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Copyright of Rare Metals is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We investigate a two-machine job shop scheduling problem with optional job rejection. The target is to look for a feasible schedule for the set of accepted jobs so that the sum of the makespan of the accepted jobs and the total penalty of the rejected jobs is minimized. We propose an exact pseudo-polynomial dynamic programming algorithm, a greedy 5 + 1 2 -approximation algorithm, an LP-based e e - 1 -approximation algorithm, and a fully polynomial time approximation scheme to solve it. We demonstrate that the proportionate case is N P -hard and provide an O (n 2) -time algorithm for the agreeable case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sleep quality significantly affects the quality of life of older persons. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between sleep quality and living environment of older persons in China to provide a theoretical basis for therapies to alleviate sleep disorders in older persons. A total of 6211 subjects > 60 years of age in Anhui Province, China, were evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and a self-reported questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that living alone (OR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.09–1.46) and living in a rural area (OR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.06–1.34) were significantly associated with a high incidence of sleep disorders in older persons. Living near a park or foot paths suitable for exercise or walking was significantly associated with a lower incidence of sleep disorders in older persons (OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.77–0.96). Individual factors such as female sex (OR = 1.30, 95% CI 1.14–1.48) and depression (OR = 2.80, 95% CI 2.47–3.19) were also associated with sleep quality in older persons. These data indicate a correlation exists between living environment and sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthy lifestyle might alleviate the socioeconomic inequities in health, but the extent of the joint and interactive effects of these two factors on dementia are unclear. This study aimed to detect the joint and interactive associations of socioeconomic status (SES) and lifestyle factors with incident dementia risk, and the underlying brain imaging alterations. Cox proportional hazards analysis was performed to test the joint and interactive associations. Partial correlation analysis was performed to reflect the brain imaging alterations. A total of 276,730 participants with a mean age of 55.9 (±8.0) years old from UK biobank were included. Over 8.5 (±2.6) years of follow-up, 3013 participants were diagnosed with dementia. Participants with high SES and most healthy lifestyle had a significantly lower risk of incident dementia (HR=0.19, 95% CI=0.14 to 0.26, P<2×10−16), Alzheimer's disease (AD, HR=0.19, 95% CI=0.13 to 0.29, P=8.94×10−15), and vascular dementia (HR=0.24, 95% CI=0.12 to 0.48, P=7.57×10−05) compared with participants with low SES and an unhealthy lifestyle. Significant interactions were found between SES and lifestyle on dementia (P=0.002) and AD (P=0.001) risks; the association between lifestyle and dementia was stronger among those of high SES. The combination of high SES and healthy lifestyle was positively associated with higher volumes in brain regions vulnerable to dementia-related atrophy. These findings suggest that SES and lifestyle significantly interact and influence dementia with its related brain structure phenotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Rare Metals is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes in the microstructure of 5083-H116 alloys under different annealing temperatures and sensitization treatments. The properties of both annealed and sensitized samples were analyzed using various techniques, including tensile testing, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy. The susceptibility of the alloy to intergranular corrosion (IGC) and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) was evaluated using the nitric acid mass loss test (ASTM G67 NAMLT) and the slow strain rate test, respectively. The results indicate that annealing temperatures below 200 °C and above 300 °C resulted in high susceptibility to IGC and SCC due to the continuous precipitation of β-phase (Mg2Al3) along the grain boundaries. In contrast, annealing in the temperature range of 200–250 °C led to the formation of discontinuous β-phase precipitates at the grain boundaries, resulting in high resistance to IGC and SCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilized high rotational speeds (5500, 8500, and 10,000 rpm) and various traverse speeds (300, 600, and 900 mm/min) to carry out micro-friction stir welding on 0.8 mm thick plates of 5052–0 and 5052-H32 aluminum alloys. The weld heterogeneity was assessed through microstructural analysis and tensile testing under various process parameters. It was found that high rotational speeds generate enough heat to provide grain growth within the stirring zone. Moreover, the stirring zone showed a sizeable population of equiaxed grains, measuring less than 5 μm, that resulted in an improved mechanical strength of the joint. The joint efficiencies in the 5052-O and 5052-H32 alloys were significantly improved. The joint efficiencies of yield strength for 5052-O and 5052-H32 ranged between 129 and 139%, and 118% and 124%, respectively. The joint efficiencies of tensile strength for 5052-O varied between 102 to 109%, while in 5052-H32 they ranged from 93 to 100%. A comparison of the micro friction stir welding parameter to conventional thick plate friction stir welding showed that the former provided superior properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary head and neck hematolymphoid neoplasms (PHNHLN) are defined as a series of hematolymphoid system-derived neoplasms which primarily emanate in head and neck region. Due to the rarity and absence of symptomatic specificity, PHNHLN is easily neglected. The objective of this study is to investigate demographics, pathological subtype distribution, anatomical location, survival outcomes and prognostic factors of PHNHLN among older patients aged ≥ 60. The individual patient information in our study was derived from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. Descriptive epidemiological methods were used to analyze the distribution of histologic subtypes and primary anatomical sites. Kaplan–Meier survival curves and log-rank test were conducted to evaluate the effect of variables on the prognosis. Cox hazard regression was conducted to identify the independent prognostic factors. The male-to-female ratio in most pathological subtypes was close to 1:1. The most common pathological subtype was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The most commonly involved sites outside the lymph nodes were salivary glands, especially parotid gland, followed by tonsil, thyroid gland and tongue. The prognosis of mature T- and NK-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) was bleaker than Hodgkin lymphoma, mature B-cell NHL and plasma cell neoplasm. Age at diagnosis, presence of second primary malignancy (SPM), pathological subtype, Ann-Arbor stage, chemotherapy and radiation were independent prognostic factors of overall survival. Our study comprehensively reported the subtype distribution, anatomical sites and survival outcomes of PHNHLN among older patients, improving understanding of this rare group of cancer entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite vaccine availability, influenza remains a substantial global public health concern. Here, we report interim findings on the primary and secondary objectives of the safety, reactogenicity, and humoral immunogenicity of a quadrivalent messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against seasonal influenza, mRNA-1010, from the first 2 parts of a 3-part, first-in-human, phase 1/2 clinical trial in healthy adults aged ≥18 years (NCT04956575). In the placebo-controlled Part 1, a single dose of mRNA-1010 (50 µg, 100 µg, or 200 µg) elicited hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) titers against vaccine-matched strains. In the active-comparator-controlled Part 2, mRNA-1010 (25 µg, 50 µg, or 100 µg) elicited higher HAI titers than a standard dose, inactivated seasonal influenza vaccine for influenza A strains and comparable HAI titers for influenza B strains. No safety concerns were identified; solicited adverse reactions were dose-dependent and more frequent after receipt of mRNA-1010 than the active comparator. These interim data support continued development of mRNA-1010. Here the authors report initial findings of a phase 1 clinical trial, showing that an investigational, mRNA-based vaccine for seasonal influenza (mRNA-1010) has no safety concerns and produces immune responses in adults that are similar or higher than a licensed comparator vaccine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zircon is a key accessary mineral for metamorphic geochronology and geochemical tracing, but it has been a challenge to interpret its complex chemical zoning and age record acquired during multiple episodes of anatectic metamorphism in collisional orogens. This is illustrated by a combined study of petrography, phase equilibrium modeling and metamorphic P-T-t determination for granulites from the Bohemian Massif in the Variscan Orogen. These rocks record multiple episodes of zircon growth during anatectic metamorphism. They started from the compressional heating for prograde metamorphism to high-pressure (HP) to ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) eclogite facies with low degrees of partial melting. Afterwards, they underwent a decompressional stage from UHP eclogite facies to HP granulite facies for dehydration melting. These were followed by a further decompressional stage either to kyanite granulite facies or to sillimanite granulite facies at ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) conditions. Episodes of zircon growth are linked to specific metamorphic conditions for peritectic reactions on the basis of zoning patterns, trace element signatures, index mineral inclusions in dated domains and textural relationships to coexisting minerals. The results indicate that relict zircon domains are preserved even at UHT granulite facies conditions. A few zircon domains in the kyanite granulite grew during the prograde to peak UHP metamorphism, possibly corresponding to consumption of biotite and plagioclase but growth of garnet. During the decompressional exhumation to the HP granulite-facies, relict or prograde zircon domains were mostly dissolved into anatectic melts produced by muscovite breakdown. Most zircon grains grew during this transition to the HP granulite-facies in the kyanite granulite and are chemically related to continuous growth of garnet, whereas abundant zircon grains grew subsequently at the UHT granulite facies in the sillimanite granulite and are chemically related to garnet breakdown reactions. Another peak of zircon growth occurred at the final crystallization of anatectic melts in the sillimanite granulite rather than in the kyanite granulite, and these zircon grains mostly show oscillatory zoning, low HREE + Y contents and significantly negative Eu anomalies. In terms of the inference for protolith nature, it appears that zircon in metasedimentary rocks can grow at a short timescale in different stages of anatectic metamorphism, and its dissolution and growth are mainly dictated by anatectic conditions and extent, the property of peritectic reactions, and the stability of Ti-rich minerals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater leakage in shield tunnels poses a threat to the safety and durability of tunnel structures. Disturbance of adjacent constructions during the operation of shield tunnels frequently occurs in China, leading to deformation of tunnel lining and leakage in joints. Understanding the impact of adjacent constructions on the waterproofing performance of the lining is critical for the protection of shield tunnels. In this study, the weakening behavior of waterproof performance was investigated in the joints of shield tunnels under transverse deformation induced by adjacent construction. First, the relationship between the joint opening and transverse deformation under three typical adjacent constructions (upper loading, upper excavation, and side excavation) was investigated via elaborate numerical simulations. Subsequently, the evolution of the waterproof performance of a common gasket with a joint opening was examined by establishing a coupled Eulerian–Lagrangian model of joint seepage, and a formula describing the relationship between waterproof performance and joint opening was proposed. Finally, the weakening law of waterproofing performance was investigated based on the results of the aforementioned studies. It was determined that the joints with the greatest decline in waterproof performance were located at the tunnel shoulder in the upper loading case, tunnel crown in the upper excavation case, and tunnel shoulder in the side excavation case. When the waterproof performance of these joints decreased to 50% and 30%, the transverse deformations were 60 and 90 mm under upper loading, 90 and 140 mm under upper excavation, and 45 and 70 mm under side excavation, respectively. The results provide a straightforward reference for setting a controlled deformation standard considering the waterproof performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study several competitive two-agent scheduling problems with release dates and preemption on a single machine, where the scheduling criterion of the first agent is regular and of the sum-form and the scheduling criterion of the second criterion is regular and of the max-form or the weighted number of tardy jobs. Two variants of the problems are investigated. One is the restricted version, in which the goal is to find a feasible schedule so that the objective value of the first agent is minimized subject to the restriction that the objective value of the second agent does not exceed a given threshold value. The other one is the Pareto version, in which the goal is to find all the Pareto-optimal points and their corresponding Pareto-optimal schedules. We design polynomial-time and pseudo-polynomial-time algorithms for each of the considered problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrated that silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) with bright photoluminescence (PL) were produced by an electrochemical etching process. The PL intensity of functionalized porous silicon (PSi) with respect to time was investigated. Stable surface-modified SiQD dispersions were obtained using thermally induced hydrosilylation with octadecene. Various concentrations of SiQDs were spin-coated on Si solar cells (SiSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to improve the performance of the solar cells. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the optimal sample showed that the current density increased from 37.4 to 39.2 mA/cm2. The EQE increased to 98% compared with the initial value of 95% in the visible spectrum region. The experimental results showed that the reflectivity of the solar cells could be reduced by applying a certain amount of SiQDs on different solar cells. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of SiSCs increased by 0.81%, and the PCE of PSCs increased by 0.61% after coating with SiQDs. Furthermore, when exposed to intense radiation in a UV aging chamber, both SiSCs and PSCs experienced reduced PCE loss by 0.11% and 0.62%, respectively, owing to the application of SiQDs on their surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let B n be the unit ball in with the Bergman metric g and h is the Bergman metric on B m . Let u : (B n , g) → (B m , h) be any harmonic map with ϕ 0 = u | ∂ B n ∈ C ∞ (∂ B n , ∂ B m) . In this paper, we provide an asymptotic expansion formula for the above harmonic map u for a large class of ϕ 0 ∈ C ∞ (∂ B n , ∂ B m) . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma biomarkers for Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis that carry predictive value for cognitive impairment are valuable. We explored the relationship of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score with plasma biomarkers in PD patients and compared results to vascular dementia (VaD) and normal controls. The predictive accuracy of an individual biomarker on cognitive impairment was evaluated using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), and multivariate logistic regression was applied to evaluate predictive accuracy of biomarkers on cognitive impairment; 178 subjects (41 PD, 31 VaD and 106 normal controls) were included. In multiple linear regression analysis of PD patients, α-synuclein, anti-α-synuclein, α-synuclein/Aβ40 and anti-α-synuclein/Aβ40 were highly predictive of MMSE score in both full model and parsimonious model (R2 = 0.838 and 0.835, respectively) compared to non-significant results in VaD group (R2 = 0.149) and in normal controls (R2 = 0.056). Α-synuclein and anti-α-synuclein/Aβ40 were positively associated with MMSE score, and anti-α-synuclein, α-synuclein/Aβ40 were negatively associated with the MMSE score among PD patients (all Ps < 0.005). In the AUROC analysis, anti-α-synuclein (AUROC = 0.788) and anti-α-synuclein/Aβ40 (AUROC = 0.749) were significant individual predictors of cognitive impairment. In multivariate logistic regression, full model of combined biomarkers showed high accuracy in predicting cognitive impairment (AUROC = 0.890; 95%CI 0.796–0.984) for PD versus controls, as was parsimonious model (AUROC = 0.866; 95%CI 0.764–0.968). In conclusion, simple combination of biomarkers inclusive of α-synuclein/Aβ40 strongly correlates with MMSE score in PD patients versus controls and is highly predictive of cognitive impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the problem of scheduling n jobs on a single machine in which there are m fixed machine non-availability intervals. The target is to seek out a feasible solution that minimizes total weighted late work. Three variants of the problem are investigated. The first is the preemptive version, the second is the resumable version, and the third is the non-resumable version. For the first one, we present an O ((m + n) log n) -time algorithm to solve it. For the second one, we develop an exact dynamic programming algorithm and a fully polynomial time approximation scheme. For the third one, we first demonstrate that it is strongly NP -hard for the case where all jobs have the unit weight and common due date, and then we develop a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm for the unit weight case where the number of non-availability intervals is fixed, finally we propose a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm for the case where there is only one non-availability interval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 3,4-dihalo-2(5H)-furanones and easily available hemostatic drugs, such as tranexamic acid (TA), 4-aminomethylbenzoic acid (ABA), aminocaproic acid (AA) as starting materials, serial multi-functional molecules 2(5H)-furanonyl amino acids are designed by the combination of different pharmacophores, and successfully synthesized by a transition metal-free Michael addition–elimination reaction. The reaction is carried out under mild conditions with ethanol-dichloromethane as solvent and only stirring at room temperature for 24 h, and the yield can be up to 91%. All products are well characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), high-resolution mass spectra (HRMS). Ten typical target compounds among them are selected out for the experiments of hemostasis performance by the evaluation of in vitro clot formation model and liver hemorrhage model. The test results show that, their hemostasis effect is better than the original drugs. Especially the target compound G, a TA derivative from 5-borneoloxy-3,4-dibromo-2(5H)-furanone, has the best hemostasis effect among all the tested compounds. These obtained target molecules are expected to be used as multi-functional hemostatic drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of a humanistic intensive care unit (ICU) and its potential benefits for patients. While advanced technology and equipment are important in ICUs, the article argues that a humanistic approach is also necessary. This includes creating a green ICU that conserves resources and reduces environmental pollution, establishing a natural environment around the ICU, incorporating person-specific music, providing a separate space for patients to communicate with their families, and providing training and education for staff. The article emphasizes the need for financial support from government entities and hospitals to construct such an ICU. [Extracted from the article]

Since the 1970s, futures hedge ratios have traditionally been calculated ex-post via economically structure-less statistical analyses. This paper proposes an ex-ante, more efficient, computationally simpler, general "carry cost rate" hedge ratio. The proposed hedge ratio is biased, but its bias is readily mitigatable via a stationary Bias Adjustment Multiplier (BAM). The 2-part intuition for the BAM and its stationarity is as follows. First, the paper reasons that the "traditional" hedge ratio should uncover the carry cost rate and shows that it does, albeit inefficiently. Then, since both the "traditional" and "carry cost rate" hedge ratios are driven by the carry cost rate, it may be that their ratio (for implementation in the same prior periods) is stationary and useful as an ex-ante BAM for the "carry cost rate" hedge ratio; the paper tests these conjectures and finds support for both. Specifically, the paper shows that the "bias-adjusted carry cost rate" hedge ratio, defined as the average product of the ex-post BAMs from prior periods and the current ex-ante "carry cost rate" hedge ratio, has higher hedge-effectiveness than that for either the "traditional" or "naive" benchmark hedge ratios in diverse real and simulated markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Easily accessible and accurate biomarkers can aid Parkinson's disease diagnosis. We investigated whether combining plasma levels of α-synuclein, anti-α-synuclein, and/or their ratios to amyloid beta-40 correlated with clinical diagnosis. The inclusion of amyloid beta-40 (Aβ40) is novel. Plasma levels of biomarkers were quantified with ELISA. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, levels of α-synuclein, anti-α-synuclein, and their ratios with Aβ40 were analyzed in an initial training set of cases and controls. Promising biomarkers were then used to build a diagnostic algorithm. Verification of the results of biomarkers and the algorithm was performed in an independent set. The training set consisted of 50 cases (age 65.2±9.3, range 44–83, female:male=21:29) with 50 age- and gender-matched controls (67.1±10.0, range 45–96 years; female:male=21:29). ROC curve analysis yielded the following area under the curve results: anti-α-synuclein=0.835, α-synuclein=0.738, anti-α-synuclein/Aβ40=0.737, and α-synuclein/Aβ40=0.663. A 2-step diagnostic algorithm was built: either α-synuclein or anti-α-synuclein was ≥2 times the means of controls (step-1), resulting in 74% sensitivity; and adding α-synuclein/Aβ40 or anti-α-synuclein/Aβ40 (step-2) yielded better sensitivity (82%) while using step-2 alone yielded good specificity in controls (98%). The results were verified in an independent sample of 46 cases and 126 controls, with sensitivity reaching 91.3% and specificity 90.5%. The algorithm was equally sensitive in Parkinson's disease of ≤5-year duration with 92.6% correctly identified in the training set and 90% in the verification set. With two independent samples totaling 272 subjects, our study showed that combination of biomarkers of α-synuclein, anti-α-synuclein, and their ratios to Aβ40 showed promising sensitivity and specificity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the impact of electromagnetic stirring (EMS) on the gas metal arc welding (GTAW) of an MAR-M247 superalloy was investigated. Results revealed that, without electromagnetic stirring, it was easy for carbides in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the weld bead to liquefy during welding, leading to weld bead cracks. Electromagnetic stirring refined the grains in the HAZ and the weld bead, leading to grain strengthening and subsequently resulting in the effective improvement in the hardness of the weld bead. In addition, electromagnetic stirring significantly facilitated the formation of the weld bead by the removal of large inclusions which in turn effectively improved crack resistance of the joint. It also accelerated the floating up of gas holes thereby reducing the generation of porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential roles of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) as an environmental risk factor in inducing atopic dermatitis (AD) have not been well quantified. To determine the short-term associations between UVR and AD outpatient visits, we obtained daily outpatient visits of AD in Shanghai Skin Disease Hospital from 2013 to 2018. Data of hourly ground UVR were collected. We applied overdispersed generalized additive model to explore its associations. We found that daily exposure to UVR-A rather than UVR-B was positively associated with AD outpatient visits. The visits increased on the present day (lag 0 days) and decreased appreciably with longer lags and became insignificant at lag 4 days. For 10 w/m2 increase in daytime mean and noontime mean exposure to overall UVR and UVR-A from lag 0 to 6 days, the cumulative relative risk of AD was 1.12/1.13 and 1.08/1.08, respectively. Stronger effects of UVR exposure on AD occurred in patients aged 0–7 and > 45 years and in the cold seasons. This study contributed to the few epidemiological evidences that acute exposure to solar UVR may elevate the risks of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to effectively utilize inter-frame redundancies is the key to improve the accuracy and speed of video super-resolution reconstruction methods. Previous methods usually process every frame in the whole video in the same way, and do not make full use of redundant information between frames, resulting in low accuracy or long reconstruction time. In this paper, we propose the idea of reconstructing key frames and non-key frames respectively, and give a video super-resolution reconstruction method based on deep back projection and motion feature fusion. Key-frame reconstruction subnet can obtain key frame features and reconstruction results with high accuracy. For non-key frames, key frame features can be reused by fusing them and motion features, so as to obtain accurate non-key frame features and reconstruction results quickly. Experiments on several public datasets show that the proposed method performs better than the state-of-the-art methods, and has good robustness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human epidermal melanocytes can be induced to form melanocyte spheroids and revert to immature characteristics by long-term trypsinization (LTT). To further explore the biological characteristics of melanocytes after LTT and to study the underlying mechanism. Melanocytes were subjected to long-term (2 h) trypsinization in this study, after which their viability, proliferation and autophagy were characterized. The expression of melanocyte markers [human melanoma black45 (HMB45), tyrosinase (TYR) and Nestin] was detected and relative expression levels of mRNAs encoding TYR, Nestin, c-Kit and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) were determined. After LTT, more short spindle-shaped melanocytes appeared and viability assays demonstrated that most melanocytes survived that treatment but had decreased proliferation rates compared to the untreated controls. There was a significant increase in autophagy of melanocytes after LTT and the expression of TYR was decreased compared with untreated control melanocytes. There were no significant differences in the expression of HMB45 or Nestin between the two groups. Compared with untreated melanocytes, levels of message ribonucleic acid (mRNAs) encoding TYR, c-Kit and MITF were decreased after LTT, while Nestin mRNA levels were increased. These results clarified that Long-term treatment with trypsin causes the dedifferentiation of mature epidermal melanocytes in vitro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A portable bender element-double cone penetration (BE-DCP) testing equipment, which is invented as a prototype model for measuring the small-strain stiffness (shear wave velocity, Vs) and shear strength of in-situ soft soil deposits (loose sand and soft clay) is developed in this study. The shear wave velocity in two orthogonal directions (Vs-hv and Vs-hh) of the in-situ soils is measured from paired bender elements (BE) installed on the side of the cone shaft. The bender elements are housed in a mechanically controlled sliding block in the shaft which not only protects bender elements while the BE-DCP apparatus is being pushed into the ground, but also ensures a good contact between adjacent soil particles and benders when the target depth is reached. The real-time relationship of the pushing force and penetration depth is recorded by force transducer and laser displacement sensor and graphed in LabVIEW. Based on the cone penetration testing (CPT) theory, two formulas are derived to calculate the shear strength parameters of the in-situ soils. Test results obtained from both the portable bender element-double cone penetration (BE-DCP) testing apparatus and conventional laboratory experiments on Ottawa sand 20/30, four different sizes of Dolomite sands in various packing densities and Kaolinite under different water contents and densities as well as a field testing were compared and validated, indicating that the novel designed portable bender elementdouble cone penetration (BE-DCP) apparatus is robust, fast, and cost-efficient for measurement of small-strain stiffness and shear strength of in-situ soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study an order scheduling problem with rejection, in which each order consists of multiple product types and each product type should be manufactured on a dedicated machine. The aim is to find a solution to minimize a linear sum of the maximum delivery completion time of the accepted orders and the total penalty of the rejected orders. Even if the delivery times of all orders are zero, the problem is shown to be binary NP -hard in the two-machine case and it is shown to be unary NP -hard when the number of machines is arbitrary. Three approximation algorithms are proposed and their worst-case performance ratios are analyzed. For the scenario where the number of machines is fixed, a pseudo-polynomial dynamic programming algorithm and a fully polynomial time approximation scheme are devised for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important soil property, saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) controls many hydrological processes, such as runoff generation types, soil moisture storage and water movement. Because of the extremely harsh natural environmental conditions and soil containing a significant fraction of gravel fragments in high-elevation mountainous catchments, the measurement data of Ks and other soil properties are seriously lacking, which leads to poor understanding on its hydrological processes and water cycle. In this study, the vertical variation (0–150 cm) of Ks and other soil properties from 38 soil profiles were measured under five different land cover types (alpine barren, forest, marshy meadow, alpine shrub and alpine meadow) in a small catchment in Qilian Mountains, northwestern China. A typical characteristic of soil in mountainous areas is widespread presence of rock and gravel, and the results showed that the more rock and gravel in the soil, the higher Ks and bulk density and the lower the soil capillary porosity, field water capacity and total porosity. The Ks of the lower layer with rock and gravel (18.49 ± 10.22 mm·min−1) was significantly higher than that of the upper layer with relatively fine textured soil (0.18 ± 0.18 mm-min−1). The order of values of the Ks in different land cover types was alpine barren, forest, alpine shrub, marshy meadow and alpine meadow, and the values of the Ks in the alpine barren were significantly higher than those of other land covers. Most rainfall events in the research catchment had low rain intensity (<0.04 mm·min−1), and deep percolation (DP) was the dominant runoff generation type. When the rainfall intensity increased (0.11 mm·min−1), subsurface stormflow (SSF) appeared in the alpine meadow. Infiltration excess overland flow (IOF), SSF and DP existed simultaneously only when the rainfall intensity was extremely high (1.91 mm·min−1). IOF and SSF were almost never appeared in the alpine barren because of high Ks. The alpine barren was the main runoff-contributed area in the mountainous catchment because of high Ks and low water-holding capacity, and the alpine shrub and meadow showed more ecological functions such as natural water storage and replenishment pool than contribution of runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In thermal-related engineering such as thermal energy structures and nuclear waste disposal, it is essential to well understand volume change and excess pore water pressure buildup of soils under thermal cycles. However, most existing thermo-mechanical models can merely simulate one heating–cooling cycle and fail in capturing accumulation phenomenon due to multiple thermal cycles. In this study, a two-surface elasto-plastic model considering thermal cyclic behavior is proposed. This model is based on the bounding surface plasticity and progressive plasticity by introducing two yield surfaces and two loading yield limits. A dependency law is proposed by linking two loading yield limits with a thermal accumulation parameter nc, allowing the thermal cyclic behavior to be taken into account. Parameter nc controls the evolution rate of the inner loading yield limit approaching the loading yield limit following a thermal loading path. By extending the thermo-hydro-mechanical equations into the elastic–plastic state, the excess pore water pressure buildup of soil due to thermal cycles is also accounted. Then, thermal cycle tests on four fine-grained soils (natural Boom clay, Geneva clay, Bonny silt, and reconstituted Pontida clay) under different OCRs and stresses are simulated and compared. The results show that the proposed model can well describe both strain accumulation phenomenon and excess pore water pressure buildup of fine-grained soils under the effect of thermal cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate a single-machine common due date assignment scheduling problem with the objective of minimizing the generalized weighted earliness/tardiness penalties. The earliness/tardiness penalty includes not only a variable cost which depends upon the job earliness/tardiness but also a fixed cost for each early/tardy job. We provide an O (n 3) time algorithm for the case where all jobs have equal processing times. Under the agreeable ratio condition, we solve the problem by formulating a series of half-product problems, which permits us to devise a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme with O (n 3 / ϵ) time. NP -hardness proof is proved for a very special case and fast FPTASes with O (n 2 / ϵ) running time are identified for two special cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detecting heat damage and eliminating the susceptibility to sensitization of wrought 5xxx series aluminum-magnesium alloys is of practical importance for the remediation of field structures. Electrical conductivity and hardness testing were employed to provide indirect evidence to assess the microstructural evolution of 5083-H116 alloys after annealing treatment at 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, and 450 °C and sensitization treatment at 175 °C for 168 h. The findings indicate a strong relationship between the hardness, electrical conductivity, and degree of sensitization (DoS). This methodology can be used as a simple guide to quickly determine whether heat damage or sensitization exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cases of closely spaced twin tunnels demonstrate that ground settlement above the 2nd tunnel, referred to as T2 constructed after the first tunnel (T1), exhibits pronounced differences from that above T1. The differences can be attributed to the disturbance induced by T1 construction. Based upon closed-form plasticity solutions for an unloading cylindrical cavity, this study employs subsurface settlement troughs to determine the shear modulus change during twin-tunnelling. Observations of 1 g model tests for twin-tunnelling in overconsolidated kaolin clay are interpreted from literature. After T1 construction, for positions with different radial distances but a constant angle with respect to the vertical line above the tunnel center, the graph of radial displacement/tunnel radius versus tunnel radius/radial distance exhibits good linearity. Further analyses demonstrate that the shear stiffness decreases as the angle increases. In comparison, during T2 construction, the shear modulus of soils close to T1 degrades, while the other side increases. In light of the observations of combined axial–torsional tests, the tendency of shear modulus change can be attributed to the rotation of principal stress axes. The findings can explain the differential settlements over closely spaced twin tunnels in clayey ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To characterize the tolerance of different types of human epidermal cells to trypsinization in vitro and develop a new method to separate and purify melanocytes according to their tolerance to trypsinization. Epidermal cells were obtained by separating the epidermis from human foreskins. Some of those cells were used for routine culture, and then were subjected to differential trypsin digestion. The remaining epidermal cells were resuspended in a 0.25% trypsin solution and then were neutralized by the addition of bovine serum at different time points. Immunofluorescence staining of HMB45, K15 and vimentin was used to identify melanocytes, keratinocytes and fibroblasts, respectively. We found that Keratinocytes, melanocytes and fibroblasts are primary cells obtained from conventional cultures of human skin. Purified keratinocytes and melanocytes can be obtained by conventional differential trypsin digestion, but fibroblasts in the melanocyte population quickly gain a survival advantage after passage. With longer trypsin digestion times, the number of adherent cells decreased, the time required for cell attachment increased, and the proportion of melanocytes increased. There were no obvious keratinocytes in cell populations obtained after 12 h of trypsinization of epidermal cells, and more short spindle-shaped melanocytes appeared, all of which were HMB45-positive. In conclusion, the tolerance of human epidermal melanocytes to trypsinization in vitro was better than epidermal keratinocytes, and that property can be used to purify melanocytes and was better than traditional differential trypsin digestion. The morphology of cells that survived the long-term trypsin digestion changed and they had good proliferative activity, but seemed to be more immature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a parallel-machine scheduling problem in which job rejection is allowed and the actual processing time of a job depends on the sum of certain parameters associated with the jobs scheduled earlier. The goal is to minimize the sum of the makespan of the accepted jobs and total rejection penalty of the rejected jobs. When the number of machines is fixed, we develop an exact dynamic programming algorithm and a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme for solving it. When the number of machines is restricted to one, we reformulate the problem as a variant of a half-product problem, which allows us to design a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme with the best possible running time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address cumulative deterioration scheduling in which two agents compete to perform their respective jobs on a single machine. By cumulative deterioration we mean that the actual processing time of any job of the two agents is a linear increasing function of the total normal processing times of already processed jobs. Each agent desires to optimize some scheduling criterion that depends on the completion times of its own jobs only. We study several scheduling problems arising from different combinations of some regular scheduling criteria, including the maximum cost (embracing lateness and makespan as its special cases), the total completion time, and the (weighted) number of tardy jobs. The aim is to find an optimal schedule that minimizes the objective value of one agent while maintaining the objective value of the other agent not exceeding a fixed upper bound. For each problem under study, we design either a polynomial-time or a pseudo-polynomial-time algorithm to solve it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a two-surface plasticity model for describing some important features of saturated clay under cyclic loading conditions, such as closed hysteresis loops, cyclic shakedown and degradation, and different stress–strain relations for two-way loading. The model, namely ACC-2-C, is based on the elastoplastic model ACC-2 (an adapted Modified Cam Clay model with two yield surfaces) developed by Hong et al. (Acta Geotech 11(4):871–885, 2015). The small-strain nonlinearity concept is adopted to achieve the nonlinear characteristics of clay during unloading–loading stage. The new hardening law related to accumulated deviatoric plastic strain is proposed for the inner surface to describe the cyclic shakedown and degradation. Following the advantages of the ACC-2 model, the constitutive equations are simply formulated based on the consistency condition for the inner yield surface. The model is conveniently implemented in a finite element code using a stress integration scheme similar to the Modified Cam Clay model. The simulation results are highly consistent with experimental data from drained and undrained isotropic cyclic triaxial tests in normally consolidated saturated clay under both one-way and two-way loadings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the popularity of the automatic precipitation gauges in national weather stations, testing their performance and adjusting their measurements are top priorities. Additionally, because different climatic conditions may have different effects on the performance of the precipitation gauges, it is also necessary to test the gauges in different areas. This study mainly analyzed precipitation measurements from the single-Alter-shielded TRwS204 automatic weighing gauge (TRwSSA) relative to the adjusted manual measurements (reference precipitation) from the Chinese standard precipitation gauge in a double-fence wind shield (CSPGDF) in the Hulu watershed in the Qilian Mountains, China. The measurements were compared over the period from August 2014 to July 2017, and the transfer function derived from the work by Kochendorfer et al. (2017a) for correcting wind-induced losses was applied to the TRwSSA measurements. The results show that the average loss of TRwSSA measurements relative to the reference precipitation decreased from 0.55 mm (10.7%) to 0.51 mm (9.9%) for rainfall events, from 0.35 mm (8.5%) to 0.22 mm (5.3%) for sleet events, and from 0.49 mm (18.9%) to 0.33 mm (12.7%) for snowfall events after adjustment. The uncorrected large biases of TRwSSA measurements are considered to be mainly caused by specific errors of TRwSSA, different gauge orifice area and random errors. These types of errors must be considered when comparing precipitation measurements for different gauge types, especially in the mountains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Location-based services allow users to perform check-in actions, which record the geo-spatial activities and provide a plentiful source to do more accurate and useful geographical recommendation. In this paper, we present a novel PreferredTime-aware Route Planning (PTRP) problem, which aims to recommend routes whose locations are not only representative but also need to satisfy users’ preference. The central idea is that the goodness of visiting locations along a route is significantly affected by the visiting time and user preference, and each location has its own proper visiting time due to its category and population. We develop a four-stage preference-based time-aware route planning framework. First, since there is usually either noise time on existing locations or no visiting information on new locations, we devise an inference method, LocTimeInf, to predict the location visiting time on routes. Second, considering the geographical, social, and temporal information of users, we propose the GST-Clus method to group users with similar location visiting preferences. Third, we find the representative and popular time-aware location-transition behaviors by proposing Time-aware Transit Pattern Mining (TTPM) algorithm. Finally, based on the mined time-aware transit patterns, we develop a Preferred Route Search (PR-Search) algorithm to construct the final time-aware routes. Experiments on Gowalla and Foursquare check-in data exhibit the promising effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed methods, comparing to a series of competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to avoid leakage problem caused by liquid electrolyte, a new ionogel electrolyte was developed by in situ immobilizing organosilicon-functionalized ionic liquid within a nanoporous silica matrix. The ionic liquid evenly coats on the surface of porous silica and fills in the silica framework pores with no strong chemical interaction. The ionogel electrolyte has the dual advantages of a silica solid support and a wide electrochemical stability window of ionic liquid (4.87 V vs. Li+/Li). The half-cells assembled with this electrolyte and LiFePO4 electrode have excellent performance at room temperature and 60 °C. The Li/SiO2-IGE/LiFePO4 cell displays a discharge capacity of 129.1 mAh·g−1 after 200 charge/discharge cycles at room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different variants of the multi-agent scheduling have been studied in the literature due to its wide applications in artificial intelligence, decision theory, operations research, etc. Most of previous research focused on the single-machine environment and two-agent scheduling. In this paper, we address a multi-agent scheduling problem on a set of m machines in a proportionate flow shop system, where the job processing times are machine independent. Each agent desires to maximize its total gains of JIT jobs which are completed exactly at the due dates. The goal is to find a feasible schedule in which each agent's cost function value does not less than a given lower bound. When the number of agents is part of the input, we use the reduction method to show that the general problem is strongly $$\mathcal {NP}$$ -complete even if all jobs have unit processing times. When the number of agents is fixed, we first develop a dynamic programming algorithm that runs in pseudo-polynomial time, then we design a fully polynomial time approximation scheme by exploiting the technique of trimming-the-state-space. The results presented in this paper imply that by relaxing each agent's desired cost function value a small fraction, we can obtain an efficient approximate schedule for the problem with fixed number of agents in polynomial time, while when the number of agents is part of the input, the problem become much intractable, and it needs more sophisticated methods to solve in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land surface temperature (LST) causes the phase change of water, links to the partitioning of surface water and energy budget, and becomes an important parameter to hydrology, meteorology, ecohydrology, and other researches in the high mountain cold regions. Unlike air temperature, which has common altitudinal lapse rates in the mountainous regions, the influence of terrain leads to complicated estimation for soil LST. This study presents two methods that use air temperature and solar position, to estimate bare LST with high temporal resolution over horizontal sites and mountainous terrain with a random slope azimuth. The data from three horizontal meteorological stations and fourteen LST observation fields with different aspects and slopes were used to test the proposed LST methods. The calculated and measured LST were compared in a range of statistical analysis, and the analysis showed that the average RMSE (root mean square error), MAD (mean absolute deviation), and R (correlation coefficient) for three horizontal sites were 5.09°C, 3.66°C, 0.92, and 5.03°C, 3.52°C, 0.85 for the fourteen complex terrain sites. The proposed methods showed acceptable accuracy, provide a simple way to estimate LST, and will be helpful for simulating the water and energy cycles in alpine mountainous terrain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jiande copper deposit is located in the Qin-Hang metallogenic belt, South China. The deposit is dominated by 'stratiform-like' ores, which are hosted in the dolomite of the Upper Carboniferous Huanglong Formation. These ore bodies were previously proposed to be Carboniferous sedimentary exhalative (Sedex) style mineralization, but they also appear to be related to the Late Mesozoic granodiorite porphyry at Jiande. Three stages of mineralization can be observed. The prograde skarn minerals garnet and diopside were formed in the pre-ore stage. The 'stratiform-like' ores, with minor quartz-polymetallic veins, were formed in the main mineralization stage. The post-ore stage is characterized by quartz-calcite ± pyrite veins. Fluid inclusions in quartz from the pre-ore skarn, the main stage of mineralization, and post-ore quartz-calcite ± pyrite veins were studied. Fluid inclusion petrography shows that two-phase liquid-rich (Type I), two-phase vapor-rich (Type II), and halite-bearing (Type III) fluid inclusions can be identified in the studied hydrothermal quartz samples. Primary Type II and Type III fluid inclusions only occur in quartz from the the main stage, whereas Type I fluid inclusions are present in all three stages of hydrothermal quartz.Type I fluid inclusions in pre-ore stage have homogenization temperatures of 290-368°C and salinities of 2.6-8.8 wt.% NaCl equiv. Type II and coexisting Type III fluid inclusions in the main stage share similar homogenization temperatures of 293 to 334 °C and 290 to 326 °C,but have two contrasting salinity ranges of 1.2 to 2.2 wt.% and 31.87 to 38.16 wt.% NaCl equiv, respectively. The coexistence of Type II and Type III fluid inclusions and their similar homogenization temperatures but contrasting salinities suggest that fluid boiling processes occurred. Type I fluid inclusions in the post-ore quartz-calcite veins have homogenization temperatures of 202-278 °C and salinities of 0.2-6.5 wt.% NaCl equiv. The hydrogen and oxygen isotopes (δD ranges from -78 ‰ to -61 ‰, δOHO calculated from quartz are from 8.1 ‰ to 10.6 ‰) of fluid inclusions in quartz imply that ore fluids were principally derived from magmatic water. The lead isotopes of sulfide from the ores are close to the orogenic Pb evolution curve and are also similar to those of the Jiande Jurassic igneous rocks, suggesting that the metals were sourced mostly from the Jurassic igneous rocks. The skarn alteration, inferred boiling fluid inclusion assemblages, stable isotopic features of magmatic fluids, and metal source imply that the main stages of mineralization in the Jiande polymetallic copper deposit is of skarn-type, related to Jurassic granodiorites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FPGAs have been widely used for accelerating various applications. For many data intensive applications, the memory bandwidth limits the performance. 3D memories with through-silicon-via connections provide potential solutions to the latency and bandwidth limitations. In this paper, we revisit the classic 2D FFT problem to evaluate the performance of 3D memory integrated FPGA. To fully utilize the fine-grained parallelism in 3D memory, data layouts which take into account the structure and organization of the memory are required. We propose dynamic data layouts for optimizing the performance of the 3D architecture. In 2D FFT, data are accessed in row major order in the first phase, whereas the data are accessed in column major order in the second phase. This column major order results in high memory latency and low bandwidth due to high row activation overhead of memory. Using the proposed dynamic data layouts, we improve memory access performance in the second phase without degrading the performance of the first phase. With parallelism employed in the third dimension of the memory, data parallelism can be increased to further improve the performance. We adopt a model-based approach for 3D memory and we perform experiments on the FPGA to validate our analysis and evaluate the performance. Compared with the baseline architecture, our approach achieves up to $$40\times $$ peak memory bandwidth utilization for columnwise FFT, thus resulting in approximately $$97\,\,\%$$ improvement in throughput for the complete 2D FFT application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]