Search Results (203)

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) enables the integral fabrication of thrust chamber–nozzle and injector assemblies, eliminating some assembly and welding interfaces and reducing structural redundancy. However, under this manufacturing route, as-built geometric deviations act more directly on functional features, creating new challenges for dimensional accuracy and performance stability. To address this issue, this study investigates an additively manufactured 200 N monopropellant thruster and conducts geometric-deviation characterization, deviation–performance mapping, precision allocation, and performance validation. Key forming deviations were characterized using a coordinate measuring machine, industrial CT, micro-focus CT, and confocal microscopy. A first-order geometric deviation–performance mapping model was established through CFD-based sensitivity analysis, and Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate performance risk. A priority evaluation system combining the process capability index (Cpk) and performance sensitivity was then developed to guide differentiated finish-machining allowance allocation, CAD model pre-compensation, and process optimization. After two closed-loop iterations, the Monte Carlo-predicted thrust nonconformance probability decreased from 8.5% to 1.2%, and the simulated injection-flow non-uniformity narrowed from ±8.7% to ±4.2%. Cold-flow measurements showed that injection-flow non-uniformity decreased from ±9.3% to ±4.8%. In the rated-condition hot-fire test of the compensated thruster, the measured steady-state thrust deviation was controlled within ±1.5%, while the throat-diameter Cpk increased from 0.56 to 1.45. These results demonstrate that the proposed “inspection–analysis–allocation–compensation” closed-loop method can integrate performance sensitivity with actual manufacturing capability and provide an implementable route for precision-resource allocation and engineering optimization of integrated additively manufactured propulsion components. Full article

Soil release appearance grading evaluates residual stains after standardized laundering, but visual assessment is subjective and adjacent half grades are difficult to distinguish. This study proposes a lightweight Tri-Semantic Injection Network (TSI-Net) for nine-grade assessment. From one red–green–blue (RGB) image, a fixed CIE L*a*b* (CIELAB) branch constructs a mean-background image B, a pixel-wise color-difference image D, and a stain-appearance image S. The trainable backbone progressively injects S, D, and B and predicts grades from 1.0 to 5.0 at 0.5-grade intervals. Gaussian soft targets represent the ordering of these grades. The dataset contains 325 images, and TSI-Net has 1,403,336 trainable parameters. In a 33-image evaluation, Gaussian-trained TSI-Net achieved exact-grade and within-half-grade accuracies of 87.88% and 96.97%, compared with 84.85% and 93.94% for one-hot training. Both training methods achieved 100.00% accuracy within one grade. Gaussian training therefore showed a 3.03-percentage-point advantage for each of the two stricter metrics in this comparison. This method requires no manual stain segmentation and provides a compact framework for standardized fabric appearance assessment under controlled acquisition conditions. Full article

This work systematically investigates the optical behaviors of cesium lead bromide perovskite quantum dots (CsPbBr₃ PeQDs) functionalized with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) at varying reduction levels, and further explores their feasibility as emissive layers (EMLs) in quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs). Four batches of RGO with tunable reduction degrees were synthesized by adjusting the amounts of ammonia solution and hydrazine hydrate added, followed by the fabrication of RGO@CsPbBr₃ hybrids via an in situ hot-injection method. Experimental characterizations reveal that the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of the as-prepared RGO@CsPbBr₃ composites can be precisely modulated from 45% to 65% by tuning the reduction degree of RGO. Using the optimized RGO@CsPbBr₃ sample, multilayer QLEDs with the architecture of indium tin oxide (ITO)/PEDOT:PSS/Poly-TPD/TAPC/RGO@CsPbBr₃/TPBi/Al were fabricated. Electroluminescence (EL) measurements show that the optimized device exhibits a turn-on voltage of approximately 3 V and a characteristic emission peak at 513 nm. Compared with devices based solely on bare CsPbBr₃ PeQDs, the composite-based QLED displays a slight blue shift in emission wavelength and enhanced electroluminescence intensity, which is attributed to the localized surface plasmon resonance effect induced by the RGO nanosheets. This work presents a reliable strategy to optimize perovskite hybrid optics for light-emitting applications. Full article

Gap junctions (GJs) are channels that enable exchange of ions and small molecules between cells, and have been implicated in the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. Injury-induced glial activation in sensory ganglia is associated with increased coupling by GJs, which in turn enhances neuronal excitability, contributing to pain signaling. Tonabersat (TON) was suggested to act as a GJ blocker with analgesic actions, but these claims have been disputed. Here we examined whether TON blocks GJs and whether it influences pain behavior in a mouse pain model. Gap junctional coupling was assayed by the dye coupling method in mouse liver and trigeminal ganglia. Pain behavior was tested in a mouse model of chemotherapy-induced pain, using von Frey filaments (tactile sensitivity), the acetone method (cold sensitivity) and hot plate (heat sensitivity). Intracellular dye injection showed that TON and the GJ blocker carbenoxolone (both 50 µM) inhibited gap junctional coupling by 70% and 82%, respectively. In the trigeminal ganglia, TON and carbenoxolone inhibited gap junctional coupling by 74 and 77%, respectively. TON selectively reduced heat and cold hypersensitivity, but not mechanical threshold. Carbenoxolone reduced all hypersensitivity types. No sex differences were observed. We conclude that both TON and carbenoxolone reduced coupling, indicating their potential to influence GJ-mediated coupling. In behavioral tests TON showed a selective effect for thermal hypersensitivity, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. Carbenoxolone produced a somewhat greater reduction in coupling compared with TON. These findings suggest that GJs play a role in pain pathways and highlight the need to explore whether other pain-relieving drugs act by blocking GJs. Full article

Wearable glucose monitoring demands low-power local processing, but conventional neural networks rely on energy-intensive multiply–accumulate (MAC) operations that limit battery life. This study shows that a Spiking Neural Network (SNN), built on a regression-adapted Leaky Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) neuron, can estimate blood glucose from multi-frequency bioimpedance and auxiliary biosignals with clinically auditable accuracy at low computational and memory cost. Using data from 98 patients (717 measurements, eGluco3 device, Azambuja Hospital, Brusque, Brazil) evaluated by 5-fold walk-forward cross-validation under ISO 15197:2013, three main findings emerge. First, a new calibration method—the Patient Fingerprint, built from each patient’s first K sensor readings—outperforms conventional one-hot patient encoding (14.2 ± 2.6 mg/dL vs. 15.4 ± 3.3 mg/dL mean absolute error) and, unlike one-hot, requires only these K readings rather than the patient’s presence in the training set; a leave-patients-out analysis confirms that the fingerprint captures individual physiology and that unseen-patient accuracy improves with calibration depth but remains clinically insufficient (MAE $94.8\to 65.9$ mg/dL from $K=3$ to $K=5$), positioning clinical-grade cross-patient generalization on a larger cohort as the primary scaling axis. Second, the direct-injection fingerprint model reaches 100% of the samples within Consensus Error Grid Zones A+B across all validation folds (the rate-coding variant reaches 98.8%, just below the 99% Criterion B threshold), without requiring any demographic or clinical metadata; sensor history alone renders such records redundant; and Criterion A, however, stays below the 95% normative threshold, so the results support clinical safety rather than formal certification. Third, replacing the analog input encoding with a multiplication-free rate-coding scheme removes all first-layer MAC operations at a cost of 2.7 mg/dL additional error; because the additional microticks raise the total operation count, this defines a design lever whose energy payoff is specific to neuromorphic hardware rather than a net saving on conventional microcontrollers. Together, these results demonstrate that SNNs offer a clinically auditable, self-calibrating, and memory-efficient path to continuous glucose estimation on embedded wearable devices. Full article

Internal wall loss in hot-fluid pipelines is difficult to monitor during operation because weak thermal perturbations are masked by global heating, axial cooling, and external heat dissipation. This study develops an external thermometry framework combining a flexible-base fiber Bragg grating (FBG) array with residual-peak morphology analysis. A closed-loop hot-water rig with five artificial wall-loss regions was tested under exposed-air and buried-soil boundaries, and a validated conjugate heat-transfer model generated 269 controlled scenarios. Experiments showed residual anomalies above measurement uncertainty, with a maximum repeatability standard deviation of approximately 0.12 °C and the clearest signals at 90–120 s after hot-water injection. Boundary conditions strongly affected observability at 115 mm and 70 °C, and the residual peak increased from about 0–1 °C in exposed air to 8–9 °C under the buried boundary. Simulations showed that defect width expanded the disturbed region from approximately 100 to 210 mm, while peak amplitude remained coupled to width and depth. Six morphology descriptors jointly estimated position, width, and depth, with mean absolute errors (MAEs) of 0.547, 1.647, and 0.245 mm, respectively. The method provides a recalibratable early-screening route for locating suspicious wall-loss regions before confirmatory inspection. Full article

Cu(I)-doped Sb₂S₃ powders were synthesized using the hot-injection method, with the aim of reducing crystalline particle size and tailoring their morphology to make them more spherical and better suited for spray deposition as an absorber layer in photovoltaic devices. Structural and microstructural analyses confirmed the successful formation of elongated (rod-like) crystalline Sb₂S₃ particles. CuSbS₂, itself a semiconducting material with a high light-absorption coefficient, formed in large amounts in Cu-doped systems, in the form of agglomerates of platelet-like particles. The third abundant phase was an amorphous phase present as spherical nanoparticles composed of uniformly distributed Sb, Cu and S. The presence of Cu decreased Sb₂S₃ particle size but did not significantly influence its morphology. Chlorides in the synthesis solution enabled faster crystallization than when acetates are the only present anionic species. When Cu, Sb and S sources were added during hot injection in stoichiometric amounts to form CuSbS₂, this phase was not reached, and Cu₉S₅ and Cu₁₂Sb₄S₁₃ were the dominant phases, indicating Cu-rich phases have a higher tendency to crystallize in specific conditions with an excess of antimony, and, potentially, sulfur is needed to obtain pure CuSbS₂. Full article

Geomagnetically induced current (GIC) flowing through power transformers causes core saturation, leading to local hot-spot overheating, abnormal vibration, increased noise, and even irreversible transformer damage and forced outage. To prevent catastrophic GIC-induced failures, relay protection must isolate transformers in a timely and reliable manner, yet GIC has long been a critical challenge interfering with the correct operation of conventional transformer protection systems. This paper studies transformer excitation current characteristics under GIC impact, establishes a transformer model with extreme GIC injection, analyzes differential protection performance under varying GIC magnitudes, proposes a modified differential protection method, and verifies its effectiveness via simulations and experiments. Results demonstrate that GIC distorts transformer excitation current, introducing a second harmonic into differential current to trigger differential tripping blocking. The distinct second-harmonic features between magnetizing inrush and GIC injection enable reliable selective unblocking of harmonic restraint. To enable the differential protection to operate correctly under different GIC injection conditions, the operating threshold shall be adjusted according to the transformer parameters after the harmonic blocking is deactivated. The proposed strategy can potentially disable the harmonic blocker during GIC events, allowing relays to trip on demand, which is critical for ensuring transformer safety under extreme conditions. Full article

Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a leading cause of anovulatory infertility and a frequent indication for in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI). Multivariable regression estimates adjusted associations, whereas association rule mining (ARM) can describe frequently co-occurring attributes; however, ARM outputs are unadjusted and may be sensitive to analytic specification. Objectives: We used ARM alongside multivariable logistic regression and internal robustness analyses to describe combinations of clinical and treatment-related variables that co-occurred with clinical pregnancy failure among women with PCOS undergoing IVF/ICSI. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 733 deidentified patients with PCOS from the Reproductive Hospital of Guangxi. The original one-hot-encoded analytic file was linked to a supplemental clinical record file containing continuous age, BMI, infertility duration, anti-Müllerian hormone, total gonadotropin dose, fertilization method, embryo-transfer day, number of embryos transferred, and embryo score. Embryo quality was derived from D3 cleavage-stage and blastocyst morphology records. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted associations. ARM results were assessed using Fisher’s exact test, Benjamini–Hochberg false discovery rate (FDR) correction, 1000 bootstrap resamples, fivefold cross-validation, and threshold/cutoff sensitivity analyses. Results: In the multivariable model (n = 730), age remained associated with clinical pregnancy failure (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 1.04 per year, 95% CI 1.00–1.08, p = 0.031), whereas BMI was not independently associated with failure (aOR = 1.00 per kg/m², 95% CI 0.96–1.05, p = 0.860). Transfer of two embryos (aOR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.35–0.85, p = 0.008), D5 blastocyst transfer (aOR = 0.49, 95% CI 0.32–0.75, p = 0.001), and transfer of at least one high-quality embryo (aOR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.43–0.93, p = 0.020) were associated with lower odds of failure. Under the primary host-factor specification, age > 35 years + BMI ≥ 24 kg/m² + pelvic adhesion defined 48 patients, 30 of whom had clinical pregnancy failure (support = 0.07; confidence = 0.63; lift = 1.38; FDR q = 0.098). In the secondary treatment-inclusive analysis, infertility duration > 5 years + no high-quality embryo transferred defined 43 patients with 30 failures (support = 0.06; confidence = 0.70; lift = 1.54; FDR q = 0.026). Lift represents the subgroup failure proportion divided by the overall failure proportion and is not an adjusted risk ratio. The rule composition and the number of FDR-supported rules changed under alternative cutoffs and confidence thresholds. Conclusions: ARM described transparent but specification-sensitive co-occurrence profiles that complement, rather than compete with, regression. Treatment-inclusive profiles combine baseline and downstream cycle characteristics and are therefore especially exploratory. These findings require prospective multicenter validation before any clinical decision-support use. Full article

Background/Objectives: According to current concepts, neuroinflammation is one of the putative causes of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) development. However, the role of neutrophils in neuroinflammation remains insufficiently studied. The study was aimed to determine the role of neutrophils in the neuroinflammatory mechanism of ASD development based on a comparative analysis of physiological and behavioral disturbances and the inflammatory response to early postnatal administration of valproic acid (VPA) to Wistar rats. Methods: The study was performed on 38 rat pups of both sexes, half of which were injected intraperitoneally with an aqueous solution of VPA at a dose of 150 mg/kg from 6 to 12 postnatal days (PND); control rats received water. Standard physiological and behavioral tests were used: weight monitoring, pain sensitivity (Hot Plate test) on 25 PND, and social behavior (sib/non-sib test) on 55 PND. Neutrophil elastase (NE) and alpha1-proteinase inhibitor (α1-PI) activity in serum and cerebellum homogenate was measured spectrophotometrically. Complement system (CS) activity was analyzed by the death rate of Tetrahymena pyriformis ciliates in the presence of rat serum. Results: Early postnatal administration of VPA to Wistar rats induces physiological and behavioral changes characteristic of ASD, confirming the validity of the experimental model used. These changes are accompanied by increased activity of inflammatory factors (CS, α1-PI, NE) in the rat serum, indicating the development of inflammation. VPA treatment increased NE activity in the cerebellum, which may indicate neutrophil infiltration of the brain and neuroinflammation development. Conclusions: The data obtained indicate the role of neutrophils in neuroinflammatory mechanisms of ASD development. Full article

Nd:S-FAP (Nd³⁺-doped Sr₅(PO₄)₃F) is a high-performance laser material recognized for its large stimulated emission cross-section and broad absorption bands, which are highly desirable for achieving efficient optical gain at the nanoscale. In this work, 5% Nd-doped Nd:S-FAP nanocrystals with an average grain size of approximately 9.2 nm were successfully synthesized via an improved hot-injection method. The results show that the fluorescence lifetime of the nanocrystals is 66 μs (166.56 μs for the ceramic), the quantum yield is 19.7% (69.6% for the ceramic), and the stimulated emission cross-section is 2.29 × 10⁻²⁰ cm² (5.74 × 10⁻²⁰ cm² for the ceramic). These discrepancies are primarily governed by surface-to-volume ratio variation-related surface effects, lattice distortions, and the weakening of non-radiative f–f transition processes due to quantum confinement at the nanoscale. This study reports for the first time the laser optical parameters of Nd:S-FAP nanocrystals, providing an experimental basis for the optimization of precursors for transparent laser ceramics and holding significant importance for the design of laser materials. Full article

In the power industry, how to efficiently and reliably query relevant documents has always posed a challenge for electrical professionals. Unreliable or inefficient query results can lead to significant inefficiencies and introduce unpredictable errors. Hence, a reliable and efficient knowledge querying system is critical. In practice, the effectiveness of Graph-based Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems lies in providing expressive representation of entities and graph structures and this makes it stand out as a widely-used approach for document retrieval. However, typical GraphRAG frameworks encounter challenges such as semantic dilution and topological drift caused by generic technical terminology and granular graph noise especially in professional documents like regulations, etc, which is one of the mostly used type of document in electric industry. Thus, we propose KG-Anchored RAG, a framework that shifts the retrieval paradigm from community-based summarization to precision-guided anchoring. During knowledge construction, our framework employs a topological skeleton refinement and constructs a Knowledge Attachment Matrix using latent topic modeling and one-hot feature injection. During inference, non-linear sharpening and PageRank-based structural resonance are utilized to locate high-density knowledge cells. Evaluation on professional documents in the power industry reveals that our method outperforms localized search baselines in terms of context precision, generative faithfulness, and ranking quality. The proposed framework demonstrates a superior ability to prioritize evidentiary clauses and reduce information redundancy without relying on computationally expensive external re-rankers. Experimental results indicate that KG-Anchored RAG effectively mitigates speculative hallucinations, establishes a reliable architectural paradigm for retrieval-augmented generation in high-stakes, safety-critical vertical industries. Full article

Background/Objectives: Betanin (BET), a prominent phytochemical mainly derived from Beta vulgaris, exhibits strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities owing to its distinctive chemical structure. Nevertheless, its potential analgesic effect in the context of inflammatory pain remains insufficiently explored. Accordingly, this study investigated the analgesic effects of BET in a complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA)-induced rat model of inflammatory pain. Methods: Rats received a single subcutaneous injection of 100 µL CFA to induce inflammatory pain, followed by oral administration of BET at doses of 40 or 80 mg/kg/day for 14 days. Results: BET treatment significantly reduced paw edema and improved HPL (hot plate latency) in CFA-injected rats. Biochemically, in the ipsilateral spinal cord of rats, BET at both 40 and 80 mg/kg significantly increased IL-4, and only the 80 mg/kg dose significantly reduced oxidative stress (MDA) and IL-1β. TNF-α levels were slightly reduced at both doses and did not reach statistical significance versus CFA. At the molecular level, miR-107 was significantly downregulated by BET at 80 mg/kg (but not 40 mg/kg), while miR-145 was significantly upregulated by both 40 mg/kg and 80 mg/kg compared to CFA. Pearson’s correlation indicated that miR-107 was positively correlated with MDA, IL-1β and TNF-α but negatively with IL-4, whereas miR-145 was positively correlated with IL-4 but negatively with IL-1β. PCA biplot analysis corroborated these findings, showing simultaneous presence of MDA, IL-1β, TNF-α, and miR-107 with CFA, and IL-4 and miR-145 were only related to control and CFA+BET80 groups. In addition, using transmission electron microscopy imaging, we found that BET alleviated neuronal damage in CFA-treated rats. Furthermore, molecular docking analysis predicted that BET may exhibit stable binding interactions with several inflammation- and apoptosis-related targets, including AKT1, mTOR, IKKβ, TNF-α, IL-1β, COX-2, caspase-3, caspase-7, and caspase-8, supporting its multi-target anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic effects. Conclusions: Overall, our data suggest that BET can possibly exert analgesic effects in CFA-induced inflammatory pain by modulating oxidative stress and favoring a shift toward an anti-inflammatory status. These effects coincided with downregulation of miR-107, overexpression of miR-145, and improvements in inflammatory pain behaviors. Further investigations are required to validate the involvement of specific miRNA- and pathway-mediated effects. Nevertheless, our findings highlight BET as a promising natural candidate for future development of anti-inflammatory and analgesic strategies. Full article

Plastic injection molding in cleanrooms involves high thermal loads and strict particle limits. The hot surfaces of the injection molding machine and peripherals increase the cooling demand of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system to an undefined amount. Moreover, the generation of buoyancy-driven plumes has the potential to disturb the cleanroom airflow around the injection mold, thereby risking cross contamination of the manufactured components. The present study quantifies the global heat load of injection molding machines in an ISO Class 7 cleanroom with a laminar flow microenvironment around the mold. Therefore, a measurement-based method to determine the heat load of a complete injection molding production cell is applied to a hydraulic and an electric machine. This method revealed that the heat load of the isolated machines is process-independent, whereas the total heat load of the complete production cell scales linearly with mold temperature. Moreover, the emitted heat to the cleanroom is considerable lower than the injection molding machine’s installed power. Secondly, the airflow regime and particle transport in the mold area are analyzed. This is achieved by means of schlieren visualization and aerosol measurements. The introduction of a modified Archimedes number, incorporating mold size and convective heat flux, has led to the observation of a correlation between flow regimes and the resulting particle load. This enables the selection of case-dependent FFU velocities that deviate from the conventional recommendation of an air speed of 0.45 m/s ± 20%. Despite the presence of a filter-fan unit, the particle load near the injection mold cavity increases for flow conditions that exceed a critical Archimedes number. Full article

The formation and exploitation of geothermal reservoirs in hot dry rock (HDR) primarily rely on microseismic methods, but seismic techniques lack sufficient sensitivity to fluids. The electromagnetic method, however, demonstrates sensitivity to fluid movements during the monitoring of fracturing processes that form geothermal reservoirs in HDR. This study examines the role of electromagnetic methods in HDR development, taking China’s first Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) demonstration site in the Qinghai Gonghe Basin as a case study. Based on the Gonghe HDR development site, a frequency-domain 3D borehole-to-surface electromagnetic forward modeling method with unstructured-grid discretization was employed to simulate the complex electromagnetic field responses induced by fracturing fluid injection and dynamic changes in fractures during HDR reservoir development. To enhance computational efficiency, a supercomputer was employed to perform 3D borehole-to-surface electromagnetic data inversion under conditions of massive multi-source and multi-frequency data. This quantitatively revealed the electrical characteristics at different depth intervals within the study area. The research demonstrates the feasibility of borehole-to-surface electromagnetic methods for determining the spatial distribution of fracturing injection, dynamically monitoring fracture development, and tracking fluid migration, thereby providing crucial technical support for monitoring HDR resources development. Full article