PD-1 downregulation enhances CAR-T cell antitumor efficiency by preserving a cell memory phenotype and reducing exhaustion.

BACKGROUND: Despite the encouraging outcome of chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) targeting B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) in managing relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) patients, the therapeutic side effects and dysfunctions of CAR-T cells have limited the efficacy and clinical application of this promising approach. METHODS: In this study, we incorporated a short hairpin RNA cassette targeting PD-1 into a BCMA-CAR with an OX-40 costimulatory domain. The transduced PD-1KD BCMA CAR-T cells were evaluated for surface CAR expression, T-cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, cytokine production, and subsets when they were exposed to a single or repetitive antigen stimulation. Safety and efficacy were initially observed in a phase I clinical trial for RRMM patients. RESULTS: Compared with parental BCMA CAR-T cells, PD-1KD BCMA CAR-T cell therapy showed reduced T-cell exhaustion and increased percentage of memory T cells in vitro. Better antitumor activity in vivo was also observed in PD-1KD BCMA CAR-T group. In the phase I clinical trial of the CAR-T cell therapy for seven RRMM patients, safety and efficacy were initially observed in all seven patients, including four patients (4/7, 57.1%) with at least one extramedullary site and four patients (4/7, 57.1%) with high-risk cytogenetics. The overall response rate was 85.7% (6/7). Four patients had a stringent complete response (sCR), one patient had a CR, one patient had a partial response, and one patient had stable disease. Safety profile was also observed in these patients, with an incidence of manageable mild to moderate cytokine release syndrome and without the occurrence of neurological toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates a design concept of CAR-T cells independent of antigen specificity and provides an alternative approach for improving the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy.

Real-world advantage and challenge of post-autologous stem cell transplantation MRD negativity in high-risk patients with double-hit multiple myeloma.

BACKGROUND: Autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) remains a beneficial approach for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) in the age of novel therapeutic agents. Nevertheless, limited real-world data is available to establish criteria for identifying high-risk ASCT patients. METHODS: We analyzed outcomes for 168 NDMM patients who underwent ASCT at our center from December 2015 to December 2022. We investigated the impact of the number of high-risk cytogenetics (HRCA), defined as t(4;14), t(14;16), 1q21 gain/amplification, and del(17p), as well as the post-ASCT minimal residual disease (MRD) status as prognostic indicators. We assessed progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and focused on identifying risk factors. RESULTS: The cohort included 42% of patients (n = 71) with 0 HRCA, 42% (n = 71) with 1 HRCA, and 16% (n = 26) with ≥ 2 HRCA. After a median follow-up of 31 months, the median PFS was 53 months (95% CI, 37-69), and OS was not reached for the entire cohort. Despite similar rates of MRD-negativity post-ASCT, patients with ≥ 2 HRCA, termed "double hit" (DH), had a significantly higher risk of progression/mortality than those with 0 or 1 HRCA. Multivariate analysis highlighted DH (HR 4.103, 95% CI, 2.046-8.231) and MRD positivity post-ASCT (HR 6.557, 95% CI, 3.217-13.366) as adverse prognostic factors for PFS, with DH also linked to inferior OS. As anticipated, DH patients with post-ASCT MRD positivity displayed the poorest prognosis, with a median PFS of 7 months post-ASCT. Meanwhile, DH patients with MRD negativity post-ASCT showed improved prognosis, akin to MRD-negative non-DH patients. It is noteworthy to exercise caution, as DH patients who initially achieved MRD negativity experienced a 41% cumulative loss of that status within one year. CONCLUSIONS: This study strongly advocates integrating DH genetic assessments for eligible ASCT patients and emphasizes the importance of ongoing MRD monitoring, as well as considering MRD-based treatment adaptation for those patients in real-world settings.

Design, One-Step Highly Selective Synthesis and Enhancing Insecticidal Activity and Photo-Self-Degradation of Phenylpyrazole Esterified Derivatives as GABA and nACh Receptor Inhibitors.

In the pursuit of novel insecticides with high activity and a unique mode of action on the GABA receptor, a series of phenylpyrazole esterified derivatives (PEs) were synthesized using an improved Pinner reaction with high selectivity. Lewis acid catalysis was employed in a one-step solvent-thermal method to convert the cyano group of fipronil into an ester unit. FeCl3 was found to exhibit the highest selectivity for PEs synthesis, yielding PEs at 96.4%, with the byproduct being phenylpyrazole amide (PE0) at 2.1%. Initial biological assays indicated superior insecticidal activity of the target compounds against Plutella xylostella and Mythimna separata compared to fipronil. Particularly, the smaller and shorter ester units, PE3, PE5, and PE8, demonstrated 2-2.5 times higher insecticidal activity against P. xylostella than fipronil. The higher activity of ester units compared to amide and acylhydrazone units can be attributed to the enhanced lipid solubility of PEs. Additionally, it may be due to the impact of PEs on the neurotransmitter nACh or the coordination of calcium and chloride ions with the ester's -C═O and -O- bonds, blocking the chloride ion channel. Hydrophobic parameters were confirmed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), indicating the enhanced lipophilicity conferred by the ester units of PEs. Molecular docking and CoMFA analysis preliminarily validated the strong interactions and structure-activity relationships between PEs and the GABA receptor and nACh receptor in P. xylostella. Furthermore, under simulated natural sunlight, PEs exhibited photodegradation capabilities, transforming back into fipronil parent fragments and enhancing their insecticidal activity. Moreover, PEs displayed excellent fluorescent properties, enabling self-detection of residues. These research findings provide new insights and directions for the development of efficient pesticides, with potential wide applications in the fields of medicine and biosensors.

Neutrophil activation and clonal CAR-T re-expansion underpinning cytokine release syndrome during ciltacabtagene autoleucel therapy in multiple myeloma.

Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is the most common complication of chimeric antigen receptor redirected T cells (CAR-T) therapy. CAR-T toxicity management has been greatly improved, but CRS remains a prime safety concern. Here we follow serum cytokine levels and circulating immune cell transcriptomes longitudinally in 26 relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients receiving the CAR-T product, ciltacabtagene autoleucel, to understand the immunological kinetics of CRS. We find that although T lymphocytes and monocytes/macrophages are the major overall cytokine source in manifest CRS, neutrophil activation peaks earlier, before the onset of severe symptoms. Intracellularly, signaling activation dominated by JAK/STAT pathway occurred prior to cytokine cascade and displayed regular kinetic changes. CRS severity is accurately described and potentially predicted by temporal cytokine secretion signatures. Notably, CAR-T re-expansion is found in three patients, including a fatal case characterized by somatic TET2-mutation, clonal expanded cytotoxic CAR-T, broadened cytokine profiles and irreversible hepatic toxicity. Together, our findings show that a latent phase with distinct immunological changes precedes manifest CRS, providing an optimal window and potential targets for CRS therapeutic intervention and that CAR-T re-expansion warrants close clinical attention and laboratory investigation to mitigate the lethal risk.

Design and One-Pot Ultrasound Synthesis of Inorganic Base-Promoted Fluorescent Ligand-Gated Ion Channel Fused Arylpyrazole Sulfonamide Skeletons to Enhance Phloem Mobility and Insecticidal Activity as GABA and nACh Receptors Inhibitors.

Ligand-gated ion channels are essential in living organisms, and sulfonamides have antibacterial effects and can be readily coordinated with metal ions with good biological activity. A series of fluorescent ligand-gated ion channel fused arylpyrazole sulfonamide skeletons (APSnM) were synthesized based on a one-pot ultrasound strategy promoted by an inorganic base. APSnM had a high fluorescence quantum yield and a large Stokes shift in ethanol solvent. The ligand bonded ions took on a different color from the ligand and can be used as a probe to detect their own residue on plant surfaces. Their hydrophobic parameters and the fluorescence distribution in Chinese cabbage leaves indicated that APSnM significantly increased the phloem mobility of the plant. The insecticidal activity of APS3Na was higher (LC50 = 7.2423 µg/mL) than that of fipronil (15.2312 µg/mL) against Plutella xylostella, and the mechanism of high insecticidal activity of APS3Na was simulated by molecular docking, which confirmed its strong interactions with the GABA and nACh receptors of Plutella xylostella. Analysis of the crystal structure of these ligand-gated ion channels further confirmed the consistency of their structure and biological activity.

Preparation of superhydrophobic sponge and its application in oil-water separation and treatment of polymer-containing wastewater.

At present, the application prospect of superhydrophobic materials in oil-water separation, an-tibacterial and other aspects have attracted more and more attention. However, preparing a simple and low-cost superhydrophobic material remains a challenge. Using acetone as solvent, candle soot, silver/silica nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane were uniformly mixed to form a mixed solution, and the superhydrophobic sponge was successfully prepared by spraying method. The results show that the superhydrophobic sponge has high water contact Angle (162°) and excellent oil-water separation efficiency, which can realize effective treatment of polymerized wastewater. In addition, the superhydrophobic sponge showed better antibacterial properties on the surface of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. In this work, a simple way to prepare superhydro-phobic oil-water separation material is proposed. The preparation process is green, the material is easy to obtain, and it is expected to be widely used in practical production.

Preparation and Characterization of a Biodegradable Film Using Irradiated Chitosan Incorporated with Lysozyme and Carrageenan and Its Application in Crayfish Preservation.

In this study, a composite film was prepared using irradiated chitosan, lysozyme, and carrageenan for crayfish preservation. First, the chitosan was degraded by gamma rays, with the best antimicrobial properties being found at 100 KGy. By using the response surface method, the components of the composite film were irradiated chitosan (CS) at 0.016 g/mL, lysozyme (LM) at 0.0015 g/mL, and carrageenan (CA) at 0.002 g/mL. When compared to the natural chitosan film, the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results demonstrated that the chemical properties of the composite film did not change with the addition of LM and CA, while the physical and antibacterial properties increased, including tensile strength (16.87 → 20.28 N), hydrophobicity (67.9 → 86.3°), and oxygen permeability (31.66 → 24.31 m3·um/m2·day·kPa). Moreover, the antibacterial activity of the films increased with the addition of LM and CA, especially for Shewanella putrefaciens: the zone of inhibition (mm) of CS, CS/LM, and CS/LM/CA was 9.97 ± 0.29, 14.32 ± 0.31, and 14.78 ± 0.21, respectively. Finally, the CS/LM/CA film could preserve crayfish for 10 days at 4 °C, whereas the polyethylene (PE) film could only preserve them for 6 days. Moreover, the composite film was excellent at inhibiting oxidative deterioration (TBARS value: 2.12 mg/kg, day10) and keeping the texture of crayfish muscle. Overall, our results suggested that the CS/LM/CA composite film produced can be applied as a biodegradable film in aquatic product packaging.

Transition Metal-Free Aromatic C-H, C-N, C-S and C-O Borylation.

Aromatic organoboron compounds are highly valuable building blocks in organic chemistry. They were mainly synthesized through aromatic C-H and C-Het borylation, in which transition metal-catalysis dominate. In the past decade, with increasing attention to sustainable chemistry, numerous transition metal-free C-H and C-Het borylation transformations have been developed and emerged as efficient methods towards the synthesis of aromatic organoboron compounds. This account mainly focuses on recent advances in transition metal-free aromatic C-H, C-N, C-S, and C-O borylation transformations and provides insights to where further developments are required.

A multifunctional heterogeneous superwettable coating for water collection, oil/water separation and oil absorption.

Herein, inspired by desert beetles, we fabricated a multifunctional heterogeneous superwettable coating (MHSC) for water collection and oily wastewater cleanup. The selective modifications of 1-octadecanethiol (ODT) treated CoO and P25 TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared, so hydrophobic CoO NPs and superhydrophilic P25 NPs were combined on the MHSC, showing the water contact angle (WCA) of 156.5° and rolling-off angle (RA) of 6.4°. With the aid of waterborne polyurethane (WPU), five kinds of substrates (i.e., glass slide, dish, wood, fabric, sponge) spray-coated by MHSC displayed high-efficiency water collection rates (WCRs) of 18.1 ± 0.7 mg min-1 cm-2. Moreover, MHSC coated fabric manifested robust oil/water separations with separation efficiencies (SEs) > 99.7 % and fluxes ranged from 9.7 to 11.0 L m-2 s-1. Efficient oil sorption from oily water was obtained by MHSC coated sponge with oil absorption capacities (OACs) of 6.5-29.5 g g-1. Further, even dealt with the treatments of mechanical destructions, extreme temperature and UV illumination, the coated materials remained stable performances.

Removal of perfluorooctanoic acid via polyethyleneimine modified graphene oxide: Effects of water matrices and understanding mechanisms.

This research aimed to evaluate the adsorption behaviors and mechanisms of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) onto polyethyleneimine modified graphene oxide (GO-PEI) from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity was significantly improved by doping polyethyleneimine (PEI) onto graphene oxide (GO). The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) isotherm model was considered as the best isotherm model in describing the PFOA adsorption onto GO-PEI3 (wPEI/wGO = 3). GO-PEI3 exhibited high adsorption capacity (qe = 368.2 mg/g, calculated from BET isotherm model) and excellent stability. The maximum monolayer amount of PFOA adsorption onto GO-PEI3 (qm = 231.2 mg/g) was successfully evaluated. The calculated saturated concentration (Cs = 169.9 mg/L) of PFOA on GO-PEI3 closely agrees with its critical micelle concentration (CMC = 157.0 mg/L), suggesting the formation of multilayer hemi-micelles or micelles PFOA structures on the surface of GO-PEI3. PFOA adsorption onto GO-PEI3 was inhibited by several factors including: the presence of humic acid (HA) by competing with the adsorption sites, background salts through the double-layer compression effect, and the competition from soluble ions for the amine or amide functional groups on GO-PEI3. Finally, both the FT-IR and XPS results confirmed that the adsorption of PFOA onto GO-PEI3 was through electrostatic attraction and hydrophobic interaction (physical adsorption), but not chemical adsorption. This work provides fundamental knowledge both in understanding the adsorption behavior through the BET isotherm model and in developing a stable adsorbent for PFOA adsorption. In addition, the findings highlight the potential of PFOA remediation from wastewater systems using GO-PEI in engineering applications.

Research progress on eco-friendly superhydrophobic materials in environment, energy and biology.

In the past few years, bioinspired eco-friendly superhydrophobic materials (EFSMs) have made great breakthroughs, especially in the fields of environment, energy and biology, which have made remarkable contributions to the sustainable development of the natural environment. However, some potential challenges still exist, which urgently need to be systematically summarized to guide the future development of this field. Herein, in this review, initially, we discuss the five typical superhydrophobic models, namely, the Wenzel, Cassie, Wenzel-Cassie, "lotus", and "gecko" models. Then, the existence of superhydrophobic creatures in nature and artificial EFSMs are summarized. Then, we focus on the applications of EFSMs in the fields of environment (self-cleaning, wastewater purification, and membrane distillation), energy (solar evaporation, heat accumulation, and batteries), and biology (biosensors, biomedicine, antibacterial, and food packaging). Finally, the challenges and developments of eco-friendly superhydrophobic materials are highlighted.

Recent Advances in Multifunctional Mechanical-Chemical Superhydrophobic Materials.

In recent years, biology-inspired superhydrophobic technology has attracted extensive attention and has been widely used in self-cleaning, anti-icing, oil-water separation, and other fields. However, the poor durability restricts its application in practice; thus, it is urgent to systematically summarize it so that scientists can guide the future development of this field. Here, in this review, we first elucidated five kinds of typical superhydrophobic models, namely, Young's equation, Wenzel, Cassie-Baxter, Wenzel-Cassie, "Lotus," and "Gecko" models. Then, we summarized the improvement in mechanical stability and chemical stability of superhydrophobic surface. Later, the durability test methods such as mechanical test methods and chemical test methods are discussed. Afterwards, we displayed the applications of multifunctional mechanical-chemical superhydrophobic materials, namely, anti-fogging, self-cleaning, oil-water separation, antibacterial, membrane distillation, battery, and anti-icing. Finally, the outlook and challenge of mechanical-chemical superhydrophobic materials are highlighted.

Preparation, Characterization, and Application of Modified Starch/Chitosan/Sweet Orange Oil Microcapsules.

Aquatic products have an important role in global agriculture, but the challenges associated with preservation have limited their marketability. Essential oil (EO), such as sweet orange oil (SOEO), has been widely used for preservation due to its excellent antibacterial ability. However, the volatilization of EO limits its application in food preservation. In this study, SOEO was extracted from sweet orange peel by steam distillation and then stored in microcapsules. The components of the microcapsules were as follows: the porous starch was chosen as an adsorbed substrate to store SOEO (PS/SOEO), and sodium alginate (SA) and chitosan (CMCS) were used as shell material to delay the volatilization of SOEO using the sharp pore coagulation method. Our results showed that the main antibacterial ingredients in SOEO were aldehydes (33.93%) and d-limonene (15.38%). The microcapsules were of an irregular shape (oval), and the size of the microcapsules was 1.2 ± 0.1 cm as measured by a digital micrometer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed that there were a lot of pores on the surface of the starch after modification, but sodium alginate and chitosan could well encapsulate these pores. The results of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis also showed that SOEO was successful encapsulated into the porous starch. The results of compression test and releasing kinetics studies suggested that CMCS and SA improved the mechanical and slow-releasing ability of SOEO microcapsules. The best antibacterial performance was obtained when 0.8 g of SOEO microcapsules was added. Finally, the shelf life of crawfish could be extended to 6 days by SOEO microcapsule (1/10 g, SOEO microcapsule/crawfish) under room temperature. These results provide a systematic understanding of the antibacterial capabilities of sweet orange essential oil microcapsules, which can contribute to the development of preservation methods for aquatic products.

Four-year follow-up of LCAR-B38M in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma: a phase 1, single-arm, open-label, multicenter study in China (LEGEND-2).

BACKGROUND: LCAR-B38M is a chimeric antigen receptor T cell product with two binding domains targeting B cell maturation antigen. Our previous reports showed a remarkable efficacy of LCAR-B38M in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) at a median follow-up of 2 years. Here, we report long-term safety and efficacy data from a median follow-up of 4 years. METHODS: LEGEND-2 was a phase 1, single-arm, open-label study conducted in four registered sites in China. Seventy-four participants with RRMM received LCAR-B38M treatment. Lymphodepletion was performed using cyclophosphamide or cyclophosphamide plus fludarabine. LCAR-B38M, at a median dose of 0.513 × 106 cells/kg, was intravenously administered either in three split infusions or in a single infusion. The primary objective was the safety of LCAR-B38M, and the secondary objective was efficacy. RESULTS: As of May 25, 2021, the median follow-up was 47.8 months. All patients experienced ≥ 1 adverse events (AEs). Grade ≥ 3 AEs were observed in 45/74 (60.8%) patients. Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurred in 68/74 (91.9%) cases; 7 (9.5%) had grade ≥ 3 CRS. One patient experienced grade 1 central nervous system toxicity. The overall response rate was 87.8%. Fifty-four out of 74 (73.0%) patients achieved complete response. The median progression-free survival was 18.0 months, and the median overall survival for all patients was not reached. The median duration of response was 23.3 months. Four patients experienced viral infection more than 6 months post-infusion, and four patients developed second primary non-hematological malignancies at a median time of 11.5 months post-CAR-T cell transfer. CONCLUSIONS: The 4-year follow-up data of LCAR-B38M therapy demonstrated a favorable long-term safety profile and a durable response in patients with RRMM. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03090659 (retrospectively registered on March 27, 2017); ChiCTR-ONH-17012285.

Unsupervised Sequence Alignment between Video and Human Center of Pressure.

Center of pressure (COP) estimation with images/videos as input achieves accurate precision with the development of the human skeleton joint extraction tasks. As a supervised learning task, correct labels acquired from COP with regard to the input images/videos are significant. Thus, synchronization between these two different types of sequences is necessary. If these two different modalities are misaligned, the downstream tasks' precision is affected significantly due to the inaccurate labels from the COP sequence. In this paper, we used a synchronized dataset and unsupervised deep learning to train an Alignment Network to align video and COP sequences on another unsynchronized dataset where each sequence starts at a different time and has different frame rates. On the synchronized dataset, the Alignment Network removes 84.4% of temporal offset. On the unsynchronized dataset, we proposed a simple yet effective Differential Network to simulate one practical downstream task. We used the differential Network to estimate the sway level of COP. Results show that this method achieved significant improvement (over 20% improvement on three sway level cases) over the misaligned dataset.

Enantiomer/stereoisomer-specific residues of metalaxyl, napropamide, triticonazole, and metconazole in agricultural soils across China.

In this study, the residual status of four chiral pesticides including metalaxyl, napropamide, triticonazole, metconazole, and their enantiomers/stereoisomers were investigated in agricultural soils across China. The levels in the soils were detected as non-detected (n.d.)-16.67 ng/g for metalaxyl with a median of 0.14 ng/g; 0.004-32.99 ng/g for napropamide with a median of 0.29 ng/g; n.d.-207.39 ng/g for triticonazole with a median of 1.29 ng/g; and n.d.-71.83 ng/g for metconazole with a median of 1.03 ng/g, respectively. Enantiomer/stereoisomer-specific residues were observed for metalaxyl and triticonazole. R-Metalaxyl and R-triticonazole were identified as the major enantiomers in the soils for the two pesticides. There was no obvious enantioselective residue for napropamide in most of the soils. As for metconazole, metconazole-1 and metconazole-4 were identified as the major stereoisomers in the soils. These results suggest that enantiomer/stereoisomer-specific risk should be considered when assessing the ecological safety of these pesticides in soils.

Integration of water collection and purification on cactus- and beetle-inspired eco-friendly superwettable materials.

Freshwater shortage has been a terrible threat for the sustainable progress and development of human society in 21st century. Inspired from natural creatures, harvesting water from atmosphere has been a feasible and effective method to alleviate water shortage crisis. However, the recent works related to water collection just focuses on how to optimize fog-harvesting manners and efficiencies, the safety and availability of collected water are always ignored. In this paper, we proposed a new strategy accessed to freshwater resources through combining water collection and purification together on eco-friendly superwettable material inspired by cactus spines and desert beetles. Six superhydrophilic wedge-shaped patterns prepared by P25 TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were constructed on candle soot@polydimethylsiloxane (CS@PDMS) superhydrophobic coating. The special superhydrophilic regions not only effectively captured water from foggy environment but generated Laplace pressure gradient to faster drive water away. The bioinspired material exhibited an efficient water collection rate (WCR) of 14.9 ± 0.2 mg min-1 cm-2, which was 5.3 and 2.5 times larger than that on uniformed superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces, respectively. Because of the existence of photocatalytic P25 NPs in wetting areas, the harvested wastewater containing nine kinds of pesticides (0.5 mg/L) could be purified in low concentrations (< 5%) under UV light (365 nm, 5.0 ± 0.6 mW cm-2). Ten zebrafishes were still alive in such purified water for 72 h, as a contrast, the same number of fishes would almost die in untreated harvested wastewater in just 7 h. This work indeed opens up a new sight to freshwater accessibility, aiming to a promising project for alleviating water shortage around the world.

Analysis and Risk Assessment of Organic Pollutants in Surface Water from Xujiahe Basin, China.

In this study, organic compounds were screened in surface water collected from Xujiahe basin, China by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 51 compounds were identified including 14 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), 9 organophosphorus pesticides (OPs), 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 12 chlorobenzene (CBs). The concentrations of OCPs, PAHs and CBs were generally low. The concentrations of OCPs in Xujiahe reservoir ranged from N.D. to 35.6 ng/L, the concentrations of PAHs ranged from N.D. to 19.8 ng/L and the concentrations of CBs ranged from 10.3 to 124.6 ng/L. The Ecological Structure Activity Relationships (ECOSAR) model was employed to directly predict the integrated toxicity indexes of 51 organic pollutants. The risk quotient (RQ) values of most of the organic compounds in the water samples were acceptable for their ecological risk.

Boosting Feature Matching Accuracy with Pairwise Affine Estimation.

Local image feature matching lies in the heart of many computer vision applications. Achieving high matching accuracy is challenging when significant geometric difference exists between the source and target images. The traditional matching pipeline addresses the geometric difference by introducing the concept of support region. Around each feature point, the support region defines a neighboring area characterized by estimated attributes like scale, orientation, affine shape, etc. To correctly assign support region is not an easy job, especially when each feature is processed individually. In this paper, we propose to estimate the relative affine transformation for every pair of to-be-compared features. This "tailored" measurement of geometric difference is more precise and helps improve the matching accuracy. Our pipeline can be incorporated into most existing 2D local image feature detectors and descriptors. We comprehensively evaluate its performance with various experiments on a diversified selection of benchmark datasets. The results show that the majority of tested detectors/descriptors gain additional matching accuracy with proposed pipeline.

Plasma-Assisted Preparation of CoRu/SiO2 Catalysts for Enhanced Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Performance: Effect of Plasma Atmosphere.

CO atmosphere plasma and first H2 then CO plasma were attempted to substitute the traditional "calcination-reduction-carburization" processes for the preparation of metallic cobalt phase with hcp structure. CoRu/SiO2 catalyst precursor was prepared via incipient wetness impregnation. Characterization and catalytic results showed that CO could be decomposed in glow discharge plasma field, a large fraction of carbon species was deposited as elementary substance on the catalyst surface, while some of the carbon reacted with cobalt and formed cobalt carbide, which could transform into Co0 with hcp structure after reduction. The hcp structured cobalt containing catalysts showed higher initial Fischer-Tropsch synthesis activity than both calcined and air plasma treated samples.