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Native mitral valve infective endocarditis (IE) plagues patients and surgeons alike because of its high mortality and recurrence rates as well as poor prognosis. Mitral valve repair (MVP) and mitral valve replacement (MVR) are two main surgical methods. However, the question of which benefits patients more remains controversial. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to systematically review the two approaches, focusing on the early survival rate and long-term outcomes.A meta-analysis and systematic review were conducted using studies sourced from the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane literature databases to compare MVP and MVR, with data extracted for baseline characteristics, mortality, survival, recurrent endocarditis, and valve reoperation. Risk ratio (RR) or hazard ratio (HR) values were calculated, and publication bias was tested.A total of 17 relevant publications with a total population of 3759 patients, with 1180 patients having undergone MVP and 2579 patients having undergone MVR, respectively, were analyzed. Patients who underwent MVP may benefit from a lower risk of early mortality (RR, 0.51; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.39-0.66; p .00001), a higher long-term survival rate (HR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.58-0.81; p .001; IThis meta-analysis suggests that MVP may lead to better outcomes compared to MVR. Among patients with mitral valve IE, MVP can reduce in-hospital mortality, improve long-term survival, and has a lower risk of recurrent endocarditis. As a result, MVP may be suitable as a primary treatment choice and should be considered whenever possible in most IE patients.

During the implementation process of identification systems, multiple factors need to be considered at the same time. Due to the large amount of calculation and the randomness of the signal, the automatic identification capability of the machine is currently poor, especially for continuous signal. In order to solve this problem, a neuron fuzzy identification system was described based on a complex nonlinear mathematical model, which was designed from both hardware and software aspects of the system. The hardware architecture diagram was constructed based on the S3C:2440 microprocessor. The main modules include the power module, acquisition module, storage module, and output module. The DSP/BIOS system was used to construct the software framework diagram of the neuron fuzzy identification system to describe the identification process of video data stream, image data stream and control signal data. The software algorithm was designed based on the neuron fuzzy theory to establish a fuzzy similarity matrix and the best identification result was found by the maximum and minimum methods. The experimental results show that the designed system has higher recognition ability. When the frame length reaches 40 frames, the recognition rate increases to a larger value, the recognition rate is 75%, and the information is more accurate.

By comparing the target dose distribution with or without the robust optimization, the dosimetric advantages of robust optimization and flattening filter free (FFF) in radiation therapy for postmastectomy cancer of the left breast was explored when part of the chest wall target was moved out in case of respiratory motion.This is a retrospective study. The data of 21 postmastectomy patients with cancer of the left breast from 2019 to 2020 were retrospectively collected. The planned target volume (PTV) dose was prescribed 50 Gy/25 fractions and the treatment plans were designed using 6 MV FFF X ray and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) technology in RayStation treatment planning system (TPS), with and without robust optimization. The movement of the target area of the internal chest wall (0.50 cm) caused by respiratory movement was simulated by moving the isocenter of the beams.When the chest wall target moved outward, the PTV target area DRobust optimization could be adopted in the postoperative radiotherapy planning for cancer in the left breast, for it ensures that the target dose coverage and the dose limit of organ-at-risk still meet the clinical requirements under condition of chest wall displacement caused by respiratory movement.

In this study, we have developed a novel method for ilmenite activation. Sodium hypochlorite was used as an oxidant and surface modifier to promote ilmenite flotation. And it has successfully been performed valence transitions of iron atoms on the ilmenite surface, thereby enhancing the action activity between the surface sites of ilmenite and sodium oleate. Eventually the surface Fe3+ content increased from 42.15 to 63.79%. Oxidation by sodium hypochlorite increased the amount of Fe3+ on the ilmenite surface by 21.64% and improved the ilmenite recovery to 95%, while the maximum recovery of ilmenite without sodium hypochlorite addition was only 85%. The activation mechanism of ilmenite by sodium hypochlorite was studied by batch flotation, Zeta potential measurement, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and reaction thermodynamic analysis. The results of potential measurement show that sodium hypochlorite made the Zeta potentials of ilmenite–sodium oleate system more negative mainly due to the enhanced adsorption effect between them. FTIR results indicate that more prominent absorption peak of iron oleate appeared in the FTIR spectrum of ilmenite treated with sodium oleate after sodium hypochlorite oxidation. XPS analyses suggest that more Fe2+ on ilmenite surface supplied electrons to the oxidant and formed more Fe3+. Reaction thermodynamic analyses also show that compared with Fe2+, Fe3+ was more likely to interact with oleate ions and formed more stable species. In summary, sodium hypochlorite can activate ilmenite and improve its flotation.

Characterizing the response of temperature variables to agricultural irrigation is expected to be an important challenge for understanding the full impact of water management on regional climate change. In this paper, the trend analysis and abrupt change test were applied to detect the global warming effect. Then, the quantitative irrigation-induced cooling effects on temperature variables between April and August from 1970 to 2010 in the Lhasa River basin were estimated using historical time series of gridded meteorological records and a map of the area equipped for irrigation. Trends in the maximum temperature (Tmax) were statistically positive, and a significant increasing trend for the minimum temperature (Tmin) was detected at the 0.01 and 0.05 confidence levels. No abrupt changing point of warming was detected in the time series for Tmax. The abrupt changes in Tmin in the irrigation concentration period took place in 1995, 5 years later than the corresponding change in April. Affected by global warming, the increase in temperature was the largest in July and August, when the irrigation-induced cooling effect was also the most significant. The irrigation-induced cooling effect for Tmax and Tmin in April–August (except for June) ranged from − 0.017 to − 0.009 °C/decade and from − 0.011 to − 0.001 °C/decade, respectively, and the cooling effect for diurnal temperature range (DTR) ranged from − 0.011 to 0 °C/decade. The cooling effect on temperature reached above 0.01 °C in July and August, but for the growing seasons, the effect was weak, only 0.001 °C. The Tmax and Tmin trends during the whole growing seasons decreased by both 0.002 °C/decade, respectively, with a 10% increase in irrigation land proportion. Even in July and August, the trends were expected to decrease by about 0.005 °C/decade with a 10% increase in irrigation land proportion. The irrigation-induced cooling effect could partially slow global warming.

The freshwater environment of watersheds in the Tibetan Plateau is bound with the safety of the Asian Water Tower. In this study, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loads delivered to freshwater and the associated gray water footprint (GWF) in the agriculture, tourism, domestic life, and industrial sectors were estimated to assess the seasonal and annual characteristics of the water pollution levels (WPLs) in the Lhasa River Basin from 2006 to 2018, and WPL calculations were compared with actual water quality measurements from 2017 to 2018. We found that more than 90% of the GWF came from anthropogenic sources. From the perspective of the whole basin, domestic life was the largest contributor to both N-related GWFs (52%) and P-related GWFs (50%), followed by agriculture for N-related GWFs (32%) and tourism industry for P-related GWFs (30%). The N emissions into the freshwater environment exceeded the maximum assimilation capacity of the watersheds in individual years at both seasonal and annual scales, while P emissions were completely within the pollution assimilative capacity. Besides, we found the serious N pollution near irrigation areas at the seasonal scale (WPL = 2.7 and TN = 1.11 mg/L). The prosperity of tourism has led to a tenfold increase in N-related GWFs and a fivefold increase in P-related GWFs for the tourism industry near the Lhasa city. The strict top-down unified management for ecological environmental protection in plateaus may be an effective method.

Cavitation phenomenon is important in hydraulic turbomachineries. With the construction of pumping stations and hydro power stations on plateau, the influence of nuclei fraction on cavitation becomes important. As a simplified model, a twisted hydrofoil was used in this study to understand the cavitation behaviors on pump impeller blade and turbine runner blade at different altitude levels. The altitudes of 0 m, 1000 m, 2000 m, 3000 m and 4000 m were comparatively studied for simulating the plateau situation. Results show that the cavitation volume proportion fcav increases with the decreasing of cavitation coefficient Cσ. At a specific Cσ, high altitude and few nuclei will cause smaller size of cavitation. The smaller Cσ is, the higher the sensitivity Δfcav is. The larger Cσ is, the higher the relative sensitivity Δfcav* is. On the twisted foil, flow incidence angle increases from the sidewall to mid-span with the decreasing of the local minimum pressure. When Cσ is continually decreasing, the size of cavitation extends in spanwise, streamwise and thickness directions. The cavity is broken by the backward-jet flow when Cσ becomes small. A tail generates and the cavity becomes relatively unstable. This study will provide reference for evaluating the cavitation status of the water pumps and hydroturbines installed on a plateau with high altitude level.

The transient process of pumped storage system (PSS) experienced pump mode, turbine mode and switching mode in pumped outage condition, spanning hump zone and S-shaped region. The conflicting dynamic indicators make it difficult to meet the requirements of the transient process. How to specify optimal operating strategies and improve the reliability of PSS in the pumped outage condition has become a key issue. This problem is addressed in this work based on coordinated multi-objective optimization, and three stages are included: nonlinear modeling, strategy optimization and decision making. A trade-off is embodied in each stage. Firstly, the real-time accurate equivalent circuit model is applied for PSS. The spatiotemporal discrete analysis is presented to enable the trade-off between computing efficiency and model accuracy in stage 1. Then, the neighborhood-search chaotic mutation multi-objective gravitational search algorithm, integrating multiple constraints, is performed to solve the Pareto front. It achieves the trade-off between algorithm convergence and searching diversity in stage 2. Further, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is innovatively introduced to select the most compatible solution, which comprehensively considers the quantitative and qualitative factors. It accomplishes the trade-off in conflicting objectives and indicators in stage 3. Compared with the on-site operation in pumped outage condition, the maximum reversing speed decreased from 545 rpm to 161.45 rpm, the maximum water pressure of volute can be reduced by 4.55%, and the minimum draft tube pressure can be improved by 6.94%. The coordinated multi-objective optimization provides a novel technical guidance for the safe and stable operation of PSS.

Understanding vegetation dynamics is necessary to address potential ecological threats and develop sustainable ecosystem management at high altitudes. In this study, we revealed the spatiotemporal characteristics of vegetation growth in the Lhasa River Basin using net primary productivity (NPP) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) during the period of 2000–2005. The roles of climatic factors and specific anthropogenic activities in vegetation dynamics were also identified, including positive or negative effects and the degree of impact. The results indicated that the interannual series of NPP and NDVI in the whole basin both had a continuous increasing trend from 102 to 128 gC m−2 yr−1 and from 0.417 to 0.489 (p < 0.05), respectively. The strongest advanced trends (>2 gC m−2 yr−1 or >0.005 yr−1) were detected in mainly the southeastern and northeastern regions. Vegetation dynamics were not detected in 10% of the basin. Only 20% of vegetation dynamics were driven by climatic conditions, and precipitation was the controlling climatic factor determining vegetation growth. Accordingly, anthropogenic activities made a great difference in vegetation coverage, accounting for about 70%. The construction of urbanization and reservoir led to vegetation degradation, but the farmland practices contributed the vegetation growth. Reservoir construction had an adverse impact on vegetation within 6 km of the river, and the direct damage to vegetation was within 1 km. The impacts of urbanization were more serious than that of reservoir construction. Urban sprawl had an adverse impact on vegetation within a 6 km distance from the surrounding river and resulted in the degradation of vegetation, especially within a 3 km range. Intensive fertilization and guaranteed irrigation improved the cropland ecosystem conditions, creating a favorable effect on the accumulation of crop organic matter in a range of 5 km, with an NPP trend value of 1.2 gC m−2 yr−1. The highly intensive grazing activity forced ecological environmental pressures such that the correlation between livestock numbers and vegetation growth trend was significantly linear negative.

The free-surface vortex is simulated with the homogeneous mixture approach. In order to define suitable boundary conditions in the two-phase flow field, a numerical strategy is proposed on the air ...

A hydroxylated xanthate salt (HXS) was synthesized from ethanol, carbon disulfide, and NaOH. The flotation responses of chalcopyrite and molybdenite when HXS was used as a novel depressant were investigated using bench-scale flotation tests. The bench-scale flotation results indicate that HXS strongly influenced the flotation of chalcopyrite and had little effect on the flotation of molybdenite. These results can be attributed to a significant improvement in the molybdenite/chalcopyrite selectivity surface index after the addition of HXS. The synthesized HXS contained both solid-philic and hydrophilic groups. The molybdenum recovery achieved using HXS was 9.91% higher than that obtained using sodium hydrosulfide, and better separation was achieved. Compared with sodium hydrosulfite, the chemical oxygen demand, sulfates and five-day BOD decreased significantly using the alternative depressant. This HXS is therefore a potential depressant for use in copper-molybdenum separation.

Recently, there are some problems in the centralized management, such as centralized management, heavy burden, excessive number of virtual machine migration, lack of mutual cooperation mechanism between nodes, can’t adapt to the cluster of change. The existing distributed management methods exist between the nodes have less cooperation mechanism and only simple communication, quality of service is no obvious improvement, system can save energy consumption is not obvious. According to the behavior characteristics of the fish, this paper presents an artificial fish to achieve mutual cooperation of nodes in the distributed management method.

Accurate forecasts of daily crop evapotranspiration (ETc) are essential for real-time irrigation management and water resource allocation. This paper presents a method for the short-term forecasting of ETc using a single-crop coefficient approach and public weather forecasts. Temperature forecasts with a 7-day lead time in 2013–2015 were retrieved and entered into a calibrated Hargreaves–Samani model to compute daily reference evapotranspiration (ET0) forecasts, while crop coefficient (Kc) empirical values were estimated from both observed ETc value and calculated ET0 values using the Penman–Monteith equation for the period of 2010–2012. Daily ETc forecasts of irrigated double-cropping rice were determined for three growing seasons during the period of 2013–2015 and were compared with ETc values measured by the weighing lysimeters at the Jiangxi experimental irrigation station in southeastern China. During the early rice season, the average mean absolute error (MAE) and root-mean-square-error (RMSE) values of ETc forecasts ranged from 0.95 to 1.06 mm day−1 and from 1.18 to 1.31 mm day−1, respectively, and the average correlation coefficient (R) ranged from 0.39 to 0.54; for late rice, the average MAE and RMSE values ranged from 1.01 to 1.09 mm day−1 and from 1.32 to 1.40 mm day−1, respectively, and the average R value ranged from 0.54 to 0.58. There could be three factors responsible for errors in ETc forecasts, including temperature forecast errors, Kc value errors and neglected meteorological variables in the HS model, including wind speed and relative humidity. In addition, ETc was more sensitive to changes in temperature than Kc. The overall results indicated that it is appropriate to forecast ETc with the proposed model for real-time irrigation management and water resource allocation.

Low-temperature β phase BiNbO4 powders (denoted as Low-β) were prepared by a citrate method using home-made water-soluble niobium precursors. The stability of Low-β was systematically investigated from the aspects including calcination temperature, incubation time, and stress existing in pellets. Pure Low-β can be obtained between 700 and 750 °C and the crystal evolution of Low-β has not completed yet, compared with high-temperature β phase. Low-β is kinetically stable and no phase transition occurs when increasing the incubation time below 750 °C. Above 750 °C, both the calcination temperature and incubation time can induce the abnormal phase transition from Low-β to α phase; also, stress existing in pellets can effectively activate the phase transition of Low-β. We can conclude that the Low-β is thermodynamically unstable, while in kinetics, Low-β is stable. The dielectric properties of BiNbO4 ceramics were investigated to analyze the influence of phase of BiNbO4 powders precursors, especially the effect of phase transition of Low-β. It's found that BiNbO4 powders firstly calcined at 700 °C is the best precursor to prepare dense ceramics with uniform grain size and the dielectric permittivity and dielectric loss of BiNbO4 ceramics prepared at 1000 °C is 56.6 and 0.001 at 10 kHz, respectively.

BaTiO 3 /polycarbonate (BT/PC) composite films with different concentration of BaTiO 3 ferroelectric nanocrystals are prepared by a spin coating method. The polarization and dielectric relaxation behaviors of BT/PC composite films are characterized by the introduction of orientational order parameter ( ϕ ) through in-situ transmission spectrum measurement. It's found that 15%BT/PC composite film has the largest orientation change with the ϕ value of 10.5% and slow dielectric relaxation, almost 10% decay of ϕ after 24 h. The optical band-gap of 15%BT/PC composite film decreases after poling indicates that the orientation of BaTiO 3 ferroelectric nanocrystals aligns due to the effect of polarization, from 3.8 eV to 3.67 eV. From the XRD results, we consider that the preferential alignment orientation of BaTiO 3 ferroelectric nanocrystals after poling is [001]. This suggests that in-situ transmittance measurement is a simple and effective way to evaluate the polarization and dielectric relaxation behaviors of ferroelectric nanocrystals/polymer systems.

Origami is a topic of rapidly growing interest in both the scientific and engineering research communities due to its promising potential in a broad range of applications. Previous assembly approaches of origami structures at the micro/nanoscale are constrained by the applicable classes of materials, topologies and/or capability of control over the transformation. Here, we introduce an approach that exploits controlled mechanical buckling for autonomic origami assembly of 3D structures across material classes from soft polymers to brittle inorganic semiconductors, and length scales from nanometers to centimeters. This approach relies on a spatial variation of thickness in the initial 2D structures as an effective strategy to produce engineered folding creases during the compressive buckling process. The elastic nature of the assembly scheme enables active, deterministic control over intermediate states in the 2D to 3D transformation in a continuous and reversible manner. Demonstrations include a broad set of 3D structures formed through unidirectional, bidirectional, and even hierarchical folding, with examples ranging from half cylindrical columns and fish scales, to cubic boxes, pyramids, starfish, paper fans, skew tooth structures, and to amusing system-level examples of soccer balls, model houses, cars, and multi-floor textured buildings.

A series of conjugated polymers with carbazole monomer/dimer/trimer as the donor unit or benzothiadiazole monomer/trimer as the acceptor unit were synthesized and used as donor materials for polymer solar cells (PSCs). The influence of polymer structure on the optical properties and performance of PSCs was investigated in detail. P1 showed a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.8%. The incorporation of longer donor or acceptor unit leads to a blue shift of absorption spectrum and the polymers became more amorphous due to the large torsion angels in the polymer backbone. After increasing the length of donor or acceptor, the PCE decreased dramatically to 0.43% for P2, 0.23% for P3, and 1.23% for P4. Our results have offered a useful insight to structure–property relationship for high performance polymer solar cells.

This paper presents a progressive damage model, which is sufficiently general to predict the ultimate load-bearing ability and complex failure behaviors of the aluminum–carbon fiber/epoxy composite vessel structure. The model is implemented in the commercial finite element software ABAQUS based on the integration of material property degradation method (MPDM) and cohesive element (CE) method. The MPDM is implemented by ABAQUS user subroutine UMAT to model the intralaminar failure of composite laminates, while CEs are employed to simulate the delamination initiation and evolution at the interfaces. The progression of damage is controlled by a linear damage evolution law, which is based on the fracture energy dissipating during the process. In addition, the predictions of the model are also compared with experiments and reasonably good agreements are obtained.

Assembly of 3D micro/nanostructures in advanced functional materials has important implications across broad areas of technology. Existing approaches are compatible, however, only with narrow classes of materials and/or 3D geometries. This paper introduces ideas for a form of Kirigami that allows precise, mechanically driven assembly of 3D mesostructures of diverse materials from 2D micro/nanomembranes with strategically designed geometries and patterns of cuts. Theoretical and experimental studies demonstrate applicability of the methods across length scales from macro to nano, in materials ranging from monocrystalline silicon to plastic, with levels of topographical complexity that significantly exceed those that can be achieved using other approaches. A broad set of examples includes 3D silicon mesostructures and hybrid nanomembrane-nanoribbon systems, including heterogeneous combinations with polymers and metals, with critical dimensions that range from 100 nm to 30 mm. A 3D mechanically tunable optical transmission window provides an application example of this Kirigami process, enabled by theoretically guided design.

This work proposes a three-wave method with a perturbation parameter to obtain exact multi-soliton solutions of nonlinear evolution equation. The ( $$2+1$$ )-dimensional KdV equation is used as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of the suggested method. Using this method, new multi-soliton solutions are given. Specially, spatiotemporal dynamics of breather two-soliton and multi-soliton including deformation between bright and dark multi-soliton each other, and deflection with different directions and angles are investigated and exhibited to ( $$2+1$$ )D KdV equation. Some new nonlinear phenomena are revealed under the small perturbation of parameter.

LiNbO3/polycarbonate (LNO/PC) composite films with different concentration of LiNbO3 ferroelectric nanocrystals are prepared by spin coating method. The polarization and dielectric relaxation behaviors of LNO/PC composite films are characterized through in-situ transmission spectrum measurement. The LiNbO3 ferroelectric nanocrystals are prepared by hydrothermal method with rhombohedral structure and the average crystal size is about 50 nm. It’s found that 15%LNO/PC composite film has the largest orientation change with the ϕ value of 62% and slow dielectric relaxation, almost no decay after 6 h. Based on the literatures, we can proposed that the preferential orientation of LiNbO3 nanocrystals after poling is [001] direction. This suggests that in-situ transmittance measurement is a simple and effect way to evaluate the polarization and dielectric relaxation behaviors of ferroelectric nanocrystals/polymer systems.

Buckling-driven assembly of 3D mesostructures from releasable multilayers offers versatile design options for unique applications., Capabilities for assembly of three-dimensional (3D) micro/nanostructures in advanced materials have important implications across a broad range of application areas, reaching nearly every class of microsystem technology. Approaches that rely on the controlled, compressive buckling of 2D precursors are promising because of their demonstrated compatibility with the most sophisticated planar technologies, where materials include inorganic semiconductors, polymers, metals, and various heterogeneous combinations, spanning length scales from submicrometer to centimeter dimensions. We introduce a set of fabrication techniques and design concepts that bypass certain constraints set by the underlying physics and geometrical properties of the assembly processes associated with the original versions of these methods. In particular, the use of releasable, multilayer 2D precursors provides access to complex 3D topologies, including dense architectures with nested layouts, controlled points of entanglement, and other previously unobtainable layouts. Furthermore, the simultaneous, coordinated assembly of additional structures can enhance the structural stability and drive the motion of extended features in these systems. The resulting 3D mesostructures, demonstrated in a diverse set of more than 40 different examples with feature sizes from micrometers to centimeters, offer unique possibilities in device design. A 3D spiral inductor for near-field communication represents an example where these ideas enable enhanced quality (Q) factors and broader working angles compared to those of conventional 2D counterparts.

Recent advances in materials, mechanics, and electronic device design are rapidly establishing the foundationsfor health monitoring technologies that have“skin-like”properties, with options in chronic (weeks) integrationwith the epidermis. The resulting capabilities in physiological sensing greatly exceed those possible withconventional hard electronic systems, such as those found in wrist-mounted wearables, because of the intimateskin interface. However, most examples of such emergingclasses of devices require batteries and/or hard-wiredconnections to enable operation. The work reported here introduces active optoelectronic systems that functionwithout batteries and in an entirely wireless mode, with examples in thin, stretchable platforms designed formultiwavelength optical characterization of the skin. Magnetic inductive coupling and near-field communication(NFC) schemes deliver power to multicolored light-emitting diodes and extract digital data from integratedphotodetectors in ways that are compatible with standard NFC-enabled platforms, such as smartphones andtablet computers. Examples in the monitoring of heart rate and temporal dynamics of arterial blood flow, inquantifying tissue oxygenation and ultraviolet dosimetry, and in performing four-color spectroscopic evaluation ofthe skin demonstrate the versatility of these concepts. The results have potential relevance in both hospitalcare and at-home diagnostics., Science Advances, 2 (8), ISSN:2375-2548

On page 119, J. A. Rogers and co-workers present theoretical approaches, modeling algorithms, materials, and device designs for the noninvasive measurement of core body temperature by using multiple differential temperature sensors that attach softly and intimately onto the surface of the skin. The image shows the construction of differential temperature sensors using thermally insulating foam as the separation material.

Large-scale, dense arrays of plasmonic nanodisks on low-modulus, high-elongation elastomeric substrates represent a class of tunable optical systems, with reversible ability to shift key optical resonances over a range of nearly 600 nm at near-infrared wavelengths. At the most extreme levels of mechanical deformation (strains >100%), nonlinear buckling processes transform initially planar arrays into three-dimensional configurations, in which the nanodisks rotate out of the plane to form linear arrays with "wavy" geometries. Analytical, finite-element, and finite-difference time-domain models capture not only the physics of these buckling processes, including all of the observed modes, but also the quantitative effects of these deformations on the plasmonic responses. The results have relevance to mechanically tunable optical systems, particularly to soft optical sensors that integrate on or in the human body.

Long-term, continuous measurement of core body temperature is of high interest, due to the widespread use of this parameter as a key biomedical signal for clinical judgment and patient management. Traditional approaches rely on devices or instruments in rigid and planar forms, not readily amenable to intimate or conformable integration with soft, curvilinear, time-dynamic, surfaces of the skin. Here, materials and mechanics designs for differential temperature sensors are presented which can attach softly and reversibly onto the skin surface, and also sustain high levels of deformation (e.g., bending, twisting, and stretching). A theoretical approach, together with a modeling algorithm, yields core body temperature from multiple differential measurements from temperature sensors separated by different effective distances from the skin. The sensitivity, accuracy, and response time are analyzed by finite element analyses (FEA) to provide guidelines for relationships between sensor design and performance. Four sets of experiments on multiple devices with different dimensions and under different convection conditions illustrate the key features of the technology and the analysis approach. Finally, results indicate that thermally insulating materials with cellular structures offer advantages in reducing the response time and increasing the accuracy, while improving the mechanics and breathability.

Fair resource is a key building block of any shared computing system. Recently fair division theory has emerged as a promising approach for the allocation of multiple computational resources among users. We have introduced Contribution Resource Fairness (CRF), a fair sharing model that generalizes max-min fairness to multiple resource types. CRF has lots of good properties, it satisfies DSI, EF,PE and SP. CRF think about the using mutual resources and allocating resources based on the contribution value to improve the overall effectiveness of the system. If users stay the system more longer, the resources which user contributes will be use more longer by other users and contribution value of her will be more bigger. So she can get more resources when she need by CRF. We construct CRF mechanisms that provably satisfy properties and experimental results can potentially improve the efficiency to the point where the system capacity is almost saturated.

Poor adherence leads to a high rate of exacerbation and poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, few strategies are acceptable and effective in improving medication adherence. We investigated whether pharmaceutical care by clinical pharmacists could reinforce medication adherence to reduce exacerbation and improve HRQoL.A randomized controlled study was carried out at The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from February 2012 to January 2014. Non-adherence patients were randomly assigned to receive pharmaceutical care or to usual care. The pharmaceutical care consisted of individualized education and a series of telephone counseling for 6 months provided by clinical pharmacists. Medication adherence was measured by pill counts plus direct interview at 1- and 6-month pharmaceutical care and one-year follow-up. Severe exacerbations were defined as events that led to hospitalization for acute COPD attack. An interview was conducted to investigate hospital admissions and evaluate severe exacerbations at one-year follow-up. HRQoL was measured by St George's Respiratory Questionnaire at 6 months.At 6-month pharmaceutical care and one-year follow-up, the pharmaceutical care group exhibited higher medication adherence than the usual care group (73.4±11.1 vs. 55.7±11.9, P=0.016 and 54.4±12.5 vs. 66.5±8.6, P=0.039, respectively). There are 60 acute exacerbations resulted in a hospital admission in the usual group while 37 ones in the pharmaceutical care group during one-year follow-up (P=0.01). Hospital admissions due to acute exacerbation in the pharmaceutical care group were 56.3% less than the usual care group (P=0.01). There was a significant difference in the symptoms and impact subscales respectively at 6-month pharmaceutical care between two groups (P=0.032, P=0.018).Individualized pharmaceutical care improved medication adherence, reduced hospitalization and elevated HRQoL in patients with COPD.

Plasmonic nanostructures integrated with soft, elastomeric substrates provide an unusual platform with capabilities in mechanical tuning of key optical properties, where the surface configurations can undergo large, nonlinear transformations. Arrays of planar plasmonic nanodiscs in this context can, for example, transform into three-dimensional (3D) layouts upon application of large levels of stretching to the substrate, thereby creating unique opportunities in wide-band tunable optics and photonic sensors. In this paper, a theoretical model is developed for a plasmonic system that consists of discrete nanodiscs on an elastomeric substrate, establishing the relation between the postbuckling configurations and the applied strain. Analytic solutions of the amplitude and wavelength during postbuckling are obtained for different buckling modes, which agree well with the results of finite-element analyses and experiment measurements. Further analyses show that increasing the nanodisc distribution yields increased 3D configurations with larger amplitudes and smaller wavelengths, given the same level of stretching. This study could serve as a design reference for future optimization of mechanically tunable plasmonic systems in similar layouts.

Low-temperature Bi-Nb-O system photocatalysts were prepared by a citrate method using homemade water-soluble niobium precursors. The structures, morphologies, and optical properties of Bi-Nb-O system photocatalysts with different compositions were investigated deeply. All the Bi-Nb-O powders exhibit appreciably much higher photocatalytic efficiency of photo-degradation of methyl violet (MV), especially for Bi-Nb-O photocatalysts sintered at 750 °C (BNO750), only 1.5 h to completely decompose MV, and the obtained first-order rate constant (k) is 1.94/h. A larger degradation rate of Bi-Nb-O photocatalysts sintered at 550 °C (BNO550) can be attributed to the synergistic effect between β-BiNbO4 and Bi5Nb3O15. Bi5Nb3O15 with small particle size on β-BiNbO4 surface can effectively short the diffuse length of electron. BNO750 exhibits the best photocatalytic properties under visible-light irradiation, which can be attributed to its better crystallinity and the synergistic effect between β-BiNbO4 and α-BiNbO4. The small amount of α-BiNbO4 loading on surface of β-BiNbO4 can effectively improve the electron and hole segregation and migration. Holes are the main active species of Bi-Nb-O system photocatalysts in aqueous solution under visible-light irradiation.