Because of complex chemical structures, water pollution especially dye pollutants from textile industries has been a rigorous problem. Thereby a new composite photocatalyst BiVO4/BiPO4/GO was ...successfully synthesized to overcome this situation. Its high photocatalytic performance was attributed to the formation of effective heterojunction between BiVO4 and BiPO4, as well as the excellent electroconductivity of GO. It presented superior photocatalytic activity and completely decomposed the RB-19 dye molecules (99%) within 60 min under visible-light irradiation. And the average photocatalytic rate was 31.5 times that of BiPO4 and 4.9 times that of BiVO4. In addition, the main active species were identified by experimental phenomena, comparative test results and hole-radical capture experiments. The photocurrent signal intensity was much larger than that of the single BiVO4 or BiPO4, BiVO4/BiPO4/GO also has a smaller resistance value, which was beneficial to the transmission of photogenerated carriers. The photoluminescence spectrum (PL) indicated the photogenerated electron hole pairs of BiVO4/BiPO4/GO with superior separation efficiency. The reasonable photocatalytic mechanism for degrading RB-19 was proposed based on trapping experiment. A novel BiVO4/BiPO4/GO/cotton composite catalytic material was prepared, and the degradation rate of which was still as high as 85% after 10 cycles. This work highlighted an excellent photocatalysis system in the practical application of the sewage treatment.
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•BiVO4/BiPO4/GO exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity.•The degradation rate of BiVO4/BiPO4/GO/cotton material reached 85% after 10 cycles.•.•O2− and h+ were the main active substances in the photocatalytic reaction.
The objective of this paper is to propose a new inverter topology for a multilevel voltage output. This topology is designed based on a switched capacitor (SC) technique, and the number of output ...levels is determined by the number of SC cells. Only one dc voltage source is needed, and the problem of capacitor voltage balancing is avoided as well. This structure is not only very simple and easy to be extended to a higher level, but also its gate driver circuits are simplified because the number of active switches is reduced. The operational principle of this inverter and the targeted modulation strategies are presented, and power losses are investigated. Finally, the performance of the proposed multilevel inverter is evaluated with the experimental results of an 11-level prototype inverter.
Smart manufacturing is the core idea of the fourth industrial evolution. For a smart manufacturing shop floor, real-time monitoring, simulation and prediction of manufacturing operations are vital to ...improve the production efficiency and flexibility. In this paper, the Cyber-Physical System (CPS) and Digital Twin technologies are introduced to build the interconnection and interoperability of a physical shop floor and corresponding cybershop floor. A Digital Twin-based Cyber-Physical Production System (DT-CPPS) is further established, and the configuring mechanism, operating mechanism and real-time data-driven operations control of DT-CPPS are discussed in detail. It is expected that DT-CPPS will provide the basis for shop floors to march towards smart manufacturing.
Abstract
We theoretically investigate the third-order nonlinear Hall effect by employing the quantum kinetic equation and present an analytic formula for the third-order harmonic conductivity, where ...the intraband and the mixed inter-band contributions caused by the external electric field as well as the multiphoton process dressed Berry curvature are unveiled. These results are applied in a two-dimensional Dirac system. We find that the third-order harmonic conductivity exhibits a crossover from the negative to positive value due to the intraband transition of the electrons in the low-frequency region, whereas a kink or dip structure due to the multiphoton process between the conduction and valence bands in the high-frequency region. In experiment, these features can be identified by detecting the transverse current. Our work deepens the understanding of the multiphoton process in the nonlinear transport of topological materials and enlightens a possible way to its characterization in experiments.
Recent studies have implied that circHIPK3, an abundant circular RNA (circRNA), participates in tumorigenesis and cancer progression. Its expression and potential functions in human gallbladder ...cancer were examined in this study. We show that circHIPK3 is upregulated in human gallbladder cancer cells. But its level is low in gallbladder epithelial cells. circHIPK3 silencing by targeted siRNA potently inhibited survival and proliferation of established and primary human gallbladder cancer cells, while inducing cell apoptosis. Conversely, ectopic over-expression of circHIPK3 can further promote cancer cell proliferation. In gallbladder cancer cells, circHIPK3 sponged the tumor-suppressive microRNA-124 (miR-124) to sequester and inhibit its activity, thereby leading to increased expression of miR-124 targets, including ROCK1 (rho-associated protein kinase 1) and CDK6 (rho-associated protein kinase). Ectopic over-expression of miR-124 b y a lentiviral vector mimicked and abolished actions by circHIPK3 siRNA in gallbladder cancer cells. At last, we show that circHIPK3 is upregulated in human gallbladder cancer tissues, which is correlated with miR-124 downregulation and ROCK1-CDK6 upregulation. Together, we conclude that circHIPK3 promotes gallbladder cancer cell growth possibly by sponging miR-124. The over-expressed circHIPK3 could be a novel therapeutic target and diagnosis marker of human gallbladder cancer.
•circHIPK3 is upregulated in established and primary human gallbladder cancer cells.•circHIPK3 siRNA inhibits human gallbladder cancer cell survival and proliferation.•Ectopic circHIPK3 over-expression promotes gallbladder cancer cell proliferation.•circHIPK3 targets miR-124 in gallbladder cancer cells.•circHIPK3 upregulation correlates with miR-124 downregulation in gallbladder cancer tissues.
Compared with conventional display technologies, liquid crystal display (LCD), and organic light emitting diode (OLED), micro-LED displays possess potential advantages such as high contrast, fast ...response, and relatively wide color gamut, low power consumption, and long lifetime. Therefore, micro-LED displays are deemed as a promising technology that could replace LCD and OLED at least in some applications. While the prospects are bright, there are still some technological challenges that have not yet been fully resolved in order to realize the high volume commercialization, which include efficient and reliable assembly of individual LED dies into addressable arrays, full-color schemes, defect and yield management, repair technology and cost control. In this article, we review the recent technological developments of micro-LEDs from various aspects.
Ultrasound imaging has been developed for image-guided radiotherapy for tumor tracking, and the flexible array transducer is a promising tool for this task. It can reduce the user dependence and ...anatomical changes caused by the traditional ultrasound transducer. However, due to its flexible geometry, the conventional delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer may apply incorrect time delay to the radio-frequency (RF) data and produce B-mode images with considerable defocusing and distortion. To address this problem, we propose a novel end-to-end deep learning approach that may alternate the conventional DAS beamformer when the transducer geometry is unknown. Different deep neural networks (DNNs) were designed to learn the proper time delays for each channel, and they were expected to reconstruct the undistorted high-quality B-mode images directly from RF channel data. We compared the DNN results to the standard DAS beamformed results using simulation and flexible array transducer scan data. With the proposed DNN approach, the averaged full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) of point scatters is 1.80 mm and 1.31 mm lower in simulation and scan results, respectively; the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the anechoic cyst in simulation and phantom scan is improved by 0.79 dB and 1.69 dB, respectively; and the aspect ratios of all the cysts are closer to 1. The evaluation results show that the proposed approach can effectively reduce the distortion and improve the lateral resolution and contrast of the reconstructed B-mode images.
Many studies among different ethnic populations suggested that angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene polymorphisms were associated with susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the ...results remained inconclusive. In the present meta-analysis, we aimed to clarify the effect of ACE polymorphisms on AD risk using all available relevant data.
Systemic literature searches were performed using PubMed, Embase, Alzgene and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). Relevant data were abstracted according to predefined criteria.
Totally, 82 independent cohorts from 65 studies were included, focusing on five candidate polymorphisms. For rs1799752 polymorphism, in overall analyses, the insertion (I) allele conferred increased risk to AD compared to the deletion (D) allele (I vs. D: OR = 1.091, 95% CI = 1.007-1.181, p = 0.032); while the I carriers showed increased AD susceptibility compared with the D homozygotes (II + ID vs. DD: OR = 1.131, 95% CI = 1.008-1.270, p = 0.036). However, none of the positive results passed FDR adjustment. In subgroup analysis restricted to late-onset individuals, the associations between rs1799752 polymorphism and AD risk were identified using allelic comparison (OR = 1.154, 95% CI = 1.028-1.295, p = 0.015, FDR = 0.020), homozygotes comparison, dominant model and recessive model (II vs. ID + DD: OR = 1.272, 95% CI = 1.120-1.444, p < 0.001, FDR < 0.001). Nevertheless, no significant association could be revealed after excluding studies not in accordance with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE). In North Europeans, but not in East Asians, the I allele demonstrated increased AD susceptibility compared to the D allele (OR = 1.096, 95% CI = 1.021-1.178, p = 0.012, FDR = 0.039). After excluding HWE-deviated cohorts, significant associations were also revealed under homozygotes comparison, additive model (ID vs. DD: OR = 1.266, 95% CI = 1.045-1.534, p = 0.016, FDR = 0.024) and dominant model (II + ID vs. DD: OR = 1.197, 95% CI = 1.062-1.350, p = 0.003, FDR = 0.018) in North Europeans. With regard to rs1800764 polymorphism, significant associations were identified particularly in subgroup of European descent under allelic comparison (T vs. C: OR = 1.063, 95% CI = 1.008-1.120, p = 0.023, FDR = 0.046), additive model and dominant model (TT + TC vs. CC: OR = 1.116, 95% CI = 1.018-1.222, p = 0.019, FDR = 0.046). But after excluding studies not satisfying HWE, all these associations disappeared. No significant associations were detected for rs4343, rs4291 and rs4309 polymorphisms in any genetic model.
Our results suggested the significant but modest associations between rs1799752 polymorphism and risk to AD in North Europeans. While rs4343, rs4291 and rs4309 polymorphisms are unlikely to be major factors in AD development in our research.
Phenolic acids and tanshinones are two major bioactive components in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge. A novel endogenous R2R3-MYB transcription factor, SmMYB36, was identified in this research. This ...transcript factor can simultaneously influence the content of two types of components in SmMYB36 overexpression hairy roots. SmMYB36 was mainly localized in the nucleus of onion epidermis and it has transactivation activity. The overexpression of SmMYB36 promoted tanshinone accumulation but inhibited phenolic acid and flavonoid biosynthesis in Salvia miltiorrhiza hairy roots. The altered metabolite content was due to changed metabolic flow which was regulated by transcript expression of metabolic pathway genes. The gene transcription levels of the phenylpropanoid general pathway, tyrosine derived pathway, methylerythritol phosphate pathway and downstream tanshinone biosynthetic pathway changed significantly due to the overexpression of SmMYB36. The wide distribution of MYB binding elements (MBS, MRE, MBSI and MBSII) and electrophoretic mobility shift assay results indicated that SmMYB36 may be an effective tool to regulate metabolic flux shifts.
To evaluate the prescribing trends of glaucoma drugs in six major cities of China from 2013 to 2017.
A descriptive analysis using pharmacy prescription data was conducted. Outpatient prescription ...data was extracted from the Hospital Prescription Analysis Cooperative Project. Prescribing patterns, trends of visits, and corresponding expenditures for glaucoma medications were analyzed.
A total of 84297 ambulatory prescriptions were included in the current study. Visits by glaucoma patients increased from 13808 in 2013 to 20060 in 2017. Over the same period, the yearly expenditure for glaucoma drugs increased from 2.33 million to 3.95 million Chinese Yuan (CNY). Among all the six classes of glaucoma drugs (prostaglandin analogues, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, α-receptor agonists, β-receptor antagonists, cholinergic agonists and fixed combinations), β-receptor antagonists were the most commonly prescribed in 2013, accounting for 34.3% of patients, but gradually decreased to 27.1% in 2017. Prostaglandin analogues became the most frequently prescribed drugs in 2017, accounting for 30.2% of the visits. Prostaglandin analogues are the most expensive and yielded a total expenditure of 2.34 million CNY in 2017, followed by carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, α-receptor agonists, β-receptor antagonists, fixed combinations, and cholinergic agonists. Combination therapy became increasingly prescribed in 2017.
Glaucoma prescribing practices exhibited substantial changes over the study period. The number of glaucoma prescriptions continuously increased from 2013 to 2017, leading to increased prescription costs. These findings implied a similar trend observed in previous studies, as well as recommendations in the appropriate guidelines.
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