Search Results (184)

In this work, a post-annealing rapid cooling and aging treatment process is innovatively proposed to build high-performance zinc tin oxide (ZTO) thin-film transistors. The relaxation effect on the abundant oversaturated oxygen vacancy deep-level traps contributes to the shallow donor formation during the aging period. The TFTs aged in an air environment for 10 days possess significantly improved electrical performance, including a clearly increased on/off current ratio of 7 × 10⁶ from 2 × 10⁴ and a markedly increased saturation mobility of 5.9 from 2.2 cm²·V⁻¹·s⁻¹, verifying the facile method to improve the electrical property of polycrystalline TFTs, and the method has been investigated using the grain boundary defect relaxation model and energy band theory. It is worth mentioning that the TFTs aged under vacuum conditions realized more effective regulation and control on off-state current and demonstrated a wider aging time window. The distinctive illumination interface stability was studied in depth using a charge trapping model and electron–hole pair model, which embody the potential application in photoelectric detectors. Full article

Bone healing is a complex regenerative process regulated by interactions between skeletal and host biologic responses, and failure of bone repair remains a major challenge in orthopedic surgery. Using a murine model, this study investigated whether a preemptive priming stimulus could enhance healing of a subsequent contralateral cortical bone defect and whether the type and timing of the stimulus influenced this response. Skeletally mature male mice were randomized into six groups (n = 6/group) receiving either no stimulus, a skin incision, skin and muscle incisions, or a unicortical femoral drill hole stimulus. A subcritical-sized 1 mm × 2 mm unicortical defect was subsequently created in the contralateral femur after intervals of 2, 6, or 12 weeks, depending on group allocation. Femora were harvested 8 weeks later for micro-computed tomography, histology, and immunofluorescence analyses. Mice undergoing muscle elevation 2 weeks prior to defect creation and mice receiving drill hole stimulus 12 weeks prior demonstrated the greatest degree of cortical regeneration and healing of the contralateral subcritical-sized defect, with normalized cortical thicknesses reaching 104% and 109% of adjacent native cortex, respectively. Histologic analysis confirmed restoration of mature cortical architecture in these groups. Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated a relative shift toward an Arg1-associated reparative macrophage profile with reduced iNOS-associated inflammatory signaling, suggesting that modulation of the innate immune response contributed to the enhanced regenerative healing observed. These findings demonstrate that priming stimuli can enhance subsequent bone healing in a timing- and stimulus-dependent manner and may represent a novel strategy to optimize bone regeneration. Full article

Solar-driven photocatalysis has attracted increasing interest as an efficient and environmentally friendly approach for the mineralization of pollutants. In this work, carbon-doped g-C₃N₄/V_oBiOBr composites rich in oxygen vacancy (denoted as CCN/V_oBOB) were prepared by combining calcination with a solvothermal method, using glucose as the carbon source. The obtained composites were comprehensively characterized by XRD, TEM, and XPS to investigate their crystal structure, morphology, and surface chemical states, and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated through the degradation of organic pollutants. Among the prepared samples, 3.2 wt% CCN/V_oBOB exhibited the best photocatalytic performance, reaching 98% degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and 95% degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) within 90 min, which was significantly superior to that of V_oBOB and g-C₃N₄/V_oBOB. This enhanced activity can be attributed mainly to the synergistic effects of oxygen vacancy, carbon doping, and heterojunction construction. Their combined action not only regulates the band structure of V_oBOB effectively, but also greatly inhibits the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. These results were further supported by UV-Vis DRS and transient photocurrent measurements. Radical trapping experiments indicated that superoxide radicals (O₂⁻) were the dominant active species during the reaction. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) calculations provided further evidence for the above conclusions. On the basis of both experimental observations and theoretical analysis, a reasonable photocatalytic reaction mechanism was proposed. This work offers a useful strategy for designing highly efficient photocatalysts through the synergistic integration of oxygen vacancy, nonmetal doping, and heterojunction engineering, and thus promotes the application of photocatalytic technology in pollutant degradation. Full article

To mitigate the negative impacts of traditional rigid revetments on river ecosystems, this study focuses on perforated plate grid revetments, aiming to reveal the hydrodynamic mechanisms and parameter collaborative optimization pathways that simultaneously achieve anti-scour stability and ecological water exchange. A series of flume scour tests were conducted, combined with high-resolution large eddy simulation (LES) validated by experimental data, to systematically analyze the regulatory effects of key design parameters—such as opening ratio and longitudinal offset angle—on near-bottom flow velocity attenuation, vortex structures, and water exchange efficiency. The results indicate that a prototype parameter combination of 0.25 m grid height and 0.50 m plate grid spacing can reduce local scour depth by about 30% and enhance vertical exchange through the synergy of jetting from the openings and internal vortices. The longitudinal offset of adjacent holes may enhance the transverse water exchange but may also significantly reduce the longitudinal exchange intensity; hence, further research is needed. A hole-to-baffle height ratio greater than 0.40 is identified as a critical threshold for improving exchange efficiency. This study proposes a collaborative design framework in which grid spacing controls scour safety and aperture parameters regulate exchange functions, providing an experimental basis for the precise design and performance enhancement of ecological revetments. Full article

Microscale physical cues at the cell–extracellular matrix adhesion interface are increasingly being recognized as important regulators of cellular behavior. B16-F10 melanoma-derived cells retain melanogenic activity, including microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) expression and inducible melanin production, and are widely used for studies of melanogenesis and pigmentation-associated cellular responses. Melanocytic cells are sensitive to the physical characteristics of the surrounding microenvironment, including adhesion-dependent mechanical cues. However, the mechanism by which physical cues derived from the adhesion interface regulate melanoma cell function remains incompletely understood. In this study, we investigated the mechanism by which defined micropatterned substrates modulate melanoma cell morphology, migration, nuclear architecture, and melanogenic activity. Polydimethylsiloxane substrates with pillar- and hole-shaped microstructures (5, 10, and 50 µm diameters and spacings; 10 µm height or depth) were fabricated and coated with fibronectin. B16-F10 melanoma cells cultured on narrow pillar patterns (5 and 10 µm) exhibited restricted cell spreading, shortened protrusions, suppressed migration, and pronounced nuclear deformation compared with flat substrates. These mechanical constraints were accompanied by significant reductions in melanin production and downregulation of melanogenesis-related genes (Mitf, Tyr, and Tyrp1). Comparable trends were observed for Matrigel-coated substrates, indicating that microscale topography exerted consistent effects on B16-F10 melanoma cell responses across the tested extracellular matrix conditions. Collectively, our results demonstrate that surface topography with narrow pillar microstructures is associated with topography-dependent changes in cell behavior and melanogenic activity, providing insights into how microscale topographic confinement influences melanoma cell morphology and melanogenic activity. Full article

To meet the demand for highly sensitive temperature sensing in low-temperature environments, a surface plasmon resonance photonic crystal fiber (SPR-PCF) sensor with a central air hole and a dual-layer air-hole arrangement is designed and optimized. In this work, these air-hole features are used for mode-field regulation in a low-temperature sensing structure based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR), together with a polished gold film and an ethanol/chloroform (1:1) temperature-sensitive medium. The finite element method (FEM) was employed to analyze the resonance behavior and thermal response, and key structural parameters, including gold-film thickness, air-hole sizes, and radial positions, were optimized through cumulative parametric scanning. The optimized sensor shows good temperature response from −25 °C to 40 °C, with a maximum sensitivity of 36 nm/°C, a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 18.57 nm, and a figure of merit (FOM) of 1.2923. It is promising for cold-chain monitoring, low-temperature storage and transportation, and low-temperature sensing. Full article

Vent holes in tire molds typically exhibit large depth-to-diameter ratios (25–50) and variable drilling angles, both of which increase the risk of drill-bit breakage during automated drilling. To address this problem, this study develops a robotic drilling system consisting of a 6-DOF industrial robot and a dedicated end effector integrating a spindle unit, a linear feed unit, and a telescopic drill-bushing unit. A GRU-based feed-torque model predictive control method (GFTMPC) is proposed for robotic small-diameter deep-hole drilling, which achieves flexible control by integrating angle-aware feed-torque modeling with constrained MPC-based feed-rate optimization. The resulting GRU-based feed-torque model (GFTM) is embedded in the MPC framework for torque prediction and achieves an R² value of 0.9682. Under identical simulation conditions, GFTMPC reduces the RMSE of the feed-rate increment by 34.82% and the saturation ratio of the feed-rate increment by 90.78% relative to a PID baseline, indicating smoother feed regulation and fewer abrupt control actions in simulation. Comparative engineering experiments further suggest that, under the tested robotic configurations, adaptive feed-rate regulation by GFTMPC is an important contributor to improved tool life and drilling reliability. Hole-diameter measurements show deviations ranging from +0.03 mm to +0.11 mm, which were considered acceptable for the subsequent work steps in this application. Engineering application results show that robotic drilling increases daily throughput per worker by 71.38% and the average number of holes drilled per bit by 237%. Full article

Hole cleaning ensures drilling safety and efficiency. Well inclination angle and drilling fluid density are important parameters affecting cuttings transport. To reveal their coupled interaction mechanism, this study employs the Euler–Euler multiphase flow model to conduct CFD simulations of cuttings transport in a 3D eccentric annulus with an eccentricity of 0.6 under various inclination angles (30°, 45°, 60°, 75°) and drilling fluid densities (1200~1800 kg/m³). Using the cuttings transport ratio (CTR), annulus cuttings volume concentration (CVT), outlet cuttings volume fraction, and annulus pressure drop as evaluation indicators, the influence mechanism of these parameters on hole cleaning efficiency is systematically analyzed. The results show that the effect of drilling fluid density on the CTR is regulated by inclination angle, with 45° being the critical angle for the extreme value of the CTR. Increasing density can significantly reduce cuttings deposition in the annulus, with a more pronounced improvement effect in high-inclination sections. Effective cuttings transport can be achieved by increasing the density to 1500, 1650, 1800, and 1800 kg/m³ for inclination angles of 30°, 45°, 60°, and 75°, respectively. The annulus pressure drop increases approximately linearly with density, and first rises then falls as the inclination angle increases from 30° to 75°, with 45° being the critical angle for peak pressure drop. This study clarifies the coupled regulation law of inclination angle and drilling fluid density, and determines the critical drilling fluid density under different inclinations, providing a numerical basis for optimizing hydraulic parameters and improving hole cleaning efficiency in directional drilling. Full article

Water structures play a vital role in regulating irrigation water within open-channel networks by controlling discharge, water levels, flow direction, and velocity. Despite their importance, these structures act as hydraulic obstructions that induce flow disturbances, which may reduce hydraulic efficiency and threaten structural integrity. One of the most critical consequences is localized erosion downstream, posing serious risks to structural safety and long-term performance. From a sustainability perspective, maintaining structural stability and hydraulic efficiency is essential to ensure reliable water delivery, minimize maintenance costs, and extend the service life of irrigation structures. Therefore, mitigating such adverse hydraulic effects is a key component of sustainable water resources management. This study aims to investigate the mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon and propose engineering solutions to reduce its impacts. The geometry of upstream wing walls significantly influences flow behavior both through and downstream of the structure. Additionally, irrigation canals are constructed with varying side slopes depending on soil conditions, which further affect flow characteristics. However, the combined effect of different upstream wing wall configurations and canal inside slopes has not been sufficiently addressed. Accordingly, this research evaluates their integrated impact to support the development of more efficient, resilient, and sustainable irrigation structures. A total of 435 laboratory experiments were conducted using a physical model under varying discharge conditions. Common canal inside slopes were tested with four widely used wing wall types. Scour hole geometry, including depth, length, and shape, was measured and analyzed. Results indicate that the splayed wing wall configuration outperforms the box type, reducing maximum scour depth and length by approximately 22.74% and 23.61%, respectively, when combined with a 1:1 canal inside slope. Additionally, new dimensionless empirical equations were developed to predict downstream scour behavior, providing practical tools for selecting optimal wing wall configurations under different canal conditions. Full article

The mining industry is in need of automation due to increasing requirements like higher global demands for resources and deposits, which are deeper and more complex. Progressing underground mines lead to longer travel times to the mining face and thus a loss in productive working time, which has to be compensated by automation. Ultimately, stricter health and safety regulations and a decreasing number of skilled operators accelerate the need for automation further. Within the the drill-and-blast cycle in underground mining, the drilling of blast holes is a central step. While semi-automated and supporting systems exist that allow the automated execution of single process steps under supervision, to date, no system is available for the unsupervised blast hole drilling of a mine face. A precondition for unsupervised operation is a perception system, which allows independent decision-making of the machine. To address this gap, this work presents a novel vision system capable of segmenting a mine face into drillable and non-drillable areas, which can serve as the basis for the autonomous adaption of a drilling pattern. An area of the mine face is considered drillable if no leftover blast holes from the previous blast cycle are present and the surface angle is below a certain threshold. The system presented is based on a stereo camera setup mounted on a drill jumbo. The resulting 2D and 3D data are processed by software that employs AI-based computer vision techniques, as well as traditional algorithms. The system was validated, and the performance was verified in the K+S Zielitz mine. Experts assisted in the determination of operational parameters and empirically validated the system’s performance. Additionally, the blast hole detection algorithm underwent a data-based analytical verification. Full article

To enhance the performance of the Social Network Search (SNS) algorithm in solving complex numerical optimization problems, this paper proposes a Multi-strategy Enhanced Social Network Search (MESNS) algorithm. The original SNS simulates human social behaviors through four decision-making emotions—imitation, conversation, disputation, and innovation—to perform population-based search. However, its uniform emotion selection mechanism and purely random interaction strategy may reduce convergence efficiency and weaken exploitation capability, particularly in the later stages of optimization. To overcome these limitations, MESNS incorporates three improvement strategies. First, an adaptive decision-making emotion selection mechanism is developed to dynamically adjust the probabilities of exploration and exploitation behaviors according to the iteration progress, thereby promoting a more symmetric and coordinated search transition over time. Second, an elite-guided communication strategy is introduced to enhance information propagation by integrating high-quality individuals into the interaction process, which improves convergence while maintaining population diversity. Third, a dynamic interaction radius adjustment mechanism is designed to adaptively regulate the search step size, achieving a better balance and dynamic symmetry between global exploration and local refinement. Extensive experiments are conducted on the IEEE CEC2014, CEC2017, and CEC2022 benchmark suites under multiple dimensional settings. The results demonstrate that MESNS achieves superior optimization accuracy, faster convergence speed, and improved solution stability compared with several state-of-the-art metaheuristic algorithms. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is successfully applied to the three-dimensional wireless sensor network deployment optimization problem, where it produces a more uniformly distributed and spatially balanced sensor layout, reduces coverage holes and redundant overlaps, and thus exhibits desirable symmetry in deployment structure and sensing coverage. These findings indicate that MESNS is an effective and competitive optimization framework for complex global optimization tasks with both theoretical significance and practical value from the perspective of symmetry. Full article

Characterizing multiscale fracture networks in shale gas reservoirs remains challenging, while the limited applicability of conventional continuum-based models and insufficient multi-objective coordination often lead to low efficiency in development optimization. To address these issues, this study proposes a production history matching and multi-objective collaborative optimization framework for shale gas horizontal wells based on an equivalent fractal fracture (EFF) model. By integrating fractal theory with intelligent optimization techniques, a multiscale equivalent fractal permeability tensor is constructed, forming a hybrid machine-learning framework that combines physics-based fractal constraints with data-driven learning for efficient representation of complex fracture networks. Microseismic event clouds were converted into continuous fracture-density and fractal-geometry descriptors through denoising, temporal alignment, and spatial interpolation, and these descriptors were mapped to the equivalent fractal fracture model to dynamically update key flow parameters for history matching and parameter inversion. On this basis, a multi-objective collaborative optimization strategy is developed to achieve simultaneous time-varying fracture characterization and dynamic regulation of development parameters. Comparative results indicate that the EFF-based approach yields a production prediction error of 6.8%, slightly higher than the 4.2% obtained using discrete fracture network (DFN) models, while requiring only one-eighteenth of the computational time. Using the net present value (NPV) as the unified objective function, constraints are imposed on bottom-hole flowing pressure, flowback rate and system switching time for optimization. With the optimized pressure drop being more uniform and the gas saturation distribution being more balanced, it is verified that “EFF + NPV” can achieve the coordinated optimization of “production capacity—decline—cost” and enhance the development efficiency. Full article

When high-altitude aircraft operate in a low-density environment, the flow instability within their internal ducts poses a severe challenge to aerodynamic design and operational safety. Especially in the intake system of the tandem dual-fan configuration, the asymmetric flow caused by rotating machinery coupled with the low-density effect exacerbates flow distortion, momentum dissipation, and efficiency loss and may even trigger system instability risks such as rotational stall or surge. To address these challenges, this paper establishes a high-fidelity dynamic model of the internal flow field of the aircraft, based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and the SST k-ω turbulence model, combined with dynamic mesh technology. It reveals the unstable mechanism caused by angular momentum accumulation under co-rotation conditions and its intrinsic correlation with the degradation of aerodynamic performance. Inspired by the concept of micro-flow regulation, an active flow control strategy integrating discrete auxiliary injection and local geometric shape optimization is proposed. Numerical results show that by reasonably arranging auxiliary injection holes in the intake duct and optimizing local geometric fillets, the uniformity of intake flow can be effectively improved, and the formation of large-scale vortex structures can be suppressed. This method increases the system’s flow capacity by approximately 47.4%, significantly improves the total pressure recovery coefficient and fan aerodynamic efficiency, and reduces the amplitude of low-frequency pressure fluctuations by approximately 23.1%. Research shows that in high-altitude low-Reynolds-number conditions, micro-flow regulation combined with geometric reconstruction can effectively suppress flow instability induced by rotating machinery. This achievement provides a theoretical basis and feasible engineering path for aerodynamic stability design and optimization of key components, such as the aircraft intake and exhaust systems and thermal management systems, and is of significant value for improving the overall performance and reliability of high-altitude long-endurance aircraft. Full article

Geothermal field characteristics fundamentally control hydrocarbon generation, phase evolution, and preservation, and are particularly critical in deep to ultra-deep hydrocarbon exploration. The Tazhong Uplift is a key area for deep to ultra-deep hydrocarbon exploration in the Tarim Basin; however, its deep thermal regime and controlling factors remain inadequately characterized. This study aims to accurately characterize the geothermal field and crustal thermal structure of the Tazhong Uplift to provide thermal constraints for ultra-deep exploration. We systematically compiled system steady-state temperature data from 24 wells, bottom-hole temperature (BHT) data from 51 wells, and rock thermal property measurements. Using the one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction equation, present-day geothermal gradients at 0–5000 m depths and terrestrial heat flow were calculated, and formation temperatures were predicted at deep horizons (6000–10,000 m). Results show geothermal gradients at 0–5000 m of 18.5–26.7 °C/km (average 23.06 °C/km) and heat flow of 39.3–59.8 mW/m² (average 48.1 mW/m²), both significantly higher than basin averages. The distribution of the geothermal field is jointly controlled by basement structure and rock thermophysical properties. Basement highs typically exhibit elevated geothermal gradients and high heat flow. The dual-layer structure of “upper clastic rocks (low thermal conductivity, high heat production) + lower carbonate rocks (high thermal conductivity, low heat production)” results in a vertical differentiation characterized by a “high-upper, low-lower” geothermal gradient. Notably, the thick Upper Ordovician mudstone acts as a regional “thermal blanket”, significantly reducing geothermal parameters in the northern slope area. Crustal thermal structure analysis indicates a “cold mantle” signature of cratonic basins, with a thermal lithosphere thickness of ~134–145 km and a Moho temperature of ~581 °C. These findings reveal that despite the ultra-deep burial (>8000 m), the “cold” thermal background and the thermal regulation of the overlying diverse lithologies maintain formation temperatures within a range favorable for liquid hydrocarbon preservation, significantly expanding the depth limit for oil exploration in the Tarim Basin. Full article

The concurrent challenges of environmental pollution and energy scarcity necessitate advanced sustainable technologies. Photocatalytic fuel cells (PFCs) offer a promising route by coupling pollutant degradation with energy recovery. However, the synergistic interplay between anode intrinsic properties and macroscopic polarization effects remains inadequately understood. Herein, a BiOBr-doped TiO₂ nanotube array photoanode with engineered oxygen vacancies was developed to construct a synergistically enhanced PFC system. XPS, EPR, and DFT analyses confirm the formation of oxygen vacancies and favorable band bending, inducing an internal electric field that markedly promotes charge separation and interfacial reaction kinetics. As a result, the charge separation efficiency is enhanced by approximately fourfold relative to pristine TiO₂ nanotube arrays. Under the combined action of the internal electric field and self-bias-induced polarization field, photogenerated electrons and holes undergo directional transport and effective utilization. The optimized PFC achieves 78% sulfamethoxazole degradation within 180 min, representing a 1.38-fold improvement. Degradation pathways and toxicity evolution were further elucidated using LC–MS and Fukui function analysis, highlighting the critical role of electric field-driven charge regulation in high-performance PFCs. Full article