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In this study, a novel wide‐bandgap small molecule guest material, ITOA, designed and synthesized for fabricating efficient ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) ITOA complements the absorbance of the PM6:Y6 binary system, exhibiting strong crystallinity and modest miscibility. ITOA optimizes the morphology by promoting intensive molecular packing, reducing domain size, and establishing a preferred vertical phase distribution. These features contribute to improved and well‐balanced charge transport, suppressed carrier recombination, and efficient exciton dissociation. Consequently, a significantly enhanced efficiency of 18.62% for the ternary device is achieved, accompanied by increased short‐circuit current density (JSC), fill factor (FF), and open‐circuit voltage (VOC). Building on this success, replacing Y6 with BTP‐eC9 leads to an outstanding PCE of 19.33% for the ternary OSCs. Notably, the introduction of ITOA expedites the formation of the optimized morphology, resulting in an impressive PCE of 18.04% for the ternary device without any postprocessing. Moreover, the ternary device exhibits enhanced operational stability under maximum power point (MPP) tracking. This comprehensive study demonstrates that a rationally designed guest molecule can optimize morphology, reduce energy loss, and streamline the fabrication process, essential for achieving high efficiency and stability in OSCs, paving the way for practical commercial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory genetic disease, mainly manifesting in the skin. Conventional therapies, such as glucocorticosteroids and corticosteroids, have adverse effects that limit drug use. Hence, it is imperative to identify a new therapeutic strategy that exhibits a favorable safety profile. Shi-Bi-Man (SBM) is a safe herbal supplement sourced from various natural plants, including ginseng, angelica sinensis, polygonum multiflorum, and aloe vera. Purpose: We aimed to find a potential treatment for psoriasis and investigate the underlying mechanism through which SBM alleviates psoriatic-like skin inflammation in mice. Methods: We investigated the effects of supplementing with SBM through intragastric administration or smear administration in a murine model of imiquimod-induced psoriasis. The changes in body weight and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) score were recorded throughout the entire process. Additionally, we used hematoxylin–eosin staining to observe the skin structure and performed single-cell RNA sequencing to explore the underlying mechanism of SBM in influencing the psoriasis-like phenotype. Immunofluorescence was conducted to verify our findings. Furthermore, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was employed to investigate the impact of Tetrahydroxy stilbene glycoside (TSG) on the expression levels of IL23 in HaCaT cells. Results: SBM remarkably alleviated the psoriasis-like phenotype by inhibiting IL-23/Th17 cell axis. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis revealed a decrease in the expression of Il17 and Il23 in keratinocytes and T cells, concomitant with a reduction in the proportion of Th17 cells. Meanwhile, the activation of endothelial cells was inhibited, accompanied by a decrease in the expression of Cxcl16. In vitro, the addition of TSG to HaCaT cells resulted in significant suppression of IL23 expression stimulated by tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). Highlights: SBM ameliorates imiquimod-induced psoriasis-like phenotype in mice. SBM inhibits IL-23/Th17 axis by decreasing Th17 cell proportion and IL-17 expression in keratinocytes and T cells. SBM inhibits CXCL16-mediated endothelial activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable material parameters, correct boundary condition settings, and a reasonably simplified numerical model are key to obtain reliable and reasonable analysis results. A new finite element analysis model for the HgCdTe infrared focal plane array detector is presented, which includes the core column. The thermal stress and strain of the new model and current model are analyzed, and their distribution laws are obtained. The results are compared, and the reasons are analyzed, which can provide some references for the simulation of infrared detector package structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular dynamic simulation along with experiments was used to study polycarbonate (PC) molecular conformation on composite interfacial properties. The interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) variations of composites with carbon fiber roughness were quite different between sized and unsized carbon fibers, which seem to conflict with the theory that rougher surface is harder to wet. By the results of molecular dynamic simulation, it was found that the conformation of PC molecules through solvent intervention could be higher, which is conducive to the formation of π–π stacking conformation between PC and carbon fibers and benefits the interface interaction, resultantly affecting the ILSS more when the carbon fiber surface area was low. When the specific surface area was high enough, the ILSS gets to a saturation value, because the fracture area changes from the interface to the matrix. It is concluded that the effects of sizing on ILSS varied with carbon fiber surface roughness, and the molecular conformation of the matrix affected by sizing or processing must be considered. Therefore, it is important to enhance the physical interactions with carbon fiber for thermoplastic resin matrixes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ginsenoside Rg3 extracted from Panax notoginseng has therapeutic effects on diabetes and heart diseases. However, the underlying mechanism of ginsenoside Rg3 on diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) remains unclear. 24-week-old diabetic db/db mice were treated with ginsenoside Rg3 for 12 weeks, then body weight, serum lipids, adiponectin levels, as well as cardiac function and pathological morphology, were measured. The targets of ginsenoside Rg3 and its regulation of the adiponectin pathway were also evaluated on 3T3-L1 or H9c2 cells. Ginsenoside Rg3 directly bound to PPAR-γ, improving adiponectin secretion and promoting adiponectin signaling. Significantly attenuated overweight, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia, as well as alleviated lipid accumulation and dysfunction in adipose, liver, and heart tissues, were observed in the ginsenoside Rg3-treated group. Ginsenoside Rg3 could be a promising drug targeting PPAR-γ to treat diabetic cardiomyopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonfullerene acceptors with mediate bandgap play a crucial role in ternary devices as the third component, further boosting the performance of organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, three F‐series acceptors (F‐H, F‐Cl, and F‐2Cl) with mediate bandgap are selected and introduced into the PM6:BDT‐Br binary system as third component to find the detailed influence of end groups with chlorine (Cl) atom substitution on the performance of ternary organic solar cells. Due to the increased substitution of Cl atoms on the end groups, F‐Cl and F‐2Cl as guest acceptors reveal a superior ability to regulate the morphology of blend films, contributing to the ordered packing properties and high crystallinity. As a result, F‐Cl and F‐2Cl based ternary OSCs achieve significantly improved PCEs of 13.89% and 14.67%, respectively, compared with the binary devices (12.70%). On the contrary, F‐H without Cl atom displays a poor compatibility with the host system, resulting in an inferior ternary device with a low PCE of 10.79%. This work indicates that F‐series acceptors with mediate bandgap are a promising class of third component for high‐performance ternary OSCs. And introducing more Cl atoms substitution on the end groups, especially F‐2Cl, will own a broad applicability for other binary devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between low-molecular-weight organic acids (LMWOAs) and minerals in nature has been widely studied; however, limited research has been conducted on the dissolution mechanism of sillimanite in the presence of different organic acids. In this study, the interaction between the sillimanite sample and LMWOAs (citric acid, oxalic acid, and citric/oxalic mixture) at the same pH was investigated. The dissolution rate of Si and Al was high during the initial reaction time, then slowed down in the presence of LMWOAs. The dissolution data for Si and Al from sillimanite in the LMWOAs fit well with the first-order equation (Ct = a(1 − exp(−kt))) (R2 > 0.991). The dissolution process of sillimanite in the organic acids was controlled by the surface chemical reaction step. The dissolution concentration of Si in aqueous citric acid was higher than that in oxalic acid. In contrast, the dissolution concentration of Al in oxalic acid was more than that in citric acid. The maximum concentrations of Si and Al in the presence of composite organic acids were 1754 μmol/L and 3904 μmol/L. The sillimanite before and after treatment with LMWOAs were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scan electron microscopy (SEM). These results are explained by the characterization of the sillimanite. Under the single acid solution, the (210) crystal plane with a high areal density of Al in sillimanite was easily dissolved by the oxalic acid, while the (120) in sillimanite with a high areal density of Si was more easily dissolved by citric acid. In the composite organic acids, the Si-O bond and Al-O bond in sillimanite were attacked alternately, leading to the formation of some deeper corrosion pits on the surface of sillimanite. The results are of interest in the dissolution mechanisms of sillimanite in the low-molecular-weight organic acids and the environmentally friendly activation of sillimanite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zn ions are widely reported to possess a depression effect on sphalerite in flotation. The effective adsorption of Zn ions on a sphalerite surface is critical to realize the inhibition effect. At the same time, zinc ions are easily hydrated in a slurry solution. Therefore, based on the first principle DFT calculation, the molecular mechanism of Zn ion adsorption on the surface of Sphalerite is further studied from the perspective of hydration. [Zn(H2O)5]2+, [Zn(OH)(H2O)3]+ and [Zn(OH)2(H2O)2] are found to be the effective components of Zn ions adsorbed on a sphalerite (110) surface in the neutral condition. Furthermore, the adsorption mechanism of [Zn(H2O)5]2+ on a sphalerite (110) surface is mainly via the hybridization of Zn 3d orbital in the structure of [Zn(H2O)5]2+ with surface S 3p orbitals. Additionally, the adsorption mechanism of [Zn(OH)(H2O)3]+ and [Zn(OH)2(H2O)2] on a sphalerite (110) surface is primarily ascribed to the hybridization of surface Zn 3d orbital with O atom of hydroxyl ligand 2p orbitals. In addition, the H 1s orbits in the water molecules have a weaker interaction with the sphalerite surface S 3p orbits. This work sheds new light on the adsorption and inhibition mechanism of zinc ions on a sphalerite surface in a neutral aqueous solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: l‐Glutamate is involved in many important chemical reactions in horticultural products and improves postharvest disease resistance. Quality decline of apple fruit caused by senescence and fungus invasion often leads to tremendous losses during logistics. This study was performed to evaluate the variations of quality attributes, carotenoid, sorbitol and sucrose metabolisms in apples (cv. Qiujin) after l‐glutamate dipping treatment. RESUITS: l‐Glutamate immersion maintained high values of L*, a* and b*, flesh firmness, titratable acidity, as well as the total soluble solids, soluble sugar, reducing sugar and ascorbic acid contents in apples. l‐Glutamate also decreased mass loss, respiratory rate and ethylene release, enhanced sucrose synthase‐cleavage, acid invertase and neutral invertase activities, whereas reduced sorbitol dehydrogenase, sucrose phosphate synthase, sucrose synthase synthesis and sorbitol oxidase activities in apples. Moreover, l‐glutamate inhibited lutein, β‐carotene and lycopene accumulation, and down‐regulated phytoene synthase, lycopene β‐cyclase, ζ‐carotene desaturase, phytoene desaturase, carotenoid isomerase, ζ‐carotene isomerase and carotenoids cleavage dioxygenase gene expressions, but up‐regulated 9‐cis‐epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase gene expression in apples. Conclusion: Postharvest l‐glutamate dipping treatment can keep apple quality by modulating key enzyme activity and gene expression in sorbitol, sucrose and carotenoid metabolisms. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ternary organic solar cells (OSCs) represent an efficient and facile strategy to further boost the device performance. However, the selection criteria and rational design of the third guest small molecule (SM) material still remain less understood. In this study, two new SM donor isomers, with α‐chlorinated thiophene (αBTCl) and β‐chlorinated thiophene (βBTCl) as side chains, are systematically designed, synthesized and incorporated as a third component in PM6:L8‐BO binary blends. It is noticed that introducing the SM donors guest has extended the absorption of photo‐active layer, induced desired component distribution vertically with enhanced crystallinity and reduced recombination process, leading to increased short‐circuit current (JSC) and improved fill factor. Moreover, due to the synergetic suppressed nonradiative loss and preferable morphology, the ternary OSCs feature improves open‐circuit voltage (VOC). Consequently, an impressive champion power conversion efficiency of 18.96% and 18.55% is achieved by αBTCl‐based and βBTCl‐based ternary OSCs, respectively. Furthermore, a record efficiency of 17.46% is obtained with a 330 nm thickness of αBTCl‐based ternary OSCs. This study demonstrates that molecular isomerization can be a promising design approach for SM donors to construct high‐performance ternary OSCs with simultaneous enhancement of all photovoltaic parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elevated mental workload (MWL) experienced by pilots can result in increased reaction times or incorrect actions, potentially compromising flight safety. This study aims to develop a functional system to assist administrators in identifying and detecting pilots' real-time MWL and evaluate its effectiveness using designed airfield traffic pattern tasks within a realistic flight simulator. The perceived MWL in various situations was assessed and labeled using NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) scores. Physiological features were then extracted using a fast Fourier transformation with 2-s sliding time windows. Feature selection was conducted by comparing the results of the Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) test and Sequential Forward Floating Selection (SFFS). The results proved that the optimal input was all PSD features. Moreover, the study analyzed the effects of electroencephalography (EEG) features from distinct brain regions and PSD changes across different MWL levels to further assess the proposed system's performance. A 10-fold cross-validation was performed on six classifiers, and the optimal accuracy of 87.57% was attained using a multi-class K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifier for classifying different MWL levels. The findings indicate that the wireless headset-based system is reliable and feasible. Consequently, numerous wireless EEG device-based systems can be developed for application in diverse real-driving scenarios. Additionally, the current system contributes to future research on actual flight conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restricted mean survival time (RMST) evaluates the expectation of survival time truncated by a prespecified time point, because the mean survival time in the presence of censoring is typically not estimable. The frequentist inference procedure for RMST has been widely advocated for comparison of two survival curves, while research from the Bayesian perspective is rather limited. For the RMST of both right‐ and interval‐censored data, we propose Bayesian nonparametric estimation and inference procedures. By assigning a mixture of Dirichlet processes (MDP) prior to the distribution function, we can estimate the posterior distribution of RMST. We also explore another Bayesian nonparametric approach using the Dirichlet process mixture model and make comparisons with the frequentist nonparametric method. Simulation studies demonstrate that the Bayesian nonparametric RMST under diffuse MDP priors leads to robust estimation and under informative priors it can incorporate prior knowledge into the nonparametric estimator. Analysis of real trial examples demonstrates the flexibility and interpretability of the Bayesian nonparametric RMST for both right‐ and interval‐censored data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Letter reports a millimeter-wave low-loss on-chip metamaterial based on a concept of a non-periodic composite right-/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL). Compared with a classic periodic unit cell, a non-periodic CRLH TL is proposed to obtain higher transmittance and better reflectivity. First, based on the CRLH TL theory, the LC values of the periodic transmission line were calculated. Second, Ti factors were derived using Chebyshev low-pass filter prototypes and the bandpass transformation theory. Third, these values were then used to calculate the factors of the non-periodic structure, which was eventually implemented using lumped elements. By analyzing the dispersion property, the proposed non-periodic CRLH metamaterial features both right-handed (forward wave) and left-handed (backward wave) propagating modes, which accounts for its wide bandwidth. For demonstration, a gallium arsenide-based integrated passive device process is adopted. As its main advantages, the fabricated metamaterial shows a high and flat transmission with minimum insertion loss of 0.68 dB at 30.2 GHz, and a low reflectivity better than −10 dB from 14 to 51 GHz of which the fraction bandwidth is over 120%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Sensitivity and specificity of colposcopy vary greatly between studies and efficacy in clinical studies seldom corresponds with effectiveness in a real‐life setting. It is unclear whether colposcopists' experience affects assessment; studies show divergent results. The study's objective was to investigate the accuracy of colposcopies in the Swedish screening program, the variability in colposcopists' assessments and whether degree of experience affects accuracy in a routine setting. Material and methods: Cross‐sectional register study. All colposcopic assessments with a concomitant histopathological sample from women aged at least 18 years, performed between 1999 and September 2020 in Sweden. The main outcome measure was accuracy. The accuracy of colposcopic assessments was calculated as overall agreement with linked biopsies, with three outcomes: Normal vs Atypical, Normal vs Low‐Grade Atypical vs High‐Grade Atypical, and Non‐High‐Grade Atypical vs High‐Grade Atypical. A time‐trend analysis was performed. The accuracy of identifiable colposcopists related to experience was analyzed. Results: In total, 82 289 colposcopic assessments with linked biopsies were included for analysis of the outcome Normal vs Atypical; average accuracy was 63%. Overrating colposcopic findings was four times more common than underrating. No time trend in accuracy was noted during the study period. Accuracy in distinguishing High‐Grade from Non‐High‐Grade lesions was better: 76%. Among identifiable colposcopists, overall accuracy was 67%. Some had significantly better accuracy than others, but no correlation with experience was found. Conclusions: Colposcopy, including in a referral setting, has low accuracy in distinguishing Normal from Atypical. Increased experience alone does not lead to improvement. This is supported by the substantial differences in performance between colposcopists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

P or PK addition significantly affected microbial CUE. The pure N addition was used to analyze the N effect on microbial CUE, but the data of N addition rate was not entirely correct in the dataset of Hu et al. ([2]). [Extracted from the article]

In addition to disease-associated microglia (DAM), microglia with MHC-II and/or IFN-I signatures may form additional pathogenic subsets that are relevant to neurodegeneration. However, the significance of such MHC-II and IFN-I signatures remains elusive. We demonstrate here that these microglial subsets play intrinsic roles in orchestrating neurotoxic properties of neurotoxic Eomes+ Th cells under the neurodegeneration-associated phase of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) that corresponds to progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). Microglia acquire IFN-signature after sensing ectopically expressed long interspersed nuclear element-1 (L1) gene. Furthermore, ORF1, an L1-encoded protein aberrantly expressed in the diseased central nervous system (CNS), stimulated Eomes+ Th cells after Trem2-dependent ingestion and presentation in MHC-II context by microglia. Interestingly, administration of an L1 inhibitor significantly ameliorated neurodegenerative symptoms of EAE concomitant with reduced accumulation of Eomes+ Th cells in the CNS. Collectively, our data highlight a critical contribution of new microglia subsets as a neuroinflammatory hub in immune-mediated neurodegeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The marriage of traditional gas-sensing semiconductors with low dimensional nanostructures is expected to exhibit interesting properties in the detection of hazardous gases. Herein, novel hollow-spherical heterojunctions are assembled for thin film gas sensors by using p-type black phosphorus (BP) and n-type tin oxide (SnO 2). Green synthesis strategies are employed to prepare BP nanodots and SnO 2 quantum dots. The aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition is used to prepare thin films with hollow-spherical heterojunctions. The BP incorporation significantly improves the gas-sensing properties of SnO 2 -based thin films, which demonstrate excellent response and repeatability to H 2 S at room temperature. The BP-SnO 2 heterojunction demonstrates more than twice the response and sensitivity of pristine SnO 2 thin film. Moreover, the recovery ability is significantly improved and LOD is decreased to 50 ppb. The hollow-spherical heterojunction has a joint gas-sensing mechanism contributed by both of SnO 2 and BP. The SnO 2 provides fundamental receptor function for gas detection while incorporated BP facilitates the adsorption of target H 2 S and provides additional electrons through the p-n junction tunnel. In addition, a slight negative dependence on humidity is observed for the gas sensor. It is ascribed to the competitive adsorption of water molecules on the BP-SnO 2 heterojunction surface against H 2 S molecules and chemisorbed oxygen. This work not only proposes novel heterojunction nanostructures for room-temperature gas detection, but also contributes to the functional integration of traditional gas-sensitive materials and emerging 2D materials in sensor technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-row stabilizing piles have been applied in the stabilization of large-scale reservoir landslides in recent years. However, the mechanical behavior and deformation characteristics of the multi-row stabilizing piles reinforced reservoir landslides have rarely been investigated. This study takes the Taping landslide, a large-scale reservoir landslide in China, as a prototype. Two centrifuge tests were conducted to study the deformation and failure characteristics of the multi-row stabilizing piles reinforced reservoir landslide with two different row spacings. The result shows that the reservoir water level (RWL) drawdown operation induced the soil movement and high downslope driving force, further causing a significant increase in bending moments at the lower section of the piles, with peaking near the sliding zone; eventually, bending deformation and failure occurred more easily near the sliding zone. The downslope part of the piles can change the mechanical transmission behavior of the multi-row stabilizing piles in reservoir landslides. Small row spacing can enhance the mechanical connection between the rows of piles and raise the overall reinforcement capacity of the piles. The large row spacing weakens the mechanical connection between the rows of piles, and the mechanical states of the pile in different rows are relatively independent. As a result, the piles are easily damaged one by one from the first row to the last row, and the overall reinforcement capacity of the multi-row stabilizing piles is poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium ions have been applied in the clinic in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. In this work, we report artificial supramolecular lithium channels composed of pore‐containing small aromatic molecules. By adjusting the lumen size and coordination numbers, we found that one of the supramolecular channels developed shows unprecedented transmembrane transport of exogenous lithium ions with a Li+/Na+ selectivity ratio of 23.0, which is in the same level of that of natural Na+ channels. Furthermore, four coordination sites inside channels are found to be the basic requirement for ion transport function. Importantly, this artificial lithium channel displays very low transport of physiological Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ ions. This highly selective Li+ channel may become an important tool for studying the physiological role of intracellular lithium ions, especially in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium ions have been applied in the clinic in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. In this work, we report artificial supramolecular lithium channels composed of pore‐containing small aromatic molecules. By adjusting the lumen size and coordination numbers, we found that one of the supramolecular channels developed shows unprecedented transmembrane transport of exogenous lithium ions with a Li+/Na+ selectivity ratio of 23.0, which is in the same level of that of natural Na+ channels. Furthermore, four coordination sites inside channels are found to be the basic requirement for ion transport function. Importantly, this artificial lithium channel displays very low transport of physiological Na+, K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ ions. This highly selective Li+ channel may become an important tool for studying the physiological role of intracellular lithium ions, especially in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blending polyethylene with thermoplastic polyolefin elastomers (TPOs) is a promising way to manipulate its structures and tailor its properties. Herein, three TPOs, i.e., two ethylene–octene copolymers (EOCs) and an olefin block copolymer (OBC) with different structures, were used to comparatively investigate the miscibility, crystallization, and phase behavior of their blends with a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE). It was found that large differences occurred in the crystallization and phase behaviors of the blends due to the different extent of similarity in the molecular structure between the TPO and the LLDPE matrix. In particular, a unique segregated phase morphology comprised a less stable crystalline phase and a rubbery phase was found in an LLDPE/EOC blend. The tensile performance and elasticity of the blends were also studied and correlated with the structures of the blends. This work not only provides novel results on the miscibility and phase behavior of the similar-structured LLDPE/TPO blends, but can also guide the design of LLDPE-based products with tailored performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Redox-active organic materials have shown great potential as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, most of them showed a low discharge potential. We report a thianthrene-based small molecule (BDBDT), which could be facilely synthesized, as a high-potential cathode. The BDBDT cathode exhibited good electrochemical performance with a discharge plateau at 3.9 V (vs. Li/Li+) and a discharge capacity of 63 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at 500 mA g−1 (∼10C). Our results demonstrate that thianthrene-based molecules are promising for the development of high-potential organic electrodes towards rechargeable batteries with high energy and power density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clay is one of the important base materials in slope restoration. The adhesion of clay–rock interface plays a decisive role in the repairing effect on rock slopes. Fibers and polymers are widely used as a clay improvement method in rock slope repair. In this paper, the friction effect of sisal fiber and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc)-reinforced clay was studied through the design of an indoor rock-like interface sliding model test. Using modelled test results and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, the reinforced clay was analyzed. The test results showed that the critical sliding angle and maximum static friction force of clay decreased with the increase of moisture content. An excess of fiber content and moisture content weakens the coupling effect of fiber-anchoring clay. Fiber content of 0.8% and PVAc content of 2% had the best effect on enhancing the sliding resistance of clay and provided good adhesion for dangerous interfaces of rock slope at 35° and 45°, respectively. PVAc formed a three-dimensional networked elastic membrane structure to improve the skid resistance and dynamic friction coefficient of the clay. The results provide an effective way for soil improvement and ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil moisture is an important parameter affecting environmental processes such as hydrology, ecology, and climate. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microwave remote sensing is an important means of farmland surface soil moisture (SSM) measurement. The inversion of farmland SSM by microwave remote sensing is greatly affected by vegetation cover. To address this problem, a multisource remote sensing inversion method of farmland SSM based on feature optimization and machine learning is proposed in this paper. Six typical machine learning algorithms suitable for small sample training, including random forest, radial basis function neural network, generalized regression neural network, support vector regression, genetic algorithm–back propagation neural network, and extreme learning machine, were selected in this paper. The features extracted from Sentinel-1/2 and Radarsat-2 remote sensing data were analyzed by Pearson correlation, and those with high correlation coefficients were selected to form the optimal feature subset as the input for the subsequent machine learning models. Then, the SSM collaborative inversion models under different machine learning algorithms were constructed, and comparative experiments were set up to select the optimal prediction model. The models' accuracy under different feature parameters were studied, and the difference in the performance between the dual-polarization SAR data and the quad-polarization SAR data in SSM inversion was explored. The experimental results showed that among the six models, the random forest model had a higher inversion accuracy, with a coefficient of determination of 0.6395 and a root mean square error of 0.0264 cm3/cm3. Meanwhile, the inversion accuracy could be greatly improved after feature optimization, and the inversion accuracy of the quad-polarization SAR data combined with optical remote sensing data, was better than that of the dual-polarization SAR data combined with optical remote sensing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Clinical benefit of paclitaxel-coated devices for patients with peripheral arterial disease has been confirmed in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A meta-analysis published in 2018 identified late mortality risk over a long follow-up period due to use of paclitaxel-coated devices in the femoropopliteal arteries, which caused enormous controversy and debates globally. This study aims to further evaluate the safety of paclitaxel-coated devices by incorporating the most recently published data. Methods: We searched for candidate studies in PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, EMBASE (Ovid) online databases, government web archives and international cardiovascular conferences. Safety endpoints of interest included all-cause mortality rates at one, two and five years and the risk ratio (RR) was used as the summary measure. The primary analysis was performed using random-effects models to account for potential clinical heterogeneity. Findings: Thirty-nine RCTs including 9164 patients were identified. At one year, the random-effects model yielded a pooled RR of 1.06 (95% CI [0.87, 1.29]) indicating no difference in short-term all-cause deaths between the paclitaxel and control groups (crude mortality, 4.3%, 214/5025 versus 4.5%, 177/3965). Two-year mortality was reported in 26 RCTs with 382 deaths out of 3788 patients (10.1%) in the paclitaxel arm and 299 out of 2955 patients (10.1%) in the control arm and no association was found between increased risk of death and usage of paclitaxel-coated devices (RR 1.08, 95% CI [0.93, 1.25]). Eight RCTs recorded all-cause deaths up to five years and a pooled RR of 1.18 (95% CI [0.92, 1.51]) demonstrated no late mortality risk due to use of paclitaxel-coated devices (crude mortality, paclitaxel 18.2%, 247/1360 versus control 15.2%, 122/805). Conclusions: We found no significant difference in either short- or long-term all-cause mortalities between patients receiving paclitaxel-coated and uncoated devices. Further research on the longer-term safety of paclitaxel usage (e.g., 8- or 10-year) is warranted. Registration: PROSPERO, CRD42021246291. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancer RNAs (eRNAs), a class of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) transcribed from enhancer regions, serve as a type of critical regulatory element in gene expression. There is increasing evidence demonstrating that the aberrant expression of eRNAs can be broadly detected in various human diseases. Some studies also revealed the potential clinical utility of eRNAs in these diseases. In this review, we summarized the recent studies regarding the pathological mechanisms of eRNAs as well as their potential utility across human diseases, including cancers, neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic diseases. It could help us to understand how eRNAs are engaged in the processes of diseases and to obtain better insight of eRNAs in diagnosis, prognosis or therapy. The studies we reviewed here indicate the enormous therapeutic potency of eRNAs across human diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonal changes in the reservoir water level (RWL) and groundwater level can lead to cyclic actions of wetting–drying and accelerate the weathering process of rocks within the hydrofluctuation belt in the reservoir region, which over many years would eventually result in many geological disasters, such as landslides and rock mass collapse. The cyclic wetting–cooling and heating–drying process, exerted on the rock mass within the hydrofluctuation belt in the TGR area, is a combination of wetting–drying cycles and cooling–heating cycles, however, these processes have not been clearly identified and quantified. In this paper, a multiscale study is conducted to investigate the physical and mechanical features of sandstone samples in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) region subjected to 20 wetting–cooling and drying–heating cycles under temperature changes of 0 °C, 30 °C, 60 °C, and 100 °C. Then the deterioration mechanism of the rock masses within the hydrofluctuation belt in the TGR area is discussed. The results show that the multiscale physical properties, including mineral compositions, microstructures, pore size distribution characteristics, permeability and macromechanical parameters, are markedly altered during the cyclic wetting–cooling and drying–heating process. The two physical processes (cyclic wetting–drying and cyclic cooling–heating) are both found to deteriorate the sandstone samples in the experiment, and the coupled action of the two processes can accelerate the deterioration rate of the sandstone samples. The deterioration rates of the multiscale physical and mechanical properties of the sandstone samples under larger temperature changes are higher. Furthermore, rock masses at different depths are subjected to cyclic wetting–cooling and drying–heating with different temperature changes, which is an important reason for the stratification of the deterioration zone in the hydrofluctuation belt in the TGR area. Highlights: The rock masses within the hydro-fluctuation belt in the reservoir bank are actually subjected to the combined action of cyclic wetting–drying and cooling–heating. The two physical processes (cyclic wetting–drying and cyclic cooling–heating) both are found to deteriorate the sandstone experimentally. The coupled action of the cyclic wetting–drying and cooling–heating can accelerate the deterioration rate of the sandstone. Rock masses at different depths are subjected to different temperature changes, which is an important reason for the deterioration stratification in the reservoir bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a drug formulation (DFM), the major components by mass are not Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) but rather Drug Inactive Ingredients (DIGs). DIGs can reach much higher concentrations than that achieved by API, which raises great concerns about their clinical toxicities. Therefore, the biological activities of DIG on physiologically relevant target are widely demanded by both clinical investigation and pharmaceutical industry. However, such activity data are not available in any existing pharmaceutical knowledge base, and their potentials in predicting the DIG-target interaction have not been evaluated yet. In this study, the comprehensive assessment and analysis on the biological activities of DIGs were therefore conducted. First, the largest number of DIGs and DFMs were systematically curated and confirmed based on all drugs approved by US Food and Drug Administration. Second, comprehensive activities for both DIGs and DFMs were provided for the first time to pharmaceutical community. Third, the biological targets of each DIG and formulation were fully referenced to available databases that described their pharmaceutical/biological characteristics. Finally, a variety of popular artificial intelligence techniques were used to assess the predictive potential of DIGs' activity data, which was the first evaluation on the possibility to predict DIG's activity. As the activities of DIGs are critical for current pharmaceutical studies, this work is expected to have significant implications for the future practice of drug discovery and precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycling treatment of wastewater containing hexavalent chromium [Cr (VI)] has always been an important environmental issue. In this paper, taking advantage of the natural affinity of CrO 4 2− and lead ions, lead carbonate was selected as a precipitant to recover Cr (VI) in the form of chrome yellow (PbCrO 4). Firstly, the variation of Cr (VI) and lead species in K+-CrO 4 2−-Pb2+-CO 3 2− solution system with pH and PbCO 3 dosage was calculated by Visual MINTEQ. The results show that the treatment effect is better under acidic conditions. Then, the effects of parameters on the removal rate of Cr, including the initial pH of solution, reaction time, reaction temperature, and the dosage of lead carbonate, were studied by batch experiments. Results show that the initial pH of solution, reaction time, and the dosage of lead carbonate have great influence, whereas reaction temperature has slight influence. And the concentration of Cr (VI) could be reduced from 100 mg/L to 0.043 mg/L at an initial pH of 3, a reaction time of 45 min, and the dosage of lead carbonate as n(PbCO 3)/n(K 2 CrO 4) = 2. The precipitates are analyzed by XRD, SEM, and EDS，and the results are consistent with the predictions of Visual MINTEQ, that is, the newly produced substance is only PbCrO 4. The reaction mechanism of Cr (VI) on the surface of lead carbonate was studied by the adsorption kinetic model, and the results showed that the reaction was more fit with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that CrO 4 2− could effectively react with lead atoms with unsaturated coordination bonds on the surface of lead carbonate and free lead ions leached from the surface of lead carbonate to form lead chromate. Under acidic conditions, the removal of Cr (VI) by PbCO 3 may involve two main mechanisms: the mineralization and precipitation of lead and chromate ions dissolved from the surface of cerussite and the chemical adsorption of chromate ions on the surface of cerussite. This study provides a new and efficient strategy for the resource treatment of Cr (VI)-containing wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this communication, a novel metasurface with multiple unit cells of different thicknesses based on optimized multielement phase cancellation (OMEPC) is proposed for extremely wideband, omnidirectional, and polarization-independent radar cross section (RCS) reduction under wide-angle oblique incidence. Omnidirectional characteristic refers to the capability of RCS reduction under all azimuth angles ($\varphi ^{i}$) at certain elevation angles ($\theta ^{i}$). The equivalent circuit model of the square patch unit cell is analyzed under both normal and oblique incidences. Unit cells of multiple thicknesses are adopted to solve the in-phase reflection at certain frequencies. The scattered fields of the proposed multiple-element metasurface under different frequencies, polarizations, and incident angles are jointly optimized and simultaneously suppressed by OMEPC. When the range of incident angles is increased from 0° to 40°, the proposed multiple-element metasurface can achieve the 10 dB specular RCS reduction from 7.34 to 64.85 GHz with a ratio bandwidth of 8.84:1 for both TE and TM polarizations, and the 8 dB RCS reduction bandwidth is approximately 6.76–83.70 GHz. The measurement results are in agreement with the theoretical analysis and simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Link prediction is an important problem in dynamic systems, where the goal is to predict future unweighted or weighted link topologies using historical context. Compared with unweighted links, weighted links can preferably reveal the nature and strength of the interactions among entities. However, weighted links also bring greater challenges because they require subtle structural adjustments and numerical variations to be captured. Existing methods are primarily tailored for unweighted links and most generally suffer from low-quality performance when applied to Weighted Link Prediction (WLP) task. In this study, we propose a novel generative framework that adopts conditional Invertible Neural Networks (INNs) to achieve WLP. The proposed framework leverages the benefits of conditional INNs to exactly optimize the log-likelihood in the latent space conditioned on the historical context, which can be sensitive to minor replacements in real-world systems and derive accurate WLPs. Furthermore, to deal with the long-tail statistical phenomenon of edge weights observed in real life, a tail-adaptive distribution is learned in latent space to capture the tail properties and enhance the model's ability. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we conduct extensive experiments on four datasets from different systems. The experimental results demonstrate that our model achieves impressive results compared to state-of-the-art competitors. • We propose a novel framework called CInvNet for weighted link prediction. • We propose to push a tractable density with known tails in latent space. • Experiments demonstrate the consistently superior performance of CInvNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The GTN model is modified by considering the damage behaviors under reverse loading. • The microscopic damage evolutions are modified by two kinds of exponential function. • The preloading and loading sequence can affect the damage accumulation and fracture. • The predictive ability of ductile fracture under reverse loading is highly improved. Void nucleation, growth, deformation and coalescence are the main microscopic damage mechanisms for plastic deformation of sheet metals. To describe the effect of reverse loading on the microscopic damage accumulation and ductile fracture, the damage evolution equations in regard of void nucleation, void growth, shear void nucleation and shear deformation damage were modified. Through the further introduction of the combined hardening model, an extended Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) model was constructed in this study, to improve the predictive ability of ductile fracture under reverse loading conditions. Two typical reverse loading experiments including compression-tension and shear-reverse shear were performed. The number, size and shape of microscopic voids were qualitatively analyzed and compared through the microscopic observations, it is indicated that the preloading and loading sequence strongly affect the damage accumulation and the final ductile fracture, which is the microscopic damage mechanisms under reverse loading. The proposed GTN model was verified by the load responses and displacements at fracture (DAFs) of the conducted reverse loading experiments. The good agreement between numerical simulations and experimental results proves the rationality of the proposed GTN model and its accuracy to the prediction of ductile fracture under reverse loading conditions. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This retrospective cohort of 545 patients demonstrated better rwPFS than previously reported. • Patients with high PD-L1 expression, early TNM stage and EGFR -negative were recommended for immunotherapy. • Clinicians choose different treatment modalities for patients with different PD-L1 expression. • PD-L1, EGFR mutations, and previous radiotherapy all have a certain impact on the prediction of ICI response in NSCLC. The efficacy and prognosis of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) remain unresolved issues. Here, we assessed the treatment characteristics and efficacy of ICIs in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using real-world data and evaluated the predictive value of factors, including programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, for the clinical outcome of ICIs in NSCLC. Analyzed data was collected from hospitalized patients in the West China Hospital of Sichuan University between January 2017 and March 2023. The Kaplan-Meier method was utilized for analyzing real-world progression-free survival (rwPFS), while Cox regression models was employed to access the correlation between the efficacy of immunotherapy and sociodemographic characteristics, disease information, and characteristics of ICI treatment. A total of 545 patients were included in the retrospective study and characteristics of immunotherapy varied significantly among PD-L1 expression groups. The median rwPFS for the entire population was 9.76 months. Subgroup analyses revealed that patients with high PD-L1 expression, early TNM stage, first-line immunotherapy, EGFR wild-type and those who have not received radiotherapy and targeted therapy previously were more likely to have better rwPFS. Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analyses identified PD-L1 expression, EGFR mutation status and previous radiotherapy as the most influential predictors of the response to ICI treatment. This study presents the real-world experience of Chinese NSCLC patients undergoing ICI treatment, offering guidance for clinical decision-making based on various patient conditions, preferences, and indications for ICIs, through the evaluation of immunotherapy efficacy and predictors in NSCLC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A novel tetracyclic aromatic lactam unit was firstly developed and used as π bridge for isomeric small-molecule donors. • Tetracyclic aromatic lactam-substituted tin-free donors (o Ph2F, p Ph2F) exhibited a broad bandgap and stong crystallinity. • o Ph2F/ p Ph2F could regulate the crystallization kinetics and vertical phase separation of host system PM6:Y6. • Ternary devices PM6: p Ph2F:Y6 achieved champion PCE of 18.4% with a synergistically improved all photovoltaic parameters. Organic solar cells (OSCs) are rapidly developed for next-generation photovoltaic technologies due to low-cost and solution-processability etc. However, so far high-efficiency organic photovoltaic materials are typically prepared by multi-step Stille reactions, which are neither cost-efficient nor atom-economic, even raise safety concerns and incompatible with large-scale process. Large-scale industrial production of photovoltaic materials through simple, cost-effective, and green chemistry remains to be addressed. In this work, we present a case where two isomeric small-molecule donors based on polycyclic aromatic lactams (PAL) unit, named o Ph2F and p Ph2F with wide-bandgap and high-crystallinity, were designed and synthesized by atom-economic direct C-H activation strategy, modulates pre-aggregation and crystallization kinetics of host system PM6:Y6, induce distinct morphology evolution and effectively boost photovoltaic performance. The best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 18.40 % for p Ph2F-based ternary devices are found to be a fruit of improved light-harvesting ability, favorable vertical phase separation with enhanced crystallinity, the separated crystallization process of host materials and the higher and more balanced charge transport. To our knowledge, this study achieved the highest PCE among PM6:Y6-based ternary OSCs containing tin-free small-molecule donor, which not only highlights the great potential of PAL-based photovoltaic materials, but also promotes the integration of renewable energy with green chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The UV–vis absorption peak intensity of Eu2+ and Ce3+ single/co-doped phosphors increases with their concentrations. • The phenomenon of concentration quenching in dipole-dipole interactions suggests that increasing rare earth ion concentrations may reduce luminescence. • The energy transfer from Ce3+ ions to Eu2+ ions was discussed. Eu2+ and Ce3+ ions with different concentrations of single/co-doped Sr 2 SiO 4 phosphors have been successfully prepared using a high-temperature solid-state reaction. The influences of Eu2+ and Ce3+ ions on the construction and optical performance behavior of Sr 2 SiO 4 have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), ultra-violet-visible (UV–vis), and photoluminescence (PL) spectral analyses. XRD results revealed that the doping ions have entered the host lattice, and SEM showed the crystallite sizes have been found to vary from 1 to 6 μm. The intensity of the absorption spectra for the co-doped samples was larger than that of the single-doped sample. PL spectra displayed that the emission intensity of the samples strengthened as the amount of concentrations of Eu2+ and Ce3+ ions. The concentration quenching of single/co-doped phosphors was related to dipole-dipole interaction, and the energy from the 2F 5/2 transition to the 5D level of Ce3+ was effectively transferred to the 4f65d level of Eu2+. The Eu2+ and Ce3+ ions co-doping samples resulted in a light green color. The findings from the study reveal that the Eu2+ and Ce3+ ions single/co-doped Sr 2 SiO 4 phosphors would be potential candidates for the LED application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chest X-ray is an important imaging method for the diagnosis of chest diseases. Chest radiograph diagnostic quality assessment is vital for the diagnosis of the disease because unqualified radiographs have negative impacts on doctors’ diagnosis and thus increase the burden on patients due to the re-acquirement of the radiographs. So far no algorithms and public data sets have been developed for chest radiograph diagnostic quality assessment. Towards effective chest X-ray diagnostic quality assessment, we analyze the image characteristics of four main chest radiograph diagnostic quality issues, i.e. Scapula Overlapping Lung, Artifact, Lung Field Loss, and Clavicle Unflatness. Our experiments show that general image classification methods are not competent for the task because the detailed information used for quality assessment by radiologists cannot be fully exploited by deep CNNs and image-level annotations. Then we propose to leverage a multi-label semantic segmentation framework to find the problematic regions, and then classify the quality issues based on the results of segmentation. However, subsequent classification is often negatively affected by certain small segmentation errors. Therefore, we propose to estimate a distance map that measures the distance from a pixel to its nearest segment, and use it to force the prediction of semantic segmentation more holistic and suitable for classification. Extensive experiments validate the effectiveness of our semantic-segmentation-based solution for chest X-ray diagnostic quality assessment. However, general segmentation-based algorithms requires fine pixel-wise annotations in the era of deep learning. In order to reduce reliance on fine annotations and further validate how important pixel-wise annotations are, weak supervision for segmentation is applied, and demonstrates its ability close to that of full supervision. Finally, we present ChestX-rayQuality, a chest radiograph data set, which comprises 480 frontal-view chest radiographs with semantic segmentation annotations and four labels of quality issue. Also, other 1212 chest radiographs with limited annotations are imported to validate our algorithms and arguments on larger data set. These two data set will be made publicly available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now, most existing dynamic RGB-D SLAM methods are based on deep learning or mathematical models. Abundant training sample data is necessary for deep learning, and the selection diversity of semantic samples and camera motion modes are closely related to the robust detection of moving targets. Furthermore, the mathematical models are implemented at the feature-level of segmentation, which is likely to cause sub or over-segmentation of dynamic features. To address this problem, different from most feature-level dynamic segmentation based on mathematical models, a non-prior semantic dynamic segmentation based on a particle filter is proposed in this paper, which aims to attain the motion object segmentation. Firstly, GMS and optical flow are used to calculate an inter-frame difference image, which is considered an observation measurement of posterior estimation. Then, a motion equation of a particle filter is established using Gaussian distribution. Finally, our proposed segmentation method is integrated into the front end of visual SLAM and establishes a new dynamic SLAM, PFD-SLAM. Extensive experiments on the public TUM datasets and real dynamic scenes are conducted to verify location accuracy and practical performances of PFD-SLAM. Furthermore, we also compare experimental results with several state-of-the-art dynamic SLAM methods in terms of two evaluation indexes, RPE and ATE. Still, we provide visual comparisons between the camera estimation trajectories and ground truth. The comprehensive verification and testing experiments demonstrate that our PFD-SLAM can achieve better dynamic segmentation results and robust performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the risk factors and prognostic factors of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and to predict the survival of IDC patients with metastasis. Method: We used multivariate logistic regression to identify independent risk factors affecting metastasis in IDC patients and used Cox regression to identify independent prognostic factors affecting the overall survival of patients with metastasis. Nomogram was used to predict survival, while C‐index and calibration curves were used to measure the performance of nomogram. Kaplan‐Meier method was used to calculate the survival curves of patients with different independent prognostics factors and different metastatic sites, and the differences were compared by log‐rank test. The data of our study were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results cancer registry. Result: Our study included 226,094 patients with IDC. In multivariate analysis, independent risk factors of metastasis included age, race, marital status, income, geographic region, grade, T stage, N stage, subtype, surgery and radiotherapy. Independent prognostic factors included age, race, marital status, income, geographic region, grade, T stage, N stage, subtype, surgery and chemotherapy. We established a nomogram, of which the C‐index was 0.701 (0.693, 0.709), with the calibration curves showing that the disease‐specific survival between actual observation and prediction had a good consistency. The survival curves of different metastatic patterns were significantly different (log‐rank test: χ2 = 18784, p < 0.001; χ2 = 47.1, p < 0.001; χ2 = 20, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The nomogram we established may provide risk assessment and survival prediction for IDC patients with metastasis, which can be used for clinical decision‐making and reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of hierarchical structures into conventional honeycomb structure materials can increase the mechanical properties of honeycomb materials. This paper studies the in-plane collapse response of a new second-order diamond-shaped hierarchical honeycomb (DHH) (the cell walls are composed of equilateral triangles) and systematically studies the quasi-static collapse response and dynamic collapse response of the DHH in two directions through the finite element method. The quasi-static collapse response of the DHH is analyzed by a two-scale research method, and combined with momentum conservation law, the study is extended to dynamic collapse response. This paper also studies the collapse response of the DHH with different number of substructures, different relative densities, and different impact speeds, and the results are verified by theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The results show that adding hierarchical structure can greatly increase the collapse stress of the diamond honeycomb structure and make the structure have better energy absorption effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • GO/COF has excellent dispersion in epoxy resin. • GO/COF was used as nanocontainer for BTA. • The mechanism of adsorption and release of BTA by GO/COF was revealed. • GO/COF@BTA epoxy resin coating exhibits excellent self-healing ability. Graphene oxide (GO) can enhance the corrosion resistance of epoxy coating, but there are problems such as poor filler dispersion and mechanical damage that will reduce the coating corrosion resistance. To resolve these problems, here, we used a facile and green liquid-phase synthetic strategy to grow covalent organic framework (COF) on GO sheets with 1,3,5-Triformylphloroglucinol and p-phenylenediamine as monomers for the COF synthesis. The COF could not only improve the compatibility of GO with epoxy coating, but also act as a nanocontainer for loading corrosion inhibitors. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed that the low-frequency impedance of GO/COF-2% coating immersed in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution for 60 days was 8.58 × 108 Ω cm2. This was one order of magnitude higher than that of GO-2%, showing excellent corrosion resistance. Then, corrosion inhibitor of benzotriazole (BTA) was loaded into GO/COF, where the adsorption and release of BTA was controlled by environmental pH values. Results proved that the GO/COF@BTA-2% reinforced epoxy coating had superior corrosion resistance as well as self-healing ability because of the good compatibility, greater crosslinking density and controllable release of BTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] The inert sites of Prussian Blue Analogue (PBA) seriously affected its electrocatalytic activity and application, how to activate inert sites in PBA to fulfill effective oxygen evolution reduction (OER) is a major challenge. Herein, Mo substituted Fe sites and S doped in inert PBA were designed and synthesized by hydrothermal method to enhance structural stability and OER activity. PBA-SMo/NF shows the optimum activity with a low overpotential of 252 and 294 mV for harvesting current density 20 and 100 mA cm−2, respectively, and exhibits excellent durability under high current density. Theoretical calculation of H 2 O adsorption energy and Bader charges reveals that Mo sites in PBA-SMo possess favourable H 2 O adsorption kinetics. More important, Gibbs free energy diagram and DOS show PBA-SMo have lower energy barriers for OER and better conductivity. This work provides a kind of guidance for the design and optimization of PBA for broad applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: HER2-positive breast cancer (BC) is a highly aggressive phenotype. The role of the host immune features in predictive response to anti-HER2 therapies and prognosis in BC has already been suggested. We aimed to develop a predictive and prognostic model and examine its relevance to the clinical outcomes of patients with HER2-positive BC. Methods: Immune effective score (IES) was constructed using principal component analysis algorithms. A bioinformatic analysis using four independent cohorts (GSE66305, n = 88; GSE130786, n = 110; TCGA, n = 123; METABRIC, n = 236) established associations between IES and clinical outcomes. Results: Genes associated with neoadjuvant trastuzumab therapy response were enriched in pathways related to antitumor immune activities. IES was demonstrated to be a predictive biomarker to neoadjuvant trastuzumab therapy benefits (GSE66305: area under the curve (AUC) = 0.804; GSE130786: AUC = 0.704). In addition, IES was identified as an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) in the TCGA cohort (p = 0.036, hazard ratio (HR): 0.66, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.449–0.97) and METABRIC cohort (p = 0.037, HR: 0.9, 95% CI: 0.81–0.99). Conclusion: IES has a predictive value for response to neoadjuvant trastuzumab therapy and independent prognostic value for HER2-positive breast cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triacylglycerols (TGs) are important components of human diet. The positional distribution of fatty acids (FAs) on the glycerol backbone affects the chemistry and physical properties of fats. Especially for infants, the structure of TGs plays an important role in the growth and development. However, limited by detecting technology, accurately identifying regioisomers of ABA/AAB and BAC/ABC/ACB type TGs is a significant challenge for human milk utilization and the development of infant formula. For this, we exploit a novel method for identifying the regioisomers of ABA/AAB and BAC/ABC/ACB type TGs within complex lipid mixtures, via used electron activated dissociation (EAD) tandem mass spectrometry. The distribution information of acyl chains at the sn -2 and sn -1/3 positions of glycerol backbone and double bonds in unsaturated FAs can be easily obtained by fragmenting TG ions with energetic electrons (15 eV). Then, the standard curve was established by correlating the peak area intensity of sn -2 characteristic product ion with the content of TG regioisomers standard. These analytical methods successfully enabled the identification and quantification of TG regioisomers in human milk, cow milk, infant formula, palm oil, and sunflower oil. Additionally, the distribution of the double-bond positions of unsaturated FAs in these samples was also identified. Compared to traditional methods, this approach eliminates the need for complex processing and analysis procedures, enabling rapid structural characterization of ABA/AAB and BAC/ABC/ACB type TGs within 17 min. Hence, we provide a rapid and convenient methodology for detecting and analyzing ABA/AAB and BAC/ABC/ACB type TG regioisomers, thereby offering valuable assistance in the development of specialized formulations and facilitating effective process control for ensuring the quality of edible oils and fats. [Display omitted] • AAB and ABC type triacylglycerol (TG) regioisomers were analyzed using electron activated dissociation (EAD) tandem mass spectrometry. • This method only requires one standard to quantify the corresponding TG regioisomers in complex oils. • Synthesis of TG regioisomers using randomization reactions expands the capabilities of EAD for TG regioisomers identification. • The double bond positions of unsaturated FA in TGs were determined using the EAD method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Sr 2 SiO 4 phosphors with different Sm3+ concentrations and Sr 2 SiO 4 :0.006Sm3+ phosphors obtained from the coal gasification slag as raw materials have been synthesized by the high-temperature solid-phase method. The influence of Sm3+ ions and the purity of SiO 2 on the structural and optical attributes of Sr 2 SiO 4 have been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectrum, photoluminescence (PL) spectra and fluorescence lifetime analysis. XRD results showed that the doping ions have entered into the host lattice, and SEM shown the crystallite sizes have been found to vary from 1 to 3 μm. PL spectra displayed that the emission intensity of the samples increased with the increase in concentrations of Sm3+ ions. At the optimum doping concentration, the luminous intensity and fluorescence lifetime of the sample prepared by the purified silica is much higher than that of the phosphor prepared by the chemical product silica, which is close to that of the pure chemical reagent. Finally, we explored the application of fluorescent powder in pc-WLED devices. Notably, the devices exhibited excellent luminous performance at 20 mA current. The results demonstrate that coal gasification slag (CGS) product can be used to synthesize brilliant materials with potential uses for the pc-WLED technology. • The high fluorescence intensity Sm3+ doped Sr 2 SiO 4 phosphors were prepared using silica extracted from coal gasification slag as raw materials. • Effect of raw material purity was investigated from the excitation and emission spectra analysis. • The luminescence performance of Sr 2 SiO 4 phosphor is found to be strongly dependent on rare earth ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A two-branch end-to-end dehazing network is proposed, which can solve the imbalances weight distribution problem between the detail and structural features. • Coordinate channel attention module is employed to extract the structural features and the dense pixel attention modules is employed to extract the detail features. • Extensive experiments are conducted on both synthetic and real-world dataset and performed well. Image dehazing is an ill-posed problem that has been extensively studied in recent years. Unfortunately, most existing deep dehazing models have high computational complexity and lack the dynamic adjustment of details, which hinders their application to high-resolution images in computational vision tasks. In this paper, we propose an efficient dual-path adaptive fusion dehazing network (DPAFD-Net) to directly restore a clear image from a hazy input. Moreover, we propose a pure subnetwork with encoder and decoder structures to further extract the structural information and progressively restore the haze-free image. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we validate our approach on synthetic and real hazy images, where our method performs favourably against the state-of-the-art dehazing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domain adaptation in person re-identification (re-ID) has always been challenging, especially for the lack of supervision information on the target domain. Existing methods generally introduced extra supervision by adversarial learning techniques, then added all the augmented data in the training process to optimize the re-ID model. However, the direct utilization of all the generated data not only increases additional computational cost but also ignores the potential correlation between the origin and generated data. In this article, we propose a novel dual-alignment learning framework (DAL) with camera-aware image generation to efficiently and effectively tackle this issue. Specifically, we propose a camera transfer matching module to generate additional training images with different camera styles, and construct the matching pairs with each containing a origin image and one corresponding camera transferred image. To strengthen the correlation of images for each matching pair, we align the pseudo-labels via clustering algorithm to reduce the pseudo-labels distribution discrepancy between the origin and generated images. Besides, to avoid model degeneration affected by some inaccurate pseudo-labels on unlabelled data, we maximize the mutual information to align the image feature representations of matching pair. The DAL allows us to decrease the camera variance and enhance the discrimination ability of re-ID model. Extensive experiments on three large-scale benchmarks demonstrate the superiority of DAL over state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfadimidine (SM2) is a kind of synthetic sulfadiazine antibiotics. Excessive use of SM2 in animal breeding can lead to animal‐derived food residues, which will bring potential risks to human health. Herein, a sensitive label‐free electrochemical immunosensor using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as redox probe was developed for the specific detection of SM2. Firstly, the Ag−GO nanocomposites were prepared by in‐situ reduction of AgNPs on graphene oxide (GO) surface with glucose. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were reduced on the surface of Ag−GO nanocomposites by permanent electrodeposition. Staphylococcal protein A (SPA) was dripped onto the AuNPs modified electrode to absorb antibody (anti‐SM2). Herein, GO provided a large surface area for assembling a large number of AgNPs with redox activity. AuNPs were used to immobilize SPA and amplify the electrochemical signal. In addition, SPA with antibody targeting function was introduced to improve the efficiency of immune response. Under optimal conditions, the label‐free immunosensor showed a linear range of 63 pg/mL to 20 ng/mL with a limit of detection (LOD) of 3 pg/mL (S/N=3). Finally, the developed method showed excellent performance in practical application, which provided a promising possibility for the detection of other veterinary drug residues in animal derived food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gegenqinlian decoction (GD) has been extensively used for the treatment of diarrhea with intestinal dampness-heat syndrome (IDHS) with a satisfying therapeutic effect. The purpose of this study is to clarify the active ingredients and mechanism of GD in the treatment of diarrhea with IDHS. The TCMSP database was used to screen out the active ingredients of the four Chinese herbal medicines in GD, and the targets of the active ingredients were predicted. We selected the targets related to diarrhea through the DisGeNET database, then used the NCBI database to screen out related targets of lactase and sucrase, and constructed the visual network to search for the active ingredients of GD in the treatment of diarrhea and related mechanisms of the targets. Combined with network pharmacology, we screened out 146 active ingredients in GD corresponding to 252 ingredient targets, combined with 328 disease targets in diarrhea, and obtained 12 lactase targets and 11 sucrase targets. The key active ingredients involved quercetin, formononetin, β-sitosterol kaempferol, and wogonin. Furthermore, molecular docking showed that these five potential active ingredients had good affinities with the core targets PTGS2. The active ingredients in GD (such as quercetin, formononetin, and β-sitosterol) may increase the microbial activity of the intestinal mucosa of mice and reduce the microbial activity of the intestinal contents through multiple targets, thereby achieving the effect of treating diarrhea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing heterogeneous accelerators, especially GPUs, to accelerate machine learning tasks has shown to be a great success in recent years. GPUs bring huge performance improvements to machine learning and greatly promote the widespread adoption of machine learning. However, the discrete CPU-GPU architecture design with high PCIe transmission overhead decreases the GPU computing benefits in machine learning training tasks. To overcome such limitations, hardware vendors release CPU-GPU integrated architectures with shared unified memory. In this article, we design a benchmark suite for machine learning training on CPU-GPU integrated architectures, called iMLBench, covering a wide range of machine learning applications and kernels. We mainly explore two features on integrated architectures: 1) zero-copy, which means that the PCIe overhead has been eliminated for machine learning tasks and 2) co-running, which means that the CPU and the GPU co-run together to process a single machine learning task. Our experimental results on iMLBench show that the integrated architecture brings an average 7.1× performance improvement over the original implementations. Specifically, the zero-copy design brings 4.65× performance improvement, and co-running brings 1.78× improvement. Moreover, integrated architectures exhibit promising results from both performance-per-dollar and energy perspectives, achieving 6.50× performance-price ratio while 4.06× energy efficiency over discrete GPUs. The benchmark is open-sourced at https://github.com/ChenyangZhang-cs/iMLBench. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music streaming services are increasingly popular among younger generations who seek social experiences through personal expression and sharing of subjective feelings in comments. However, such emotional aspects are often ignored by current platforms, which affect the listeners' ability to find music that triggers specific personal feelings. To address this gap, this study proposes a novel approach that leverages deep learning methods to capture contextual keywords, sentiments, and induced mechanisms from song comments. The study augments a current music app with two features, including the presentation of tags that best represent song comments and a novel map metaphor that reorganizes song comments based on chronological order, content, and sentiment. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated through a usage scenario and a user study that demonstrate its capability to improve the user experience of exploring songs and browsing comments of interest. This study contributes to the advancement of music streaming services by providing a more personalized and emotionally rich music experience for younger generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]