOMNNs. The given conditions are easy to be checked, and the correctness of the obtained results is confirmed by a living example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

mir-100-let-7a-2-mir-125b-1 cluster host gene (MIR100HG), which is located on chromosome 11q24.1, is a polycistronic microRNA host gene. MIR100HG overexpression in colorectal cancer (CRC) has been demonstrated to be associated with cetuximab resistance; however, the role of MIR100HG in CRC metastasis remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of aberrant MIR100HG expression on metastasis and prognosis in patients with CRC. The results from reverse transcription-quantitative PCR demonstrated that MIR100HG expression was higher in CRC tissues compared with in corresponding normal mucosa tissues. In particular, MIR100HG expression was higher in advanced CRC compared with in early stage CRC. Furthermore, the results from Kaplan-Meier analysis followed by a log-rank test revealed that patients with CRC and high MIR100HG expression exhibited poorer disease-free survival and overall survival compared with patients with CRC and lower MIR100HG expression. Furthermore, results from in vitro Transwell assays and in vivo animal assays demonstrated that upregulated MIR100HG expression promoted CRC cell migration and invasion and the formation of liver metastatic colonies in mice. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that MIR100HG overexpression may contribute to the progression of CRC and may predict a poorer prognosis in patients with CRC. MIR100HG may therefore be considered as a novel therapeutic target and a prognostic biomarker in patients with CRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to study the contact surface morphology and the corrosion state of sealed relays and analyze the correlation relationship of contact spot corrosion types under different deformation variables. In this article, a contact planar‐layered model of contact pairs was established, the contact corrosion status of each level was explored, and the corrosion distribution at different contact points of the contact group was obtained. In this article, combined with the dynamic contact process analysis and corresponding to the contact position of the contact group, the contact difference plane was proposed to characterize the contact state of the contact group. The genetic algorithm to optimize the maximum‐entropy double threshold method (Genetic‐KSW) was used to calculate the mutative segmentation threshold, to layer the contact difference plane, and to solve the problem of threshold fluctuation caused by big data. Finally, the corrosion product type and the corrosion distribution corresponding to different corrosion morphologies at each level of the contact group were analyzed from the angle of the corrosion film. The conclusion is that the first contacted level I region is obtained as a mild corrosion region that generates oxidative corrosion and mild wear, and the level II region is a complex compound containing N/C/S/P. The pit corrosion area is shallow, and the contaminant products Na2CO3 and NaNO2 are widely distributed on the edge of the corrosion pit with scattered spots. In contact with the level III area, the deep corrosion pits and the shallow pits coexist, and the corrosion product is the heavily corroded area of AgCl. © 2019 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper is concerned with the problem of fixed‐time consensus tracking control for a class of second‐order multiagent systems under an undirected communication graph. A distributed output‐feedback fixed‐time consensus tracking control scheme is proposed to make the states of all individual agents simultaneously track a time‐varying reference state even when the reference state is available only to a subset of the group members and only output measurements are available for feedback. Homogeneous Lyapunov function and homogeneity property are employed to show that the control scheme can guarantee the consensus tracking errors converging the origin in finite time which is bounded by a fixed constant independent of initial conditions. Numerical simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subsea rigid M-shaped jumpers provide reliable and flexible connections in subsea production systems by using deflection to reduce the impact of internal flow and providing installation tolerances. During their service, the gas-liquid mixed multiphase flow conveyed by the jumpers will cause flow-induced vibration (FIV) and reduce their fatigue life. In this paper, the air-water mixed multiphase flow conveyed by a rigid M-shaped jumper at different mixture velocities (1 m/s to 4 m/s) and volume fraction of water (0.2–0.8) is investigated to analyze the factors affecting the flow patterns and identify the most dangerous regions. Flow patterns in each segment and historical pressure changes are obtained by simulation and experiment. The dynamic response of the jumper excited by FIV is obtained by one-way coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI). The evolution of the air-water two-phase flow pattern from inlet to outlet is visualized and analyzed. In particular, the regularity of Taylor bubble generation in the first ascending segment is discussed. The pressure tends to decrease from inlet to outlet, and a consistent change in pressure difference is observed between simulation and experiment. The elbows are the most notable segments, with the maximum deformation and stress concentration. • The evolution of the flow pattern in a jumper conveys multiphase flow is carried out by experiment and simulation. • The variation of plug flow is studied by the volume fractions in the simulations and photographs in experiments. • The overall deformation of the rigid M-shaped jumper under the influence of FIV is obtained by one-way coupled FSI. • By evaluating the equivalent force distribution along the jumper, the stress concentration is found at the elbow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclic bending over sheave (CBOS) is one of the most typical usage scenarios of marine handling ropes, where the rope will be subjected to both tensile deformation and bending deflection. In this paper, the CBOS characteristics of a 24 mm high module polyethylene (HMPE) marine handling rope subjected to dynamic tension are investigated by a series of full-scale experimental tests at the diameter ratio of D / d = 400 / 24 , where D = 400 mm is the sheave diameter. The variations in useful life, strain, stiffness and surface temperature have been measured at different loading conditions. Two stages of temperature variation at the bending section of the rope are found, and those stages are associated with the variation in the area of hysteresis loop from the tension-strain figure. On the other hand, the CBOS lifetime is found to decrease with the increasing average, amplitude and period of the dynamic loading, while the nominal stiffness increases with the average magnitude and period of loading but decreases with increasing amplitude. On this basis, two empirical equations taking into account the loading conditions are proposed through regression analysis. The obtained coefficients have good agreement with the present experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The mechanism of typical failures within the hydraulic system during the operation of the chain jack is studied. • The severity of faults was classified based on the sensor data of the real operating state of the chain jack. • A CNN-LSTM hierarchical network fusion is used to diagnose the different severities of the five faults. • A multi-source data fusion method is proposed for online diagnosis of fault severities in the hydraulic system of chain jacks. In this study, a fault diagnosis approach for the hydraulic system of chain jacks based on multi-source sensor data fusion is proposed. We developed a hydraulic test rig for the chain jacks with a special measurement and control system to measure and collect real-time data on pressure, temperature and flow in different operating conditions. The proposed approach integrates convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long and short-term memory (LSTM) at the network level to extract the spatial–temporal features of the time-series data measured by sensors. Compared with the artificial neural network (ANN), the accuracy of the CNN-LSTM hierarchical diagnosis model was 96.4%, which improved the diagnosis accuracy by 4.4% and enhanced the generalization ability and stability. This study provides a hierarchical monitoring approach for the service status of marine spread mooring systems and chain jack equipment, which is essential for the safe operation of marine equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resveratrol is a natural non-flavonoid polyphenol found in red wine, which has numerous pharmacological properties including anti-stress and antidepressant-like abilities. However, whether the antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects of resveratrol are related to the inhibition of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) and its subtypes remains unknown. The same holds true for the subsequent cAMP-dependent pathway. The first set of studies investigated whether resveratrol exhibited neuroprotective effects against corticosterone-induced cell lesion as well as its underlying mechanism. We found that 100 μM corticosterone induced PDE2A, PDE3B, PDE4A, PDE4D, PDE10 and PDE11 expression in HT-22 cells, which results in significant cell lesion. However, treatment with resveratrol increased cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner. These effects seem related to the inhibition of PDE4D, as evidenced by resveratrol dose-dependently decreasing PDE4D expression. In addition, the PKA inhibitor H89 reversed resveratrol's effects on cell viability. Resveratrol prevented corticosterone-induced reduction in cAMP, pVASP(s157), pCREB, and BDNF levels, indicating that cAMP signaling is involved in resveratrol-induced neuroprotective effects. Not to mention, PDE4D knockdown by PDE4D siRNA potentiated the effect of low dose of resveratrol on cAMP, pVASP, pCREB, and BDNF expression, while PDE4D overexpression reversed the effect of high dose of resveratrol on the expression of the above proteins. Finally, the subsequent in vivo data supports the in vitro findings, suggesting that resveratrol-induced antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects are mediated by PDE4D. Overall, these findings support the hypothesis that PDE4D-mediated cAMP signaling plays an important role in resveratrol's protective effects on stress-induced depression- and anxiety-like behavior. • The neuroprotective effects of resveratrol in vitro or in vivo were investigated. • The increases of PDE4D in the hippocampus led to depression- and anxiety-like behavior. • PDE4D-mediated cAMP signaling may play an important role in resveratrol's protective effects in stressed mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remaining useful life (RUL) prognosis of lithium-ion battery can appraise the battery reliability to determine the advent of failure and mitigate risk. To acquire measurement data at similar working conditions as electrical vehicles (EVs), this paper mainly conducted the experiment about battery charging and discharging under vibration stress. Indirect health indicator (HI) was extracted from the time of equal discharge voltage from the upper to the lower, and the battery capacity proved to be estimated by the adopted indirect HI through grey relational analysis. Then, the RUL prognosis model based on Elman neural network was established. Finally, the feasibility of this RUL prognosis model based on Elman neural networks in an application in predicting RUL of battery under vibration stress was verified. • The experiments under vibration stress was conducted. • Indirect HI was extracted from voltage features of battery under vibration stress. • The indirect RUL prognosis based on Elman neural network was established. • The feasibility of this prognosis model in an application was verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • High-purity calcium stannate (CaSnO 3 ·3H 2 O) was obtained by the proposed process. • Tin contained in lead refining slag was effectively extracted by alkaline leaching. • More than 99% Sn could be precipitated from the solution after the causticization. • Lead in the solution was effectively removed by a purification process with Na 2 S. Abstract In the present study, a causticization method combined with alkaline leaching and purification process was used to treat with lead refining slag. In the alkaline leaching process, the effects of alkaline concentration, temperature, liquid to solid ratio, leaching time, and agitating speed were investigated, and the optimized leaching conditions were established: 2 mol/L of NaOH concentration, 2 h of leaching time, 85 °C of temperature, 6 mL/g of liquid-to-solid ratio, 800 r/min of agitating speed. Under these conditions, the leaching rate of Sn reached 92% while the leaching rate of Pb was about 29%. After a purification process, the concentration of lead in the leachate was reduced to 0.0001 g/L. Finally, high-purity calcium stannate (CaSnO 3 ·3H 2 O) was obtained from the purified solution by the causticization process under the conditions: 5 g of CaO dosage (per 200 mL solution), 85 °C of temperature, 2 h of time and 800 r/min of agitating speed. The precipitation rate of Sn was as high as 99.22%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Monoclonal antibody (mAb) fragmentation is a widespread issue of protein stability that needs to be carefully monitored for critical mAb quality control during the production process development. This study describes here the discovery and characterization of CHO host cell protease-induced fragmentation of a therapeutic mAb-X in the formulation samples from an early production process. The fragmentation was observed in the sodium dodecyl sulfate capillary electrophoresis (CE-SDS) analysis of mAb-X formulation samples incubated at elevated temperature. Size exclusion liquid chromatography (SEC-HPLC) was used to analyze and collect these cleaved fragments derived from mAb-X. Reversed phase liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (RP-LC-MS) and tandem mass (MS/MS) analysis demonstrated that the fragment was generated mainly due to the hinge region cleavage of mAb-X. The fragmentation rate was characterized in the mAb-X formulation samples at pH from 4.0 to 6.0 using CE-SDS and SDS-PAGE analysis. The percentage of the main fragment increased dramatically from 2.8% to 31.2% as pH decreased from 6.0 to 4.0 at 40 °C for 28 days, which indicated the fragmentation was highly pH-dependent. The SDS-PAGE analysis further verified the pH-dependent property of the framentation of mAb-X. Moreover, the fragmentation was characterized in the presence and absence of pepstatin A, an inhibitor of acidic proteases. Significant inhibition of mAb-X fragmentation was observed with the addition of pepstatin A to mAb-X formulation samples. These results suggested residual acidic host cell protease(s) in the formulation samples from an early production process caused the fragmentation of mAb-X. To prove evidence, we developed an optimized protein A chromatography to enhance the residual host cell protease(s) removal capability of mAb-X purification process and consequently eliminate the above described cleaved fragment of mAb-X, which further supported the hypothesis that the fragmentation of mAb-X was catalyzed by the residual host cell protease(s) in the formulation samples from the early production process. This case study reiterated that residual host cell protease is a critical quality attribute (CQA) that should be carefully controlled and evaluated to guarantee successful manufacture processes for mAb products. Highlights • Fragmentation was discovered in CE-SDS analysis of a mAb stored at 40 °C for 28 days. • The fragment were identified and characterized by orthogonal analytical methods. • The fragmentation rate was highly pH-dependent within pH range of 4.0–6.0. • The fragmentation was inhibited by pepstatin A and was caused by CHO HCP proteases. • An optimized protein A chromatography effectively eliminated fragmentation of mAb-X. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of residual life prediction of batteries for electric vehicles under driving conditions was performed based on the degradation data. This article, characteristics of lithium iron phosphate battery performance degradation as the object, mainly considers two factors about the charge–discharge rate and vibration stress, first, the lithium battery performance degradation test simulating a car in a real driving environment is designed, which provides the lithium battery performance test reference. Then, the model parameters were obtained based on the test data. Finally, the performance degradation model and residual life prediction model of the lithium battery based on the Wiener process are established. This method not only has a high prediction accuracy, but also avoids the construction of a complex battery mechanism degradation model. What is more, this article provides a good perspective for residual life prediction in simplified experiments saving cost. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Arsenic removal from lead-zinc smelter ash by NaOH-H 2 O 2 leaching was investigated. • More than 98% of arsenic was extracted from the smelter ash. • The leaching process belonged to diffusion-controlled type in Avrami model. • The apparent activation energy of the leaching process was 16.03 kJ/mol. Abstract The safe treatment of smelter ash with high arsenic is of great importance both for environmental protection and resource comprehensive utilization. In this study, arsenic removal from lead-zinc smelter ash by NaOH-H 2 O 2 leaching was studied. The effects of different operating parameters on the leaching rate of arsenic and leaching kinetics were investigated based on thermodynamic calculation. The results indicate that NaOH concentration and H 2 O 2 addition have significant effects on the leaching rate of arsenic. The optimum conditions were established as: liquid-solid ratio, 10:1; NaOH concentration, 3 mol/L; H 2 O 2 concentration, 2.4%; leaching time, 2 h; and leaching temperature, 75 °C. Under these conditions, the leaching rate of arsenic was as high as 98.17%. The kinetic study reveals that the arsenic leaching process is in accordance with the diffusion-controlled type in the Avrami model, and the apparent activation energy is 16.03 kJ/mol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An on-line scheduling problem on m uniform parallel-batch machines to minimize the makespan is considered in this paper. Each machine can process infinite jobs as a batch at a time. Jobs arrive over time and have equal lengths denoted by 1. Compared to parallel machines, uniform machines are more difficult to deal with because they have different processing speeds. There are two types of machines in our model. The lower bound on the competitive ratio is characterized by some complicated algebraic equations. And a best possible on-line algorithm matching the lower bound is constructed and proved in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic fibre rope has been a promising solution in ocean exploring applications benefiting from its excellent mechanical properties and high-strength lightweight. However, spooling on the multilayer winch with fibre rope was noticed as a severe problem as a consequence of its nonlinear lateral stiffness property. Substantially increased layers of winding packages caused the deformation of rope. Therefore, a modified rope evolved from applications in fisheries with tight dimensional stability and resistance to deformation under compression is seen as an alternative selection. In this research, characteristics of a 24 mm high module polyethylene (HMPE) dimension-stable marine handling rope subjected to various tension are investigated by a series of full-scale spooling experimental tests on a specially designed test winch at a diameter ratio of D/d = 600/24. The results compared with another spooling experiment conducted in 2021 using an HMPE rope without a core but at the same D/d ratio reveal that the modified rope could induce greater loads than the former. Besides, analytical and numerical calculations will be discussed to assess the accuracy of experimental measurements. Further, a novel winding model is proposed to estimate the deformation of rope shape, evaluate the performance of rope winding and adjust rope spooling adaptability. • A newly modified dimension-stable HMPE rope is investigated under spooling test on the multilayer winch drum. • Stress assessment and deformation resistance of former and substitution fibre rope is compared. • A modified winding model is provided to estimate the deformation of rope winding. • A novel procedure of rope spooling is proposed to evaluate the performance of rope and adjust spooling adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since traditional simulations do not reflect true morphological changes of the contact surface in relay contacts, the concept of difference-plane is proposed in this paper to establish the contact resistance model according to the actual shapes of the disassembled contacts, considering the hypothetical contact state of static and dynamic contacts. The difference-plane is restituted from the mechanical and electrical properties by analyzing the elements types and distributions, ignoring the influence of thermodynamics and membrane resistance. The contact resistance sliding coefficient is defined from the movement process of the sealed relay. The contact resistance model of the sealed relay is established by using the dimensionless parameter as the mediator, which provides a new idea for contact resistance modeling from the actual contact morphology point. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]