Showing papers by "Solvay published in 2022"
TL;DR: In this article , a double-variable hydraulic transformer (DVHT) is proposed to solve the problem of low efficiency and poor control effect of hydraulic transformers, which limit its practical application.
Abstract: In recent years, with the aggravation of energy crisis and environmental pollution, the Common Pressure Rail (CPR) system with great energy saving potential has become a research hotspot in the hydraulic research area. However, as the key component of CPR system, hydraulic transformers have the problems of low efficiency and poor control effect, which limit its practical application. The main contribution of the paper is to propose a new type of double-variable hydraulic transformer (DVHT) and address the control issue. As the displacement is adjustable, DVHT can achieve pressure regulation while maintaining the cylinder speed in the high-efficiency area. According to the system characteristics, a new control strategy is designed for the two control variables, and an adaptive integral terminal sliding mode controller is proposed to guarantee the robustness of the system. The simulation results prove the feasibility of the DVHT and show that the control method can achieve multitasking control and effectively improve the control effect.
24 citations
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors used an integrated glovebox-atomic layer deposition (ALD)- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) setup to in-situ investigate the pristine Li surface and the surface composition after Ar, H2, O2, N2 and NH3 plasma treatment processes.
16 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a commercial epoxy coating was modified by adding microcapsules composed of a poly(methyl methacrylate) shell and a core of ionic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) oligomers.
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a simple fluorescence sensing device based on an approach of solvent-free magnetic-tip microextraction into a single drop was developed, which was used to extract chloramphenicol (CAP).
Abstract: In this work, a simple fluorescence sensing device based on an approach of solvent-free magnetic-tip microextraction into a single drop was developed. As proof-of-principle, the strategy was used to extract chloramphenicol (CAP). CAP was selectively recognized by a DNA-aptamer and replaced by a trigger in the assay. By combining DNA signal amplification, DNA walkers constructed DNA chains with G-quadruplex/protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) as the branches on the surface of the added Fe3O4 nanosheets (NTs). A pipette tip-based magnetic bar was utilized to separate the NTs from the sample solution in the form of a single drop (4 μL) containing the analyte, at the tip. In this way, the fluorescent signal of G-quadruplex/PPIX, which served as the proxy of the CAP, was extremely enhanced and could be directly detected via a nanodrop spectrophotometric platform. This novel method was applied to the fluorescence detection of CAP in genuine milk and urine samples. It achieved a low limit of detection of 26.5 aM (0.00856 fg/mL), and a linear dynamic range from 0.1 fM to 1 nM with good linearity (r = 0.998).
9 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a solid micellar Ru catalyst (Ru(III)@MCM) was proposed for aqueous phase hydrogenation of carbonyl groups, which demonstrates exceptional selectivity, activity, and stability in comparison with conventional metallic catalysts.
Abstract: Catalytic processes in water have a lower environmental impact, cost, and toxicity than in organic solvents. Considering the high content of water in biomass, it would be natural to use aqueous phase catalytic technology for the production of valuable products. However, in the aqueous phase, most metal-based catalysts suffer from low activity, low selectivity and deactivation due to metal oxidation and leaching. In this paper, we propose a solid micellar Ru catalyst (Ru(III)@MCM) based on single-site Ru(III) species stabilized by cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA+) surfactant and immobilized in the walls of MCM-41 for the selective aqueous phase hydrogenation of carbonyl groups. This catalyst demonstrates exceptional selectivity, activity, and stability in comparison with conventional metallic catalysts. DFT modeling suggests that the reaction proceeds via heterolytic dissociation of hydrogen, forming a Ru-Hydride species, and subsequent hydride transfer to the carbonyl group. Water plays a key role in avoiding product inhibition.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , a simple fluorescence sensing device based on an approach of solvent-free magnetic-tip microextraction into a single drop was developed, which achieved a low limit of detection of 26.5 aM (0.00856 fg/mL), and a linear dynamic range from 0.1 fM to 1 nM with good linearity.
Abstract: In this work, a simple fluorescence sensing device based on an approach of solvent-free magnetic-tip microextraction into a single drop was developed. As proof-of-principle, the strategy was used to extract chloramphenicol (CAP). CAP was selectively recognized by a DNA-aptamer and replaced by a trigger in the assay. By combining DNA signal amplification, DNA walkers constructed DNA chains with G-quadruplex/protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) as the branches on the surface of the added Fe3O4 nanosheets (NTs). A pipette tip-based magnetic bar was utilized to separate the NTs from the sample solution in the form of a single drop (4 μL) containing the analyte, at the tip. In this way, the fluorescent signal of G-quadruplex/PPIX, which served as the proxy of the CAP, was extremely enhanced and could be directly detected via a nanodrop spectrophotometric platform. This novel method was applied to the fluorescence detection of CAP in genuine milk and urine samples. It achieved a low limit of detection of 26.5 aM (0.00856 fg/mL), and a linear dynamic range from 0.1 fM to 1 nM with good linearity (r = 0.998).
9 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of specific synthesis parameters on the material's local structure and transport properties still demand clarifications, and substantial effects of cooling breaks in the mechanochemical synthesis procedure on the formation of a variety of PxSya− moieties and on the transport properties of Li3PS4, through Raman and impedance spectroscopy measurements.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , a safety reinforced ultra-flexible and foldable lithium-ion battery using LiCoO2 as the cathode, Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) as the anode, a high-quality carbon nanotubes film as a flexible current collector, and a novel porous composite as the gel polymer electrolyte.
8 citations
TL;DR: In this article , a strategy to control the dried patterns of aqueous colloidal drop by controlling the drop configurations and relative humidity was proposed, and the results of different interactions between the Marangoni and buoyancy-induced natural convections in the sessile and pendant drops were studied.
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors investigated the mechanism of natural convection in the evaporating plasma drop and investigated the suppression of Marangoni flow caused by different plasma proteins, which is the original cause for its internal flow to be different from that in a water drop.
6 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a strategy to control the dried patterns of aqueous colloidal drop by controlling the drop configurations and relative humidity was proposed, and the results of different interactions between the Marangoni and (buoyancy-induced) natural convections in the sessile and pendant drops were studied.
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors used a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced postnatal immune activation (PIA) mouse model and found that ASB specifically improved PIA-induced depressive-like behavior but not anxiety-like behaviour in adult mice.
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors identify the composition of the nominating committee as a key to understanding the relationship between monitoring and resource provision and propose two mechanisms through which the formation of an independent nominating committee in response to the external emphasis on monitoring leads to a decline in board resource provision.
TL;DR: In this article, a reliability-based shape and topology optimization method is proposed for plane frames, where the reliability constraint is expressed in terms of quantile which is estimated by using the maximum entropy method subject to constraints on the sample linear moments (L-moments) with small sample size.
19 Apr 2022
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors explore the value creation processes in blockchain ecosystems in the creative industries, relying on document analysis of blockchain ventures' strategic documents and interviews with CEOs and founders.
Abstract: Blockchain technology has hyped up the creative industries, as seen from the rise of blockchain startups in the media and entertainment and arts that attract multiple collaborators to co-create value. Some business ventures want to disrupt the Hollywood studio model, while others aim to "cut the middleman." This chapter explores the value creation processes in blockchain ecosystems in the creative industries, relying on document analysis of blockchain ventures' strategic documents and interviews with CEOs and founders. It highlights new units of value used by blockchain entrepreneurs to attract a large pool of micro-investments. Building on the innovation ecosystem-based perspective, the chapter presents how blockchain startups define value propositions that aim to correct market imperfections and the bottlenecks that might hinder the value creation processes.
TL;DR: In this paper , a reliability-based shape and topology optimization method is proposed for plane frames, where the reliability constraint is expressed in terms of quantile which is estimated by using the maximum entropy method subject to constraints on the sample linear moments (L-moments) with small sample size.
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the biological functions of chestnut polysaccharides from the perspective of gut microbiota function, expecting to find out the specific mechanism of CPs in restoring impaired spermatogenesis.
Abstract: Our previous study confirmed the beneficial effects of chestnut polysaccharides (CPs) on the spermatogenesis process, but the exact mechanism is not clear. Several studies have demonstrated the importance of balanced gut microbiota in maintaining normal reproductive function. In this study, we investigated the biological functions of CPs from the perspective of gut microbiota function, expecting to find out the specific mechanism of CPs in restoring impaired spermatogenesis. Compared with the control group, the mice treated with busulfan showed a reduced number of germ cells, structural changes in the small intestine and composition alteration in the gut microbiota at several levels, including the phylum and genus. In contrast, the number of germ cells in seminiferous tubules was significantly increased, and the structure of the small intestine and the composition of the gut microbiota were altered in the busulfan-treated mice after the CPs treatment. The 16s rRNA analysis results showed that the Firmicutes was the predominant phylum in all groups followed by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Tenericutes, Cyanobacteria and unidentified bacteria. Interestingly, the subsequent functional analysis implied that the steroid hormone biosynthesis process is the major metabolic pathway in the CPs-mediated restoration process and the experimental results confirmed this speculation. In conclusion, this study confirmed that CPs can restore the impaired spermatogenesis process by adjusting the gut microbiota and intestinal structure, which will also provide technical support and a theoretical basis for the subsequent treatment of male infertility.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper proposed a pixel-wise contrastive learning method called CP $$^2$$ (Copy-Paste Contrastive Pretraining), which facilitates both image-and pixel-level representation learning and therefore is more suitable for downstream dense prediction tasks.
Abstract: Recent advances in self-supervised contrastive learning yield good image-level representation, which favors classification tasks but usually neglects pixel-level detailed information, leading to unsatisfactory transfer performance to dense prediction tasks such as semantic segmentation. In this work, we propose a pixel-wise contrastive learning method called CP $$^2$$ (Copy-Paste Contrastive Pretraining), which facilitates both image- and pixel-level representation learning and therefore is more suitable for downstream dense prediction tasks. In detail, we copy-paste a random crop from an image (the foreground) onto different background images and pretrain a semantic segmentation model with the objective of 1) distinguishing the foreground pixels from the background pixels, and 2) identifying the composed images that share the same foreground. Experiments show the strong performance of CP $$^2$$ in downstream semantic segmentation: By finetuning CP $$^2$$ pretrained models on PASCAL VOC 2012, we obtain 78.6% mIoU with a ResNet-50 and 79.5% with a ViT-S. Code and models are available at https://github.com/wangf3014/CP2 .
TL;DR: In this paper , a series of organic-inorganic hybrid bifunctional organosiliceous catalysts with accessible pendant amine groups as single basic sites was prepared from suitable synthesis processes.
Abstract: A series of organic-inorganic hybrid bifunctional organosiliceous catalysts with accessible pendant amine groups as single basic sites (such as propylamine, diethylamine, pyrrolidine) and Pd nanoparticles was prepared from suitable synthesis processes. Pd/MCM-41 silica decorated with propylamine groups was highly active and selective for the single-reactor tandem aldol condensation/crotonization reaction between furfural with methyl isobutyl ketone, followed by hydrogenation, to access renewable biosolvent and biofuel precursors in the branched alkane range at mild temperature (80–100 ºC). The catalyst was characterized in detail using XRD, C and N elemental analysis, ICP-OES, TGA/DTA, HR-TEM, N2 adsorption/desorption at 77 K, solid-state 13C and 29Si MAS NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy CO2 as acid probe. The catalyst was robust when operated in a dual fixed-bed reactor achieving steady 20 % furfural conversion for 12 h on stream with preferential formation of 1-(furan-2-yl)− 5-methylhexan-3-one.
TL;DR: In this article , the authors summarized the association of triglyceride-based integrative indexes, hypercholesterolemia, increased Lp(a) with its glycoxidative modification, as well as quantity and quality abnormalities of high-density lipoprotein with impaired coronary collateral formation.
Abstract: Coronary collateralization is substantially impaired in patients with type 2 diabetes and occlusive coronary artery disease, which leads to aggravated myocardial ischemia and a more dismal prognosis. In a diabetic setting, altered serum lipid profiles and profound glycoxidative modification of lipoprotein particles induce endothelial dysfunction, blunt endothelial progenitor cell response, and severely hamper growth and maturation of collateral vessels. The impact of dyslipidemia and lipid-lowering treatments on coronary collateral formation has become a topic of heightened interest. In this review, we summarized the association of triglyceride-based integrative indexes, hypercholesterolemia, increased Lp(a) with its glycoxidative modification, as well as quantity and quality abnormalities of high-density lipoprotein with impaired collateral formation. We also analyzed the influence of innovative lipid-modifying strategies on coronary collateral development. Therefore, clinical management of diabetic dyslipidemia should take into account of its effect on coronary collateralization in patients with occlusive coronary artery disease.
08 Mar 2022
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors presented KMCP, a k-mer-based metagenomic profiling tool that utilizes genome coverage information by splitting the reference genomes into chunks and then stores k-mers in a modified and optimized COBS index for fast alignment-free sequence searching.
Abstract: Abstract Motivation The growing number of microbial reference genomes enables the improvement of metagenomic profiling accuracy but also imposes greater requirements on the indexing efficiency, database size, and runtime of taxonomic profilers. Additionally, most profilers focus mainly on bacterial, archaeal, and fungal populations, while less attention is paid to viral communities. Results We present KMCP, a novel k -mer-based metagenomic profiling tool that utilizes genome coverage information by splitting the reference genomes into chunks and then stores k -mers in a modified and optimized COBS index for fast alignment-free sequence searching. KMCP combines k -mer similarity and genome coverage information to reduce the false positive rate of k -mer-based taxonomic classification and profiling methods. Benchmarking results based on simulated and real data demonstrate that KMCP, despite a longer running time than all other methods, not only allows the accurate taxonomic profiling of prokaryotic and viral populations but also provides confident pathogen detection in clinical samples of low depth. Availability and Implementation The software is open-source under the MIT license and available at https://github.com/shenwei356/kmcp .
TL;DR: In this paper , two aggregation-induced delayed fluorescence materials (AIDF) FCP-BP-PXZ [9- (4-fluorophenyl) -9H-carbazole-3-yl] [4- (10H-phenoxazine-10-yl) phenyl] and FCPBP-PTZ [ 9- ( 4-Fluorphenyl) − 9H- carbazole 3-yl]- methane were synthesized and achieved a brightness of 62,390 cd m−2.
TL;DR: In this article , the authors empirically investigated international medical research and education nonprofits during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) health crisis and found that resource decreases in nearly all stakeholder channels.
Abstract: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) health crisis imposes severe pressures on nonprofit organizations, which must be resilient to respond effectively to extreme environmental tensions. We combined resource dependence theory with stakeholder theory to frame to what extent nonprofits experienced resource pressures through various stakeholder channels and the nonprofit governance responses. We empirically investigated international medical research and education nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results indicate resource decreases in nearly all stakeholder channels. In response, nonprofit boards increased activity levels by mainly focusing on adapting organizational offerings and increasing support to the organization. Managerial executives also increased their activity levels, by focusing on safeguarding financial stability, planning and adapting operations to confinement measures.
TL;DR: This paper investigated changes in body composition in adolescents undergoing sleeve gastrectomy 12-26 weeks post-operatively using whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) and found decreases in all adipose tissue compartments, as well as decreased skeletal muscle and liver fat fraction.
Abstract: Metabolic and bariatric surgery is the most effective weight loss treatment for severe obesity. The number of adolescents undergoing sleeve gastrectomy is increasing. We investigated changes in body composition in adolescents undergoing sleeve gastrectomy 12-26 weeks post-operatively using whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI).This prospective cohort study assessed changes in adipose tissue compartments (ie, visceral, subcutaneous, and intermuscular) and muscle in 18 obese adolescents, ages 14-19, 89% female, with body mass index z -score of 2.6 ± 0.25 (range 2.16-3.2). All underwent WB-MRI 1.5-17 weeks pre-operatively and 12-26 weeks post-operatively.Pre- and post-operative WB-MRI showed decreases in all adipose tissue compartments, as well as decreased skeletal muscle and liver fat fraction ( P < 0.0001). The post-operative percentage loss of adipose tissue in subcutaneous, visceral, and intermuscular compartments (89.0%, 5.8%, 5.2%, respectively) was similar to the pre-operative percentages of corresponding adipose tissue compartments (90.5%, 5.0%, 4.5%, respectively). Of note, participants with obstructive sleep apnea had significantly higher pre-operative volume of subcutaneous and intermuscular adipose tissue than participants without obstructive sleep apnea ( P = 0.003).We found, contrary to what is reported to occur in adults, that pre-operative percentage loss of adipose tissue in subcutaneous, visceral, and intermuscular compartments was similar to the post-operative percentage loss of corresponding adipose tissue compartments in adolescents 12-26 weeks after sleeve gastrectomy.
06 Jan 2022
TL;DR: Hela Schwarz GmbH, a German manufacturer of compound spices and food additives (Hela), filed a Request for Arbitration against China with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), alleging expropriation of its investment as mentioned in this paper .
Abstract: On 2 May 2017, Hela Schwarz GmbH, a German manufacturer of compound spices and food additives (Hela), filed a Request for Arbitration against China with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), alleging expropriation of its investment.123 Hela’s local subsidiary in China, Ji’nan Hela Schwarz Food Co Ltd (JHSF), had initiated proceedings in Chinese courts before the arbitration claim was filed with ICSID. Hela’s ICSID claim raises the issue of whether a foreign investor may concurrently initiate proceedings before an ICSID tribunal and domestic courts. Such concurrent proceedings not only raise concerns about treaty party expectations but also undermine the predictability of dispute resolution. Given the small number of international investment arbitration cases involving China and its bilateral investment treaties (BITs), the issue of concurrent proceedings in Chinese BIT law and practice is underinvestigated.4 Therefore, Hela’s ICSID arbitration case offers a welcome opportunity...
TL;DR: In this article , the authors argue that the solution to the China-issue passes through an addition and re-invigoration of the multilateral trade rules, and they argue that China's participation in the WTO cannot remain unaddressed.
Abstract: Abstract The commonplace narrative regarding China's participation in the WTO is that the original expectations have not been matched in subsequent experience. China has not behaved in accordance with the spirit (and sometimes the letter) of its commitments. Reactions by trading partners have been from critical to hostile, and some have even called for a WTO without China, ignoring the boost to international trade that China's accession has provoked. Yet, China's participation in the WTO cannot remain un-addressed. The US almost brought the WTO to its knees largely because of China, and the EU has enacted laws to counteract China's trade expansion. In this short paper, we argue that the solution to the China-issue passes through an addition and re-invigoration of the multilateral trade rules.