Trade-off Effect Research Articles

Perception-Distortion Balanced Super-Resolution: A Multi-Objective Optimization Perspective.

High perceptual quality and low distortion degree are two important goals in image restoration tasks such as super-resolution (SR). Most of the existing SR methods aim to achieve these goals by minimizing the corresponding yet conflicting losses, such as the l1 loss and the adversarial loss. Unfortunately, the commonly used gradient-based optimizers, such as Adam, are hard to balance these objectives due to the opposite gradient decent directions of the contradictory losses. In this paper, we formulate the perception-distortion trade-off in SR as a multi-objective optimization problem and develop a new optimizer by integrating the gradient-free evolutionary algorithm (EA) with gradient-based Adam, where EA and Adam focus on the divergence and convergence of the optimization directions respectively. As a result, a population of optimal models with different perception-distortion preferences is obtained. We then design a fusion network to merge these models into a single stronger one for an effective perception-distortion trade-off. Experiments demonstrate that with the same backbone network, the perception-distortion balanced SR model trained by our method can achieve better perceptual quality than its competitors while attaining better reconstruction fidelity. Codes and models can be found at https://github.com/csslc/EA-Adam.

Eye tracking evidence for the reinstatement of emotionally negative and neutral memories.

Recent eye tracking studies have linked gaze reinstatement-when eye movements from encoding are reinstated during retrieval-with memory performance. In this study, we investigated whether gaze reinstatement is influenced by the affective salience of information stored in memory, using an adaptation of the emotion-induced memory trade-off paradigm. Participants learned word-scene pairs, where scenes were composed of negative or neutral objects located on the left or right side of neutral backgrounds. This allowed us to measure gaze reinstatement during scene memory tests based on whether people looked at the side of the screen where the object had been located. Across two experiments, we behaviorally replicated the emotion-induced memory trade-off effect, in that negative object memory was better than neutral object memory at the expense of background memory. Furthermore, we found evidence that gaze reinstatement was related to recognition memory for the object and background scene components. This effect was generally comparable for negative and neutral memories, although the effects of valence varied somewhat between the two experiments. Together, these findings suggest that gaze reinstatement occurs independently of the processes contributing to the emotion-induced memory trade-off effect.

Diversity of Gibberellin 2-oxidase genes in the barley genome offers opportunities for genetic improvement

IntroductionGibberellin (GA) is a vital phytohormone in regulating plant growth and development. During the “Green Revolution”, modification of GA-related genes created semi-dwarfing phenotype in cereal crops but adversely affected grain weight. Gibberellin 2-oxidases (GA2oxs) in barley act as key catabolic enzymes in deactivating GA, but their functions are still less known. ObjectivesThis study investigates the physiological function of two HvGA2ox genes in barley and identifies novel semi-dwarf alleles with minimum impacts on other agronomic traits. MethodsVirus-induced gene silencing and CRISPR/Cas9 technology were used to manipulate gene expression of HvGA2ox9 and HvGA2ox8a in barley and RNA-seq was conducted to compare the transcriptome between wild type and mutants. Also, field trials in multiple environments were performed to detect the functional haplotypes. ResultsThere were ten GA2oxs that distinctly expressed in shoot, tiller, inflorescence, grain, embryo and root. Knockdown of HvGA2ox9 did not affect plant height, while ga2ox8a mutants generated by CRISPR/Cas9 increased plant height and significantly altered seed width and weight due to the increased bioactive GA4 level. RNA-seq analysis revealed that genes involved in starch and sucrose metabolism were significantly decreased in the inflorescence of ga2ox8a mutants. Furthermore, haplotype analysis revealed one naturally occurring HvGA2ox8a haplotype was associated with decreased plant height, early flowering and wider and heavier seed. ConclusionOur results demonstrate the potential of manipulating GA2ox genes to fine tune GA signalling and biofunctions in desired plant tissues and open a promising avenue for minimising the trade-off effects of Green Revolution semi-dwarfing genes on grain size and weight. The knowledge will promote the development of next generation barley cultivars with better adaptation to a changing climate.

Patient preferences for the treatment of chronic cough: a discrete choice experiment

BackgroundChronic cough is common, negatively affects quality of life and has limited treatment options. Inhibition of purinergic signalling is a promising therapeutic approach but is associated with taste-related adverse effects....

Point Cloud Classification Using Content-Based Transformer via Clustering in Feature Space

Recently, there have been some attempts of Transformer in 3D point cloud classification. In order to reduce computations, most existing methods focus on local spatial attention, but ignore their content and fail to establish relationships between distant but relevant points. To overcome the limitation of local spatial attention, we propose a point content-based Transformer architecture, called PointConT for short. It exploits the locality of points in the feature space (content-based), which clusters the sampled points with similar features into the same class and computes the self-attention within each class, thus enabling an effective trade-off between capturing long-range dependencies and computational complexity. We further introduce an Inception feature aggregator for point cloud classification, which uses parallel structures to aggregate high-frequency and low-frequency information in each branch separately. Extensive experiments show that our PointConT model achieves a remarkable performance on point cloud shape classification. Especially, our method exhibits 90.3% Top-1 accuracy on the hardest setting of ScanObjectNN. Source code of this paper is available at https://github.com/yahuiliu99/PointConT.

Mapping ecosystem service clusters and exploring their driving mechanisms in karst peak-cluster depression regions in China

Understanding the intricate interrelationships among ecosystem services (ESs) and exploring their driving mechanisms are prerequisites for their efficient management. The southwestern karst region is a typical ecologically fragile area and a crucial component for establishing an ecological security barrier in southern China. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between ESs and the concept of ecosystem service bundles (ESBs) and explore the distribution of ESs and their interrelationships. Using methods, such as Spearman's correlation and spatial autocorrelation analysis, this study focused on the karst peak-cluster depression region in southwestern China to analyse the trade-offs and synergistic effects among 12 ESs. Additionally, this study used the self-organizing map to identify ESBs and used the Random Forest model to explore the potential driving factors influencing the distribution patterns of ESs. The results indicated a spatial clustering effect among the 12 ESs, whereby provisioning and cultural services had the most significant clustering effect (Moran's I > 0.8). A total of 25 pairs of ESs exhibited synergistic effects, and 31 pairs showed trade-off effects. Food production showed a trade-off with both regulatory and supporting services, whereas ESs within the same category tended to exhibit synergistic effects. The distribution and interrelationships of ESs are influenced by natural and social factors, such as climate, topography, and human activities, resulting in the formation of six ESBs. This study enriches the understanding of the relationship of ESs and will contribute to the coordinated development of resources and the environment in the karst peak-cluster depression region of southwestern China.

Identification and evolution of non-traditional nitrilase from Spirosoma linguale DSM 74 with high hydration activity

Hydration, a secondary activity mediated by nitrilase, is a promising new pathway for amide production. However, low hydration activity of nitrilase or trade-off between hydration and catalytic activity hinders its application in the production of amides. Here, natural C-terminal-truncated wild-type nitrilase, mined from a public database, obtained a high-hydration activity nitrilase as a novel evolutionary starting point for further protein engineering. The nitrilase Nit-74 from Spirosoma linguale DSM 74 was successfully obtained and exhibited the highest hydration activity level, performing 50.7 % nicotinamide formation and 87.6 % conversion to 2 mM substrate 3-cyanopyridine. Steric hindrance of the catalytic activity center and the N-terminus of the catalytic cysteine residue helped us identify three key residues: I166, W168, and T191. Saturation mutations resulted in three single mutants that further improved the hydration activity of N-heterocyclic nitriles. Among them, the mutant T191S performed 72.7 % nicotinamide formation, which was much higher than the previously reported highest level of 18.7 %. Additionally, mutants I166N and W168Y exhibited a 97.5 % 2-picolinamide ratio and 97.7 % isonicotinamide ratio without any loss of catalytic activity, which did not indicate a trade-off effect. Our results expand the screening and evolution library of promiscuous nitrilases with high hydration activity for amide formation.

Incorporating etched ZnO nanoparticles to fabricate positively charged composite membrane for heavy metal removal

The removal of heavy metal ions by nanofiltration (NF) membranes is attractive, but it is limited by a trade-off effect between permeation and solute rejection. Generally, the permeability of the NF membrane is closely related to its hydrophilicity, while the solute rejection is closely related to size exclusion and the Donnan effect. In this study, porous etched zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were prepared through alkali etching, and a thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) NF membrane was fabricated by interfacial polymerization (IP) method between PEI and TMC on a polysulfone (PSF) substrate. The incorporation of 0.01 wt% etched ZnO nanoparticles increased the hydrophilicity and positive charge of the NF membrane, resulting in an increase in the permeability (from 6.0 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 to 8.1 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) and rejection of heavy metal ions (Cu2+, Zn2+, and Ni2+ increased from 85 % to over 96 %). Long-term filtration experiments using the simulated wastewater demonstrated that the prepared NF membrane exhibited good stability and had the potential for industrial applications. It opens a new pathway for studying TFN NF membranes, indicating that alkaline etching can transform smooth nanoparticles into nanoparticles with higher specific surface area and porosity, thereby improving the performance of membranes.

Spatial Trade-Offs and Synergies between Ecosystem Services in Guangdong Province, China

The trade-offs between ecosystem services directly affect the quality of the ecological environment and the survival and development of human society, which is of great concern to academia, governments, and non-governmental organizations. Guangdong Province is a strong economic performer in China; hence, we selected it to explore the trade-off and synergy differences between different ecosystem services, and to investigate the mechanisms of their influence in economically developed regions with a large population density. Our results showed three main points: (1) The ecosystem services in Guangdong Province showed clear spatial heterogeneity. In addition, northern Guangdong has high levels of water retention, with a value of 5804.73 × 104 m3/km2 and high values for carbon sequestration and soil retention. Western Guangdong is a functional area for food production, and the Pearl River Delta is an economically developed region with low levels of ecosystem services. (2) Overall, in Guangdong Province, three pairs of ecosystem services, namely water retention–soil retention, carbon sequestration–water retention, and carbon sequestration–soil retention, showed a strong positive correlation and good synergistic relationships. The other three pairs of relationships show strong trade-off effects. (3) The relationships between similar ecosystem services show completely different characteristics in different regions. Carbon sequestration and water retention, carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation, water retention and biodiversity conservation, and soil retention and biodiversity conservation were mainly manifested in high–high synergies, particularly in northern Guangdong; carbon sequestration and soil retention and water retention and soil retention, primarily manifested synergies; carbon sequestration and food production, water retention and food production, and soil retention and food production mainly manifested as trade-off relationships.

RISK OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND RELATED DEMENTIA IN PATIENTS WITH SLOW PROGRESSIVE CANCERS

Abstract Evidence is accumulating that individuals with cancer diagnoses exhibit Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementia (ADRD) risk profiles that differ from the general population of U.S. older adults. In this study we used SEER-Medicare data to compare the relative risk of AD/ADRD between individuals with slow-progressive cancers and the non-cancer general population. The study cohort included individuals age 65+ (N=2,023,054) with a primary diagnosis (1999-2017) of one of nine slow progressive cancers (breast, colorectal, prostate, uterine, kidney, ovarian, and urinary bladder cancers, as well as lymphomas and melanoma) and no clinical record of AD/ADRD prior to cancer diagnosis. This cohort was then matched by age to a comparable non-cancer population (N=1,142,641). The hazard ratios of AD/ADRD for each cancer compared to the non-cancer cohort were evaluated individually in 29 age-specific groups for each cancer type. All cancers had similar patterns of dependence for post-cancer AD/ADRD risks. We found that the presence of cancer was associated with higher risk of AD/ADRD at age at diagnosis 65-75; the relative risks decline with age at diagnoses becoming protective at advanced ages. Furthermore, for any given age at diagnosis the relative risk of AD/ADRD (i.e., cancer vs. non-cancer) also declines with time. Detailed discussion of possible causes of these effects including cancer treatment, genetic variation, possible trade-off effects, common risk and protective factors, possibly lower administration and adherence of AD/ADRD diagnostic procedures for individuals with cancer, and the roles of competing risks (first of all due to death cases) is presented.

Enhancing the perm-selectivity of thin-film nanocomposite membranes intercalated with cyclodextrin-chelated Metal-Organic Framework via modulated interfacial polymerization

Nanofiltration (NF), an exceedingly promising technology, has been extensively implemented within the domain of desalination. The pursuit of optimizing water permeance, while upholding outstanding rejection rates to ameliorate the vexing permeability-selectivity trade-off effect, has raised tremendous concerns. Herein, a novel approach has been proposed, involving the construction of a cyclodextrin-chelated Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) interlayer through vacuum-assisted filtration, aimed at orchestrating the interfacial polymerization (IP) process and sculpting the membrane morphologies of polyamide membranes. The results demonstrated that cyclodextrin-chelated MOF interlayer produced a “gutter” effect for faster water transport and enhanced the interaction of the substrate and PA layer. Simultaneously, the interlayer helped to alleviate the diffusion rate of piperazine (PIP) via the interactions (e.g., hydrogen bonds, electrostatic attraction and steric hindrance) between interlayer and PIP, leading to a lower cross-linking degree and a defect-free thinner active layer. Meanwhile, cyclodextrin with intrinsic nano-cavity created more free volume for water transport inside the polymer. Furthermore, the crumpled interlayer established a hydrophilic undulated interface, followed by the generation of micro-wrinkled polyamide layer with larger filtration areas. The optimal membrane exhibited a high permeability of 39.59 L/m2 h bar, nearly 6.5 times than that of the original membrane, while maintaining a remarkable Na2SO4 rejection of 95.71 %. The strategic deployment of cyclodextrin-chelated MOF interlayers in membrane modification held the potential to efficaciously mitigate the trade-off effect, thereby presenting a promising avenue for the realization of highly-efficient desalination processes.

Phytic acid and ferric chloride compound additives-regulated interfacial polymerization for high-performance nanofiltration membrane

To balance the permeability-selectivity trade-off effect of the polyamide nanofiltration membrane, interfacial polymerization regulation strategy is widely used to optimize the physicochemical structure of the polyamide film. In the present work, the compound additives of phytic acid and ferric chloride were added into the aqueous phase to regulate the interfacial polymerization process. On the one hand, a lot of piperazine monomers will be adsorbed around the phytic acid molecules due to the electrostatic interaction between phosphoric acid groups and amino groups. Meanwhile, the phytic acid molecules and ferric ions can form a complex in the piperazine solution, which results in a low diffusion rate of the other piperazine monomers without adsorbed on the phytic acid and ferric chloride complex due to steric hindrance. The synergistic effect of electrostatic interaction and steric hindrance leads to the optimized nanofiltration membrane with a thinner and looser polyamide structure. The best-performing nanofiltration membrane exhibits an approximately four-fold water permeance (28.4 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) compared with the controlled M0 nanofiltration membrane (6.5 L m−2 h−1 bar−1) without obviously sacrificing the Na2SO4 rejection (96.9 %). This simple interfacial polymerization regulation strategy provides a novel insight for the preparation of high-performance NF membrane.

A charged superhydrophilic-oleophobic anti-fouling sponges for rapid separation of O/W emulsions

The crude oil spillage and large-scale industrial release of oily effluents has led to significant ecological degradation and resource wastage. Traditional superwetting materials encounter intractable challenges for treating surfactant-stabilized oil–water emulsions, including trade-off effect of permeation flux and separation efficiency, and low emulsion processing life. These issues considerably impede advancements in oil–water separation industry. In order to enhance the demulsification durability of materials while ensuring high separation efficiency and flux, this work doped perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) onto the modified sponge surface with superhydrophilic charged surface, and a unique in-air superhydrophilic-oleophobic sponge was prepared. This special surface allows rapid water phase permeation yet offers remarkably more stable oleophobicity compared with traditional underwater oleophobic materials when processing a large amount of emulsions. The intrinsic oleophobicity endows the sponge outstanding fouling resistance and greatly increases the one-cycle emulsion treatment amount up to 1695 L·m−2. Moreover, the sponge's inherent long permeation channels and surface charge maintain a high separation efficiency of over 97 %. The large pores of the sponges and superhydrophilic surface provide a high permeation flux exceeding 40,000 L·m−2·h−1. The sponge with high separation efficiency, flux, and capacity marks a significant advancement, offering a promising strategy for superwetting material applications in oil-in-water emulsion separation fields.

Optimization of microchannel heat sink based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm for integrated circuit chips cooling

The microchannel heat sink is an effective way to solve the heat dissipation problem in integrated circuit chips. In order to obtain the high efficiency and low resistance microchannel heat sink, the three variables (△h, f, g) were selected as the design variables, and the thermal resistance and pumping power were selected as objective functions. Then, the RSM, multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm and K-means clustering method were comprehensively applied to the multi-objective optimization of the microchannel heat sink with turbulence to obtain the five representative solutions (Case A–Case E), and the results were verified by CFD. The research shows that the maximum relative errors between Pareto optimization values and numerical simulation values of thermal resistance and pumping power of the five groups representative solutions are 0.637% and 1.187%, respectively. The Pareto optimization values are in good agreement with the numerical simulation values, and there is an effective tradeoff point between the five representative solutions of the Pareto optimal solution to make both the pumping power and thermal resistance within the optimal range. Compared with before optimization and the research results of Han Wang et al. [Appl. Therm. Eng. 2022;215:118849], the comprehensive heat transfer performance of the optimized microchannel heat sink has been improved, where the comprehensive heat transfer performance of the Case B ( Δ h = 0.0400 mm, f = 0.0979 mm, g = 0.5000 mm) is the best. The maximum temperature and pressure drop of the optimized microchannel heat sink can be reduced by 3.045% and 7.659%, respectively. Compared with the research results of Han Wang et al. [Appl. Therm. Eng. 2022;215:118849], the temperature distribution more uniform and the pressure drop of the microchannel heat sink after optimization (Case B) decreased by 7.058%. This optimization method can provide a reference for the optimization design of the microchannel heat sink structure parameters for integrated circuit chips cooling.

Highly ion selective sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)/polyzwitterion functionalized graphene oxides hybrid membrane for vanadium redox flow battery

High-density zwitterionic groups functionalized graphene oxides (PSBMA@GO) were incorporated into sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) membranes to create continuous channels for efficient proton/vanadium ion selective conduction. The incorporation of zwitterionic polymers, specifically poly(sulfobetaine methacrylate) (PSBMA) combined with graphene oxide (GO) sheets, enhanced the compatibility of additives with the SPEEK matrix. Furthermore, the impact of PSBMA@GO content on the properties of S/PSBMA@GO hybrid membranes for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) application was investigated. S/PSBMA@GO-1 hybrid membrane exhibits ultrahigh ion selectivity 55.3×103 S min cm-3, and the cell with this membrane shows excellent coulombic efficiencies (98.2-99.1%), energy efficiencies (83.6-74.5%) at 100-180 mA cm-2, long cycle life and high capacity retention (35.8% after 100 cycles at 100 mA cm-2). This study demonstrates that PSBMA@GO have great application potential to solve the trade-off effect between proton conductivity and vanadium ion permeability of PEM.

Gradient Quasi-Solid Electrolyte Enables Selective and Fast Ion Transport for Robust Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

The quasi-solid electrolytes (QSEs) attract extensive attention due to their improved ion transport properties and high stability, which is synergistically based on tunable functional groups and confined solvent molecules among the polymetric networks. However, the trade-off effect between the polymer content and ionic conductivity exists in QSEs, limiting their rate performance. In this work, the epitaxial polymerization strategy is used to build the gradient hydrogel networks (GHNs) covalently fixed on zinc anode. Then, it is revealed that the asymmetric distribution of negative charges benefits GHNs with fast and selective ionic transport properties, realizing a higher Zn2+ transference number of 0.65 than that (0.52) for homogeneous hydrogel networks (HHNs) with the same polymer content. Meanwhile, the high-density networks formed at Zn/GHNs interface can efficiently immobilize free water molecules and homogenize the Zn2+ flux, greatly inhibiting the water-involved parasitic reactions and dendritegrowth. Thus, the GHNs enable dendrite-free stripping/plating over 1000h at 8mA cm-2 and 1 mAh cm-2 in a Zn||Zn symmetric cell, as well as the evidently prolonged cycles in various full cells. This work will shed light on asymmetric engineering of ion transport channels in advanced quasi-solid battery systems to achieve high energy and safety.

Modification of nanofiltration membranes using beta-cyclodextrin derivatives with different functional groups for enhanced removal of organic micropollutants

Simultaneous enhancement in the removal of organic micropollutants (OMPs) and water permeance is highly desirable for nanofiltration (NF)-based drinking water treatment. This study employed two cyclodextrin derivatives with different functional groups, i.e., (2-hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) and sulfobutylether-β-cyclodextrin (SBECD), as aqueous additives for polyamide (PA) membrane fabrication. Characterization results revealed that HP-β-CD tended to enrich piperazine (PIP) monomers through hydrogen bonding, resulting in a thin but dense PA layer. Conversely, SBECD moderated PIP diffusion through electrostatic forces and steric hindrance, participated more in the interfacial polymerization reaction and yielded an active layer with a coexistence of polyester and polyamide. Both the CD derivative modified membranes exhibited improved surface hydrophilicity, enhanced roughness, and reduced active layer thickness, leading to over 60 % water permeance improvement without the obvious variation of pore size. This enabled the optimal membranes, especially the HP-β-CD incorporated one, highly advantageous in overcoming the trade-off effect between water permeance and OMP rejection. Meanwhile, the strongly negatively charged SBECD modified membrane showed reduced rejections for divalent cations, making it more resistant to scaling. This study offers an efficient approach to tailoring membrane water/solute selectivity and solute/solute selectivity, which has great potential in NF membrane development for drinking water treatment.

Digital Threads – benefits, challenges, and best practices

AbstractThe premise of Digital Engineering (DE) – a term coined by the US DoD, is to introduce efficiency and agility into engineering practices based on digital representations of complex systems under development. DE aims to foster early and virtual validations, virtual exploration of solutions and design robustness by automating current document centric engineering processes. As stated by the DoD, DE is expected to result in shortening delivery time, reduced cost of development driving increased quality and trust that the intended system will indeed satisfy the stakeholder needs. The core technological pillars of digital engineering are model based engineering, designation of authoritative sources of truth to avoid ambiguity and inconsistency and establishing technological platforms to facilitate collaboration, security, and IP protection across all stakeholders. “Digital Threads” is an information architecture that aims to establish digital continuity across product lifecycle activities, foster engineering integrity, effective change management, tradeoff analysis, and dissemination of operational data. Digital threads are an essential part of the DoD Digital Engineering strategy. There are technological challenges to implement digital threads, as it requires to establish a digital fabric across various modeling and engineering operational environments. As of today, this topic is still in its infancy and the industry is seeking solutions and standards for it.

Characterization of Ecosystem Services and Their Trade-Off and Synergistic Relationships under Different Land-Use Scenarios on the Loess Plateau

The Loess Plateau is one of the most fragile ecological regions in China due to its shortage of water resources and severe soil erosion. The rapid development of urbanization and the implementation of the project of returning farmland to forest (grass) have caused the ecological environment of the region to be strongly impacted by human activities. It is necessary to investigate the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of ecosystem services and trade-off/synergy relationships on the Loess Plateau, to achieve scientific management of ecological services and sustainable development of the region. This study quantitatively assesses three ecosystem services of water yield (WY), carbon storage (CS), and soil conservation (SC) on the Loess Plateau under different scenarios from 2000 to 2030 by using the InVEST and PLUS models. Further, the trade-off and synergistic relationships among the ecosystem services have been investigated by Spearman correlation analysis. The results showed that the land-use differences are more obvious under different policy scenarios, with a sharp expansion of constructed land, a gradual increase of forest land, and a continuous decrease of arable land in the Loess Plateau from 2000 to 2020; the water yield and soil conservation increase from 2000 to 2020, and the carbon storage shows an opposite trend. The soil conservation and carbon storage scenarios are the best under the ecological conservation scenario in 2030, while the water yield service is the best under the economic development scenario. There is a synergistic relationship between CS and SC, while there is a trade-off relationship between CS and WY. In addition, there are significant trade-off effects between SC and WY. These results can support guiding land-use management and ecological restoration.

Constructing ultra-permeable pillar[5]arene-based membrane with intramolecular water channels and precise molecular fractionation

Designing membranes with synthetic water channels has become an emerging topic to overcome the ubiquitous selectivity/permeability trade-off effect. In this study novel ultra-permeable thin film composite membranes with precise molecular fractionation were successfully fabricated. Per-hydroxylated pillar [5]arene (P [5]A), a macrocycle with a highly regular, cylindrical, angstrom-scale intramolecular cavity was applied as the aqueous monomer in interfacial polymerization (IP) to construct water channels in a thin film composite membrane. The competing effects of esterification and alkali-induced hydrolysis during IP were validated by investigating the effect of fabrication conditions. With almost complete rejection of model dyes >99.0% (e.g., Congo Red & Direct Red 23) and low retention of salts (e.g., 4.5% for NaCl & 18.9% for Na2SO4), the optimal membrane exhibited an ultra-high water permeance up to 267.1 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, which is 3–10 times higher than most literature-reported membranes for similar applications. Also, the precision of dye/salt fractionation of the membrane was not affected by the increased feed salinity, with overall stable performance in 72 h continuous operation. A high flux recovery of >94.5% proved that the membrane had low fouling propensity. Overall, the new route explored in this study provided inspiration for designing ultra-permeable membranes with precise molecular separation for environmental applications.