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Converting non‐visual light into photocurrent while maintaining high visual transparency is vital for semitransparent organic solar cells (ST‐OSCs) application, yet often challenging over insufficient invisible light‐harvesting. Herein, spectrally selective optical manipulation for ST‐OSCs with high visual light transparency and full‐spectral non‐visual light reflection is proposed by matching the optical admittance of ultrathin Ag films using ZnS and MgF2. The reflection of optically enhanced ST‐OSCs at the spectral region beyond the human eye's response spectrum is improved and the transmission in the visual region is simultaneously enhanced. By further integrating an anti‐reflective structure, the optimal structure boosts the average visible transmittance and power conversion efficiency of ST‐OSCs to 44.3% and 12.6%, respectively, yielding a record light utilization efficiency of 5.6%. Corresponding flexible ST‐OSCs with high mechanical stability implies that this work provides a facile and universal strategy for ST‐OSCs aiming at building integrated photovoltaics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the regional mass balance of European glaciers presents significant challenges due to limited measurements. While various albedo methods have been explored for individual glaciers, a comprehensive analysis of aggregated albedo methods is lacking. Addressing this gap, in our study, we examined five MODIS aggregated albedos (raw average, minimum average, average minimum, interpolated average, and cumulative) versus the annual mass balance for 12 Austrian and Norwegian glaciers from 2001 to 2020 to establish connections between them. We find that the raw average albedo is strongly correlated with the annual mass balance of Austrian glaciers (r = 0.91), while the interpolated average albedo is significantly correlated with the annual mass balance of Norwegian glaciers (r = 0.90). Moreover, we observe that high-elevation glaciers experience fewer cloud cover days, allowing the raw average albedo to reliably estimate the annual mass balance, whereas low-elevation glaciers are often obscured by clouds, potentially masking the true minimum albedo. Additionally, traditional indicators, such as the equilibrium-line altitude and accumulation area ratio, exhibit significant correlations with the annual mass balance of Norwegian and Austrian glaciers (r = 0.90 and 0.87, respectively), yet albedo demonstrates higher robustness. These findings provide a reference for selecting appropriate aggregation methods to reconstruct glacier mass balance from albedo observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of robotic automation, achieving high position accuracy in robotic vision systems (RVSs) is a pivotal challenge that directly impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of industrial applications. This study introduces a comprehensive modeling approach that integrates kinematic and joint compliance factors to significantly enhance the position accuracy of a system. In the first place, we develop a unified kinematic model that effectively reduces the complexity and error accumulation associated with the calibration of robotic systems. At the heart of our approach is the formulation of a joint compliance model that meticulously accounts for the intricacies of the joint connector, the external load, and the self-weight of robotic links. By employing a novel 3D rotary laser sensor for precise error measurement and model calibration, our method offers a streamlined and efficient solution for the accurate integration of vision systems into robotic operations. The efficacy of our proposed models is validated through experiments conducted on a FANUC LR Mate 200iD robot, showcasing notable improvements in the position accuracy of robotic vision system. Our findings contribute a framework for the calibration and error compensation of RVS, holding significant potential for advancements in automated tasks requiring high precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommender system has made great strides in two major research fields, rating prediction and Top-k recommendation. In essence, rating prediction is a regression task, which aims to predict users scores on other items, while Top-k is a classification task selecting the items that users have the most potential to interact with. Both characterize users and items, but the optimization of parameters varies widely for their respective tasks. Inspired by the idea of transfer learning, we consider extracting the information learned from rating prediction models for serving for Top-k tasks. To this end, we propose a universal transfer model for recommender systems. The transfer model consists of two sub-components: quadruple-based Bayesian Converter (BC) and Prediction-based Multi-Layer Perceptron (PMLP). As the main part, BC is responsible for transforming the feature vectors extracted from the rating prediction model. Meanwhile, PMLP extracts the prediction ratings, constructs the prediction rating matrix, and uses multi-layer perceptron to enhance the final performance. On four benchmark datasets, we use the information extracted from the singular value decomposition plus plus (SVD++) model to demonstrate the effectiveness of BC-PMLP, comparing to classical and state-of-the-art baselines. We also conduct extra experiments to verify the utility of BC, and performance within different parameter values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fluid ferroelectrics, called ferroelectric nematics (NF), have recently become available by incorporating strong polarity into rod-shaped liquid crystal molecules. Its unprecedented electro-optic properties have created significant excitement in soft matter research. The further progression from the NF phase to the antiferroelectric smectic Z (SmZA) phase, and ultimately to the ferroelectric Smectic A (SmAF) phase, represents a remarkable journey in emerging polar liquid crystal states. Nevertheless, the limitation of NF liquid crystal materials remains one of the prominent obstacles to physical property optimization and optoelectronic device development. In this work, we synthesized a series of fluorinated liquid crystal molecules with large dipole moments and systematically investigated their phase behavior. We designed them with a similar fluorinated aromatic skeleton and varied the structures of the terminal group and bridging bond. We found that the dipole moment density and shape anisotropy significantly affect the phase behavior. Notably, diverse polar liquid crystal phases, including NF, SmZA, and SmAF were observed. Through a multi-component mixing strategy, we successfully achieved a much-expanded temperature window and improved low-temperature stability not only in the NF phase but also in the SmZA and SmAF phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a balanced sutured manifold |$(M,\gamma)$|⁠ , we construct a decomposition of |$SHI(M,\gamma)$| with respect to torsions in |$H=H_{1}(M;\mathbb {Z})$|⁠ , which generalizes the decomposition of |$I^{\sharp }(Y)$| in a previous work of the authors. This decomposition can be regarded as a candidate for the counterpart of the torsion spin |$^{c}$| decompositions in |$SFH(M,\gamma)$|⁠. Based on this decomposition, we define an enhanced Euler characteristic |$\chi _{\textrm {en}}(SHI(M,\gamma))\in \mathbb {Z}[H]/\pm H$| and prove that |$\chi _{\textrm {en}}(SHI(M,\gamma))=\chi (SFH(M,\gamma))$|⁠. This provides a better lower bound on |$\dim _{\mathbb {C}}SHI(M,\gamma)$| than the graded Euler characteristic |$\chi _{\textrm {gr}}(SHI(M,\gamma))$|⁠. As applications, we prove instanton knot homology detects the unknot in any instanton L-space and show that the conjecture |$KHI(Y,K)\cong \widehat {HFK}(Y,K)$| holds for all |$(1,1)$| -L-space knots and constrained knots in lens spaces, which include all torus knots and many hyperbolic knots in lens spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All‐inorganic lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) have shown great potential in various optoelectronic device applications due to their excellent optoelectronic properties, but their poor stability remains a key obstacle to widespread application. The preparation of core/shell NCs is developed to improve their stability, but most of the coating for single NCs is incomplete, and the crystal orientation and interface binding of core/shell structures are still unclear. Here, a surface reconstruction strategy to synthesize CsPbBr3/CsPb2Br5 core/shell NCs with uniform coating structure is reported. The concentration of [PbBr8]6− monomer in the system is regulated by creating local low H2O concentration conditions to balance the erosion of perovskite by water and the overall heterogeneous nucleation reaction system, resulting in single encapsulated and well‐edged perovskite core/shell NCs. More importantly, advanced characterization tools are used to reveal the core/shell structural features of CsPbBr3/CsPb2Br5 core/shell NCs at the atomic scale, which has not been reported before, and the interface matching of the two‐phase binding is simulated by density functional theory calculations, which confirm that the CsPb2Br5 (116) facet can bind to the CsPbBr3 (100) facet with the lowest binding energy. The prepared core/shell perovskite NCs can still retain photoluminescence emission after >30 days in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy(NSRH)has the advantage of reducing postoperative complications and improving postoperative quality of life. The separation and protection of the pelvic plexus in NSRH is extremely important and challenging. Methods: 24 female cadaveric hemipelves were dissected. Morphologic patterns and compositions of pelvic plexus as well as relationship of pelvic plexus to the surrounding structures were observed and documented. Results: Two patterns of superior hypogastric plexus were observed, including fenestrated and cord-like shape. The origin of bilateral hypogastric nerves were inferiorly to upper margin of promontory about 1.6 ± 0.1 cm and parallel to the ureter in front of the sacrum. Pelvic splanchnic nerves(PSN)from the second sacral nerve, the third sacral nerve and the forth sacral nerve were observed combing with the hypogastric nerves within the lateral rectal ligament. The sacral sympathetic trunk can be identified anteriorly or medially to the anterior sacral foramen. We identified the boundaries of pelvic plexus as following: the upper margin is formed by the PSNs from the third sacral nerve, posterior margin by inferior rectal artery, and anteriorly by vesical venous plexus. The uterine branches from pelvic plexus were observed accompanying with uterine artery, while other branches were inferiorly to the artery. The PSNs were located beneath the deep uterine veins within the cardinal ligament. The upper margin of pelvic plexus was observed directly approach to urinary bladder within the vesico-vaginal ligament as a single trunk accompanying with ureter, between the middle and inferior vesical veins. Conclusions: Our study clarified the intricate arrangement, distribution and relationship of female pelvic plexus and the related structures to provide reference index for NSRH application. The innervation patterns of bladder and uterine were clarified, and by tracing these visceral branches of pelvic plexus, we suggest several new important land markers for NSRH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanosensitive (MS) ion channels provide efficient molecular mechanism for transducing mechanical forces into intracellular ion fluxes in all kingdoms of life. The mechanosensitive channel of small conductance (MscS) was one of the best-studied MS channels and its homologs (MSL, MscS-like) were widely distributed in cell-walled organisms. However, the origin, evolution and expansion of MSL proteins in plants are still not clear. Here, we identified more than 2100 MSL proteins from 176 plants and conducted a broad-scale phylogenetic analysis. The phylogenetic tree showed that plant MSL proteins were divided into three groups (I, II and III) prior to the emergence of chlorophytae algae, consistent with their specific subcellular localization. MSL proteins were distributed unevenly into each of plant species, and four parallel expansion was identified in angiosperms. In Brassicaceae, most MSL duplicates were derived by whole-genome duplication (WGD)/segmental duplications. Finally, a hypothetical evolutionary model of MSL proteins in plants was proposed based on phylogeny. Our studies illustrate the evolutionary history of the MSL proteins and provide a guide for future functional diversity analyses of these proteins in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multicomponent polymerizations (MCPs) are powerful tools to synthesize functional polymers with great structural diversity, low cost and high efficiency, which usually generate single polymer product. Herein, a robust one-pot diamines, CS2 and monoisocyanide-participated catalyst-free polymerization was developed at room temperature to produce polythiourea and thioformamide simultaneously in equal equivalent, which was featured with cheap monomers, simple operation and mild condition, affording various polythioureas with high Mws of up to 47500 g/mol in high yields of up to 98%. Polythioureas with varied chain composition and sequence-controlled structure could be synthesized in 62 g-scale from copolymerization or multicomponent tandem polymerization, enabling facile tuning of thermal property, crystallinity, mechanical property, and fluorescence. The abundant irregular hydrogen bonds endowed the polythioureas excellent glassy state self-healing property at room temperature or below 0 °C. This polymerization provided an efficient and economic approach to access functional polythioureas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction tasks over the nodes and edges of the real-world network structure should learn features used by us, which is useful in many tasks such as node classification, link prediction and so on. Recent research in such field of representation learning has significant progress of deep neural networks combined with a different network walking method. However, present feature learning approaches do not pay much attention to get enough global information combined with getting the diversity of connectivity patterns in the network. An algorithmic framework called as Global2vec and Global2vec-PMI of learning vector feature representations for nodes in networks is proposed. With such network embedding method, we learn a mapping of nodes to a low-dimensional space of features that maximizes the likelihood of the network neighborhoods information as well as the global statistics information of nodes. The global and local statistics of the nodes are used for modeling the loss function. We demonstrate the efficiency of our methods over existing state-of-the-art techniques for multi-label classification, link prediction in several different real-world networks. The proposed Global2vec can outperform the compared methods in all cases, and Global2vec-PMI outperforms others in most cases of BlogCatalog, PPI and Flickr dataset with Micro-F1 and Macro-F1 score for multi-label classification task. For link prediction task, generally, Global2vec-PMI is better when using Euclidean and Manhattan distance; for other distance metrics, Global2vec can achieve better performance. The maximum area under curve scores of all distance metrics is mostly obtained by the proposed global co-occurrence statistics-based methods. In conclusion, our work represents a very efficient way for learning vector representations of different network structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-polar m-plane GaN terahertz quantum cascade laser (THz-QCL) structures have been studied. One is traditional three-well resonant-phonon (RP) design scheme. The other is two-well phonon scattering injection (PSI) design scheme. The peak gains of 41.8 and 44.2 cm−1 have been obtained at 8.2 and 7.7 THz respectively at 300 K according to the self-consistent non-equilibrium Green's function calculation. Different from the usual GaAs two-well design, the upper and lower lasing levels are both ground states in the GaN quantum wells for the PSI scheme, mitigating the severe broadening effect for the excited states in GaN. To guide the fabrication of such devices, the doping effect on the peak gain has been analyzed. The two designs have demonstrated distinct doping density dependence and it is mainly attributed to the very different doping dependent broadening behaviors. The results reveal the possibility of GaN based THz-QCL lasing at room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Ground glass opacity featured lung adenocarcinomas (GGO-LUAD) display more indolent biological behavior than solid nodule featured lung adenocarcinomas (SN-LUAD) and have an excellent prognosis. However, the cellular immune characteristics of GGO-LUAD remain poorly understood. Methods: Immunohistochemistry technique was performed to stain related immune markers (CD8, CD103, CD20, CD138, CD4, FOXP3, CD68, CD163, PD-1 and PD-L1) and TGF-β from 15 patients with pure GGO-LUAD and 15 patients with SN-LUAD tissue sections (Paired cohort), and then, the related markers with significant differences were verified on 10 patients (Verified cohort) with both pure GGO-LUAD and SN-LUAD. For localization analysis of CD68 + tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and FOXP3 + Terg cells in tumor areas, pure GGO-LUAD and SN-LUAD were also stained for simultaneous detection of pan-CK, CD68 and FOXP3 by multiplex immunofluorescence. Results: In the Paired cohort, compared with SN-LUAD, only the infiltration of TAMs and Treg cells was significantly lower in GGO-LUAD. The infiltration of the remaining immune cells including CD8 + T cells, CD4 + T cells, CD103 + T cells, CD20 + B cells and CD138 + Plasma cells in GGO-LUAD, although relatively low, was not significantly different. Meanwhile, the expression of TGF-β was significantly higher in SN-LUAD. And the above results have also been confirmed in the Verified cohort. Moreover, there was no significantly difference in PD-L1 expression in GGO-LUAD compared to SN-LUAD both in the Paired cohort and Verified cohort. Conclusions: GGO-LUAD demonstrates an overall less active immune landscape as compared with SN-LUAD. TAMs and TGF-β may play an important role in the progression of GGO-LUAD. More importantly, PD-L1 expression in GGO-LUAD is comparable to that in SN-LUAD, indicating that there may be other reasons for the insensitivity of GGO-LUAD to immunotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-peptide binding is a critical step in enabling a peptide to serve as an antigen for T-cell recognition. Accurate prediction of this binding can facilitate various applications in immunotherapy. While many existing methods offer good predictive power for the binding affinity of a peptide to a specific MHC, few models attempt to infer the binding threshold that distinguishes binding sequences. These models often rely on experience-based ad hoc criteria, such as 500 or 1000nM. However, different MHCs may have different binding thresholds. As such, there is a need for an automatic, data-driven method to determine an accurate binding threshold. In this study, we proposed a Bayesian model that jointly infers core locations (binding sites), the binding affinity and the binding threshold. Our model provided the posterior distribution of the binding threshold, enabling accurate determination of an appropriate threshold for each MHC. To evaluate the performance of our method under different scenarios, we conducted simulation studies with varying dominant levels of motif distributions and proportions of random sequences. These simulation studies showed desirable estimation accuracy and robustness of our model. Additionally, when applied to real data, our results outperformed commonly used thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the complex structure of the wire rod of the stator end winding of a large turbine generator, this paper studies the equivalent method of the wire rod. We performed a three-point bending test on the wire rod structure using finite element software to obtain the bending stiffness and deflection of the wire rod. Then, the equivalent wire rod was established by a reasonable method. Moreover, the simplified wire rod is used to build the structure of turbogenerator end winding to reduce the calculation time. A mathematical model of the vibration of the stator end winding is developed by equating it to a composite shell to reflect its vibration characteristics. These research results will assist in designing and improving generator end structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industrial robot combined with a 3D vision sensor can be flexibly applied to many measurement fields, and repeatability is one of the key performances. When the robot runs for a long period, internal heating and environmental interference are important factors to decrease the repeatability. The traditional solution is to calibrate the robot dynamically and compensate the error based on kinematic model. However, a high redundancy model will increase the measuring time and dynamic error. In this paper, a time-variant model is applied for dynamic error compensation of robot vision measurement system based on an iterative optimization method. Firstly, the initial kinematic model is constructed and calibration spheres are scanned from different poses at regular intervals. Then, the model is extended to full-redundant 42 parameters. After that, a final model with low redundancy is obtained based on a time-variant identification criterion and an iterative optimization method. Finally, the experimental results on the FANUC LR mate 200iD demonstrate that the proposed method can maintain the repeatability within 0.069 mm on an automotive sheet-metal part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heating is a knotty factor contributing to device degradation of flexible organic solar cells (FOSCs), and thermal regulation plays a crucial role in the realization of long operational lifetime. Herein, a passive cooling strategy for stable FOSCs is proposed by boosting the optical‐thermal radiative transfer to reduce the insufficient thermal dissipation and the elevated temperature caused by irradiation‐induced heating, while retaining their flexibility and portability. A spectrally selective coupling structure consisting of subwavelength hemisphere pattern and distributed Bragg reflector is integrated into FOSCs to collectively enhance out‐coupling of infrared radiation and limit near‐infrared absorption‐induced heat generation, leading to a reduced heat power intensity of 292.5 W cm−2 and the decreased working temperature by 9.6 °C under outdoor sunlight irradiation. The D18:Y6:PC71BM‐based FOSCs achieve a power conversion efficiency of over 17% with a prolonged T80 lifetime as long as one year under real outdoor working conditions. These results represent a new opportunity for enhancing the operational stability of FOSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence revealed the role of tryptophan (TRP) metabolism, especially its kynurenine pathway (KP), in the communication along the gut-brain axis. However, the underlying characterization of such interaction was not precise. In the present study, the rat depression model was induced by chronic restraint stress (CRS). After depression behavior tests, seven segments (cortex, hippocampus, striatum, hypothalamus, serum, cecum, and colon) along the gut-brain axis were collected to characterize their KP metabolism. mRNA expression of IL-1β, IFN-γ, IL-10 and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) enzyme revealed a general inflammatory response and region-specific activated IDO1 along the gut-brain axis. Determination of KP metabolites and enzymes displayed a general KP activation with region-specificity, especially in the hippocampus and colon, where the changes were more pronounced. KYN and 3-HK were increased dramatically along the gut-brain axis; hippocampal KA revealed a significant decrease while colonic KA showed a notable increase, evidenced by the same alternation trends of the corresponding enzymes. The expression of quinolinic acid phosphoribosyltransferase (QPRT), the crucial enzyme to produce NAD+ from QA, was significantly upregulated in the gut but not changed in the brain. Pearson's correlation analysis suggested that kynurenine (KYN), 3-hydroxycaninuric acid (3-HK), serotonin (5-HT), TRP and kynurenic acid (KA) significantly correlated with depressive behaviors in rats. Furthermore, western blot analysis on nod-like receptor protein 3/2 (NLRP3/NLRP2) inflammasome signaling displayed that NLRP3 and cleaved IL-1β/caspase-1 were significantly activated in the hippocampus and colon of CRS rats. However, NLRP2 was only activated in the hippocampus. These results revealed CRS induced inflammatory responses along the brain-gut axis of rats might be controlled through the NLRP3/NLRP2 inflammasome signaling pathway, which may be the underlying regulator for CRS-induced TRP-KYN metabolic changes. This study provides a new experimental background for developing stress-related health products. [Display omitted] • CRS induced KP activation with region-specificity along the gut-brain axis of depressed rats. • TRP-KYN metabolic changes along the gut-brain axis were significantly associated with depressive behaviors in rats. • NLRP3/NLRP2 inflammasome signaling pathway may be the underlying regulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the daily data of visits for respiratory diseases in two grade A hospitals as well as meteorological factors and air pollution in Fuxin City from December 1, 2020 to November 31, 2021, PCA and RBF neural network were used to study the effects of meteorological factors and air pollution on respiratory diseases and predict them. The results showed that the number of daily visits was the largest in winter (accounting for 62. 5%), followed by spring (15. 2%), and it was the smallest in autumn (only 6.9%). The correlation between the number of daily visits and meteorological factors was higher than that of air pollution factors, and the correlation with temperature and ozone was the highest. The response coefficient of daily visits to each factor increased first and then decreased within 9 d, and the peak was 4 - 5 d behind. RBF and PCA-RBF neural network models were established to predict the number of daily visits, and the accuracy was 86. 3% and 95.2%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High permittivity rutile TiO2 has been regarded as a promising candidate for the capacitor dielectric in ultra‐scaled dynamic random access memory (DRAM), but its low band gap and low interfacial Schottky barrier cause the bothering leakage current problem. It is in principle possible to tune the electrode Fermi level to the mid‐gap of TiO2 for leakage current reduction. In this work, the generalized gradient approximation (GGA)‐1/2 method is shown as a viable first‐principles approach to predict the Schottky barriers of TiO2 based capacitors. Through RuO2/TiO2/RuO2 and IrO2/TiO2/IrO2 full capacitor calculations, the impact of trivalent cation dopants (Al, Ga, La, and Y) on the Schottky barrier tuning is systematically studied. Among the four dopants, it is discovered that Y doping is most effective in hindering the formation of oxygen vacancies by analyzing formation energy and crystal orbital Hamilton population. Y‐doped rutile TiO2 is a promising material for next‐generation high capacitance and low leakage DRAM capacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ZnSnN2 has potential applications in photocatalysis and photovoltaics. However, the difficulty in preparing nondegenerate ZnSnN2 hinders its device application. Here, the preparation of low-electron-density nanocrystalline ZnSnN2 and its device application are demonstrated. Nanocrystalline ZnSnN2 was prepared with reactive sputtering. Nanocrystalline ZnSnN2 with an electron density of approximately 1017 cm−3 can be obtained after annealing at 300 °C. Nanocrystalline ZnSnN2 is found to form Schottky contact with Ag. Both the current I vs. voltage V curves and the capacitance C vs. voltage V curves of these samples follow the related theories of crystalline semiconductors due to the limited long-range order provided by the crystallites with sizes of 2–10 nm. The I−V curves together with the nonlinear C−2−V curves imply that there are interface states at the Ag-nanocrystalline ZnSnN2 interface. The application of nanocrystalline ZnSnN2 to heterojunction solar cells is also demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Older patients hospitalized with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) have marked functional impairments, which may contribute to their delayed and incomplete recovery and persistently poor outcomes. However, whether impairment severity differs by race and sex is unknown. Methods: REHAB‐HF trial participants (≥60 years) were assessed just before discharge home from ADHF hospitalization. Physical function [Short Physical Performance Battery; 6‐min walk distance (6MWD)], frailty (Fried criteria), cognition [Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)], quality‐of‐life [Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, Short‐Form‐12, EuroQol‐5D‐5L], and depression [Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)] were examined by race and sex. Results: This prespecified subgroup cross‐sectional analysis included 337 older adults (52% female, 50% Black). Black participants were on average younger than White participants (70.3 ± 7.2 vs. 74.7 ± 8.3 years). After age, body mass index, ejection fraction, comorbidity, and education adjustment, and impairments were similarly common and severe across groups except: Black male and Black and White female participants had more severely impaired walking function compared with White male participants [6MWD (m) 187 ± 12, 168 ± 9170 ± 11 vs. 239 ± 9, p < 0.001]; gait speed (m/s) (0.61 ± 0.03, 0.56 ± 0.02, 0.55 ± 0.02 vs. 0.69 ± 0.02, p < 0.001); White female participants had the highest frailty prevalence (72% vs. 47%–51%, p = 0.007); and Black participants had lower MoCA scores compared with White participants (20.9 ± 4.5 vs. 22.8 ± 3.9, p < 0.001). Depressive symptoms were common overall (43% GDS ≥5), yet underrecognized clinically (18%), especially in Black male participants compared with White male participants (7% vs. 20%). Conclusion: Among older patients hospitalized for ADHF, frailty and functional impairments with high potential to jeopardize patient HF self‐management, safety, and independence were common and severe across all race and sex groups. Impairment severity was often worse in Black participant and female participant groups. Formal screening across frailty and functional domains may identify those who may require greater support and more tailored care to reduce the risk of adverse events and excess hospitalizations and death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molybdenum blues (MBs) have attracted increasing attention due to their tunable structures and properties, which make them applicable in numerous fields. In this work, a novel strategy to synthesize MB nanorings by irradiating MoO3 suspended in water/ethanol mixtures with intense femtosecond laser pulses is demonstrated. It is found that the MoO3 can be dissolved in the water during laser irradiation to form molybdic acid, which provides an acidic environment for the formation of MB. Concentrations of ethanol as low as 1% result in the formation of MB and by adjusting the concentration of ethanol in the solvent, the absorption band can be tuned due to the modification of MoVOMoVI entities. The MB synthesized in 30% ethanol appears the darkest blue and assembly of vesicles 115 nm in size is observed. At high concentrations of ethanol (>70%), HXMoO3 and MoO3‐X are preferentially formed instead of MB. The photothermal conversion efficiency of the MBs synthesized in 1% and 30% ethanol is above 40%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Gabapentin, originally an antiepileptic agent, was found to have anti-cancer activity on multiple cancer cells. However, its effects on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and associated molecular mechanisms are unclear. Objectives: In this study, we investigated the anti-cancer effects of gabapentin against HCC cells in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Human HCC cells were inoculated with various levels of gabapentin for 24 and 48 h. We utilized the MTT assay to detect the proliferation of HCC cells after gabapentin treatment. The effect of gabapentin on the migration of HCC cells was detected by transwell migration assay. We established a model of subcutaneously transplanted HCC in nude mice and observed the impact of gabapentin on HCC cell tumorigenicity in vivo. The changes in RNA expression in gabapentin-treated HCC cells were evaluated by RNA sequencing analysis, and the results were analyzed and further validated by qRT-PCR. Results: Gabapentin significantly inhibited the proliferation of a variety of human HCC cells in a time- and dose-dependent approach. After treatment with 10 mM gabapentin for 12 h, the transendothelial migration of HCC cells via membrane remarkably reduced. Three weeks after the hypodermic transplanting of HCC in nude mice with Huh7 cell line, the gabapentin-treated group had a dramatic decrease in mean tumor volume and weight relative to the controls. Relative to the normal Huh7 cell line, the results of RNA sequencing of Huh7 cells treated with gabapentin for 24 h showed the differential enrichment of genes involved in "energy metabolism", "cancers", "signal transduction", and "folding, sorting, and degradation". The genes CDH11 and ARHGAP15 related to cell migration were further verified by qRT-PCR. Conclusions: Our results suggested that gabapentin has an inhibitory effect on the growth, migration, and tumor formation of hepatoma cells, and the mechanism of gabapentin's inhibition on HCC cells may be related to some signaling pathways, which will lay a foundation for the future studies on branched-chain aminotransferase 1 (BCAT1) as a target for HCC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiNiCu0.025Sn0.99Sb0.01 is prepared using microwaves. However, an ultra-high electrical conductivity and electronic thermal conductivity are obtained by interstitial Cu and Sb doping, which could not effectively improve the ZT value. We introduce carbon dots (CDs) as a nano-second phase by ball milling to simultaneously optimize the thermoelectric properties. To our best knowledge, this is the first report on half-Heusler/CDs composites. Experimental results show that the introduction of nano-CDs optimizes the carrier concentration and mobility and dramatically improves the Seebeck coefficient through the energy filtering effect. The nano-CDs introduce more point defects, inhibit the grains growth, and form a specific carbon solid solution second phase in the matrix. The lattice thermal conductivity is reduced to the same level as TiNiSn at 1.96 W m−1 K−1 through the synergistic effect of point defects and phase and grain boundaries scattering, and the ZT value reaches a maximum of 0.63 at 873 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brain-like neuromorphic computing networks based on the human brain information processing model are gradually breaking down the memory barriers caused by traditional computing frameworks. The brain-like neural system consists of electronic synapses and neurons. The multiple ferroelectric polarization switching modulated by the external electric field is well suited to simulate artificial neural synaptic weights. Therefore, ferroelectric diodes' (FDs) synapses have great advantages in building highly reliable and energy-efficient artificial neural networks. In this paper, we demonstrate the FDs synapse, which is based on rare-earth metal-doped BaTiO3 ferroelectric dielectric layer materials. This performs short-term and long-term synaptic plasticity behaviors by modulating synaptic weights using pulsed stimuli to polarize or flip ferroelectric films. In addition, convolutional neural networks were constructed on the MNIST dataset and the Fashion-MNIST dataset to check the feasibility of the device in simulating bio-visual recognition. The results expand the application of FDs' devices in the intersection of artificial intelligence and bioscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rhizospheric melatonin application-induced drought tolerance has been illuminated in various plant species, while the roles of the rhizosphere microbial community in this process are still unclear. Here, the diversity and functions of the rhizosphere microbial community and related physiological parameters were tested in barley under the rhizospheric melatonin application and drought. Exogenous melatonin improved plant performance under drought via increasing the activities of non-structural carbohydrate metabolism enzymes and activating the antioxidant enzyme systems in barley roots under drought. The 16S/ITS rRNA gene sequencing revealed that drought and melatonin altered the compositions of the microbiome. Exogenous melatonin increased the relative abundance of the bacterial community in carbohydrate and carboxylate degradation, while decreasing the relative abundance in the pathways of fatty acid and lipid degradation and inorganic nutrient metabolism under drought. These results suggest that the effects of melatonin on rhizosphere microbes and nutrient condition need to be considered in its application for crop drought-resistant cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lead halide perovskite CsPbBr3 quantum dots (QDs) possess several desirable features which enable them to be promising candidates for photocatalysis. However, the instability caused by their inherent liquid-like ionic properties hampers their further development. Herein, this work employs the surficial molecular modification strategy and a multi-dimensional structure design to ease the instability issue. The additive 2-phenylethanamine bromide (PEABr) can serve as a ligand to compensate for stripping the amine ligands and passivate the surficial bromide vacancy defects of CsPbBr3 QDs in photocatalysis. In addition, PEABr acts as a reactant to form 2D and quasi-2D perovskite nanosheets. The addition of a small amount of these nanosheets into QDs can enhance their general stability due to their unique layered structures. Moreover, PEABr can trigger the phase transition of cubic CsPbBr3 into tetragonal CsPb2Br5. The newly formed Z-scheme homologous heterojunctions further improve the catalytic performance. Simulated photocatalytic dynamics reveals that our multi-dimensional structure favors decreasing the reaction barrier energy and then facilitating the photocatalytic reaction. Therefore, the electron consumption rate of our multi-dimensional perovskites doubles that of pristine CsPbBr3 QDs and also has superior long-term stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The extracellular calcium ions could promoted activation of MRGPRB2. • PLC-IP3-ORAI was involved in activation of MRGPRB2. • CACCS were involved in MRGPRB2 activation. A novel mast cell-specific G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), known as Mas-related G protein-coupled receptor-B2 (MRGPRB2), plays important roles in immune response. However, the opening of ion channels mediated by MRGPRB2 activation remains unclear. In this study, we found that [Ca2+]i elevation and voltage-dependent current generated by MRGPRB2 activation were correlated with extracellular calcium concentration. The increases in [Ca2+]i and voltage-dependent current caused by MRGPRB2 activation were blocked by U73122 (PLC blocker) or 2-APB (IP3 blocker) or synta66 (ORAI blocker). The voltage-dependent current induced by MRGPRB2 was inhibited by calcium-activated chlorine channel (CACCS) blockers, DIDS, or NPPB. Our results indicated the involvement of the PLC-IP3-ORAI signaling pathway and CACCS in MRGPRB2-mediated mast cell activation. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the fatigue fracture in a mounting bracket, which is attached to a front bumper. We conducted the macro- and micro-scale fracture morphology analyses and base materials characterization. We used a bracket made of QSTE 420 TM high-strength steel and did not find any metallurgical defects. Three cracks were formed on the bracket, and the cracks were initiated from the outer edges of the screws. From the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, we observed ratchet marks among the three cracks at their initiation positions with a similar distance between each other. We also observed fatigue striation in the propagation zones. We deduce from the macro- and micro-scale analyses that the three cracks were initiated and then expanded spontaneously with a similar growth rate. The stress concentration, assembly operation and joining effects cause the bidirectional bending fatigue fracture in the three locations. Optimized tightening forces and new gaskets are recommended to extend the fatigue life of the mounting bracket. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper establishes a new technique that enables us to access some fundamental structural properties of instanton Floer homology. As an application, we establish, for the first time, a relation between the instanton Floer homology of a 3$\hskip.001pt 3$‐manifold or a null‐homologous knot inside a 3$\hskip.001pt 3$‐manifold and the Heegaard diagram of that 3$\hskip.001pt 3$‐manifold or knot. We further use this relation to compute the instanton knot homology of some families of (1,1)$(1,1)$‐knots, including all torus knots in S3$S^3$, which were mostly unknown before. As a second application, we also study the relation between the instanton knot homology KHI(Y,K)$KHI(Y,K)$ and the framed instanton Floer homology I♯(Y)$I^\sharp (Y)$. In particular, we prove the inequality dimCI♯(Y)⩽dimCKHI(Y,K)$\dim _\mathbb {C} I^\sharp (Y)\leqslant \dim _\mathbb {C}KHI(Y,K)$ for all rationally null‐homologous knots K⊂Y$K\subset Y$ and we constructed a new decomposition of the framed instanton Floer homology of Dehn surgeries along K$K$ that corresponds to the decomposition along torsion spinc${}^c$ decompositions in monopole and Heegaard Floer theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) have been extensively studied in various systems since they are first proposed in quantum mechanics. Photonic BICs can enable optical mode confinement and provide field enhancement for nonlinear optics, but they have rarely been explored in nonlinear integrated photonic waveguides. Applying BICs in photonic integrated circuits enables low‐loss light guidance and routing in low‐refractive‐index waveguides on high‐refractive‐index substrates, which is suitable for integrated photonics with nonlinear materials. Here, second‐harmonic generation from telecom to near‐visible wavelengths is experimentally demonstrated on an etchless lithium niobate platform by using a photonic BIC for the second‐harmonic mode. The devices feature second‐harmonic conversion efficiency of 0.175% W−1 cm−2 and excellent thermal stability with a wavelength shift of only 1.7 nm from 25 to 100 °C. These results represent a new paradigm of nonlinear integrated photonics on a cost‐effective and convenient platform, which can enable a broad range of on‐chip applications such as optical parametric generation, signal processing, and quantum photonics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of different rolling processes on precipitation behaviour, crystallography texture, grain morphology, and their consequent effects on tensile properties for Al–Cu–Li alloy AA2195 was investigated in the present work. The H-T8 samples (hot rolled ​+ ​T8) presented better tensile strength and ductility (with serious strength anisotropy) than the HC-T8 samples (hot rolled ​+ ​cold rolled ​+ ​T8), due to their different microstructures and textures. The higher dislocation density was found in the H-T8 samples, which promoted the nucleation of main strengthening phase T 1 in the matrix and suppressed the grain boundary precipitation, resulted in better strength and ductility. The increase of the dynamic recovery (DRV) during hot rolling enhanced the generation of Brass texture, and brought serious strength anisotropy. The cold rolling was performed after the hot-rolling process for the HC-T8 samples which increased deformation energy and resulted in full recrystallization of the deformed microstructure during the following solution treatment. The formation of recrystallized microstructure reduced the dislocation density and the heterogeneous precipitate nucleation positions which limited the strengthening phase precipitation in matrix and accelerated the precipitation along grain boundaries, resulted in fewer T 1 precipitates, coarse grain-boundary precipitates (GBPs), and wider precipitate-free zones (PFZs). The localized strain may be concentrated on the grain boundary to induce the dislocation pile-up, breaking of the GBPs, and intergranular fracture during stretching. [Display omitted] • The dynamic recovery during hot rolling enhanced the generation of Brass texture, and brought serious strength anisotropy. • The cold rolling before solution treatment resulted in full recrystallization to reduce the strength anisotropy. • [ 1–25 ] The full recrystallization reduced the dislocation density, which suppressed the precipitation of the matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic restraint stress (CRS) is a widely used stimulus to induce anxiety- and depression-like behaviors, linked to alterations in tryptophan-kynurenine (TRP-KYN) metabolism in animals. This study assessed the effects of different CRS periods on anxiety- or depression-like behaviors and TRP-KYN metabolism along brain-gut axis in C57BL/6N mice. Results showed that one-week CRS decreased the open arm entries of mice in elevated plus maze and delayed latency of feeding in novelty suppressed feeding test. Four-week CRS reduced sucrose preference, increases forced swimming immobility time, and also induced anxiety-like behaviors of mice. UPLC-MS/MS analysis revealed decreased levels of the neurotoxic 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK) and quinolinic acid (QA), and an increase in the neuroprotective kynurenic acid (KA) in the hippocampus of one-week CRS mice; meanwhile, four-week CRS mice displayed a reduction in KA and increases in 3-HK and QA. In the colon, both one-week and four-week CRS mice exhibited significant reductions in 3-HK and QA, with a marked increase of KA exclusively in four-week CRS mice. Briefly, one-week CRS only induced anxiety-like behaviors with hippocampal neuroprotection in TRP-KYN metabolism, whereas four-week CRS caused anxiety- and depression-like behaviors with neurotoxicity. In the colon, during both CRS periods, KYN was metabolized in the direction of NAD+ production. However, four-week CRS triggered intestinal inflammation risk with increased KA. Summarily, slightly short-term stress has beneficial effects on mice, while prolonged chronic stress can lead to pathological changes. This study offers valuable insights into stress-induced emotional disturbances. [Display omitted] • This paper reported the effect of CRS periods on mice behaviors and TRP-KYN metabolism along the brain-gut axis at first time. • One-week CRS only induced anxiety-like behaviors, while four-week CRS produced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors. • One-week CRS increases neuroprotective KA in hippocampus of mice, while four-week CRS increases neurotoxic QA and 3-HK. • The colonic KYN were directed to QA both in one- and four-week CRS mice; but enterotoxic KA signally increased in the latter. • Based on TRP-KYN, slightly short CRS may be beneficial to mice, while long time CRS can cause mice pathological changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Nanocrystalline ZnSnN 2 with electron density of 1016cm−3 is prepared with sputtering. • Ag-ZnSnN 2 Schottky barrier solar cells are successfully fabricated. • Midgap density of states, Debye length and attempt-to-escape frequency of ZnSnN 2 are obtained. The electron density of ZnSnN 2 fabricated by different deposition methods is usually much higher than its conduction band density of states and this hinders its device application. By increasing the Zn/Sn atomic ratio of the alloy target, ZnSnN 2 with electron density of 1016 cm−3 is fabricated. The obtained ZnSnN 2 and silver deposited with radio-frequency sputtering can form Schottky contact which shows photovoltaic effects. The voltage- and frequency-dependent capacitance of the Schottky diodes is further studied. The interface between the Ag-ZnSnN 2 is abrupt with interface states of about 1013 eV−1·cm−2 as revealed by the capacitance–voltage curves. The midgap density of states of ZnSnN 2 is found to be constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An aging population is one of the key drivers reshaping health care systems. In China, the complex needs of its huge aging population require integration across the health and care sectors. Policies and progress: Over the past decade, the central government of China promulgated a series of policies to promote the establishment of aftercare facilities, specify approaches to integrate health and care service delivery at institutional and community levels, pilot long-term care insurance (LTCI) as a funding mechanism, and reform administrative structures in favor of integration. Progress has been made towards organizational and clinical integration of service delivery both at institutional and community levels. LTCI has been introduced as the financing mechanism covering long term care services. Discussions and Conclusions: The experiences of China in the integration of health and care could be summarized as a top-down approach in policy formulation and implementation, the significant employment of pilots and demonstrations, and the activation of market forces. However, China is still in the initial stage of integrating health and care and is faced with system-level challenges in its financing, management, and workforce, and faces technical challenges, such as a lack of tools, and standards. In the future, these issues need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An aging population is one of the key drivers reshaping health care systems. In China, the complex needs of its huge aging population require integration across the health and care sectors. Policies and progress: Over the past decade, the central government of China promulgated a series of policies to promote the establishment of aftercare facilities, specify approaches to integrate health and care service delivery at institutional and community levels, pilot long-term care insurance (LTCI) as a funding mechanism, and reform administrative structures in favor of integration. Progress has been made towards organizational and clinical integration of service delivery both at institutional and community levels. LTCI has been introduced as the financing mechanism covering long term care services. Discussions and Conclusions: The experiences of China in the integration of health and care could be summarized as a top-down approach in policy formulation and implementation, the significant employment of pilots and demonstrations, and the activation of market forces. However, China is still in the initial stage of integrating health and care and is faced with system-level challenges in its financing, management, and workforce, and faces technical challenges, such as a lack of tools, and standards. In the future, these issues need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silent information-regulated transcription factor 1 (SIRT1) is the most prominent and widely studied member of the sirtuins (a family of mammalian class III histone deacetylases). It is a nuclear protein, and the deacetylation of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor coactivator-1 has been extensively implicated in metabolic control and mitochondrial biogenesis and is the basis for studies into its involvement in caloric restriction and its effects on lifespan. The present study discusses the potentially protective mechanism of SIRT1 in the regulation of the mitochondrial biogenesis and autophagy involved in the modulation of Alzheimer's disease, which may be correlated with the role of SIRT1 in affecting neuronal morphology, learning, and memory during development; regulating metabolism; counteracting stress responses; and maintaining genomic stability. Drugs that activate SIRT1 may offer a promising approach to treating Alzheimer's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Descending necrotizing mediastinitis (DNM) is a serious and progressive infection involving the neck and chest and with high mortality if not treated quickly and properly. The aim of this study is to share our practices for managing this condition. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 9 patients diagnosed with DNM in our hospital between January 2006 and October 2019. Age, gender, origin of infection, length of hospital stay, microorganisms present, type of surgical treatment, and clinical outcomes were reviewed. Results: All patients underwent surgery to drain neck and mediastinal secretions and collections. Three (33.3%) patients were treated with transcervical drainage alone, and 6 (66.7%) patients were treated with combined transcervical and transthoracic drainage. Reoperations were reported in 3 (33.3%) cases. The average length of hospital stay was 22.78 ± 10.05 days (range: 9-40 days). The average length of intensive care unit stay was 6.44 ± 10.10 days (range: 0-25 days). There were no in-hospital deaths, and all patients were discharged home with good outcomes. Conclusions: To improve the prognosis of DNM, we suggest early and adequate debridement of all affected areas along with the proper use of antibiotics. A multidisciplinary approach involving both cardiothoracic and ENT surgeons is also required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is considered to be a serious threat to crop production around the globe. In the northern Shanxi Province of China (SXN), foxtail millet (or millet) is the main crop and generally grows under rainfed conditions. Existing literature has confirmed the millet yield reductions due to climate change in the past. However, little is known about the impacts of future climate change on millet production in the SXN. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the future climate change impacts under two emission scenarios (SSP245 and SSP585) and the potentials of shifting sowing date combined with supplemental irrigation as an adaptation strategy to climate change for millet production in the SXN using the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT). Two supplemental irrigation strategies were tested: one presowing irrigation only (PSI), and two supplementary irrigations (PSGI) adopting one presowing irrigation and one irrigation during the growing season. We found that the air temperature, solar radiation and precipitation during the millet growing season in the future (2021–2060) are higher than those in the baseline (1981–2020). The rainfed millet yield will decrease by 8.6 % (SSP245) and 16.5 % (SSP585) in the future without an adaptation strategy, compared to the baseline yield (2.43 t ha−1) in 1981–2020 under the conventional sowing date. The reduction in rainfed millet yield caused by climate change cannot be reversed by shifting sowing date, but can be slightly mitigated by a suitable advancement of the sowing date. Adopting supplemental irrigation in the future can achieve higher millet yield than the baseline yield, especially PSGI. Compared to PSI, PSGI consumes more irrigation water but has higher irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE). There is a synergy between shifting sowing date and supplemental irrigation in coping with climate change, and a later sowing date than the conventional one (30 April) is recommended under supplemental irrigation in the future. In 2021–2060, the best adaptation strategy to climate change for maximizing grain yield, IWUE and economic benefit in the millet production of the SXN is that supplementary irrigation is applied before sowing and on 20 July–30 July combined with the sowing dates of 10 May–20 May. • Future climate change has negative impacts on rainfed millet production in northern Shanxi, China. • Only shifting sowing date does not reverse the rainfed millet yield reduction due to climate change. • Synergy between shifting sowing date and supplemental irrigation in coping with climate change. • Suitably shortening millet growth period enables limited irrigation to obtain higher yield and IWUE. • Delaying sowing date and twice supplemental irrigation are suggested in future millet production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constructing the segregated networks is an efficient strategy to simultaneously achieve the high electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance in conductive polymer composites (CPCs). Herein, an advanced molding technique based on microwave (MW)-assisted sintering was proposed to prepare the segregated ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene/carbon nanotube (UHMWPE/CNT) composites. Scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy images indicated that CNTs enriched on the surfaces of UHMWPE granules through ball milling, and the clear and complete conductive networks were observed in UHMWPE/CNT composites in the following MW sintering process, revealing that a perfect segregated structure was successfully constructed. The segregated UHMWPE/CNT composites exhibited an excellent electrical conductivity and EMI shielding performance of 49.3 S/m and 50 dB, respectively, along with a low percolation threshold of 0.10 vol%. Meanwhile, benefiting from the volumetric heating, an ideal mechanical property was also obtained in prepared composite by MW sintering. Compared with the conventional molding method, MW-assisted sintering shows its unique advantages, including better structural construction, shorter processing time, and lower energy consumption, which provides an efficient and environment-friendly method to fabricate CPCs with superior conductive and EMI shielding performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Z-pinch dynamic hohlraum experiments have been carried out at the Julong-1 facility by imploding a nested tungsten wire array, which is configured with 20/10 mm diameter and 168/84 wires of 6.0 μm in diameter for the outer/inner array, onto a 10 mg/cc C15H20O6 foam converter with a radius of 2.3 mm. Detailed processes of shock formation, propagation, and radiation transfer of dynamic hohlraum were experimentally observed using an on-axis x-ray imaging system with simultaneous dual spectral channels. When the wire array plasma impacts onto the foam converter, thermalization of kinetic energy at the interaction zone generates a shock that propagates inward. The energy dissipated by imploding plasmas increases gradually, resulting in the strengthening of shock wave and finally the formation of the main radiating shock. During the propagating period of radiating shock, thermal radiation gradually transfers into the inner region, and a uniform hohlraum is produced when the main shock arrives at a radius of 0.8 mm in the experiments at the Julong-1 facility. The experimental results first describe the physics of about 100 eV hohlraum formations and may extend our understanding of Z-pinch dynamic hohlraums for future inertial confinement fusion applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant high-affinity K+ transporters (HKTs) mediate Na+ and K+ uptake, maintain Na+/K+ homeostasis, and therefore play crucial roles in plant salt tolerance. In this study, we present cryoelectron microscopy structures of HKTs from two classes, class I HKT1;1 from Arabidopsis thaliana (AtHKT1;1) and class II HKT2;1 from Triticum aestivum (TaHKT2;1), in both Na+- and K+-bound states at 2.6- to 3.0-Å resolutions. Both AtHKT1;1 and TaHKT2;1 function as homodimers. Each HKT subunit consists of four tandem domain units (D1–D4) with a repeated K+-channel-like M–P–M topology. In each subunit, D1–D4 assemble into an ion conduction pore with a pseudo-four-fold symmetry. Although both TaHKT2;1 and AtHKT1;1 have only one putative Na+ ion bound in the selectivity filter with a similar coordination pattern, the two HKTs display different K+ binding modes in the filter. TaHKT2;1 has three K+ ions bound in the selectivity filter, but AtHKT1;1 has only two K+ ions bound in the filter, which has a narrowed external entrance due to the presence of a Ser residue in the first filter motif. These structures, along with computational, mutational, and electrophysiological analyses, enable us to pinpoint key residues that are critical for the ion selectivity of HKTs. The findings provide new insights into the ion selectivity and ion transport mechanisms of plant HKTs and improve our understanding about how HKTs mediate plant salt tolerance and enhance crop growth. High-affinity K+ transporters (HKTs) mediate Na+ and (or) K+ uptake and play crucial roles in plant salt tolerance. This study resolves the cryo-EM structures of HKTs from two classes in both Na+- and K+-bound states: class I HKT1;1 from Arabidopsis thaliana and class II HKT2;1 from Triticum aestivum. These structures, along with electrophysiological and computational analyses, provide mechanistic insights into ion selectivity and transport mechanisms of HKTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An atmospheric‐pressure spatial atomic layer deposition system is used to rapidly deposit 60 nm zinc–aluminum oxide (Zn–AlOx) thin‐film‐encapsulation layers directly on perovskite solar cells at 130 °C without damaging the temperature‐sensitive perovskite and organic materials. Varying the Zn/Al ratio has a significant impact on the structural properties of the films and their moisture barrier performance. The Zn–AlOx films have higher refractive indexes, lower concentrations of OH─ groups, and lower water–vapor transmission rates (WVTR) than AlOx films without zinc. However, as the Zn/Al ratio increases beyond 0.21, excess Zn atoms segregate, leading to an increase in the number of available hydroxyl groups on the surface of the deposited film and a slight increase in the WVTR. The stability of the p–i–n formamidinium methylammonium lead iodide solar cells under standard ISOS‐D‐3 testing conditions (65 °C and 85% relative humidity) is significantly enhanced by the thin encapsulation layers. The layers with a Zn/Al ratio of 0.21 result in a seven‐fold increase the time required for the cells to degrade to 80% of their original efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membrane separation plays a crucial role in the current increasingly complex energy environment. Membranes prepared by metal–organic framework (MOF) materials usually possess unique advantages in common, such as uniform pore size, ultra‐high porosity, enhanced selectivity and throughput, and excellent adsorption property, which have been contributed to the separation fields. In this comprehensive review, we summarize various designs and synthesized strategies of free‐standing MOF and composite MOF‐based membranes for water treatment. Special emphases are given not only on the effects of MOF on membrane performance, removal efficiencies, and elimination mechanisms, but also on the importance of MOF‐based membranes for the applications of oily and micro‐pollutant removal, adsorption, separation, and catalysis. The challenges and opportunities in the future for the industrial implementation of MOF‐based membranes are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi‐walled carbon nanotubes grafted by polyvinyl alcohol (CNTs@PVA) were synthesized via free radical reaction process under ultrasonic condition and used in oily wastewater for the demulsification. FT‐IR, UV‐Vis, SEM and TGA were employed to characterize the as‐prepared CNTs@PVA. The demulsification performance in oily wastewater was estimated by bottle test. When the CNTs@PVA dosage was 80 mg/L, the light transmittance of separated water and the oil removal rate of the emulsions at room temperature for 30 min could reach 84.2% and 97.1%, respectively. In addition, the demulsification mechanism was systemically investigated by dynamic interfacial tension, interfacial activity, wettability, zeta potential and optical microscope. It suggested that PVA could tune the wettability of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes by the surface modification. The change of the wettability is beneficial to the migration of CNTs@PVA to the oil‐water interface, and accelerate the coalescence of oil droplets. The current finding provides a new non‐toxic and high efficiency demulsifier for the oily wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical trapping (synonymous with optical tweezers) has become a core biophysical technique widely used for interrogating fundamental biological processes on size scales ranging from the single-molecule to the cellular level. Recent advances in nanotechnology have led to the development of 'nanophotonic tweezers,' an exciting new class of 'on-chip' optical traps. Here, we describe how nanophotonic tweezers are making optical trap technology more broadly accessible and bringing unique biosensing and manipulation capabilities to biological applications of optical trapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eponyms were established to serve the purpose of honoring individuals who have made important observations and discoveries. The use of eponyms remains controversial, and important questions have been raised regarding their appropriateness. Although there have been instances where eponyms were abandoned, the remainder are largely embedded within the established literature making their disappearance unlikely. Physicians used a variety of techniques to describe signs of medical eponyms as a method for diagnosing deep venous thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE) or venothromboembolism (VTE). These methods (observation, palpation, pressure, or maneuvers), were detected during the physical examination and using bedside sphygmomanometer or radiographic imaging. Reviewed are both common and less frequently encountered VTE eponyms identified during the physical examination and radiologic imaging. Most of these signs have not been further studied and, therefore, there is a lack of information regarding their accuracy and reliability in clinical practice. • Signs were detected using observation, percussion, palpation, and sphygmomanometer. • Signs do not appear to be useful in distinguishing patients with or without DVT. • It is unknown if a combination of signs and symptoms improves diagnostic accuracy. • The use of eponyms confers historical, literary, and cultural information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]