Cannabidiol-Mediated Sequestration of Alzheimer’s Amyloid-β Peptides in ADDL Oligomers

Cannabidiol (CBD), one of the most studied phytocannabinoids, is non-psychotropic and can induce protective effects on the central nervous system against acute and chronic brain injury. Interestingly, CBD inhibits processes relating to amyloid beta (Aβ)-induced neurotoxicity in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, though the detailed molecular mechanism underlying the CBD neurotoxicity modulation is not fully understood. In this study, using atomic force microscopy, we find that CBD promotes the aggregation of Aβ peptides, enhancing the formation of Aβ oligomers, also known as Aβ-derived diffusible ligands (ADDLs). The CBD-mediated sequestration of Aβ monomers in soluble ADDLs could reduce neurotoxicity. This study highlights a possible role of CBD in modulating the formation of ADDL aggregates and provides insight into potentially neuroprotective properties of CBD in Alzheimer’s disease.

Unconventional Petroleum Sedimentology:A Key to Understanding Unconventional Hydrocarbon Accumulation

The commercial exploitation of unconventional petroleum resources(e.g.,shale oil/gas and tight oil/gas)has drastically changed the global energy structure within the past two decades.Sweet-spot intervals(areas),the most prolific unconventional hydrocarbon resources,generally consist of extraordinarily high organic matter(EHOM)deposits or closely associated sandstones/carbonate rocks.The formation of sweet-spot intervals(areas)is fundamentally controlled by their depositional and subsequent diagenetic settings,which result from the coupled sedimentation of global or regional geological events,such as tectonic activity,sea level(lake level)fluctuations,climate change,bottom water anoxia,volcanic activity,biotic mass extinction or radiation,and gravity flows during a certain geological period.Black shales with EHOM content and their associated high-quality reservoir rocks deposited by the coupling of major geological events provide not only a prerequisite for massive hydrocarbon generation but also abundant hydrocarbon storage space.The Ordovician-Silurian Wufeng-Longmaxi shale of the Sichuan Basin,Devonian Marcellus shale of the Appalachian Basin,Devonian-Carboniferous Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin,and Triassic Yanchang Formation of the Ordos Basin are four typical unconventional hydrocarbon systems selected as case studies herein.In each case,the formation of sweet-spot intervals for unconventional hydrocarbon resources was controlled by the coupled sedimentation of different global or regional geological events,collectively resulting in a favorable environment for the production,preservation,and accumulation of organic matter,as well as for the generation,migration,accumulation,and exploitation of hydrocarbons.Unconventional petroleum sedimentology,which focuses on coupled sedimentation during dramatic environmental changes driven by major geological events,is key to improve the understanding of the formation and distribution of sweet-spot intervals(areas)in unconventional petroleum systems.

Achieving high-performance multilayer MoSe2 photodetectors by defect engineering

Optoelectronic properties of MoSe2 are modulated by controlled annealing in air.Characterizations by Raman spectroscopy and XPS demonstrate the introduction of oxygen defects.Considerable increase in electron and hole mobilities reveals the highly improved electron and hole transport.Furthermore,the photocurrent is enhanced by nearly four orders of magnitudes under 7 nW laser exposure after annealing.The remarkable enhancement in the photoresponse is attributed to an increase in hole trapping centers and a reduction in resistance.Furthermore,the annealed photodetector shows a fast time response on the order of 10 ms and responsivity of 3×10^(4) A/W.

Machine learning classification algorithm screening for the main controlling factors of heavy oil CO_(2)huff and puff

CO_(2)huff and puff technology can enhance the recovery of heavy oil in high-water-cut stages.However,the effectiveness of this method varies significantly under different geological and fluid conditions,which leads to a high-dimensional and small-sample(HDSS)dataset.It is difficult for conventional techniques that identify key factors that influence CO_(2)huff and puff effects,such as fuzzy mathematics,to manage HDSS datasets,which often contain nonlinear and irremovable abnormal data.To accurately pinpoint the primary control factors for heavy oil CO_(2)huff and puff,four machine learning classification algorithms were adopted.These algorithms were selected to align with the characteristics of HDSS datasets,taking into account algorithmic principles and an analysis of key control factors.The results demonstrated that logistic regression encounters difficulties when dealing with nonlinear data,whereas the extreme gradient boosting and gradient boosting decision tree algorithms exhibit greater sensitivity to abnormal data.By contrast,the random forest algorithm proved to be insensitive to outliers and provided a reliable ranking of factors that influence CO_(2)huff and puff effects.The top five control factors identified were the distance between parallel wells,cumulative gas injection volume,liquid production rate of parallel wells,huff and puff timing,and heterogeneous Lorentz coefficient.These research find-ings not only contribute to the precise implementation of heavy oil CO_(2)huff and puff but also offer valuable insights into selecting classification algorithms for typical HDSS data.

Geographic modeling and simulation systems for geographic research in the new era: Some thoughts on their development and construction

Regionality,comprehensiveness,and complexity are regarded as the basic characteristics of geography.The exploration of their core connotations is an essential way to achieve breakthroughs in geography in the new era.This paper focuses on the important method in geographic research:Geographic modeling and simulation.First,we clarify the research requirements of the said three characteristics of geography and its potential to address geo-problems in the new era.Then,the supporting capabilities of the existing geographic modeling and simulation systems for geographic research are summarized from three perspectives:Model resources,modeling processes,and operational architecture.Finally,we discern avenues for future research of geographic modeling and simulation systems for the study of regional,comprehensive and complex characteristics of geography.Based on these analyses,we propose implementation architecture of geographic modeling and simulation systems and discuss the module composition and functional realization,which could provide theoretical and technical support for geographic modeling and simulation systems to better serve the development of geography in the new era.

Treatment of coking wastewater using oxic-anoxic-oxic process followed by coagulation and ozonation

An oxic-anoxic-oxic(O-A-O)system followed by coagulation and ozonation processes was used to study the treatment of coking wastewater.In the O-A-O process,the removals of NH4+-N,total nitrogen and COD were 91.5-93.3%,91.3-92.6%and 89.1-93.8%,respectively when employing hydraulic residence times of 60 h for the biochemical system.High removal of NH4+-N was obtained due to the placement of an aerobic tank in front of A-O system which can mitigate the inhibitory effect of toxic compounds in coking wastewater on nitrifying bacteria.Addition of methanol into the anoxic reactor greatly increased the removal of total nitrogen,indicating that denitrifiers can hardly use organic compounds in coking wastewater as carbon source for denitrification.COD values of the effluent from the O-A-O system were still higher than 260 mg/L even with a prolonged time of 160 h mainly due to the high refractory properties of residual compounds in the effluent.The subsequent coagulation and ozonation processes resulted in the COD removal of 91.5%-93.3%and reduced the relative abundance of large molecular weight(MW)organics(>1 kDa)from 55.8%to 20.93%with the ozone,PAC and PAM dosages of 100,150 and 4 mg/L respectively.Under these conditions,the COD value and concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the final effluent were less than 80 and 0.05 mg/L,respectively,which meet the requirement of the Chinese emission standard.These results indicate that the combined technology of O-A-O process,coagulation and ozonation is a reliable way for the treatment of coking wastewater.

Open HD map service model:an interoperable high-Definition map data model for autonomous driving

With the growth in the vehicle industry,autonomous driving has become a hot topic worldwide and has attracted increasing attention from both industrial and academic sectors.Maps,as pivotal geospatial information carriers,play a vital role in route planning and navigation service.Compared with conventional maps,high-definition(HD)maps possesses higher precision,richer information,and various services and are regarded as critical infrastructure for autonomous driving.However,heterogeneous HD map data standards and models have different characteristics and advantages,and thus they rarely meet all autonomous driving requirements for different driving objectives.This research presents an interoperable map data model,the Open HD Map Service Model(OHDMSM),to provide a reference for HD map development.The designed OHDMSM,which contains three data layers and a set of corresponding interfaces,demonstrates high interoperability for HD map data fusion and application.As a proof of concept,an HD map data system is implemented with all functions following the designed data model and interfaces of OHDMSM.The design and development of OHDMSM data structures,interfaces and systems will benefit data requesting,updating,and interoperation for HD map data worldwide,which can be helpful for developing autonomous driving and intelligent transportation in the Digital Earth.

Bubble domain evolution in well-ordered BiFeO_(3) nanocapacitors

Ferroelectric nanocapacitors have attracted intensive research interest due to their novel functionalities and potential application in nanodevices.However,due to the lack of knowledge of domain evolution in isolated nanocapacitors,precise manipulation of topological domain switching in the nanocapacitor is still a challenge.Here,we report unique bubble and cylindrical domains in the well-ordered BiFeO_(3) nanocapacitor array.The transformation of bubble,cylindrical and mono domains in isolated ferroelectric nanocapacitor has been demonstrated via scanning probe microscopy(SPM).The bubble domain can be erased to mono domain or written to cylindrical domain and mono domain by positive and negative voltage,respectively.Additionally,the domain evolution rules,which are mainly affected by the depolarization field,have been observed in the nanocapacitors with different domain structures.This work will be helpful in understanding the domain evolution in ferroelectric nanocapacitors and providing guidance on the manipulation of nanoscale topological domains.

A framework on task configuration and execution for distributed geographical simulation

Geographical simulation is a popular method in geographical and environmental research.Many models developed to address geographic and environmental issues are distributed worldwide.However,due to the lack of portals,these models are still difficult to invoke for geographical simulations in open web environments.This study designs and develops a framework to assemble service-oriented models from volunteers distributed worldwide for geographical simulations on the web.The framework consists of three layers(task layer,data exchange layer,and model execution layer)that establish a network of serviceoriented locally shared models and simulation tasks for user configurations.With the help of such a framework,users can configure simulation tasks and invoke suitable models shared worldwide for geographical simulations.This article provides an application of the distributed simulation of gross primary production(GPP)by the Biome-BioGeochemical Cycles(BGC)model in China.This application shows that the framework can be beneficial for model assembly from volunteers’computers and distributed simulation tasks that are run for geographical and environmental issues,which can be applied to Digital Earth initiatives.

Geographic information science in the era of geospatial big data: A cyberspace perspective

The advent of information and communication technology and the Internet of Things have led our society toward a digital era.The proliferation of personal computers,smartphones,intelligent autonomous sensors,and pervasive network interactions with individuals have gradually shifted human activities from offline to online and from in person to virtual.This transformation has brought a series of challenges in a variety of fields,such as the dilemma of placelessness,some aspects of timelessness(no time relevance),and the changing relevance of distance in the field of geographic information science(GIScience).In the last two decades,“cyber thinking”in GIScience has received significant attention from different perspectives.For instance,human activities in“cyberspace”need to be reconsidered when coupled with the geographic space to observe the first law of geography.

A new academic impact metric for evaluating geographic simulation models

Geographic simulation models can be used to explore and better understand the geographical environment. Recent advances in geographic and socio-environmental research have led to a dramatic increase in the number of models used for this purpose. Some model repositories provide opportunities for users to explore and apply models,but few provide a general evaluation method for assessing the applicability and recognition of models. In this study,an academic impact evaluation method for models is proposed. Five indices are designed based on their pertinence. The analytical hierarchy process is used to calculate the index weights,and the academic impacts of models are quantified with the weighted sum method. The time range is controlled to evaluate the life-term and annual academic impacts of the models. Some models that met the evaluation criteria from different domains are then evaluated. The results show that the academic impact of a model can be quantified with the proposed method,and the major research areas that models impact are identified.

A container-based approach for sharing environmental models as web services

As researchers globally work towards a fully digital representation of the earth and its processes-i.e.a true Digital Earth-the need grows for software and systems to link disparate computer simulation models of various parts of the earth in a reliable and highly functional way.Web services have been demonstrated as an effective way to share and reuse models as they enable communication and interoperation among applications via the Internet.However,even using well-designed software tools,it remains a daunting process to publish heterogeneous environmental models as web services and provide long-term maintenance in response to changing computational environments.We present an approach that enables environmental models to be published as long-term functional web services on the same platform regardless of execution mode,programming language,and computational environment conflicts.The approach adopts the OpenGMS Wrapper System(OGMS-WS)for service publishing and Docker containers for model isolation.A streamflow prediction service is developed using this approach and is applied to analyze historical streamflow trends in Bangladesh.We demonstrate that this approach can lower the barrier to deploying heterogeneous environmental models as long-term functional web services,contributing to the development of a Digital Earth.

Development and test in grid of 630 kVA three-phase high temperature superconducting transformer

A 630-kVA 10.5 kV/0.4 kV three-phase high temperature superconducting(HTS)power transformer was successfully developed and tested in a live grid.The windings were wound by hermetic stainless steelreinforced multi-filamentary Bi2223/Ag tapes.The structures of primary windings are solenoid with insulation and cooling path among layers,and those of secondary windings consist of double-pancakes connected in parallel.Toroidal cryostat is made from electrical insulating glass fiber reinforced plastics(GFRP)materials with room temperature bore for commercial amorphous alloy core with five limbs.Windings are laid in the toroidal cryostat so that the amorphous core operates at room temperature.An insulation technology of double-half wrapping up the Bi2223/Ag tape with Kapton film is used by a winding machine developed by the authors.Fundamental characteristics of the transformer are obtained by standard short-circuit and no-load tests,and it is shown that the transformer meets operating requirements in a live grid.