Current Line Research Articles

Условия прихода солнечных энергичных протонов на Землю после мощных вспышек на Солнце

We analyze the Sun-to-Earth transport of energetic protons accelerated in solar flares. We use a model which assumes that protons move earthward in the Parker electromagnetic field. In this model, protons are shown to be recorded on Earth when they, moving away from the solar flare region, reach the vicinity of the heliospheric current sheet, while Earth is at a distance smaller than the proton Larmor radius from the current sheet neutral line. We present the analysis of experimental data on solar flares in August–September 2011. This analysis shows that the absence of energetic protons recording in the vicinity of Earth for some major solar flares can be explained by the proposed model.

In vitro synergy between manuka honey and amikacin against Mycobacterium abscessus complex shows potential for nebulisation therapy.

Mycobacterium abscessusis an opportunistic human pathogen of increasing concern, due to its ability to cause aggressive pulmonary infections (especially in cystic fibrosis patients), as well as skin and soft tissue infections. M. abscessus is intrinsically drug resistant and treatment regimens are lengthy, consisting of multiple antibiotics with severe side effects and poor patient success rates. New and novel strategies are urgently required to combat these infections. One such strategy thus far overlooked for mycobacteria is manuka honey. For millennia manuka honey has been shown to have wide ranging medicinal properties, which have more recently been identified for its broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity. Here we demonstrate that manuka honey can be used to inhibit M. abscessus and a variety of drug resistant clinical isolates in vitro. We also demonstrate using a microbroth dilution checkerboard assay that manuka honey works synergistically with amikacin, which is one of the current front line antibiotics used for treatment of M. abscessus infections. This was further validated using an in vitro inhalation model, where we showed that with the addition of manuka honey, the amikacin dosage can be lowered whilst increasing its efficacy. These findings demonstrate the utility of manuka honey for incorporation into nebulised antibiotic treatment for respiratory infections, in particular M. abscessus. These results pave the way for a change of strategy for M. abscessus management, offering new therapeutic options for this deadly infection.

Chordoma-An update

Chordomas are rare malignant tumors of the axial skeleton with notochordal differentiation. From amorphological point of view, chordomas display abroad spectrum ranging from the classical, conventional form not otherwise specified (NOS) to forms with hepatoid or renal carcinoma-like differentiation or even poorly or dedifferentiated variants. The detection of brachyury is highly characteristic, though not exclusive. The morphological differential diagnosis from abenign notochordal tumor (BNCT) requires integration of imaging since BNCT is limited to the vertebral bodies and is not osteolytic. Targeted therapy is a current research focus and cell lines as in vitro models are aprecondition for the establishment and validation of this approach.

Research on the Optimal Allocation of Ecological Land from the Perspective of Human Needs-Taking Hechi City, Guangxi as an Example.

The configuration of ecological land directly affects the structure and function of an ecosystem and, ultimately, its ability to meet human needs. From the perspective of human needs, this paper classified human needs into material needs, security needs and spiritual needs. Using Hechi City, Guangxi as the study area, we combined the Multi-objective planning (MOP) and PLUS models to study the quantity and spatial optimization of ecological land under different human needs scenarios, and the optimal allocation of ecological land within the ecological red line was also discussed. We conclude that: (1) Hechi City currently has less arable land, which cannot fully guarantee the material needs of human beings; there is more forest land than the amount needed to meet human needs, which reduces the efficiency of ecological land use. (2) In terms of quantity optimization, and considering the goals of different human needs, the area of grass to forest should be extended to satisfy security needs; the area of arable land should be significantly increased in line with material needs; the area of grass and water, with the goal of accommodating spiritual needs, is the largest compared with the rest of the goals. Under the comprehensive needs goal, the forest land area is greatly reduced, and the rest of the land area is increased; the goals of human material, spiritual and security needs are basically met. (3) In terms of spatial layout optimization, in order to meet the security needs target, grass to forest conversion should be carried out in the northern area to enhance the aggregation of forest land; to meet the material needs target, the southwestern gentle slope area should be concentrated toward continuous farming to guarantee the aggregation of arable land while increasing the area of arable land; to meet the spiritual needs target, the area of water in the northwestern area should be increased, and the rest of the changes are similar to the security needs target; to meet the comprehensive needs target, the overall land use connectivity becomes stronger, the fragmented land types become less and the concentrated continuous area of forest land, arable land and grass increases. (4) The results of the ecological land adjustment within the ecological red line indicate that the current ecological red line delineation is good, and a small amount of adjustment can meet human needs. Based on human demand, combined with the MOP-PLUS model for ecological land optimization, it can accurately portray the spatial and temporal evolution pattern of land use and reveal the optimization path of ecological land, which has important theoretical and practical values.

Faults identification in high voltage direct current transmission lines using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system

ABSTRACT This paper presents an innovative approach in line commutated converter-based high-voltage direct-current (LCC-HVDC) transmission line for recognizing the section of the faults. In this work, three adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) modules have been suggested to investigate the safety responsibilities in the LCC-HVDC line. The ANFIS-1 aims to ascertain the faults in both sections; ANFIS-2 is to distinguish the section of the fault; and ANFIS-3 is to recognize the characteristics of the fault. To ascertain the effectiveness of the ANFIS approach, it has been compared with the differential protection (DP), wavelet transform (WT), fuzzy and artificial neural network (ANN). Furthermore, the proposed methods have been tested by varying the fault resistance (up to 500 Ω), power angle (from 5 to 15 degrees), near and end faults, and changing the transmission line parameters (±15 %). The simulation outcomes are disclosed that the proposed ANFIS technique yields better performance than other studied methods in terms of percentage of accuracy, time of fault section recognition, and reach setting.

Nurses as agents for achieving environmentally sustainable health systems: A bibliometric analysis.

To analyse the current scientific knowledge and research lines focused on environmentally sustainable health systems, including the role of nurses. There seem to be differences between creating interventions focused on environmentally sustainable health systems, including nurses, and the scarcity of research on this topic, framed on the Sustainable Development Goals. A bibliometric analysis was carried out, via three databases (Web of Science, Scopus and Pubmed), and the guideline recommendations were followed to select bibliometric data. The search resulted in 159 publications, significantly increasing the trends from 2017 to 2021 (p = .028). The most relevant countries in this area were the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Also, the top articles were from relevant journals, indexed in Journal Citation Report, and the first and the second quartiles linked to the nursing field and citations (p < .001). Education is key to achieving environmentally sustainable health systems via institutions and policies. There is a lack of experimental data and policies on achieving or maintaining environmentally sustainable health care systems, indicating that nurses have an important role and should be consulted and included in decision-making policies regarding sustainability in the health care systems.

In-situ preparation of gel polymer electrolytes in a fully-assembled lithium ion battery through deeply-penetrating high-energy electron beam irradiation

Several in-situ preparation methods of gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) to develop long-lasting and safe lithium ion batteries (LIBs) recently have been reported. However, the reported in-situ methods still have technical gaps for practical industrial uses in terms of processing time, integrity with the current production line, and scalability. Here, we report an in-situ method to prepare crosslinked poly(vinylene carbonate-co-cyanoethyl acrylate) (PVCEA) GPEs using 10 MeV electron beam (EB) irradiation in a fully-assembled metallic housing LIB that can be processed in a short time without any initiator or thermal treatment. The successful in-situ formation of PVCEA GPEs was achieved at absorbed doses above 16 kGy (irradiation time of 56 s), leading to intimately integrated GPEs with the electrodes, while ensuring stable charge and discharge performance. The prepared PVCEA GPE exhibited a higher transference number (tLi+ = ca. 0.53) and a wider electrochemical operation window (up to 5.0 V) than those of a liquid electrolyte (LE), while providing good ionic conductivity (1.17 mS/cm at 20 °C). Furthermore, the PVCEA GPE-based LIB prepared at an optimized dose of 16 kGy showed comparable retention capacity of 83 % at 0.5C to the conventional LE-based LIB after 300 cycles at 25 °C, and more importantly, better cycling durability at elevated temperature of 60 °C in comparison to the LE-based LIB. This study suggests that the combination of radiation-sensitive precursor formulation and high-energy EB with high penetration ability can provide a promising solution for industrial production of high-performing and safe LIBs.

GADF-VGG16 based fault diagnosis method for HVDC transmission lines.

Transmission lines are most prone to faults in the transmission system, so high-precision fault diagnosis is very important for quick troubleshooting. There are some problems in current intelligent fault diagnosis research methods, such as difficulty in extracting fault features accurately, low fault recognition accuracy and poor fault tolerance. In order to solve these problems, this paper proposes an intelligent fault diagnosis method for high voltage direct current transmission lines (HVDC) based on Gramian angular difference field (GADF) domain and improved convolutional neural network (VGG16). This method first performs variational modal decomposition (VMD) on the original fault voltage signal, and then uses the correlation coefficient method to select the appropriate intrinsic mode function (IMF) component, and converts it into a two-dimensional image using the Gramian Angular Difference Field(GADF). Finally, the improved VGG16 network is used to extract and classify fault features adaptively to realize fault diagnosis. In order to improve the performance of the VGG16 fault diagnosis model, batch normalization, dense connection and global average pooling techniques are introduced. The comparative experimental results show that the model proposed in this paper can further identify fault features and has a high fault diagnosis accuracy. In addition, the method is not affected by fault type, transitional resistance and fault distance, has good anti-interference ability, strong fault tolerance, and has great potential in practical applications.

Continuous in-line decontamination of food-processing surfaces using cold atmospheric pressure air plasma

This study assessed a continuous in-line decontamination system for food contact surfaces and processing equipment that utilized cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) generated from ambient air. The plasma system was evaluated against two common foodborne pathogens (Salmonella Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes) on stainless steel surfaces and against S Typhimurium on commercial poly[ether]-thermoplastic poly[urethane] (PE-TPU) conveyor belts, under simulated conditions of a food-processing facility. A significant level of microbial inactivation was achieved, up to 3.03 ± 0.18 and 2.77 ± 0.71 logCFU/mL reductions of L. monocytogenes and S. Typhimurium respectively within 10 s total treatment on stainless steel surfaces, and a 2.56 ± 0.37 logCFU/mL reduction of S. Typhimurium within 4 s total treatment on the PE-TPU material, according to a procedure based on the well-established EN 13697:2015 industrial protocol. CAP exposure was shown to have a minor impact on the morphology and composition of the treated surfaces. The results indicated that CAP can be applied for effective and continuous disinfection against common foodborne pathogens in food-processing facilities. Industrial relevanceLow temperature plasmas have shown great promise for microbial decontamination, yet industrial uptake of the technology has been limited due to scaling limitations. In this study, a prototype conveyor-based CAP decontamination system was developed and tested under realistic conditions expected within a food-processing facility. The results showed a high level of antimicrobial action against two common foodborne pathogens within a few seconds of CAP exposure, a timescale in line with industrial line processing speeds. Our findings demonstrated that CAP shows great promise for the continuous in-situ decontamination of food contact surfaces, with the potential to mitigate against the costly downtimes incurred in current production line practices implementing chemical disinfectants.

Catenary-Powered Electric Traction Network Modeling: A Data-Driven Analysis for Trolleybus System Simulation

In the context of smart cities, direct current overhead contact lines, usually adopted to power urban transportation systems such as trolleybuses, tramways, metros, and railways, can serve as a backbone to connect different modern emerging technologies. Among these, in-motion charging (IMC) trolleybuses with on-board batteries are expected to be very impactful on the DC network’s power flow and may require specific voltage and current control. These factors motivate the development of a simulation tool able to emulate these devices’ absorption and their effect on the supply infrastructure. The main innovative value of the work is to improve a simulation model of a trolleybus grid through a data-driven approach by using measurements of voltage and current output from a traction substation. The measurements are essential for understanding the behavior of vehicle weight variation throughout the day. Thanks to this information, a characterization of the current draw by conventional trolleybuses and IMC trolleybuses is then provided for each trolleybus route in a specific power section of the Bologna trolleybus system. By integrating the variation in vehicle weight within the model, a simulation of a possible daily operation of a trolleybus feeding section has been performed, obtaining a 7% error between the daily energy calculated from the simulation and that obtained through measurements. This analysis demonstrates the feasibility of the adopted simulation tool, which can also be used to evaluate additional hypothetical trolleybus operation scenarios. One of these possible scenarios considers IMC vehicles, and it is also evaluated in this paper.

A novel 3D numerical model coupling droplet transfer and arc behaviors for underwater FCAW

Based on the VOF method (Volume of Fluid Method), a non-axisymmetric three-dimensional (3D) numerical model was developed in this paper, which coupled the droplet and arc and simulated the typical globular repelled transfer process with large droplet in the underwater wet flux-cored wire arc welding (FCAW) process. The results show that in addition to the action of gravity, surface tension and self-induced electromagnetic force, the droplet is also affected by the gas flow generated by the wire, the gas flow resistance in the bubble and the force caused by metal evaporation. The rotation of the droplet around the wire axis is mainly affected by the gas flow generated by the flux core. But the angle of the droplet deviation from the wire axis is determined by all external forces. The path of current line is changed by the droplet movement, thereby constraining the behavior of the arc. In order to verify the validity of the numerical model, images of the metal transfer are collected by a high-speed camera, and the simulated values are in good agreement with the experimental ones.

Evidence of Plasticity‐Driven Conductivity Drop in an Ultra‐Low‐k Dielectric Organosilicate Glass

AbstractAdvanced devices (for microelectronics, energy storage, power sourcing) are complex architectures of metals and dielectrics subjected to harsh mechanical stresses. The functional reliability of the embedded dielectrics is driven by their ability to preserve their electrical properties (such as leakage and breakdown). Accordingly, understanding the interplay between the mechanical and electrical behaviors of dielectric films is critical to predict the lifetime of functional devices. In this study, the effect of plastic deformation on the electrical conduction of an ultra‐low‐k dielectric film is elucidated by combining in situ advanced experiments and finite element modeling. Experimentally, “electrical‐nanoindentation” tests emphasize the strong correlation between electrical and mechanical failures (leakage degradation, breakdown, plasticity, cracking). These experiments also reveal a counterintuitive electrical conduction drop under high mechanical stresses. This phenomenon is reproduced numerically by correcting the Poole–Frenkel conduction law with a strain‐dependent factor, and described analytically in terms of space‐charge build‐up induced by the trapping of holes at the mechanically generated defects. A threshold strain is identified as the keystone relating this strain‐dependent conduction to the current line distribution within the dielectric. This study provides a new understanding of the mechanical/electrical couplings in dielectrics, which opens promising insights into reliability issues for advanced devices.

A deep learning algorithm with smart-sized training data for transient thermal performance prediction

There is an impulsion to introduce machine-learning algorithms into the thermo-fluids areas. Machine learning modeling, especially in high-precision regression problems, relies on large amounts of randomly-selected training data. Such randomness has little effect on final results because a big database (millions or billions of data points) can swallow such randomness. However, training data in the heat transfer area is not so huge and in fact it should be kept as small as possible because data acquisition is not convenient. Therefore, training data need to be shrunk without sacrificing prediction accuracy. Based on our previous work, we herein detail the selection process for a smart-sized training dataset. The smart-sized training dataset was slimmed by 50% with improved prediction accuracy. The prediction accuracy for the worst condition was still above 90%, an increase of 3.5% on previous results. This is a great improvement on our previous work because the training data scale was substantially reduced, demonstrating better results with half of the effort. The developed small-sample modeling using the deep learning algorithm provides a powerful information-processing tool to augment the understanding of the nonlinear systems in thermo-fluids mechanics, and to even transform current lines of thermo-fluids-related and more extensive applications.

Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Wastes: Reviewing Current Status and Approaches for Enhancing Biogas Production

Anaerobic digestion is one of the technologies that will play a key role in the decarbonization of the economy, due to its capacity to treat organic waste, recover nutrients and simultaneously produce biogas as a renewable biofuel. This feature also makes this technology a relevant partner for approaching a circular economic model. However, the low biogas yield of traditional substrates such as sewage sludge and livestock waste along with high installation costs limit its profitability. Further expansion of this technology encounters several barriers, making it necessary to seek improvements to attain a favorable financial balance. The use of co-substrates benefits the overall digestion performance thanks to the balancing of nutrients, the enhanced conversion of organic matter and stabilization, leading to an increase in biogas production and process economics. This article reviews the main co-substrates used in anaerobic digestion, highlighting their characteristics in terms of methane production, kinetic models commonly used and the synergistic effects described in the literature. The main process parameters and their influence on digestion performance are presented, as well as the current lines of research dedicated to improving biogas yields, focusing on the addition of hydrogen, bioaugmentation, supplementation with carbon compounds and nanoparticles, the introduction of bioelectrodes and adsorbents. These techniques allow a significant increase in waste degradation and reduce inhibitory conditions, thus favoring process outcomes. Future research should focus on global process efficiency, making particular emphasis on the extrapolation of laboratory achievements into large-scale applications, by analyzing logistical issues, global energy demand and economic feasibility.

A method of single-phase grounding fault line selection based on optimization spiking neural P systems

It is important to select the fault line rapidly when single-phase grounding fault occurs in the small current grounding system. The fault information acquisition of existing methods generally need hardware modification, so the high cost makes it difficult to apply to the power grid in underdeveloped areas. Taking that into consideration, this paper proposed a method of steady-state information small current grounding fault line selection based on Optimization Spiking Neural P Systems (OSNPS). The method only needs the steady-state voltage and current data of the dispatch side to effectively identify the fault line, which greatly improves the range of application. According to the characteristics of power dispatching big data, the objective function is established and the normalized model parameters are optimized by OSNPS to improve the accuracy of fault line selection stably. Furthermore, PSCAD/EMTDC is used to simulate the small current grounding system, the main factors affecting the accuracy of fault line selection are analyzed and the relationship between fault information features and fault identification accuracy is revealed. What’s more, It is pointed out that the model parameters without optimization may have line selection failure. Finally, specific examples are given to verify that the model parameters optimized by OSNPS can effectively improve the accuracy of fault line selection.

Metrology In-Process Control for the European Toroidal Field Coil Project

To guarantee the required performances stringent dimensional tolerances have been defined for the ITER Toroidal Field (TF) coils. The process has been divided in the following stages: reception of the parts, insertion of the Winding Pack (WP) into the Coil Cases (CC), closure welding, gap filling and final machining. At each of the production stages, metrological surveys are carried out in order to check the compliance with the defined requirements: fiducials positions, gap evaluation, virtual fit, welding distortion. In particular, one of the key elements of the magnets is the position of the Current Center Line (CCL). The CCL has to be kept under control during the production and linked to the external TF coil case interfaces. A rigid metrology process has been put in place, assuring reliable results in terms of repeatability and accuracy of the measurement. Laser tracking, sided when possible by photogrammetry technologies, have been chosen for the scope.

Completion of the First ITER TF Coil in the Second Manufacturing Line in Japan

In Japan, 9 ITER TF coils for Japan and 10 TF coil cases (CCs) for EU are procured from two suppliers. In the second manufacturing line (ML), some of manufacturing procedures were optimized and/or rationalized from lessons learned from the experiences in the first ML. These efforts contributed to simplification and acceleration of the fabrication of the ITER TF coil in the second ML and then, the first ITER TF coil has been completed in May 2021 in the second ML. In addition, the most challenging processes in TF coil fabrication such as very accurate current center line positioning and proper gap between a winding pack (WP) and CC, more than 4 mm were achieved in assembly of WP and CC, as well as the first ML. These results justified the validity of the optimized and rationalized manufacturing procedure in the second ML. Therefore, we can say that manufacturing in both first and second MLs in Japan has become stable. Actually, four and two TF coils have been completed in the first and second MLs in Japan, respectively.

Current Center Line Calculation Method and Results for ITER Poloidal Field Coils

Three out of six Poloidal Field Coils (PFC) are already delivered to the ITER Organization. The PF Coils are built winding, impregnating, and vertically stacking double pancakes (DPs) of NbTi Cable-in-Conduit conductors into a Winding Pack (WP). Later, the Winding Pack (WP) is impregnated for ground insulation and clamping devices are installed for structural support and interface with the rest of the ITER machine. One of the main parameters characterizing the PFCs is the Current Centre Line (CCL), defined as the barycentre of its WP conductors. Ideally, the CCL would be in the WP's symmetry plane but due to solutions in the construction design and manufacturing deviations, it may vary. Double Pancakes (DPs) may be wound with different dimensions, or a deviation during their stacking would cause a misalignment of all the conductors contained in that ill-positioned DP, affecting the CCL. The manufacturing process starts with the conductor winding and insulation, forming a DP. The DP is then impregnated with resin and a scan of its surface is used to reconstruct the DPs virtually. The DPs are then stacked, forming a WP, and measurements of points on the surface are used to recreate the process virtually. Finally, the WP is insulated and impregnated with resin. At this stage, both surface scans and point measurements are used to align the WP in the coordinate system of the ITER machine. This paper explains the process to calculate the CCL of the three first PF Coils using manufacturing data, defining the uncertainty associated with the calculation and comparing against the target tolerances defined for the proper ITER machine operation.

Factory Acceptance Test and Delivery of the First Two Poloidal Field Coils to ITER Fusion Facility

Fusion for Energy (F4E), the European Domestic Agency for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is responsible for the supply of 5 out of the 6 Poloidal Field (PF) Coils: PF2-PF6. One coil, PF1, is being manufactured by the Russian Federation Domestic Agency (RFDA). While the 10 m diameter PF6 was manufactured by the Institute of Plasma Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) and tested in the cold test facility at Cadarache under a collaboration agreement with F4E; coils PF2-PF5 are currently being manufactured on site, close to the Tokamak building, their size ranging from 17 to 24 m diameter and weights from 200 to 400 T. This article describes the final acceptance tests performed on the coils PF5 and PF6, the testing setup, paying special attention to the tests performed before, after and during the cool-down at 80 K. The tests cover a wide range of aspects of the operation at cryogenic temperatures: ranging from the high voltage electrical insulation performance during the potential fault conditions during plasma operation, leak tightness under vacuum and pressure drop behavior of its hydraulic system during operation with forced flow helium. In addition, we will briefly introduce the results for the current center line (CCL) calculation obtained for PF5 and PF6.

Bibliometrics to improve our patients' care!

Bibliometrics is the statistical analysis of scientific publications and trends on a given topic. The use of bibliometric indicators is based on the fact that academic publishing is an essential outcome of research activity, as advancement of science and treatments increases with dissemination of knowledge. Therefore, investigation in our specific field is obligatory, as learning what the current lines of research are can help us to properly orient our research in the coming years. A soon-to-be-published paper analyses 3,027 articles that have appeared in the leading journals of Paediatric Dentistry included in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR): Pediatric Dentistry, the International Journal of Pediatric Dentistry, the European Journal of Paediatric Dentistry and the Journal of Clinical Pediatric Dentistry considering all issues and all articles published from 2008 to 2020. The most frequently addressed topic is surgery (23.4%), which more generally includes pulp treatment, conservative treatments and the use of dental materials (operative dentistry), while the second most discussed topic is prevention (13.2%), followed by oral pathology (10.6%). Subject matters covered less frequently include early childhood caries (ECC) (2.5%) and occlusion (2.7%). In terms of study types, research articles are the most frequently published (74.2%). Among them, the most common study design is observational studies (61.1%), followed by cross-sectional studies (36.9%) and case-control studies (11.9%). With regard to experimental studies, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are the most common type (11.6%). The number of case series has fallen sharply over time, from 20% 10 years ago to 5% today. Another striking point is that two journals, the International Journal of Pediatric Dentistry and the European Journal of Paediatric Dentistry, have published more than half of the world's output. By looking at the nationality of the authors, it is apparent that research frequently takes place within limited geographical areas, a sign that collaboration between different countries is struggling to take off. Despite the fact that prevention is the second most common topic among the articles analysed in the study-both in absolute terms and also taking into account dental journals focused on different specialties-it still does not play the prominent role it deserves. It is important to emphasise the need for further investigation into the prevention of dental diseases in young patients, as the desired oral health objectives have not yet been achieved. The early identification of risk indicators and the implementation of preventive oral health campaigns aimed at the paediatric population can reduce or prevent the progression of caries, and related expenditures for the replacement of missing teeth at a later age. A final consideration is how interesting it would be to analyse how many of the paediatric medical journals publish papers and articles on paediatric dentistry, as this is in fact another crucial step towards ensuring good oral health for all our young patients!