Competitive oxidation behavior of Ni-based superalloy GH4738 at extreme temperature

A high thrust-to-weight ratio poses challenges to the high-temperature performance of Ni-based superalloys. The oxidation behavior of GH4738 at extreme temperatures has been investigated by isothermal and non-isothermal experiments. As a result of the competitive diffusion of alloying elements, the oxide scale included an outermost porous oxide layer (OOL), an inner relatively dense oxide layer (IOL), and an internal oxide zone (IOZ), depending on the temperature and time. A high temperature led to the formation of large voids at the IOL/IOZ interface. At 1200℃, the continuity of the Cr-rich oxide layer in the IOL was destroyed, and thus, spallation occurred. Extension of oxidation time contributed to the size of Al-rich oxide particles with the increase in the IOZ. Based on this finding,the oxidation kinetics of GH4738 was discussed, and the corresponding oxidation behavior at 900-1100℃ was predicted.

Competitive effect, but not competitive response, varies along a climatic gradient depending on tree species identity

Background: Understanding the role of species identity in interactions among individuals is crucial for assessing the productivity and stability of mixed forests over time. However, there is limited knowledge concerning the variation in competitive effect and response of different species along climatic gradients. In this study, we investigated the importance of climate, tree size, and competition on the growth of three tree species: spruce(Picea abies), fir(Abies alba), and beech(Fagus sylvatica), and examined their competitive response and effect along a climatic gradient.Methods: We selected 39 plots distributed across the European mountains with records of the position and growth of 5,759 individuals. For each target species, models relating tree growth to tree size, climate and competition were proposed. Competition was modelled using a neighbourhood competition index that considered the effects of inter-and intraspecific competition on target trees. Competitive responses and effects were related to climate.Likelihood methods and information theory were used to select the best model.Results: Our findings revealed that competition had a greater impact on target species growth than tree size or climate. Climate did influence the competitive effects of neighbouring species, but it did not affect the target species? response to competition. The strength of competitive effects varied along the gradient, contingent on the identity of the interacting species. When the target species exhibited an intermediate competitive effect relative to neighbouring species, both higher inter-than intraspecific competitive effects and competition reduction occurred along the gradient. Notably, species competitive effects were most pronounced when the target species' growth was at its peak and weakest when growing conditions were far from their maximum.Conclusions: Climate modulates the effects of competition from neighbouring trees on the target tree and not the susceptibility of the target tree to competition. The modelling approach should be useful in future research to expand our knowledge of how competition modulates forest communities across environmental gradients.

Treatment of Helicobacter pylori with potassium competitive acid blockers:A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori(H.pylori)infects over half the global population,causing gastrointestinal diseases like dyspepsia,gastritis,duodenitis,peptic ulcers,GMALT lymphoma,and gastric adenocarcinoma.Eradicating H.pylori is crucial for treating and preventing these conditions.While conventional proton pump inhibitor(PPI)-based triple therapy is effective,there’s growing interest in longer acid suppression therapies.Potassium competitive acid blocker(P-CAB)triple and dual therapy are new regimens for H.pylori eradication.Initially used in Asian populations,vonoprazan(VPZ)has been recently Food and Drug Administration-approved for H.pylori eradication.AIM To assess the efficacy of regimens containing P-CABs in eradicating H.pylori infection.METHODS This study,following PRISMA 2020 guidelines,conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis by searching MEDLINE and Scopus libraries for randomized clinical trials(RCTs)or observational studies with the following command:[("Helicobacter pylori"OR"H pylori")AND("Treatment"OR"Therapy"OR"Eradication")AND("Vonaprazan"OR"Potassium-Competitive Acid Blocker"OR"P-CAB"OR"PCAB"OR"Revaprazan"OR"Linaprazan"OR"Soraprazan"OR"Tegoprazan")].Studies comparing the efficacy of P-CABs-based treatment to classical PPIs in eradicating H.pylori were included.Exclusion criteria included case reports,case series,unpublished trials,or conference abstracts.Data variables encompassed age,diagnosis method,sample sizes,study duration,intervention and control,and H.pylori eradication method were gathered by two independent reviewers.Meta-analysis was performed in R software,and forest plots were generated.RESULTS A total of 256 references were initially retrieved through the search command.Ultimately,fifteen studies(7 RCTs,7 retrospective observational studies,and 1 comparative unique study)were included,comparing P-CAB triple therapy to PPI triple therapy.The intention-to-treat analysis involved 8049 patients,with 4471 in the P-CAB intervention group and 3578 in the PPI control group across these studies.The analysis revealed a significant difference in H.pylori eradication between VPZ triple therapy and PPI triple therapy in both RCTs and observational studies[risk ratio(RR)=1.17,95%confidence interval(CI):1.11-1.22,P<0.0001]and(RR=1.13,95%CI:1.09-1.17,P<0.0001],respectively.However,no significant difference was found between tegoprazan(TPZ)triple therapy and PPI triple therapy in both RCTs and observational studies(RR=1.04,95%CI:0.93-1.16,P=0.5)and(RR=1.03,95%CI:0.97-1.10,P=0.3),respectively.CONCLUSION VPZ-based triple therapy outperformed conventional PPI-based triple therapy in eradicating H.pylori,positioning it as a highly effective first-line regimen.Additionally,TPZ-based triple therapy was non-inferior to classical PPI triple therapy.

Extensive numerical simulations on competitive growth between the Edwards–Wilkinson and Kardar–Parisi–Zhang universality classes

Extensive numerical simulations and scaling analysis are performed to investigate competitive growth between the linear and nonlinear stochastic dynamic growth systems, which belong to the Edwards–Wilkinson(EW) and Kardar–Parisi–Zhang(KPZ) universality classes, respectively. The linear growth systems include the EW equation and the model of random deposition with surface relaxation(RDSR), the nonlinear growth systems involve the KPZ equation and typical discrete models including ballistic deposition(BD), etching, and restricted solid on solid(RSOS). The scaling exponents are obtained in both the(1 + 1)-and(2 + 1)-dimensional competitive growth with the nonlinear growth probability p and the linear proportion 1-p. Our results show that, when p changes from 0 to 1, there exist non-trivial crossover effects from EW to KPZ universality classes based on different competitive growth rules. Furthermore, the growth rate and the porosity are also estimated within various linear and nonlinear growths of cooperation and competition.

A Cooperated Imperialist Competitive Algorithm for Unrelated Parallel Batch Machine Scheduling Problem

This study focuses on the scheduling problem of unrelated parallel batch processing machines(BPM)with release times,a scenario derived from the moulding process in a foundry.In this process,a batch is initially formed,placed in a sandbox,and then the sandbox is positioned on a BPM formoulding.The complexity of the scheduling problem increases due to the consideration of BPM capacity and sandbox volume.To minimize the makespan,a new cooperated imperialist competitive algorithm(CICA)is introduced.In CICA,the number of empires is not a parameter,and four empires aremaintained throughout the search process.Two types of assimilations are achieved:The strongest and weakest empires cooperate in their assimilation,while the remaining two empires,having a close normalization total cost,combine in their assimilation.A new form of imperialist competition is proposed to prevent insufficient competition,and the unique features of the problem are effectively utilized.Computational experiments are conducted across several instances,and a significant amount of experimental results show that the newstrategies of CICAare effective,indicating promising advantages for the considered BPMscheduling problems.

Construction of CDKN2A-related competitive endogenous RNA network and identification of GAS5 as a prognostic indicator for hepatocellular carcinoma

BACKGROUND Competitive endogenous RNA(ceRNA)is an innovative way of gene expression modulation,which plays a crucial part in neoplasia.However,the intricacy and behavioral characteristics of the ceRNA network in hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)remain dismal.AIM To establish a cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 2A(CDKN2A)-related ceRNA network and recognize potential prognostic indicators for HCC.METHODS The mutation landscape of CDKN2A in HCC was first explored using the cBioPortal database.Differential expression analysis was implemented between CDKN2Ahigh and CDKN2Alow expression HCC samples.The targeted microRNAs were predicted by lncBasev3.0,and the targeted mRNAs were predicted by miRDB,and Targetscan database.The univariate and multivariate analysis were utilized to identify independent prognostic indicators.RESULTS CDKN2A was frequently mutated and deleted in HCC.The single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that CDKN2A participated in cell cycle pathways.The CDKN2A-related ceRNA network-growth arrest specific 5(GAS5)/miR-25-3p/SRY-box transcription factor 11(SOX11)was successfully established.GAS5 was recognized as an independent prognostic biomarker,whose overexpression was correlated with a poor prognosis in HCC patients.The association between GAS5 expression and methylation,immune infilt-ration was explored.Besides,traditional Chinese medicine effective components targeting GAS5 were obtained.CONCLUSION This CDKN2A-related ceRNA network provides innovative insights into the molecular mechanism of HCC formation and progression.Moreover,GAS5 might be a significant prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in HCC.

Impact of coupling coordination development of port and city environments on urban economic competitiveness:Evidence from the coastal port cities in eastern China

Promoting the coupling coordination development of port and its hinterland city environments is an important way to improve urban economic competitiveness.Based on relevant data of 13 coastal port cities in eastern China from 2000 to 2018,this study explores the coupling coordination development of port and city environments and its impact on urban economic competitiveness by constructing the coupling coordination degree model and the panel threshold model.The research results show that:(1)In terms of the coupling coordination development of port and city environments,most coastal ports and their hinterland cities are in a state of moderate or serious disorder.Overall,the degree of coupling coordination of port and city environments needs to be further improved;(2)The coupling coordination degree of port and city environments has a significant impact on urban economic competitiveness,and this effect gradually increases with the development of the ports and the urban economy.Among the variables that impact the urban economic competitiveness,fixed assets investment and foreign trade are significant factors that can enhance urban economic competitiveness.(3)At present,there is a“U-shaped”relationship between the coupling coordination degree of port-city environments and the urban economic competitiveness.This relationship lies on the right side of the inflection point of the“U-shaped”curve.Therefore,following the concept of assigning priority to ecological development,expanding fixed assets investment and actively developing foreign trade can further enhance the urban economic competitiveness.

The competitive dynamics of Bangladesh and Turkey in apparel exports

Turkish-made apparel now costs approximately 40%more than similar products from Bangladesh,a gap that was only 15-20%a few years ago.This is creating opportunities for Bangladeshi exporters to attract consumer's attention.

Strategies for Boxing Teaching in Competitive Sports Schools

To improve the quality of boxing teaching in competitive sports schools,it is necessary to first analyze the strengths and weaknesses of boxing teaching in competitive sports schools,and then optimize the teaching strategy.The strategies include innovating the boxing curriculum system and content,building learning communities inside and outside the classroom,personalizing the teaching forms and methods,using multimedia to broaden the teaching path,focusing on the integration of boxing teaching leagues,and diversifying the teaching incentives and evaluations.

Analysis of Porter’s Five Forces Competitive Model in China’s Property Rights Trading Market

In recent years,China’s property rights trading market has been extremely competitive,but there are also new contradictions and challenges.This paper aims to analyze the external and internal competitive market of the property rights market through Porter’s five forces competition model,then find out the problems and defects in the development,thereby promoting the better development and progress of China’s property rights trading market.

Relative Competitiveness of Nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi) with Tall Fescues and Kentucky Bluegrass

Nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi) is a warm-season perennial grass (weed) native to the United States and Canada with low palatability. This species is dominant in many horse pastures in which bluegrass (Poa pratensis) is the primary forage. Tall fescues infected with endophyte fungae gives tall fescue plants greater competitividade ability and enviromental stress tolerance than their noninfected counterparts. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative competitiveness of nimblewill with bluegrass and tall fescues (Lolium arundinaceum) with or without endophytic fungi (strain AR584) through experiments using a replacement series design. Replacement series experiments were conducted in pots to evaluate the growth of species in a pure stand and in a mix stand with variables rates. Species competitiveness was evaluated based on the relative yield and relative yield total (and competitiveness index) of the dry weight of shoots from species grown together. Nimblewill was found to be more competitive than bluegrass, and all tall fescues were more competitive than nimblewill. Our results demonstrated that the presence of endophytes in three different tall fescues did not alter the competitiveness of these fescues with nimblewill, but the tall fescue Kentucky 31 was more competitive between tall fescues. Based on our finding, we concluded that fescues are recommended, especially without the endophytic fungi to suppress nimblewill in implantation of pastures to horses.

Economics of Small Modular Reactors: Will They MakeNuclear Power More Competitive?

Looking at the historical evolution of commercial use of nuclear power,the long-term trend so far has been to increase the size of the reactors to maintain their economic competitiveness through economies of scale.However,over the last five years,advanced reactor concepts,among which the SMRs(Small Modular Reactors),have progressed faster than anyone predicted ten years ago.It is likely that several FOAK(First of a kind)SMRs will be constructed and start operation over the next ten years,and a global supply chain will be developed to support them.Benefitting from their architecture and the overall system simplification,SMRs could become one of the main drivers of deep decarbonisation of the global economy,an enabler of large-scale hydrogen economy,a solution for allowing growth of energy consumption in the developing world without relying on fossil fuels,a means to replace the heat source of hundreds of coal power plants around the globe.The article analyses the main economic drivers to override the diseconomy of scale of SMRs-modularisation and factory build,design simplification,standardisation,and industrial and regulatory harmonisation-and discusses the advantages and challenges of different SMR designs in unlocking those drivers.Some publicly available studies on SMR CAPEX,OPEX and LCOE are reviewed to demonstrate the values the different vendors and developers are targeting to make SMRs competitive not only with respect to large nuclear reactors but also to other means of electricity and heat generation.

Method for Evaluating Bolt Competitive Failure Life Under Composite Excitation

In this study,the competitive failure mechanism of bolt loosening and fatigue is elucidated via competitive failure tests on bolts under composite excitation.Based on the competitive failure mechanism,the mode prediction model and“load ratio-life prediction curve”(ξ-N curve)of the bolt competitive failure are established.Given the poor correlation of theξ-N curve,an evaluation model of the bolt competitive failure life is proposed based on Miner’s linear damage accumulation theory.Based on the force analysis of the thread surface and simulation of the bolt connection under composite excitation,a theoretical equation of the bolt competitive failure life is established to validate the model for evaluating the bolt competitive failure life.The results reveal that the proposed model can accurately predict the competitive failure life of bolts under composite excitation,and thereby,it can provide guidance to engineering applications.

Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder by Imperialistic Competitive Algorithm and Logistic Regression Classifier

Autism spectrum disorder(ASD),classified as a developmental disability,is now more common in children than ever.A drastic increase in the rate of autism spectrum disorder in children worldwide demands early detection of autism in children.Parents can seek professional help for a better prognosis of the child’s therapy when ASD is diagnosed under five years.This research study aims to develop an automated tool for diagnosing autism in children.The computer-aided diagnosis tool for ASD detection is designed and developed by a novel methodology that includes data acquisition,feature selection,and classification phases.The most deterministic features are selected from the self-acquired dataset by novel feature selection methods before classification.The Imperialistic competitive algorithm(ICA)based on empires conquering colonies performs feature selection in this study.The performance of Logistic Regression(LR),Decision tree,K-Nearest Neighbor(KNN),and Random Forest(RF)classifiers are experimentally studied in this research work.The experimental results prove that the Logistic regression classifier exhibits the highest accuracy for the self-acquired dataset.The ASD detection is evaluated experimentally with the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator(LASSO)feature selection method and different classifiers.The Exploratory Data Analysis(EDA)phase has uncovered crucial facts about the data,like the correlation of the features in the dataset with the class variable.

Effect of Bt traits on transgenic rice's growth and weed competitiveness

Transgene escape could lead to genetically modified rice establishing wild populations in the natural environment and competing for survival space with weeds.However,whether the expression of the Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt)gene in rice will alter the relationship between transgene plants and weeds and induce undesirable environmental consequences are poorly understood.Thus,field experiments were conducted to investigate the weed competitiveness and assess the ecological risk of transgenic Bt rice under herbicide-free and lepidopterous pest-controlled environments.Results showed that weed–rice competition in the direct-sowing(DS)field was earlier and more severe than that in the transplanting(TP)field,which resulted in a significant decrease in biomass and yield in DS.However,conventional Bt and non-Bt rice yield was not significantly different.The weed number,weed coverage ratio,and weed diversity of conventional Bt rice were significantly higher than those of non-Bt rice at the early growth and mature stages,especially in DS plots,suggesting that Bt traits did not increase the weed competitiveness of transgenic rice and had no negative effect on weed diversity.Grain yield and weed number varied between different hybrid rice lines,but those differences were insignificant between Bt and non-Bt rice.The number of insects increased with the increase of weeds in hybrid rice plots,whereas the insect number and diversity did not display a significant difference between Bt and non-Bt rice.Therefore,the ecological risk of transgenic Bt rice is comparable to non-Bt rice.

Existence of Two Limit Cycles in Zeeman’s Class 30 for 3D Lotka-Volterra Competitive System

Gyllenberg and Yan(Discrete Contin Dyn Syst Ser B 11(2):347–352,2009)presented a system in Zeeman’s class 30 of 3-dimensional Lotka-Volterra(3D LV)competitive systems to admit at least two limit cycles,one of which is generated by the Hopf bifurcation and the other is obtained by the Poincaré-Bendixson theorem.Yu et al.(J Math Anal Appl 436:521–555,2016,Sect.3.4)recalculated the first Liapunov coefficient of Gyllenberg and Yan’s system to be positive,rather than negative as in Gyllenberg and Yan(2009),and pointed out that the Poincaré-Bendixson theorem is not applicable for that system.Jiang et al.(J Differ Equ 284:183–218,2021,p.213)proposed an open question:“whether Zeeman’s class 30 can be rigorously proved to admit at least two limit cycles by the Hopf theorem and the Poincaré-Bendixson theorem?”This paper provides four systems in Zeeman’s class 30 to admit at least two limit cycles by the Hopf theorem and the Poincaré-Bendixson theorem and gives an answer to the above question.

Forge ahead and improve the core competitiveness of Animal Models and Experimental Medicine(AMEM)

After 5 years of accumulation, Animal Models and Experimental Medicine(AMEM) has received 396 manuscripts from 46 countries and regions, including Chinese mainland, Iran, the United States, India, Israel, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Japan, and Spain. It has become an important international exchange and display platform for innovative research results in the field of laboratory animal science and basic medicine.

Optimal Allocation of STATCOM to Enhance Transient Stability Using Imperialist Competitive Algorithm

With the daily expansion of global energy consumption,developing the power grids is of uttermost importance.However,building a new trans-mission line is costly and time-consuming,so utilizing the same lines with possible higher transmission capacity is very cost-effective.In this regard,to increase the capacity of the transmission lines,the flexible alternating current transmission system(FACTS)has been widely used in power grids in recent years by industrialized countries.One of the essential topics in electrical power systems is the reactive power compensation,and the FACTS plays a significant role in controlling the reactive power current in the power grid and the system voltage oscillations and stability.When a static synchronous compensator(STATCOM)is embedded in a power system to increase the bus voltage,a supplementary damping controller can be designed to enhance the system oscillation damping.Given the expansion of the grids in the power system,the complexity of their optimization and the extraordinary ability of the imperialist competitive algorithm(ICA)for solving such problems,in this paper,the ICA has been used to determine the optimal position and size of the FACTS devices.

Competitive and Cooperative-Based Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm for Green Distributed Heterogeneous Flow Shop Scheduling

This work aims to resolve the distributed heterogeneous permutation flow shop scheduling problem(DHPFSP)with minimizing makespan and total energy consumption(TEC).To solve this NP-hard problem,this work proposed a competitive and cooperative-based strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm(CCSPEA)which contains the following features:1)An initialization based on three heuristic rules is developed to generate a population with great diversity and convergence.2)A comprehensive metric combining convergence and diversity metrics is used to better represent the heuristic information of a solution.3)A competitive selection is designed which divides the population into a winner and a loser swarms based on the comprehensive metric.4)A cooperative evolutionary schema is proposed for winner and loser swarms to accelerate the convergence of global search.5)Five local search strategies based on problem knowledge are designed to improve convergence.6)Aproblem-based energy-saving strategy is presented to reduce TEC.Finally,to evaluate the performance of CCSPEA,it is compared to four state-of-art and run on 22 instances based on the Taillard benchmark.The numerical experiment results demonstrate that 1)the proposed comprehensive metric can efficiently represent the heuristic information of each solution to help the later step divide the population.2)The global search based on the competitive and cooperative schema can accelerate loser solutions convergence and further improve the winner’s exploration.3)The problembased initialization,local search,and energy-saving strategies can efficiently reduce the makespan and TEC.4)The proposed CCSPEA is superior to the state-of-art for solving DHPFSP.

Core Competitiveness Construction of Clothing Brands in Low-Carbon Economy

The climate issue has become an environmental concern for all sectors of the world and the low-carbon economy has thus become a new economic development model to combat climate change.With the development of low-carbon economy era,the textile and clothing industry plays an important role in stabilizing the development of low-carbon economy and society,and China has put forward the development requirements of low-carbon transformation for the textile and clothing industry,and also it has an important strategic value to promote the high-quality development of low-carbon economy and society,and the construction of brands’ core competitiveness is an inevitable choice for clothing brands in the face of the new form of international competition.As a result,the evaluation indicator of clothing brands’ core competitiveness in the low-carbon economy is used to measure the core competitiveness of clothing brands.Based on the corresponding verification results obtained by analytic hierarchy process(AHP) analysis,it can guide the low-carbon development of the clothing industry,thus proposing a more reasonable way to build the core competitiveness of clothing brands.It can promote the low-carbon transformation and upgrading of the clothing industry,effectively increase the market share of clothing brands,and promote the high-quality development of clothing brands.