The piezoelectric Bi2WO6 nanosheets with in-plane spontaneous polarization were synthesized by hydrothermal method. The adsorption and piezocatalytic properties of the synthesized Bi2WO6 nanosheets ...were investigated upon different variants including synthesis conditions, model dye species, and pH of the dye solution. The materials exhibited positive surface charge and selective adsorption ability for the anionic dye methyl orange (MO) in acidic and neutral conditions. The ultrafast removal of MO (kobs = 0.718 ppm s−1) under ultrasonic vibration was mainly controlled by monolayer adsorption, which followed the pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. To eliminate the interference of adsorption, the cationic Rhodamine B (RhB) was adopted as the target pollutant for piezocatalytic experiments. The maximum rate constant of RhB removal (3.9 × 10−2 min−1) was obtained in Bi2WO6 sample with the largest specific surface area of 32.8 cm2 g−1. The catalytic nature of the dye degradation phenomenon was confirmed by detection of free radicals and the quenching effect of radical scavengers. The present work demonstrates the potential of Bi2WO6 nanosheets in piezocatalytic applications. Moreover, the synergistic effect of adsorption and piezocatalysis is valuable for in-situ regeneration of the piezoelectric adsorbents.
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•Bi2WO6 nanosheets have selective adsorption ability for anionic dyes.•The ultrafast removal of MO was controlled by monolayer adsorption.•Bi2WO6 is comparable with perovskites in terms of piezocatalysis.
With the upgrading of urbanization and improvement of living standards, the volume of municipal solid waste (MSW) is increasing in China. The waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration industry promotes the ...harmless disposal and recycling of MSW. It is an important part of the energy conservation and emission reduction tasks of “12th Five-Year Plan” period (2011–2015). Based on the development status of WTE plants in China, this paper makes an analysis of the WTE incineration industry from two aspects. The one is the analysis of political, economic, social and technological factors that influence the external environment of this industry. The other one is the discussion of technologies, costs and performances of some WTE plants in China, including a detailed cost-benefit analysis. It proves that the external environment is conducive to the development of WTE incineration industry and this industry is faced with good market prospects. Also, the net profit margin and return on investment (ROI) of WTE plants is attractive, up to 25% and 18% respectively. The pay back period is 12.73 years and the internal rate of return (IRR) is 10.94%. Thus, WTE plant has good profitability and economic benefit. Besides, WTE incineration has significant environmental benefits.
The successful fabrication of a two-dimensional boron sheet, which features a triangular lattice with periodic hole arrays, has stimulated great interest in its specific structure as well as ...properties such as possible superconductivity. Here, we report a study on the vibrational spectra and electron–phonon coupling (EPC) in monolayer boron sheets by in situ Raman and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) at low temperature and ultrahigh vacuum. The gap-mode TERS gives a 3 × 109 selective enhancement on vertical vibrational Raman modes. A spatial resolution of 1 nm is achieved in this system. Combined with first-principle calculations, the vibrational properties as well as EPC in borophene are determined. The results are helpful for further study on the mechanical, electronic, and possible superconducting properties of two-dimensional boron.
In this article, we are concerned with averaging principle for stochastic hyperbolic–parabolic equations driven by Poisson random measures with slow and fast time-scales. We first establish the ...existence and uniqueness of weak solutions of the stochastic hyperbolic–parabolic equations. Then, under suitable conditions, we prove that there is a limit process in which the fast varying process is averaged out and the limit process which takes the form of the stochastic wave equation is an average with respect to the stationary measure of the fast varying process. Finally, we derive the rate of strong convergence for the slow component towards the solution of the averaged equation.
The strong surface hydration layer of nonfouling materials plays a key role in their resistance to nonspecific protein adsorption. Poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (polySBMA) is an effective material ...that can resist nonspecific protein adsorption and cell adhesion. About eight water molecules are tightly bound with one sulfobetaine (SB) unit, and additional water molecules over 8:1 ratio mainly swell the polySBMA matrix, which is obtained through the measurement of T 2 relaxation time by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR). This result was also supported by the endothermic behavior of water/polySBMA mixtures measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Furthermore, by comparing both results of polySBMA and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), it is found that (1) the hydrated water molecules on the SB unit are more tightly bound than on the ethylene glycol (EG) unit before saturation, and (2) the additional water molecules after forming the hydration layer in polySBMA solutions show higher freedom than those in PEG. These results might illustrate the reason for higher resistance of zwitterionic materials to nonspecific protein adsorptions compared to that of PEGs.
Nitrate (NO
) and ammonium (NH
) are the primary forms of inorganic nitrogen (N) taken up by plant roots, and a lack of these N sources commonly limits plant growth. To better understand how NO
and ...NH
differentially affect root system architecture, we analyzed the expression profiles of microRNAs and their targets in poplar roots treated with three forms of nitrogen S1 (NO
), S2 (NH
NO
, normal), and S3 (NH
) via RNA sequencing.
The results revealed a total of 709 miRNAs. Among them, 57 significantly differentially expressed miRNAs and 28 differentially expressed miRNA-target pairs showed correlated expression profiles in S1 vs. S2. Thirty-six significantly differentially expressed miRNAs and 12 differentially expressed miRNA-target pairs showed correlated expression profiles in S3 vs. S2. In particular, NFYA3, a target of upregulated ptc-miR169i and ptc-miR169b, was downregulated in S1 vs. S2, while NFYA1, a target of upregulated ptc-miR169b, was downregulated in S3 vs. S2 and probably played an important role in the changes in root morphology observed when the poplar plants were treated with different N forms. Furthermore, the miRNA-target pairs ptc-miR169i/b-D6PKL2, ptc-miR393a-5p-AFB2, ptc-miR6445a-NAC14, ptc-miR172d-AP2, csi-miR396a-5p_R + 1_1ss21GA-EBP1, ath-miR396b-5p_R + 1-TPR4, and ptc-miR166a/b/c-ATHB-8 probably contributed to the changes in root morphology observed when poplar plants were treated with different N forms.
These results demonstrate that differentially expressed miRNAs and their targets play an important role in the regulation of the poplar root system architecture by different N forms.
This paper is concerned with stochastic differential equations (SDEs for short) with irregular coefficients. By utilising a functional analytic approximation approach, we establish the existence and ...uniqueness of strong solutions to a class of SDEs with critically irregular drift coefficients in a new critical Lebesgue space, where the element may be only weakly integrable in time. To be more precise, let b:0,T×Rd→Rd be Borel measurable, where T>0 is arbitrarily fixed and d⩾1. We consider the following SDEXt=x+∫0tb(s,Xs)ds+Wt,t∈0,T,x∈Rd, where {Wt}t∈0,T is a d-dimensional standard Wiener process. For p,q∈1,+∞), we denote by Cq(0,T;Lp(Rd)) the space of all Borel measurable functions f such that t1qf(t)∈C(0,T;Lp(Rd)). If b=b1+b2 such that |b1(T−⋅)|∈Cq(0,T;Lp(Rd)) with 2/q+d/p=1 and ‖b1(T−⋅)‖Cq(0,T;Lp(Rd)) is sufficiently small, and that b2 is bounded and Borel measurable, then we show that there exists a weak solution to the above equation, and if in addition limt↓0‖t1qb(T−t)‖Lp(Rd)=0, the pathwise uniqueness holds. Furthermore, we obtain the strong Feller property of the semi-group and the existence of density associated with the above SDE. Besides, we extend the classical results concerning partial differential equations (PDEs) of parabolic type with Lq(0,T;Lp(Rd)) coefficients to the case of parabolic PDEs with Lq∞(0,T;Lp(Rd)) coefficients, and derive the Lipschitz regularity for solutions of second order parabolic PDEs (see Theorem 3.1). Our results extend Krylov-Röckner and Krylov's profound results of SDEs with singular time dependent drift coefficients 20,23 to the critical case of SDEs with critically irregular drift coefficients in a new critical Lebesgue space.
Objective
To investigate whether machine learning-based analysis of MR radiomics can help improve the performance PI-RADS v2 in clinically relevant prostate cancer (PCa).
Methods
This IRB-approved ...study included 54 patients with PCa undergoing multi-parametric (mp) MRI before prostatectomy. Imaging analysis was performed on 54 tumours, 47 normal peripheral (PZ) and 48 normal transitional (TZ) zone based on histological-radiological correlation. Mp-MRI was scored via PI-RADS, and quantified by measuring radiomic features. Predictive model was developed using a novel support vector machine trained with: (i) radiomics, (ii) PI-RADS scores, (iii) radiomics and PI-RADS scores. Paired comparison was made via ROC analysis.
Results
For PCa versus normal TZ, the model trained with radiomics had a significantly higher area under the ROC curve (Az) (0.955 95% CI 0.923–0.976) than PI-RADS (Az: 0.878 0.834–0.914, p < 0.001). The Az between them was insignificant for PCa versus PZ (0.972 0.945–0.988 vs. 0.940 0.905–0.965, p = 0.097). When radiomics was added, performance of PI-RADS was significantly improved for PCa versus PZ (Az: 0.983 0.960–0.995) and PCa versus TZ (Az: 0.968 0.940–0.985).
Conclusion
Machine learning analysis of MR radiomics can help improve the performance of PI-RADS in clinically relevant PCa.
Key Points
•
Machine
-
based analysis of MR radiomics outperformed in TZ cancer against PI
-
RADS
.
•
Adding MR radiomics significantly improved the performance of PI
-
RADS
.
•
DKI
-
derived Dapp and Kapp were two strong markers for the diagnosis of PCa
.
The green supplier selection (GSS) is a significant part in green supply chain management (GSCM). Choosing optimal green supplier can not only realize the sustainable development of enterprises, but ...also maximize the utilization rate of resources and diminish the negative effect of environmental issues, which conforms to the theme of green development. As a multiple attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) issue, selecting optimal green supplier is of vital important to enterprises. However, how to select the optimal supplier for enterprises is a great challenge. To handle this issue, a novel picture fuzzy COPRAS (COmplex PRoportional Assessment) method is devised. First, some necessary theories related to picture fuzzy sets (PFSs) are briefly reviewed. In addition, a method called CRITIC (Criteria Importance Though Intercrieria Correlation) is utilized to calculate criteria’s weights. Afterwards, the conventional COPRAS method is extended to the PFSs to calculate each alternative’s utility degree. At last, the designed method is exacted to an application which is related to GSS and there also conduct some comparative analysis to demonstrate the designed method’s superiority. The final results show that the proposed model can be utilized to decide the optimum green supplier.
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