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Motivated by the unexplored potential of in vitro neural systems for computing and by the corresponding need of versatile, scalable interfaces for multimodal interaction, an accurate, modular, fully customizable, and portable recording/stimulation solution that can be easily fabricated, robustly operated, and broadly disseminated is presented. This approach entails a reconfigurable platform that works across multiple industry standards and that enables a complete signal chain, from neural substrates sampled through micro‐electrode arrays (MEAs) to data acquisition, downstream analysis, and cloud storage. Built‐in modularity supports the seamless integration of electrical/optical stimulation and fluidic interfaces. Custom MEA fabrication leverages maskless photolithography, favoring the rapid prototyping of a variety of configurations, spatial topologies, and constitutive materials. Through a dedicated analysis and management software suite, the utility and robustness of this system are demonstrated across neural cultures and applications, including embryonic stem cell‐derived and primary neurons, organotypic brain slices, 3D engineered tissue mimics, concurrent calcium imaging, and long‐term recording. Overall, this technology, termed "mind in vitro" to underscore the computing inspiration, provides an end‐to‐end solution that can be widely deployed due to its affordable (>10× cost reduction) and open‐source nature, catering to the expanding needs of both conventional and unconventional electrophysiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High temperature frequently occurs during rice's early grain-filling period in the south of China, negatively affecting rice yield and quality and posing a major threat to local rice production. This experiment researched the influence of 3.5 °C warming during the first 20 grain-filling days on rice yield and quality and emphatically investigated the effects of the low-broadcast nitrogen fertilizer application level (LBN), high-broadcast nitrogen fertilizer application level (HBN) and foliar nitrogen fertilizer application (FN) at heading on the rice organ temperature, leaf photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, yield and grain quality, pasting and thermal properties under high temperature in 2020 and 2022, with a widely planted japonica rice variety, "Wuyunjing31", in order to explore the practical mitigation measures for reducing the adverse impact of high temperature on rice productivity. The results showed that high temperatures during grain filling increased the rice plant temperature, damaged the chlorophyll fluorescence system and decreased the net photosynthesis rate. This led to a decline in the seed-setting rate and grain weight, resulting in a 7.0% and 13.9% yield loss in 2020 and 2022, respectively. In addition, high temperature caused a decline in the head rice rate and an increase in chalk occurrence and pasting temperature, thereby deteriorating rice grain quality. Under high temperatures, HBN enhanced the rice yield by 3.6% and 13.0% in 2020 and 2022, respectively, while FN enhanced the rice yield by 11.5% in 2022. The increase in yield was linked to the increased seed-setting rate and 1000-grain weight. LBN did not significantly affect the rice yield under high temperatures. The positive effects of nitrogen fertilizer measures on rice yield were associated with their role in lowering plant temperature and protection against the damage to the chlorophyll fluorescence system. All three nitrogen application measures generally improved rice milling quality and appearance quality under high temperature, with HBN generally showing the greatest impact. Under high temperature, LBN and FN tended to make the texture of cooked rice softer due to the decreased consistency, retrogradation enthalpy and retrogradation percentage, and this was closely associated with the decline in amylose content. In summary, nitrogen supplementation at the heading could efficiently mitigate the adverse impact of high temperature during the early grain-filling period on rice yield and quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A capacitive coupling dual‐band circular patch antenna for on‐/off‐body communications is proposed for 3.5 GHz world interoperability for microwave access band and 5.8 GHz industrial scientific medical band. The antenna has a compact structure with a single substrate made of polydimethylsiloxane which is flexible and easy to wear. To realise off‐body mode, the antenna adopted bias feeding. The on‐body mode is achieved by symmetrically loading four shorting vias on the edge of the patch to stimulate TM41 mode, which tends to bring a high gain of the antenna. The measured operating bandwidths of the antenna for off‐body and on‐body modes are 120 MHz (3.45–3.57 GHz) and 360 MHz (5.54–5.90 GHz) respectively. The peak gains are 5.99 dBi for off‐body mode and 5.46 dBi for on‐body mode. Moreover, the antenna displays robust performances when it is bended or closed to human bodies. Meanwhile, low specific absorption rate values are proving that the antenna is safe to wear on human bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CuCr contact material, whose mass fraction of Cr is generally in the range of 25% to 50%, is one of the most desirable contact materials for medium- and high-voltage vacuum switches. The homogeneity and denseness of CuCr alloy are the keys to its application. The infiltration and powder sintering have defects, such as uneven distribution of Cr phase, and great difficulties in preparing high-performance CuCr alloys with low gas content; the equipment investment in the vacuum consumable arc melting method is large and the production cost is high, while mechanical alloying, vacuum induction melting, and laser-selective melting as new technologies are still in the laboratory stage. From the perspective of surface modification treatment and multicomponent alloying, refinement of Cr phase grains can improve the properties of CuCr alloy. The new process of aluminothermic reduction-electromagnetic coupling refining-water and gas composite rapid cooling takes oxides as raw material and obtains a fully miscible CuCr alloy melt by aluminothermic reduction theoretically at 2848K, followed by secondary refining under electromagnetic field coupling and water-gas composite cooling and casting, which can obtain alloy ingots of 50 mm in diameter and 10 mm in height. The density and hardness of CuCr alloy prepared by this process as vacuum contact material are better than the requirements of GB/T 26867-2011, so this process has the potential to become a new-generation preparation method for large-size homogeneous high-performance CuCr alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pu'er tea is a Yunnan geographical indication product, and its brand value ranks first in China. At present, qualitative and quantitative methods with low prediction accuracy are used to predict price. In this paper, based on the current situation and industry characteristics, a differential autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA) is used to predict the short-term price. From the perspective of macro and micro, back-propagation neural network model (BP) was established to predict the long-term price based on the weight ranking of 16 factors affecting the price by technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method (TOPSIS). The future price is predicted and analyzed, and then based on the empirical results, suggestions are put forward for the industry in terms of reducing production capacity, increasing consumer demand and combining with the publicity and promotion of Internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the evolution of microstructure and properties of CuCr50 alloy prepared by self-propagating method is analyzed through the synergistic effect of forging and heat treatment. It is found that when the forging ratio is 1.15, the Cr-rich phase in the forged CuCr50 alloy undergoes plastic deformation to a certain extent, the average particle size of the Cr-rich phase is refined from 22.3 μm to 20.5 μm, and the solid solution Cu content in the Cr-rich phase increases. After heat treatment (solid solution + aging treatment) of forged CuCr50 alloy, it is found that the average particle size of Cr-rich phase is further refined to 18.9 μm, and the results of EBSD show that the grains in the bulk Cr-rich phase decrease from 1.85 μm to 0.76 μm, and the lattice orientation of Cr-rich and Cu-rich grains shift to <111> plane. At this time, the second dispersed phase exists in the Cu-rich matrix, and the solid solution of Cu in the Cr-rich phase exists in spherical form. After SHS + forging + heat treatment, the density of CuCr50 alloy increased from 7.51 g cm−3 to 7.98 g cm−3, and the electrical conductivity increased from 12.5 MS m−1 to 18.7 MS m−1. Compared with SHS + heat treatment, the electrical conductivity of CuCr alloy increased by 13.3%. The performance test of 12 kV simulated vacuum interrupter shows that the insulation and breaking properties of the prepared CuCr50 alloy contact material are obviously better than those reported in literature and the requirements of national standard, which provides a theoretical basis for the preparation of high performance CuCr alloy. • Develop a densification technology based on aluminothermic self-propagating CuCr alloy. • Analyze the changes in microstructure and properties of CuCr alloys during forging and heat treatment. • Characterization of electrical performance of vacuum interrupters based on aluminothermic self-propagating CuCr alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, four homogeneous porous media (HPM1-HPM4), consisting of distinct proportions of sand-sized and clay-sized solid beads, were prepared and used as single fracture infills. Flow and nonreactive solute transport experiments in HPM1-HPM4 under three flow rates were conducted, and the measured breakthrough curves (BTCs) were quantified using conventional advection-dispersion equation (ADE), mobile-immobile model (MIM), and continuous time random walk (CTRW) model with truncated power law transition time distribution. The measured BTCs showed stronger non-Fickian behaviour in HPM2-HPM4 (which had clay) than in HPM1 (which had no clay), implying that clay enhanced the non-Fickian transport. As the fraction of clay increased, the global error of ADE fits also increased, affirming the inefficiency of ADE in capturing the clay-induced non-Fickian behaviour. MIM and CTRW performed better in capturing the non-Fickian behaviour. Nonetheless, CTRW's performance was robust. 12.5% and 25% of clay in HPM2 and HPM3, respectively, decreased the flowing fluid region and increased the solute exchange rate between the flowing and stagnant fluid regions in MIM. For CTRW, the power law exponent ( β CTRW ) values were 1.96, 1.75, and 1.63 in HPM1-HPM3, respectively, implying enhanced non-Fickian behaviour. However, for HPM4, whose clay fraction was 50%, the β CTRW value was 1.87, implying a deviation in the trend of non-Fickian enhancement with increasing clay fraction. This deviation indicated that non-Fickian behaviour enhancement depended on the fraction of clay present. Moreover, increasing flow rate enhanced the non-Fickian transport based on β CTRW . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic sketch colorization is a challenging task in both computer graphics and computer vision since all the color, texture, shading generation have to be created based on the abstract sketch. Besides, it is a subjective task in painting process, which needs illustrators to comprehend drawing priori (DP), such as hue variation, saturation contrast and gray contrast and utilize them in the HSV color space which is closer to human visual cognition system. As such, incorporating supplementary supervision in the HSV color space may be beneficial to sketch colorization. However, previous methods improve the colorization quality only in the RGB color space without considering the HSV color space, often causing results with dull color, inappropriate saturation contrast, and artifacts. To address this issue, we propose a novel sketch colorization method, dual color space guided generative adversarial network (DCSGAN), that considers the complementary information contained in both the RGB and HSV color space. Specifically, we incorporate the HSV color space to construct dual color spaces for supervising our method with a color space transformation (CST) network that learns transformation from the RGB to HSV color space. Then, we propose a DP loss that enables the DCSGAN to generate vivid color images with pixel level supervision. Additionally, a novel dual color space adversarial (DCSA) loss is designed to guide the generator at global level to reduce the artifacts to meet audiences’ aesthetic expectations. Extensive experiments and ablation studies demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over previous state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper slag, a bulk solid waste in the copper smelting sector, has significant economic and environmental value and needs to be cleaned and utilized. Extended processing durations, limited effectiveness, and substantial energy requirements characterize conventional recycling techniques. A stirring-intensified short-duration depletion method is proposed using high-temperature hot copper slag as raw material. By efficiently using the latent heat of copper slag, 90.13% of copper in copper slag can be recovered in 45 min, and the copper content in the tailing slag is reduced to 0.23 wt%. Based on the systematic characterization, a three-stage model is developed to describe the depletion process of hot copper slag under stirring-intensified conditions: the hot-state modification stage of slag, the homogenization and modification stage of the copper matte composition, and the directed settling stage of tiny copper matte droplets assisted by mechanical stirring. The utilization of economic constraints and environmental impact indicators proves the green sustainability of the method. Compared with industrial flotation, this method can save no less than 1250 MJ of energy for every metric ton of copper slag and reduce 156 kg of carbon dioxide emissions. The method uses hot copper slag as a raw material to fully utilize the latent heat of the copper slag, realizes directional enrichment and recovery of copper and iron, and reduces the generation of copper slag from the source. [Display omitted] • Copper slag utilization: Efficient recovery of copper from copper slag. • A thermodynamic method for predicting mineral phases in copper slag was proposed. • Migration laws and control: Investigating element distribution during the process. • Green sustainability: Evaluating the environmental impact and energy savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coblation is a novel technique in respect of treating idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia. We aimed to identify the efficacy and complications between radiofrequency thermocoagulation (RFT) and coblation for V2/V3 idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (ITN) and investigate the risk factors associated with postoperative facial numbness. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed our cohort of 292 patients who had undergone RFT or coblation for V2/V3 ITN. The characteristics of the baseline were collected before surgery. Pain scores, the degree of facial numbness and other complications were evaluated at discharge and 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months after surgery. Results: Postoperative pain intensity was apparently alleviated in both groups. The initial and 12-months remission rates were 94.0 and 75.3% in coblation group compared with 96.9 and 78.4% in RFT group (P = 0.462, P = 0.585). The degree of postoperative facial numbness tended to be more severe in RFT group at discharge, 1 month, 6 months and 12 months (P = 0.006, P = 0.026, P = 0.004, P = 0.003). Factors significantly associated with more severe facial numbness were procedure of RFT (OR = 0.46, 95%CI: 0.28–0.76, P = 0.002), history of previous RFT at the affected side (OR = 2.33, 95%CI: 1.21–4.48, P = 0.011), and ITN with concomitant continuous pain (OR = 0.36, 95%CI: 0.18–0.71, P = 0.004). Conclusion: Coblation could reduce the degree of postoperative facial numbness for ITN, and the efficacy was no less effective than RFT. History of previous RFT at the affected side, procedure of RFT, ITN with concomitant continuous pain was identified as significant factors of the development of postoperative facial numbness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An all-fiber dumbbell-shaped dual-amplifier mode-locked Er-doped laser that can function in dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) regime is demonstrated. A nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) and a nonlinear amplifying loop mirror (NALM) are employed to initiate the mode-locking pulses. Unlike conventional single-amplifier structure, the output peak power of which remains unchanged when pump power is varied, the proposed structure allows its output peak power to be tuned by changing the pump power of the two amplifiers while the pulse duration is directly determined by the amplifier of nonlinear amplifying loop mirror. The entire distribution maps of peak power and pulse duration clearly demonstrate that the two amplifiers are related to each other, and they supply directly a guideline for designing tunable peak power DSR fiber laser. Pulse width can change from 800 ps to 2.6 ns and peak power varies from 13 W to 27 W. To the best of our knowledge, the peak power tunable DSR pulse is observed for the first time in dumbbell-shaped Er-doped all-fiber mode-locked lasers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Boosting approach has been proved to be a very successful ensemble learning technology, the conventional ones are limited to two classes or single modality. In this paper, to deal with multiclass setting and heterogeneous modalities, we propose a multimodal multiclass Boosting framework called MMBoost, in which the intra-modal semantic information and inter-modal semantic correlation can be captured at the same time. By utilizing the multiclass exponential and logistic loss functions, we further acquire two new versions of MMBoost, namely MMBoost_exp and MMBoost_log. The empirical risk, which simultaneously considers the intra-modal and inter-modal losses, is designed and then minimized by gradient descent in the multidimensional functional spaces. More concretely, the optimization problem is solved in turn for each modality. The posterior probability of semantic category can be naturally attained by applying sigmoid function to the multiclass margin. A series of experiments on the Wiki and NUS-WIDE datasets demonstrate that the performance of our proposed method significantly outperforms those of existing Boosting approaches for cross-modal retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CuCr alloy with Cr contents of 50 wt% was synthesized in-situ by aluminothermic reduction under magnetic/temperature coupling, and the uniformity of the microstructure and its regulation were studied. The effect of different slagging coefficients on the composition and microstructure uniformity of the alloy was investigated. The microstructural evolution of the alloy and the effects of heat treatment on the microstructure and properties (conductivity and hardness) of as-cast CuCr50 alloys were researched. The results showed that when n (CaO/Al 2 O 3)= 0.2, the microstructure of the alloy is uniform, the Cr-rich phase solidifies rapidly under the coupling field, and the grains can be refined to 25 µm. The supersaturated solid solution with a Cr solution of 2.44 % is produced in the matrix. After heat treatment, the Cr particles are refined to 20 µm and the microstructure tends to exhibit uniform growth. The supersaturated phase was precipitated, and the solid solubility of Cr is reduced to 1.27 %. The hardness increased by 15.43 % (87.5 HB to 101 HB) and the electrical conductivity increased by 1.46 times (13.82 MS/m to 20.03 MS/m). This method is expected to provide an effective method for the preparation of Cu-based immiscible alloys. • A new CuCr50 alloy with homogeneous large size was prepared. • ·The phase equilibrium of the aluminum thermal reduction process were calculated. • ·The physical properties of the reduced slag were calculated. • The hardness and conductivity of CuCr50 alloy are higher than the national standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The asymmetrical mass transfer was studied by both experiments and simulations. • Pore-scale analysis directly revealed mixing process influenced by flow direction. • Mass transfer in the LPM cannot be accurately predicted by flow characteristics. • A mass transfer index was proposed to quantitatively assess mass transfer in LPM. Natural sediments or aquifers frequently exhibit layering and structural contrasts, which give rise to anomalous mass transfer behavior. Moreover, the effects of the interface on mass transfer and mixing in layered porous media (LPM) may be different when the flow direction is reversed, resulting in asymmetrical dispersive transport and a significant disparity between predictions and actual observations. Despite its importance, the underlying mechanism remains an open question. To address this gap, laboratory experiments and numerical simulations were conducted. The results demonstrated that the effective dispersion coefficient is larger when the solute migrates from the coarse grain layer to the fine grain layer (C-F direction) compared to the F-C direction. The history of the solute across the interface and the flow adjacent to the interface affect this deviation. Pore-scale simulations revealed a more tortuous flow field with a higher proportion of low and high velocities in the fine grain layer, although the velocity characteristics of the entire LPM were insensitive to flow direction. Measuring the velocity characteristics of LPM alone is insufficient to predict the asymmetrical dispersive transport behavior. To quantitatively evaluate mass transfer between layers and residual contaminants in LPM, a mass transfer index ε was introduced. The results of ε , along with the pore-scale concentration, directly indicated that the interface limited the mass transfer. The effect was more pronounced in the C-F direction and particularly evident in the heterogeneous LPM, which ultimately enhanced the solute mixing. In the heterogenous LPM, the maximum dilution index for the C-F direction is 1.31 times larger than that for the F-C direction. The findings contribute to a better understanding of anomalous solute transport and develop models for contaminant transport in layered sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the scalar dissipation rate (SDR) and dilution index of non-Fickian mixing by using the Hausdorff derivative model for conservative and first-order decaying tracers under different boundary conditions. The expressions of SDR and dilution index are derived based on the analytical solution of the Hausdorff derivative model, in which the time and space Hausdorff derivative orders, respectively capture the complexity in transport trajectory and transport scale. The properties of SDR and dilution index are discussed for different cases of Peclet number, decaying rate of the radioactive tracer, and Hausdorff derivative order, respectively. We find that the SDR of non-Fickian mixing decays more slowly than that of the Fickian diffusion, and the time scale deviates from t − 3 / 2 . The evolution of the SDR has a sharp peak and decays very fast to zero when Peclet number is large. For the radioactive tracer, the larger values of decay rate, the smaller values of SDR, which decays faster to zero. The Hausdorff derivative model with larger Peclet number leads to larger dilution index. The dilution index is larger for smaller decay rate before reaching the equilibrium state. Consequently, the two metrics can be satisfactorily used to describe non-Fickian mixing based on the Hausdorff derivative model. Future studies should be designed to examine the evolution of SDR and dilution index in real geological and hydrological systems undergoing structure changes and chemical reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Investigating multiscale roughness influence on solute transport in a self-affine fracture. • Removing small-scale roughness delayed the breakthrough and shortened tails in BTCs. • The small-scale roughness increased mass exchange rate between immobile and mobile domains. Abstract In this article, the influence of multiscale roughness on transport of a conservative solute through a self-affine fracture was investigated. The fracture roughness was decomposed into two different scales (i.e., a small-scale stationary secondary roughness superimposed on a large-scale non-stationary primary roughness) by a wavelet analysis technique. The fluid flow in the single fracture was characterized by Forchheimer's law and exhibited nonlinear flow features such as eddies and tortuous streamlines. The results indicated that the small-scale secondary roughness was primarily responsible for the nonlinear flow features. Numerical simulations of conservative solute transport showed non-Fickian transport characteristics (i.e., early arrivals and long tails) in breakthrough curves (BTCs) and in residence time distributions (RTDs) with and without consideration of the secondary roughness. Analysis of multiscale BTCs and RTDs showed that the small-scale secondary roughness played a significant role in enhancing the non-Fickian transport characteristics. Removing small-scale secondary roughness delayed the arrival time and shortened the tail. The peak concentrations in BTCs decreased as the secondary roughness was removed, implying that the secondary roughness could also enhance the solute dilution. Fitting the one-dimensional (1D) Fickian advection–dispersion equation (ADE) to the numerical BTCs resulted in considerable errors that decreased with the small-scale secondary roughness being removed. The 1D mobile-immobile model (MIM) provided a better fit to the numerical BTCs and inclusion of the small-scale secondary roughness in numerical simulations resulted in a decreasing MIM mobile domain fraction and an increasing mass exchange rate between immobile and mobile domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Tikhonov regularization is an effective method used for dynamic light scattering (DLS) data inversion. However, its inversion accuracy is low for the strong noise data. Based on filtering and Tikhonov regularization technology, we propose a filter-Tikhonov-L method. To begin with, this method uses the cubical smoothing algorithm with five-point approximation to filter out the noise of autocorrelation function (ACF). A new inversion problem is constructed by the filtered ACF, and then solved by Tikhonov regularization with L-curve criterion. This method combines the advantages of filtering and Tikhonov regularization technology, so that it has the high inversion accuracy. The simulation data of particles with particle size distribution (PSD) from 100 nm to 700 nm was implemented inversion studies. The investigation shows that filter-Tikhonov-L has a great advantage in peak position, relative error, the capability of recognizing double peaks and tolerance of noises. The inversion of experimental data also verifies this conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pore-scale modeling study in single self-affine fractures showed that the heterogeneous flow field had a significant influence on the mixing-induced reaction transport. We generated the single self-affine fracture by the successive random additions (SRA) technique. The pore-scale model was developed by coupling the Navier-Stoke equation (NSE) and advection-diffusion equation with reaction (ADER). Eddies were captured in the self-affine fracture due to the increasing Reynolds number and the sudden expansion of aperture. The flux-weighted breakthrough curves (BTCs) of reaction product showed the typical non-Fickian characteristics (i.e., “early arrival” and “heavy tail”). It was found that the reactant was involved in eddies and then reacted inside the eddy-controlled domain. Consequently, eddies played a significant role in delaying the mass exchange process between the eddy-controlled domain and the main flow channel, which resulted in the “heavy tail” in BTCs. As the Reynolds number increased, the breakthrough time increased while the concentration peaks of BTCs decreased. Furthermore, the dilution index presenting the exponential of the Shannon entropy of a concentration probability distribution was used to quantify the degree of reactant mixing. The results showed that the quantification of dilution for nonreaction transport was in good agreement with the outcomes of mixing-induced reaction transport. The high Reynolds number and Peclet number had a negative influence on the mixing process at the early time whereas they led to the enhanced mixing process at the late time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The solute transport regime is highly dependent upon the heterogeneity of the flow field. In this study, the influence of eddies on conservative solute transport through a two-dimensional (2D) single self-affine fracture was investigated by the Navier-Stokes flow and solute transport simulations. The self-affine rough fracture was generated by the successive random additions (SRA) technique. The simulations showed that eddies had significant influence on the spatial evolution of the solute plume through the fracture. Analysis of breakthrough curves (BTCs) and residence time distributions (RTDs) presented that the solute transport through the fracture was non-Fickian and the developing eddies enhanced the typical non-Fickian characteristics (i.e., “early arrival” and “heavy tail”) in BTCs for a step tracer injection. Increasing the Reynolds number caused the increasing exponent of the power-law tail with the developing eddies. Fitting the non-Fickian BTCs with the classical inverse model (advection–dispersion-equation, ADE) led to a non-negligible error due to the presence of eddies. The continuous time random walk (CTRW) inverse model with truncated power law transition rate probability was alternatively employed and the fitting results showed the robust capability of CTRW in capturing the eddy-induced non-Fickian transport. It was found that the value of parameter β of CTRW decreased as the total eddy volume increased, indicating that the developing eddies might increase the magnitude of non-Fickian transport. Furthermore, the dilution index presenting the exponential of the Shannon entropy of a concentration probability distribution was used to quantify the uniformity of concentration distribution within the fracture. We could conclude that eddies provided strong resistance for solute transport and significantly delayed the mass exchange between the main flow channel and the eddy-controlled zones. Consequently, the delayed mass exchange process directly determined the magnitude of tails in BTCs. The results may enhance our understanding of the role of eddies in the solute transport through fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-phase displacement events often occur in unsaturated porous media, especially when immiscible contaminants (e.g., non-aqueous phase liquid, NAPL) inadvertently enter the subsurface. In this study, the influence of initial water saturation on the three-phase displacement efficiency and residual distribution during NAPL invasion into unsaturated porous media was experimentally investigated. The low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) technique was used to dynamically monitor the spatial distribution of water in unsaturated porous media during the invasion of NAPL. The residual distributions (e.g., volume fraction) of NAPL/water/gas were quantitatively analyzed. The results showed that both the initial water saturation and the NAPL injection rate had a significant influence on the three-phase displacement. We found that the displacement efficiency of water/gas exhibited a non-monotonic relationship with the initial water saturation in the unsaturated porous media at certain NAPL invasion rates. A method was proposed to characterize the three-phase displacement regime in terms of the classical two-phase Lenormand's diagram. A significant increase in the volume fraction of residual NAPL after NAPL invasion was observed during the transition from the strong drainage region to the transitional displacement region. However, the initial water saturation was insensitive to the volume fraction of residual NAPL, once the characterized three-phase displacement regime transitioned to the stable displacement region. This study not only highlighted the influence mechanism of initial water saturation and NAPL injection rate on the three-phase displacement efficiency, but also endowed the classical two-phase Lenormand's diagram with the three-phase displacement regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A low temperature manufacture of ferrosilicon alloying from fly ash was proposed. • The notable promoting effect of Fe 2 O 3 on the decomposition of mullite was verified. • The phase transformation in the reduction process of mullite was investigated. • A three-step decomposition theory of mullite in fly ash was proposed. A novel method of comprehensive disposal of low temperature and high-efficiency reduction of fly ash to produce ferrosilicon without slag under the action of Fe 2 O 3 was proposed in this paper. In addition, the promotion of Fe 2 O 3 on the reduction and decomposition of fly ash at a low temperature and the strengthening mechanism of the reduction and decomposition of the mullite phase were systematically studied. The thermodynamic analysis shows that the decomposition reaction of mullite can be carried out only after the free SiO 2 in fly ash is exhausted. Combined with the thermodynamic prediction of the equilibrium phase concentration of reduction products, the phase evolution of reduction products and the results of SEM microanalysis, it is proposed that the carbothermal reduction process of fly ash and the decomposition mechanism of mullite are as follows: iron oxide reduction, mullite decomposition into aluminum–silicon oxide and aluminum–silicon oxide deep decomposition and complete release of Al 2 O 3 , while the final products of reduction decomposition are ferrosilicon phase and alumina. According to the mineralogical characteristics of reduction decomposition products, a novel idea of preparing ferrosilicon and alumina/calcium aluminate byproducts by electric furnace melting is proposed, which lays a theoretical foundation for the large-scale, slag-free and high-value utilization of fly ash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bound water (BW) enhanced non-Fickian characteristics. • Immobile water fraction increased with increasing estimated bound water. • Solute exchange rate decreased with increasing bound water. • Moderately non-Fickian solute transport occurred in porous media with BW < 16.4 %. • Highly non-Fickian solute transport occurred in porous media with BW ≥ 16.4 %. Bound water (BW) has significant effects on the physical and chemical properties of soils and other geologic formations. However, little is known about its effect on the non-Fickian transport of solute in porous media. This paper investigated the effect of BW on the non-Fickian solute transport characteristics in mixed porous media. Different porous media of quartz sand with variable contents of powdered minerals were prepared. The low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) was used to quantitatively characterise BW and its spatial distribution. Then solute transport experiments were conducted in different prepared porous media and the measured breakthrough curves (BTCs) were analysed using the advection–dispersion equation (ADE), mobile-immobile (MIM) and continuous time random walk (CTRW) models. The results revealed that all measured BTCs exhibited the characteristics of early arrival and late-time tailing. However, stronger non-Fickian characteristics were observed as BW increased in content, indicating that BW influenced the non-Fickian transport of the solute. The optimised immobile water fraction of the MIM model consistently increased with increasing estimated BW fraction. Moreover, the coefficient of mass transfer rate (α) of MIM decreased as BW increased, meaning that the solute exchange between the mobile and immobile fluids became slower and consequently yielded strongly tailed BTCs. From the CTRW model, the solute transport velocity (v CTRW ) increased with increasing BW, leading to a reduction in the breakthrough time of the solute. An increase in BW yielded a decreasing power law exponent (β CTRW ) of the CTRW model, implying an enhancement of the non-Fickian transport characteristics. Furthermore, the porous media with B W < 16.4 % showed moderately non-Fickian solute transport whereas those with B W ≥ 16.4 % exhibited highly non-Fickian solute transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the problems of slow response speed and uneven thermal conductivity caused by the heterogeneity structure which exits in recent junction temperature measurements, a thermoelectric model based on heat accumulation was proposed to accurately measure the IGBT junction temperature in real time, based on the study of IGBT failure mechanism and the existing junction temperature measurement models. The IGBT temperature measurement was converted to measure the temperature of a certain point of the IGBT based on the energy balance to avoid the heterogeneity structure problem of IGBT. Matlab simulation and experimental results showed that the two temperature curves have a good degree of fit, verified the feasibility of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To evaluate the efficacy and the safety of pregabalin ( PGB)-morphine combination for the treatment of neuropathic cancer pain ( NCP). Methods In this double-blind, randomized, placebo ( PL)-controlled crossover study, 40 cancer patients with severe NCP were randomized into two groups (20 per group): PGB-PL and PL-PGB. Patients in the PGB-PL group received PGB plus oral morphine in phase I, and PL plus oral morphine in phase II. The treatment sequence for the PL-PGB group was PL plus oral morphine in phase I, and PGB plus oral morphine in phase II. These 2-week treatment periods were separated by a 1-week washout period. The primary outcome measure was the decrements in morphine dose; secondary outcomes included quantitative assessments of sleep (rated according to the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale), the Constipation Assessment Scale and adverse effects. Results The mean minimal effective dose of morphine was 184.4 ± 69.9 mg/day in the period of PGB treatments, which was significantly lower than that of PL-controls (228.7 ± 66.9 mg/day; P < 0.001) and baseline (247.5 ± 80.0 mg/day; P < 0.001). Compared with PL, PGB resulted in a significant sleep improvement as measured by sleep disturbance, sleep quantity, and sleep problems index ( P < 0.001), as well as a Constipation Assessment Scale reduction ( P < 0.001). PGB resulted in a higher frequency of dry mouth and somnolence than PL ( P < 0.05). Conclusion PGB enhances the efficacy of oral morphine and reduces dose-related adverse reactions. The PGB-morphine combination is an effective approach to controlling NCP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel method of preparing wear-resistant cast iron and copper-bearing antibacterial stainless steel by moderate dilution of molten copper slag and vortex smelting reduction is proposed in this paper. The reduction behaviors of different components during vortex smelting reduction after medium dilution of molten copper slag are systematically investigated. Thermodynamic analysis results show that lime (CaO) can promote the decomposition of the iron peridotite phase and strengthen the reduction of copper and iron in slag. Under the conditions of 1450 °C, slag alkalinity of 1.0, 0.13 wt% carbon addition, vortex stirring speed of 250 rpm, and sedimentation stirring speed of 63 rpm, the metallization rate of copper and iron is 91.76%. In addition, 97.90 wt% zinc and 14.79 wt% lead in copper slag enter flue gas to be recovered, and 94.11 wt% silver and 88.66 wt% gold are reduced into metal. HBW555Cr13 wear-resistant cast iron and 20Cr13Cu3 copper-bearing martensitic antibacterial stainless steel, which meet the requirements of Chinese national standards, are successfully prepared by this process, realizing the separation, enrichment, and recovery of valuable components in the copper slag. The Brinell hardness of wear-resistant cast iron is 575, and the antibacterial rate of copper-containing antibacterial stainless steel against Escherichia coli is more than 99%. The reduction slag can be used as the raw material for preparing cement clinker after water quenching. There is no secondary waste residue, which realizes the molten copper slag's large-scale, slag-free, and high-value utilization. [Display omitted] • A method of preparing HBW555Cr13 wear-resistant cast iron is proposed. • A method of preparing 20Cr13Cu3 antibacterial stainless steel is proposed. • The reduction behavior of different components is systematically studied. • The abrasion and antimicrobial resistance of the product are characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Redistribution of NAPLs driven by freeze–thaw (FT) cycles was confirmed in a wide saturation range (14.34% to 72.05%). • Substantial remobilization of NAPLs occurred between macropores and mesopores during FT cycles. • Distribution of NAPLs in micropores remained almost unchanged during FT cycles. • Contribution of micropores to NAPLs redistribution was much smaller than that of mesopores and macropores. • A model related to freezing-induced pressure was proposed to explain the change in the redistribution rate of NAPLs. Increasing human activities in cold regions have led to serious environmental problems due to non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) contamination. However, the NAPLs redistribution driven by freeze–thaw (FT) cycles is not well understood. In this study, the redistribution of NAPLs in porous media subjected to FT cycles in a temperature range from 20 °C to −15 °C was investigated using the low-field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) technique. The redistribution of NAPLs in the prepared samples with NAPLs saturation ranging from 13.56% to 72.05% was confirmed using the transverse spin-spin relaxation time (T 2) distribution and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Experimental results revealed that substantial remobilization and distribution of NAPLs occurred between the macropores (T 2 greater than 300 ms) and the mesopores (60 ms < T 2 < 300 ms) while the NAPLs in the micropores (T 2 < 60 ms) remained almost unchanged during 30 FT cycles. The main reason is attributed to the fact that the redistribution rate in micropores is much lower than in macropores and mesopores. Furthermore, the NAPLs content and the number of FT cycles were positively correlated for macropores while negatively correlated for mesopores. For the samples with low NAPLs saturation (e.g., S N =13.56% and 13.56%), the redistribution rate of NAPLs versus FT cycles exhibited an overall linear relationship for macropores and mesopores while a non-liner relationship for micropores. For all pore categories, the increment in S N can cause a remarkable deviation extent. The balance between capillary pressure and freezing-induced pressure was evaluated by the newly introduced dimensionless pressure ratio Δ P , which could help determine the ultimate mobilization and redistribution of NAPLs during FT cycles. Experimental tests suggested that the Δ P was much larger in macropores than in mesopores and micropores. This can explain the dramatic difference in the redistribution rate among different pore categories. This fundamental study is helpful in understanding the mobilization and redistribution mechanisms of NAPLs in cold regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field evidence indicates that cavities often occur in fractured rocks, especially in a Karst region. Once the immiscible liquid flows into the cavity, the cavity has the immiscible liquid entrapped and results in a low recovery ratio. In this paper, the immiscible liquid transport in cavity-fractures was simulated by Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). The interfacial and surface tensions were incorporated by Multicomponent Shan-Chen (MCSC) model. Three various fracture positions were generated to investigate the influence on the irreducible nonwetting phase saturation and displacement time. The influences of fracture aperture and wettability on the immiscible liquid transport were discussed and analyzed. It was found that the cavity resulted in a long displacement time. Increasing the fracture aperture with the corresponding decrease in displacement pressure led to the long displacement time. This consequently decreased the irreducible nonwetting phase saturation. The fracture positions had a significant effect on the displacement time and irreducible saturation. The distribution of the irreducible nonwetting phase was strongly dependent on wettability and fracture position. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that the LBM was very effective in simulating the immiscible two-phase flow in the cavity-fracture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mass transfer for solute transport through unsaturated porous media was investigated. • A non-monotonic relationship was found between dispersivity and residual saturation. • Overall dispersivity in terms of the mobile-immobile-type transport equation was analyzed. • Relative contribution of two mass transfer mechanisms to the overall dispersivity was discussed. The residual non-wetting phase in unsaturated porous media varies the aqueous pore space due to the immiscible characteristics. The varied pore space in turn has significant influence on the mass transfer for aqueous tracer transport through residual unsaturated porous media. In this study, the mass transfer for solute transport through residual unsaturated porous media was investigated. A pore-scale numerical simulation (PSNS) model consisting of both immiscible two-phase flow transport and aqueous-miscible solute transport was developed at pore scale to capture the topology of residual saturation and the tempo-spatial evolution of aqueous tracer in residual unsaturated porous media. The results showed that as the immiscible fluid-fluid displacement pattern varied from compact displacement to capillary fingering, the residual saturation (S rw) increased and the velocity spatial variability in the residual aqueous flow field was enhanced. Inversion of the advection-dispersion-equation (ADE) model and the continuous-time-random-walk (CTRW) model indicated the typical characteristics of anomalous aqueous tracer transport (i.e., early arrivals and long tails) in breakthrough curves (BTCs) in a range of (S rw) from 0.098 to 0.542. A non-monotonic relationship was found between the dispersivity and the S r w. Further, analysis of the overall dispersivity of aqueous tracer in terms of the mobile-immobile-type transport equation showed the coexistence of two mass transfer mechanisms (i.e., the dispersivity of the mobile domain and the solute exchange between the mobile and immobile domains). We introduced a dimensionless dispersivity index to quantify the relative contribution of these two mass transfer mechanisms to the overall dispersivity. However, it was found that the mass transfer of aqueous tracer in residual unsaturated porous media was controlled by the dispersion of aqueous tracer in the mobile domain at low S r w , whereas it was dominated by the solute exchange between the mobile and immobile domains at high S r w. Our study not only highlighted the saturation dependence of mass transfer in residual unsaturated porous media, but also emphasized the importance of the influence of saturation topology on mass transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High titanium slag and KOH solution were used to synthesize potassium titanate whiskers. The acid conversion of potassium titanate whiskers in hydrochloric acid solution can directly prepare titanium dioxide. When the conversion temperature was 130 °C, the influence of hydrochloric acid concentration on the acid conversion of potassium titanate whiskers to titanium dioxide was investigated. The increase in hydrochloric acid concentration was beneficial to the removal of impurity elements. When the hydrochloric acid concentration was 15 wt%, the titanium dioxide content of the obtained product reached 99.1%. At an acid concentration below 15 wt%, the morphology of the acid conversion product was mainly multibranched and flower-like with a hierarchical structure. When the concentration was 20 wt% and 25 wt%, the morphology was slender fusiform. The phase of the obtained products was rutile. A detailed study was conducted at the hydrochloric acid concentration of 15 wt%, to investigate the phase and morphology transformation of potassium titanate whiskers into titanium dioxide. Only the splitting and dissolution of potassium titanate whiskers occurred in the initial stage. Rutile began to form at approximately 30 min. After that, the dissolution of potassium titanate and the formation of rutile continued. When the rutile crystals grew larger, they became multibranched hierarchical structures. • The alkali conversion product of high titanium slag was converted to titanium dioxide in the hydrochloric acid solution. • The influence of the hydrochloric acid concentration on the acid conversion process was studied. • The change of titanium occurrence state and product morphology during the acid conversion process were studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• SI process in a dual-porosity medium consisting of matrix and filled fracture was investigated. • The origin of imbibed water was quantitatively distinguished based on LF NMR measurements. • Filled fracture significantly enhanced the rate of matrix imbibition. • An analytical model was proposed to characterize the enhanced matrix imbibition. Spontaneous imbibition (SI) of wetting fluids is an important process for many hydrological and geological applications. In this study, we investigated experimentally and theoretically the SI process in a dual-porosity medium consisting of the matrix and the filled fracture. Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF NMR) technology was used to dynamically monitor the distribution of the imbibed water in the dual-porosity media during the SI experiments. Based on the LF NMR theory, a cut-off method was proposed to quantitatively distinguish the imbibed water from the matrix and the filled fracture. The results showed that the rate of matrix imbibition was greater in the dual-porosity media than in single-porosity media. This inconsistent rate of matrix imbibition between the single-porosity media and the dual-porosity media was caused by the enhanced mass transfer between the matrix and the filled fracture. An analytical model was then proposed to characterize this enhanced mass transfer between the matrix and the filled fracture. It was found that the rate of matrix imbibition was not only affected by the presence of the filled fractures but also depended on the size of the particles filled in the fracture. A clear non-monotonic relationship was found between the rate of matrix imbibition and the size of the particles filled in the fracture. The rate of matrix imbibition initially increased and then decreased as the size of the particles filled in the fracture increased. The proposed analytical model not only highlighted the mechanism of enhanced mass transfer between the matrix and the filled fracture, but was also able to determine the optimum equivalent capillary diameter of the filled particles in the fracture for enhanced rate of matrix imbibition in dual-porosity media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The lower contact angles led to increases in both P c and a nw . [•] The irreducible saturation increased as contact angle decreased. [•] The non-wetting phase breakthrough time varied with contact angle. [•] The energy dissipation factors varied with contact angle. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The effects of capillary number Ca and viscosity ratio M on non-uniqueness of the relative permeability (RP) – wetting saturation (Sw ) relationships of steady-state immiscible two-phase flow in the heterogeneous porous media are studied by a developed lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). In this work, it is suggested that the non-uniqueness of capillary number Ca and viscosity ratio M influencing RP–Sw curves is due to the presence of the heterogeneity of porous media. For the different Ca and M, the RP–Sw curves in the homogenous and heterogeneous porous media with the same porosity are discussed in detail. It is found that (1) the pore-size distributions in porous media have significant effect on the RPs of both wetting phase (WP) and non-wetting phase (NWP); (2) the heterogeneity of porous media has negative effect on the increment of the RP of NWP caused by the large capillary number. The lubricating effect is strongly dependent on pore-size distributions in porous media; and (3) the large viscosity ratio increases the RP of NWP, while it has little effect on the RP of WP. The effect on the RP of NWP may be magnified by the heterogeneity of porous media. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The species of Tubakia (Tubakiaceae, Diaporthales, Sordariomycetes) have often been reported as endophytes and pathogens on woody plants. During the investigation of Tubakia species from Fagaceae trees in China, 46 isolates were obtained from diseased leaves and seeds. The characterization of these isolates was based on the observation of morphological characters, the effect of temperature on mycelial growth rate, as well as the combined genes of ITS, tef1 and tub2. As a result, six species were identified: Tubakia americana, T. cyclobalanopsidis sp. nov., T. dryinoides, T. koreana, T. paradryinoides and T. quercicola sp. nov. Among these, T. koreana and T. paradryinoides were firstly discovered in China. Pathogenicity tests were conducted using the conidial suspension on young, excised leaves for these six species, which showed that they were mildly pathogenic to four Fagacece hosts: C. mollissima, Q. acutissima, Q. aliena var. acutiserrata and Q. variabilis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The novel covalently modified glassy carbon electrode with polyethylene oxide has been prepared using an electroadsorption method for the simultaneous determination of dopamine (DA) and ascorbic acid (AA). This new electrode presented an excellent electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of DA and AA by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) methods. The separation potentials of the oxidation peak potentials for them were about 155mV in CV and 216mV in DPV. The differences are large enough to determine DA and AA individually and simultaneously. Calibration curves in the ranges of 5.0–40 and 300–1700μmolL−1 were obtained for DA and AA, respectively. The lowest detection limits (S/N=3) were 0.25 and 50μmolL−1 for DA and AA, respectively. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Rice–crayfish continuous production system offers high economic and ecology benefits, which developed rapidly in China. To investigate the effects of different mechanical transplanting methods and planting densities on rice yield and quality, Nanjing 2728 was used to determine rice growth performance under mechanically transplanted carpet seedling (MTCS) with equal row spacing (30 cm) at five spacings and mechanically transplanted pot seedling (MTPS) with wide and narrow rows (23 + 33 cm) at five spacings. The results showed that MTPS presented significantly higher rice yields than MTCS as more spikelets per panicle. Rice yields of both mechanical transplanting methods first increased and then reduced with decreasing planting density, and its highest value was obtained at 77.9 × 104 seedlings ha−1. Compared with MTCS at the same stage, rice tiller dynamics of MTPS first increased and then decreased. Additionally, its dry matter accumulation per stem at jointing, heading, and maturity stages, leaf area index, photosynthetic potential, crop growth rate, and net assimilation rate were all significantly higher relative to MTCS. For each mechanical transplanting method, dry matter accumulation per panicle, leaf area index, photosynthetic potential, crop growth rate, and net assimilation rate from the sowing to jointing stages declined with decreasing planting density, while dry matter accumulation per stem and net assimilation rate from the heading to maturity stages increased. Compared with MTCS, MTPS significantly improved rice milling and appearance quality, decreasing density was also beneficial to rice milling and appearance quality, while grain content of amylose and protein were not sensitive to both transplanting method and planting density. Consequently, MTPS with 13.8 cm plant spacing is a suitable mechanical transplanting method for Nanjing 2728 to obtain better yield and quality under rice–crayfish continuous production system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Brine desalted can be realized by CEM electrolysis, especially high contents of Mg2+ and Cl−. • High rates of separation between Mg2+ and other cations can be obtained in simulating brines. • Mg(OH) 2 can be extracted from brines as a flame retardant by CEM electrolysis. • Effect of electrolyte concentrations on Mg(OH) 2 physicochemical properties was studied. The extraction of potassium or lithium from saline lake generates the discharge of waste liquid and residue containing magnesium, which occupies many land and even covers the mineral deposit. Long-term accumulation of residuals with high magnesium content may also pollute groundwater. Therefore, the comprehensive utilization of saline lake resources must be realized, especially magnesium. In this work, a novel cation exchange membrane (CEM) electrolysis method of separating cations from brine and utilization of magnesium was raised. What's more, the concentrations of electrolyte were optimized in electrolysis of magnesium chloride process. It also provides data for cations separation of simulating saline lake brine by electrolysis. In this paper, the effects of electrolyte concentrations on cell voltage, catholyte pH and current efficiency in the electrolysis process were investigated. The phase, morphology and particle size distribution of magnesium hydroxide were also characterized. Magnesium extraction rate can reach 90.62% in the process of simulating brine electrolysis. The separation rate of metal cations reached 91.02% and the consumption rate of chlorine in anodic brine reached 97.59%. The electrolytic catholyte containing almost no Mg2+ can be directly used to prepare lithium carbonate. The anolyte desalted magnesium and chloride can be used to extract boron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nanoprobe array based on fluorescent nitrogen-rich carbon dots (N-CDs) and Ag+ was constructed for simultaneous qualitative and quantitative determination of seven kinds of biogenic polyamines (BAs), including tryptamine (Try), histamine (His), putrescine (Put), cadaverine (Cad), spermine (Spm), spermidine (Spd), and agmatine (Agm). Ag+ can specifically bind to the N-CDs and quench the fluorescence of the N-CDs through a static mechanism. BAs further statically quench the fluorescence of the N-CD@Ag+ composite by bridging two Ag+ centers of the N-CD@Ag+. The nanoprobe array was constructed based on the differential fluorescence response arising from the differential binding affinity of various BAs. BAs can be differentiated and analyzed by the nanoprobe array within the concentration range 0.5–500 μM. The preliminary diluted and artificially spiked commercial human serum was utilized to simulate the serum environment for assessing the performance of the nanoprobe array in real samples. The N-CD@Ag+ system can recognize BAs with 100% accuracy in simulated human serum samples. The quantitative determination of BAs - no matter in a one-component system or a three-component system - was also realized by using the N-CD@Ag+ system even in the simulated serum environment. The recovery rates from spiked serum samples were higher 99%, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 3%. Based on the excellent multi-BA determination performance, a BA-related disease model about cerebral ischemia was constructed. Healthy cases as well as mild, moderate, and severe cerebral ischemia cases can be well identified from the disease model based on the N-CD@Ag+ nanoprobe array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, membrane electrolysis technology is used to conduct the basic research on directly preparing lithium carbonate powders with lithium chloride solution, mainly exploring the influence of electrolyte concentrations, electrolyte temperature, current density and carbon dioxide flowrate on the physical phase, micro morphology and particle size of lithium carbonate. By comparing the results of XRD analysis and SEM micromorphology, it was found that the products with higher diffraction peak representing crystal plane (−110) had mostly lamellar planar structure, while the products with higher peak representing crystal plane (002) had mostly rod-like line type structure. Under the conditions of higher anolyte concentration, lower catholyte concentration, lower temperature and lower current density, is beneficial to obtain single crystal structure with small size, but the cross growth of numerous monocrystalline will increase the final crystal size. Besides, the smallest size product was obtained under the conditions of anolyte with LiCl concentration of 300 g/L, catholyte with LiCl concentration of 50 g/L, electrolyte temperature of 50 °C, current density of 100 mA/cm2 and carbon dioxide flowrate of 1.0 L/min. The experimental results show that it has great potential and space to research on the direct preparation of lithium carbonate by membrane electrolysis. • Membrane electrolysis is used to conduct basic research on directly preparing Li 2 CO 3. • The influence of 5 factors on the physical chemical characteristics of Li 2 CO 3 were studied. • Two crystal types corresponded to (002) and (−110) crystal planes with higher XRD peaks. • Experimental parameters for obtaining the minimum particle size of Li 2 CO 3 were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of extracting lithium from salt lake brines with high Mg/Li mass ratio, a large amount of crude carbonate products of magnesium will be treated by the method of land stockpiling, which not only occupies much land and affects the environment, but also causes a waste of magnesium resources. In this work, the multi-stage membrane electrolysis process was proposed for the extraction of magnesium and the separation of lithium from brines, and magnesium hydroxide with high purity was directly prepared, which can be used as a flame retardant. According to the experimental results, the concentrations of Mg2+ and Li+ in the anolyte were reduced to 0.026 g/L and 0.15 g/L, respectively, and the Mg/Li mass ratio decreased from 98 to 0.17. Meanwhile, the extraction rate of magnesium (98.86% > 89.97%), current efficiency (86.69% > 80.75%) and product purity of Mg(OH) 2 (99.93% > 99.46%) in multi-stage electrolysis process were higher than those in one-stage electrolysis, while the transfer proportion of lithium (42.31% < 50.00%), magnesium residual concentration (0.03 < 0.16 g/L) and Mg/Li ratio (0.17 < 1.23) in multi-stage electrolysis process were lower than those in one-stage electrolysis. Additionally, the higher separation efficiency and extraction rate of magnesium can be obtained in the two-stage electrolysis with the electrolysis of 8 h. • A novel electrochemical method was used to separate and extract Mg/Li from brines. • The novel method combinates the multistage electrolysis with membrane technology. • High purity magnesium hydroxide for a flame retardant can be obtained directly. • The ratio of Mg/Li can be decreased to 0.17 from 98 by multistage electrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In groundwater hydrology, aquitard heterogeneity is often less considered compared to aquifers, despite its significant impact on groundwater hydraulics and groundwater resources evaluation. A semi‐analytical solution is derived for pumping‐induced well hydraulics and groundwater budget with consideration of vertical heterogeneity in aquitard hydraulic conductivity (K) and specific storage (Ss). The proposed new solution is innovative in its partitioning of the aquitard into multiple homogeneous sub‐layers to enable consideration of various forms of vertically heterogeneous K or Ss. Two scenarios of analytical investigations are explored: one is the presence of aquitard interlayers with distinct K or Ss values, a common field‐scale occurrence; another is an exponentially depth‐decaying aquitard Ss, a regional‐scale phenomenon supported by statistical analysis. Analytical investigations reveal that a low‐K interlayer can significantly increase aquifer drawdown and enhance aquifer/aquitard depletion; a high‐Ss interlayer can noticeably reduce aquifer drawdown and increase aquitard depletion. Locations of low‐K or high‐Ss interlayers also significantly impact well hydraulics and groundwater budget. In the context of an exponentially depth‐decaying aquitard Ss, a larger decay exponent can enhance aquifer drawdown. When using current models with a vertically homogeneous aquitard, half the sum of the geometric and harmonic means of exponentially depth‐decaying aquitard Ss should be used to calculate aquitard depletion and unconfined aquifer leakage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the 3.5 GHz world interoperability for microwave access band and 5.8 GHz industrial scientific medical band, a dual‐band antenna operating in omnidirectional mode is proposed. The antenna uses a single‐layer dielectric substrate made of FR‐4, which is cheap and easy to process. It uses circular patches and metal branches to generate orthogonal electric fields to achieve circular polarization. At the same time, the upper patch is symmetrically slotted in a T shape, so that the patch produces two resonance frequencies. The measured impedance bandwidth of the antenna in circular polarization on‐body mode and linear polarization on‐body mode is 110 MHz (3.41–3.52 GHz) and 460 MHz (5.42–5.88 GHz), respectively. In addition, the antenna shows good performance under bending conditions and close to human tissue. At the same time, the low specific absorption rate value proves that the antenna is safe to wear on the human body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spermatozoa released from testes undergo a maturation process and acquire the capacity to fertilize ova through epididymal transit. The epididymis is divided into four regions, each with unique morphology, gene profile, luminal microenvironment and distinct function. To study the functions of relevant genes in the epididymal initial segment (IS), a novel IS-specific mouse model, Lcn9-Cre knock-in (KI) mouse line was generated via CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The TAG stop codon was replaced by a 2A-NLS-Cre cassette, resulting in the co-expression of Lcn9 and Cre recombinase. IS-specific Cre expression was first observed from postnatal day 17. Using the Rosa26tdTomato reporter mice, the Cre-mediated DNA recombination was detected exclusively in principal cells. The epididymal IS-specific Cre activity in vivo was further confirmed using Lcn9-Cre mice crossed with a mouse strain carrying Tsc1 floxed alleles (Tsc1flox/+). Cre expression did not affect either normal development or male fecundity. Different from any epididymis-specific Cre mice reported previously, the novel Lcn9-Cre mouse line can be used to introduce entire IS-specific conditional gene editing for gene functional study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adsorption reaction in unsaturated porous media is of great importance for soil and groundwater remediation. In this study, the influence of the Peclet number (Pe) and water saturation on adsorption behavior at liquid-liquid interfaces was quantitatively investigated. The pore-scale reactive transport in unsaturated porous media was directly simulated. The Navier-Stokes equations, the surface transfer and adsorption reaction equations, and the advection-diffusion equation (ADE) were coupled to obtain the flow and concentration fields. The results showed that water saturation had a significant influence on the complexity of the flow field. A nonmonotonic relationship was found between water saturation and the uniformity of the flow field. Peclet number had little influence on the maximum adsorption. On the other hand, the adsorption time showed a nearly linear relationship with the Peclet number and increased with increasing Peclet number. Additionally, a nonlinear relationship was found between water saturation and the maximum adsorption. As water saturation increased, the maximum adsorption tended to increase to a peak and then decrease. The peak of the maximum adsorption occurred at Pe = 5 , S w = 0.458 , and the shortest adsorption time was observed at S w = 0.902. However, the difference in adsorption times for saturations of 0.458 and 0.698 was not significant and was only about 20 PV difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although specific storage (SS) is a crucial parameter for characterizing the dynamic water-release process in an aquitard, the Hvorslev analysis method is only capable of estimating the hydraulic conductivity (K), rather than SS. The Hvorslev method is based on an assumption of steady-state flow and uses the falling-head test. Considering the elastic water-release effect in an aquitard and the actual groundwater flow, two mathematical unsteady-state groundwater flow models (i.e., the constant-head and variable-head models), describing the head distribution are presented for a constant-head injection test (CHIT) and variable-head injection test (VHIT) performed in a multi-layered aquifer-aquitard system. The analytical solutions for the models are derived by Fourier transforms to estimate K and SS. The obtained K and SS values from the CHIT and VHIT were generally consistent, although the VHIT is recommended in practice. For the VHIT, estimating K using the Hvorslev analysis method under steady-state groundwater flow conditions resulted in a small relative error compared to the obtained result from the variable-head model. It was demonstrated that a certain relation existed between the constant-head and variable-head methods when the drawdown rate was lower than 1%, and so the constant-head method was applied to the VHIT data to determine K and SS. The synthetic error in the parameters was smaller than 10%, which indicated that the methods could be used interchangeably under these circumstances, thus simplifying the hydraulic parameter estimation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a multi-scale Transformation Region Enhancement Network (TRE-Net) to enhance the learning on geometric transformation regions. • We propose to locate geometric transformation regions with Multi-scale Euclidean Distance Difference (Multi-scale EDD) Map. To the best of our knowledge, the Multi-scale EDD Map is used for the first time in anime line art colorization. As a result, the network can adaptively leverage different strategies in different regions. Different from mask propagation algorithms for gray video colorization, our Multi-scale EDD Maps work well when dealing with line art sequences and act as robust guidance for our TRE-Net to improve the colorization quality and efficiency. • Feature Enhancement Module (FEM) and Attention loss are devised to generate color-aligned reference features by enhancing the feature learning on geometric transformation regions. • Extensive qualitative and quantitative experimental results demonstrate that our model can generate visually appealing colorized frames. [Display omitted] Automatic colorization of anime line art videos aims to produce color frames given line art frames and reference color images, which is challenging due to various motions and geometric transformations across frame sequences. Existing methods usually utilize the feature maps of reference images directly and treat all the regions in an image equally. However, this may overlook the details of the regions undergoing geometric transformations. To emphasize the regions with significant transformations between the reference and target frames, we propose a Transformation Region Enhancement Network (TRE-Net) to exploit useful reference information and enhance the colorization of key transformation regions with Region Localization Module (RLM) and Feature Enhancement Module (FEM). Specifically, we propose Multi-scale Euclidean Distance Difference (Multi-scale EDD) Maps in RLM which effectively locate geometric transformation regions by contrasting the Euclidean Distance Maps of two line arts and aggregating representations at multiple scales of the network. In addition, FEM is devised to enhance feature learning in the regions with geometric transformation and to ensure proper color alignment. FEM learns locally enhanced features through an attention-gating operation at a low computational cost. With the well-represented key geometric transformation regions, our method exploits the multi-scale reference information well for color alignment, thus produces perceptually pleasing frames. Comprehensive experimental results show that our proposed method is superior to existing methods in terms of the overall quality of colorized anime line art videos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Blastocystis hominis (Bh) is zoonotic parasitic pathogen with a high prevalent globally, causing opportunistic infections and diarrhea disease. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection disrupts the immune system by depleting CD4+ T lymphocyte (CD4+ T) cell counts, thereby increasing Bh infection risk among persons living with HIV (PLWH). However, the precise association between Bh infection risk and HIV-related biological markers and treatment processes remains poorly understood. Hence, the purpose of the study was to explore the association between Bh infection risk and CD4+ T cell counts, HIV viral load (VL), and duration of interruption in antiviral therapy among PLWH. Methods: A large-scale multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted in China from June 2020 to December 2022. The genetic presence of Bh in fecal samples was detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction, the CD4+ T cell counts in venous blood was measured using flowcytometry, and the HIV VL in serum was quantified using fluorescence-based instruments. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was applied to assess the non-linear association between Bh infection risk and CD4+ T cell counts, HIV VL, and duration of interruption in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HARRT). Results: A total of 1245 PLWH were enrolled in the study, the average age of PLWH was 43 years [interquartile range (IQR): 33, 52], with 452 (36.3%) being female, 50.4% (n = 628) had no immunosuppression (CD4+ T cell counts > 500 cells/μl), and 78.1% (n = 972) achieved full virological suppression (HIV VL < 50 copies/ml). Approximately 10.5% (n = 131) of PLWH had interruption. The prevalence of Bh was found to be 4.9% [95% confidence interval (CI): 3.8–6.4%] among PLWH. Significant nonlinear associations were observed between the Bh infection risk and CD4+ T cell counts (Pfor nonlinearity < 0.001, L-shaped), HIV VL (Pfor nonlinearity < 0.001, inverted U-shaped), and duration of interruption in HARRT (Pfor nonlinearity < 0.001, inverted U-shaped). Conclusions: The study revealed that VL was a better predictor of Bh infection than CD4+ T cell counts. It is crucial to consider the simultaneous surveillance of HIV VL and CD4+ T cell counts in PLWH in the regions with high level of socioeconomic development. The integrated approach can offer more comprehensive and accurate understanding in the aspects of Bh infection and other opportunistic infections, the efficacy of therapeutic drugs, and the assessment of preventive and control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analytical method has been proposed to estimate the leakage from a water-filling tunnel between two reservoirs, based on Darcy's law and the position of the water table, for a phreatic aquifer. The variable water-fill level in the tunnel and an arbitrary intersection angle between the tunnel and horizontal plane were considered. The reliability of this method was validated by numerical analysis and the measured leakage during two water-filling tests in the Heimifeng Pumped Storage Power Station in China. The calculated leakage can represent both the measured value and numerical result due to the small differences between them. Also, the effect of some parameters on the leakage was analysed. Results indicated that leakage increased with decreasing intersection angle, the increase of hydraulic conductivity of the reinforced concrete lining, and the increase of water-fill level in the tunnel. Other parameters exerted little effect on the leakage. Furthermore, the total leakage was estimated under the simultaneous running of two tunnels. When one tunnel was running, the other tunnel was emptying. The calculated leakage was 4.48-8.85 L/s for both tunnels running, which was about 0.5 L/s less than that with one tunnel running and other tunnel emptying. This revealed that the running tunnel had little effect on the leakage from the other (emptying) tunnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the actual and comprehensive response of rice grain quality to global warming in lower reaches of Yangtze River delta, a 3-year open-field warming experiment was conducted with two japonica rice cultivars using Free-air temperature enhancement (FATE) facility. Ningjing3 and Wuyunjing24 were planted under two temperature regimes (NT: natural temperature; ET: elevated temperature) during grain-filling. FATE facility increased rice canopy temperature by 2.7 °C (daytime 1.5 °C/nighttime 3.9 °C), 2.0 °C (daytime 1.6 °C/nighttime 2.5 °C) and 3.4 °C (daytime 2.0 °C/nighttime 4.9 °C) in 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively. Compared with NT, head rice rate, occurrence of perfect grains, amylose content, setback and consistency were decreased by ET, while occurrence of chalky grains, breakdown, cool paste viscosity, pasting temperature were increased under ET. Response of different chalky types to warming were unstable among cultivars and years. Based on Wu-Gilbert model, we found that the relative activity of starch branching enzyme (SBE) to starch synthase (SS) was decreased by ET, which may contribute to longer average amylopectin chain length. ET increased protein content of rice grain but performed no influence on the relative proportion of amino acids. These results revealed that low-amplitude warming during grain-filling could deteriorate rice milling, appearance and cooking quality, but improved its nutritional quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]