In this paper, based on the homotopy analysis method (HAM), a powerful algorithm is developed for the solution of nonlinear ordinary differential equations of fractional order. The proposed algorithm ...presents the procedure of constructing the set of base functions and gives the high-order deformation equation in a simple form. Different from all other analytic methods, it provides us with a simple way to adjust and control the convergence region of solution series by introducing an auxiliary parameter
ℏ
. The analysis is accompanied by numerical examples. The algorithm described in this paper is expected to be further employed to solve similar nonlinear problems in fractional calculus.
1 Globally, the most common etiologies of CLD and cirrhosis are non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), followed by hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and alcohol liver disease ...(ALD) in 2017. 3 Despite the successful HBV vaccination plans in high endemic areas and effective anti-HBV and anti-HCV treatments, the age-standardized prevalence of CLD and cirrhosis caused by HBV and HCV kept rising at a rate of 9.0% and 10.2%, respectively, in the last decade (2007–2017). ...the age-standardized prevalence of CLD and cirrhosis caused by NAFLD, leading cause of CLD and cirrhosis, increased by 23.5% within the same period. ...lifestyle modification is still the mainstay of treatment. 7 More emerging medications, such as C-C chemokine receptor types 2 and 5 inhibitor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor agonists, glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist, vitamin E, and some novel drugs are being studied and potentially provide new solutions.
Polypropylene (PP) has been paid much attention due to its high melting point, excellent electrical insulting performance and thermoplastic property, which is potential to replace the XLPE as HVDC ...cable insulating material. Blending PP with polyolefin elastomer (POE) is an effective way to modify its stiffness and brittleness at room temperature. However, space charge behavior of PP/POE blend, as a great concern under dc stress, is not clear and needs further investigation. To research the space charge behaviors, pure PP, PP/POE blend and its nanocomposites with different contents were prepared. Then, mechanical properties, permittivity constant, breakdown strength, volume resistivity, space charge behaviors and trap level distribution were investigated. The results indicate the addition of POE enhances the mechanical flexibility of PP greatly, and nano-sized ZnO doping has little effect on the mechanical flexibility of PP/POE blend. The nanocomposites show lower permittivity constant, higher breakdown strength and higher volume resistivity than the PP/POE blend. Compared to pure PP, the space charge accumulation and electric field distortion get severe in PP/POE blend. However, by nanoparticles doping, space charges are remarkably suppressed, which is related to the increased trap level density in nanocomposites. It indicates the PP/POE/ZnO nanocomposites have much potential for HVDC cable application, which show high mechanical flexibility as well as excellent electrical performance.
Spatial transcriptomics technologies generate gene expression profiles with spatial context, requiring spatially informed analysis tools for three key tasks, spatial clustering, multisample ...integration, and cell-type deconvolution. We present GraphST, a graph self-supervised contrastive learning method that fully exploits spatial transcriptomics data to outperform existing methods. It combines graph neural networks with self-supervised contrastive learning to learn informative and discriminative spot representations by minimizing the embedding distance between spatially adjacent spots and vice versa. We demonstrated GraphST on multiple tissue types and technology platforms. GraphST achieved 10% higher clustering accuracy and better delineated fine-grained tissue structures in brain and embryo tissues. GraphST is also the only method that can jointly analyze multiple tissue slices in vertical or horizontal integration while correcting batch effects. Lastly, GraphST demonstrated superior cell-type deconvolution to capture spatial niches like lymph node germinal centers and exhausted tumor infiltrating T cells in breast tumor tissue.
Abstract
Recent advances in genome sequencing and functional genomic profiling have promoted many large-scale quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies, which connect genotypes with tissue/cell ...type-specific cellular functions from transcriptional to post-translational level. However, no comprehensive resource can perform QTL lookup across multiple molecular phenotypes and investigate the potential cascade effect of functional variants. We developed a versatile resource, named QTLbase, for interpreting the possible molecular functions of genetic variants, as well as their tissue/cell-type specificity. Overall, QTLbase has five key functions: (i) curating and compiling genome-wide QTL summary statistics for 13 human molecular traits from 233 independent studies; (ii) mapping QTL-relevant tissue/cell types to 78 unified terms according to a standard anatomogram; (iii) normalizing variant and trait information uniformly, yielding >170 million significant QTLs; (iv) providing a rich web client that enables phenome- and tissue-wise visualization; and (v) integrating the most comprehensive genomic features and functional predictions to annotate the potential QTL mechanisms. QTLbase provides a one-stop shop for QTL retrieval and comparison across multiple tissues and multiple layers of molecular complexity, and will greatly help researchers interrogate the biological mechanism of causal variants and guide the direction of functional validation. QTLbase is freely available at http://mulinlab.org/qtlbase.
Gasdermin (GSDM) is a family of proteins that execute pyroptosis in vertebrate. In invertebrate, pyroptotic GSDM was documented only in coral. Recent studies identified abundant GSDM structural ...homologs in Mollusca, but their functions are unclear. Herein, we report a functional GSDM from Pacific abalone Haliotis discus (HdGSDME). HdGSDME is specifically activated by abalone caspase 3 (HdCASP3) cleavage at two distinct sites, generating two active isoforms with pyroptotic and cytotoxic activities. HdGSDME possesses evolutionarily conserved residues that proved to be essential to the N-terminal pore-formation and C-terminal auto-inhibition capacities. Bacterial challenge activates the HdCASP3-HdGSDME pathway and induces pyroptosis and extracellular traps in abalone. Blockage of the HdCASP3-HdGSDME axis promotes bacterial invasion and host mortality. Collectively, this study reveals the existence of functionally conserved and yet distinct-featured GSDM in Mollusca and provides insights into the function and evolution of invertebrate GSDM.
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•GSDME is activated by CASP3 and induces pyroptosis in abalone•CASP3 cleaves GSDME at two sites and produces two different pyroptotic fragments•GSDME is involved in extracellular trap production in pathogen-infected abalone•The CASP3-GSDME axis is required for optimal bacterial clearance and host survival
Qin et al. identify a functional GSDME from mollusk abalone. It is cleaved by CASP3 at two distinct sites, and both of the resulting N-terminal fragments activate pyroptotic cell death. Abalone GSDME exerts antimicrobial effects via pyroptosis and the induction of extracellular DNA traps.
Purpose
This paper aims to study the heat transfer of nanofluid flow driven by the move of channel walls in a microchannel under the effects of the electrical double layer and slippery properties of ...channel walls. The distributions of velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volumetric concentration are analyzed under different slip-length. Also, the variation rates of flow velocity, temperature, concentration of nanoparticle, the pressure constant, the local volumetric entropy generation rate and the total cross-sectional entropy generation are analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
A recently developed model is chosen which is robust and reasonable from the point of view of physics, as it does not impose nonphysical boundary conditions, for instance, the zero electrical potential in the middle plane of the channel or the artificial pressure constant. The governing equations of flow motion, energy, electrical double layer and stream potential are derived with slip boundary condition presented. The model is non-dimensionalized and solved by using the homotopy analysis method.
Findings
Slip-length has significant influences on the velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volumetric concentration of the nanofluid. It also has strong effects on the pressure constant. With the increase of the slip-length, the pressure constant of the nanofluid in the horizontal microchannel decreases. Both the local volumetric entropy generation rate and total cross-sectional entropy generation rate are significantly affected by both the slip-length of the lower wall and the thermal diffusion. The local volumetric entropy generation rate at the upper wall is always higher than that around the lower wall. Also, the larger the slip-length is, the lower the total cross-sectional entropy generation rate is when the thermal diffusion is moderate.
Originality/value
The findings in this work on the heat transfer and flow phenomena of the nanofluid in microchannel are expected to make a contribution to guide the design of micro-electro-mechanical systems.
This paper presents a cyber-physical management of smart buildings based on smart-gateway network with distributed and real-time energy data collection and analytics. We consider a building with ...multiple rooms supplied with one main electricity grid and one additional solar energy grid. Based on smart-gateway network, energy signatures of rooms are first extracted with consideration of uncertainty and further classified as different types of agents. Then, a multiagent minority-game (MG)-based demand-response management is introduced to reduce peak demand on the main electricity grid and also to fairly allocate solar energy on the additional grid. Experiment results show that compared to the traditional static and centralized energy-management system (EMS), and the recent multiagent EMS using price-demand competition, the proposed uncertainty-aware MG-EMS can achieve up to 50× and 145× utilization rate improvements, respectively, regarding to the fairness of solar energy resource allocation. More importantly, the peak load from the main electricity grid is reduced by 38.50% in summer and 15.83% in winter based on benchmarked energy data of building. Lastly, an average 23% uncertainty can be reduced with an according 37% balanced energy allocation improved comparing to the MG-EMS without consideration of uncertainty.
Aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) materials exhibit remarkable emission in the aggregated or solid state while demonstrating minimal emission in dilute solutions. In contrast to conventional ...luminescent materials, AIE luminogens (AIEgens) offer several advantages in the aggregate state, including high quantum yield, excellent photostability, and low background signals, making them highly promising for diverse applications. Integrating AIEgens into designable metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) enables tunable and well‐ordered AIE materials, allowing for precise control over photophysical properties and deeper exploration of AIE mechanisms. Numerous AIE MOFs have been constructed and investigated, and several reviews focus on their structure design and applications in sensing and bioimaging. This review highlights the state‐of‐the‐art advancements in AIE MOFs, including mechanisms, design strategies, and applications in chemical sensing, bioimaging, and disease therapy. The challenges associated with practical applications of AIE MOFs are also addressed, with an emphasis on their large‐scale production involved interdisciplinary collaboration. This comprehensive review aims at guiding further development of AIE MOFs and promoting their practical applications in analysis, healthcare, and other luminescence related fields.
Integrating aggregation‐induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) into designable metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) has attracted significant attention as it enables tunable materials with exceptional luminescence. This review provides a comprehensive summary and analysis of the luminescence mechanism and design principle of AIE MOFs, and highlights the state‐of‐the‐art progresses of their applications in chemical sensing, bioimaging, and disease therapy.
The h-BN/diamond mix-dimensional heterostructure has broad application prospects in the fields of optoelectronic devices and power electronic devices. In this paper, the electronic properties and ...band offsets of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN)/(H, O, F, OH)-diamond (111) heterostructures were studied by first-principles calculations under biaxial strain. The results show that different terminals could significantly affect the interface binding energy and charge transfer of h-BN/diamond heterostructure. All heterostructures exhibited semiconductor properties. The h-BN/(H, F)-diamond systems were indirect bandgap, while h-BN/(O, OH)-diamond systems were direct bandgap. In addition, the four systems all formed type-II heterostructures, among which h-BN/H-diamond had the largest band offset, indicating that the system was more conducive to the separation of electrons and holes. Under biaxial strain the bandgap values of the h-BN/H-diamond system decreased, and the band type occurred direct-indirect transition. The bandgap of h-BN/(O, F, OH)-diamond system increased linearly in whole range, and the band type only transformed under large strain. On the other hand, biaxial strain could significantly change the band offset of h-BN/diamond heterostructure and promote the application of this heterostructure in different fields. Our work provides theoretical guidance for the regulation of the electrical properties of h-BN/diamond heterostructures by biaxial strain.
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