Hierarchically Periodic Macroporous Niobium Oxide Architecture for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution.

The fabrication of periodic macroporous (PM) in Nb2O5 via morphological control is crucial for improving the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution efficiency. In this study, Nb2O5 with PM is synthesized using a straightforward colloidal crystal templating approach. This material features an open, interconnected macroporous architecture with nanoscale walls, high crystallinity, and substantial porosity. Extensive characterization reveals that this hierarchically structured Nb2O5 possesses abundant surface active sites and is capable of capturing light effectively, facilitating rapid mass transfer and diffusion of reactants and markedly suppressing the recombination of photoexcited charge carriers. Macroporous Nb2O5 exhibits superior water-splitting hydrogen evolution performance compared with its bulk and commercial counterparts, achieving a hydrogen production rate of 405 µmol g-1 h-1, surpassing that of bulk Nb2O5 (B-Nb2O5) and commercial Nb2O5 (C-Nb2O5) by factors of 5 and 33, respectively. This study proposes an innovative strategy for the design of hierarchically structured PM, thereby significantly advancing the hydrogen evolution potential of Nb2O5.

Neochlorogenic Acid Combined with Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Encapsulated into GelMA Hydrogel for Transplantation to Repair Intervertebral Disk Degeneration.

Intervertebral disk degeneration is a common disease with an unknown etiology. Currently, tissue engineering is considered to be an important method for intervertebral disk repair. Although transplanted stem cells may disrupt the repair process because of apoptosis caused by the oxidative microenvironment. Herein, bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) and Neochlorogenic acid (Ncg) were encapsulated into a GelMA hydrogel as a carrier to protect transplanted stem cells. Ncg effectively inhibited the oxidative stress process and reduced the apoptosis rate. A 5% GelMA hydrogel had a large pore size and porosity that provided an enhanced survival space for cells. An in vivo assessment showed that treatment with GelMA + BMSC + Ncg produced greater repair of degenerated intervertebral disks than that found in other model groups. Thus, this study may help contribute to improving stem cell transplantation for treating intervertebral disk degeneration.

Constructing BiOBr1-xIx-y with Abundant Surface Br Vacancies for Excellent Visible-Light Photodegradation Capability of High-Concentration Refractory Contaminants.

Bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr) is a promising photocatalytic semiconductor material due to its unique hierarchical structure and band structure. However, its photocatalytic applications are restricted due to its narrow visible-light absorption range and poor photooxidation capability. In this study, BiOBr1-xIx-y with rich surface Br vacancies (BrVs-rich BiOBr1-xIx-y) was created via a facile indirect substitution strategy. Benefiting from the broadened visible-light response range and reduced recombination rate of photogenerated carriers, BiOBr1-xIx-y shows excellent visible-light photodegradation ability for high-concentration refractory contaminants, such as phenol, tetracycline, bisphenol A, rhodamine B, methyl orange, and even real wastewater. At the same time, the Br vacancies can regulate the band structure of BiOBr1-xIx-y and serve as trap states to promote charge separation, thus facilitating surface photoredox reactions. An in-depth investigation of the Br vacancy effect and photodegradation mechanism was conducted. This novel study revealed the significance of Br vacancies in enhancing the photocatalytic performance of BiOBr under visible light, providing a promising strategy for improving the utilization efficiency of sunlight in wastewater treatment.

Static and dynamic disturbance compensation for optical misalignment of large ground-based wide field survey telescope.

For large ground-based telescopes, static and dynamic disturbances would greatly degrade the optical performance. This is especially true for wide field survey telescopes with prime focus optics. The estimation of disturbance effects on large telescopes is becoming increasingly important during the design phase. Therefore, a wide field survey telescope with 2.5 m aperture and 3.5 deg field of view is studied in this research. This telescope is under construction now, and its first light is expected at the beginning of 2023. The estimation method for the optical performance under static and dynamic disturbances in the temporal domain and the active compensation method to improve the optical alignment, are investigated, which is a supplement for the simulation in the frequency domain. First, based on the mechanical model, the optical misalignment is established, where the deviation of the primary mirror is obtained from the length gauges and the deviation of the corrector is computed using the fitting method. Second, a method for compensating the static and dynamic disturbances is proposed, improving the optical performance. This method uses the disturbed primary mirror as the reference, and the corrector is actively controlled to align with it. Finally, a series of experimental tests and numerical simulations is conducted. The results show that the mechanical modeling error is within 10% and the maximum optical misalignment is reduced from 12''/0.27 to 0.2''/0.006mm for static disturbance and from 1.3''/0.03 to 0.4''/0.01mm for dynamic disturbance. Through active compensation, the telescope optical property is greatly improved. The modeling method and the simulation process mentioned in this research can also be used in the other relevant fields.

Computer Vision-Based Construction Process Sensing for Cyber-Physical Systems: A Review.

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are generally considered to be the next generation of engineered systems. However, the actual application of CPSs in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry is still at a low level. The sensing method in the construction process plays a very important role in the establishment of CPSs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the application potential of computer vision-based sensing methods and provide practical suggestions through a literature review. This paper provides a review of the current application of CPSs in the AEC industry, summarizes the current knowledge gaps, and discusses the problems with the current construction site sensing approach. Considering the unique advantages of the computer vision (CV) method at the construction site, the application of CV for different construction entities was reviewed and summarized to achieve a CV-based construction site sensing approach for construction process CPSs. The potential of CPS can be further stimulated by providing rich information from on-site sensing using CV methods. According to the review, this approach has unique advantages in the specific environment of the construction site. Based on the current knowledge gap identified in the literature review, this paper proposes a novel concept of visual-based construction site sensing method for CPS application, and an architecture for CV-based CPS is proposed as an implementation of this concept. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a CPS architecture using computer vision as the main information acquisition method based on the literature review. This architecture innovatively introduces computer vision as a sensing method of construction sites, and realizes low-cost and non-invasive information acquisition in complex construction scenarios. This method can be used as an important supplement to on-site sensing to further promote the automation and intelligence of the construction process.

Baicalin suppress growth and virulence-related factors of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in vitro and vivo.

A Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) was isolated from pigs suffered in pneumonia that can't be cured by antibiotic such as methicillin and vancomycin. It was demonstrated that baicalin, an active natural compound extracted from the traditional Chinese medicinal, possess antimicrobial activity. In the present study, we evaluate it efficacy in vitro and vivo against this isolated methicillin-resistant S.aureus (MRSA). Our findings demonstrated that baicalin can inhibit S. aureus growth in a dose-dependent manner and attenuate the biofilm formation. Scanning electron microscopies showed that cell membrane was damaged and accompany with contents leaks after treated with high concentration of baicalin. In addition, baicalin exerted inhibitory effects on the expression of S.aureus virulence-related factors. Moreover, baicalin treated mice had enhanced survival after a lethal dose of S.aureus infection compared with untreated mice. Simultaneously, the pathological tissue damage and bacterium burden were decrease in baicalin treated mice. These data demonstrated that baicalin displayed a high effectiveness in vitro and vivo against MRSA infection, suggesting that baicalin may potentially be used to treat MRSA infection.

One novel curcumin derivative ZYX01 induces autophagy of human non-small lung cancer cells A549 through AMPK/ULK1/Beclin-1 signaling pathway.

Presently, curcumin derivatives had been paid more attention in view of their high bioavailability or water solubility, which herein possibly replaced the curcumin for their functional applications in future. Here, one novel chemically synthesized curcumin derivative, ZYX01, was used to identify anti-proliferation activity of human non-small lung cancer cells A549 and its anti-proliferative mechanism. Our study showed that ZYX01 could induce autophagic death of A549 cells by morphological observation, MTT assay, acridine orange staining and MDC assay, which possess a dose-and time-dependent manner. ZYX01-treated A549 cells possessed an increase in LC3-II/LC3-I ratio, upregulation of beclin-1 and downregulation of p62 expression. We further confirmed the cellular AMPK/ULK1/Beclin-1 signaling pathway in A549 cells after ZYX01 treatment. The anti-migration effect of ZYX01 in A549 cells was also explored by wound healing assay and transwell experiment. Current results had confirmed that ZYX01 induced A549 cells autophagy through AMPK/ULK1/Beclin-1 pathway and shed light on the future study on the anti-cancer molecular mechanism.

Performance Improvement of a Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Bar for a Reinforced Sea Sand and Seawater Concrete Beam in the Serviceability Limit State.

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) has supreme resistance to corrosion and can be designed with optic fibers. FRP can be an alternative to steel reinforcement for concrete structures, and can serve as a sensor for smart concrete structures. Due to poor cracking control and bond performance, the limit of flexural capacity in the serviceability limit state has not been determined, which has obstructed the wider application of FRP bars in smart structures. In this study, in order to overcome these shortcomings, a new engineering cementitious composite (ECC) with superior tensile strain capacity was used to replace the cover around the FRP bars in the tensile zone. To investigate the anti-cracking performance of the new composite beam, seven simply supported beams were designed. In the preliminary investigation, the longitudinal FRP bars in these beams were designed without optic fibers to focus on the mechanical behavior. The beams were tested under four-point load and measured using the digital sensor technique, digital image correlation (DIC). The test results showed that introducing a new ECC layer on the tensile side improves the cracking control and flexural behavior (load capacity and deformability) of a FRP-reinforced sea sand and seawater concrete (SSC) beam, especially in the serviceability limit state. We demonstrate the new composite beam can steadily and fully improve the tensile capacity of FRP bars, which is the basis of using FRP bars as sensors.

Robust Self-Adaptation Fall-Detection System Based on Camera Height.

Vision-based fall-detection methods have been previously studied but many have limitations in terms of practicality. Due to differences in rooms, users do not set the camera or sensors at the same height. However, few studies have taken this into consideration. Moreover, some fall-detection methods are lacking in terms of practicality because only standing, sitting and falling are taken into account. Hence, this study constructs a data set consisting of various daily activities and fall events and studies the effect of camera/sensor height on fall-detection accuracy. Each activity in the data set is carried out by eight participants in eight directions and taken with the depth camera at five different heights. Many related studies heavily depended on human segmentation by using Kinect SDK but this is not reliable enough. To address this issue, this study proposes Enhanced Tracking and Denoising Alex-Net (ETDA-Net) to improve tracking and denoising performance and classify fall and non-fall events. Experimental results indicate that fall-detection accuracy is affected by camera height, against which ETDA-Net is robust, outperforming traditional deep learning based fall-detection methods.

Matairesinoside, a novel inhibitor of TMEM16A ion channel, loaded with functional hydrogel for lung cancer treatment.

The incidence and mortality rates of lung cancer have remained high for several decades, necessitating the discovery of new drugs and the development of effective treatment strategies. This study identified matairesinoside (MTS) as a potent inhibitor of TMEM16A, a novel drug target for lung cancer. Molecular simulation combined with site-directed mutagenesis experiments confirmed the key binding sites of MTS and TMEM16A. Cell experiments demonstrated that MTS significantly inhibited the growth, migration, and invasion of lung cancer cells, while inducing apoptosis. Gene knockdown and overexpression studies further revealed that TMEM16A is the target for MTS in regulating lung cancer cell growth. Western blot analysis elucidated the signaling transduction network involved in MTS-mediated regulation of lung cancer. Building upon these findings, a biodegradable self-healing functional hydrogel was developed to load MTS, aiming to enhance therapeutic efficacy and minimize side effects in vivo. Animal experiments demonstrated that the hydrogel/MTS formulation exhibited satisfactory inhibitory effects on lung cancer and mitigated the side effects associated with direct MTS injection. This study identified MTS as a potential candidate for anti-lung cancer therapy with well-defined pharmacological mechanisms. Moreover, the targeted drug delivery system utilizing the hydrogel/MTS platform offers a promising approach for lung cancer treatment.

Electrochemical coalescence of oil-in-water droplets in microchannels of TiO2-x/Ti anode via polarization eliminating electrostatic repulsion and ·OH oxidation destroying oil-water interface film.

Electrochemistry is a sustainable technology for oil-water separation. In the common flat electrode scheme, due to a few centimeters away from the anode, oil droplets have to undergo electromigration to and electrical neutralization at the anodic surface before they coalesce into large oil droplets and rise to water surface, resulting in slow demulsification and easy anode fouling. Herein, a novel strategy is proposed on basis of a TiO2-x/Ti anode with microchannels to overcome these problems. When oil droplets with several microns in diameter flow through channels with tens of microns in diameter, the electromigration distance is shortened by three orders of magnitude, electrical neutralization is replaced by polarization coupling ·OH oxidation. The new strategy was supported by experimental results and theoretical analysis. Taking the suspension containing emulsified oil as targets, COD value dropped from initial 500 mg/L to 117 mg/L after flowing through anodic microchannels in only 58 s of running time, and the COD removal was 21 times higher than that for a plate anode. At similar COD removal, the residence time was 48 times shorter than that of reported flat electrodes. Coalescences of oil droplets in microchannels were observed by a confocal laser scanning microscopy. This new strategy opens a door for using microchannel electrodes to accelerate electrochemical coalescence of oil-in-water droplets.

Treatment of bone-cartilage defects with dual-layer tissue-engineered scaffolds loaded with icariin and quercetin.

Over the past few decades, significant research has been conducted on tissue-engineered constructs for cartilage repair. However, there is a growing interest in addressing subchondral bone repair along with cartilage regeneration. This study focuses on a bilayer tissue engineering scaffold loaded with icariin (ICA) and quercetin (QU) for simultaneous treatment of knee joint cartilage and subchondral bone defects. The cytotoxicity of dual-layer scaffolds loaded with ICA and QU was assessed through live/dead cell staining. Subsequently, these dual-layer scaffolds loaded with ICA and QU were implanted into cartilage and subchondral bone defects in Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. The repair effects were evaluated through macroscopic observation, computed tomography, and immunohistochemistry. After 12 weeks of implantation of dual-layer scaffolds loaded with ICA and QU into the cartilage and bone defects of SD rats, better repair effects were observed in both cartilage and bone defects compared to the blank control group. We found that the dual-layer tissue-engineered scaffold loaded with ICA and QU had excellent biocompatibility and could effectively repair articular cartilage and subchondral bone injuries, showing promising prospects for clinical applications.

Application of computed tomographic angiography and echocardiography in predicting left atrial appendage thrombosis in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

AIM: We aimed to explore the application of computed tomographic angiography (CTA) and echocardiography in predicting left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombosis in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. METHODS: The clinical data of 164 atrial fibrillation patients receiving cardiac CTA and real-time three-dimensional transoesophageal echocardiography (RT-3D-TEE) were retrospectively analysed. The patients were divided into group A (anticoagulant treatment group, n = 112) and group B (selective anticoagulant treatment group, n = 52) according to the CHA2DS2-VASc score, which scored for the presence or absence of congestive heart failure, hypertension, age ≥ 75 years, diabetes mellitus, stroke/transient ischaemic attack, vascular disease, age 65-74 years and gender (female). The CHA2DS2-VASc score was used to predict risk of thromboembolism from atrial fibrillation. The correlations of CHA2DS2-VASc score with CTA-based LAA classification and RT-3D-TEE measurement parameters were explored using Spearman's analysis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to explore the predictive value of CTA and RT-3D-TEE for LAA thrombus. RESULTS: There were significant differences in age, disease course, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke/transient ischaemic attack/thromboembolism, vascular disease, B-type natriuretic peptide and serum uric acid levels, CHA2DS2-VASc score, LAA classification, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), left atrial diameter (LAD), maximum diameter of LAA orifice, minimum diameter of LAA orifice and LAA length (p < 0.05). CHA2DS2- VASc score was positively correlated with cauliflower LAA, LAD, maximum diameter of LAA orifice, minimum diameter of LAA orifice and LAA length, and negatively correlated with LVEF (p < 0.001). ROC curve analysis indicated that CTA, RT-3D-TEE and CHA2DS2-VASc score had similar predictive values for risk of LAA thrombosis in atrial fibrillation patients, with the areas under the curve being 0.778, 0.814 and 0.792, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Both CTA and RT-3D-TEE had high predictive values for LAA thrombosis in atrial fibrillation patients.

TMEM16A ion channel: A novel target for cancer treatment.

Cancer draws attention owing to the high morbidity and mortality. It is urgent to develop safe and effective cancer therapeutics. The calcium-activated chloride channel TMEM16A is widely distributed in various tissues and regulates physiological functions. TMEM16A is abnormally expressed in several cancers and associate with tumorigenesis, metastasis, and prognosis. Knockdown or inhibition of TMEM16A in cancer cells significantly inhibits cancer development. Therefore, TMEM16A is considered as a biomarker and therapeutic target for some cancers. This work reviews the cancers associated with TMEM16A. Then, the molecular mechanism of TMEM16A overexpression in cancer was analyzed, and the possible signal transduction mechanism of TMEM16A regulating cancer development was summarized. Finally, TMEM16A inhibitors with anticancer effect and their anticancer mechanism were concluded. We hope to provide new ideas for pharmacological studies on TMEM16A in cancer.

Generation of whole-porcine neutralizing antibodies of an alphacoronavirus by single B cell antibody technology.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is an alphacoronavirus that causes severe morbidity and mortality in piglets, resulting in substantial economic losses to the swine industry. While vaccination is currently the most effective preventive measure, existing vaccines fail to provide complete and reliable protection against PEDV infection. Consequently, there is a need to explore alternative or complementary strategies to address this issue. In this study, we utilized single B cell antibody technology to obtain a potent neutralizing antibody, C62, which specifically targets the receptor binding domain S1B of the PEDV-S1 protein. C62 exhibited potent neutralizing activity against PEDV and inhibited viral attachment to the cell surface in vitro. Furthermore, the effectiveness of C62 in mitigating PEDV infection was demonstrated in vivo, as evidenced by the delayed onset of diarrhea and reduced mortality rates observed in piglets following oral administration of C62. Our study provides an alternative approach for controlling PEDV infection. Meanwhile, C62 holds promise as a therapeutic biological agent to complement existing vaccines. More importantly, our study forms a solid foundation for the development of whole-porcine neutralizing antibodies against other swine coronaviruses, thus contributing to the overall improvement of swine health.

Optimizing the Deep Neural Networks by Layer-Wise Refined Pruning and the Acceleration on FPGA.

To accelerate the practical applications of artificial intelligence, this paper proposes a high efficient layer-wise refined pruning method for deep neural networks at the software level and accelerates the inference process at the hardware level on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The refined pruning operation is based on the channel-wise importance indexes of each layer and the layer-wise input sparsity of convolutional layers. The method utilizes the characteristics of the native networks without introducing any extra workloads to the training phase. In addition, the operation is easy to be extended to various state-of-the-art deep neural networks. The effectiveness of the method is verified on ResNet architecture and VGG networks in terms of dataset CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and ImageNet100. Experimental results show that in terms of ResNet50 on CIFAR10 and ResNet101 on CIFAR100, more than 85% of parameters and Floating-Point Operations are pruned with only 0.35% and 0.40% accuracy loss, respectively. As for the VGG network, 87.05% of parameters and 75.78% of Floating-Point Operations are pruned with only 0.74% accuracy loss for VGG13BN on CIFAR10. Furthermore, we accelerate the networks at the hardware level on the FPGA platform by utilizing the tool Vitis AI. For two threads mode in FPGA, the throughput/fps of the pruned VGG13BN and ResNet101 achieves 151.99 fps and 124.31 fps, respectively, and the pruned networks achieve about 4.3× and 1.8× speed up for VGG13BN and ResNet101, respectively, compared with the original networks on FPGA.