Novel High-Entropy FeCoNiMoZn-Layered Hydroxide as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction.

The exploration of catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with high activity and acceptable price is essential for water splitting to hydrogen generation. High-entropy materials (HEMs) have aroused increasing interest in the field of electrocatalysis due to their unusual physicochemical properties. In this work, we reported a novel FeCoNiMoZn-OH high entropy hydroxide (HEH)/nickel foam (NF) synthesized by a facile pulsed electrochemical deposition method at room temperature. The FeCoNiMoZn-OH HEH displays a 3D porous nanosheet morphology and polycrystalline structure, which exhibits extraordinary OER activity in alkaline media, including much lower overpotential (248 mV at 10 mA cm-2) and Tafel slope (30 mV dec-1). Furthermore, FeCoNiMoZn-OH HEH demonstrates excellent OER catalytic stability. The enhanced catalytic performance of the FeCoNiMoZn-OH HEH primarily contributed to the porous morphology and the positive synergistic effect between Mo and Zn. This work provides a novel insight into the design of HEMs in catalytic application.

Wettability Study of an Acidified Nano-TiO2 Superhydrophobic Surface.

The operation of aerospace equipment is often affected by icing and frosting. In order to reduce the loss caused by icing in the industrial field, it is an effective method to prepare superhydrophobic coatings by modifying nanoparticles with low surface energy materials. In order to explore a method of preparing a superhydrophobic surface that can be popularized, a two-step spraying method was employed to create a superhydrophobic coating. The surface was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The optimal preparation process was obtained by analyzing the surface contact angle data. The results showed that stearic acid was grafted onto the surface of TiO2 by esterification reaction. The existence of long methyl and methylene hydrophobic groups in the tail of the stearic acid molecule made the modified TiO2 hydrophobic. It is verified that water molecules have strong adsorption on the surface of unmodified TiO2. Stearic acid molecules can reduce the interfacial energy in the system.

Single-layer graphene based resistive humidity sensor enhanced by graphene quantum dots.

Graphene is broadly applied as sensitive sensing material results from its superb features. Concurrently, as a derivative of graphene with 0D structure, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) offer more possibilities as a supportive sensing material due to its adjustable size and functional group modification. In this work, GQDs are introduced to single-layer graphene (SLG) based humidity sensor to enhance the sensing performance. Specifically, consistent resistance response to relative humidity (RH) is extended from the range of 10%-60% to 10%-90% by contrary to original SLG based sensor. Parallelly, effect of the amount of GQDs is investigated by means of multiple GQDs deposition. As the resultant higher binding efficiency between water molecules and the functional groups of GQDs, improved response rate is observed. For the case of 4-time deposition of GQDs, the response rate (ΔR/R) reaches ∼130% in RH range of 10%-90%. Besides, the response time and recovery time are ∼0.7 s and ∼1.1 s, respectively. The fluctuation of the resistance change of the sensor under constant humidity is less than 5% over a month which demonstrates long-term reliability.

Preparation and properties of oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotube superhydrophobic composites modified by bio-fatty acids.

In this paper, a preparation method of superhydrophobic composites of oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified by stearic acid (SA) is proposed. Hydroxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (HMWCNTs) were obtained by oxidizing multi-walled carbon nanotubes with potassium dichromate to give them hydroxyl groups on the surface. Subsequently, the carboxyl group in the SA molecule was esterified with the hydroxyl group on the HMWCNTs. SA molecules were grafted onto the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes. SA modified oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SMWCNT) superhydrophobic composites were obtained. The results show that the water contact angle (WCA) of superhydrophobic composites can reach up to 174°. At the same time, the modified nanocomposites have good anti-icing and corrosion resistance. After low temperature delayed freezing test, the freezing extension time of the nanocomposite film is 30 times that of the smooth surface. Under strong acid and alkali conditions, the superhydrophobic nanocomposites still maintain good superhydrophobicity. The nanocomposites may have potential applications in the preparation of large-scale superhydrophobic coatings.

Origin and evolution of the triploid cultivated banana genome.

Most fresh bananas belong to the Cavendish and Gros Michel subgroups. Here, we report chromosome-scale genome assemblies of Cavendish (1.48 Gb) and Gros Michel (1.33 Gb), defining three subgenomes, Ban, Dh and Ze, with Musa acuminata ssp. banksii, malaccensis and zebrina as their major ancestral contributors, respectively. The insertion of repeat sequences in the Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) tropical race 4 RGA2 (resistance gene analog 2) promoter was identified in most diploid and triploid bananas. We found that the receptor-like protein (RLP) locus, including Foc race 1-resistant genes, is absent in the Gros Michel Ze subgenome. We identified two NAP (NAC-like, activated by apetala3/pistillata) transcription factor homologs specifically and highly expressed in fruit that directly bind to the promoters of many fruit ripening genes and may be key regulators of fruit ripening. Our genome data should facilitate the breeding and super-domestication of bananas.

Lateral flow DNA biosensor for visual detection of nucleic acid with triple-helix DNA functionalized carbon nanotube.

We describe a novel lateral flow DNA biosensor (LFDB) based on carbon nanotube (CNT) and triple helix DNA (THD). The carboxylated CNT was first conjugated with amine-modified auxiliary single-stranded DNA probe (P1) by dehydration reaction and used as signal probe. A main DNA probe (P0) was introduced to react with the P1 and formed the THD on the CNT surface. Because of the large spatial effect, P1 was in an inactive state and cannot hybridize with the capture DNA probe (P2) fixed on the LFDB test area. When the target DNA was present, P0 in the triple helix DNA hybridized with the target DNA due to the stronger base action, and the decomposition of the triple helix structure exposed P1. Therefore, P1 on CNT surface was activated to hybridize with P2. The CNT along with P1 was thus captured at the test area and accumulated to show a black line, which can be observed by naked eye for qualitative analysis and recorded with a portable grayscale reader for quantitative analysis. Single-stranded DNA was used as a target to prove the feasibility of the model. Under the best experimental conditions, the THD-CNT based LFDB was able to detect the lowest DNA concentration of 15 pM, which is 2.67 times better than that of the traditional duplex CNT-based LFDB. It should be noted that the LFDB based on THD functionalized CNT can differentiate between one-base-mismatched DNA and the complementary target DNA, can detected target DNA in 10% human serum, and can be employed as a versatile platform to detect various target (proteins, small molecular) by changing the sequence of P0. This biosensor platform has enormous potential in the point-of-care detection of a rich diversity of analytes for clinical diagnosis and biomedical research.

Lateral Flow Strip Biosensors for Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria via Direct and Indirect Sensing Strategies: A Review.

Rapid and sensitive detection of foodborne pathogenic bacteria is particularly important for the prevention and control of foodborne diseases. The lateral flow strip biosensor (LFSB) is one of the most promising point-of-care detection tools and has been widely used in food safety monitoring. This review introduces recent advances in the detection of foodborne pathogenic bacteria using LFSBs. According to different bacterial biomarkers, we summarize the direct and indirect sensing strategies of bacterial LFSBs. The direct sensing strategies for whole bacterial cells are divided into antibodies, antibody alternatives, and label-free according to the recognition elements. The indirect sensing strategies refer to the detection of bacterial nucleic acids and metabolites. Next, we compare and discuss the applications of direct and indirect sensing strategies. Finally, the existing challenges, future perspectives, and development directions are discussed, which will facilitate the theoretical innovation and practical application for bacterial LFSBs.

Prescribed Safety Performance Imitation Learning From a Single Expert Dataset.

Existing safe imitation learning (safe IL) methods mainly focus on learning safe policies that are similar to expert ones, but may fail in applications requiring different safety constraints. In this paper, we propose the Lagrangian Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning (LGAIL) algorithm, which can adaptively learn safe policies from a single expert dataset under diverse prescribed safety constraints. To achieve this, we augment GAIL with safety constraints and then relax it as an unconstrained optimization problem by utilizing a Lagrange multiplier. The Lagrange multiplier enables explicit consideration of the safety and is dynamically adjusted to balance the imitation and safety performance during training. Then, we apply a two-stage optimization framework to solve LGAIL: (1) a discriminator is optimized to measure the similarity between the agent-generated data and the expert ones; (2) forward reinforcement learning is employed to improve the similarity while considering safety concerns enabled by a Lagrange multiplier. Furthermore, theoretical analyses on the convergence and safety of LGAIL demonstrate its capability of adaptively learning a safe policy given prescribed safety constraints. At last, extensive experiments in OpenAI Safety Gym conclude the effectiveness of our approach.

Quantum Imitation Learning.

Despite remarkable successes in solving various complex decision-making tasks, training an imitation learning (IL) algorithm with deep neural networks (DNNs) suffers from the high-computational burden. In this work, we propose quantum IL (QIL) with a hope to utilize quantum advantage to speed up IL. Concretely, we develop two QIL algorithms: quantum behavioral cloning (Q-BC) and quantum generative adversarial IL (Q-GAIL). Q-BC is trained with a negative log-likelihood (NLL) loss in an offline manner that suits extensive expert data cases, whereas Q-GAIL works in an inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) scheme, which is online, on-policy, and is suitable for limited expert data cases. For both QIL algorithms, we adopt variational quantum circuits (VQCs) in place of DNNs for representing policies, which are modified with data reuploading and scaling parameters to enhance the expressivity. We first encode classical data into quantum states as inputs, then perform VQCs, and finally measure quantum outputs to obtain control signals of agents. Experiment results demonstrate that both Q-BC and Q-GAIL can achieve comparable performance compared to classical counterparts, with the potential of quantum speedup. To our knowledge, we are the first to propose the concept of QIL and conduct pilot studies, which paves the way for the quantum era.

On the Guaranteed Almost Equivalence Between Imitation Learning From Observation and Demonstration.

Imitation learning from observation (LfO) is more preferable than imitation learning from demonstration (LfD) because of the nonnecessity of expert actions when reconstructing the expert policy from the expert data. However, previous studies imply that the performance of LfO is inferior to LfD by a tremendous gap, which makes it challenging to employ LfO in practice. By contrast, this article proves that LfO is almost equivalent to LfD in the deterministic robot environment, and more generally even in the robot environment with bounded randomness. In the deterministic robot environment, from the perspective of the control theory, we show that the inverse dynamics disagreement between LfO and LfD approaches zero, meaning that LfO is almost equivalent to LfD. To further relax the deterministic constraint and better adapt to the practical environment, we consider bounded randomness in the robot environment and prove that the optimizing targets for both LfD and LfO remain almost the same in the more generalized setting. Extensive experiments for multiple robot tasks are conducted to demonstrate that LfO achieves comparable performance to LfD empirically. In fact, the most common robot systems in reality are the robot environment with bounded randomness (i.e., the environment this article considered). Hence, our findings greatly extend the potential of LfO and suggest that we can safely apply LfO in practice without sacrificing the performance compared to LfD.

Estimated optimal gestational weight gain for pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus: a prospective cohort study in China.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate the inter-hospital variability of gestational weight gain (GWG) among women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in China and explore GDM-specific optimal GWG relative to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) targets. METHODS: A prospective multicenter University Hospital Advanced Age Pregnant Cohort study was conducted from March 2017 to June 2021 at eight hospitals in China. The range of mean GWG across hospitals and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were used to evaluate the inter-hospital variability of GWG. For normal-weight and overweight women with GDM, potential optimal GWGs were derived by minimizing the joint risk of small and large for gestational age (SGA and LGA), and the incidences of adverse perinatal outcomes were compared between women who met the optimal GWGs and those who met the NAM targets. RESULTS: A total of 3,013 women with GDM and 9,115 women without GDM were included. The GWG variation among hospitals was larger in women with GDM (range: 10.0-14.1 kg, ICC = 7.1%) than in women without GDM (range: 13.0-14.5 kg, ICC = 0.7%). The estimated optimal GWGs for women with GDM were lower than the NAM targets, as 9.5-14.0 kg for normal-weight and 3.0-7.5 kg for overweight women. Women with GDM who met the optimal GWGs had lower incidences of LGA and macrosomia compared to those who met the NAM targets, with no significant increase in the incidences of SGA, preterm birth, etc. CONCLUSIONS: The marked variation of GWG among hospitals in women with GDM indicates the need to develop optimal GWGs for them. The potential optimal GWGs for women with GDM might be lower than the NAM targets, likely benefiting the perinatal outcomes.

Preparation of SiO2 resin coating with superhydrophobic wettability and anti-icing behavior analysis.

Among different types of anti-icing coatings, superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted extensive attention due to their excellent water repellency and low thermal conductivity. We report facile spraying time tuning to optimize the superhydrophobic (SHP) surface coating fabrication by a one-step spraying method of mixing SiO2 nanoparticles with epoxy resin (EP), polyamide resin (PAI), and HFTMS. The wettability performance was optimized by adjusting spraying time from 0 s to 25 s to control surface morphology by adjusting surface morphology and line roughness. With spraying time of 20 s, SiO2 molecular clusters on the superhydrophobic surface showed a maximum water contact angle (WCA) of 160.4° ± 1.3° and a sliding angle (SA) of 4.1° ± 1.0°. What's more, the effect of the coatings' icing behavior were studied by icing heat conduction; SHP-20 delayed the icing time for 410 s at -15 °C, and the icing performance of SHP-20 also declined with the decrease of temperature to -9 °C, -12 °C, -15 °C, and -18 °C. The WCA of SHP-20 can remain above 140.9° ± 1.8° after 40 abrasive 1000# sandpaper wear cycles. The results also provide a basis for the preparation of SHP and anti-icing characteristics.

Experimental Investigation of Cracking and Impact Resistance of Polymer- and Fiber-Enhanced Concrete for Ultra-Thin Whitetopping.

In order to investigate the effectiveness of polymer modification and fiber reinforcement on the cracking and impact resistance of concrete materials prepared for ultra-thin whitetopping (UTW), carboxyl butyl benzene latex and polyformaldehyde fibers were added to the conventional cement concrete mix. In addition, test methods that used an asphalt mixture performance tester (AMPT) and mechanical rammer were developed to evaluate concrete cracking and impact resistance, respectively. Results from the AMPT test revealed that the cracking resistance can be enhanced with polymer and fiber, especially the initial tensile load peak, which can be improved by more than 40% when fiber and polymer compound modification is applied. Meanwhile, the impact loading test revealed that the inclusion of both fiber and polymer results in a two-fold increase in the number of impacts before visible cracking occurs, and the number of blows to failure increased by 21.4%. Moreover, microstructures were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to confirm the reinforcing mechanism of both polymer modification and fiber reinforcement.

Understanding the Mechanisms of SiC-Water Reaction during Nanoscale Scratching without Chemical Reagents.

Microcracks inevitably appear on the SiC wafer surface during conventional thinning. It is generally believed that the damage-free surfaces obtained during chemical reactions are an effective means of inhibiting and eliminating microcracks. In our previous study, we found that SiC reacted with water (SiC-water reaction) to obtain a smooth surface. In this study, we analyzed the interfacial interaction mechanisms between a 4H-SiC wafer surface (0001-) and diamond indenter during nanoscale scratching using distilled water and without using an acid-base etching solution. To this end, experiments and ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics simulations were performed. The results showed that amorphous SiO2 was generated on the SiC surface under the repeated mechanical action of the diamond abrasive indenter during the nanoscale scratching process. The SiC-water reaction was mainly dependent on the load and contact state when the removal size of SiC was controlled at the nanoscale and the removal mode was controlled at the plastic stage, which was not significantly affected by temperature and speed. Therefore, the reaction between water and SiC on the wafer surface could be controlled by effectively regulating the load, speed, and contact area. Microcracks can be avoided, and damage-free thinning of SiC wafers can be achieved by controlling the SiC-water reaction on the SiC wafer surface.

Gestational Diabetes Mellitus as an Effect Modifier of the Association of Gestational Weight Gain with Perinatal Outcomes: A Prospective Cohort Study in China.

The association of gestational weight gain (GWG) with perinatal outcomes seems to differ between women with and without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Whether GDM is an effect-modifier of the association has not been verified. This study aimed to assess the modifying effect of GDM on the association of GWG with perinatal outcomes. Data on 12,128 pregnant women (3013 with GDM and 9115 without GDM) were extracted from a prospective, multicenter, cohort study in China. The associations of total and trimester-specific GWG rates (GWGR) with perinatal outcomes, including small size for gestational age, large size for gestational age (LGA), preterm birth, cesarean delivery, and gestational hypertension disorders, were assessed. The modifying effect of GDM on the association was assessed on both multiplicative and additive scales, as estimated by mixed-effects logistic regression. As a result, total GWGR was associated with all of the perinatal outcomes. GDM modified the association of total GWGR with LGA and cesarean delivery on both scales (all p < 0.05) but did not modify the association with other outcomes. The modifying effect was observed in the third trimester but not in the first or the second trimester. Therefore, maternal GWG is associated with perinatal outcomes, and GDM modifies the association with LGA and cesarean delivery in the third trimester.

Global identification of full-length cassava lncRNAs unveils the role of cold-responsive intergenic lncRNA 1 in cold stress response.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been considered to be important regulators of gene expression in a range of biological processes in plants. A large number of lncRNAs have been identified in plants. However, most of their biological functions still remain to be determined. Here, we identified a total of 3004 lncRNAs in cassava under normal or cold-treated conditions from Iso-seq data. We further characterized a cold-responsive intergenic lncRNA 1 (CRIR1) as a novel positive regulator of the plant response to cold stress. CRIR1 can be significantly induced by cold treatment. Ectopic expression of CRIR1 in cassava enhanced the cold tolerance of transgenic plants. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated that CRIR1 regulated a range of cold stress-related genes in a CBF-independent pathway. We further found that CRIR1 RNA can interact with cassava cold shock protein 5 (MeCSP5), which acts as an RNA chaperone, indicating that CRIR1 may recruit MeCSP5 to improve the translation efficiency of messenger RNA. In summary, our study extends the repertoire of lncRNAs in plants as well as their role in cold stress responses. Moreover, it reveals a mechanism by which CRIR1 affected cold stress response by modulating the expression of stress-responsive genes and increasing their translational yield.

Long-pulsed neodymium-doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser versus cryotherapy for the treatment of cutaneous warts: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Observational studies have shown promising therapeutic effects of long-pulsed neodymium-doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet (LP-Nd:YAG) laser on warts. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether LP-Nd:YAG laser was superior to cryotherapy for cutaneous warts. METHODS: In this study, 150 adult patients with warts were randomized equally to receive laser or cryotherapy every 3 to 4 weeks, for a maximum of 4 sessions. The primary outcomes were the cure rates at 16 weeks and 6 months; secondary outcomes included time to clearance of warts and treatment-related adverse effects. RESULTS: There was no difference in the cure rate for laser versus cryotherapy at 16 weeks (54.1% vs 46.7%, respectively) and 6 months (59.5% vs 57.3%, respectively). However, time to clearance of warts, up to 16 weeks and 6 months, tended to be shorter for laser versus cryotherapy (P = .04 and .08, respectively). Post hoc analyses showed a significantly higher cure rate for laser versus cryotherapy in 3 subgroups of human papillomavirus 2/27/57-induced recalcitrant warts but not in their counterpart subgroups. Laser had more mild adverse effects. LIMITATIONS: Single center. CONCLUSIONS: The overall therapeutic effects of LP-Nd:YAG laser were similar to cryotherapy, but laser may be more effective to relatively recalcitrant warts and may be associated with shorter time to clearance of warts.

MeSPL9 attenuates drought resistance by regulating JA signaling and protectant metabolite contents in cassava.

KEY MESSAGE: Analysis of drought-related genes in cassava shows the involvement of MeSPL9 in drought stress tolerance and overexpression of a dominant-negative form of this gene demonstrates its negative roles in drought stress resistance. Drought stress severely impairs crop yield and is considered a primary threat to food security worldwide. Although the SQUAMOSA promoter binding protein-like 9 (SPL9) gene participates extensively in numerous developmental processes and in plant response to abiotic stimuli, its role and regulatory pathway in cassava (Manihot esculenta) response to the drought condition remain elusive. In the current study, we show that cassava SPL9 (MeSPL9) plays negative roles in drought stress resistance. MeSPL9 expression was strongly repressed by drought treatment. Overexpression of a dominant-negative form of miR156-resistant MeSPL9, rMeSPL9-SRDX, in which a 12-amino acid repressor sequence was fused to rMeSPL9 at the C terminus, conferred drought tolerance without penalizing overall growth. rMeSPL9-SRDX-overexpressing lines not only exhibited increased osmoprotectant metabolites including proline and anthocyanin, but also accumulated more endogenous jasmonic acid (JA) and soluble sugars. Transcriptomic and real-time PCR analysis suggested that differentially expressed genes were involved in sugar or JA biosynthesis, signaling, and metabolism in transgenic cassava under drought conditions. Exogenous application of JA further confirmed that JA conferred improved drought resistance and promoted stomatal closure in cassava leaves. Taken together, our findings suggest that MeSPL9 affects drought resistance by modulating protectant metabolite levels and JA signaling, which have substantial implications for engineering drought tolerant crops.

Research update on psychological stress and eating behaviors in children and adolescents / 中国学校卫生

Abstract@#Psychological stress and coping strategies are important factors affecting physical and mental health. Unhealthy eating behavior caused by stress is common in children and adolescents, which has not been fully clarified. In this paper, studies on the association of psychological stress with general eating behavior, abnormal eating behavior or eating disorders among children and adolescents were reviewed. The epidemiology and influencing factors were elaborated, and the possible physiological mechanism was summarized, in order to provide reference for the future research.

Ultra-Trace Protein Detection by Integrating Lateral Flow Biosensor with Ultrasound Enrichment.

Lateral flow biosensor (LFB) is one of the most successful and applied commercial detection methods for food safety, drug abuse, and disease. Here, we integrated the ultrasound enrichment as sample preparation with LFB to achieve the ultra-trace protein detection in blood. When the ultrasound field is applied, the interaction between the acoustic field and gold nanoparticles can gather specifically modified gold nanoparticles toward pressure nodes in seconds and enrich target proteins. Such an approach can detect protein with a linear range of 1-20 ng mL-1 and detection limit of 0.58 ng mL-1 in blood within 20 min, which enormously reduces false positive readings caused by interference in real blood samples with complex components. Such a microchip that integrated acoustic enrichment with LFB shows great potential in detecting ultra-trace biomarkers for clinical diagnosis.