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The cement composite calcium lignosulfonate is used to enhance the mechanical properties and the freeze–thaw resistance of loess. Based on an unconfined compressive test under different freeze–thaw cycles, the influence of cement dosage, curing age, and freeze–thaw cycles on compressive strength are discussed. The results indicate that the strength of loess can increase by up to 13 times, and the loss of strength is reduced from 72% to 28% under the reinforcement of cement dosage and curing age. The loss of strength is mainly concentrated in the initial 5 freeze–thaw cycles, and the structure gradually stabilizes after 10 freeze–thaw cycles. In addition, according to the X-ray diffraction test, it is found that the stabilized loess exhibits a comparatively more stable mineral composition. The scanning electron microscope results reveal that hydration products enveloped the soil particles, forming a mesh structure that strengthens the connection between the soil particles. The freeze–thaw damage makes the small and medium pores turn into large pores in loess, while the stabilized loess changes micro and small pores into small and medium pores, with no large pores found. It is feasible to improve loess with the cement composite calcium lignosulfonate, which can provide references for the reinforcement treatment of loess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the distribution of the sunshine temperature field in bridge structures. To implement thermodynamic boundary conditions on the structure under the influence of sunshine, this study utilized the FILM and DFLUX subroutines provided by ABAQUS. Based on this method, the sunshine temperature field of the concrete box girder of a cable-stayed bridge was analyzed. The results showed that the simulated temperature values were in good agreement with the measured values. The temperature difference between the internal and external surfaces of the box girder under the influence of sunshine was significant, with the maximum negative temperature difference appearing around 6:00 a.m. and the maximum positive temperature difference appearing around 2:00 p.m. The temperature gradient of the box girder section calculated by the method presented a C-shaped distribution pattern, which differs from the double-line distribution pattern specified in the current "General Specifications for Design of Highway Bridges and Culverts" in China (JTG D60-2015). Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis of thermal parameters using the proposed simulation method for the sunshine temperature field of the concrete box girder was conducted, and the results indicated that the solar radiation absorption coefficient had a significant impact on the temperature field. A 30% increase or decrease in the solar radiation absorption coefficient caused the maximum temperature change on the surface of the structure to exceed 10 °C. This paper provides an accurate simulation of the sunshine temperature field of the concrete box girder of a cable-stayed bridge, and the research results are significant for controlling bridge alignment and stress state during the construction period, ensuring the reasonable initial operating state of the bridge, and enhancing the sustainability of the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The erosion rate of cohesive soils was typically modeled with the excess shear stress model and the Wilson model. Several kinds of research have been conducted to determine the erodibility parameters of the two models, but few attempts have been made hitherto to investigate the general trends and range of the erodibility parameter values obtained by the commonly used Erosion Function apparatus. This paper collected a database of 177 erosion function apparatus tests to indicate the variability of all erodibility parameters; the range of erodibility parameters is determined by data statistics and parameter theoretical value derivation. The critical shear stress (τc) and erodibility coefficient (Z0) in the over-shear stress model have a positive proportional relationship when the data samples are sufficient. However, there is no such relationship between the erodibility coefficient (b0) and erodibility coefficient (b1) in the Wilson model. It is necessary to express the soil erosion resistance by considering all erosion parameters in the erosion model. Equations relating erodibility parameters to water content, plasticity index, and median particle size were developed by regression analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scars, as the result of abnormal wound-healing response after skin injury, may lead to loss of aesthetics and physical dysfunction. Current clinical strategies, such as surgical excision, laser treatment, and drug application, provide late remedies for scarring, yet it is difficult to eliminate scars. In this review, the functions, roles of multiple polymer scaffolds in wound healing and scar inhibition are explored. Polysaccharide and protein scaffolds, an analog of extracellular matrix, act as templates for cell adhesion and migration, differentiation to facilitate wound reconstruction and limit scarring. Stem cell-seeded scaffolds and growth factors-loaded scaffolds offer significant bioactive substances to improve the wound healing process. Special emphasis is placed on scaffolds that continuously release oxygen, which greatly accelerates the vascularization process and ensures graft survival, providing convincing theoretical support and great promise for scarless healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNAs are important regulators in plant developmental processes and stress responses. In this study, we generated a series of maize STTM166 transgenic plants. Knock-down of miR166 resulted in various morphological changes, including rolled leaves, enhanced abiotic stress resistance, inferior yield-related traits, vascular pattern and epidermis structures, tassel architecture, as well as abscisic acid (ABA) level elevation and indole acetic acid (IAA) level reduction in maize. To profile miR166 regulated genes, we performed RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analysis. A total of 178 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, including 118 up-regulated and 60 down-regulated genes. These DEGs were strongly enriched in cell and intercellular components, cell membrane system components, oxidoreductase activity, single organism metabolic process, carbohydrate metabolic process, and oxidation reduction process. These results indicated that miR166 plays important roles in auxin and ABA interaction in monocots, yet the specific mechanism may differ from dicots. The enhanced abiotic stress resistance is partly caused via rolling leaves, high ABA content, modulated vascular structure, and the potential changes of cell membrane structure. The inferior yield-related traits and late flowering are partly controlled by the decreased IAA content, the interplay of miR166 with other miRNAs and AGOs. Taken together, the present study uncovered novel functions of miR166 in maize, and provide insights on applying short tandem target mimics (STTM) technology in plant breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is regarded as a critical technological-evolution in material engineering, especially for customized biomedicine. However, a big challenge that hinders the 3D printing technique applied in biomedical field is applicable bioink. Silk fibroin (SF) is used as a biomaterial for decades due to its remarkable high machinability and good biocompatibility and biodegradability, which provides a possible alternate of bioink for 3D printing. In this review, we summarize the requirements, characteristics and processabilities of SF bioink, in particular, focusing on the printing possibilities and capabilities of bioink. Further, the current achievements of cell-loading SF based bioinks were comprehensively viewed from their physical properties, chemical components, and bioactivities as well. Finally, the emerging issues and prospects of SF based bioink for 3D printing are given. This review provides a reference for the programmable and multiple processes and the further improvement of silk-based biomaterials fabrication by 3D printing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In engineering and technical fields, a large number of sensors are applied to monitor a complex system. A special class of signals are often captured by those sensors. Although they often have indirect or indistinct relationships among them, they simultaneously reflect the operating states of the whole system. Using these signals, the field engineers can evaluate the operational states, even predict future behaviors of the monitored system. A novel method of future operational trend forecast of a complex system is proposed in this paper. It is based on empirical wavelet transform (EWT) and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) techniques. Firstly, empirical wavelet transform is used to extract the significant mode from each recorded signal, which reflects one aspect of the operating system. Secondly, the system states are represented by the indicator function which are obtained from those normalized and weighted significant modes. Finally, the future trend is forecast by the parametric model of ARMA. The effectiveness and practicality of the proposed method are verified by a set of numerical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acoustic emission (AE) method is useful for structural health monitoring (SHM) of composite structures due to its high sensitivity and real-time capability. The main challenge, however, is how to classify the AE data into different failure mechanisms because the detected signals are affected by various factors. Empirical wavelet transform (EWT) is a solution for analyzing the multi-component signals and has been used to process the AE data. In order to solve the spectrum separation problem of the AE signals, this paper proposes a novel modified separation method based on local window maxima (LWM) algorithm. It searches the local maxima of the Fourier spectrum in a proper window, and automatically determines the boundaries of spectrum segmentations, which helps to eliminate the impact of noise interference or frequency dispersion in the detected signal and obtain the meaningful empirical modes that are more related to the damage characteristics. Additionally, both simulation signal and AE signal from the composite structures are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, the experimental results indicate that the proposed method performs better than the original EWT method in identifying different damage mechanisms of composite structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for electric field measurement system under the High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines, it is necessary to obtain the electric field distribution with multiple sensors. The location information of each sensor is essential to the correct analysis of measurement results. Compared with the existing approach which gathers the location information by manually labelling sensors during deployment, the automatic localization can reduce the workload and improve the measurement efficiency. A novel and practical range-free localization algorithm for the localization of one-dimensional linear topology wireless networks in the electric field measurement system is presented. The algorithm utilizes unknown nodes' neighbor lists based on the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values to determine the relative locations of nodes. The algorithm is able to handle the exceptional situation of the output permutation which can effectively improve the accuracy of localization. The performance of this algorithm under real circumstances has been evaluated through several experiments with different numbers of nodes and different node deployments in the China State Grid HVDC test base. Results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an accuracy of over 96% under different conditions.