Experimental investigation on the seismic resistance of RC columns after acid rain corrosion.

Acid rain can significantly undermine the structural integrity and seismic resilience of concrete structures, posing substantial risks of catastrophic failures and jeopardizing safety. However, studies on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) columns affected by acid rain corrosion remain nascent. Therefore, this study explored the impact of acid-rain corrosion extent and axial compression ratio on the seismic behavior of RC columns that experienced flexural failure using an artificial rapid corrosion method and pseudo-static test in sequence.

A Complex Concentrated Alloy with Record-High Strength-Toughness at 77 K.

High strength and large ductility, leading to a high material toughness (area under the stress-strain curve), are desirable for alloys used in cryogenic applications. Assisted by domain-knowledge-informed machine learning, here a complex concentrated FeCoNiAlTa alloy is designed, which uses L1 coherent nanoprecipitates in a high volume fraction (≈65 ± 3 vol.%) in a face-centered-cubic (FCC) solid solution matrix that undergoes FCC-to-body-centered-cubic (BCC) phase transformation upon tensile straining.

Real-time ghost image characterization for panoramic annular lenses.

As a common but troublesome branch of stray light, ghost images in catadioptric optical systems greatly limit the performances of such optics, including panoramic annular lenses (PAL). A versatile and robust real-time characterization algorithm for ghost images in PAL systems is proposed, with a new ray behavior quantifying index. It characterizes any kind of ghost image in the catadioptric unit with a high reliability, regardless of the actual existence of the ghost images.

Minimalist and High-Quality Panoramic Imaging With PSF-Aware Transformers.

High-quality panoramic images with a Field of View (FoV) of 360° are essential for contemporary panoramic computer vision tasks. However, conventional imaging systems come with sophisticated lens designs and heavy optical components. This disqualifies their usage in many mobile and wearable applications where thin and portable, minimalist imaging systems are desired.

Bulk photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals.

The bulk photovoltaic (BPV) effect in ferroelectric liquid crystals is of increasing scientific interest owing to its great potential for light-energy conversion. The ferroelectric nematic phase exhibits a huge spontaneous polarization that can be aligned to a preferred direction. In this Letter, we investigate the tensorial properties of the BPV effect in the planarly aligned ferroelectric nematic phase of the liquid crystalline material RM734.

The Relationship Between Voice Parameters and Speech Intelligibility: A Scoping Review.

Objective: To synthesize existing evidence of the relationship between voice parameters and speech intelligibility.

Methods: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, 13 databases were searched and a manual search was conducted. A narrative synthesis of methodological quality, study characteristics, participant demographics, voice parameter categorization, and their relationship to speech intelligibility was conducted.

Research on LIBS online monitoring criteria for aircraft skin laser paint removal based on OPLS-DA.

Online monitoring technology plays a pivotal role in advancing the utilization of laser paint removal in aircraft maintenance and automation. Through the utilization of a high-frequency infrared pulse laser paint removal laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) online monitoring platform, this research conducted data collection encompassing 60 sets of LIBS spectra during the paint removal process. Classification and identification models were established employing principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA).

Athermal panoramic annular lens design with a thermal analysis method.

An athermal 360×(30-100) and /3.5 panoramic annular lens (PAL) system is designed. Through the optical mechanical thermal analysis results based on finite element analysis (FEA), it is expected that the system will have excellent performance under extreme temperature fluctuations.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of vocal fatigue index (VFI) to Chinese language.

Objectives: This study aimed to translate the Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI) into Simplified Chinese and test its reliability and validity in mainland China.

Methods: The original English version of the VFI was translated and adapted to a Simplified Chinese version (VFI -SC). Fifty-four participants with voice disorders and 21 healthy controls completed the VFI-SC.

Ultra-wide angle panoramic imaging system based on a multiplexed reflective surface.

We propose an ultra-wide angle panoramic imaging system based on a multiplexed reflective surface, which consists of a panoramic head unit (PHU) and the relay lens group. The multiplexed reflective surface is applied in the PHU to reflect light from glass and air for imaging, obtaining the front and rear view channels, respectively. With a field of view (FoV) of 360×(35-120) and an -number of four, this system has good image quality and relative illumination in the FoV.

General design algorithm for stray light suppression of a panoramic annular system.

In this work, a universal algorithm for designing a panoramic annular lens (PAL) system free from stray light is proposed. The impact of a given stray light path to the optical system could be estimated without running a full stray light analysis process, which allows designers to eliminate troublesome stray light paths by optimizing lens parameters at an early stage of optical design. A 360° ×(40°-100°) PAL system is designed and implemented to verify the proposed method.

Design of a compact triple-channel panoramic stereo imaging system.

We propose a compact form of the triple-channel panoramic annular lens (PAL) with a stereo field and no central blind area based on polarization technology, which solves the problem that the traditional stereo panoramic system always has a large and complex mirror in front to reflect light. Based on the traditional dual-channel structure, we apply polarization technology to the first reflective surface to create a third channel for the stereovision. The field of view (FoV) of the front channel is 360° × (0° - 40°), the FoV of the side channel is 360° × (40° - 105°) and the stereo FoV is 360° × (20° - 50°).

Compact and lightweight panoramic annular lens for computer vision tasks.

We propose a focal power distribution theory for the design of a compact panoramic annular lens (PAL) system based on Petzval sum correction. The system has a large field of view (FoV) of 360° ×(25°-100°). Its total length is 29.

Design of stereo imaging system with a panoramic annular lens and a convex mirror.

Panoramic stereo imaging system can not only provide panoramic images to obtain more information, but also obtain the depth information of the target object, and it has broad application prospects in robot navigation, road planning, and obstacle avoidance. A new panoramic stereo imaging system combined with a panoramic annular lens (PAL) and a convex mirror is proposed. It provides a large panoramic vision up to 360°× (30°∼150°) and, to the best of our knowledge, the entire FOV is the largest in the existing literature.

Topological cavity laser with valley edge states.

Topological edge states (ES) arise at the boundary between spatial domains with diverse topological properties in photonic crystals, which can transmit unidirectionally to suppress the backscattering and robustly to be immune to defects and disorders. In addition, optical devices with arbitrary geometries of cavities, such as lasers, are expected to be designed on the basis of ES. Herein, we first propose a topological cavity laser based on a honeycomb lattice of ring holes with the bearded interface in two-dimensional (2D) all-dielectric valley photonic crystals (VPhCs) at telecommunication wavelengths.

Luteolin Protects Cardiomyocytes Cells against Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Apoptosis and Inflammatory Damage by Modulating Nlrp3.

Purpose: In this article, we aimed to investigate the influences of luteolin on inflammatory injury to cardiomyocytes induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

Materials And Methods: H9c2 cells were pretreated with different concentrations of luteolin (10, 20, and 50 µM) for 12 h and then stimulated with 10 µg/mL LPS or no LPS for 6 h. Cell viability was detected by CCK-8 assay.

Transfer matrix method for light propagation in variable complex chiral media.

By taking a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) as an example and treating it as a multilayer stack of birefringent plates, we use a transfer matrix method to analyze light propagation in a common chiral medium in consideration of interlayer reflection and transmission. Based on the transfer matrix, the electric field distribution can be expressed in the form of linearly as well as circularly polarized components, so as to discuss the change of the polarization state of light in the transmission process. The transfer matrix of the same medium with different chirality can be converted by only changing the rotation matrix in the calculation process.

Experimental observation of chaotic Brillouin dynamic grating.

We experimentally observe the local Brillouin dynamic grating (BDG) based on a chaotic laser in a polarization-maintaining fiber for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The grating length of the chaotic BDG can be adjusted by changing the optical spectral width of the chaotic laser. The characteristics of the reflection spectrum versus the grating length are further analyzed, which agrees with the theory of fiber Bragg grating.

Rapid noise removal based dual adversarial network for the Brillouin optical time domain analyzer.

We propose a dual adversarial network (DANet) to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the Brillouin optical time domain analyzer. Rather than inferring the conditional posteriori distribution in the conventional maximum a posteriori (MAP) framework, DANet constructs a joint distribution from two different factorizations corresponding to the noise removal and generation tasks. This method utilizes all the information between the clean-noisy image pairs to preserve data completely without requiring traditional image priors and noise distribution assumptions.

Tunable terahertz topological edge and corner states in designer surface plasmon crystals.

In this work, we study topological edge and corner states in two-dimensional (2D) Su-Schrieffer-Heeger lattices from designer surface plasmon crystals (DSPCs), where the vertical confinement of the designer surface plasmons enables signal detection without the need of additional covers for the sample. In particular, the formation of higher-order topological insulator can be determined by the two-dimensional Zak phase, and the zero-dimensional subwavelength corner states are found in the designed DSPCs at the terahertz (THz) frequency band together with the edge states. Moreover, the corner state frequency can be tuned by modifying the defect strength, i.

Design of a compact dual-channel panoramic annular lens with a large aperture and high resolution.

We propose a compact dual-channel panoramic annular lens (PAL) with a large aperture and high resolution to solve three major shortcomings of conventional PAL systems: resolution, imaging quality, and compactness. Using polarization technology, the system integrates two optical channels to eliminate the central blind area. Using our PAL aperture ray-tracing model, the large aperture PAL system with a low F-number of 2.

Advances in Random Fiber Lasers and Their Sensing Application.

Compared with conventional laser, random laser (RL) has no resonant cavity, reducing the requirement of cavity design. In recent years, the random fiber laser (RFL), a novel kind of RL, has made great progress in theories and experiments. The RFL has a simpler structure, a more flexible design, and higher reliability.

Effect of chaotic time delay signature on Brillouin gain spectrum in the slope-assisted chaotic BOCDA.

In the chaotic Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis (CBOCDA) system, the broadband chaotic laser naturally widens the Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS), which provides an enhanced range for dynamic strain measurement via slope-assisted technology. However, inherent off-peak amplification at the time delay signature (TDS) position results in a deteriorated gain envelope. The mechanism behind the sub-peak of chaotic BGS is first analyzed and the negative correlated relationship between the value of main-sub-peak ratio (MSPR) and magnitude of TDS has been experimentally demonstrated.

Emission characteristics and associated assessment of volatile organic compounds from process units in a refinery.

The accuracy and reliability of volatile organic compound (VOC) emission data are essential for assessing emission characteristics and their potential impact on air quality and human health. This paper describes a new method for determining VOC emission data by multipoint sampling from various process units inside a large-scale refinery. We found that the emission characteristics of various production units were related to the raw materials, products, and production processes.

Signal-to-noise ratio improvement of Brillouin optical time domain analysis system based on empirical mode decomposition and finite impulse response.

We propose a denoising algorithm based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and finite impulse response (FIR) to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Brillouin optical time domain analysis. Denoising results indicate EMD-FIR can effectively reduce noise, and the maximum SNR improvement is 11.69 dB, which is 4.