The Influence of Precipitated Particles on the Grain Size in Cold-Rolled Al-Mn Alloy Foils upon Annealing at 100-550 °C.

The Al-Mn alloy heat exchanger fin production process includes a brazing treatment at s high temperature of 600 °C, in which coarse grains are preferred for their high resistance to deformation at elevated temperatures by decreasing the grain boundary sliding. In this study, Al-1.57Mn-1.57Zn-0.58Si-0.17Fe alloy foils cold rolled by 81.7% (1.1 mm in thickness) and 96.5% (0.21 mm in thickness) were annealed at 100-550 °C for 1 h to investigate their recrystallization behavior, grain sizes, and precipitates by increasing the annealing temperature, using micro-hardness measurement, electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The micro-hardness results showed that the recrystallization finishing temperatures for the two samples were almost the same, 323 ± 2 °C. The EBSD results showed that when the annealing temperature decreased from 550 to 400 °C, the recrystallized grain sizes of the two samples were nearly identical-both increased slightly. Further decreasing the annealing temperature from 400 to 330 °C caused the grain sizes to increase more, with the thinner foil sample having a more significant increase. The SEM and TEM observations showed that the micron-sized primary-phase remained unchanged during the annealing process. The nano-sized secondary phase precipitates formed during the hot-rolling process experienced a coarsening and dissolving process upon annealing. The particle size of the secondary phase increased from 32 nm to 44 nm and the area fraction decreased from 4.2% to 3.8%. The nucleation analysis confirmed that the large primary-phase could act as a nucleation site through particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) mode. The relatively dense secondary phase precipitates with small sizes at lower temperatures could provide higher Zener drag to the grain boundaries, leading to fewer nuclei and thereafter coarser grains. The coarsening of the recrystallized grains in the foils could be implemented through thickness reduction and/or precipitation processes to form densely distributed nano-sized precipitates.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of lycoctonine derivatives with cardiotonic and calcium channels inhibitory activities.

In our previous study, a screening of a variety of lycotonine-type diterpenoid alkaloids were screened for cardiotonic activity revealed that lycoctonine had moderate cardiac effect. In this study, a series of structurally diverse of lycoctonine were synthesized by modifying on B-ring, D-ring, E-ring, F-ring, N-atom or salt formation on lycoctonine skeleton. We evaluated the cardiotonic activity of the derivatives by isolated frog heart, aiming to identify some compounds with significantly enhanced cardiac effects, among which compound 27 with a N-isobutyl group emerged as the most promising cardiotonic candidate. Furthermore, the cardiotonic mechanism of compound 27 was preliminarily investigated. The result suggested that the cardiotonic effect of compound 27 is related to calcium channels. Patch clamp technique confirmed that the compound 27 had inhibitory effects on CaV1.2 and CaV3.2, with inhibition rates of 78.52 % ± 2.26 % and 79.05 % ± 1.59 % at the concentration of 50 µM, respectively. Subsequently, the protective effect of 27 on H9c2 cells injury induced by cobalt chloride was tested. In addition, compound 27 can alleviate CoCl2-induced myocardial injury by alleviating calcium overload. These findings suggest that compound 27 was a new structural derived from lycoctonine, which may serve as a new lead compound for the treatment of heart failure.

In Situ SEM, TEM, EBSD Characterization of Nucleation and Early Growth of Pure Fe/Pure Al Intermetallic Compounds.

The nucleation and growth processes of pure Fe/pure Al intermetallic compounds (IMCs) during heat treatment at 380 °C and 520 °C were observed through in situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The size of the IMCs were statistically analyzed using image analysis software. The types and distribution of IMCs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD). The results showed that: at 380 °C, the primary phase of the Fe/Al composite intermetallic compounds was Fe4Al13, formed on the Fe side and habituated with Fe. The IMC was completely transformed from the initial Fe4Al13 to the most stable Fe2Al5, and the Fe2Al5 was the habitus with Fe during the process of holding at 380 °C for 15 min to 60 min. At 380 °C, the initial growth rate of the IMC was controlled by reaction, and the growth rate of the thickness and horizontal dimensions was basically the same as 0.02-0.17 µm/min. When the IMC layer thickness reached 4.5 µm, the growth rate of the thickness changed from reaction control to diffusion control and decreased to 0.007 µm/min. After heat treatment at 520 °C (≤20 min), the growth of IMC was still controlled by the reaction, the horizontal growth rate was 0.53 µm/min, the thickness growth rate was 0.23 µm/min, and the main phase of the IMC was the Fe2Al5 phase at 520 °C/20 min.

HAZMAT Vehicle Reidentification in Road Tunnels Based on the Fusion of Appearance and Spatiotemporal Information.

Vehicles transporting hazardous material (HAZMAT) pose a severe threat to highway safety, especially in road tunnels. Vehicle reidentification is essential for identifying and warning abnormal states of HAZMAT vehicles in road tunnels. However, there is still no public dataset for benchmarking this task. To this end, this work releases a real-world tunnel HAZMAT vehicle reidentification dataset, VisInt-THV-ReID, including 10,048 images with 865 HAZMAT vehicles and their spatiotemporal information. A method based on multimodal information fusion is proposed to realize vehicle reidentification by fusing vehicle appearance and spatiotemporal information. We design a spatiotemporal similarity determination method for vehicles based on the spatiotemporal law of vehicles in tunnels. Compared with other reidentification methods based on multimodal information fusion, i.e., PROVID, Visual + ST, and Siamese-CNN, experimental results show that our approach significantly improves the vehicle reidentification recognition precision.

Diterpenoid alkaloids from two species of Delphinium.

Four new compounds (1-4) were isolated from the whole plants of two species of Delphinium, including two C20-diterpenoid alkaloids, umbrodines A and B (1 and 2), and a dibenzoxazepinone, umbrolide A (3) from Delphinium umbrosum Hand.-Mazz. and a C20-diterpenoid alkaloid, kingiadine (4) from Delphinium kingianum Bruhl. ex Huth. Ten known diterpenoid alkaloids were also isolated. Their structures were elucidated via HR-ESIMS, IR, and NMR data. Lycoctonine (11) and delectinine (12) exhibited appreciable cardiac activity. Furthermore, 11 and 12 showed cardioprotective effects against doxorubicin-induced toxicity in H9c2 cells, with the maximum protection rates of 61.63% and 51.18%, respectively.

Metabolite Profiling of Talatisamine in Heart Tissue After Oral Administration and Analysis of Cardiac Bioactivities.

The lateral roots of the Aconitum carmichaelii ("Fuzi") have been used for centuries as a cardiotonic in China. The diterpenoid alkaloid talatisamine (TA) is a major bioactive component of Fuzi, but the identity and bioactivities of the TA metabolites have not been examined in detail. In this study, metabolite profiling of TA was performed in rat heart by UPLC-MS following oral administration. Metabolites were identified by comparing protonated molecules, fragmentation patterns, and chromatographic behaviors with those of standard compounds. Metabolites of TA were then prepared and tested for cardiotonic activity on isolated frog hearts. The metabolite cammaconine, a C19 diterpenoid alkaloid with a hydroxyl group at C-18, exhibited substantial cardiotonic activity during frog heart perfusion. To further investigate the structure-cardiac effect relationships, a series of C19-diterpenoid alkaloids with 18-OH were prepared. Eight tested compounds (5: -12: ) demonstrated measurable cardioactivity, of which compound 5: with an N-methyl group and compound 7: with a methoxy at C-16 showed stronger effects on ventricular contraction than the other compounds. Thus, 18-OH is a critical structural feature determining cardiotonic activity, and efficacy is improved by the presence of N-methyl or methoxy at C-16. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggested that the cardiotonic effect of compound 5: is mediated by enhanced cellular calcium influx. Metabolites of TA with these structural features may be useful therapeutics to prevent heart failure.

HMD-Net: A Vehicle Hazmat Marker Detection Benchmark.

Vehicles carrying hazardous material (hazmat) are severe threats to the safety of highway transportation, and a model that can automatically recognize hazmat markers installed or attached on vehicles is essential for intelligent management systems. However, there is still no public dataset for benchmarking the task of hazmat marker detection. To this end, this paper releases a large-scale vehicle hazmat marker dataset named VisInt-VHM, which includes 10,000 images with a total of 20,023 hazmat markers captured under different environmental conditions from a real-world highway. Meanwhile, we provide an compact hazmat marker detection network named HMD-Net, which utilizes a revised lightweight backbone and is further compressed by channel pruning. As a consequence, the trained-model can be efficiently deployed on a resource-restricted edge device. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with some established methods such as YOLOv3, YOLOv4, their lightweight versions and popular lightweight models, HMD-Net can achieve a better trade-off between the detection accuracy and the inference speed.

Experimental study on gasification of oil sludge with steam and its char characteristic.

Hydrogen can be prepared by oil sludge (OS) gasification with steam, which is of great significance for industrial hazardous waste treatment and resource conservation. The gasification performance was studied by a tube furnace reactor. The OS gasification was carried out at different temperatures (600, 700, 800 and 900 °C) and with different steam to OS ratio (SOS) (0.1:1, 0.3:1, 0.5:1). During the gasification process, hydrogen production first increased and then decreased, and hydrogen production was faster in 5-15 min. The yield of hydrogen of OS gasification reached the maximum when the SOS was 0.3:1 at 800 °C. The highest hydrogen yield per unit mass OS was 48.50 mL min-1 g-1. After gasification, the char yield was high, generally more than 50%. It was necessary to treat the char and incineration was an effective solution for low carbon fuels. Thus particle size distribution, incineration thermogravimetric analysis and heavy metal leaching concentrations analysis were carried out. The results showed that the average particle size of char ranged from 85 to 120 µm. The char incineration process could be divided into three stages: water evaporation, the precipitation and combustion of volatiles, and the combustion of fixed carbon and heavy components. After OS gasification at 800 °C, the leaching concentrations of typical heavy metals (As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) were all up to the standard. Therefore, OS gasification combined with char incineration was an effective approach for the utilization of solid waste, which can recover hydrogen energy and reduce environmental risks.

Pyrolysis characteristics and kinetics analysis of oil sludge with CaO additive.

In the process of exploitation, transportation and refining of high-sulfur crude oil, a large number of oil sludge (OS) with high sulfur content is produced. Pyrolysis has been proved to be an effective method for OS disposal, but for solid waste with high sulfur content, lots of sulfur-containing gases will be released during thermal disposal. The addition of calcium oxide in pyrolysis process is an economical and effective way to capture sulfur-containing gases. In order to understand the pyrolysis process of OS with CaO, a thermogravimetric analyser was used to conduct pyrolysis experiments of OS with different Ca/S molar ratios (0, 1, 2 and 3) at different heating rates (10°C/min, 20°C/min, 30°C/min and 40°C/min). The results showed that with the increase of CaO addition the derivative thermogravimetric curves showed a gentle trend. In addition, new weight loss peaks were occurred at 700-900°C and after 1100°C, which were the decomposition of calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate, respectively. The kinetic parameters were solved by Friedman, FWO, and Starink methods, and the results were similar, with an average activation energies (E) value of 214 kJ/mol. The change trend of the activation energy was followed by an increase and then a decrease corresponding to the change of energy demand for the reaction. The calculated average values of ΔH, ΔG and ΔS were about 207, 447 and -0.3250 kJ/mol, respectively. When the conversion rate was 0.5, the thermodynamic parameters reached their maximum values.

Combination treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumour thrombus: A case report.

We present a case of a 43-year-old man with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein tumour thrombus. Initially, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) was performed. Although alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels decreased, circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) levels showed an upward trend, and abdominal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that tumours in the portal vein had increased. Based on ctDNA profiling, apatinib and anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) antibodies and were sequentially administered. Approximately three months later, intrahepatic tumours had significantly diminished and AFP and ctDNA levels had reduced. The response was sustained at the 23-month follow-up and the patient was in good health. Combination treatment of TACE, apatinib and anti-PD-1 antibodies was effective, and profiling of ctDNA fragmentation may be beneficial in the therapeutic management of patients with HCC.

Synergistic Noncovalent Catalysis Facilitates Base-Free Michael Addition.

Carbon-carbon bond-forming processes that involve the deprotonation of a weakly acidic C-H pro-nucleophile using a strong Brønsted base are central to synthetic methodology. Enzymes also catalyze C-C bond formation from weakly C-H acidic substrates; however, they accomplish this at pH 7 using only collections of noncovalent interactions. Here, we show that a simple, bioinspired synthetic cage catalyzes Michael addition reactions using only Coulombic and other weak interactions to activate various pro-nucleophiles and electrophiles. The anion-stabilizing property of the cage promotes spontaneous pro-nucleophile deprotonation, suggesting acidity enhancement equivalent to several pKa units. Using a second noncovalent reagent-commercially available 18-crown-6-facilitates catalytic base-free addition of several challenging Michael partners. The cage's microenvironment also promotes high diastereoselectivity compared to a conventional base-catalyzed reaction.

Preliminary study on the electrocatalytic performance of an iron biochar catalyst prepared from iron-enriched plants.

Eichhornia crassipes is a hyperaccumulator of metals and has been widely used to remove metal pollutants from water, but disposal of contaminated plants is problematic. Biochar prepared from plants is commonly used to remediate soils and sequester carbon. Here, the catalytic activity of biochar prepared from plants enriched with iron was investigated as a potentially beneficial use of metal-contaminated plants. In a 30-day hydroponic experiment, E. crassipes was exposed to different concentrations of Fe(III) (0, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 mg/L), and Fe-biochar (Fe-BC) was prepared by pyrolysis of the plant roots. The biochar was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The original root morphology was visible and iron was present as γ-Fe2O3 and Fe3O4. The biochar enriched with Fe(III) at 8 mg/L (8-Fe-BC) had the smallest specific surface area (SSA, 13.54 m2/g) and the highest Fe content (27.9 mg/g). Fe-BC catalytic activity was tested in the electrocatalytic reduction of H2O2 using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The largest reduction current (1.82 mA/cm2) was displayed by 8-Fe-BC, indicating the highest potential catalytic activity. We report here, for the first time, on the catalytic activity of biochar made from iron-enriched plants and demonstrate the potential for reusing metal-contaminated plants to produce a biochar catalyst.

Albumin self-modified liposomes for hepatic fibrosis therapy via SPARC-dependent pathways.

Activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) have a central role in the progression of liver fibrosis and express a large amount of secreted protein, acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC), a specific protein-binding protein. In this study, we reported the preparation and evaluation of naringenin (Nar) -loaded albumin self-modified liposomes (NaAlLs), which delivered Nar, a specific Smad3 inhibitor that blocked the TGF-ß/Smad3 signaling pathway and played an anti-fibrosis role. After a series of characterization, it was found that NaAlLs had favorable dispersion (PDI < 0.15) with an average particle size of about 120 nm and high entrapment efficiency (>85%), albumin coated the surface of liposomes or embedded in phospholipid bilayer by interaction with the encapsulated naringenin and phospholipid molecules during the preparation of liposomes. The amount of albumin modified to the surface of NaAlLs by this method is not only more than that of the physical adsorption method, but also the binding force between albumin and liposomes is stronger. The albumin modified to the surface of NaAlLs greatly reduced the aggregation of liposomes and drug leakage and increased the stability of liposomes. More importantly, the uptake of NaAlLs by activated HSCs was 1.5 times higher than that of Nar-loaded liposomes (NaLs), suggesting that NaAlLs specifically increased targeting of activated HSCs via albumin and SPARC-dependent pathways. As expected, NaAlLs was more effective in improving liver fibrosis than the NaLs or the inclusion complex solution of Nar and Hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin (NaICS). The results suggested that NaAlLs was a promising drug delivery system, which could target drug delivery to activated HSC for the treatment of liver fibrosis.

Rationalizing the Activity of an "Artificial Diels-Alderase": Establishing Efficient and Accurate Protocols for Calculating Supramolecular Catalysis.

Self-assembled cages have emerged as novel platforms to explore bioinspired catalysis. While many different size and shape supramolecular structures are now readily accessible, only a few are known to accelerate chemical reactions under substoichiometric conditions. These limited examples point to a poor understanding of cage catalysis in general, limiting the ability to design new systems. Here we show that a simple and efficient density-functional-theory-based methodology, informed by explicitly solvated molecular dynamics and coupled cluster calculations, is sufficient to accurately reproduce experimental guest binding affinities (MAD = 1.9 kcal mol-1) and identify the catalytic Diels-Alder proficiencies (>80% accuracy) of two homologous Pd2L4 metallocages with a variety of substrates. This analysis reveals how subtle structural differences in the cage framework affect binding and catalysis. These effects manifest in a smaller distortion and more favorable interaction energy for the catalytic cage compared to the inactive structure. This study gives detailed insight that would otherwise be difficult to obtain from experiments, providing new opportunities in the design of catalytically active supramolecular cages.

[Construction of hidden curriculum in the academic experience inheritance of distinguished TCM veteran doctors].

To discuss the advantages and necessity of hidden curriculum construction in the academic experience inheritance of distinguished TCM veteran doctors by analyzing the characteristics of the hidden curriculum and the academic experience inheritance of distinguished TCM veteran doctors, and put forward viewpoints and pathways of promoting academic experience inheritance of distinguished TCM veteran doctors through the construction of hidden curriculum，such as optimal design of teaching environment，reasonable planning of teaching content and development of teaching information model，to effectively improve student cultivation quality and achieve the TCM talent cultivation goal which clinical diagnosis and treatment skills and clinical innovation ability are the core.

Navigated Self-Assembly of a Pd2L4 Cage by Modulation of an Energy Landscape under Kinetic Control.

Kinetic control of molecular self-assembly remains difficult because of insufficient understanding of molecular self-assembly mechanisms. Here we report the formation of a metastable [Pd2L4]4+ cage structure composed of naphthalene-based ditopic ligands (L) and Pd(II) ions in very high yield (99%) under kinetic control by modulating the energy landscape. When self-assembly occurs with anionic guests in weakly cooordinating solvent then suitable intermedites and the metastable cage is formed. These conditions also prevent further transformation into the thermodynamically decomposed state. The cage formation pathways under kinetic control and the effect of the anions encapsulated on the self-assembly processes were investigated by QASAP (quantitative analysis of self-assembly process) and NASAP (numerical analysis of self-assembly process). It was found that the self-assembly with a preferred guest (BF4-) proceeds through intermediates composed of no more components than the cage ([PdaLbXc]2a+ (a ≤ 2, b ≤ 4, X indicates a leaving ligand)) and that the final intramolecular cage-closure step is the rate-determining step. In contrast, a weaker guest (OTf-) causes the transient formation of intermediates composed of more components than the cage ([PdaLbXc]2a+ (a > 2, b > 4)), which are finally converted into the cage.

Efficacy and toxicities of combination maintenance therapy in the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

PURPOSE: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy and toxicities of combination maintenance therapy for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). METHODS: Relevant trials were identified by searching electronic databases and conference meetings. Prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing combination maintenance therapy in advanced CRC patients were included. Outcomes of interest included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and grade 3-4 toxicities. RESULTS: A total of 3,174 advanced CRC patients received combination maintenance treatment from 6 RCTs were included for analysis. The use of combination maintenance therapy did not significantly improved PFS (HR 0.95, 95%CI: 0.75-1.20, p =0.67) and OS (HR 1.05, 95%CI: 0.93-1.17, p =0.45) in comparison with single bevacizumab maintenance therapy for the treatment of advanced CRC, similar results were observed in sub-group analysis according to treatment regimens. In addition, combination maintenance therapy significantly improved PFS (HR 0.57, 95%CI: 0.41-0.80, p =0.001), but not for OS (HR 0.93, 95%CI: 0.76-1.14, p =0.47) in comparison with observation. Additionally, more incidences of any grade 3-4 toxicities (diarrhea, fatigue and hand-foot skin reaction) were observed in the combination maintenance therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study show that the efficacy of combination maintenance therapy is comparable to that of bevacizumab alone in terms of PFS and OS for advanced CRC patients, but at the cost of increased grade 3-4 toxicities. Thus single agent bevacizumab remains the recommended maintenance treatment for advanced CRC patients.

Correction: Isotope niche dimension and trophic overlap between bigheaded carps and native filter-feeding fish in the lower Missouri River, USA.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0197584.].

Isotope niche dimension and trophic overlap between bigheaded carps and native filter-feeding fish in the lower Missouri River, USA.

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values (δ13C and δ15N) were used to evaluate trophic niche overlap between two filter-feeding fishes (known together as bigheaded carp) native to China, silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), and three native filter-feeding fish including bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus), gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) and paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) in the lower Missouri River, USA, using the Bayesian Stable Isotope in R statistics. Results indicate that except for bigmouth buffalo, all species displayed similar trophic niche size and trophic diversity. Bigmouth buffalo occupied a small trophic niche and had the greatest trophic overlap with silver carp (93.6%) and bighead carp (94.1%) followed by gizzard shad (91.0%). Paddlefish had a trophic niche which relied on some resources different from those used by other species, and therefore had the lowest trophic overlap with bigheaded carp and other two native fish. The trophic overlap by bigheaded carp onto native fish was typically stronger than the reverse effects from native fish. Average niche overlap between silver carp and native species was as high as 71%, greater than niche overlap between bighead carp and native fish (64%). Our findings indicate that bigheaded carps are a potential threat to a diverse and stable native fish community.