bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using music in a word stress processing task
Authors: Degrave Pauline
Published: May 2022

Previous studies have reported that the use of music-related activities (e.g. hand-clapping or songs) can help
learners to acquire foreign languages. It remains unclear, however, whether music-based approaches help every learner equally or
whether it is more beneficial for learners with a musical background, such as musical practice, musical abilities, or engagement
in musical activities. In order to answer this question, we tested 80 French speakers whose musical background was evaluated using
a questionnaire. They performed a word stress processing task in Dutch containing spoken stimuli, spoken stimuli with a beat, or
sung stimuli. The results show that learners with some musical characteristics obtain higher scores than other learners and that
the use of music in the task can favor learners with a musical background.
Quenching and partitioning (Q&P) process: A critical review of the competing reactions
Authors: Kumar Sachin
Published: May 2022

The quenching and partitioning (Q&P) process has been proposed recently as an alternative route to obtain a unique microstructure consisting of decarburised martensite and retained austenite that results in a superior balance between strength and ductility. The stabilisation of austenite after the Q&P processing is mainly achieved through its carbon enrichment as a result of carbon partitioning from primary martensite formed during initial quenching. However, carbon partitioning is usually accompanied by complex competing reactions which are known to affect the austenite retention at room temperature. This review is a critical assessment of these competing reactions during the Q&P process and their implication on the evolution of microstructure.
Z-scheme SnC/HfS2 van der Waals heterojunction increases photocatalytic overall water splitting
Authors: Dai Zhuo-Ni , Cao Yong , Yin Wen Jin , Sheng Wei , Xu Ying
Published: May 2022

Designing a direct Z-scheme system is one of the effective ways to develop a high-efficient photocatalyst. In this paper, we designed the SnC/HfS2 heterojunction and explored its electronic structure and photocatalytic properties for water splitting based on first-principles calculations. Our results suggest that SnC/HfS2 heterostructure is a typical direct Z-scheme heterojunction, which can effectively separate carriers and possesses strong oxidation and reduction capabilities. The valence band maximum of SnC is close to the conduction band minimum of HfS2, which is in favor of the recombination of inter-layer carriers. The very small interlayer band gap and appropriate built-in electric field direction make the migration of electrons and holes along the Z-path. The photo-generated electrons on SnC make the hydrogen evolution reaction happen continuously, while the photo-generated holes on HfS2 make the oxygen evolution reaction happen continuously. The calculation of the reaction energy barrier indicates that the procedure of photocatalytic water splitting on the SnC/HfS2 heterojunction can be spontaneous. Our results show that SnC/HfS2 heterojunction is a potential direct Z-scheme photocatalyst for the overall decomposition of water.
A comparison study of the born-kuhn model and the finite-difference-time-domain calculations on stacked plasmonic nanorods
Authors: Karimitari Nima , Ai Bin , Zhao Yiping
Published: May 2022

A detailed analysis of the Born-Kuhn (BK) model for two coupled oscillators and comparison to the chiral optical properties of the corner-stacked plasmonic nanorods (CSPNs) have been investigated. Based on the normalized coupling constant c (= coupling frequency

ω
c

/resonance frequency

ω
0

) and the damping constant g (= dissipation γ/

ω
0

), the chiral optical response of the BK model could be significantly different, and the c-g space can be divided into two phase regions, a weak coupling and a strong coupling region. Once the c and g parameters are extracted from CSPN structures based on finite-difference time domain (FDTD) calculations, the BK model can be directly applied to predict the chiral plasmonic response of the CSPNs. In particularly, at

c
=

g

, the BK model suggests the strongest optical rotation dispersion while stronger circular dichroism occurs with a small g and a large c. These predictions have been confirmed by the FDTD calculations of CSPN structures. The detailed analysis of the BK model and the use of the model to direct fit the optical property of CSPNs demonstrate that the BK model is a very versatile class model to predict the chiral response of a chiral plasmonic structure or help to design and optimize a specific chiral plasmonic structure for a specific application.
Floquet topological phases with high Chern numbers in a periodically driven extended Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model
Authors: Agrawal Aayushi , Bandyopadhyay Jayendra N
Published: May 2022

The high Chern number phases with the Chern number |C| > 1 are observed in this study of a periodically driven extended Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (E-SSH) model with a cyclic parameter. Besides the standard intra-dimer and the nearest-neighbor inter-dimer hopping of the SSH model, an additional next-nearest-neighbor hopping is considered in the E-SSH model. The cyclic parameter, which plays the role of a synthetic dimension, is invoked as a modulation of the hopping strengths. A rigorous analysis of different phase diagrams has shown multiple Floquet topological phase transitions among the high Chern number phases. These phase transitions can be controlled by the strength and frequency of the periodic driving. Instead of applying perturbation theory, the whole analysis is done by Floquet replica technique. This gives a freedom to study high as well as low-frequency effects on the system by considering less or more number of photon sectors. This system can be experimentally realized through a pulse sequence scheme in the optical lattice setup.
Statistical terrain model with geometric feature detection based on GPU using LiDAR on vehicles
Authors: Liu Bo , Zhao Dingxuan , Chang Jinming , Yao Shuangji , Ni Tao , Gong Mingde
Published: May 2022

Digital terrain models based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) are widely used in ground robots to achieve autonomous navigation. Very few studies have been conducted on terrain modelling for preview information, which acts as an input for a vehicle’s active suspension system. In this study, we proposed an algorithm to construct a real-time terrain model from multi-frame LiDAR points according to the applications for preview control. The terrain model consisted of an elevation map with confidence intervals and feature detection. First, the statistical confidence interval of the elevation map represented the reliability of the mean height. Further, we used spatial signal processing techniques to detect the uneven geometric features of the terrain. The key point feature on the trajectory was detected by the Laplacian of Gaussian method. Finally, the raw point cloud data processing procedure was based on parallel multi-thread techniques combined with GPU programming, which significantly promotes computation efficiency to enable real-time implementation. Thus, the proposed terrain model integrates reliability issues and geometric features, which act as inputs for preview controllers or motion planning. Experimental results proved that our method has a competitive performance (in terms of precision and efficiency) compared with the state-of-the-art methods, and runs in real-time at 50 Hz.
Identification of texture characteristics for improved creep behavior of a L-PBF fabricated IN738 alloy through micromechanical simulations
Authors: Prasad Mahesh R G , Biswas Abhishek , Vajragupta Napat , Hartmaier Alexander
Published: May 2022

Additive manufacturing (AM) of nickel-based superalloys, due to high temperature gradients during the building process, typically promotes epitaxial growth of columnar grains with strong crystallographic texture in form of a 〈001〉 fibre or a cube texture. Understanding the mutual dependency between AM process parameters, the resulting microstructure and the effective mechanical properties of the material is of great importance to accelerate the development of the manufacturing process. In this work, a multi-scale micromechanical model is employed to gain deeper insight into the influence of various texture characteristics on the creep behavior of an IN738 superalloy. The creep response is characterized using a phenomenological crystal plasticity creep model that considers the characteristic γ–γ′ microstructure and all active deformation mechanisms. The results reveal that the creep strength increases with decreasing texture intensities and reaches its maximum when the 〈001〉 fibre and cube textures are misaligned to the specimen building direction by 45°. The simulations also predict that the uncommon 〈111〉 and 〈110〉 fibres offer significantly higher creep resistance than the typically observed 〈001〉 fibre, which provides a further incentive to investigate AM processing conditions that can produce these unique textures in the material. As the intensities and the alignment of 〈001〉 fibre and cube textures can be attributed to the laser energy density and the scan strategy employed and as the formation of distinct fibre textures depends on the geometry of the resulting melt pool, the laser powder bed fusion process parameters can be optimized to obtain microstructures with features that improve the creep properties.
Extracellular matrix as a driver for intratumoral heterogeneity
Authors: Pally Dharma , Goutham Shyamili , Bhat Ramray
Published: May 2022

The architecture of an organ is built through interactions between its native cells and its connective tissue consisting of stromal cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). Upon transformation through tumorigenesis, such interactions are disrupted and replaced by a new set of intercommunications between malignantly transformed parenchyma, an altered stromal cell population, and a remodeled ECM. In this perspective, we propose that the intratumoral heterogeneity of cancer cell phenotypes is an emergent property of such reciprocal intercommunications, both biochemical and mechanical-physical, which engender and amplify the diversity of cell behavioral traits. An attempt to assimilate such findings within a framework of phenotypic plasticity furthers our understanding of cancer progression.
Stable striped state in a rotating two-dimensional spin–orbit coupled spin-1/2 Bose–Einstein condensate
Authors: Xu Xuan , Gao Chao , Lin Ji , Li Hui-jun
Published: May 2022

We consider an effective two-dimensional Bose–Einstein condensate with some spin–orbit coupling (SOC) and a rotation term in an external harmonic potential. We find the striped state, and analyze the effects of SOC, the external potential, and the rotation frequency/direction on the profile and the stability of the striped state. Without the rotation term, the two spinor components exhibit striped pattern, and the numbers of stripes in the two components are always an odd–even or an even–odd. With the increase of the SOC strength, the number of stripes in both components increases, while the difference of the striped numbers is always one. After adding the rotation term, the profiles of the spinor components change qualitatively, and the change regulation of the striped numbers differs, while the difference of the striped numbers is still one. In addition, we find that the rotation direction only makes the striped state of the two spinor components exchange each other, though the clockwise and counterclockwise rotation directions are inequivalent with the presence of SOC. Such regulation is different from the previous study. And the rotation frequency gives rise to the transition from the striped state to a mixture of the striped state and vortex state. Furthermore, we prove the stability of these states by the evolution and linear stability analysis.
Tin disulfide as saturable absorber for the 1.3 μm nanosecond laser
Authors: Cai Enlin , Xu Jianyi , Zhang Shuaiyi , Wu Zhihong
Published: May 2022

A tin disulfide saturable absorber (SA) is prepared by a liquid phase exfoliation method, and it is employed as a 1.3 μm laser modulator for the first time. A stable passively Q-switched (PQS) Nd:Lu0.15Y0.85VO4 1.3 μm laser is successfully realized. Under an absorbed pump power of 6.68 W, the shortest pulse width of 34 ns is obtained, with a repetition rate of 1.18 MHz and a maximum average output power of 0.81 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the shortest pulse width and the highest repetition rate for a PQS 1.3 μm laser with two-dimensional material SAs.
Operational Strategy of Heavy Goods Vehicles in Enhancing the 2030 Agenda of SDGs Implementation: Cost-Effectiveness
Authors: Tarudin Nur Farizan , Adlan Muhammad Akmal Asyraaf
Published: May 2022

The logistics industry in Malaysia has faced numerous issues and challenges, one of the important concerns in this industry is to reduce operational costs. Government and agencies tend to give more attention to road passenger transports rather than road freight transport especially Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) in a matter of service quality and efficiency. Despite in Malaysia, certain road haulages have not yet implemented the right strategy in their operation to fully optimize their resources and operation. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the green strategy for HGVs implementation in their operations to support Malaysia voluntary target to increase economies of scale. The conceptual framework was developed for this study’s and the evaluation is based on the HGVs operators’ perspective. The data had been analyzed by using a quantitative approach and simple calculation on the operational cost based on fuel cost. Based on the finding gathered, most of the respondents agreed that by using a suitable strategy, the operational cost can be reduced and sustain their businesses. Therefore, this study can be as one of the guidelines for the industry to be aligned with Malaysia 11th Plan and also the 2030 Agenda in developing sustainable development goals more aggressively.
Analyzing Windstorm Pattern in Malaysia based on Extracted Twitter Data
Authors: Isa N A , Salleh S A , Chan A , Zakaria N H , Suif Z , Abdul Halim M
Published: May 2022

Wind-rain interactions often lead to severe windstorm events and consequently cause damages and fatal destructions. The increase in frequency of recent windstorm events overwhelmed the nation. Thus, efforts in obtaining and recording these events are intensified with the help of current technology. This study aims to analyze the pattern of recent windstorm events by utilizing big data and GIS. In this study, the reported windstorm events in Twitter application were extracted using R-programming. Prior to analyses, the extracted data were screened to remove any outliers found. The extracted data were selected based on the credibility of its sources to ensure the accuracy and quality. These selected data were extracted from trusted users such as Meteorological Department of Malaysia (MMD), Berita Harian, Bernama and others. This study has demonstrated the possibility of Twitter data as an alternative data source in windstorm studies based on its reasonable findings. It is exhibited that there is drastic increased of windstorm events frequency in years 2018-2020, especially in the northern and west-coast regions of Peninsular. The highest frequency was recorded in April (inter-monsoon season) while the lowest is in February and December (northeast monsoon). The increase of frequency in several locations in the Peninsular is very alarming especially in the Klang Valley since this region is highly populated and serves as Malaysia’s important economic zones. Hence, risk control should be considered in this region to reduce the negative impacts as suggested in SDG11 and SDG13.
Effects of Diuron, Terbuthylazine and Isoproturon on Photochemical and Non-Photochemical Quenching of Ectocarpus siliculosus
Authors: Hashim Mohd Akmal , Kamaruddin Sharir Aizat , Yam Mun Fei , Khazali Ahmad Suhail , Kamil Khairunnisa Ahmad , Nasir Nor Atikah Husna Ahmad , Brown Murray T.
Published: May 2022

The influence of anthropogenic discharges on the environment is an increasing concern among environmental toxicologists. This investigation set out to analyse the impacts of selected herbicides; diuron, terbuthylazine and isoproturon on two strains of Ectocarpus siliculosus with different pollution histories, LIA4 and Es524. Evaluation of their effects on photochemical quenching (qP) and non-photochemical quenching (qN) indicators have demonstrated negative impacts of all herbicides on both strains. From the results, diuron shows to exert significant negative effect at concentration as low as 5 µg L−1 followed by terbuthylazine at 10 µg L−1 (qP) and 5 µg L−1 (qN), and isoproturon at 100 µg L−1 (qP) and 50 µg L−1 (qN). Non-photochemical quenching (qN) indicator was found to exhibit greater sensitivity to the herbicides compared to photochemical quenching (qP). In both strains of E. siliculosus, the three herbicides were ranked in order of toxicity: diuron > terbuthylazine > isoproturon. This investigation provides new information on ecotoxicology of herbicides towards brown algae.
Dominant Tree Species Classification using Remote Sensing Data and Object -Based Image Analysis
Authors: Jamal Juhaida , Zaki Nurul Ain Mohd , Talib Noorfatekah , Saad Nurhafiza Md , Mokhtar Ernieza Suhana , Omar Hamdan , Latif Zulkiflee Abd , Suratman Mohd Nazip
Published: May 2022

Over the last few decades, forests have been the victims of over logging and deforestation. Uncontrolled of this activity gave an impact to the tree species to be endangered. A detailed inventory of tree species is needed to manage and plan the forest on a sustainable basis. Many techniques had been done to identify the tree species, but in the recent three decades, remote sensing technique was widely used to study the distribution of tree species. In this study, an object-based image analysis (OBIA) with a combination of high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery (WV-2) and airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data was tested for classification of individual tree crowns of tropical tree species at Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) forest, Selangor. LiDAR data was taken using fixed-wing aircraft with Gemini Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper (ALTM) laser with 0.15m and 0.25 resolution for horizontal and vertical. WV-2 was captured with a 0.5m spatial resolution. In this study, hyperspectral data captured using Bayspec sensor mount at UAV with height 220m from the ground and have 0.3 resolution was used to extract the spectral reflectance of tree species. Segmentation of the image was performed using multi-resolution segmentation in eCognition software. Accuracy assessment for segmentation was done by measure the ‘goodness fit’ (D value) between training object and output segmentation. The overall accuracy of the segmentation was 86%. For species classification, the accuracy assessment was performed using the error matrix confusion technique to 7 classes of tree species. The result had shown the overall accuracy classification was 64%.
Status and Sustainability of Mangrove Forests: A Case Study from Merbok Mangrove Reserve, Kedah, Malaysia
Authors: Hashim Tengku Mohd Zarawie Tengku , Suratman Mohd Nazip , Singh Harinder Rai , Jaafar Jasmee , Bakar Ahmad Naqiyuddin
Published: May 2022

Mangroves comprise of a complex combination of halophytic trees, shrubs and other plants that exist and grow in the coastal zone throughout tropical and subtropical regions. Mangrove ecosystems provide significant socioeconomic benefits to the local communities such as fish, timber and tourism opportunities. Understanding how they perceive on mangrove ecosystems and services is crucial for incorporating this information into decision making process and conservation, this study was conducted to study the awareness and knowledge of local community towards the trend and status of mangrove resources in Merbok Mangrove Reserve (MMR) and, to identify factors that influence the survival of mangroves in the study area. A survey was conducted in MMR using questionnaires as a main tool for data collection. A total of 300 respondents live near and around MMR were selected which involved a total of 10 villages. From the study, 95% of the respondents perceived that mangroves are very important resources to the local community. About 95.7% of respondents agree that the loss of mangroves will have negative impacts to the environment and the economics of the livelihood. Furthermore, the majority of respondents perceived that illegal clearing and aquaculture practices have significant impact to the degradation of mangroves in the area. They agree that replanting of mangroves could be the best management option to ensure the survival of this ecosystem. The information from this study may provide useful input for future research and can be crucial tools for the government and stakeholders to pave way for an effective decision making for the sustainability of mangrove resources.
Land use and land cover change analysis using satellite images in Gua Musang, Kelantan
Authors: Rahman Syafiqa Haidar Afif Abdul , Shukri Mohamad Amirul Hafiz Md , Latip Amir Sharifuddin Ab , Latif Zulkiflee Abd
Published: May 2022

The use of multisensor remote sensing to characterise forest structure has significant promise for mapping and understanding forest biological processes, making remote sensing an effective technology in detecting deforestation for forest management and monitoring. The aim of this study is to detect land use and land cover (LULC) changes due to deforestation at Gua Musang, Kelantan using satellite images. The Landsat 8 OLI satellite images were obtained from United State Geological Survey (USGS) for year 2017 to 2019. The supervised classification with maximum likelihood algorithm was applied for image classification to generate land use land cover categories. Then, LULC change detection between 2017, 2018 and 2019 were conducted to analyse the change and pattern. Based on the results, it shows the percentage of each land use changes within three (3) years from 2017 to 2019 for Landsat 8 OLI. Percentage of deforestation due to logging areas for year 2017 to 2019 is 5.95%. Percentage of forest area is 5.57%. For water bodies, the percentages just only cover 0.36% in 3 years. The highest land use change is no changes which is 88.12% happened towards the land from 2017 and 2019. This shows within three years there is no great changes at the area. The overall accuracy for each map is more than 80% which are acceptable. From the analysis, there were no significant changes of LULC during this period due to the increased of timber extraction, agricultural land expansion, urban growth, and poor governance structures.
Monitoring and Characterizing Urban Sprawl in Raipur Urban Agglomeration, India from 2005 to 2015 using Geospatial Techniques
Authors: Chettry V
Published: May 2022

Urban sprawl is a significant challenge to sustainable urban development, particularly in developing nations. Based on remote sensing and geographic information system, this paper attempts to investigate land cover changes and urban sprawl characteristics of Raipur Urban Agglomeration (UA), India from 2005 and 2015. Landsat satellite images were extracted to conduct land cover change detection. Maximum Likelihood Classification tool in ArcGIS 10.3 was used to prepare land cover maps of Raipur UA. The accuracy of the land cover maps was assessed by determining overall accuracy and kappa coefficient. Transition matrix was prepared to identify the pattern of land cover conversion to built-up in Raipur UA. Major built-up growth direction was identified through the cardinal direction approach. Shannon’s entropy index and landscape metrics detect and characterize urban sprawl, respectively. The results indicated the prevalence of rapid urban sprawl with characteristics such as a reduction in agriculture and fallow land, outward expansion, monocentric development, and haphazard urban growth. The effect of urban development policies which has aggravated urban sprawl in Raipur UA has been discussed. The obtained results will be helpful to promote urban sustenance in the Raipur urban agglomeration.
Assessment of Coastal Landscape Along Kelantan Coast Using Geospatial Techniques
Authors: Mohd Fazly Amri , Azizi Mohammad Aiman , Narashid Rohayu Haron , Talib Noorfatekah , Adnan Nor Aizam , Rahim Haris Abdul , Maulud Khairul Nizam Abdul
Published: May 2022

The social and economic development from the coastal area benefits human life. However, growing human and environmental pressures at coastal areas also bring significant impacts on coastal erosion and coastline changes. Nowadays, geospatial technology which utilized remote sensing and GIS techniques has been widely used to detect coastal erosion for controlling the development and coastal region sustainability. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the coastal erosion and accretion for the potential risk zone based on the characteristics of the landscape and land use land cover (LULC) at the Kelantan Coast using land use classification and GIS spatial interpolation techniques. In this study, the vulnerability level of the coastal profile at the Kelantan coast was determined from the beach profile survey and the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation method. Then, the Land Use Land Cover (LULC) along a 1 km buffer zone were classified by performing a supervised classification method on Sentinel 2 satellite images year 2020. The effect of these parameters on coastal erosion was determined from separated five management units (MU 1, MU 2, MU 3, MU 4, MU 5) along the Kelantan Coast based on the Malaysian Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID). It is found that MU 3 (0.8%) and MU 5 (0.6%) were the area with the lowest average slope profile percentages which is located at Pantai Sabak and Pantai Kemayang respectively. Thus, the infrastructure, LULC and coastal communities in Pantai Sabak and Pantai Kemayang were potentially vulnerable to erosion. This finding supports the significant use of geospatial techniques of important decision-making to protect and mitigate steps toward sustainable coastal management along the coastline.
The impact of UiTM Cawangan Pulau Pinang Permatang Pauh campus on urban development in Central Seberang Perai District
Authors: Othman N A , Bakhari N A , Mahmood A , Mokhtar E S , Mohd Zaki N A
Published: May 2022

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is regarded as one of the largest higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia. Significantly, HEIs are increasingly seen as catalysts for development, with substantial contribution not only as providers of education and research but also as an active role in developing their economic, social and cultural surroundings. Thus, it is thought the existence of HEIs particularly UiTM as key players in global development, alongside being significant contributors to local urban areas’ development. UiTM Cawangan Pulau Pinang (UiTMCPP) was first established in June 1996 at a temporary site in Permatang Pasir as the university’s eleventh campus. In August 2003, UiTMCPP relocates to a permanent campus in Jalan Permatang Pauh. The main purpose of this study is to determine the influence of the UiTMCPP Permatang Pauh campus on the local area’s urban expansion. In this study, multi-temporal satellite imageries, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) in three different years (1999, 2009, and 2019) was processed by Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing techniques to distinguish the spatial expansion of urbanisation in Central Seberang Perai District. Further analysis on data collection using the quantitative and qualitative approach were performed to determine the actual impact of urbanisation on the communities. Results show that the percentage of developed area increased from 51.2% (1999) to 68.6% (2019) within a 5 km radius, and from 29.0% (1999) to 45.6% (2019) within a 10 km radius, according to the urban development map. Although the establishment and existence of the UiTMCPP Permatang Pauh campus can be considered one of the area’s development catalysts, several adjacent educational institutions also contribute to the growth of the region near the UiTM campus.
An investigation of a mixture of coconut husk and rice husk as activated carbon for treatment of wastewater
Authors: Kasmuri N , Dzulkifli N F M , Ismail N A , Zaini N , Yaacob Z
Published: May 2022

Malaysia’s population has rapidly developed every year, with considerable waste were produced. It caused a severe effect on the surroundings and reduced the quality of water on surface water bodies. Thus, significant improvement has been implemented to increase the quality of wastewater effluent and combat environmental issues. This research evaluates the activated carbon performance from rice husk and coconut husk to reduce the pollutants in wastewater effluent. The effluent was collected at a wastewater treatment plant in UiTM Dengkil. In this study, the characteristics of wastewater effluent were analysed. Later, the activated carbon (AC) was produced using the chemical agent of ZnCl2 divided into six batches of experiments. The experiment has been observed in two weeks, and the results have been examined for the percentage of nitrate-nitrogen, nitrite-nitrogen, ammonia-nitrogen, phosphorus, and E. Coli. For the batch experiment of AC in mixed coconut husk and rice husk, the percentage removal is 87%, 79%, 54%, 95%, and 100%, respectively. It has been found that the mixture of rice husk and coconut husk AC was significantly effective in removing all the pollutants. It can be deduced that the treatment using activated carbon has improved the water quality and fulfilled the limitation set in the Standard of Environmental Quality (Sewage), 2009.
Experimental investigation of hot-wire laser deposition for the additive manufacturing of titanium parts
Authors: Naksuk Nirut , Poolperm Pattarawadee , Nakngoenthong Jiradech , Printrakoon Waravut , Yuttawiriya Rattanapon
Published: May 2022

Hot-wire laser welding is additive manufacturing (AM) technique that allows for the direct creation of complicated objects by melting layers of wire. This process is characterized by the use of hot-wire process, unification with the laser welding (LW) process in AM process. The empirical investigation of AM employing a hot-wire laser welding on a titanium alloy (grade 2) workpiece is presented in this research. There are three parameters in the hot-wire laser process namely wire current, welding speed, and wire feeding speed; this research examined porosities, microhardness, tensile stress, and residual stress. The filler metal used titanium AMS (American welding society) 4951F welding wire of grade 2 and measures 1.6 mm in diameter. Finally, the suitable hot wire laser welding parameters should be 0.183 cm s−1 for the welding speed, the wire current of 40 A, and the wire feeding speed of 1.00 m min−1 are 0.183 cm s−1 for welding speed, 40 A for wire current, and 1.00 m min−1 for wire feeding speed, which will give the average Vicker microhardness of 321.00–345.80 HV, the average tensile strength of 432.02 MPa (substrate); 670.30 MPa (horizontal direction), 497.39 MPa (vertical direction).
Light extraction from organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs)
Authors: Shinar Ruth , Shinar Joseph
Published: May 2022

Organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology continues to make strides, particularly in display technology, with costs decreasing and consumer demand growing. Advances are also seen in OLED solid state lighting (SSL) though broad utilization of this technology is lagging. This situation has prompted extensive R&D to achieve high-efficiency SSL devices at cost-effective fabrication. Here we review the advances and challenges in enhancing forward light outcoupling from OLEDs. Light outcoupling from conventional bottom-emitting OLEDs (through a transparent anode) is typically ∼20%, largely due to external losses, i.e., substrate waveguide modes, internal waveguide modes between the metal cathode and the anode/substrate interface, and surface plasmon-polariton modes at the metal cathode/organic interface. We address these major photon loss paths, presenting various extraction approaches. Some approaches are devoid of light extraction structures; they include replacing the commonly used ITO anode, manipulating the refractive index of the substrate and/or organic layers, and evaluating emitters with preferential horizontal transition dipoles. Other approaches include the use of enhancing structures such as microlens arrays, scattering layers and patterned substrates, as well as substrates with various buried structures that are planarized by high index layers. A maximal external quantum efficiency as high as 78% was reported for white planarized OLEDs with a hemispherical lens to extract the substrate mode. Light outcoupling from OLEDs on flexible substrates is also addressed, as the latter become of increasing interest in foldable displays and decorative lighting, with plastic substrates also being evaluated for biomedical, wearable, and automotive applications.
Joint quality enhancement of AA6061-T6 friction stir weldment by reinforcing with pulverized glass waste using different reinforcement strategies
Authors: Ogunsemi B T , Abioye T E , Orekunrin T M , Oladimeji P O , Jamiu R B , Ogedengbe T I
Published: May 2022

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of different reinforcement strategies on the mechanical properties of pulverized glass waste (PGW) reinforced AA6061-T6 friction stir welded joint. Friction stir welding of PGW reinforced AA6061-T6 was carried out at an optimized processing parameters by using different reinforcement strategies including centre groove, parallel holes, centre holes, zig-zag holes and side holes arrangements. Thereafter, the microstructure and mechanical properties of weldments produced using each strategy were investigated. The results showed that all the reinforcement strategies utilized in this work produced harder joints than the unreinforced joint. The parallel holes (PH) strategy followed by the centre holes (CH) exhibited the highest hardness of 72 HRCB and 66 HRCB respectively. Only the joints produced using PH, CH and SH strategies exhibited higher or improved impact energy than the unreinforced. Though the joints produced using PH and CH reinforcement strategies have tensile properties that are close to that of the unreinforced joints, the unreinforced joints show higher tensile properties than the entire reinforced joints. Compared with other reinforcement strategies, better particle distribution was achieved through the use of PH and CH reinforcement strategies. Parallel holes and centre holes arrangements have been established as the most appropriate reinforcement strategies for producing high quality aluminium alloy composite welded joints.
High-fidelity molecular dynamics trajectory reconstruction with bi-directional neural networks
Authors: Winkler Ludwig , Müller Klaus-Robert , Sauceda Huziel E
Published: May 2022

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are a cornerstone in science, enabling the investigation of a system’s thermodynamics all the way to analyzing intricate molecular interactions. In general, creating extended molecular trajectories can be a computationally expensive process, for example, when running ab-initio simulations. Hence, repeating such calculations to either obtain more accurate thermodynamics or to get a higher resolution in the dynamics generated by a fine-grained quantum interaction can be time- and computational resource-consuming. In this work, we explore different machine learning methodologies to increase the resolution of MD trajectories on-demand within a post-processing step. As a proof of concept, we analyse the performance of bi-directional neural networks (NNs) such as neural ODEs, Hamiltonian networks, recurrent NNs and long short-term memories, as well as the uni-directional variants as a reference, for MD simulations (here: the MD17 dataset). We have found that Bi-LSTMs are the best performing models; by utilizing the local time-symmetry of thermostated trajectories they can even learn long-range correlations and display high robustness to noisy dynamics across molecular complexity. Our models can reach accuracies of up to 10−4 Å in trajectory interpolation, which leads to the faithful reconstruction of several unseen high-frequency molecular vibration cycles. This renders the comparison between the learned and reference trajectories indistinguishable. The results reported in this work can serve (1) as a baseline for larger systems, as well as (2) for the construction of better MD integrators.
An introduction to 𝑝-adic and motivic integration, zeta functions and invariants of singularities
Authors: Viu-Sos Juan
Published: May 2022

Motivic integration was introduced by Kontsevich to show that birationally equivalent Calabi-Yau manifolds have the same Hodge numbers. To do so, he constructed a certain motivic measure on the arc space of a complex variety, taking values in a completion of the Grothendieck ring of algebraic varieties. Later, Denef and Loeser, together with the works of Looijenga and Batyrev, developed in a series of articles a more complete theory of the subject, with applications in the study of varieties and singularities. In particular, they developed a motivic zeta function, generalizing the usual (pp-adic) Igusa zeta function and Denef-Loeser topological zeta function.

These notes are a basic introduction to geometric motivic integration, the precedentpp-adic ideas associated with it, and the theory of the above zeta functions related to them. We focus in practical computations and ideas, providing examples and a recent formula obtained by means of partial resolutions.
Motivic Poincaré series of cusp surface singularities
Authors: Nagy János , Némethi András
Published: May 2022

We target multivariable series associated with resolutions of complex analytic normal surface singularities. In general, the equivariant multivariable analytical and topological Poincaré series are well–defined and have good properties only if the link is a rational homology sphere. We wish to create a model when this assumption is not valid: we analyse the case of cusps. For such germs we define even the motivic versions of these two series, we prove that they are equal, and we provide explicit combinatorial expression for them. This is done via a motivic multivariable series associated with the space of effective Cartier divisors of the reduced exceptional curve.
PersonaDrive: a method for the identification and prioritization of personalized cancer drivers
Authors: Erten Cesim , Houdjedj Aissa , Kazan Hilal , Taleb Bahmed Ahmed Amine
Published: May 2022

Motivation

A major challenge in cancer genomics is to distinguish the driver mutations that are causally linked to cancer from passenger mutations that do not contribute to cancer development. The majority of existing methods provide a single driver gene list for the entire cohort of patients. However, since mutation profiles of patients from the same cancer type show a high degree of heterogeneity, a more ideal approach is to identify patient-specific drivers.

Results

We propose a novel method that integrates genomic data, biological pathways and protein connectivity information for personalized identification of driver genes. The method is formulated on a personalized bipartite graph for each patient. Our approach provides a personalized ranking of the mutated genes of a patient based on the sum of weighted ‘pairwise pathway coverage’ scores across all the samples, where appropriate pairwise patient similarity scores are used as weights to normalize these coverage scores. We compare our method against five state-of-the-art patient-specific cancer gene prioritization methods. The comparisons are with respect to a novel evaluation method that takes into account the personalized nature of the problem. We show that our approach outperforms the existing alternatives for both the TCGA and the cell line data. In addition, we show that the KEGG/Reactome pathways enriched in our ranked genes and those that are enriched in cell lines’ reference sets overlap significantly when compared to the overlaps achieved by the rankings of the alternative methods. Our findings can provide valuable information toward the development of personalized treatments and therapies.

Availability and implementation

All the codes and data are available at https://github.com/abu-compbio/PersonaDrive, and the data underlying this article are available in Zenodo, at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6520187.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Classification of major depressive disorder using an attention-guided unified deep convolutional neural network and individual structural covariance network
Authors: Gao Jingjing , Chen Mingren , Xiao Die , Li Yue , Zhu Shunli , Li Yanling , Dai Xin , Lu Fengmei , Wang Zhengning , Cai Shimin , Wang Jiaojian
Published: May 2022

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Currently, the structural magnetic resonance imaging-based MDD diagnosis models mainly utilize local grayscale information or morphological characteristics in a single site with small samples. Emerging evidence has demonstrated that different brain structures in different circuits have distinct developmental timing, but mature coordinately within the same functional circuit. Thus, establishing an attention-guided unified classification framework with deep learning and individual structural covariance networks in a large multisite dataset could facilitate developing an accurate diagnosis strategy. Our results showed that attention-guided classification could improve the classification accuracy from primary 75.1% to ultimate 76.54%. Furthermore, the discriminative features of regional covariance connectivities and local structural characteristics were found to be mainly located in prefrontal cortex, insula, superior temporal cortex, and cingulate cortex, which have been widely reported to be closely associated with depression. Our study demonstrated that our attention-guided unified deep learning framework may be an effective tool for MDD diagnosis. The identified covariance connectivities and structural features may serve as biomarkers for MDD.
Prediction models as gatekeepers for diagnostic testing in angina patients with suspected chronic coronary syndrome
Authors: Bjerking Louise Hougesen , Winther Simon , Hansen Kim Wadt , Galatius Søren , Böttcher Morten , Prescott Eva
Published: May 2022

Aims

Assessment of pre-test probability (PTP) is an important gatekeeper when selecting patients for diagnostic testing for coronary artery disease (CAD). The 2019 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines recommend upgrading PTP based on clinical risk factors but provide no estimates of how these affect PTP. We aimed to validate two published PTP models in a contemporary low-CAD-prevalence cohort and compare with the ESC 2019 PTP.

Methods and results

Previously published basic and clinical prediction models and the ESC 2019 PTP were validated in 42 328 patients (54% women) ≥30 years old without previous CAD referred for cardiac computed tomography angiography in a region of Denmark from 2008 to 2017. Obstructive CAD prevalence was 8.8%. The ESC 2019 PTP and basic model included angina symptoms, sex, and age, while the clinical model added diabetes mellitus family history of CAD, and dyslipidaemia. Discrimination was good for all three models [area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) 0.76, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.75–0.77), 0.74 (0.73–0.75), and 0.76 (0.75–0.76), respectively]. Using the clinically relevant low predicted probability ≤5% of CAD cut-off, the clinical and basic models were well calibrated, whereas the ESC 2019 PTP overestimated CAD prevalence. At a cut-off of ≤5%, the clinical model ruled out 36.2% more patients than the ESC 2019 PTP, n = 23 592 (55.7%) vs. n = 8 245 (19.5%), while missing 824 (22.2%) vs. 132 (3.6%) cases of obstructive CAD.

Conclusion

A prediction model for CAD including cardiovascular risk factors was successfully validated. Implementation of this model would reduce the need for diagnostic testing and serve as gatekeeper if accepting a watchful waiting strategy for one-fifth of the patients.
Monitoring pulmonary arterial pressures during cardiac rehabilitation using the CardioMEMS device
Authors: Chaudron C , Huet F , Roubille F
Published: May 2022

Funding Acknowledgements

Type of funding sources: Public hospital(s). Main funding source(s): University Hospital of Arnaud de Villeneuve.

Introduction

The CardioMEMS™ Heart Failure (HF) System is indicated for pulmonary artery pressure monitoring. Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) proved to be beneficial in stable HF patients. Our study is aimed to determine the impact of CR on Pulmonary Artery Pressure (PAP) measured by the CardioMEMS device.

Methods

This pilot study was historico prospective, observational and monocenter including all patients in Montpellier University hospital who were implanted by the CardioMEMS device, and who have undergone cardiac rehabilitation, from June the 15th, 2018 to July the 31st, 2021. Clinical outcomes at one year were analyzed.

Results

There was no significant difference of the PA before and after reeducation, either for systolic PAP (p = 0,28), diastolic PAP (p = 0,32), or mean PAP (p = 0,13). There was no statistical correlation between the delta of maximal exercise power during exercise test before and after CR and the delta of pulmonary artery pressure (p = 0.10). There was no significant correlation between PAP and clinical evolution regarding the risk of heart failure hospitalization, death, LVAD implantation or heart transplant.

Conclusion

This preliminary study investigated a potential link between CR and PAP. CardioMEMS measurements were not modified by CR and did not predict clinical outcomes at one year.