Four-Stage Multi-Physics Simulations to Assist Temperature Sensor Design for Industrial-Scale Coal-Fired Boiler.

The growth of renewable energy sources presents a pressing challenge to the operation and maintenance of existing fossil fuel power plants, given that fossil fuel remains the predominant fuel source, responsible for over 60% of electricity generation in the United States. One of the main concerns within these fossil fuel power plants is the unpredictable failure of boiler tubes, resulting in emergency maintenance with significant economic and societal consequences. A reliable high-temperature sensor is necessary for in situ monitoring of boiler tubes and the safety of fossil fuel power plants.

Injectable Radiopaque Hyaluronic Acid Granular Hydrogels for Intervertebral Disc Repair.

Injectable hydrogels offer minimally-invasive treatment options for degenerative disc disease, a prevalent condition affecting millions annually. Many hydrogels explored for intervertebral disc (IVD) repair suffer from weak mechanical integrity, migration issues, and expulsion. To overcome these limitations, an injectable and radiopaque hyaluronic acid granular hydrogel is developed.

Regulating Lewis Acidic Sites of 1T-2H MoS Catalysts for Solar-Driven Photothermal Catalytic H Production from Lignocellulosic Biomass.

Solar-driven photothermal catalytic H production from lignocellulosic biomass was achieved by using 1T-2H MoS with tunable Lewis acidic sites as catalysts in an alkaline aqueous solution, in which the number of Lewis acidic sites derived from the exposed Mo edges of MoS was successfully regulated by both the formation of an edge-terminated 1T-2H phase structure and tunable layer number. Owing to the abundant Lewis acidic sites for the oxygenolysis of lignocellulosic biomass, the 1T-2H MoS catalyst shows high photothermal catalytic lignocellulosic biomass-to-H transformation performance in polar wood chips, bamboo, rice straw corncobs, and rice hull aqueous solutions, and the highest H generation rate and solar-to-H (STH) efficiency respectively achieves 3661 μmol·h·g and 0.18% in the polar wood chip system under 300 W Xe lamp illumination.

Voronoi Entropy as a Ligand Molecular Descriptor of Protein-Ligand Interactions.

We investigate the correlation between the Voronoi entropy (VE) of ligand molecules and their affinity to receptors to test the hypothesis that less ordered ligands have higher mobility of molecular groups and therefore a higher probability of attaching to receptors. VE of 1144 ligands is calculated using SMILES-based 2D graphs representing the molecular structure. The affinity of the ligands with the SARS-CoV-2 main protease is obtained from the BindingDB Database as half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC) data.

The Effects of ROCK Inhibitor on Prevention of Dexamethasone-Induced Glaucoma Phenotype in Human Trabecular Meshwork Cells.

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of dexamethasone (Dex) on human trabecular meshwork (TM) cells, a model of glucocorticoid-induced glaucoma, and evaluated the impact of ripasudil (Rip) as a co-delivery or sequential dosing strategy.

Methods: In vitro experiments were conducted to assess the effects of Dex and Rip on TM cells. Confocal microscopy was used to evaluate the impact of Dex and Rip on F-actin staining signals.

Evaluating the symmetric and asymmetric effectiveness of low carbon energy consumption for ecological footprint in China: the role of environment-related technological innovation.

The objective of this study is to scrutinize the impact of low carbon energy consumption, environmental-related technological innovation, urbanization, economic growth, and trade on China's ecological footprint from 1980 to 2021. To investigate the nature of the long-term connections between the variables, we employ the symmetric and asymmetric autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique to explore the long- and short-run elasticities of coefficients. The results of ARDL and NARDL verified the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the long run in the presence of low carbon energy consumption.

Modeling the percutaneous absorption of solvent-deposited solids over a wide dose range: II. Weak electrolytes.

Dermal absorption of weak electrolytes applied to skin from pharmaceutical and cosmetic compositions is an important consideration for both their efficacy and skin safety. We developed a mechanistic, physics-based framework that simulates this process for leave on applications following solvent deposition. We incorporated this framework into our finite dose computational skin permeation model previously tested with nonelectrolytes to generate quantitative predictions for weak electrolytes.

Incorporating the Antioxidant Fullerenol into Calcium Phosphate Bone Cements Increases Cellular Osteogenesis without Compromising Physical Cement Characteristics.

Herein, fullerenol (Ful), a highly water-soluble derivative of C fullerene with demonstrated antioxidant activity, is incorporated into calcium phosphate cements (CPCs) to enhance their osteogenic ability. CPCs with added carboxymethyl cellulose/gelatin (CMC/Gel) are doped with biocompatible Ful particles at concentrations of 0.02, 0.

Robotization of Industrial Processes: Motivational Differences between Companies with and without Existing Robotic Processes.

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONSOur survey of 100 manufacturing facilities revealed statistically significant differences among company types in their perceptions of cost savings, productivity gains, and safety improvements as benefits of robotic implementation. Regardless of company type or size, indications of presence of cumulative, incidental, and static postural hazards were identified as primary perceived factors for injury potential. More than half of the surveyed companies reported being unaware of general safety standards utilized within their facilities, and most (70%) robotic companies were unaware of any robotic-specific standards utilized at their company.

Video Scene Detection Using Transformer Encoding Linker Network (TELNet).

This paper introduces a transformer encoding linker network (TELNet) for automatically identifying scene boundaries in videos without prior knowledge of their structure. Videos consist of sequences of semantically related shots or chapters, and recognizing scene boundaries is crucial for various video processing tasks, including video summarization. TELNet utilizes a rolling window to scan through video shots, encoding their features extracted from a fine-tuned 3D CNN model (transformer encoder).

Programmable Digital-Microfluidic Biochips for SARS-CoV-2 Detection.

Biochips, a novel technology in the field of biomolecular analysis, offer a promising alternative to conventional testing equipment. These chips integrate multiple functions within a single system, providing a compact and efficient solution for various testing needs. For biochips, a pattern-control micro-electrode-dot-array (MEDA) is a new, universally viable design that can replace microchannels and other micro-components.

Native frustrated Lewis pairs on core-shell In@InOH enhances CO-to-formate conversion.

Strategies to efficiently activate CO by strongly inhibiting the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction process are highly desired for practical applications of the electrochemical CO reduction technique. Here, we assembled a core-shell In@InOH architecture on carbon black by one-step reduction of NaBH as a CO-to-formate catalyst with high selectivity. The stable CO-to-formate reaction originates from the creation of steritic frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) on the InOH shell with In-O (O, oxygen vacancies) Lewis acid, and In-OH Lewis base.

Fluorinated amphiphilic Poly(β-Amino ester) nanoparticle for highly efficient and specific delivery of nucleic acids to the Lung capillary endothelium.

Endothelial cell dysfunction occurs in a variety of acute and chronic pulmonary diseases including pulmonary hypertension, viral and bacterial pneumonia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and congenital lung diseases such as alveolar capillary dysplasia with misalignment of pulmonary veins (ACDMPV). To correct endothelial dysfunction, there is a critical need for the development of nanoparticle systems that can deliver drugs and nucleic acids to endothelial cells with high efficiency and precision. While several nanoparticle delivery systems targeting endothelial cells have been recently developed, none of them are specific to lung endothelial cells without targeting other organs in the body.

Investigation of Chloramines, Disinfection Byproducts, and Nitrification in Chloraminated Drinking Water Distribution Systems.

Four chloraminated drinking water distribution systems (CDWDSs) required to maintain numeric versus "detectable" residuals were spatially and temporally sampled for water quality and associated trihalomethane (THM) and haloacetic acid (HAA) formation. Monochloramine decreased from entry point (EP) to maximum residence time (MRT) samples while THMs and HAAs initially increased and then stabilized or slightly decreased. Subsequently, EP and MRT samples were used in laboratory-held studies to further evaluate disinfectant residual stability, chloramine speciation, and nitrification occurrence.

Exposure and Reactions to Cancer Treatment Misinformation and Advice: Survey Study.

Background: Cancer treatment misinformation, or false claims about alternative cures, often spreads faster and farther than true information on social media. Cancer treatment misinformation can harm the psychosocial and physical health of individuals with cancer and their cancer care networks by causing distress and encouraging people to abandon support, potentially leading to deviations from evidence-based care. There is a pressing need to understand how cancer treatment misinformation is shared and uncover ways to reduce misinformation.

Twisting, untwisting, and retwisting of elastic Co-based nanohelices.

The reversible transformation of a nanohelix is one of the most exquisite and important phenomena in nature. However, nanomaterials usually fail to twist into helical crystals. Considering the irreversibility of the previously studied twisting forces, the reverse process (untwisting) is more difficult to achieve, let alone the retwisting of the untwisted crystalline nanohelices.

High-Performance Li-S Batteries with a Minimum Shuttle Effect: Disproportionation of Dissolved Polysulfide to Elemental Sulfur Catalyzed by a Bifunctional Carbon Host.

A long cycle-life Li-S battery (both the coin cell and pouch cell) is reported with minimum shuttle effect. The performance was achieved with a bifunctional carbon material with three unique features. The carbon can catalyze the disproportionation of dissolved long-chain polysulfide ions to elemental sulfur; the carbon can ensure homogeneous precipitation of Li sulfide on the host carbon, and the carbon has a honeycomb porous structure, which can store sulfur better.

Topotactic fabrication of transition metal dichalcogenide superconducting nanocircuits.

Superconducting nanocircuits, which are usually fabricated from superconductor films, are the core of superconducting electronic devices. While emerging transition-metal dichalcogenide superconductors (TMDSCs) with exotic properties show promise for exploiting new superconducting mechanisms and applications, their environmental instability leads to a substantial challenge for the nondestructive preparation of TMDSC nanocircuits. Here, we report a universal strategy to fabricate TMDSC nanopatterns via a topotactic conversion method using prepatterned metals as precursors.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Promotion and Tenure in Biomedical Engineering: Communication from the Biomedical Engineering Society Long Range Planning Committee.

Promotion and tenure (P&T) remain the central tenets of academia. The criteria for P&T both create and reflect the mission of an institution. The discipline of biomedical engineering is built upon the invention and translation of tools to address unmet clinical needs.

Correction: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Promotion and Tenure in Biomedical Engineering.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s12195-023-00767-x.].

Characterizing dry mass and volume changes in human multiple myeloma cells upon treatment with proteotoxic and genotoxic drugs.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer of terminally differentiated plasma cells. MM remains incurable, but overall survival of patients has progressively increased over the past two decades largely due to novel agents such as proteasome inhibitors (PI) and the immunomodulatory agents. While these therapies are highly effective, MM patients can be de novo resistant and acquired resistance with prolonged treatment is inevitable.

Visualizing drug-induced lipid accumulation in lysosomes of live cancer cells with stimulated Raman imaging.

The low pH of the lysosomal compartment often results in sequestration of chemotherapeutic agents that contain positively charged basic functional groups, leading to anti-cancer drug resistance. To visualize drug localization in lysosomes and its influence on lysosomal functions, we synthesize a group of drug-like compounds that contain both a basic functional group and a bisarylbutadiyne (BADY) group as a Raman probe. With quantitative stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) imaging, we validate that the synthesized lysosomotropic (LT) drug analogs show high lysosomal affinity, which can also serve as a photostable lysosome tracker.