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The optimal foraging algorithm (OFA) is a swarm-based algorithm motivated by animal behavioral ecology theory. When solving complex optimization problems characterized by multiple peaks, OFA is easy to get trapped in local minima and encounters slow convergence. Therefore, this paper presents an improved optimal foraging algorithm with social behavior based on quasi-opposition (QOS-OFA) to address these problems. First, quasi-opposition-based learning (QOBL) is introduced to improve the overall quality of the population in the initialization phase. Second, an efficient cosine-based scale factor is designed to accelerate the exploration of the search space. Third, a new search strategy with social behavior is designed to enhance local exploitation. The cosine-based scale factor is used as a regulator to achieve a balance between global exploration and local exploitation. The proposed QOS-OFA is compared with seven meta-heuristic algorithms on a CEC benchmark test suite and three real-world optimization problems. The experimental results show that QOS-OFA is better than other competitors on most of the test problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the vehicle-road cooperative intelligence can effectively resolve the current technical impediment and cost quandary associated with high-level autonomous driving. Nevertheless, the intelligent infrastructure entails initial deployment costs and ongoing energy consumption and maintenance costs, necessitating a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the costs of intelligent infrastructure and the corresponding changes in comprehensive costs. The cost evaluation model for the cooperative intelligent system is designed in this paper, considering the corresponding intelligent infrastructure layout scheme for different road types within the technical framework. The intelligent configuration and corresponding cost transfer from roadside to vehicle side under the synergy effect is also analyzed. Using Beijing as a case study, the results indicate that the deployment of intelligent infrastructure will effectively reduce acquisition and usage costs of high-level intelligent vehicles and achieve a greater "reuse" effect by serving more intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs). Compared to the vehicle intelligence, collaborative intelligence will reduce cumulative total costs by more than ¥200 billion from 2023 to 2050, even with the inclusion of intelligent infrastructure's costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new 0.15–2 GHz broadband phase shifter with 9-bit phase resolution is presented. This broadband digital adjustable phase shifter is implemented by utilizing the signal vector summation technology. The phase shifter consists of one 90° hybrid coupler, two digital attenuators, two 180° hybrid couplers, two microwave switches, and one combiner. By adjusting the attenuation value of the two digital attenuators, the device creates a minimum 0.7° stepped phase shift. In addition, by switching the two microwave switches, a 360° range of phase shift is achieved while almost keeping the amplitude of the phase shifter constant. The measurement results show that the proposed phase shifter achieves a phase resolution of 0.7° while exhibiting an average insertion loss of 9 ± 2 dB and phase unbalance within ±10°. The calculated RMS phase error of the broadband phase shifter is below 5° from 0.15 to 2 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud computing is being widely adopted in the industry due to providing more computation power and improve resource utilization. In cloud computing systems, many users execute various types of applications that produce a large amount of data. To handle a large amount of data, cloud computing systems provide various, high-performance, and large-scale clustered storage devices. With the large capacity, improving the performance of storage maintenance is an important issue since the large capacity can increase the suspend time during the maintenance significantly. As a storage maintenance technique, checking a bad block in which the data cannot be accessed anymore prevents I/O failure of the application. However, an existing bad block checker (e.g., badblocks in Linux) takes a long time, even when storage devices provide parallelism (e.g., multiple disks, multi-channel SSD, etc). It is because the existing bad block checker performs I/O and check operations in a serialized manner. To reduce the checking time, we propose an efficient and parallel bad block checker for exploiting the parallelism of storage devices. In our scheme, we enable parallel I/O and check operations for the bad block instead of the serialized operations. To do this, we first divide a series of check operations into parallel tasks (i.e., independent tasks). Second, we create a thread pool in which multiple workers fetch their tasks concurrently. Finally, we enable each checker to perform its own check and I/O operations in parallel. We implement and evaluate our checker on a 32-core machine with a disk array and an NVMe SSD. The experimental results show that our proposed bad block checker improves the performance by up to 3.7 × and 7.8 × in the disk array and NVMe SSD, respectively, compared with the existing bad block checker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stochastic cooling of the high-precision spectrometer ring (SRing) at the High Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) project in China, which is used mainly for experiments with radioactive fragment beams, is applied to speed up the cooling process of a stored ion beam. In this article, a new coaxial-type notch filter with an amplitude equalizer in the long branch and an optical-type notch filter with phase-stabilized optical fiber are discussed and evaluated for the SRing stochastic cooling system. Both prototypes of coaxial and optical notch filters are fabricated and tested. The minimum notch depth of coaxial and optical notch filters reaches to 26 and 40 dB, respectively. The performance of both coaxial notch filter and optical fiber notch filter is presented in this work. These developments will be used not only for the longitudinal stochastic cooling system but also have potential for the beam feedback system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-objective evolutionary algorithms have become the most important method to deal with multi-objective optimization problems (MOP). To improve the performance of particle swarm optimization (PSO) in addressing MOPs, a multi-objective PSO based on temporal-difference learning (TDLMOPSO) is proposed in this paper. The iteration process of TDLMOPSO is transformed into a Markov decision process, particles are treated as agents, each agent has a personal archive, the states are designed for the connection of actions, the actions of particles contain all necessary behavior of them: basic movement, jump out of local optimum, and local search, and the rewards depend on the relationship between particles' positions and their personal archives. Besides, the external archive deletion strategy and the leader selection strategy are redesigned based on the unsupervised learning algorithm to enhance the diversity of solutions in the external archive. The effectiveness of TDLMOPSO is verified by applying it with other seven advanced multi-objective algorithms in MOP benchmark test suites. Furthermore, the time complexity and parameter sensitivity of TDLMOPSO are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale multiple perturbation experiments have the potential to reveal a more detailed understanding of the molecular pathways that respond to genetic and environmental changes. A key question in these studies is which gene expression changes are important for the response to the perturbation. This problem is challenging because (i) the functional form of the nonlinear relationship between gene expression and the perturbation is unknown and (ii) identification of the most important genes is a high-dimensional variable selection problem. To deal with these challenges, we present here a method based on the model-X knockoffs framework and Deep Neural Networks to identify significant gene expression changes in multiple perturbation experiments. This approach makes no assumptions on the functional form of the dependence between the responses and the perturbations and it enjoys finite sample false discovery rate control for the selected set of important gene expression responses. We apply this approach to the Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signature data sets which is a National Institutes of Health Common Fund program that catalogs how human cells globally respond to chemical, genetic and disease perturbations. We identified important genes whose expression is directly modulated in response to perturbation with anthracycline, vorinostat, trichostatin-a, geldanamycin and sirolimus. We compare the set of important genes that respond to these small molecules to identify co-responsive pathways. Identification of which genes respond to specific perturbation stressors can provide better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of disease and advance the identification of new drug targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the effect of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma treated nano-Al2O3 particles on the dc insulation properties of epoxy resin (EP) nanocomposites at cryogenic temperature.The surface of the nano-Al2O3 particles was treated by a designed DBD plasma setup. The pure EP, 3 wt% untreated EP/nano-Al2O3 composite, and plasma-treated EP/Al2O3 nanocomposites with 3, 5, and 10 wt% were prepared by a physical mixture and casting method. The scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to investigate the dispersion of the nano-Al2O3 and elemental composition, respectively. The insulation properties such as DC breakdown strength, surface potential decay (SPD), dc conductivity and thermally stimulated depolarized current were measured under a cryogenic environment using cryogenic thermostat. The obtained results showed that under the cryogenic environment, the dc breakdown strength of the EP was evidently enhanced by the addition of the plasma treated nano-Al2O3 up to 5 wt%, but that was decreased for 10 wt%. The dc conductivity and SPD rate were reduced with the addition of the plasma treated nano-Al2O3 up to 5 wt%. It was found that the plasma-treated EP/Al2O3 nanocomposites had a deeper energy level and higher trap density compared to the pure EP. It was elucidated that the enhanced dc insulation properties of the plasma-treated EP/Al2O3 nanocomposites was attributed to the reduced charge carrier mobility and stronger chemical bonds in the materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TaC/TiC/Stellite X-40 Co-based composite coatings with different contents were successfully cladded on a Cr-Zr-Cu alloy substrate. The microstructure, wear and corrosion resistance of the composite coatings were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscope (OM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), scanning electron microscope (SEM), sliding wear test, as well as corrosion test in 3.5% NaCl solution. The results showed that Ta and Ti atoms easily form Co3Ta and Co3Ti hard phases with Co to increasing the hardness of the coating. Compared with the substrate, the wear resistance, corrosion resistance and hardness of the composite coatings were significantly improved. The wear resistance of the 20 wt. % TaC and 10 wt. % TiC composite coatings were better than that of the substrate. When the TaC content was 20 wt. % and the TiC content was 15 wt. %, the coating with excellent corrosion resistance (-0.153V). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To elucidate the clinical application effect of cluster management in noninvasive ventilator nursing care of patients with severe heart failure (HF). Methods. A total of 116 severe patients with HF who received treatment in the our hospital between October 2018 and December 2019 were included, including 50 cases (control group) treated with routine nursing and 66 cases (research group) treated with cluster management. The treatment-related indexes (mechanical ventilation time and hospitalization expenses), symptom resolution (dyspnea, insomnia, nausea, and upper abdominal pain), systolic/diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP), heart rate (HR), and prognosis (mortality and disability rate) were observed and compared between the two groups. Results. Statistically shorter time of mechanical ventilation and symptom (dyspnea, insomnia, nausea, and upper abdominal pain) resolution were found in the research group compared with the control group. In addition, the research group showed significantly lower hospitalization expenses, SBP, DBP, and HR than the control group. Moreover, lower mortality and disability rates were determined in the research group, yet with no statistical significance between the two cohorts. Conclusion. The above results indicate the remarkable clinical application effect of cluster management in noninvasive ventilator nursing of severe HF, which can enhance the treatment efficacy, blood pressure and HR of patients, and facilitate their recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the influence of aluminum nitride (AlN) fillers on the charge dynamics of epoxy resin (EP) and its hybrid composites through space charge measurements and quantum chemical calculations (QCCs). QCCs analyze the energy-level orbitals and trap parameters of the molecules under the electric field. The pure EP exhibits a homo-charge accumulation, whereas fewer charges are accumulated in the EP hybrid composites. The AlN filler addition significantly suppresses the space charge accumulation during polarization and facilitates the charge dissipation during the depolarization due to the lower trap density than the pure EP. It is found that the orbital energy level of the combined reaction of all monomers together is not a simple superposition of individual orbital energy levels of different monomers. The increased charge injection barrier height suppresses space charge injection and accumulation. The electric field significantly influences the hole traps more than the electron traps. The positive charges with low mobility are easily trapped inside hole traps compared with the negative charges with high mobility inside the electron traps. This results in positive charge accumulation during the polarization and slow decay during the depolarization. The increase of the electrostatic potential is more uniform in hybrid composites than in the pure EP, and no visible electron migration is observed. It indicates that hybrid composites remain stable under electric fields. Moreover, it is not easy for the hole to transport due to the deep trap after the charge injection, leading to limited visible space charge accumulation near the anode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, two-dimensional Zn(Bim)(OAc) nanosheets (ZNS) were prepared using ultrasonication and surfactant-assisted methods. Subsequently, it was used as nanocontainer loaded with benzotriazole (BTA) corrosion inhibitor to fabricate BTA@ZNS nanocomposites with pH-controlled release characteristics. The morphology analysis exhibits that BTA@ZNS has a distinct lamellar structure. UV spectrophotometer measurements indicated the release rate of BTA reached 94.38 % in 24 h at pH=1. Adding BTA@ZNS as fillers into epoxy resin (EP) coating can form BTA@ZNS/EP composite coating with active anti-corrosion properties. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) demonstrates that BTA@ZNS/EP coating has superior corrosion resistance than other EP-based coatings. The enhanced anti-corrosion performance is ascribed to the barrier effect and acid-responsive controlled release of BTA@ZNS. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a strategy to use a fluorescence "turn on" sensor to quantify the reduction of platinum(IV) prodrugs in a real-time mode by simply and conveniently monitoring the fluorescence intensity. Proteins with high molecular weights, especially those between 10 and 100 kDa, contribute more to the reduction of the platinum(IV) complex in cell extracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vulnerability analysis is the premise of operational risk management and control for the large-scale and complex urban rail transit network (URTN) under the operation interruption of important stations. The temporary operation interruption of one station in an emergency may lead to the cascading failure and the paralysis of the whole URTN due to the load of other stations exceeding the limited capacity. The priority of important stations is proposed by combining its location and function in URTN. In addition, focusing on the analysis of the travel behaviour of passengers and the synergy of public transport networks, a novel cascading failure evolution model is established to simulate the cascading failure process of URTN under different attack scenarios. The vulnerability indicators are constructed to dynamically evaluate the vulnerability of URTN considering cascading failure evolution, which are different from the traditional vulnerability indicators based on complex network theory. Taking the Beijing urban rail transit network as an example, the dynamic simulation results show that the cascading failure of URTN is closely related to the temporal-spatial distribution of passenger flows and malicious attacks are more destructive than random attacks. Compared with the important stations with the largest betweenness or degree, the interrupted stations with largest intensity have a greater impact on the operational stability of URTN. Moreover, increasing the capacity coefficient of the station can reduce the vulnerability of URTN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experimental facility VULCAN was setup to study the fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) phenomena in a postulated severe accident of light water reactors. The heating system is important for the facility to prepare molten material in a crucible. This article is concerned with the design of the heating system, which applies electromagnetic induction heating method. The COMSOL code was employed to simulate the induction heating characteristics of a graphite crucible under different current and frequency of the work coil (inductor). Given a frequency, the relationship between the crucible's average temperature and the inductor's current is obtained, which is instrumental to select the power supply of the induction heating system. Meanwhile, the skin effect of induction heating is analyzed to guide the choice of frequency and inductor of the heating system. According to the simulation results, the induction heating system of frequency 47 kHz is suitable for the experiment, with a good agreement in temperature between the measured and the predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A polyurethane solid–solid phase change material (SSPCM) was synthesized by block copolymerization. • The SSPCM can be pressed into films with flexibility, self-healing and recyclability. • A composite phase change material with excellent CPU thermal management capability was obtained using the SSPCM, copper foam, and polyimide tape. Phase change materials (PCMs) have received great attention in thermal management of electronic devices due to their high energy storage density and no need for additional energy supply. Yet the leakage problem after phase change limits their application greatly. In this paper, the block copolymerization was used to prepare a novel solid–solid phase change material (SSPCM) with a melting enthalpy of 90.26 J/g, starting pyrolysis at a temperature of more than 300 °C, and its physicochemical and thermal properties remained basically unchanged after 100 heating/cooling cycles. Notably, this SSPCM has excellent shape stability and can be pressed into phase change film with flexibility, thermally induced self-healing capability and recyclability. Finally, we innovatively combined this SSPCM, copper foam (CF), and polyimide tape (PI) to obtain a composite phase change material (CPCM) with both high thermal conductivity (1.1994 W/m·K) and high electrical insulating properties. Thermal management experiment shows that this CPCM has good thermal management performance and can significantly reduce the temperature rise rate of the simulated CPU. The SSPCM prepared in this study shows great potential for application in thermal management of portable electronic devices and flexible wearable electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine biological pollution restricts the sustainable development of marine economy. Cu 2 O stands as a predominant antifouling agent for developing marine resources engineering. However, the problems of easy aggregation, rapid failure, and explosive release of copper ions limit the practical application of Cu 2 O. In this work, a novel copper-functionalized two-dimensional zeolitic imidazolate framework-7 nanocomposites ZIF-7@Cu 2 O was successfully fabricated by in-situ growth methodology. The emergence of ZIF-7@Cu 2 O nanocomposites solves the above problems in the use of Cu 2 O. Due to the huge specific surface area of the 2D ZIF-7 nanosheets and the electrostatic interactions, the cubic Cu 2 O, with a diameter of 250 nm, can be uniformly and firmly anchored on the surface of 2D ZIF-7 nanosheets, thus effectively avoiding the rapid dissolution of cuprous oxide and reducing the release rate of copper ions. Antibacterial experiments demonstrate that, in comparison to ZIF-7, Cu 2 O, and ZIF-7/Cu 2 O (physical mixture of ZIF-7 and Cu 2 O), ZIF-7@Cu 2 O exhibits superior antibacterial properties with 99.99 % against E. coli and the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 32 μg/mL. Furthermore, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay confirms ZIF-7@Cu 2 O could promote the generation of ROS. Antibiofilm formation results reveal that ZIF-7@Cu 2 O nanocomposites are effective in preventing biofilm formation of E. coli and P. aeruginosa at a low concentration (50 μg/mL). Finally, ZIF-7@Cu 2 O nanocomposites are employed as fillers to prepare ZIF-7@Cu 2 O/EP composite coating, the bactericidal kinetics and bacterial adherence on the coating surface are investigated. We believe this work could provide novel insights into the rational design of 2D ZIF-based material in the field of antifouling. [Display omitted] • A novel antibacterial nanocomposites ZIF-7@Cu 2 O were synthesized. • ZIF-7@Cu 2 O effectively dispersed Cu 2 O and improved the action efficiency of Cu 2 O. • ZIF-7@Cu 2 O hindered the biofilm formation on different substrate surface. • The fabricated ZIF-7@Cu 2 O/SP coating exhibited superior antifouling performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature selection is central to contemporary high-dimensional data analysis. Group structure among features arises naturally in various scientific problems. Many methods have been proposed to incorporate the group structure information into feature selection. However, these methods are normally restricted to a linear regression setting. To relax the linear constraint, we design a new Deep Neural Network (DNN) architecture and integrating it with the recently proposed knockoff technique to perform nonlinear group-feature selection with controlled group-wise False Discovery Rate (gFDR). Experimental results on high-dimensional synthetic data demonstrate that our method achieves the highest power and accurate gFDR control compared with state-of-the-art methods. The performance of Deep-gKnock is especially superior in the following five situations: (1) nonlinearity relationship; (2) dimension p greater than sample size n ; (3) high between-group correlation; (4) high within-group correlation; (5) large number of associated groups. And Deep-gKnock is also demonstrated to be robust to the misspecification of the feature distribution and the change of network architecture. Moreover, Deep-gKnock achieves scientifically meaningful group-feature selection results for cutting-edge real world datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stochastic cooling of the spectrometer ring (SRing) at the High Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) project in China, which is used mainly for experiments with radioactive fragment beams, is applied to speed up the cooling process of a stored ion beam. In this study, both a Faltin traveling wave structure and a novel slot-ring standing wave structure based on a ceramic vacuum chamber are discussed and evaluated for the pickup/kicker of the SRing stochastic cooling system. The slot-ring structure should significantly improve the shunt impedance due to the Cherenkov effect. For the Faltin-type structure, the results for the pickup shunt impedance obtained from simulations and from beam measurements agree well. Good agreement is also found between the simulated and measured results for the pickup shunt impedance of the slot-ring structure. Cooling process simulations using the Fokker–Planck equation based on the shunt impedance results for the Faltin- and slot-ring-type pickups are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to high ramping rates on the Booster Ring (BRing), which is the key part of the high-intensity heavy-ion accelerator facility (HIAF) complex at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), thin-wall vacuum chambers are required for all magnets to maintain the eddy currents at a tolerable level. A novel thin-wall vacuum chamber supported by ceramic rings was discussed and evaluated for the HIAF at the IMP to reduce the manufacturing cost, reduce the difficulty, shorten the production cycle, and improve the quality. Because the beam coupling impedance aspects are highly important for beam stability, several approaches were used to evaluate the impedance on the ceramics-loaded tube. In this article, we describe the results from the single- and two-wire bench measurements and the numerical simulations. The simulated and measured impedance results are consistent with each other. Several effective methods to mitigate the impedance were proposed and investigated in detail. According to the simulation and measurement results of the beam coupling impedance mitigation, this novel ceramic-ring copper-coated thin-wall vacuum chamber structure will be considered for application to the HIAF project with the highest priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Climate is widely understood to determine elevational patterns of soil microbial communities, whereas the effects of parental material are uncertain. Changes in the composition of parental materials along elevational transects could also affect soil microbial communities by influencing soil pH and nutrient availability. Here, we aim to illustrate the combined effects of climate and parental material on the biomass and composition of soil microbial communities along an elevational transect. Location: A subtropical forest on a karst mountain (Mt. Jinfo), China. Taxon: Bacteria and Fungi. Methods: We use phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) and DNA amplicon high‐throughput sequencing to determine biomass and diversity patterns of soil microbial communities along a subtropical elevational gradient with contrasting parental materials (limestone and clasolite). Results: We observed that the microbial communities were more diverse (α‐diversity) and productive (biomass) on limestone than on clasolite. Additionally, we found that parental material played a role in shaping the composition (β‐diversity) of soil microbial communities along the elevational gradient. The impact of climate on soil microbial communities was found to be significant, albeit relatively weak. Structural equation models provided evidence for both direct and indirect effects of climate and parental material on microbial biomass and α‐diversity along the elevational gradient. Notably, the changes in soil pH, influenced by both parental material and climate, were identified as a key factor driving these effects. Main Conclusions: Our results underline the importance of both climate and parental material variations in space‐for‐time studies investigating soil microbial communities along elevational gradients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Zhu's circulation theorem of fluid mechanics was applied for natural circulation. • Zhu's theorem obeys the right hand rule. • Loops like Mobius-Strip can effectively reduce the flow oscillation. • CFD simulations were carried out to provide physical intuition and numerical proof. This paper theoretically studied the methodology to reduce the flow oscillation of natural circulation in non-inertial systems. Based on Zhu's circulation theorem of fluid mechanics developed for non-inertial system, the influence of loop configuration and the angular acceleration vector (including its magnitude and direction) on the flow oscillation were explored. To provide physical intuition and numerical proof, CFD simulations were also carried out. Both the theorem and CFD simulations showed that the flow oscillation increased with angular acceleration and the area enclosed by the loop, but decreased with the angle between the loop normal vector and the angular acceleration. More importantly, as Zhu's theorem obeys the right hand rule, the loop can be managed to possess zero enclosed area (e.g. Mobius-Strip) and effectively reduce the flow oscillation without increasing the flow resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Void fraction distribution profile rotated a deviation angle due to centrifugal force. • Elongated bubbles and slugs shortened, and slug frequency increased due to dean Vortex. • A dimensionless parameter representing the ratio of the centrifugal force to the gravity was presented. • Correlations of void fraction deviation angle, drift flux model, elongated bubble length and slug frequency were presented. This paper experimentally investigated the air-water intermittent flow in four helically coiled tubes with inner diameter of 0.016 m, coil diameters of 0.24, 0.43 and 0.80 m, and inclination angles of 5° and 15°. A double conductivity probe was used to measure the hydrodynamic parameters at 48 points in the outlet cross section. The results showed that centrifugal force and Dean Vortices were the major mechanisms that influenced the void fraction distribution, elongated bubble length, slug length and slug frequency. Because of centrifugal force, the void fraction profile rotated an angle which approached to 90° as liquid superficial velocity increased and coil diameter decreased. Due to the Dean Vortices, the elongated bubble length and slug length decreased as the coil diameter decreased, leading to an increase of slug frequency. A dimensionless parameter Z representing the ratio of the centrifugal force to the gravity was presented, which provides a quantitative criterion to evaluate the influence of centrifugal force. In terms of Z , correlations predicting the deviation angle, elongated bubble length and slug frequency were built, which met the experimental data well when the coil diameter is between 0.24 and 0.80 m and the inclination angle between 5° and 15°. Moreover, a drift flux model for HCTs was presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) heart valve can serve as a viable option for prosthetic aortic valve. In this study, an ePTFE bi-leaflet valve design for aortic valve replacement (AVR) is presented, and the performance of the proposed valve was assessed numerically and experimentally. The valve was designed using CAE software. The dynamic behavior of the newly designed bi-leaflet valve under time-varying physiological pressure loading was first investigated by using commercial finite element code. Then, in-vitro tests were performed to validate the simulation and to assess the hemodynamic performance of the proposed design. A tri-leaflet ePTFE valve was tested in-vitro under the same conditions as a reference. The maximum leaflet coaptation area of the bi-leaflet valve during diastole was 216.3 mm2. When fully closed, no leakage gap was observed and the free edges of the molded valve formed S-shaped lines. The maximum Von Mises stress during a full cardiac cycle was 4.20 MPa. The dynamic performance of the bi-leaflet valve was validated by the in-vitro test under physiological aortic pressure pulse. The effective orifice area (EOA), mean pressure gradient, regurgitant volume, leakage volume and energy loss of the proposed valve were 3.14 cm2, 8.74 mmHg, 5.93 ml/beat, 1.55 ml/beat and 98.99 mJ, respectively. This study reports a novel bi-leaflet valve design for AVR. The performance of the proposed valve was numerically and experimentally assessed. Compared with the reference valve, the proposed design exhibited better structural and hemodynamic performances, which improved valve competency. Moreover, the performance of the bi-leaflet design is comparable to commercialized valves available on the market. The results of the present study provide a viable option for the future clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keratin 15 (KRT15) regulates the invasion as well as the stemness and is associated with tumor size and metastasis of several gastrointestinal cancers apart from liver cancer. The present study aimed to explore the effect of KRT15 knockdown on liver cancer malignant behaviors and its interaction with the β-catenin pathway. Small interfering (si)-KRT15 and si-negative control (NC) were transfected into liver cancer cell lines, followed by the addition or not of CHIR-99021 (a β-catenin agonist). Cell viability, invasion, apoptosis, and the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of doxorubicin (Dox) were then assessed. The present study illustrated that KRT15 gene and protein expression levels were upregulated in most liver cancer cell lines (Huh7, PLC, Hep3B and HepG2) compared to the normal liver cell line THLE-2. si-KRT15 reduced cell viability and invasive cell count while promoting the apoptosis rate in Huh7 and HepG2 cells. In addition, si-KRT15 also reduced the IC50 value of Dox. Furthermore, si-KRT15 inactivated the β-catenin pathway as reflected by β-catenin, cyclin D1 and c-Myc expression levels in Huh7 and HepG2 cells. Subsequently, CHIR-99021 treatment increased the cell viability and invasive cell count while reducing the apoptosis rate in Huh7 and HepG2 cells. Concurrently, the IC50 value of Dox was also increased. Notably, CHIR-99021 treatment attenuated the effect of si-KRT15 on mediating the aforementioned Huh7 and HepG2 cell malignant behaviors and Dox chemosensitivity. In conclusion, KRT15 knockdown suppressed viability and mobility but facilitated Dox chemosensitivity via inactivating the β-catenin pathway in liver cancer, suggesting its potential as a target for liver cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By regulating the order of monomer addition, four kinds of copolymer polyimides (PIs) were prepared using diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (DEGDE) and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) as the solvents. The molecular weights of polyamide acids (PAAs) ranged from 3.8 × 105 to 9.2 × 105. All of the films displayed high glass transition temperatures (Tgs) ranging from 313°C to 346°C. The polymer films show excellent thermal stabilities with 5% weight loss at temperatures of 505–524°C and char yields at 800°C were as high as 55% under nitrogen. The peel strengths of flexible copper (Cu) clads were in the range from 0.337 N cm−1 to 0.598 N cm−1. Compared to the molecular weight and peel strength of fresh PAA, those of PAAs prepared using DMAc significantly decreased after storage for 3 months at 0°C. However, when DEGDE was used as the solvent, the molecular weights of the PAAs and the thermal properties of the PIs were maintained after long storage time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • RHM characteristics of farmland based on soil profile and land use were investigated. • RHMs rather than THMs can be regarded as a better marker of heavy metal pollution. • Modified I geo and E r i were introduced to accurately assess heavy metal pollution. • Empirical models for an efficient and accurate prediction of RHMs were developed. • Sources of RHMs in farmland were quantified using APCS-MLR model. Abstract Recently, soil contamination by heavy metals in farmland has become a severe problem. In this study, a novel assessment method of heavy metal pollution based on reactive heavy metals (RHMs) was introduced. RHMs showed strong correlation with soil profile and land use, distinctly different from the variation of total heavy metals. According to modified geoaccumulation and Hakanson index, farmlands in study area were certainly polluted by various heavy metals, but had low ecological risk. RHMs were greatly influenced by soil properties such as nitrogen, phosphorus, organic matter (OM), pH, moisture content, cation exchange capacity (CEC), electrical conductivity, inorganic anion, and soil texture. Freundlich-type empirical models were developed by combining pH, OM, CEC, total phosphorus, and clay for sufficiently robust and accurate prediction of RHM contents in farmland. The absolute principal component score with multiple linear regression (APCS-MLR) model was used to quantify sources of RHMs in farmland. Agricultural production (water-fertilizer management practice and fertilizer/pesticide use) was the major influence on RHMs with contributions greater than 50% for Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, and As. Industrial activity, traffic emission, and soil erosion should be also given special attentions because of their great influence on soil RHM contents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the production safety has been paid by a lot of attention. Although the total number of accidents in production safety has shown a downward trend, the serious accidents occur frequently and seriously. The prediction and early warning of spontaneous combustion in coal mines mainly adopts the method of gas index analysis and prediction. The traditional trace gas detection equipment used in spontaneous combustion is mainly chromatographic analysis system, which has some problems such as complicated equipment, complicated operation, slow analysis speed and inability to realize on-line monitoring. The main purpose of this study is to develop a fire risk distribution determination system based on multi-sensor information fusion technology, which is aimed at assisting fire monitoring, fire emergency management, and fire rescue. After using the information from different sensors, the system can give an effective alarm to the fire and can provide the danger degree distribution information of different areas in the building. Based on the development status of fire safety, especially the demand of fire safety for gas detection technology, the tunable laser spectroscopy technology is proposed to solve the demand problem of gas sensing products urgently needed for major fire disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-parameter one-sided hypothesis test problems arise naturally in many applications. We are particularly interested in effective tests for monitoring multiple quality indices in forestry products. Our search reveals that there are many effective statistical methods in the literature for normal data, and that they can easily be used to test hypotheses regarding parameter values permitting asymptotically normal estimators. We find that the classical likelihood ratio test is unsatisfactory, because to control the size, it must cope with the least favorable distributions at the cost of power. In this article, we find a novel way to slightly ease the size control, obtaining a much more powerful test. Simulation confirms that the new test retains good control of the Type I error and is markedly more powerful than the likelihood ratio test as well as many competitors based on normal data. The new method performs well in the context of monitoring multiple quality indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil nitrogen (N) dynamics have considerable effects on the terrestrial carbon cycle, and land use changes could affect soil N through impacts on soil aggregate stability. This study selected nine sites including apple orchards of different ages and restored sites to explore the effects of soil aggregate stability on soil total N (STN), ammonium N (AN), and nitrate N (NN) following different stages of apple orchard on the Loess Plateau of China. The results showed that when compared with apple orchard sites, the restored sites had higher contents of STN and lower contents of AN and NN, but when compared with restored sites, inorganic-N storage played a more important role in the apple orchards. Following different stages of apple orchards, the STN, AN and NN contents and mean weight diameter (MWD) of soil aggregates were all improved. MWD had a negative effect on inorganic-N content at 10–30 cm soil depths but had a positive relationship with soil N at 0–10 cm soil depth. In addition, planting apple orchards destroyed soil aggregate stability in this erodible environment, but it could be restored soon after abandonment. Therefore, considering soil N and soil aggregate stability, it is feasible to plant apple trees in this area and we propose that the effects of trade-offs between soil aggregate stability and soil erosion on soil N in terraced agroecosystems should be a focus of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Arthroscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure on a joint in which examination and treatment of knee damage is performed using a surgical device known as the arthroscope. Lipoma arborescens (LA), an infrequent intra-articular lesion, originates from mature adipose cells under subsynovial tissue. The synovial membrane is pale yellow with large villous projections. It is caused by various underlying factors. We found many patients with LA and processed them appropriately.The research was implemented to investigate therapeutic effect of semi-automated arthroscopic diagnosis and treatment for knee joint. Methods We used the Stryker arthroscopic in surgery that is 4 mm in diameter with angle at 30°. Patients were chosen by biomechanical analysis and scanning mode. All of the patients underwent radiographic imaging examination, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Lysholm Score and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Arthroscopic limited synovectomy was carried out on these patients. Results The wound of all patients healed up. The content of follow-up includes: chief complaints, range of motion of knee joint, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Lysholm score. No swollen nor effusion of the infected knee was found in all patients during the follow-up. The postoperative symptom was markedly alleviated in fourteen patients and partially alleviated in one. All patients were satisfied with the therapeutic effect. Conclusion We performed biomechanical analysis based on knee slight flexion and extension. Arthroscopy is an endoscope for the diagnosis and treatment of joint diseases. Semi-automated arthroscopic debridement is good for early and mid-term osteoarthritis with Lipoma arborescens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development, performance, and testing of the longitudinal bunch shape monitor, namely, the Fast Faraday Cup (FFC), are presented in this paper. The FFC is an invasive instrument controlled by a stepper motor, and its principle of operation is based on a strip line structure. The longitudinal bunch shape was determined by sampling a small part of the beam hitting the strip line through a 1-mm hole. The rise time of the detector reached 24 ps. To accommodate experiments that utilize high-intensity beams, the materials of the bunch shape monitor were chosen to sustain high temperatures. Water cooling was also integrated in the detector system to enhance heat transfer and prevent thermal damage. We also present an analysis of the heating caused by the beam. The bunch shape monitor has been installed and commissioned at the China ADS proton LINAC Injector II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) has been widely used for data collection of environment and natural resources. However, the randomness of its final sample size often impedes the use of this method. To control the final sample sizes, in this study, a -step ACS based on Horvitz-Thompson (HT) estimator was developed and an unbiased estimator was derived. The -step ACS-HT was assessed first using a simulated example and then using a real survey for numbers of plants for three species that were characterized by clustered and patchily spatial distributions. The effectiveness of this sampling design method was assessed in comparison with ACS Hansen-Hurwitz (ACS-HH) and ACS-HT estimators, and -step ACS-HT estimator. The effectiveness of using different -step sizes was also compared. The results showed that -step ACS-HT estimator was most effective and ACS-HH was the least. Moreover, stable sample mean and variance estimates could be obtained after a certain number of steps, but depending on plant species. -step ACS without replacement was slightly more effective than that with replacement. In -step ACS, the variance estimate of one-step ACS is much larger than other -step ACS (), but it is smaller than ACS. This implies that -step ACS is more effective than traditional ACS, besides, the final sample size can be controlled easily in population with big clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Glucose loaded ZIF-7@ZnG NPs were prepared. • A novel ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS/EP superhydrophobic coating was constructed by combining epoxy resin with ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS NPs. • The ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS/EP coating showed superior chemical stability and durability. • The ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS/EP coating exhibited excellent self-cleaning, anti-icing, anti-biofouling, and anti-corrosion property. Herein, zinc gluconate was used as zinc source to synthesize ZIF-7@ZnG nanoparticles (NPs), and modified with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane (PFDS) to obtain ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS superhydrophobic NPs. To improve the durability and wear resistance of superhydrophobic coating, epoxy resin (EP) was introduced as the connection layer to fabricate ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS/EP superhydrophobic coating. The results show that the fabricated coating exhibits superior hydrophobicity (CA = 164°, SA = 3.7°) and manifests excellent performance in self-cleaning, anti-icing, anti-biofouling and anti-corrosion. It is worth mentioning that after 36 days of immersion in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution, the impedance modulus of the coating is three orders of magnitude higher than that of EP coating. The result of wire beam electrode (WEB) confirms that ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS/EP coating has a self-healing property in the artificial damage area. Finally, the influence mechanism of ZIF-7@ZnG@PFDS nanoparticles on the corrosion process was discussed. We believe this work could provide a novel insight into the preparation and application of superhydrophobic coating based on MOFs material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical application of Pt-based anticancer drugs has inspired the development of novel chemotherapeutic metallodrugs with improved efficacies. Pt(IV) prodrugs are one of the most promising successors of Pt(II) drugs and have displayed great anticancer performance. In particular, judicious modification of axial ligands endows Pt(IV) complexes with unique properties that enable them to overcome the limitations of conventional Pt(II) drugs. Herein, we summarize recent developments in Pt(IV) anticancer complexes, with a focus on their axial functionalization with other anticancer agents, immunotherapeutic agents, photosensitive ligands, peptides, and theranostic agents. We hope that this concise view of recently reported Pt(IV) coordination complexes will help researchers to design next-generation multi-functional anticancer agents based on a comprehensive Pt(IV) platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-dimensional materials have a larger specific surface area and more active sites and are widely used in the design of hydrogen storage media. In this article, the hydrogen-storage properties of Li-decorated g-C 6 N 7 monolayer are investigated by the density functional theory. It is found that the g-C 6 N 7 monolayer possesses the thermodynamic and dynamic stability and the Li-decorated g-C 6 N 7 monolayer is also thermodynamically stable under 500 K. The calculation of the electronic structure reveals that covalent bonds are formed between C and N atoms and there are not only orbital interactions but also ionic bonds between Li atoms and the g-C 6 N 7 sheet. The hydrogen storage performance for the Li-doped g-C 6 N 7 sheet indicates that the storage capacity of hydrogen reaches 11.94 wt%, and the average adsorption energy of H 2 molecule is −0.145 ∼ −0.196 eV, which is attributed to electrostatic attraction, weak orbital interactions and van der Waals interaction. The value of the adsorption energy of H 2 molecule and the capacity of hydrogen storage reveal that the g-C 6 N 7 monolayer modified by Li atoms can be used as a reversible and promising hydrogen storage medium. [Display omitted] • The Li-doped C 6 N 7 is thermodynamically and kinetically stable due to the strong chemical bond. • The average adsorption energy is −0.145 ∼ −0.196 eV and the storage density reaches to 11.94 wt%. • The adsorption mechanism is attibuted to electrostatic, weak orbital and van der Waals interaction. • The Li decorated g-C 6 N 7 monolayer is a potential reversible hydrogen-storage material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The down-lead system allows the direct strokes to be conducted efficiently to the ground and plays a vital role in the lightning protection of transmission towers. In this paper, the feasibility of a cable as a down-lead for a 400 kV composite pylon with the 'Y' pattern is investigated from the perspectives of the electrical insulation and lightning performance. A 3D full-size model is built in COMSOL to study the electric field distribution inside of the pylon cross-arm. Meanwhile, two coaxial Fiber Reinforced Plastic tubes are used to resemble the structure of a cable passing through a hollow cross-arm. The corona inception electric field on the surface of the cable with different radii under AC 50 Hz applied voltage and the corona characteristics under switching overvoltage are analyzed. Based on experimental tests, the cable parameters are determined. Then, an electromagnetic transient model for the pylon down-lead system considering impulse corona effect has been built in PSCAD/EMTDC and the backflashover rate is obtained. Finally, the cable insulation strength under the transient overvoltage is validated by lightning test. The research shows that a cable with appropriate dimensions used as a down-lead can meet electrical insulation requirements and presents a good lightning performance. • The cable as a down-lead for a composite pylon is studied by simulation and experiments. • The relationship between corona power on cable surface and applied electric field intensity is obtained by experiments. • The Electromagnetic Transient model of the down-lead system is simulated to investigate the lightning performance of the pylon as well as the internal overvoltage of the cable. • Combined with the dielectric breakdown strength test and finite element simulation, the insulation strength of the cable is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Development of a simplified chemical reaction model for methane-hydrogen combustion. • Simplified model tested numerically and validated using methane combustion hot test. • Parametric combustion investigations on the concentration of hydrogen in methane. • Demonstration of reduced CO production from hybrid methane-hydrogen combustion. • Establishing optimal hydrogen concentration for use in domestic swirl gas stoves. Combustion of hybrid natural gas (methane) and hydrogen mixture in domestic swirl stoves has been characterized using hot-state experiments and numerical analysis. The detailed combustion mechanism of methane and hydrogen (GRI-Mech 3.0) has been simplified to obtain reduced number of chemical reactions involved (82 % reduction). The novel simplified combustion mechanism developed has been used to obtain combustion characteristics of hybrid methane-hydrogen mixture. The difference between the calculations from the detailed and the simplified mechanisms has been found to be <1 %. A numerical model, based on the simplified combustion model, is developed, rigorously tested and validated against hot-state tests. The results depict that the maximum difference in combustion zone's average temperature is <13 %. The investigations have then been extended to hybrid methane-hydrogen mixtures with varying volume fraction of hydrogen. The results show that for a mixture containing 15 % hydrogen, the release of CO due to combustion reduces by 25 %, while the combustion zone's average temperature reduces by 6.7 %. The numerical results and hot-state tests both confirm that the temperature remains stable when hybrid methane-hydrogen mixture is used in domestic swirl gas stoves, demonstrating its effectiveness in cooking processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic guidance and prompt information could induce the change of traffic states on road sections, and in turn the effects of these changes will be transited to their relative upstream and downstream sections, which lead to dynamic variations in traffic states of urban regional road networks. In this paper, the rule of dynamic transition in traffic state of urban road networks under the effect of traffic information is studied. Specifically, the hidden Markov model is selected to represent the dynamic transition process. Then Expectation Maximization (EM) Algorithm is presented for potential traffic state estimation. Finally, verification is carried out through simulation with Variable Message Sign (VMS) selected as the information release terminal and then a certain regional road network in Beijing is chosen as the study object. The results show that the model in this paper can describe transition process of road traffic state under the effect of VMS information, and also can be used for real-time traffic state estimation of urban road networks. The study has both theoretical and practical values in evaluation of service quality of traffic information and in making traffic dispersion and control strategies for traffic management department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A silica and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hybrid material mixed with a high density of silver ions is synthesised and characterized in this work. The hybrid material can be cast into thick films, which we determined to be homogeneous using Raman spectroscopy. We observed that the silver ions remain stable in the material over time and at temperatures of 100 °C, which represents a marked improvement over previous solid solutions of silver. Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis indicate the rapid activation of silver at 173 °C, resulting in a dense formation of silver nanoparticles within the hybrid. The activation of silver was also demonstrated in 3-dimensional geometries using femtosecond duration laser pulses. These results illustrate the silica-PVA hybrid is an attractive material for developing silver-insulator composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban road travel time is an important parameter to reflect the traffic flow state. Besides, it is one of the important parameters for the traffic management department to formulate guidance measures, provide traffic information service, and improve the efficiency of the detectors group. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the forecast accuracy of travel time in traffic management practice. Based on the analysis of the change-point and the ARIMA model, this paper constructs a model for the massive data collected by loop detectors to forecast travel time parameters. Firstly, the preprocessing algorithm for the data of loop detectors is given, and the calculating model of the travel time is studied. Secondly, a change-point detection algorithm is designed to classify the sequence of large number of travel time data items into several patterns. Then, this paper establishes a forecast model to forecast travel time in different patterns using the improved ARIMA model. At last, the model is verified by simulation and the verification results of several groups of examples show that the model has high accuracy and practicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dipole magnet vacuum chambers are among the most critical and costly components of rapid-cycling accelerator facilities. Alternative approaches to traditional ceramic chambers have been explored for the implementation of fast-ramping dipole-magnet vacuum chambers, including thin-wall metallic beam pipe chambers strengthened with transverse ribs and ceramic rings inside thin-walled chambers. Here, we report a novel 3D-printed titanium alloy cage inside the thin-wall vacuum chamber, which is designed for high-intensity heavy ion accelerator facility (HIAF) to reduce manufacturing difficulty and cost, shorten the production cycle, and improve the quality. Comprehensive studies were undertaken to characterize the impedance of the 3D-printed titanium alloy cage inside the thin-wall vacuum chamber. The beam-coupling impedance and eddy currents of the new thin-wall vacuum chamber were studied mostly numerically. Strategies for further reducing the beam-coupling impedance were explored. In addition, impedance bench measurements using the "half wavelength" resonant method were conducted to identify the longitudinal and transverse impedances of the 3D-printed titanium alloy cage inside the thin-wall vacuum chamber prototype experimentally. The simulated and measured results for the impedance were consistent. Furthermore, a campaign for resonance-check measurements on the 3D-printed titanium alloy ring loaded inside a thin-wall vacuum chamber prototype was launched. This novel thin-wall vacuum chamber structure is now entering the fabrication stage and will soon be ready for installation in the Booster Ring (BRing). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permutation flow-shop scheduling problems with many objectives have wide applications in the modern manufacturing domain such as the printed circuit board (PCB) industry. In this paper, an upgraded method called reinforcement cumulative prospect theory is proposed for solving many-objective permutation flow-shop scheduling problems. Reinforcement cumulative prospect theory is determined by two reference points, the improved prospect value function, and the entropy-based decision weight function. A novel many-objective optimization algorithm, namely, an optimal foraging algorithm based on the reinforcement cumulative prospect theory (OFA/RCPT), is presented. The comprehensive prospect value is used as the fitness strategy of the OFA/RCPT algorithm to guide the optimization process. The performance of the proposed algorithm is assessed by a comparison with nine state-of-the-art algorithms. Three classification experiments are carried out on six Walking-Fish-Group test cases, seven permutation flow-shop scheduling benchmark instances, and a practical permutation flow-shop scheduling problem in low-volume PCB manufacturing. For the experiment, four performance metrics are adopted, and the commercial software Quest is used to simulate a PCB production line. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better performance than the other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, K438 nickel-based high-temperature alloy was successfully prepared and heat-treated by selected laser melting (SLM). A comparative study of the microstructure and mechanical properties of different samples was carried out to reveal the influence of SLM process parameters and heat treatment. The layer-by-layer fabrication in SLM created a special sunflower-shaped dendrites and the extremely fast cooling rate resulted in a large number of low angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) and inhomogeneous γ' phases being found in the samples. After heat treatment, the orbital structure within the tissue disappeared and the coarse square γ' phase (0.4 to 0.8 μm) melted and precipitated fine rounded secondary γ' phases (0.05 μm). During recrystallisation, the LAGBs to high angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) transition occurs and many fine grain clusters appear at the grain boundaries, resulting in subcrystalline nucleation based on subcrystals and an increase in UTS. [Display omitted] • The selective laser melting was applied to prepare the K438 nickel-based high-temperature alloy. • Crack morphology and crack evolution patterns by VED were investigated. • The evolution of the microstructure, phase and carbides after heat treatment were investigated. • Probing the optimum VED and heat treatment regime for K438 alloy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a novel proximal support vector machine (PSVM), named ε -proximal support vector machine ( ε -PSVM), for binary classification. By introducing the ε -insensitive loss function instead of the quadratic loss function into PSVM, the proposed ε -PSVM has several improved advantages compared with the traditional PSVM: (1) It is sparse controlled by the parameter ε . (2) It is actually a kind of ε -support vector regression ( ε -SVR), the only difference here is that it takes the binary classification problem as a special kind of regression problem. (3) By weighting different sparseness parameter ε for each class, unbalanced problem can be solved successfully, furthermore, a useful choice of the parameter ε is proposed. (4) It can be solved efficiently for large scale problems by the Successive Over relaxation (SOR) technique. Experimental results on several benchmark datasets show the effectiveness of our method in sparseness, balance performance and classification accuracy, and therefore confirm the above conclusion further. At last, we also apply this new method to the vehicle recognition and the results show its efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments were designed, and experimental equipment was built, to study the characteristics of micro-bubble emission boiling (MEB) in water contacting a copper heating surface 10 mm in diameter. The behavior of bubbles on the heating surface was captured by a high-speed video camera. The results of these experiments indicated that after subcooling exceeded 25 K, MEB occurred and was accompanied by the emission of numerous extremely small bubbles. During the initial stage of MEB, two different bubble behaviors were observed: a film of vapor on the heating surface expanded and shrank periodically, emitting micro-bubbles, and the film of vapor expanded unevenly before condensing or collapsing into many micro-bubbles. During fully developed MEB, the film of vapor exhibited irregular changes at its surface and partially collapsed in several milliseconds. Nearly simultaneously, a new vapor film layer formed on the heating surface. MEB never occurred during water subcooling when the heating surface was embedded 0.5 mm within a ceramic thimble. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kitchen waste and tree branches are two of the most common solid waste materials suitable for on-site disposal. Quantification of combustion characteristics of these waste materials is vital for designing an appropriate incinerator. In this paper, the combustion characteristics of a mixture of kitchen waste and tree branches have been analyzed. As the theoretical basis for the design of incinerator arches is severely limited in the published literature, a novel momentum flux methodology for designing α-shaped flame arches has been developed for the disposal and combustion of two-component solid waste. For this purpose, orthogonal experimental design methodology has been employed for eight different operating conditions of the incinerator. The theoretical results have been verified by cold-state experiments, resulting in the development of a novel small-scale, α-shaped flame incinerator fueled with kitchen waste and tree branches. Cold-state experimental results show that the optimum dimensionless structural parameters of the furnace arches are H 1 /L of 0.3, H/L of 0.5 and h/L of 0.15, with the front arch angle of 45° and the rear arch angle of 12°. For full-scale validity and commercial viability of the novel incinerator, hot-state tests have been conducted in this study. [Display omitted] • A novel methodology for combustion characterization of two-component solid waste. • Thermogravimetric and Differential Thermal curves of two-component solid waste. • Theoretical guidelines for designing α-shaped flame horizontal grate incinerator. • Orthogonal cold-state experiments for most appropriate operating conditions. • Hot-state testing for commercial applicability of the novel incinerator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]