Fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study.

Background: Understanding potential patterns in future population levels is crucial for anticipating and planning for changing age structures, resource and health-care needs, and environmental and economic landscapes. Future fertility patterns are a key input to estimation of future population size, but they are surrounded by substantial uncertainty and diverging methodologies of estimation and forecasting, leading to important differences in global population projections. Changing population size and age structure might have profound economic, social, and geopolitical impacts in many countries.

Forecasting life expectancy, years of life lost, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 250 causes of death: reference and alternative scenarios for 2016-40 for 195 countries and territories.

Background: Understanding potential trajectories in health and drivers of health is crucial to guiding long-term investments and policy implementation. Past work on forecasting has provided an incomplete landscape of future health scenarios, highlighting a need for a more robust modelling platform from which policy options and potential health trajectories can be assessed. This study provides a novel approach to modelling life expectancy, all-cause mortality and cause of death forecasts -and alternative future scenarios-for 250 causes of death from 2016 to 2040 in 195 countries and territories.

Interfacial Engineering of Hierarchical Transition Metal Oxide Heterostructures for Highly Sensitive Sensing of Hydrogen Peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide (H O ) is a major messenger molecule in cellular signal transduction. Direct detection of H O in complex environments provides the capability to illuminate its various biological functions. With this in mind, a novel electrochemical approach is here proposed by integrating a series of CoO nanostructures on CuO backbone at electrode interfaces.

Three-Dimensional Hierarchical Architectures Derived from Surface-Mounted Metal-Organic Framework Membranes for Enhanced Electrocatalysis.

Inspired by the rapid development of metal-organic-framework-derived materials in various applications, a facile synthetic strategy was developed for fabrication of 3D hierarchical nanoarchitectures. A surface-mounted metal-organic framework membrane was pyrolyzed at a range of temperatures to produce catalysts with excellent trifunctional electrocatalytic efficiencies for the oxygen reduction, hydrogen evolution, and oxygen evolution reactions.

The catalytic effect of TiO nanosheets on extracellular electron transfer of Shewanella loihica PV-4.

Electron transfer kinetics of Shewanella loihica PV-4 at the up-growing TiO nanosheet (TiO-NS) modified carbon paper (CP) electrode was investigated. The effect of TiO-NSs, which speeds up the interfacial electron transfer of outer membrane c-type cytochromes (OMCs), was revealed for the first time. TiO-NSs with a polar surface modified hydrophobic CP into super-hydrophilic TiO-NS/CP.

Preparation of vertically oriented TiO2 nanosheets modified carbon paper electrode and its enhancement to the performance of MFCs.

A unique vertically oriented TiO2 nanosheets (TiO2-NSs) layer was synthesized in situ on the surface of a carbon paper (CP) electrode via hydrothermal synthesis upon addition of a suitable amount of activated carbon powders in a reactor. Field emission scanning electron microscopy images showed that the nanosheets were about 2 μm in length, 200-600 nm in width and 15 nm in thickness. X-ray diffraction and Raman patterns verified TiO2-NSs crystallized in the anatase phase.

Bio-inspired vapor-responsive colloidal photonic crystal patterns by inkjet printing.

Facile, fast, and cost-effective technology for patterning of responsive colloidal photonic crystals (CPCs) is of great importance for their practical applications. In this report, we develop a kind of responsive CPC patterns with multicolor shifting properties by inkjet printing mesoporous colloidal nanoparticle ink on both rigid and soft substrates. By adjusting the size and mesopores' proportion of nanoparticles, we can precisely control the original color and vapor-responsive color shift extent of mesoporous CPC.

Neuronal adaptation translates stimulus gaps into a population code.

Neurons in sensory pathways exhibit a vast multitude of adaptation behaviors, which are assumed to aid the encoding of temporal stimulus features and provide the basis for a population code in higher brain areas. Here we study the transition to a population code for auditory gap stimuli both in neurophysiological recordings and in a computational network model. Independent component analysis (ICA) of experimental data from the inferior colliculus of Mongolian gerbils reveals that the network encodes different gap sizes primarily with its population firing rate within 30 ms after the presentation of the gap, where longer gap size evokes higher network activity.

Recurrent coupling improves discrimination of temporal spike patterns.

Despite the ubiquitous presence of recurrent synaptic connections in sensory neuronal systems, their general functional purpose is not well understood. A recent conceptual advance has been achieved by theories of reservoir computing in which recurrent networks have been proposed to generate short-term memory as well as to improve neuronal representation of the sensory input for subsequent computations. Here, we present a numerical study on the distinct effects of inhibitory and excitatory recurrence in a canonical linear classification task.

Fabrication and enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity of fluorine doped TiO2 by loaded with Ag.

F-doped TiO2 loaded with Ag (Ag/F-TiO2) was prepared by sol-gel process combined with photoreduction method. The physical and chemical properties of the prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL). XPS analysis indicated Ag species existed as Ag0 in the structure of Ag/F-TiO2 samples.

Reversible pH manipulation of the fluorescence emission from sectorial poly(amido amine) dendrimers.

The first to fourth generation (G1-G4) of sectorial poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers with ethanolamine core and amino terminals are synthesized by a divergent route. Blue fluorescence emission from these dendrimers is observed. It is found that there is a remarkable difference in the fluorescence behavior for these different generations of dendrimers.

Nanoscale structural engineering via phase segregation: Au-Ge system.

A tunable structural engineering of nanowires based on template-assisted alloying and phase segregation processes is demonstrated. The Au-Ge system, which has a low eutectic temperature and negligible solid solubility (<10(-3) atom %) of Au in Ge at low temperatures, is utilized. Depending on the Au concentration of the initial nanowires, final structures ranging from nearly periodic nanodisk patterns to core/shell and fully alloyed nanowires are produced.

A simple method to prepare N-doped titania hollow spheres with high photocatalytic activity under visible light.

N-doped titania hollow spheres were prepared using hydrothermally prepared carbon spheres as template. The prepared hollow spheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectrum (DRS). The photocatalytic activity of as-prepared hollow titania spheres was determined by degradation of Reactive Brilliant Red dye X-3B (C.

Study on photocatalytic performance and degradation kinetics of X-3B with lanthanide-modified titanium dioxide under solar and UV illumination.

The present work was focused on photocatalytic oxidation of the model molecule reactive brilliant X-3B by lanthanide-modified TiO(2) samples under artificial solar and UV irradiation. Experimental results showed that the TiO(2) samples doping with lanthanide (Ce and Gd) could greatly enhance the activity of pure TiO(2), and could extend the absorption range to visible region. The optimum doping amount was 0.

A simple route for the preparation of Eu, N-codoped TiO2 nanoparticles with enhanced visible light-induced photocatalytic activity.

A simple route has been developed for the synthesis of europium, nitrogen-codoped titania photocatalysts under mild conditions (i.e., low temperature, < or = 348 K, and ambient pressure).

Deposition of anatase titania onto carbon encapsulated magnetite nanoparticles.

A novel magnetically separable photocatalyst (titania-coated carbon encapsulated magnetite: TCCEF) was prepared. The prepared composite photocatalyst was characterized with an x-ray diffractometer (XRD), a transmission electron microscope (TEM), a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The photocatalytic activity of the samples was determined by degrading model contaminated water, a phenol aqueous solution.

Magnetically separable composite photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic activity.

A novel magnetically separable composite photocatalyst, anatase titania-coated magnetic activated carbon (TMAC), was prepared in this article. In the synthesis, magnetic activated carbon (MAC) was firstly obtained by adsorbing magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles onto the activated carbon (AC), and then the obtained MAC was directly coated by anatase titania nanoparticles prepared at low temperature (i.e.

Fingerprint image enhancement based on nonlinear anisotropic reverse-diffusion equations.

We present an approach based on nonlinear anisotropic reverse diffusion equations (NARDE) to enhance noisy fingerprint images. After studying the nonlinear diffusion equations to denoised images and nonlinear reverse diffusion process in nature, a new scheme is advanced with new selection criteria of optimal stopping time. Experiments were carried out and showed the high efficiency of the noise removing sharpening scheme and the role of selection criteria on noisy fingerprint images.

Photocatalytic degradation of pesticide pyridaben. 3. In surfactant/TiO2 aqueous dispersions.

The effective TiO2 photocatalytic degradation of pyridaben in an acetronitrile/water dispersion has been investigated in previous work, but could not be achieved in the case of real waters. In this paper, photocatalytic degradation of pyridaben on TiO2 particles under UV light (lambda> 360 nm) illumination in surfactant CTAB (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) aqueous dispersions was studied. 1H NMR was used to determine quantitative information about the adsorption mode of pyridaben in CTAB micelles.

[Photocatalytic degradation of formaldehyde and VOCs in air on the porous nickel mesh coated with nanometer TiO2].

Three different metal ions doped TiO2 photocatalysts, which were prepared by the sol-gel method, were immobilized to porous nickel mesh by coating. The photocatalytic degradation activity of the supported photocatalyst on formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was investigated. The results show that the nanometer TiO2 has an anatase structure.

Identification and determination of microcystins in source water and waterbloom sample from Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake, China.

Objective: To identify and determine the congener and level of microcystins in the source water of Taihu Lake.

Methods: Improved method of SPE combined with HPLC was employed to detect the concentration and varieties of microcystins in source water and bloom samples collected from Meiliang Bay, Taihu Lake.

Results: The contents of two predominant microcystin components, MC-RR, and MC-LR, were relatively high in samples during warm months and correlated with the phase of algae growth.

[Preparation and evaluation of molecularly imprinted stationary phase used for thin-layer chromatography].

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) using molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as chiral stationary phases (CSPs) was applied to the determination of enantiomers of mandelic acid and its derivatives. In preparation of MIPs, L-mandelic acid, L-2-chloromandelic acid and L-4-chloromandelic acid were employed as templates; acrylamide (AM) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) were used as functional monomer and cross-linker respectively. With the development system of acetonitrile-5% acetic acid, the racemates of templates were completely separated on the CSPs, the chiral separation factor a were 1.

[Calculation method of absolute quantum yields in photocatalytic slurry reactor based on cylindrical light].

Heterogeneous photocatalysis in slurry reactors have the particular characteristic that the catalyst particles not only absorb but also scatter photons so the radiation scattering can not be neglected. However, it is very difficult in mathematics to obtain the rigorous solution of the radiative transfer equation. Consequently present methods, in which the apparent quantum yields can be calculated by employing the incident radiation intensity, always underestimate quantum yields calculations.

Simulation of human vision by image evolution in light-excitable nonlinear optical mediums.

The nonlinear optical membrane used for image processing was prepared using tetraethyl silicate by sol-gel method under mild conditions. Ru(bpy)3Cl2 (bpy, bipyridine) was immobilized in the sol-gel matrix. This light-excitable membrane containing Ru(bpy)3Cl2 as photocatalyst could catalyze the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction by illumination.

Effects of a bolaamphiphile on the structure of phosphatidylcholine liposomes.

This paper describes the morphological characterization of aqueous dispersions of PC amphiphiles and bolaamphiphile AEC by microscopy, the liposomal membrane fluidity, and the zeta potential. Results indicate that the bolaamphiphile AEC can be included within conventional egg-PC liposome bilayers. This behavior could be due to their preference for the stretched conformation within the PC membranes.