The accumulations of waste plastics and municipal solid wastes from the resident groups and industrial companies have been causing serious environmental issues in the UK, due to difficulties in logistics, sorting, and reuse. In this sense, this paper is stimulated to develop novel approaches to convert some wastes into eco-friendly infrastructural materials, which provides a new way of waste reduction and reuse and extending the service life of asphalt pavement. This study aims to characterise the healing performance of waste-derived bitumen before and after pressure ageing vessel (PAV) ageing based on the crack length. One waste-derived bitumen was fabricated by blending the bio-oil pyrolysed from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (5 wt%) with a control bitumen (X70) using a high shear mixer at a speed of 150 revolutions per minute (RPM) for 30 min at 150 degrees C under nitrogen atmosphere. A second waste-derived bitumen was fabricated using the low-density polyethene (LDPE) and mixed with the control bitumen at a concentration of 6 wt% at a speed of 900RPM for 90 min at 180 degrees C under nitrogen atmosphere. Crack length-based healing index and Ramberg-Osgood model were employed to characterise the healing rate and healing capability of the bitumen, respectively. Material properties (e.g., relaxation modulus and surface energy) of the bitumen used in the healing models were calibrated by linear amplitude sweep test (10 Hz and 20 degrees C), frequency sweep test (10 Hz, 10-70 degrees C), and time sweep fatigue-healing test (10 Hz and 20 degrees C) at a controlled strain level of 5% with different rest durations. Advancing contact angles used in the healing models of the bitumen were measured by a sessile drop tensiometer based on the tilting cradle method. Results show that the bio-oil productively promotes the healing potential and capability of the unaged bitumen, and the LDPE slightly strengthens them. The PAV ageing process evaporates most of the modifier biooil; hence, the PAV-aged bio-oil modified bitumen does not show better healing performance than that of the PAV-aged control bitumen. The PAV-aged LDPE modified bitumen has much better healing performance than those of the PAV-aged control bitumen and the PAV-aged bio-oil modified bitumen. The short-term healing rate and healing potential dominate the healing behaviours of the bitumen. The unaged bio-oil modified bitumen heals the fastest (having the highest short-term healing rate) and most (having the highest healing potential), followed by the unaged LDPE modified bitumen, and the unaged control bitumen heals the least and slowest. The PAV-aged LDPE modified bitumen heals the fastest and most, followed by the PAV-aged bio-oil modified bitumen and the PAV-aged control bitumen. The fundamental reason for LDPE's enhancement to bitumen's healing is that the LDPE increased the deformation recovery ability of the bitumen, leading to a higher wetting rate of the cracked surfaces and thus a higher short-term healing rate. However, the LDPE in bitumen cannot accelerate the molecular diffusion to increase the intrinsic healing or the long-term healing rate.

Background & Aims: Our previous genomic whole-exome sequencing (WES) data identified the key ErbB pathway mutations that play an essential role in regulating the malignancy of gallbladder cancer (GBC). Herein, we tested the hypothesis that individual cellular components of the tumor microenvironment (TME) in GBC function differentially to participate in ErbB pathway mutation-dependent tumor progression. Methods: We engaged single-cell RNA-sequencing to reveal transcriptomic heterogeneity and intercellular crosstalk from 13 human GBCs and adjacent normal tissues. In addition, we performed WES analysis to reveal the genomic variations related to tumor malignancy. A variety of bulk RNA-sequencing, immunohistochemical staining, immunofluorescence staining and functional experiments were employed to study the difference between tissues with or without ErbB pathway mutations. Results: We identified 16 cell types from a total of 114,927 cells, in which epithelial cells, M2 macrophages, and regulatory T cells were predominant in tumors with ErbB pathway mutations. Furthermore, epithelial cell subtype 1, 2 and 3 were mainly found in adenocarcinoma and subtype 4 was present in adenosquamous carcinoma. The tumors with ErbB pathway mutations harbored larger populations of epithelial cell subtype 1 and 2, and expressed higher levels of secreted midkine (MDK) than tumors without ErbB pathway mutations. Increased MDK resulted in an interaction with its receptor LRP1, which is expressed by tumor-infiltrating macrophages, and promoted immunosuppressive macrophage differentiation. Moreover, the crosstalk between macrophage-secreted CXCL10 and its receptor CXCR3 on regulatory T cells was induced in GBC with ErbB pathway mutations. Elevated MDK was correlated with poor overall survival in patients with GBC. Conclusions: This study has provided valuable insights into transcriptomic heterogeneity and the global cellular network in the TME, which coordinately functions to promote the progres-sion of GBC with ErbB pathway mutations; thus, unveiling novel cellular and molecular targets for cancer therapy. Lay summary: We employed single-cell RNA-sequencing and functional assays to uncover the transcriptomic heterogeneity and intercellular crosstalk present in gallbladder cancer. We found that ErbB pathway mutations reduced anti-cancer im-munity and led to cancer development. ErbB pathway mutations resulted in immunosuppressive macrophage differentiation and regulatory T cell activation, explaining the reduced anti-cancer immunity and worse overall survival observed in patients with these mutations. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of European Association for the Study of the Liver.

The kinetic and thermochemical models for poplar wood torrefaction were developed in the present work. The torrefaction kinetic model satisfactorily fitted the experimental thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) data of poplar wood torrefaction and provided a coherent description of the evolution of torrefaction volatile and solid products in terms of a set of identifiable chemical components and elemental compositions. The torrefaction thermochemical model described the thermochemical performance of poplar wood torrefaction processes. The results from the kinetic and thermochemical models for poplar wood torrefaction showed that (1) high temperature increases the evolution rate of torrefaction products, and favors the formation of torrefaction volatiles; (2) the heating rate has a slight effect on evolution for torrefaction process; (3) the mass and energy yields of torrefaction products are significantly influenced by both torrefaction temperature and residence time; (4) the heat of torrefaction reaction is mostly endothermic with a relatively small amount (less than 10% of the raw material energy content); (5) for the overall torrefaction processes, the sensible and latent energy of torrefaction products accounts for 5?18% of the total energy input and the remaining energy input transfers into the energy contents of torrefaction products. This work provides a theoretical guidance for future evaluation and optimization of woody biomass torrefaction systems/processes, and thereafter for the industrial application of woody biomass thermochemical conversion.

Soil moisture deficiency is a major factor in determining crop yields in water-limited agricultural production regions. Evapotranspiration (ET), which consists of crop water use through transpiration and water loss through direct soil evaporation, is a good indicator of soil moisture availability and vegetation health. ET therefore has been an integral part of many yield estimation efforts. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) is an ET-based crop stress indicator that describes temporal anomalies in a normalized evapotranspiration metric as derived from satellite remote sensing. ESI has demonstrated the capacity to explain regional yield variability in water-limited regions. However, its performance in some regions where the vegetation cycle is intensively managed appears to be degraded due to interannual phenological variability. This investigation selected three study sites across the U.S. Corn Belt - Mead, NE, Ames, IA and Champaign, IL - to investigate the potential operational value of 30-m resolution, phenologically corrected ESI datasets for yield prediction. The analysis was conducted over an 8-year period from 2010 to 2017, which included both drought and pluvial conditions as well as a broad range in yield values. Detrended yield anomalies for corn and soybean were correlated with ESI computed using annual ET curves temporally aligned based on (1) calendar date, (2) crop emergence date, and (3) a growing degree day (GDD) scaled time axis. Results showed that ESI has good correlations with yield anomalies at the county scale and that phenological corrections to the annual temporal alignment of the ET timeseries improve the correlation, especially when the time axis is defined by GDD rather than the calendar date. Peak correlations occur in the silking stage for corn and the reproductive stage for soybean ? phases when these crops are particularly sensitive to soil moisture deficiencies. Regression equations derived at the time of peak correlation were used to estimate yields at county scale using a leave-one-out cross-validation strategy. The ESI-based yield estimates agree well with the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) county-level crop yield data, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.79 to 0.93 and percent root-mean-square errors of 5-8%. These results demonstrate that remotely sensed ET at high spatiotemporal resolution can convey valuable water stress information for forecasting crop yields across the Corn Belt if interannual phenological variability is considered.

A multi-scale method based on a combination of the boundary element method (BEM) and peridynamics (PD) was developed to model crack propagation problems in two-dimensional (2D) elastic bodies. The special feature of this method is that it can take full advantage of both the BEM and PD to achieve a higher level of computational efficiency. Based on the scale of the structure and the crack location, the considered domain can be divided into non-cracked and cracked domains. The BEM is employed in the non-cracked domain, while the PD is applied in the cracked domain. This can reduce the dimension by one in the non-cracked domain for improving the modeling efficiency. A stiffness equation of the bond-based PD is established by using Taylor's series expansion for the bond stretch and applied to simulate the cracked domain. The PD approach can automatically model the initiation and propagation of a crack. A coupling model using shared nodes is constructed by introducing the BEM nodes on the interface at the same location as the PD material points. With the continuity of displacements and equilibrium of tractions at the interface, a combined system of equations is obtained by merging the stiffness and force matrix from each domain. For test problems, the deformation and crack propagation in 2D elastic bodies subjected to quasi-static loads were analyzed. The numerical results clearly demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method for crack problems based on coupling the BEM and PD. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Architected metastructures offer unprecedented mechanical characteristics due to particular design and assembly of engineered local structures. Here, we study the out-of-plane deflection of plate-like metas-tructures designed with hexagonal corrugation. Due to the out-of-plane asymmetry of the corrugation, our metaplates develop out-of-plane deflection when put under tension. A theoretical model is developed to analyze the tensile response of the corrugated metaplates, and experiments are conducted on the metaplates made of silicone rubber. The tensile modulus of the silicone rubber is calibrated and the rubber metaplates are then measured under tension. Numerical simulations validate the theoretical and experimental results, and satisfactory agreements are obtained for the force-displacement relations (i.e., effective tensile modulus) and out-of-plane deflection. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the influences of the geometry (e.g., height h and thickness t) and the corrugation pattern (e.g., hexagonal diameter D-hex and rib width W-rib) on the tensile response of the metaplates. The presented cor-rugated metaplates are envisioned as a promising path to optimize structures for multifunctional appli-cations (e.g., wings in flying robots or light sails for interstellar space travel). (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.