Breaking K+ Concentration Limit on Cu Nanoneedles for Acidic Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to Multi‐Carbon Products

Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) to multi-carbon products (C2+) in acidic electrolyte is one of the most advanced routes for tackling our current climate and energy crisis. However, the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the poor selectivity towards the valuable C2+ products are the major obstacles for the upscaling of these technologies. High local potassium ions (K+) concentration at the cathode's surface can inhibit proton-diffusion and accelerate the desirable carbon-carbon (C−C) coupling process. However, the solubility limit of potassium salts in bulk solution constrains the maximum achievable K+ concentration at the reaction sites and thus the overall acidic CO2RR performance of most electrocatalysts. In this work, we demonstrate that Cu nanoneedles induce ultrahigh local K+ concentrations (4.22 M) – thus breaking the K+ solubility limit (3.5 M) – which enables a highly efficient CO2RR in 3 M KCl at pH=1. As a result, a Faradaic efficiency of 90.69±2.15 % for C2+ (FEC2+) can be achieved at 1400 mA.cm−2, simultaneous with a single pass carbon efficiency (SPCE) of 25.49±0.82 % at a CO2 flow rate of 7 sccm

Connection between right-to-left shunt and photosensitivity: a community-based cross-sectional study

BackgroundHypersensitivity to light is a common symptom associated with dysfunction of the occipital region. Earlier studies also suggested that clinically significant right-to-left shunt (RLS) could increase occipital cortical excitability associated with the occurrence of migraine. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between RLS and photosensitivity.MethodsThis cross-sectional observational study included the residents aged 18–55 years living in the Mianzhu community between November 2021 and October 2022. Photosensitivity was evaluated using the Photosensitivity Assessment Questionnaire along with baseline clinical data through face-to-face interviews. After the interviews, contrast-transthoracic echocardiography (cTTE) was performed to detect RLS. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to reduce selection bias. Photosensitivity score was compared between individuals with and without significant RLS using multivariable linear regression based on IPW.ResultsA total of 829 participants containing 759 healthy controls and 70 migraineurs were finally included in the analysis. Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that migraine (β = 0.422; 95% CI: 0.086–0.759; p = 0.014) and clinically significant RLS (β = 1.115; 95% CI: 0.760–1.470; p < 0.001) were related to higher photosensitivity score. Subgroup analysis revealed that clinically significant RLS had a positive effect on hypersensitivity to light in the healthy population (β = 0.763; 95% CI: 0.332–1.195; p < 0.001) or migraineurs (β = 1.459; 95% CI: 0.271–2.647; p = 0.010). There was also a significant interaction between RLS and migraine for the association with photophobia (pinteraction = 0.009).ConclusionRLS is associated with photosensitivity independently and might exacerbate photophobia in migraineurs. Future studies with RLS closure are needed to validate the findings.Trial registrationThis study was registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Register, Natural Population Cohort Study of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, ID: ChiCTR1900024623, URL: https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=40590

Genome-wide temporal-spatial gene expression profiling of drought responsiveness in rice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rice is highly sensitive to drought, and the effect of drought may vary with the different genotypes and development stages. Genome-wide gene expression profiling was used as the initial point to dissect molecular genetic mechanism of this complex trait and provide valuable information for the improvement of drought tolerance in rice. Affymetrix rice genome array containing 48,564 <it>japonica </it>and 1,260 <it>indica </it>sequences was used to analyze the gene expression pattern of rice exposed to drought stress. The transcriptome from leaf, root, and young panicle at three developmental stages was comparatively analyzed combined with bioinformatics exploring drought stress related <it>cis</it>-elements.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 5,284 genes detected to be differentially expressed under drought stress. Most of these genes were tissue- or stage-specific regulated by drought. The tissue-specific down-regulated genes showed distinct function categories as photosynthesis-related genes prevalent in leaf, and the genes involved in cell membrane biogenesis and cell wall modification over-presented in root and young panicle. In a drought environment, several genes, such as <it>GA2ox, SAP15</it>, and <it>Chitinase III</it>, were regulated in a reciprocal way in two tissues at the same development stage. A total of 261 transcription factor genes were detected to be differentially regulated by drought stress. Most of them were also regulated in a tissue- or stage-specific manner. A <it>cis</it>-element containing special CGCG box was identified to over-present in the upstream of 55 common induced genes, and it may be very important for rice plants responding to drought environment.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Genome-wide gene expression profiling revealed that most of the drought differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were under temporal and spatial regulation, suggesting a crosstalk between various development cues and environmental stimuli. The identification of the differentially regulated DEGs, including TF genes and unique candidate <it>cis</it>-element for drought responsiveness, is a very useful resource for the functional dissection of the molecular mechanism in rice responding to environment stress.</p

Changing media, changing cultural values - Chinese young adults\u27 micro-blog usage and cultural values

This study investigated the relationship between Chinese young adults\u27 usage of micro-blog and their cultural values. Data was collected from a group-administered survey, which was constituted by 484 students aged from 17 to 30 in variety majors in five colleges in Beijing. Results answered two research questions, indicating that there is a strong relationship between traditional cultural values\u27 changes in Chinese young adults and micro-blog usage. The results also indicated that the more Chinese young adults engaged in micro-blog usage, the more likely they would show distinctive features in both Eastern and Western cultural values. In other words, highly active Chinese micro-blog users have crossed the Eastern and Western cultural boundaries and are developing bicultural identity due to globalization in media environment

Changing media, changing cultural values - Chinese young adults\u27 micro-blog usage and cultural values

This study investigated the relationship between Chinese young adults\u27 usage of micro-blog and their cultural values. Data was collected from a group-administered survey, which was constituted by 484 students aged from 17 to 30 in variety majors in five colleges in Beijing. Results answered two research questions, indicating that there is a strong relationship between traditional cultural values\u27 changes in Chinese young adults and micro-blog usage. The results also indicated that the more Chinese young adults engaged in micro-blog usage, the more likely they would show distinctive features in both Eastern and Western cultural values. In other words, highly active Chinese micro-blog users have crossed the Eastern and Western cultural boundaries and are developing bicultural identity due to globalization in media environment

A new result on the existence of periodic solutions for Rayleigh equation with a singularity

Abstract In this paper, we study the existence of periodic solutions for Rayleigh equation with a singularity of repulsive type x ″ ( t ) + f ( x ′ ( t ) ) + φ ( t ) x ( t ) − 1 x α ( t ) = p ( t ) , $$x''(t)+f\bigl(x'(t)\bigr)+\varphi (t)x(t)-\frac{1}{x^{\alpha }(t)}=p(t),$$ where α ⩾ 1 $\alpha \geqslant 1$ is a constant, and φ and p are T-periodic functions. The proof of the main result relies on a known continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory. The interesting point is that the sign of the function φ ( t ) $\varphi (t)$ is allowed to change for t ∈ [ 0 , T ] $t\in [0,T]$

Microblog topic evolution computing based on LDA algorithm

Research on topic evolution of Microblog is an effective way to analyze network public opinions. This paper proposes a method for mining changing of Microblog topics with time, and realizes topic evolution through topic extraction and topic relevance calculation. Firstly, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model is used to automatically extract topics from different time slices; secondly, a similarity calculation algorithm is designed to calculate relevance of topic content through normalization of similarities among characteristic words and co-occurrence relations, to get evolutionary relationship among sub-topics of different time slices; thirdly, using probability distribution of blog article-topic to calculate topic intensity in each time slice, and then gets evolutionary relationship of topic intensity over time. Experiments show that the proposed topic evolution analysis model can effectively detect the evolution of topic content and intensity of real blogs

Existence of periodic solutions of a Liénard equation with a singularity of repulsive type

Abstract In this paper, the problem of positive periodic solutions is studied for the Liénard equation with a singularity of repulsive type, x ″ + f ( x ) x ′ − α ( t ) x μ = h ( t ) , $$x''+f(x)x'-\frac{\alpha(t)}{x^{\mu}}=h(t),$$ where f : ( 0 , + ∞ ) → R $f:(0,+\infty)\rightarrow R$ is continuous, α, h are continuous with T-periodic and α ( t ) ≥ 0 $\alpha(t)\ge0$ for all t ∈ R $t\in R$ , μ ∈ ( 0 , + ∞ ) $\mu \in(0,+\infty)$ is a constant. By means of a Manásevich-Mawhin’s continuation theorem, a sufficient and necessary condition is obtained for the existence of positive T-periodic solutions of the equation. The interesting point is that the weak singularity of restoring force α ( t ) x μ $\frac{\alpha(t)}{x^{\mu}}$ at x = 0 $x=0$ is allowed and f may have a singularity at x = 0 $x=0$

A Multifeatures Spatial-Temporal-Based Neural Network Model for Truck Flow Prediction

The majority of studies on road traffic flow prediction have focused on the flow of passenger cars or the flow of traffic as a whole, which ignore the significant impact of trucks with different sizes and operational characteristics on traffic flow efficiency. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on truck traffic flow and propose a Multifeatures Spatial-Temporal-Based Neural Network model (M-BiCNNGRU) to improve its prediction. The proposed model not only comprises conventional temporal characteristics and spatial relationships but also includes a range of multifeatures. These multifeatures include policy limit, optimal time delay, road resistance, and traffic congestion state. The impacts of upstream and downstream road sections are considered on the spatial relationship by using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). A Bidirectional Gated Recurrent Unit (Bi-GRU) is employed to account for the temporal characteristics. To evaluate the proposed model, traffic flow data were collected from a major expressway in Beijing and the results were compared with those derived from existing models. The results show that the prediction accuracy of the BiCNNGRU model, with spatial-temporal characteristics, and the M-BiGRU model, with multifeatures and temporal, is, respectively, 4.13% and 2.15% greater than that of the Bi-GRU model, with temporal characteristics. The prediction accuracy of the proposed M-BiCNNGRU model is 92.86%, which is 7.12% greater than that of the Bi-GRU model and 13.83% greater than that of the Support Vector Regression (SVR) model. In general, therefore, the proposed M-BiCNNGRU model, which combines multifeatures, temporal characteristics, and spatial relationships, can significantly improve accuracy in predicting truck traffic flow