This paper proposed three-dimensional numerical simulation method by coupling of electrostatic and fluid fields to evaluating the performance of electrical sensor in the concentration measurement of gas/solid two-phase flow. Compared with the static numerical simulation, this real-time dynamic 3-D simulation method can research on a designed capacitance sensor combining the dynamic characteristics of the two-phase flows for concentration measurement. Several fluid-electrostatic models of transmission pipes with different sensor structures are built. Under different test positions and different particle concentrations, the flow characteristics and the corresponding electric signals can be obtained, and the correlation coefficient between the concentration values and the capacitance values are used for performance evaluation of the sensors. The effects of flow regimes on concentration measurement are also been investigated in this paper. To validate the results of simulation, an experimental platform with horizontal straight pipe for phase volume concentration measurement of solid/air two-phase flow is built, and the experimental results agree well with simulation conclusions. The simulation and test results show that the coupling models can give constructive reference opinions for the sensor design and collection of installation position in different transmission pipelines, which are very important for the practical process of pneumatic conveying system.

A new formulation for a proposed solution to the 3D Navier-Stokes Equations in cylindrical co-ordinates coupled to the continuity and level set convection equation is presented in terms of an additive solution of the three principle directions in the radial, azimuthal and z directions of flow and a connection between the level set function and composite velocity vector for the additive solution is shown. For the case of a vertical tube configuration with small inclination angle, results are obtained for the level set function defining the interface in both the radial and azimuthal directions. It is found that the curvature dependent part of the problem alone induces sinusoidal azimuthal interfacial waves wheras when the curvature together with the equation for the composite velocity is considered oscillating radial interfacial waves occur. The implications of two extremes indicate the importance of looking at the full equations including curvature.

The rapid convergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), autonomous drones, and applied robotics presents a transformative opportunity for many sectors. However, this advancement also raises critical ethical and existential questions, particularly in warfare. This paper explores the concept of entropy as a metaphor for the potential disorder introduced by these increasingly complex technologies. We examine the risks of AGI surpassing human control in conflict situations, where autonomous decision-making could have disastrous consequences. We then analyze autonomous drones, scrutinizing their impact on warfare tactics and the ethical dilemmas surrounding independent, real-time decision-making. Finally, we investigate applied robotics in military operations, focusing on the delicate balance between enhanced capabilities and the potential for uncontrollable systems. Through a multidisciplinary lens, drawing on technology ethics, military strategy, and AI safety, this paper utilizes the concept of entropy to highlight the need for caution in developing these technologies. We propose a scientifically grounded and ethically sound framework to guide policymakers, technologists, and ethicists in navigating the path between innovation and global stability. This framework concludes with recommendations for responsible development and deployment strategies that can mitigate the risks associated with these powerful tools.

The increasing demand for higher power in rocket launchers is driving the development of higher power nozzles, achieved essentially by increasing the expansion ratio. However, this can lead to flow separation and resulting unsteady, asymmetrical forces, called side loads, which can limit the life of both the nozzle itself and other engine components. If this problem can be overcome, engine performance can be significantly increased. Therefore, various separation control methods have been proposed, but none have been fully implemented to date due to the uncertainties associated with modeling and predicting the flow phenomena. A numerical study of high area ratio rocket engine is presented to analyze the aeroelastic performance of the structure under the condition of flow separation. The finite volume method, the 2nd order upwind scheme and the extended wall function are used to analyze the flow inside the rocket nozzle and the transition of the Free Shock Separation (FSS) to Restricted Shock Separation (RSS) separation pattern ) to be discussed in detail. Since the location of the flow separation point depends heavily on the flow.

The Circular Bioeconomy (CBE) combines the concepts of bioeconomy and circular economy. As an alternative concept to the current fossil-based, linear economy, it de-scribes an economy based on the efficient valorization of biomass. It is regional in nature and aims to improve sustainability. An analysis of the transition process, by identifying its success criteria and assessing its impacts through the modelling of technology-specific scenarios is necessary to ensure that CBE concepts are sustainable. However, a compre-hensive consideration of regional influences on both is lacking. Based on extensive literature research and an expert survey, we (i) present a compre-hensive catalog of CBE success criteria and discuss their region-specific character and (ii) develop a methodology based on evaluation matrices that enable to match CBE technolo-gies with regions. The matrices support the evaluation of technological and regional characteristics influencing the successful CBE implementation. The results show that the success criteria "biomass resources", "technological", and "social" are perceived as highly important, and that most of the success criteria are both region- and technology-specific, highlighting the relevance of developing matrices to match them. We describe such matrices indicatively for the two broadest and most im-portant success criteria clusters “social acceptance” and “biomass supply chain”. With this, we substantiate the regional nature of CBE and raise the awareness on the importance of considering regional conditions in CBE transition processes. Furthermore, we provide practical guidance on how regional conditions can be reflected in the selection of technologies, e.g. in regional CBE technology scenarios.

This paper presents MADS (Multi-Agents for Data Science), an innovative and simple open-source multi-agent framework designed for systemic pipeline execution in applied supervised machine learning. By leveraging the capabilities of multi-agent systems (MAS), we introduce a universal approach to optimize and streamline machine learning pipelines. Our framework highlights the differences between various types of agents, such as reinforcement learning (RL) agents and large language model (LLM) agents, and their distinct contributions to the process. While we currently employ LLM agents to automate and enhance machine learning tasks, we acknowledge the potential of incorporating RL agents in future iterations to further improve performance and adaptability. The primary objective is to enhance the efficiency, scalability, and adaptability of supervised learning applications across various domains. This integration addresses the complexity and manual effort typically associated with machine learning workflows, paving the way for more automated, robust, and scalable solutions. Our approach demonstrates significant improvements in task automation, reduced human intervention, and enhanced model performance. The MADS framework, which will soon be available as an open-source implementation, represents a pivotal contribution to the field of machine learning, promising to facilitate broader adoption and collaborative advancement.

In this work, we develop a self-consistent physical model of bubbles in a gas solid two-phase flow. Using the Peng-Robonson state equation and a detailed specific heat ratio equation of bubbles, we obtain the kinetic equations of the bubbles on the basis of the Ergun equation, thermodynamic equations, and kinetic equations. It is found that the specific heat ratio of bubbles in such systems strongly depends on bubble pressures and temperatures, which play an important role in the characteristics of the bubbles. The theoretical studies show that with increasing height in the systems, the gas flow rate shows a downward trend. Moreover, the larger particles in the gas solid flows are, the greater the gas velocity is. The bubble sizes increase with the increasing heights of the gas solid systems, and then decrease. The bubble velocity is affected by the gas velocity and the bubble size, which gradually increase and eventually quasi-stabilize. This shows that gas and solid phases in a gas solid two-phase flow interact with each other and a self-consistent system comes into being. The theoretical results have exhibited important value as a guide for understanding the properties and effects of bubbles in gas solid two-phase flows.

The erosion of surface pipelines induced by proppant flowback during shale gas production is significant. The surface pipelines in a shale gas field in the Sichuan Basin experienced perforation failures after only five months of service. To investigate the erosion features of L360N, coatings, and ceramics and optimize the selection of two protective materials, a gas-solid two-phase flow jet erosion experimental device was used to explore the erosion resistance of L360N, coating, and ceramic under different impact velocities (15 m/s, 20 m/s, and 30 m/s). An energy dispersive spectroscope, a scanning electron microscope, and a laser confocal microscope were employed to analyze erosion morphologies. With the increase in flow velocity, erosion depth and erosion rate of L360N, coating, and ceramic increased and peaked under an impact velocity of 30 m/s. Maximum erosion rate and maximum erosion depth of L360N were respectively 0.0350 mg/g and 37.5365 µm. Its primary material removal mechanism was plowing of solid particles and microcracks were distributed on the material surface under high flow velocities. Maximum erosion rate and maximum erosion depth of coating were respectively 0.0217 mg/g and 18.9964 µm. Its primary material removal mechanism was the detachment of the binder phase Co caused by plowing. Maximum erosion rate and maximum erosion depth of ceramics were respectively 0.0108 mg/g and 12.4856 µm. The erosion mechanisms were micro-cutting and plowing. Under different particle impact velocity, different erosion morphologies were observed, but the primary erosion mechanism was the same. The erosion resistance of ceramics was higher than that of coating. Therefore, ceramic lining materials could be used to protect the easily eroded parts, such as pipeline bends and tees, and reduce the failure rate by more than 93%. The study provided the data and theoretical basis for the theoretical study on oil and gas pipeline erosion and pipeline material selection.

This study will present a comprehensive review of the two-phase flow boiling heat transfer coefficient of hydrocarbons such propane (R-290), butane (R-600) and iso-butane (R-600a) and ethanol at various experimental conditions. Studying the multiphase flow heat transfer coefficient has a crucial importance for many heat transfer equipment to achieve higher efficiency for more compact design and cost reduction. One reason behind choosing hydrocarbons as refrigerants in this study is because hydrocarbons have zero ozone depletion potential (ODP=0) and insignificant direct global warming potential (GWP = 3). Moreover, thermodynamic and thermophysical characteristics of hydrocarbons qualify them to be a strong candidate for more heat transfer applications. Initially, by constructing a database for the working fluids from various experimental work available in the literature. The current data that this study has collected for the flow boiling of spans wide ranges of parameters, such as: mass flux, heat flux, operating pressure, and saturation temperature, etc. Furthermore, by comparing the experimental multiphase heat transfer coefficient database with the anticipated values of each correlation, the prediction performance of 26 correlations found in the literature was assessed. This study leads to the selection of the best prediction method based on the minimum deviation of predicted results from the experimental database provided by calculated mean absolute error (MAE) from the assessed correlations. The findings of this study can also be useful in the development of more accurate correlation methods for these fluids and improve the prediction of their flow boiling characteristics.

In chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a clonal proliferative disorder of granulocytic lineage, the 90%‐95% of cases are characterized by t(9;22) (q34.1;q11.2) translocation, leading to the Philadelphia chromosome (1). Rarely, CML patients directly present a blast crisis, mostly of myeloid origin (2, 3). Herein, we describe one rare CML case, showing an unusual early T lymphoid blastic crisis.

Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSNs) can enable a broad range of applications such as resource monitoring, disaster prevention, and navigation-assisted. It is especially relevant for sensor nodes location in UWSNs. Global Positioning System (GPS) is not suitable for using in UWSNs because of the underwater propagation problems. Hence some localization algorithms based on the precise time synchronization between sensor nodes have been proposed which are not feasible for UWSNs. In this paper, we propose a localization algorithm called Two-Phase Time Synchronization-Free Localization Algorithm (TP-TSFLA). TP-TSFLA contains two phases, namely, range-based estimation phase and range-free evaluation phase. In the first phase, we address a time synchronization-free localization scheme base on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to decrease the localization error. In the second phase, we propose a Circle-based Range-Free Localization Algorithm (CRFLA) to locate the unlocalized sensor nodes which cannot obtain the location information through the first phase. In the second phase, sensor nodes which are localized in the first phase act as the new anchor nodes to help realize localization. Hence in this algorithm, we use a small number of mobile beacons to help achieve location without any other anchor nodes. Besides, to improve the precision of the range-free method, an extension of CRFLA by designing a coordinate adjustment scheme is updated. The simulation results show that TP-TSFLA can achieve a relative high localization ratio without time synchronization.

This research presents a comprehensive computational analysis of the two-phase flow dynamics within a three-dimensional porous transport layer (PTL) in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. Employing advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a volume of fluid (VOF) approach, the study utilizes the finite-volume method to model a time-dependent, isothermal process within a laminar flow regime. Notably, the study treats oxygen as the dispersed phase and water as the continuous phase within the system. Investigations on the anode side uncovered the formation of gas bubbles on the electrode's surface subsequent to the electrochemical reaction. The simulation, spanning 5 seconds with 0.25-second intervals, highlights the critical role of the time interval between the initiation and 2 seconds in achieving pressure and velocity equilibrium within the PTL. The initial 0.75 seconds witnessed a peak in oxygen concentration, followed by its movement across the PTL, exhibiting a transition from regions of lower to higher concentration, consistent with known physical behaviour. Remarkably, the model recorded the highest pressure of 3.5 Pa at 0.25 s. Furthermore, the study observed an incremental pressure drop from 0.25 s to 0.5 s and 1 s, approximately amounting to 28.5% and 20%, respectively, ultimately leading to a uniform pressure distribution within the model. Over time, the pressure drop intensified across the entire model due to the evolving nature of the oxygen gas. These findings provide valuable insights into the complex dynamics of two-phase flow processes within PEM electrolyzers, contributing to the advancement of sustainable energy technologies.

As development progresses, when the bottom hole flowing pressure or formation pressure is less than the saturation pressure of crude oil in the reservoir, oil and gas two-phase seepage occurs in the reservoir. Due to the characteristics of oil and gas two-phase seepage, after the oil and gas two-phase seepage occurs in the reservoir, the well production will be reduced, or even greatly reduced. Therefore, how to predict the horizontal well capacity better in this case is an important problem that needs to be solved urgently. In this paper, the method and process of establishing the transient calculation model of two-phase flow in horizontal wells are introduced in detail from three aspects: fluid physical properties, reservoir oil-gas two-phase seepage, and the coupling model of Inflow Performance and Flow in Wellbore. The model is more reliable through the verification of production data from five wells in two oilfields.

This article discusses a focused study on visualizing the flow patterns in a two-phase pulsating heat pipe (PHP) using Fe₃O₄/water as the working fluid at 3 V/V% concentration. The research also aims to meticulously examine phase change phenomena in the heating section, particularly focusing on bubble formation and expansion processes. A high-speed video camera was utilized to capture dynamic insights into the behavior of the Fe₃O₄/water mixture. Based on the findings, a straightforward model was developed to explain bubble generation and growth in the mixture, serving as a useful reference for future PHP designs and optimizations. Visual observations also noted the stable nature of the Fe₃O₄/water nanofluid over a four-day period, confirming its consistency throughout the experiments. Moreover, the impact of heat load variation on the evaporator section was assessed using controlled heat inputs ranging from 10 to 80 Watts. Observations on the arrangement of slugs and plugs at a 50% filling ratio revealed interesting self-adjusting flow patterns in response to increasing heat inputs, providing valuable insights into PHP operational dynamics. Notably, the oscillatory flow behavior of Fe₃O₄/water, the chosen working fluid, exhibited greater activity in comparison to water. This distinctive flow behavior contributed to achieving heightened thermal performance efficiency for the Fe₃O₄/water system, attributed to its faster attainment of the annular flow condition.

In a Water-Cooled Lithium-Lead (WCLL) Breeding Blanket (BB), the heat generated by the plasma thermal radiation and nuclear reactions is removed mainly by two components; namely, the First Wall (FW) and the Breeding Zone (BZ). The FW faces the neutrons and charged particles fluxes generated by the fusion reactions and the thermal radiation coming from the plasma. The present work takes into account the FW cooling system inspired by the WCLL BB 2018 design of DEMO 2017 baseline. Unlike the baseline where a Pressurized-Water Reactor (PWR) setup is used for the coolant, various setup between the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) and the High-Pressure (HP) BWR are studied in the present work operating in the Two-Phase Flow (TPF) regime. The 3D model of the FW in the WCLL BB 2018 design is simplified into a 1D model and a steady state analysis is carried out to optimize the mass flow rate of the water and the number of parallel channels at the BB cells at different poloidal locations of the reactor, which helps not only in reducing the used coolant but also in improving the Tritium Breeding Ratio (TBR). The present work takes into account forced convection in the liquid only region, the subcooled boiling region, and the saturated boiling region using suitable empirical or semi-empirical models from the literature. The results are validated against the existing results in the literature. In the end, related conclusions are made regarding the pros and cons of the studied operating conditions.

The paper presents a proposal for an in-house mathematical model of a liquid flat-plate solar collector. The proposed model is a one-dimensional distributed parameter model enabling simulations of the collector operation under arbitrarily variable boundary conditions. The model is based on the solution of energy balance equations for all components of the collector. The formulated differential equations are solved iteratively using an implicit difference scheme. In order to obtain a stable numerical solution, it is necessary to use appropriate steps of the time and spatial division. These were found by comparing the results obtained from the model with the results of the analytical solution available in the literature for the transient state, which constitutes the novelty of the present study. The accuracy of the results obtained from the model was verified experimentally by comparing the measured and the calculated history of the fluid temperature at the outlet of the collector. The calculation of the collector time constant is proposed in the paper as an example of the model practical application. The results of the time constant calculation were compared with the values obtained experimentally on the test stand. This is another novelty of the presented research. The analysed collector instantaneous efficiency was then calculated for selected outdoor conditions. The presented mathematical model can also be used to verify the correctness of the collector operation. Comparing, on an ongoing basis, the measured and the calculated values of the fluid temperature at the collector outlet, conclusions can be drawn about the process of solar glass fouling or glycol gelling. The model's simplicity and the low computational demands enable such comparisons in an online mode.

In this paper, a semi-empirical model of air waves induced by falling rock is described. The model is composed of a uniform motion phase (velocity close to 0 m·s^-1) and an acceleration movement phase. The uniform motion phase was determined based on experimentally and the acceleration movement phase was derived by theoretical analysis. A series of experiments were performed to verify the semi-empirical model and elucidated the law of the uniform motion phase. The acceleration movement phase accounted for a larger portion with a greater height of the falling rock. Experimental results of different falling heights of the goaf showed close agreement with theoretical analysis values. The semi-empirical model could accurately and conveniently estimate the velocity of air wave induced by falling rock. Thus, the semi-empirical model can provide a reference and basis for estimating the speed of air waves and designing protective measures in mines.

This study reports the development of a numerical method to simulate two-phase flows of Newtonian fluids that are incompressible, immiscible, and isothermal. The interface in the simulation was located and reconstructed using the geometric volume of fluid (VOF) method. The implementation of the Piecewise-Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) scheme of the VOF method was performed to solve the three-dimensional (3D) interface transport during the dynamics of two-phase flows. In this method, the interface is approximated by a line segment in each interfacial cell. The balance of forces at the interface was accounted for using the continuum interfacial force (CSF) model. To solve the Navier-Stokes equations, meshless finite difference schemes from the HiG-Flow computational fluid dynamics software were employed. The 3D PLIC-VOF HiG-Flow algorithm was used to simulate several benchmark two-phase flows for the purpose of validating the numerical implementation. First, the performance of the PLIC implementation was evaluated by conducting two standard advection numerical tests: the 3D shearing flow test and the 3D deforming field test. Good agreement is obtained for the 3D interface shape using both the 3D PLIC-VOF HiG-Flow algorithm and those found on the scientific literature. In addition, the absolute error of the volume tracking advection calculation obtained by our 3D PLIC-VOF HiG-Flow algorithm was found to be smaller than the one found in the scientific literature for both the 3D shearing and 3D deforming flow tests. Lastly, the 3D bubble rising problem was simulated for different fluid densities and viscosity’s ratios. Again, good agreement is obtained for the 3D interface shape using both the newly implemented algorithm and the OpenFOAM, DROPS and NaSt3D software. The bubble’s rise velocity and evolution of the bubble’s center of mass is also computed with the 3D PLIC-VOF HiG-Flow algorithm and found to be in agreement with these software.

This paper studied the nonlinear vibrations of top tensioned cantilevered pipes conveying pressurized steady two-phase flow under thermal loading. The coupled axial and transverse governing partial differential equations of motion of the system were derived based on Hamilton’s mechanics with the centreline assumed to be extensible. Multiple scale perturbation method was used to resolve the governing equations, which resulted to an analytical approach for assessing the natural frequency, mode shape and the nonlinear coupled axial and transverse steady state response of the pipe. The analytical assessment reveals that at some frequencies the system is uncoupled, while at some frequencies a 1:2 coupling exists between the axial and the transverse frequencies of the pipe. Nonlinear frequencies versus the amplitude displacement of the cantilever pipe conveying two-phase flow at super critical mixture velocity for the uncoupled scenario exhibit a nonlinear hardening behaviour, an increment in the void fractions of the two-phase flow resulted to a reduction in the pipe’s transverse vibration frequencies and the coupled amplitude of the system. However, increasing the temperature difference, pressure and the presence of top tension were observed to increase the pipe’s transverse vibration frequencies without a significant change in the coupled amplitude of the system.

We show that the van der Waals gas does not exhibit just the celebrated liquid-gas 1 transition but also a quantum-classical one. We study the issue with reference to the LMC statistical 2 complexity and in relation to the order-disorder contrast.

Mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) occur in about 48% of Asian and 19% of Western patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), leading to its constitutive activation and subsequent uncontrolled cell proliferation. To counteract this, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have been developed, targeting EGFR activity. However, the emergence of metastases and resistance mutations often undermines the durability of the treatment response. Knowledge-based mechanistic models that replicate existing clinical trial outcomes, tailored to specific population characteristics, provide invaluable assistance in designing future clinical trials. These models are particularly effective in identifying optimal responders to specific treatments, thereby enhancing therapeutic efficacy. We have developed physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for gefitinib and osimertinib, representing two distinct generations of EGFR TKIs, to accurately simulate the drugs’ distribution within the primary tumor and metastatic sites following oral administration. These models were integrated with a pathophysiological mechanistic model of EGFR-mutant LUAD, enabling the representation of the effects of both gefitinib and osimertinib on EGFR activation-induced signaling pathways. This comprehensive model outputs detailed evolutions of the primary tumor and each metastatic site, facilitating the evaluation of patient progression in alignment with RECIST guidelines (version 1.1). Notably, the model encapsulates the heterogeneity within the tumor, through the representation of various subclones, each characterized by unique mutation profiles, thereby reflecting differential responses to treatment. Calibration of the model was achieved using publicly available data from the NEJ002 and FLAURA clinical trials. Rigorous visual predictive checks and statistical tests were employed to ensure the proper behavior of the model. The model adeptly replicated the time to progression observed in real clinical trials in EGFR-mutant LUAD patients receiving gefitinib or osimertinib as first-line therapy. In addition, the model was able to reproduce the results from a retrospective study comparing gefitinib and osimertinib, a study that was not used to inform the model. With a consistent virtual population as a reference, the combined model facilitated a comparative analysis of the efficacy of both treatments, thereby underscoring its utility in evaluating therapeutic strategies. The faithful replication of real-world data significantly enhances the credibility of our model, rendering it a vital investigational tool for deriving pertinent insights and informing treatment strategies, particularly in identifying optimal responders to various generations of EGFR TKIs. Following its consecutive prospective validations in the FLAURA2 and MARIPOSA trials, the model is poised to facilitate the generation of synthetic control arms in future clinical trials. This advancement promises a more nuanced analysis of covariate relationships, especially when comparing investigational treatments to established standards of care. Additionally, it potentially reduces the required patient cohort size in such trials, optimizing resource utilization.

In this paper, the deformation and phase transformation of disorder α phase at (α + γ) two phase region in as-forged Ti-44Al-8Nb-(W, B, Y) alloy are investigated by hot compression and hot packed rolling. Detailed microstructural evolution demonstrates that the as-deformed microstructure is significantly affected by deformation conditions. The mircrostructure differences are mainly due to temperature drop and strain rate. The evolution of α lamelae into α grains is detailed descripted. Moreover, the disorder α lamellae can also be decomposed into some new α grains by the assisted decomposition mechanism of γ grains. Microstructure evolution model of current TiAl alloy at 1250 °C during hot rolling is built.

More than 700 anthocyanins are described so far, and many different sources are rich in these natural pigments. During the last few years, researchers have been focusing of strategies to recover and purify anthocyanins, from simple liquid-liquid extractions to more advanced supercritical CO2 extractions, however, with such a huge number of different sources, it’s extremely hard to get a simple and fast methodology that fits several sources, not only by the structural nature of the anthocyanins but also by the presence of specific groups of natural compounds. Using simple methodologies like solid-phase extraction resins represents a powerful economical and efficiency strategy. In this work, we tested several sources of structurally distinct anthocyanins, including purple basil, purple cabbage, purple sweet potato, butterfly pea flower, cornflower and wild pansy, in different resins to assess their efficiency in the obtention of anthocyanin-pure extracts. The results showed us that the combination of oasis HLB® resin followed by a cation-exchange SPE with DSC-MCAX® resulted in high-purity anthocyanin extracts for all the cases.

A review of influence of drag-reducing agents on curved pipe flows is presented in this work. In addition, this review outlined proposed mechanism, friction factor and fluid flux models for drag-reducing agents in curved pipe flows. Our finding reveals that drag reduction by additives in curved pipes is quite significant but generally lower than the corresponding drag reduction in straight pipes. It decreases with increase in curvature ratio and more pronounced in the transition and turbulent flow regimes. Drag reduction strongly depends on the polymers and surfactants’ concentrations as well as the bubble fraction of micro-bubbles. It is also reported that drag reduction in curved pipes depends on temperature and existence of dissolved salts in the fluids. Maximum drag reduction asymptote differed between straight and curved pipes and between polymer and surfactant. No definite conclusion could be drawn as regards drag reduction for two-phase flow in curved pipes due to the limited studies in this area. Many questions such as the mechanism of drag reduction in curved pipes and how drag-reducing agents interact with secondary flows still remained unanswered. Hence, some research gaps have been identified with recommendations for areas of future researches.

Two-dimensional mass spectrometry (2D MS) is a method for tandem mass spectrometry that relies on manipulating ion motions to correlate precursor and fragment ion signals. 2D mass spectra are obtained by performing a Fourier transform in both the precursor ion mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) dimension and the fragment ion m/z dimension. The phase of the ion signals evolves linearly in the precursor m/z dimension and quadratically in the fragment m/z dimension. This study demonstrates that phase-corrected absorption mode 2D mass spectrometry improves signal-to-noise ratios by a factor of 2 and resolving power by a factor of 2 in each dimension compared to magnitude mode. Furthermore, phase correction leads to an easier differentiation between ion signals and artefacts, and therefore easier data interpretation.

This paper presents an investigation into the influence of drag-reducing polymer (DRP) on the flow of water inside and around U-bends. The DRPs tested were partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide (HPAM) and two different molecular weight polyethylene oxides (PEO). The Reynolds number and in-situ concentration ranges of water and DRP were and respectively. The test section was made up of clear polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) pipes that contained two U-bends with radii of curvature (R) of 100 and 200 mm as well as straight sections of 19-mm ID. Higher pressure gradient was recorded in the under-developed flow section after the bend. Drag reduction (DR) increased with in-situ concentration of the DRP and the flowrate up to some threshold values. The concentration and flowrate thresholds were about 20 ppm and 1.07 m/s respectively. DR differed among the different sections considered with the highest values recorded for developed flows upstream of the bend and the least values recorded in the bend. DR at station 1 (immediately after the bend) was generally lower than that at station 2 (further downstream). P-K Plots showed that, the DR envelop for developed flow in straight pipes did not apply to the bend and the under-developed flow section. DR increased with polymer molecular weight and ionic strength in straight sections. However, molecular weight (and polymer shearing) had limited effect on DR in the bends. DR characteristics at the bend suggested that there was a different or additional mechanism. The effect of bend curvature ratio on DR was predominant after the U-bend. The larger the ratio of pipe diameter to bend diameter, the lower the DR in the redeveloping sections after the bend. For R = 100 mm, the highest DR recorded for fully developed flows before bend, in the bend, at stations 1 and 2 were 57, 31, 36 and 33% respectively while that for R = 200 mm were 64, 28, 42 and 49% respectively.

Securing funding is a critical yet complex task for organizations and individuals. This study presents an innovative chatbot designed to streamline the process using advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and, specifically, a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline optimized for real-world applications. Our chatbot assists users in identifying suitable public tenders for financial support through natural language queries and a comprehensive public data database. The chatbot operates in a two-stage interaction model, initially providing summarized tender information for exploratory brainstorming, followed by detailed data upon user selection. A custom filtering mechanism ensures that the user interface elements responsible for swapping the interaction stages are consistent with the responses generated by the conversational agent. Human-evaluation tests demonstrated an average accuracy of 90.4% in document retrieval, with an average of 2.11 interactions required to find a specific tender. User satisfaction, rated on a scale of 1 to 5, averaged 3.14 (±1.73), indicating generally positive user experience with room for improvement. This approach addresses challenges of relevance, accuracy, and conversational flow, resulting in a reliable chatbot that simplifies the process of finding funding opportunities.

The biophenol integral extraction protocol from vegetation water developed in the early 2000s for the three-phase olive mill was adapted to a large two-phase mill operating in Sicily during the 2016/2017 season. The new set-up allows extensive recovery of olive phenolics, transforming previous waste into a source of revenues for the milling company and of valued bioproducts for its bioeconomy partner, while eliminating a source of potential pollution altogether.

With large-scale distributed generators (DGs) in an active distribution network (ADN), conventional load flow convergence failure is incurred by heavy power transmission. The Holomorphic Embedding Load Flow Method (HELM) has proven to be more robust than the Newton–Raphson method under heavy power transmission. At present, HELM is mainly designed for balanced transmission networks. In this study, we developed a three-phase HELM model to accommodate DGs, delta connection loads, and ZIP loads for ADN. The effectiveness and better performance of the proposed method under heavy load situations were validated using modified unbalanced IEEE 13, 34, 37, and 123 test feeders.

In this paper, we investigate the accuracy and robustness of three classes of methods for solving two-phase incompressible flows on a staggered grid. Here, the unsteady two-phase flow equations are simulated by finite volumes and penalty methods using implicit and monolithic approaches (such as the augmented Lagrangian and the fully coupled methods), where all velocity components and pressure variables are solved simultaneously (as opposed to segregated methods). The interface tracking is performed with a Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method, using the Piecewise Linear Interface Construction (PLIC) technique. The home code Fugu is used for implementing the various methods. Our target application is the simulation of two-phase flows at high density and viscosity ratios, which are known to be challenging to simulate. The resulting strategies of monolithic approaches will be proven to be considerably better suited for these two-phase cases, they also allow to use larger time step than segregated methods.

Two-phase olive pomace is a byproduct of the olive-oil extraction process that is sometimes processed further to recover more oil. During pomace oil production, especially in the early stages of olive processing, odours can be produced. These odours are a serious nuisance especially in and around the processing facilities, as well as for nearby communities. These odours can be strong and unpleasant, and they may result in various issues, including environmental concerns. Thus, in this paper, the effect of storage and drying on the composition of two-phase olive pomace was investigated. Several physicochemical and instrumental analyses were performed and it was concluded that the structural elements of pomace are not the ones who are affected during storage and drying. Storage and drying mainly impact the oil content of pomace, leading to an acidity increase and to the production of odorous oxidation compounds. Volatile acids, methyl and ethyl esters are released into the atmosphere causing serious environmental nuisance.

Mathematical modeling is the most important tool for constructing the theory of different kinds of two-phase flows. The review is devoted to the analysis of the advent of the approach of mathematical modeling of two-phase flows, where solid particles act mainly as the dispersed phase. The main problems and features of the study of gas-solid two-phase flows are excluded. The main characteristics of gas flows with solid particles are given and the classification of two-phase flows is developed on their basis. The Lagrangian and Euler approaches to modeling the motion of a dispersed phase (particles) are described. Much attention is paid to the consideration of numerical simulation methods that describe descriptions of turbulent gas flow at different hierarchical levels (RANS, LES, DNS), different levels of description of interphase interactions (one-way coupling (OWC), two-way coupling (TWC) and four-way coupling (FWC)), as well as at different levels of interface resolution (partial-point (PP) and particle-resolved (PR)). Excluded are examples of some studies carried out on the basis of the identified approaches, as well as their exclusion for mathematical modeling of various classes of gas-solid two-phase flows.

Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) has been used in the literature to monitor the gas-liquid separation. However, the image reconstruction algorithms used in the studies take a considerable amount of time to generate the tomograms, which is far above the time scales of the flow inside the inline separator and, as a consequence, the technique is not fast enough to capture all the rele-vant dynamics of the process, vital for control applications. This article proposes a new strategy based on the physics behind the measurement and simple logics to monitor the separation with a high temporal resolution by minimizing both the amount of data and the calculations required to reconstruct one frame of the flow. To demonstrate its potential, the electronics of an ERT system are used together with a high-speed camera to measure the flow inside an inline swirl separator. For the 16-electrode system used in this study, only 12 measurements are required to reconstruct the whole flow distribution with the proposed algorithm, 10x less than the minimum number of measurements of ERT (120). In terms of computational effort, the technique was shown to be 1000x faster than solving the inverse problem non-iteratively via the Gauss-Newton approach, one of the computationally cheapest techniques available. Therefore, this novel algorithm has the potential to achieve measurement speeds in the order of 104 times the ERT speed in the context of inline swirl separation, pointing to flow measurements at around 10kHz while keeping the aver-age estimation error below 6 mm in the worst case scenario.

Accurate detection of players and teams in ice hockey games is crucial to the tracking of individual players on court and team tactical decisions, which is therefore becoming an important task for coaches and other analysts. However, hockey is a fluid sport due to complex dynamics and frequent substitutions by both teams, resulting in various body positions of players. Few traditional player detection models from other team sports take these characteristics into account, especially for the detection of teams without prior annotations. Here, we design a two-phase cascaded Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model coupling between individual players position information and team uniform colors to hierarchically detect players in ice hockey games. Our model filters most of disturbing information, such as audience and sideline advertising bars, in Phase I, and refines the detection of targeted players in Phase II, which is efficient and accurate with a precision rate of 91.30% and a recall rate of 95.60% for individual players detection, and an average accuracy of 93.05% in team classification from a self-built dataset of collected images in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, we also present results based on the images and real-time detection from broadcasting videos of 2019-20 NHL regular games covering all 31 teams to show the robustness of our model.

We investigated the structural evolution of the two-phase blends of polycarbonate (PC) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) at various blend compositions by simultaneous biaxial stretching using optical microscopy and SEM observation. The spherical PMMA domains and PC matrix in 30/70 PC/PMMA were enlarged uniformly at all in-plane direction, while the anisotropic-shaped co-continuous structure in 50/50 PC/PMMA was deformed to crosshatched one by in-plane bimodal orientation. In 70/30 PC/PMMA, the phase inversion was found to occur by simultaneous biaxial stretching; i.e., the spherical PMMA domains were changed to crosshatched matrix by in-plane bimodal orientation due to coalescence of the PMMA domains during the stretching. Owing to the phase inversion, the surface hardness estimated by pencil hardness test became harder from 2B to 2H with increasing the strain from 1.0 to 2.0.

Public restrooms are often a hub of microbial contamination, and the examination of bacterial contamination in these facilities can serve as an important indicator of the transmission of infectious diseases. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of bacterial contamination in public restrooms based on the economic class of the building. Samples were collected from various spots in 32 restrooms found in 10 shopping malls, classifying them into two categories: upper-end restrooms and lower-end restrooms. The findings showed that the level of contamination was higher in the lower-end restrooms, with the seat being the most contaminated area. The most dominant Gram-positive bacteria were coagulase-negative staphylococci species, making up 86% of the identified Gram-positive isolates. The most dominant Gram-negative bacteria identified were Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antibiotic sensitivity test results revealed the presence of multi-drug resistant bacteria among the Gram-positive and negative isolates, including Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Staphylococcus kloosi, Acinetobacter baumanii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In conclusion, the study underscores the significance of monitoring bacterial contamination in public restrooms and the need for measures to reduce the spread of infectious diseases. Further research is crucial to gain a complete understanding of the bacterial contamination in public restrooms and their resistance patterns, to ensure the safety and health of the public. The implementation of improved cleaning practices and hands-free designs in restrooms can help reduce the risk of cross-contamination and prevent the spread of diseases.

The theory and working principle of fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE) is presented that eloquently explains the mystery behind this new and powerful sample preparation technique. FPSE innovatively integrates the benefits of sol-gel coating technology and the rich surface chemistry of cellulose/polyester/fiberglass fabric, resulting in a microextraction device with very high sorbent loading in the form of an ultra-thin coating. This porous sorbent coating and the permeable substrate synergistically facilitate very fast extraction equilibrium. The flexibility of the FPSE device allows for direct insertion into original, unmodified samples of different origin. Strong chemical bonding between the sol-gel sorbent and the fabric substrate permits the exposure of FPSE devices to any organic solvent for analyte back-extraction/elution and to highly acidic or basic environments (pH 1-12) if required. A sol-gel derived sorbent, highly polar sol-gel poly(ethylene glycol) coating, was generated on cellulose substrates. Five cm2 segments of these coated fabrics were used as the FPSE devices for sample preparation using direct immersion. An important class of environmental pollutants, substituted phenols, was used as model compounds to evaluate the extraction performance of FPSE. The high primary contact surface area (PCSA) of the FPSE device and porous structure of the sol-gel coatings resulted in very high sample capacities and incredible extraction sensitivities for both the compound classes in a relatively short period of time. Different extraction parameters were evaluated and optimized. The new extraction devices demonstrated part per trillion level detection limits for substituted phenols, a wide range of detection linearity, and good performance reproducibility.

In this paper, we introduce a compressible formulation for dealing with 2D/3D compressible interfacial flows. The formulation is combined with an original monolithic solver, according to which a strong velocity-pressure coupling is achieved. The results show that the scheme can ensure accuracy and stability for various fluid flow scenarios: from the standard incompressible conditions to compressible flows, spanning both single-phase and two-phase flows.

Linear state estimation (SE) formulation under a rectangular coordinate system has been proved to be applicable for real-time distribution network management. Micro phasor measurements’ model can be accommodated into this kind of SE easily. However, voltage magnitude, active power and reactive power measurements are transformed to linear measurements with large node voltage error. To cope with this issue, a linear state estimation under a polar coordinate system is adopted at the first stage to obtain accurate enough complex node voltage, and then nonlinear measurements are transformed to be linear with complex node voltage. At the second stage, linear SE under a rectangular coordinate system can be adopted to satisfy more strict network constraints. The proposed two-stage linear SE is validated on balanced 14, 33, 70,84, 119, 135 nodes network and IEEE 13, 34, 37,123 unbalanced test feeders.

In the past few years, micromodels have become a useful tool for visualizing flow phenomena in porous media with pore structures, e.g., the multifluid dynamics in soils or rocks with fractures in natural geomaterials. Micromodels fabricated using glass or silicon substrates incur high material cost; in particular, the microfabrication-facility cost for making a glass or silicon-based micromold is usually high. This may be an obstacle for researchers investigating the two-phase-flow behavior of porous media. A rigid thermoplastic material is a preferable polymer material for microfluidic models because of its high resistance to infiltration and deformation. In this study, cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) was selected as the substrate for the micromodel because of its excellent chemical, optical, and mechanical properties. A delicate micromodel with a complex pore geometry that represents a two-dimensional (2D) cross-section profile of a fractured rock in a natural oil or groundwater reservoir was developed for two-phase-flow experiments. Using an optical visualization system, we visualized the flow behavior in the micromodel during the processes of imbibition and drainage. The results show that the flow resistance in the main channel (fracture) with a large radius was higher than that in the surrounding area with small pore channels when the injection or extraction rates were low. When we increased the flow rates, the extraction efficiency of the water and oil in the mainstream channel (fracture) did not increase monotonically because of the complex two-phase-flow dynamics. These findings provide a new mechanism of residual trapping in porous media.

(1) Background: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a group of diseases that affect the morphology and function of neutrophils. Rapid diagnosis of MDS is crucial for the initiation of treatment that can vastly improve disease outcome. (2) methods: In this work, we present a new approach for detecting morphological differences between neutrophils isolated from blood samples of high risk MDS patients and that for patients and blood bank donors (BBDs). First, using fluorescent flow cytometry CD66b positive cells were stained with 2′,7′-dichlorofluorescin diacetate (DCF) and Hoechst. Secondly, we imaged the cells using interferometric phase microscopy (IPM) without utilizing cell staining. (3) Results: flow cytometry results show MDS patients present different dispersion patterns compared to BBDs. BBDs present two distinct subpopulations (one of these are the H cells constituting 16% for neutrophils) whereas MDS patients present only 4% of this subpopulation. IPM results are consistent with this pattern: ~20% of BBDs neutrophils were characterized as H cells and whereas MDS patients present only ~4% of these cells. (5) Conclusion- IPM can be utilized for diagnosis of complex hematological pathologies such as MDS.

An experimental investigation on the heat pump performance improvement equipped with the two-phase ejector called “an ejector-expansion heat pump (EEHP)” is proposed. The system performance of the EEHP is compared with a vapour-compression heat pump (VCHP). The improvement potential is determined and discussed. The heat pump test system is constructed which is based on a water-to-water heat pump. It can be experimented with both EEHP and VCHP. The two-phase ejector with the cooling load up to 2500 W is installed for experiment. The results show that the EEHP always produces a higher heating rate and COP than the VCHP throughout the specified working conditions. The heating COP is increased by 5.7-12.2% depending on the working conditions. It is also that under the same heat sink and heat source temperature, the EEHP can produce lower compressor discharge temperature and lower compressor pressure ratio than the VCHP. This is evidence that the two-phase ejector can provide better compressor working characteristics which yields a longer compressor lifetime. It is demonstrated that a key to the performance of the EEHP is the expansion pressure ratio. A larger expansion pressure ratio yields a higher improvement potential when compared with the VCHP.

Selection of appropriate friction factors is paramount for accurate prediction of key flow characteristics in gas–liquid two-phase flows. In this work, experimental investigation of vertical air and oil (with viscosities up to 200 mPa s) flow in a 0.060-m ID pipe is reported. Superficial air and oil velocity ranges utilized are from 22.37 to 59.06 m/s and 0.05 to 0.16 m/s respectively. The influence of estimation of interfacial friction factor on accurate determination of film thickness, void fraction and pressure gradient was investigated using a two-fluid model. The results indicated that the two-fluid model is capable of accurately predicting flow characteristics. Further, it reveals that the best performing correlations are the Belt et al. and Ambrosini et al. correlations.

The theory of water transport in trees, according to which the main driving force of water movement is the suction created by the evaporation of water by the meniscus (the curved surface of the capillary liquid column) on the evaporating elements, supported from below by root pressure, is flawed. The capillary effect in nature is around one meter. In the case of open-air gaps, the leaf cannot suck in the water against gravity because, in this case, the plant would not be sucking in water, but air through the open-air gap. If not, how do trees transport water? When evaporation occurs, there is no suction towards the canopy, but pressure is due to a reduction in the cross-section of the water pipe caused by heat loss through evaporation. At night, when evaporation stops, a thermal equilibration process is triggered, which restores the original cross-section of the pipe. This generates suction and draws water from the soil. As the hydrostatic pressure in the pipe is high for tall trees, the pipe is cut off. To prove my theory, I have given several examples. Water transport is not based on physical mechanical laws alone. There may be complex physiological, biochemical, and biophysical processes behind the operation of the pipe system.

Two modal decomposition techniques, including proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), are used to identify the wake patterns past single and two crossing cylinders in 60° and 90° arrangements with gap ratio G = 4. The flow is simulated using direct numerical simulations (DNS) for Reynolds numbers Re = 100. The spatial scale of flow decreases with increasing modal frequency from the modal analysis. Two main modes are identified in the wake of the cylinders, namely spatially antisymmetric and symmetric modes. Antisymmetric and symmetric modes are related to cylinders’ vortex shedding and shedding vortices’ shift motion, respectively, whose frequencies are odd and even multiples of cylinders’ lift force frequency. In addition, a low-frequency mode concerning the shadowing effect of the downstream cylinder (DC) in 90° arrangement is found in the wake of the DC centre.

The research community has shown significant interest in the aqueous synthesis of nanomaterials due to its ability to eliminate the need for complex organic solvents. This synthesis approach aligns with the principles of green chemistry, attracting considerable attention. Aqueous solution technology in fabricating nanostructures has gained recognition for its potential to create ultrasensitive, low-energy, and ultrafast optoelectronic devices. This report focuses on synthesizing lead iodide (PbI2) nanoplates using a water-based solution technique and fabricating a planar photodetector. The photodetectors with a planar type of device structure (ITO/PbI2 NPs/Au) demonstrated a remarkable photosensitivity of 3.9×103 and a photoresponsivity of 0.51 mA/W at a wavelength of 405 nm. Notably, the asymmetrical output properties of ITO/PbI2 NPs/Au detector deliver additional evidence of the effective creation of a Schottky contact. Thus, the photodetector exhibited a photoresponse even at 0 V bias, leading to the realization of self-powered photodetectors. Additionally, the device exhibited a rapid photoresponse of 0.21/0.38 s (−5 V) in the visible range. This study has expanded the horizons for the aqueous-phase synthesis of nanoplate nanostructures, enabling the large-area fabrication of high-performance photodetectors.

Optimization of Magnetohydrodynamics parameters on the velocity profile and temperature distribution of incompressible fluid flow on a porous channel was evaluated. The fluid flow was considered to be unsteady, incompressible and flowing in 2-D in porous channel. The effects of magnetic parameter, Darcy’s number and fluid pressure on velocity profiles, and the effect of variable viscosity and Eckert number on temperature distribution in incompressible fluid flow were determined. The flow was considered to be in a channel running along the x-axis on which the magnetic field exist and finally along the y-axis on the porous part of the channel. The resulting model equations were solved by Finite Difference Method (FDM) in MATLAB software. Analysis of results indicated that increasing Darcy’s number and fluid pressure leads to increase in fluid velocity profile, while increasing magnetic parameter decreases fluid velocity profile. Also, it was observed that increase in both Eckert number and fluid viscosity lead to increase in temperature distribution. Optimization in temperature was achieved by increasing the magnetic field while viscosity was optimized by increasing the length of the porous part of the channel. This study will helpful to contribute alternative equations and methodology to engineering and in factories where getting the MHD parameters optimally is the main objective, particularly on temperature, velocity and pressure.

The stability of twenty seven composts and organic substrates (including raw, less stable and stable materials) was assessed using two different liquid phase tests were carried out. One of the tests was introduced in 1998 and was based on the calculation of a Specific Oxygen Uptake Rate (SOUR). The newly introduced liquid phase test presented here is simpler to set-up and to perform that the older liquid phase test. It is based on the quantification of oxygen consumption in the headspace of a BOD bottle that contains the liquid-solid solution. The results indicate that a marginal correlation does exist between the main indices calculated from both tests. The correlation was stronger for the indices calculated for stable-processed organics than for the raw (unprocessed materials). The SOUR ranged from 1520 to 3650mg O₂/kg VS-h for the raw materials and from 110 to 1150 mg O₂/kg VS-h for the processed materials, respectively. The corresponding stability rate related index (LSRI₂₄) of the new liquid phase test introduced here ranged from 240 to 1180 mg O₂/dry kg-h for the raw materials and from 64 to 792 mg O₂/dry kg-h for the processed ones.

Toll plaza optimization is essential for improving traffic flow and easing congestion on road networks. This study aims to suggest and assess potential optimization solutions for the Peshawar toll plaza, considering variables like traffic volume, toll-collecting effectiveness, and customer facilitation. Different resources are used for data collection, like the National Highway Authority of Pakistan. Physical data is collected from the established Toll Plaza of Peshawar, along with the development of each line. The goal of this study is to suggest and assess potential optimization solutions for the Peshawar toll plaza, considering variables like traffic volume, toll-collecting effectiveness, and customer happiness. The analysis of present traffic patterns, the detection of bottlenecks, and the creation of plans to ease congestion and enhance overall traffic flow are all part of the optimization process. The approaches used in this study include data analysis, simulation, and traffic modeling. PTV VISSIM is software for transportation planning, design, and analysis. The simulations consider various conditions, such as variable traffic volumes, toll collection methods, and lane configurations. When comparing the different optimization strategies, performance indicators like trip time, latency, and queue length are utilized to determine which approach is practical. Waiting time Vs. Existing each lane, etc, is explained. In the end, comparing queue lengths and throughput across different lane scenarios shows that maximizing throughput with existing lanes yields up to 45% improvement with E-tag lanes, 40% with existing E-tag lanes, 38% with E-tag plus additional toll and cash lanes, 32% with three cash lanes, and 28% with two E-tag lanes. Failure to regularly monitor and adjust the existing lane pattern scenario based on traffic patterns can lead to queues being 20% longer. Without proactive evaluation and optimization, there is a potential 63% opportunity for queue length improvement

Iron is an essential nutrient for humans and microbes, such as bacteria. Iron deficiency occurs commonly in critically ill patients, but iron replacement therapy is not considered during the acute phase of critical illness, since it increases iron availability for invading microbes and oxidative stress. However, persistent iron deficiency in the recovery phase is harmful with potential adverse outcomes such as cognitive dysfunction, fatigue and cardiopulmonary dysfunction. Therefore, it is important to treat iron deficiency timely and efficiently. This article reviews current knowledge about iron-related biomarkers in critically ill patients and provides possible criteria to guide decision-making for iron supplementation in the recovery phase of critical illness.

This paper concentrates on the general birth-death processes with two different types of catastrophes. The Laplace transform of transition probability function for birth-death processes with two-type catastrophes are is successfully expressed with the Laplace transform of transition probability function of the birth-death processes without catastrophe. The first effective catastrophe occurrence time is considered. The Laplace transform of its probability density function, expectation and variance are obtained.

The new unique technology for granulation of metals and nonmetallic melts is presented in the paper. It was created on the newly developed controlled film flow disintegration with rapid cooling of the droplets and solidified granules in amorphous state. Three new phenomena discovered by us created the base for 3 different methods for granulation of metals and nonmetallic melts in a wide range of granules’ sizes. Electromagnetic resonance method allows producing granules of metals in the range of 1 mm and over. The soliton-like vibrational regime is available for production of any granulation material in the range 0.1-1 mm. Moreover, the shockwave regime is applicable for producing particles from 10 micrometers by size. All methods produce particles of the stated size with a narrow distribution by size: deviation from the average size no more than 50%. The other known methods do not produce granules with such high cooling rate, which can realize the amorphous state and cannot regulate size of particles in such bright but narrow range from 10 micrometers to 1-2 mm.

The majority of existing numerical simulations of the effect of bridge piers on water movement are based on a limited number of bridge piers at a laboratory scale. Furthermore, some 2D numerical simulations for actual bridge projects have deficiencies, including the use of overly large mesh sizes and an inadequate treatment of bridge piers. In this study, we compare three methods of structural mesh encryption, suspension mesh, and nonstructural mesh based on Delft3D, and apply the optimization scheme to a real bridge project. It is demonstrated that optimal results can be achieved by utilising a grid size comparable to the pier diameter (Dp) in the region away from the piers. In the vicinity of the piers, the grid cell size should be no larger than 1/9 Dp. The suspended grid technique (DD Boundary) can yield results consistent with those obtained using a full-area high-resolution grid, provided that the total number of grids can be reduced and the computational time is considerably reduced. In this study, the unstructured mesh (Deflt3D Flexible Mesh) scheme was unable to capture the oscillations of the wake flow behind the bridge piers. However, the application of the optimized scheme in bridge engineering has demonstrated its practical value. The findings of this study on mesh resolution and suspension mesh scheme can be applied to the Delft3D software and are also useful for other numerical simulation work.

It is necessary to manage the power consumption and use fault-tolerance techniques to meet high reliability in Real-Time Embedded Systems, . Hence, in recent years, this is the main reason for providing an ideal approach to decrease power consumption through the worst-case behavior of instantaneous power management (peak-power management), while observing the Thermal Design Power (TDP). Although the multi-core chips in real-time embedded systems provide great opportunity for implementation of Two-phase Triple modular redundancy to meet high reliability, the energy overhead management of concurrently executing tasks is one of the challenges facing designers. In this article, we propose a scheme named Permanent Fault Aware, Two-Phase Peak-Power Management (PFA-TP3M), for scheduling real-time tasks in multi-core systems to eliminate peak power overlap from concurrent running tasks to maintain peak power consumption at the chip TDP. and through mapping different parts of each task on separate cores, prevents consecutive conflicts on cores, which have faced permanent faults to design the fault-tolerant system. Our simulation results show that our proposed scheme provides up to 700x fault tolerance increase (630x on average) compared to the state-of-the-art power management algorithm, an achievement costs up to 14%. (average 11%) increase the length of the task graph compared to it.

The hydrodynamic behavior of the air-acetic acid system in a bubble column is studied using a differential pressure transmitter, double probe optical fiber probe, and the electrical resistance tomography (ERT) technique. The superficial gas velocity ranges from 0.016 to 0.094 m/s under ambient temperature and pressure. The influences of viscosity and surface tension on gas holdup, bubble rising velocity, and bubble chord distribution in the column are discussed with different mass fractions of an acetic acid solution. The results show that as the mass fraction of acetic acid increases, the surface tension of the liquid phase decreases, and the viscosity first increases and then decreases. This causes the gas holdup in the column to first increase and then decrease, and reaches the maximum value at an acetic acid mass fraction of 55% to 60%. The rising velocity of the bubbles in the column is high in the central region and has a low-value distribution near the wall. The bubble chord length distribution is concentrated, and the distribution of the bubble chord length in the column becomes narrow with any decrease in surface tension. Studying the hydrodynamic behavior of a bubble column with the air-acid system is of great significance considering the absence of data on air-organic acid systems.

The integration of diverse distributed generation (DG) units, encompassing both Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and non-RES technologies delves into voltage levels, current distributions, and power flows, aiming to optimize and effectively manage the distribution network. An RES-based DGs such as photovoltaic systems and wind turbines, alongside non-RES units like fuel cells and micro turbines. This study proposes a hybrid approach the Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm - Grey Wolf Optimizer (MOGA-GWO). By merging the strengths of multi-objective genetic algorithms with the efficiency of the Grey Wolf Optimizer, this advanced algorithm seeks semi-optimal solutions for multi-objective optimization problems. The algorithm aims to improve convergence speed without compromising solution quality, offering a promising solution for optimizing the characteristics of DG and RES integration in distribution networks compared to Cuckoo Search and Simulation Annealing Techniques. Key algorithmic operations include individual representation, initialization, fitness function computation, selection, crossover, mutation, and ending conditions. The DG optimal power flow problem is explored with a focus on minimizing generation costs, improving voltage profiles, minimizing losses, enhancing reliability, integrating renewable energy, reducing environmental impact, managing congestion, and ensuring compliance with operational constraints. Beyond traditional considerations, the study emphasizes neglected objectives and constraints, such as cyber-security concerns, real-time operation, regulatory frameworks, social acceptance, lifecycle environmental impact, grid resilience, data privacy, aging infrastructure compatibility, and economic viability.

The dynamics of a spherical particle in an asymmetric serpentine is studied by finite element method (FEM) simulations in a physically unconstrained system. The two-way coupled time dependent solutions illustrate the path of the particle along a curve where a secondary flow (Dean flow) has developed. The simulated conditions were adjusted to match those of an experiment for which particles were focused under inertial focusing conditions. The obtained rotational modes allowed to infer the influence of the local flow around the particle. We propose a new approach to find the decoupled secondary flow contribution employing a quasi-Stokes flow.

Earth observation satellites can capture images of specific areas in Earth's orbit based on user requirements. Despite the high demand for satellite imagery, satellites remain a scarce resource. When there are many observation tasks that are large and dense, they may interfere with each other due to satellite mobility. To address this issue, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on a task merging mechanism has been proposed. This paper proposes a two-stage approach to the problem: task merging phase and merging task scheduling phase. The task merging phase introduces two methods based on Mean Shift and Complete Graph to generate the merging task set. In the merging task scheduling phase, a multi-satellite scheduling algorithm based on merging tasks is employed to solve the problem. Finally, certain measurement experiments suggest the effectiveness of the algorithm.

The accompanying mechanical behavior during the flow of ore-rock dispersion is an important factor leading to the instability and failure of the orepass in the ore storage section. It is of great significance to accurately understand the instability characteristics of the well wall in the ore section, during the ore drawing process by understanding the flow characteristics and internal mechanical transfer mechanism of ore-rock dispersion. Using the discrete element method to analyze the flow characteristics, contact compactness, stress distribution characteristics and contact force probability distribution of the ore-rock dispersion, it realizes the quantitative characterization of the damage degree of ore-rock flow, and reveals the damage mechanism of mine storage wall. The results show that: (1) The friction between ore-rock particles, between ore-rock and well wall is an important reason for the change of the macroscopic flow form of ore-rock from “one” to “V” type. (2) The compactness and stress concentration of ores are increasing with the increase of storage depth, which is shown that with the increase of storage depth, the greater the probability of well wall instability. (3) The probability distribution of contact force strength between particles decreases exponentially in the whole process of ore drawing, in which the strong chain plays a major role in the stability of the dispersion system. (4) The number of overpressure and the overpressure coefficient can be used to quantitatively characterize the wall damage degree under the action of ore-rock flow. The dynamic side pressure decreases periodically in the form of exponential fluctuations, and the dynamic load formed by the ore-rock flow mainly played a role in the lower area of the ore storage section.

Nowadays, the growing concern about improving thermal comfort in textiles, asphalt pavements and buildings has stimulated research into phase change materials (PCMs). However, the incorporation of PCMs directly causes mechanical impacts. Therefore, this study herein reported focuses on designing coaxial phase change fibres using commercial cellulose acetate (CA) or recycled CA obtained from cotton fabrics (CAt) as a coating and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 2000 as a core. The phase change fibres (PCF) were produced by wet spinning, varying the parameters: (i) CA concentration, molecular weight and source (virgin versus recycled); and (ii) PEG concentration and ejection. For phase change recycled fibres (PCFt), PEG concentration and ejection were varied. The fibres were assessed for their optical, chemical, thermal and mechanical properties. Bright-field microscopy images and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs proved the coaxial structure. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the presence of PEG in the core. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) proved the ability of PCFs to tolerate high temperatures. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) attested to the presence of PEG2000 peaks, since their melting points were close to those of virgin PEG2000, with a slight change in the PCFs and PCFts caused by the protective sheath of CA and CAt.

Epilepsy is a common neurological condition, typically diagnosed using Electroencephalogram (EEG). Large scale EEG datasets have recently been made publicly available, allowing the use of advanced Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to analyze EEG patterns associated with epilepsy. While most existing studies focus on identifying seizures in the EEG, few have tried to identify preictal EEG segments. Identifying preictal EEG segments are not only useful in developing early warning systems but also helps inform the course of treatment for the patient. In this study, we propose to represent EEG segments as images, instead of time-series data, and identify preictal EEG segments using a preexisting ML algorithm (YOLOv8) designed for image processing. Multiplexed images (containing the original EEG signal represented on a 2D grid, kurtosis, and spectral entropy) achieve the best accuracy of 95.75% on the dataset while images just containing the EEG signal result in an accuracy of 91.25%. Using only spectrograms, generated from the original EEG signal, results in an accuracy of 90.15%.

Pyrethroid pesticides (PYRs) as the third most widely used pesticides, following organophosphorus and carbamate pesticides, which are of significant importance in the analysis and detection of vegetables. However, the current pretreatment technology for PYRs confronts challenges of difficult separation and low enrichment efficiency, resulting in a cumbersome and time-consuming pretreatment process with poor selectivity. Here, a simple and efficient magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) strategy was developed to simultaneously purify and enrich five PYRs in vegetables, with the magnetic covalent organic framework nanomaterial COF-SiO2@Fe3O4 as an adsorbent. The COF-SiO2@Fe3O4 was prepared by a simple solvothermal conditions method, using Fe3O4 as magnetic core, benzidine and 3,3,5,5-tetraaldehyde biphenyl as two building units. COF-SiO2@Fe3O4 could effectively capture the targeted PYRs by virtue of its abundant π-electron system and hydroxyl groups. The impact of various experimental parameters on extraction efficiency was investigated to optimize the MSPE conditions, including adsorbent amount, extraction time, elution solvent type and elution time. Subsequently, method validation was conducted under the optimal conditions in conjunction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Within the range of 5.00–100 μg·kg-1 (1.00–100 μg·kg-1 for bifenthrin and 2.5–100 μg·kg-1 for fenpropathrin), the five PYRs exhibited a strong linear relationship, with determination coefficients ranging from 0.9990 to 0.9997. The limits of detection (LODs) were 0.3–1.5 μg·kg-1, and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were 0.9–4.5 μg·kg-1. The recoveries were 80.2–116.7% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) below 7.0%. Finally, COF-SiO2@Fe3O4, NH2-SiO2@Fe3O4 and Fe3O4 were compared as MSPE adsorbents for PYRs. The results indicated that COF-SiO2@Fe3O4 was an efficient and rapid selective adsorbent for PYRs. This method holds promising prospects for the determination of PYRs in real samples.

Classifying network flow subsequences in an Industrial IoT gateway is an effective method for identifying Industrial IoT faults. This paper proposes a subsequence classification algorithm SSGBUL-IKNN based on unsupervised learning encoding to address the problem of low classification accuracy. Firstly, we built a network module based on unsupervised learning to encode the flow sequence of the Industrial IoT gateway. In the encoding module, a subsequence calibration algorithm controls the increasing error during the coding process. Then, the specific fault type is obtained through an improved KNN classification algorithm based on the indication distance source from the integrated coding sequences converted by multi-dimensional network flow sequences. The test result on three Industrial IoT datasets of a sewage treatment plant shows that the accuracy of SSGBUL-IKNN in this paper exceeds 92%, significantly higher than the algorithm DTW and TSF. It reaches the classification requirements of Industrial IoT fault diagnosis.

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.

The fast decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) is crucial for its future applications. In this paper, we propose to use Early Termination (ET) and Force Convergence (FC) techniques to accelerate the decoding of two new local/global two-phases decoding algorithms to reduce the Globally Coupled (GC) LDPC codes. Specifically, ET is applied in the local decoding phase of two- phases decoding of GC-LDPC codes to skip the local decoding which is highly likely to fail and avoid the unnecessary iterations. FC is applied in global decoding phase where converged variable nodes are identified and removed from Tanner graph and the decoding can be speed up shrinking parity check matrices. Two variants are proposed for the ET operation in local decoding phase. ET-1 merely stops iteration if it meets the stopping criterion while in ET-1, the iteration number saved in local decoding is added up in global decoding to improve the decoding performance. The simulation results show that the ET-1-FC scheme can save up to 42% decoding time complexity in the low SNR region while keeping the error rate performance nearly unchanged, the ET-2-FC can improve the error rate performance by 0.18dB at bit error rate 0.001 or 0.23dB at frame error rate 0.1. In the waterfalling region of BER/FER curves, both schemes can save about 25% decoding time complexity.

There is currently a lack of pathologic data on the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia, or COVID-19, from autopsy or biopsy. Two patients who recently underwent lung lobectomies for adenocarcinoma were retrospectively found to have had COVID-19 at the time of surgery. These two cases thus provide important first opportunities to study the pathology of COVID-19. Pathologic examinations revealed that, apart from the tumors, the lungs of both patients exhibited edema, proteinaceous exudate, focal reactive hyperplasia of pneumocytes with patchy inflammatory cellular infiltration, and multinucleated giant cells. Hyaline membranes were not prominent. Since both patients did not exhibit symptoms of pneumonia at the time of surgery, these changes likely represent an early phase of the lung pathology of COVID-19 pneumonia.

The aim of this research was to investigate the mass, substances and energy flow through two-stroke low speed Diesel engines. For this reason, a zero-dimensional model of the combustion in the engine was developed with a calculated amount and composition of exhaust gases. Due to the large amount of oxygen in the exhaust gases, a ratio of real air consumption and stoichiometric amount of air required for combustion of injected fuel was set. The calculated ratio showed that the engine consumes four times more air than needed for combustion in AFR_stoich. In this work it is called the Air Consumption Factor or Ratio and has not been mentioned in scientific literature before. Air Consumption Ratio is defined as a factor of dry or humid air. To be more comprehensive, a modified diagram of composition of the flow in and out of a two-stroke fuel injection engine and the cylinder was drawn.

Urban rail transit hub platform is the most important area for passenger flow distribution. In order to calculate passenger flow volume in platform and evaluate platform service level during rush hours, this paper presents a method for modeling and simulation of passenger flow distribution in platform. Passenger flow distribution model (PFDM) is proposed based on the basic analysis and the superposition principle of passenger flow. Simulation design for PFDM is proposed by Anylogic, which contains simulation process and simulation model. Experiment results show that PFDM and simulation design are effective and accordant with the reality scenario, and the simulation precision is comparatively ideal. This research could provide a beneficial reference for train scheduling and operation management under the viewpoint of traffic safety and service level.

The multiphase motors due to their reliability find new areas of application in the industry and transportation. Developing of any system with multiphase motors at first requires elaborate model of the system, define control mode and controllers. The model of control system for the six-phase drive is based on its conventional d-q mathematical model and indirect field-oriented control. Simulink model of six-phase drive with indirect field-oriented control and simulated with two types PID and PID fuzzy controllers. The simulation results, reflecting step response and provided speed reference law as well as load application at constant speed, are presented and analyzed. Fuzzy controller with 49 rules is considered and applied. Six-phase electric drive with field-oriented control at well-tuned PID controller has good step response specifications: settling time 0.13 s at starting without load, step response has no overshoot, small about 1 % short time decrease of speed at load of 5 Nm application. The system employing PID fuzzy controller shows slightly better results in response to torque application: the decrease in speed 1 % is eliminated in shorter time. Simulation results indicate the robustness of both systems with six-phase drive to disturbance and provide high quality transient specifications at determined reference speed.

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.

Nowadays, the presence of pathogen-specific antibodies in the blood is widely controlled by a serodiagnostic technique based on the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA). However, its common one-stage format with an antigen immobilized in the binding zone of a test strip and a nanodis-persed label conjugated with immunoglobulin-binding proteins is associated with risks of very low analytical signals. It is caused by the presence of non-specific immunoglobulins in very large excess to the target antibodies in the tested samples thus decreasing their binding with the detected labels. In this study, the first stage of the immunochromatographic serodiagnosis was carried out in its traditional format using a conjugate of gold nanoparticles with staphylococcal immunoglobulin-binding protein A and an antigen immobilized on a working membrane. At the second stage, a labeled immunoglobulin-binding protein was added, which enhanced the coloration of the bound immune complexes. The use of two separated steps, binding of specific antibodies, and further coloration of the formed complexes allowed a significant reducing the influence of non-specific immunoglobulins on the assay results. The proposed approach was ap-plied for the serodiagnosis using a recombinant RBD protein of SARS-CoV-2. As a result, an in-crease in the intensity of test zone coloration by more than two orders of magnitude was demonstrated, which enabled to significantly reduce false-negative results. When testing a panel of 16 positive and 8 negative serum samples, the diagnostic sensitivity of the LFIA was 62.5% for the common format and 100% for the enhanced format; the diagnostic specificity of both variants was 100%.

Using coherent optical detection and digital signal processing, laser phase noise and equalization enhanced phase noise can be effectively mitigated using the feed-forward and feed-back carrier phase recovery approaches. In this paper, theoretical analyses of feed-back and feed-forward carrier phase recovery methods have been carried out in the long-haul high-speed n-level phase shift keying (n-PSK) optical fiber communication systems, involving a one-tap normalized least-mean-square (LMS) algorithm, a block-wise average algorithm, and a Viterbi-Viterbi algorithm. The analytical expressions for evaluating the estimated carrier phase and for predicting the bit-error-rate (BER) performance (such as the BER floors) have been presented and discussed in the n-PSK coherent optical transmission systems by considering both the laser phase noise and the equalization enhanced phase noise. The results indicate that the Viterbi-Viterbi carrier phase recovery algorithm outperforms the one-tap normalized LMS and the block-wise average algorithms for small phase noise variance (or effective phase noise variance), while the one-tap normalized LMS algorithm shows a better performance than the other two algorithms for large phase noise variance (or effective phase noise variance). In addition, the one-tap normalized LMS algorithm is more sensitive to the level of modulation formats.

Mushroom cultivation vastly improves the yield of mushrooms under optimized, controlled conditions, but may be susceptible to opportunistic colonization by pest species that can establish themselves, as well as the pathogens and pests they may transmit. Here we describe our investigation into the bacterial communities of adult Lycoriella ingenua (Diptera: Sciaridae) and Megaselia halterata (Diptera: Phoridae) collected from button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) production houses in Pennsylvania. We collected adult flies and sequenced the hypervariable v4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA using the Illumina MiSeq. The most abundant bacterial genus detected in both species was Wolbachia, but phylogenetic analysis revealed that the infections are from different clades. Future studies include the characterization of Wolbachia infections on fly behavior and biology, comparison of microbial diversity of fly species colonizing wild mushrooms, and other microbiota that may contribute to the success of certain pest fly species.

This study presents head losses (hL) and loss coefficients (K) obtained experimentally for schedule 40 PVC pipe elbows, with 90o and 45o in small commercial diameters of ½ to 1½ inches that are commonly used in small networks. The investigation was conducted on a system constructed with short pipes and fittings necessary to measure, direct, and control flow, as well as to evaluate pressure head losses at elbows. Simple water flow was used with rates of 0.342 to 0.980 lps (Q), which generated moderate Reynolds numbers (Re) of 13337 to 80221. It was found that hL showed dependence on the velocity head in all elbows, as well as that hL are greater as the diameter increases for same velocity head. The K values in the elbows tended to be constant when Q > 0.75 lps, but for Q < 0.75 lps the K coefficient increased inversely proportional to Q, becoming larger as the diameter increased. Likewise, the K coefficient tended to increase as Re decreased, while K tended to be constant as Re increased. The results of the experimental coefficient were compared against K values reported in the literature, where significant similarities and discrepancies were found.

We propose and experimentally realize a scheme of the optical nonreciprocity (ONR) using degenerate two-level atoms embedded in an optical ring cavity. For the degenerate transition Fg=4→Fe=3, we first study the cavity-transmission property in different coupling field, and verify that within the strong-coupling regime, the single-dark-state peak formed by electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) shows ONR. Qualitative theoretical analysis shows that the stable ground-state Zeeman coherence is necessary for intracavity EIT. However, due to the frequency degeneracy, the large Rabi frequency of counter-propagating coupling field can reduce the number of effective atoms and weaken the strong-coupling of the atom-cavity, which determines that ONR based on intracavity EIT occurs only at weaker probe intensity. Furthermore, the ONR transmission with high contrast, linewidth-narrowed and broadband is experimentally demonstrated.

The most important plastic resins used for wire coating are Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Nylon, Polysulfone and Low-high density polyethylene (LDPE / HDPE). In this article,the coating process is performed using elastic-viscous fluid as a coating material for wire coating in a pressure type coating die. The elastic-viscous fluid is electrically conducted in the presence of an applied magnetic field. The governing non-linear equations are modeled and then solved analytically by utilizing an Adomian decomposition method (ADM). The convergence of the series solution is established. The results are also verified by Optimal Homotopy Asymptotic Method (OHAM). The effect of different emerging parameters such as non-Newtonian parameters α and β, magnetic parameter M and the Brinkman number Br on solutions (velocity and temperature profiles) are discussed through several graphs. Additionally, the current result also compares with the published work already available in the literature.

The volume of fluid (VOF) method is a popular technique for the direct numerical simulations of flows involving immiscible fluids. A discrete volume fraction field evolving in time represents the interface, in particular, to compute its geometric properties. The height function method (HF) is based on the volume fraction field, and its estimate of the interface curvature converges with second-order accuracy with grid refinement. Data-driven methods have been recently proposed as an alternative to computing the curvature, with particular consideration for a well-balanced input data set generation and symmetry preservation. In the present work, a two-layer feed-forward neural network is trained on an input data set generated from the height function data instead of the volume fraction field. The symmetries for rotations, reflections, and the anti-symmetry for the phase swapping have been considered to reduce the number of input parameters. The neural network, establishing a correlation between curvature and height function values, can efficiently predict the local interface curvature. We compare the trained neural network to the standard Height Function method to assess its performance and robustness.

We study the connection between the phase and the amplitude of the wave function and the conditions under which this relationship exists. For this we use model of particle in a box. We have shown that the amplitude can be calculated from the phase and vice versa if the log Analytical uncertainty relations are satisfied.

Two novel inorganic–organic hybrid supramolecular assemblies, namely, (4-HNA)(18-crown-6)(HSO₄) (1) and (4-HNA)₂(18-crown-6)₂(PF₆)₂(CH₃OH) (2) (4-HNA = 4-nitroanilinium), were synthesized and characterized by infrared spectroscopy, single X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and temperature-dependent dielectric measurements. The two compounds underwent reversible phase transitions at about 255 K and 265 K, respectively. These phase transitions were revealed and confirmed by the thermal anomalies in DSC measurements and abrupt dielectric anomalies during heating. The phase transition may have originated from the [(4-HNA)(18-crown-6)]⁺ supramolecular cation. The inorganic anions tuned the crystal packings and thus influenced the phase-transition points and types. The variable-temperature X-ray diffraction data for crystal 1 revealed the occurrence of a phase transition in the high-temperature phase with the space group of P2₁/c and in the low-temperature phase with the space group of P2₁/n. Crystal 2 exhibited the same space group P2₁/c at different temperatures. The results indicated that crystals 1 and 2 both underwent an iso-structural phase transition.

Bacteriophages (phages) are potential alternatives to chemical antimicrobials against pathogens of public health significance. Understanding the diversity and host specificity of phages is important for developing effective phage biocontrol approaches. Here, we assessed the host range, morphology, and genetic diversity of eight Salmonella enterica phages isolated from a wastewater treatment plant. The host range analysis revealed that six out of eight phages lysed more than 81% of the 43 Salmonella enterica isolates tested. The genomic sequences of all phages were determined. Whole genome sequencing data (WGS) data revealed that phage genome sizes ranged from 41 to 114 kb with GC contents be-tween 39.9 and 50.0 %. Two of the phages SB13 and SB28 represent new species Epsep-timavirus SB13 and genera Macdonaldcampvirus, respectively as designated by the In-ternational Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) as per genome based taxonomic classification. One phage (SB18) belonged to the Myoviridae morphotype while the re-maining phages belonged to the Siphoviridae morphotype. The gene content analyses showed that none of the phages possessed virulence, toxin, antibiotic resistance, type I-VI toxin-antitoxin modules or lysogeny genes. Three (SB3, SB15 and SB18) out of the eight phages possessed tailspike proteins. Whole genome-based phylogeny of the eight phages with their 113 homologs revealed three clusters A, B, C and seven subclusters (A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, C1 and C2). While cluster C1 phages were predominantly isolated from animal sources, cluster B contained phages from both wastewater and animal sources. The broad host range of these phages highlights their potential use to control the presence of S. enterica in foods.

Spray penetration into citrus canopies is critical for adequate coverage and deposition to ensure effective pest control. However, mismatch of air assistance to target canopy characteristics can lead to unintended spray loss through over penetration. To evaluate the effect of air assistance on on-target deposition, two sprayers (surrogates for airflow rates) were used to apply a fluorescent tracer dye solution @ target concentration of 300 ppm to 16 medium foliage density tree blocks in a commercial mandarin orchard. The complete factorial experiment in three replications comprised two ground speeds (1.6 and 4.8 km/h), two disc-core nozzles (TeeJet® D3-25 and D6-45), and either one or two nozzle rows to obtain a wide range of application rates (496 to 9,719 L/ha). Dye deposition significantly decreased with canopy depth (p=<0.001) by nearly 7 times across the 3.4-m-wide canopies but was not significant over 1.2 to 2.2 m sampling height (p=0.867). Deposition obtained with the low airflow rate sprayer was significantly greater (p=<0.001) than that obtained with the high airflow rate sprayer over the dose range likely due to too much air pushing out spray droplets. This study underscores the importance of matching the air assistance of orchard sprayers to the target canopy.

Abstract: Due to sever land degradation throughout Ethiopia, the government has been implementing massive soil and water conservation works at the watershed scale since 2010 to conserve soil and water resources. However, most of the rivers in Ethiopia carry huge amount of sediment in rainy season and streams dried up in the dry period. Planned research was conducted on two paired micro-catchments Mt.Yewel with the main objective of evaluating the impact of soil and water conservation measures on base flow modification. Stream flow and rainfall data were collected from 22/11/2020 to 8/11/2022 on both micro-catchments at their outlets and center respectively. Base flow separation was done using Sp. Hydro base flow separation tool and SPSS Ver.21 statistical software was employed for data analysis. Flow duration curve (FDC) for both watersheds were developed. The FDC indicated that the base flow from treated micro-catchment ishigher and sustained in the dry season while it is low and un-sustained in untreated micro-catchment. From statistical analysis, there is a significant difference in base flow enhancement between the treated and untreated micro-catchment (P<0.001). Hence, catchment treatment contributed to improve groundwater recharge and sustain base flow in the dry season by reduce surface runoff during rainy season.

Abstract: Severe land degradation is the principal environmental problem in Ethiopian highlands in the form of soil erosion, and soil fertility loss, which is caused by human intervention for food, shelter, and energy demands. Soil erosion contributes to the loss of precious soil and water resources which are the basis of agricultural production and provide numerous other eco-system services. The Ethiopian highlands are one of the most degraded regions in the world. To combat such problems, the government of Ethiopia has been implementing massive soil and water conservation works at the watershed scale since 2010 to conserve soil and water resources. Mount Yewel is one of the highlands in Northeastern Ethiopia where intensive soil and water conserva-tion has been implemented. Despite the massive investment in soil and water conservation measures, most of the rivers in the highlands of Ethiopia carry huge amounts of sediment with high flood risks in the wet season and streams are dried up in the dry period. Nonetheless, the impact of soil and water conservation measures on flood reduction and dry season flow en-hancement has not yet been quantified and evaluated. This research was then conducted on paired micro-catchments of Mount Yewel with the main objective of evaluating the impact of soil and water conservation measures on base flow modification. Stream flow and rainfall data were col-lected from 22/11/2020 to 8/11/2022 on paired micro-catchments of Mount Yewel at their outlets and centers respectively. Base flow separation was done from the stream hydrograph using Sp. Hydro base flow separation tool and SPSS Ver.21 statistical software were employed for data analysis. Flow duration curves (FDC) for both watersheds were developed to compare the stream flow patterns between treated and untreated micro-catchments of Mount Yewel. The FDC indi-cated that the base flow from treated micro-catchment is higher and sustained in the dry season while it is low and unsustained in untreated micro-catchment. From statistical analysis, there is a significant (P

This article provides a literature review on tubal carcinoma to offer an updated insight into its preventative strategies, diagnosis, treatment, and oncological surveillance. In addition to the search string utilized, the authors' focus extended to key scientific studies, consensus statements, guidelines, and relevant case reports essential for the proper clinical management of the disease, providing a methodologically well-structured literature review combined with the practical expertise in the oncological field. The article also includes two emblematic clinical cases that emphasize the importance of understanding the physiopathology and the current state of the art in the anatomopathological advancements of tubal/ovarian/peritoneal carcinoma, often assimilated into a single clinical entity.

The production of recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli is often challenged by cytoplasmic expression due to proteolytic degradation and inclusion body formation. Extracellular expression can overcome these problems by simplifying downstream processing and improving protein yields. This study aims to compare the efficiency of two Bacillus subtilis chitosanase signal peptides in mediating extracellular secretion in E. coli. We identified a naturally occurring mutant signal peptide (mCsn2-SP) from B. subtilis CH2 chitosanase (CH2CSN), which is characterized by a deletion of six amino acids in the N-region relative to the signal peptide (Csn1-SP) from B. subtilis CH1 chitosanase (CH1CSN). The CH1CSN and CH2CSN genes were cloned into the pET-11a vector and protein secretion was evaluated in E. coli BL21(DE3) host cells. Expression was induced with 0.1 mM and 1 mM IPTG at 30°C for one and three days. CH2CSN showed higher secretion levels compared to CH1CSN under all experimental conditions, especially with 0.1 mM IPTG induction for 3 days, which resulted in a 2.37-fold increase in secretion. These results suggest that signal peptide deletion variants may have an effect on protein secretion efficiency and help to further understand the function of signal peptides.

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.

Little has been written in literature about the clinical comparison of the single use of chlorhexidine (CHX) rather than its combination with cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC). The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical effectiveness of two at-home antiseptic regimens. Healthy subjects scheduled for dental surgery were enrolled. After the surgery, patients were randomly allocated in a first group (Group A) which received a manual ultra soft toothbrush (Mentadent Professional®), an antiseptic toothpaste with 0,12% CHX and Vitamin B3 (Mentadent Professional Azione Intensiva Gengive®) and an antiseptic mouthwash with 0,12% CHX and 0,07% CPC. The second group (Group B) received solely an antiseptic mouthwash with 0,2% in conjunction with Anti Discoloration System (Curasept ADS/DNA®) and were encouraged to use their usual toothbrush and toothpaste. Patients were instructed to use the products twice a day and to rinse for 30 seconds. On day 7, patients were examined for the Early Healing Score, Visual Plaque Index of the sutures, Numerical Rating Scale and mouthwash taste. Group A showed a statistically significant levels of EHS and taste satisfaction. The regimen based on CHX associate with vitamin B3 in the toothpaste and CPC in the mouthwash resulted in superior clinical outcomes and satisfaction compared to solely CHX.

The oscillating heat pipe (OHP) is a new member in the family of heat pipes, and it has great potential applications in energy conservation. However, the fluid flow and heat transfer in the OHP as well as the fundamental effects of inner diameter on them have not been fully understood, which are essential to the design and optimization of the OHP in real applications. Therefore, by combining the high-speed visualization method and infrared thermal imaging technique, the fluid flow and thermal performance in the OHPs with inner diameters of 1, 2 and 3 mm are presented and analyzed. The results indicate that three fluid flow motions, including small oscillation, bulk oscillation and circulation, coexist or, respectively, exist alone with the increasing heating load under different inner diameters, with three flow patterns occurring in the OHPs, viz. bubbly flow, slug flow and annular flow. These fluid flow motions are closely correlated with the heat and mass transfer performance in the OHPs, which can be reflected by the characteristics of infrared thermal images of condensers. The decrease in the inner diameter increases the frictional flow resistance and capillary instability while restricting the nucleate boiling in OHPs, which leads to a smaller proportion of bubbly flow, a larger proportion of short slug flow, a poorer thermal performance, and easier dry-out of working fluid. In addition, when compared with the 2 mm OHP, the increasing role of gravity induces the thermosyphon effect and weakens the 'bubble pumping' action, which results in a little smaller and bigger thermal resistances of 3 mm OHP under small and bulk oscillation of working fluid, respectively.

. Protein cysteine S-glycosylation is a relatively rare and less well characterized post-translational modification (PTM). Creating reliable model proteins that carry this modification is challenging. The lack of available model or natural S-glycosylated proteins significantly hampers the development of MS-based methodologies for detecting protein cysteine S-glycosylation in real-world proteomic studies. There is also limited MS-sequencing data describing easier to create synthetic S-glycopeptides. Here, we present the results of an in-depth manual analysis of automatically annotated CID/HCD spectra for model S-glucopeptides. The CID spectra show a long series of y/b-fragment ions with retained S-glucosylation, regardless of the dominant m/z signals corresponding to neutral loss of 1,2-anhydroglucose from the precursor ions. In addition, the spectra show signals manifesting glucosyl transfer from the cysteine position onto Lys, Arg side chains, and a peptide N-terminus. Other spectral evidence indicates that the N-glucosylated initial products of transfer are converted into N-furanosylated (i.e., glycated) structures due to Amadori rearrangement. We discuss the peculiar transfer of the glucose oxocarbenium ion (Glc+) to positively charged guanidinium residue (ArgH+) and propose a mechanism for the gas-phase Amadori rearrangement involving a hydride ion shift.

This paper introduces a three-layer system, proposing a comprehensive model of granular mixture transport over a mobile sloped bed in a steady flow. This system, consisting of the bottom, contact and upper zones, provides complete, continuous sediment velocity and concentration vertical profiles. The model considers gravity’s effect on sediment transport in the bottom (dense) layer, a crucial factor often overlooked in previous studies. The induced movement in the mobile sublayer of the dense layer causes an increase in velocity at the upper boundary of this layer, significantly affecting the vertical distributions of velocity and concentration above this layer. We described the interactions between fractions and an intensive sediment mixing and sorting process in the contact layer. The proposed shear variation, with an increase in its maximum value at the bed, adds to the novelty of our approach. The data sets used for the model’s validation cover various conditions, including slopes, grain diameters, densities and grain mobility conditions, from incipient motion to a fully mobilised bed. This extensive validation process instils confidence in the theoretical description and its applicability to real-world scenarios.

A hybrid material, consisting of commercially available nitrocellulose (NC) membrane non-covalently modified with amino-polyethylene glycol functionalized reduced graphene oxide (NH2-PEG-rGO) nanoparticles, was successfully synthesized for oligonucleotide extraction. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) confirmed the modification of the NC membrane, revealing characteristic peaks of both compounds NC and NH2-PEG-rGO. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) exhibited morphological changes in the NC/NH2-PEG-rGO hybrid membrane, marked by the introduction of NH2-PEG-rGO particles, resulting in a distinctly smothered surface compared to the porous surface of the NC control membrane. Wettability assays revealed hydrophobic behavior for the NC/NH2-PEG-rGO hybrid membrane, with a water contact angle exceeding 90°, contrasting with the hydrophilic behavior characterized by a 16.7° contact angle in the NC membrane. The performance of the NC/NH2-PEG-rGO hybrid membrane was evaluated for the extraction of ssDNA with fewer than 50 nucleotides from solutions containing various ionic species (MnCl2, MgCl2, and MnCl2/MgCl2). The NC/NH2-PEG-rGO hybrid membrane exhibited optimal performance when incubated in MgCl2, presenting the highest fluorescence emission at 525 relative fluorescence units (r.f.u.). This corresponds to the extraction of approximately 610 pg (≈13%) of the total oligo-DNA, underscoring the efficacy of the pristine material, which extracts 286 pg (≈6%) of oligo-DNA in complex solutions.

The African continent has the highest prevalence of hypertension globally, with South Africa reporting the highest prevalence in Southern Africa. While the influence of genetic variability in the pathogenesis of hypertension is well described internationally, limited reports are available for African populations. This study aimed to assess the association of genetic variants and essential hypertension in a cohort of two ethnic South African population groups. Two hundred and seventy-seven hypertensive and one hundred and seventy-six normotensive individuals were genotyped for 79 variants. Genotyping was performed using the Illumina GoldenGate Assay and allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. The association of variants was assessed using the Fisher Exact test under the additive and allelic genetic models, while multivariate logistic regression was used to predict the development of hypertension. Five variants (CYP11B2 rs179998, AGT rs5051 and rs699, AGTR1 rs5186 and ACE rs4646994) were significantly associated with essential hypertension in the cohort under study. Furthermore, AGTR1 rs5186 and AGT rs699 were identified as risk factors for the development of hypertension in both ethnic groups. In two ethnic South African populations an association was observed between Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System (RAAS) related genes and the development of hypertension.

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

To enhance the applicability of dual-phase high-entropy alloys (HEAs) like Fe32Cr33Ni29Al3Ti3, fabricated via selective laser melting (SLM), a focus on improving their mechanical properties is essential. As part of this effort, heat treatment was explored. This study compares the microstructure and mechanical properties of the as-printed sample with those cooled in water after undergoing heat treatment at temperatures ranging from 1000 to 1200 ℃ for 1 hour. Both pre- and post-treatment samples reveal a dual-phase microstructure comprising FCC and BCC phases. Although heat treatment led to a reduction in tensile and yield strength, it significantly increased ductility compared to the as-printed sample. This strength-ductility trade-off is related to changes in grain sizes with ultrafine grains enhancing strength and micron grains optimizing ductility, also the influence of the content of FCC/BCC phases and dislocation density. In particular, the sample heat-treated at 1000 °C for 1 hour and then water-cooled exhibited a better combination of strength and ductility, a yield strength of 790 MPa, and an elongation of 13%. This research offers innovative perspectives on crafting dual-phase HEA of Fe32Cr33Ni29Al3Ti3, allowing for tailorable microstructure and mechanical properties through a synergistic approach involving SLM and heat treatment.

The advancement in science and technology has led to luffa sponge (LS) being widely used as a natural material in industrial application as its polyporous structure and light texture. In order to enhance the utility of LS fibers as the reinforcement of lightweight composite materials, this study investigate its water absorption, mechanical properties, anatomical characteristic and thermal performance. Hence, moisture regain, tensile properties of LS fiber bundles were measured in accordance with standards and the structural characteristics were investigated via microscopic observation. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the surface morphology and fracture surface of fiber bundles. Test results shows that the special structure where the phloem tissues degenerate to cavities had a significant influence on the mechanical properties of LS fiber bundles. Additionally, the transverse sectional area occupied by fibers in a fiber bundle (SF), wall thickness and ratio of wall to lumen of fiber cell, and crystallinity of cellulose had an impact on the mechanical properties of LS fiber bundles. Furthermore, the fiber bundles density of LS varies range of 385.46-468.70 kg/m³, much less than that of jute (1360.40 kg/m³) and Arenga engleri (950.20 kg/m³) while LS fiber bundles has superior specific modulus.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have increasingly become integral to multi-access edge computing (MEC) due to their flexibility and cost-effectiveness, especially in the B5G and 6G eras. This paper aims to enhance the Quality of Experience (QoE) in large-scale UAV-MEC networks by minimizing the shrinkage ratio through optimal decision-making in computation mode selection for each user device (UD), UAV flight trajectory, bandwidth allocation, and computing resource allocation at edge servers. However, the interdependencies among UAV trajectory, binary task offloading mode, and computing/network resource allocation across numerous IoT nodes pose significant challenges. To address these challenges, we formulate the shrinkage ratio minimization problem as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem and propose a two-tier optimization strategy. To reduce the scale of the optimization problem, we first design a low-complexity UAV partition coverage algorithm based on the Welzl method and determine the UAV flight trajectory by solving a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). Subsequently, we develop a coordinate descent (CD) based method and an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) based method for network bandwidth and computing resource allocation in the MEC system. The CD-based method is simple to implement and has a low computational complexity, while the ADMM-based method can further enhance the optimization result through joint optimization. Extensive simulations demonstrate that our proposed algorithms perform well in large-scale edge networks and outperform other representative benchmark methods.

Polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols (PPAPs) comprise a large group of compounds of mostly plant origin. The best-known compound is hyperforin from St. John's wort with its antidepressant, antitumor and antimicrobial properties. Chemical synthesis of PPAP variants allows the generation of compounds with improved activity and compatibility. Here we studied two synthetic PPAP-derivatives, PPAP 23 and PPAP 53, as to their antimicrobial activity. While PPAP 23 is insoluble in water, PPAP 53, the sodium salt, is water-soluble. In vitro, both compounds exhibited good and comparable activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium. Both compounds had no adverse effects on Galleria mellonella wax moth larvae, even at high concentrations. However, they were unable to protect the larvae from infection with S. aureus because components of the larval coelom neutralized the antimicrobial activity; a similar neutralizing effect was also seen with serum albumin. In a septic arthritis model triggered by S. aureus PPAP23 decreased the formation of abscesses and bacterial load in kidneys, and in a mouse skin abscess model topical treatment with PPAP 53 resulted in an approximately two-fold reduction in S. aureus counts. PPAP 23 and PPAP 53 also showed high growth inhibiting activity against anaerobic Gram-positive pathogenic gut bacteria such as Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium difficile. Based on these results, we envision potential application of PPAP 23 and PPAP 53 in the topical treatment of wound infections with Gram+ pathogens, and their oral use in intestinal infections with C. difficile.

Saikosaponin (SS) a is a compound with various pharmacological properties and easily degraded into SSb1 and SSg in acid condition. In present work another two new degradation products of SSa formed under acid hydrolytic condition were detected and isolated by analytical and semi-preparative liquid chromatography technology, furthermore their structures were characterized as hydroxyl-saikosaponin a and SSb2 by spectral analysis, which is not only essential in stability-indicating method development and validation but also could be used as a worst case to assess the analytical method performance of SSa. Moreover their structural transformation pathways were also proposed.

In this work, satellite data from the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments is analyzed to determine how the global absorbed sunlight and global entropy generation rate have changed during the time period from 2002 to 2023. The data is used to test hypotheses derived from the Maximum Power Principle (MPP) and Maximum Entropy Production Principle (MEP) about the evolution of earth’s surface and atmosphere. The results indicate that the amount of absorbed sunlight has increased over the last 20 years but rising surface temperatures have caused the entropy generation rate to remain approximately constant despite that decrease in albedo. The results are simpler to explain using the MPP but do not completely rule out the MEP. Given the acceptance of the MPP or MEP, some extensions and nuances are discussed.

Using the example of a generator model with dedicated inertia, a theoretical study of two coupled self-oscillators with capacitive coupling, their sequential single-frequency synchronization, chaos and two-frequency synchronization with an adiabatic change in the magnitude of the coupling between partial self-oscillators was carried out. The parameters of self-oscillators and the values of the coupling coefficient at which the specified operating modes of coupled self-oscillators exist are determined. The results of numerical studies, illustrating the conditions for excitation of single-frequency, chaotic and dual-frequency oscillations in a system of coupled self-oscillators are presented.