Convergent validity was supported through associations of the DMS and the MDDI with eating disorder symptoms, body-ideal internalization, self-objectification beliefs and behaviors, and body appreciation measures. Additionally, we found good internal consistency, and test–retest reliability of both measures. Results support the validity and reliability of the DMS and the MDDI in Brazilian cisgender gay and bisexual adult men and will support future studies exploring these constructs in Brazilian sexual-minority men.Despite high levels of muscularity concerns among sexual-minority men, most of the existing literature on the drive for muscularity and muscle dysmorphia focuses on heterosexual men and has mainly been conducted in Western and English-speaking regions. The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS) and the Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI) in Brazilian cisgender gay and bisexual adult men who were 18–50 years old. We evaluated the factor structure of both measures using a two-step, split-sample exploratory (EFA;  Muscle dysmorphia (MD) is characterized by a pathological preoccupation with one’s degree of muscularity that involves distress and fear over the idea that one’s body is too small or not sufficiently muscular . IndividAppearance Intolerance , Drive for Size , and Functional Impairment . Moreover, the MDDI is the only screening instrument that assesses FI, a core component of the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria of MD  = 6440.736, p = 0.001) showed adequate common variance to conduct the factor analysis. All retention criteria  showed that the two-factor structure was the most appropriate. Parallel analysis showed that item #12  did not have adequate loading in its respective factor (λ = 0.29). Additionally, item #9  showed cross-loading. After excluding both items, the DMS presented an adequate two-factor structure  = 5919.507, p = 0.001)). The factor loadings, eigenvalues, and the total variance explained are described in Regarding the DMS, the KMO (0.89) and the significance of Bartllet’s sphericity test  indicated good suitability to factor analysis. All retention criteria demonstrated that a three-factor structure was the best fit to the data, replicating the original structure [Regarding the MDDI, the KMO (0.79) and the significance of Bartllet’s sphericity test ; and SRMR = 0.072. Furthermore, the results from CFA confirmed the three-factor solution of the MDDI, showing acceptable fit to the data: χ²/df = 6.52; CFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.92; RMSEA = 0.089 ; and SRMR = 0.085. Standardized factor loading estimates for both the DMS and the MDDI were all adequate  with alResults also confirm the original factor structure of the DMS , with thλ = 0.43) in its respective MB factor. CFA confirmed that item #10 should be retained.Regarding item #10 , the original DMS study advocates that the item did not load significantly on any of the lower-order factors . McCrearConfirming our second hypothesis, the MDDI and DMS demonstrated good convergent validity, as evidenced through associations with ED symptoms, self-objectification beliefs and behaviors, body-ideal internalization, and body appreciation. Eik-Nes et al.  found anr = 0.36; 95% CI =.30, 0.41) [Regarding MD symptoms, the MDDI scores exhibited positive and small to strong associations with ED symptoms, self-objectification beliefs and behaviors, and body-ideal internalization. Moreover, the MDDI scores demonstrated a moderate, negative association with body appreciation. Our results are consistent with a recent meta-analysis that showed that MD and ED symptoms are positively associated  . Further0, 0.41)  found a ω ranging from 0.77 to 0.89). Although evaluating temporal stability of a new measure is an important and indispensable step [Both the DMS and the MDDI demonstrated good internal consistency and adequate two-week test–retest reliability, confirming our third hypothesis. The internal consistency of the MDDI scores found in the present study is consistent with finding from Compte et al. , which eble step , none ofThe internal consistency of the DMS scores was good in the present study, with similar values found in previous studies with sexual-minority men from the U.S. ,30. It i®, Twitter®, and LinkedIn®), which may result in an overrepresentation of the sample, possibly limiting generalization.Strengths of the present study include: (a) the focus on understudied and under-recognized populations in the MD literature; (b) recruitment of a large sample of gay and bisexual men; and (c) use of best practices in translation and validation of body-image instruments . FurtherTaken together, results of the present study provide support for MDDI and DMS as appropriate measures to assess muscularity concerns in Brazilian cisgender gay and bisexual adult men. These findings provide the foundation for expanding the drive for muscularity and muscle dysmorphia literature to more diverse populations. Future studies will be needed to yield further psychometric validation of the MDDI and the DMS among gender minorities , and people from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds  in Latin America.


Interface interactions in 2D vertically stacked heterostructures play an important role in optoelectronic applications, and photodetectors based on graphene/InSe heterostructures show promising performance nowadays. However, nonlinear optical property studies based on the graphene/InSe heterostructure are insufficient. Here, we fabricated a graphene/InSe heterostructure by mechanical exfoliation and investigated the optically induced charge transfer between graphene/InSe heterostructures by taking photoluminescence and pump–probe measurements. The large built-in electric field at the interface was confirmed by Kelvin probe force microscopy. Furthermore, due to the efficient interfacial carrier transfer driven by the built-in electric potential (~286 meV) and broadband nonlinear absorption, the application of the graphene/InSe heterostructure in a mode-locked laser was realized. Our work not only provides a deeper understanding of the dipole orientation-related interface interactions on the photoexcited charge transfer of graphene/InSe heterostructures, but also enriches the saturable absorber family for ultrafast photonics application. Two-dimensional 2D) heterostructures, which are combined by van der Waals (vdWs) force, have attracted great attention for next-generation optoelectronic devices, because of their excellent physical properties, such as strong light–matter interactions and ultrafast interfacial charge transfer ,2,3,4,5.D heterosIn this work, we prepared a graphene/InSe (G/InSe) heterostructure (HS) by mechanical exfoliation (ME) and investigated the intrinsic interlayer charge transfer process of G/InSe HS by steady-state photoluminescence (PL), Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) and transient absorption (TA) pump–probe measurements. We further demonstrated the G/InSe HS as an SA for near-IR mode-locked laser application. Stable traditional soliton pulses were obtained with a central wavelength of 1566.65 nm and 192 fs pulse duration. These results indicate that G/InSe HS is very attractive for ultrafast nonlinear photonic applications.1g1 (115 cm−1), E2g1 (176 cm−1) and A1g2 (226 cm−1), similar to the results of ref. [Our Bridgman method-grown InSe crystals are obtained commercially . The XRD pattern of bulk InSe is shown in  of ref. , which p−1, 174 cm−1, 226 cm−1, 1581 cm−1 and 2716 cm−1) are observed in the heterostructure region, indicating the successful formation of the G/InSe heterostructure, and no Raman peaks are shifted compared with individual InSe and graphene. The PL measurements were also performed on a G/InSe sample derived by the same Raman spectrometer, using a 532 nm laser for excitation, with the power of 700 μW. As shown in For the fabrication of the graphene/InSe heterostructure, the process can be divided into three steps. Firstly, a thin flake of graphene was prepared by the ME method using Nitto tape  and transample − Wtip)/e, the difference in work function (W) represents the surface potential (V) variation of the sample. To determine the work function difference of graphene and InSe, Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) was used. According to the equation V =  spectral region, a micro-area pump–probe technique is employed. The TA measurement setup is shown in −2 pump pulse, the TA dynamics of graphene, InSe and G/InSe HS are as shown in 1 = 48 fs) and inter-band relaxation time (τ2 = 140 fs) that is closer to graphene (τ1 = 96 fs and τ2 = 583 fs) and much faster than InSe (τ1 = 1.77 ps and τ2 = 216.11 ps) at a probe wavelength of 844 nm, as seen in 1 = 12.6 ps and τ2 = 12.6 ps, which is also faster than that of the InSe individual (τ1 = 3.8 ps and τ2 = 191.3 ps). Benefiting from graphene’s fast charge transfer and relaxation channel, the carrier recombination in InSe is suppressed, thus resulting in a short relaxation time. Furthermore, the TA dynamics of InSe and the G/InSe HS under the pump photon energy of 3.30 eV, ~2 μJ/cm2 are shown in −2 at the probe wavelength of 502 nm (B exciton); therefore, it can be confirmed as two-photon absorption at the pump photon energy of 2.06 eV. Overall, the ultrafast carrier dynamics revealed the dipole orientation-related interface interactions in the G/InSe HS, and the results not only provide a deeper understanding of the dynamic photoexcited charge transfer process, but also suggest a high optical modulation speed for nonlinear photonics application.The transient absorption (TA) signal of InSe mainly comes from free carriers, and such carriers are the free holes of the valence band (VB1 and VB2) level. The photo-bleaching signature arising from Pauli blocking indicates the saturable absorption behavior of the prepared samples. Under excitation by a 2.06 eV, ~130 μJ cm2 and 12%, respectively. It should be noted that the large modulation depth and low saturation intensity are attributed to the lower recombination rate caused by the large built-in electric potential [To measure the saturable absorption properties of the G/InSe HS, the micro I-scan with a balanced twin-detector measurement method is used, as illustrated in 1+I/Is)  . The satotential . 2/km and −23 ps2/km, respectively; therefore, the calculated net cavity dispersion is approximately −0.106 ps2. The laser was output through a 10% optical coupler (OC), and its characteristics were real-time-monitored by a 1 GHz photodetector  and then output to a 3-GHz digital oscilloscope . Moreover, a commercial optical spectrum analyzer  was used to record the obtained laser optical spectrum. The laser pulse width was measured by a commercial autocorrelator , and the radio frequency spectrum was measured by a RF spectrum analyzer .To evaluate its ultrafast nonlinear optical response, the G/InSe HS SA was inserted into a ring fiber cavity. By carefully controlling the laser polarization state through PCs, self-starting mode locking is achieved when the pump power is beyond 40 mW, due to the saturable absorption of the G/InSe HS SA. The SA damage threshold is around 650 mW. The maximum output laser power is around 2.53 mW, corresponding to the single pulse energy of 0.06 nJ. The output pulse characteristics under the pump power of 110 mW are shown in eff ~ −2.8 × 102 cm/GW) [Furthermore, we compared the mode-locked laser results with the naked graphene (before being stacked with InSe) SA, and it showed that the mode-locking pulse width was around 292 fs , slightl2 cm/GW) , while t2 cm/GW) . Further2 cm/GW) . Benefit2) and larger modulation depth (~12%) were obtained by nonlinear absorption measurement. Furthermore, mode-locked laser pulses with 192 fs pulse duration operating at 1566.65 nm were successfully generated by integrating the G/InSe HS into an erbium-doped fiber laser cavity. The obtained pulse width was superior to that of the naked graphene SA in the same laser cavity. The internal mechanism was the reduced rate of recombination and fast interlayer charge transfer driven by the large built-in electric potential of the G/InSe HS. Our work not only provides a deeper understanding of the dipole orientation-related interface interactions of the G/InSe HS, but also demonstrates its application prospects in the field of nonlinear photonics.High-quality G/InSe HS material was prepared by ME and the dry-transfer method, and the carrier transport across the G/InSe HS interface was systematically investigated by PL, KPFM and TA measurements. The relatively lower saturation intensity (~1.33 GW/cm


In oceanic oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), the abundances of aerobic organisms significantly decrease and energy shifts from higher trophic levels to microorganisms, while the microbial communities become critical drivers of marine biogeochemical cycling activities. However, little is known of the microbial ecology of the Andaman Sea and eastern Bay of Bengal (BoB) OMZs. In the present study, a total of 131 samples which from the Andaman Sea and eastern BoB epipelagic waters were analyzed. The microbial community distribution patterns across oxygen gradients, including oxygenic zones , oxygen limited zones , and OMZs (DO ≤ 0.7 mg/L), were investigated. Mantel tests and Spearman’s correlation analysis revealed that DO was the most important driver of microbial community structures among several environmental factors. Microbial diversity, richness, and evenness were highest in the OLZs and lowest in the OZs. The microbial community compositions of OZ and OMZ waters were significantly different. Random forest analysis revealed 24 bioindicator taxa that differentiated OZ, OLZ, and OMZ water communities. These bioindicator taxa included Burkholderiaceae, HOC36, SAR11 Clade IV, Thioglobaceae, Nitrospinaceae, SAR86, and UBA10353. Further, co-occurrence network analysis revealed that SAR202, AEGEAN-169, UBA10353, SAR406, and Rhodobacteraceae were keystone taxa among the entire interaction network of the microbial communities. Functional prediction further indicated that the relative abundances of microbial populations involved in nitrogen and sulfur cycling were higher in OMZs. Several microbial taxa, including the Thioglobaceae, Nitrospinaceae, SAR202, SAR406, WPS-2, UBA10353, and Woeseiaceae, may be involved in nitrogen and/or sulfur cycling, while also contributing to oxygen consumption in these waters. This study consequently provides new insights into the microbial community structures and potentially important taxa that contribute to oxygen consumption in the Andaman Sea and eastern BoB OMZ. Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration is one of most important factors that shapes community structures and functions in marine ecosystems . As deoxOxygen minimum zones typically occur at water depths of 100–1500 m underlying surface waters. Four permanent OMZs have been identified globally including the eastern tropical North Pacific (ETNP), the eastern tropical South Pacific (ETSP), the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal (BoB) . HoweverThe Andaman Sea, located in the northeastern Indian Ocean, is a semi-closed marginal sea, and is bounded by Myanmar to the north, in addition to Thailand and Malaysia in the east, while being partly isolated by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands from the BoB . The AndIn the present study, the microbial diversity and compositional structures and their interactive patterns were investigated between 90.04°E–97.26°E and 12.94°N–16.10°N, ranging from the Andaman Sea to the eastern BoB. High-throughput sequencing was used to evaluate the microbial composition of 131 water samples from the region. Further, the microbial diversity from oxygenic zones (OZs) to OMZs at depths of up to 200 m were characterized and their potential functions were evaluated.Sampling was conducted at 23 stations across the Andaman Sea and the eastern BoB spanning water depths from 2 to 200 m through the international cooperation cruise, namely Joint Advanced Marine and Ecological Studies (JAMES) between China and Myanmar, during December 2019 to January 2020 . SeawateOceanic OMZ region boundaries are fluid and their definitions have considerably varied, depending on oxygen concentration demands of marine organisms and varying thresholds for hypoxia among ocean regions , 2013. F1 Representative 16S rRNA gene sequences from each OTU were annotated against the SILVA database (silva132/16s_bacteria) using a similarity cutoff value of 0.7. The sequence information was listed in PRJNA862716.DNA extraction and sequencing was conducted following previously described methods . The uniR | ≥ | 0.8 and p < 0.01 were used for the final network analysis and visualized with the Gephi software program . Module detection and topology parameter analysis was conducted in the Gephi 0.9.2 program. High degree, high closeness centrality, and low betweenness centrality values were used to define keystone taxa (Alpha diversity indices including the Chao1 (richness), Heip (evenness), and Shannon (diversity) values were calculated using MOTHUR version 1.30.2 . Mantel one taxa . The cutone taxa  analysis3– concentrations. The regression analysis R2 indicated that DO was the most correlated environmental factor to the Shannon index, while depth was the least correlated  was used to assess the distribution of microbial communities at the OTU level. The first PCoA axis explained 42.18% of the total variation and separated the OMZ and OZ communities. However, the microbial communities from OLZ could not be separated from the OMZ and OZ communities based on PCoA ordinations. PERMANOVA results (R2 (0.398) compared to other environmental factors. These results were corresponding to Mantel test result , UBA10353, and SAR406 were enriched in the OMZ communities, while the HOC36 and Microtrichaceae were enriched in the OLZ communities . The SARCandidatus Thioglobus sp. taxa remain uncultured.Random forest modeling was used to identify bioindicator taxa that differentiated OZ, OLZ, and OMZ communities at the family level . FurtherA co-occurrence network was generated to explore bacterial interactions among bacterial communities . The netThe entire network was divided into 14 modules, with modules 0, 1, and 2 respectively accounting for 30.86, 26.23, and 33.95% of the entire network. Module 0 was associated with OMZ communities and predominantly comprised Dehalococcoidia, Gammaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria that constituted the largest relative abundances of 19.6, 18.6, and 16.5%, respectively, among module 0  nodes. MKeystone taxa considerably influence community networks, in addition to maintaining their structures and functions . High de3– concentrations  analysis indicated the presence of various functional processes including chemoheterotrophy, nitrification, denitrification, and dark sulfite/sulfur oxidation that were more abundant in the OMZ and OLZ communities compared with the OZ communities . Denitrixidation . Among txidation .The expansion and shoaling of OMZs have increased in recent decades and these processes remain ongoing. Microbial communities are important players in biogeochemical processes and feature prominently within OMZ generation and functioning . In the 3– concentrations were the significant environment factors that structured microbial communities in the study region. These results indicated that DO, depth, temperature, salinity, and NO3– should co-shape microbial communities. Among these, DO was the most highly associated environmental factor with microbial communities, and also significantly differentiated microbial community types. Thus, although microbial community structures were determined by multiple interacting environmental factors, DO was the most important driver of community structure in the epipelagic zone of the study site, likely due to the oxygen-depleted water column. DO has been similarly detected as an important and strong driver of microbial community diversity and community structure in hypoxic ocean regions like the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone and the eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean (ETNP)  .Alpha diversity index comparisons suggested that microbial communities exhibited increased species richness and evenness in oxygen deficient (OMZ and OLZ) compared with oxygenic (OZ) water column communities. However, significant differences of diversity indices were not detected between OLZ and OMZ communities, indicating that the microbial community composition of OLZs was more similar to OMZ communities than OZ communities. PCoA also indicated that the microbial communities of OMZ and OZ samples were considerably different, while the microbial community compositions of OLZ overlapped with OZ and OMZ communities. OLZs are transition regions adjacent to OZs and OMZs, perhaps accounting for the mixed characteristics of the OLZ microbial communities. These results are consistent with those from the ETNP, wherein bacterial richness exhibited a unimodal distribution with decreasing DO, reaching maximum values at the edge of the OMZ, then decreasing . These dThe microbial communities analyzed in this study possessed characteristics common to other global OMZs. As previously shown , the OxyUBA10353 and AEGEAN-169 were also keystone taxa in the network analysis. Unlike the SAR202 and SAR406 groups, the ecology, genetics, and functions of UBA10353 and AEGEAN-169 have not been well-documented. Indeed, the identification of UBA10353 has only been reported in recent years. However, more abundant populations have been identified in deeper layers of the western Mediterranean Sea and the OMZ core of Tropical Mexican Pacific, and they also have been shown to exhibit the potential ability for carbon fixation and sulfur oxidation .3–, influence the distribution of AEGEAN-169  was identified as a bioindicator taxa in this study and have also been detected in other oxygen-deficient waters, including the OMZs of the Arabian Sea and Cariaco Basin . The ecoNitrospina and LS-NOB) and SUP05 groups were significantly abundant in the OLZ and OMZ communities of this study and were also important indicator taxa. Nitrospina are aerobes and major nitrite oxidizing bacteria that contribute to nitrification in marine environments  were the second most important bioindicator taxa. Candidatus Thioglobus sp. belongs to the SUP05 clade  encoding genes involved in nitrification exhibited higher levels in the BoB OMZ  can be found in the article/RG conceived the study, carried out the sampling and experiments, conducted data analyses, and wrote the manuscript. XM, HL, and JZ carried out the sampling and conducted data analysis. CT, TW, NA, HW, and CL carried out the sampling. SN revised the manuscript. FZ and PW conceived the study and reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript and approved the submitted version.


The reactions of education systems to the global lockdowns implemented during the COVID-19 epidemic highlighted that there remain questions regarding how everyday technologies might be used to support mass education. This paper draws on Conversation Analysis in online textual communication to study key features of mobile text communication by analysing book discussions among adult students of an online reading programme. We captured and analysed three patterns of interaction  as to their affordances for educational communication. This study shows that synchronous text has distinctive communicative features, including short text exchanges and various turn-taking patterns, which are different to the elaborated forms of discourse expected in schools. Though “disorder” and “messiness” accompanied the interactions, we take them as opportunities rather than challenges of education and suggest that appropriate pedagogic design may enable teachers to utilise this distinctiveness to develop various learning environments. The mass closure of educational institutions around the world during the COVID-19 epidemic left educational institutions scrambling to find technologies that could afford distance learning. UNESCO provides a list of possible resources that may help support education, which includes a wide range of technologies including mobile learning tools and resources. Mobile technologies have long been seen as offering important resources for providing “ubiquitous” learning that stretches beyond the classroom or specific physical locations . These tChat-based instant messaging applications that afford interaction between groups of people are of particular relevance for constructivist pedagogies ,6 and haHowever, their levels of uptake both within the classroom and as a resource for work outside of the classroom remain patchy at best . This isFrom the perspective of Conversation Analysis (CA), the analytic framework for this paper, interaction and communication are regarded as the basis of all activity and of people’s understanding, so changes in how communication works fundamentally alter the nature of the activity at hand. Following on from this, to understand how mobile technology impacts learning we need to look closely at the micro-practices of communication of real people in real learning scenarios. Kim  has arguMobile communication technologies constitute new forms of interaction, and substantial interest is developing in the semiotic and interactional practices that comprise them as well as their role as tools for formal education in schools ,8 and prThe communicative possibilities offered by mobile technologies are relative to their specific properties. The term “affordances” refers to the ways that technologies give rise to certain possibilities of action as a result of the conventions of practice that people employ when using them . ShirleyMobile technology has been shown to have a positive impact on second/foreign language reading performance such as EFL reading from students’ learning outcomes  and teacIt is noted earlier that CA is an established approach to the study of the social accomplishment of learning as a communicative practice . This reThe study explores a reading programme delivered by an educational technology company based in China. The programme aims to encourage people to form a habit of reading and help them to overcome problems such as a lack of desire to read or low reading proficiency. The main target group are adults aged from twenty to forty, who are able to make use of the fragmented off-work time to participate through mobile phones. The participants joined the programme voluntarily and described various motives for participation: some of the participants referred to an absent-mindedness in reading, some found difficulty in choosing books, while others felt that they needed the opportunity for discussion with others and a community to motivate them to keep reading every day.Over ten months, learners read selected sections of 40 books covering nine reading themes and are encouraged to spend 15 min reading every day. According to the syllabus, each month users are offered sections of four different books to read under the themes including self-management, communication and cooperation, psychology, logical thinking, science, philosophy, society, art and business attainments. New reading content is unlocked daily, and participants are placed into groups based on location and are encouraged to discuss or share questions and reading experiences with other group members through WeChat groups. Discussion in the WeChat group is voluntary rather than compulsory. Self-study readers may choose not to join a WeChat group or keep silent from the beginning to the end. They all got e-certificates to prove their participation once the programme was finished. WeChat is the most popular chat application used in China. It is a powerful tool that allows sending texts, images, emojis, videos, document files, web links, location maps, making voice and video calls and even transferring money. We recruited 55 participants from the programme who were organised into two separate groups. The researchers transcribed and translated Chinese conversations into English and analysed them through conversation analysis. A total of 3178 turns from the two groups were recorded see . A largeDrawing on the literature in conversation analytic studies of pedagogy, the analysis involved providing a detailed account of the types of action undertaken in the chat see . CA has Based on this analysis see , we tracAs shown in In Extract 1 see , two parIn Turn 657 and 658, Jane shared a popular video that showed a social experiment on whether children would go off with a stranger. Jane asked an open question about the group members’ opinions about showing the video to children. Qing joined the discussion in Turn 668 producing a turn that suggested that the video would frighten children, and then asked the group how children could trust other people in the future. They then included a turn expansion “just my personal opinion”, which is the kind of utterance that has been shown to follow turns that implicate an epistemic disalignment between participants . After aThe turns have a clear interactional relationship to each other and each deals with the implicatures of the previous action; in this way, these turns reflect similar sequential orders to those found in dyadic face-to-face or mediated synchronous classroom interaction: each turn shows its interactional relevant to the preceding one, and are produced in many cases with a minimal time gap between each post . HoweverIn the context of online discussion with more than two participants in a group, turn-taking is frequently very different to the pattern outlined in the previous section. Extract 2 see  shows a One point to note is the way that Congcong’s post of a picture at Turn 156 and his subsequent written expansion of it (Turn 158) results in a type of topic change that is unusual in spoken conversation. Button and Casey  have shoContinuing with Extract 2 , at TurnIt can be seen from the above that where conversations involve more than two participants, the conversational structure becomes more “disorderly” ,48. EvenThe third type of turn-taking found involves the production of multiple responses to a single post. Extract 3 see  providesContinuing with the extract, Nichang and Jane both provided responses that were readable as commentaries on the topic initiated by Daojian. These two turns use “@” to address Daojian directly, with both Nichang’s “brilliant” (Turn 52) and Daojian’s thumbs-up emoji functioning as affiliative relations to these turns Affiliative ‘assessments’ such as these in spoken conversation have been shown to have distinctive “sequential orders”, with recurrent patterns of use in terms of when and how they are produced . The useContinuing with the interaction, after a brief pause Daojian followed up his comment that the app can be downloaded on a computer (Turn 55) to say it can be downloaded on a phone (Turn 58), with Turn 55 implying that they could use the app as a team for their collaborative work. Following this, participants produce a series of further evaluations . Again, the consecutive sequentiality of these three actions makes them readable as a sequential question-answer action. Following this, Dong proposed to go and download the software (Turn 69) and Yixiao (Turn 70) made a comment about the functionality of the app, which is potentially readable as a complaint that Daojian replied to with an affirmation that the app can do what Yixiao would like.One way to make sense of this sequence is to read it as a set of separate turn responses, which address the initial post  offer can be harnessed for distance learning tools. This study investigates three patterns of conversation that happened in the online learning platform, which are single linear patterns, intertwined interactions and trunk-branch patterns. It is concluded that linear sequences of action are more commonly seen in pair discussions with only two participants in the chat group, which is similar to those found in spoken interaction. When more than two participants joined, the “disorder” or “messiness” occurs due to multiply layers of conversation that can happen at the same time. To reiterate, we do not use these terms evaluatively. We saw that participants could use the functionality such as “@”, but also simply naming participants to establish addressivity and to maintain the “reading path” of the interaction. Where turns did have an interactional relevance in consecutive turns, then addressivity was not used, showing that participants only used addressivity to solve particular interactional problems. The ubiquity of mobile tools and chat applications makes them a potentially valuable resource for distributed/distance learning. We argue however that it is important to understand in detail how such tools impact the interactional phenomena of “doing learning”. Our analysis aims to concentrate on the relationship between their conversational/communicative features and the implications of these for distance learning pedagogies. While the ordered single linear pair discussion is needed in educational instructions, it does not mean that “disordered” interactions are unwanted. Instead, different interaction patterns serve different pedagogic activities and finally contribute to supporting a diverse educational environment. Text chat is a genre-specific form of writing, and it is not always organised in the same way as speech or as more formal academic prose. It could be problematic to treat these genre-specific features as an unwanted departure from more conventional forms of spoken or formal written communication. Instead, it may be more beneficial to make use of these aspects and to treat them, as users do, as useful devices for achieving coherent text talk.The pedagogic implications are intended to take account of the core findings that this study has produced related to the organisational features of interaction via text-chat. In particular, they aim to manage the online educational interactive environments that can arise from multi-party discussions in relation to overlapping and “messiness” in the dialogue. The intertwined pattern as shown in Extract 2 , for exaTeachers may modify online pedagogic designs to confront the potential disorder or make full use of the typical interaction pattern to design specific instructional tasks. For example, teachers may appoint moderators who are responsible for managing chats to sort out the viewpoints that have been discussed and present a summary at the end of the discussion, and students can take turns to perform this function across a school term. The intertwined pattern is more suitable for arranging free Q and A sessions with students posting questions and teachers or other students answering questions. The advantage of this arrangement lies in that all the questions, answers and opinions and progress of the discussion are open and transparent to all group members, while students in the offline group discussion are not able to access other groups’ discussion progress. This enables teachers and students to avoid asking or answering similar questions, respectively, and thus improves educational efficiency and equality of information access.Mobile chat applications like WeChat are widely used for group discussion of a predefined topic or text, which may commonly lead to the appearance of the trunk-branch pattern, referring to multiple responses to a single post. Teachers could also take advantage of the features of this turn-taking pattern for organising a debate or a lead-in of a topic. Both debating and topic lead-in share a similar interaction pattern with one post leading to multiple responses. Again, the summary of the discussion can be arranged for pedagogic needs if the “messiness” of chat text results in confusion of questions and misaligned turns. Teachers can also take the sequential movement  in their online pedagogical design. They may arrange a storytelling activity by requiring each student to take turns to post one conversational turn only. By the sequential movement one by one, equal opportunity for participation will be guaranteed in this activity. This shows the affordance of mobile text chat as a collaborative tool to fulfil the pedagogic needs of various activities in online contexts. Much more research is needed on how online learning tools impact the experience and outcomes of teaching and learning in school contexts. This project has sought to contribute to our understanding of these technologies’ possibilities for learning. Our data shows that users developed genre-specific interaction modes that may be at odds with interaction conventions in formal education environments. The designs for using these tools proposed here may form a starting point for exploring in more detail the possibilities of applying them in online learning contexts. We have deliberately not sought to address the ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of mobile technology, or to comment on issues of access or accessibility. These, too, are areas that should most certainly form a strong line of enquiry in future investigations. Moreover, appropriate visualization will greatly add value to understanding of features of interactional patterns (e.g., the improvement of


Chipless radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensors are not yet widespread in practical applications because of their limited sensitivity and selectivity when compared to more mature sensing technologies. The search for a suitable material to perform the sensing function has often been focused on the most common materials used in electrochemical sensing approaches, but little work has been done to directly relate the performances of chipless or microwave sensors to the characteristics of the materials used to fabricate them. In this work we are simulating the impact of the substrate material on the performances of a chipless RFID sensor for humidity detection. The dielectric parameters of the substrate material turn out to be very important to maximize the sensor performances, in relation to the operative range of the sensor (based on the desired application) and to the effective dielectric properties of the sensitive material used, we verify the simulated results with measurements of real chipless humidity cells with Nafion 117 sensitive material. We show which types of substrate are preferable for low-humidity detection and which substrates’ features are instead fundamental to operate in a wider humidity range. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies have already found applications in many industrial contexts, such as the tracking, handling and transportation of goods. Adding one or more sensing functions to RFID tags will allow for a variety of new applications ,2, and cIn this paper, we focus on the role of the substrate and sensing material characteristics to determine their influence on the sensor signal in terms of intensity and sensitivity. To do this, we consider one of the most common microwave sensor structures, which is the electric-field-coupled (ELC) resonator , widely In general, the designer of chipless RFID sensors can work with three main degrees of freedom (DoF) in order to improve the signal of the tag: the resonance structure, the sensitive material and the substrate. As we will see from the formulas in the next sections, all of them have an impact on the resonance frequency of the sensor. The majority of studies on chipless tags are focused on maximizing the signal response by acting directly on the choice of the resonator ,12,13,14The manuscript is organized as follows: in The sensing structure is composed of a 17 μm-thick copper ELC resonator covered with a 180 μm-thick sensitive layer of Nafion 117 and coupled with a 50 he Refs. ,26,27.In general, when exploiting a microstrip transmission line feeding mechanism, a quasi-TEM propagation mode must be considered due to the presence of two different dielectrics as in c being the light velocity and the resonance occurring when the total length of the resonator n of the half-guided wavelength.The effective permittivity is a key parameter in the design of chipless resonant cells where the resonator is gap-coupled to a microstrip feeding mechanism since the cell resonance response is inversely proportional to it: When a multi-layer configuration is considered as in our work, it can be schematized as in The effect of the substrate material is analyzed by varying its dielectric constant in order to match the values of common substrate materials used in RF components, while the substrate thickness h = 0.8 mm is equal for all the substrates. The superstrate is instead the sensing material and its dielectric properties are varied according to the possible environmental conditions.The structure was simulated with the Ansys High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). Nafion 117 was chosen as a humidity-sensitive material because of the high variation of its dielectric parameters with humidity, and is considered as a superstrate . The dieThe symbol esonator , for γ =The simulation results obtained for From It is possible to observe, as for low humidity conditions, the resonance peaks results to be sharp, and the variations are connected to the In the examined high-humidity regime (approximately 3–33% RH or higher) the peak attenuation gradually becomes the dominant feature, and, as humidity increases, it dominates over the frequency shift. This transition can be seen in This change is due to the gradual increase of Nafion igher RH . The peaResonators with the same geometry and dimensions of the simulated ones have been fabricated on substrates corresponding to the materials in S calculated as the difference between the resonance frequency at each relative humidity point and the reference resonance frequency To better evaluate the frequency shift achievable with the different substrates, a further test on a wider humidity range was carried out. In  fresref ,37: (3)SAs it is possible to observe in simulations in the In this paper, we have simulated the impact of the substrate material on the performances of a chipless RFID sensor. We have verified the simulated results with measurements of real resonators. The dielectric parameters of the substrate material turned out to be very important to maximize the sensor performances, in relation to the operative range of the sensor and consequently in relation to the desired application. At low humidity values, substrates with a low dielectric constant are the best choice. If the sensor needs to operate in a higher humidity regime or in a generally wider humidity range, a high dielectric constant substrate can be the best choice in order for the resonance peak to be well-detectable.


In advancing battery technologies, primary attention is paid to developing and optimizing low-cost electrode materials capable of fast reversible ion insertion and extraction with good cycling ability. Sodium-ion batteries stand out due to their inexpensive price and comparable operating principle to lithium-ion batteries. To achieve this target, various graphene-based nanocomposites fabricate strategies have been proposed to help realize the nanostructured electrode for high electrochemical performance sodium-ion batteries. In this review, the graphene-based nanocomposites were introduced according to the following main categories: graphene surface modification and doping, three-dimensional structured graphene, graphene coated on the surface of active materials, and the intercalation layer stacked graphene. Through one or more of the above strategies, graphene is compounded with active substances to prepare the nanocomposite electrode, which is applied as the anode or cathode to sodium-ion batteries. The recent research progress of graphene-based nanocomposites for SIBs is also summarized in this study based on the above categories, especially for nanocomposite fabricate methods, the structural characteristics of electrodes as well as the influence of graphene on the performance of the SIBs. In addition, the relevant mechanism is also within the scope of this discussion, such as synergistic effect of graphene with active substances, the insertion/deintercalation process of sodium ions in different kinds of nanocomposites, and electrochemical reaction mechanism in the energy storage. At the end of this study, a series of strategies are summarized to address the challenges of graphene-based nanocomposites and several critical research prospects of SIBs that provide insights for future investigations. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are a kind of high-specific energy secondary battery that are important and widely used in commercial applications nowadays. However, due to the limitation of lithium resources, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has greatly increased recently, which will become a serious constraint for its future massive applications . Therefo+/Na) is higher than that of lithium ion . Therefore, the electrode material of sodium-ion batteries will produce more remarkable volume changes in the charge and discharge process, resulting in more severe problems, including collapse and crushing of electrode structure. At the same time, from the perspective of dynamics, the insertion and extraction speed of larger sodium ions in electrode materials is slower than that of lithium ions, which makes sodium-ion batteries have more significant challenges in cycle life and rate capability performance . . 2 nanofium ions b. Since 2@CNFIG anode after 1000 cycles were applied to investigate the structural and element integrity of the MoS2@CNFIG anode. From the SEM image of 2@CNFIG were preserved, so that the ionic diffusion path and the volume expansion space for MoS2 nanoflakes can be guaranteed during the long-time cycling. All of the above properties undoubtedly contribute to the quick sodiation/desodiation ability and rapid transfer of sodium ions. The EDX elemental mappings of C, Na, Mo, and S elements can be detected in MoS2@CNFIG anode after 1000 cycles proving that the composition of the anode was well maintained, and some sodium ions were adsorbed by the anode during the chemical redox reactions. 2@CNFIG anode in parallel powering the 12 LEDs which demonstrate the potential applications of the MoS2@CNFIG nanocomposite.The SEM image and corresponding EDX elemental mappings  of MoS2@CNFIG anode was cycled firstly under the current density of 1 A g−1 for 300 cycles and then 10 A g−1 for 400 cycles with high Coulombic efficiencies approaching ~100%. The MoS2@CNFIG anode provides a capacity of 322 mA h g−1 after 300 cycles at 10 A g−1 and 303 mAh g−1 in the 700th cycle. Additionally, the specific capacity was maintained at 421 mA h g−1 when the current density back to 1 A g−1 and can continue the cycle of 300 times, which indicates the recovery ability of the electrode. The excellent rate ability and cycling ability of MoS2@CNFIG nanocomposite may be ascribed to its structural stability, excellent conductive of CNFIG and the high utilization efficiency of MoS2 nanoflakes with large specific surface area. The Nyquist plots of the full cell were investigated after being cycled 2 and 1000 cycles and presented in 2@CNFIG anode were obtained after being cycled two and 1000 times. The Rct value reflects the diameter of the semicircle in 2@CNFIG hybrid at 2nd cycle shows a smaller Rct value of 100 Ω compared with the Rct value of 162.3 Ω at the 1000th, indicating that the initial electrode has a lower interfacial resistance as well as better kinetics and higher ion-diffusion rate during the sodiation/desodiation process. Furthermore, the slope of the low-frequency region does not decrease much with the increase of GCD cycles, implying that the electrochemical performance of the electrode has not change significantly. From the TEM images in 2@CNFIG also shows clear lattice fringes with flake-like MoS2 structures  synthesized by solution evaporation followed the hydrothermal reaction method [2CSNH2 to the system, under hydrothermal conditions, releases H2S gas through the reaction of NH2CSNH2 + 2H2O → 2NH3 + H2S +CO2. After the reaction with H2S, the molybdate in G/MCu nanocomposite was converted into MoS2 nanosheets [2 nanocomposite was fabricated by embedding the Cu2O nanoparticles on the surface of graphene sheets (G/MCu) and then assembling MoS2 nanosheets further on the surface of graphene sheets by hydrothermal reaction  in DEC: EC (1:1 v/v) solution) and improved the specific surface of active material that facilitates the overall performance of SIBs.Yang, Z.X. et al., reported the hierarchically structured graphene/MoSn method . At the nosheets . In ordereaction a [30,1242 electrode under different conditions. Na storage ability of the 3DG-MoS2 electrode was initially evaluated through CV curves of the 3DG-MoS2 electrode at the voltage range of 0.0 to 3.0 V versus Na/Na+ under the scan rate of 0.5 mVs−1. As shown in 2 and the irreversible formation of SEI layer [2 electrode. 2 electrode at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 and the 1st charge curve shows a different shape compare with other curves, which match well with the CV in As shown in EI layer ,127. Fur2 electrode provides a specific capacity of 524 mAh g−1 under the current density of 0.5 A g−1 after 100 cycles (the slight increase of capacity with cycling may be due to activation process), which higher than that of the G/MoS2 and MoS2 electrodes of 320 and 284 mAh g−1, respectively. In the author’s opinion, the improvement of the cycling ability of the 3DG-MoS2 electrode is mainly ascribed to the structure of the strong G/MoS2 thin layers existing in 3DG/MoS2 electrode, which prevents the damage caused by the volume expansion of active material. In order to further investigate the overall performance of 3DG-MoS2 electrode, further 300 long-term cycling ability and Coulomb efficiency evaluations of the 3DG-MoS2 electrode were carried out at a current density of 1 A g−1 in 2 electrode still provides a capacity up to 479 mA h g−1 even after 300 cycles and exhibits the coulombic efficiency of ~100% in the whole 300 cycles except for the first one.To evaluate the long-term cycling ability C, the 3D(1)In-depth knowledge of Na+ storage mechanismAlthough the graphene-based nanocomposites have been well developed in the field of new energy, there are still several key problems that should be solved to achieve high performance sodium-ion batteries for practical applications. Firstly, although a relatively comprehensive structural system of SIBs has been developed based on graphene, it is necessary to carry out the research based on more positive materials with high energy density and power density, as well as negative materials with small volume change in the process of circulation . FurtherAt present, the mechanism of sodium storage is still inconclusive and needs further study, especially on low pressure platforms, ultrafine pore and closed pore filling . Further(2)Reasonable structure and process design of electrodes2 reduction [2  [2O5 [2O5·nH2O [3 [3V2(PO4)3  [4)2 [In order to further improve the performance of the anodes, methods such as physical and chemical activation can be used. Such as: graded pore structure, microwave activation , H2 redueduction  and higheduction , heteroaeduction , metallieduction . Some efeduction . Of cour Mn, Ni) ,141,142,Ni) [2O5 , V2O5·nH2O5·nH2O , MoO3 [1·nH2O [3 , Na3V2(P4)3  ,149,150 Mn) [4)2 .(3)Environmental, economic, and scaling-up aspects+ ions. Therefore, developing SIBs with high ICE and rate performance becomes vital to boost the commercialization of SIBs [By implementing low-energy processes and avoiding the use of expensive and/or hazardous chemicals, in other words, at relatively mild temperatures, SIBs can be promoted closer to commercialization by using cheaper and sustainable sources (even waste streams) such as heteroatom doping . The ach of SIBs . Improvi of SIBs , HC engi of SIBs , and a t of SIBs .(4)Full cell fabrication and commercialization of SIBsFull-SIB devices assembled from graphene-based anodes or cathodes show promising prospects in practical applications and related performance ,165,166.+ insertion/depletion need further exploration.This review systematically introduces the combination of graphene with active substances as the nanocomposite electrodes for sodium ion electrochemical energy storage. To achieve this target, four categories of graphene-based nanocomposites fabricate stargates have been introduced in this article. Based on those categories and the research results of recent years, this review focus on the fabricate methods and structural characteristics of the graphene-based nanocomposites and the influence of graphene and morphology on the performance of the SIBs. With the development of nanotechnology as well as the excellent conductivity and plasticity of graphene, nanocomposite fabricates methods needed to be extended and expanded to stimulate the development and application of electrochemical energy storage in a benign direction. The discussion on research frontiers and applications in the field of graphene-based SIBs provide evidence that the application of graphene in advanced electrode materials is still a research hotspot, and more ingenious structure design and energy storage mechanism analysis will be the future development on the direction of nanocomposites for SIBs. Although graphene-based materials have been widely studied in SIBs and show good development prospects, their practical applications still face enormous challenges. In the first place, high-quality, large-scale production and low-cost graphene by simple methods are the basis for the production of graphene-based sodium ion batteries and should be further studied. In another, modification of graphene with higher utilization efficiency and better understanding of the mechanism of interaction between graphene and active materials is the basis of designing new electrodes. Studying the relationship of the performance of SIBs between the morphology, porosity, size and defect of graphene-based composite electrode is the key to improve the cycle life, high Coulomb efficiency and high energy efficiency of SIBs, which is the key to the marketization of SIBs. Furthermore, reaction mechanisms and theoretical analysis associated with Na


Dysphagia occurs in multiple respiratory pathophysiologies, increasing the risk of pulmonary complications secondary to aspiration. Reflux associated aspiration and a dysregulated lung microbiome is implicated in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), but swallowing dysfunction has not been described. We aimed to explore oropharyngeal swallowing in IPF patients, without known swallowing dysfunction.MBSImP).Fourteen consecutive outpatients with a secure diagnosis of IPF were recruited and the 10-item Eating Assessment Tool (Eat 10) used to assess patient perception of swallowing difficulty. Oropharyngeal swallowing was assessed in ten patients using Videofluoroscopy Swallow Studies (VFSS). The studies were rated using validated scales: Penetration-Aspiration Scale (PAS); standardised Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile (MBSImp for oral impairment was 5, range [3–7] and pharyngeal impairment 4, range [1–14] indicating, overall mild alteration to swallowing physiology.EAT-10 scores indicated frank swallowing difficulty in 4/14 patients. Videofluoroscopy Studies showed that 3/10 patients had airway penetration, and one aspirated liquid without a cough response. Median We conclude that people with IPF can show a range of swallowing dysfunction, including aspiration into an unprotected airway. To our knowledge, this is the first report on swallowing physiology and safety in IPF. We believe a proportion of this group may be at risk of aspiration. Further work is indicated to fully explore swallowing in this vulnerable group. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic life-threatening lung disease, with poor prognosis, characterised anatomically by progressive scarring of the lung and symptomatically by exertional dyspnoea, with irreversible loss of pulmonary function .While the aetiology is unknown, emerging data suggest an important association with aspiration  linked wThe pharynx is a shared tube for breathing and swallowing. Because of this, normal swallowing is a complex process, coordinated with breathing to protect the airway. Patients with chronic respiratory diseases are at risk of oropharyngeal dysphagia and swallowing difficulties may go unreported , 8. EarlConsecutive outpatients with a secure diagnosis of IPF according to European Respiratory Society/American Thoracic Society were recruited from the regional Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) clinic at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne between March 2014 and February 2015. Outpatients with IPF are reviewed on a regular basis at the ILD clinic at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. Recruits were drawn from within this clinic population. Written informed consent was obtained using a printed form prior to the study assessment. Inclusion criteria included competent adults (over the age of 18) with a secure diagnosis of IPF according to the American Thoracic Society (ATS), European Respiratory Society (ERS), Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS) and Latin American Thoracic Society (LATS) clinical practice guidelines . AccuratEating Assessment tool (EAT-10) is a quick, self-administered and widely used validated questionnaire, which can be used to assess dysphagia symptoms . It has Swallowing was assessed by a Videofluoroscopy Swallow Study (VFSS). VFSS is a dynamic radiographic examination using fluoroscopy to capture and record real-time bolus flow throughout all stages of swallowing. A Speech and Language Therapist and a radiologist, performed the VFSS examinations. The examination typically includes testing different bolus volumes and constituents . The parStudies were rated using two validated scales:(MBSImP), a tool used to evaluate swallowing efficiency that measures 17 physiological components of adult swallowing mechanism using ordinal scaling. Ratings of 0 to 2, 3, or 4 points per component, with each score representing a unique observation of either structural movement, bolus flow or both from the VFSS [The standardised Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile the VFSS , 15. It the VFSS . Scores the VFSS .The Penetration Aspiration Scale (PAS) is a tool used to evaluate swallowing safety, ranging in value from 1 to 8, recording the presence of laryngeal penetration/sub-glottic aspiration  . PenetraHigher scores for both tools indicate poorer swallowing.We recruited 14 participants with IPF: 10 males, 4 females, median: 68 years, range 51–82 years. Ten IPF patients: 7 males, 3 females, median: 63 years, range 51–77 years underwent the VFSS  had airway penetration. Only patient 1 aspirated liquid without a cough response; this patient had reduced laryngeal elevation and incomplete laryngeal vestibular closure, resulting in the residue laying below the true vocal chords without a response to eject the aspirated liquid , had markedly raised total EAT-10 scores, with values of 25, 15, 14 and 13.We are unaware of previous EAT-10 data in people with IPF. A recent study in 30 patients with Acute Exacerbations of COPD showed that 67% of patients had a raised EAT-10 score, compared with 23% of patients with cardiac disease .In our study, subjective dysphagia symptoms reported by the EAT-10 tool were not consistently related to the nature and severity of the oropharyngeal swallow impairment observed during VFSS. Patient 1 who demonstrated aspiration on videofluorocopy had the highest EAT-10 score of 25, but patients who scored 13 and 14 in the EAT-10 tool had relatively normal swallow physiology detected during VFSS (Table: 2). Our exploratory findings in a limited number of patients are consistent with previous studies in COPD which have previously shown a weak association of EAT-10 with objective measurements of dysphagia , 12. FurMBSImP classification system [MBSImP may not correspond to an unsafe swallow. Higher scores on some components of the MBSImP may be regarded as ‘normal’; for example, the bolus may enter the pharynx before swallow is initiated even in healthy individuals and some features may be part of a healthy ageing profile [MBSImP. In the scarce literature, normal older swallowers sometimes have scores of 2 and 3 in PAS and our findings may therefore represent the combined effects of both normal aging and IPF pathophysiology and require further study [Videofluoroscopy studies demonstrated a range of physiology in the ten patients studied. The swallow from laryngeal elevation onwards was consistently and highly disrupted in patient 1 and 2; these two patients had an abnormal physiology according to the n system . However profile . On PAS er study . There iHelicobacter pylori [Parenchymal lung scarring and hypoxaemia may disrupt the complex coordination of normal swallowing and breathing function and in principle dysphagia may contribute to a complex dysregulated aerodigestive homeostasis in people with IPF. The true incidence of dysphagia in IPF is unknown but oral dysbiosis has been linked with a range of lung diseases including, pneumonia, COPD, and lung cancer . The orar pylori , which hr pylori .As fibrotic changes progress and lung function declines in IPF, the affected lung may be expected to become more susceptible to external challenges such as aspiration. Non-sterile aspiration, related to dysphagia and unprotected by cough, therefore represents a candidate source of complex lung injury and microbiome dysregulation. Aspiration is noted to be a trigger of threatening acute exacerbations . Acute eThis prospective consecutive case series is descriptive in a limited number of patients. Further exploration is needed to establish the association between dysphagia and IPF, and the clinical significance of such a link. It would be of interest for further studies to assess if the prevalence of dysphagia in IPF is above that expected in a population of a similar age and to compare our IPF findings to other patient groups with comorbidities that could increase the risk of swallowing problems/aspiration (e.g. frailty). Our experience indicated that such studies are possible in people with IPF but also underline that these are challenging. Of 18 patients approached in our study five died, and three deaths occurred in fourteen consented patients, before videofluoroscopy could be performed. In other settings, simple bedside tests of dysfunction are clinically informative in swallowing pathophysiology  and toge


The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted global healthcare systems. With the higher demand for healthcare and misinformation related to COVID-19, there is a need to explore alternative models to improve communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) have emerged as promising solutions to improve healthcare delivery. Chatbots could fill a pivotal role in the dissemination and easy accessibility of accurate information in a pandemic. In this study, we developed a multi-lingual NLP-based AI chatbot, DR-COVID, which responds accurately to open-ended, COVID-19 related questions. This was used to facilitate pandemic education and healthcare delivery.https://t.me/drcovid_nlp_chatbot). Second, we evaluated various performance metrics. Third, we evaluated multi-lingual text-to-text translation to Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Filipino, Thai, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. We utilized 2,728 training questions and 821 test questions in English. Primary outcome measurements were (A) overall and top 3 accuracies; (B) Area Under the Curve (AUC), precision, recall, and F1 score. Overall accuracy referred to a correct response for the top answer, whereas top 3 accuracy referred to an appropriate response for any one answer amongst the top 3 answers. AUC and its relevant matrices were obtained from the Receiver Operation Characteristics (ROC) curve. Secondary outcomes were (A) multi-lingual accuracy; (B) comparison to enterprise-grade chatbot systems. The sharing of training and testing datasets on an open-source platform will also contribute to existing data.First, we developed DR-COVID with an ensemble NLP model on the Telegram platform : 0.826–0.851] and 0.922 [95% CI: 0.913–0.932] respectively. For overall and top 3 results, AUC scores of 0.917 [95% CI: 0.911–0.925] and 0.960 [95% CI: 0.955–0.964] were achieved respectively. We achieved multi-linguicism with nine non-English languages, with Portuguese performing the best overall at 0.900. Lastly, DR-COVID generated answers more accurately and quickly than other chatbots, within 1.12–2.15 s across three devices tested.DR-COVID is a clinically effective NLP-based conversational AI chatbot, and a promising solution for healthcare delivery in the pandemic era. The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed our lives and disrupted global healthcare systems. The demand for medical services is increasing despite persistent movement and social contact limitations. This is further complicated by misinformation related to COVID-19 on the internet and social media , which mNatural language remains a fundamental way information is communicated in the healthcare setting. NLP is a range of computational techniques used to automatically analyze and represent human language . It has https://www.facebook.com/WHO/), as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Coronavirus Self-Checker (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/coronavirus-self-checker.html)  , 17. HeaCurrent medical COVID-19 chatbots face several limitations. First, most of these chatbots are created with English as the intended medium, thus limiting the utility for non-native English speakers . In comphttps://t.me/drcovid_nlp_chatbot. English was used as the base to train the chatbot. A training dataset of unique questions-answer pairings was first created to train the NLP architecture, covering a range of common COVID-19 topics in the English language. Each question-answer pairing was expanded into sub-questions to increase the variety and scope of the training dataset. Subsequently, an independent testing dataset comprising questions-answer pairings in English was created to assess English accuracy. Collaborators were also involved in providing testing questions in nine widely-spoken non-English languages. These multi-lingual questions were translated to English questions using Google Translate Application Programming Interface (API). The questions in English were used as the input for our NLP ensemble model. Similarity calculation was used to retrieve the output, that is, the top 1 and top 3 closest matching answers. If the original question was not in English, then the output would be translated to English using Google Translate API, and subsequently displayed on the Telegram application. Our study did not involve patients, and was hence exempt from requirements of approval by the Singhealth Institutional Review Board.In this multi-center prospective study, we developed a multi-lingual conversational chatbot, DR-COVID, hosted on the Telegram platform to answer COVID-19 related queries . The TelInclusion criteria for input data were topics relating to COVID-19, whereas exclusion criteria were those not relevant to COVID-19. The training and testing question-answer pairs were developed sequentially in English, consolidating data from publicly available sources . The traTwo categories of MQA were created: Singapore-centric, and global. Singapore-centric questions were defined as those localized to Singapore geographically, specific to Singapore's population, policies, rules, and regulations. Global questions included those pertaining to global statistics, general information on COVID-19, and policies with impact on a global scale.st Jan 2021 to 1st Jan 2022. Data was vetted for repetition and grammar twice, and the finalized content vetted again.Each MQA was expanded into 5 to 15 unique sub-questions, and each sub-question grouped and identified for answer retrieval based on the corresponding MQA. Next, the training dataset was independently created with at least three questions per MQA. A total of 218 MQA pairings were developed from the period of 1https://github.com/leixiaofeng-astar/drcovid_nlp_chatbot.The training dataset will be made available at GitHub on manuscript acceptance: Two separate large corpus-trained NLP transformer models, spaCy library  and locaRule-based question-answer retrieval was performed using feature extraction, and representation for the input test questions. Subsequently, a similarity score was generated for each MQA, with the highest matched score being the retrieved answer and therefore output. If similarity score fell below the pre-set threshold of 0.85 in our study, the top 3 closest matching MQAs were retrieved as the output instead.The ensemble model underwent three iterations of improvement before being used for eventual assessment. Chatbot performance was assessed based on the accuracy, AUC, precision, recall, and F1 score for the overall, and top 3 answers generated. A positive response was recorded for the top 3 answers if any one answer was appropriate. Grading was performed by two investigators independently. In the event of disparate grading, a discussion was held to reach a consensus, failing which a third investigator would provide the final decision. Subsequently, we invited ten collaborators to each contribute 20 English questions in an open-ended format, and thereafter assessed the performance of the new questions. Confidence intervals were calculated using R (v4.0.5).The NLP models were trained with English corpus. The backend software used Google Translate API to translate the target language question into English as an intermediary step language, followed by analysis and question-answer retrieval, and lastly re-translation by Google Translate API back to the target language. The selected target languages included Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Filipino, Thai, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.We invited collaborators to assess the multi-lingual aspect of DR-COVID, with each contributing 20 questions in an open-ended format to assess the accuracy of the generated response. Ten collaborators were invited to assess the chatbot in Chinese and Malay; two in Spanish; and one each for the remaining languages Tamil, Filipino, Thai, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.https://ask.nhsinform.scot/)  assessment , which im.scot/) . This waThe deployments of DR-COVID chatbot application were compared, to highlight the differences in the throughput performance of Graphical Processing Units (GPU) vs. Central Processing Units (CPU). In this study, benchmarking tests were performed between CPU and GPU. NVIDIA TITAN Xp GPU and Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-2145 CPU were used during the evaluation. Data regarding memory usage with sequential time profiler and memory profiler was obtained using 100 users and 3 questions.A total of 2,728 questions in English, comprising 12,90 Singapore-centric and 1,438 global questions, were developed for the training dataset. Eight hundred twenty-one new questions in English were created as the testing dataset for assessment of accuracy, consisting of 335 Singapore-centric and 486 global questions .In terms of primary outcomes of interest, DR-COVID achieved an overall accuracy of 0.838 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.826–0.851], comprising a proportion of 0.812 [95% CI: 0.791–0.832] correct Singapore-centric answers, and 0.856 [95% CI: 0.841–0.871] correct global answers. The top 3 accuracy was 0.922 [95% CI: 0.913–0.932], comprising 0.895 [95% CI: 0.881–0.914] and 0.940 [95% CI: 0.931–0.951] correct Singapore-centric and global answers, respectively .https://github.com/leixiaofeng-astar/drcovid_nlp_chatbot. Greater details of ROC calculation and its parameters have been appended in Chatbot performance assessment can be formulated as a classification problem, and its accuracy validated in qualitative and quantitative manners, where each MQA belongs to a particular class. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to assess the classification problem, which enable values of AUC, precision, recall, and F1 score to be gleaned. For overall results, the AUC was 0.917 [95% CI: 0.911–0.925], precision was 0.864 ± 0.193 [95% CI: 0.852–0.876], recall was 0.835 ± 0.218 [95% CI: 0.822–0.850], and F1 score was 0.829 [95% CI: 0.818–0.841]. For top 3 results, all metrics showed an improvement; AUC was 0.960 [95% CI: 0.955–0.964], precision was 0.938 ± 0.124 [95% CI: 0.931–0.946], recall was 0.920 ± 0.145 [95% CI: 0.910–0.929], and F1 score was 0.918 [95% CI: 0.911–0.925]. The confusion matrix diagram and ROC curve for overall results and top 3 results are shown in Ten collaborators were invited to each contribute 20 questions in the English language . When teIn terms of secondary outcomes of interest, nine non-English languages were assessed for accuracy, using a total of 560 questions contributed by the collaborators . Supplemp < 0.05). Amongst other question-answer chatbots tested for comparison, the average time taken for NHS Inform ranged between 2.20 and 2.51s, whereas that of WHO Messenger ranged between 4.04 and 4.85s  Xeon(R) W-2145 CPU @ 3.70GHz 64 GB DDR4 RAM. Using 100 users and three questions each as the test condition, and the sequential time and memory usage recorded was the average throughput 20 times test. To run DR-COVID chatbot on CPU required 3.628 GB, whereas on GPU required 2.936 GB memory plus 600 MB CPU memory. The average time taken per question was 23.52 s for CPU, whereas in comparison, the GPU could achieve a 66.9% reduction in time, at 7.79 s.In this multi-center study, we created a general question-answer chatbot with a training dataset of 2,728 questions to address COVID-related enquiries, incorporated multi-lingual text to text translation, and assessed chatbot performance by evaluating accuracy through external open-ended assessments, and comparing technical performance against enterprise-grade chatbot systems. In terms of primary outcomes of interest, we achieved overall and top 3 accuracies of 0.838 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.826–0.851] and 0.922 [95% CI: 0.913–0.932] respectively. For overall results, the AUC was 0.917 [95% CI: 0.911–0.925], precision was 0.864 ± 0.193 [95% CI: 0.852–0.876], recall was 0.835 ± 0.218 [95% CI: 0.822–0.850], and F1 score was 0.829 [95% CI: 0.818–0.841]. For top 3 results, the AUC was 0.960 [95% CI: 0.955–0.964], precision was 0.938 ± 0.124 [95% CI: 0.931–0.946], recall was 0.920 ± 0.145 [95% CI: 0.910–0.929], and F1 score was 0.918 [95% CI: 0.911–0.925]. In terms of secondary outcomes of interest, we demonstrated multi-linguicism with 9 non-English languages using an external open-ended testing approach, as well as higher speed and accuracy compared to other chatbots.In our study, we used an ensemble model aiming to overcome technical challenges associated with a single architecture, which gives lower accuracy, higher variance, noise, and bias . The ensExisting literature regarding NLP-based chatbots in the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely experimental or descriptive in nature , 30. NonN = 20 on average, lest the Chinese and Malay languages. Nevertheless, an ongoing analysis is underway to garner and assess more questions for multi-lingual accuracy, as well as to evaluate if the differential accuracy may be attributed to technical or general questions.Next, there were several questions in French of a highly specific nature, which were not within the scope of our existing MQAs, including “can I get infected through aerated steam?” . FurtherAnother Tunisian chatbot Smart Ubiquitous Chatbot, based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, was developed for education, and stress management during the pandemic. It reported an accuracy of 0.92, precision of 0.866, recall of 0.757, and F1 score of 0.808 . SimilarWe demonstrated that when tested on new questions in English provided by collaborators, DR-COVID fared less optimally, with a drop in accuracy from 0.838 to 0.550, compared to using our own testing dataset. These errors are perhaps explainable. Firstly, this variance may illustrate the differential perspectives between the medical community and general public. The training and testing datasets, developed by the internal team comprising medical practitioners and data scientists, tend to be more medical in nature, including “will the use of immunomodulators be able to treat COVID-19?”, and “what is the mechanism of action of rapid COVID-19 tests?”; there was potentially selection bias to some degree. On the other hand, the external questions were contributed by collaborators of both medical and non-medical backgrounds; these relate more to effects on daily life, and coping mechanisms. For example, “is the hospital safe to visit?”. This further illustrates the limitations in our training dataset in covering everyday layman concerns relating to COVID-19 as discussed previously, and therefore potential areas for expansion. That said, we do observe common topics of overlap, such as general information, symptoms, and treatment pertaining to COVID-19.Secondly, despite having undergone several cycles of retraining, our model might not have the most up-to-date information on certain questions. Chatbots require a tedious training and retraining process. Information and policies are constantly changing in a pandemic setting, on both a local and global scale, which necessitates frequent monitoring and updating of the model, to ensure that appropriate information is conveyed. A prime example would be vaccine-related information such as booster dose requirements, newly approved vaccines, and variant-specific efficacy. Our model was not equipped with new information regarding booster vaccines, and was therefore shorthanded in addressing these questions. To circumvent tedious retraining, we could consider reinforcement learning in future implementation, a technique which incentivises the chatbot to learn through trial and error, by “rewarding” correct outputs and “punishing” incorrect answers .Thirdly, insofar as our knowledge regarding COVID-19 is constantly evolving, there remain uncertainties for which it is challenging to give definite answers to. Questions such as “when will the COVID-19 pandemic end?” are difficult to predict, may give seemingly unsatisfactory answers, and therefore affect the accuracy of the chatbot. Ultimately, this difference demonstrates the variability which may arise, and therefore the need to test chatbots externally when implemented in a real-world setting.This study gives hope to the potential expansion and real-world implementation of NLP-DLS chatbots, such as DR-COVID. The use of open-source translation software, with the caveat of its drawbacks as discussed earlier, may improve scalability and multi-lingual customizability. Moreover, integration onto social media platforms–such as Telegram in our case–enables greater reach and convenience, potentially removing geographical constraints ; the WHOFurthermore, information garnered from multiple reliable sources can be presented in a succinct manner, mitigating the dangers of online misinformation . SpecifiLastly, whilst the main purpose of DR-COVID has been to facilitate efficient and accurate information sharing, it may be of utility to explore the inclusion of other tools, including detection of misleading information, triage, risk assessment, monitoring, and general wellbeing. For example, both ensemble- and BERT based DL systems have demonstrated utility in detecting COVID-19 related misinformation on the internet and social media , 41. AnoCOVID-19 is likely to become endemic in time to come . In enviPlanned future studies include expansion to more languages, and integration to web messenger and social media platforms to reach greater audiences. Conversational experience can be refined with contextual awareness to improve relevance of answer retrieval. Future directions would also entail exploration of different but complementary domains such as text-to-speech, and speech-to-speech, which may be of help in specific populations like the visually impaired, or to provide more options for convenience. Other potential use cases in pandemic management include NLP-based risk stratification, contact tracing, and patient monitoring. Finally, DL-based chatbots may be utilized in various medical and surgical specialities for targeted patient education, disease monitoring, and encouraging treatment compliance, amongst others.Chatbots utilizing NLP, a type of conversational AI, have emerged as promising solutions to improve healthcare delivery in the pandemic era. In this study, we developed a multi-lingual NLP-based AI chatbot, DR-COVID, to facilitate healthcare delivery and disease control. Our NLP model, utilizing the ensemble architecture, achieved overall and top 3 accuracies of 0.838 [95% CI: 0.826–0.851], and 0.922 [95% CI: 0.913–0.932] respectively. For overall and top 3 results, AUC scores of 0.917 [95% CI: 0.911–0.925] and 0.960 [95% CI: 0.955–0.964] were achieved respectively. The sharing of training and testing datasets on an open-source platform will also contribute to existing data. Whilst AI-based NLP chatbots can enable healthcare systems to reap public health and resource benefits, clinicians and policymakers should work in tandem to deliver solutions to potential problems in real-world implementation.The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/LY and WN created the training and testing dataset, collected data, and contributed to study conceptualization. ST and ZW contributed to creation of the training and testing dataset. XL, MY, MP, and XZ conceptualized the methodology of the chatbot model, trained the chatbot, and performed the statistical analysis. LY wrote the first draft of the manuscript. DT provided the overall leadership, conceptualized the study, and as well as procured funding. All authors contributed to manuscript revision and approved the submitted version.


Different characterization techniques were used to analyze the structural and physico-chemical properties of the obtained composites: Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)/Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)/Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The photocatalytic performance was evaluated by the degradation of methylene blue under both UVA and visible light irradiation. The nanocomposites show very good photocatalytic activity independent of the presence of reduced graphene oxide, due to the Cu2O/CuO-TiO2 heterojunctions. This finding has been confirmed by the very efficient visible-light-driven degradation of amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin.Easy and cost-efficient modifications of titanium dioxide nanoparticles that improve their efficiency in the visible light domain represent a continuous and challenging research topic. In addition, the effect of graphene on the overall photocatalytic process is still debated. Consequently, herein, we prepared a series of TiO A cuprous oxide (Cu2O)/reduced graphene oxide composite proved to be an efficient visible-light photocatalyst for sulfamethoxazole removal [2 composite [2O/CuO nanorods have been studied and the authors reported on the importance and stability of both copper oxides, together [2O ratio in CuO/Cu2O photocatalysts for methylene blue degradation under visible light and showed a more efficient process when the content of Cu2O is higher [2 in a CuO/Cu2O composite led to an increase in the bandgap energy. Even so, methylene blue photodegradation under visible light improved from about 80% to almost 100% [2O nanospheres by a simple method has been reported [Our current society has a growing need for developing green and economical technologies that make the most out of sunlight. In this context, photodegradation of organic pollutants is of continuous interest to the scientific community, either for dyes  or emergescribed . In ordeescribed . The maiescribed , and graescribed . Among t removal . Moreso,omposite . Other somposite ,10,11,12together . A recens higher . The incost 100% . In addireported . The aut2O/CuO) nanoparticles on the surface (three different weight concentrations 1–3%), and also with graphene of different oxidation degrees—graphene oxide, thermally partially reduced graphene oxide at 200 °C, and thermally reduced graphene oxide at 300 °C. For this, we developed a preparation method that simultaneously accesses both copper oxides, leading to a composite of semiconductors (Cu2O/CuO-TiO2) with reduced graphene oxide. Even though composites containing both Cu2O and CuO onto reduced graphene oxide were reported efficient for photocatalysis [Given the above, we considered it to be of interest to decorate the titania nanoparticles with copper oxides , or visible light irradiation , in order to compare the activity of these catalysts with other reported photocatalysts. We started with the promising idea that the photodegradation of methylene blue by a film-deposited semiconductor develops into an ISO standard . Moreove2 by the thermal decomposition of the impregnated copper nitrate, followed by reduction with a gaseous mixture of 10.5vol.% H2 in Ar (2O-CuO), as detailed further in the XPS section. By mixing them with graphene oxide, we obtained the so-called Cu-TiO2-GO composites. Further thermal treatment, under argon, at either 200 or 300 °C led to Cu-TiO2-trGO200, or Cu-TiO2-trGO300. The detailed experimental procedures are found in the Materials and Methods section.The first step in the preparation of the investigated composites was the obtaining of the Cu-TiOH2 in Ar . The obt2-graphene composites was investigated by TEM/SEM measurements, and is exemplified in The morphology of Cu-TiO2 are present at 25.3°, 37.8°, 48.0°, 53.9°, 62.7°, and 75.0° 2θ angles, which were assigned to the respective (101), (004), (200), (105), (204), and (215) crystal planes of anatase phase TiO2 (JCPDS card file no. 21-1272). As previously reported [The crystalline nature of the prepared composites was examined from the powder XRD spectra represented in reported , the dif2, showing the characteristic peaks at 3439 cm−1 for the stretching, 1525 cm−1 for the bending, and 1375 cm−1 for the deformation of the O–H bond. The intense peak at around 600 cm−1 is assigned to the Ti-O stretching band. In addition, the spectra of the composites with graphene show the C-O-C vibrations at 1065 cm−1 (only for graphene oxide), and 1138 cm−1. The characteristic bands of carbon–carbon bands are shielded by the TiO2 peaks.The structural characterization was further deepened with the FT-IR spectra of the nanocomposites containing 3% copper . These s2O/CuO-containing nanocomposites. The deconvolution of high-resolution XPS data was used to quantify the atomic percentage of each identified chemical bond.The surface chemical composition of the composites was determined from XPS spectra see . The XPS2-GO, the peaks located at 932 eV and 933.3 eV can be assigned also to Cu+ and Cu2+, respectively. The Cu2p shape line for the Cu(3%)-TiO2-trGO200 and Cu(3%)-TiO2-trGO300 samples are similar to previously investigated samples with the identified peaks related to CuO and Cu2O phases. This can be an important finding for the proposed applications of the prepared samples as proved by recent work [2O/CuO heterojunction greatly accelerates the interface charge transfer of the heterojunction, enhancing the photoelectrochemical performance and the stability of the sample.The Cu2p energy level of all samples is composed of main characteristic doublet peaks corresponding to Cu2p1/2 and Cu2p3/2 at ~952.6 eV, and ~932.4 eV, respectively, and shake-up satellite structures at about 10 eV higher than that of the main Cu2p peak, and distinctly broader. The spin-orbit splitting between the two main photoemission peaks (Cu2p1/2 and Cu2p3/2) was determined to be around 20 eV, and was in good agreement with the values reported in the literature [ent work , which s2 hybridized carbon atoms, sp3 hybridized carbon atoms, C–O/C–O–C of hydroxyl or epoxy group, C=O/O–C=O of carbonyl groups, carboxy acid, or ester groups, respectively [The C1s deconvolution was performed on each C1s spectrum to identify the chemical bonding of C atoms , right. ectively .The position of the Ti2p doublet for the investigated samples and the binding energy separation between the Ti2p3/2 and Ti2p1/2 peaks (5.7 and 5.8 eV), as shown in 2 nanocomposite presents a broad absorbance around 700 nm, characteristic of CuO nanoparticles [gE) of the photocatalysts , are shown in 2 values); the maximum adsorption capacity (mq) is 8–10 mg methylene blue/g photocatalyst. The RL value is situated between 0 and 1 for the 1% copper-containing photocatalysts, indicating a favorable adsorption process. The linear fittings according to the Freundlich model are presented in 2 values generally show a better fit to the Freundlich model for the 3% copper-containing materials.The quantitative evaluation of the equilibrium data of methylene blue adsorption on 1 or 3% copper-containing titanium dioxide nanoparticles and graphene composites was realized by the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models. Each of the two models offers some information on the adsorption process and mechanism. The linear fittings according to the Langmuir model are presented in −5 M) solution concentrations versus time during the overall adsorption/photodecomposition process under visible and UV-A light, for Cu -TiO2-graphene (0.5 mg/mL) is shown in The decrease in methylene blue  or comparable photocatalysts. The comparison was limited by the different initial MB concentrations, but also the employed light source (even for a similar MB starting concentration). The power of an irradiation lamp energy consumption (Watt) does not show the amount of light it produces (lumens). As such, without measuring the irradiance it is hard to find common ground for comparing the many different photocatalysts [In order to have a fair comparison with previous data and to understand our results, we extracted data in the table below . They shatalysts . We assu2 (dark blue line) and TiO2 with reduced graphene (violet line). The photodegradation experiments of methylene blue dye show the high efficiency of these catalysts, independent of the presence of any graphene  and the half-life time (t1/2) of the corresponding UV-A-driven photocatalytic processes -TiO2-trGO300) shows little influence on the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue under UV-A irradiation -TiOadiation . The metadiation . The pH adiation .2O being easily transferred to either the conduction band of TiO2 or CuO, due to the favorable positions of the bands  has not been chosen properly due to misleading discoloration conclusions. In order to verify that the investigated composites (copper oxides and graphene containing titania nanoparticles) are good photocatalysts and to prove the importance of band edge positions of the heterojunction, we tested three of them for the visible-light-assisted photodegradation of amoxicillin (AMX) and ciprofloxacin (CPX). The two emerging organic pollutants are very well decomposed , indepen2-P25) from Evonik.All the reagents were commercially available and used as purchased. All water-based solutions were prepared using either distilled or Milli q water. Graphene oxide (GO) was prepared by a reported procedure . Methyle2 nanocomposites were prepared by liquid impregnation method, according to the following procedure: Titanium dioxide  was impregnated with an appropriate aqueous solution of copper nitrate (Cu(NO3)2.3H2O) in order to obtain one of the targeted metal loadings , and then was left to dry. The resulting powder was thermally treated at 450 °C, in an argon atmosphere for two hours, so that copper nitrate is decomposed to copper oxide nanoparticles. This was followed by a thermal treatment in a reducing gaseous mixture of 10.5 vol.% H2 in Ar, at a continuous flow and 280 °C for 90 min, in order to partially reduce the copper oxide to copper nanoparticles.The starting Cu-TiO2 was denoted as 2-GOCu-TiO. These composites were seated in a quartz boat into a temperature-programmed furnace. Argon gas was flown into the furnace chamber at a flow rate of 0.25 l min−1 and the temperature reached 300 °C in 30 min, resulting into Cu-TiO2 with thermally reduced graphene oxide at either 200 °C, denoted as 2-trGO200,Cu-TiO or 300 °C, denoted as 2-trGO300.Cu-TiOThe freeze-dried GO (150 mg) together with 1.5 g of Cu-TiOThe adsorption and photodegradation steps were simultaneously studied, in the same experimental conditions, by changing the concentration of the methylene blue buffer solution. For this, prior to the irradiation, batch equilibrium experiments (adsorption/desorption) were performed in the dark for over 120 min. The effect of the initial concentration on its adsorption thermodynamics was determined using a given quantity of photocatalyst in phosphate buffer (pH = 7), and varying the MB concentration. After reaching equilibrium, the visible (or UVA) light was turned on, and, at various time intervals, the UV–Vis spectra of the solutions were measured. Finally, the results were calculated by the average values of triplicate measurements of triplicate experiments.eq), and the residual ratio (C/C0) were calculated with the following formulae:iC (µg/L) is the initial MB concentration, tC (µg/L) is the MB concentration at time t, w is the photocatalyst quantity (g), and V is the total solution volume (L).The consumed MB quantity/mass unit of photocatalyst (The morphology of the composites was investigated by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) at 200 kV using an H-7650 120 kV Automatic Microscope  and the SEM investigation was performed using an SU-8230 operated at 30 kV . The samples were prepared by dropping a few µL of diluted ethanol suspension on the nickel grid.Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectra were recorded in a transmission mode on a Bruker Tensor II spectrometer (from KBr pellets) . The UV–Vis absorption spectra were recorded on a V-570 JASCO Spectrophotometer . X-Ray powder Diffraction (XRD) measurements were performed on a Bruker D8 Advance diffractometer , using CuKα1 radiation (λ = 1.5406 Å).−9 Torr during the measurements. The XPS survey spectra were recorded at 30 eV pass energy, and 0.5 eV/step. The high-resolution spectra for the individual elements  were recorded by accumulating 10 scans at 30 eV pass energy and 0.1 eV/step. Data analysis and deconvolution of the spectra into the corresponding components were performed using Casa XPS software (version 2.3.24 PR1.0) with a Gaussian–Lorentzian (30) product function, and a nonlinear Shirley background subtraction. Peak shifts due to any apparent charging were normalized to the C1s peak set to 284.8 eV.X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were performed by using a PHOIBOS 150 2D CCD hemispherical energy analyzer XPS spectrometer  equipped with a multichanneltron detector, and an Al/Mg dual-anode as the excitation source. The vacuum in the measurement chamber was maintained at 1 × 102). Comparison experiments with UVA LEDs  with a light intensity of 885 lx (lumen/m2) were performed when considered necessary.The photocatalytic degradation tests were carried out in a Luzchem LZC-4V  Photoreactor equipped with 12 white LEDs (8 W) that emit in the visible domain 420–800 nm, the light intensity being 241.000 lx  influence the results of methylene blue photodegradation, limiting a direct comparison with other reported results.