General Method Research Articles

The abolition of serfdom and the situation of the post-Reform peasantry in Russia in the assessments of V. P. Meshchersky

Relevance. The article attempts to present an assessment by the influential conservative publicist and publicsher of the magazine "Citizen" V. P. Meshchersky of the events of the abolition of serfdom and the post-reform situation of the Russian peasantry. Turning to the study of this question allows us to expand the understanding of existing opinions about the problem under study.The purpose of the study is to analyze, on the basis of modern achievements of historical science, the assessments of the abolition of serfdom and the post-reform status of the peasantry by the influential Russian publicist V. P. Meshchersky.Objectives: to analyze the sources and historiography on the topic under study; to focus on the socio-political views of Prince V. P. Meshchersky and their uniqueness, or, on the contrary, typical for the environment of domestic conservatives of the second half of the XIX century; to try to reconstruct, on the basis of his assessments, the perception by an influential publicist of the events of the abolition of serfdom and the prevailing post-reform situation of the peasantry.Methodology. The presented research is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity, consistency, which are closely interrelated with the dialectical method, as well as on general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and generalization.Results. The conducted research allowed us to focus on the significant interest of Prince V. P. Meshchersky in the peasant issue, the abolition of serfdom and its practical implementation. At the same time, remaining a representative of the noble class, he largely expressed his thoughts on the post-reform situation of the peasantry from the point of view of the interests of landowners, emphasizing that in conditions of political immaturity of the broad masses of the population and lack of experience in independent economic activity, many peasants are waiting for ruin and impoverishment.Conclusion. Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky's views on the abolition of serfdom and the post-reform situation of the peasantry mostly coincided with the opinions of other representatives of the conservative camp, except for the editorial office of the newspaper "Vesti". They were largely the result of his worldview on the paternalistic nature of relations between landlords and serfs, so the prince, being a staunch supporter of the liberation of the peasants, was dissatisfied with its implementation in practice. He based his conclusions on what he saw during numerous trips around the country.

Development and validation of general plasma screening method for performance enhancing drugs in racehorses utilizing liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS).

The screening of drugs in plasma and urine often requires initial extraction (such as liquid-liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction) before the samples are submitted to instrumental analyses. These extraction procedures are often laborious and time-consuming. In this manuscript, a high-throughput automated assay based on liquid chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) suitable for use as an initial testing procedure covering multiple classes of compounds prohibited in horse racing is described. The assay requires a 600-μL plasma aliquot, which is subjected to solid phase extraction (SPE) using OASIS HLB 96-well SPE with Biotage Extrahera system, evaporation, and reconstitution in a 96-well collection plate. LC-HRMS analyses were carried out on a Thermo Q-Exactive Mass spectrometer coupled with Thermo UHPLC system equipped with Thermo Accela ALS 2.4.0 autosampler linked to ACE Excel column. Drug targets were detected by retention time and accurate mass, with a mass tolerance window of 5ppm in positive and negative ionization mode. The screening method was validated for over 300 drug targets in a 13-min run. Validation data including sensitivity, specificity, extraction recovery, and precision are presented. As the method employs full-scan mass spectrometry, unlimited number of drug targets can theoretically be incorporated into this method.

Temporal And Spatial Competition Of Criminal Law Norms In The Crime Classification Process

Overcoming the collision of criminal law norms is an important issue in the crime classification process. The principles of criminal law oblige to accurately investigate the criminal conduct and to impose an appropriate criminal liability against those who committed the crime. Addressing the issue, however, remains a rather complex matter due to a series of objective and subjective circumstances. The collision of criminal law norms is an encompassing phenomenon that is present in the entire process of the development of criminal law relations – from the fact of committing the crime to the removal or nullification of the criminal record. The objective of the following article is to comprehensively investigate the issues related to the temporal and spatial competition of criminal law norms within the scope of crime classification process. The subject of the study was examined with the use of general and special scientific methods, such as dogmatic, comparative legal, logical and legal modelling. On the basis of the conducted research the article presents practical-scientific recommendations related to the crime qualification process in view of competition of criminal legal norms that exist at different periods of time (temporal competition), as well as the competition of criminal law norms of the Republic of Armenia with foreign and international legal norms (spatial competition).

The organization of provincial control bodies in 1920-1922: based on the materials of the Kursk region

Relevance. In modern conditions, the main directions of reforming control (supervisory) activities are to increase its efficiency and effectiveness, reduce the administrative burden on enterprises and entrepreneurs. The improvement of control (supervisory) activities remains relevant in the context of increased external sanctions pressure. At the same time, the history of the control system, which extended to all types and forms of public administration and economic activity, remains poorly understood in terms of existing regional experience. The study of the formation of control bodies in the Soviet state is of particular practical interest, since it allows accumulating achievements and mistakes of the past, thereby setting benchmarks in the present.Purpose. The study of the experience of organizing socialist control bodies in 1920-1922 on the example of the Kursk provincial branch of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection.The objectives of the article follow from the set goal and consist in investigating the conditions and methods of work of the Kursk provincial department of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection during the designated period.Methodology. During the research of the designated topic, the author used both general scientific methods of cognition, such as analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, and special historical methods: problem-chronological, comparative historical.Results. The study of the working conditions of the Kursk provincial department of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspection in the designated period allowed, in historical retrospect, to determine the specifics of the methods used by it, as well as to establish the reasons for the subsequent reforms.Conclusion. The basis for the unification of party and Soviet state control was the analysis of the provincial experience of the RKI in 1920-1922. A significant obstacle to the broader development of both organizational and auditing activities of the Kursk Provincial Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the period under study was the insufficient number and low level of their training.

Administrative-territorial transformations in the Kursk region in the mid 1940s – early 1960s: main practices and results

Relevance. Issues of intraregional administrative and territorial transformations, including in the Kursk region, currently remain practically unstudied. This is due, on the one hand, to the specifics of the source base of the problem, which is a set of official legal documents, statistics and regulations, and, on the other hand, to insufficient interest on the part of researchers. Meanwhile, studying the specifics of the implementation of various administrative-territorial transformations in the post-war period using the example of a specific region has serious scientific significance: it allows us to detail the features of the socio-economic development of territories, demographic and migration aspects, etc., which creates the opportunity to take a slightly different look at history of the Kursk region.The purpose. Reveal the features of the dynamics of the administrative-territorial structure of the Kursk region in the mid-1940s – early 1960s.Objectives: based on the study of a complex of historical sources, show the prerequisites, logic and course of intraregional administrative and territorial transformations of the Kursk region in the period indicated above.Methodology. When writing the work, the authors relied on the fundamental methods of historical science (the principles of historicism and objectivity), as well as on a number of specific historical and general scientific methods (analytical, comparative historical, genetic, etc.).Results. Currently, in local historiography there are no scientific works on the history of the administrative-territorial structure of the Kursk region. The reference publications available to historians are replete with inaccuracies and errors. This work partly identifies these errors, and also shows the mechanisms for changing the administrative-territorial structure of the Kursk region in the mid-1940s – early 1960s.Conclusion. The administrative and territorial transformations that took place in the Kursk region in the mid1940s – early 1960s had a predominantly socio-economic basis. The rapid development of individual territories required changes in the network of village councils, districts, the creation of new regions, as well as the abolition of ineffective administrative-territorial units. The party and state leadership of the region and the country in most cases responded quite quickly to these needs, however, as practice has shown, not all of them were consolidated in practice.

Consideration of natural scientific background in Russia’s climate policy

Aim. Based on normative acts to reveal the key importance of the domestic scientific background in the implementation of climate policy.Objectives. To characterize the historical experience of using scientific-balance calculations in the implementation of strategic planning, applied today in the process of climate policy implementation in the national economy; to consider the current trends in strategic management of climate policy, description of the system of key cross-sectoral documents of strategic planning, reflection of accounting for the implementation of the major innovative project of state importance (MIP SI) and federal scientific and technical program (FSTP) in the system of climate policy in Russia.Methods. The author used general scientific methods of theoretical research, including analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, and presented a system of intersectoral documents of climate policy in the context of the need to ensure anti-sanctions resistance. The results of the implementation of MIP SI and FSTP in the system of documents of inter-sectoral strategic planning of climate policy in the Russian economy are investigated.Results. The article analyzes the system of key intersectoral strategic planning documents developed and approved for the implementation of climate policy. According to the approved acts, in the Russian economy are realized MIP SI and FSTP, which contribute to the aggregation and implementation of scientific developments necessary in the implementation of climate policy of the Russian Federation (RF). In addition, the connection of the relevant documents with the documents of intersectoral (including technological) nature, which take into account not only the implementation of climate policy, but also the need to form technological sovereignty in connection with the sanctions restrictions imposed on the Russian economy. It is shown that state-level projects implemented in connection with the climate agenda can form a domestic foundation that will provide a promising scientific calculations and developments aimed at the realization of low-carbon development of the domestic economy.Conclusions. The low-carbon economic development strategy developed on the basis of the input-output methodology (inter-sectoral balance), the approved state program to reduce the carbon intensity of the Russian economy, as well as the updated Climate Doctrine are the key intersectoral documents of climate policy, which take into account relevant scientific research, including in the natural-science plane. Aggregation of the results of the implementation of the MIP SI and FSTP will allow taking into account the advanced achievements of domestic research in the climate field, which will further ensure a more balanced implementation of the state climate policy in the long term, including in the context of the need to form and ensure technological sovereignty. This in the long term can positively affect the sustainable improvement of welfare in the country.

Approaches to sustainable development of production systems in the sphere of housing construction on the basis of application of “green” standards

Aim. To determine the problematics of the application of “green” standards in the field of housing construction and its impact on the management of sustainable development of production systems based on the application of “green” standards in the marketing sphere, as well as to propose options for solutions to problematic issues and directions for further research.Objectives. To analyze statistical information, as well as regulatory documentation in the field of “green” certification of residential real estate; to identify the problems of applied standards; to offer possible solutions to problematic issues in the aspect of application of “green” standards in the marketing sphere; to determine the necessary measures to implement the principles of sustainable development of production systems in general and adaptation of “green” standards in the assortment policy, marketing sphere of production systems in particular; to determine the directions for further research.Methods. When conducting the research, general scientific methods such as general analysis, expert assessments and generalization, document analysis, abstraction, comparison were used.Results. In the course of the study, the research revealed consolidated groups of problems, including “green” certification in the sphere of individual housing construction in conditions of non-systemic control of the process and results of activity in the marketing sphere of production systems (defined as a goal of further research); the problems of application of the approved and implemented in 2022 “green” state standard in the field of apartment building were revealed. During the analysis of regulatory documentation (GOST R 70346-2022. “Green” standards. Buildings of multifamily residential “green”. Evaluation methods and criteria for design, construction and operation) methodological problems of applying the criteria of group No. 6 “Materials and resource efficiency” are studied, possible solutions are proposed, directions for further research are outlined, the impact of these issues on the complex of management of sustainable development of production systems based on the application of “green” standards in the marketing sphere is shown. In addition, the classification of building evaluation stages in terms of construction stages is given.Conclusions. Approaches to the sustainable development of production systems in the sphere of housing construction, production and application of building materials have a special significance in public policy. An example is the “green” state standard, which is adopted in 2022, its popularization including through “Dom.RF”. However, the current certification mechanism, with all its advantages and merits, has a number of limitations in its application: lack of information from the developer, especially about completed objects, lack of comprehensive systems and registers of “green” solutions and materials, insufficient regulatory mechanisms in case of conflict between environmental friendliness and economic efficiency. These limitations are analyzed in the context of the block of criteria № 6 “Materials and resource efficiency”, and possible solutions are proposed, including the development of a comprehensive system and register of solutions and materials that meet the principles of sustainable development; accumulation of optional but necessary data on the certification of materials and solutions by the developer; proportional reduction of the tax base to compensate for the additional costs arising from the use of more expensive but more environmentally friendly materials and solutions; introduction of a new system and registry of “green” solutions and materials that meet the principles of sustainable development. The authors also identify directions for future research.

Civil protection of a citizen's privacy after his death

Relevance. The article considers the peculiarities of civil protection of a person's private life after his death by other persons in accordance with Art. 152.2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The positions of legal scholars regarding the ambiguous phenomenon of «experience of law» with the inalienability of intangible benefits, when information about the private life of a deceased citizen is subject to posthumous protection, are analyzed. The established judicial practice was studied to resolve such claims for civil law remedies for the right to privacy of a deceased person, decisions of the Constitutional Court and clarifications of the Supreme Courts of the Russian Federation on issues related to the protection of the personal non-property law in question in civil proceedings.The purpose of the study is to supplement theoretical provisions deepening the civil law theory of posthumous protection of privacy, and to develop proposals to eliminate existing gaps in civil ¬ legal regulation in this area.Objectives: to analyze court decisions on claims for posthumous protection of private life, decisions of the Constitutional Court and decisions of the Supreme Courts of the Russian Federation, to identify shortcomings in the wording of Art. 152.2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, as well as to update, taking into account scientific discussions, proposals regarding the sale of intangible benefits after death.Methodology. To achieve a theoretical and practical result, the author used scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction) and private scientific methods (formal-legal, system-analytical and formal-logical, method of analysis and generalization of judicial practice).The results of the study are determined by its theoretical and applied nature and contain the author's vision of improving the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in terms of posthumous protection of the right to privacy (changing the list of persons entitled to protect the interests of the deceased, legalizing the concept of «good memory of a deceased citizen»).Conclusion. Posthumous protection of privacy is delegated by the state to close relatives of the deceased person by virtue of public and personal interest. In connection with death, the legal personality of a person ceases, and those who protect the privacy of the deceased become the subjects of legal relations.

Intangible benefits as objects of civil law protection

Relevance. The article analyzes legislative provisions and views of Russian scientists on the issues of protection of intangible benefits, definition of their signs, classification criteria, strengthening of protection, establishment of correlation between intangible benefits and personal non-property rights. The peculiarities of protection of intangible benefits in those areas in which such protection is most in demand at present, including the protection of honor, dignity and business reputation of citizens, their images, consumer rights, compensation for moral harm associated with encroachments on life and health, and in other cases are considered.The conclusions are made about the need for further development of the system of civil legal protection of intangible benefits, which is currently in the stage of formation, based on the generalization and systematization of existing approaches, as well as the development of the definition of the concept of intangible benefits, their scientifically justified classification, division by types, including taking into account the features of their protection.The purpose of the study is to develop theoretical provisions aimed at improving the civil legal protection of intangible benefits.Objectives: to analyze the peculiarities of legal relations arising in connection with violations of intangible benefits and encroachments on such intangible benefits; to identify problems arising in the protection of intangible benefits by civil law means; to propose solutions that ensure the elimination of gaps and contradictions in the legislation related to the protection of intangible benefits.Methodology. In the research we used general scientific methods, including dialectical-materialistic method, methods of analysis and synthesis, etc., as well as systematic and formal-legal methods.The results of the research have a theoretical and applied nature and are aimed at improving the legal regulation of relations related to the protection of intangible benefits.Conclusions. For further development of the legislation and judicial practice it is required to develop a scientifically grounded classification of intangible benefits, based on the identification of their signs and features, as well as to determine the features of protection methods applicable to encroachments on intangible benefits, which will allow to extend such protection to all cases of violations and encroachments on intangible benefits.

Predicting cognitive load with EEG using Riemannian geometry-based features.

We show that EEG-based cognitive load prediction using Riemannian geometry features outperforms existing models. The performance is estimated using Riemannian Procrustes Analysis (RPA) with a test set of subjects unseen during training.

Approach: Performance is evaluated by using the Minimum Distance to Riemannian Mean model trained on cognitive load classification. The baseline performance is established using spatial covariance matrices of the signal as features. Various novel features are explored and analyzed in depth, including spatial covariance and correlation matrices computed on the EEG signal and its first-order derivative. Furthermore, each RPA step effect on the performance is investigated, and the generalization performance of RPA is compared against a few different generalization methods.

Results: Performances are greatly improved by using the spatial covariance matrix of the first-order derivative of the signal as features. Furthermore, this work highlights both the importance and efficiency of RPA for cognitive load prediction: it achieves good generalizability with little amounts of calibration data and largely outperforms all the comparison methods.

Significance: Cognitive load prediction using RPA for generalizability across subjects is an approach worth exploring further, especially for real-world applications where calibration time is limited. Furthermore, the feature exploration uncovers new, promising features that can be used and further experimented within any Riemannian geometry setting. &#xD.

Causality-inspired Domain Expansion network for single domain generalization

Most existing single domain generalization (SDG) methods focus on extending the distribution of the training data to achieve good generalizability in the target domain by synthesizing out-of-domain data. However, in practice, the generated data are insufficient to cover all possible shifts. When the target distributions are not covered, the spurious associations between irrelevant features and labels captured by a model will deteriorate the generalization performance. To alleviate this problem, in this paper, we first analyze that augmenting the source domain with samples of new styles (e.g., different backgrounds) can mitigate spurious associations between irrelevant features and labels from a causal perspective, which can reduce the interference of non-causal features on the classification labels then propose a novel Causality-inspired Domain Expansion Network (CDEN) for SDG. Specifically, CDEN contains a domain augmentation subnetwork and a representation learning subnetwork. The former uses a special style generator module AdaIN∗ to generate out-of-domain data with the same semantic information but different styles from the source domain data to help the model capture true associations between discriminative features and labels. The latter introduces a novel class-level contrastive learning, instance-level contrastive learning, and invariant risk minimization to help the model further eliminate spurious associations. CDEN progressively generates diverse style data and learns domain invariant representations containing few spurious associations by optimizing the two subnetworks in an adversarial learning manner. We conduct extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets to evaluate the superiority of CDEN, comparing it to fifteen state-of-the-art methods.

Some new families of asymmetric nested orthogonal arrays with any strength

We propose a general method for constructing asymmetric nested orthogonal arrays (NOAs) with any strength via a newly defined matrix operation. The NOAs obtained can recursively produce other new NOAs. A lot of selective new asymmetric NOAs are tabulated.

Fast fabrication of “all-in-one” injectable hydrogels as antibiotic alternatives for enhanced bacterial inhibition and accelerating wound healing

Skin wound infection has become a notable medical threat. Herein, the polysaccharide-based injectable hydrogels with multifunctionality were developed by a simple and fast gelation process not only to inactivate bacteria but also to accelerate bacteria-infected wound healing. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) loaded PCN-224 nanoparticles were introduced into the polymer matrix formed by the dynamic and reversible coordinate bonds between Ag+ with carboxyl and amino or hydroxyl groups on carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS), hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions in the polymer to fabricate SNP@PCN@Gel hydrogels. SNP@PCN@Gel displayed interconnected porous structure, excellent self-healing capacity, low cytotoxicity, good blood compatibility, and robust antibacterial activity. SNP@PCN@Gel could produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) and NO along with Fe2+, and showed long-term sustained release of Ag+, thereby effectively killing bacteria by synergistic photothermal (hyperthermia), photodynamic (ROS), chemodynamic (Fenton reaction), gas (NO) and ion (Ag+ and -NH3+ in CMCS) therapy. Remarkably, the hydrogels significantly promoted granulation tissue formation, reepithelization, collagen deposition and angiogenesis as well as wound contraction in bacteria-infected wound healing. Taken together, the strategy represented a general method to engineer the unprecedented photoactivatable “all-in-one” hydrogels with enhanced antibacterial activity and paved a new way for development of antibiotic alternatives and wound dressing.Graphical abstract

Direct synthesis of controllable ultrathin heteroatoms-intercalated 2D layered materials

Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials have been studied in depth during the past two decades due to their unique structure and properties. Transition metal (TM) intercalation of layered materials have been proven as an effective way to introduce new physical properties, such as tunable 2D magnetism, but the direct growth of atomically thin heteroatoms-intercalated layered materials remains untapped. Herein, we directly synthesize various ultrathin heteroatoms-intercalated 2D layered materials (UHI-2DMs) through flux-assisted growth (FAG) approach. Eight UHI-2DMs (V1/3NbS2, Cr1/3NbS2, Mn1/3NbS2, Fe1/3NbS2, Co1/3NbS2, Co1/3NbSe2, Fe1/3TaS2, Fe1/4TaS2) were successfully synthesized. Their thickness can be reduced to the thinnest limit (bilayer 2D material with monolayer intercalated TM), and magnetic ordering can be induced in the synthesized structures. Interestingly, due to the possible anisotropy-stabilized long-range ferromagnetism in Fe1/3TaS2 with weak interlayer coupling, the layer-independent magnetic ordering temperature of Fe1/3TaS2 was revealed by magneto-transport properties. This work establishes a general method for direct synthesis of heteroatom-intercalated ultrathin 2D materials with tunable chemical and physical properties.

Exploration of the behavior and evolution features of beam-column joints with T-stub using the structural strain energy method

Based on the structural strain energy method, the work behavior of four T-stub connection joints under cyclic loading is analyzed to visualize their working behavior and failure evolution. The experimental strain data are modeled as generalized strain energy density (GSED) to characterize the structural stress state and the corresponding characteristic parameters, and the Mann-Kendall (M-K) criterion is formulated to determine the performance characteristic points (P and Q) of the joint Mj-Ej curves and to derive the starting point of structural continuity damage. Then, by analyzing the parameters of the joint working state (strain, deformation, joint energy dissipation, connection stiffness, bolt force and pry force), the trends of the joint stressing state curves before and after the critical loading are reflected. Finally, the feature point data interpolation (EDI) method is introduced to effectively expand the joint test data, visualize the change process of the strain/stress field, and deeply reveal the mechanical response mechanism and evolutionary degradation law behind it. The contribution of the above work is to quantitatively identify the P and Q characteristic points in the changing trend of the joint working state, to reveal the mechanical mechanism and the failure degradation law from the perspective of energy evolution, and to visualize the mutation of the field data before and after the P/Q using the EDI method, which is a generalized method that can be applied to the other progressive failure structures.

Advances in the Development of Dual‐Atom Catalysts: Structural Characterization and Diversified Catalytic Applications

AbstractAtomically dispersed metal atoms on supports exhibit distinctive advantages in maximizing atomic utilization, which plays an indispensable role in the fabrication of cost‐effective catalysts. In particular, dual‐atom catalysts (DACs) containing dual active sites not only retain the merits of single‐atom catalysts (SACs), but also introduce diverse interactions between the two adjacent metal atoms, endowing them with superior catalytic performance and a broad range of applications. With the development of DACs, it is important to identify active sites and establish intrinsic catalytic mechanisms relationship. The general characterization methods for DACs are comprehensively summarized here, especially the structural nature of dual active sites is discussed in detail. Subsequently, the representative scientific research efforts in various applications including thermocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis are described, with emphasis on structure‐property relationships. Finally, a summary and some prospects for the future of advanced DACs are presented.

Analysis of nanomaterial biocoronas in biological and environmental surroundings.

A biomolecular coating, or biocorona, forms on the surface of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) immediately as they enter biological or environmental systems, defining their biological and environmental identity and influencing their fate and performance. This biomolecular layer includes proteins (the protein corona) and other biomolecules, such as nucleic acids and metabolites. To ensure a meaningful and reproducible analysis of the ENMs-associated biocorona, it is essential to streamline procedures for its preparation, separation, identification and characterization, so that studies in different labs can be easily compared, and the information collected can be used to predict the composition, dynamics and properties of biocoronas acquired by other ENMs. Most studies focus on the protein corona as proteins are easier to monitor and characterize than other biomolecules and play crucial roles in receptor engagement and signaling; however, metabolites play equally critical roles in signaling. Here we describe how to reproducibly prepare and characterize biomolecule-coated ENMs, noting especially the steps that need optimization for different types of ENMs. The structure and composition of the biocoronas are characterized using general methods (transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry) as well as advanced techniques, such as transmission electron cryomicroscopy, synchrotron-based X-ray absorption near edge structure and circular dichroism. We also discuss how to use molecular dynamic simulation to study and predict the interaction between ENMs and biomolecules and the resulting biocorona composition. The application of this protocol can provide mechanistic insights into the formation, composition and evolution of the ENM biocorona, ultimately facilitating the biomedical and agricultural application of ENMs and a better understanding of their impact in the environment.

Model and performance analysis of energy conversion in functionally graded flexoelectric semiconductor nanostructures

Energy systems converting efficiently from surrounding environment for powering semiconductor electronic components at nanoscale has attracted intense research interests. Due to the strong size dependency, flexoelectricity has been demonstrated as an excellent candidate implemented as nanoscale piezoelectric semiconductor energy harvesters. In this work, through a judicious exploitation of structural symmetry and nonuniformity, we theoretically study the energy conversion behaviors of a novel asymmetric nanodisk model composed of functionally graded (FG) flexoelectric semiconductor (FS) (FG-FS) materials while being loaded with thickness-extensional mechanical vibration. In numerical analysis, the material parameters have been treated with a general variation method under the Cartesian coordinate systems for simplicity. Taking into accounts of the nonuniform structural form and multi-field coupling features, we derived an octic governing equation with variable coefficients for the current analyzed FG-FS nanodisk structure, which is, however, almost impossible to obtain analytical solutions. To successfully address this issue and also further explore the improved performance and new phenomena induced by the FG type of non-uniform structural profile, we specially proposed an efficient tensor algorithm and reduced the octic governing equation into one quartic equation with variable coefficients and other four common quadratic equations. Later, we explicitly explored the effect of each physical parameter on the energy conversion performance of the FS energy harvester by studying the variations of the output electric power density and the energy conversion efficiency. Results illustrated that the electromechanical energy conversion behaviors of the studied FG-FS nanodisk can be properly tuned by not only the related material parameters but also their gradations. We believe our work have the potential to pave new way for the designs and manufacture of novel nano-electronic semiconductor components for the future practical applications.

Study on the bioactive components of Banxia Xiexin Decoction with different decocting methods and its effects on ulcerative colitis rats from the perspective of phase states

Ethnopharmacological relevanceBanxia Xiexin Decoction (BXD) is one of the seven classic prescriptions of the special decoction method (SDM) of “removing dregs and decocting again”, which has been widely used in inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis (UC). However, the impacts of SDM have not been fully investigated, either on the components or on the biological effects. Aim of the studyThis study aimed to investigate the rational of SDM traditionally recorded about BXD, re-decoction after dreg-removal, by comparing with the contemporary general decoction method (GDM) from the perspective of phase states, in the bioactive components from the perspective of phase states, and their corresponding pharmacodynamic effects on a particular UC rat model. MethodsThe BXD decoctions were respectively obtained by SDM and GDM, together with the different samples with different decocting time. The phase state samples (true solution, colloidal phase, and precipitated phase), were also obtained after a series of separation process and characterized. The multi-components in the in-process decoctions, original decoctions and phase state samples were quantitatively determined. HPLC fingerprint spectrum of the samples were also detected and compared with chemometrics analysis. A rat model of ulcerative colitis with cold-heat complex syndrome was established, on which the pharmacodynamic effects of different phases of SDM-made BXD were investigated. ResultsThe results showed that the contents of eight marker components in SDM-made decoction were significantly higher than those in GDM-made decoction. Compared with the precipitated phases and true solutions, the colloidal phase was confirmed to obtain absolutely higher contents of the components (except berberine). The analysis on HPLC fingerprints also revealed that the profiles of colloidal phase showed the majority of the characteristics of original decoctions, when compared with the other phases. The results showed the BXD group, precipitated phase group and colloidal phase group had certain therapeutic effects on the ulcerative colitis rats with cold-heat complex syndrome, among which the original decoction group showed optimal effects, followed by the colloidal phase. ConclusionThe study has provided the experimental evidence of the bioactive components and pharmacodynamic effects on the rational of SDM, as originally recorded about the classic prescription, which might provide useful idea for the interpretation on medicinal properties of TCM compound prescriptions, and contemporary TCM innovative drug developments.

Decoupled graph knowledge distillation: A general logits-based method for learning MLPs on graphs

While Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have demonstrated their effectiveness in processing non-Euclidean structured data, the neighborhood fetching of GNNs is time-consuming and computationally intensive, making them difficult to deploy in low-latency industrial applications. To address the issue, a feasible solution is graph knowledge distillation (KD), which can learn high-performance student Multi-layer Perceptrons (MLPs) to replace GNNs by mimicking the superior output of teacher GNNs. However, state-of-the-art graph knowledge distillation methods are mainly based on distilling deep features from intermediate hidden layers, this leads to the significance of logit layer distillation being greatly overlooked. To provide a novel viewpoint for studying logits-based KD methods, we introduce the idea of decoupling into graph knowledge distillation. Specifically, we first reformulate the classical graph knowledge distillation loss into two parts, i.e., the target class graph distillation (TCGD) loss and the non-target class graph distillation (NCGD) loss. Next, we decouple the negative correlation between GNN’s prediction confidence and NCGD loss, as well as eliminate the fixed weight between TCGD and NCGD. We named this logits-based method Decoupled Graph Knowledge Distillation (DGKD). It can flexibly adjust the weights of TCGD and NCGD for different data samples, thereby improving the prediction accuracy of the student MLP. Extensive experiments conducted on public benchmark datasets show the effectiveness of our method. Additionally, DGKD can be incorporated into any existing graph knowledge distillation framework as a plug-and-play loss function, further improving distillation performance. The code is available at https://github.com/xsk160/DGKD.