Tantalum Nitride Nanosheets for Photoacoustic Imaging-Guided Photothermal Cancer Therapy

In this study, the synthesis of TaN nanosheets and their application in theranostic agents is reported. After coating polyethylene glycol (PEG) on the TaN nanosheets, the as-synthesized PEG-modified TaN nanosheets (TaN-PEG) show good stability and biocompatibility. Because of their high absorbance in the near-IR region, TaN-PEG can be utilized as photoacoustic imaging contrast agents for tumor imaging. Moreover, TaN-PEG has significant photothermal conversion performance, exhibiting effective laser-induced tumor ablation capability. The TaN-PEG possessing excellent photoacoustic contrast effect and photothermal properties thus have great promise in theranostic applications, especially imaging-guided cancer treatment.     

Performance of Portfolios Based on the Expected Utility-Entropy Fund Rating Approach

Yang and Qiu proposed and reframed an expected utility–entropy (EU-E) based decision model. Later on, a similar numerical representation for a risky choice was axiomatically developed by Luce et al. under the condition of segregation. Recently, we established a fund rating approach based on the EU-E decision model and Morningstar ratings. In this paper, we apply the approach to US mutual funds and construct portfolios using the best rating funds. Furthermore, we evaluate the performance of the fund ratings based on the EU-E decision model against Morningstar ratings by examining the performance of the three models in portfolio selection. The conclusions show that portfolios constructed using the ratings based on the EU-E models with moderate tradeoff coefficients perform better than those constructed using Morningstar. The conclusion is robust to different rebalancing intervals.     

Misalignment Fault Prediction of Wind Turbines Based on Improved Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm

A misalignment fault is a kind of potential fault in double-fed wind turbines. The reasonable and effective fault prediction models are used to predict its development trend before serious faults occur, which can take measures to repair in advance and reduce human and material losses. In this paper, the Least Squares Support Vector Machine optimized by the Improved Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm is used to predict the misalignment index of the experiment platform. The mixed features of time domain, frequency domain, and time-frequency domain indexes of vibration or stator current signals are the inputs of the Least Squares Support Vector Machine. The kurtosis of the same signals is the output of the model, and the 3σ principle of the normal distribution is adopted to set the warning line of misalignment fault. Compared with other optimization algorithms, the experimental results show that the proposed prediction model can predict the development trend of the misalignment index with the least prediction error.     

A Fast Approach to Removing Muscle Artifacts for EEG with Signal Serialization Based Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is an electrophysiological signal reflecting the functional state of the brain. As the control signal of the brain–computer interface (BCI), EEG may build a bridge between humans and computers to improve the life quality for patients with movement disorders. The collected EEG signals are extremely susceptible to the contamination of electromyography (EMG) artifacts, affecting their original characteristics. Therefore, EEG denoising is an essential preprocessing step in any BCI system. Previous studies have confirmed that the combination of ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and canonical correlation analysis (CCA) can effectively suppress EMG artifacts. However, the time-consuming iterative process of EEMD may limit the application of the EEMD-CCA method in real-time monitoring of BCI. Compared with the existing EEMD, the recently proposed signal serialization based EEMD (sEEMD) is a good choice to provide effective signal analysis and fast mode decomposition. In this study, an EMG denoising method based on sEEMD and CCA is discussed. All of the analyses are carried out on semi-simulated data. The results show that, in terms of frequency and amplitude, the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) decomposed by sEEMD are consistent with the IMFs obtained by EEMD. There is no significant difference in the ability to separate EMG artifacts from EEG signals between the sEEMD-CCA method and the EEMD-CCA method (p > 0.05). Even in the case of heavy contamination (signal-to-noise ratio is less than 2 dB), the relative root mean squared error is about 0.3, and the average correlation coefficient remains above 0.9. The running speed of the sEEMD-CCA method to remove EMG artifacts is significantly improved in comparison with that of EEMD-CCA method (p < 0.05). The running time of the sEEMD-CCA method for three lengths of semi-simulated data is shortened by more than 50%. This indicates that sEEMD-CCA is a promising tool for EMG artifact removal in real-time BCI systems.     

An Adaptive Deblurring Vehicle Detection Method for High-Speed Moving Drones: Resistance to Shake

Vehicle detection is an essential part of an intelligent traffic system, which is an important research field in drone application. Because unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rarely configured with stable camera platforms, aerial images are easily blurred. There is a challenge for detectors to accurately locate vehicles in blurred images in the target detection process. To improve the detection performance of blurred images, an end-to-end adaptive vehicle detection algorithm (DCNet) for drones is proposed in this article. First, the clarity evaluation module is used to determine adaptively whether the input image is a blurred image using improved information entropy. An improved GAN called Drone-GAN is proposed to enhance the vehicle features of blurred images. Extensive experiments were performed, the results of which show that the proposed method can detect both blurred and clear images well in poor environments (complex illumination and occlusion). The detector proposed achieves larger gains compared with SOTA detectors. The proposed method can enhance the vehicle feature details in blurred images effectively and improve the detection accuracy of blurred aerial images, which shows good performance with regard to resistance to shake.     

各向异性蜂窝夹芯材料的电磁传输性能分析算法研究

蜂窝夹芯结构作为天线罩最常用的透波材料, 其电各向异性特征对电磁传输性能具有不可忽略的影响. 本文基于各向异性蜂窝夹芯材料对电磁波水平极化和垂直极化分量的有效介电常数, 建立了多层蜂窝夹芯材料的等效传输线网络传输方程, 并给出了其传输系数的计算公式.该计算公式由于考虑了材料的三维各向异性特征, 不仅理论上可以计算多层各向异性介质板对任意方向入射电磁波的传输系数, 而且能够揭示出材料方向角对传输性能的影响规律.同时, 通过传输线网络等效, 其计算效率远高于有限元等方法.数值算例表明, 本方法能够有效地揭示蜂窝夹芯材料的各向异性对其传输性能的影响, 计算结果在入射角为0°–80° 时与有限元法符合很好. 关键词： 电磁传输性能 电各向异性介质 蜂窝夹芯材料     

High resolution dynamic cardiac MRI using partial separability of spatiotemporal signals with a novel sampling scheme

The partial separability (PS) of spatiotemporal signals has been exploited to accelerate dynamic cardiac MRI by sampling two datasets (training and imaging datasets) without breath-holding or ECG triggering. According to the theory of partially separable functions, the wider the range of spatial frequency components covered by the training dataset, the more accurate the temporal constraint imposed by the PS model. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new sampling scheme for the PS model in order to cover a wider range of spatial frequency components. In this paper, we propose the use of radial sampling trajectories for collecting the training dataset and Cartesian sampling trajectories for collecting the imaging dataset. In vivo high resolution cardiac MRI experiments demonstrate that the proposed data sampling scheme can significantly improve the image quality. The image quality using the PS model with the proposed sampling scheme is comparable to that of a commercial method using retrospective cardiac gating and breath-holding. The success of this study demonstrates great potential for high-quality, high resolution dynamic cardiac MRI without ECG gating or breath-holding through use of the PS model and the novel data sampling scheme.     

Preparation and Flammability of a Flame-Retardant Poly(Butyl Acrylate-Vinyl Acetate) System Based on Gemin-Surfactant Modified Montmorillonite and Ammonium Polyphosphate

Gemin-surfactant modified montmorillonite (G-MMT) was successfully prepared by an ion exchange reaction and characterized via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The P(BA-VAc)/G-MMT emulsion was prepared via an in-situ polymerization method using potassium persulfate (K₂S₂O₈, KPS) as an initiator. Ammonium polyphosphate (APP) was introduced for obtaining P(BA-VAc)/APP/G-MMT flame-retardant latex with a constant total content of 15 wt% of APP and G-MMT in P(BA-VAc). The flame retardancy and thermal behavior of the latex films were investigated by limiting oxygen index (LOI), vertical burning test (UL-94) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TG/DTA). Compared with the P(BA-VAc)/APP composite, the LOI value of P(BA-VAc)/APP/G-MMT containing 0.5 wt% G-MMT at the same total additive loading increased to 29.1 from 20.0 and its UL-94 increased from no rating to V-0. Thermal gravimetric (TG) data showed that the amount of residues increased significantly with the loading of G-MMT. In addition, the LOI values increased with the increase in char residues. The morphology and microstructure of the residues generated during LOI testing were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The outer surfaces of P(BA-VAc)/APP/G-MMT charred layers were more continuous and compact than those of P(BA-VAc)/APP.     

Time operator in QFT with Virasoro constraints

Time operator is studied on the basis of field quantization, where the difficulty stemming from Pauli?s theorem is circumvented by borrowing ideas from the covariant quantization of the bosonic string, i.e., one can remove the negative energy states by imposing Virasoro constraints. Applying the index theorem, one can show that in a different subspace of a Fock space, there is a different self-adjoint time operator. However, the self-adjoint time operator in the maximal subspace of the Fock space can also represent the self-adjoint time operator in the other subspaces, such that it can be taken as the single, universal time operator. Furthermore, a new insight on Pauli?s theorem is presented.     

The effect of thermal reactor neutron irradiation on semi-insulating GaN

Semi-insulating Gallium nitride was irradiated by fast and thermal neutrons with fluences from 10¹⁴ to 10¹⁶ n/cm². Depth-resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy was used to determine defects changes before and after irradiation. The results revealed two kinds of defects affected near-band emission recombination from two opposite directions. One was attributed to irradiation-induced N vacancies that contribute to near-band emission recombination. Another was attributed to irradiation-induced deep level defects that contribute to sub-band gap recombination and thus decrease the near-band emission recombination.