Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are an emerging class of crystalline porous polymers with highly tuneable structures and functionalities. COFs have been proposed as ideal materials for ...applications in the energy-intensive field of molecular separation due to their notable intrinsic features such as low density, exceptional stability, high surface area, and readily adjustable pore size and chemical environment. This review attempts to highlight the key advancements made in the synthesis of COFs for diverse separation applications such as water treatment or the separation of gas mixtures and organic molecules, including chiral and isomeric compounds. Methods proposed for the fabrication of COF-based columns and continuous membranes for practical applications are also discussed in detail. Finally, a perspective regarding the remaining challenges and future directions for COF research in the field of separation has also been presented.
Abstract In recent years, artificial intelligence has made remarkable strides, improving various aspects of our daily lives. One notable application is in intelligent chatbots that use deep learning ...models. These systems have shown tremendous promise in the medical sector, enhancing healthcare quality, treatment efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. However, their role in aiding disease diagnosis, particularly chronic conditions, remains underexplored. Addressing this issue, this study employs large language models from the GPT series, in conjunction with deep learning techniques, to design and develop a diagnostic system targeted at chronic diseases. Specifically, performed transfer learning and fine-tuning on the GPT-2 model, enabling it to assist in accurately diagnosing 24 common chronic diseases. To provide a user-friendly interface and seamless interactive experience, we further developed a dialog-based interface, naming it Chat Ella. This system can make precise predictions for chronic diseases based on the symptoms described by users. Experimental results indicate that our model achieved an accuracy rate of 97.50% on the validation set, and an area under the curve (AUC) value reaching 99.91%. Moreover, conducted user satisfaction tests, which revealed that 68.7% of participants approved of Chat Ella, while 45.3% of participants found the system made daily medical consultations more convenient. It can rapidly and accurately assess a patient’s condition based on the symptoms described and provide timely feedback, making it of significant value in the design of medical auxiliary products for household use.
Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a zinc-containing metalloprotein, in which the Zn active center plays the key role to transform CO2 into carbonate. Inspired by nature, herein we used metal–organic ...frameworks (MOFs) to mimic CA for CO2 conversion, on the basis of the structural similarity between the Zn coordination in MOFs and CA active center. The biomimetic activity of MOFs was investigated by detecting the hydrolysis of para-nitrophenyl acetate, which is a model reaction used to evaluate CA activity. The biomimetic materials (e.g., CFA-1) showed good catalytic activity, and excellent reusability, and solvent and thermal stability, which is very important for practical applications. In addition, ZIF-100 and CFA-1 were used to mimic CA to convert CO2 gas, and exhibited good efficiency on CO2 conversion compared with those of other porous materials (e.g., MCM-41, active carbon). This biomimetic study revealed a novel CO2 treatment method. Instead of simply using MOFs to absorb CO2, ZIF-100 and CFA-1 were used to mimic CA for in situ CO2 conversion, which provides a new prospect in the biological and industrial applications of MOFs.
Developing photocatalysts capable of visible-light-driven water splitting to produce clean hydrogen (H2) is one of the premier challenges for solar energy conversion into clean and sustainable fuels. ...Inspired from the structure feature of photosystem I in nature, we have designed and synthesized a series of robust covalent organic frameworks (NKCOFs = Nankai University COFs) based on electric donor–acceptor moieties, in which the electron-donor group of pyrene can be used for harvesting light. Meanwhile, benzothiadiazole with different functional groups was introduced as an electron acceptor to tune the light-adsorption ability of COFs. Notably, the activity of NKCOF-108 for photochemical H2 evolution under visible light was among the highest in COFs without hybridization with other materials. We attribute the high hydrogen evolution rate of NKCOF-108 to its distinct structural features and wide visible-light-response range. The highly ordered layered structure ensures that sufficient active sites are accessible for H2 production, and the donor–acceptor design can promote the separation of photogenerated carriers. Our findings have provided an effective strategy to design photocatalysts for light-driven H2 evolution.
Acquiring underwater depth maps is essential as they provide indispensable three-dimensional spatial information for visualizing the underwater environment. These depth maps serve various purposes, ...including underwater navigation, environmental monitoring, and resource exploration. While most of the current depth estimation methods can work well in ideal underwater environments with homogeneous illumination, few consider the risk caused by irregular illumination, which is common in practical underwater environments. On the one hand, underwater environments with low-light conditions can reduce image contrast. The reduction brings challenges to depth estimation models in accurately differentiating among objects. On the other hand, overexposure caused by reflection or artificial illumination can degrade the textures of underwater objects, which is crucial to geometric constraints between frames. To address the above issues, we propose an underwater self-supervised monocular depth estimation network integrating image enhancement and auxiliary depth information. We use the Monte Carlo image enhancement module (MC-IEM) to tackle the inherent uncertainty in low-light underwater images through probabilistic estimation. When pixel values are enhanced, object recognition becomes more accessible, allowing for a more precise acquisition of distance information and thus resulting in more accurate depth estimation. Next, we extract additional geometric features through transfer learning, infusing prior knowledge from a supervised large-scale model into a self-supervised depth estimation network to refine loss functions and a depth network to address the overexposure issue. We conduct experiments with two public datasets, which exhibited superior performance compared to existing approaches in underwater depth estimation.
Ta
2
O
5
-TiO
2
heterojunction photocatalysts with a structure of TiO
2
nanodots deposited on Ta
2
O
5
nanotube (NTs) were prepared by anodization and in situ growth methods following annealing ...treatment. The heterojunction photocatalytic material exhibited enhanced photodegradation behavior of methylene blue (MB) and photoelectrochemical water splitting performance under simulated solar light. The degradation rate of MB and photocurrent density of heterojunction is 3.99 and 8.33 times higher than that of pure Ta
2
O
5
NTs respectively. The synergetic effect of the phase heterojunction and highly ordered structure increased the specific surface area and improved the separation and transmission efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes, thereby enhancing the photocatalytic activities. Hence, Ta
2
O
5
TNs-TiO
2
nanodots heterojunction has promising application in the fields of photodegradation, photoelectrochemical water splitting, solar cells, and other photocatalytic devices.
Graphical abstract
The heterojunction photocatalytic material exhibits enhanced photodegradation behavior of methylene blue (MB) and photoelectrochemical water splitting performance under simulated solar light. The degradation rate of MB is 3.17and 3.99 times higher than that of pure TiO
2
NTs and Ta
2
O
5
NTs, respectively; the photocurrent density increases by 8.33 times and 1.6 times compared with pure Ta
2
O
5
NTs and TiO
2
, respectively.
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A new stationary phase demonstrates effective separation towards polar analytes or their counterions within a single run.
A reversed phase (RP)/hydrophilic interaction (HILIC)/ion ...exchange (IEX) mixed tri-mode stationary phase (TMSP) has been prepared via a divergent synthesis scheme starting from propylamine on silica then by amine-epoxy reactions with 1,4-butanedioldiglycidyl ether and tertiary amines (N,N-dimethyldecylamine, DMDA). Its retention mechanism was found to follow RP/HILIC/IEX mixed-mode. The stop-flow test revealed that TMSP had good compatibility with 100% aqueous mobile phase. It demonstrated effective separation towards several kinds of compounds or drug molecules and their counterions within a single run.
With the continuous advancement of digital technologies, electronic Personal Health Records (ePHR) offer end-users greater control and convenience over their health data. Although ePHR are perceived ...as innovative tools in medical services that provide patient-centered care and disease prevention, many system interfaces are inclined toward younger users, overlooking investigations pertinent to elderly users. Our objective is to uncover the preferences of the elderly for an ideal ePHR system interface.
Relying on a literature review, we identified six interface attributes. Utilizing conjoint analysis, we constructed 16 representative design scenarios based on orthogonal design by combining different attribute levels. We invited 187 elderly participants to evaluate these scenarios. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0. The results indicate that among the ePHR interface design attributes, the elderly prioritize color attributes, followed by the notification method. Designs with contrasting color schemes, skeuomorphic design approaches, and icon-centric menu navigation with segmented layouts, and voice notifications when a message is received, are the most preferred interface design choices.
This research elucidates the ideal interface design elements for ePHR as perceived by the elderly, offering valuable references for age-friendly design considerations in ePHR systems.
Implementing these insights can aid in promoting mobile health services among the elderly demographic, enhancing their user experience in health management interfaces. This, in turn, fosters the widespread adoption of mobile health service technologies, further advancing the development of a healthy aging society.
An appropriate development of the placenta consisting of trophoblast cell migration, invasion, proliferation, and apoptosis, is essential to establishing and maintaining a successful pregnancy. ...Ubiquitin-specific protease 2a (USP2a) regulates the processes of metastasis in multiple tumor cells. Yet, no known research has focused on exploring the effect of USP2a on trophoblasts and its possible mechanism in the pathogenies of recurrent miscarriage (RM). In this study, we first detected the decreased mRNA levels and the protein levels of USP2a in placental villous tissue samples from the RM patients.
assays verified that overexpression of USP2a promoted human trophoblast proliferation, migration, invasion, whereas knockdown of USP2a inhibited these processes. Mechanistically, USP2a activated PI3K/Akt/GSK3β signaling pathway to promote nuclear translocation of β-catenin and further activated epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in the trophoblasts. Moreover, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) up-regulated USP2a expression in trophoblasts. Interestingly, M2 macrophage secreted TGF-β induced trophoblast migration and invasion, and an anti-TGF-β antibody alleviated this effect. Collectively, this study indicated that USP2a regulated trophoblast invasion and that abnormal USP2a expression might lead to aberrant trophoblast invasion, thus contributing to RM.
Alloy rotor sleeves are used extensively in high-speed permanent-magnet machines since they could fasten the permanent magnets availably. However, it is inevitable that eddy-current losses will be ...generated in the sleeve, which may make the permanent magnets overheated. In order to reduce the rotor eddy-current losses, this paper focuses on the influence of the rotor-sleeve electromagnetic characteristics. Taking a high-speed permanent-magnet generator (HSPMG) as an example, the variations of output performance and rotor eddy-current losses were analyzed when the generator adopts the steel sleeve and the copper-iron alloy sleeve, respectively, and therewith, the principles of the variations were exposed. Then, the rotor eddy-current losses were further analyzed when the generator sleeve conductivity was changed. The worst range of the sleeve conductivity was also given, in which the rotor eddy-current losses were the largest. Additionally, the increase of the sleeve permeability could reduce the main magnetic circuit reluctance and improve the operating point of permanent magnets. On the other hand, it can increase the pole-to-pole flux leakage dramatically. So, the generator performance should be analyzed by considering the two factors when the rotor-sleeve permeability was different.
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