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Fixture layout is an essential factor in intelligent manufacturing in the shipbuilding industry, affecting assembly quality and efficiency. Its optimization has become an urgent problem in the assembly process of compliant parts. Traditional fixture layout depends on workers' experience, which leads to butt clearance along the assembly interface. Thus, this article proposes a butt clearance control-oriented fixture layout optimization (BCCFLO) methodology. First, a method for calculating the part dimensional variation under the influence of fixture layout and fixture locating error is developed. Then, a constrained multi-objective integer nonlinear programming (CMINP) model is innovatively formulated to optimize the fixture layout. Furthermore, the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II based on Latin hypercube sampling is designed to address the CMINP model. The case study illustrates and validates that the fixture layout achieved by the proposed method could significantly control the butt clearance for large compliant part assembly in the shipbuilding industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gliomas are the most prevalent primary malignant brain tumors worldwide. Growing evidences indicate that circular RNAs (circRNAs) play an important role in the regulation of biological behavior of tumors. We aimed to investigate the role and mechanism of circVCAN in glioma. RNase R treatment was utilized to assess the cyclic properties of circVCAN. CircVCAN, miR‐488‐3p, and myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) levels in glioma tissues and cells were detected by reverse transcription real‐time polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR), and the localization of them in glioma cells was determined with fluorescence in situ hybridization. Furthermore, a variety of biologically functional assessments were used to validate the role of circVCAN in glioma. The regulatory mechanisms of circVCAN, miR‐488‐3p, and MEF2C were further confirmed by double luciferase reporter gene assay, RNA immunoprecipitation and RNA pull‐down assay, and the binding of MEF2C to JAGGED1 was revealed by chromatin immunoprecipitation. Additionally, a xenograft tumor model was constructed to demonstrate the effect of circVCAN on tumor growth in vivo. Our results indicated that circVCAN was more stable than its linear RNA and was significantly upregulated in gliomas. CircVCAN overexpression stimulated glioma cells to proliferate and metastasize, but circVCAN silencing exerted the opposite effect. Meanwhile, silencing circVCAN inhibited tumor growth in vivo. Moreover, we found that circVCAN interacted with miR‐488‐3p to regulate MEF2C expression, and miR‐488‐3p inhibition or MEF2C overexpression reversed the inhibitory effect on malignant bio‐behaviors mediated by circVCAN knockdown in glioma cells. MEF2C promoted the transcription of JAGGED1, and circVCAN knockdown reduced the binding between MEF2C and JAGGED1. Collectively, circVCAN is a carcinogenic circRNA in glioma, and the circVCAN/miR‐488‐3p/MEF2C‐JAGGED1 axis could serve as a potential target for the management of glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photoinduced EnT-mediated generation of sulfonamidyl radicals has been accomplished using rationally designed iminophenylacetic acid oxime ester reagents under metal-free conditions. This approach offers a mild, regio- and diastereoselective synthesis of N-sulfonyl diamines via diamination of alkenes and (hetero)arenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the escalating global climatic challenges, hydrological risks significantly influence human settlement patterns, underscoring the imperative for an in-depth comprehension of hydrological change's ramifications on human migration. However, predominant research has been circumscribed to the national level. The study delves into the nonlinear effects of hydrological risks on migration dynamics in 46,776 global subnational units. Meanwhile, leveraging remote sensing, we procured globally consistent metrics of hydrological intrusion exposure, offering a holistic risk assessment encompassing hazard, exposure, and vulnerability dimensions, thus complementing previous work. Here, we show that exposure is the primary migration driver, surpassing socioeconomic factors. Surrounding disparities further intensified exposure's impact. Vulnerable groups, especially the economically disadvantaged and elderly, tend to remain in high-risk areas, with the former predominantly migrating within proximate vicinities. The nonlinear analysis delineates an S-shaped trajectory for hydrological exposure, transitioning from resistance to migration and culminating in entrapment, revealing dependence on settlement resilience and adaptability. Hydrological risks drive migration more than socioeconomic factors. Vulnerable groups often stay in high-risk areas or migrate nearby. The study reveals an S-shaped migration pattern influenced by settlement resilience and adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid advancement of computer vision, machine learning, and consumer electronics, eye tracking has emerged as a topic of increasing interest in recent years. It plays a key role across diverse domains including human–computer interaction, virtual reality, and clinical and healthcare applications. Near-eye tracking (NET) has recently been developed to possess encouraging features such as wearability, affordability, and interactivity. These features have drawn considerable attention in the health domain, as NET provides accessible solutions for long-term and continuous health monitoring and a comfortable and interactive user interface. Herein, this work offers an inaugural concise review of NET for health, encompassing approximately 70 related articles published over the past two decades and supplemented by an in-depth examination of 30 literatures from the preceding five years. This paper provides a concise analysis of health-related NET technologies from aspects of technical specifications, data processing workflows, and the practical advantages and limitations. In addition, the specific applications of NET are introduced and compared, revealing that NET is fairly influencing our lives and providing significant convenience in daily routines. Lastly, we summarize the current outcomes of NET and highlight the limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbes play a key role in the biology, ecology, and evolution of arthropods. Despite accumulating data on microbial communities in arthropods that feed on plants using piercing-sucking mouthparts, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the composition and assembly factors of the microbiota, particularly in field-collected spider mites. Here, we applied 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to investigate the characters of the bacterial community in 140 samples representing 420 mite individuals, belonging to eight Tetranychus species (Acari: Tetranychidae) collected from 26 sites in China. The results showed that the bacterial composition of spider mites varied significantly among different species, locations, and plants. The environment showed a significant influence on the bacterial community of spider mites, with different relative contributions. Latitude and precipitation were found to be the main factors influencing the bacterial community composition. The dissimilarity of bacterial community and geographical distance between mite locations were significantly correlated. The assembly of spider mite bacterial communities seemed to be mainly influenced by stochastic processes. Furthermore, the symbiont Cardinium was found to be important in shaping the microbiota of many Tetranychus species. The relative abundance of Cardinium was > 50% in T. viennensis, T. urticae G, T. urticae R, and T. turkestani. Removing Cardinium reads from our analysis significantly changed Shannon diversity index and weighted beta diversity in these species. Altogether, this study provides novel insights into bacterial diversity patterns that contribute to our knowledge of the symbiotic relationships between arthropods and their bacterial communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In2O3 is an effective electrocatalyst to convert CO2 to formic acid (HCOOH), but its inherent poor electrical conductivity limits the efficient charge transfer during the reaction. Additionally, the tendency of In2O3 particles to agglomerate during synthesis further limits the exposure of active sites. Here we address these issues by leveraging the template effect of graphene oxide and employing InBDC as a self-sacrificing template for the pyrolysis synthesis of In2O3@C. The resulting In2O3@C/rGO-600 material features In2O3@C nanocubes uniformly anchored on a support of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), significantly enhancing the active sites exposure. The conductive rGO network facilitates charge transfer during electrocatalysis, and the presence of oxygen vacancies generated during pyrolysis, combined with the strong electron-donating ability of rGO, enhances the adsorption and activation of CO2. In performance evaluation, In2O3@C/rGO-600 exhibits a remarkable HCOOH Faradaic efficiency exceeding 94.0% over a broad potential window of −0.7 to −1.0 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)), with the highest value of 97.9% at −0.9 V (vs. RHE) in a H-cell. Moreover, the material demonstrates an excellent cathodic energy efficiency of 71.6% at −0.7 V (vs. RHE). The study underscores the efficacy of uniformly anchoring metal oxide nanoparticles onto rGO for enhancing the electrocatalytic CO2 reduction performance of materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient operation of control systems in robotics or autonomous driving targeting real-world navigation scenarios requires perception methods that allow them to understand and adapt to unstructured environments with good accuracy, adaptation, and generality, similar to humans. To address this need, we present a memristor-based differential neuromorphic computing, perceptual signal processing, and online adaptation method providing neuromorphic style adaptation to external sensory stimuli. The adaptation ability and generality of this method are confirmed in two application scenarios: object grasping and autonomous driving. In the former, a robot hand realizes safe and stable grasping through fast (~ 1 ms) adaptation based on the tactile object features with a single memristor. In the latter, decision-making information of 10 unstructured environments in autonomous driving is extracted with an accuracy of 94% with a 40×25 memristor array. By mimicking human low-level perception mechanisms, the electronic neuromorphic circuit-based method achieves real-time adaptation and high-level reactions to unstructured environments. Perception methods that enable control systems to understand and adapt to unstructured environments are desired. Wang et. al. develop a memristor-based differential neuromorphic computing, perceptual signal processing, and online adaptation method providing neuromorphic style adaptation to external sensory stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work introduces a silent speech interface (SSI), proposing a few-layer graphene (FLG) strain sensing mechanism based on thorough cracks and AI-based self-adaptation capabilities that overcome the limitations of state-of-the-art technologies by simultaneously achieving high accuracy, high computational efficiency, and fast decoding speed while maintaining excellent user comfort. We demonstrate its application in a biocompatible textile-integrated ultrasensitive strain sensor embedded into a smart choker, which conforms to the user's throat. Thanks to the structure of ordered through cracks in the graphene-coated textile, the proposed strain gauge achieves a gauge factor of 317 with <5% strain, corresponding to a 420% improvement over existing textile strain sensors fabricated by printing and coating technologies reported to date. Its high sensitivity allows it to capture subtle throat movements, simplifying signal processing and enabling the use of a computationally efficient neural network. The resulting neural network, based on a one-dimensional convolutional model, reduces computational load by 90% while maintaining a remarkable 95.25% accuracy in speech decoding. The synergy in sensor design and neural network optimization offers a promising solution for practical, wearable SSI systems, paving the way for seamless, natural silent communication in diverse settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cadmium (Cd) water pollution threatens environmental systems and human health. Adsorption is the preferred method for purifying water bodies polluted by Cd, and the development of effective adsorption materials is critical. The performance of original phosphate rock powder (PRP) as an adsorption medium for purifying water bodies polluted by Cd was compared with that of phosphate rock powder modified with fulvic acid, chitosan, MnO2, and sulfhydryl, respectively, and their appearance and adsorption properties were investigated. The surface structures of all modified powders were rougher than the original, and their functional groups were richer. The greatest Cd2+ adsorption capacity, 1.88 mg g−1, was achieved with chitosan-modified PRP (CMPRP). This was 106.59% greater than that of PRP. The capacities of fulvic acid and MnO2 were 15.38% and 4.40% greater than that of the original, respectively. When the fulvic acid-modified PRP, CMPRP, and manganese dioxide PRP reached adsorption equilibrium, the removal rates of Cd2+ were 51.86%, 93.26%, and 46.70%, respectively. Moreover, the removal rate of Cd2+ by CMPRP was 104.43% higher than that of PRP. The main Cd2+ adsorption mechanisms for the MPRPs were electrostatic interactions, ion exchange, co-precipitation, and complexation. Moreover, the processing of the phosphate rock powder was straightforward, harmless to the environment, and could be effectively used for the removal of Cd. These results show that CMPRP is promising as a new adsorption material to treat Cd-contaminated water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narcissin is a natural flavonoid from some edible and traditional medicinal plants. It has been proven to have multiple biological functions and exhibits potential therapeutic effects on hypertension, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. However, the toxicity of narcissin is largely unknown. Here, we revealed that narcissin treatment led to reduced hatchability, increased malformation rate, shorter body length, and slowed blood flow in zebrafish. Furthermore, bradycardia, pericardial edema, increased SV‐BA distance, diminished stroke volume, ejection fraction, and ventricular short‐axis shortening rate were also found. A large accumulation of ROS, increased apoptotic cells, and histopathological changes were detected in the heart region. Moreover, the gene expression profiles and molecular docking analysis indicated that Nrf2/HO‐1 and calcium signaling pathways were involved in narcissin‐induced toxicity. In conclusion, here we provide the first evidence that demonstrates narcissin‐induced developmental toxicity and cardiotoxicity in zebrafish via Nrf2/HO‐1 and calcium signaling pathways for the first time. Narcissin is a natural flavonoid from some edible and traditional medicinal plants, while its toxicity is largely unknown. Here, we revealed that narcissin treatment led to reduced hatchability, increased malformation rate, shorter body length, slowed blood flow, and cardiodevelopmental toxicity in zebrafish. A large accumulation of ROS, increased apoptotic cells, and histopathological changes were detected in the heart region. Nrf2/HO‐1 and calcium signaling pathways were involved in narcissin‐induced toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: More than 90% of patients with diabetes worldwide are type 2 diabetes (T2D), which is caused by insulin resistance or impaired producing insulin by pancreatic β cells. T2D and its complications, mainly large cardiovascular (LCV) and kidney (Ne) complications, are the major cause of death in diabetes patients. Recently, the dysregulation of peripheral T cell immune homeostasis was found in most T2D patients. However, the characteristics of T-cell receptors (TCR) remain largely unexplored in T2D patients. Patients and methods: Here we investigated the TCR repertoire using high-throughput sequencing in peripheral blood collected from T2D patient with (8 LCV and 7 Ne) or without complications. Results: Our analysis of TCR repertoires in peripheral blood samples showed that TCR profiles in T2D patients with complications tended to be single and specific compared to controls, according to the characteristics of TCR repertoire in V-J combination number, diversity, principal component analysis (PCA) and differential genes. And we identified some differentially expressed V-J gene segments and amino acid clonotypes, which had the potential to contribute to distinguishing T2D patient with or without complications. As the progression of the disease, we found that the profiling of TCR repertoire was also differential between T2D patients with LVD and Ne complications base on this pilot analysis. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the protentional unique property of TCR repertoire in peripheral blood of T2D patient with and without complications, or T2D patients with LVD and Ne complications, which provided the possibility for future improvements in immune-related diagnosis and therapy for T2D complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under prolonged stress conditions, the tunnel surrounding rock produces a time-varying mechanical response, which poses a serious threat to the life cycle of the tunnel project. In this paper, a series of uniaxial compression tests were carried out on tunnel sandstone from Jiulongpo District using a self-developed rock servo instrument and acoustic emission (AE) testing system. Then, based on the theory of asymptotic damage evolution behaviour, different stress levels were set and multi-stage creep tests were conducted. The results show that the sandstone creep only exhibits a decelerated creep phase and a stabilised creep phase at the first three stress levels, while the accelerated creep phase is extremely obvious at the fourth stress level. The total number of acoustic emission events and total energy remained relatively constant in the stable creep stage, increased slightly in the decelerated creep stage, and increased significantly in the accelerated creep stage, and the distribution characteristics of the absolute energy of acoustic emission in different creep stages differed significantly. The probability density algorithm of the RA-AF scatterplot indicated that tensile cracks accounted for a larger proportion than shear cracks during the whole creep process. Finally, the constant parameters in the Burgers model were replaced by power-law functions with time-varying characteristics, and a nonlinear viscoplastic unit was introduced into the Burgers model to construct a nonlinear creep constitutive model that can describe the whole creep stage and has time-varying characteristics. The new model can quantitatively describe and predict the whole process of sandstone creep with high accuracy. The results are of great significance for monitoring and predicting the time-varying characteristics of tunnels and understanding the microscopic damage of sandstone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Implementing and integrating spiking neurons for neuromorphic hardware realization conforming to spiking neural networks holds great promise in enabling efficient learning and decision‐making. The spiking neurons, however, may lack the spiking dynamics to encode the dynamical information in complex real‐world problems. Herein, using filamentary memristors from solution‐processed hexagonal boron nitride, this study assembles leaky integrate‐and‐fire spiking neurons and, particularly, harnesses the common switching stochasticity feature in the memristors to allow key neural dynamics, including Poisson‐like spiking and adaptation. The neurons, with the dynamics fitted via hardware‐algorithm codesign, suggest a potential in realizing spike‐based neuromorphic hardware capable of handling complex problems. Simulation of an autoencoder for anomaly detection of time‐series real analog and digital data from physical systems is demonstrated, underscoring its promising prospect in applications, especially, at the edges with limited computation resources, for instance, auto‐pilot, manufacturing, wearables, and Internet of things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several cobalt(II) complexes Co1–Co3 bearing pyridine–oxime ligands (L1 = pyridine-2-aldoxime for Co1; L2 = 6-methylpyridine-2-aldoxime for Co2; L3 = phenyl-2-pyridylketoxime for Co3) and picolinaldehyde O-methyl oxime (L4)-supported Co4 were synthesized and well characterized by FT-IR, mass spectrum and elemental analysis. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction of complex Co2 reveals that the cobalt center of CoCl2 is coordinated with two 6-methylpyridine-2-aldoxime ligands binding with Npyridine and Noxime atoms, which feature a distorted octahedral structure. These Co complexes Co1–Co4 displayed extremely high activity toward isoprene polymerization upon activation with small amount of AlClEt2 in toluene, giving polyisoprene with high activity up to 16.3 × 105 (mol of Co)−1(h)−1. And, the generated polyisoprene displayed high molecular weights and narrow molecular distribution with a cis-1,4-enriched selectivity. The type of cobalt complexes, cocatalyst and reaction temperature all have effects on the polymerization activity but not on the microstructure of polymer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies with limited therapeutic targets available. CDR1as, an endogenous circular RNA with a closed loop structure, has been reported to be a crucial regulator and promising biomarker in various tumors. However, whether and how CDR1as participates in GC progression remains not well characterized. In this study, we explored the biological roles, the downstream molecular mechanism and the upstream regulator of CDR1as in GC. We found that CDR1as mediated by human antigen R (HuR) promotes GC growth through the miR-299-3p/TGIF1 axis, which provides new insights into GC pathogenesis and brings a new potential target for clinical GC therapy. Background: Gastric cancer (GC) remains a common malignancy worldwide with a limited understanding of the disease mechanisms. A novel circular RNA CDR1as has been recently reported to be a crucial regulator of human cancer. However, its biological role and mechanism in the GC growth are still far from clear. Methods: Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), lentivirus or plasmid vectors were applied for gene manipulation. The CDR1as effects on the GC growth were evaluated in CCK8 and colony formation assays, a flow cytometry analysis and mouse xenograft tumor models. A bioinformatics analysis combined with RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP), RNA pull-down assays, dual-luciferase reporter gene assays, Western blot, reverse transcription–quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and functional rescue experiments were used to identify the CDR1as target miRNA, the downstream target gene and its interaction with human antigen R (HuR). Results: The CDR1as overexpression promoted the GC growth in vitro and in vivo and reduced the apoptotic rate of GC cells. Its knockdown inhibited the GC cell proliferation and viability and increased the cell apoptotic rate. Proliferation-related proteins PCNA and Cyclin D1 and apoptosis-related proteins Bax, Bcl-2, Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 were regulated. Mechanically, the cytoplasmic CDR1as acted as a miR-299-3p sponge to relieve its suppressive effects on the GC cell growth. Oncogenic TGIF1 was a miR-299-3p downstream target gene that mediated the promotive effects of CDR1as and regulated the PCNA and Bax levels. HuR interacted with CDR1as via the RRM2 domain and positively regulated the CDR1as level and its oncogenic role as well as downstream target TGIF1. Conclusions: CDR1as promotes the GC growth through the HuR/CDR1as/miR-299-3p/TGIF1 axis and could be used as a new therapeutic target for GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With environmental and lifestyle changes, recent epidemiological studies have shown that the prevalence of Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is on the rise, while treatment options are limited. There is an urgent need to explore the underlying mechanisms of vitamin D (VD) as an effective treatment. Methods: Dextran sulfate sodium-induced mice and lipopolysaccharide-induced HCT116 cells were used to establish the classic UC models in vivo and in vitro, respectively. Typical symbols of inflammation (IL-6, COX-2), oxidative stress (MDA, MPO, GSH), and ferroptosis (ACSL4, GPX4, SLC7A11, and Iron) were analyzed by Western blot, Immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR, and relative assay kits. The inflammation factors and oxidative stress injury of cells transfected with ACSL4+/+ plasmids were tested by Western blot, MDA, and MPO methods. Results: Vitamin D attenuated the levels of COX-2, IL-6, Iron, MDA, and MPO and improved SOD1 and GSH contents in DSS + VD and LPS + VD groups, compared with model groups. Ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1) could relieve the levels of COX-2, IL-6, Iron, MDA, and MPO while increasing the contents of SOD1 and GSH in DSS + Fer-1 and LPS + Fer-1 compared to model groups. VD downregulated the expression of ACSL4 and upregulated GPX4 in tissues and cells. After transfected with ACSL4+/+ plasmids, we found VD's role of downregulating inflammation and oxidative stress was relieved. Conclusions: Vitamin D can relieve UC by inhibiting ferroptosis both in mice and in cells through the negative regulation of ACSL4, providing new insight into the therapeutic function of VD on UC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression induced by weightlessness exposure in spaceflight has seriously affected astronauts’ psychology and flight missions, but the preventive and treatment methods remain limited. Here, we used systems pharmacology to identify the potential bioactive compounds from Hippophae rhamnoides L. (HR) for treating depression caused by weightlessness. First, isorhamnetin was screened out as a potential drug in HR for treating depression. Further, the therapeutic effect of isorhamnetin was investigated in depression induced by weightlessness using the hindlimb unloading (HLU) rat model. We found that treatment with isorhamnetin notably shortened immobility time during forced swimming tests and tail suspension tests in HLU rats. The hematoxylin-eosin staining results revealed that isorhamnetin could ameliorate morphological damage to the hippocampus of HLU-induced rats. Moreover, exposure to HLU caused increased corticosterone (CORT) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) concentrations in serum. Administration with isorhamnetin for four weeks reduced the ACTH and CORT content in HLU rats. The 5-hydroxytryptamine and dopamine content in hippocampus were reduced in HLU rats, which were increased after isorhamnetin-treatment. Conclusively, isorhamnetin can alleviate the depression and hippocampus damage induced by weightlessness. Our study identified that isorhamnetin could be a natural bioactive drug for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, China's government has implemented many projects under its ecological compensation policy, including paying compensation fees for habitat creation to redress natural habitat losses caused by development. However, a critical evaluation of both the policy design and its ecological outcomes, has not previously been carried out. We assemble diverse data sources to provide the first evaluation of China's eco‐compensation policy and practice, identifying several challenges. In policy, the pricing of forest restoration fees is insufficient in several provinces, and there is no requirement for use of biodiversity metrics or for ecological equivalence of compensation and losses. In practice, only 23% of a sample of 31 developments applied quantitative biodiversity metrics, and fewer than 1% of China's local governments have disclosed information regarding compensation implementation. Thus, to improve the validity of its compensation policy and practice to better secure biodiversity, China may need to embrace higher compensation standards, having first prevented ecological losses where possible. Equally important, China may also need to improve compensation governance for data tracking and conservation effectiveness monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It remains a great challenge to engineer materials with strong and stable interactions for the simultaneously mechanical-robust and room temperature phosphorescence-efficient materials. In this work, we demonstrate a covalent cross-linking strategy to engineer mechanical-robust room temperature phosphorescence materials through the B–O click reaction between chromophores, polyvinyl alcohol matrix and inorganic layered double hydroxide nanosheets. Through the covalent cross-linkage between the organic polyvinyl alcohol and inorganic layered double hydroxide, a polymeric composite with ultralong lifetime up to 1.45 s is acquired based on the inhibited non-radiative transition of chromophores. Simultaneously, decent mechanical strength of 97.9 MPa can be realized for the composite materials due to the dissipated loading stress through the covalent-bond-accommodated interfacial interaction. These cross-linked composites also exhibit flexibility, processability, scalability and phosphorescence responses towards the mechanical deformation. It is anticipated that the proposed covalent click reaction could provide a platform for the design and modulation of composites with multi-functionality and long-term durability. Materials with room temperature phosphorescence that are mechanically robust are desirable, but can be challenging to obtain. Here, the authors report the combination of poly(vinyl alcohol) and chromophore molecules with layered double hydroxides for room temperature phosphorescent materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gait recognition is a biometric recognition technology, where the goal is to identify the subject by the subject's walking posture at a distance. However, a lot of redundant information in gait sequence will affect the performance of gait recognition, and the most existing gait recognition models are overly complicated and parameterized, which leads to the low efficiency in model training. Consequently, how to reduce the complexity of the model and eliminate redundant information effectively in gait have become a challenging problem in the field of gait recognition. In this paper, we present a residual structure based gait recognition model, short for ResGait, to learn the most discriminative changes of gait patterns. To eliminate redundant information in gait, the soft thresholding is inserted into the deep architectures as a nonlinear transformation layer to improve gait feature learning capability from the noised gait feature map. Moreover, each sample owns unique set of thresholds, making the proposed model suitable for different gait sequences with different redundant information. Furthermore, residual link is introduced to reduce the learning difficulties and alleviate computational costs in model training. Here, we train the network in terms of various scenarios and walking conditions, and the effectiveness of the method is validated through abundant experiments with various types of redundant information in gait. In comparison to the previous state-of-the-art works, experimental results on the common datasets, CASIA-B and OUMVLP-Pose, show that ResGait has higher recognition accuracy under various walking conditions and scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to enhance the thermal conductivity of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)‐based composites, while maintaining relatively low dielectric constant and dielectric loss for high‐frequency and high‐speed applications, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and silicon carbide (SiC) compounded fillers are filled into the PTFE matrix. The hBN/SiC/PTFE composites are prepared by pulse vibration molding (PVM), and their subsequent thermal conductivities are comparatively investigated. The PVM process with controlled fluctuation in pressure (1 Hz square wave force, 0–20 MPa, at 150 °C) can reduce the sample porosity and surface defects, improve the orientation of hBN, and increase the thermal conductivity by 44.6% compared with that obtained by compression molding. When hBN:SiC (vol) is 3:1, the in‐plane thermal conductivity of the composite with 40 vol% filler content is ≈4.83 W m−1 K−1, which is 40.3% higher than that of hBN/PTFE. Regarding the dielectric properties, hBN/SiC/PTFE maintains a low dielectric constant of 3.27 and a low dielectric loss of 0.0058. The dielectric constants of hBN/SiC/PTFE ternary composites are predicted by using different prediction models, among which the effective medium theory (EMT), is in good agreement with the experimental results. PVM shows great potential in the large‐scale preparation of thermal conductive composites for high‐frequency and high‐speed applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some chronic diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD), diabetic foot, flat foot, stroke, elderly falling, and knee osteoarthritis (KOA), are related to orthopedic organs, nerves, and muscles. The interaction of these three parts will generate a comprehensive result: gait. Furthermore, the lesions in these regions can produce abnormal gait features. Therefore, monitoring the gait features can assist medical professionals in the diagnosis and analysis of these diseases. Nowadays, various insole systems based on different sensing techniques have been developed to monitor gait and aid in medical research. Hence, a detailed review of insole systems and their applications in disease management can greatly benefit researchers working in the field of medical engineering. This essay is composed of the following sections: the essay firstly provides an overview of the sensing mechanisms and parameters of typical insole systems based on different sensing techniques. Then this essay respectively discusses the three stages of gait parameters pre-processing, respectively: pressure reconstruction, feature extraction, and data normalization. Then, the relationship between gait features and pathogenic mechanisms is discussed, along with the introduction of insole systems that aid in medical research; Finally, the current challenges and future trends in the development of insole systems are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chaos recognition is necessary to determine the prediction possibility for specific time series. In this paper, we attempt to seek a novel chaos recognition method based on the recurrent plot (RP) and the convolutional neural network (CNN). The RP can transform the time series into a two-dimensional image, which intuitively reflects the inherent nature of the time series. On the other hand, the CNN is powerful in pattern classification. In this way, the existing chaos recognition results can be unified in a general framework to form accumulated knowledge, which can be used to recognize novel dynamics. First, three major time series classes, namely chaotic, periodic and random ones generated from the classical dynamics, are represented by the RPs respectively. Then, these RPs are used as the dataset to train the residual neural network (ResNet). In this process, the transfer learning is used to speed up convergence. The chaos recognition precision can be up to 97.6%. Finally, different encoding methods and classification networks are used for comparative experiments, and the resultant ResNet is applied to the time series from a supercavitating vehicle motion and two hyperchaotic systems. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to maintain strong piezoelectric properties over a wide temperature range in (K,Na)NbO3 (KNN)‐based ceramics owing to the polymorphic phase boundary (PPB). Here, we propose advantageously utilizing the synergistic effect of crystal orientation and phase structure to address this issue. The 〈0 0 1〉pc textured (1 − x)(K0.48Na0.52)(Nb0.96Sb0.04)O3–x(Bi0.5Ag0.5)ZrO3 (KNNS–xBAZ) ceramics with different phase structures were synthesized via the templated grain growth method. A high piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of 505 ± 25 pC/N, an electric field‐induced strain of 0.21%, and a superior temperature stability (d33 exhibited a high retention of ≥78% at the temperature up to 200°C; strain maintained within 5.7% change over a temperature range of 30–150°C) were simultaneously achieved in textured KNNS–0.03BAZ ceramics. The flattened Gibbs free energy induced by the R–O–T multiphase coexistence, the strong anisotropy of crystals, and the abundant nanodomains contributed to the enhanced piezoelectric properties. The contribution of the strong anisotropy of crystals in 〈0 0 1〉pc textured ceramics compensates for the deterioration of the piezoelectric properties caused by the phase structure deviation from the PPB with increasing temperature, which benefits the superior temperature stability of the textured KNNS–0.03BAZ ceramics. The previous merits prove that utilizing the synergistic effect of crystal orientation and phase structure is an effective strategy to boost the piezoelectricity and their temperature stability of KNN‐based ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new prenylated indole alkaloid—Penicimutamide C N-oxide (1), a new alkaloid penicimutamine A (2), along with six known alkaloids were isolated from an endophytic fungus Pallidocercospora crystallina. A simple and accurate method was used to determine the N-O bond in the N-oxide group of 1. By using a β-cell ablation diabetic zebrafish model, compounds 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 showed significantly hypoglycemic activities under the concentration of 10 μM. Further studies revealed that compounds 1 and 8 lowered the glucose level through promoting glucose uptake in zebrafish. In addition, all eight compounds showed no acute toxicity, teratogenicity, nor vascular toxicity in zebrafish under the concentrations range from 2.5 μΜ to 40 μM. Importantly, these results provide new lead compounds for the development of antidiabetes strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In terms of developing supercritical CO2 (sCO2) coal-fired power plants, enhancing cooling wall performance is one of significant factors to improve system performance. In this paper, a new cooling wall tube structure is proposed to match the non-uniform heat flux (NUH) with the thermal resistance by changing the cooling wall tube eccentricity. A three-dimensional multi-physical coupling model of cooling wall is constructed to compare the novel structure to the conventional structures. The properties of fluid dynamics, thermal stress, coupled heat transfer and cooling wall deformation are analyzed. In contrast to the traditional structure, the maximum temperature and circumferential temperature difference (CTD) of the proposed structure can be reduced by 2% and 27.4%, respectively. The essential working parameters related to the performances of the cooling wall tube are discussed. The maximum temperature of the new structure is reduced by 8–13 K and the maximum thermal stress is reduced by about 10%–15% under all the simulated working conditions when the eccentricity changes from 0 to 0.2. The proposed structure can effectively reduce the maximum temperature and circumferential temperature gradient under NUH. Consequently, a novel insight is put out for the design and optimization of the cooling wall tube in coal-fired power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is extremely important to monitor the health status of welding robots for the safe and stable operation of a body-in-white (BIW) welding production line. In the actual production process, the robot degradation rate is slow and the effective data are poor, which can reflect a degradation state in the large amount of obtained monitoring data, which causes difficulties in health status evaluation. In order to realize the accurate evaluation of the health status of welding robots, this paper proposes a health status evaluation method based on the evidential reasoning (ER) rule, which reflects the health status of welding robots by using the running state data monitored in actual engineering and through the qualitative knowledge of experts, which makes up for the lack of effective data. In the ER rule evaluation model, the covariance matrix adaptive evolutionary strategy (CMA-ES) algorithm is used to optimize the initial parameters of the evaluation model, which improved the accuracy of health status evaluations. Finally, a BIW welding robot was taken as an example for verification. The results show that the proposed model is able to accurately estimate the health status of the welding robot by using the monitored degradation data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tactile sensors capable of quantifying mechanical stimuli through physical contact play a pivotal role in healthcare, prosthetics, and humanoid robotics. To enable conformal contact with objects of different surface morphologies, tactile sensors with high mechanical flexibility are extensively explored. Despite recent advances, most of the currently available flexible tactile sensors are based on electrical properties of functional materials, which often suffer from intrinsic limitations such as hysteresis, parasitic effects and electromagnetic interference. Herein, a flexible optical tactile sensor is presented by harnessing the unique optical properties of a soft and plasmonic optical fiber, made from composites of gold nanoparticles and elastomers. The tactile sensor is constructed by assembling the nanocomposite fiber in a sandwich structure, where sensitive and instantaneous sensing of contact force with high precision, low hysteresis, and tunable sensitivity is achieved by transducing mechanical stimuli into interpretable light signals. As demonstrations of its potential, the tactile sensor is utilized for real‐time monitoring of blood pressure, respiration, as well as providing tactile mapping of diverse hand motions. To further verify the feasibility of mimicking tactile perception of human skin, the proposed sensors integrated onto a robotic hand are demonstrated to perceive hardness, roughness, and shape of objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferroptosis is characterized by excessive accumulation of iron and lipid peroxides, which are involved in ischemia, reperfusion-induced organ injury, and stroke. Propofol, an anesthetic agent, has neuroprotective effects due to its potent antioxidant, anti-ischemic, and anti-inflammatory properties. However, the relationship between propofol and ferroptosis is still unclear. In the current study, we elucidated the role of ferroptosis in the neuroprotective effect of propofol in mouse brains subjected to cerebral ischemia reperfusion injury (CIRI). Ferroptosis was confirmed by Western blotting assays, transmission electron microscopy, and glutathione assays. Propofol regulated Nrf2/Gpx4 signaling, enhanced antioxidant potential, inhibited the accumulation of lipid peroxides in CIRI-affected neurons, and significantly reversed CIRI-induced ferroptosis. Additionally, Gpx4 inhibitor RSL3 and Nrf2 inhibitor ML385 attenuated the effects of propofol on antioxidant capacity, lipid peroxidation, and ferroptosis in CIRI-affected neurons. Our data support a protective role of propofol against ferroptosis as a cause of cell death in mice with CIRI. Propofol protected against CIRI-induced ferroptosis partly by regulating the Nrf2/Gpx4 signaling pathway. These findings may contribute to the development of future therapies targeting ferroptosis induced by CIRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the spatial density and quality of measurement points in multitemporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar, distributed scatterers (DSs) should be processed. An essential procedure in DS interferometry is phase estimation, which reconstructs a consistent phase series from all available interferograms. Influenced by the well-known suboptimality of coherence estimation, the performance of the state-of-the-art phase estimation algorithms is severely degraded. Previous research has addressed this problem by introducing the coherence bias correction technique. However, the precision of phase estimation is still insufficient because of the limited correction capabilities. In this paper, a modified phase estimation approach is proposed. Particularly, by incorporating the information on both interferometric coherence and the number of looks, a significant bias correction to each element of the coherence magnitude matrix is achieved. The bias-corrected coherence matrix is combined with advanced statistically homogeneous pixel selection and time series phase optimization algorithms to obtain the optimal phase series. Both the simulated and Sentinel-1 real data sets are used to demonstrate the superiority of this proposed approach over the traditional phase estimation algorithms. Specifically, the coherence bias can be corrected with considerable accuracy by the proposed scheme. The mean bias of coherence magnitude is reduced by more than 29%, and the standard deviation is reduced by more than 18% over the existing bias correction method. The proposed approach achieves higher accuracy than the current methods over the reconstructed phase series, including smoother interferometric phases and fewer outliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The memristor is a resistive switch where its resistive state is programable based on the applied voltage or current. Memristive devices are thus capable of storing and computing information simultaneously, breaking the Von Neumann bottleneck. Since the first nanomemristor made by Hewlett‐Packard in 2008, advances so far have enabled nanostructured, low‐power, high‐durability devices that exhibit superior performance over conventional CMOS devices. Herein, the development of memristors based on different physical mechanisms is reviewed. In particular, device stability, integration density, power consumption, switching speed, retention, and endurance of memristors, that are crucial for neuromorphic computing, are discussed in detail. An overview of various neural networks with a focus on building a memristor‐based spike neural network neuromorphic computing system is then provided. Finally, the existing issues and challenges in implementing such neuromorphic computing systems are analyzed, and an outlook for brain‐like computing is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water cadmium (Cd) pollution has widely aroused concerns due to high Cd toxicity in water bodies and its serious health risks to humans. Adsorption has been identified as an effective and widely utilized technology for water purification with heavy metal pollution. To develop a newly identified adsorbent of modified zeolite that can easily and effectively purify Cd-polluted water, NaOH modification (JZ), high-temperature modification (HZ), humic acid modification (FZ), Na2S modification (SZ), and ultrasonic modification (CZ) zeolites were developed, and their appearances and adsorption and desorption characteristics were investigated. The results showed that the adsorption capacity of Cd by JZ and SZ were improved by 68.87% and 32.06%, respectively, relative to that by natural zeolite (NZ); however, HZ, FZ, and CZ decreased the adsorption capacity. JZ had a higher adsorption capacity than SZ and could remove 99.90% Cd at an initial concentration of 100 mg/L. The dominant adsorption mechanism of Cd by JZ was the chemisorption of the monolayer. The preferred temperature and pH that enhanced Cd adsorption by JZ were 25–35 °C and 4–8, respectively. With an equilibrium adsorption capacity of 9.37–9.74 mg/g at an initial concentration of 280 mg/L, JZ reached its maximum saturated adsorption capacity; compared with SZ and NZ, the adsorption capacity increase was 27.83–68.81%. The R2 fitted by JZ's Langmuir model and quasi-second-order dynamics model were both above 0.93. In summary, JZ was recognized as a novel absorbent for Cd-polluted water purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanoid robots, intelligent machines resembling the human body in shape and functions, cannot only replace humans to complete services and dangerous tasks but also deepen the own understanding of the human body in the mimicking process. Nowadays, attaching a large number of sensors to obtain more sensory information and efficient computation is the development trend for humanoid robots. Nevertheless, due to the constraints of von Neumann‐based structures, humanoid robots are facing multiple challenges, including tremendous energy consumption, latency bottlenecks, and the lack of bionic properties. Memristors, featured with high similarity to the biological elements, play an important role in mimicking the biological nervous system. The memristor‐based nervous system allows humanoid robots to obtain high energy efficiency and bionic sensing properties, which are similar properties to the biological nervous system. Herein, this article first reviews the biological nervous system and memristor‐based nervous system thoroughly, including the structures and also the functions. The applications of memristor‐based nervous systems are introduced, the difficulties that need to be overcome are put forward, and future development prospects are also discussed. This review can hopefully provide an evolutionary perspective on humanoid robots and memristor‐based nervous systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. A 3-month depot of leuprorelin acetate (LA) was introduced in China in July 2020. However, the clinical experience is limited. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of a LA 11.25 mg 3-month depot with that of a 3.75 mg 1-month depot in suppressing pubertal development for the treatment of central precocious puberty (CPP). Subjects and Methods. A prospective study, including 78 girls with CPP treated with LA, was conducted. 31 patients were treated with a LA 3-month depot, and 47 were treated with a LA 1-month depot. Participants were interviewed at baseline and 6 months. Anthropometric, metabolic, and reproductive data were assessed at each interview. Bone age, serum endocrine hormones, maximum diameter of uterus and volume of ovary of each patient were evaluated. A pharmacoeconomic evaluation was also conducted. Results. Treatment with a 3-month depot was similar to treatment with a 1-month depot in terms of baseline characteristics. After 6 months of treatment, a suppressed level of luteinizing hormone (LH) (LH < 2.5 IU/L) was found in 100% and 95% of the 11.25 mg and 3.75 mg groups, respectively. LH decreased from 2.11 ± 1.83 and 2.82 ± 2.31 at baseline (P = 0.172) to 0.37 ± 0.39 and 0.44 ± 0.76 (P = 0.758) in the 3-month and 1-month groups, respectively. Follicle stimulating hormone and estradiol levels, bone age/chronological age (BA/CA), height velocity, maximum diameter of uterus and volume of ovary did not show any distinction between the two groups after 6 months of treatment, but both were significantly ameliorated compared with the baseline. The loss of working time of parents and study time of patients and the numbers of visits, injections and laboratory examinations obviously decreased in the 3-month depots. Conclusion. An LA 3-month depot was equally effective and safe as a 1-month depot for hormonal suppression and bone maturation inhibition, providing clinical experience in China. The 11.25 mg depot of LA is a safe, efficient, and economical treatment method for the advanced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical nitrate (NO3−) reduction emerges as a promising strategy to maintain the balance of the global nitrogen cycle and an alternative to nitrogen electroreduction for ambient ammonia (NH3) synthesis. However, the complicated multiple-electron transfer process of NO3−-to-NH3 conversion demands catalysts with high selectivity for NH3 production. Herein, CoS2 nanoparticle decorated TiO2 nanobelt array on a titanium plate (CoS2@TiO2/TP) is reported as a superb electrocatalyst for the NO3− reduction reaction. In 0.1 M NaOH containing 0.1 M NO3−, CoS2@TiO2/TP offers a large NH3 yield of 538.21 μmol h−1 cm−2 at −0.7 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a high faradaic efficiency of 92.80% at −0.5 V vs. RHE. Additionally, it also shows strong stability for the 20 h electrolysis test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Downy mildew is a major threat to the economic value of spinach. The most effective approach to managing spinach downy mildew is breeding cultivars with resistance genes. The resistance allele RPF2 is effective against races 1–10 and 15 of Peronospora farinosa f. sp. Spinaciae (P. effusa) and is widely used as a resistance gene. However, the gene and the linked marker of RPF2 remain unclear, which limit its utilization. Herein, we located the RPF2 gene in a 0.61 Mb region using a BC1 population derived from Sp39 (rr) and Sp62 (RR) cultivars via kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP) markers. Within this region, only one R gene, Spo12821, was identified based on annotation information. The amino acid sequence analysis showed that there were large differences in the length of the LRR domain between the parents. Additionally, a molecular marker, RPF2-IN12821, was developed based on the sequence variation in the Spo12821, and the evaluation in the BC1 population produced a 100% match with resistance/susceptibility. The finding of the study could be valuable for improving our understanding of the genetic basis of resistance against the downy mildew pathogen and breeding resistance lines in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the characteristics of 18F-S16 PET imaging in brain tissue of patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and the correlation between tau protein deposition and glucose metabolism pattern. Methods A total of 12 bvFTD patients and 10 controls with normal cognitive function treated in Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from January 2020 to October 2021 were included, and all of them underwent 18F-S16 PET and 18F-FDG PET. The difference of 18F-S16 and 18F-FDG uptake between bvFTD group and control group was compared by voxel-based analysis (VBA). The 18F-S16 and 18F-FDG standard uptake value rate (SUVR) of 2 groups were compared by semi- quantitative analysis. The 18F - S16 uptake rate of 2 groups was observed by visual analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the whole-brain spatial correlation of 18F-S16 and 18F-FDG tracers and the correlation of uptake levels in each region of interest (ROI). Results VBA method showed the uptake of 18F-S16 increased in the right superior frontal gyrus, bilateral middle frontal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral anterior central gyrus, bilateral middle temporal gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, right posterior central gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule in bvFTD patients (P < 0.01, for all, FWE correction, pixel threshold = 50). The uptake of 18F-FDG in bilateral superior frontal gyrus, bilateral middle frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus and right insula decreased in bvFTD patients (P = 0.000, for all, FWE correction, pixel threshold = 50). The overlaps were mainly located in the right superior frontal gyrus, bilateral middle frontal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus. Semi - quantitative analysis showed the SUVR value of tau protein in bilateral frontal lobe (P = 0.000), parietal lobe (P = 0.015) and precuneus (P = 0.000) in bvFTD group was higher than that in control group, and the SUVR value of glucose in bilateral frontal lobe was lower than that in control group (P = 0.002). Pearson correlation analysis showed the whole-brain spatial correlation between 18F-S16 and 18F-FDG was weak in bvFTD patients (r = 0.050, P = 0.000). In bvFTD patients, only bilateral frontal tau SUVR was negatively correlated with glucose SUVR (r = - 0.702, P = 0.011). Visual analysis of 18F-S16 PET showed increased uptake in bilateral frontal, parietal, precuneus, and hippocampus in bvFTD patients. Conclusions 18F-S16 PET can reflect the characteristic of tau protein deposition and its correlation with glucose metabolic pattern in bvFTD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the mainstream radar sensors are difficult to meet the demands of the light-weighted and small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which usually need high cost of data acquisition and complicate models of algorithm. A highly integrated, lightweight and reliable radar system is deigned, which can be carried on the light-weighted and small UAV. Based on this system, a novel method has been developed for vegetation height information inversion. The inversion algorithm suppress the direct coupled wave by two-dimensional filtering, settle the unstable selection of principle component by the adaptive principle component analysis denoting method with residual image entropy, further enhance the target signal by the back-projection algorithm based on cross-correlation information and finally extract the vegetation height by implementing Sobel operator. The experiment results show that the correlation between the vegetation height derived from the proposed method and the verified data is 0. 92, and the root mean square error is 1. 28 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using supercritical CO2 (S-CO2) instead of water steam as heat transfer fluid for coal-fired power plants is another way to further improve the power generation efficiency. In this paper, a multi-field coupling model that integrates fluid flow, heat transfer and thermal stress is proposed to solve the complex problem. The effects of the key operating parameters on the performances of the cooling wall are numerically investigated. More details of the characteristics of fluid dynamics, thermal stress, pressure drop, coupled heat transfer and the whole flow and temperature fields in the S-CO2 cooling wall are revealed and discussed. A comparison study is made between the cooling wall tube and waterwall tube. Both temperature and thermal deformations of cooling wall tube are much higher than that of water. Numerical simulation results indicate that inclination angle has little effects on the temperature distribution, while increase of pressure drop is obvious as the inclination angle increases. Increasing tube diameter can effectively reduce both the pressure drop and the temperature of the cooling wall tube. As a result, a new insight is introduced for the design of S-CO2 power cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive characterisation of the pore structure in shale oil reservoirs is essential for forecasting oil production and exploration risks. This study forecasted these risks in the oil-rich Songliao Basin using combination of high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscopy and quantitative X-ray diffraction to analyze the pore genesis and evolution mode within the first member of the Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation (K2qn1). The results showed the dominance of inorganic pores over organic pores, wherein diagenetic processes, such as compaction, pressure solution, and cementation, were responsible for the destruction of pore structure in the formation. Notably, the pores formed by dissolution and shrinkage cracks resulting from clay mineral transformation improved the oil storage space. Furthermore, according to the geochemical data and clay composition, the K2qn1 shale is in the middle diagenetic stage A, which can be further subdivided into A1 and A2 stages from top to bottom. The porosity slowly decreased in both sub-stages A1 and A2, wherein the decrease was stable in the latter. The diagenetic observations in this study are significant for the exploration of unconventional shale oil in petroliferous basins worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, electronic devices are taking over the market and touch panel is a necessary part, among which capacitive touch panel has greater development potential and development space because of its high transparency, multitouch support and low cost. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a technology with the goal of reconstructing tissue image with impedance distribution, which can realize the goal of accurate measurement and maintaining the original characteristics of the medium to the greatest extent at the same time. In this paper, we use EIT‐based approach to achieve a large area touch perception imaging system with high light transmittance, which is to obtain the distribution of the permittivity of the touch penal by just detecting the impedance of the electrode scattered around the panel. We use Sensitivity theory to solve the mapping problem between the permittivity distribution and the signal collected by the electrode in the EIT problem. Besides, we innovatively combine LBP with Landweber algorithm to achieve high precision and fast imaging of touch area, which greatly reduces the discomfort caused by inverse problem in EIT method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the advantages of high Curie temperature and environment-friendly nature of KNN piezoelectric ceramics, the limitation of weak piezoelectric response and their temperature sensitivity to applications is worth exploring. Herein, the <001> textured (1- x)(K 0. 5 Na 0. 5 )(Nb 0. 9 6 Sb 0. 0 4 )O3- x (Bi 0. 5 Na 0. 5 )HfO3(x = 0.01−0.045) lead-free ceramics were synthesized by templated grain-growth method. The high piezoelectric performance (d 3 3 of 474 pC/N and strain of 0.21%) and excellent temperature stability (unipolar strain maintained within 4.3% change between 30 ∘ C and 165 ∘ C) were simultaneously achieved in the textured KNNS-0.03BNH ceramics. The high piezoelectric performance can be attributed to the summation of the crystallographic anisotropy and phase structure contributions in <001> textured ceramics. The superior temperature stability of piezoelectric properties can be interpreted by the contribution of crystal anisotropy to piezoelectric properties reduces the effect of phase transition on piezoelectric properties deterioration. This study provides an effective strategy for simultaneously achieving high piezoelectric properties and superior temperature stability in KNN-based textured ceramics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The removal of three inverted triangular parallel cannulated screws after the femoral neck fracture healing is sometimes accompanied by osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) or its refracture. The purpose of this study was to determine the biomechanical changes of the femur before and after the screw removal using a finite element analysis.Methods: The CT data of the femurs were obtained from a 69-year-old healthy female to establish the femur models. The established finite element models consisted of N, C, and R groups: N group, the normal femur; C group (to simulate the femoral neck fracture healing after the internal fixation), the normal femur with three inverted triangular parallel cannulated screws (C1) or with two upper parallel screws (C2). For the R1 or R2 groups, the screws in the model of the C1 or C2 individuals were gradually removed in seven or three types of different screw combinations, respectively. The stresses and displacements of the femur were determined.Results: (1) Compared with the N group, a uniform stress distribution was stopped by the addition of three screws in the C1 group; in contrast, all screw removals resulted in the stress concentration on the screw holes and the disappearance of stress shielding. Moreover, the average stress of the femoral head in C1 group increased by 37.85%, while that of the femoral neck decreased by 23.03%. (2) Compared with the C1 group, while only the lowest femoral calcar screw was removed, there was a similar stress distribution in the proximal femur, and the average stress of the femoral head increased only by 0.35% although that of the femoral neck increased by 63.62%; however, removal by any other means resulted in a significant stress concentration in the proximal femur and a significant increase in the average stresses of the femoral head and neck (5.96-40.95% and 12.82-75.46%, respectively). (3) Compared with the N or C1 group, there was a significant stress concentration on the screws and its surrounding proximal femur in the C2 group. (4) Compared with the C2 group, the simultaneous removal of two upper screws not only did not cause a significant stress concentration on the proximal femur but also significantly reduced the average stresses of the femoral head and neck by 87.49% and 65.51% respectively. On the contrary, the gradual removal of two screws caused a significant stress concentration on the screw and its surrounding proximal femur although the average stresses of the femoral head and neck decreased by 88.79-89.06% and 67.00-67.22%, respectively. (5) Compared with the N group, the average displacements of the femoral head and neck in the C1 group increased only by 3.12% and 3.37%, respectively. Additionally, compared with the C1 group, while three, two, or one screw was simultaneously removed, the average displacements of the femoral head and neck only fluctuated - 5.51-1.65% and 1.78-9.03%, respectively.Conclusions: Residual internal fixation after femoral neck fracture healing may lead to stress concentration on screws and stress shielding around screws. The first removal of the lowest femoral calcar screw and then the second removal of two upper residual screws have a minimum effect on the stress concentration on the proximal femur and the average stress on the femoral head. The incorrect screw removal and resulting femoral load may well be closely related to occurrence in ONFH or its refracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]