GU Qi-chun1, HE Wen-hui1, WANG Xiang1, ZHUANG Bing-jian2, ZHANG Jie2
EP 200 fabric core conveyor belt as the research object, firstly the sample data of stress and strain were obtained through tensile strength test, secondly the data distribution was preliminary tested using QQ chart, and then the kernel density fitting probability distribution was used to verify the K-S fitting degree and correctness of the data, and finally the process capacity index of the fabric core conveyor belt was calculated. The results showed that the tensile strength distribution of the fabric core conveyor belt roughly followed a normal distribution, the kernel density estimation method could effectively solve the problem of insufficient sample data and had certain advantages in engineering, and the process capacity index could not match the yield rate of the product. Further analysis of the factors affecting the stability of full- thickness tensile strength would be beneficial for optimizing the production of conveyor belts.
Navya Jaiswal, Shrijeet Chakraborti, Neema Tiwari
et al.
Introduction: Peripheral neuropathy is common in clinical practice, with a reported prevalence of 2.4% in the general population. There are numerous aetiologies for peripheral neuropathy like diabetes, ischaemia, vasculitis, inflammatory demyelinating disorders, nutritional deficiencies, paraproteinemic disorders, paraneoplastic syndromes, toxic exposures, and hereditary neuropathies. An exhaustive haematological, biochemical, and serological work-up, cerebrospinal fluid evaluation, electrodiagnostic tests, and nerve biopsy are required when overlapping clinical features present a diagnostic challenge.
Aim: To analyse the histopathological characteristics of nerve biopsies in individuals with peripheral neuropathy.
Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology at Kasturba Medical College from January 2011 to December 2016. Nerve biopsies received in the Department of Pathology, Kasturba Medical College and Hospitals in the Ambedkar Circle and Attavar area, as well as at Government Wenlock Hospital, Mangaluru, Karnataka, India were studied. Clinical and laboratory data were collected from biopsy requisition forms and patient case records from the aforementioned hospitals. Results were presented in numbers and percentages.
Results: A total of 134 nerve biopsies were included in the study. The age range of all cases studied was 7-86 years, with a mean age of 51.8 years. The study population consisted of 63.4% males and 36.6% females, resulting in a male-to-female ratio of 1.7:1. Vasculitic Neuropathy (VN) accounted for 38.1% cases, followed by chronic inflammatory neuropathies (21.7%) and Diabetic Neuropathy (DN) (12.6%). Other diagnosis included ischaemic neuropathy (6.7%), Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy (HMSN) (3.7%), subacute inflammatory demyelinating neuropathy (3.0%), as well as two cases each of Hansen’s neuritis, amyloid neuropathy, and acute inflammatory demyelinating neuropathy (1.5% each). One case of toxic neuropathy (0.7%) was identified, while 9.0% of cases displayed histological features that were either non specific or not characteristic of any specific diagnosis.
Conclusion: Vasculitic neuropathy was found to be the most common aetiology of peripheral neuropathy, followed by Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) and DN. The histopathological examination of nerve biopsies is a useful tool in distinguishing between diseases with overlapping clinical features, confirming or excluding vasculitis, and diagnosing hereditary conditions in settings where genetic testing is unavailable or unaffordable.
There are numerous well-established parameters to judge and evaluate the standard of a medical journal like quality of its contents and geographic distribution of manuscripts, it attracts for publication, indexation and coverage in important indexes and databases like Medline, Web of Sciences by Clarivate known for its Impact Factor (IF), PubMed Central, Scopus etc., journal visibility and readership, timely regular publication. Impact Factor is one of the criteria and not the only criteria, which should be used to judge the standard of a journal. However, too much importance being given to the Impact Factor by the regulatory bodies in Pakistan as well as by medical institutions, asking those doing PhD to publish their research work in Impact Factor journals has created a crisis like situation not only for the researchers but also made the life of the IF journal editors miserable. They are under tremendous pressure to accommodate more and more papers by the authors anxious for early publication to meet certain deadlines for the completion of their research project and award of degrees while the editors on their part are faced with a dilemma due to human resource and financial resource constraints. In an environment where political stability remains in short supply most of the time, law and order situation is unpredictable, not to forget the frequent breakdown of electricity and inefficient internet service, it is not possible to either increase the frequency of publications or plan some other measures which all call for additional investment. Finding trained human resource and then retaining those remains a constant problem.
Abstract Kagome lattices of various transition metals are versatile platforms for achieving anomalous Hall effects, unconventional charge-density wave orders and quantum spin liquid phenomena due to the strong correlations, spin-orbit coupling and/or magnetic interactions involved in such a lattice. Here, we use laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy in combination with density functional theory calculations to investigate the electronic structure of the newly discovered kagome superconductor CsTi3Bi5, which is isostructural to the AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb or Cs) kagome superconductor family and possesses a two-dimensional kagome network of titanium. We directly observe a striking flat band derived from the local destructive interference of Bloch wave functions within the kagome lattice. In agreement with calculations, we identify type-II and type-III Dirac nodal lines and their momentum distribution in CsTi3Bi5 from the measured electronic structures. In addition, around the Brillouin zone centre, $${{\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}$$ Z 2 nontrivial topological surface states are also observed due to band inversion mediated by strong spin-orbit coupling.
Valentina Trovato, Silvia Sfameni, Giulia Rando
et al.
In recent years thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for the development of miniaturized and wearable sensors has skyrocketed. Among them, novel sensors for wearable medical devices are mostly needed. The aim of this review is to summarize the advancements in this field from current points of view, focusing on sensors embedded into textile fabrics. Indeed, they are portable, lightweight, and the best candidates for monitoring biometric parameters. The possibility of integrating chemical sensors into textiles has opened new markets in smart clothing. Many examples of these systems are represented by color-changing materials due to their capability of altering optical properties, including absorption, reflectance, and scattering, in response to different external stimuli (temperature, humidity, pH, or chemicals). With the goal of smart health monitoring, nanosized sol–gel precursors, bringing coupling agents into their chemical structure, were used to modify halochromic dyestuffs, both minimizing leaching from the treated surfaces and increasing photostability for the development of stimuli-responsive sensors. The literature about the sensing properties of functionalized halochromic azo dyestuffs applied to textile fabrics is reviewed to understand their potential for achieving remote monitoring of health parameters. Finally, challenges and future perspectives are discussed to envisage the developed strategies for the next generation of functionalized halochromic dyestuffs with biocompatible and real-time stimuli-responsive capabilities.
In a complex network, some nodes are relatively concentrated in topological structure, thus forming a relatively independent node group, which we call a community. Usually, there are multiple communities on a network, and these communities are interconnected and exchange information with each other. A node that plays an important role in the process of information exchange between communities is called an inter-community bridge node. Traditional methods of defining and detecting bridge nodes mostly quantify the bridging effect of nodes by collecting local structural information of nodes and defining index operations. However, on the one hand, it is often difficult to capture the deep topological information in complex networks based on a single indicator, resulting in inaccurate evaluation results; on the other hand, for networks without community structure, such methods may rely on community partitioning algorithms, which require significant computing power. In this paper, considering the multi-dimensional attributes and structural characteristics of nodes, a deep learning-based framework named BND is designed to quickly and accurately detect bridge nodes. Considering that the bridging function of nodes between communities is abstract and complex, and may be related to the multi-dimensional information of nodes, we construct an attribute graph on the basis of the original graph according to the features of the five dimensions of the node to meet our needs for extracting bridging-related attributes. In the deep learning model, we overlay graph neural network layers to process the input attribute graph and add fully connected layers to improve the final classification effect of the model. Graph neural network algorithms including GCN, GAT, and GraphSAGE are compatible with our proposed framework. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first application of graph neural network techniques in the field of bridge node detection. Experiments show that our designed framework can effectively capture network topology information and accurately detect bridge nodes in the network. In the overall model effect evaluation results based on indicators such as Accuracy and F1 score, our proposed graph neural network model is generally better than baseline methods. In the best case, our model has an Accuracy of 0.9050 and an F1 score of 0.8728.
Extensive research work has been carried out on the generation and application of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS). LIPSS with a sub-wavelength period generated by femtosecond laser irradiation, generally indicated as ripples, have been extensively investigated. Instead, the other ordered surface structures characterized by a supra-wavelength period, indicated as grooves, have been much less studied. Grooves typically form at larger irradiance levels or for higher number of laser pulses. Here, we report a comprehensive overview of recent investigations on the supra-wavelength grooves formed on crystalline silicon irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses. The authors’ recent experimental work is mainly addressed giving an explicit picture of the grooves generation process, namely illustrating the influence of the various experimental parameters, including, e.g., polarization, wavelength, fluence and repetition rate of the laser beam as well as number of laser pulses hitting the surface of the material. The effect of irradiation of a static or moving target and of the environmental conditions (e.g., vacuum or air ambient) will also be discussed. Finally, possible mechanisms envisaged to explain grooves formation and still open issues are briefly discussed.
The title compound, C13H10O2, crystallizes with two almost planar molecules in the asymmetric unit. In the crystal, slipped π–π stacking interactions help to establish the packing with the shortest centroid–centroid separation being 3.8195 (18) Å.
Elena D’Amato, Constantino Carlos Reyes-Aldasoro, Arianna Consiglio
et al.
This work describes a non-invasive, automated software framework to discriminate between individuals with a genetic disorder, Pitt–Hopkins syndrome (PTHS), and healthy individuals through the identification of morphological facial features. The input data consist of frontal facial photographs in which faces are located using histograms of oriented gradients feature descriptors. Pre-processing steps include color normalization and enhancement, scaling down, rotation, and cropping of pictures to produce a series of images of faces with consistent dimensions. Sixty-eight facial landmarks are automatically located on each face through a cascade of regression functions learnt via gradient boosting to estimate the shape from an initial approximation. The intensities of a sparse set of pixels indexed relative to this initial estimate are used to determine the landmarks. A set of carefully selected geometric features, for example, the relative width of the mouth or angle of the nose, is extracted from the landmarks. The features are used to investigate the statistical differences between the two populations of PTHS and healthy controls. The methodology was tested on 71 individuals with PTHS and 55 healthy controls. The software was able to classify individuals with an accuracy rate of 91%, while pediatricians achieved a recognition rate of 74%. Two geometric features related to the nose and mouth showed significant statistical difference between the two populations.
The members of the avidin protein family are well known for their high affinity towards d-biotin and their structural stability. These properties make avidins a valuable tool for various biotechnological applications. In the present study, two avidin-like biotin-binding proteins (named streptavidin C1 and C2) from Streptomyces cinnamonensis were newly identified while exploring antifungal proteins against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum. Streptavidin C1 reveals a low correlation (a sequence identity of approximately 64%) with all known streptavidins, whereas streptavidin C2 shares a sequence identity of approximately 94% with other streptavidins. Here, the crystal structures of streptavidin C1 in the mature form and in complex with biotin at 2.1 and 2.5 Å resolution, respectively, were assessed. The overall structures present similar tetrameric features with D2 symmetry to other (strept)avidin structures. Interestingly, the long C-terminal region comprises a short α-helix (C-Lid; residues 169–179) and an extension C-terminal peptide (ECP; residues 180–191) which stretches into the biotin-binding sites of the same monomer. This ECP sequence (–180VTSANPPAS188–) is a newly defined biotin-binding site, which reduces the ability to bind to (strept)avidin family proteins. The novel streptavidin C1 could help in the development of an engineered tetrameric streptavidin with reduced biotin-binding capacity as well as other biomaterial tools.
The unprecedented global warming process causes the shrinking of sea ice in the polar region every year; hence, in order to withstand the harsh environment of this region as well as to reduce the transportation cost, a large number of high-strength steels are required to build icebreakers. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the corrosion behavior of both water-quenched and air-cooled low- carbon steels in 3.5% artificial NaCl solution. It was found that after the corrosion of lamellar ferrites in pearlites and martensites, the remaining cementites aggravated the galvanic corrosion and the pitting corrosion in the matrix. Further, dislocation and the presence of large fractions of cementite in the matrix deteriorated the corrosion resistance property of the directly water-quenched sample. However, the aircooling process significantly improved the corrosion resistance behavior of the sample steel.
Industrial electrochemistry, Physical and theoretical chemistry
Alexandre FRANCO, Arnaldo Alves CARDOSO, Andrew G. ALLEN
A amostragem de amônia no ar é feita usualmente com filtro impregnado com ácido. O ácido ascórbico, quando usado como impregnante, é facilmente oxidado em meio básico e aquoso, gerando uma solução fortemente colorida que inviabiliza a determinação por colorimetria. Este trabalho apresenta um novo procedimento para extração do íon amônio dos filtros de amostragem, transferindo o íon amônio para uma gota de solução contendo ácido sulfúrico 0,1 mol L-1. A amostra do filtro é inicialmente solubilizada com água. A solução é colocada dentro de uma câmara com posterior adição de solução de NaOH 1,5 mol L-1. Com a ajuda de com borbulhamento de nitrogênio, a amônia formada passa para a fase gasosa, sendo finalmente recolhida para uma gota de ácido sulfúrico. A esta gota é adicionado um reagente e o produto determinado colorimetricamente pela reação do indofenol. Além da eliminação de interferentes, o procedimento apresenta a vantagem de fazer uma nova pré-concentração da amônia, possibilitando melhorar o limite de detecção do método de determinação.
The aim of this paper was to analyze the historical approaches to the periodic table in general chemistry textbooks used in Brazilian universities in the twentieth century. Textbooks were qualitatively analyzed according to the following criteria: position of the discussion about the periodic table in the book; presence or absence of a specific chapter on the subject; presentation of attempts to classify chemical elements before Mendeleev; presentation of the construction process of the periodic table by Mendeleev; identification of problems in the original table; discussion of Mendeleev's predictions about unknown elements; organization of the periodic table; periodic properties presented and discussed; and the enunciation of the periodic law. The analysis revealed different approaches at specific periods of the twentieth century, from more descriptive approaches to emphasis on attempts to explain the periodic table in terms of atomic orbitals. These changes point to different ways of understanding chemistry during the period studied.
Mohammad Mehdi Amin, Mohammad Sadegh Hatamipour, Fariborz Momenbeik
et al.
The integration of bioventing (BV) and soil vapor extraction (SVE) appears to be an effective combination method for soil decontamination. This paper serves two main purposes: it evaluates the effects of soil water content (SWC) and air flow rate on SVE and it investigates the transition regime between BV and SVE for toluene removal from sandy soils. 96 hours after air injection, more than 97% removal efficiency was achieved in all five experiments (carried out for SVE) including 5, 10, and 15% for SWC and 250 and 500 mL/min for air flow rate on SVE. The highest removal efficiency (>99.5%) of toluene was obtained by the combination of BV and SVE (AIBV: Air Injection Bioventing) after 96 h of air injection at a constant flow rate of 250 mL/min. It was found that AIBV has the highest efficiency for toluene removal from sandy soils and can remediate the vadose zone effectively to meet the soil guideline values for protection of groundwater.
Hiroaki Amakawa, Kenji Fukuzawa, Mitsuhiro Shikida
et al.
Conventional friction force microscopes (FFMs), where micro cantilever probes are used, have a disadvantage that the accurate quantification of friction force has not been established yet. This comes from the difficulty of measurement of the probe torsion angle. On the other hand, a recently developed dual-axis micro-mechanical probe does not require the torsion angle but the lateral displacement for the quantification of friction force. This probe measures the friction force with a double cantilever beam and the normal force with a torsion beam. Since the measurement of the lateral displacement is easier than that of the torsion angle, the dual-axis micro-mechanical probe is expected to provide more accurate and reproducible quantification. In this paper, we investigated two calibration methods for dual-axis micro-mechanical probes; probe adhesion and step structure methods. The probe adhesion method showed rather poor reproducibility for the lateral displacement detection. In contrast, the step structure method showed good reproducibility and good accuracy with the minimum detection limit of the order of 0.1 nm, which corresponds to the friction force of sub-nN for the probes with a spring constant of the order of 1 N/m. The dual-axis micro-mechanical probe can be used to quantify the nanotribological properties accurately.
Cédric Reuter, Jörg M. Neudörfl, Hans-Günther Schmalz
In the title compound, K+·C6H8NO4−, the K+ cations have a coordination number of seven and are surrounded by four bidentate azinate anions. The methylene groups of the anions are always directed towards the coordinated potassium cations. The N—C—C—C torsion angle is 101.2 (2)°. The orthogonal non-conjugated nature of the salt confirms the supposed geometry and reactivity of this compound.