This work presents an integrated modelling study of fast-proton distributions generated by ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) minority heating in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). Using a series of high-confinement (H-mode) discharges with increasing ICRF power levels from 0.8 to 2.4 MW, fast protons were produced via minority heating mechanisms and analysed through simulations using the ASCOT code. The results reveal that the fast protons are primarily concentrated near the fundamental cyclotron resonance layer and exhibit strong power-dependent behaviour in both real-space (R–Z) distribution and velocity space, where R is the major radius and Z is the vertical coordinate. As the ICRF power increases, the energetic proton population shows significant spatial broadening and energy enhancement, reaching up to 1 MeV. The fast-ion pitch-angle distribution becomes increasingly anisotropic, with high-energy ions concentrated around $|\textit{v}_{\|}/\textit{v}| \lt 0.5$, where $\nu$ is the magnitude (speed) of the full velocity vector of the particle. Furthermore, the energy density of fast ions aligns well with the ICRF power deposition profile, confirming efficient central-core heating. These findings, which provide insight into fast-ion behaviour and ICRF heating characteristics in EAST plasmas, also support future fast-ion diagnostics and performance control strategies in EAST and similar experimental conditions.

Machine learning (ML) models have been developed to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to accelerate systematic reviews (SRs). However, their use has been limited due to concerns about their performance and practical benefits. We developed a high-recall ensemble learning model using Cochrane RCT data to enhance the identification of RCTs for rapid title and abstract screening in SRs and evaluated the model externally with our annotated RCT datasets. Additionally, we assessed the practical impact in terms of labour time savings and recall improvement under two scenarios: ML-assisted double screening (where ML and one reviewer screened all citations in parallel) and ML-assisted stepwise screening (where ML flagged all potential RCTs, and at least two reviewers subsequently filtered the flagged citations). Our model achieved twice the precision compared to the existing SVM model while maintaining a recall of 0.99 in both internal and external tests. In a practical evaluation with ML-assisted double screening, our model led to significant labour time savings (average 45.4%) and improved recall (average 0.998 compared to 0.919 for a single reviewer). In ML-assisted stepwise screening, the model performed similarly to standard manual screening but with average labour time savings of 74.4%. In conclusion, compared with existing methods, the proposed model can reduce workload while maintaining comparable recall when identifying RCTs during the title and abstract screening stages, thereby accelerating SRs. We propose practical recommendations to effectively apply ML-assisted manual screening when conducting SRs, depending on reviewer availability (ML-assisted double screening) or time constraints (ML-assisted stepwise screening).

This study is dedicated to achieving efficient active noise control in a supersonic underexpanded planar jet, utilizing control parameters informed by resolvent analysis. The baseline supersonic underexpanded jet exhibits complex wave structures and substantial high-amplitude noise radiations. To perform the active control, unsteady blowing and suction are applied along the nozzle inner wall close to the exit. Employing both standard and acoustic resolvent analyses, a suitable frequency and spanwise wavenumber range for the blowing and suction is identified. Within this range, the control forcing can be significantly amplified in the near field, effectively altering the original sound-producing energetic structure while minimizing far-field amplification to prevent excessive noise. A series of large-eddy simulations are further conducted to validate the control efficiency, demonstrating an over 10 dB reduction in upstream-propagated screech noise. It is identified that the present unsteady control proves more effective than steady control at the same momentum coefficient. The controlled jet flow indicates that the shock structures become more stable, and the stronger the streamwise amplification of the forcing, the more likely it is to modify the mean flow characteristics, which is beneficial for reducing far-field noise radiation. Spectral proper orthogonal decomposition analysis of the controlled flow confirms that the control redistributes energy to higher forcing frequencies and suppresses large-scale antisymmetric and symmetric modes related to screech and its harmonics. The findings of this study highlight the potential of resolvent-guided control techniques in reducing noise in supersonic underexpanded jets and provide a detailed understanding of the inherent mechanisms for effective noise reduction through active control strategies.

The strong coupling interactions of non-equilibrium flow, microscopic particle collisions and radiative transitions within the shock layer of hypersonic atmospheric re-entry vehicles makes accurate prediction of the aerothermodynamics challenging. Therefore, in this study a self-consistent non-equilibrium flow, collisional–radiative reactions and radiative transfer fully coupled model are established to study the non-equilibrium characteristics of the flow field and radiation of vehicle atmospheric re-entry. The comparison of the present calculation results with flight data of FIRE II and previous results in the literature shows a reasonable agreement. The thermal, chemical and excited energy level non-equilibrium phenomena are obtained and analysed for the different FIRE II trajectory points, which form the critical basis for studying the heat transfer and radiation. The non-equilibrium distribution of excited energy levels significantly exists in the post-shock and near-wall regions due to the rapid vibrational dissociation and electronic under-excitation, as well as the wall catalytic reactions. The analysis of stagnation-point heating of FIRE II illustrates that the translational–rotational convection and the dissociation component diffusion play key roles in the aerodynamic heating of the wall region. The spectrally resolved radiative intensity in the entire flow field indicates that the vacuum ultraviolet radiation caused by the high-energy nitrogen atomic spectral lines makes the main contribution to the radiative transfer. Finally, it is found that the non-equilibrium flow–radiation coupling effect can exacerbate the excited energy level non-equilibrium, and further affect the gas radiative properties and radiative transfer. This fully coupled study provides an effective method for reasonable prediction of atmospheric re-entry flow and radiation fields.

Adverse market events can affect credit supply not only by hurting financial fundamentals but also by changing the risk-taking behaviors of individual decision-makers. We provide micro-level evidence of this individual decision-making channel in the U.S. mortgage market. We find that mortgage application rejection rates are more sensitive to foreclosure intensity when loan officers are more exposed to foreclosure news, despite the same housing market and bank fundamentals. Loans originated from the affected branches have lower ex post default rates, consistent with higher lending standards being applied. In the aggregate, this effect results in tighter credit supply during housing market downturns.

Previous research indicates that parental emotion socialization (ES) practices play important roles in adolescents’ social and emotional development. However, longitudinal studies testing bidirectional effects are relatively scarce. Additionally, most studies have focused on people from Western societies. In the current 3-year, multi-informant, longitudinal study of Chinese adolescents and their parents, we investigated prospective bidirectional effects between parental positive ES practices and adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-esteem and depressive symptoms). Adolescents (N = 710 at T1, 50% boys, Mage = 12.41, SD = 0.59) reported on parental positive ES practices and their own depressive symptoms and self-esteem when they were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. Mothers and fathers reported on their own use of positive ES practices at all three time points. We utilized a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to examine between- and within-family effects. Overall results showed robust effects of adolescent depressive symptoms on parental positive ES practices and bidirectional effects between parental ES and adolescent self-esteem. Effects differed by informants whether using adolescent-perceived data, or mother- or father-reported data. However, these child effects and bidirectional effects did not differ by adolescent sex. Our findings add to the understanding of parental ES and adolescent psychosocial adjustment.

Visual tracking is an essential building block for target tracking and capture of the underwater vehicles. On the basis of remotely autonomous control architecture, this paper has proposed an improved kernelized correlation filter (KCF) tracker and a novel fuzzy controller. The model is trained to learn an online correlation filter from a plenty of positive and negative training samples. In order to overcome the influence from occlusion, the improved KCF tracker has been designed with an added self-discrimination mechanism based on system confidence uncertainty. The novel fuzzy logic tracking controller can automatically generate and optimize fuzzy rules. Through Q-learning algorithm, the fuzzy rules are acquired through the estimating value of each state action pairs. An S surface based fitness function has been designed for the improvement of learning based particle swarm optimization. Tank and channel experiments have been carried out to verify the proposed tracker and controller through pipe tracking and target grasp on the basis of designed open frame underwater vehicle.

Dodder is a parasitic weed that is troublesome to the growth of many plants. Our study shows that this invasive species contains strong allelopathic potential, exerting strong inhibition against the growth of indicator plants and noxious paddy weeds in bioassay and pot trials. In a greenhouse, incorporation of 0.5 t ha−1 of dried dodder plants to paddy soil reduced spontaneous growth of paddy weeds by about 50%, whereas the 1.5 to 2 t ha−1 dose suppressed biomass of paddy weeds by more than 75% and completely controlled emergence of barnyardgrass and monochoria. By the use of a separation resin, 22 compounds were separated from dodder and identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry as belonging to terpenes, long-chain fatty acids, phenols, phenolic acids, and lactone. Among these compounds, 15 substances were quantified and tested for their herbicidal activity. Quantity of cinnamic acid was the highest (37.3 mg g−1), followed by dihydro-5,6-dehydrokavain (DDK; 6.0 mg g−1), myristic acid (3.2 mg g−1), and methyl cinnamate (2.1 mg g−1), whereas the amounts of other compounds were between 0.01 and 0.1 mg g−1. It is suggested that the content of the terpenes within dodder, which was rather high in amount (0.41–2.1 mg g−1), correlated to its strength of chemical cues to find host plants. Cinnamic acid, DDK, methyl cinnamate, and vanillin exerted the most potent herbicidal activities against radish growth. Findings of this study propose that cinnamic acid, DDK, and methyl cinnamate are responsible for its strong phytotoxic action of dodder plants. However, whether these plant growth inhibitors and other compounds detected from the dodder can suppress emergence of their hosts as well as contributing to its strong invasiveness needs further elucidation.

The flash allowance and upset allowance have significant effects on characteristics of flash butt welded RS590CL steel joints. The overheated zone (OZ) widths increased with flash allowance (δf) increase, and decreased as the upset allowance (δu) increased. The coarsened upper bainite was formed in interface zone (IZ) and OZ as δf increased. With increasing δu, the large plastic deformation occurred and the interface formability improved. The hardness in IZ was a little lower than that in its vicinity OZ due to some ferrite existence and dislocation amount decreased in IZ. The tensile strengths of flash butt welding (FBW) joints were in good match with base metal and the ductilities were lower. The maximum bending crack length was 0.68 mm which indicated that the bending properties of FBW joints were good. Under this experiment, relatively large δf (10–12 mm) and δu (5.5–6.5 mm) were recommended for the benefit of high quality FBW joints.

Background: Patients with the postural instability and gait difficulty (PIGD) subtype of Parkinson disease (PD) are at a higher risk of dysfunction and are less responsive to dopamine replacement therapy. The PIGD subtype was found to largely associate with white matter lesions, but details of the diffusion changes within these lesions have not been fully investigated. Voxel-based analysis for diffusion tensor imaging data is one of the preferred measures to compare diffusion changes in each voxel in any part of the brain. Methods: PD patients with the PIGD (n=12) and non-PIGD subtypes (n=12) were recruited to compare diffusion differences in fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity with voxel-based analysis. Results: Significantly reduced fractional anisotropy in bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus, bilateral anterior corona radiata, and the left genu of the corpus callosum were shown in the PIGD subtype compared with the non-PIGD subtype. Increased radial diffusivity in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus was found in the PIGD subtype with no statistical differences in axial diffusivity found. Conclusions: Our study confirms previous findings that white matter abnormalities were greater in the PIGD subtype than in the non-PIGD subtype. Additionally, our findings suggested: (1) compared with the non-PIGD subtype, loss of white matter integrity was greater in the PIGD subtype; (2) bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus may play a critical role in microstructural white matter abnormalities in the PIGD subtype; and (3) reduced white matter integrity in the PIGD subtype could be mainly attributed to demyelination rather than axonal loss.

Low-temperature stress is an important limiting factor to tobacco growth in early spring of south China. In this study, a low-temperature-resistant agent (LTRA) was employed to examine its ameliorating effect on the inhibition of tobacco growth triggered by low-temperature stress. Results indicated that low-temperature stress of 12 °C for 6 days reduced root number and biomass of tobacco seedling by 27.4% and 24.1%, while treatment with LTRA could recover the inhibitory effect of low-temperature stress on tobacco growth significantly. The content of ascorbic acid and the activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase at low-temperature stress were 65.2%, 53.5% and 32.1% of those at normal temperature condition (26 °C), while the corresponding values with LTRA treatment were 89.2%, 88.9% and 74.2%, suggesting that LTRA treatment could enhance the activity of antioxidant enzyme and the synthesis of antioxidant compounds. Low-temperature stress increased the membrane permeability by 84.8%, while LTRA treatment recovered it by 77.4%. Furthermore, LTRA treatment contributed to increase chlorophyll synthesis and maintain the integrity of tobacco leaf structure. Effective component analysis indicated that the complex of ammonium calcium nitrate and glycine betaine was the main effective component of LTRA in maintaining membrane integrity. Its effective concentration was 1.0 g L−1. The above results suggested that LTRA could enhance the synthesis of chlorophyll, activate the activity of antioxidant enzyme, maintain the integrity of cell membrane, and thus elevate the tolerance of tobacco seedlings to low-temperature stress.

This article deals with the numerical solution to the magneto-thermo-elasticity model, which is a system of the third order partial differential equations. By introducing a new function, the model is transformed into a system of the second order generalized hyperbolic equations. A priori estimate with the conservation for the problem is established. Then a three-level finite difference scheme is derived. The unique solvability, unconditional stability and second-order convergence in L∞-norm of the difference scheme are proved. One numerical example is presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.

The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) is a young double-shell planetary nebula (PN). Its intrinsic structure and the responsible shaping mechanism are still not fully understood. We present new optical spectroscopy of NGC 2392 at two different locations to obtain the spectra of the inner and outer shells. Several [Fe iii] lines are clearly detected. We find that these [Fe iii] lines mostly originate from the inner shell. Therefore, we suggest that NGC 2392 might have an intrinsic structure similar to the Ant Nebula Mz 3, which exhibits a number of [Fe iii] lines from the central dense regions. In this scenario, the inner and outer shells correspond to the central emission core and the outer lobes of Mz 3, respectively.

A simple strategy for generating and distributing metallic nanoparticles in polymer matrix with a spatial control in micrometer/nanometer scale has been proposed and successfully demonstrated by combination of two-photon photoreduction and femtosecond laser interference technique. The simultaneous spatially controlling generation and organization of metallic nanopartciles were controllable by designing interference patterns and varying laser intensity and exposure time. This strategy provides a simple and rapid approach for creating templates with designed spatial distribution of the nanoparticles, which is favorable for current microelectronics technology. This method also can be utilized in developing mass production processes for future nanodevices.

We report the solution structure of the chemotactic cytokine (chemokine) vMIP-II. This protein has unique biological activities in that it blocks infection by several different human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) strains. This occurs because vMIP-II binds to a wide range of chemokine receptors, some of which are used by HIV to gain cell entry. vMIP-II is a monomeric protein, unlike most members of the chemokine family, and its structure consists of a disordered N-terminus, followed by a helical turn (Gln25–Leu27), which leads into the first strand of a three-stranded antiparallel β-sheet (Ser29–Thr34; Gly42–Thr47; Gln52–Asp56). Following the sheet is a C-terminal α-helix, which extends from residue Asp60 until Gln68. The final five residues beyond the C-terminal helix (Pro70–Arg74) are in an extended conformation, but several of these C-terminal residues contact the first β-strand. The structure of vMIP-II is compared to other chemokines that also block infection by HIV-1, and the structural basis of its lack of ability to form a dimer is discussed.