Materials with large birefringence (Δn) are highly needed by fiber-optic isolators, whereas crystals showing strong second-order harmonic generation (SHG) are the key component for all-solid-state ...laser devices. Cyanurate constructed by the planar π-conjugated ring (C3N3O3, CY) is a class of fascinating materials exhibiting not only very large Δn (larger than that of calcite) but also strong SHG (2 times that of β-BaB2O4, BBO). Here, we report five new cyanurates (I–V) and their single-crystal structures; among them, II realizes a Δn = 0.4, the maximum in the cyanurate family, and IV realizes a d 33 = 6.69 pm/V, one of the highest values in the cyanurate family. We discover a dependence between Δn and the coplanarity of the CY rings that is explicitly described by a Boltzmann function, in which the coplanarity is defined by the dihedral angle (γ) between the CY plane and the principal optical axes XY plane. II realizes the maximum Δn due to its zero γ that indicates perfect coplanarity. Such a Δn–γ dependence also allows the Δn prediction of cyanurates. Furthermore, we uncover that the SHG intensity of cyanurates increases monotonically as the angle (θ) between the maximum hyperpolarizability (βmax) vector and the crystal 21 polar axis decreases. We predict the d ij to extend well beyond such a value and to maximize at θ = 0°. Our results have significant implications for the future rational design and discovery of high-performance materials of π-conjugated and other related systems.
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•Magnetic MgFe2O4/MIL-88A composite is manufactured through ball-milling method.•MgFe2O4 is introduced for rapid recovery and liquid–solid separation.•Formation of type II ...heterojunctions accelerated the reaction.•MgFe2O4/MIL-88A composite showed excellent degrade performance for sulfamethoxazole.•The good stability and reusability indicated its practical application.
Series magnetic MgFe2O4/MIL-88A catalysts (MFxMy) were fabricated by a simple ball-milling method, which were applied to degrade sulfamethoxazole (SMX) antibiotic via photo-Fenton process under low power visible light. The influences of initial pH, H2O2 concentration, and co-existing inorganic anions on SMX degradation were explored. The results revealed that the optimal MgFe2O4/MIL-88A (MF140M60) demonstrated excellent photo-Fenton catalysis activity, in which ca. 99.8% of SMX could be degraded within 20.0 min. The outstanding catalytic activity of MgFe2O4/MIL-88A (MF140M60) can be ascribed to the effective transfer of charge carriers between MgFe2O4 and MIL-88A. As well, the optimal MgFe2O4/MIL-88A (MF140M60) catalyst possessed good stability and recyclability.
Path following is the basic technology of the autonomous vehicle (AV), many preview control methods have been widely applied to path following tasks. However, less of them take the variable vehicle ...velocities into account. In fact, the velocity is an important factor affecting the tracking accuracy. Especially, when an AV is in high velocity, it is not easy to achieve path following with high accuracy. To improve the adaptivity of path following in different velocities, an improved adaptive path following control system (PFCS) constructed by a course angle optimal referential model (CAORM) and a model predictive controller (MPC) is developed in this paper. The CAORM can provide the referential course angle, according to the vehicle longitudinal and lateral velocities, which significantly improves the adaptivity of the proposed PFCS in different velocities. And the CAORM is mainly implemented by a fuzzy inference system and a novel preview model, using human driving experience. The MPC is applied to realize the course control with high accuracy via manipulating the steering angle. Finally, the tracking performance of the PFCS is verified via simulation experiments on the Simulink-CarSim platform.
This paper presents a new hybridizable discontinuous Galerkin (HDG) method for linear elasticity on general polyhedral meshes, based on a strong symmetric stress formulation. The key feature of this ...new HDG method is the use of a special form of the numerical trace of the stresses, which makes the error analysis different from the projection-based error analyzes used for most other HDG methods. For arbitrary polyhedral elements, we approximate the stress by using polynomials of degree k\ge 1 and the displacement by using polynomials of degree k+1. In contrast, to approximate the numerical trace of the displacement on the faces, we use polynomials of degree k only. This allows for a very efficient implementation of the method, since the numerical trace of the displacement is the only globally-coupled unknown, but does not degrade the convergence properties of the method. Indeed, we prove optimal orders of convergence for both the stresses and displacements on the elements. In the almost incompressible case, we show the error of the stress is also optimal in the standard L^2-norm. These optimal results are possible thanks to a special superconvergence property of the numerical traces of the displacement, and thanks to the use of the crucial elementwise Korn's inequality. Several numerical results are presented to support our theoretical findings in the end.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most frequent cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Increasing evidence indicates that the deregulation of long noncoding RNAs ...(lncRNAs) contributes to tumor initiation and progression; however, little is known about the biological role of cancer susceptibility candidate 9 (CASC9) in CRC.
Novel lncRNAs potentially involved in CRC tumorigenesis were identified from datasets downloaded from The Cancer LncRNome Atlas and The Atlas of Noncoding RNAs in Cancer. The CRC cell lines HCT-116, HCT-116 p53
, SW620, SW480, HT-29, LoVo, LS-174T, and RKO were used. Colony-formation, MTS, cell-cycle, apoptosis, and in-vivo tumorigenesis assays were used to determine the role of CASC9 in CRC cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Potential interaction between CASC9 and cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor subunit 3 (CPSF3) was evaluated using RNA immunoprecipitation and RNA-protein pull-down assays. RNA-sequencing was performed to analyze gene expression following CASC9 knockdown. RT-qPCR, western blotting, and mRNA decay assays were performed to study the mechanisms involved.
CASC9 was frequently upregulated in CRC, which was correlated with advanced TNM stage, and higher CASC9 levels were associated with poor patient outcomes. Knockdown of CASC9 inhibited growth and promoted apoptosis in CRC cells, whereas ectopic CASC9 expression promoted cell growth in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrated that CPSF3 is a CASC9-interacting protein, and knockdown of CPSF3 mimicked the effects of CASC9 knockdown in CRC cells. Furthermore, we found that CASC9 exerts its oncogenic activity by modulating TGFβ2 mRNA stability and upregulating the levels of TGFβ2 and TERT, resulting in an increase in phosphorylated SMAD3 and activation of TGF-β signaling, and enhanced TERT complex function in CRC cells. Finally, CPSF3 was significantly upregulated in CRC tissues as compared with adjacent or non-adjacent normal colon tissues, and CASC9, CPSF3, and TGFβ2 levels in human CRC tissues were positively correlated.
CASC9 is a promising prognostic predictor for patients with CRC and the CASC9-CPSF3-TGFβ2 axis is a potential therapeutic target for CRC treatment.
Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) via colonoscopy or enema has become a commonly used treatment of recurrent C. difficile infection (CDI).
To compare the safety and preliminary efficacy of ...orally administered lyophilized microbiota product compared with frozen product by enema.
In a single center, adults with ≥ 3 episodes of recurrent CDI were randomized to receive encapsulated lyophilized fecal microbiota from 100-200 g of donor feces (n = 31) or frozen FMT from 100 g of donor feces (n = 34) by enema. Safety during the three months post FMT was the primary study objective. Prevention of CDI recurrence during the 60 days after FMT was a secondary objective. Fecal microbiome changes were examined in first 39 subjects studied.
Adverse experiences were commonly seen in equal frequency in both groups and did not appear to relate to the route of delivery of FMT. CDI recurrence was prevented in 26 of 31 (84%) subjects randomized to capsules and in 30 of 34 (88%) receiving FMT by enema (p = 0.76). Both products normalized fecal microbiota diversity while the lyophilized orally administered product was less effective in repleting Bacteroidia and Verrucomicrobia classes compared to frozen product via enema.
The route of delivery, oral or rectal, did not influence adverse experiences in FMT. In preliminary evaluation, both routes appeared to show equivalent efficacy, although the dose may need to be higher for lyophilized product. Spore-forming bacteria appear to be the most important engrafting organisms in FMT by the oral route using lyophilized product.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02449174.
Abstract
We present a systematic study of the environmental impact on star formation activities of galaxies using a mass-complete sample of ∼170k galaxies at
z
< 4 from the latest COSMOS2020 catalog. ...At
z
< 1, we find that the mean star formation rate (SFR) of all galaxies decreases with increasing density of the environment. However, when we only consider star-forming galaxies, the mean SFR becomes independent of the environment at
z
< 1. At
z
> 2, we observe a clear positive correlation between the SFR and the density of the environment for all the galaxies. On the other hand, the stellar mass of the galaxies increases significantly with the environment at all redshifts except for star-forming galaxies at
z
< 1. The fraction of quiescent galaxies increases with increasing density of the environment at
z
< 2, and the morphology–density relation is confirmed to be present up to
z
∼ 1. We also find that environmental quenching is negligible at
z
> 1, whereas mass quenching is the dominant quenching mechanism for massive galaxies at all redshifts. Based on these results, we argue that stellar mass-regulated physical processes might be the major driving force for star formation activities of galaxies. At low redshift (
z
< 1) massive galaxies are quenched primarily due to their high mass, resulting in a normal SFR–density relation. At high redshift (
z
> 2) most of the galaxies are star-forming ones tightly following the star-forming main sequence, and the difference in their stellar mass in different environments naturally leads to a reversal of the SFR–density relation.
Abstract
Drought impact on crop production is well known as crop yield is strongly controlled by climate variation. Previous studies assessed the drought impact using a drought index based on a ...single input data set, while the variability of the drought index to the input data choice is notable. In this study, a drought index based on the standardized precipitation index with multiple timescales using several global precipitation datasets was compared with the detrended anomaly based on the global dataset of historical yield for major crops over 1981–2016. Results show that the drought index based on the ensemble precipitation dataset correlates better with the crop yield anomaly than a single dataset. Based on the drought index using ensemble datasets, global crop areas significantly affected by drought during the study period were around 23%, 8%, 30%, and 29% for maize, rice, soybean, and wheat, respectively, induced mainly by medium to longer drought timescale (5–12 months). This study indicates that most crops cultivated in dry regions were affected by droughts worldwide, while rice shows less correlation to drought as it is generally irrigated and cultivated in humid regions with less drought exposure. This study provides a valuable framework for data choices in drought index development and a better knowledge of the drought impact on agriculture using different timescales on a global scale towards understanding crop vulnerability to climate disruptions.
•There is a considerable portion of patients having persistent olfactory dysfunction 24 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection when evaluated by psychophysical tests, even for those without self-reported ...symptoms.
Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) was hydrolyzed by two different enzymes: cutinase from Fusarium sp. and lipase from Candida antarctica (Lipozyme CALB). The differences between the PBS residues ...degraded over time were investigated with respect to their morphology, crystallinity and chemical structures. The degradation mechanism of PBS films using the two enzymes was further investigated by establishing a model. The results show that the PBS weight loss when degraded by cutinase was higher than when degraded by Lipozyme CALB under the same conditions. The PBS degradation mechanisms by cutinase and Lipozyme CALB occur by surface erosion and bulk erosion, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the diameter of pits formed after degradation by cutinase was approximately 3 times larger than those formed by Lipozyme CALB. The change in crystallinity is related to the type of enzyme used during the degradation process. Following Lipozyme CALB degradation, the degree of PBS crystallinity decreased with increasing time, leading to increased weight loss of the PBS films. Conversely, the PBS crystallinity was nearly unchanged following cutinase degradation. Powder X-ray diffraction indicates that the crystalline structure does not change during enzymatic hydrolysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirms that the resulting structure of the degraded PBS is similar when treated with cutinase and Lipozyme CALB. Mass-spectrometric analysis suggested an endo-type action mode for both the enzymes.
•Effect of cutinase and lipase on the degradation of PBS were studied.•The degradation behavior of PBS films by cutinase belongs to surface erosion.•Fusarium solani cutinase is more promising biodegradation.
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