•Strategies developed thus far to include MFSs within a single MOF system are summarized.•The applications of MFS–MOFs for catalysis, gas adsorption/separation, optics, and proton-conductivity are ...reviewed.
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), a class of porous materials bring great promise for a diverse array of applications ranging from gas storage and separation to heterogeneous catalysis. The ability to incorporate multiple functional sites into a single system enhances the interest seen in MOFs. The solid, well-defined nature of MOFs allow for the engineering of materials capable of performing multiple functions through multiple independent processes or cooperative and synergetic interactions or pathways. In this review, we aim to encompass and summarize research that introduces techniques and strategies to incorporate multiple functional sites within a single MOF system, highlight exceptional examples of work that exploits MFS–MOFs to perform noteworthy processes, and give direction to further enhance our ability to move MFS–MOFs forward in a way that addresses current problems faced by our society.
Cadmium (Cd) is a type of toxic metal, in most cases, coming from fuel burning and aquatic plants. The cells of organisms can be caused serious damage, including pyroptosis, exposure to low ...concentrations of Cd in long-term. Pyroptosis is a recently discovered Caspase-1-mediated cell death. In this study, lymphocytes were extracted from the pronephros and spleens in carps, respectively. After treating cells with low concentration of Cd, the mRNA and protein expression levels of pyroptosis-related genes, NLRP3, Caspase-1, and pro-inflammatory cytokines, increased obviously. And the content of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and mitochondria reactive oxygen species (mtROS) increased significantly, we also found the activities of CAT, GSH-px and T-SOD reduce significantly, and the content of MDA have a clear upward trend. We then added NLRP3 inhibitor, Glyburide, to the Cd-treated group, further confirming that NLRP3 is a key gene in pyroptosis pathways by detecting the mRNA and protein expression levels. Besides, the rupture of the cell membrane was also confirmed by Hoechst/PI double staining, red fluorescence increased obviously in the Cd treatment group. The experiment revealed that Cd exposure induces pyroptosis of lymphocytes in carp pronephros and spleens by activating NLRP3. Inhibition of NLRP3 activity can slow down the degree of lymphocytes pyroptosis. Thus, the above information provides a new avenue toward understanding the partial mechanism of Cd exposure-induced pyroptosis.
•Cadmium induces pyroptosis of lymphocytes in carp pronephros and spleens.•NLRP3 is a key of regulating pyroptosis pathway.•Cadmium exposure leads to increased levels of ROS and mtROS in lymphocytes.
Highly effective and highly efficient decontamination of mercury from aqueous media remains a serious task for public health and ecosystem protection. Here we report that this task can be addressed ...by creating a mercury 'nano-trap' as illustrated by functionalizing a high surface area and robust porous organic polymer with a high density of strong mercury chelating groups. The resultant porous organic polymer-based mercury 'nano-trap' exhibits a record-high saturation mercury uptake capacity of over 1,000 mg g(-1), and can effectively reduce the mercury(II) concentration from 10 p.p.m. to the extremely low level of smaller than 0.4 p.p.b. well below the acceptable limits in drinking water standards (2 p.p.b.), and can also efficiently remove >99.9% mercury(II) within a few minutes. Our work therefore presents a new benchmark for mercury adsorbent materials and provides a new perspective for removing mercury(II) and also other heavy metal ions from contaminated water for environmental remediation.
With rapid progress in DNA synthesis and sequencing, strain engineering starts to be the rate-limiting step in synthetic biology. Here, we report a gRNA-tRNA array for CRISPR-Cas9 (GTR-CRISPR) for ...multiplexed engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using reported gRNAs shown to be effective, this system enables simultaneous disruption of 8 genes with 87% efficiency. We further report an accelerated Lightning GTR-CRISPR that avoids the cloning step in Escherichia coli by directly transforming the Golden Gate reaction mix to yeast. This approach enables disruption of 6 genes in 3 days with 60% efficiency using reported gRNAs and 23% using un-optimized gRNAs. Moreover, we applied the Lightning GTR-CRISPR to simplify yeast lipid networks, resulting in a 30-fold increase in free fatty acid production in 10 days using just two-round deletions of eight previously identified genes. The GTR-CRISPR should be an invaluable addition to the toolbox of synthetic biology and automation.
Selenium (Se) deficiency and poor plasma Se levels can cause cardiovascular diseases by decreasing selenoprotein levels. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) may be the vicious cycle center of ...inflammation in vasculitis. Here, we show that Se deficiency induced arteritis mainly by reducing selenoprotein S (SelS), and promoted the progression of arteritis by regulating the recruitment of neutrophils and NET formation. Silencing SelS induced chicken arterial endothelial cells (PAECs) to secrete cytokines, and activated neutrophils to promote NET formation. Conversely, scavenging DNA-NETs promoted cytokine secretion in PAECs. The NET formation regulated by siSelS was dependent on a reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst. We also found that the PPAR pathway was a major mediator of NET formation induced by Se-deficient arteritis. Overall, our results reveal how Se deficiency regulates NET formation in the progression of arteritis and support silencing-SelS worsens arteritis.
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•Se deficiency induces arteritis and NET formation in broilers.•PMA-induced NET-DNAs promote PAECs inflammatory in vitro.•Silencing SelS expression in PAECs induce NET formation.•Silencing-SelS mediated-NET formation is ROS-dependent.•PPAR pathway regulates NET formation induced by Se-deficient arteritis.
Background
The clinical characteristics of novel coronavirus disease (COVID‐2019) patients outside the epicenter of Hubei Province are less understood.
Methods
We analyzed the epidemiological and ...clinical features of all COVID‐2019 cases in the only referral hospital in Shenzhen City, China, from January 11, 2020, to February 6, 2020, and followed until March 6, 2020.
Results
Among the 298 confirmed cases, 233 (81.5%) had been to Hubei, while 42 (14%) did not have a clear travel history. Only 218 (73.15%) cases had a fever as the initial symptom. Compared with the nonsevere cases, severe cases were associated with older age, those with underlying diseases, and higher levels of C‐reactive protein, interleukin‐6, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Slower clearance of the virus was associated with a higher risk of progression to critical condition. As of March 6, 2020, 268 (89.9%) patients were discharged and the overall case fatality ratio was 1.0%.
Conclusions
In a designated hospital outside Hubei Province, COVID‐2019 patients could be effectively managed by properly using the existing hospital system. Mortality may be lowered when cases are relatively mild, and there are sufficient medical resources to care and treat the disease.
This study analyzes the epidemiological and clinical features of all 298 COVID‐19 cases in the only referral hospital of Shenzhen City. Slower clearance of virus is associated with a higher progression to severe critical condition. Compared with the nonsevere cases, severe cases are associated with older age, underlying diseases, higher levels of C‐reactive protein, interleukin‐6, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Abbreviations: CRP, C‐reactive protein; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate.
The isolated feature between primary and secondary sides in wireless power transfer requires dual-side communication, phase synchronization, and two controllers on both sides. The phase difference ...between dual-side ac voltages can be changed for output regulation or bidirectional power flow. Zero crossing detection of the secondary ac voltage or current is normally conducted for frequency locking and phase synchronization. However, it is inaccurate at light-load conditions for high-power applications due to a large sensing scale and much noise; also, it can generate undesired results with discontinuous or distorted waveforms having more than two zero crossing points in one cycle. To solve these issues, this letter proposes a dual-side phase-shift implementation method using driving windings to regulate the dual-side phase difference conducted only on the primary side. By controlling the phase difference between the primary-side power and driving windings, the phase difference between the dual-side power windings can be regulated. In this way, the dual-side regulation is independent from power transfer to get rid of the issues of the conventional phase synchronization method, and bidirectional power flow can be more easily realized.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has shown great promise in medicine. However, explainability issues make AI applications in clinical usages difficult. Some research has been conducted ...into explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to overcome the limitation of the black-box nature of AI methods. Compared with AI techniques such as deep learning, XAI can provide both decision-making and explanations of the model. In this review, we conducted a survey of the recent trends in medical diagnosis and surgical applications using XAI. We have searched articles published between 2019 and 2021 from PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Association for Computing Machinery, and Google Scholar. We included articles which met the selection criteria in the review and then extracted and analyzed relevant information from the studies. Additionally, we provide an experimental showcase on breast cancer diagnosis, and illustrate how XAI can be applied in medical XAI applications. Finally, we summarize the XAI methods utilized in the medical XAI applications, the challenges that the researchers have met, and discuss the future research directions. The survey result indicates that medical XAI is a promising research direction, and this study aims to serve as a reference to medical experts and AI scientists when designing medical XAI applications.
•For the HPPs assembly workshops, a theoretical framework for the digital twin-driven assembly-commissioning is developed•For the digital twin assembly-commissioning process, an assembly ...comprehensive factor information model is established•The information exchange mechanism between the models is designed through knowledge-based interaction and interoperability interfaces•This paper establishes an assembly predictability model and a process optimization model
High precision products (HPPs) with multidisciplinary coupling are widely used in aerospace, marine, chemical and other fields. Since the internal structure of HPPs is complex and compact, the assembly process requires high precision and involves multidisciplinary coupling. Traditional assembly process of HPPs is based on manual experience, which results in low assembly efficiency and poor-quality consistency. Given the above problems, this research proposes a digital twin-driven assembly-commissioning approach for HPPs. Firstly, this paper introduces the theoretical framework of digital twin-driven assembly-commissioning. Secondly, we introduce the construction method of assembly-commissioning total factor information model based on digital twin technology; the fusion method of twin data and the interoperability method between digital twin models; in addition, the assembliability prediction and assembly-commissioning process optimization methods. Finally, a case study product is used to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.
Reliability is one of the most important challenges for the modular multilevel converter (MMC), which is composed of a large number of power electronics submodules (SMs). In order to increase the ...system reliability, the reserved SMs are often utilized. A novel strategy is proposed in this paper to implement the fault-tolerant control of MMC with the hot reserved SMs based on the carrier phase shift modulation. All the SMs, including the hot reserved SMs, work in the operating mode and the standby mode in turns. A rotating sliding choice box is adopted to select the operating SMs and the corresponding phase-shift angles, which enables the equal burden of each SM. Once the faults are detected and localized, the reserved SMs can simultaneously replace the bypassed failed SMs, which guarantees the fault-tolerant operation with a nearly seamless transition and very short recovery time. Furthermore, the line cycle is set as the rotating period in the control strategy, without increasing much switching loss. The mismatch pulses are greatly reduced as well. This technique can also be easily implemented in a DSP or microcontroller. Simulations in MATLAB/Simulink and experiments based on a downscaled MMC prototype have verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.
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