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Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a typical two-dimensional material, which is widely used in many fields because of its excellent electrical and optical properties. In recent years, the high-quality growth of MoS2 has attracted more and more attention from researchers. Many studies have reported a two-step method for the production of MoS2 by pre-deposition of molybdenum (Mo) source and then vulcanization, which is cumbersome and time-consuming, and the preparation temperature is mostly above 800 °C, increasing energy consumption and experimental risk. In this paper, S source and Mo source can be distinguished by double temperature zone tube furnace to prepare MoS2 material in one-step method. The temperatures of S and Mo sources were designed separately, and the effect of each temperature on the quality of MoS2 was investigated. And the monolayer MoS2 with high crystalline quality was obtained at a S source temperature of 165 °C and a Mo source temperature of 680 °C. We produce MoS2 in one-step method at low temperature, which provides a reference for the synthesis of high-quality monolayer MoS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research is presented describing the ab initio study of gas phase acrylic acid photodissociaiton.

Objective: The G‐allele of the ‐1019C/G (rs6295) promoter polymorphism of the serotonin receptor 1A (HTR1A) gene has been implicated in anxiety; however, the underlying neurophysiological processes are still not fully understood. Recent evidence indicates that low parasympathetic (vagal) tone is predictive of anxiety. We thus conducted a structural equation model (SEM) to examine whether the HTR1A rs6295 variant can affect anxiety by altering parasympathetic nervous activity. Method: A sample of 1141 drug‐free healthy Han Chinese was recruited for HTR1A genotyping. Autonomic nervous function was assessed by short‐term spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). Anxiety and stress levels were evaluated by the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) respectively. Results: The number of the HTR1A G allele was inversely correlated with high‐frequency power (HF), a parasympathetic index of HRV. The HF index was negatively associated with BAI scores. Furthermore, the good‐fitting SEM, adjusting for confounding variables (e.g., age and PSS levels), revealed a significant pathway linking rs6295 variant to BAI scores via HF index modulation. Conclusion: These results are the first to show that HTR1A ‐1019C/G polymorphism influences anxiety levels by modulating parasympathetic tone, providing a neurophysiological insight into the role of HTR1A in human anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents some joint source and relay power allocation algorithms in the amplify-and-forward (AF) relay networks using the efficacious geometric programming (GP). According to the constraints, approximate expressions of the received signal-to-noise ratio are first obtained. Thereafter, the problems are cast into appropriate GP forms according to the constraints. The power allocated to the source(s) and to the relays is then determined iteratively via the single condensation method. The new GP approach is shown to be applicable to a variety of constraints by using all of the relays for assistance and is amenable to asymmetric channels in both the single-user and multi-user AF relay networks. Conducted simulations show that the proposed power allocation schemes can attain superior performance compared with the previous works under various constraints in miscellaneous scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a simple and efficient genetic algorithm-assisted approach for joint quantised precoding and transmit antenna selection based on the criterion of maximum capacity. The objective is to alleviate the effect of multi-user interference and to reduce hardware costs, such as the cost of radio frequency chains associated with antennas in the downlink of multi-input multi-output systems with limited feedback. To avoid the enormous search effort required by existing approaches, the authors propose a novel variant of the conventional genetic algorithm, called the hybrid genetic algorithm, in which each chromosome is divided into a bit string for precoding vector selection and an integer string for transmit antenna selection. In addition, new crossover and mutation operations are employed to accommodate these new chromosomes. The results of simulations show that the performance of the proposed approach is close to that of the exhaustive search method, but its computational complexity is substantially lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a two-stage power allocation for the amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperative networks with distributed generalised ABBA (GABBA) space-time codes. The new power allocation scheme first determines the transmit power between the source node and the relay nodes by maximising the instantaneous rate, and thereafter optimises the power distribution among the relay nodes via the water-filling. Also, a maximum-likelihood detection, which makes use of the encoding structure of the distributed GABBA space-time codes, is addressed to alleviate the computational overhead. Moreover, a performance analysis including the array gain and the diversity gain is also scrutinised to provide further insights into the cooperative networks considered, where the destination is equipped with multiple antennas. Conducted simulations show that the GABBA coded AF cooperative networks incorporated with the proposed two-stage power allocation can attain close or even superior performance compared with previous works but with substantially reduced computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was conducted to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of enrofloxacin following a single oral gavage (10 mg kg−1) in mud crab, Scylla serrata, at water temperatures of 19 and 26 °C. Enrofloxacin concentration in haemolymph was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A multiple and repeated haemolymph sampling from the articular cavity of crab periopods was developed. The haemolymph of an individual crab was successfully sampled up to 11 times from the articular cavity. The profile of haemolymph enrofloxacin concentration of an individual crab versus time was thus achieved. The mean haemolymph enrofloxacin concentration versus time was described by a two-compartment model with first-order absorption at two water temperatures. The peak concentrations of haemolymph enrofloxacin at 19 and 26 °C were 7.26 and 11.03 μg mL−1, at 6 and 2 h, respectively. The absorption and distribution half-life time ( and t1/2 α) at 19 °C were 3.7 and 4.5 h, respectively, which were markedly larger than the corresponding values (1.1 and 1.5 h) at 26 °C; the elimination half-life time ( t1/2 β) was 79.1 and 56.5 h at 19 and 26 °C, respectively. The area under curve (AUC), total body clearance ( Cl) and mean residence time (MRT0–∞) at 19 °C were 636.0 mg L−1 h, 0.016 L h−1 kg−1 and 102.5 h, respectively; the corresponding values at 26 °C were 583.4 mg L−1 h, 0.018 L h−1 kg−1and 63.7 h. These results indicate that enrofloxacin is absorbed and eliminated more rapidly in mud crab at 26 °C than at 19 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a subband beamformer with the generalised sidelobe canceller (GSC) as the underlying structure. This new beamformer, referred to as the subcanceller, determines the statistically optimum filter bank succeeding the blocking matrix of the GSC based on the minimum mean-square error criterion. As a consequence, the signals passing through the lower branch of the GSC are decomposed into more appropriate subband components by such filter banks according to the input data statistics to enhance the interference suppression capability. The determination of the filter bank coefficients, however, calls for computationally demanding nonlinear optimisation. To alleviate the computational overhead, an iterative procedure is also proposed, which solves the Rayleigh quotient in each iteration. Furthermore, a detailed performance analysis of the proposed beamformer is conducted, which includes the development expression of the output signal to interference-plus-noise ratio and its implications, and the analysis of the convergence characteristic. Furnished simulations show that the new scheme yields superior interference suppression performance with a faster convergence rate compared with previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and classical swine fever (CSF) cause significant economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. As both diseases cause similar symptoms, rapid and reliable detection of these diseases is essential for disease surveillance. A quantitative SYBR Green I-based reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is described for simultaneous and differential diagnosis. The established RT-PCR for the quantitation of PRRSV and CSFV cDNA was found to provide a broad dynamic range, detecting from 103 to 1011 and 102 to 1011 copies of cDNA per reaction, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of this method were compared with those of conventional RT-PCR and both were equal or superior to the reference method. Reproducibility was tested and the assay was proved very reliable. The assay is timesaving, easy to handle, and highly sensitive and specific. Therefore, it is a powerful tool for detecting PRRSV and CSFV simultaneously for routine outbreak investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple, yet effective, method is proposed to form the group signature sequences for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) multicarrier code-division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems. By minimising the projection onto a properly constructed subspace, the signature sequences are recursively determined group by group. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a typical two-dimensional material, which is widely used in many fields because of its excellent electrical and optical properties. In recent years, the high-quality growth of MoS2 has attracted more and more attention from researchers. Many studies have reported a two-step method for the production of MoS2 by pre-deposition of molybdenum (Mo) source and then vulcanization, which is cumbersome and time-consuming, and the preparation temperature is mostly above 800 °C, increasing energy consumption and experimental risk. In this paper, S source and Mo source can be distinguished by double temperature zone tube furnace to prepare MoS2 material in one-step method. The temperatures of S and Mo sources were designed separately, and the effect of each temperature on the quality of MoS2 was investigated. And the monolayer MoS2 with high crystalline quality was obtained at a S source temperature of 165 °C and a Mo source temperature of 680 °C. We produce MoS2 in one-step method at low temperature, which provides a reference for the synthesis of high-quality monolayer MoS2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water scarcity is one of the most challenging issues in arid and semi-arid regions. In the Yellow River basin, rapid growth of population, urbanization, and industrialization have caused ever-increasing competition for water This study was conducted to evaluate the potential effects of climate change on mean annual runoff in the Yellow River basin under different climate change scenarios projected by the Hadley Centre's third-generation general circulation model (HadCM3) using an evaporation ratio function of the aridity index. The results showed that annual runoff was more sensitive to change in precipitation than to change in evaporation. Simulations using HadCM3 scenarios A2 and B2 indicated that the changes in annual runoff compared to 30-year average runoff for each region, which varied from region to region, ranged from -34.1% to 49.6%. In general, the potential changes in annual runoff were greater in the middle and down reaches of the Yellow River basin. For the Yellow River basin as a whole, the mean annual runoff increased up to 2.2%, 12.3%, and 11.4% for scenario A2, and the changes were 8.4%, -0.1%, and 5.3% for scenario B2 by the years 2020, 2050, and 2080, respectively. However, the increase in future annual runoff will be insufficient to meet projected water demands of the Yellow River Basin. Proper water management and water conservation technologies will need to be considered for the coming century to avoid water shortages. The expected increases in runoff require that more attention will be given to soil and water conservation practices such as vegetation and check-dam construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]