This research has critically argued that a vigilant combination of flexibility and certainty in spatial planning can bring about the most optimum planning outcomes. Therefore, to reproachfully evaluate the core argument, this research has tried to empirically respond to the research question of which balance of government intervention and market freedom produces the optimal economic, social and spatial outcomes. This research question has been further translated into an associated central hypothesis i.e., a hybrid planning system with an optimal balance between discretionary and regulatory planning approach can bring about the desired economic, social, and spatial outcomes.

This research work deals with the formulation of numerical scheme with algorithm to compute singularly perturbed partial differential equations(SP-PDEs) involving a significant negative shift. The problem involves small parameter which causes a rapidly changing boundary layers in the vicinity of a body, and the negative shift term causes interior layer. Such appearance of an abruptly varying layers causes difficulties to find the exact solution and it is not adequate to employ classical numerical methods. The technique presented in this research work simplifies these challenges and yields accurate numerical solution.The stability and convergence analyses of the methods are examined and proven. To test the developed technique, numerical experiments are carried out and confirmed with theoretical analysis.

Most pathogens are capable of infecting multiple host species and such cross-species transmission (CST) can have dramatic consequences, as highlighted by recent disease emergence events affecting human, animal and plant health. Understanding the ecological and evolutionary factors that constrain or facilitate the ability of disease agents to infect and establish in a novel host is therefore a timely and important research area. Previous work across different pathogens, including rabies virus (RABV), found that increased evolutionary distance between hosts reduces the frequency of cross-species transmission and of permanent host shifts. However, whether this effect of host relatedness still holds for transmission among recently diverged hosts, and the importance of this effect relative to other predictors, is not well understood. We addressed this question by quantifying the CST frequency of RABV between North American bat species within the genus Myotis, using a multi-decade data set containing 128 nucleoprotein (N) sequences from ten host species. For comparison, we also conducted an equivalent analysis of a RABV dataset from North American bat species comprising nine genera. We found that at the within genus scale, host relatedness failed to explain the frequency of CST events. However, CST frequency increased with overlap in species’ host range. Moreover, we found evidence of CST occurring among a higher proportion of species, and CST more frequently resulting in sustained transmission in the novel host in the Myotis dataset compared to the multi-genus dataset. Our results suggest that among recently diverged species, the ability to infect a novel host is no longer restricted by physiological barriers but instead is limited by physical contact. Our results improve predictions of where future CST events for RABV might occur and clarify the relationship between host divergence and pathogen emergence.

The microstructure of oil pipeline steels is polycrystalline due to the presence of a complex grain boundary (GB) network in them. The performance of them when exposed to stresses in corrosive environments is largely dictated by the interplay between the hydrogen (H) diffusion, the dislocation slip, and their interactions with the GBs. However, the slip-GB interaction in the presence of H and the subsequent cracking along the GBs remains not fully understood up to date. It is challenging to simultaneously resolve the collective dislocation motions away from the GBs together with the H diffusion near the atomically structured GBs using single-scale techniques. To address this challenge, taking bcc iron as a model material, here we present a a concurrent atomistic-continuum (CAC) computational analysis of the interaction between dislocation slip and a H-charged GB. With the large number of dislocations-mediated plastic flow away from the GB together with the atomistic structure evolution at the GB being simultaneously retained, several main findings from our simulations are: (i) the large number of dislocation-mediated pileup-induced internal stress nearby the H-charged GB can be as high as 3GPa; (ii) the more dislocations accumulated nearby the GB, the slower H diffusion ahead of the slip-GB intersection; (iii) H atoms diffuse fast behind the pileup tip, get trapped within the GB, and diffuse slow ahead of the pileup tip; (iv) the local stresses nearby the pileup tip exhibits a strong heterogeneity along the dislocation line direction. This differs from the common wisdom in many existing 2D theories/models. The buildup of such a high local stress heterogeneity leads to inhomogeneous H diffusion within the GB plane. The CAC simulation-predicted local H diffusivity, Dpileup−tip, and local stresses, σ, nearby the GB are then correlated with each other and consolidated into a mechanics model by considering the dislocation pileup as an Eshelby inclusion. These findings will provide researchers with opportunities to: (a) characterize the coupled dynamics between plasticity, H diffusion, and crack initiation underlying the hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC); (b) develop mechanism-based constitutive rules to be used in diffusion-plasticity coupling models for understanding the interplay between mechanical and mass transport in materials at the continuum level; and (c) connect the atomistic deformation physics of polycrystalline materials with their overall performance in aqueous environments, which is currently difficult to achieve in laboratory experiments.

Myanmar is located in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, but lacks understanding of the bio-diversity hotspots and protected areas within its borders. Climate change affects the effective-ness of protected areas and the potential distribution range of species. Based on Myanmar's re-gional characteristics, endangered status, and representativeness, this paper selects species and identifies biodiversity hotspots using the MaxEnt model. We studied the biodiversity within the terrestrial protected area network in Myanmar, as well as the potential for cross-boundary range shifts among protected areas under different climate scenarios. Species populations outside My-anmar's protected area network may not be able to find suitable habitats in the future, further exacerbating climate-related extinction risks. Additionally, some protected areas in Myanmar may not be fully utilizing their biodiversity representation potential, and with scientific spatial planning, Myanmar's protected areas could support a large number of species. In the context of continued warming, identifying new protected areas that encompass the future and current climatic niches of protected areas can increase the capacity for sustained biodiversity conservation. We hope that this study provides insights for increasing the effectiveness of Myanmar's protect-ed area network and emphasizes the urgency of coordinated protection of protected areas and biodiversity hotspots.

Cavitation bubbles are commonly existing in shipbuilding engineering, ocean engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical industry, and aerospace. Asymmetric deformation of bubble occurs near the boundary, and the non-spherical cavitation bubbles have strong destructive effects, inducing high amplitude loading at the nearby boundary. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the laser-induced of cavitation bubble, non-spherical collapse behavior near the boundary. In this study, experimental data such as bubble pulsation process and bubble surface velocity distribution were obtained by high-speed camera technique and full-field velocity calculation. The results show that the bubble appeared non-spherical collapse shapes, near different boundaries, with near-hemispherical, near-ellipsoidal, near-cone and near-pea shapes, and the bubble surface velocity distribution is not uniform. When bubble near the free surface or rigid boundary, the smaller the stand-off r is, the more obvious the repulsive effect of the free surface and the attractive effect of the rigid boundary are. As the stand-off r decreases, the larger the Bjerknes force and the bubble surface velocity difference, the more pronounced the non-spherical shape.

The essence of cross-modal generation and retrieval modeling for image-text interactions lies in semantic consistency. Among these, cross-modal representation alignment serves as the foundational requirement for achieving cross-modal semantic consistency. The crux of our proposed method entails the collaborative training of an image captioning model(referred to as the ’captioner’) and a pair of contrastive encoders for image-text matching(referred to as the ’concoder’). This synergistic approach yields concurrent enhancements in concoder’s performance, captioner’s proficiency, and cross-modal semantic coherence. We coin the proposed method as ‘ReCap’. To begin, we initialize the concoder through knowledge distillation from a pre-trained model. During the training process, we use the output of the initialized concoder as input to a residual attention network, jointly training it with the captioner to achieve semantic consistency. Subsequently, we iteratively update the concoder during the image-text momentum encoding phase using the residual attention network, creating a closed-loop for semantic consistency resolution. Upon completion of training, the concoder and captioner modules can be used independently to perform tasks related to cross-modal retrieval and cross-modal generation of text and images. In order to substantiate the efficacy of our proposed method, we initially conducted empirical experiments encompassing image-text retrieval and image captioning tasks, employing a widely recognized benchmark dataset, MSCOCO. Subsequently, we assessed the fine-grained cross-modal alignment performance of the concoder through an image classification task on the iNaturalist 2018 dataset. The achieved performance metrics notably surpassed those achieved by several incumbent state-of-the-art models, thus validating the proficiency of our method. Finally, motivated by the practical requirements of handling the nature conservation image data, we performed caption annotation for the iNaturalist 2018 dataset. Subsequently, we trained the ReCap on this annotated data. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method can maintain semantic consistency between cross-modal retrieval and image caption generation for species with similar visual features but distinct semantics. This achievement signifies a meaningful exploration in the field of cross-modal semantic consistency representation, holding significant practical value in the domain of biological research.

In this paper, we propose an efficient numerical method to solve the diffusive logistic model with a free boundary which is often used to simulate the spreading of the new or invasive species. The boundary movement is tracked by the level-set method, where the Hamilton-Jacobi weighted essentially nonoscillatory (HJ-WENO) scheme is utilized to capture the boundary curve embedded by the Cartesian grids via the embedded boundary method. Then the radial basis function-finite difference (RBF-FD) method is adopted to the spatial discretization and the IMEX scheme is considered for time integration. A variety of numerical examples are carried out to demonstrate the evolution of diffusive logistic model in different initial boundaries.

In this paper we study the initial boundary value problem for logarithmic Higher Order Wave equation. Introducing the Logarithmic Sobolev inequality and using the combination of Galerkin method, we consider the theorem of existence of a global weak solution to problem for the initial boundary value problem of the logarithmic wave equation. By constructing an appropriate Lyapunov function, we obtain the decay estimates of energy for logarithmic Higher Order Wave equation. The proof of the main theorem is given.

The exact similarity solutions (also called as special exact solutions) of two dimensional laminar boundary layer were obtained by Blasius in 1908, however, no similarity solutions for two dimensional turbulent boundary layers have been reported in the literature. With the help of dimensional analysis and invariance principle, Prandtl mixing length $\ell=\kappa y$ for one dimensional turbulent boundary layer is extended to $\ell(x,y)=\kappa y (1-\frac{y}{\delta})\sqrt{\frac{\nu}{U\delta}} $ for the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers, furthermore, with a similarity transformation, we successfully transform the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers partial differential equations into a single ordinary differential equation $f'''+ ff''+\beta(1-f'^2)+\kappa^2[\eta^2(1-\eta)^2f''|f''|]'=0$. As an application, similarity solutions of the two dimensional turbulent boundary layer on a flat plate at zero incidence have been studied in detail. To solve the ordinary differential equation numerically, a complete Maple code is provided.

The exact similarity solutions of two dimensional laminar boundary layer were obtained by Blasius in 1908, however, for two dimensional turbulent boundary layers, no similarity solutions (special exact solutions) have ever been found. In the light of Blasius' pioneer works, we extend Blasius similarity transformation to the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers, and successfully transform the two dimensional turbulent boundary layers partial differential equations into a single ordinary differential equation. By author's Maple code, we numerically solve the ordinary differential equation and produce some useful quantities.

This brief review introduces some general properties of lower atmospheric motions that may be exploited by birds, linking historical findings and current knowledge from both observational and modeling perspectives. The relative importance of turbulent mixing resulting from wind shear and that from buoyant thermals is emphasized as well as the determinants of the geometry of the resulting vertical motions.

This paper introduces a new adaptation of the enthalpic lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) tailored to simulate the intricate dynamics of conjugate heat transfer in non-homogeneous media, showcasing considerable potential for enhancing heat exchanger designs. This approach expands upon the conventional enthalpic LBM framework by seamlessly incorporating tailored source terms, enabling precise representation of local and transient variations in the medium’s thermophysical properties. The resulting LBM model comprehensively captures the energy conservation equation, with exceptions made only for flow compressibility and viscous dissipation, thereby significantly augmenting its versatility in analyzing heat exchanger configurations. Verification tests, comprising assessments of both transient and steady-state solutions, unequivocally validate the accuracy of the proposed model, further bolstering its reliability for analyzing heat exchange processes within intricate heat exchanger geometries. To demonstrate its efficacy, simulations of conjugate heat transfer processes involving fluid natural convection within structured cavities were performed, imposing both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions to emulate scenarios encountered in practical heat exchanger operations. The findings yield compelling insights, particularly in the transient regime, revealing the beneficial impact of structured cavities on enhancing heat transfer processes. These insights inform potential design optimizations for heat exchangers. The results emphasize the potential of the modified enthalpic LBM approach to elucidate complex heat transfer phenomena in non-homogeneous media and structured geometries, offering valuable implications for heat exchanger engineering and optimization.

In this work, two plasmonic structures with two different periodic nanostructures (nanodisk and nanostrip arrays) separated from the gold layer by an ultrathin dielectric Al2O3 layer are proposed, and their optical properties are simulated as 3-dimensional models using COMSOL Multiphysics software tool. The optical responses, such as the amplification of the electric field and the scattering, absorption and extinction cross sections of the two structures, are investigated and compared. The results show that both structures show strong field enhancement in their gap layer, and the structure with the periodic array of metal nanodisks shows stronger field enhancement and larger absorption, extinction, and scattering cross sections in its dipole resonance wavelength, which is defined as a bright plasmonic mode. In addition, some weaker resonant modes are observed for both structures and the reason for their generation is dis-cussed. The analysis of different possible modes in such structures is crucial for their application in various fields.

The synchronization of complex networks is believed to be closely related to network topology. How to study synchronization of real network without clear topology and parameters? In this Letter, a synchronized stability boundary equation is derived that is system- and disturbance-independent and applicable to arbitrarily coupled grids. The results imply that spontaneous synchronization in a network may be network independent. These conclusions provide new research paths for network synchronization and analyze the synchronization stability of grids in a unified way.

In this paper, a further mathematical analysis of some previous results of the author’s ongoing investigation regarding Prandtl’s equations is accomplished. In particular, the objective of the present work is the performance of an approximate explicit solution to Prandtl’s system of equations for a laminar, isothermal, incompressible and steady boundary layer flow of a Newtonian fluid, over an infinite horizontal flat plate.

Ventilation in cities is crucial for the well being of their inhabitants. Therefore, local governments require air ventilation assessments (AVAs) prior to the construction of new buildings. In a standard AVA, however, only neutral stratification is considered, although diabatic and particularly unstable conditions may be observed more frequently in nature. The results presented here indicate significant changes in ventilation within most of the area of Kowloon City, Hong Kong, included in the study. A new definition for calculating ventilation was introduced, and used to compare the influence of buildings on ventilation under conditions of neutral and unstable stratification. The overall ventilation increased due to enhanced vertical mixing. In the vicinity of exposed buildings, however, ventilation was weaker for unstable stratification than for neutral stratification. The influence on ventilation by building parameters, such as the plan area index, was altered when unstable stratification was considered. Consequently, differences in stratification were shown to have marked effects on ventilation estimates, which should be taken into consideration in future AVAs.

Pollution spillover is an important issue to improve the water environment of transboundary rivers, which has been aggravated by the decentralization of China's pollution control and promotion system.This paper analyzes the evolution of the pollution reduction mandates and the possible change of water environment in China which are tested with the water quality data of state key monitoring sections in 2004-2014 .In terms of research methods, this paper mainly uses Propensity Score Matching reference with group difference test and OLS. Empirical findings support the association between decentralization and pollution levels. The pollution levels of the monitoring points located at the boundary are significantly higher than that of interior counties. The pollution of tributary is more serious than trunk stream，which quickly reversed after the system changed. Water pollution levels rapidly changes when we compare the monitoring site in front of jurisdictional boundaries with that after the jurisdictional boundaries. We draw the following conclusions that local goverments may manipulate pollution within their jurisdictions and total pollutant control system will exacerbate border pollution, while water quality inspection can reduce marginal pollution.

Cross-cultural mobility is a phenomenon that is increasingly growing, and the resulting stress has become a severe health issue. Thus, we conducted a systematic review of articles reporting research on stress measures of cross-cultural mobility or acculturative stress, emphasizing its internal structure. We adopted the PRISMA procedures for scoping reviews (e.g., searching articles in databases), resulting in the inclusion 20 articles in the final analysis that present evidence of validity based on the internal structure of 16 measures. The most common factors identified were related to cultural stressors, language stressors, and discrimination stressors. After analyzing a cross-cultural mobility stress concept implicit in the definitions used in the articles, we found that most measures of acculturative stress did not evaluate it according to the Stress and Coping Model of Lazarus and Folkman. Most measures only focused on part of the phenomena (some estimated the stressors, others the coping strategies). Few took into account the physiological and psychological responses to internal or external stressors, and even fewer considered its positive aspects (eustress). Consequently, it is pivotal to develop measures that take into account the multiple dimensions of the cross-cultural mobility stress. Other results (e.g., validity evidence of the measures) and limitations of this systematic scoping review are presented and discussed.

Texture has long been considered an important attribute for food acceptance. However, which specific textural characteristics contribute to overall acceptance of a food is not well understood. It has been suggested that texture contrasts and combinations are a universal feature in giving foods a desirable texture, yet this notion is largely based upon anecdotal data. This study uses multiple survey research methods to assess the importance of texture contrast and combinations across cultures (Poland, U.S.A., and Singapore). Participants (n = 288) completed a survey that included overt measures of food texture contrast importance as well as free response questions regarding texture. The overall importance of texture for food liking was not different across the populations. However, the participants from Singapore and Poland gave more importance to a desirable food having multiple textures than the U.S.A. cohort. When looking at free responses, participants were twice as likely to mention combinations (multiple textures) with a texture contrast when describing foods they liked, in comparison to foods they disliked. This was observed across all 3 cultures. However, the type and quantity of texture terms used within combinations were different among cultures. For instance, Asians enjoyed more texturally diverse food combinations than the other two cultures. These findings highlight the importance of texture contrasts and combinations in three distinct cultures.

This paper presents a novel CNN-based architecture, referred to as Q-Net, to learn local feature descriptors that are useful for matching image patches from two different spectral bands. Given correctly matched and non-matching cross-spectral image pairs, a quadruplet network is trained to map input image patches to a common Euclidean space, regardless of the input spectral band. Our approach is inspired by the recent success of triplet networks in the visible spectrum, but adapted for cross-spectral scenarios, where for each matching pair there are always two possible non-matching patches; one for each spectrum. Experimental evaluations on a public cross-spectral VIS-NIR dataset shows that the proposed approach improves the state-of-the-art. Moreover, the proposed technique can also be used in mono-spectral settings, obtaining a similar performance to triplet network descriptors, but requiring less training data.

Chaotic theory is commonly being researched for application in image encryption scheme (IES). In this paper, a novel two-dimensional cross hyperchaotic Sine-modulation-Logistic map (2D-CHSLM) based on the famous Sine and Logistic maps. The hyperchaotic behaviors of 2D-CHSLM is testified with the help of their bifurcation diagrams, trajectory plots, Lyapunov exponents, sample entropy, C0 complexity, permutation entropy and 0-1 test. A new bit-level IES with traditional encryption structure is proposed utilizing 2D-CHSLM. The 2D-CHSLM-IES performs a 2D-CHSLM-based bit-level confusion using zig-zag transform and a 2D-CHSLM-based cross coupled diffusion operations for generating a highly secure cipher-image. Then the simulations and security analyses are further carried out with the help of key space, key sensitivity, histogram, correlation, information entropy, differential attack, noise and data loss attacks, prove that the security of the proposed 2D-CHSLM-IES

With the development of Internet, big data and artificial intelligence technology, personal information protection has become the focus of social attention. The legal boundary of data protection has become increasingly prominent, involving the collection, storage, use, transmission and disclosure of personal information. This paper aims to explore the legal boundary of data protection, analyze the legal basis, legal principles and legal provisions of personal information protection, and put forward corresponding legal suggestions, in order to provide reference for the improvement of China's data protection legal system.

Since the discovery of graphene, due to its excellent optical, thermal, mechanical and electrical properties, it has a broad application prospect in energy, materials, biomedicine, electromagnetism and other fields. A great quantity of researches on the physical mechanism of graphene has been applied to engineering in electromagnetism and optics. To study the properties of graphene, different kinds of numerical methods have been developed for simulating the electromagnetic field effects of graphene, and equivalent boundary conditions have been employed to replace graphene in the computational domain. In this work, the numerical methods with equivalent boundary conditions are reviewed, and some examples are provided to illustrate their applicability.

In a series of recent works the relevance of gravitational boundary degrees of freedom and their dynamics in gravity quantization and black hole information has been explored. In this work we further the progress by keenly focusing on the boundary degrees of freedom as the origin of black hole entropy. Wald's entropy formula is scrutinized, and the reason that the Wald's formula correctly captures the entropy of a black hole is examined. Afterwards, limitations of the Wald's method are discussed; a coherent view of entropy based on boundary dynamics is presented. The discrepancy observed in the literature between holographic and Wald's entropies is addressed. We generalize the entropy definition so as to handle a time-dependent black hole. Large gauge symmetry plays a pivotal role. Non-Dirichlet boundary conditions and gravitational analogues of Coleman-De Luccia bounce solutions are central in identifying the microstates and differentiating the origins of entropies associated with different classes of solutions. The result in the present work leads to a view that black hole entropy is entanglement entropy in a thermodynamic setup.

Considerable efforts have been devoted to modifying gravity, which aim to elucidate the possible existence or nature of dark matter and dark energy, achieve a better description of observation data, verify theoretical restrictions in the strong curvature regime and to formulate quantum gravity. In addition, despite the enormous success of the quantum field theory, the framework requires the so-called renormalization techniques and breaks down at high energies. Recently, the Planck Legacy 2018 release has confirmed the presence of an enhanced lensing amplitude in the cosmic microwave background power spectra, which prefers a positively curved early Universe with a confidence level greater than 99%. This study considers the implied positive curvature of the early Universe as the curvature of ‘the background or the 4D conformal bulk’ and distinguishes it from the localized curvature that is induced into the bulk by the presence of comparably smaller celestial objects that are regarded as ‘4D relativistic cloud-worlds’. To consider the interaction between the bulk and cloud-worlds, this paper presents interaction field equations in terms of the brane-world modified gravity counting for the bulk conformal curvature and the boundary terms, which could remove the singularities and satisfy a conformal invariance theory. Similarly, the quantum fields and clouds are regarded as ‘4D relativistic branes’ embedded in vacuum energy of a field strength reliant on the background curvature due to gravity. A visualization of the evolution of the 4D relativistic cloud-worlds over the conformal space-time of the 4D bulk is presented.

Phase transitions- both in the classical and in the quantum version- are the perfect playground for appreciating universality at work. Indeed, the fine details become unimportant and a classification in very few universality classes is possible. Very recently, a striking deviation from this picture has been discovered: some antiferromagnetic spin chains with competing interactions show a different set of phase transitions depending on the parity of number of spins in the chain. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the same behavior also characterizes the most simple quantum spin chain: the Ising model in a transverse field. By means of an exact solution based on a Wigner-Jordan transformation, we show that a first order quantum phase transition appears at zero applied field in the odd spin case, while it is not present in the even case. A hint of a possible physical interpretation is given by the combination of two fact: at the point of the phase transition, the degeneracy of the ground state in the even and the odd case substantially differ, being respectively 2 and 2N, with N the number of spins; the spin of the most favorable kink states changes at that point.

An explanation of aerodynamic lift still is under controversial discussion as can be seen, for example, in a recent published article in Scientific American [1]. In contrast to an approach via integral conservation laws we here review an approach via the classical Kutta-Condition and its relation to boundary layer theory. Thereby we summarize known results for viscous correction to the lift coefficient for thin aerodynamic profiles and try to remember the work on triple-deck or higher order Boundary Layer theory, its connection to interactive boundary layer theory, viscous/inviscid coupling as implemented to well-known engineering code Xfoil. Finally we compare its findings to simple 2D numerical solution of full Navier Stokes equations (CFD)models. As a conclusion, a clearer definition of terms like understanding and explanation applied to the phenomenon of aerodynamic lift will be given.

The paper describes problems with the current additive manufacturing chain before considering additive manufacturing as part of a modern manufacturing chain. Additive manufacturing can be used for near net-shape for finishing, for repair or for adding special features which cannot be made with traditional manufacturing. This paper describes how STEP-NC deals with these different scenarios in terms of accuracy, multi-material and variation of slice direction. The possibilities of multi-material objects also raises questions about the design of such objects and how these need to be handled by an advanced controller. The paper also describes non-planar slicing. Curved direction and cylindrical direction are shown to improve the accuracy of curved structure additive manufacturing. STEP-NC using boundary representation has better capability of depicting complex internal structures for additive processes. By using exact model of the final product represented by STEP-NC, the paper demonstrates improvements in data size reduction, slicing accuracy, and precise manipulation of internal structure.

In this paper, we introduce a simple yet powerful and working version of the molecular dynamics code using the Python 3.9 language. The code contents are published in the link given in the appendix 1. The structure and components of the program is given in detail using flowcharts and code snippets. The program consists of major features like velocity verlet integrator, thermostats, COM removal, input and output modules, virial, pressure, and other thermodynamic quantities estimation etc. The author believes that this program will be helpful to graduate students who perform research in molecular dynamics simulations who intend to write their own code instead of the sophisticated open source packages.

Knowledge about laminar-turbulent transition on operating multi-megawatt wind turbine blades needs sophisticated equipment like hot-films or microphone arrays. Contrarily thermographic pictures can easily be taken from the ground and temperature differences indicate different states of the boundary layer. The accuracy however, still is an open question, so that an aerodynamic glove known from experimental research on aero-planes was used to classify the boundary-layer state of a 2 megawatt wind turbine blade operating in the orthern part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. State-of-the-art equipment for measurering static surface pressure was used for monitoring the lift distribution. To distinguish laminar and turbulent parts of the boundary layer (suction side only) 48 microphones were applied together with ground-based thermographic cameras from two teams. Additionally, an optical camera mounted on the hub was used to survey vibrations. During start-up (from 0 to 9 rpm) extended, but irregularly shaped regions of a laminar boundary layer were observed which had the same extension measured both with microphones and Thermography. When an approximately constant rotor rotation (9 rpm corresponding to approximately 6 m/s wind-speed) was achieved, a flow transition was visible at the expected position of 40 % chord length on the rotor blade, which was fouled with dense turbulent wedges and an almost complete turbulent state on the glove was detected. In all observations, quantitative determination of the flow transition positions from thermography and microphones agree well within their accuracy.

The behavior of convective boundary conditions is studied to delineate their role in heat and mass relegation in the presence of radiation, chemical reaction, and hydromagnetic forces in three-dimensional Powell-Eyring nanofluids. Implications concerning non-Fourier’s heat flux and non-Fick’s mass flux with respect to temperature nanoparticle concentration were examined to discuss the graphical attributes of the principal parameters. An efficient optimal homotopy analysis method is used to solve the transformed partial differential equations. Tables and graphs are physically interpreted for significant parameters

Since the introduction of Cross-laminated Timber (CLT) in Austria in the early 1990s, the adoption of this 90°-crosswise-laminated product has seen exponential growth worldwide. Compared to traditional laminated timber products (e.g. glulam), CLT provides improved dimensional stability, but with reduced out-of-plane bending stiffness. To improve the bending stiffness, while maintaining relative dimensional stability, a modified orientation of the inner layers in a diagonal direction can be used. This novel product is Diagonal-Cross-laminated Timber (DCLT), a composite timber product, consisting of inner layers which are rotated at different angle-ply orientations between 0 and 90 degrees to the outer layers. To properly model the out-of-plane bending behavior of the DCLT, analytical models and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) were used and the results were validated by third-point bending tests performed on DCLT panels with angle-ply orientations of 10°, 20°, 40°, 70°, and a conventional CLT 90° panel. The results indicate that DCLT panels with angle-ply cross-layers have a structural advantage in out-of-plane bending over traditional CLT (90°) panels. The development of DCLT and its introduction to the industry could enable the use of lower-quality timber that would not otherwise satisfy structural requirements for CLT.

In cross-country skiing the time difference between a race winner and the person coming second is typically very small. Since much of the energy is spent on overcoming resistive forces, a relatively small reduction of these can have a significant impact on the results. The resistive forces come partly from the friction in the tribological interface, between the ski and the snow, and as with many tribological applications the characterisation of its origin, plays an important role in determining the frictional properties. Also in cross-country ski friction, there are several scales impacting the frictional performance, with the major contributors being the ski-camber profile and ski-base structure. Macro-scale measurements of the ski's camber profile under load, are often used to determine how adequate the ski is for a specific condition. The characteristic properties usually obtained are, the force required to collapse the ski to a certain camber height, the topography of the kick-wax zone, and by simple means a determined lengths of the frictional interface, i.e., the apparent contact length. To this date, there are some mathematical models, but there is no robust way of determining the macro-scale contact properties between a cross-country ski and a counter surface using simulations. In the present paper an Artificial neural networks (ANN) is trained to predict the ski-camber profile for various loads placed at different positions, and a well established deterministic approach is used to simulate the contact between the ANN-predicted ski-camber profile and a linearly elastic body with a flat surface, representing the snow. The results suggest that this method is feasible for the determination of the apparent contact characteristics of different skis. Moreover, we show that the apparent contact area does not linearly depend on the load, and that the elastic properties of the counter surface also has a large impact on the apparent contact area and the average apparent contact pressure.

We formulate a more straightforward, symmetry-based techniques in manually computing the determinant of any n×n matrix by revisiting Dodgson’s condensation method and strategically applying elementary row operations and the definition and properties of determinants. The result yields a more simplified mnemonical algorithm than the usual reduction by elementary row operations and co-factor expansion and with minimal terminal divisions performed compared to Dodgson’s internal divisions.

This article presents the results of a cross-disciplinary applied study exploring investors’ protections in the context of distributed ledger technology (DLT) smart contracts. Fusing legal, business, and technical perspectives, we developed a framework for protection from non-commercial risks for stablecoins, taking advantage of DLT and AI. A key concept we propose is the monitoring of disinformation and fake news to prevent malicious parties from abusing our solution. Based on the similarities between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins, we propose scaling up our results to all future internet investments performed without face-to-face contact between the investor and the company.

The danger is still very large from cross site scripting attacks. When designing web applications We must follow as much as we can prevention rules and don’t leave any loophole to our programs. Experience is a great factor for programmers to know these attacks and for a trainee programmer is a difficult task to spot all the weak points. In this article we present a tutorial on launching an XSS attack and also we propose simple solutions.

Sentinel-1 (S1) extra-wide (EW) swath data in cross-polarization (horizontal-vertical, HV or vertical-horizontal, VH) are strongly affected by the scalloping effect and thermal noise, particularly over areas with weak backscattered signals, such as sea surfaces. Although noise vectors in both the azimuth and range directions are provided in the standard S1 EW data for subtraction, the residual thermal noise still significantly affects sea ice detection by the EW data. In this paper, we improve the denoising method developed in previous studies to remove the additive noise for the S1 EW data in cross-polarization. Furthermore, we propose a new method for eliminating the residual noise (i.e. multiplicative noise) at the sub-swath boundaries of the EW data, which cannot be well processed by simply subtracting the reconstructed 2-D noise field. The proposed method of removing both the additive and multiplicative noise was applied to EW HV-polarized images processed using different Instrument Processing Facility (IPF) versions. The results suggest that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the quality of EW HV-polarized images under various sea ice conditions and sea states in marginal ice zone (MIZ) of the Arctic. This is of great support for the utilization of cross-polarization SAR images in wide swaths for intensive sea ice monitoring in polar regions.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an alphavirus that causes febrile illness punctuated by severe polyarthralgia. After the emergence of CHIKV in the Western Hemisphere, multiple reports of congenital infections were published that documented neurological complications, cardiac defects, respiratory distress, and miscarriage. The Western Hemisphere is endemic to several alphaviruses and whether antigenic cross-reactivity can impact the course of infection has not been explored. Recent advances in biomedical engineering have produced cell co-culture models that replicate the cellular interface at the maternal fetal axis. We employed a trans-well assay to determine if cross-reactive antibodies affected the movement and replication of CHIKV across placental cells and into an embryoid body. The data show that antibodies to Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) significantly reduced CHIKV viral load in embryoid bodies. The data highlight that viral pathogenesis can be cell-specific and that exploiting antigenic cross-reactivity could be an avenue for reducing the impact of congenital CHIKV infections.

Effects of oxygen content on microstructure and creep property of FGH96 superalloy were investigated. When oxygen content increased from 135ppm to 341ppm, prior particle boundary (PPB) rose from degree 2 to degree 3, and the size of γ′ phase on PPB enlarged from 1.07μm to 1.27μm, and MC carbide size grew from 77.4nm to 104.0nm. Meanwhile, the steady creep rate accelerated form 4.34×10-3 h-1 to 1.87×10-2 h-1, and the creep rupture life shortened from 176h to 94h, and the creep rupture mode transferred from intergranular and transgranular mixed fracture to along PPB fracture. During creep, the micro-twins formation and gliding will be restrained by ∑3 boundaries. FGH96 superalloy with higher oxygen content contains less ∑3 boundaries and its micro-twins cross slipped instead of single direction slip in lower oxygen content superalloy. Consequently, specimen with higher oxygen content creeped faster and raptured earlier.

Monge-Ampere equations have important research significance in many fields such as geometry, convex geometry and mathematical physics. In this paper, under some superlinear and sublinear conditions, the existence of nontrivial solutions for a system arising from Monge-Ampere equations with two parameters is investigated based on Guo-Krasnosel'skii fixed point theorem. In the end, two examples are given to illustrate our main results.

The flow around thick airfoils at low Reynolds numbers and the possibility of using energy methods to control flowfield, increase lift and reduce drag are considered. For calculations, a series of propulsion airfoils is used, obtained by a combination of solving the inverse problem of aerodynamics and stochastic methods of global optimization. The calculations take into account the transition from the laminar flow regime to the turbulent one, which has a significant effect on the lift and airfoil drag. The applicability of various turbulence models for airfoil modelling at low Reynolds numbers is discussed. The results of numerical simulation make it possible to determine the dependence of the lift coefficient on the angle of attack and the optimal flow rate of air taken from the airfoil surface for each angle of attack. The results of numerical simulation are compared with the data of a physical experiment, and conclusions are drawn about the accuracy of various turbulence models.

As an important means of controlling the spread of cities, large-scale urban green belts have been widely used in the planning and construction of green space systems in various mega-size cities around the world. In previous studies, there has been more research on the overall isolation effect of green belts, while there has been less research on changes in their internal structure. There have been more perspectives on the land-use change (LUC) caused by urban expansion, and less systematic research on the dual driving factors of LUC. In this paper, we constructed a multi-dimensional index system to measure the "contraction-expansion" mechanism of land use in the overlapping vegetation areas of large green belts under the dual influence of urban expansion and urban greening, from the perspectives of quantity, space, and connectivity during different construction periods. Taking the boundary of two green belts in Beijing as an example, we hope to provide scientific support for the construction and ecological protection of Beijing's green belts.

Nonparametric density estimation for nonnegative data is considered in a situation where a random sample is not directly available but the data are instead observed from the length-biased sampling. Due to the boundary bias problem of the location-scale kernel, the approach in this paper is an application of asymmetric kernel. Two nonparametric density estimators are proposed. The mean integrated squared error, strong consistency, and asymptotic normality of the estimators are investigated. Some simulations illustrate the finite sample performance of the estimators.

We study the existence of positive solutions for a system of Hadamard fractional differential equations on an infinite interval with nonnegative nonlinearities, subject to coupled nonlocal boundary conditions which contain Hadamard fractional derivatives and Riemann-Stieltjes integrals. In the proof of the main results, we use the Guo-Krasnosel'skii fixed point theorem and the Leggett-Williams fixed point theorem.

This paper proposes a data-driven approach to the calculation of ship overtaking boundary conditions in narrow channels based on ship overtaking characteristics by the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. First, we collect the ship tracking process data in a narrow channel by processing the original AIS data, followed by a normality test and correlation analysis, and finally, the boundary conditions are obtained using a weighted K-means clustering algorithm. to identify the relevant data. We applied the proposed approach to estimate the overtaking boundary conditions of ships in the straight channel section of Shanghai South Passage. The method yields boundary conditions that significantly reduce collision risk when a ship engages in pursuit behavior in narrow waterways, providing a scientific basis for the overtaking of Marine Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) in autonomous navigation within such environments, further promoting the automation level of USVs and autonomous vessels.

The perception in pair trading is to recognize two stocks that move together, and their prices will converge to a mean value in future. However, finding the mean-reverted point at which the value of the pair will converge, and optimal boundaries of the trade is not easy. As uncertainty and model misspecifications may lead to losses. To cater for the problems, this study employs the novel entropic approach that utilizes entropy as penalty function for the misspecification of the model. The use of entropy as a measure of risk in pair trading is a nascent idea and this study utilizes daily data for 64 companies listed on PSX for the years 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively to compute the returns based on the entropic approach. These companies cover the major sectors including Cement, Chemical, Automobile Assembler, Food and Personal Care Products, Oil and Gas Marketing Companies, Oil and Gas Exploration Companies Ltd, Power Generation and Distribution, Refinery and Pharmaceuticals. The returns to these stocks are then evaluated and compared with the Buy and Hold strategy. The results show positive and significant returns from pair trading using an entropic approach.

A century-old scientific conundrum is solved in this paper. The Prandtl mixing length modelled plane boundary turbulent flow is described by: $\frac{du^+}{d{y^+} }+\kappa^2{y^+} ^2\left( \frac{du^+}{d{y^+} }\right)^2=1$, together with boundary condition $ {y^+} =0:\, u^+=0$. Only an approximate solution to this nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE) has been sought so far, however, the exact solution to this ODE has not been obtained. By introducing a transformation, $2\kappa y^+=\sinh \xi$, I successfully find the exact solution of the ODE as follows: $u^+=\frac{1}{\kappa}\ln(2\kappa {y^+} +\sqrt{1+4\kappa^2{y^+} ^2})-\frac{2{y^+} }{1+\sqrt{1+4\kappa^2{y^+} ^2}}$.

In this paper, we consider with a class of system of differential equations whose argument transforms are involution. In this an initial value problem for a differential equation with involution is reduced to an initial value problem for a higher order ordinary differential equation. Than either two initial conditions are necessary for a solution, the equation is then reduced to a boundary value problem for a higher order ODE.

A method of solution to solve the compressible unsteady 3D Navier-Stokes Equations in cylindrical co-ordinates coupled to the continuity equation in cylindrical coordinates is presented in terms of an additive solution of the three principle directions in the radial, azimuthal and z directions of flow. A dimensionless parameter is introduced whereby in the large limit case a method of solution is sought for in the boundary layer of the tube. A reduction to a single partial differential equation is possible and integral calculus methods are applied for the case of a body force directed to the centre of the tube to obtain an integral form of the Hunter-Saxton equation. Also an extension for a more general body force is shown where in addition there is a rotational force applied.

Interface between matrix/coating or coating/coating in fact represents a very complicate thin interfacial layer. So interface model is necessary to avoid the difficulty on considering such a complicate thin layer in analysis. Classic interface model and cohesive model have been widely used in stress analysis of coating materials, though they cannot represent the effect of very thin interfacial layer accurately. A complete interface model has been deduced from the equivalent constitutive of interfacial layer in this paper. It is found that both classic interface model and cohesive model sometimes cannot give correct analysis results, while the complete interface model can always give a correct result. Moreover, the stress parallel to interface within the interfacial layer can also be analyzed by the new model. Besides, this model can also be used to describe the equivalent properties of interfacial layer, thereby, can provide a quantitative characterizing method for interfacial layer itself.

Friction, one of the oldest technologies harnessed by humanity, has thus far eluded a theoretical model capable of predicting kinetic friction forces across a broad range of sliding velocities. This study employs the first principle of thermodynamics to delve into sliding friction. For the first time, a general expression for the friction force has been derived, revealing that the damping of sliding friction is inversely proportional to the relative sliding velocity between the two interfaces in motion, contrary to the assumption in traditional models that it is directly proportional to the relative velocity. To simplify the general result, the concept of a friction boundary layer is introduced. An approximate expression is found to reveal the mechanism for reducing friction, which involves increasing the sliding velocity while decreasing the vibration velocity of the object perpendicular to the sliding interface.

The amount of heat transfer in gas turbine blades depends on cooling techniques and various flow phenomena. The effect of eddies, passing shock waves and free flow turbulence has been noticed by many researchers since the beginning. The focus of the upcoming work is on the numerical investigation of the effects of turbulence intensity and Reynolds number on the amount of heat transfer from the blade surface with internal cooling. The SST model has been used to solve this problem, which has been compared with the experimental work to ensure the correctness of the numerical simulation. In this regard, by changing the free flow turbulence intensity with values of 1, 5, 7, and 10% and at three Reynolds numbers of 150,000, 350,000, and 750,000, the changes in heat transfer coefficients have been investigated. The results show that with the increase of the turbulence intensity at different Reynolds numbers, due to the positive effect of the flow turbulence on the suppression of separation and promotion of the boundary layer transition, the blade surface heat transferincreases and this increase is more evident at higher Reynolds numbers.

In this study, we investigate the existence of positive solutions within a system of Riemann-Liouville fractional differential equations that incorporate the (r1,r2,r3)-Laplacian operator while being subject to three-point boundary conditions. These equations incorporate various fractional derivatives and are influenced by parameters represented as (ψ1,ψ2,ψ3). Our approach involves employing techniques such as cone expansion and compression of the functional type, in conjunction with the Leggett-Williams fixed point theorem, to establish the existence of positive solutions. To emphasize the practical significance of our findings in the realm of fractional differential equations, we provide two illustrative examples.

The influence of small-scale processes at the ocean-atmosphere boundary layer such as spray and foam on the surface waves prediction is studied. Estimates of the effect of including the exact number of specific fragmentation "parachute" type in the spray on the resulting drag coefficient is shown. For the estimates, the numerical simulations within WAVEWATCH III wave model are performed. The parameterizations of wind input were tested within WAVEWATCH III wave model: default ST4 and ST6 parameterizations and the ST1 and ST6 parameterizations used together with the implemented drag coefficient parameterization. The proposed parameterization takes into account the presence of foam and spay. The obtained results are compared with the NDBC buoys data. The importance of small-scale processes for waves at hurricane winds prediction and the prospects for their inclusion in modern numerical wave models is shown.

In this paper, the authors consider the influence of the type of power supply and the internal parameters of the DC-DC converter on the stability of the system at constant power load. The stability of the system under consideration is important in the design and development of the power supply system for an autonomous consumer. Such a typical system can be a DC microgrid. In the work, when analyzing the stability of the system, the power source is not considered an ideal voltage source, but the active-inductive nature of the voltage source is taken into account, which is equivalent to using a synchronous machine with permanent magnets. The Rauss-Hurwitz algebraic criterion was used as a criterion for analyzing the stability of the system. This will make it possible to build and analyze the areas and boundaries of the system's stability. As a result, the areas and boundaries of the stability of the system were presented. The general trend towards the behavior of the zone of instability of the system was given. At the same time, dependences describing the boundaries of instability are presented, which are combinations of parameters of the DC-DC converter, beyond which the system becomes unstable. The presented definitions of the instability limits can be used as a corrective device of the control system to ensure the stability of the system in the upper limits of the power consumption.

The gauge field equation for fluid mechanics established in Part 1 is developed into a first-order scattering theory in the simplified case of a two-dimensional incompressible flow over a flat plate. This is used to present a model for the origin of Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) waves based on scattering between fluid particles. As a result, analytical formulae for the maximum amplification factor and the transition point from laminar to turbulent flow in the boundary layer are obtained. The mathematical transformations from the stationary field equations in Part 1 to a scattering theory with time evolution along the flow axis using Wick rotation are elaborated in detail.

Forests across the world stand at the crossroad with climate and land use changes shaping their future. Despite the demonstration of political will and global efforts, forest loss, fragmentation and land degradation continue unabated. No clear evidence exists that these initiatives are working. Why are policies designed to halt deforestation and increase restoration of forest landscapes failing? A key reason for this apparent ineffectiveness lies in the failure to recognize the agency of the stakeholders involved and the adaptive capacities of the systems we seek to steer. Landscapes do not happen. We make them. They are the result of the sum of individual actions and decisions made by all stakeholders, and the interactions between these and biophysical processes. Likewise, forest transitions are not ecological, but social and behavioral. They are a product of the way humans manage ecosystems. Decision-makers need to integrate better representations of people’s agency in their mental models. We suggest possible solution pathways to overcome this key current barrier. These involve eliciting mental models behind policy decision, changing perspectives to better understand divergent points of view and refining strategies through explicit theories of change. Games designed to represent the constraints and opportunities that exist in the landscapes can help decision makers in these task.

Structural vibration induced by dynamic load or natural vibration is a nonnegligible factor in failure analysis. Based on vibrating boundary condition, impact resistance of shape memory alloy reinforced composites is investigated. In this investigation, modified Hashin’s failure criterion, Brinson’s model and visco-hyperelastic model are implemented into the numerical model to charactering the mechanical behavior of glass fiber/epoxy resin laminates, SMAs and interphase, respectively. First, fixed boundary condition is maintained in simulation to verify the accuracy of material parameters and procedures by comparing with experimental data. Then, a series of vibrating boundaries with different frequencies and amplitudes are applied during the simulation process to reveals the effect on impact resistances. The statistics of absorbed energy and contact force indicate that impact resistance of the composite under high frequency and large amplitude is lower than that under low frequency and small amplitude, and summarized by a mathematical expression.

Recent advancements in machine learning have ushered in innovative techniques for augmenting datasets, particularly through contrastive learning in the computer vision domain. This study pioneers the application of contrastive learning for sentiment analysis, introducing a novel approach termed EmoConLearn. By fine-tuning contrastive learning embeddings, EmoConLearn significantly surpasses BERT-based embeddings in sentiment analysis accuracy, as evidenced by our evaluations on the DynaSent dataset. This research further delves into the efficacy of EmoConLearn across various domain-specific datasets, highlighting its versatility. Additionally, we investigate upsampling strategies to mitigate class imbalance, further enhancing EmoConLearn's performance in sentiment analysis benchmarks.

Background: Given the extensive translation of the Prolapse Quality of Life Questionnaire (P-QoL) into many languages, it is imperative to develop an Arabic version to facilitate study on Pelvic organ health within the Arabian culture. Objective: To investigate, cross culturally adapt and validate Arabic version of the P-QoL. Study Design: Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric testing. Methods: A total of 90 participants were included in the study. This cross-sectional study went through two phases; during phase I, the P-QoL was translated and adapted from English into Arabic. The Arabic version was psychometrically validated during phase II using the test-retest reliability internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, convergent construct validity (CC) among the four study tools using Spearman’s coefficient (r) and discriminative validity using Mann-Whitney test to find differences between the means of the two samples. Results: A satisfactory level of semantic, conceptual, idiomatic, and content comparability was reached in the cross-cultural adaptation of the Arabic version of the P-QoL questionnaire. The internal consistency was high in terms of psychometric validation, with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.971 for the P-QoL questionnaire. The test-retest results showed a high reliability with interclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of P-QoL = 0.987. The convergent construct validity was highly accepted (moderately strong), reflecting a positive correlation between the Arabic version of the P-QoL and the Australian Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Questionnaire (APFD) r = 0.68 (p < 0.001). Similarly, a significant convergent validity of P-QoL Arabic version and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) r = 0.47 (p < 0.001) was found, as well as the correlation between the APFD and the VAS r = 0.46 (p < 0.001). However, there were no significant correlation between the SF-12, the P-QoL, the APFD, and the VAS. Conclusion: Based on a significant correlation between the Arabic APFD and the VAS, the results reveal good reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity. It is recommended that Arabic-speaking females with pelvic organ prolapse use the Arabic version of the P-QoL. More research is needed to assess the responsiveness of the P-QoL.

Background: Abdominal wall hernias are a common condition that is seen in daily general surgery patients. However, still more researches are needed to be conducted regarding hernias. The aim of this study is to see the prevalence of hernias among patients admitted to the Department of Surgery of a tertiary care center. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed among patients who admitted to the department of surgery in a tertiary care center between 1 August 2023 and 20 September 2023. All patients data were extracted to an excel sheet. Results: We had 760 patients who visited in this period. Only 272 patients (27.9 %) were diagnosed with hernias. We found 52.6 % of patients were male and 47.4 % of patients were female. The age between 46- 60 years old was the most to have hernias (97 patients). Inguinal hernias were the common among other types. Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, COPD, and hydrocele were found in 10.7 % of all patients. Conclusion: The prevalence of hernias in this study was nearly to other studies that conducted in the same conditions. Early diagnosis and patient’s education are the corner stone to prevent morbidities and mortalities.

In the recent decades, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have garnered widespread public attention due to their persistence in the environment and detrimental effects on the health of living organisms, spurring the generation of several transcriptome-centered investigations to understand the biological basis of their mechanism. In this study, we collected 2144 publicly available samples from 7 distinct animal species to examine the molecular responses to PFAS exposure and to determine if there are conserved responses. Our comparative transcriptional analysis revealed that exposure to PFAS is conserved across different tissues, molecules and species. We identified and reported several genes exhibiting consistent and evolutionarily conserved transcriptional response to PFAS, such as ESR1, HADHA and ID1, as well as several pathways including lipid metabolism, immune response and hormone pathways. This study provides the first evidence that distinct PFAS molecules induce comparable transcriptional changes and affect the same metabolic processes across inter-species borders. Our findings have significant implications for understanding the impact of PFAS exposure on living organisms and the environment. We believe that this study offers a novel perspective on the molecular responses to PFAS exposure and provides a foundation for future research into developing strategies for mitigating the detrimental effects of these substances in the ecosystem.

Registry and survey data gave an opportunity to compare possible roles of social attitudes and social values in control and limit the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed social values and time series of daily R0 (reproduction rate) estimates for 27 European countries. Embedded and affective autonomy are significantly negatively associated (p-Value<0.05) with controlled R0. It could mean that well interconnected societies with high attention to maximize utilities are more likely to couple with COVID-19. Hierarchy is significantly positively associated (p-Value<0.05) with controlled R0. Thus, hierarchical structures could inhibits control of COVID-19. The results emphasize the need to pay more attention to social values context in evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation strategies internationally.

There is tremendous interest, in the economic literature, for the determinants of firms’ capital structure decisions. A rich body of empirical works now exists that purports to identify firm- and country-level factors affecting firms’ financing patterns. In addition, more recently, a new stream of studies has emerged that investigates cross-regional variation in small firms’ capital structure. While small firms’ leverage does seem to vary across regions, at least in countries where significant regional differences in economic and financial development and in the quality of institutions exist, not much yet is known about variation in debt maturity, in debt in relation to equity, and between different types of small firms. The present paper aims to fill this gap through an empirical analysis of cross-regional variation in the capital structure of a sample of about 30,000 Italian small firms over a 13-year period, including the aftermath of the credit crunch that followed the 2007-8 global financial crisis. The findings confirm the view that small firms in underdeveloped regions are more financially constrained, but also amend some of the results shown in the literature, in particular by showing how small firms in Italy’s Southern regions have higher levels of equity and fixed assets than small firms in other regions.

Quasi-interpolation is a powerful tool for approximating functions using radial basis functions (RBFs) such as Gaussian kernels. This avoids solving large systems of equations as in RBF interpolation. However, quasi-interpolation with Gaussian kernels on compact intervals can have significant errors near the boundaries. This paper proposes a quasi-interpolation method with Gaussian kernels using Chebyshev points and boundary corrections to improve the approximation near the boundaries. The boundary corrections use a linear approximation of the function beyond the interval to estimate the truncation error and add correction terms. Numerical studies on test functions show that the proposed method reduces errors significantly near boundaries compared to quasi-interpolation without corrections, for both equally spaced and Chebyshev points. The convergence and accuracy with the boundary corrections are generally better with Chebyshev points compared to equally spaced points. The proposed method provides an efficient way to perform quasi-interpolation on compact intervals while controlling the boundary errors.

Rational delineation of urban–rural boundaries is a foundational prerequisite for holistic urban and rural development planning and rational resource allocation. However, the results of division of urban–rural boundaries extracted using a single data source are non-comprehensive. To address this problem, the present study proposes a method for using multiple sources such as population data, nighttime light data, land use, and points of interest (POI) data to extract urban–rural boundaries. Considering Guizhou Province for a case study, we here present a two-step method for identifying urban–rural boundaries. First, the random forest model was combined with the dasymetric mapping method to obtain the population spatialization data with a 30-m resolution in the studied province. Second, using the breaking point method, we extracted the urban–rural boundary for Guizhou Province in 2020 based on the spatialized population. This method fully integrated the benefits of various data and judiciously extracted the boundaries of the main urban areas and small- and medium-sized towns of each city in the study province at the same spatial scale. The stratified random sampling method revealed that the average overall accuracy was 88.05%. The method proposed has certain universality and application value and allows identifying the urban–rural boundaries more accurately and practically.

Metachrony is defined as coordinated asynchronous movement throughout multiple appendages, such as the cilia of cells and swimmerets of crustaceans. We investigate the process of metachronal propulsion, notably used by species of crustaceans and microscopic cells to move through fluid. A rigid crustacean model with paddles moving in symmetric strokes was created to simulate metachronal movement. Coupled with the surrounding fluid domain, we employ the immersed boundary method to analyze fluid-structure interactions. To explore the effect of nonlinear morphology on the efficiency of metachronal propulsion, we generate and simulate a range of crustacean body shapes, from upward curves to downwards curves. We found that the highest propulsion velocity is achieved when the crustacean model morphology follows a downwards curve, specifically a parabola of leading coefficient k=−0.4. This curved morphology results in 4.5% higher velocity compared to the linear model. As k deviates from −0.4, the propulsion velocity decreases with increasing magnitude, forming a concave downward trend. The impact of body shape on propulsion velocity is shown by how the optimal velocity with k=−0.4 is 71.5% larger than the velocity at k=1. Overall, this study suggests that morphology has a significant impact on metachronal propulsion.

The studies of laminar unsteady boundary layer flows is crucial for understanding laminar-turbulence transition and origins of turbulence. However, the task of finding its solutions poses a significant challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel approach by introducing a similar transformation to convert the 2D unsteady laminar boundary layer equations into a single partial differential equation. By applying this transformation, we are able to obtain the "exact" similarity solutions for the 2D unsteady laminar boundary layer equations, specifically for the case of flat plate boundary flow. Notably, this is the first time that such an exact solution has been obtained. Application of this exact solution is being used to solve Stokes' first problem in 2D boundary layer. Perspectives on the transition fron Rayleigh solution to Blasius solution is provided.

Oxide additive-free α- ⇀ β-Si3N4 phase transformation of a high-purity commercial α-Si3N4 powder was investigated at 1600 to 1900 ℃ under nitrogen pressure of 980 kPa. The XRD analysis revealed that the α- ⇀ β-Si3N4 phase transformation proceeded mainly at 1900 ℃, and was completed by the extensive 1900 ℃-heat treatment for 20 h. This phase transformation temperature was 33 ℃ lower than the theoretical α-Si3N4 dissociation temperature and confirmed as completely different from that often discussed for the liquid phase sintering of α-Si3N4 powder by direct comparison with the phase transformation behavior of a reference powder, α-Si3N4 powder doped with 1 mol% Y2O3. The unique α- ⇀ β-Si3N4 phase transformation was further studied by a set of characterization techniques including elemental analysis, HAADF-STEM and STEM-EDS analyses. The results strongly suggested that the oxide additive-free α- ⇀ β-Si3N4 phase transformation was governed by the for-mation of metastable solid solution between α-Si3N4 and impurity oxygen of approximately 0.6 wt%, which promoted the dissociation below the theoretical α-Si3N4 dissociation temperature to afford thermodynamically favorable β-Si3N4. Along with the β-Si3N4 formation, the impurity oxygen was concentrated at the Si3N4 crystal grain boundaries and subsequently released from the sample via the grain boundary diffusion.

Barrier coverage is a fundamental application in wireless sensor networks, which is widely used to protect a region through intruder detection for smart city. In this paper, we study a new branch of barrier coverage, named warning barrier coverage (WBC). Different from the classic barrier coverage, WBC has the inverse protect direction, which protects unexpected visitors by warning them away from the region enclosed by sensor barriers. The WBC holds a promising prospect in many danger keep out applications for smart city. For example, a WBC can enclose the debris area in the sea and alarm any approaching ships in order to avoid their damaging propellers. One special feature of WBC is that the target region is usually dangerous and its boundary is previously unknown. Hence, the scattered mobile nodes need to detect the boundary and form the barrier coverage themselves. It is challenging to form these distributed sensor nodes into a barrier because a node can sense only the local information and there is no global information of the unknown region or other nodes. To this end, we propose a novel solution AutoBar for mobile sensor nodes to automatically form a WBC for smart city. To pursue the high coverage quality, we theoretically derive the optimal distribution pattern of sensor nodes using convex theory. Based on the analysis, we design a fully distributed algorithm that enables nodes to collaboratively move towards the optimal distribution pattern. In addition, AutoBar is able to reorganize the barrier even any node is broken. To validate the feasibility of AutoBar, we develop the prototype of the specialized mobile node, which consists of two kinds of sensors: one for boundary detection and another for visitor detection. Based on the prototype, we conduct extensive real trace driven simulations in various smart city scenarios. Performance results demonstrate that AutoBar outperforms the existing barrier coverage strategies in terms of coverage quality, formation duration, and communication overhead.

Traditional numerical techniques such as sliding mesh, dynamic grid mesh, and others, have many limitations in dealing with flow simulation with large-scale movement of solid boundaries; which is the case for complex-shaped hydraulic turbomachinery such as propellers, pumps and turbines. The immersed boundary (IB) method provides a new approach to solve the above limitations. Therefore, this study proposes an sharp-interface IB method based on the level-set function that is suitable for simulating the flow through turbomachinery with complex geometries. This method is applied to actual three-dimensional numerical simulations of high-Reynolds number propellers using an in-house computational fluid dynamics solver. The results show that the proposed method can provide comparatively accurate predictions of unsteady load coefficients within the propeller flow passage, and capture the correct propeller wake characteristics as well as the interaction between the propeller wake and free surface. This study aims at providing a theoretical basis and engineering reference for the application of the IB method in engineering numerical simulations.

With permafrost degenerating caused by climate change, water accumulation increases in permafrost regions during last decades. Water accumulation will deteriorate existing status of engineering in cold regions. Water accumulation can make a thermal effect on permafrost under construction, even result in failure of the subgrade. Moreover, the thermal effect is related to water temperature. However, temperature variation of water accumulation is complex, and its influence factors include air temperature, environment, scope of water accumulation and so on. In order to make analysis of the damage mechanism of water accumulation on permafrost, it is necessary to explore the internal temperature change of water accumulation. This paper proposes a review about temperature calculation method of water accumulation in cold environment. The thermal calculation method between air and water boundary of water accumulation is summarized. Water temperature change of water accumulation with various type is analyzed. The thermal calculation considering phase transformation in water accumulation is discussed, and heat transfer from the bottom of water accumulation to the underlying soil is further studied. Finally, the key factors which are advantageous to make research about the thermal effect of water accumulation in permafrost is proposed to optimize calculation method.

This study aimed to establish and verify the validity of an acoustic simulation method during sustained phonation of the Japanese vowels /i/ and /u/. The study participants were six healthy adults. First, vocal tract models were constructed based on computed tomography (CT) data, such as the range from the frontal sinus to the glottis, during sustained phonation of /i/ and /u/. Next, cylindrical shapes virtually extended by 12 cm were added to the vocal tract models to imitate the trachea between the tracheal bifurcation and lower part of the glottis. The Kirchhoff–Helmholtz integral equation was formulated as the wave equation for sound propagation, and the boundary element method was used for discretization. As a result, the relative discrimination thresholds of the vowel formant frequencies for /i/ and /u/ against actual voice were 1.1%–10.2% and 0.4%–9.3% for the first formant and 3.9%–7.5% and 5.0%–12.5% for second formant, respectively. In the vocal tract model with nasal coupling, a pole–zero pair was observed at around 500 Hz, and for both /i/ and /u/, a pole–zero pair was observed at around 1000 Hz regardless of the presence or absence of nasal coupling. These findings demonstrated that /i/ and /u/ could be simulated with high validity in a vocal tract model constructed from CT data obtained during sustained phonation using the boundary element method.

The magnetic polarization tensor has a promising capability of determining the geometry and material properties of metallic samples. In this paper, a novel computation method is proposed to estimate the magnetic polarization tensors for the metallic samples using the boundary element method. In this method, the metallic sample is placed in a uniformly distributed magnetic field. Based on assumptions that the excitation frequency and/or the conductivity of the sample is very high, the metallic sample is regarded as a perfect electrical conductor (PEC). Therefore, the scattered field at a certain distance can be simulated. By utilising the boundary element method, the magnetic polarization tensor can be derived from the simulated scattered field. The theoretical calculation is presented and simulations and experiments have been carried out to validate the proposed method. The results from the simulation are matched with the analytical solution for the case of sphere samples. Moreover, there is a good agreement between the simulation results and the experimental results for the copper cylindrical samples.

In this paper, by using the variational method, a sufficient condition for the unique existence of the stationary solution of the reaction-diffusion ecosystem is obtained, which directly leads to the global asymptotic stability of the unique equilibrium point. Moreover, delayed feedback ecosystem with reaction-diffusion item is considered, and utilizing impulse control results in the globally exponential stability criterion of the delayed ecosystem. It is worth mentioning that the Neumann zero-boundary value that the infected and the susceptible people or animals should be controlled in the epidemic prevention area and not allowed to cross the border, which is a good simulation of the actual situation of epidemic prevention. And numerical examples illuminate the effectiveness of impulse control, which has a certain enlightening effect on the actual epidemic prevention work . That is, in the face of the epidemic situation, taking a certain frequency of positive and effective epidemic prevention measures is conducive to the stability and control of the epidemic situation. Particularly, the newly-obtained theorems quantifies this feasible step. Besides, utilizing Laplacian semigroup derives the $p$th moment stability criterion for the impulsive ecosystem.

The famous Toms effect (1948) consists of a substantial increase of the critical Reynolds number when a small amount of soluble polymer is introduced into water. The most noticeable influence of polymer additives is manifested in the boundary layer near solid surfaces. The goal of the present paper is a group analysis of the boundary layer equations in two mathematical models of the flow of aqueous polymer solutions: the second grade fluid (Rivlin and Ericksen, 1955) and the model derived by Pavlovskii (1971). The equations of the unsteady two-dimensional boundary layer in the Pavlovskii and Rivlin-Ericksen models are analyzed for the first time here. These equations have no definite type so that finding their exact solutions is very important in order to understand the mathematical nature of the above mentioned models. The problem of group classification with respect to the arbitrary function of the longitudinal coordinate and time present in the equations, which sets the pressure gradient of the external flow, arises. All functions for which an extension of the admitted Lie group occurs are found. The task includes the ratio of two characteristic length scales. One of them is the Prandtl scale, and another is defined as the square root of the normalized coefficient of relaxation viscosity (Frolovskaya and Pukhnachev, 2018) and does not depend on the characteristics of the motion. The paper contains a number of exact solutions in the Pavlovskii model including a solution describing the flow near a critical point. Among the solutions of the new model of the boundary layer, a special place is taken by the solution of the stationary problem of flow around a rectilinear plate. Within the framework of the Prandtl theory of the boundary layer, such a solution was constructed by Blasius (1908). As is well-known, this solution has a non-removable defect: the transverse velocity near the edge of the plate increases without bound. The introduction of a relaxation term into the model makes it possible to eliminate this singularity.

The three-axes Doppler sodar Latan-3 operated on an oceanographic stationary platform in the coastal zone of the Black Sea in June 2015. The platform is located 450 meters offshore from the southern coast of the Crimea Peninsula in the region of Katsiveli (44.39°N, 33.99°E). The water depth at the site is about 30 meters. The atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) typical for the mediterranean seas was observed when the wind is from the sea. The physical processes typical for the coastal mountain terrain was observed when the wind was from the shore. Complex measurements of the ABL parameters were performed using a sodar. Auxiliary measurements of the ABL parameters were performed using a temperature profiler and an ultrasonic thermometer-anemometer. Observations were made mostly during a fair weather with a pronounced diurnal course of meteorological parameters. Sodar data analysis revealed a strong wave activity in the ABL. Internal gravity waves with amplitudes of up to one hundred meters were regularly observed in a layered turbulence structure under stable conditions. Various forms of Kelvin-Helmholtz billows were observed at the interface between the sea breeze and the return flow aloft and in the low level jets.

In this article, we establish the existence of and then compare smallest eigenvalues for nabla fractional boundary value problems involving a fractional difference boundary condition, using the theory of u0-positive operators with respect to a cone in a Banach space.

Bioconvective flows have attracted attention in recent years due to actual and potential applications. In this paper, we consider a steady and laminar convective MHD flow of a nanofluid with heat, mass and microorganism transfer with a heat source/sink present. In addition, we assume there exists a first order chemical reaction. The governing partial differential equations (PDEs) are reduced to ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using the scaling group transformation and the associated boundary value problem is then solved. The influences of selected governing parameters on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, nanoparticle concentration, density of motile microorganisms, skin friction, heat transfer, mass transfer, and motile microorganism density rates are computed and discussed

We performed for the first time to our knowledge fully ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of additive tribochemistry in boundary lubrication conditions. We consider an organophosphourus additive that has been experimentally shown to reduce friction in steel-on-steel sliding contacts thanks to the tribologically-induced formation of an iron phosphide tribofilm. The simulations allow us to observe in real time the molecular dissociation at the sliding iron interface under pressure and to understand the mechanism of iron phosphide formation. We discuss the role played by the mechanical stress by comparing the activation times for molecular dissociation observed in the tribological simulations at different applied loads with that expected on the basis of the dissociation barrier.

Non-uniform grain boundary sliding can induce strain and rotation incompatibilities at perfectly planar interfaces. Explicit analytic expressions of stress and lattice rotation jumps are thus derived at a planar interface in the general framework of heterogeneous anisotropic thermo-elasticity with plasticity and grain boundary sliding. Both elastic fields are directly dependent on in-plane gradients of grain boundary sliding. It is also shown that grain boundary sliding is a mechanism that may relax incompatibility stresses of elastic, plastic and thermal origin although the latter are not resolved on the grain boundary plane. This relaxation may be a driving force for grain boundary sliding in addition to the traditionally considered local shears on the grain boundary plane. Moreover, the obtained analytic expressions are checked by different kinds of bicrystal shearing finite element simulations allowing grain boundary sliding and where a pinned line in the interface plane aims at representing the effect of a triple junction. A very good agreement is found between the analytic solutions and the finite element results. The performed simulations particularly emphasize the role of grain boundary sliding as a possible strong stress generator around the grain boundary close to the triple line because of the presence of pronounced gradients of sliding.

The microstructure evolution during the cold rolling and subsequent annealing of Alloy 800H was investigated. Two distinct rolling methods, unidirectional rolling and cross-rolling, were intro-duced. Results show that better ductility was observed in the unidirectional rolling than in cross-rolling, whilst a higher volume fraction of large deformed grains was observed in the cross-rolled plates than in the unidirectionally rolled plates. Recrystallization occurred faster in plates from unidirectional rolling than from cross-rolling.

Bismaleimide (BMI) is a high-performance thermosetting resin widely used in the aerospace, automotive, and mechanical and electronics industries due to its chemical and mechanical stability. It also has the capability of being used as an ink in polyjets used for 3D printing evident from thinner mellamide FTIR bands and faster curing rates as observed from TGA-DSC studies.

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is a highly curable disease (70-80%), even though long-term toxicities, drug resistance, and predicting clinical responses to therapy are major challenges in cHL treatment. To solve these problems, we characterized two cHL cell lines with acquired resistance to doxorubicin, KM-H2dx and HDLM-2dx (HRSdx), generated from KM-H2 and HDLM-2 cells, respectively. HRSdx cells developed cross-resistance to vinblastine, bendamustin, cisplatin, dacarbazine, gem-citabine, brentuximab vedotin (BV), and γ-radiation. Both HDLM-2 and HDLM-2dx cells had an intrinsic resistance to BV but not to the drug MMAE. HDLM-2dx acquired cross-resistance to caelyx. HRSdx cells had in common: decreased CD71, CD80, CD54, cyt-ROS, HLA-DR, DDR1, CD44; increased Bcl-2, CD58, COX2, CD26, CCR5, invasive capability; increased CCL5, TARC, PGE2, TGF-β, and capability to hijack monocytes. In HRSdx cells, less sensitive to DNA damage and oxidative stress, the efflux drug transporters MDR1 and MRP1 were not up-regulated, and doxorubicin accumulated in cytoplasm rather than in nucleus. Both autophagy inhibitor chloroquine and extracellular vesicles (EVs) release inhibitor GW4869 enhanced doxorubicin activity and counteracted doxorubicin resistance. In conclusion, this study identifies common modulated antigens in HRSdx cells, the associated cross-resistance patterns, and new potential therapeutic options to enhance doxorubicin activity and overcome resistance.

The need for cross-modal retrieval (CMR) among users is growing because of the swift advancements in computer vision and natural language processing. Promoting home operating systems is greatly aided by the openKylin home operating system. It is focused on enhancing the functionality of the operating system with safe and dependable operating technologies. Practical implications abound for integrating computer vision research into home operating systems. A multimodal retrieval approach based on openKylin is presented to improve the usability of text search graphs, audio, and video. The overview of pertinent domestic and international research is the main topic of this article. This technological advancement. It then offers details on the design, implementation procedure, and final implementation outcomes for demonstration. The works of natural operations show that this strategy has excellent accuracy and performance.

Aryl chlorides and bromides in the presence of NHC palladium hydroxo dimers of the type [{Pd(µ-OH)Cl(NHC)}2] (where NHC = IPr, SIPr, IMes, SIMes) undergo an efficient and selective Sonogashira cross-coupling with terminal acetylenes. For the coupling of 4-chlorotoluene with phenylacetylene TON = 560000 was observed. The procedure enables high-throughput and selective synthesis of a broad spectrum of unsymmetrically substituted 1,2-diarylacetylenes. Nearly a quantitative amount of HCl was detected within cross-coupling products. Water plays the role of the base and is regenerated in the process so that it does not have to be used in stoichiometric amounts (relative to the limiting reactant). Generation of the active Pd(0) complex proceeds via ethanol oxidation.

Here, we found higher percentage of CD8+ T cells in piglets immunized with CVC1302-adjuvanted inactivated FMDV vaccine. We wonder whether promoted cellular immunity induced by CVC1302-adjuvanted inactivated FMDV vaccine due to the promoted antigen cross-presentation efficiency of OVA by DC mainly via the cytosolic pathways, demonstrated by enhanced levels of lysosomal escape of OVA in DC, loaded with OVA and CVC1302. Higher levels of ROS and significant enhanced elevated lysosomal pH in DC facilitated the lysosomal escape of OVA. Significant enhanced CTL activities were observed in mice immunized with OVA-CVC1302. Overall, CVC1302 increased the cross-presentation of exogenous antigens and the cross-priming of CD8+ T cells by alkalizing the lysosomal pH and facilitating the lysosomal escape of antigen. These studies shed new light on the development of immunopotentiators to improve the cellular immunity induced by vaccine.

For a long time, the transition to adulthood was seen as a troubled period where good development was synonymous with the absence of problems. Positive Youth Development (PYD) emerged as a holistic and strength-based perspective that focuses on the fact that young people may have the internal and external resources for healthy and successful development through five dimensions (5C’s) that empower them: Perceived Competence, Confidence, Character, Connection, and Caring. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the global PYD factor (and the 5C’s) and risk behaviors, in addition to analyzing gender differences. This study showed the results of a cross-sectional study of 1044 emerging adults from 11 Spanish universities in 2021. Data collection was performed by applying an online self-report measure. The results showed that the Character was protective against substance abuse, mainly in women, while the connection was related to the participation of betting money and online betting in men. Caring was protective against money bets in the men’s sample. However, controversial results were found regarding Perceived competence, which had a positive association with substance abuse, money bets, and drunk driving. It seems that high levels of Perceived competence, rather than objective competence, were associated with engagement in various risk behaviors, especially in the absence of other C´s. These results are discussed regarding the promotion of PYD to improve successful development and may suggest the need to foster healthy lifestyles and prevent risky behaviors in youth through the 5C's promotion programs within the university context.

The pion-argon cross-section measurement is crucial to understand effects such as final-state interactions, which account for a large source of systematic uncertainty in neutrino oscillation experiments. ProtoDUNE-SP, with its charged particle beam data, can provide such experimental constraints. This paper elaborates the methodology to measure the cross-section on large-scale LArTPCs like ProtoDUNE-SP. We use the 1 GeV MC sample to demonstrate the analysis procedures. The cross-sections for pion kinetic energy ranging from 350 MeV to 950 MeV are measured on the MC. The consistency of the MC results with its input values serves as validation of the method and the procedures, which we will later use to perform measurements on the data sample.

Economic globalisation has promoted the extensive circulation of commodities around the world, and international trade has increasingly been a strong booster for economic growth in China. As an foundation for national economy, the shift of agricultural products (AP) from production to distribution has become the focus of agricultural development, and in recent years, the international trade of agricultural products in China has been the highest in the world. While, cross-border e-commerce (CBE), as one of the important modes of agricultural products circulation, has brought new opportunities for China's fresh agricultural products to carry out online import and export trade under the favourable policies continuously introduced internationally. This research analyses status of APCBE in Yunnan Province, China, and propose strategies for developing CBE of Yunnan AP.

In the field of vision-based robot grasping, effectively leveraging RGB and depth information to accurately determine the position and pose of a target is a critical issue. To address this challenge, we propose a tri-stream cross-modal fusion architecture for 2-DoF visual grasp detection. This architecture facilitates the interaction of RGB and depth bilateral information and is designed to efficiently aggregate multiscale information. Our novel modal interaction module (MIM) with spatial-wise cross-attention algorithm adaptively captures cross-modal feature information. Meanwhile, the channel interaction modules (CIM) further enhance the aggregation of different modal streams. In addition, we efficiently aggregate global multiscale information through a hierarchical structure with skipping connections. To evaluate the performance of our proposed method, we conduct validation experiments on standard public datasets and real robot grasping experiments. We achieve the image-wise detection accuracy of 99.4% and 96.7% on Cornell and Jacquard datasets respectively. The object-wise detection accuracy reaches 97.8% and 94.6% on the same datasets. Furthermore, physical experiments using the 6-DoF Elite robot demonstrate a success rate of 94.5%. These experiments highlight the superior accuracy of our proposed method.

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been one of the leading causes of death and disability-adjusted life years lost worldwide. Blood pressure, lipid, and cholesterol are good predictors of CVD risk and correspond upon age and physical fitness. However, few studies have explored the variation trend of CVD risk factors across different populations upon age and their muscle strength. Objective: to analysis the variation tendency of CVD risk factors in blood according to age and relative grip strength among different populations. Method: 25363 participants were recruited in this cross-sectional study and 24709 were included in the analysis. A logistic regression and a Bayesian probabilistic analysis based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Modeling is conducted to build probability prediction models of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hypercholesterolemia according to age, relative grip strength, body weight conditions, and physical activity levels. Results: 1) age might be the main influence factor of hypertension, which is regarded as one of the primary CVD risk factors. However, although keeping a high level of physical activity might have positive effect on preventing hypertension because that individuals with normal body weight and higher physical activity shows a lower probability of being diagnosed with hypertension, it might could not prevent individuals from getting hypertension with age. 2) After 60, individuals of normal body weight seem more likely to have hyperlipidemia than those are overweight or obese. 3) Larger relative grip strength might not be able to offset the negative effects of obesity, overweight and physical inactivity on hyperlipidemia. 4) The probability of getting hypercholesterolemia varies less with age and relative grip strength. Conclusion: Body weight management and keeping high levels of physical activity are recommended at any age. It might benefit to increase some bodyweight after 60 years old.

Background: New insecticides with novel modes of action such as neonicotinoids have recently been recommended for public health use by WHO. Resistance monitoring of such novel insecticides requires a robust protocol to monitor the development of resistance in natural populations. In this study, we comparatively used three different solvents to assess the susceptibility of malaria vectors to neonicotinoids across Africa.Methods: Mosquitoes were collected from May to July 2021 from three agricultural settings in Cameroon (Njombe-Penja, Nkolondom, and Mangoum), the Democratic Republic of Congo (Ndjili-Brasserie), Ghana (Atatam), and Uganda (Mayuge). Using the CDC bottle test, we compared the effect of three different solvents (ethanol, acetone, acetone+MERO) on the efficacy of neonicotinoids against Anopheles gambiae s.l. In addition, TaqMan assays were used to genotype key pyrethroid-resistant markers in An. gambiae and to evaluate potential cross-resistance between pyrethroids and clothianidin.Results: Lower mortalities were observed for all populations when using absolute ethanol or acetone alone as solvent (11.4- 51.9% mortality for Nkolondom, 31.7- 48.2% for Mangoum, 34.6- 56.1% for Mayuge, 39.4- 45.6% for Atatam, 83.7- 89.3% for Congo and 71.05- 95.9% for Njombe pendja) compared to acetone + MERO for which 100% mortality was observed for all the populations. Synergist assays (PBO, DEM and DEF) revealed a significant increase of mortality suggesting that metabolic resistance mechanisms are contributing to the reduced susceptibility. A negative association was observed between the L1014F-kdr mutation and clothianidin resistance with a greater frequency of homozygote resistant mosquitoes among the dead than among survivors (OR=0.5; P=0.02). However, the I114T-GSTe2 was in contrast significantly associated with a greater ability to survive clothianidin with a higher frequency of homozygote resistant among survivors than other genotypes (OR=2.10; P=0.013). Conclusions: This study revealed a contrasted susceptibility pattern depending on the solvents with ethanol/acetone resulting in lower mortality, thus possibly overestimating resistance, whereas the addition of MERO consistently increased the efficacy of neonicotinoids in terms of percentage mortalities and time to final mortality. The addition of MERO could however prevent the early detection of resistance development. We therefore recommend monitoring susceptibility using both acetone alone and acetone+MERO (8-10µg/ml for clothianidin) to capture the accurate resistance profile of the mosquito populations.

The vibrational excitation cross section of a diatomic molecule by positron impact is obtained using wavepacket propagation techniques. The dynamics was carried on a two-dimensional potential energy surface which couples a hydrogen-like harmonic oscillator to a positron via a spherically symmetric correlation polarization potential. The cross section for the excitation of the first vibrational mode is in good agreement with previous reports. Our model suggests that a positron couples to the target vibration by responding instantly to an interaction potential which depends on the target vibrational coordinate.

This paper presents a study on the development of the cross-curricular learning outcome (CCLO) "Ethical, environmental and professional responsibility" by the students of different Bache-lor’sDegrees taught at Universitat Politècnica de València. The work and development of this learning outcome entails great complexity, given the double dimension of responsibility that it involves. At the end of their training at the university, students are expected to show ethical, en-vironmental, and professional responsibility towards themselves and others. Interviews have been conducted with lecturers who work and assess this outcome in their subjects, most/all of them related to science and engineering. The objective was to identify the learning approach used at the different subjects to guarantee the acquisition of this CCLO by the students. A focus group has also been carried out with students to determine the importance they give to this learning outcome, and to know their degree of satisfaction with the training received. The methodology used to obtain the data from lecturers and students and to process the information to get a precise diagnosis is fully described in the paper. Results are satisfactory to some extent: most of the lecturers carry out appropriate activities and most of students achieve the expected proficiency level. Finally, recommendations are given to improve the development of this cross-curricular learning outcome.

Light absorption in single nanowires (NWs) is one of the most crucial factors for photovoltaic applications. In this paper, we carried out a detailed investigation of light absorption in single rectangular NWs (RNWs). We show that the RNWs exhibit improved light absorption compared with the square NWs (SNWs), which can be attributed to the symmetry-breaking structure that can increase the light path length by increasing the vertical side and the enhanced leaky mode resonances (LMRs) by decreasing the horizontal side. We found that the light absorption in silicon RNWs can be enhanced by engineering the horizontal and vertical sides, the photocurrent is significantly increased by 276.5% or 82.9% compared with that of the SNWs with the same side length as the horizontal side of 100 nm or the vertical side of 1000 nm, respectively. This work provides an effective way for designing high-efficiency single NW photovoltaic devices based on the symmetry breaking from the SNWs to RNWs.

Background: Physical activity is recommended to mitigate the incidence of obesity, but delivery of community wide initiatives is cumbersome. The challenges met by such programs are magnified when implementation transpires in the remote villages of Alaska. To overcome the difficulty of this challenge in the Arctic, the Skiku/AK Nordic cross-country skiing program was developed. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether access to Skiku/AK Nordic program would promote physical activity levels that met the daily recommendations for physical activity in Alaska Native children. Methods: Eight children (4 females and 4 males; 10±2 years/age) were recruited from Kaktovik, Alaska for participation in this study. Expert coaches and staff provided one week of cross-country ski instruction and access to ski equipment. Physical activity was monitored using ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometers. Data collected from the devices was then downloaded and analyzed using ActiLife software. Results: The participants expended ~586 calories/day devoted to physical activity. Light and moderate physical activity was 68±38 minutes/day and 447±248 minutes/day, respectively. Conclusions: Delivery of the Skiku/AK Nordic program promoted favorable levels of physical activity in Alaska Native children. Further research is needed to assess the longitudinal and seasonal effectiveness of the Skiku/AK Nordic program.

Light trapping in single nanowires (NWs) are of vital importance for photovoltaic applications. However, circular NWs (CNWs) can limit its light-trapping ability due to high geometrical symmetry. In this work, we present a detailed study of light trapping in single NWs with an elliptical cross-section (ENWs). We demonstrate that the ENWs exhibit significantly enhanced light trapping compared with the CNWs, which can be ascribed to the symmetry-broken structure that can orthogonalize the direction of light illumination and the leaky mode resonances (LMRs). That is, the elliptical cross-section can simultaneously increase the light path length by increasing the vertical axis and reshape the LMR modes by decreasing the horizontal axis. We found that the light absorption can be engineered via tuning the horizontal and vertical axes, the photocurrent is significantly enhanced by 374.0% (150.3%, 74.1%) or 146.1% (61.0%, 35.3%) in comparison with that of the CNWs with the same diameter as the horizontal axis of 100 (200, 400) nm or the vertical axis of 1000 nm, respectively. This work advances our understanding of how to improve light trapping based on the symmetry breaking from the CNWs to ENWs and provides a rational way for designing high-efficiency single or self-assembled NW photovoltaic devices.

Purinergic receptors (P2X) are ATP-gated ion channels with an elusive role in the CNS. While the P2X2 and P2X4 subtypes are widely expressed in most neurons (i.e. at the edge of the postsynaptic densities of excitatory synapses), the direct contribution of P2X to synaptic transmission is uncertain. Several P2X have been shown to participate in receptor cross-talk: an interaction where one receptor (e.g. P2X2) influences the activity of another (e.g. GABA or AMPA receptors.) In this study, we tested for interactions between P2X2 or P2X4 and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs). Using two-electrode voltage-clamp electrophysiology experiments in X. laevis oocytes, we demonstrate that both P2X2 and P2X4 interact with NMDARs in an inhibitory manner. When investigating the molecular domains responsible for this phenomenon, we found that the P2X2 c-terminus (CT) could interfere with P2X2 and P2X4 interactions with NMDARs. We also report that 11 distal CT residues on the P2X4 facilitate the P2X4-NMDAR interaction, and that a peptide consisting of these P2X4 CT residues (11C) can disrupt the interaction between NMDARs and P2X2 or P2X4. Collectively, these results provide new evidence for the modulatory nature of P2X2 and P2X4, suggesting they might play a more nuanced role in the CNS.