The motion of a single active particle in one dimension with quenched disorder under the external force is investigated. Within the tailored parameter range, anomalous diffusion that displays weak ...ergodicity breaking is observed, i.e., non-ergodic subdiffusion and non-ergodic superdiffusion. This non-ergodic anomalous diffusion is analyzed through the time-dependent probability distributions of the particle's velocities and positions. Its origin is attributed to the relative weights of the locked state (predominant in the subdiffusion state) and running state (predominant in the superdiffusion state). These results may contribute to understanding the dynamical behavior of self-propelled particles in nature and the extraordinary response of nonlinear dynamics to the externally biased force.
Malaria is one of the major global health threats. Microscopic examination has been designated as the “gold standard” for malaria detection by the World Health Organization. However, it heavily ...relies on the experience of doctors, resulting in long diagnosis time, low efficiency, and a high risk of missed or misdiagnosed cases. To alleviate the pressure on healthcare workers and achieve automated malaria detection, numerous target detection models have been applied to the blood smear examination for malaria cells. This paper introduces the multi-level attention split network (MAS-Net) that improves the overall detection performance by addressing the issues of information loss for small targets and mismatch between the detection receptive field and target size. Therefore, we propose the split contextual attention structure (SPCot), which fully utilizes contextual information and avoids excessive channel compression operations, reducing information loss and improving the overall detection performance of malaria cells. In the shallow detection layer, we introduce the multi-scale receptive field detection head (MRFH), which better matches targets of different scales and provides a better detection receptive field, thus enhancing the performance of malaria cell detection. On the NLM—Malaria Dataset provided by the National Institutes of Health, the improved model achieves an average accuracy of 75.9% in the public dataset of Plasmodium vivax (malaria)-infected human blood smear. Considering the practical application of the model, we introduce the Performance-aware Approximation of Global Channel Pruning (PAGCP) to compress the model size while sacrificing a small amount of accuracy. Compared to other state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods, the proposed MAS-Net achieves competitive results.
•Satisfactory degradation efficiency of pollutants was achieved by FeS/PAA system.•S(-II) and H2S (aq) played a significant role in Fe(II) regeneration.••OH played a dominant role in pharmaceuticals ...degradation.•The R-O• generated was supposed to be quickly consumed by sulfur specie.•Degradation products of three pharmaceuticals were successfully detoxified.
As peracetic acid (PAA) is being increasingly used as an alternative disinfectant, efficient activation of PAA by low-cost and environmentally friendly catalysts over a wide pH range is potentially useful for simultaneous sterilization and pharmaceutical degradation in wastewater, such as hospital wastewater. In this study, peracetic acid (PAA) was successfully activated by low-cost and environmental-friendly FeS (25 mg/L) for efficient oxidative removal of three pharmaceuticals over a wide pH range (3.0∼9.0) as indicated by 80∼100% removal rate within 5 min. As expected, Fe(II) rather than sulfur species was the primary reactive site for PAA activation, while unlike the homogeneous Fe2+/PAA system with organic radicals (R-O·) and ·OH as the dominant reactive oxidized species (ROS), ·OH is the key reactive species in the FeS/PAA system. Interestingly and surprisingly, in-depth investigation revealed the dual role of sulfur species in regulating the reactive oxidized species: (1) S(-II) and its conversion product H2S (aq) played a significant role in Fe(II) regeneration with a result of accelerated PAA activation; (2) however, the R-O· generated in the initial seconds of the FeS/PAA process was supposed to be quickly consumed by sulfur species, resulting in ·OH as the dominant ROS over the whole process. The selective reaction of sulfur species with R-O· instead of ·OH was supported by the obviously lower Gibbs free energy of CH3COO· and sulfur species than ·OH, suggesting the preference of CH3COO· to react with sulfur species with electron transfer. After treatment with the FeS/PAA system, the products obtained from the three pharmaceuticals were detoxified and even facilitated the growth of E. coli probably due to the supply of numerous carbon sources by activated PAA. This study significantly advances the understanding of the reaction between PAA and sulfur-containing catalysts and suggests the practical application potential of the FeS/PAA process combined with biotreatment processes.
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Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and related material classes are attracting considerable attention for their applications in gas storage/separation as well as catalysis. In contrast, research ...concerning potential uses in electronic devices (such as sensors) is in its infancy, which might be due to a great challenge in the fabrication of MOFs and semiconductor composites with well-designed structures. In this paper, we proposed a simple self-template strategy to fabricate metal oxide semiconductor@MOF core-shell heterostructures, and successfully obtained freestanding ZnO@ZIF-8 nanorods as well as vertically standing arrays (including nanorod arrays and nanotube arrays). In this synthetic process, ZnO nanorods not only act as the template but also provide Zn(2+) ions for the formation of ZIF-8. In addition, we have demonstrated that solvent composition and reaction temperature are two crucial factors for successfully fabricating well-defined ZnO@ZIF-8 heterostructures. As we expect, the as-prepared ZnO@ZIF-8 nanorod arrays display distinct photoelectrochemical response to hole scavengers with different molecule sizes (e.g., H(2)O(2) and ascorbic acid) owing to the limitation of the aperture of the ZIF-8 shell. Excitingly, such ZnO@ZIF-8 nanorod arrays were successfully applied to the detection of H(2)O(2) in the presence of serous buffer solution. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that the semiconductor@MOFs heterostructure potentially has promising applications in many electronic devices including sensors.
Aims
Deposition of urine and dung is a key mechanism by which herbivores influence the nutrient cycling of terrestrial ecosystems. Yet, little is known about the roles of urine, dung and their ...mixtures in regulating the plant and soil carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (C:N:P) stoichiometry and their interactions.
Methods
We explored how different excrement types (urine, dung and their mixtures) and supply levels urine: 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 L m
−2
; dung: 4.7, 9.4 and 14.2 g m
−2
; mixtures (urine+dung): 0.5 + 4.7, 1.0 + 9.4 and 1.5 + 14.2 altered the plant and soil C:N:P stoichiometry in a semi-arid grassland on the Loess Plateau.
Results
We found that the aboveground biomass of the whole community was highest at the highest mixtures application rate, while the highest aboveground biomass of the three dominant species was detected at applications of 0.5 L m
−2
urine for
Stipa bungeana
, 9.4 g m
−2
dung for
Lespedeza davurica
and 1.0 L m
−2
urine +9.4 g m
−2
dung for
Artemisia capillaris
. Urine and dung alone increased plant N concentration, which peaked at 1.0 L m
−2
urine. Plant P concentration at 1.5 + 14.2 mixtures was significantly higher than that at control without significant difference between excrement types. Compared to the control, excrement deposition did not significantly change plant C concentration and C:N, C:P and N:P ratios. However, plant C:P and N:P ratios under the mixtures were significantly lower than those under urine or dung. Excrement applications led to more soil (total, microbial and organic) C, N and P accumulations. Compared to urine and dung, the mixtures induced higher total P concentration but lower total N concentration in soil.
Conclusions
Our study demonstrated that the impacts of sheep urine and dung on plant and soil C and nutrient concentrations and stoichiometry differed from that of mixtures. The plant N:P ratio indicated balanced N:P supply for urine and dung applications but N limitation for mixtures application. This study provides experimental evidence that the excrement of herbivores plays an important role in altering ecological stoichiometry in plants and soil.
Recently, special attention has been paid to the syntheses of micro/nanostructured crystallites with high‐energy crystal facets, because high‐energy crystal surfaces usually exhibit fascinating ...surface‐enhanced properties and have promising applications in catalysis, photoelectrical devices, and energy conversion, etc. With particular emphasis on the results obtained by the authors’ research group, this feature article gives a brief review of recent progress in the field of surface/morphology controlled syntheses, focusing on high‐energy crystal surfaces of five kinds of inorganic functional material, with the wurtzite, rocksalt, anatase, rutile, and face‐centered cubic structures, respectively. Combined with the theoretical and experimental research results as well as crystal structure models, the intrinsic causes for surface‐dependent chemical/physical properties of those materials with high‐energy surfaces are further discussed.
Micro/nanostructured crystallites with high‐energy surfaces have attracted increasing attention owing to their fascinating surface‐dependent properties and promising applications. This feature article provides a brief account of these efforts, especially on several typical crystal structures, including the wurtzite structure (ZnO), rocksalt structure (MgO), anatase structure (TiO2), rutile structure (SnO2), and face‐centered cubic (Au) structure.
MYCT1 is an important gene known to regulate cell viability and apoptosis of laryngeal cancer cells. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, we show that MAX enhances the ...expression of miR‐181a by directly binding to its promoter, whereas miR‐181a targets NPM1 and suppresses its expression in laryngeal cancer cells. MYCT1 and miR‐181a decrease cell viability and colony formation through enhanced apoptosis, whereas NPM1 displays opposite effects in laryngeal cancer cells. Their opposing functions are further supported by the findings (a) that miR‐181a is down‐regulated, while NPM1 is up‐regulated in laryngeal cancer, and (b) that either inhibition of miR‐181a or overexpression of NPM1 can revert the pro‐apoptotic effects of MYCT1 on laryngeal cancer cells through extracellular and intracellular apoptotic pathways. Our data suggest that MYCT1 may synergistically interact with MAX as a co‐transcription factor or a component of MAX transcriptional complex, to transcriptionally regulate the expression of miR‐181a, which, in turn, decreases NPM1 expression at post‐transcriptional levels, leading to enhanced apoptosis in laryngeal cancer cells. These factors may serve as potential targets for early diagnosis and treatment of laryngeal cancer.
MYCT1 is an important gene known to regulate the viability and apoptosis of laryngeal cancer cells. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, we show that MYCT1 decreases NPM1 expression via MAX‐regulated miR‐181a expression. The net effects lie in the inhibition of proliferation and promotion of apoptosis through extracellular and intracellular apoptotic pathways.
To effectively remove N and P from eutrophic water, the
Phragmites australis
after phytoremediation was harvested for preparation of modified biochar. The MgCl
2
-modified biochar (MPB) was ...successfully synthesized at 600 °C under N
2
circumstance. The physiochemical characteristics, the adsorption capacity for N and P in the simulated solution, and their adsorption mechanism of MPB were then determined, followed by the treatment of eutrophic water of Tai lake and its inflow river from agricultural source. The results demonstrated that the MPB presented high adsorption capacity to both simulated NH
4
-N and PO
4
-P with the maximum adsorption capacity exceeding 30 and 100 mg g
−1
, respectively. The entire ammonium adsorption process could be described by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model whereas the phosphate adsorption process could be divided into three phases, as described by both intra-particle diffusion model and the pseudo-first-order kinetic. It was further found that the dominant mechanism for ammonium adsorption was Mg
2+
exchange instead of functional groups and surface areas and the Mg-P precipitation was the main mechanism for phosphate adsorption. The MPB also showed high removal ratio of practical TP which reached nearly 90% for both the water in Tai lake and its agricultural source. It suggested that MPB based on harvested
P. australis
was a promising composite for eutrophic water treatment and it could deliver multiple benefits.
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