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Melatonin exhibits potential for pain relief and long‐term safety profile. We examined the analgesic effects of oral melatonin on osteoarthritis (OA) and investigated the underlying mechanism. Using data from a UK primary care database, we conducted a cohort study in individuals with OA to compare the number of oral analgesic prescriptions and the risk of knee/hip replacement between melatonin initiators and hypnotic benzodiazepines (i.e., active comparator) initiators using quantile regression models and Cox‐proportional hazard models, respectively. To elucidate causation, we examined the effects of melatonin on pain behaviors and explored several metabolites that may serve as potential regulatory agents of melatonin in the monoiodoacetate rat model of OA. Using data from another community‐based cohort study, that is, the Xiangya OA Study, we verified the association between the key serum metabolite and incident symptomatic knee OA. Compared with the hypnotic benzodiazepines cohort (n = 8135), the melatonin cohort (n = 813) had significantly fewer subsequent prescriptions of oral analgesics (50th percentile: 5 vs. 7, 75th percentile: 19 vs. 29, and 99th percentile: 140 vs. 162) and experienced a lower risk of knee/hip replacement (hazard ratio = 0.47, 95% Cl: 0.30–0.73) during the follow‐up period. In rats, oral melatonin alleviated pain behaviors and increased serum levels of glycine. There was an inverse association between baseline serum glycine levels and the risk of incident symptomatic knee OA in humans (n = 760). In conclusion, our findings indicate that oral melatonin shows significant potential to be a novel treatment for OA pain. The potential role of glycine in its analgesic mechanism warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three new approximately uniform color spaces named MLUV, MLUV1, and MLUV2 were developed by modifying CIELUV lightness, u′v′ chromaticity coordinates, and u*v* color coordinates, respectively. Performance tests using the combined and four individual datasets employed at CIEDE2000 development showed that MLUV, MLUV1 and MLUV2 were significantly better than CIELUV. Using values of Standardized Residual Sum of Squares (CIE 217:2016) for predictions of the four individual datasets the ranking (from best to worst) was MLUV, MLUV2 and MLUV1, but for predictions of two ellipses datasets the ranking (from best to worst) was MLUV2, MLUV, and MLUV1. Overall, the MLUV2 space was found to be the best. Hence, it is expected that MLUV2 could be used for color specification and color difference evaluations, especially in industrial applications that depend on additive light mixing, such as color TV sets, video monitors, and lighting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the vibration control of a plate subjected to moving masses. The plate model reflects the dynamic behavior more accurately than the beam model which is usually used in the existing literature. However, the vibration control of plates subjected to moving masses is also more challenging as more degrees of freedom need to be taken into account. In addition, the measurement of system status and uncertainty problems in practical application is another nodus. In this paper, combining an adaptive sliding‐mode control (ASMC) strategy and a modal coordinate reconstruction (MCR) method, the MCR‐ASMC method is proposed. The MCR method is employed to capture the plate dynamic behavior for feedback to the ASMC. The ASMC strategy realizes vibration control through the adaptive updating of parameters. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and excellent control performance in vibration suppression of moving mass problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To remedy the drawbacks of weak solar‐thermal conversion capability, low thermal conductivity, and poor structural stability of phase change materials, pyramidal graphitized chitosan/graphene aerogels (G‐CGAs) with numerous radially oriented layers are constructed, in which the long‐range radial alignment of graphene sheets is achieved by a novel directional‐freezing strategy. A G‐CGA/polyethylene glycol phase change composite exhibits a thermal conductivity of 2.90 W m−1 K−1 with a latent heat of 178.8 J g−1, and achieves a superior solar‐thermal energy conversion and storage efficiency of 90.4% and an attractive maximum temperature of 99.7 °C under a light intensity of 200 mW cm−2. Inspired by waterlilies, solar‐responsive phase change composites (SPCCs) are designed for the first time by assembling the G‐CGA/polyethylene glycol phase change composites with solar‐driven bilayer films, which bloom by day and close by night. The heat preservation effect of the solar‐driven films leads to a higher temperature of SPCC for a longer period at night. The SPCC‐based solar–thermal–electric generator achieves output voltages of 499.2 and 1034.9 mV under light intensities of 200 and 500 mW cm−2, respectively. Even after stopping the solar irradiation, the voltage output still occurs because of the latent heat release and the heat preservation of the films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a comprehensive test to evaluate the performance of current colour‐difference models using available experimental datasets. In total, 28 individual datasets were accumulated to test 17 colour‐difference formulae, 13 of them based on Uniform Colour Spaces (UCSs) in terms of the Standardized Residual Sum of Squares (STRESS) measure. The 28 datasets were divided into three groups: Large Colour‐Difference data (LCD), Small Colour‐Difference data for surface colours (SCDs), and Small Colour Difference data for display colours (SCDd). For each colour model, four versions were tested: the original model, and that including kL‐, Gamma‐ and kL/Gamma, which are the lightness parametric factor, the colour‐difference exponent factor, and the combination of both, respectively, optimized to fit particular dataset(s). The statistical F‐test was applied to test the difference between each pair of models. Furthermore, parametric effects between the large/small colour‐difference magnitudes, and between surface/display colours were investigated. The results showed that CAM16‐UCS significantly outperformed the other models for all groups. It accurately predicted all types of data and should be proposed for colour‐difference evaluation across all industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though solar energy‐driven steam generation is promising for cleaning water, the water evaporation efficiency has to be enhanced further. Herein, 3D reduced graphene oxide (RGO) decorated cellulose acetate filter (RGF) evaporators are fabricated by immersing the porous cellulose acetate filters (CFs) in a suspension of graphene oxide, followed by drying and chemical reduction for efficient solar steam generation. The RGO sheets can absorb solar light and convert solar energy to thermal energy, while the hydrophilic and porous CFs with lots of vertical channels are responsible for transporting water to the top evaporation surfaces and accommodating the RGO sheets. In addition to gaining thermal energy from direct solar energy absorption and conversion, the sidewall of the RGF evaporator can also gain additional thermal energy from the surrounding environment as long as the sidewall temperature of the RGF evaporator is lower than the surrounding environment temperature as a result of the cooling effect of the evaporation. Driven by both solar energy and environmental energy, the RGF evaporator achieves a high water generation rate of ≈2.81 kg m−2 h−1 with an energy conversion efficiency of ≈130.2%, and high efficiencies in cleaning seawater and wastewater are also demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have described a number of transformations by mapping the cone signal vector C, formed by LMS, to opponent space O, formed by achromatic signal OA, red‐green signal Org, and yellow‐blue signal Oyb. Two new transformations, Γop1 and Γop2, are proposed, based on the CIE 2006 spectral luminous efficiency function, VFλ, and Hurvich's opponent spectral red‐green and yellow‐blue responses, Hrgλ and Hybλ, without and with constraints, respectively. Γop1 is better than Γop2 in terms of best fit of Hrgλ and Hybλ, and both transformations improved previously proposed ones. Finally, we discuss the neutral conditions in cone space using each of the new and some of the extant transformations, as well as choosing scaling factors so that the neutral conditions in cone space are satisfied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study by Gao et al found that the Newton method may not converge for certain combinations of the photopic luminance and the ratio of scotopic and photopic luminance for computing the adaptation coefficient m, for the CIE MES2 system for mesopic photometry. Hence, they proposed to use the Bisection‐Newton method. In this short note, we propose the Newton method with a new initial guess for computing m. Numerical simulation has shown the proposed method not only converges, but also converges faster than the Bisection‐Newton method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied skin color in participants before and after a 100‐m sprint using a Konica Minolta CM‐2600d spectrophotometer. Four body positions (forehead, cheek, neck, and inner forearm) were measured for the approximately 30 students (non‐professional runners) who participated in the experiment. Skin reflectance was measured three times at each position before running and again soon afterward. Analysis of the data showed that average measurement repeatability (mean color difference from the mean [MCDM]) was 0.5, 0.4, 0.3, and 0.2 CIELAB units for forehead, cheek, neck, and inner forearm, respectively. However, average skin color differences produced by running were 1.8, 2.2, 2.0, and 1.7 CIELAB units for forehead, cheek, neck, and inner forearm positions, respectively, which are considerably higher than repeatability before or after running. Furthermore, appearance variation was analyzed in the CIELAB space, and it was found that sprinting for 100 m considerably changes the values of the red‐green a* coordinate, while the lightness L* and yellow‐blue b* coordinates remain almost constant. More specifically, on average, a* decreases after running for the forehead, cheek, and neck positions, while the opposite is true for the inner forearm position. The findings in this article may be useful to test previous physical models, achieve more realistic images of human skin after sprinting, and contribute to work of CIE TC 1‐92 on skin spectra database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experience and experimental results show that the perceived colour appearance of an object varies with the size of that object or the viewing angle. Based on available visual size‐effect data, it is found that the size effect can be compensated in the CAT16 cone‐like space. Furthermore, it is found that, similar to the von Kries chromatic adaptation, size‐effect correction can be operated independently on the different cone channels. Hence, the size effect can be easily built into the CAM16 model to predict the colour appearance for stimuli of varying sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive color appearance model should be capable of predicting color appearance under a wide range of viewing conditions, including related and unrelated colors. The current CAM16 model was designed to predict the appearance of related colors and is in the process of becoming a CIE recommendation, to replace the current CIECAM02 model. This article describes an extension of CAM16 (named CAM20u) for predicting the brightness, hue quadrature, amount‐of‐white, and colorfulness attributes of unrelated colors. Its performance, together with that of other unrelated models, was tested based on the three available datasets. The results show that the CAM20u model significantly outperforms the others, especially for colorfulness and amount‐of‐white. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggested that color vision evolved for the purpose of seeing skin color modulations signaling emotion or mood. Hence people want to find the connection of the cone sensitivities with the skin spectral reflectance. In this article the W and V shapes based on skin spectral reflectance measured at different positions and from different ethnic groups (Kurdish, Caucasian, Thai, Chinese) were investigated. First, it was found that the measured skin spectral reflectance from all body positions and ethnic groups have a V shape between 400 and 450 nm and a W shape between 520 and 610 nm. The W and V shapes from the measured skin spectral reflectance are clearly different from those from the spectral reflectance generated from the physical model. The V shape and W shape do not exist with spectral reflectances measured from artificial skin color. Second, it was found that the wavelengths where the left trough assumes for the W shape are different from the wavelength where the M cone peaks, and the wavelengths where the central peak of the W shape assumes are different from the wavelength where the L cone peaks, which are different from the results from literature. Third, it was found that the skin spectral reflectance varies with body positions and ethnic groups. The W shapes turn to be a “U” shape for the spectral reflectance measured at back of the hand and inner forearm positions. The spectral reflectance measured from Kurdish starts decreasing for each body positions for wavelength greater than 700 nm, which is clearly different from the spectral reflectance measured from the Chinese and Caucasian ethnic groups. The findings of this paper are valuable for improving the physical model for generating skin spectral reflectance, reconstructing skin spectral reflectance based on image, identifying human skin color from spectral imaging and rendering of human skin color in computer graphics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar‐driven steam generation has emerged as a sustainable technology for addressing freshwater scarcity. However, significant challenges still exist in developing high‐performance, multifunctional evaporators that are adept at both efficiently evaporating water and degrading pollutants, primarily because of the trade‐offs among functional designs. Here, a self‐floating solar evaporator is reported by functionalizing balsa wood with solar‐thermal conversion material carbon nanotubes and catalytic manganese dioxide (MnO2) nanoflowers for simultaneous solar evaporation and pollutant degradation. MnO2 nanoflowers are rich in oxygen vacancies that can effectively activate peroxymonosulfate to generate reactive oxygen species for efficient organic pollutant degradation. A distinctive non‐wetted porous interior structure and a precisely targeted water pathway are spontaneously established in the multifunctional evaporator, ensuring fast water supply, thermal insulation, efficient mass transfer, and high buoyancy. The resulting evaporators successfully combine an impressive evaporation rate of 2.74 kg m−2 h−1, a high pollutant degradation efficiency (98.3% for 100 mg L−1 tetracycline and 97.4% for 200 mg L−1 Methyl orange), and stable self‐floating and self‐standing capabilities that ensure long‐term operation stability even in complex real‐world environments. This work provides an approach to design multifunctional solar evaporators, ensuring strong alignment with practical requirements while expanding their potential application scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]