bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Preparation and antioxidant properties of tannic acid/copper ion nanozyme hybrid nanofibrous membranes
Authors: Wu Qiao , Xiao Jingshu , Zhuang Hu , Zhao Fenghai , Li Ruoxi , Zhang Duntie
Published: November 2024

A Cu/TA nanosheet was prepared by Cu2+ -mediated oxidative coupling inducing the self-assembly of a Cu-TA coordination complex network, which exhibits multienzyme like activity and enables the preparation of antioxidant membranes by electrospinning.
Bisphenol A (BPA) toxicity assessment and insights into current remediation strategies
Authors: Ighalo Joshua O. , Kurniawan Setyo Budi , Khongthaw Banlambhabok , Buhari Junaidah , Chauhan P. K. , Georgin Jordana , Pfingsten Franco Dison Stracke
Published: November 2024

To mitigate the toxic effects of BPA, there is a need to utilize hybrid remediation strategies for its removal from the aqueous environment.
Porous, environment-friendly chitosan-ZIF composite fibers for dye adsorption
Authors: Hou Xuebin , Chen Wei , Fan Meihong , Shi Chen
Published: November 2024

Porous, environment friendly ZIF-8@CS composite fibers were fabricated through wet spinning and self-assembly method, which effectively remove dyes from water and exhibit excellent recyclability.
Resonance plasmonic coupling: selective enhancement of band edge emission over trap state emission of CdSe quantum dots
Authors: Paul Livin , Thomas Elizabeth Mariam , Chemmangat Akshaya , Gray Stephen K. , Thomas K. George
Published: November 2024

Demonstrated the selective enhancement of band-edge emission over trap-state emission in CdSe QDs via frequency-specific plasmon resonance coupling, and the competing role of plasmon-assisted nonradiative energy transfer by varying its number density.
Tailoring hierarchical MnO2 nanostructures on self-supporting cathodes for high-mass-loading zinc-ion batteries
Authors: Zheng Weijie , Cui Zhibiao , Liu Cong , Yuan Libei , Li Shengsong , Lin Lilin , Meng Tao , Yang Liangui , Tong Yexiang , Shu Dong
Published: November 2024

Tailoring 2D/3D hierarchical MnO2 nanostructures on carbon cloth via a molecular self-assembly strategy to realize a high-mass-loading self-supporting electrode for advanced Zn2+/H+ storage.
Technical, environmental and economic analysis of utilizing hydrogen-rich fuel in decarbonized container ships
Authors: Shafie Payam , DeChamplain Alain , Lepine Julien
Published: November 2024

Using blue and green ammonia in the HRF-based scenarios leads to a decrease in WTW emissions compared to the diesel mode.
Photochemical on-demand production of hydrogen peroxide in a modular flow reactor
Authors: Freese Thomas , Meijer Jelmer T. , Miola Matteo , Pescarmona Paolo P. , Feringa Ben L.
Published: November 2024

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a green oxidant and potential energy carrier. Using iron oxide nanoparticles in a photo-flow reactor, an improved H2O2 production of >14× over batch conditions was obtained, achieving solutions of 0.02 wt% H2O2.
Electropolymerized organic N/P bipolar cathode toward high energy and high power density sodium dual-ion batteries
Authors: Zhang Weisheng , Zhang Chenxing , Chen Xianhe , Yin Hongju , Hu Wenli , Mei Shilin , Yao Chang-Jiang
Published: November 2024

PTPA-AQ, an in situ electropolymerized bipolar organic cathode for sodium dual-ion batteries, achieving 426 Wh kg−1 energy density after 300 cycles at 0.2 A g−¹, with 3000 cycle stability at 5 A g−¹ and 14.9 kW kg−¹ power density.
Stabilizing perovskite quantum dot oxygen sensors through ultra-long 2 mm horizontally aligned nanopores in anodic alumina oxide templates
Authors: Iskandar Johan , Liu Chih-Yi , Lee Chih-Chien , Ke Kuan-Yu , Septian M. Rivaldi Ali , Estrada Richie , Humaidi Humaidi , Biring Sajal , Chu Cheng-Shane , Tseng Zong-Liang , Liu Shun-Wei
Published: November 2024

Perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) offer potential for gas sensing, though stability limits use. Johan et al. enhanced PQD stability with a horizontally aligned anodic alumina oxide template, maintaining fluorescence for 3 weeks without change.
A three-step change in uniaxial negative thermal expansion by switching supramolecular motion modes in a ferromagnetically coupled nickel dithiolate lattice
Authors: Haneda Masato , Takahashi Kiyonori , Hasuo Naohiro , Huang Rui-Kang , Xue Chen , Wu Jia-bing , Noro Shin-ichiro , Nakamura Takayoshi
Published: November 2024

The wheel–axle-type supramolecule ((H3N+–C2H4)2O)([18]crown-6)2 forms one-dimensional chains in a crystal of honeycomb [Ni(dmit)2]− structure. The uniaxial NTE can be controlled by the multi-step change of the disordered state of [18]crown-6.
Synergetic effect towards high electrochemical performance in LaMnO3–Co3O4 composites
Authors: Dhakal Alisha , Perez Felio A. , Mishra Sanjay R.
Published: November 2024

Electrochemical energy storage devices, especially supercapacitors, require electrode materials with high specific capacitance, excellent stability, and efficient charge transfer kinetics.
Research on characteristic and DC voltage balancing control of a novel three‐phase line‐voltage cascaded unity power factor rectifier under unbalanced grid
Authors: Xia Liu , Cong Wang , Hong Cheng , Hua Chen , Jiayi Kong
Published: November 2024

According to the operating modes of three‐phase line‐voltage cascaded boost high power factor rectifier topology, the operating characteristics of the rectified output voltage of each module and the characteristics of the topology for automatically balancing the input current under the unbalanced grid are analyzed in this article. Based on the analysis to the unique feature, a simple dual‐loop PI control strategy in the rotating coordinate system is designed with no need to deal with the negative sequence component of grid voltage. In response to the issue of unbalanced DC‐link capacitor voltage of each module caused by unbalanced grid, injection of the zero‐sequence voltage component is adopted in the designed control system, which make the output power of each module be able to be independently regulated, so that the balancing control to the DC‐link capacitor voltage of each module is realized. At the same time, the three‐phase input currents always remain in balance automatically operating under unity power factor. Simulations and experiments have verified the superiority of the topology structure and the feasibility of the control strategy.
Modification of wind turbine wakes by large-scale, convective atmospheric boundary layer structures
Authors: Cheung Lawrence , Yalla Gopal , Brown Kenneth , deVelder Nathaniel , Hsieh Alan , Herges Thomas , Houck Daniel , Maniaci David , Sakievich Philip , Abraham Aliza
Published: November 2024

In this study, we consider the impact of large-scale, convective structures in an unstable atmospheric boundary layer on wind turbine wakes. Simulation data from a high-fidelity large-eddy simulation (LES) of the AWAKEN wind farm site matching unstable atmospheric conditions were analyzed, and both turbine performance and wake behavior were affected based on their location relative to the convective structures. Turbines located in updraft regions of the flow experienced lower inflow velocity and generated less power, but their wakes were observed to recover faster and saw greater turbulent kinetic energy mixing higher in the boundary layer. The opposite effect was found for turbines in the downdraft regions of the convective structures. A simplified model of this wake behavior was also developed based on a two-dimensional k–ε Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes formulation. This simplified model included the effects of vertical transport, but could be efficiently solved as a parabolic system, and was found to capture similar wake modifications observed in the high-fidelity LES computations.
Analysis of guided and leaky modes of planar optical waveguides using transparent boundary conditions
Authors: Zang Xiaorun , Shevchenko Andriy
Published: November 2024

We present a numerical approach to compute and characterize both guided and leaky modes in a multilayer planar optical waveguide made of any lossy and dispersive materials. Usually, in numerical calculations based on finite element methods, perfectly matched layers (PMLs) are used to truncate the unbounded substrate and cover layers. However, it is difficult to make such PMLs transparent for both guided and leaky modes at the same time, and often, different or even contradictory PML parameters are required for these two types of modes. In contrast, the transparent boundary conditions (TBCs) that we use in this work can terminate the unbounded waveguide and, simultaneously, provide perfect transparency for the modes. In addition, this type of boundary condition does not contaminate the solutions with non-existent modes, such as PML modes. More importantly, the TBC approach yields the nonlinear eigenvalue solutions that can be intrinsically mapped to the parameter space of transverse wavenumbers in the claddings. This allows us to uniquely determine the power flow properties of all the calculated modes. A finite element Python package is developed to treat a variety of planar waveguides in a robust and systematic way.
Measurement of the crystallization and phase transition of niobium dioxide thin-films using a tube furnace optical transmission system
Authors: Robinson Zachary R. , Beckmann Karsten , Michels James , Daviero Vincent , Street Elizabeth A. , Lorenzen Fiona , Sullivan Matthew C. , Cady Nathaniel , Kozen Alexander C. , Woodward Jeffrey M. , Currie Marc
Published: November 2024

Niobium dioxide has a volatile memristive phase change that occurs ∼800 °C that makes it an ideal candidate for future neuromorphic electronics. A straightforward optical system has been developed on a horizontal tube furnace for in situ spectral measurements as an as-grown Nb2O5 film is annealed and ultimately crystallizes as NbO2. The system measures the changing spectral transmissivity of Nb2O5 as it undergoes both reduction and crystallization processes. We were also able to measure the transition from metallic-to-non-metallic NbO2 during the cooldown phase, which is shown to occur about 100 °C lower on a sapphire substrate than fused silica. After annealing, the material properties of the Nb2O5 and NbO2 were assessed via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and 4-point resistivity, confirming that we have made crystalline NbO2.
Public, Private and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) to Implement a One Health Approach to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance in Colombia
Authors: Cediel-Becerra Natalia , Rodriguez-Moreno Marcela , Germán A. , Chair Vasquez N. , Collins Roseanna
Published: November 2024

The establishment of public-private partnerships (PPPs) within Colombia, Latin America, is a recent, innovative effort within the nation’s agricultural industry to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) under a One Health approach. PPPs are a formal alliance between representatives from the public and private sectors that aim to promote cross-sectoral collaboration, stewardship and accountability. Members agree on shared objectives and responsibilities, resources and risks to establish monitoring, prevention and mitigation activities against AMR within the farming industry. Key learnings of this initiative within the context of Colombia include: maximisation of results when monitoring is assigned to the private sector, and this may apply to other lower-middle-income countries (LMICs); objectives are better achieved when they are pre-defined according to time, budget and human resource constraints of member institutions; and confidentiality agreements must be consistent with the sensitive nature of surveillance information. Barriers to implementation were also identified, such as frequent changes of government personnel at decision making levels that make governance planning and adaptation challenging, while legal formalities and bureaucracy hinder formalisation of agreements. The success of this PPP is a useful example for other LMICs to aid in the control and prevention of animal diseases, promotion of food safety and reduction in poor animal health which limit commerce, while at the same time, minimising production loss and ensuring the provision of a fair income for producers.

Information

© The Authors 2024
Wheat Leaf Rust, Caused by
Puccinia triticina
, and Mitigation Through Host Genetic Resistance
Authors: McCallum Brent , Hiebert Colin , Wang Xiben , Bakkeren Guus
Published: November 2024

The obligate fungal pathogen
Puccinia triticina
causes leaf rust symptoms on wheat worldwide. Epidemics of leaf rust occur during periods of mild weather with high relative humidity. The pathogen infects leaves, causing orange to red pustules, containing millions of urediniospores, reducing the photosynthetic area and causing desiccation and yield loss. Wind-borne urediniospores are produced in continuous asexual cycles on wheat plants. Genetic resistance is the primary control strategy. There are over 80 known leaf rust (
Lr
) resistance genes, and most are race-specific and are active from the seedling stage to maturity. A few
Lr
genes are nonrace-specific and confer partial resistance to leaf rust and other diseases at the adult plant stage. Combining
Lr
genes that confer seedling and adult plant resistance has been particularly successful and durable. Pathogen populations are genetically diverse, and races evolve continuously to evade recognition by
Lr
genes. This results in boom-and-bust cycles when new cultivars with race-specific
Lr
genes are resistant for some years, but become susceptible, due to evolution of the
P. triticina
population. Surveillance of
P. triticina
for the evolution of races helps to develop wheat cultivars with
Lr
genes that will be resistant to the most prevalent races.

Information

© The Authors 2024
Multiple crossings during dynamical symmetry restoration and implications for the quantum Mpemba effect
Authors: Chalas Konstantinos , Ares Filiberto , Rylands Colin , Calabrese Pasquale
Published: November 2024

Local relaxation after a quench in 1D quantum many-body systems is a well-known and very active problem with rich phenomenology. Except in pathological cases, the local relaxation is accompanied by the local restoration of the symmetries broken by the initial state that are preserved by unitary evolution. Recently, the entanglement asymmetry has been introduced as a probe to study the interplay between symmetry breaking and relaxation in an extended quantum system. In particular, using the entanglement asymmetry, it has been shown that the more a symmetry is initially broken, the faster it may be restored. This surprising effect, which has also been observed in trapped-ion experiments, can be seen as a quantum version of the Mpemba effect, and is manifested by the crossing at a finite time of the entanglement asymmetry curves of two different initial symmetry-breaking configurations. In this paper we show that, by tuning the initial state, the symmetry dynamics in free fermionic systems can display much richer behavior than seen previously. In particular, for certain classes of initial states, including the ground states of free fermionic models with long-range couplings, the entanglement asymmetry can exhibit multiple crossings. This illustrates that the existence of the quantum Mpemba effect can only be inferred by examining the late-time behavior of the entanglement asymmetry.
Optimization of Thermal and Rheological Performance in Non-Polar Binary Fluids Using Hybrid CuO Nanoparticles
Authors: Rohini B , Kingson Solomon Jeevaraj A , Suvitha A , Sangeetha R , Revathi V
Published: November 2024

Nanofluid is a novel type of technological fluid with numerous applications. Copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were dispersed in the binary fluids (Cyclohexane + Diethyl amine (DEA) and (1-4 dioxane + DEA) to create a nonpolar hybrid CuO nanofluid. The thermal conductivity (K) and viscosity (ῃ) of a nonpolar hybrid CuO nanofluid were determined at low concentrations (0.01M to 0.06M) and temperatures ranging from 298K to 318K. The transient hotwire approach is utilized for K measurements, while the viscometer is employed for viscosity measurements. As concentration increases, K drops, yet there is an increase owing to uniform variance in temperatures (T).ῃ changes with concentration and temperature. The results show that the hybrid CuO nanofluid has a phenomenal heat transfer improvement compared to the binary mixtures. The non-polar hybrid CuO nanofluid’s thermal conductivity increases by 15% to 20%, while its viscosity increases by 18% to 25%.
Eliminating metal artifacts in dental computed tomography using an elaborate sinogram normalization interpolation method with CNR-based metal segmentation
Authors: Lim Younghwan , Park Sungmin , Jeon Duhee , Kim Woosung , Lee Soohyun , Cho Hyosung
Published: November 2024

Metal artifact reduction (MAR) in dental cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) is critical for improving its clinical usefulness and remains a challenging problem. This study presents an elaborate sinogram normalization interpolation (SNI) method with contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR)-based metal segmentation to eliminate metal artifacts in dental CBCT. The proposed MAR method involves three main steps: (1) CNR-based segmentation of a metal trace in the sinogram domain; (2) generation of a residual artifact-reduced prior sinogram; and (3) sinogram completion using the prior sinogram, followed by filtered-backprojection (FBP)-based CBCT reconstruction and metal insertion processes. To verify the efficacy of the proposed method, simulations and experiments were performed using numerical and physical dental phantoms with several metal inserts. The quality of the resulting CBCT images was quantitatively evaluated using the structural similarity (SSIM) metric and compared to those obtained with other interpolation-based MAR methods. A tabletop setup for the micro-CT system was used in the experiment, which comprised an X-ray tube operated under tube conditions of 70 kV
p
and 5 mA and a flat-panel detector with a pixel size of 198 μm. Our results indicate that the CNR-based metal segmentation method precisely identified traces of metallic objects on the sinogram, and thereby, the proposed SNI-based MAR method considerably reduced metal artifacts in dental CBCT images without introducing any contrast anomalies. The SSIM values of the CBCT images obtained with the proposed MAR method were 0.99 and 0.95 for the simulation and experiment, respectively, which are approximately 11% and 9% greater than those with a simple threshold-based linear interpolation method, respectively, improving the image quality. The proposed MAR method can be applied to reduce metal artifacts in real-world dental CBCT systems.
Spatial Variation of Pollutant (NO2, SO2 & CO) and Its Impact Factors in Jakarta: An Application of Sentinel-5P Products
Authors: Iqbal M. , Susilo Bowo , Hizbaron D.R
Published: November 2024

This study investigates the impact of transportation, manufacturing, and energy sectors on air quality in Jakarta using Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) and remote sensing data. Utilizing datasets from Sentinel-5P for NO2, SO2, and CO concentrations, and predictor variables including road density, industrial activity, and energy production, the research aims to quantify the spatial heterogeneity of air pollution. The findings reveal significant spatial variations in pollutant concentrations across Jakarta and its neighbouring provinces, Banten and West Java, during the dry and wet months of 2023. High NO2 levels were primarily linked to dense traffic in central Jakarta, while elevated SO2 and CO concentrations were associated with industrial and energy activities in the peripheral regions. Seasonal analysis indicated that meteorological factors play a crucial role in pollutant dispersion. The integration of remote sensing data with GWR provided a robust framework for environmental monitoring, addressing gaps in traditional air quality observation methods. This research contributes to the broader understanding of urban air pollution dynamics and offers a replicable model for other regions facing similar challenges.
Application and Impact of Automation in Crimping Processes
Authors: Dacian Ilca , Tiberiu Manescu , Gilbert-Rainer Gillich
Published: November 2024

This paper investigates the Subassembly Process Automation (SPA) program’s application and impact on industrial manufacturing processes, particularly underscoring its efficacy in refining production accuracy and efficiency. It explores SPA’s systematic advancements and the incorporation of meticulous quality control strategies, focusing on how it streamlines operations, boosts efficiency, and ensures adherence to industry norms. The SPA program integrates automation for comprehensive process oversight, including job initiation, ongoing production, and critically, scrap reduction, thereby markedly diminishing waste and upholding rigorous quality standards. Offering an indepth evaluation of SPA’s capabilities, the paper illustrates its role in enhancing production flow and supporting environmental sustainability through effective scrap management. By analysing its implementation in crimping operations, from equipment preparation to production execution, the research highlights SPA’s essential contribution to reducing errors, maximizing resource efficiency, and maintaining exceptional manufacturing quality.
Crimp Height influence over Resistivity in Wiring Crimping Process
Authors: Dragomir Florin , Tiberiu Manescu , Gilbert-Rainer Gillich
Published: November 2024

The main purpose of this paper is to present the influence between the crimp height and the resistivity for a crimp joint between a copper contact and a wire copper stranded cable using statistical relevant analysis. The experiment followed the analysis of 45 crimped assemblies grouped in 3 main categories to simulate a potential validation procedure according to the international validation process requirements from: DIN (“Deutsches Institut fu r Normung”) with the corresponding Romanian standard SR EN 60352-2:2006 and SAE/USCAR-21 REVISION 3. The baseline used was the behaviour of the resistivity versus the pre-set crimp height of the crimped joints before and after thermal shock test to enable us to conclude if we have a significant relation between the crimp height of the assembly joint and the resistivity.
Quality Assessment of Aluminum Alloys for Automotive Rims
Authors: Sapta Doru , Socalici Ana , Birtok Baneasa Corneliu , Putan Vasile
Published: November 2024

This paper presents experimental research conducted at a factory specializing in the development of aluminum alloys and the semi-continuous production of bars intended for rim manufacturing. The semi-finished products are made of 6082 aluminum alloy and undergo forging processes to obtain rims. The charge load consists of various types of aluminum waste and primary aluminum in different proportions, depending on the quality of the waste in the experimental recipes. The elaboration of the aluminum alloy takes place in melting furnaces with a capacity of 80 tons, equipped with two chambers. The casting is performed using a semi-continuous casting installation, and the cast semi-finished products undergo further heat treatment. The casting process involves the addition of alloying elements, in the form of wire, which serve to refine the structure. Experimental data were processed, and correlations between the qualitative characteristics of the alloy and the elements in the chemical composition, as well as grain size, were analyzed. From the obtained correlation analysis, it is observed that the alloying elements refine the grain size, while the grain size and quality of the resulting product are of interest for industrial practice.
Influence of curing time and temperature on the mechanical properties of resins manufactured through stereolithography
Authors: Coșa Alexandru-Viorel , Baban Marian-Vasile , Șerban Dan-Andrei
Published: November 2024

Additive manufacturing technologies are widely used and provide unique advantages over other manufacturing techniques. However, to achieve the optimal properties of an additive manufactured product, knowledge about the specific tool and parameters is required. A suitable approach to understand the parameters and the influence on the final properties is to investigate the variations of a mechanical property based on the fluctuation of the manufacturing parameters. This study focuses on determining the influence of the curing temperature and time under UV light (405nm wavelength) on the tensile properties of specimens obtained through stereolithography (SLA). This aspect was attained by manufacturing batches of specimens from a urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA) based resin (commercial name Formlabs Tough 2000®) and then curing them for different periods of time (from uncured up to 180 minutes). The samples were tested and, based on the resulting stiffness and strength, the optimal curing time of 90 minutes was established. The value of this parameter was used to investigate the influence of the temperature at which the specimens are cured, with a variation from 25 °C to 80 °C, resulting with an optimal curing temperature of 60 °C. The study also concluded that after a certain temperature, the stiffness is declining, even though the strength of the specimens reaches a plateau-like region.
Impact of Aging on Tensile Properties of EPDM, TPV, and eco-TPV: A Comparative Study Across Diverse Environments
Authors: Foltuț Daniel , Șoșoi Georgiana-Iulia , Vălean Estera , Pospisil Jan , Pascal Dragoș-Toader , Șerban Viorel-Aurel
Published: November 2024

This study examines the effects of aging on the tensile characteristics of Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM), Thermoplastic Vulcanizates (TPV), and Eco-friendly Thermoplastic Vulcanizates (Eco TPV) in different conditions. The samples underwent thermal aging at a temperature of 90°C and were immersed in sulfuric acid solutions with varying concentrations (1M, 0.1M, and 0.001M) for a duration of 1000 hours at the same temperature. The findings revealed that EPDM demonstrated the maximum tensile strength and a moderate level of elongation and breakage. Furthermore, it retained substantial mechanical integrity after undergoing aging, thereby establishing it as the most resilient material among those evaluated. The thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) exhibited intermediate tensile strength and elongation, but experienced significant deterioration when exposed to very acidic environments while Eco TPV had lower tensile strength but good chemical stability. The stress-strain behavior and compression set tests emphasized EPDM’s exceptional durability and ability to recover elastically. The pH measurements of the immersion solutions indicated an elevation caused by the release of alkaline chemicals from the rubber components, especially in the 1M solution.
Vibration behaviour of additively manufactured AlSi10Mg specimens
Authors: Öhl Christian , Linul Emanoil , Valentin Galatanu Sergiu
Published: November 2024

Additive manufacturing is in continuous development, and the obtained components still have some shortcomings. The vast majority of mechanical characterizations are performed on polymer materials, using in particular the material extrusion process, while metallic components face not negligible deficiencies. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the vibration behaviour of selective laser melting (SLM) 3D printed specimens. The specimens were printed “on-edge” from AlSi10Mg aluminium alloys and subjected to fatigue tests. By using an electrodynamic shaker, controller, acceleration transducer, and laser vibrometer, the tests have been performed and the data analysed. After the tests, a correlation was obtained by using a finite element analysis (FEA). The damping coefficients (alpha and beta) are obtained from the experimental data. These coefficients are then used to check the accuracy of each FEA model. The results reveal the correlation between structural damping and anisotropy of additive manufacturing specimens, and their impact on high-cycle fatigue performance.
304L Austenitic Stainless Steel Corrosion Studies in Neutral Environment in Presence of Sulfite Ions
Authors: Lăboșel Mihaela-Alexandra , Rudenko Nataliia , Dima George-Daniel , Laurențiu Dan Mircea , Vaszilcsin Nicolae
Published: November 2024

This paper examined the influence of the sulfite concentration introduced in the electrolyte added to the neutral solution (1 mol L-1 Na2SO4) on the corrosion process of 304L stainless steel material. 304L. The accelerated effect of sulfite ions under corrosion rate of 304L austenitic stainless steel was demonstrated using electrochemical techniques such as linear sweep voltammetry at a low scan rate −1 mV s−1, the Tafel slope method, chronoamperometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Electrochemical studies were conducted using a BioLogic SP150 potentiostat/galvanostat.

Stainless steels are the most varied and intricate group among all steels. Among them, 304L austenitic stainless steel is one of the most commonly utilized alloys, prized for its excellent corrosion resistance and strength, hygienic and aesthetic properties, affordability, good formability, and effective weldability. [1-3]. In modern industry, the amount of austenitic stainless steel represents only about 2% of the total steel production manufactured globally. This type of steel is commonly employed in chemical engineering, metal extraction, desalination and wastewater treatment plants, the oil and gas sector, transportation and aerospace industries, the food and beverage sector, as well as in architecture and construction engineering. [1].
Bacterial diversity in rice field soil and sludge soil samples: a comparative metagenomics-based study
Authors: Singh Nidhi , Singh Veer , Mishra Vishal , Chaturvedi Vivek K , Vamanu Emanuel , Singh Mohan P
Published: November 2024

Soil contains several organic, and inorganic substances and a large number of bacterial diversity. This bacterial diversity is also involved in biomass degradation and plant growth promotion. Metagenomic sequencing was used to analyze bacterial diversity in the rice field soil and sludge samples. Amplicon sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that representative sequences clustered were 0.4 million in both rice and sludge samples. The Venn diagram demonstrates the overall identified OTUs was 359 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). OTUs were classified into more than 30 phyla, 50 classes, and 90 genera. The metagenomic analysis revealed that 82 and 85 taxa are exclusively unique to the bacterial communities of the rice and sludge soils, respectively. The metagenomic study also revealed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria and other unknown bacteria were reported in 16S rRNA Illumina MiSeq in the sludge and rice soil samples. The most abundant groups in rice field soil were Proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes which increase the soil nutrient and influence the growth of the plants. Bacteroidetes are the most dominant group in sludge soil than rice field soil. This comparative analysis provides insights into the ecological roles and adaptive strategies of soil bacteria in different environmental contexts, offering valuable information for sustainable soil management and bioremediation practices.
MSMGE-CNN: a multi-scale multi-graph embedding convolutional neural network for motor related EEG decoding
Authors: Wang Binren , Miao Minmin , Zhang Ke , Liu Wenzhe , Sheng Zhenzhen , Xu Baoguo , Hu Wenjun
Published: November 2024

Deep learning technique has been widely used for decoding motor related electroencephalography (EEG) signals, which has considerably driven the development of motor related brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). However, traditional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) cannot fully represent spatial topology information and dynamic temporal characteristics of multi-channel EEG signals, resulting in limited decoding accuracy. To address such challenges, a novel multi-scale multi-graph embedding CNN (MSMGE-CNN) is proposed in this study. The proposed MSMGE-CNN contains two crucial components: multi-scale time convolution and multi-graph embedding. Specifically, we design a multi-branch CNN architecture with mixed-scale time convolutions based on EEGNet to sufficiently extract robust time domain features. Afterward, we embed multi-graph information obtained based on physical distance proximity and functional connectivity of multi-channel EEG signals into the time-domain features to capture rich spatial topological dependencies via multi-graph convolution operation. We extensively evaluated the proposed method on three benchmark EEG datasets commonly used for motor imagery/execution (MI/ME) classification and obtained accuracies of 79.59% (BCICIV-2a Dataset), 69.77% (OpenBMI Dataset) and 96.34% (High Gamma Dataset), respectively. These results powerfully demonstrate that MSMGE-CNN outperforms several state-of-the-art algorithms. In addition, we further conducted a series of ablation experiments to validate the rationality of our network architecture. Overall, the proposed MSMGE-CNN method dramatically improves the accuracy and robustness of MI/ME-EEG decoding, which can effectively enhance the performance of motor related BCI system.
Acting for Reasons
Authors: Borg Emma
Published: November 2024

This is a book about why we do what we do. It’s also about how we arrive at an understanding of other people’s actions. A traditional view in philosophy—‘common-sense psychology’ (CP)—holds that representational mental states (paradigmatically, beliefs and desires) lie at the heart of intentional action and social cognition. According to this view, intentional actions are responses to mental states which capture a person’s reasons for action: I open the cookie jar because I’d like a cookie and believe there is one in there. As a corollary, understanding someone else’s action is often held to depend on attributing them plausible mental states and reasoning: I think you opened the cookie jar because you wanted a cookie and believed there was one in there. However, this approach has been thrown into doubt by experimental findings which apparently show that CP’s appeal to reasons and reasoning is overly demanding and overly intellectualizing, painting an idealized picture of decision-making which is rarely borne out by the evidence. If we get out of our armchairs and examine how people actually make decisions, the claim is, what we find is that people don’t do what they do, typically, based on the reasons they have, nor do people understand one another’s actions via attributing them beliefs and desires and rational processing involving those kinds of states. In short, what we find is that CP is wrong. This book is an attempt to reject that line of argument and to defend the common-sense perspective.
Do We Do What We Do for the Reasons We Have?
Authors: Borg Emma
Published: November 2024

The difference between intentional and non-intentional behaviour is often explained by the role of reasons and reasoning in the former, and their absence in the latter. This seems to capture an ordinary, folk perspective, where what people do is usually a rational response to the reasons they have to act and, following on from this, that a good way to understand what someone else is doing (or what they will do) involves thinking about what reasons they have to act. I label this position ‘common-sense psychology’ (CP). This chapter explores the nature and status of CP, aiming to get clearer on exactly what the view claims (2–4) and on why anyone might think that it provides the right model of human behaviour in the first place (1).
Mid-ground Accounts of Action Understanding
Authors: Borg Emma
Published: November 2024

Behaviour-reading accounts of action understanding are thoroughly deflationary but worries with the approach have led some theorists to advocate more moderately deflationary alternatives. These come in two varieties: inner state views (where action understanding requires more than behaviour-reading but less than mentalizing) and minimal mentalizing accounts (where action understanding requires genuine mentalizing but not propositional attitude ascription). According to inner state views, subjects need to appreciate the goal of an action and the ways in which internal states can match or fail to match the environment, but these states need not be mental states. Advocates of minimal mentalizing, on the other hand, maintain that action understanding requires attribution of mental states, but the states involved are less demanding than those required by common-sense psychology (CP). This chapter sets out the varieties of approach in each camp and explores how substantive the differences between the two kinds of approach are.
Empire of Poverty
Authors: McClure Julia
Published: November 2024

This book examines how changing concepts of poverty in the long sixteenth century helped shape the deep structures of states and empires and the contours of imperial inequalities. While poverty is often understood to have become a political subject with the birth of political economy in the eighteenth century, this book points to the longer history of poverty as a political subject and a more complicated relationship between moral and political economies. It focuses upon the critical transformations taking place in the long sixteenth century, with the emergence of the world’s first global empire and the development of colonial capitalism. The book explores how the ‘moral-political economy of poverty’—defined as a new and changing conceptualisation of and approach to poverty across laws, institutions, and acts of resistance—played a critical role in the development and governance of the Spanish Empire. In so doing it offers insights into the negotiated nature of sovereignty, the construction of inequalities, and strategies of resistance. The book explains how the combined processes of the transition to global capitalism and imperialism in the long sixteenth century wrought a moral crisis which led to the transformation of poverty and reconceptualisation of the poor and how the newly emerging beliefs, laws, and institutions of poverty helped structure the inequalities of the new global order.
Introduction
Authors: McClure Julia
Published: November 2024

The introduction sets out the analytic frameworks, rational, and structure of the book. It explains why the term ‘moral-political economy’ is used to highlight the blurred boundaries between the moral, political, and economic realms. It problematises conventional understandings of poverty as a predominantly economic concept, and draws attention to the ways in which economic concepts continued to be influenced by moral-political beliefs. It provides a general introduction to the moral, political, economic, and religious transformations taking place in the long sixteenth century, as the Spanish Empire emerged as the world’s first global empire. The introduction explains how, taking a global intellectual history approach, the book offers a rethinking of the genealogies of states, empires, and political economic thought.
New World Wealth and Old World Poverty
Authors: McClure Julia
Published: November 2024

The Spanish Empire has often been imagined as an empire dripping in silver and gold. From Hernán Cortés plundering the riches of the Aztec Empire from Moctezuma, Francisco Pizarro looting the Inca Empire, the hunt for El Dorado, which led Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada to the Muisca people of Lake Guativita in the Colombian Andes, the discovery of the silver mines of Potosí and Zacatecas, to the Manila Galleon treasure fleets and the pirates they attracted, all these histories have generated legends that have permeated the popular imagination. The Spanish Empire has also been represented as a quintessential paradox of wealth and poverty. The anxiety that Spain was corrupted and impoverished by New World wealth was articulated by critics within Spain, known as the arbitristas, in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the early twentieth century, the North American economic historian Earl J. Hamilton presented new data in support of the classic arbitrista narrative that the influx of New World silver caused fiscal crisis in Spain, and supported the narrative of the seventeenth-century ‘decline’ of Spain. The seemingly paradoxical relationship between imperial wealth and poverty in the Spanish Empire has attracted debate for centuries. This chapter charts the debates about the presumed wealth and poverty of Spain in the history of economic thought, and the way in which the legacies of moral debates that began in the long sixteenth century have continued to shape theories of political economy.
The Moral-Political Economy of Poverty and Theories of Global Sovereignty
Authors: McClure Julia
Published: November 2024

Charles V came to power in the Iberian Peninsula amid a constitutional crisis. The comunero revolt was an early lesson in the negotiated nature of sovereignty, and that the moral-political economic obligations to provide justice and welfare were more than rhetorical. At the same time that the boundaries of sovereign authority were being questioned in Europe, the Spanish Crown was expanding its claims to sovereignty around the world. In the face of different challenges, the Crown and its advisers sought to develop new theories of global sovereignty to help build the moral-political and legal foundations for the newly emerging global imperial state. The chapter also looks at theories of global sovereignty in practice, highlighting the different claims to autonomy and other resources and pointing towards a more pixelated and negotiated notion of sovereignty.
Conclusion
Authors: McClure Julia
Published: November 2024

The conclusion reflects upon the key findings of the book, the ways in which moral-political concepts of poverty have been building blocks of states, empires, and their inequalities. It considers the way in which the book frustrates conventional chronologies in the history of political economic thought, especially the notion that a traditional moral economy was replaced by a more rational political economy, and instead points to the ways in which the economic realm continues to be influenced by moral and political beliefs. It highlights the ways in which moral concepts of poverty continue to shape national and international policies and the structures of inequality today, but reminds us that other ways of imagining wealth and poverty are possible.
Watched men and phallus-wielding women: Aubrey Beardsley’s reception of Juvenal’s Sixth Satire
Authors: Singeisen Emily Waller
Published: November 2024

In 1896, Aubrey Beardsley, the controversial poster child for the Decadent movement in Britain, set to work on a collection of drawings inspired by Juvenal’s Sixth Satire. The resultant works — which depict Bathyllus dancing, Messalina returning unsatisfied from the baths, an ‘impatient adulterer’ spying on his mistress, and a final image (not found in the ancient text) of Juvenal whipping a woman — are composed in Beardsley’s iconic style of stark black lines against a white page, simple yet grotesquely erotic. In both the passages that Beardsley selected to represent and his subversive and gender-bending representations, Beardsley exploits the text’s latent homoeroticism, skewers the speaker’s acerbic misogyny, and inverts late antique — and, by extension, Victorian — sexual power structures. While men are depicted as the (knowing or unknowing) subjects of the gaze, women are represented as defiant, returning and refusing the subjection of patriarchal power structures. This paper explores the ways in which Beardsley’s illustrations represent his ‘uncooperative reading’ of the text, wherein Juvenal’s monstrous, dominant women are cast as the heroines of his decadent, grotesque fantasy.
Rain-harvesting behavior in free-ranging prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis)
Authors: McIntyre Madison G , van Mierlo Marja , Parker M Rockwell , Goetz Scott M , Taylor Emily N , Boback Scott M
Published: November 2024

Organisms inhabiting arid environments face challenges to obtain dietary water. To prevent desiccation, some organisms possess unique adaptations to harvest water from infrequent and unpredictable rainfall, including several squamates (snakes and lizards). While most squamates consume precipitation as it pools in the environment, a small number engage in behaviors to enhance water collection by capturing precipitation from their own skin, referred to as rain-harvesting behavior (RHB). Details of this behavior remain unclear, particularly the sequence of behaviors associated with RHB. We developed a method to simulate rainfall to observe RHB in prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) in situ and recorded 72 events in 94 snakes, the most robust sampling of RHB to date. Using video analysis, we describe the postures and kinematics of RHB and develop the first illustrated ethogram of this behavior for any vertebrate. Our results demonstrate that RHB contains fixed and variable patterns useful in cross-species comparisons and in exploring proximate causes of the behavior. In addition, we describe novel features of RHB including suspended head drinking, body levering, and drinking from neighboring snakes. Our results reveal RHB to be an intricate suite of movements and actions, some of which allude to acute sensory abilities of these animals that warrant further study. Furthermore, observations of RHB at dens and rookeries suggest a potential, novel benefit of snake aggregation is the formation of large, communal surfaces for rain harvesting. We suggest that the extremely elongated body plan of snakes may be well-suited for a rapidly deployed, modular rain-harvesting system effective at capitalizing on fleeting rainstorms characteristic of arid ecosystems of the world.
Across the Sea to Ireland: Return Atlantic Migration before the First World War
Authors: Fernihough Alan , Ó Gráda Cormac
Published: November 2024

Are return migrants “losers” who fail to adapt to the challenges of the host economy, thereby exacerbating the brain drain linked to emigration? Or are they “winners” whose return enhances the human and physical capital of the home country? This article analyzes databases constructed from the 1911 Irish population and 1910 US censuses to address these issues for returnees to Ireland from North America more than a century ago. The evidence suggests that returnees had the edge over Ireland’s population, but not those who stayed on in the US in terms of human capital, as proxied by occupation and literacy; returning couples also had fewer children than the stay-at-homes, and their children spent longer at school. It also shows that returnees were less likely to return to the poorer regions of Ireland.
Natural Diversity of Heat-Induced Transcription of Retrotransposons in Arabidopsis thaliana
Authors: Xu Wenbo , Thieme Michael , Roulin Anne C
Published: November 2024

Transposable elements (TEs) are major components of plant genomes, profoundly impacting the fitness of their hosts. However, technical bottlenecks have long hindered our mechanistic understanding of TEs. Using RNA-Seq and long-read sequencing with Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ (ONT) direct cDNA sequencing, we analyzed the heat-induced transcription of TEs in three natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana (Cvi-0, Col-0, and Ler-1). In addition to the well-studied ONSEN retrotransposon family, we confirmed Copia-35 as a second heat-responsive retrotransposon family with particularly high activity in the relict accession Cvi-0. Our analysis revealed distinct expression patterns of individual TE copies and suggest different mechanisms regulating the GAG protein production in the ONSEN versus Copia-35 families. In addition, analogously to ONSEN, Copia-35 activation led to the upregulation of flanking genes such as APUM9 and potentially to the quantitative modulation of flowering time. ONT data allowed us to test the extent to which read-through formation is important in the regulation of adjacent genes. Unexpectedly, our results indicate that for both families, the upregulation of flanking genes is not predominantly directly initiated by transcription from their 3′ long terminal repeats. These findings highlight the intraspecific expressional diversity linked to retrotransposon activation under stress.