Search Results (24,892)

This study investigates the selection of shear strength parameters for cohesive soil subsoils in the stability analysis of embankments in undrained conditions. It specifically examines how rotation of the principal stresses, induced by embankment construction, affects the undrained shear strength of the subsoil. Laboratory tests were conducted using a hollow cylinder apparatus on two types of cohesive soils to determine undrained shear strength at principal stress rotation angles of 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°. Analysis of the laboratory results, combined with numerical modelling, enabled the development of a new stability analysis method that incorporates the influence of principal stress rotation on undrained shear strength of subsoil. Full article

The goaf backfilling with the coal gangue is an effective strategy for mitigating the mining-induced surface subsidence and reducing the solid waste accumulation. However, the conventional backfilling methods often suffer from limited transport efficiency, poor material distribution, and high operational cost. The present paper proposes a novel technique using an inclined spiral propeller to propel the gangue particles into the goaf, aiming to improve both the backfill rate and spatial uniformity. A three-dimensional parametric model of the inclined screw conveyor is developed, and the discrete element method (DEM) is employed to simulate the dynamic transport and placement of the gangue particles. An L9 ($3^3$) orthogonal experimental design is implemented to systematically evaluate the effects of the rotational speed (240, 300, 360 r/min), inclination angle ($30°$, $45°$, $60°$), and screw pitch (180, 240, 300 mm) on the two critical performance indicators, namely, filling mass and spreading coverage area. The range analysis and matrix analysis are performed to determine the primary influencing factors and to identify the optimal parameter combination for the multi-objective performance. The results show that the inclination angle is the dominant factor for the filling mass, with a $60°$ angle yielding the highest throughput (38.60 kg). In contrast, the rotational speed is the dominant factor for the spreading coverage area, where an increase from 240 to 360 r/min nearly triples the covered area. The optimal compromise for the comprehensive backfilling performance is the rotational speed 360 r/min, inclination angle $60°$, and screw pitch 300 mm, which simultaneously achieves the high transport capacity (36.65 kg) and the largest spreading area (2.87 ${\mathrm{m}}^2$). The present study provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for the engineering design of efficient, low-cost goaf backfilling systems. Full article

The effect of increasing levels of coconut oil (CO: 0, 100, 200, and 300 g/kg of supplement DM) on productive performance, feed intake, rumen fermentation, microbiota, and gene expression was evaluated in 24 calves (Bos indicus × Bos taurus; 180 ± 10 kg BW) on rotational grazing (Cynodon dactylon) in a completely randomized design (n = 6) for 112 days. Supplement intake (offer–refusal) and forage intake (external marker: chromium) were measured. On day 112, rumen fluid (fermentation profile, protozoa, and metagenomic analysis: 16S rRNA V3-V4) and total blood (DNA microarray: M22k) were collected. Genomic analyses were performed by comparing the control vs. the group with the best productive response. For statistical analysis, SAS PROC GLM (initial weight as a covariate), orthogonal polynomials, the Tukey test, and Spearman correlation were used, considering significant effects (p ≤ 0.05) and trend (p ≤ 0.1). The inclusion of 200 g CO/kg supplement DM showed the best average daily gain (p = 0.018; +0.139 kg/d) with the highest retained energy (p = 0.02; +0.631 Mcal/d) versus the control group. In the rumen, propionate increased (p ≤ 0.05), while protozoa decreased (p < 0.0001) and the methanogenic archaea tended to decrease (Methanobacteriaceae −44%, p = 0.08; Thermoplasmatales −35%, p = 0.06). At the transcriptional level, 19 hub genes were modulated by CO, suggesting a lower intracellular signaling (cAMP-PKA-CREB) associated with a lower stress condition and better energy metabolism regulation. In conclusion, 200 g CO/kg supplement DM is a viable strategy for improving the productive performance of livestock in tropical systems. Full article

This study investigated the effects of therapeutic climbing on pain, function, and rotator cuff muscle thickness in sport climbers with shoulder pain using a prospective, single-blind randomized controlled trial design. Forty-five participants were randomly assigned to three groups: therapeutic climbing combined with sport climbing (EG1), shoulder stabilization exercise combined with sport climbing (EG2), and sport climbing alone (CG). Interventions were performed three times per week for six weeks, with assessments conducted at baseline, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks. Pain and disability were measured using the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI), and muscle thickness of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus was assessed using ultrasound imaging. Both EG1 and EG2 demonstrated significantly greater improvements in pain and function compared to the control group (p < 0.05), with EG1 showing more consistent and progressive improvement over time. Changes in muscle thickness varied by muscle and intervention: supraspinatus thickness decreased over time in EG1, whereas it increased in EG2 and CG; in contrast, infraspinatus thickness remained stable in EG1 and EG2 but decreased in CG. These findings suggest that therapeutic climbing may promote more favorable neuromuscular adaptations, contributing to improved shoulder function. Therefore, therapeutic climbing may serve as an effective, sport-specific rehabilitation strategy for reducing pain and facilitating functional recovery in climbers with shoulder pain. Full article

Background: Osteoarthritis involves the degeneration of cartilage, subchondral bone, and the synovial membrane, often associated with rotator cuff (RC) tears, causing pain and functional limitations. While non-surgical treatments can provide relief, surgery is sometimes necessary. Autologous adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) have shown promise in tissue repair. Objective: This study compared clinical outcomes between patients treated with arthroscopic RCR alone and those treated with RCR combined with intra-articular AdMSC injection. Methods: This retrospective study included 61 patients. Group A (n = 30) underwent standard RCR, while Group B (n = 31) received RCR combined with intra-articular ADMSC injections. Participants had comparable baseline age, BMI, height, CMS, and VAS scores. Shoulder function was assessed using the Constant–Murley Score, and pain intensity was assessed using the visual analog scale at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: At 3 months, Group B showed lower VAS scores than Group A (13.09 ± 8.34 vs. 25.14 ± 13.57, p < 0.001), while CMSs did not differ significantly (70.55 ± 23.46 vs. 63.01 ± 24.33, p = 0.223). At 6 months, Group B showed better VAS and CMSs than Group A (VAS: 5.31 ± 4.38 vs. 23.74 ± 15.72, p < 0.001; CMS: 83.29 ± 18.98 vs. 65.66 ± 11.58, p < 0.001). At 12 months, Group B maintained better VAS and CMSs than Group A (VAS: 4.45 ± 5.67 vs. 18.34 ± 12.65, p < 0.001; CMS: 85.55 ± 13.12 vs. 66.36 ± 9.38, p < 0.001). Conclusions: In this preliminary retrospective non-randomized cohort, AdMSC use as an adjunct to arthroscopic rotator cuff repair was associated with better pain and functional scores over 12 months. Because of the retrospective design and lack of imaging follow-up, these findings should be interpreted as clinical associations and require confirmation in randomized studies. Full article

We develop the binary-shadow method for exact CNOT counting and apply it to arbitrary wire permutations. The Heisenberg evolution of rotated local Z observables converts every CNOT gate into an elementary transvection over ${\mathbb{F}}_2$, and for a wire permutation, the resulting binary shadow is rigid: it must equal the associated permutation matrix. This reduces the exact CNOT cost of a wire permutation in the CNOT+local model to the transvection length of its permutation matrix. The remaining problem is classical. The relevant mathematical input is the transvection-length theory of permutation matrices, or equivalently, the CNOT-only synthesis of permutation circuits. Combining the binary-shadow reduction with the graph-theoretic link-middle-cut theorem for cycle matrices yields an exact formula: if $\sigma \in S_n$ has $c\left(\sigma \right)$ disjoint cycles, then $\mathrm{CNOT-cost}\left(W_{\sigma }\right)={\mathsf{\ell }}_{\mathrm{tr}}\left(P_{\sigma }\right)=3\left(n-c\left(\sigma \right)\right).$ The novelty is therefore not the CNOT-only permutation formula by itself, but the transfer of that exact lower bound to the CNOT+local model: arbitrary one-qubit gates may rotate the local Pauli axes, but they cannot reduce the CNOT count of a wire permutation. In particular, the n-qubit cyclic SWAP gate $S_n|x_1{⟩}_1|x_2{⟩}_2\cdots |x_n{⟩}_n=|x_n{⟩}_1|x_1{⟩}_2\cdots {|x_{n-1}⟩}_n$ requires exactly $3(n-1)$ CNOT gates, even when arbitrary one-qubit gates are allowed at zero cost. Thus, the exact values for $n=2,3,4,5,6,\dots$ are $3,6,9,12,15,\dots$. We also give explicit optimal factorizations for $n=4$ and $n=5$, and show more generally that each additional wire in a cyclic shift costs exactly three more CNOT gates. Full article

The high energy consumption of conventional mixers equipped with active mixing elements necessitates the development of more efficient technologies for mixing bulk materials and feed mixtures. This study presents a gravity-driven mixing approach based on the rotation of an inclined cylindrical chamber, eliminating the need for active mixing elements. During chamber rotation, the mixture components move toward both end walls while simultaneously undergoing a circular motion along the inner cylindrical surface. This movement intensifies the mixing process and reduces energy consumption, thereby providing an energy-efficient gravity-based mixing approach that operates without active mixing elements. Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the key physical and mechanical properties of the sapropel, organic fertilizer, and compound feed (formulation K-60-1). The measured values were as follows: velocity on an inclined steel surface, 0.65–1.21 m/s; coefficient of friction, 0.40–0.91; bulk density, 453–1166 kg/m³; and angle of repose, 36–39°. The experimental results confirmed the validity and adequacy of the developed analytical relationships. A structural and technological design of the gravity mixer was developed, and an experimental prototype was manufactured. Analytical relationships were obtained to determine the critical rotational speed of the chamber, particle movement velocity, and the power required for the mixing process. Under optimal operating conditions, the mixture uniformity reached 95.7% after 4 min of mixing. The mixer productivity was 0.95 t/h, while the specific energy consumption was 0.5 kWh/t, which is 2.5 times lower than that of conventional mixers equipped with active mixing elements. The obtained results confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed gravity-based mixing method for the preparation of feed and organomineral mixtures under the operating conditions of small-scale farms. Full article

This study presents a transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of dielectric flow behaviour and debris transport in micro-EDM milling, considering the effects of dielectric properties, inter-electrode gap (IEG) size (20–30 µm), and tool rotational speed (400–850 rpm). Four dielectric media, nitrogen gas, deionized water, HEDMA111 EDM oil, and sunflower seed oil, were investigated using a two-dimensional FEM-based model coupled with particle tracking simulations to evaluate debris mobility within the machining region. The results demonstrate that dielectric properties, particularly viscosity, strongly influence hydrodynamic behaviour and particle transport within the IEG. Under the adopted equal mass flow rate condition, nitrogen gas exhibited the highest flow velocities and the fastest debris evacuation due to the combined effects of its low viscosity and the resulting higher inlet velocity. Deionized water and HEDMA111 oil exhibit comparable intermediate behaviour, indicating that moderate viscosity variations within liquid dielectrics do not significantly alter the overall flow regime. In contrast, sunflower seed oil generates the most damped flow conditions, with reduced velocities and prolonged particle residence due to increased viscous resistance. Variations in IEG size produce only minor changes in evacuation efficiency compared with the dominant influence of dielectric properties, while tool rotational speed primarily affects velocity magnitude without altering qualitative transport behaviour. Full article

Background/Objectives: Vaccine attitudes are an individual’s beliefs, feelings, and evaluations regarding vaccines. Limited research has examined how students in faith-based university settings organize these attitudes. This study looked at vaccination attitudes among students at a religious university where faith, science, family, and politics often influence how students think and make decisions. Methods: This study used Q-methodology to examine shared viewpoints about vaccination. A concourse of 240 statements was developed from published literature, public discourse, and student interviews, then reduced to a 37-statement-Q-set. Undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory nonmajors biology course completed digital Q-sorts. We analyzed the data using by-person factor analysis, along with principal components analysis and Varimax rotation. Follow-up interviews helped us interpret the factors. Results: Three viewpoints explained 59% of the study variance. The first viewpoint, Faith-Integrated Institutional Trust, showed strong trust in science, public health agencies, and religious leaders. People in this group saw vaccination as both a moral duty and a way to protect others. The second viewpoint, Skeptical Autonomy and Institutional Distrust, emphasized personal choice, family influence, and distrust of government and official vaccine information. The third viewpoint, Pragmatic Autonomy and Science Confidence, endorsed vaccines and scientific evidence while also prioritizing individual decision-making over mandates. Conclusions: Science alone does not explain vaccination attitudes among college students. Trust, identity, and personal autonomy also play an important role. Vaccine communication should therefore connect scientific evidence with students’ moral commitments, trusted relationships, and concerns about freedom, especially in settings where faith influences health decision-making. Full article

All rotating electrical machines are susceptible to vibrations arising from electromagnetic (EM) forces, electrical faults, mechanical defects, imbalance, and structural resonance. In Doubly Fed Induction Generators (DFIGs), such electromechanical vibrations are especially important because they can degrade reliability, increase noise, and lead to severe damage if resonance-prone operating conditions are not identified in time. Although fault diagnosis in DFIGs has been widely investigated using current, voltage, and flux signatures, comparatively fewer studies have examined fault-specific vibration behaviour under stator and rotor interturn faults (ITTFs), particularly through a coupled EM structural framework. In addition, prior vibration-based studies have not examined the influence of end winding ITTFs, its location, severity, and modal interaction investigating resonance risk. This paper considers vibration characteristics of a variable-speed 2.8 MW DFIG used in a grid-connected Type-3 wind turbine unit (WTU) at no-load operating condition. The DFIG is modelled in ANSYS Academic Research v 2022 R2 Maxwell for EM behaviour assessment for ITTFs in both stator and rotor windings along with modal analysis (MA) in ANSYS Workbench to examine the undamped stator and rotor modes over a range of frequencies. This coupled approach enables identification of vibration signatures associated with different ITTF types. The results show the magnetic flux density near faulty end-winding region increases with fault severity and ranges from 4.19 T to 4.39 T in proximity to faulty windings. A dominant modal frequency band of 60–65 Hz is identified, where stator and rotor modes coincide, creating probable resonance conditions. A severe vibration response is observed for single-phase stator ITTF, showing an amplitude of 2116 mm/s at 480 Hz for a larger number of shorted turns, indicating that asymmetric faults can produce stronger EM excitation than multi-phase faults. The main contribution of this paper is demonstration of a fault-specific, MA and vibration-based Condition monitoring system (CMS) implementation workflow for a DFIG. Unlike prior vibration-based studies that primarily focus on general machine vibration, mechanical faults, bearings, etc., this paper links stator and rotor ITTF induced EM excitation to modal characteristics, resonance behaviour, and measurable vibration signatures, establishing vibration analysis (VA) as a practical complementary technique for CMS of ITTFs in DFIGs. Full article

Reliable fault diagnosis of rotating machinery is critical for averting serious failures in modern industrial systems. While data-driven deep learning has advanced condition monitoring, its success is fundamentally predicated on the availability of independent and identically distributed (I.I.D.) datasets. In realistic operational environments, machinery frequently experiences massive domain shifts induced by varying rotational speeds. Concurrently, acquiring high-fidelity fault instances is limited compared to abundant healthy baseline data, often resulting in a long-tailed distribution. Under such data-starved conditions, conventional few-shot domain adaptation (FSDA) methodologies often may be affected by distributional erasure; global alignment objectives are mainly driven by the healthy majority, causing sparse fault signatures to be erroneously absorbed as noise and leading to severe diagnostic performance degradation. To address this setting, this study develops a physics-guided dual-stream fusion framework for extreme few-shot cross-domain fault diagnosis. The method does not treat the Laplace wavelet, STFT, CNNs, or AdaBN as newly introduced techniques. Instead, it integrates these components into a unified diagnostic pipeline designed for long-tailed target support sets under large speed shifts. A learnable Laplace wavelet convolution is used in the temporal branch to emphasize transient impact responses, while STFT spectrograms provide a complementary time-frequency representation for the two-dimensional branch. The two feature streams are then fused for target fault classification. For domain adaptation, a Strict AdaBN strategy is applied using only the target support set, rather than the target test data or a large unlabeled target pool. Under the evaluated 50 healthy + 12 fault support condition, the healthy samples provide target-domain operating-background statistics for BN recalibration, while the limited fault samples are used for supervised classifier adjustment. Experiments on the HUSTbearing and Torino DIRG datasets show that the proposed integrated framework achieves stable performance under the evaluated few-shot cross-speed settings. These results suggest that combining physics-guided Laplace convolution, time-frequency representations, and support-set-restricted BN recalibration can be useful for bearing fault diagnosis when target fault samples are limited. Full article

In Optical Camera Communication (OCC), precise localization of LED arrays under complex tilt conditions is a core challenge for reliable decoding. This paper proposes an OCC reception scheme for RGB-LED arrays that integrates YOLO-OBB rotated object detection with two-stage geometric correction. The system first employs a YOLOv8n-OBB model to extract a quadrilateral region of interest that tightly encloses the LED array boundary. This effectively suppresses background interference caused by superimposed perspective tilt and in-plane rotation. A coarse-to-fine two-stage correction framework is then applied. The first stage rapidly eliminates the dominant perspective distortion based on the detected bounding-box corners. The second stage performs a refined correction using the actual LED center positions. Two homography matrices are cascaded into a combined transformation, achieving two-stage correction accuracy through a single coordinate mapping. In the corrected image, K-Means clustering constructs a 16 × 16 LED topological grid. A locking strategy is adopted so that subsequent frames skip repeated LED detection and clustering. The steady-state per-frame processing time is reduced to approximately 78.9 ms. Experiments covered 16 cross-combinations of vertical tilt from 0° to 45° (0°, 15°, 30°, 45°) and in-plane rotation from 0° to 40° (0°, 15°, 30°, 40°). The uncorrected scheme and the horizontal-box scheme experienced severe bit errors or complete failure under complicated distortion. The proposed scheme maintained error-free transmission under all 16 tested conditions. The ratios of opposite sides of the corrected LED grid remained stable between 0.997 and 1.004. The system simultaneously achieves high reliability and low-latency real-time processing under complex geometric distortions. Full article

Background/Objectives: Given the limited evidence on multi-distance visual function assessment in presbyopia, this study aimed to compare dynamic binocular visual function between presbyopic and non-presbyopic (NP) participants at different distances, and to further evaluate the effects of additional power (ADD) on dynamic sharpness discrimination, binocular integration, and dynamic stereopsis in presbyopic participants. Methods: A total of 54 presbyopic and 77 NP participants were tested at 0.4 m, 0.7 m, 1 m, and 3 m using a dichoptic rotating ring system with red-blue anaglyph glasses. Presbyopia was classified as low (LP, ADD < 1.5D) or high (HP, ADD ≥ 1.5D). Tests included dynamic sharpness discrimination, binocular integration, and stereopsis. To account for potential confounders, generalized linear models (GLM) were applied with sex, eye laterality, age, ADD, spherical equivalent (SE), and group as covariates, allowing comparison of visual function outcomes across different viewing distances between NP and ADD-stratified presbyopic groups. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the passing rates of dynamic sharpness discrimination test between the presbyopic and NP groups (all p > 0.05). At 0.4 m, 0.7 m, and 1 m, the presbyopic group showed significantly lower passing rates in the binocular integration test compared with the NP group (all p < 0.05), while no significant difference was observed at 3 m (p = 0.051). Furthermore, the passing rates for binocular integration test at all distances were significantly lower in the HP group than those in both the NP and LP groups (all p < 0.05). GLM analysis indicated that both SE and age were potential confounders in the comparison of binocular integration between presbyopic and NP groups (both p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in the passing rates of binocular dynamic stereopsis test at any distance between the NP and presbyopic groups, or between the LP and HP groups (all p > 0.05). Conclusions: This novel dynamic testing method revealed ADD-dependent impairment of binocular integration at near-to-intermediate distances in patients with presbyopia. Full article

Background and Objectives: To compare the buccal bone thickness of adjacent maxillary incisors between the impacted and contralateral control sides in patients with unilateral palatally impacted canines (PICs) using a split-mouth cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) design. Materials and Methods: CBCT records of 26 patients with a unilateral PIC (18 females, 8 males; mean age, 17.35 ± 4.58 years) were retrospectively analyzed. Buccal bone thickness was measured at five equally spaced levels from the root apex (Level A) to the buccal alveolar crest (Level E) for the central and lateral incisors. Alveolar crest height, incisor torque and rotation, follicular width, canine localization, canine-to-root proximity, and root resorption were also assessed. Results: The impacted side showed significantly reduced buccal bone thickness at the two most apical levels of the lateral incisor: Level A (−0.81 mm; p < 0.001) and Level B (−0.35 mm; p = 0.004). No side differences were observed at the remaining lateral incisor levels or at any central incisor level. In the orientation-adjusted sensitivity model accounting for incisor torque and rotation, Level A remained significant (−0.75 mm; p < 0.001), whereas Level B was attenuated (p > 0.005). Lateral incisors on the impacted side also showed reduced labial torque (−4.97°; p = 0.001) and greater mesiobuccal rotation (−12.23°; p < 0.001). Conclusions: PICs were associated with localized apical reduction in buccal bone thickness of the adjacent lateral incisor, accompanied by reduced labial torque and greater mesiobuccal rotation. Buccal bone thickness may represent a relevant consideration during CBCT-based treatment planning for PICs. Full article