This research aimed to determine the most viable locations for establishing solar energy facilities in Yemen through the utilization of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Best-Worst Method (BWM), and Geographic Information System (GIS). A total of twelve key criteria were meticulously selected and evaluated based on their impact on the appropriateness of sites for solar power plants. These criteria were amalgamated using a weighted overlay tool, resulting in a map that classified regions as either optimal, highly suitable, or suitable. The findings of the study indicated that the eastern, southern, and northern parts of Yemen are prime candidates for solar energy installations due to their moderate climate and flat topography. On the other hand, the western regions were deemed less favorable. The breakdown of site classifications revealed that 38% of areas were optimal, 61% were highly suitable, and only 1% were considered suitable, based on the assigned weights from the AHP and BWM methodologies. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to evaluate the impact of adjusting the weights of Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) and slope on site classifications. A minor increase in the weights of GHI (from 30% to 31%) and slope (from 10% to 11%) resulted in a significant alteration in the suitability categories, highlighting the importance of weight adjustments in multi-criteria decision-making processes. In conclusion, the study emphasizes the effectiveness of AHP, BWM, and GIS in assessing site suitability for solar energy facilities, as well as the significance of sensitivity analyses. These approaches provide valuable insights for decision-makers, aiding in strategic planning and fostering sustainable energy development in Yemen.

This paper deals with the problem of determining the optimal capacity of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants, especially in the context of hybrid solar power plants. This work presents an innovative analytical approach to optimize the capacity of concentrated solar plants. The proposed method is based on the use of additional non-dimensional parameters, in particular the design factor and the solar multiple factor. The paper presents a mathematical optimization model that focuses on the capacity of concentrated solar power plants where thermal storage plays a key role in the energy source. The analytical approach provides a more complete understanding of the design process for hybrid power plants. In addition, the use of additional factors and the combination of the proposed method with existing numerical methods allows for a more refined optimization, which allows for a more accurate selection of the capacity for specific geographical conditions. Importantly, the proposed method significantly increases the speed of computation compared to traditional numerical methods. Finally, the authors present the results of the analysis of the proposed system of equations for calculating the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for hybrid solar power plants. The nonlinearity of the LCOE on the main calculation parameters is shown.

For many disciplines of science, all conceivable collisional cross sections and reactions must be precisely known. Although the recent decades were a trial of large-scale research to give these data, many essential atomic and molecular cross section data still missing, and the reliability of the existing cross sections has to be validated. In this paper, we present electron stripping, electron capture, and system breakdown cross sections in carbon (C5+) ions and lithium (Li2+) ions collisions with atomic hydrogen based on the Monte Carlo models of classical and quasi-classical trajectories. According to our expectation, the QCTMC results show higher results in comparison to standard CTMC data, emphasizing the role of Heisenberg correction constraint, especially in the low energy regime. On the Other hand, at high energy, the Heisenberg correction term has less influence as a projectile momentum increase. We present the total cross sections of electron stripping, electron capture, and system breakdown in C5+ ions and Li2+ ions collisions with atomic hydrogen in the impact energy range from 10 keV to 160 keV, which is of interest in astrophysical plasmas, atmospheric sciences, plasma laboratories, and fusion research.

Efficient resource allocation is crucial in clusters with frugal Single-Board Computers (SBCs) possessing limited computational resources. These clusters are increasingly being deployed in edge computing environments in resource-constrained settings where energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness are paramount. A major challenge in Hadoop YARN scheduling is load-balancing, as frugal nodes within the cluster can become overwhelmed, resulting in degraded performance and frequent occurrences of out-of-memory errors, ultimately leading to job failures. In this study, we introduce an Adaptive Multi-criteria Selection for Efficient Resource Allocation (AMS-ERA) in Frugal Heterogeneous Hadoop Clusters. Our criterion considers CPU, memory and disk requirements for jobs and aligns the requirements with available resources in the cluster for optimal resource allocation. To validate our approach, we deploy a heterogeneous SBC-based cluster consisting of 11 SBC nodes and conduct several experiments to evaluate the performance using Hadoop wordcount and terasort benchmark for various workload settings. The results are compared to the Hadoop-Fair, FOG and IDaPS scheduling strategies. Our results demonstrate a significant improvement in performance with the proposed AMS-ERA, reducing execution time by 27.2%, 17.4% and 7.6% respectively using terasort and wordcount benchmarks.

This review paper presents a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge on the contamination of water systems by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs, organic contaminants characterized by two or more fused aromatic rings, are notably problematic due to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and significant health risks. The review commences with an examination of various sources of PAHs in aquatic environments, encompassing both anthropogenic activities, such as industrial discharges, urban runoff, and oil spills, and natural phenomena including volcanic eruptions and wildfires. Subsequently, the discussion shifts to the distribution patterns of PAHs within different aquatic ecosystems, with an analysis of factors that influence their transport. Considerable focus is placed on the entry mechanisms of PAHs into water systems and their interactions with diverse environmental matrices. Additionally, the ecotoxicological effects of PAHs on aquatic life are scrutinized, with particular emphasis on molecular, individual, and ecosystemic impacts. This includes an exploration of PAH bioaccumulation in aquatic organisms and their potential mutagenic and carcinogenic consequences. The review further addresses the challenges associated with detecting and quantifying PAHs in aquatic settings, reflecting on the advancements in analytical methodologies and the complexities introduced by their varied physicochemical properties. The paper concludes with a summary of existing regulatory frameworks and guidelines governing PAH contamination in water systems, underscoring the imperative for global collaboration in the monitoring and management of PAH pollution.

Recent technological advancements in produced water for the oil and gas industry have a long history that spreads over centuries and has roots with many mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and inventors. Working to understand the many ideas and questions has helped to bring the produced water technologies to where we are today. Fluid mechanics is an essential factor in the world of engineering because it comes with significant benefits when designing the necessary equipment to overcome the challenging endeavors of daily operations. Many of us believe certain ideas or products were developed within a specific year not fully understanding the idea or concept might be hundreds of years old. For example, when we think of fluid mechanics, we do not think of Archimedes' immersing King Hiero II crown in water. Archimedes did this to determine the displacement of the water as he knew gold was denser than silver. Archimedes was one of the pioneers who was part of the beginning of fluid mechanics. Another interesting fact is the first valve invented was in 1 AD by Heron of Alexandria. This valve can be described as the very first hydraulic valve. The evolution of technology over hundreds of years has made considerable innovations benefiting engineers all over the world. These innovations come in the form of PLCs, RTUs, PIDs, mathematical formulas, processing methods, and SCADA systems.

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.

In this paper, we consider a class of bilevel programming problems (abbreviated as, BLPP). Exploiting the generalized approximate convexity assumptions, we investigate the relations among the solutions of approximate Minty (respectively, Stampacchia) type variational inequalities (abbreviated as, AMTVI (respectively, ASTVI)), and the local ϵ-quasi solutions of the BLPP. Moreover, by employing the generalized Knaster–Kuratowski–Mazurkiewicz (abbreviated as, KKM)-Fan’s lemma, we derive some existence results for the solutions of approximate variational inequalities (abbreviated as, AVI), namely, AMTVI and ASTVI. A non-trivial example is given to highlight the importance of the established results. To the best of our knowledge, there is no research paper available in the literature that establishes relationships between the AVI and the BLPP under the assumptions of generalized approximate convexity in terms of limiting subdifferentials.

The presence of antibiotic residues in honey has recently become a growing public health concern due to the overuse of these products in beekeeping and their transfer to the food industry. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a simple, selective and sensitive method for the simultaneous identification and quantification of residues of twenty-two sulfonamides, trimethoprim and dapsone in honey using a rapid and reliable liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) method. The developed method showed good linearity, specificity, precision (repeatability and intra-laboratory reproducibility) and recovery. The decision limit (CCalpha) ranged between 2.16-22.12 µg/kg for CCα, while the detection capability (CCbeta) was between 2.16- 2.67-27.36 µg/kg. The method proved to be rapid, reliable and effective for the determination of sulfonamides, trimethoprim and dapsone from honey samples. The average recoveries were estimated to be between 70 and 106%. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) were between 6-18%. In practice, the method is essential to check the honey sold on the market and ensure its safety before it reaches the consumer.

This paper introduces an innovative Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm in-corporating Sobol and Halton Random number samplings. It evaluates the enhanced PSO's performance against conventional PSO employing Monte Carlo Random Number Samplings. The comparison involves assessing the algorithms across nine benchmark problems and the renowned Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). The re-sults reveal consistent enhancements achieved by the enhanced PSO utilizing Sob-ol/Halton samplings across the benchmark problems. Particularly noteworthy are the substantial improvements demonstrated by the enhanced PSO in solving the Travel-ling Salesman Problem. These findings underscore the efficacy of employing Sobol and Halton random number generation methods in enhancing algorithm efficiency.

The European Union's recent decision to renew the authorization for the use of glyphosate until 15 December 2033 stimulates the scientific discussion all around the world regarding its toxicity or otherwise for humans. Glyphosate is a chemical used by millions of tons in the last 50 years worldwide to drying weeds in cultivated fields, greenhouses, roadsides. Concern has been raised in many quarters about the possible presence in the food chain and the consequent adverse effects on health: both aspects that argue in favor of toxicity and those that instead may indicate limited toxicity of glyphosate are here discussed. The great debate that has been generated requires further investigations and field measurements to understand its fate once dispersed in the environment and its concentration in the food chain. Hence the need for validated analytical methods that are available to analysts in the field. In the present review, methods for the analytical determination of glyphosate and its main metabolite, AMPA, are discussed, with a specific focus on chromatographic techniques applied to cereal products. The experimental procedures are explained in any detail, including cleanup, derivatization, and instrumental conditions to give the laboratories involved enough information to proceed with the implementation of this line of analysis. The prevalent chromatographic methods used are LC-MS/MS, GC-MS/SIM, and GC-MS/MS but sufficient indications are also given to those laboratories that wish to use the simpler HPLC-FLD, HPLC-UV, GC-NPD or GC-FPD techniques for screening purposes. Concentrations from literature measured in wheat, corn, barley, rye, oats, soybean, and cereal-based foods are reported together with the regulatory status in various parts of the world and the accumulation mechanism. As for the accumulation in cereals, available data show that glyphosate tends to accumulate more in wholemeal flours than in refined ones, that its concentration in the product strictly depends on the treatment period (the closer it is to the time of harvesting, the higher the concentration) and that in cold climates the herbicide tends to persist in the soil for a long time.

Keywords: liquid alloys, microstratification, dispersed particles, spontaneous dispersion, criteria for true (entropic) spontaneous dispersion, mechanisms of quasi-spontaneous dispersion, methods and results for assessing size of dispersed particles.

We analyze the transformation of a very broad class of metrics that can be put in terms of static coordinates. Starting from a general ansatz, we obtain a relation for the parameters in which one can impose further symmetries, or restrictions. One of the simplest restrictions leads to FLRW cases, while transforming from the initial static to other static-type coordinates can lead to near horizon coordinates, Wheeler-Regge, isotropic coordinates, among others. As less restrictive cases, we show an indirect route for obtaining Kruskal-Szekeres within this approach, as well as Lema\^{\i}tre coordinates. We use Schwarzschild spacetime as prototype for testing the procedure in individual cases. However, application to other spacetimes, such as de-Sitter, Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m or Schwarzschild de Sitter, can be readily generalized.

In this paper is proposed an analytical technique which can be used to obtain the forced response of a cantilevered tube conveying fluid. Considering the pipe subjected to an arbitrary harmonic force either distributed or concentrated, an analytical solution is found using Green’s function method. The solution obtained of the closed form satisfies the differential equations in a classical sense. The presented method giving the exact solutions is more precise than the classical eigenfunction expansion or Galerkin’s method with no need to the eigenfunctions or eigenvalues.

Polymer-based composites are widely used in the automotive, security, aeronautical and space industries, to mention a few. This is because of their good mechanical properties, which are similar to those of metals but with the attraction of being lightweight. Kevlar® as a reinforcement is extensively used in the security industry owing to its good ballistic properties. This investigation presents the mechanical characterization based on in-plane quasi-static tensile testing of Kevlar® composite using a universal testing system. The methodology developed for the preparation of coupons is based on pressure, temperature and time. As a result of this work, elastic moduli (EL and ET), Poisson’s ratio (νLT), shear modulus (GLT) and strengths (XT, YT, S) were obtained. It is worth mentioning that there is scarce or no characterization of this material in the literature, and those studies that do characterize it do not present the coupon thermoforming conditions or the reasons of the specimen dimensions (width, length and thickness).

The technology for determining the point’s coordinates on the earth’s surface using the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is becoming the norm along with ground-based methods. In this case, determining coordinates does not cause any particular difficulties. However, to identify normal heights using this technology with a given accuracy, special research is required. The fact is that satellite determinations of geodetic heights (h) over an ellipsoid surface differ from ground-based measurements of normal height (HN) over a quasi-geoid surface by a certain value called quasi-geoid height or height anomaly (ζ). In relation to determining heights of a certain territory, the concept of geoid height (N) is usually operated when dealing with a geoid model. In this work, geodetic and normal heights are determined for 5 control points in three different regions in Lebanon, where measurements are carried out using GNSS technology and geometric levelling. The obtained quasi-geoid heights are compared with geoid heights derived from the global Earth model EGM2008. The results obtained showed that, in the absence of gravimetric data, the combination of global Earth model data, geometric levelling for selected areas and satellite determinations allows the creation of a high accurate altitude network for mountainous areas.

We describe the development and validation of a HPLC-MS/MS method to assess the pharmacokinetics and tumour distribution of fenretinide, a synthetic retinoid chemically related to all-trans-retinoic acid, after administration of a novel oral nanoformulation of fenretinide, called bionanofenretinide (BNF). BNF was developed to overcome the major limitation of fenretinide: its poor aqueous solubility and bioavailability due to its hydrophobic nature. The method proved to be reproducible, precise, and highly accurate for the measurement of the drug and the mains metabolites. The lower limit of quantification resulted 1 ng/mL. The curve range of 1-500 ng/mL and 50-2000 ng/mL, for plasma and tumor homogenate respectively, was appropriate for the analysis, as demonstrated by the accuracy between 96.8% and 102.4% for plasma and 96.6-102.3% for tumor. The inter-days precision and accuracy determined on quality controls at 3 different levels were in ranges of 6.9%-7.5% and 99.3-101.0% and 0.96-1.91% and 102.3-105.8% for plasma and tumour, respectively.

Layered halide perovskites have emerged as a promising contender in solid-state lighting thanks to their tunable bandgap, high luminescence quantum yield, and high color purity. However, the fabrication of perovskite light-emitting devices in laboratories usually experiences low de-vice-to-device reproducibility since perovskite crystallization is highly sensitive to ambient condi-tions, such as humidity and temperature. Although device processing inside gloveboxes is primarily used to reduce the influence of oxygen and moisture, several extraneous variables, including gas-eous pollution traces and thermal fluctuations in the inert atmosphere or contaminations from re-sidual solvents confined in the enclosed environment, can destabilize the crystallization process and alter the properties of the emissive layers. Here, we examine different experimental set-ups for spin-coating deposition of layered perovskites in inert atmospheres and their influences on the formation of polycrystalline thin films. Our results demonstrate that fluctuations in the glovebox properties (concentrations of residual O2 and H2O or solvent traces), even in very short timescales, can negatively impact the consistency of the perovskite film formation, while thermal variation plays a relatively minor role in this phenomenon. Furthermore, careful storage of chemical species inside the workstation is critical for reproducing high-quality perovskite layers. Consequently, when applying our most controlled environment for perovskite deposition, the photoluminescence life-time of perovskite thin films shows a standard deviation of only 3%, whereas the reference set-up yields a 15% standard deviation. Regarding complete perovskite light-emitting diodes, the uncer-tainties in statistical luminance and EQE data are significantly reduced from 230% and 140% to 38% and 42%, respectively.

A sustainable reversed-phase chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of three active pharmaceutical ingredients, dorzolamide, brinzolamide, and timolol, used to treat glaucoma. The eco-friendly solvent isopropanol has been used as an organic mobile phase constituent. According to the Hansen space green solvent selection tool, isopropanol has a G score of 6.5, comparable to ethanol, which has a G score of 6.6. The mobile phase consists of isopropanol: aqueous sodium acetate buffer (0.1 M, pH 4.25) in the ratio of 10:90 (v/v). The flow rate was maintained at 1 mL/min. Dorzolamide and brinzolamide were detected at 254 nm, and timolol was detected at 295 nm. A high-purity silica with a polymeric C18 modification column (5 µm,150 x 4.6 mm) was used for this separation. The three compounds were eluted within 8 min. The method was validated according to ICH guidelines. The calibration curves were linear in the range of 20-70 µg/mL, 40-140 µg/mL, and 20-70 µg/mL for dorzolamide, brinzolamide, and timolol, respectively. The LODs were found to be 1.61 µg/mL, 1.60 µg/mL, and 3.16 µg/mL for dorzolamide, brinzolamide, and timolol, respectively. Good accuracy and precision were obtained for the three compounds. The greenness and whiteness of the method were indicated using the AGREE and RGB12 tools, respectively.

A significantly reduced stress concentration effect and a stable deformation behavior are exhibited by the arc-like S-shaped auxetic structure. Analytical works beyond the bar and hinge method to capture structural effects, such as bending, shearing, etc., in the S-structure are scarce in the literature. The deformation pattern of the S-structure is dominated by bending and shearing within the linear elastic region. In this work, Timoshenko beam theory is used to derive closed-form expressions for overall elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio. This agrees well with the results of finite element simulations. An adjusted R-square value of over 0.99 and almost 0.82 is obtained for elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio, respectively. From parametric studies, it’s established that under quasi-static transverse load, strut thickness and the angle `α’ are the most important parameters for controlling elastic modulus, specific energy absorption, negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) effect, and relative density of the entire auxetic structure. Also, it’s found that energy absorption and elastic modulus increase together. Interestingly, the elastic modulus of the structure under transverse load lies in the range from 3 MPa to 250 MPa, which means this structure is compliant enough and can be used in cushioning, packaging, soft robotics applications, etc.

The mass of a direct-drive generator is often defined by the requirements for structural stiffness to meet the magnetic stiffness between the rotor and stator surfaces. This paper analyses this magnetic stiffness and estimates the structural stiffness of direct-drive generators for different modes of deflection. The magnetic stiffness modelling is based on an analytical model of the airgap closing forces. The final models are verified using Finite Element analysis and carried out for both permanent magnet and wound rotor generators. It shows that wound rotor machines have higher stiffness requirements than permanent magnet machines. The structural stiffness of the generator rotor and stator are evaluated for different modes by applying spatially-varying forces and finding the associated deflections. Structural stiffnesses for the rotor, stator and bearing are then combined. Finally, the magnetic and structural stiffnesses are combined and a stiffness margin can be found. For the airgap not to close, this combined stiffness must be greater than 0. This method is applied to a relatively stiff and a relatively compliant set of generator structures in a case study in order to find the optimum and more sustainable configuration.

In the present paper, we efficiently solve the two-body problem for extreme cases such as those with high eccentricities. The use of numerical methods, with the usual variables, cannot maintain the perihelion passage accurately. In previous articles, we have verified that this problem is treated more adequately through temporal reparametrizations related to the mean anomaly through the partition function. The biparametric family of anomalies, with an appropriate partition function, allows a systematic study of these transformations. In the present work, we consider the elliptical orbit as a meridian section of the ellipsoid of revolution, and the partition function depends on two variables raised to specific parameters. One of the variables is the mean radius of the ellipsoid at the secondary, and the other is the distance to the primary. One parameter regulates the concentration of points in the apoapsis region, and the other produces a symmetrical displacement between the polar and equatorial regions. The three most used geodesy latitude variables are also studied, resulting in one not belonging to the biparametric family. However, it is in the one introduced now, which implies an extension of the biparametric method. The results obtained by the method presented here now allow a causal interpretation of the operation of numerous reparametrizations used in the study of orbital motion.

BKW is a highly efficient Storage Function-type rainfall-runoff model that utilizes the steady-state storage (S) and outflow (Q) of a catchment at different rainfall intensities as the S-Q relation of the catchment. For the inundation nowcasting of urban areas under high-intensity, short-duration rainfall, a Storage Function-type model is a judicious choice. However, S-Q hysteresis exists in the catchment S-Q relation, and BKW is unable to exhibit hysteresis due to assuming that the S-Q relation of a catchment is a nonlinear relation. The S-Q hysteresis can influence the outflow estimation of BKW, reducing the model's accuracy. Through the evaluation of analytical solutions, we found that the change in rainfall intensity dominates the S-Q relation of a catchment. The S-Q relation during a rainfall event is a dynamic process rather than a monotonic nonlinear relation. By applying the dynamic S-Q relation in BKW, we improved BKW to become a highly efficient and accurate rainfall-runoff model for small urban catchments.

In this paper, a class of coupled competitive neural networks, which subject to disturbance and discontinuous activation functions, is concerned. To realize the fixed-time quasi-bipartite synchronization, an aperiodic intermittent controller is initially designed. Subsequently, by combining the fixed-time stability theory and nonsmooth analysis, several criteria are established to ensure the bipartite synchronization in fixed time. Moreover, synchronization error bounds and settling time estimates are provided. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to verify the main results.

This research centers on the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System in Digang Village, Huzhou, exem-plifying the traditional cyclic agricultural models of China. The study's objective is to evaluate its integral value concerning agricultural production, ecological environment, and heritage conservation. Employing the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE) methodologies, we developed a comprehensive evaluation framework comprising 8 dimensions and 29 factors, aimed at assessing the provisioning, regulating, and cultural services of this ecosystem. The findings indicate a robust performance of the ecosystem services in Digang Village's Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System, with cultural services significantly standing out. In contrast, the regulating services appeared relatively weaker, pinpointing shortcomings in mulberry land management, while the provisioning services demonstrated substantial strength. These insights are pivotal for comprehending the system's ecosystem service values, highlighting areas for managerial improvements, and guiding future assessment and management strategies. This study contributes theoretical insights and empirical experiences for future evaluations of the Mulberry-Dyke and Fish-Pond System's ecosystem services.

This work presents a new type of chaotic dynamical system originated from Dirichlet Eta function. Although the exposition describes only a bidimensional instance, it is certainly possible to construct higher dimensional such models. The novelty resides in the multitude of interesting characteristics concentrated in only one kind of dynamical system, mainly because of its simple abstract definition - it provokes dissipative, chaotic and itinerant behavior, and its paths typically display nonrecurring quasi-attractors and associate regions of ruin. In addition, it is discrete and nonautonomous, being additively driven by a simple real vector sequence. Also, the defining formulas have parameters which permit to activate bifurcatory effects, mainly related to setting the number of quasi-attractors and overall geometric complexity and diversity. In this fashion, it holds a certain similarity with classical itinerant chaotic systems, but it is a completely different object. One of its parameters is very influential and may be intuitively compared to a type of "potential energy", capable of changing the duration of sojourns etc. In this fashion, there is a potential opportunity to employ artificial inference techniques for designing specific structures on paths. Of course, the other parameters are also relevant, but not necessarily in the control of the number of quasi-attractors and the permanence periods near them. It is important to state that the described system was found during a previous investigation about certain features of the Riemann hypothesis, using the Dirichlet Eta function instead of the Riemann Zeta function - the components of the system under study here were part of certain series whose convergence had to be established, and that scenario produced this very positive side effect. The text also suggests an atypical, but important, potential application in philosophy: the representation of the Hindu concepts of Samsara and Moksha.

Recently, we have applied the generalized Littlewood theorem concerning contour integrals of the logarithm of analytical function to find the sums over inverse powers of zeroes for the incomplete Gamma- and Riemann zeta- functions, polygamma functions, and elliptical functions. Here, the same theorem is applied to study such sums for the zeroes of the Hurwitz zeta-function , including the sum over the inverse first power of its appropriately defined non-trivial zeroes. We also study some related properties of the Hurwitz zeta-function zeroes. In particular, we show that for any natural N and small real epsilon, when z tends to n=0, -1, -2… we can find at least N zeroes of zeta in the - vicinity of 0 for sufficiently small epsilon, as well as one simple zero tending to 1, etc.

Background: Pediatric Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are expected to significantly lower pediatric mortality in healthcare settings. This study evaluates RRTs' effectiveness in decreasing cardiac arrests and unexpected Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) admissions. Methods: A quasi-experimental study (2014-2017) at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, involved 3,261 pediatric inpatients, split into pre-intervention (1,604) and post-intervention (1,657) groups. The intervention entailed pediatric specialists collaboratively managing acute decompensations following set protocols. Results: RRT was activated 471 times, primarily for respiratory distress (29.30%), sepsis (22.30%), clinical anxiety (13.80%), and hematological abnormalities (6.7%). Family concerns triggered 0.1% of activations. Post-RRT implementation, unplanned PICU admissions significantly reduced (RR = 0.552, 95% CI 0.485-0.628, P < 0.0001), and non-ICU cardiac arrests were eliminated (RR = 0). Patient care improvement was notable, with a -9.61 coefficient for PICU admissions (95% CI: -12.65 to -6.57, P < 0.001) and a -1.641 coefficient for non-ICU cardiac arrests (95% CI: -2.22 to -1.06, P < 0.001). Sensitivity analysis showed mixed results for PICU admissions, while zero-inflation Poisson analysis confirmed a reduction in non-ICU arrests. Conclusions: The deployment of pediatric RRTs is associated with fewer unexpected PICU admissions and non-ICU cardiopulmonary arrests, indicating improved PICU management. Further research using robust scientific methods is necessary to conclusively determine RRTs' clinical benefits.

The valve controlled cylinder drive system is the most common type among hydraulic applications. The nonlinear behaviour in such system is inevitable when the valve spool around its null position [1] , Leaney [2] utilised component linking method to investigate the nonlinearities in a Moog valve controlled asymmetric cylinder drive system by simulation in Fortran, in which a generalised concept is introduced and validated by comparing to the experimental results. An factor is proposed in the generalised concepts to describe the asymmetric cylinder state, which is a constant when the cylinder in extending or retracting, but numerically calculated when the valve spool in the underlap region [2]. This paper utilises the component linking method to simulate the Moog valve controlled asymmetric cylinder drive system in Matlab Simulink, and proposed an analytical solution for factor when the valve spool in the underlap region.

The research object was the stress-strain state of shear stud bonds in the contact joint of steel-concrete beams. The work diagrams for three types of anchors are given. Based on the analysis of numerical and full-scale experiments, analytical dependencies are proposed that reflect the actual operation of anchor ties. Comparisons of the calculation results by analytical formulas and comparisons with numerical and full-scale experiment data are given. Numerical studies have revealed the pattern of the stress-strain state of the contact joint, the stages of development of cracks in the concrete flange, and the sequence of development of deformations in anchor ties. It was revealed that vertical shear studs bonds have an increased bearing capacity, although displacements are 1.5-2 times greater than those of loop-shaped anchor ties.

The key to building a strong bridge country lies in talent, and the foundation lies in education. The cultivation of bridge engineering talents is related to the future and destiny of building a strong bridge country. This course adopts the educational philosophy of "holographic teaching method" centered on the comprehensive development of students, cultivating "engineering thinking" guided by engineering education certification, enhancing "abilities and qualities" through professional knowledge, reconstructing the course knowledge content system through engineering philosophy thinking, and implementing the ideological and political construction of the course in a multi-level unified manner of "explicit + implicit". Based on restructuring the course content system, we will strengthen the construction of diversified course resources, integrate theory with practice throughout the entire process of the course, practice the concept of "bridge architects + bridge engineers" parallel development, and cultivate cross-border and compound talents with comprehensive qualities of "engineering + art + humanities".

The susceptible-infected-recovered/removed-vaccinated (SIRV) epidemics model is an important generalization of the SIR epidemics model as it accounts quantitatively for the effects of vaccination campaigns on the temporal evolution of epidemics outbreaks. Additional to the time-dependent infection ($a(t)$) and recovery ($\mu (t)$) rates, regulating the transitions between the compartments $S\to I$ and $I\to R$, respectively, the time-dependent vaccination rate $v(t)$ accounts for the transition between the compartments $S\to V$ of susceptible to vaccinated fractions. An accurate analytical approximation is derived for arbitrary and different temporal dependencies of the rates which is valid for all times after the start of the epidemics for which the cumulative fraction of new infections $J(t)\ll 1$. As vaccination campaigns automatically reduce the rate of new infections by transferring susceptible to vaccinated persons, the limit $J(t)\ll 1$ is even better fulfilled than in the SIR-epidemics model. The comparison of the analytical approximation for the temporal dependence of the rate of new infections $\jt(t)=a(t)S(t)I(t)$, the corresponding cumulative fraction $J(t)$, and $V(t)$, respectively, with the exact numerical solution of the SIRV-equations for different illustrative examples proves the accuracy of our approach. The considered illustrative examples include the cases of stationary ratios with a delayed start of vaccinations, and an oscillating ratio of recovery to infection rate with a delayed vaccination at constant rate. The proposed analytical approximation is self-regulating as the final analytical expression for the cumulative fraction $\jinf $ after infinite time allows us to check the validity of the original assumption $J(t)\le \jinf \ll 1$.

We prove a quasi-pseudometric version of the strong Ekeland principle proved by P. Georgiev and T. Suzuki.

The main aim of this work is to present a step-by-step procedure to model and analyze the power loss distribution of three-level Gallium Nitride (GaN) inverters. It has been applied to three distinct three-phase three-levels voltage source inverters utilized in electric traction drives: Active Neutral Point Clamped, Neutral Point Clamped and T-Type Neutral Point Clamped. The proposed analytical power loss modelling, combined to an equivalent representation of the electrical machine demonstrated to be a viable solution to achieve a time-saving and low computational burden simulation platform, leading to satisfying accuracy results. This has been confirmed by comparing the results carried out from the simulations of a 110kW permanent magnet synchronous motor drive and those determined by considering a simplified circuital representation based on the proposed analytical power loss modelling.

In this paper, we present a new parametric class of optimal fourth-order iterative methods to estimate the solutions of nonlinear equations. After the convergence analysis, we study the stability of this class by using the tools of complex discrete dynamics. This allows us to select those elements of the class with lower dependence on initial estimations. We verify by means of numerical tests that the stable members on quadratic polynomials perform better than the unstable ones, when applied to other non-polynomial functions. We also compare the performance of the best elements of the family with known methods, such as the schemes by Newton or Chun, among others, showing robust and stable behaviour.

A new approach for predicting the geometrical characteristics of the mixing behavior of an inclined dense jet for angles ranging from 15° to 85° is proposed in this study. This approach is called group method of data handling (GMDH) which is based on the artificial neural network (ANN) technique. The proposed model was trained and tested using existing experimental data reported in literature. The model was then evaluated using statistical indices as well as compared with analytical models from previous studies. The results of the coefficient of determination (R2) indicate a high accuracy of the proposed model with values of 0.9719 and 0.9513 for training and testing for the dimensionless of the distance from the nozzle to the return point xr/D, and 0.9454 and 0.9565 for training and testing for the dimensionless of the terminal rise height yt/D . Moreover, four previous analytical models were used to evaluate the GMDH model. The results showed the superiority of the proposed model in predicting the geometrical characteristics of the inclined dense jet for all tested angles. Finally, the standard error of estimate (SEE) was applied to demonstrate which model performed the best in terms of getting closer to the actual data. The results illustrate that all fitting lines of the GMDH model performed very well for all geometrical parameter predictions and was the best model with approximately 10% error, which was the lowest value of error among the models. Therefore, this study confirms that the GMDH model can be used to predict the geometrical properties of the inclined negatively buoyant jet with high performance and accuracy.

The stability of deep soft rock tunnels is of particular concern under seepage conditions. Aiming at thoroughly discussing the seepage actions and their consequences on the support scheme of such structures, the host rocks of the Weilai Tunnel situated in Guangxi province of China are taken as the research substance. Emphasizing on seepage conditions, stresses, displacements and plastic zone radii along the surrounding rocks of such tunnel are adequately examined taking into consideration the Mogi-Coulomb strain criterion and the elastic-plastic theory. Subsequently, based on strain-softening model, the coupled actions of seepage and softening on the rocks surrounding the tunnel are studied. According to the results, it is revealed that the support scheme of deep soft rock tunnels must be of highest resistance possible to better decrease the plastic zone and the tangential stress along the host rocks. Moreover, throughout the surrounding rocks, the dissemination of pore water pressure is strongly affected by the uneven permeability coefficient under anisotropic seepage states. Combined effects of softening and seepage are very dangerous for the surrounding rocks of deep-buried tunnels. To better guarantee reasonable longevity of such tunnels, long-term monitoring of their support structures with reliable remote sensors is strongly recommended.

The fundamental theory of nuclear interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), operates in terms of quarks and gluons at higher resolution. At low resolution the relevant degrees of freedom are nucleons. Two-nucleon Short-Range Correlations (SRC) help to interconnect these two descriptions. SRCs are temporary fluctuations of strongly interacting close pairs of nucleons. The distance between the two nucleons is comparable to their radii and their relative momenta are larger than the fermi sea level. According to the electron scattering experiments held in the last decade, SRCs have far-reaching impacts on many-body systems, the nucleon-nucleon interactions, and nuclear substructure. The modern experiments with ion beams and cryogenic liquid hydrogen target make it possible to study properties of the nuclear fragments after quasi-elastic knockout of a single nucleon or an SRC pair. The first SRC experiment at BM@N (2018) with a carbon beam has shown that detection of an intact 11B nucleus after interaction selects out the quasi-elastic knockout reaction with minimal contribution of initial- and final-state interactions. Also, 25 events of SRC-breakups showed agreement in SRC properties as knows from electron beam experiments. The analysis of the second measurement of SRC at BM@N held in 2022 with an improved setup is currently ongoing. The SRC project at JINR moved to a new experimental area in 2023, where the next measurement is being planned in terms of experimental setup and physics goals.

The main issue in this work is to study limit functions necessary for the reliability assessment of the structural steel with the use of the relative entropy apparatus. This would be done using a few different mathematical theories relevant to this relative entropy, namely those proposed by Bhattacharyya, Kullback-Leibler, Jeffreys, and Hellinger. Probabilistic analysis in the presence of uncertainty in material characteristics would be delivered using three different numerical strategies – Monte-Carlo simulation, stochastic perturbation method as well as the semi-analytical approach. All these methods are based on the Weighted Least Squares Method approximations of the structural response functions versus the given uncertainty source and they would allow efficient determination of the first two probabilistic moments of the structural responses including stresses, displacements, and strains. The entire computational implementation would be delivered using the Finite Element Method system ABAQUS and computer algebra program MAPLE, where relative entropies, as well as polynomial response functions, would be determined. This study would demonstrate that the relative entropies may be efficiently used in reliability assessment close to the widely engaged First Order Reliability Method (FORM).

A system of simultaneous multi-variable nonlinear equations can be solved by the Newton’s method with local q-quadratic convergence if the Jacobian is analytically available. If this is not the case, then quasi-Newton methods with local q-superlinear convergence give solutions by approximating the Jacobian in some way. Unfortunately, the quasi-Newton condition (secant equation) doesn’t completely specify the Jacobian approximate in multi-dimensional case, so its full-rank update is not possible with classic variants of methods. The suggested new iteration strategy (“T-Secant”) allows full-rank update of the Jacobian approximate in each iteration by determining two independent approximates for the solution. They are used to generate a set of new independent trial approximates, then the Jacobian approximate can fully be updated. It is shown, that the T-Secant approximate is in the vicinity of the classic quasi-Newton approximate, providing that the solution is evenly surrounded by the new trial approximates. The suggested procedure increases the super-linear convergence of the secant method (φS = 1.618...) to super-quadratic (φT = φS + 1 = 2.618...) and the quadratic convergence of the Newton-method (φN = 2) to cubic (φT = φN + 1 = 3) in one dimensional case. The Broyden-type efficiency (mean convergence rate) of the suggested method in multi-dimensional case is an order higher than the efficiency of other classic low-rank update quasi-Newton methods as shown by numerical examples on a Rosenbrock-type test-function with up to 1000 variables. The geometrical representation (hyperbolic approximation) in single variable case helps explaining the basic operations and a vector-space description is also given in multi-variable case.

In this paper, an analytical form of Rump Function is presented. This seminal function constitutes a fundamental concept of digital signal processing theory and is also involved in many other areas of applied mathematics. In particular, Rump Function is performed in a simple manner as the limit of a sequence of real functions letting ? tend to infinity. This limit is zero for strictly negative values of the real variable ? whereas it coincides with the independent variable ? for strictly positive values of the variable ?. The novelty of this work compared to other research studies concerning analytical expressions of the Ramp Function, is that the proposed formula is not exhibited in terms of miscellaneous special functions, e.g. Gamma Function, Biexponential Function or any other special functions such as Error Function, Hyperbolic Function, Orthogonal polynomials etc. Hence, this formula may be much more practical, flexible and useful in the computational procedures which are inserted into digital signal processing techniques and other engineering practices.

Leak of carbon dioxide (CO2) from conventional underground carbon storage reservoirs is an increasing concern. It is highly desirable to inject CO2 into low-temperature reservoirs so that CO2 can be locked inside the reservoir in solid state as CO2-hydrates. Marine gas hydrate reservoirs and surrounding water aquifers are attractive candidates for this purpose. However, the nature of low-permeability of these marine sediments hinders injection of CO2 in commercial scale due to the low-injectivity of wells with conventional completions. This study investigates injection of CO2 into the low-permeability marine reservoirs using a new type of well namely radial-lateral wells (RLW). An analytical model was developed for predicting CO2 injectivity of the RLW to assess well injectivity improvement. A case study and sensitivity analysis were performed with field data from the South China Sea. Result of analysis reveals that the injectivity of the RLW is nearly proportional to reservoir permeability, lateral wellbore length, and number of laterals. CO2 injection rate is predicted to be 19 tons/day to 250 tons/day, which is 3 to 15 times higher than the injectivity of frac-packed wells. It is feasible to inject CO2 into the low-permeability-low-temperature marine reservoirs at commercial flow rates. This work provides an analytical tool to predict CO2-injectivity of RLW in low-temperature marine reservoirs for leak-free CO2 storage.

In this paper we provide some important and significant observations on invo-regular rings appeared in Ann. Univ. Mariae Curie-Sklodowska Sect. A Mathematica (2018). In addition we exhibit that strongly invo-regular rings, invo-regular rings and quasi invo-regular rings all coincide with the well known and well characterized tripotent rings and all these rings further coincide with the well known unit regular rings.

A simple bounded stochastic motion is employed for modelling equity price dynamics under shocks, where the prices are constrained to lie between two positive bounds. While the stochastic process has an inaccessible boundary, the other boundary is quasi-bounded, implying that the boundary can be breached if the probability leakage condition is met. The quasi-boundedness of the process at the boundary can thus provide an indicator of possible risk of equities under price shocks. Empirical calibration of model parameters of the proposed process for equities can be performed easily due to the availability of an analytically tractable probability density function which generates fat-tailed distributions consistent with empirical observations. The volatility and mean-reversion of the S&P500 dynamics calibrated by the process is positively and negatively co-integrated respectively with the VIX index representing the level of market distress. The process captures the high likelihood of Hertz’s default about two months earlier, using only information until that point, and before the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Empirical calibration of the process for GameStop’s stock price shows that the short squeeze of the stock occurred when the condition for breaching an upper boundary was met on 14 January 2021, i.e., about two weeks before major short sellers closed out their positions with significant losses. The trading volume of the stock was positively co-integrated with the probability leakage ratio.

The purpose of the present paper is to introduce and investigate new subclasses of analytic function class of bi univalent function defined in open unit disk connected with a linear q-convolution operator, which are associated with the quasi-subordination. We find coefficients estimate |h_2 |,|h_3 | for functions in these subclasses. Several known and new consequences of these results are also pointed out.

The present paper is aimed at presenting an updated review of prediction methods for the aerodynamic noise of ducted rotor-stator stages. Indeed, ducted rotating-blade technologies are in continuous evolution and increasingly used, for both aeronautical propulsion units, power generation and air conditioning systems. Different needs are faced, from the early design stage to the final definition of a machine. Fast-running, approximate analytical approaches and high-fidelity numerical simulations are considered as the best suited tools for each, respectively. Recent advances are discussed, with emphasis on their pros and cons.

Compton cameras detect scattered gamma rays and estimate the distribution of gamma-ray sources. Nonetheless, crafting a camera tailored to a specific application presents formidable challenges, often necessitating the implementation of diverse image reconstruction techniques. Delving into the factors influencing these cameras can pave the way for design optimization and performance enhancement. This study introduces an inventive detector design for Compton imaging systems, building upon the achievements of prior designs. The proposed system contains eight scatterer detectors and a semiconductor absorber detector, spaced at 1 mm and 30 mm intervals, respectively. The source-to-first-scatterer-detector distance is 5 mm, with scatterer and absorber detector plates measuring 70× 70× 2.125 mm³ and 70× 70× 10 mm³, respectively. Geant4 simulation toolkit models the Compton imaging system, and an analytical method reconstructs Compton camera images. Unlike more straightforward techniques, the analytical method directly reconstructs Compton camera images by solving the equation relating to the reflected image data. This approach is implemented in the C++ programming language. The study's findings reveal that the analytical method discerns optimal conditions and parameters that significantly influence efficiency, yielding a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 3.7 mm with an angular uncertainty of approximately 2.7 degrees at an energy level of 0.662 MeV. Compared to another experimental design employing the analytical image reconstruction approach, the FWHM value decreased by 0.7 mm. This study presents an innovative detector design and an analytical reconstruction method for Compton imaging systems, showcasing improved efficiency and accuracy.

As a new type of gear, bevoloid gears have the advantages of compensating axial error, smooth transmission, and eliminating turning error, and they are widely used in applications requiring high transmission accuracy and stability. However, research on calculating the time-varying mesh stiffness of bevoloid gears is still limited, and there is an urgent need to propose a method that can calculate the stiffness of bevoloid gears quickly and accurately. This paper first establishes the bevoloid gear tooth profile expressions, then assumes a pair of bevoloid gears meshing with the same rack and derives the contact line equations of parallel axis bevoloid gear pairs, and analyze the contact process of bevoloid gears. We propose an analytical algorithm that uses the slicing method to calculate the stiffness of helical gears, straight bevoloid gears, and helical bevoloid gears, change the parameters of helical bevoloid gears respectively, and analyze the influence of different parameters on stiffness. Finally, the finite element method is used to verify the analytical method, and the correctness of the analytical calculation results is verified, and the errors are analyzed.

This article presents the impact analysis of space harmonics (SH) presence on a single-sided three-phase linear induction motor, along with a comprehensive parametric investigation. The presence of SH often reduces the LIM performances. The electromagnetic phenomena are governed by Maxwell's equations associated with equivalent circuit modelling. The chosen mathematical model uses 2D formulation with magnetic vector potential A. The model implementation is performed with finite element method on Gmsh-GetDP free platform. The electromagnetic thrust is calculated in current excitation case by a numerical model (FEM) with and without term generating SH in order to highlight the effect of SH. The adaptation to voltage supply operation is obtained by equivalent electric circuits (EEC), through calculation of the operational impedance. The main objective of the study consists in a comparative exploration of SH presence using two numerical models (single and multi-harmonics), and an assessment of parameters effect on space harmonic presence and various machine characteristics such as thrust, efficiency, and power factor. The motor’s characteristics (ie: thrust, efficiency and power factor) strongly depend on parameters such as the pole pair number and conductivity. Improving the operation and maximizing the performances of such a machine for a given specification requires the use of optimization algorithms.

We describe the development and validation of a HPLC-MS/MS method to assess the pharmacokinetics and tumour distribution of ZST316, an arginine analogue with inhibitory activity towards dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase 1 (DDAH1) and vasculogenic mimicry, and its active metabolite L-257 in a xenograft model of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). The method proved to be reproducible, precise, and highly accurate for the measurement of both compounds in plasma and tumour tissue following acute and chronic (five days) intraperitoneal administration of ZST316 (30mg/Kg daily) in six-week-old SCID mice inoculated with MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells. ZST316 was detected in tumour tissue and plasma after 1 hour (6.47 and 9.01M, respectively) and 24 hours (0.13 and 0.16M, respectively) following acute administration, without accumulation during chronic treatment. Similarly, the metabolite L-257 was found in tumour tissue and plasma after 1 hour (15.06 and 8.72M, respectively) and 24 hours (0.17 and 0.17M, respectively) following acute administration of ZST316, without accumulation during chronic treatment. The half-live after acute and chronic treatment ranged between 4.4-7.1hrs (plasma) and 4.5-5.0hrs (tumour) for ZST316, and 4.2-5.3hrs (plasma) and 3.6-4.9hrs (tumour) for L-257. The results of our study demonstrate the a) capacity to accurately measure ZST316 and L-257 concentrations in plasma and tumour tissue in mice using the newly developed HPLC-MS/MS method, b) rapid conversion of ZST316 into L-257, c) good intra-tumour penetration of both compounds, and d) lack of accumulation of both ZST316 and L-257 in plasma and tumour tissue during chronic administration. The new HPLC-MS/MS method is useful to investigate the in vivo effects of ZST316 and L-257 on vasculogenic mimicry, tumour mass, and metastatic burden in xenograft models of TNBC.

Analyzing network robustness against random failures or malicious attacks is a critical research issue in network science as it helps to enhance the robustness of beneficial networks or efficiently disintegrate harmful networks. Most studies commonly neglect the impact of the attack success rate (ASR) and assume that attacks on the network will always be successful. However, in real-world scenarios, an attack may not always succeed. This paper proposes a novel robustness measure called Robustness-ASR (RASR), which utilizes mathematical expectations to assess network robustness when considering the ASR of each node. To efficiently compute the RASR for large-scale networks, a parallel algorithm named PRQMC is presented, which leverages randomized quasi-Monte Carlo integration to approximate the RASR with a faster convergence rate. Additionally, a new attack strategy named HBnnsAGP is introduced to better assess the lower bound of network RASR. Finally, the experimental results on 6 representative real-world complex networks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods compared with the state-of-the-art baselines.

In this paper we overview all analytical engineering solutions for corrosion problems in pressure vessels delivered over the past 60 years. We briefly detail strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches, thus demonstrating the need for novel uniform corrosion analysis methods for both current and new applications. To complement the review, we also present a new analytical model allowing to estimate the lifetime of pressured elastic vessels with mechanically assisted corrosion. Both internal/external pressure and internal/external corrosion are captured and dissolution driven corrosion is also considered. The readily implemented method improves existing analytical approaches and is shown to be effective for thin and thick shells, as well as various loading and corrosion intensity and geometrical conditions.

In the rapidly evolving field of data management, numerous terminologies, such as data warehouse, data lake, data lakehouse, and data mesh , have emerged, each representing a unique analytical data architecture. However, the distinctions and similarities among these paradigms often remain unclear. The present paper aimed to navigate the data architecture landscape by conducting a comparative analysis of these paradigms. The analysis a identified and elucidated the differences and similari- ties in features, capabilities, and limitations of these architectural constructs. The study outcome serves as a comprehensive guide, assisting practitioners in selecting the most suitable analytical data architecture for their specific applications.

This hypothesis demonstrates that the efficiency of Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) for nucleic acid detection can be positively influenced by preconcentration of microbial cells onto hydrophobic paper surfaces. The mechanism of this model is based on the high attraction of microbes towards hydrophobic surfaces. Extensive studies have demonstrated that hydrophobic surfaces exhibit enhanced bacterial and fungal adhesion. The preconcentration approach by exploiting this inherent affinity of hydrophobic paper substrates enables the adherence of a greater number of target cells, resulting in a higher concentration of target templates for amplification directly from urine samples. In contrast to conventional methods, which often involve complex procedures, this approach offers a simpler, cost-effective, and user-friendly alternative. Moreover, the integration of cell adhesion, LAMP amplification, and signal readout within paper origami-based devices can provide a portable, robust, and highly efficient platform for rapid nucleic acid detection. This innovative hypothesis holds significant potential for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics and field surveillance applications. Further research and development in this field will advance the implementation of this technology, contributing to improved healthcare systems and public health outcomes.

Pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) has received significant attention for capturing surface pressure in recent years. One major source of uncertainty in PSP measurements, temperature dependency, stems from the fundamental photophysical process that allows PSP to extract pressure information. The motion-capturing PSP method, which involves two luminophores, is introduced as a method to reduce the measurement uncertainty due to temperature dependency. A theoretical model for the pressure uncertainty due to temperature dependency is proposed and demonstrated using a static pressure measurement with an applied temperature gradient. The experimental validation of the proposed model shows that the motion-capturing PSP method reduces the temperature dependency by 37.7% compared to the conventional PSP method. The proposed model also proves that a PSP with zero temperature dependency is theoretically possible.

The paper proposes an approach to determine the optimal number of medical specialists in the region. According to the author's theoretical model, in order to maximize public welfare, the marginal contribution of the last physician recruited to the growth of the public utility function should be equal to the marginal cost of attracting him and providing conditions for his work. To empirically assess the contribution of physicians to the number of lives saved, the CVD mortality rate is modeled using the instrumental variable method. On average, a 1% increase in the number of cardiologists is associated with a 0.6% decrease in cardiovascular mortality. At the level of provision with cardiologists in the amount of 1 per 100 thousand people, their marginal contribution to the number of lives saved is not less than 129 per 100 thousand people, with a further decrease by 5 people with the increase in the level of provision by 1 unit. The use of the obtained results will increase the validity of managerial decisions and in determining the optimal level of doctors when choosing between alternative possibilities of spending money on hiring doctors of different profiles or other expenses, especially in the case of limited resources.

A quantum particle constrained between two high potential barriers provides a paradigmatic example of a system sustaining quasi bound (or resonance) states. When the system is prepared in one of such quasi bound states, the wave function approximately maintains its shape but decays in time in a nearly exponential manner radiating into the surrounding space, the lifetime being of the order of the reciprocal of the width of the resonance peak in the transmission spectrum. Naively, one could think that adding more lateral barriers would preferentially slow down or prevent the quantum decay since tunneling is expected to become less probable and because of quantum backflow induced by multiple scattering processes. However, this is not always the case and in the early stage of the dynamics quantum decay can be accelerated (rather than decelerated) by additional lateral barriers, even when the barrier heights are arbitrarily large. The decay acceleration originates from resonant tunneling effects and is associated to large deviations from an exponential decay law. We discuss such a counterintuitive phenomenon by considering the hopping dynamics of a quantum particle on a tight-binding lattice with on-site potential barriers.

The determination of critical ventilation flow rate is significant for the risk control and the standard development during accidental hydrogen leakage in a confined space with hydrogen-related equipment. In this paper, an analytical model for calculating critical ventilation flow rate was proposed through the quantification and constraint solution of ventilation effect and ventilation cost. The experimental method was used to investigate the effects of nozzle diameter and stagnation pressure on diffusion and ventilation for horizontal hydrogen leakage in a cuboid chamber. Ventilations from 30m3/h to 180m3/h were carried out through the rectangular vent. It was shown that the peak concentration of the measuring point is positively correlated with the stagnation pressure and the nozzle diameter. The experimental data are used to verify the analytical model by calculating the effective ventilation time. The study demonstrates that the critical ventilation flow rate can be increased significantly at higher stagnation pressures and larger nozzle diameters. And the discrepancy of critical ventilation flow rates under different nozzle diameters will be enhanced with the increase of stagnation pressure. For the stagnation pressure of 0.4MPa, the critical ventilation flow rate under 4mm nozzle even increases by 52% relative to the 2mm nozzle.

Cyrene was evaluated for the first time as a potential sustainable mobile phase solvent in re-versed-phase chromatography. As a benign biodegradable solvent, Cyrene is an attractive re-placement to classical non-green organic chromatographic solvents such as acetonitrile and a modifier, co-eluent to known green solvents such as ethanol. Compared to ethanol, Cyrene is less toxic, non-flammable, bio-based, biodegradable and cheaper solvent. A fire safety spider Chart was generated to compare the properties of Cyrene to ethanol and show its superiority as a greener solvent. Cyrene's behaviour, advantages, and drawbacks in reversed-phase chromatography, including cut-off value, elution power, selectivity, and effect on the column, were investigated using a model drug mixture of moxifloxacin and metronidazole. A monolithic C18 (10 x 4.6 mm) column was used as a stationary phase. Different ratios of Cyrene: ethanol with an aqueous portion of sodium acetate buffer mobile phases were tested. A mobile phase consisting of Cyrene: ethanol: 0.1 M sodium acetate buffer pH 4.25 (8:13:79, v/v) was selected as most suitable mobile phase system for separating and simultaneously determining metronidazole and moxifloxacin. The greenness and whiteness of the method were evaluated using the qualitative green assessment tool AGREE and the white analytical chemistry assessment tool RGB12. Further potentials of Cyrene as a solvent or modifier in normal phase chromatography, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and supercritical fluid chromatography are discussed.

Currently, efficient utilization of low-grade thermal energy is a great challenge. Thermoelectricity is an extremely promising method of generating electrical energy from temperature differences. As a promising energy conversion technology, thermo-electrochemical cells (TECs) have attracted much attention in recent years for their ability to convert thermal energy directly into electricity with high thermal power. Within TECs, anions and cations gain and lose electrons, respectively at the electrodes using the potential difference between the hot and cold terminals of the electrodes by redox couples. Additionally, the anions and cations therein are constantly circulating and mobile via concentration diffusion and thermal diffusion, providing an uninterrupted supply of power to the exterior. This review article focuses mainly on the operation of TECs, recent ad-vances in redox couples, electrolytes, and electrodes. The outlook for optimization strategies re-garding TECs is also presented in this paper.

Induction heating (IH) technology is widely recognized and utilized in residential applications due to its high efficiency and safe operating characteristics. Resonant inverter circuits are widely used in IH systems because of their high efficiency and ability to perform soft-switching. Among the various resonant inverters used in IH systems, the single-switch quasi-resonant (SSQR) inverter topology is typically preferred for low-cost and low-output-power applications. Despite its cost advantage, the SSQR topology has a relatively narrow soft-switching range, which can be unstable depending on the electrical parameters of the load and the resonant converter circuit. Accurately determining the capacitance value of the resonant capacitor and the inductance value of the induction coil, which are the key circuit elements of the SSQR induction cooker, is crucial for designing a reliable, efficient, and durable cooking system. In other words, there exists a critical relationship between the resonant converter circuit parameters, load characteristics, and safe operating conditions. Additionally, when considering closed-loop control methods used for power control and safety, selecting appropriate resonant circuit elements becomes vital in ensuring both reliable and efficient operation. This paper focuses on a novel and simplified design method for the SSQR inverter utilized in household appliances. The proposed method and its advantages in terms of the safe operating area of the switch are theoretically investigated and verified through simulations and prototype circuits.

Carbon nanotubes have sparked a substantial amount of scientific and technological research due to their exceptional mechanical, physical and electrical characteristics compared to conventional materials. As a result, detailed studies on their mechanical properties have been conducted, and static and dynamic behavior of single-walled and multi-walled carbon nanotubes have been proposed using Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam models. The main objective of this paper is to study the free vibration of a Timoshenko-Ehrenfest single-walled carbon nanotube based on the nonlocal theory and taking surface effects into account. To model these effects on frequency response of nanotubes, we use Eringen’s nonlocal elastic theory and surface elastic theory proposed by Gurtin and Murdoch to modify the governing equation. A modified version of Timoshenko nonlocal elasticity theory - known as the nonlocal truncated Timoshenko beam theory - is put forth to investigate the free vibration behavior of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT). Using the Hamilton’s principle, the governing equations and the corresponding boundary conditions are derived. Finally, to check the accuracy and validity of the proposed method, some numerical examples are carried out. The impacts of the nonlocal coefficient, surface effects and nanotube length on the free vibration of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) are evaluated and the results are compared with those found in the literature. The findings indicate that the length of the nanotube, the nonlocal parameter and the surface effect all play important roles and should not be disregarded in the vibrational analysis of nanotubes. Finally, the results show how effective and successful the current formulation is at explaining the behavior of nanobeams.

Evaporating liquid sessile drop deposited on horizontal surface is an important object of applications (printing technologies, electronics, sensorics, medical diagnostics, hydrophobic coatings, etc.) and theoretical investigations (microfluidics, self-assembly of nanoparticle, crystallization of the solute, etc.). The arsenal of formulas for calculating the slow evaporation of an axisymmetric drop of capillary dimensions deposited on a flat solid surface is reviewed. Such characteristics as vapor density, evaporation flux density, total evaporation rate are considered. Exact solutions obtained in the framework of the Maxwellian model, in which the evaporation process of the drop is limited by vapor diffusion from the drop surface to the surrounding air, are presented. The summary covers both well-known results obtained during the last decades and new results published by us in the last few years, but practically unknown to the wide scientific community. The newest formulas, not yet published in refereed publications, concerning exact solutions for a number of specific contact angles are also presented. In addition, new approximate solutions are presented for the first time (total evaporation rate and mass loss per unit surface area per unit time in the whole range of contact angles ), which can be used in modeling without requiring significant computational resources.

The paper presents the development of cheap and selective Paper-based Analytical Devices (PADs) for Pd(II) determination. The PADs were obtained with an azoic ligand, (2-(tetrazolylazo)-1,8 dihydroxy naphthalene-3,6,-disulphonic acid), termed TazoC, and filter paper as the substrate. The orange TazoC-PADs interact quickly with Pd(II) solutions by forming a complex purple-blue-colored already at a very acidic pH (lower than 2). The dye complexes no other metal ions at such an acidic media, making TazoC-PADs highly selective to Pd(II) detection. Besides, at higher pH values, other cations, for example, Cu(II) and Ni(II), can interact with TazoC through the formation of stable and pink-magenta-colored complexes; however, it is possible to quantify Pd(II) also in the presence of other cations using a multivariate approach. Indeed, by applying Partial Least Square regression (PLS), the spectra of the TazoC-PADs were related to the Pd(II) concentrations both when present alone in solution and also in the presence of Cu(II) and Ni(II). The PLS models correctly predicted Pd(II) concentrations in unknown samples and tap water spiked with the metal cation.

Anti-microbial drugs and coccidiostat compounds are commonly used in poultry farming. These compounds are subsequently excreted and released into the environment via broiler litter (BL) and can re-enter the food chain as fertilizer and/or animal feed. Residues of such drugs can encourage the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), as well as toxicity, when found in animal feed. The aim of this study was to develop a multi-residue analytic method for assessing 30 an-ti-microbial drugs and coccidiostats associated with BL and investigate the effects of stacking treatment on anti-microbial and coccidiostat residue degradation in BL used for ruminant feed at the lab-scale. Today, most analytical methods used to identify and quantitate these drug residues are traditional, and may be specific to some antimicrobials. All call for lengthy sample preparation and may present limitations in assessing broiler litter. Such conventional mul-ti-anti-microbial/coccidiostat residue detection assays employ liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid phase extraction (SPE) for sample purification. In our research, LLE and SPE were replaced by Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe (QuEChERS) clean-up steps for 30 an-ti-microbials and coccidiostats used in broiler farming and detection by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS/ MS). Using this method, recoveries were 70-120%, with the exception of norfloxacin and narasin, which showed recoveries of 67 and 68%, respectively. This analytical meth-od results show that eight samples were not detected in 42 samples, while in 34 samples, one or more drugs were present. Eighteen anti-microbial and coccidiostat residues were detected dur-ing one year sample collaction. The most frequently detected residues were narasin, nicarbazin, monensin, robenidine, oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, norfloxacin and sulfachloropyridazine, seen at levels from 0.4 to 8.9 mg•kg-1 (ppm). Nineteen anti-microbials and one coccidiostat were degraded to 95% by the stacking treatment. However, tilmicosin and eight coccidiostats persisted in litter (26-100%). The use of antimicrobials and coccidiostats in animal farming is of paramount concern with respect to human, animal and environmental contamination issues and as a source of resistant pathogenic bacteria. Still, most farmers use BL as ruminant feed and fertilizer without processing. Even though the effects of the stacking treatments on degradation of antimicrobials were significantly high, the degradation of coccidiostats and tilmicosin was limited. Clearly, BL should be treated and supervised before use as feed supplement or for land application. Hence, the present method, designed to support these goals, was optimized in terms of sensitivity and se-lectivity for the analytes addressed.

The objective of this study is to examine a nonparametric estimate , using the kernel approach, of the conditional distribution function of a scalar response variable that is given a random variable whose values take place in a separable real Hilbert space. The observations will be dependent on one another in a quasi-associated fashion. The pointwise practically perfect consistencies with rates of this estimator are established by us under some broad conditions. The study’s major objective is to investigate the convergence rate of the proposed estimator and its application in the convergence rate and asymptotic normality of the hazard function. The asymptotic normality of the developed estimator is established precisely. Simulation studies were conducted to investigate the behavior of the asymptotic property in the context of finite sample data.

The production of polyurethane films from bark-derived polyols requires the complete solubility of all components in the polyurethane synthesis media. In this study, a comprehensive investigation was conducted to achieve the copolymerization of black alder bark water extract-derived polyol with isocyanate for polyurethane film synthesis in THF solution. A fractionation approach using tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a solvent was employed to dissolve the extract, followed by filtration and removal of the solvent. The resulting THF-soluble fraction comprised 62±1% of the dry weight of the alder bark extract, mainly consisting of the xyloside form of the diarylheptanoid compound oregonin, along with oligomeric flavonoids and carbohydrates. The THF-insoluble fraction was the most enriched with carbohydrate compounds, followed by the crude extract and THF-soluble fraction. Another approach was aimed at obtaining bark extractives based liquid polyols suitable for producing rigid PU foams. For this purpose, oven-dried crude black alder bark water extract was liquefied with polyethylene glycol (PEG 400). The liquefaction of black alder bark and pine bark extractives was studied under different conditions, including varying temperature ranges (130-170⁰C), catalyst concentrations (0-1,5%), and bark extract content in the mixture (15-30%). The results showed that the use of sulphuric acid as a catalyst (1-1.5%) significantly improved the solubility of both extractives, enabling the attainment of extract concentrations up to 25% at 170⁰C. However, increasing the extract content beyond a certain threshold led to incomplete solubility. It was shown that the PEG-insoluble fractions consist mainly of carbohydrate components. To increase the content of biomass in liquid polyols, the effect of glycerol additions into the liquefaction agent is under study. The findings provide insights into tailoring bark-sourced polyols for polyurethane foam production through appropriate liquefaction conditions.

Coastal erosion is threatening the infrastructures of coastal community at the Ma River mouth in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam. When coastal erosion happens, people try to prevent it by emergency solutions like hard structures. However, this approach usually leads to more severe problem since the mechanism for coastal erosion is not investigated and understood properly. In this study the long-term configuration of Ma River mouth in Thanh Hoa Province, Central Vietnam has been investigated using Landsat imagery from 1987 to 2023. An analytical solution of one-line model for shoreline change was also employed to calculate the sand discharge from Ma River as well as the diffusion coefficient for sand transported along-shore by breaking waves. There was an asymmetric configuration of the Ma River mouth during the last 37 years. The sand supply from the Ma River is around 350,000 m3/year. This amount of sand is going mainly to the northern beach of the Ma River delta (from 55% to 75%). The asymmetric morphology of the Ma River mouth delta is the trigger for severe coastal erosion reported recently. This study provides a quick and easy method to investigate the morphological change of cuspate deltas where measured data is limited.

This publication investigates the potential application of bark extractives as a biopolyol and extracted bark residues as a filler for producing polyurethane materials. The aim is to enhance the properties of polymeric composites while reducing the environmental impact associated with the complex utilization of bark.The comprehensive study of compositions of extractives isolated from black alder (Alnus glutinosa) and Baltic pine (Pinus silvestris) barks was performed using microwave-assisted water extraction. The yield of the extracts obtained under different extraction conditions, as well as the total phenolic and monomeric carbohydrate content in the extractives, were studied. Furthermore, UHPLC-HRMS analysis was conducted to study the detailed composition of the bark extracts.The total content of hydroxyl groups and the relative portion of aliphatic and phenolic groups in the isolated extracts were determined depending on the extraction regimes and bark origination. The dominant compounds in black alder bark extracts isolated at 70-90⁰C were identified as diarylheptanoids and their derivatives bearing sugar units, with oregonin being the main compound. Pine bark extracts isolated at the same temperature were found to be rich in oligomeric proanthocyanidins. Extracts from both black alder and pine barks obtained at different times of isothermal heating between 130-150°C were rich in carbohydrates and showed an increased proportion of aliphatic OH groups.The study also focused on the composition of residual biomass. It was indicated by Py-GC/MS/FID and wet chemistry methods that residues of both black alder and pine bark are enriched with lignin in comparison with initial barks. Therefore, it can be proposed that extracted bark residues introduced into polyurethane compositions will act as a charcoal formation promoter, thus increasing the flame resistance of materials.Overall, the study provides valuable insights into the chemical composition of bark extractives and extracted bark residues for their potential application as biopolyol and fillers of polyurethane materials, contributing to a more sustainable approach in polymer composite production.

This study investigates the application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with a Micasense RedEdge-MX multispectral camera for the estimation of Secchi Depth (SD) in inland water bodies. The research analyzed and compared five sun-glint correction methodologies — Hedley, Goodman, Lyzenga, Joyce, and threshold removed glint to model the SD values derived from UAV multispectral imagery, highlighting the role of reflectance accuracy and algorithmic precision in SD modeling. While Goodman's method showed a higher correlation (0.92) with in situ SD measurements, Hedley's method exhibited the smallest average deviation (0.65 m), suggesting its potential in water resource management, environmental monitoring, and ecological modeling. The study also underscored the Quasi-Analytical Algorithm (QAA) potential in estimating SD due to its flexibility to process data from various sensors without requiring in situ measurements, offering scalability for large-scale water quality surveys. The accuracy of SD measures, calculated using QAA, was related to variability in water constituents of coloured dissolved organic matter and the solar zenith angle. A practical workflow for SD acquisition using UAVs and multispectral data was proposed for monitoring inland water bodies.

Analytical modeling has symmetries and aesthetic-mathematical characteristics that distinguish it from numerical computation. Nanoscience plays an extremely important role in unification efforts that also include holistic aspects of reality. In this paper I present new discovered results about the complete analytical quantum relativistic form of the mean square deviation of position false related to a lately appeared Drude-Lorentz-like model (DS model), already performed at classical, quantum and relativistic level. The function false gives precise information about the distance crossed by carriers (electrons, ions, etc.) inside a nanostructure, considering both quantum effects and relativistic velocities. The model has a wide scale range of applicability; the nanoscale is considered in this paper, but it holds from sub-pico-level to macro-level because of the existence of a gauge factor, making it applicable to every oscillating processes in Nature. Examples of application and suggestions supplement the paper, as well as interesting developments to be studied related to the model and to one of the basic elements of a current unified holistic approach based on the vacuum energy.

In many research fields, statistical probability models are often used to analyze real-world data. However, data from many fields, such as the environment, economics, and health care, do not necessarily fit traditional models. New empirical models need to be developed to improve their fit. In this paper, we explore a further extension of the quasi-Lindley model. Maximum likelihood, least square error, Anderson-Darling algorithm, and expectation-maximization algorithm are four techniques for estimating the parameters under study. All techniques provide accurate and reliable estimates of the parameters. However, the mean square error of the expectation maximization approach was lower. The usefulness of the proposed model was demonstrated by analyzing a dynamical systems data set, and the analysis shows that it outperforms the other models in all statistical models considered.

Chipless radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is expected to replace barcode technology due to its ability to read in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) situations, long reading range, and low cost. Currently, there is extensive research being conducted on frequency-coded (FC) co-polarized radar cross-section (RCS)-based tags, which are widely used. However, detecting co-polarized chipless RFID tags in cluttered environments is still a challenge, as confirmed by measuring two co-polarized tags in front of a perfect metal reflector (30.5cm×22.5cm). To address this challenge, a realistic mathematical model for a chipless RFID system has been developed that takes into account the characteristics of the reader and the tag, as well as reflections from cluttered objects. This model has been simulated and verified with measurement results by placing a single flat metal reflector behind two co-polarized one-bit designs: a dipole array tag and a square patch tag. The results showed that the interfering signal completely overlaps the ID of the co-polarized tag, severely limiting its detectability. To solve this issue, the proposed solution involves reading the tag in cross-polarization mode by etching a diagonal slot in the square patch tag. This proposed tag provides high immunity to the environment and can be detected in front of both dielectric and metallic objects.

In this paper, Akbari-Ganji's and Taylor series methods are applied to find analytical solutions to nonlinear differential equations that arise in an immobilized-cell photobioreactor. Approximate analytical expressions for substrate and product concentrations and both liquid and gas phases for various parameter values are derived using both methods. Efficiency, accuracy, and convergence of the two methods relative to highly accurate numerical methods are investigated to establish reliable profiles of these two methods for solving general nonlinear equations that model various physical phenomena. Numerical simulations are presented to validate the theoretical investigations.

We present evidence of the anchoring bias and disposition effect (DE) in investor trading decisions across different asset markets (stable and volatile assets) and market scenarios (stable and volatile markets), as well as how these biases affect investors' portfolio performance. The study employs a quasi-experimental design, allowing subjects to engage in interactive trading with four securities, two with potential negative returns and two with potential positive returns, within a simulated asset market. Our findings reveal the presence of the disposition effect and anchoring bias among individual investors in India. Second, market scenarios or volatility can influence the investors’ behavioral biases. The disposition effect was more prominent in volatile markets and the total market, while the anchoring bias was significant in stable and total markets. Additionally, investors exhibiting the disposition effect exhibit lower portfolio performance, while those demonstrating anchoring bias perform relatively better. The study's findings can help individual investors understand their behavioral biases, avoid them in future trading decisions, and improve portfolio performance. Financial institutions and regulatory agencies could identify investment products and supportive investor interactions towards better market trade decisions.

To improve the understanding of soil–pile interaction of laterally loaded piles, the quasi-static test of pile group foundation in silty clay with 5 foundation piles arranged in cross shape is carried out. The direct measurement-based p–y curves at different depths showed nonlinear behavior, in which the initial stiffness and ultimate soil reaction increased as the depth increased. The loading displacement amplitude corresponding to the failure of each foundation pile in the high axial compression reinforced concrete pile group foundation is given as follows: the front-end nappe foundation pile (#3 pile) is 6mm, the middle pile is 16mm, the front-end nappe foundation pile is 20mm, and the loading displacement amplitude of side pile is 24mm. In silty clay, due to the existence of pile group effect, the edge effect has little effect on the horizontal foundation bed coefficient of foundation pile in pile group, while the influence of masking effect on the horizontal foundation bed coefficient of each foundation pile in pile group is not related to the position of pile, but only to the existence of masking effect, and the influence of different columns of masking effect on the horizontal foundation bed coefficient is the same.

Quantum theory is the land of indiscernible things, of things that in some situations cannot be put apart. This contrasts in much with standard mathematics and classical logic, which were elaborated to deal with \textit{individuals}, discernible things. Many thinkers, among them the mathematician Yuri Manin, have proposed that a more general theory of `sets' than standard set theories (where sets are collections of discernible elements) should be elaborated to cope with quantum physics. Quasi-set theory was proposed with such an aim. In this paper, we consider some aspects of this theory and discuss the way we can use such a theory as a framework for constructing deformable (not rigid) structures where indiscernible things can be considered but with one additional and fundamental detail: these structures cannot be extended to rigid structures as it happens in the standard frameworks. Really, the way of dealing with indiscernible (or indistinguishable) elements within a `standard' framework such as a `classical' set theory (like the ZFC system) requires the confinement of the discussion to deformable (non-rigid) structures. But in ZFC every structure can be extended to a rigid structure (encompassing only the trivial automorphism -- the identity function), so that in the extended structure (or in the whole universe) one can realize that the supposed indiscernible objects are not indiscernible at all. Quasi-set theory is such that the universe of quasi-sets is deformable and in such a theory one can construct deformable structures which cannot be extended to rigid ones. The aim of this paper is to put these things in a clear way.

The chiral recognition of enantiomers is a topic of great importance. In this study, a straightforward and effective chiral detection strategy was developed for distinguishing between tryptophan (TRP) enantiomers. The approach involved the preparation of a magnetic molecularly imprinted chitosan (MMIC) for the sample preparation, which was combined with a nitrocellulose membrane (paper-based analytical device, PAD) integrated with D-TRP covalently-grafted polymethacrylic acid (PAD_PMA_D-TRP). The discrimination between TRP enantiomers was achieved using AuNPs as a colorimetric probe. Indeed, the presence of D-TRP rapidly induced the aggregation of AuNPs due to its strong affinity to PAD-PMA_D-TRP, resulting in a noticeable color change of the AuNPs from red to purple. On the other hand, L-TRP did not induce any color change. The chiral analysis could be easily performed with the naked eye and/or a smartphone. The developed method exhibited a detection limit of 3.3 µM and it was successfully applied to detect D-TRP in serum samples, demonstrating good recovery rates. The proposed procedure is characterized by its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, rapidity, and ease of operation.

The pore-throat radius of shale oil reservoir is extremely small, and it is difficult to accurately obtain the absolute permeability and oil-water two-phase relative permeability of actual oil reservoir through conventional core experiments. However, these parameters are very important for reservoir numerical simulation. In this paper, a method for characterizing flow parameters based on pore network model that considers differential pressure flow and diffusion flow is proposed. Firstly, a digital core was reconstructed using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) from the Gulong shale reservoir in the Songliao Basin, China, and a pore network model was extracted. Secondly, quasi-static single-phase flow and two-phase flow equations considering diffusion were established in the pore network model. Finally, pore throat parameters, absolute permeability, and oil-water two-phase permeability curves were calculated, respectively. The results show that the pore throat distribution of Gulong shale reservoir is mainly concentrated in the nanometer scale, the mean pore radius is 87 nm, the mean throat radius is 41 nm, and the mean coordination number is 3.97; The calculated permeability considering diffusion is 0.000124mD, which is approximately twice the permeability calculated without considering diffusion; The irreducible water saturation of the Gulong shale reservoir is approximately 0.26, and the residual oil saturation is approximately 0.73. The method proposed in this paper can provide an important approach for characterizing the flow parameters of similar shale oil reservoirs.

The paper examines common elements between Lévai’s and Milson’s potentials obtained by Liouville transformations of two rational canonical Sturm-Liouville equations (RCSLEs) with even density functions which are exactly solvable via Jacobi polynomials in a real or accordingly imaginary argument. We refer to the polynomial numerators of the given rational density function as ‘tangent polynomial’ (TP) and thereby term the aforementioned potentials as ‘e-TP’ A special attention is given to the overlap between the two potentials along symmetric curves which represent two different forms of the Ginocchio potential exactly quantized via Gegenbauer and Masjed-Jamei polynomials respectively. Our analysis reveals that the actual interconnection between Lévai’s parameters for these two rational realizations of the Ginocchio potential is much more complicated than one could expect based on the striking resemblance between two quartic equations derived by Lévai for ‘averaged’ Jacobi indexes.

Understanding how the public perceives various risks and hazards associated with our well-being and health is crucial for government and policymakers. The present research aimed to assess the public's perception of various risks and hazards associated with their well-being and health. The study combined two well-known approaches to risk assessment, namely, the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) and the psychometric paradigm. Seven risk attributes were chosen from the risk perception literature to evaluate 27 risks and hazard activities using a survey questionnaire developed based on the psychometric paradigm literature. The collected data was then analyzed using AHP to determine the priority weight for each risk attribute. The results showed that the most important risk attribute was voluntariness of risk, followed by chronic-catastrophic and newness of risk. Furthermore, the study found that natural hazards were ranked the highest, followed by refugee influx and fire hazards. In contrast, the mobile phone was perceived as the lowest type of risk. The findings can be used by policymakers to develop effective and sustainable risk communication strategies. Policymakers can use the research findings to create effective and sustainable risk communication strategies that help the government to inform and educate the public about potential risks, improve coordination among agencies and stakeholders, and enhance public trust in government decision-making.

A structural study of the 6√3 reconstruction conversion on 4H-SiC substrate surface in an Ar medium with a short sublimation annealing time into quasi-free epitaxial graphene by means of hydrogen intercalation between the upper layer of SiC and the adjacent reconstructed layer was carried out using the technique of reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) characterizing the surface of a crystalline material. A slight violation of the 6√3 reconstruction layer formation uniformity was found. The results of the study of the crystal structure of quasi-free graphene and single-layer graphene comprising a buffer layer formed on 4H-SiC in the traditional way in an Ar atmosphere without intercalation were compared.

Analytical mechanics is the most basic discipline. The basic principles of analytical mechanics should also be applicable to general deformed objects. However, the virtual displacement principle proposed by analytical mechanics is only applicable to particle systems and rigid body systems, but not to general deformed objects. In this paper, the generalized virtual displacement principle of general deformed objects (such as, elastic objects, plastic objects, elasto-platic objects and flexible objects etc ) is derived by the method of analytical mechanics, which is also applicable to particle systems and rigid body systems. First of all, according to the method of analytical mechanics, the external force, internal force, constraint reaction force and elastic recovery force of the deformed object system under the equilibrium state are analyzed, and the concepts of virtual displacement, ideal constraint and virtual work are introduced, and the generalized virtual displacement principle (also called generalized virtual work principle) of deformed objects is proposed; secondly, vector form, coordinate component form and generalized coordinate form of generalized virtual displacement principle of deformed object are given; thirdly, as the application of the principle, the virtual displacement principle of deformed objects in plane polar coordinate system, space cylindrical coordinate system and spherical coordinate system is given; finally, a brief conclusion is drawn. This work unifies the virtual displacement principle of elastic object, plastic, elastoplastic etc deformed object systems and rigid object systems with the basic method of analytical mechanics. It is a basic principle for dealing with the static problems of deformed objects. This work also lays a foundation for the further study of the dynamics of deformed object systems.

In response to the fire protection design challenges faced by the integrated station-city engineering under the new model of station-city fusion, such as large building volume, diverse traffic types, functional integration, spatial complexity, and inapplicable standards, this paper selects Chongqing East Station as a typical engineering case. The fire safety engineering methods and performance-based fire protection design ideas were used. The paper summarized the fire protection difficulties, such as multifunctional combination construction, large fire protection distance, large fire protection zoning area, long evacuation distance, and design of evacuation (quasi) safety zones. Combining with the actual situation of the engineering, this paper analyzed the basic technical measures taken to address these design challenges. By adopting the method of fire safety engineering, the safety of the design scheme is verified, which can provide a solution approach for the current fire protection design challenges in the integrated station-city engineering.

Crisis environments, which are becoming systemic, pose significant challenges to smart government strategies. The paper aims to contribute to academic debate by proposing an analytical framework for examining the institutional capacities of smart government systems in addressing local crises. The paper focuses on the recent approach of robust governance and highlights a set of variables that promote effective smart government: contingency planning capacity, analytical capacity, organizational management capacity, and collaborative capacity. The study presents an analytical model for evaluating the robustness and effectiveness of local smart government systems in crises. One of the significant findings of this study has been the identification of critical indicators that inform institutional capacities of smart government systems. By analyzing these indicators, the proposed analytical framework provides a comprehensive approach to assess the preparedness of smart government systems in dealing with crises. Moreover, it can be used to benchmark the performance of local smart government systems in similar contexts and identify best practices for improving crisis management.

This paper presents the development of a cheap and rapid electrochemical sensor for ascorbic acid detection. In particular, the graphite ink working electrode of screen-printed cells was covered by a film of elecrosynthesized molecularly imprinted polypyrrole (e-MIP); differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was the selected method for the analyte detection. The ascorbic acid molecules were suc-cessfully entrapped in the polypyrrole film, creating the recognition sites. The best results were obtained after polypyrrole overoxidation and performing the measurements in phosphate buffer solution 0.05 M/KCl 0.1M at pH 7.5. The comparison with the bare and the not imprinted polypyrrole-modified electrodes showed the highest selectivity and reproducibility of the e-MIP-based sensor. The developed method was applied to assess ascorbic acid in farmaceutical products obtaining values not significantly different from the declared content.

In this paper, a fuzzy logic-based energy management system and multi-port quasi-z-source converter are proposed that utilizes hybrid renewable energy sources. The system ensures that each energy source module can be used individually by employing fuzzy logic to define power modes. This approach also helps prevent switching losses resulting from extra switching of the source modules. Also, the proposed energy management does not have a mathematical model, so applicability is simple and it is suitable for different multiple input topologies. The Mamdani fuzzy inference system can be designed to capture the nonlinear behavior of the system because of the linguistic rules. Moreover, by adopting the quasi-z-source network to the end of the multi-port converter, the switching losses of the multi-port modules have been significantly reduced. The simulation results are obtained using MATLAB Simulink, and the experimental results are obtained by connecting the circuit to MATLAB Simulink via an Arduino Due.

Despite the fact that strong routine separation methodologies can give reliable specificity and validity at usual working pharmaceuticals concentrations, they may fail at very low concentration levels. This poses considerable challenges for researchers inves-tigating product purity and therapeutic drug monitoring. Sensitivity enhancement pro-cedures are thus required to maximize the performance of separation techniques. Large volume injection, solid phase extraction/solid phase enrichment (SPE/SPEn), pre-, post-, and in-column derivatization, as well as the use of sensitive detection devices are the simplest strategies for improving sensitivity of the separation-based analytical techniques. Large volume injection of samples with online SPE/SPEn coupled with separation techniques increased sensitivity and improved detection as well as quantification limits without affecting peak shape and system performance. Although the primary purpose of derivatization is to improve sensitivity and selectivity, greener derivatization is growing in popularity and should be considered in analytical chemistry. In general, two strategies are essential for accomplishing greener derivatization goals. The first is the search for and use of ecologically acceptable derivatizing reagents, solvents, and reaction conditions. The second is miniaturization and automation of analytical methods. This review discusses significant advances in separation-based analytical techniques, specifically enrichment approaches and detector signal improvement for pharmaceutical quantification in various matrices at very low concentration levels. As a result of improved analytical systems setup in drug assays, the possibility of high-throughput analyses was also highlighted.

The identification and quantitative determination of wool and fine animal fibers are of great interest in the textile field because of significant price differences between them and common adulterations in raw and processed textiles. Since animal fibers have remarkable similarities in their chemical and physical characteristics, specific identification methods have been studied and proposed following advances in analytical technologies. The identification methods of wool and fine animal fibers are reviewed in this paper and the results of relevant studies are listed and summarized, starting from classical microscopy methods which are still used today not only in Small to Medium Enterprises but also in large industries, research studies and quality control laboratories. Particular attention has been paid to image analysis, Nir spectroscopy and proteomics which constitute the most promising technologies of quality control in the manufacturing and trading of luxury textiles and can find application in forensic science and archeology.

Creating self-learning algorithms, developing deep neural networks and improving other methods that "learn" for various areas of human activity is the main goal of the theory of machine learning. It helps to replace the human with a machine, aiming to increase the quality of production. The theory of artificial neural networks, which already have replaced the humans in problems of detection of moving objects, recognition of images or sounds, time series prediction, big data analysis and numerical methods remains the most dispersed branch of the theory of machine learning. Certainly, for each area of human activity it is necessary to select appropriate neural network architectures, methods of data processing and some novel tools from applied mathematics. But the universal problem for all these neural networks with specific data is the achieving the highest accuracy in short time. Such problem can be resolved by increasing sizes of architectures and improving data preprocessing, where the accuracy rises with the training time. But there is a possibility to increase the accuracy without time growing, applying optimization methods. In this survey we demonstrate existing optimization algorithms of all types, which can be used in neural networks. There are presented modifications of basic optimization algorithms, such as stochastic gradient descent, adaptive moment estimation, Newton and quasi-Newton optimization methods. But the most recent optimization algorithms are related to information geometry, for Fisher-Rao and Bregman metrics. This approach in optimization extended the theory of classic neural networks to quantum and complex-valued neural networks, due to geometric and probabilistic tools. There are provided applications of all introduced optimization algorithms, what delighted many kinds of neural networks, which can be improved by including any advanced approaches in minimization of the loss function. Afterwards, we demonstrated ways of developing optimization algorithms in further researches, engaging neural networks with progressive architectures. Classical gradient based optimizers can be replaced by fractional order, bilevel and, even, gradient free optimization methods. There is a possibility to add such analogues in graph, spiking, complex-valued, quantum and wavelet neural networks. Besides the usual problems of image recognition, time series prediction, object detection, there are many are other tasks for modern theory of machine learning, such as solving problem of quantum computations, partial differential and integro-differential equations, stochastic processes and Brownian motion, making decisions and computer algebra.

Sesquiterpene lactones (STLs) are a large group of terpenoids most commonly found in plants of the Asteraceae family, e. g. in chicory plants, displaying a wide range of interesting biological activities. However, further studies on the biological potential of chicory derived STLs and analogues are challenging as only four of these molecules are commercially available (as analytical standards), and to date there are no published or patented simple extraction-purification processes capable of large scale STLs isolation. In this work we describe a novel three-step large scale extraction and purification method for the simultaneous purification of 11,13-dihydrolactucin (DHLc) and lactucin (Lc) starting from a chicory genotype rich in these STLs and in the corresponding glycosyl and oxalyl conjugated forms. After a small-scale screening on 100 mg of freeze-dried chicory root powder, the best results were achieved with a 17 h water maceration at 30°C. With these conditions we managed to increase the content of DHLc and Lc, at the same time favouring the hydrolysis of their conjugated forms. On a larger scale, the extraction of 750 g of freeze-dried chicory root powder, followed by a liquid-liquid extraction step and a reversed-phase chromatography, allowed the recovery of 642.3 ± 76.3 mg of DHLc and 175.3 ± 32.9 mg of Lc. The two pure STLs were subsequently used in the context of semi-synthesis to generate analogues for biological evaluation as antibacterial agents. In addition, other described chicory STLs that are not commercially available were also synthesized or extracted to serve as analytical standards for the study. In particular, lactucin-oxalate and 11,13-dihydrolactucin-oxalate were synthesized in two steps starting from Lc and DHLc, respectively. On the other hand, 11β,13-dihydrolactucin-glycoside was obtained after a MeOH/H₂O (70/30) extraction, followed by a liquid-liquid extraction step and a reversed-phase chromatography. Together, this work will help facilitate the evaluation of the biological potential of chicory derived STLs and their semisynthetic analogues.

In this article, we analyze the thermodynamics, thermal fluctuations and quasi-normal modes of a torus-like charge AdS black hole. The parameters of a torus-like charged AdS black hole are its mass, electric charge, and cosmological constant. We used a torus-like charge AdS black hole to evaluate thermodynamics through thermal fluctuations and found that it significantly affected the corrected thermodynamic potentials. Black holes of larger radii are more stable and significant. The effect of thermal fluctuation has been investigated on the other thermodynamic potentials such as the Hemohltz free energy, Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and specific heat, using the concept of corrected entropy. Finally, we use null geodesics to deal with quasi-normal modes. The null geodesics provide the photon sphere angular velocity and Lyapunov exponent, which are the real and imaginary components of the quasi-normal modes in the eikonal limit. With inceasing charge and photon radius, angular velocity reaches its maximum, similar to Lyapunov's exponent.

We exploit the properties of complex time to obtain an analytical relationship based on considerations of causality between the two conserved quantities of a system’s Hamiltonian and its Entropy Production. In natural units, when complexified, the one is simply the Wick-rotated complex-conjugate of the other. A Hilbert transform relation is constructed in the formalism of Quantitative Geometrical Thermodynamics which enables system irreversibility to be handled analytically within a framework that unifies both the microscopic and macroscopic scales, and which also unifies the treatment of both reversibility and irreversibility as complementary parts of a single physical description. In particular the thermodynamics of two unitary entities are considered: the alpha particle which is absolutely stable (that is, trivially reversible with zero entropy production), and a black hole whose absolute disequilibrium (unconditional irreversibility) is characterized by a non-zero entropy production for which we show an alternate derivation confirming our previous one (Universe 7, 2021, 325). The thermodynamics of a canonical decaying harmonic oscillator are also considered. In this treatment the complexification of time also enables a meaningful physical interpretation of both “imaginary time” and “imaginary energy”.

In this study, we present more than 8 years of observations of the quasi-16-day wave (Q16DW) in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) wind at middle latitudes observed by the Mengcheng (33.4°N, 116.5°E) meteor radar. The long-term variation in amplitudes calculated from the data between April 2014 and December 2022 shows enhanced wave activity during winter and early spring (near equinox) and suppressed wave activity during the summer. The Q16DWs are relatively weak in the meridional wind. During the winter months, the Q16DWs in the zonal component exhibit a burst below 85 km, and their amplitudes reach up to 10 m/s. In the early spring, the Q16DWs strengthen above 90 km with amplitudes in excess of 12 m/s. The phase differences between the zonal and meridional components of the Q16DW are, on average, slightly smaller than 90°, suggesting the existence of orthogonal relationships between them. During strong bursts, the periods of the Q16DW in winter range between 15 and 18 d, whereas in winter, the periods tend to be more diffuse. The wintertime Q16DW is amplified, on average, when the zonal wind shear peaks, suggesting that barotropic instability may be one source of Q16DW. Q16DW amplitudes exhibit considerable interannual variability; however, a relationship between the 11-year solar cycle and the Q16DW is not found.

Fiber aggregation in nanocomposites has an important effect on the macroscopic electrical performance. To quantitatively evaluate its effect, an index to characterize the degree of aggregation is imperative, and ideally it should have three features simultaneously, i.e., single-parametric, dimensionless and physically meaningful, applicable to different aggregation topologies, and one-to-one corresponding to material electrical properties. To this end, a new aggregation degree is proposed, which is defined as the average increased number of fibers that connect with each one when fibers aggregate from a uniformly distributed state. This index is applicable to different aggregation topologies from lump-like aggregating clusters to network-like aggregating clusters. This index is proven to only depend on the local features of aggregating clusters, and can be concisely expressed by the characteristic parameters of local structure, via geometric probability analysis and numerical validations. Further, a one-to-one linear relation between the aggregation degree and percolation threshold is established by Monte Carlo simulations, which is independent of the distribution law of the fibers. This work provides a guide to the property characterization, performance prediction and material design of nanocomposites, and also gives a physical insight into the understanding of systems with similar non-uniform distributions.

The paper presents a new conception of quasi-distributed sensor for simultaneous measurement of several physical fields and the results of an experimental study of this sensor. A distinctive feature of the sensor defined by the sensitive RC elements connected in the original tree-like structure. The proposed is the structure of the sensor and measurement system as well as corresponding measurement algorithm. The high accuracy demonstrated by the sensor’s prototype gives possibility to effective use the proposed sensors in many technical and scientific applications.

Scientific, technical and bioinformatics advances have made it possible to establish analytics-based molecular biosimilarity for the approval of biosimilars. If the molecular structure and other product- and process-related attributes are comparable within the limits of testing then a biosimilar candidate would have safe safety and efficacy as its reference products. The current model of animal and human testing becomes redundant since all of these studies have much lower sensitivity and reproducibility in confirming biosimilarity. The recent AI-based protein structure prediction model has confirmed that the 3D structure can be predicted from the amino acid sequence, reducing the need for structural analysis; however, the new test methods based on MS are millions of times more sensitive and accurate. While the regulatory agencies have begun waiving animal testing and, in some cases, clinical efficacy testing, removing clinical pharmacology profiling brings a dramatic paradigm shift, reducing development costs without compromising safety and efficacy. Also shared is a list of 160+ products ready to enter as biosimilars. Major actions from regulatory agencies and developers are required to make this paradigm shift.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is commonly used for super-selective analysis through nanostructured silver layers in the environment, food quality, biomedicine, and materials science. To fabricate a high-sensitivity but more accessible device of SERS, dc magnetron sputtering technology was used to realize high sensitivity, low cost, stable deposition rate, and rapid mass production. This study investigated various thicknesses of a silver film ranging from 3.0 to 12.1 nm by field-emission-scanning-electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In the rhodamine 6G (R6G) testing irradiated by a He-Ne laser beam, the analytical enhancement factor (AEF) of 9.35x108, the limit of detection (LOD) of 10-8 M, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) of 1.61% were better than other SERS substrates fabricated by the same dc sputtering process because the results show that the 6 nm thickness silver layer has the highest sensitivity, stability, and lifetime. The paraquat and acetylcholine analytes were further investigated and high sensitivity was also achievable. The proposed SERS samples were evaluated and stored in a low humidity environment for up to forty weeks, and no spectrum attenuation could be detected. Soon, the proposed technology to fabricate high sensitivity, repeatability, and robust SERS substrate will be an optimized process technology in multiple applications.

Digital medicine based on the integration of all medical data of a particular patient, has become a reality today, thanks to information technology. Traditional medical examinations can be supple-mented by assessment results of the oxidative-anti-oxidative (OAO) status of the body [1]. Elec-trochemical sensors are able to not only determine the integral indicators of the OAO system of the body, but also to depict details of the processes occurring in the system. The main obstacle to the widespread use of electrochemical sensors in medical diagnostics is the extremely small amount of the received information in comparison with tens of thousands of known human dis-eases. The problem can be eliminated only by rethinking the purpose of electrochemical measure-ment within the framework of thermodynamics of information processes and information theory. In the information paradigm of electrochemical analysis of biological fluids, a sample is considered as an electrochemical message created by a sensor. The purpose of electrochemical measurement is to obtain information in a volume sufficient to identify the sample composition within the range of possible concentrations of its components. The fundamentals of the thermodynamics of infor-mation processes are considered and conclusions that are of practical importance for the devel-opment of electrochemical sensors and analyzers are derived. It is shown that potentiostatic con-trol of the sensor is physically impacted by the electromechanical instability of the electrical double layer, which is the main source of sensor signal noise. Estimates are of a minimum amount of an-alytical signal information required for identification of a sample of a known composition, such as a biological fluid, are provided. Examples of highly informative analytical signals for flowing and stationary samples are presented. Problems related to the visualization of such signals are noted.

This paper proposes a parameter coordination optimization design of Power System Stabilizer (PSS) based on an improved Quasi-Affine Transformation Evolutionary (QUATRE) algorithm to suppress low-frequency oscillation and improve the dynamic stability of power system. To begin, the Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm randomly updates the globally optimal solution of each QUATRE iteration and matches the inferior solution with a certain probability to escape the local extreme point. This new algorithm is first applied to power system. Second, Since damping ratio is one of the criteria to measure the dynamic stability of power system, this paper sets the objective function according to the principle of maximization of damping coefficient of electromechanical mode, and uses SA-QUATRE to search a group of global optimal PSS parameter combinations to improve the stability margin of the system as much as possible. Finally, the method's rationality and validity were validated by applying it to the simulation examples of IEEE 4-machine 2-area system with different operation states. The comparison with the traditional optimization algorithm shows that the proposed method has more advantages for multi-machine PSS parameter coordination optimization, and can restrain the low-frequency oscillation of power system more effectively and enhance the system stability.