The electrochemical C-N coupling process, facilitating the production of organic nitrogen substances (such as urea, methylamine, formamide, and ethylamine) via the simultaneous reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) and small nitrogen-based substances, stands at the forefront of advancing carbon neutrality and the artificial nitrogen cycle. This method has garnered substantial interest due to its potential economic and environmental benefits. Although considerable progress has been achieved in this emerging field, it still faces challenges, including slow reactant adsorption, competing side reactions, and complex multi-step pathways, resulting in low yields and selectivity. Strategically designing and developing low-cost and exceptionally performant catalysts is crucial for cost-effective and precise electrochemical C─N bonding. This article offers an in-depth review of the electrosynthesis of valuable organic nitrogen compounds at ambient conditions from earth-abundant resources/wastes, such as CO2 and small nitrogenous molecules (nitrogen: N2, nitrite: NO2−, nitrate: NO3−, ammonia: NH3, etc.), via electrochemical C─N bond formation reactions, especially using carbon-based catalysts. The relevant electrochemical C─N bond formation mechanisms, the design principles of advanced carbon-based electrocatalysts, and the impact of different electrolyser designs are discussed, along with the present obstacles and upcoming prospects in this dynamic field.@en

The settlement space along China’s Grand Canal composes an important part of the Canal heritage, has a close bearing on the production and life of the residents there, nourishes rich culture and wisdom and boasts vital value of conservation and inheritance. Due to China’s rapid urbanization and industrialization, the settlements along the canal have been destroyed to some extent and their in-site characteristics urgently need excavation and conservation. Through field investigation, space syntax and GIS analysis, this paper performs quantitative analysis of the in-site characteristics of 18 typical rural settlements there. The findings show that: (1) The settlement space of industry dominant type for commerce and trade is comparatively dynamic and the capacity of topology and integration and the attractive force of the settlement center are stronger. (2) The dynamic scope of the citizens’ everyday traveling in the settlements has the closest correlation with the data of public-service facilities. (3) The settlements along the canal boast multiple, causal and blended in-site phenotype. The research findings provide new standards to categorize the settlements along China’s Grand Canal, paths and methods to explore the characteristics of the settlements and new cognitive perspectives to conserve and renew the settlements along China’s Grand Canal Tianjin Section.

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MnFeP(As, Ge, Si) series compounds are three kinds of MnFe-based magnetocaloric materials, which have giant magnetocaloric effect. In this work, the experimental characteristic curves of new style Mn-Fe-P-Si materials, numbered as 1: Mn_1.32Fe_0.67P_0.52Si_0.49, 2: Mn_1.37Fe_0.63P_0.5Si_0.5, and 3: Mn_1.35Fe_0.66P_0.5Si_0.5 are presented. Based on the experimental data of these component materials and thermodynamic analysis method, a novel composite material is put forward. The optimal molar mass ratios of the composite material are obtained and they are 0.22, 0.33, 0.45, respectively. A regenerative Brayton refrigeration cycle employing the optimal composite material with thermal hysteresis as the working medium is built. By numerical calculation, the influences of thermal hysteresis on the main thermodynamic quantities are evaluated. The results show that the thermal hysteresis of the working medium results in a decrease of 13.6%, 14.6%, 18.8%, and 16.1% of the cooling quantity, net cooling quantity, optimally working temperature range, and coefficient of performance, respectively. These conclusions are beneficial to the optimal parameter design and performance improvement of active magnetic refrigerators.

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Recent experimental and numerical studies of surface gravity waves propagating over a sloping bottom have shown that an increase in the probability of extreme waves can be triggered by depth variations in sufficiently shallow waters. This phenomenon is studied here by means of a boundary element method with fast multipole acceleration to solve the fully nonlinear water wave equations. We focus on the case of a random, unidirectional wave field with prescribed statistical properties propagating over a submerged slope and consider different depth variations, including a step. Validation is provided by comparing with experiments by Trulsen, Zeng, and Gramstad [Phys. Fluids 24, 097101 (2012)PHFLE61070-663110.1063/1.4748346]. Strongly non-Gaussian statistics are observed in a region localized near the depth transition, beyond which the statistics settle rapidly to the steady statistical state of finite-depth random wave fields. Using a harmonic separation technique, we show that the second-order terms are responsible for the change in the statistical properties near the depth transition. We explore in detail the effects of peak frequency, significant wave height, the inclination of the slope, and the depth of the shallower water side on the kurtosis, skewness, and the excess probability of the crest height, including their spatial distributions.

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The advent of intelligent image-activated cell sorting (iIACS) has enabled high-throughput intelligent image-based sorting of single live cells from heterogeneous populations. iIACS is an on-chip microfluidic technology that builds on a seamless integration of a high-throughput fluorescence microscope, cell focuser, cell sorter, and deep neural network on a hybrid software-hardware data management architecture, thereby providing the combined merits of optical microscopy, fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), and deep learning. Here we report an iIACS machine that far surpasses the state-of-the-art iIACS machine in system performance in order to expand the range of applications and discoveries enabled by the technology. Specifically, it provides a high throughput of ∼2000 events per second and a high sensitivity of ∼50 molecules of equivalent soluble fluorophores (MESFs), both of which are 20 times superior to those achieved in previous reports. This is made possible by employing (i) an image-sensor-based optomechanical flow imaging method known as virtual-freezing fluorescence imaging and (ii) a real-time intelligent image processor on an 8-PC server equipped with 8 multi-core CPUs and GPUs for intelligent decision-making, in order to significantly boost the imaging performance and computational power of the iIACS machine. We characterize the iIACS machine with fluorescent particles and various cell types and show that the performance of the iIACS machine is close to its achievable design specification. Equipped with the improved capabilities, this new generation of the iIACS technology holds promise for diverse applications in immunology, microbiology, stem cell biology, cancer biology, pathology, and synthetic biology. This journal is

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Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and an earlier wave of definitive erythroid/myeloid progenitors (EMPs) differentiate from hemogenic endothelial cells in the conceptus. EMPs can be generated in vitro from embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells, but efforts to produce HSCs have largely failed. The formation of both EMPs and HSCs requires the transcription factor Runx1 and its non-DNA binding partner core binding factor β (CBFβ). Here we show that the requirements for CBFβ in EMP and HSC formation in the conceptus are temporally and spatially distinct. Panendothelial expression of CBFβ in Tek-expressing cells was sufficient for EMP formation, but was not adequate for HSC formation. Expression of CBFβ in Ly6a-expressing cells, on the other hand, was sufficient for HSC, but not EMP, formation. The data indicate that EMPs and HSCs differentiate from distinct populations of hemogenic endothelial cells, with Ly6a expression specifically marking the HSC-generating hemogenic endothelium.

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