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To address the low accuracy and stability when applying classical control theory in distribution networks with distributed generation, a control method involving flexible multistate switches (FMSs) is proposed in this study. This approach is based on an improved double-loop recursive fuzzy neural network (DRFNN) sliding mode, which is intended to stably achieve multiterminal power interaction and adaptive arc suppression for single-phase ground faults. First, an improved DRFNN sliding mode control (SMC) method is proposed to overcome the chattering and transient overshoot inherent in the classical SMC and reduce the reliance on a precise mathematical model of the control system. To improve the robustness of the system, an adaptive parameter-adjustment strategy for the DRFNN is designed, where its dynamic mapping capabilities are leveraged to improve the transient compensation control. Additionally, a quasi-continuous secondorder sliding mode controller with a calculus-driven sliding mode surface is developed to improve the current monitoring accuracy and enhance the system stability. The stability of the proposed method and the convergence of the network parameters are verified using the Lyapunov theorem. A simulation model of the three-port FMS with its control system is constructed in MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation result confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy based on a comparative analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aimed to study the role and mechanism of SIRT5 regulation of ferroptosis in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. A model of middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats was prepared using the method of thread occlusion. The ferroptosis inhibitor was injected intraperitoneally while the SIRT5 interfering lentivirus were injected into the brain, and neurological disorders were scored in the rats. TTC staining was used to detect infarct volume, and immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of SIRT5 in tissues. Rat hippocampal neuronal cells H19-7 were transduced with SIRT5 interfering lentivirus and ferroptosis was induced using erastin. The CCK8 detection kit was used to detect cell viability. Commercial kits were used to detect levels of iron ions, ROS, MDA, SOD, and inflammatory factor (TNF-α and IL-6) in brain tissue or cell supernatant. Western blot was used to detect the expression changes of ferroptosis related proteins GPX4, Nrf2, and HO-1 in tissues or cells. Compared with the sham group, the MCAO model group showed higher levels of neurological impairment score, increased cerebral infarction volume, iron ions, inflammatory factors, and oxidative stress levels in rats. Compared with the MCAO group, the MCAO + fer-1 group exhibited lower levels of neurological impairment scores, cerebral infarction volume, decreased iron ions, inflammatory factors, and oxidative stress levels in rats. Meanwhile, compared with the MCAO + DMSO/LV-shRNA group, the MCAO + fer-1/LV-shSIRT5 group showed a significant decrease in neurological impairment scores, cerebral infarction volume, iron ions, inflammatory factors, and oxidative stress levels in rats. In vitro experiments have found that LV-shSIRT5 can prevent erastin-induced cell ferroptosis. In summary, SIRT5 regulates ferroptosis through the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling axis to participate in ischemia-reperfusion injury in ischemic stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients may experience pessimism, and even despair, due to longterm nature of the condition, which increases the risk of depression. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) can relieve depression. This retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate the effects of MBSR on mental health and quality of life in CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression, so as to provide guidance for clinical nursing programs. Methods: The clinical data of 100 CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression who were treated in Jiading District Central Hospital Affiliated Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences from January 2021 to March 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Based on nursing method received, the patients were divided into the conventional group (conventional management) and the MBSR group (MBSR therapy was implemented in addition to conventional management). After matching, there were 35 cases in each group. The scores for the self-rating depression scale (SDS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CDRISC), Five-factor Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were compared between the two groups. Results: After management, the SDS and PSQI scores of the MBSR group were lower than those of the conventional group, and the CD-RISC, FFMQ and SF-36 scores were higher than those of the conventional group (p<0.05). Conclusion: MBSR can improve the mental health, sleep quality, and quality of life of CKD patients with mild-to-moderate depression, and improve psychological resilience and mindfulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bipolar objects are widespread in nature, and their two attributes describe the opposition and unity of the things. Motivated by characterizing fuzzy topological structures by means of fuzzy graphs, we propose a bipolar fuzzy topological graph to measure the features of bipolar fuzzy systems. The topological characteristics in bipolar neutrosophic and bipolar interval-valued fuzzy settings are discussed as well. Several instances are manifested to clarify new definitions and conclusions. Furthermore, the properties of edge calculating and graph isomorphic are determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation of this work is to analyse the nonlinear models and their complex nature with generalized tools associated with material and history-based properties. With the help of well-known and widely used numerical scheme, we study the stimulating behaviours of the financial system in this work. The impact of parameters on price index, rate of interest, investment demand, influence changes and investment cost with respect to saving amount, and the elasticity of commercial markets demand are discussed. The consequences of generalizing the model within the arbitrary order are derived. The existence of the solution for the considered system is presented. This study helps beginner researchers to investigate complex real-world problems and predict the corresponding consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metal source and genesis of hydrothermal mercury-rich gold metallogenic systems occurring far away from active continental margins remain puzzling. The Youjiang Basin of South China, where exists numerous Carlin-type gold deposits and some synmineralization hidden intrusions, is a natural laboratory to address this issue due to it was up to 1000 km inward from the active continental margins of South China when mineralization. Here, we use mass-independent fractionation of mercury isotope ratios (reported as Δ199Hg), which is predominantly generated during Hg photochemical reactions on Earth’s surface and has superiority of isotopic inheritance during hydrothermal processes, to address the metal source of the Youjiang Carlin-type gold deposits. Ore-associated sulfides from seven representative deposits display negative to near-zero Δ199Hg values (−0.29‰ to 0.04‰), which fall in between that of the regional Precambrian basement rocks (−0.21‰ to 0.06‰) and deep magmatic-hydrothermal systems (∼0‰), suggesting a binary mixing of Hg from these two sources. An isotope mixing model and mass balance calculations demonstrate that ∼1000 km³ of the basement rocks, which contributed to 86% of Hg budget, were leached and remobilized by magmatic-hydrothermal fluids and deep-circulating crustal fluids to endow the gold reserves of these deposits. Given that traditional S, Pb, C, and O isotopic data yielded indirect and ambiguous constraints on metal source due to their complex evolution processes and isotope fractionation during the fluids ascended. Our results, therefore, highlight the great advantage of using Hg isotope as a new tracer to understand metal sources of hydrothermal deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image segmentation is a significant step in image analysis and computer vision. Many entropy-based approaches have been presented on this topic. Among them, Tsallis entropy isone of the best-performing methods. In this paper, the surface defect images of galvanised steel sheets were studied. Atwo-dimensional asymmetric Tsallis cross-entropy image segmentation algorithm based on chaotic bee colony algorithm optimisation was used to investigate the segmentation of surface defects under complex texture backgrounds. On the basis of Tsallis entropy threshold segmentation, a more concise expression form was used to define the asymmetric Tsallis cross-entropy in order to reduce the calculation complexity of the algorithm. The chaotic algorithm was combined with the artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm to construct the chaotic bee colony algorithm, so that the optimal threshold of Tsallis entropy could be quickly identified. The experimental results showed that compared with the maximum Shannon entropy algorithm, the calculation time of this algorithm decreased by about 58% and the threshold value increased by about (26%, 54%). Compared with the two-dimensional Tsallis cross-entropy algorithm, the calculation time of this algorithm decreased by about 35% and about 20% was improved in the g-axis direction only. Compared with the two-dimensional asymmetric Tsallis cross-entropy algorithm, the calculation time of this algorithm decreased by about 30% and the threshold values of the two algorithms were almost the same. The algorithm proposed in this paper can rapidly and effectively segment defect targets, making it a more suitable method for detecting surface defects in factories with a rapid production pace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes an effective and accurate method for solving the partial geometry modification problem of original scattering. The current and scattering characteristics after structure modification can be efficiently calculated by using the information of the initial impedance matrix. These modifications include adding geometry or moving and rotating different parts of geometry. Although the changes in each impedance matrix are local for partial modified geometries, the associated computational cost is high because the whole analysis is iterative. By combining the binomial series method and the reduced basis method, the proposed method can effectively evaluate the scattering field without solving the inverse impedance matrix of the modified geometry. The proposed algorithm has a computational cost of O(n2), which is much smaller than O(n3) of the traditional method of moments (MoM), where n is the number of unknowns. Through several examples, the traditional MoM and the proposed method are compared, and the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are proved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, a design of broadband microstrip three‐way directional coupler (TWDC) is presented. The broadband performance of the microstrip TWDC is realized by the method of cascading multi‐section. The broadband TWDC is designed to achieve equal power division and −120°, 0°, and +120° phase differences between output signals. To verify the broadband design, a prototype of three‐section microstrip TWDC operating at C‐band is designed, fabricated and measured. The measured results show that the power division error of the designed broadband TWDC is less than ±0.7 dB and phase error is less than ±12° at a relative bandwidth of 16%. To verify its performance in multibeam application, the designed TWDC is used as a beamforming network for multibeam antenna array to generate three orthogonal beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new γ-lactone compound, trichonafurin A (1), was obtained from the culture of Trichoderma atroviride ZW-7, an endophyte of the marine brown alga Sargassum thunbergii. Its structure was unambiguously assigned by detailed interpretation of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichonafurin A (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and HepG2 cell lines with IC50 values of 20.2 and 32.1 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents a wideband high gain substrate integrated waveguide horn antenna (SIWHA) loaded with half Maxwell fish‐eye (HMFE) fabricated by 3‐D‐Printing. The impedance bandwidth of the SIWHA is narrow, mainly caused by the discontinuity between the substrate with the air. By introducing the HMFE and a match layer between the SIWHA with HMFE, the impedance continuity can be realized, which can not only improve the impedance bandwidth but also enhance the antenna gain. Experimental results show that the proposed antenna can achieve more than 6 dBi gain and 60.9% relative impedance bandwidth with reflection coefficients lower than −10 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional multi-process to enhance tight oil recovery based on fracturing and huff-n-puff has obvious deficiencies, such as low recovery efficiency, rapid production decline, high cost, and complexity, etc. Therefore, a new technology, the so-called fracturing-oil expulsion integration, which does not need flowback after fracturing while making full use of the fracturing energy and gel breaking fluids, are needed to enable efficient exploitation of tight oil. A novel triple-responsive smart fluid based on "pseudo-Gemini" zwitterionic viscoelastic surfactant (VES) consisting of N-erucylamidopropyl-N,Ndimethyl-3-ammonio-2-hydroxy-1-propane-sulfonate (EHSB), N,N,N0,N0-tetramethyl-1,3-propanediamine (TMEDA) and sodium p-toluenesulfonate (NaPts), is developed. Then, the rheology of smart fluid is systematically studied at varying conditions (CO2, temperature and pressure). Moreover, the mechanism of triple-response is discussed in detail. Finally, a series of fracturing and spontaneous imbibition performances are systematically investigated. The smart fluid shows excellent CO2-, thermal-, and pressure-triple responsive behavior. It can meet the technical requirement of tight oil fracturing construction at 140 °C in the presence of 3.5 MPa CO2. The gel breaking fluid shows excellent spontaneous imbibition oil expulsion (~40%), salt resistance (1.2 x 104 mg/L Naþ), temperature resistance (140 °C) and aging stability (30 days). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double helical-like flow heat exchanger model was built, its shell-side flow state was studied by the CFD method, and the difference in heat transfer performance between it and the torsional flow heat exchanger was compared. From the numerical simulation results, it is found that the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are improved by 7.07-8.93% and 15.50-18.22%, respectively at the same flow rate, and the comprehensive performance expressed as Nu/f 1/3 is improved by 21.84-24.08%. Using the orthogonal test method to optimize the shell-side structure, it is found that the comprehensive performance is influenced by the two factors of spacing/groups and angle of baffles, and the influence of the deflection angle of two adjacent groups of baffles is very small, and the optimal structural combination of comprehensive performance is 30-0-70/11 (the angle of baffles is 30°, the deflection angle of two adjacent groups of baffles is 0°, the spacing between two adjacent sets of baffles is 70 mm, and the number of baffle groups is 11). The reliability and feasibility of the simulation method were verified by experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new two-stage alignment on a moving base is proposed for a low-cost inertial navigation system with the aid of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver in the Earth-centered, Earth-fixed (ECEF) frame under large initial attitude errors. Both the state and measurement equations are derived using the additive quaternion error model in the ECEF frame for alignment without the need for level adjustment. The nonlinear velocity error equations in both the coarse and the fine stages are linearized further. An improved strong tracking filter is proposed for the coarse stage to converge quickly with large initial attitude errors. After the attitude errors converge to smaller values in the coarse stage, a standard Kalman filter is implemented for the fine stage. Experiments demonstrate that attitude error can converge quickly with the proposed adaptive alignment method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new carotane sesquiterpene, trichocarotin N (1), was isolated from a culture of the marine-derived fungus Trichoderma virens QD-11. The structure of this compound was established by detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichocarotin N (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 32.4 and 41.6 μM, respectively. A new carotane sesquiterpene, trichocarotin N (1), was isolated from a culture of the marine-derived fungus Trichoderma virens QD-11. The structure of this compound was established by detailed analysis of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data. Trichocarotin N (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell lines, with IC50 values of 32.4 and 41.6 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a high impedance fault (HIF) occurs in a distribution network, the detection efficiency of traditional protection devices is strongly limited by the weak fault information. In this study, a method based on S-transform (ST) and average singular entropy (ASE) is proposed to identify HIFs. First, a wavelet packet transform (WPT) was applied to extract the feature frequency band. Thereafter, the ST was investigated in each half cycle. Afterwards, the obtained time-frequency matrix was denoised by singular value decomposition (SVD), followed by the calculation of the ASE index. Finally, an appropriate threshold was selected to detect the HIFs. The advantages of this method are the ability of fine band division, adaptive time-frequency transformation, and quantitative expression of signal complexity. The performance of the proposed method was verified by simulated and field data, and further analysis revealed that it could still achieve good results under different conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For n ≥ 2, let S Sn* = {(0, n, 0), (0, n - 1, 1), (1, n - 1, 0), (n, 0, 0), (n - 1, 0, 1), (n - 1, 1, 0)}. A zero-nonzero pattern A of order n allows Sn* if Sn* ⊆ i(A), the inertia set of A, and requires Sn* if Sn* = i(A). The study of zero-nonzero patterns allowing Sn* was introduced by Berliner et al. [Inertia sets allowed by matrix patterns. Electron J Linear Algebra. 2018;34:343-355]. In this paper, we give characterizations of irreducible zero-nonzero path patterns and double-star patterns that allow Sn*. Moreover, all irreducible zero-nonzero tree patterns of order 5 and 6 that allow Sn* are also characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important tool to represent structured and uncertain data, graph models are widely used in computer networks and chemical molecular structure representation. If there are uncertainties in the vertices or the binary relationship between vertices in the graph, the membership function is introduced to the vertex set and the edge set, and the fuzzy graph is used to describe such uncertain structural features. The independent set is an important object to measure the topological structure of the graph, as the basis of many graph parameters. In this paper, a novel concept of independent set is proposed in bipolar fuzzy graph setting. The fuzzy topological parameters to measure its degree of independence are defined, and the characteristics of bipolar independence degree are obtained by using graph theory and fuzzy set theory, especially for two types of product bipolar fuzzy graphs. Finally, the algorithm for calculating the maximum (resp. minimum) positive (resp. negative) fuzzy subgraph with given positive (resp. negative) degree of independence is designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A microwave power transmission (MPT) demonstration system was assembled to comprehensively emulate the operating mode of MPT in space solar power station (SSPS). Based on solid power amplifier and phased antenna array, this system comprised three main parts, that is, microwave power transmitting subsystem, microwave power rectenna subsystem, and power beam steering subsystem. It was employed to validate the constraint relationship between beam collection efficiency and the sizes of transmitting antenna and rectenna, transmission distance, operation frequency. High efficiency rectifying and accurate beam steering were also demonstrated. The power transmitting antenna was composed of 64 sub‐arrays of patch antennas, with the dimension of 1.2 × 1.2 m2. In addition, the rectenna array was constructed as a corner truncated square with the side length of 2 m. Its design was based on the concept of perfectly matched layer and integrated rectifying surface. The power beam steering subsystem, implemented with software retrodirective idea, pointed the microwave beam to the rectenna according to the direction of arrival of the pilot signal. The experimental MPT system, operating at 5.8 GHz, transmitted 910 W microwave power across 30 m distance. At the power receiving end, the optimum rectenna conversion efficiency of 49.3% was obtained. With aid of the beam steering subsystem, beam granularity, and beam steering accuracy of 0.23 and 0.18° were achieved, respectively. The compositive experiment verified all function as power transmitting, receiving, rectifying, and steering of MPT system. MPT technology is thus driven toward engineering application, and will ultimately space solar power exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A design of millimeter wave (mm‐wave) dual‐polarized multibeam antenna array (MAA) with a boresight beam is presented. In order to generate a boresight beam, a 5 × 6 Butler matrix based on three‐way directional couplers is designed as the beamforming network, which achieves equal power division and −60°, +120°, 0°, −120°, +60° progressive phase differences among the output ports when the five input ports are excited, respectively. By four‐layer design, the two 5 × 6 BMs for horizontal polarization (HP) and vertical polarization (VP) are constructed. The patch is used as radiator element, and the HP and VP wave are excited by aperture coupling and microstrip feed, respectively. A prototype is fabricated and measured to verify the design. The measured results show that the designed mm‐wave dual‐polarized MAA can generate five radiation beams including a boresight beam and the five beams with HP and VP cover the range of ±50° at 28 GHz. In addition, the designed mm‐wave dual‐polarized MAA can be a potential option for mm‐wave multibeam application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, two miniature spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) unit structures are proposed. A trident‐shaped groove and a Jerusalem cross‐shaped groove are respectively designed to increase the equivalent depth of the groove so as to realize the reduction of the line‐width. With smaller size, the proposed units have the equivalent dispersion of classical unit. To validate the properties of the proposed units, SSPPs transmission lines (TLs) are designed. Compared with the classical rectangular grooved SSPPs TL, the proposed unit with trident‐shaped groove and Jerusalem cross‐shaped groove can achieve the similar transmission performance with a line‐width reduction of 44.4% and 19.1%, respectively. The measured results of TLs agree well with the simulated ones, which validates the designs. Moreover, the proposed unit structures confine field more effectively. The proposed structures are attractive and useful for the miniaturization of SSPPs devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective • To detect the expression level of the Mfn2 gene in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and adjacent normal liver tissues and further analyze its anticancer effects. Methods • The expression levels of Mfn2, GLS1 and the autophagy-related proteins lc3b and Beclin1 in liver cancer and adjacent tissues in patients with liver cancer were detected by real-time–quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT–qPCR). The HepG2 human HCC cell line was cultured in vitro, and the Mfn2 protein was stably expressed through transfection of a high Mfn2 expression plasmid. The Cell-Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) method was used to observe the effect of Mfn2 overexpression on the activity of HepG2 cells. Furthermore, RT–qPCR and Western blotting were performed to detect the effects of Mfn2 overexpression on the protein expression of GLS1, Beclin1 and lc3b. Results • Compared with tissues adjacent to cancer tissues, the mRNA levels of Mfn2, GLS1, Beclin1 and lc3b in liver cancer tissues were lower. Compared with normal hepatocytes, the expression of Mfn2, Beclin1 and lc3b in HCC cells was decreased, but the expression of GLS1 was increased. Compared with the control group (NC) transfected with empty plasmid, Mfn2 overexpression led to significant time-dependent inhibition of HepG2 cell activity and GLS1 protein expression (P<.05). In addition, Mfn2 overexpression induced autophagy by triggering the expression of autophagy-related proteins Beclin-1 and lc3b in HCC cells (all P < .05). The effect of transfection with a high-dose Mfn2 plasmid was more obvious than that of transfection with a low-dose Mfn2 plasmid (all P<.05). Conclusions • The expression of Mfn2, GLS1, Beclin1 and lc3b in HCC was lower than in normal liver tissue. The expression of Mfn2, Beclin1 and lc3b in HCC cells was decreased, but the expression of GLS1 was increased. Overexpression of Mfn2 inhibited GLS1 gene expression by inhibiting the activity of HCC cells and promoted the expression of Beclin1 and lc3b to induce autophagy, thereby exerting an anticancer effect. Further research is needed to clarify the mechanism of Mfn2 activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medicinal components of Hypericum perforatum L. plants varies widely due to fluctuations in growth environment and biotic and abiotic contamination during cultivation management. The quality of extracts or preparations is difficult to control because of the unstable raw materials. The aim of this study is to enhance the yield and medicinal component contents of H. perforatum by optimizing lighting factors under controlled environment. H. perforatum plants were hydroponically cultivated for 30 d under 3 levels of photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) with 200, 300, and 400 µmol/(m²·s) using white LEDs (R:B ratio is the ratio of red light to blue light, R:B ratio of 0.9 and 1.8) and white plus red LED (R:B ratio of 2.7). The results showed that PPFD and LED spectrum had significant effects on the growth and accumulation of medicinal components of H. perforatum. Biomass accumulation of stem, leaf, and root increased linearly with the increase of PPFD under each LED spectrum. Fresh weights and dry weights of stem, leaf, and root were significantly higher under a PPFD of 400 µmol/(m²·s) with R:B ratio of 0.9 than those of 200 µmol/(m²·s), respectively. The relative growth rate and net photosynthetic rate showed linear relationships with PPFD under the same LED spectrum. Total hypericin content, total hyperforin content, and energy yield of hypericin increased with increasing PPFD. Total hypericin content and energy yield of hypericin of P400-L0.9 were 78% and 89% more than those of P400-L2.7, respectively. Total hyperforin content and energy yield of hyperforin of P400-L0.9 and P400-L2.7 were no significant differences. Based on energy efficiency, an R:B ratio of 0.9 of white LEDs with a PPFD of 400 µmol/(m²·s) was beneficial to improve medicinal component contents of hydroponic H. perforatum in plant factory with LED lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two planar-like molecules, 1 and 2, were designed and characterized via the introduction of BNB or NBN bonds into the planar phenalenyl. Localizedmolecular orbital (LMO) analysis shows three 4c/2e bonds in the "hamburger" hetero-dimer (1-2) and four r-bonds in the "waffle" homo-dimers (12 and 22), both of which have greater inter-layer interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A design of planar dual‐polarized differentially fed multibeam patch antenna array (DFMPAA) is presented in this article. The dual‐polarized DFMPAA is composed of two circular 4 × 4 butler matrixs (BMs) and a 1 × 4 dual‐polarized patch antenna array. The two BMs are designed in the top and bottom layer as the feeding network of horizontal polarization (HP) and vertical polarization (VP), respectively. The patch is designed as the radiation element of the dual‐polarized DFMPAA, which is fed by the slot and aperture coupling to generate the HP and VP wave, respectively. To achieve high cross‐polarization discrimination (XPD), the antenna element is fed differentially. A prototype working at 5.5 GHz is fabricated and measured in order to validate the performance of the proposed dual‐polarized DFMPAA. The dimension of the dual‐polarized DFMPAA is 3.8 λ0 × 1.7 λ0. Measured results show that when the beam scan to the maximal pointing angle, the XPD of the dual‐polarized DFMPAA in HP and VP are higher than 27 and 29 dB, respectively. Additionally, the beams of the dual‐polarized DFMPAA can cover the range of ±42° in horizontal plane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process safety is always a core issue in chemical industry, which is conventionally not taken into consideration during the conceptual design stage of a process flowsheet. Distillation handles more than ninety percent of the separation and purification tasks of hazardous chemicals and accounts for no less than forty percent of the total energy consumption. Therefore, this work presents an inherently safer synthesis framework for thermally coupled distillati on sequences with structure constraints, which can efficiently quantify and optimize the inherent safety index of each column configuration in the sequence, based on State-Task Network and Dow's F&El. To efficiently quantify the inherent safety index of each column configuration, a series of structure constraints are proposed. Within the superstructure, Hengstebeck-Underwood-Gilliland shortcut method is employed for distillation column design. Finally, two hazardous zeotropic mixture separation examples are performed to demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed synthesis methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate the effects of Reduning combined with gamma globulin on symptom improvement and serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), 25-hydroxyvitamin D[25-(OH)D] and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in children with severe mycoplasma pneumonia (MP). Methods: A total of 123 children with severe MP admitted to the Changzhou Cancer Hospital affiliated to Soochow University from May 2018 to April 2020 were selected as subjects and randomly divided into three groups: control Group-A, control Group-B and the observation group, with 41 cases in each group. Control Group-A was given with Reduning, control Group-B was treated with gamma globulin, while the observation group was treated with Reduning injection combined with gamma globulin. The clinical efficacy, symptom improvement, incidence of adverse reactions, serum levels of IL-6, 25-(OH)D, LDH, Toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation factor 88 (TLR4/MyD88) signaling pathway and T lymphocyte subsets before and after treatment were statistically compared between the three groups. Results: The total effective rate of treatment in the observation group was higher than that in control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05); The time for body temperature, lung rales, and cough to return to normal in the observation group was shorter than that in control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). After treatment, the observation group had lower serum levels of IL-6, LDH, and higher levels of 25-(OH)D compared with control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). Moreover, the observation group had lower serum expressions of TLR4 and MyD88 (p<0.05), higher serum levels of CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, and lower CD8+ compared with control Group-A and control Group-B (p<0.05). No significant difference can be seen in the comparison of the incidence of adverse reactions between the three groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: Reduning combined with gamma globulin in the treatment of severe MP is worthy of clinical promotion and application. With such a treatment regimen, the immune function of children with severe MP can be significantly enhanced, the inflammatory response can be suppressed, and symptom improvement can be promoted, further improving the treatment outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive beamformers at the element level usually require a great number of training samples and the computational cost for calculating the weight vector for large phased array antennas is very high, which make it difficult for real-time applications. To address this problem, a two-dimensional (2-D) adaptive beamformer applicable to large planar array antennas that have low computational complexity and low training sample requirement is proposed. In the proposed method, the weight matrix is first reconstructed as a matrix that has the same or close columns and rows by utilising the special Kronecker property of the array steering matrix. Then, the weight vector is determined by adopting a bi-quadratic cost function and a bi-iterative algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve fairly good performance even when the training samples are small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oyster mushrooms are grown commercially worldwide, especially in many developing countries, for their easy cultivation and high biological efficiency. Pleurotus cornucopiae is one of the main oyster mushroom species because of its gastronomic value and nutraceutical properties. Cap color is an important trait, since consumers prefer dark mushrooms, which are now represented by only a small portion of the commercial varieties. Breeding efforts are required to improve quality- related traits to satisfy various demands of consumers. Here, we present a saturated genetic linkage map of P. cornucopiae constructed by using a segregating population of 122 monokaryons and 3,449 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers generated by the 2b-RAD approach. The map contains 11 linkage groups covering 961.6 centimorgans (cM), with an average marker spacing of 0.27 cM. The genome of P. cornucopiae was de novo sequenced, resulting in 425 scaffolds (>1,000 bp) with a total genome size of 35.1 Mb. The scaffolds were assembled to the pseudochromosome level with the assistance of the genetic linkage map. A total of 97% SNP markers (3,357) were physically localized on 140 scaffolds that were assigned to 11 pseudochromosomes, with a total of 32.5 Mb, representing 92.5% of the whole genome. Six quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling cap color of P. cornucopiae were detected, accounting for a total phenotypic variation of 65.6%, with the highest value for the QTL on pseudochromosome 5 (18%). The results of our study provide a solid base for marker-assisted breeding for agronomic traits and especially for studies on biological mechanisms controlling cap color in oyster mushrooms. IMPORTANCE Oyster mushrooms are produced and consumed all over the world. Pleurotus cornucopiae is one of the main oyster mushroom species. Dark-cap oyster mushrooms are becoming more and more popular with consumers, but dark varieties are rare on the market. Prerequisites for efficient breeding programs are the availability of high-quality whole genomes and genetic linkage maps. Genetic studies to fulfill some of these prerequisites have hardly been done for P. cornucopiae. In this study, we de novo sequenced the genome and constructed a saturated genetic linkage map for P. cornucopiae. The genetic linkage map was effectively used to assist the genome assembly and identify QTL that genetically control the trait cap color. As well, the genome characteristics of P. cornucopiae were compared to the closely related species Pleurotus ostreatus. The results provided a basis for understanding the genetic background and marker-assisted breeding of this economically important mushroom species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new family of isostructural 3d-4f heterometallic metal--organic frameworks (HMOFs), [Zn3EuxTb2-x(TZI)4(DMA)5(H2O)3]·4DMA [x = 0 (1), 0.3 (2), 0.6 (3), 0.9 (4), 1 (5), 1.2 (6), 1.5 (7), 1.8 (8), 2 (9)], has been synthesized using the 5-(4-(tetrazol-5-yl) phenyl)isophthalic acid (H3TZI) ligand, LnIII ions and ZnII ions under solvothermal conditions. All HMOFs exhibit a (3,3,4,5,5)-connected 6³·6³(4²·6²·8²)(4·65·8) (4·66·83) topology, which features three different types of motifs: one is a mononuclear ZnII ion and the other two motifs are binuclear [Zn(COO)3Ln] clusters. The adsorption experiments indicate that Zn3Tb2 (1) could efficiently remove almost all I2 from cyclohexane solution after 12 h and also showed better adsorption towards neutral red (NR) dye (adsorption: only the Zn3Tb2 (1) was taken as one representative). Simultaneously, the luminescence sensing showed that Zn3Tb2 (1) and Zn3Eu2 (9) have excellent response and sensitivity towards pollutants such as Fe3+ ions and 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (TNP) with high selectivity and a fairly low limit of detection through luminescence quenching effect. Moreover, seven trimetallic-doped HMOFs 2-8 analogues of Zn3Ln2 (single) HMOFs were designed and prepared, showing different changes of luminescent color. More interestingly, Zn3Eu1.5Tb0.5 (7) with white-light emission was fabricated by doping relative concentrations of Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions. To the best of our knowledge, Zn3Eu1.5Tb0.5 (7) represents a novel kind of heterometallic Zn3Ln2 HMOFs with white-light emission. It could be deduced that the excellent characteristics, namely strong typical luminescence emission of ZnII and LnIII ions, microporous channels, active open metal sites (tetra-coordinated ZnII--metal sites), and uncoordinated carboxylate O atoms and uncoordinated tetrazolate N atoms, made the above HMOFs an ideal platform for adsorption, luminescence sensing, and white-light emission. More significantly, these HMOFs are the first reported Zn-Ln heterometallic materials with the H3TZI ligand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene monolayer, with extremely low flexural stiffness, displays spontaneous rippling due to thermal fluctuations at a finite temperature. When a graphene membrane is placed on a solid substrate, the adhesive interactions between graphene and the substrate could considerably suppress thermal rippling. On the other hand, the statistical nature of thermal rippling adds an entropic contribution to the graphene-substrate interactions. In this paper, we present a statistical mechanics analysis on thermal rippling of monolayer graphene supported on a rigid substrate, assuming a generic form of van der Waals interactions between graphene and substrate at T = 0K. The rippling amplitude, the equilibrium average separation, and the average interaction energy are predicted simultaneously and compared with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. While the amplitude of thermal rippling is reduced by adhesive interactions, the entropic contribution leads to an effective repulsion. As a result, the equilibrium average separation increases and the effective adhesion energy decreases with increasing temperature. Moreover, the effect of a biaxial pre-strain in graphene is considered, and a buckling instability is predicted at a critical compressive strain that depends on both the temperature and the adhesive interactions. Limited by the harmonic approximations, the theoretical predictions agree with MD simulations only for relatively small rippling amplitudes but can be extended to account for the anharmonic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a broadband dual circularly polarized (CP) antenna with simple structure and high gain is designed. A metal ridge septum with the shape of the cascade of a rectangle and a triangle is embedded into the square waveguide to excite CP wave, which is presented through analysis and simulation. By feeding the antenna at the two positions with respect to the symmetrical position of the septum, it can form the right‐handed circularly polarized (RHCP) and left‐handed circularly polarized (LHCP) wave, respectively. To verify the design, a prototype of the antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured and simulated results coincide with each other. According to the simulation and measurement, the designed antenna can work well within a relative bandwidth of 64% from 8.5 to 16.5 GHz. The proposed dual CP antenna has the simple configuration and good performance, and it can be a good candidate antenna for the broadband communication system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depressive symptoms are common in patients with first‐episode psychosis. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the comorbid depression in schizophrenia are still unknown. The main purpose of this study was to characterize the structural abnormalities of first‐episodes drug‐naïve (FEDN) schizophrenia comorbid with depression by utilizing both volume‐based and surface‐based morphometric measurements. Forty‐two patients with FEDN schizophrenia and 29 healthy controls were recruited. The 24‐item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD‐24) was administrated to divide all patients into depressive patients (DP) and non‐depressive patients (NDP). Compared with NDP, DP had a significantly larger volume and surface area in the left isthmus cingulate cortex and also had a greater volume in the left posterior cingulate cortex. Correlation analysis showed that HAMD total score was positively correlated with the surface area of the left isthmus cingulate and gray matter volume of the left isthmus cingulate cortex. In addition, gray matter volume of the left isthmus cingulate was also correlated with the PANSS general psychopathology or total score. The findings suggest that prominent structural abnormalities of gray matter are mainly concentrated on the cingulate cortex in FEDN schizophrenia patients comorbid with depression, which may contribute to depressive symptoms and psychopathological symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroxyurea (HU) is an FDA-approved drug used to treat a variety of diseases, especially malignancies, but is harmful to fertility. We used porcine oocytes as an experimental model to study the effect of HU during oocyte maturation. Exposure of cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) to 20 µM (P<0.01) and 50 µM (P<0.001) HU reduced oocyte maturation. Exposure to 20 µM HU induced approximately 1.5- and 2-fold increases in Caspase-3 (P<0.001) and P53 (P<0.01) gene expression levels in cumulus cells, respectively, increased Caspase-3 (P<0.01) and P53 (P<0.001) protein expression levels in metaphase II (MII) oocytes and increased the percentage of apoptotic cumulus cells (P<0.001). In addition, HU decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential (Δφm) (P<0.01 and P<0.001) and glutathione (GSH) levels (P<0.01 and P<0.001) of both cumulus cells and MII oocytes, while increasing their reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels (P<0.001). Following parthenogenetic activation of embryos derived from MII oocytes, exposure to 20 µMHU significantly reduced total blastocyst cell numbers (P<0.001) and increased apoptosis of blastocyst cells (P<0.001). Moreover, HU exposure reduced the rate of development of two-celled, four- to eight-celled, blastocyst, and hatching stages after parthenogenetic activation (P<0.05). Our findings indicate that exposure to 20 µM HU caused significant oxidative stress and apoptosis of MII oocytes during maturation, which affected their developmental ability. These results provide valuable information for safety assessments of HU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small ubiquitin-like modifier 4 (SUMO4) is the latest member of the sumoylation family, which enhances the stability of protein, regulates the distribution and localization of the protein, and affects the transcription activity of the protein. However, the role of SUMO4 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has not yet been reported. The present study first demonstrated that SUMO4 was upregulated in a number of tissues from patients with NSCLC. Immunohistochemistry was performed to demonstrate the expression level of SUMO4 in lung cancer tumor tissues. Following the transfection, The EMT status and signaling pathway activation regulated by SUMO4-siRNA was assessed by western blotting. The Transwell and wound healing assays were performed to investigate the regulatory effect of SUMO4-siRNA on cell migration and invasion. Cell Counting Kit-8 assay was performed to investigate whether SUMO4-siRNA affected the chemosensitivity of the NSCLC cells to cisplatin. Statistical analysis of immunohistochemical results from the tissues showed that the overexpression of SUMO4 was significantly associated with sex, tumor type, history of smoking, T stage and poor prognosis. It was also identified that SUMO4 small interfering RNA attenuated invasion and migration in NSCLC cell lines, as well chemosensitivity to cisplatin via the inhibition of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway. In conclusion, SUMO4 may play an important role in the poor prognosis of patients with NSCLC. The present study indicates that SUMO4 may be a potential therapeutic target for NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most extensively studied glycosaminoglycan lyases, heparinase I has been used in producing low or ultra-low molecular weight heparin. Its' important applications are to neutralize the heparin in human blood and analyze heparin structure in the clinic. However, the low productivity and activity of the enzyme have greatly hindered its applications. In this study, a novel Hep-I from Bacteroides cellulosilyticus (BcHep-I) was successfully cloned and heterologously expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) as a soluble protein. The molecular mass and isoelectric point (pI) of the enzyme are 44.42 kDa and 9.02, respectively. And the characterization of BcHep-I after purified with Ni-NTA affinity chromatography suggested that it is a mesophilic enzyme. BcHep-I can be activated by 1 mM Ca2+, Mg2+, and Mn2+, while severely inhibited by Zn2+, Co2+, and EDTA. The specific activity of the enzyme was 738.3 U⋅mg-1 which is the highest activity ever reported. The Km and Vmax were calculated as 0.17 mg⋅mL-1 and 740.58 U⋅mg-1, respectively. Besides, the half-life of 300 min at 30°C showed BcHep-I has practical applications. Homology modeling and substrate docking revealed that Gln15, Lys74, Arg76, Lys104, Arg149, Gln208, Tyr336, Tyr342, and Lys338 were mainly involved in the substrate binding of Hep-I, and 11 hydrogen bonds were formed between heparin and the enzyme. These results indicated that BcHep-I with high activity has great potential applications in the industrial production of heparin, especially in the clinic to neutralize heparin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the thermophysical properties testing methods of solid materials are mostly based on infinite physical model. In order to ensure that the heat Clux transmits within the sample and is not affected by the heat loss at the sample boundary, its boundary is usually set as an adiabatic boundary. Nevertheless. it will lead to the accumulation of heat. In order to achieve the hot wire method conveniently. solid material for which a thinner thickness can be measured and the effective test time of the experiment is Ilexible. By so doing. we improved the traditional parallel hot wire method. The temperature measuring points were arranged along the thickness direction of the sample instead of parallel to the hot wire, and the enantiomorphous heat-source theory was introduced to mcidify the effect of heat accumulation on the temperature rise of the sample. The thermophysical property of diatomite refractory brick, asbestos board and marble were measured. The results show that the revised calculated values are in good agreement with the exixting test values. with a maximum error of 5%. effectively expanding the application range of the hot wire method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By modeling the network structure with a graph, the corresponding data transmission problem can be transformed into a fractional flow problem on the graph. Under certain specific conditions, the transmission path of data is required to pass through certain special channels, thus the corresponding mathematical framework is transformed into the existence of fractional covered graphs under the special network graph structure. In this paper, by means of the necessary and sufficient conditions for fractional (g; f; n';m)- critical covered graphs, we obtain some sufficient conditions on graph parameters of fractional covered graphs. Furthermore, we point out that these results are tight in terms of some counterexamples, and the results have potential guiding value for network designing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Azygia hwangtsiyui (Trematoda, Azygiidae), a neglected parasite of predatory fishes, is little-known in terms of its molecular epidemiology, population ecology and phylogenetic study. In the present study, the complete mitochondrial genome of A. hwangtsiyui was sequenced and characterized: it is a 13,973 bp circular DNA molecule and encodes 36 genes (12 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes) as well as two non-coding regions. The A+T content of the A. hwangtsiyui mitogenome is 59.6% and displays a remarkable bias in nucleotide composition with a negative AT skew (-0.437) and a positive GC skew (0.408). Phylogenetic analysis based on concatenated amino acid sequences of twelve protein-coding genes reveals that A. hwangtsiyui is placed in a separate clade, suggesting that it has no close relationship with any other trematode family. This is the first characterization of the A. hwangtsiyui mitogenome, and the first reported mitogenome of the family Azygiidae. These novel datasets of the A. hwangtsiyui mt genome represent a meaningful resource for the development of mitochondrial markers for the identification, diagnostics, taxonomy, homology and phylogenetic relationships of trematodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) has been found to be involved in autoimmune disease progression. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum ADA activity in Autoimmune Liver Disease (AILD). Methods: The study included 50 AILD patients, 33 viral hepatitis patients, and 60 healthy subjects. The serum levels of total Adenosine Deaminase (tADA) and its isoenzymes (ADA1 and ADA2) were determined. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of serum ADA activity. Results: Our results showed that the serum tADA and ADA2 levels were significantly higher in AILD patients (tADA: 19 (IQR 14 - 24) U/L; ADA2: 16 (IQR 10 - 19) U/L) than in healthy controls (tADA: 9 (IQR 7 - 11) U/L; ADA2: 7 (IQR 6 - 9) U/L), while there was no significant difference in serum ADA1 activity between AILD and healthy subjects. Based on the ROC curves analysis, the optimal cutoff values of serum tADA and ADA2 activity were 11.5 and 9.5 U/L, respectively. At this level, the highest diagnostic values of tADA (specificity: 83.3%; sensitivity: 88%) and ADA2 (specificity: 85.0%; sensitivity: 82%) were obtained. Moreover, our results showed no significant difference in serum tADA, ADA1, and ADA2 levels between AILD and viral hepatitis patients (P = 0.049; P = 0.29; P = 0.054). Conclusions: Serum ADA activity can be used to distinguish AILD patients from healthy subjects, but it cannot be used in the differential diagnosis of AILD and viral patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wavelet transform is a multi-scale signal analysis method. It has the characteristics of low entropy, good timefrequency characteristic, multi-scale characteristic and de-correlation, which makes the wavelet transform widely used in image de-noising and edge detection. The multi-scale detection method mainly uses multiple edge detection operators of different scales to detect the edge of image correctly by effective combination. Wavelet multiscale edge detection method not only has good noise suppression capability, but also has complete edge preservation characteristics, which can take advantage of size and scale to obtain precise single pixel wide edge in edge extraction. The proposed algorithm in this paper uses the wavelet transform to detect the jump edge of the image in row direction and column direction, and then the image edge can be formed under certain rules, and useful edge information can be extracted by means of the multi-scale wavelet transform and the difference between signal and noise under the wavelet transform to multiply wavelet coefficient on the adjacent scale. In suppressing noise at the same time, such algorithm implies the the causal relationship of the edge on different scales, and holds that the edge point is the local modulus maximum point of the scale volume coefficient through the thresholding operation, and remove the noise interference and finally the detailed experiment is carried out to prove that this method can effectively solve the contradiction between extracting edge and restraining noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a wide-range leaky-wave antenna with fast scanning rate and open-stopband (OSB) suppression based on microstrip spoof surface plasmon polaritons (MSSPPs) is proposed. First, the high-scanning-rate theory is analyzed. And based on the theory, the MSSPPs is used to radiate the fan beam rather than quasi-omnidirectional beam. In order to suppress the OSB, a capacitive slot is introduced using the proposed method of impedance matching. The prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and the measured results show that the antenna has 140° scanning range from −72° to 68° with the scanning rate of 8.8 and reflection coefficient lower than −10 dB in 8.7–10.2 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a critical field of theoretical chemistry, chemical graph theory works as a key part in the model topology calculation and prediction based on chemical molecular structures. The paper can contribute to the research in the following aspects: (1) We propose the concept of bipolar fuzzy influence graph, using positive and negative membership functions to describe positive and negative uncertainties respectively; (2) Based on the new concept, we give a hypothesis to explain the memory of water. The hypothesis is based on two salient facts of the bipolar fuzzy influence graph. Initially, the non-collapsibility of the positive and negative membership functions ensures that the information after using fuzzy coding will not change with the material layer. Then, the influence pairs connect the vertices and edges between different components in the graph through bipolar uncertain influence. At the end of this paper, the conditions for the establishment of the hypothesis and the facts to be verified in the future are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the issue of disturbance observer-based fuzzy adaptive optimal finite-time control in light of the backstepping approach for strict-feedback nonlinear systems with bias fault term and full state constraints. Considering that external disturbance and bias fault signal can affect the stability of control and control quality, a disturbance observer is constructed to track the external disturbances and bias fault online. A disturbance observer-based finite-time control strategy is proposed to achieve optimized control by utilizing the fuzzy logic system approximation-based adaptive dynamic programming method under the critic-actor framework. The purpose of the critic is to evaluate control performance and the role of the actor is to execute control behaviour. In addition, it is proved that the proposed fuzzy adaptive optimal finite-time scheme not only realizes all signals in closed-loop system are bounded, but also ensures that system states are restricted within specific sets. Finally, simulation results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new norsesquiterpene and four known bisabolanes were obtained from the organic extract of Trichoderma atroviride TD-8 isolated from ocean sediments. Their structures were assigned by detailed interpretation of 1D/2D NMR and HRESIMS data, and they were determined to be nor-bisabolan-1,11-diol (1), (3R,6R,7R)-1,10-bisaboladien-3-ol (2), (3R,6R,7S)-1,10-bisaboladien-3,6-diol (3), (3R,6S,7R,10R)-1-bisabolen3,10,11-triol (4), (3R,6R,7S,10R)-1-bisabolen-3,10,11-triol (5). Nor-bisabolan-1,11-diol (1) exhibited moderate cytotoxicity against HeLa and HCT-8 cell lines with IC50 values of 28.6 and 30.3 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2D conjugated side-chain engineering is an effective strategy that is widely utilized to construct benzodithiophene-based polymers. Herein, an unconjugated side-chain strategy to design fused-benzodithiophene-based non-fullerene small molecule acceptors (SMAs) via vertical aromatic side-chain engineering on the ladder-type core is employed. Three SMAs named BTTIC-Th, BTTIC-TT, and BTTIC-Ph with thiophene, thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, and benzene, respectively, as side chains, are designed and synthesized. Three SMAs exhibit similar absorption ranges but different lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels due to the different strength of the δ-inductive effect between vertical aromatic side chains and their electron-rich core. Organic solar cells based on PBDB-T:BTTIC-TT achieve a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.44%, which is higher than the PCE of devices based on PBDB-T:BTTIC-Th (12.91%) and PBDB-T:BTTIC-Ph (9.14%). The difference in device performance is investigated by electrical and morphological characterizations. A large domain size and different types of π- π stacking are found in the bulk heterojunction layer of PBDB-T:BTTIC-Ph blend film, which are detrimental to exciton dissociation and charge transport. Overall, it is demonstrated that when designing unconjugated side chains, thieno[3,2-b]thiophene is superior to thiophene and benzene through its dual roles of promoting the LUMO energy level and optimizing the morphology. These results shed light on the side-chain engineering of high-performance non-fullerene SMAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]