Decoding movement intent patterns based on spatiotemporal and adaptive filtering method towards active motor training in stroke rehabilitation systems

Neural Computing and Applications - Upper extremity (UE) neuromuscular dysfunction critically affects post-stroke patients from performing activities of daily life. In this regard, various...     

Role of strain-rate and phase boundary geometry on the deformation behaviour of two-phase bicrystals of alpha-beta brass

Tensile testing was carried out at various strain-rates using alpha-beta brass two-phase bicrystal specimens having two types of boundary geometries, currugated and flat. The corrugated boundary was more effective in blocking the propagation of slip from alpha to beta phase. A strain-rate sensitivity was found in all specimens regardless of boundary geometry. At low strain-rate, both boundary types were found to be ineffective barriers to the propagation of slip. At high strain-rates both boundaries fully resisted the passage of deformation. At low strain-rates coarse slip was observed, while at high strain-rates fine slip occurred in the alpha phase.     

Species differences in V?a receptor gene expression in monogamous and nonmonogamous voles: Behavioral consequences.

Arginine vasopressin modulates a number of species-typical social behaviors, including social memory in rats, scent marking and aggressive behavior in hamsters, and partner preference formation and paternal behavior in monogamous rodents. The distribution of V?a receptor binding sites in the brain varies greatly among species. Using in situ hybridization in 2 species of voles with strikingly different patterns of V?a binding sites and social behaviors, the authors demonstrate that differences in V?a receptor binding sites are due to species differences in regional V?a receptor gene expression. It is then demonstrated that the differences in receptor gene expression are associated with species differences in behavioral response to centrally administered vasopressin. Together, these data suggest that the phylogenetic plasticity of central neurohypophyseal peptide receptor expression may contribute to the evolution of species-typical social behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rapid Sterilization and Accelerated Wound Healing Using Zn2+ and Graphene Oxide Modified g‐C3N4 under Dual Light Irradiation

Wound healing is affected by bacterial infection and related inflammation, cell proliferation and differentiation, and tissue remodeling. Current antibiotics therapy cannot promote wound healing and kill bacteria at the same time. Herein, hybrid nanosheets of g‐C₃N₄‐Zn²⁺@graphene oxide (SCN‐Zn²⁺@GO) are prepared by combining Zn²⁺ doped sheet‐like g‐C₃N₄ with graphene oxide via electrostatic bonding and π–π stacking interactions to assist wound healing and kill bacteria simultaneously by short‐time exposure to 660 and 808 nm light. The gene expressions of matrix metalloproteinase‐2, type I collagen, type III collagen, and interleukin β in fibroblasts are regulated by GO and released Zn²⁺, which can accelerate wound healing. Co‐irradiation produces an antibacterial ratio over 99.1% within a short time because of the synergistic effects of both photodynamic antibacterial and photothermal antibacterial treatments. The hyperthermia produced by 808 nm light illumination can weaken the bacterial activity. And these bacteria can be easily killed by membrane destruction, protein denaturation, and disruption of bacterial metabolic pathways due to reactive oxygen species produced under 660 nm light irradiation. This strategy of Zn²⁺ and GO modification can increase the antibacterial efficacy of SCN and accelerate wound healing at the same time, which makes this SCN‐Zn²⁺@GO be very promising in bacteria‐infected wound healing therapy.     

High-Temperature Oxidation of Ni Coated with La2O3 by Atomic-Layer Chemical-Vapor Deposition (ALCVD)

The effects of superficial (30–100 nm) La₂O₃ surface coatings on the oxidation kinetics of Ni from 700 to 1100°C in air and the oxide morphology of the NiO scales have been investigated. The parabolic rate constant is lower than for uncoated Ni by a factor of 5 to 10. The oxide morphology changes with the La₂O₃ coatings: The oxide scale consists of an outer fine-grain layer with an inner region of coarser, but still equiaxed, grains. SIMS shows that the majority of the La remains at the surface where a highly oxygen-defective spinel, La₂Ni₄O₇, was found by TEM. Two-stage oxidation followed by SIMS profiling reveals that the oxide growth occurs inside the scales.     

A real-time attack defense framework for 5G network slicing

Network Slicing (NS) is a key enabler to support 5G network services on-demand. However, since NS is a result of the recent advancement in Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization, it introduces new security issues which include attacks against an NS instance within an operator network and interslice security threats. In this scenario, identifying and mitigating attacks in real-time is of paramount importance to improve security aspects. However, it is far from being straightforward. Therefore, this work proposes the FrameRTP4, a P4-based framework that aims to deliver real-time attack detection and mitigation mechanisms in 5G NS scenarios. For this, it provides a P4-based switch that implements an Service Function Chaining protocol layer, an efficient and scalable Access Control List for the detection and mitigation of known attacks, and a monitoring system aiming to reduce the overhead induced on the control channel. Furthermore, it delivers an orchestrator that aims to control all switches in order to enable lifecycle management of NS instances and P4 table rules. Besides, it also performs some autonomous tasks such as the wildcard rules generation and the detection of new threats by using machine learning algorithms. Preliminary results point to the potential benefits of FrameRTP4 to be part of a 5G NS infrastructure.     

Resolving Conflicting Insights in Asynchronous Collaborative Visual Analysis

Analyzing large and complex datasets for critical decision making can benefit from a collective effort involving a team of analysts. However, insights and findings from different analysts are often incomplete, disconnected, or even conflicting. Most existing analysis tools lack proper support for examining and resolving the conflicts among the findings in order to consolidate the results of collaborative data analysis. In this paper, we present CoVA, a visual analytics system incorporating conflict detection and resolution for supporting asynchronous collaborative data analysis. By using a declarative visualization language and graph representation for managing insights and insight provenance, CoVA effectively leverages distributed revision control workflow from software engineering to automatically detect and properly resolve conflicts in collaborative analysis results. In addition, CoVA provides an effective visual interface for resolving conflicts as well as combining the analysis results. We conduct a user study to evaluate CoVA for collaborative data analysis. The results show that CoVA allows better understanding and use of the findings from different analysts.     

Fundamental Theory of Biodegradable Metals—Definition,Criteria, and Design

Until now there has been no fundamental theory applicable for biodegradable metals (BMs). First, this paper optimizes the definition of BMs given in 2014. Second, the dual criteria of biodegradability and biocompatibility are proposed for BMs, and all metallic elements in the periodic table with accessible data are screened on the basis of these criteria. Regarding biodegradability, electrode potential, reactivity series, galvanic series, Pilling–Bedworth ratio, and Pourbaix diagrams are all adopted as parameters to classify the degradable and nondegradable nature of a material, especially in a physiological environment. Considering the biocompatibility at different levels, cellular biocompatibility, tissue biocompatibility, and human/clinical related biocompatibility parameters are put forward to comprehensively evaluate the biosafety of BMs. Third, for the material design of BMs, mechanical properties, chemical properties, physical properties and biological properties should be considered and balanced to guarantee that the degradation behavior of BMs match well with a tissue regeneration/repair procedure as the function of time and spatial location. Besides the selected metallic elements, some nonmetallic elements are selected as suitable alloying elements for BMs. Finally, five classification/research directions for future BMs are proposed: biodegradable pure metals, crystalline alloys, bulk metallic glasses, high entropy alloys, and metal matrix composites.     

A robust global and local mixture distance based non-rigid point set registration

We present a robust global and local mixture distance (GLMD) based non-rigid point set registration method which consists of an alternating two-step process: correspondence estimation and transformation updating. We first define two distance features for measuring global and local structural differences between two point sets, respectively. The two distances are then combined to form a GLMD based cost matrix which provides a flexible way to estimate correspondences by minimizing global or local structural differences using a linear assignment solution. To improve the correspondence estimation and enhance the interaction between the two steps, an annealing scheme is designed to gradually change the cost minimization from local to global and the thin plate spline transformation from rigid to non-rigid during registration. We test the performance of our method in contour registration, sequence images and real images, and compare with six state-of-the-art methods where our method shows the best alignments in most scenarios.     

Densification and characterization of rapid carbothermal synthesized boron carbide

Submicrometer boron carbide powders were synthesized using rapid carbothermal reduction (RCR) method. Synthesized boron carbide powders had smaller particle size, lower free carbon, and high density of twins compared to commercial samples. Powders were sintered using spark plasma sintering at different temperatures and dwell times to compare sintering behavior. Synthesized boron carbide powders reached >99% TD at lower temperature and shorter dwell times compared to commercial powders. Improved microhardness observed in the densified RCR samples was likely caused by the combination of higher purity, better stoichiometry control, finer grain size, and a higher density of twin boundaries.