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With a significant number of mechanical products approaching the retirement phase, the batch recycling of discarded mechanical parts necessitates a preliminary assessment of their surface condition. However, the presence of surface rust poses a challenge to defect identification. Therefore, this paper proposes a method for detecting heavily rusted surface defects based on an improved YOLOv8n network. In the Backbone, the C2f-DBB module of re-parameterized deep feature extraction was introduced, and the attention module was designed to improve the accuracy of information extraction. In the Neck part, a Bi-Afpn multiscale feature fusion strategy is designed to facilitate information exchange between features at different scales. Finally, Focal-CIoU is employed as the bounding box loss function to enhance the network's localization performance and accuracy for defects. Experimentally, it is proved that the improved network in this paper improves the Recall, Precision, and mAP0.5 by 1.2%, 2.1%, and 1.9%, respectively, on the original basis, which is better than other network models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interfacial interaction between AgCoO 2 and Co 3 O 4 enhanced CO conversion to CO 2 but not inert carbonates, by optimizing oxygen activation and CO chemisorption. [Display omitted] • The doped silver species highly dispersed in the form of AgCoO 2 in Co 3 O 4 based catalysts. • The interfacial interaction and electron transfer optimized CO chemisorption strength and oxygen activation. • The chemisorbed CO is preferentially converted to CO 2 but not inert carbonates on Ag 0.02 Co. • The silver doped catalysts exhibited superior CO oxidation activity and 6.3-fold higher reaction rate. Enhancing low-temperature activity is a focus for carbon monoxide (CO) elimination by catalytic oxidation. In this work, the hierarchical flower-like silver (Ag) modified cobalt oxides (Co 3 O 4) nanosheets were prepared by solvothermal method and applied into catalytic CO oxidation. The doped Ag species in the form of AgCoO 2 induced the prolongated surface Co–O bond and weaker bond intensity. Consequently, the oxygen activation/migration ability and redox capacity of Ag 0.02 Co were enhanced with more oxygen vacancies. The chemisorbed CO was preferentially converted to CO 2 but not carbonates. The inhibited carbonates accumulation could avoid the coverage of active sites. According to Density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the electron transfer from AgCoO 2 to Co 3 O 4 promote electron donation ability of Co 3 O 4 layer, benefiting for oxygen activation. Moreover, the longer Co–C and C–O bond length suggest the weakened chemisorption strength and higher active of CO molecule. The Ag modified Co 3 O 4 exhibited more satisfactory activity at lower temperature. Typically, it realized 100% CO conversion at 90 °C, and displayed 6.3-fold higher reaction rate than pristine Co 3 O 4 at 40 °C. Moreover, the Ag 0.02 Co exhibited outstanding long-term stability and water resistance. In summary, the optimized oxygen activation, CO chemisorption and interfacial electron transfer synergistically boosted the CO oxidation activity on Ag modified Co 3 O 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional (2D) layered MoS2 has good dispersion and adsorption properties, but being a narrow bandgap semiconductor limits its application in photoelectric sensing. In this study, a homogeneous photoelectrochemical sensor based on three-dimensional (3D) ZnO/Au/2D MoS2 is proposed for the ultrasensitive detection of tetracycline (TET). MoS2 is uniformly embedded on the 3D ZnO/Au surface by ordered self-assembly. The physical method of π–π interaction of MoS2 replaces the conventional use of chemically modifying aptamers on the electrode material surface. Under optimal conditions, this method has been successfully applied to the detection of TET in milk, honey, pig kidney and pork samples with reliable results. We believe that this study presents a method for the preparation of sensing carriers and target detection with great potential for application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phthalonitrile monomer with alkyl, pyrimidine, and amino is successfully prepared by nucleophilic substitution. The monomer is cured by autocatalysis of active hydrogen in the amino group, in order to obtain polymers through different temperature procedures. The low melting point (96°C) and curing kinetics of the monomer are analyzed by DSC, which manifest a processing window of 163°C. With lower energy barriers to overcome, the apparent activation energy (E a ) is 59.6 kJ mol−1 after fitting and calculating, signifying that the monomers are easier to process into polymers. This study focuses on the usefulness of the polymer, especially the long-term thermal stability by the comparison of numerous commonly used polymers. The consequence demonstrates that the polymer could be used for long periods at 300°C, keeping weight loss within 5 wt.% for 6 h. The advantage of long-term usage at high temperatures has not been proved in previous works on phthalonitrile polymer. Moreover, the thermal and thermal-mechanical stability are examined through TGA and DMA. The results indicate preferable thermal properties, that the glass transition temperature is up to 400°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things and cloud computing, HBase has become a good choice for massive data storage, and is efficient in reading and writing data. However, HBase is not supportive for multi-dimensional query of non-rowkey data, unconducive to data analysis and processing. To address this issue, we first analyze the constitution principle and deficiency of secondary index and clustering index, and select clustering index as the basis of optimization. Then, we choose the Hilbert curve in the space filling curve as the linearization technology, design the pre-partition algorithm and subspace partition algorithm, and realize the Hilbert-curve-based clustering index (HCIndex) which supports multi-dimensional point query and range query. Finally, the performance of HCIndex is verified by comparison experiments with HBase Scan, HiBase and CCIndex. The experimental results show that the query efficiency of HCIndex has been greatly improved at the expense of very limited storage space, which is necessary for storing index data and only 1.7 times the size of the original data table of HBase. Compared with HBase scan, the query efficiency of HCIndex's multi-dimensional point query and range query has been increased to more than 4 times and more than 2 times, respectively. Therefore, the proposed HCIndex is well suited for efficient multi-dimensional and complex queries of massive data in cloud storage systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection methods with high sensitivity and short assay time are urgently required for quantitative analysis of small-molecule hazardous substances in food monitoring. In this work, a new anti-aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) nanobody was screened from an immunized nanobody library, and an ultrafast one-step detection of AFB1 without immobilization and multi-step washing was developed based on magnetic separation technology and nanobody (Nb)-alkaline phosphatase (ALP) fusion protein. Compared to conventional one-step chemiluminescent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (CLEIA) based on Nb-ALP, it was surprising to find the sensitivity and lowest limit of detection (LOD) of this method was significantly improved about threefold and fivefold separately, and the total assay time could be reduced to 30 from 120 min. Under optimal conditions, the developed method achieved the sensitive detection of AFB1 with LOD with 0.743 pg mL−1, IC50 = 0.33 ng mL−1, the linear range was 7.23 pg mL−1 ~ 12.38 ng mL−1, and showed powerful tolerance and utility for complex matrix environments in sample detection. It is believed this method could provide a newly way for the quick and sensitive detection of AFB1 and could expand the application of Nbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the safety and reliability of airborne power supply and distribution system, a digital twin of a phase-shift full-bridge current doubling rectifier converter based on gallium nitride metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (GaN MOSFET) is built. The digital twin can be regarded as virtual symmetry of the real converter. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is applied to compare the voltage and current waveforms of the real converter with relative waveforms of its digital model established in simulation software, and the interior parameters of the model are constantly updated until the waveforms of the digital twin coincide with that of the converter. Applications of this digital twin are discussed through experimental verification, and the results show that the digital twin can deduce the parameter value of key components of the converter in the case of soft faults. In the case of hard faults, a back propagating artificial neural net (BP ANN) is trained by data collected from the digital twin, and the BP ANN is able to identify different running states of the converter. The outcomes of this paper present a non-intrusive and high real-time method of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis, which is beneficial to improve the reliability of airborne HVDC power supply system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional ancient architecture is a symbolic product of cultural development and inheritance, with high social and cultural value. An automatic recognition model of ancient building types is one possible application of asymmetric systems, and it will be of great significance to be able to identify ancient building types via machine vision. In the context of Chinese traditional ancient buildings, this paper proposes a recognition method of ancient buildings, based on the improved asymmetric Inception V3 model. Firstly, the improved Inception V3 model adds a dropout layer between the global average pooling layer and the SoftMax classification layer to solve the overfitting problem caused by the small sample size of the ancient building data set. Secondly, migration learning and the ImageNet dataset are integrated into model training, which improves the speed of network training while solving the problems of the small scale of the ancient building dataset and insufficient model training. Thirdly, through ablation experiments, the effects of different data preprocessing methods and different dropout rates on the accuracy of model recognition were compared, to obtain the optimized model parameters. To verify the effectiveness of the model, this paper takes the ancient building dataset that was independently constructed by the South China University of Technology team as the experimental data and compares the recognition effect of the improved Inception V3 model proposed in this paper with several classical models. The experimental results show that when the data preprocessing method is based on filling and the dropout rate is 0.3, the recognition accuracy of the model is the highest; the accuracy rate of identifying ancient buildings using our proposed improved Inception V3 model can reach up to 98.64%. Compared with other classical models, the model accuracy rate has increased by 17.32%, and the average training time has accelerated by 2.29 times, reflecting the advantages of the model proposed in this paper. Finally, the improved Inception V3 model was loaded into the ancient building identification system to prove the practical application value of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A phthalonitrile monomer (DPTP) containing pyridine with sulfide bonds was prepared and cured into polymers using different curing agents under the same temperature-programmed process. We characterized and comprehensively evaluated the effects of different curing agents on the thermal and thermomechanical properties of phthalonitrile resin, showing that the DPTP monomer cured with naphthalene-containing curing agent exhibited the best performance among the three polymers. Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) investigation manifested that the melting point of the DPTP monomer was 61 °C, with a processing window of about 170 °C, suggesting the presence of a wide processing range. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) demonstrated the outstanding heat resistance, T5%, of 460 °C in nitrogen, at the same time demonstrating superior long-term stability compared with other commonly used polymer materials, which proves the long-term usage under high temperatures of 300 °C. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed that the storage modulus at 50 °C was 3315 MPa, and the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer was more than 350 °C. Therefore, DPTP resins have favorable thermal stability as well as prominent thermomechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosability plays an important role in appraising the reliability and fault tolerance of symmetrical multiprocessor systems. The novel g-good-neighbor conditional diagnosability restrains that every fault-free node contains at least g fault-free neighbors and is suitable for large scale multiprocessor systems, attracting a lot of research attention. The relationships between the g-good-neighbor connectivity and g-good-neighbor diagnosability of graphs under the M M * model are separately studied, but only applicable in regular graphs or just ranges rather than exact values. As a promising network structure, in 2019, Guo et al. obtained that the g-good-neighbor diagnosability of the exchanged crossed cube ( E C Q (s , t) ) under the PMC model is 2 g (s + 2 − g) − 1 ( t ≥ s > g ). We noticed that the exact value of the g-good-neighbor diagnosability of E C Q (s , t) under the M M * model is still to be determined. In this paper, by proving the upper and lower bounds of the g-good-neighbor diagnosability of E C Q (s , t) , for the first time, we derive that the exact value of its g-good-neighbor diagnosability under the M M * model is t g m (E C Q (s , t)) = 2 g (s + 2 − g) − 1 ( t ≥ s > g ), achieving the unity of the g-good-neighbor diagnosability of ECQ(s, t) under both the PMC model and M M * model. Towards the end, simulation experiments are conducted to evaluate the correctness and effectiveness of our conclusion. Our research provides an important supplement to the g-good-neighbor diagnosability of E C Q (s , t) . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current work aims to study the thermal degradation of the flame retardant polyurethane aerogel (FR_PU_aerogel) through multiple milligram-scale experimental methods. A systemic methodology for measuring the reaction kinetics and thermodynamics of the thermal degradation of FR_PU_aerogel is detailed. Specifically, the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were performed simultaneously in inert atmosphere to measure the mass loss and heat flow data, and a numerical framework called ThermaKin2Ds was used to inversely model these experimental data. First, a reaction mechanism with six first-order consecutive reactions was developed based on the inverse analysis of the TGA data. The corresponding reaction kinetics were optimized using the hill climbing optimization algorithm. Subsequently, the heat capacities of each condensed phase component and the heat of the reactions were obtained through inversely modeling the heat flow data. Furthermore, the heat of the complete combustion of each gaseous component were derived based on the heat release rates measured in the milligram-scale combustion calorimeter (MCC) experiments. It is noted that the developed reaction mechanism was further validated against the mass loss data obtained at different heating rates. The parameters determined in this work serve as a core subset of inputs for the pyrolysis model development, which is essential for the quantitative understanding of the ignition and the combustion behavior of solid materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integer-valued time series data are greatly useful in many applications, such as reporting the daily number of patients impacted by an epidemic. When modelling high-order integer-valued time series data, order selection is a difficult task. In this paper, we propose a penalized empirical likelihood (PEL) method for order selection and parameter estimation in generalized pth-order integer-valued autoregressive (GINAR(p)) model. We show that the PEL method in the GINAR(p) model has oracle properties, which means that the PEL estimators identify the model as efficiently as if the true structure of the model was known ahead of time. Furthermore, we present the PEL ratio statistic to test a linear hypothesis of the parameter and demonstrate that it has an asymptotically χ 2 distribution under the null hypothesis. Numerical simulation and real data analysis are carried out to assess the performance our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The Zn substituted Co 3 O 4 catalysts were prepared and applied in PMS activation for florfenicol removal. • The Zn substitution induced electron rearrangement and promoted oxygen vacancies formation in Co 3 O 4. • The Zn substituted Co 3 O 4 (Zn 0.03 Co) exhibited superior florfenicol removal and higher reaction rate than Co 3 O 4. • The florfenicol degradation is highly dependent on PMS/Zn 0.03 Co/florfenicol dosage, temperature and initial pH. • The degradation mechanism and routes were proposed combining LC-MS/MS and theoretical calculation results. Florfenicol (FLO) is a broad-spectrum halogenated antibiotic (containing F and Cl atoms), and the discharged FLO in wastewater exhibits potential biotoxicity. Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation can generate reactive oxygen species (ROSs) to realize efficient degradation of organic pollutants. Herein, Zn-substituted Co 3 O 4 (Zn x Co) catalysts were prepared and applied in PMS activation for FLO degradation. The physicochemical properties were systematically studied by combining experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The Zn partial substitution induced electron rearrangement and promoted oxygen vacancy (OV) formation in Co 3 O 4. Zn 0.03 Co catalyst exhibited superior FLO removal, achieving a higher reaction rate of 0.112 min−1 than Co 3 O 4 (0.053 min−1). The FLO degradation was highly dependent on the factors of PMS/Zn 0.03 Co/FLO dosage, temperature, initial pH, and coexisting inorganic anions. The Zn 0.03 Co also displayed outstanding performance in PMS activation for degradation of various typical organic pollutants. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra and quenching experiments indicated that both radical species ( · OH , SO 4 · - , and · O 2 -) and nonradical species (1O 2) contribute to FLO removal. The redox cycle of Co3+/Co2+ and OVs played an essential role in PMS activation. The electron structure of FLO and parameters of PMS adsorbed on Zn x Co were calculated. The longer length of Co O and O O bonds for the adsorbed PMS could enhance its activation to generate ROSs. The intermediates were detected, and five degradation pathways were proposed. The acute and chronic toxicities of intermediates suggested that the dechlorination process is important for the toxicity attenuation of FLO. This study clarified the performance enhancement mechanism of Zn substitution on FLO degradation by PMS activation using Co 3 O 4 based catalyst, which favors the development of PMS-based advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern Mariana margin is a tectonically distinctive and rapidly deforming region with the world deepest trench and unusual deformation and magmatism. However, its related deep structure and dynamics are still poorly understood. In this study, we determine robust 3-D P and S wave velocity models down to 130 km depth beneath the southern Mariana margin by using arrival-time data of local earthquakes recorded at 12 near-field seismic stations. Our tomographic results together with local seismicity and focal mechanisms reveal that the subducted Pacific slab is rapidly rolling back with a steep dip angle and narrowly but strongly coupled with the thin forearc block, which results in the deepest trench. An inferred eastward mantle flow transports the enhanced hydrous mantle melt beneath the southwest Mariana rift to the southern Mariana Trough, causing unusual deformation, magmatism and volcanism in the new oceanic crust. In addition, seismicity in the west Mariana ridge lithosphere may indicate active foundering of the arc lower crust. • Robust 3-D P and S wave velocity models of the southern Mariana margin are determined by body-wave tomography. • The subducted Pacific slab at the southern Mariana margin is rapidly rolling back with a steep dip angle. • Eastward mantle flow transports magma to the south Mariana trough, causing unusual deformation and magmatism there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been shown to be associated with the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) and the prognosis of locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) patients. Our study aimed to investigate whether the change of CTC status during NCT could serve as a supplement to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) in the treatment and evaluation of LABC patients. Methods: 6 ml of blood samples were collected before NCT, after the first cycle of NCT and after the completion of NCT, respectively. According to the change of CTC number during NCT, the patients were divided into "CTC low-response (low-R)" group and "CTC high-response (high-R)" group. Survival data of each group of patients were obtained through long-term follow-up. Results: A total of 35 patients diagnosed with LABC were enrolled. The median follow-up for distant metastasis was 27 months (range 7–36 months). There was no significant difference in distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) between PR/CR group and PD/SD group (P = 0.0914), while CTC low-R group had a worse DMFS than CTC high-R group (P = 0.0199). In PR/CR subgroup, patients with CTC low-R showed a lower DMFS compared with those with CTC high-R (P = 0.0159). However, in PD/SD subgroup, there was no significant difference in DMFS between CTC low-R and CTC high-R group (P = 0.7521). In terms of assessing response to NCT, CTC change or RECIST classification alone had an AUC of 0.533 (95% CI 0.277–0.790) and 0.700 (95% CI 0.611–0.789), respectively. When combining the two, the AUC slightly increased to 0.713 (95% CI 0.532–0.895). Conclusion: The change of CTC number during NCT has a potential to serve as a supplement to RECIST in the assessment of NCT efficacy and the prognosis of LABC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fault diagnosis plays an important role in the measuring of the fault tolerance of an interconnection network, which is of great value in the design and maintenance of large-scale multiprocessor systems. As a classical variant of the hypercube, the Balanced Hypercube, denoted by BHn(n ≥ 1), has drawn a lot of research attention, and its g -extra diagnosability has been studied to improve the network diagnostic ability. However, the current literatures on g -extra diagnosability of BHn under the PMC model only cover the cases of g < 6 , and what's more, seldom involve its g -extra diagnosability under the MM* model, which is a great limitation on the research of BHn diagnosability. In this paper, the upper and lower bounds of the g -extra diagnosability of the balanced hypercube are proved, respectively, based on the g -extra connectivity by the contradiction method, and finally, the g -extra diagnosability of BHn for 2 ≤ g ≤ 2 n - 1 under the PMC and MM* model is obtained, i.e., 2 n - 2 ⌈ g - 1 2 ⌉ + n + g . In addition, as a special case, the g -extra diagnosability of the balanced hypercube for g = 2 n is proved to be 2 2 n - 1 - 1 under the PMC and MM* model. In the end, simulation experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of our proposed theories. The conclusion of this paper has certain theory and application value for the research of BHn fault diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Eucalyptus spp. are candidates for phytoremediation in heavy metal (HM)-polluted soils as they can adapt to harsh environments, grow rapidly, and have good economic value. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are the most widely distributed plant symbiotic fungi in nature, and they play an important role in promoting the phytoremediation of HM-polluted soils. However, few studies have evaluated the HM detoxification mechanism of E. spp. in symbiosis with AMF, and thus, the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Results: The gene transcription and metabolic pathways of E. grandis were studied with and without inoculation with AMF and at different zinc (Zn) concentrations. Here, we focused on the transcript level of six HM-related gene families (ZNT, COPT/Ctr, YSL, ZIFL and CE). Under high-Zn conditions, thirteen genes (ZNT:2, COPT/Ctr:5, YSL:3, ZIFL:1, CE:2) were upregulated, whereas ten genes (ZNT:3, COPT/Ctr:2, YSL:3, ZIFL:1, CE:1) were downregulated. With AMF symbiosis under high-Zn conditions, ten genes (ZNT:4, COPT/Ctr:2, YSL:3, CE:1) were upregulated, whereas nineteen genes (ZNT:9, COPT/Ctr:2, YSL:3, ZIFL:4, CE:1) were downregulated. Under high-Zn conditions, genes of three potassium-related transporters, six phosphate transporters (PHTs), and two nitrate transporters (NRTs) were upregulated, whereas genes of four potassium-related transporters,four PHTs, and four nitrogen-related transporters were downregulated. With AMF symbiosis under high-Zn conditions, genes of two potassium-related transporters, six ammonium transporters (AMTs) and five PHTs were upregulated, whereas genes of six potassium-related transporters, two AMTs and five PHTs were downregulated. Conclusions: Our results indicates that AMF increases the resistance of E. grandis to high-Zn stress by improving nutrients uptake and regulating Zn uptake at the gene transcription level. Meanwhile, our findings provide a genome-level resource for the functional assignments of key genes regulated by Zn treatment and AM symbiosis in six HM-associated gene families and macromineral nutrient-related gene families of E. grandis. This may contribute to the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of the response to Zn stress in E. grandis with AM symbiosis at the aspect of the interaction between HM tolerance and nutrient acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A Kriging model updating method combined of Kriging surrogate model and genetic algorithm is proposed to estimate parameters for horizontal multilayer earth model. • The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are analyzed. • The optimization accuracy influenced by initial data samples is discussed. • Verification cases have been illustrated for the feasibility of final estimated earth models. A Kriging model updating method combined with Kriging surrogate model and genetic algorithm is proposed in this paper, helping to improve the computational efficiency of parameters estimation for horizontal multilayer earth model around electrical substation. Based on the theory of widely used Wenner configuration method for apparent resistivity measurement, the optimization model for horizontal multilayer earth model parameters is built up. To avoid time-consuming calculation, Kriging surrogate model is introduced to replace the complicated optimization model using small amount of data samples. Then genetic algorithm is adopted to update this Kriging model and estimate the earth model parameters until the criterion achieved. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are analyzed. And several cases of multilayer earth model are studied furtherly and compared with traditional genetic algorithm to verify its feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Target detection in high-frequency surface-wave radar (HFSWR) systems is a challenging task due to various sources of interference. In this article, we propose a robust constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detector to solve the problem of target detection for the HFSWR by exploiting the prior information on the detection environment. Clutter amplitudes in the HFSWR are commonly assumed to follow the Weibull distribution. Additionally, distribution parameters of the clutter have nonlocal self-similarity, and targets have sparsity as well as a certain geometric structure. We design an objective function based on the Bayesian framework, which consists of a data fidelity term and some regularization terms. Specifically, we use the nonlocal low-rank (NLR) regularization to represent the prior information regarding distribution parameters of clutter, and we adopt the combination of the sparsity and Laplacian regularization to represent the prior information regarding targets. The proposed objective function inherits advantages of the NLR, sparsity, and Laplacian regularization, thereby improving the performance of the proposed detector in the nonhomogeneous clutter. By optimizing the proposed objective function, we obtain estimates of clutter statistics for every cell under test and perform the CFAR detection. Experiments on both simulated data and experimental HFSWR data demonstrate that the proposed detector has a good false alarm regulation property and detection performance in the nonhomogeneous clutter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) together with concomitant meniscal injury are risk factors for the development of tibiofemoral (TF) osteoarthritis (OA), but the potential effect on the patellofemoral (PF) joint is unclear. The aim of this study was to: (i) investigate change in patellar cartilage morphology in individuals 2.5 to 4.5 years after ACLR with or without concomitant meniscal pathology and in healthy controls, and (ii) examine the association between baseline patellar cartilage defects and patellar cartilage volume change.Methods: Thirty two isolated ACLR participants, 25 ACLR participants with combined meniscal pathology and nine healthy controls underwent knee magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with 2-year intervals (baseline = 2.5 years post-ACLR). Patellar cartilage volume and cartilage defects were assessed from MRI using validated methods.Results: Both ACLR groups showed patellar cartilage volume increased over 2 years (p < 0.05), and isolated ACLR group had greater annual percentage cartilage volume increase compared with controls (mean difference 3.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0, 6.3%, p = 0.008) and combined ACLR group (mean difference 2.2, 95% CI 0.2, 4.2%, p = 0.028). Patellar cartilage defects regressed in the isolated ACLR group over 2 years (p = 0.02; Z = - 2.33; r = 0.3). Baseline patellar cartilage defect score was positively associated with annual percentage cartilage volume increase (Regression coefficient B = 0.014; 95% CI 0.001, 0.027; p = 0.03) in the pooled ACLR participants.Conclusions: Hypertrophic response was evident in the patellar cartilage of ACLR participants with and without meniscal pathology. Surprisingly, the increase in patellar cartilage volume was more pronounced in those with isolated ACLR. Although cartilage defects stabilised in the majority of ACLR participants, the severity of patellar cartilage defects at baseline influenced the magnitude of the cartilage hypertrophic response over the subsequent ~ 2 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wrasses are dominant components of major coral reef systems. Among wrasses, Cheilinus undulatus is an endangered species with high economic and ecological value that exhibits sex reversal of females to males, while sexual selection occurs in breeding aggregations. However, the molecular‐associated mechanism underlying this remains unclear. Opsin gene diversification is regarded as a potent force in sexual selection. Here we present a genome assembly of C. undulatus, using Illumina, Nanopore and Hi‐C sequencing. The 1.17 Gb genome was generated from 328 contigs with an N50 length of 16.5 Mb and anchored to 24 chromosomes. In total, 22,218 genes were functionally annotated, and 96.36% of BUSCO genes were fully represented. Transcriptomic analyses showed that 96.79% of the predicted genes were expressed. Transposons were most abundant, accounting for 39.88% of the genome, with low divergence, owing to their evolution with close species ~60.53 million years ago. In total, 567/1,826 gene families were expanded and contracted in the reconstructed phylogeny, respectively. Forty‐six genes were under positive selection. Comparative genomic analyses with other fish revealed expansion of opsin SWS2B, LWS1 and Rh2. The elevated duplicates of SWS2B were generated by gene conversions via transposition of transposons followed by nonallelic homologous recombination. Amino acid substitutions of opsin paralogues occurred at key tuning sites, causing a spectral shift in maximal absorbance of visual pigment to capture functional changes. Among these opsin genes, SWS2B‐3 and 4 and Rh1 are expressed in the retina. The genome sequence of C. undulatus provides valuable resources for future investigation of the conservation, evolution and behaviour of fishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We derive a general expression for the absorptive part of the one-loop photon polarization tensor in a strongly magnetized quark-gluon plasma at nonzero baryon chemical potential. To demonstrate the application of the main result in the context of heavy-ion collisions, we study the effect of a nonzero baryon chemical potential on the photon emission rate. The rate and the ellipticity of photon emission are studied numerically as a function the transverse momentum (energy) for several values of temperature and chemical potential. When the chemical potential is small compared to the temperature, the rates of the quark and antiquark splitting processes (i.e., q → q + γ and q ¯ → q ¯ + γ , respectively) are approximately the same. However, the quark splitting gradually becomes the dominant process with increasing the chemical potential. We also find that increasing the chemical potential leads to a growing total photon production rate but has only a small effect on the ellipticity of photon emission. The quark-antiquark annihilation ( q + q ¯ → γ ) also contributes to the photon production, but its contribution remains relatively small for a wide range of temperatures and chemical potentials investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen evolution and hydration kinetics of aluminum-particle-water reaction are investigated by a series of isothermal experiments. Morphology development of the Al particle during the hydration reaction process is characterized by SEM and XRD. An improved multi-stage analytical model has been developed and validated with the experimental data. The pre-exponential factor and activation energy for the alumina hydrolysis, Al-water reaction, and diffusion in the product layer are estimated based on the proposed model. The effects of growing particle size, formation and breakage of initial porous boehmite (AlOOH) layer, multi-stage reaction kinetics on the overall reaction rate are incorporated in the model. The study results show that the overall reaction rate is jointly controlled by simultaneous action of individual driving force, including mass transfer, chemical reaction and diffusion. The improved model enables the predictions of induction period and the evolution rate of hydrogen as a function of time, temperature and particle size. [Display omitted] • Hydroxide products formed from Aluminum powders hydration were characterized. • An improved multi-stage shrinking core model for Al–H 2 O reaction was proposed. • The kinetic parameters were estimated by a series of isothermal experiments. • Reactivity of the Aluminum powders depends on temperature and particle size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel 2,2′‐bipyridine‐based gemini sulfonic ionic liquid was first synthesized and then immobilized on MCM‐41 support (named IL1/MCM‐41), which was further characterized using XRD, FT‐IR, SEM, TEM, N2‐physisorption, XPS and TG techniques. These characterization results revealed that the IL1/MCM‐41 presented a whole ordered mesoporous structure, excellent thermal stability as well as the interaction between ionic liquid with MCM‐41. Catalytic activity of the obtained IL1/MCM‐41 was systematically evaluated for the Doebner‐Von Miller reaction to generate quinoline. Compared to conventional imidazole‐type single sulfonic ionic liquid supported on MCM‐41 (named IL2/MCM‐41), IL1/MCM‐41 exhibited higher catalytic activity and better reusability, which was probably due to the synergistic catalytic effect of the dual sulfonic acid group on IL2 and the stronger interaction between dipyridine ring of ionic liquid with MCM‐41 support, respectively. Meanwhile, a plausible reaction routes for the synergistic catalytic action of dual sulfonic acid to quinoline over the IL1/MCM‐41 catalyst was also proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Offenders are more likely than the general population to have experienced relationship trauma. They are also more likely to have lower empathy. To date, relationships between historical trauma and later empathic states have not been examined among offenders.Aims: To explore the association between history of trauma in close personal relationships and empathy among offenders. Our research question is: Is such relational trauma associated with self-rated impairments in empathy?Methods: All men with a primary school education and above at a single all-male prison in Jiangsu Province in China were invited to participate. The self-reported Interpersonal Reactivity Index was used to evaluate empathy, and the Brief Betrayal Trauma Survey was to explore interpersonal trauma and classify such experiences.Results: Interpersonal trauma was associated with higher personal distress and lower empathic concern among men reporting relational trauma in adulthood, but only higher personal distress when the trauma reported was in childhood. Non-relational trauma was associated with higher empathic concern. Cognitive aspects of empathy varied little between groups.Conclusions: Our findings add to the existing literature by making distinctions between the types of trauma and the age of key experience in its relationship to self-reported empathy. The differences found suggest that it may be helpful to consider planning any trauma-related interventions differently according to the type and age of trauma experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a penalized maximum quasi-likelihood (PMQL) estimation that can solve the problem of order selection and parameter estimation regarding the pth-order integer-valued time series models. The PMQL estimation can effectively delete the insignificant orders in model. By contrast, the significant orders can be retained and their corresponding parameters are estimated, simultaneously. Moreover, the PMQL estimation possesses certain robustness hence its order shrinkage effectiveness is superior to the traditional penalized estimation method even if the data is contaminated. The theoretical properties of the PMQL estimator, including the consistency and oracle properties, are also investigated. Numerical simulation results show that our method is effective in a variety of situations. The Westgren's data set is also analyzed to illustrate the practicability of the PMQL method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Distinct amino acid and organic acid profiles were obtained between EOC and the controls. • Five metabolites were identified as biomarkers to distinguish EOC from controls. • Two important metabolic pathways play key roles in the pathogenesis of EOC. Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a common gynecological cancer with high mortality rates. The main objective of this study was to investigate the serum amino acid and organic acid profiles to distinguish key metabolites for screening EOC patients. In total, 39 patients with EOC and 31 healthy controls were selected as the training set. Serum amino acid and organic acid profiles were determined using the targeted metabolomics approach. Metabolite profiles were processed via multivariate analysis to identify potential metabolites and construct a metabolic network. Finally, a test dataset derived from 29 patients and 28 healthy controls was constructed to validate the potential metabolites. Distinct amino acid and organic acid profiles were obtained between EOC and healthy control groups. Methionine, glutamine, asparagine, glutamic acid and glycolic acid were identified as potential metabolites to distinguish EOC from control samples. The areas under the curve for methionine, glutamine, asparagine, glutamic acid and glycolic acid were 0.775, 0 778, 0.955, 0.874 and 0.897, respectively, in the validation study. Metabolic network analysis of the training set indicated key roles of alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism as well as D-glutamine and D-glutamate metabolism in the pathogenesis of EOC. Amino acid and organic acid profiles may serve as potential screening tools for EOC. Data from this study provide useful information to bridge gaps in the understanding of the amino acid and organic acid alterations associated with epithelial ovarian cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrolysis technology is one of the most effective thermal treatment methods recycling rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) waste. To optimize pyrolysis recovery efficiency, quantifying the pyrolysis reaction kinetics and the heat required for the thermal treatment process is critical. This work focuses on establishing a systematic methodology to quantify pyrolysis reaction kinetics and thermodynamics for RPUF waste. RPUF waste with two different densities (RPUF ρ 100 and RPUF ρ 45) were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) under anaerobic atmosphere to measure mass and heat flow information. The obtained data were inversely analyzed using a numerical framework known as ThermaKin2Ds. Pyrolysis reaction mechanisms with four and three consecutive first-order reactions were developed to reproduce the TGA data for RPUF ρ 100 and RPUF ρ 45 , respectively. The Hill Climbing Optimization Algorithm was employed to adjust the reaction kinetics for an improved agreement between the ThermaKin2Ds-reproduced and experimental data. Based on the heat flow data from DSC tests, the specific heat capacity of each condensed-phase component was determined by using the inverse modeling method. Additionally, the micro-scale combustion calorimeter was used to generate the heat release data that served as the target data for inversely determining the heats of complete combustion, h c , of each pyrolyzate. The established pyrolysis reaction models was further validated by predicting the TGA results collected under different external heating conditions. Subsequently, the generated combustion-inhibiting gases (CO 2) and combustion-promoting gases (olefins, alkanes, carboxylic acids, etc.) were characterized through TGA coupled with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR). This allowed us to elucidate the gas-phase combustion phenomena observed in MCC experiments. This work provides a core set of parameters for optimizing the thermal treatment conditions of RPUF waste. • Pyrolysis characterization of RPUF waste using TGA-FTIR-DSC-MCC methods. • Proposed a methodology to determine reaction kinetics/thermodynamics of RPUF waste. • Density has a significant impact on the heat flow of RPUF waste pyrolysis. • Accurately predicted pyrolysis rate, heat flow and HRR of pyrolyzing RPUF waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) participate in fungi-plant symbiotic relationships and mediate the acquisition of soil-borne nutrients by host plants. However, little is known about how AM colonization affects the homeostasis of iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) in the host plant. Here, we assessed the performance of mycorrhizal growth, oxidative defense, nutrient accumulation, and key gene responses in AM-colonized tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) under different nutrient stress. The total mycorrhizal frequency of AM fungi on tobacco roots reached 86 % and 75 % under low and high phosphorus (P) treatments, respectively. Under Fe/Zn stress, AM alleviated the inhibition of tobacco biomass accumulation, decreased the content of lipid peroxides, and upregulated enzymatic antioxidant capability. In AM-colonized tobacco, Fe/Zn accumulation was increased under deficient conditions and decreased under surplus conditions. Tobacco uptake of P, Fe, and Zn was impaired by excess nutrient concentrations and improved at low concentrations, and this phenomenon was supported by AM colonization. Fe/Zn deficiency upregulated genes related to Fe/Zn uptake, and Fe/Zn excess upregulated genes related to heavy metal efflux, with AM colonization further promoting these upregulations. Notely, we found a possible crosstalk node, Yellow Stripe-Like 7 (NtYSL7), in the AM and Fe/Zn homeostasis regulatory network. NtYSL7 has a plasma membrane-localized oligopeptide transporter domain. NtYSL7 is strongly induced by AM colonization, deficiency of Fe, and surplus Zn, and interacts with many Fe/Zn transporters. AM assists host plants in maintaining Fe/Zn homeostasis by improving nutrient accumulation, redox homeostasis, and transport mechanisms, and NtYSL7 is likely important within the crosstalk network of AM, Fe, and Zn nutrient homeostasis. [Display omitted] • AM helps tobacco uphold Fe and Zn balance via nutrient buildup, defensive oxidation, and transport processes. • AM alleviates the antagonism of tobacco P, Fe and Zn. • Involvement of YSL7 in regulating tobacco Fe and Zn transport mechanisms mediated by AM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonoriented coupling of nanobodies (Nb) to nanomaterials can considerably reduce epitope recognition or induce other dysfunctions, thereby restricting the application of Nb in field detection. Herein, using Avi-tag/streptavidin (Avi/SA)-oriented coupling strategy, we developed a lateral-flow immunochromatographic assay (LFIA) based on Nb-Avi/SA@quantum dots (QDs) probes (Nb-LFIA) for Aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1) detection. Compared with nonoriented coupled Nb@QD probes, the detection sensitivity and stability of Nb-Avi/SA@QD probes were greatly retained. Furthermore, Nb showed higher tolerance to the extreme detection environments compared with monoclonal antibodies in traditional enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and LFIA. After optimization, the limit of detection of Nb-LFIA was 0.095 ng mL−1, half-maximal inhibitory concentration was 0.85 ng mL−1, and the visual cut-off level was 1.25 ng mL−1. Nb-Avi/SA@gold nanoparticle probes were assessed for the wide applicability of the Avi/SA strategy, and they showed excellent performance (coefficient of determination = 0.999). Finally, the analysis performance of probes was assessed in oat samples, revealing a recovery rate of 88.8–116.7%, which was consistent with the results of high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Altogether, our study provides a convenient and sensitive tool for AFB 1 detection, and presents a viable path for efficient Nb application. ● An effective oriented coupling strategy for the development of nanobody and nanomaterials. ● A nanobody-based lateral flow immunochromatographic assay was developed for the rapid, convenient field detection of AFB 1. ● A nanobody-based lateral flow immunochromatographic assay showed the tolerance in extreme detection environments. ● Avi/SA oriented coupling strategy would greatly retain the advantageous functions of nanobody. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global efforts to develop renewable energy include a focus on biofuels, especially algal‐based biofuels. As the world's largest developing country, China is striving to develop a range of renewable energy sources. Here, we performed an informatics analysis to monitor the development of microalgal biofuels in China by analyzing energy policies related to microalgal biomass and biofuel production and funding inputs and scientific research projects in this field. China has already made substantial contributions to the microalgal biofuel industry worldwide. Despite recent declines in research and investment due to the overall economic environment, microalgal energy research and applications technologies have tremendous prospects. We summarize progress in research on microalgal biomass and biofuel production, focusing on microalgal culture patterns and the production of energy, including efforts in China to promote the industrialization of microalgal biofuels. Finally, we explore possible solutions to bottlenecks that must be overcome before microalgal biofuels can be widely used and discuss future prospects. In addition to serving as a theoretical reference for researchers and decision makers in China and beyond, the information presented in this review article can be used to guide the industrialization of microalgal‐based biofuel production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (MPCVD) is an important method for synthesis of high-quality diamond film due to its high plasma density, good controllability and high cleanliness in the deposition process. Based on the theory of resonant cavity and three-dimensional full-wave electromagnetic field simulation, the microwave plasma cavity, mode converter and substrate holder shapes, which have a great influence on microwave coupling efficiency and electric field distribution, were designed and optimized. By testing and monitoring the key parameters in the microwave transmission system, influence of the tuning variables on diamond deposition were analyzed. With the MPCVD device proposed in this paper, high quality diamond films were deposited with an effective circular growth area with a diameter of 50 mm at a growth rate of 10 µm/h to 25 µm/h. The characterization results show that the single crystal diamond films have optical transmittance close to theoretical threshold and an excellent crystalline structure, with low impurity contents of nitrogen and silicon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In recent years, modelling count data has become one of the most important and popular topics in time‐series analysis. At the same time, variable selection methods have become widely used in many fields as an effective statistical modelling tool. In this paper, we consider using a variable selection method to solve a modelling problem regarding the first‐order Poisson integer‐valued autoregressive (PINAR(1)) model with covariables. The PINAR(1) model with covariables is widely used in many areas because of its practicality. When using this model to deal with practical problems, multiple covariables are added to the model because it is impossible to know in advance which covariables will affect the results. But the inclusion of some insignificant covariables is almost impossible to avoid. Unfortunately, the usual estimation method is not adequate for the task of deleting the insignificant covariables that cause statistical inferences to become biased. To overcome this defect, we propose a penalised conditional least squares (PCLS) method, which can consistently select the true model. The PCLS estimator is also provided and its asymptotic properties are established. Simulation studies demonstrate that the PCLS method is effective for estimation and variable selection. One practical example is also presented to illustrate the practicability of the PCLS method. This paper propose a penalised estimation method which can solve the modeling problem regarding the PINAR(1) model with covariables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercapacitors, with their superior capacity and lower space occupancy, offer inherent advantages over aluminum electrolytic capacitors (AECs) in meeting the demands of miniaturization and planarization of devices. However, the capacitive advantage of supercapacitors is often compromised by the limited availability of electrode materials under high‐frequency alternating current conditions. The development of electrode materials that possess both high‐frequency response and high capacity is undoubtedly critical. Herein, PEDOT:PSS/Ketjenblack holey nanosheets (PKHNs) prepared by a solvent thermal method are successfully developed as the electrode material to ensure rapid ion transport and abundant charge storage on the accessible nanosheet surfaces. The micro‐supercapacitors exhibit a high‐frequency capacitance (3089 µF cm−2 at 120 Hz, with a phase angle of −81.9°), achieved through an innovative structural design utilizing PKHNs materials. These micro‐supercapacitors demonstrate excellent frequency response with efficient 120 Hz filtering and offer volumetric advantages over the state‐of‐the‐art commercial ones during low‐voltage operations, making them an ideal choice for the next‐generation miniaturized filter capacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyethylene oxide (PEO)‐based solid polymer electrolytes (SPE) have garnered recognition as highly promising candidates for advanced lithium‐metal batteries. However, the practical application of PEO‐based SPE is hindered by its low critical current density (CCD) resulting from undesired dendrite growth. In this study, a PEO‐based SPE that exhibits an ultra‐high CCD (4 mA cm−2) is presented and enhanced lithium ionic conductivity through the incorporation of small amounts of P2S5 (PS). The crystalline Li2O‐rich and P/S‐containing solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is revealed by cryo‐electron microscope (cryo‐EM) and Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF‐SIMS), which inhibits dendrite growth and adverse reactions between SPE and reductive lithium, thus offering a spherical growth behavior for dendrite‐free lithium metal anode. Consequently, utilizing the PS‐integrated SPE, a Li‐Li symmetric cell demonstrates reduced resistance during operation, enabling stable cycles exceeding 200 hours at 0.5 mA cm−2 and 0.5 mAh cm−2, a stringent test condition for PEO‐based electrolytes. Moreover, a Li/SPE/LiFePO4 (LFP) pouch cell exhibits 80% capacity retention after 100 cycles with 50 µm Li and 30 µm PEO electrolyte, showcasing its potential for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co2+-Zr4+ ion-doped barium ferrite (BaFe 12–2x (CoZr) x O 19 , x = 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) particles were prepared by a citrate sol-gel method. It is found that a single M-type barium ferrite phase exists in particles fabricated with a relatively high ion doping amount, which indicates Co2+ ions can balance the system valence and aid the entry of high-valent Zr4+ ions. With the increase in doping amount, the lattice constant and the particle size gradually increase. Moreover, the content of Fe2+ is at a lower level, and the oxygen vacancy concentration first increases and then plateaus. According to the results of first-principles calculation and Mössbauer spectral analysis, doping ions tend to replace Fe3+ at 4 f 2 , 4 f 1 , and 2b sites, continuously decreasing the coercivity and saturation magnetization. Multi-doping effectively introduces dual magnetic resonances and multiple polarization, and reduces the natural resonance frequency. In addition, it improves the impedance matching performance and the electromagnetic attenuation capabilities, leading to an excellent absorption performance in the Ku-band. The co-doped barium ferrites produce obvious interference cancellation at a specific thickness, further improving the absorption ability. The BaFe 11 Co 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 19 can achieve the maximum microwave absorption bandwidth of 6.08 GHz, covering the entire Ku-band. When the matching thickness is 2.05 mm, it also exhibits the minimum reflection loss of − 48.16 dB at 11.94 GHz. The above results suggest that this co-doped barium ferrite possesses great potential in microwave absorption applications. [Display omitted] • Ion conversion, magnetic sublattice occupation, and super-exchange interaction were explored, and connection between macro-performance and micro-structure was formed. • The natural resonance and dielectric relaxation were regulated by changing doping-amounts, and the influence on absorbing-properties was explored combined with computing and testing. • Co2+-Zr4+ co-doped barium ferrites were synthesized, which had the absorption bandwidth of 6.08 GHz and achieved the reflection loss of -48.16 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnetic-dielectric composite with a metal-organic framework (MOF) structure has been verified as an ideal candidate for effective microwave absorption. Helical multi-walled carbon nanotube (h-MWCNT)/doped barium ferrite composites were prepared using the sol-gel method. A porous MOF structure, with an abundant microscopic cavity structure and an adequate conductive network, was constructed, where the doped barium ferrite particles and h-MWCNTs overlapped through sheet-line interaction, and the uniformly dispersed barium ferrite particles were anchored inside the conductive network. The composition of h-MWCNTs has a great influence on the electromagnetic parameters and absorbing performance. After optimization, the minimum reflection loss of − 56.47 dB was achieved at 4.8 GHz, with a matching thickness of 1.35 mm. At this matching thickness, the composites reached the maximum wave-absorbing bandwidth of 6.20 GHz, covering the Ku band. The excellent microwave absorption performance could be attributed to the low energy barrier of electron transfer and the great charge transfer ability according to the experimental and calculation results. Simultaneously, a special charge transfer channel and a micro-capacitor caused by electron accumulation were generated by the interaction in the heterojunction, which consequently improved the dielectric loss capability. Further, due to abundant polarization genes and multiple magnetic resonances of the composites, the magnetic-dielectric synergetic effect also leads to an evident absorption. This novel light magnetic-dielectric MOF-derived composite shows great potential in microwave absorption applications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • regenerable solution and solid state optical sensors. • sensitivity to metal ions at the ppb level. • selectivity depends on the amount of the probe. • terpyridine as a probe for sensing cadmium. Abstract Six polyfluorene derivatives, P1 – P6 , were synthesized and investigated as responsive materials for the optical sensing of metal ions in an aqueous medium. They were designed by combining carbazole with fluorene units within the backbone. Carbazole was N -functionalized with three coordinating groups, 2-pyridyl-benzimidazole (P1 and P4), 2-phenyl-benzimidazole (P2 and P5) and 4-phenyl-terpyridyl (P3 and P6), respectively. P1 – P3 are random copolymers with fluorene:carbazole ratios of 9:1 for P1 and P2 , and 9.7:0.3 for P3 ; P4 – P6 are the corresponding alternating polymers. This design lead to polymers made of a conjugated backbone and pendant coordinating groups. The optical properties of the monomers were impacted in various ways by metal ions, and the formation of the [Ni M3 ]2+ and [Zn M3 ]2+ and [Zn M3 2 ]2+ were evidenced with association constants of 105.22, 106.45 and 1014.0, respectively. The emission of the polymers was afterwards found to be influenced by theses metal ions with different sensitivity and selectivity. P1 was found to be more sensitive to the Ni2+ and Cu2+ ions with a better selectivity for Ni2+. Emission of the corresponding alternating polymer P4 was more efficiently quenched by these two ions with respect to P1 , in addition of being sensitive to the Ca2+ and Al3+ ions. P3 showed sensitivity to the Ni2+, Cu2+, Al3+, Ca2+, and Zn2+ ions. The luminescence of P6 was much more pronounced with the Ni2+, Cu2+, Cd2+, Zn2+, Al3+, Fe2+, and Fe3+ ions with respect to P3. More remarkably, the presence of the Zn2+ or Cd2+ ions resulted in a new emission band, leading to the possibility to selectively sense these two ions. Relatively high Stern-Volmer constants (in the 106–105 range) were obtained, and sensitivities down to the ppb level were reached, especially for the Ni2+ ion. Influence of both the coordinating group and the polymer backbone on the polymers sensitivity and selectivity was emphasized. Finally, the recyclability of some representative optical sensors was shown both in solution and in the solid state. In particular, thin films were shown to be easily regenerated, which opens the way to the elaboration of reusable optical sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Here, we have proposed a high-density orbital angular momentum (OAM) analyzer consisting of two OAM mode converters and a modified Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) that is composed of the standardized MZI and a pair of Dove Prisms, which can effectively avoid the inherent overlap of two adjacent OAM modes in the OAM mode converter. In this scheme, the multiplexing OAM beam is incident into the modified MZI, which can sort and separate the even and odd OAM modes into different ports respectively. Two successive OAM mode converters can efficiently measure the sorted even and odd OAM modes in the port A and the port B of the modified MZI, respectively. By this method, the topological charge interval between two neighboring OAM beams would be at least greater than or equal to 2 at both MZI output ports, and then the distance of two adjacent light spots converted from the output OAM modes will be greater than the width of the light spot. Therefore, the proposed scheme can exactly avoid the overlapping effect and solve the problem about the limited discrimination resolution, from which the analysis of the high-density OAM modes can be realized. Highlights • A high-density OAM modes' analyzer have been established. • The overlapping effect of the OAM mode converter have been analyzed. • The sorting mechanisms of the modified MZI have been investigated. • The multiplexing beam can be detected and analyzed clearly. • Crosstalk of proposed system is below −10 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interannual variability in the Southern Ocean is investigated via nonlinear Laplacian spectral analysis (NLSA), an objective eigendecomposition technique for nonlinear dynamical systems that can simultaneously recover multiple timescales from data with high skill. Applied to modelled and observed sea surface temperature and sea ice concentration data, NLSA recovers the wavenumber‐2 eastwards propagating signal corresponding to the Antarctic circumpolar wave (ACW). During certain phases of its lifecycle, the spatial patterns of this mode display a structure that can explain the statistical origin of the Antarctic dipole pattern. Another group of modes have combination frequencies consistent with the modulation of the annual cycle by the ACW. Further examination of these newly identified modes reveals that they can have either eastwards or westwards propagation, combined with meridional pulsation reminiscent of sea ice reemergence patterns. Moreover, they exhibit smaller‐scale spatial structures and explain more Indian Ocean variance than the primary ACW modes. We attribute these modes to teleconnections between ACW and the tropical Indo‐Pacific Ocean; in particular, fundamental El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) modes and their associated combination modes with the annual cycle recovered by NLSA. Another mode extracted from the Antarctic variables displays an eastwards propagating wavenumber‐3 structure over the Southern Ocean, but exhibits no significant correlation to interannual Indo‐Pacific variability. Interannual variability in the Southern Ocean—the Antarctic circumpolar wave (ACW)—is investigated via nonlinear Laplacian spectral analysis (NLSA), an objective eigendecomposition technique for nonlinear dynamical systems that can simultaneously recover multiple timescales. In addition to the dominant wavenumber‐2 ACW modes (upper panel), NLSA captures its interaction with the seasonal cycle (lower panel), which have either eastwards or westwards propagation and explain more Indian Ocean variance. We attribute these modes to teleconnections between ACW and ENSO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: This study investigated the use of serum amino acids and organic acids profiles as the novel metabolites for screening breast cancer (BC) patients. METHODS: A total of 116 subjects as training set were divided into the following three groups: BC patients (n = 34), benign (BE) patients (n = 38) and controls (n = 44). The amino acids profiles from three groups were measured using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and organic acids profiles in three groups were studied by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The resultant study data set was subjected to multivariate statistical analysis to identify important metabolites related with BC and construct the criteria for discriminating BC patients from BE subjects or controls. A test data set derived from 60 patients (30 BC and 30 BE subjects) and 30 controls was used to validate the stability of the different metabolites. RESULTS: The serum amino acids and organic acids profiles significantly differed between the BC patients, BE patients and the controls. Our results demonstrate that combinations of three candidate metabolites from taurine, glutamic acid and ethylmalonic acid were found to mirror tumour burden, with AUC values ranging from 0.751 to 0.834 when comparing BC patients to the controls. The areas under the curve from the taurine, glutamic acid and ethylmalonic acid in validated study were 0.901, 0.924 and 0.749, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that amino acids and organic acids profiles will be a potential screening tool for BC patients. The dysregulated metabolism of amino acids and organic acids in breast cancer might be useful for the diagnosis, therapy, prognosis and understanding the pathogenesis of breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrable hierarchies provide many important physical models. Firstly, with the help of symbolic computation software Maple, two generalized integrable hierarchies of Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur (AKNS) type are constructed from the matrix spectral problem associated with the Lie algebra s l (2). Then, two generalized integrable hierarchies of super Dirac type and super nonlinear Schrödinger-modified Korteweg–de Vries (NLS–mKdV) type are obtained to illustrate the use of the super Lie algebra B (0 , 1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An approach to obtain energy deposition spectra based on CADIS method in Geant4. • Formation density is calculated based on the density window of energy deposition spectra. • The accuracy of calculated density is validated test pits measured data. Formation density measurement is one of the most important part in reservoir hydrocarbon evaluation, which relies on accurate acquisition of the detector energy deposition spectra. Monte Carlo method is usually used to solve such problems, while huge computational time will be consumed due to the accuracy requirements of simulations. Therefore, this work aims to improve simulation efficiency based on the CADIS methods in Geant4 and achieve accurate density calculations. To obtain energy deposition spectra, this manuscript introduces a scoring method to assign weight windows according to energy group in Geant4 and to collect energy deposition spectra according to particle weights. This method is verified in simulated spectra using a dual-detector gamma density tool. Five test pits with measurement data are selected to demonstrate the accuracy of the calculated densities. The results show that the energy deposition spectra obtained by CADIS method can effectively improve the accuracy of density calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination seriously threatens food safety and human health and requires sensitive and rapid tools for monitoring. In this study, a convenient enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on Avi-labeled nanobody Nb-2G/streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase and magnetic beads (MBS-ELISA) was established for the sensitive detection of OTA, which could be used for one-pot detection without immobilization. After optimization, the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) and the lowest limit of detection value of the MBS-ELISA was 1.17 ng/mL and 0.07 ng/mL and the linear range was 248.8 pg/mL-5.28 ng/mL, respectively, which accords with state criteria for food safety. The developed one-step MBS-ELISA was almost 20-times more sensitive than the classic BA-ELISA and could generate results within 15 min, which was significantly less than the classic BA-ELISA at approximately 3 h. The MBS-ELISA indicated good recovery (86.4–114.3%) in spiked sorghum, buckwheat, and mung bean. Thus, MBS-ELISA represents a very promising strategy for the simple, rapid, and accurate detection of OTA and other toxic and hazardous contaminants. [Display omitted] • Anti-OTA nanobody was acquired by using the phage display technology. • Using the assay can detect the trace of OTA in a one-step way and the detection time can be completed within 15 min. • The LOD was 0.07 ng/mL, IC50 was 1.17 ng/mL, and the linear range was 248.8 pg/mL∼5.28 ng/mL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferrite/graphene (Fe 3 O 4 /GR) microwave absorbing composites were prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method using polyethylene glycol 2000 (PEG2000) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as surfactants. The phase structure, micromorphology, chemical composition, and microwave absorption properties of the composites at different surfactant and graphene contents were investigated by X-ray diffractometer, scanning- and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, vector network analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometer, to explore the enhancement mechanism of absorbing performance. We observed that the Fe 3 O 4 spheres and the GR sheets are interlaced by ball-sheet and ball-ball, forming a rich microscopic cavity structure and a good conductive network. The diameter of the hollow sphere of Fe 3 O 4 treated by PEG2000 is about 350 nm, which has good dispersion and strong reflection loss. In particular, the minimum reflection loss of the composite can reach −55.99 dB at 3.23 GHz with a matching thickness of 8.08 mm; The Fe 3 O 4 treated by SDS has a diameter about 28 % smaller than that treated by PEG2000, while with the poor dispersion. Fe 3 O 4 /1.0GR-SDS has a wide absorption frequency band, up to 6.16 GHz, which can cover the complete Ku band, with a matching thickness of 2.06 mm. The main loss mechanisms are polarization relaxation, multiple reflection and scattering of electromagnetic waves, conduction loss, eddy current loss, natural resonance, and exchange resonance. [Display omitted] • The change of electromagnetic and absorption performance after the treatment of different surfactants has been explored combined with computing and testing, and the connection between performance and structure has been formed. • The forming process of the composite has been further analyzed, especially for the hollow Fe 3 O 4 spheres, absorption properties of composites can be adjusted by the treatment of surfactants, and the mechanism has been explained. • Under the treatment of the surfactants, the Fe 3 O 4 spheres and the GR sheets are interlaced by modes of ball-sheet and ball-ball, forming a rich microscopic cavity structure and a good conductive network, which has a wider absorption bandwidth of 6.16 GHz and can achieve the minimum reflection loss of -55.99 dB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasi‐two–dimensional (2D) perovskite films are promising candidates as a gain medium for stimulated emission owing to their hydrophobicity and efficient energy funneling that facilitates the population inversion. However, the commonly used Ruddlesden–Popper (R–P) perovskites still suffer from instability induced by high‐density pumping as well as the resulting heating effect. Here, quasi‐2D perovskite films with mixed Dion–Jacobson (D–J) and R–P phases are demonstrated with both excellent amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) properties and thermal‐ and photo‐stabilities under ambient conditions. In these films, octyl ammonium bulky organic cations are used to obtain the preferred crystal orientation and highly smooth surface for low‐threshold ASE, while 1,8‐octanedi ammonium cations contribute to the greatly improved stability. The films containing the D–J phase exhibit good structural stability even after 130 °C heat treatment for 48 h. The mixed‐ligands film maintains a low ASE threshold of 11.6 µJ cm−2 and a high optical gain of 413 cm−1 after environmental annealing. It is demonstrated that it is the diammonium that firmly bonds to the perovskite layer,allowing the maintenance of quasi‐2D perovskite structure and good ASE performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topology of interconnection networks plays an important role in the performance of parallel and distributed computing systems, and the embeddings of interconnection networks can help adapt their topology features into new interconnection network structures. Being a basic and popular structure, the mesh network has wide application range as the result of some of its topology features. Meanwhile, as an important variant of hypercube, the Exchanged Crossed Cube(ECQ) combines advantages of crossed cube and exchanged hypercube, i.e. the promotion of network performance and the reduce of communication cost. To enlarge the application range of the ECQ, this paper discusses the embedding strategies of Mesh network into ECQ and proposes 4 methods to embed meshes into ECQ. We distinguish these methods by comparing their dilation, expansion, loading and congestion. The comparison result shows that compromise among four of the above parameters has to be made to achieve the improvement of some parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adsorption mechanism of calcium ion is a piece of important information for understanding the performance of quartz activation. In this work, the adsorption of calcium ion on quartz (101) surface in aqueous was studied through DFT calculations. The effective coordination number of calcium ion and the corresponding coordination structure in aqueous were simulated to confirm activation components. Meanwhile, adsorption energies of three sites (top, bridge and hollow) on quartz surface were calculated to investigate the preferred adsorption position, while adsorption structure of calcium ion in aqueous was also determined by DFT calculation. PDOS projections and Mulliken populations were carried out to explore the Ca O bonding nature. The analytical results indicated that the formation of Ca-O q (calcium ion in aqueous and O atom on quartz surface) bond and hydration process of quartz surface were both closely related to calcium ion adsorption on the quartz surface. The simulated adsorption structures were accordant with the experimental data of the FT-IR spectra analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to test and quantify the effect of heat of rewetting on the propensities for spontaneous combustion of coals, especially low rank coals, a new experimental procedure and a mathematical model were developed based on the standard R 70 adiabatic oxidation method. Dry and moist tests were performed on coal samples collected from Powder River Basin and from South America coal fields. Based on the linear and moving average parts of the self-heating curves, self-heating indices in terms of Moist R 70 and R 100 were proposed. The developed analytical model, calibrated with the experimental data, was used to simulate self-heating of coal with different amount of water condensation (2%, 5%, 10% and 20%) and relative humidity (40%, 60% and 90%). It was shown that an increase of water condensation and relative humidity significantly promotes the self-heating rate of coal. A practical consequence of this finding is the heat of rewetting mechanism should not be neglected in any precautionary or preventive measures to avoid potential spontaneous combustion in PRB and Colombia coal mines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]