Search

The transitional metal nitride ZrN is known for its exceptional electrical conductivity and ability to display metallic and semiconducting properties by manipulating its stoichiometric ratio. As such, it has garnered significant attention in the realm of microelectronics applications. The MOCVD technique was utilized to grow ZrN films on a Si (111) substrate in this work, and the impact of chamber pressure was analyzed. The growth rate of the ZrN film showed a significant increase as the chamber vacuum rose. The columnar structure with pores appeared in SEM cross-sectional observation, which complies with the SMZ model and can be ascribed to the limited mobility of adsorbed particles. Under 10–20 Torr, a strong preferred orientation of (200) orientation was observed, and the domain matching model was used to explain its lattice-matching relationship with the Si substrate. The ZrN films deposited in our experimental groups demonstrated exceptional conductive properties, with a maximum value of 38 μΩ cm−1. This result highlights the potential of MOCVD-grown ZrN films to serve as conductive layers in Si-based devices. Furthermore, we comprehensively characterized the optical constants of reflectance, refractive index, and extinction coefficient. Analysis reveals that the ZrN film possesses excellent specular reflectivity in the red and near-infrared bands, making it a promising ideal reflective layer for optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical erbium oxide (Er 2 O 3) films were prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering to improve the infrared (IR) transmittance of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond. This study aims to analyze the microstructure, composition and optical properties of Er 2 O 3 anti-reflection films at various oxygen/argon ratios. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis was used to detect the surface morphology of chemical oxidation CVD diamond and Er 2 O 3 films. The surface roughness of Er 2 O 3 films decreased with an increase in the oxygen/argon ratio. The crystalline structure of Er 2 O 3 films was analyzed by using X-ray diffraction. Meanwhile, a gradual decrease was observed when the crystallite size and its strain were calculated. This was due to the transformation of partial phases from monoclinic to cubic structures. The chemical composition of Er 2 O 3 films was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The surface of Er 2 O 3 films underwent a transformation from the unstable structure of nonstoichiometric Er 2 O 3-x to the stable structure of Er 2 O 3 with an increase in the level of oxygen. Defect behavior was determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Specifically, dislocation and twinning were observed at a high oxygen/argon ratio, which was mainly attributed to the competitive growth of polycrystalline Er 2 O 3 films. The optical constants of Ψ and △ were shifted to lower wavelengths with increase oxygen/argon ratio. The maximum transmittance of the Er 2 O 3 /diamond film was 79% in the long-wavelength infrared (LWTR) range of 8–12 μm at an oxygen/argon ratio of 1:35. This value was significantly higher than that of the high oxygen/argon ratio. The present study concludes that a low oxygen/argon ratio promotes the growth and IR transmittance of Er 2 O 3 films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used as flexible and mobile access points and information carriers for the future Internet of Things (IoT). This work studies a quadrotor UAV-assisted IoT network, where the UAV helps to collect sensing data from a group of IoT users. Our goal is to optimize the UAV's overall energy consumption required to complete the sensing task. Firstly, we propose a more accurate and mathematically tractable model to characterize the UAV's real-time energy consumption, which accounts for the UAV's dynamics, brushless direct current (BLDC) motor dynamics and aerodynamics. Then, we can show that the UAV's circular flight based on the proposed energy-consumption model consumes less energy than that of hover flight. Therefore, a fly–circle–communicate (FCC) trajectory design algorithm, adopting Dubins curves for circular flight, is proposed and derived to save energy and increase flight duration. Employing the FCC strategy, the UAV moves to each IoT user and implements a circular flight in the sequence solved by the travelling-salesman-problem (TSP) algorithm. Finally, we evaluate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in a mobile sensing network by comparing the proposed algorithm with the conventional hover-communicate (HC) algorithm in terms of energy consumption. Numerical results show that the FCC algorithm reduces energy consumption by 1–10% compared to the HC algorithm, and also improves the UAV's flight duration and the sensing network's service range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "Intelligent data sharing strategy supported by artificial intelligence and blockchain technology: based on medical data," has been retracted by the Editor-in-Chief and the publisher. The retraction was due to concerns about compromised editorial handling and peer review process, inappropriate references, and the article not being in scope of the journal or guest-edited issue. Chengming Li disagrees with the retraction, while the remaining authors did not respond to correspondence from the publisher. The online version of the article includes the full text of the retracted article as Supplementary Information. [Extracted from the article]

The automatic aggregation of buildings often requires the handling of large volumes of data, which results in high processing overhead. One efficient and feasible way of managing this issue is to partition data using a road network and perform parallel computing. Generally, road networks are used not only to divide buildings into multiple cells but also to provide strong spatial constraints for the geometric morphology and a balanced spatial distribution of building aggregation results. Existing methods have focused on the former at the expense of the latter, which easily leads to spatial conflicts between road networks, and building aggregation results in the multi‐scale representation of buildings. Hence, a multi‐scale partitioning and aggregation method for large volumes of buildings considering the association constraint of the road network is proposed. First, road stroke connections are established, and road levels are calculated on the basis of semantic, geometric, and topological features of road strokes. Second, large volumes of buildings are partitioned level‐by‐level based on multi‐level roads and the convex hull of buildings. Finally, a "three morphological transformation algorithm" is proposed to aggregate buildings in each partitioning cell. OpenStreetMap data (31 × 33 km2) from Tokyo Bay, Japan, were used for validation. The experiment reveals that compared to the state‐of‐the‐art method, the proposed method avoids spatial crossing conflicts and eliminates "narrow necks" in the building aggregation results. The coordination between buildings and the road network was enhanced, and the morphological similarity of the buildings before and after aggregation was improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the negative consequences of climate change have gradually spread to the real economy sector, which affects enterprise output, increases enterprise costs, and thus inhibits the sustainable development of enterprises. Still, it is not clear whether corporate resource misallocation will reinforce the effect. Therefore, using the data of A-share listed companies in 2011–2021, this paper investigates the impact of climate change on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. According to empirical results, climate change significantly inhibits corporate ESG performance. It also found that continuously eliminating internal and external resource misallocation helps alleviate the adverse effects of climate change on ESG performance. Furthermore, compared with enterprises in non-resource-based cities, climate change will significantly improve corporate ESG performance in resource-based cities, indicating that the adaptive behavior caused by climate change has partially broken the resource curse phenomenon. Additionally, mature and large-scale enterprises mitigate the negative effects better, and external pressure from the public environmental and analysts' attention can motivate companies to improve their ESG performance. The research enriches the research on the impact of climate change on corporate ESG performance and provides a reference basis for enterprises to cope with climate risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring dynamic response-based damage identification under wave excitation is important for establishing a health monitoring system. In our previous study, we analyzed the characteristics of the rigid-body dynamic response and successfully employed them to identify the damage location of a pile foundation. Nevertheless, some recent researches show that the local flexural response resulting from wave impact has stronger energy performance. Therefore, this paper constructed a new damage identification method by making full use of energy and phase slope of the local flexural response. Firstly, a novel frequency domain clustering algorithm based on the Sub-peaks Suppression of Power Spectral Density Method (SSPSDM) was proposed to address the challenge of mode mixing in signal decomposition. Subsequently, the new composite energy factors were developed by combining both energy and phase of the local flexural response to enhance the sensitivity and robustness of damage identification. Finally, the method was validated using the acceleration signals from a laboratorial high-piled wharf model. The results show that the method can effectively extract the damage feature sub-signal and the composite energy factor based on phase slope enables better identification of the damage location and degree, enhancing the accuracy of the damage assessment process. • A frequency domain clustering method was proposed to extract different responses. • The Sub-peaks Suppression of Power Spectral Density Method was proposed. • The composite energy factors with better identification effect were proposed. • The effects of decomposition algorithms for damage identification were compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary path recognition is a prerequisite for effective river network generalization. In a river network with a large spatial region, anastomosing rivers refer to those with intertwined river channels. Dense reaches with similar semantic information usually form complex spatial structures, which creates special challenges for accurately delineating the primary path. The recognition of the primary path for anastomosing rivers has not received much attention in the literature. Traditional methods rely on empirical thresholds to determine the basin including the primary path, and do not consider the overall spatial structure features of rivers, which lower the flexibility and accuracy of the primary path recognition. Therefore, this article proposes an automatic recognition method for the primary path of an anastomosing river based on its typical features. First, a directed topology of the river network is constructed to detect the key nodes in forming the anastomosing rivers in the river network, which are the nodes with multiple outflow reaches and are defined as redundant nodes. Second, by considering the flow direction, the effective topological boundary of each redundant node is identified to determine the basin of the anastomosing rivers automatically. Finally, a hierarchical tree is constructed to describe the spatial relationships among redundant nodes and based on the hierarchical tree and other typical features of anastomosing rivers, the optimal connection path between each redundant node and downstream node is calculated to identify the primary path. 1:10,000 topographic river data of the experimental region in Hubei Province, China, were used for validation. The experiment reveals that compared with the state‐of‐the‐art Buttenfield method, the primary path identified by the proposed method is more similar to that obtained manually. The inclination angle difference between the result obtained using the Buttenfield method and the artificial identification result is four times larger than that obtained by the proposed method; moreover, the shape of the primary path detected by the proposed method is more natural and smoother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merging is an important operation in the map generalization of land-cover and other coverages. We define structured geographic objects as collections of adjacent areas with homogeneous semantics that are regularly arranged as spatial structures. Existing studies have concentrated on unstructured objects, which will lead to the structured ones losing part or even most of the typical characteristics during merging. Therefore, as a supplement to the existing mature merging method, a targeted method was proposed in this paper to address the merging problem of structured geographic objects. First, structured geographic objects were classified into four typical patterns, and they were identified automatically according to seven spatial structure parameters. Second, a Miter-type buffer transformation was introduced to extract the overall boundary of structured geographic objects, and areas inside the overall boundary were processed with the most appropriate merging operations for their pattern. Finally, the corresponding merged results of structured geographic objects were inserted back into the merged result of the original land-cover data by using the NOT operation, and the spatial conflicts near the boundary were adjusted. We test our method for a dataset of geographical census data for a city in China. The experimental results revealed that compared with state-of-the-art method, the proposed method produces more reasonable generalization result by effectively identifying and maintaining the typical spatial structures; moreover, the proposed method also preserves the planar tessellation characteristic of land-cover data and the balance of area variation in each land-cover class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the top carbon emitter in the world, a key step taken by China to encourage energy conservation, pollution reduction, and environmentally friendly development is the low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy, which has made important contributions to reducing global emissions. The LCCP policy aims to conserve energy and reduce emissions, inexorably influence many facets of the economic system because it is a well-rounded environmental management strategy. So, has this policy impacted the entrepreneurial activity of the region while achieving green development? Using panel data from China's 279 cities from 2002 to 2019, this article employs the difference-in-differences (DID) model to assess the influence of the LCCP policy on urban entrepreneurial activity. Through the results, the LCCP policy generally inhibits entrepreneurial activity. But the level of green innovation can alleviate this inhibitory effect. Based on the heterogeneity analysis, the LCCP policy exerts a more pronounced inhibitory effect on entrepreneurial activity in central and western regions, resource-based cities, and non-central cities. Further, the LCCP policy inhibits entrepreneurial activity in high-carbon industries while encouraging entrepreneurial activity in emerging industries, resulting in industrial structure change and upgrading. This paper supplies new empirical evidence for the effects of the LCCP policy on entrepreneurial activity and industrial structure change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex junctions are typical microstructures in large‐scale road networks with intricate structures and varied morphologies. It is a challenge to identify junctions in map generalization and car navigation tasks accurately. Generally, traditional recognition methods rely on low‐level characteristics of manual design, such as parallelism and symmetry. In recent years, preliminary studies using deep learning‐based recognition methods were conducted. However, only a few junction types can be recognized by existing methods, and these methods cannot effectively identify junctions with irregular shapes and numerous interference sections. Hence, this article proposes a complex junction recognition method based on the GoogLeNet model. First, the Delaunay triangulation clustering algorithm was used to automatically identify the center point and spatial range of training samples for complex junctions. Second, vector training samples were selected from OpenStreetMap (OSM) data of 39 cities across China, and the samples were then augmented through simplification, rotation, and mirroring. Finally, the vector sample data were transformed into raster images, and the GoogLeNet model was trained to learn the high‐level fuzzy characteristics. Experiments based on OSM data from Tianjin city, China, revealed that compared with state‐of‐the‐art methods, the proposed method effectively identified more types of complex junctions and achieved a significantly higher identification accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed method has strong generalizability and anti‐interference capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The road network is the skeletal element of topographic maps at different scales. In general, urban roads are connected by road segments, thus forming a series of road meshes. Mesh elimination is a key step in evaluating the importance of roads during the road network data management and a prerequisite to the implementation of continuous multiscale spatial representation of road networks. The existing mesh-based method is an advanced road elimination method whereby meshes with the largest density are sequentially selected and road segments with the least importance in each mesh are eliminated. However, the road connectivity and integrity may be destroyed in specific areas by this method because some eliminated road segments could be located in the middle of road strokes. Therefore, this paper proposed an elimination method for isolated meshes in a road network considering stroke edge feature. First, small meshes were identified by using mesh density thresholds, which can be obtained by the sample data statistical algorithm. Thereafter, the small meshes related to the edge segments of road strokes were taken out and defined as stroke edge meshes, and the remaining small meshes were defined as stroke non-edge meshes. Second, by computing the mesh density of all stroke edge meshes, the mesh with the largest density was selected as the starting mesh, and the least important edge segment in the mesh was eliminated. The difference between the existing mesh-based method and the proposed method is that the starting mesh is a stroke edge mesh, not any given small mesh, and the eliminated segment is just only one of edge segments of strokes not chosen from among all segments. Third, mesh elimination was implemented by iteratively processing the stroke edge meshes with the largest mesh density until all of them were eliminated and their mesh density exceeded the threshold. The stroke non-edge meshes were directly preserved. Finally, a 1:10,000 topographic road map of an area in Jiangsu Province of China was used for validation. The experimental results show that for all stroke non-edge meshes and 23% of the stroke edge meshes, compared to the mesh-based method, the road stroke connectivity and integrity of road strokes were better preserved by the proposed method, and the remaining 77% of the elimination results for the stroke edge meshes were the same under the two methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Skeleton line extraction is a key step in the dissolution and collapse operation of small patches in digital map generalization. Most parts of skeleton lines can be extracted well by existing methods, but these methods ignore skeleton line extraction at the local transition areas near the boundary, which is complex and diverse, resulting in topological inconsistency and visual noncontinuity. Our research focuses on this problem and puts forward a pattern recognition and correction method for skeleton lines at small patch boundaries. First, according to the semantic, topological, and distance characteristics of the nodes on the boundaries, the topological inconsistencies of skeleton lines at the boundaries are defined and classified into four patterns. Second, a classification and regression tree (CART) is trained to identify various patterns automatically. Finally, cubic Bezier curves are used to correct different patterns by considering the extension directions of the boundary and the skeleton line as constraints. The proposed method is validated using the National Geographic Census data in Guizhou Province, China. The results demonstrate that the recognition rate of topological inconsistency patterns can reach 100%, the topological relationships at boundaries are preserved, and the corrected skeleton lines are natural and smooth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small‐area patch merging is a common operation in land use data generalization. However, existing research on small‐area patch merging has mainly focused on local compatibility measures, which often lead to area imbalances among land use types from a global perspective. To address the shortcomings of previous studies by resolving local and global concerns simultaneously, this article proposes a merging method that considers both local constraints and the overall area balance. First, a local optimization model that considers three constraints—namely, the areas of neighboring patches, the lengths of shared arcs, and semantic similarity—is established. The areas of small patches are first pre‐allocated. Subsequently, in accordance with an area change threshold for individual land use types, land use types with area changes that exceed this threshold are identified. The patches corresponding to these land use types are subjected to iterative adjustments while considering the overall area balance. Based on their area splitting abilities, the split lines for small‐area patches are determined, and small‐area patches are merged. Finally, actual data from Guangdong Province are used for validation. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is capable of preserving the local compatibility of patches while balancing the overall area associated with each land use type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This network meta-analysis (NMA), based on one phase II and nine phase III studies, involving 6,124 patients with metastatic NSCLC, indirectly compares Atezolizumab + Bevacizumab + chemotherapy (ABC), Atezolizumab + chemotherapy (AC), Pembrolizumab + chemotherapy (PC), Pembrolizumab alone, Bevacizumab + chemotherapy (BC) and chemotherapy alone. Each of these is recommended as front-line interventions, according to the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for advanced NSCLC without EGFR mutation or ALK rearrangement. Studies were identified through PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, Medline, and abstracts found in oncology articles. Primary endpoints, i.e., progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) with corresponding hazard ratios (HR), objective response rates (ORR) and adverse event (AEs) with odds risk (OR) were pooled according to frequentist network meta-analytical techniques. PD-L1 expression thresholds, as well as non-squamous/squamous were used to determine subgroups. Immunotherapy plus chemotherapy appeared superior to Pembrolizumab alone for PD-L1-high (i.e., TPS≥50%) NSCLC patients. BC might also be specifically recommended as an initial first-line treatment for PD-L1-high, non-squamous NSCLC patients, since BC was not inferior to Pembrolizumab alone. PC and ABC might be preferred for NSCLC patients with intermediate PD-L1 (1% ≤PD-L1, TPS<50%) expression. BC can also be tentatively recommended specifically for PD-L1-intermediate, non-squamous NSCLC patients. Combined immunotherapies can all be recommended for PD-L1-negative (i.e., TPS<1%) NSCLC patients, although especially the ABC combination for non-squamous NSCLC patients, which was superior to PC in regards of PFS. However, PC performed comparable to ABC in the whole population and in all subgroup save this one. More predictive biomarkers could be factored into further analyses to help identifying the most effective treatment regimens for specific patient groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repair of terrain cracks is an important process in multi‐resolution three‐dimensional terrain visualization, and rapid and accurate pinpointing of cracks between terrain blocks is of the utmost importance for this process. The existing quadtree‐based crack locating methods are generally slow and inefficient, as they require the traversal of terrain quadtrees to locate terrain cracks. In this research, we propose a fast quadtree‐based terrain crack locating method that accounts for adjacency information. First, terrain quadtrees are constructed that contain information regarding adjacency relationships. Second, dynamic updating is performed for terrain quadtrees and their adjacency information. Finally, terrain cracks are located by using the adjacencies of the quadtree nodes. This proposed method was experimentally validated via the terrain data of a mountainous region in Sichuan Province. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can be used to efficiently and accurately locate terrain cracks with a strong performance in practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automatic selection of railway marshaling lines is an important procedure in the generalization of road network data. The line selection results must be geometrically consistent with the topological features of the external/internal structural and topological connectivity of the railway stations. When current methods are used to process the lines at railway marshaling stations, which exhibit crisscrossing, dense, non‐hierarchical, and complex characteristics, the selected lines tend to be topologically and structurally erroneous. In this article, we propose an automated method for the selection and generalization of complex railway lines that accounts for multiple feature constraints. First, we identify four types of line structures in accordance with the spatial and topological features of railway stations. Then, based on length and spacing thresholds specified for the generalization process, line selection is performed while accounting for constraints regarding structural robustness and topological extensibility. Finally, we report the validation of our method on a dataset relating to Chengdu Railway Station, China. The results indicate that our method successfully preserves the external and internal structural features and connectivity of railway stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess tumor cell proliferation and repopulation during fractionated radiotherapy and investigate the spatial concordance of cell proliferation and repopulation according to the uptake of 3'-[18F]fluoro-3'-deoxythymidine ([18F]FLT).Procedures: Mice bearing A549 xenograft tumors were assigned to five irradiated groups, including 3 fraction (f)/6 days (d), 6f/12d, 9f/18d, 12f/24d, and 18f/36d with 2 Gy/f irradiations performed every other day and one non-irradiated group. Serial [18F]FLT positron emission tomography (PET) scans were performed at different time points as the groups finished the radiotherapy. The maximum of standard uptake values (SUVmax) were measured to confirm the likely time of tumor repopulation. A layer-by-layer comparison between SUVmax of PET images and Ki-67 LI of pathology images, including the thresholds at which maximum overlap occurred between FLT-segmented areas and cell proliferation areas were conducted to evaluate the spatial correlation.Results: The SUVmax decreased in the 3f/6d group (P = 0.000) compared to the non-irradiated group, increased in the 6f/12d group and then gradually reduced with prolonged treatment. Proliferation changes in 6f/12d group on pathology images were also confirmed. Significant correlations were found between the SUVmax and Ki-67 LI in each in vitro tumor of cell proliferation group and accelerated repopulation group (both of the P < 0.001). Furthermore, the mean overlap region rates (ORRs) were 56.21 % and 57.82 % in the proliferation group and repopulation group, respectively. The data represented the preferable registration.Conclusions: [18F]FLT PET is a promising imaging surrogate of tumor proliferative response to fractionated radiotherapy and may help make an adaptive radiation oncology treatment plan to realize radiotherapy dose painting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraction of partition lines for long and narrow patches (LN patches) is an important yet difficult problem in the generalization of thematic data. When current methods are used to process polygons with irregular shapes or complex branch convergence zones, the extracted line structural features tend to be inaccurate and topologically erroneous. In this article, we propose an improved partition lines extraction algorithm of constrained Delaunay triangulation to counter these issues. The proposed method aims to maintain consistency between the extracted line structure characteristics and the actual object structure, especially for complex branch convergence zones. First, we describe three types of aggregation patterns (Type A, B, and C aggregation zones) that occur in partition line extractions for LN patches of complex branch convergence zones using Delaunay triangulation. Then, a partition line extraction algorithm that accounts for the direction between the edges of triangles and the distance of nodes in aggregation zones is proposed. Finally, we test our method for a dataset relating to Guizhou Province, China. Compared with the current method that uses quantitative indicators and visualization, the results indicate that our method not only has applicability for simple situations but also is superior for preserving structural features of complex branch convergence zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dendritic river networks are fundamental elements in cartography, and the generalization of these river networks directly influences the quality of cartographic generalization. Automatic selection is a difficult and important process for river generalization that requires the consideration of semantic, geometric, topological, and structural characteristics. However, owing to a lack of effective use of river features, most existing methods lose important spatial distribution characteristics of rivers, thus affecting the selection result. Therefore, a hierarchical elimination selection method of dendritic river networks is proposed that consists of three steps. First, a directed topology tree (DTT) is investigated to realize the organization of river data and the intelligent identification of river structures. Second, based on the “180° hypothesis” and “acute angle hypothesis”, each river is traced in the upstream direction from its estuary to create the stroke connections of dendritic river networks based on a consideration of the river semantics, length, and angle features, and the hierarchical relationships of a dendritic river network are then determined. Finally, by determining the total number of selected rivers, a hierarchical elimination algorithm that accounts for density differences is proposed. The reliability of the proposed method was verified using sample data tests, and the rationality and validity of the method were demonstrated in experiments using actual data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The Tan-Lu Fault formed by coalescence of two kinematically independent segments. • The northern and southern Tan-Lu faults exhibit contrasting displacement profiles. • The northern and southern Tan-Lu faults propagated in opposite directions. • Southward indentation of the Siberian craton initiated the northern Tan-Lu Fault. • The northern and southern Tan-Lu faults linked in the early Late Jurassic. The Tan-Lu fault zone (TLF) is a major strike-slip fault with a long and complex history in East Asia, whose evolution provides a new perspective on the formation of large-scale faults (>1000 km long). Fault displacement analysis, geological mapping and U-Pb LA-ICP-MS dating have been performed to understand the evolution of the TLF. Along-strike displacement variation reveals that the TLF consists of two kinematically independent segments, the northern and southern TLF, with opposite long-term propagation directions. Structural and geochronological studies in the eastern Yanshan belt, located around the linkage area of the southern and northern TLF, indicate that NNE-trending sinistral strike-slip faults initiated at 167–164 Ma and were reactivated at 124–121 Ma. Structural analysis suggests that these early NNE-trending strike-slip faults transferred sinistral motion along the northern TLF into southward thrusting along the Yanshan belt, representing the Middle Jurassic southern termination of the northern TLF. Our studies suggest that the through-going TLF formed when the younger southward-propagating northern TLF merged with the older northward-propagating southern TLF in the Late Jurassic. A new model is thus proposed for the Mesozoic evolution of the TLF. The initiation and southward propagation of the northern TLF is interpreted to have resulted from the southward indentation of the Siberian craton into the amalgamated Central Asian Orogenic Belt and North China block. The divergent mega-splays of the northern TLF likely resulted from westward-younging formation during the clockwise rotation of northeast Asia. Coalescence of two genetically unrelated faults could be an alternative mode for large-scale fault formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metal contaminated soils pose a serious threat to the environment, and preparing ceramsite using contaminated soils was proposed as an effective method to address this threat in this study. Specifically, two typical soils (i.e., contaminated clay and sandy soil) were mixed with different ratios and calcined at temperature 1000–1200 °C to prepare ceramsite. Special attentions were paid to evaluating the immobilization of heavy metals in ceramsite and identifying the corresponding immobilization mechanisms. Using the leachability of heavy metals from ceramsite as evaluation criteria, the optimum mixing ratio of clay/sandy soil and sintering temperature were determined as 0.6:0.4 and 1200 °C. Moreover, based on the spectroscopic characterizations and thermodynamic calculation, high sintering temperature well facilitated the liquid phases formation, promoting the reactions between heavy metals and aluminosilicates and the valence state conversion of heavy metals. Accordingly, heavy metals were well immobilized in ceramsite by forming thermodynamically stable minerals, being encapsulated in solid matrix, and transforming to valence states with low mobility. The leaching conditions including pH and temperature had minimal effect on the immobilization of heavy metals in ceramsite. In summary, ceramsite prepared by contaminated soils was environmentally friendly and had good potential in engineering application as building materials. [Display omitted] • Co-utilization of polluted clay and sandy soil for ceramsite production is presented. • The optimum ratio of clay/sandy soil and sintering temperature are 0.6:0.4 and 1200 °C. • The immobilization effectiveness of heavy metals in ceramsite is evaluated. • The immobilization mechanism of heavy metals in ceramsite is determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Y 2 O 3 films with different microstructures were deposited through radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The optical properties and the antireflection effects of the cubic and the monoclinic Y 2 O 3 films on diamond substrates were investigated. Results showed that the cubic Y 2 O 3 film had denser and more uniform grains with larger grain size. The band gap energies of the cubic and the monoclinic Y 2 O 3 films were 5.79 and 5.88 eV, respectively. This finding was mainly attributed to the decrease in grain size from 30.1 nm to 20.6 nm. Meanwhile, the reflective indices of the cubic and the monoclinic films were 1.887 and 1.817, respectively. Furthermore, the monoclinic and the cubic Y 2 O 3 films that have the same thickness generated antireflection effects on diamond at the 8–12 μm long-wave infrared (LWIR) range. However, due to the lower reflective index of the monoclinic Y 2 O 3 film compared with that of the cubic Y 2 O 3 film, the maximum antireflection effects of the Y 2 O 3 films on diamond shifted to lower wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective labelling and high-fidelity tracking of intracellular lipid droplets (LDs) can provide direct insight into pathological processes associated with abnormal lipid metabolism and therefore are of great value. We herein present a novel imidazole-based probe, TITM , which shows the aggregation-induced emission property and a remarkable fluorescence increase in sunflower oil than in water. With the advantages of good lipophilicity, biocompatibility, and LDs-targeted specificity, TITM allows the real-time and long-term tracking of dynamic LDs in living cells with high-resolution imaging performance. By establishment of LDs-related atherosclerosis (AS) and fatty liver mouse model, the imaging performance of TITM at pathological tissue level is well studied to show impressive selectivity and resolution. [Display omitted] • An imidazole-based probe is disclosed to show a remarkable fluorescence increase in sunflower oil than in water. • The probe allows real-time and long-term tracking of lipid droplets in living cells with high-resolution imaging. • The fluorescence probe shows good biocompatibility and photostability. • The probe can visualize abnormal lipid droplets accumulation in mouse atherosclerotic plaques and fatty liver tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The addition of titanium (Ti) interlayer was verified to reduce the residual stress of diamond films by self-fracturing and facilitate the harvest of a crack-free free-standing diamond film prepared by direct current (DC) arc plasma jet. In this study, the evolution of the Ti interlayer between large-area diamond film and substrate was studied and modeled in detail. The evolution of the interlayer was found to be relevant to the distribution of the DC arc plasma, which can be divided into three areas (arc center, arc main, and arc edge). The formation rate of titanium carbide (TiC) in the arc main was faster than in the other two areas and resulted in the preferred generation of crack in the diamond film in the arc main during cooling. Sandwich structures were formed along with the growth of TiC until the complete transformation of the Ti interlayer. The interlayer released stress via self-fracture. Avoiding uneven fragile regions that formed locally in the interlayer and achieving cooperatively released stress are crucial for the preparation of large crack-free diamond films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The g-C 3 N 4 has been modified by a hydrothermal post treatment with orthoboric acid. It is shown that the surface modification with an appropriate amount of orthoboric acid obviously enhances the surface photovoltage responses of g-C 3 N 4 , clearly indicating that the separation of photogenerated charges is greatly improved. This is well responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic activities for degrading representative gas-phase acetaldehyde, and liquid-phase phenol. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the amount of O 2 adsorbed on the surfaces of g-C 3 N 4 is greatly increased after H 3 BO 3 modification based on the O 2 temperature-programmed desorption curves. It is suggested that the orthoboric acid modification favors O 2 adsorption to promote the photogenerated electrons captured for improved photocatalytic activities. This work would provide feasible routes to further improve the photocatalytic performance of semiconductors for degrading pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have synthesized different mass ratios of effectively-contacted TiO 2 /bulk g-C 3 N 4 composites (T/CN) by a wet chemical method, and evaluated their photocatalytic activities for degrading acetaldehyde and producing H 2 . It is clearly demonstrated by means of surface photovoltage responses and photoluminescence spectra that the photogenerated charge carriers in the T/CN nanocomposites with a proper mass ratio of T display much higher separation in comparison to CN alone. This is well responsible for the enhanced photocatalytic activities of CN after coupling with nanocrystalline anatase TiO 2 . Interestingly, it is also applicable to the resulting CN nanosheet (about 3 nm) with higher photoactivity than the bulk one. As a result, the TiO 2 /CN-nanosheet composites as efficient photocatalysts have been successfully developed. Moreover, it is confirmed that the enhanced photoactivity for resulting nanocomposites are attributed to the promoted charge transfer and separation from CN to TiO 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fish scale derived hierarchical porous carbon has been studied as an inhibitor to capture the polysulfides for lithium-sulfur battery by ex situ ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy and SEM analysis. The results showed that the capacity retention of the cathode with porous carbon as additive increased from 44% to 59% after 50 cycles at 0.1 C compared with the common cathode. Attracted on the excellent performance of cathode with porous carbon, the asymmetry electrode was fabricated by coating a porous layer on the cathode to trap the polysulfides produced during the discharge-charge process further. The initial discharge specific capacity is 1426 mAhg −1 with a capacity retention of 81% after 50 cycles at 1 C, and retains a reversible capacity of 990 mAhg −1 after 100 cycles with coulombic efficiency above 98%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collapse is a basic generalization operation in land-use data multi-scale representation. It is a compute-intensive operation and involves complex topological transformations. A feasible way to improve the computation efficiency is to adopt a parallel strategy, which means that the collapse of a large spatial range of long and narrow (LN) patches via a partitioning-based approach. However, many topological inconsistencies occur around the partition-cell boundaries. Hence, we propose a partitioned collapse method for LN patches and focus on the reconstruction problem of topological inconsistencies. First, topological inconsistencies were classified into four patterns based on their morphological characteristics. Second, for each of these patterns, a corresponding algorithm was formulated to reconcile the topological inconsistencies. Finally, our approach was validated using the national geographical condition data of Chishui City, Guizhou Province. The experiment results show that our method generates smooth split lines from land-use patches by effectively eliminating topology inconsistency patterns near the partition-cell boundary lines and is 8.7 times more efficient than the traditional unpartitioned method within a city region. • Partition methodology of collapse operation for long and narrow patches generalization. • Topology consistency maintenance during partitioned collapse operation. • Reliability and efficiency analysis by comparing with an un-partitioned collapse method with a small-area data. • Efficiency and superiority verification by statistical analysis with a large-area data. • No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis of hollow nanostructures has attracted great attention in nanotechnology. As compared to the long hollow structures, the short counterparts could serve other compelling applications, and have become a hotspot in the field of nanomedicine. In the present work, a novel brand graphite-based nanostructure with a special cup-shaped feature was synthesized via the pyrolysis of a solid carbon source of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). These nanocups are typically characterized with open ends, tapered hollow cavities and slowly convergent roots, which are free standing on the graphene films with very low length/diameter aspect ratios as compared to conventional carbon nanotubes. The growth mechanism of these cups was proposed. It is promising that the present graphite nanocups could have potential applications in drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yellow River Delta in China is the most active one for sea–land changes over all deltas worldwide, and its coastline evolution is critical to urban planning and environmental sustainability in coastal areas. Existing studies rarely used yearly temporal resolution, and lack more detailed and quantitative analysis of coastline evolution characteristics. This paper used visual interpretation to extract the coastline of the Yellow River Delta in year interval Landsat images for 45 years from 1976 to 2020, and analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of the coastline evolution through statistical methods such as calculating change values and change rate. The main results are as follows: (1) overall, the coastline of the Yellow River Delta presented a spatial pattern involving northern landward retreat and southern seaward expansion. Since 1990, the Yellow River Delta has entered a period of decline. In addition, the length of the artificial coastline increased by about 55 km; (2) in the Qingshuigou region, the land area and the coastline length increased first and then stabilized. The southeastern part of the Qingshuigou was in a state of erosion, while the northeastern part was expanding toward the sea along the north direction; (3) in the Diaokou region, the land area has been decreasing, but the reduction rate has gradually slowed down. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) through the research on the evolution model and mechanism of the coastline of the Yellow River Delta, it was found that human factors and natural factors were the two major driving factors that affect the evolution of the coastline; (2) a river branch appeared in the northern part of the Qingshuigou region in 2014 and became a major branch in 2020, which would affect the development of the coastal region of Chengdao. This study is important for better understanding the evolution pattern of the Yellow River Delta coastline and will help to provide guidance for coastline management and resource exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesozoic contraction deformation in the Yanshan and Taihang mountains is characterized by basement-involved thrust tectonics, basement-cored buckling anticlines and ductile thrust and nappe tectonics. Most of these deformations are orientated west-east, west-northwest and northeast to north-northeast. The contraction deformations began in the Permian, continued through the Triassic and Jurassic and terminated in the Early Cretaceous, and constitute an important part of the destruction of the North China Craton. It is estimated, from balanced cross-section reconstructions, that the north-south shortening of the central part of the Yanshan belt before 135 Ma was around 38%. The initial crust thickness, pre-dating the major contraction deformation in late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, was estimated to be around 35 km based on paleogeographic characteristics. Assuming that the inferred depth of ductile thrusting deformation, 20-25 km, was the crust thickness involved in the contraction deformation, and also assuming that the N-S contraction deformation was accommodated by vertical crust thickening, the thickness of the crust after the contraction deformation was expected to be around 47-50 km. This was the approximate crust thickness required for the eclogitization of the lower crust for delamination. The gravity potential accumulated by the isostatic uplift of the thickened crust, together with the decrease in crustal strength caused by the coeval magmatisms associated with the contraction deformation, led to the subsequent extensional collapse of the middle and upper crust although the regional stress regime associated with the plate interactions remained constant. It is inferred that the Mesozoic contraction deformations in the Yanshan and Taihang mountains were not only a significant tectonic process contributing to the destruction of the craton in middle and upper crust but also stimulated delamination at a deep level and the extension of the shallow crust. In other words, both the suspected delamination of the lower crust and upper mantle and the well constrained extension deformations of the shallow crust in the eastern North China Craton during the late Mesozoic are a consequence of crust thickening due to previous contractions. Extensional deformations could be expected to occur independently in the shallow crust, and are not necessarily associated with or responding to delamination at a deep level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The plasma treatment of rapid heating was introduced for increasing fracture strength of free-standing diamond films. The effects of plasma high temperature annealing treatment on surface morphology, internal stress, vacancy defects, impurities and fracture strength of free-standing diamond films were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman, positron annihilation technique (PAT) and mechanical property testing. It showed that the fracture strength of the diamond films increases up to 70% for lower fracture diamond films with treating temperature (1500–1600°C). The graphitization in surface and interior of diamond films would be produced by high temperature treatment more than 1700°C. Fracture strengths of diamond films could be enhanced after high temperature treatment and the main factor of that was compressive stress state in diamond films induced by graphitization. The impurity of N was segregated and integrated with vacancy cluster to become [N–V]0 and [N–V]−. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Highly c-axis oriented ZnO film is often deposited on diamond substrates by RF magnetron sputtering and widely used for high frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Deposition temperature is a key factor affecting the quality of the ZnO film. Different quality polished free-standing diamond films prepared by DC Arc Plasma Jet were used as the substrates to deposit ZnO films at different temperatures. Effect of the deposition temperature and the quality of the diamond films on the properties of the ZnO films were investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that highly c-axis oriented ZnO films can be much easier deposited on the optical-grade diamond films with <111> preferred orientation than the tool-grade diamond films with <220> preferred orientation. The optimal deposition temperature is 200°C for highly c-axis oriented and lower roughness ZnO films. Acoustic phase velocity of more than 10,000m/s for the SAW devices based on the ZnO/optical-grade free-standing diamond films was obtained. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A destroyable Ti interlayer on graphite substrate was used for fabrication of crack-free free-standing diamond films by high-power DC Arc Plasma Jet. Ti interlayer was arc ion plated on the polycrystalline graphite substrate. The thickness, morphology and composite phase of the Ti interlayer were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Titanium carbide (TiC) was detected in both sides of the interlayer, which played an important role with respect to reasonable adhesion and diamond nucleation. Semi-translucent and crack-free diamond films were obtained and characterized by SEM and Raman spectroscopy. It is shown that the diamond films so obtained have excellent Raman signature. The overall results suggest that plating Ti interlayer on graphite substrate is an effective way to obtain potentially crack-free free-standing diamond films. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cobalt or cobalt containing coatings are promising for SOFC interconnect applications because of their high conductivity. We have investigated SmCo and SmCoN coatings deposited by magnetron sputtering from a SmCo (5% Sm) target on to Crofer 22APU substrates. The composition, structure, surface morphology, and electrical conductivity of the coated substrates were characterized by SEM/EDX, XRD and ASR measurements. Addition of Sm enhances the oxidation resistance and the Cr retention capability of the coatings. The use of nitride as a precursor stabilizes Sm during oxidation of the films, thus inhibiting diffusion of Fe, resulting in a more compact coating and lowering ASR. The combined advantages of Sm addition to cobalt and the use of a nitride as a precursor, makes SmCoN coatings a promising new interconnect coating material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Chemical vapor deposited diamond thick films for electronic and optical applications must be released without cracks from substrates as freestanding wafers. In the present investigation, the residual stress distribution of diamond thin films deposited by DC arc jet plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at gas recycling mode was analyzed based on wave number shifts in their Raman spectra. The results show that residual compressive stress concentrates at the film''s edge, and this residual stress increases with the increase in deposition temperature. Experimental observation also showed that cracks initiated at the edge of the diamond thick wafer and then propagated towards the center. Effects of the residual stress distribution on diamond thick films detachment were discussed. To release the residual stress, sandwich structure was designed and the metal interlayer was inserted between the diamond films and the substrate. Thick freestanding diamond films (more than 1 mm thick, 60 mm in diameter) were produced by DC arc jet plasma CVD process using Mo substrate with Ti interlayer. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A variable temperature ATR–FTIR study of the gelation behaviour of a thermo-responsive ABA triblock copolymer (A=poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and B=poly[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine]) is reported. Close inspection of selected copolymer and water bands in the temperature resolved spectra provides evidence for the dehydration of the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) chains above a critical gelation temperature of approximately 37°C, while the central poly[2-(methacryoyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine]) chains remain hydrated. A blue shift in the amide I peak and a red shift in the amide II band indicate a reduction in the hydrogen bonding between the PNIPAM amide functional group and the solvent water. This is corroborated by a decrease in the intensity of the amide I peak above the gel point. Evidence of hydrophobic interactions and an indication of the source of the gelation mechanism were observed in the form of a red shift in the antisymmetric CH vibration with increasing temperature. These findings are consistent with the formation of a micellar gel network by the copolymer chains. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: By controlling the pretreatment processes and deposition parameters on silicon substrates, diamond thin films with different surface roughness and sp2/sp3 ratio were used as an interlayer for subsequent c-BN (cubic boron nitride) thin film deposition studies. The diamond interlayers were prepared by microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD), while the c-BN top layers were prepared by unbalanced magnetron sputtering physical vapor deposition. The substrate curvature changes before and after the c-BN deposition were measured to better understand the relationship between film stress and adhesion to the diamond. In the range of our experimental parameters, results showed that a rougher surface and higher ratio of sp2/sp3 in the diamond layer improves the adhesive strength of the c-BN layer. An optimized layer structure of Si/diamond/BN is established. Grading of the diamond layer is expected to be helpful for adhesion enhancement of c-BN thin films on diamond interlayers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The properties and processes of cathode arc plasma carburizing were studied in this paper. Graphite with high purity and high strength was selected as the cathode arc source to provide carbon atoms. The carbon steel AISI 1010 was used as the substrate. A surface concentration of 1.05 wt.%C and a carburised layer thickness of 780 μm was obtained at 950 °C in 30 min. The diffusion coefficient of carbon atoms in carburizing layer was estimated by using the Matano-Plane method. The exponential relationship of diffusion coefficient and the distance to surface are determined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Models of spatial relations are a key component of geographical information science (GIS). Efforts have been made to formally define spatial relations. The foundation model for such a formal presentation is the 4-intersection model proposed by Egenhofer and Franzosa (1991). In this model, the topological relations between two simple spatial entities A and B are transformed into pointset topology problems in terms of the intersections of A's interior and boundary with B's interior and boundary. Later, Egenhofer and Herring (1991) extended this model to 9-intersection by addition of another element, i.e. the exterior of an entity, which is then defined as its complement. However, the use of its complement as the exterior of an entity causes the linear dependency between its interior, boundary and exterior. Thus such an extension from 4- to 9-intersection should be of no help in terms of the number of relations. This can be confirmed by the discovery of Egenhofer et al. (1993). The distinction of additional relations in the case where the co-dimension is not zero is purely due to the adoption of definitions of the interior, boundary and exterior of entities in a lower dimensional to a higher dimension of space, e.g. lines in 1-dimensional space to 2-dimensional space. With such adoption, the topological convention that the boundary of a spatial entity separates its interior from its exterior is violated. It is such a change of conventional topological properties that causes the linear dependency between these three elements of a spatial entity (i.e. the interior, boundary and exterior) to disappear, thus making the distinction of additional relations possible in such a case (i.e. the co-dimension is not zero). It has been discussed that the use of Voronoi-regions of an entity to replace its complement as its exterior in the 9-intersection model would solve the problem (i.e. violation of topological convention) or would make this model become more comprehensive. Therefore, a Voronoi-based 9-intersection model is proposed. In addition to the improvement in the theoretical aspect, the Voronoi-based 9-intersection model (V9I) can also distinguish additional relations which are beyond topological relations, such as high-resolution disjoint relations and relations of complex spatial entities. However, high-resolution disjoint relations defined by this model are not purely topological. In fact, it is a mixture of topology and metric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lipid droplets (LDs) targeted fluorescence probe have been believed to be an effective tool for diagnosis and therapy of some tumors with abnormal lipid metabolism, while there are very few probes with simultaneous high efficiency in LDs imaging and inhibiting tumor proliferation. Herein we present a biheteroaryl-bridged fluorescence probe with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristic, which show dual functions of LDs-specific bioimaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT) based on human clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) tumor cells and clinical samples, both rich in LDs. The highly LDs-specific targeting capability, good biocompatibility, excellent photostability and imaging resolution of the AIE probe in ccRCC tumor cells make it considerably attractive to commercially available LDs-specific dyes. Notably, the fluorescence imaging in fresh human ccRCC tumor tissues further proves its outstanding LDs-targeting specificity and demonstrates its power as a bio-probe for clinical diagnosis in vitro and in vivo. Confirmatory experiments suggest a superior PDT efficacy of the AIE probe in ccRCC tumor cells in comparison to those LDs-poor tumor cells and normal cells without LDs. Mechanism studies further reveal the presented AIE probe enables to induce the DNA damage and cell apoptosis by reactive oxygen species generation, resulting in desirable therapeutic efficiency for clinical ccRCC tumor cells upon visible light irradiation. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zirconium nitride (ZrN) is a candidate for contact metal and diffusion barrier in ohmic contacts for GaN-based devices due to its superior electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance. This paper reported ZrN films deposited on GaN/Si templates using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and analyzed the effect of substrate temperature (T s) on its growth mode, film stress, as well as electrical properties. Firstly, the surface morphology and film roughness of the resultant ZrN epilayers were investigated, which were found to vary dramatically with T s. Then, a temperature-dominated crystal formation process was reasonably proposed, revealing the transfer from the island to layer growth mode and the augmentation of the growth rate of ZrN with elevated T s. Stress information was obtained from the position of XRD diffraction peaks, indicating large in-plane lattice stretching in ZrN film and the presence of compressive stress in the GaN/Si template. The stress states can be related to island merger and thermal mismatch between ZrN and GaN, which proved satisfyingly advantageous in preventing the GaN layer from cracking during the subsequent preparation procedure. In addition, XPS surface and interface investigations were performed to identify the chemical state and the atomic content of the ZrN film, which also implied a relatively clear interface between the ZrN epilayer and GaN/Si template. Furthermore, Hall tests proved the resistivity of ZrN thin film can reach a minimum of 2.28 Ă— 10âˆ'4 Ω cm, owing to the grain boundary chaining and flat film surface at high temperatures. Overall, it appears to have promising prospects for its application in the contact layer and diffusion barrier of ohmic contact in GaN-based devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the incidence of depression is rising rapidly worldwide, but large-scale depression screening is still challenging. Gait analysis provides a non-contact, low-cost, and efficient early screening method for depression. However, the early screening of depression based on gait analysis lacks sufficient effective sample data. In this paper, we propose a skeleton data augmentation method for assessing the risk of depression. First, we propose five techniques to augment skeleton data and apply them to depression and emotion datasets. Then, we divide augmentation methods into two types (non-noise augmentation and noise augmentation) based on the mutual information and the classification accuracy. Finally, we explore which augmentation strategies can capture the characteristics of human skeleton data more effectively. Experimental results show that the augmented training dataset that retains more of the raw skeleton data properties determines the performance of the detection model. Specifically, rotation augmentation and channel mask augmentation make the depression detection accuracy reach 92.15% and 91.34%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To elucidate the potential benefits of combining radiotherapy and epidermal growth factor receptor‐tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR‐TKIs) for individuals with Stage IV lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) harboring either exon 19 deletion (19‐Del) or exon 21 L858R mutation (21‐L858R). Methods: In this real‐world retrospective study, 177 individuals with Stage IV LUAD who underwent EGFR‐TKIs and radiotherapy at Shandong Cancer Hospital from June 2012 to August 2017 were included. The main focus of this real‐world study was overall survival (OS). Results: The clinical characteristics of patients with Stage IV LUAD harboring 19‐Del were similar to those harboring 21‐L858R (p > 0.05). Overall, the patients had a median OS (mOS) of 32.0 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 28.6–35.5). Subsequently, multivariate analysis indicated that both EGFR mutations and thoracic radiotherapy were independent predictors of OS (p = 0.001 and 0.013). Furthermore, subgroup analysis highlighted a longer OS for the 19‐Del group compared to the 21‐L858R group, especially when EGFR‐TKIs were combined with bone metastasis or thoracic radiotherapy (mOS: 34.7 vs. 25.1 months and 51.0 vs. 29.6 months; p = 0.0056 and 0.0013, respectively). However, no significant differences were found in OS when considering patients who underwent brain metastasis radiotherapy (mOS: 34.7 vs. 25.1 months; p = 0.088). Conclusions: Patients with Stage IV LUAD harboring 19‐Del experience a notably prolonged OS following combined therapy with EGFR‐TKIs and radiotherapy, while this OS benefit is observed despite the absence of substantial differences in the clinical characteristics between the 19‐Del and 21‐L858R groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is a major problem facing humanity throughout the world. The rapid and accurate tracking of population flows may therefore be epidemiologically informative. This paper adopts a massive amount of daily population flow data (from January 10 to March 15, 2020) for China obtained from the Baidu Migration platform to analyze the changes of the spatiotemporal patterns and network characteristics in population flow during the pre-outbreak period, outbreak period, and post-peak period. The results show that (1) for temporal characteristics of population flow, the total population flow varies greatly between the three periods, with an overall trend of the pre-outbreak period flow > the post-peak period flow > the outbreak period flow. Impacted by the lockdown measures, the population flow in various provinces plunged drastically and remained low until the post-peak period, at which time it gradually increased. (2) For the spatial pattern, the pattern of population flow is divided by the geographic demarcation line known as the Hu (Heihe-Tengchong) Line, with a high-density interconnected network in the southeast half and a low-density serial-connection network in the northwest half. During the outbreak period, Wuhan city appeared as a hollow region in the population flow network; during the post-peak period, the population flow increased gradually, but it was mainly focused on intra-provincial flow. (3) For the network characteristic changes, during the outbreak period, the gap in the network status between cities at different administrative levels narrowed significantly. Thus, the feasibility of Baidu migration data, comparison with non-epidemic periods, and optimal implications are discussed. This paper mainly described the difference and specific information under non-normal situation compared with existing results under a normal situation, and analyzed the impact mechanism, which can provide a reference for local governments to make policy recommendations for economic recovery in the future under the epidemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Pre/post/delta-NLR, and pre-ALC were correlated with STO in ESCC patients who received RT or CRT. • The NLR especially pre-NLR had a better predictive value than ALC, PLR and LMR. • The c-index of the nomogram established by combining all independent predictors for short-term outcome was 0.770. We initially aimed to investigate pre / post-treatment inflammatory biomarkers (pre / post-IBs) and their dynamic changes (delta-IBs) on the short-term outcome (STO) of radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Furthermore, a nomogram was built to provide an accurate prediction of STO. The STO using the treatment response evaluation was assessed according to RECIST 1.1 at 1 month after radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. The IBs (absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC), neutrophil / lymphocyte (NLR), platelet / lymphocyte (PLR), and lymphocyte / monocyte (LMR)) and clinical variables were collected and analyzed from 398 ESCC patients at Shandong Cancer Hospital between 2015 and 2019. The nomogram was then established for predicting STO. Pre-ALC and pre-LMR significantly increased, pre-NLR and pre-PLR significantly decreased during radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy (all P < 0.001). Meanwhile, there was a positive correlation between delta-NLR as well as delta-PLR (r = 0.621) and delta-LMR (r = 0.613), whereas a negatively correlated between delta-LMR and delta-PLR (r = −0.573). Multivariate analysis indicated that gender [OR, 0.473; 95%CI, 0.274–0.816; P = 0.007], pre-ALC [OR, 0.554; 95%CI, 0.335–0.915; P = 0.021], pre-NLR [OR, 3.176; 95%CI, 1.733–5.823; P < 0.001], post-NLR [OR, 2.418; 95%CI, 1.271–4.600; P = 0.007] and delta-NLR [OR, 1.929; 95%CI, 1.035–3.595; P = 0.039] were statistically significant with STO. And c-index of the nomogram established by combining all independent predictors for STO was 0.770 [95%CI, 0.719–0.820]. Pre-NLR, pre-ALC, post-NLR, and delta-NLR were significant with STO in ESCC patients treated with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Further, pre-NLR had the best predictive value, and the developed nomogram with superior prediction ability for STO could assist in patients counseling and guide to make individual treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the arrival of the big data era, mobile phone data have attracted increasing attention due to their rich information and high sampling rate. Currently, researchers have conducted various studies using mobile phone data. However, most existing studies have focused on macroscopic analysis, such as urban hot spot detection and crowd behavior analysis over a short period. With the development of the smart city, personal service and management have become very important, so microscopic portraiture research and mobility pattern of an individual based on big data is necessary. Therefore, this paper first proposes a method to depict the individual mobility pattern, and based on the long-term mobile phone data (from 2007 to 2012) of volunteers from Beijing as part of project Geolife conducted by Microsoft Research Asia, more detailed individual portrait depiction analysis is performed. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Based on high-density cluster identification, the behavior trajectories of volunteers are generalized into three types, and among them, the two-point-one-line trajectory and evenly distributed behavior trajectory were more prevalent in Beijing. (2) By integrating with Google Maps data, five volunteers' behavior trajectories and the activity patterns of individuals were analyzed in detail, and a portrait depiction method for individual characteristics comprehensively considering their attributes, such as occupation and hobbies, is proposed. (3) Based on analysis of the individual characteristics of some volunteers, it is discovered that two-point-one-line individuals are generally white-collar workers working in enterprises or institutions, and the situation of a single cluster mainly exists among college students and home freelancer. The findings of this study are important for individual classification and prediction in the big data era and can also provide useful guidance for targeted services and individualized management of smart cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]