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Understanding the tritium breeding and release behavior of ceramic breeder is crucial for the parameter design of solid blanket in deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactors. Lithium titanate (Li 2 TiO 3) is commonly considered an attractive candidate tritium breeder material. Defect types and densities formed by neutron irradiation at different energies result in diverse tritium release behaviors in Li 2 TiO 3. To understand the mechanism of high-energy neutrons on the tritium release of solid-state breeders, it is crucial to elucidate the tritium production and release behavior of Li 2 TiO 3 under 14 MeV fusion neutron irradiation. In this study, the high-intensity D-T fusion neutron source (HINEG-CAS) was employed to conduct tritium production experiments on Li 2 TiO 3 ceramic breeder samples. Tritium release experiment was also performed on irradiated Li 2 TiO 3 samples using the release system to obtain the temperature-dependent pattern of tritium release induced by fusion neutrons. The results indicated that a limited but visible amount of tritium was released at room temperature. Defect self-healing behavior at RT was seemly observed. The tritium release peak occurred at ∼673 K as the temperature increased. After continuous purging for 4 h at 1073 K, no residual tritium was observed in the irradiated sample, indicating successful collection through bubblers. The total radioactivity of released tritium amounted to 1866.4 Bq, predominantly in the form of tritiated water (HTO: 79.3%). Furthermore, the preliminary analysis of the mechanism behind tritium release has been provided as well. The investigation is conducive to the design optimization of the breeding blanket. • The tritium production and release experiments of Li 2 TiO 3 were conducted using 14 MeV fusion neutron irradiation. • A limited but clearly observable amount of tritium released at room temperature due to the defect self-healing behavior. • The peak of tritium release occurred at approximately 673 K and the primary form was identified as HTO (79.3%). • The influence of water vapor, sensitive tritium measurement method, and heating rate were essential for tritium release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND RESULTS CONCLUSION The fermentation of Qu (FQ) is a novel method to modify the properties of starch to expand its application and especially to increase the resistant starch (RS) content. Using waxy maize starch (WMS) as a fermentation substrate can increase the RS content significantly but it may be time consuming and not cost effective due to the almost negligible RS content of WMS. To solve this problem, we hypothesized that sub‐high amylose starch (s‐HAMS), with an amylose content close to 50% could be an ideal substrate for FQ.The results showed that FQ did not change the shape and the particle size of starch granules, the gelatinization peak (Tp), or the conclusion temperature (Tc), but the slowly digested starch content declined. Rapidly digested starch content fluctuated during FQ and the amylose content decreased within 36 h and then increased. Within 24h, FQ significanlty increased these values: the RS content, relative crystallinity (RC), the ratio of FTIR absorbances at 1047/1022cm‐1, the diffraction peak at 19.8° in X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and the gelatinization onset temperature (To) increased significantly, within 24 h of FQ. However, after 24 h of fermentation, the RS content, RC, the ratio of FTIR absorbances at 1047/1022 cm−1, and gelatinization enthalpy (ΔH) decreased significantly.Sub‐high amylose starch is more suitable for FQ to produce low digestibility starch, and the increase in RS may be due to the formation of ‘amylose‐lipid’ complexes (RS5). © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transferring knowledge from pre-trained deep models for downstream tasks, particularly with limited labeled samples, is a fundamental problem in computer vision research. Recent advances in large-scale, task-agnostic vision-language pre-trained models, which are learned with billions of samples, have shed new light on this problem. In this study, we investigate how to efficiently transfer aligned visual and textual knowledge for downstream visual recognition tasks. We first revisit the role of the linear classifier in the vanilla transfer learning framework, and then propose a new paradigm where the parameters of the classifier are initialized with semantic targets from the textual encoder and remain fixed during optimization. To provide a comparison, we also initialize the classifier with knowledge from various resources. In the empirical study, we demonstrate that our paradigm improves the performance and training speed of transfer learning tasks. With only minor modifications, our approach proves effective across 17 visual datasets that span three different data domains: image, video, and 3D point cloud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional multi-temporal InSAR (MT-InSAR) technology suffers from the problems of low spatial density of monitoring points (MPs) and poor interferogram quality in monitoring reservoir bank landslides in mountainous areas. To address it, this study builds upon the Eigendecomposition-based Maximum-likelihood estimator of Interferometric phase (EMI) method, introduces Fisher information to adjust the weight of each interferometric pair, and further develops a new distributed scatterer (DS) phase optimization method, which is referred to as FEMI-DSInSAR in the text. We applied the FEMI-DSInSAR to retrieve the deformation history of landslides along a ~100 km section of the Lancang River using 33 C-band Sentinel-1 images (January 2019–January 2022). The accuracy and reliability were validated by comparing the results with those obtained with EMI-DSInSAR and Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers-Small Baseline Subset (StaMPS-SBAS) methods in terms of both interferogram quality and large-area deformation results. The differential interferograms obtained by the FEMI-DSInSAR method not only show better quality fringes, but also reduce the sum of phase difference (SPD) and the standard deviation of the phase (PSD) values by 8.9% and 25.2%, respectively. Moreover, the FEMI-DSInSAR method yields the most significant number of MPs under various geomorphic regions and achieves reliable surface displacements, compared to 10 in situ GPS measurements. Finally, we projected the FEMI-DSInSAR-derived line of sight (LOS) deformation results onto the slope direction and successfully identified 4 previously mapped and 46 newly detected unstable slopes. The characteristics of whole-area landslide deformation characteristics and the influencing factors were analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Drought stress (DS) is the main abiotic stress that maize suffers during its whole growth period, and maize is also sensitive to DS. It had been demonstrated that DS could improve the quality of normal maize starch. However, waxy maize, which has special properties, has not been explored in depth, which limits the breeding and cultivation of waxy maize varieties and the application of waxy maize starch. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effects of DS on the biosynthesis, structure, and functionality of waxy maize starch. RESULTS: The results showed that DS decreased the expression level of SSIIb, SSIIIa, GBSSIIa, SBEI, SBEIIb, ISAII, and PUL, but increased the expression level of SSI and SBEIIa. DS did not change the average chain length of amylopectin, while increased the relative content of fa chains (RCfa) and decreased the RCfb1 and RCfb3. Furthermore, DS decreased the amylose content, amorphous lamellar distance da, semi‐crystalline repeat distance, and average particle size, whereas it increased the relative crystallinity, crystalline distance dc, the content of rapidly digested starch in the uncooked system and resistant starch content in both the uncooked and cooked system. Conclusions: For waxy maize, DS could raise the relative expression level of SSI and SBEIIa, thus increasing RCfa. The larger number of RCfa could create steric hindrance, which can lead to producing more resistant starch in waxy maize starch. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the detection of changes in knee cartilage and meniscus of amateur marathon runners before and after long-distance running using a 3D ultrashort echo time MRI sequence with magnetization transfer preparation (UTE-MT). Methods: We recruited 23 amateur marathon runners (46 knees) in this prospective cohort study. MRI scans using UTE-MT and UTE-T2* sequences were performed pre-race, 2 days post-race, and 4 weeks post-race. UTE-MT ratio (UTE-MTR) and UTE-T2* were measured for knee cartilage (eight subregions) and meniscus (four subregions). The sequence reproducibility and inter-rater reliability were also investigated. Results: Both the UTE-MTR and UTE-T2* measurements showed good reproducibility and inter-rater reliability. For most subregions of cartilage and meniscus, the UTE-MTR values decreased 2 days post-race and increased after 4 weeks of rest. Conversely, the UTE-T2* values increased 2 days post-race and decreased after 4 weeks. The UTE-MTR values in lateral tibial plateau, central medial femoral condyle, and medial tibial plateau showed a significant decrease at 2 days post-race compared to the other two time points (p < 0.05). By comparison, no significant UTE-T2* changes were found for any cartilage subregions. For meniscus, the UTE-MTR values in medial posterior horn and lateral posterior horn regions at 2 days post-race were significantly lower than those at pre-race and 4 weeks post-race (p < 0.05). By comparison, only the UTE-T2* values in medial posterior horn showed a significant difference. Conclusions: UTE-MTR is a promising method for the detection of dynamic changes in knee cartilage and meniscus after long-distance running. Key Points: • Long-distance running causes changes in the knee cartilage and meniscus. • UTE-MT monitors dynamic changes of knee cartilage and meniscal non-invasively. • UTE-MT is superior to UTE-T2* in monitoring dynamic changes in knee cartilage and meniscus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the speed and dynamic adaptability of robotic arm trajectory planning, a collision-free optimal trajectory planning method combining non-uniform adaptive time meshing and bounding box collision detection was proposed. First, the dynamics and objective function of the asymmetric industrial robotic arm with three degrees of freedom (DOF) was formulated in the form of the dynamic optimization problem. Second, the control vector parameterization (CVP) was improved to enhance the computational performance of the problem. The discrete grid was adaptively adjusted according the trend of control variables. Then, a quick and effective collision detection strategy was used to avoid obstacles and to speed up calculation efficiency. The non-collision constraint is built by transforming the collision detection into the distance between two points, and then is combined into the dynamic optimization problem. The solution of the new optimization problem with the improved CVP leads to the higher calculation performance and the avoidance of obstacles. Lastly, the Siemens Manutec R3 robotic arm is taken as an example to verify the effectiveness of the planning method. The approach not only reduces computation time but also maintains accurate calculations, so that optimal trajectory can be selected from symmetric paths near the obstacles. When weights were set as λ1 = λ2 = 0.5, the solution efficiency was improved by 33%, and the minimum distance between the robotic arm and obstacle could be 0.08 m, which ensured that there was no collision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) are potential porous adsorbents for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX). A novel MOF, using low toxic aluminum (Al) as the metal, named as ZJU‐620(Al), with uniform micropore size of 8.37±0.73 Å and specific surface area of 1347 m2 g−1, was synthesized. It is constructed by one‐dimensional rod‐shaped AlO6 clusters, formate ligands and 4,4′,4′′‐(2,4,6‐trimethylbenzene‐1,3,5‐triyl) tribenzoic ligands. ZJU‐620(Al) exhibits excellent chemical‐thermal stability and adsorption for trace BTEX, e.g. benzene adsorption of 3.80 mmol g−1 at P/P0=0.01 and 298 K, which is the largest one reported. Using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations and Single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analyses, it was observed that the excellent adsorption could be attributed to the high affinity of BTEX molecules in ZJU‐620(Al) micropores because the kinetic diameters of BTEX are close up to the pore size of ZJU‐620(Al). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) are potential porous adsorbents for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX). A novel MOF, using low toxic aluminum (Al) as the metal, named as ZJU‐620(Al), with uniform micropore size of 8.37±0.73 Å and specific surface area of 1347 m2 g−1, was synthesized. It is constructed by one‐dimensional rod‐shaped AlO6 clusters, formate ligands and 4,4′,4′′‐(2,4,6‐trimethylbenzene‐1,3,5‐triyl) tribenzoic ligands. ZJU‐620(Al) exhibits excellent chemical‐thermal stability and adsorption for trace BTEX, e.g. benzene adsorption of 3.80 mmol g−1 at P/P0=0.01 and 298 K, which is the largest one reported. Using Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations and Single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analyses, it was observed that the excellent adsorption could be attributed to the high affinity of BTEX molecules in ZJU‐620(Al) micropores because the kinetic diameters of BTEX are close up to the pore size of ZJU‐620(Al). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Rethinking the 3D convolution in stereo matching tasks with a detailed ablation study • A depth shift module is proposed to reduce the computational cost in cost aggregation • HybridNet has a better trade-off between performance, computational complexity, and model size • The semi-supervised loss could effectively alleviate the artifact problem. In the stereo matching task, the 3D convolution network can effectively aggregate the cost volume with the strong representation ability to model the spatial and depth dimensions but with the disadvantage of a high computational cost. In this letter, we revisit the 3D convolution network and its common variant, and then propose the Depth Shift Module (DSM) to model the cost volume in the depth dimension which could imitate the 3D convolution function with the computational complexity of the 2D convolution. The proposed DSM is easy to extend to present 3D cost aggregation methods in stereo matching with less inference time, lower computational complexity, and minor precision loss. Moreover, a novel compact but efficient stereo matching framework named HybridNet is proposed. This framework can hybridize the 2D convolution layer with the proposed DSM to effectively aggregate the cost volume. The proposed HybridNet achieves a better trade-off between the performance, computational complexity, and model size (e.g. , 30% less than the size of AANet and 25% less than the size of PSMNet) in public open-source datasets (e.g. , Scene Flow and KITTI Stereo 2015). The relevant code is available at https://github.com/GANWANSHUI/HybridNet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally investigate whether competition stimulates information revelation , by comparing two Bayesian persuasion models. One model has one sender (Kamenica and Gentzkow, 2011), and the other has two competing senders who move sequentially (Wu, 2022). The one-sender treatment provides strong support for Kamenica and Gentzkow (2011) , where the sender uses a noisy signaling device and the receiver complies with his suggestions. In the two-sender treatment, we find that: (1) overall, senders reveal more information; (2) the first sender uses the fully-revealing device more frequently than the sender in the one-sender treatment; (3) the second sender exhibits a "competitive" behavior pattern; (4) the receiver uses information from both sides. However, contrary to Wu (2022) , competition does not lead to full information. To rationalize the behavior, we use the Quantal Response Equilibrium model to explain the features of the empirical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the uncertainty of psychological motivation into a reciprocity model and explore its implications on behavior. More precisely, we assume that reciprocity sensitivities are subject to incomplete information and extend the Sequential Reciprocity Equilibrium in extensive-form games (Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger, 2004) to a broader class of incomplete information games. We use this general framework to study many well-known games and find that uncertainty could either mitigate or strengthen players' reciprocal behavior. We investigate how uncertainty changes the equilibrium predictions of the standard reciprocity model and compare two setups in which the psychological motivations are known and unknown among the players, respectively. In particular, we find that, in the prisoners' dilemma, players are more likely to cooperate with each other when they have information about the reciprocal motivations of their opponents, given that the benefits of defection are modest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, high or low ligation of the inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) is a controversial issue in laparoscopic radical surgery for colorectal cancer. High or low ligation of the IMA has both advantages and disadvantages, and the level of ligation during the left colon and/or rectum resection has been a dilemma for surgeons. One important factor influencing the surgeon's decision to ligate the IMA in a high or low position is the anatomical type of the IMA and its branches. Some studies confirm that the anatomy of the IMA and its branches is critical to the anastomotic blood supply and, therefore, influences the choice of surgical approach (level of ligation of the IMA). However, many vascular variations in the anatomy of the IMA and its branches exist. Herein, we have summarized the anatomical types of the IMA and its branches, finding that the classification proposed by Yada et al. in 1997 is presently accepted by most scholars. Based on Yada's classification, we further summarized the characteristics of the IMA's various anatomical types as a guide for high or low ligation in radical colorectal cancer surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer is a highly heterogeneous disease, which leads to the fact that even the same cancer can be further classified into different subtypes according to its pathology. With the multi-omics data widely used in cancer subtypes identification, effective feature selection is essential for accurately identifying cancer subtypes. However, the feature selection in the existing cancer subtypes identification methods has the problem that the most helpful features cannot be selected from a biomolecular perspective, and the relationship between the selected features cannot be reflected. To solve this problem, we propose a method for feature selection to identify cancer subtypes based on the heterogeneity score of a single gene: HSSG. In the proposed method, the sample-similarity network of a single gene is constructed, and pseudo-F statistics calculates the heterogeneity score for cancer subtypes identification of each gene. Finally, we construct gene-gene networks using genes with higher heterogeneity scores and mine essential genes from the networks. From the seven TCGA data sets for three experiments, including cancer subtypes identification in single-omics data, the performance in feature selection of multi-omics data, and the effectiveness and stability of the selected features, HSSG achieves good performance in all. This indicates that HSSG can effectively select features for subtypes identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a fundamental unsupervised learning task, clustering has been widely applied in exploratory data analysis in the fields of computer vision, pattern recognition, and data mining. Among existing clustering methods, K-means is the most popular one due to its simplicity and computational efficiency. However, the ubiquitous high dimensionality challenges the effectiveness and the efficiency of the K-means algorithm. Fortunately, the deep neural network provides a powerful resolution for learning low dimensional feature. To optimize the feature learning and the K-means clustering jointly, we present a new deep clustering network called Transformer AutoEncoder for K-means Efficient clustering (TAKE). It consists of two modules: the Transformer AutoEncoder (TAE) for feature learning and the KNet for clustering. The TAE incorporates the transformer structure to learn global features and the contrastive learning mechanism to enhance feature discrimination. The KNet is constructed by unrolling the accelerated projected gradient descent iterations of the relaxed K-means model. The network is trained in two phases: pretraining and clustering. In pretraining, the TAE is optimized by minimizing the cosine similarity-based reconstruction loss, the contrastive loss (CL) and the convex combination loss (CCL). The CCL encourages features of augmented neighbor data to lie in a convex hull, thus K-means friendly. In the clustering phase, the TAE and the KNet are optimized jointly by minimizing the reconstruction loss and the K-means clustering loss. The clustering results are obtained by the forward inference of the KNet. Extended experiments show that our proposed method is highly effective in unsupervised representation learning and clustering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The role of tumor deposits (TDs) in TNM staging of colorectal cancer is controversial, especially the relationship with distant metastasis. Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effect of TDs on the survival of colorectal cancer and the occurrence of distant metastasis and to determine whether TDs (+) patients behaved similarly to stage IV patients. Methods: A retrospective analysis of CRC patients from two large independent cohorts from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database (n = 58775) and the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University (n = 742). Results: Univariate logistic analyses revealed that TDs are an independent predictor of liver metastasis [p < 0.001; odds ratio (OR): 5.738; 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.560–9.248] in the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University's patients. Meanwhile, TDs are also an independent predictor of isolated organ metastasis [p <0.001; odds ratio (OR): 3.028; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.414–3.79; multiple organ metastases [p < 0.001; odds ratio (OR): 4.778; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.109–5.556]; isolated liver metastasis [p < 0.001; odds ratio (OR): 4.395; 95% confidence interval (CI): 4.099–4.713] and isolated lung metastasis [p < 0.001; odds ratio (OR): 5.738; 95% confidence interval (CI): 3.560–9.248] in the SEER database. Multivariate analyses suggested TDs are an independent poor prognostic factor for distant metastasis (p <0.001). Conclusions: Our results have shown that compared with patients with negative TDs, CRC patients with positive TDs are more likely to develop distant metastasis. Patients categorized as T4aN2bM0 TDs (+) and T4bN2M0 TDs (+) have a similar prognosis as those with stage IV, and hence these patients should be classified as stage IV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutral non‐effectively grounded mode is widely used in medium‐voltage distribution networks in China. When a single‐phase grounding fault occurs in distribution networks, abundant transient signals will be generated. Here, a fault location method based on improved Hausdorff distance is proposed with transient zero‐sequence current and transient zero‐sequence voltage of bus. First, according to the impedance characteristic analysis of the zero‐sequence network, the selected frequency band (SFB) is determined, and the transient signals in the SFB are extracted by the digital filter. Second, the projection components of transient zero‐sequence currents at each monitoring point of faulty feeder are obtained by the principle of orthogonalization. Finally, the projection component values of each section are calculated by the improved Hausdorff distance, and the maximum value is selected. If the maximum value is much larger than the sum of the values of other sections excluding the maximum value, the section where the maximum value is located is judged as a faulty section, otherwise, the downstream section of the last monitoring point is determined as the faulty section. Matlab/Simulink simulation shows that the proposed method can locate accurately under different fault conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Novel FRA setup for water adsorption including response of surface temperature. • FRA method extended to determine thermal conductivity of the coating. • Adsorption dynamics governed only by thermal conductivity and micro mass transport. • Aluminum fumarate coating thermal conductivity independent of loading and temperature. • Alfum micro mass transport depends strongly on loading and temperature. The nonlinear sorption of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) could be changed to linear sorption by the suppression of coexisting solutes in natural system, resulting in the enhancement of mobility, bioavailability and risks of HOCs in the environment. In previous study, inspired from the competitive adsorption on activated carbon (AC), the displaceable fraction of HOCs sorption to soot by competitor was attributed to the adsorption on elemental carbon fraction of soot (EC-Soot), while the linear and nondisplaceable fraction was attributed to the partition in authigenic organic matter of soot (OM-Soot). In this study, however, we observed that the linear and nondisplaceable fraction of HOC (naphthalene) to a diesel soot (D-Soot) by competitor (phenanthrene or p -nitrophenol) should be attributed to not only the linear partition in OM-Soot, but also the residual linear adsorption on EC-Soot. We also observed that the competition on the surface of soot dominated by external surface was different from that of AC dominated by micropore surface, i.e., complete displacement of HOCs by p -nitrophenol could occur for the micropore surface of AC, but not for the external surface of soot. These observations were obtained through the separation of EC-Soot and OM-Soot from D-Soot with organic-solvent extraction and the sorption comparisons of D-Soot with an AC (ACF300) and a multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT30). The obtained results would give new insights to the sorption mechanisms of HOCs by soot and help to assess their environmental risks. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pediatric pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma (PXA) is a rare brain tumor. To date, there are few studies dedicated to this kind of pediatric tumor. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathologic characteristics of pediatric PXA. We retrospectively analyzed 17 pediatric patients diagnosed with PXA histologically between July 2009 and December 2018. We also reviewed the relevant literature. The majority of pediatric PXAs had cystic components and peritumoral edema, and approximately 40% of the tumors had calcifications. All large tumors (≥5 cm) were located in the nontemporal lobes except 1 (P = 0.05). Furthermore, the large tumors were primarily solid-cystic or cystic with mural nodules radiologically, while tumors measuring <5 cm were mainly solid or solid with cystic changes (P = 0.02). All patients underwent surgery, and 15 patients experienced complete tumor removal. Histologically, 11 patients had grade II PXAs and 6 patients had grade III PXAs. After the operation, most of the patients recovered uneventfully and the seizures were well controlled. The mean follow-up time was 43 months. Five patients received radiotherapy or chemotherapy. One patient had tumor recurrence 5 years after the first operation and underwent repeat surgery. Cystic components and peritumoral edema could be seen in most pediatric PXAs, and calcification was also not uncommon. The size of the tumor was correlated with the tumor site and radiologic subtype. Maximal safe resection of pediatric PXA is recommended and was shown to be beneficial for seizure control and survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid Li–Pb alloy is served as neutron multiplier, tritium breeder, and coolant in Dual Coolant Lithium–Lead (DCLL) breeding blankets. In order to monitor the tritium transport continuously and measure the tritium production rate accurately, the concentration of hydrogen isotopes in liquid breeder is an essential factor for tritium measurement. The hydrogen isotopes permeation-based capsule seems to be the most reliable sensor and is simple from the fabrication point of view. To verify the stability and repeatability of hydrogen isotopes concentration measured by permeation capsule in Li–Pb, a system based on a Nb-capsule and a quadrupole mass spectrometry was devised. The sensor would be applied to determine the variation rate of total pressure while a quadrupole mass spectrometry to measure partial pressure values of different hydrogen isotopes. The response time of the sensor is less than 100 s in liquid Li–Pb alloy and the growth rate of pressure has good repeatability in dynamic mode. Besides, calculations based on numerical simulation of the hydrogen isotopes sensor are presented. • A sensor based on a Nb-capsule and quadrupole mass spectrometry has been devised. • The sensor would be applied to determine the variation rate of total pressure. • A quadrupole mass spectrometry has been introduced to messure partial pressure of different hydrogen isotopes. • The response time of the sensor is about 95 s, and the sensor exhibits good stability in dynamic mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-catenin that belongs to Armdillo family is a key molecule in the canonical Wnt signaling pathway. It participates in host immunity by activating downstream transcription factors to regulate immune-related genes. In this study, Lv-β-catenin in Pacific white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei , which is a homologous gene of β-catenin, was investigated to explore the molecular function during white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection. Sequence analysis showed that Lv-β-catenin contains abundant phosphorylation sites, which indicated phosphorylation is an important pattern for β-catenin regulation. Immunoprecipitation assay showed that a WSSV immediate early protein WSV083, which was identified as a serine (Ser)/threonine (Thr) kinase, could interact with Lv-β-catenin. Further Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis suggested that WSV083 could promote degradation of Lv-β-catenin through the proteasome pathway. And the degradation of Lv-β-catenin was regulated by phosphorylation initiated at Ser56 site, which was mediated by WSV083. In addition, WSV083 could also affect phosphorylation of other Ser and Thr of Lv-β-catenin, which indicated that WSV083 could regulate Lv-β-catenin by numerous ways. Moreover, it is found that Lv-β-catenin could promote cell adhesion, while this effect could be inhibited by WSV083. In conclusion, WSSV could down regulate Lv-β-catenin and decrease cell adhesion mediated by WSV083 to resist host immunity. The study will improve understanding of the pathogenic molecular mechanism of WSSV and promote disease control. • WSV083 interacted with Lv-β-catenin, and promoted its degradation through the proteasome pathway. • Lv-β-catenin was regulated by phosphorylation initiated at Ser56, which was mediated by WSV083. • WSV083 could down regulate Lv-β-catenin and reduce cell adhesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinary research is called for to model integrated urban resilience across separate urban subsystems (infrastructure, governance, resources, socio-economic), and for chartering pathways toward an urban 'desirable state'. A core challenge is to determine the linkages between the subsystems. In this work, we demonstrate a novel approach by first constructing profiles of a desirable state, based on human shared values obtained empirically, and then use those to identify linkages naturally occurring between associated subsystems. We demonstrate the approach in two contrasting cities, Shanghai and Vienna, using WeValue InSitu methods to crystallize shared values and explore perspectives of urban disruption. The Desirable States of both cities provide elements with intrinsic strong linkages between urban subsystems, which can be represented with system dynamics mapping. These results reveal that this values-based approach contributes to modeling and studies of integrated urban resilience, for theory building and for applications. Construction of 'desirable states' (profiles) for urban resilience from group shared values in Vienna and Shanghai. [Display omitted] • A novel approach to produce integrated urban resilience subsystems is presented. • WeValue InSitu methods generate shared values-based profiles of 'desirable states'. • Elements of values-based desirable states have intrinsic linkages across subsystems. • Applications in contrasting cities of Shanghai and Vienna suggest transferability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Vibration-assisted insertion can be used in deep brain stimulation surgery. • The trend of friction force during vibration-assisted insertion is described. • Vibration assisted insertion can effectively reduce the friction during insertion. • There is an optimal frequency that minimizes the friction in vibration-assisted insertion. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective treatment for Parkinson's disease. The cannula insertion process plays an important role in DBS. The friction force during needle insertion influences the precision of the insertion and the degree of damage to the brain tissue. This paper proposes a method of longitudinal vibration assisted insertion to reduce the friction during insertion and improve the effects of the insertion. Cannulas were inserted into twenty eight pig brains at multiple frequencies and fixed amplitudes, and the resulting friction force was measured. On this basis, the LuGre model was used to analyze the friction force trend under vibration-assisted conditions. The frictional forces of vibration-assisted insertion with frequencies ranging from 200–1200 Hz and an amplitude of 1 μm were measured. The results show that the friction between the needle shaft and the tissue is smaller with vibration than without vibration. In this experiment, the friction is reduced by up to 24.43%. The friction force trend of vibration-assisted insertion conforms to the simulation results of the LuGre model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Pulmonary nodules are a potential manifestation of lung cancer. In computer‐aided diagnosis (CAD) of lung cancer, it is of great significance to extract the complete boundary of the pulmonary nodules in the computed tomography (CT) scans accurately. It can provide doctors with important information such as tumor size and density, which assist doctors in subsequent diagnosis and treatment. In addition to this, in the molecular subtype and radiomics of lung cancer, segmentation of lung nodules also plays a pivotal role. Existing methods are difficult to use only one model to simultaneously treat the boundaries of multiple types of lung nodules in CT images. Method: In order to solve the problem, this paper proposed a three‐dimensional (3D)‐UNET network model optimized by a 3D conditional random field (3D‐CRF) to segment pulmonary nodules. On the basis of 3D‐UNET, the 3D‐CRF is used to optimize the sample output of the training set, so as to update the network weights in training process, reduce the model training time, and reduce the loss rate of the model. We selected 936 sets of pulmonary nodule data for the lung image database consortium and image database resource initiative (LIDC‐IDRI)1 database to train and test the model. What's more, we used clinical data from partner hospitals for additional validation. Results and conclusions: The results show that our method is accurate and effective. Particularly, it shows more significance for the optimization of the segmentation of adhesive pulmonary nodules (the juxta‐pleural and juxta‐vascular nodules) and ground glass pulmonary nodules (GGNs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore how to leverage readily available unlabeled data to improve semi-supervised human detection performance. For this purpose, we specifically modify the region proposal network (RPN) for learning on a partially labeled dataset. Based on commonly observed false positive types, a verification module is developed to assess foreground human objects in the candidate regions to provide an important cue for filtering the RPN’s proposals. The remaining proposals with high confidence scores are then used as pseudo annotations for re-training our detection model. To reduce the risk of error propagation in the training process, we adopt a self-paced training strategy to progressively include more pseudo annotations generated by the previous model over multiple training rounds. The resulting detector re-trained on the augmented data can be expected to have better detection performance. The effectiveness of the main components of this framework is verified through extensive experiments, and the proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art detection results on multiple scene-specific human detection benchmarks in the semi-supervised setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bifurcation of exceptional points (EPs), particularly higher-order EPs, can offer applications in metrology by amplifying sensitivity, but this method suffers from a tradeoff between sensitivity and robustness. To break this constraint, we experimentally introduce nonlinearity into the EP degeneracy lifting at the coupled electric resonators and observe a sixth-order nonlinear bifurcation which amplifies the sensitivity elevenfold compared to the conventional EP-based approach operating in the linear regime, while maintaining the degrees of freedom, thereby without cost in robustness. Moreover, we discover a chaotic dynamics near the EP due to the nonlinear contribution, which constitutes a distinct difference from the EP degeneracy lifting in the linear regime with random noise. Our study expands the scope of EP degeneracy lifting into nonlinearity, providing a paradigm to exploit the benefit of EPs. Bifurcation of exceptional points (EPs) could offer applications in metrology by amplifying sensitivity. The authors find that introducing experimentally nonlinearity can bifurcate the EP degeneracy lifting yielding an elevenfold sensitivity enhancement and a chaotic dynamics near the EP compared to the conventional EP-based approach in the linear regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the localization of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptor and its effects on mouse colonic interstitial cells of Cajal (ICCs) using electrophysiological techniques. Treatment with 5-HT increased the pacemaker activity in colonic ICCs with depolarization of membrane potentials in a dose-dependent manner. Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated (HCN) channel blockers blocked pacemaker activity and 5-HT-induced effects. Moreover, an adenylate cyclase inhibitor inhibited 5-HT-induced effects, and cell-permeable 8-bromo-cAMP increased the pacemaker activity. Various agonists of the 5-HT receptor subtype were working in colonic ICCs, including the 5-HT4 receptor. In small intestinal ICCs, 5-HT depolarized the membrane potentials transiently. Adenylate cyclase inhibitors or HCN blockers did not show any influence on 5-HT-induced effects. Anoctamin-1 (ANO1) or T-type Ca2+ channel blockers inhibited the pacemaker activity of colonic ICCs and blocked 5-HT-induced effects. A tyrosine protein kinase inhibitor inhibited pacemaker activity in colonic ICCs under controlled conditions but did not show any influence on 5-HT-induced effects. Among mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitors, a p38 MAPK inhibitor inhibited 5-HT-induced effects on colonic ICCs. Thus, 5-HT's effect on pacemaker activity in small intestinal and colonic ICCs has excitatory but variable patterns. ANO1, T-type Ca2+, and HCN channels are involved in 5-HT-induced effects, and MAPKs are involved in 5-HT effects in colonic ICCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how Chinese consumers' awareness, knowledge, and attitudes influences their purchasing behavior for organic rice. The aim is to determine whether regional differences in these factors and in the resulting behavior exist and thereby, to provide the organic rice industry with sufficient information to expand its market and improve profitability. Respondents answered a total of 1,371 questionnaires, whereby 406, 539, and 426 responses came from inland, coastal, and northern regions, respectively. A binary logit regression is applied to analyze the survey data and predict purchasing behavior at the national and regional levels. While the results indicate that consumer awareness, product certification, and product availability factors have a positive impact on the likelihood of purchasing organic rice, the price has a negative relationship with organic rice consumption. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that northern consumers are more likely to buy organic rice than those in inland and coastal regions. In particular, awareness and knowledge factors have a greater influence on purchasing behavior in northern regions. These findings suggest that enhancing consumer awareness of organic rice and providing more purchasing channels could contribute to increasing organic rice consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel CMOS-compatible polarizer with tilted polarization angle is proposed and theoretically analyzed. It is the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that an on-chip polarizer with polarization angle other than 0°or 90°is investigated. The polarizer consists of a waveguide, a cladding etched trench and a metal strip. The trench and metal break the symmetry of the waveguide structure and rotate the polarization axes, while the metal also attenuates the specific polarization component. The proposed polarizer is comprehensively investigated from design to fabrication tolerance and 3 different cases with polarization angle 30°, 45°and 60°are demonstrated. The simulated results reveal that extinction ratio as large as 20 dB at 1550 nm can be achieved with excess loss as low as 1 dB, over 100 nm wavelength range. Furthermore, the Monte Carlo analysis shows the feasibility of the proposed polarizer in terms of practical fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was aimed at understanding the effect of micro-perforated polyethylene film packing (MPFP) on the metabolism of fatty acid-derived volatiles and physicochemical attributes in “Red Globe” table grapes under storage at 0 °C for 50 days. Physicochemical properties evaluated in grapes were total soluble solids (TSS), texture profile, decay incidence, fatty acid content, and aroma-related enzyme activities including lipoxygenase (LOX), hydroperoxide lyase (HPL), alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), and volatiles in grape peel and flesh. Aroma-related genes (VvLOX, VvHPL, and VvADH) were also evaluated. Grapes treated with MPFP was found to retain the texture profile and decay incidence was reduced (17.4% of reduction compared with control) significantly (P ≤ 0.05). Linoleic acid (LA), the main substrate of LOX/HPL pathway, was the highest in table grapes packed in MPFP, indicating the use of MPFP was able to preserve LA compound. Micro-perforated film packing upregulated VvLOX and VvHPL, downregulated VvADH, increased LOX and HPL activities, and inhibited ADH activity, enhancing C6/C9 compounds. The results indicated that MPFP system was the best choice to improve aroma quality of “Red Globe” table grapes in comparison to polyethylene film packing (PFP) and control (no packing). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Primary intracranial histiocytic sarcomas (PIHSs) are extremely rare with limited reported cases, making their prognostic factors and management uncertain. This study aims to describe the clinical characteristics of PIHSs and propose a treatment protocol for this entity. Methods: Clinical data were collected from six patients diagnosed with PIHSs at Beijing Tiantan Hospital between March 2011 and October 2022. Additionally, a comprehensive search of the PubMed database was conducted using the keywords "primary intracranial" or "primary central nervous system" combined with "histiocytic sarcoma" or "histiocytic sarcomas" between 1996 and 2022, identifying 24 cases. A pooled analysis of individual patient data was performed to assess risk factors for overall survival (OS). Results: The six cases included four males and two females, with a mean age of 42.2 ± 13.3 years. In total, 24 cases of PIHSs were identified from previous studies. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that gross total resection (GTR) was the only factor predicting a longer OS (p = 0.027). Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that GTR (p = 0.0013), solitary lesions (p = 0.0048), and radiotherapy (p = 0.0492) were associated with a longer OS. Conclusion: PIHSs are rare brain tumors with poor clinical prognosis. Patients with solitary lesions have a longer OS than those with multifocal lesions. Gross total resection must be the first choice. Radiotherapy may bring benefits for these patients, but chemotherapy may not be useful. Further studies involving larger cohorts are necessary to validate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ordered mesoporous Mg-Al layered double hydroxide (meso-LDH350) with a fairly high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area (126 m 2 g −1 ) has been facilely synthesized and then evaluated for the adsorptive removal of bromate from aqueous solutions. Adsorbents were characterized by a variety of techniques (e.g., XRD, FTIR, SEM, TG-DSC, N 2 physisorption, XPS, etc.). The adsorption studies indicated that the presence of background electrolytes and competitive anions can obviously repress the uptake of bromate on LDHs. The adsorption isotherms agree well with the Langmuir model, giving a maximum adsorption capacity of 59.34 mg g −1 (pH 7.5, 10 °C) for meso-LDH350, which is much higher than other LDH-type adsorbents reported in literature. The adsorption kinetic data can be well fitted with the pseudo-second-order rate model. Based on the macroscopic and microscopic studies, bromate adsorption on meso-LDH350 was associated with two mechanisms: the reconstruction of the layered structures of meso-LDH350 and the anion-exchange between bromate and the intercalated anions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel solid-to-solid phase change composite brick was prepared by combination of polyurethane (PU) and pitch-based graphite foam (PGF). The carbonaceous support, which can be used for mass production, not only greatly improves the thermal conductivity but promote electro-to-heat conversion efficiency of organic phase change materials (PCMs). Our composite retained the enthalpy of PCM and exhibited a greatly reduced supercooling temperature. The novel composite was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The enthalpy of polyurethane has increased about 8.6% after infiltrating into graphite foam. The composite was very stable during thermal cycle test, and the electro-to-heat conversion efficiency achieves to 85% at lower voltages (1.5–1.8 V), which can vastly reduce energy consumption. The as-prepared composite was used in a wear layer to test its performance comparing with normal fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have already reported the modification on the piperazine and phenyl rings of JNJ4796, a small-molecule fuse inhibitor targeting hemagglutinin (HA). In this study, we described the structure-activity relationship of the benzoxazole and tetrazole rings of JNJ4796. Many derivatives demonstrated good in vitro activity against IAV H1N1and Oseltamivir-resistant IAV H1N1 stains. Although compounds (R)-1e and (R)-1h exhibited excellent in vitro activity, high drug exposure level and low hERG inhibition, they displayed low oral efficacy. Excitedly, (R)-1a, a representative identified in our previous study, was found to show potent in vivo anti-IAV activity with the survival rates of 100%, 100% and 70% at 15, 5 and 1.67 mg/kg, respectively, comparable to JNJ4796. Currently, we are exploring different ways to ease its gastrointestinal response. [Display omitted] • All (R)-enantiomers displayed much higher anti-IAV potency than the (S)-ones. • (R)-enantiomers showed good in vitro activity against Oseltamivir-resistant IAV H1N1. • (R)-1a, (R)-1e and (R)-1h displayed higher drug exposures than JNJ4796. • (R)-1a, (R)-1e and (R)-1h exhibited lower hERG inhibition rates than JNJ4796. • (R)-1a gave 100% survival rates in the in vivo test at 5 and 15 mg/kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a class F fly ash and palygorskite have been acid-modified and then evaluated for the adsorption of phosphate in aqueous solution via bench-scale batch experiments. XRD, XRF, SEM, and FTIR were employed to characterize the acid-modified fly ash (MFA) and palygorskite (MPal). Both MFA and MPal show enhanced phosphate adsorption after the modification treatment. The effects of pH, adsorbent dosage, and co-ions on phosphate adsorption, as well as adsorption thermodynamics and kinetics, and leaching features of spent (used) adsorbents were also investigated. The isotherms data fit well with the Langmuir model rather than the Freundlich model, giving maximum capacities (298 K) of 13.3 mg P g − 1 for MFA and 10.5 mg P g − 1 for MPal, respectively. Surface complexation modeling of P adsorption data with the nonelectrostatic generalized composite (GC) approach indicates that phosphate were directly bound to the metal centers by ligand exchange to form two monodentate complexes, ≡ SHPO 4 − and ≡ SPO 4 2 − . The GC model appears to be an easy and efficient tool to provide an insight into the mechanism of phosphate adsorption on complex adsorbents with limited model parameters. Leaching test results suggest that the spent adsorbents can be safely disposed or further reused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effects of drought stress (DS) on maize varieties with different amylose content (AC). In starches with AC of 33 %, DS increased the contents of amylopectin (AP) chains with a degree of polymerization (DP) > 36 and decreased the AP chains with DP ≤ 36, while the AC was unchanged. DS decreased the crystallinity, the thickness of both amorphous and crystalline lamellae, and average granular size. In contrast, the digestibility increased. For starches with AC of 45 %, DS increased the content of AP chains with DP > 24 and AC, while the contents of AP chains with DP ≤ 24 decreased. DS produced starch with thinner crystalline lamellae, thicker amorphous lamellae, more elongated and larger granules. The digestibility of the starches decreased. In starches with AC of 53 %, moderate DS led to similar structural and functional changes as found for starches with AC of 45 %. Finally, severe DS resulted in the decrease of AC. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of microbial degradation of biochar-adsorbed organic pollutants is essential for recovering adsorption performance of biochars and reducing secondary pollution in soil remediation. In previous study, desorption of organic compounds from biochars was perceived as a prerequisite for the microbial degradation. However, microbial degradation of the nondesorbable organic compounds on biochars has not been studied. Therefore, degradation of nondesorbable naphthalene (NAPH), phenanthrene (PHEN) and pyrene (PYR) on a wood chip-derived biochar (WBC700) by Sphingobium yanoikuyae B1 was investigated. Significant microbial degradations of nondesorbable organic compounds were observed and followed the order of NAPH < PHEN < PYR. It was newly observed in this study that the microbial degradation of nondesorbable organic compounds on WBC700 was mainly attributed to the •OH in extracellular fluid of Sphingobium yanoikuyae B1. The extracellular •OH was produced through a Fenton-like reaction involved siderophore, H 2 O 2 and iron ions, which could be significantly enhanced by WBC700. Microbial degradation was higher for larger organic compound (e.g., PYR), because larger molecules were adsorbed in relatively larger micropores of WBC700 and thus could be accessible to more extracellular •OH for degradation. The obtained results could provide a new insight into the microbial degradation of biochar-adsorbed organic pollutants in soil remediation. [Display omitted] • Significant microbial degradations of nondesorbable PAHs on WBC700 were observed. • Extracellular •OH of S. yanoikuyae B1 was responsible for PAH degradation on WBC700. • Extracellular •OH was produced through a siderophore-catalyzed Fenton-like reaction. • WBC700 can significantly enhance production of extracellular •OH for PAH degradation. • Microbial degradation was higher for larger organic compound adsorbed on WBC700. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adsorption of 22 nonpolar and polar aromatic compounds on 10 carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with various diameters, lengths and surface oxygen-containing group contents was investigated to develop predictive correlations for adsorption, using the isotherm fitting of Polanyi theory-based Dubinin-Ashtakhov (DA) model. Adsorption capacity of aromatic compounds on CNTs is negatively correlated with melting points of aromatic compounds, and surface oxygen-containing group contents and surface area ratios of mesopores to total pores of CNTs, but positively correlated with total surface area of CNTs. Adsorption affinity is positively correlated with solvatochromic parameters of aromatic compounds, independent of tube lengths and surface oxygen-containing group contents of CNTs, but negatively correlated with surface area ratios of mesopores to total pores of CNTs. The correlations of adsorption capacity and adsorption affinity with properties of both aromatic compounds and CNTs clearly have physical significance, can be used successfully with DA model to predict adsorption of aromatic compounds on CNTs from the well-known physiochemical properties of aromatic compounds (i.e., solvatochromic parameters, melting points) and CNTs (i.e., surface area and total acidic group contents), and thus can facilitate the environmental application of CNTs as sorbents and environmental risk assessment of both aromatic contaminants and CNTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonradical oxidation based on peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation has attracted increasing attention for selective degradation of organic pollutants. Herein, topological defects were introduced into biochar (BC) via removing N atoms in N-doped BC (NBC) in an attempt to improve the nonradical catalytic performance. Compared to the pristine BC and NBC, the introduction of topological defects could achieve up to 36.6- and 8.7-times catalytic activity enhancement, respectively. More importantly, it was found that the catalytic activity was dominated by topological defects, which was verified by the significant positive correlation between the pseudo-first-order rate constants and the content of topological defects. Theoretical calculations suggested that topological defects enhanced the electron-donating ability of BC by reducing the energy gap, which made the electrons transfer to PDS molecules more easily. As a result, holes were generated after the carbon defects lost electrons, and induced a nonradical oxidation process. Benefiting from the merits of nonradical oxidation, the developed BC/PDS system showed superior performance in removing electron-rich contaminants in the presence of inorganic anions and in the actual environments. This study not only provides a potential avenue for designing efficient biochar-based catalysts, but also advances the mechanism understanding of nonradical oxidation process induced by carbon defects. Highlights: Biochar full of topological defects (NBC-T) was developed as excellent PDS catalyst for tetracycline degradation. The catalytic activity of NBC-T was found to be positively correlated with the content of topological defects. Topological defects with narrow energy gap facilitate electron-transfer thus promoting the generation of holes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sufficient labeled training data may not be available for pedestrian detection in many real-world scenes. Semi-supervised settings naturally apply for the case where an adequate number of images are collected in a target scene but only a small proportion of them can be manually annotated. A common strategy is to adopt a detector trained on a well-established dataset (source data) or the limited annotated data to pseudo-annotate unannotated images. However, the domain gap and the lack of supervision in the target scene may lead to low-quality pseudo annotations. In this paper, we propose a Scene-adaptive Pseudo Annotation (SaPA) approach, which aims at exploiting two types of training data: source data providing sufficient supervision and unannotated target data offering domain-specific information. To utilize the source data, an Annotation Network (AnnNet) competes with a domain discriminator to learn domain-invariant features. To exploit the unannotated data, we temporally aggregate the parameters of AnnNet to build a more robust network, which is able to provide training goals for AnnNet. This new approach improves the generalization performance of AnnNet, which eventually leads to high-quality pseudo annotations to the unannotated data. Both manual and pseudo annotations are leveraged to train a more precise and scene-specific detector. We perform extensive experiments on multiple benchmarks to verify the effectiveness and superiority of SaPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work investigates the design of linear precoders in cooperative multi-cell MIMO downlink coverage for finite-alphabet source signals. Traditional design of multi-cell MIMO downlink precoder relies on Gaussian input assumption, which may lead to performance loss when true data inputs consist of discrete non-Gaussian symbols. This work presents optimized precoders for finite-alphabet input by maximizing the sum rate under per-base station power constraints. Specifically, we propose two distributed algorithms: a finite-alphabet signal Gaussian interference gradient projection algorithm and a block diagonalization alternating optimization algorithm while supporting interference cancellation. Our numerical results demonstrate considerable performance gain in terms of approximate transmission data rate as well as decoded bit error rate over precoding schemes designed by using the non-realistic Gaussian input assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The effects of defects on the interface thermal conductivity (ITC) for graphene/epoxy (G/EP) are investigated by using molecular dynamics simulations (MD). The results indicate that defects in graphene are important for improving the ITC of G/EP. This enhancement depends on defect type and concentration. Among the various defect types, Stone-Wales(SW) defects are detected to be the most effective defect type for improving the ITC. Other defect types such as multi-vacancy (MV), double-vacancy (DV), and single-vacancy (SV) are detected to have negligible enhancement. The influence of graphene layer number on ITC is further investigated for both pristine and SW-defective graphene. As layer number grows, the ITC decreases greatly but becomes steady when layer number exceeds four for both systems. The calculated ITCs are then comprehensively analyzed by using Phonon Density Of States (PDOS). Our study offers meaningful directions on the use of defective graphene in practical thermal management applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

l Analyze the phase-frequency characteristics of equivalent impedance, the fault characteristics in the high frequency band and low frequency band are determined. l Drawing on the relevant principles of dot product, it is applied to the processing method of the fault characteristics in the high frequency band and low frequency band. l The Hausdorff Distance algorithm is improved to avoid deviations from disturbance of some noise. l The improved algorithm is utilized to obtain the dot product matrix, and the faulty feeder could be identified based on comparison of the size of the element value in each row of the matrix. l The proposed method can identify the faulty feeder not only for SPG faults but for two-phase grounding faults. Faulty feeder selection is a very important issue to ensure power supply reliability when a single-phase to ground (SPG) fault occurs in the distribution network. In this paper, a faulty feeder selection method based on improved Hausdorff distance (IHD) algorithm is proposed in the neutral non-effectively grounded system. Through the analysis of the phase-frequency characteristics of equivalent impedance, the fault characteristics in the high frequency band and low frequency band are determined. Then, the dot product of the fault characteristics can be calculated, and the IHD algorithm is utilized to obtain the dot product matrix. Finally, if the maximum value of one or more rows elements in the matrix is less than the sum of the remaining elements, it is judged as the bus fault, otherwise, the feeder corresponding to the maximum sum of the elements in the row is determined to be the faulty feeder. Simulation and recorded field data show that the proposed method can accurately select the faulty feeder under diverse fault conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the spatial density and quality of measurement points in multitemporal interferometric synthetic aperture radar, distributed scatterers (DSs) should be processed. An essential procedure in DS interferometry is phase estimation, which reconstructs a consistent phase series from all available interferograms. Influenced by the well-known suboptimality of coherence estimation, the performance of the state-of-the-art phase estimation algorithms is severely degraded. Previous research has addressed this problem by introducing the coherence bias correction technique. However, the precision of phase estimation is still insufficient because of the limited correction capabilities. In this paper, a modified phase estimation approach is proposed. Particularly, by incorporating the information on both interferometric coherence and the number of looks, a significant bias correction to each element of the coherence magnitude matrix is achieved. The bias-corrected coherence matrix is combined with advanced statistically homogeneous pixel selection and time series phase optimization algorithms to obtain the optimal phase series. Both the simulated and Sentinel-1 real data sets are used to demonstrate the superiority of this proposed approach over the traditional phase estimation algorithms. Specifically, the coherence bias can be corrected with considerable accuracy by the proposed scheme. The mean bias of coherence magnitude is reduced by more than 29%, and the standard deviation is reduced by more than 18% over the existing bias correction method. The proposed approach achieves higher accuracy than the current methods over the reconstructed phase series, including smoother interferometric phases and fewer outliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ag nanoparticles modified VO 2 nanorods were successfully synthesized by a two-step method. • The adhesion of Ag nanoparticles and morphology of VO 2 nanorods depends on the annealing temperature. • The sensors based on Ag modified VO 2 nanorods showed a high sensitivity to NO 2 at room temperature. • The gas sensing mechanism of Ag modified VO 2 nanorods were discussed combined with DFT calculation. Ag-modified VO 2 nanorods were prepared by a two-step method to improve the NO 2 sensing performance at room temperature (25 °C). VO 2 nanorods were synthesized by hydrothermal method, and Ag nanoparticles were decorated on the surface of VO 2 nanorods by annealing. The effects of annealing temperature on the microstructure and room temperature NO 2 sensing properties were studied. The morphology and crystal structure of the samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that Ag nanoparticles with a diameter of about 45 nm were tightly decorated on the surface of VO 2 nanorods when the annealing temperature was 450 °C. The room temperature gas sensing measurement of sensor to NO 2 with concentration spanned from 1 to 5 ppm was carried out. The gas sensing test results showed that the sample annealed at 450 °C had the maximum sensitivity, and the response value was up to 2.54–5 ppm NO 2. The response value gradually decreases as the relative humidity increases. The sensor also showed good selectivity and reproducibility for detection of NO 2 gas. The good sensing performance could be attributed to the catalytic effect of Ag nanoparticles and the changing of the energy band gap. At the same time, the mechanism of Ag-modified VO 2 nanorods to NO 2 gas response is further discussed. These results are significant to prompt the applications of VO 2 in room temperature NO 2 gas detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]