Improving the photocatalytic activity of graphitic carbon nitride by thermal treatment in a high-pressure hydrogen atmosphere

Extending visible light absorption range and suppressing the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers are always important topics in developing efficient solar-driven photocatalysts. In this study, the thermal treatment process at 400 °C in a high-pressure hydrogen atmosphere was applied to modify graphitic carbon nitride. Compared to the normal atmospheric hydrogen treatment process, this process has the merit of producing nitrogen deficient graphitic carbon nitride in high-yield. The optimal photocatalytic activity of modified graphitic carbon nitride was demonstrated by controlling the treatment duration in the hydrogen atmosphere.The changes in the crystal structure, microstructure and optical properties of carbon nitrides were investigated by several characterizations. The relationship between the photocatalytic activity and structures of graphitic carbon nitride was preliminarily established. The results obtained in this study could provide some new ways of improving the activity of graphitic carbon nitride based photocatalyst.     

Blockage of the NLRP3 inflammasome by MCC950 improves anti-tumor immune responses in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

The NLRP3 inflammasome is a critical innate immune pathway responsible for producing active interleukin (IL)-1β, which is associated with tumor development and immunity. However, the mechanisms regulating the inflammatory microenvironment, tumorigenesis and tumor immunity are unclear. Herein, we show that the NLRP3 inflammasome was over-expressed in human HNSCC tissues and that the IL-1β concentration was increased in the peripheral blood of HNSCC patients. Additionally, elevated NLRP3 inflammasome levels were detected in tumor tissues of Tgfbr1/Pten 2cKO HNSCC mice, and elevated IL-1β levels were detected in the peripheral blood serum, spleen, draining lymph nodes and tumor tissues. Blocking NLRP3 inflammasome activation using MCC950 remarkably reduced IL-1β production in an HNSCC mouse model and reduced the numbers of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), regulatory T cells (Tregs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). Moreover, inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasome activation increased the numbers of CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells in HNSCC mice. Notably, the numbers of exhausted PD-1⁺ and Tim3⁺ T cells were significantly reduced. A human HNSCC tissue microarray showed that NLRP3 inflammasome expression was correlated with the expression of CD8 and CD4, the Treg marker Foxp3, the MDSC markers CD11b and CD33, and the TAM markers CD68 and CD163, PD-1 and Tim3. Overall, our results demonstrate that the NLRP3 inflammasome/IL-1β pathway promotes tumorigenesis in HNSCC and inactivation of this pathway delays tumor growth, accompanied by decreased immunosuppressive cell accumulation and an increased number of effector T cells. Thus, inhibition of the tumor microenvironment through the NLRP3 inflammasome/IL-1β pathway may provide a novel approach for HNSCC therapy.     

Estimation of Partially Linear Panel Data Models with Cross-Sectional Dependence

Journal of Systems Science and Complexity - This paper studies the estimation of the partially linear panel data models, allowing for cross-sectional dependence through a common factors structure....     

Learning Multi Labels from Single Label——An Extreme Weak Label Learning Algorithm

This paper presents a novel algorithm for an extreme form of weak label learning, in which only one of all relevant labels is given for each training sample. Using genetic algorithm, all of the labels in the training set are optimally divided into several non-overlapping groups to maximize the label distinguishability in every group. Multiple classifiers are trained separately and ensembled for label predictions. Experimental results show significant improvement over previous weak label learning algorithms.     

Preparation of rare-earth-modified medical stone powders and their application as conductive fillers

Traditional metal conductive fillers are expensive and prone to oxidation. Thus, the development of new conductive powders as fillers is urgently needed. A novel gaseous penetration technology was adopted to prepare La-doped medical stone powders(La-MSPs), which are inexpensive mesoporous materials, as a new kind of conductive filler material. The prepared La-MSPs attained a resistivity of 450 ?·m and were used as a filler to prepare conductive coatings with epoxy resin as the resin matrix. The influence of the La-MSPs dosage on the resistance and hardness of the coatings was also determined. The resistance and the hardness both decreased with increasing filler dosage. Finally, the optimum recipe of the conductive coatings with the most suitable fillers dosage(55 wt%) was obtained. The hardness and resistance of the coatings with 55 wt% La-MSPs were HV 4 and 5.5 × 10~7 ?, respectively.     

Optimal Switching Integrity Attacks on Sensors in Industrial Control Systems

In this article, an optimal switching integrity attack problem is investigated to study the response of feedback control systems under attack. The authors model the malicious attacks on sensors as additive norm bounded signals. The authors consider an attacker who is only capable of launching attacks to limited number of sensors once a time and changing the combinations of attacked sensors all over the time. The objective of this paper is to find the optimal switching sequence of these combinations and the optimal attack input. The authors solve this problem by transforming it into a traditional optimal control problem with new control variables vary continuously in the range [0, 1]. The optimal solutions of the new control variables are of bang-bang-type. Therefore, an algebraic switching condition and an optimal attack input can be obtained. Finally, numerical results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the methods.     

Speeding Up the GVW Algorithm via a Substituting Method

Journal of Systems Science and Complexity - The GVW algorithm is an efficient signature-based algorithm for computing Gröbner bases. In this paper, the authors consider the implementation of...     

Existence and Uniqueness Results for Quaternion-Valued Nonlinear Impulsive Differential Systems

This paper studies the existence and uniqueness conditions for the quaternion-valued nonlinear impulsive system. Firstly, a space of quaternion-valued piecewise functions is constructed and completeness of the space is also proved. Then by taking advantage of the Bielecki norm and fixed point theorem, existence and uniqueness criteria of quaternion-valued nonlinear impulsive system are obtained. At last, an example is given to illustrate our theoretical results.     

量子点敏化太阳能电池ZnO光阳极的制备及性能

先用水热法合成ZnO颗粒, 再用溶胶 凝胶法将ZnO颗粒制备成量子点敏化太阳能电池光阳极, 并通过X射线衍射(XRD)、 扫描电子显微镜(SEM)、 透射电子显微镜(TEM)、 紫外-可见吸收光谱(UV-Vis)和光电流密度 电压曲线分析不同厚度的六方纤锌矿型ZnO光阳极对量子点敏化太阳能电池性能的影响. 结果表明, 增加量子点的吸附面积可使ZnO光阳极的UV-Vis谱吸收带边红移, 进而提升太阳能电池的光电转换效率.