Current development and prospect of national science and technology innovation platform in the railway industry

Purpose – This study summarizes the overall situation of the resources of the national science and technology innovation platform in the railway industry, including the distribution of platform types, supporting institutions, construction sites, professional fields, etc., to provide a reference for the further improvement and optimization of the national science and technology innovation platform system in the railway industry. Design/methodology/approach – Through literature review, field investigation, expert consultation and other methods, this paper systematically investigates and analyzes the development status of the national science and technology innovation platform in the railway industry. Findings – Taking the national science and technology innovation platform of the railway industry as the research object, this paper investigates and analyzes the construction, development and distribution of the national science and technology innovation platform of railway industry over the years. And the National Engineering Research Center of High-speed Railway and Urban Rail Transit System Technology was taken as an example to introduce its operation effect. Originality/value – China Railway has made great development achievements, with the construction and development of national science and technology innovation platform in the railway industry. In recent years, a large number of national science and technology innovation platforms have been built in the railway industry, which play an important role in railway technological innovation, standard setting and commodification, and provide strong support for railway technology development

Sandwiching of MOF nanoparticles between graphene oxide nanosheets among ice grains

Current strategies to tailor the formation of nanoparticle clusters require specificity and directionality built into the surface functionalization of the nanoparticles by involved chemistries that can alter their properties. Here, we describe a non-disruptive approach to place nanomaterials of different shapes between nanosheets, i.e., nano-sandwiches, absent any pre-modification of the components. We demonstrate this with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and silicon oxide (SiO2) nanoparticles sandwiched between graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets, MOF-GO and SiO2-GO, respectively. For the MOF-GO, the MOF shows significantly enhanced conductivity and retains its original crystallinity, even after one-year exposure to aqueous acid/base solutions, where the GO effectively encapsulates the MOF, shielding it from polar molecules and ions. The MOF-GOs are shown to effectively capture CO2 from a high-humidity flue gas while fully maintaining their crystallinities and porosities. Similar behavior is found for other MOFs, including water-sensitive HKUST-1 and MOF-5, promoting the use of MOFs in practical applications. The nanoparticle sandwich strategy provides opportunities for materials science in the design of nanoparticle clusters consisting of different materials and shapes with predetermined spatial arrangements

Exact dipole solitary wave solution in metamaterials with higher-order dispersion

We present an exact dipole solitary wave solution in a mutual modulation form of bright and dark solitons for a higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation with third- and fourth-order dispersion in metamaterials (MMs) using an ansatz method. Based on the Drude model, the formation conditions, existence regions and propagation properties are discussed. The results reveal that the solitary wave may exist in a few parameter regions of MMs, different from those in optical fibres, and its propagation properties can be controlled by adjusting the frequency of incident waves in each existence region

A facile and general approach for the synthesis of fluorescent silica nanoparticles doped with inert dyes

A general and facile approach was developed for the synthesis of almost monodisperse fluorescent silica nanoparticles (NPs) doped with inert dyes, which are organic fluorophores that are strongly fluorescent but are hydrophobic or lack a covalent binding group. The prepared NPs were mesoporous and the dye molecules were encapsulated in the pores via hydrophobic interaction with the CTAB template. The NPs were stable and highly fluorescent in aqueous solution, and have potential applications in bioanalysis and fluorescence encoding.National Natural Science Foundation of China[20875079, 20835005]; Planned Science and Technology Project of Xiamen, China[3502z20080011]; Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China[200803840007

Molecule-scale controlled-release system based on light-responsive silica nanoparticles

We report a molecule-scale controlled-release system based on silica nanoparticles bearing a photoactive o-nitrobenzyl bromide linkage, which allows cage and release of drug or biologically active molecules by light

Light-responsive nanogated ensemble based on polymer grafted mesoporous silica hybrid nanoparticles

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles grafted with light-responsive polymer on the outer surface were developed as novel nanogated ensembles, which allow encapsulation and release of drug and biological molecules under light irradiation.National Natural Science Foundation of China [20875079, 20835005]; Planned Science and Technology Project of Xiamen, China [3502z20080011]; Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China [200803840007

Light-triggered covalent assembly of gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution

UV light irradiation triggers Au NPs that are respectively functionalized on the surface by o-nitrobenzyl alcohol and benzylamine to proceed with a covalent ligation reaction, which leads to assembling of Au NPs into anisotropic one-dimensional (1D) arrays in aqueous solution via indazolone linkages.National Natural Science Foundation of China[20875079, 20835005]; The Planned Science and Technology Project of Xiamen, China[3502z20080011]; Specialized Research Fund for Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China[200803840007

Duck Eggs and Black-Yolked Salted Duck Eggs: Bacterial Diversity on Eggshells and Gene Function Prediction Using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt)

After comparing the bacterial load of black-yolked salted duck eggs (BSE) and that of duck eggs with different cleanliness degrees, it was found that the total bacterial count on the shell of severely stained eggs (DE) was distinctly higher than that on the shell of non-visually stained eggs (CE), and the total bacterial count in the shell membrane and contents of BSE increased greatly. Furthermore, 16S rDNA gene sequencing was used to analyze the differences in the composition and abundance of bacterial communities in CE, DE and BSE. It turned out that Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria were the dominant phyla, accounting for 34.35%, 27.25% and 17.28% of the total abundance, respectively, while Bacteroidetes accounted for 8.29% of the total abundance. Proteobacteria was the dominant bacteria in DE and accounted for 89.01% of the total abundance, while the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Actinobacteria were 6.16% and 3.98%. The dominant phyla in BSE were Proteobacteria (76.50%), Bacteroidetes (8.00%), Actinobacteria (6.76%) and Firmicutes (5.43%). The abundance of Proteobacteria in DE and BSE was significantly increased. The dominant bacterial genera in CE were Nesterdella (9.08%), Campylobacter (7.91%), Streptococcus (3.41%) and Oligomonas (2.92%). In DE, Psychrobacter was the dominant genus, accounting for 86.01% of the total abundance, and the relative abundance of Acinetobacter was 2.20%. The dominant bacteria in BSE were Rolstonia (22.91%), Serratia (5.05%) and Actinomycetes (3.32%). The cluster analysis of bacterial diversity showed that the dominant microorganisms of BSE were close to those of DE. The microbial phenotype analysis showed that the dominant microorganisms of BSE were Gram-negative bacteria, had high oxidative stress tolerance and pathogenicity, and could tolerate oxidizing detergents. The results of microbial gene function prediction and species composition of metabolic pathways demonstrated that bacterial carbohydrate decomposition, lipid transport and metabolic oxidation in DE were stronger than those in CE. More coenzyme transport and metabolic pathways could make the biochemical reactions of bacteria from DE faster to produce more secondary metabolites, thus resulting in changes in the quality of duck eggs. This is consistent with the highest bacterial abundance in the secondary metabolite biosynthesis, transport and catabolism pathways in BSE. The results of this study provide theoretical support for the cleaner production of duck eggs

TIM4+macrophages suppress the proinflammatory response to maintain the chronic alveolar echinococcosis infection

BackgroundAlveolar echinococcosis (AE), a severe zoonotic disease predominantly endemic to pastoral regions, is characterized by hepatic parasitic lesions caused by Echinococcus multilocularis.MethodsThis study investigated the role of T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-4 (TIMD4/Tim-4) in patients with hepatic AE. In total, 129 patients were enrolled from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University between 1 March 2018 and 1 March 2021. Histological, genetic, and serological tests were employed to evaluate Tim-4 and inflammatory cytokine expression. The liver immune microenvironment at the middle and late stages of mice infected with E. multilocularis was established in vitro to assess cytokine dynamics and liver fibrosis biomarkers.ResultsClinical analysis revealed the upregulation of Tim-4 within the hepatic lesions of patients with AE, with its expression spatially localized to macrophage-enriched regions and functionally linked to extracellular inflammatory modulation. Meanwhile, the liver tissues of the patients had characteristic pathological changes in the vesicles and progressive fibrotic remodeling, concurrent with a significant suppression of proinflammatory cytokine activity. Tim-4+ macrophages inhibited the release of proinflammatory cytokines at the middle and late stages of E. multilocularis infection to maintain immune tolerance, and inhibition of Tim-4 expression may even reverse the level of liver fibrosis in vitro.ConclusionsTim-4 attenuated the predominant proinflammatory response, thereby facilitating immune evasion by E. multilocularis. Notably, inhibition of Tim-4 in macrophages not only restored the inflammatory balance but also significantly reversed hepatic fibrotic progression