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Noncontact human-machine interaction provides a hygienic and intelligent approach for the communication between human and robots. Current noncontact human-machine interactions are generally limited by the interaction distance or conditions, such as in the dark. Here we explore the utilization of hand as an infrared light source for noncontact human-machine interaction. Metallic gratings are used as the human-machine interface to respond to infrared radiation from hand and the generated signals are visualized as different infrared structural colors. We demonstrate the applications of the infrared structural color-based human-machine interaction for user-interactive touchless display and real-time control of a robot vehicle. The interaction is flexible to the hand-interface distance ranging from a few centimeters to tens of centimeters and can be used in low lighting condition or in the dark. The findings in this work provide an alternative and complementary approach to traditional noncontact human-machine interactions, which may further broaden the potential applications of human-machine interaction. The IR radiation from human hand can selectively interact with grating patterns in the generation of distinct IR structural colors, which can be used for human-machine interaction with flexible interaction distance in low or no light conditions.

With the increased level of integration and miniaturization of modern electronics, high-power density electronics require efficient heat dissipation per unit area. To improve the heat dissipation capability of high-power electronic systems, advanced thermal interface materials (TIMs) with high thermal conductivity and low interfacial thermal resistance are urgently needed in the structural design of advanced electronics. Metal-, carbon- and polymer-based TIMs can reach high thermal conductivity and are promising for heat dissipation in high-power electronics. This review article introduces the heat dissipation models, classification, performances and fabrication methods of advanced TIMs, and provides a summary of the recent research status and developing trends of micro- and nanoscale TIMs used for heat dissipation in high-power electronics.

Understanding life history is crucial for elucidating mammalian evolution. Body size and tooth development have long been fundamental parameters in reconstructing the life histories of both fossil and extant species. The superfamily Rhinocerotoidea exhibits a protracted evolutionary history from the Eocene to the present, with its large body sizes and high-crowned teeth providing compelling evidence for such studies. In this research, we describe Turpanotherium qiui sp. nov., a new species within the family Paraceratheriidae, identified from a mandible recovered from the Early Oligocene of Northwest China. Analysis of elemental concentrations revealed insights into both longitudinal life history patterns and discrete developmental events. Significant variations in barium and strontium concentrations in the enamel were associated with neonatal development and breastfeeding phases, whereas zinc, strontium, and barium concentrations in the dentine displayed marked seasonal variability. Analysis of Retzius lines in enamel and annual lines in cementum from tooth histology reveals that this Paleogene species exhibited a life history pace comparable to its Quaternary relatives. The evolution of life history traits in Rhinocerotoidea has been relatively conservative since the Oligocene and does not consistently correlate with shifts in body size. This study establishes a foundation for understanding the evolution of life histories in this group.

Holding particular biological resources, the Tibetan Plateau is a unique geologic-geographic-biotic interactively unite and hence play an important role in the global biodiversity domain. The Tibetan Plateau has undergone vigorous environmental changes since the Cenozoic, and played roles switching from “a paradise of tropical animals and plants” to “the cradle of Ice Age mammalian fauna”. Recent significant paleontological discoveries have refined a big picture of the evolutionary history of biodiversity on that plateau against the backdrop of major environmental changes, and paved the way for the assessment of its far-reaching impact upon the biota around the plateau and even in more remote regions. Here, based on the newly reported fossils from the Tibetan Plateau which include diverse animals and plants, we present a general review of the changing biodiversity on the Tibetan Plateau and its influence in a global scale. We define the Tibetan Plateau as a junction station of the history of modern biodiversity, whose performance can be categorized in the following three patterns: (1) Local origination of endemism; (2) Local origination and “Out of Tibet”; (3) Intercontinental dispersal via Tibet. The first pattern is exemplified by the snow carps, the major component of the freshwater fish fauna on the plateau, whose temporal distribution pattern of the fossil schizothoracines approximately mirrors the spatial distribution pattern of their living counterparts. Through ascent with modification, their history reflects the biological responses to the stepwise uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. The second pattern is represented by the dispersal history of some mammals since the Pliocene and some plants. The ancestors of some Ice Age mammals, e.g., the wholly rhino, Arctic fox, and argali sheep first originated and evolved in the uplifted and frozen Tibet during the Pliocene, and then migrated toward the Arctic regions or even the North American continent at beginning of the Ice Age; the ancestor of pantherines (big cats) first rose in Tibetan Plateau during the Pliocene, followed by the disperse of its descendants to other parts of Asia, Africa, North and South America to play as top predators of the local ecosystems. The early members of some plants, e.g., Elaeagnaceae appeared in Tibet during the Late Eocene and then dispersed and were widely distributed to other regions. The last pattern is typified by the history of the tree of heaven ( Ailanthus ) and climbing perch. Ailanthus originated in the Indian subcontinent, then colonized into Tibet after the Indian-Asian plate collision, and dispersed therefrom to East Asia, Europe and even North America. The climbing perches among freshwater fishes probably rose in Southeast Asia during the Middle Eocene, dispersed to Tibet and then migrated into Africa via the docked India. These cases highlight the role of Tibet, which was involved in the continental collision, in the intercontinental biotic interchanges. The three evolutionary patterns above reflect both the history of biodiversity on the plateau and the biological and environmental effects of tectonic uplift.

Tibet’s ancient topography and its role in climatic and biotic evolution remain speculative due to a paucity of quantitative surface-height measurements through time and space, and sparse fossil records. However, newly discovered fossils from a present elevation of ∼4,850 m in central Tibet improve substantially our knowledge of the ancient Tibetan environment. The 70 plant fossil taxa so far recovered include the first occurrences of several modern Asian lineages and represent a Middle Eocene (∼47 Mya) humid subtropical ecosystem. The fossils not only record the diverse composition of the ancient Tibetan biota, but also allow us to constrain the Middle Eocene land surface height in central Tibet to ∼1,500 ± 900 m, and quantify the prevailing thermal and hydrological regime. This “Shangri-La”–like ecosystem experienced monsoon seasonality with a mean annual temperature of ∼19 °C, and frosts were rare. It contained few Gondwanan taxa, yet was compositionally similar to contemporaneous floras in both North America and Europe. Our discovery quantifies a key part of Tibetan Paleogene topography and climate, and highlights the importance of Tibet in regard to the origin of modern Asian plant species and the evolution of global biodiversity.

Purpose This study aims to provide an assessment of the existing literature on the role of social media advertising in hospitality, tourism and travel (HTT) as well as an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach Covering a 15-year time span (2004–2019), this study is focused on journal papers archived in two academic databases in social sciences: Business Source Complete and Communication and Mass Media Complete. Each of the 192 papers collected was coded for 8 major variables: journal, year of publication, research topic, country studied, type of social media investigated, method, theoretical underpinning and key findings. Findings Three major topic areas are identified in this study: use of social media from consumer’s perspective, use of social media from organization’s perspective and effects of social media. Research limitations/implications Although a few prior papers have provided a literature review of social media in tourism and hospitality, no review-based papers have ever examined social media as an advertising vehicle in the context of HTT. Most reviews to date have been limited to general social media studies, without much advancement of theory building in advertising research. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents the first theoretical review of academic research on social media advertising in HTT. The review concludes by suggesting a theoretical framework for studying social media advertising in HTT and offering an agenda for future research.

Metallic zinc is an ideal anode due to its high theoretical capacity (820 mAh g −1 ), low redox potential (−0.762 V versus the standard hydrogen electrode), high abundance and low toxicity. When used in aqueous electrolyte, it also brings intrinsic safety, but suffers from severe irreversibility. This is best exemplified by low coulombic efficiency, dendrite growth and water consumption. This is thought to be due to severe hydrogen evolution during zinc plating and stripping, hitherto making the in-situ formation of a solid–electrolyte interphase (SEI) impossible. Here, we report an aqueous zinc battery in which a dilute and acidic aqueous electrolyte with an alkylammonium salt additive assists the formation of a robust, Zn 2+ -conducting and waterproof SEI. The presence of this SEI enables excellent performance: dendrite-free zinc plating/stripping at 99.9% coulombic efficiency in a Ti||Zn asymmetric cell for 1,000 cycles; steady charge–discharge in a Zn||Zn symmetric cell for 6,000 cycles (6,000 h); and high energy densities (136 Wh kg −1 in a Zn||VOPO 4 full battery with 88.7% retention for >6,000 cycles, 325 Wh kg −1 in a Zn||O 2 full battery for >300 cycles and 218 Wh kg −1 in a Zn||MnO 2 full battery with 88.5% retention for 1,000 cycles) using limited zinc. The SEI-forming electrolyte also allows the reversible operation of an anode-free pouch cell of Ti||Zn x VOPO 4 at 100% depth of discharge for 100 cycles, thus establishing aqueous zinc batteries as viable cell systems for practical applications. A solid–electrolyte interphase that is permeable to Zn( ii ) ions but waterproof is formed using an aqueous electrolyte composition. Cycling performances in an anode-free aqueous pouch cell show promise for intrinsically safe energy storage applications.

Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is an important research area in human–computer interaction and pervasive computing. In recent years, many deep learning (DL) methods have been widely used for HAR, and due to their powerful automatic feature extraction capabilities, they achieve better recognition performance than traditional methods and are applicable to more general scenarios. However, the problem is that DL methods increase the computational cost of the system and take up more system resources while achieving higher recognition accuracy, which is more challenging for its operation in small memory terminal devices such as smartphones. So, we need to reduce the model size as much as possible while taking into account the recognition accuracy. To address this problem, we propose a multi-scale feature extraction fusion model combining Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). The model uses different convolutional kernel sizes combined with GRU to accomplish the automatic extraction of different local features and long-term dependencies of the original data to obtain a richer feature representation. In addition, the proposed model uses separable convolution instead of classical convolution to meet the requirement of reducing model parameters while improving recognition accuracy. The accuracy of the proposed model is 97.18%, 96.71%, and 96.28% on the WISDM, UCI-HAR, and PAMAP2 datasets respectively. The experimental results show that the proposed model not only obtains higher recognition accuracy but also costs lower computational resources compared with other methods.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)–Cas9 editing of immune checkpoint genes could improve the efficacy of T cell therapy, but the first necessary undertaking is to understand the safety and feasibility. Here, we report results from a first-in-human phase I clinical trial of CRISPR–Cas9 PD-1 -edited T cells in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02793856 ). Primary endpoints were safety and feasibility, and the secondary endpoint was efficacy. The exploratory objectives included tracking of edited T cells. All prespecified endpoints were met. PD-1 -edited T cells were manufactured ex vivo by cotransfection using electroporation of Cas9 and single guide RNA plasmids. A total of 22 patients were enrolled; 17 had sufficient edited T cells for infusion, and 12 were able to receive treatment. All treatment-related adverse events were grade 1/2. Edited T cells were detectable in peripheral blood after infusion. The median progression-free survival was 7.7 weeks (95% confidence interval, 6.9 to 8.5 weeks) and median overall survival was 42.6 weeks (95% confidence interval, 10.3–74.9 weeks). The median mutation frequency of off-target events was 0.05% (range, 0–0.25%) at 18 candidate sites by next generation sequencing. We conclude that clinical application of CRISPR–Cas9 gene-edited T cells is generally safe and feasible. Future trials should use superior gene editing approaches to improve therapeutic efficacy. In a first-in-human phase I trial of patients with advanced lung cancer, infusions of autologous T cells edited to delete the PD-1 gene via CRISPR–Cas9 were well tolerated and did not lead to severe treatment-related adverse events.

Electrolyte engineering advances Li metal batteries (LMBs) with high Coulombic efficiency (CE) by constructing LiF-rich solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). However, the low conductivity of LiF disturbs Li + diffusion across SEI, thus inducing Li + transfer-driven dendritic deposition. In this work, we establish a mechanistic model to decipher how the SEI affects Li plating in high-fluorine electrolytes. The presented theory depicts a linear correlation between the capacity loss and current density to identify the slope k (determined by Li + mobility of SEI components) as an indicator for describing the homogeneity of Li + flux across SEI, while the intercept dictates the maximum CE that electrolytes can achieve. This model inspires the design of an efficient electrolyte that generates dual-halide SEI to homogenize Li + distribution and Li deposition. The model-driven protocol offers a promising energetic analysis to evaluate the compatibility of electrolytes to Li anode, thus guiding the design of promising electrolytes for LMBs. The low conductivity of LiF disturbs Li + diffusion across solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and induces Li + transfer-driven dendritic growth. Herein, the authors establish a mechanistic model to decipher how the SEI affects realistic Li plating in high-fluorine electrolytes.