Bismuth (Bi)-based photocatalytic materials are widely used in the field of photocatalytic degradation of wastewater. In this study, β-Bi2O3/BiOBr heterojunction photocatalysts were prepared by an in situ chemical transformation method. BiOBr molecules are arrayed to cross each other to form a pore around β-Bi2O3. The prepared photocatalyst had a large specific surface area and excellent adsorption and photocatalytic properties. The β-Bi2O3/BiOBr with a molecular ratio of 11.1% had the highest catalytic activity. The result of a degradation experiment, performed with Rhodamine B (RhB) as the target pollutant, revealed that the degradation rate reached 99.85% after 25 min under visible light irradiation. The pore structure can adsorb contaminants and the heterojunction facilitates the separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs to enhance the photocatalytic properties. The high adsorption performance and heterojunction achieved higher photocatalytic efficiency. This semiconductor photocatalyst with high adsorption performance provides a new approach to control water pollution.

We identified and characterized a new cosmocercid nematode species, Cosmocercoides wuyiensis n. sp., through microscopic examination and sequencing of the partial small ribosomal RNA gene (18S rDNA), internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) genes. The new species was isolated from the intestine of the Asiatic frog Amolops wuyiensis Liu and Hu, 1975 captured from four localities of the Anhui province in south-east China. Among the 25 recorded species of the Cosmocercoides genus, the morphology of C. wuyiensis n. sp. is closest to that of C. kiliwai and C. malayensis, which were isolated from various Mexican frog and Malaysian lizard species, respectively. However, C. wuyiensis n. sp. displayed several distinguishing features, such as small size of the male body, two spicules of unequal lengths in the male, small gubernaculum, pre-, ad- and post-cloacal caudal rosette papillae in the ratio of 18–24:2:6 and simple papillae in the ratio of 14:multiple:4, circle and number of punctation in each rosette at 1:11–16, sharply conical tail-end and the presence of lateral alae and somatic papillae in both sexes. BLAST and the phylogenetic analyses of the 18S rDNA and ITS sequences indicated that C. wuyiensis n. sp. belonged to the genus Cosmocercoides, while that of the COI gene sequence of C. wuyiensis n. sp. showed 16.36% nucleotide divergence with C. pulcher and 47.99% nucleotide divergence with C. qingtianensis. The morphological and molecular characterization of C. wuyiensis n. sp. provides new taxonomic data for this genus.

A 20-year-resolution speleothem δ18O record from southern China reveals a detailed Asian summer monsoon (ASM) history between 73.6 and 62.3 ka. ASM changes during Interstadial 19 and late MIS 4 matched Greenland temperature variations but were antiphased with Antarctic temperatures. However, long-term strengthening of the ASM in early MIS 4 agrees well with the gradual Antarctic warming, when Greenland remained in a stable cold state. More specifically, the ASM was less variable during peak interstadials in contrast to striking instabilities during stadials. These observations suggest that the factors dominating ASM variability change through time. During early MIS 4, negligible freshwater perturbations occurred in the North Atlantic, and sea-surface temperatures in the low- to midlatitude Pacific Ocean reached the modern level. Thus, an expansion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) was likely important for the long-term ASM rise. In late MIS 4, the antiphase correlation between ASM and Antarctic temperature could be attributed to freshwater inputs into the North Atlantic and a southerly positioned ITCZ. Consequently, meridional ITCZ shifts, although within a limited latitudinal band, would result in an antiphase relationship between interhemispheric climate changes. Otherwise, an in-phase correlation could be expected if the centroid of ITCZ is stable along the equator.

Existing data on folate status and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) prognosis are scarce. We prospectively examined whether serum folate concentrations at diagnosis were associated with liver cancer-specific survival (LCSS) and overall survival (OS) among 982 patients with newly diagnosed, previously untreated HCC, who were enrolled in the Guangdong Liver Cancer Cohort (GLCC) study between September 2013 and February 2017. Serum folate concentrations were measured using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Cox proportional hazards models were performed to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % CI by sex-specific quartile of serum folate. Compared with patients in the third quartile of serum folate, patients in the lowest quartile had significantly inferior LCSS (HR = 1·48; 95 % CI 1·05, 2·09) and OS (HR = 1·43; 95 % CI 1·03, 1·99) after adjustment for non-clinical and clinical prognostic factors. The associations were not significantly modified by sex, age at diagnosis, alcohol drinking status and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage. However, there were statistically significant interactions on both multiplicative and additive scale between serum folate and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels or smoking status and the associations of lower serum folate with worse LCSS and OS were only evident among patients with CRP > 3·0 mg/l or current smokers. An inverse association with LCSS were also observed among patients with liver damage score ≥3. These results suggest that lower serum folate concentrations at diagnosis are independently associated with worse HCC survival, most prominently among patients with systemic inflammation and current smokers. A future trial of folate supplementation seems to be promising in HCC patients with lower folate status.

A bottom-feed omni-directional CP (circularly polarized) antenna array is proposed in this letter. The antenna array is composed of four elements (two printed ZPS (zero-phase-shift) line loops and two half-wavelength dipoles). The four elements are fed with the same phase and amplitude. The ZPS line loops provide the horizontal polarization while the dipoles provide the vertical polarization. Therefore, omni-directional circular polarization is formed in the far field. The feeding network consists of a 1–4 T-shaped power divider formed by parallel strip lines. In order to balance the amplitude of the feeding coaxial cable, the structure is used in the bottom to transfer parallel strip line to micro-strip line. Besides, the loops and the dipoles are placed on the different side of the network to guarantee the omni-directional radiation property. The measured impedance bandwidth of the fabricated antenna is 0.13 GHz (2.40–2.53 GHz) and the measured maximum CP gain at 2.45 GHz is 4.8 dBic.

Current Motion Compensation (MOCO) methods using Inertial Navigation System (INS)/Global Positioning System (GPS) integrated systems have provided an important advance in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, but most of these methods only work well over a short imaging period. With the development of high-resolution SAR that provides image gathering over long periods, the need for higher levels of INS/GPS performance than normally available is desired. The higher requirement of INS/GPS for SAR MOCO is two-fold: (1) the accurate knowledge of location information, and (2) the smoothness of relative change in navigation error. In this paper, we design an INS/GPS architecture with dual-filter correction to obtain accurate absolute velocity and position measurement information with smooth low relative error noise over a long image gathering period. Real SAR data experimental results show that the proposed method effectively improves the MOCO performance of INS/GPS with long SAR imaging periods, in which the SAR azimuth resolution reaches 1·45 m, which is very close to the design value of 1 m.

Late watergrass [Echinochloa phyllopogon (Stapf) Koso-Pol.] is one of the most persistent weeds in rice fields and shows resistance to some acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides, such as penoxsulam. Previous studies of E. phyllopogon’s herbicide resistance have focused on non–target site resistance mechanisms. In this study, E. phyllopogon populations from Heilong Jiang Province, China, that were possibly resistant to penoxsulam were used to identify the target site–based mechanisms of resistance. Population HSRH-520 showed a 25.4-fold higher resistance to penoxsulam than the sensitive population, HSRH-538. HSRH-520 was resistant to other ALS inhibitors, with resistance indexes ranging from 17.1 to 166. Target-gene sequence analysis revealed two different ALS genes in E. phyllopogon; a Pro-197-Ser substitution occurred in the ALS-2 gene of HSRH-520. In vitro activity assays revealed that the penoxsulam concentrations required to inhibit 50% of the ALS activity were 13.7 times higher in HSRH-520 than in HSRH-538. Molecular-docking tests showed that the Pro-197-Ser mutation reduced the binding affinity between ALS and ALS inhibitors belonging to the triazolopyrimidine, sulfonylaminocarbonyltriazolinone, and sulfonylurea families, and there were almost no effects on binding affinity when the ALS inhibitors were of the pyrimidinylthiobenzoate and imidazolinone families. Overall, the results indicated and verified that the Pro-197-Ser mutation leads to increased ALS activity by reducing the binding affinity of the inhibitor and ALS. This is the first report on the Pro-197-Ser mutation in the complete ALS gene of E. phyllopogon and will aid future research of target site–based resistance mechanisms of E. phyllopogon to ALS inhibitors.

The antibacterial hydrogels can be widely used in the biomedical area owing to their excellent properties. The main limitation of antibacterial hydrogels is their poor mechanical strength. In this study, the novel hydrogels were fabricated with a mixture of silk fibroin (SF), chitosan (CH), agarose (AG), and silver nanoparticles (SNPs) via facile reaction condition without inorganic substances. The mechanical property of these fabricated hydrogels can be modulated by the concentration of SF or AG. The rheological studies demonstrated enhanced elasticity of CH-doped hydrogels. Because of the presence of CH and Ag in hydrogels, the antimicrobial property against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria was exhibited. Cytocompatibility test proved the very low toxic nature of the hydrogels. In addition, these composite hydrogels have a smaller porosity, higher swelling ratio, and good compatibility, indicating their great potential for biomedical application.

Barnyardgrass [Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P. Beauv.] is acknowledged to be the most troublesome weed in rice fields in Anhui and Jiangsu provinces of China. It cannot be effectively controlled using certain acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides, including penoxsulam. Echinochloa crus-galli samples with suspected resistance to penoxsulam were collected to identify the target site–based mechanism underlying this resistance. Populations AXXZ-2 and JNRG-2 showed 33- and 7.3-fold resistance to penoxsulam, respectively, compared with the susceptible JLGY-3 population. Cross-resistance to other ALS inhibitors was reported in AXXZ-2 but not in JNRG-2, and occasionally showed higher sensitivity than JLGY-3. In vitro ALS activity assays revealed that penoxsulam concentrations required to inhibit 50% of ALS activity were 11 and 5.2 times greater in AXXZ-2 and JNRG-2, respectively, than in JLGY-3. DNA and predicted amino acid sequence analyses of ALS revealed Ala-205-Val and Ala-122-Gly substitutions in AXXZ-2 and JNRG-2, respectively. Our results indicate that these substitutions in ALS are at least partially responsible for resistance to penoxsulam.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Our aim is to test whether osteocyte-specific CXCL12 expression is critical to exercise-driven bone formation. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: All procedures were approved by the NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. We generated male and female mice in which CXCL12 was deleted from OCYs (CXCL12ΔOCY) by crossing CXCL12 floxed mice and 10kb DMP1-Cre transgenic mice (gifts from Drs. Geoffrey Gurtner and Lynda Bonewald, respectively). The 10kb DMP1-Cre has been shown to be robustly expressed in odontoblasts and OCYs, with little to no activity in cells from non-mineralized tissues (Lu+ J Dent Res 2007). Growing male and female mice (n=3-8/group) were given fluorochrome labels every two weeks between 4-16 weeks of age, to monitor the role of CXCL12 during development. A second group, of adult 16-week-old mice (n=5/group), were subjected to tibial axial cyclic loading (1200µɛ, 2Hz, 120cycles, 3days/wk for 2 wks) (Liu+ Bone 2018). Basal and load-induced periosteal (Ps) and endosteal (Es) mineralizing surface (MS/BS, %), mineral apposition (MAR, µm/day) and bone formation rates (BFR/BS, µm3/µm2/year) were calculated (Dempster+ JBMR.2013) at mid-length. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: No significant differences were detected in basal bone formation during development. However, relative load-induced Ps MAR (rMAR) was reduced by 50% in female (p=0.02) and 75% in male (p=0.002) CXCL12ΔOCY mice; and similarly, Ps rBFR/BS was reduced by 50% in female (p=0.01) and 70% in male (p=0.001) CXCL12ΔOCY mice (Figure 1). Es bone formation was not affected by CXCL12 deletion. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: In summary, osteocyte-specific CXCL12 expression plays a critical role in exercise-driven periosteal new bone formation, suggesting that CXCL12 signaling may positively regulate osteogenic differentiation and/or mature osteoblast function. Further underlying mechanisms are currently being explored. Thus, osteocyte-specific CXCL12 signaling may be a promising target to enhance load-induced bone formation in patients with compromised ability to form new bone.

Current available methods to detect cow milk adulteration or accidental contamination of goat milk are both laborious and time consuming. The aim of this technical research communication was to develop a simple, rapid, specific and sensitive method for quantitative detection of cow milk in goat milk. A competitive lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) strip was developed using a specific monoclonal antibody (mAb) labeled with colloidal gold nanoparticles (GNPs) for specifically binding to cow milk casein. The detection limit of this rapid detection was 0.07% of cow milk in goat milk, providing equal specificity and higher sensitivity when compared with a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). These result suggest that the established rapid GNPs-LFIA strip could be used for monitoring cow milk adulteration/contamination of goat milk.

Small additions of boron can remarkably improve the long-term creep resistance of 9–12% Cr steels. The improvement has been attributed to boron segregation to grain boundaries during quenching, and subsequent boron incorporation into certain families of precipitates during tempering. However, the detailed mechanisms are not yet fully understood. Atom probe tomography (APT) is an excellent technique for gaining insights into boron distribution, however, in order to acquire accurate analysis of boron in 9–12% Cr steels using APT, there are several key challenges. In order to better understand and address these challenges, we developed a novel method for site-specific APT specimen preparation, which enables convenient preparation of specimens containing specifically selected grain boundaries positioned approximately perpendicular to the axis of the APT tip. Additionally, when analyzing boron at boundaries and in carbides (as diluted solute) and borides, a widening of the profile of boron distribution compared to other elements was repeatedly observed. This phenomenon is particularly analyzed and discussed in light of the evaporation field of different elements. Finally, the possible effects of detector dead-time on quantitative analysis of boron in metal borides are discussed. A simple method using 10B correction was used to obtain good quantification.

Energy chirp compensation of the electron bunch (e-bunch) in a laser wakefield accelerator, which is caused by the phase space rotation in the gradient wakefield, has been applied in many schemes for low energy spread e-bunch generation. We report the experimental observation of energy chirp compensation of the e-bunch in a nonlinear laser wakefield accelerator with a negligible beam loading effect. By adjusting the acceleration length using a wedge-roof block, the chirp compensation of the accelerated e-bunch was observed via an electron spectrometer. Apart from this, some significant parameters for the compensation process, such as the longitudinal dispersion and wakefield slope at the bunch position, were also estimated. A detailed comparison between experiment and simulation shows good agreement of the wakefield and bunch parameters. These results give a clear demonstration of the longitudinal characteristics of the wakefield in a plasma and the bunch dynamics, which are important for better control of a compact laser wakefield accelerator.

In this study, we investigate a new simple scheme using a planar undulator (PU) together with a properly dispersed electron beam ( $e$  beam) with a large energy spread ( ${\sim}1\%$ ) to enhance the free-electron laser (FEL) gain. For a dispersed $e$ beam in a PU, the resonant condition is satisfied for the center electrons, while the frequency detuning increases for the off-center electrons, inhibiting the growth of the radiation. The PU can act as a filter for selecting the electrons near the beam center to achieve the radiation. Although only the center electrons contribute, the radiation can be enhanced significantly owing to the high-peak current of the beam. Theoretical analysis and simulation results indicate that this method can be used for the improvement of the radiation performance, which has great significance for short-wavelength FEL applications.