Loss Of Intensity Research Articles

A robust approach for balancing the color and light integrity of underwater images

Abstract As light travels under the deep water, it scatters and is absorbed, resulting in a loss of intensity and altered color perception—a phenomenon known as underwater light attenuation. Images captured under these low light conditions suffered from color distortions, as you go deeper, colors fade in this order: red, orange, and yellow, while green and blue become more prominent. The red channel experiences significant attenuation due to the scattering properties of light under the deep water. As a consequence, deep water images often display noticeable color casts. Researchers encounter various challenges when enhancing low-light underwater images, such as reduced contrast, detail loss, artifacts, noise, and color distortion. In this paper, we present a novel Adaptive Color and Light Correction (ACLC) method for color correction and an Intuitionistic Fuzzy Generator (IFG) for enhancing low-light underwater images. The proposed Adaptive Color and Light Correction (ACLC) method tackles color casts on individual pixels by considering the scene depth. The proposed Intuitionistic Fuzzy Generator (IFG) method balances the image contrast by computing an intuitionistic fuzzy image representation using the proposed IFG approach. Experimental results reveal that the proposed approach significantly improves the color quality and contrast of the output image. The proposed ACLC and IFG methods exceed existing underwater color correction and low-light image enhancement techniques in visual and quantitative evaluations, as evidenced by extensive experimentation on well-established underwater image datasets, such as UIEB, Ocean dark, and LSUI.

Photoactivated Multicolor Organic Phosphorescence in Intrinsically Stretchable, Self‐Healable and Recyclable Polymers

AbstractSmart persistent organic room‐temperature phosphorescence (RTP) materials, capable of responding to microenvironmental changes, are critically important in various optoelectronic applications. However, conventional persistent RTP materials usually have not stretchability and flexibility, limiting some practical applications. This study reports a facile and one‐pot photo‐initiated copolymerization method to prepare photoactivated persistent RTP polymers with multicolored afterglow, excellent stretchability, self‐healable and recyclable properties. Impressively, the polymers can be stretched up to 500% without significant loss in RTP intensity and lifetime, and they possess a self‐healing ability with a healing efficiency of 69.6%. Utilizing these photoactivated and stretchable persistent RTP polymers, dual encryption can be achieved under UV irradiation and stretching conditions, thereby enhancing the security levels of the stored confidential information. Overall, this study represents the first example of self‐healable and recyclable stimuli‐responsive RTP materials, demonstrating their bright future for the flexible and wearable optoelectronics.

Comparison of radiant intensity in aqueous media using experimental and numerical simulation techniques

Accurately modelling the propagation of radiant intensity in aqueous environments poses significant challenges for both academia and industry, due to complex interactions like absorption, scattering, and reflection. This study aims to improve the accuracy of optical modeling in water-based systems by comparing experimental data with numerical simulation techniques, addressing the need for more reliable simulation methods in multiple applications like treatment of water and environmental monitoring.Implementation has been done by analyzing how the method compares with the discrete ordinate method, radiometry, and actinometry. The study further quantifies the effect of the photoreactor quartz tube on measured intensity for multiple wavelengths. Losses in light intensity are estimated to be 10 ± 0.5% for FX-1 265 source. In contrast, the simulation in a water medium showed an increase of up to 64% in the light intensity delivered to the central part of the tube due to internal reflections and scattering. Model predictions from ray tracing successfully compared with the Discrete Ordinate Method (DOM) and experimental data (within ± 6%), ensuring the accurate design of complex systems for water disinfection. The data from simulations is seen to tackle challenges faced in complex radiation modeling and demonstrates that the method can be utilized as a useful tool for optimization and prediction.

Neutron phase filtering for separating phase- and attenuation signal in aluminium and anodic aluminium oxide

Neutron imaging has gained significant importance as a material characterisation technique and is particularly useful to visualise hydrogenous materials in objects opaque to other radiations. Fields of application include investigations of hydrogen in metals as well as metal corrosion, thanks to the fact that neutrons can penetrate metals better than e.g. X-rays and are highly sensitive to hydrogen. However, at interfaces refraction effects sometimes obscure the attenuation image, which is used for hydrogen quantification. Refraction, a differential phase effect, diverts the neutron beam away from the interface in the image leading to intensity gain and intensity loss regions, which are superimposed to the attenuation image, thus obscuring the interface region and hindering quantitative analyses of e.g. hydrogen content in the vicinity of the interface. For corresponding effects in X-ray imaging, a phase filter approach was developed and is generally based on transport-of-intensity considerations. Here, we compare such an approach, that has been adapted to neutrons, with another simulation-based assessment using the ray-tracing software McStas. The latter appears superior and promising for future extensions which enable fitting forward models via simulations in order to separate phase and attenuation effects and thus pave the way for overcoming quantitative limitations at refracting interfaces.

Paper immobilized BSA-decorated gold nanoclusters for single-step optical sensing of glucose and cholesterol without cross-reactivity

Minimally invasive methods for detecting glucose, cholesterol and hydrogen peroxide are crucial for monitoring the nutritional and health status of humans and animals. The peroxidase mimetic activity by nanozymes is one of the versatile methods for detecting glucose, cholesterol, hydrogen peroxide, and other biomolecules. However, the strict requirement of acidic pH limits their sensing and interfacing ability with natural enzymes. The present study developed bovine serum albumin (BSA) coated gold nanoclusters (AuNC) immobilized on paper fabric to enable single-step visual detection of glucose, cholesterol and hydrogen peroxide in complex biological fluids like serum and milk. The BSA-AuNC suspension and immobilized paper fabric synergistically interface with the natural oxidative enzymes, glucose oxidase or cholesterol oxidase, at physiological pH. The concomitant loss in the fluorescent intensity of BSA-AuNC-loaded paper fabric exposed to the generated hydrogen peroxide (glucose/glucose oxidase or cholesterol/cholesterol oxidase) was directly proportional to the concentration of glucose or cholesterol. These reactions enabled simple visual detection as well as quantification of hydrogen peroxide, glucose and cholesterol using Image-J software and common smartphone-based mobile applications. The detection ability of BSA-AuNC-embedded paper fabric is specific and remains unaltered in the presence of similar oxidase enzymes or similar substrate analogues. With these unique features, the BSA-AuNC embedded paper fabric stands out as a prominent analytical device with enormous potential as a simple, user-friendly detection tool for monitoring biomolecules that are important to health, nutrition, and environmental safeguarding.

Improved synthetic method for the color-tunable LiYGeO4:Tb3+ persistent phosphor toward information storage

Efficient and stable persistent phosphors play a crucial role in the fields of energy storage, anti-counterfeiting, and biomedical fields. Here, we present an improved synthetic method for preparing a series of color-tunable LiYGeO4:Tb3+ persistent phosphor. The increased Tb3+ concentration in the improved method enhances the persistent luminescent intensity at 20 s by ∼ 2.96 times. This enhancement is due to the dual roles of Tb3+ as both emitters and trap centers within LiYGeO4. By simply increasing the doping concentrations, the persistent color can be adjusted from blue to green. LiYGeO4:Tb3+ exhibits no loss of persistent luminescent intensity even after exposure to water at 80 °C for 72 hours, surpassing the commercial green persistent phosphor. Furthermore, information storage was successful demonstrated by using LiYGeO4:Tb3+ with various doping concentrations. This study represents a significant advancement in optimizing the properties of persistent luminescent materials, where dopants simultaneously serve as emitters and trap centers.

Optimization of ray-tracing simulations to confirm performance of the GP-SANS instrument at the High-Flux Isotope Reactor

The CG-2 beamline at the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) exhibits a notable discrepancy between observed count rates and the count rates we would expect based on a Monte-Carlo neutron ray-trace simulation. These simulations consistently predict count rates approximately five times greater than those observed in four separate experimental runs involving different instrument configurations. This discrepancy suggests that certain factors are causing losses in measurements that are not adequately accounted for in the simulation, in particular guide reflectivity or misalignment.To investigate these discrepancies, a high-dimensional simulation parameter approach is applied in order to understand the losses. Region of Interest (ROI) groups along the instrument are assigned to different surfaces of the guide components within the simulation. This allows the parameters of those guide components to be varied as a group to minimize the complexity of the search space. The result is an optimization of simulation parameters using an iterative scheme that aims to minimize the difference between experimentally measured count rates and simulated count rates across all tested collimator combinations.This proposed methodology holds the potential to reveal previously unrecognized sources of intensity loss in the CG-2 beamline at HFIR and improve the accuracy of simulations, leading to enhanced understanding and performance of the beamline for various scientific applications.

No-tillage farming enhances widespread nitrate leaching in the US Midwest

Abstract Conservation tillage has been promoted as an effective practice to preserve soil health and enhance agroecosystem services. Changes in tillage intensity have a profound impact on soil nitrogen cycling, yet their influence on nitrate losses at large spatiotemporal scales remains uncertain. This study examined the effects of tillage intensity on soil nitrate losses in the US Midwest from 1979–2018 using field data synthesis and process-based agroecosystem modeling approaches. Our results revealed that no-tillage (NT) or reduced tillage intensity (RTI) decreased nitrate runoff but increased nitrate leaching compared to conventional tillage. These trade-offs were largely caused by altered water fluxes, which elevated total nitrate losses. The structural equation model suggested that precipitation had more pronounced effects on nitrate leaching and runoff than soil properties (i.e. texture, pH, and bulk density). Reduction in nitrate runoff under NT or RTI was negatively correlated with precipitation, and the increased nitrate leaching was positively associated with soil bulk density. We further explored the combined effects of NT or RTI and winter cover crops and found that incorporating winter cover crops into NT systems effectively reduced nitrate runoff but did not significantly affect nitrate leaching. Our findings underscore the precautions of implementing NT or RTI to promote sustainable agriculture under changing climate conditions. This study provides valuable insights into the complex relationship between tillage intensity and nitrate loss pathways, contributing to informed decision-making in climate-smart agriculture.

HBANet: A hybrid boundary-aware attention network for infrared and visible image fusion

Infrared and visible image fusion is an extensively investigated problem in infrared image processing, aiming to extract useful information from source images. However, the automatic fusion of these images presents a significant challenge due to the large domain difference and ambiguous boundaries. In this article, we propose a novel image fusion approach based on hybrid boundary-aware attention, termed HBANet, which models global dependencies across the image and leverages boundary-wise prior knowledge to supplement local details. Specifically, we design a novel mixed boundary-aware attention module that is capable of leveraging spatial information to the fullest extent and integrating long dependencies across different domains. To preserve the integrity of texture and structural information, we introduced a sophisticated loss function that comprises structure, intensity, and variation losses. Our method has been demonstrated to outperform state-of-the-art methods in terms of both visual and quantitative metrics, in our experiments on public datasets. Furthermore, our approach also exhibits great generalization capability, achieving satisfactory results in CT and MRI image fusion tasks.

MBHFuse: A multi- branch heterogeneous global and local infrared and visible image fusion with differential convolutional amplification features

Fusing infrared and visible imagery aims to harness their complementary spectral data, enhancing output image quality, sharpness, and content. However, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are not capable of capturing long-range dependencies, while the Transformer architecture faces the challenge of consuming huge computational resources. To address these critical challenges, this paper proposes a novel framework named MBHFuse, which employs a multi-branch heterogeneous global and local image fusion approach. To effectively extract global and local features, we design a multi-branch heterogeneous encoder module and introduce a differential convolution amplification module (DCAM) to further extract complementary information. Additionally, we devise a new loss function, incorporating multi-branch feature decomposition loss, intensity loss, gradient loss, mean squared error loss, and structural similarity loss, for training the proposed MBHFuse model. Through extensive experiments on public datasets, we demonstrate that the proposed framework outperforms other state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods in both qualitative and quantitative evaluations. Our code will be available at https://github.com/sunyichen1994/MBHFuse.

A versatile electrochemical cell for in-situ GI-XRD measurements on lab-scale XRD devices

In-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) cells for electrochemical experiments suffer from strong attenuation of primary and diffracted beams within the electrolyte solution. To reduce the intensity loss of the X-rays, the use of a thin layer of electrolyte solution is an essential element of the conventional cell design. On the other hand, the thin layer electrolyte geometry is a considerable limitation for electrochemical measurements. To overcome these drawbacks a versatile electrochemical cell for in-situ GI-XRD measurements was constructed and used for the electrodeposition of Cu2O thin films on a copper substrate.In this design, a thin copper metal film working electrode is applied on a polyimide foil and then backside-illuminated in GI-XRD geometry. In this way, the XRD pattern is measured from the electrolyte/electrode interface of the working electrode. The X-rays only have to penetrate the polymer foil and the sputtered metal layer, resulting in high-intensity signals.In this work, we demonstrate the abilities of the in-situ cell with quantitative measurements of cathodic deposition of Cu2O thin layers. The results show a good agreement between the diffracted X-ray peak intensities and the calculated and measured thicknesses of the oxide layers. The cell design allows the structural characterization of electrode surfaces during electrochemical measurements without the disadvantages of thin layer cells and therefore does not require high intensity synchrotron radiation to perform X-ray diffraction during electrochemical investigations.

Dual column chromatography combined with high-resolution mass spectrometry improves coverage of non-targeted analysis of plant root exudates

BackgroundWithin the plant kingdom, there is an exceptional amount of chemical diversity that has yet to be annotated. It is for this reason that non-targeted analysis is of interest for those working in novel natural products. To increase the number and diversity of compounds observable in root exudate extracts, several workflows which differ at three key stages were compared: 1) sample extraction, 2) chromatography, and 3) data preprocessing. ResultsPlants were grown in Hoagland's solution for two weeks, and exudates were initially extracted with water, followed by a 24-h regeneration period with subsequent extraction using methanol. Utilizing the second extraction showed improved results with less ion suppression and reduced retention time shifting compared to the first extraction. A single column method, utilizing a pentafluorophenyl column, paired with high-resolution mass spectrometry ionized and correctly identified 34 mock root exudate compounds, while the dual column method, incorporating a pentafluorophenyl column and a porous graphitic carbon column, retained and identified 43 compounds. In a pooled quality control sample of exudate extracts, the single column method detected 1,444 compounds. While the dual method detected fewer compounds overall (1,050), it revealed a larger number of small polar compounds. Three preprocessing methods (targeted, proprietary, and open source) successfully identified 43, 31, and 38 mock root exudate compounds to confidence level 1, respectively. SignificanceEnhancing signal strength and analytical method stability involves removing the high ionic strength nutrient solution before sampling root exudate extracts. Despite signal intensity loss, a dual column method enhances compound coverage, particularly for small polar metabolites. Open-source software proves a viable alternative for non-targeted analysis, even surpassing proprietary software in peak picking.

Spin-dyeing of cellulose fibres with vat dyes using the Ioncell process

Estimated 20 % of global clean water pollution is attributed to textile production. Dyeing and finishing processes use an extensive amount of water and chemicals, and most of the effluents and wastewater is released into the environment. In this study, we explore spin-dyeing of man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCFs) with vat dyes using the Ioncell process, circumventing the ubiquitous use of fresh water and potentially reducing effluents streams to a great extent. Spin-dyeing is an established process for synthetic polymers but is not common for MMCFs. Regenerated cellulose fibres were produced through dissolution of dissolving pulp in the ionic liquid 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-ene acetate. The produced fibres were processed into yarn and a jersey fabric was knitted. Mechanical and colour fastness properties were tested. The fibres properties were also assessed through SEM, birefringence, and crystallinity measurements. Fibres with excellent mechanical properties (tenacity higher than 50 cN/tex) and colour fastness were produced, with most samples receiving the highest or next highest performance grade. The spun-dyed fibres also hold great potential to be recycled themselves without colour change or loss in colour intensity. Textiles with colours produced in large quantities such as black or navy blue could be the first market entry point.

Quantification Assessment of Winter Wheat Sensitivity under Different Drought Scenarios during Growth

To effectively reveal the disaster-causing mechanism between water stress and yield loss under different drought combinations during multiple growth periods of winter wheat, based on biennial wheat drought experiments, a crop growth analysis method was used to quantitatively identify and assess wheat yield loss sensitivity. The results showed that there was a significant negative correlation between the total dry matter relative growth rate (RGR) of wheat and the daily average degree of drought stress. The average determination coefficients of logarithmic fitting for 2017 and 2018 were 0.7935 and 0.7683, respectively. Wheat dry matter accumulation differed under the different drought combination scenarios. The yield loss sensitivity response relationship between the decrease in the RGR of wheat dry matter (relative to no drought stress) and the daily average degree of drought stress could be quantitatively identified by an S-shaped curve, and the 2017 and 2018 average coefficients of determination R2 were 0.859 and 0.849, respectively. Mild drought stress at the tillering stage stimulates adaptability and has little effect on yield. The soil water content (SWC) can be controlled to 65–75% of the field water holding capacity; the SWC at the jointing and booting stage can be controlled to be higher than the field water holding capacity of 55%. The SWC was maintained at a level higher than 75% of the field water holding capacity during the heading and flowering stages and the grain-filling and milky stages to achieve a harmonization of yields and water savings. In addition, during the production process, continuous severe drought during the jointing and booting stage and the heading and flowering stage should be avoided. This study elucidates the response relationship between drought intensity and drought-induced losses from the perspective of physical genesis, provides effective irrigation guidance for regional wheat planting, lays the foundation for the construction of quantitative agricultural drought loss risk curves, and provides technical support for predicting the trend of yield losses in wheat under different drought stresses.

Real-Time Estimation of Human Arm Dynamic Parameters Based on Optical

Abstract A flexible optical intensity sensor is designed in this study to address the poor adaptability of fixed-value parameters in exoskeleton research, which makes it difficult to handle system changes and uncertainties. The light transmission portion of the sensor is made of TPU and PET, exhibiting flexibility and bendable deformation characteristics, as well as good sensitivity, anti-interference capability, and stability. The flexible optical sensor is fixed on the side of the binding device, which is installed on the biceps brachii to collect the optical intensity loss signals after sensor bending. By utilizing this method, parameters such as the cross-sectional radius, arm centroid, and moment of inertia can be estimated in real-time. Finally, the estimated radius values are compared with theoretical values, and the accuracy is verified by combining the kinematic model. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a parameter information error of less than 8.63% and a stability better than 4.3%. Compared to the traditional fixed parameter method, the stability has improved by 25.06%, and the accuracy has improved by 9.04%.

Investigating luminescence signals of pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements for emergency dosimetry

This study investigates the potential use of dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals containing magnesium, calcium or potassium for emergency dosimetry applications using the phenomenon of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Signal measurements were carried out using different stimulation wavelengths, and blue light stimulation was found to be the most efficient. More than half of the samples exhibited a measurable OSL signal and relatively high radiation sensitivity compared to other previously measured emergency detectors. Moreover, samples generally demonstrated a linear dose response. Possible causes of their high zero-dose signal were investigated: mechanical processing and UV light excitation. As variability in sensitivity was observed, the test-dose protocol was used during measurements. Furthermore, the study showed a significant loss of OSL signal intensity within 24 h after irradiation, which suggests the necessity for a fading correction. Finally, a dose recovery test was performed to evaluate the materials and the test-dose protocol under realistic conditions. The findings indicate the potential for using pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements in the event of a radiation emergency due to their dosimetric properties and ease of obtaining.

Quantifying the water saturation degree of cement-based materials by hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR)

This study investigated the T2 spectrum of hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) signals in cement paste with water-to-cement ratios (w/c) of 0.2, 0.35, and 0.5 under three different saturation methods (natural soak, vacuum saturation, and vacuum saturation with high pressure). The saturation degree and pore structure of the cement paste under different saturation methods has been calculated through the linear relationship between water absorption and increment of NMR amplitude intensity. The results showed that the saturation degree of the cement paste increased progressively with the duration of saturation until it reached a state of equilibrium. It can increase saturation degree and reduce the saturation time by increasing the saturation pressure, and vacuum saturation with high pressure is necessary for cement paste with lower w/c. It is important to noted that conditions such as unsaturation, natural soak, and vacuum saturation may result in incomplete water saturation, leading to a partial loss of the 1H NMR signal amplitude intensity and underestimation of porosity measurements. Considering the duration of saturation and the degree of saturation, it is recommended a saturation duration of at least 4 h with a vacuum pressure of 8 MPa for cement paste with w/c ratio of 0.2 and 0.35. For cement paste with w/c of 0.5, a saturation duration of at least 0.5 h with a vacuum pressure of 8 MPa is suggested.

Structure of vanadia-titania catalysts doped with alkali metals according to solid-state NMR, ESR spectroscopies and DFT

In this work, V/M/TiO2 catalysts (M = Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs) were investigated with Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (SSNMR), electron paramagnetic resonance (ESR) and first-principles calculations. The total vanadium content corresponds to half monolayer (4 V atoms·nm−2 of TiO2 support surface), with V/M atomic ratio being 4/0.6. Static 51V and MAS 1H, 7Li, 51V, 23Na, 133Cs NMR spectra were acquired. Surface moieties of vanadium oxide on (001) anatase surface were modeled using density functional theory (DFT); their 51V NMR parameters were calculated with the Gauge-Including Projected Augmented Wave (GIPAW) method and compared to experimental data obtained with 51V SSNMR spectroscopy. It was found that mainly strongly bound vanadium sites (V3) are formed on anatase samples, located on TiO2 terminal oxygen atoms. Weakly bound vanadium sites (V1, V2) are formed on bridged anatase oxygen atoms. Supported alkali metals (Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs) on TiO2 were found to interact with protons located on the terminal and bridged TiO2 oxygen atoms. The relative ratio of weakly bound vanadium sites (V1, V2) increased on alkali-containing samples. Calculations performed showed lithium cation to prefer V-O-Ti or V-O-V bonds over VO, unsystematically deshielding vanadium nuclei. The presence of V3+ is likely to cause a loss of intensity in 51V NMR spectra.

Ultra-low level detection of biomarker bilirubin by graphene quantum dots and bovine serum albumin enabled turn-on sensing

It is known that concentration of unbound (free) bilirubin (BR) instead of the total bilirubin is the critical determinant of cellular uptake and toxicity of bilirubin. Thus, developing fast, effective and sensitive technique for detecting BR, a unique and important biomarker of liver dysfunction, has a long-standing demand. In this study, attempts were made to explore if biocompatible graphene quantum dots (GQDs) could be employed to probe BR at an ultra-low level in aqueous environment through optical techniques. Thus, understanding the possible interactions involved between GQDs and BR is important and necessary to develop protocol for probing BR. The detailed spectral analysis shows that BR molecule quenches the fluorescence of GQDs which may be attributed to a possible fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) involved between the excited state of GQDs and BR. The micro-calorimetric and circular dichroic (CD) measurements have provided binding and structural information in the process of interactions. It is established that with the help of synthesized GQDs, BR can be detected as low as 0.15 nM selectively and this appears to be the most sensitive amongst other available methods. Interestingly, it is observed that the addition of bovine serum albumin (BSA) facilitates the recovery of the BR-induced loss in fluorescence intensity of GQDs. The adopted strategy demonstrates that GQD may act as a sensitive fluorescent “turn off–on” probe for detection of BR. The proposed optical method based protocol validated with serum samples isolated from blood for rapid detection of BR at ultra-low level may help in developing a suitable sensing device in future.

The complexometric behavior of selected aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals shows that they are more than AIEgens

Using the established synthetic methods, aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals and subsequent bi- and multichromophores can be readily synthesized. Aside from pronounced AIE (aggregation induced emission) properties, these selected examples possess distinct complexometric behavior for various metals purely based on the underlying structural motifs. This affects the fluorescence properties of the materials which can be readily exploited for metal ion detection and for the formation of different metal-aroyl-S,N-ketene acetal complexes that were confirmed by Job plot analysis. In particular, gold(I), iron(III), and ruthenium (III) ions reveal complexation enhanced or quenched emission. For most dyes, weakly coodinating complexes were observed, only in case of a phenanthroline aroyl-S,N-ketene acetal multichromophore, measurements indicate the formation of a strongly coordinating complex. For this multichromophore, the complexation results in a loss of fluorescence intensity whereas for dimethylamino-aroyl-S,N-ketene acetals and bipyridine bichromophores, the observed quantum yield is nearly tripled upon complexation. Even if no stable complexes are formed, changes in absorption and emission properties allow for a simple ion detection.