Hydrothermal synthesis of nanocrystalline BaSnO3 using a SnO2.xH2O sol

A BaSnO3 powder with a crystallite size of 27.6 nm has been prepared through a hydrothermal reaction of a peptised SnO2•xH2O and Ba(OH)2 at 250 °C and the following crystallization of this hydrothermal product at 330 °C. The peptisation of the SnO2•xH2O gel is dependent on the pH value. Through peptisation the mean particle size of SnO2•xH2O in the aqueous solution has been decreased by a factor of 100 to 8 nm. A limited agglomeration in the sol-prepared powder has been observed under the microscope. The structure evolution and crystallisation behaviours of the sol-prepared powders were investigated by TG-DTA, IR and XRD. The BaSn(OH)6 phase in the as-prepared powder transforms into an amorphous phase at 260 °C, from which the BaSnO3 particles nucleate and grow with an increase in temperature. The single-phase BaSnO3 powder has been obtained at a temperature as low as 330 °C. This sol-prepared powder is more sinter-reactive than the gel-prepared powder and can be sintered to a ceramic with 90.7% of the theoretic density

Explainable Recommendation with Personalized Review Retrieval and Aspect Learning

Explainable recommendation is a technique that combines prediction and generation tasks to produce more persuasive results. Among these tasks, textual generation demands large amounts of data to achieve satisfactory accuracy. However, historical user reviews of items are often insufficient, making it challenging to ensure the precision of generated explanation text. To address this issue, we propose a novel model, ERRA (Explainable Recommendation by personalized Review retrieval and Aspect learning). With retrieval enhancement, ERRA can obtain additional information from the training sets. With this additional information, we can generate more accurate and informative explanations. Furthermore, to better capture users' preferences, we incorporate an aspect enhancement component into our model. By selecting the top-n aspects that users are most concerned about for different items, we can model user representation with more relevant details, making the explanation more persuasive. To verify the effectiveness of our model, extensive experiments on three datasets show that our model outperforms state-of-the-art baselines (for example, 3.4% improvement in prediction and 15.8% improvement in explanation for TripAdvisor)

The BAF and PRC2 Complex Subunits Dpf2 and Eed Antagonistically Converge on Tbx3 to Control ESC Differentiation.

BAF complexes are composed of different subunits with varying functional and developmental roles, although many subunits have not been examined in depth. Here we show that the Baf45 subunit Dpf2 maintains pluripotency and ESC differentiation potential. Dpf2 co-occupies enhancers with Oct4, Sox2, p300, and the BAF subunit Brg1, and deleting Dpf2 perturbs ESC self-renewal, induces repression of Tbx3, and impairs mesendodermal differentiation without dramatically altering Brg1 localization. Mesendodermal differentiation can be rescued by restoring Tbx3 expression, whose distal enhancer is positively regulated by Dpf2-dependent H3K27ac maintenance and recruitment of pluripotency TFs and Brg1. In contrast, the PRC2 subunit Eed binds an intragenic Tbx3 enhancer to oppose Dpf2-dependent Tbx3 expression and mesendodermal differentiation. The PRC2 subunit Ezh2 likewise opposes Dpf2-dependent differentiation through a distinct mechanism involving Nanog repression. Together, these findings delineate distinct mechanistic roles for specific BAF and PRC2 subunits during ESC differentiation

Homozygous mutation in DNALI1 leads to asthenoteratozoospermia by affecting the inner dynein arms

Asthenozoospermia is the most common cause of male infertility. Dynein protein arms play a crucial role in the motility of sperm flagella and defects in these proteins generally impair the axoneme structure and affect sperm flagella function. In this study, we performed whole exome sequencing for a cohort of 126 infertile patients with asthenozoospermia and identified homozygous DNALI1 mutation in one patient from a consanguineous family. This identified homozygous mutation was verified by Sanger sequencing. In silico analysis showed that this homozygous mutation is very rare, highly pathogenic, and very conserved. Sperm routine analysis confirmed that the motility of the spermatozoa from the patient significantly decreased. Further sperm morphology analysis showed that the spermatozoa from the patient exhibited multiple flagella morphological defects and a specific loss in the inner dynein arms. Fortunately, the patient was able to have his child via intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment. Our study is the first to demonstrate that homozygous DNALI1 mutation may impair the integration of axoneme structure, affect sperm motility and cause asthenoteratozoospermia in human beings