Maternal exposure to ambient air pollution and congenital heart defects in China

Background: Evidence of maternal exposure to ambient air pollution on congenital heart defects (CHD) has been mixed and are still relatively limited in developing countries. We aimed to investigate the association between maternal exposure to air pollution and CHD in China.Method: This longitudinal, population-based, case-control study consecutively recruited fetuses with CHD and healthy volunteers from 21 cities, Southern China, between January 2006 and December 2016. Residential address at delivery was linked to random forests models to estimate maternal exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤1 µm (PM1), ≤2.5 µm, and ≤10 µm as well as nitrogen dioxides, in three trimesters. The CHD cases were evaluated by obstetrician, pediatrician, or cardiologist, and confirmed by cardia ultrasound. The CHD subtypes were coded using the International Classification Diseases. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between air pollutants and CHD and its subtypes.Results: A total of 7055 isolated CHD and 6423 controls were included in the current analysis. Maternal air pollution exposures were consistently higher among cases than those among controls. Logistic regression analyses showed that maternal exposure to all air pollutants during the first trimester was associated with an increased odds of CHD (e.g., an interquartile range [13.3 µg/m3] increase in PM1 was associated with 1.09-fold ([95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.18]) greater odds of CHD). No significant associations were observed for maternal air pollution exposures during the second trimester and the third trimester. The pattern of the associations between air pollutants and different CHD subtypes was mixed.Conclusions: Maternal exposure to greater levels of air pollutants during the pregnancy, especially the first trimester, is associated with higher odds of CHD in offspring. Further longitudinal well-designed studies are warranted to confirm our findings

Confinement of carbon dots localizing to the ultrathin layered double hydroxides toward simultaneous triple-mode bioimaging and photothermal therapy

It is a great challenge to develop multifunctional nanocarriers for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Herein, versatile CDs/ICG-uLDHs nanovehicles for triple-modal fluorescence/photoacoustic/two-photon bioimaging and effective photothermal therapy were prepared via a facile self-assembly of red emission carbon dots (CDs), indocyanine green (ICG) with the ultrathin layered double hydroxides (uLDHs). Due to the J-aggregates of ICG constructed in the self-assembly process, CDs/ICG-uLDHs was able to stabilize the photothermal agent ICG and enhanced its photothermal efficiency. Furthermore, the unique confinement effect of uLDHs has extended the fluorescence lifetime of CDs in favor of bioimaging. Considering the excellent in vitro and in vivo phototherapeutics and multimodal imaging effects, this work provides a promising platform for the construction of multifunctional theranostic nanocarrier system for the cancer treatment

Lessons learned: Symbiotic autonomous robot ecosystem for nuclear environments

Nuclear facilities have a regulatory requirement to measure radiation levels within Post Operational Cleanout (POCO) around nuclear facilities each year, resulting in a trend towards robotic deployments to gain an improved understanding during nuclear decommissioning phases. The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority supports the view that human-in-the-loop robotic deployments are a solution to improve procedures and reduce risks within radiation haracterisation of nuclear sites. We present a novel implementation of a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) deployed in an analogue nuclear environment, comprised of a multi-robot team coordinated by a human-in-the-loop operator through a digital twin interface. The development of the CPS created efficient partnerships across systems including robots, digital systems and human. This was presented as a multi-staged mission within an inspection scenario for the heterogeneous Symbiotic Multi-Robot Fleet (SMuRF). Symbiotic interactions were achieved across the SMuRF where robots utilised automated collaborative governance to work together where a single robot would face challenges in full characterisation of radiation. Key contributions include the demonstration of symbiotic autonomy and query-based learning of an autonomous mission supporting scalable autonomy and autonomy as a service. The coordination of the CPS was a success and displayed further challenges and improvements related to future multi-robot fleets

A Machining State-Based Approach to Tool Remaining Useful Life Adaptive Prediction

The traditional predictive model for remaining useful life predictions cannot achieve adaptiveness, which is one of the main problems of said predictions. This paper proposes a LightGBM-based Remaining useful life (RUL) prediction method which considers the process and machining state. Firstly, a multi-information fusion strategy that can effectively reduce the model error and improve the generalization ability of the model is proposed. Secondly, a preprocessing method for improving the time precision and small-time granularity of feature extraction while avoiding dimensional explosion is proposed. Thirdly, an importance coefficient and a custom loss function related to the process and machining state are proposed. Finally, using the processing data of actual tool life cycle, through five evaluation indexes and 25 sets of contrast experiments, the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified

Diameter- and Shape-Controlled ZnS/Si Nanocables and Si Nanotubes for SERS and Photocatalytic Applications

ZnS/Si nanocables were synthesized via a simple two-step thermal evaporation method. The shape and diameter of the ZnS/Si nanocables can be controlled by adjusting the morphologies of the ZnS nanostructures (nanowire or nanoribbon) obtained in the first step and the deposition time of the Si shell in the second step, respectively. Furthermore, we obtained polycrystalline Si nanotubes with different shapes and diameters by etching away the inner ZnS core. The as-prepared Si nanotubes were employed as SERS-active substrates, which exhibited a high sensitivity for the detection of R6G. The Si nanotubes also showed effective photocatalytic activity on the decomposition of R6G under the irradiation of visible light

TiCl4 Pretreatment and Electrodeposition Time Investigations of ZnO Photoelectrodes Preparation for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

TiCl4 pretreatment is used in the fabrication of high performance photoanodes for dyes-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this paper, TiCl4 pretreatment was used on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) before fabricating ZnO films by electrochemical method. The effects of TiCl4 pretreatment on some important parameters of solar cells, such as short-circuit current (Jsc) and filling factor, were investigated. The morphology of ZnO films was changed after TiCl4 pretreatment, which can offer large surface area to absorb much more dyes. When the time of electrodeposition was 3 min, the dyes-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on TiCl4 pretreatment ZnO films showed more superior photoelectrochemical performance. The parameters of DSSCs are greatly improved. The DSSC based on ZnO films after TiCl4 pretreatment has a very promising value for fabricating high performance solar cells

Wet chemical synthesis and magnetic properties of core-shell nanocolumns of Ni(OH)(2)@Co(OH)(2) and their oxides

Ni(OH)(2)@Co(OH)(2) core-shell nanocolumns have been synthesized by an easy wet chemical process. Characterizations reveal that the layer structure is formed by stacking of several hexagonal nanosheets along the [001] direction. Each sheet is found to be of good crystallinity according to high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, with Ni(OH)(2) in the central and Co(OH)(2) in the peripheral region. The diagonal length of the hexagon is about 700-900 nm and the height of the nanocolumn is about 140-200 nm, with each nanosheet of about 20 nm in thickness. Upon calcination, the Ni(OH)(2)@Co(OH)(2) nanocolumns become a porous NiO@Co(3)O(4) nanostructure. At low temperature, Ni(OH)(2)@Co(OH)(2) exhibits an antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition at T(N) = 12 K. This is from Co(OH)(2) while the AFM transition of Ni(OH)(2), expected at 25 K, is not observed. A freezing temperature is also observed at T(F) = 7.5 K most likely arising from the randomly oriented moments in the outermost surface of Co(OH)(2). After the calcination, the AFM transition of Co(3)O(4) in the porous NiO@Co(3)O(4) nanostructure is observed at 28 K, which is much reduced from the bulk value of T(N) = 40 K, probably arising from the finite size effect. The characteristic dimension with the porosity is thus determined as about 8 nm

Solar-driven phase change microencapsulation with efficient Ti4O7 nanoconverter for latent heat storage

A sort of novel microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs) has attracted much attention for energy storage. However, the solar energy utilization efficiency of traditional microcapsulated PCMs is still not very high up to date. In this work, new core@shell structured paraffin@SiO2/Ti4O7 composite microcapsules were developed to harvest environmental full-spectrum sunlight by smart and rational design using a sol-gel method. The SiO2 shell not only prevented the leakage of paraffine, but also improves its thermal conductivity. The black 300 nm Ti4O7 particles, which were successfully embedded into the SiO2 shell, can achieve the efficient absorption of sunlight and simultaneously high conversion from light to thermal. The resultant paraffin@SiO2/Ti4O7 microcapsules retained most enthalpy of paraffin, increased its stability, and exhibited an excellent thermal energy storage performance. The thermal conductivity of paraffin@SiO2/Ti4O7 microcapsules was significantly enhanced by 334.87% (1.322Wm(-1) K-1) compared with 0.304 Wm(-1) K-1 of one for paraffin. When the mass fraction of Ti4O7 nanoparticles is 3 wt% of paraffin, these paraffin@SiO2/Ti4O7 microcapsules exhibited remarkable 85.36% of photo-thermal storage efficiency compared with 24.14% of one for paraffin. Due to their huge superiority of high efficient use of abundant solar energy in natural resources, these new photo-driven PCMs are very promising materials for solar-to-thermal conversion and energy storage