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As the body's largest organ, the skin is an integrated multisensory system with self‐healing ability and helps stabilize body temperature. It is herein, inspired by natural skin, a wearable patch made from porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) skeleton, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) hydrogel, and silicon oxide (SiO2) particles, offers a combination of self‐healing properties, along with hybrid radiative and evaporative cooling mechanisms, designed for electromyographic (EMG) signal detection and human‐machine interaction. The patch has both high mid‐infrared (MIR) emittance (96%) and visible to near‐infrared (visNIR) reflectance (80%), coupled with efficient water evaporation from the PVA hydrogel, resulting in a hybrid cooling power of 180 W m−2. It obtains a temperature drop of ≈7.7 °C using this patch under a solar intensity of ≈700 W m−2. Furthermore, the patch demonstrates self‐healing ability with ultrafast recovery of electrical conductivity (1 s) and a self‐healing efficiency (≈71%) of fracture strain. Thus, the wearable patch can detect high‐quality EMG signals and provide cooling effects and self‐healing capabilities that enhance comfortability and durability. These features make the patch an advanced solution for developing next‐generation wearable patches that can meet the rigorous demands of durable body temperature control in various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a bilayered chiral metamaterial is proposed to realise broadband asymmetric transmission of linearly polarised electromagnetic wave in two opposite directions. Simulated results show that the bilayered chiral metamaterial can achieve broadband cross-polarisation transmission with an efficiency of over 0.8 from 10.27 to 11.57 GHz with two peaks of 0.92 and 0.94 at around 10.5 and 11.3 GHz, respectively, in one direction, <0.07 in the opposite direction at the same polarisation of the incident wave during the considered frequency band. Except a little blue shift, the measured results agree well with the simulated ones. Meanwhile, the structure can achieve nearly 90° polarisation conversion for both x- and y-polarised incident wave in two opposite directions and was verified by studying the polarisation azimuth rotation angles. Then, the surface current was studied to reveal the physical origin of the broadband asymmetric transmission of the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yellow-Huai-Hai River Valley (YHH) in China has a long history of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] breeding. The genetic improvement of yield and agronomic traits of soybean cultivars due to breeding is rarely documented. The objectives were to analyze the trend of changes on widely-grown soybean cultivars in this region. Twenty-five soybean cultivars released over the period from 1929 until 2004 were selected. The field trial was conducted in three locations in 2 yr (2009-2010) and one location in 2011. Linear, bilinear, and quadratic regression models were built and compared to determine the rate of change for each trait. The yield gain was 9.97 kg ha-1 yr-1 during the eight decades. Current cultivars had shorter plant height, fewer nodes, higher lodging resistance, fewer pods per plant, fewer seeds per plant, more seeds per pod, higher 100-seed weight (100-SW) and higher yield than ancestral cultivars. The changing rates of these traits were either constant or variable with linear or quadratic models. Plant height (PH), height of the lowest pod (HLP), and seeds per pod (SPPOD) of new cultivars were more stable across environments than old cultivars, whereas lodging score (LS) and yield were less stable across environments. Yield increase was mainly attributed to an increase in SPPOD and seed weight rather than pods per plant (PPP). Collectively, improvements in agronomic and yield traits were significant during the 75-yr-long breeding effort. This study also shed light on developing future breeding strategies in the YHH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing vehicle sideslip angle is important and useful in various vehicle active safety applications. However, equipment which could directly measure sideslip angle is usually too expensive for industrial applications, so a reliable, affordable sideslip angle observer is necessary. Model‐based observer is affected by the model uncertainty, non‐linearity and the road friction inaccuracy. Sensor‐based observer might be easily affected by the sensor noise and the bias induced by the road micro‐uneven. Thus, an unscented Kalman filter (UKF)‐based adaptive variable structural observer with dynamic correction (AUKF) for vehicle body sideslip angle is brought forward in this study. First, an UKF observer with adaptive parameters is used to compensate the model uncertainty. Then, a sensor‐based observer is applied to realise a variable structure observer to compensate the estimation error in the highly non‐linear region. A pseudointegral method and a zero point reset method are adopted to dynamically correct the bias drift problem in the integral. Both simulations and real vehicle tests validated the proposed approach. The accurate vehicle sideslip angle is measured by a differential global positioning system. Results show that the proposed approach has better performance compared with traditional UKF method, and makes a good foundation for stability control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the stimulatory effect of the slow-release fertilizers Osmocote and Inipol EAP-22 on oil biodegradation in beach sediments using an open irrigation system over a 45-day period. Effect of the susceptibility both soluble inorganic nutrients and Inipol EAP-22 to leaching from sediments on the duration of their beneficial effects; Evidence showing that the Osmocote maintained nutrients at a concentration that resulted in sustained microbial activity and hydrocarbon biodegradation.

In the burgeoning field of bioinspired materials, the principles governing biological perception and self‐healing drive advancements in biomimetic mechano‐responsive materials, seamlessly integrating ionic signal sensing with self‐healing. While current research often emphasizes individual functionalities, the concurrent enhancement of both self‐healing and sensitivity in iontronic skins is often overlooked. Drawing inspiration from transmembrane proteins like TSP‐15, Piezo 1 and Piezo 2, renowned for recruiting repair factors, multifunctional molecular‐ionic regulatory sites are constructed within a polyurethane/ionic liquid composite system, leading to the development of a mechano‐responsive elastomer (i‐DAPU) that exhibited both rapid self‐healing (72 µm min−1) and impressive sensitivity (7012.05 kPa−1). Leveraging the dual functionalities of i‐DAPU in tandem with deep learning algorithms, a sophisticated system is devised for intelligently analyzing neural conditions in comatose patients based on muscle strength, achieving a remarkable 99.2% accuracy rate, holding significant promise for healthcare applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By fusing the radar images of a certain target obtained from multiple aspects, complementary information can be made full use of for better target descriptions and higher image quality. A fusion scheme based on non-negative matrix factorisation (NMF) is proposed. A sparsity-enhancing regularisation term is introduced into the original NMF, and the corresponding modified multiplicative update rule is derived to iteratively fuse the images. The composite image generally demonstrates enhanced feature characteristics and improved signal-to-noise ratio. The experimental results prove the validity and superiority of the proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new approach for the formulation of multivariable finite element methods and establishes a systematic approach to tie the various existing hybrid/mixed finite elements together and to suggest the possibility of constructing some new models. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]