Theoretical investigation of intrinsic point defects and the oxygen migration behavior in rare earth hafnates

In this work, the composition-dependent point defect types and formation energies of RE₂Hf₂O₇ (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu and Gd) as well as the oxygen diffusion behavior are systematically investigated by first-principles calculations. The possible defect reactions and dominant defect complexes under stoichiometric and non-stoichiometric conditions are revealed. It is found that O Frenkel pairs are the predominant defect in stoichiometric pyrochlore hafnates. Hf-RE cation anti-site defects, accompanied by RE vacancies and/or oxygen interstitials, are stable in the non-stoichiometric case of HfO₂ excess. On the other hand, RE-Hf anti-site defects together with oxygen vacancies and/or RE interstitials are preferable in the case of RE₂O₃ excess. The energy barriers for the migration along the V_O48f - V_O48f pathway of pyrochlore hafnates were calculated to be between 0.81 eV and 0.89 eV. Based on these results, a defect engineering strategy is proposed and the pyrochlore hafnates investigated here are predicted to exhibit potential oxygen ionic conductivity.     

Antibacterial activity and action target of phenyllactic acid against Staphylococcus aureus and its application in skim milk and cheese

Phenyllactic acid (PLA) has been demonstrated to possess antibacterial activity and capacity to prolong food shelf life. However, studies on the performance of PLA in inhibiting Staphylococcus aureus and its effectiveness when applied to dairy products are largely lacking. Here, antibacterial activity (planktonic and biofilm states) of PLA against S. aureus CICC10145 (S. aureus_45) were investigated. The results showed that PLA inhibited growth of S. aureus_45 and formation of S. aureus_45 biofilm. Next, the antibacterial action target of PLA was uncovered from both physiological and phenotypic perspectives. The results showed that PLA decreased cell metabolic activity and cell viability, damaged cell membrane integrity, triggered leakage of intracellular contents (DNA, proteins, and ATP), and caused oxidative stress damage and morphological deformation of S. aureus_45. In practical application, the antibacterial activity of PLA against S. aureus_45 cells was further confirmed in skim milk and cheese as dairy food models, and the antibacterial effects can be adequately maintained during storage for 21 d, at least at 4°C. These findings suggested that PLA could be a potential candidate for controlling S. aureus outgrowth in dairy foods.     

Advancements in the Development of non-BET Bromodomain Chemical Probes

The bromodomain and extra terminal (BET) family of bromodomain-containing proteins (BCPs) have been the subject of extensive research over the past decade, resulting in a plethora of high-quality chemical probes for their tandem bromodomains. In turn, these chemical probes have helped reveal the profound biological role of the BET bromodomains and their role in disease, ultimately leading to a number of molecules in active clinical development. However, the BET subfamily represents just 8/61 of the known human bromodomains, and attention has now expanded to the biological role of the remaining 53 non-BET bromodomains. Rapid growth of this research area has been accompanied by a greater understanding of the requirements for an effective bromodomain chemical probe and has led to a number of new non-BET bromodomain chemical probes being developed. Advances since December 2015 are discussed, highlighting the strengths/caveats of each molecule, and the value they add toward validating the non-BET bromodomains as tractable therapeutic targets.     

Validation of performance of real-time kinematic PPP. A possible tool for deformation monitoring

Structural failures (bridge or building collapses) and geohazards (landslides, ground subsidence or earthquakes) are worldwide problems that often lead to significant economic and loss of life. Monitoring the deformation of both natural phenomena and man-made structures is a major key to assessing structural dynamic responses. Actually, this monitoring process is under real-time demand for developing warning and alert systems.One of the most used techniques for real-time deformation monitoring is the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) real-time procedure, where the relative positioning approach, using a well-known reference station, has been applied.This study was conducted to evaluate the actual quality of the real-time kinematic Precise Point Positioning (PPP) GNSS solution for deformation monitoring, where it can be concluded that a promise tool is under development and should be taken into account on actual and near future real-time deformation monitoring studies and applications.     

Thermal and transport properties of as-grown Ni-rich TiNi shape memory alloys

Electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, specific heat and thermal conductivity measurements on the Ti_50−xNi_50+x (x = 0.0–1.6 at.%) shape memory alloys are performed to investigate their thermal and transport properties. In this study, anomalous features are observed in both cooling and heating cycles in all measured physical properties of the slightly Ni-rich TiNi alloys (x ≤ 1.0), corresponds to the transformation between the B19′ martensite and B2 austenite phases. Besides, the transition temperature is found to decrease gradually with increasing Ni content, and the driving force for the transition is also found to diminish slowly with the addition of excess Ni, as revealed by specific heat measurements. While the signature of martensitic transformation vanishes for the Ni-rich TiNi alloys with x ≥ 1.3, the characteristics of strain glass transition start to appear. The Seebeck coefficients of these TiNi alloys were found to be positive, suggesting the hole-type carriers dominate the thermoelectric transport. From the high-temperature Seebeck coefficients, the estimated value of Fermi energy ranges from ∼1.5 eV (Ti_48.4Ni_51.6) to ∼2.1 eV (Ti₅₀Ni₅₀), indicating the metallic nature of these alloys. In addition, the thermal conductivity of the slightly Ni-rich TiNi alloys with x ≤ 1.0 shows a distinct anomalous feature at the B19′ → B2 transition, likely due to the variation in lattice thermal conductivity.     

High-resolution ISAR imaging of fast rotating targets based on pattern-coupled Bayesian strategy for multiple measurement vectors

Very high resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging of fast rotating targets is a complicated task. There may be insufficient pulses or may introduce migration through range cells (MTRC) during the coherent processing interval (CPI) when we use the conventional range Doppler (RD) ISAR technique. With compressed sensing (CS) technique, we can achieve the high-resolution ISAR imaging of a target with limited number of pulses. Sparse representation based method can achieve the super resolution ISAR imaging of a target with a short CPI, during which the target rotates only a small angle and the range migration of the scatterers is small. However, traditional CS-based ISAR imaging method generally faced with the problem of basis mismatch, which may degrade the ISAR image. To achieve the high resolution ISAR imaging of fast rotating targets, this paper proposed a pattern-coupled sparse Bayesian learning method for multiple measurement vectors, i.e. the PC-MSBL algorithm. A multi-channel pattern-coupled hierarchical Gaussian prior is proposed to model the pattern dependencies among neighboring range cells and correct the MTRC problem. The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is used to infer the maximum a posterior (MAP) estimate of the hyperparameters. Simulation results validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm.     

基于分段加权的反向稀疏跟踪算法研究

为提高稀疏表示跟踪模型性能，提出一种分段加权的反向稀疏跟踪算法，将跟踪问题转化为在贝叶斯框架下寻找概率最高的候选对象问题，构造不同的分段权重函数来分别度量候选目标与正负模板的判别特征系数。通过池化来降低跟踪结果的不确定性干扰，选择正负模板加权系数差值最大的候选表示作为跟踪结果。实验表明，在光照变化、遮挡、快速运动、运动模糊情况下，所提出的算法可以确保跟踪结果的准确性和鲁棒性。     

应用膨胀算法提取目标的直接定位算法

为了解决被动雷达系统中的多发射源定位问题，提出了一种基于多重信号分类(MUSIC)算法和图像膨胀(IE)算法的直接定位方法。该方法结合了谱分析中的MUSIC思想，通过对接收量测协方差矩阵进行特征分析求解目标的位置。首先，在目标个数未知的前提下，利用Akaike信息准则(AIC)来确定模型阶数；然后，推导了基于MUSIC的定位代价函数；之后，利用图像膨胀算法处理得到的代价函数平面；最后，膨胀处理后的输出为目标个数及目标位置的估计值。提出的算法有效地解决了目标检测及提取的问题，能够确定多个目标的位置坐标，为后续的定位性能分析提供可能性，也保证了算法的完整性。进一步地分析了多个临近目标情况下影响目标提取性能的主要因素。     

基于时空的弱点状运动目标检测技术

如何在复杂背景下持续有效地检测目标位置,一直是研究者们需要面对的主要挑战。本文在研究红外点状移动目标特征的基础上,根据目标无纹理,无形状的特性,提出一种改进的形态学目标增强算法,并利用目标连续时空不变性检测目标。首先,建立多尺度的图像金字塔,在每层上采用改进的形态学算法快速、粗糙定位小目标。然后进一步的根据目标在时空上的位置相关性,提出基于目标运动特征分析的精确检测方法。得到精确稳定的检测结果。最后实验结果表明与经典的形态学检测算法及其他算法相比,该技术能更有效地检测弱小目标,具有更高的鲁棒性。     

Influences of Ga concentration on performances of CuInGaSe2 cells fabricated by sputtering-based method with ceramic quaternary target

Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (Cu(In,Ga)Se₂, CIGSe) absorbers with different Ga contents were prepared by sputtering CIGSe ceramic targets and post-annealing. CIGSe solar cell devices were fabricated with other functional layers. The device performances and absorber properties were investigated. Increasing Ga content led to an increase in V_OC and a decrease in J_SC. Ga was supposed to diffuse towards back contact during the annealing process. The best performance was obtained as the ratio of Ga/(In + Ga) reaches 0.32 with the efficiency of 13.8% and a V_OC of 537 mV.