Search

In this paper, we establish a dynamical quantum state tomography framework. Under this framework, it is feasible to obtain complete knowledge of any unknown state of a d -level system via only one operator of a special type of positive operator-valued measure (POVM) in dimension d. We define a new channel, referred to as the time-dependent average channel. Utilizing this channel, we show that we can acquire a collection of projective operators that is informationally complete (IC) and thus obtain the corresponding informationally complete POVMs (IC-POVMs). Zauner conjectured that for any dimension d there exists a fiducial vector, such that all remaining d 2 − 1 elements of the desired symmetric informationally complete POVM (SIC-POVM) can be obtained by acting on said vector with unitary matrices representing elements of the Weyl-Heisenberg group. We show that under certain condition, it is possible to obtain infinite families of projective operators that are IC, and obtain infinite families of corresponding IC-POVMs; otherwise, Zauner's conjecture is incorrect. We also show how to simulate a SIC-POVM on any unknown quantum state by using the time-dependent average channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsupervised pixel-level defective region segmentation is an important task in image-based anomaly detection for various industrial applications. The state-of-the-art methods have their own advantages and limitations: matrix-decomposition-based methods are robust to noise, but lack complex background image modeling capability; representation-based methods are good at defective region localization, but lack accuracy in defective region shape contour extraction; reconstruction-based methods detected defective region match well with the ground truth defective region shape contour, but are noisy. To combine the best of both worlds, we present an unsupervised Patch AutoEncoder-based Deep Image Decomposition (PAEDID) method for defective region segmentation. In the training stage, we learn the common background as a deep image prior by a patch autoencoder network. In the inference stage, we formulate anomaly detection as an image decomposition problem with the deep image prior and sparsity regularizations. By adopting the proposed approach, the defective regions in the image can be accurately extracted in an unsupervised fashion. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the PAEDID method in simulation studies and an industrial dataset in the case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • To overcome the major challenges of global food security and environmental and social problems caused by the extensive use of chemical pesticides, developments of modern green sustainable management strategies are urgently needed for the control of crop diseases. • A deeper understanding of the principles of plant immunity and induced host immunity offers potentials for reducing the use of chemical pesticides and paves the way for sustainable agriculture. • The sustainable environment-friendly disease prevention and control technologies based on plant immunity inducers are comprehensively summarized in this review. • The significance of the application of plant immunity inducers for plant disease control is systematically summarized. • By focusing on research advances of plant immunity inducers, this review offers future perspectives of plant immunity inducers and provides a theoretical reference for researchers. Crops are constantly attacked by various pathogens. These pathogenic microorganisms, such as fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes, threaten global food security by causing detrimental crop diseases that generate tremendous quality and yield losses worldwide. Chemical pesticides have undoubtedly reduced crop damage; however, in addition to increasing the cost of agricultural production, the extensive use of chemical pesticides comes with environmental and social costs. Therefore, it is necessary to vigorously develop sustainable disease prevention and control strategies to promote the transition from traditional chemical control to modern green technologies. Plants possess sophisticated and efficient defense mechanisms against a wide range of pathogens naturally. Immune induction technology based on plant immunity inducers can prime plant defense mechanisms and greatly decrease the occurrence and severity of plant diseases. Reducing the use of agrochemicals is an effective way to minimize environmental pollution and promote agricultural safety. The purpose of this work is to offer valuable insights into the current understanding and future research perspectives of plant immunity inducers and their uses in plant disease control, ecological and environmental protection, and sustainable development of agriculture. In this work, we have introduced the concepts of sustainable and environment-friendly concepts of green disease prevention and control technologies based on plant immunity inducers. This article comprehensively summarizes these recent advances, emphasizes the importance of sustainable disease prevention and control technologies for food security, and highlights the diverse functions of plant immunity inducers-mediated disease resistance. The challenges encountered in the potential applications of plant immunity inducers and future research orientation are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation of Zn2+ in acetic acid (HOAc) or Zn(OAc) 2 water solution was considered crucial for the successful cold sintering of ZnO ceramics. However, our work shows that ZnO ceramics can even be densified by cold sintering with the aid of solid Zn(OAc) 2 ·2 H 2 O without introducing extra free water. DSC-TG analysis reveals that pure Zn(OAc) 2 ·2 H 2 O is dehydrated completely into solid Zn(OAc) 2 during heating in an open environment, while it melts in ZnO-Zn(OAc) 2 ·2 H 2 O mixture or a high-pressure and semi-closed circumstance due to the strongly suppressed dehydration. Consequently, molten Zn(OAc) 2 ·2 H 2 O acts as the transient liquid medium for the dissolution-precipitation process at over 100 °C, and plays a dominant role in the densification, microstructural evolution, and mechanical robustness of the cold-sintered ZnO ceramics. The densification mechanism is confirmed by the pressure-time curves, and reveals a novel strategy for cold sintering of water-insoluble ceramics by introducing molten hydrated salt or alkali as the transient liquid medium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2006, Brun, Devetak and Hsieh developed the theory of entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes (EAQECCs), which generalizes that of quantum stabilizer codes. The study of EAQECCs is currently a hot topic in coding theory and quantum information theory. Let q = p e be a prime power and let ℓ be an integer with 0 ≤ ℓ ≤ e - 1 . The ℓ -Galois hulls of MDS codes are an effective tool for constructing MDS EAQECCs. In this paper, we construct twenty-two families of q-ary MDS codes with ℓ -Galois hulls satisfying 2 (e - ℓ) ∣ e , which are not covered by those available in Cao (Galois hulls of MDS codes and their quantum error correction, 2020. https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12892v2, IEEE Trans Inf Theory 67(12):7964–7984, 2021) when ℓ ≠ e 2 . From these families of MDS codes with ℓ -Galois hulls, we obtain twenty-two families of q-ary MDS EAQECCs. Compared with the MDS EAQECCs from Cao (Galois hulls of MDS codes and their quantum error correction, 2020. https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12892v2, IEEE Trans Inf Theory 67(12):7964–7984, 2021), some of the MDS EAQECCs constructed in this paper have much larger dimensions. As an application, we give new families of p-ary entanglement-assisted concatenated quantum codes (EACQCs) by combining an arbitrary p-ary [ [ n ′ , e , d ′ ; c ′ ] ] p EAQECC with the q-ary MDS EAQECCs constructed in this paper. It turns out that the parameters of these EACQCs are very flexible, e.g., the possibility of the lengths of these EACQCs is far greater than the one of the lengths of these MDS EAQECCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess the association of ectopic fat deposition in the liver and pancreas quantified by Dixon magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with insulin sensitivity and β-cell function in patients with central obesity. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study of 143 patients with central obesity with normal glucose tolerance (NGT), prediabetes (PreD), and untreated type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) was conducted between December 2019 and March 2022. All participants underwent routine medical history taking, anthropometric measurements, and laboratory tests, including a standard glucose tolerance test to quantify insulin sensitivity and β-cell function. The fat content in the liver and pancreas was measured with MRI using the six-point Dixon technique. Results: Patients with T2DM and PreD had a higher liver fat fraction (LFF) than those with NGT, while those with T2DM had a higher pancreatic fat fraction (PFF) than those with PreD and NGT. LFF was positively correlated with homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), while PFF was negatively correlated with homeostatic model assessment of insulin secretion (HOMA-β). Furthermore, using a structured equation model, we found LFF and PFF to be positively associated with glycosylated hemoglobin via HOMA-IR and HOMA-β, respectively. Conclusions: In patients with central obesity, the effects of LFF and PFF on glucose metabolism. were associated with HOMA-IR and HOMA-β, respectively. Ectopic fat storage in the liver and pancreas quantified by MR Dixon imaging potentially plays a notable role in the onset ofT2DM. Clinical relevance statement: We highlight the potential role of ectopic fat deposition in the liver and pancreas in the development of type 2 diabetes in patients with central obesity, providing valuable insights into the pathogenesis of the disease and potential targets for intervention. Key Points: • Ectopic fat deposition in the liver and pancreas is associated with T2DM. • T2DM and prediabetes patients had higher liver and pancreatic fat fractions than normal individuals. • The results provide valuable insights into pathogenesis of T2DM and potential targets for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutaneous malignant melanoma is one of the most lethal cutaneous malignancies. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated the potential influence of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in biological behaviors of melanoma. Herein, we reported a novel lncRNA, lnc-PKNOX1-1 and systematically studied its functions and possible molecular mechanisms in melanoma. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR assay showed that lnc-PKNOX1-1 was significantly decreased in melanoma cells and tissues. Low lnc-PKNOX1-1 expression was significantly correlated with invasive pathological type and Breslow thickness of melanoma. In vitro and in vivo experiments showed lnc-PKNOX1-1 dramatically inhibited melanoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Mechanically, protein microarray analysis suggested that interleukin-8 (IL-8) was negatively regulated by lnc-PKNOX1-1 in melanoma, which was confirmed by western blot and ELISA. Western blot analysis also showed that lnc-PKNOX1-1 could promote p65 phosphorylation at Ser536 in melanoma. Subsequent rescue assays proved IL-8 overexpression could partly reverse the tumor-suppressing function of lnc-PKNOX1-1 overexpression in melanoma cells, indicating that lnc-PKNOX1-1 suppressed the development of melanoma by regulating IL-8. Taken together, our study demonstrated the tumor-suppressing ability of lnc-PKNOX1-1 in melanoma, suggesting its potential as a novel diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

C11H12CdN6Cl2, triclinic, P 1 ‾ (no. 2), a = 6.8644(8) Å, b = 10.4577(8) Å, c = 10.6304(12) Å, α = 112.218(9)°, β = 94.638(9)°, γ = 93.289(8)°, Z = 2, V = 700.93(13) Å3, Rgt(F) = 0.0427, wRref(F2) = 0.1137, T = 293(2) K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the traditional law of mass, the insulation of low-frequency sound usually requires thick, high-density materials. However, lightweight metamaterials containing acoustic structures can also achieve high acoustic transmission losses. In this study, we present a sonic black hole (SBH) device coupled with micro-perforated plates (MPPs) and intraluminal column structure to achieve high sound insulation performance with light weight. The finite element model (FEM) is developed to analyze the acoustic energy distribution and dissipation inside the SBH device to evaluate its sound transmission loss (STL), and the accuracy of the analytical model is verified by impedance tube testing. The analysis results show that the SBH device has excellent sound insulation performance in the broadband and low frequency mainly due to the energy dissipation caused by the MPPs and column structure, and wavelength compression, energy focusing caused by the SBH effect. Finally, the sound insulation capacity of SBH can be further improved by improving the structure, such as increasing the complexity of acoustic medium flow and adding the number of layers of MPPs. The numerical model and the calculation results of this paper provide a new way of thinking for the design and optimization of SBH sound insulation structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two electron-rich, metal–metal bonded pentamolybdate hybrids, 2D-[Mo IV3 Mo VI2 O10Sr2(H2O)5(C6H4O7)2py3]·3.5H2O (1) and 1D-[Mo IV3 Mo VI2 O10Sr(H2O)3(C6H4O7)2py3]·py·2[NH2(CH3)2]·2H2O (2, py = pyridine), were prepared by the partial solvothermal oxidation of [Mo IV3 O2(O2CCH3)6(H2O)3]ZnCl4·8H2O and citric acid in py/H2O (for 1) or py/H2O/DMF (for 2). Both 1 and 2 feature a triangularly metal–metal bonded incomplete cuboidal [Mo IV3 O4] unit. Redox-active 6e-[Mo IV3 O4] units can serve as an "electron sponge" to store/release six electrons reversibly via Δ-bond breakage and re-formation during charging/discharging processes. 1 and 2 further form 3D and 2D supramolecular structures, respectively, through slipped π–π stacking interactions between the pyridine ligands. Both the incorporated 6e-redox active [Mo IV3 O4] unit and the 3D/2D supramolecular conductive networks in hybrid-POM 1/2 remarkably enhance the electronic conductivity and reversible multi-electron redox ability with the structural integrity retained. Consequently, 1 and 2 exhibited high discharge specific capacities of 236.0 and 277.0 mA h g−1 at 50 mA g−1, respectively, and a good cycling performance at high current density (121.8 mA h g−1, 2 A g−1 for 2), providing a new way for improving POM-based electrode materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) are small, cysteine-rich proteins that play significant roles in biotic and abiotic stress responses; however, the molecular mechanism of their functions against viral infections remains unclear. In this study, we employed virus-induced gene-silencing and transgenic overexpression to functionally analyse a type-I nsLTP in Nicotiana benthamiana , NbLTP1 , in the immunity response against tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). NbLTP1 was inducible by TMV infection, and its silencing increased TMV-induced oxidative damage and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), compromised local and systemic resistance to TMV, and inactivated the biosynthesis of salicylic acid (SA) and its downstream signaling pathway. The effects of NbLTP1 -silencing were partially restored by application of exogenous SA. Overexpressing NbLTP1 activated genes related to ROS scavenging to increase cell membrane stability and maintain redox homeostasis, confirming that an early ROS burst followed by ROS suppression at the later phases of pathogenesis is essential for resistance to TMV infection. The cell-wall localization of NbLTP1 was beneficial to viral resistance. Overall, our results showed that NbLTP1 positively regulates plant immunity against viral infection through up-regulating SA biosynthesis and its downstream signaling component, NONEXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED 1 (NPR1), which in turn activates pathogenesis-related genes, and by suppressing ROS accumulation at the later phases of viral pathogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CdZnTe (CZT) is an II–VI compound semiconductor with a zinc blende structure and has a wide range of applications in nuclear radiation detectors. As the device size becomes nanoscale, the displacement damage caused by high-energy proton irradiation in space environment has become one of the main factors affecting the electrical properties of components. In this paper, Monte Carlo software Geant4 is used to simulate the types and proportions of physical processes generated by different particles incident on CZT crystals, the proportion and depth distribution of NIEL of particles with different energy/angle. The results show that the type, energy and angle of incident particles will affect the proportion of energy deposition and the distribution of energy deposition with depth during irradiation. The physical effects are different under different irradiation conditions. The simulation results have reference value for studying the displacement damage law of CZT irradiated by particles under different conditions and the stability of CZT detector in radiation environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short text classification has been a fundamental task in natural language processing, which benefits various applications, such as sentiment analysis, news tagging, and intent recommendation. However, classifying short texts is challenging due to the information sparsity in the text corpus. Besides, the performance of existing machine learning classification models largely relies on sufficient training data, yet labels can be scarce and expensive to obtain in real‐world text classification scenarios. In this article, we propose a novel self‐supervised short text classification method. Specifically, we first model the short text corpus as a heterogeneous graph to address the information sparsity problem. Then, we introduce a self‐attention‐based heterogeneous graph neural network model to learn short text embeddings. In addition, we adopt a self‐supervised learning framework to exploit internal and external similarities among short texts. Experiments on five real‐world short text benchmarks validate the effectiveness of our proposed method compared with the state‐of‐the‐art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Core data from the hydraulic fracturing test site 2 (HFTS-2) show that a complex fracture network is created. In this work, a novel fracturing-reservoir simulator is applied to the HFTS-2 data to provide a thorough assessment of the impact of the fracture network on well performance. A methodology is also presented to effectively represent the dynamic propagation of hydraulic fractures in complex naturally fractured formations. First, data that characterize the natural fractures at HFTS-2 are used to create a realistic representation of the reservoir (a discrete fracture network, DFN). Then, a fracturing simulator that fully couples fluid flow, fracture mechanics, and a black oil reservoir simulator is used to first create the fracture network and then simulate flowback and production. A comparison of our simulation results with core data shows good agreement with the characteristics of the natural fracture network based on the post-frac core analysis. The production/flowback results are compared with the field results and are found to agree well with actual production data. While it is possible to use planar fractures to history match production, the results provide unrealistic fracture dimensions and reservoir drainage volumes. This directly impacts design and operational decisions related to well spacing and fracture size, which demonstrates the importance of incorporating realistic complex fracture networks into reservoir simulators for production evaluation and forecasting as well as fracture design and well spacing selection. Highlights: A novel integrated DFN-fracturing-reservoir model is developed that allows us to dynamically model hydraulic fracture propagation in a naturally fractured reservoir followed by multi-phase fluid flowback during production. The model allows us to assess the impact of the natural fracture network on well performance. Natural fractures are represented by a discrete fracture network (DFN), and the interaction of multiple hydraulic fractures with natural fractures is captured by the displacement discontinuity method (DDM). A methodology is presented to automatically calibrate pre-existing natural fractures with core data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, visual simultaneous localization and mapping is a hot topic in the field of unmanned systems, which is popular among academic workers because of its advantages of accurate localization, low cost, large amount of information, and wide range of applications, but it still has some problems, including the camera’s vulnerability to the number of feature points and the noise impact of the inertial measurement unit during uniform linear motion. In response to the above problem this paper carries out the research on multi-sensor fusion localization algorithm, the main work is as follows: Based on ORB-SLAM3, a visual-inertial-laser SLAM algorithm is designed. The relative motion of laser location between image frames is obtained from the data of 2D Lidar and laser height sensor. The relative motion of inertial measurement unit between image frames is obtained from inertial measurement unit preintegration. Based on the method of factor graph optimization, the pose of image frame is optimized by reprojection of map point, relative motion increment of inertial measurement unit, and relative motion increment of laser location. The algorithm improves the localization accuracy by about 24.4% over the ORB-SLAM3 visual mode and about 22.6% over the ORB-SLAM3 visual-inertial mode on the data of the UAV physical platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancestor worship is regarded as the key element of the Han people's belief system across most of China. However, the rituals pertaining to death, such as in funerals and annual ancestor worship, vary from place to place. For decades, the state has made tremendous efforts to reform and standardise funerals consistent with its path to modernization by insisting on more socialist practices rather than those that are perceived as 'superstitious' and 'irrational', such as burning paper and incense or performing rituals. I argue that despite regulating the use of funeral materials or memorial types, the state has failed to reform the essence of death rituals, that is, the duty of filial piety and people's conception of the afterlife. In addition, funerals and other rituals related to death contribute to individual's social reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dense and strong calcite (CaCO3) ceramics were prepared by room‐temperature cold sintering with the aid of water and high pressure of up to 900 MPa. Under atmospheric pressure, calcite is barely soluble in water. However, the microstructure evolution and stress‐strain analysis during cold sintering revealed that the dissolution‐precipitation, plastic deformation, and pressure‐solution‐creep mechanisms played a crucial role in the densification and mechanical robustness of calcite ceramics, which was attributed to the significantly enhanced solubility of calcite in water under high pressure. The calcite ceramic cold sintered under 900 MPa from micron powder exhibited the highest relative density of 92.1% and best mechanical properties with compressive strength, flexural strength, hardness, and Young's modulus of 276.5 MPa, 52.5 MPa, 1.64 GPa, and 53.7 GPa, respectively. The as‐prepared calcite ceramic was stronger and harder than most stones and cement, indicating its promising application as novel building and biomimetic materials. The present study also provides a new strategy for densifying ceramics with low solubility by cold sintering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a consensus on religious revival in China, it must be noted that popular religion and institutional religions such as Buddhism and Daoism adopt different strategies to survive the state's regulations. Many temples that used to facilitate the worship of local deities have to establish some form of intangible cultural heritage or emphasize the deity's history and folklore to de-religionize. During this process, a temple may earn its lawful place to survive, but risks its communality in the village. Based on studies of rural and urban temples in Henan and Shandong provinces, in this paper, I attempt to understand people's religiosity and how they conduct the human–deity exchange under social transformation. Popular religion is characterized by the pursuit of efficacy and its embeddedness in rural life. The traditional binary exchange with deities could be used to maintain a relationship with deities as well as offer urgent solutions, while three-party chains of exchange not only constitute a religious gift economy but also offer a religious agent to seek answers. I argue that temples are marginalized and excluded from village life, so people need to find new means by which to continue their religious practices beyond what the state sponsors, and this has led to the flowing of sacred places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly prevalent, inheritable, and heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder. Children with a family history of ADHD are at elevated risk of having ADHD and persisting its symptoms into adulthood. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of having or not having positive family risk factor in the neuroanatomy of the brain in children with ADHD. Cortical thickness-, surface area-, and volume-based measures were extracted and compared in a total of 606 participants, including 132, 165, and 309 in groups of familial ADHD (ADHD-F), non-familial ADHD (ADHD-NF), and typically developed children, respectively. Compared to controls, ADHD probands showed significantly reduced gray matter surface area in the left cuneus. Among the ADHD subgroups, ADHD-F showed significantly increased gray matter volume in the right thalamus and significantly thinner cortical thickness in the right pars orbitalis. Among ADHD-F, an increased volume of the right thalamus was significantly correlated with a reduced DSM-oriented t-score for ADHD problems. The findings of this study may suggest that a positive family history of ADHD is associated with the structural abnormalities in the thalamus and inferior frontal gyrus; these anatomical abnormalities may significantly contribute to the emergence of ADHD symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the low activity of bulk Fe5C2 catalyst in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to ethanol, a supported Fe5C2 catalyst was designed and prepared with mesoporous carbon as the carrier. For a comparison, two iron carbide catalysts supported on activated carbon and microporous carbon were also prepared. Based on the characterization results of IR, XRD, H2‐TPR, CO‐TPD, XPS and MES, the oxygen‐containing functional groups (especially COOH group) on the surface of the carbon supports inhibit the formation of iron carbides, which are regarded as the active sites and play the key role in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to ethanol. However, the mesoporous carbon exhibits a more positive effect on the dispersion of iron particles than the other two carbon supports. As a result, the as‐prepared mesoporous catalyst presents an excellent activity (the ethanol yield of 85.8 %) and stability in the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate. This work suggests a practical strategy in fabricating a supported iron carbides catalyst for the chemosynthesis of ethanol via DMO hydrogenation from syngas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similar to the construction of ordinal sums of overlap functions, Baczyński et al. introduced two new kinds of ordinal sums of fuzzy implications without additional restrictions on summands in 2017. In this paper, based on the ordinal sum of fuzzy implications with the first method, we discuss its basic properties, such as iterative Boolean law, right ordering property and strong boundary condition. Meanwhile, we give characterizations of such ordinal sum of fuzzy implications that is a QL -implication constructed from tuples (O , G , N ⊤) or a D -implication derived from grouping function G , and show some conclusions about its relations with (G , N) - and R O -implications. Moreover, we study the distributivity of such ordinal sum of fuzzy implications over a class of overlap and grouping functions. More specifically, we give necessary and sufficient conditions under which this ordinal sum of fuzzy implications is distributive over overlap and grouping functions satisfying some conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of school-based high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on cardiorespiratory fitness and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in children with obesity. A total of 40 students (11.0 ± 0.6 years; 20 boys) were randomized into an intervention group (IG) and control group (CG). The IG group performed a 12-week HIIT intervention with three sessions per week. Each session included 18 min of training (three sets of eight bouts of 15 s run at 100% maximal aerobic speed (MAS) separated by eight bouts of 15 s recovery run at 50% MAS) in PE class; the CG group were instructed to continue their normal behaviors. All subjects had indices of body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FM), body fat percentage (%BF), fat free mass (FFM), VAT, and maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) measured at baseline and post-intervention. The cooperation of students was high, and all 40 students were included in the final analysis. A significant group–time interaction was determined in body composition (p < 0.05), with a significant decrease in BM (−3.4 ± 1.4 kg, p = 0.001; η2 = 0.63), BMI (−1.7 ± 0.5, p = 0.001; η2 = 0.58), %BF (−3.3 ± 1.4, p = 0.001; η2 = 0.54), and FM (−3.2 ± 1.4 kg, p = 0.001; η2 = 0.69), and VAT (−22.4 ± 9.8 cm2; p = 0.001; η2 = 0.61) in the IG. Furthermore, VO2max exhibited a significant increase in the IG (4.5 ± 1.6 mL/kg/min, p = 0.001; η2 = 0.84) and CG groups (1.7 ± 1.1 mL/kg/min, p = 0.001; η2 = 0.44). Integrating regular school-based HIIT sessions is a suitable method to improve body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness, and physical activity in students with obesity. Trial Registration: ChiCTR2100048737. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allelopathy is an invasion driver, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) also play an important role in plant invasion. However, little is known about their interactive effects on plant invasion mechanisms. In this study, we have investigated the interactive effects of allelopathy and AMF on competition between the exotic invasive species, Bidens alba, and its native congener, Bidens biternata. A two‐factor (allelopathy, AMF) common garden experiment was conducted using sterilised soil with or without AMF inoculation and with or without activated carbon (AC) addition. The results showed that both AC and AMF had significant effects on the relative yield (RY) of invasive species and competitive aggressivity (AG) between invasive and native species. Both AC and AMF exerted interactive effects on the AG. Activated carbon significantly reduced AG (0.86 vs 0.15%) without AMF, while it had no significant effects on AG with AMF. Moreover, AC significantly reduced the mycorrhizal dependency of the native species (108.06% vs 23.62%) but did not affect the invasive species. The AMF increased the variety of organic compounds in the aqueous extracts of the rhizosphere soil of invasive species, regardless of the competition. Overall, allelopathy significantly increased the mycorrhizal dependency of the native species, while it promoted the competitive ability of the invader regardless of AMF inoculation. Conversely, AMF reduced the facilitation of allelopathy in the AG of the invasive species. These results suggest that AMF play a critical role in improving the resistance of the native species to the invader by mediating allelopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • This is a photocatalytic hydrogen production system composed of dye photosensitizer and azepine-type [FeFe] models. The maximum TON within 20 h reaches 6114. • In the photocatalytic system, even if there is energy transfer, electron transfer and subsequent catalytic hydrogen production can occur simultaneously. • The photocatalytic performance of five phenylazepine-type [FeFe] models containing different substituents was investigated to reveal the influence of the electronic effect of substituents on the benzene ring on the performance of hydrogen production. Hydrogen production activity of the models containing activated benzene ring groups is higher, and the activity of passivated benzene ring is lower. Five azepine-type [FeFe] models (1 – 5) containing aniline structures were synthesized by classical amine condensation reaction. These models were characterised by 1H and 13C NMR, FTIR, and elemental analyses. Subsequently, the photocatalytic performance of the catalysts for hydrogen production was studied. The photocatalytic system consists of photosensitizer (2,4,5,6-Tetrakis(diphenylamino)isophthalonitrile), catalysts (1 – 5), solvent (DMF/H 2 O) and electron donor (NEt 3). Under the optimized conditions, the maximum hydrogen production of the catalytic system (1 , 0.34 mg) could reach 0.908 mmol (20 mL) within 1 h. The catalysts still had certain catalytic activity after 20 h of photocatalytic reaction. During a catalytic time of up to 20 h, catalyst 1 had the highest number of catalytic cycles. Moreover, the effect of catalyst concentration on hydrogen production was studied, and a possible catalytic mechanism was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of entanglement-assisted quantum error-correcting codes (EAQECCs) is currently a hot topic in coding theory and quantum information theory. As far as we know, there are few constructions of q -ary EAQECCs of large lengths, and most of the q -ary EAQECCs constructed in the literature have lengths less than or equal to q 2 + 1. As a result, it will be interesting to construct q -ary EAQECCs of large lengths. The goal of this paper is to construct some good and new q -ary EAQECCs of large lengths from q 2 -ary matrix-product codes associated with the so-called non-singular by columns (NSC) quasi-unitary matrices. To this end, we first propose an effective method and a corresponding algorithm for constructing NSC quasi-unitary matrices. We then present an effective method for constructing EAQECCs of large lengths from matrix-product codes associated with NSC quasi-unitary matrices. Subsequently, we give the explicit construction of q -ary EAQECCs of lengths kn with n ≤ q 2 + 1 , k = k 0 for q ≥ k 0 , where k 0 = 3 , 4 , 5 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 11 , 13 , 16 , 17 , 19 , and k = q + 2 , q 2 − 1 , q 2 for 3 ≤ q ≤ 19. Finally, some new q -ary EAQECCs of large lengths such as lengths 3 (q 2 − 1) , 3 q 2 , 4 (q 2 − 1) , 4 q 2 , q 3 , q (q 2 + 1) , q 2 (q + 2) , (q 2 + 1) (q + 2) , q 2 (q 2 − 1) , q 4 − 1 , q 4 , q 2 (q 2 + 1) for some q are constructed, which are not covered by previously known ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matrix-product (MP) codes are a type of long codes formed by combining several commensurate constituent codes with a defining matrix. In this paper, we study the MP code when the defining matrix A satisfies the condition that A A ⊤ is (D , τ) -monomial. We give an explicit formula for calculating the dimension of the hull of a MP code. We present the necessary and sufficient conditions for a MP code to be dual-containing (DC), almost dual-containing (ADC), self-orthogonal (SO) and almost self-orthogonal (ASO), respectively. We theoretically determine the number of all possible ways involving the relationships among the constituent codes to yield a MP code that is DC, ADC, SO and ASO, respectively. We give alternative necessary and sufficient conditions for a MP code to be ADC and ASO, respectively, and show several cases where a MP code is not ADC or ASO. We give the construction methods of DC and ADC MP codes, including those with optimal minimum distance lower bounds. We introduce the notation of τ -optimal defining (τ -OD) matrices and provide the criteria for determining whether two types of k × k matrices are τ -OD matrices at k = 3 and k = 4 , respectively. We give many examples of DC and ADC MP codes involving τ -OD matrices, some of which are optimal or almost optimal according to the Database [11]. By applying the generalized Steane's enlargement procedure to these DC MP codes, we obtain some good quantum codes that improve those available in the Database [7]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • LS/PEI@biochar, an ideal biocarrier for immobilized bacteria, was prepared. • The removal efficiency of NH 4 +-N, Ca2+, and PO 4 3--P were 94.71, 80.68, and 76.67 %. • The biofilm reactor showed good performance in utilizing low-carbon sources. • The ecological restoration mechanism of oligotrophic water was elaborated. • Biofilm reactor was suitable for oligotrophic water complex pollutants treatment. The removal of complex pollutants from oligotrophic water is an important challenge for researchers. In this study, the HCl-modified loofah sponge crosslinked polyethyleneimine loaded with biochar (LS/PEI@biochar) biofilm reactor was adapted to achieve efficient removal of complex pollutants in oligotrophic water. On the 35 d, the average removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH 4 +-N), calcium (Ca2+), and phosphate (PO 4 3--P) in water was 51, 95, 81, and 77 %, respectively. Additionally, it effectively used a low molecular weight carbon source. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results showed that the LS/PEI@biochar biocarrier had superior biofilm suspension performance. Meanwhile, analysis of the biocrystals confirmed Ca2+ and PO 4 3- removal through the generation of CaCO 3 (calcite and vaterite) and Ca 5 (PO 4) 3 OH. This study demonstrated that the system has great efficiency and application prospect in treating oligotrophic water on the laboratory scale, and will be further validated for practical application on large-scale oligotrophic water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Benchmark data on the population-level economic burden are critical to inform policymakers about liver cancer control. However, comprehensive data in China are currently limited. Methods: A prevalence-based approach from a societal perspective was used to quantify the annual economic burden of liver cancer in China from 2019 to 2030. Detailed per-case data on medical/non-medical expenditure and work-loss days were extracted from a multicenter survey. The numbers/rates of new/prevalent cases and deaths, survival, and population-related parameters were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 and the literature. All expenditure data were reported in both 2019 Chinese Yuan (CNY) and United States dollar (US$, for main estimations). Result: The overall economic burden of liver cancer was estimated at CNY76.7/US$11.1 billion in China in 2019 (0.047% of the local GDP). The direct expenditure was CNY21.6/US$3.1 billion, including CNY19.7/US$2.9 billion for medical expenditure and CNY1.9/US$0.3 billion for non-medical expenditure. The indirect cost was CNY55.1/US$8.0 billion (71.8% of the overall burden), including CNY3.0/US$0.4 billion due to disability and CNY52.0/US$7.5 billion due to premature death. The total burden would increase to CNY84.2/US$12.2 billion, CNY141.7/US$20.5 billion, and CNY234.3/US$34.0 billion in 2020, 2025, and 2030, accounting for 0.102%, 0.138%, and 0.192% of China's GDP, respectively. However, if China achieves the goals of Healthy China 2030 or the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals for non-communicable diseases, the burden in 2030 would be < CNY144.4/US$20.9 billion. Conclusions: The population-level economic burden of liver cancer in China is currently substantial and will consistently increase in the future. Sustainable efforts in primary and secondary interventions for liver cancer need to be further strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A unified graph structure learning framework for GNNs. • A novel attention mechanism based on feature and structure proximity. • Experiments demonstrate the superiority of our SLGAT and SLAGNN. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have achieved state-of-the-art performance in many fields and attracted a lot of attention in the communit. Most Graph Neural Networks can be merely used when graph-structured data is available. However, many graph structures have noise, or data itself has no graph structures, so learning the dynamic and adaptive graph structures is necessary. In this paper, we propose a unified structure learning framework for Graph Attention Networks. Specifically, we first design a strategy to learn the graph structures. Then we develop a novel attention mechanism based on structure context information of graph and node representations. Further, we devise Structure Learning Graph Attention Networks (SLGAT) and Structure Learning Attention-based Graph Neural Networks (SLAGNN) by using the new attention mechanism on the new graph. Finally, we demonstrate that our approaches outperform competing methods on six standard datasets for the semi-supervised node classification task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a crisis in the standard cosmology has been caused by inconsistencies in the measurements of some key cosmological parameters, the Hubble constant H 0 and cosmic curvature parameter Ω K , for example. It is necessary to remeasure them with the cosmological model-independent methods. In this paper, based on the distance sum rule, we present such a way to constrain H 0 and Ω K simultaneously in the late universe from strong gravitational lensing time-delay (SGLTD) data and gravitational wave (GW) standard siren data simulated from the future observation of the Einstein Telescope (ET). Based on the data for six currently observed SGLTDs, we find that the constraint precision of H 0 from the combined 100 GW events can be comparable with the measurement from the SH0ES collaboration. As the number of GW events increases to 700, the constraint precision of H 0 will exceed that of the Planck 2018 results. Considering 1000 GW events as the conservative estimation of ET in the 10 yr observation, we obtain H 0 = 73.69 ± 0.36 km sâˆ'1 Mpcâˆ'1 with a 0.5% uncertainty and Ω K = 0.076 âˆ' 0.087 + 0.068 . In addition, we simulate 55 strong gravitational lensing (SGL) systems with a 6.6% uncertainty for the measurement of time-delay distance. By combining with 1000 GWs, we infer that H 0 = 73.65 ± 0.35 km sâˆ'1 Mpcâˆ'1 and Ω K = 0.008 ± 0.048. Our results suggest that this approach can play an important role in exploring cosmological tensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Weakly-Supervised Temporal Action Localization (WSTAL) aims to localize actions in untrimmed videos with only video-level labels. Currently, most state-of-the-art WSTAL methods follow a Multi-Instance Learning (MIL) pipeline: producing snippet-level predictions first and then aggregating to the video-level prediction. However, we argue that existing methods have overlooked two important drawbacks: 1) inadequate use of motion information and 2) the incompatibility of prevailing cross-entropy training loss. In this paper, we analyze that the motion cues behind the optical flow features are complementary informative. Inspired by this, we propose to build a context-dependent motion prior, termed as motionness. Specifically, a motion graph is introduced to model motionness based on the local motion carrier (e.g., optical flow). In addition, to highlight more informative video snippets, a motion-guided loss is proposed to modulate the network training conditioned on motionness scores. Extensive ablation studies confirm that motionness efficaciously models action-of-interest, and the motion-guided loss leads to more accurate results. Besides, our motion-guided loss is a plug-and-play loss function and is applicable with existing WSTAL methods. Without loss of generality, based on the standard MIL pipeline, our method achieves new state-of-the-art performance on three challenging benchmarks, including THUMOS’14, ActivityNet v1.2 and v1.3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chloride ions in the seaside environment can corrode the steel reinforcement in concrete, which greatly endangers the safety of seaside structures. As an excellent adsorption material, hydrogel is widely used in the field of water treatment but is rarely used in cementitious materials. In this study, a polyacrylamide–chitosan hydrogel (PAMC) was prepared with N,N-methylenebisacrylamide as the cross-linking agent and acrylamide as the monomer. The prepared PAMC gel could effectively adsorb chloride ions in simulated seawater and simulated sea sand environments, and the maximum adsorption capacity of chloride ions by PAMC-1 (prepared from 2.5 g acrylamide and 1% content of N,N-methylenebisacrylamide relative to acrylamide) gels in simulated seawater was 55.53 mg/g. The adsorption behavior of the PAMC gels in solution fit the Langmuir isotherm model. The composition and morphology of the PAMC gel were characterized, and the responsiveness of the PAMC gel to the environment was studied. The results showed that the PAMC gels adsorbed better in alkaline environments and thus could be used in alkaline cement-based environments. The mortar sample containing the PAMC-1 gel had higher resistance to chloride ion penetration, and the chloride ion content at 7.5–10mm from the surface of the sample cured for 28 days was reduced by 41.4% compared to the samples without the gel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we consider the inelastic scattering of incident electrons as a key process for analyzing the significant differences in secondary electron (SE) emission between diamond and graphite. Dielectric functions and energy- and momentum-dependent energy loss functions were obtained by first-principle calculations. These were then used to calculate the inelastic mean free path (IMFP) and stopping power in different directions. The results show that the properties of diamond are very close in different directions, and its IMFP is lower than that of graphite when the electron energy is higher than 30 eV. In graphite, the incident electrons may exhibit directional preferences in their motion. These results indicate that, in graphite, SEs are excited in deeper positions than in diamond, and more SEs move in a horizontal direction than in a vertical direction, which leads to the difference in secondary electron yield (SEY). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of theoretical research, a two-dimensional analysis framework of China's animation industry policy text is constructed from the dimension of policy tools and the dimension of value chain. According to the two-dimensional analysis framework constructed in this study, the content analysis of the Chinese animation industry policy samples selected in this study is carried out, and the characteristics of China's animation industry policy in the use of policy tools and the application of policy tools at various stages of the value chain are obtained. Then, the shortcomings of China's animation industry policy are discussed. Finally, to promote the reform and improvement of the policy step by step and promote the long-term and healthy development of China's animation industry, this study proposes corresponding strategies for the optimization of China's animation industry policy. This study takes the theory of policy tools as a theoretical perspective and deeply analyzes the possible shortcomings of China's animation industry policy texts. Based on the perspective of policy tools, corresponding strategies are proposed for the optimization of China's animation industry policy, and the proposed optimization strategies are evaluated through fuzzy mathematical theory. The results obtained are excellent, and it can be concluded that an optimization strategy is proposed to improve the animation industry structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional connectivity has been demonstrated to be varying over time during sensory and cognitive processes. Quantitative examinations of such variations can significantly advance our understanding on large-scale functional organizations and their topological dynamics that support normal brain functional connectome and can be altered in individuals with brain disorders. However, toolboxes that integrate the complete functions for analyzing task-related brain functional connectivity, functional network topological properties, and their dynamics, are still lacking. The current study has developed a MATLAB toolbox, the Graph Theoretical Analysis of Task-Related Functional Dynamics (GAT-FD), which consists of four modules for sliding-window analyses, temporal mask generation, estimations of network properties and dynamics, and result display, respectively. All the involved functions have been tested and validated using functional magnetic resonance imaging data collected from human subjects when performing a block-designed task. The results demonstrated that the GAT-FD allows for effective and quantitative evaluations of the functional network properties and their dynamics during the task period. As an open-source and user-friendly package, the GAT-FD and its detailed user manual are freely available at https://www.nitrc.org/projects/gat%5ffd and https://centers.njit.edu/cnnl/gat_fd/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the dynamic changes in tracheal cuff pressure before and after four clinical nursing procedures including sputum suction, oral care, atomisation inhalation, and turning over, and thus provide references for the adjustment time of cuff pressure in clinical practice. Background: Cuff pressure must be kept within the range of 25–30 cmH2O to ensure effective ventilation and prevent aspiration, while maintaining tracheal blood flow perfusion. Design: A prospective observational study. Methods: The cuff pressure of 56 intubated patients was adjusted to 28–30 cmH2O. A cuff pressure monitor was used to continuously monitor cuff pressure changes before and after four clinical nursing procedures (sputum suction, oral care, atomisation inhalation, and turning over) and the cuff pressures at various time points were compared. The semi‐quantitative cough strength score (SCSS) was used to evaluate cough strength during sputum suction and the effect of cough strength on cuff pressure during sputum suction. This study followed the STROBE checklist for cross‐sectional studies. Results: The cuff pressures during the four clinical nursing procedures of sputum suction, atomisation inhalation, turning over, and oral care, all temporarily increased (p < 0.001) and decreased to varying degrees 20 min later (p < 0.001). Among them, the cuff pressure rose the highest under a state of moderate or strong coughing during sputum suction (78.38 ± 12.13 cmH2O) and dropped the most at 20 min after the procedure (21.71 ± 4.80 cmH2O). Conclusions: The four clinical nursing procedures of sputum suction, atomisation inhalation, turning over, and oral care can all cause different degrees of cuff pressure drop. The decision on whether the cuff pressure needs to be corrected depends on the specific situation. Relevance to clinical practice: During clinical practice, the cuff pressure can be individually corrected according to different clinical nursing procedures, which can increase the qualified rate of cuff pressure and reduce the workload of nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arbitrary-shaped text detection is a challenging task since curved texts in the wild are of the complex geometric layouts. Existing mainstream methods follow the instance segmentation pipeline to obtain the text regions. However, arbitrary-shaped texts are difficult to be depicted through one single segmentation network because of the varying scales. In this paper, we propose a two-stage segmentation-based detector, termed as NASK (Need A Second looK), for arbitrary-shaped text detection. Compared to the traditional single-stage segmentation network, our NASK conducts the detection in a coarse-to-fine manner with the first stage segmentation spotting the rectangle text proposals and the second one retrieving compact representations. Specifically, NASK is composed of a Text Instance Segmentation (TIS) network ($1^{st}$ stage), a Geometry-aware Text RoI Alignment (GeoAlign) module, and a Fiducial pOint eXpression (FOX) module ($2^{nd}$ stage). Firstly, TIS extracts the augmented features with a novel Group Spatial and Channel Attention (GSCA) module and conducts instance segmentation to obtain rectangle proposals. Then, GeoAlign converts these rectangles into the fixed size and encodes RoI-wise feature representations. Finally, FOX disintegrates the text instance into serval pivotal geometrical attributes to refine the detection results. Extensive experimental results on four public benchmarks including Total-Text, SCUT-CTW1500, ICDAR 2015 and ICDAR 2017 MLT verify that our NASK outperforms recent state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Establishing the physical framework of phasor field based photoacoustics. • Providing rigorous derivation of inverse phasor field photoacoustic reconstruction. • Unveiling the mechanism behind phasor field approach for nonnegative imaging. • Expanding phasor field projection treatment to general photoacoustic reconstruction. The phasor field technique has substantially aided the advancement of the time of flight imaging field and sparked intense scientific research interest during the past several years. Recently, phasor field approach was brought to the field of photoacoustic imaging and results in greatly enhanced image SNR and less artifact interference. This paper aims to establish the foundation for a comprehensive physical framework for phasor field based photoacoustics. To demonstrate the rigorousness of the phasor field based photoacoustics, this work gives a derivation of its virtual forward propagation and backward phasor field reconstruction. Phasor field based photoacoustic system works by creating chunks of initial orthogonal photoacoustic vibration, propagating the virtual orthogonal phasor waves, and performing backward phasor field reconstruction. We present here a formal study of phasor field framework utilizing spherical harmonic function decomposition based point spread function (PSF) analysis and provide a rigorous theoretical explanation for its nonnegative imaging capability of phasor field photoacoustic imaging. Simulation and experimental results reported in the paper support the effectiveness of the phasor field photoacoustic method for nonnegative imaging reconstruction. Moreover, the virtual nature of phasor field method enables flexibility and compatibility with different reconstructive mechanism for optimized imaging performance. Phasor field method the potential to advance the photoacoustic imaging techniques across multiple fields, benefiting various applications and enabling new avenues of research and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corrosion behaviors of biodegradable Zn alloys with ternary phases are rarely studied. This paper reveals three-stage corrosion behavior of high-strength Zn-2Cu-(0.2–0.8)Li alloys immersed in simulated body fluid for 30 days. At stage Ⅰ, Zn phase is preferentially corroded due to cathodic Zn-Cu-Li ternary phases recently identified. At stage Ⅱ, corrosion is suppressed due to formation of protective layer containing LiOH and Li 2 CO 3 with appropriate Pilling-Bedworth ratios. At stage Ⅲ, dealloying of Zn-Cu-Li phases rises their Cu contents, accelerating galvanic corrosion and resulting in large pits beyond 200 µm. • Influence of microstructure on corrosion behavior of Zn-Cu-Li alloys is revealed. • The alloys have a three-stage corrosion behavior. • Zn-Cu-Li phases act as galvanic corrosion cathodes. • Li and Zn elements are dealloyed from the ternary phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earth-abundant and ecofriendly minerals SnS x Se 2–x can be promising candidates for photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells because of their tunable band gaps and high absorption efficiency in the visible light range. In this paper, p type SnS thin films with sheet-like morphologies were successfully prepared by CBD method and then n-type SnS x Se 2-x thin films were achieved by selenization annealing of SnS thin films. The physical properties and PEC performances of SnS x Se 2-x thin films influenced by the annealing process were detailed studied. The photocurrent densities and stability of SnS x Se 2-x films were further improved by the deposition of p-type CdS:Cu buffer layer. And the fabrication of FTO/SnS x Se 2-x /CdS:Cu/TiO 2 /Pt photocathode improved the PEC performance further and the photocurrent as high as 10.5 mA/cm2 had been achieved. IPCE tests indicated that the FTO/SnS x Se 2-x /CdS:Cu/TiO 2 /Pt structure achieved a power conversion efficiency of 31.3 %. •SnS thin films were deposited by CBD method, and SnS x Se 2-x thin films were prepared by selenization annealing. •The effects of different selenization temperatures and different amounts of selenium powder on SnS x Se 2-x films were studied. •By introducing CdS: Cu buffer layer with different deposition times, TiO 2 protective layer with varying thickness, and precious metal Pt for surface modification, the photoelectric performance of SnS x Se 2-x thin films was optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symmetric informationally complete positive operator-valued measures (SIC-POVMs) in finite dimension d are a particularly attractive case of informationally complete POVMs (IC-POVMs), which consist of d 2 subnormalized projectors with equal pairwise fidelity. However, it is difficult to construct SIC-POVMs, and it is not even clear whether there exists an infinite family of SIC-POVMs. To realize some possible applications in quantum information processing, Klappenecker et al. [37] introduced an approximate version of SIC-POVMs called approximately symmetric informationally complete POVMs (ASIC-POVMs). In this paper, we construct a class of ε d -ASIC-POVMs in dimension d = q and a class of ε d -ASIC-POVMs in dimension d = q + 1 , respectively, where q is a prime power. We prove that all 2-to-1 perfect nonlinear (PN) functions can be used for constructing ε q -ASIC-POVMs. We show that the set of vectors corresponding to the ε q -ASIC-POVM forms a biangular frame. The construction of ε q + 1 -ASIC-POVMs is based on a multiplicative character sum estimate called the Li bound. We show that the set of vectors corresponding to the ε q + 1 -ASIC-POVM forms an asymptotically optimal codebook. We characterize "how close" the ε q -ASIC-POVMs (resp. ε q + 1 -ASIC-POVMs) are from being SIC-POVMs of dimension q (resp. dimension q + 1). Finally, we explain the significance of constructing ε d -ASIC-POVMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were used to improve the interfacial and mechanical properties of carbon fibre-reinforced polyetheretherketone-based titanium alloy laminates (CF/PEEK-Ti) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to investigate the mechanism by which GNPs improve CF/PEEK-Ti, collectively known as fibre reinforced metal laminates (FMLs). In addition, surface anodising of titanium (Ti) sheets was used further to enhance the interfacial bonding properties of the FMLs. The experimental results showed that the flexural and shear strengths of the anodised FMLs were increased by 77.7% and 29.5%, respectively, compared with those of the Ti plates without surface anodisation. Based on this, different levels (0–1.5 wt.%) of GNPs were added to the FMLs matrix, and test results showed that FMLs containing 0.5 wt.% GNPs had the best flexural and shear strengths, 108.9% and 130.8% higher than untreated FMLs without GNPs. In addition, an in-depth microscopic analysis was carried out to understand the enhancement mechanism of GNPs on FMLs. Finally, MD simulations were used to analyze the role and mechanism of GNPs in this system. The results show that the addition of GNPs can increase the interfacial energy of FMLs. In other words, the interfacial mechanical properties of FMLs are improved. The effect of the dispersion of GNPs on the interfacial properties of FMLs was also investigated. The polyetheretherketone (PEEK) matrix could be significantly improved by well-dispersed GNPs. These findings provide insight into designing high-performing composites for various engineering applications. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Poly(amidoxime)/Polyzwitterionic adsorbent is fabricated for uranium extraction. • The adsorbent can be easily prepared by free-radical polymerization. • The adsorbent shows high salt shrinkage resistance. • The adsorbent exhibits excellent antibacterial activity. • A high uranium extraction capacity of 6.26 mg g−1 in natural seawater. Effective uranium extraction from seawater can contribute greatly for meeting the needs of low carbon energy. Extensive studies have been conducted on polyamidoxime-based (PAO-based) adsorbents for their exceptional uranium adsorption capabilities. However, the salt-shrinkage effect severely hinders the extraction of uranium from seawater using traditional PAO-based adsorbents. This study synthesizes a novel semi-interpenetrating polymer network hydrogel, designated as PAO/PMPC-SH, using a free-radical polymerization approach utilizing PAO and zwitterionic poly (2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) (PMPC). The incorporation of the PMPC component endows the adsorbent with exceptional resistance to salt shrinkage owing to the antipolyelectrolyte effect. This characteristic facilitates the diffusion of uranyl ions within PAO/PMPC-SH, even in a high-salt environment with a salt concentration as high as 25 wt%, thereby exposing the uranium binding sites in the adsorbent. Moreover, PAO/PMPC-SH exhibits exceptional antibacterial activity. After 28 days of test in natural seawater, PAO/PMPC-SH demonstrates a high uranium extraction capacity of 6.26 mg g−1, representing only a 9.14 % decrease compared with the capacity of adsorbing in marine microorganism-removed natural seawater. Overall, the notable performance of PAO/PMPC-SH in uranium extraction highlights its potential as a highly effective adsorbent for uranium extraction from seawater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dietary fiber (DF) is often eschewed in swine diet due to its anti-nutritional effects, but DF is attracting growing attention for its reproductive benefits. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of DF intake level on oocyte maturation and uterine development, to determine the optimal DF intake for gilts, and gain microbial and metabolomic insight into the underlying mechanisms involved. Methods: Seventy-six Landrace × Yorkshire (LY) crossbred replacement gilts of similar age (92.6 ± 0.6 d; mean ± standard deviation [SD]) and body weight (BW, 33.8 ± 3.9 kg; mean ± SD) were randomly allocated to 4 dietary treatment groups (n = 19); a basal diet without extra DF intake (DF 1.0), and 3 dietary groups ingesting an extra 50% (DF 1.5), 75% (DF 1.75), and 100% (DF 2.0) dietary fiber mixture consisting of inulin and cellulose (1:4). Oocyte maturation and uterine development were assessed on 19 d of the 2nd oestrous cycle. Microbial diversity of faecal samples was analysed by high-throughput pyrosequencing (16S rRNA) and blood samples were subjected to untargeted metabolomics. Results: The rates of oocytes showing first polar bodies after in vitro maturation for 44 h and uterine development increased linearly with increasing DF intake; DF 1.75 gilts had a 19.8% faster oocyte maturation rate and a 48.9 cm longer uterus than DF 1.0 gilts (P < 0.05). Among the top 10 microbiota components at the phylum level, 8 increased linearly with increasing DF level, and the relative abundance of 30 of 53 microbiota components at the genus level (> 0.1%) increased linearly or quadratically with increasing DF intake. Untargeted metabolic analysis revealed significant changes in serum metabolites that were closely associated with microbiota, including serotonin, a gut-derived signal that stimulates oocyte maturation. Conclusions: The findings provide evidence of the benefits of increased DF intake by supplementing inulin and cellulose on oocyte maturation and uterine development in gilts, and new microbial and metabolomic insight into the mechanisms mediating the effects of DF on reproductive performance of replacement gilts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the introduction of new Trost-type bisphosphine ligands bearing a chiral cycloalkane framework, the highly efficient and enantioselective palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative dearomative asymmetric allylic alkylation (AAA) of benzofurans was achieved. This enabled a diversity-oriented synthesis (DOS) of previously unreachable flavaglines, which features two diversification stages. A new avenue for developing flavagline-based drugs was thus established. 1 Introduction 2 The Dearomative Asymmetric Allylic Alkylation of Benzofurans 3 Synthesis of Flavaglines 4 Conclusion and Outlook [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical vortex beam with fractional orbital angular momentum (OAM) has great potential to increase the capacity of optical communication and information processing in classical and quantum regimes. However, atmospheric turbulence (AT) in free space distorts the helical phase-front of vortex beams and causes the mode diffusion, seriously hindering the practical application. Herein, using a convolutional neural network approach with an improved residual neural network architecture, we overcome the hurdle to give the accurate recognition of the fractional OAM in the AT. As demonstrated on the petal interference patterns, a type of hybrid beams carrying double OAM modes is utilized to provide two controllable degrees of freedom for greater recognition of more subtle OAM modes, e.g., the fractional topological charge number l and the angular ratio n. Our studies show that with various l and n, the recognition accuracy of OAM over 20 000 images is as high as 85.30% even under the strong AT parameter ( C n 2 = 5 × 10−14 m−2/3) and the long propagation distance (z = 1500 m). Our findings represent a remarkable achievement toward highly accurate recognition of fractional OAM with broad bandwidth in the atmospheric environment, expanding the applications for the general interest of machine learning based OAM optical communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outstanding mechanical properties and high thermal conductivity epoxy composites are being developed and are becoming urgent in the electronic and aerospace industries. Boron nitride nanosheet (BN), a nanomaterial with high thermal conductivity, and its epoxy composite adhesive have high thermal conductivity. However, due to its characteristics, the mechanical properties of BN/epoxy will decrease when more BN is added. Therefore, this study graphene platelet and carbon nanotube are selected and packed epoxy/BN composite adhesives to develop adhesives with excellent mechanical properties and thermal conductivity at the same time. In this study, an enhancement effect between a graphene platelet (GnP) and a carbon nanotube (CNT) within an epoxy/BN composite is reported. In the three-phase composite adhesive, the 2 D graphene platelets and 1D carbon nanotubes form a global bearing force network, and the boron nitride nanosheets provide high heat conduction inside the epoxy. They both complement each other in developing thermal conductive and high mechanical energy epoxy composite adhesives. At filler ranging from 0 to 1.0 wt%, epoxy/BN-CNT can improve the fracture toughness (K1c), critical stress-energy release rate (G1c) and Young's modulus of pure epoxy, are 89, 484, and 67% compared to 52, 286, and 42% in epoxy/BN-GnP composites, respectively. When adding 5.0 wt% of BN-CNT, the epoxy composites' thermal conductivity is up to 0.8 W/m%K, 400% higher than pure epoxy. This article also tested the electrical conductivity of epoxy/BN-CNT and epoxy/BN-GnP composites and found that the electrical conductivity was increased by 12 and 10 orders of magnitude, respectively, and it could be used as an antistatic material. Investigating the enhanced mechanism of epoxy/BN/CNT and epoxy/BN/GnP composites by scanning electron microscopy analysis. Lap shear strength tests on epoxy composite adhesives confirm the reinforcement effect of GnP and CNT of epoxy/BN composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu 2 ZnSnS 4x Se 4(1-x) (CZTSSe) has recently attracted much attention for solar water splitting due to its high absorption efficient and tunable bandgap. However, high quality CZTSSe thin films with good quality and adherence with the substrate are mainly based on physical deposition method, such as magnetron sputtering, which is expensive and energy consuming processes. Here, we have developed a novel and low-cost solution fabrication method and CZTSSe electrodes were synthesized at low temperature by hydrothermal treatment of chemical bath deposited SnS films. The quality and phase purity of CZTSSe thin films were greatly improved after annealing process and the effect of SnS thickness to the physical and photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of CZTSSe thin films were detailedly studied. The fabrication of FTO/CZTSSe/CdS/TiO 2 /Pt photocathode improved the PEC properties of CZTSSe thin films greatly and the highest water splitting photocurrents of 7.2 mA/cm−2 had been achieved under simulated solar illumination. Furthermore, the electrode showed good stability and had a good incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) response in the visible light range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss maximality of Seidel matrices with a fixed largest eigenvalue. We present a classification of maximal Seidel matrices of largest eigenvalue 3, which gives a classification of maximal equiangular lines in a Euclidean space with angle arccos 1 / 3 . Motivated by the maximality of the exceptional root system E 8 , we define strong maximality of a Seidel matrix, and show that every Seidel matrix achieving the absolute bound is strongly maximal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of highly active and low-cost electrocatalysts with excellent durability is a major challenge for glucose catalysis. Here, we report a fast and low-cost electrodeposition method for preparing a new NiCuO flower-like nanostructure with non-noble metals. The new NiCuO catalyst shows significant efficiency for glucose electrooxidation, which reaches an oxidative peak mass activity of 376.80 A g−1 and retains 66% of the original current over 10,000 s in a stability test by chronoamperometry. We credit the excellent glucose oxidation activity and outstanding stability to the combination of non-noble metal materials and the flower-like nanostructures of the NiCuO/ITO electrode, which results in large electrochemically active surface areas (ECSAs) of 85.9 m2 g−1 and fast charge transfer as measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). This new NiCuO nanoflower catalyst provides a new functional material for the building of glucose fuel cells and other electrochemical devices. [Display omitted] • NiCuO/ITO electrode was prepared by sequential electrodeposition. • Deposition of Cu for only 2 CV cycles led to enhanced glucose electrooxidation. • The NiCuO/ITO had large ECSAs, high mass activity, and long-term stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]