The HfO2-based ferroelectrics have aroused considerable attention due to their potential application in silicon process-compatible memory devices. However, the ferroelectricity origin and the domain ...evolution have not yet been well understood. It is now generally accepted the orthorhombic Pca21 phase is one of ferroelectric phases for HfO2. In this work, by performing density functional theory calculations, we systematically studied the domain wall structures and evolution based on the Pca21 ferroelectric phase. More specifically, the atomic structures of ten types of possible 180° and 90° ferroelectric domain walls are predicted and explored. And the motion of certain domain walls is expected as the microscopic mechanisms of the polarization switching and ferroelectricity activation of Pca21 HfO2 under external electric field. Our results are in good agreement with the recent experimental results on ferroelectric domain walls in HfO2-based epitaxial thin-film and are helpful to understand the ferroelectricity origin of the HfO2-based ferroelectrics.
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Infrared thermal imaging is a passive non-contact detection and identification technology, which is not subject to electromagnetic infection and good concealment, is widely used in military and ...commercial fields. However, due to the limitations of the existing infrared imaging system mechanisms, the spatial resolution of the acquired infrared images is low and the edge details are blurred, which in turn leads to poor performance in downstream missions based on infrared images. In this paper, in order to better solve the above problems, we propose a new super-resolution reconstruction framework for infrared images, called DBFE, which extracts and retains abundant structure and textual information for robust infrared image high-resolution reconstruction with a novel structure-textual encoder module. Extensive experiment demonstrates that our proposed method achieves significantly superior contraband high-resolution reconstruction results on the multiple dataset compared to progressive methods for high resolution infrared image reconstruction, effectively proving the practicability of the method proposed in this paper.
This investigation explores the extensive influence of Tang Sancai, a seminal element of China’s Tang Dynasty, on the cultural landscapes of Persia and Japan, propelled by the intercultural exchanges ...along the historic Silk Road. It examines how Tang Sancai’s vivid colors, intricate motifs, and distinctive techniques transcended geographical confines, catalyzing significant evolutions in Persian and Japanese cultural expressions. The study acknowledges Tang Sancai’s substantial impact while concurrently highlighting the distinctive paths of cultural development in Persia and Japan. In these regions, local traditions and aesthetic sensibilities assimilated Chinese elements, fostering unique, regionally tailored cultural syntheses. This research not only sheds light on the dynamic process of cultural interchange but also emphasizes the significance of such exchanges in driving creative adaptations and innovations. Through comparative and historical analyses, the research articulates the diverse legacy of Tang Sancai, showcasing its role as a pivotal agent in the progression of cultural forms, thereby contributing richly to the global tapestry of human cultures.
Low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) infrared point target detection and tracking is crucial to study regarding infrared remote sensing. In the low-SNR images, the intensive noise will submerge targets. ...In this letter, a saliency-guided double-stage particle filter (SGDS-PF) formed by the searching particle filter (PF) and tracking PF is proposed to detect and track targets. Before the searching PF, to suppress noise and enhance targets, the single-frame and multi-frame target accumulation methods are introduced. Besides, the likelihood estimation filter and image block segmentation are proposed to extract the likelihood saliency and obtain proper proposal density. Guided by this proposal density, the searching PF detects potential targets efficiently. Then, with the result of the searching PF, the tracking PF is adopted to track and confirm the potential targets. Finally, the path of the real targets will be output. Compared with the existing methods, the SGDS-PF optimizes the proposal density for low-SNR images. Using a few accurate particles, the searching PF detects potential targets quickly and accurately. In addition, initialized by the searching PF, the tracking PF can keep tracking targets using very few particles even under intensive noise. Furthermore, the parameters have been selected appropriately through experiments. Extensive experimental results show that the SGDS-PF has an outstanding performance in tracking precision, tracking reliability, and time consumption. The SGDS-PF outperforms the other advanced methods.
In a space-based infrared system, the enhancement of targets plays a crucial role in improving target detection capabilities. However, the existing methods of target enhancement face challenges when ...dealing with multi-target scenarios and a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, false enhancement poses a serious problem that affects the overall performance. To address these issues, a new enhancement method for a dim moving multi-target with strong robustness for false enhancement is proposed in this paper. Firstly, multi-target localization is applied by spatial–temporal filtering and connected component detection. Then, the motion vectors of each target are obtained using optical flow detection. Finally, the consecutive images are convoluted in 3D based on the convolution kernel guided by the motion vectors of the target. This process allows for the accumulation of the target energy. The experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm can adaptively enhance a multi-target and notably improve the SNR under low SNR conditions. Moreover, it exhibits outstanding performance compared to other algorithms and possesses strong robustness against false enhancement.
An infrared camera is affected by the photon effect, temperature changes, time drift, and other factors when operating in orbit, which makes the ground nonuniformity correction coefficient invalid, ...resulting in nonuniformity stripes in the infrared images and restricting their practicality in further analysis and applications. The existing destriping methods often suffer from the loss of image details and artifact generation. To solve this problem, we proposed a weighted guided filtering-based multidomain fusion destriping approach that leverages the structural, directional, and spectral characteristics of stripe noise. First, we addressed the issue of artifacts caused by Fourier-domain filtering through an adaptive filtering approach that employs a variable threshold to minimize filtering-induced artifacts and obtain clearer guided images. Furthermore, capitalizing on the directional properties of wavelet decomposition effectively separates image information from stripe information. To integrate the advantages of both approaches, we employed a weighted guided filter to seamlessly fuse the guided image with the wavelet decomposition image. In terms of quantitative metrics, the proposed method generally beats the other five comparative methods, with significant improvements in image PSNR, SSIM, NIQE, and mean relative deviation (MRD), particularly for complex images where the enhancements were more pronounced. These experimental results collectively demonstrate the significant progress achieved by the proposed method in effectively reducing stripe noise, better preserving the original structural details of the image, and suppressing the occurrence of artifacts.
Threatened and endangered species are more vulnerable to climate change due to small population and specific geographical distribution. Therefore, identifying and incorporating the biological ...processes underlying a species’ adaptation to its environment are important for determining whether they can persist in situ. Correlative models are widely used to predict species’ distribution changes, but generally fail to capture the buffering capacity of organisms. Giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) live in topographically complex mountains and are known to avoid heat stress. Although many studies have found that climate change will lead to severe habitat loss and threaten previous conservation efforts, the mechanisms underlying panda's responses to climate change have not been explored. Here, we present a case study in Daxiangling Mountains, one of the six Mountain Systems that giant panda distributes. We used a mechanistic model, Niche Mapper, to explore what are likely panda habitat response to climate change taking physiological, behavioral and ecological responses into account, through which we map panda's climatic suitable activity area (SAA) for the first time. We combined SAA with bamboo forest distribution to yield highly suitable habitat (HSH) and seasonal suitable habitat (SSH), and their temporal dynamics under climate change were predicted. In general, SAA in the hottest month (July) would reduce 11.7%–52.2% by 2070, which is more moderate than predicted bamboo habitat loss (45.6%–86.9%). Limited by the availability of bamboo and forest, panda's suitable habitat loss increases, and only 15.5%–68.8% of current HSH would remain in 2070. Our method of mechanistic modeling can help to distinguish whether habitat loss is caused by thermal environmental deterioration or food loss under climate change. Furthermore, mechanistic models can produce robust predictions by incorporating ecophysiological feedbacks and minimizing extrapolation into novel environments. We suggest that a mechanistic approach should be incorporated into distribution predictions and conservation planning.
We incorporate biotic interactions and organisms’ adaptation capacity into species distribution modeling in order to capture dynamic interactions between organisms and their environments, using the giant panda as an example. Mechanistic modeling effectively identified the seasonal heat stress on pandas, and clearly showed that there will likely be range contraction that represents the direct effect of climate warming on pandas. Bamboo's disappearance is predicted to place a greater limit on panda distribution as an indirect, biotically mediated effects caused by climate change.
Abstract Background Observational studies have indicated that the plasma lipid profiles of patients with atopic dermatitis show significant differences compared to healthy individuals. However, the ...causal relationship between these differences remains unclear due to the inherent limitations of observational studies. Our objective was to explore the causal effects between 179 plasma lipid species and atopic dermatitis, and to investigate whether circulating inflammatory proteins serve as mediators in this causal pathway. Methods We utilized public genome-wide association studies data to perform a bidirectional two-sample, two-step mendelian randomization study. The inverse variance-weighted method was adopted as the primary analysis technique. MR-Egger and the weighted median were used as supplementary analysis methods. MR-PRESSO, Cochran’s Q test, and MR-Egger intercept test were applied for sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of our findings. Results The Mendelian randomization analysis revealed that levels of Phosphatidylcholine (PC) (18:1_20:4) (OR: 0.950, 95% CI: 0.929–0.972, p = 6.65 × 10 − 6 ), Phosphatidylethanolamine (O-18:1_20:4) (OR: 0.938, 95% CI: 0.906–0.971, p = 2.79 × 10 − 4 ), Triacylglycerol (TAG) (56:6) (OR: 0.937, 95% CI: 0.906–0.969, p = 1.48 × 10 − 4 ) and TAG (56:8) (OR: 0.918, 95% CI: 0.876–0.961, p = 2.72 × 10 − 4 ) were inversely correlated with the risk of atopic dermatitis. Conversely, PC (18:1_20:2) (OR: 1.053, 95% CI: 1.028–1.079, p = 2.11 × 10 − 5 ) and PC (O-18:1_20:3) (OR: 1.086, 95% CI: 1.039–1.135, p = 2.47 × 10 − 4 ) were positively correlated with the risk of atopic dermatitis. The results of the reverse directional Mendelian randomization analysis indicated that atopic dermatitis exerted no significant causal influence on 179 plasma lipid species. The level of circulating IL-18R1 was identified as a mediator for the increased risk of atopic dermatitis associated with higher levels of PC (18:1_20:2), accounting for a mediation proportion of 9.07%. Conclusion Our research suggests that plasma lipids can affect circulating inflammatory proteins and may serve as one of the pathogenic factors for atopic dermatitis. Targeting plasma lipid levels as a treatment for atopic dermatitis presents a potentially novel approach.
This paper proposes a stochastic predator–prey model with hunting cooperation and nonlinear stochastic disturbance, and focuses on the effects of nonlinear white noise and hunting cooperation on the ...populations. First, we present the thresholds R1 and R2 for extinction and persistence in mean of the predator. When R1 is less than 0, the predator population is extinct; when R2 is greater than 0, the predator population is persistent in mean. Moreover, by establishing suitable Lyapunov functions, we investigate the threshold R0 for the existence of a unique ergodic stationary distribution. At last, we carry out the numerical simulations. The results show that white noise is harmful to the populations and hunting cooperation is beneficial to the predator population.
Background
Energy conservation and emission reduction policies restrict the economic and social development of all countries in the world, and the impact on China, which has low urbanization, is more ...serious. In the process of promoting urbanization, the pressure of carbon emission reduction in the construction industry has increased, and the high emissions of the construction industry have made the low-carbon development of cities face severe challenges. China is at a critical stage of urbanization development, and there is become a general consensus on how to improve the carbon emission efficiency of the construction industry. The interaction between urbanization and the carbon emission efficiency of the construction industry is a long-term and complex process. As one of the industries contributing to China’s urbanization process and carbon emissions, it is of great practical significance to explore the coordination relationship between urbanization and the carbon emission efficiency of the construction industry (CEECI) to realize the goal of “double carbon”, promoting urbanization construction and solving the problem of “green development”. Taking 30 provinces in China as the research target area, the double weighted summation method and the undesirable output superefficiency window-EBM-DEA model are used to measure the provincial urbanization level and CEECI, respectively. Then, the coupling coordination degree model of the relative development index is introduced, and the spatial autocorrelation model and the spatial and temporal differentiation characteristics of the coordination level of urbanization and the CEECI are analysed.
Results
From 2010 to 2021, China’s urbanization level increased steadily, but the growth rate gradually decreased. There were significant differences in urbanization levels among provinces. The eastern provinces have a higher level of urbanization but lack an impetus in the later period, while the western provinces have a lower level of urbanization but a faster growth rate. The low-carbon development trend of China’s construction industry is good, and the overall development of the CEECI shows an “N” type, and the inflection points appear in 2013 and 2018. The interprovincial urbanization level is significantly different from that of the CEECI, and the development form of the central and western provinces is better than that of the eastern provinces. The coordination level of urbanization and the CEECI in China is transitioning from the running-in stage to the coordination stage, and the coupling coordination degree between systems is on the rise, while the relative development degree is on the decline. The spatial distribution pattern is in a dynamic state of change, and the overall distribution pattern is “high in the east and low in the central and western regions”. The differences among provinces were significantly decreased, with 63.33% of provinces at the high running-in level. The provinces that entered the coordination stage were mainly located in the eastern region, and only Beijing was in the coordination stage by the end of the study. In addition, 90% of the provinces exhibited lagging efficiency, and only Jiangxi, Guangxi and Chongqing, which had low coordination levels maintained synchronous development of the two systems. The coordination level between provincial urbanization and the CEECI showed a positive spatial distribution, the global Moran index showed a “V” shape trend, and the spatial dependence of the coordination level between the two systems gradually weakened. In the local spatial distribution, there are two types of convergence: high and low.
Conclusions
The coordination degree of urbanization and the CEECI analysed in this study is an extension of the research on the relationship between the two. By integrating the two into a unified framework, the method of combining quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to further explore the coordination relationship between the two, which not only enhances the scientificity and accuracy of the research but also extends the breadth and depth of relevant theoretical research. At the same time, according to the coordination type between urbanization and the CEECI, China should propose corresponding targeted coordination and optimization paths from the perspective of urbanization and low-carbon development of the construction industry to achieve high-quality development of China’s economy and society.
