A theoretical study of the signal enhancement mechanism of coaxial DP-LIBS

In the field of dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(DP-LIBS)research,the pursuit of methods for determining pulse intervals and other parameters quickly and conveniently in order to achieve optimal spectral signal enhancement is paramount.To aid researchers in identification of optimal signal enhancement conditions and more accurate interpretation of the underlying signal enhancement mechanisms,theoretical simulations of the spatiotemporal processes of coaxial DP-LIBS-induced plasma have been established in this work.Using a model based on laser ablation and two-dimensional axisymmetric fluid dynamics,plasma evolutions during aluminum–magnesium alloy laser ablation under single-pulse and coaxial dualpulse excitations have been simulated.The influences of factors,such as delay time,laser fluence,plasma temperature,and particle number density,on the DP-LIBS spectral signals are investigated.Under pulse intervals ranging from 50 to 1500 ns,the time evolutions of spectral line intensity,dual-pulse emission enhancement relative to the single-pulse results,laser irradiance,spatial distribution of plasma temperature and species number density,as well as laser irradiance shielded by plasma have been obtained.The study indicates that the main reason behind the radiation signal enhancement in coaxial DP-LIBS-induced plasma is attributed to the increased species number density and plasma temperature caused by the second laser,and it is inferred that the shielding effect of the plasma mainly occurs in the boundary layer of the stagnation point flow over the target surface.This research provides a theoretical basis for experimental research,parameter optimization,and signal enhancement tracing in DP-LIBS.

Adaptive Signal Enhancement Unit for EEG Analysis in Remote Patient Care Monitoring Systems

In this paper we propose an efcient process of physiological artifact elimination methodology from brain waves(BW),which are also commonly known as electroencephalogram(EEG)signal.In a clinical environment during the acquisition of BW several artifacts contaminates the actual BW component.This leads to inaccurate and ambiguous diagnosis.As the statistical nature of the EEG signal is more non-stationery,adaptive ltering is the more promising method for the process of artifact elimination.In clinical conditions,the conventional adaptive techniques require many numbers of computational operations and leads to data samples overlapping and instability of the algorithm used.This causes delay in diagnosis and decision making.To overcome this problem in our work we propose to set a threshold value to diminish the problem of round off error.The resultant adaptive algorithm based on this strategy is Non-linear Least mean square(NL2MS)algorithm.Again,to improve this algorithm in terms of ltering capability we perform data normalization,using this algorithm several hybrid versions are developed to improve ltering and reduce computational operations.Using the method,a new signal enhancement unit(SEU)is realized and performance of various hybrid versions of algorithms examined using real EEG signals recorded from the subject.The ability of the proposed schemes is measured in terms of convergence,enhancement and multiplications required.Among various SEUs,the MCN2L 2MS algorithm achieves 14.6734,12.8732,10.9257,15.7790 dB during the artifact removal of RA,EMG,CSA and EBA components with only two multiplications.Hence,this algorithm seems to be better candidate for artifact elimination.

Dual-band dynamic reconfigurable intelligent surface for signal enhancement in millimeter wave

Millimeter wave with large bandwidth,high transmission rate,and low delay is considered a reliable alternative to cope with the spectrum shortage.However,the fast attenuation and narrow beam characteristics make it difficult to achieve long-distance or wide-range applications.Here,a 1-bit dual-band reflective reconfigurable intelligent surface(RIS)for signal enhancement in millimeter wave with 16×16 elements is designed,fabricated,and measured.Different from most existent RIS,dynamic programming is realized at two separate frequency bands by integrating the PIN diodes and field-programmable gate array(FPGA).Particularly,the beam deflection,dual-beam,and multi-beam are created based on the coding theory and convolution operation,proving the effectiveness of wavefront manipulation.Moreover,the far-field patterns and signal power with different coding sequences are measured and compared.It is indicated that the received signal power is 6–7 dB stronger than that without coding,which shows good agreement with the desired expectations.The proposed reconfigurable metasurface exhibits great potential in beam forming,making it a promising candidate for progressive wireless communication applications.

Detection of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions by adaptive signal enhancement

Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) has been considered as an excellent objective tool in clinics for diagnosing hearing loss. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and correlation coefficient of OAEs are very important for the purpose of diagnosis. An adaptive signal enhancer (ASE) based on the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm is presented to detect transient evoked OAEs (TEOAEs). The TEOAEs detection results from 106 ears show that ASE reaches better estimation of TEOAEs than a conventional ensemble averaging (EA) technique. With the ASE, the improvement of SNR was increased faster than that with the EA and the number of sweeps required can be markedly reduced. The detection time with ASE could be shortened by about 50% in comparison with that of EA.

An algorithm to remove noise from locomotive bearing vibration signal based on self-adaptive EEMD filter

An improved ensemble empirical mode decomposition(EEMD) algorithm is described in this work, in which the sifting and ensemble number are self-adaptive. In particular, the new algorithm can effectively avoid the mode mixing problem. The algorithm has been validated with a simulation signal and locomotive bearing vibration signal. The results show that the proposed self-adaptive EEMD algorithm has a better filtering performance compared with the conventional EEMD. The filter results further show that the feature of the signal can be distinguished clearly with the proposed algorithm, which implies that the fault characteristics of the locomotive bearing can be detected successfully.

Re-Heating Effect on the Enhancement of Plasma Emission Generated from Fe Under Femtosecond Double-Pulse Laser Irradiation

In this paper, we present a study on the effect of inter-pulse delay using femtosecond double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in a collinear geometry. The temporal evolution of spectral intensity is performed for the lines of Fe I 423.60 nm, Fe I 425.08 nm and Fe I 427.18 nm. It is found that, by selecting appropriate inter-pulse delay, the signal enhancement can be significantly increased compared with the single-pulse case. A three-fold enhancement in the current experiment is obtained. The plasma temperature and electron density are also investigated based on the theory of Boltzmann plot and Stark broadening. We attribute the main mechanism for emission enhancement to the plasma re-heating effect.

Reduced EGFR signaling enhances cartilage destruction in a mouse osteoarthritis model

Osteoarthritis （OA） is a degenerative joint disease and a major cause of pain and disability in older adults. We have previously identified epidermal growth factor receptor （EGFR） signaling as an important regulator of cartilage matrix degradation during epiphyseal cartilage development. To study its function in OA progression, we performed surgical destabilization of the medial meniscus （DMM） to induce OA in two mouse models with reduced EGFR activity, one with genetic modification （, was/＋ mice） and the other one with pharmacological inhibition （gefitinib treatment）. Histological analyses and scoring at 3 months post-surgery revealed increased cartilage destruction and accelerated OA progression in both mouse models. TUNEL staining demonstrated that EGFR signaling protects chondrocytes from OA-induced apoptosis, which was further confirmed in primary chondrocyte culture. Immunohistochemistry showed increased aggrecan degradation in these mouse models, which coincides with elevated amounts of ADAMTS5 and matrix metalloproteinase 13 （MMP13）, the principle proteinases responsible for aggrecan degradation, in the articular cartilage after DMM surgery. Furthermore, hypoxia-inducible factor 2α （HIF2α）, a critical catabolic transcription factor stimulating MMP13 expression during OA, was also upregulated in mice with reduced EGFR signaling. Taken together, our findings demonstrate a primarily protective role of EGFR during OA progression by regulating chondrocyte survival and cartilage degradation.

TLR signaling that induces weak inflammatory response and SHIP1 enhances osteogenic functions

Toll-like receptor （TLR）-mediated inflammatory response could negatively affect bone metabolism. In this study, we determined how osteogenesis is regulated during inflammatory responses that are downstream of TLR signaling. Human primary osteoblasts were cultured in collagen gels. Pam3CSK4 （P3C） and Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide （EcLPS） were used as TLR2 and TLR4 ligand respectively. Porphyromonas gingivalis LPS having TLR2 activity with either TLR4 agonism （Pg1690） or TLR4 antagonism （Pg1449） and mutant E. coli LPS （LPxE/LPxF/WSK） were used. IL-lp, SH2-containing inositol phosphatase-1 （SHIP1） that has regulatory roles in osteogenesis, alkaline phosphatase and mineralization were analyzed. 3α-Aminocholestane （3AC） was used to inhibit SHIP1. Our results suggest that osteoblasts stimulated by P3C, poorly induced IL-1β but strongly upregulated SHIP1 and enhanced osteogenic mediators. On the contrary, EcLPS significantly induced IL-1β and osteogenic mediators were not induced. While Pg1690 downmodulated osteogenic mediators, Pg1449 enhanced osteogenic responses, suggesting that TLR4 signaling annuls osteogenesis even with TLR2 activity. Interestingly, mutant E. coli LPS that induces weak inflammation upregulated osteogenesis, but SHIP1 was not induced. Moreover, inhibiting SHIP1 significantly upregulated TLR2-mediated inflammatory response and downmodulated osteogenesis. In conclusion, these results suggest that induction of weak inflammatory response through TLR2 （with SHIP1 activity） and mutant TLR4 ligands could enhance osteogenesis.

Analysis of Enhanced Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy with Double Femtosecond Laser Pulses

In this paper, an experimental study of collinear geometry double-pulse femtosecond LIBS was performed on a Ni sample in ambient air in an effort to clarify the contributing processes responsible for the signal enhancement observed in comparison with the single-pulse case. Doublepulse LIBS spectra show a very clear enhancement when an optimum inter-pulse delay was used. The influences of the inter-pulse delay between two pulses on the LIBS signal intensity, electron temperature and density were investigated. It is most remarkable that the evolutions of signal enhancement and electron temperature versus the inter-pulse delay showed the same behavior and revealed two main regimes of interaction. These results provide additional insight into the possible emission enhancement mechanisms in the double pulse configuration.

Effect of cylindrical cavity height on laserinduced breakdown spectroscopy with spatial confinement

In this paper, we present a study on the spatial confinement effect of laser-induced plasma with a cylindrical cavity in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy （LIBS）. The emission intensity with the spatial confinement is dependent on the height of the confinement cavity. It is found that, by selecting the appropriate height of cylindrical cavity, the signal enhancement can be significantly increased. At the cylindrical cavity （diameter = 2 mm） with a height of 6 mm, the enhancement ratio has the maximum value （approximately 8.3）, and the value of the relative standard deviation （RSD） （7.6%） is at a minimum, the repeatability of LIBS signal is best. The results indicate that the height of confinement cavity is very important for LIBS technique to reduce the limit of detection and improve the precision.

A Comparative Study of the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy in Single- and Collinear Double-Pulse Laser Geometry

Two Q-switched Nd：YAG lasers at 1064 nm wavelength have been employed to produce plasmas on aluminum-based alloy in single- and collinear double-pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy （LIBS）. Time resolved technique was used for detecting emission sig- nal by spectrometer equipped with ICCD detector. The intensity calibration of spectral response was performed by using deuterium and tungsten halogen lamps. Time evolution of the plasma temperature and electron number density was investigated in single- and collinear double-pulse experiments. Based on the investigation of plasma parameters, the emission signal enhancement mechanism was discussed qualitatively.

Detection and quantification of Pb and Cr in oysters using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

The quantitative determination of heavy metals in aquatic products is of great importance for food security issues.Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS)has been used in a variety of foodstuff analysis,but is still limited by its low sensitivity when targeting trace heavy metals.In this work,we compare three sample enrichment methods,namely drying,carbonization,and ashing,for increasing detection sensitivity by LIBS analysis for Pb and Cr in oyster samples.The results demonstrate that carbonization can remove a significant amount of the contributions of organic elements C,H,N and O;meanwhile,the signals of the metallic elements such as Cu,Pb,Sr,Ca,Cr and Mg are enhanced by3–6 times after carbonization,and further enhanced by 5–9 times after ashing.Such enhancement is not only due to the more concentrated metallic elements in the sample compared to the dried ones,but also the unifying of the matter in carbonized and ashed samples from which higher plasma temperature and electron density are observed.This condition favors the detection of trace elements.According to the calibration curves with univariate and multivariate analysis,the ashing method is considered to be the best choice.The limits of detection of the ashing method are 0.52 mg kg-1 for Pb and0.08 mg kg-1 for Cr,which can detect the presence of heavy metals in the oysters exceeding the maximum limits of Pb and Cr required by the Chinese national standard.This method provides a promising application for the heavy metal contamination monitoring in the aquatic product industry.

Effect of distances between lens and sample surface on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with spatial confinement

Spatial confinement can significantly enhance the spectral intensity of laser-induced plasma in air. It is attributed to the compression of plasma plume by the reflected shockwave. In addition,optical emission spectroscopy of laser-induced plasma can also be affected by the distance between lens and sample surface. In order to obtain the optimized spectral intensity, the distance must be considered. In this work, spatially confined laser-induced silicon plasma by using a Nd：YAG nanosecond laser at different distances between lens and sample surface was investigated.The laser energies were 12 mJ, 16 mJ, 20 mJ, and 24 mJ. All experiments were carried out in an atmospheric environment. The results indicated that the intensity of Si（I） 390.55 nm line firstly rose and then dropped with the increase of lens-to-sample distance. Moreover, the spectral peak intensity with spatial confinement was higher than that without spatial confinement. The enhancement ratio was approximately 2 when laser energy was 24 mJ.

Mammography combined with breast dynamic contrast-enhanced-magnetic resonance imaging for the diagnosis of early breast cancer

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the application of mammography combined with breast dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging(DCE-MRI) for the diagnosis of early breast cancer. Methods Mammography and DCE-MRI were performed for 120 patients with breast cancer(malignant, 102; benign; 18). Results The sensitivity of mammography for early diagnosis of breast cancer was 66.67%, specificity was 77.78%, and accuracy was 68.33%. The sensitivity of MRI for early diagnosis of breast cancer was 94.12%, specificity was 88.89%, and accuracy was 93.33%. However, the sensitivity of mammography combined with DCE-MRI volume imaging with enhanced water signal(VIEWS) scanning for early diagnosis of breast cancer was 97.06%, specificity was 94.44%, and accuracy was 96.67%. Conclusion Mammography combined with DCE-MRI increased the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of diagnosing early breast cancer.

Utilizing modified ubi1 introns to enhance exogenous gene expression in maize(Zea mays L.) and rice(Oryza sativa L.)

supported by the National Natural Science Fund of China （30970231）;the Genetically Modified Organisms Breeding Major Project of China （2014ZX08003001）

Noise reduction algorithm of corrosion acoustic emission signal based on short-time fractal dimension enhancement

The general corrosion and local corrosion of Q235 steel were tested by acoustic emission （AE） detecting system under 6% FeCl3.6H2O solution to effectively detect the corrosion acoustic emission signal from complex background noise. The short-time fractal dimension and discrete fractional cosine transform methods are combined to reduce noise. The input SNR is 0-15 dB while corrosion acoustic emission signals being added with white noise, color noise and pink noise respectively. The results show that the output signal-to-noise ratio is improved by up to 8 dB compared with discrete cosine transform and discrete fractional cosine transform. The above-mentioned noise reduction method is of significance for the identification of corrosion induced acoustic emission signals and the evaluation of the metal remaining life.

Wavelet-based iterative data enhancement for implementation in purification of modal frequency for extremely noisy ambient vibration tests in Shiraz-Iran

The main purpose of the present study is to enhance high-level noisy data by a wavelet-based iterative filtering algorithm for identification of natural frequencies during ambient wind vibrational tests on a petrochemical process tower.Most of denoising methods fail to filter such noise properly.Both the signal-to-noise ratio and the peak signal-to-noise ratio are small.Multiresolution-based one-step and variational-based filtering methods fail to denoise properly with thresholds obtained by theoretical or empirical method.Duc to the fact that it is impossible to completely denoise such high-level noisy data,the enhancing approach is used to improve the data quality,which is the main novelty from the application point of view here.For this iterative method,a simple computational approach is proposed to estimate the dynamic threshold values.Hence,different thresholds can be obtained for different recorded signals in one ambient test.This is in contrast to commonly used approaches recommending one global threshold estimated mainly by an empirical method.After the enhancements,modal frequencies are directly detected by the cross wavelet transform(XWT),the spectral power density and autocorrelation of wavelet coefficients.Estimated frequencies are then compared with those of an undamaged-model,simulated by the finite element method.

An electromechanically reconfigurable intelligent surface for enhancing sub-6G wireless communication signal

Reconfigurable intelligent surface(RIS)is emerged as a promising technique to solve the challenges faced by future wireless communication networks.Although the most commonly used electrically-controlled RISs can achieve millisecond-scale speed of dynamic switch,they have a large number of microwave circuit elements(such as PIN diodes or varactors)which will bring non-negligible insertion loss,and the complicity of the bias network to electrically addressing each element will increase with the expansion of the RIS aperture.Aiming at further reducing the fabrication cost and power consumption,herein an electromechanical RIS used for sub-6G wireless communication is proposed.The electromechanical RIS is designed with a passive metasurface and step-motor driver modules,providing simultaneous high-efficiency reflection(over 80%)and continuous reflection phase coverage of 360.Through electromechanical control,the RIS system can realize different reflective wavefront shaping,and has been employed in the indoor sub-6G wireless environment demonstrating a maximum signal improvement of 8.3 dB.The proposed electromechanical RIS is particularly useful for wireless signal enhancement in static blind area,and has the obvious advantage of not requiring continuous power supply after the RIS being regulated.Therefore,it greatly reduces the overall cost and power consumption which may have potentials in indoor application scenarios for improving wireless communication performance.

Durbin test with enhanced detection performance to mismatched signal

This paper deals with the problem of detecting a signal whose amplitude is a scaling factor in the presence of homogeneous Gaussian noise with unknown covariance matrix.Since no uniformly most powerful test exists for the problem at hand,we devise and assess a detection strategy based on the well-known Durbin test design criteria.The closed-form expressions for the probabilities of false alarm and detection of the Durbin test are derived,which show that it bears a constant false alarm rate property against the noise covariance matrix.At the analysis stage,the performance of the new receiver is assessed,also in comparison with some classical adaptive detectors,both in matched and in mismatched signal cases.The results show that the proposed detector achieves a visible performance improvement in the presence of severe steering vector mismatch,while maintaining an acceptable detection loss for matched signal.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy in China

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy （LIBS） has been regarded as a future superstar for chemical analysis for years due to its unique features such as little or no sample preparation, remote sensing, and fast and multi-element analysis. Chinese LIBS comnmnity is one of the most dynamically developing communities in the World. The aim of the work is to inspect what have been done in China for LIBS development and, based on the understanding of the overall status, to identify the challenges and opportunities for the future development. In this paper, the scientific contributions from Chinese LIBS comlnunity are reviewed for the following four aspects： fimdamentals, instrumentation, data processing and modeling, and applications; and the driving force of LIBS development in China is analyzed, the critical issues for successful LIBS application are discussed, and in our opinion, the potential direction to improve the technology and to realize large scale commercialization in China is proposed.