Nanocellulose-mediated conductive hydrogels with NIR photoresponse and fatigue resistance for multifunctional wearable sensors.

The rapid development of hydrogels has garnered significant attention in health monitoring and human motion sensing. However, the synthesis of multifunctional conductive hydrogels with excellent strain/pressure sensing and photoresponsiveness remains a challenge. Herein, the conductive hydrogels (BPTP) with excellent mechanical properties, fatigue resistance and photoresponsive behavior composed of polyacrylamide (PAM) matrix, 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yloxy-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TOCNs) reinforcement and polydopamine-modified black phosphorus (BP@PDA) photosensitizer are prepared through a facile free-radical polymerization approach. The PDA adhered to the BP surface by π-π stacking promotes the optical properties of BP while also preventing BP oxidation from water. Through hydrogen bonding interactions, TOCNs improve the homogeneous dispersion of BP@PDA nanosheets and the mechanical toughness of BPTP. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of PDA and TOCNs, the conductive BPTP integrates superior mechanical performances, excellent photoelectric response and photothermal conversion capability. The BPTP-based sensor with high cycling stability demonstrates superior strain sensitivity (GF = 6.0) and pressure sensing capability (S = 0.13 kPa-1) to monitor various human activities. Therefore, this work delivers an alternative construction strategy for generating high-performance conductive hydrogels as multifunctional wearable sensors.

Acoustic emission characteristics of micro-discharges in initial pulsed PEO process on 60% SiCp/Al composite.

The initial discharge process of pulsed plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) on the 60% SiCp/2009 aluminum metal matrix composite (Al MMC) in silicate solution was monitored by acoustic emission (AE) technique. Parameters and correlations of AE signals on the Al MMC sample and under water were analyzed, and their generation mechanism was discussed. It was found that the peak amplitudes of AE signals and AE hits during the pulse time quickly increased with the increase of micro-discharge intensity, and the absolute energy of AE signals improved several orders of magnitude. Moreover, different from the peak amplitude, duration and rise time, the duration and count had a strong correlation. Elastic stress waves resulted from the microjet of plasma bubble collapse, the inner-surface friction inside discharge channel, the expansion-shrinkage process of plasma bubbles and micro-crack propagation during rapid solidification of melt are sources of AE signals on the Al MMC sample during the pulse time. However, the expansion-shrinkage process of plasma bubbles plays a key role in the generation of underwater AE signals. In the pause time of one pulse period, the bursting and moving of vapor bubbles result in weak AE signals. It is demonstrated that the AE technique can effectively characterize the features of micro-discharges within a pulse period.

Ethanol Extract of Anacyclus pyrethrum Root Ameliorates Cough-Variant Asthma Through the TLR4/NF-κB Pathway and Wnt/ß-Catenin Pathway.

Cough-variant asthma (CVA) has been recognized as the initial stage or pre-asthmatic state of classic asthma, which characterized by cough as the primary clinical presentation. Inhaled glucocorticoids, oral leukotriene receptor antagonists and antihistamines are the clinical treatments, but their efficacy is not satisfactory. Some traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been reported to have certain advantages in the treatment of CVA, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are still unclear. Recent research has indicated that Anacyclus pyerhrurm (L) DC. is commonly used in the treatment of human diseases. The aim of our study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative mechanism of the ethanol extract of Anacyclus pyrethrum (L) DC. root (EEAP) in a model of CVA. In our study, we indicated that EEAP ameliorated CVA by reducing cough frequency and inflammatory effect and oxidative stress in an in vivo rat model of CVA. In addition, EEAP ameliorated LPS-induced cell apoptosis and regulated inflammatory effect and oxidative stress in vitro. Mechanistically, EEAP exerted anti-inflammatory effects through regulating the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and Wnt/ß-catenin pathway, and overexpressing TLR4 or activating the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway by SKL2001 reversed EEAP-exerted effects in LPS-exposed BEAS-2B and 16-HBE cells. In conclusion, EEAP attenuated cell apoptosis, inflammation and oxidative stress through restraining the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and Wnt/ß-catenin pathway in CVA, which shown that EEAP might be a promising therapeutic agent for CVA and may provide a theoretical basis for clinical treatment with CVA patients.

In situ monitoring of initial plasma electrolytic oxidation process on 60 vol. % SiCp/2009 aluminum matrix composite by sound and vibration measurement techniques.

The initial discharge process of plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) on the 60 vol. % SiCP/2009 aluminum matrix composite in silicate solution was in situ monitored by sound and vibration measurement techniques. The underwater sound, airborne sound, and sample vibration signals were detected in the initial 120 s of the PEO process, and their generation mechanism was discussed. In terms of waveforms and spectrograms of the sound and vibration signals, the initial PEO process can be divided into five stages: conventional anodizing stage (I), glow discharge stage (Ⅱ), tiny spark discharge stage (Ⅲ), large spark discharge stage (Ⅳ), and strong spark discharge stage (Ⅴ). The sound and vibration signals during the PEO process are attributed to the evolution of bubbles, which are from the plasma discharge, electrochemical reactions, and vaporization of electrolyte under Joule heat. In stage I, these signals completely come from the bubbles produced by the evaporative electrolyte and electrochemical reactions. In stages Ⅱ-Ⅴ, the bubbles from the plasma discharge gradually become the main source of these signals with increasing discharge intensity. In addition, the spike peaks on the waveforms of these signals at stage Ⅴ are related to the strong discharge sparks. These results demonstrate that sound and vibration measurement techniques can effectively monitor the PEO discharge process.

The TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway-mediated type 2 skewing of T helper cell in cough variant asthma was counteracted by ethanol extract of Anacyclus pyrethrum root.

Type 2 T helper (Th2) cells-mediated immune response plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of cough variant asthma (CVA), and this study aims to determine the effect and mechanism of ethanol extract of Anacyclus pyrethrum root (EEAP) on regulating Th2 response in CVA. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from patients with CVA, and naive CD4+T cells induced by Th2-polarizing medium were administrated with EEAP. Interestingly, through conducting flow cytometry and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay method, we found that EEAP significantly alleviated Th2 skewing and increased Th1 response in these two kinds of cells. Results of western blot assay and quantitative reverse transcription PCR displayed that EEAP suppressed the expression of TLR4, total NF-κB p65, nuclear NF-κB p65 and the downstream genes. Subsequently, we proved that TLR4 antagonist E5564 played a similar improvement role to EEAP in Th1/Th2 imbalance, while combination of TLR4 agonist LPS and EEAP abolished the inhibitory effect of EEAP on Th2 polarization in Th2-induced CD4+T cells. Finally, CVA models induced by ovalbumin and capsaicin were established in cavies, and data showed that EEAP also improved Th1/Th2 imbalance in CVA in vivo, manifested in the increase of IL4+CD4+T cell ratio, Th2 cytokines (IL-4, IL-5, IL-6 and IL-13) and the decrease of Th1 cytokines (IL-2 and IFN-γ). Co-treatment of LPS and EEAP counteracted the inhibition of EEAP on Th2 response in CVA model cavies. Moreover, we found that EEAP mitigated airway inflammation and hyper-responsiveness in vivo, which was abolished by the combined application of LPS. In a word, EEAP restores Th1/Th2 balance in CVA through restraining the TLR4/NF-кB signaling pathway. This study may contribute to the clinical application of EEAP in CVA-related disease.

Patternable Nanocellulose/Ti3C2Tx Flexible Films with Tunable Photoresponsive and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Performances.

Nanocellulose-mediated MXene composites have attracted widespread attention in the fields of sustainable energy, wearable sensors, and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. However, the effects of different nanocelluloses on the multifunctional properties of nanocellulose/Ti3C2Tx composites still need further exploration. Herein, we use three types of nanocelluloses, including bacterial cellulose (BC), cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), and 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yloxy (TEMPO)-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TOCNs), as intercalation to link Ti3C2Tx nanosheets via a self-assembly process, improving the dispersibility, film-forming ability, mechanical properties, and multifunctional performances of nanocelluloses/Ti3C2Tx hybrids through electrostatic forces and hydrogen bonding. The optimized ultrathin (∼40 µm) TOCN/Ti3C2Tx film integrates excellent tensile strength (∼98.89 MPa), long-term stability (during deformation and water erosion), favorable photoelectric response (photosensitivity up to 2620%), and temperature response (reaching 163 °C in only 12 s). Laser-cutting patterned TOCN/Ti3C2Tx films are assembled into flexible multifunctional electronics, exhibiting splendid photoresponse performances and tunable electromagnetic energy shielding capability (>96.4%) related to the variation of water content at the film-gel electrolyte interface. Multifunctional patterned devices based on TOCN/Ti3C2Tx composite films provide a novel pathway to rationally design wearable EMI devices with photoelectric response and photothermal conversion.

Bionic Swarm Control Based on Second-Order Communication Topology.

In this article, we propose bionic swarm control based on second-order communication topology (SOCT) inspired by the migration of birds, which solves the difficulty in constructing communication topologies and high-computational complexity in controlling large-scale swarm systems. To realize bionic swarm control, there are three problems supposed to be solved. First, the adjacency matrix and the Laplacian matrix in traditional methods cannot be applied to SOCT directly, which should be redesigned. Second, sub-swarm systems formed based on 2-order communication topology (2-OCT) and independently distributed with each other also need to be put forward to reduce computational complexity. At last, the followers in 1-order communication topology (1-OCT) are set as the leaders of sub-swarm systems in 2-OCT. As a result, coupling in large-scale swarm systems would be reduced. The bionic swarm controller is designed through the backstepping method. In this case, the stability of bionic swarm controller is proven by the designed Lyapunov function. The simulations show the efficiency of the designed bionic swarm controller. And the tracking-containment control based on SOCT with 42 swarm members is realized.

Expert System-Based Multiagent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient for Swarm Robot Decision Making.

In this article, an expert system-based multiagent deep deterministic policy gradient (ESB-MADDPG) is proposed to realize the decision making for swarm robots. Multiagent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) is a multiagent reinforcement learning algorithm proposed to utilize a centralized critic within the actor-critic learning framework, which can reduce policy gradient variance. However, it is difficult to apply traditional MADDPG to swarm robots directly as it is time consuming during the path planning, rendering it necessary to propose a faster method to gather the trajectories. Besides, the trajectories obtained by the MADDPG are continuous by straight lines, which is not smooth and will be difficult for the swarm robots to track. This article aims to solve these problems by closing the above gaps. First, the ESB-MADDPG method is proposed to improve the training speed. The smooth processing of the trajectory is designed in the ESB-MADDPG. Furthermore, the expert system also provides us with many trained offline trajectories, which avoid the retraining each time we use the swarm robots. Considering the gathered trajectories, the model predictive control (MPC) algorithm is introduced to realize the optimal tracking of the offline trajectories. Simulation results show that combining ESB-MADDPG and MPC can realize swarm robot decision making efficiently.

Degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol by cathodic microarc plasma electrolysis: characteristics and mechanisms.

In this work, we used cathodic microarc plasma electrolysis (CMPE) to degrade 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) in simulated wastewater. By investigating and comparing the removal efficiencies and chemical oxygen demand (COD) during the degradation process, higher bath voltage and alkaline condition were considered as more suitable for the 2,4-DCP decomposition. Higher initial 2,4-DCP concentration was attributed to the increase in the utilisation of the energy input. The plasma characteristics during CMPE were studied by optical emission spectroscopy (OES). It was found that the 2,4-DCP directly participated in the plasma discharge process. Furthermore, by studying the evolution of intermediate products at different experimental parameters, it was found that the existence of Cl- played an important role in the opening of benzene ring, which activated the ortho-substitutions of hydroxyl, meanwhile accelerated the p-substitutions. The instantaneous high temperature and high pressure and the Cl- that were generated and driven by cathodic plasma made the decomposition of 2,4-DCP much quicker.

Haplotypic diversity and population genetic study of a population in Kashi region by 27 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat loci.

BACKGROUND: Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-STRs) have been certified to be the serviceable markers for some paternity cases in the last few years. METHODS: We presented the gene diversity, haplotypic diversity, and forensic statistical parameters of 340 unrelated Uighur males from Kashi region based on the 27 Y-STRs. Genomic DNA was extracted from bloodstain samples using the Chelex-100 method and amplified by Yfiler® Plus PCR Amplification kit. RESULTS: Gene diversity values on the 27 Y-STRs ranged from 0.4749 (at DYS437 locus) to 0.9416 (at DYS385a,b loci). According to forensic parameters of the 27 Y-STR loci, 295 disparate haplotypes were acquired, 258 of which were unique. The haplotypic diversities and discrimination capacities at Yfiler plus 27 loci, Yfiler 17 loci, extended 11 loci, and minimal 9 loci were 0.9990 and 0.8676; 0.9961 and 0.6912; 0.9952 and 0.5941; and 0.9919 and 0.5676, respectively. Multidimensional scaling plot and neighbor-joining tree between the studied Uighur group and 17 reference populations were conducted, and the obtained results indicated the Kashi Uighur group had the closer genetic relationships with Uighur groups living in different regions. CONCLUSION: To sum up, the present study may provide valuable population data and background information of Kashi Uighur group.

Coherence and decay of higher energy levels of a superconducting transmon qubit.

We present measurements of coherence and successive decay dynamics of higher energy levels of a superconducting transmon qubit. By applying consecutive π pulses for each sequential transition frequency, we excite the qubit from the ground state up to its fourth excited level and characterize the decay and coherence of each state. We find the decay to proceed mainly sequentially, with relaxation times in excess of 20 µs for all transitions. We also provide a direct measurement of the charge dispersion of these levels by analyzing beating patterns in Ramsey fringes. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using higher levels in transmon qubits for encoding quantum information.

Rotating-frame relaxation as a noise spectrum analyser of a superconducting qubit undergoing driven evolution.

Gate operations in a quantum information processor are generally realized by tailoring specific periods of free and driven evolution of a quantum system. Unwanted environmental noise, which may in principle be distinct during these two periods, acts to decohere the system and increase the gate error rate. Although there has been significant progress characterizing noise processes during free evolution, the corresponding driven-evolution case is more challenging as the noise being probed is also extant during the characterization protocol. Here we demonstrate the noise spectroscopy (0.1-200 MHz) of a superconducting flux qubit during driven evolution by using a robust spin-locking pulse sequence to measure relaxation (T(1ρ)) in the rotating frame. In the case of flux noise, we resolve spectral features due to coherent fluctuators, and further identify a signature of the 1 MHz defect in a time-domain spin-echo experiment. The driven-evolution noise spectroscopy complements free-evolution methods, enabling the means to characterize and distinguish various noise processes relevant for universal quantum control.

[Clinical study of sodium hyaluronate in supplementary treatment of comminuted fracture of ankle].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of sodium hyaluronate in supplementary treatment of comminuted fracture of ankle. METHODS: Thirty-seven patients suffered from comminuted fracture of ankle were operated for restoration by routing methods, and received 2 ml of sodium hyaluronate injection intra-articularly before the closure of incision. The ankle was fixed and given the second intra-articular injection on the 3rd day after operation. Then, the patients were given sodium hyaluronate injection intra-articularly at a week intervals till the paste was removed after 4 weeks. All patients were followed up. The clinical results were evaluated by measuring the symptoms of pain, and the function of walking and other daily living activities. RESULTS: All the patients were followed up for 6 to 27 months, among them, 30 patients were cured completely without any symptoms, the ankle function for walking and daily living activities was normal, 6 patients felt pain with violent activity or walking exceeding 1 km, one patient suffered from comminuted fracture with compressed depression was not improved due to his ankle being not restored properly. CONCLUSION: Intra-articular injection of sodium hyaluronate is an effective supplementary treatment for comminuted fracture of ankle.