In vitro investigations on the effects of graphene and graphene oxide on polycaprolactone bone tissue engineering scaffolds

Polycaprolactone(PCL)scaffolds that are produced through additive manufacturing are one of the most researched bone tissue engineering structures in the field.Due to the intrinsic limitations of PCL,carbon nanomaterials are often investigated to reinforce the PCL scaffolds.Despite several studies that have been conducted on carbon nanomaterials,such as graphene(G)and graphene oxide(GO),certain challenges remain in terms of the precise design of the biological and nonbiological properties of the scaffolds.This paper addresses this limitation by investigating both the nonbiological(element composition,surface,degradation,and thermal and mechanical properties)and biological characteristics of carbon nanomaterial-reinforced PCL scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications.Results showed that the incorporation of G and GO increased surface properties(reduced modulus and wettability),material crystallinity,crystallization temperature,and degradation rate.However,the variations in compressive modulus,strength,surface hardness,and cell metabolic activity strongly depended on the type of reinforcement.Finally,a series of phenomenological models were developed based on experimental results to describe the variations of scaffold’s weight,fiber diameter,porosity,and mechanical properties as functions of degradation time and carbon nanomaterial concentrations.The results presented in this paper enable the design of three-dimensional(3D)bone scaffolds with tuned properties by adjusting the type and concentration of different functional fillers.

Enhancing MXene-based supercapacitors:Role of synthesis and 3D architectures

MXene has been the limelight for studies on electrode active materials,aiming at developing supercapacitors with boosted energy density to meet the emerging influx of wearable and portable electronic devices.Despite its various desirable properties including intrinsic flexibility,high specific surface area,excellent metallic conductivity and unique abundance of surface functionalities,its full potential for electrochemical performance is hindered by the notorious restacking phenomenon of MXene nanosheets.Ascribed to its two-dimensional(2D)nature and surface functional groups,inevitable Van der Waals interactions drive the agglomeration of nanosheets,ultimately reducing the exposure of electrochemically active sites to the electrolyte,as well as severely lengthening electrolyte ion transport pathways.As a result,energy and power density deteriorate,limiting the application versatility of MXene-based supercapacitors.Constructing 3D architectures using 2D nanosheets presents as a straightforward yet ingenious approach to mitigate the fatal flaws of MXene.However,the sheer number of distinct methodologies reported,thus far,calls for a systematic review that unravels the rationale behind such 3D MXene structural designs.Herein,this review aims to serve this purpose while also scrutinizing the structure–property relationship to correlate such structural modifications to their ensuing electrochemical performance enhancements.Besides,the physicochemical properties of MXene play fundamental roles in determining the effective charge storage capabilities of 3D MXene-based electrodes.This largely depends on different MXene synthesis techniques and synthesis condition variations,hence,elucidated in this review as well.Lastly,the challenges and perspectives for achieving viable commercialization of MXene-based supercapacitor electrodes are highlighted.

Multidimensional Perspectives on the Teaching and Practice of Typography Design

With the deepening of the curriculum teaching reform in colleges and universities,the teaching reform of art design professional courses is imperative.The study found that the current art design professional font design course teaching there are more solidified teaching methods,students operating ability is relatively homogenised,the teaching content to the"westernised"based,resulting in poor adaptability of students and other prominent problems.This paper starts from the"three effects"of"effect","efficiency"and"effectiveness",and adopts a multi-dimensional and emotional thinking perspective to carry out the curriculum of typeface design.This paper starts from the"three effects"of"effect","efficiency"and"effectiveness",and adopts a multi-dimensional and emotional perspective of thinking to carry out the teaching and practice of typeface design in order to strengthen the visual information of Chinese culture,and at the same time,to explore the creative potential of the students,so as to improve the students'innovation and creativity.

Meta-analysis of CO_(2) conversion,energy efficiency,and other performance data of plasma-catalysis reactors with the open access PIONEER database

This paper brings the comparison of performances of CO_(2)conversion by plasma and plasma-assisted catalysis based on the data collected from literature in this field,organised in an open access online database.This tool is open to all users to carry out their own analyses,but also to contributors who wish to add their data to the database in order to improve the relevance of the comparisons made,and ultimately to improve the efficiency of CO_(2)conversion by plasma-catalysis.The creation of this database and database user interface is motivated by the fact that plasma-catalysis is a fast-growing field for all CO_(2)conversion processes,be it methanation,dry reforming of methane,methanolisation,or others.As a result of this rapid increase,there is a need for a set of standard procedures to rigorously compare performances of different systems.However,this is currently not possible because the fundamental mechanisms of plasma-catalysis are still too poorly understood to define these standard procedures.Fortunately however,the accumulated data within the CO_(2)plasma-catalysis community has become large enough to warrant so-called“big data”studies more familiar in the fields of medicine and the social sciences.To enable comparisons between multiple data sets and make future research more effective,this work proposes the first database on CO_(2)conversion performances by plasma-catalysis open to the whole community.This database has been initiated in the framework of a H_(2)0_(2)0 European project and is called the“PIONEER Data Base”.The database gathers a large amount of CO_(2)conversion performance data such as conversion rate,energy efficiency,and selectivity for numerous plasma sources coupled with or without a catalyst.Each data set is associated with metadata describing the gas mixture,the plasma source,the nature of the catalyst,and the form of coupling with the plasma.Beyond the database itself,a data extraction tool with direct visualisation features or advanced filtering functionalities has been developed and is available online to the public.The simple and fast visualisation of the state of the art puts new results into context,identifies literal gaps in data,and consequently points towards promising research routes.More advanced data extraction illustrates the impact that the database can have in the understanding of plasma-catalyst coupling.Lessons learned from the review of a large amount of literature during the setup of the database lead to best practice advice to increase comparability between future CO_(2)plasma-catalytic studies.Finally,the community is strongly encouraged to contribute to the database not only to increase the visibility of their data but also the relevance of the comparisons allowed by this tool.

Multi-layer perceptron-based data-driven multiscale modelling of granular materials with a novel Frobenius norm-based internal variable

One objective of developing machine learning(ML)-based material models is to integrate them with well-established numerical methods to solve boundary value problems(BVPs).In the family of ML models,recurrent neural networks(RNNs)have been extensively applied to capture history-dependent constitutive responses of granular materials,but these multiple-step-based neural networks are neither sufficiently efficient nor aligned with the standard finite element method(FEM).Single-step-based neural networks like the multi-layer perceptron(MLP)are an alternative to bypass the above issues but have to introduce some internal variables to encode complex loading histories.In this work,one novel Frobenius norm-based internal variable,together with the Fourier layer and residual architectureenhanced MLP model,is crafted to replicate the history-dependent constitutive features of representative volume element(RVE)for granular materials.The obtained ML models are then seamlessly embedded into the FEM to solve the BVP of a biaxial compression case and a rigid strip footing case.The obtained solutions are comparable to results from the FEM-DEM multiscale modelling but achieve significantly improved efficiency.The results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed internal variable in enabling MLP to capture highly nonlinear constitutive responses of granular materials.

Elucidating the clinical and immunological value of m6A regulatormediated methylation modification patterns in adrenocortical carcinoma

N6-methyladenosine methylation(m6A)is a common type of epigenetic alteration that prominently affects the prognosis of tumor patients.However,it is unknown how the m6A regulator affects the tumor microenvironment(TME)cell infiltration in adrenocortical carcinoma(ACC)and how it affects the prognosis of ACC patients yet.The m6A alteration patterns of 112 ACC patients were evaluated,furthermore,the association with immune infiltration cell features was investigated.The unsupervised clustering method was applied to typify the m6A alteration patterns of ACC patients.The principal component analysis(PCA)technique was taken to create the m6A score to assess the alteration pattern in specific malignancies.We found two independent patterns of m6A alteration in ACC patients.The TME cell infiltration features were significantly in accordance with phenotypes of tumor immune-inflamed and immune desert in both patterns.The m6Ascore also served as an independent predictive factor in ACC patients.The somatic copy number variation(CNV)and patients prognosis can be predicted by m6A alteration patterns.Moreover,the ACC patients with high m6A scores had better overall survival(OS)and higher efficiency in immune checkpoint blockade therapy.Our work demonstrated the significance of m6A alteration to the ACC patients immunotherapy.The individual m6A alteration patterns analysis might contribute to ACC patients prognosis prediction and immunotherapy choice.

A Study of Hie and LBP: The First Step to Improve Subjective Well-Being

Backgrounds: Health does not only physical health, therefore, we need to study it from various viewpoints. Many Japanese female complain of a Hie or a low back pain (LBP), which they reduce their subjective well-being. We analyze. Those patients often have acupuncture therapy. In this study, we analyze the characteristics of Hie and LBP, the satisfaction level of alternative therapy and we pursue a tip to improve subjective well-being. Methods: Of 1000 women, Hie (+)/Hie (−) or LBP (+)/LBP (−), we compared their body temperature (BT) (axilla) and body mass index (BMI). Furthermore, the Chi test identified ten factors of “body” and seven “mind” information. Results: In the result of BT (axilla) while LBP indicated a significant difference. Both Hie and LBP showed difference in the opposite direction. Hie did now show such clear differences in “body” information. However, interestingly, all seven questions in the “mind” information showed statistical difference. Discussion and conclusion: One reason why those patients have acupuncture therapy may acupuncture therapy traditionally has not separate “mind” and “body” and it has the concept of “mind-body unity”. To improve subjective well-being, first we need to focus on “Mind” as well as “mind-body unity”. Mental-health support is important for patients with Hie or LBP to reduce physiological stress.

Thermomechanical and Hydrous Effect of Heavy Fuel Oil in a Building Material Based on Silty Clayey Soil

This study focuses on the use of heavy fuel oil in construction in Burkina Faso.Mixed with silty and/or clay soil,it is used as a coating to reinforce the walls of raw soil constructions which are very sensitive to water.The interest of this paper is to shed light on the thermomechanical and above all water effects of heavy fuel oil on a sample of silty clayey soil.To achieve this,we used heavy fuel oil added in different proportions to silty clayey soil,to make sample of bricks on which tests were carried out.At the end of the experimental tests carried out on materials made(bricks)with our soil sample,it appears that heavy fuel oil moderately reduces the mechanical resistance of bricks and slightly increases thermal diffusion through them.On the contrary,we note a very good water resistance of the bricks thanks to the heavy fuel oil,in particular their water absorption by capillarity.This confirms that the mixture of heavy fuel oil and a silty-clayey soil used as a coating makes it possible to prevent the infiltration of water into the walls of raw soil constructions.However,its use as a construction material does not guarantee very good mechanical resistance,and slightly increases thermal diffusion.

Synthesis and Conductivity Characterization of Anti-Perovskite Na3OX Solid Electrolytes for All Solid Na-Ion Batteries

Solid electrolytes for all solid sodium-ion batteries have been attracting much attention as an alternative energy storage system, which have the advantage of being extremely safe because it can be charged quickly and is nonflammable. We have synthesized anti-perovskite type Na3OX (X = Br, and I) electrolytes with high purity, by reactions of halogen mixtures with sodium oxides. After mixing, it was filled in an alumina crucible and heated for 6 hours at 330°C. It was confirmed that a large crystal strain was introduced by eutectication, which might reduce the activation energy of Na ion conduction and lead to an improvement of the conductivity. A relatively higher ionic conductivity of σ = 1.55 × 10-7 S/cm at 60°C has been obtained for Na3OBr0.6I0.4, which is about three orders higher than that in literature. A different ratio of X (X = Br, I) ions was added into sodium oxide to make the Na3OX crystal. The influence of strain introduction on optimizing the bottleneck and improving the conductivity was discussed.

Review of the cutting edge technologies for weed control in field crops

In 21st century,the rapid increase in population and industrialization not only limits the per capita arable land for crop production but also limits the productive potential of soil and agricultural crops due to the negative impacts of anthropogenic climate change.Besides the abiotic factors of the environment,among biotic factors limiting productivity,weeds contribute the maximum.Due to various limitations in conventional weed control methods,integrated weed management(IWM)practices have evolved for effective weed management in agriculture.In this era of information and technological evolution,artificial intelligence is moving at a faster pace in every sector to address the issues of various dimensions.The use of deep learning,machine learning,and artificial neural networks in AI-enabled robots and unmanned aerial vehicles,along with multi-and hyper-spectral image sensors,make the tools capable enough for quick and efficient weed management for harnessing the ultimate productive potential of different fields crops.No doubt,the IWM practices designed for various crops in different countries in different ecologies have advantages over the individual and traditional approaches to weed control,but the use of these AI-enabled software and tools can save time,resources,money,and labor when used along with the best IWM method.Sensor-based weed identification,mapping,and automation can be done for precise and effective management of weed flora using these modern approaches,which will be environmentally friendly and have a broader scope for achieving global food security.

Microstructures and mechanical properties of extruded 2024 aluminum alloy reinforced by FeNiCrCoAl_3 particles

Different proportions of commercial 2024 aluminum alloy powder and FeNiCrCoA13 high entropy alloy （HEA） powder were ball-milled （BM） for different time. The powder was consolidated by hot extrusion method. The microstructures of the milled powder and bulk alloy were examined by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. Mechanical properties of the extruded alloy were examined by mechanical testing machine. The results show that after BM, the particle size and microstructures of the mixed alloy powder change obviously. After 48 h BM, the average size of mixed powder is about 30 nm, and then after hot extrusion, the average size of grains reaches about 70 rim. The compressive strength of the extruded alloy reaches 710 MPa under certain conditions of milling time and composition. As a result of the identification of the nano-/micro-strueture-property relationship of the samples, such high strength is attributed mainly to the nanocrystalline grains of a（Al） and nanoscaled FeNiCrCoAl3 particles, and the fine secondary phase of Al2Cu and Fe-rich phases.

Effect of mechanical alloying and sintering process on microstructure and mechanical properties of Al-Ni-Y-Co-La alloy

Al86Ni7Y4.5Co1La1.5 （mole fraction, %） alloy powder was produced by argon gas atomization process. After high-energy ball milling, the powder was consolidated by vacuum hot press sintering and spark plasma sintering （SPS） under different process conditions. The microstructure and morphology of the powder and consolidated bulk sample were examined by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. It is shown that amorphous phase appears when ball milling time is more than 100 h, and the bulk sample consolidated by SPS can maintain amorphous/ nanocrystalline microstructure but has lower relative density. A compressive strength of 650 MPa of Al86Ni7Y4.5Co1La1.5 nanostructured samples is achieved by vacuum hot extrusion （VHE）.

Effect of mechanical alloying time and rotation speed on evolution of CNTs/Al-2024 composite powders

Carbon nanotubes （CNTs） reinforced aluminum matrix composites were fabricated by mechanical milling followed by hot extrusion. The commercial Al-2024 alloy with 1% CNTs was milled under various ball milling conditions. Microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of the milled powder and consolidated bulk materials were examined by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, field emission scanning electron microscopy （FESEM） and mechanical test. The effect of CNTs concentration and milling time on the microstructure of the CNTs/Al-2024 composites was studied. Based on the structural observation, the formation behavior of nanostructure in ball milled powder was discussed. The results show that the increment in the milling time and ration speed, for a fixed amount of CNTs, causes a reduction of the particle size of powders resulting from MM. The finest particle size was obtained after 15 h of milling. Moreover, the composite had an increase in tensile strength due to the small amount of CNTs addition.

Effects of binder strength and aggregate size on the compressive strength and void ratio of porous concrete

To test the influence of binder strength, porous concretes with 4 binder strengths between 30.0-135.0 MPa and 5 void ratios between 15%-35% were tested. The results indicated that for the same aggregate, the rates of strength reduction due to the increases in void ratio were the same for binders with different strengths. To study the influence of aggregate size, 3 single size aggregates with nominal sizes of 5.0, 13.0 and 20.0 mm （Nos. 7, 6 and 5 according to JIS A 5001） were used to make porous concrete. The strengths of porous concrete are found to be dependent on aggregate size. The rate of strength reduction of porous concrete with small aggregate size is found to be higher than that with larger aggregate size. At the same void ratio, the strength of porous concrete with large aggregate is larger than that with small aggregate. The general equations for porous concrete are related to compressive strength and void ratio for different binder strengths and aggregate sizes.

Status and perspectives of hierarchical porous carbon materials in terms of high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries,although a promising candidate of next-generation energy storage devices,are hindered by some bottlenecks in their roadmap toward commercialization.The key challenges include solving the issues such as low utilization of active materials,poor cyclic stability,poor rate performance,and unsatisfactory Coulombic efficiency due to the inherent poor electrical and ionic conductivity of sulfur and its discharged products(e.g.,Li2S2 and Li_(2)S),dissolution and migration of polysulfide ions in the electrolyte,unstable solid electrolyte interphase and dendritic growth on an odes,and volume change in both cathodes and anodes.Owing to the high specific surface area,pore volume,low density,good chemical stability,and particularly multimodal pore sizes,hierarchical porous carbon(HPC)mate rials have received considerable attention for circumventing the above pro blems in Li-S batteries.Herein,recent progress made in the synthetic methods and deployment of HPC materials for various components including sulfur cathodes,separators and interlayers,and lithium anodes in Li-S batteries is presented and summarized.More importantly,the correlation between the structures(pore volume,specific surface area,degree of pores,and heteroatom-doping)of HPC and the electrochemical performances of Li-S batteries is elaborated.Finally,a discussion on the challenges and future perspectives associated with HPCs for Li-S batteries is provided.

Synthesis and applications of MOF-derived porous nanostructures

Metal organic frameworks(MOFs) represent a class of porous material which is formed by strong bonds between metal ions and organic linkers. By careful selection of constituents, MOFs can exhibit very high surface area, large pore volume, and excellent chemical stability.Research on synthesis, structures and properties of various MOFs has shown that they are promising materials for many applications, such as energy storage, gas storage, heterogeneous catalysis and sensing. Apart from direct use, MOFs have also been used as support substrates for nanomaterials or as sacrificial templates/precursors for preparation of various functional nanostructures. In this review, we aim to present the most recent development of MOFs as precursors for the preparation of various nanostructures and their potential applications in energy-related devices and processes. Specifically, this present survey intends to push the boundaries and covers the literatures from the year 2013 to early 2017,on supercapacitors, lithium ion batteries, electrocatalysts, photocatalyst, gas sensing, water treatment, solar cells, and carbon dioxide capture.Finally, an outlook in terms of future challenges and potential prospects towards industrial applications are also discussed.

Prediction about residual stress and microhardness of material subjected to multiple overlap laser shock processing using artificial neural network

In this work,the nickel-based powder metallurgy superalloy FGH95 was selected as experimental material,and the experimental parameters in multiple overlap laser shock processing(LSP)treatment were selected based on orthogonal experimental design.The experimental data of residual stress and microhardness were measured in the same depth.The residual stress and microhardness laws were investigated and analyzed.Artificial neural network(ANN)with four layers(4-N-(N-1)-2)was applied to predict the residual stress and microhardness of FGH95 subjected to multiple overlap LSP.The experimental data were divided as training-testing sets in pairs.Laser energy,overlap rate,shocked times and depth were set as inputs,while residual stress and microhardness were set as outputs.The prediction performances with different network configuration of developed ANN models were compared and analyzed.The developed ANN model with network configuration of 4-7-6-2 showed the best predict performance.The predicted values showed a good agreement with the experimental values.In addition,the correlation coefficients among all the parameters and the effect of LSP parameters on materials response were studied.It can be concluded that ANN is a useful method to predict residual stress and microhardness of material subjected to LSP when with limited experimental data.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti−Nb−Fe−Zr alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus

Zr was added to Ti−Nb−Fe alloys to develop low elastic modulus and high strengthβ-Ti alloys for biomedical applications.Ingots of Ti−12Nb−2Fe−(2,4,6,8,10)Zr(at.%)were prepared by arc melting and then subjected to homogenization,cold rolling,and solution treatments.The phases and microstructures of the alloys were analyzed by optical microscopy,X-ray diffraction,and transmission electron microscopy.The mechanical properties were measured by tensile tests.The results indicate that Zr and Fe cause a remarkable solid-solution strengthening effect on the alloys;thus,all the alloys show yield and ultimate tensile strengths higher than 510 MPa and 730 MPa,respectively.Zr plays a weak role in the deformation mechanism.Further,twinning occurs in all the deformed alloys and is beneficial to both strength and plasticity.Ti−12Nb−2Fe−(8,10)Zr alloys with metastableβphases show low elastic modulus,high tensile strength,and good plasticity and are suitable candidate materials for biomedical implants.

Frontiers of CO_(2)Capture and Utilization(CCU)towards Carbon Neutrality

CO_(2)capture,utilization,and storage(CCUS)technology is a rare option for the large-scale use of fossil fuels in a low-carbon way,which will definitely play a part in the journey towards carbon neutrality.Within the CCUS nexus,CCU is especially interesting because these processes will establish a new“atmosphere-to-atmosphere”carbon cycle and thus indirectly offer huge potential in carbon reduction.This study focuses on the new positioning of CCUS in the carbon neutrality scenario and aims to identify potential cutting-edge/disruptive CCU technologies that may find important application opportunities during the decarbonization of the energy and industrial system.To this end,direct air capture(DAC),flexible metal-framework materials(MOFs)for CO_(2)capture,integrated CO_(2)capture and conversion(ICCC),and electrocatalytic CO_(2)reduction(ECR)were selected,and their general introduction,the importance to carbon neutrality,and most up-to-date research progress are summarized.

Recent Advances in Fabrication and Characterization of Graphene-Polymer Nanocomposites

Graphene has attracted considerable interest over recent years due to its intrinsic mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. Incorporation of small quantity of graphene fillers into polymer can create novel nanocomposites with im- proved structural and functional properties. This review introduced the recent progress in fabrication, properties and potential applications of graphene-polymer composites. Recent research clearly confirmed that graphene-polymer na-nocomposites are promising materials with applications ranging from transportation, biomedical systems, sensors, elec-trodes for solar cells and electromagnetic interference. In addition to graphene-polymer nanocomposites, this article also introduced the synergistic effects of hybrid graphene-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the properties of composites. Finally, some technical problems associated with the development of these nanocomposites are discussed.