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Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) contributes to interstitial lung disease (ILD) and pulmonary fibrosis (PF), thus representing a potential therapeutic target for PF. In this study, we first verified the increased expression of IL-1β in human fibrotic lung specimens and mouse lung tissues after intratracheal (i.t.) instillation of bleomycin (BLM), after which the pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic effects of recombinant IL-1β were tested in mice. The results above suggested that vaccination against IL-1β could be an effective strategy for managing PF. An anti-IL-1β vaccine (PfTrx-IL-1β) was designed by incorporating two IL-1β-derived polypeptides, which have been verified as the key domains that mediate the binding of IL-1β to its type I receptor, into Pyrococcus furiosus thioredoxin (PfTrx). The fusion protein PfTrx-IL-1β was prepared by using E. coli expression system. The vaccine was well tolerated; it induced robust and long-lasting antibody responses in mice and neutralized the biological activity of IL-1β, as shown in cellular assays. Pre-immunization with PfTrx-IL-1β effectively protected mice from BLM-induced lung injury, inflammation, and fibrosis. In vitro experiments further showed that anti-PfTrx-IL-1β antibodies counteracted the effects of IL-1β concerning pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic cytokine production by primary mouse lung fibroblast, macrophages (RAW264.7), and type II alveolar epithelial cell (A549), primary mouse lung fibroblast activation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of alveolar epithelial cells. In addition, the vaccination did not compromise the anti-infection immunity in mice, as validated by a sepsis model. Our preliminary study suggests that the anti-IL-1β vaccine we prepared has the potential to be developed as a therapeutic measure for PF. Further experiments are warranted to evaluate whether IL-1β vaccination has the capacity of inhibiting chronic progressive PF and reversing established PF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In0.17Al0.83N/GaN high‐electron‐mobility transistor (HEMT) using GaN‐on‐Insulator (GaNOI) technology via 200 mm wafer bonding technique is developed with good DC and RF performance and high fT/fmax. Measurements obtained from X‐Ray diffraction and micro‐Raman spectroscopy have demonstrated a 5% reduction in “a lattice strain,” which results in the improvement of the sheet resistance (Rsh) from 301 to 284 Ω □−1. A 120 nm gate‐length device achieves a peak fT up to 96 GHz which yields a fT × Lg value of 11.5 GHz μm, which compares favorably with reported GaN‐based HEMTs on Si. These results demonstrate that GaNOI HEMT on Si is an attractive candidate for future mm‐wave applications. The implementation of GaNOI technology facilitates the integration of GaN devices into a chip alongside complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology that opens up the potential for integrated high‐power and RF applications, enabling more compact and efficient systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate modeling of facial hair is crucial not only for reconstructing a clean-shaven face but also for enhancing realism when creating digital human avatars. Previous methods have primarily focused on reconstructing sparse facial hairs from static scans, and more recently, efforts have been made to track facial performances. However, there is still room for improvement in reconstructing thick hairs. In this paper, we address the challenges of facial hair reconstruction and tracking, enhancing the realism and detail of facial hair in digital human avatars. For facial hair reconstruction, we propose a method that combines line-based multi-view stereo with line segment matching to recover a dense hair point cloud. From this point cloud, hair strands are extracted using the forward Euler method. For tracking, we introduce a space-time optimization method that registers the reference facial hair strands to subsequent frames, taking into account both the global shape and the motion between frames. After capturing the facial hair structures, we refine the underlying skin meshes by replacing the noisy hair region points with strand roots. We conducted experiments on various examples captured under different systems, demonstrating that our facial hair capture method outperforms previous methods in terms of accuracy and completeness. Our method provides a comprehensive and accurate solution for capturing and modeling facial hair in various facial performance scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilayer tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films comprising alternating layers of different sp3 contents have been fabricated by periodically adjusting the bias voltage of filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) system. The microstructure, tribological and corrosion behaviors of the multilayer ta-C films deposited on YG6 cemented carbide were systematically investigated. Results showed that the multilayer structure effectively reduced the residual stress and restrained spalling of ta-C film, which frequently occurred in single-layer structure. The hardness and Young's modulus of multilayer ta-C films decreased with diminishing sp3 content of soft sublayer. Compared to the YG6 substrate, multilayer ta-C films exhibited much lower friction coefficient between 0.06 and 0.08 and effectively reduced the wear rate. Multilayer ta-C film deposited at bias voltage alternating between −50 V and –150 V (M-1 film) had the lowest friction coefficient of 0.06 and the lowest wear rate of 2.87 × 10−7 mm3/N m. The difference in anti-wear performance among the multilayer ta-C films was associated with the ratio of hardness to elastic modulus (H/E ratio). The electrochemical corrosion test confirmed the effective corrosion protection provided by the multilayer ta-C films, and the M-1 film obtained the highest polarization resistance. Judging from electrochemical impedance tests, the existence of some extent of microdefects could be the main factor limiting the electrochemical corrosion performance of the multilayer ta-C films. Unlabelled Image • Multilayer ta-C films with controlled sp3 content were fabricated by FCVA system. • Tailoring the sp3 content between adjacent ta-C sub-layer reduced the residual stress. • Multilayer ta-C films exhibited improved tribological and corrosion properties compared to YG6 cemented carbide. • The H/E ratio was considered as an indicator of wear resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor location information, which is an indispensable label for linking the vast amount of data circulating in the world of IoT, 5G, and AI, is essential. This paper proposes a novel template pattern matching-based acoustic positioning method, Location Template-based Positioning Model, for indoor acoustic source localisation. This innovative technology, similar to the passive SONAR systems on submarines, uses audible acoustic waves to locate acoustic sources in complex indoor environments. The proposed LTPM is a statistical model, and it calculates the coordinates of acoustic sources by matching input acoustic signals with template acoustic signals that are pre-collected from preset locations. A comprehensive overview of the principles and implementations of LTPM is provided, and its feasibility is verified through preliminary positioning tests in this paper. It is hoped to provide research references for the advancement of pattern matching-based acoustic indoor positioning technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The diffusion process of carbon in graphene formation via nickel catalyst was studied from experiments and simulations. • The diffusion barrier of carbon in nickel was calculated based on first principles. • Carbon diffused along nickel grain boundaries preferentially because of the lower diffusion barrier. • Graphene was formed on nickel surface due to metal-induced and diffusion-assisted mechanism. Graphene can be synthesized via metal catalysis using solid carbon source. In this paper, graphene was fabricated using amorphous carbon. We further elucidated the process of carbon diffusion and graphene formation at low temperatures using a comprehensive experimental and theoretical strategy. The diffusion barrier of carbon in nickel crystal is different from that of carbon along nickel grain boundaries, resulting in that the layer of graphene is uncontrollable. Based on our findings, we identified the causes of graphene heterogeneity and the process of carbon diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Effect of cooling rate on a-C-to-graphene transformation in RTP process was studied. • There were no C atoms precipitated from C-Ni intermixing layer during cooling process. • RTP method exhibited different mechanism from traditional Ni-catalyzed CVD technique. • The transformation was dominated by C diffusion and Ni-induced crystallization. • Regular arrangement of as-grown RTP graphene highly depended on the cooling rate. Amorphous carbon with Ni as catalyst can be transformed into graphene on the dielectric substrate directly without the subsequent transfer process during rapid thermal processing (RTP). However, the effect of cooling rate on this transformation process is still not fully understood yet, leading to the controversy of underlying mechanism. Here, by the combined reactive molecular dynamics simulation with experimental approach, we investigated the evolution of RTP graphene structure and diffusion behavior of C atoms with cooling rates. Results demonstrated that for each case, there were no C atoms precipitated from C-Ni intermixing layer during the cooling process, which was different from the behavior observed in the Ni-catalyzed CVD growth process of graphene. This confirmed that the a-C-to-graphene transformation mechanism during the RTP process was dominated by the C diffusion and Ni-induced crystallization rather than the traditional dissolution/precipitation mechanism for graphene growth. Most importantly, it was also found that tailoring the cooling rate could achieve the regular arrangement of distorted structure in as-grown RTP graphene and thus promote the high-quality synthesis of graphene, which was confirmed by the experimental result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an alternative strategy to fabricate high-performance graphene over a large area, metal catalysis has been attempted at elevated temperatures with various solid carbon sources such as polymers and amorphous carbon. Due to the diversity of amorphous carbon materials and the variety of metal catalysts used in the processes, the crystalline transformation from the amorphous carbon state to the graphene phase is not yet clearly understood. Here, we fabricated hydrogen free tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) as a solid carbon source, and nickel was chosen for the catalytic metal layer, which thereafter were integrated into a designed Si/SiO 2 /ta-C/Ni sandwich structure. The effect of thermal annealing in the range of 400 °C to 900 °C on the transformation of atomic carbon bonds was investigated. The results showed that the formation of the graphene phase emerged at an annealing temperature of 600 °C. Further increasing the temperature to 900 °C stimulated enhanced quality of graphene, but the quality was poor due to the oversaturated carbon content and the agglomeration of the Ni layer. Decreasing the thickness of ta-C to 2 nm led to graphene with 3–4 layers at a temperature of 800 °C, where metal-induced layer exchange was proposed as the key factor for the crystalline transformation from ta-C to graphene during thermal annealing. The results introduce a new strategy for the fabrication of high-quality graphene from tetrahedral amorphous carbon. Unlabelled Image • The transformation and diffusion behaviors of ta-C are investigated in detail. • The metal-induced layer exchange mechanism is proposed for the growth of graphene. • High-quality, controllable graphene was grown at 800 °C. • The number of layers of graphene is dependent on the thickness of ta-C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, the business process elements in the design of organizational business architecture are becoming increasingly complex, showing trends of networking and flattening. The control of complex business processes is a key factor for business architecture design. This paper considers a complex network generation method with business process and organization structure data and analyzes complex network controllability to examine the alignment of business processes and the organization structure. The uncontrollable nodes of the complex network can be identified, which act as the input for organization structure adjustment and business architecture optimization design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new coagulant, the efficiency and performance of Moringa oleifera seed presscake extract for the coagulation removal of direct black 19 was investigated under different operation conditions in contrast with polyaluminum chloride (PAC). The results indicated that the removal efficiencies decreased with rising pH for both of the two coagulants in the pH range of 5-9, and Moringa oleifera seed presscake extract was more efficient than PAC at pH 5-8 ( P < 0.05). The optimal temperature for the two coagulants was 25 °C, and Moringa oleifera seed presscake extract was also better than PAC at every temperature ( P < 0.05). The removal of direct black 19 increased with the increase of dosages of Moringa oleifera seed presscake extract and PAC. Both of NaCl and Na 2 SO 4 increased the coagulation efficiency of Moringa oleifera seed presscake extract. In contrast, NaCl increased the removal percentage of PAC, but Na 2 SO 4 decreased the performance. The suspended solid simulated by kaolin improved the direct black 19 removal. Overall, The Moringa oleifera seed presscake extract is better for direct black 19 removal than PAC ( P < 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tin monosulfide (SnS), recognized for its exceptional electrochemical properties, cost-effectiveness, and environmental sustainability, has emerged as a promising anode material for sodium-ion batteries. However, it suffers from significant volume expansion and limited electrical conductivity. Herein, an NC@SnS nanocomposite featuring SnS nanosheets directly grown on nitrogen-doped porous carbon fibers has been synthesized, showing a reversible capacity of 471 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 for sodium storage. The full cell containing Na 3 V 2 (PO 4) 3 and NC@SnS achieved a specific energy density of 114 Wh kg−1, highlighting its potential applicability for advanced electrochemical energy storage systems. The enhanced sodium storage performance indicates that the structural design of the composite material has a broad prospect for improving the application of electrode materials. N-doped carbon nanofiber-supported SnS nanosheets were synthesized by multi-step method. The as-prepared sample showed an ordered nanoarray structure which provided void space to buffer volume change, while the carbon scaffold offered high electronic conductivity. The nanocomposite demonstrated high reversible capacity and long cycle life for sodium storage. [Display omitted] • A multi-step approach to produce carbon nanofibers supported SnS nanosheets. • The carbon backbone offers high electronic conductivity. • The nanosheet array provides large amount of space for volume variation buffering. • The sample exhibits high capacity and long cycle life for sodium storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A superpixel based local alpha-expansion method to optimize the disparity. • A normal adjustment method to propagate the good plane labels in flat regions. • High precision results on both the Middlebury 3.0 and the Eth3d benchmarks. This paper presents a continuous stereo disparity estimation method based on superpixel segmentation and graph-cuts. We re-parameterize the disparity with a 3D tangent plane, and propose two algorithms to optimize the Markov Random Field (MRF) energy. The first algorithm, called superpixel α -expansion, is built on superpixel segmentation to localize the label proposal and the expansion scope. Three levels of superpixels with increasing granularity are generated for acceleration. The second algorithm, called normal adjustment, optimizes the 3D planes for the regions with low texture and/or illumination changes. The normal adjustment is performed along a depth-first similarity path of superpixels. We evaluate our method on the Middlebury 3.0 evaluation benchmark and the Eth3d benchmark. Experimental results show that our method achieves high accuracy on both evaluation benchmarks. (Middlebury 3.0 evaluation benchmark: http://vision.middlebury.edu/stereo/eval3/. Eth3d benchmark: https://www.eth3d.net/low_res_two_view.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Community detection is an important problem of complex networks analysis and various methods have been proposed to solve it. However, most of the existing methods only use the link information. As a result, the quality of their detected communities is often poor due to the sparse and noisy data existing in link information. Actually, content information of complex networks can also help to improve the quality of community detection. In this paper, we propose a method based on Multi-View Clustering via Robust Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (MVCRNMF). This method can provide a unified framework to combine link and content information for community detection. Its key idea is to build a multi-view robust NMF model with the co-regularized constraint on community indicator matrices of link view and content view. This can make link and content information complement each other during the factorization process of NMF. We devise iterative update rules as the optimization solution to the community detection model and also give the rigorous convergence proof. It is worth noting that MVCRNMF can learn the contribution weights from link and content information adaptively and this helps to save a lot of time on tuning the weight parameters. We conduct comparative experiments on four real-world complex networks. The results demonstrate that MVCRNMF performs better than state-of-the-art methods. Additionally, results of the case study on a co-authorship network also show that MVCRNMF can obtain higher quality communities. Highlights • A community detection model based on multi-view clustering is proposed. • We devise and prove iterative update rules for the community detection model. • The weight parameters of the community detection model can be learned adaptively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) has become a powerful model for community discovery in complex networks. Existing NMF-based methods for community discovery often factorize the corresponding adjacent matrix of complex networks to obtain its community indicator matrix. However, the adjacent matrix cannot represent the global structure feature of complex networks very well, and this leads to the performance degradation of community discovery. Besides, most of existing methods are not robust and scalable enough, so they are not effective to deal with complex networks with noises and large scales. Aiming at these problems above, in this paper we propose a method for community discovery using distributed robust NMF with SimRank similarity measure. This method selects SimRank measure to construct the feature matrix, which can more accurately represent the global structure feature of complex networks. To improve the robustness, we select ℓ2,1 norm instead of the widely used Frobenius norm to construct its NMF-based community discovery model. In addition, to improve the scalability, we implement its key components by using MapReduce distributed computing framework, including computing SimRank feature matrix and iteratively solving the NMF-based model for community discovery. We conduct extensive experiments on several typical complex networks. The results show that our method has better performance and robustness than other representative NMF-based methods for community discovery. Moreover, our method presents good scalability and hence can be used to discover communities in the large-scale complex networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-selenium (Li-Se) batteries have attracted widely attention due to their high volume specific capacity (3260 mAh cm−3) and good electronic conductivity (1 × 10−3 S m−1) of selenium. However, the rapid capacity fading, high volume changes and shuttle effect of lithium polyselenides (LiPSes) limit its further application. Herein, a zinc-cobalt bimetallic catalysts on nitrogen-doped 3D ordered porous carbon (ZnCo-NC) has been constructed and applied as cathode for Li-Se batteries. Such a material could provide unique structure for the adsorption and catalytic conversion of the LiPSes during charge/discharge. As expected, the ZnCo-NC/Se cathode exhibits a high discharge capacity of 549 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 C and 396 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles at 2 C with a Coulombic efficiency of ∼100%, significantly better than the single-metal counterparts of Co-NC/Se and Zn-NC/Se. • A 3D honeycomb-like carbon host with ordered pores and ZnCo catalytic sites was developed by hard template method. • Such a structure offered a high specific area of 561 m2 g−1 and a total pore volume of 0.57 cm3 g−1. • For Li-Se batteries, the host material achieved 428 mAh g−1 at 4 C, and 354 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles at 2 C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flow experience is often considered as an important standard of ideal user experience (UX). Till now, flow is mainly measured via self-report questionnaires, which cannot evaluate flow immediately and objectively. In this paper, we constructed a physiological evaluation model to evaluate flow in virtual reality (VR) game. The evaluation model consists of five first-level indicators and their respective second-level indicators. Then, we conducted an empirical experiment to test the effectiveness of partial indicators to predict flow experience. Most results supported the model and revealed that heart rate, interbeat interval, heart rate variability (HRV), low-frequency HRV (LF-HRV), high-frequency HRV (HF-HRV), and respiratory rate are all effective indicators in predicting flow experience. Further research should be conducted to improve the evaluation model and conclude practical implications in UX and VR game design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studies of lake-atmosphere interactions, the fluxes of momentum, water vapour and sensible heat are often parametrized as being proportional to the differences in wind, humidity and air temperature between the water surface and a reference height above the surface. Here, the proportionality via transfer coefficients in these relationships was investigated with the eddy-covariance method at three sites within an eddy-covariance mesonet across Lake Taihu, China. The results indicate that the transfer coefficients decreased with increasing wind speed for weak winds and approached constant values for strong winds. The presence of submerged macrophytes reduced the momentum transfer (drag) coefficient significantly. At the two sites free of submerged macrophytes, the 10-m drag coefficients under neutral stability were 1.8 $$(\pm \,0.4) \times \,10^{-3}$$ and $$1.7\,(\pm \,0.3) \times \,10^{-3 }$$ at the wind speed of $$9\,\text{ m } \text{ s }^{-1}$$ , which are 38 and 34 % greater than the prediction by the Garratt model for the marine environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• GAD of ta-C was realized by adjusting the filtered incident carbon ions. • GAD benefited a notable reduction of residual stress without distinct hardness loss. • The superior corrosion resistance of ta-C was obtained at glancing angle of 45°. • High sp3 content and enhanced hydrophobicity contributed to anti-corrosion. Tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films were obliquely deposited on silicon substrate using a custom-made 45 degree double-bent filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) system. The effect of glancing angle in a range of 0° to 75° on the growth characteristics, mechanical and electrochemical corrosion behavior of the films were focused. Results showed that increasing the incident angle of carbon ions resulted in a rough surface with agglomerated particles. As the glancing angle changed from 0° to 75°, the residual stress of ta-C film decreased by 28.8%, while the high hardness exceeding 30 GPa were maintained in the films due to the small reduction (13.6%) of sp3 hybridized carbon content. The electrochemical corrosion tests in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution revealed that the superior corrosion resistances were obtained at glancing angle of 45°, which could be discussed in terms of the relatively high sp3 bonded carbon content and the enhanced hydrophobicity properties of the films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we fabricated the tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C) films with thicknesses of 20 nm, 40 nm and hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC:H) film with thickness of 1.1 μm on 316 stainless steel substrate (316SS). The electrochemical corrosion performances of two typical amorphous carbon (a-C) films in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution were focused. Results revealed that both ultrathin ta-C films exhibited superior corrosion resistance than that of DLC:H film, because the high content of sp3 bonded carbon and low porosity in ta-C films significantly suppressed the diffusion of corrosion media. However, a thickness threshold beyond 20 nm was proposed to obtain the superior corrosion resistance for ta-C films due to the emerged pitting of 316SS. For DLC:H film, the deterioration of corrosion resistance could be attributed to the hydrogen-containing interface, the large sp2 clusters with high electron transport, and the higher porosity density in carbon matrix. Image 1 • The effects of thickness, atomic bonds and porosity on corrosion of a-C were studied. • SVET revealed the distinct changes in local electrochemical performances for films. • Thick DLC:H exhibited limited corrosion protective efficiency. • Ultrathin ta-C with high sp3 content and low porosity remarkably reduced corrosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The design, fabrication and testing methods of amorphous carbon force sensor were systematically studied. • The sensitivity was 9.8 μV/V/mN and non-linearity was about 2.0% FS, while it also showed a good repeatability. • In-situ depositing serious amorphous carbon films by simple, economic and green DC sputtering technic. • The piezo-resistive mechanism study result supported the thick film resistors (TFRs) theory well. The rapid growing demand of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensors brings an urgent need for high performance and low cost sensitive materials. In this work, amorphous carbon (a-C) film was in-situ deposited on silicon substrate as strain sensitive component using economical direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering process and the a-C sensor was systematically designed, fabricated and tested. By adjusting the negative bias voltage in the range of 0–400 V, the gauge factor (GF) of the a-C film was adjusted within the range of 3.3–6.9. What's more, the film's sp2 cluster size played an important role in their piezo-resistive performance and conductivity, which illustrated the thick-film resistors (TFRs) theory. Additionally, CAFM results also supported the applying of TFRs theory in this work. Benefiting from the outstanding performance of a-C film, the MEMS force sensor, consisted a Wheatstone full-bridge with four a-C piezo-resistors, had a sensitivity of 9.8 μV/V/mN and non-linearity about 2.0% FS in the testing range of 0–210 mN, while it also showed a good repeatability. These investigations provided deeper insight into the piezo-resistive behavior of a-C film and contributed to the development of high performance and more economical sensitive materials for MEMS sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]