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In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven computer technology has become popular in many practical applications in the retail industry. In particular, the development of face recognition, mobile payment, cloud computing and other technologies has given birth to three new forms of consumption related to “unmanned retail”, i.e., unmanned convenience stores, unmanned vending machines and unmanned vending racks. Due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, the characteristics of unmanned retail such as intelligent operation, convenience and a lack of contact have allowed the public to gradually become used to this approach. An unmanned vending machine (UVM) can be reconfigured from a refrigerated cabinet for selling commodities such as beverages. It can take photos of the goods purchased by customers, and can recognize these commodities based on information from the collected images. However, some commercial UVMs are subject to strong restrictions on the types and placement of goods, making them difficult to achieve data collection and convenient operation. In this research, we therefore design a system for automated data collection and annotation. The mechanical structure of our system is designed to mimic the placement of drinks and the scene of each drink with other different types of drinks around it. We construct a large-scale benchmark dataset called UVM++, which is composed of several sub-datasets collected from different scenes. Extensive experimental results are presented and the performance of popular object detection methods on this task is examined. In particular, we perform an empirical study of cross-scene detection by various object detectors. Our findings suggest that the proposed data annotation system and the constructed benchmark dataset, UVM++, can be useful for performing various tasks in the environment of a UVM, thus driving development in the field of new retail.

The rapid development of e-commerce has significantly influenced consumer behavior, and online clothing purchases have been increasing. To effectively showcase clothing items to consumers, merchants often require high-quality fashion display images, which can be acquired by hiring human models for photography for a high cost. Leveraging the power of generative models, this study develops an automated generation framework called Mannequin2Real to translate mannequin images into photorealistic model images for fashion display purposes. The designed framework comprises two stages: model head generation and skin generation. In the head generation stage, the relevant features of the model head regions are first extracted and used as inputs to the head generation network, which is responsible for synthesizing a photorealistic head image. Subsequently, in the skin generation stage, the skin mask and pose features of a model body image are extracted and fed into the skin generation network, accomplishing the generation of photorealistic skin. Finally, the synthesized head region and skin region are combined to produce a photorealistic model image. To examine the effectiveness of our developed Mannequin2Real model, we first evaluated it on a high-resolution virtual try-on dataset. In addition, we constructed a dataset of images of mannequins captured in real-world scenarios. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach compared to other image generation algorithms.

NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) is a versatile FAD-dependent flavoprotein and a key regulator in the Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway. In this study, we cloned the NQO1gene of Litopenaeus vannamei(LvNQO1) and investigated its role in immune regulation. The results showed that the LvNQO1gene has an ORF of 987 bp, encoding 328 amino acids. The protein contains an NQO family domain. Homology and phylogenetic analysis revealed that LvNQO1shares similarities with the NQO1of Marsupenaeus japonicus, clustering into the same clade. LvNQO1was expressed in 10 tissues of L. vannamei, with the highest expression in the hepatopancreas and the lowest in the intestine. After RNA interference (RNAi) of LvNQO1, the expression of antioxidant genes (SODand GST) initially increased but then decreased after 24 h. The expression levels of Gpxand CATdecreased early on but gradually recovered. Immune-related factors (Toll4, JNK, and Hsp90) and apoptosis-related factors (Caspase3, P53, and bcl2) were upregulated. Following RNAi of LvNQO1, Vibrio harveyichallenge significantly increased the expression of immune factors (JNKand HIF1α) and apoptosis factors (Caspase3, P53, and bcl2) in the hepatopancreas. Toll 4receptors recognized the infection, upregulated their expression, and activated an immune response. RNAi of LvNQO1led to noticeable histological lesions and apoptosis. These findings suggest that LvNQO1may play a role in regulating antioxidant capacity, inflammation, and apoptosis in response to Vibrioinfection.

ABSTRACTRecommendations promoted worldwide have suggested a period of protection lasting more than 20 years against hepatitis B (HB) following primary immunization. Starting in 1987, universal HB vaccinations were carried out in Long An County, Guangxi Province, one of the earliest counties in which plasma-derived HB vaccine was delivered to newborns across China. Data collection targeted toward understanding the long term (26–33 years since primary immunization) immune effects of the plasma-derived HB vaccine was conducted in 2015; a second data collection was carried out in 2019 to assess seroconversion in the same cohort. This study qualitatively compared positive vs negative results and quantitatively assessed HB biomarkers – HB surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to HBsAg (anti-HBs), HB e-antigen (HBeAg), antibody to HBeAg (anti-HBe), and antibody to HB core antigen (anti-HBc) – in serum 26–33 years after the full initial course of HB vaccination, then analyzed anti-HBs seroconversion using the two-phase sampling method in the same cohort and calculated the anti-HBs seroconversion rate from 2015 to 2019. The protective sero-conversion rate (anti-HBs ≥10mIU/mL) was 37.6% (192/511); the HBsAg-positive rate was 5.3% (27/511); the anti-HBs mean geometric titer (GMT) was 11.1 mIU/mL. Among the 143 participants involved in both 2015 and 2019 data collections, the seroconversion rate was 3.5% (5/143); two individuals had protective anti-HBs levels in 2015. These findings indicate that anti-HBs status can be seroconverted to a protective concentration level 4 years earlier in a high HBV epidemic region. The role of genomic mutations and the disappearance of immune memory and seroconversion should be investigated.

Nanocomposites are a popular choice to improve the thermoelectric (TE) performance of materials by breaking the tradeoff among the TE parameters. However, the generation of depletion layers at the nanocomposite interfaces limits the improvement of the TE performance. This study employs carbon nanotube (CNT) and Au nanocomposites to solve this problem in evaporated ZnO:Al films assisted by a radio frequency atomic source. The results show that the carrier concentration and mobility are tuned individually by the CNT and Au nanocomposites. The conductivity increases by increasing the carrier concentration and mobility of the Au and CNT nanocomposites, respectively. The disappearance of the depletion layer at the CNT interface, eliminated by the substrate temperature, enhances the Seebeck coefficient and thereby doubles the power factor, which is 502.72 μW·m–1·K–2for the 300 °C-CNT-ZnO:Al film. The CNT composite has no effect on thermal conductivity. This results in the ZT improvement by 1.35 times (0.081 at 523 K). This nanocomposite method presents an effective and low-cost method to improve the ZT value of TE materials.

The morphology evolution and magnetic properties of Co films–native oxide Si (100) were investigated at 873, 973, and 1073 K in a high magnetic field of 11.5 T. Formation of Kirkendall voids in the Co films was found to cause morphology evolution due to the difference in diffusion flux of Co and Si atoms through the native oxide layer. The high magnetic fields had considerable effect on the morphology evolution by accelerating nanoscale Kirkendall effect. The diffusion mechanism in the presence of high magnetic fields was given to explain the increase of diffusion coefficient. The morphology evolution of Co films on native oxide Si (100) under high magnetic fields during annealing resulted in the magnetic properties variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We measured the contact angles of Al and Sn drops on polycrystalline Al 2 O 3 substrates in various high magnetic fields at different temperatures. The contact angles of both Al and Sn drops on the Al 2 O 3 substrates decreased under high magnetic fields. These decreases strongly depend on the temperature, magnetic flux density, magnetic properties of the metal drops, and the reactivity of the metal drops with Al 2 O 3. Our results reveal that the wetting behavior of molten metal drops on ceramics can be modified by a high magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we have explored half-Heusler RhVZ (Z ​= ​Si, Ge, Sn) with 18 valence electrons per unit cell within the Density Functional Theory (DFT). The structural, electronic, optical, thermoelectric, and phonon properties have been investigated. The structural properties such as lattice constant, bulk modulus, and pressure derivative of bulk modulus have been reported. All materials are semiconductors with a narrow bandgap as it is concluded from the electronic band structure, and the phonon dispersion approve the dynamical stability, meanwhile, the absorption coefficient is found to be around 104 ​cm−1in the visible region indicating that these materials can be used in Photovoltaic applications. The semi-classical Boltzmann transport equation used to calculate the thermoelectric characteristics and all materials under investigation show high performance in the p-type region due to the valence band degeneracy. The thermoelectric analysis provided show that the power factor of the materials lies on 3.12 ​× ​10−3, 3.26 ​× ​10−3, and 6.52 ​× ​10−3 ​W/msK2for RhVSi, RhVGe, and RhVSn respectively, the figure of merit ZT reaches the maximum value of 0.8 ​at room temperature indicating that those materials are suitable for thermo-generation application at near room temperature. However, we found that RhVSn is more suitable for thermoelectric applications with its high ZT values more than RhVSi, and RhVGe compounds.

Sulforaphane (SFN) is an antioxidant. Unsaturated fatty acids are rich in fish oil, and they are indispensable fatty acids for aquatic animals to grow and reproduce. However, fish oil is easily oxidized, which could have adverse effects on aquatic animals. In this study, Litopenaeus vannameiwas divided into four groups: fresh fish oil group (control group), oxidized fish oil group (OFO group), OFO plus low-concentration SFN group (OFO + SL group), and OFO plus high-concentration SFN group (OFO + SH group). A 28-day experiment was conducted, and the antioxidant capacity, inflammation, autophagy, and pathological characteristics were investigated to explore whether SFN could protect L. vannameifrom oxidative stress induced by OFO. Results showed that OFO significantly increased the contents of MDA in hepatopancreas, muscle and serum, while high concentrations of SFN significantly decreased the MDA compared with the OFO group (P < 0.05). OFO significantly affected the expression of SOD, CAT, GSTand HSP 70and increased the expression of inflammatory-related genes (TNFand spz). SFN downregulated the expression of TNFand spz, upregulate Nrf2, heat shock protein 70 (HSP 70) and autophagy genes (ATG4, ATG5, ATG10, and ATG12) and stabilized the expression of apoptosis-related genes (caspase 2, caspase 3, and JNK, P < 0.05). In addition, histological analysis of hepatopancreas showed that OFO led to cavitation in the lumen, and the existence of SFN reversed this phenomenon. OFO also result in the apoptosis of the hepatopancreas of L. vannamei, and the existence of high-concentration SFN reduced its apoptosis. In summary, SFN is involved in the regulation of antioxidant capacity, inflammation, autophagy, and apoptosis to alleviate the oxidative stress induced by OFO in L. vannamei.

The polycrystalline Co films with a thickness of 120 nm were deposited on the native oxide Si(100) substrate.

To enhance catalytic activity and durability for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR), we have fabricated bimetallic Pt–Fe catalysts on carbon fiber papers (denoted as Pt–Fe@CFP) by a facile chemical reduction method using iron as the precursor, ascorbic acid and sodium hypophosphite as the reductants, respectively. When ascorbic acid is using as the reductant, the Pt–Fe@CFP catalysts are composed of platinum and disordered Pt–Fe phases. The atomic ratio between Pt and Fe can be adjusted by altering deposition conditions. The Pt–Fe@CFP catalysts with Pt/Fe ratio of 1.1, which deposited with surfactant CTAB in bath at room temperature, exhibit excellent catalytic activity and stability in MOR. However, when sodium hypophosphite is employed as the reductant, the co-deposition of phosphorus would lead to a decreased catalytic performance in MOR.

Er3+/Nd3+co-doped and Er3+/Yb3+/Nd3+triple-doped Cs2Bi2Sr(P2O7)(PO4)2(CBSP) phosphors are prepared by solid state reaction, and upconversion luminescence (UCL) from visible to near infrared was investigated under 808, 980 and 1550 nm laser excitations, respectively. UCL of Er3+and Nd3+manifests thermal enhancement under 808, 980 and 1550 nm excitations, respectively, except for under 980 nm laser excitation, Er3+/Nd3+co-doped sample exhibits UCL thermal quenching of Er3+. This thermal enhancement phenomenon has been discussed and attributed to phonon-assisted energy transfer and electron thermal migration. The relative temperature sensitivities were calculated based on LIR technique under 980 and 1550 nm laser excitations, respectively. Under 1550 nm laser excitation, using second-harmonic generation (SHG) response improved the temperature sensitivity in high temperature range, and the two maximum sensitivities at low and high temperature are obtained as 0.0062 K-1at 484 K and 0.0111 K-1at 697 K; 0.0219 K-1at 303 K and 0.0097 K-1at 555 K for Er3+/Nd3+co-doped and Er3+/Yb3+/Nd3+triple-doped samples, respectively. UCL thermal enhancement and using SHG response provide a new approach for improving the sensitivity as optical thermometer under high temperature.

In this work uniform high magnetic field of up to 12 tesla and well-defined magnetic field gradients were in-situ applied during the electrodeposition process of CoFe alloy films on Si(100) substrate with Ni seed-layer. The evolution of morphology obtained by LSCM and AFM revealed that the electrodeposition under uniform or gradient magnetic fields provides advantage of forming high quality films with small grains size and low surface roughness. The X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the crystalline structure of the films changed with the increase of magnetic flux density from face-centered cubic (fcc) at 0 T to body-centered cubic (bcc) at 12 T. However, the formation of a mixture phase (fcc+bcc) under gradient magnetic fields reflected a negative effect of the field gradient force on the transformation from fcc phase to bcc phase. With increasing magnetic flux density (B), the saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercive force (Hc) of the films increased, while in the case of B = 12 T, both of Ms and Hc decreased. It could be ascribed to the changes in the chemical composition and the formation of the mixture phases, due to the combined effects of the paramagnetic force, micro-MHD and the field gradient force under different magnetic field conditions.

The nanocrystalline Fe64Ni36thin films were prepared by molecular-beam-vapor deposition under different magnetic flux densities. The microstructure and magnetic properties of thin films were examined by AFM, TEM, HRTEM and VSM. The results show that with the increase of magnetic flux densities, the changing trend of the average particle size is the same as the coercive force except 6 T. Under 6 T condition, the thin film became the mixture of bcc and fcc phases, which leads to slight increase of the coercive force. In addition, the HRTEM result shows the short-range ordered clusters (embryos) or nucleation rate of thin films increase with increasing magnetic flux densities.

Schwannomas are benign, encapsulated, peripheral nerve tumours that arise from the Schwann cell. Approximately 25%–45% of schwannomas occur in the head and neck. The most common site is the parapharyngeal space of the neck. However, schwannoma of the supraglottic oropharynx is rare.

Cu doped ZnO was prepared using the sol-gel method. Different techniques have been used to examine the effect of copper impurities on the physical characteristics of p-type ZnO. All the films are found to crystalize in the wurtzite structure and at 9 wt% of Cu, the preferential orientation was found to be along the (002) direction. The increase of Cu content leads to a morphological structure characterized by wrinkles. The surface roughness has been measured by AFM and varied between 31 and 50 nm. The UV–Visible analysis shows that the films are transparent in the visible range and the band gap was found to reduce until 3.03 eV with the highest transmittance was found in 9 wt% Cu. Hall-effect measurements indicate that all doped samples are p-type semiconductors. Vibrating sample magnetometer shows that all films exhibit room ferromagnetism with different behavior, a high amount of O vacancies leads to a reduced magnetism. It is therefore preferable to eliminate oxygen vacancies in order to favour high ferromagnetism p-type ZnO.

In order to study the purification effect of clean fresh air on PM2.5 in bedroom, the concentration distribution of PM2.5 in bedroom was numerically simulated using RNG k-e turbulence model based on DPM discrete phase model. In the case of severe haze, clean fresh air is introduced to meet the needs of indoor personnel. Aiming at two common types of airflow in the bedroom (same side/opposite side upper and lower back) and two different air supply speeds, studied the purification effect of fresh air on PM2.5. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the decrease rate of PM2.5 in the respiratory surface under the two inlet velocities. In the first 600s, the concentration of PM2.5 decreased by 75% with the inlet and outlet were on the same side, while the PM2.5 concentration decreased by 63% with the inlet and outlet were on the opposite side. The PM2.5 concentration distribution was more uniform when the inlet and outlet were on the same side than the opposite side. It is concluded that the air supply position has a greater influence on the purification effect than the air inlet velocity when the fresh air volume is constant. When the inlet and outlet were on the same side the introduction of the clean fresh air in the bedroom is more effective in purifying the PM2.5 than the opposite side.

To realize the application of Ni films in magnetic recording media, giant magnetoresistive sensors and microelectromechanical systems, it is necessary to control and improve the magnetic and electrical properties of the films. In this paper, Ni nanocrystalline films with different thicknesses and growth rates are prepared with or without a high magnetic field (HMF). The effects of a HMF on the growth, magnetic and electrical properties of the Ni films are studied. The results show that HMF changes the growth structure of the Ni films from disordered stacked grains to columnar growth along the direction of the HMF. The columnar growth becomes more prominent at a high growth rate and large film thickness. The HMF increases the grain size but decreases the surface roughness of the Ni films. Due to changes in the growth structure, grain size and film quality, the saturation magnetization of the Ni films increase markedly (by 89%), and the resistivity and coercivity significantly decrease (by 89 and 58%, respectively) by the HMF. The remanence ratio of the Ni films is controlled by the HMF. This study shows that a HMF effectively controls the growth and improves the magnetic and electrical properties of Ni films. A high magnetic field (HMF) is applied during the preparation of Ni nanocrystalline films. The growth structure of the Ni films is changed from disordered stacked grains to columnar growth by the HMF. The HMF increases saturation magnetization, and decreases resistivity and coercivity of the Ni films. Remanence ratio of the Ni films is also controlled by the HMF.

In this work uniform high magnetic field of up to 12 tesla and well-defined magnetic field gradients were in-situ applied during the electrodeposition process of CoFe alloy films on Si(100) substrate with Ni seed-layer. The evolution of morphology obtained by LSCM and AFM revealed that the electrodeposition under uniform or gradient magnetic fields provides advantage of forming high quality films with small grains size and low surface roughness. The X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the crystalline structure of the films changed with the increase of magnetic flux density from face-centered cubic (fcc) at 0 T to body-centered cubic (bcc) at 12 T. However, the formation of a mixture phase (fcc+bcc) under gradient magnetic fields reflected a negative effect of the field gradient force on the transformation from fcc phase to bcc phase. With increasing magnetic flux density (B), the saturation magnetization (Ms) and coercive force (Hc) of the films increased, while in the case of B = 12 T, both of Ms and Hc decreased. It could be ascribed to the changes in the chemical composition and the formation of the mixture phases, due to the combined effects of the paramagnetic force, micro-MHD and the field gradient force under different magnetic field conditions.