Discontinuous Profiles Research Articles

One-pot synthesis of FeNi3/FeNiOx nanoparticles for PGM-free anion exchange membrane water electrolysis

Low-temperature anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) is one of the most promising technologies to produce green hydrogen. To date, membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) based on platinum group metal (PGM) electrocatalysts shows higher performance than PGM-free ones. Here, a single and easy synthesis for non-noble metal electrocatalysts (PGM-free) for both hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) was developed. Both electrocatalysts consist of FeNi3/FeNiOx nanoparticles obtained through chemical reduction using hydrazine. The electrocatalyst exhibits an overpotential of 210 mV and 234 mV for HER and OER respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH electrolyte, allowing a comparison between mass activity and geometric activity compared to PGM catalysts. In addition to a preliminary electrochemical characterization of the FeNi3/FeNiOx, the electrocatalyst were integrated into a pilot-scale AEMWE at both anode and cathode, which reaches (without iR-correction) 1.72 V and 1.94 V at a current density of 0.4 A cm−2 and 1 A cm−2 respectively at 60 °C. This PGM-free MEA outperforms the one based on Pt/C at cathode and RuO2 at anode with a voltage gap of 284 mV at 1 A cm−2. The aforementioned MEA was tested for 150 h with a discontinuous power profile, in order to get an idea of the possible degradation trends for a future industrial application, the reversible and irreversible voltage losses were calculated resulting in a degradation rate of 886 µV/h. This work demonstrates a simple and scalable synthesis of earth-abundant electrocatalytic materials for high-efficiency AEM water electrolysis.

Travelling waves with continuous profile for hyperbolic Keller-Segel equation

Abstract This work describes a hyperbolic model for cell-cell repulsion with population dynamics. We consider the pressure produced by a population of cells to describe their motion. We assume that cells try to avoid crowded areas and prefer locally empty spaces far away from the carrying capacity. Here, our main goal is to prove the existence of travelling waves with continuous profiles. This article complements our previous results about sharp travelling waves. We conclude the paper with numerical simulations of the PDE problem, illustrating such a result. An application to wound healing also illustrates the importance of travelling waves with a continuous and discontinuous profile.

A structurally informed data assimilation approach for nonlinear partial differential equations

Ensemble-based Kalman filtering data assimilation is often used to combine available observations with numerical simulations to obtain statistically accurate and reliable state representations in dynamical systems. However, it is well known that the commonly used Gaussian distribution assumption introduces biases for state variables that admit discontinuous profiles, which are prevalent in nonlinear partial differential equations. This investigation designs a new structurally informed prior that exploits statistical information from the simulated state variables. In particular, based on the second moment information of the state variable gradient, we construct a new weighting matrix for the numerical simulation contribution in the data assimilation objective function. This replaces the typical prior covariance matrix used for this purpose. We further adapt our weighting matrix to include information in discontinuity regions via a clustering technique. Our numerical experiments demonstrate that this new approach yields more accurate estimates than those obtained using standard ensemble-based Kalman filtering on shallow water equations, even when it is enhanced with inflation and localization techniques.

Talbot Effect for the Manakov System on the Torus

In this paper, the Talbot effect for the multi-component linear and nonlinear systems of the dispersive evolution equations on a bounded interval subject to periodic boundary conditions and discontinuous initial profiles is investigated. Firstly, for a class of two-component linear systems satisfying the dispersive quantization conditions, we discuss the fractal solutions at irrational times. Next, the investigation to nonlinear regime is extended, we prove that, for the concrete example of the Manakov system, the solutions of the corresponding periodic initial-boundary value problem subject to initial data of bounded variation are continuous but nowhere differentiable fractal-like curve with Minkowski dimension 3/2 at irrational times. Finally, numerical experiments for the periodic initial-boundary value problem of the Manakov system, are used to justify how such effects persist into the multi-component nonlinear regime. Furthermore, it is shown in the nonlinear multi-component regime that the interplay of different components may induce subtle different qualitative profile between the jump discontinuities, especially in the case that two nonlinearly coupled components start with different initial profile.

Tethered balloon measurements reveal enhanced aerosol occurrence aloft interacting with Arctic low-level clouds

Low-level clouds in the Arctic affect the surface energy budget and vertical transport of heat and moisture. The limited availability of cloud-droplet-forming aerosol particles strongly impacts cloud properties and lifetime. Vertical particle distributions are required to study aerosol–cloud interaction over sea ice comprehensively. This article presents vertically resolved measurements of aerosol particle number concentrations and sizes using tethered balloons. The data were collected during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate expedition in the summer of 2020. Thirty-four profiles of aerosol particle number concentration were observed in 2 particle size ranges: 12–150 nm (N12−150) and above 150 nm (N>150). Concurrent balloon-borne meteorological measurements provided context for the continuous profiles through the cloudy atmospheric boundary layer. Radiosoundings, cloud remote sensing data, and 5-day back trajectories supplemented the analysis. The majority of aerosol profiles showed more particles above the lowest temperature inversion, on average, double the number concentration compared to below. Increased N12−150 up to 3,000 cm−3 were observed in the free troposphere above low-level clouds related to secondary particle formation. Long-range transport of pollution increased N>150 to 310 cm−3 in a warm, moist air mass. Droplet activation inside clouds caused reductions of N>150 by up to 100%, while the decrease in N12−150 was less than 50%. When low-level clouds were thermodynamically coupled with the surface, profiles showed 5 times higher values of N12−150 in the free troposphere than below the cloud-capping temperature inversion. Enhanced N12−150 and N>150 interacting with clouds were advected above the lowest inversion from beyond the sea ice edge when clouds were decoupled from the surface. Vertically discontinuous aerosol profiles below decoupled clouds suggest that particles emitted at the surface are not transported to clouds in these conditions. It is concluded that the cloud-surface coupling state and free tropospheric particle abundance are crucial when assessing the aerosol budget for Arctic low-level clouds over sea ice.

Geo-guided deep learning for spatial downscaling of solute transport in heterogeneous porous media

Resolving solute transport in heterogeneous porous media is a complex task, because of the sparse experimental data and the high computational cost of numerical simulations. This work proposes a unique two-stage deep learning architecture comprising a dual-branch autoencoder and a geo-guided super-resolution generative adversarial network (Gg-SRGAN) to address this dual challenge. The dual-branch autoencoder addresses the issue of sparsity by constructing a continuous, but coarse representation of concentration and pressure profiles from a sparse, discontinuous profile with up to 85% missing data points. The Gg-SRGAN is then employed to generate a finer representation of field variables from the outputs generated by the dual-branch autoencoder (i.e., downscaling). We train and test our framework using six solute transport cases with varying levels of heterogeneity and compare the results with standalone methods, namely the vanilla autoencoder and vanilla SRGAN, in addition to ground truth profiles generated by the finite element method (FEM). The comparisons are performed based on several statistical metrics, such as absolute point error (APE), mean squared error (MSE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), structural similarity index (SSIM), and learned perceptual image patch similarity (LPIPS). The first four cases are used for training, evaluation, and testing. The last two cases are utilized for blind testing to determine the generalizability of the framework. Our results show that the dual-branch autoencoder outperforms the vanilla autoencoder, and the Gg-SRGAN outperforms the SRGAN during both the training and evaluation phases. Moreover, the proposed framework can successfully construct the fine representation of concentration profiles, compared to FEM, using the coarse representation of the pressure, concentration, and domain permeability fields. When tested using the two blind test cases, the proposed dual-branch autoencoder and Gg-SRGAN exhibit superior performance compared to their counterparts in terms of all evaluation metrics.

Long-term treatment with Perampanel of Chinese patients with focal-onset seizures, especially in sleep-related epilepsy: a prospective real-world observational study.

There is currently a lack of studies examining the long-term therapeutic effectiveness of the third-generation anti-sezure medication, perampanel (PER), for focal-onset seizures (FOS), particularly in Chinese patients with sleep-related epilepsy (SRE). Additionally, the appropriate dosage, plasma concentration, and the relationship between dose and plasma concentration of PER in Chinese patients are still uncertain. A prospective, single-center, 24-month observational study was conducted in patients diagnosed with FOS, with a focus on patients with SRE. Changes in seizure frequency from baseline, adverse events, and retention rates were analyzed at 12 and 24 months following the start of the treatment. Tolerability was evaluated based on adverse events and discontinuation profiles. PER plasma concentrations were used to assess dose-concentration-response relationships. A total of 175 patients were included (median age: 25 years; range: 4-72 years; 53. 1% males and 46.9% females), with the SRE population accounting for 49. 1% (n = 86). The patients diagnosed with SRE showed considerably higher response rates than those who did not have this diagnosis (p = 0.025, odds ratio = 3.8). Additionally, the SRE group adhered better to PER treatment (r = 0.0009). Patients with a shorter duration of epilepsy (median: 3 years; range:2-7 years) demonstrated a more favorable therapeutic response to PER (p = 0.032). Throughout the administration of maintenance doses, among the entire FOS population, the concentration of PER (C0) ranged between 101.5 and 917.4 ng/mL (median, 232.0 ng/mL), and the mean plasma concentration of PER in the responders was 292.8 ng/mL. We revealed a linear relationship between PER dose and plasma concentration, regardless of whether PER was used as monotherapy or add-on therapy. The retention rates were 77.7% and 65. 1% at 12 and 24 months, respectively. Drug-related adverse events occurred in 45.0% of the patients and were mostly manageable. PER effectively reduced seizure frequency in Chinese patients with FOS, particularly in those with SRE, over a 24-month period. The treatment was well-tolerated and had a clear linear dose-plasma concentration relationship.

Analysis of summed probability density functions (PDFs) of radiocarbon and luminescence dates from discontinuous profiles of river deposits against the background of climate changes recorded in the NGRIP core

Analysis of summed probability density functions (PDFs) of radiocarbon and luminescence dates from discontinuous profiles of river deposits against the background of climate changes recorded in the NGRIP core

Influence of the process parameters on the grinding result in continuous generating grinding of cutting tools

Continuous generating grinding processes have largely replaced discontinuous profile grinding processes in gear manufacturing due to their higher productivity. On order to transfer the advantage of the productivity benefits of this process to tool grinding, the continuous generating grinding was adapted to the manufacture of cutting tools. However, this novel approach of using continuous generating grinding processes for tool grinding has not been widely investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of cutting speed, feed and radial depth of cut on the process result and thus to generate initial knowledge for the process design. Subsequently, the influence of these parameters on the grinding worm wear as well as on the cutting edge quality and surface properties of the ground milling tools are investigated. The results show that an increase of the radial depth of cut leads to a reduction of the process time by the factor of four without significantly influencing the wear of the grinding worm tooth. Furthermore, an increase of the cutting speed only leads to an increase in the initial wear of the grinding worm after the dressing process. For this reason, the cutting speed offers the potential to further increase the productivity of the process. The microgeometry of the cutting edge of the ground milling tool is mainly affected by the feed and the macro geometry by the feed and radial depth of cut.

Segmented Reconstruction of Low-Acceleration Orbital Maneuvers

This paper considers the problem of inferring the acceleration acting on a spacecraft in a near-circular orbit around a large planetary body when the acceleration is known to act in the along-track direction. A segmented approach is analyzed where the acceleration profile over a given period of time is approximated as a piecewise-constant profile. Noisy measurements of the spacecraft’s position are collected throughout the acceleration profile, from which the constant acceleration for each segment of the piecewise-constant profile can be inferred. The primary contribution of this work is an analytical approximation for the sensitivity of each measurement with respect to the constant acceleration of each segment. The resulting analytically approximated sensitivity matrix enables an analytical reconstruction of the acceleration profile given a numerically simulated reference trajectory. Applications of the segmented approach for thrust inference for both discontinuous and continuous thrust profiles are demonstrated. In particular, the reconstruction of a simulated thruster degradation profile over the course of 60 h is shown.

A highly efficient finite volume method with a diffusion control parameter for hyperbolic problems

This article proposes a highly accurate, fast, and conservative method for hyperbolic systems using the finite volume approach. This innovative scheme constructs the intermediate states at the interfaces of the control volumes using the method of characteristics. The approach is simple to implement, has no entropy defect as seen in the numerical tests, and avoids solving Riemann problems. A diffusion control parameter is introduced to increase the accuracy of the scheme. Numerical examples are presented for the one-dimensional Euler equation for an ideal gas. The results demonstrate the method’s ability to capture contact discontinuity and shock wave profiles with high accuracy and low cost, as well as its robustness.

Parametric study of 1D plasma photonic crystals with smooth and discontinuous density profiles

Plasma photonic crystals (PPCs) have the potential to significantly expand the capabilities of current millimeter wave technologies by providing high speed (microsecond time scale) control of energy transmission characteristics in the GHz through low THz range. Furthermore, plasma-based devices can be used in higher power applications than their solid-state counterparts without experiencing significant changes in function or incurring damage. Plasmas with periodic variations in density can be created externally, or result naturally from instabilities or self-organization. Due to plasma's diffuse nature, PPCs cannot support rapid changes in density. Despite this fact, most theoretical work in PPCs is based on solid-state photonic crystal methods and assumes constant material properties with abrupt changes at material interfaces. In this work, a linear model is derived for a one-dimensional cold-plasma photonic crystal with an arbitrary density profile. The model is validated against a discontinuous Galerkin method numerical solution of the same device configuration. Bandgap maps are then created from derived group velocity data to elucidate the operating regime of a theoretical PPC device. The bandgap maps are compared for one-dimensional PPCs with both smooth and discontinuous density profiles. This study finds that bandgap behavior is strongly correlated with the density profile Fourier content and that density profile shapes can be engineered to produce specific transmission characteristics.

CF3DNet: A learning-based approach for single-shot 3D reconstruction from circular fringes

3D reconstruction by fringe projection is an ill-posed problem that is of significance in many practical applications. Conventional algorithms employ multiple steps like fringe analysis, phase unwrapping, and calibration to reconstruct the 3D profile. Recent deep learning (DL) methods circumvent this multi-step approach by directly mapping the deformations in linear fringes caused by objects to the absolute phase shifts. However, this mapping is not one-to-one for the discontinuous objects due to 2π periodicity of linear fringes, and hence it is impossible to reconstruct using a single deformed fringe. In this work, we propose Circular Fringe-to-3D reconstruction Network (CF3DNet), a learning-based approach for 3D reconstruction from circular fringes, that can establish a one-to-one mapping between the phase deformations and the absolute phase shifts. This is viable because the radially symmetric circular fringes can distinctly record the lateral shifts caused by objects, and the learning-based approach can uniquely map them to absolute phase shifts. Thus, the proposed CF3DNet can reconstruct discontinuous object profiles, which is infeasible with linear fringe-based methods. Further, to evade the tedious process of real data collection and to bring generalization, the model is trained with synthetically generated smooth, discontinuous and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) object profiles. The results demonstrate that the proposed method led to tenfold improved performance over linear fringe-based methods in 3D reconstruction of various synthetic objects, and accurately estimate the real object profile compared to the other state-of-art methods. The extensive analysis presented in this work shows that the proposed method can work with carrier frequencies as low as 10 cycles/row to reconstruct dynamic ranges up to 100 radians under high noise, paving a way for the development of a cost-effective fringe projection system.

Liquid-gas transition and coexistence in ground-state bosons with spin twist

We study the thermodynamic liquid-gas transition and coexistence (LGTC) for ground-state bosons under contact interactions. We find that the LGTC can be facilitated by the mismatch of spin polarization, dubbed "spin twist," between single-particle and interaction channels of bosons with spin degrees of freedom. Such a spin twist uniquely stabilizes the gas phase by creating an effective repulsion for low-density bosons, thereby enabling LGTC in the presence of a quantum droplet at a much larger density. We have demonstrated the scheme for binary bosons subject to Rabi coupling and magnetic detuning, where the liquid-gas transition can be conveniently tuned and their coexistence can be characterized by a discontinuous density profile in a harmonic trap. The spin twist scheme for LGTC can be generalized to a wide class of quantum systems with competing single-particle and interaction orders.

Variable discrete ordinates method for radiation transfer in concentric spherical variable index media

Radiation heat transfer in participating concentric spherical media with variable refractive index along the radial direction is solved by the variable discrete ordinates method. The radiative properties, including refractive index, are assumed to be constant in each volume element, such that a radiative ray travels along straight line in each volume element, and redirects by passing the interface of volume elements according to Snell's law of refraction, or specularly reflects back into the volume element. The radiative transfer equation in spherical coordinates system is solved for different number and direction of ordinates in each volume element. The performance of the present method is examined for two cases with medium's specified temperature and radiative equilibrium with continuous linear, continuous non-linear, and discontinuous profiles of refractive index. The accuracy of the present method is checked by comparing with benchmark solutions. For the cases where the exact solution is not available, the energy conservation criterion is used to validate the solution method. The effects of radiative properties, such as wall emissivities, optical thickness, single scattering albedo, and anisotropy factor are examined by some example problems.

Running performance analysis of a passenger coach with small-radius wheels in the diverging route of a turnout

Small-radius wheels are gradually introduced on special rail vehicles, such as double-decker coaches and piggyback wagons. It allows for a low-floor design and further increases the loading capacity of vehicles. From the perspective of vehicle dynamics, small-radius wheels have lower unsprung mass than the nominal wheels with a radius of 460 mm, and it could mitigate the wheel-rail dynamic interaction. Also, the contact patch size is reduced due to the increased curvature of the rolling contact circle, and they are more sensitive to changes in the track geometry than nominal wheels, especially in turnouts with discontinuous rail profiles. To investigate the dynamic response of small-radius wheels in a turnout, the Manchester Benchmark passenger coach with variable radius wheels and a left-hand turnout with a radius of 245 m are introduced in this work. The influence of wheel radii on the running performance, including the wheel-rail interaction and wheel damage behaviour, is investigated by numerical simulations. In addition, a sensitivity study is executed to evaluate the influence of unsprung mass and wheel flange friction on the performance of a vehicle whose wheel radius is 275 mm, and the potential remedy to mitigate high wheel wear is proposed.

Dispersive quantization and fractalization for multi-component dispersive equations

In this paper, the dispersive quantization and fractalization phenomena for the multi-component systems of the dispersive evolution equations on a bounded interval subject to periodic boundary conditions and discontinuous initial profiles are investigated. Firstly, for a class of two-component linear system of dispersive evolution equations, the dispersive quantization conditions are provided. It is shown that for those systems which satisfy the conditions, the evolution of the step or more general discontinuous functions lead to the quantized structures at rational times. Next, numerical experiments, based on the Fourier spectral method, suggest that such effects persist into the nonlinear regime, as long as the associated linearization satisfies the dispersive quantization conditions. It turns out that the extra component in the multi-component system may break down the structure of dispersive quantization and consequently evanish the quantization phenomena even at the rational times.

Thermal transitions in domain wall AdS/QCD

We study thermal transitions in a Domain Wall AdS/QCD model. The model is based on the D5/probe D7 system with a discontinuous mass profile which restricts chiral fermions to 3+1 dimensional domain walls. Fluctuations on the domain wall are dual to the quark mass and condensate and reveal the relation between domain wall separation and the quark mass. The massive quarks exhibit a second order thermal, meson melting transition. Witten's multi-trace prescription can be used to interpret these configurations as having a dynamical mass from a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio interaction - here the transition is first order. Confinement can be introduced into the gauge sector by compactifying one direction of the D5. Compactification induces chiral symmetry breaking and there is a first order thermal restoration transition. If an NJL interaction is also introduced then the confinement and chiral symmetry breaking scales can be separated.

A collocation-based spectral element method for computing nonlinear optical waveguide

Computation of nonlinear optical waveguide needs to solve nonlinear eigenvalue/ eigenfunction problem mathematically. However, usually the refractive index profiles in the nonlinear optical waveguide are discontinuous, which makes solution of nonlinear eigenvalue/eigenfunction problem not smooth enough. In this work, we mainly discuss how to use high-order collocation-based spectral element method (SEM) to discretize such problem and propose an iterative algorithm for computing nonlinear optical waveguide with discontinuous refractive index profiles. Starting from the linear eigenvalue/eigenfunction problem, we adopt SEM to discretize it and solve the resulting discretized system with Matlab eigen solver; for the nonlinear problem, we first change the nonlinear problem into corresponding linear problems, and then solve the linear problems by usage of the iterative method. The proposed method has advantage of high-order accuracy and lower-order cost. The accuracy and efficiency of the method are tested by several one-dimensional and two-dimensional linear optical waveguide structures. Numerical results for some nonlinear optical waveguide are also presented.

Network Modeling of Complex Time-Dependent Changes in Patient Adherence to Adjuvant Endocrine Treatment in ER+ Breast Cancer.

Early patient discontinuation from adjuvant endocrine treatment (ET) is multifactorial and complex: Patients must adapt to various challenges and make the best decisions they can within changing contexts over time. Predictive models are needed that can account for the changing influence of multiple factors over time as well as decisional uncertainty due to incomplete data. AtlasTi8 analyses of longitudinal interview data from 82 estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer patients generated a model conceptualizing patient-, patient-provider relationship, and treatment-related influences on early discontinuation. Prospective self-report data from validated psychometric measures were discretized and constrained into a decisional logic network to refine and validate the conceptual model. Minimal intervention set (MIS) optimization identified parsimonious intervention strategies that reversed discontinuation paths back to adherence. Logic network simulation produced 96 candidate decisional models which accounted for 75% of the coordinated changes in the 16 network nodes over time. Collectively the models supported 15 persistent end-states, all discontinued. The 15 end-states were characterized by median levels of general anxiety and low levels of perceived recurrence risk, quality of life (QoL) and ET side effects. MIS optimization identified 3 effective interventions: reducing general anxiety, reinforcing pill-taking routines, and increasing trust in healthcare providers. Increasing health literacy also improved adherence for patients without a college degree. Given complex regulatory networks’ intractability to end-state identification, the predictive models performed reasonably well in identifying specific discontinuation profiles and potentially effective interventions.