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The secondary metabolite Monacolin K (MK), derived from Monascus , exhibits potential lipid-lowering and anti-tumor effects. In this study, a mutant strain M. purpureus M400–6 was generated through X-ray treatment, resulting in an average MK production of 181.97 mg/L (a 54.20% increase compared to the parent strain M. purpureus M1) over five successive generations. Furthermore, optimization of medium compositions using response surface methodology led to a further enhancement in MK production by the mutant strain to 266.63 mg/L. Moreover, based on the outcomes of single-factor experiments, the addition of L-citrulline demonstrated a significantly higher level of enhancement in MK production. Therefore, a comparative transcriptome analysis was conducted to unveil the impact of L-citrulline on MK biosynthesis in M. purpureus. The data revealed a significant upregulation of glycolysis pathways, while oxidative phosphorylation including the TCA cycle and the electron transport chain, exhibited significant downregulation. Furthermore, the metabolisms of serine, glycine, threonine, alanine, aspartic acid and glutamate were found to be significantly disturbed. Additionally, the expressions of MPs and MK biosynthetic gene cluster showed a significant downregulation and upregulation respectively. Overall, these findings provide insights into enhancing MK production in submerged fermentation and elucidate the impact of L-citrulline on secondary metabolism. [Display omitted] • M. purpureus M400–6 with high MK production was generated through X-ray treatment. • L-citrulline can significantly enhance the MK production. • Response surface methodology was performed to further increase the MK production. • Transcriptome analysis reveals the impact of L-citrulline on MK biosynthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of organic circularly polarized room temperature phosphorescence (CP‐RTP) materials with tunable emission colors has important value in the field of optoelectronic applications but remains a challenging issue. Herein, a CP‐RTP doped system with green, yellow, and red afterglow is constructed by introducing chiral groups into three phosphors naphthalene, phenanthrene, and pyrene as guests respectively, using polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as the host. The phosphorescence quantum yield of the doped system is 7.3%–13.6%, the phosphorescence lifetime is 341 ms–1017 ms, and the asymmetry factor is 0.001–0.0021. Further doping three guests simultaneously into the PVP resulted in the four‐component doped materials. Benefiting from the different excitation wavelengths of three guests, when the excitation wavelength changes from 300 to 365 nm, the afterglow of the four‐component doped materials changes from green to yellow and finally to red. Moreover, due to the different phosphorescence lifetimes of different guests, the afterglow can in turn change from red to green after excitation at 365 nm, demonstrating a time‐dependence phosphorescence emission property. This doped strategy provides an effective platform for constructing organic multicolor CP‐RTP materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes a two-cable network model, which includes a cross-tie and two concentrated masses installed at the connection points of cross-tie and cable. The characteristic equation of such a cable network system is formulated via the complex modal analysis method. Then, dynamics of a twin-cable network is discussed in details, and the effect of concentrated mass on the system modal frequencies, damping and mode shapes is investigated. Furthermore, a general two-cable network system is analyzed. Results show that the concentrated mass always reduces the modal frequency, as it causes an increase in the modal mass of the system. When installing a concentrated mass in a twin-cable network, the difference of vibration modes between the cables can be increased in the in-phase modes, thereby achieving the damping effect of the damping type cross-tie on these modes. For a twin-cable network with a viscous damper, a small concentrated mass can significantly increase the modal damping of the in-phase modes as long as the damping coefficient of the damper is properly set. Meanwhile, when there is a two-cable network with unequal length cables, the presence of concentrated masses may reduce differences in vibration modes between cables, thus leading to decreased damping of some modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a numerical method, where first-principles calculations are combined with modified Monte Carlo simulations, and study the Néel temperature of antiferromagnetic IrMn and exchange bias effect in antiferromagnet/ferromagnet IrMn/CoFeB bilayers manipulated by the applications of tensile and compressive strains. The results show that both tensile and compressive strains linearly change the magnetic moment of Mn and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of IrMn, and meanwhile, the uniaxially easy-axis directions under tensile and compressive strains are perpendicular. The strain-triggered increase in antiferromagnetic exchange coupling between Mn–Mn pairs is revealed and induces an up to 1.5 times enhancement of the Néel temperature of IrMn. Furthermore, the spontaneous and conventional exchange bias effects can be both observed under large tensile strains, also sensitive to the cooling field, and strongly enhanced roughly by 800% under 8 T in the application of 1.5% strain, which can be interpreted by the strain-induced high magnetocrystalline anisotropies. Thus, the tensile strains are better for controlling and optimizing the Néel temperature of IrMn and further exchange bias properties in IrMn-based heterostructures. This work establishes the correlations between microscopically and macroscopically magnetic responses to strain, indicating that strain can be an intriguing means of extrinsic manipulation of exchange bias, which is of importance for spintronic device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tea (Camellia sinensis) is a highly important beverage crop renowned for its unique flavour and health benefits. Chlorotic mutants of tea, known worldwide for their umami taste and economic value, have gained global popularity. However, the genetic basis of this chlorosis trait remains unclear. In this study, we identified a major-effect quantitative trait locus (QTL), qChl-3 , responsible for the chlorosis trait in tea leaves, linked to a non-synonymous polymorphism (G1199A) in the magnesium chelatase I subunit (CsCHLI). Homozygous CsCHLI A plants exhibited an albino phenotype due to defects in magnesium protoporphyrin IX and chlorophylls in the leaves. Biochemical assays revealed that CsCHLI mutations did not affect subcellular localization or interactions with CsCHLIG and CsCHLD. However, combining CsCHLIA with CsCHLIG significantly reduced ATPase activity. RNA-seq analysis tentatively indicated that CsCHLI inhibited photosynthesis and enhanced photoinhibition, which in turn promoted protein degradation and increased the amino acid levels in chlorotic leaves. RT-qPCR and enzyme activity assays confirmed the crucial role of asparagine synthetase and arginase in asparagine and arginine accumulation, with levels increasing over 90-fold in chlorotic leaves. Therefore, this study provides insights into the genetic mechanism underlying tea chlorosis and the relationship between chlorophyll biosynthesis and amino acid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Enzymes play an irreplaceable and important role in maintaining the lives of living organisms. The Enzyme Commission (EC) number of an enzyme indicates its essential functions. Correct identification of the first digit (family class) of the EC number for a given enzyme is a hot topic in the past twenty years. Several previous methods adopted functional domain composition to represent enzymes. However, it would lead to dimension disaster, thereby reducing the efficiency of the methods. On the other hand, most previous methods can only deal with enzymes belonging to one family class. In fact, several enzymes belong to two or more family classes. Results: In this study, a fast and efficient multi-label classifier, named PredictEFC, was designed. To construct this classifier, a novel feature extraction scheme was designed for processing functional domain information of enzymes, which counting the distribution of each functional domain entry across seven family classes in the training dataset. Based on this scheme, each training or test enzyme was encoded into a 7-dimenion vector by fusing its functional domain information and above statistical results. Random k-labelsets (RAKEL) was adopted to build the classifier, where random forest was selected as the base classification algorithm. The two tenfold cross-validation results on the training dataset shown that the accuracy of PredictEFC can reach 0.8493 and 0.8370. The independent test on two datasets indicated the accuracy values of 0.9118 and 0.8777. Conclusion: The performance of PredictEFC was slightly lower than the classifier directly using functional domain composition. However, its efficiency was sharply improved. The running time was less than one-tenth of the time of the classifier directly using functional domain composition. In additional, the utility of PredictEFC was superior to the classifiers using traditional dimensionality reduction methods and some previous methods, and this classifier can be transplanted for predicting enzyme family classes of other species. Finally, a web-server available at http://124.221.158.221/ was set up for easy usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we delve into the challenge of identifying an unknown source in a space-time fractional diffusion-wave equation. Through an analysis of the exact solution, it becomes evident that the problem is ill-posed. To address this, we employ both the Tikhonov regularization method and the Quasi-boundary regularization method, aiming to restore the stability of the solution. By adhering to both a priori and a posteriori regularization parameter choice rules, we derive error estimates that quantify the discrepancies between the regularization solutions and the exact solution. Finally, we present numerical examples to illustrate the effectiveness and stability of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tea leaf-color mutants have attracted increasing attention due to their accumulation of quality-related biochemical components. However, there is limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind leaf-color bud mutation in tea plants. In this study, a chlorina tea shoot (HY) and a green tea shoot (LY) from the same tea plant were investigated using transcriptome and biochemical analyses. The results showed that the chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll contents in the HY were significantly lower than the LY's, which might have been caused by the activation of several genes related to chlorophyll degradation, such as SGR and CLH. The down-regulation of the CHS, DFR, and ANS involved in flavonoid biosynthesis might result in the reduction in catechins, and the up-regulated GDHA and GS2 might bring about the accumulation of glutamate in HY. RT-qPCR assays of nine DEGs confirmed the RNA-seq results. Collectively, these findings provide insights into the molecular mechanism of the chlorophyll deficient-induced metabolic change in tea plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a dicyclopentadiene monomer/Grubbs 2 catalyst was added to a mixture of epoxy oligomers and methyl nadic anhydride to obtain a poly‐dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) modified epoxy cross‐linked network via sequential curing. The hybrid resin was used as a matrix for preparing carbon fiber composites. The results indicated that the addition of DCPD monomers significantly reduced the viscosity of the epoxy resin. The toughness and heat resistance of the co‐cured resin was improved without significant loss of strength, which was attributed to the high compatibility between epoxy and the modifier polymer. Regarding the composites, the flexural strength of the hybrid resin‐derived composite first increased and then diminished slightly. Meanwhile, the mode‐I interlaminar fracture toughness continued to increase with the increase of PDCPD content compared to the non‐modified composites. Generally, the change trend of the above properties in the composites was consistent with the change trend of the strength and toughness exhibited in the bulk resin with increasing PDCPD contents, while the change extent was inconsistent due to factors such as fiber volume content and interfacial bonding. Highlights: The epoxy/PDCPD hybrid resin system was obtained via sequential curing.The PDCPD as modifier can reduce the viscosity of the epoxy curing system.The toughness and heat resistance of the PDCPD modified epoxy resin was improved.The loss in flexural strength of the hybrid resin system was insignificant.The GIC of the epoxy composites modified with PDCPD improved appreciably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilayers of an amorphous CoFeB ferromagnet coupled to an epitaxially grown IrMn antiferromagnet, whose anisotropy is fourfold symmetric, are modeled to study the angular (φ) dependence of magnetization reversal mechanism and exchange bias behavior, based on a modified Monte Carlo method. It is found that positive and negative exchange-bias field (HE) maximum values appear in the antiferromagnetic easy-axis directions, and the HE zero-value transition/return points exist in the antiferromagnetic hard-axis directions. Furthermore, the value of HE(φ) is well fitted by considering cos3φ/sin3φ terms with larger or comparable coefficients as compared to the first-order terms in the Fourier expansion. Finally, the microscopic spin configuration results evidence these phenomena originating from the tailoring of antiferromagnetic spins by simply rotating the field-cooling direction between antiferromagnetic easy- and hard-axis directions. We open an exchange-bias mode governed by antiferromagnetic fourfold anisotropy and propose a method to precisely detect antiferromagnetic higher-order anisotropies on an exchange-bias support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Checkpoint blockade immunotherapies, such as anti-programmed death-1 (PD-1), unleash anti-tumor CD8+ T cell responses but may also induce immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs). In this issue of Cancer Cell , Geels et al. uncover that anti-PD-1 leads to Treg expansion via interleukin-2 (IL-2)-producing CD8+ T cells. Combining anti-PD-1 with anti-ICOSL interrupts this crosstalk, thereby enhancing tumor control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: Insertion of Mg2+ into protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) to produce magnesium-protoporphyrin IX (Mg-PPIX) was the first step toward chlorophyll biosynthesis, which not only imparts plants green pigmentation but underpins photosynthesis. Plants that blocked the conversion of PPIX to Mg-PPIX displayed yellowish or albino-lethal phenotypes. However, the lack of systematic study of the detection method and the metabolic difference between species have caused the research on chloroplast retrograde signaling controversial for a long time. Results: An advanced and sensitive UPLC-MS/MS strategy for determining PPIX and Mg-PPIX was established in two metabolic different plants, Arabidopsis thaliana (Columbia-0) and Camellia sinensis var. sinensis. Two metabolites could be extracted by 80% acetone (v/v) and 20% 0.1 M NH4OH (v/v) without hexane washing. Since the Mg-PPIX could be substantially de-metalized into PPIX in acidic conditions, analysis was carried out by UPLC-MS/MS with 0.1% ammonia (v/v) and 0.1% ammonium acetonitrile (v/v) as mobile phases using negative ion multiple reaction monitoring modes. Interestingly, it could be easier to monitor these two compounds in dehydrated samples rather than in fresh samples. Validation was performed in spiked samples and mean recoveries ranged from 70.5 to 916%, and the intra-day and inter-day variations were less than 7.5 and 10.9%, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.01 mg·kg− 1 and the limit of quantification was 0.05 mg·kg− 1. The contents of PPIX (1.67 ± 0.12 mg·kg− 1) and Mg-PPIX (3.37 ± 0.10 mg·kg− 1) in tea were significantly higher than in Arabidopsis (PPIX: 0.05 ± 0.02 mg·kg− 1; Mg-PPIX: 0.08 ± 0.01 mg·kg− 1) and they were only detected in the leaf. Conclusions: Our study establishes a universal and reliable method for determining PPIX and Mg-PPIX in two plants using UPLC-MS/MS. This procedure will facilitate studying chlorophyll metabolism and natural chlorophyll production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The separation and recovery of cathode materials and anode materials using conventional flotation are not satisfactory. In the present research, hierarchical flotation and shearing flocculation enhanced flotation are employed and the surface properties and particle size of electrode materials during the pre-treatment and their effects on flotation performance are investigated. Results show that in hierarchical flotation, the recovery and grade of the cathode materials for coarse particles could reach 97.64% and 97.67%, respectively. However, the separation performance of fine particles is far behind. This is due to the fact that the binder is removed after thermal treatment, and more importantly, the particles of the cathode materials grow up and the size of the graphite keeps almost unchanged. By using shearing flocculation enhanced flotation, for both coarse and fine particles, the recovery and grade of cathode materials are 95.64% and 94.51%, respectively. Graphite also achieved the highest recovery simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coal-seam fire is one of the most significant disasters in the coal mining industry in China, affecting the safety of coal production in China. The working-position risk in coal mining has an important impact on the risk of fire occurrence, and thus it would be worthwhile to analyze working-position risks so as to effectively prevent and control coal-seam fires. Based on the kernel density estimation (KDE), this research puts forward an innovative calculation-model and assessment method of the superposition risk of the working position on coal-seam fire accidents. This research aims to evaluate the priority of risk management of working positions in coal-seam fire accidents. In order to achieve this research aim and objectives, this research carried out a statistical analysis of 100 classic cases of coal-seam fire accidents from 2000 to 2022, using the accident-tree-structure importance analysis method. This research contributed to the evaluation of the frequency and severity of various risk factors leading to fire accidents, and the development of the value at risk (VaR) of various risk factors in the coal-seam fire accidents. Integrating all the risk factors involved in each position and their risk values, and building a position-risk calculation model was carried out. In addition, in accordance with the kernel density estimation (KDE), a post-superposition risk model was established. Moreover, ArcGIS software was used to obtain the superimposed risk of posts and build a risk-distribution map. Based on the possibility of post-risk occurrence and the severity of the consequences, a risk-assessment matrix was developed, a post-risk grading standard was established, and risk levels of the working position were divided up in this research. Results indicated that (1) before risk superposition, working-position risks and risk levels are densely distributed, and nearly 80% of risk levels of the working position are focused on Level II and III, without Level I. (2) After risk superposition, the post-risk is affected by the surrounding post-risk, and the risk- and level-distribution is more hierarchical; the number of Level I risks in working positions increased to 12, which were mainly distributed among the comprehensive mining team, comprehensive excavation team and ventilation team, which accords more with the objective and actual production-conditions. The risk-distribution map directly showed that the post-fire risk at the mining face and shaft is higher, a result which will take on a significant guiding role in the effective control and prevention of risk in coal-seam fires in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impoverished housing environments are thought to prevent motivated behaviors and may result in frustration. We first aimed to investigate an effective physical enrichment protocol to improve dairy calves' welfare and initially determine their use of various items. Thereafter, we aimed to determine dairy calves' preference for and ways of interacting with various items, and whether this was influenced by social housing. In experiment 1, at 21 ± 3 d of age, 27 individually housed calves were assigned alternately into 1 of 3 treatments: control (CON, no additional items), rotating enrichment (RE, one item each week on a rotating presentation schedule), and fixed enrichment (FE, 4 types of item at the same time). The items were stationary brushes, ropes, springs, nets filled with strawberry-scented hay, and dry teats. Calves' behaviors were observed from 4 to 7 wk of age using focal observations after feeding, followed by instantaneous scan sampling. Their behavioral responses to a novel object were assessed at 43 ± 1 d of age. In the instantaneous scans, calves in FE tended to interact with items more often than calves in RE. Calves in RE and FE expressed less non-nutritive oral behavior than those in CON. Latency to touch novel objects did not differ significantly between treatments. Calves in RE and FE interacted with nets filled with strawberry-scented hay more often than with other items in instantaneous scans. In experiment 2, 24 calves were assigned alternately into 8 individual pens and 8 pair pens at 2 d of age. All pens were provided with a stationary brush, plastic chain, net filled with strawberry-scented hay, and dry teat. Calves' behaviors were collected from 2 to 5 wk of age using instantaneous scan sampling. Calves interacted with nets filled with strawberry-scented hay more often than with other items. Pair housing reduced calves' interactions with items compared with individual housing. Individually and pair-housed calves' frequencies of overall interaction with items varied with time of day, with frequencies increasing to peaks at 0700, 1500, and 1900 h. Calves showed scratching, sniffing, sucking, butting, and hay intake toward nets filled with strawberry-scented hay and showed the first 3 behaviors toward stationary brushes, plastic chains, and dry teats. In conclusion, dairy calves are likely to prefer a fixed multi-item enrichment presentation schedule over a rotating schedule with a single enrichment item presented at one time. For the fixed multi-item enrichment presentation schedule, items were used more in individual pens than in pair pens, and a diurnal pattern was observed for use of the items. Nets filled with scented hay might be the most multifunctional and attractive item of the items tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overheated photovoltaic (PV) panels during the late experimental period and severe temperature stratification of the phase change materials (PCMs) are critical factors influencing the photovoltaic/thermal-PCM system efficiency. In this work, an outdoor experimental switchable PV/T-PCM system coupled with copper fins and flexible thermal regulation strategies was investigated to maximize the energy conversion efficiency. The effect of different fin heights on the efficiency of the PV-PCM system without water flow was firstly investigated. Second, five cases under various thermal regulation strategies utilizing water flow were comprehensively investigated by the energy and exergy analysis. For the full-time regulation, both thermal energy and exergy efficiencies (η th and E x _th) increased when the water flow rate grew from 0.11 L/min (Case 2) to 2.92 L/min (Case 5). Case 5 presented the highest η th and E x_th of 86.49% and 2.06%, respectively, and increments of 4.40% and 4.35% in the electrical energy and exergy efficiencies, respectively, with the addition of PCMs. At the same water flow rate of 0.11 L/min, the electrical energy and exergy efficiencies in Case 6 increased by 11.46% and 11.35%, compared with Case 2, indicating that the intermittent regulation is more beneficial for improving the photoelectric efficiency of the PV/T-PCM system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogen is widely believed to be a promising fuel to solve the global energy crisis and environmental issues. The catalytic system represented by metal‐supported catalysts is an important process of upgrading the hydrogen source in industry. Single‐atom catalysts (SACs), which inherit the advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, provide a broad prospect for low‐cost H2 production technology. This review focuses on the potential mechanisms in the rational design of SACs, including active sites, coordination configuration, mass loading, heteroatom‐doping, and metal−support interaction. The design strategies of single metal atoms on different supports are reviewed to give a proposal on how to immobilize the atomic active sites and modulate the geometric/electronic structures of SACs. Subsequently, the synergistic effect in SACs and the dynamic evolution of the atomically dispersed heterometal catalysts are introduced, aiming to provide further guidelines for H2 evolution SACs. H2 generation from the water−gas shift reaction and electro‐/photocatalytic water splitting are the main research directions at present. The latest progress of SACs employed in these applications is thoroughly reviewed. At the end of this review, personal perspectives on the prospects and challenges of H2 evolution SACs are put forward, hoping to promote the rapid development of SACs toward superior H2 evolution performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting neurological outcomes after cardiac arrest remains a major issue. This study aimed to identify novel biomarkers capable of predicting neurological prognosis after cardiac arrest. Expression profiles of GSE29540 and GSE92696 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to obtain differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between high and low brain performance category (CPC) scoring subgroups. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to screen key gene modules and crossover genes in these datasets. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of crossover genes was constructed from the STRING database. Based on the PPI network, the most important hub genes were identified by the cytoHubba plugin of Cytoscape software. Eight hub genes (RPL27, EEF1B2, PFDN5, RBX1, PSMD14, HINT1, SNRPD2, and RPL26) were finally screened and validated, which were downregulated in the group with poor neurological prognosis. In addition, GSEA identified critical pathways associated with these genes. Finally, a Pearson correlation analysis showed that the mRNA expression of hub genes EEF1B2, PSMD14, RPFDN5, RBX1, and SNRPD2 were significantly and positively correlated with NDS scores in rats. Our work could provide comprehensive insights into understanding pathogenesis and potential new biomarkers for predicting neurological outcomes after cardiac arrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intermittent heat charging and discharging strategy is proposed for on-demand thermal utilization in a three-layer latent heat storage unit filled with nanoparticle-enhanced phase change materials. To optimize the utilization ratio of phase change materials, and the stored and released thermal exergy amounts, a multi-objective prediction and optimization methodology combining orthogonal experimental design, range and variance analyses, multi-nonlinear regression models, and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II is introduced while considering the variables of nanoparticle concentration, heat transfer fluid velocity, and intermittent time interval. Results show that the time interval presents the most significant influence. Multi-nonlinear regression models for the above three variables are established with determination factors of 0.9871, 0.9625, and 0.9253, respectively. The ultimate optimal results are 0.8, 57094.03 J, and 43066.73 J, achieved at the three variables of 44.37 min, 0.38 m s−1 and 8.99%, respectively. The maximum verification error of 5.11% indicates the reliability of this methodology. The methodology aims to enhance the overall performance of the three-layer latent heat storage system by mitigating the constraints associated with single-performance optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The chiral afterglow is achieved by self-confining isolated chiral chromophores. • Advanced displays and encryptions are made using the chiral afterglow materials. • The work provides a facile way for developing chiral afterglow materials. Circularly polarized organic afterglow (CPOA) materials showing ultralong lifetime and chiral emission features have received widespread attention. However, generating CPOA emission remains a formidable challenge primarily due to the synergetic suppression non-radiative decay and chirality incorporation of triplet excitons. Herein, we propose a strategy to enable CPOA by covalently self-confining isolated chiral chromophores into the polymer matrix with rigidity and strong intermolecular interactions to effectively inhibit the non-radiative decay of chiral triplet excitons. The CPOA polymers exhibiting dual fluorescence and afterglow emission with a maximum luminescence dissymmetry factor of 1.06 × 10-2 and ultralong lifetime of up to 1.08 s have been achieved by crosslinking binaphthol derivatives into rigid self-host of polyacrylamide. Leveraging the superiority of afterglow and chiral attributes of CPOA polymers, advanced display and encryption demonstrations have been fabricated. This work underscores the significance of confining isolated chiral chromophores for the development of circularly polarized luminescent materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To effectively mitigate the spread of epidemics, disinfection robots are increasingly utilized for automatic disinfection. However, tradition robots and disinfection methods cannot ensure controllable disinfection coverage, potentially causing damage to sensitive surfaces and humans. In this paper, we introduce a novel Ultraviolet-C disinfection robot system built on the mobile manipulator structure. We propose a new multi-side disinfection end-effector to broaden the disinfection scope and improve adaptability to complex surfaces. In order to coordinate the movements of the base and manipulator, we propose a joint base placement and multi-configuration disinfected path planning(JPMDP) method. The algorithm generates the minimal number of mobile base placements and forms the disinfection path with the shortest working time. We have conducted extensive experiments in both simulated and real environments. Experimental results demonstrate that our system offers more comprehensive coverage in less time compared to traditional strategies, making it more efficient and adaptable to complex environments. • Proposing a novel UV-C disinfection robot for epidemic control. • Introducing a multi-side disinfection end-effector for complex surface adaptability. • Presenting a JPMDP method for optimal coordination of base and manipulator movements. • Validating the system's efficiency through extensive simulations and real tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by photoinduced molecular oxygen (O 2) activation has attracted great attention in environmental remediation and pollution control. Herein, we establish a facile sulfur doping strategy that promotes the activation of molecular oxygen over BiOCl for rapid and continuous degradation of organic pollutants. In this work, we demonstrate that the significantly enhanced built-in electric field (BIEF) induced by the heterogeneous introduction of S atoms not only multiplies the electron concentration in the BiOCl matrix, but also accelerates the rapid separation/transfer of charge carriers and inhibits recombination. Driven by this, the exciton behavior in the BOC undergoes a transformation. The electrons generated through exciton dissociation activate the adsorbed O 2 on the surface into superoxide radicals (•O 2 –). Benefited from the superior O 2 activation efficiency, the degradation rate constant of ciprofloxacin (CIP) the fabricated S-doped BiOCl increased by 8.8 times, under visible light. This work proposes a strategy to promote the photocatalytic O 2 activation via tuning BIEF and manipulating excitonic effects, which affords new perspective for understanding the reaction mechanisms related to charge transfer in photocatalytic systems. [Display omitted] • S doping dramatically alter morphology and physicochemical characteristics of BiOCl. • Enhanced built-in electric field induced by S doping promotes separation and migration of charge carriers in bulk BiOCl. • Remarkable efficiency of O 2 activation is achieved over S-doped BiOCl with abundant O vacancies. • Boosted dissociation of excitons into charge carriers transforms O 2 activation behavior. • S-doped BiOCl exhibits remarkable performance toward photocatalytic degradation of CIP and various antibiotics in water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on metal recovery from waste is gaining interest in the context of the circular economy. Actual hydrometallurgical methods allow to recover vanadium from aqueous solution by ammonium precipitation, yet an excess dosage of ammonium salts induces ammonium pollution of the environment. Here, we tested the use of glycine, instead of ammonium salts, to precipitate vanadium ions. Results showed that 95.75% of vanadium was precipitated at 90 ℃ in 1 h with glycine/vanadium ratio of 6 at pH of 1.8. The influence of reaction factors decreased in the following order: reaction temperature, reaction time, glycine dosage, and sulfuric acid concentration, according to response surface methodology. Amino compounds are thus expected to represent alternative ligands to precipitate vanadium and other metals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Absolute time synchronization is a basic issue in wireless communication. With the advent of 5G, many emerging vertical industry applications have put forward demands for timing accuracy over air interface. High Precision Timing method over Air Interface based on PHY Layer Signals (TAP) is proposed for mobile networks. It is designed to provide microsecond level timing accuracy at a relatively low cost compared to the existing timing methods, such as GNSS, NTP, PTP, etc. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively improve TAP, including timing accuracy, stability and compatibility, so as to promote its practical application. This paper proposes improvements to TAP from four aspects: timing algorithm, timing pilot signal, terminal timing process and timing parameters determination. We improve the TAP’s deficiencies in delay estimation, delay compensation accuracy and real-time matching of timing information. We implement the workflow of TAPv2 for UE based on FPGA. Finally, we settle the problem of TAP parameters determination by applying a DQN method. The simulations and tests not only show that the DQN model can effectively determine the TAP parameters, but also show TAPv2 can achieve higher accuracy and stability than TAP in multiple scenarios based on the interaction with baseband. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State estimation has been dominated by traditional algorithms based on the Bayesian framework, and Bayesian filtering has proven to be an effective component with a wide range of applications in various fields. On the other hand, Bayesian framework is inherently limited by the precise model prior information, while struggling to cope with the challenges such as Markov assumptions that do not adequately describe the actual motion modes, and model transition decision delay in the multiple model algorithm. To alleviate this, we redefine the state filtering problem from a data-driven perspective as a non-probabilistic mapping problem from measurement sequence to target state, replacing the iteration of model derivation with supervised learning regression. Specifically, we introduce a data-driven tracking filter architecture (DTF) that includes spatio-temporal feature processing and decoupling of target trend and sensor uncertainty features. Its fast implementation based on LightGBM is further given, considering the interpretability of the model. Simulation results show that the proposed method approaches to the theoretical optimal solution of the Kalman filter in an ideal linear Gaussian scenario. In challenging maneuvering target tracking scenarios, the proposed model is superior in performance compared with other existing methods. Finally, we validate the effectiveness of the method in radar tracking and real-world video scenes. • The proposal of a data-driven framework for tracking state filtering. • The design of spatio-temporal feature extraction and feature decoupling modules. • The avoidance of model mismatch and Markov restriction in Bayesian methods. • A LightGBM implementation for the DTF framework is further given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiently monitoring the condition of civil infrastructure requires automating the structural condition assessment in visual inspection. This paper proposes an Attention-Enhanced Co-Interactive Fusion Network (AECIF-Net) for automatic structural condition assessment in visual bridge inspection. AECIF-Net can simultaneously parse structural elements and segment surface defects on the elements in inspection images. It integrates two task-specific relearning subnets to extract task-specific features from an overall feature embedding. A co-interactive feature fusion module further captures the spatial correlation and facilitates information sharing between tasks. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed AECIF-Net outperforms the current state-of-the-art approaches, achieving promising performance with 92.11% mIoU for element segmentation and 87.16% mIoU for corrosion segmentation on the test set of the new benchmark dataset Steel Bridge Condition Inspection Visual (SBCIV). An ablation study verifies the merits of the designs for AECIF-Net, and a case study demonstrates its capability to automate structural condition assessment. • A deep learning model AECIF-Net is developed for automating the visual assessment of structural conditions. • SBCIV, an image dataset with annotations of structural elements and their surface defects, is created. • AECIF-Net outperforms current methods in segmenting structural elements and surface defects. • Merits of the designs for the AECIF-Net are verified by comprehensive experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Non-synchronous Measurements (NSM) was proposed to enhance the accuracy of reconstruction and reduce the measurement cost. However, the investigated object of conventional NSM are only sparsely distributed sound sources, and little emphasis placed on the reconstructed accuracy of the spatially extended sound source. In this article, the traditional NSM is further investigated in the spatially extended sound source, and the sound pressure information is reconstructed by Bayesian compressive sensing algorithm (BCS). Firstly, the spatially extended sound source is scanned by moving the rectangular microphone array, and the measurement effects of the array with large aperture and high density are approximately obtained by using NSM technique. Then, BCS is applied to reconstruct sound field by the NSM of sound pressure. The results of numerical simulations provide evidence for the feasibility of applying the proposed investigation to the spatially extended sound source. NSM has advantages in reconstruction accuracy compared with the single measurement. At the same time, the reconstructed sound pressure under NSM can replace the simultaneous measurement (SM) results of multi-array, which avoids the limitation of using reference microphone in increasing the number of channels and spatial layout. The experimental results of the driven steel plate provide additional evidence to support the effectiveness and feasibility of the investigation. • The application problem of the NSM in the spatially extended sound source like the driven steel plate is investigated. • The NSM increases the number of microphones and avoids the limitation of using reference microphone in increasing the number of channels and spatial layout. • The traditional NSM is further investigated in the spatially extended sound source, and the sound pressure is reconstructed by BCS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Single Event Transient (SET) phenomenon, which occurs in combinational circuits, has emerged as the primary source of soft errors in Integrated Circuits (IC) in advanced deep-submicron technologies. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the underlying mechanisms of SET effects in order to gain valuable insights for mitigating SET in combinational circuits. In advanced technologies, specifically those at the 28-nm and below, tap cells are commonly utilized as the well and substrate contact to achieve higher device density. This article presents a comprehensive study on the impact of tap cells on SET sensitivity for the first time. Furthermore, a comparison is made between the SET sensitivity of conventional and tap cell-based well and substrate contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Camellia sinensis cv. 'Yanling Huayecha' (YHC) is an albino-green chimaeric tea mutant with stable genetic traits. Here, we analysed the cell ultrastructure, photosynthetic pigments, amino acids, and transcriptomes of the albino, mosaic, and green zones of YHC. Well-organized thylakoids were found in chloroplasts in mesophyll cells of the green zone but not the albino zone. The albino zone of the leaves contained almost no photosynthetic pigment. However, the levels of total amino acids and theanine were higher in the albino zone than in the mosaic and green zones. A transcriptomic analysis showed that carbon metabolism, nitrogen metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis showed differences among the different zones. Metabolite and transcriptomic analyses revealed that (1) downregulation of CsPPOX1 and damage to thylakoids in the albino zone may block chlorophyll synthesis; (2) downregulation of CsLHCB6 , CsFdC2 and CsSCY1 influences chloroplast biogenesis and thylakoid membrane formation, which may contribute to the appearance of variegated tea leaves; and (3) tea plant variegation disrupts the balance between carbon and nitrogen metabolism and promotes the accumulation of amino acids, and upregulation of CsTSⅠ and CsAlaDC may enhance L-theanine synthesis. In summary, our study provides a theoretical basis and valuable insights for elucidating the molecular mechanisms and promoting the economic utilization of variegation in tea. • CsPPOX1 , CsLHCB6 , CsFdC2 and CsSCY1 downregulation and thylakoid damage in albino zone may cause variegated tea leaves. • Tea plant variegation disrupts the balance between carbon and nitrogen metabolism and promotes amino acids accumulation. • Upregulation of CsTSⅠ and CsAlaDC may enhance theanine synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought stress (DS) is the most important abiotic stress affecting yield and quality of tea worldwide. DS causes oxidative stress to cells due to the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). As non‐enzymatic antioxidants, tea catechins can scavenge excess ROS in response to DS. Further, catechin accumulation contributes to the formation of oxidative polymerization products (e.g. theaflavins and thearubigins) that improve the quality of black tea. However, there are no systematic reports on the response of tea catechins to DS. First, we reviewed the available literature on the response of tea plants to DS. Second, we summarized the current knowledge of ROS production in tea leaves under DS and typical antioxidant response mechanisms. Third, we conducted a detailed review of the changes in catechin levels in tea under different drought conditions. We found that the total amounts of catechin and o‐quinone increased under DS conditions. We propose that the possible mechanisms underlying tea catechin accumulation under DS conditions include (i) autotrophic formation of o‐quinone, (ii) polymerization of proanthocyanidins that directly scavenge excess ROS, and (iii) formation of metal ion complexes and by influencing the antioxidant systems that indirectly eliminate excess ROS. Finally, we discuss ways of potentially improving black tea quality using drought before picking in the summer/fall dry season. In summary, we mainly discuss the antioxidant mechanisms of tea catechins under DS and the possibility of using drought to improve black tea quality. Our review provides a theoretical basis for the production of high‐quality black tea under DS conditions. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Multiple components can be recovered by the novel pneumatic separation at one time. • The recovery of Cu in current collectors is 92.08%, and that of Al is 96.68%. • Suspension velocity of flaky powder can be given by the equivalent diameter method. In recycling of the spent lithium iron phosphorus (LiFePO 4) batteries, the mechanical pretreatment is critical for relieving the pressure of the subsequent recycling process and reducing the cost of whole recycling process. In order to achieve the separation and concentration of the cathode materials, anode materials, copper and aluminum foils from spent LiFePO 4 batteries, a novel pneumatic separation combined with froth flotation is designed in this research. A pulsated pneumatic separation with variable-diameter structure separator is used, through which 92.08% of copper and 96.68% of aluminum were recovered. In the pneumatic separation the movement of the copper and aluminum flakes can be described by an improved equivalent diameter method, based on the force analysis of the flaky particles. The froth flotation is utilized to recover the cathode materials and anode materials with the recovery of 92.86% and 83.21%, respectively. A mass balance and a technological route of the recycling process are provided finally. The present work provides a green and high-efficiency recycling process in which copper, aluminum, anode and cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries can be recovered respectively only by physical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is one of the most common and intractable neurological disorders in adults. Dysfunctional PKA signaling is causally linked to the TLE. However, the mechanism underlying PKA involves in epileptogenesis is still poorly understood. In the present study, we found the autophosphorylation level at serine 114 site (serine 112 site in mice) of PKA-RIIβ subunit was robustly decreased in the epileptic foci obtained from both surgical specimens of TLE patients and seizure model mice. The p-RIIβ level was negatively correlated with the activities of PKA. Notably, by using a P-site mutant that cannot be autophosphorylated and thus results in the released catalytic subunit to exert persistent phosphorylation, an increase in PKA activities through transduction with AAV-RIIβ-S112A in hippocampal DG granule cells decreased mIPSC frequency but not mEPSC, enhanced neuronal intrinsic excitability and seizure susceptibility. In contrast, a reduction of PKA activities by RIIβ knockout led to an increased mIPSC frequency, a reduction in neuronal excitability, and mice less prone to experimental seizure onset. Collectively, our data demonstrated that the autophosphorylation of RIIβ subunit plays a critical role in controlling neuronal and network excitabilities by regulating the activities of PKA, providing a potential therapeutic target for TLE. Jingliang Zhang et al. examine how dysfunctional PKA signaling impacts neuronal activity and seizure susceptibility in a mouse model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Their data suggest that autophosphorylation of the RIIβ subunit regulates neuronal excitability, and may act as a future therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The localization of cyclostationary sound sources is important for rotating machinery noise source identification and fault diagnosis. Cyclostationary sound sources are a special class of nonstationary sound sources, which exhibit periodic changes in statistics. Most of the conventional sound source identification methods are based on the stationary sound source assumption, which do not consider the cyclostationarity of the radiated sound field by rotating machinery. Thus, they are hard to localize the acoustic sources with different cyclic frequencies. In this paper, a novel technique of localizing the cyclostationary acoustic sources with different cyclic frequencies is proposed. First, the cyclostationary conventional beamforming (CSCBF) method is deviated. In CSCBF, the cyclic-cross-spectral matrix (CCSM) is defined considering all the cross cyclic spectral correlation (CSC) between different microphones in the array. The left steering vector and right steering vector are constructed to focus the CCSM on each scanning grid point at a given combination of cyclic frequency and spectral frequency. Then, the high resolution cyclostationary beamforming (HR-CSBF) is further developed to improve the spatial resolution of CSCBF. In HR-CSBF, two linear equations according to the property of CSC is established as the acoustic inverse problems. With the sparse distribution of the cyclostationary sources in the space as the prior knowledge, the iterated Bayesian focusing (IBF) is utilized to obtain a robust and sparse solution in HR-CSBF. Numerical simulations and experiments are conducted to validate the proposed methods. To explore the potential applications of the proposed methods, the localization of high pressure pump (HPP) and rolling bearing with outer-race failure are also used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. It turns out that both CSCBF and HR-CSBF can localize the cyclostationary sources with different cyclic frequencies. Compared with CSCBF, HR-CSBF can achieve a higher spatial resolution in the obtained acoustic map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A series of peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) were synthesized by integrating camptothecin (CPT) with the cationic anticancer peptide (CAP) of KM8-Aib to ameliorate the solubility and specificity of CPT. • Kb-CC07 possessed the superior anti-malignant activity over other PDCs, and displayed favorable metabolic stability as well as excellent water solubility. • Kb-CC07 might overcome drug resistance by increasing the cellular uptake of CPT, counteracting the efflux action of drug-resistant proteins on tumor surface. • Kb-CC07 demonstrated remarkable tumor targeting ability and antitumor efficacy in vivo, along with benign toxicity profiles. Camptothecin (CPT) is a natural plant alkaloid from Camptotheca that exhibits a potent anticancer activity. However, its continued utilization is hindered by drawbacks such as low water solubility and restricted tumor selectivity. Cationic anticancer peptides (CAPs) are generally soluble in water, and exhibit favorable selectivity against malignant cells. In previous study, we have reported a CAP termed KM8-Aib present conspicuous selective anticancer effect. Thus, it is postulated conjugating KM8-Aib with CPT might be a plausible approach to improve the defects of CPT. A series of peptide-CPT conjugates were synthesized and subjected to biological evaluation. Among these compounds, Kb-CC07 displayed the highest selective activity against a set of cancer cell lines including drug-resistant cells, showing the IC 50 values in the 0.11–1.01 μM range which is 1.9–22.6 times better than that of CPT, and a wide therapeutic index of 124.5 (vs 5.3 for CPT). The water solubility of Kb-CC07 was also improved by ∼ 100 fold compared with CPT. Further investigation unraveled that Kb-CC07 could effectively penetrate across plasma membranes and delivered more CPT molecules into cancer cells, overcoming the drug-resistance result from efflux drug transporters on tumor surface. In vivo experiments supported that Kb-CC07 has excellent in vivo antiproliferative activity against drug-resistant tumors over CPT (tumor growth inhibition of 98.2% and 37.5% for Kb-CC07 and CPT, respectively, at 5 μmol·kg−1), and prompts CPT accumulation in tumor tissue rather than normal organs, thus producing limited toxicities. To sum up, coupling therapeutic agents to CAPs would be a potential strategy to conquer the shortcomings of anticancer drugs. Additionally, Kb-CC07 is suggested to be a promising anticancer candidate deserving further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tea plants are important economic perennial crops that can be negatively impacted by drought stress (DS). However, their survival strategies in long-term DS conditions and the accumulation and influence of metabolites and mineral elements (MEs) in their organs, when facing hydraulic vulnerability segmentation, require further investigation. The MEs and metabolites in the leaf, stem, and root after long-term DS (20 d) were examined here, using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The accumulation patterns of 116 differentially accumulated metabolites (DAMs) and nine MEs were considerably affected in all organs. The concentration of all MEs varied significantly in at least one organ, while the K and Ca levels were markedly altered in all three. Most DAM levels increased in the stem but decreased in the root and leaf, implying that vulnerability segmentation may occur with long-term DS. The typical nitrogen- and carbon-compound levels similarly increased in the stem and decreased in the leaf and root, as the plant might respond to long-term DS by stabilizing respiration, promoting nitrogen recycling, and free radical scavenging. Correlation analysis showed several possible DAM-ME interactions and an association between Mn and flavonoids. Thus, survival strategies under long-term DS included sacrificing distal/vulnerable organs and accumulating function-specialized metabolites and MEs to mitigate drought-induced oxidative damage. This is the first study that reports substance fluctuations after long-term DS in different organs of plants, and highlights the need to use whole plants to fully comprehend stress response strategies. Image 1 • Tea plants adopt a drought survival strategy for long-term drought stress. • They sacrifice vulnerable organs to improve resistance in the stem. • They accumulate substances in the stem to facilitate rapid recovery. • Specialized metabolite and mineral element accumulation mitigates oxidative damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Euclidean geometry is the fundamental mathematical framework of classical crystallography. Traditionally, layered materials are grown on flat substrates; growing Euclidean crystals on non-Euclidean surfaces has rarely been studied. We present a general model describing the growth of layered materials with screw-dislocation spirals on non-Euclidean surfaces and show that it leads to continuously twisted multilayer superstructures. This model is experimentally demonstrated by growing supertwisted spirals of tungsten disulfide (WS2) and tungsten diselenide (WSe2) draped over nanoparticles near the centers of spirals. Microscopic structural analysis shows that the crystal lattice twist is consistent with the geometric twist of the layers, leading to moiré superlattices between the atomic layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescence and young adulthood are considered the peak age for the emergence of many psychiatric disorders, in particular major depressive disorder (MDD). Previous research has shown substantial heritability for MDD. In addition, the brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene is known to be associated with MDD. However, there has been no study conducting targeted sequencing of the BDNF gene in young MDD patients so far. Method: To examine whether the BDNF gene is associated with the occurrence of MDD in young patients, we used targeted sequencing to detect the BDNF gene variants in 259 young Chinese Han people (105 MDD patients and 154 healthy subjects). Results: The BDNF variant rs4030470 was associated with MDD in young Chinese Han people (uncorrected p = 0.046), but this was no longer significant after applying FDR correction (p = 0.552, after FDR correction). We did not find any significant differences in genotype or haplotype frequencies between the case and control groups, and furthermore discovered no rare mutation variants any of the 259 subjects. Conclusion: Our results do not support an association of the BDNF gene variants with MDD in young people in the Chinese Han population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To locate the fault location accurately and solve the problem quickly is the key to improve the power supply capacity of power grid. This paper presents a fault location method based on SVM fault branch selection algorithm and similarity matching. Firstly, an SVM-based fault branch filter classifier was constructed based on the positive sequence component feature matrix data of each monitoring point, which can accurately select the branch where the current fault is located. Then, based on the positive sequence voltage distribution characteristics, the Euclidean distance and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) are used to establish the similarity objective function of fault location. And then, the fault is accurately located by the objective function. Finally, the proposed method is validated by using an IEEE-14 node network. The results show that the proposed method is effective and accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A PV/T system combined with PCM was proposed and studied. • The overall efficiency of the PV/T-PCM system was investigated in detail. • The thermal regulation strategy was proposed to improve system performance. We present a comprehensive analysis of a solar photovoltaic/thermal system combined with phase change material, i.e., a PV/T-PCM system. A fatty acid was chosen as the PCM with a phase transition temperature of 37 °C. A solar collector filled with PCM, which contained rectangular metal fins to enhance heat transfer, was used to cool the PV. Four-day experimental measurements were carried out under real outdoor climatic conditions in Shanghai, China. During the experiment, we examined two different intermittent thermal regulation strategies using a water circulation loop in the PV/T-PCM system to improve the overall solar energy utilization efficiency, and detailed comparisons were performed. The results indicated that the use of PCM in the solar collector could significantly mitigate the temperature fluctuation of the PV panel and improve the photoelectric efficiency. Due to the low thermal conductivity of fatty acid, the temperature stratification in the solar collector was still significant even with the addition of metal copper fins. The thermal regulation strategy of setting the temperature at 45 °C gave better performance and the overall efficiencies of Case 1 and Case 3 could reach approximately 91%. The overall efficiency of Case 3 and Case 4 was approximately 85% with the thermal regulation strategy of setting the temperature at 50 °C. More heat could be removed from the PCM in the solar collector using the relatively low temperature setting of the thermal regulation strategy. It was concluded that the overall energy utilization ratio of the PV/T-PCM system can be improved through a reasonable thermal regulation strategy; however, further work on the economics analysis of the system is still needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proton irradiation induced Nb redistribution in Zr-xNb alloys (x = 0.4, 0.5, 1.0 wt%) has been investigated using scanning transmission electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM/EDS). Zr-xNb alloys are mainly composed of Zr matrix, native Zr–Nb–Fe phases, and β-Nb precipitates. After 2 MeV proton irradiation at 350 °C, a decrease of Nb content in native precipitates, as well as irradiation-induced precipitation of Nb-rich platelets (135 ± 69 nm long and 27 ± 12 nm wide) were found. Nb-rich platelets and Zr matrix form the Burgers orientation relationship, [ 1 1 ¯ 1 ]//[ 2 1 ¯ 1 ¯ 0 ] and (011)//(0002). The platelets were found to be mostly coherent with the matrix with a few dislocations near the ends of the precipitate. The coherent strain field has been measured in the matrix and platelets by the 4D-STEM technique. The growth of Nb-rich platelets is mainly driven by coherency and dislocation-induced strain fields. Irradiation may both enhance the diffusion and induce segregation of interstitial Nb to the ends of the irradiation induced platelets, further facilitating their growth. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibiotic residues in food should be concerned seriously because they constitute potential threats to human health. The rapid and accurate determination of antibiotic residues in food must be a tough challenge due to the large number of interfering substances in food matrices. However, the traditional sample preparation methods are not only time-consuming and laborious, but also require many toxic organic solvents. This is why new preparation methods need to be developed to meet new analysis needs. A quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe preparation technique, known as QuEChERS, was introduced in 2003. As its name implies, this technique, combined with LC or GC tandem mass spectrometry, can effectively separate multiple complex compounds in a short time. Initially, QuEChERS was widely used to analyze pesticide residues in food. Nevertheless, more and more researchers began to apply the QuEChERS technique to extract other compounds with various complex matrices in recent years, and the advantages of high efficiency and good results has once again proved the potential of this technique. In this paper, the development and application of QuEChERS for antibiotic residues in food were reviewed, and the research progress on modification and optimization of the QuEChERS methodology in sample treatment, extraction and purification is summarized in detail. Image 1 • QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) method for antibiotics analysis. • QuEChERS is an excellent preparation approach and frequently applied in foods. • QuEChERS has obvious advantages over conventional pretreatment method. • Comprehensive modifications of QuEChERS improved effective and recoveries. • QuEChERS is a promising analysis method for a wide diversity of analytes and matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional approaches for recovering valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) suffer from heavy dependence on chemical reagents, high energy consumption, and low recovery efficiencies. In this study, we developed a shearing-enhanced mechanical exfoliation combined with mild-temperature pretreatment (SMEMP) method. The method achieves high-efficiency exfoliation of the cathode active materials that remain strongly adhered to polyvinylidene fluoride after it melts during mild pretreatment. The pretreatment temperature was decreased from 500–550 °C to 250 °C, the duration was decreased to 1/4–1/6 of the traditional pretreatment duration, and the exfoliation efficiency and product purity reached 96.88% and 99.93%, respectively. Despite the weakening thermal stress, the cathode materials could be exfoliated by strengthened shear forces. Compared with other traditional methods, the superiority of this method in temperature reduction and energy saving was established. The proposed SMEMP method is environmentally friendly and economical, and it offers a new route for the recovery of cathode active materials from spent LIBs. [Display omitted] • A shearing-enhanced exfoliation method combined with mild pretreatment is proposed. • The exfoliation was achieved by synergy of thermal stress and strong shear action. • Heat treatment temperature dropped by about 250 °C with the duration reduced to 1/6. • The exfoliating efficiency could reach 96.88% with purity as high as 99.93%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latent heat thermal energy storage unit alleviates the mismatch between energy supply and demand. However, the sole melting temperature of a phase change material in a single-layer heat storage unit does not adapt well to the environment. Therefore, the mechanisms associated with the better environmental adaptability of a multiple-layer heat storage unit are explored in this study based on energy and exergy evaluations via comparison with single-layer units. An innovative methodology is proposed to discuss transient thermal energy and exergy, and exergy distribution of these heat storage units in different seasons. Results show that the multiple-layer units address the limitations of single-layer units by exhibiting excellent heat storage capacity and quality, as well as uniform melting and exergy distribution. Compared with the single-layer unit with a melting temperature of 49 °C, the multiple-layer unit exhibits a 56.64% higher energy in the winter. Moreover, the exergy is 57.14% higher than that of the single-layer unit with a melting temperature of 33 °C in the summer. This study reveals the mechanism of excellent thermal energy storage performance of the multiple-layer latent heat storage unit in different seasons. • An innovative transient performance evaluation method was proposed. • Thermal energy and exergy quantities, and exergy distribution were discussed. • Enhanced mechanism of multiple-layer latent heat storage unit was revealed. • Multiple-layer latent heat storage unit has uniform melting and exergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tissue engineering is essentially a technique for imitating nature. Natural tissues are made up of three parts: extracellular matrix (ECM), signaling systems, and cells. Therefore, biomimetic ECM scaffold is one of the best candidates for tissue engineering scaffolds. Among the many scaffold materials of biomimetic ECM structure, decellularized ECM scaffolds (dECMs) obtained from natural ECM after acellular treatment stand out because of their inherent natural components and microenvironment. First, an overview of the family of dECMs is provided. The principle, mechanism, advances, and shortfalls of various decellularization technologies, including physical, chemical, and biochemical methods are then critically discussed. Subsequently, a comprehensive review is provided on recent advances in the versatile applications of dECMs including but not limited to decellularized small intestinal submucosa, dermal matrix, amniotic matrix, tendon, vessel, bladder, heart valves. And detailed examples are also drawn from scientific research and practical work. Furthermore, we outline the underlying development directions of dECMs from the perspective that tissue engineering scaffolds play an important role as an important foothold and fulcrum at the intersection of materials and medicine. As scaffolds that have already found diverse applications, dECMs will continue to present both challenges and exciting opportunities for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in various life processes. However, the lncRNA expression and potential functions in porcine endemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) infection and host defense are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the lncRNA expression profiles during PEDV infection in intestinal porcine epithelial cell-jejunum 2 (IPEC-J2) cell lines by next-generation sequencing and identified 6188 novel lncRNAs. The functional annotation analysis revealed that these lncRNAs might be associated with many immunity-related genes. We next selected candidate lncRNAs related to immune response pathways and further identified their differential expression in PEDV-infected IPEC-J2 cells and newborn piglets. Our results demonstrated that PEDV infection regulated lncRNA expression patterns in both the IPEC-J2 cell line and piglet ileum. These findings provide the first large-scale survey of lncRNAs associated with PEDV infection, specifically the lncRNAs responsible for the activation of the immune system within the ileum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyborosilazane synthesized from trichlorosilane (SiHCl 3 ), boron trichloride (BCl 3 ) and methylamine (MeNH 2 ) is highly sensitive to moisture for hydrolysis of -NHMe unites and is easy to cross-link for dehydrogenation of Si-H, N-H, which affected the industrial scale production of SiBNC ceramic fibers. In this paper,a new nitrogen source(n-propylamine, C 3 H 7 NH 2 ) was used instead of MeNH 2 to synthesis polyborosilazane precursor. The influences of nitrogen sources on the structures and properties of SiBNC ceramic fiber precursors were investigated. As compared to SiHCl 3 /BCl 3 /CH 3 NH 2 system, polyborosilazane precursor synthesized from the SiHCl 3 /BCl 3 /C 3 H 7 NH 2 system exhibited lower crosslink density, lower sensitivity to moisture and good melt spinnability, and the obtained ceramic fibers showed higher tensile strength (1.03 GPa, an increase of about 37.3%). This synthesis route (SiHCl 3 /BCl 3 /C 3 H 7 NH 2 ) may serve as a suitable synthetic route for a large-scale production of SiBNC ceramic fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that AMPK plays an important role in cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury by participating in apoptosis, but the exact mechanism and target of action remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the protective mechanism of AMPK activation on brain injury secondary to cardiac arrest. HE, Nills and TUNEL assays were used to evaluate neuronal damage and apoptosis. The relationships between AMPK, HNF4α and apoptotic genes were verified by ChIP-seq, dual-luciferase and WB assays. The results showed that AMPK improved the 7-day memory function of rats, and reduced neuronal cell injury and apoptosis in the hippocampal CA1 region after ROSC, while the use of HNF4α inhibitor weakened the protective effect of AMPK. Further research found that AMPK positively regulated the expression of HNF4α, and AMPK could promote the expression of Bcl-2 and inhibit the expression of Bax and Cleaved-Caspase 3. In vitro experiments showed that AMPK ameliorated neuronal injury by inhibiting apoptosis through the activation of HNF4α. Combined with ChIP-seq, JASPAR analysis and Dual-luciferase assay, the binding site of HNF4α to the upstream promoter of Bcl-2 was found. Taken together, AMPK attenuates brain injury after CA by activating HNF4α to target Bcl-2 to inhibit apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel processable and high yield polyborosilazane (PBSZ) precursor for SiBNC ceramic fibers was synthesized via boron trichloride (BCl 3 ), co-polymerization of trichlorosilane (SiHCl 3 ) and methylamine (MeNH 2 ), followed by trans-amination with NH 3 . The synthesized PBSZ precursor was characterized and the results showed that the polymeric precursor exhibited good melt–processability and green fibers with a diameter of 45 µm could be easily obtained by melt spinning. The green fibers were subsequently pyrolyzed at 1200 °C in nitrogen atmospheres to provide SiBNC ceramic fibers with a cylindrical hollow structure, ca.32 µm in diameter and 720 MPa in tensile strength. The green fibers had an approximately ceramic yield of 78% at 900 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]