Refinery wastewater is not only large in volume but also complex in composition. It requires multi-stage treatment to achieve discharge or reuse targets. Pretreatment plays an important role as a ...front-end treatment. In conventional pretreatment technologies, petroleum removal and suspension removal are carried out through inclined plate settlement combined with two-stage air flotation. This poses problems such as high energy and chemical consumption and large outputs of hazardous waste. In this study, a short-process physical pretreatment technology is designed in conjunction with combined fiber coalescer (CFC) and granular media filter (GMF). The results of the pilot test show that with no added chemicals, the treated refinery wastewater is clear and translucent, and the petroleum and suspended solids content could be reduced to less than 20 mg/L, which falls within the acceptable range of the biochemical influent index. This process could greatly reduce the generation and emission of scum and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and provides a new technique for the low-carbon pretreatment of refinery wastewater.
•Refinery wastewater could be treated by media coalescence.•Media coalescence could replace inclined plate and two-stage air flotation.•The treatment effect of media coalescence is more stable.•Media coalescence is more efficient, economical and environmentally friendly.
Piezocatalysts have attracted considerable attention due to their ability to convert natural mechanical energy into chemical energy. However, the inefficient chemical reactions of the free charges ...and the poor mechanical endurance of the powder piezoelectric materials have largely restricted their wide application. Here, by combining piezocatalyst Cu3B2O6 (CBO) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a composite membrane CBO/PVDF with superior stability and excellent piezo-performance is prepared for the first time. This composite membrane shows a high efficiency for the degradation of antibiotics and organic dyes under ultrasonication; particularly, the removal efficiency is 33.9 times higher than that of a pure PVDF membrane for amoxicillin degradation, and it maintains a high efficiency after 16 cycling tests. The polarization electric field in the dual piezoelectric composite membrane significantly enhances the redox reaction of the intrinsic free carrier with dissolved oxygen and water molecules to generate reactive oxygen species. The results provide a strategy for combining the borate with the polymer membrane to lead piezocatalysis to real future applications.
Analog electronic and photonic crossbar arrays have been emerging as energy‐efficient hardware implementations to accelerate computationally intensive general matrix–vector and matrix–matrix ...multiplications in machine learning (ML) algorithms. However, the inevitable nonuniformity in large‐scale electronic and optoelectronic devices and systems prevents scalable deployment. Herein, a calibration approach is reported that enables accurate calculations in crossbar arrays despite hardware imperfections. This approach is experimentally validated in a small‐scale free‐space photonic crossbar array based on cascaded spatial light modulators and demonstrated the scalability and universality of this approach in various large‐scale electronic and photonic crossbar arrays. The improved performance of calibrated crossbar arrays in an ML model inference is further demonstrated to classify handwritten digital images.
A universal and scalable calibration approach is developed to enable accurate matrix–vector multiplications in analog electronic and photonic crossbar arrays despite inevitable hardware imperfections. This approach is numerically and experimentally validated in various crossbar arrays. Further, the calibrated crossbar arrays are demonstrated with improved performance in a machine learning task to classify handwritten digit images.
Piezocatalysts have attracted considerable attention due to their ability to convert natural mechanical energy into chemical energy. However, the inefficient chemical reactions of the free charges ...and the poor mechanical endurance of the powder piezoelectric materials have largely restricted their wide application. Here, by combining piezocatalyst Cu
B
O
(CBO) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), a composite membrane CBO/PVDF with superior stability and excellent piezo-performance is prepared for the first time. This composite membrane shows a high efficiency for the degradation of antibiotics and organic dyes under ultrasonication; particularly, the removal efficiency is 33.9 times higher than that of a pure PVDF membrane for amoxicillin degradation, and it maintains a high efficiency after 16 cycling tests. The polarization electric field in the dual piezoelectric composite membrane significantly enhances the redox reaction of the intrinsic free carrier with dissolved oxygen and water molecules to generate reactive oxygen species. The results provide a strategy for combining the borate with the polymer membrane to lead piezocatalysis to real future applications.
•3D nanospherical CdxZn1−xS/graphene was synthesized via solvothermal method.•Performance evaluation was carried out under visible light irradiation.•Samples show excellent photocatalytic activities ...and photocorrosion resistance.•A possible photocatalytic and anti-corrosion mechanism is proposed.•The structural effects of 3D nanosphere explain excellent performance.
Herein, a series of CdxZn1−xS and sulfide/graphene photocatalysts with 3D nanospherical framework have been successfully fabricated by one-pot solvothermal method for the first time. The morphology and structure of samples were confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometry, N2 adsorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS). The as-prepared samples exhibit excellent photocatalytic activities and photocorrosion resistance in the degradation of dyes under visible light. The Cd0.5Zn0.5S/rGO sample shows the most efficient in the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO). It takes about 30min for degradation completely. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is mainly attributed to the slow photon enhancement of the 3D structure, and the heterojunction between the 3D nanospherical Cd0.5Zn0.5S solid solutions and a high quality 2D rGO support, which can greatly promote the separation of light-induced electrons and holes. Moreover, the large SBET and extended light absorption range also play an important role for improving the photocatalytic activity. The high photocatalytic stability is due to the successful inhibition of the photocorrosion of Cd0.5Zn0.5S/rGO by forming heterojunction between CdS and ZnS, and transferring the photogenerated electrons of Cd0.5Zn0.5S to rGO. The present work can provide rational design of graphene-based photocatalysts with large contact interface and strong interaction between the composites for other application.
Diffractive optical neural networks have shown promising advantages over electronic circuits for accelerating modern machine learning (ML) algorithms. However, it is challenging to achieve fully ...programmable all‐optical implementation and rapid hardware deployment. Here, a large‐scale, cost‐effective, complex‐valued, and reconfigurable diffractive all‐optical neural networks system in the visible range is demonstrated based on cascaded transmissive twisted nematic liquid crystal spatial light modulators. The employment of categorical reparameterization technique creates a physics‐aware training framework for the fast and accurate deployment of computer‐trained models onto optical hardware. Such a full stack of hardware and software enables not only the experimental demonstration of classifying handwritten digits in standard datasets, but also theoretical analysis and experimental verification of physics‐aware adversarial attacks onto the system, which are generated from a complex‐valued gradient‐based algorithm. The detailed adversarial robustness comparison with conventional multiple layer perceptrons and convolutional neural networks features a distinct statistical adversarial property in diffractive optical neural networks. The developed full stack of software and hardware provides new opportunities of employing diffractive optics in a variety of ML tasks and in the research on optical adversarial ML.
A full stack of complex‐valued reconfigurable diffractive all‐optical neural networks hardware and associated physics‐aware training software for fast and accurate deployment is demonstrated. Such a full stack of hardware and software enables not only the classification of standard handwritten digits, but also the exploration of an uncharted area of adversarial attacks in complex‐valued neural networks.
To determine whether abnormal cardiac shape and ventricular global, transverse, and longitudinal contractility are present in fetuses of women with well-controlled GDM.
A prospective observational ...study was performed on 80 fetuses of women with well-controlled GDM and 90 control fetuses. Using Fetal HQ, a new speckle-tracking technique, cardiac shape, global contractility, transverse contractility, and longitudinal contractility were calculated. The number and percentage of fetuses with z score values below 5th or above 95th were computed.
Compared with controls, there were no significant differences in the frequency of cardiac geometric abnormalities in GDM fetuses. Despite good glycemic control, 60.0% of fetuses in the well-controlled GDM group had one or more types of global, longitudinal, and transverse contractility abnormalities of one or both ventricles, but more frequent on the right ventricle (RV, 50%). The most frequent abnormality of the RV occurred in the transverse contractility (35%), followed by abnormalities of global contractility (25%), and longitudinal contractility (21.3%), compared with controls. The left ventricle (LV) analysis demonstrated that the percentage of study fetuses with only transverse contractility abnormality (18.8%) was significantly higher.
Despite good glycemic control, abnormal ventricular contractility was present in fetuses of women with GDM, but more frequent in the RV. For both the RV and LV, transverse ventricular contractility abnormality were more prevalent than abnormal global and longitudinal contractility. Fetuses of women with GDM should be evaluated for ventricular contractility abnormality and have more follow-ups despite good glycemic control.
BackgroundCervical cancer, endometrial cancer, and ovarian cancer are among the top 10 most common cancers in women, with ovarian cancer in particular being considered a "silent killer". Therefore, ...early detection, diagnosis, and treatment constitute important means of care for women's health. This study investigated the clinical value of the quantitative analysis of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pelvic tumors.MethodsCEUS was performed on 151 patients with pelvic masses. Subsequently, a qualitative diagnosis was completed using the image enhancement features and tumor parameters. A multiparametric analysis of CEUS images was performed, which included the following parameters: arrival time (AT), time to peak (TTP), peak intensity (PI), and ascent slope (AS). In addition, the qualitative diagnostic efficiency of CEUS was assessed in a multiparametric analysis, and the results were compared with pathological findings.ResultsThe patients in the malignant group were older (P=0.001) and had larger lesion PI values (P<0.01) than those in the benign group. The PI difference (PId) and the AS difference (ASd) showed statistical differences (P<0.01) between the myometrium and lesion tissues in the same patient. Moreover, the PId and ASd showed the largest receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the ROC curve (AUC), with sensitivities of 90.9% and 91.7% and specificities of 86.4% and 72.5%, respectively.ConclusionsThe quantitative analysis of CEUS provides a new, simpler, and more accurate method for the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant pelvic masses in clinical practice. The sensitivities and specificities of PId and ASd were higher compared to other parameters from the same patient.
Herein, a series of Cd x Zn1-x S and sulfide/graphene photocatalysts with 3D nanospherical framework have been successfully fabricated by one-pot solvothermal method for the first time. The ...morphology and structure of samples were confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometry, N2 adsorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The as-prepared samples exhibit excellent photocatalytic activities and photocorrosion resistance in the degradation of dyes under visible light. The Cd0.5Zn0.5S/rGO sample shows the most efficient in the photodegradation of methyl orange (MO). It takes about 30min for degradation completely. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is mainly attributed to the slow photon enhancement of the 3D structure, and the heterojunction between the 3D nanospherical Cd0.5Zn0.5S solid solutions and a high quality 2D rGO support, which can greatly promote the separation of light-induced electrons and holes. Moreover, the large S BET and extended light absorption range also play an important role for improving the photocatalytic activity. The high photocatalytic stability is due to the successful inhibition of the photocorrosion of Cd0.5Zn0.5S/rGO by forming heterojunction between CdS and ZnS, and transferring the photogenerated electrons of Cd0.5Zn0.5S to rGO. The present work can provide rational design of graphene-based photocatalysts with large contact interface and strong interaction between the composites for other application.
