Starting from the model of a slow-rolling missile with six degrees of freedom (6 DOF) in the body frame, a 6 DOF model in the Resal frame is obtained, which is used to linearize the coupled commanded motion. Based on the linearized model, we obtain the structural scheme of the commanded object and define the quality parameters. The obtained parameters have a complex representation (with real and imaginary parts) due to the coupling between longitudinal channels. Then, the kinematic guidance equations, the seeker equations and the actuator specific to the slow-rolling single-channel missile are defined using a switching function. The guidance kinematic equations, the seeker equations and the actuator model are linearized in the Resal frame, and the structural diagram of the homing missile is constructed. Starting from this, the characteristic polynomial having complex coefficients is determined and then analyzed with the Frank-Wall stability criterion. Based on the analysis, a stability range is determined for the navigation constant and a minimum and possibly a maximum limit for the time to hit the target is obtained. The stability range defined for the navigation constant on the linear model is finally validated on the nonlinear model in the body frame.

Dynamic systems which underly controlled systems are expected to increase in complexity as robots, devices, and connected networks become more intelligent. While classical stable systems converge to a stable point (a sink), another type of stability is to consider a stable path rather than a single point. Such stable paths can be made of saddles which draw in trajectories from certain regions, and then push the trajectory toward the next saddle point. These are chains of saddles are called stable heteroclinic channels (SHCs), and can be used in robotic control to represent time sequences. While we have previously shown that each saddle is visualizable as a trajectory waypoint in phase space, how to increase the fidelity of the trajectory was unclear. In this paper, we hypothesized that the waypoints can be individually modified to locally vary fidelity. Specifically, we expected that increasing the saddle value (ratio of saddle eigenvalues) causes the trajectory to slow to more closely approach a particular saddle. Combined with other parameters that control speed and magnitude, a system expressed with an SHC can be modified locally, point by point, without disrupting the rest of the path, supporting their use in motion primitives. However, even more complex trajectory shape modifications are possible. While some combinations can enable a trajectory to better reach into corners, other combinations can rotate, distort and round the trajectory in the region of a corner. In our example, modifying select saddle values produced a 32% decrease in the trajectory error of a complex trajectory produced using this system. This is an effect not visible in previous 1D studies, that can lead to different learnable and tunable representations of dynamic systems.

Channel bends are one of the most important characteristic features of natural streams. These bends often create the conditions for a hyporheic zone, which has been recognized as a critical component of stream ecosystems. The streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity (K_v), vertical hydraulic gradient (VHG) and Darcian flux (DF) in the hyporheic zone were estimated at 61 locations along a channel bend of the Beiluo River during July 2015 and January 2016. All the streambed attributes showed great spatial variability along the channel bend. Both upward fluxes and downward fluxes occurred during the two test periods, most of studied stream sections were controlled by downwelling, indicating stream water discharge into the subsurface. The average downward flux was higher at the downstream side than at the upstream side of the channel bend, especially in July 2015. The distribution of streambed sediment grain size has a significant influence on the variability of K_v; high percentages of silt and clay sediments generally lead to low K_v values. Higher K_v at the depositional left bank at the upstream site shifted toward the erosional right bank at the downstream site, with K_v values positively correlated with the water depth. This study suggested that the variabilities of K_v and VHG were influenced by the stream geomorphology and that the distribution of K_v was inversely related, to a certain extent, to the distribution of VHG across the channel bend. K_v and VHG were found to have opposite effects on the DF, and the close relationship between K_v and DF indicated that the water fluxes were mainly controlled by K_v.

We study electrohydrodynamic (EHD) linear (in)stability of microfluidic channel flows, i.e. the stability of interface between two-shearing viscous (perfect) dielectrics exposed to an electric field in large aspect ratio microchannels. We then apply our results to particular microfluidic systems known as electroosmotic (EO) pumps. Our results are detailed analytical expressions for the growth rate of two-dimensional EHD modes in Couette-Poiseuille flows in the limit of small Reynolds number ($R$); the expansions to both zeroth- and first-order-$R$ are considered. The growth rates are complicated functions of viscosity-, height-, density- and dielectric-constant ratio, as well as of wavenumbers and voltages, and to our knowledge have not been presented before in literature. To make the results more useful, e.g., for voltage-control EO pump operations, we also derive equations for the impending voltages of the neutral stability curves that divide stable from unstable regions in voltage-wavenumber stability diagrams. The voltage equations and the stability diagrams are given for all wavenumbers. We finally outline the flow regimes in which our first-order-$R$ voltage corrections could potentially be experimentally measured. Our work gives the insight into the coupling mechanism between electric field and shear flow in parallel-planes channel flows, correcting an erroneous attempt from literature. Our general analysis enables us also to refine the renowned instability mechanism due to viscosity stratification, i.e., the case of pure shear instability, when the first-order-$R$ voltage correction equals zero.

The attitude dynamics and orbit dynamics of large rigid space structures are coupled with each other under gravity gradient, which may affect the stability of the large rigid space structures. In this paper, the gravity gradient stability of a large rigid space structure is studied under both small and large disturbances. Based on the rigid body dynamics and orbit dynamics, an accurate dynamic model without any linearization of the large rigid space structure is established via the natural coordinate formulation (NCF), which is able to describe the large overall motions of the structures. By using the generalized-α algorithm, the gravity gradient stability of the large rigid space structure is simulated and analyzed via various examples, including the influence of large disturbance angles, the positions at the stabilization and unstabilization regions. Finally, the relationship between spinning stability and gravity gradient stability is also investigated via a large spinning space structure.

Experimental tests and numerical analyses were carried out on short, thin-walled channel columns with modified cross-sectional shape. The columns were loaded with an axial compressive force applied at the center of gravity of the cross section. Tests were carried out on a universal testing machine, while numerical analyses were performed in ANSYS software. The purpose of the tests was to determine the values of critical forces for the compressed columns and to determine the values of maximum forces at which failure of the columns occurs. Critical forces were determined based on the strain-averaged method. Based on the study, it was found that the strength and resistance to loss of stability of columns is primarily affected by their stiffness, and therefore by the shape of the cross-sections. In addition, for short columns, it seems more important to determine the value of maximum forces than the values of critical forces.

Dynamic optical structural color is always desired in various display applications and usually involves active materials. Full-color generation, especially bi-directional full-color generation in both reflective and transmissive modes, without any active materials included has been rarely investigated. Herein, we demonstrate a scheme of bi-directional full-color generation based on a plasmonic metasurface modulated by rotation of the polarization angle of the incident light without varying the geometry and the optical properties of the materials and the environment where the metasurface resides. The metasurface unit cell consists of plasmonic modules aligning in three directions and is patterned in a square array. The metasurface structural color device generates full colors in both reflection and transmission. Based on the proposed polarization-dependent structural color, information encoding of three multiplexed animal images and quick-responsive (QR) codes is demonstrated to verify the efficient information encoding and decoding of the proposed scheme. The animals can be seen under different polarization incidence and the QR codes can be successfully decoded by the polarization rotation in transmission. The proposed bi-directional full-color generation metasurface has great potential in applications such as kaleidoscope generation, anti-counterfeiting, dynamic color display, and optical information encoding.

An accurate assessment of the stage-discharge relationship in open channel flows is necessary and important to the design and management of hydraulic structures and engineering in practical hydrosystems such as rivers and streams. While the flow structures and patterns at open channel junctions are interesting and have been widely studied in the literature, this paper focuses further on the effect of flow junctions on stage-discharge relationship at mountain river confluences. In this study, both the flume and physical model experiments are designed and performed carefully to test and analyze the complex flow structures and characteristics at river confluences with different configurations and hydraulic conditions. The impacts of the flow junctions on the traditional stage-discharge relationship are analyzed in this study. The results of this study are discussed in the paper for the understanding of flow structures at flow junctions and the design and management of hydraulic structures in river engineering.

The utilization of natural waxes to form oleogels has emerged as a new and efficient technique for structuring liquid edible oil into solid-like structures for diverse food applications. The objective of this study was to investigate the interaction between sunflower wax (SW) and monoglycerides (MGs) in olive oil oleogels and to assess their physical characteristics and storage stability. To achieve this, pure SW and a combination of SW with MGs in a 1:1 ratio were examined within a total concentration range of 6-12% w/w. The formed oleogels were characterized based on their microstructure, melting and crystallization properties, textural characteristics, and oxidative stability during storage. All the oleogels were shelf-stable, and as the concentration increased, the hardness of the oleogels also increased. The crystals of SW oleogels were long needle-like, while the combination of SW and MGs led to the formation of crystal aggregates and rosette-like crystals. The differential scanning calorimetry and FTIR showed that the addition of MGs led to different crystal structures. The oxidation results revealed that oleogels had low peroxide and TBARS values throughout the 28-day storage. These results provide useful insights about the utilization of SW and MGs oleogels for potential applications in the food industry.

Finding a good MIMO system model also major issue in Wireless Communication system. It is facing with so many problem, one of the major problem is finding good system model in terms of capacity and transmitting antenna system. In this paper, we analyze the channel capacity of various MIMO system model with some constant SNR level and outage probability. We establish a novel idea for MIMO system models as consider as 2^N- MIMO system model and find-out change in channel capacity when different transmitting antennas with constant SNR and outage probability. The channel capacity ratio CC_R is presented here on the basis of 2^N- MIMO channel capacity model. Number of transmitted antenna presented in MIMO system is increases is well-known however paper shows change in capacity in simple form.

Rebar cages form the skeletal framework of reinforced concrete structural members. They comprise longitudinal and transverse reinforcing bars, usually connected by tie wires. Past studies have identified tie-wire connections as the "weak links" in large, prefabricated rebar cages, leading to their failure during site handling and construction stages. Recent research has explored the use of mechanical U-bolt connectors to bolster stability and safety of rebar cages while reducing their vulnerability and risk of failure. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation of a new type of mechanical connector, referred to as "Cage Clamp", to enhance rebar cage stability and safety. Component-level experimental tests are conducted to determine the force-displacement response of Cage Clamp connectors for crossbar connections in different degrees of freedom. The results highlight the remarkable strength and stiffness of Cage Clamp connectors, significantly outperforming traditional tie-wire connections. Furthermore, full-scale experimental tests are performed on a circular underground pile-shaft rebar cage with Cage Clamp connectors to assess its behavior under various site handling conditions. The data obtained from these experiments are used to construct and refine detailed 3D finite element models of the rebar cages, capable of capturing the complex behavior of rebar cages with Cage Clamp connectors. Using the numerical model, a sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the effect of the number of Cage Clamps on the deflection and stability of the rebar cage. The findings show that using cage clamps to connect pick-up rebar with lateral reinforcement at every 8 to 10 feet is sufficient to ensure the stability of the cage during typical site handling conditions. The results of this study serve as a basis for establishing analysis, design, fabrication, and handling guidelines for rebar cages, contributing to safe and efficient construction practices.

In this paper, we study a one-dimensional Bresse-Cattaneo system with infinite memories and time-dependent delay term (the coefficient of which is not necessarily positive) in the internal feedbacks. First, it is proved that the system is well-posed by means of the Hille-Yosida theorem under suitable assumptions on the relaxation functions. Then, without any restriction on the speeds of wave propagations, we establish the exponential or general decay result by introducing suitable energy and Lyapunov functionals.

Understanding the dynamics of teamwork and communication among healthcare professionals is crucial in the face of evolving healthcare challenges. This study assessed relational coordination among healthcare professionals in the South Tyrolean healthcare system in Italy, focusing on communication and teamwork dynamics in a cross-sectional survey. Using the validated Relational Coordination Survey (RCS) instrument and 525 completed online responses, the questionnaire aimed to understand the implications of different levels of relational coordination ratings by general practitioners, hospital physicians, nurses, and administrative personnel (response rate 26%). The demographics of the participants revealed a predominance of female professionals (64%), with an average age of 50 and 18 years of service. The resulting RCS scores varied significantly across professional groups, with nurses reporting the highest within-group scores, indicating moderate coordination, and administrators reporting the lowest scores, reflecting areas of weak coordination. Between-group relational coordination was generally perceived as weak across professional groups, with the least weakness observed between general practitioners and nurses. German or Italian language and health district affiliation emerged as significant factors influencing relational coordination ratings, highlighting the need for differentiated understanding and strategies in multilingual and diverse regional settings. Assessments of interdisciplinary feedback and referral practices highlight the variation in teamwork and communication weaknesses and underscore the need for targeted interventions to improve relational coordination. This study provides insights into the complexity of relational dynamics in health care settings. It suggests that improving relational coordination through tailored strategies could significantly improve team effectiveness, quality of patient care, and overall system efficiency.

Wireless Powered Communication Networks (WPCN), which has attracted much attention of researchers, also been recently recommended in 5^th generation (5G) wireless networks. With the help of the WPCN, the reliability and battery life of wireless low-power devices can be improved. In this paper, we investigate throughput and ergodic capacity in WPCN-assisted amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying system, considering two transmission modes including delay-tolerant and delay-limited. As important achievement, we propose symmetric energy harvesting protocol, namely time power switching relaying (TPSR) in order to find maximal throughput. In particular, both time switching and power switching coefficients in this schemes are considered. Unlike most of the previous works, we further focus on impact of outdated channel state information (CSI) in this WPCN. In order to evaluate information processing efficiency, the performance can be substantially improved by optimally harvesting time and power coefficients of the received signal at relay node for energy and information extraction, and by deploying several scenarios. By deploying Monte Carlo simulation, it is confirmed that the system performance is more sensitive to CSI estimation error, noise variance, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and resulting in other reasonable computations of TPSR need be deployed to obtain QoS requirement.

Hypertension is a frequent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases and the prevalence rate is continuously rising. Multiple pathophysiological mechanisms are responsible for hypertension, necessitating a combination of drugs from different classes for best management. Combination therapy is five times more effective in decreasing blood pressure compared to escalating the dose of a single agent. As per the ACCOMPLISH trial analysis, coupling a renin-angiotensin system inhibitor with a calcium channel blocker is more effective than the combination of a renin-angiotensin system inhibitor with diuretics in reducing major cardiovascular events, cardiovascular-related mortality, and the progression of chronic kidney disease. The renin-angiotensin system can be suppressed by inhibiting the angiotensin-converting enzyme or angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R), resulting, in decreased vascular smooth muscle contraction, heart performance, and reduced aldosterone synthesis. Calcium channel blockers work by inhibiting L-type calcium channels, reducing heart performance via negative inotropic, chronotropic, and bathmotropic effects, along with reducing vascular smooth muscle contraction. Diuretics exert their antihypertensive impact by changing body fluid volume and electrolytes. Initially, hypertension treatment commences with a single medication but often, different classes of two or more antihypertensive medications are necessary for achieving the target blood pressure goal. Sometimes, for Resistant hypertension four different classes of antihypertensive medications are necessary to reach the target blood pressure goal.

This research investigates the intricate dynamics between intellectual Capital (VAIC) and the stability of banks in the evolving context of Saudi Arabia's banking sector. Against the backdrop of rapid economic reforms under Vision 2030 and the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pan-demic, the research provides a nuanced analysis of how intellectual capital and intellectual capital's components—Human Capital Efficiency (HCE), Structural Capital Efficiency (SCE), and Capital Employed Efficiency (CEE)—affect the financial stability of Saudi banks. The research analyses a decade-long panel dataset from 2012 to 2022, utilizing both fixed effects and cross-section random effects models to discern the impact of intellectual capital on bank stability. The findings reveal a positive overall influence of intellectual capital on bank stability; however, individual compo-nents present a complex relationship, with CEE showing a positive association and HCE and SCE demonstrating unexpected negative correlations with bank stability. The research identifies lev-erage (LEV) as a significant factor negatively impacting stability. Operational efficiency (OPEF) and size (SIZE) also negatively affect stability. Surprisingly, macroeconomic indicators and bank size exhibit non-significant effects on bank stability. Similarly, the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was found to be non-significant, suggesting a resilient banking environment or the presence of effective mitigating strategies. As Saudi Arabia continues its ambitious economic transformation, this research underscores the critical role of effectively managed intellectual capital in ensuring the banking sector's stability. It provides a foundation for ongoing research in this vital area.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate if tests used to assess core stability could be used to determine success in physiological tests applied to assess dynamic balance and agility for a young active population. Methods: Pearson's r correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between the core stability tests and the dynamic balance and agility tests. Evaluation of the tests was established using Cronbach's coefficient of variance as part of intra-rater reliability tests. An analysis of 18 active college aged students was conducted (males: n= 13, females: n= 5). The mean ± SD age for males was 19.2 years ± 3.22 years and for females was 19.4 years ± 1.14 years. Conclusion: The results indicate that there is no significant relationship between tests that assess core stability and tests conducted to assess dynamic balance in active young adults. With the exception of the abdominal flexion test, no significant relationship exists between the remaining core stability tests and agility T-Test. Core stability is not a determinant of balance and agility.

Practical applications of CsPbX3 nanocrystals (NCs) are limited by their poor stability. The formation of heterojunction between CsPbX3 NCs and oxides is an effective means to protect perovskite from polar solvents and other external factors. Significantly improving the stability and photocatalytic properties of the core/shell perovskite is very important for its application in photoelectric and photocatalytic technology. Here, we report the synthesis of asymmetrical CsPbBr3/TiO2 core-shell heterostructure NCs at single particle level by hot injection liquid phase synthesis and sol-gel method, where each CsPbBr3 NCs is partially covered by titanium dioxide. It is shown that the type II arrangement is generated at the heterogeneous interface, which greatly facilitates the separation of electron-hole pairs and increases the carrier transport efficiency. More crucial, due to the protection of titanium dioxide shell, the product has higher long-term stability in humid air compared with bare CsPbBr3 NCs. The asymmetrical core-shell heterostructure prepared in this study not only improves the stability of CsPbX3 NCs, but also provides some ideas for optoelectronic device applications and TiO2-based photocatalysts.

Maize is an important staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, the average grain yield on farmers’ fields falls considerably short of the demand of the region’s population. In addition, the normal endosperm maize widely consumed in SSA is deficient in vitamin A. Drought, a consequence of climate change, is a major constraint to maize production, resulting in seasonal low grain yield in farmers’ fields. The objectives of this study were to assess the performance of newly developed extra-early maturing provitamin A hybrids under managed drought and well-watered conditions, compare the outcomes of multiple trait base-index and multi-trait genotype-ideotype distance index selection procedures, and identify drought-tolerant hybrids with stable performance across contrasting environments for commercialization in SSA. One hundred and ninety provitamin A hybrids and six checks were evaluated under managed drought and well-watered conditions at Ikenne for two seasons between 2021 and 2023. A 14*14-lattice design was used for the field evaluations under both research conditions. Drought stress was achieved by the complete withdrawal of irrigation water 25 days after planting. Results revealed significant differences among the hybrids under drought and well-watered conditions. Grain yield, ears per plant, and plant aspect under managed drought were correlated to the same traits under well-watered conditions suggesting that the expression of these traits is governed by common genetic factors. Twenty-nine hybrids were identified as top-performing drought-tolerant hybrids by the multiple trait base index and multiple-trait genotype–ideotype distance index. Of the selected outstanding 29 hybrids, 34% were derived from crosses involving the tester TZEEIOR 197, demonstrating the outstanding genetic potential of this inbred line. Further analysis of the 29 selected hybrids revealed TZEEIOR 509 × TZEEIOR 197 as the hybrid that combined the most drought-tolerant adaptive traits. However, the hybrids TZEEIOR 526 × TZEEIOR 97, TZEEIOR 384 × TZEEIOR 30, TZEEIOR 515 × TZEEIOR 249, TZEEIOR 510 × TZEEIOR 197, TZEEIOR 479 × TZEEIOR 197, and TZEEIOR 458 × TZEEIOR 197 were identified as the most stable hybrids across drought and well-watered conditions. These hybrids should be extensively tested in multi-location trials for deployment and commercialization in SSA.

Using pumps operating as turbines (PATs) offers the possibility of increasing the sustainability of water and energy systems by recovering the excess of energy that would be otherwise lost in pressure reducing valves or head loss chambers. In on-grid applications, there are many research works and implementations of PATs. However, there is still limited research for the optimization of efficiency and stability of PATs operating in off-grid systems. This work contributes to the development of stable direct current (DC) off-grid electric systems based on PATs, by optimizing and analysing the energy efficiency and stability for a wide range of operation. A self-excited induction generator (SEIG) coupled to the PAT is provided to cover the conventional type of electric ma-chines typically coupled to the hydraulic pumps. In this context, a methodology is proposed, based on the hydraulic, mechanical and electric subsystems, to define the PAT-SEIG operational area, to maximize energy conversion and the system efficiency. This will guarantee stable electric output quantities when operating in a DC off-grid system. In addition, an analytical model is proposed to estimate the PAT-SEIG operation under specific conditions. With this, water managers are suitable to design and optimize an off-grid PAT-SEIG system and to define the best hydraulic machines, electronic equipment, and all different control elements to maximize energy conversion within the target of operational limits. To develop and verify this new methodology, two micro PAT-SEIG setups were implemented in the hydraulic laboratory of IST/CERIS under typical operating conditions. The proposed solution proved to be resilient under a variable load regime. The system's maximum efficiency can be adapted using different capacitor values for the excitation of the SEIG, and the operational range is limited to the electric components. Considering the nominal efficiencies of the system’s components, the maximum p.u. efficiency obtained for each PAT-SEIG system were between 0.7 and 0.8 p.u.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a flexible synthetic polymer bone graft to provide implant stability in the absence of implant stability during implant placement in a dense cortical bone model. Sockets were prepared on polyurethane blocks according to the standard implant socket drilling protocol in the control group, both oversizing and deepening in group 2, and oversizing only in group 3. In groups 2 and 3, flexible synthetic polymer bone grafts were placed in the sockets prior to implant placement. The implants were placed at bone level in all groups. The highest torque value obtained was recorded as the insertion torque. 75 implant sites in 3 groups were included in the study. The torque values of the implants in the control group were significantly higher than those of the implants with the oversized and deepened sockets and the oversized-only sockets (p<0.05; p<0.01).The torque values of the implants with the oversized and deepened sockets were significantly higher than those of the implants with the oversized-only sockets (p<0.01). In this study, flexible synthetic polymer bone graft was shown to be effective in achieving implant stability in the management of implants with loss of primary stability.

A new design scheme is proposed for twisting the walls of a microchannel, and its performance is demonstrated numerically. The numerical study was carried out for a T-shaped microchannel with twist angles in the range of 0 to 34π. The Reynolds number range was 0.15 to 6. The T-shaped microchannel consists of two inlet branches and an outlet branch. The mixing performance was analyzed in terms of the degree of mixing and relative mixing cost. All numerical results show that the twisting scheme is an effective way to enhance the mixing in a T-shaped microchannel. The mixing enhancement is realized by the swirling of two fluids in the cross section and is more prominent as the Reynolds number decreases. The twist angle was optimized to maximize the DOM, which increases with the length of the outlet branch. The twist angle was also optimized in terms of the relative mixing. The two optimum twisting angles are generally not coincident. The optimum twist angle shows a dependence on the length of the outlet branch but it is not affected much by the Reynolds number.

Low-loss photonic waveguides in lithium niobate offer versatile functionality as nonlinear frequency converters, switches, and modulators for integrated optics. Combining the flexibility of laser processing with liquid phase epitaxy we have fabricated and characterized lithium niobate channel waveguides on lithium niobate and lithium tantalate. We used liquid phase epitaxy with K2O flux on laser-machined lithium niobate and lithium tantalate substrates. The laser-driven rapid-prototyping technique can be programmed to give machined features of various sizes, and liquid phase epitaxy produces high quality single-crystal, lithium niobate channels. The surface roughness of the lithium niobate channels on a lithium tantalate substrate was measured to be 90 nm. The lithium niobate channel waveguides exhibit propagation losses of 0.26 ± 0.04 dB/mm at a wavelength of 633 nm. Second harmonic generation at 980 nm was demonstrated using the channel waveguides, indicating that these waveguides retain their nonlinear optical properties.

Wall Shear Stress (WSS) abnormalities in carotid artery blood flow are key hemodynamic factors leading to arterial endothelial damage, atherosclerotic plaque formation, and carotid artery stenosis. Precise simulation of carotid artery blood flow WSS in vitro play an important role in understanding the underlying hemodynamic mechanism of carotid artery stenosis. This study presents a design for a microfluidic cell culture chamber with a variable cross-section and a step structure, leveraging microfluidic technology and principles of fluid dynamics. We propose an optimization strategy for microchannel dimensions based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. This strategy aims to replicate the distinct WSS waveform features found at various locations within the carotid bifurcation as observed in vivo. Our simulations indicate that with a step height of 0.09 mm, a width of 4 mm for the initial segment, and 5 mm for the subsequent wider channel, the device can effectively model the characteristics of low oscillatory WSS seen at sites of carotid sinus stenosis. Furthermore, it accurately represents the high-magnitude pulsatile WSS waveforms in the more uniform arterial sections downstream of the carotid sinus. The study also reveals that vortex formation and variations in low oscillatory WSS within the stepped section of the microchannel correlate with the step's height and width, as well as with the dimensions of the wider channel section. An increase in step width leads to a decrease in both the vortex area and the magnitude of negative WSS oscillations. When the step height is less than 0.03 mm, vortex formation is inhibited, challenging the simulation of low oscillatory WSS patterns. The variable cross-section microfluidic channel developed in this study provides a platform for simulating carotid artery WSS waveforms and facilitates research into the interplay between low oscillatory WSS at sites of carotid sinus stenosis and arterial endothelial dysfunction.

PIEZO channels PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 are the newly identified mechanosensitive, non-selective cation channels permeable to Ca2+. In higher vertebrates, PIEZO1 expresses ubiquitously in most of the tissues and cells while PIEZO2 expresses more specifically in the peripheral sensory neurons. PIEZO channels contribute to a wide range of biological behaviors and developmental processes, therefore driving a significant attention in the effort to understand their molecular properties. One prominent property of PIEZO channels is their rapid inactivation, which manifests itself as a decrease of channel open probability in the presence of a sustained mechanical stimulus. Lack of the PIEZO channel inactivation is linked to various mechanopathologies emphasizing the significance of studying this PIEZO channel property and the factors affecting it. In the present review, we discuss the mechanisms underlying the PIEZO channel inactivation, its modulation by interaction of the channels with lipids and/or proteins, and how the changes of PIEZO inactivation by the channel mutations can cause a variety of diseases in animals and humans.

Esterquats constitute a unique group of quaternary ammonium salts (QASs) that contain an ester bond in the structure of the cation. Despite the numerous advantages of this class of compounds, only two mini-reviews discuss the subject of esterquats: the first one (2007) briefly summarizes their types, synthesis, and structural elements required for a beneficial environmental profile and only briefly covers their applications whereas the second one only reviews the stability of selected betaine-type esterquats in aqueous solutions. The rationale for writing this review is to critically reevaluate the relevant literature and provide others with a “state-of-the-art” snapshot of choline-type esterquats and betaine-type esterquats. Hence, the first part of this survey thoroughly summarizes the most important scientific reports demonstrating effective synthesis routes leading to the formation of both types of esterquats. In the second section, the susceptibility of esterquats to hydrolysis is explained, and the influence of various factors, such as the pH, the degree of salinity or the temperature of the solution, was subjected to thorough analysis that includes quantitative components. The next two sections refer to various aspects associated with the ecotoxicity of esterquats. Consequently, their biodegradation and toxic effects on microorganisms are extensively analyzed as crucial factors that can affect their commercialization. Then, the reported applications of esterquats are briefly discussed, including functionalization of macromolecules, such as cotton fabric as well as their successful utilization on a commercial scale. The last section demonstrates the most essential conclusions and reported drawbacks that allow us to elucidate future recommendations regarding the development of these promising chemicals.

Since the creation of the first parallel electrical power systems around the world, the rotor angle stability of synchronously operating generators has been one of the most crucial and challenging problems. In modern electricity networks, involving Kazakhstani, where the renewable energy technologies are rapidly penetrating, and the issue of stability takes on even greater importance due to the technical shortcomings of inverter-based generation. In this framework, an analysis of rotor angle transient stability was carried out when replacing existing synchronous generators with doubly fed induction generators under a certain pre-emergency mode. A critical proportion of active power generation by DFIG units was identified at which transient stability can still be maintained due to the sufficient stored kinetic energy of the synchronous machines remaining in operation. In addition, 2 simple solutions were investigated to improve transient stability, such as an increased time of the automatic reclosure operation and the use of special load shedding automation. For the analysis, a real power system of Mangystau region in Kazakhstan was considered, and the PowerWorld software was used.

We propose a deep-learning approach for the joint MIMO detection and channel decoding problem. Conventional MIMO receivers adopt a model-based approach for MIMO detection and channel decoding in linear or iterative manners. However, due to the complex MIMO signal model, the optimal solution to the joint MIMO detection and channel decoding problem (i.e., the maximum likelihood decoding of the transmitted codewords from the received MIMO signals) is computationally infeasible. As a practical measure, the current model-based MIMO receivers all use suboptimal MIMO decoding methods with affordable computational complexities. This work applies the latest advances in deep learning for the design of MIMO receivers. In particular, we leverage deep neural networks (DNN) with supervised training to solve the joint MIMO detection and channel decoding problem. We show that DNN can be trained to give much better decoding performance than conventional MIMO receivers do. Our simulations show that a DNN implementation consisting of seven hidden layers can outperform conventional model-based linear or iterative receivers. This performance improvement points to a new direction for future MIMO receiver design.

The present work reports an experimental thermodynamic study of two nitrogen heterocyclic organic compounds, fenclorim and clopyralid, that have been used as herbicides. The sublimation vapor pressures of fenclorim (4,6-dichloro-2-phenylpyrimidine) and of clopyralid (3,6-dichloro-2-pyridinecarboxylic acid) were measured, at different temperatures, using a Knudsen mass-loss effusion technique. The vapor pressures of both crystalline and liquid (including supercooled liquid) phases of fenclorim were also determined using a static method based on capacitance diaphragm manometers. The experimental results enabled accurate determination of the standard molar enthalpies, entropies and Gibbs energies of sublimation for both compounds and of vaporization for fenclorim, allowing a phase diagram representation of the (p,T) results, in the neighborhood of the triple point of this compound. The temperatures and molar enthalpies of fusion of the two compounds studied were determined using differential scanning calorimetry. The standard isobaric molar heat capacities of the two crystalline compounds were determined at 298.15 K, using drop calorimetry. The gas phase thermodynamic properties of the two compounds were estimated through ab initio calculations, at the G3(MP2)//B3LYP level, and their thermodynamic stability was evaluated in the gaseous and crystalline phases, considering the calculated values of the standard Gibbs energies of formation, at 298.15 K.

The combination of neural network and beamforming has been proved to be very effective in multi-channel speech separation. But its performance faces a challenge in complex environment. In this paper, an iteratively refined multi-channel speech separation method is proposed for the challenge, where the proposed is composed of initial separation and iterative separation. In initial separation, the time-frequency domain dual-path recurrent neural network neural network (TFDPRNN), minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamformer and post-separation (also TFDPRNN) are cascaded for obtaining the first additional input in iterative separation. In iterative separation, the MVDR beamformer and post-separation are iteratively used, where the output of the MVDR beamformer is used as an additional input of the post-separation network and the final output comes from post-separation module. This iteration of the beamformer and post-separation is fully employed for promoting their individual optimization, which ultimately improves the overall performance of speech separation in multi-speaker scenarios. Experiments on the spatialized version of the WSJ0-2mix corpus show that our proposed method is significantly better than the current popular methods. In addition, the method also has a good effect on the dereverberation task.

Network Simulators (NS) is typically used to study services and applications in complex scenarios due to the infeasibility of deploying real testbeds. This is the case of Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) which can be extensively used in emergency situations or to gather information without infraestructure. An important factor to get realiable results in the MANETs’ simulations is the wireless channel module of NSs. In this report, we explain how thw wireless channel is implemented in NS-3 and it can be configured.

The structure of turbulent flow over non-flat surfaces is a topic of major interest in practical applications in both engineering and geophysical settings. A lot of work has been done in the fully rough regime at high Reynolds numbers where the effect on the outer layer turbulence structure and the resulting friction drag is well documented. It turns out that surface topology plays a significant role on the flow drag especially in the transitional roughness regime and therefore, hard to characterize. Survey of literature shows that roughness function depends on the interaction of roughness height, flow Reynolds number and topology shape. In addition, if the surface topology contains large enough scales then it can impact the outer layer dynamics and in turn modulate the total frictional force. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms underlying drag increase from systematically varied surface undulations in order to better interpret quantifications based on mean statistics such as roughness function. In this study, we explore the mechanisms that modulate the turbulence structure over a two-dimensional (2D) sinusoidal wavy surface with a fixed amplitude, but varying slope. To accomplish this, we model the turbulent flow between two infinitely wide 2D wavy plates at a friction Reynolds number, $Re_{\tau}=180$. We pursue two different but related flavors of analysis. The first one adopts a roughness characterization flavor of such wavy surfaces. The second one focuses on understanding the non-equilibrium near surface turbulence structure and their impact on roughness characterization. Analysis of the different statistical quantifications show strong dependence on wave slope for the roughness function indicating drag increase due to enhanced turbulent stresses resulting from increased production of vertical velocity variance from the surface undulations.

The Inverted F Antenna (IFA) with the parasitic element on a finite conducting plane is proposed in the range frequency of 0.1 to 5.5 GHz and its characteristics are analyzed numerically. In this research, the parasitic element and the main IFA are investigated to obtain the resonance frequency for multiband operation purposes. The parasitic element is placed beneath adjusted to the main IFA to derive more frequency bands. The distance between the parasitic element and main horizontal element extremely affects the performance of the IFA. It is found that when the parasitic element is located closer to the conducting plane, this element is coupled by the current on the conducting plane. Consequently, the return loss bandwidth becomes narrower. Therefore, the gain of the proposed IFA becomes a bit higher. The antenna gain is about 8.21 dB at band #3 (λ_1.747), 7.43 dB at band #5 (λ_2.967) and 8.82 dB at band #6 (λ_4.023). This occurs when the calculation condition is antenna height h1 = 23 mm, h2 = 21 mm, horizontal antenna elements L = 173.2 mm, L1 = 140.9 mm and Lp = 152 mm, shorted element Ls = 30.7 mm, the distance between parasitic element and shorted element pyl = 5 mm. While the size of conducting plane is considered pxp+pxm by pyp+pym as 57.5+57.5 mm by 200+50 mm. In the numerical analysis, the electromagnetic simulator WIPL-D based on Method of Moment is used. The results show that the proposed IFA has UHF and SHF channel receiver which are suitable for advanced wireless service (band #3), mobile phones, Bluetooth, maritime service, radiolocation service (band #5) and radars, mobile phones, commercial wireless LAN (band #6).

Ion channels serve many cellular functions including ion homeostasis, volume regulation, signaling, nutrient acquisition, and developmental progression. Although the complex lifecycles of malaria parasites necessitate ion and solute flux across membranes, whole genome sequencing of the human pathogen, Plasmodium falciparum, revealed remarkably few orthologs of known ion channel genes. Contrasting with this, biochemical studies have implicated channel-mediated flux of ions and nutritive solutes across several membranes in infected erythrocytes. Here, I review advances in the cellular and molecular biology of ion channels in malaria parasites. These studies have implicated novel parasite genes in the formation of at least two ion channels, with additional ion channels likely present at various membranes and parasite stages. Computational approaches that rely on homology to known channel genes from higher organisms will not be very helpful in identifying the molecular determinants of these activities. Given their unusual properties, novel molecular and structural features, and essential roles in pathogen survival and development, parasite channels should be promising targets for therapy development.

In this paper, we develop a tractable mathematical model and emulation framework for communicating information through water using acoustic signals. Water is considered as one of the most complex mediums to model owing to its vastness and variety in characteristics depending on the scenario, what kind of water-body (lakes, rivers, tanks, sea etc.) and geographical location of the water-body is considered. Our proposed mathematical model involves the concept of damped harmonic oscillators to represent the medium (water) and Milne’s oscillator technique to map the interaction between the acoustic signal and water. Wave equations formulated for acoustic pressure and acoustic wave velocity are used to characterize the travelling acoustic signal. Signal strength, phase shift and time-delay generated from the mathematical model are fed to a Simulink-based emulator framework to generate channel samples and channel impulse responses. The emulator uses wide sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS) assumption and finite sum-of-sinusoids (SOS) with uniformly distributed phase to generate the channel samples. Using the emulator platform it is possible to generate amplitude variation profile, Doppler shift and spread experienced by any travelling signal through different underwater communication scenarios. Such an emulator platform can be used to simulate different communication scenarios, underwater network topologies, data to train different learning models and predict performance of different modulation, multiplexing, error correction and multi-access techniques for underwater acoustic communications (UWAC) systems.

in this paper, the optical channel performance with respect to varying scintillation index parameters is studied. Where different channel effects are studied and analyzed. In free-space optical (FSO) communication, the major drawback of the optical communication system is the atmospheric turbulence (AT). This effect is nonlinear with optical channel altitude being changed. Therefore, the power margenal (PM) required for such a channel is also inconstant respectively. In this thesis, we analyze AT effect on the optical channel with different altitudes. Such that we found the difference in the range of PM required for such optical link distance. In our result, the Bit Error Rate (BER) VS. PM required is measured. The optical channel model is Log-Normal considered and the BER threshold BER^th = 10^-10 is taken.

In line with Pomeau’s conjecture about the relevance of directed percolation (DP) to turbulence onset/decay in wall-bounded flows, we propose a minimal stochastic model dedicated to the interpretation of the spatially intermittent regimes observed in channel flow before its return to laminar flow. Numerical simulations show that a regime with bands obliquely drifting in two stream-wise symmetrical directions bifurcates into an asymmetrical regime, before ultimately decaying to laminar flow. The model is expressed in terms of a probabilistic cellular automaton evolving von Neumann neighbourhoods with probabilities educed from a close examination of simulation results. It implements band propagation and the two main local processes: longitudinal splitting involving bands with the same orientation, and transversal splitting giving birth to a daughter band with orientation opposite to that of its mother. The ultimate decay stage observed to display one-dimensional DP properties in a two-dimensional geometry is interpreted as resulting from the irrelevance of lateral spreading in the single-orientation regime. The model also reproduces the bifurcation restoring the symmetry upon variation of the probability attached to transversal splitting, which opens the way to a study of the critical properties of that bifurcation, in analogy with thermodynamic phase transitions.

Ion channels contribute fundamental properties to all cell membranes. The ion channels are highly diverse in conductivity, structure, location and function. However, many of them can be regulated by common mechanisms, such as voltage or (de-)phosphorylation. Considering primarily pain-related ion channels, this review covers more novel and less known features of ion channel function, also with the aim to transfer knowledge between fields, which get inevitably more separate due to their size.

Security is a major topic in recent researchers, and finding new methods deliver was the motivations for this research to emphasize and as an awareness to browsers developers to handle images with more care and to enhance exploit detection technology in the browser, as this paper proves that hackers now can attack users with just an image.

Phα1β a spider peptide, purified from the venom of Phoneutria nigriventer inhibits high voltage calcium channels and is antagonist of TRPA1 receptor two important pain transduction path-ways. In the last 15 years, we have showed, in preclinical tests with Phα1β native and recombi-nant in rodent models of pain the potential of Phα1β to become a new analgesic drug. Evaluation of new drug on human ERG channel is requirement of the regulatory agencies. For the hERG channel inhibition assay it was used the commercial kit FLIPR® Potassium Assay. It was tested the effect of Phα1β and as positive control dofetilide, a well characterized hERG block-er. Phα1β 56, 225, 450 and 900 pMol caused at a higher concentration a very weak inhibition of the hERG channel activity of about 13.47 % with channel inhibition at 50%, IC50 > 900 pMol. Dofetilide (0.0001 - 10 µM), a known hERG inhibitor, caused a well-known, concentra-tion-dependent inhibition of the hERG channel with a mean IC50 of 0.1642 µM (0.1189 – 0.2282 µM. For the cytotoxicity assay, Phα1β concentrations of 56, 225, 450 and 900 pMol incubated for 24 h with HEK293-hERG cells did not alter the viability of the HEK293-hERG cells. It is con-cluded that Phα1β even at high concentrations does not interfere with hERG channels.

The cardiac sodium ion channel (NaV1.5) is a protein with four domains (DI-DIV), each with six transmembrane segments. Its opening and subsequent inactivation results in the brief rapid influx of Na+ ions resulting in the depolarization of cardiomyocytes. The neurotoxin veratridine (VTD) inhibits NaV1.5 inactivation resulting in longer channel opening times, and potentially fatal action potential prolongation. VTD is predicted to bind at the channel pore, but alternative binding sites have not been ruled out. To determine the binding site of VTD on NaV1.5, we performed docking calculations and high-throughput electrophysiology experiments. The docking calculations identified two distinct binding regions. The first site was in the pore, close to the binding site of NaV1.4 and NaV1.5 blocking drugs in experimental structures. The second site was at the “mouth” of the pore at the cytosolic side, partly solvent-exposed. Mutations at this site (L409, E417, and I1466) had large effects on VTD binding, while residues deeper in the pore had no effect, consistent with VTD binding at the mouth site. Overall, our results suggest a VTD binding site close to the cytoplasmic mouth of the channel pore. Binding at this alternative site might indicate an allosteric inactivation mechanism for VTD at NaV1.5.

Comparison between hydraulic and hydrologic computational methods is conducted in this study, regarding prismatic open channels under unsteady subcritical flow conditions. One-dimensional unsteady flow continuity and momentum equations are solved using explicit and implicit finite difference schemes for a symmetrical trapezoidal cross section, where the flow discharge and depth are the dependent variables. The results have been compared to those derived from Muskingum-Cunge hydraulic/hydrologic method as well as the commercial software HEC-RAS. The results from explicit and implicit code compare well to those from commercial software and hydraulic/hydrologic methods for long prismatic channels, thus directing the hydraulic engineer to quick preliminary design of prismatic open channels for unsteady flow with satisfactory accuracy.

A fundamental tool in mathematical physics is the logarithmic Sobolev inequality. A quantitative version proven by Carlen with a remainder involving the Fourier-Wiener transform is equivalent to an entropic uncertainty principle more general than the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In the stability, the remainder is in terms of an entropy, not a metric. Recently, a stability result for H¹ was obtained by Dolbeault, Esteban, Figalli, Frank, and Loss in terms of an L^p norm. Afterwards, Brigati, Dolbeault, and Simonov discussed the stability problem involving a stronger norm. A full characterization with a necessary and sufficient condition to have H¹ convergence is identified in this paper. Moreover, an explicit H¹ bound via a moment assumption is shown. Also, the L^p stability of Dolbeault, Esteban, Figalli, Frank, and Loss is proven to be sharp.

For voltage-gated Ca2+ channel (VGCC), its α2δ subunits are traditionally considered to be auxiliary subunits that regulates VGCC trafficking to the plasma membrane. The antiepileptic, antinociceptive and anxiolytic gabapentin (GBP) has previously been shown to bind the VGCC α2δ subunits with high affinity to disrupt VGCC trafficking. Yet, the interaction between GBP and α2δ still remains poorly understood from a structural point of view. For instance, it is not clear yet what the structural implication is of α2δ-1-bound GBP against VGCC trafficking. With a set of experimental data-driven structural analysis of the VGCC α2δ-1 and its ligand GBP, this article postulates for the first time that: 1), α2δ-1 bound GBP stabilizes the α2δ-1-GBP complex structure; 2), α2δ-1 bound GBP restrains the conformational flexibility of α2δ-1; 3), α2δ-1-bound GBP establishes an electrostatic axis consisting of Q535 (Gln535)-R241 (Arg241)-GBP (gabapentin)-D452 (Asp452), which constitutes an energetically favourable contribution towards the structural stability of the α2δ-1-GBP complex and helps restrains the conformational flexibility and local structural rigidification of α2δ-1; and 4), GBP-induced local conformational inflexibility and structural rigidification of α2δ-1 is one key step in the pharmacological disruption of VGCC trafficking by GBP.

A study on flywheel geometries is presented here with the use of finite element modelling (FEM) simulations. The study analyses the stress behaviour of flywheel rotors subject to the rotational speed that creates the maximum stress that the flywheel can support, and then calculates the rotational energy mass ratio (energy density) for each geometry. The obtained geometry was Gaussian section for the Flywheel rotor. The used material for the simulations is carbon fibre Hexcel UHM 12000. The best results were a rotational speed of ≈279.000 rpm and rotational energy density of ≈ 440 Wh/kg for a single disk, but this keeps the total energy low. To increase the total energy, Flywheels with 2 and 3 rotors were analysed. Then the stability under rotation of these Flywheels were analysed, some instability was found and a solution was presented.

In this paper, we introduce a way of representing a given mapping as the sum of odd and even mappings. Then, by using this representation, we investigate the stability of various forms for the general nonic functional equation.

This review describes major advances in the use of functionalized molecular metal oxides (polyoxometalates, POMs) as water oxidation catalysts under electrochemical conditions. The fundamentals of POM-based water oxidation are described together with a brief overview of general approaches to designing POM water oxidation catalysts. Next, the use of POMs for homogeneous, solution-phase water oxidation is described together with a summary of theoretical studies shedding light on the POM-WOC mechanism. This is followed by a discussion of heterogenization of POMs on electrically conductive substrates for technologically more relevant application studies. Stability of POM water oxidation catalysts are discussed on selected examples where detailed data is already available. The review finishes with an outlook on future perspective and emerging themes in electrocatalytic polyoxometalate-based water oxidation research.

Modern portfolio theory claims that diversification into non-correlated or negatively correlated activities reduces the overall risk of a portfolio. Considering the total income of a bank as a portfolio of interest income and non-interest income, this paper investigates how the variability of interest income and non- interest income, and covariance between interest income and non-interest income influence the various risk factors of banks. We set out a study in the Indian context. We have extracted data for the period 2005-2017 and employed an extended version of Ridge, Lasso and Elastics Net regression to take care of multi-collinearly in our data. We have considered 10-fold cross-validation techniques to get optimal values of tuning parameters for Ridge, Lasso, and Elastics Net regression (which is a convex combination of ridge and the LASSO). We have compared different regression techniques by comparing RMSE and R2. We observe that non-interest income is positively correlated with interest income in the Indian context, but it does stabilize variance, idiosyncratic risk & market risk (Beta) of Indian Banks.

YouTube Kids serves as a dynamic and user-friendly resource for young learners to learn English. Its extensive library of instructional materials, which includes captivating animations and interactive movies, provides a rich and varied learning environment. Through the integration of play and exploration into language study, YouTube Kids creates a comfortable and engaging atmosphere that allows kids to improve their English language skills at their own pace. In this research article, a narrative literature review was employed as a qualitative methodology. Based on the gathered relevant literature, YouTube Kids presented such positive and negative impacts as a channel for English language acquisition. YouTube Kids is indeed a beneficial tool for young learners who are trying to learn English, but at the same time, it does have some potential disadvantages, as some videos may not employ the same standard or correctness of English, which could expose kids to improper grammar or pronunciation. Parents and teachers need to carefully select and keep an eye on the content their kids watch to ensure that their children's YouTube Kids content supports their language learning objectives. Through careful supervision and curation, parents and educators may maximize the usefulness of the site as a medium for teaching young learners English language skills while also minimizing any potential downsides.

In the last decade, three-dimensional (3D) printing has allowed the field of complex microfluidic channels to expand rapidly towards channels with variable cross-sections (i.e., beyond simple rounded media with a constant diameter) and channels. Whose trajectory can be outside a single plane and has gained numerous macro- and nanoscale manufacturing advances. Three-dimensional printing is being explored for various biomedical applications and the fabrication of nanomedicines using additive manufacturing techniques. Employing 3D-printed templates for macro-to-micro interfacing, a passively operated microfluidic device was designed. The research seeks to fabricate a biodevice that enables insulin microdosing, creating a subsystem like a microvalve and a microchannel matrix using additive manufacturing techniques. Our systems feature designs that enhance fluid dynamics without affecting the stability of the insulin. We propose using Humalog insulin in tropical climates (up to 30°C) without refrigeration for 28 days. The microvalve has a spiral trajectory with four outlet channels distributed along it. These channels align with the microchannels organized in a 10 mm x 15 mm matrix with 25 microchannels, each with a 770 µm internal diameter. The system delivers a dose of 2,3 mL in 6 minutes. We designed these systems for insulin micro-dosing, but they can also serve similar devices for other drugs.

Zn2+ has been implicated in the regulation of intestinal redox and microbial homeostasis, and we recently reported that transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) 6 channel activity contributes to intracellular Zn2+ homeostasis in mammalian cells. This study aims to investigate the role of TRPC6-mediated Zn2+ influx in stress resistance of intestine. Expression profile of TRPC1-C7 mRNAs in the actively inflamed mucosa from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients was analyzed using GEO database. Systemic TRPC3-knockout (KO) and TRPC6-KO mice were treated with dextran sulphate sodium (DSS) to induce colitis. The Zn2+ concentration and the mRNA expression levels of oxidative/inflammatory markers in colon tissues were quantitatively analyzed, and gut microbiota profiles were compared. TRPC6 mRNA expression level was increased in IBD patients and DSS-treated mouse colon tissues. DSS-treated TRPC6-KO mice, but not TRPC3-KO mice, showed severe weight loss and increased disease activity index compared with DSS-treated WT mice. The mRNA abundances of antioxidant proteins were basically increased in TRPC6-KO colon, with changes in gut microbiota profiles. Treatment with TRPC6 activator prevented the DSS-induced colitis progression accompanied by increasing Zn2+ concentration. We suggest that TRPC6-mediated Zn2+ influx activity plays a key role in stress resistance against IBD, providing a new strategy for treating colitis.

Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) channel is a non-selective cation channel, mostly permeable to calcium (Ca2+), which participates to intracellular Ca2+ handling in cardiac cells. It is widely expressed through the body and is activated by a large spectrum of physico-chemical stimuli, conferring it a role in a variety of sensorial and physiological functions. With-in the cardiovascular system, TRPV4 expression was reported in cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells (ECs) and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) where it modulates mitochondrial activity, Ca2+ ho-meostasis, cardiomyocytes electrical activity and contractility, cardiac embryonic development, fibroblast proliferation but also vascular permeability, dilatation and constriction. On the other hand, TRPV4 channels participate in several cardiac pathological processes such as development of cardiac fibrosis, hypertrophy, ischemia-reperfusion injuries, heart failure, myocardial infarc-tion, and arrhythmia. In this manuscript, we provide an overview of TRPV4 channel implica-tions in cardiac physiology and discuss the potential of TRPV4 channel as therapeutic target against cardiovascular diseases.

Next generation in-to-out-of body biomedical applications have adopted optical wireless communications (OWCs). However, by delving into the published literature, a gap is recognised in modeling the in-to-out-of channel, since most published contributions neglect the particularities of different type of tissues. Towards this direction, in this paper we present a novel pathloss and scattering models for in-to-out-of OWC links. Specifically, we derive extract analytical expressions that accurately describe the absorption of the five main tissues’ constituents, namely fat, water, melanin, oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood. Moreover, we formulate a model for the calculation of the absorption coefficient of any generic biological tissue. Next, by incorporating the impact of scattering in the aforementioned model we formulate the complete pathloss model. The developed theoretical framework is verified by means of comparisons between the estimated pathloss and experimental measurements from independent research works. Finally, we illustrate the accuracy of the theoretical framework in estimating the optical properties of any generic tissue based on its constitution. The extracted channel model is capable of boosting the design of optimized communication protocols for a plethora of biomedical applications.

The Casiquiare River is a natural channel that connects two of the greatest rivers in the world, the Orinoco and the Amazon in the South American Continent. The aim of this paper is to present a review and synthesis of the hydrological and sedimentological knowledge of the Casiquiare River, including the first hydro-sedimentary balance of the Casiquiare fluvial system conducted at the bifurcation and at the mouth on September 9-12, 2000, during the expedition ‘Humboldt-Amazonia 2000’. Bathymetric, flow discharge and physico-chemical measurements were made at the inlet and at the outlet of the Casiquiare Channel. The main conclusions of this study indicate that Casiquiare is taking a significant proportion of flow (20 to 30%) from the Upper Orinoco basin to the Amazon basin. Throughout its 356 km-course, this chameleon channel undergoes significant morphological, hydrological and bio-geochemical variations between the inlet and the outlet, whose most visible witnesses are the increase in its width (3 to 4 times), flow (7 to 9 times) and its change in water color (white to black water), under the influence of tributaries coming from vast forest plains.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel transfer learning regularization method based on knowledge distillation. Recently, transfer learning methods have been used in various fields. However, the problems such as knowledge loss still occur during the process of transfer learning to a new target dataset. To solve these problems, there are various regularization methods based on knowledge distillation techniques. In this paper, we propose a transfer learning regularization method based on feature map alignment used in the field of knowledge distillation. The proposed method is composed of two attention based submodules: self-pixel attention (SPA) and global channel attention (GCA). The self-pixel attention submodule utilizes both the feature maps of the source and target models, so that it provides an opportunity to jointly consider the features of the target and the knowledge of the source. The global channel attention submodule determines the importance of channels through all layers, unlike the existing methods that calculate these only within a single layer. Accordingly, transfer learning regularization is performed by considering both the internal of each single layer and the depth of the entire layer. Consequently, the proposed method using both of these submodules showed overall improved classification accuracy than the existing methods in classification experiments on commonly used dataset.

This paper addresses the problem of low accuracy of conventional channel estimation and signal detection in complex fields like mines; and the problem of replacing the deep receiver at the receiver side with a deep neural network requires a large amount of data for training and slow training time. Combining the receiver side with traditional communication knowledge, a channel estimation and signal detection method based on the joint ReEsNet and SDRNet under the mine is proposed. The detailed step is to use ReEsNet network for interpolation of conventional channel estimation. Then, on the basis of ReEsNet, the output data is channel equalized and pilots removed, and the previously processed data is input to SDRNet to perform signal recovery. In the complex mine environment, the MSE values are 2e-2 for LS, 6e-3 for MMSE, and 8.44e-5 for ReEsNet at the 1500th sample data for interpolation compared to the conventional channel estimation. the MSE of ReEsNet is the smallest and is closer to the real channel estimation. Compared with the proposed joint channel estimation and signal detection methods, fewer trainable parameters reduce 97% of the parameters compared to CCRNet and 84% of the parameters compared to CNNNet; their detection results, however, are not very different.

KV channel-interacting proteins (KChIPs) belong to a family of Ca2+-binding EF-hand proteins that are able to bind to the N-terminus of the KV4 channel α-subunits. As the auxiliary subunit, KChIPs are critically involved in regulating the amplitude and gating properties of KV4 channels by modulating their cell surface trafficking, voltage-dependent activation, inactivation kinetics, and recovery rate from inactivation. IKs, ICa,L, and INa can also be regulated by KChIPs. KChIPs are predominantly expressed in the brain and heart, where they contribute to the maintenance of the excitability of neurons and cardiomyocytes by modulating the KV4 currents. Interestingly, all KChIPs can act as transcription factors to control the expression of genes involved in pain, memory, and circadian regulation. Altered expression of KChIPs has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many diseases, such as arrhythmia, heart failure, Alzheimer's disease, etc. In this review, we summarize the research progress of KChIPs in their structural properties, physiological functions, and pathological roles in disease progression, and provide an overview of the therapeutic potential of KChIPs as pharmacological targets for associated disorders.

After cut by basecutter, sugarcane stalks are carried to a chopper by the basecutter and the feeding/conveying rollers train of harvester. However, the conventional feeding/conveying channels of sugarcane chopper harvesters, when harvesting seriously lodged sugarcane, have numerous drawbacks, including easy clogging, and poor adaptability. In order to resolve these problems, a novel design and layout method of feeding/conveying and chopping channel are proposed in the paper. And a chopper centrally-mounted channel is designed for a sugarcane chopper harvester as well, which has been implemented in the HN4GDL-91 harvester. The proposed channel consists of a feeding/conveying rollers train, a chopper, and a billet conveying device. By mounting the chopper between the feeding/conveying rollers train and the billets conveying device, the harvester can avoid the chopper chopping back the billets, thus improving the harvest quality. The feeding/conveying rollers train is designed with only a pair of feeding rollers and a pair of conveying rollers, achieving a short channel path. Moreover, the structure of the basecutter and the mechanism carrying stalks to feeding rollers are studied via theoretical analysis and tests. The relationship between the basecutter and the chopper centrally-mounted channel is also conducted in systematic analysis. The results of the theoretical analysis show that the inclination angle of the disc of basecutter should be 2° greater than the angle of the feeding conveying channel (both angles are from the horizontal plane). The inclination angle of the disc of basecutter should go from 10° to 15°. A field experiment with four factors and three levels indicates that the field loss rate is 2.45%, the feed quantity is 16.66 kg/s, and the qualified rate of the billets is 98.02%, while the number of sugarcane stalks in a clump, the ground speed of harvester the rotational speed of the chopper, and the rotational speed of feeding/conveying roller are 10, 1.09 m/s, 390 r/min, and 230 r/min, respectively. It is concluded that the proposed chopper centrally-mounted channel could improve the conveying and harvesting performance significantly.

EMG analysis is becoming increasingly important in many research and clinical applications, including muscle fatigue detection, control of robotic mechanisms and prostheses, clinical diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases and quantification of force. However, electromyographic signals can be contaminated by various types of noise, interference and artifacts, which can lead to misinterpretation of the data acquired using this method. Even assuming best practices, the collected signal may still be altered by such contaminants. The aim of this paper is to review methods employed to reduce contamination of single channel EMG signals. This review is limited to methods performed directly on the measured EMG signal and those that allow total reconstruction of the EMG signal. Subtraction methods used in the time domain, denoising methods performed after signal decomposition and hybrid methods are assessed. It is defended that individual methods may be more or less suitable for a particular application depending on contaminant(s) present in the signal and on the specific requirements of the application.

Deep convolutional neural network (CNN) has shown their great advantages in the single image deraining task. However, most existing CNN-based single image deraining methods still suffer from residual rain streaks and details lost. In this paper, we propose a deep neural network including the Multi-scale feature extraction module and the channel attention module, which are embed in the feature extraction sub-network and the rain removal sub-network respectively. In the feature extraction sub-network, the Multi-scale feature extraction module is constructed by a Multi-layer Laplacian pyramid, and is then integrated multi-scale feature maps by a feature fusion module. In the rain removal sub-network, the channel attention module, which assigns different weights to the different channels, is introduced for preserving image details. Experimental results on visually and quantitatively comparison demonstrate that the proposed method performs favorably against other state-of-the-art approaches

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dosimetric impact of multiple channels compared to a single channel in high dose rate (HDR) vaginal cuff brachytherapy (VCBT). Methods and materials: Sample plans of HDR VCBT from both single and multiple channel cylinders at 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 cm in diameter were created and analyzed. The doses were prescribed either at the 0.5 cm depth with 5.5 Gy for 4 fractions or at the cylinder surface with 8.8 Gy for 4 frac¬tions, in various treatment lengths ranging from 3 to 8 cm. A 0.5 cm ring target volume called PTV_Eval was contoured for each plan and served as the target volume for dosimetric evaluation. Mean doses and the doses covering 90% (D90), 10% (D10), and 5% (D5) of PTV_Eval were calculated and compared. The same treatment lengths, same prescription regimens, same target volume contouring and same plan evaluation methods were repeated for the similar size single channel and multiple channel cylinders. Results: The mean doses of both regimens with the multi-channel cases (6.3 to 7.1 Gy) were comparable to single channel ones (6.4 and 7.5 Gy). The ranges of D90, D10 and D5 were from 3.654 to 5.04 Gy, 8.44 to 10.08 Gy and 8.84 to 10.86 Gy in the multi-channel cases, but from 5.36 to 5.76 Gy, 7.40 to 9.97 Gy and 8.16 to 11.93 Gy in the single channel cases, respectively. Conclusion: The single channel and multiple-channel cylinder deliver a similar mean dose, but with marked heterogeneity in D90, D5 and D10 for the same prescription dose and target volume. Multi-channel cylinders adequately cover the target volume, but given the heterogeneity, increased treatment time and cost are best suited for asymmetric target volumes.

(1) Background: The Gárdos channel (KCNN4) and Piezo1 are the best-known ion channels in the red blood cell (RBC) membrane. Nevertheless, the quantitative electrophysiological behavior of RBCs and its heterogeneity are still not completely understood.; (2) Methods: Here we use state-of-the-art biochemical methods to probe for the abundance of the channels in RBCs. Furthermore, we utilize automated patch-clamp, based on planar chips, to compare the activity of the two channels in reticulocytes and mature RBCs. Besides this characterization, we performed membrane potential measurements to demonstrate the effect of channel activity and interplay on the RBC properties.; (3) Results: Both, Gárdos channel and Piezo1, albeit their average copy number of activatable channels per cell is in the single digit range, can be detected by transcriptome analysis of reticulocytes. Proteomics analysis of RBCs could only detect Piezo1 but not the Gárdos channel. Furthermore, they can be reliably measured in the whole-cell configuration of the patch-clamp method. While for the Gárdos channel the activity is higher in reticulocytes compared to mature RBCs, for Piezo1 the tendency is the opposite. While the interplay between Piezo1 and Gárdos channel cannot be followed using the patch-clamp measurements, it could be proved based on membrane potential measurements in populations of intact RBCs.; (4) Conclusions: We discuss the Gárdos channel and Piezo1 abundance, interdependencies and interactions in the context of their proposed physiological and pathophysiological functions, which are the passing of small constrictions, e.g., in the spleen, and their active participation in blood clot formation and thrombosis.

The synchronization of complex networks is believed to be closely related to network topology. How to study synchronization of real network without clear topology and parameters? In this Letter, a synchronized stability boundary equation is derived that is system- and disturbance-independent and applicable to arbitrarily coupled grids. The results imply that spontaneous synchronization in a network may be network independent. These conclusions provide new research paths for network synchronization and analyze the synchronization stability of grids in a unified way.

We discuss three key points: defining mathematically the notions of phase, symmetry breaking, topological defects and their stability in a formal language of homotopy theory and fiber bundle formalism; postulating and proving two theorems for successive symmetry breaking scenarios in condensed matter physics and cosmology, and demonstrating application of theorems to superfluid Helium 3 and Kibble-Lazarides-Shafi (KLS) walls, supporting and mathematically justifying the results of [Volovik, 2020].

An especially important species in southern Brazil, yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) is traditionally consumed as tea, chimarrão and tererê. Yerba mate consumption has been stimulated by scientific discoveries that have identified high concentrations of bioactive compounds and their health benefits. There are no studies or scientific evidence to certify or guarantee stability of these compounds’ concentrations during different years in the same plants. We were interested in quantifying caffeine, theobromine, total phenolic compounds and proteins concentrations in leaves of yerba mate genotypes and their stability in the same plants over four consecutive years. Mature leaves from yerba mate genotypes selected on a provenance and progenies trial were collected in August of 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Methylxanthines (caffeine and theobromine), total phenolic compounds and total protein contents were quantified. Our results indicate large variations between genotypes regarding caffeine (0.035 to 2.385 g 100 g^-1), theobromine (0.0004 to 1.772 g 100 g^-1), total phenolic compounds (7.028 to 9.424 g 100 g^-1) and proteins (10.39 to 16.58 g 100 g^-1) contents, and also high stability of those compounds over the four evaluated years. A great variation of the studied bioactive compounds in different Ilex paraguariensis genotypes was found and its stability over four consecutive years was showed.

Data obtained by Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of pressure-driven turbulent channel flow are studied in the range 180 ≤ Reτ≤ 10,000. Reynolds number effects on the Mean Velocity Profile (MVP) and second order statistics are analyzed with a view of finding logarithmic behavior in the overlap region or even further from the wall, well in the boundary layer’s outer region. Values of Kármán constant for the MVPs and the Townsend-Perry constants for the streamwise and spanwise fluctuation variances are determined for the Reynolds numbers considered. A data-driven model of the MVP, proposed and validated for zero pressure gradient flow over a flat plate, is employed for pressure-driven channel flow by appropriately adjusting Coles’ strength of the wake function parameter, Π. There is excellent agreement between the analytic model predictions of MVP and the DNS-computed MVP as well as of the Reynolds shear stress profile. The skin friction coefficient Cf is calculated analytically. The agreement between the analytical model predictions and the DNS-based computed discrete values of Cf is excellent.

Our study provides guidelines on how to build long-term customer relationship in the non-contract mechanism context. More specifically, the findings show that special, social, and core benefits influence calculative commitment, and operational and special benefits influence affective commitment. This study also supports that calculative and affective commitment play a crucial role in understanding multi-channel agencies’ loyalty. In sum, this study revealed that calculative and affective commitment can be considered as partial or full mediators in the relationship between RBs (relational benefits) and loyalty. This study not only contributed to the existing SET (social exchange theory) and RBs paradigm but also provided practical implications for food distribution management.

Microcombs provide a potential compact and efficient light source for multi-Terabit-per-second optical superchannels. However, as the bandwidth of these multi-wavelength light sources is increased, this can result in low per-line power. Optical amplifiers can be used to overcome power limitations, but the accompanying spontaneous optical noise can degrade performance in optical systems. To overcome this issue, we propose wideband noise reduction for comb lines using a high-Q microring resonator, whose resonances align with comb lines. When applying the proposed distillation to a superchannel system with 18 Gbaud, 64-QAM sub-channels in a > 10 Tb/s optical superchannel, we find that noise-corrupted comb lines can reduce the optical signal-to-noise ratio required for the comb by ~ 9 dB when used as optical carriers at the transmitter side, and by ~ 12 dB when used as a local oscillator at the receiver side.

This study investigates the long-term stability of the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) moderate-resolution Thermal Emissive Bands (M TEBs; M12 – M16) covering a period from February 2012 to August 2020. It also assesses inter-sensor consistency of the VIIRS M TEBs among three satellites-S-NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 over eight months spanning from March 18 to November 30, 2023. The field of interesting is limited to the ocean surface between 60°S and 60°N, specifically under clear-sky conditions. Taking radiative transfer modeling (RTM) as the transfer reference, we employed the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) to simulate VIIRS TEB brightness temperature (BTs), incorporating European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis data as inputs. Our results reveal two key findings. Firstly, the reprocessed S-NPP VIIRS TEBs exhibit a robust long-term stability, as demonstrated through analyses of the observation minus background BT differences (O-B ∆BTs) between VIIRS measurements (O) and CRTM simulations (B). The drifts of the O-B BT differences are consistently less than 0.105 K/Decade across all S-NPP VIIRS M TEB bands. Notably, observations from VIIRS M14 and M16 stand out with drifts well within 0.04 K/Decade, reinforcing their exceptional reliability for climate change studies. Secondly, excellent inter-sensor consistency among these three VIIRS instruments is confirmed through the double-difference analysis method (O-O). This method relies on the O-B BT differences obtained from daily data. The mean inter-VIIRS O-O BT differences remain within 0.08 K for all M TEBs, except for M13. Even in the case of M13, the O-O BT differences between NOAA-21 and NOAA-20/S-NPP have values of 0.312 K and 0.234 K, respectively, which are comparable to the 0.2 K difference between some TEBs among VIIRS and MODIS. These disparities are primarily attributed to the significant differences in the Spectral Response Function (SRF) of NOAA-21 compared to NOAA-20 and S-NPP. Our study confirms the RTM-based TEB quality evaluation method’s versatility and effectiveness in assessing long-term sensor stability and inter-sensor consistency. The double-difference approach effectively mitigates uncertainties and biases inherent to CRTM simulations, establishing itself a robust mechanism for assessing inter-sensor consistency. In addition, we’ve observed that, except for M13, M12 always exhibits larger spatial variations of O-O BT differences with greater uncertainties compared to the other M TEBs. The influence of solar contribution through sea surface reflection on the Top of Atmosphere (TOA) radiance measurements during daytime in M12 should not be underestimated.

In this paper, we investigate the “statics and dynamics” return and volatility spillovers transmission across developed and developing countries. Quoted against the U.S. dollar, we study twenty-three global currencies over 2005 – 2016. Focusing on the spillover index methodology, the generalised VAR framework is employed. Our findings indicate no evidence of bi-directional return and volatility spillovers between developed and developing countries. However, a unidirectional volatility spillover from developed to developing countries is highlighted. Furthermore, our findings document significant bi-directional volatility spillovers within the European region (Eurozone and non-Eurozone currencies) with the British Pound (GBP) and the Euro (EUR) as the most significant transmitters of volatility. The findings reiterate the prominence of volatility spillovers to financial regulators.

As e-commerce services and Internet technology have rapidly developed in recent years, many services and applications integrating these technologies can now be completed online. These commercial activities include online auctions, online ticketing and online payments. The client shops from the store online, andthe store delivers the goods to the client. The goods can be divided into digital products without entities, as well as actual entities. If it is a physical product, the store will deliver the package to the client through itslogistics. However, there have been many cases of switched goods purchased by clients in recent years. Earlier, some scholars proposed a security mechanism with a subliminal channel for E-cash and digital content. Only the sender and the receiver would know that the secret information was hidden in the signature. So the privacy of this subliminal message couldbe ensured. We apply this concept to the logistics environment to design secure logistics architecture with subliminal messages. The client can check the subliminal message of the received package, and know whether the package has been switched by malicious people. In addition, the proposed scheme also applies sensor technology;the client can check the GPS location, the temperature and humidity at any time during the delivery process. So intelligent logisticswouldthereby be achieved. This paper proposes an intelligent and secure package sensoring logistics system based on a subliminal channel. The proposed architecture uses the related mechanisms tosolve the problems of a logistics system, including how to achieve mutual authentication, data integrity, anti-switch package, package location and status tracing, resisting replay attacks, forward and backward secrecy, and non-repudiation issues.

The segmentation and de-noising are basic operations, required in every signal processing and classification system. The classical segmentation and de-noising approaches are time-invariant. Consequently, it results in the post processing of an unnecessary information and causes an increase in the system processing activity and power consumption. In this context, an efficient event-driven segmentation and de-noising technique is proposed. It is founded on the principles of level crossing and activity selection. Therefore, it can adapt its sampling frequency, segmentation window length and position along with the filter order by analyzing the input signal local characteristics. As a result, the computational complexity and the power consumption of the proposed system is reduced compared to the counter ones. The suggested system performance is compared with the classical one. It is done for the case of a multi-channel Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Results show a noticeable compression gain with an effective adaptation of the de-noising filters order. It aptitudes a significant computational gain, transmission data rate reduction and power consumption reduction of the proposed technique, compared to the counter ones. It shows that the proposed solution is an attractive candidate to embed in the new generation EEG wearables.

This paper presents the design and implementation of a multichannel bio-impedance spectroscopy system on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). The proposed system is capable of acquiring multiple signals from multiple bio-impedance sensors, process the data on the FPGA and store the final data in the on-board Memory. The system employs the Digital Automatic Balance Bridge (DABB) method to acquire data from biosensors. The DABB measures initial data of a known impedance to extrapolate the value of the impedance for the device under test. This method offers a simpler design because the balancing of the circuit is done digitally in the FPGA rather than using an external circuit. Calculations of the impedance values for the device under test were done in the processor. The final data is sent to an onboard Flash Memory to be stored for later access. The control unit handles the interfacing and the scheduling between these different modules (Processor, Flash Memory) as well as interfacing to multiple Balance Bridge and multiple biosensors. The system has been simulated successfully and has comparable performance to other FPGA based solutions. The system has a robust design that is capable of handling and interfacing input from multiple biosensors. Data processing and storage is also performed with minimal resources on the FPGA.

Background. On the subject of couple relationships, the literature pays attention to clinical, socio-anthropological profiles and psychological issues related to the capacity to love, empathy, satisfaction and happiness; however, there is a lack of a psychometric tool that can address the issue of couple stability in a structured and organized manner from an emotional-affective perspective. Objectives. To develop and adjust a psychometric tool that can be efficient and effective in solving the analysis of a coefficient of couple relational stability. Materials and Methods. Clinical interview, based on narrative-anamnestic and documentary evidence, and battery of psychometric tests. Results. In CGa, those who scored more than 20% differential at PLS-Q1 were 58/118 (69%), while in CGb they were 118/118 (100%). In therapy, in the CGa, the resolved cases were 58/58 (100%), while in the CGb, the resolved cases were 110/118 (93%). At the clinical interview, it was found that the 8/118 (7%) "resistant" patients had, according to the PICI-3 model, a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (5/8, 63%), histrionic-narcissistic (2/8, 25%), and bipolar (1/8, 12%), and thus by their nature not very prone to therapeutic adherence. Conclusions. Perrotta Love Stability Questionnaire (PLS-Q1) is a psychometric tool that offers therapists the opportunity to explore the topic of couple relationship stability, helping them to better focus on patients' vulnerable emotional positions to construct the most appropriate and targeted clinical intervention

Space instable target simulator (SITS) is a vital actuator for ground verification of on-orbital capture technology, the motion performance of which directly affects simulation credibility. Different delays reduce the stability of SITS and ultimately lead to its divergence. In order to achieve high fidelity simulation, the impact of force measurement delay, discrete control cycle, and simulator response delay on stability is analyzed firstly. Then, the dynamic equation and transfer function identification model of hybrid simulator is constructed, and the necessary and sufficient conditions of its stability and convergence are obtained using the Routh criterion. After that, a switching compensator with variable gain is proposed, the compensation principle diagram of which is build, and its mathematical model including the energy observer and tracking differentiator is also established. Finally, three sets of numerical simulations are conducted to validate the correctness of the stability analysis and effectiveness of proposed compensation method. Simulation results show that all three types of delay can cause SITS to lose stability under critical stable motion state, and the delay in force measurement has the greatest impact, followed by the influence of control cycle. Compared with the force applied to simulated target, velocity and its recovery coefficient of space instable target using fixed gain and linear gain compensation, the proposed compensator has significantly better performance.

Nickel-based Superalloy Inconel 718 is widely used in the aerospace industry for its excellent high-temperature strength and thermal stability. However, milling Inconel 718 presents challenges due to significantly increased cutting force and vibration, which is a typical difficult-to-machine material. This paper focuses on the milling process of Inconel 718, establishing a milling force model to analyze the force trends under various processing parameters. Finite element analysis is employed to study the stress and temperature fields during milling. Dynamic equations for milling Inconel 718 are developed, and stability lobe diagrams are generated based on modal experiments. Milling experiments on Inconel 718 validate the milling force model and finite element analysis results. The fmincon optimization algorithm is utilized to identify the optimal machining parameters for Inconel 718. Through this research, valuable insights into enhancing the efficiency and quality of Inconel 718 machining are provided. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of Inconel 718 milling behavior, offering crucial guidance for more efficient machining processes.

This article aims to discuss, the stability and boundedness character of the solutions of the rational equation of the form \begin{equation}\label{eql21.1} y_{t+1}=\frac{\nu\epsilon^{-y_t}+\delta\epsilon^{-y_{t-1}}}{\mu+\nu y_t+\delta y_{t-1}},\quad t\in N(0). \end{equation} Here, $\epsilon>1, \nu,\delta,\mu\in (0,\infty)$ and $y_0, y_1$ are taken as arbitrary non-negative reals and $N(a)=\{a,a+1,a+2,\cdots \}$. Relevant examples are provided to validate our results. The exactness is tested using MATLAB.

Immobilization of enzymes is a good field of study to expand the life of enzyme in and lowering the cost of the chemical processes such as separation processes. Urease is an important enzyme with medical and industrial applications. The aim of the present study is to prepare an immobilized urease on a strong cation exchange resin (Amberlite IR120 -Na) and study of its activity and stability. We monitored the liberation of Na ions in the collected fractions and searching for protein in the fractions as an indicators of immobilization by ion exchange phenomenon. Sodium is measured using atomic absorption spectroscopy techniques, while protein tested by Bradford’s method. Immobilized urease activity was evaluated by salicylate-hypochlorite method. The results indicated a complete immobilization of urease enzyme on the resin surface with reserving 92% of the activity of free enzyme. The immobilized urease enzyme on resin showed good stability and it has a 62% of its activity after 154 days of storage at room temperature. It is concluded that a new immobilized urease enzyme system is prepared with good enzyme activity and stability.

In this paper, we investigate the equilibrium points of following a system of difference equations x_n+1 = x_n 2y_n−1, y _n+1 = y_n 2x_n−1. We also study the asymptotic stability of related system of difference equations. Further we examine the periodic solutions of related system with period two. Additionally, we find out the invariant interval and periodic cycles of related system of difference equations.

The paper presents an innovative hexapod walking robot built with 3-UPU parallel mechanism. In the robot, the parallel mechanism is used as both an actuator to generate walking and also a connecting body to connect two groups of three legs, thus enables the robot to walk with simple gait by very few motors. In the paper, the forward and inverse kinematics solutions are obtained. The workspace of the parallel mechanism is analyzed using limit boundary search method. The walking stability of the robot is analyzed, which yields the robot’s maximum step length. The gait planning of the hexapod walking robot is studied for walking on both flat and uneven terrains. The new robot, combining the advantages of parallel robot and walking robot, has a large carrying capacity, strong passing ability, flexible turning ability, and simple gait control for its deployment for uneven terrain.

Many approaches have been developed over time to counter the bioavailability limitations of poorly soluble drugs. With advances in nanotechnology in recent decades, science and industry have been approaching this issue through the formulation of drugs as nanocrystals, which consist of pure drugs and a minimum of surface active agents required for stabilization. They are carrier-free submicron colloidal drug delivery systems with a mean particle size in the nanometer range, typically between 10 and 800 nm. By reducing particle size to nanoscale, the particle surface area available for the molecule dissolution in the direction of dissolution medium is increased, and thus bioavailability is enhanced. This approach has proven successful, as demonstrated by the number of such drug products on the market. R&D and industry have offered many technological solutions to reduce the particle size to nanoscale, and also devised solutions for the handling of particle of nanodimensions, such as methods to accurately measure nanoparticle size and techniques to prevent physicochemical and stability related problems, such as aggregation. The present work provides an overview of the more recent achievements in improving the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs according to their administration route, and describes the methods developed to overcome physicochemical and stability related problems.

Novel high energy density materials N14 (1,6-dihydro-1,2,3,3a,4,5,5a,6,7,8,8a,9,10,10a-tetradecazapyrene) and N18 (1,2,2a,3,4,4a,5,6,6a,7,8,8a,9,10,10a,11,12a-octadecazacoronene) were designed, and their structures, detonation performance and stabilities were calculated employing density functional theory (DFT). Calculations reveals that they have a good balance between high energy and stability. Their energy gaps between LUMO and HOMO are all lower than that of TATB, while their impact sensitivity h_50% is estimated close to that of RDX. Concerning energy, detonation performance of the N14 (P = 43.6 GPa, D = 10040 m/s, Q = 2214 cal/g) and the N18 (P = 37.4 GPa, D = 9400 m/s, Q = 2114 cal/g) are comparable to CL-20.

Recently, deep learning models have been widely applied to modulation recognition, which have become a hot topic due to their excellent end-to-end learning capabilities. However, current methods are mostly based on uni-modal inputs, which suffer from incomplete information and local optimization. To complement the advantages of different modalities, we focus on the multi-modal fusion method. Therefore, we introduce an iterative dual-scale attentional fusion (iDAF) method to integrate multimodal data. Firstly, two feature maps with different receptive field sizes are constructed using local and global embedding layers. Secondly, the feature inputs are iterated into the Iterative Dual Scale Attention Module (iDCAM), where the two branches capture the details of high-level features and the global weights of each modal channel, respectively. The iDAF not only extracts the recognition characteristics of each specific domains, but also complements the strengths of different modalities to obtain a fruitful view. Our iDAF achieves a recognition accuracy of 93.5\% at 10dB and 0.6232 at full SNR. The comparative experiments and ablation studies effectively demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the iDAF.

This paper presented a two-dimensional, well-balanced hydrodynamic and sediment transport model based on the solutions of variable density shallow water equations (VDSWEs) for sediment-laden flows, and the Exner equation for bed changes. Those equations are solved in a coupled way by the first-order Godunov-type finite volume method. The Harten-Lax-van Leer-Contact (HLLC) Riemann solver is extended to find the local Riemann fluxes in order to maintain the exact balance between the momentum term and the bed slope term. The advantage of a well-balanced scheme over an unbalanced scheme is demonstrated by the synthetic standing contact-discontinuity test case. Then, the model is employed to simulate two laboratory experiments. At last, a field case, the 1996 Lake Ha! Ha! flood event (Canada), is simulated. Results of cross sectional geometries and profiles of longitudinal thalweg agree well with measurements. The accuracy and simplicity of the numerical model, together with the robust implementation, make the model a good candidate for practical engineering applications.

Plankton monitoring by microscopy offers long-term ecological perspective of plankton communities but is biased towards those organisms that can be distinguished using the microscope. Genetic identification of marine plankton has become standard but is still not used. This study is a comprehensive study genetically measured taxa in the Western Channel of UK using a small-volume automated water sampler deployed on the CPR platform. The study present one year of high-throughput sequencing data focussing on smaller plankton and separate community to that measured by microscopy that can complement each other for a holistic view of plankton. Quantitative tests of two harmful algae show relatively high abundance of the Pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens during 2011 with low nitrite levels. Three years of Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima quantitative monitoring also shows a greater abundance of this potentially harmful taxa in 2011. Flow cytometry reveals distinct seasonal cycles with distinct timings.

To realize precise control of the quantum dots (Qdots) device, multi-channel precision bias source plays the key role. In this paper, the 16-channel high precision bias source with 18-bit resolution for Qdots device was designed. The prototype was made and its performance was tested. The short time fluctuations can reach 50μV. The step response time is less than 3μs. The resolution, stability, linearity and dynamic range of the bias source exhibits good performance. What's more, the bias source can be controlled locally and online. The results show that it is one effective and feasible topology for experiments in Qdots device application.

Flood routing in flood forecasting issue, calculation the height of flood bands, determining the river boundaries, and estimation of protective facilities for flood –exposed building is applicable. In many cases, due to the lack of measuring stations, the status of the upstream flood generating hydrograph is not known. The purpose of this study is to present an integrated method comprising of an optimization model and a hydrodynamic numerical model for flood modeling to determine the upstream hydrograph using the provided hydrograph at the downstream measuring station of a river. The routing procedure consists of three steps: (1) generating a hypothetical upstream hydrograph using genetic algorithm method; (2) hydrodynamic modeling using a numerical simulation model for flood routing according to the hypothetical hydrograph which is generated in the first step; (3) compare the calculated and observed hydrograph in downstream by using a fitness function. This recommended procedure was named as Reverse Flood Routing Method (RFRM) and was then applied to Karun River, the largest river in Iran. Comparing the generated upstream hydrograph by the RFRM model with the corresponding measured hydrograph at Ahvaz hydrometric station, as an ungauged river location, shows the high accuracy of the recommended model in this study.

This paper proposes the use of compressive sensing to tackle the Massive MIMO channel estimation problem. As our results show compressive sensing-based estimators perform as well as the optimum MMSE estimator.

In this paper, spatial pulse position modulation (SPPM) is used as a case study to investigate the performance of the optical spatial modulation (SM) technique in outdoor atmospheric turbulence (AT). A closed-form expression for the upper bound on the asymptotic symbol error rate (SER) of SPPM in AT is derived and validated by closely-matching simulation results. The error performance is evaluated in weak to strong AT conditions. As the AT strength increases from the weak to strong, the channel fading coefficients become more dispersed and differentiable. Thus, a better error performance is observed under moderate-to-strong AT compared to weak AT. The performance in weak AT can be improved by applying unequal power allocation to make FSO links more distinguishable at the receiver. Receive diversity is considered to mitigate irradiance fluctuation and improve the robustness of the system to turbulence-induced channel fading. The diversity order is computed as half of the number of detectors. Performance comparisons, in terms of energy and spectral efficiencies, are drawn between the SPPM scheme and conventional MIMO schemes such as repetition coding and spatial multiplexing.

This study investigates the electrical characteristics observed in n- channel and p-channel ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) devices fabricated through a similar process flow with 10 nm of ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (HZO) as the gate dielectric. The n-FeFETs demonstrate a faster complete polarization switching compared to the p-channel counterparts. Detailed and systematic investigations using TCAD simulations reveal the role of fixed charges and interface traps at the HZO-interfacial layer (HZO/IL) interface in modulating the subthreshold characteristics of the devices. A characteristic crossover point observed in the transfer characteristics of n-channel devices is attributed with the temporary switching between ferroelectric-based operation to charge-based operation, caused by the pinning effect due to the presence of different traps. This experimental study helps understand the role of charge trapping effects in switching characteristics of n- and p-channel ferroelectric FETs.

The combination of e-commerce and the green economy allows enterprises to distribute their green products directly to consumers through Internet channels. This paper investigates the impact of service spillovers on emission reduction and channel decisions in a two-echelon supply chain,in which the supplier is a Stackelberg leader and the retailer is a follower.By comparing the equilibrium outcomes of the single-channel and dual-channel supply chain in a setting with and without retail services, we observe that the supplier prefers to encroach on the market when services that retail locations provide largely spillover to and benefit the direct sales channel. Contrary to popular belief, a higher degree of service spillovers is beneficial for the retailer to get more returns under the dual-channel structure, whereas supplier encroachment will lead to a decline in the service level if the spillover degree is relatively low. In addition, the emission reduction level of products under supplier encroachment is always higher than that employed in the single-channel structure if consumers have both low-carbon preference and high degree of service sensitivity. Furthermore, we extend the equilibrium decisions under a carbon cap-and-trade (CCT) mechanism; the results fully verify the above conclusions. Interestingly, the implementation of a carbon price not only motivates carbon emission abatement and supplier encroachment, but also helps achieve a win-win outcome for supply chain members when service spillovers happen.

Nowadays, considering the growing tendency of companies towards e-commerce as well as green production, and dual-channel green supply chain management has become particularly important. This paper investigates pricing decisions within a dual-channel green supply chain framework while considering the capital constraints faced by risk-averse manufacturer. Simultaneously, the impact of the degree of risk aversion, consumer green preferences, and channel preferences on the optimal decision-making process of green supply chain members is analyzed. We address the issue of financial constraints faced by manufacturer through bank loans and trade credit financing and compare the two cases. Our findings illustrate that trade credit financing outperforms bank loan financing in the dual-channel green supply chain. Moreover, pricing decisions under different models are influenced by consumer preferences and risk aversion. Specifically, the greenness of the product, wholesale price, and sale price exhibit negative correlations with manufacturers' risk aversion but positive correlations with consumer preferences.

Renewable nanocellulose materials received increased attention owing to their small dimensions, high specific surface area, high mechanical characteristics, biocompatibility, and compostability. Nanocellulose coatings are among many interesting applications of these materials to functionalize different by composition and structure surfaces, including plastics, polymer coatings, and textiles with broader applications from food packaging to smart textiles. Variations in porosity and thickness of nanocellulose coatings are used to adjust a load of functional molecules and particles into the coatings, their permeability, and filtration properties. Mechanical stability of nanocellulose coatings in a wet and dry state are critical characteristics for many applications. In this work, nanofibrillated and nanocrystalline cellulose coatings deposited on the surface of polymer films and textiles made of cellulose, polyester, and nylon are studied using atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, and T-peel adhesion tests. Methods to improve coatings adhesion and stability using physical and chemical cross-linking with added polymers and polycarboxylic acids are analyzed in this study. The paper reports on the effect of the substrate structure and ability of nanocellulose particles to intercalate into the substrate on the coating adhesion.

Drug nanosuspensions offer a promising approach to improve bioavailability for poorly soluble drug candidates. Such formulations often necessitate the inclusion of an excipient to stabilize the drug nanoparticles. However, a rationale to choose the correct excipient for a given drug candidate remains unclear. To gain molecular insight into formulation design, this work first utilizes molecular dynamics simulation to computationally investigate drug-excipient interactions for a number of combinations that have been previously studied experimentally. We find that hydrophobic interactions drive excipient adsorption to drug nanoparticles, and that the fraction of polar surface area serves as a predictor for experimental measurements of nanosuspension stability. To test these ideas prospectively, we applied our model to an uncharacterized drug compound, GDC-0810. Our simulations predicted that salt forms of GDC-0810 would lead to more stable nanosuspensions than the neutral form; therefore, we tested the stability of salt GDC-0810 nanosuspensions and found that the salt form readily formed nanosuspensions even without excipient. To avoid computationally expensive simulations in the future, we extended our model by showing that simple, two-dimensional properties of the single drug molecule can be used to rationalize nanosuspension design without simulation. In all, our work demonstrates how computational tools can provide molecular insight into drug-excipient interactions, and aid in rational formulation design.

In this paper, it is proved that s-iteration with error and Picard-Mann iteration with error iterative processes converge strongly to the unique fixed point of Lipschitzian strongly pseudo-contractive map. This convergence is almost -stable and -stable. Applications of these results to the operator equations, where is a strongly accretive and accretive mappings of into itself.

We previously showed that feeding mice a diet containing 1% mantle tissue decreased food consumption, leading to death. We also isolated and identified toxic substances in the mantle tissue. In the present study, we investigated the characteristics and stability of mantle tissue toxicity. Treatment of mantle tissue with 1 mM HCl, 1 mM NaOH, 1 mM dithiothreitol, and 1 mM H2O2 and heating did not reduce the toxicity of mantle tissue in mice. These results suggest that mantle toxins are stable in tissues, particularly when exposed to acidic and digestive enzymes. We examined whether mantle tissue exhibited acute toxicity. Diets containing 1% and 20% mantle extract showed similar levels of toxicity, demonstrating that feeding of mantle tissue does not lead to acute toxicity. Finally, we examined the toxicity of the mantle tissue against small intestinal tissue. Chronic feeding of mantle tissue to mice changed the color of the small intestine. Real-time PCR analysis showed that mantle tissue feeding caused changes of inflammation and endoplasmic reticulum stress markers in the small intestine. These results suggest that feeding of mantle tissue causes toxicity after causing initial damage to the small intestinal tissue.

3D metal nanostructures are often the basis of several applications such as in catalysis, plasmonics, medical diagnosis, therapy, drug screening, ophthalmologic, and biomedical applications. Porous gold nanoparticles (PGNs) are intensively investigated due to their outstanding morphological as well as advantageous optical properties. Unfortunately, the thermal stability of these open-porous structures is poor, i.e. even as a result of low-temperature annealing (150$^\circ$C in air), their porosity disappears and they lose their favorable optical properties. In order to preserve their beneficial properties, a thin metal oxide coating can be applied. Changing the coating's thickness and/or composition, the optical response of the PGNs can also be tuned in a wide wavelength region. Moreover, these nanoparticles can be synthesized also in support-free form, which makes them more attractive from an application point of view. This review article summarizes some of the preparation modes of these complex nanostructures (fixed and support-free), as well as their thermal stability and optical responses.

Cream cheese presents a favorable environment for the growth of pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. The antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of plant extracts are well known, but their use is limited because they affect the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of products. Encapsulation presents an option to limit or prevent these changes. The paper presents the composition of individual polyphenols (HPLC–DAD-ESI-MS) from basil extracts (BE) with significant antioxidant activity (644.75±21.37 mM Trolox/g DW) and inhibitory effect against strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Geobacillus stearothermophilus, Bacillus cereus, Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, and Salmonella Abony. The basil extract was encapsulated in sodium alginate (Alg) using the drop technique. The encapsulation efficiency of microencapsulated basil extract (MBE) was 78.59±0.01%. SEM and FTIR analyzes demonstrated the existence of weak physical interactions between the components. In the optimal concentration range of 0.6-0.9% MBE determined the inhibition of the post-fermentation process and the improvement of the degree of water retention. This led to the improvement of the textural parameters of the cream cheese, contributing to the extension of the shelf life of the product by 7 days. The influence of storage period and MBE concentration on texture parameters, pH and sensory analysis (overall acceptability) were evaluated by mutual information analysis.

The stick-free flight stability is an old-fashioned and non-progressive issue; nevertheless, it is still existent, and of significant importance to the design of aircraft whose control system is reversible. The problem’s existence necessitates a deep assessment of stick-free flight stability throughout the aircraft design. Up to now, this problem has been addressed using either analytical approaches, which are only related to the static stability evaluation, or performing flight tests. In this study, the problem is handled in its entirety, from static and dynamic flight stability assessment to design criteria with a comprehensive perspective. Moreover, it is also exhibited that contrary to what has been generally proposed in the literature, limiting the problem of stick-free flight stability through static stability assessment is far from the main challenge. As a brief scope, the derivation of the control surface dynamics, a stick-free trim algorithm, and assessment rationale of the stick-free static and dynamic flight stability using a simulation approach are proposed. As a consequence, the aim is to set a broad understanding for designers related to this phenomenon and add adjunct design criteria in the design optimization process by approaching it in terms of modeling, simulation, and flight test perspective.

Pomegranate extract (PG-E) has been reported to exert a protective effect in skin due to its antioxidant activity. Ingredients rich in phenolic compounds are unstable in extract solutions and, therefore, the use of a suitable nanosystem to encapsulate this type of extract could be necessary in different biotechnological applications. Thus, we investigated the capacity of Brassica oleracea L. (cauliflower) inflorescence vesicles (CI-vesicles) to encapsulate PG-E and determined the stability and the antioxidant capacity of the system over time. In addition, the protective effect against UV radiation and heavy metals in HaCaT cells was also tested. The CI-vesicles had an entrapment efficiency around 50% and accelerated stability tests did not show significant changes in the parameters tested. The results for the HaCaT cells show the non-cytotoxicity of the CI-vesicles containing PG-E and their protection against heavy metals (lead acetate and mercuric chloride) and UV-B radiation through a reduction of oxidative stress. The reduction of the percentage of deleted mtDNA (mtDNA4977, “common deletion”) in UV-treated HaCaT cells due to the presence of CI-vesicles containing PG-E indicates the mechanism of protection. Therefore, the effects of CI-vesicles loaded with PG-E against oxidative stress support their utilization as natural cosmeceuticals to protect skin health against external damage from environmental pollution and UV radiation.