From Wet to Protective: Film Formation in Waterborne Coatings.

The importance of anticorrosive coatings cannot be overstated, as they play a vital role in safeguarding assets and infrastructure across various industries. Within this context, the emergence of waterborne (WB) coatings stands out for their paramount significance, offering a sustainable alternative to traditional solvent-based (SB) coatings and addressing pressing environmental concerns. Despite their eco-friendliness, the complexity of their film formation mechanism and the lack of understanding present challenges in enhancing the performance of waterborne coatings for corrosion protection.

Demonstration of metaplectic geometrical optics for reduced modeling of plasma waves.

The Wentzel, Kramers, and Brillouin (WKB) approximation of geometrical optics is widely used in plasma physics, quantum mechanics, and reduced wave modeling, in general. However, it is well-known that the approximation breaks down at focal and turning points. In this paper, we present an unsupervised numerical implementation of the recently developed metaplectic geometrical optics framework, which extends the applicability of geometrical optics beyond the limitations of WKB, such that the wave field remains finite at caustics.

Cochlear implant electrode design for safe and effective treatment.

The optimal placement of a cochlear implant (CI) electrode inside the scala tympani compartment to create an effective electrode-neural interface is the base for a successful CI treatment. The characteristics of an effective electrode design include (a) electrode matching every possible variation in the inner ear size, shape, and anatomy, (b) electrically covering most of the neuronal elements, and (c) preserving intra-cochlear structures, even in non-hearing preservation surgeries. Flexible electrode arrays of various lengths are required to reach an angular insertion depth of 680° to which neuronal cell bodies are angularly distributed and to minimize the rate of electrode scalar deviation.

A radiometer to diagnose parametric instabilities during linear excitation of electron Bernstein waves in the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade.

Highly overdense magnetically confined fusion plasmas, such as the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade, cannot easily be heated using conventional electron cyclotron resonance heating because high density cutoffs block microwave access to the plasma core. Instead, electromagnetic waves can be coupled to electron Bernstein waves (EBWs) through the O-X-B mode coupling scheme, and the EBWs can then be absorbed at higher densities. The excitation of EBWs occurs at the upper hybrid (UH) layer where nonlinear wave interactions, called parametric decay instabilities (PDIs), are known to occur at reduced power thresholds.

Correction to "Hydrosilane Modified Poly(2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate) Brush as a Nanoadhesive for Efficient Silicone Bonding".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.9b01282.

Hydrosilane-Modified Poly(2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate) Brush as a Nanoadhesive for Efficient Silicone Bonding.

Leaching of chemicals from adhesion promoters is, in particular, problematic for the food, water, pharmaceutical, and MedTech industries where any chemical contamination is unacceptable. A solution to this issue is to employ covalently attached nanoscale polymer brushes as adhesive layers for plastics. One of the industrially most relevant adhesion targets in that respect is poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), being used for many high-end applications such as catheters and breast implants.

Earthquake Nucleation Size: Evidence of Loading Rate Dependence in Laboratory Faults.

Recent Global Positioning System observations of major earthquakes such as the 2014 Chile megathrust show a slow preslip phase releasing a significant portion of the total moment (Ruiz et al., 2014, https://doi.org/10.

[Not all exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease should be treated with antibiotics].

This review gives an update on antibiotic treatment of exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Patients who do not need hospital admission and do not present with purulent sputum nor increased levels of C reactive protein/procalcitonin have no beneficial effect of antibiotic treatment. Those with severe COPD and increased sputum purulence should be treated with antibiotics, and first-line treatment should be amoxicillin, which is effective against the most common types of bacteria in COPD exacerbation.

From sub-Rayleigh to supershear ruptures during stick-slip experiments on crustal rocks.

Supershear earthquake ruptures propagate faster than the shear wave velocity. Although there is evidence that this occurs in nature, it has not been experimentally demonstrated with the use of crustal rocks. We performed stick-slip experiments with Westerly granite under controlled upper-crustal stress conditions.

Heterodyne detector for measuring the characteristic of elliptically polarized microwaves.

In the present paper, a device is introduced, which is capable of determining the three characteristic parameters of elliptically polarized light (ellipticity, angle of ellipticity, and direction of rotation) for microwave radiation at a frequency of 110 GHz. The device consists of two perpendicular orientated pickup waveguides. A heterodyne technique mixes the microwave frequency down to frequencies on the order of 200 MHz.

Outcomes in adults implanted with the FLEXsoft electrode.

Conclusion: Achieving deep insertions, as well as good speech perception results, the FLEXsoft electrode array allows for some preservation in subjects with measurable low frequency hearing, even after a period of time. This opens the door for future research in electrode design, hearing preservation research and drug delivery systems.

Objectives: The FLEXsoft electrode is designed to be atraumatic to the structures of the cochlea during deep insertion of a cochlear implant electrode.

Natural and experimental evidence of melt lubrication of faults during earthquakes.

Melt produced by friction during earthquakes may act either as a coseismic fault lubricant or as a viscous brake. Here we estimate the dynamic shear resistance (tau(f)) in the presence of friction-induced melts from both exhumed faults and high-velocity (1.28 meters per second) frictional experiments.

Earthquake rupture dynamics frozen in exhumed ancient faults.

Most of our knowledge about co-seismic rupture propagation is derived from inversion and interpretation of strong-ground-motion seismograms, laboratory experiments on rock and rock-analogue material, or inferred from theoretical and numerical elastodynamic models. However, additional information on dynamic rupture processes can be provided by direct observation of faults exhumed at the Earth's surface. Pseudotachylytes (solidified friction-induced melts) are the most certain fault-rock indicator of seismicity on ancient faults.