In order to increase the strength and lower the cost, this study experimentally investigated the effects of hooked-end steel fiber, basalt fiber and calcium sulfate on mechanical performance of ...polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber-based engineered cementitious composite (ECC) containing high-volume fly ash. The uniaxial tensile, compression and four-point bending tests were carried out to characterize the mechanical behavior of each mixture. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) image analysis and X-ray CT scan method were used to study the microstructures and distributions of pores. Test results showed that the ultimate strain capacity increases nearly linearly with the growth of stress performance index except the ECC reinforced with calcium sulfate and PVA. Hybridization with basalt fiber and PVA fiber or steel fiber and PVA fiber is more effective for improving mechanical performance within small deformation. ECC reinforced with calcium sulfate and PVA exhibits improved tensile, compressive and flexural strength while maintaining high ductility. The cost performance considering strength/cost and ductility/cost of hybrid mixtures was also discussed.
•Strength performance PVA-ECC containing high-volume fly ash was improved.•Strength of the PVA-ECC was improved while maintaining the inherent high ductility by the addition of calcium sulfate.•The macro and micro effects of the addition of steel fiber, basalt fiber and calcium sulfate into PVA-ECC was discussed.
Human breast milk (HBM) is essential for the infant's growth and development right after birth and is an irreplaceable source of nutrition for early human survival. Various infant formulas have many ...similarities to HBM in many components, but there is no perfect substitute for HBM. Recently, various breast milk components and their roles have been studied according to the development of various analysis techniques. As is already well known, HBM contains about 87-88% water, and 124 g/L solid components as macronutrients, including about 7% (60-70 g/L) carbohydrates, 1% (8-10 g/L) protein, and 3.8% (35-40 g/L) fat. The composition may vary depending on the environmental factors, including maternal diet. Colostrum is low in fat but high in protein and relatively rich in immune-protective components. Although HBM contains enough vitamins to ensure normal growth of the infant, vitamins D and K may be insufficient, and the infant may require their supplementation. Growth factors in HBM also serve as various bioactive proteins and peptides on the intestinal tract, vasculature, nervous system, and endocrine system. In the past, HBM of a healthy mother was thought to be sterile. However, several subsequent studies have confirmed the presence of rich and diverse microbial communities in HBM. Some studies suggested that the genera Staphylococcus and Streptococcus may be universally predominant in HBM, but the origin of microbiota still remains controversial. Lastly, milk is the one of most abundant body fluid of microRNAs, which are known to play a role in various functions, such as immunoprotection and developmental programming, through delivering from HBM and absorption by intestinal epithelial cells. In conclusion, HBM is the most important source of nutrition for infants and includes microbiomes and miRNAs for growth, development, and immunity.
The development of novel synthetic methodologies to incorporate fluorine/s or fluoroalkyl group/s into the frameworks of organic molecules has become a highly prioritized research area because such ...modifications can tune their physiochemical and biological properties. In recent years, nucleophilic phosphine catalysis has been extensively explored to achieve this goal, and significant progress has been made. This review summarizes the methodological advancements of cycloaddition, addition and coupling reactions employing fluorinated building blocks as electrophilic and/or nucleophilic reaction partners under phosphine catalysis to construct structurally and synthetically valuable organofluorine compounds, with special emphasis on the synthetic strategies, proposed reaction mechanisms and synthetic utilities.
AbstractApproximation frameworks for phase-field models of brittle fracture are presented and compared in this work. Such methods aim to address the computational cost associated with conducting ...full-scale simulations of brittle fracture in heterogeneous materials where material parameters, such as fracture toughness, can vary spatially. They proceed by combining a dimension reduction with learning between function spaces. Two classes of approximations are considered. In the first class, deep learning models are used to perform regression in ad hoc latent spaces. PCA-Net and Fourier neural operators are specifically presented for the sake of comparison. In the second class of techniques, statistical sampling is used to approximate the forward map in latent space, using conditioning. To ensure proper measure concentration, a reduced-order Hamiltonian Monte Carlo technique (namely, probabilistic learning on manifold) is employed. The accuracy of these methods is then investigated on a proxy application where the fracture toughness is modeled as a non-Gaussian random field. It is shown that the probabilistic framework achieves comparable performance in the L2 sense while enabling the end-user to bypass the art of defining and training deep learning models.
E2F transcription factors (E2Fs), a group of genes that encode a family of transcription factors, have been identified as being involved in the tumor progression of various cancer types. Increasing ...experimental evidence indicates that E2Fs are implicated in breast cancer tumorigenesis. However, the diverse expression patterns and prognostic values of eight E2Fs have yet to be analyzed. Herein we investigated the transcriptional and survival data of E2Fs in patients with breast cancer from the Oncomine, Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA), Kaplan-Meier Plotter, and cBioPortal databases. We found that the expression levels of E2F1-3 and 5-8 were higher in breast cancer tissues than in normal breast tissues, whereas the expression level of E2F4 was lower in the former than in the latter. The expression levels of E2F2, 5, 7, and 8 were correlated with advanced tumor stage. Survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier Plotter database revealed that the high transcription levels of E2F1-3, 5, 7, and 8 were associated with low relapse-free survival in all of the patients with breast cancer. Conversely, high E2F4 and E2F6 levels predicted high relapse-free survival in these patients. This study implied that E2F1-3, 5, 7, and 8 are potential targets of precision therapy for patients with breast cancer and that E2F4 and 6 are new biomarkers for the prognosis of breast cancer.
The BINOL‐derived chiral phosphoric acid (R)‐TRIP is utilized as an organocatalyst in the asymmetric isoprenylboration reaction of aldehydes, wherein hydrogen‐bond interactions play a key role in the ...control of enantioselectivity. A wide arrays of enantioenriched dienyl homoallyl alcohols, including two natural products (−)‐Ipsdienol and (−)‐Ipsenol, have been successfully constituted. The synthetic application to chiral isoprenylated isobenzofuranone, vinyloxirane and cyclohexene derivatives has also been disclosed.
PurposeThe study aims to investigate the relationships between green intellectual capital, green human resource management (HRM), and sustainability.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based ...on information gathered from 112 large Malaysian manufacturing companies.FindingsThe study findings revealed that green human capital and green relational capital positively influence green HRM. In addition, green HRM positively related to social, environmental and economic performance. Besides, green HRM positively mediates the relationships between green human capital and economic, social and environmental performance. Finally, green relational capital improves sustainability (economic, environmental, and social performance) mediated by green HRM.Originality/valueThe current study contributes to the literature by examining green IC (green human capital, green structural capital, and green relational capital) as an independent variable and green HRM as a mediating variable for sustainability (economic, environmental, and social performance). The findings and recommended for the managers of large manufacturing firms and practitioners to invest in green IC to achieve sustainability through green HRM.
We obtain the canonical transformations for the time-dependent Hamiltonian from Heisenberg’s equation of motion, based on which we derive the Kramers’ dispersion formula via the perturbation theory ...of matrix mechanics to the second order approximation.
A new seamless switching control technique for power factor correction (PFC) is presented for efficiency improvement, especially in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) operation. Seamless transition ...between continuous conduction mode (CCM) and DCM can be automatically achieved without requiring additional zero crossing point detection circuit of inductor current. The cost and losses can therefore be reduced. The proposed switching control method calculates the "quasi-SR" duty based upon the input and output voltages. As the "quasi-SR" duty is smaller than the complementary duty, the calculated "quasi-SR" duty is used for the synchronous rectification power device switching control. Otherwise, conventional complementary duty is used. A 3 kW totem-pole PFC is set up for test. The experimental results show the efficiency can be significantly improved as input ac voltage = 110, 230, and 264 V rms , and 99.28% of peak efficiency is achieved.
Highlights • We summarized 977 epilepsy-associated genes, which were divided into 4 categories according to the manifestation of epilepsy in phenotypes. • 84 epilepsy genes, i.e., genes that only ...cause epilepsies or syndromes with epilepsy as the core symptom. • 73 neurodevelopment-associated genes, i.e., genes associated with gross brain developmental malformations and epilepsies. • 536 epilepsy-related genes, i.e., genes associated with gross physical, or other systemic abnormalities and accompanied by epilepsy or seizures. • 284 potential epilepsy-associated genes, i.e., genes that require further verification.
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