Innovative Components Research Articles

Dynamic Job-Shop Scheduling Based on Transformer and Deep Reinforcement Learning

The dynamic job-shop scheduling problem is a complex and uncertain task that involves optimizing production planning and resource allocation in a dynamic production environment. Traditional methods are limited in effectively handling dynamic events and quickly generating scheduling solutions; in order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a solution by transforming the dynamic job-shop scheduling problem into a Markov decision process and leveraging deep reinforcement learning techniques. The proposed framework introduces several innovative components, which make full use of human domain knowledge and machine computing power, to realize the goal of man–machine collaborative decision-making. Firstly, we utilize disjunctive graphs as the state representation, capturing the complex relationships between various elements of the scheduling problem. Secondly, we select a set of dispatching rules through data envelopment analysis to form the action space, allowing for flexible and efficient scheduling decisions. Thirdly, the transformer model is employed as the feature extraction module, enabling effective capturing of state relationships and improving the representation power. Moreover, the framework incorporates the dueling double deep Q-network with prioritized experience replay, mapping each state to the most appropriate dispatching rule. Additionally, a dynamic target strategy with an elite mechanism is proposed. Through extensive experiments conducted on multiple examples, our proposed framework consistently outperformed traditional dispatching rules, genetic algorithms, and other reinforcement learning methods, achieving improvements of 15.98%, 17.98%, and 13.84%, respectively. These results validate the effectiveness and superiority of our approach in addressing dynamic job-shop scheduling problems.

Numerical Simulation of Metasurface Grating to Function as Polarization Modulator in Quantum Key Distribution Systems

Polarization modulation plays an important role in polarization encoding in quantum key distribution. By using polarization modulation, quantum key distribution systems become more compact and more vulnerable as one laser source is used instead of using multiple laser sources that may cause side-channel attacks. Metasurfaces with their exceptional optical properties have led to the development of versatile ultrathin optical devices. They are made up of planar arrays of resonant or nearly resonant subwavelength pieces and provide complete control over reflected and transmitted electromagnetic waves opening several possibilities for the development of innovative optical components. In this work, the Si nanowire metasurface grating polarizer is designed by COMSOL Multiphysics Software to operate in the visible region and transmit the transverse magnetic polarization of light. The same structure can be rotated by different angles, i.e., 90o, 45o, and -45o to mimic the function of polarization modulation in quantum key distribution systems. The designed structure has an extinction ratio of ~ 60000 and a wide angular tolerance range of (-20o - 20o).

ФОРМУВАННЯ ТЕХНІЧНОГО МИСЛЕННЯ ЗАСОБАМИ STEM-ОСВІТИ МАЙБУТНЬОГО ВЧИТЕЛЯ ФІЗИКИ

The article substantiates the significance of the development of the technical thinking of the physics teacher in the conditions of his professional training. The peculiarities of the teacher’s professional mentality have been revealed. The need for the development of pedagogical thinking, as well as technical thinking, as a special one for the subject field, is substantiated. It is shown that technical thinking is the process of reflecting objects and processes of technical activity in the human mind. This type of thinking is associated with mental activity aimed at operating technical images in their static and dynamic state. Qualitative analysis of the structure and process of technical thinking allows to substantiate the concept of “technical thinking”. Technical thinking is a practicalactive thinking aimed at operating technical images during the production and creative activity of a person. It is able to solve complex production tasks in any standard or critical situation. STEM education is a specialization directions of education, the main emphasis of which is on the education of exact and natural sciences, from the addition of continuous innovative and technological components. It is absolutely fair to say that STEM is the best solution for the future professionals in the engineering and technology. The basis for STEM education is scientific methods, mathematical modelling, engineering design and innovative thinking. From this description, it may seem that we are talking about an education designed exclusively for the training of future IT professionals, and this will be partially true. However, STEM education is broader, because it combines sciences with a creative approach and develops of different sides in the personality of the future physics teacher.

Simultaneously achieving large energy storage density and high efficiency in the optimized Sr2NaNb5O15 system with excellent temperature stability at a low electric field

Lead-free capacitors operating at low electric fields with high-energy density and high efficiency are critical for advanced electronic systems and innovative pulsed power applications. In this work, single tetragonal phase dielectric ceramics with high-energy storage density and high efficiency are prepared using the solid-state method. The co-substitution of Ba2+, Sm3+, and Mn4+ on the Sr2NaNb5O15 substrate enhances low-temperature relaxation behavior and polarization modulation due to order/disorder distribution and polar nanoregions (PNRs) in the structural distortion system. Ferroelectric tests revealed that the optimized Sr1.83Ba0.16Sm0.01NaMn0.01Nb4.99O15 tungsten bronze system has large energy storage density (Wrec = 4.432 J cm−3) and high efficiency (η = 84.3 %) at a low electric field (250 kV cm−1). In addition, the temperature-dependent permittivity results for the Sr1.82Ba0.165Sm0.015NaMn0.015Nb4.985O15 and Sr1.81Ba0.17Sm0.02NaMn0.02Nb4.98O15 ceramic samples demonstrated that they are X9R capacitor-compatible. Finally, Sr1.83Ba0.16Sm0.01NaMn0.01Nb4.99O15 has a current density (CD) of ∼797.77 A cm−2 and power density (PD) of ∼87.75 MW cm−3 with a very fast discharge time (t0.9 < 60 ns). It is worthy to note that all the components display excellent temperature stability (ΔWdis < 10 %) in the over-damping test. Thus, this work provides an avenue to obtain dielectric ceramic materials with potential application value in innovative pulse power components.

Formation of Innovative Components in the Hospitality Industry Enterprise

Purpose: The article is devoted to the formation of innovative technologies at enterprises of the hospitality industry. It is substantiated that innovative technologies will allow hoteliers and restaurateurs to a chieve certain advantages over competitors; innovation is a source of long-term economic growth, because those enterprises that constantly apply innovative approaches will always work successfully and obtain high results from their production and economic activities. The objective of the article is to generalize and systematize the formation of the main components of the innovative development of enterprises in the hospitality industry and their significance and use at the modern stage of management. Design / Methodology / Approach: To achieve the aim of the study, the following scientific methods were used: historiographical, comparative, analysis and synthesis methods. Findings: We are living in the most exciting time in human history. Technology is developing exponentially, not linearly as it used to be, and the use of modern technologies and innovations has become an integral part of the survival of businesses in a pandemic and martial law. Modern technologies allow maintaining a high level of service, expanding the range of services, improving the management system, strengthening control over the work of staff, and ensuring a high level of security for guests. Therefore, their study is an urgent task today. Today’s realities of life dictate working conditions for all enterprises of various forms of ownership. Businesses in the hospitality industry are the most vulnerable to these changes. Therefore, hotels and restaurants must focus on their audience, and their owners must do everything possible to expand the number of consumers and protect their business from risks and losses. An important condition for their implementation should be the ability of entrepreneurs to adapt to the new conditions that have developed at this stage of business and to be able to timely and effectively implement various types of innovations (technological, production, logistic, economic, social, informational), skilfully connect them in management activities. For many enterprises, the inability of managers to understand the need and achieve innovative renewal remains a problem, as there is a mis understanding of the role of information as a basic resource of enterprise management. Because innovative technologies today, more than ever before, are becoming a valuable resource for hotel and restaurant businesses. Originality / Value: It is proved that innovation is an integral element in the development of hospitality industry enterprises. Practical Meaning: A number of features of innovative activity in the hospitality industry are highlighted. Further Research: Development of methodological support for the analysing the effectiveness of innovations at enterprises of the hospitality industry.

Специфіка формування конкурентних переваг ЗВО на основі ціннісного підходу в умовах війни

The purpose of the study is to develop proposals for the formation of competitive advantages by higher education institutions in the context of war based on a value-based approach. Methodology. The theoretical and methodological basis of the work is a system of general sci-entific and special methods of scientific knowledge, which are directly related to the purpose and objectives of the study. The research methods used in the study include statistical, comparative analysis and generalisation methods to identify the factors influencing the change in demand in war-time. Index methods were used to assess the severity of competition and the core of the higher edu-cation market. The method of hierarchy analysis by T. Saaty was used to establish the weight of value criteria by students, independent of the subjectivity of their choice. Findings. It has been found that in the higher education market, the concept of marketing in-stitutionalisation was applied in response to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the specifics of higher education institutions in wartime. This has forced the educational, scientific and innova-tive components of higher education institutions to undergo dramatic changes. Based on the analysis of the competitive environment of higher education institutions and the results of a marketing study of student opinion, the value parameters of students' choice of higher education institutions in times of war are identified. The value parameters of the choice of higher education institutions include: the level of qualification of the teaching staff; the region of location of higher education institutions; cooperation with foreign universities; reviews in social networks; and the availability of the chosen speciality. Using the method of hierarchy analysis, T. Saaty has established a ranking of universities ac-cording to the criteria that are valuable for students. As a result of the study, recommendations are made on the implementation of value parameters of students' choice of higher education institutions in the model of providing educational services of higher education institutions. It is proved that the model of providing educational services of higher education institutions should be developed taking into account the strategic directions of development of higher education institutions, hierarchical, value-based approaches, added value and complementary development of related and compatible sectors of the economy. Practical implications. The model of providing educational services by higher education insti-tutions based on the value-based approach is recommended to be used in the development of pro-grammes to motivate students to return to the country after completing their studies in order to re-store Ukraine's economy in the post-war period by the marketing departments of such institutions as the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the State Employment Service under the Ministry of Econo-my of Ukraine and other institutions. Value. The implementation of value-based parameters of choice by higher education institu-tions in the model of providing educational services by higher education institutions increases the ability for dynamic growth in innovation and integration, adaptive flexibility to changes in the glob-al higher education market, and ensures the realisation of national interests in education. Taking in-to account international rankings will help to raise awareness among consumers of educational ser-vices about the priority of educational services, identify the professionalism of staff, improve the quality of management of educational processes, and facilitate the integration of higher education institutions into the international scientific and educational space.

Options for Improving Performance of Additively Manufactured Nickel-Base Superalloys for Gas Turbine Applications

Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) has been increasingly used for gas turbine (GT) components over the last decade. Many different components can be successfully designed, printed, and used in the gas turbine. However, there still exist questions on the use of AM components in hot-section areas. These components are typically fabricated from nickel-base superalloys that are known to have superior mechanical properties at elevated temperatures (e.g., creep and fatigue). Research over the last decade has been primarily focused on the printability of nickel-base superalloys, and there still exists a gap in understanding the high temperature processing–structure–properties–performance relationships of these alloy systems. This study evaluates the effect of processing methods, such as laser-based powder bed fusion (LBPBF) and electron beam powder bed fusion (EBPBF), on the resulting microstructure and time dependent mechanical properties of a nickel-base superalloy (ABD®900). Material after each build was subsequently heat treated using both near-solvus (at or slightly below the gamma prime solvus temperature) and super-solvus (above gamma prime solvus temperature) conditions. Multistep aging was then carried out to produce a bi-modal distribution of gamma prime precipitates as is typical in similar alloys. Microstructure was evaluated in both the as-built and fully heat-treated conditions for each processing technique. Mechanical testing was conducted to evaluate the effects of AM build methods, microstructure, and heat treatment on high temperature mechanical properties. The results show that there are several methods which can be used to improve the performance of components built using AM. The creep testing results for ABD900-AM clearly show an improvement in properties (rupture life and ductility) at all test conditions compared to testing in the prior AM alloy of the same class. A super-solvus heat treatment improved creep rupture strength by ∼3× in the LBPBF material compared to the near-solvus heat treatment. These findings provide directions for future studies to advance the overall state of gas turbine technology by enabling ABD®900-AM material and other AM alloys to be used in more innovative hot-section components.

Tensile strength and strain behavior study and modeling of PLA printed parts with optimized AM parameters

The applications of fused disposition modeling (FDM) 3D printed components have dramatically increased due to their efficient production time, exceptional mechanical properties, and excellent finishing quality. The challenge of studying the behavior and predicting the mechanical properties of 3D PLA (polylactic acid) fabricated parts with varying sets of printing parameters has risen with innovative and complex component shapes. Therefore, this study highlights three main printing parameters that influence the durability and integrity of the parts produced by PLA. This study illustrates the effect of three printing process variables: raster angle (RSA), layer thickness (LYT), and infill density (IFD), on two outputs: strength at fracture and strain behavior of PLA-printed specimens. The study shows extensive experimental work of 27 sets of different combinations of printing processes (108 tested specimens). It also presents two quadratic mathematical models to predict: (1) the tensile strength and (2) strain at fracture of PLA-printed specimens, including the effects of the printing parameters. The prediction and experimental results are quite comparable to one another. The study concludes with an optimized set of printing parameters for higher durability and greater integrity.

Structural response of steel sandwich panels with PUR foam core subjected to edgewise compression: Experimental, numerical, and analytical considerations

With the objective of leading to innovative lightweight structural components in the construction sector using sandwich panels with polyurethane foam and steel face sheets, different studies were conducted on such structures, including experimental, numerical, and analytical campaigns. The experimental campaign includes the mechanical characterisation of the constituent materials and the edgewise compressive test of small-scale sandwich panels. The test protocols are detailed, and their influence on the results is assessed. Through the use of digital image correlation recordings, deformation patterns and failure mechanisms in the constituent materials and the composite structure are identified. Material constitutive models are calibrated based on the experimentally obtained results. The accuracy of such models is first evaluated against the stress–strain curves recorded during the experiments. In the second stage, the response of the sandwich panels subjected to edgewise compressive loading is simulated. A parametric analysis on the sensitivity of the numerical models to the initial geometrical imperfections is shown to be fundamental to capturing the behaviour of the sandwich panels. Furthermore, the experimental and numerical results are compared to analytical solutions of the problem of the edgewise compression of sandwich panels. Finally, a thorough discussion of the obtained experimental, numerical and analytical results is presented, along with comparisons to results available in the literature.

Green Innovation, Carbon Storage and Perceived environmental quality in Lagos State University, Nigeria

A sustainable university has been defined as a higher educational institution that addresses, involves and promotes the minimization of negative environmental, economic, societal, and health effects generated in the use of their resources in order to fulfil its functions of teaching, research, outreach and partnership, and stewardship in ways to help society make the transition to sustainable lifestyles. Earlier studies on green innovations have basically centered on the environmental benefits and were purely descriptive in nature. Several others examined the effect of green innovation on soil organic carbon by comparing street trees of species. The present study would contribute to literature using a mixed research approach to empirically investigate the contributions of green innovation on carbon storage and perceived environmental quality in Lagos State University, Nigeria. Data for the study were obtained by collecting 100 surface (0 – 15cm) soil samples with the aid of a soil auger under campus trees, grasses, ornamental trees and vegetables (Amaranthus and green vegetable farms) across different land uses on campus. Also, data on green characteristics (tree height, tree size, canopy cover, density of herbs, basal cover and herbaceous cover) were measured using different ecological procedures, while 655 questionnaire copies were administered to staff and students to ascertain their perceived environmental quality of green innovation. Data obtained were analyzed using averages, simple percentages, One-Way Analysis of Variance, multiple regression analysis and principal components analysis. The results obtained showed that carbon storage significantly varied among the green innovation components with canopy cover contributing over 55% of carbon storage. The study revealed that canopy cover and tree size substantially contributed in carbon storage with canopy cover being more effective. PCA result identified beautification of LASU (19.8%), flood control (18.8%), promotion of urban ecology (15.8%) and improvement in air quality (9.5%) as the principal dimensions or perceived environmental quality of green innovation. The result further showed that green innovation characteristics have significant relationship with carbon storage. The study shows the importance of campus tree in carbon reduction and recommends the need for universities to give necessary recognition and incorporate these green components in physical planning.

A Systematic Review on the Application of Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation to HVAC Systems

With the renewed focus on indoor air quality (IAQ) due to “Sick building syndrome” and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of innovative components and innovative guidance for maintenance and systemic safety design will play an important role, with HVAC systems as protagonists. UV-C irradiation has been investigated for a long time, and some system solutions are known. The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the latest outcomes related to the innovative components of HVAC systems using UV-C irradiation and investigate the current state of the art. A procedure based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was adopted, and the Scopus database was used to query the relevant literature. A total of 66 publications qualified for inclusion in the survey: 29 articles report experimental investigations, 24 articles are related to numerical or theoretical analysis, and both approaches were used in 13 articles. Many papers deal with upper-room UVGI, AHUs, and ducts. A few papers analyse mobile devices. The evaluation of the dose, as in the case of the definition of irradiance, is reported in a small number of articles. This lack of information makes the scenario imprecise and non-quantitative.

ДЕНЕЖНЫЕ ПЕРЕВОДЫ В КЫРГЫЗСКУЮ РЕСПУБЛИКУ И ИХ ВЛИЯНИЕ НА РАЗВИТИЕ СОВРЕМЕННОГО ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЬСТВА

The scientific article researches development of modern entrepreneurship which is influenced by the interaction of money transfers in the context of migration processes. The positive aspects related to money transfers are taken into account. In the course of the study, a positive effect of labor migration is noted, which can affect macroeconomic indicators and economic activity in general. The research noted the foreign experience of modern entrepreneurship. The question of external migration has been studied in sufficient depth, which has given a powerful impetus to the development of electronic money and subsequently to the creation of «cashless economy». The entrepreneurship and its development have a great importance for the development of country’s economy. Entrepreneurship, cashless payments, money transfers and migration processes are closely interconnected. Modern entrepreneurship is based on the introduction of an innovative component. The receipt and use of savings, foreign direct investment and the state of production and trade activities can be of great importance for the development of this area.

Hitting the Target: Developing High-quality Evidence for Proton Beam Therapy Through Randomised Controlled Trials

The National Health Service strategy for the delivery of proton beam therapy (PBT) in the UK provides a unique opportunity to deliver high-quality evidence for PBT through randomised controlled trials (RCTs). We present a summary of three UK PBT RCTs in progress, including consideration of their key design characteristics and outcome assessments, to inform and support future PBT trial development. The first three UK multicentre phase III PBT RCTs (TORPEdO, PARABLE and APPROACH), will compare PBT with photon radiotherapy for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, breast cancer and oligodendroglioma, respectively. All three studies were designed by multidisciplinary teams, which combined expertise from clinicians, clinical trialists and scientists with strong patient advocacy and guidance from national radiotherapy research networks and international collaborators. Consistent across all three studies is a focus on the reduction of long-term radiotherapy-related toxicities and an evaluation of patient-reported outcomes and health-related quality of life, which will address key uncertainties regarding the clinical benefits of PBT. Innovative translational components will provide insights into mechanisms of toxicity and help to frame the key future research questions regarding PBT. The UK radiotherapy research community is developing and delivering an internationally impactful PBT research portfolio. The combination of data from RCTs with prospectively collected data from a national PBT outcomes registry will provide an innovative, high-quality repository for PBT research and the platform to design and deliver future trials of PBT.

Resource sustainability in the water, energy and food nexus: role of technological innovation

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of technological Innovation in ensuring resource sustainability in the water, energy and food (WEF) nexus, as there exists a shortage of statistical research on the extent of the influence of technological Innovation on the WEF nexus. Design/methodology/approach The study used a quantitative research method, using a well-structured questionnaire to collect data from management staff in the WEF departments in South Africa. The collected data were analyzed by using mean score ranking, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings The findings show that the technological process of technological innovation is significant for resource sustainability. The result also showed that technological innovations directly and statistically significantly affect WEF nexus. The EFA resulted in three components of WEF nexus product innovation, WEF nexus process innovation and WEF nexus novel innovations. Furthermore, the CFA and SEM analysis reveals that six technological innovation indicators influence the sustainability of the nexus: smart water metering technology, smart metering technology, food quality monitoring technology, agricultural technology solutions, new technological design and eco-friendly WEF products. Originality/value The sustainability of these three inevitable resources for man’s survival is dependent on technological innovations, and this study has shown the major categories of innovations needed, thus establishing a pathway for engineering design.

CONTENT AND TECHNOLOGICAL SUPPORT OF THE PROCESS OF FORMING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF FUTURE TEACHERS OF MATHEMATICS

The competitiveness of a teacher is an indicator of successful professional activity, the ability to be in demand due to a number of personal and professional qualities that determine a high level of expertise in the educational field. The effectiveness of forming the competitiveness of the future mathematics teacher will be higher under the condition of purposeful, systematic training in higher education, in particular, through the implementation of appropriate content and technological support. The purpose of the article is to characterize the content, forms, methods and technologies of the process of forming the competitiveness of future mathematics teachers. Research methods – analysis of scientific literature, systematization (to clarify the key concepts of research), implementation of research results in practice, observation, generalization (for the purpose of forming author's conclusions). It has been established that the formation of the competitiveness of future mathematics teachers occurs through the implementation of the system model of competitiveness formation in the process of scientific research activities and pedagogical conditions that ensure its effectiveness (using the potential of humanitarian disciplines in the process of forming the competitiveness of future mathematics teachers; organizing positive competition among students in the process of scientific research activities; motivational and stimulating support for the development of competitiveness of future mathematics teachers through the use of a set of pedagogical incentives; ensuring social partnership of subjects of educational activity in the process of developing the competitiveness of future mathematics teachers). The environment of scientific research activity contains three components: educational, practical-professional and research-innovative. The educational component provides for the formation of the competitiveness of future teachers during classroom training (through the use of a number of technologies, forms and methods - games, problems, cases, discussions, portfolios, the preparation of scientific papers, the performance of socio-pedagogical research) and extracurricular work (meetings with leading teachers, researchers, excursions). The practical-professional component involves the research orientation of student practices - propaedeutic and pedagogical. The research and innovation component enables the work of the students in scientific circles, student scientific society, conferences, competitions of scientific works, Olympiads, academic mobility, grants, and the implementation of socio-pedagogical research.

INVESTMENT TOOLS FOR DOMESTIC INNOVATIVE BUSINESS SUPPORT AT REGIONAL AND LOCAL LEVELS

In the study, the focus of attention is drawn to local economic development and the use of two fairly important and systematic factors for such purposes, such as innovative entrepreneurship and investments in the development of local innovative business. From such positions, the purpose of the study is to substantiate effective investment tools for supporting and stimulating the development of domestic innovative business at the regional and local levels. Interrelationships are proved and the algorithm of tasks (which should turn into events) is shown, from stimulating the development of entrepreneurship, improving its investment support and activating innovative activities to strengthening the investment and innovation component of Ukraine’s economic security. The goal of such a policy has been determined – the formation of sufficient financial and investment resources for the purpose of increasing the volume and pace of innovative activity of innovative business entities. It was established that the leading investment instruments (and measures within their limits) that should be implemented for the following purposes should be defined: investment-infrastructural (with measures of public-private partnership in the field of implementation of innovative technological projects, financial leasing and outsourcing to attract technical technological base for R&amp;D, creation of industrial investment and innovation parks, development of infrastructure for financing innovation activities, creation of investment and innovation clusters, other associations, activities of local economic development agencies); credit (using local bond loans for research and development, guarantees for innovation investments, bank lending for innovative projects); grant (with local grant innovation programs, involvement of international technical assistance); creation of specialized investment funds (with crowdfunding measures and the use of revolving funds); budgetary investment support (local target programs for supporting innovative activities, tax incentives for innovations, inter-municipal cooperation in the innovative and technological sphere, budgets for participation in innovative socially significant projects); entrepreneurial (with measures for the development of local innovative entrepreneurship, attracting investments of labor migrants, investment cooperation of small businesses with large enterprises in the innovation sphere).

Exploring a frequency-domain attention-guided cascade U-Net: Towards spatially tunable segmentation of vasculature

Developing fully automatic and highly accurate medical image segmentation methods is critically important for vascular disease diagnosis and treatment planning. Although advances in convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have spawned an array of automatic segmentation models converging to saturated high performance, none have explored whether CNNs can achieve (spatially) tunable segmentation. As a result, we propose multiple attention modules from a frequency-domain perspective to construct a unified CNN architecture for segmenting vasculature with desired (spatial) scales. The proposed CNN architecture is named frequency-domain attention-guided cascaded U-Net (FACU-Net). Specifically, FACU-Net contains two innovative components: (1) a frequency-domain-based channel attention module that adaptively tunes channel-wise feature responses and (2) a frequency-domain-based spatial attention module that enables the deep network to concentrate on foreground regions of interest (ROIs) effectively.Furthermore, we devised a novel frequency-domain-based content attention module to enhance or weaken the high (spatial) frequency information, allowing us to strengthen or eliminate vessels of interest. Extensive experiments using clinical data from patients with intracranial aneurysms (IA) and abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) demonstrated that the proposed FACU-Net met its design goal. In addition, we further investigated the association between varying (spatial) frequency components and the desirable vessel size/scale attributes. In summary, our preliminary findings are encouraging, and further developments may lead to deployable image segmentation models that are spatially tunable for clinical applications.

A Detailed Discourse on the Epistemology of Lithium‐Sulfur Batteries

AbstractThe architecture of lithium‐sulfur (Li‐S) batteries can hold five times more charge capacity compared to Li‐ion batteries. This review emphasizes the recent research findings on the desired loading of sulfur, the electrolyte‐to‐sulfur ratio, and a detailed view of the polysulfide shuttling effect. Problems with electrolyte stability are also discussed as well as the potential remedies they provided in various systems, as Li‐S batteries have great potential to surmount these critical issues by understanding the mechanism. Future scopes of Li‐S batteries can be progressively attained by optimizing the pore structure, designing highly conductive and strong sulfur confinement systems, and thereby pairing with anode materials to explore the possibility of innovative components for commercializing Li‐S batteries.

Innovation and knowledge coordinates of modern financial market development

This article deals with the functioning of the modern financial market in the context of increasing innovation trends and the transformation of knowledge into a full-fledged economic resource. The characteristics of knowledge as a resource are highlighted from the perspective of key participants in the financial market using dialectic and abstraction methods. It has been established that in the post-industrial economy, information and knowledge have become vital resources and radically changed the principles of economic relations. Owning information and knowledge and the ability to use them forms significant competitive advantages for all economic agents without exception. In turn, analysis and synthesis methods have been used to study the innovative components of the modern financial market. It has been determined that the rapid spread of financial innovations has a contradictory nature. On the one hand, new opportunities arise for participants in the financial market, but new threats and risks also emerge. These imbalances directly result from the information-knowledge asymmetry, which has significantly intensified under modern conditions. It is argued that the development of global information asymmetry has yet to weaken information asymmetry. The massive quantitative growth of information flows forms fundamentally new approaches to their use in the financial market, primarily based on digital technologies. The article argues that the innovative and knowledge trend of the modern financial market is of a long-term nature and dictates a rapid digital transformation. The spread of digital transformations, on the one hand, is precisely the result of the innovative and knowledge paradigm of financial market development, and on the other, digitization directly "fuels" innovative trends. The innovative and knowledge model of the modern financial market forms a fundamentally new agenda for the state as a regulator. Keywords: financial market, financial intermediaries, financial instruments, individual investors, financial literacy, innovations, knowledge.

Investigation on the microstructures, mechanical properties and impact initiation characteristics of Al/PTFE reactive materials reinforced by TiH2 particles

Aluminum/Polytetrafluoroethylene (Al/PTFE) is a representative energetic material, which can be used in many fields including defense weapon fragments, insensitive penetrator or oil-well perforation. However, the insufficient mechanical strength of traditional ingredient has seriously restricted its penetration ability, and traditional additives improve its compressive strength at the expense of reactivity. Hence, innovative component design and advanced manufacturing technology should be applied to Al/PTFE composite. In this investigation, TiH2 as a new reinforcement is introduced into Al/PTFE to improve both strength and reactivity. Quasi-static and dynamic compressive tests were conducted, and the impact reaction process was recorded by high-speed camera. The results shown Al/PTFE/TiH2 composites are all elasto-plastic materials, significant strain hardening and strain rate hardening phenomenon were observed. The compressive strength increased first and then decreased with increase in TiH2 content, reached the maximum of 185.1 MPa at the strain rate of 5000 s−1 when TiH2 content was 30 %, which increased by 30.4 % compared to traditional Al/PTFE. A newly-developed drop-weight device was used to quantitatively characterize reactivity, and the reaction efficiency reached 8.2 % when TiH2 content was 30 %, increased by 43.2 % compared to Al/PTFE. The formation of oriented PTFE nano-fibers was considered the important strengthening mechanism. The established Johnson–Cook model was agreed well with experimental results. Combining the results of thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) tests with X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of reaction residues, the reaction mechanism was clarified. The impact initiation reaction was in a mechano-chemical manner and the reactivity was speculated to be the results of multiple actions between Al/PTFE and TiH2.