Research on Trajectory Planning of Autonomous Vehicles in Constrained Spaces.

This paper addresses the challenge of trajectory planning for autonomous vehicles operating in complex, constrained environments. The proposed method enhances the hybrid A-star algorithm through back-end optimization. An adaptive node expansion strategy is introduced to handle varying environmental complexities.

Advances in macrophage metabolic reprogramming in myocardial ischemia-reperfusion.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the leading cause of death worldwide, and reperfusion therapy is a critical therapeutic approach to reduce myocardial ischemic injury and minimize infarct size. However, ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) itself also causes myocardial injury, and inflammation is an essential mechanism by which it leads to myocardial injury, with macrophages as crucial immune cells in this process. Macrophages are innate immune cells that maintain tissue homeostasis, host defence during pathogen infection, and repair during tissue injury.

Flash heating process for efficient meat preservation.

Maintaining food safety and quality is critical for public health and food security. Conventional food preservation methods, such as pasteurization and dehydration, often change the overall organoleptic quality of the food products. Herein, we demonstrate a method that affects only a thin surface layer of the food, using beef as a model.

A stable atmospheric-pressure plasma for extreme-temperature synthesis.

Plasmas can generate ultra-high-temperature reactive environments that can be used for the synthesis and processing of a wide range of materials. However, the limited volume, instability and non-uniformity of plasmas have made it challenging to scalably manufacture bulk, high-temperature materials. Here we present a plasma set-up consisting of a pair of carbon-fibre-tip-enhanced electrodes that enable the generation of a uniform, ultra-high temperature and stable plasma (up to 8,000 K) at atmospheric pressure using a combination of vertically oriented long and short carbon fibres.

Ultrahigh-temperature melt printing of multi-principal element alloys.

Multi-principal element alloys (MPEA) demonstrate superior synergetic properties compared to single-element predominated traditional alloys. However, the rapid melting and uniform mixing of multi-elements for the fabrication of MPEA structural materials by metallic 3D printing is challenging as it is difficult to achieve both a high temperature and uniform temperature distribution in a sufficient heating source simultaneously. Herein, we report an ultrahigh-temperature melt printing method that can achieve rapid multi-elemental melting and uniform mixing for MPEA fabrication.

Programmable heating and quenching for efficient thermochemical synthesis.

Conventional thermochemical syntheses by continuous heating under near-equilibrium conditions face critical challenges in improving the synthesis rate, selectivity, catalyst stability and energy efficiency, owing to the lack of temporal control over the reaction temperature and time, and thus the reaction pathways. As an alternative, we present a non-equilibrium, continuous synthesis technique that uses pulsed heating and quenching (for example, 0.02 s on, 1.

Fabrication of Cellulose-Graphite Foam via Ion Cross-linking and Ambient-Drying.

Conventional plastic foams are usually produced by fossil-fuel-derived polymers, which are difficult to degrade in nature. As an alternative, cellulose is a promising biodegradable polymer that can be used to fabricate greener foams, yet such a process typically relies on methods (e.g.

Rapid Pressureless Sintering of Glasses.

Silica glasses have wide applications in industrial fields due to their extraordinary properties, such as high transparency, low thermal expansion coefficient, and high hardness. However, current methods of fabricating silica glass generally require long thermal treatment time (up to hours) and complex setups, leading to high cost and slow manufacturing speed. Herein, to obtain high-quality glasses using a facile and rapid method, an ultrafast high-temperature sintering (UHS) technique is reported that requires no additional pressure.

Multi-principal elemental intermetallic nanoparticles synthesized via a disorder-to-order transition.

Nanoscale multi-principal element intermetallics (MPEIs) may provide a broad and tunable compositional space of active, high-surface area materials with potential applications such as catalysis and magnetics. However, MPEI nanoparticles are challenging to fabricate because of the tendency of the particles to grow/agglomerate or phase-separated during annealing. Here, we demonstrate a disorder-to-order phase transition approach that enables the synthesis of ultrasmall (4 to 5 nm) and stable MPEI nanoparticles (up to eight elements).

Rapid Synthesis of High-Entropy Oxide Microparticles.

High-entropy nanoparticles have received notable attention due to their tunable properties and broad material space. However, these nanoparticles are not suitable for certain applications (e.g.

Rapid Atomic Ordering Transformation toward Intermetallic Nanoparticles.

Chemically ordered intermetallic nanoparticles are promising candidates for energy-related applications such as electrocatalysis. However, the synthesis of intermetallics generally requires long annealing (several hours) to achieve the ordered structure, which causes nanoparticles agglomeration and diminished performance, particularly for catalysis. Herein, we demonstrate a new rapid Joule heating approach that can synthesize highly ordered and well-dispersed intermetallic nanoparticles.

Interface Engineering Between Multi-Elemental Alloy Nanoparticles and a Carbon Support Toward Stable Catalysts.

Multi-elemental alloy (MEA) nanoparticles have recently received notable attention owing to their high activity and superior phase stability. Previous syntheses of MEA nanoparticles mainly used carbon as the support, owing to its high surface area, good electrical conductivity, and tunable defective sites. However, the interfacial stability issue, such as nanoparticle agglomeration, remains outstanding due to poor interfacial binding between MEA and carbon.

Scalable Synthesis of High Entropy Alloy Nanoparticles by Microwave Heating.

High entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs) are reported to have superior performance in catalysis, energy storage, and conversion due to the broad range of elements that can be incorporated in these materials, enabling tunable activity, excellent thermal and chemical stability, and a synergistic catalytic effect. However, scaling the manufacturing of HEA-NPs with uniform particle size and homogeneous elemental distribution efficiently is still a challenge due to the required critical synthetic conditions where high temperature is typically involved. In this work, we demonstrate an efficient and scalable microwave heating method using carbon-based materials as substrates to fabricate HEA-NPs with uniform particle size.

High-Temperature Ultrafast Sintering: Exploiting a New Kinetic Region to Fabricate Porous Solid-State Electrolyte Scaffolds.

Solid-state batteries (SSBs) promise better safety and potentially higher energy density than the conventional liquid- or gel-based ones. In practice, the implementation of SSBs often necessitates 3D porous scaffolds made by ceramic solid-state electrolytes (SSEs). Herein, a general and facile method to sinter 3D porous scaffolds with a range of ceramic SSEs on various substrates at high temperature in seconds is reported.

Continuous Fly-Through High-Temperature Synthesis of Nanocatalysts.

The conventional thermal treatment systems typically feature low ramping/cooling rates, which lead to steep thermal gradients that generate inefficient, nonuniform reaction conditions and result in nanoparticle aggregation. Herein, we demonstrate a continuous fly-through material synthesis approach using a novel high-temperature reactor design based on the emerging thermal-shock technology. By facing two sheets of carbon paper with a small distance apart (1-3 mm), uniform and ultrahigh temperatures can be reached up to 3200 K within 50 ms by simply applying a voltage of 15 V.

Strong, Hydrostable, and Degradable Straws Based on Cellulose-Lignin Reinforced Composites.

The huge consumption of single-use plastic straws has brought a long-lasting environmental problem. Paper straws, the current replacement for plastic straws, suffer from drawbacks, such as a high cost of the water-proof wax layer and poor water stability due to the easy delamination of the wax layer. It is therefore crucial to find a high-performing alternative to mitigate the environmental problems brought by plastic straws.

Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable transparent wood.

Transparent wood is considered a promising structural and light management material for energy-efficient engineering applications. However, the solution-based delignification process that is used to fabricate transparent wood generally consumes large amounts of chemicals and energy. Here, we report a method to produce optically transparent wood by modifying the wood's lignin structure using a solar-assisted chemical brushing approach.

In Situ Lignin Modification toward Photonic Wood.

Lignin serves as a binder that forms strong matrices of the cell walls of wood. However, it has many photolabile chromophore groups that create a monotonic brownish color and make wood susceptible to photodegradation. Herein, a new strategy is reported for modifying lignin using an in situ, rapid, and scalable process that involves the photocatalytic oxidation of native lignin in wood by H O and UV light.

Computation-Guided Synthesis of New Garnet-Type Solid-State Electrolytes via an Ultrafast Sintering Technique.

The discovery of new solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) can be guided by computation for next-generation Li batteries toward higher energy density and better safety. However, conventional synthetic methods often suffer from severe loss of Li and poor material quality, therefore preventing the promise of the predicted SSE candidates to be realized. In this study, computationally predicted SSEs with desirable material quality are synthesized via an ultrafast sintering technique.

Continuous Synthesis of Hollow High-Entropy Nanoparticles for Energy and Catalysis Applications.

Mixing multimetallic elements in hollow-structured nanoparticles is a promising strategy for the synthesis of highly efficient and cost-effective catalysts. However, the synthesis of multimetallic hollow nanoparticles is limited to two or three elements due to the difficulties in morphology control under the harsh alloying conditions. Herein, the rapid and continuous synthesis of hollow high-entropy-alloy (HEA) nanoparticles using a continuous "droplet-to-particle" method is reported.

High-Temperature Pulse Method for Nanoparticle Redispersion.

Nanoparticles suffer from aggregation and poisoning issues (e.g., oxidation) that severely hinder their long-term applications.

Open heart surgery or echocardiographic transthoracic or percutaneous closure in secundum atrial septal defect: a developing approach in one Chinese hospital.

Background: To study the clinical manifestations and advantages of open-heart surgery and echocardiographic transthoracic or percutaneous closure with secundum atrial septal defect (ASD). The surgeon's learning curve was also analyzed.

Methods: In all, 115 consecutive patients with ASD from May 2013 to May 2019 were enrolled.

Lignin-Based Direct Ink Printed Structural Scaffolds.

3D printing of lignocellulosic biomass (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin) has attracted increasing attention by using this abundant, sustainable, and ecofriendly material. While cellulose can be easily tailored into a highly viscous ink for 3D printing, after solvent evaporation, the final printed structures become highly porous, fragile, and easily fall apart in water due to its hydrophilic nature. Lignin, another crucial component of natural lignocellulose, has not yet been reported for ink printing due to its unfavorable rheological behavior.