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The simultaneous strengthening of mechanical and magnetic properties is an ideal fabrication strategy for soft-magnetic materials. A non-equiatomic Al19Co20Fe20Ni41 eutectic high-entropy alloy was prepared to investigate the alloying effect of B on the microstructure evolution, phase formation, mechanical and soft-magnetic properties. With the increase in B content, the microstructures of (Al19Co20Fe20Ni41)100−xBx alloys transformed from the initial lamellar eutectic structure (x=0) to the divorced eutectic structure (x>0.6). Fine borides precipitated in the intergranular phase (x≥0.6). The hardness of alloys increased from HV 328.66 to HV 436.34 and the compression mechanical performance displayed a transition from plastic material to brittle material. The Al19Co20Fe20Ni41 alloy possesses good soft-magnetic properties, and the minor B addition has little effect on it. Increasing the resistivity can effectively reduce the eddy current loss when used as a soft-magnetic material.

With the rapid development of electric and information technologies, security issues are becoming a pressing concern. This has given rise to a plethora of authentication techniques, leading among them being the fixed-password method due to its simple mechanism and independence from any specific hardware in the modern smartphone. While fixed-password methods enjoy benefits such as ease of use, potential security issues associated with password leakage cannot be ignored. This article, investigates an alternative strategy based on user keystrokes. Here, the user touch times and force features are extracted from a piezoelectric force touch panel which is an integral part of the hardware. Three broadly adopted machine learning classifiers are used for the collected data set, finally achieving an Equal Error Rate (EER) of 0.720%.

In the picture of the Internet of Things (IoT), smart human-machine interfaces (HMIs) play a significant role. Desired attributes for smart HMIs include multidimensional sensing, flexibility with stable responsiveness, and a long operational lifetime. To this end, in this article, we present a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/Au/polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) sandwiched architecture. Piezoelectric property of the PVDF is utilized for dynamic force sensing and touch-induced energy harvesting. A mutual capacitive based technique is employed for two-dimensional (2D) position recognition, hover distance measurement and curvature self-detection, as well as helping in compensating the static force detection shortage of the piezoelectric sensing layer. The presented HMI system achieved an overall force sensitivity at 0.07 N and capacitive resolution at 0.004 pF; and a force responsivity at 2.36 V/N in the pressure range of 1 N-30 N. In each touch event, the maximum capacitance change and the electric energy harvested in a stored capacitor are averaged at 0.016 pF and 0.038 nJ, respectively. Furthermore, interdigitated electrodes are implemented for self-detecting the device curvature. With pre-correlating of the force-voltage response under different bending degrees, a stable force detection response is realized when the shape of the device changes. The work presented in this article advances the field of human-machine interactivities.

Piezoelectric force touch panels have attracted a significant amount of interest in the field of human–machine interactivity, owing to its merits, such as a low power consumption, high force detection sensitivity and simple panel structure. However, the unstable force–voltage responsivity introduced by various touch orientations limits its successful use in interactive displays. To address this issue, in this article, we present a machine learning-based technique, in which a user finger touch-induced capacitive pattern is used to train an artificial neural network (ANN). Using this technique, a high touch angle classification accuracy (95.7%) and a high average force detection accuracy (90%) of distinct touch orientations are achieved. The presented technique prompts the development of piezoelectric force touch panels.

In this article, the pivotal inference is proposed to estimate the two unknown parameters of the inverse exponentiated Rayleigh distribution based on progressive censored data. We derive the point ...

For wide applications of the lacZ gene in cellular/molecular biology, small animal investigations, and clinical assessments, the improvement of noninvasive imaging approaches to precisely assay gene expression has garnered much attention. In this study, we investigate a novel molecular platform in which alizarin 2-O-β-d-galactopyranoside AZ-1 acts as a lacZ gene/β-gal responsive 1H-MRI probe to induce significant 1H-MRI contrast changes in relaxation times T1 and T2in situ as a concerted effect for the discovery of β-gal activity with the exposure of Fe3+. We also demonstrate the capability of this strategy for detecting β-gal activity with lacZ-transfected human MCF7 breast and PC3 prostate cancer cells by reaction-enhanced 1H-MRI T1 and T2 relaxation mapping.

While Landweber iteration is a popular image reconstruction algorithm for electrical capacitance tomography (ECT), it suffers from semi-convergence. In process control, PID controllers are commonly used, where P stands for proportional, I stands for integral, and D stands for derivative. Proper setting of the PID parameters can reduce the response time and enhance the accuracy and stability of control systems. In this paper, an extended PI controller is integrated with the Landweber method to relieve its semi-convergence, which is named the Landweber-PI method. To stabilize the iteration process, constraints are imposed on the integral term of the PI controller. In comparison with the conventional Landweber method and its modified variants, simulation was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method by imaging typical distributions using ECT sensors with different number of electrodes, 8 or 12 or 16 electrodes, and capacitance data without and with noise. The simulation results were validated by static experiment, showing that the proposed method converges within 50 iterations for the specified core, annular, stratified, and other two complex distributions and remains stable after 1000 iterations, while the other methods converge slowly and become divergent eventually. Regarding the reconstruction accuracy, the derived void fractions by the proposed method have smaller absolute deviations than the other methods in most cases, with a minimum of 0.3% and a maximum of 4.3%. The gas–solid flows in a real fluidized bed were imaged, with more image details reconstructed after five iterations. The improved performance of the Landweber-PI method was justified by singular value decomposition analysis.

With the United Nations’ announcement of the 2030 sustainable development goals agenda, the electronic industry is striving to improve corporate sustainability performance. Studies have attempted to consider knowledge management to promote corporate sustainability performance. However, the possible linkages and potential benefits for bridging knowledge management and corporate sustainability performance are still lacking in previous discussions. To address this gap, this study proposes a hybrid method that integrates a fuzzy synthetic method with an analytical network process to develop an inter-dependent hierarchical framework. The results indicate that the relation, operation and economy aspects must align with the priority goal of achieving better corporate sustainability performance. Improvements of these aspects rely on the knowledge management of developing rigid external collaboration, adopting information technology-supported processes and expanding capital for developing knowledge management. This study contributes to (1) bridging knowledge management and corporate sustainability performance; (2) providing a hybrid method to develop a hierarchical framework; and (3) giving specific directions for guiding improvements. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Piezoelectric-based force sensing in interactive displays has attracted worldwide attention due to its intrinsic ability to efficiently convert mechanical energy into electric energy. However, because of faulty detection accuracy, commercialized products using piezoelectric materials have not succeeded in fully entering the market. To explain this situation, we investigate the matter through a finite element analysis (FEA) method. The results of our investigation reveal that unstable forcevoltage responsivity and propagated stress resulting from adjacent force-touch locations are two key issues that substantially degrade detection accuracy.

We study statistical inference of the inverted exponentiated Rayleigh distribution under progressively first-failure censoring samples in our paper. Specifically, we deal with Maximum likelihood and Bayes estimators of parameters. The observed Fisher matrix is conducive to obtain asymptotic confidence interval. Parametric bootstrap methods are applied to provide the confidence intervals. Bayes estimators in terms of squared error loss function are derived with Metropolis–Hastings technique, which are helpful to construct highest posterior density credible intervals. We compare the behavior of various estimators by conducting Monte Carlo simulations. A set of actual data is analyzed to introduce the proposed methods.

China is facing the challenge of climate change and environmental protection in line with the promotion of sustainable development goals. Climate, environmental, and economic policy can each individually impact the effectiveness of other policies in the process of implementation. Understanding synergies among policy measures and identifying the co-benefits of environmental sustainable development generated by them is the focus of the paper. Because of existing restrictions in current research methods, the research community lacks the capacity to detect the interrelation among environmental, economic, and social development. Co-benefit research has gradually become an important area on sustainable development. Based on endogenous economic growth theory, we build a modified endogenous growth model to determine the optimal rates of economic growth, environmental pollution, energy input, and other factors in the context of co-benefits. Further empirical analysis is given which is missing in previous studies in this field. The empirical analysis reveals that China’s actual GDP, consumption, energy input, and physical capital growth rates are much higher than the optimal growth rate. However, the human capital and environmental pollution control growth rates are slower than the optimal values. Although China has a rapid growth in economy, the optimal level of comprehensive co-benefits has not been reached yet.

Veramyosides A-J, eleven undescribed stigmastane-type steroids, including one aglycone and ten glycosides, along with three known homologues were isolated from the twigs of Vernonia amygdalina Delile (compositae). All compounds featured a stigmastane-type steroid skeleton with a unique conjugated Δ7,9(11) diene segment and highly oxygenated side chains with a γ-lactone or an α, β-unsaturated five-membered lactone ring. The structures of veramyosides A-J and their absolute configurations were unambiguously elucidated by HR-ESI-MS, extensive NMR spectroscopy, in situ dimolybdenum CD methods, modified Mosher's method, quantum chemical calculation of their ECD curves, and CD comparison methods on basis of their biogenetic pathway. In addition, all isolates were investigated for their effects on RXRα transcription, and their effects on the NF-κB signaling pathway were also evaluated.

Piezoelectric force touch panels receive increased attentions in recent years. However, user-induced nonstable force-voltage responsivity limits their successful use in interactive displays. In this work, touch-induced capacitive information is used for estimating contact area and touch angle, which are further employed to interpret user performed force amplitude. A promising result of improving the stability of force-voltage responsivity by 85% is achieved, enhancing user experience and advancing the development of piezoelectric force sensing in interactive displays.

Interactive displays have been intensively used in consumer electronics, e.g., smartphones, for providing highly efficient human-machine interactions, assisting users to process a vast amount of data. However, current mainstream interactive displays only support 2-dimensional detection, strongly limiting user experience. In this paper, we present a piezoelectric and capacitive based technique for obtaining 4-dimensional detection, including (x-y axis) location, force, and hovers sensing in interactive displays. Here, electrodes are located on and underneath the piezoelectric layer, constructing a sandwich structured device. A self-capacitance-based technique is employed for location and hover sensing. Force-induced charges are collected and interpreted as force amplitude. As capacitive and piezoelectric sensing techniques occupy different frequency bands, these two signals can be smoothly separated, and 4-dimensional touch sensing is achieved concurrently, with the recognition of static force and hovers touch events.

The amount of volumetric brain image increases rapidly, which requires a vast amount of resources for storage and transmission, so it’s urgent to explore an efficient volumetric compression method. Recent years have witnessed the progress of deep learning-based approaches for two-dimensional (2D) natural image compression, but the field of learned volumetric image compression still remains unexplored. In this paper, we propose the first end-to-end learning framework for volumetric image compression by extending the advanced techniques of 2D image compression to volumetric images. Specifically, a convolutional autoencoder is used to compress 3D image cubes, and the non-local attention models are embedded in the convolutional autoencoder to jointly capture local and global correlations. Both hyperprior and autoregressive models are used to perform the conditional probability estimation in entropy coding. To reduce model complexity, we introduce a convolutional long short-term memory network for the autoregressive model based on channel-wise prediction. Experimental results on volumetric mouse brain images show that the proposed method outperforms JPEG2000-3D, HEVC and state-of-the-art 2D methods.

Two new compounds, triacremoniate (1) and dietziamide C (2) along with known compounds β-Adenosine (3) and acrepyrone A (4) were obtained from the mangrove-derived fungus Acremonium citrinum. MMF4. Their structures were unambiguously determined by extensive spectroscopic methods, including UV, IR, HRESIMS and NMR. Triacremoniate (1) can promote apoptosis of HeLa cells by increasing the PARP cleavage and the phosphorylation of JNK and p38.

The chemical investigation on endophytic fungus Annulohypoxylon cf. stygium in leaves of Anoectochilus roxburghii (Wall.) Lindl. Sixteen compounds were isolated and their structures were identified as palmarumycin CP2 ( 1 ), (-)-(3R)-mellein methyl ethe ( 2 ), kipukasins D ( 3 ), kipukasins E ( 4 ), secosterigmatocystin ( 5 ), notoamide D ( 6 ), notoamide C ( 7 ), (+)-versicolamide B ( 8 ), (-)-notoamide A ( 9 ), (-)-notoamide B ( 10 ), diorcinal ( 11 ), stephacidin A ( 12 ), sterigmatocystin ( 13 ), versiconol ( 14 ), dihydrosterigmatocystin ( 15 ), and averufanin ( 16 ) respectively by spectroscopic analysis and comparison with literature data. All the compounds were isolated from Annulohypoxylon genus for the first time. Compounds 1 and 13 showed selective cytotoxic activities against HepG2, Hela, MCF-7 and HT-29.

In this study, corrosion behaviour of double-phase Al1.3CrFeNi chemically complex alloy was investigated, including hot corrosion and electrochemical corrosion. Hot corrosion behaviour of Al1.3CrFe...

In this paper, a novel eight-parameter empirical nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) model for gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is presented. A hyperbolic sine function is introduced in this model to describe the transfer characteristics between drain-source current, Ids, and gate-source voltage, Vgs. The self-heating and trapping effects have been considered and incorporated into the proposed model through expansion parameters. The proposed model has been verified on four different types of GaN HEMTs with good agreements between the simulated curves and the measured data. Comparison between the proposed model and other traditional non-square-law models indicates a significant accuracy improvement especially in linear region by the proposed model. This simple but accurate empirical I-V model can be easily implemented for computer aided circuit design and simulation with GaN HEMTs.

Force touch based interactivity has been widely integrated into displays equipped in most of smart electronic systems such as smartphones and tablets. This paper reports on application of artificial neural networks to analyze data generated from piezoelectric based touch panels for providing customized force sensing operation. Based on the experimental results, high force sensing accuracy (93.3%) is achieved when three force levels are used. Two-dimensional sensing, also achieved with the proposed technique, with high detection accuracy (95.2%). The technique presented here not only achieves high accuracy, but also allows users to define the range of force levels through behavioral means thus enhancing interactivity experience.

A series of 17β-amide-2-methoxyestradiol compounds were synthesized with an aim to enhance the antiproliferative effect of 2-methoxyestradiol. The antiproliferative activity of 2-methoxyestradiol analogs against human cancer cells was investigated. 2-methoxy-3-benzyloxy-17β-chloroacetamide-1,3,5(10)-triene (5e) and 2-methoxy-3-hydroxy-17β-butyramide-1,3,5(10)-triene (6c) had comparable or better antitumor activity than 2-methoxyestradiol. The elimination half-life of 6c (t1/2β=240.93min) is ten times longer than 2-ME and the area under the curve was seven times (AUC0-tmin=2068.20±315.74μgmL-1min) higher than 2-ME, respectively. Whereas 5e had similar pharmacokinetic behavior with 2-ME (t1/2β=22.28min) with a t1/2β of 29.5 min. 6c had higher blood concentration, longer actuation duration and better suppression rate against S180 mouse ascites tumor than 2-methoxyestradiol.

AlxCrFeNi multi-component alloys were fabricated by vacuum arc-melting to study the effect of homogenization on microstructures of as-cast and homogenized alloys using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Besides, electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity of as-cast and homogenized alloys were also investigated. The results showed that no obvious differences of crystal structures and phase compositions between these as-cast and homogenizing alloys were presented. However, transmission electron microscope indicated that the ordered B2 NiAl intermetallic nanoparticles, which were distributed on the disordered BCC [Fe, Cr] solid solution of as-cast Al1.2CrFeNi alloy, disappeared after homogenization. For AlxCrFeNi alloys, the electrical resistivity increased with Al addition and dramatic increase of thermal conductivity was presented with increasing the homogenization temperatures. However, homogenization could decrease both electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity of as-cast alloys. The main factors influencing the changes of electrothermal properties of AlxCrFeNi alloys were the electron scattering affected by crystal defects, phase boundaries and temperatures.

The self-designed HaiYang-2B (HY-2B) satellite was launched on 24 October 2018 in China at 22:57 UT in a 99.34&deg, inclination sun-synchronous orbit. The Scanning Microwave Radiometer (SMR) on the core observatory has the capability to provide near-real-time multi-channel brightness temperature (Tb) observations, which are designed mainly for improving the level of marine forecasting and monitoring, serving the development and utilization of marine resources. After internal calibration and ocean calibration, the first effort to retrieve land surface snow parameters was performed in this study, which obtained extremely low accuracy both in snow extent and snow mass. Accordingly, land inter-sensor calibration was carried out between SMR and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) in order to broaden the research and application of SMR data on the Earth&rsquo, s land surface. Finally, we evaluated the consistency of the snow extent and snow mass derived from the initial and land-calibrated SMR data. The results indicated that a systematic SMR cold deviation whose magnitude depends on the channel is present for all the compared channels. After intercalibration, the conformity of the snow extent and snow mass were substantially improved compared to before, the relative bias of the snow extent and snow mass decreased from &minus, 49.97% to 2.97% and from &minus, 51.71% to 3.01%, respectively.

Conventional electrical resistance tomography (ERT) sensors suffer from the fringe effect, i.e., severe distortion of the electric field on both ends of the measurement electrodes, leading to a 3D sensing region for a 2D sensor. As a result, the objects outside an ERT sensor plane affect the sensing and hence image, i.e., deteriorating the image quality. To address this issue, a multiple-plane ERT sensor scheme is proposed in this paper. With this scheme, auxiliary sensor planes are used to provide references for the fringe effect of the measurement plane, for compensation by subtracting the weighed influence of the fringe effect. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme, either three-plane or two-plane sensor, can compensate for the fringe effect induced by objects outside the measurement plane with a variety of axial object distributions, i.e., several non-conductive bars or conductive bars placed at different cross-sectional and axial positions inside the sensor. Experiments were carried out. Images obtained with single-plane and multiple-plane ERT sensors are compared, and the proposed compensation scheme has been hence verified.

This work presents a laser absorption spectroscopy-based three-dimensional velocity measurement technique for non-uniform high-speed flow diagnosis. Compared with the extra particle-based velocimetry methods, the developed technique avoids the issues raised by adding solid particles, through utilizing the Doppler shifts of absorption lines induced by the interaction between multi-angled laser beams and the target molecules. Numerical verification is carried out by reconstructing the 3D velocity distribution in a simulated scramjet combustor. The results successfully demonstrate the feasibility of the implemented technique, in practical strong-noise environment and high-speed status (up to 1100 m/s), potentially enabling applications in harsh and extreme working conditions.

This paper reports on downsampling-based techniques to achieve low power consumption and fast readout for capacitive touch screen panels. Here, touch interactivity is processed as an image, which is downsampled and reconstructed to estimate the touch position. After the reconstruction, a regional scan is performed around the reconstructed touch location to retrieve accurate touch information. Based on experimental and simulation results, we successfully decreased readout time and power consumption by 11.3 ms (68%) and 8.79 mW (68.7%), respectively, when only 25% sensors were selected. The presented technique yields higher responsivity and lower power consumption while maintaining detection accuracy.

Drug target interactions (DTIs) are crucial in pharmacology and drug discovery. Presently, experimental determination of compound-protein interactions remains challenging because of funding investment and difficulties of purifying proteins. In this study, we proposed two in silico models based on support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF), using 1589 molecular descriptors and 1080 protein descriptors in 9948 ligand-protein pairs to predict DTIs that were quantified by Ki values. The cross-validation coefficient of determination of 0.6079 for SVM and 0.6267 for RF were obtained, respectively. In addition, the two-dimensional (2D) autocorrelation, topological charge indices and three-dimensional (3D)-MoRSE descriptors of compounds, the autocorrelation descriptors and the amphiphilic pseudo-amino acid composition of protein are found most important for Ki predictions. These models provide a new opportunity for the prediction of ligand-receptor interactions that will facilitate the target discovery and toxicity evaluation in drug development.

High sensitivity force sensing is a desirable function of capacitance touch screen panels. In this paper, we report on a dynamic force detection technique by utilizing piezoelectric materials. The force-voltage responsivities are investigated for four widely used stack-ups, with various panel thicknesses and touch locations. Based on the theoretical analysis and simulation results, the maximum responsivity and the signal-to-noise ratio are achieved at 0.42 V/N and 59.1 dB, respectively. The proposed technique implements force sensing successfully, enhancing the human–machine interactivity experience.

Previous studies revealed triple bottom line cannot entirely cover the concept of corporate sustainability. This study thus uses sustainable resource management (SRM) to improve corporate sustainability (CS) performance considering the socio-environmental, socio-economical, and eco-efficiency aspects. In this study, the vague set (VS) theory and the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method are integrated as a hybrid decision-making tool by which social media data can be transformed into entropy weights. The results indicate eco-efficiency and society should be prioritized to improve the corporate sustainability performance. Specifically, the aspects should be promoted through encouraging environmental innovation, redesigning consumers' offer, raising support of the institutions and policy measures, and organizing synergetic involvement. The contributions of this study are three-fold: (i) establishing a comprehensive framework for guiding firms make effective improvements; (ii) developing a hybrid VS-TOPSIS method to process the assessment data and social media information and address the interrelationships; (3) identifying the decisive SRM criteria to precisely guide the Chinese automobile industry towards CS under severe resource constraints.

The fracture mechanism of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnet was analyzed from the perspective of crystallology. The fracture is observed at the interface between the Nd2Fe14B main phase (MP) and the thin Nd-rich grain boundary phase (TGBP). The determined angle mismatch and lattice mismatch between the MP and TGBP phase indicate an incoherent interface boundary, weakening the binding force between the MP and TGBP.

Wurster type fluidized bed is widely used for particle coating in many industrial sectors, the gas-solid flow regimes within the fluidized bed is an important issue but rarely discussed in the literature, either numerically or experimentally. In this work, a numerical method that couples computational fluid dynamics with the discrete element method (CFD-DEM) was proposed to investigate the gas-solid flow dynamics in a Wurster type fluidized bed, with a focus on the existing gas-solid flow regimes. Two types of simulation cases, i.e., cold flow cases and the cases accounting for adhesion forces, were carried out. Experimental data by electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) imaging was employed to validate the simulation results. In cold flow cases, two fluidization regimes, including plug, and multi-bubbling were observed in the annulus region of the fluidized bed. It was found that the multi-bubbling regime can further be classified into bottom, localized and global fluidization under different air velocities, and more than 83% of the total particle mass is kept within annulus region. With increase in the inter-particle adhesion force, the flow regime in the annulus region changed from multi-bubbling to single-bubbling, followed by plug flow and eventually defluidization. The multi-bubbling, single-bubbling, and plug flows can be discriminated by cycle time ranges of 0–4, 4–15 and more than 15, respectively. Finally, it was discovered that the particle circulation times was within the ranges of 3–9 s, and the gas-solid flow regimes can be used as an indicator of the circulation time distribution. The methodology and new findings in this study complement the existing techniques and knowledge for the optimization of coating process in a Wurster type fluidized bed.

Automatic terrain classification in lower limb rehabilitation systems has gained worldwide attention. In this field, a simple system architecture and high classification accuracy are two desired attributes. In this article, a smart neuromuscular&ndash, mechanical fusion and machine learning-based terrain classification technique utilizing only two electromyography (EMG) sensors and two ground reaction force (GRF) sensors is reported for classifying three different terrains (downhill, level, and uphill). The EMG and GRF signals from ten healthy subjects were collected, preprocessed and segmented to obtain the EMG and GRF profiles in each stride, based on which twenty-one statistical features, including 9 GRF features and 12 EMG features, were extracted. A support vector machine (SVM) machine learning model is established and trained by the extracted EMG features, GRF features and the fusion of them, respectively. Several methods or statistical metrics were used to evaluate the goodness of the proposed technique, including a paired-t-test and Kruskal&ndash, Wallis test for correlation analysis of the selected features and ten-fold cross-validation accuracy, confusion matrix, sensitivity and specificity for the performance of the SVM model. The results show that the extracted features are highly correlated with the terrain changes and the fusion of the EMG and GRF features produces the highest accuracy of 96.8%. The presented technique allows simple system construction to achieve the precise detection of outcomes, potentially advancing the development of terrain classification techniques for rehabilitation.

Gait analysis has become a hot spot in recent years, because it is proven that the status of a vast number of chronic diseases can be reflected by changes in gait. Furthermore, gait analysis can also help in improving the performance of athletes. Among the diverse gait analysis techniques, the piezoelectric-based insole technique has received broad attention due to its merits such as passive detection, high sensitivity, and low power consumption. However, the key coefficient of detecting plantar normal stress, the piezoelectric d33 coefficient, relies on the force frequency, which occupies a relatively wide bandwidth (1 Hz–1 kHz) during walking events. In order to get the frequency information of the signal, in this work, empirical mode decomposition is used to separate the gait signal into several intrinsic mode functions, and then the frequency information of each function is interpreted using the normalized Hilbert transform. In this way, the piezoelectric d33 coefficient is calibrated at every moment, obtaining higher accuracy (2.65% maximum improvement) in gait signal detection, promoting the development of gait analysis–based disease diagnosis and treatment.

Antrodia camphorata, a well-known and highly valued edible medicinal mushroom with intriguing activities like liver protection, has been traditionally used for the treatment of alcoholic liver disease. A. camphorata shows highly medicinal and commercial values with the demand far exceeds the available supply. Thus, the petri-dish cultured A. camphorata (PDCA) is expected to develope as a substitute. In this paper, nineteen triterpenes were isolated from PDCA, and thirteen of them were the unique anthroic acids in A. camphorata, including the main content antcin K, which suggested that PDCA produced a large array of the same anthroic acids as the wild one. Furthermore, no obvious acute toxicity was found suggesting the edible safety of PDCA. In mice alcohol-induced liver injury model, triglyceride (TG), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and malondialdehyde (MDA) had been reduced by the PDCA powder as well as the main content antcin K, which indicated that the PDCA could protect alcoholic liver injury in mice model and antcin K could be the effective component responsible for the hepatoprotective activities of PDCA against alcoholic liver diseases.

Fringe effect exists in conventional ERT sensors, i.e., severe distortions of electric field on both ends of sensor electrodes. This leads to a 3D sensing region for a 2D ERT sensor. As a result, the objects outside the ERT sensor plane can still be sensed and imaged, which is undesired and deteriorates the image accuracy. To tackle with this issue, a three-plane ERT sensor scheme is proposed. Simulation results show that the three-plane sensor scheme can compensate for the fringe effect induced by the object outside the measurement sensor plane regarding a distribution with three non-conductive bars at different cross-sectional and axial positions. Meanwhile, it is found that for axially uniform distributions, the proposed compensation method can reduce the size overestimation of non-conductive objects to be imaged by linear reconstruction method such as the Landweber iteration. Finally, an experimental ERT system is established to verify the findings from simulation.

Cytoskyrin C (1), a new bisanthraquinone with asymmetrically cytoskyrin type skeleton, together with a known symmetrical analogue (+)-epicytoskyrin (2), were isolated from an endophytic fungus ARL-09 (Diaporthe sp.). Cytoskyrin C (1) featured an asymmetrically cage-like structural motif arising from the dimerization of anthraquinone monomers by three carbon‑carbon bonds 9a/3', 3/9a' and 1/1'. The structure and absolute configuration of compound 1 were determined by spectroscopic analyses, ECD calculation and exciton chirality methods. Moreover, a plausible biogenetic pathway of 1-2 was predicted. Their cytotoxicities against SMMC-7721 cell as well as effects on NF-κB signaling pathway were evaluated. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

3-dimensional touch sensing and long battery lifetime are two desired attributes in interactive displays. By employing piezoelectric material and rectifier circuitry related technique, force touch induced charges are used for both force strength detection and energy harvesting, achieving 3dimensional touch sensing and extended battery lifetime at the same time for interactive displays.

This paper presents a flexible graphene/polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF)/graphene sandwich for three-dimensional touch interactivity. Here, x–y plane touch is sensed using graphene capacitive elements, while force sensing in the z-direction is by a piezoelectric PVDF/graphene sandwich. By employing different frequency bands for the capacitive- and force-induced electrical signals, the two stimuli are detected simultaneously, achieving three-dimensional touch sensing. Static force sensing and elimination of propagated stress are achieved by augmenting the transient piezo output with the capacitive touch, thus overcoming the intrinsic inability of the piezoelectric material in detecting nontransient force signals and avoiding force touch mis-registration by propagated stress.

Understanding the mechanical properties of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets is critical for improving the rate of finished products in grinding and cutting. During the preparation of sintered Nd-Fe-B magnet, carbon elements inevitably remain in the magnet. In this paper, the effect of carbon on the bending strength of sintered Nd-Fe-B was investigated and the fracture mechanism was analyzed. In the case of the sample having a high carbon content, the bending strength was significantly increased. Observation of the microstructure shows that the carbon content does not affect the grain size of the main phase. Stress concentration is applied by pre-cracking. It is directly observed that the sintered Nd-Fe-B crack source is located at the triple junction phase (TJP). It was found that almost all the carbon elements were concentrated in the TJP using electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA). At the same time, the formation of neodymium carbide contributes to strengthening TJP, which improves the difficulty of crack nucleation and the resistance of crack propagation.

Lifetime performance index is a powerful and effective way to analyze whether a product achieves the specified standards. In this paper, we investigate the lifetime performance index for the inverted exponential Rayleigh distribution using progressive type II censored sample data. The censored sample is able to greatly save the cost of the experiment and speed up the experiment. We derive the estimation value of lifetime performance index using the maximum likelihood method, and conduct the hypothesis test. Based on extensive numerical simulation, the power function is utilized to assess effectiveness of hypothesis testing. The simulation results show that lifetime performance index is good for determining whether the lifetime of the product reaches the criterion. Finally, a practical dataset is provided to give a demonstration for the procedures of lifetime performance evaluation.

High detection accuracy in piezoelectric-based force sensing in interactive displays has gained global attention. To achieve this, artificial neural networks (ANN)&mdash, successful and widely used machine learning algorithms&mdash, have been demonstrated to be potentially powerful tools, providing acceptable location detection accuracy of 95.2% and force level recognition of 93.3% in a previous study. While these values might be acceptable for conventional operations, e.g., opening a folder, they must be boosted for applications where intensive operations are performed. Furthermore, the relatively high computational cost reported prevents the popularity of ANN-based techniques in conventional artificial intelligence (AI) chip-free end-terminals. In this article, an ANN is designed and optimized for piezoelectric-based touch panels in interactive displays for the first time. The presented technique experimentally allows a conventional smart device to work smoothly with a high detection accuracy of above 97% for both location and force level detection with a low computational cost, thereby advancing the user experience, and serviced by piezoelectric-based touch interfaces in displays.