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Corrosion damage mechanisms of nickel-based alloy G3 at 600 °C with a mixture of H2O, CO2, H2S and H2 were explored using ultra-high-temperature and high-pressure corrosion experiments, slow strain rate tensile tests and a series of microscopic characterization methods. Results unveil that G3 alloy exhibited a low corrosion rate on average. The corrosion product film consists of two layers – an inner layer of Cr2O3 and an outer layer of a mixture of Ni3S2 and Cr2O3. The material experienced plasticity losses of 49.5 % and 24.3 % after corrosion and aging, respectively. Precipitation of M23C6 at grain boundary occurred after corrosion and aging, resulting in chromium depletion and intergranular corrosion within weak grain boundary regions, which reduced plasticity of G3 alloy.

Anthocyanins are the most valuable pigments in Lycium ruthenicum Murray (L. ruthenicum). Although ultraviolet-B (UV-B) irradiation is a key environmental factor influencing anthocyanin biosynthesis in L. ruthenicum, the deep molecular mechanism remains unclear. Herein, we examined the changes in the total anthocyanin content and transcriptomic characteristics of L. ruthenicum leaves following UV-B irradiation treatment. The results showed a twofold increase in anthocyanin content in the leaves of L. ruthenicum after the treatment. The transcriptome analysis showed that the expression of 24 structural genes identified in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway was up-regulated. In particular, F3’H (Unigene0009145) and C4H (Unigene0046607) exhibit notable up-regulation, suggesting their potential roles in anthocyanin synthesis. Protein interaction network results revealed that MYB1 (Unigene0047706) had the highest connectivity, followed by bHLH (Unigene0014085). Additionally, UVR8 (Unigene0067978) and COP1 (Unigene0008780) were found to be highly involved in UV-B signal transduction. These findings provide new insights into the genetic and biochemical mechanisms that regulate anthocyanin production, and could guide agricultural practices to reduce environmental impacts and improve crop yield and quality.

BackgroundThe relationship between CDAI and suicidal ideation is unclear. This study investigates the relationship between CDAI and suicidal ideation and examines the association between CDAI and all-cause mortality (ACM) or cardiovascular disease mortality (CVM) among participants with and without suicidal ideation.MethodsData from seven NHANES cycles (2005–2018) were analyzed using cross-sectional and prospective cohort studies. Weighted multivariable logistic regression models, restricted cubic spline (RCS) plots, and subgroup analyses explored the association between CDAI and suicidal ideation. Kaplan–Meier (KM) curves, weighted multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, and RCS assessed the relationship between CDAI and CVM or ACM.ResultsAmong 30,976 participants aged over 20, 1,154 (3.72%) had suicidal ideation. Higher CDAI levels (Quartile 4) were associated with a 28% reduction in suicidal ideation compared to lower levels (Quartile 1). Over an average follow-up of 89 months, 3,267 participants (7.6%) died, including 808 (1.8%) from cardiovascular causes. Higher CDAI levels were linked to a 30, 68, and 28% reduction in ACM in the total population, those with suicidal ideation, and those without, respectively. CVM was reduced by 40% in the total population and by 41% in those without suicidal ideation.ConclusionCDAI is negatively associated with suicidal ideation and correlated with reduced ACM and CVM among participants with and without suicidal ideation.

ABSTRACT: The large-scale and intensive development of the meat pigeon breeding industry have resulted in the replacement of a large number of low-performance local breeds by a few breeds with excellent production performance. However, due to the characteristics of pigeon species that are monogamous, for which the W chromosome cannot be recovered and for which semen cannot be cryopreserved, the preservation of pigeon species is still mainly based on in-situ preservation. In this study, pigeons were classified into 6 classes of endangerment based on the criteria of the 100-year inbreeding coefficient of poultry populations in the “Assessment of Endangered Poultry Genetic Resources” (NY/T 2996–2016). The results show that when the generation interval was 1.5 yr, the number of ideal populations with the same gene frequency variance or the same heterozygosity decay rate of pigeons in class 1 to 5 was ≤149, 150 to 204, 205 to 316, 317 to 649 and ≥650. In random-reserved breeding, when the generation interval was 1.5 yr, the number of male (female) pigeons corresponding to class 1 to 5 was ≤74, 75 to 102, 103 to 157, 158 to 324 and ≥325. In family-equal-reserved breeding, when the generation interval was 1.5 yr, the number of male (female) pigeons corresponding to class 1 to 5 was ≤36, 37 to 50, 51 to 78, 79 to 162 and ≥163. When the generation interval was 1.5 yr, the inbreeding increments corresponding to class 1 to 5 were ≥0.00335, 0.00244 to 0.00334, 0.00159 to 0.00243, 0.00078 to 0.00158 and ≤0.00077; with the same population size, the inbreeding coefficient and inbreeding increment decreased with the increase of generation interval; the population effective content, inbreeding coefficient and inbreeding increment of family-equal-reserved pigeons were lower than those of random-reserved pigeons. The results of this study have certain reference value for analyzing the status quo of local and endangered species, constructing live gene banks and breeding farms of poultry genetic resources, and rescuing endangered species.

Background: The study aims to investigate the pharmacological basis and molecular mechanisms of resveratrol in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) through the approach of treating different diseases with the same method, guided by traditional Chinese medicine theory. Utilizing network pharmacology and bioinformatics methods, this research aims to provide modern medical evidence for the theory of treating different diseases with the same method in traditional Chinese medicine. Methods: Omnibus from Swiss Target Prediction, TCMSP, SuperPred, SEA, HIT, CTD, TCMIP and Gene Expression Disease datasets for resveratrol related genes, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease were obtained from the GEO database. Core targets were identified by weighted gene coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) and minimum absolute contraction and selection operator (LASSO). The expression of core targets was verified in AD and PD cell models. The immune characteristics of AD and PD were analyzed by CIBERSORT algorithm. Finally, the potential mechanism of resveratrol intervention on the core target was studied by molecular docking technique. Results: The results of network pharmacological analysis showed that resveratrol acted on 85 common targets such as STAT3 and CASP3, affected AGE-RAGE signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and showed the effect of ''same disease and different treatment'' for AD and PD. Three core targets associated with AD and PD (PLK4, FCGRT, and PRKAR2A) were finally identified through comprehensive transcriptome analysis, and experimentally verified in cell models of AD and PD. At the same time, the analysis of immune cell infiltration suggested that AD and PD had dysregulation of inflammation, and the core target was significantly related to M2 macrophages. Conclusion: Resveratrol may play a potential mechanism of ''treating the same disease with different diseases'' and target three core targets (PLK4, FCGRT and PRKAR2A) to improve the disease process of AD and PD by participating in the regulation of immune and inflammatory pathways. These findings have potential implications for clinical practice and future research.

Abstract Limited research has explored the relationship between overactive bladder (OAB) and cardiovascular health (CVH). We aim to examine the correlation between OAB and CVH in American adults, utilizing the Life’s Essential 8 (LE8). We included 70,190 individuals from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey spanning from 2005 to 2018. In our study, the independent variable is LE8 score, where higher scores denote better CVH. The dependent variable is the presence of OAB. We employed multivariable logistic regression along with restricted cubic splines to evaluate the association between LE8 and OAB. Additionally, we performed interaction analyzes on subgroups to validate the findings. There is a significant negative correlation between LE8 scores and OAB. Upon adjusting for all covariates, a 10-point increase in LE8 total score correlated with a 17% decrease in the odds of OAB [0.83 (95% CI 0.78, 0.89)]. Compared to participants with lower LE8 scores, those with higher LE8 scores had a 46% lower probability of developing OAB. Consistent results were also observed in the association between scores of four health behaviors and four health factors and OAB. Furthermore, a notable interaction was observed between LE8 scores and smoking status. This study showed a significant negative correlation between LE8 scores and OAB prevalence.

The cooling role of phase change materials (PCMs) has emerged as a promising solution for battery thermal management systems (BTMS). However, issues such as high phase change temperature, low thermal conductivity, and easy leakage have been the long-term bottlenecks in the application of phase change materials. Herein, a composite phase change materials (CPCMs) is prepared by incorporating a mixture of lauric acid (LA) and paraffin (PA) with an expanded graphite (EG) thermally conductive unit. The mixture of lauric acid and paraffin provides latent heat, whereas expanded graphite enhances the thermal conductivity while preventing the leakage of lauric acid and paraffin. As expected, the lauric acid–paraffin–expanded graphite-based composite phase change materials demonstrate the high thermal conductivity of 1.22 W/(m k), the elevated melting enthalpy of 146.9 J/g, as well as the relatively low melting temperature of 36.1 °C. When used as a cooling system for battery thermal management systems, composite phase change materials can keep the maximum temperature of the battery below 43 °C with a temperature difference of 1.96 °C only, while ensuring the long-term cycling stability of the battery. Therefore, composite phase change materials with such a remarkable performance provide a promising and effective solution for battery thermal management systems.

In this study, the corrosion behavior of N80 steel exposed to 80 bar supercritical CO2 and 0–15 bar H2S environments was investigated by weight loss test, surface analysis, water chemistry simulation, corrosion thermodynamic and kinetic calculations. The results show that a very low H2S pressure of 0.004 bar in supercritical CO2 environment boosts the corrosion rate of N80 steel, whereas the rate is considerably reduced with further increasing the H2S pressure. The variation of corrosion rate with H2S pressure largely depends on the changes in cathode process and overall protectiveness of corrosion product film caused by H2S. As the H2S pressure rises, the evolution of corrosion product film on the steel is as follows: FeCO3 dominated film below 0.16 bar H2S, FeCO3 and FeS mixed film within 0.16–4 bar H2S, and FeS dominated film over 4 bar H2S. Benefiting from the integrity of film structure and the uniformity of film composition, N80 steel experiences uniform corrosion in the formation environment of FeCO3 or FeS dominated film. However, the localized corrosion easily occurs in the formation environment of FeCO3 and FeS mixed film owing to the loss of film integrity induced by uneven precipitation of FeCO3 inside the corrosion product film.

High-entropy oxides (HEOs), as a new type of single-phase solid solution with a multi-component design, have shown great potential when they are used as anodes in lithium-ion batteries due to four kinds of effects (thermodynamic high-entropy effect, the structural lattice distortion effect, the kinetic slow diffusion effect, and the electrochemical “cocktail effect”), leading to excellent cycling stability. Although the number of articles on the study of HEO materials has increased significantly, the latest research progress in porous HEO materials in the lithium-ion battery field has not been systematically summarized. This review outlines the progress made in recent years in the design, synthesis, and characterization of porous HEOs and focuses on phase transitions during the cycling process, the role of individual elements, and the lithium storage mechanisms disclosed through some advanced characterization techniques. Finally, the future outlook of HEOs in the energy storage field is presented, providing some guidance for researchers to further improve the design of porous HEOs.

Abstract Due to low cost, high capacity, and high energy density, lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have attracted much attention; however, their cycling performance was largely limited by the poor redox kinetics and low sulfur utilization. Herein, predicted by density functional theory calculations, single‐atomic Co‐B2N2 site‐imbedded boron and nitrogen co‐doped carbon nanotubes (SA‐Co/BNC) were designed to accomplish high sulfur loading, fast kinetic, and long service period Li–S batteries. Experiments proved that Co‐B2N2 atomic sites can effectively catalyze lithium polysulfide conversion. Therefore, the electrodes delivered a specific capacity of 1106 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C after 100 cycles and exhibited an outstanding cycle performance over 1000 cycles at 1 C with a decay rate of 0.032% per cycle. Our study offers a new strategy to couple the combined effect of nanocarriers and single‐atomic catalysts in novel coordination environments for high‐performance Li–S batteries.

The formation of electrochemically inactive, or “dead”, lithium limits the reversibility of lithium metal batteries. Here the authors elucidate the (electro)chemical roles of ethylene gas produced from electrolyte decomposition on the formation of inactive lithium.

Abstract To meet human needs, domestic pigeons (Columba livia) with various phenotypes have been bred to provide genetic material for our research on artificial selection and local environmental adaptation. Seven pigeon breeds were resequenced and can be divided into commercial varieties (Euro‐pigeon, Shiqi, Shen King, Taishen, and Silver King), ornamental varieties (High Fliers), and local varieties (Tarim pigeon). Phylogenetic analysis based on population resequencing showed that one group contained local breeds and ornamental pigeons from China, whereas all commercial varieties were clustered together. It is revealed that the traditional Chinese ornamental pigeon is a branch of Tarim pigeon. Runs of homozygosity (ROH) and linkage disequilibrium (LD) analyses revealed significant differences in the genetic diversity of the three types of pigeons. Genome sweep analysis revealed that the selected genes of commercial breeds were related to body size, reproduction, and plumage color. The genomic imprinting genes left by the ornamental pigeon breeds were mostly related to special human facial features and muscular dystrophy. The Tarim pigeon has evolved genes related to chemical ion transport, photoreceptors, oxidative stress, organ development, and olfaction in order to adapt to local environmental stress. This research provides a molecular basis for pigeon genetic resource evaluation and genetic improvement and suggests that the understanding of adaptive evolution should integrate the effects of various natural environmental characteristics.

Carbonic oxide(CO) can effectively reduce the risk of hydrogen embrittlement(HE) of hydrogen pipelines by inhibiting the adsorption of hydrogen molecules on the inner wall, which provides a potential solution to ensure the safe hydrogen transportation by the in-service pipelines. However, the influence of CO on HE index is related to the microstructure of steel materials. A case study was carried out to X80 steel, for which slow strain rate tension tests were conducted on the base material, pre-strained base material and two different types of root weld under the conditions of nitrogen, hydrogen and hydrogen + 0.1% CO(by partial pressure, the same below), so as to study the HE index and CO influence degree of pipe body in different states. According to the results, the HE indexes of the base material, pre-strained base material, automatic weld and manual weld under the condition of 12 MPa pure hydrogen are 35.75%, 43.72%, 39.28% and 33.66%, respectively, showing a very high risk of hydrogen embrittlement. However, the hydrogen embrittlement sensitivity could be reduced greatly with the addition of CO. Specifically, adding 0.1% CO can lower the HE index of the four kinds of specimens to 15.66%, 17.54%, 23.16% and 25.33%, respectively. Among them, the HE index of manual weld has the minimum reduction, which is least affected by CO among the studying objects. Therefore, it is recommended to study the minimum CO addition that could inhibit the HE at various hydrogen partial pressures for the manual weld area in future.

Aberrant microbe-immune cell interaction is a predisposing factor in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colitis-associated cancer (CAC). Cortex Periplocae is a famous traditional Chinese medicine with putative anti-rheumatoid arthritis and anti-dyspepsia effects. Here, we show that the Periploca sepium periplosides (PePs), a cardiac glycosides-free pregnane glycosides extract from root bark of Cortex Periplocae, alleviates colon inflammation, improves intestinal epithelial barrier function, and prevents colitis-associated tumorigenesis in mice with colitis and CAC. Mechanistically, PePs treatment modulates abnormal gut microbiota composition in model mice, especially enriches an anti-inflammatory commensal bacterium A. muciniphila BAA-835. We further demonstrate that the altered gut microbiota following PePs treatment plays an important role in modulation of intestinal Type 17 immunity in both colitis and CAC mouse model. Our results indicate that PePs may be used as a potential gut microbiota modulator to treat IBD and CAC.

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Mg–xBi (x = 2, 5, and 8 wt%) were investigated compared with pure Mg. The as-cast Mg–Bi billets consist of dendritic α-Mg grain matrix, divorced eutectic Mg3Bi2 phase and secondary precipitated Mg3Bi2 phase. After homogenization, secondary precipitated Mg3Bi2 particles were all dissolved into the matrix, while most of the divorced eutectic Mg3Bi2 intermetallic compounds retained. All the as-extruded samples exhibit fully dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and the average grain size decreases and the amount of nano-scale Mg3Bi2 precipitates increases with increasing Bi content. Additionally, Bi alloying has little influence on the texture of the as-extruded pure Mg, with all the samples showing typical basal texture. As the results of grain refinement and precipitation hardening, the strengths of the as-extruded samples increase under both tensile and compressive tests. Besides, the yield asymmetry significantly decreases with Bi content. Moreover, all the as-extruded samples represent similar ductility under compression, while the tensile elongation first increases and then decreases with more Bi added. The as-extruded Mg–5Bi alloy demonstrates good combination of strength and ductility. However, Mg–8Bi alloy displays lower tensile ductility than that of Mg–5Bi alloy due to the presence of abundant undissolved coarse Mg3Bi2 particles, which act as cracking sources during tensile test. Furthermore, the strain hardening rate Θ, strain hardening exponent n, and hardening capacity Hc are greatly reduced by Bi addition, mainly owing to the enhanced synergy effects of grain refinement and numerous Mg3Bi2 precipitates.

Deep learning has been successfully utilized in many applications, but it is vulnerable to adversarial samples. To address this vulnerability, a generative adversarial network (GAN) has been used to train a robust classifier. This paper presents a novel GAN model and its implementation to defend against L∞ and L2 constraint gradient-based adversarial attacks. The proposed model is inspired by some of the related work, but it includes multiple new designs such as a dual generator architecture, four new generator input formulations, and two unique implementations with L∞ and L2 norm constraint vector outputs. The new formulations and parameter settings of GAN are proposed and evaluated to address the limitations of adversarial training and defensive GAN training strategies, such as gradient masking and training complexity. Furthermore, the training epoch parameter has been evaluated to determine its effect on the overall training results. The experimental results indicate that the optimal formulation of GAN adversarial training must utilize more gradient information from the target classifier. The results also demonstrate that GANs can overcome gradient masking and produce effective perturbation to augment the data. The model can defend PGD L2 128/255 norm perturbation with over 60% accuracy and PGD L∞ 8/255 norm perturbation with around 45% accuracy. The results have also revealed that robustness can be transferred between the constraints of the proposed model. In addition, a robustness–accuracy tradeoff was discovered, along with overfitting and the generalization capabilities of the generator and classifier. These limitations and ideas for future work will be discussed.

16 Mg–Al–Zn–Bi quaternary alloys were utilized to measure the phase equilibria and transformation temperatures in the Mg-rich Mg–Al–Zn–Bi quaternary system by means of the X-ray diffraction, electron probe micro-analysis and differential scanning calorimetry techniques. The isothermal section at 400 °C and three vertical sections along Mg–8 wt%Al–0.75 wt%Zn–xBi, Mg–3.4 wt%Al–0.5 wt%Zn–xBi and Mg–6.9 wt%Al–2.3 wt%Zn–xBi in the Mg–Al–Zn–Bi quaternary system were constructed. Based on the literature data, the ternary Mg–Al–Bi and Mg–Bi–Zn systems were re-assessed using the CALculaiton of PHAse Diagram (CALPHAD) approach. The calculated phase equilibria agree well with the measured data. By directly extrapolating the constituent sub-ternary systems, the thermodynamic database for the Mg–Al–Zn–Bi quaternary system was developed. The remarkable consistency between the predicted phase equilibria and the presently measured data in Mg–Al–Zn–Bi quaternary system further demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of the established thermodynamic database. After that, by using the newly developed thermodynamic database, the growth restrict factors and the solidification curves in Bi-containing AZ series magnesium alloys were calculated and analyzed. It was confirmed that the grain size of AZ alloys can be refined with the addition of Bi, and the component Al had larger grain refinement effect than Bi. Besides, the amount of Bi had also noticeable effect on the solidification sequence of the AZ alloys.

Metal oxide anode materials are affected by severe volume expansion and cracking in the charging/discharging process, resulting in low capacity and poor cycle stability, which limits their application in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, a new strategy is uncovered for a preparing spinel-structured, multi-component transition metal oxide, (Ni,Co,Mn)Fe2O4−x, with oxygen vacancies as an LIB anode material. The as-fabricated material presented excellent reversible capacity and cycling stability, delivering a discharge capacity of 1240.2 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1 for 200 cycles and then at 300 mA g−1 for 300 additional cycles. It presented extremely long cycle stability even at 2 A g−1, revealing 650.5 mAh g−1 after 1200 cycles. The good lithium storage capacity can be ascribed to the entropy stabilization effect, the multi-cation synergistic effect, abundant oxygen vacancies and the spinel structure. This study provides a new opportunity to fabricate and optimize conversion-type anodes for LIBs with satisfactory electrochemical performance.

Pigeon breed resources provide a genetic model for the study of phenomics. The pectoral muscles play a key role for the meat production performance of the meat pigeon and the athletic ability of the High flyers. Euro-pigeons and Silver King pigeons are commercial varieties that exhibit good meat production performance. In contrast to the domestication direction of meat pigeons, the traditional Chinese ornamental pigeon breed, High flyers, has a small and light body. Here, we investigate the molecular mechanism of the pectoral muscle development and function of pigeons using whole-genome and RNA sequencing data. The selective sweep analysis (FST and log2 (θπ ratio)) revealed 293 and 403 positive selection genes in Euro-pigeons and Silver King, respectively, of which 65 genes were shared. With the Silver King and Euro-pigeon as the control group, the High flyers were selected for 427 and 566 genes respectively. There were 673 differentially expressed genes in the breast muscle transcriptome between the commercial meat pigeons and ornamental pigeons. Pigeon genome selection signal combined with the breast muscle transcriptome revealed that six genes (SLC16A10, S100B, SYNE1, HECW2, CASQ2 and LOC110363470) from commercial varieties of pigeons and five genes (INSC, CALCB, ZBTB21, B2M and LOC110356506) from Chinese traditional ornamental pigeons were positively selected which were involved in pathways related to muscle development and function. This study provides new insights into the selection of different directions and the genetic mechanism related to muscle development in pigeons.

Deep neural networks are exposed to the risk of adversarial attacks via the fast gradient sign method (FGSM), projected gradient descent (PGD) attacks, and other attack algorithms. Adversarial training is one of the methods used to defend against the threat of adversarial attacks. It is a training schema that utilizes an alternative objective function to provide model generalization for both adversarial data and clean data. In this systematic review, we focus particularly on adversarial training as a method of improving the defensive capacities and robustness of machine learning models. Specifically, we focus on adversarial sample accessibility through adversarial sample generation methods. The purpose of this systematic review is to survey state-of-the-art adversarial training and robust optimization methods to identify the research gaps within this field of applications. The literature search was conducted using Engineering Village (Engineering Village is an engineering literature search tool, which provides access to 14 engineering literature and patent databases), where we collected 238 related papers. The papers were filtered according to defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, and information was extracted from these papers according to a defined strategy. A total of 78 papers published between 2016 and 2021 were selected. Data were extracted and categorized using a defined strategy, and bar plots and comparison tables were used to show the data distribution. The findings of this review indicate that there are limitations to adversarial training methods and robust optimization. The most common problems are related to data generalization and overfitting.

In the present research, the microstructure and mechanical properties of low-density Fe-0.72Mn-3.7Al-0.53C steel were investigated after solution treatment at 900 °C, 1000 °C, 1110 °C and 1200 °C for 1 h. The density of steel is about 7.0 g·cm−3 due to the addition of a higher content of aluminum elements. The microstructure was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the mechanical behavior was analyzed by room temperature tensile testing. The results show that the microstructure of the steel is ferrite and martensite after solution treatment, and that martensite can be divided into dislocation martensite and twinned martensite according to different substructures. Part of the martensite grows in a mirror-symmetrical manner in order to adjust the strain energy that increases with the system undercooling to form twinned martensite. After solution treatment at different temperatures, the tensile strength and elongation of the steel increased and then decreased with the increase of the solution treatment temperature, and the tensile strength could reach 928.92 MPa, while maintaining excellent toughness and elongation at 5.89%.

Ormutivimab is the first recombinant human anti-rabies monoclonal antibody (rhRIG) approved for clinical application in China. In this study, a population pharmacodynamic (PPD) model was established to compare the neutralizing antibody activities of Ormutivimab and human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG), alone or combined with human rabies vaccine (Vero), in a phase II clinical trial, and to recommend a target dose for the phase III trial. The model was verified to fit the PPD data well. The stability of the model was verified by the bootstrap method. The level of neutralizing antibodies in vivo increased rapidly after administration of Ormutivimab or HRIG. Neutralizing antibodies with a strong activity were produced at 7 days (Ormutivimab + vaccine) or 10 days (HRIG + vaccine) after induction by the vaccine in vivo. Compared to that induced by HRIG + vaccine, the level of the neutralizing antibodies induced by Ormutivimab + vaccine peaked higher and faster. The levels of neutralizing antibodies induced by Ormutivimab + vaccine and HRIG + vaccine were similar within 21 days after administration. According to these results and the safety data, 20 IU·kg−1 was recommended as the target dose in the confirmatory study of Ormutivimab. Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT02559921.

In this study, the microstructure and related corrosion behavior of AM60 alloys with/without Ca and Y addition upon gravity casting (GC) and high-pressure die-casting (HPDC) are investigated by means of SEM/EDS characterization, immersion/salt spray test, hydrogen releasing, as well as electrochemistry examination. When utilizing GC, AM60 alloy with Ca and Y addition (named AZXW6000 alloy) has better corrosion resistance compared with AM60 alloy. Thanks to grain refinement and second phase networks introduced in HPDC, the anti-corrosion properties of the AM alloy seem much better than those of the GC counterpart. The corrosion mechanism of both GCed and HPDCed AM60-based alloys is also investigated in detail. The inspiration from present work can provide more thinking for developing high corrosion-resistant Mg alloys using different casting methods.

The paper presents the microstructure and mechanical property of pure aluminum (Al) fabricated by multi-pass caliber rolling at room temperature. The finite element modeling (FEM) simulation was performed to explore the changes in rolling force, effective stress and strain, and temperature under various rolling passes. As the number of rolling passes increased, the overall temperature, effective stress, and strain gradually increased, while the maximum rolling force decreased. In addition, due to the dynamic recrystallization (DRX), the average grain size reduced from 1 mm to 14 µm with the increase in rolling passes. The dislocation density increased and it gradually evolved into the high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs). Moreover, the initial cubic texture rotated to the brass component and finally changed to a mixture of Cube and Brass types. The highest tensile yield strength (TYS), ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation (El.) of caliber rolled pure Al (116 MPa, 135 MPa, and 17%, respectively) can be achieved after 13 rolling passes, which mainly attributed to grain refinement.

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae (M. hyopneumoniae, Mhp) is the causative agent of mycoplasma pneumonia of swine (MPS). M. hyopneumoniae infection causes inflammation in pigs and leads to considerable economic losses in the pig industry. Pregnane X receptor (PXR) is a pluripotent gene regulatory protein that plays an important role in regulating cytochrome P-450 (CYP) in pigs in the context of inflammatory responses, drug metabolism, homeostasis, etc. We previously reported that cytochrome P450 3A29 (CYP3A29) expression was significantly upregulated in pigs infected with M. hyopneumoniae compared with healthy control pigs. This experiment mainly focused on identifying the role of PXR in the regulation of CYP3A29 and inflammatory factors after M. hyopneumoniae infection by establishing pig alveolar macrophage (PAM) cells in which PXR was overexpressed or silenced. Our results showed that the overexpression of PXR could significantly improve the protein and the mRNA expression levels of CYP3A29 with and without M. hyopneumoniae infection in PAM cells. After the expression of PXR was inhibited, protein and mRNA expression levels of CYP3A29 were significantly reduced with and without M. hyopneumoniae infection in PAM cells. Moreover, PXR can regulate the mRNA expression levels of IL-6 and IL-8 during M. hyopneumoniae infection of PAM cells. In conclusion, these results suggest that PXR positively regulates CYP3A29 expression during the inflammatory response caused by M. hyopneumoniae infection.

Closed-cell aluminum alloy (A356) foams with different percentages of Al-Ti-B are prepared by melt foaming method, using Ca and TiH2 as thickening agent and foaming agent, respectively. SEM and Quasi-static compression tests are performed to investigate the effect of Al-Ti-B on the microstructure and compressive properties of aluminum alloy (A356) foams. The results show that foams with Al-Ti-B percentage of 0.3 wt.% possess good combinations of micro hardness, yield strength, plateau strength, densification strain and energy absorption capacity under the present conditions. The reasons are mainly due to the foams with Al-Ti-B percentage of 0.3 wt.% possess optimal eutectic Si morphology (with eutectic Si existing in the forms of particles or short fiber).DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.22.3.8559

A Mg-1.32Bi-0.72Ca (BX11) alloy having bimodal grain structure was successfully prepared by a novel processing route of combining extrusion and three-pass caliber rolling. The first extruded and then caliber-rolled (E-CRed) alloy demonstrates a necklace-like grain structure with ultrafine grains formed around the microscale deformed grains, which is remarkably different from the uniform microstructure of the as-extruded alloy. In addition, the E-CRed BX11 alloy exhibits strong basal texture which is mainly original from the microscale deformed grains. Furthermore, the E-CRed BX11 alloy demonstrates excellent comprehensive mechanical properties, with an ultra-high yield strength of 351 MPa and a good elongation to failure of 13.2%. The significant strength improvement can be mainly attributed to the significant grain refinement and much stronger basal texture compared with the as-extruded sample.

An exceptionally high-strength rare-earth-free Mg−8Al−3Bi (AB83) alloy was successfully fabricated via extrusion and caliber rolling. After three-pass caliber rolling, the homogenous microstructure of the as-extruded AB83 alloy was changed to a necklace-like bimodal structure consisting of ultra-fine dynamic recrystallized (DRXed) grains and microscale deformed grains. Additionally, both Mg17Al12 and Mg3Bi2 nanoprecipitates, undissolved microscale Mg17Al12, and Mg3Bi2 particles were dispersed in the matrix of caliber-rolled (CRed) AB83 alloy. The CRed AB83 sample demonstrated a slightly weakened basal texture, compared with that of the as-extruded sample. Consequently, CRed AB83 showed a tensile yield strength of 398 MPa, an ultimate tensile strength of 429 MPa, and an elongation of 11.8%. The superior mechanical properties of the caliber-rolled alloy were mainly originated from the combined effects of the necklace-like bimodal microstructure containing ultra-fine DRXed grains, the homogeneously distributed nanoprecipitates and microscale particles, as well as the slightly modified basal texture.

As lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode materials, porous carbons with high specific surface area are highly required because they can well accommodate huge volume expansion/contraction during cycling. In this work, hierarchically porous carbon (HPC) with high specific surface area (~1714.83 m2 g−1) is synthesized from biomass reed flowers. The material presents good cycling stability as an LIB anode, delivering an excellent reversible capacity of 581.2 mAh g−1 after cycling for 100 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g−1, and still remains a reversible capacity of 298.5 mAh g−1 after cycling for 1000 cycles even at 1000 mA g−1. The good electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the high specific surface area of the HPC network, which provides rich and fast paths for electron and ion transfer and provides large contact area and mutual interactions between the electrolyte and active materials. The work proposes a new route for the preparation of low cost carbon-based anodes and may promote the development of other porous carbon materials derived from various biomass carbon sources.

An AZ80 alloy with ultra-high strength and good ductility has been successfully prepared by a novel processing route of combining extrusion and caliber rolling. The caliber rolled (CRed) AZ80 alloy has a necklace grain structure with ultrafine dynamic recrystallized (DRXed) grains formed around the micro-scale deformed grains, which is remarkably different from the uniform microstructure of as-extruded sample free from caliber rolling. In addition, both the deformed region and the DRXed part in CRed AZ80 alloy exhibit more random basal texture than that of the as-extruded sample. Furthermore, the CRed AZ80 alloy demonstrates an excellent comprehensive mechanical property with the ultimate tensile strength of 446MPa and elongation of 13%, respectively. These good mechanical properties of CRed AZ80 alloy can be attributed to the synthetic effects of necklace bimodal microstructure containing ultra-fine grains, profuse Mg17Al12 precipitates, and the modified texture.

Na3V(PO4)2 was reported recently as a novel cathode material with high theoretical energy density for Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). However, whether V3+/V4+/V5+ multielectron reactions can be realized during the charging process is still an open question. In this work, Na3V(PO4)2 is synthesized by using a solid-state method. Its atomic composition and crystal structure are verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and neutron diffraction (ND) joint refinement. The electrochemical performance of Na3V(PO4)2 is evaluated in two different voltage windows, namely 2.5−3.8 and 2.5−4.3 V. 51V solid-state NMR (ssNMR) results disclose the presence of V5+ in Na2−xV(PO4)2 when charging Na3V(PO4)2 to 4.3 V, confirming Na3V(PO4)2 is a potential high energy density cathode through realization of V3+/V4+/V5+ multielectron reactions.

To improve glucose electrocatalytic performance, one efficient manner is to develop a novel Cu-Ag bimetallic composite with fertile porosity and unique architecture. Herein, the self-supported electrode with CuxO/Ag2O (x = 1, 2) nanowires grown in-situ on a nanoporous Cu-Ag network (CuxO/Ag2O@NP-CuAg) has been successfully designed by a facile two-step approach. The integrated hierarchical porous structure, the tip-converged CuxO/Ag2O nanowires combined with the interconnected porous conductive substrate, are favorable to provide more reactive sites and improve ions or electrons transportation. Compared with monometallic Cu2O nanowires integrated with nanoporous Cu matrix (Cu2O@NP-Cu), the bimetallic CuxO/Ag2O@NP-CuAg composites exhibit the enhanced electrocatalytic performance for glucose. Moreover, the higher sensitivity of ~1.49 mA mM−1 cm−2 in conjunction with a wider linear range of 17 mM for the CuxO/Ag2O@NP-CuAg electrode anodized for 10 min are attributed to the synergistic effect of porous structure and bimetallic CuxO/Ag2O nanowires. Particularly, the integrated CuxO/Ag2O@NP-CuAg composites possess good flexibility, which has been reported for the first time. Accordingly, the CuxO/Ag2O@NP-CuAg with excellent glucose electrocatalytic performance and good flexibility is promising to further develop as a candidate electrode material of glucose sensors.

Dealloying, a famous ancient etching technique, was used to produce nanoporous metals decades ago. With the development of dealloying techniques and theories, various interesting dealloying products including nanoporous metals/alloys, metal oxides and composites, which exhibit excellent catalytic, optical and sensing performance, have been developed in recent years. As a result, the research on dealloying products is of great importance for developing new materials with superior physical and chemical properties. In this paper, typical dealloying products from Cu-based metallic glasses after dealloying in hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid solutions are summarized. Several potential application fields of these dealloying products are discussed. A promising application of nanoporous Cu (NPC) and NPC-contained composites related to the energy storage field is introduced. It is expected that more promising dealloying products could be developed for practical energy storage applications.

Macrostructure has an important effect on the compressive properties of closed-cell aluminum foams. Meanwhile, the decomposition behavior of a foaming agent has a significant influence on the macrostructure of closed-cell aluminum foams. In order to get optimal compressive properties on aluminum foams, it is important to obtain the optimal decomposition behavior of a foaming agent. In this paper, different heat treatment temperatures and fixed heat treatment were employed to investigate the decomposition behavior of titanium hydride. For a more intuitive understanding of their decomposition characteristics of the pretreated titanium hydrides, closed-cell commercially pure Al foams were prepared by melt foaming method using different types of pretreated titanium hydrides as foaming agent. In addition, the macrostructures and quasi-static compressive properties were used to evaluate the pretreatment effect. The results showed that pretreatments have a significant influence on the macrostructure and compressive properties of aluminum foams. The decomposition characteristics of titanium hydride pretreated at 753 K for 30 min are most suitable for the preparation of closed-cell aluminum foams under present conditions, as the foams possess good combination of pore size distribution, yield strength and energy absorption capacity. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.20.4.6082

Free dealloying of Cu-Hf-Al metallic glasses in HCl electrolytes are studied in this paper. The results show that the electrolyte concentration and dealloying time strongly influence the type of dealloying products. A superficial dealloying happens in diluted HCl electrolytes while a complete dealloying occurs in concentrated HCl electrolytes. The results present that Cu2O microparticles with regular morphology can be tailored on glassy surfaces in 0. 05 M HCl solution by controlling the dealloying time. Furthermore, the designable products of nanoporous Cu, Cu2O nanoplates and CuO microwires can be fabricated in 1. 2 M HCl electrolyte with the dealloying time. Due to a big difference of examined Cu-Hf-Al alloys in the electrolyte concentration and dealloying time, one or mixed dealloying products (Cu, Cu2O and CuO), which depend on the progress of relative chemical reactions and the different dealloying route, will finally be produced.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) present excellent mechanical properties. However, the exploitation of chemical properties of HEAs is far less than that of mechanical properties, which is mainly limited by the low specific surface area of HEAs synthesized by traditional methods. Thus, it is vital to develop new routes to fabricate HEAs with novel three-dimensional structures and a high specific surface area. Herein, we develop a facile approach to fabricate nanoporous noble metal quasi-HEA microspheres by melt-spinning and dealloying. The as-obtained nanoporous Cu30Au23Pt22Pd25 quasi-HEA microspheres present a hierarchical porous structure with a high specific surface area of 69.5 m2/g and a multiphase approximatively componential solid solution characteristic with a broad single-group face-centered cubic XRD pattern, which is different from the traditional single-phase or two-phase solid solution HEAs. To differentiate, these are named quasi-HEAs. The synthetic strategy proposed in this paper opens the door for the synthesis of porous quasi-HEAs related materials, and is expected to promote further applications of quasi-HEAs in various chemical fields.

Mg-Zn-Ca amorphous alloys are considered as potential bone implants. A large number of works have focused on the alloys under free corrosion environment. However, the real service environment of bone implants is a kind of chemistry-mechanics interactive environment in which the materials not only suffer corrosion by body fluids but also bear applied force induced by body movement. In order to imitate the real service environment, surface morphologies and mechanical properties of Mg-Zn-Ca amorphous alloys were studied under different chemistry-mechanics interactive environments in this paper. It was found that cracks and Ca/Mg phosphates formed on the surface of amorphous alloys. The compressive strength of the alloys decreased seriously but could still reach an acceptable value to avoid material failure. Fan-shaped patterns found on all the samples implied that brittle fracture was the main fracture form. Moreover, vein-like patterns could still be found in some areas, showing a locally plastic deformation. This was the reason why the alloy could maintain a high compressive strength after severe and interactive treatments. The study could guide related works in the establishment of experimental environments in the future, which will facilitate a more accurate biomedical evaluation of bone implants.

Cu xO(x = 1,2)/amorphous compounds have been successfully synthesized by chemical free dealloying and spontaneous oxidation method. Technological parameters, such as the acid concentration and dealloying time strongly influence the crystal type, size and morphology of coppery oxide. The further study shows that with the increase of HCl concentration, the surface coverage rate of Cu2O micro-flowers increases and the sizes of Cu2O micro-flowers get bigger. Moreover, it is observed that cracks are formed on the etched ribbon surface and plentiful Cu2O/CuO particles grow up from these crack walls if the dealloying time extends to long enough. Considering many fascinating properties of Cu2O/CuO particles and the amorphous alloy carrier, potential application fields of these amazing compounds will be developed in future.

A wedge-shaped copper mold was used to fabricate micro quasicrystals(QCs). Stable Mg-Zn-Y-based nano-QCs were directly synthesized through this simple route instead of crystallization from metallic glasses or complicated forming processes at high temperature. The study showed that on the tips of the wedge-shaped ingots, the minimum diameter of nano-QCs approach to 4~6 nm. The main size of nano-QCs is about 10~30 nm. The maximum microhardness of QCs has been dramatically improved to about HV440 which increased by about 280% compared with that of the petal-like QCs fabricated under common cast iron mold cooling conditions. Possessing a certain negative enthalpy of mixing and existence of Frank-Kasper-type phases determined the formation of Mg-Zn-Y-based nano-QCs. The further electrochemical studies showed that Mg71Zn26Y2Cu1 nano-QC alloy possess high corrosion resistance in simulated seawater and its corrosion resistance is much better than those of the Mg72Zn26Y2 and Mg71Zn26Y2Cu0.5 Ni0.5 nano-QC alloys.

Mg‒Zn‒Ca metallic glasses are regarded as promising biodegradable materials. Previous studies on this alloy system have mostly focused on the composition regions with a large critical size (Dc) for the formation of metallic glasses, while this paper investigates the composition regions with a small Dc, which has been overlooked by researchers for a long time. The effects of the addition of Ag, Nd, and Yb elements on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Mg‒Zn‒Ca metallic glasses were studied. It was found that the Mg‒Zn‒Ca metallic glass exhibits a single and uniform amorphous structure with a compressive strength of 590 MPa. After the addition of a small amount of Ag into the alloy, the amorphous matrix is retained and new precipitate phases that lead to the decrease of the compressive strength are formed. The addition of the rare earth elements Nd and Yb changes the microstructure from a single amorphous matrix to a large number of quasicrystal phases, which results in an increase in compressive strength. The compressive strength of the Mg‒Zn‒Ca‒Yb alloy increases to 606.2 MPa due to the formation of multi-layered swirling solidified structure and a large number of small quasicrystals with high microhardness. Moreover, this study can be considered as a useful supplement to the existing studies on the Mg‒Zn‒Ca alloy system; it also provides new ideas for designing the microstructure and spatial structure of quasicrystal containing alloys with high performances.

Corrosion has been responsible for several gas pipeline leakage accidents; thus, clarifying its failure mechanisms is a precondition to prevent such accidents. On the basis of failure analysis of corroded pipe sections, laboratory exposure tests were conducted by simulating three possible corrosion environments inside a gas pipeline. The corrosion rate indicated by depth change was adopted in this study. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to analyze corrosion products. Results showed that the specimens completely immersed in condensate water were generally corroded and that the specimens exposed to gas were locally corroded. However, the corrosion rate of the latter was slightly lower; hence, no autocatalysis of occluded corrosion cell occurred in the formation of corrosion pit, and uniform corrosion occurred in the precipitation location of condensate water. The areas in the range of 5 mm below the waterline indicated severe corrosion, and the rate could reach twice that of other areas. The corrosion products were mainly FeO(OH) and FeCO3, thereby proving that the corrosion failure of pipelines was caused by oxygen absorption corrosion and CO2 corrosion. Suggestions were presented to control corrosion failure of associated gas pipelines.

The closed-cell micro-pore magnesium composite foam with hollow ceramic microspheres (CMs) was fabricated by a modified melt foaming method. The effect of CMs on the compressive deformation behavior of CM-containing magnesium composite foam was investigated. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used for observation of the microstructure. Finite element modeling of the magnesium composite foam was established to predict localized stress, fracture of CMs, and the compressive deformation behavior of the foam. The results showed that CMs and pores directly affected the compressive deformation behavior of the magnesium composite foam by sharing a part of load applied on the foam. Meanwhile, the presence of Mg2Si phase influenced the mechanical properties of the foam by acting as the crack source during the compression process.

The mechanical properties and degradation behavior of both as-cast and extruded Mg(100−7x)Zn6xYx alloys (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 at %) were systematically studied in this paper. The results indicated that with the increase in x value, the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the Mg(100−7x)Zn6xYx alloys were improved. The extruded Mg95.8Zn3.6Y0.6 alloy exhibited excellent mechanical properties, showing a tensile strength of 320 MPa, yield strength of 240 MPa, and elongation of 16%, which is much higher than that of commercially extruded AZ31 alloy. The weight loss experiment presented a higher degradation rate for the extruded Mg95.8Zn3.6Y0.6 alloy compared with the wrought AZ31 alloy, indicating a good bioactivity and biocompatibility. More detailed and long-term studies for evaluating and further controlling the degradation behavior of Mg–Zn–Y-based alloys remain to be performed.

Cu50Zr45Al5 bulk metallic glass (BMG) presents high fracture strength. For improving its plasticity and controlling its mechanical properties, superficial dealloying of the BMG was performed. A composite structure containing an inner rod-shaped Cu-Zr-Al amorphous core with high strength and an outer dealloyed nanoporous layer with high energy absorption capacity was obtained. The microstructures and mechanical properties of the composites were studied in detail. It was found, for the first time, that the mechanical properties of Cu50Zr45Al5 BMG can be controlled by adjusting the width of the buffer deformation zone in the dealloyed layer, which can be easily manipulated with different dealloying times. As a result, the compressive strength, compressive strain, and energy absorption capacity of the BMGs can be effectively modulated from 0.9 to 1.5 GPa, from 2.9% to 4.7%, and from 29.1 to 40.2 MJ/m3, respectively. The paper may open a door for developing important engineering materials with regulable and comprehensive performances.

The stability of an electrodeposited nanocrystalline Ni-based alloy coating in a H2S/CO2 environment was investigated by electrochemical measurements, weight loss method, and surface characterization. The results showed that both the cathodic and anodic processes of the Ni-based alloy coating were simultaneously suppressed, displaying a dramatic decrease of the corrosion current density. The corrosion of the Ni-based alloy coating was controlled by H2S corrosion and showed general corrosion morphology under the test temperatures. The corrosion products, mainly consisting of Ni3S2, NiS, or Ni3S4, had excellent stability in acid solution. The corrosion rate decreased with the rise of temperature, while the adhesive force of the corrosion scale increased. With the rise of temperature, the deposited morphology and composition of corrosion products changed, the NiS content in the corrosion scale increased, and the stability and adhesive strength of the corrosion scale improved. The corrosion scale of the Ni-based alloy coating was stable, compact, had strong adhesion, and caused low weight loss, so the corrosion rates calculated by the weight loss method cannot reveal the actual oxidation rate of the coating. As the corrosion time was prolonged, the Ni-based coating was thinned while the corrosion scale thickened. The corrosion scale was closely combined with the coating, but cannot fully prevent the corrosive reactants from reaching the substrate.