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Abstract Objective Patients with mild oral and maxillofacial space infection (OMSI) usually need only antimicrobial therapy. However, surgical intervention is eventually needed after using antibiotics for a period. The objective of this study was to explore the risk factors for drug therapy failure in OMSI. Subjects and methods A retrospective case‒control study was designed. From August 2020 to September 2022, patients at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Ninth People’s Hospital who were diagnosed with OMSI were retrospectively reviewed. The outcome variable was surgical intervention after the use of antibiotics. We collected common biological factors, including demographic characteristics, routine blood test results, C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and composite indicators, such as neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR). The χ2 test and binary logistic regression were used to examine the association between biological factors and the outcome variable. Results Forty-six patients were included in this study. Further surgical intervention was needed in 20 patients (43.5%). The NLR showed a significant association with further surgical drainage (p = 0.01). A binary logistic regression equation was found by using stepwise regression based on the Akaike information criterion (R2 = 0.443), which was associated with sex (odds ratio [OR], 0.216; p = 0.092), NLR (OR, 1.258; p = 0.045), red blood cell (RBC) count (OR, 4.372; p = 0.103) and monocyte (MONO) count (OR, 9.528, p = 0.023). Receiver operating characteristic analysis produced an area under the curve for NLR of 0.725 (p = 0.01) and for the binary logistic regression model of 0.8365 (p

Abstract Background This study sought to elucidate the associations of cardiometabolic index (CMI), as a metabolism-related index, with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among the older population. Utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we further explored the potential mediating effect of inflammation within these associations. Methods A cohort of 3029 participants aged over 65 years old, spanning six NHANES cycles from 2005 to 2016, was enrolled and assessed. The primary endpoints of the study included all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality utilizing data from National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Cox regression model and subgroup analysis were conducted to assess the associations of CMI with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. The mediating effect of inflammation-related indicators including leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte, systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were evaluated to investigate the potential mechanism of the associations between CMI and mortality through mediation package in R 4.2.2. Results The mean CMI among the enrolled participants was 0.74±0.66, with an average age of 73.28±5.50 years. After an average follow-up period of 89.20 months, there were 1,015 instances of all-cause deaths and 348 cardiovascular deaths documented. In the multivariable-adjusted model, CMI was positively related to all-cause mortality (Hazard Ratio (HR)=1.11, 95% CI=1.01-1.21). Mediation analysis indicated that leukocytes and neutrophils mediated 6.6% and 13.9% of the association of CMI with all-cause mortality. Conclusion Elevated CMI is positively associated with all-cause mortality in the older adults. The association appeared to be partially mediated through inflammatory pathways, indicating that CMI may serve as a valuable indicator for poor prognosis among the older population.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), a subset of organic fatty acids with carbon chains ranging from one to six atoms in length, encompass acetate, propionate, and butyrate. These compounds are the endproducts of dietary fiber fermentation, primarily catalyzed by the glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathways within the gut microbiota. SCFAs act as pivotal energy substrates and signaling molecules in the realm of animal nutrition, exerting a profound influence on the intestinal, immune system, and intestinal barrier functions. Specifically, they contibute to 60-70% of the total energy requirements in ruminants and 10-25% in monogastric animals. SCFAs have demonstrated the capability to effectively modulate intestinal pH, optimize the absorption of mineral elements, and impede pathogen invasion. Moreover, they enhance the expression of proteins associated with intestinal tight junctions and stimulate mucus production, thereby refining intestinal tissue morphology and preserving the integrity of the intestinal structure. Notably, SCFAs also exert anti-inflammatory properties, mitigating inflammation within the intestinal epithelium and strengthening the intestinal barrier’s defensive capabilities. The present review endeavors to synthesize recent findings regarding the role of SCFAs as crucial signaling intermediaries between the metabolic activities of gut microbiota and the status of porcine cells. It also provides a comprehensive overview of the current literature on SCFAs’ impact on immune responses within the porcine intestinal mucosa.

Abstract Background Relative handgrip strength (RHGS) was positively correlated with healthy levels of cardiovascular markers and negatively correlated with metabolic disease risk. However, its association with hyperlipidemia remains unknown. The present study investigated the link between RHGS and hyperlipidemia, utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and further examined the hypothesis that inflammation may serve a mediating role within this relationship. Methods Data were extracted from 4610 participants in the NHANES database spanning 2011–2014 to explore the correlation between RHGS and hyperlipidemia using multivariate logistic regression models. Subgroup analyses were conducted to discern the correlation between RHGS and hyperlipidemia across diverse populations. Additionally, smooth curve fitting and threshold effect analysis were conducted to validate the association between RHGS and hyperlipidemia. Furthermore, the potential mediating effect of inflammation on this association was also explored. Results According to the fully adjusted model, RHGS was negatively correlated with hyperlipidemia [odds ratio (OR) = 0.575, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.515 to 0.643], which was consistently significant across all populations, notably among women. Smooth curve fitting and threshold effect analysis substantiated the negative association between RHGS and hyperlipidemia. Moreover, the mediating effects analysis indicated the white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil (Neu) count, and lymphocyte (Lym) count played roles as the mediators, with mediation ratios of 7.0%, 4.3%, and 5.0%, respectively. Conclusions This study identified a prominent negative correlation between RHGS and hyperlipidemia. Elevated RHGS may serve as a protective factor against hyperlipidemia, potentially through mechanisms underlying the modulation of inflammatory processes.

With the development of energy storage technology, the new energy storage materials are more diverse. The sodium metal has the advantages of high energy density, rich resource reserves, and low costs for raw materials, becoming promising advanced energy storage materials for application. However, the low tensile strength of sodium metal makes it difficult to process deformation while its severe viscosity and low melting point affect the subsequent manufactory and application of batteries. These characteristics hinder the processing and preparation of thin‐sodium metal. The designs of composite‐supporting structure, alloying, and the interface strengthening for sodium metal can effectively overcome the difficulties in preparation of the thin sodium. In this review, the design principles of thin sodium in terms of processing and preparation, according to the physical and chemical properties of sodium metal, are discussed. Meanwhile, the key challenges and new development opportunities are addressed for the processing and preparation of the thin‐sodium metal, which is beneficial for deeply understanding the reliable fabrication and realizing the practical application of thin‐sodium metals.

Conventional room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) polymer materials lack a dynamic structural change mechanism for on-demand phosphorescence emission, limiting their application in specific scenarios, such as smart devices. However, the development of RTP polymer materials with an on-demand emission capability is highly attractive yet rather challenging. Herein, we report a novel RTP polymer material that doped purely organic chromophores into a polymer network with numerous free hydroxyl side chains. This unique polymer material can be 3D printed with RTP activated through thermal-triggered nonequilibrium transesterification, where on-demand phosphorescence emission is achieved because of the increased cross-linking degrees such that the thermal motion of chromophores is effectively restricted. As a result, ultralong RTP emission is successfully observed due to enhanced stiffness in the polymer network. Importantly, the modulus changes of the polymer during nonequilibrium transesterification are intuitively visualized based on the intensity of phosphorescence emission. Through liquid crystal display (LCD) 3D printing, complex shaped and multimaterial structured objects are demonstrated, targeting the information encryption of printed objects and on-demand regional emission of multicolored phosphorescence. This study would provide an avenue to control RTP with on-demand emission and contributes to the field of anticounterfeiting and detection applications for intelligent RTP materials.

The participation of photovoltaic (PV) plants in supporting the transient voltage caused by commutation failure in the line-commutated-converter-based high voltage direct current (LCC-HVDC) system is of great significance, as it can enhance the DC transmission ability. However, it is found that the grid-following (GFL) PV converters face the problem of mismatch between reactive power response and transient voltage characteristic when the voltage converts from low voltage to overvoltage, further aggravating the overvoltage amplitude. Thus, this article proposes a transient voltage support strategy based on the grid-forming (GFM) medium voltage PV converter. The proposed strategy takes the advantage of the close equivalent electrical distance between the converter and grid, which can autonomously control the converter terminal voltage through GFM control with adaptive voltage droop coefficient. The simulation results show that the proposed strategy can ensure the output reactive power of the PV converter quickly matches the transient voltage characteristic at different stages, indicating that the proposed strategy can effectively support the transient voltage.

In this paper, we investigate the electrical characteristics of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs at the lowest temperature of 20 K. The measurement results indicate that the output current of the device decreases significantly with increasing temperature at temperature ranging from 40 K to 260 K, and the saturation drain current decreases by 19%. The gate leakage current rises slightly when the temperature increases. However, both the transfer and C-V characteristics indicate that the threshold voltage shift slightly in a negative direction as the temperature rises. In order to determine the physical mechanism of electrical characteristics change, the low-frequency noise (LFN) characteristics at different temperatures were measured and the density of traps was extracted. Finally, we consider that there are two competing mechanisms affecting the electrical characteristics of devices. The trap density reduction caused by temperature rise leads to threshold voltage’s negative shift, while the drop of 2DEG mobility is the main reason for the decrease of output current.

Abstract Controlling the formation of clathrate hydrates is crucial for advancing hydrate-based technologies. However, the microscopic mechanism underlying clathrate hydrate formation through nucleation remains poorly elucidated. Specifically, the critical nucleus, theorized as a pivotal step in nucleation, lacks empirical validation. Here, we report uniform nanoparticles, e.g., graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and gold or silver nanocubes with controlled sizes, as nanoprobes to experimentally measure the size of the critical nucleus of tetrahydrofuran (THF) clathrate hydrate formation. The capability of the nanoparticles in facilitating THF clathrate hydrate nucleation displays generally an abrupt change at a nanoparticle-size-determined specific supercooling. It is revealed that the free-energy barrier shows an abrupt change when the nanoparticles have an approximately the same size as that of the critical nucleus. Thus, it is inferred that THF clathrate hydrate nucleation involves the creation of a critical nucleus with its size being inversely proportional to the supercooling. By proving the existence and determining the supercooling-dependent size of the critical nucleus of the THF clathrate hydrates, this work brings insights in the microscopic pictures of the clathrate hydrate nucleation.

The excessive use of chemical fertilizers in the Guanxi honey pomelo production area has led to severe soil acidification and magnesium (Mg) deficiency, adversely affecting pomelo fruit quality. To address this issue, an integrated nutrient optimization model crucial for ensuring the sustainable and environmentally friendly development of the Guanxi honey pomelo industry has been explored. In a three-year experiment, two fertilizer treatments were implemented: a farmer fertilizer practice (FP) and an NPK reduction plus foliar Mg fertilizer (OPT + fMg). We investigated the impact of this integrated optimized fertilization measure on pomelo fruit quality from three aspects: flavor (sugars and organic acids), nutrition (vitamin C and mineral elements), and antioxidant properties (phenolics, flavonoids, and phytic acid). The results revealed that the OPT + fMg treatment improved fruit flavor by reducing acidity (titratable acid, citric acid, and quinine), while having a minimal impact on sugar components (sucrose, fructose, and glucose). Additionally, the OPT + fMg treatment increased the total phenolics, total flavonoids, and phytic acid in the fruit peel, enhancing its potential antioxidant quality. However, the OPT + fMg treatment reduced the mineral nutrient quality (excluding calcium) in the fruit. As for the fruit developmental period, the OPT + fMg treatment significantly increased the total flavonoid concentration in the peel from the mid-expansion fruit stage, followed by notable increases in phytic acid in the peel during the mid-to-late expansion fruit stage. The total phenolic concentration in the peel significantly rose only during the late fruit development stage. The most pronounced effect was observed on phytic acid in both peel and pulp. The influence of the OPT + fMg treatment on the mineral nutrients (excluding calcium) primarily occurred during the mid-to-late expansion fruit stage. Overall, the OPT + fMg treatment significantly improved the comprehensive nutritional quality of pomelo fruit, providing valuable insights for scientifically reducing fertilizer application while enhancing fruit quality.

Abstract Icing of wind turbine blades will seriously hinder the development of the wind power industry, and the use of biomass resources to solve the icing problem is conducive to promoting the synergistic development of biomass and wind energy. In this study, ice-phobic coatings with photothermal and anti-corrosion properties were prepared by surface modification pyrolysis and hydrothermal reaction with rice straw biogas residue as raw material. The erosion of KOH and the surface modification of MoS2 produced a rough structure of the material, and the high-temperature pyrolysis and hydrothermal reaction promoted the dehydrogenation and decarboxylation reactions, which reduced the number of oxygen-containing functional groups and decreased the surface energy of the material. The ice-phobic coating has superhydrophobic properties with a contact angle of 158.32°. Due to the small surface area in contact with water, the coating was able to significantly reduce the icing adhesion strength to 53.23 kPa. The icing wind tunnel test results showed that the icing area and mass were reduced by 10.54% and 30.08%, respectively, when the wind speed was 10 m s−1 and the temperature was − 10 °C. Photothermal performance tests showed that the MoS2-loaded material had light absorption properties, and the coating could rapidly warm up to 58.3 ℃ under xenon lamp irradiation with photothermal cycle stability. The loading of MoS2 acts as a physical barrier, reducing the contact of corrosive media with the substrate, thus improving the anti-corrosion of the coating. This study has practical application value and significance for the development of the anti-icing field under complex environmental conditions. Graphical Abstract

Abstract Objectives Previous studies have shown that there may be a positive correlation between serum uric acid levels and hyperthyroidism. However, the relationship between thyroid function and serum uric acid in healthy people is unclear. This study analyzed the relationship between impaired thyroid hormone sensitivity and serum uric acid levels, and presented them in quantitative form. Research design and methods This is a cross-sectional study of 4460 adults (male: 2300; female: 2160) who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007 to 2010. Parameters representing central sensitivity to thyroid hormones were calculated as: thyroid feedback quantile-based index (TFQIFT4), thyroid stimulating hormone index (TSHI), and total thyroxine (T4) resistance index (TT4RI); Peripheral sensitivity to thyroid hormone was evaluated by FT3/FT4 ratio. In addition, we have innovated total triiodothyronine (T3) resistance index (TT3RI) and TFQIFT3 indexes based on FT3 and TSH. Multiple linear regression models were used to evaluate the correlation between thyroid resistance index and serum uric acid, and the results were presented graphically as smooth curve fittings. Results Higher levels of serum uric acid were associated with decreased sensitivity to thyroid hormones in euthyroid individuals. In conjunction with an increase in the thyroid hormone sensitivity index value, uric acid levels gradually increased as well. Furthermore, we found a segmented relationship between TT3RI and serum uric acid changes. The saturation and threshold analyses indicated that 18.85 was the turning point (logarithmic likelihood ratio test = 0.036). When TT3RI 18.85, there was a significant rise in serum uric acid with an increase in TT3RI [β(95% CI) 3.94 (0.94, 6.95), P = 0.010]. A further finding of the interaction test was that impaired thyroid hormone sensitivity and uric acid changes vary among different age groups and BMI levels. Conclusions Decreased sensitivity to thyroid hormones was associated with high levels of serum uric acid in people with normal thyroid function. The interaction test shows that different age groups and BMI groups impact the association between impaired thyroid hormone sensitivity and serum uric acid. Furthermore, smooth curve fitting revealed a segmental relationship between TT3RI and serum uric acid levels.

It is usually believed that differentiated thyroid cancer is less likely to have distant metastases and rarely occurs secondary to hyperthyroidism. In our case report, we describe a patient diagnosed with thyroid fetal adenoma in 2002 who subsequently presented with a painful lump in her right rib. Through puncture biopsy, the mass was considered as metastatic follicular thyroid carcinoma, and then she appeared to have hyperthyroidism. The results of SPECT examination and other tests suggested that the hyperthyroidism was secondary to the thyroid cancer. The patient further underwent total thyroidectomy, and the pathology did not find any follicular thyroid foci. In this article, we analyze and discuss this case and review the relevant literature.

The Tibetan Plateau is currently the widest and highest elevation orogenic plateau on Earth. It formed as a response to the Cenozoic and is still ongoing collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates. The Xigaze fore-arc basin distributed along the Indus–Yarlung suture zone in southern Tibet preserves important information related to the late Cenozoic tectonic and topographic evolution of the plateau. In this study, apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronology was carried out on twelve sandstone samples from the middle segment of the Xigaze basin and additionally on four sedimentary rocks from the neighboring Dazhuka (Kailas) and Liuqu Formations. Inverse thermal history modeling results reveal that the fore-arc basin rocks experienced episodic late Oligocene to Miocene enhanced cooling. Taking into account regional geological data, it is suggested that the late Oligocene-early Miocene (~27–18 Ma) cooling recognized in the northern part of the basin was promoted by fault activity along the Great Counter thrust, while mid-to-late Miocene-accelerated exhumation was facilitated by strong incision of the Yarlung and Buqu rivers, which probably resulted from enhanced East Asian summer monsoon precipitation. Sandstone and conglomerate samples from the Dazhuka and Liuqu Formations yielded comparable Miocene AFT apparent ages to those of the Xigaze basin sediments, indicative of (mid-to-late Miocene) exhumation soon after their early Miocene burial (> ~3–4 km). Additionally, our new and published low-temperature thermochronological data indicate that enhanced basement cooling during the Miocene prevailed in vast areas of central southern Tibet when regional exhumation was triggered by both tectonic and climatic contributing factors. This recent and widespread regional exhumation also led to the formation of the high-relief topography of the external drainage area in southern Tibet, including the Xigaze fore-arc basin.

The Beishan orogen, a significant component of the southern Altaids, presents an opportunity for investigating the intracontinental deformation and exhumation history of the Altaids during the Mesozoic era. Although previous studies indicated that the Beishan orogen has experienced multiple reactivation since the late Mesozoic, the precise extent of these events remains poorly constrained. Here, we provide a comprehensive synthesis of field observations and apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronological dating throughout the Beishan orogen. Detailed field observations confirmed four major E-W trending thrusts in our study area. Based on the youngest truncated strata associated with the thrusts and previous dating results from neighboring regions, we propose that these thrust sheets likely developed in the late Middle Jurassic. AFT dating results from seven pre-Mesozoic granitoid samples and associated with thermal history modeling demonstrate that the Beishan orogen experienced a rapid basement cooling during the mid-Cretaceous (~115–80 Ma). Moreover, a compilation of previously published and newly gained AFT data reveals a comparable mid-Cretaceous cooling event in other parts of Central Asia, such as Qilian Shan, Eastern Tianshan, and Altai-Sayan. This observation suggests that the mid-Cretaceous cooling event is more likely to be regional rather than localized. This mid-Cretaceous cooling pulse is interpreted as a tectonic exhumation controlled by boundary faults and related to the rotation of the Junggar and Tarim basins. These processes are linked to distant plate-margin events along the Eurasian continent.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) are a class of organic fatty acids that consist of 1 to 6 carbons in length. They are primary end-products which arise from non-digestible carbohydrates (NDC) fermentation of colonic bacteria. They are the fundamental energy sources for post-weaning ruminants. SCFA represent the major carbon flux of diet through the gut microbiota to the host. They also play a vital role in regulating cell expansion and gene expression of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Recently, remarkable progresses have been made in understanding the immunomodulatory effects of SCFA and their interactions with the host. The processes involved in this study encompassed inflammasome activation, proliferation of lymphocytes, and maturation of intestinal mucosal immunity maturation. It is important to note that the establishment and maturation of intestinal mucosal immune system are intricately connected to the barrier function of intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) and the homeostasis of gut microbiota. Thus, insights into the role of SCFA in enteric mucosal immunoreaction of calves will enhance our understanding of their various regulatory functions. This review aims to analyze recent evidence on the role of SCFA as essential signaling molecules between gut microbiota and animal health. Additionally, we provide a summary of current literature on SCFA in intestinal mucosal immune responses of dairy calves.

Abstract The clock synchronisation of the power system is to realise the clock synchronisation of the whole network. The clock synchronisation network is composed of the clock synchronisation systems of power grids at all levels. Dispatching agencies, power plants, and substations have their clock synchronisation systems. By using computer technology, communication technology, and network technology, combined with the topological structure of the power grid and geographic information of the geographic information system, automatically process the key index data to ensure that the distribution network project can manage the power consumption and distribution 24 h without interruption. Considering the particularity of power, the accuracy of the receiver is strictly required, and so are the positioning, speed measurement, and time accuracy. Test indicators study a set of accurate and reliable test and evaluation methods. A gross error processing method based on the k‐means algorithm is proposed. Experiments show that gross errors can be well identified and eliminated in one‐dimensional and multidimensional data. Considering that invalid data may be hidden in the test data, to improve the identification accuracy without affecting the detection of normal gross errors, based on the proposed k‐means algorithm, the number of visible satellites is added. Because the magnitude difference between the number of visible satellites and the original three‐dimensional positioning error data is relatively large, it is normalised first. The processing data is extended from three‐dimensional to four‐dimensional. The experimental simulation shows that it can not only identify invalid data but also ensure a good effect of gross error elimination, reduce possible economic losses, bring significant direct and indirect economic benefits, and verify the feasibility and promotional value of the online monitoring platform through practice.

In this work, the electrical characteristics’ failure due to the chip-level damage and its relationship with the package-level degradation have been investigated for the Cascode GaN device under long-term repetitive power cycling test (PCT). At first, it is found that, the device’s transfer characteristics and threshold voltages have not changed until 8000-cycle PCT, while its on-state current decreases as the increases in cycles number. Meanwhile, the device’s gate-to-source leakage have not changed even after 8000-cycle PCT, but there is a significant increase in drain-to-source leakage. The above phenomenon has been attributed to the structural damage in the gate region of GaN HEMT, which has been verified by TCAD simulation and EMMI analysis. Then, it is found that the device’s thermal resistance is increased after the repetitive power cycling test, which is due to the package-level degradation. The increased thermal resistance will lead to the increase of heat accumulation, which has been verified by TCAD simulation, subsequently leading to the chip-level damage and electrical performance failure for Cascode GaN device. The relevant results may help to improve the long-term reliability of Cascode GaN device.

Grid-forming control (GFC) is promising for power electronics based power systems with high renewable energy penetration. Naturally, the impedance modeling for GFC is necessary and has gained significant attention recently. However, most of the impedance analyses for GFC are based on a two-level converter (TLC) rather than a modular multilevel converter (MMC). MMC differs from TLC with respect to its dominant multi-frequency response. It is necessary to analyze the impedance of GFC-based MMC owing to its superiority in high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission to interlink two weak AC systems with high renewable energy penetration. As the main contribution, this paper presents the AC- and DC-side impedance analyses for the GFC-based MMC with both power and DC voltage control using the harmonic transfer function (HTF), and compares the impedances of GFC-based MMC and TLC. It is inferred that although the impedance is mainly influenced within 200 Hz, the instability still could occur owing to negative resistance triggered by relatively larger parameters. The difference in AC-side impedance with power and DC voltage control is not apparent with proper parameters, while the DC-side impedance differs significantly. The generalized Nyquist criterion is necessary for AC-side stability owing to the relatively large coupling terms under GFC. Moreover, the coupling between AC- and DC-side impedances is noneligible, especially considering the DC-side resonance around the system resonant peak. The effects of parameters, system strength, and virtual impedance on the impedance shaping are analyzed and verified through simulations.

Butyrate and its derivatives possess various nutritional and biological benefits for mammals, whereas its effects on dairy calves have not been well characterized. This study evaluated the effects of tributyrin administration on blood immune, intestinal immune and barrier functions, and microbial composition of pre-weaned dairy calves. Twenty newborn Holstein bull calves were randomly assigned into a control group (no tributyrin supplementation, CON; n = 10) or a treatment group (supplemented with tributyrin at 2 g/L of milk, TRB; n = 10). The results showed that diarrhea frequency was decreased significantly by tributyrin administration from d 29 to 56 (P 3.5, P

The Meso-Cenozoic tectonic activities of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) played an important role in controlling the present-day topography of Central Asia. The Altai orogenic belt is a key component in the southern CAOB; so far, there is still a lack of sufficient constraints on the time and mechanism of its tectonic reactivation since the Mesozoic. In this contribution, we present new zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He and apatite fission track thermochronological data from granitoid samples in the Habahe area, western Altai orogenic belt. Therein zircon (U-Th)/He ages range from ~230 to ~238 Ma, apatite fission track central ages are ~140–157 Ma, and apatite (U-Th)/He ages vary from ~134 to ~149 Ma. Based on the associated thermal history modeling results, the Habahe area underwent a moderate cooling during the Late Triassic to Middle Jurassic (~230–170 Ma) with a cooling rate of ~0.8–1.1℃/Ma and a subsequent moderate to slightly rapid cooling stage during the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (170–130 Ma) with a cooling rate of ~1.5–2.3℃/Ma. We propose that this prolonged cooling stage occurred under a long-lasting contractional tectonism in the western Altai throughout the early Mesozoic, which was produced by multiplate convergence in East Asia during this period, mainly including the consumption of the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean in the northeast and the Meso-Tethys Ocean in the south. The region experienced rather limited Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic cooling and exhumation due to insufficient reactivation and weak surficial erosion.

In this study, the electrical characteristics of depletion-mode AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with a SiNx gate dielectric were tested under hydrogen exposure conditions. The experimental results are as follows: (1) After hydrogen treatment at room temperature, the threshold voltage VTH of the original device was positively shifted from −16.98 V to −11.53 V, and the positive bias of threshold was 5.45 V. When the VDS was swept from 0 to 1 V with VGS of 0 V, the IDS was reduced by 25% from 9.45 A to 7.08 A. (2) Another group of original devices with identical electrical performance, after the same duration of hydrogen treatment at 100 °C, exhibited a reverse shift in threshold voltage with a negative threshold shift of −0.91 V. The output characteristics were enhanced, and the saturation leakage current was increased. (3) The C-V method and the low-frequency noise method were used to investigate the effect of hydrogen effect on the device interface trap and border trap, respectively. It was found that high-temperature hydrogen conditions can passivate the interface/border traps of SiNx/AlGaN, reducing the density of interface/border traps and mitigating the trap capture effect. However, in the room-temperature hydrogen experiment, the concentration of interface/border traps increased. The research findings in this paper provide valuable references for the design and application of depletion-mode AlGaN/GaN HEMT devices.

Abstract Background Antimicrobials are often used to prevent and treat diarrhea induced by enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) in young ruminants. However, drug overuse or misuse accelerates the spread of multidrug-resistant extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli. Thus, supplementary foods as alternatives to antibiotics are needed to prevent colibacillus diarrhea in neonatal dairy calves. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), a therapeutic bile acid, helps alleviate colitis. However, how UDCA helps alleviate ESBL-EAEC-induced clinical symptoms and colitis remains unclear. Results We investigated the microbial profiles and metabolites of healthy and diarrheic neonatal calves to determine microbial and metabolite biomarkers in early-life development. Both the gut microbiota communities and their associated metabolites differed between healthy and diarrheic calves. Commensal Butyricicoccus, Faecalibacterium, Ruminococcus, Collinsella, and Coriobacterium were key microbial markers that distinguished healthy and diarrheic gut microbiomes. Random forest machine-learning algorithm and Spearman correlation results indicated that enriched UDCA, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and other prebiotics were strongly positively correlated with these five bacterial genera. We explored the effect of ursodiol on bacterial growth, cell adherence, and lipopolysaccharide-treated Caco-2 cells. Adding ursodiol induced direct antibacterial effects, suppressed proinflammatory effects, and reduced cell integrity damage. Oral ursodiol delivery to neonatal mice exhibited significant antibacterial effects and helped maintain colonic barrier integrity in mouse models of peritonitis sepsis and oral infection. UDCA supplementation attenuated colitis and recovered colonic SCFA production. To validate this, we performed fecal microbiota transplantations to inoculate ESBL-EAEC-infected neonatal mice. Microbiotas from UDCA-treated neonatal mice ameliorated colitis and hindgut commensal bacterial damage compared with that of the microbiotas from the control and placebo mice, as evidenced by colonization of abundant bacteria, including Oscillospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae, and Clostridia_UCG-014, and upregulated SCFA production. Conclusions This study provided the first evidence that UDCA could confer diarrhea resistance in ESBL-EAEC-infected newborn dairy calves. UDCA blocked bacterial growth and invasion both in vitro and in vivo, alleviated commensal bacterial dysbiosis during ESBL-EAEC infection in neonatal mouse models of sepsis and colitis via the TGR5-NF-κB axis, and upregulated SCFA production in the hindgut digesta. Our findings provide insight into the UDCA-mediated remission of ESBL-EAEC infections and the potential role of UDCA as an antibiotic alternative. Video abstract

In this research, a high-efficiency design method of the capacitive MEMS accelerometer is proposed. As the MEMS accelerometer has high precision and a compact structure, much research has been carried out, which mainly focused on the structural design and materials selection. To overcome the inconvenience and inaccuracy of the traditional design method, an orthogonal design and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm are introduced to improve the design efficiency. The whole process includes a finite element method (FEM) simulation, high-efficiency design, and verification. Through the theoretical analysis, the working mechanism of capacitive MEMS accelerometer is clear. Based on the comparison among the sweep calculation results of these parameters in the FEM software, four representative structural parameters are selected for further study, and they are le, nf, lf and wPM, respectively. le and lf are the length of the sensing electrode and fixed electrode on the right. nf is the number of electrode pairs, and wPM is the width of the mass block. Then, in order to reduce computation, an orthogonal design is adopted and finally, 81 experimental groups are produced. Sensitivity SV and mass Ma are defined as evaluation parameters, and structural parameters of experimental groups are imported into the FEM software to obtain the corresponding calculation results. These simulation data are imported into neural networks with the PSO algorithm. For a comprehensively accurate examination, three cases are used to verify our design method, and every case endows the performance parameters with different weights and expected values. The corresponding structural parameters of each case are given out after 24 iterations. Finally, the maximum calculation errors of SV and Ma are 1.2941% and 0.1335%, respectively, proving the feasibility of the high-efficiency design method.

Abstract Lithosphere of cratons and orogens generally reacts differently to tectonic events. Although these differences are mostly clear during the orogenic phases, understanding how they respond to tectonic reactivation is still challenging. Here, we report the first detailed apatite fission-track (AFT) study pinpointing the gradual transition between cratonic and orogenic lithosphere, using the case study of the São Francisco craton (SFC) and the adjacent Araçuaí-West Congo Orogen (AWCO), eastern Brazil. The collision that built the AWCO partially affected the inherited rift structures of the Paramirim Aulacogen, embedded in the São Francisco-Congo paleocontinent. Our data reveal a differential Phanerozoic exhumation between closely interspaced areas affected and not affected by the AWCO deformation. Samples from the SFC present slow and protracted basement cooling during the Phanerozoic, while samples from the orogen display rapid exhumation since the Eocene. An intermediate ~ N–S zone of c.40 km shows lower magnitude basement cooling during the Cenozoic, possibly because the propagation of AWCO deformation decreases towards the craton interior. Within the orogen, the Rio Pardo salient is the main reactive structure and probably results from the deformation of a master fault, inherited from its precursor rift. Here, we show how the magnitude of Phanerozoic denudation may be deeply associated with previous events of lithosphere weakening.

This work carried out the experimental investigation and model analysis on a GaN electrostatic discharge (ESD) clamp, which features a discharge high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) and a voltage divider formed by a lateral field effect rectifier (L-FER) chain and a resistor in series. Firstly, it is found through the experimental investigation, the turn-on voltage ( $V_{\mathrm {T}}$ ) of GaN ESD clamp’s static current is increased with the increase in L-FER’s number and the decrease in resistor’s value. Then, an analytical model is proposed to analyze the dependence of $V_{\mathrm {T}}$ on L-FER’s number and resistor’s value. And the analytical model exhibits a good consistency with the experimentally measured results, which confirms the validity of the presented analytical model. Lastly, the dependence of GaN ESD clamp’s transmission line pulsing characteristics on the L-FER’s number and resistor’s value is also analyzed. Similarly, GaN ESD clamp’s triggering voltage is also increased with the increase in L-FER’s number and the decrease in resistor’s value. The experimental investigation and model analysis of this work can be used to direct the design of GaN ESD clamp, and help to save a lot of manpower, material resources and time costs.

Abstract Thermal interface materials (TIM) represented by submicron silver adhesive provide a promising solution for ultra‐high heat dissipation in chip integration. However, it is difficult to accurately characterize the thermal performance of submicron silver adhesive interfaces, and their high‐temperature degradation mechanism still remains unclear. Herein, the accelerated high‐temperature aging experiments of submicron silver adhesion interfaces are performed, and a non‐destructive testing method is provided to measure the degeneration of interfacial thermal resistance (ITR). After performing the two‐sided test, ITR can be extracted with an error of less than 4.6%. Based on scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray microstructural analysis, the microstructural evolution of silver adhesive interfaces is presented and its high‐temperature degradation mechanism is determined. It is observed for the first time that ITR would change with the aging time following a bathtub curve. Such a degenerative process can be evidently divided into three stages including secondary solidification, fluctuation, and failure. In addition, a physical model is developed to interpret the degradation mechanism of ITR at high temperatures. The change in the trend of submicron silver body and TIM–solid contact thermal resistance at different stages is presented. This work helps promote submicron silver's application as high‐performance TIM.

Abstract The fault current of the high‐voltage and large‐capacity flexible DC power grid has the characteristics of a fast rising rate, high peak value, and large influence area; therefore, fault current suppression equipment suitable for the flexible DC power grid has become a research hotspot. First, the fault mechanism and fault current calculation associated with the DC converter are analysed in this study; subsequently, a multiport superconducting fault‐current‐limiting circuit breaker (SFCLCB) suitable for a flexible DC power grid is designed. The circuit breaker adopts ground drainage to transfer the fault current. It only needs to be equipped with a single‐way conduction power electronic switch group and the number of switches is not affected by the number of DC lines, considerably improving the cost effectiveness of the equipment. In addition, the workflow and current‐limiting principle of SFCLCB are analysed, and the optimal matching method is determined with respect to the resistance of the superconducting current limiter and the power electronic devices of the main circuit breaker. Afterwards, the four‐terminal flexible DC transmission simulation system is observed to exhibit high efficiency in suppressing the fault current and high cost effectiveness based on comparative simulations. Finally, its engineering applicability is verified by the digital physical and hybrid simulation platform.

Early gut microbiota development and colonization are crucial for the long-term health and performance of ruminants. However, cognition among these microbiota is still vague, particularly among the neonatal dairy calves. Here, extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing enteroaggregative E. coli (ESBL-EAEC)-induced temporal changes in diversity, stability, and composition of gut microbiota were investigated among the neonatal female calves, with the view of discerning potential biomarkers of this arising diarrhea cases in local pastures. Nearly, 116 newborn calves were enrolled in this time period study during their first 2 weeks of life, and a total of 40 selected fecal samples from corresponding calves were used in this study. The results revealed that differentiated gut microbiome and metabolome discerned from neonatal calves were accompanied by bacterial infections over time. Commensal organisms like Butyricicoccus, Faecalibacterium, Ruminococcus, Collinsella, and Coriobacterium, as key microbial markers, mainly distinguish “healthy” and “diarrheic” gut microbiome. Random forest machine learning algorithm indicated that enriched fecal carbohydrates, including rhamnose and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and abundant short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) existed in healthy ones. In addition, Spearman correlation results suggested that the presence of Butyricicoccus, Faecalibacterium, Collinsella, and Coriobacterium, key commensal bacteria of healthy calves, is positively related to high production of unabsorbed carbohydrates, SCFAs, and other prebiotics, and negatively correlated to increased concentrations of lactic acid, hippuric acid, and α-linolenic acid. Our data suggested that ESBL-EAEC-induced diarrhea in female calves could be forecasted by alterations in the gut microbiome and markedly changed unabsorbed carbohydrates in feces during early lives, which might be conducive to conduct early interventions to ameliorate clinical symptoms of diarrhea induced by the rising prevalence of ESBL-EAEC.

Abstract In this work, inorganic tin-doped perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) are incorporated into carbon-based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to improve their photovoltaic performance. On the one hand, by controlling the content of Sn2+ doping, the energy level of the tin-doped PQDs can be adjusted, to realize optimized band alignment and enhanced separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. On the other hand, the incorporation of tin-doped PQDs provided with a relatively high acceptor concentration due to the self-p-type doping effect is able to reduce the width of the depletion region near the back surface of the perovskite, thereby enhancing the hole extraction. Particularly, after the addition of CsSn0.2Pb0.8I3 quantum dots (QDs), improvement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) from 12.80 to 14.22% can be obtained, in comparison with the pristine device. Moreover, the experimental results are analyzed through the simulation of the one-dimensional perovskite/tin-doped PQDs heterojunction.

The in-wheel electric vehicle with distributed drive units has better stability and flexibility than traditional centralized drives, but may encounter a higher failure rate due to additional actuators and sensors, especially that the faults of the wheel-side position sensor make motor torque out of control. To overcome this problem, a fault-tolerant control strategy with a multi-states switching method is proposed. The strategy judges the sensor failure by verifying redundant speed information, realizes sensorless control schemes by flux-observer based algorithm in high-speed range and I-F control algorithm in low-speed range with low acoustic noise, and applies adaptive transition process between different control schemes. To pursuit high stability, the signal-to-noise analysis for fault judgment due to sensorless estimation accuracy is discussed. Meanwhile, the principle of I-F resonant oscillations during the transition process is initially deduced in detail, and the conclusion of stability condition is obtained. Finally, the influence of system parameters on resonance performance is analyzed by simulation, and the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed strategy for the risk-controlling process are verified by experiments.

AbstractBuilding-up of the modern Tian Shan range due to the India-Eurasia collision induces the flexural subsidence of the southern Junggar block. The sedimentary infill and subsidence in the southern Junggar foreland basin recorded the growth of the northern Tian Shan. We analyze four seismic profiles, well logging data, and trends in stream morphology in the foreland basin to decipher its architecture, and stratigraphic and subsidence history. The southern Junggar foreland basin system can be divided into the northern Tian Shan wedge-top, Lakes Aiby-Fangcao-Baijiahai foredeep and Luliang forebulge and backbulge depozones. The seismic profiles present the active shortening structures in the wedge top and the northward thinning and onlapping Neogene-Quaternary foreland sequence in the foredeep. The growth strata and unconformities separating the growth and pregrowth strata in the upper part of the foreland sequence are identified in the wedge top depozone. This indicates that the competition between active local folding relief and regional bedrock subsidence determines erosion versus deposition in the wedge top. The logging data of well GQ2 reveal that the present wedge-top depozone evolved from distal lake sedimentation, probably in a foredeep setting, to a braided river in a modern piedmont setting. These lines of sedimentary evidence and the active shortening structures reveal the northward migration process of the southern Junggar foreland basin driven by the northward propagation of the Tian Shan since the Neogene. The north-northeast dipping topography of the northern Tian Shan thrust wedge controls the north-northeastward flowing of all the rivers in the wedge top, and these rivers’ flowing direction changes in the foredeep depozone where the tectonic landform flatten out. Growth of anticlines in the front of the wedge-top depozone may have triggered a northward migration of the meandering channel of the Manas river in its lower reach. The transition between the trends of the stream morphology in the wedge top and foredeep depozones suggests the control of the structures of the foreland basin system on trends in stream morphology.

Abstract Icing and frosting on transparent surfaces compromise visibility on various optical equipment and transparent infrastructures. It remains challenging to fabricate energy‐saving coatings for harvesting solar energy while maintaining high transparency. Here, transparent, photothermic, and icephobic composite surfaces composed of photothermal nanomaterials and polyelectrolytes via layer‐by‐layer assembly are designed and constructed. The positively‐charged polypyrrole nanoparticles and negatively‐charged poly(acrylic acid) are assembled as exemplary materials via electrostatic attractions. The optically transparent photothermal coatings are successfully fabricated and exhibited photothermal capabilities and light‐transmittance performance. Among the various coatings applied, the seven‐bilayer coating can increase the temperature by 35 °C under 1.9‐sun illumination, maintaining high transmittance (>60%) of visible light. With sunlight illumination at subzero temperatures (> −35 °C), the coatings show pronounced capabilities to inhibit freezing, melt accumulated frost, and decrease ice adhesion. Precisely, the icephobic surfaces remain free of frost at −35 °C as long as sunlight illumination is present; the accumulated frost melts rapidly within 300 s. The ice adhesion strength decreases to ≈0 kPa as the melted water acts as a lubricant. Furthermore, the negatively‐charged graphene oxide and positively‐charged poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) show their material diversity applicable in the coating fabrication.

Calf diarrhea induced by enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC) spreads fast among young ruminants, causing continuous hazard to dairy industry. Antimicrobial drug abuse aggravates the incidence rate of multi-drug resistant (MDR) extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing E. coli (ESBL-EC). However, knowledge of detection and significance of disease-related biomarkers in neonatal female calves are still limited. Gallic acid (GA), a natural secondary metabolite mostly derived from plants, has attracted increasing attention for its excellent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties. However, it is vague how GA engenders amelioration effects on clinical symptoms and colitis induced by ESBL-EAEC infection in neonatal animals. Here, differentiated gut microbiome and fecal metabolome discerned from neonatal calves were analyzed to ascertain biomarkers in their early lives. Commensal Collinsella and Coriobacterium acted as key microbial markers mediating colonization resistance. In addition, there exists a strongly positive relation between GA, short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) or other prebiotics, and those commensals using random forest machine learning algorithm and Spearman correlation analyses. The protective effect of GA pretreatment on bacterial growth, cell adherence, and ESBL-EAEC-lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated Caco-2 cells were first assessed, and results revealed direct antibacterial effects and diminished colonic cell inflammation. Then, oral GA mediated colitis attenuation and recovery of colonic short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) productions on neonatal mice peritonitis sepsis or oral infection model. To corroborate this phenomenon, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) method was adopted to remedy the bacterial infection. Of note, FMT from GA-treated neonatal mice achieved profound remission of clinical symptoms and colitis over the other groups as demonstrated by antibacterial capability and prominent anti-inflammatory abilities, revealing improved hindgut microbiota structure with enriched Clostridia_UCG-014, Lachnospiraceae, Oscillospiraceae, and Enterococcaceae, and upregulation of SCFA productions. Collectively, our findings provided the direct evidence of hindgut microbiota and intestinal metabolites, discriminating the health status of neonatal calves post ESBL-EAEC infection. The data provided novel insights into GA-mediated remission of colitis via amelioration of hindgut commensal structure and upregulation of SCFA productions. In addition, its eminent role as potential antibiotic alternative or synergist for future clinic ESBL-EAEC control in livestock.

Pollen fertility is an agronomic trait that strongly influences rice yield. Recent studies have revealed that the development of the pollen wall is required for pollen fertility and is regulated by several genes. However, the mechanisms underlying pollen and pollen wall development in rice remain largely unknown. In the present study, a point mutation in a gene on chromosome 1 was identified that resulted in the production of less and shrunken pollen (LSP) and led to defects in pollen wall formation. This gene was named LSP1 and was found to encode a member of the adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC) transporter G subfamily, OsABCG3. Two other loss-of-function mutants of LSP1/OsABCG3, generated using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, showed the same male sterile phenotype. The LSP1/OsABCG3 gene showed a spatio-temporal expression pattern in the developing anthers, and is an ortholog of the Arabidopsis genes AtABCG1 and AtABCG16, which play an important role in pollen wall development. Mutation of LSP1/OsABCG3 affected the expression of several genes involved in pollen and pollen wall formation. These results suggest that LSP1/OsABCG3 is critical for normal pollen fertility and shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying rice pollen wall development.

MIS-HEMT is one of the most promising structures to prohibit the unfavorable gate leakage in conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. However, the extra insulator layer introduces massive border traps at insulator/AlGaN interface and results in the poor reliability. In this brief the energy distribution of border traps in AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT gate stack is extracted and investigated through a discharging-based trap energy profile technique. The technique adopts spot-Id sense measurement with 1 millisecond measurement time to capture the “whole (both fast and slow)” border traps. The results are beneficial to improve the reliability of AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMT.

The precise information of initial rotor position is very important to high performance Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (IPMSM) adopting incremental encoder, which can normally be obtained by the high-frequency (HF) rotating or pulsating voltage injection methods. However, the demodulation procedure may confront with the challenge of constrained stability and limited accuracy. For improving estimation accuracy, an improved impulse injection method with merits of simple and fast is proposed. It is carried out by generating a series of phase-axial injections to calculate the probable rotor position, then injecting two reciprocal voltage pulses to obtain the rotor polarity, and finally injecting iterative voltage vectors to obtain the real position rapidly. During the estimation process, the filters to extract the high frequency current signals are not needed. The method effectiveness is validated by the measured results of IPMSM test platform. In the same time, its application limitation is deduced by comparison with the measured results between IPMSM and surface-mounted PMSM (SPMSM). It is shown that the estimation algorithm is compatible with motor parameter differences and can reduce the influence of inductance saturation and nonlinear voltage error. Therefore, the proposed method not only improves the accuracy and robustness of the PMSM sensorless startup control, but also ensures the fast response.

Kinematic Calibration is an effective and economical way to improve the accuracy of the six degree-of-freedom (DoF) parallel kinematic machine (PKM), named as Stewart platform, for the large component assembly in aviation or aerospace. The conventional online calibration requires a powerful and complicated control system, whereas the current offline calibration methods are not satisfactory in terms of the compromise between efficiency and accuracy. This paper proposes a semi-online calibration method in which the geometric errors are identified offline and compensated online. The geometric errors are inserted into the inverse kinematic model. Instead of formulating the linear mapping model between geometric errors and the pose error of moving platform, the error model is written as the function of geometric errors with respect to the actuation inputs. Hence, a nonlinear error model is obtained. Without worrying about the identifiability, the error identification equations are converted into an optimization problem and solved by the hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA). In the traditional offline compensation, the identified kinematic parameters are adopted to modify the nominal kinematic model, which is inconvenient when the control system is not transparent to the users. A new control block that calculating the equivalent actuation inputs from the identified errors is added to the control flow. The errors are compensated in an efficient manner. Simulations and experiments are implemented to validate the accuracy, efficiency and convenience of the proposed method. The results indicate that our approach improves position and orientation accuracy of the Stewart platform by 85.1% and 91.0%.

Memtransistor, a hybrid structure that integrates the function of memristor and transistor, is a promising device prototype for the realization of complex neuromorphic learning owing to its diverse functionality and additional flexibility in emulating synaptic behaviors. Memtransistor of two-dimensional (2D) chalcogenide materials have received many interests as it has distinctive memristive mechanism quite different from conventional oxide memristors. Here, we report a memtransistor based on the two-dimensional thin films (2DTFs) of non-layered β-In2S3. The In2S3 2DTFs grown by physical vapor deposition method have microscopically visible grain boundaries (GBs) formed by the stacking and interconnecting of 2D In2S3 flakes. The memtransistors of In2S3 2DTFs show tunable bipolar resistive states with resistance ratio up to 105, endurance over 200 cycles, and a retention time of 104 s. Illumination of laser light from visible and near-infrared are able to induce intermediate resistance states in memtransistors, enabling optical-modulated multilevel memory storage. Also, the memtransistors are able to emulate the synaptic function of long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) with tunable synaptic weight in response to presynaptic stimuli of drain/gate pulses. Interestingly, the plasticity of LTP and LTD behavior can be switched in a highly tunable manner by simply varying the gate voltages. The diverse optoelectronic properties and controllable functionality of memtransistors based on the emerging 2D In2S3 offer a useful guide to potential application in electronic memory and artificial synapses.

Smart home scheduling, facilitated by advanced metering, monitoring, and manipulation technology, plays an important role in the energy transition in terms of accommodating intermittent renewable energy and improving energy consumption efficiency. The key functionalities of home energy scheduling are usually implemented by leveraging the flexibility of household appliances, such as thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) and energy storage units, to improve the peak-to-average ratio for utilities and reduce energy bills for customers. However, the consumption patterns of appliances are greatly influenced by a variety of factors, including real-time tariffs, ambient temperature profiles, indoor activities, and solar irradiance. Hence, smart home energy scheduling is a challenging task because most of these impacting factors are stochastic and difficult to predict. To properly model and manage the uncertainty factors associated with smart home appliance scheduling, an economic model predictive control (MPC)-based bilevel smart scheduling scheme is proposed in this paper. The comprehensive modeling of distributed generation and household appliances is performed at the single-household level. The home energy scheduling problem is formulated on two levels, with the upper level emphasizing the economic impact and the lower level focusing on capturing TCL responses. The correlations among different TCLs and their performance under the influence of various uncertainty factors, such as environmental impacts and user behaviors, are considered. The efficiency of the proposed MPC-based bilevel optimization model and the effectiveness of the home energy scheduling strategy in managing uncertainties are validated and illustrated in numerical studies.

Pole-to-ground (PTG) fault analysis is of vital importance for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) grid. However, many factors are not considered in the existing studies such as the asymmetrical property of PTG fault, the coupling issue between DC transmission lines and the complexity of the structure of DC grid. This paper presents a PTG fault analysis method, which is based on common- and differential-mode (CDM) transformation. Similar to the symmetrical component method in AC system, the transformation decomposes the HVDC grid into CDM networks, which is balanced and decoupled. Then, a transfer impedance is defined and calculated based on the impedance matrices of the CDM networks. With the transfer impedance, analytical expressions of fault characteristics that vary with space and time are obtained. The proposed PTG fault analysis method is applicable to arbitrary HVDC grid topologies, and provides a new perspective to understand the fault mechanism. Moreover, the analytical expressions offer theoretical guidance for PTG fault protection. The validity of the proposed PTG fault analysis method is verified in comparison with the simulation results in PSCAD/EMTDC.

The high-voltage direct current (HVDC) grid has been recognized as an effective solution for renewable energy integration. Currently, two main development trends for HVDC grids are being studied: a DC breaker based HVDC grid and fault-blocking converter based HVDC grid. Although the former has a perfect performance for fault clearance, its development is still highly constrained by the cost and maturity of DC breakers. The latter can extinguish DC faults by the fault-blocking converters. Without using DC breakers, there is no bottleneck in its technical feasibility. Nevertheless, in fault scenarios, such types of HVDC grids will be blocked at length for air-deionization, which is its main drawback. The aim of this paper is to minimize its power interruption time, by optimizing protection coordination strategies. To cover the most complex cases, the overhead line applications, in which the reclosure actions are required to be implemented, are considered. In this paper, the protection requirements of HVDC grids are first discussed, then the benefits of fault-blocking modular multilevel converters (MMCs) and their fault features are analyzed. Based on this, a control function is designed to reduce the air-deionization time. To minimize the influence of the DC faults, a separation methodology for restarting the system is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed protection coordination schemes is validated by PSCAD/EMTDC simulations.

The automatic synthesis of realistic gestures has the ability to change the fields of animation, avatars, and communication agents. Although speech-driven synthetic gesture generation methods have been proposed and optimized, the evaluation system of synthetic gestures is still lacking. The current evaluation method still needs manual participation, but it is inefficient in the industry of synthetic gestures and has the interference of human factors. So we need a model that can construct an automatic and objective quantitative quality assessment of the synthesized gesture video. We noticed that recurrent neural networks (RNN) have advantages in modeling advanced spatiotemporal feature sequences, which are very suitable for use in the processing of synthetic gesture video data. Therefore, to build an automatic quality assessment system, we propose in our work a model based on Bi-LSTM and make a little adjustment on the attention mechanism in it. Also, the evaluation method is proposed and experiments are designed to prove that the improved model of the algorithm can complete the quantitative evaluation of synthetic gestures. At the same time, in terms of performance, the model has an improvement of about 20% compared to before the algorithm adjustment.

To study the working performance of 3D stacked chips, a double-layer stacked GaN MISHEMTs structure was designed to study the electro-thermal characteristics and heat transfer process of stacked chips. Firstly, the electrical characteristics of double-layer and single-layer GaN MISHEMTs are compared at room temperature. Under the same conditions, the output current of double-layer GaN MISHEMTs is twice that of single-layer GaN MISHEMTs, but its off-state current is much higher than that of a single-layer device. Meanwhile, there is no significant difference between the threshold voltages of the double-layer and single-layer GaN MISHEMTs. Then, the effect of temperature on the electrical characteristics of double-layer GaN MISHEMTs is also investigated. When the temperature increased from room temperature to 150 °C, the device’s threshold voltage gradually shifted negatively, the output current of the device decreased, and the off-state current of the device increased. Furthermore, a thermal resistance network model has been established to analyze the thermal characteristics of the stacked GaN MISHEMTs. The relative error between the results calculated according to the model and the experimental results does not exceed 4.26%, which verified the correctness and accuracy of the presented model to predict the temperature distribution of the stacked GaN MISHEMTs.

The main formation of the Yinggehai Basin has been related to the rotation of the Indochina block, resulting in large-scale strike-slip motion along the Red River Fault Zone (RRFZ). Transrotational tectonics played a key role in the evolution of the Yinggehai Basin. In this study, we present analog experiments with a preexisting basal velocity discontinuity boundary, rotation of crustal blocks concerning vertical axes, and syntectonic sedimentations to evaluate how the transrotational tectonics controls the evolutionary process of the Yinggehai Basin. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to monitor the deformation of the model surface. Four successive poles of rotation have been applied to the model. The basin evolution underwent two phases. An early phase of deformation is characterized by the nucleation of the main internal faults above the velocity discontinuity boundary and segmented en echelon border fault systems. In the early phase, the internal and boundary faults mainly accommodated large-scale strike-slip displacement. During progressive extension, the main internal faults deactivated, and tectonic activity is localized along the boundary and secondary internal faults in the late phase. The boundary faults in the rotating block play a dominant role in the widening and deepening of the rift zone at an accelerating rate. The model surface morphology shows similarities to the Yinggehai Basin, which is wide in the middle and converges toward the northwest and southeast. In addition, experimental profiles have been compared with seismic profiles in the Yinggehai Basin. The model results also indicate that the rotation of the Indochina block combines with strong strike-slip motion. The similarities between modeling and nature provide support for ∼250 km sinistral displacement along the RRFZ between ∼32 and ∼21 Ma.

Increasing deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) is re-sculpturing the modern power systems in recent years. Future smart power distribution systems should be competent at accommodating extensive integration of DERs and managing the associated uncertainties at the distribution level. The electricity market has been proved to be an efficient way to employ market signals to direct behaviors of users and DERs with large capacity and homogeneous pattern. However, existing market frameworks cannot effectively handle a large number of small-scale DERs due to their diverse characteristics and arbitrary behavior patterns. In this context, an aggregated model which can represent and manage a diverse collection of DER, load, and storage is proposed. An additional trading platform, namely the energy sharing market, is established to reinforce the coordination and collaboration among various aggregators as well as operators. Energy sharing scheme is applied and a corresponding dynamic dispatch platform is designed to solve the crowdsource problem. The efficiency of the proposed model is validated by the numerical studies, and the market performance and impacts of energy sharing on the power systems are illustrated.

Melanin is a kind of dark insoluble pigment that can cause pigmentation and free-radical clearance, inducing melasma, freckles, and chloasma, affecting the quality of life of patients. Due to poor water solubility and low safety, the absorption of poorly water-soluble drugs is limited by the hinderance of a skin barrier. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new, safe, and highly efficient drugs to improve their transdermal absorption efficiency and thus to inhibit the production of melanin. To address these issues, we developed a new nicotinamide (NIC)-stabilized phloretin nanocrystals (PHL-NCs). First, NC technology significantly increased the solubility of PHL. The in vitro release results indicated that at 6 h, the dissolution of the PHL-NIC-NCs was 101.39% ± 2.40% and of the PHL-NCs was 84.92% ± 4.30%, while that of the physical mixture of the two drugs was only 64.43% ± 0.02%. Second, NIC acted not only as a stabilizer to enlarge the storage time of PHL-NIC-NCs (improved to 10-day in vitro stability) but also as a melanin transfer inhibitor to inhibit melanin production. Finally, we verified the melanin inhibition effect of PHL-NIC-NCs evaluated by the zebrafish model. It showed that 0.38 mM/L PHL-NIC-NCs have a lower tyrosinase activity at 62.97% ± 0.52% and have less melanin at 36.57% ± 0.44%. The inhibition effect of PHL-NCs and PHL-NIC-NCs was stronger compared to the positive control arbutin. In conclusion, the combination of NIC and PHL achieves better inhibition of tyrosinase and inhibition of melanin production through synergism. This will provide a direction to the subsequent development of melanin-inhibiting drugs and the combined use of pharmaceutical agents.