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In this paper, eleven high-strength steel tube confined self-stressing concrete (HSTCSC) short columns were tested to study their strengthening mechanism and axial compression performance. The effects of different material strengths, crosssection types, and hollow ratios on the axial mechanical properties of the HSTCSC short columns were investigated using the finite element analysis method. Experimental results highlighted that the HSTCSC short columns presented the waist drum-type failure mode significantly, with a higher axial load-bearing capacity and deformation performance, and possess a large safety reserve. It was also found that the axial compression property of the HSTCSC short column could be improved significantly due to the joint action of the micro-expansion of the self-stressing concrete and the hoop constraint of the high-strength steel tube. Moreover, the circular cross-section HSTCSC short columns were found to result in better mechanical performance after yielding of the high-strength steel tubes, especially entering the strengthening section. Under the condition of equal steel content ratio and cross-section area, the single-layer circular HSTCSC short columns were found to have the largest load-bearing capacities after yielding the high-strength steel tubes, followed by the double-layer circular HSTCSC short columns, and then the double-layer square HSTCSC short columns. The hollow rate of the cross-section could also decrease the load-bearing capacity of the HSTCSC short column with both circular and square sections, although increasing the hollow rate could save material and reduce the weight of the structure. The finite element analysis results showed that the proposed finite element model could be employed to simulate the compressive behavior of HSTCSC short columns with high calculation accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The robotic technique has been established as an alternative approach to laparoscopy for colorectal surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the short-term outcomes of robot-assisted and laparoscopic surgery in colorectal cancer.Methods: The cases of robot-assisted or laparoscopic colorectal resection were collected retrospectively between July 2015 and September 2018. We evaluated patient demographics, perioperative characteristics, and pathologic examinations. Short-term outcomes included time to passage of flatus and length of postoperative hospital stay.Results: A total of 580 patients were included in the study. There were 271 patients in the robotic colorectal surgery (RCS) group and 309 in the laparoscopic colorectal surgery (LCS) group. The time to passage of flatus in the RCS group was 3.62 days shorter than the LCS group. The total costs were increased by 2,258.8 USD in the RCS group compared to the LCS group (P < 0.001).Conclusion: The present study suggests that colorectal cancer robotic surgery was more beneficial to patients because of a shorter postoperative recovery time of bowel function and shorter hospital stays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, the problem of blind separation of n independent sources from their m linear instantaneous mixtures is considered. First, a generalized contrast function is defined as a valuable extension of the existing classical and nonsymmetrical contrast functions. It is applicable to the overdetermined blind separation (m > n) with an unknown number of sources, because not only independent components but also redundant ones are allowed in the outputs of a separation system. Second, a natural gradient learning algorithm developed primarily for the complete case (m = n) is shown to work as well with an n × m or m × m separating matrix, for each optimizes a certain mutual information contrast function. Finally, we present stability analysis for a newly proposed generalized orthogonal natural gradient algorithm (which can perform the overdetermined blind separation when n is unknown), obtaining an expectable result that its local stability conditions are slightly stricter than those of the conventional natural gradient algorithm using an invertible mixing matrix (m = n). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blind source separation (BSS) problem with an unknown number of sources is an important practical issue that is usually skipped by assuming that the source number n is known and equal to the number m of sensors. This letter studies the general BSS problem satisfying m ≥ n. First, it is shown that the mutual information of outputs of the separation network is a cost function for BSS, provided that the mixing matrix is of full column rank and the m × m separating matrix is nonsingular. The mutual information reaches its local minima at the separation points, where the m outputs consist of n desired source signals and m - n redundant signals. Second, it is proved that the natural gradient algorithm proposed primarily for complete BSS (m = n) can be generalized to deal with the overdetermined BSS problem (m > n), but it would diverge inevitably due to lack of a stationary point. To overcome this shortcoming, we present a modified algorithm, which can perform BSS steadily and provide the desired source signals at specified channels if some matrix is designed properly. Finally, the validity of the proposed algorithm is confirmed by computer simulations on artificially synthesized data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of energetic-ions on magnetohydrodynamic instabilities is pivotal in the basic physics that will be vital in burning plasma experiments. Recently, it has been found in the HL-2A tokamak that an m/n  =  2/1 unstable tearing mode (TM) interacts with energetic-ions, resulting in amplitude-bursting and frequency-chirping fishbone-like activities, and it is numerically identified that the co-passing energetic-ions play a dominant role in the wave-particle resonances (Chen et al 2019 Nucl. Fusion59 096037). Motivated by fully and deeply understanding such a resonant interaction between energetic-ions and TM, a more detailed study of global nonlinear hybrid kinetic-MHD simulations with M3D-K code is performed in the present work. The kinetic effect of co-passing energetic-ions from non-adiabatic response is interestingly found to be strongly destabilizing, while the net effect with both adiabatic and non-adiabatic contributions is weakly destabilizing. For passing energetic-ions, the m/n  =  2/1 TM is found to be most unstable in the case of , where q0 is the central safety factor. Effects of energetic-ion beta and pinch angle determining different energetic-ion fractions on the resonance features, such as the growth rate, frequency chirping and mode structure, are discussed in detail. The relevant simulation results are consistent with the observations on HL-2A. Furthermore, the effects of both counter-passing and trapped energetic-ions on the TM have also been explored, but the corresponding resonance phase space is found to be very narrow in the plane. In addition, the redistribution and loss induced by the resonant interaction between TM and energetic-ions are analyzed in multiple-mode simulations. Significant redistribution and loss are clearly observed, and the scaling of energetic-ion loss fraction with the fluctuation amplitude is found to be , indicating that the loss is convective. These discoveries are conducive to understanding the mechanisms of TM-induced energetic-ion loss through the resonant interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally observe the signature of electron emission resulting from a single binary encounter mechanism in the intermediate collision energy regime of 30 keV/u He2+ on argon. Electron emission spectra in the transfer ionization are obtained and compared with classical calculations from a two-step model considering the initial electron velocity and re-scattering of the binary encounter electron in the recoil potential. Although the present reaction is actually a four-body problem, the model starting from a binary encounter gives out surprisingly good agreement with the experimental data. Our studies show that orbital velocities of the electron affect the emission patterns of ionized electrons significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many phenomena show that in a favorable circumstance an agent still has an updating possibility, and in an unfavorable circumstance an agent also has a possibility of holding its own state and reselecting its neighbors. To describe this kind of phenomena an Ising model on evolution networks was presented and used for consensus formation and separation of opinion groups in human population. In this model the state-holding probability p and selection-rewiring probability q were introduced. The influence of this mixed dynamics of spin flips and network rewiring on the ordering behavior of the model was investigated. p hinders ordering of opinion networks and q accelerates the dynamical process of networks. Influence of q on the ordering and separating stems from its effect on average path length of networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radial distribution of the end-to-end distance Ree is crucial for quantifying the global size and flexibility of a linear polymer. For semiflexible polymers, several analytical formulas have been derived for the radial distribution of Ree ignoring the stretching flexibility. However, for semiflexible oligomers, such as DNA or RNA, the stretching flexibility can be rather pronounced and can significantly affect the radial distribution of Ree. In this study, we obtained an extended formula that includes the stretch modulus to describe the distribution of Ree for semiflexible oligomers on the basis of previous formulas for semiflexible polymers without stretching flexibility. The extended formula was validated by extensive Monte Carlo simulations over wide ranges of the stretch modulus and persistence length, as well as all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of shortDNAs andRNAs. Additionally, our analyses showed that the effect of stretching flexibility on the distribution of Ree becomes negligible for DNAs longer than ~130 base pairs and RNAs longer than ~240 base pairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first example of a copper(I)-catalyzed intramolecular aminotrifluoromethylation of unactivated alkenes using (TMS)CF3 (trimethyl(trifluoromethyl)silane) as the CF3 source is described. A broad range of electronically and structurally varied substrates undergo convenient and step-economical transformations for the concurrent construction of a five- or six-membered ring and a C-CF3 bond toward different types of trifluoromethyl azaheterocycles. The methodology not only circumvents use of expensive electrophilic CF3 reagents or the photoredox strategy but also expands the scope to substrates that are difficult to access by the existing methods. Mechanistic studies are conducted, and a plausible mechanism is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In statistical signal processing, the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) method is powerful and can approach the theoretical optima. However, its computational complexity is usually very high, especially in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. This paper presents a new low-complexity SMC (LC-SMC) algorithm for blind detection in MIMO systems, the main idea of which is to shrink the sampling space via channel estimation which is initialized using the first differentially modulated symbol and then updated using the Monte Carlo samples. Since the a posteriori probability of the transmitted symbols can be calculated separately by each transmit antenna, the proposed LC-SMC algorithm is not only computationally efficient, as compared to the original SMC whose complexity grows exponentially with the number of transmit antennas, but also makes blind turbo receiver more feasible for multilevel/phase modulations. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the LC-SMC algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recombination of Ar14+, Ar15+, Ca16+, and Ni19+ ions with electrons has been investigated at low energy range based on the merged-beam method at the main cooler storage ring CSRm in the Institute of Modern Physics, Lanzhou, China. For each ion, the absolute recombination rate coefficients have been measured with electron–ion collision energies from 0 meV to 1000 meV which include the radiative recombination (RR) and also dielectronic recombination (DR) processes. In order to interpret the measured results, RR cross sections were obtained from a modified version of the semi-classical Bethe and Salpeter formula for hydrogenic ions. DR cross sections were calculated by a relativistic configuration interaction method using the flexible atomic code (FAC) and AUTOSTRUCTURE code in this energy range. The calculated RR + DR rate coefficients show a good agreement with the measured value at the collision energy above 100 meV. However, large discrepancies have been found at low energy range especially below 10 meV, and the experimental results show a strong enhancement relative to the theoretical RR rate coefficients. For the electron–ion collision energy below 1 meV, it was found that the experimentally observed recombination rates are higher than the theoretically predicted and fitted rates by a factor of 1.5 to 3.9. The strong dependence of RR rate coefficient enhancement on the charge state of the ions has been found with the scaling rule of q3.0, reproducing the low-energy recombination enhancement effects found in other previous experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]