Search

Uniaxial strain has been widely used as a powerful tool for investigating and controlling the properties of quantum materials. However, existing strain techniques have so far mostly been limited to use with bulk crystals. Although recent progress has been made in extending the application of strain to two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, these techniques have been limited to optical characterization and extremely simple electrical device geometries. Here, we report a piezoelectric-based in situ uniaxial strain technique enabling simultaneous electrical transport and optical spectroscopy characterization of dual-gated vdW heterostructure devices. Critically, our technique remains compatible with vdW heterostructure devices of arbitrary complexity fabricated on conventional silicon/silicon dioxide wafer substrates. We demonstrate a large and continuously tunable strain of up to − 0.15% at millikelvin temperatures, with larger strain values also likely achievable. We quantify the strain transmission from the silicon wafer to the vdW heterostructure, and further demonstrate the ability of strain to modify the electronic properties of twisted bilayer graphene. Our technique provides a highly versatile new method for exploring the effect of uniaxial strain on both the electrical and optical properties of vdW heterostructures and can be easily extended to include additional characterization techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a theoretical investigation on the electronic properties of double atomic carbon chains bridging graphene electrodes with density functional theory in combination with non-equilibrium Green's function. The influence of strain on the conductance of atomic carbon chains is significant. However, the coupling effect between adjacent chains dominates the intrinsic transport of double atomic carbon chains. For the coupled double atomic chains, the electron conductance of even-numbered atomic chains is significantly enhanced, while the electron conductance of odd-numbered atomic chains decreases to a certain degree, and the dependence of the conductance of double atomic chains on electrode configuration is stronger than the corresponding single atomic chain. More intriguingly, the coupled double atomic chains exhibit excellent spin-filtering properties with antiparallel spins on two electrodes. The current spin polarization stems from the coupling-induced changes of electron density and band offset reaches 100%. The coupled double atomic carbon chains have great potential application in spintronic devices and carbon-based field-effect transistors. • Coupling of carbon atomic chains increase the average conductance of atomic chains. • Coupling of carbon atomic chains induces very strong spin filter effect, even reaches 100%. • MR ratios of double carbon atomic chains increase by up to 5 orders of magnitude of the single carbon atomic chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A series of separation techniques guided by sensory evaluation were used. • Two peptides with umami taste were identified in Volvariella volvacea. • Taste characteristics and dose-response relationships of peptides were studied. Mushroom peptides produced by high-pressure cooking from Volvariella volvacea were found to retain and enhance the umami taste. Three tasty peptides were identified as Ala-Ser-Asn-Met-Ser-Asp-Leu (ASNMSDL), Tyr-Tyr-Gly-Ser-Asn-Ser-Ala (YYGSNSA) and Leu-Gln-Pro-Leu-Asn-Ala-His (LQPLNAH) by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS, after a series of separation methods of ultrafiltration, gel filtration chromatography and reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Each fractionation step is based on the results of sensory evaluation. ASNMSDL and LQPLNAH have umami taste with threshold values of 10.19 and 12.63 mmol/L, respectively. In addition, these two peptides also showed umami-enhancing properties with a threshold estimated at 13.58 and 18.95 mmol/L, respectively. Furthermore, the peptides showed better sensory taste than mixtures of their constituent amino acids. After separation and purification, the content of taste peptides in Volvariella volvacea is about 1.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the output regulation problem is addressed for a class of linear hyperbolic infinite-dimensional systems with spatially varying coefficients modelling a large class of convection-dominated transport reaction systems. In particular, distributed parameter systems with bounded input and unbounded output operators are considered. First, we demonstrate a general conclusion about the exponential stability of the considered system by relating the stability to the solution of an associated differential equation. Based on the assumption that the hyperbolic system satisfies the exponential stability conditions, the main manuscript contribution is the development of two novel finite-dimensional regulators, output and error feedback regulators, such that the controlled output of the plant tracks a reference signal generated by a known signal process (exosystem). In order to guarantee the feasibility of the proposed regulators, the solvability of the corresponding Sylvester equations is discussed and the solvability conditions are provided. Finally, simulations of output regulation of an axial dispersion reactor and a relevant numerical example illustrate the main results and performance of the proposed regulators synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjunctions play a crucial role in the construction of a coherent mental representation by signaling coherence relations between clauses, especially for second language users. By using event-related potentials (ERPs), this study aimed to investigate how different conjunctions (so, and, although, or a full stop) affect the interpretation of a following ambiguous pronoun for both native and non-native speakers, in sentences such as Lily disappointed Nina, so she .... ERP results showed that relative to so, and, and full stop sentences, the pronoun in although clauses elicited a larger Nref (sustained negativity) response in both native (L1) readers and second language (L2) readers, irrespective of whether the verb in the first clause biased towards a particular noun phrase (NP) referent. Moreover, larger Nrefs to pronouns were seen in L2 than L1 readers when clauses were connected by so, although or a full stop. Additionally, larger Nref responses were evoked by pronouns in NP2- than NP1-biased conditions when the clauses were connected by the conjunction so or when sentences contained no overt conjunctions (full stop). These findings indicate that different conjunctions exert different modulating effects on resolving referential uncertainty/ambiguity. Relative to native speakers, non-native speakers are more likely to encounter referential uncertainty when the sentences are conjoined by conjunctions with more complex semantics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a four-stage method for synthesizing reconfigurable ASNoC topology is proposed for partially dynamically reconfigurable systems, where the topology is reconfigured dynamically at run-time along with the application's execution. Firstly, a simulated annealing based topology-aware integrated optimization framework is proposed to generate the proper schedule and floorplan of task modules. Secondly, based on the schedule and floorplan of task modules, an Integer Linear Programming (ILP)-based method and a heuristic method, are proposed to partition the communication requirements of the application into T time intervals. Thirdly, we explore the proper positions of switches in the floorplan for global communications. Finally, considering the reconfiguration costs between adjacent time intervals, the routing path allocation problem is solved for time intervals in an iterative procedure to generate fine-grained dynamically reconfigurable ASNoC topologies. Experimental results show that, compared to the random partition of communication requirements, the proposed heuristic method and ILP-based method can achieve 5.4% and 10.0% power consumption improvement, respectively. And, the reconfigurable ASNoC can achieve 31.6% power consumption improvement when compared with static ASNoC. • Propose a four-stage reconfigurable ASNoC topology synthesis method for partially dynamically reconfigurable systems. • Propose a topology-aware integrated optimization framework for generating proper schedule and floorplan of tasks. • Propose an ILP-based method and a binary search based heuristic for temporally partitioning of the communication requirements. • Experimental results show that ASNoCs with reconfigurable topologies can save 31.6% power consumptions on communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Interdisciplinary approaches are proposed to predict multi-building energy use. • Social network analysis is applied to identify reference buildings in a building group. • Artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm is integrated in energy use prediction with reference buildings. • Office, education, laboratory, and residence building groups on campus are tested. • Proposed SNA-ANN can accurately predict multi-building energy use with reference buildings. Abstract Predicting multi-building energy use at campus or city district scale has recently gained more attention; and more researchers have started to define reference buildings and study inter-impact between building groups. However, how to integrate the relationship to define reference buildings and predict multi-building energy use, using significantly less amount of building data and reducing complexity of prediction models, remains an open research question. To resolve this, this study proposed a novel method to predict multi-building energy use by integrating a social network analysis (SNA) with an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique. The SNA method was used to establish a building network (BN) by identifying reference buildings and determine correlations between reference buildings and non-reference buildings. The ANN technique was applied to learn correlations and historical building energy use, and then used to predict multi-building energy use. To validate the SNA-ANN method, 17 buildings in the Southeast University campus, located in Nanjing, China, were studied. These buildings have three years of actual monthly electricity use data and were grouped into four types: office, educational, laboratory, and residential. The results showed the integrated SNA-ANN method achieved average prediction accuracies of 90.67% for the office group, 90.79% for the educational group, 92.34% for the laboratory group, and 83.32% for the residential group. The results demonstrated the proposed SNA-ANN method achieved an accuracy of 90.28% for the predicted energy use for all building groups. Finally, this study provides insights into advancing the interdisciplinary research on multi-building energy use prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The thickness dependency of trans-laminar fracture toughness was studied in centre-notched quasi-isotropic IM7/8552 carbon/epoxy laminates with central double 0° plies with thicknesses between 1 and 8 mm. A reduction in trans-laminar fracture toughness with thickness was measured experimentally in the specimens with a 25.4 mm notch. For specimens with a shorter 12.7 mm notch, no significant dependency on specimen thickness was found. The thickness dependency was captured in detailed Finite Element (FE) models with cohesive interface elements for sub-critical damage and a Weibull criterion for fibre breakage. The reason for the thickness dependency is explained through the damage states of the individual plies which determine whether or not premature fracture occurs before the damage process zone is fully developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrin αvβ3 is restrictedly expressed on angiogenic blood vessels and tumour cells. It plays a key role in angiogenesis for tumour growth and metastasis. RGD peptide can specifically recognise the integrin αvβ3, which serves as targeted molecular for anti-angiogenesis strategies. Therefore, the targeted delivery of therapeutics by RGD peptide-based non-viral vectors to tumour vasculature and tumour cells is recognised as a promising approach for treating cancer. In this review, we illustrate the interaction between RGD peptide and integrin αvβ3 from different perspectives. Meanwhile, four types of RGD peptide-based non-viral gene delivery vectors for cancer therapy, including RGD-based cationic polymers, lipids, peptides and hybrid systems, are summarised. The aim is to particularly highlight the enhanced therapeutic effects and specific targeting ability exhibited by these vectors for cancer gene therapy both in vitro and in vivo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotions have crucial influence on vocabulary learning and text comprehension. However, whether morphosyntactic learning is influenced by emotional conditions has remained largely unclear. In this study, we investigated how induced positive and negative emotions affect the learning of morphosyntactic rules in a foreign language. It was found that negative emotion increased the accuracy and efficiency of syntactic learning, but had no significant effect on the learning of morphological marking rules. Positive emotion was not found to be significantly associated with learning outcomes. The findings shed light on the effects of affective states on the structural aspects of foreign language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mode II fracture energy, G IIC , is a critical parameter for determining the propagation of delamination in composite laminates. Its value can be affected by Through-Thickness Compression (TTC) stress acting on the crack tip and here this effect has been studied using IM7/8552 carbon/epoxy laminates with cut central plies. External TTC loads were applied through bi-axial testing. Unidirectional (UD) cut-ply specimens were used to determine the TTC enhancement factor, η G , for G IIC . A similar enhancement effect was also found in Quasi-isotropic (QI) specimens with 2 extra cut central 0° plies inserted into the layup. The TTC enhancement factor was implemented in a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) framework using cohesive interface elements, showing that the determined η G can be successfully used to model the effect of TTC on delamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For an undirected simple graph G, we write G→(H1,H2)v if and only if for everyred-blue coloring of its vertices there exists a red H1 or a blue H2. Thegeneralized vertex Folkman number Fv(H1,H2;H) is defined as the smallest integer n for which there exists an H-free graph G of order n such that G→(H1,H2)v. The generalized edge Folkman numbers Fe(H1,H2;H) are defined similarly, when colorings of the edges are considered. We show that Fe(Kk+1,Kk+1;Kk+2-e) and Fv(Kk,Kk;Kk+1-e) are well defined for k≥3. We prove the nonexistence of Fe(K3,K3;H) for some H, in particular for H=B3, where Bk is the book graph of k triangular pages, and for H=K1+P4. We pose three problems ongeneralized Folkman numbers, including the existence question of edge Folkmannumbers Fe(K3,K3;B4), Fe(K3,K3;K1+C4) and Fe(K3,K3;P2∪P3¯). Our results lead to some general inequalities involving two-color and multicolor Folkmannumbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thrombus formation and oxidation of blood components caused by blood-contacting biomaterials were main reasons for poor hemocompatibility of biomaterials. To construct the anti-thrombotic and anti-oxidative surface, we electrospun styrene-b-(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene elastomer (SEBS)/acylated Pluronic F127 (A-F127)/L-ascorbic acid (AA) microfibers based on the SEBS substrate in one step. Our strategy was based on that the phase-separation between SEBS and A-F127 during electrospinning resulted in hydrophilic surface of microfibers, the crosslinking of electrospun meshes rendered the surface stable, and the AA release from the microfibers interacted with blood cells actively to prevent blood cells from oxidative damage. We demonstrated that the self-assembly of SEBS/A-F127 blends resulted in the similar structure as core-shell microfibers with the A-F127 richness in the sheath; the presence of A-F127 on the out layer made the microfibers hydrophilic and rendered the microfibers anti-thrombotic; the release of AA from the microfibers in the PBS solution was temperature-dependent; AA acted as the antioxidant to decrease the oxidative damage of blood cells after long-term contact between biomaterials and blood. Our work paves a new way to develop long-term hemocompatible biomaterials, which may be helpful to prevent blood cells from oxidative damage to maintain the normal function of blood cells in vivo . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For tissue engineering applications tissue scaffolds need to have a porous structure to meet the needs of cell proliferation/differentiation, vascularisation and sufficient mechanical strength for the specific tissue. Here we report the results of a study of the 3D printing process for composite materials based on oxidized nanocellulose and gelatin, that was optimised through measuring rheological properties of different batches of materials after different crosslinking times, simulation of the pneumatic extrusion process and 3D scaffolds fabrication with Solidworks Flow Simulation, observation of its porous structure by SEM, measurement of pressure-pull performance, and experiments aimed at finding out the vitro cytotoxicity and cell morphology. The materials printed are highly porous scaffolds with good mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grievances are vulnerable to state development and harmony; however, some factors provoke the masses and groups to vulnerability and state fragility (SF) by disturbing social cohesion. Under the grievance assumptions on the political process, this study has been designed to gauge the nexus of group grievances (GG), an essential parameter of social cohesion, institutional governance (IG), government legitimacy (GL), economic growth (EcG), and population growth (POPG) from the global perspective from 2008 to 2022 in a global panel of 158 countries considering the critical aspect of SF. The statistics reveal that PS is essential in controlling and managing the GG in the state. PS is the most significant factor in harmonizing the state's ethnic minorities, focus, and religious groups with stable policies and their grievances issues. It also states that apart from PS, another aspect of IG, Control of Corruption (CoC), helps mitigate malpractices and provides a transparent environment supporting grievances. It further demonstrates that EcG provokes grievances instead of lessening them among the key groups in the state, especially in the processing of industrialization. Because of the government's partiality to provide benefits to specific groups or sectors, that partiality and injustice hype the grievances among the public. Moreover, POPG is also a significant factor in increasing GG, along with government illegitimacy and untrust. The study concludes that to make the country agile and prosperous, the government should balance developing industrialization without compromising agricultural and domestic industries. It helps states gain public trust in the IG framework and GL. The government should harmonize its policies by tackling all minorities, ethnic, and religious groups coherently to maintain social cohesion in the country. Finally, One of the significant factors in natural resources and the scarcity of global resources is population. It stated that prudent population control measures better assist in resource scarcity and conflict management, such as in EU countries compared to Asia and Africa. Recent grievance movements in Brazil, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the US, are the practical application of this study because these countries fall in the list of the top 10 most populous countries. So, population control policies should be effectively implemented to support economic and social parity and mitigate GG. • This study examined Group Grievances, a vital factor of Social Cohesion globally. • Political stability is paramount in maintaining the GG globally. • Economic Growth is proking the GG instead of lessening it. • Population growth also adversely affects social cohesion policies. • Legitimate government institutes help in mitigating the GG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A physical informed neural network is built for aging mechanism identification. • A hybrid prediction method combining the aging mechanism and data-driven method. • Entire charging curve prediction using developed deep hybrid neural network. • Fast capacity prediction only using 50 mV charging voltage window. Accurate and robust capacity prediction is significant for battery management system to identify the state of health and life condition for lithium-ion batteries. This paper proposes a fast capacity prediction method by developing a novel deep aging mechanism-informed bidirectional long-short term memory (AM-Bi-LSTM) neural network. Firstly, a physical informed aging mechanism (AM) layer is established with the random charging curve sequences as input to identify the degradation features. Then the deep learning framework with two bidirectional long-short term memory (Bi-LSTM) layers is built to reflect the entire constant current charging curves and predict the battery capacity. In which, the battery aging mechanism is integrated into the artificial intelligence algorithm of capacity prediction for the first time. Several case studies are implemented to verify the effectiveness of developed method, and the influence of voltage window length on capacity prediction is further discussed. The results demonstrate that the charging curves can be accurately and fast captured with a capacity prediction root mean square error of less than 0.49% for 0.74 Ah batteries with 50 mV voltage window charging points collected in only less than 2.09 minutes mean cost time in the whole life cycle. It shows the proposed aging mechanism-informed data-driven prediction method has stronger robustness, faster prediction speed and higher accuracy compared with other data-driven methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the influence of causal and concessive relations on discourse coherence in Chinese by means of eye movement and self-paced reading techniques. We use the sentential structure like “NPHUMAN moved from place A to place B, {because (因为 yinwei) /although (尽管 jinguan) /no conjunction} + pronoun (he/she) + verb (e.g., like) + there (nali)… + NP”. The eye-movement data (Experiment 1) recorded from regions of interest consistently showed that the processing of concessive meaning is much slower than the processing of causal meaning, irrespective of whether the causal relation is explicitly coded through a causal marker (i.e., yinwei [because]) or not. In particular, although sentences containing pragmatic anomalies were processed more slowly than sentences containing no pragmatic anomalies in causal structures, there was no such distinction in concessive structures, indicating that the processing of a concessive relation can override that of a pragmatic incongruence. Moreover, although the initial place was reread more in cases of concessive structures as compared with causal structures in region 1 (e.g., place A), there was no difference between them in region 2 (e.g., place B). The results from self-paced reading (Experiment 2) showed that the difficulties observed from processing concessive compared with causal relations were not caused by the difference in pronoun resolution. These findings suggest that processing concessive meaning is cognitively more demanding than processing causal meaning, a conclusion that is also supported by a fine-grained linguistic (i.e., conceptual and pragmatic) analysis of causal and concessive relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how pragmatic inference making is modulated by information structure in preceding text. We created three types of two-clause structures in which the interpretation of a critical word in the second clause was dependent on the engagement of pragmatic inference as well as a successful establishment of a referential relation between the target word and an intended antecedent in the preceding text. An enhanced P600 response was elicited by target words when the intended referent was in non-topic position compared to topic position or sub-topic position. Moreover, a reduced N400 was elicited by the target word when the intended referent in the preceding clause was in non-topic position, compared to topic position. These findings suggest that building inferential relations can benefit from information structural prominence of topicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dy 3+ -doped Y 2 O 3 ceramics were fabricated by Spark Plasma Sintering method. The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and the optical transmittance of the ceramics was studied. The maximum in-line transmittance of Dy:Y 2 O 3 ceramics with thickness of 1 mm was 74.5% at 574 nm when sintering temperature was 1550 ℃. The spectroscopic parameters were determined by Judd-Ofelt theory based on the room temperature absorption spectra. The peak emission cross section for the 4 F 9/2  →  6 H 13/2 transition was calculated to be 0.569 × 10 −20  cm 2 . The fluorescence decay curve and quantum efficiency of the 4 F 9/2 multiplet were measured to be 269.2 μs and 37.1%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a continuous-rate clock-data-recovery (CDR) circuit that covers a data rate range of 500Mbps to 1.7Gbps. The proposed CDR is based on the phase interpolation principle and implemented in 130nm CMOS. The design utilizes digital voter and phase control logic instead of analog charge pump and filter, which facilitates migration among different technologies. To avoid the phase interpolator (PI) getting into the nonlinear region, multiple modes are selected to limit the frequency range of the sampling clock within 500MHz to 1GHz. A 5mm2 test chip is fabricated, where the CDR core occupies 0.359mm2 of silicon area. The PI achieves a resolution of 7 bits and a good linearity of 0.9955. The proposed CDR also achieves a BER less than 10 and has a frequency tracking range of ppm. The power consumed by the proposed CDR is 32.6mW/Gbps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curved π bowl compounds represent another class of the completely conjugated materials with quantum dot nature. Non-equivalent hybridisation type from rim to hub carbon atoms in curved π bowl compound triggers anisotropic physical properties. With density functional method (CAM-B3LYP) and response theory calculations, curved π bowl compounds exhibit large radial and axial component ratio for its polarisability and the second hyperpolarisability. More importantly, they possess larger effective mass second hyperpolarisability (γmass) and nondiagonal components (γxxyy) compared to C60. Except the static properties, the dispersion characters of dynamic cubic response of curved π bowl compounds have been analysed in large frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial fracture propagation within a full-scale stiffened quasi-isotropic composite panel and coupons with stringer feet under tensile loads was investigated. The specimens were made from Non-Crimp Fabric through Vacuum assisted Resin Transfer Moulding. The failure loads of all configurations were successfully related using the same value of trans-laminar fracture energy. The method involved independent tests of scaled-down Over-height Compact Tension specimens and the Virtual Crack Closure Technique. It was found to be crucial to include the fully developed damage process zone in the crack length and to interpret the results carefully in order to identify the failure loads consistently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript addresses the output regulation problem for a class of scalar boundary controlled first-order hyperbolic partial integro-differential equation (PIDE) systems with Fredholm integrals. In particular, with the advantage of the backstepping approach, simple structure systems can be obtained such that regulator equations for the state feedback regulator design are analyzed and solved in backstepping coordinates. Moreover, the finite time output regulation is achieved. In the observer-based output feedback regulator design, it is not necessary that the outputs to be controlled belong to the available output measurements and these outputs can be distributed, point-wise and/or boundary in nature, while the boundary placed measurements are used for regulator design. For the observer gains design, a transformation of the ODE–PDE system into an ODE–PDE cascade is considered. It is also shown that the separation principle holds for the output feedback regulator design and the exponential output regulation is realized for the resulting stable closed-loop system. Finally, the output regulation results are illustrated with two numerical simulations: a Korteweg–de Vries-like equation and a PDE–ODE interconnected system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent Sm:Y 2 O 3 ceramics were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effects of LiF additive and sintering temperature on the microstructure and optical transmittance of the Sm:Y 2 O 3 ceramics were investigated. The optimal content of LiF additive and sintering temperature was found to be 0.3 wt% and 1500 ℃. The transmittance of Sm:Y 2 O 3 ceramics with a thickness of 1.7 mm reached 75.3% at 609 nm, which is about 94% of the theoretical value. The average grain size of the sample was about 50 µm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript addresses the output regulation problem for linear distributed parameter systems (DPSs) with bounded input and unbounded output operators. We introduce novel methods for the design of the output feedback and error feedback regulators. In the output feedback regulator design, the measurements available for the regulator do not belong to the set of controlled outputs. The proposed output feedback regulator with the injection of the measurement y m ( t ) and reference y r ( t ) can realize both the plant and the exosystem states estimation, disturbance rejection and reference signal tracking, simultaneously. Moreover, new design approach provides an alternative choice for seeking the output injection gain in a traditional error feedback regulator design. The regulator parameters are easily configured to solve the output regulation problems, and to ensure the stability of the closed-loop systems. The results are demonstrated via computer simulation in two types of representative systems: the parabolic partial differential equation (PDE) system and the first order hyperbolic PDE system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An energy-efficient oriented multi-objective urban block form design workflow is proposed. • The relationship between urban form factors and building energy consumption, as well as solar energy potential, is explored. • Reducing energy demand, increasing energy generation, and improving environmental performance should be considered together in the design of energy-efficient blocks. • BD, OSR, SC, and PAR have significant correlations with the total EUI of the block. • FAR, BD, AF, OSR, SC, and PAR are highly correlated with rooftop PV energy generation. Urban form can significantly affect building energy consumption and solar energy potential, which is essential to sustainable urban development. However, few studies have proposed a comprehensive framework to discuss this. In addition, how to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and how to combine quantitative research results with urban form design is also a matter of concern. Based on this background, this study proposes a multi-objective urban form design optimization framework based on the Grasshopper platform. Three optimization objectives were identified: minimum building energy consumption, maximum solar potential and maximum sunlight hours. Then, taking Jianhu in China as an example, the building types are extracted from the actual urban context to create blocks. The Ladybug Tools plugin is used for performance simulation, and multi-objective optimization is run in Wallacei X. Furthermore, based on the optimization process data, a correlation analysis of urban form factors with building energy consumption and solar energy potential is conducted. Finally, the research findings are integrated, and energy-efficient urban form design strategies are proposed. The research results show that a block form with excellent energy performance in Jianhu has the following characteristics: (i) The open space is often located in the center of the block. High-rise buildings are located on the west side. (ii) The block presents a layout consisting of a low south side and high north side. (iii) The orientation of the block is 15° south by westor due south. (iv) Avoid building types with large shape coefficient such as P-4, C-1, S-3 and C-2. In addition, building density (BD), open space ratio (OSR), shape coefficient (SC) and average perimeter-area ratio (PAR) have significant correlations with the total building energy use intensity of the block. For solar potential, floor area ratio (FAR), BD, the average number of floors (AF), OSR, SC, and PAR are highly correlated with rooftop PV energy generation, and sky view factor (SVF) is significantly correlated with rooftop PV energy generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Tartary buckwheat is one of the most health food for prevention of hypertension. • FtIST1 belongs to the SBP transcription factor gene family, which is predicted to be a soluble hydrophilic protein. • The over-expression of FtIST1 gene can obviously improve the salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis. • The loss of FtIST1 gene expression in Tartary buckwheat led to the decrease of salt tolerance. • FtIST1 is a salt tolerance gene, which is closely associated with salt tolerance of Tartary buckwheat. FtIST1 is a novel SBP gene isolated from salt-responsive Tartary buckwheat, and its molecular characteristics and function in salt tolerance are unclear. With the use of DNAMAN and MEGA7.0 software and online analysis program SOPMA, we performed the bioinformatics analysis of the novel FtIST1 gene. We also identified the function of FtIST1 gene via over-expression and VIGS (virus-induced gene silencing). FtIST1 gene was cloned from Tartary buckwheat, and its GenBank accession number is MK799640. FtIST1 belongs to the SBP transcription factor gene family, it is 374 bp long and encodes 99 amino acids. The molecular weight and isoelectric point of FtIST1 protein are 11.7 kDa and 8.78, which is predicted to be a soluble hydrophilic protein. Through analyzing the physiological characteristics of transgenic Arabidopsis , it was found that the activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD and CAT), chlorophyll content, Fv/Fm, Fv/F 0 , net photosynthetic rate, fresh weight and dry weight, K+ and Mg2+ content increased significantly in Arabidopsis with over-expression of FtIST1 gene, while the plasmalemma permeability, chlorophyll a fluorescence F 0 and Na+ content of leaves decreased significantly, indicating that the over-expression of FtIST1 gene can obviously improve the physiological characteristics of Arabidopsis under salt stress and the salt tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis. After successfully inhibiting the expression of FtIST1 gene in Tartary buckwheat by VIGS technology, the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as SOD, POD and CAT in Tartary buckwheat decreased significantly, while the plasmalemma permeability and Na+ content of leaves increased significantly, indicating that the loss of FtIST1 gene expression in Tartary buckwheat led to the decrease of antioxidant capacity, the increase of cell membrane damage, the increase of Na+ content in shoot and the obvious decrease of salt tolerance. Our data indicate that FtIST1 is a salt tolerance gene, which is closely associated with salt tolerance of Tartary buckwheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the risk factors for recurrence and treatment strategies after patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergo total laparoscopic hepatectomy (LH).Methods: The study included 109 patients who underwent LH (laparoscopy resection [LR] group, n = 50) or open hepatectomy [OH] (open resection [OR] group, n = 59) for HCC in our hospital between March 2011 and June 2016. Perioperative outcomes, disease recurrence, survival, and risk factors for recurrence were analyzed.Results: Patient characteristics did not significantly differ between groups. The 1- and 3-year survival rates were 90.7% and 78.1%, respectively, for the LR group and 83.1% and 74.4%, respectively, for the OR group (P = .71). The 1- and 3-year disease-free survival rates were 89.6% and 51.4%, respectively, for the LR group and 84.7% and 59.6%, respectively, for the OR group (P = .935). Tumor size, differentiation, vascular invasion, surgical bleeding, and surgical resection margin were risk factors for tumor recurrence after LH.Conclusion: LH for HCC did not increase the risk of recurrence compared with OH. Tumor size, differentiation, vascular invasion, surgical bleeding, and surgical resection margin were risk factors for tumor recurrence. Reducing bleeding during surgery and ensuring sufficient surgical margins were the most important measures to reduce postoperative recurrence of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crystal growth, polarized spectral properties, Judd-Ofelt (JO) analysis and lifetime of Sm:CaGdAlO 4 (Sm:CGA) crystal were reported for the first time. Sm:CGA crystal with size of Φ4 × 33 mm 3 was grown by the floating zone (FZ) method. The peak absorption cross-sections at 407 nm were calculated to be 3.41 × 10 −20 cm 2 and 3.20 × 10 −20 cm 2 for the σ and π polarization, and the largest stimulated emission cross-sections at 601 nm were 5.10 × 10 −21 cm 2 and 4.66 × 10 −21 cm 2 , respectively. The absorption and emission cross-sections were several times larger than that of Sm:LiYF 4 . The JO intensity parameters of Ω 2 , Ω 4 and Ω 6 were calculated to be 3.0 × 10 −20 cm 2 , 6.1 × 10 −20 cm 2 and 6.5 × 10 −20 cm 2 , respectively. The lifetime of the 4 G 5/2 level was obtained to be 0.69 ms. All the results indicate that Sm:CGA crystal is a potential laser host for the reddish-orange laser operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crystal growth, optical spectra and lifetime of Dy:CaGdAlO 4 crystal were investigated for the first time to our best knowledge. Single Dy:CaGdAlO 4 crystal with size of Φ4 × 40 mm 3 was grown by floating zone method. The peak absorption cross-sections were calculated to be 2.43 × 10 −21 cm 2 and 1.28 × 10 −21 cm 2 at 453 nm for σ and π polarizations. The Judd-Ofelt (JO) parameters of Ω 2 , Ω 4 and Ω 6 were calculated to be 1.8 × 10 −20 cm 2 , 1.0 × 10 −20 cm 2 and 0.5 × 10 −20 cm 2 , respectively. The emission cross-sections were calculated to be 0.51 × 10 −20 cm 2 and 0.55 × 10 −20 cm 2 for σ and π polarizations. The fluorescence decay time is 222 μs. The results indicate that the Dy:CaGdAlO 4 crystal is a potential candidate for yellow laser operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new carbon-based morphology, graphene spirals (GSs), possesses interesting electronic features with inter-layer interaction and intra-layer interaction, ascribed to its unique intra-system electronic coupling states. The spin-polarization and the tunneling patterns of GSs manipulated by the periphery structural modification were investigated in detail with first principle calculations. The spin-polarized edge-states and transport properties can be enhanced and modulated by the constructed trigonal corners efficiently. Governed by the position and the number of the introduced carbon-hexagons, diverse spin-polarized tunneling states and various edge-state couplings between central spiral structure and electrodes can be achieved. More significantly, the contribution of inter-layer tunneling and intra-layer tunneling can be dominated by the topological signatures of GSs. For all spiral conformations, inter-layer tunneling always contributes to the net spin-dependent current. Remarkably, when carbon-hexagons are introduced at some typical positions, the complete spiral current along spiral construction is induced by intra-layer tunneling. Those features provide a good tunability of spin-polarized couplings and tunneling patterns in GSs for spintronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the effect of temperature on the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) discriminant of animal fats and oils species and its mechanism. Based on samples of lard oil, chicken oil, beef tallow, and mutton tallow, the classification errors of two-class (non-ruminant, ruminant) and three-class (lard oil, beef tallow, mutton tallow) at different temperatures were compared by principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The results showed that ruminant and non-ruminant animal fats were completely distinguished at 55 °C with a 0.000 classification error. Good classification results were achieved at 80 °C for lard oil, beef tallow, and mutton tallow, with a reduction of 0.142, 0.181, and 0.121 classification errors, respectively, compared to 30 °C. The coupling chemometrics method of near-infrared spectroscopy effectively explores the wavelength points and bands that contribute to identifying species at different temperatures and the corresponding structural changes. The temperature mechanism is analyzed to provide an efficient and accurate analysis method and theoretical support for the quality control of animal oils and fats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let Δ s = R ( K 3 , K s ) − R ( K 3 , K s − 1 ) , where R ( G , H ) is the Ramsey number of graphs G and H defined as the smallest n such that any edge coloring of K n with two colors contains G in the first color or H in the second color. In 1980, Erdős and Sós posed some questions about the growth of Δ s . The best known concrete bounds on Δ s are 3 ≤ Δ s ≤ s , and they have not been improved since the stating of the problem. In this paper we present some constructions, which imply in particular that R ( K 3 , K s ) ≥ R ( K 3 , K s − 1 − e ) + 4 , and R ( 3 , K s + t − 1 ) ≥ R ( 3 , K s + 1 − e ) + R ( 3 , K t + 1 − e ) − 5 for s , t ≥ 3 . This does not improve the lower bound of 3 on Δ s , but we still consider it a step towards to understanding its growth. We discuss some related questions and state two conjectures involving Δ s , including the following: for some constant d and all s it holds that Δ s − Δ s + 1 ≤ d . We also prove that if the latter is true, then lim s → ∞ Δ s / s = 0 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent Y 2 O 3 ceramics were fabricated by the solid-state reaction and vacuum sintering method using La 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 and Al 2 O 3 as sintering aids. The microstructure of the Y 2 O 3 ceramics sintered from 1550 °C to 1800 °C for 8 h were analyzed by SEM. The sintering process of the Y 2 O 3 transparent ceramics was optimized. The results showed that when the samples were sintered at 1800 °C for 8 h under vacuum, the average grain sizes of the ceramics were about 3.5 µm. Furthermore, the transmittance of Y 2 O 3 ceramic sintered at 1800 °C for 8 h was 82.1% at the wavelength around the 1100 nm (1 mm thickness), which was close to its theoretical value. Moreover, the refractive index of the Y 2 O 3 transparent ceramic in the temperature range from 30 °C to 400 °C were measured by the spectroscopic ellipsometry method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focus is assumed to be able to enhance the salience of a focused constituent and thereby facilitate the interpretation of a pronoun that refers to a focused antecedent relative to an unfocused antecedent. To assess how discourse-based focus structure influences the interpretation of a pronoun and whether this process is modulated by the grammatical role of the antecedent, we conducted an ERP study in which the focus status of a pronoun's potential antecedents was manipulated by means of a wh-question-answer structure. We found that, relative to those in the focused position, pronouns referring to antecedents in the unfocused position evoked enhanced positive responses in both early (180-230 ms) and late time windows (400-800 ms). Moreover, while a larger positivity was evoked by object-referring pronouns compared to subject-referring pronouns in the 400-800 ms time window over the right hemisphere, there was no effect of grammatical role in the 180-230 ms time window. These findings indicate that, while the initial stage of pronoun resolution is modulated by focus information assigned via a wh-question structure, integration of the pronoun and its antecedent into a coherent discourse representation at the later stage could be constrained by various factors, including the focus status and possibly the grammatical role of the antecedent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• GF-1 and GF-6 remote sensing data have potential for wetland change detection. • Spatial-temporal attention method can identify information changes in cultivated land to wetland areas. • Sanjiang National Nature Reserve has large wetland restoration areas located near water sources. • The results of the study have important implications for the restoration and sustainable development of wetlands. Wetlands are important ecosystems, and detecting changes in wetlands plays a very important role in the management of wetland resources. Therefore, we selected Sanjiang National Nature Reserve as the study area and proposed a method in which bi-temporal GaoFen (GF) remote sensing data was combined with a spatial–temporal attention neural network (STANet) model, coupled with the selection of spectral variables. We used the bi-temporal images from GF-1 and GF-6 and compared three band selection methods, Relief F, principal component analysis, and RGB combination, and two STANet-based change detection methods (BAM: basic spatial–temporal attention module and PAM: pyramid spatial–temporal attention module) to improve the change detection of the wetland restoration. The results show that the accuracy of wetland change detection is related to different combinations of spectral variable selection and STANet models. The combination of Relief F feature selection and the BAM model led to the highest accuracy of the wetland change detection, 71.72 % for F1-Score and 76.92 % for MIou. The vector results of the change detection statistics show that the area of the Sanjiang National Nature Reserve cultivated lands converted to wetlands is 46.05 km2. This study implies that the STANet method has the capacity of detecting complex wetland restoration. Red, Bule, NIR and Red Edge1 bands of GaoFen data can provide effective information in the detection of changes in wetlands. The results of the study can be used as a reference for rational planning of wetland restoration, seeking a balance between cultivated lands and wetlands, which is important for the sustainable development of wetland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The reliability of DLTS simulation is confirmed by the nonlocal hybrid functional. • The electron–phonon coupling is included to describe the hot carrier nonradiative capture in the DLTS simulation. • The DLTS simulation is verified by the radiation experiments. Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) is a crucial technique to characterize the defects in semiconductor devices. Within the framework of the state-of-the-art density functional theory (DFT), the simulation for experimental DLTS spectra is realized successfully with high accuracy and intrinsic physics in this work, of which the reliability is confirmed by nonlocal hybrid functional. The electron–phonon coupling is included to describe the thermal-activated behavior of the hot carrier nonradiative capture reflected by DLTS signal. In the case study, the divacancy in silicon is employed for the flow of DLTS calculation as a benchmark, of which the results are verified by our 40 MeV Si irradiation experiments on the NPN and PNP bipolar junction transistors and previous reports. The problem we can address is the identification of defect characterized in DLTS experiments. The realization of DLTS simulation would have a profound significance for understanding the underlying physics in experimental observations and be a powerful leverage to define defect nature in semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concessive relations, often indicated by conjunction words such as although, are semantically and pragmatically more complex than causal relations (expressed using because), as they involve more semantic features such as implicated meaning and negation. However, it remains unclear how linguistic-level complexity is manifested through different brain activities and functional connectivities. This fMRI study investigated how the neural underpinnings of concessive relations differ from those of causal relations. Pragmatically congruent and incongruent words were embedded in causal as well as concessive sentences. The whole-brain analysis revealed that relative to because-congruent sentences, although-congruent sentences evoked increased activations in a left network including IFG, bilateral MFG, mPFC, pMTG, and TPJ. DCM analysis showed that while the functional connectivity from IFG to MFG was commonly involved in processing concessive and causal relations, functional connectivities from pMTG to IFG and from pMTG to TPJ were involved in processing causal and concessive relations, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intrinsic properties and structural construction of active materials are crucial to improving the performance of electrodes. Herein, flexible and hydrophilic polyetherimide/polyaniline (PEI/PANI) conductive microfiber membranes with unique core-shell architecture were prepared via electrospinning followed by in-situ chemical oxidation polymerization of aniline doped with 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid, and used to boost the properties through the combined action of the pseudocapacitive PANI and abundant porous PEI membranes. For achieving excellent PEI/PANI microfiber membranes as free-standing electrodes, the polymerization time was controlled to refrain from exceed PANI particles agglomeration and maintain the unique three-dimensional porous network structure. Optimized PEI/PANI microfiber membranes with the polymerization time of 7 h presented the best electrochemical properties with high specific capacitance of 249.5 F g−1 at 1 A g−1 and low charge-transfer resistance of 8.316 Ω. Ascribing to the combined effect between the unique pore structure of PEI microfiber membranes and pseudocapacitance of PANI, the flexible supercapacitor based on PEI/PANI-7 demonstrated exceptional capacitance (175.1 F g−1 at 1 A g−1), high energy density (43.4 Wh kg−1) and power density (34.0 kW kg−1), and outstanding flexibility while preserving the cyclic stability. Therefore, this free-standing PEI/PANI microfiber membranes could be deemed as a prospective electrode contender for flexible supercapacitor applications. [Display omitted] • Flexible PANI/PEI electrode was prepared by polymerization of aniline doped with AMPS. • Microstructure of PANI/PEI electrode could be tunable by polymerization time. • The combined action of PANI and PEI membranes boosted its electrochemical properties. • The highest specific capacitance of PANI/PEI observed 249.5 F g−1 at a 1 A g−1. • Supercapacitor based on PANI/PEI revealed excellent energy density and power density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) image analysis method to characterize the Fracture Process Zone (FPZ) in scaled centre-notched quasi-isotropic carbon/epoxy laminates. A total of 61 CT images of a small specimen were used to fine-tune a pre-trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) (i.e., VGG16) to classify fibre orientations. The proposed CNN model achieves a 100% accuracy when tested on the CT images of the same scale as the training set. However, the accuracy drops to a maximum of 84% when tested on unlabelled images of the specimens having larger scales potentially due to their lower resolutions. Another code was developed to automatically measure the size of the FPZ based on the CNN identified 0 °plies in the largest specimen which agrees well with the manual measurement (on average within 3.3%). The whole classification and measurement process can be automated without human intervention. [Display omitted] • A novel method was proposed to characterise Fracture Process Zone (FPZ). • A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) was developed to identify fibre orientations. • The CNN model showed a test accuracy of 100% for classification. • The CNN was applied to unlabelled CT images achieving an accuracy of up to 84%. • The estimated FPZ size of the largest scale was within 3.3% from actual measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality of Healthcare and accessibility is one of the vital Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For achieving this goal, the United Nations focuses on state capacity development and associated determinants in emerging and developing countries. By focusing on this objective, this study evaluates and examines the liaison of state capacity, socio-economic conditions, private health expenditures, and demographic pressure to the quality of health and its accessibility in Pakistan from 1990 to 2019. This study investigates the policy implications and their consequences on Pakistan's health conditions during the last three decades. Moreover, during COVID-19, pandemic health governs policies in the year 2020 have also been considered by using the Health Containment Index and analyzed policy implication on combating COVID-19. By applied Ordinary Least Square and Fixed Effect estimations, results show that Pakistan's health conditions have been showing sluggish improvement in the last three decades. Prudent policy-making and adequate health spending have a strong significant impact on health quality and accessibility, while institutional corruption and demographic pressure have adversely affected Pakistan's health outcomes. This proposed study analyzed that policy enforcement has been fragile in Pakistan from 1990 to 2010. Furthermore, this study concludes that from the year 2010 to date with the 18th constitutional amendment to administration and public policies have fractionally improved Pakistan's health conditions. However, Pakistan still lacks the International standards and minimum criteria of health measures a far behind Sustainable Development. The present study concludes that a sound and effective policy enforcement by enhancing resource capacity, quality of institutional practices, and controlling socio-economic conditions will promote SDG of health quality in Pakistan. • HQAI has been fractionally improved in Pakistan in the last three decades. • Policy decision-making inconsistent with achieving Sustainable Health development. • Socio-economic risk factors have been significantly affected the HQAI. • 2010, 18th Constitutional Amendment has positively impacted the HQAI in Pakistan. • Out-of Pocket expenditure & health budget have a significant impact on HAQI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) late expression factor gene lef-10 has been identified to be required for viral late gene expression by transient expression assay. Our previous work has shown that the gene product LEF-10 can form very stable high-molecular-weight complexes, but the structure and function of the protein remain unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that LEF-10 was essential for the replication of AcMNPV, and its truncated fragment containing amino acid residues 1 to 48 were sufficient to support the virus survival. Our data also suggested that the LEF-10 could spontaneously aggregate to form punctate spots in virus infected Sf9 cells at low frequency, and the aggregation of the protein could be induced by LEF-10 over-expression. When the protein aggregated to form punctate spots, soluble LEF-10 proteins were depleted and this could result in the down-regulation of viral late gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient dual-wavelength continuous-wave (CW) and passively Q-switched laser operation of Nd:(Gd 0.3 Y 0.7 ) 2 SiO 5 crystal were investigated for the first time to our knowledge. Maximum CW output power of 2.3 W was obtained under the absorbed pump power of 4.6 W, corresponding to the slope efficiency of 55%. Dual-wavelength CW laser with respective wavelengths around 1074 nm and 1078 nm were achieved. With Cr 4+ :YAG as the saturable absorber, passive Q-switched performance was obtained. The slope efficiency of passively Q-switched operation was 45%. The shortest pulse width, the corresponding pulse energy and peak power were calculated to be 13.1 ns, 50.2 μJ and 3.8 kW, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the preparation of glycidyl azide polymers (GAPs) by the reaction of a prepolymer polyepichlorohydrin (PECH) with sodium azide (NaN3) in mixture solvents of different mass ratios with ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Bmim]Cl) and water without catalysts. The formation of GAP was confirmed by IR and NMR spectroscopy, and the molecular weight of the product was determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The conversion of PECH was identified via quantitative 13C-NMR spectroscopy. This method avoids solvent pollution and simplifies the reaction post-processing. The reaction was monitored by IR and 13C-NMR. We concluded that the relative solubility of the reaction substrate in the mixed solvents has an important effect on the degree of the reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how topic shift and topic continuation influence pronoun interpretation in Chinese. ERPs recorded on pronouns in topic structure showed stronger and earlier late positive responses (P600) for the topic-shift than for the topic-continuation conditions. However, in nontopic structure where the subject (denoting only subjecthood), rather than the topic (denoting both topichood and subjecthood), acted as the antecedent of the pronoun, almost indistinguishable P600 responses were obtained on the pronoun regardless of whether it was referring to the subject (i.e., subject continuation) or the object (i.e., subject shift). Moreover, stronger and earlier P600 responses were elicited by pronouns in the topic-shift than in the subject-shift conditions, although there was no difference between the topic-continuation and the subject-continuation conditions. These findings suggest that topic shift results in greater difficulty in the resolution stage of referential processing, although the bonding process is not sensitive to the manipulation of topic status, and that topic has a privileged cognitive status relative to other nontopic entities (e.g., subject) in real-time language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the output regulation problem for a class of regular first-order hyperbolic partial differential equation (PDE) systems. A state feedback and an error feedback regulator are considered to force the output of the hyperbolic PDE plant to track a periodic reference trajectory generated by a neutrally stable exosystem. A new explanation is given to extend the results in the literature to solve the regulation problem associated with the first-order hyperbolic PDE systems. Moreover, in order to provide the closed-loop stability condition for the solvability of the regulator problems, the design of stabilising feedback gain and its dual problem design of stabilising output injection gain are considered in this paper. This paper develops an easy method to obtain an adjustable stabilising feedback gain and stabilising output injection gain with the aid of the operator Riccati equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrated an efficient and controllable dual-wavelength continuous-wave (CW) laser of Nd:Lu 2 SiO 5 (Nd:LSO) crystal. The maximum output power was 3.02 W at wavelength of 1075 nm and 1079 nm, and with increasing of absorbed pump power, the ratio of 1079 nm laser rose. The slope efficiency of 65.6% and optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 63.3% were obtained. The passively Q-switched laser properties of Nd:LSO were investigated for the first time. The shortest pulse, maximum pulse energy and peak power were 11.58 ns, 29.05 μJ and 2.34 kW, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work addresses optimal constrained state estimation problem for finite and infinite-dimensional chemical process systems. We consider cases when the prior information, in addition to the model parameters and the measurements, is available in the form of an inequality constraint with respect to the system's state. In the latest developments of the optimal state estimation theory, considerations of the state constraints have been often neglected since constraints do not fit easily in the structure of the optimal state estimator. Therefore, the issue of the state constraints being present needs to be addressed adequately, in particular, nonnegativity of concentration. Motivated by this, we developed a sequential, algorithmic optimal constrained state estimator for both finite and infinite-dimensional process systems commonly found in chemical process engineering (CSTR, tubular reactor). In this paper, we also designed an optimal constrained state estimator for a large class of dissipative infinite-dimensional systems which involve boundary actuation and point observation. Finally, illustrative examples of chemical process systems and proposed optimal state constrained estimation are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new rehabilitation robot was designed. The robot included a suspension mechanism, a drive unit, and an adjustment mechanism. Additionally, innovative weight loss mechanism increased the dynamical device so that it could be used with patients of varying lower extremity muscle strengths. The relationship of hip and knee angles with height, step length, and gait cycle was studied. It was developed to generate different trajectories for different patients. Kinematics and dynamics were studied to lay the foundation for control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]