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Phthalates are micro-pollutants of great concern due to their negative effects on ecosystem functioning and human health. Thanks to its capability in uptake and accumulation of organic pollutants, Populus alba L. “Villafranca” clone could be a good candidate for reducing the impacts derived by the persistence of such compounds in the environment. We investigated plant response and uptake of dioctyl phthalate (DOP) by poplar, grown in hydroponics condition, for 21 days with 0, 40, and 400 μg L −1 of d 4 -DOP. Treated plants, after 21 days of 400 μg L −1 d 4 -DOP, showed an increase in root dry biomass (+ 29%) at the expense of aerial parts (− 8%) compared with control. The root development could be sustained by the increase of Mg uptake by poplar. LC-MS/MS analysis demonstrated the uptake and accumulation in roots of d 4 -DOP starting from day one (3.5 ± 3.29 and 7.1 ± 3.28 in 40 and 400 μg L −1 d 4 -DOP respectively), despite volatilization of d 4 -DOP was observed from nutritive solution. The chemical interaction between d 4 -DOP and Zn occurred in roots of plants treated with the high d 4 -DOP concentration, without limiting the Zn concentration in leaves. Results confirm the high tolerance of “Villafranca” clone to xenobiotic and suggest the poplar capability in d 4 -DOP uptake and accumulation at root level.

Dendrobium officinale polysaccharide (DOP) has shown various biological activities. However, the ability of DOP to participate in immune regulation during anti-gastric cancer treatment has remained unclear. In this study, the in vitro results showed that DOP has the potential to polarize THP-1 macrophages from the M2 to the M1 phenotype, downregulate the STAT6/PPAR-r signaling pathway and the protein expression of their down-targeted ARG1 and TGM2, and further decrease the main protein and mRNA expression in the JAGGED1/NOTCH1 signaling pathway. DOP suppressed the migration of gastric cancer cells by decreasing the protein expression of N-cadherin and Vimentin and increasing E-cadherin. In addition, CM-DOP promoted the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells by upregulating Caspase-3 and increasing the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2. In vivo, DOP effectively inhibited the growth of tumors and the expression of Ki-67. In summary, these findings demonstrated that DOP converted the polarization of M2 subtype macrophages into M1 subtypes via the STAT6/PPAR-r and JAGGED1/NOTCH1 signaling pathways in order to reduce apoptosis and prevent migration, thus indicating the potential of DOP as an adjuvant tumor therapy in preclinical and clinical trials.

Doping is used in many pn junction devices, such as polycrystalline solar cells, to increase the strength of the junction field to assist charge carrier collection and thus partially mitigate nonradiative recombination losses. We demonstrate a different doping characteristic for inorganic solar cells: using dopants to reduce charge carrier trapping and electronic band tails. Alloying CdTe with Se to form CdSeTe semiconductor reduced recombination, but CdSeTe has more complex defect states which can limit further efficiency gains due to charge carrier trapping and trap-limited mobility. Doping CdSeTe with P (but not N, As, or Sb in this study) reduces band tails (Urbach energies) and lessens the impact of the near valence band trap states, with ambipolar mobilities improving to >50 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , fill factor increasing from 76% to 79%, and efficiencies increasing by 0.9% absolute. Simulations are used to show how such defect reduction improves performance in the radiative limit. Doping is used in p-n junction devices to partially mitigate nonradiative recombination losses. Here, authors use phosphorus dopants to reduce charge carrier trapping and electronic band tails in polycrystalline CdSeTe, achieving improved ambipolar mobilities, fill factor and solar cell efficiency.

In the zenith-horizon placement for achieving minimum geometric dilution of precision (GDOP), one access node or sensor is positioned along the z-axis, while the remaining nodes are placed symmetrically on a three-dimensional (3D) cone. This configuration yields the minimum GDOP at the cone’s tip, which we term the designated min-GDOP point. However, in practical localization applications, the unknown node is not necessarily located at this designated min-GDOP point; instead, it may be situated anywhere within an area. As a result, evaluating localization accuracy across the entire area, rather than at a single point, is more relevant. Averaged horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP) and GDOP across the region provide more meaningful metrics for system-wide performance than values computed only at a specific location. Although many recent positioning applications leverage multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), many established fixed sensor deployments predate the widespread adoption of UAVs. This paper proposes a novel approach with a single UAV working in conjunction with existing fixed access nodes for positioning. This approach offers improved adaptability for fixed infrastructure while circumventing the expense of establishing entirely new UAV systems, thus providing a valuable compromise. We investigate the criteria of average HDOP and GDOP over the given area. The objective is to determine optimal UAV positions along the flight path that minimize the average HDOP and/or GDOP across the area. Due to the analytical complexity, we employ numerical methods. Our simulation results demonstrate that minimizing average HDOP and GDOP often requires different UAV positions, depending on the number of access nodes and the size of the area. Consequently, achieving simultaneous minimization of both metrics with a single UAV trajectory is generally infeasible. When minimizing the average HDOP with a small number of access nodes, aligning the UAV’s XY-plane angle with those of the stationary nodes, offset by 60∘, proves advantageous. This angular alignment becomes less critical as the number of access nodes increases. For scenarios where both HDOP and GDOP are important, UAV placement can be optimized by selecting appropriate trade-offs. Additionally, we quantify how increasing the number of access nodes improves the average HDOP and GDOP over the specified area.

The implementation of accurate positioning methods in both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments has been emphasized for seamless 6G application services. In LOS environments with unobstructed paths between the transmitter and receiver, accurate tracking essential for seamless 6G services is achievable. However, accurate three-dimensional (3D) outdoor positioning has been challenging to achieve in NLOS environments where positioning accuracy may be severely degraded. In this paper, a novel 3D outdoor positioning method considering both LOS and NLOS environments is proposed. Considering the practical positioning systems, the data received from satellites often contain null values and outliers. Thus, a kernel density estimation (KDE)-based outlier removal method is used for effectively detecting the null values and outliers through temporal correlation analysis. A dilution of precision-based adaptive Kalman filter (DOP-AKF) is proposed to mitigate the effects of an NLOS environment. In the proposed method, the DOP-AKF can optimize the performance of the 3D positioning system that dynamically adapts to complex environments. Experimental results show that the proposed method can improve 3D positioning accuracy by up to 18.84% compared to conventional methods. Therefore, the proposed approach can be suggested as a promising solution for 3D outdoor positioning in 6G wireless systems.

The dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) pool in marine waters contains a variety of different compounds. Knowledge of the distribution and utilization of DOP by phyto- and bacterioplankton is limited but critical to our understanding of the marine phosphorus cycle. In the Baltic Sea, detailed information about the composition of DOP and its turnover is lacking. This study reports the concentrations and uptake rates of DOP compounds, namely, adenosine triphosphate (dATP), deoxyribonucleic acid (dDNA), and phospholipids (dPL), in the Baltic Proper and in Finnish coastal waters in the summers of 2011 and 2012. The mean concentrations of dATP-P, dDNA-P and dPL-P were 4.3-6.4 nM, 0.05-0.12 nM and 1.9-6.8 nM, respectively, together contributing between 2.4 and 5.2% of the total DOP concentration. The concentrations of the compounds varied between and within the investigated regions and behaved independently. dATP-P and dDNA-P were consumed simultaneously with dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) at rates of 6.9-24.1 nM d-1 and 0.09-0.19 nM d-1, respectively. Thus, these DOP compounds complemented the P supply to microorganisms by 17-36%. Our results indicate that the investigated DOP compounds, particularly dATP-P, can make significant contributions to the P nutrition of microorganisms and show independent dynamics. Therefore, detailed knowledge of all DOP components and their development is required to understand the roles of DOP in marine ecosystems.

In recent times, the research on the synthesis of highly functionalized piperidines has become a challenge and an attractive research field among synthetic chemists because these compounds have many biological, pharmaceutical and industrial applications. In this regard, in this paper we would like to report a green, rapid and efficient method for the synthesis of highly functionalized piperidines based on the use of zinc (II) chloride supported on Fe 3 O 4 NPs modified with Dopamine and 5H - Cyclopenta[2 , 1-b:3,4-b′]dipyridin-5-one [Fe 3 O 4 @Dop/CP-diPy-ZnCl 2 as a novel magnetically reusable catalyst. The structure of Fe 3 O 4 @Dop/CP-diPy-ZnCl 2 nanocatalyst was well identified by several spectroscopic techniques including: FT-IR, TEM, SEM, EDX, ICP-OES, TGA, XRD, VSM and Elemental mapping technique. One-pot three-component reactions of aromatic amines with different aryl aldehydes and β-ketoesters were performed in water and all desired highly functionalized piperidines were synthesized with high to excellent yields, which indicates the high efficiency of this catalytic system. The reusability tests shown that that Fe 3 O 4 @Dop/CP-diPy-ZnCl 2 catalyst is a reusable and stable catalyst. Graphical Abstract

In this paper, a self-made three dimensional electrode wastewater purification device is adopted. The electrode is flake iron electrode and activated carbon particle electrode, and the distance between the two electrodes is fixed. The electrolytic voltage, the amount of particle electrode activated carbon, electrolytic time, initial pH were respectively controlled to explore the treatment effect of DOP wastewater in three-dimensional electrode reactor under different treatment conditions, and the optimal conditions of DOP wastewater treatment were obtained through orthogonal test. The order of factors influencing COD degradation rate of DOP wastewater is as follows: initial pH of wastewater > other factors and variables > electrolytic time > activated carbon dosage. The optimal scheme is as follows: electrolytic voltage is 36 V, activated carbon dosage is 14 g/L, initial pH of wastewater is 4, and electrolytic time is 80 min. It is proved that the COD degradation rate of DOP wastewater water sample is 81.41% under this condition. The order of factors influencing the turbidity removal rate of DOP wastewater is as follows: initial pH of wastewater > other factor variables > activated carbon dosage > electrolytic time. The optimal scheme is as follows: The discharge voltage is 36 V, the dosage of activated carbon is 10 g/L, the initial pH of wastewater is 5, and the electrolysis time is 90 min. Experimental verification shows that under these conditions, the turbidity removal rate of DOP wastewater water sample is 84.21%.

The increasing use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in safety-critical missions in both civilian and military areas demands accurate and reliable navigation, where one of the key sources of navigation information is presented by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). In challenging conditions, for example, in urban areas, the accuracy of GNSS-based navigation may degrade significantly due to user-satellite geometry and obscuration issues without being noticed by the user. Therefore, considering the essentially dynamic rate of change in this type of environment, integrity monitoring is of critical importance for understanding the level of trust we have in positioning and timing data. In this paper, the dilution of precision (DOP) coefficients under nominal and challenging conditions were investigated for the purpose of integrity monitoring in urban environments. By analyzing positioning information in a simulated urban environment using a software-based GNSS receiver, the integrity monitoring approach based on joint consideration of GNSS observables and environmental parameters has been proposed. It was shown that DOP coefficients, when considered together with a number of visible satellites and cut-off elevations specific to the urban environment carry valuable integrity information that is difficult to get using existing integrity monitoring approaches. This has allowed generating indirect integrity measures based on cut-off elevation and satellite visibility that can be used for UAV path planning and guidance in urban environments.

The impact of seven clonal rootstocks (Colt, MaxMa 14, Krymsk 6, Adara, Cigančica, Gisela 5, and Gisela 6) and one local plum (Myrobalan seedlings) on yield, fruit weight, leaf mineral content at 120 days after full bloom (DAFB), and deviation from optimum percentage (DOP) for macro- and microelements of the ‘Šumadinka’ sour cherry cultivar was evaluated in orchard conditions for two consecutive years. Results showed that yield was higher on Adara, Gisela 5 and MaxMa 14, intermediate on Cigančica and Krymsk 6, and lower on Colt, Gisela 6, and Myrobalan rootstocks. The average fruit weight (FW) was highest on Gisela 6 and lowest on Myrobalan seedlings, and FW was higher in the second year of the trial. Significant effect of rootstock was found on the leaf mineral analysis properties evaluated. Thus, Adara showed the best capacity to uptake and translocate to the scion leaves for most macro- and microelements, whereas the poorest nutritional status was, in general, obtained for Myrobalan, probably due to the incidence of graft incompatibility disturbances with the ‘Šumadinka’ cultivar. MaxMa 14 showed the best balanced nutritional values (ΣDOP) whereas the wider imbalance among elements was induced by Myrobalan seedlings. ‘Krymsk 6’ had, in general, lower values for most leaf mineral elements but higher ΣDOP macro and ΣDOP micro-indexes, showing more unbalanced nutritional index than the rest of rootstocks, with the exception of Myrobolan, and both of them followed by Colt. This work demonstrates that the rootstock strongly influences some important sour cherry attributes such as yield, fruit size, leaf macro- and microelements. The significant positive correlations between yield and mineral elements as Mn and Ca could indicate the interest of rootstocks having higher absorption and uptake for these elements in the present growing conditions. Considering their overall performance and tolerance to heavy and acidic soils, and according to the PCA results, Adara, MaxMa 14, and Gisela 6 appear as new promising rootstocks and can be recommended for sour cherries growing under similar soil conditions. We believe that sufficient information on the influence of different rootstocks on yield, fruit size, and leaf mineral composition of sour cherry would enable less ambiguous comparisons within and among them and ensure the best choice for growing a specific cultivar in similar environmental conditions.