Flexible bioelectronics for biomedical applications requires a stretchable, conductive, self-healable, and biocompatible material that can be obtained by cost-effective chemicals and strategies. ...Herein, we synthesized polypyrrole or Zn-functionalized chitosan molecules, which are cross-linked with poly(vinyl alcohol) to form a hydrogel through dynamic di-diol complexations, hydrogen bonding, and zinc-based coordination bonds. These multiple dynamic interactions endow the material with excellent stretchability and autonomous self-healing ability. The choice of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved materials (poly(vinyl alcohol) and chitosan) as the matrix materials ensures the good biocompatibility of the hydrogel. The conductivity contributed by the polypyrrole allowed the hydrogel to sense strain and temperature, and the coordinated Zn significantly enhanced the antibacterial activity of the hydrogel. Moreover, using a diabetic rat model, we have proved that this hydrogel is capable of promoting the healing of the infected chronic wounds with electrical stimulation.
Tailings ponds in the oil sands region (OSR) of western Canada are suspected sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to the atmosphere. In the absence of detailed characterization or ...direct flux measurements, we present preliminary measurement-based estimates of the emissions of thirteen priority PAHs from the ponds. Using air concentrations measured under the Joint Canada-Alberta Oil Sands Monitoring Plan and water concentrations from a small sampling campaign in 2013, the total flux of 13 US EPA priority PAHs (fluorene to benzoghiperylene) was estimated to be upward from water to air and to total 1069 kg y−1 for the region as a whole. By comparison, the most recent air emissions reported to Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) from oil sands facilities totalled 231 kg y−1. Exchange fluxes for the three remaining priority PAHs (naphthalene, acenaphthylene and acenaphthene) could not be quantified but evidence suggests that they are also upward from water to air. These results indicate that tailings ponds may be an important PAH source to the atmosphere that is missing from current inventories in the OSR. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses lend confidence to the estimated direction of air–water exchange being upward from water to air. However, more detailed characterization of ponds at other facilities and direct flux measurements are needed to confirm the quantitative results presented herein.
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•Tailings ponds in the oil sands region are a suspected source of PAHs to air.•No systematic measurements have yet been made to quantify those emissions.•We have combined air monitoring data with results of a water sampling campaign.•Exchange estimates suggest that net fluxes are upward from water to air.•Further measurements are needed to confirm these preliminary results.
Aiming at the problems of insufficient extraction of asynchronous motor fault features by traditional deep learning algorithms and poor diagnosis of asynchronous motor faults in robust noise ...environments, this paper proposes an end-to-end fault diagnosis method for asynchronous motors based on IInception-CBAM-IBiGRU. The method first uses a signal-to-grayscale image conversion method to convert one-dimensional vibration signals into two-dimensional images and initially extracts shallow features through two-dimensional convolution; then the Improved Inception (IInception) module is used as a residual block to learning features at different scales with a residual structure, and extracts its important feature information through the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) to extract important feature information and adjust the weight parameters; then the feature information is input to the Improved Bi-directional Gate Recurrent Unit (IBiGRU) to extract its timing features further; finally, the fault identification is achieved by the SoftMax function. The primary hyperparameters in the model are optimized by the Weighted Mean Of Vectors Algorithm (INFO). The experimental results show that the method is effective in fault diagnosis of asynchronous motors, with an accuracy rate close to 100%, and can still maintain a high accuracy rate under the condition of low noise ratio, with good robustness and generalization ability.
Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) are sequence-specific DNA binding proteins found in a range of plant pathogenic bacteria, where they play important roles in host-pathogen interactions. ...However, it has been unclear how TALEs, after they have been injected into the host cells, activate transcription of host genes required for infection success. Here, we show that the basal transcription factor IIA gamma subunit TFIIAγ5 from rice is a key component for infection by the TALE-carrying bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, the causal agent for bacterial blight. Direct interaction of several TALEs with TFIIAγ5 is required for activation of disease susceptibility genes. Conversely, reduced expression of the TFIIAγ5 host gene limits the induction of susceptibility genes and thus decreases bacterial blight symptoms. Suppression or mutation of TFIIAγ5 can also reduce bacterial streak, another devastating disease of rice caused by TALE-carrying X. oryzae pv. oryzicola. These results have important implications for formulating a widely applicable strategy with which to improve resistance of plants to TALE-carrying pathogens.
Factors affecting oxidation stability for several commercially available biodiesels were primarily investigated by acid value (AV) and induction period (IP) evaluations in this study. It was found ...that the measured IP at different storage time points were somewhat dependent on the saturated degree of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), the corresponding measured AV scattered randomly. Generally, AV increased and IP decreased after one year of storing in a dark cold room in an air‐tight tank. Solvents (methanol, acetone and water) did not show a contribution to altering IP. Metals (copper and lead) showed the strongest detrimental effects to oxidative stability although somewhat depending on the particle size and oxide coating thickness, however, aluminum alloy and steel were not the case. Among the antioxidants, pyrogallol (PY) was the best in enhancing IP with a concentration of less than 3000ppm, however, tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) was the best after 3000ppm, followed by propyl gallate (PG), butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), 3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyltoluene (BHT), and α-tocopherol. The appropriate dosage of PY was also evaluated to achieve the specified IP regulated by EN-14112 for samples with copper or lead contamination.
► Induction period (IP) not acid value (AV) depended on the saturated degree of FAME. ► AV increased but IP decreased after one year storage in -4°C in air tight tanks. ► Cu and Pb showed strong catalytic effects on deteriorate the quality of biodiesels. ► Solvents and metals (steel and aluminum) did not alter IP significantly. ► Selective antioxidants extended the IP of biodiesels with/without metal presence.
Modeling uncertainties are a major concern in vehicle path tracking control. As a practical engineering system, the uncertainties in vehicle lateral dynamics can be time-varying while bounded and ...have certain distributions wherein. The fuzzy set theory can effectively describe system uncertainties in terms of boundary and distribution. Contrary to fuzzy logic-based approaches, this article puts forward an explicit multiparameter optimal robust control law to ensure the uniform boundedness and ultimate uniform boundedness of the closed-loop path tracking dynamical system. Then, the tracking performance as well as the control cost is quantified as cost functions using fuzzy set theories. Finally, an optimization problem is established in the content of cooperative game to seek the optimal values for the tunable parameters. Simulations are conducted using CarSim and Simulink under double lane change and serpentine driving conditions. The results show that the proposed robust optimal control exhibits superior tracking performance.
With the resource shortage in coastal areas, the construction of concrete structures using freshwater and river sand has brought great economic and environmental costs. The use of seawater, sea sand, ...and coral aggregates in concrete mixes has become an alternative solution for coastal and marine structures, especially for offshore structures and artificial islands. In this study, 378 seawater, sea sand, and coral aggregate concrete (Coral-SWSSC) specimens were prepared, and their mechanical properties were investigated comprehensively through compressive tests to explore the optimized mix design at different grades. Results showed that the mechanical properties of Coral-SWSSC were strongly correlated with the water-to-binder ratios, coastal particle gradings, and pretreatment method of coastal particles. Based on the experimental results, mix proportion designs of Coral-SWSSC were proposed for concrete from C20 to C50 grades, and the failure mechanism of Coral-SWSSC at different grades was discussed according to their respective failure modes. The findings of the current study provide knowledge on the optimized design of Coral-SWSSC, which can be used to promote the application of Coral-SWSSC in offshore, marine, and ocean engineering.
Antitumour treatments are evolving, including bacteria-mediated cancer therapy which is concurrently an ancient and cutting-edge approach.
is a widely studied bacterial species that colonizes tumor ...tissues, showing oncolytic and immune system-regulating properties. It can be used as a delivery vector for genes and drugs, supporting conventional treatments that lack tumor-targeting abilities. This article summarizes recent evidence on the anticancer mechanisms of
.
alone and in combination with other anticancer treatments, suggesting that it may be a suitable approach to disease management.
Lymph node metastases are strongly associated with unfavorable prognosis in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) patients. However, there are few sensitive or specific indicators that can diagnose or ...predict lymph node metastases in PTC. The objective of our study was to identify reliable indicators for the diagnosis and prediction of lymph node metastases of PTC. The PTC data set was obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort. Information on tumor-infiltrating immune cells in PTC was acquired using single-sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA). Then, the progression-free survival (PFS) rates of PTC patients were evaluated by Kaplan–Meier curves. A tissue microarray including 58 normal thyroid tissues and 57 PTC tissues was processed for CD19 immunohistochemistry staining. Finally, evaluation of phenotype permutations was performed using gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). There was an appreciable association between immune infiltration and lymph node metastases in PTC. Among those immune cells, B cells and cytotoxic cells showed significant predictive accuracy for lymph node metastases in PTC. Tumor-infiltrating B cells and NK cells were associated with favorable prognosis, while tumor-associated NK CD56
bright
cells were correlated with poor prognosis in PTC patients. IHC analyses of PTC further confirmed a notably negative correlation between B cell infiltration and lymph node metastases in PTC. Additionally, mutations in BRAF, a dominant cause of tumor mutation burden (TMB), were positively correlated with reduced B cell infiltration and lymph node metastases in PTC. GSEA revealed that epithelial-mesenchymal transition, IL-6/JAK/STAT3 signaling, the inflammatory response, and TNF-α signaling via the NFκB pathway were remarkably suppressed pathways in patients with BRAF mutations. Tumor-associated lymphocytic infiltration, especially B cell infiltration, provides diagnostic and prognostic value for lymph node metastases in PTC.
The coupling, nonlinearity, and uncertainty characteristics of vehicle dynamics make the accurate longitudinal and lateral control of an automated and connected vehicle platoon a tough task. Little ...research has been conducted to fully address the characteristics. By using the ideology of constraint-following control this article proposes an integrated longitudinal and lateral adaptive robust control methodology for a vehicle platoon with a bidirectional communication topology. The platoon control objectives contain the path tracking stability, the platoon internal stability, and the string stability. First, we establish the nonlinear kinematics path tracking model and the coupled vehicle longitudinal and lateral dynamical model that contains time-varying uncertainties. Second, we design a series of nonlinear equality constraints that directly guarantee the control objectives based on the kinematic relations. On this basis, an adaptive robust constraint-following control is proposed. It is shown that the control guarantees the uniform boundedness and the uniform ultimate boundedness of the constraint-following error and the uncertainty estimation error. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.
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