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Nitrogen and sulfur co-doped graphene supported Pd oxide-rich (PdOx-rich) Pd nanoparticles (Pd/NS-rGO) are synthesized by microwave-assisted ascorbic acid reduction method. Raman spectrum reveals that the introduced NS co-doping could introduce more defects on the graphene surface. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectrum, SEM and TEM images indicate that the synthesized PdOx-rich Pd particles are well-dispersed on NS co-doped graphene surface. Cyclic voltammograms curves illustrate that the Pd/NS-rGO catalyst exhibits a larger electrochemically active surface area (35.7 m2 g−1) and higher positive current density (1,054.0 mA mg−1 Pd) than other catalysts prepared by similar methods. The Pd/NS-rGO catalyst also reveals superior anti-poisoning intermediate species ability and amazing stability. The electrocatalytic mechanism is also detailedly discussed and the designed Pd/NS-rGO catalyst has opened up a new insight and methodology for the construction of a high performance and stability ethanol electrocatalysts in corrosive alkaline environments.

Thulium iron garnet (TmIG) films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) were grown on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) (111) substrates by off-axis sputtering. High-resolution synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction studies and spherical aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (Cs-corrected STEM) images showed the excellent crystallinity of the films and their sharp interface with GGG. Damping constant of TmIG thin film was determined to be 0.0133 by frequency-dependent ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements. The saturation magnetization (Ms) and the coercive field (Hc) were obtained systematically as a function of the longitudinal distance (L) between the sputtering target and the substrate. A 170% enhancement of PMA field (H⊥) was achieved by tuning the film composition to increase the tensile strain. Moreover, current-induced magnetization switching on a Pt/TmIG structure was demonstrated with an ultra-low critical current density (jc) of 2.5 × 106 A/cm2, an order of magnitude smaller than the previously reported value. We were able to tune Ms, Hc and H⊥ to obtain an ultra-low jc of switching the magnetization, showing the great potential of sputtered TmIG films for spintronics.

Harnessing the spin–momentum locking of topological surface states in conjunction with magnetic materials is the first step to realize novel topological insulator-based devices. Here, we report strong interfacial coupling in Bi2Se3/yttrium iron garnet (YIG) bilayers manifested as large interfacial in-plane magnetic anisotropy (IMA) and enhancement of damping probed by ferromagnetic resonance. The interfacial IMA and damping enhancement reaches a maximum when the Bi2Se3 film approaches its two-dimensional limit, indicating that topological surface states play an important role in the magnetization dynamics of YIG. Temperature-dependent ferromagnetic resonance of Bi2Se3/YIG reveals signatures of the magnetic proximity effect of TC as high as 180 K, an emerging low-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy competing the high-temperature IMA, and an increasing exchange effective field of YIG steadily increasing toward low temperature. Our study sheds light on the effects of topological insulators on magnetization dynamics, essential for the development of topological insulator-based spintronic devices. Understanding the effects of topological insulators on magnetization dynamics of adjacent magnetic materials is essential for novel spintronic devices. Here, Fanchiang et al. report thickness dependence of interfacial in-plane magnetic anisotropy and damping enhancement in Bi2Se3/yttrium iron garnet (YIG) bilayers, indicating an important role of topological surface states in the magnetization dynamics of YIG.

Mobile healthcare has become an important trend in medical and healthcare domains. With the rapid development of wearable and sensing technologies, various health-related information can now be recorded, forming valuable big health data. Physical activities are considered to have a great impact on heart rate, and the analysis of heart rate data now is widely used in medical/healthcare researches. The analysis of exercise records and heart rate data have been used for the research of the exercise intensity in many institutes. Heart rate patterns refers to a symbol of health status of heart, which is based on the current rate, and other physiological parameters. An effective heart rate pattern discovering is very helpful for the healthcare and cardiovascular prevention. In this work, we aim to build a big data analytics framework for sports behavior mining and personalized health services. We analyzed users' exercise data including heart rate and GPS data, which were collected in a practical sports and social platform, to discover users' periodic sports patterns and the trend of heart rate change during exercise. Since the dataset is not only very huge but also growing very quickly, we adopt Apache Spark as the development framework to address this Velocity issue in Big Data. The analytical results can serve as important core for personalized healthcare applications. Moreover, we also group the individual result to discover the clustering result, which can be further applied for advanced healthcare applications.

Harnessing the spin–momentum locking of topological surface states in conjunction with magnetic materials is the first step to realize novel topological insulator-based devices. Here, we report strong interfacial coupling in Bi2Se3/yttrium iron garnet (YIG) bilayers manifested as large interfacial in-plane magnetic anisotropy (IMA) and enhancement of damping probed by ferromagnetic resonance. The interfacial IMA and damping enhancement reaches a maximum when the Bi2Se3 film approaches its two-dimensional limit, indicating that topological surface states play an important role in the magnetization dynamics of YIG. Temperature-dependent ferromagnetic resonance of Bi2Se3/YIG reveals signatures of the magnetic proximity effect of TC as high as 180 K, an emerging low-temperature perpendicular magnetic anisotropy competing the high-temperature IMA, and an increasing exchange effective field of YIG steadily increasing toward low temperature. Our study sheds light on the effects of topological insulators on magnetization dynamics, essential for the development of topological insulator-based spintronic devices., Understanding the effects of topological insulators on magnetization dynamics of adjacent magnetic materials is essential for novel spintronic devices. Here, Fanchiang et al. report thickness dependence of interfacial in-plane magnetic anisotropy and damping enhancement in Bi2Se3/yttrium iron garnet (YIG) bilayers, indicating an important role of topological surface states in the magnetization dynamics of YIG.

In recent years, with the advances in mobile communication and growing popularity of the fourth-generation mobile network along with the enhancement in location positioning techniques, mobile devices have generated extensive spatial trajectory data, which represent the mobility of moving objects. New services are emerged to serve mobile users based on their predicted locations. Most of the existing studies on location prediction were focused on predicting the next location of a user, which is regarded as short-term next location prediction. While more advanced location-based services could be enabled for the users if long-term location prediction could be achieved, the existing methods constrained in next-location prediction are not applicable for long-term prediction scenario. In this paper, we propose a novel prediction framework named LSTM-PPM that utilises deep learning and periodic pattern mining for long-term prediction of user locations. Our framework devises the ideology from natural language model and uses multi-step recursive strategy to perform long-term prediction. Furthermore, the periodic pattern mining technique is utilized to reduce the accumulated loss in the multi-step strategy. Through empirical evaluation on a real-life trajectory dataset, our proposed approach is shown to provide effective performance in long-term location prediction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work addressing the research topic on long-term user location prediction.

The integration of quantum materials like topological insulators (TIs) with magnetic insulators (MIs) has important technological implications for spintronics and quantum computing. Here we report excellent crystallinity of c-axis oriented epitaxial TI films Bi2Se3 grown on MI films, a rare earth iron garnet (ReIG), such as thulium iron garnet (Tm3Fe5O12, TmIG) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with a Se-buffered low-temperature (SBLT) growth technique. We demonstrated a streaky reflection high-energy electron diffraction pattern starting from the very first quintuple layer of Bi2Se3, indicating the high-quality interface between TmIG and Bi2Se3, a prerequisite for studying interfacial exchange coupling effects. The strong interfacial exchange interaction was manifested by observations of anomalous Hall effect in the Bi2Se3/TmIG bilayer and a shift of ferromagnetic resonance field of TmIG induced by Bi2Se3. We have reproducibly grown high-quality Bi2Se3/ReIG and interfaces using this new TI growth method, which may be applied to grow other types of van der Waals (vdW) hetero-structures., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures

The graphene paper fabricated through an electrochemical exfoliation and filtration process provides high quality and massive graphene sheets in an ink form synthesised using artificial graphite as starting material. The product is mainly composed of bilayer and few layer graphene. Their lateral size can be up to >10 μm, and the quality determined by Raman spectroscopy is better than reduced graphene oxide. The cross-plane and in-plane thermal conductivity of the graphene paper can reach 5·5 and 3300 W m−1 K−1 measured by the direct method and the thermoelectric method respectively.

Episode pattern mining is a very powerful technique to get high-valued information for people to solve real-life cross-disciplinary problems, such as for the analysis of manufacturing, stock markets, weather records and so on. As data grows, the mining process must be re-triggered again and again to obtain the most updated information. However, periodically re-mining the full dataset is not cost-effective, and thus a number of incremental mining approaches arise for the growing data. However, to our best knowledge, there exist few studies targeted on the problem of incremental episode mining. Moreover, streaming data of complex events is more and more popular because digital sensors always collect data around us in this big data age. Now the challenge is not only mining valuable episode patterns of incremental dataset, but also mining episode patterns over data streams of complex events. To address this research problem, we adopt the Lambda Architecture to design a scalable complex event analytical system that could be used to facilitate the incremental episode mining process over complex event sequences of data streams. Apache Spark and Apache Spark Streaming are applied as the development framework of the batch layer and the speed layer, respectively. To take both the efficiency and accuracy into consideration, we develop a series of modules and three algorithms, namely, batch episode mining, delta episode mining and pattern merging. Results from the experimental validation on a real dataset show that the proposed system carries high scalability and delivers excellent performance in terms of efficiency and accuracy.

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NP-C) is a rare inherited neurovisceral disease characterized by progressive neurological manifestations. Oral miglustat was first approved for the treatment of children and adults with NP-C in Europe in 2009. There are still relatively few published data on the long-term efficacy and safety of miglustat in patients with NP-C in clinical practice. We report the effects of up to 6 years of treatment with miglustat 100 mg t.i.d. in five children. Overall, 3/5 patients displayed progressive dysphagia before starting miglustat, and 4/5 showed marked cognitive and/or motor impairment. The mean age at treatment start was 11.6 years, and the median (range) duration of therapy so far is 4 (4.1 to 6.1) years. No treatment dose alterations were required, but therapy was interrupted for 1–3 months at least once in all patients due to supply issues. Swallowing function was stabilised during miglustat therapy, with no significant increase in Han dysphagia scale or aspiration-penetration index scores among four evaluable patients (p > 0.05). Scores on the mini-mental state examination indicated an improvement in cognitive function during the first 3–6 months of miglustat therapy, followed by stabilisation up to 5 years. Ambulatory function remained stable for at least the first 2 years of treatment in most patients, but there was a trend towards deterioration thereafter, possibly related to treatment interruptions. The safety/tolerability profile of miglustat was similar to previous clinical studies, although reports of gastrointestinal disturbances were rare. Overall, miglustat appeared to stabilise key parameters of neurological disease progression.

To preserve the high quality topological surface state after air exposure without degradation, it is crucial to identify an effective capping layer. In this study, we report an effective capping layer obtained by crystallizing Se. Upon extended exposure to ultrahigh vacuum or humid air, we show by using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy that the stability and resistance to oxidation of crystalline Se capping layers are superior to those of the amorphous Se capping layer, which has been commonly used by current communities. Furthermore, time-dependent Hall measurements showed that crystalline Se capping layers had a much stronger ability to sustain the intrinsic transport properties of Bi2Se3.To preserve the high quality topological surface state after air exposure without degradation, it is crucial to identify an effective capping layer. In this study, we report an effective capping layer obtained by crystallizing Se. Upon extended exposure to ultrahigh vacuum or humid air, we show by using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy that the stability and resistance to oxidation of crystalline Se capping layers are superior to those of the amorphous Se capping layer, which has been commonly used by current communities. Furthermore, time-dependent Hall measurements showed that crystalline Se capping layers had a much stronger ability to sustain the intrinsic transport properties of Bi2Se3.

Nuclear power plants are normally assumed to be safe when their radiation impact in all operational states is kept at a reasonably low level. However, accidentally released radioactive substances and ionizing radiation may lead to a situation that cannot maintain the regulatory prescribed dose limits for internal and external exposure of the personnel and population. Nuclear emergency preparedness and response in nuclear or radiological events have been of concern recently in international communities. Nuclear power plants may need to provide essential information regarding possible scenarios of accidental releases that might have short-term detrimental effects and long-term risks in nearby populated regions. This paper presents a synergistic integration of a source term model and a three-dimensional, time-dependent, numerical model (i.e., HOTMAC/RAPTAD), which was applied to simulate a specific scenario in which a vapor cloud was accidentally released from Maanshan (i.e., the third nuclear power plant) in South Taiwan. It aims at dealing with middle-range risk assessment for nuclear emergency preparedness and response. The solutions of such an integrated modeling platform can be found with numerical analyses that describe the processes of radionuclide generation, transport, decay, and deposition, giving the final risk assessment in a neighboring coastal city—Kaohsiung, South Taiwan. In addition, sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the internal consistency of model parameters, which further support the application potentials. Such a modeling technique is valuable because it can characterize the fate and transport of radioactive nuclides over the long term. The case study in South Taiwan uniquely demonstrates the feasibility and significance of such model integration.

Background/aims: In the present study, we attempted to develop a simulated model to explore the causal effects of periodontal pathogens on skeletal homeostasis in postmenopausal osteoporosis. Methods: Fifty-three female adult ICR mice were randomly assigned to an experimental group (ovariectomized) or a control group. A single injection of Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (P. gingivalis-LPS, ATCC 33277) or Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (E. coli-LPS) was administered intraperitoneally 4 weeks after an ovariectomy. Concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6), osteoprotegerin (OPG), and the receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) in serum were subsequently analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Under stimulation with P. gingivalis-LPS or E. coli-LPS, the concentration of OPG rose in both groups. The serum level of RANKL showed a decreasing trend 24 h after the injection in both groups. After injection of P. gingivalis-LPS in both the experimental and control animals, the OPG : RANKL ratio increased 24 h after the booster (22.26–620.99, P

If international container ports are to gain a proper appreciation of their various advantages, disadvantages and potential opportunities in a globally competitive environment, it is essential that they conduct effective evaluation of their operational performance. The present study applies five models of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to acquire a variety of complementary information about the operational efficiency of major container ports in the Asia-Pacific region and to identify trends in port efficiency. The study first establishes the causes of inefficiency on the basis of efficiency value analysis. Slack variable analysis is then used to identify potential areas of improvement for inefficient ports. This is followed by the utilization of return to scale analysis to assess whether each port is in a state of increasing, decreasing, or constant return to scale. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to identify which input or output variables have larger weights in terms of efficiency. The res...

In this paper an analysis is presented to predict the spectral absorption, extinction and scattering coefficients of water sprays using Mie theory for spherical, homogeneous particles. The spectral absorption and extinction efficiencies are calculated for different mean droplet diameters and different droplet size distributions. To generalize the results and account for the spectral dependence of the optical constants of water, the efficiency factor for extinction in the small particle size limit of the Mie theory is used for scaling. The results of calculations for different size water droplet spray distributions are discussed. The results reported can be used in radiative transfer submodels of computational fluid dynamics simulation of fire suppression using water sprays/mists.

Recently people pay more and more attention on how to effectively and efficiently analyze the result of regular physical examinations to provide the most helpful information for individual health management. In this paper, we design and develop an interactive system of virtual healthcare assistant to help people, especially for those who suffer from chronic diseases (e.g., metabolic syndrome) to easily understand their health conditions and then well manage it. This system analyzes the result of regular physical examination to evaluate the health risk and provide personalized healthcare services for users in terms of diet and exercise guideline recommendations. We developed some interactive ways for users to easily feedback their vital signs to the system and quickly get the suggestions for health management from the system. Besides the browser-based system, we also developed a mobile App that can regularly remind users to carry out the recommendations, which are provided by the system. To prove the system is feasible in the real-world clinical environment, we also applied the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for a human subject research to validate this system. Other than the functional features, there are also several important non-functional features of the extensibility and the convenience for use. First, we use the physical examination result as the raw data to be analyzed. It's very convenient for users with very low cost. Second, the system design is extendable, so it can be easily adjusted to work for any chronic ills, even other kinds of diseases. Moreover, it can be extended to provide other kinds of healthcare guideline recommendations as well. These features constitute the main contributions of this work.

The water extract of Anoectochilus formosanus Hayata showed a potent tumor inhibitory activity in BALB/c mice after subcutaneous transplantation of CT-26 murine colon cancer cells. The tumor-inhibition ratios of mice pre-administered with A. formosanus for 2 days before tumor transplantation, and treated further for 12 consecutive days, were 55.4% and 58.9% at the oral dose of 50 and 10 mg/mouse per day, respectively. Even for the tumor-bearing mice, after oral administration of the water extract of A. formosanus for 12 consecutive days, the tumor inhibition ratios were still 23.8% and 40.5% at doses of 50 and 10 mg/mouse, respectively. Because the low-concentration water extract of A. formosanus does not show direct cytotoxicity in CT-26 tumor cells, we observed further that oral administration of the water extract of A. formosanus may activate murine immune responses, such as stimulating the proliferation of lymphoid tissues and activating the phagocytosis of peritoneal macrophages against Staphylococcus aureus. This study suggests that the antitumor activity of A. formosanus may be associated with its potent immunostimulating effect. It is worth further analyzing the immunomodulating component purified from A. formosanus, and evaluating its potential value for the treatment of human cancers.

Fuel droplet evaporation is relevant to spray combustion in technologically important devices and must be understood to develop reliable combustion methods for hydrocarbon fuels. Motivated by this observation, this paper presents an analysis to examine the importance of radiation on unsteady evaporation of a single isolated fuel droplet. The droplet is considered to be spherical and semitransparent to radiation. A model based on radiative transfer theory is used to calculate the local volumetric rate of radiation absorption. Published spectral absorption coefficient data for hydrocarbon fuels is used to perform the calculations. The effects of thermal expansion and temperature-department thermophysical properties on the evaporation process are accounted for. The internal circulation in the droplet due to the external flow is accounted for through an effective thermal conductivity of the fuel droplet. The model predictions are compared with available theoretical results and experimental data. The ...

The effects of the process parameters of micro-plasma arc welding (micro-PAW) on the morphology and quality of stainless steel edge joint welds were investigated. Micro-PAW was applied on type 304 stainless steels to produce an edge joint weld. Welding experiments were carried out for various combinations of arc current, welding speed, arc length, shielding gas, and clamp distance, with all other operating conditions held constant. The experimental results indicated that the collimated shape of the low current plasma arc was mainly responsible for the low sensitivity of the weld morphology to variations in the nozzle standoff distances. The arc voltage increased with increasing quantity of added hydrogen in the argon shielding gas. It was also found that satisfactory edge joint welds can be formed using a clamp distance of 0.35 mm, and that the edge joint penetration on a 0.1 mm thickness stainless steel is about 60% of the clamp distance.

For original paper by Lu et al. see IEEE Trans. Signal Processing, vol.46, p.1-10 (1998 January). The iterative procedure by Lu et al. for designing IIR filters is recognized as the Sanathanan-Koerner or Steiglitz-McBride iteration, which was proposed originally in 1963 and 1965, respectively, for system identification purposes. We re-examine some claims and issues related to Lu et al.'s paper in view of various properties that have been deduced for the Steiglitz-McBride iteration in the identification literature. In particular, the Steiglitz-McBride procedure is known not to minimize a least-squares distance measure, contrary to Lu et al.'s claim. It can, however, provide good models and remain stable during successive iterations under specific conditions which are reviewed. A reply is given by Lu et al.

To prepare for a chemical emergency response program in those industrial cities that might involve a release of chemical contaminants to the atmosphere, we have adopted a series of source emission models and a three-dimensional atmospheric model along with its companion diffusion module for predicting the dispersion and concentrations of these hazardous chemicals with various types of release scenarios. The three-dimensional atmospheric model predicts the wind, temperature, and turbulence fields in which the physical processes associated with terrain, clouds, radiation, and surface vegetation are included. The analytical framework is designed by the fact that the diffusion module uses the estimated release rate from a source emission model and the predicted winds and turbulence conditions from the atmospheric model to compute particle trajectories, concentrations, and dosages in the area of a release. In addition, the model results have been coupled with the geographical information system, which may be u...

In this paper, the equations of motion for a deploying beam with a tip mass are derived by using Hamilton's principle. In the dynamic formulations, the beam is divided into two parts. One part of the beam is outside the rigid support and is free to vibrate, while the remaining part is inside the support and is restrained from vibrating. Four dynamic models: Timoshenko; Euler; simple-flexible and rigid-body beam theories, are used to describe the axially moving beam. An external force, parallel to the direction of the axially moving motion, is applied at the left-hand side of the flexible beam. It is found that the axially moving motion and flexible vibrations are non-linearly coupled in the system equations. Finally, the effects of several conditions on the rigid-body motion and the flexible are discussed.

Adult Japanese eels, Anguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel, (200–250 g, 45–55 cm) were immunized by intramuscular injection with goat IgG. After 5 weeks, eel immunoglobulin (Ig) was purified using affinity chromatography. The purified eel Ig was used to immunize rabbits to produce anti-eel Ig antibody. The highest antibody ELISA value in eels was reached 3 weeks after initial immunization with goat IgG, and then gradually decreased. The antibody could still be detected at 140 days post-immunization. The optimal temperature for antibody production was 30°C. Freund’s complete adjuvant and secondary immunization both increased antibody production in eels.

We propose a concept allowing disabled patient taking their rehabilitation treatment without going to the hospital. We design a portable device of rehabilitation and it can be lightweight in an advanced version. Particularly, we select PhoneGap to be a mobile development framework and to build the specific application for mobile devices using JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3 instead of using device-specific language in our system. The great advantage is cross-platform that represent write once and run anywhere. In our software, we lead the patient to do the exercise of rehabilitation step-by-step and then store recovery status in database. Finally, the system will play restful music when patient do exercise. According to the mentioned above, we developed the Mobility Rehabilitation that combines mobility, entertainment, and storing ability.

A humoral response of Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica Temminck & Schlegel, to the microsporean Pleistophora anguillarum Hoshina was demonstrated using immunoblotting and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Japanese eel immunoglobulin was purified by affinity chromatography. The immunoglobulin was composed of 25-kDa light chains and 72-kDa heavy chains. The ELISA values of P. anguillarum antibodies in naturally infected fish sera were significantly higher than those of clinically healthy fish. Spore proteins from the microsporean were separated by electrophoresis and subjected to analysis by Western blot. Sera from naturally infected fish showed different reaction patterns to the spore proteins. While the sera randomly selected from naturally infected eels all showed a significant positive reaction to P. anguillarum antigens, the mucus from only three out of the nine infected eels reacted positively in the ELISA test. Subsequent analyses indicated that there was no significant difference in the amount of mucus immunoglobulin among the tested eels. Therefore, the generally lower ELISA values of mucosal anti-P. anguillarum antibodies from the infected eels tested were evidently not caused by a lack of immunoglobulin per se, but seem to be the result of a lack of anti-P. anguillarum antibodies in the mucus and/or a lower affinity in the anti-P. anguillarum antibodies that were present.

Almost all plants have the experience of ACB's overcurrent relay (OCR) unexpectedly trip event. Each accident will cause a huge production loss. But manufacturers of OCR can't afford the cost-effective solution of problem. The most used solution is to install an additional relay (ex. ABB Relay B) to replace the function of the ACB's OCR or to adopt a new ACB to replace the old one. These two uneconomical solutions are not only high cost but also time consumption on annual PM. Thus, authors proposed a novel solution by interlocking the main ACB's relay and the feeder ACB's OCR function to prevent the ACB tripped by OCR false tripping signal. This method does not require additional relay and current transformer. Therefore, it is a cost-effective and time saving solution.