Fluorinated semi-interpenetrating polymer networks for enhancing the mechanical performance and storage stability of polymer-bonded explosives by controlling curing and phase separation rates

Herein, the effect of fluoropolymer binders on the properties of polymer-bonded explosives(PBXs) was comprehensively investigated. To this end, fluorinated semi-interpenetrating polymer networks(semiIPNs) were prepared using different catalyst amounts(denoted as F23-CLF-30-D). The involved curing and phase separation processes were monitored using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, a haze meter and a rheometer. Curing rate constant and activation energy were calculated using a theoretical model and numerical method, respectively. Results revealed that owing to its co-continuous micro-phase separation structure, the F23-CLF-30-D3 semi-IPN exhibited considerably higher tensile strength and elongation at break than pure fluororubber F2314 and the F23-CLF-30-D0 semi-IPN because the phase separation and curing rates matched in the initial stage of curing.An arc Brazilian test revealed that F23-CLF-30-D-based composites used as mock materials for PBXs exhibited excellent mechanical performance and storage stability. Thus, the matched curing and phase separation rates play a crucial role during the fabrication of high-performance semi-IPNs;these factors can be feasibly controlled using an appropriate catalyst amount.

The Mechanism of Heating Rate on the Secondary Recrystallization Evolution in Grain Oriented Silicon Steel

Grain-oriented silicon steels were prepared at different heating rates during high temperature annealing,in which the evolution of magnetic properties,grain orientations and precipitates were studied.To illustrate the Zener factor,the diameter and number density of precipitates of interrupted testing samples were statistically calculated.The effect of precipitate ripening on the Goss texture and magnetic property was investigated.Data indicated that the trend of Zener factor was similar under different heating rates,first increasing and then decreasing,and that the precipitate maturing was greatly inhibited as the heating rate increased.Secondary recrystallization was developed at the temperature of 1010℃when a heating rate of 5℃/h was used,resulting in Goss,Brass and{110}<227>oriented grains growing abnormally and a magnetic induction intensity of 1.90T.Furthermore,increasing the heating rate to 20℃/h would inhibit the development of undesirable oriented grains and obtain a sharp Goss texture.However,when the heating rate was extremely fast,such as 40℃/h,poor secondary recrystallization was developed with many island grains,corresponding to a decrease in magnetic induction intensity to 1.87 T.At a suitable heating rate of 20℃/h,the sharpest Goss texture and the highest magnetic induction of 1.94 T with an onset secondary recrystallization temperature of 1020℃were found among the experimental variables in this study.The heating rate affected the initial temperature of secondary recrystallization by controlling the maturation of precipitates,leading to the deviation and dispersion of Goss texture,thereby reducing the magnetic properties.

Glomerular filtration rate and comorbidity factors in elderly hospitalizations

BACKGROUND With an increase in the elderly population,the frequency of hospitalizations in recent years has also risen at a rapid pace.This,in turn,has resulted in poor outcomes and costly treatments.Hospitalization rates increase in elderly patients due to a decline in glomerular filtration rate(GFR).AIM To investigate the connection between GFR and comorbidity and reasons for hospitalization in elderly patients.METHODS We analyzed patients aged 75 years and over who were admitted to the internal medicine clinic of a tertiary hospital in Eskisehir.At admission,we calculated GFR values using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease study formula and classified them into six categories:G1,G2,G3a,G3b,G4,and G5.We analyzed associations with hospitalization diagnoses and comorbidity factors.RESULTS The average age of the patients was 80.8 years(±4.5 years).GFR was 57.287±29.5 mL/kg/1.73 m2 in women and 61.3±31.5 mL/kg/1.73 m2 in men(P=0.106).Most patients were admitted to the hospital at G2 stage(32.8%).The main reasons for hospitalization were anemia(34.4%and 28.6%)and malnutrition(20.9%and 20.8%)in women and men,respectively(P=0.078).The most frequent comor-bidity leading to hospitalization was arterial hypertension(n=168,28%),fo-llowed by diabetes(n=166,27.7%)(P=0.001).CONCLUSION When evaluating geriatric patients,low GFR alone does not provide sufficient information.Patients’comorbid factors should also be taken into account.There is no association between low GFR during hospitalization and hospitalization-Hamarat H.Aging and GFR related diagnoses.Knowing the GFR value before hospitalization will be more informative in such studies.

Text-and-Timbre-Based Speech Semantic Coding for Ultra-Low-Bitrate Communications

To address the contradiction between the explosive growth of wireless data and the limited spectrum resources,semantic communication has been emerging as a promising communication paradigm.In this paper,we thus design a speech semantic coded communication system,referred to as Deep-STS(i.e.,Deep-learning based Speech To Speech),for the lowbandwidth speech communication.Specifically,we first deeply compress the speech data through extracting the textual information from the speech based on the conformer encoder and connectionist temporal classification decoder at the transmitter side of Deep-STS system.In order to facilitate the final speech timbre recovery,we also extract the short-term timbre feature of speech signals only for the starting 2s duration by the long short-term memory network.Then,the Reed-Solomon coding and hybrid automatic repeat request protocol are applied to improve the reliability of transmitting the extracted text and timbre feature over the wireless channel.Third,we reconstruct the speech signal by the mel spectrogram prediction network and vocoder,when the extracted text is received along with the timbre feature at the receiver of Deep-STS system.Finally,we develop the demo system based on the USRP and GNU radio for the performance evaluation of Deep-STS.Numerical results show that the ac-Received:Jan.17,2024 Revised:Jun.12,2024 Editor:Niu Kai curacy of text extraction approaches 95%,and the mel cepstral distortion between the recovered speech signal and the original one in the spectrum domain is less than 10.Furthermore,the experimental results show that the proposed Deep-STS system can reduce the total delay of speech communication by 85%on average compared to the G.723 coding at the transmission rate of 5.4 kbps.More importantly,the coding rate of the proposed Deep-STS system is extremely low,only 0.2 kbps for continuous speech communication.It is worth noting that the Deep-STS with lower coding rate can support the low-zero-power speech communication,unveiling a new era in ultra-efficient coded communications.

On load dependence of detachment rate of kinesin motor

Kinesin is an archetypal microtubule-based molecular motor that can generate force to transport cargo in cells. The load dependence of the detachment rate is an important factor of the kinesin motor, the determination of which is critically related to the chemomechanical coupling mechanism of the motor. Here, we use three models for the load dependence of the detachment rate of the kinesin motor to study theoretically and numerically the maximal force generated and microtubuleattachment duration of the motor. By comparing the theoretical and numerical results with the available experimental data,we show that only one model can explain well the available experimental data, indicating that only this model can be applicable to the kinesin motor.

Effect of comprehensive perioperative nursing on pain intensity,complication rates,and comfort levels in patients undergoing gallstone surgery

BACKGROUND Surgery is the gold standard for gallstone treatment.Nevertheless,the complications associated with the surgical procedure can exert diverse and adverse impacts on patients’health and quality of life to varying extents.Hence,it is essential to offer perioperative care to patients undergoing gallstone surgery.AIM To examine the impact of perioperative comprehensive nursing on pain intensity,complication rates,and patient comfort in individuals undergoing gallstone surgery.METHODS From February 2022 to February 2024,195 patients who underwent gallstone surgery at Sanmen People’s Hospital were selected and divided into two groups:A control group receiving routine nursing care(95 patients)and a research group receiving perioperative comprehensive nursing(100 patients).Key postoperative recovery indicators,including time to first postoperative anal exhaust,oral food intake,and ambulation,were observed,along with pain intensity(measured by the numeric rating scale),complication rate(bleeding,incision infection,recurrence),patient comfort(assessed using the visual analogue scale),and quality of life(measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF).RESULTS The research group showed significantly shorter times to first postoperative anal exhaust,oral intake,and ambulation.Moreover,numeric rating scale pain scores in the research group were markedly lower post-nursing,and the total complication rate was significantly reduced compared to the control group.Furthermore,comfort levels improved considerably in the research group,and World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF scores across the physical,psychological,social,and environmental domains were significantly higher compared to the control group following nursing care.CONCLUSION Perioperative comprehensive nursing effectively enhances postoperative recovery in patients undergoing gallstone surgery,reducing pain,lowering complications,and improving patient comfort and quality of life,which deserves clinical application.

Failure rate analysis and maintenance plan optimization method for civil aircraft parts based on data fusion

In the face of data scarcity in the optimization of maintenance strategies for civil aircraft,traditional failure data-driven methods are encountering challenges owing to the increasing reliability of aircraft design.This study addresses this issue by presenting a novel combined data fusion algorithm,which serves to enhance the accuracy and reliability of failure rate analysis for a specific aircraft model by integrating historical failure data from similar models as supplementary information.Through a comprehensive analysis of two different maintenance projects,this study illustrates the application process of the algorithm.Building upon the analysis results,this paper introduces the innovative equal integral value method as a replacement for the conventional equal interval method in the context of maintenance schedule optimization.The Monte Carlo simulation example validates that the equivalent essential value method surpasses the traditional method by over 20%in terms of inspection efficiency ratio.This discovery indicates that the equal critical value method not only upholds maintenance efficiency but also substantially decreases workload and maintenance costs.The findings of this study open up novel perspectives for airlines grappling with data scarcity,offer fresh strategies for the optimization of aviation maintenance practices,and chart a new course toward achieving more efficient and cost-effective maintenance schedule optimization through refined data analysis.

Thermal effects on the strain rate-dependent behavior of highly compacted GMZ01 bentonite

Investigation of thermal effects on the strain rate-dependent properties of compacted bentonite is crucial for the long-term safety assessment of deep geological repository for disposal of high-level radioactive waste.In the present work,cylindrical GMZ01 bentonite specimens were compacted with suction-controlled by the vapor equilibrium technique.Then,a series of temperature-and suction-controlled stepwise constant rate of strain(CRS)tests was performed and the rate-dependent compressibility behavior of the highly compacted GMZ01 bentonite was investigated.The plastic compressibility parameterλ,the elastic compressibility parameterκ,the yield stress p0,as well as the viscous parameterαwere determined.Results indicate thatλ,κandαdecrease and p0 increases as suction increases.Upon heating,parametersλ,αand p0 decrease.It is also found that p0 increases linearly with increasing CRS in a double-logarithm coordinate.Based on the experimental results,a viscosity parameterα(s,T)was fitted to capture the effects of suction s and temperature T on the relationship between yield stress and strain rate.Then,an elastic-thermo-viscoplastic model for unsaturated soils was developed to describe the thermal effects on the rate-dependent behavior of highly compacted GMZ01 bentonite.Validation showed that the calculated results agreed well to the measured ones.

Study on discharge characteristics of low-temperature sub-atmospheric pressure under steep change rate voltage

Aiming at the gas discharge problem in electric aircraft,this work studies the gas discharge characteristics at low-temperature sub-atmospheric pressure.A gas discharge shooting platform was built,and the discharge process was photographed by intensified charge-coupled device(ICCD).A two-dimensional axisymmetric model of needle-plate electrode gas discharge was established,and three sets of Helmholtz equations were used to solve the photoionization.The results show that under the same voltage,the electric field intensity in the discharge process increases first,then decreases and finally increases again.The discharge speed increases with the increase of altitude,and the electron density in the streamer decreases with the increase of altitude.The development speed of the streamer in the middle stage is higher than that in the early stage,and the speed increases more obviously with the increase of altitude.The development speed of the streamer in the later stage is lower than that in the middle stage,but with the increase of altitude,the development speed of the streamer in the later stage is higher than that in the middle stage.

Longitudinal assessment of measured and estimated glomerular filtration-rate in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease:Real practice experience

BACKGROUND Equations for estimation glomerular filtration rate(eGFR)have been associated with poor clinical performance and their clinical accuracy and reliability have been called into question.AIM To assess the longitudinal changes in measured glomerular filtration rate(mGFR)in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease(ADPKD).METHODS Analysis of an ambispective data base conducted on consecutive patients diagnosed with ADPKD.The mGFR was assessed by iohexol clearance;while eGFR was calculated by three different formulas:(1)The chronic kidney disease epidemiology collaboration(CKD-EPI);(2)Modification of diet in renal disease(MDRD);and(3)The 24-hour urine creatinine clearance(CrCl).The primary end-points were the mean change in mGFR between the baseline and final visit,as well as the comparison of the mean change in mGFR with the change estimated by the different formulas.RESULTS Thirty-seven patients were included in the study.As compared to baseline,month-6 mGFR was significantly decrease by-4.4 mL/minute±10.3 mL/minute(P=0.0132).However,the CKD-EPI,MDRD,and CrCl formulas underestimated this change by 48.3%,89.0%,and 45.8%respectively,though none of these differences reached statistical significance(P=0.3647;P=0.0505;and P=0.736,respectively).The discrepancies between measured and estimated glomerular filtration rate values,as evaluated by CKD-EPI(r=0.29,P=0.086);MDRD(r=0.19,P=0.272);and CrCl(r=0.09,P=0.683),were not correlated with baseline mGFR values.CONCLUSION This study indicated that eGFR inaccurately reflects the decline in mGFR and cannot reliably track changes over time.This poses significant challenges for clinical decision-making,particularly in treatment strategies.

Physical simulation and theoretical analysis of migrating rate of inclusions in aluminum melt in electromagnetic field

Simulation law and physical simulation were used to study the kinematic behavior of inclusions in electromagnetic separation. It was found that velocity of spherical non metallic particles shares different functions in different Reynolds number range. The function of spherical particle’s velocity has been got by confirming the relationship between Reynolds number and resistance coefficient when Reynolds number is 0.2 ～10. For non spherical particles, the moving behavior is influenced by shape and orientation while spherical coefficient has nothing to do with the velocity of irregular particles. The influence of orientation of cuboid particle on the electromagnetic expulsive force has been indicated by numerical computation. [

Venting Design for Di-tert-butyl Peroxide Runaway Reaction Based on Accelerating Rate Calorimeter Test

In order to design the relief system size of di-tert-butyl peroxide(DTBP) storage tanks,the runaway re-action of DTBP was simulated by accelerating rate calorimeter(ARC).The results indicated that under adiabatic conditions the initial exothermic temperature was 102.6 ℃,the maximum self-heating rate was 3.095×107 ℃·min-1,the maximum self-heating temperature was 375.9 ℃,and the pressure produced by unit mass was 4.512 MPa·g-1.Judged by ARC test,the emergency relief system for DTBP was a hybrid system.Based on Design Institute for Emergency Relief System(DIERS) method,the releasing mass flow rate W was determined by Leung methods,and the mass velocity G was calculated by two modified Omega methods.The two relief sizes calculated by monograph Omega method and arithmetic Omega method are close,with only 0.63% relative error.The monograph Omega method is more convenient to apply.

Development of River Rating Curves for Simple to Complex Hydraulic Structure Based on Calibrated HEC-RAS Hydraulic Model, in Kwale, Coastal Kenya

Accurate and reliable river flow information is critical to planning and management for sustainable water resources utilization. Most of engineering activities related to hydrologic designs, flood, drought, reservoirs and their operations are heavily dependent on the river flow information derived from river rating curve. The rating curve for a given river section is normally developed from a set of direct stage-discharge measurements for different periods. This involves considerable labour, risk and resources, and presupposes a complex and extensive measuring survey. Extrapolating the rating curve beyond the measured range, as common in many cases, is fraught with errors and uncertainties, due to the complex hydraulic behaviour of the surface water profile in transition from section, channel, downstream and flood plain controls which are often poorly understood with direct measurements. Hydraulic modeling has recently emerged as one of the more promising methods to efficiently develop accurate rating curves for a river section with simple or complex hydraulic structures and conditions. This paper explores the use of a Hydraulic Engineering Center-River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) model to review and develop river rating curves for three hydrometric stations on two rivers in Kwale, coastal Kenya. The HEC-RAS models were set up based on topographical (cross section and longitudinal) survey data for the reaches and engineering drawings for the hydraulic structures commonly used as section controls for flow measurement. The model was calibrated under unsteady state conditions against measured stage-discharge data which were captured using a Velocity Current Meter (Valeport) and an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) for both low and high flow. The rating curves were extracted from model results and the uncertainty associated with each rating curve analyzed. The results obtained by the HEC-RAS model were satisfactory and deemed acceptable for predicting discharge across the stage range at each river section.

Dynamic behavior of a rotating gliding arc plasma in nitrogen:effects of gas flow rate and operating current

The effects of feed gas flow rate and operating current on the electrical characteristics and dynamic behavior of a rotating gliding arc （RGA） plasma codriven by a magnetic field and tangential flow were investigated.The operating current has been shown to significantly affect the time-resolved voltage waveforms of the discharge,particularly at flow rate =21 min^-1.When the current was lower than 140 mA,sinusoidal waveforms with regular variation periods of 13.5-17.0 ms can be observed （flow rate =21 min^-1）.The restrike mode characterized by serial sudden drops of voltage appeared under all studied conditions.Increasing the flow rate from 8 to 121 min^-1 （at the same current） led to a shift of arc rotation mode which would then result in a significant drop of discharge voltage （around 120-200 V）.For a given flow rate,the reduction of current resulted in a nearly linear increase of voltage.

Adiabatic Decomposition of Two Kinds of Organic Peroxides by Accelerating Rate Calorimeter

The accelerating rate calorimeter was applied to study the thermal hazard of two kinds of organic peroxides, i.e. methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKPO) and benzoyl peroxide (BPO). And their thermal decomposition characteristics were discussed. Meanwhile, thermal decomposition characteristics of MEKPO and BPO vvere compared. The result indicated that MEKPO is more sensitive to thermal effect than BPO. While once the thermal decomposition takes place. BPO will be more hazardous than MEKPO due to its serious pressure effect. Thermal kinetic analysis of these two kinds of organic peroxides was also taken, and the kinetic parameters for them were calculated. The study of thermal decomposition of MEKPO solution with different initial concentrations indicated that, the lower concentration MEKPO solution is, the higher onset temperature will be. And with the addition of organic solvent, it becomes more difficult for MEKPO to reach a thermal decomposition. Therefore, its thermal hazard is reduced.

Analysis of the Influence of Operating Room Nursing Care Management on the Incidence Rate of Nosocomial Infection in Orthopedic Surgery Patients

Objective:To analysis the influence of operating room nursing care management on the incidence rate of nosocomial infection in orthopedic surgery patients.Methodology:Fifty six orthopedic surgery patients who admitted into the hospital between January to December 2018 were enrolled into this study and randomly divided into two groups,which were the control group(under general management)and the observation group(under the operating room nursing care management).Further,the incidence rate of nosocomial infections,the incidence rate of irregular nursing care phenomena,the satisfaction score of nursing care management,and the quality of life score were observed and recorded.Result:The incidence rate of nosocomial infection,the incidence rate of irregular nursing care management,the satisfaction score of nursing care management,and the quality of life score of the observation group were compared to that of the control group,and the result showed P<0.05,indicates the statistical significance between the data indicators.Conclusion:The use of operating room nursing care management in patients with orthopedic surgery has shown a significant effect.

Abscess rate of patients with penetrating abdominal injury in Zaria

Background: Penetrating abdominal injury occurs when a foreign object pierces the skin. The morbidity and mortality associated with penetrating abdominal trauma is related to the intra-abdominal complications. This study is, therefore, intended to determine the abscess rate resulting from penetrating abdominal trauma in Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria. Method: A 6-year (January 2006-December 2011) retrospective study of penetrating abdominal trauma emphasizing on the rate of development of intra-abdominal abscess. Information was obtained from patients’ case notes, operating room log books and surgical audit data. Information extracted included cases of penetrating abdominal trauma, intra-operative findings and cases of intra-abdominal abscesses. Results: A total of 39 cases of penetrating abdominal trauma were treated within this period of six years. 3 (7.7%) were treated in 2006, 6 (15.4%) in 2007, 3 (7.7%) in 2008 and 11 (28.2%) in 2009, 8 (20.5%) in 2010, 9 (23.1%) in 2011. 26 (66.7%) were adult while 13 (33.3%) were paediatric cases. The male were 37 (94.9%) and the female were 2 (5.1%), with a sex ratio of 18.5:1 (male to female). The age range was 5 -60 years (39.92 mean). The commonest cause of injury was road traffic accident. At exploration, 13 (33.3%) had organ injury only, 17 (43.6%) suffer from both organ injury and intra-peritoneal emorrhage, 9 (23.1%) had retroperitoneal haemorrhage only. The intra-abdominal abscess rate of penetrating abdominal injury in Zaria was found to be 2.6%. Conclusion: Contamination from either foreign object or organ injury is found to increase the risk of post-operative intra-abdominal abscess. In this center, the abscess rate of penetrating abdominal trauma is comparatively low.

Prediction model for corrosion rate of low-alloy steels under atmospheric conditions using machine learning algorithms

This work constructed a machine learning(ML)model to predict the atmospheric corrosion rate of low-alloy steels(LAS).The material properties of LAS,environmental factors,and exposure time were used as the input,while the corrosion rate as the output.6 dif-ferent ML algorithms were used to construct the proposed model.Through optimization and filtering,the eXtreme gradient boosting(XG-Boost)model exhibited good corrosion rate prediction accuracy.The features of material properties were then transformed into atomic and physical features using the proposed property transformation approach,and the dominant descriptors that affected the corrosion rate were filtered using the recursive feature elimination(RFE)as well as XGBoost methods.The established ML models exhibited better predic-tion performance and generalization ability via property transformation descriptors.In addition,the SHapley additive exPlanations(SHAP)method was applied to analyze the relationship between the descriptors and corrosion rate.The results showed that the property transformation model could effectively help with analyzing the corrosion behavior,thereby significantly improving the generalization ability of corrosion rate prediction models.

Pulse rate estimation based on facial videos:an evaluation and optimization of the classical methods using both self-constructed and public datasets

Pulse rate is one of the important characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis,and it is of great significance for determining the nature of cold and heat in diseases.The prediction of pulse rate based on facial video is an exciting research field for getting palpation information by observation diagnosis.However,most studies focus on optimizing the algorithm based on a small sample of participants without systematically investigating multiple influencing factors.A total of 209 participants and 2,435 facial videos,based on our self-constructed Multi-Scene Sign Dataset and the public datasets,were used to perform a multi-level and multi-factor comprehensive comparison.The effects of different datasets,blood volume pulse signal extraction algorithms,region of interests,time windows,color spaces,pulse rate calculation methods,and video recording scenes were analyzed.Furthermore,we proposed a blood volume pulse signal quality optimization strategy based on the inverse Fourier transform and an improvement strategy for pulse rate estimation based on signal-to-noise ratio threshold sliding.We found that the effects of video estimation of pulse rate in the Multi-Scene Sign Dataset and Pulse Rate Detection Dataset were better than in other datasets.Compared with Fast independent component analysis and Single Channel algorithms,chrominance-based method and plane-orthogonal-to-skin algorithms have a more vital anti-interference ability and higher robustness.The performances of the five-organs fusion area and the full-face area were better than that of single sub-regions,and the fewer motion artifacts and better lighting can improve the precision of pulse rate estimation.

Dynamic interactive bitwise meta-holography with ultra-high computational and display frame rates

Interactive holography offers unmatched levels of immersion and user engagement in the field of future display.Despite of the substantial progress has been made in dynamic meta-holography,the realization of real-time,highly smooth interactive holography remains a significant challenge due to the computational and display frame rate limitations.In this study,we introduced a dynamic interactive bitwise meta-holography with ultra-high computational and display frame rates.To our knowledge,this is the first reported practical dynamic interactive metasurface holographic system.We spa-tially divided the metasurface device into multiple distinct channels,each projecting a reconstructed sub-pattern.The switching states of these channels were mapped to bitwise operations on a set of bit values,which avoids complex holo-gram computations,enabling an ultra-high computational frame rate.Our approach achieves a computational frame rate of 800 kHz and a display frame rate of 23 kHz on a low-power Raspberry Pi computational platform.According to this methodology,we demonstrated an interactive dynamic holographic Tetris game system that allows interactive gameplay,color display,and on-the-fly hologram creation.Our technology presents an inspiration for advanced dynamic meta-holography,which is promising for a broad range of applications including advanced human-computer interaction,real-time 3D visualization,and next-generation virtual and augmented reality systems.