bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of anode channel shape and wettability on CO2 bubble evolution in direct methanol fuel cells
Authors: Osman Sameer , Ahmed Mahmoud
Published: April 2022

Active direct-methanol fuel cells operate on a liquid supply of reactants to the anode flow channels. Gaseous carbon dioxide is produced during operation forming large bubbles on the top side of diffusion layer, limiting the transport of reactants to the functional layer. This causes a significant drop in the rate of reaction and therefore limits the maximum current density. To collect CO2 bubbles away from the diffusion layer, a new design is proposed. It includes a degassing channel placed at the top of the main trapezoidal anode channel. The wettability of the degassing channel and the dihedral angle of the anode channel are investigated. To assess the effect of these parameters, a three-dimensional, two-phase flow model is developed and numerically simulated. Results show that adding the degassing channel is advantageous in terms of bubble collection. A trapezoidal main channel achieves a significantly higher rate of bubble actuation compared to a rectangular channel. In addition, using a dihedral angle of 20° causes a decrease in the pumping pressure, which reduces pumping losses. Moreover, a contact angle of 100° for the degassing channel provides the best compromise in terms of actuation rate, extraction rate out of the channel, and pressure drop along the channel. However, degassing channels can yield up to three times longer bubbles, which are around 75% slower. These findings create the opportunity to improve the performance of direct-methanol fuel cells by enhancing/optimizing the mass transport of reactants on the anode side.
The non-Riemannian nature of perceptual color space
Authors: Bujack Roxana , Teti Emily , Miller Jonah , Caffrey Elektra , Turton Terece L.
Published: April 2022

Significance

For over 100 y, the scientific community has adhered to a paradigm, introduced by Riemann and furthered by Helmholtz and Schrodinger, where perceptual color space is a three-dimensional Riemannian space. This implies that the distance between two colors is the length of the shortest path that connects them. We show that a Riemannian metric overestimates the perception of large color differences because large color differences are perceived as less than the sum of small differences. This effect, called diminishing returns, cannot exist in a Riemannian geometry. Consequently, we need to adapt how we model color differences, as the current standard,

Δ
E

, recognized by the International Commission for Weights and Measures, does not account for diminishing returns in color difference perception.
Theoretical and experimental assessment of genome-based prediction in landraces of allogamous crops
Authors: Hölker Armin C. , Mayer Manfred , Presterl Thomas , Bauer Eva , Ouzunova Milena , Melchinger Albrecht E. , Schön Chris-Carolin
Published: April 2022

Significance

Genetic variation inherent in landraces is essential for broadening the genetic diversity of our crops. This study pioneers the development of a theoretical framework to link molecular inventories of plant genetic resources to phenotypic variation, allowing an informed choice of landraces and their crossing partners. We show that genome-based prediction of genetic values can be implemented successfully in landrace-derived material, despite a strongly reduced level of relatedness compared with elite germplasm. Theoretical derivations are validated with unique experimental data collected on two different landraces. Our results are a pivotal contribution toward the optimization of genome-enabled prebreeding schemes.
RNPS1 inhibits excessive tumor necrosis factor/tumor necrosis factor receptor signaling to support hematopoiesis in mice
Authors: Zhong Xue , Choi Jin Huk , Hildebrand Sara , Ludwig Sara , Wang Jianhui , Nair-Gill Evan , Liao Tzu-Chieh , Moresco James J. , Liu Aijie , Quan Jiexia , Sun Qihua , Zhang Duanwu , Zhan Xiaoming , Choi Mihwa , Li Xiaohong , Wang Junmei , Gallagher Thomas , Moresco Eva Marie Y. , Beutler Bruce
Published: April 2022

Significance

Messenger RNA (mRNA) splicing is fundamental to protein expression in mammals. Homozygous deletion of single protein components of the splicing machinery or its regulatory factors is embryonic lethal. However, through forward genetic screening in mice, we identified a viable hypomorphic missense mutation of the splicing regulator RNPS1. Homozygous mutant mice displayed altered immune cell development due to excessive tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–dependent immune cell apoptosis. Splicing was impaired in CD8+T cells and hematopoietic stem cells from RNPS1 mutant mice. TNF knockout rescued hematopoiesis and dramatically reduced splicing defects in RNPS1 hematopoietic cells, demonstrating a surprising link between elevated TNF and defects in splicing caused by RNPS1 deficiency.
Corpus linguistics and clinical psychology
Authors: Collins Luke , Brezina Vaclav , Demjén Zsófia , Semino Elena , Woods Angela
Published: April 2022

Triangulating corpus linguistic approaches with other (linguistic and non-linguistic) approaches enhances “both the rigour of corpus linguistics and its incorporation into all kinds of research” (McEnery & Hardie, 2012: 227). Our study investigates an important area of mental health research: the experiences of those who hear voices that others cannot hear, and particularly the ways in which those voices are described as person-like. We apply corpus methods to augment the findings of a qualitative approach to 40 interviews with voice-hearers, whereby each interview was coded as involving ‘minimal’ or ‘complex’ personification of voices. Our analysis provides linguistic evidence in support of the qualitative coding of the interviews, but also goes beyond a binary approach by revealing different types and degrees of personification of voices, based on how they are referred to and described by voice-hearers. We relate these findings to concepts that inform therapeutic interventions in clinical psychology.
Unravelling microstructure evolution induced mechanical responses in weld metals of EH420 shipbuilding steel subjected to varied high heat inputs
Authors: Xie Xu , Zhong Ming , Zhao Tan , Wang Cong
Published: April 2022

Microstructure evolution roadmap and pertinent mechanical responses in weld metals subjected to various heat inputs have been profiled in EH420 shipbuilding steel by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, electron backscatter diffraction and mechanical testing. As the heat input increases from 11.5 to 20 kJ mm–1, relative percentage of acicular ferrites decreases from 62.2 to 41.3%, while that of grain boundary ferrites increases from 10.4 to 30.2%, which are enabled by the diminished number of potent nuclei at lower cooling rate, and largely responsible for the reduced hardness and toughness.
Audiology students’ opinions towards COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Karakoc Kursad , Karabulut Mustafa , Kartal Ozcan Ecem , Mujdeci Banu
Published: April 2022

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the audiology students' opinions regarding their occupational perspective and their future expectations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

The study included 608 participants consisting of undergraduate and graduate students. Two question forms were used in the study. “Audiology students' opinions regarding their occupational perspective during the COVID-19 pandemic” containing 10 questions and “Audiology students' opinions regarding their future expectations” containing 8 questions were assessed.

Results

While the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect employment opportunities in the field of audiology, it significantly contributed to the increase of professional risks. Online education did not contribute to the learning process and professional competencies. More graduate students stated that the COVID-19 did not affect employment opportunities and increased professional risks but facilitated access to information compared to undergraduate students (p < .05). Undergraduate students stated that COVID-19 contributed more to the reconsideration of career plans and opinions about the profession compared to graduate students (p < .05). COVID-19 pandemic had a more negative effect on graduate students' future expectations compared to undergraduate students (p < .05).

Conclusion

To our view, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively influenced the occupational perspective of audiology students but did not affect their future expectations. While this process affected the career plan and perspective on the audiology profession of undergraduate students, it negatively impacted the professional risk perception and future expectations of graduate students.
Endomembranes promote chromosome missegregation by ensheathing misaligned chromosomes
Authors: Ferrandiz Nuria , Downie Laura , Starling Georgina P. , Royle Stephen J.
Published: April 2022

Errors in mitosis that cause chromosome missegregation lead to aneuploidy and micronucleus formation, which are associated with cancer. Accurate segregation requires the alignment of all chromosomes by the mitotic spindle at the metaphase plate, and any misalignment must be corrected before anaphase is triggered. The spindle is situated in a membrane-free “exclusion zone”; beyond this zone, endomembranes (mainly endoplasmic reticulum) are densely packed. We investigated what happens to misaligned chromosomes localized beyond the exclusion zone. Here we show that such chromosomes become ensheathed in multiple layers of endomembranes. Chromosome ensheathing delays mitosis and increases the frequency of chromosome missegregation and micronucleus formation. We use an induced organelle relocalization strategy in live cells to show that clearance of endomembranes allows for the rescue of chromosomes that were destined for missegregation. Our findings indicate that endomembranes promote the missegregation of misaligned chromosomes that are outside the exclusion zone and therefore constitute a risk factor for aneuploidy.
ZnO/Ge core–shell nanowires and Ge nanotubes fabricated by chemical vapor deposition and wet etching
Authors: Sun Yong-Lie , Zheng Xiang-Dong , Jevasuwan Wipakorn , Fukata Naoki
Published: April 2022

One-dimensional germanium (Ge)-related nanostructures including core–shell nanowires and nanotubes with high specific surface area show enhanced performance in energy storage and electronic devices, and their structural control is important for further improving their performance and stability. In this work, we fabricated vertically formed ZnO/Ge core–shell nanowires with different shell thicknesses. The dependence of morphology, crystallinity, and internal stress of the nanowires on the shell growth time and temperature was investigated. By applying the wet-etching method to the ZnO/Ge core–shell heterojunction nanowires, we demonstrated the Ge nanotube fabrication and stress relaxation in Ge after ZnO core removal.
A fiber optic conjugate stress sensor for instantaneous tangent modulus detection targeting prognostic health monitoring applications
Authors: Kordell Jonathan , Yu Miao , Dasgupta Abhijit
Published: April 2022

In this work, a surface-mounted fiber optic conjugate stress sensor (FOCSS) is developed, fabricated, and experimentally demonstrated to accurately evaluate the instantaneous tangent modulus of various metals, thus allowing measurement of the elastic-plastic stress–strain behavior of the host material. The originally proposed embedded version of the conjugate stress (CS) sensor measured the deformations experienced in two fully embedded, ellipsoidal, collocated sensors of significantly different stiffnesses, and related those sensor deformations to host modulus via Eshelby’s equivalent inclusion method. In contrast, the current experimental study focuses on a surface-mounted implementation of the CS sensor. As Eshelby’s analysis is not applicable in this case, a simplified lumped-element spring model is developed to instantaneously relate the deformations in the CS sensor to the local stress–strain state of the host. Therefore, tangent modulus of the host can be estimated from the output of the FOCSS, which can serve as an important damage precursor in structural and prognostic health monitoring for a prominent set of failure mechanisms, including mechanical overstress, fatigue, and corrosion. In this study, the FOCSS data is used in conjunction with the lumped-element spring model to measure the elastic modulus of three different materials of significantly different stiffness: aluminum, copper, and steel. Additionally, as validation of instantaneous tangent modulus tracking, the elastic-plastic stress–strain curves of copper and steel are reconstructed from the FOCSS outputs during uniaxial tensile tests (with a goodness of fit R
2 > 0.98). The results demonstrate the ability of the FOCSS to detect instantaneous modulus as materials experience plastic deformation.
A novel AC loss measurement method for HTS coils based on parameter identification
Authors: Li Xin , Ren Li , Guo Shuqiang , Xu Ying , Shi Jing , Tang Yuejin , Li Jingdong
Published: April 2022

In the presence of AC current or AC magnetic field, superconductors will suffer AC loss. The measurement of AC loss is of great significance for applied superconductivity field. There are three main different methods for AC loss measurement. Among them, electrical measurement methods are widely researched by different laboratories. The existing electrical measurement method mainly has two shortcomings: it is difficult to be used in High temperature superconductivity (HTS) coils with high inductance and only available for periodic current conditions (only obtains average value of AC loss for one or several current periods and cannot obtain AC loss at any instant). In this paper, a novel AC loss measurement method based on parameter identification is proposed to solve the second shortcoming (only available for periodic current conditions). This novel method measures AC loss by identifying HTS coils’ resistance and inductance at any moment, which is completely different from previous measurement methods. The theoretical basis of this novel method mainly contains three parts: equivalent circuit of HTS coils, instantaneous power identification from Poynting theorem and parameter identification based on recursive least squares with fixed forgetting factor. Compared with AC loss measurement results of previous electrical method (integral method), the validity of this novel measurement method is demonstrated. In theory, this novel method can measure AC loss for any current waveform (periodic and aperiodic current), which greatly widens measurement range of previous electrical method. The principle of this novel method and detailed experimental results are discussed and analyzed in this paper.
Probing the delocalized core-hole via inner-shell excitation in N2
Authors: Xu Yuan-Chen , Wang Shu-Xing , Du Xiao-Jiao , Wang Li-Han , Zhu Lin-Fan
Published: April 2022

The dispute about whether the 1s core-hole is localized on one atom or delocalized over both in a homonuclear diatomic molecule has continued for decades, which has been extensively studied by the photoelectron and electron–ion coincidence spectroscopies. For N2, if the 1s core-hole is delocalized, the K-shell excitation into the 1π

g
orbital should split into two components, i.e., the dipole-allowed transition from the ungerade 1σ

u
state and the dipole-forbidden transition from the gerade 1σ

g
state. However, only the dipole-allowed transition has been observed up to now. Here, we report the inner-shell electron energy loss spectra of N2 at different scattering angles with an incident electron energy of 1500 eV and an energy resolution of 65 meV. The vibrational structures of both the dipole-allowed

(

1
s

σ

u

)

−
1

(

1

π

g

)

1

and dipole-forbidden

(

1
s

σ

g

)

−
1

(

1

π

g

)

1

states of N2 have been identified at different momentum transfers. The splitting between the

(

1

σ

g

)

−
1

(

1

π

g

)

1

and

(

1

σ

u

)

−
1

(

1

π

g

)

1

states with the reverse symmetry is determined to be 67 ± 7 meV. Moreover, the momentum transfer dependence behavior of the transition intensity ratio agrees with the theoretical predictions, as increasing to a maximum and then decreasing. The experimental observations clearly show that the inner most electrons can be described by 1σ

g
and 1σ

u
, which indicates that the inner-shell 1s core-hole of N2 is delocalized over two N atoms based on the excitation process.
Revealing superradiant emission in the single-to-bulk transition of quantum emitters in nanodiamond agglomerates
Authors: Gutsche Jonas , Zand Ashkan , Bültel Marek , Widera Artur
Published: April 2022

Individual quantum emitters form a fundamental building block for emerging quantum technologies. Collective effects of emitters, such as superradiance, might improve the performance of applications even further. When scaling materials to larger sizes, however, the optical density of states is modified by the surrounding material, and the collective coupling in small domains might be covered by transitions to bulk properties due to the presence of multiple collectively emitting domains, which inhomogeneously add. Here, we probe the optical properties of nitrogen vacancy centers in agglomerates of nanodiamonds. We quantify the transition from individual emitters to bulk emission by fluorescence lifetime measurements, and find a transition to occur on a length scale of

∼

3

wavelengths around the emitter. While our lifetime measurements are consistent with superradiant decay, the second-order correlation function, which is a standard measure to reveal collective properties, fails to probe collective effects for our case of an ensemble of collectively contributing domains to the emission. Therefore, we propose and apply a new measure to trace collective effects based on the intensity fluctuations of the emitted light. Our work points toward systematically studying collective effects in a scalable solid-state quantum system, and using them for quantum optical applications in agglomerates of highly-doped nanodiamonds.
Gauge field production and Schwinger reheating in runaway axion inflation
Authors: Hashiba Soichiro , Kamada Kohei , Nakatsuka Hiromasa
Published: April 2022

In a class of (pseudoscalar) inflation, inflationary phase is followed by a kination phase,
where the Universe is dominated by the kinetic energy of the inflaton that runs away in a vanishing scalar potential.
In this class of postinflationary evolution of the Universe, reheating of the Universe cannot be achieved by the inflaton
particle decay, which requires its coherent oscillation in a quadratic potential.
In this study, we explore the U(1) gauge field production through the Chern-Simons coupling between the pseudoscalar
inflaton and the gauge field during the kination era
and examine the subsequent pair-particle production induced by the amplified gauge field known as the Schwinger effect,
which can lead to reheating of the Universe.
We find that with a rough estimate of the Schwinger effect for the Standard Model hyper U(1) gauge field
and subsequent thermalization of the pair-produced particles,
a successful reheating of the Universe can be achieved
by their eventual domination over the kinetic energy of the inflaton,
with some reasonable parameter sets.
This can be understood as a concrete realization of the “Schwinger reheating”.
Constraints from the later-time cosmology are also discussed.
A Variable Step-size Normalized Least Mean Square Algorithm with Orthogonal Correction Factors
Authors: Li Ru , Zhai Shu-ying , Wang Pan , Zhi Yong-feng
Published: April 2022

To improve the performance of the adaptive filters, this paper presents a variable step-size normalized least mean square algorithm with orthogonal correction factors, which uses an exponential function to obtain proper smoothing factors from the projected error norm. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is superior in terms of convergence rate and estimation error compared with traditional NLMS-OCF algorithm.
Research on Optimizing Multimodal Transport Path under the Schedule Limitation Based on Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Jiang Cheng
Published: April 2022

Multimodal transportation is getting more and more attention due to its economical and efficient characteristics. Choosing a reasonable transportation plan can effectively control transportation costs. Considering that there are fixed schedules for railway and waterway transportation in real life, this article will establish a multimodal transportation route optimization model with the goal of minimizing the total transportation cost consisting of transportation cost, transit cost, waiting cost and carbon emission cost. The genetic algorithm based on preservation strategy and immigration strategy is used to solve the model. The effectiveness of the model is proved by the case study, and it can provide decision support for the choice of multimodal transportation scheme.
Particle swarm optimization algorithm with proportional factor based on Nash equilibrium
Authors: Luo Wenxin
Published: April 2022

Based on the global gradient-less stochastic search method of traditional particle swarm optimization algorithm, an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm for finding mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium is proposed in view of the shortcomings of prone particle overflow and unconstrained relationship between individual dimensions. In the improved evolution equation, the position function is improved to conform to the concept and properties of the combination of strategies, and the proportional factor is introduced to ensure that the numerical value of particle iteration is mapped to the solution space of normal form game. Through the test of several groups of classical examples, the results show that the algorithm not only improves efficiency and accuracy, but also solves the problems of divergence of particle and low efficiency of iteration. The experiments show that the algorithm has good practical performance.
Hyperspectral image classification based on extrema morphological profiles and total variation
Authors: Ma Tao , Huang Weijian , Wang Chun , Ge Shuangquan , Liu Yunfei
Published: April 2022

Hyperspectral image (HSI) contains spectral information and spatial information of a scene. Because of the unique spectral characteristics of materials, HSI has been proved to be particularly useful for distinguishing the sort of materials in the scene. In this paper, a HSI classification method is proposed. Firstly, we propose a new extrema morphological profiles (EMPs) to extract the spatial feature in HSI. Secondly, total variation (TV) is used to integrate the spatial feature into a fused feature map. Finally, support vector machine (SVM) is utilized to accurately classify the fused feature maps. In order to evaluate the proposed method, we take quantitative classification analyses on a HSI dataset, class accuracy (CA), overall accuracy (OA), average accuracy (AA), and Kappa coefficient are adopted as the metrics. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can efficiently achieve high classification accuracy.
Dual-domain unsupervised network for removing motion artifact related to Gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI
Authors: Bai Chongxin , Liu Kewen , Chen Shi , Li Zhao , Xie Weida , Bao Qingjia , Liu Chaoyang
Published: April 2022

The transient severe motion may cause severe image degradation during gadoxetic acid-enhanced arterial phase imaging. This work proposes a new dual-domain unsupervised motion artifacts disentanglement network for motion correction related to gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI. We assume that motion-free images and motion-corrupted images belong to the different domains, then the motion correction is converted to the image-to-image translation problem. The image-to-image translation within the same domain is designed to constrain autoencoders to learn the feature representation. And the cross-domain translation explores the cycle consistency in the absence of paired images. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can effectively reduce artifacts in the gadoxetic acid-enhanced images.
Spatial-temporal graph attention network for traffic flow forecasting
Authors: Wang Ling , Jia Gaofeng
Published: April 2022

Traffic flow forecasting is one of the most challenging tasks in intelligent transportation system, which is very important and critical for many traffic services. Although there are existing works on forecasting the future traffic flow, the majority of them have certain limitations on modelling spatial-temporal correlations: they usually use different modules for spatial and temporal dependencies, and lack abilities of utilizing the historical periodic data. In order to overcome these problems, a novel Spatial-Temporal Graph Attention network (STGAT) is proposed. Considering the periodic characteristic of traffic data, the raw data is transformed into a three-dimensional tensor corresponded to the weekly period and recent period before inputting into the STGAT model. The random walk theory is used to construct a localized spatial-temporal graph to model the spatial-temporal dependencies, and an elaborately designed spatial-temporal graph attention mechanism is used to synchronously capture the complex spatial-temporal dynamic correlations. By calculating the similarity of spatial-temporal features of weekly and recent period input, the model integrates the periodic features into the target. Experimental results on two public real-world datasets demonstrate that STGAT achieves superior performance and consistently outperforms other baselines.
A method of air target recognition based on combined-rules
Authors: Zhang Zhen , Fang Fengtang , Xing Yupeng , Fu Bin
Published: April 2022

In order to improve the authenticity, reliability and accuracy of air target identification in complex situation, a processing method based on combined-rules is proposed to further enhance the automation degree of air target identification among various air target identification methods. Rule combination and conflict resolutionare used to reduce the workload of human intervention and manual judgment and make target recognition more rapid and accurate.
Research on Speed Control Method of Mine Hoist based on Improved Adaptive Particle Swarm
Authors: Ye Zhang , Dong-sheng Zuo , Xiao-rui Ai
Published: April 2022

Most of the current mine hoists use PID controllers for speed adjustment, and there are problems such as long adjustment time, excessive reliance on experience, easy overshoot and oscillation. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is planned to use the adaptive particle swarm optimization based on simulated annealing (SA-APSO) algorithm to optimize the parameters of the controller, and conduct simulation experiments based on Simulink simulation. The simulation results show that the optimized control algorithm can effectively improve the control efficiency, reduce the overshoot, without vibration, and can effectively improve the speed and accuracy of the mine hoist speed control.
Fault Diagnosis Method of Spacecraft Control Systems Based on PCA-ResNet
Authors: Wei Xuan , Mu Xiaodong , Jiang Tao , Liu Weiqiang , Zeng Zhaoju
Published: April 2022

Due to the complex space environment, spacecraft telemetry signals are accompanied by a large amount of noise, and the accuracy of fault diagnosis is low by directly using the original telemetry signals. This paper proposes a fault diagnosis method for spacecraft control systems based on principal component analysis (PCA) and residual network (ResNet). Firstly, grayscale images are generated by denoising the telemetry signal of the spacecraft control system through PCA; Secondly, the images are input into the residual network to extract deep-level features; Finally, the Softmax classifier is used for classification to realize the fault diagnosis of the spacecraft control system. The research results show that the diagnostic accuracy of the method proposed in this paper reaches 95.33%, which is higher than other diagnostic models, and the method can be used for the actual fault classification of spacecraft control systems.
Research on LQR controller of control torque gyro self-balancing vehicle based on QPSO optimization
Authors: Luo Zezhou , Xu Lin
Published: April 2022

The LQR control method based on quantum particle swarm optimization (QPSO) is used to solve the balance problem of the control torque gyro self-balancing vehicle. Firstly, the system dynamics model was established by Lagrange method, and the fitness function of mixed indexes was designed, and the system was simulated numerically. Finally, compared with the results of double closed-loop PID control and LQR control using empirical method, the performance of each algorithm in vehicle body balance control is analyzed. The results show that the LQR control algorithm based on PSO optimization can quickly adjust the roll Angle from the initial Angle to the balance position, and has a faster response time, smaller overshoot, and a stronger ability to resist external interference for the balance control of the torque gyro balancing vehicle.
Design of Gust Load Alleviation Control Based on UD-PSO for Civil Aircraft
Authors: Qu Xiaoyu , Li Tao
Published: April 2022

Civil aircraft will produce undesirable normal overload under the disturbance of vertical turbulence or gusts, which will lead to deterioration of the ride quality of passenger. To solve this problem, a design scheme of gust load alleviation (GLA) control based on UD-PSO optimization is proposed. Firstly, design a classical gust load alleviation control strategy in the control system. The GLA controller will automatically generate the control command, which is calculated by the sensor feedback signal of turbulence or gust. That is, the aileron and spoiler are deflected in the same direction to counteract the undesired normal overload; at the same time, the elevators are deflected to ensured the longitudinal stability of the aircraft. Then, selects a suitable reference model and a reasonable objective function to achieve the desired ride quality performance index. Finally, the UD-PSO algorithm is used to automatically optimize the controller parameters. The simulation results show that the load alleviation control strategy optimized based on UD-PSO can effectively reduce the gust interference, improve the ride comfort, and achieve a good control performance, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Radiation hardness and timing performance in MALTA monolithic pixel sensors in TowerJazz 180 nm
Authors: van Rijnbach M. , Allport P. , Asensi I. , Berdalovic I. , Bortoletto D. , Buttar C. , Cardella R. , Dachs F. , Dao V. , Denizli H. , Dobrijevic D. , Dyndal M. , Flores L. , Freeman P. , Gabrielli A. , Gonella L. , LeBlanc M. , Oyulmaz K. , Pernegger H. , Piro F. , Riedler P. , Sandaker H. , Solans C. , Snoeys W. , Suligoj T. , Torres J. , Worm S.
Published: April 2022

The MALTA family of depleted monolithic pixel sensors produced in TowerJazz 180 nm CMOS technology target radiation hard applications for the HL-LHC and beyond. Several process modifications and front-end improvements have resulted in radiation hardness >1015 1 MeV neq/cm2 and time resolution below 2 ns, with uniform charge collection and efficiency across the pixel of size 36.4 × 36.4 µm2 with small collection electrode. This contribution will present the comparison of samples produced on high-resistivity epitaxial silicon with Czochralski substrates, before and after neutron irradiation, and results from MALTA2 with a new cascoded front-end flavour that further reduces the RTS noise.
Tailored alginate/PCL-gelatin-β-TCP membrane for guided bone regeneration
Authors: Joo Gyeongjin , Park Myeongki , Park Seong-su , Tripathi Garima , Lee Byong-Taek
Published: April 2022

Membranes prepared for guided bone regeneration (GBR) signify valued resources, inhibiting fibrosis and assisting bone regenration. However, existing membranes lack bone regenerative capacity or adequate degradation profile. An alginate-casted polycaprolactone-gelatin-β-tricalcium phosphate dual membrane was fabricated by electrospinning and casting processes to enhance new bone formation under a GBR process. Porous membranes were synthesized with suitable hydrophilicity, swelling, and degradation behavior to confirm the compatibility of the product in the body. Furthermore, osteoblast-type cell toxicity and cell adhesion results showed that the electrospun membrane offered compatible environment to cells while the alginate sheet was found capable enough to supress the cellular attachment, but was a non-toxic material. Post-implantation, the in-vivo outcomes of the dual-layered membrane, showed appreciable bone formation. Significantly, osteoid islands had fused in the membrane group by eight weeks. The infiltration of fibrous tissues was blocked by the alginate membrane, and the ingrowth of new bone was enhanced. Immunocytochemical analysis indicated that the dual membrane could direct more proteins which control mineralization and convene osteoconductive properties of tissue-engineered bone grafts.
Non-equilibrium dynamics of a dissipative two-site Hubbard model simulated on IBM quantum computers
Authors: Tornow Sabine , Gehrke Wolfgang , Helmbrecht Udo
Published: April 2022

Many-body physics is one very well suited field for testing quantum algorithms and for finding working heuristics on present quantum computers. We have investigated the non-equilibrium dynamics of one- and two-electron systems, which are coupled to an environment that introduces decoherence and dissipation. In our approach, the electronic system is represented in the framework of a two-site Hubbard model while the environment is modelled by a spin bath. To simulate the non-equilibrium population probabilities of the different states on a quantum computer we have encoded the electronic states and environmental degrees of freedom into qubits and ancilla qubits (bath), respectively. The total evolution time was divided into short time intervals, during which the system evolves. After each of these time steps, the system interacts with ancilla qubits representing the bath in thermal equilibrium. We have specifically studied spin baths leading to both, unital and non-unital dynamics of the electronic system and have found that electron correlations clearly enhance the electron transfer rates in the latter case. For short time periods, the simulation on the quantum computer is found to be in very good agreement with the exact results if error mitigation methods are applied. Our method to simulate also non-unitary time-evolution on a quantum computer can be well extended to simulate electronic systems in correlated spin baths as well as in bosonic and fermionic baths.
Efficient direction-independent fog harvesting using a corona discharge device with a multi-electrode structure
Authors: LI Dingchen , LI Chuan , LI Jiawei , YANG Wendi , XIAO Menghan , ZHANG Ming , YANG Yong , YU Kexun
Published: April 2022

Efficient collection of water from fog can effectively alleviate the problem of water shortages in foggy but water-scarce areas, such as deserts, islands and so on. Unlike inefficient fog meshes, corona discharge can charge water droplets and further enhance the water-collecting effect. This study proposes a novel multi-electrode collecting structure that can achieve efficient and direction-independent water collection from fog. The multi-electrode structure consists of three parts: a charging electrode, an intercepting electrode and a ground electrode. Four types of water-collecting structures are compared experimentally, and the collection rates from a traditional fog mesh, a wire-mesh electrode with fog coming from a high-voltage electrode, a wire-mesh electrode with fog coming from a ground electrode and a multi-electrode structure are 2–3 g h−1, 100–120 g h−1, 60–80 g h−1 and 200–220 g h−1, respectively. The collection rate of the multi-electrode structure is 100‒150 times that of a traditional fog mesh and 2–4 times that of a wire-mesh electrode. These results demonstrate the superiority of the multi-electrode structure in fog collection. In addition, the motion equation of charged droplets in an electric field is also derived, and the optimization strategy of electrode spacing is also discussed. This structure can be applied not only to fog collection, but also to air purification, factory waste gas treatment and other fields.
Subjective short-term memory difficulties at ages 50–75 predict dementia risk in a community-based cohort followed over 17 years
Authors: Möllers Tobias , Stocker Hannah , Perna Laura , Rujescu Dan , Holleczek Bernd , Schöttker Ben , Brenner Hermann
Published: April 2022

Introduction

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is an established precursor of dementia. However, the relationship between SCD and dementia has been mostly studied among people aged 65+. We aimed to assess the association between subjective memory difficulties at ages 50–75 with all-cause dementia and dementia-subtypes in a community-based cohort with long-term follow-up.

Methods

6,190 individuals (51% female) aged 50–75 years (median age, 62) attending a general health examination (by a total of 684 general practitioners) in Saarland, Germany, in 2000–2002 were recruited for a community-based cohort study. Subjective difficulties regarding short-term and long-term memory were assessed at baseline with two simple yes/no questions. Associations with dementia (−subtypes) diagnoses during 17 years of follow-up were estimated by Cox proportional hazards models.

Results

492 participants were diagnosed with dementia during 17 years of follow-up. Participants with short-term memory difficulties were at higher risk to receive incident all-cause dementia and vascular dementia diagnoses both within 0–9 years (age and sex adjusted hazard ratios (aHR), 1.80 and 2.00, respectively) and within 0–17 years (aHR 1.55 and 1.78, respectively) from recruitment (P < 0.05 in all cases). For clinical Alzheimer’s disease, a significant association was only seen within the initial 6 years. There were no associations of long-term memory difficulties with any type of dementia.

Conclusions

Subjective difficulties in short-term memory predict both intermediate and long-term risk of vascular and all-cause dementia even among late middle-age adults. These results underline the importance of cardiovascular disease prevention efforts well before old age for maintaining cognitive health.
Events and the regress of pure powers: Reply to Taylor
Authors: Coates Ashley
Published: April 2022

Taylor has recently argued that adopting either the standard Kimian or Davidsonian approaches to the metaphysics of events quite directly solves the regress of pure powers. I argue, though, that on closer inspection Taylor’s proposal does not succeed, given either the Kimian or the Davidsonian account of events.
Facelift Patients Receiving Intraoperative Administration of a Self-assembling Hemostat Agent Experienced Minimal Bruising and No Acute Hematomas: A Pilot Study
Authors: Few Julius
Published: April 2022

Background

Hematomas are consistently cited as the most common complication of facelift surgery, with reported incidence rates ranging from 1% to 9% despite preventative measures. A self-assembling RADA16 peptide solution (PuraSinus, 3-D Matrix, Newton, MA) designed to aid in wound healing, adhesion prevention, and bleeding control has demonstrated hemostatic control of intra- and postoperative bleeding associated with various surgical procedures, including nasal and sinus surgery.

Objectives

To report surgical experience using novel application of RADA16 hemostatic agent in facelift procedures.

Methods

Through exploring incorporation of RADA16 hemostatic agent into standard of care, 15 higher-risk facelift patients were treated intraoperatively between December 2020 and July 2021. Postoperative follow-up was on post-procedure day 1 and 3 and at approximately one week. During follow-up, potential complications were assessed subjectively, including hematoma, swelling, and bruising; postoperative observations recorded; and photographs taken.

Results

Among facelift patients receiving intraoperative RADA16 hemostatic agent there were no hematomas or protracted ecchymosis events. The only significant complication was one patient admitted for intravenous hydration due to post-operative nausea and vomiting. All patients had minimal bruising or a dramatic absence of bruising and experienced no hemorrhage or hematoma. Through surgical experience, technique for RADA16 hemostatic agent placement was optimized and procedural details are provided.

Conclusions

Intraoperative administration of topical RADA16 hemostatic agent appears to deter acute hematoma and hemorrhage formation and early experience suggests that RADA16 hemostatic agent may also attenuate post-operative bruising in facelift patients. These observations warrant further investigation in a larger randomized controlled study.

Level of Evidence: 4
Coordination of care by breeders and helpers in the cooperatively breeding long-tailed tit
Authors: Halliwell Chay , Beckerman Andrew P , Germain Marion , Patrick Samantha C , Leedale Amy E , Hatchwell Ben J
Published: April 2022

In species with biparental and cooperative brood care, multiple carers cooperate by contributing costly investments to raise a shared brood. However, shared benefits and individual costs also give rise to conflict among carers conflict among carers over investment. Coordination of provisioning visits has been hypothesized to facilitate the resolution of this conflict, preventing exploitation, and ensuring collective investment in the shared brood. We used a 26-year study of long-tailed tits, Aegithalos caudatus, a facultative cooperative breeder, to investigate whether care by parents and helpers is coordinated, whether there are consistent differences in coordination between individuals and reproductive roles, and whether coordination varies with helper relatedness to breeders. Coordination takes the form of turn-taking (alternation) or feeding within a short time interval of another carer (synchrony), and both behaviors were observed to occur more than expected by chance, that is, “active” coordination. First, we found that active alternation decreased with group size, whereas active synchrony occurred at all group sizes. Second, we show that alternation was repeatable between observations at the same nest, whereas synchrony was repeatable between observations of the same individual. Active synchrony varied with reproductive status, with helpers synchronizing visits more than breeders, although active alternation did not vary with reproductive status. Finally, we found no significant effect of relatedness on either alternation or synchrony exhibited by helpers. In conclusion, we demonstrate active coordination of provisioning by carers and conclude that coordination is a socially plastic behavior depending on reproductive status and the number of carers raising the brood.
Bio-inspired chemical space exploration of terpenoids
Authors: Zeng Tao , Hess, Jr. Bernard Andes , Zhang Fan , Wu Ruibo
Published: April 2022

Many computational methods are devoted to rapidly generating pseudo-natural products to expand the open-ended border of chemical spaces for natural products. However, the accessibility and chemical interpretation were often ignored or underestimated in conventional library/fragment-based or rule-based strategies, thus hampering experimental synthesis. Herein, a bio-inspired strategy (named TeroGen) is developed to mimic the two key biosynthetic stages (cyclization and decoration) of terpenoid natural products, by utilizing physically based simulations and deep learning models, respectively. The precision and efficiency are validated for different categories of terpenoids, and in practice, more than 30 000 sesterterpenoids (10 times as many as the known sesterterpenoids) are predicted to be linked in a reaction network, and their synthetic accessibility and chemical interpretation are estimated by thermodynamics and kinetics. Since it could not only greatly expand the chemical space of terpenoids but also numerate plausible biosynthetic routes, TeroGen is promising for accelerating heterologous biosynthesis, bio-mimic and chemical synthesis of complicated terpenoids and derivatives.
E-learning strategies from a bioinformatics postgraduate programme to improve student engagement and completion rate
Authors: Garzón Andrés , Rubio Alejandro , Pérez-Pulido Antonio J
Published: April 2022

Motivation

E-learning is the standard solution adopted in transnational study programmes for which multiple face-to-face learning places are not an option. Bioinformatics is compatible with e-learning because its resource requirements are low. Online learning, however, is usually associated with high dropout rates because students start from a very low computational level and/or they need support to conduct practical analyses on their own.

Results

In this article, we analyse the academic results of an online bioinformatics educational programme based on learning communities. The programme has been offered by the Spanish Pablo de Olavide University for more than 5 years with a completion rate of close to 90%. Learning bioinformatics requires technical and operational competencies that can only be acquired through a practical methodology. We have thus developed a student-centred and problem-based constructivist learning model; the model uses faculty and peer mentoring to drive individual work and retain students. Regarding our innovative learning model, the recruitment level (i.e. the number of applicants per available places and international origin), the results obtained (i.e. the retention index and learning outcomes) as well as the satisfaction index expressed by students and faculty lead us to regard this programme as a successful strategy for online graduate learning in bioinformatics.

Availability and implementation

All data and results for this article are available in the figures and supplementary files. The current syllabus (Supplementary File S7) and other details of the course are available at: https://www.upo.es/postgrado/Diploma-de-Especializacion-Analisis-Bioinformatico and https://www.upo.es/postgrado/Master-Analisis-Bioinformatico-Avanzado.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Advances online.
Thrown into the Water: Early-career Social Workers’ Job Challenges and Time Management Coping Strategies
Authors: Segev Einav , Hochman Yael , Shai Ofir
Published: April 2022

The present study examined the early-career experiences of Israeli social workers in their first years in the profession. The study also sought to examine the participants’ coping with the challenges posed by entering social work. Using a qualitative methodology, two focus groups of eleven social workers with eighteen months of work experience were conducted. The participants were asked about their professional role and workplace experiences. The findings pointed to two main challenges: stress and emotional overload, and dissatisfaction with organisational and employment conditions. The participants felt that social work education had not prepared them adequately for the complex reality of their practice. At the same time, they also described coping strategies related to time management. The implications discussed include requisite preparations of social work education and employing organisations to support early-career social workers.