Efficient catalytic conversion of carbohydrates into 5-ethoxymethylfurfural over MIL-101-based sulfated porous coordination polymers

In this work, a series of MIL-101-SO3H（x） polymeric materials were prepared and further used for the first time as efficient heterogeneous catalysts for the conversion of fructose-based carbohydrates into 5-ethoxymethylfurfural（EMF） in a renewable mixed solvent system consisting of ethanol and tetrahydrofuran（THF）. The influence of –SO3H content on the acidity as well as on the catalytic activity of the porous coordination polymers in EMF production was also studied. High EMF yields of 67.7% and 54.2% could be successively obtained from fructose and inulin in the presence of MIL-101-SO;H（100） at 130 °C for 15 h.The catalyst could be reused for five times without significant loss of its activity and the recovery process was facile and simple. This work provides a new platform by application of porous coordination polymers（PCPs） for the production of the potential liquid fuel molecule EMF from biomass in a sustainable solvent system.

A compact electro-absorption modulator based on graphene photonic crystal fiber

A compact electro-absorption modulator based on graphene photonic crystal fiber is proposed. To enhance the graphene–light interaction efficiency, the innermost six air-holes of photonic crystal fiber are replaced by two large semicircular holes, and monolayer graphene is deposited on the two large semicircular holes. By optimizing the structure parameters, a strong graphene–light interaction is obtained. Moreover, the switch on–off point of the modulator is unchangeable,which is only related to the frequency of the incident light. The influence factors of this composite structure have been analyzed. The proposed modulator is compared with other graphene-based modulators, and the results show that it is filled without dielectric spacer. There are some excellent performances, such as an extinction ratio 7 dB of y-polarization mode,3-dB modulation bandwidth of 70 GHz with small footprint of 205 μm, and a consumption of energy per bit 59 pJ/bit.

Estimation of Rice Aboveground Biomass by UAV Imagery with Photosynthetic Accumulation Models

The effective and accurate aboveground biomass(AGB)estimation facilitates evaluating crop growth and site-specific crop management.Considering that rice accumulates AGB mainly through green leaf photosynthesis,we proposed the photosynthetic accumulation model(PAM)and its simplified version and compared them for estimating AGB.These methods estimate the AGB of various rice cultivars throughout the growing season by integrating vegetation index(Ⅵ)and canopy height based on images acquired by unmanned aerial vehicles(UAV).The results indicated that the correlation of Ⅵ and AGB was weak for the whole growing season of rice and the accuracy of the height model was also limited for the whole growing season.In comparison with the NDVI-based rice AGB estimation model in 2019 data(R^(2)=0.03,RMSE=603.33 g/m^(2))and canopy height(R^(2)=0.79,RMSE=283.33 g/m^(2)),the PAM calculated by NDVI and canopy height could provide a better estimate of AGB of rice(R^(2)=0.95,RMSE=136.81 g/m^(2)).Then,based on the time-series analysis of the accumulative model,a simplified photosynthetic accumulation model(SPAM)was proposed that only needs limited observations to achieve R^(2) above 0.8.The PAM and SPAM models built by using 2 years of samples successfully predicted the third year of samples and also demonstrated the robustness and generalization ability of the models.In conclusion,these methods can be easily and efficiently applied to the UAV estimation of rice AGB over the entire growing season,which has great potential to serve for large-scale field management and also for breeding.

Estimating the number of Chinese cancer patients eligible for and benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors

The total number of cancer patients who are eligible for and will benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs)in China has not been quantified.This cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the number of Chinese cancer patients with eligibility and response to ICIs based on the 2015 Chinese cancer statistics and the immune checkpoint inhibitor clinical practice guideline of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology.A total of 11 ICIs were recommended for 17 cancer types.The estimated number of eligible patients annually was 1290156(55.18%),which included 888738 males(60.05%)and 400468 females(46.67%).The estimated number of responders annually was 448972(19.20%),which included 309023 males(20.88%)and 139764 females(16.29%).Gastric cancer(n=291000,12.45%),non-small-cell lung cancer(n=289629,12.39%),and hepatocellular carcinoma(n=277100,11.85%)were the top three cancer types with the highest number of eligible patients.Non-small-cell lung cancer(n=180022,7.70%),hepatocellular carcinoma(n=75648,3.24%),and small-cell lung cancer(n=64362,2.75%)were the top three cancer types with the highest number of responders.In conclusion,ICIs provide considerable benefit in Chinese cancer patients under optimal estimation.

Single crystalline CeO_(2) nanotubes

Here,we report a facile synthetic methodology to prepare uniform single crystalline CeO_(2) nanotubes through a hydrothermal transformation of CeO_(2) nanorods in aqueous Ce(NO3)3 solution.A chemically driven etching-dissolution-deposition mechanism is proposed,involving the surface Ce^(3+)hydrolysis and dissolution at tips of nanorods and subsequent redeposition and crystallization on the outer sides of nanorods.Compared to CeO_(2) nanorods,CeO_(2) nanotubes exhibited the richer structural defects,higher reducibility and larger surface area,leading to a higher haloperoxidase-like activity.