bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Positive solutions for a Minkowski-curvature equation with indefinite weight and super-exponential nonlinearity
Authors: Boscaggin Alberto , Feltrin Guglielmo , Zanolin Fabio
Published: March 2022

We investigate the existence of positive solutions for a class of Minkowski-curvature equations with indefinite weight and nonlinear term having superlinear growth at zero and super-exponential growth at infinity. As an example, for the equation [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] is a sign-changing function satisfying the mean-value condition [Formula: see text], we prove the existence of a positive solution for both periodic and Neumann boundary conditions. The proof relies on a topological degree technique.
A Novel Rigid Finite Element Formulation for Dynamic Analysis of Flexible Plates
Authors: Kermanian Ali , Taghvaeipour Afshin , Kamali E. Ali
Published: March 2022

This paper introduces a new rigid finite element method (RFEM) formulation for dynamic analysis of plates. In RFEM, a flexible body is divided into several rigid elements which are interconnected by spring and damping elements. Mainly, RFEM has been used to model systems with beam-like slender components, such as ropes and cables, and few RFEM formulations were developed to model plates and shells. In this study however, by means of the Timoshenko beam theory and cuboid rigid elements, a novel RFEM formulation is developed to model flexible flat plates with generic geometries of the surface, considering large deformation. For this purpose, an RFEM formulation is presented for straight beams with rectangular cross-section by means of the Timoshenko beam theory. Next, this formulation is expanded to model flexible rectangular plates with uniform thickness and then, it is elaborated on how to model non-rectangular plates with uniform thickness using only cuboid elements and consequently, the development of the proposed RFEM formulation is completed. After investigating various case studies, the competence of the proposed formulation is evaluated thoroughly. The results of RFEM came on a proper agreement with the FEM results in a way that the maximum difference between these results in dynamic analysis was about 3%.
Finite symmetries of surfaces of p-groups of co-class 1
Authors: Sarkar Siddhartha
Published: March 2022

The genus spectrum of a finite group [Formula: see text] is a set of integers [Formula: see text] such that [Formula: see text] acts on a closed orientable compact surface [Formula: see text] of genus [Formula: see text] preserving the orientation. In this paper, we complete the full classification of spectrum sets of finite [Formula: see text]-groups of co-class [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is an odd prime. As a consequence, it follows that for any prime [Formula: see text] and a finite [Formula: see text]-group of co-class [Formula: see text] of order [Formula: see text] and exponent [Formula: see text], there are at the most seven genus spectra despite the infinite growth of their isomorphism types along with [Formula: see text].
Certain towers of ramified minimal ring extensions of commutative rings, II
Authors: Dobbs David E.
Published: March 2022

Let [Formula: see text] be an odd prime number and [Formula: see text]. Assume that either [Formula: see text]i[Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text]ii[Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] is congruent to either [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] modulo [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]respectively, assume that [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] is congruent to either [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] modulo [Formula: see text]. Then there exist exactly five [Formula: see text]respectively, exactly seven[Formula: see text] isomorphism classes of rings [Formula: see text] for which there exists a tower [Formula: see text] of ramified [Formula: see text]integral minimal[Formula: see text] ring extensions such that [Formula: see text] is the only ring properly contained between [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. We produce a set of isomorphism class representatives of such [Formula: see text] and, for each such [Formula: see text], we show that, up to isomorphism, the corresponding ring [Formula: see text] is the idealization [Formula: see text]. One consequence, for each integer [Formula: see text] whose prime-power factorization [Formula: see text] (with pairwise distinct prime numbers [Formula: see text] and positive integers [Formula: see text]) satisfies [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text], is a classification, up to isomorphism, of the rings that have cardinality [Formula: see text] and exactly two proper (unital) subrings.
Anticarcinogenic Potentials of Silver Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized fromLagerstroemia Indica
Authors: Behera Ambika , Awasthi Shruti
Published: March 2022

In this study, a novel medicinal plant, Lagerstroemia indica, was used to extract Silver Oxide Nanoparticles (Ag2O-NPs) and the in vitro anticancer potentials of synthesized Ag2O-NPs were evaluated on human cancer cell lines. Ultraviolet–Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy confirmed the formation of Ag2O and the particle size of 9.98[Formula: see text]nm was confirmed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images showed spherical-shaped NPs. The anticancer potential determined by 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay showed significant cytotoxic potential against breast cancer (MCF-7) and cervical cancer (HeLa) cell lines with the IC50 concentrations at 46.22[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]g/ml and 39.39[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]g/ml, respectively. Ag2O-NPs showed a subsequent reduction in Mitochondrial Membrane Potential (MMP) and increased level of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). The dual staining of Ag2O-NPs showed a greater number of early apoptotic and late apoptotic cells as compared to the standard drug camptothecin. Real-Time quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR) determined an upregulated level of Caspase3 and p53. Thus, the present study indicates that Ag2O-NPs synthesized from L. indica may be used as an anti-cancer drug after further in vivo trials.
How Effective are Air Pollution Control Policies in China? Evidence from 35 Cities Nationwide
Authors: Zhu Linxu
Published: March 2022

In September 2013, China began to implement a series of policies in tackling severe air pollution. This paper aims to explore the diversity and effectiveness of its air pollution control policies at the city level. A city-level pollution control policy indicator is constructed for 35 Chinese cities during the last two air pollution control action periods from 2014 to 2017 and 2018 to 2020. Additionally, this paper employs the panel vector autoregression model (PVAR) to estimate the impact of air pollution control policies on air pollution reduction. The empirical results show that, in terms of the two main air quality indicators, PM2.5and PM10, China’s air pollution control policies have helped improve the air quality over the last several years. The study concludes that air quality improvement should depend on coordinated strategies for controlling various pollutants that involve the collaboration of government and industries.
ℤ4R-additive cyclic and constacyclic codes and MDSS codes
Authors: Ghajari Arazgol , Khashyarmanesh Kazem , Abualrub Taher , Siap Irfan
Published: March 2022

In this paper, we will study the structure of [Formula: see text]-additive codes where [Formula: see text] is the well-known ring of 4 elements and [Formula: see text] is the ring given by [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. We will classify all maximum distance separable codes with respect to the Singleton bound (MDSS) over [Formula: see text] Then we will focus on [Formula: see text]-additive cyclic and constacyclic codes. We will find a unique set of generator polynomials for these codes and determine minimum spanning sets for them. We will also find the generator polynomials for the dual of any [Formula: see text]-additive cyclic or constacyclic code.
Survey on the investigation of forensic crime scene evidence
Authors: Johnson Jyothi , Chitra R.
Published: March 2022

Determining and proving that a specific person or several persons may or may not be there at the Crime Scene (CS) in every criminal investigation are vital. Thus, in the law enforcement community, more often the physical evidence is collected, preserved, and analyzed. The accused cannot be predicted by normal people or judge just by looking at the evidence obtained at the analysis phase. So, research studies were undertaken on automated recognition as well as retrieval system aimed at forensic Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). A survey on the investigation of forensic CS evidence is depicted here. The main focus is rendered on the computer-centered automated investigation system. The latest research on the different evidence-centered Forensic Investigation (FI), such as the face, Finger-Print (FP), shoeprint, together with other Foot-Wear (FW) impressions, Machine Learning (ML) algorithm-centered FI, ML-centered pattern recognition, features of disparate evidence in forensic CSI, and various matching technique-centered FI, is surveyed here. Finally, centered on the accuracy and other two metrics, the methods’ performance for CSI is compared. Out of all the other methods, OLBP + LSSVM produced better results for precision and recall followed by CLSTM. In terms of accuracy, CLSTM produced better results than any other method.
Network security analysis for cloud computing environment
Authors: Xie Linjiang , Hang Feilu , Guo Wei , Zhang Zhenhong , Li Hanruo
Published: March 2022

Information technology services for businesses and consumers can be delivered via the Internet using cloud computing (CC) because it is agile, cost-effective, and time-tested. For many real-world applications, the data are kept in the cloud by a third-party service and accessible through the Internet as needed through CC approaches. Risks associated with CC involve the data security and network security account for real-time systems. This paper discusses different security threats in CC and suggests a solution by designing a network security analysis scheme with machine learning (NSA-ML). The ML classifier predicts the network vulnerabilities and prevents insecure communication in a CC environment. The proposed NSA-ML presents a data authentication scheme with a novel encryption methodology to ensure data security. The experimental results show that the proposed NSA-ML outperforms the existing cloud security approaches by gaining an efficiency of 95.4%.
A Study of Failure Recovery and Logging of High-Performance Parallel File Systems
Authors: Han Runzhou , Gatla Om Rameshwar , Zheng Mai , Cao Jinrui , Zhang Di , Dai Dong , Chen Yong , Cook Jonathan
Published: March 2022

Large-scale parallel file systems (PFSs) play an essential role in high-performance computing (HPC). However, despite their importance, their reliability is much less studied or understood compared with that of local storage systems or cloud storage systems. Recent failure incidents at real HPC centers have exposed the latent defects in PFS clusters as well as the urgent need for a systematic analysis.

To address the challenge, we perform a study of the failure recovery and logging mechanisms of PFSs in this article. First, to trigger the failure recovery and logging operations of the target PFS, we introduce a black-box fault injection tool called  
PFault
, which is transparent to PFSs and easy to deploy in practice.  
PFault
emulates the failure state of individual storage nodes in the PFS based on a set of pre-defined fault models and enables examining the PFS behavior under fault systematically.

Next, we apply
PFault
to study two widely used PFSs: Lustre and BeeGFS. Our analysis reveals the unique failure recovery and logging patterns of the target PFSs and identifies multiple cases where the PFSs are imperfect in terms of failure handling. For example, Lustre includes a recovery component called LFSCK to detect and fix PFS-level inconsistencies, but we find that LFSCK itself may hang or trigger kernel panics when scanning a corrupted Lustre. Even after the recovery attempt of LFSCK, the subsequent workloads applied to Lustre may still behave abnormally (e.g., hang or report I/O errors). Similar issues have also been observed in BeeGFS and its recovery component BeeGFS-FSCK. We analyze the root causes of the abnormal symptoms observed in depth, which has led to a new patch set to be merged into the coming Lustre release. In addition, we characterize the extensive logs generated in the experiments in detail and identify the unique patterns and limitations of PFSs in terms of failure logging. We hope this study and the resulting tool and dataset can facilitate follow-up research in the communities and help improve PFSs for reliable high-performance computing.
DeXAR
Authors: Arrotta Luca , Civitarese Gabriele , Bettini Claudio
Published: March 2022

The sensor-based recognition of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) in smart-home environments is an active research area, with relevant applications in healthcare and ambient assisted living. The application of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) to ADLs recognition has the potential of making this process trusted, transparent and understandable. The few works that investigated this problem considered only interpretable machine learning models. In this work, we propose DeXAR, a novel methodology to transform sensor data into semantic images to take advantage of XAI methods based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). We apply different XAI approaches for deep learning and, from the resulting heat maps, we generate explanations in natural language. In order to identify the most effective XAI method, we performed extensive experiments on two different datasets, with both a common-knowledge and a user-based evaluation. The results of a user study show that the white-box XAI method based on prototypes is the most effective.
mTransSee
Authors: Liu Haipeng , Cui Kening , Hu Kaiyuan , Wang Yuheng , Zhou Anfu , Liu Liang , Ma Huadong
Published: March 2022

Gesture recognition using millimeter-wave radios facilitates natural human-computer interactions, but existing works require a consistent environment, i.e., the neural networks for recognition are trained and tested for the same users and at some fixed positions. In this case, their performance will decrease rapidly when they enter into a new environment. To make the model applicable in different environments, a straightforward approach is to collect and re-train the model for the gesture samples on every possible position upon each new user. However, it may ask the users to spend unacceptable time to accomplish such adaptation, which makes it difficult to be widely used in practice. In this paper, we first collect an abundant mmWave gesture dataset containing 59,280 samples as a benchmark to investigate the impact of the environment changes quantitatively. Then we propose a novel transfer-learning approach called mTransSee, which can serve the gestures in practice using pre-learned experience by least adaptation, i.e., retraining using only 8 samples per gesture for the same accuracy. mTransSee reduces dozens of workloads for the environment adaptation. We implement mTransSee on a commodity mmWave sensor and make a user study to compare the advance of mTransSee over the state-of-the-art solution in terms of user experience during adaptation.
Revisiting Reflection in HCI
Authors: Bentvelzen Marit , Woźniak Paweł W. , Herbes Pia S.F. , Stefanidi Evropi , Niess Jasmin
Published: March 2022

Reflection is a commonly addressed design goal in commercial systems and in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. Yet, it is still unclear what tools are at the disposal of designers who want to build systems that support reflection. Understanding the design space of reflection support systems and the interaction techniques that can foster reflection is necessary to enable building technologies that contribute to the users' well-being. In order to gain additional insight into how interactive artefacts foster reflection, we investigated past research prototypes and reflection-supporting smartphone applications (apps). Through a structured literature review and an analysis of app reviews, we constructed four design resources for reflection: temporal perspective, conversation, comparison and discovery. We also identified design patterns in past digital artefacts that implement the resources. Our work constitutes intermediate-level knowledge that is intended to inspire future technologies that better support reflection.
EyeQoE
Authors: Zhu Huadi , Li Tianhao , Wang Chaowei , Jin Wenqiang , Murali Srinivasan , Xiao Mingyan , Ye Dongqing , Li Ming
Published: March 2022

As virtual reality (VR) offers an unprecedented experience than any existing multimedia technologies, VR videos, or called 360-degree videos, have attracted considerable attention from academia and industry. How to quantify and model end users' perceived quality in watching 360-degree videos, or called QoE, resides the center for high-quality provisioning of these multimedia services. In this work, we present EyeQoE, a novel QoE assessment model for 360-degree videos using ocular behaviors. Unlike prior approaches, which mostly rely on objective factors, EyeQoE leverages the new ocular sensing modality to comprehensively capture both subjective and objective impact factors for QoE modeling. We propose a novel method that models eye-based cues into graphs and develop a GCN-based classifier to produce QoE assessment by extracting intrinsic features from graph-structured data. We further exploit the Siamese network to eliminate the impact from subjects and visual stimuli heterogeneity. A domain adaptation scheme named MADA is also devised to generalize our model to a vast range of unseen 360-degree videos. Extensive tests are carried out with our collected dataset. Results show that EyeQoE achieves the best prediction accuracy at 92.9%, which outperforms state-of-the-art approaches. As another contribution of this work, we have publicized our dataset on https://github.com/MobiSec-CSE-UTA/EyeQoE_Dataset.git.
Towards Robust Gesture Recognition by Characterizing the Sensing Quality of WiFi Signals
Authors: Gao Ruiyang , Li Wenwei , Xie Yaxiong , Yi Enze , Wang Leye , Wu Dan , Zhang Daqing
Published: March 2022

WiFi-based gesture recognition emerges in recent years and attracts extensive attention from researchers. Recognizing gestures via WiFi signal is feasible because a human gesture introduces a time series of variations to the received raw signal. The major challenge for building a ubiquitous gesture recognition system is that the mapping between each gesture and the series of signal variations is not unique, exact the same gesture but performed at different locations or with different orientations towards the transceivers generates entirely different gesture signals (variations). To remove the location dependency, prior work proposes to use gesture-level location-independent features to characterize the gesture instead of directly matching the signal variation pattern. We observe that gesture-level features cannot fully remove the location dependency since the signal qualities inside each gesture are different and also depends on the location. Therefore, we divide the signal time series of each gesture into segments according to their qualities and propose customized signal processing techniques to handle them separately. To realize this goal, we characterize signal's sensing quality by building a mathematical model that links the gesture signal with the ambient noise, from which we further derive a unique metric i.e., error of dynamic phase index (EDP-index) to quantitatively describe the sensing quality of signal segments of each gesture. We then propose a quality-oriented signal processing framework that maximizes the contribution of the high-quality signal segments and minimizes the impact of low-quality signal segments to improve the performance of gesture recognition applications. We develop a prototype on COTS WiFi devices. The extensive experimental results demonstrate that our system can recognize gestures with an accuracy of more than 94% on average, and significant improvements compared with state-of-arts.
AEROKEY
Authors: Lee Kyuin , Yang Yucheng , Prabhune Omkar , Chithra Aishwarya Lekshmi , West Jack , Fawaz Kassem , Klingensmith Neil , Banerjee Suman , Kim Younghyun
Published: March 2022

Wireless connectivity is becoming common in increasingly diverse personal devices, enabling various interoperation- and Internet-based applications and services. More and more interconnected devices are simultaneously operated by a single user with short-lived connections, making usable device authentication methods imperative to ensure both high security and seamless user experience. Unfortunately, current authentication methods that heavily require human involvement, in addition to form factor and mobility constraints, make this balance hard to achieve, often forcing users to choose between security and convenience. In this work, we present a novel over-the-air device authentication scheme named AEROKEY that achieves both high security and high usability. With virtually no hardware overhead, AEROKEY leverages ubiquitously observable ambient electromagnetic radiation to autonomously generate spatiotemporally unique secret that can be derived only by devices that are closely located to each other. Devices can make use of this unique secret to form the basis of a symmetric key, making the authentication procedure more practical, secure and usable with no active human involvement. We propose and implement essential techniques to overcome challenges in realizing AEROKEY on low-cost microcontroller units, such as poor time synchronization, lack of precision analog front-end, and inconsistent sampling rates. Our real-world experiments demonstrate reliable authentication as well as its robustness against various realistic adversaries with low equal-error rates of 3.4% or less and usable authentication time of as low as 24 s.
Distributed Latency Profiling through Critical Path Tracing
Authors: Eaton Brian , Stewart Jeff , Tedesco Jon , Tas N. Cihan
Published: March 2022

Low latency is an important feature for many Google applications such as Search, and latency-analysis tools play a critical role in sustaining low latency at scale. For complex distributed systems that include services that constantly evolve in functionality and data, keeping overall latency to a minimum is a challenging task. In large, real-world distributed systems, existing tools such as RPC telemetry, CPU profiling, and distributed tracing are valuable to understand the subcomponents of the overall system, but are insufficient to perform end-to-end latency analyses in practice. Scalable and accurate fine-grain tracing has made Critical Path Tracing the standard approach for distributed latency analysis for many Google applications, including Google Search.
Quantification of Dead Lithium on Graphite Anode under Fast Charging Conditions
Authors: Vikrant K. S. N. , McShane Eric , Colclasure Andrew M. , McCloskey Bryan D. , Allu Srikanth
Published: March 2022

A series of computational and experimental studies were conducted to understand the onset of lithium plating and subsequent quantification of dead lithium on graphite electrodes in the design of fast charging batteries. The experiments include titration and relaxation studies for detecting initiation of lithium metal plating for various SOC and C-rates, which are compared against the thermodynamically consistent phase field computational results. The collaborative study on “model graphite electrode” with 2.18 mAh cm−2 nominal capacity at 25 °C demonstrates: (1) the macroscopic voltage response during relaxation studies indicate the reintercalation of plated lithium into the graphite anode; (2) for SOC below 60% and low C–Rates, there is no dead lithium; (3) for SOC between 60% to 80%, and C-Rates in the range of 4C–6C show dead lithium both in experiments and simulations.; (4) at 100% SOC and 4C–6C rates, large amounts of dead lithium are observed. The study presented here allows us to evaluate the effects of the physical properties of the electrochemical system on plating and stripping kinetics and the amount of dead lithium on graphite electrodes, which determines the cell capacity loss under fast charge.
Thermochemical Approach to Determining Battery’s Heat Release: RI2 Formula
Authors: Ravdel Boris , Puglia Frank
Published: March 2022

At discharge, a battery releases the stored energy of the redox chemical reaction partially by passing electric current throughout the external circuit, and partially dissipating it in the form of heat. The amount of that heat depends on the discharging current. This heat primarily warms the battery itself. Knowing its total amount as well as the heat flow is important for the safety of batteries, especially lithium-ion ones. In battery engineering practice, it is often suggested that the heat flow P follows the Joule-Lenz law that together with the Ohm law has the form P = I
2
R (I is the current and R is the battery’s internal resistance); we showed that this is not true. Both total heat and heat flow can be determined relatively easily by applying general ideas of thermochemistry and thermodynamics when the battery operates under projected use conditions by comparing the dependencies of the open circuit voltage (OCV) and voltage profile of the discharging battery upon the state of charge (SoC) or depth of discharge (DoD). Although the theoretical background is universal, being applicable to any kind of battery, our paper presents the results of examining three lithium-ion batteries of extensively used chemistries: lithium iron phosphate-graphite, lithium cobalt oxide-graphite, and lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide-graphite. Particular attention is given to the effect of the entropy of the reactions on batteries’ thermal behavior.
Understanding Low Temperature Limitations of LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 Cathodes for Li-Ion Batteries
Authors: Nickol Alexander , Heubner Christian , Schneider Michael , Michaelis Alexander
Published: March 2022

A major drawback of today’s Li-ion batteries is inadequate performance at low temperatures, which slows down the user-friendliness and thus market expansion of electromobility. Due to the complexity of the system, many possible low-temperature limitations and various dependencies on the operating conditions exist. As a result, the origin of the performance limitations at low temperatures is still controversial and not completely clarified to date. We herein demonstrate a comprehensive analysis of the performance limitations at low temperatures using a LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2-based cathode as an example. To separate the overpotential phenomena, the complex system is decomposed as much as possible and individual aspects are investigated separately. Complementary electrochemical methods are employed to quantify the C-rate and SOC dependence of the individual overpotential phenomena. Based on the comprehensive analysis of the intercalation kinetics, mass and charge transport, we obtain a coherent picture of the performance limitations as a function of operating conditions. This can serve for targeted optimization or parameterizing models to simulate battery behavior. However, the present work is not only concerned with identifying the low-temperature limits of the system studied but also shows how the rate-determining step of the electrode reaction can be efficiently identified as a function of temperature, SOC, and C-rate, which can serve as a guide for future work.
Effect of Lithiation upon the Shear Strength of NMC811 Single Crystals
Authors: Stallard Joe C. , Vema Sundeep , Hall David S. , Dennis Anthony R. , Penrod Megan E. , Grey Clare P. , Deshpande Vikram S. , Fleck Norman A.
Published: March 2022

An experimental protocol is developed to measure the shear strength of NMC811 single crystals within the cathode of a lithium-ion cell. The cathode is placed upon a set of thick metallic substrates that possess a wide range of indentation hardness. For each choice of substrate, the top surface of the cathode is indented by a Vickers indenter to a sufficient depth that the cathode layer is subjected to an approximately spatially uniform compressive normal traction equal to the hardness of the substrate. The sensitivity of plastic flow and fracture of the single crystals to substrate hardness is determined by observation of the particles in the indented top surface of the cathode using a scanning electron microscope. It is found that the shear strength of fully lithiated NMC811 single crystals along their basal plane is 86 ± 12 MPa, and decreases to 39 ± 5 MPa upon cell charging (delithiation of the cathode). This implies that particle slip and fracture will occur under mild mechanical loading, for example by calendering during manufacture and by electrical cycling of the compacted cathode. The indentation protocol developed here has application to a wide range of single crystal cathode materials.
Study of the Electrochemical Behavior and Thermodynamic Properties of Lanthanum Compounds on Inert Mo and Liquid Ga Electrodes in Fused NaCl-2CsCl Eutectic
Authors: Zhang Henan , Liu Qi , Novoselova Alena , Yu Jing , Smolenski Valeri , Liu Jingyuan , Zhu Jiahui , Yan Yongde , Zhang Milin , Wang Jun
Published: March 2022

For extraction of metallic lanthanum from molten NaCl-CsCl-LaCl3 solutions, the electrochemical reduction of La(III) ions on inert Mo and liquid Ga electrodes were explored. Transient electrochemical techniques have been used to explore the reduction mechanism, transport parameters and thermodynamics properties. The obtained results indicate that the electrochemical reaction of La(III) + 3ē → La on inert electrode is a single-stage irreversible process, which controlled by the charge transfer rate. Simultaneously, the diffusion coefficient of [LaCl6]3− complex ions was obtained at different temperatures. The apparent standard potentials of La3+/La couple and La-Ga alloy vs the temperature were determined. The base thermodynamic properties of lanthanum compounds were calculated. Furthermore, the potentiostatic method of electrolysis was used for the synthesis of La-Ga alloys.
Structural and Magnetic Characteristics of Hematite and Magnetite Films Prepared by Electrodeposition and Heating
Authors: Katsuma Daichi , Khoo Pei Loon , Kobayashi Masakazu , Shinagawa Tsutomu , Izaki Masanobu
Published: March 2022

Hematite (α-Fe2O3) films were prepared by cathodic polarization in an aqueous solution containing iron (Ⅱ) sulfate hydrate, potassium hydroxide, dimethylamine-borane (DMAB), and L-ascorbic acid and their structural and magnetic characteristics were investigated with X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope observation, optical absorption measurement, and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), in addition to electrochemical characterizations for the electrodeposition before and after heating in ambient atmosphere and vacuum. The hematite films prepared at −1.0 and −1.1 V possessed characteristic hexagonal lattice and bandgap energy around 2.2 eV, and some amount of Fe2+ was contained in the hematite film, with increased Fe2+ content at −1.0 V. The films prepared at −0.8 and −0.9 V showed characteristic hematite bandgap energies with a decreased absorption but did not show any structural characteristics from the XRD and Raman spectra. The hematite films prepared at −1.0 V, and −1.1 V showed ferromagnetic features with 11 A·m2·kg−1 and 2.3 A·m2·kg−1 in saturation mass magnetization and 29.5, and 25 mT in coercivity, respectively. The hematite film was thermally transformed to magnetite (Fe3O4) possessing characteristic cubic lattice by heating at 673 K in vacuum, and the saturation mass magnetization increased to 89.2 A·m2·kg−1.
Early-life fecal microbiome and metabolome dynamics in response to an intervention with infant formula containing specific prebiotics and postbiotics
Authors: Rodriguez-Herrera Alfonso , Tims Sebastian , Polman Jan , Porcel Rubio Rocío , Muñoz Hoyos Antonio , Agosti Massimo , Lista Gianluca , Corvaglia Luigi T. , Knol Jan , Roeselers Guus , Pérez Navero Juan L.
Published: March 2022

Untargeted metabolomics techniques can provide a “snapshot” of an ecosystem in response to environmental stimuli, such as nutritional interventions. Our analyses of fecal samples from infants demonstrate the potential of phenotyping by metabolomics while deciphering the complex interactions of early-life nutrition and gut microbiome development.
Potentiation of GABAergic synaptic transmission by diazepam acutely increases resting beat-to-beat blood pressure variability in young adults
Authors: Teixeira André L. , Nardone Massimo , Samora Milena , Fernandes Igor A. , Ramos Plinio S. , Sabino-Carvalho Jeann L. , Ricardo Djalma R. , Millar Philip J. , Vianna Lauro C.
Published: March 2022

Resting beat-to-beat blood pressure variability is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular events and end-organ damage. However, its underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that a potentiation of GABAergic synaptic transmission by diazepam would acutely increase resting beat-to-beat blood pressure variability. In 40 (17 females) young, normotensive subjects, resting beat-to-beat blood pressure (finger photoplethysmography) was continuously measured for 5–10 min, 60 min after the oral administration of either diazepam (10 mg) or placebo. The experiments were conducted in a randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled design. Stroke volume was estimated from the blood pressure waveform (ModelFlow) permitting the calculation of cardiac output and total peripheral resistance. Direct recordings of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA, microneurography) were obtained in a subset of subjects ( n = 13), and spontaneous cardiac and sympathetic baroreflex sensitivity were calculated. Compared with placebo, diazepam significantly increased the standard deviation of systolic blood pressure (4.7 ± 1.4 vs. 5.7 ± 1.5 mmHg, P = 0.001), diastolic blood pressure (3.8 ± 1.2 vs. 4.5 ± 1.2 mmHg, P = 0.007), and mean blood pressure (3.8 ± 1.1 vs. 4.5 ± 1.1 mmHg, P = 0.002), as well as cardiac output (469 ± 149 vs. 626 ± 259 mL/min, P < 0.001) and total peripheral resistance (1.0 ± 0.3 vs. 1.4 ± 0.6 mmHg/L/min, P < 0.001). Similar results were found using different indices of variability. Furthermore, diazepam reduced MSNA (placebo: 22 ± 6 vs. diazepam: 18 ± 8 bursts/min, P = 0.025) without affecting the arterial baroreflex control of heart rate (placebo: 18.6 ± 6.7 vs. diazepam: 18.8 ± 7.0 ms/mmHg, P = 0.87) and MSNA (placebo: −3.6 ± 1.2 vs. diazepam: −3.4 ± 1.5 bursts/100 Hb/mmHg, P = 0.55). Importantly, these findings were not impacted by biological sex. We conclude that GABAA receptors modulate resting beat-to-beat blood pressure variability in young adults.
Novel Mixed EWMA Dual-Crosier CUSUM Mean Charts without and with Auxiliary Information
Authors: Arslan Muhammad , Ashraf Muhammad Azeem , Anwar Syed Masroor , Rasheed Zahid , Hu Xuelong , Abbasi Saddam Akbar
Published: March 2022

The classical cumulative SUM (CUSUM) chart is commonly used to monitor a particular size of the mean shift. In many real processes, it is assumed that the shift level varies within a range, and the exact level of the shift size is mostly unknown. For detecting a range of shift size, the dual-CUSUM (DC) and dual-Crosier CUSUM (DCC) charts are used to provide better detection ability as compared to the CUSUM and Crosier CUSUM (CC) charts, respectively. This paper introduces a new mixed exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA)-DCC (EDCC) chart to monitor process mean. In addition, AIB-based EWMA-DC (EDC) and EDCC charts (namely, AIB-EDC and AIB-EDCC charts) are suggested to detect shifts in the process mean level. Monte Carlo simulations are used to compute the run length (RL) characteristics of the proposed charts. A detailed comparison of the proposed schemes with other competing charts is also provided. It turns out that the proposed chart provides better performance than the counterparts when detecting a range of mean shift sizes. A real-life application is also presented to illustrate the implementation of the existing and proposed charts.
Analysis of Mechanical Properties for Al‐MMC Fabricated through an Optimized Stir Casting Process
Authors: Gugulothu Bhiksha , Nagarajan N. , Pradeep A. , Saravanan G. , Vijayakumar S. , Rao Janardhana
Published: March 2022

This work concentrated on preparation of Al‐based composites through stir casting process. Al6082 was chosen as base material that is reinforced with zirconium silicate and titanium carbide. As per Taguchi design L16 orthogonal array, specimens are produced with variation of casting parameters for performing tensile and hardness test. In this process, ZrSiO₄ is kept constant to 10 wt%, whereas TiC concentration varied from 2.5 to 10wt%. For analyzing the properties of optimized stir cast samples for AA6082/ZrSiO4/TiC, three input variables with four levels are taken such as Stir speed (SS) 300‐750 rpm, Stir time (ST) 5‐20 min, and Reinforcement (RI) 2.5‐10 wt%. The Taguchi technique was used as an analyzer to determine optimal parameter on Tensile Strength (TS) and Hardness (HN). The Minitab‐17 software is assisting to find analysis of variance (ANOVA), regression equation, and contour plots of the selected parameters. Finally, it is witnessed that SS (65.9%) is the maximum influenced factor that increases TS, followed by RI (23.1%) and ST (11%). The best combinations of parameters on TS and HN were found at SS2‐ST1‐RI2 (450 rpm, 5 min, and 5wt%) and SS3‐ST2‐RI4 (600 rpm, 10 min, and 10wt percent), respectively. From the contour plots, the casting variables SS (600‐650 Rpm), ST (15‐17.5 min), and RI (5‐8 wt%) were proposed for achieving excellent mechanical properties.
Analysis of Natural Aging Behavior of Asphalt Binder in Cold and Arid Region
Authors: Song Shanglin , Liang Meichen , Hou Fujin , Gao Honggang , Bi Yufeng , Zhang Haixing , Guo Meng
Published: March 2022

With extremely bad climate and poor geographical environment in cold and arid region, the deterioration and failure of road materials are serious. In order to analyze the characteristics of natural aging behavior of asphalt binder in cold and arid region, the experiments were carried out based on the exposure field test base. The multiscale characterization of virgin asphalt under different natural aging conditions was carried out by means of macromechanical analysis and microchemical composition analysis. The results showed that the effects of natural aging and laboratory simulated aging on asphalt binder properties were similar. There was little effect on the performance of asphalt binder after natural aging one year. The effect of natural aging on asphalt binder in one year was similar to that of laboratory short-term aging. However, the strong UV radiation was a great challenge for asphalt pavement in Northwest China. Wind, dust, rain, and other factors have little effect on asphalt binder aging. Affected by the natural environment, macromolecular structures such as oxygen-containing polar functional groups will form in asphalt binder. The molecular weight of asphalt binder was increased, and the internal molecules of asphalt binder were subjected to large internal friction resistance in the process of movement. The macroscopic physical properties and road performance of asphalt binder become poor.
Characterization, Dilation, and Perturbation of Basic Continuous Frames
Authors: Zhao Xin , Li Pengtong
Published: March 2022

A vector‐valued function is called a basic continuous frame if it is a continuous frame for its spanning space. It is shown in this article that basic continuous frames and their oblique duals can be characterized by operators with closed ranges. Furthermore, we show that any oblique dual pair of basic continuous frames for a Hilbert space can be dilated to a Type II dual pair for a larger Hilbert space. Finally, a perturbation result for basic continuous frames is given. Since the spanning spaces of two basic continuous frames for a Hilbert space are often different, the research process is more complex than the setting of general continuous frames.
3D Stratum Interpolation Algorithm of Metro Tunnel Based on BIM and Data Fusion
Authors: Jiang Haidong , Yin Jian , Chen Yonggui , Zhang Guofa , Peng Xiaoyong
Published: March 2022

The three-dimensional stratum space interpolation algorithm plays a vital role in promoting the safety, management, and decision-making of subway tunnels and is a current research hotspot. The purpose of full text is to study the 3D stratum space interpolation algorithm of subway tunnels and to study the 3D stratum space interpolation algorithm based on building information modeling (BIM) and data fusion technology. This article first uses computer three-dimensional visualization technology to simulate the surface of the ground-fall tunnel based on known data. It is to do the interpolation processing on the two-dimensional space of the subway tunnel to create an accurate surface model of the subway tunnel. It then uses the block model method to divide the internal data of the tunnel according to actual needs. In order to create a model of the internal data of the tunnel, three-dimensional spatial interpolation is performed. After the three-dimensional interpolation is completed, it is convenient to quickly estimate the taste and reserves according to the interpolation results. The experiments in the text show that the average error value of the algorithm in this paper is 38.98 and the performance is improved by 23.4%. The algorithm in the text has obvious advantages in interpolation effect, and the interpolation efficiency is faster. A bird’s eye view of the current study is shown in Figure 1.
Stevia rebaudiana, a Versatile Food Ingredient: The Chemical Composition and Medicinal Properties
Authors: Mlambo Ronald , Wang Junyan , Chen Chuanpin
Published: March 2022

Stevia rebaudiana is a well‐known sugar substitute with low calories. Recently, Stevia rebaudiana has been reported with many medicinal properties that could possibly be used in functional foods. The work presents the chemical composition of Stevia rebaudiana. The Stevia is capable of treating renal diseases, liver pathologies, diabetes, hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, hypertension, tumors, microbial diseases, and obesity. Nonetheless, researches are still going on to understand Stevia. Therefore, the conclusion made is not everything known about Stevia. This work highlights chemical composition of Stevia rebaudiana and its medicinal properties like antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti‐inflammatory, antihypoglycaemic, anticancer, renal‐healing, cardiac‐healing, antilipidemic, and hepatoprotective effects. The information has been discussed from a food and medical perspective. Future works may focus on the development of novel functional foods.
A Comparative Study on Academic Achievement of Mathematics and English with Other Subjects of Secondary Level in BTR of Assam, India, Using Mahalanobis Distance
Authors: Ahmed Eusob Ali , Karim Mohammad Rezaul , Banerjee Munmun , Sen Subir , Chatterjee Prasanta , Mandal Gurudas
Published: March 2022

The present work is a comparative study of four different subjects’ achievements such as mathematics, English, general sciences, and social studies between two student groups in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) in Assam, India. Three different types of groups are considered viz., tribal and nontribal, boys and girls, and rural and urban from different secondary and higher schools of BTR. Mahalanobis Distance (MD) is used to calculate the difference in dynamical nature of achievement between two groups of students in four subjects. The result revealed that there is no significant difference between boys and girls; students from tribal and nontribal communities, students belonging to the rural and urban schools, tribal boys and nontribal boys, and tribal girls and nontribal girls in the dynamical character of achievement of different groups are taken into account.
Astaxanthin Enhances Gingival Wound Healing following High Glucose‐Induced Oxidative Stress
Authors: Aras-Tosun Duru , Önder Canan , Akdoğan Nihan , Kurgan Şivge , Aktay İrem , Tuncay Erkan , Orhan Kaan
Published: March 2022

Fibroblasts of the gingiva play a key role in oral wound healing in diabetes. In this study, effects of astaxanthin (ASTX), a xanthophyll carotenoid, were tested on gingival fibroblasts in a wound healing assay in vitro. The aim of this study was to determine whether ASTX can recover delayed wound healing or not when oxidative stress is elevated by high glucose exposure. For this purpose, human gingival fibroblasts were incubated with or without ASTX following exposure to systemic doses of low glucose (LG) and high glucose (HG) in culture media (5‐ and 25‐, 50 mM D‐glucose in DMEM Ham’s F12) following 24 hours of incubation. Levels of ROS (Reactive oxygen species) were determined for each experimental group by confocal microscopy. Cell proliferation and viability were assessed by an automated cell counter with trypan blue assay. Wound healing assay was designed in 60 mm petri dishes. Cells were exposed to 5‐, 25‐, and 50 mM glucose for 24 hours, and a straight line free of cells was created upon full confluency. 100 μM ASTX was added to the recovery group, simultaneously. Cells were monitored with JuLIⓇ‐Br Cell History Recorder. ROS levels were significantly increased with increasing glucose levels, while cell proliferation and viability demonstrated a negative correlation with increasing oxidative stress. ROS levels significantly decreased in the 100 μM ASTX‐treated group compared to the gingival fibroblasts treated with 50 mM HG medium‐only, as well as growth rate and viability. Wound healing was delayed in a dose‐dependent manner following high glucose exposure, while ASTX treatment recovered wounded area by 1.16‐fold in the 50 mM HG group. Our results demonstrated that ASTX enhances gingival wound healing through its antioxidative properties following high glucose induced oxidative stress. Therefore, ASTX can be suggested as a promising candidate to maintain oral health in chronic wounds of the oral tissues related to diabetes.
Multiple Nonsyndromic Unerupted Supernumerary Teeth: A Report of a Rare Case
Authors: Moradinejad Mehrnaz , Hashemi Ashtiani Alireza , Rakhshan Vahid
Published: March 2022

Introduction. The prevalence of nonsyndromic multiple supernumerary teeth is less than 1% of all hyperdontia cases which themselves have a rather small prevalence. Cases with 10 impacted nonsyndromic supernumerary teeth are extremely rare. This report presents such a case of nonsyndromic multiple impacted supernumerary teeth. Case. A 17-year-old boy with a completely orthodontic chief complaint attended our center. He had no systemic complaints and no signs or symptoms. Oral examination showed no abnormalities. On routine pretreatment panoramic radiography, numerous impacted supernumerary teeth appeared. A CBCT showed 10 impacted vertically aligned supplementary supernumerary teeth with incomplete roots: In the maxilla, the bilateral canine-premolar areas were involved, each having 2 supernumerary teeth palatal to the permanent teeth. In the mandible, the right premolar area included 2 supernumerary teeth. The left premolar-molar area contained 3 supernumerary teeth lingual to the permanent teeth. And in the right mandibular molar area, there was a distomolar tooth distal to the third molar. No bony ankyloses, root resorptions, or fusions were observed. The surrounding bone had become thinner and the mandibular alveolar canal was involved. Interventions. All supernumerary teeth except a mandibular distomolar were extracted carefully before beginning the orthodontic treatment. No complications were seen after the extraction, after orthodontic treatment, and 2 years after treatment. Conclusions. The possibility of completely hidden unerupted supernumerary teeth without any signs and symptoms might highlight the value of some radiographic screenings.