Good Expansion Research Articles

Essay review: technopolitics, development and the residues of the South African state.

It has been thirty years since the end of political apartheid in South Africa in 1994. Those decades have been marked by single-party dominance under the African National Congress (ANC), and the expansion of democratic rights and public goods like education, as well as neoliberal economic policies, growing inequality and, in recent years, corruption and maladministration scandals. On the heels of a historic election in May 2024, one which marked the end of the ANC's electoral dominance and was shaped, in part, by government mismanagement of the energy sector and extensive infrastructural decline, it is a timely moment to consider the history of South Africa's state and its relation to industries of extraction and energy production. Two new books do just that. Residual Governance: How South Africa Foretells Planetary Futures, by Gabrielle Hecht, takes a long view of the impact of extractive industries, arguing that contemporary South Africa may offer a cautionary tale of the devastating impacts of the Anthropocene, one that 'foretells planetary futures' in the way that the state has failed to reckon with the enduring communal and environmental impacts of the mining industry. Apartheid's Leviathan: Electricity and the Power of Technological Ambivalence, by Faeeza Ballim, historicizes the development of South Africa's electricity sector under the apartheid state and traces the roots of the current energy crisis back to the pursuit of authoritarian high modernism in the mid-twentieth century.

Cr3+-Doped LiAlO2 NIR-I Emitting Phosphors with Superior Resistance to Thermal Quenching for Night Vision Monitoring and Bioimaging.

Near-infrared phosphor-converted light-emitting diodes (NIR pc-LEDs) as a new NIR light source has outstanding application potential in the fields of NIR spectroscopy analysis, sensing, imaging, and pattern recognition. Therefore, the development of NIR phosphors with good NIR luminescence thermal stability has attracted much attention. To this end, we developed LiAlO2:Cr3+ garnet-type NIR phosphors by a high-temperature solid-state reaction method. Under 405 nm excitation, the Cr3+ ions located in tetrahedrons of LiAlO2 emit NIR emission in a broadband NIR emission that covers 650-900 nm mixed with several sharp narrowband R-line emissions, which showed excellent luminescence thermal stability with integrated intensity of emission measured at 573 K is ∼90.86% of that measured at 303 K caused by good structural rigidity and low thermal expansion coefficient of the matrix material. An NIR pc-LED device assembled with the optimized LiAlO2:Cr3+ and a commercially available purple LED chip emitted NIR output power of ∼98.172 mW at a driving current of 300 mA and demonstrated an electro-optical conversion efficiency of ∼9.09%, while demonstrated it has excellent application potential in the fields of night vision monitoring and biomedical imaging.

Efficient path planning for autonomous vehicles based on RRT* with variable probability strategy and artificial potential field approach.

With the rapid development of autonomous driving technology, path planning has gained significant attention as it holds great potential for improving safety. The Rapidly-exploring Random Tree star(RRT*) algorithm has attracted much attention because of its good adaptability and expansibility. However, how solving problems in the RRT* algorithm such as slow convergence time, significant search range randomness, and unpredictability is a challenge. Therefore, an RRT* enhancement algorithm combining variable probability goal-bias strategy and artificial potential field(APF) method(Improved A-RRT*) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the variable probability goal-bias strategy is introduced in the sampling process to make random tree expand towards the target direction and improve the directional searchability of the random tree. Secondly, the potential field function in APF is improved to prevent falling into local optimum problems during path generation. Thirdly, improved APF is combined with RRT*, the target generates a gravitational field on random tree, and the obstacle generates a repulsive force on it, leading random tree to grow toward the target region. Finally, the proposed algorithm is compared with RRT* algorithm and its derivative algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has obvious optimizations in convergence speed and path quality.

Environmentally Friendly, Dual-Responsive Actuator Based on Nafion, Carboxylated Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes, and Polyethylene.

As a type of smart material, flexible stimulus-responsive actuators have become a hot research topic nowadays. However, flexible actuators responding to a single stimulus source are susceptible to external perturbations, which may lead to an unstable function or even failure. Therefore, in this paper, we proposed a bilayer actuator that can be driven by both humidity and light by combining the humidity-sensitive Nafion, carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes (cMWCNT) with excellent photothermal conversion properties, and commercial polyethylene (PE) tape with good humidity insensitivity and thermal expansion. First, the cMWCNT-Nafion film was prepared by a solution casting method and bonded together with PE tape to obtain a bilayer actuator. Then, the effects of the cMWCNT mass fraction and film thickness on the humidity and light response performance of the bilayer actuator were investigated. The optimal ratios of raw materials were obtained for different stimulation sources, respectively. Furthermore, the performance of the bilayer actuator with the optimal ratios was tested; it was verified that the proposed dual-responsive actuator can realize different degrees of bending deformation under different relative humidity (RH) and ultraviolet (UV) light intensity with good stability. Finally, the application potential in multiple scenarios was further verified by applying the prepared cMWCNT-Nafion/PE bilayer actuator to a smart window, crawling robot, and flexible gripper. This paper will provide a meaningful reference for the development and performance optimization of high-performance dual-responsive actuators.

TCT-499 Predictors of Good Final Lumen Expansion After Treatment of Severe In-Stent Restenosis Neoatherosclerosis as Evaluated by Intravascular Ultrasound

TCT-499 Predictors of Good Final Lumen Expansion After Treatment of Severe In-Stent Restenosis Neoatherosclerosis as Evaluated by Intravascular Ultrasound

Design and analysis of government subsidies policy of capacity expansion under reselling and agency selling schemes

Major disruptions, such as the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the US-China trade war, have significantly impacted businesses and the global economy, creating a turbulent environment for society and supply chains. Globally, fighting disruptions and ensuring the supply of essential goods has become a significant challenge for governments. One possible solution is to strategically expand essential product capacity to increase supply resilience. Governments must cooperate closely with suppliers through carefully designed subsidy policies. A theoretical model based on current industry practices was built to explore and analyze the partnerships between governments and essential product suppliers. Our proposed model includes four players: the government, the supplier, the selling agent, and the consumer. We considered government subsidy policies for capacity expansion in building supply chains subject to two pricing designs: (1) government pricing and (2) market pricing. The results indicate that once a disruption occurs, social welfare increases with the government-subsidized expansion of essential goods to increase supply chain capacity. We analytically show that if the government does not support production expansion, the supplier can expand production only if the expansion cost is trivial. Furthermore, without government pricing, the product price increases in the government subsidy ratio. Hence, we conclude that government intervention is required to stabilize the market with proper price control, especially in the essential goods supply chain.

Expert System for Extracting Hidden Information from Electronic Documents during Outgoing Control

For confidential and sensitive electronic documents within enterprises and organizations, failure to conduct proper checks before sending can easily lead to incidents such as security degradation. Sensitive information transmission has become one of the main ways of internal data leakage. However, existing methods or systems cannot extract hidden data and do not support mining the binary structure of hidden information in files. In this paper, an expert system for mining electronic document hidden information is designed for various office documents, compressed files, and image files. This system can quickly mine various forms of concealment in more than 40 common types of electronic documents and extract hidden information, such as file type tampering, encryption concealment, structure concealment, redundant data concealment, etc. Additionally, feature information in the binary structure of the document is extracted to form a feature information base. Subsequently, an expert knowledge base is constructed. Finally, a hidden information mining engine is designed using the knowledge base to realize the security control of corresponding outgoing files with good expansibility and integration. By controlling the exit of documents through scanning for sensitive information contained within them, the security level contents can be obtained effectively, avoiding data leakage by technical means while also facilitating forensics. The actual test result proves that this system can quickly mine various means used to conceal information, extract their respective information, and provide a fast, practical diagnostic way for outgoing control over these electronic documents.

Strategi Pemasaran Syariah Batik Jambi

Sharia marketing strategy is a plan or planning of entrepreneurs and companies which is the implementation of the concept of determining prices, targets, and procedures for promotion and expansion of ideas, goods and services for exchange that meets customer needs. This study aims to find out the buying interest and consumer interest in Jambi batik. This research is a qualitative research, because this research instrument uses interviews to get data, The population in this study is consumers who buy Jambi batik products or batik at Ardiah stores. A sample of 73 people was determined, with interview techniques. The results of the study found that: Sharia marketing strategy significantly had a positive effect on buying interest with a value above 0.477 meaning that 47.7/% of Jambi batik marketing could explain its influence on Jambi batik buying interest, while 52.3% was explained by other factors.

Alternative material recommendation for facade cladding: High silica-containing stonepaste ceramics

This study investigated the potential of using stonepaste ceramics, which were widely preferred as a coating and decoration material on the facades of architectural buildings in ancient times and continues to be produced on a workshop scale today as a cladding material on building facades. Stonepaste ceramics, made from a mixture prepared with a high amount of crystalline quartz as well as frit, plastic clay, and bentonite raw materials, were hand-shaped and sintered at 930 °C after glazing. The physico-mechanical properties of stonepaste ceramics, their behaviour under various environmental conditions (resistance to chemicals, frost, and thermal shock), and their microstructures have been characterized. The characterization results were compared with the properties of commonly used facade cladding materials. It was determined that stonepaste ceramics had a very low firing shrinkage value (2.84 %) compared to that of other ceramic cladding materials, a higher water absorption value (11.79 %) than that of porcelain tiles and floor tiles, and close to wall tiles, and a flexural strength value (33.64MPa) higher than wall tiles and close to porcelain tiles despite the high-water absorption value. Ten cycles of thermal shock resistance showed that the body and glaze layer of the stonepaste ceramic material are well bonded to each other, and there is no significant thermal expansion mismatch between them. One hundred cycles of freeze-thaw conditions indicated that the stonepaste ceramic had good adhesion and thermal expansion compatibility between the glaze and the body but only chipping damage under the action of tensile forces caused by the freezing of water entering the pores of the body. In terms of behaviour against various chemicals, stonepaste ceramics were found to be highly resistant to high and low concentrations of household chemicals, swimming pool salts, and alkalis but less resistant to low concentrations of HCl and citric acid and high concentrations of HCl and lactic acid compared to other chemicals. The results show that stonepaste ceramics, despite their high-water absorption potential, have properties close to those of traditional ceramic tiles and, like these materials, can serve for significant periods in various environmental conditions when used as facade cladding. Consequently, it has been revealed that stonepaste ceramics can be used as a facade cladding material in sustainable, long-lasting, contemporary architectural facades thanks to their technical and protective properties.

Preparation and Performance Evaluation of Self-Cementing Nanoscale Polymeric Microspheres with Salt and Temperature Tolerance.

Polymer microspheres with temperature and salt resistance were synthesized using the anti-suspension polymerization method, incorporating the functional monomers AMPS, AM, and AA. To enhance their self-gelling properties, the microspheres were designed with a core-shell structure. The shell is composed of a polymeric surfactant, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether methacrylate (AEOMA), which serves as a thermosensitive crosslinking agent, enabling self-crosslinking upon shell decomposition, addressing compatibility with reservoir pore throat dimensions. Comprehensive characterizations including infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, optical microscopy, and laser particle size analysis were conducted. The microspheres exhibited successful synthesis, a nanoscale size, and regular spherical morphology. They demonstrated excellent temperature and salt resistance, making them suitable for high-temperature, high-salinity reservoir profile control. With a stable three-dimensional network structure, the microspheres displayed good expansion behavior due to hydrophilic groups along the polymer chains, resulting in favorable water affinity. Even after aging, the microspheres maintained their gelling state with a distinct and stable microscopic network skeleton. They exhibited superior plugging performance in low-permeability reservoirs, while effectively improving water absorption profiles in reservoirs with permeability contrasts of 10 to 80, thereby enhancing oil recovery.

Optimization of barrel temperature and feed moisture content for better physicochemical and sensory properties of extruded snacks from blends of finger millet, sweet potato, and soybean composite flour using response surface methodology

Extruded snacks are commonly made with cereals with good expansion properties but low in essential nutrients such as protein and vitamins. The incorporation of legume and vegetable crops into cereal improves the nutritional value of cereal-based extruded snacks. This study aimed to develop a nutrient-rich optimized extruded snack by incorporating orange-fleshed sweet potato, finger millet, and soybean flour. The extrusion processing conditions were barrel temperature (90–130 °C) and feed moisture content (20–26%). Thirteen treatment combinations were generated for this experiment using a face-centered central composite design. Standard methods were used to evaluate the effect of barrel temperature and feed moisture content on extruded snacks' nutritional, anti-nutritional, physical, functional, and sensory acceptability. The data were analyzed, and processing conditions were optimized using the response surface methodology of Design Expert software version 13. Multiple regression analysis showed significant effects (p < 0.05) of the independent variables on moisture, protein, fat, beta-carotene, bulk density (BD), hardness, expansion ratio (ER), water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), and overall acceptability of the extrudates. The optimum response of 14.06% protein, 3.26% ash, 69.12% carbohydrate, 6.477 mg/100 g beta-carotene, 0.36 g/ml bulk density, 2.72 Expansion ratio, 87.28 N hardness, 4.34 g/g Water absorption index, 22.34% Water solubility index, and overall acceptability of 3.30 was achieved at an optimal barrel temperature of 114.5 °C and feed moisture content of 20%. The obtained result suggests that barrel temperature and feed moisture content had a significant influence (p < 0.05) on the measured quality properties of the extrudates.

Continuously tunable silicon waveguide optical switched delay line based on grating-assisted contradirectional coupler

The integrated optical delay line plays a crucial role in microwave photonic chips. Continuous tunability is a growing trend in filtering and beamforming techniques of microwave photonics. Based on the silicon platform, we present and experimentally demonstrate an integrated continuously optical tunable delay line (OTDL) chip, which contains a 4-bit optical switched delay line (OSDL) and a thermally tunable delay line based on grating-assisted Contradirectional coupler (CDC). The OSDL can achieve stepwise optical delays, while the CDC is introduced to improve delay tuning resolution within one step delay of the OSDL. The combination of the two modules can realize tuning delays from 0 to 160 ps. Additionally, it is easy to increase the maximum delay by cascading more optical switches. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed OTDL shows outstanding performance and good expansibility.

Hot corrosion behavior of Mg\(_{2}\)SiO\(_{4}\) ceramic exposed to molten Na\(_{2}\)SO\(_{4}\) at 900℃ to 1100℃

Thermal barriers are used as protective coating for critical components working at high temperature of gas turbines. Forsterite (Mg2SiO4) ceramic is proposed by researchers as a novel thermal barrier coating (TBC), due to its low thermal conductivity and good thermal expansion. Hot corrosion results from the molten salts effect on the TBC’s surface, accumulated during the combustion processes. In this study, Mg2SiO4 samples were exposed to Na2SO4 molten salt at 900℃, 1000℃ and 1100℃ for 6 h in air. Samples were investigated and compared using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-Ray diffractometer (XRD). MgSO4 was the predominant corrosion product observed on the surface of the samples. Na2Mg5Si12O30 was also observed at 1000℃ and 1100℃, and Na2SiO3 appeared only on sample treated at 900℃.

Corporate Governance and Banking Stability in the MENA Region

This study investigates the determinants of banking stability through a comprehensive analysis of various financial and governance factors. Employing a panel regression approach, we examine the impact of key accounting variables, including capital adequacy ratio, return on assets, non-performing loans, bank size, and gross domestic product, as well as governance factors, covering board composition, audit quality, women on board, and the presence of risk committees, on the stability of banks operating in the MENA region between 2009 and 2020. Our findings reveal that most of these variables have a positive impact on banking stability. However, non-performing loans and the presence of independent directors on the board exhibit a negative relationship with banking stability. Therefore, it is found that banks under consideration maintain stability in tandem with good corporate governance practices and economic expansion, thereby positively influencing the MENA banking sector. The study recommends researchers to delve deeper into the complex relationships between these variables and banking stability and suggests that future studies explore additional factors that might impact the stability of banks in the MENA region.

Research on Direction Finding Method under Impulsive Noise Based on Nonuniform Linear Array

Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation under impulsive noise has always been an important research area in array signal processing. The traditional methods under impulsive noise mostly rely on prior parameters and have high computational complexity. Based on the filtering theory, we present an effective pretreatment filtering technology to cut out the impulse mixed in the array received data and employ the nonuniform linear array to improve the estimation performance further. First, according to the amplitude characteristics of impulse noise, the pretreatment filtering technology is proposed to cut out the impulse based on the median filter and sliding average filter, which is valid for both strong and weak impulsive noise. Second, the minimum redundant array is adopted to carry out array virtual expansion so that the array aperture can be increased and the estimation performance can be improved. Finally, based on the idea of matrix reconstruction, we propose the improved estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques algorithm and an improved root multiple signal classification algorithm for DOA estimation. Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the proposed method has a simple processing process, small calculation load, good array expansion ability, and excellent noise adaptability. Moreover, the proposed methods greatly improve the direction-finding performance under the condition of low signal-to-noise ratio and strong impulsive noise.

A Spectral Gap-Based Topology Control Algorithm for Wireless Backhaul Networks

This paper presents the spectral gap-based topology control algorithm (SGTC) for wireless backhaul networks, a novel approach that employs the Laplacian Spectral Gap (LSG) to find expander-like graphs that optimize the topology of the network in terms of robustness, diameter, energy cost, and network entropy. The latter measures the network’s ability to promote seamless traffic offloading from the Macro Base Stations to smaller cells by providing a high diversity of shortest paths connecting all the stations. Given the practical constraints imposed by cellular technologies, the proposed algorithm uses simulated annealing to search for feasible network topologies with a large LSG. Then, it computes the Pareto front of the set of feasible solutions found during the annealing process when considering robustness, diameter, and entropy as objective functions. The algorithm’s result is the Pareto efficient solution that minimizes energy cost. A set of experimental results shows that by optimizing the LSG, the proposed algorithm simultaneously optimizes the set of desirable topological properties mentioned above. The results also revealed that generating networks with good spectral expansion is possible even under the restrictions imposed by current wireless technologies. This is a desirable feature because these networks have strong connectivity properties even if they do not have a large number of links.

THE REALIZATION OF SYSTEMATIC CADASTRE WORKS IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VINEYARD AND FRUIT-GROWING SECTOR IN ROMANIA

In order to develop the vineyard and orchard sector in Romania from a sustainable point of view, the European Union primarily finances plantations with native varieties. To be able to talk about sustainable development and environmental protection, GIS systems should be structured by fields of activity and become an interface between man and nature. The integration of these projects within the systematic cadastre work would have the effect of obtaining a better reassessment of the agricultural potential of the area. Thus, the "Vasile Adamachi" didactic farm of the Iasi University of Life Sciences has reconfigured the cadastral plots, currently occupying a total area of 16.1 ha with vines and 12.2 ha with fruit trees. This project to modernise the vineyard/fruit-growing plantations was realised from the rehabilitation funds of the European Union, through the Payments and Intervention Agency for Agriculture. The creation by the Cadastre and Real Estate Publicity Agency of an integrated cadastre and land book system, as a "multipurpose" type system within the National Cadastre and Land Book Program, would help the Payments and Intervention Agency for Agriculture to identify agricultural real estate, which includes vineyards/fruit trees, and would encourage the owners of such plantations to access projects from the European Union funds for the modernisation, maintenance in good condition or expansion of vineyard and fruit-growing. Also, the technical-legal situation of the existing real estate at the administrative-territorial unit level could be obtained in real time.

Self-assembly circular multi-DNA mediated rolling circle amplification for sensitive detection of PD-L1+ circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of cancer patients

It has been found that evaluating the status of programmed cell death ligand (PD-L1) in the circulating tumor cells (CTCs) was associated with improved efficacy to anti-PD-L1 inhibitors. However, high-quality detection of PD-L1 positive (PD-L1+) CTCs remains a huge challenge. In this study, we propose a short time, high efficiency and applicability method that fabricated by self-assembly circular multi-DNA (CMD) mediating rolling circle amplification (RCA) for highly sensitive and rapid analysis of PD-L1+ cells. Firstly, a short single-stranded circular DNA which could bind specifically with PD-L1 protein was designed. In addition, CMD were designed as self-assembly which could serve as a template in RCA process. Next, the exponential amplification of DNA was achieved by the rolling circle amplification and the fluorescence signal was detected by using the molecular beacons. The unique CMD mediated rolling circle amplification facilitated quantitative detection of PD-L1+ CTCs in the blood of different cancer patients. To visualize the results of CMD on the target cells, we used confocal microscope to assess PD-L1 expression in MCF-7 (breast cancer), OE33 (esophaguscancer) and HCC827 (lung cancer) cells. The results indicated that the CMD mediating RCA can perfectly combine with different kinds of cells, amplify the signal and the recovery rate was over 99 %. What’s more, we performed clinical tests in the blood of the corresponding patient (14 cases of breast cancer, 15 esophageal cancer and 11 lung cancer). We further quantified the number of CTCs in patient blood through establishing the standard curve and the limit of detection (LOD) was calculated to be 1 cell/mL. Moreover, the ring structure was designed to have replaceable sequence and to realize combining different CTCs surface markers (such as Her-2). This method has the advantages of high sensitivity, good expansibility, low cost and can be completed in a short time as well. Therefore, it is expected to develop a new CTCs typing detection kit and might thus provide reliable diagnostic results to provide individualized treatment strategies.

Analysis and Prediction of Students’ Psychological Characteristics of Law Breaking and Crime Based on Support Vector Machine Algorithm

Abstract In recent years, some people with high intelligence and high quality have violated the law and even committed crimes, which has ruined their bright future. It is really sad. A school is a place where teenagers learn skills and improve their quality. It should be a pure land. The frequent occurrence of juvenile students’ crimes seriously affects the normal teaching order and endangers the safety of students’ lives and property. With the rapid development of support vector machines (Abbreviation: SVM), it has also become one of the main data fusion technologies. SVM is a creative machine learning method based on statistical learning theory. It is a learning method specialized in finite sample prediction. This paper studies the psychological characteristics of students’ crimes based on the SVM algorithm. From the aspect of proportion, the result of the SVM algorithm is ideal, and the proportion of the training set is up to 33.35%. The above algorithm has good expansibility for such sample data, but when the parameters are not appropriate, the proportion is only more than 20.12%, which once again explains the importance of the SVM algorithm. Only through the SVM algorithm to improve the efforts of the whole society, can we put an end to the generation of criminal psychology of higher vocational students from the source and cultivate more high-quality talents for the country.

Dual-view Curricular Optimal Transport for Cross-lingual Cross-modal Retrieval.

Current research on cross-modal retrieval is mostly English-oriented, as the availability of a large number of English-oriented human-labeled vision-language corpora. In order to break the limit of non-English labeled data, cross-lingual cross-modal retrieval (CCR) has attracted increasing attention. Most CCR methods construct pseudo-parallel vision-language corpora via Machine Translation (MT) to achieve cross-lingual transfer. However, the translated sentences from MT are generally imperfect in describing the corresponding visual contents. Improperly assuming the pseudo-parallel data are correctly correlated will make the networks overfit to the noisy correspondence. Therefore, we propose Dual-view Curricular Optimal Transport (DCOT) to learn with noisy correspondence in CCR. In particular, we quantify the confidence of the sample pair correlation with optimal transport theory from both the cross-lingual and cross-modal views, and design dual-view curriculum learning to dynamically model the transportation costs according to the learning stage of the two views. Extensive experiments are conducted on two multilingual image-text datasets and one video-text dataset, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. Besides, our proposed method also shows a good expansibility to cross-lingual image-text baselines and a decent generalization on out-of-domain data.