Chemical Modification of Waxes to Improve the Compatibility with Asphalt Binders

Existing wax-based warm mix additives have poor compatibility with asphalt binders, which results in premature wax precipitation and cracking of the asphalt pavement. However, there are few studies on improving the compatibility between the waxes and asphalt. In this study, the wax precipitation temperature (WPT) was recommended as a new suitable evaluation index of the compatibility according to the consistency of changing laws between the solubility parameter distance deduced from Hansen solubility parameter (HSP) experiments and WPT, and a new component of wax-based warm mix additives with better compatibility was also introduced by maleation of the natural waxes. On this basis, the low-temperature cracking resistance of maleated natural waxes was systematically compared with that of unmodified natural waxes and commercial wax-based warm mix additives through dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), extended bending beam rheometer (Ex-BBR), and double edge notched tension (DENT) tests. The results show that the reactant temperature has the greatest influence on the grafting effect, and the maleated natural waxes with better compatibility can reduce the viscosity, WPT, physical hardening rate, and grade loss and also improve the ductile resistance compared with the unmodified natural waxes and commercial wax-based warm mix additives. The maleation of waxes is a promising method for improving the compatibility of the waxes and asphalt

Responsive Colloidal Crystal for Spectrometer Grating

Diffraction gratings have a demonstrated value in optical applications, such as monochromators and spectrometers. Recent efforts have been directed at finding simple ways to manufacture diffraction gratings at low cost and under mild conditions. Here we present a practical strategy to fabricate a diffraction grating by simply treating an elastic photonic crystal film with a gradient of stress. The film was made of non-close-packed colloidal crystal arrays embedded in hydrogel polymer. Its photonic band gap (PBG) could be tuned precisely by using varying levels of pressure. Thus, when the elastic photonic crystal film was subjected to a stress gradient, a novel diffraction grating with continuously varying PBGs in the whole visible range could be achieved. The practical application of this type of diffraction grating was demonstrated in a miniaturized spectrometer system

Additional file 1 of Natural polymorphisms in HIV-1 CRF01_AE strain and profile of acquired drug resistance mutations in a long-term combination treatment cohort in northeastern China

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Flow chart of selection and analysis

Free-Standing Photonic Crystal Films with Gradient Structural Colors

Hydrogel colloidal crystal composite materials have a demonstrated value in responsive photonic crystals (PhCs) via controllable stimuli. Although they have been successfully exploited to generate a gradient of color distribution, the soft hydrogels have limitations in terms of stability and storage caused by dependence on environment. Here, we present a practical strategy to fabricate free-standing PhC films with a stable gradient of structural colors using binary polymer networks. A colloidal crystal hydrogel film was prepared for this purpose, with continuously varying photonic band gaps corresponding to the gradient of the press. Then, a second polymer network was used to lock the inside non-close-packed PhC structures and color distribution of the hydrogel film. It was demonstrated that our strategy could bring about a solution to the angle-dependent structural colors of the PhC films by coating the surface with special microstructures

Additional file 5 of Natural polymorphisms in HIV-1 CRF01_AE strain and profile of acquired drug resistance mutations in a long-term combination treatment cohort in northeastern China

Additional file 5: Figure S3. Phylogenetic analysis of the 42 TF CRF01_AE-infected patients

Additional file 3 of Natural polymorphisms in HIV-1 CRF01_AE strain and profile of acquired drug resistance mutations in a long-term combination treatment cohort in northeastern China

Additional file3: Reaction conditions of cDNA synthesis and amplification of the target fragment

Begonia-Inspired Slow Photon Effect of a Photonic Crystal for Augmenting Algae Photosynthesis

Plant photosynthesis is considered to be an environmentally friendly and effective measure for reducing carbon dioxide levels to meet the global objective of carbon neutrality. However, the light energy utilization of photosynthetic pigments is insufficient. Begonia pavonine (B. pavonina) with blue leaves exhibits a photosynthetic quantum yield 10% higher than those of other plants by virtue of their photonic crystal (PC) thylakoids. Inspired by this property, we prepared non-angle-dependent PC hydrogels and assembled them with algae Chlorella pyrenoidosa (C. pyre). The band edge of PC hydrogels matched the absorption peaks of C. pyre, and the resulting slow photon effect increased the interaction time between incident light and photosynthetic pigments, which in turn induced the expression of light-harvesting proteins and the synthesis of pigments, thereby improving the light energy utilization. Further, we introduced an artificial antenna into the assembly, which assisted the slow photon effect in increasing the oxygen evolution and carbon sequestration rate by more than 200%. This method avoids the photobleaching problems faced by methods of synthesizing artificial antenna pigments and the biosafety problems faced by genetically engineered methods of editing pigments or proteins

Additional file 1 of Factors associated with high-risk low-level viremia leading to virologic failure: 16-year retrospective study of a Chinese antiretroviral therapy cohort

Additional file 1: Table S1. Baseline characteristics of the included participants (N = 2155)

Additional file 2 of Natural polymorphisms in HIV-1 CRF01_AE strain and profile of acquired drug resistance mutations in a long-term combination treatment cohort in northeastern China

Additional file 2: Demographic and clinical characteristics of participants in this study

Wide-Gamut Biomimetic Structural Colors from Interference-Assisted Two-Photon Polymerization

Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is an emerging direct laser writing technique for the fabrication of structural colors. However, its coloration ability is suppressed as the vertical resolution is up to several microns. To solve this issue, an interference-assisted TPP technique was employed. Laser interference at a highly reflective interface produced the periodic energy redistribution along the vertical direction, turning the laser voxel into multilayer structures and confirming this technology as a facile and robust method for precise control of its vertical feature size. Biomimetic structural colors (BSCs) inspired from the ridge-lamella configurations in the Morph butterflies were fabricated using this improved TPP technique. The coloration mechanisms of the multilayer interference from the lamella layers, the thin-film interference from the fusion of multilayers, and the hybrid situations were systematically studied. These BSC colors were grouped as pixel palettes with various TPP parameters corresponding to each other, and they spanned almost the entire standard red–green–blue color space. Moreover, under optimized conditions, it was possible to fabricate a 1 cm2 area within 2.5 h. These features make interference-assisted TPP an ideal coloration method for practical applications, such as display, decoration, sensing, and so on