TiO2/MXene-Assisted LDI-MS for Urine Metabolic Profiling in Urinary Disease

Cancer remains an intractable medical problem. Rapid diagnosis and identification of cancer are critical to differentiate it from nonmalignant diseases. High-throughput biofluid metabolic analysis has potential for cancer diagnosis. Nevertheless, the present metabolite analysis method does not meet the demand for high-throughput screening of diseases. Herein, a high-throughput, cost-effective, and noninvasive urine metabolic profiling method based on TiO₂/MXene-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) is presented for the efficient screening of bladder cancer (BC) and nonmalignant urinary disease. Combined with machine learning, TiO₂/MXene-assisted LDI-MS enables high diagnostic accuracy (96.8%) for the classification of patient groups (including 47 BC and 46 ureteral calculus (UC) patients) from healthy controls (113 cases). In addition, BC patients can also be identified from noncancerous UC individuals with an accuracy of 88.3% in the independent test cohort. Furthermore, metabolite variations between BC and UC individuals are investigated based on relative quantification, and related pathways are also discussed. These results suggest that this method, based on urine metabolic patterns, provides a potential tool for rapidly distinguishing urinary diseases and it may pave the way for precision medicine.     

水平一阶导数在航磁圈定断裂中的应用

对于区域磁场任意水平方向求一阶导数,相当于这个方向两侧边缘磁性体产生的磁异常,因此可以突出垂直于这个方向上的磁异常,使沿垂直此方向展布的断裂有明显的反映.该文对该方法进行了理论模型的分析研究,并通过实例证明了该方法在增强断裂磁场特征及准确划定断裂位置方面具有明显的效果.     

Effect of laser power density on the electrochromic properties of WO3 films obtained by pulsed laser deposition

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was used to prepare tungsten trioxide (WO₃) films on ITO substrates with a varying laser power density of 4.0–5.5 W/cm². XPS indicated that when the laser power density decreased, the peak positions of the W 4f and O 1s orbits shifted slightly to low energy due to the difference in oxygen vacancies. As the laser power density decreased, W⁶⁺ gradually replaced the lattice position of O^2?, increasing oxygen vacancies in the lattice. The transmittance modulated values (ΔT) were over 44% at 830 nm, indicating strong absorption by the WO₃ thin films in the near-infrared ray. The switching time of the WO₃ thin films between bleached states and coloured states decreased as the laser power density increased due to the amorphous structure, morphology, and lower oxygen deficiency at a high power density. The high ΔT and very fast switching time of t_b (1.09 s) and t_c (6.01 s) demonstrated the excellent electrochromic (EC) properties of the WO₃ films prepared by PLD.     

Mechanical and dielectric properties of functionalized boron nitride nanosheets/silicon nitride composites

Uniformly dispersed boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) reinforced silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) composites were prepared by surface modification assisted flocculation combined with SPS sintering. In order to improve the dispersibility of the BNNSs in the composites, the liquid phase stripped BNNSs are surface functionalized by a two-step covalently modification. The amino-modified BNNSs (NH₂-BNNSs) and Si₃N₄ powders have opposite surface potential, mixed evenly by electrostatic interaction during flocculation. The results showed that mechanical properties of Si₃N₄ composites were obviously enhanced by adding NH₂-BNNSs. The fracture toughness and bending strength of Si₃N₄ composites added 0.75 wt% NH₂-BNNSs were increased by 34% and 28%, respectively, compared with monolithic Si₃N₄. Toughening mechanisms are synergistic action of the torn, pull-out or bridging of BNNSs and crack deflection mechanisms with microstructural analyzes. The dielectric properties of the Si₃N₄ ceramics are also improved after the addition of NH₂-BNNSs.     

Spectral radiance reconstruction from trichromatic camera responses based on orthogonal test and regularized algorithm

Reconstruction of spectral information based on multi‐channel image system is a significant problem in color reproduction, detection, and recognition. A spectral radiance reconstruction from trichromatic digital camera responses is researched in this article. The mapping relationship between the trichromatic imaging system response and the incident spectral radiance is analyzed. Then, in order to remove the ill‐posedness of the problem, a regularized constraint solution model of spectral radiance reconstruction matrix is established. And the spectral radiance can be reconstructed by spectral radiance reconstruction matrices and trichromatic imaging system response. Finally, the spectral radiance reconstruction matrix is estimated by the system radiometric calibration experiment. The input radiance is offered by a LCD display. A 3‐factor and 9‐level orthogonal test is designed for the calibration experiment, and a test set of 24 colors is used for precision analysis. The results show that the average relative mean error of our method is 8.69%, it is lower than that of Wiener filtering method by 2.84%. The method can reconstruct spectral radiance information effectively.     

Nitrogen Removal Performance of Denitrifying Ammonium Oxidation System in Treating Sulfamethoxazole-laden Secondary Wastewater Effluent

In this study,nitrogen removal performance of the denitrifying ammonium oxidation(DAO)process was investigated when treating sulfamethoxazole(SMX)-laden secondary wastewater effluent.The influent SMX concentration showed negligible effect on efficiencies for removal of nitrate and COD.However,the ammonium ions removal rate was moderately reduced,when the influent SMX concentration in wastewater reached 6 mg/L.Total nitrogen removal efficiency remained as high as 76.77%towards the day 158 at the end of experiment.Candidatus_Brocadia and Candidatus_Kuenenia were the functional anammox strains.The unclassified_f__Rhodobacteraceae sp.was predominant heterotrophic denitrifying strain in the studied reactor.The concentrations of soluble extracellular polymeric substances in sludge obviously increased from 16.76 mg/g VSS to 32.31 mg/g VSS,which might protect the nitrogen removal strains from high-concentration SMX.This result provides a theoretical and technical foundation for the application of denitrifying ammonium oxidation process in treating sulfamethoxazole-laden secondary wastewater effluent.     

Altered age-hardening behavior in the ultrafine-grained surface layer of Mg-Zn-Y-Ce-Zr alloy processed by sliding friction treatment

To gain insight into the ageing behavior of ultrafine grain(UFG)structure,the precipitation phenom-ena and microstructural evolutions of Mg-6Zn-1Y-0.4Ce-0.5 Zr(wt.％)alloy processed by sliding friction treatment(SFT)were systematically studied using hardness texting,transmission electron microscopy(TEM)equipped with high-angle annular dark-field scanning(HADDF-STEM),X-ray diffraction(XRD)and XRD line broadening analysis.The microhardness of the SFT-processed(SFTed)sample initially decreases from 109.6 HV to 104.8 HV at ageing for 8 h,and then increases to the peak-ageing point of 115.4 HV at 16 h.Subsequently,it enters the over-aged period.The un-SFTed sample,as the counterpart,follows a regular ageing behavior that increases from 89.9 HV to 99.6 HV when ageing for 12 h,and then drops.A multi-mechanistic model is established to describe the strengthening due to grain refinement,disloca-tion accumulation,precipitation etc.The analysis reveals that the temperature sensitive UFG structure has an obvious grain coarsening effect,which arouses the soft phenomenon in the early ageing stage.But precipitation hardening provides an excellent hardness enhancement for overcoming the negative influ-ence and helping to reach the peak-aged point.In our microstructural observations,a lot of equilibrium ultrafine MgZn2 precipitates precipitate along dislocations because defects can provide the favorable conditions for the migration and segregation of solute atoms.     

Matrix Manipulation of Directly-Synthesized PbS Quantum Dot Inks Enabled by Coordination Engineering

The direct-synthesis of conductive PbS quantum dot (QD) ink is facile, scalable, and low-cost, boosting the future commercialization of optoelectronics based on colloidal QDs. However, manipulating the QD matrix structures still is a challenge, which limits the corresponding QD solar cell performance. Here, for the first time a coordination-engineering strategy to finely adjust the matrix thickness around the QDs is presented, in which halogen salts are introduced into the reaction to convert the excessive insulating lead iodide into soluble iodoplumbate species. As a result, the obtained QD film exhibits shrunk insulating shells, leading to higher charge carrier transport and superior surface passivation compared to the control devices. A significantly improved power-conversion efficiency from 10.52% to 12.12% can be achieved after the matrix engineering. Therefore, the work shows high significance in promoting the practical application of directly synthesized PbS QD inks in large-area low-cost optoelectronic devices.