Calligraphy Tablets in the Forbidden City

The calligraphy tablets hung over each main gate and building in Beijing’s Forbidden City, although often neglected by visitors, actually are special embodiments of traditional Chinese concepts either well known or maybe unexpected by their readers. Besides explaining architectural functions, the tablets also can be read as means of decorating the architecture, conveying political ideals, advocating academic achievements, expressing good wishes and depicting charming sceneries

Palladium and silver abundances in stars with [Fe/H] > -2.6

Palladium (Pd) and silver (Ag) are the key elements for probing the weak component in the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) of stellar nucleosynthesis. We performed a detailed analysis of the high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio near-UV spectra from the archive of HIRES on the Keck telescope, UVES on the VLT, and HDS on the Subaru Telescope, to determine the Pd and Ag abundances of 95 stars. This sample covers a wide metallicity range with -2.6 $\lesssim$ [Fe/H] $\lesssim$ +0.1, and most of them are dwarfs. The plane-parallel LTE MAFAGS-OS model atmosphere was adopted, and the spectral synthesis method was used to derive the Pd and Ag abundances from Pd I {\lambda} 3404 {\AA} and Ag I {\lambda} 3280/3382 {\AA} lines. We found that both elements are enhanced in metal-poor stars, and their ratios to iron show flat trends at -0.6 < [Fe/H] < +0.1. The abundance ratios of [Ag/H] and [Pd/H] are well correlated over the whole abundance range. This implies that Pd and Ag have similar formation mechanisms during the Galactic evolution.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted to A&

Immobilized Talaromyces thermophilus lipase as an efficient catalyst for the production of LML-type structured lipids

LML-type structured lipids are one type of medium- and long-chain triacylglycerols. LML was synthesized using immobilized Talaromyces thermophilus lipase (TTL)-catalyzed interesterification of tricaprylin and ethyl linoleate. The resin AB-8 was chosen, and the lipase/support ratio was determined to be 60 mg/g. Subsequently, the immobilized TTL with strict sn-1,3 regiospecificity was applied to synthesize LML. Under the optimized conditions (60 °C, reaction time 6 h, enzyme loading of 6% of the total weight of substrates, substrate of molar ratio of ethyl linoleate to tricaprylin of 6:1), Triacylglycerols with two long- and one medium-chain FAs (DL-TAG) content as high as 52.86 mol% was obtained. Scale-up reaction further verified the industrial potential of the established process. The final product contained 85.24 mol% DL-TAG of which 97 mol% was LML after purification. The final product obtained with the high LML content would have substantial potential to be used as functional oils

Physical Logic Enhanced Network for Small-Sample Bi-Layer Metallic Tubes Bending Springback Prediction

Bi-layer metallic tube (BMT) plays an extremely crucial role in engineering applications, with rotary draw bending (RDB) the high-precision bending processing can be achieved, however, the product will further springback. Due to the complex structure of BMT and the high cost of dataset acquisi-tion, the existing methods based on mechanism research and machine learn-ing cannot meet the engineering requirements of springback prediction. Based on the preliminary mechanism analysis, a physical logic enhanced network (PE-NET) is proposed. The architecture includes ES-NET which equivalent the BMT to the single-layer tube, and SP-NET for the final predic-tion of springback with sufficient single-layer tube samples. Specifically, in the first stage, with the theory-driven pre-exploration and the data-driven pretraining, the ES-NET and SP-NET are constructed, respectively. In the second stage, under the physical logic, the PE-NET is assembled by ES-NET and SP-NET and then fine-tuned with the small sample BMT dataset and composite loss function. The validity and stability of the proposed method are verified by the FE simulation dataset, the small-sample dataset BMT springback angle prediction is achieved, and the method potential in inter-pretability and engineering applications are demonstrated

Research on multi-layer network routing selection strategy based on cooperative evolutionary game in IoT environment

As a new technology and application mode, the Internet of Things has an important impact on social life and economic development. In recent years, low-cost optimization of network transmission to solve the congestion problem of multi-layer communication networks has become one of the research hotspots. In this paper, a multi-dimensional communication data transmission model based on a multi-layer network is proposed. It then uses cooperative evolutionary game theory to calculate revenue, update weights, and adapt neighbors. Finally, the attention mechanism is dynamically introduced to share the weights of the multi-layer network, and the multi-dimensional communication propagation and routing strategies in the Internet of Things are studied and analyzed. The experimental results show that the model proposed in this paper has higher game revenue and application value than traditional single-layer network game theory. In particular, the indicators of cooperation rate, stable state, and maximum cooperation rate are better than the latter. The research results of this paper have important reference value for solving the problems of cooperation dilemma, social stickiness, and synergy in multi-layer networks

Tidal modulation on the Changjiang River plume in summer

Tide effects on the structure of the near-field Changjiang River plume and on the extension of the far-field plume have often been neglected in analysis and numerical simulations, which is the focus of this study. Numerical experiments highlighted the crucial role of the tidal forcing in modulating the Changjiang River plume. Without the tidal forcing, the plume results in an unrealistic upstream extension along the Jiangsu coast. With the tidal forcing, the vertical mixing increases, resulting in a strong horizontal salinity gradient at the northern side of the Changjiang River mouth along the Jiangsu coast, which acts as a dynamic barrier and restricts the northward migration of the plume. Furthermore, the tidal forcing produces a bidirectional plume structure in the near field, and the plume separation is located at the head of the submarine canyon. A significant bulge occurs around the head of the submarine canyon and rotates anticyclonically, which carries a large portion of the diluted water toward the northeast and merges into the far-field plume. A portion of the diluted water moves toward the southeast, which is mainly caused by tidal rectification. This bidirectional plume structure is more evident under certain wind conditions. During the neap tide with the reduced tidal energy, the near-field plume extends farther offshore, and the bulge becomes less evident. These dynamic behaviors are maintained and are fundamentally important in the region around the river mouth even under the summer monsoon and the shelf currents, although in the far field the wind forcing and shelf currents eventually dominate the plume extension

l-Peptide functionalized dual-responsive nanoparticles for controlled paclitaxel release and enhanced apoptosis in breast cancer cells

Nanoparticles and macromolecular carriers have been widely used to increase the efficacy of chemotherapeutics, largely through passive accumulation provided by their enhanced permeability and retention effect. However, the therapeutic efficacy of nanoscale anticancer drug delivery systems is severely truncated by their low tumor-targetability and inefficient drug release at the target site. Here, the design and development of novel l-peptide functionalized dual-responsive nanoparticles (l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX) for active targeting and effective treatment of GRP78-overexpressing human breast cancer in vitro and in vivo are reported. l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX NPs have a relative high drug loading (13.5%) and excellent encapsulation efficiency (74.3%) and an average diameter of 275 nm. The release of PTX is slow at pH 7.4 and 25 °C but greatly accelerated at pH 5.0 and 37 °C. MTT assays and confocal experiments showed that the l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX NPs possessed high targetability and antitumor activity toward GRP78 overexpressing MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells. As expected, l-CS-g-PNIPAM-PTX NPs could effectively treat mice bearing MDA-MB-231 human breast tumor xenografts with little side effects, resulting in complete inhibition of tumor growth and a high survival rate over an experimental period of 60 days. These results indicate that l-peptide-functionalized acid - and thermally activated - PTX prodrug NPs have a great potential for targeted chemotherapy in breast cancer.</p