bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Oligosaccharides from Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicines: A Review of Chemical Diversity and Biological Activities
Authors: Liu Mengyun , Cai Miaomiao , Ding Ping
Published: March 2021

Most of traditional Chinese herbal medicine (TCHM) substances come from medicinal plants, among which oligosaccharides have gradually attracted widespread attention at home and abroad due to their important biological activities and great medicinal potential. Numerous in vitro and in vivo experiments exhibited that oligosaccharides possess various activities, such as antitumor, anti-oxidation, modulate the gut microflora, anti-inflammatory, anti-infection, and immune-regulatory activities. Generally, biological activities are closely related to chemical structures, including molecular weight, monosaccharide composition, glycosidic bond connection, etc. The structural analysis of oligosaccharides is an important basis for studying their structure–activity relationship, but the structural diversity and complexity of carbohydrate compounds limit the study of oligosaccharides activities. Understanding the structures and biological functions of oligosaccharides is important for the development of new bioactive substances with natural oligosaccharides. This review provides a systematic introduction of the current knowledge of the chemical structures and biological activities of oligosaccharides. Most importantly, the reported chemical characteristics and biological activities of the famous TCHM oligosaccharides were briefly summarized, including Morinda officinalis, Rehmannia glutinosa, Arctium lappa, Polygala tenuifolia, Panax ginseng, Lycium barbarum and Astragalus membranaceus. TCHM oligosaccharides play an important role in nutrition, health care, disease diagnosis and prevention as well as have broad application prospects in the field of medicine.
On Solving the Convex Semi-Infinite Minimax Problems via Superlinear 𝒱𝒰 Incremental Bundle Technique with Partial Inexact Oracle
Authors: Huang Ming , Yuan Jinlong , Lin Sida , Liang Xijun , Liu Chongyang
Published: March 2021

In this paper, we study convex semi-infinite programming involving minimax problems. One of the difficulties in solving these problems is that the maximum type functions are not differentiable. Due to the nonsmooth nature of the problem, we apply the special proximal bundle scheme on the basis of [Formula: see text]-decomposition theory to solve the nonsmooth convex semi-infinite minimax problems. The proposed scheme requires an evaluation within some accuracy for all the components of the objective function. Regarding the incremental method, we only need one component function value and one subgradient which are estimated to update the bundle information and produce the search direction. Under some mild assumptions, we present global convergence and local superlinear convergence of the proposed bundle method. Numerical results of several example problems are reported to show the effectiveness of the new scheme.
Theoretical study of OH− nucleophilic attack on cobalt(II)-verdoheme complex
Authors: Ezadi Farhad , Bahrami Homayoon , Zahedi Mansour
Published: March 2021

OH[Formula: see text] attack on a four, five and six-coordinated cobalt(II)-verdoheme-coordinated with imidazole (1 M) while the axial ligand was studied using B3LYP method. Different spin multiplicities were considered, namely doublet, quartet, and sextet. Results show the most positive charge to be concentrated at the cobalt and carbon atoms adjacent to the oxygen in the cobalt(II)-verdoheme complex. Data obtained show that a stable intermediate was formed by a nucleophilic attack on one of the latter carbon atoms. The intermediate is initially formed by a nucleophilic attack on one of the aforementioned carbon atoms. This intermediate is then directly converted to a helical open-ring complex by passing it through a transition state. It is specified that if every nucleophilic attack is considered separately, then the OH[Formula: see text] attack on cobalt(II)-verdoheme occurred at all spin multiplicity and coordination states, from a thermodynamics and kinetics point of view, all except an OH[Formula: see text] attack on five-coordinated cobalt(II)-verdoheme at quartet state. However, comparison of reaction paths with different spin in the same coordination show that such a nucleophilic attack is not proceeded, while the reactant is a four and six-coordinated cobalt(II)-verdoheme because the latter reaction spin state is not conserved. It is clear that OH[Formula: see text] attack on five-inatedcoordinated Co(II)-verdoheme at doublet spin multiplicity is the most stable reaction path. Moreover, these findings were confirmed by NBO analysis and molecular orbital calculations.
Comparing the Corticosteroid Injection and A1 Pulley Percutaneous Release in Treatment of Trigger Finger: A Clinical Trial
Authors: Abdoli Abbas , Hashemizadeh Aghda Seyed Masoud , Jalil Abrisham Seyed Mohammad
Published: March 2021

Background: Primary treatment of trigger digits is conservative including stretching, night splinting and combination of heat and ice. When these methods fail, invasive methods such as corticosteroid injection, percutaneous release and open surgery are used. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of two outpatient methods of percutaneous trigger finger release (PTFR) and corticosteroid injection (CI).

Methods: This study is a randomized clinical trial that was performed with 6-month follow up. A total of 83 patients with trigger finger treated either with corticosteroid injection (n:40) or percutaneous release of the A1 pulley (n:43) were enrolled in this study. Demographic data were recorded before intervention. Pain score (VAS criterion), disease stage (Quinnell criteria), patient satisfaction and complications such as paresthesia, scarring, and stiffness (decrease in the range of motion) were recorded after the intervention. We used SPSS program (statistical package for the social science SPSS version 16) to perform the analysis.

Results: There were 18 male (21.7%) and 65 female (78.3%) patients, whose mean age was 52.54 ± 11.45 (28–85) years. There was a significant difference between the degree of pain at the time of the third, sixth weeks and sixth months in two groups. The degree of pain was lower in the CI group in the third and sixth weeks but it was lower in the PTFR group in the sixth month. Satisfaction of the patients in the sixth month was significantly higher in the PTFR group. The incidence of stiffness was also significantly lower in the PTFR group in the sixth month.

Conclusions: Patients in PTFR group had greater recovery and satisfaction level and lower recurrence rate and pain. Therefore PTFR may be used as a substitute for CI in the treatment of trigger finger from the beginning especially in patients who do not want to have open surgery.
Epidemiology of Dupuytren’s Disease in Japanese General Population
Authors: Sasaki Norihiro , Uesato Ryoko , Yamauchi Taisei , Ishibashi Yasuyuki , Nakaji Shigeyuki
Published: March 2021

Background: Dupuytren’s disease (DD) is well known as a fibromatous disorder of the palmar aponeurosis. Although there is a large body of literature on the etiology of DD in Europe, there have been few studies in Japan. The purpose of our study was to investigate the etiology and risk factors of DD in a large population in Japan.

Methods: The subjects were voluntary participants from the 2014 Health Promotion Project, and 1,112 individuals were included (421 men and 691 women; mean age = 54.2 ± 15.3 years) in this study. The severity of DD was assessed using the Meyerding classification. All participants completed a questionnaire on age, sex, lifestyle, and occupations. All participants also completed the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) to investigate the QOL. Fasting venous blood specimens were taken for biochemical analysis.

Results: DD was found in 44 participants (3.9%). The prevalence was 8.3% among the men and 1.3% among the women. The prevalence in these older than 60 years was 7.7% (men; 18.5%, women; 2.4%). There were 17 participants that had DD of both hands. Multiple digits were affected in 9 participants. The ring finger was the most affected finger (71.2%), followed by the little finger (16.4%), and middle finger (12.3%). In Meyerding classification, 39 cases were stage 0, one case was stage 1, and four cases were stage 2. The multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that age, sex, smoking, and occupation were significantly associated with DD. There was no significant association between DD and other parameters. When associations between DD and the SF-36 subscales were analyzed, there were significant associations with physical functioning, physical role functioning, and mental health.

Conclusions: Our study is the largest in Japan to date. These results will provide very useful data to aid understanding of DD.
Surgery for Trapeziometacarpal Joint Osteoarthritis: A Meta-Analysis on Efficacy and Safety
Authors: Knightly Nauar , Sullivan Paul
Published: March 2021

Background: Osteoarthritis of the thumb base is the second most prevalent arthritis of the hand. Management is primarily conservative, consisting of analgesia, splinting, physiotherapy, and steroid injections. Surgery is considered when conservative measures fail.

Methods: The primary objective was to assess the safety and efficacy of the surgical interventions and therein, evaluate whether any superiority exists among the available interventions. Efficacy was evaluated by examining four parameters: pain, function, range of movement and strength of the joint postoperatively. Safety was determined by comparing the rate and severity of postoperative complications. A systematic search of MEDLINE (2014–2019), EMBASE (2014–2019), CINAHL (2014–2019) and CENTRAL (2014–2019) databases was carried out. Abstracts were screened for relevant studies. Randomised controlled trials were only considered.

Results: Eight studies were included in the quantitative synthesis. The procedures evaluated are: Trapeziectomy (T), trapeziectomy with ligament reconstruction (T + LR), trapeziectomy with ligament reconstruction and tendon interposition (T + LRTI), trapeziectomy with allograft suspension (T + ALS) and joint arthrodesis (A). Low-moderate quality evidence suggests that T + LRTI yields better range of movement (palmar abduction) when compared with (T) alone; (SMD 0.61, 95% CI 0.22 to 1.00, random-effects, p = 0.002). Comparing adverse events showed that arthrodesis carries a greater risk of adverse events when compared with T + LRTI; (RR 0.33, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.61, random-effects, p = 0.0005). In addition, T + LRTI is preferred over arthrodesis by patients (OR 0.29 95% CI 0.09 to 0.95; p = 0.04). This difference was no seen in the other comparison groups.

Conclusions: It is difficult to declare with any degree of certainty which procedure offers the best functional outcome and safety profile. Results suggest T + LRTI yields good postoperative range of movement. Arthrodesis demonstrated an unacceptably high rate of moderate-severe complications and should be considered with careful consideration.
A Longitudinal Evaluation of Tablet-Based Child Speech Therapy with Apraxia World
Authors: Hair Adam , Ballard Kirrie J. , Markoulli Constantina , Monroe Penelope , Mckechnie Jacqueline , Ahmed Beena , Gutierrez-Osuna Ricardo
Published: March 2021

Digital games can make speech therapy exercises more enjoyable for children and increase their motivation during therapy. However, many such games developed to date have not been designed for long-term use. To address this issue, we developed Apraxia World, a speech therapy game specifically intended to be played over extended periods. In this study, we examined pronunciation improvements, child engagement over time, and caregiver and automated pronunciation evaluation accuracy while using our game over a multi-month period. Ten children played Apraxia World at home during two counterbalanced 4-week treatment blocks separated by a 2-week break. In one treatment phase, children received pronunciation feedback from caregivers and in the other treatment phase, utterances were evaluated with an automated framework built into the game. We found that children made therapeutically significant speech improvements while using Apraxia World, and that the game successfully increased engagement during speech therapy practice. Additionally, in offline mispronunciation detection tests, our automated pronunciation evaluation framework outperformed a traditional method based on goodness of pronunciation scoring. Our results suggest that this type of speech therapy game is a valid complement to traditional home practice.
An Empirical Study of Moment Estimators for Quantile Approximation
Authors: Mitchell Rory , Frank Eibe , Holmes Geoffrey
Published: March 2021

We empirically evaluate lightweight moment estimators for the single-pass quantile approximation problem, including maximum entropy methods and orthogonal series with Fourier, Cosine, Legendre, Chebyshev and Hermite basis functions. We show how to apply stable summation formulas to offset numerical precision issues for higher-order moments, leading to reliable single-pass moment estimators up to order 15. Additionally, we provide an algorithm for GPU-accelerated quantile approximation based on parallel tree reduction. Experiments evaluate the accuracy and runtime of moment estimators against the state-of-the-art KLL quantile estimator on 14,072 real-world datasets drawn from the OpenML database. Our analysis highlights the effectiveness of variants of moment-based quantile approximation for highly space efficient summaries: their average performance using as few as five sample moments can approach the performance of a KLL sketch containing 500 elements. Experiments also illustrate the difficulty of applying the method reliably and showcases which moment-based approximations can be expected to fail or perform poorly.
A Photoelectrochemical Aptasensor for Acetamiprid Determination Based on λ Exonuclease-Assisted Recycling Amplification and DNAzyme-Catalyzed Precipitation
Authors: Zhou Chunhong , Huang Mingjuan , Huang Wenduo , Tian Jiuying , Zhang Yihang , Lu Jusheng
Published: March 2021

In the present work, we developed a selective and sensitive photoelectrochemical (PEC) aptasensor for acetamiprid determination. Due to specific recognition ability of the aptamer, acetamiprid could combine with its aptamer, leading to the release of the primer from the aptamer-primer hybrid duplex and the formation of 5′-phosphorylated double-stranded DNAs on the nanocomposite of graphitic carbon nitride and titanium dioxide nanotube array (TNA/g-C3N4), which could be catalytically recycling-digested by λ exonuclease, leading to the amplification of the signal, and the generated DNAzymes could catalyze the in situ production of benzo-4-chlorohexadienone (4-CD) precipitate in the presence of H2O2, causing the significant decrease of photocurrent response of TNA/g-C3N4. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the logarithm of decrease value of photocurrent was linear proportional to the logarithm of acetamiprid concentration from 0.1 pM to 1.0 nM. And the constructed PEC aptasensor exhibited a low limit of detection (0.025 pM) and good selectivity towards acetamiprid determination, which has been successfully applied for the analysis of real vegetable samples with good precision of RSD less than 4.3% and good accuracy of the recoveries ranged from 96.4% to 104.3%.
Synergistic Acceptor-Donor Interplay of Nd2Sn2O7 Pyrochlore based Sensor in Selective Detection of Hydrogen
Authors: Raauf Aida , Graf David , Gönüllü Yakup , Sekhar Praveen K. , Frank Michael , Mathur Sanjay
Published: March 2021

Nanostructured thin film of Nd2Sn2O7 pyrochlore obtained by solution processing of a single molecular precursor with Nd-Sn ratio of 1:1 was found to show unprecedently high selectivity towards hydrogen sensing in the temperature range 200 °C–450 °C. Formation of crystalline Nd2Sn2O7 upon annealing the xerogel in air at 800 °C was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction analysis. The heat-treated pyrochlore films exhibited a porous structure with interconnected grains confirmed by scanning electron microscope images. The gas sensing behavior of the device towards various analyte gases (H2, CO, CH4, NO2, NH3) showed remarkably high selectivity towards H2, while no sensor response against other reducing and oxidizing gases was monitored. The highest sensitivity towards H2 was detected at 300 °C with a linear trend observed in the sensitivity values and H2 concentration (5%–30%). Intercorrelated analysis of sensor characteristics, surface spectroscopy before and after hydrogen treatment and implications of unique crystallographic features of the pyrochlore lattice demonstrated a novel defined subsequent detection mechanism, which strongly differs from conventional binary oxides like SnO2. The significant increase in operating temperature upon H2 exposure is apparently caused by the exothermic reaction between pyrochlore and molecular hydrogen to generate highly reactive hydride species during the detection mechanism. The high efficiency and reproducibility of the investigated sensor devices indicates the potential of Nd2Sn2O7 based sensors for hydrogen safety applications.
Interconnected Vertical δ-MnO2 Nanoflakes Coated by a Dopamine-Derived Carbon Thin Shell as a High-Performance Self-Supporting Cathode for Aqueous Zinc Ion Batteries
Authors: Xu Huazhuo , Du Yihe , Emin Adil , Long Xiao , Fu Yujun , Li Yali , Li Junshuai , Liu Dequan , He Deyan
Published: March 2021

Aqueous zinc (Zn)-ion batteries (AZIBs) are one of the most promising secondary battery technologies for electricity storage with high performance-to-cost ratios. Herein, a highly reversible AZIB using interconnected vertical δ-MnO2 nanoflakes coated by a dopamine-derived carbon thin shell of ∼2 nm in thickness on carbon cloth as a self-supporting cathode is reported. The vertical nanoflake structure ensures the effective contact with electrolyte, large specific surface area and efficient stress relief during charge and discharge processes, and the coated thin carbon shell increases the electrical conductivity of the cathode and meanwhile relieves the dissolution of the electrode material during cycle. Thanks to these advantages, a high capacity of ∼346.7 mA h g–1 at 0.5 A g–1 and good long-term cycling stability with 96.8% capacity retention after 2000 cycles at 6.0 A g–1 can be delivered. Furthermore, the electricity storage mechanism is investigated using various characterization tools. Benefiting from the facile preparation and high performance, this study is believed to provide a valuable exploration of high-performance self-supporting cathodes for aqueous Zn-ion batteries.
On the Importance of Li Metal Morphology on the Cycling of Lithium Metal Polymer Cells
Authors: Storelli Alexandre , Rousselot Steeve , Alzate-Carvajal Natalia , Pelé Vincent , Dollé Mickael
Published: March 2021

Lithium metal anodes have recently earned greater attention in the context of the development of lithium batteries with high power and energy density for use in both the automotive industry and in portable electronic devices. Lithium metal is indeed an ideal anode for lithium batteries due to its high specific capacity (3860 mAh g−1). However, the growth of dendrites under high charge currents restricts the use of lithium anode in rechargeable batteries until solid electrolytes that can mechanically hamper dendrite growth can be developed. Efforts are currently dedicated to solving these problems by focusing on either improving the shear modulus of the electrolyte, or on the modification of the lithium-electrolyte interface. The electrochemical stability of novel solid electrolytes towards lithium is commonly determined by galvanostatic cycling of Li-Li symmetric cells. However, important characteristics of the lithium foil used in most studies are seldom provided, hence making comparisons between materials trivial. This paper demonstrates the importance of a thorough electrode characterization for the cycling of symmetric cells. In this study, two types of lithium foils are used with polyethylene oxide-based (PEO-based) electrolyte. A detailed characterization of the morphological and physico-chemical properties of the metallic electrodes is first performed by PeakForce Tunneling Atomic force microscopy (PeakForce-TUNA™), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), followed by an evaluation of the interface with PEO-based electrolyte. It is demonstrated that lithium foil morphology is a key factor in the electrochemical performance of the cell and a novel electrochemical pre-treatment program is presented. This type of pre-treatment, still unreported in the existing literature, results in a longer life for lithium symmetrical cells.
The validity and reliability of a novel isotope ratio infrared spectrometer to quantify 13C enrichment of expired breath samples in exercise
Authors: Sutehall Shaun , Muniz-Pardos Borja , Smajgl Danijela , Mandic Magda , Jeglinski Cedric , Bosch Andrew , Galloway Stuart D. , Pitsiladis Yannis
Published: March 2021

The use of IRIS to determine 13C enrichment in expired breath samples captured during exercise to determine exogenous glucose oxidation during exercise has excellent validity and reliability when compared with the gold standard IRMS.
Pegylated Recombinant Human Arginase 1 Induces Autophagy and Apoptosis via the ROS‐Activated AKT/mTOR Pathway in Bladder Cancer Cells
Authors: Zhao Zhuyun , Zhang Peng , Li Wei , Wang Dengchuan , Ke Changneng , Liu Yueming , Ho James Chung-Man , Cheng Paul Ning-Man , Xu Shi
Published: March 2021

Bladder cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide, especially in males. Current therapeutic interventions, including surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, have not been able to improve the clinical outcome of bladder cancer patients with satisfaction. Recombinant human arginase (rhArg, BCT‐100) is a novel agent with great anticancer effects on arginine‐auxotrophic tumors. However, the effects of BCT‐100 on bladder cancer remain unclear. In this study, the in vitro anticancer effects of BCT‐100 were assessed using four bladder cancer cell lines (J82, SCaBER, T24, and 5637), while the in vivo effects were evaluated by establishing T24 nude mice xenograft models. Intracellular arginine level was observed to be sharply decreased followed by the onset of apoptotic events. Furthermore, BCT‐100 was found to induce H2O2 production and mitochondrial membrane depolarization, leading to the release of mitochondrial cytochrome c and Smac to the cytosol. Treatment with BCT was observed to upregulate the expression of LC3B and Becllin‐1, but downregulate the expression of p62 in a time‐dependent manner. Autophagic flux was also observed upon BCT‐100 treatment. Besides, the phosphorylation of the AKT/mTOR pathway was suppressed in a time‐dependent fashion in BCT‐100‐treated T24 cells. While N‐acetyl‐L‐cysteine was shown to alleviate BCT‐100‐induced apoptosis and autophagy, chloroquine, MK‐2206, and rapamycin were found to potentiate BCT‐100‐triggered apoptosis. Finally, BCT‐100 was demonstrated to induce autophagy and apoptosis via the ROS‐mediated AKT/mTOR signaling pathway in bladder cancer cells.
Stability Assessment of Ground Surface along Tunnels in Karst Terrain Using Improved Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation
Authors: Zhang Kai , Zhou Zelin , Chen Shougen
Published: March 2021

The stability of ground surface along tunnels in karst terrain is influenced by complex factors, among which the karst features are the significant ones. Under the influence of karst, the ground surface along tunnels is very easy to collapse, thus causing great casualties and economic losses. To provide guidance for maintaining the stability of ground surface along tunnels, an analysis system is proposed for assessing the stability of ground surface along tunnels in karst terrain based on an improved fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Based on the case analysis of ground collapse along tunnels in karst terrain and the review of the related researches, the evaluation index system for ground surface stability assessment was established. The ridge‐shaped membership functions were constructed to calculate the membership degree for the evaluation indices. The comprehensive weighting method combining the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process and correlation analysis was applied to determine weights for evaluation indices. And the ground surface stability level was recognized based on the maximum membership principle. The proposed assessment system was applied to assess the ground surface stability along the tunnels of Guiyang Metro Line 1, and the assessment results agreed well with the regional ground collapse history, verifying the effectiveness and reliability of the assessment system. Combining with the assessment results, a series of measures were conducted to promote the ground surface stability before tunnel excavation. This system provides a valuable tool for assessing and guiding to improve stability of the ground surface along tunnels in karst terrain.
[Retracted] Applicability of High‐Frequency Ultrasound to the Early Diagnosis of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
Authors: Ma Xishun , Li Tongxia , Du Lizhen , Liu Gang , Sun Ting , Han Tongliang
Published: March 2021

This study investigated the applicability of high‐frequency ultrasound (HFU) to the early diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Patients with type 2 diabetes (N = 60) were divided into diabetic nonperipheral neuropathy and DPN groups (group A and group B, respectively; n = 30 each) based on electroneurophysiologic findings. Additionally, 30 nondiabetic patients were included as the healthy control group (group C). We calculated the cross‐sectional area (CSA) of the median nerve (MN) of the right upper limb at 7 different sites (MN1–7) based on measured width (W) and thickness (T). Ultrasound imaging characteristics of the MN including internal echo, internal structure, boundary, epineurium, and blood flow were recorded. The 90 subjects (51 male and 39 female) had an average age of 56.09 ± 12.66 years. W, T, and CSA of the MN were increased in group A compared to group C (with significant differences at MN1, MN4, and MN7 (P < 0.05)) and in group B compared to group C (with significant differences at all 7 levels, especially MN6 and MN7 (P < 0.05)). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that CSA at the MN7 level had the highest diagnostic accuracy for DPN in group B, with a threshold value of 12.42 mm2. Ultrasound examination revealed that the MN had lost the internal sieve mesh structure and showed reduced echo, a partial blood flow signal, and thickened epineurium in patients with DPN; these findings were particularly obvious at MN6 and MN7, corresponding to the carpal tunnel. CSA was positively correlated with motor latency and F wave average latency and negatively correlated with motor conduction velocity, motor amplitude, and sensory conduction velocity in group B. Thus, HFU may be useful for the early diagnosis of DPN, which can improve clinical outcomes.
Comparing Thermal Durability and Effects of Annealing Temperature on Characteristics of Hydrogen-Doped ZnO, AZO, and GZO Thin Films
Authors: Van Hoang Dung , Pham Anh Tuan Thanh , Nguyen Truong Huu , Phan Thang Bach , Tran Vinh Cao
Published: March 2021

In this work, undoped, aluminum-, and gallium-doped ZnO thin films (ZnO-H, AZO-H, and GZO-H, respectively) deposited on soda-lime glass substrates by magnetron sputtering method in a gas mixture of hydrogen and argon are annealed at various temperatures in the range of 200–500°C in air to evaluate the durability of those films under annealing temperature. From photoluminescence spectra, formation of point defects, especially oxygen vacancies, when hydrogen diffuses out of the films at high annealing temperature is exhibited via a significant increase of visible emissions. We find out that carrier concentration and Hall mobility of AZO-H and ZnO-H films dramatically decrease, while those of GZO-H film are still stable as the annealing temperature increased from 200°C to 300°C. We proposed a model for interpreting the thermal durability of GZO-H film that, at an annealing temperature of 300°C, Ga3+ ions located at adjacent Zn sites can push hydrogen atoms, which are broken out of the antibonding sites which are perpendicular to the

c

-axis (AB┴), into bond center sites paralleled to the

c

-axis (BC//). The movement of hydrogen from AB┴ to BC// site also gives rise to the durability of electrical properties of GZO-H films at the high annealing temperature.
Pore Space Reconstruction of Shale Using Improved Variational Autoencoders
Authors: Du Yi , Tu Hongyan , Zhang Ting
Published: March 2021

Pore space reconstruction is of great significance to some fields such as the study of seepage mechanisms in porous media and reservoir engineering. Shale oil and shale gas, as unconventional petroleum resources with abundant reserves in the whole world, attract extensive attention and have a rapid increase in production. Shale is a type of complex porous medium with evident fluctuations in various mineral compositions, dense structure, and low hardness, leading to a big challenge for the characterization and acquisition of the internal shale structure. Numerical reconstruction technology can achieve the purpose of studying the engineering problems and physical problems through numerical calculation and image display methods, which also can be used to reconstruct a pore structure similar to the real pore spaces through numerical simulation and have the advantages of low cost and good reusability, casting light on the characterization of the internal structure of shale. The recent branch of deep learning, variational auto-encoders (VAEs), has good capabilities of extracting characteristics for reconstructing similar images with the training image (TI). The theory of Fisher information can help to balance the encoder and decoder of VAE in information control. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved VAE to reconstruct shale based on VAE and Fisher information, using a real 3D shale image as a TI, and saves the parameters of neural networks to describe the probability distribution. Compared to some traditional methods, although this proposed method is slower in the first reconstruction, it is much faster in the subsequent reconstructions due to the reuse of the parameters. The proposed method also has advantages in terms of reconstruction quality over the original VAE. The findings of this study can help for better understanding of the seepage mechanisms in shale and the exploration of the shale gas industry.
Evolutionary Game Research on the Impact of Environmental Regulation on Overcapacity in Coal Industry
Authors: Fan Bo , Guo Tingting , Xu Ruzhi , Dong Wenquan
Published: March 2021

Currently, the world is facing two significant challenges: low-carbon development and overcapacity. Government departments must reexamine their development strategy of energy industry. Implementing environmental regulatory policies and technological innovation can help alleviate coal industry’s overcapacity, while sustainable development requires joint actions of governments, enterprises, and the market. Based on the evolutionary game theory, this study constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of local government, power industry, and coal enterprise. Under the premise of bounded rationality, the evolution path of each player in the game under the market incentive environmental regulation is analyzed, and the influence of the change of parameters of each player on the result is numerically simulated. The study found that strengthening environmental regulation by local governments is an inevitable choice to promote the transformation and upgrading of coal industry and power industry. In addition, reducing law enforcement costs and technological innovation costs are the fundamental point of the coordinated development of the three parties. Technological innovation in the power industry will reduce the probability of coal companies’ choosing clean production strategies, while seeking low-cost clean production technology and financial support is the key to coal companies’ optimization of production capacity.
Delegated Key-Policy Attribute-Based Set Intersection over Outsourced Encrypted Data Sets for CloudIoT
Authors: Shi Yanfeng , Qiu Shuo
Published: March 2021

Private set intersection (PSI) is a fundamental cryptographic primitive, allowing two parties to calculate the intersection of their data sets without exposing additional private information. In cloud-based IoT system, IoT-enabled devices would like to outsource their data sets in their encrypted form to the cloud. In this scenario, how to delegate the set intersection computation over outsourced encrypted data sets to the cloud and how to achieve the fine-grained access control for PSI without divulging any additional information to the cloud are still open problems. With that in mind, in this work, we combine key-policy attribute-based encryption (KP-ABE) and PSI to introduce such a novel concept, called delegated key-policy attribute-based set intersection over outsourced encrypted data sets (KP-ABSI), to solve this problem. Then we propose a first concrete KP-ABSI scheme and analyze its efficiency.
Experimental Investigation on Shear Failure Mechanism of Rock Mass with Intermittent Joints
Authors: Ma Minghui , Ren Fenhua , Liu Wensheng
Published: March 2021

There are a large number of discontinuous weak planes distributed in the natural rock mass, which makes the sliding failure of rock mass along the intermittent structural plane very complex. To investigate the shear failure mechanism of rock mass with intermittent joints and study the influence of different joint heights on the shear failure mode of the rock mass, direct shear tests were carried out by presetting a series of jointed rock specimens with different undulating heights. During the shear loading, digital image correlation (DIC) technology was employed to monitor the surface strain field of the specimens in real time. The results show that the fluctuation height has a significant effect on the evolution of shear strain. With the increase of shear load, the maximum shear strain of the jointed specimens with different undulating heights first increases slowly and then increases rapidly. When the undulating height is 5 mm, the failure of the specimen is dominated by the rock sliding along prefabricated joints. When the undulating height is larger than 10 mm, the shear fracture of the rock becomes dominant. With the increase of the undulating height, more penetrating cracks perpendicular to the preexisting joints appear between the serrated surfaces, and the shear fracture phenomenon is more obvious.
Traditional Processing, Physicochemical Property, Phytochemical Content, and Microbiological and Sensory Quality of the Yellow “Téa Lémi” Wine Made in the Far-North of Cameroon
Authors: Bayoï James Ronald , Vandi Yonas , Foundikou Bruno Yaya , Etoa Francois-Xavier
Published: March 2021

“Téa Lémi” is a traditional wine made from pummelos by the Kapsiki in the Far-North of Cameroon. Despite its importance as a source of income for the country people, the know-how supporting production of this beverage and its quality attributes still remain unknown. Hence, this study was aimed at describing the processing and quality of “Téa Lémi” produced and marketed in northern Cameroon. The field investigation and the ethnographical technique were used to describe the production process. Physicochemical, phytochemical, and microbiological properties of the beverage were examined using referenced techniques. Quantitative descriptive analysis was used for describing the sensory profile of the wine. Surveys showed that processing of the grapefruit wine is typically artisanal. This can be seen by the uncontrolled addition of some ingredients such as sugar, extract of banana, and honey and a significant fermentation step started by wild, unselected yeasts. The physicochemical analyses revealed that the wine had an acid pH of around 3.84, with a total acidity between 7.72 g/L and 8.79 g/L. The alcohol and soluble solids contents were 14% (v/v) and 12 °Brix, respectively. Total sugar and conductivity values ranged from 57.8 to 96.8 g/L and 573 to 686 μS/cm. Mean contents of polyphenols and flavonoids of 616.4 mg PE/L and 322.5 mg QE/L and an antioxidant capacity of 261.03 mg TE/L have been revealed in the indigenous wine, respectively. The assessment of hygienic quality showed alarming sign of microbiological contamination revealed by total aerobic bacteria and spore-forming bacteria counts beyond the critical level. The good sensory quality (13 out of 20) of the grapefruit wine seemed to be linked to the sweetness (r = 0.999;

p
<
0.001

) and odor/flavor (r = 0.997;

p
<
0.001

). The beverage has been described by the panel as pale yellow colored, slightly tart, and bitter accompanied by some fruity esters and sweet notes of citrus and caramelized sugar.
Microgrid Group Control Method Based on Deep Learning under Cloud Edge Collaboration
Authors: Mao Yazhe , He Baina , Wang Deshun , Jiang Renzhuo , Zhou Yuyang , He Xingmin , Zhang Jingru , Dong Yanchen
Published: March 2021

Aiming at the economic benefits, load fluctuations, and carbon emissions of the microgrid (MG) group control, a method for controlling the MG group of power distribution Internet of Things (IoT) based on deep learning is proposed. Firstly, based on the cloud edge collaborative power distribution IoT architecture, combined with distributed generation, electric vehicles (EV), and load characteristics, the MG system model in the power distribution IoT is established. Then, a deep learning algorithm is used to train the features of the data model on the edge side. Finally, the group control strategy is adopted in the power distribution cloud platform to reasonably regulate the coordinated output of multiple energy sources, adjust the load state, and realize the economic operation of the power grid. Based on the MATLAB platform, a group model of MG is built and simulated. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed control method. Compared with other methods, the proposed control method has higher income and minimum carbon emission and realizes the economic and environmental protection system operation.
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NDN

: MCDM-Based Interest Forwarding and Cooperative Data Caching for Named Data Networking
Authors: Pu Cong
Published: March 2021

Named data networking (NDN), as a specific architecture design of information-centric networking (ICN), has quickly became a promising candidate for future Internet architecture, where communications are driven by data names instead of IP addresses. To realize the NDN communication paradigm in the future Internet, two important features, stateful forwarding and in-network caching, have been proposed to cope with drawbacks of host-based communication protocols. The stateful forwarding is designed to maintain the state of pending Interest packets to guide Data packets back to requesting consumers, while the in-network caching is used to reduce both network traffic and data access delay to improve the overall performance of data access. However, the conventional stateful forwarding approach is not adaptive and responsive to diverse network conditions because it fails to consider multiple network metrics to make Interest forwarding decision. In addition, the default in-network caching strategy relies on storing each received Data packet regardless of various caching constraints and criteria, which causes the routers in the vicinity of data producers to suffer from excessive caching overhead. In this paper, we propose the

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NDN

, a novel stateful forwarding and in-network caching strategy for NDN networks. The

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NDN

consists of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) based interest forwarding and cooperative data caching. The basic idea of the MCDM-based interest forwarding is to employ Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Idea Solution (TOPSIS) to dynamically evaluate outgoing interface alternatives based on multiple network metrics and objectively select an optimal outgoing interface to forward the Interest packet. In addition, the cooperative data caching consists of two schemes: CacheData, which caches the data, and CacheFace, which caches the outgoing interface. We conduct extensive simulation experiments for performance evaluation and comparison with prior schemes. The simulation results show that the

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NDN

can improve Interest satisfaction ratio and Interest satisfaction latency as well as reduce hop count and Content Store utilization ratio.
SDRM‐LDP: A Recommendation Model Based on Local Differential Privacy
Authors: Li Gesu , Yin Guisheng , Yang Jishen , Chen Fukun
Published: March 2021

The development of 5G technology has driven the rise of e‐commerce, social networking, and the Internet of Things. Under the high‐speed transmission, the data volume increases, and the user demand also changes. Personalized customization has become the mainstream trend of network development. However, as the speed of the Internet increases, a series of problems also arise. The increase in data volume results in a reduction of bandwidth, a growth of the central processor’s pressure, and a higher risk of data leakage. A search system and a recommendation platform are the tools to improve people’s search efficiency. However, providing personalized recommendations to different users according to their needs is still an urgent problem. Simultaneously, the big data volume means that attackers can also get more information. They can use background knowledge and various reasoning methods to deduce the user’s private information using nonprivate items. In this paper, the solutions to safe and reliable recommendation services are the main problem explored. Based on this idea, this paper proposed short‐term dynamic recommendation model based on local differential privacy (SDRM‐LDP). This model uses a small amount of user information to construct short‐term user preference behaviors and provides recommendations for users based on the similarity between items. We consider that an attacker uses nonprivate items to derive privacy items. Therefore, we randomly replace the original data in the same category. At the same time, the local differential privacy (LDP) is added to the privacy item query to make the private data available and protect the privacy information. In this paper, two real‐world datasets, ML‐100K and ML‐10M, are used for experiments. Experimental results show that the results of SDRM‐LDP are superior to other models.
Effect of Heat Treatment on the Mechanical Properties of a 3 mm Commercially Pure Titanium Plate (CP-Ti Grade 2)
Authors: Mpumlwana D. , Msomi V. , Fourie C. J. S.
Published: March 2021

Titanium is seen as a good material for application in many fields due to its compatibility with different environments. However, it remains unclear whether what happens when this material is exposed to certain high temperatures for longer periods of time. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effect of heat on a 3 mm commercially pure titanium grade 2 plate at a constant temperature of 900°C at different heating times. Three different heating times were employed in this study: 30 minutes for the first period, 60 minutes for the second period, and 90 minutes for the third period. All heated samples were air cooled to room temperature after each heating period. Microhardness, microstructure, tensile strength, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests were performed. All the results were analyzed and compared with the parent sample. It was observed that the heating period influenced microstructural arrangement of the material. The microstructural changes affected negatively the ultimate tensile strength while percentage elongation was improved. The microhardness of the heat treated samples were firstly negatively affected which later jumped and exceeded that of the parent material.
Numerical High-Order Model for the Nonlinear Elastic Computation of Helical Structures
Authors: Boussaoui Fatima , Lahmam Hassane , Braikat Bouazza
Published: March 2021

In this work, we propose a high-order algorithm based on the asymptotic numerical method (ANM) for the nonlinear elastic computation of helical structures without neglecting any nonlinear term. The nonlinearity considered in the following study will be a geometric type, and the kinematics adopted in this numerical modeling takes into account the hypotheses of Timoshenko and de Saint-Venant. The finite element used in the discretization of the middle line of this structure is curvilinear with twelve degrees of freedom. Using a simple example, we show the efficiency of the algorithm which was carried out in this context and which resides in the reduction of the number of inversions of the tangent matrix compared to the incremental iterative algorithm of Newton-Raphson.
Invulnerability Simulation of Urban Agglomeration Passenger Transport Network under Incomplete Information Attack Strategy
Authors: Li Chengbing , Yang Zhicheng , Zhu Yuan
Published: March 2021

This paper explores the invulnerability of urban agglomeration transportation network under the incomplete information attack strategy. This approach employed the site mapping method to construct the urban agglomeration composite transportation network model, and the network is weighted based on the actual passenger flow. Then the nodes are defined according to the overload conditions. In addition, based on the capacity‐load model, the cascading failure model of the urban agglomeration passenger transport network is constructed, and the incomplete information attack strategy and network invulnerability measure index are determined. Finally, the case of Hu‐Bao‐E‐Yu urban agglomeration is simulated to quantify the effects of attack strategies with varied information level, node load factors, and capacity weight and distance weight of the residual connected edge. The results reveal that the network crash speed is positively related to the information span of the attacker unless the information span exceeds 0.9 or accuracy exceeds 0.6. When the information span is low, the information accuracy δ has a critical impact on the network crash speed. Moreover, in the presence of attack, high or low values of node load factor are conducive to the improvement of network invulnerability. As a scale‐free network, urban agglomeration transportation network shows strong robustness to random attacks and exhibits vulnerability to deliberate attacks. The capacity weight value α and distance weight value β of residual connected edge have different effects on the network invulnerability under different information span strategies.