Color construction of multi-colored carbon fibers using glucose.

Carbon fibers (CFs) have attracted attention in the automotive, aviation, and aerospace industries. However, the coloration of CFs is challenging due to their brittleness, inertness, complexity, and time/energy-intensive processes. Herein, inspired by the naturally grown protrusive nanostructures on the green central surface of peacock back feathers, we report an in-situ self-growing strategy for developing carbon spheres (CSs) on the CFs surface to achieve color tuning. This is achieved via the dynamic growth of CSs using glucose as the feeding material. Combined with the coloration process, the interaction between CSs and CFs promotes stable interfacial forces in integrated molding. This strategy allows the coloring system to continuously vary its color in a designated manner, thereby, endowing it with satisfactory mechanical robustness, acid durability, and light fastness. We anticipate this developed approach can be potentially competitive in the color construction of CFs with multi-colors due to its low-cost manufacturing.

Synthesis and Thermoreversible Gelation of Coil-Rod Copolymers with a Dendritic Polyethylene Core and Multiple Helical Poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) Arms.

Coil-rod copolymers with a dendritic polyethylene (DPE) core and multiple helical poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) (PBLG) arms (DPE-(PBLG)n) were prepared by palladium-catalyzed copolymerization in tandem with ring-opening polymerization (ROP). Macroinitiator (DPE-(NH2)11) was firstly prepared by the group transformation of DPE-(OH)11 generated from palladium-catalyzed copolymerization of ethylene and acrylate comonomer. Coil-helical DPE-(PBLG)11 copolymers were prepared by ROP of γ-benzyl-L-glutamate-N-carboxyanhydride (BLG-NCA). These DPE-(PBLG)11 copolymers could form thermoreversible gels in toluene solvent, and the dendritic topology of the DPE core increased the critical gelation concentrations. The self-assembled nanostructure of gels was fully characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), and the morphology of the fibrous structure was a twisted flat ribbon through a self-assembled nanoribbon mechanism. The self-assembled fibers formed by DPE-(PBLG45)11 are more heterogeneous and ramified than previously observed fibers formed by PBLG homopolymer and block copolymers.

Isobutyric acid promotes colorectal cancer metastasis through activating RACK1.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) metastasis plays a crucial role in disease progression, yet the regulatory mechanisms underlying metastasis remain incompletely understood. Isobutyric acid (IBA), a short-chain fatty acid found at high levels in serum of CRC patients, has been shown to be a critical metabolite influencing CRC proliferation. However, its role in tumor metastasis remains unknown. Here, utilizing liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis, we found that levels of IBA were significantly higher in patients with distant organ metastasis of CRC than in those without. Furthermore, IBA promoted CRC metastasis both in vitro and in vivo. Mass spectrometry, immunofluorescence, and cellular thermal shift assay revealed that IBA interacts with RACK1. Mechanistically, IBA binding to and activating RACK1 promotes regulation of downstream Akt and FAK signaling and CRC metastasis. Collectively, our study highlights the critical interplay between IBA and RACK1 and its impact on tumor metastasis. This study suggests that targeting the IBA-RACK1 signaling axis may be an effective therapeutic strategy for controlling CRC metastasis.

A study on Shine-Muscat grape detection at maturity based on deep learning.

The efficient detection of grapes is a crucial technology for fruit-picking robots. To better identify grapes from branch shading that is similar to the fruit color and improve the detection accuracy of green grapes due to cluster adhesion, this study proposes a Shine-Muscat Grape Detection Model (S-MGDM) based on improved YOLOv3 for the ripening stage. DenseNet is fused in the backbone feature extraction network to extract richer underlying grape information; depth-separable convolution, CBAM, and SPPNet are added in the multi-scale detection module to increase the perceptual field of grape targets and reduce the model computation; meanwhile, PANet is combined with FPN to promote inter-network information flow and iteratively extract grape features. In addition, the CIOU regression loss function is used and the prior frame size is modified by the k-means algorithm to improve the accuracy of detection. The improved detection model achieves an AP value of 96.73% and an F1 value of 91% on the test set, which are 3.87% and 3% higher than the original network model, respectively; the average detection speed under GPU reaches 26.95 frames/s, which is 6.49 frames/s higher than the original model. The comparison results with several mainstream detection algorithms such as SSD and YOLO series show that the method has excellent detection accuracy and good real-time performance, which is an important reference value for the problem of accurate identification of Shine-Muscat grapes at maturity.

A Flexible Electrochemiluminescence Sensor Equipped With Vertically Ordered Mesoporous Silica Nanochannel Film for Sensitive Detection of Clindamycin.

Fast, convenient, and highly sensitive detection of antibiotic is essential to avoid its overuse and the possible harm. Owing to enrichment effect and antifouling ability of ultrasmall nanochannels, the vertically ordered mesoporous silica nanochannel film (VMSF) has great potential in the development of the facile electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor for direct and sensitive analysis of antibiotics in complex samples. In this study, we demonstrated a flexible ECL sensor based on a cost-effective electrode covered with a VMSF for sensitive detection of clindamycin. Polyethylene terephthalate coated with indium tin oxide (PET-ITO) is applied as a flexible electrode to grow VMSF using the electrochemically assisted self-assembly (EASA) method. The negatively charged VMSF nanochannels exhibit significant enrichment toward the commonly used cationic ECL luminophores, tris(2,2-bipyridyl) dichlororuthenium (II) (Ru (bpy)3 2+). Using the enhanced ECL of Ru (bpy)3 2+ by clindamycin, the developed VMSF/PET-ITO sensor can sensitively detect clindamycin. The responses were linear in the concentration range of 10 nM-25 µM and in the concentration range of 25-70 µM. Owing to the nanoscale thickness of the VMSF and the high coupling stability with the electrode substrate, the developed flexible VMSF/PET-ITO sensor exhibits high signal stability during the continuous bending process. Considering high antifouling characteristic of the VMSF, direct analysis of clindamycin in a real biological sample, human serum, is realized.

Physical Health and Quality of Life among Older People in the Context of Chinese Culture.

Population aging has become a crucial problem in China. Recently, the Chinese government has adopted many strategies and policies to solve this problem and improve the quality of life of older individuals. The present study aimed to examine the effect of physical health on quality of life among older individuals in the context of Chinese culture and explore the potential mediating roles of positive cognition and negative emotions in the association between physical health and quality of life. Data were from the wave of 2017-2018 of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. Data on physical health, quality of life, positive cognition, and negative emotions of 15,874 older people were included in the present study. Pathway analysis was conducted by using IBM SPSS AMOS 21.0, and double verified using PROCESS Macro for SPSS 3.5.3. Results showed that physical health was positively associated with quality of life among older individuals in the context of Chinese culture. The effect size was small to moderate. Positive cognition and negative emotions independently and serially mediated the linkage of physical health and quality of life. These findings provided empirical evidence for the activating event-belief-consequence theory of emotion and hierarchy of needs theory and indicated that Chinese older people focused more on physical health rather than mental health. Practitioners could teach older individuals strategies of emotion regulation and cognitive appraisal to improve the quality of life of older individuals.

African swine fever outbreaks in China led to gross domestic product and economic losses.

African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal and highly infectious haemorrhagic disease that has spread to all provinces in China-the world's largest producer and consumer of pork. Here we use an input-output model, partial equilibrium theory and a substitution indicator approach for handling missing data to develop a systematic valuation framework for assessing economic losses caused by ASF outbreaks in China between August 2018 and July 2019. We show that the total economic loss accounts for 0.78% of China's gross domestic product in 2019, with impacts experienced in almost all economic sectors through links to the pork industry and a substantial decrease in consumer surplus. Scenario analyses demonstrate that the worst cases of pig production reduction and price increase would trigger 1.4% and 2.07% declines in gross domestic product, respectively. These findings demonstrate an urgent need for rapid ASF containment and prevention measures to avoid future outbreaks and economic declines.

Efficiency and application of poly(acryldinitrophenylamidrazone-dinitroacrylphenylhydrazine) chelating fiber for pre-concentrating and separating trace Au(III), Ru(III), In(III), Bi(III), Zr(IV), V(V), Ga(III) and Ti(IV) from solution samples.

Poly(acryldinitrophenylamidrazone-dinitroacrylphenylhydrazine) chelating fiber was synthesized from polyacrylonitrile fiber and used for enrichment and separation for traces of Au(III), Ru(III), In(III), Bi(III), Zr(IV), V(V), Ga(III) and Ti(IV) ions from solution samples. The acidity, rate, re-use, capacity and interference on the adsorption of ions on the chelating fiber as well as the conditions of desorption of these ions from the chelating fiber were investigated by means of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The results show that 10-100 ngml(-1) of Au(III), Ru(III), In(III), Bi(III), Zr(IV), V(V), Ga(III) and Ti(IV) ions can be quantitatively enriched by the chelating fiber at a 2 mlmin(-1) of flow rate in the range pH 4-5, and desorbed quantitatively with 20 ml of 5 M HCl for In(III), Bi(III), Zr(IV), V(V), Ga(III), Ti(IV) and 20 ml of 4 M HCl+2% CS(NH(2))(2) solution for Au(III), Ru(III) (with recovery>95%). 50- to 500- fold excesses of Fe(III), Al(III), Mg(II), Mn(II), Ca(II), Cu(II), Ni(II) ions cause little interference in the concentration and determination of analyzed ions. When the fiber was reused for 8 times, the recoveries of the above ions enriched by the fiber were still over 87%. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) for the enrichment and determination of 10 ngml(-1) Au, Ru, In, Bi, Ga and 1 ngml(-1) Zr, V, Ti were lower than 3.0%. The results obtained for these ions in real solution samples by this method were basically in agreement with the given values with average errors of less than 6.3%. FT-IR spectra show that existence of NNCNHNH, OCNHNH and NO(2) functional groups are verified in chelating fiber, and Au(III) or Ru(III) is mainly combined with nitrogen (or oxygen) of the groups to form a chelate complex.