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The purpose of hyperspectral unmixing (HU) is to obtain the spectral features of materials (endmembers) and their proportion (abundance) in a hyperspectral image (HSI). Due to the existence of spectral variabilities (SVs), it is difficult to obtain accurate spectral features. At the same time, the performance of unmixing is not only affected by SVs but also depends on the effective spectral and spatial information. To solve these problems, this study proposed an efficient attention-based convolutional neural network (EACNN) and an efficient convolution block attention module (ECBAM). The EACNN is a two-stream network, which is learned from nearly pure endmembers through an additional network, and the aggregated spectral and spatial information can be obtained effectively with the help of the ECBAM, which can reduce the influence of SVs and improve the performance. The unmixing network helps the whole network to pay attention to meaningful feature information by using efficient channel attention (ECA) and guides the unmixing process by sharing parameters. Experimental results on three HSI datasets showed that the method proposed in this study outperformed other unmixing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, cement based on fused silica powder @ polyurethane urea (FSP@PUU) with a micro constrained damping structure was studied. Firstly, FSP@PUU core-shell particles were prepared by heterogeneous stepwise addition polymerization method and added into cement paste as damping filler to form a micro-constrained damping structure inside cement paste. The mechanical property and damping performance of cement-based composites were characterized by compressive strength, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) test and modal vibration test. The results showed that the damping performance of FSP @ PUU cement-based composites was affected by temperature, and the loss tangent of cement with 6wt% FSP@PUU increased to about 0.057 at −35 °C to 35 °C, which was 1.5 times cement paste within the glass transition temperature. With 6 wt% FSP@PUU, the damping ratio of cement-based composites increased by 58% compared with cement paste in the frequency range of 175–300 Hz, while the compressive strength decreased by only 5%. The cement with suitable FSP@PUU possesses excellent damping performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mebendazole (MBZ) is a synthetic benzimidazole known for its antiparasitic properties. In recent years, growing evidence showed that MBZ was also used as an anti-tumor agent. However, whether (and to what extent) this drug treatment affected the male reproductive system was not well-understood. In this study, male C57BL/6 mice were injected with 40 mg/kg/day of MBZ. The treatment was for 3 and 7 days. Our results showed that the injected mice exhibited an abnormal spermatogenic phase with a significant decrease in sperm. We further detected microtubule disruption and transient functional destruction of the blood–testes barrier (BTB) in the MBZ-injected mice testes (BTB). Our data confirmed that MBZ suppressed the expression of the BTB junction-associated proteins and disrupted the Sertoli cells' function in vivo. Moreover, MBZ-treated mice demonstrated an aberrant caspase-3 signalling pathway, which resulted in the apoptosis of the germ cells. Here, we present our data, indicating that MBZ impairs BTB by reducing the expression of the microtubules' and BTB junction-associated proteins. The last leads to activating the caspase-3 pathway, which triggers extensive germ cell apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrical properties of cement are gaining importance for the application in building construction. Polypyrrole (PPy) has been widely applied in most fields because of its excellent conductivity performance, environmental friendliness, easy fabrication, and other specialties. These features made them useful for self-sensing applications. In this work, waterborne polypyrrole (WPPy) was prepared via the chemical oxidative polymerization with three kinds of hydrophilic agents: sodium lignosulfonate (LGS), sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SLS), and then WPPy/cement composites were prepared by mixing cement with it. The contact angle, conductivity, and microstructure of WPPy were characterized by contact angle tester, four-point probes, and SEM. The composition, microstructure, and properties of WPPy/cement composites were characterized by FTIR, TGA, XRD, and SEM. The content of LGS was 40 wt%, WPPy got the optimal comprehensive performance, the conductivity was 15.06 times of the control sample and the contact angle was reduced by 69.95%. SEM analysis showed that hydrophilic agent content had great effect on the particle size of WPPy, the average diameter of WPPy particles decreased from 200 nm to 50 nm with the increase of LGS content. The results also showed that the adding of WPPy in WPPy/cement composites can significantly improve the conductivity and compactness, optimize the microstructure of cement composite. When the content of WPPy was 1.25 wt%, WPPy/cement composite showed the lowest resistivity and saturated water content of cement composite was 8 wt%. In addition, it could also inhibit the formation of Ca(OH)2 in the early hydration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous foam is widely used in fire extinguishing and dust suppression technologies. Improving the foaming ability is the key to reducing the added concentration of foaming agents as well as the economic cost. In this work, the effect of a water-soluble polymer (polyvinyl alcohol, PVA) on the foaming ability of anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl ether sulfate, SDES) was studied by an experiment and molecular dynamics simulation. The experimental results showed that PVA greatly improves the foaming ability of SDES solutions when the surfactant concentration is less than 0.1%, which is attributed to the fact that the polymer can enhance the stability of bubble films and reduce the bubble rupture rate during the foam generation process. The simulation results indicate that PVA can enhance the hydration of surfactant head groups and contribute to the formation of a three-dimensional hydrogen bond network between surfactants, polymers, and water molecules, thus greatly improving the stability of bubble liquid films. The above results suggest that water-soluble polymers can be used to improve the foaming ability of surfactant solutions by enhancing the bubble film stability, which is beneficial as it reduces the added concentration of foaming agents in aqueous foam applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]