Browse Articles
Discover research articles across all indexed journals
Impact of butanol and hexanol on RCCI engine efficiency and emission characteristics using sapota oil methyl ester and response surface methodology
Chip-scale reconfigurable carbon nanotube physical unclonable functions
Abstract With the rapid advancement of edge intelligence, ensuring the security of edge devices and protecting their communication has become critical. Physical unclonable functions, known as hardware fingerprints, are an emerging hardware security solution enabled with the physical variations inherent in the hardware systems. To facilitate a widespread edge deployment, here we present chip-scale reconfigurable physical unclonable functions built with carbon nanotube charge-trapping transistors, where the charge-trapping memory and physical variations of the transistors are harnessed to render over 1013 reconfigurable states and the demonstrated ideal physical unclonability. Arising from this, the physical unclonable functions prove robust resilience against advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence attacking (limiting success to ~50–60%) as well as brute force cracking (requesting an estimated 1016 years to crack). This performance, along with their scalability and low-power operation as well as cryogenic temperature robustness, position the physical unclonable functions a promising hardware security solution for edge intelligence. As a practical demonstration, we model self-driving vehicular network in Central Hong Kong and prove secure vehicle communication using the physical unclonable functions.
The correlation between different metabolic scores and the risk of cardiometabolic comorbidities in hypertensive patients
Wettability-Driven void suppression and enhanced mechanical performance in Si₃N₄-Reinforced bamboo Fiber epoxy composites using COCOSO and ANN modeling
Rapid conversion of amino acid modified-ice to methane hydrate for sustainable energy storage
Effects of intersection control types on driver yielding behavior to cyclists using mixed logit modeling
Spectroscopic analyses for possible transport of polyaromatic hydrocarbons onto fish in Mediterranean Sea
Abstract Metal pollution in the Mediterranean coast is a growing environmental concern. The effect of trace metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on fish was subjected to DFT:B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) computational study. Both alanine (Ala) and phenylalanine (PAla) were used as model molecules for protein of fish. The interaction of Ala and PAla with metals resulted in significant decrease of the HOMO–LUMO bandgap energy of Ala and PAla from 2.6647 and 1.5772 eV, down to 1.2871 and 1.2675 eV, respectively, reflecting increased reactivity for further interaction with the surrounding environment. Results also indicated that interaction of both metals and PAHs with protein resulted in changing the structure of the amide groups with significant shift in their band positions. Changes in the geometrical parameters of protein were detected which, in turn, changed the amount of energy required to vibrate its funcitonal groups, thus leading to a change in the vibrational features of COOH and NH2. FTIR spectra of fish gills, liver, and muscle tissues collected from four sites in Alexandria (El-Shatby, Qaitbay, Al Asafra, and El-Max) confirmed the computational findings, revealing alterations in protein secondary structures. Experimental studies further assessed the effects of pollutants on fish health. Bacterial analysis showed the highest levels of Staphylococcus aureus (1.5 × 104 CFU/ml) and Escherichia coli (5.0 × 103 CFU/g) in El-Max, while the lowest bacterial counts were recorded in El-Shatby. Micronucleus analysis indicated significant genotoxic effects, with higher micronuclei frequencies in fish from El-Max than in El-Shatby. Gene expression analysis revealed that fish from El-Max exhibited upregulated levels of Cytochrome c, P53, and TNF genes, suggesting oxidative stress and apoptosis as potential responses to environmental pollution. One-way ANOVA confirmed significant differences between control and polluted groups (p < 0.05), with the highest expression levels observed in Tilapia liver samples. These findings highlight the detrimental impact of PAHs and heavy metals on aquatic organisms, emphasizing the need for continuous environmental monitoring and pollution control measures in the Mediterranean coastal waters.
Unified and explainable molecular representation learning for imperfectly annotated data from the hypergraph view
Abstract Molecular representation learning (MRL) has shown promise in accelerating drug development by predicting chemical properties. However, imperfectly annotation among datasets pose challenges in model design and explainability. In this work, we formulate molecules and corresponding properties as a hypergraph, extracting three key relationships: among properties, molecule-to-property, and among molecules, and developed a unified and explainable multi-task MRL framework, OmniMol. It integrates a task-related meta-information encoder and a task-routed mixture of experts (t-MoE) backbone to capture correlations among properties and produce task-adaptive outputs. To capture underlying physical principles among molecules, we implement an innovative SE(3)-encoder for physical symmetry, applying equilibrium conformation supervision, recursive geometry updates, and scale-invariant message passing to facilitate learning-based conformational relaxation. OmniMol achieves state-of-the-art performance in properties prediction, reaches top performance in chirality-aware tasks, demonstrates explainability for all three relations, and shows effective performance in practical applications. Our code is available in our https://github.com/bowenwang77/OmniMol public repository.
Manufacturing and characterization of innovative lightweight wooden furniture from polystyrene core wood sandwich panels
Abstract The increasing demand for lightweight and sustainable furniture has highlighted the need for innovative materials with improved performance characteristics. In this study, a light wood sandwich panel (HM) was produced by incorporating polystyrene cores, and lightweight furniture was manufactured using these panels. The primary objective was to develop alternative lightweight materials for furniture production and to perform a comparative analysis of the physical and mechanical properties of HM, medium density fiberboard (MDF), and particleboard (PB). Physical and mechanical characterization tests, including swelling, water absorption, internal bonding strength, screw withdrawal force, and modulus of rupture, were conducted on HM boards and compared with MDF and PB. Results showed that HM boards were 77% lighter than MDF and 16% lighter than PB. HM exhibited the lowest swelling and water absorption values and the highest internal bonding strength among the tested materials. However, the screw withdrawal force and modulus of rupture of HM were lower than those of MDF and PB. Despite these limitations, HM panels demonstrated superior lightweight characteristics and high water resistance. Further improvements in mechanical properties are possible through the use of stronger adhesives and fastening techniques. Overall, the findings indicate that HM panels offer a promising alternative for lightweight furniture production, potentially reducing wood consumption and production costs, while creating more ergonomic products.
Zinc alleviates vascular calcification by activating ERK1/2-mediated autophagy
Atypical cortical feedback underlies failure to process contextual information in the superior colliculus of Scn2a+/− autism model mice
Abstract Atypical sensory integration and contextual learning are common symptoms in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but how sensory circuits are affected remains elusive. Here we focused on the early visual information processing, and performed in vivo two-photon calcium imaging and pupillometry of mice engaged in an implicit learning task in stable and volatile visual contexts. Wild-type (WT) mice show stimulus-specific contextual modulation of the visual responses in the superior colliculus (SC) and pupil dynamics, whereas SCN2A-haploinsufficient ASD-model mice exhibit abnormal modulation patterns. In both genotypes, feedforward inputs from the retina to SC demonstrate no such contextual modulation. In contrast, feedback inputs from the primary visual cortex (V1) show modulation patterns similar to those of SC cells in WT mice, but no modulation in Scn2a +/- mice. Furthermore, chemogenetic perturbation reveals that this top-down signaling from V1 to SC mediates the observed contextual modulation both at the neurophysiological and behavioral levels. These results suggest that the corticotectal input is critical for contextual sensory integration in SC, and its anomaly underlies atypical sensory learning in ASD.
A DNA-based color image cryptosystem using chaotic maps, spiral mixing and non-linear binary operator
Effects of binary ethyleneimine and formaldehyde inactivation methods on foot-and-mouth disease virus vaccine immune responses and kinetics
Metal-organic polyhedra maintain the self-renewal of embryonic stem cells
Changes in dietary nutrient intakes at 6 and 12 months following bariatric surgery in a Chinese observational cohort
Comparison of intravaginal and interstitial brachytherapy in cervical cancer after inadvertent hysterectomy: a retrospective study
Abstract The purpose of this study was to compare intravaginal brachytherapy (IVBT) with interstitial brachytherapy (ISBT) in patients presenting with residual or recurrent disease after inadvertent hysterectomy for cervical cancer. Records of consecutive patients with cervical cancer, registered in the Radiotherapy Outpatient Department (RTOPD) between March 2018 and March 2021, who had inadvertent hysterectomy followed by external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and IVBT ( n = 15) or ISBT ( n = 15) were analyzed retrospectively. All the patients received a dose of 45–50 Gy/25 fractions in 5 weeks by EBRT with concurrent cisplatin. A dose of 6 Gy/fraction/week for two consecutive weeks was prescribed at 5 mm from the surface of the vaginal cylinder in the IVBT arm. Patients in the ISBT arm were treated with 6 Gy/fraction for four fractions over two days with Martinez Universal Perineal Interstitial Template (MUPIT). Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were the primary endpoints. Acute and late toxicities were the secondary endpoints. Median follow-up (FU) was 24.3 months and 32.8 months in the IVBT and ISBT arms respectively. Most of the patients failed within 12–18 months after brachytherapy. The 3-year OS for IVBT and ISBT arms were 54% and 93% respectively ( p = 0.011). The 3-year DFS for IVBT and ISBT arms were 42% and 93% respectively( p = 0.023). Both the arms had similar acute & late toxicities. ISBT had significantly better survival outcomes in terms of OS, and DFS with similar toxicity as compared to IVBT in patients with residual or recurrent disease after inadvertent hysterectomy for cervical cancer.
Stabilizing dual-phased perovskite towards high performance photovoltaics with enhanced batch stability and consistency
Abstract Fabricating high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with solution processing is conducive to low-cost commercial production, it is therefore rather critical to stabilize perovskite in both solution and solid phases. For this purpose, the speed-up ageing of perovskite solution in air was systematically studied and its severe spontaneous degradation was observed. To address this issue, we introduce 4-(trifluoromethyl) phenylhydrazine (TFPH) to modify the perovskite solution, which presents enhanced storage stability. Consequently, when the modified solution was used to prepare PSCs, we obtained much improved and well consistent power conversion efficiencies (PCEs, ~ 26.0%) regardless of the perovskite solution ageing time, as well as exciting operational stability, which maintains PCE ≥ 92% for 1830 hours. These results are attributed to TFPH’s multifunctionality: a) hydrazine groups inhibit perovskite decomposition by dual-pathway mechanism; b) trifluoromethyl boosts dipole moment, aiding crystallization and strain relaxation; c) impurity reduction and high-quality film jointly lower charge traps. This work substantially assists understanding and modifying perovskite degradation in both solution and solid phases. The developed performance stability and consistency on the TFPH modified device batches is of great significance for commercial production of PSCs.