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Lead-free bulk ceramics for advanced pulsed power capacitors show relatively low recoverable energy storage density (Wrec) especially at low electric field condition. To address this challenge, we propose an A-site defect engineering to optimize the electric polarization behavior by disrupting the orderly arrangement of A-site ions, in which $${\rm{B}}{{\rm{a}}_{0.105}}{\rm{N}}{{\rm{a}}_{0.325}}{\rm{S}}{{\rm{r}}_{0.245 - 1.5x}}{_{0.5x}}{\rm{B}}{{\rm{i}}_{0.325 + x}}{\rm{Ti}}{{\rm{O}}_3}$$ Ba 0.105 Na 0.325 Sr 0.245 − 1.5 x □ 0.5 x Bi 0.325 + x TiO 3 ($${\rm{BN}}{{\rm{S}}_{0.245 - 1.5x}}{_{0.5x}}{{\rm{B}}_{0.325 + x}}{\rm{T}}$$ BNS 0.245 − 1.5 x □ 0.5 x B 0.325 + x T , x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08) lead-free ceramics are selected as the representative. The $${\rm{BN}}{{\rm{S}}_{0.245 - 1.5x}}{_{0.5x}}{{\rm{B}}_{0.325 + x}}{\rm{T}}$$ BNS 0.245 − 1.5 x □ 0.5 x B 0.325 + x T ceramics are prepared by using pressureless solid-state sintering and achieve large Wrec (1.8 J/cm3) at a low electric field (@110 kV/cm) when x = 0.06. The value of 1.8 J/cm3 is super high as compared to all other Wrec in lead-free bulk ceramics under a relatively low electric field (< 160 kV/cm). Furthermore, a high dielectric constant of 2930 within 15% fluctuation in a wide temperature range of 40–350 °C is also obtained in $${\rm{BN}}{{\rm{S}}_{0.245 - 1.5x}}{_{0.5x}}{{\rm{B}}_{0.325 + x}}{\rm{T}}$$ BNS 0.245 − 1.5 x □ 0.5 x B 0.325 + x T (x = 0.06) ceramics. The excellent performances can be attributed to the A-site defect engineering, which can reduce remnant polarization (Pr) and improve the thermal evolution of polar nanoregions (PNRs). This work confirms that the $${\rm{BN}}{{\rm{S}}_{0.245 - 1.5x}}{_{0.5x}}{{\rm{B}}_{0.325 + x}}{\rm{T}}$$ BNS 0.245 − 1.5 x □ 0.5 x B 0.325 + x T (x = 0.06) ceramics are desirable for advanced pulsed power capacitors, and will push the development of a series of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 (BNT)-based ceramics with high Wrec and high-temperature stability.

Mitophagy is involved in the development of various cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, heart failure, myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury, and hypertension. Mitophagy is essential for maintaining intracellular homeostasis and physiological function in most cardiovascular origin cells, such as cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and vascular smooth muscle cells. Mitophagy is crucial to ensuring energy supply by selectively removing dysfunctional mitochondria, maintaining a balance in the number of mitochondria in cells, ensuring the integrity of mitochondrial structure and function, maintaining homeostasis, and promoting cell survival. Substantial research has indicated a "dual" effect of mitophagy on cardiac function, with inadequate and increased mitochondrial degradation both likely to influence the progression of cardiovascular disease. This review summarizes the main regulatory pathways of mitophagy and emphasizes that an appropriate amount of mitophagy can prevent endothelial cell injury, vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, macrophage polarization, and cardiomyocyte apoptosis, avoiding further progression of cardiovascular diseases.

Concrete filled composite shear wall (CFCSW) can provide many benefits by taking advantages of two components. This paper reviews the development of CFCSW in terms of connection configurations and steel plate types. The structural behaviour of CFCSW under various loading conditions is summarised and discussed. The effects of many parameters, including axial load ratio, steel plate reinforcement ratio and spacing of connectors on the performance of CFCSW are reviewed. The equations in current standards are performed and compared. The results indicate that the increase of axial force ratio leads to rapid stiffness degradation and strength degradation of CFCSW when subjected to cyclic lateral loading. Higher steel plate reinforcement ratio can contribute to higher ductility and axial resistance, however composite action is dramatically reduced. Spacing of shear connectors has a great influence on the slenderness of CFCSW. Large connector spacing leads to local buckling of steel plates in the elastic range which should be avoided. CFST boundary elements can enhance the structural performance of CFCSW which has been widely adopted in recent researches and projects.

The identification of immature apples is a key technical link to realize automatic real-time monitoring of orchards, expert decision-making, and realization of orchard output prediction. In the orchard scene, the reflection caused by light and the color of immature apples are highly similar to the leaves, especially the obscuration and overlap of fruits by leaves and branches, which brings great challenges to the detection of immature apples. This paper proposes an improved YOLOv3 detection method for immature apples in the orchard scene. Use CSPDarknet53 as the backbone network of the model, introduce the CIOU target frame regression mechanism, and combine with the Mosaic algorithm to improve the detection accuracy. For the data set with severely occluded fruits, the F1 and mAP of the immature apple recognition model proposed in this article are 0.652 and 0.675, respectively. The inference speed for a single 416×416 picture is 12 ms, the detection speed can reach 83 frames/s on 1080ti, and the inference speed is 8.6 ms. Therefore, for the severely occluded immature apple data set, the method proposed in this article has a significant detection effect, and provides a feasible solution for the automation and mechanization of the apple industry.

Background Both systemic-pulmonary shunt and arterial duct stent could be the palliation of duct-dependent pulmonary circulation. We aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of the two approaches. Methods The PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched through December 2019 for studies comparing stent implantation and surgical shunt in duct-dependent pulmonary circulation. The baseline characteristics included ventricle physiology and cardiac anomaly. The main outcomes were hospital stay and total mortality. Additional outcomes included procedural complications, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, pulmonary artery growth at follow-up, and other indexes. A random- or fixed-effects model was used to summarize the estimates of the mean difference (MD)/risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results In total, 757 patients with duct-dependent pulmonary circulation from six studies were included. Pooled estimates of hospital stay (MD, − 4.83; 95% CI − 7.92 to − 1.74; p Conclusion Arterial duct stent appears to have not inferior outcomes of procedural complications, mortality, hospital and ICU stay, and pulmonary artery growth in selected patients compared with a surgical shunt. Trial registration CRD42019147672.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one threat that seriously endangers human health. However, the mechanism of their occurrence is not completely clear. Increasing studies showed that mitochondrial dysfunction is closely related to CVD. Possible causes of mitochondrial dysfunction include oxidative stress, Ca2+ disorder, mitochondrial DNA mutations, and reduction of mitochondrial biosynthesis, all of which are closely related to the development of CVD. At present, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely used in the treatment of CVD. TCM has the therapeutic characteristics of multitargets and multipathways. Studies have shown that TCM can treat CVD by protecting mitochondrial function. Via systematic literature review, the results show that the specific mechanisms include antioxidant stress, regulation of calcium homeostasis, antiapoptosis, and regulation of mitochondrial biosynthesis. This article describes the relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and CVD, summarizes the TCM commonly used for the treatment of CVD in recent years, and focuses on the regulatory effect of TCM on mitochondrial function.

Background: The modified Blalock-Taussig shunt (MBTS) is used to palliate patients with restrictive pulmonary blood flow in complex cardiac anomalies. We describe the immediate and follow-up results of patients with MBTS in our center. Methods: Patients who received MBTS (excluding those with hypoplastic left heart syndrome) from May 2008 to December 2018 were retrospectively identified. Hospital records were evaluated to determine patient demographics, diagnoses, and perioperative data. Patients were followed up by echocardiograph to evaluate the patency of the graft until stage II procedure or death. Results: MBTS was performed in 25 patients by 2 surgeons; 16% were neonates, and 60% had pulmonary atresia and 24% tetralogy of Fallot. The patients’ median age was 2.6 months (range 0.2 to 372), and median weight was 5.3 kg (range 1.9 to 45). Preoperative oxygen saturation (SaO2) was 68.7% ± 7.8%. Forty-eight percent of patients received a 3.5-mm graft, and 20% received a concomitant pulmonary arterioplasty with cardiopulmonary bypass. Postoperative SaO2 was 83.2% ± 3.6%, significantly different from preoperative SaO2 (P < .05). Follow-up duration was 1.2 years (range 0.3 to 7.8), with no graft blockage. Three patients died in hospital from cardiorespiratory decompensation after MBTS with concomitant pulmonary arterioplasty. The median age of patients receiving a stage II procedure was 1 year (range 0.4 to 17.4). Actuarial 1-year survival was 79.7% (95% confidence interval 53.1% to 92.2%). Conclusion: MBTS continues to be valuable for palliation of complicated cyanotic congenital heart disease, yet mortality was considerable with concomitant pulmonary arterioplasty. With effective coagulation, the patency rate of grafts was high.

We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of pulmonary vasodilators in patients after the Fontan procedure. The PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched through November 2019 for studies comparing pulmonary vasodilators and controls in Fontan patients. The variables assessed included change in pulmonary resistance, heart function, exercise capacity, quality of life, mortality, and adverse events after drug administration. A random/fixed effects model was used to assess the mean difference (MD)/risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Subgroup analysis was stratified by drug category. In total, 449 Fontan patients from 13 studies were included. Pooled estimates of the change in pulmonary arterial pressure (MD, - 1.07; 95% CI, - 2.75 to 0.60; p = 0.21), New York Heart Association class (MD, - 0.57; 95% CI, - 1.41 to 0.28; p = 0.19), peak oxygen consumption (MD, 1.46; 95% CI, 0.01 to 2.90; p = 0.05), Short Form 36 (MD, 1.39; 95% CI, - 0.62 to 3.39; p = 0.17), mortality (RR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.08 to 1.65; p = 0.19), and any adverse event (RR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.71 to 1.24; p = 0.64) were not significantly different between the drug and control groups. Likewise, most results of the subgroup analysis revealed no significant between-group differences. Pulmonary vasodilator therapy appears to be safe, but not beneficial, in the categories of pulmonary resistance, heart function, or quality of life in patients who have undergone a Fontan procedure. No significant evidence was found to confirm that most pulmonary vasodilators could improve exercise capacity in Fontan patients.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common malignancies of the urinary system, accounting for 3% of adult malignancies. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is abnormally regulated in many cancers and can be used as a molecular marker for early diagnosis and prognosis of RCC. Here, original lncRNA datas were retrieved from TCGA, differential co-expression analysis was performed to classify immune-related lncRNA (irlncRNA) with differential expression, and the improved 0 or 1 matrix cyclic single pairing method was used to verify lncRNA pairs. Then, we performed a univariate analysis in combination with an improved Lasso penalty regression that included cross-validation, multiple repetitions, and random stimulus procedures to determine different expression irlncRNA (DEirlncRNA) pairs. AUC values under Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) were calculated to obtain the optimal model, and AIC values of each point on AUC were calculated to obtain the optimal cut-off point to distinguish the high and low risk groups of Clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) patients. Finally, we evaluated the new model in a variety of clinical settings including survival, clinicopathological features, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, chemotherapy, and checkpoint related biomarkers, all showing promising clinical application.

Interactions between WD40 repeat domain protein 5 (WDR5) and its various partners such as mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) and c-MYC are essential for sustaining oncogenesis in human cancers. However, inhibitors that block protein-protein interactions (PPIs) between WDR5 and its binding partners exhibit modest cancer cell killing effects and lack in vivo efficacy. Here, we present pharmacological degradation of WDR5 as a promising therapeutic strategy for treating WDR5-dependent tumors and report two high-resolution crystal structures of WDR5-degrader-E3 ligase ternary complexes. We identified an effective WDR5 degrader via structure-based design and demonstrated its in vitro and in vivo antitumor activities. On the basis of the crystal structure of an initial WDR5 degrader in complex with WDR5 and the E3 ligase von Hippel–Lindau (VHL), we designed a WDR5 degrader, MS67, and demonstrated the high cooperativity of MS67 binding to WDR5 and VHL by another ternary complex structure and biophysical characterization. MS67 potently and selectively depleted WDR5 and was more effective than WDR5 PPI inhibitors in suppressing transcription of WDR5-regulated genes, decreasing the chromatin-bound fraction of MLL complex components and c-MYC, and inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells. In addition, MS67 suppressed malignant growth of MLL-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia patient cells in vitro and in vivo and was well tolerated in vivo. Collectively, our results demonstrate that structure-based design can be an effective strategy to identify highly active degraders and suggest that pharmacological degradation of WDR5 might be a promising treatment for WDR5-dependent cancers.

The present study aimed to investigate the association between the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs4612666 and rs10754558 in the NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein 3 (NLRP3) gene and the susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a Han Chinese population. mRNA expression of NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC), and caspase-1 were determined in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and neutrophils using reverse-transcription quantitative PCR. The results demonstrated that the C allele at rs4612666 locus and the G allele at rs10754558 locus were associated with significantly increased risk of RA. A statistical significance was also revealed in the dominant model (CC+CT vs. TT: OR=1.549; 95% CI=1.120-2.144; and GG + GC vs. CC: OR=2.000; 95% CI=1.529-2.616; P

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Hua Shi Bai Du Granule (Q-14) plus standard care compared with standard care alone in adults with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Study Design A single-center, open-label, randomized controlled trial. Setting Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan, China, February 27 to March 27, 2020. Participants A total of 204 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were randomized into the treatment group and control group, consisting of 102 patients in each group. Interventions In the treatment group, Q-14 was administered at 10 g (granules) twice daily for 14 days, plus standard care. In the control group, patients were provided standard care alone for 14 days. Main Outcome Measure The primary outcome was the conversion time for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral assay. Adverse events were analyzed in the safety population. Results Among the 204 patients, 195 were analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle. A total of 149 patients (71 vs. 78 in the treatment and control groups, respectively) tested negative via the SARS-CoV-2 viral assay. There was no statistical significance in the conversion time between the treatment group and control group (Full analysis set: Median [interquartile range]: 10.00 [9.00-11.00] vs. 10.00 [9.00-11.00]; Mean rank: 67.92 vs. 81.44; P = 0.051). The recovery time for fever was shorter in the treatment group than in the control group. The disappearance rate of symptoms like cough, fatigue, and chest discomfort was significantly higher in the treatment group. In chest computed tomography (CT) examinations, the overall evaluation of chest CT examination after treatment compared with baseline showed that more patients improved in the treatment group. There were no significant differences in the other outcomes. Conclusion The combination of Q-14 and standard care for COVID-19 was useful for the improvement of symptoms (such as fever, cough, fatigue, and chest discomfort), but did not result in a significantly higher probability of negative conversion in the SARS-CoV-2 viral assay. No serious adverse events were observed. Trial Registration ChiCTR2000030288

Ultra-high-strength steel (UHSS) has been gaining increasing attention globally due to its significant structural and economic benefits. Specifically, the use of UHSS in steel and composite column sections can reduce the dimensions and self-weight of the structural components. However, the utilisation of UHSS slender sections also renders the structural members more susceptible to local buckling. The reduced ductility as well as less strain hardening of UHSS can also affect the post-buckling load. In order to clarify the local buckling and post-buckling load of compressive members using UHSS plates, the authors herein present an extensive experimental program. A total of sixteen steel and composite specimens are tested with the slenderness limits (λey) and effective widths (be/b) being identified. Finite element models which account for the effects of residual stress and initial geometric imperfection are developed to capture the buckling behaviour of the box and I-section columns. The enhancement of local buckling and post-local buckling load of UHSS composite sections due to the presence of infilled concrete is demonstrated. In addition, the slenderness limits and effective widths of both bare steel sections and composite sections incorporating UHSS plates are further compared with existing codes of practice. Corresponding design recommendations are consequently provided.

This paper examines the impact of institutional ownership on the performance of private equity placements (PEPs) for listed firms in China. We find that the presence of institutional investors can alleviate the information asymmetries between listed firms and the market. The market reaction to PEP announcements is significantly smaller if there is a higher portion of institutional shareholdings. Long-term firm operational performance after PEPs is positively correlated with institutional shareholdings. Moreover, we find that the relationship between institutional shareholdings and PEP performance is mainly driven by nonlisted corporate investors and mutual funds. Finally, the relationship between PEP performance and institutional shareholdings is stronger in smaller PEP issuers.

High-strength structural steel plates are being increasingly used as composite columns in tall buildings, bridges and large infrastructure. The presence of concrete infill in these composite sections enhances their local buckling strength, and thus very slender steel plates can be used in their fabrication. This paper presents the results of an experimental study and numerical investigation of the local buckling slenderness limits for high-strength steel plates. A set of sixteen tests were conducted on both hollow steel and steel-concrete composite sections to explore their local and post-local buckling behaviour under axial compression. A numerical model which accounts for the effects of residual stresses and initial geometric imperfections was developed to predict the local buckling and post-local buckling response of box and I-section columns. This model was verified against the test results. Yield slenderness limits obtained from numerical results were compared with existing codes of practice for both hollow steel and composite sections incorporating high-strength steel plates.

Spiral welded stainless steel tubes are produced by helical welding of a continuous stainless steel strip. Recently, spiral welded stainless steel tubes have found increasing application in the construction industry due to their ease of fabrication and aesthetic appeal. However, an in-depth understanding of the behaviour of these types of structural elements is still needed due to the insufficient experimental evidence and lack of rational design guidance. In the present paper, an extensive experimental program was carried out to investigate the behaviour of axially loaded hollow and concrete-filled spiral welded stainless steel tubes. The effects of various design parameters were investigated throughout the test program. In addition to the experiments, this paper presents a finite element model for the prediction of these columns. Specifically, the proposed finite element models take into account the effects of material and geometric nonlinearities. The helical welding is modelled as an independent part that is further tied to the stainless steel tube. Moreover, the initial imperfections of the stainless steel tube and the residual stresses resulting from helical welding are included. Enhancement of the understanding of the experimental results can be achieved by extending the parametric studies based on the developed finite element model. Furthermore, a comparison of the ultimate strength between the experimental results and those obtained from existing codes of practice is conducted.

Understanding the dynamic characteristics of solar arrays is important for satellite structural design and attitude control design. Considerable theoretical researches have been carried out towards this problem, but they have not been supported by actual orbit data from outer space yet. In this paper, the on-orbit vibration characteristic data of solar arrays under the deployment shock are measured by using vibration measurement apparatuses based on structural strain. With these valuable experimental data, more eigenfrequencies of the solar arrays in the microgravity environment are obtained, and the prediction that the vibration of solar arrays will have larger amplitude and longer decay time under vacuum conditions is verified. Moreover, by comparing the eigenfrequency of main vibration under the space condition with that under the ground condition, the accurate value of the system damping ratio is gained, which has an important guideline significant for the structural design of solar arrays.

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine (Q-14) plus standard care compared with standard care alone in adult with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).Study DESIGNSingle-center, open label, randomised controlled trial.SETTINGWuhan Jinyintan Hospital, Wuhan, China, February 27 to March 27, 2020.PARTICIPANTS204 patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 were randomised in to treatment group and control group, which was 102 patients each group.INTERVENTIONSIn treatment group, Q-14 was administrated at 10g (granules), twice daily for 14 days and plus standard care. In control group, patients were given standard care alone for 14 days.MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREThe primary outcome was conversion time of SARS-CoV-2 viral assay. Adverse events were analyzed in the safety population.RESULTSAmong 204 patients, 195 were analyzed according to the intention to treat principle. There were 149 patients (71 vs. 78 in treatment group and control group respectively) turning to negative via SARS-CoV-2 viral assay. No statistically significance showed in conversion time between treatment group and control group (FAS: Median (IQR): 10.00 (9.00-11.00) vs. 10.00 (9.00-11.00); Mean rank: 67.92 vs. 81.44; P=0.051.). Time to recovery of fever was shorter in treatment group as compared in control group. The disappearance rate of symptom in cough, fatigue, chest discomfort was significantly higher in treatment group. In chest computed tomography (Chest CT) examinations, overall evaluation of chest CT examination after treatment compared with baseline showed more patients improved in treatment group .There were no significant differences in the other outcomes.CONCLUSIONAdministration of Q-14 on standard care for COVID-19 was useful for improvement of symptoms (such as fever, cough, fatigue and chest discomfort), while did not result in a significantly higher probability of negative conversion of SARS-CoV-2 viral assay. No serious adverse events were reported.TRIAL REGISTRATIONChiCTR2000030288

Background Recent progress in optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) and high-temperature superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) has facilitated the development of an on-scalp magnetoencephalography (MEG) system that offers high signal intensity and flexibility at a lower cost. While the on-scalp sensor array has high flexibility, it brings new challenges to accurate sensor-to-brain coregistration, which is essential for MEG source localization. New method A novel automatic filtering algorithm based on plane segmentation was proposed to locate on-scalp MEG sensors in 3D images reconstructed from optical scanning. Global image registration was employed for the automatic alignment of anatomical images and sensor positions. Results Seventy-one sensor dummies on the scalp were located and registered to brain anatomical images. The deviations of the sensor location and orientation from the averaged result of 10 measurements were less than 1 mm and 0.6°, respectively. The entire process could be completed in less than 4 min. Comparison with existing methods Compared with existing methods that involve various manual procedures, such as moving digitizers to fiducials and repeatedly pulling out sensors, our proposed coregistration method is more efficient and accurate. Conclusion An automatic method for the coregistration of anatomical structure and on-scalp sensors that will have a large impact on the practical use of on-scalp MEG is developed.

Sigma-1 receptor (Sig1R), a chaperone in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane, has been implicated in cardiac hypertrophy; however, its role in cardiac fibroblast activation has not been established. This study investigated the possible association between Sig1R and this activation by subjecting mice to sham, transverse aortic constriction (TAC), and TAC plus fluvoxamine (an agonist of Sig1R) treatments. Cardiac function and fibrosis were evaluated four weeks later by echocardiography and histological staining. In an in vitro study, neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts were treated with fluvoxamine or NE-100 (an antagonist of Sig1R) in the presence or absence of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-β1). Fibrotic markers, ER stress pathways, and autophagy were then investigated by qPCR, western blotting, immunofluorescence, confocal microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Fluvoxamine treatment reduced cardiac fibrosis, preserved cardiac function, and attenuated cardiac fibroblast activation. Inhibition of the IRE1/XBP1 pathway, a branch of ER stress, by a specific inhibitor of IRE1 endonuclease activity, attenuated the pathological process. Fluvoxamine stimulation of Sig1R restored autophagic flux in cardiac fibroblasts, indicating that Sig1R appears to play a protective role in the activation of cardiac fibroblasts by inhibiting the IRE1 pathway and restoring autophagic flux. Sig1R may therefore represent a therapeutic target for cardiac fibrosis.

Video deblurring models exploit consecutive frames to remove blurs from camera shakes and object motions. In order to utilize neighboring sharp patches, typical methods rely mainly on homography or optical flows to spatially align neighboring blurry frames. However, such explicit approaches are less effective in the presence of fast motions with large pixel displacements. In this work, we propose a novel implicit method to learn spatial correspondence among blurry frames in the feature space. To construct distant pixel correspondences, our model builds a correlation volume pyramid among all the pixel-pairs between neighboring frames. To enhance the features of the reference frame, we design a correlative aggregation module that maximizes the pixel-pair correlations with its neighbors based on the volume pyramid. Finally, we feed the aggregated features into a reconstruction module to obtain the restored frame. We design a generative adversarial paradigm to optimize the model progressively. Our proposed method is evaluated on the widely-adopted DVD dataset, along with a newly collected High-Frame-Rate (1000 fps) Dataset for Video Deblurring (HFR-DVD). Quantitative and qualitative experiments show that our model performs favorably on both datasets against previous state-of-the-art methods, confirming the benefit of modeling all-range spatial correspondence for video deblurring., Comment: Preprint for CVPR 2021 Poster

Despite an emerging literature on the advancement of regulatory technology (RegTech), this paper unveils one of its unintended consequences in the market of corporate control: crowding in uniformed investors and crowding out managerial learning. Exploiting the staggered implementation of the EDGAR system from 1993 to 1996 as quasi-exogenous RegTech shocks, we find evidence that internet dissemination of corporate filings reduces firm acquisitiveness. This effect is more pronounced for growth firms than value firms, for stock-based acquisitions than cash-based acquisitions. In addition, EDGAR implementation results in the acquirers’ lower announcement returns, especially for growth firms. Our overall findings indicate that RegTech development could discourage managerial learning by dampening revelatory price efficiency, resulting in inefficient acquisition decisions.

Taking continuous low-thrust spacecraft as the research object, a long-distance online autonomous interception guidance scheme is designed, and an optimal mission time planning method is proposed. The velocity gain guidance method is used to design a closed-loop guidance scheme, where the Lambert two-point boundary value problem is quickly solved in each control cycle to obtain the current required speed of the tracking spacecraft. After that, the desired gain speed can be calculated according to the current required speed, so that the desired magnitude and direction of the control force can be attained. In addition, the thruster shutdown scheme is set according to the norm of the desired gain speed to obtain a rational shutdown moment. Also, a novel objective function related to both the interception time period and the terminal position error is proposed in the genetic algorithm, to ensure the optimal time cost and the success of the interception mission. Finally, based on the numerical simulation, the effectiveness of the optimal mission time planning method and the reliability of the autonomous intercept guidance method are verified.

Background Treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are limited by suboptimal efficacy. Methods From January 30, 2020 to March 23, 2020, we conducted a non-randomised controlled trial, in which all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were assigned to three groups non-randomly and given supportive treatments: Group A, Lopinavir-Ritonavir; Group B,Huashi Baidu Formula(a Chinese medicineformula made by the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences to treatCOVID-19, which is now in the clinical trial period) and Lopinavir-Ritonavir; and Group C, Huashi Baidu Formula. The use of antibiotics, antiviruses, and corticosteroids was permitted in Group A and B. Traditional Chinese medicine injections were permitted in Group C. The primary outcomes were clinical remission time (interval from admission to the first time the patient tested negatively for novel coronavirus or an obvious improvement was observed from chest CT) and clinical remission rate (number of patients whose clinical time was within 16 days/total number of patients) Results A total of 60 adult patients with COVID-19 were enrolled at sites in Wuhan, China, and the sample size of each group was 20. In Groups A, B and C, the clinical remission rates were95.0%(19/20), 100.0%(20/20) and 100.0%(20/20), respectively. Compared with Groups A and B, the clinical remission time of Group C was significantly shorter (5.9 days vs. 10.8 days, P < 0.050; 5.9 days vs. 9.7 days, P < 0.050). There was no significant difference among Groups A, B, and C in terms of the time taken to be released from quarantine. The clinical biochemical indicators and safety indexes showed no significant differences among the three groups. Conclusions Our findings suggest that Lopinavir-Ritonavir has some efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19, and the Huashi Baidu Formula might enhance this effect to an extent. In addition, superiority was displayed in the treatment of COVID-19 through a combination of the Huashi Baidu Formula and traditional Chinese medicine injection. In future, well-designed prospective double-blinded randomised control trials are required to confirm our findings.

Background Treatments for perimembranous ventricular septal defects (pmVSD) mainly include conventional surgical repair (CSR), transcatheter device closure (TDC), and perventricular device closure (PDC). We aimed to perform a network meta-analysis to compare the three approaches in patients with pmVSD. Methods We searched for comparative studies on device closure and conventional repair for pmVSD to April 2020. A network meta-analysis was performed under the frequentist frame with risk ratio and 95% confidence interval. The main outcome was the procedural success rate. Additional outcomes were postoperative complications, including residual shunt, intra-cardiac conduction block, valvular insufficiency, incision infection, and pericardial effusion. Results Twenty-four studies of 8113 patients were included in the comparisons. The pooled estimates of success rate favored the CSR compared with the PDC. No significant differences of success rate were found in the TDC versus CSR and the PDC versus TDC. The pooled estimates of incidences of the residual shunt, new tricuspid regurgitation, incision infection, and pericardial effusion favored the PDC compared with the CSR. There were no significant differences between the PDC and TDC approaches in all outcomes except new aortic regurgitation. Conclusion The PDC technique not only reduces the risk of significant complications compared with the CSR, but also produces not inferior results compared with the TDC in selected pmVSD patients. PROSPERO registration number CRD42019125257.

We performed this meta-analysis to assess the safety and efficacy of tracheoplasty for patients with pulmonary artery sling (PAS) and tracheal stenosis. Published studies that included surgical treatment of PAS and tracheal stenosis with and without tracheoplasty were identified by searching the PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases until May 2020. The outcomes assessed included postoperative ventilation time, early and late mortality, and follow-up respiratory symptoms. The mean difference (MD)/risk ratio (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was estimated with a random-effects/fixed-effects model. Subgroup analysis was performed stratified by percentage of patients with tracheal rings. A total of eight studies comprising 219 patients with PAS accompanied by tracheal stenosis were included. The pooled estimates of postoperative ventilation time (MD 17.68, 95% CI 6.38 to 28.98, p < 0.01) and early mortality (RR 3.93, 95% CI 1.55 to 9.95, p < 0.01) favored the repair-only group. Late mortality (RR 1.33, 95% CI 0.48 to 3.68, p = 0.58) and respiratory symptoms (RR 1.51, 95% CI 0.50 to 4.57, p = 0.47) at follow-up showed no significant differences between the groups with repair-only and repair with tracheoplasty. The same results were found in subgroup analyses. For the surgical treatment of PAS with tracheal stenosis, repair without tracheoplasty appears to result in shorter postoperative ventilation time and lower early mortality, with no increase in late mortality or respiratory symptoms at follow-up, compared with concomitant tracheoplasty.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, Background: Surgical treatments for ventricular septal defects (VSDs) mainly include 3 approaches: conventional surgical repair (CSR), transcatheter device closure (TDC), and perventricualr device closure (PDC). PDC has been introduced in over 10 years, although there remain concerns about adverse events. This network meta-analysis is to compare PDC, CSR, and TDC in the treatment of congenital VSD. Methods: We will search MEDLINE, EMBASE, Clinical Trials, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases for comparative studies on device closure and conventional repair for congenital VSDs to August 2019. A network meta-analysis with frequentist frame will be performed to compare the 3 approaches involving the success rate, in-hospital indexes, and incidences of complications, using risk ratio with 95% confidence intervals. Results: This study will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. Conclusion: This network meta-analysis will assess the safety and efficacy of PDC, CSR, and TDC in the treatment of congenital VSDs, and provide more evidence-based guidance in clinical practice. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42019125257.

Background Iatrogenic aortic stenosis is a serious complication and potentially fatal due to erosion of the aortic wall. Timely management is necessary to prevent complications. Case presentation A 2-year-old boy underwent surgery to remove part of an Amplatzer occluder after patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) device embolization in the thoracic aorta. He exhibited moderate to severe obstruction with erosion of the intimal layer of the aorta caused by the device, part of which was retrieved surgically with restructuring of the thoracic aorta segment and occluder remnant. The patient’s postoperative course was uneventful. Conclusions When possible, retrieving only part of an embolized device can be advocated because it reduces the risk of aortic and pulmonary artery damage.

Relative financial constraints affect firms’ aggressiveness in industry competition. Using eight alternative proxies for financial constraints, we find that consistent with the deep pocket theory, in the three years following an acquisition, the unconstrained rivals tend to become follow-up acquirers while the constrained rivals are more likely to get acquired. The effect is more pronounced in M&A-intensive industries, among the rivals with more growth opportunities and lower operating efficiency. Also, the rivals would become worse off if they do not make follow-up acquisitions. Overall, these findings indicate that considering firms’ relative financial constraints can be an alternative approach to detecting anticompetitive acquisitions.

Word-level sign language recognition (WSLR) is a fundamental task in sign language interpretation. It requires models to recognize isolated sign words from videos. However, annotating WSLR data needs expert knowledge, thus limiting WSLR dataset acquisition. On the contrary, there are abundant subtitled sign news videos on the internet. Since these videos have no word-level annotation and exhibit a large domain gap from isolated signs, they cannot be directly used for training WSLR models. We observe that despite the existence of a large domain gap, isolated and news signs share the same visual concepts, such as hand gestures and body movements. Motivated by this observation, we propose a novel method that learns domain-invariant visual concepts and fertilizes WSLR models by transferring knowledge of subtitled news sign to them. To this end, we extract news signs using a base WSLR model, and then design a classifier jointly trained on news and isolated signs to coarsely align these two domain features. In order to learn domain-invariant features within each class and suppress domain-specific features, our method further resorts to an external memory to store the class centroids of the aligned news signs. We then design a temporal attention based on the learnt descriptor to improve recognition performance. Experimental results on standard WSLR datasets show that our method outperforms previous state-of-the-art methods significantly. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on automatically localizing signs from sign news, achieving 28.1 for AP@0.5., CVPR2020 (oral) preprint

Cardiovascular disease is one of the main human health risks, and the incidence is increasing. Salidroside is an important bioactive component of Rhodiola rosea L., which is used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, tumor, depression, and other diseases. Recent studies have shown that salidroside has therapeutic effects, to some degree, in cardiovascular diseases via an antioxidative mechanism. However, evidence-based clinical data supporting the effectiveness of salidroside in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases are limited. In this review, we discuss the effects of salidroside on cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular diseases and highlight potential antioxidant therapeutic strategies.

High strength concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns have been adopted in many constructions requiring great load-carrying capacities, large floorplans, cost-effective and time-saving solutions such as modern skyscrapers or high-rise buildings, but their performance is still insufficiently understood due to the lack of experimental investigations and design specifications. The test program in this study consists of eight stub square CFST columns fabricated from high strength materials and slender sections which are beyond the permitted limits specified by many current design provisions. The failure patterns, load and moment resistances, load-mid-height deflection and load-axial strain responses were used to evaluate the overall performance of the test specimens. Furthermore, a numerical model for CFST columns, taking into account the actual factors such as the confinement on concrete cores, initial imperfections and residual stresses on steel tubular members, was developed and demonstrated a good agreement with the experimental results. A parametric study then adopted this verified model to explore the confinement effect on concrete cores and the influence of various material strengths, eccentricity ratios, section slendernesses and member slendernesses on the performance of composite columns. Finally, the load-moment interaction curves of specimens under different loading conditions obtained from experiment and numerical analysis were compared to the predictions of AISC 360-16, Eurocode 4 and AS/NZS 2327 for validating these specifications. In short, this study is expected to advance the understanding in the area of eccentrically loaded CFST columns with high strength materials and slender sections.

High pointing accuracy and stabilization are significant for spacecrafts to carry out Earth observing, laser communication and space exploration missions. However, when a spacecraft undergoes large angle maneuver, the excited elastic oscillation of flexible appendages, for instance, solar wing and onboard antenna, would downgrade the performance of the spacecraft platform. This paper proposes a coupling control method, which synthesizes the adaptive sliding mode controller and the positive position feedback (PPF) controller, to control the attitude and suppress the elastic vibration simultaneously. Because of its prominent performance for attitude tracking and stabilization, the proposed method is capable of slewing the flexible spacecraft with a large angle. Also, the method is robust to parametric uncertainties of the spacecraft model. Numerical simulations are carried out with a hub-plate system which undergoes a single-axis attitude maneuver. An attitude control testbed for the flexible spacecraft is established and experiments are conducted to validate the coupling control method. Both numerical and experimental results demonstrate that the method discussed above can effectively decrease the stabilization time and improve the attitude accuracy of the flexible spacecraft.

An extensive set of experimental programme on the behaviour of innovative ring-bar reinforced connections composed of T-shaped concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns and reinforced concrete (RC) beams with slabs are reported in this study. Specifically, for the proposed connection, the T-shaped CFST column is welded with an H-shaped steel corbel, which is embedded into the reinforced concrete beam and slab. Moreover, a few ring-bars are fabricated to improve the seismic resistance capacity of this connection. A total of six specimens are tested: one specimen is tested under monotonic loading to investigate the load-displacement relationship and the development of strains; and the other five specimens are tested under cyclic loading to obtain the seismic behaviour of these specimens. The test results demonstrate that the seismic behaviour of the proposed connections is prominent and that the diameter and number of ring-bar and length of steel corbel are found to be significant factors of the seismic behaviour of the connections. Complementary to the experiments, a finite element (FE) model is developed to further analyse the experimental results by illustrating the failure modes of the specimens and extending the parametric studies which are not studied through the limited experiments. The comparison between the FE analysis and the experimental results demonstrates the accuracy of the proposed model. Numerical results indicate that the ring-bar and slab are able to increase the stiffness and bearing capacity of the specimens; the reinforcement ratio of beam, the concrete strength of the beam and slab play important roles in improving the ultimate strength of the specimens.

This paper presents a novel structural form of demountable beam-to-column composite bolted joints that can be dismantled at the end of its service life. An experimental programme was conducted to investigate the static and hysteretic behaviour of the demountable composite joints. The initial stiffness, moment capacity and failure modes of the demountable beam-to-column joints were evaluated through experimental results. The demountability of the joints was verified by dismantling the specimens during testing. Finite element models were developed, which incorporated the nonlinear contact interaction, ductile damage and plastic damage. The accuracy of the numerical models was validated with the relevant experimental outcomes. A parametric analysis was thereafter conducted to evaluate the effect of the end-plate thickness, width-to-thickness ratio of the column, bolt diameter and number of bolts on the moment-rotation response. A comparison between the test results and Eurocode was conducted to assess the applicability of the existing design guidance. It is found that the specimens designed with bent reinforcing bars exhibit satisfactory performance, and possess a higher level of hogging moment resistance compared to those with straight reinforcing bars. The designed joints are able to be dismantled readily and all steel components remain elastic when they are loaded up to 40% of the ultimate capacity which is equivalent to the typical service load. The end-plate thickness, width-to-thickness ratio of the column and bolt diameter impose the significant effect on the performance of the bolted joints. Two bolt-rows in tension can improve the moment-rotation response for the joints with extended end-plates. The current design standards are not capable of predicting the behaviour of the demountable beam-to-column joints accurately.

Concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns exploit the advantages of both reinforced concrete and structural steel in building construction and thus have been gaining attention by designers due to their significant structural and economic benefits. In current engineering practice, CFST columns are welded along their perimeter as the connections, which render the CFST columns difficult to be dismantled and reused. This study attempts to develop an innovative design for CFST column-column connections, through which CFST columns can be dismantled readily and reused safely at the end of their service life. Furthermore, this study presents an extensive set of experimental results on demountable CFST column-column connections under axial and eccentric compressive loading. Demountability, ultimate strength capacity, stiffness and ductility for this type of connection are investigated. In addition, a series of parametric studies have been conducted in the experiment to investigate the effects of various parameters on the behaviour of demountable CFST column-column connections. The present paper also proposes a finite element model for the prediction of the behaviour of demountable CFST column-column connections. The results from the finite element analysis were compared with Australian Standards, and it was found that current design codes are slightly conservative in terms of their strength prediction and are safe to be used in engineering practice.

The present study explores the flexural and shear behaviour of welded stainless steel beams with compact sections. A total of eleven specimens fabricated with austenitic, duplex and lean duplex stainless steel were tested under four-point and three-point loading strategies to obtain their failure modes, bearing capacities and ductility performance. Three-dimensional finite element models were then developed and validated with experimental results to numerically investigate the flexural and shear performance of the compact stainless steel beams. The obtained results from tests and numerical simulations were synthesised to comprehensively assess the applicability of existing codes of practice in terms of the bending, shear and moment-shear interaction design. It is found that the current design guidance for stainless steel beams adopts the elastic-perfectly plastic material model and conservatively predicted the bending, shear, as well as combined moment-shear strength. Accordingly, revised design methods considering the strain hardening effect of stainless steel beams were proposed.

Lean duplex stainless steel (LDSS) has been increasingly utilised in engineering applications due to its excellent durability, corrosion resistance, as well as superior structural and economic benefits. Moreover, compared to cold-form sections, welded members have significant structural advantages, and thus, have been widely used in many engineering practices. However, as one of the key factors affecting the performance of structural components, residual stresses of LDSS welded sections have not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, square and H-shaped LDSS welded sections were considered in the present experimental programme. Accurate measurements of the tensile and compressive residual stresses were conducted through the non-destructive neutron diffraction method. As LDSS is a dual-phase material, neutron diffraction measurement was repeated twice for each specimen to obtain the individual phase residual stresses (ferrite-phase, α and austenite-phase, γ). Hardness analysis, as well as microstructural characterisation using optical microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) were thereafter performed to ascertain the volume fraction of each phase, based on which the residual stresses along the direction of interest were successfully converted. According to the obtained experimental results, the authors recommended analytical models for the LDSS fabricated square sections and proposed new models for the H-sections, through which the residual stress distributions for welded LDSS sections can be accurately predicted. In addition, the recommended/proposed analytical models for LDSS sections were further compared with their counterparts previously developed for high-strength steel (HSS) and ultra-high-strength steel (UHSS) welded sections.

Experimental study of laser proton acceleration was carried out using laser machined line targets and cross targets with tens of micrometers scale. We have found that both the shape and material of the microstructure targets have significant influences on the distribution of the proton beam. For the aluminum line target, the proton beam spot expands in a direction perpendicular to the boundary of the target; while for the plastic line target, it expands parallel to the boundary of the target. Detailed PIC simulations of the aluminum target have been carried out, which show that due to the lateral transport of hot electrons and the sheath fields accumulated at the edge of the microstructure target, the divergence angle of the accelerated proton beam is changed accordingly, thereby modulating the spatial distribution: the elliptical beam spot can be obtained from the line target, and the quasi-square beam spot can be obtained from the cross target. Simulations of the plastic target indicate that the difference in the electron transport properties for the two types of targets may be the reason for the completely different beam spot shapes. This work shows that the microstructure targets can be a potential method to manipulate the spatial distribution and uniformity of the proton beam.

During the attitude maneuver of the flexible spacecraft, the attitude movement of the spacecraft body will excite the elastic vibration of the flexible attachment [1–3]. In return, the vibration would induce attitude oscillation after maneuver, which will downgrade the performance of payloads in spacecraft.

For vibration monitoring, the accelerometers with wider measuring range and greater sensitivity are required. In order to achieve the goal, a novel FBG accelerometer based on three mass blocks and four flexible hinges have been proposed. Then the mechanical model and dynamics equations, the resonant frequency, sensitivity and cross interferences have been investigated. It is observed that the theoretical and experimental data are consistent, the measuring range and the sensitivity of the proposed accelerometer are about 50–800 Hz and 29 pm/g, respectively.

In the current construction practice, concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns are difficult to be dismantled and relocated due to the continuous infilled concrete and reinforcement inside the columns. An innovative design method of the connections for CFST columns has been proposed herein, with which the CFST columns can be easily dismantled and reused. This study presents the experimental results on two demountable CFST column-column connections under eccentric tension. The initial stiffness, ultimate tensile strength, demountability as well as the post-peak behaviour is investigated. The present paper also develops a finite element model for the prediction of the tensile behaviour of the demountable CFST column-column connections. In the developed numerical model, the fracture of steel tubes under tensile loading and the failure of blind bolts due to shear force can be well simulated. Furthermore, a series of parametric studies have been carried out with the validated finite element model. Finally, the predictions from the finite element analysis were further compared with Australian Standard AS5100, and it was found that the practice code is slightly conservative in terms of the strength prediction and is safe to be used in engineering practice.

Stainless steel-concrete composite beam has been regarded as a new application that is widely applied in offshore bridges and high-rise buildings and is attracting increasing interest from engineering community. The benefits brought by stainless steel, such as superior corrosion and fire resistance, high strength and ductility as well as improved durability, could offer optimal and sustainable solutions for infrastructures and highways. However, the current design provisions for composite beams are based on the assumption of an elastic-perfectly-plastic steel model which is different to stainless steel material with a rounded stress-strain curve and significant strain hardening. To develop rational design guidance, this paper carried out a comprehensive experimental, numerical and analytical study on the behaviour of stainless steel-concrete composite beams. A series of tests were conducted on eighteen full-scale stainless steel composite beams under bending, shear as well as combined bending and shear. Three dimensional finite element (FE) model was developed in ABAQUS and FE simulations were carried out to complement the experimental program. New analytical models were proposed for predicting the moment capacity of stainless steel-concrete composite beam. Additionally, a modified design approach for shear capacity was recommended based on the design guidance in AS/NZS 2327. The applicability of current moment-shear interaction defined in AS/NZS 2327 and EN 1994-1-1 was assessed by the obtained results.

Stainless steel is considered a promising construction material for steel and composite structures owing to a number of superior features concerning excellent durability, high ductility and aesthetic benefits. Over the past few decades, a great deal of research has investigated the behaviour and design of stainless steel structural members. However, there is still very limited knowledge on the behaviour of joints between stainless steel/composite beams and columns. This paper presents for the first time, an experimental study on the structural behaviour of stainless steel-concrete composite (SSCC) beam-to-column joints, highlighting the “all stainless steel” concept (including stainless steel sections, bolts, reinforcing bars and shear connectors) to ensure a consistent service life within the entire structural system. Two types of stainless steels are incorporated in this study, namely austenitic and lean duplex. In addition to the experiments, 3D finite element models are established and validated against the test results in order to perform further parametric study. Based on the experiments and numerical analyses, the key structural characteristics of SSCC joints are evaluated and compared with the design predictions by Eurocode 3/4 and AS/NZS 2327. It is concluded that the existing design method (initially developed for carbon steel composite joints) cannot be directly applied for SSCC joints considering the unique material characteristics of stainless steel, i.e. the nonlinear stress-strain behaviour and immediate strain-hardening after yielding. Modifications to the existing method is therefore proposed for design of SSCC joints.

An extensive investigation on the behaviour of compact and slender box concrete-filled stainless steel tubular (CFSST) members is carried out studying their response under compression, bending, and combined compression and bending, with the main aim of developing comprehensive design procedures. Under this objective, an experimental programme is first conducted comprising compact and slender CFSSTs fabricated from austenitic and lean duplex stainless steel plates. Stub columns under axial compression as well as combined compression and bending, CFSST beams under pure bending, and long CFSST columns under axial force are all included in the experiments in order to investigate both the section and member responses. Specimens with high width-to-thickness ratios, high length-to-width ratios, and those under combined compression and bending are particularly considered in the experiments as test data is very scarce for such CFSSTs in the literature. A special technique is used to estimate the loads carried individually by the stainless steel section and the concrete infill to assist with the development of design recommendations. The experiments are followed by an extensive numerical study comprising over two hundred three-dimensional nonlinear finite element simulations. Outcomes of the experimental and numerical programmes are presented, analysed, and discussed thoroughly. Comprehensive procedures are then developed for the design of compact and slender CFSSTs under compression, bending, and combined loading which incorporate the effects of local and global buckling in strength predictions. Such procedures have not yet been established for CFSSTs in international design standards. The validity of the recommendations is demonstrated through comparison with the results of the present study as well as the test data available in the literature.

Integrating different functions in one material will decrease the volume, responding time, and price of device. Polyimides (PIs) are the optimal candidates because of excellent flexible mechanics, thermal stability, and transparent properties. In this work, a series of multifunctional flexible PIs were designed and synthesized from a novel functional triarylamine for electrochromic (EC) device. The PIs show promising application in EC with the efficiency of 205 cm2 C-1, memory devices with the ON/OFF ratio of 3.7×104, and photodetectors with a limit being of 0.07 V. Furthermore, the flexible EC device of PI-3 (short for polyimide 3 made of 4,4'-(hexafluoroisopropylidene) diphthalic anhydride) keeps excellent stability, and the optical contrast does not decrease even after 2000 cycles.

An accurate structural dynamic model is significant for control system design and safety of the spacecraft. Traditional linear structural dynamic models mostly based on the hybrid coordinate method, requiring the existence of central rigid bodies and the satisfaction of the small deformation assumption. However, modern spacecraft are utilizing more and more flexible structures and payloads, leading to a possibility of non-rigid-body tendency and large deformation, which needs a nonlinear solution. Existing nonlinear finite element methods become difficult to implement structural analysis for spacecraft due to the high degrees of freedom of the elements. Therefore, this paper proposes an accurate, freedom-reduced, universally applicable, and full-flexible nonlinear finite element method for modern spacecraft based on the continuum mechanics, taking the triangular element as an example. Simulations verify that this method can effectively solve the structural motion of large deformation, and is able to calculate the time-domain response under typical loads such as concentrated forces, body forces and torques.

Contact imaging based on MeV energy laser accelerated protons is studied in this paper. First, we show that both external structures and the internal organs of ants can be distinguished with micrometer spatial resolution by proton radiography. Then, we systematically study several specific influence factors and their coupled effects on the spatial resolution of proton radiography, i.e., the accumulated shot number, the proton irradiation dose, the different types of detectors, and the incident proton energy, using two specially designed resolution calibration targets. Under our experimental conditions with MeV protons, the best resolution obtained with the radiochromic film is 20 μm, and that with the solid-state nuclear-track detector (CR39) is 10 μm. In the end, we propose an image deblurring algorithm that uses deconvolution to eliminate the blurring caused by the nonzero spatial extent of the source and multiple Coulomb scattering. This work studies the comprehensive factors of laser accelerated proton radiography with resolution calibration targets and presents incremental additions to previous work on proton radiography.

We design and develop a high-performance magnetic shielding system for a long baseline fountain-type atom interferometer. The shielding system is achieved by a combination of passive shielding using permalloy and active compensation with coils. An 11.4 m-long three-layer cylindrical shield is completed by the process of welding, local annealing, and entire annealing. The active compensations compress the residual magnetic field to 8.0 nT max-to-min and the corresponding gradient below 30 nT/m over 10 m along the axial direction in which external compensation, internal compensation, and constant magnetic field (C-field) compensation reduce the inhomogeneities to 25.0, 12.6, and 1.7 nT (standard deviation) sequentially. We estimate that this system could reduce the systematic error of the quadratic Zeeman shift to the 10−13 level for the weak equivalence principle test with a simultaneous 85Rb–87Rb dual-species atom interferometer.