PDE-guided reservoir computing for image denoising with small data.

While network-based techniques have shown outstanding performance in image denoising in the big data regime requiring massive datasets and expensive computation, mathematical understanding of their working principles is very limited. Not to mention, their relevance to traditional mathematical approaches has not attracted much attention. Therefore, we suggest how reservoir computing networks can be strengthened in combination with conventional partial differential equation (PDE) methods for image denoising, especially in the small data regime.

Whole-Cell-Based Photosynthetic Biohybrid Systems for Energy and Environmental Applications.

With the increasing awareness of sustainable development, energy and environment are becoming two of the most important issues of concern to the world today. Whole-cell-based photosynthetic biohybrid systems (PBSs), an emerging interdisciplinary field, are considered as attractive biosynthetic platforms with great prospects in energy and environment, combining the superiorities of semiconductor materials with high energy conversion efficiency and living cells with distinguished biosynthetic capacity. This review presents a systematic discussion on the synthesis strategies of whole-cell-based PBSs that demonstrate a promising potential for applications in sustainable solar-to-chemical conversion, including light-facilitated carbon dioxide reduction and biohydrogen production.

Hygro-responsive, Photo-decomposed Superoleophobic/Superhydrophilic Coating for On-Demand Oil-Water Separation.

The superoleophobic/superhydrophilic material has attracted considerable interest due to the incomparable property of it for the oil-water separation. However, it is a challenge to make the prepared surface superoleophobic and superhydrophilic at the same time since the oleophobic surface tends to repel water. Herein, a hygro-responsive superoleophobic/superhydrophilic coating was fabricated by liquid-phase deposition of TiO with perfluorooctanoic acid.

Particle/gas partitioning for semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in Level III multimedia fugacity models: Gaseous emissions.

Atmospheric transport is a global-scale process that moves semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) rapidly from source regions to remote locations, where these chemicals have never been produced or used. Particle/gas (P/G) partitioning of SVOCs during atmospheric transport governs wet and dry deposition, and thereby controls the efficiency and scope of long-range atmospheric transport and fate for these sorts of compounds. Previous work has shown that the assumption of steady state between particulate and gaseous phases in the atmosphere leads to model results that more closely match observations especially for compounds that strongly favor the particulate phase.

A Systematic Analysis of Hand Movement Functionality: Qualitative Classification and Quantitative Investigation of Hand Grasp Behavior.

Understanding human hand movement functionality is fundamental in neuroscience, robotics, prosthetics, and rehabilitation. People are used to investigate movement functionality separately from qualitative or quantitative perspectives. However, it is still limited to providing an integral framework from both perspectives in a logical manner.

Particle/gas partitioning for semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in level III multimedia fugacity models: Both gaseous and particulate emissions.

Multimedia fugacity models have long been used to address the fate of toxic organic chemical emissions by providing a quantitative account of the sources, transport processes, and sinks. Recently, we have examined three level-III fugacity models (E4F (equilibrium six-compartment four-fugacity), S6F (steady-state six-compartment six-fugacity) and S4F (steady-state six-compartment four-fugacity) Models), in the context of their performance set against real-world data, and their practicality of application. Here, we discuss how the balance between gaseous and aerosol phases of emissions assumed for initial conditions affects the different model outcomes.

Recent developments in next-generation occlusion devices.

Transcatheter closure has been widely accepted as a highly effective way to treat abnormal blood flows and/or embolization of thrombus in the heart. It allows the closure of four types of congenital heart defects (CHDs) and stroke-associated left atrial appendage (LAA). The four types of CHDs include atrial septal defect (ASD), patent foramen ovale (PFO), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), and ventricular septal defect (VSD).

Harnessing Wrinkling Patterns Using Shape Memory Polymer Microparticles.

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are the simplest and most attractive alternatives for soft substrates of typical bilayer wrinkle systems because of shape fixity and recovery capabilities. Herein, we have successfully programmed large compressive strains in chemical cross-linking shape memory polystyrene (PS) microparticles via nanoimprint lithography, which acted as the substrate of a wrinkle system using a gold nanoparticle (Au NP) film as the top layer. When triggered by two different stimuli (direct heating and toluene vapors), the thin Au NP film could transform into various wrinkle structures atop the recovered PS particles.

In times of trouble: Higher education lecturers' emotional reaction to online instruction during COVID-19 outbreak.

The disruption of 'normal' academic studies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was embodied mainly in a rapid transition from in-class teaching to online synchronous instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine the lecturer's emotions towards the change they experienced with the sudden shift to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of those emotions on their willingness to teach online in the future. In the present study, 239 academic lecturers answered an online questionnaire.

Occurrence, Removal, and Mass Balance of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Their Derivatives in Wastewater Treatment Plants in Northeast China.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 33 methylated PAHs (Me-PAHs), and 14 nitrated PAHs (NPAHs) were measured in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to study the removal efficiency of these compounds through the WWTPs, as well as their source appointment and potential risk in the effluent. The concentrations of ∑PAHs, ∑Me-PAHs, and ∑NPAHs were 2.01-8.

Efficient Framework Analysis for Targeted Drug Delivery Based on Internet of Bio-NanoThings.

The Internet of Bio-NanoThings (IoBNTs) is a novel paradigm that derives from synthetic biology and advances in nanotechnology for controlling the embedded nanodevices in various medical applications. However, numerous studies have focused on communication efficiency among the nanodevices in a given network, the challenges such as the design and the development of the nanodevices, and the coordination of molecular communication within the wireless body area network (BAN), and the interface connection between the BAN and the Internet are yet to be addressed. Therefore, in this study, we present a framework analysis comprising of the compartmental model, for studying the effects and variances in drug concentration that occur inside intra-body nanonetworks through IoBNT, while taking into account the properties of target cells as well as the ligand-receptor binding mechanism.

A high-performance triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid wind energy harvester based on rotational tapered rollers aiming at outdoor IoT applications.

This article proposed a high-performance triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid wind energy harvester (WEH). By adopting the revolution and rotation movements of tapered rollers, which serve as both the rotor of the electromagnetic generator (EMG) part and freestanding layers of the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) part, the WEH can work as a sustainable power source and a self-powered wind speed sensor. When the wind speed is 12 m/s, super-high open-circuit voltage peaks of 47.

Photosensitive Composite Inks for Digital Light Processing Four-Dimensional Printing of Shape Memory Capture Devices.

High-performance shape memory thermosetting polymers and their composites for four-dimensional (4D) printing are essential in practical applications. To date, most printable thermosets suffer from complicated processes, poor thermodynamic performances, and low printing speed. Here, photosensitive composite inks for fast photocuring printing are developed.

Hot-Probe Characterization of Transparent Conductive Thin Films.

Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin films represent a large class of wide-bandgap semiconductors applied in all fields of micro- and optoelectronics. The most widespread material applied for the creation of TCO coatings is indium-tin oxide (ITO). At the same time, there are plurality trends to change the high-cost ITO on other materials, for example, on the ZnO doped by different elements such as Al, Mn, and Sb.

Reconstruction of hand, elbow and shoulder actual and imagined trajectories in 3D space using EEG current source dipoles.

. Growing evidence suggests that electroencephalography (EEG) electrode (sensor) potential time series (PTS) of slow cortical potentials (SCPs) hold motor neural correlates that can be used for motion trajectory prediction, commonly by multiple linear regression (mLR). It is not yet known whether arm-joint trajectories can be reliably decoded from current sources, computed from sensor data, from which brain areas they can be decoded and using which neural features.

An Early Stage Researcher's Primer on Systems Medicine Terminology.

Systems Medicine is a novel approach to medicine, that is, an interdisciplinary field that considers the human body as a system, composed of multiple parts and of complex relationships at multiple levels, and further integrated into an environment. Exploring Systems Medicine implies understanding and combining concepts coming from diametral different fields, including medicine, biology, statistics, modeling and simulation, and data science. Such heterogeneity leads to semantic issues, which may slow down implementation and fruitful interaction between these highly diverse fields.

Unipolar stroke, electroosmotic pump carbon nanotube yarn muscles.

Success in making artificial muscles that are faster and more powerful and that provide larger strokes would expand their applications. Electrochemical carbon nanotube yarn muscles are of special interest because of their relatively high energy conversion efficiencies. However, they are bipolar, meaning that they do not monotonically expand or contract over the available potential range.

4D Printing of Bioinspired Absorbable Left Atrial Appendage Occluders: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

The significant mismatch of mechanical properties between the implanted medical device and biological tissue is prone to cause wear and even perforation. In addition, the limited biocompatibility and nondegradability of commercial Nitinol-based occlusion devices can easily lead to other serious complications, such as allergy and corrosion. The present study aims to develop a 4D printed patient-specific absorbable left atrial appendage occluder (LAAO) that can match the deformation of left atrial appendage (LAA) tissue to reduce complications.

Construction of Eukaryotic Cell Biomimetics: Hierarchical Polymersomes-in-Proteinosome Multicompartment with Enzymatic Reactions Modulated Protein Transportation.

The eukaryotic cell is a smart compartment containing an outer permeable membrane, a cytoskeleton, and functional organelles, presenting part structures for life. The integration of membrane-containing artificial organelles (=polymersomes) into a large microcompartment is a key step towards the establishment of exquisite cellular biomimetics with different membrane properties. Herein, an efficient way to construct a hierarchical multicompartment composed of a hydrogel-filled proteinosome hybrid structure with an outer homogeneous membrane, a smart cytoskeleton-like scaffold, and polymersomes is designed.

A Three Demultiplexer C-Band Using Angled Multimode Interference in GaN-SiO Slot Waveguide Structures.

One of the most common techniques for increasing data bitrate using the telecommunication system is to use dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM). However, the implementation of DWDM with more channels requires additional waveguide coupler devices and greater energy consumption, which can limit the system performances. To solve these issues, we propose a new approach for designing the demultiplexer using angled multimode interference (AMMI) in gallium nitride (GaN)-silica (SiO) slot waveguide structures.

Intelligent fault diagnosis of planetary gearbox based on refined composite hierarchical fuzzy entropy and random forest.

This paper presents a novel signal processing scheme by combining refined composite hierarchical fuzzy entropy (RCHFE) and random forest (RF) for fault diagnosis of planetary gearboxes. In this scheme, we propose a refined composite hierarchical analysis based method to improve the feature extraction performance of existing MFE and HFE methods. First, RCHFE is applied to extract the fault-induced information from the vibration signals.

Evaluating Likelihood Ratio (LR) for firearm evidence identifications in forensic science based on the Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) method.

Firearm evidence identification has been challenged by the 2008 and 2009 National Research Council (NRC) reports and by legal proceedings on its fundamental assumptions, its procedure involving subjective interpretations, and the lack of a statistical foundation for evaluation of error rates or other measures for the weight of evidence. To address these challenges, researchers of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently developed a Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) method for automatic and objective firearm evidence identification and quantitative error rate evaluation. Based on the CMC method, a likelihood ratio (LR) procedure is proposed in this paper aiming to provide a scientific basis for firearm evidence identification and a method for evaluation of the weight of evidence.

Proposal for a novel elliptical ultrasonic aspirator and its fundamental performance in cartilage removal.

An ultrasonic aspirator with elliptical vibration on the end face is presented in this paper. The ultrasonic vibration relied on a specially designed Langevin transducer. The end face of the transducer was screwed into a surgical tool capable of changing amplitude, which requires resonance to provide sufficient vibration amplitude for cutting cartilage or other biological tissues.