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With the rapid development and wide application of visible (VIS) and infrared (IR) detections, it is necessary to explore visible-infrared (VIS-IR) compatible camouflage. Here, we report a VIS-IR compatible and independent camouflage device which is composed of the upper IR-transparent VIS-color-patterned layer and the lower electrochromic IR layer. The upper layer has amorphous photonic structure of polystyrene nanospheres (PSNSs). By customizing the PSNS size, various colors can be realized for VIS camouflage. The lower electrochromic IR layer takes advantage of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as the electrode as well as the IR active material. Experimental results reveal that different colors (including blue, green, and purple) have been obtained, and the IR emissivity can be electrically regulated from 0.43 to 0.9. Moreover, the prototype also exhibits good electrical stability as well as hydrophobic characteristic (the water contact angle of the outmost surface exceeds 120°). These output performances demonstrate the success of our design strategy for promoting the finding applied in camouflage fields as well as energy conservation fields.

The ongoing advancements and growing adoption of infrared detection technology have spurred a tremendous amount of interest in thermal camouflage technology. Various approaches are employed to develop infrared camouflage materials capable of manipulating emissivity or surface temperature. However, the range of thermal radiation regulation implemented by these materials is still somewhat limited. In this paper, a combined emissivity and temperature regulation strategy that integrates a thermoelectric device (TED) and a thermochromic structure is proposed. By utilizing this strategy, it becomes possible to simultaneously control the surface temperature and the emissivity without needing additional complex excitation. As a concept demonstration, large tunabilities of 0.38 for long‐wave infrared (8–14 µm) emittance and 87 °C for surface temperature are observed, resulting in a prominent tunability of the thermal radiation temperature that is 15.4 °C greater than that of a conventional TED with constant emissivity. This work aims to introduce a new design paradigm for future thermal radiation management and camouflage techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, the pathogenesis of Kimura's disease remains unclear, there is no unified diagnostic criterion, the clinical phenotype shows considerable heterogeneity, and there is a lack of optimal treatment strategies. Due to its rarity, treatment strategies for KD are still under exploration. This paper reports a case of a 37-year-old Chinese female presenting with generalized erythematous papules and pruritic eruptions for 12 years, followed by the onset of limb swellings 3 years later, ultimately diagnosed as Kimura's disease. Considering the patient's multiple lymphadenopathies and limb swellings with concurrent atopic dermatitis, the treatment regimen included initial dupilumab dosage of 600 mg (300 mg administered in two injections), followed by subcutaneous injections of 300 mg every two weeks for four months. Concurrent oral corticosteroid therapy (methylprednisolone, initial dose 16 mg/kg/day, gradually tapered with tumor regression) was also administered. Following treatment, the patient did not experience severe adverse effects, and the multiple nodules markedly decreased in size. Additionally, serum IgE levels, eosinophil, and basophil counts showed significant reductions. These results demonstrate the significant efficacy of dupilumab combined with oral corticosteroids in treating Kimura's disease with concurrent atopic dermatitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drainage systems of tunnels situated in limestone regions frequently encounter crystallization blockages. Numerous studies have addressed this issue, and their findings identified factors such as the flow velocity and temperature as influencing the crystallization process. However, these studies could not predict the occurrence of crystallization. Regarding theoretical approaches, most studies have focused on full-pipe operations or have solely considered flow-field dynamics without including simulations of the chemical reactions and mass transfers. This study introduces a mass-transfer model for drainage pipes based on a two-phase flow (water and air) with a free surface and non-full pipe flow that simulates the crystallization deposition process in drainage pipes. This model can predict the deposition conditions at varying flow velocities and intuitively visualize the crystallization process under the influence of various factors. The impact of flow velocity on the overall crystallization deposition process can be directly analyzed through simulations developed using this model. The results show that under conditions of incomplete pipe flow with no pressure at the outlet, the weight of the deposition first increases and then decreases within a certain velocity. This model can depict the variations within a 30 d period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have focused on the linear relationship between recreation behavior and environmental variables. However, to inform the planning and design of recreational spaces, it is essential to understand the factors that contribute to differences in the spatial distribution of recreation behavior. This study investigates the characteristics of visitor behavior in urban mountain parks in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China. It describes the distribution of tourist numbers and the diversity of behaviors in these parks and explores the landscape driving factors of visitor behavior, as well as the interaction effects between the factors from the perspective of spatial driving forces. The results indicate that (1) The observed behaviors in the three parks are primarily access behaviors. The number of visitors and the diversity of behaviors show a high level in the morning and evening and a low level in the midday. (2) There was minimal variation in behavioral composition and behavioral diversity among the study plots of different elevation gradients in the three parks. However, the contrasts between different landscape types were more pronounced, with impermeable plazas exhibiting the highest behavioral diversity and park roads demonstrating the most homogeneous behavioral diversity. (3) The impact of environmental factors was more pronounced than that of landscape pattern factors. The environmental factors that most strongly influenced passing, dynamic, and static behaviors were spatial connectivity value, hard space proportion, and number of recreational facilities, respectively. In contrast, the hard space proportion was the strongest driver of behavioral diversity. Moreover, the interaction between the hard space proportion and spatial connectivity value was more pronounced in driving behavioral diversity, as well as the three behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fresh aquatic products, due to their high water activity, are susceptible to microbial contamination and spoilage, resulting in a short shelf life. Drying is a commonly used method to extend the shelf life of these products by reducing the moisture content, inhibiting microbial growth, and slowing down enzymatic and chemical reactions. However, the drying process of aquatic products involves chemical reactions such as oxidation and hydrolysis, which pose challenges in obtaining high-quality dried products. This paper provides a comprehensive review of drying processing techniques for aquatic products, including drying preprocessing, drying technologies, and non-destructive monitoring techniques, and discusses their advantages and challenges. Furthermore, the impact of the drying process on the quality attributes of dried products, including sensory quality, nutritional components, and microbial aspects, is analyzed. Finally, the challenges faced by drying processing techniques for aquatic products are identified, and future research prospects are outlined, aiming to further advance research and innovation in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent metasurfaces have recently attracted much interest due to their strong capability of self‐adaptive electromagnetic (EM) manipulation. However, their realization still faces great challenges, especially in the recognition and modulation of multi‐EM parameters. Here, an intelligent metasurface is proposed that can automatically manipulate its transmission/absorption frequency and amplitude to adapt to the complicated and ambiguous EM environment. By integrating a radio‐frequency sensing module and a closed‐loop feedback system, the incident wave frequency and amplitude information can be recognized and then the corresponding instruction will be generated to make such a metasurface achieve the predefined EM functions. Experimental results have demonstrated that it can realize the dynamic switching between transmission and absorption with the variation of incident power intensity, and meanwhile the transmission/absorption amplitude can be also further adjusted. In addition, this metasurface possesses the frequency‐agile capability, which can self‐adaptively control its transmission/absorption frequency to match the incident frequency. The proposed approach opens a new avenue to promote the development of multifunctional intelligent metasurfaces toward a wide range of real‐time application fields, such as smart EM windows and active camouflage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conveyor belts are widely used in ore transportation in large-scale mines for their long transportation range, high safety, and strong economic applicability. Coal mine belt conveyors are not only traditional, simple mechanical conveying devices but also automatic control system operating devices that integrate safety, stability, and low power consumption. In the process of coal mining, a conveyor belt control system also needs to be closely integrated with modern industrial systems and information systems, which greatly improves its work efficiency. The purpose of this article is to improve the methods for designing automatic control systems for electric motors in order to obtain mechanical characteristics close to a constant power line, which would ensure the reliable operation of belt conveyors. An automatic control system was designed based on the controller Siemens S7-1200; then, a mathematical model of an automated electric drive was developed. Based on the mathematical model, a simulation model of an automatic electric drive was built, and the modes were modeled. After designing, the obtained plots of transients completely corresponded to the required transients, which means that the Siemens frequency converter automatic control system (ACS) parameters were calculated quite accurately and the conveyor electric drive met all requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to interminable surveillance and reconnaissance through various sophisticated multispectral detectors, the need for multispectral compatible camouflage is now more than ever. Here, a flexible plasmonic metasurface is proposed to simultaneously realize low reflection at representative lasers (i.e., 1.06, 1.55, and 10.6 µm) and low emission in the atmosphere windows of both 3–5 and 8–14 µm. High absorption for both 1.06 and 1.55 µm lasers is realized by the destructive‐interference design of the multilayer Au/Ge/Ti/Ge films, while low reflection for the 10.6 µm laser results from the coding metasurface design, and low emission is attributed to ultrahigh reflection of the continuous Au/Ge/Ti/Ge films in the atmosphere windows. As a proof of concept, a flexible metasurface sample (10 cm × 10 cm) is prepared by the soft‐lithography technology. The measured specular reflectivities are 0.017, 0.13, and 0.17 at wavelengths 1.06, 1.55, and 10.6 µm, respectively. Meanwhile, the average emissivities are 0.19 and 0.11 in 3–5 and 8–14 µm, respectively. Additionally, the flexible metasurface also exhibits integrated advantages including easy mass fabrication, good mechanical flexibility and robustness, super‐hydrophobic characteristic, unambiguously demonstrating the success of the design strategy for promoting multispectral compatible camouflage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a widely used non‐parametric method in efficiency measurement with multiinputs and multioutputs. Malmquist productivity measures the efficiency change in different periods and decomposes the general efficiency change into technical efficiency change and frontier shift. In this paper, we choose a driving industry in social development, the high‐tech industry, as an example to illustrate a new method, virtual frontier DEA model, in the aspect of improvement of the traditional DEA model. Additionally, we decompose the Malmquist productivity index with virtual frontier DEA model to find out the driving force of high‐tech efficiency change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms are essential clinical manifestations of age-related cognitive impairment, yet their patterns of co-existence remain unclear through the cognitive continuum., Objective: To examine the associations of person-centered cluster-derived patterns, based on a comprehensive collection of domain-specific cognitive and neuropsychiatric assessments, with neuroimaging markers and dementia risk., Methods: 641 participants were included in the analysis from memory clinics in Singapore. Latent class analysis was applied to define clusters of individuals with different clinical patterns. The associations between identified clinical groups with neuroimaging markers of cerebrovascular diseases and neurodegeneration were analyzed using logistic regression models. Cox proportional hazard models were applied for incident dementia., Results: Three latent classes differing in neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric impairment were identified (Class 1 "memory impairment only"; Class 2 "global cognitive impairment"; Class 3 "global cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairment"). Compared with Class 1, Class 2 and 3 were associated with smaller brain volumes, moderate-to-severe cortical atrophy and medial temporal lobe atrophy, and the presence of all cerebrovascular lesions. Moreover, compared with Class 2, Class 3 had smaller brain volumes, moderate-to-severe cortical atrophy and presence of intracranial stenosis. Additionally, compared to Class 1, Class 2 (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.84, 95%CI 2.11-7.00), and Class 3 (HR = 6.92, 95%CI 2.84-16.83) showed an increased risk of incident dementia., Conclusions: Participants characterized by multi-domain cognitive impairment and co-occurrence of cognitive and neuropsychiatric impairment showed the highest risk of incident dementia, which may be attributed to both neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular pathologies., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Windows offer the most promising avenue for mitigating energy consumption and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the balance between comfortable natural lighting and all-season energy savings is often neglected in extensive explorations of energy-efficient windows. Herein, a Janus glazing is proposed that enables the switch of passive radiative cooling and heating under the precondition of conveying sufficient natural light. Measurement results indicate that the Janus window maintains a visible transmittance of 0.47, while possesses a near-infrared (NIR) reflectivity/absorptivity of 0.75/0.71 and a mid-infrared (MIR) emissivity of 0.94/0.13 for the cooling and heating modes, respectively. As demonstrated by the outdoor test, the Janus window realizes a reduction of 7.1 °C for room cooling and an increase of 0.4 °C for room heating compared with commercial low-e window, potentially conserving 13%-53% of the total building energy consumption across China. Meanwhile, attributed to the photothermal effect, the Janus window can elevate the surface temperature by 6.1 °C compared with the low-e window, which can effectively reduce fogging occurrences on the window surface for ensuring sunlight entrance in the cold-weather conditions. This strategy offers novel prospects for enhancing energy efficiency in diverse applications, including architectural windows, greenhouse cultivation, photovoltaic generation, etc., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Background: Sanguinarine (SAG), a benzophenanthridine alkaloid, occurs in Papaveraceas , Berberidaceae and Ranunculaceae families. Studies have found that SAG has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative activities in several malignancies and that it exhibits robust antibacterial activities. However, information reported on the action of SAG against Providencia rettgeri is limited in the literature. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities of SAG against P. rettgeri in vitro., Methods: The agar dilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of SAG against P. rettgeri . The intracellular ATP concentration, intracellular pH (pH in ), and cell membrane integrity and potential were measured. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and crystal violet staining were used to measure the antibiofilm formation of SAG., Results: The MIC of SAG against P. rettgeri was 7.8 μg/mL. SAG inhibited the growth of P. rettgeri and destroyed the integrity of P. rettgeri cell membrane, as reflected mainly through the decreases in the intracellular ATP concentration, pH in and cell membrane potential and significant changes in cellular morphology. The findings of CLSM, FESEM and crystal violet staining indicated that SAG exhibited strong inhibitory effects on the biofilm formation of P. rettgeri and led to the inactivity of biofilm-related P. rettgeri cells., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2020 Zhang et al.)