FPGA-Based Sensors for Distributed Digital Manufacturing Systems: A State-of-the-Art Review.

The combination of distributed digital factories (DFs) with sustainable practices has been proposed as a revolutionary technique in modern manufacturing. This review paper explores the convergence of DF with innovative sensor technology, concentrating on the role of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) in promoting this paradigm. A DF is defined as an integrated framework where digital twins (DTs), sensors, laser additive manufacturing (laser-AM), and subtractive manufacturing (SM) work in synchronization.

A symmetry-oriented crystal structure prediction method for crystals with rigid bodies.

We have developed an efficient crystal structure prediction (CSP) method for desired chemical compositions, specifically suited for compounds featuring recurring molecules or rigid bodies. We applied this method to two metal chalcogenides: LiPSand NaGeSe, treating PSas a tetrahedral rigid body and GeSeas an ethane-like dimer rigid body. Initial trials not only identified the experimentally observed structures of these compounds but also uncovered several novel phases, including a new stannite-type LiPSstructure and a potential stable structure for NaGeSethat exhibits significantly lower energy than the observed phase, as evaluated by density functional theory calculations.

Persistent monitoring of insect-pests on sticky traps through hierarchical transfer learning and slicing-aided hyper inference.

Introduction: Effective monitoring of insect-pests is vital for safeguarding agricultural yields and ensuring food security. Recent advances in computer vision and machine learning have opened up significant possibilities of automated persistent monitoring of insect-pests through reliable detection and counting of insects in setups such as yellow sticky traps. However, this task is fraught with complexities, encompassing challenges such as, laborious dataset annotation, recognizing small insect-pests in low-resolution or distant images, and the intricate variations across insect-pests life stages and species classes.

Atmosphere Effects in Laser Powder Bed Fusion: A Review.

The use of components fabricated by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) requires the development of processing parameters that can produce high-quality material. Manipulating the most commonly identified critical build parameters (e.g.

Superabsorbent Polymers for Internal Curing Concrete: An Additional Review on Characteristics, Effects, and Applications.

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are a promising admixture that can provide internal curing to freshly cast concrete and enhance concrete properties. Although many reviews have explored aspects of SAPs, the links among SAPs' chemical and physical properties, internal curing behaviors, concrete performance, and their large-scale applications are often weakly elucidated. This paper provides an additional review of the chemical structures and physical dimensions of SAPs and their effects on the internal curing kinetic behavior as well as on concrete properties, such as workability, strength, and durability.

Boosting the Microbial Electrosynthesis of Formate by MR-1 with an Ionic Liquid Cosolvent.

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) is a rapidly growing technology at the forefront of sustainable chemistry, leveraging the ability of microorganisms to catalyze electrochemical reactions to synthesize valuable compounds from renewable energy sources. The reduction of CO is a major target application for MES, but research in this area has been stifled, especially with the use of direct electron transfer (DET)-based microbial systems. The major fundamental hurdle that needs to be overcome is the low efficiency of CO reduction largely attributed to minimal microbial access to CO owing to its low solubility in the electrolyte.

The Effects of Wildfires on the Mental and Physical Health of School-Age Children in North America: A Scoping Review.

Background: Wildfires are occurring more often and with greater intensity, leading to longer and harsher fire seasons. As a result, children are more frequently exposed to wildfire smoke, which increases their risk of mental and physical health effects.

Purpose: The purpose of our scoping review is to explore the current literature on what is known about the direct and indirect impacts of wildfires on the mental and physical health of school-age children in North America (5 to 18-year-olds).

Ultra-Short Pulses Laser Heating of Dielectrics: A Semi-Classical Analytical Model.

Femtosecond laser pulses are currently regarded as an emerging and promising tool for processing wide bandgap dielectric materials across a variety of high-end applications, although the associated physical phenomena are not yet fully understood. To address these challenges, we propose an original, fully analytical model combined with Two Temperatures Model (TTM) formalism. The model is applied to describe the interaction of fs laser pulses with a typical dielectric target (e.

Anti-Corrosion Performance of Magnesium Potassium Phosphate Cement Coating on Steel Reinforcement: The Effect of Boric Acid.

It has recently been found that magnesium potassium phosphate cement (MKPC) paste coating applied on the surface of steel reinforcement can effectively retard the onset of corrosion and suppress corrosion reactions. However, the fast-setting nature of MKPC-which is a merit in repair-can be problematic in a practical engineering process of coating the steel reinforcement with MKPC paste. To address this problem, boric acid (HBO) was added as a retarder in an MKPC formulation to prolong the setting time.

Machine Vision to Provide Quantitative Analysis of Meltpool Stability for a Coaxial Wire Directed Energy Deposition Process.

Wire-based additive manufacturing (AM) is at the forefront of complex metal fabrication because of its scalability for large components, potential for high deposition rates, and ease of use. A common goal of wire directed energy deposition (DED) is preserving a stable process throughout deposition. If too little energy is put into the deposition, the wire will stub into the substrate and begin oscillating, creating turbulence within the meltpool.

Uncovering upconversion photoluminescence in layered PbI above room temperature.

As a van der Waals (vdW) layered semiconductor material, lead iodide (PbI) possessing a direct bandgap with strong photoluminescence emission in visible range has gained wide attention in applications of photonic and optoelectronic devices. Here, upconversion photoluminescence (UPL) in exfoliated PbI flakes is demonstrated at room temperature and elevated temperatures. The linear power dependence of UPL emission with 532 nm excitation suggests the one-photon involved multiphonon-assisted UPL emission process, which is revealed by the temperature-dependent UPL emission measurement.

A Review on Photoacoustic Spectroscopy Techniques for Gas Sensing.

The rapid growth of industry and the global drive for modernization have led to an increase in gas emissions, which present significant environmental and health risks. As a result, there is a growing need for precise and sensitive gas-monitoring technologies. This review delves into the progress made regarding photoacoustic gas sensors, with a specific focus on the vital components of acoustic cells and acoustic detectors.

Development of Robust Steel Alloys for Laser-Directed Energy Deposition via Analysis of Mechanical Property Sensitivities.

To ensure consistent performance of additively manufactured metal parts, it is advantageous to identify alloys that are robust to process variations. This paper investigates the effect of steel alloy composition on mechanical property robustness in laser-directed energy deposition (L-DED). In situ blending of ultra-high-strength low-alloy steel (UHSLA) and pure iron powders produced 10 compositions containing 10-100 wt% UHSLA.

Development of Malate Biosensor-Containing Hydrogels and Living Cell-Based Sensors.

Malate is a key intermediate in the citric acid cycle, an enzymatic cascade that is central to cellular energy metabolism and that has been applied to make biofuel cells. To enable real-time sensing of malate levels, we have engineered a genetically encoded, protein-based fluorescent biosensor called Malon specifically responsive to malate by performing structure-based mutagenesis of the Cache-binding domain of the Citron GFP-based biosensor. Malon demonstrates high specificity and fluorescence activation in response to malate, and has been applied to monitor enzymatic reactions in vitro.

Elemental composition and health risk assessment of PM10, PM2.5, at different microenvironments: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

This study was designed to evaluate the health risks faced by inhabitants living in the slum areas of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The levels of PM2.5 and PM10 and elemental composition of the PM10 were measured in indoors (in the kitchen and living room) and outdoors (at the roadside).

Life, Death and Energy: What Does Nature Select?

Evolutionary biology is poised for a third major synthesis. The first presented Darwin's evidence from natural history. The second incorporated genetic mechanisms.

Microwave-Assisted Hydrothermal Synthesis of Photocatalytic Truncated-Bipyramidal TiO/TiCN Heterostructures Derived from TiCN MXene.

TiO/MXene heterostructure has garnered significant interest as a photocatalyst due to its large surface area and efficient charge carrier separation at the interface. However, current synthesis methods produce TiO without clear crystal faceting and often require complicated postprocessing step, limiting its practical applications. We demonstrate a facile and controlled microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis for transforming multilayered TiCN MXene to a truncated-bipyramidal TiO/TiCN heterostructure.

Tough Monolayer Silver Nanowire-Reinforced Double-Layer Graphene.

Mixed-dimensional nanomaterials composed of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, such as graphene-silver nanowire (AgNW) composite sandwiched structures, are promising candidates as building blocks for multifunctional structures and materials. However, their mechanical behavior and failure mechanism have not yet been fully understood. In this work, we have performed integrated experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies to explore the performance and failure modes of graphene-AgNW composite under tensile and impact loading conditions.

Protocol for Evaluating Anion Exchange Membranes for Nonaqueous Redox Flow Batteries.

Nonaqueous redox flow batteries often suffer from reduced battery lifetime and decreased coulombic efficiency due to crossover of the redox-active species through the membrane. One method to mitigate this undesired crossover is to judiciously choose a membrane based on several criteria: swelling and structural integrity, size and charge of redox active species, and ionic conductivity. Most research to date has focused on reducing crossover by synthesizing modified redox-active molecules and/or new membranes.

Antibiotic-Loaded Dendrimer Hydrogels in Periodontal Bone Regeneration: An In Vitro Release Feasibility Study.

The prescription of a course of oral antibiotics following bone grafting procedures is a common practice in clinical periodontics to reduce surgical site infections. The goal of this study is to characterize the release profile of antibiotics via local delivery using dendrimer hydrogels (DH) and to analyze the effect of two different particulate bone allografts on the release of the antibiotics in vitro. DH were synthesized from polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer G5 and polyethylene glycol diacrylate, and cefazolin was chosen as the antibiotic.

Inferring the metabolic rate of bone.

The bone organ is poorly represented in comparative research on mammalian mass-specific metabolic rates. As a first order attempt to remedy this, from the literature we collected mass-specific metabolic rates for all major organs except for the bone organ, and by subtraction infer the rate for the bone organ. The scaling relationships are given of each whole-organ mass-specific metabolic rate and of the relationship between whole-organ metabolic rate and body mass.

A Robust Recurrent Neural Networks-Based Surrogate Model for Thermal History and Melt Pool Characteristics in Directed Energy Deposition.

In directed energy deposition (DED), accurately controlling and predicting melt pool characteristics is essential for ensuring desired material qualities and geometric accuracies. This paper introduces a robust surrogate model based on recurrent neural network (RNN) architectures-Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Bidirectional LSTM (Bi-LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). Leveraging a time series dataset from multi-physics simulations and a three-factor, three-level experimental design, the model accurately predicts melt pool peak temperatures, lengths, widths, and depths under varying conditions.

C-H amination chemistry mediated by trinuclear Cu(I) sites supported by a ligand scaffold featuring an arene platform and tetramethylguanidinyl residues.

Tripodal ligands that can encapsulate single or multiple metal sites in -symmetric geometric configurations constitute valuable targets for novel catalysts. Of particular interest in ligand development are efforts toward incorporating apical elements that exhibit little if any electron donicity, to enhance the electrophilic nature of a positioned active oxidant (, metal-oxo, -nitrene). The tripodal ligand TMGtrphen-Arene has been synthesized, featuring an arene platform 1,3,5-substituted with phenylene arms possessing tetramethylguanidinyl (TMG) residues.