Diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) has been employed in the sulfide ore flotation process, due to its excellent collection performance. Herein, we investigated the interfacial adsorption behavior of DDTC on four mineral phases of high-sulfur residue — sulfur, pyrite, sphalerite and lead sulfate. The adsorption behavior — adsorption structure and energy and electron localization function cross section — of DDTC and H2O were explored using density function theory calculation. The result was helpful to construct a co-adsorption model of DDTC and H2O, which was validated by the pure minerals flotation operation and the characterization of fourier transform infrared spectra. The co-adsorption model indicated that the DDTC adsorption on the sulfur, sphalerite and lead sulfate was weak with physical bonding, while its adsorption on the pyrite was strong with chemical bonding. Practical bench-scale operation of high-sulfur residue flotation was performed, whose result was different from that obtained from the pure mineral flotation. To explain the difference, our developed model predictions and the mineral fugacity pattern analysis on the high-sulfur residue flotation were synergistically used. Overall, this work first proposed the co-adsorption model of DDTC and H2O and provided important insights into the interfacial adsorption in the high-sulfur residue flotation.

The emergence of various electronic devices and equipment such as electric vehicles and drones requires higher energy density energy storage devices. Lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) are considered as the most promising new generation energy storage system owing to high theoretical specific capacity and energy density. However, the severe shuttle behaviors of soluble lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and the slow redox kinetics lead to low sulfur utilization and poor cycling stability, which seriously hinder the commercial application of LSBs. Therefore, various catalytic materials have been employed to solve these troublesome problems. High entropy materials (HEMs), as advanced materials, can provide unique surface and electronic structures that expose plentiful catalytic active sites, which opens new ideas for the regulation of LiPSs redox kinetics. Notwithstanding many instructive reviews in the land of LSBs, while this review aims to offer a complete and shrewd summary of the current progresses in HEMs-based LSBs, including in-depth interpretation of design principles and mechanistic electrocatalysis functions as well as pragmatic perspectives.

This study evaluated batch fermentation modes, namely, separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF), Quasi-simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (Q-SSF), and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), and fermentation conditions, i.e., enzyme and yeast loadings, nutrient supplementation and sterilization, on high titer bioethanol production from SPORL-pretreated Douglas-fir forest residue without detoxification. The result indicated Q-SSF and SSF were obviously superior to SHF operation in terms of ethanol yield. The enzyme loading showed a strong positive correlation between enzyme loading and the ethanol yield. The nutrient supplementation and sterility was not necessary for ethanol production from SPORL-pretreated Douglas-fir. The yeast loading showed no significant influence on the ethanol yield for typical SSF conditions. The terminal ethanol titer of 43.2 g/L, or 75.1% theoretical based on glucose, mannose, and xylose theoretical was achieved when SSF was conducted at the condition of following: whole slurry solids loading of 15%, enzyme loading of 20 FPU/g glucan, 1.8 g/kg (wet) yeast loading, without nutrition supplementation and sterilization, at 38°C, on shake flask at 150 rpm for 96h. It is believed that with mechanical mixing, enzyme loading can be substantially reduced with affect ethanol yield by using a long fermentation time.

Effects of oxygen content on microstructure and creep property of FGH96 superalloy were investigated. When oxygen content increased from 135ppm to 341ppm, prior particle boundary (PPB) rose from degree 2 to degree 3, and the size of γ′ phase on PPB enlarged from 1.07μm to 1.27μm, and MC carbide size grew from 77.4nm to 104.0nm. Meanwhile, the steady creep rate accelerated form 4.34×10-3 h-1 to 1.87×10-2 h-1, and the creep rupture life shortened from 176h to 94h, and the creep rupture mode transferred from intergranular and transgranular mixed fracture to along PPB fracture. During creep, the micro-twins formation and gliding will be restrained by ∑3 boundaries. FGH96 superalloy with higher oxygen content contains less ∑3 boundaries and its micro-twins cross slipped instead of single direction slip in lower oxygen content superalloy. Consequently, specimen with higher oxygen content creeped faster and raptured earlier.

This paper presents a new semi-explicit algorithm for parameters estimation in a time-fractional generalization of dual-phase-lag heat conduction model with the Caputo fractional derivatives. It is shown that this model can be derived from a general linear constitutive relation for the heat transfer by conduction when the heat conduction relaxation kernel contains the Mittag-Leffler function. The model can be used to describe heat conduction phenomena in a material with power-law memory. The proposed algorithm of parameters estimation is based on the time integral characteristics method. The explicit representations of the thermal diffusivity and the fractional analogues of the thermal relaxation time and the thermal retardation are obtained via a Laplace transform of the temperature field and utilized in the algorithm. An implicit relation is derived for the order of fractional differentiation. In the algorithm, this relation is resolved numerically. An example illustrates the proposed technique.

The B169L protein (pB169L) of African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a structural protein with an unidentified function during the virus replication. The sequences of the B169L gene and the downstream B438L gene are separated by short intergenic regions. However, the regulatory mode of the gene transcription remains unknown. Here, we identified two distinct promoter regions and two transcription start sites (TSS) located upstream of the open reading frame (ORF) of B438L. Using the promoter reporter system, we demonstrated that the cis activity of the ORF proximal promoter exhibited significantly higher levels compared with that of the distal promoter located in the B169L gene. Furthermore, transfection with the plasmids with two different promoters for B438L could initiate the transcription and expression of the B438L gene in HEK293T cells, and the cis activity of the ORF proximal promoter also displayed the higher activities compared with the distal promoter. Interestingly, the B438L distal promoter also initiated the transcription of the alternatively spliced B169L mRNA (B169L mRNA2) encoding a truncated pB169L (tpB169L) (amino acids 92–169), and the gene transcription efficiency was increased upon mutation of the initiation codon located upstream of the alternatively spliced B169L gene. Taken together, we demonstrated that the distal promoter of B438L gene initiates the transcription of both the B438L mRNA and B169L mRNA2. Comprehensive analysis of the transcriptional regulatory mode of the B438L gene is beneficial for the understanding of the association of B438L protein and pB169L and the construction of the gene-deleted ASFV.

The domestic ducks (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) are resistant to most of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) infections. In this study, we characterized the lung proteome and phosphoproteome of ducks infected with HPAI H5N1 virus (A/duck/India/02CA10/2011/Agartala) at 12 hr, 48 hr and 5 days post infection condition. Total 2082 proteins were differentially expressed and 320 phosphorylation sites mapping to 199 phosphopeptides corresponding to 129 proteins were identified. Functional annotation of proteome data analysis reveals activation of RIG-I-like receptor and Jak-STAT signaling pathways, that lead to induction of interferon stimulated genes (ISGs) expression. The pathway analysis of phosphoproteome datasets also confirms the activation of RIG I, Jak-STAT signaling, NF-kappa B signaling and MAPK signaling pathways in the lung tissues. The induction of ISGs proteins (STAT1, STAT3, STAT5B, STAT6, IFIT5 and PKR) establishes protective antiviral immune response in duck lung tissue. Further, the protein-protein interaction network analysis identified proteins like AKT1, STAT3, JAK2, RAC1, STAT1, PTPN11, RPS27A, NFKB1 and MAPK1 as main hub proteins that might play important roles in disease progression in ducks. Together, functional annotation of proteome and phosphoproteome datasets reveals the molecular basis of the disease progression and disease resistance mechanism in ducks infected with HPAI H5N1 virus.

Microscopic vision plays an important role in automated micro-assembly. However, some uncertain factors in the assembly process, such as occlusion and stains can lead to the mistakes of feature extraction. Herein, to solve the problem, the deep learning techniques are introduced into the feature recognition tasks, focusing on the attention mechanism and visualizing CNNs for DL-based microscopic vision. The main contributions are summarized as follows: The CBAM attention mechanism is combined with the YOLOv5 algorithm to improve the accuracy and robustness of feature extraction. The micropart feature occlusion experiment results show that at 70% occlusion degree, YOLOV5-CBAM can reach 97.9% [email protected], which is 4.6% higher than the original one. Visualization analysis of DL-based model is conducted using Grad-CAM to make the decision result more transparent and avoid potential visual detection risks during assembly. The heatmap matching degree between GT area and high-light area is increased by 27.81% on average, which further verify the effectiveness of attention mechanism in micropart feature localization. Additionally, micropart surface stain and droplet quality classification models based on ResNet50 are trained to replace the manual sorting. The visual results are consistent with human eye discernment and judgement, confirming the reliability of parts and droplets sorting.

Various types of electroconductive additives were evaluated for high C-rate capability in an attempt to extend practical application of high-areal-capacity lithium–sulfur batteries that employ an aluminum-foam current collector. Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were found to be the most effective additive, with the ability to attain a high-sulfur-loading of 40 mg cm−2. A CNF-containing cell exhibited gravimetric capacities of 1094 and 758 mAh gsulfur−1 (46.8 and 32.4 mAh cm−2) at 0.05 and 0.1 C-rate, respectively, in an ether-based electrolyte. Because a CNF-containing slurry exhibits low viscosity even at a high solid ratio, it could be filled into the aluminum foam. Additionally, a lithium–sulfur battery with high-sulfur-loading had an energy density of ~120 Wh kg−1, a value that was calculated from the weight of the components of the cathode, anode, current collectors, electrolyte, and separator. Assuming that the amount of electrolyte decreases and that the energy density of cells accumulate, a theoretical energy density of 522 Wh kg−1 was estimated. Moreover, it was found that even if a high-areal-capacity was achieved, the discharge capacity converged at a high C-rate, unless there was an improvement in ion diffusion in the bulk electrolyte. This is considered a limitation of sulfur cathodes with high-sulfur-loading.

Bauxite residue (BR), also known as red mud, is a by-product of the production of alumina via the Bayer process. Because of the high sodium oxide and other impurities content, this material is not used to obtain iron or other iron-containing products. In this paper, the hydro-chemical conversion of goethite (FeOOH) to magnetite (Fe3O4) in high-iron BR from the Friguia alumina refinery (Guinea) by Fe2+ ions in highly concentrated alkaline media was studied. The simultaneous extraction of Al and Na made it possible to obtain a product containing more than 96% Fe3O4. The results show that the magnetization of Al-goethite and Al-hemetite accelerates the dissolution of the Al from the iron mineral solid matrix and from the desilication product (DSP). After ferrous sulfate (FeSO4·7H2O) was added directly at the FeO:Fe2O3 molar ratio of 1:1 at 120 °C for 150 min in the solution with the 360 g L-1 Na2O concentration, the alumina extraction ratio reached 96.27% for the coarse bauxite residue size fraction (Sands) and 87.06% for fine BR obtained from red mud. The grade of iron (total iron in the form of iron element) in the residue can be increased to 69.55% for Sands and 58.31% for BR. The solid residues obtained after leaching were studied by XRD, XRF, TG-DTA, VSM, Mössbauer spectroscopy and SEM to evaluate the conversion and leaching mechanisms and the recovery ratio of Al from different minerals. The iron-rich residues can be used in the steel industry or as a pigment.

The Eastern Kunlun Fault Zone (EKFZ) is located in a seismic blank area. This study investigates the hydrogeochemical characteristics of varied-temperature springs in the EKFZ to understand the relationship between fractures, fluids and earthquakes. It aids in establishing their induction mechanisms and assists in monitoring the earthquake precursors of the EKFZ. In this study, the main elements, trace elements, hydrogen and oxygen isotopes and strontium isotopes of 23 varied-temperature springs in the EKFZ were analyzed. The results reveal the source of groundwater recharge, hydrochemical types, mineral saturation, and for a select few springs indicative of geothermal activity, collected geothermal reservoir temperatures. The study also explores the relationship between earthquakes and springs, identifying sensitive chemical indicators. Based on continuous monitoring at Maqu Station, we found that before the occurrence of the Maerkang Ms 6.0 earthquake, the concentration of Cl− rose by 2.9 times, and 46 days before the Gande earthquake (Ms = 4.7), the concentrations of Na+ and SO42− significantly increased. Finally, a conceptual model of the hydrogeochemistry of springs is presented to describe the groundwater circulation in the study area. This research is of great significance for the analysis of fluid geochemistry in this area and for assessing the seismic hazards of the EKFZ.

Iron is an essential nutrient and necessary for biological functions from DNA replication and repair to transcriptional regulation, mitochondrial respiration, electron transfer, oxygen transport, photosynthesis, enzymatic catalysis, and nitrogen fixation. However, due to iron’s propensity to generate toxic radicals which can cause damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids, multiple processes regulate uptake and distribution of iron in living systems. Understanding how intracellular iron metabolism is optimized and how iron is utilized to regulate other intracellular processes is important to our overall understanding of a multitude of biological processes. One of the tools that the cell utilizes to regulate a multitude of functions is ligation of the iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster cofactor. Fe-S clusters comprised of iron and inorganic sulfur are ancient components of living matter on earth that are integral for physiological function in all domains of life. Here we will explore the ways in which the cell utilizes Fe-S clusters to sense the intracellular environment and respond to maintain equilibrium.

Artificial intelligence (AI) driven language models have seen a rapid rise in development, deployment, and adoption over the last few years. This surge has sparked many discussions about their societal and political impact, including political bias. Bias is a crucial topic in the context of large models due to its far-reaching consequences on technology, politics, and society. It significantly influences public perception, decision-making, political discourse, and AI policy governance and ethics. This study investigates political bias through a comparative analysis of four prominent AI models: ChatGPT-4, Perplexity, Google Gemini, and Claude.Through a comprehensive analysis by systematically and categorically evaluating their responses to politically and ideologically charged tests and prompts, utilizing the Pew Research Center’s Political Typology Quiz, the Political Compass assessment, and ISideWith political party quiz, this study identifies significant ideological leanings and the nature of political bias within these models. The findings revealed that ChatGPT-4 and Claude exhibit a liberal bias, Perplexity is more conservative, while Google Gemini adopts more centrist stances. The presence of such biases underscores the critical need for transparency in AI development and the incorporation of diverse training datasets, regular audits, and user education to mitigate these biases. This analysis also advocates for more robust practices and comprehensive frameworks to assess and reduce political bias in AI, ensuring these technologies contribute positively to society and support informed, balanced, and inclusive public discourse, which will point towards neutrality.The results of this study add to the ongoing discourse about the ethical implications and development of AI models, highlighting the critical need to build trust and integrity in AI models. Additionally, future research directions have been outlined to explore and address the complex issue of bias in AI.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of Blazepod technology when incorporated with various training regimens on the essential elements of physical fitness in volleyball, such as agility, speed, visual response time, and vertical leap. Thirty-six participants (age :17.33±0.48 y, height: 183.78±6.34 cm, weight: 77.14±5.16 kg) were in-volved in this study. In randomized design, three equal groups with two experimental groups and one control group were involved in the study over a period of six weeks: (GE1) used Blazepod technology to workout at a low level; (GE2) used Blazepod technology to workout at a higher intensity; (CG) did not employ Blazepod technology, but it adhered to the same fundamental training curriculum. We conducted agility, speed, reaction time, and vertical jump tests before, midway and after the study to determine optimal training volume, intensity, and frequency. A significant main effect of time (P0.01), and time×group interaction (P>0.001) were found for all tests. Post hoc test showed that the two experimental groups gadget significantly improved in all performance variables (P

The numerical simulation of entropy generation at mixed natural free and forced convection flow in a square lid-driven cavity filled with an eletrically conducting binary fluids saturated porous media in the presence of a magnetic field is performed in this investigation. Both the top and bottom horizontal walls of the cavity are kept at constant and different temperatures while the left and right vertical walls are adiabatic and insulated. The magnetic field is applied in normal direction to the cavity. The Darcy model, including Brinkman term relative to viscous effects and Forchheimer term due to inertial forces, is used for the momentum equations, and the SIMPLER algorithm, based on the control volume finite-element method approach is used to solve the pressure –velocity coupling. The flow pattern and the heat transfer characteristics inside the cavity are presented in the form of isotherms, streamlines and isentropic lines and average Nusselt number trend. The entropy generation rate is determined for various values of Darcy number (10^-3 ≤ Da ≤ 1) and for a range of Hartmann number (0 ≤ Ha ≤ 10²). This study is limited to Pr = 7 which corresponds to water. It is observed that entropy generation is very affected by the variations of dimensionless control parameters considered.

The management of brain tumors presents numerous challenges, despite the employment of multimodal therapies including surgical intervention, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Owing to the distinct location of brain tumors and the presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), these tumors exhibit considerable heterogeneity and invasiveness at a histological level. Recent advancements in hydrogel research for the local treatment of brain tumors have sought to overcome the primary challenge of delivering therapeutics past the BBB, thereby ensuring efficient accumulation within brain tumor tissues. This article elaborates on various hydrogel-based delivery vectors, examining their efficacy in the local treatment of brain tumors. Additionally, it reviews the fundamental principles involved in designing intelligent hydrogels that can circumvent the BBB and penetrate larger tumor areas, thereby facilitating precise, controlled drug release. Hydrogel-based drug delivery systems (DDSs) are posited to offer a groundbreaking approach in addressing the challenges and limitations inherent in traditional oncological therapies, which are significantly impeded by the unique structural and pathological characteristics of brain tumors.

Soccer is the leading cause of all sports-related ocular injuries in Europe and Israel and leads to blindness at a disproportionately high rate, especially among children (Thompson et al., 2019). With soccer being the most popular sport in the world, it is surprising the only solution to ocular injuries are sports glasses which can cause direct damage to the eye and impair peripheral vision by 15%, calling for an alternative (Smith & Jones, 2020). This work, based on an imported facial model, focuses on both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of building a personalized, low-cost (through optimizing material needed), superior apparatus to conventional sports glasses. The quantitative side examines a modified and model-validated (through a SRS of thirty unique extrapolated points) multivariate linear regression equation, based on horizontal and vertical rotation angles (n=60) trained with residual and computer simulation data, that can accurately extrapolate and quantify ocular impact from all horizontal and vertical rotation angles and a modified Hertzian Contact Stress Equation to determine the thickness of the apparatus using the elasticity modulus, impact force, and geometrical facial and soccer-ball features. The qualitative side examines where firstly, ocular impact is most prevalent, and secondly, where most impact is seen from rotating the ball horizontally and vertically through analysis of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient at the supraorbital, medial canthus, infraorbital, and lateral canthus regions from both regression equations as well as a cost-benefit analysis for comparison with conventional sports glasses. The findings discovered in this work lay the groundwork for future research to build a customized low-cost ocular injury prevention device which can simultaneously ensure complete ocular safety while enhancing athletic performance for over 250,000,000 players (Johnson & Garcia, 2022).

A comprehensive modeling framework for the thermoforming of polymer matrix woven laminate composite was developed. Two numerical indicators, the slip path length and traction magnitude, have been identified to be positively correlated to matrix smearing and wrinkling defects. The material model has been calibrated with picture-frame experimental results, and the prediction accuracy for intra-ply shear and thickness distribution were examined with measurements on the physically formed parts. Finally, a parametric study was conducted to determine the relationship between various process parameters and the quality of the formed part. For the trapezoidal part, orienting the laminate at 45-degrees to the mold axis reduces the likelihood of matrix smear and wrinkling defects. Although this laminate orientation yielded a greater spatial variation of part thickness, the thickness deviation is lower than that for the 0-degree orientation case. Higher forming rates were found to result in more defects due to increased slip path lengths and traction magnitudes. Optimal forming speeds should balance rapid shaping within the operating temperature window while avoiding tear. It was discovered that shallower molds benefit from faster ramp rates, while deeper molds require slower rates to manage extensive shearing, stretching, and bending. Faster forming rates lead to smaller thickness increases at high intra-ply shear regions, indicating a shift from intra-ply shear to out-of-plane bending due to the visco-plastic effect of the molten laminate, and can negatively impact part quality. Lastly, it was shown that a well-conceived strategy using darts could improve the part quality by reducing the magnitude of the defect indicators.

Ab initio density functional theory molecular dynamics extensive calculations were used for the first time to evaluate stability conditions for relevant phases of InN. In particular, thermal decomposition of InN with formation of N2 molecules and pressure induced wurtzite – rocksalt solid-solid phase transition were established. The results consistent with available experimental data allowed a critical evaluation of potential and limitations of the proposed simulation method. The ab initio molecular dynamics as an efficient tool for simulations of phase transformations of InN including solid-solid structural transition and thermal decomposition with formation of N2 molecules has been demonstrated. It is of high interest because InN being important component of epitaxial quantum structures has still not been obtained as a bulk single crystal making difficult a determination of its basic physical properties and designing new applications.

53% of adults in the US acknowledge racial bias as a significant issue, 23% of Asian adults experience cultural and ethnic bias, and more than 60% conceal their cultural heritage after racial abuse. AI models like ChatGPT and Google Bard, trained on historically biased data, inadvertently amplify racial and ethnic bias and stereotypes. This paper addresses the issue of racial bias in AI models using scientific, evidence-based analysis and auditing processes to identify biased responses from AI models and develop a mitigation tool. The methodology involves creating a comprehensive database of racially biased questions, terms, and phrases from thousands of legal cases, Wikipedia, and surveys, and then testing them on AI Models and analyzing the responses through sentiment analysis and human evaluation, and eventually creation of an 'AI-BiasAudit,' tool having a racial-ethnic database for social science researchers and AI developers to identify and prevent racial bias in AI models.

Isothermal interrupted hot compression tests of 5754 aluminum were conducted on Gleeble-3500 thermo-mechanical simulator at temperature 350 °C and 450 °C, strain rate 0.1 s-1 and 1s−1. These tests simulated flat rolling to investigate how softening behaviors respond to controlled parameters, such as deformation temperature, strain rate and delay times. This data allowed the parameters for the hot rolling process to be optimized. The delay times during interrupted compression vary between 5s and 60s. The dynamic softening at each pass and metadynamic recrystallization at the intervals of deformation passes were analyzed in detail. 0.2% offset yield strength is applied to calculate the softening fraction undergoing metadynamic recrystallization. A kinetic model was developed to describe metadynamic recrystallization behaviors of the hot deformed 5754 aluminum alloy. Furthermore, the time constant for 50% recrystallization was expressed as functions related to the temperature and the strain rate. The experimental and calculated results were found to be in close agreement, which verified the developed model.

Powdery mildew is a severe disease causing substantial yield losses in wheat production worldwide. The Chinese wheat landrace Changanhongmai (CAHM) exhibits high resistance to the physiological race E09 of powdery mildew. This study aims to characterize the powdery mildew resistance gene in CAHM, and develop molecular markers for marker-assisted selection of wheat. To investigate the genetic characteristics of this resistant gene, we developed F1 plants, F2 generation population, and F2:3 families from a cross between CAHM and SY225. Genetic analysis demonstrated that all F1 plants were resistant to the disease, while the ratio of resistant to susceptible plants was 3: 1 in both the F2 population and F2:3 families, indicating that CAHM is inherited in a manner of single dominant powdery mildew resistance gene, which was tentatively designated as PmCAHM. By using bulk segregation analysis, we constructed a genetic map encompassing Xgwm273, Xwmc626, Xgwm11, Xgwm18, Xgdm28, Xgpw7812, Xgpw5195, Xwmc694 and PmCAHM. Among these markers, Xgpw7812 and Xgpw5195 were flanking markers tightly linked to PmCAHM at a genetic distance of 2.5 cM and 8.4 cM, respectively. Furthermore, nullisomic-tetrasomic analysis revealed that PmCAHM is located on chromosome 1B. These results indicate that PmCAHM differs from the internationally recognized powdery mildew resistance genes in both location and source. In addition, a new germplasm/line NW1748 with large seeds and powdery mildew resistance was developed from the cross and back cross populations of Fengyou 1718 (FY1718)/CAHM//FY 1718. Therefore, PmCAHM can serve as a novel powdery mildew resistance source for breeding of wheat by using NW1748 as the donor in the future.

Mutual exclusion algorithms are at the heart of concurrent, distributed/parallel, real-time and operating systems. It is well-known that such algorithms are very difficult to analyze and in the literature different conjectures about starvation-freedom and the number of by-passes (also said the overtaking factor), which in turn affects the (hopefully) bounded waiting time that a process competing for entering the critical section has to suffer before accessing the shared resource, have been formulated for specific algorithms. This paper proposes a novel modelling approach based on Timed Automata and the Uppaal toolset, which proves effective for studying all the properties of a mutual exclusion algorithm for N≥2 processes, by exhaustive model checking. Although the approach, as already confirmed by similar experiments reported in the literature, is not scalable due to state explosion problems, and can be practically applied until N≤5, it is of great value for revealing true properties of analyzed algorithms. For dimensions N>5 the statistical model checker of Uppaal can be used which, although based on simulations, can confirm properties by estimations and probabilities. The paper describes the proposed modelling and verification method and applies it to several mutual exclusion algorithms, thus retrieving known properties but also showing new results about properties often studied only by peer-review and intuitive reasoning.

Employing remote sensing techniques to evaluate crop residue cover (CRC) enables rapid mapping of tillage practices over large cropland areas, which has significant practical implications for monitoring the implementation of conservation tillage practices. This research utilized Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat-8 OLI remotely sensed data, various spectral indices were calculated and the datasets were correlated with the field-measured CRC data. Selected spectral indices, highly significantly correlated, were chosen to build a correlation model between the indices and the CRC. Considering Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat 8 OLI remotely sensed data variations in spectral and spatial scales, the accuracy of CRC models was evaluated using R2 and RMSE values. From the results, it's evident that all six spectral indices, including STI, NDTI, SRNDR, NDI5, NDI7 and NDSVI, registered correlation coefficients with the CRC exceeded 0.3 in the study area. STI and NDTI showed a stronger correlation to CRC, with coefficients of 0.810 and 0.803, respectively. For the Landsat 8 data, the lowest correlation obtained was for NDSVI with the Landsat 8 data with a correlation coefficient of 0.358. Applying the linear regression technique, STI and NDTI obtained higher accuracy compared to other indices in the Sentinel-2 MSI data. For NDTI and STI, The R2 values were 0.650 and 0.665, respectively, while their corresponding RMSE values were 3.96% and 4.03%. The highest model accuracy was obtained for the STI and NDTI constructed from the Landsat 8 OLI data (R2 values 0.41 and 0.40; RMSE values 5.25% and 5.27%, respectively). The CRC model built using partial least squares regression (PLSR) exhibited greater precision when applied to the Sentinel-2 MSI data (R2 value 0.894; RMSE value 2.18%) in comparison to the Landsat 8 OLI data (R2 value 0.695; RMSE value 3.70%). PLSR has the potential to enhance the precision of the model. In addition, the study area shows that the estimation of the CRC is better in the one-dimensional linear regression model and the PLSR model created with the Sentinel-2 MSI optical data compared to the Landsat 8 OLI optical remotely sensed data. The validation suggests that the CRC estimation in the study area is more precise when using the model relying on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery rather than the Landsat 8 OLI imagery.

Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery has been regarded as an important candidate for the next-generation energy storage system due to its high theoretical capacity (1675 mAh g-1) and high energy density (2600 Wh kg-1). However, the shuttle effect of polysulfide seriously affects the cycling stability of the Li-S battery. Here, a novel Fe3C decorated folic acid-derived graphene-like N-doped carbon sheet (Fe3C@N-CS) was successfully prepared as the polysulfide catalyst to modify the separator of Li-S battery. The porous layered structures can successfully capture polysulfide as a physical barrier, and the encapsulated Fe3C catalyst can effectively trap and catalyze the conversion of polysulfide, thus accelerating the redox reaction kinetics. Together with the highly conductive networks, the cell with Fe3C@N-CS modified separator evinces superior cycling stability with 0.06% capacity decay per cycle at 1 C rate over 500 cycles and excellent specific capacity with an initial capacity of 1260 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C. Besides, at a high sulfur loading of 4.0 mg cm-2, the batteries also express superb cycle stability and rate performance.

Fabrication of a nanocrystal zinc oxide (ZnO)/nitrogen-doped (N-doped) graphene composite using a novel and facile in situ sol-gel technique is demonstrated. Two-dimensional nanostructure morphology with uniform ZnO nanoparticles (average diameter of 10.25 nm) anchored on N-doped graphene nanosheets was observed via electron microscopy. Because of the polar heteroatoms on the graphene sheets, an abundance sites for polysulfide absorption were provided. More importantly, the strong chemical interaction between ZnO and polysulfides efficiently hindered the transport of polysulfides. Consequently, the lithium/sulfur (Li/S) battery with the ZnO/N-doped graphene composite-coated separator delivered enhanced performance in terms of discharge capacity and cycling stability when compared to the cell with a normal separator. With the modified separator, the battery achieved a discharge capacity as high as 942 mAh g^-1 for the first cycle and remained at 90.02 mAh g^-1 after the 100th charge/discharge test at 0.1 C. Results indicate that impeding the shuttling of polysulfides contributes to efficiently improving the behavior of the Li/S battery.

Fabrication of a nanocrystal zinc oxide (ZnO)/nitrogen-doped (N-doped) graphene composite using a novel and facile in situ sol-gel technique is demonstrated. Two-dimensional nanostructure morphology with uniform ZnO nanoparticles (average diameter of 10.25 nm) anchored on N-doped graphene nanosheets was observed via electron microscopy. Because of the polar heteroatoms on the graphene sheets, an abundance sites for polysulfide absorption were provided. More importantly, the strong chemical interaction between ZnO and polysulfides efficiently hindered the transport of polysulfides. Consequently, the lithium/sulfur (Li/S) battery with the ZnO/N-doped graphene composite-coated separator delivered enhanced performance in terms of discharge capacity and cycling stability when compared to the cell with a normal separator. With the modified separator, the battery achieved a discharge capacity as high as 942 mAh g^-1 for the first cycle and remained at 90.02 mAh g^-1 after the 100th charge/discharge test at 0.1 C. Results indicate that impeding the shuttling of polysulfides contributes to efficiently improving the behavior of the Li/S battery.

The study aimed to investigate the impact of incorporating deep learning strategies in mathematics instruction on students' problem-solving abilities, critical thinking skills, academic achievement, and mathematical skills development. The study population consisted of 280 students, with a sample size of 162 participants. Employing a purely quantitative approach, data collection utilized questionnaires and achievement tests as instruments. Data analysis involved simple linear regression, descriptive analysis, and Pearson correlation. The results of the study revealed that there was no significant enhancement observed in students' problem-solving abilities and critical thinking skills when deep learning strategies were incorporated into mathematics instruction. Additionally, students' attitudes towards deep learning activities in mathematics showed no effect on their academic achievement. Furthermore, students' engagement levels in deep learning activities did not impact their development of mathematical skills. Lastly, the frequency of deep learning activities in the mathematics classroom did not show a significant relationship with students' academic performance. These findings suggest that the implementation of deep learning strategies in mathematics instruction did not yield notable improvements in the specified areas based on the study outcomes.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, particularly Machine Learning algorithms, becomes increasingly ubiquitous, our abilities to understand and interpret AI and machine learning algorithms are becoming increasingly desirable. Visualization has been used as a common tool to view and understand complex machine learning processes. In this paper, we will focus on developing a general framework for the visualization of machine learning models as a scalar valued multi-dimensional function to help users understand how the models behave over different viewing spaces. We first give a formal definition of the visualization problem. Interpolation-based morphing and subspace sampling techniques are applied to generate various renderings through projections and cross-sections of the model space as 3D surfaces or heatmap images. This method will be applied to two real-world datasets and applications: the diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) using a human brain networks dataset and a real-world benchmark dataset for predicting home credit default risks. The visualizations show that different machine learning algorithms can behave quite differently under different conditions.

The digital model of airborne frequency selective surface radomes (AFSSRs) is the basis of design, simulation analysis, manufacturing, and other related research of AFSSRs. This paper proposes a rapid modeling method of AFSSRs based on dynamic customizable primitives. Firstly, a layered digital model construction scheme of AFSSR is presented based on the typical radome wall structure. Then, according to the characteristics of various surface configurations and complex wireframe information of AFSSRs, the dynamic primitives are raised to express the boundary and contour information of all kinds of radomes. Focusing on the undevelopable characteristics of the aero-dynamic shape surface of the AFSSR, the arrangement solution and mapping method for frequency selective elements on undevelopable surfaces are proposed. Furthermore, the imple-mentation logic of this method on the creation of each layer model and the assembly of the whole machine model is introduced. Finally, according to this method, a rapid modeling system (RMS) is established, and the modeling effect and efficiency of the RMS are demonstrated and compared, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of this method.

The performance of OpenFOAM in strong scaling tests on HPC systems with AMD EPYC processors exhibits a pronounced superlinear speedup. Simple test cases show superlinear speedups of over 300%, which significantly impacts the efficient use of computing resources. With the last generation of HPC architectures, a superlinear speedup of about 10% to 20% was well expected and accepted by CFD users. The measured superlinear speedup is much more pronounced and withstands the communication overhead to even larger scales. A detailed performance analysis of OpenFOAM follows, employing various High-Performance Computing (HPC) architectures, including AMD, ARM and Intel systems. The performance metric FVOPS (Finite VOlumes solved Per Second) is introduced to compare the performance of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications when varying the grid size, as occurs in a strong scaling test. The achievable FVOPS depends on various factors, including the simulation type, boundary conditions, and especially the grid size of a use case. Analysing FVOPS on a single node level with varying grid size shows a significant difference in performance and cache utilization, which explains the large superlinear speedups seen in the strong scaling tests. Furthermore, FVOPS can be used as a simple benchmark to determine the optimal number of grid elements per rank to simulate a given use case at peak efficiency on a given platform, resulting in time, energy, and cost savings. The FVOPS metric also facilitates the direct comparison between different HPC architectures. The tests using AMD, ARM, and Intel processors show a peak in performance when employing around 10,000 grid elements per core. The presence of a large L3 cache on AMD processors is particularly advantageous, as indicated by L3 cache miss rates observed on AMD EPYC processors. Our results suggest that future HPC architectures with larger caches and higher memory bandwidth would benefit the CFD community.

In organisms that use reduced sulfur compounds as alternative or additional electron donors to organic compounds, transcriptional regulation of genes for enzymes involved in sulfur oxidation is needed to adjust metabolic flux to environmental conditions. However, little is known about the sensing and response to inorganic sulfur compounds such as thiosulfate in sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. In the Alphaproteobacterium Hyphomicrobium denitrificans, one strategy is the use of the ArsR-SmtB-type transcriptional regulator SoxR. We show that this homodimeric repressor senses sulfane sulfur and that it is crucial for the expression not only of sox genes encoding the com-ponents of a truncated periplasmic thiosulfate-oxidizing enzyme system but also of several other sets of genes for enzymes of sulfur oxidation. DNA binding and transcriptional regulatory activity of SoxR are controlled by polysulfide-dependent cysteine modification. The repressor uses the formation of a sulfur bridge between two conserved cysteines as a trigger to bind and release DNA and can also form a vicinal disulfide bond to orchestrate a response to oxidizing conditions. The importance of the sulfur bridge forming cysteines was confirmed by site directed mutagen-esis, mass spectrometry and gel shift assays. In vivo, SoxR interacts directly or indirectly with a second closely related repressor, sHdrR.

Using the example of III-V nitrides crystallizing in a wurtzite structure (GaN, AlN, InN), this review presents the special role of hydrostatic pressure in studying semiconductor properties. Starting with a brief description of high pressure techniques for growing bulk crystals of nitride compounds, we focus on the use of hydrostatic pressure techniques in both experimental and theoretical investigations of special properties of nitride compounds, their alloys and quantum structures. The band gap pressure coefficient is one of the most important parameters in semiconductor physics. Trends in its behavior in nitride structures, together with trends in pressure-induced phase transitions, are discussed in the context of the behavior of other typical semiconductors. Using InN as an example, the pressure-dependent effects typical of very narrow bandgap materials, such as conduction band filling or effective mass behavior, are described. Interesting aspects of bandgap bowing in In-containing nitride alloys, including pressure and clustering effects, are discussed.Hydrostatic pressure also plays an important role in the study of native defects and impurities, as illustrated by the example of nitride compounds and their quantum structures. Experiments and theoretical studies on this topic are reviewed. Special attention is given to hydrostatic pressure and strain effects in short periods nitride superlattices. The explanation of the discrepancies between theory and experiment in the optical emission and its pressure dependence from InN/GaN superlattices led to the well-documented conclusion that InN growth on the GaN substrate is not possible. The built-in electric field present in InGaN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures crystallizing in wurtzite lattice can reach several MV/cm, leading to drastic changes in the physical properties of these structures and related devices. It is shown how hydrostatic pressure modifies these effects and helps to understand their origin.

The present study aimed at utilizing technically hydrolyzed lignin (THL), industrial biomass residue, derived in high-temperature diluted sulphuric acid hydrolysis of softwood and hardwood chips to sugars. The THL was carbonized in horizontal tube furnace at atmospheric pressure, in inert atmosphere and at three different temperatures (500, 600 and 700 ºC). Biochar chemical composition was investigated along with its HHV, thermal stability (thermogravimetric analysis) and textural properties. Surface area and pore volume were measured with nitrogen physisorption analysis often named upon Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). Increasing the carbonization temperature reduced volatile organic compounds (40 ÷ 96 wt. %), increased fixed carbon (2.11 to 3.68 times the wt. % of fixed carbon in THL), ash and C-content. Moreover, H and O were reduced, while N- and S-content were below the detection limit. This suggested biochar application as solid biofuel. The biochar Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra revealed that the functional groups were gradually lost thus, forming materials having merely polycyclic aromatic structures and high condensation rate. The biochar obtained at 600 and 700 ºC proved having properties typical for microporous adsorbents, suitable for selective adsorption purposes. Based on the latest observations another biochar application was proposed - as catalyst.

The current work aimed to screen the ruminal cyanide-utilizing bacteria and evaluate the influence of fresh cassava root (FCR) and pellets containing high sulfur (PELFUR) on cyanide content, kinetics of gas, in vitro degradability, and ruminal fermentation. The experiment was conducted in a Completely randomized design (CRD) for a screening of cyanide-utilizing bacteria and the dietary treatments were the level of cyanide at 0, 150, 300, and 450 ppm. A 5 × 3 factorial arrangement in a Completely randomized design was used for in vitro study. Factor A was the level of FCR at 0, 260, 350, 440, and 530 g/kg of 0.5 g dry matter (DM) substrate, and factor B was the level of PELFUR at 0, 15, and 30 g/kg DM substrate. Adding different doses of cyanide significantly affected cyanide-utilizing rumen bacterial growth (p < 0.05). Increasing the concentration of cyanide from 0 to 150 and 150 to 300 ppm, resulted in an increase in cyanide-utilizing rumen bacteria of 38.2% and 15.0%, respectively. Increasing the FCR level to more than 260 g/kg of 0.5 g substrate could increase cumulative gas production (p < 0.05), whereas increasing doses of PELFUR from 15 to 30 g/kg increased the cumulative gas production when compared with that of 0 g/kg PELFUR (p < 0.05). Cyanide concentration in rumen fluid decreased with PELFUR (p < 0.05) supplementation. Degradability of in vitro dry matter and organic matter following incubation increased at 12 and 24 h due to PELFUR supplementation with FCR and increased additionally with 15 g/kg PELFUR (p < 0.05) in 440 g/kg FCR. Proportions of the total volatile fatty acids, acetic acid (C2), propionic acid (C3), and butyric acid, as well as the ratio of C2 to C3 among supplementations with FCR (p < 0.05) were significantly different. As the proportion of FCR increased to 530 g/kg of the substrate, the volume of C3 increased by 14.6%. This is the first finding of bacteria in the rumen capable of utilizing cyanide, and cyanide might function as a nitrogen source for bacterial cell synthesis. Inclusion of FCR of 530 g/kg with 30 g/kg PELFUR could increase the cumulative gas production, the bacterial population, the in vitro degradability, the proportion of C3, and the rate of the disappearance of cyanide.

Despite significant advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs), detecting and mitigating bias remains a critical challenge, particularly within social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and in addressing cyberbullying present on them. This research investigates the effectiveness of leading LLMs in generating synthetic biased and cyberbullying data and evaluates the proficiency of Transformer AI models in detecting bias and cyberbullying within both authentic and synthetic contexts. The study involves semantic analysis and feature engineering on a dataset of over 48,000 sentences related to cyberbullying collected from Twitter (before it became X). Leveraging state-of-the-art LLMs such as ChatGPT-4o, Pi AI, Claude 3 Opus, and Gemini-1.5, synthetic biased, cyberbullying, and neutral data were generated to deepen the understanding of bias in human-generated data. AI models including DeBERTa, Longformer, BigBird, HateBERT, MobileBERT, DistilBERT, BERT, RoBERTa, ELECTRA, and XLNet were initially trained to classify Twitter cyberbullying data and subsequently fine-tuned, optimized, and quantized for multilabel classification (detecting both biases and cyberbullying). The study's outcomes include a prototype of a hybrid application that combines a Bias Data Detector and a Bias Data Generator, validated through extensive testing.

The preparation of sulfur-single walled carbon nanohorns active material via a simple and sustainable evaporation method for application as cathode in lithium-sulfur batteries is reported. We show that the synthesis process enables the infiltration of elemental sulfur within the carbon nanohorns thus obtaining a morphology responsible for the ameliorating of the shuttle effect. The sulfur-carbon composite is characterized in terms of structure, morphology, and composition through x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and thermogravimetric analyses. From the electrochemical point of view, cyclic voltammetry, rate capability, and galvanostatic cycling tests are performed employing a solution of bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonimide lithium salt and lithium nitrate in a mixture of 1,2-dimethoxyethane and 1,3-dioxolane in order to evaluate the electrode design applicability within lithium-sulfur cells. In this respect, further insights are provided by the estimation of the lithium-ion diffusion coefficient through the Randles-Sevcik equation, and by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The obtained results reveal a remarkable cycle life lasting around 800 cycles with a stable capacity of 520 mA h g-1 for the first 400 cycles at C/4, while reaching a value around 300 mA h g-1 at the 750th cycle. These results suggest sulfur-carbon nanohorns active material as a potential candidate for the next-generation battery technology.

The statistical analysis of impact of the top 50 solar flares of X-class (1997-2023) on the global seismic activity, as well as on the earthquake preparation zones located in illuminated part of the globe and in the area of 5000 km radius around the subsolar point was carried out. It is shown by a method of epoch superposition that for all cases the increase of seismicity is observed, especially in the region around the subsolar point (up to 38%) during 10 days after the solar flare in comparison with preceding 10 days. The case study of aftershock sequence of strong M=9.1 earthquake (Su-matra-Andaman Islands, 26.12.2004) after the solar flare of X7.2 class (20.01.2005) demonstrated that the number of aftershocks with magnitude M≥2.5 increases more than 20 times after the solar flare with a delay of 7 days. For the case of the Darfield earthquake (M=7.1, 04.09.2010, New Zealand) it was shown that strong solar flares of class X and M probably triggered two strong aftershocks (M>6) with the same delay of 6 days on the Port Hills fault, which is the most sensitive to external electromagnetic impact from point of view of the fault electrical conductivity and orientation. Based on the obtained results the possible application of natural electromagnetic triggering of earthquakes is discussed for a short-term earthquake prediction using confidently recorded strong external electromagnetic triggering impacts on the specific earthquake preparation zones, as well as ionospheric perturbations due to aerosol emission from the earthquake sources recorded by satellites.

When oxidizing reduced sulfur compounds, the phototrophic sulfur bacterium Allochromatium vinosum forms spectacular sulfur globules as obligatory intracellular – but extracytoplasmic – intermediates. The globule envelope consists of three extremely hydrophobic proteins: SgpA and SgpB are very similar and can functionally replace each other. SgpC is involved in the expansion of the sulfur globules. The presence of a fourth protein, SgpD, has been suggested by comparative transcriptomics and proteomics of enriched sulfur globules. Here, we investigated the in vivo function of SgpD by coupling its carboxy-terminus to mCherry. This fluorescent protein requires oxygen for chromophore maturation, but we were able to use it in anaerobically growing A. vinosum provided the cells were exposed to oxygen for one hour prior to imaging. While mCherry lacking a signal peptide resulted in low fluorescence evenly distributed throughout the cell, fusion with SgpD carrying its original Sec-dependent signal peptide targeted mCherry to the periplasm and co-localized it exactly with the highly light-refractive sulfur deposits seen in sulfide-fed A. vinosum cells. Insertional inactivation of the sgpD gene showed that the protein is not essential for the formation and degradation of sulfur globules.

The purpose of present work was to provide mineralogical insight in the rare earth element (REE) phases in bauxite residue to improve REE recovering technologies. Experimental work was performed by electron probe microanalysis with energy dispersive as well as wavelength dispersive spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. REEs are found as discrete mineral particles in bauxite residue. Their sizes range from < 1 μm to about 40 μm. In bauxite residue, the most abundant REE bearing phases are light REE (LREE) ferrotitanates, that form a solid solution between the phases with major compositions (REE,Ca,Na)(Ti,Fe)O3 and (Ca,Na)(Ti,Fe)O3. These are secondary phases formed during the Bayer process by an in-situ transformation of the precursor bauxite LREE phases. Comparing to natural systems, the indicated solid solution resembles loparite-perovskite series. LREE particles often have a calcium ferrotitanate shell surrounding them, that probably hinders their solubility. Minor amount of LREE carbonate and phosphate minerals as well as manganese-associated LREE phases are also present in bauxite residue. Heavy REEs occur in the same form as in bauxites, namely as yttrium phosphates. These results show that Bayer process has an impact on the initial REE mineralogy contained in bauxite. Bauxite residue as well as selected bauxites are potentially good sources of REEs.

During the high-speed flight of a vehicle in the atmosphere, surface friction with the air generates aerodynamic heating. The aerodynamic heating phenomenon can create extremely high temperatures near the surface. These high temperatures impact material properties and the structure of the aircraft, so thermal deformation measurement is essential in aerospace engineering. This paper revisits high-temperature deformation measurement using the digital image correlation (DIC) technique under high-intensity blackbody radiation with a precise speckle pattern fabrication and a heat haze reduction method. The effect of speckle pattern on the DIC measurement has been thoroughly studied at room temperature, but high-temperature measurement studies have not reported such effects so far. We found that the commonly used methods to reduce the heat haze effect could produce incorrect results. Hence, we propose a new method to mitigate heat haze effects. An infrared radiation heater was employed to make an experimental setup that could heat a specimen up to 950 ℃. First, we mitigated image saturation using a short-wavelength bandpass filter with blue light illumination, a standard procedure for high-temperature DIC deformation measurement. Second, we studied how to determine the proper size of the speckle pattern under a high-temperature environment. Third, we devised a reduction method for the heat haze effect. As proof of the effectiveness of our developed experimental method, we successfully measured the deformation of stainless steel 304 specimens from 25 ℃ to 800 ℃. The results confirmed that this method can be applied to the research and development of thermal protection systems in the aerospace field.

In this paper, we focus on the impact of financial liberalization on stability of emerging stock market. We identify crises in a group of Latin American (Argentina, Brazil and Chile) and Asian countries (Philippines, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) during 1975–2005. This paper aims to apply the methodology of CMAX method. Our results indicate that liberalization triggers more unstable stock market in the short run and generate several crises. Still, liberalization seems to generate more stable financial markets in the long run. Financial liberalization does not increase the frequency of crises in emerging countries and at long-term, crises are less several.

We propose Reduced Collatz Conjecture that is equivalent to Collatz Conjecture, which states that every positive integer can return to an integer less than it, instead of 1. Reduced Collatz Conjecture should be easier because some properties are presented in reduced dynamics, rather than in original dynamics (e.g., ratio and period). Reduced dynamics is a computation sequence from starting integer to the first integer less than it, and original dynamics is a computation sequence from starting integer to 1. Reduced dynamics is a component of original dynamics. We denote dynamics of x as a sequence of either computations in terms of ``I'' that represents (3*x+1)/2 and ``O'' that represents x/2. Here 3*x+1 and x/2 are combined together, because 3*x+1 is always even and followed by x/2. We formally prove that all positive integers are partitioned into two halves and either presents ``I'' or ``O'' in next ongoing computation. More specifically, (1) if any positive integer x that is i module $2^t$ (i is an odd integer) is given, then the first t computations (each one is either ``I'' or ``O'' corresponding to whether current integer is odd or even) will be identical with that of i. (2) If current integer after t computations (in terms of ``I'' or ``O'') is less than x, then reduced dynamics of x is available. Otherwise, the residue class of x (namely, i module $2^t$) can be partitioned into two halves (namely, i module $2^{t+1}$ and $i+2^t$ module $2^{t+1}$), and either half presents ``I'' or ``O'' in intermediately forthcoming (t+1)-th computation.

Sulfate, the main dissolved contaminant in acid mine drainage (AMD), is ubiquitous in watersheds affected by coal and metal mining operations worldwide. Engineered passive bioremediation systems (PBS) are low-cost technologies that remediate sulfate contamination by promoting (1) precipitation of sulfate-bearing compounds, such as schwertmannite and gypsum; and (2) microbially-mediated sulfate reduction (BSR) to sulfide with subsequent precipitation of sulfide minerals. In this study, chemical and sulfur isotopic data are used to infer multiple pathways for sulfate sequestration in the Tab-Simco PBS. By simultaneously monitoring sulfate concentrations and δ34SSO4 values at four sampling points across the PBS, we (1) identified that the organic layer within the bioreactor was the primary site of BSR processes contributing to sulfate sequestration; (2) observed seasonal variations of BSR processes; (3) estimated that initially the BSR processes contributed up to 30% to sulfate sequestration in the Tab-Simco bioreactor; and (4) determined that BSR contribution to sulfate sequestration continuously declined over the PBS operational lifetime. Together, our results highlight the utility of combining geochemical and microbial fingerprinting techniques to decipher complementary processes involved in sulfur cycling in a PBS as well as the value of adding the sulfur isotope approach as an essential tool to help understand, predict, prevent and mitigate sulfate contamination in AMD-impacted systems.

The biogeography of inflammation in ulcerative colitis (UC) suggests a proximal to distal concentration gradient of a toxin. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has long been considered one such toxin candidate, and dietary sulfur along with the abundance of sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) were considered the primary determinants of H2S production and clinical course of UC. The metabolic milieu in the lumen of the colon, however, is the result of a multitude of factors beyond dietary sulfur intake and SRB abundance. Here we present an updated formulation of the H2S toxin hypothesis for UC pathogenesis, which strives to incorporate the interdependency of diet composition and the metabolic activity of the entire colon microbial community. Specifically, we suggest that the increasing severity of inflammation along the proximal-to-distal axis in UC is due to dilution of beneficial factors, concentration of toxic factors, and changing detoxification capacity of the host, all of which are intimately linked to the nutrient flow from the diet.

We report on magnetic studies of inhomogeneous commercial and synthesized amorphous carbon (a-C) and a-C doped with sulfur (a-CS) powders which exhibit (i) peculiar magnetic behavior and (ii) traces of two superconducting (SC) phase ~ Tc=33 and at 65 K. (i) The temperature dependence of zero-field-cooled (ZFC) curves measured up to room temperature show a well distinguish elusive peaks around 50-80 K, their origin is not yet known. These peaks are totally washed-out in the second ZFC sweeps and in the FC branches as well. As a result, in the vicinity of the peaks, the FC curves lie below the ZFC peaks (FC<ZFC), a phenomenon which is rarely observed. These magnetic anomalies are intrinsic properties of a-C and a-CS materials (ii) SC was observed in three different a-C sources: (a) The commercial a-C powder contains 0.21% of sulfur and it is suggested that two different a-CS phases (at 33 and 65 K) are the origin of the two SC states observed. The compositions of these two phases are not yet unknown. The small SC volume fractions of the 33 K phase can be enhanced by a solid reaction with additional sulfur at 250 ºC. (b) The synthesized a-C powder (obtained from decomposition of sucrose) is not SC. However, when mixed with sulfur and heated at 400 ºC under a protective atmosphere, the a-CS powder obtained also show traces of a SC phase at TC= 42 K. (c)The same occurs in a-C thin films. The as-grown films are not SC but a SC phase at Tc = 34 K emerges after the films were reacted with sulfur at elevated temperatures. It is concluded therefore, that all SC phases observed are due to different unknown a-CS phases. Since the a-C and a-CS powders possess SC and magnetic states, we believe that these powders resemble the high TC curates and Fe-As based systems in which the SC and the magnetic states are closed related to each other.

With continuous increase in integration of the semiconductor devices, the requirements on size accuracy and surface quality of the etched lead frame are higher. The etchant is a key factor on etching process and etched surface quality, while effects of the difference in etchants on microscopic etched surface morphology of the Cu alloy have not been directly studied. In this study, the aqua regia, acidic FeCl3 and CuCl2 solutions were used as etchants, and the CuCrSn alloy specimens with different microstructure were etched and characterized. The results show that the etching rate in aqua regia is high, and the grain orientation, grain boundary (GB) and dislocation have significant influence on the local etching rate. The preferential etching of some atomic planes forms steps between grains with different orientations, and the preferential etching around the GB and dislocation group forms grooves, resulting in high surface roughness. For etching of the FeCl3 and CuCl2 etchants, the steps and grooves become blurred, and almost invisible on the surface etched by the CuCl2 etchant, thus the surface roughness is much lower. The CuCrSn alloy surface etched by the aqua regia is clean, with little Cr-rich particles, while high density Cr-rich particles are remained on the surfaces etched with the FeCl3 and CuCl2 etchants. For the same kind of etchant, the ion concentration can affect the etching mechanism and etching surface morphology.

A superior variant of dried jujube in China is ‘Huizao’ (HZ) jujube. Nonetheless, detailed evaluations of the texture quality of HZ fruits have been the subject of few studies. Texture is a significant indicator of the sensory and processed quality of a fruit. Here, we differentiate and characterize the texture quality of HZ fruits from the four primary producing regions in southern Xinjiang, as well as develop a system for assessing the texture quality of HZ fruits. Furthermore, five texture indices of HZ fruits from 109 plantations were exhaustively evaluated utilizing principal component analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and hierarchical clustering analysis. Consequently, by the 10th, 30th, 70th, and 90th percentiles, each index was classified into five grades—lower, medium, high, and higher. Correlation investigation indicated strong relationships between the springiness, chewiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, and hardness of HZ fruits. Springiness, hardness, and adhesiveness are essential indicators that influence the texture of HZ fruits. We used clustering analysis to separate the six texture indices into three major categories (hard factor, stick-elastic factor, and adhesive factor), with indices representing hardness, springiness, and adhesiveness, respectively. Furthermore, according to the factor molecules, the texture quality of HZ fruits in the four production areas was evaluated as Bazhou (1.24) > Hotan (0.773) > Kashi (-0.577) > Aksu (-0.852). RDA analysis of six texture quality parameters and 24 climate conditions identified higher mean temperature (TEM) and lower relative humidity (RHU) as the primary factors contributing to the improved texture quality of HZ fruits in Xinjiang. This study identified the texture quality characteristics of HZ fruits in four major producing areas of Southern Xinjiang, and it offered a theoretical foundation for optimizing the dominant producing areas and regional production of HZ varieties in Xinjiang.

Lipids have not traditionally been considered likely candidates for catalyzing reactions in biological systems. However, there is significant evidence that aggregates of amphiphilic compounds are capable of catalyzing reactions in synthetic organic chemistry. Here we demonstrate the potential for the hydrophobic region of a lipid bilayer to provide an environment suitable for catalysis by means of a lipozyme, or lipid aggregate capable of speeding up a chemical reaction. By bringing organic molecules into the non-polar or hydrophobic region of a lipid bilayer, reactions can be catalyzed by collections of small, nonpolar or amphiphilic molecules. We demonstrate this concept by the ester hydrolysis of calcein-AM to produce a fluorescent product, which is a widely used assay for esterase activity in cells. The reaction was first carried out in a two phase octanol-water system with the organic phase containing the cationic amphiphiles cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) or octadecylamine. The octanol was then replaced with DOPC added to the water in the form of vesicles, where the reaction was also found to be carried out. The reaction was monitored using quantitative fluorescence which revealed catalytic turnover numbers on a scale of 10−4s−1 for each system, which is comparable to some slow enzymes. The reaction product was characterized by 1H-NMR measurements which were consistent with ester hydrolysis. The implications of thinking about lipid aggregates as catalytic entities are discussed in the context of biochemistry, pharmacology and synthetic biology.

In this paper, the synthesis of two novel luminescent Eu3+ ion complexes [Eu(TFT)3(phen) (1) and Eu(TFT)3(bpy)•Hex (2)] based on the combination of 2-(2,2,2-trifluoroethyl)-1-tetralone (TFT), containing n-donor ligands (1,10-phenanthroline or 2,2'-Bipyridine) and Eu3+ ion is reported herein, and their structural features are discussed on the basis of X-ray crystallographic and thermal analyses. We observed that the ligands transfer energy effectively to the metal center by fluorescence, IR and UV spectrograms studies. The structures and properties of complexes 1-2 were optimized by the DFT theoretical calculation, and the calculation results were consistent with the experimental X-ray structure data and spectral analysis.

In the recent rechargeable battery industry, lithium sulfur batteries (LSBs) have demonstrated promising candidate battery to serve as the next-generation secondary battery owing to its enhanced theoretical specific energy, economy, and environmental friendliness. Its inferior cyclability, however, which is primarily due to electrode deterioration caused by the lithium polysulfide shuttle effect, is still a major problem for the real industrial usage of LSBs. Optimization of the separator and functional barrier layer is an effective strategy for remedying these issues. In this article, the current progress based on classification and modification on functional separator is summarized. We will also describe their working mechanisms as well as the resulting LSB electrochemical properties. In addition, necessary performance for separators also will be mentioned in order to gain optimized LSB performance.

This study compares the physico-chemical characteristics of three different types of biochar produced from biomass residues in Vietnam as a basis for optimising their application in water purification and soil fertilisation. Wood biochar (WBC), rice husk biochar (RBC), and bamboo biochar (BBC) were produced under limited oxygen conditions using equipment available locally in Vietnam, known as a Top-Lid Updraft Drum (TLUD). The resulting biochars were characterised using a suite of state-of-the-art methods to understand their morphology, surface chemistry and cation exchange capacity. Surface areas (measured by BET) for WBC and BBC were 479.34 m²/g and 434.53 m²/g, respectively, significantly higher than that of RBC which was only 3.29 m²/g. The morphology as shown in SEM images corresponds with the BET surface area, showing a smooth surface for RBC, a hollow surface for BBC, and a rough surface for WBC. All three biochars produced alkaline, with pH values around 10, and all have high carbon contents (47.95 - 82.1 %). Cation exchange capacity (CEC) was significantly different (p<0.05) among the biochars, being 26.70 cmol/kg for RBC, 20.7 cmol/kg for BBC, and 13.53 cmol/kg for WBC, which relates to the cations (Ca, Mg, K) and functional groups with negative charge (carboxyl, hydroxyl) present on the biochar surfaces. The highest contents of Ca, Mg and K in rice husk BC may explain its highest CEC values. Thus, although the biochars were produced by the same method, the various feedstocks lead to quite different physico-chemical properties. Ongoing work is linking these physico-chemical properties to the biochar efficiencies in terms of nitrate and ammonia capture capacities for use as fertilisers, and for adsorption of heavy metals (Zn, Cu) or water filtration, in order to design optimal biochar properties for specific applications.

High-power lasers play an important role in modern science, industry, and medicine. A signifi-cant milestone was reached on December 5, 2022, when Inertial Confinement Nuclear Fusion (ICF) achieved scientific breakeven, releasing more energy than the input laser energy. Additionally, Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) has enabled the development of microchips with 3 nm process nodes, marking a leap in semiconductor technology. These examples together with the recent achievement of a 10 PW (1015 W) laser output heralds remarkable advancements in technology and science soon. Laser systems are broadly classified based on their operating re-gimes into two main categories: Continuous Wave (CW) operation, where the laser is continuously pumped and emits a steady beam of light, and the pulsed regime, in which the laser pro-duces single or multiple pulses at various repetition rates. This review will primarily focus on pulsed laser systems, exploring their various types and recent technological advancements.

Chemical flooding methods are used to recover the remaining oil after water flooding, and surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding is an important chemical flooding technology. It is of great significance to design and screen high-performance oil displacement agents in order to overcome the increasingly challenging high temperature (&gt;70 ℃) and high salinity (>10,000 mg/L) reservoirs. Based on the characteristics of high temperature (70 ℃) and high salinity (151,000 mg/L) in the Qinghai Gasi reservoir, the performance of the SP flooding system was studied. This study considered interfacial tension, emulsification, viscosity, compatibility, and oil displacement efficiency. The selected formula demonstrated high resistance to both salinity (151,000 mg/L) and temperature (70 ℃), characterized by a low oil-water interfacial tension (10-2 mN/m) and high viscosity (18.13 mPa.s). After water flooding achieved an oil recovery rate of 64.64%, the subsequent replacement rate of crude oil increased by 26.95%, confirming that SP flooding can be used as a technology for enhancing oil recovery in high-temperature, high-salinity reservoirs represented by Qinghai Gasi reservoirs.

Based upon Maxwell's equations, it has long been established that oscillating electromagnetic (EM) fields incident upon a metal surface decay exponentially inside the conductor, leading to a virtual EM vacuum at sufficient depths. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) utilizes radiofrequency (r.f.) EM fields to produce images. Here we present the first visualization of a virtual EM vacuum inside a bulk metal strip by MRI, amongst several novel findings. We uncover unexpected MRI intensity patterns arising from two orthogonal pairs of faces of a metal strip, and derive formulae for their intensity ratios, revealing differing effective elemental volumes (voxels) underneath these faces. Further, we furnish chemical shift imaging (CSI) results that discriminate different faces (surfaces) of a metal block according to their distinct nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts, which holds much promise for monitoring surface chemical reactions noninvasively. Bulk metals are ubiquitous, and MRI is a premier noninvasive diagnostic tool. Combining the two, the emerging field of bulk metal MRI can be expected to grow in importance. The fundamental nature of results presented here may impact bulk metal MRI and CSI across many fields.

The Sanhetun tellurium-gold (Te-Au) deposit, located in the Duobaoshan polymetallic metallogenic belt (DPMB) within the eastern section of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), is a newly discovered small scale gold deposit. The mineralization, with resource of ≥ 4t Au, is mainly hosted in 3 NNE-trending alteration zones between granitic mylonite and volcanogenic-sedimentary formations. It’s the genesis and timing of formation of this deposit are poorly constrained. Here, we report the results of petrographic studies, TESCAN Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA), major and trace element concentrations, and in situ S isotope of pyrite and U-Pb ages of calcite. The results show that there are five species of telluride, including native tellurium, tetradymite, tsumoite, hessite and petzite and four types of pyrite, including coarse-grained euhedral Py1, fine-grained quartz-Py2 vein crosscutting Py1 and anhedral aggregated Py3 and Py4. The pre-ore Py1, containing negligible Au, Te and other trace elements, have a relatively narrow range of δ34S values ranging from -1.20 to -0.57‰. The Py2 have slightly high concentrations of Au and Te and distinctly high concentrations of Mo, Sb, Zn and Mn with markedly positive δ34S values of 4.67 to 14.43‰. The main ore stage Py3 contains high Au and Te concentrations and shows narrow δ34S values ranging from -5.69 to 0.19‰. The post-ore stage Py4 contains low Au concentrations with the δ34S values ranging from 2.66 to 3.86‰. Calcite from ore stage yield a U-Pb age of 135 ± 22 Ma, interpreted as the age of Te-Au mineralization. Our geochemical and geochronological data indicate that the Te was derived from partial melting of mantle metasomatized by the Te-rich fluids that originated from oceanic sediments. We correlate the tectonic setting with the subduction of Paleo Pacific plate in Early Cretaceous.

High dimensional statistical analysis for the yield of large-scale circuits is quite difficult due to expensive simulations, especially for the memory circuits with high sigma requirement (e.g., SRAM). In this paper, we developed an efficient sparse additive model to substitute simulations. To fit high sigma region accurately, the modeling center is moved to near failure boundary searched by scaling the shape of sampling function. To solve the model efficiently, the process variables are grouped by standard cells so that the model can be solved by our developed blockwise greedy algorithm. The experiments on the 28nm memory circuits validate that our method achieves high accuracy and efficiency compared with other state-of-art works.

Solid waste management in Accra is a major challenge to the Metropolitan Authorities and inhabitants. The rapidly increasing population coupled with poor capacity of the municipal and private waste management companies to management waste effectively has created issues of environmental concern. Due to poor waste managements systems, most household dispose waste indiscriminately leading to floods and health issues. The study showed that about 60% of household waste is organic materials which has the potential to be converted to compost for agriculture purpose. Meanwhile plastics and rubbers which litters the environment as well as blocking major storm drains and gutters hence creating huge environmental hazard is made of 11% of the total component of most household waste generated daily. The study also revealed that among the methods of disposing waste, dumping waste in skip containers located at authorized places was the preferred means of disposing waste by household though others also dispose waste by other means such as burying and burning. Inadequate skip containers per population of household in an area coupled with irregularity of tracks picking these containers makes skip containers dumping site ugly scene, hence creating health issues. Among the constraints that impact negatively on sustainable waste management in Accra Metropolis, economic constraints was perceived as the main challenge which affect efficient waste management. Currently the country is going through serious economic challenges so government does not release money timely to fund projects which waste management is key. Most donor partners that use to support the government with funds have either reduced or redrawn their services as they have no confidence in the state of Ghana economy. Aside the constrains, the study also indicated that factors such as poor public attitude towards waste management, poor enforcement of sanitation by-laws, inadequate and untimely release of government funds were also seen as the main factors affecting waste management.

Wheeled mobile robot dynamics and suitable controller design are challenging but rewarding fields of study. By understanding the dynamics of wheeled mobile robots, it could be possible to design suitable hybrid control schemes for wheeled mobile robots. Since hybrid control schemes involve combining individual control methods to create a more effective overall control strategy. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as using fuzzy linear quadratic Gaussian control. We were therefore inspired to create dynamic models and their controller designs for the wheeled mobile robot by examining the dynamics of the wheeled mobile robot. The novelty of the current paper is to hybridize the different control schemes for wheeled mobile robots in order to get better performance. Entire systems models were simulated in a MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The results obtained for the settling time response by FLQG were 87.1% over LQG; this study compared the effectiveness of current and previous FLQG controllers in external disturbances and found peak amplitude improvements of 71.25%. Therefore, the proposed controller is suitable for use with the wheeled mobile robot.

Sulfur, peroxide and combined sulfur and peroxide curing systems were applied for cross-linking of unfilled and carbon black filled rubber compounds based on ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer rubber. The results revealed that the type of curing system influenced the course and shape of curing isotherms. This resulted in the change of curing kinetics of rubber compounds. The cross-link density of vulcanizates cured with combined vulcanization systems was lower than that for vulcanizates cured only in the presence of sulfur or peroxide system. The results revealed good correlation between the cross-link density as well as the structure of the formed cross-links and physical-mechanical characteristics of the materials. It can be stated that by proper combination of vulcanization systems it is possible to modify tensile behavior of vulcanizates in targeted manner. On the other side, dynamical-mechanical properties were found not be significantly influenced by the composition of curing system.

The vulcanization of rubber compounds is an exothermal process. A carbon black-filled and natural rubber-based (NR) formulation was mixed with different levels of sulfur (0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 phr) and studied with Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) for the determination of the vulcanization enthalpy. It was found that the vulcanization enthalpy is dependent from the amount of sulfur present in the compound and the vulcanization heat released was -18.4 kJ/mol S if referred to the entire rubber compound formulation or -46.0 kJ/mol S if the heat released is referred only to the NR present in the compound. The activation energy for the vulcanization of the rubber compounds was also determined by a DSC study at 49 kJ/mol and found quite independent from the sulfur content of the compounds under study. A simplified thermochemical model is proposed to explain the main reactions occurring during the vulcanization. The model correctly predicts that the vulcanization is an exothermal process although it gives an overestimation of the vulcanization enthalpy which is larger for the EV vulcanization package and smaller for the conventional vulcanization system. If the devulcanization is conducted mechanochemically in order to break selectively the sulfur-based crosslinks, then the natural rubber compounds recovered from used tires can be re-vulcanized again and the exothermicity of such process can be measured satisfactorily with DSC analysis. This paper not only proposes a simplified mechanism of vulcanization and devulcanization but also proposes an analytical method to check the devulcanization status of the recycled rubber compound in order to distinguish truly devulcanized rubber from reclaimed rubber.

The use of edible films has become a topic of great interest in the food and environmental sectors, due to their potential to prevent food deterioration and their biodegradability. In this context, this study aimed to develop and characterize edible films based on camu-camu residue, gelatin and glycerol, evaluating their solubility, thermal, degradability, antioxidant and water vapor permeability properties of the gelatin matrix. This is the first study incorporating camu-camu into a gelatin and glycerol matrix. The films produced with the incorporation of camu-camu residue proved to be manageable and soluble, with the presence of some non-soluble residues, providing a shine and a well-presented appearance. In the biodegradation results the samples 03 and 04 appeared to degrade the most, being two of the three most affected samples in the triplicate. The films showed degradation modifications from the third day of the experiment. In the germination and plant growth analysis, Sample 04 showed satisfactory development compared to other samples, making it the sample with the best overall result in the analyses. These results demonstrate that the produced materials have potential for food packaging applications.

The present work investigates primarily the morphology evolution of the body-centered-cubic (BCC)/B2 phases in AlxNiCoFeCr high-entropy alloys (HEAs) with increasing Al content, which has been neglected so far. There exist two types of microscopic morphologies of BCC and B2 phases in this HEA series: one is the weave-like morphology induced by the spinodal decomposition, and the other is the microstructure of a spherical disordered BCC precipitation on the ordered B2 matrix that appears in HEAs with a much higher Al content. The shape of coherent precipitates is found to be closely related to the lattice misfit between BCC and B2 phases, which is sensitive to Al. The mechanical properties, including the compressive yielding strength and microhardness of the AlxNiCoFeCr HEAs, are also discussed in light of the concept of the valence electron concentration (VEC).

The objective of this experiment was to study the effect of feeding pellet containing high sulfur (PELFUR) diet and fresh cassava root (FCR) to Thai native beef cattle on feed use efficiency, ruminal characteristics, and blood metabolites. Four male Thai native beef cattle (150 ± 15.0 kg of body weight (BW)) were allocated with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. Factor A was FCR supplementation at 15 and 20 g/kg of BW. Factor B was the sulfur level in the PELFUR ration at 15 and 30 g/kg of dry matter (DM). No interaction effect was found among FCR supplementation and PELFUR in terms of feed intake and nutrient intake (p > 0.05). Cyanide intake was significantly increased based on FCR supplementation (p < 0.05), whereas sulfur intake was increased by level addition of PELFUR levels (p < 0.05). There were interaction effects among FCR supplementation and PELFUR on digestibility coefficients of DM and organic matter (OM) (p < 0.05). FCR supplementation at 20 g/kg BW with PELFUR 30 g/kg demonstrated the highest digestibility of DM and OM. Moreover, interactions were observed between FCR and PELFUR for bacterial populations (p < 0.01). The populations of bacteria were highest in FCR supplementation at 20 g/kg BW with PELFUR 30 g/kg at various feeding times. An interaction effects from among feeding FCR with PELFUR was found on blood thiocyanate concentrations at various feeding times (p < 0.01). The highest mean values of blood thiocyanate were observed when feeding FCR at 20 g/kg BW with PELFUR at 30 g/kg. No interaction effect was found between FCR and PELFUR on total volatile fatty acids (VFA) and their profiles (p >0.05). However, the proportions of the total VFA at 0 and 4 h post-feeding were increased when FCR at 20 g/kg BW was supplemented (p < 0.01). FCR at 20 g/kg BW could enhance propionate (C3) at 4 h post-feeding when compared with FCR at 15 g/kg BW (p < 0.01). Moreover, supplementation of PELFUR at 30 g/kg increased the total VFA at 0 and 4 h post-feeding, whereas the concentration of C3 at 4 h post-feeding was enhanced (p < 0.05). However, no significant changes were found for any parameters among treatments and between the main effect of FCR and PELFUR supplementation (p > 0.05). In conclusion, feeding of two combinations (FCR 20 g/kg BW with PELFUR 30 g/kg) could promote the nutrient digestibility, the bacterial populations, and the rate of disappearance of cyanide without having any adverse effect on rumen fermentation.

Students have historically fared poorly on the West African Examinations Council’s (WAEC) mathematics exam. This study investigated senior high school students’ difficulties with studying Geometry in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Central Region, Ghana. Using the descriptive survey design, data were collected from 300 Senior High School Two (SHS 2) students using simple random sampling. Students responded to the questionnaire and a 30-item multiple-choice achievement test on geometry. Four geometry concepts students perceived difficult to study are Circle theorems, Perpendicularity of Tangent and radius of a circle, Angle between Tangent and a chord and Tangents from an external point. The reasons for the difficulty in studying geometry topics are the unavailability of instructional materials, the geometry topics being complex, and teachers not teaching geometry concepts to the students’ understanding. Students’ gender did not influence the learning of concepts in geometry at a 0.05 level of significance. There was an insignificantly weak positive correlation between the students’ performance and their perceived difficult geometry concepts. It was concluded that the Ministry of Education does not provide relevant instructional materials to the various schools to teach geometry concepts. Schools do not organise workshops and seminars for teachers on effectively teaching geometry concepts in mathematics.

This paper introduces an innovative Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Algorithm in-corporating Sobol and Halton Random number samplings. It evaluates the enhanced PSO's performance against conventional PSO employing Monte Carlo Random Number Samplings. The comparison involves assessing the algorithms across nine benchmark problems and the renowned Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). The re-sults reveal consistent enhancements achieved by the enhanced PSO utilizing Sob-ol/Halton samplings across the benchmark problems. Particularly noteworthy are the substantial improvements demonstrated by the enhanced PSO in solving the Travel-ling Salesman Problem. These findings underscore the efficacy of employing Sobol and Halton random number generation methods in enhancing algorithm efficiency.

In this paper we introduce a computational model for the simulation of hypervelocity impact (HVI) phenomena which is based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM). Our paper constitutes the first application of DEM to the modeling and simulating of impact events for velocities beyond 5 kms⁻¹. We present here the results of a systematic numerical study on HVI of solids. For modeling the solids, we use discrete spherical particles that interact with each other via potentials. In our numerical investigations we are particularly interested in the dynamics of material fragmentation upon impact. We model a typical HVI experiment configuration where a sphere strikes a thin plate and investigate the properties of the resulting debris cloud. We provide a quantitative computational analysis of the resulting debris cloud caused by impact and a comprehensive parameter study by varying key parameters of our model. We compare our findings from the simulations with recent HVI experiments performed at our institute. Our findings are that the DEM method leads to very stable, energy–conserving simulations of HVI scenarios that map the experimental setup where a sphere strikes a thin plate at hypervelocity speed. Our chosen interaction model works particularly well in the velocity range where the local stresses caused by impact shock waves markedly exceed the ultimate material strength.

Rubber compounds based on styrene-butadiene rubber, ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer rubber and the combinations of both rubbers were cured with different sulfur and peroxide curing systems. In sulfur curing systems, two type of accelerators, namely N-cyclohexyl-2-benzothiazole sulfenamide, tetramethylthiuram disulfide and combinations of both accelerators were used. In peroxide curing systems, dicumyl peroxide, and combination of dicumyl peroxide with zinc diacrylate or zinc dimethacrylate, respectively were applied. The work was focused on investigation of the curing system composition as well as type of the rubber or rubbers combinations on curing process, cross-link density and physical-mechanical properties of vulcanizates. The dynamic-mechanical properties on the selected vulcanizates were examined, too. The result revealed correlation between the cross-link density and physical-mechanical properties. Similarly, there was recorded certain correlation between cross-linking degree and glass transition temperature. The tensile strength of vulcanizates based on rubbers combinations was higher when compared to that based on pure rubbers, which points out the fact that by rubbers combination, not only the features of both elastomers can be combined, but also improved tensile characteristics can be achieved. When compared to vulcanizates cured with dicumyl peroxide, materials cured with sulfur system exhibited higher tensile strength. By application of co-agents in peroxide vulcanization, the tensile strength overcame the tensile behavior of sulfur cured vulcanizates.

This study aims to investigate the interfacial tension, emulsion stability, and the impact on oil displacement effectiveness of mixed systems containing nonionic surfactants and amphoteric surfactants at different ratios. To achieve this, three different emulsion stability formulations were prepared by mixing betaine and nonionic surfactants in ratios of 1:1, 3:2, and 3:1 respectively. By adjusting the proportions of betaine and nonionic surfactants, variations in interfacial tension and emulsion formation among the three mixed systems were studied to analyze the mechanism of interaction between betaine and nonionic surfactants and evaluate their effects on crude oil displacement and enhanced oil recovery in reservoirs. Subsequently, microscopic and macroscopic oil displacement experiments were conducted on the three mixed systems, along with experiments on emulsion flow resistance. The aim was to verify the oil displacement effectiveness of different mixed systems and further understand their potential applications in reservoirs. By comprehensively analyzing the experimental results, optimal ratios and conditions for the mixed systems were determined. The experimental results indicate that the emulsification system formed by mixing betaine and nonionic surfactants at a ratio of 3:1 achieves molecular synergies through electrostatic interactions and mixed adsorption with betaine, resulting in a compact arrangement of interface membranes and demonstrating a synergistic effect in reducing interfacial tension to an ultra-low value of 10 -4 mN/m. Additionally, as the proportion of betaine surfactant increases, the viscosity of the aqueous phase liquid film increases, the rate of thinning of the liquid film slows down, the rate of water release slows down, and the stability of the emulsion increases. Microscopic oil displacement experiments verified that the three mixed systems increase oil washing efficiency through low interfacial tension and emulsification stripping action, thereby increasing the oil displacement mechanism's coefficient. Emulsion flow resistance experiments demonstrated that as the proportion of betaine surfactant increases, the system exhibits better plugging ability. However, macroscopic oil displacement experiments revealed differences in compatibility between different emulsion stability solutions and rocks with different permeabilities. The mixed system of betaine and nonionic surfactants at a ratio of 3:1 exhibits the best emulsification plugging ability in rocks with a permeability of 109mD, while the 1:1 mixed system performs best in rocks with a permeability of 12mD. This holds significant theoretical and practical significance for reservoir development and enhanced production.

This study investigates the long-term impact of soil tillage systems and crop residue incorporation on agrophysical properties. A long-term field experiment has been conducted since 1999 at the Ex-perimental Station of Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy. According to the latest edition of the International Soil Classification System, the soil in the experimental field was classified as Planosol, with a silty medium loam texture at a depth of 0–20 cm and a silty light loam at a depth of 20–40 cm. This investigation aimed to assess the long-term impact of reduced tillage systems, straw, and green manure combinations on soil physical properties, including soil shear strength, and soil aggregate stability. Studies were carried out on winter wheat crops in 2014, 2017, and 2023. The treatments were arranged using a split-plot design. In a two-factor field experiment, one part of the experimental field had straw removed, while the other part had the entire straw yield chopped and spread at harvest (Factor A). The subplot factor (Factor B) included three different tillage sys-tems: conventional deep ploughing, cover cropping for green manure with no-till, and no-tillage. Soil samples were analysed in the Laboratory of Agrobiology at Vytautas Magnus University Ag-riculture Academy. The findings indicate that long-term application of reduced tillage significantly increases soil shear strength. Shallower tillage depths lead to higher soil shear strength, while the effect of spreading plant residues is relatively lower. Long-term tillage of different intensities, spreading plant residues, and catch crop cultivation for green manure did not significantly affect soil structure. However, soil structural stability was found to be highly dependent on soil tillage. Cover cropping for green manure with no-till and no-tillage positively affected soil aggregate sta-bility in the upper (0–10 cm) and 10–25 cm layers.

Abstract: Due to their rapid evolution and their impact on health care, be-ta-lactamases, protein degrading beta-lactam antibiotics, are used as generic model of protein evolution. Therefore, we investigated the mutation effects in two distant beta-lactamases TEM-1 and CTX-M-15. Interestingly we found a site with a complex pattern of genetic interactions. Mutation G251W in TEM-1 is in-activating the protein’s function just as the reciprocal mutation W251G in CTXM-15. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that mutation G has been entrenched in TEM-1 background: while rarely observed throughout the phylogeny it is es-sential in TEM-1. Using a rescue experiment in TEM-1 G251W mutant, we could identify sites that alleviates the deviation from G to W. While few of these muta-tions could potentially involve local interactions, most of them were found on distant residues in the 3D structure. Many well-known mutations having an impact on protein stability, such as M182T, were recovered. Our results there-fore suggest that entrenchment of an amino acid may rely on diffuse interactions among multiple sites with a major impact on protein stability.

Consumption of milk contaminated with antibiotic residues above the maximum residue limit (MRL) causes direct toxicity to humans and the development of superbugs that leads to the failure of antibiotic therapy and threatens human life. Besides, long-duration exposure might alter the nature of gut microflora results in the enhancement of many diseases. Therefore, we examined 300 raw and processed packet milk samples using thin layer chromatography (TLC) and ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method against five veterinary antibiotics and assessed the risk for consumers in Chattogram, Bangladesh. Risk analysis was calculated by using hazard quotient on the basis of 165 ml per capita milk consumption. We found a total of 7% prevalence of antibiotic residues in raw milk samples which were higher (8%) in individual samples than the pooled samples (4%). However, we did not find any processed packet milk samples as positive. The mean concentration of oxytetracycline residue was detected 61.29 µg/l and amoxicillin was 124 µg/l in individual milk samples. Risk analysis showed the hazard quotient values of 0.0056 for oxytetracycline and 0.0017 for amoxicillin residue which was confirmed that, no significant health risk associated with the consumption of milk produced and marketed in the study area. Our study might fill the gap of knowledge to measure the safety status of milk regarding public health issues.

Fiber-cement composites were prepared from cellulosic cotton residue (CCR) arise from sanding process (emerizing). The effect of different concentrations: 0.5% and 1%, and granulometry: thick (retained in a14 mesh sieve) and thin (retained in a 48 mesh sieve) of this residue were evaluated on tensile strength of cement slurries with seven (07) curing days. To characterize the CCR, TGA, FT-IR, SEM and XRD analysis were performed and the residue resistance in an alkaline environment was also evaluated. Splitting tensile strength test, known as Brazilian Test, was used to assess effects of the fibers on the mechanical behavior of cement matrix. Analyzing the results, the CCR proved to be resistant in an alkaline environment, meaning that it can withstand the alkaline environment of cement matrix. The results showed an improvement superior to 17% in tensile strength for 1% of CCR. Therefore, the CCR presents a great application potential in cement pastes used for oil well cementing that requires to increase its tensile strength, once a significant improvement was achieved with a low-residue employee.

Aim: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a plyometric training program designed to enhance agility, speed, and social interaction among boys with mild intellectual disability (ID) aged 10-12, within the Special Olympics framework. Participants: Thirty-two boys (mean age = 10.69 ± 0.8 years; mean IQ = 61 ± 7) from three inclusive education centers participated in the study. Methods: The intervention consisted of a 10-week plyometric training program, conducted twice a week. Pre- and post-intervention assessments included the Reaction Time Test, 4-Corner Agility Test, 10-Meter Speed Run, 4x5 Meter Relay Test, and the Friendship Activity Scale (FAS). Results: The study found significant improvements across all measures. Reaction time decreased by 0.83 seconds (t = 7.44, p < 0.001), 4-corner agility improved by 0.77 seconds (t = 11.93, p < 0.001), 4x5 meter speed improved by 0.61 m/s (t = 17.37, p < 0.001), and 10-meter run speed improved by 1.55 m/s (t = -12.76, p < 0.001). Additionally, the FAS score increased by 0.81 points (t = 9.59, p < 0.001), indicating enhanced social interactions. Conclusion: The plyometric training program significantly improved agility, speed, and social interaction in children with mild ID, demonstrating the effectiveness of inclusive, adaptive physical education strategies within the Special Olympics framework.

Forest harvesting generates variable amounts of residue that represent a fire hazard and a hindrance to regeneration and must be managed accordingly. In South Africa, burning is the most common residue management method, but there is an interest in introducing safer and more effective techniques, such as mulching. For that reason, a productivity study was conducted in the Eastern Cape province to gather information on the productivity, cost, and work quality of the three main alternatives: manual broadcasting, manual broadcasting followed by mulching with an adapted farm tractor and mulching with a purpose-built mulcher. Manual broadcasting required 16 h/ha, mulching with a farm tractor 3.6 h/ha, and mulching with a purpose-built mulcher 0.9 h/ha (one pass). Manual broadcasting was the cheapest option, at a cost of 400 ZAR/ha. Mulching with a farm tractor and a purpose-built mulcher incurred a cost of 3 267 ZAR/ha and 4 083 ZAR/ha, respectively. Manual broadcasting achieved a minimal reduction of residue size, with 50% of the slash (branches and stem wood) having a mean length above 40 cm. When mulching with a farm tractor was applied, 49% of the slash (branches and stem wood) length reduced to about 30 cm. When a purpose-built mulcher was used, only 10% of the slash elements exceeded 40 cm length.

In no-tillage systems, there is an accumulation of crop residues (CR) which plays an important role in available of soil-N. A study was set up to provide information regarding the CR N credit, and the influence of N mineral fertilizer. An incubation was run in a loam soil with addition of a similar rate of residue (10 Mg ha-1; sugarcane, soybean, and brachiaria) and N mineral fertilizer (urea; 120 kg N ha-1). After the stabilization of biological activity, soil and remaining residues were collected, and N monitored. Results showed that the N credit was positive with application of soybean, sugarcane, and brachiaria. There was an expressive performance of soybean N credit represented by a positive balance, and a reduction from 2.49 to 0.9 g kg-1 of N in residue, with direct increase of 90% of soil-N. There is no need of N fertilizer to potentialize the soybean N credit, but it is requested to potentialize N credit of brachiaria and sugarcane. The urea demonstrated be a good enhancer of brachiaria N credit, but it was not adequate to sugarcane residues. Based in our result, the accumulation and incorporation of CR can be considered as a N credit with positive contribution in soil-N.

This paper focused on the oxidative leaching process of vanadium from vanadium-chromium reducing residue in alkaline medium with MnO₂. The effect of experimental parameters including reaction time, reaction temperature, dosage of MnO₂, dosage of NaOH, and liquid-to-solid ratio on the leaching efficiency of vanadium had been studied. The results indicated that MnO₂ was an efficient oxidant for leaching out of vanadium. The leaching efficiency of vanadium was up to 97.25% under optimal reaction conditions: reaction temperature of 90 ℃, reaction time of 60 min, dosage of MnO₂ at 50 wt.%, concentration of NaOH at 30 wt.% and liquid-to-solid at 5:1 mL/g.

Bauxite residue is the voluminous by-product of alumina production after Bayer process. Its high alkalinity causes disposal problems and harmful environmental impacts. However, the residue contains significant amounts of valuable elements such as rare earth elements including scandium. Greek bauxite residue contains a high amount of scandium close to its main resources. Taking into account scandium limited availability coupled with its high demand in modern technology, bauxite residue could be considered as a potential resource for scandium recovery. In this study, the optimization of scandium extraction from bauxite residue with sulfuric acid is investigated using Taguchi methodology. Based on previous studies acid molarity, leaching time, solid/liquid ratio and reaction temperature were selected as control parameters for the selective Sc recovery. Method optimization targeted the highest concentration of scandium combined with the lowest concentration of iron without taking into account applications constraints. The predicted values resulted by Taguchi methodology were affirmed by a confirmation experiment conducted at optimal conditions. Regression analysis provided the respective equations to be applied on several conditions depending on different applications.

Bauxite residue (BR) is a well promising resource for critical metals and especially scandium (Sc), a rare and expensive metal with increasing applications in advanced technology. Particularly, Greek BR’s composition indicates a sound possibility for a commercially viable recovery of Sc under the conditions of an optimized leaching process and the subsequent use of advanced separation techniques. Leaching with mineral acids emerges as the dominant selection with comparison to other techniques. This study investigates an optimized leaching condition set on Sc recovery, using sulfuric acid as the most suitable among different acids tested, in the context of process economics and environmental constraints. Several variables were studied individually or combined in order to achieve high Sc concentration in the leachate as well as to ensure selectivity, especially in respect to iron. The most significant parameters proved to be the solid to liquid ratio (S/L), the final pH value as well as the use of recycling of leachate on fresh BR batches. The proposed process, using sulfuric acid at low acid molarities under ambient conditions was integrated rapidly leading to high and selective Sc recovery. A flow diagram of the developed leaching process in industrial scale was proposed based on continuous operation.

In order to shorten the detection time and improve the average precision on embedded devices, A lightweight and high accuracy model is proposed for passion fruit in complex environments (backlight, occlusion, overlap, sunny, cloudy, rainy). Firstly, replacing the backbone network of YOLOv5 with a lightweight GhostNet model reduces the number of parameters and computation while improving detection speed. Secondly, a new feature branch is added to the GhostNet network, and the feature fusion layer in the neck network is reconstructed to effectively combine the lower-level and higher-level features, which not only improves the accuracy of the model but also maintains its lightweight. Finally, the knowledge distillation methods are used to transfer the knowledge from the more capable teacher model to the less capable student model, which significantly improving the detection accuracy. The improved model is denoted as G-YOLO-NK. The average accuracy of the G-YOLO-NK network is 96.00%, which is 1.00% higher than the original YOLOv5s model. Furthermore, the improved model size is 7.14MB, reduced to half of the original model, and the real-time detection frame rate is 11.25 FPS on the Jetson Nano. Compared to the state-of-the-art model, the proposed model outperforms them in terms of average precision and detection performance. The present work provides an effective model for real-time detection of passion fruits in complex orchard scenes, which can provide valuable technical support for the development of orchard picking robots and greatly improve the intelligence level of orchards.

Knee osteoarthritis (KO) is an important health condition, affecting one third of the people aged 65 years or more. Pain is the main cause of disability. Pain management in KO includes pharmacological and non-pharmacological modalities. Patient education, lifestyle changes, physical exercise and physical agents are prescribed as a first approach for pain control. Laser therapy is part of many therapeutical protocols, with two forms, low-level laser therapy (LLLT) and high-intensity laser therapy (HILT). The paper aimed at stressing the advantages of HILT, based on a greater wavelength, higher energy delivery and deeper tissue penetration. Research on 23 published trials revealed that analgesic effect is rapid, cumulative and long lasting. Compared to sham, to LLLT or to other associations of therapeutical modalities, HILT provided significantly better results on pain reduction and functional improvement. Ultrasound examination showed reduction of intraarticular inflammation.

A high-gain broadband circularly polarized crossed dipole antenna is designed. This antenna utilizes two pairs of cross dipoles and a pair of phase delay lines to form circularly polarized radiation. Open-circuit stubs are loaded on the four arms of these two pairs of cross dipoles to introduce new circularly polarized resonating frequency. A rectangular ring patch is introduced directly below the cross dipoles to form the third circularly polarized resonating frequency, thereby broadening the axial ratio bandwidth of the antenna. In addition, metal posts are loaded at the four right angles of the rectangular ring patch to increase the antenna gain. Measurement results show that the antenna achieves a 3dB axial ratio bandwidth of 29.2% (1.9 GHz-2.55 GHz) and maintains a gain of 7.5 dB within the passband, exhibiting good circularly polarized radiation performance.

Thirty-six healthy 21-day-old weaned ternary piglets (Duroc × Landrace × Yorkshire) were randomly divided into 2 treatments with 18 replicates per treatment and 1 pig per replicate. The control group was fed with basal diet and the test group was fed with diets supplemented with 1 kg/t tea residue. The test period was 28 days. The results are as follows: The addition of tea residue in the diet has no significant effect on the growth performance of weaned piglets (P > 0.05), but it could significantly reduce the diarrhea rate of piglets from 1 to 7 days and 1 to 28 days (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the dietary supplementation of tea residue had no significant effect on nutrient apparent digestibility, plasma biochemical indexes and plasma immune indexes (P > 0.05), but increased the content of glutathione in plasma (P < 0.05). Tea residue had no significant effect on the morphology of jejunum and ileum of piglets (P > 0.05), but it could significantly reduce the content of chloride ion in feces (P < 0.05). Compared with the basal diet group, there was no significant difference in the relative expression of TMEM16A and CFTR mRNA in the colon of weaned piglets (P > 0.05). The whole-cell patch clamp recording showed that the TMEM16A and CFTR ion channels could be activated by ionomycin and forskolin, respectively. However, when the HT-29 cells transfected with TMEM16A and CFTR channels were treated with tea residue extract, it could significantly inhibit the chloride current of the TMEM16A and CFTR ion channels (P < 0.05).

Polyurethane (PU) is a polymer widely used by humans whose recycling is highly complex due his chemical structure, being limited to incineration or accumulation in landfills. Biodegradation by enzymes and microorganisms has been studied for decades as an effective method of biological decomposition. In this study, Tenebrio molitor larvae (T. molitor) were fed with polyurethane foams, which gut enzymes and microorganisms were capable of degrading the polymer by 35% in 17 days of treatment, producing a weight loss of 14% in the mealworm. Changes in T. molitor gut bacterial community and diversity were observed, which may be due to colonization of species associated with PU degradation. Physical and structural biodegradation in PU by T. molitor compared to virgin PU, was demonstrated by Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Scanning Electron Microphotography (SEM).

Elemental sulfur, commonly known for its wide range of biological activity, has a long history of being used to protect all garden and vegetable crops from a range of pests and diseases, including powdery mildew, ascochyta blight, clubroot, plant mites, oidium, anthracnose, and scab. In the present study, a quick and environmentally friendly approach has been developed for the synthesis of sulfur nanoparticles with antibacterial activity. Sulfur nanoparticles (SNPs) were prepared by modifying the surface of elemental sulfur using various polyelectrolyte-surfactant mixtures (PSM) including NaCMC-SDBS and PHMG-CTAB. The SNPs were characterized by UV–visible spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG/DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), with the SNPs showing an almost spherical shape with an average size in the range of 150-200 nm. The antibacterial activity of the sulfur nanoparticles was tested using against gram-positive S. aureus and E. faecium and gram-negative E. coli and P. aeruginosa bacteria. From this, it could be seen that SNPs exhibited significant antimicrobial activity against gram-positive bacteria, i.e., S. aureus and E. faecium. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the SNPs-1 and SNPs-2 studied to normal (MeT-5A) and tumorous (MCF-7) human cell lines was assessed in the concentration range from 500 μg/ml to 0.12 mg/ml, from which it was determined as being non-cytotoxic. The received products can be considered for potential application in agriculture and medicine.

YOLOv8, as an efficient object detection method, can swiftly and precisely identify objects within images. However, traditional algorithms encounter difficulties when detecting small targets in remote sensing images, such as missing information, background noise, and interactions among multiple objects in complex scenes, which may affect performance. To tackle these challenges, we propose an enhanced algorithm optimized for detecting small objects in remote sensing images, named HP-YOLOv8. Firstly, we design the C2f-D-Mixer (C2f-DM) module as a replacement for the original C2f module. This module integrates both local and global information, significantly improving the ability to detect features of small objects. Secondly, we introduce a feature fusion technique based on attention mechanisms, named Bi-Level Routing Attention in Gated Feature Pyramid Network (BGFPN). This technique utilizes an efficient feature aggregation network and reparameterization technology to optimize information interaction between different scale feature maps, and through the Bi-level Routing Attention (BRA) mechanism, it effectively captures critical feature information of small target objects. Finally, we propose the Smooth Mean Perpendicular Distance Intersection over Union (SMPDIoU) loss function. The method comprehensively considers the shape and size of detection boxes, enhances the model's focus on the attributes of detection boxes and provides a more accurate bounding box regression loss calculation method. To demonstrate our approach's efficacy, we conduct comprehensive experiments across the RSOD, NWPU VHR-10, and VisDrone2019 datasets. The experimental results show that the HP-YOLOv8 achieves 95.11%, 93.05%, and 53.49% in the [email protected] metric, and 72.03%, 65.37%, and 38.91% in the more stringent [email protected]:0.95 metric, respectively.

The present study aimed to evaluate the technical feasibility of using a calcined aggregate with mining residue in different pavement layers, including base, sub-base, and wearing course. For this purpose, the physical characterization of the residue and clay was performed, as well as the production of calcined aggregates at temperatures ranging from 800ºC to 1100ºC. Additionally, the suitability of these aggregates in pavement layers was assessed, considering the current standards. The physical results characterization indicated that the studied clay is suitable for manufacturing calcined clay aggregates since the particle size distribution showed ceramic potential - according to the Winkler diagram - and presented a plasticity index (PI) higher than 15%. In the tests of boiling-induced mass loss and unit mass, the values obtained were within the limits established by the standards, being lower than 10% and 0.88 g/cm3, respectively. Regarding the abrasion loss test, the M1100 aggregate showed "Los Angeles" abrasion values lower than the limit established by the standard, demonstrating its potential as an artificial aggregate in pavement applications.

There have been many researches on the surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors for detecting sulfur-containing toxic or harmful gases. This paper aims to give an overview of the current state of the polymer films used in SAW sensors for detecting deleterious gases. By covering most of the important polymer materials, the structures and types of polymers are summarized, and a variety of devices with different frequency, such as delay lines and array sensors for detecting mustard gas, hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide are introduced. The preparation method of polymer films, the sensitivity of the SAW gas sensor, the limit of detection, the influence of temperature and humidity, and the anti-interference ability are discussed in detail. The advantages and disadvantages of the films are also analyzed, and the potential application of polymer films in the future is also forecasted.

This preliminary study introduces the incorporation and chemical stabilization of sulfur waste into geopolymers matrix and explores the concept of material production for further environmental and engineering solutions. Geopolymers were synthesized by dissolving sulfur in the alkaline activator of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate in different proportions. The Alkaline solution was then mixed with metakaolin to synthesize the geopolymer matrix. Adding sulfur from 0 wt.% to 5 wt.%, compared with metakaolin, was found to lead to an increase in the compressive strength of the geopolymer from 22.5 MPa to 29.9MPa. When sulfur is between 5 wt.% and 15 wt.%, a decrease in compressive strength was observed to 15.7 MPa, which can be explained by defects and voids in the geopolymer microstructure through the solubility of excess sulfur and thus the formation of defects and voids in the geopolymer microstructure. Because of the incorporation of sulfur into the geo-polymer, a compact and dense microstructure is formed as reported in the SEM analysis. XRD analysis shows that besides quartz and Analcime, a new phase, Al2·H10·O17·S3, is also formed as a result of sulfur dissolution in alkaline activator of geopolymer.

A PLS-based quality prediction method is proposed for batch processes using two-dimensional extended windows. To realize the adoption of information in the direction of sampling time and batch, a new definition region of support (ROS), k-i-back-extended region of support (KIBROS), is proposed to establish the extended window, which including the data of the previous sampling times in the same batch, the data of the same sampling time in the historical batches, the data of the previous sampling times in the historical batches and the data of the later sampling times in the historical batches. According to these regions of support, extended windows are established, and different models are proposed based on the extended windows for batch processes quality prediction. Further, using a typical batch process as an example, the injection molding process, the proposed quality prediction method is experimentally verified, proving that the proposed methods have higher prediction accuracy than the traditional method and the prediction stability is also improved.

A dynamic impact test was performed on as-rolled AZ31 alloy with gradient microstructure under various strains. The microstructural evolution and mechanical properties were systematically investigated. As the strain rate gradually increases, an increasing number of twins are formed, facilitating dynamic recrystallization (DRX), and the mechanical properties are also gradually improved as well. The microstructure becomes heterogeneous at higher strain rates, but the peak stress decreases. The impact process results in significantly higher performance due to microstructural refinement, work hardening by dislocations and precipitates. In addition, both the adiabatic shear band and the adjacent crack experience a temperature rise that exceeds the recrystallization temperature of the alloy. This observation also explains the presence of ultrafine recrystallized grains within the adiabatic shear band and the appearance of molten metal around the crack.

Abstract: High step-up voltage gain nonisolated DC-DC converter have attracted much attention in photovoltaic, fuel cells and other renewable energy system applications. In this paper, by combining input current ripple-free boost cell with coupled-inductor voltage-doubler cell, an input current ripple-free high voltage gain nonisolated converter is proposed. In addition, passive lossless clamp circuit is adopted to recycle the leakage inductor energy and to reduce the voltage spike across the power switch. By utilizing voltage-doubler cell consisting of diode and capacitor, the voltage stress of switch is further reduced and the resonance between the leakage inductor and the stray capacitor of the output diode is eliminated. A low switch-on-resistance low-voltage-rated MOSFET can therefore be employed to reduce the conduction loss and cost. The reverse recovery loss of output diode is reduced, and the efficiency of converter can be improved. Furthermore, the proposed converter can achieve nearly zero input current-ripple and make the design of electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter easy. Steady state analysis and operation mode of the converter is performed. Finally, experimental results are presented to verify the analysis results of the proposed converter.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive condition that affects more than 10% of the world's population. Monitoring urine albumin and creatinine ratio (µACR) has become the gold standard for nephropathy diagnosis and control. The objective of the present study was to develop a simple, accurate, sensitive, and rapid point-of-care test (PoCT) device - MYμALBUMIN that community healthcare professionals can use in resource-limited facilities and by patients in their own homes for screening the risk and monitoring the progress of CKD. Albumin and creatinine concentrations in urine samples were determined using spectrophotometric dye (tetrabromophenol blue)-binding and colorimetric Jaffe’assay, respectively. Urine samples were diluted with distilled water (1:80) and mixed separately with albumin and creatinine reaction mixture. The creatinine reaction was incubated at room temperature (25oC) for 30 minutes before analysis. Optical density (OD) was measured at the wavelengths of 625 nm (albumin) and 515 nm (creatinine). All calibration curves (2-60 mg/L and 0.25-2 mg/dL for albumin and creatinine) yielded linear relationships with correlation coefficients (r2) of &gt; 0.999. Good accuracy (%DMV &lt; + 2.88%) and precision (%CV &lt; 3.0%) were observed from both the intra- or interday assays for the determination of albumin and creatinine by MYµALBUMIN. The limit of quantification (LOQ) of albumin and creatinine in urine samples determined by MYµALBUMIN and laboratory spectrophotometer were 2 mg/L and 0.1 mg/dL, respectively, using 37.5 μL urine samples. The device was well applied with clinical samples from 13 CKD patients. The median (range) of %DMV of the central (hospital) laboratory method (immune-based assay) was 3.18 (-10.11 to 14.12)%, with a high correlation coefficient (r2 &gt;0.99). In conclusion, MYμALBUMIN showed satisfactory test performance in terms of accuracy, reproducibility, sensitivity, and specificity. The device would have significant economic benefits besides obviously improving clinical decision-making processes.

Coffee production around the world is under threat due to climate variability and change, and drought stress will increase in many coffee regions, nutrient management practices could enhance the adaptation capacity of coffee production. Considering that coffee is a sensitive crop to boron (B) deficiency, this research investigated how B nutrition improves resistance to drought stress in coffee under controlled conditions as well how with interaction with calcium (Ca+2) influences productivity, seed compositions, and soil fertility during a production cycle of 5 year. Under controlled conditions for seven months, coffee plants were submitted to water stress with and without B nutrition. In the field, coffee plantation was submitted to two B rates (0,6 and 1,1 kg. ha-1-year-1) with fixed calcium (Ca+2) rate and, a control without Ca+2 and B. After 9 months of growth and seven months of water deficit, under controlled conditions, the application of B significantly (p&lt;0,05) reduced the negative effect of water stress on coffee growth. Under field conditions, after a production cycle of 5 years, the application of 0,6 kg B and 77 kg CaO. ha-1. year-1 yielded 14% more than the control without B and Ca+2. An increase of the B rate to 1.1 kg.ha-1.year-1 with the same Ca+2 rate increased the productivity significantly (p&lt;0,05) by 37% compared to the control. B application also improved significantly (p&lt;0,05) the B content in the soil at 0-30 cm. The B treatments influenced the biochemical composition of the green coffee beans, with a significant (p&lt;0,05) inverse correlation between the B content of the green coffee beans with caffeine, and unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) mainly, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids which are considered negative descriptors of the coffee quality.

In this experiment, the fermented pineapple residue (FPR) was replaced with 0% (CON), 25% (T25) and 50% (T50) in the diet based on silage royal grass roxb for 30 days in the fattened fatten bulls to evaluate the effect of FPR on growth performance, serum indicators and rumen characteristics.Thirty Simmental calves were selected and divided into three groups according to a completely random design.The temperature and humidity of the cowshed shall be measured every day.Rectal temperature and blood of cattle were measured, and blood and immune markers were measured.The results showed that the rectal temperature decreased significantly when adding 25% fermented pineapple residue (P&lt;0.05), and the rectal temperature decreased significantly when adding 50% fermented pineapple residue (P&lt;0.01).The content of T4 and TC in serum of cattle in T50 group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P&lt;0.01), and the content of T3 was significantly higher than that in the control group (P&lt;0.05), and the content of CR was significantly lower than that in the control group (P&lt;0.01). Fermented pineapple residue can indeed improve the oxidative (heat) stress resistance of finishing cattle. In the correlation experiment, bacterial genera such as Succinniclassicum, Melainabacteria, Lachnospiraceae, and Fibrobacteres all showed significant or extremely significant correlations with heat stress-related indicators.

In the FCC conversion of heavy petroleum fractions as atmospheric residues, the main challenge for refiners to achieve the quantity and quality of various commercial products depends essentially on the catalyst used in the process. A deep characterization of the catalyst at different steps of the process (fresh, regenerated, and spent catalyst) was investigated to study the catalyst's behavior including the physicochemical evolution, the deactivation factor, and kinetic-thermodynamic parameters. All samples have been characterized by various spectroscopy methods such as N2 adsorption-desorption, UV-visible spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, LECO carbon analysis, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR13C) analysis, and Thermogravimetric analysis. The results of N2 adsorption-desorption, UV-vis, Raman, LECO carbon, and SEM images showed that the main causes of catalyst deactivation and coking were the deposition of carbon species that covered the active sites and clogged the pores, and the attrition factor due to thermal conditions and poisonous metals. The XRD and XRF results showed the catalyst’s physicochemical evolution during the process and the different interlinks between catalyst and feedstock (Nickel, Vanadium, Sulfur, and Iron) elements which should be responsible for the coking and catalyst attrition factor. It has been found that, in addition to the temperature, the residence time of the catalyst in the process also has an influence on catalyst structure transformation. NMR13C analysis revealed that polyaromatic hydrocarbon is the main component in the deposited coke of the spent catalyst. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the order of catalyst mass loss was fresh > regenerated > spent catalyst due to the progressive losses of the hydroxyl bonds (OH) and the structure change along the catalyst thermal treatment. Moreover, the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters showed that all zones are non-spontaneous endothermic reactions.

Aiming at the industrial scale development of a Scandium (Sc)-selective leaching process of Bauxite Residue (BR), a sufficiently numerous set of process design aspects has been investigated, by appropriate exploitation of available experimental data. The interpretation of experimental data for Sc leaching yield, with sulfuric acid as the leaching solvent, has shown significant impact from acid feed concentration, mixing residence time, liquid to solids ratio, and times of leachate re-usage onto fresh BR. The thin film diffusion model, as the fundamental theory for leaching, either with constant particle size for selective leaching, or with shrinking particle size for less-, or non-, selective leaching, interprets sufficiently well the relevant experimental data. In both cases, a concept for an unyielding core supplements the basic model. Especially for the selective leaching mild conditions, the simplest model version keeps step with the experiments, since both prove 1^st order kinetics, while especially for the extreme conditions including very low solvent excess, it is proposed a combined conversion rate model with diffusion and chemical reaction inside particles. The maximization of Sc recovery per unit of consumed solvent (i.e., specific recovery) emerged as highly critical for the process economics.

In the process of oil and gas development and production, when the flow rate in the wellbore is large, the materials underground will be eroded, causing the operation to be unable to proceed smoothly and reducing the efficiency of oil and gas production. Therefore, optimizing the anti-erosion coating under high-speed flow conditions in wellbore is a very interesting thing. It can greatly improve operational efficiency. In this paper, laser cladding was used to prepare the new coating used in the PDC drill bit. Then, the effects of tungsten carbide and multi-layer graphene on the microstructure and properties of the tungsten carbide coating were studied. The research results indicate that, for new coatings, 60% tungsten carbide and 0.3% graphene are the optimal ratios. After adding WC, the hardness has significantly improved. However, when the WC content further increases more than 30%, the increase in hardness is relatively small. In addition, when the content of graphene is more than 0.3%, the branched structure became thicker, and not only the segregation of Cr, Si and W became very obvious again, but also the segregation of Fe occurred at the Ni enrichment site. The research results contribute to improving oil and gas production and operational efficiency under high-speed fluid flow conditions in the wellbore.

This work discussed the advantages of reducing copper in molten copper slag with low S content. FactSage calculated the distribution of copper at equilibrium under different sulfur content. The effect of sulfur content on copper recovery under different oxygen partial pressures was pointed out. The effect of sulfur content on copper recovery in the actual reduction process was explored through experimental research. Under the condition of low sulfur, the Recovery of copper and the stability of the experiment have an ideal results.

This study presents the utilization of the Microwave InfraRed Thermography (MIRT) technique to identify and analyze the defects in the carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite rein-forcement of concrete specimens. At first, a set of the numerical models was created, comprising of the broadband pyramidal horn antenna and the analyzed specimen. The utilization the system operating at a power of 1000W in a continuous mode, operating at frequency of 2.45 GHz was analyzed. The specimen under examination comprised a compact concrete slab that was covered with an adhesive layer, thereafter, topped with a layer of CFRP. An air gap represented a defect at the interface between the concrete and CFRP within the adhesive layer. In the modelling stage the study investigated three separate scenarios: a sample with no defects, a sample with a defect located at the center, and a sample with a numerous additional random defects located at the rim of the CFRP matte, to analyze the effect of the natural reinforcement degradation in this area. The next phase of the study involved conducting experiments to confirm the results obtained from nu-merical modeling. In the experiments the concrete sample aged for 10 years with the defect in the center and naturally developed defects at the CFRP rim was used. The study employed numerical modeling to explore the phenomenon of microwave heating in complex structures. The aim was to assess the chosen antenna design and identify the most effective experimental setup. These con-clusions were subsequently confirmed through experimentation. The observations made during the heating process were particularly remarkable, since they deviated from earlier studies that solely conducted measurements of the sample post-heating phase. The findings demonstrate that MIRT has the capacity to be employed as a technique for detecting flaws in concrete structures reinforced with CFRP.