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Protein structure prediction (PSP) problems are a major biocomputing challenge, owing to its scientific intrinsic that assists researchers to understand the relationship between amino acid sequences and protein structures, and to study the function of proteins. Although computational resources increased substantially over the last decade, a complete solution to PSP problems by computational methods has not yet been obtained. Using only one energy function is insufficient to characterize proteins because of their complexity. Diverse protein energy functions and evolutionary computation algorithms have been extensively studied to assist in the prediction of protein structures in different ways. Such algorithms are able to provide a better protein with less computational resources requirement than deep learning methods. For the first time, this study proposes a manyobjective protein structure prediction (MaOPSP) problem with four types of objectives to alleviate the impact of imprecise energy functions for predicting protein structures. A manyobjective evolutionary algorithm (MaOEA) is utilized to solve MaOPSP. The proposed method is compared with existing methods by examining thirty-four proteins. An analysis of the objectives demonstrates that our generated conformations are more reasonable than those generated by single/multi-objective optimization methods. Experimental results indicate that solving a PSP problem as an MaOPSP problem with four objectives yields better protein structure predictions, in terms of both accuracy and efficiency. The source code of the proposed method can be found at https://toyamaailab.github.io/sourcedata.html.

In this letter, 1-D mirrored aperture synthesis with two tilted reflectors (1-D MAS-T) is proposed to improve the spatial resolution of an antenna array without extending its size. The principle of 1-D MAS-T is given. The size of the reflector is analyzed, and detailed calculation formulae is derived. Numerical simulations and experiments are carried out to illustrate the performance of 1-D MAS-T. The results demonstrate that 1-D MAS-T can achieve a higher spatial resolution than conventional aperture synthesis with the same antenna array.

Some recent research reports that a dendritic neuron model (DNM) can achieve better performance than traditional artificial neuron networks (ANNs) on classification, prediction, and other problems when its parameters are well-tuned by a learning algorithm. However, the back-propagation algorithm (BP), as a mostly used learning algorithm, intrinsically suffers from defects of slow convergence and easily dropping into local minima. Therefore, more and more research adopts non-BP learning algorithms to train ANNs. In this paper, a dynamic scale-free network-based differential evolution (DSNDE) is developed by considering the demands of convergent speed and the ability to jump out of local minima. The performance of a DSNDE trained DNM is tested on 14 benchmark datasets and a photovoltaic power forecasting problem. Nine meta-heuristic algorithms are applied into comparison, including the champion of the 2017 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC2017) benchmark competition effective butterfly optimizer with covariance matrix adapted retreat phase (EBOwithCMAR). The experimental results reveal that DSNDE achieves better performance than its peers.

Mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) has been proposed as a novel interferometry to achieve higher spatial resolution in passive microwave remote sensing. The phase and amplitude errors for MAS are a crucial problem that has yet to be analyzed. In this letter, a model for the phase and amplitude errors is established. A correction method based on an external source is proposed to correct the phase and amplitude errors. An analysis of the position of the external source is performed by computing its impact on the radiometric accuracy of a reference scene. The imaginary parts of the cross correlations for MAS are analyzed for the first time. Simulations and experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the correction method.

Based on the theory of friction self-excited vibration and the measured data of rail corrugation, the cause of rail corrugation in metro straight section was analyzed. Then, using the stochastic finite element method, the sensitivity of each parameter to rail corrugation was studied by selecting the elastic modulus E1 and density ρ1 of the wheel-rail material, the elastic modulus E2 and density ρ2 of the track slab material, the wheel-rail coefficient of friction f, the fastener vertical stiffness K and vertical damping C, the wheel-rail longitudinal relative slip s as the random parameters. The results show that under the support of Cologne egg fastener track, the characteristic frequency of friction self-excited vibration of wheel-rail system is close to the characteristic frequency of measured corrugation, indicating that the occurrence of rail corrugation is related to the friction self-excited vibration of wheel-rail system under the condition of saturated creep force. The parameter sensitivity analysis illustrates that the influence degree of each random parameter on the real part αi of complex eigenvalue is E1>ρ1>C>E2>ρ2>f>K>s in turn. E1, C and s are positively correlated with the real part αi of complex eigenvalue, while the remaining 5 parameters are negatively correlated with the real part αi of complex eigenvalue. Therefore, appropriate decrease of E1, C and s, and increase of ρ1, E2, ρ2, f and K can play a positive role in the control of rail corrugation.

By using the transient finite element method, a three-dimensional wheelset-track coupled rolling contact model for high-speed rail is established, and the rationality and effectiveness of the model are verified by field measurements. Next, the wheel-rail contact stress states and relative slip characteristics are calculated and analyzed to reveal the cause of inner rail corrugation. Then, the vertical vibration acceleration of the rail/wheel is taken as the output variable to study the dynamic responses of the wheelset-track system. Finally, the parameter sensitivity analysis is carried out. The results show that the maximum normal/tangential contact stress between the inner wheel and inner rail is greater than that between outer wheel and outer rail due to the unbalanced load of inner rail caused by the excess superelevation of track structure, which indicates that the unbalanced load of the inner rail may aggravate the development of rail wear, and the rationality of the model established in this paper is verified. The wheel-rail relative slip region on the inner rail side appears periodically, and the distance between the two adjacent slip regions is close to the characteristic wavelength of the measured inner rail corrugation, which illustrates that the periodic variation of slip regions on the inner rail surface plays an important role in the formation of rail corrugation, and the validity of the model is verified. The periodic distribution of wheel-rail relative slip regions on the outer rail surface is not obvious, demonstrating that the outer rail tends to form uniform wear, which is consistent with the fact that the outer rail corrugation is slight in the measured section. The wheelset-track system has been in the process of unstable continuous oscillation in the analysis interval, combined with the analysis results of the wheel-rail relative slip characteristics, it can be concluded that the unstable self-excited vibration of wheelset-track system under the condition of tangential contact force reaching saturation is the main cause of rail corrugation. The dominant characteristic frequencies of vertical vibration accelerations of rail and wheel are all 561 Hz, the corresponding characteristic wavelength (148 mm) is close to the distance (150 mm) between the calculated adjacent slip regions, and is also close to the characteristic wavelengths (125 mm and 160 mm) of inner rail corrugation, which shows that the resonance phenomenon occurs in the wheelset-track system at the above frequency, thus leading to the increase of dynamic responses of wheelset-track system. The fastener vertical stiffness and wheel-rail coefficient of friction have significant effect on the development of rail corrugation, and the running speed determines the occurrence probability of inner/outer rail corrugation by affecting the track superelevation state.

Based on the metro vehicle-track spatial coupled model, the wheel-rail dynamic responses of tangential track under different composite corrugation irregularities and the development characteristics of composite corrugation irregularities were studied by simplifying rail surface composite corrugation irregularities into superimposed harmonic corrugations. The time domain analysis results demonstrate that the short wavelength corrugation irregularity has obvious influence on wheel-rail dynamic characteristics. The frequency domain analysis results show that the existence of rail corrugation will also lead to wheel-rail dynamic responses at higher frequencies. The wear frequency spectrum curves contain characteristic frequencies corresponding to wavelengths of composite corrugation irregularities, and the peak values are high, showing that composite corrugation irregularities are in the process of continuous development, and the development speed of shorter wavelength corrugation is faster than that of longer wavelength corrugation. The peak values of wear frequency spectrum curves also appear at frequency multiple points of passing frequencies corresponding to wavelengths of composite corrugation irregularities, which illustrates that corresponding wavelength corrugations can be easily formed. Meantime, rail corrugation has the trend of developing into short-wavelength corrugation.

Smart homes of the future are envisioned to have the ability to recognize many types of home activities such as running a washing machine, flushing the toilet, and using a microwave. In this paper, we present a new sensing technology, VibroSense, which is able to recognize 18 different types of activities throughout a house by observing structural vibration patterns on a wall or ceiling using a laser Doppler vibrometer. The received vibration data is processed and sent to a deep neural network which is trained to distinguish between 18 activities. We conducted a system evaluation, where we collected data of 18 home activities in 5 different houses for 2 days in each house. The results demonstrated that our system can recognize 18 home activities with an average accuracy of up to 96.6%. After re-setup of the device on the second day, the average recognition accuracy decreased to 89.4%. We also conducted follow-up experiments, where we evaluated VibroSense under various scenarios to simulate real-world conditions. These included simulating online recognition, differentiating between specific stages of a device's activity, and testing the effects of shifting the laser's position during re-setup. Based on these results, we discuss the opportunities and challenges of applying VibroSense in real-world applications.

Mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) is a new method for passive microwave remote sensing after aperture synthesis (AS). In this paper, the relationship among the array factor (AF) for the two-dimensional (2-D) MAS, one-dimensional (1-D) MAS, and 1-D AS is established. Based on the relationship, the sidelobe level (SLL) of MAS is analyzed. The SLL of MAS is spatially variant compared to that of AS. Despite this, a set of directions can still be selected, in which the maximum SLLs of MAS are almost equal to those of AS. This is verified by the simulations and experiments based on a system working at 51.6GHz.

The concept, principle, and method of microwave radiometric imaging with mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) were proposed by the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China. MAS can achieve higher spatial resolution without extending the size of the antenna array. However, the MAS principle has not been sufficiently validated by practical experiments. To solve this problem, an innovative experiment system of MAS at the V-band (MAS-V) has been developed by HUST. Experiments on the interference fringe pattern, spatial resolution, as well as the imaging of an electric warmer and the absorbing material in the styrofoam box filled with liquid nitrogen are performed. The initial experimental results demonstrate that MAS can achieve higher spatial resolution with the same antenna array compared with the conventional AS. For MAS, the experimental results are consistent with theory and simulation results.

More attention has been paid in recent years to the interior noise of railway vehicles. It has been observed that the interior noise can increase in some locations where vibration-isolation measures are used in the track structures. In order to assess the influence of vibration isolation measures on the noise levels inside railway vehicles, a field measurement campaign has been carried out. The vehicle interior noise has been measured when a train is running at different speeds over the same non-ballasted track section fitted with two types of rail fastener of different stiffnesses. Additional measurements of axlebox vibration, train floor vibration, exterior noise and rail vibration are used to investigate the influence of the fasteners further. The experimental results are compared with simulations performed using the TWINS model, considering the wheel/rail interaction, by focusing only on the relative differences between the two fastener systems. The axlebox vibration and rail vibration are predicted for a unit roughness input and the differences in rolling noise are also obtained. The predicted differences in axlebox vibration, rail vibration and rolling noise are in broad agreement with the measurement results. The results show that the fasteners with a lower stiffness cause a noisier interior environment. Around 125 Hz and in the frequency range 315–1000 Hz, the noise levels are higher for the more elastic fastener, with an average level difference of 3 dB in the latter frequency range. It appears from the shape of the level difference spectra that airborne noise has most influence between 100 and 400 Hz and structure-borne noise has more influence between 500 and 1000 Hz.

Brain storm optimization (BSO) is a swarm intelligence optimization algorithm which is proven to have practical values in various fields. During these years, many modifications have been facilitated to effectively improve BSO's search performance. So far, these modifications focus on improving the solution quality by applying different clustering methods and learning strategies, in which the population diversity is often neglected. However, in recent studies, population diversity plays a more significant role in designing optimization algorithm. A population that maintains its diversity in a high level can easily obtain better solutions than the one with low level of diversity. Therefore, this paper proposes a control method that evaluates the population diversity of BSO to improve its performance. Two diversity measures, which are known as distance-based diversity and fitness-based diversity, are implemented to realize the adaptation of algorithm parameters. The new algorithm is called multiple diversity-driven BSO (MDBSO). Its performance is verified by CEC2017 benchmark function suit and a neuron model training task. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of MDBSO.

ThumbTrak is a novel wearable input device that recognizes 12 micro-finger poses in real-time. Poses are characterized by the thumb touching each of the 12 phalanges on the hand. It uses a thumb-ring, built with a flexible printed circuit board, which hosts nine proximity sensors. Each sensor measures the distance from the thumb to various parts of the palm or other fingers. ThumbTrak uses a support-vector-machine (SVM) model to classify finger poses based on distance measurements in real-time. A user study with ten participants showed that ThumbTrak could recognize 12 micro finger poses with an average accuracy of 93.6%. We also discuss potential opportunities and challenges in applying ThumbTrak in real-world applications., MobileHCI '21: The ACM International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction, September 27 - October 1, 2021, Toulouse, France

The quantity and quality of food additives directly affect the safety of food. Only by more scientific and accurate regulation of the use of food additives, can we eliminate a series of problems of food safety caused by the abuse of unreasonable and harmful food additives. As the first line of defense for food safety, the hygienic index of food production must be firmly controlled Good, can provide a solid guarantee for food safety management; the traceability performance of food production and circulation can better make food production run in the sun, and ensure that every link can be supervised and traceable from planting, production and processing, to consumers; strengthen the legislative supervision of food production, circulation and other links, so that food safety supervision has laws to abide by, laws to be prosecuted, and indeed guarantee Rights and interests of consumers

RSC Advances 8(31), 17435-17442 (2018). doi:10.1039/C8RA02561D, Published by RSC Publishing, London

Inorganic phosphor-in-glasses (PiGs) are promising color converters for white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs) because of excellent heat resistance, phosphor versatility, and tunable luminescence. However, the long sintering time and poor preparation efficiency of PiGs limit their applications. Herein, we proposed an induction heating to prepare PiGs for white LEDs/LDs. Due to its fast and non-contact properties, this method realizes the rapid sintering of PiGs. The PiGs sintered under various induction time were carried out and their luminescent properties were investigated. As the induction time increases from 15 to 35 s, the maximum sintering temperature of PiG increases from 580 °C to 795 °C, and the PiG has a high emission intensity at 30 s. The PiG enables the white LED with a LE of 75.3 lm/W and a correlated color temperature (CCT) of 5290 K and the white LD with a luminous flux of 1040 lm and a CCT of 5703 K. The PiG-based white LEDs/LDs achieve excellent color stability even at high input current.

To solve the high cost and high sintering temperature of Ag nanoparticle inks and the poor storage stability of Ag precursor inks, an inexpensive and self-reducing Ag2O ink was designed for fabricating highly flexible printed conductors at low sintering temperature. The printed Ag2O inks can be in-situ reduced to Ag particles and form the conductive network, and the electrical properties and flexibility of the sintered Ag tracks were systematically investigated. Consequently, the printed Ag tracks sintered at 160 °C exhibit the low electrical resistivity of 1.38 × 10−4 Ω cm, and the relative resistances (R/Ro) of Ag tracks are less than 1.3 and 1.7 after 1000 times of the bending and twisting tests, respectively. These results demonstrate that the inexpensive Ag2O ink provides an attractive prospect for low temperature fabricating high-quality flexible printed conductors.

Aperture synthesis technique is able to provide high spatial resolution without requiring very large and massive real aperture. Recently, in addition to the well-known aperture synthesis radiometer, the concept of mirrored aperture synthesis has been proposed, and the experiments has been carried out to validate this technique. However, the field of view (FOV) of a mirrored aperture synthesis radiometer (MASR) has not been analyzed. In this paper, the FOV of an one-dimensional MASR is analyzed based on the symmetric convolution. A simulation and experiment are carried out to validate the derived FOV. The FOV of a two-dimensional MASR can be analyzed in the same way.

Backtracking search optimization algorithm (BSA) is new evolutionary algorithm (EA) that to solve global optimization problems. BSA is similar to evolutionary algorithm, including selection, crossover, mutation and operations. The core idea of BSA is to get guidance from the previous population and search solutions with better fitness. While BSA only evaluates the individuals based on the fitness, which could make the individuals with better exploration prospects be discarded when updating population. Thus, in this paper, we proposed a novel way to improve exploration abilities that utilize negative correlation learning enhanced search behavior in BSA to further improve its search ability. We used benchmark function suit CEC'17 to verify the proposed new algorithm and the experiment result indicates the feasibility of this hybridization.

One-Dimensional Mirrored Aperture Synthesis (lD MAS) was proposed to improve spatial resolution with fewer antennas. lD MAS has the reflector errors compared with the conventional aperture synthesis. In this paper, the reflector errors for lD MAS including angular error, position error, and reflectivity error are analyzed, and the influences of the reflector errors on the reconstructed images are presented through simulation.

Comparative fatigue tests were conducted on as-welded, weld toe peened specimens before and after fatigue loading. Fracture surface, residual stress, microstructure and hardness were determined. The test results showed that as the pre-fatigue loading period extended, deeper cracks may have initiated and propagated and the fatigue life improvement decreased. The processes of ultrasonic peening on welded joints with existing cracks were modeled by finite element analysis. The numerical results indicated that the mechanism of UIT improving fatigue performance included two factors: compressive residual stress and the change of crack orientation. Both effects reduced as the crack became deeper.

The ZnO nanowire (NW) array/TiO2 nanoparticle (NP) composite photoelectrode with controllable NW aspect ratio has been grown from aqueous solutions for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which combines the advantages of the rapid electron transport in ZnO NW array and the high surface area of TiO2 NPs. The results indicate that the composite photoelectrode achieves higher overall photoelectrical conversion efficiency (η) than the ZnO NW alone. As a result, DSSCs based on the ZnO NW array/TiO2 NP composite photoelectrodes get the enhanced photoelectrical conversion efficiency, and the highest η is also achieved by rational tuning the aspect ratio of ZnO NWs. With the proper aspect ratio (ca. 6) of ZnO NW, the ZnO NW array/TiO2 NP composite DSSC exhibits the highest conversion efficiency (5.5 %). It is elucidated by the dye adsorption amount and interfacial electron transport of DSSCs with the ZnO NW array/TiO2 NP composite photoelectrode, which is quantitatively characterized using the UV-Vis absorption spectra and electrochemical impedance spectra. It is evident that the DSSC with the proper aspect ratio of ZnO NW displays the high dye adsorption amount and fastest interfacial electron transfer.

G/Ag2S composites were synthesized for the first time by a hydrothermal method. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy analysis demonstrated that Ag2S nanoparticles with a diameter of about 130 nm uniformly covered the graphene surfaces. G/Ag2S composites were dispersed in methyl methacrylate (MMA), polymerized at 75 °C for 30-35 min, and finally dried at 45 °C for 10 h, to afford G/Ag2S/PMMA organic glasses. The nonlinear absorption (NLA) properties of the G/Ag2S/PMMA organic glasses with different amounts of G/Ag2S were investigated by an open-aperture Z-scan technique. The experimental results showed that the G/Ag2S/PMMA organic glass with an appropriate amount of G/Ag2S exhibited enhanced reverse saturable absorption (RSA) properties compared to G/PMMA and Ag2S/PMMA organic glasses, which was attributed to the notable synergistic effects between graphene and Ag2S. Both one-photon absorption (OPA) in Ag2S and two-photon absorption (TPA) in graphene played important roles in RSA processes of the G/Ag2S/PMMA organic glasses. The effective NLA coefficient βeff of the G/Ag2S/PMMA organic glasses was in the order of 10(3) cm GW(-1). Thus this kind of organic glasses have great promise in optical limiter and optical shutter applications.