Protocol for preparation of electrifiable carbon membrane reactor for non-oxidative alkane dehydrogenation.

A membrane reactor (MR) offers a solution to overcome thermodynamic equilibrium limitations by enabling in situ product separation, enhancing product yields and energy efficiency. Here we present a protocol for synthesizing a carbon MR that couples a H2-permeable carbon molecular sieve hollow fiber membrane and a metal supported on zeolite catalyst for non-oxidative propane and ethane dehydrogenation. We describe steps for catalyst preparation, membrane fabrication, and MR construction. The as-developed MR has significant improvements in alkene yield and a record-high stability. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Liu et al.1.

Fast and Facile Liquid Metal Printing via Projection Lithography for Highly Stretchable Electronic Circuits.

Soft electronic circuits are crucial for wearable electronics, biomedical technologies, and soft robotics, requiring soft conductive materials with high conductivity, high strain limit, and stable electrical performance under deformation. Liquid metals (LMs) have become attractive candidates with high conductivity and fluidic compliance, while effective manufacturing methods are demanded. Digital light processing (DLP)-based projection lithography is a high-resolution and high-throughput printing technique for primarily polymers and some metals. If LMs can be printed with DLP as well, the entire soft devices can be fabricated by one printer in a streamlined and highly efficient process. Herein, fast and facile DLP-based LM printing is achieved. Simply with 5-10 s of patterned ultraviolet (UV)-light exposure, a highly conductive and stretchable pattern can be printed using a photo-crosslinkable LM particle ink. The printed eutectic gallium indium traces feature high resolution (≈20 µm), conductivity (3 × 106 S m-1 ), stretchability (≈2500%), and excellent stability (consistent performance at different deformation). Various patterns are printed in diverse material systems for broad applications including stretchable displays, epidermal strain sensors, heaters, humidity sensors, conformal electrodes for electrography, and multi-layer actuators. The facile and scalable process, excellent performance, and diverse applications ensure its broad impact on soft electronic manufacturing.

All-Fabric Capacitive Pressure Sensors with Piezoelectric Nanofibers for Wearable Electronics and Robotic Sensing.

Flexible pressure sensors are increasingly sought after for applications ranging from physiological signal monitoring to robotic sensing; however, the challenges associated with fabricating highly sensitive, comfortable, and cost-effective sensors remain formidable. This study presents a high-performance, all-fabric capacitive pressure sensor (AFCPS) that incorporates piezoelectric nanofibers. Through the meticulous optimization of conductive fiber electrodes and P(VDF-TrFE) nanofiber dielectric layers, the AFCPS exhibits exceptional attributes such as high sensitivity (4.05 kPa-1), an ultralow detection limit (0.6 Pa), an extensive detection range (∼100 kPa), rapid response time (<26 ms), and robust stability (>14,000 cycles). The sensor's porous structure enhances its compressibility, while its piezoelectric properties expedite charge separation, thereby increasing the interface capacitance and augmenting overall performance. These features are elucidated further through multiphysical field-coupling simulations and experimental testing. Owing to its comprehensive superior performance, the AFCPS has demonstrated its efficacy in monitoring human activity and physiological signals, as well as in discerning soft robotic grasping movements. Additionally, we have successfully implemented multiple AFCPS units as pressure sensor arrays to ascertain spatial pressure distribution and enable intelligent robotic gripping. Our research underscores the promising potential of the AFCPS device in wearable electronics and robotic sensing, thereby contributing significantly to the advancement of high-performance fabric-based sensors.

[Research Progress in Preoperative Evaluation of Lymph Node Metastasis of Bladder Cancer].

Bladder cancer is a common malignant tumor of the urinary system.The prognosis of patients with positive lymph nodes is worse than that of patients with negative lymph nodes.An accurate assessment of preoperative lymph node statushelps to make treatmentdecisions,such as the extent of pelvic lymphadenectomy and the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.Imaging examination and pathological examination are the primary methods used to assess the lymph node status of bladder cancer patients before surgery.However,these methods have low sensitivity and may lead to inaccuate staging of patients.We reviewed the research progress and made an outlook on the application of clinical diagnosis,imaging techniques,radiomics,and genomics in the preoperative evaluation of lymph node metastasis in bladder cancer patients at different stages.

Work-Family Conflict and Mental Health among Chinese Female Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Effects of Resilience.

(1) Background: The mental health of female healthcare workers is at greater risk during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased psychological stress and heightened work-family conflict. This study investigated whether resilience, as a protective factor for mental health, can safeguard the well-being of female healthcare workers. This study assessed the mental health of female healthcare workers (n = 431) from a small inland city in Central China, explored the impact of work-family conflict on their mental health, and examined the moderating role of resilience. (2) Methods: The main variables were measured using standard tools administered via an online survey. A one-sample t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis, and multiple regression were performed with SPSS. A simple slope test was conducted based on the multiple regression results. (3) Results: The analysis revealed that the mental health level of the surveyed female healthcare workers was significantly lower than the national norm (t = 16.36, p < 0.001). Work-family conflict had a significant negative impact on mental health (ß = 0.39, p < 0.001), while the interaction effect of resilience and work-family conflict was significant (ß = -0.13, p < 0.05), suggesting a moderating effect. (4) Conclusions: Female healthcare workers exhibited poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, but resilience remained a protective factor, mitigating the negative impact of work-family conflict on female healthcare workers' mental health.

Sunlight-powered self-excited oscillators for sustainable autonomous soft robotics.

As the field of soft robotics advances, full autonomy becomes highly sought after, especially if robot motion can be powered by environmental energy. This would present a self-sustained approach in terms of both energy supply and motion control. Now, autonomous movement can be realized by leveraging out-of-equilibrium oscillatory motion of stimuli-responsive polymers under a constant light source. It would be more advantageous if environmental energy could be scavenged to power robots. However, generating oscillation becomes challenging under the limited power density of available environmental energy sources. Here, we developed fully autonomous soft robots with self-sustainability based on self-excited oscillation. Aided by modeling, we have successfully reduced the required input power density to around one-Sun level through a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE)-based bilayer structure. The autonomous motion of the low-intensity LCE/elastomer bilayer oscillator "LiLBot" under low energy supply was achieved by high photothermal conversion, low modulus, and high material responsiveness simultaneously. The LiLBot features tunable peak-to-peak amplitudes from 4 to 72 degrees and frequencies from 0.3 to 11 hertz. The oscillation approach offers a strategy for designing autonomous, untethered, and sustainable small-scale soft robots, such as a sailboat, walker, roller, and synchronized flapping wings.

Effect of prior drought and heat stress on Camellia sinensis transcriptome changes to Ectropis oblique (Lepidoptera: Geometridae) resistance.

Tea plants are continuously confronted with a wide range of biotic and abiotic stressors in the field, which can occur concurrently or sequentially. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms in responses to such individual and combined stresses, we used RNAseq to compare the temporal changes in the transcriptome of Camellia sinensis to Ectropis oblique Prout alone or in combination with exposure to drought and heat. Compared with the individual stress, tea plants exhibit significant differences in transcriptome profiles under the combined stresses. Additionally, many unique genes exhibited significant differences in expression in individual and combined stress conditions. Our research showed novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of E. oblique Prout resistance in tea plants and provided a valuable resource for developing tea varieties with broad spectrum stress tolerance.

A Very Fast Image Stitching Algorithm for PET Bottle Caps.

In the beverage, food and drug industry, more and more machine vision systems are being used for the defect detection of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle caps. In this paper, in order to address the result of cylindrical distortions that influence the subsequent defect detection in the imaging process, a very fast image stitching algorithm is proposed to generate a panorama planar image of the surface of PET bottle caps. Firstly, the three-dimensional model of the bottle cap is established. Secondly, the relative poses among the four cameras and the bottle cap in the three-dimensional space are calculated to obtain the mapping relationship between three-dimensional points on the side surface of the bottle cap and image pixels taken by the camera. Finally, the side images of the bottle cap are unfolded and stitched to generate a planar image. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm unfolds the side images of the bottle cap correctly and very fast. The average unfolding and stitching time for 1.6-megapixel color caps image can reach almost 123.6 ms.

Kirigami-Inspired Pressure Sensors for Wearable Dynamic Cardiovascular Monitoring.

Continuously and accurately monitoring pulse-wave signals is critical to prevent and diagnose cardiovascular diseases. However, existing wearable pulse sensors are vulnerable to motion artifacts due to the lack of proper adhesion and conformal interface with human skin during body movement. Here, a highly sensitive and conformal pressure sensor inspired by the kirigami structure is developed to measure the human pulse wave on different body artery sites under various prestressing pressure conditions and even with body movement. COMSOL multiphysical field coupling simulation and experimental testing are used to verify the unique advantages of the kirigami structure. The device shows a superior sensitivity (35.2 mV Pa-1 ) and remarkable stability (>84 000 cycles). Toward practical applications, a wireless cardiovascular monitoring system is developed for wirelessly transmitting the pulse signals to a mobile phone in real-time, which successfully distinguished the pulse waveforms from different participants. The pulse waveforms measured by the kirigami inspired pressure sensor are as accurate as those provided by the commercial medical device. Given the compelling features, the sensor provides an ascendant way for wearable electronics to overcome motion artifacts when monitoring pulse signals, thus representing a solid advancement toward personalized healthcare in the era of the Internet of Things.

Bioinspired Anisotropic Slippery Cilia for Stiffness-Controllable Bubble Transport.

Bubbles play a crucial role in multidisciplinary industrial applications, e.g., heat transfer and mass transfer. However, existing methods to manipulate bubbles still face many challenges, such as buoyancy inhibition, hydrostatic pressure, gas dissolving, easy deformability, and so on. To circumvent these constraints, here we develop a bioinspired anisotropic slippery cilia surface to achieve an elegant bubble transport by tuning its elastic modulus, which results from the different contacts of bubbles with cilia, i.e., soft cilia will be easily bent by the bubble motion, while hard cilia will pierce into the bubble, consequently leading to the asymmetric three-phase contact line and resistance force. Moreover, a real-time and arbitrarily directional bubble manipulation is also demonstrated by applying an external magnetic field, enabling the scalable operation of bubbles in a remote manner. Our work exhibits a strategy of regulating bubble behavior smartly, which will update a wide range of gas-related sciences or technologies including gas evolution reactions, heat transfer, microfluidics, and so on.

The Influence of Family Socioeconomic Status on Primary School Students' Emotional Intelligence: The Mediating Effect of Parenting Styles and Regional Differences.

Select 180 primary school students from a city primary school in Shanghai, a developed area in eastern China, and 146 primary school students from a rural primary school in Jingzhou, a centrally underdeveloped area, as subjects. The method of scale is used to explore the influence of family socioeconomic status on the emotional intelligence of primary school students, and the mediating role of parenting styles in this influence and the difference in this effect in the two regions. The results show that: (1) The socioeconomic status and emotional intelligence of primary school students in Jingzhou are significantly lower than those of primary school students in Shanghai. In terms of parenting style, the emotional warmth and understanding of the fathers and mothers of Jingzhou's primary school students are both significantly lower than those of Shanghai's primary school students; (2) the socioeconomic status and emotional intelligence of the primary school students in Jingzhou are significantly and positively correlated with the parents' emotional warmth and understanding parenting styles, while the socioeconomic status and emotional intelligence of the primary school students in Shanghai are only significantly positively correlated with the father's emotional warmth and understanding parenting style; and (3) parenting style has a mediating effect between family socioeconomic status and emotional intelligence, but this effect has regional differences. The specific performance is as follows: The parents' emotional warmth and understanding parenting styles of the primary school students in Jingzhou play a partial mediating effect between the family socioeconomic status and emotional intelligence, while the Shanghai primary school students' fathers' emotional warmth and understanding parenting style plays a complete mediating effect in family socioeconomic status and emotional intelligence.

An ultrathin rechargeable solid-state zinc ion fiber battery for electronic textiles.

Electronic textiles (e-textiles), having the capability of interacting with the human body and surroundings, are changing our everyday life in fundamental and meaningful ways. Yet, the expansion of the field of e-textiles is still limited by the lack of stable and biocompatible power sources with aesthetic designs. Here, we report a rechargeable solid-state Zn/MnO2 fiber battery with stable cyclic performance exceeding 500 hours while maintaining 98.0% capacity after more than 1000 charging/recharging cycles. The mechanism of the high electrical and mechanical performance due to the graphene oxide­embedded polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel electrolytes was rationalized by Monte Carlo simulation and finite element analysis. With a collection of key features including thin, light weight, economic, and biocompatible as well as high energy density, the Zn/MnO2 fiber battery could seamlessly be integrated into a multifunctional on-body e-textile, which provides a stable power unit for continuous and simultaneous heart rate, temperature, humidity, and altitude monitoring.

Hierarchical Photothermal Fabrics with Low Evaporation Enthalpy as Heliotropic Evaporators for Efficient, Continuous, Salt-Free Desalination.

Solar-driven seawater evaporation is usually achieved on floating evaporators, but the performances are substantially limited by high evaporation enthalpy, solid salt crystallization, and reduced evaporation due to inclined sunlight. To solve these problems, we fabricated hierarchical polyacrylonitrile@copper sulfide (PAN@CuS) fabrics and proposed a prototype of heliotropic evaporator. Hierarchical PAN@CuS fabrics show significantly decreased water-evaporation enthalpy (1956.32 kJ kg-1, 40 °C), compared with that of pure water (2406.17 kJ kg-1, 40 °C), because of the disorganization of the hydrogen bonds at the CuS interfaces. Based on this fabric, a heliotropic evaporation model was developed, where seawater slowly flows from high to low in the fabric. Under solar irradiation (1.0 kW m-2), this model exhibits a high-rate evaporation (∼2.27 kg m-2 h-1) and saturated brine production without solid salt crystallization. In particular, under inclined sunlight (angle range: from -90° to +90°), the heliotropic model retains an almost unchanged solar evaporation rate, whereas the floating model shows severe evaporation reduction (83.9%). Therefore, our study provides a strategy for reducing the evaporation enthalpy, maximally utilizing solar energy and continuous salt-free desalination.

PTH-induced EndMT via miR-29a-5p/GSAP/Notch1 pathway contributed to valvular calcification in rats with CKD.

BACKGROUND: Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) is a common pathophysiology in valvular calcification (VC) among non-chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. However, few studies were investigated in CKD-induced VC. Parathyroid hormone (PTH) was considered to be an important component of EndMT in CKD-induced cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, determining whether PTH could induce valvular EndMT and elucidating corresponding mechanism involved further study. METHODS: Performing a 5/6 nephrectomy with a high phosphorus diet was done to construct VC models in rats with CKD. miRNA sequencing was used to ascertain changes in microRNA in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) intervened by PTH. VC was observed by Von Kossa staining and scanning electron microscope. RESULTS: PTH induced valvular EndMT in VC. Global microRNA expression profiling of HUVECs was examined in PTH versus the control in vitro, in which miR-29a-5p was most notably decreased and was resumed by PTHrP(7-34) (PTH-receptor1 inhibitor). Overexpression of miR-29a-5p could inhibit PTH-induced EndMT in vitro and valvular EndMT in vivo. The dual-luciferase assay verified that γ-secretase-activating protein (GASP) served as the target of miR-29a-5p. miR-29a-5p-mimics, si-GSAP and DAPT (γ-secretase inhibitor) inhibited PTH-induced γ-secretase activation, thus blocking Notch1 pathway activation to inhibit EndMT in vitro. Moreover, Notch1 pathway activation was observed in VC. Blocking Notch1 pathway activation via AAV-miR-29a and DAPT inhibited valvular EndMT. In addition, blocking Notch1 pathway activation was also shown to alleviate VC. CONCLUSION: PTH activates valvular EndMT via miR-29a-5p/GSAP/Notch1 pathway, which can contribute to VC in CKD rats.

Capillary Forces between Concave Gripper and Spherical Particle for Micro-Objects Gripping.

The capillary action between two solid surfaces has drawn significant attention in micro-objects manipulation. The axisymmetric capillary bridges and capillary forces between a spherical concave gripper and a spherical particle are investigated in the present study. A numerical procedure based on a shooting method, which consists of double iterative loops, was employed to obtain the capillary bridge profile and bring the capillary force subject to a constant volume condition. Capillary bridge rupture was characterized using the parameters of the neck radius, pressure difference, half-filling angle, and capillary force. The effects of various parameters, such as the contact angle of the spherical concave gripper, the radius ratio, and the liquid bridge volume on the dimensionless capillary force, are discussed. The results show that the radius ratio has a significant influence on the dimensionless capillary force for the dimensionless liquid bridge volumes of 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 when the radius ratio value is smaller than 10. The effectiveness of the theorical approach was verified using simulation model and experiments.

Transcriptomic analysis of tea plant (Camellia sinensis) revealed the co-expression network of 4111 paralogous genes and biosynthesis of quality-related key metabolites under multiple stresses.

The tea plant is an essential economic plant in many countries. However, its growing season renders them vulnerable to stresses. To understand the transcriptomic influences of these stresses on tea plants, we sequenced and analyzed the transcriptomes under drought, high-temperature, and pest. Paralogs were identified by comparing 14 evolutionarily close genomes. The differentially expressed paralog (DEPs) genes were analyzed regarding single or multiple stresses, and 1075 of the 4111 DEPs were commonly found in all the stresses. The co-expression network of the DEPs and TFs indicated that genes of catechin biosynthesis were associated with most transcription factors specific to each stress. The genes playing a significant role in the late response to drought and pest stress mainly functioned in the early response to high-temperature. This study revealed the relationship between stress and regulation of QRM synthesis and the role of QRMs in response to these (a)biotic stresses.

The differential expression patterns and co-expression networks of paralogs as an indicator of the TNM stages of lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

Cancers constitute a severe threat to human health. Elucidating the association between the expression patterns of the paralogous genes and transcription factors (TF) and the progression of cancers by comprehensively investigating the expression patterns and co-expression networks will contribute to the in-depth understanding of the pathogenesis of cancers. Here, we identified the paralogous gene pairs and systematically analyzed the expression patterns of these paralogs and the known TFs to elucidate the associations with Tumor, Node, Metastasis (TNM) staging information across ten cancers. We found that the expression of ~60% paralogs was cancer-dependent, and more than 50% of the differentially expressed TFs pairs showed positive expression correlations. The down-regulation patterns of paralogs and TFs were closely associated with the M and N developmental stages of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC). Our results will help to understand the roles of paralogs and TFs in cancer progression and to screen prognostic biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis.

The differential expression patterns of paralogs in response to stresses indicate expression and sequence divergences.

BACKGROUND: Theoretically, paralogous genes generated through whole genome duplications should share identical expression levels due to their identical sequences and chromatin environments. However, functional divergences and expression differences have arisen due to selective pressures throughout evolution. A comprehensive investigation of the expression patterns of paralogous gene pairs in response to various stresses and a study of correlations between the expression levels and sequence divergences of the paralogs are needed. RESULTS: In this study, we analyzed the expression patterns of paralogous genes under different types of stress and investigated the correlations between the expression levels and sequence divergences of the paralogs. We analyzed the differential expression patterns of the paralogs under four different types of stress (drought, cold, infection, and herbivory) and classified them into three main types according to their expression patterns. We then further analyzed the differential expression patterns under various degrees of stress and constructed corresponding co-expression networks of differentially expressed paralogs and transcription factors. Finally, we investigated the correlations between the expression levels and sequence divergences of the paralogs and identified positive correlations between expression level and sequence divergence. With regard to sequence divergence, we identified correlations between selective pressures and phylogenetic relationships. CONCLUSIONS: These results shed light on differential expression patterns of paralogs in response to environmental stresses and are helpful for understanding the relationships between expression levels and sequences divergences.