Rapid Process Research Articles

Digital light processing printing of porous ceramics using interparticle photo-cross-linkable Pickering emulsions

Digital light processing (DLP) printing using photo-curable Pickering emulsion is a promising route to fabricate porous ceramics having on-demand structures. However, the long duration for debinding/sintering due to the large organic contents remained in the photo-cured bodies and the insufficient long-term stability of the emulsions needs to be solved toward efficient manufacturing. Herein, a new interparticle photo-cross-linkable Pickering emulsion having improved stability, which can be photo-cured using reduced amounts of monomers, were designed for the rapid production of porous ceramics using DLP printing. The Pickering emulsion was obtained by mixing isopropyl myristate into a dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) aqueous suspension of SiO2 particles with pre-dissolved polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) and a photo-radical initiator. Further, functionalized polyethyleneimine (PEI) was designed to ensure the dispersion of SiO2 particles and formation of a Pickering emulsion. The photo-irradiation of the designed Pickering emulsion resulted in the successful photo-curing by the radical polymerization of PEGDA, followed by a Michael addition reaction between the reactive amine of PEI and acryloyl groups of PEGDA. The improved stability of the emulsion over time and reduced amounts of monomer facilitated the application of the designed emulsion to DLP printing, followed by a rapid firing process without any structural collapse.

Fast Naïve Bayes classifiers for COVID-19 news in social networks

The growth of fake news has emerged as a substantial societal concern, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fake news can lead to unwarranted panic, misinformed decisions, and a general state of confusion among the public. Existing methods to detect and filter out fake news have accuracy, speed, and data distribution limitations. This study explores a fast and reliable approach based on Naïve Bayes algorithms for fake news detection on COVID-19 news in social networks. The study used a dataset of 10,700 tweets and applied text pre-processing, term-weighting, document frequency thresholding (DFT), and synthetic minority oversampling techniques (SMOTE) to prepare the data for classification. The study assessed the performance and runtime of four models: gradient boosting (GDBT), decision tree (DT), multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB), and complement Naïve Bayes (CNB). The testing results showed that the CNB model reaches the highest accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score of approximately 92% each, with the shortest runtime of 0.55 seconds. This study highlights the potential of the CNB model as an effective tool for detecting online fake news about COVID-19, given its superior performance and rapid processing time.

What Does It Take to Develop Structurally Complex Molecules by Total Synthesis? Rapid Process Development and GMP Manufacturing of E7130 Drug Substance for First-in-Human Clinical Study

What Does It Take to Develop Structurally Complex Molecules by Total Synthesis? Rapid Process Development and GMP Manufacturing of E7130 Drug Substance for First-in-Human Clinical Study

Adjustable patch and feature prior token-based transformer for weakly supervised semantic segmentation

Weakly supervised semantic segmentation is a challenging task, utilizing only low-cost weak supervision to produce pixel-level predictions. Existing transformer-based methods for weakly supervised semantic segmentation have some limitations: (1) Fixing patch size might destroy the structured semantics, which is unfriendly to objects of different scales, and (2) Ignoring the prior features when using multi-head attention mechanisms might lead to inaccurate segmentation localization. To tackle these issues, we proposed an effective transformer framework coupled with the adjustable patch and prior feature tokens, termed as APFPformer, in which an adjustable patch module is developed to split the image according to the area of the salient object for preserving the structured semantics in patches. A prior feature token module is devised to exploit the edge and texture information as prior tokens, ensuring the gain of discriminative representation. Additionally, a single-stage scheme is applied to reduce the computation and rapid segmentation process. Our experiments demonstrate the superiority of our approach over early methods, gaining competitive mean Intersection-over-Union scores of 67.9% on the PASCAL VOC2012 dataset and 40.2% on the MS COCO dataset.

Effect of Microwave Pretreatment on the Properties and Microstructure of Low-Concentration Carbon Dioxide Early Cured Cement-Based Materials

The utilization of microwave drying technology has expanded across various sectors due to its rapid processing speed, reduced operation time, lower sample temperatures, and consistent heating. In this research, microwave pretreatment was implemented prior to carbonation curing with low concentrations, and an array of tests including moisture content, compressive strength, carbonation depth, CO2 absorptivity, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) were utilized to investigate the effect of microwave pretreatment on the properties and microstructure of cementitious materials under early carbonation curing with low CO2 concentrations. The findings reveal that microwave pretreatment significantly decreases the moisture content within the test specimens, expediting the ingress of CO2 and improving the compressive strength of the specimens. At the same time, the effectiveness of microwave pretreatment in reducing moisture content diminishes as the pretreatment time increases. The absorption of CO2 is relatively rapid in the early stage of carbonation curing, with over 50% of the CO2 absorption occurring within the 0–6 h period of carbonation curing. The hydration products and microstructure of the uncarbonated part inside the specimens are generally consistent with the normal curing state. The formation of CaCO3 contributed to the densification of the specimen by infilling its internal voids, thereby enhancing its compressive strength. Although carbonation curing enlarges the average pore size of the samples, it also serves a filling function, making the samples more compact and reducing the porosity.

Effect of nucleating agents on crystalline silicon textured structure: From upright pyramid to analogous inverted pyramid

For further improving the efficiency of solar cells, it is one of the mainstream approaches to obtain a novel textured surface structure with lower reflectivity, without affecting the existing industry processes. However, the current rapid texturing methods used in the industry can only achieve an upright pyramid structure. This study first analyzed how the rapid texturing process is achieved through texturing additives. Subsequently, based on this principle, we investigated the core component of the texturing additives—nucleating agent—and examined how its concentration influences the surface structure, leading to the development of an analogous inverted pyramid structure with advantageous reflectivity. To remove the damage layer generated at the top edges of the analogous inverted pyramid due to insufficient etching, a two-step texturing process was proposed. This process aims to protect the structure while effectively removing the damage layer. Ultimately, we applied the two-step texturing process to fabricate heterojunction solar cells with the analogous inverted pyramid textured surface, achieving an efficiency of 25.43 %, which is 0.19 % higher than conventional upright pyramid structure cells.

Impaired Ability in Visual-Spatial Attention in Chinese Children With Developmental Dyslexia.

A growing body of evidence suggests that children with dyslexia in alphabetic languages exhibit visual-spatial attention deficits that can obstruct reading acquisition by impairing their phonological decoding skills. However, it remains an open question whether these visual-spatial attention deficits are present in children with dyslexia in non-alphabetic languages. Chinese, with its logographic writing system, offers a unique opportunity to explore this question. The presence of visual-spatial attention deficits in Chinese children with dyslexia remains insufficiently investigated. Therefore, this study aimed to explore whether such deficits exist, employing a visual search paradigm. Three visual search tasks were conducted, encompassing two singleton feature search tasks and a serial conjunction search task. The results indicated that Chinese children with dyslexia performed as well as chronological age-matched control children in color search tasks but less effectively in orientation search, suggesting a difficulty in the rapid visual processing of orientation: a deficit potentially specific to Chinese dyslexia. Crucially, Chinese children with dyslexia also exhibited lower accuracy, longer reaction times, and steeper slopes in the reaction times by set size function in the conjunction search task compared to control children, which is indicative of a visual-spatial attention deficit.

Expeditious and single step synthesis of ceria quantum dots by microplasma discharge method for supercapacitor applications

In the present study, CeO2 quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized by microplasma discharge method out of cerium nitrate precursor suspension using argon gas as plasma medium. The highly energetic electrons in the microplasma plume generate highly reactive metastable OH radicals, which further combine with electrons to form OH− and react with the cerium ions (III) in the precursor solution to form CeO2 QDs. The radical produced during the process was recorded using optical emission spectroscopy. The structural features, oxidation states, morphology, elemental composition and surface area of the synthesized QDs were identified by XRD, Raman, XPS, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, EDS, PL and BET analysis, respectively. The results obtained revealed the formation of cubic phase CeO2 QDs, which was confirmed by XRD and Raman analysis. Agglomerated ceria QDs of spherical shape with an average size of around 5 nm were analyzed from FE-SEM and HR-TEM observations. The electrochemical performance of CeO2 QDs as electrode material was investigated through cyclic voltammetry analysis by an electrochemical workstation. The material achieved a highest specific capacitance of 388 Fg-1 at 1 Ag-1 current density. The commendable electrochemical performance of microplasma synthesized CeO2 QDs was attributed to the minuscule size, high surface area and the presence of Ce3+ ions. This study highlights the synthesis of CeO2 QDs through a single, rapid and amicable process without the use of secondary treatments and suggests the use of CeO2 as a good electrode material for electrochemical applications.

Microstructures, transformation temperatures and superelastic properties of the rapidly solidified (TiZrHf)50Ni25Co10Cu15 HESMAs

In this study, the effects of the rapid solidification process on microstructures, transformation behaviors and superelastic properties of the multi-component (TiZrHf)50Ni25Co10Cu15 (at%) high-entropy shape memory alloy (HESMA) were investigated. The as-spun (TiZrHf)50Ni25Co10Cu15 fibers were prepared by a rapid solidification process. The solution-treated (TiZrHf)50Ni25Co10Cu15 alloy bulk specimen consisted of a (NiCoCu)-rich matrix, (TiZrHf)2(NiCoCu)-type phase and carbide, while the as-spun fiber specimen consisted of (TiZrHf)-rich matrix and carbide. The (TiZrHf)2(NiCoCu)-type phase is dissolved in the matrix of as-spun fibers due to the rapid solidification process. The martensitic transformation start temperature of the (TiZrHf)50Ni25Co10Cu15 alloy increased from 53.5 °C to 91.5 °C after the rapid solidification process. Both the (TiZrHf)50Ni25Co10Cu15 alloy bulk and fiber specimens showed clear superelasticity and the total superelastic recovery strain increased from 4.6 % to 5.7% after the rapid solidification process.

Finding structure during incremental speech comprehension.

A core aspect of human speech comprehension is the ability to incrementally integrate consecutive words into a structured and coherent interpretation, aligning with the speaker's intended meaning. This rapid process is subject to multidimensional probabilistic constraints, including both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic information within specific contexts, and it is their interpretative coherence that drives successful comprehension. To study the neural substrates of this process, we extract word-by-word measures of sentential structure from BERT, a deep language model, which effectively approximates the coherent outcomes of the dynamic interplay among various types of constraints. Using representational similarity analysis, we tested BERT parse depths and relevant corpus-based measures against the spatiotemporally resolved brain activity recorded by electro-/magnetoencephalography when participants were listening to the same sentences. Our results provide a detailed picture of the neurobiological processes involved in the incremental construction of structured interpretations. These findings show when and where coherent interpretations emerge through the evaluation and integration of multifaceted constraints in the brain, which engages bilateral brain regions extending beyond the classical fronto-temporal language system. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence supporting the use of artificial neural networks as computational models for revealing the neural dynamics underpinning complex cognitive processes in the brain.

Finding structure during incremental speech comprehension

A core aspect of human speech comprehension is the ability to incrementally integrate consecutive words into a structured and coherent interpretation, aligning with the speaker’s intended meaning. This rapid process is subject to multidimensional probabilistic constraints, including both linguistic knowledge and non-linguistic information within specific contexts, and it is their interpretative coherence that drives successful comprehension. To study the neural substrates of this process, we extract word-by-word measures of sentential structure from BERT, a deep language model, which effectively approximates the coherent outcomes of the dynamic interplay among various types of constraints. Using representational similarity analysis, we tested BERT parse depths and relevant corpus-based measures against the spatiotemporally resolved brain activity recorded by electro-/magnetoencephalography when participants were listening to the same sentences. Our results provide a detailed picture of the neurobiological processes involved in the incremental construction of structured interpretations. These findings show when and where coherent interpretations emerge through the evaluation and integration of multifaceted constraints in the brain, which engages bilateral brain regions extending beyond the classical fronto-temporal language system. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence supporting the use of artificial neural networks as computational models for revealing the neural dynamics underpinning complex cognitive processes in the brain.

Effect of methyl methacrylate concentrations on surface and thermal analysis of composite polymer polymethylmethacrylates with mesogen reactive RM82

ABSTRACT This research report of the synthesis of composite polymers from liquid crystal mesogen reactive (RM82) monomers with Methyl methacrylate (MMA). The purpose of this research is analysis the effect concentration of MMA on the surface and thermal of the composite polymer PMMA-RM82. The result of the morphological analysis of composite surfaces performed by polarization optical microscopy (POM) technique showed liquid crystal textures affected composition from two monomers. SEM images show that the surface of the RM82 liquid crystal has a shape resembling fibrous and blade-like crystals with a length of up to 10 μm (micrometers). Analysis thermal showed the heat released by the PMMA-RM82 increased with the increase in MMA weight percent. This affects the rapid crystallization process of PMMA-RM82 which of concentration MMA 30%-RM82 the heat released is almost twice as much as the heat released by MMA 5%-RM82. The absence of PMMA and RM82 peaks both endothermic and exothermic in PMMA-RM82 samples indicates that polymerization has occurred and a new product has formed. Analysis structure molecule by FTIR found that the IR spectral form of each variation in the weight percent of MMA was almost the same, but there was a spectral shift that showed that polymerization had occurred in PMMA-RM82 which was characterized by a reaction to the free radical C=C bond released by the photoinitiator. XRD pattern of composite PMMA-RM82 showed the peaks formed are located at scattering angles similar to RM82 but there is a decrease in intensity as the percent weight of MMA increases.

SingmiR: a single-cell miRNA alignment and analysis tool.

Single-cell RNA sequencing(RNA-seq) has revolutionized our understanding of cell biology, developmental and pathophysiological molecular processes, paving the way toward novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. However, most of the gene regulatory processes on the single-cell level are still unknown, including post-transcriptional control conferred by microRNAs (miRNAs). Like the established single-cell gene expression analysis, advanced computational expertise is required to comprehensively process newly emerging single-cell miRNA-seq datasets. A web server providing a workflow tailored for single-cell miRNA-seq data with a self-explanatory interface is currently not available. Here, we present SingmiR, enabling the rapid (pre-)processing and quantification of human miRNAs from noncoding single-cell samples. It performs read trimming for different library preparation protocols, generates automated quality control reports and provides feature-normalized count files. Numerous standard and advanced analyses such as dimension reduction, clustered feature heatmaps, sample correlation heatmaps and differential expression statistics are implemented. We aim to speed up the prototyping pipeline for biologists developing single-cell miRNA-seq protocols on small to medium-sized datasets. SingmiR is freely available to all users without the need for a login athttps://www.ccb.uni-saarland.de/singmir.

Impact of upstream fetch on environmental wind engineering applications

With the rapid urbanization process, there is a growing concern regarding the wind environment in suburban and urban regions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the upstream fetch length on environmental wind engineering issues, such as the pedestrian level wind (PLW) and the wind comfort assessment around newly built buildings. The suburban region of Westmount in Montreal and the urban area of Kowloon in Hong Kong are selected for case studies. The investigation has been experimental and results were obtained from two atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnels. The results indicate that the upstream fetch length that influences the PLW estimation in suburban areas is as short as 200 m and in urban areas is as short as 450 m. For the wind comfort assessment of a newly building, an upstream fetch length of 100 m from the building site can be utilized depending on the criteria used.

Mechanical properties, microstructure, and environmental assessment of recycled concrete from aggregate after fire

In terms of ever-increasing fire accidents in cities together with upgrades in the amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, the rapid modernization and urbanization process have caused an adverse effect on environmental protection. The lack of natural resources in concrete provides a driving force for the reuse of C&D waste caused by fire accidents. Aiming to conserve natural resources and reduce environmental pollution, the feasibility of using aggregate after fire as an alternative material to produce recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is investigated experimentally. The materials and environmental properties of the RAC are evaluated with the change of four different replacement ratios (25%, 50%, 100%, including a control group of 0%), and five different heating temperatures (200 °C, 400 °C, 600 °C, and 800 °C, including a control group of 20 °C). The results showed that with the increase of the substitution ratio, the strength, elastic modulus and ascending-branch slope for the stress–strain curves decrease gradually, which the brittle failure phenomenon becomes more obvious, which may have a bearing on the presence of old adhered mortar (AM) on recycled coarse aggregate (RCA). Nevertheless, the utilization of waste concrete treated by heating in RAC can mitigate the adverse effect of increasing the replacement ratio, which is attributed to the decreasing content of old AM in RCA. Numerous calculation formulas related to the material properties and constitutive model are proposed by considering different factors. Based on SEM tests and X-ray diffraction techniques, it was identified that the strengthening mechanism in the mechanical properties and uniaxial compressive behavior for RAC prepared with waste concrete after heating is mainly ascribed to the decreasing possibility of penetrating cracks in concrete under compressive loading. The cost and EI assessment shows that RAC with a 25% replacement ratio produced by waste concrete after 400 °C can probably be a suitable selection in concrete materials from an economic and environmental perspective.

Synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on nichrome and nickel by using rapid thermal processing furnace

Synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on nichrome and nickel by using rapid thermal processing furnace

Rapid thermal process for fabricating α-alumina tight ultrafiltration membrane with narrow pore size distribution

The development of tight ceramic ultrafiltration membranes for water purification facilitates is challenging because of high fabrication costs and low permeate flux. In this study, a low-energy rapid thermal process (RTP) was comprehensively investigated for fabricating of high-precision, permeable α-alumina tight ultrafiltration membranes. Compared to the conventional thermal process (CTP), RTP offers an ultra-fast heating rate and shorter holding time, effectively mitigating grain growth and pore aggregation. Moreover, the decomposition of organic matter is delayed during RTP, providing a lower interfacial energy that enables direct formation of α-alumina at a low temperature of 750 °C. During a secondary subsequent RTP, the residual phase is fully converted to α-alumina by the in-situ seeding effect. By utilizing RTP, we successfully prepared α-alumina ultrafiltration membranes within 30min by calcination, with an average pore size of approximately 6nm, a narrow pore distribution coefficient of 1.12, and high permeance of 219L-1·m-2·h-1·bar-1.

Nitric oxide-releasing photocrosslinked chitosan cryogels

The highly porous morphology of chitosan cryogels, with submicrometric-sized pore cell walls, provides a large surface area which leads to fast water absorption and elevated swelling degrees. These characteristics are crucial for the applications of nitric oxide (NO) releasing biomaterials, in which the release of NO is triggered by the hydration of the material. In the present study, we report the development of chitosan cryogels (CS) with a porous structure of interconnected cells, with wall thicknesses in the range of 340–881 nm, capable of releasing NO triggered by the rapid hydration process. This property was obtained using an innovative strategy based on the functionalization of CS with two previously synthesized S-nitrosothiols: S-nitrosothioglycolic acid (TGA(SNO)) and S-nitrosomercaptosuccinic acid (MSA(SNO)). For this purpose, CS was previously methacrylated with glycidyl methacrylate and subsequently submitted to photocrosslinking and freeze-drying processes. The photocrosslinked hydrogels thus obtained were then functionalized with TGA(SNO) and MSA(SNO) in reactions mediated by carbodiimide. After functionalization, the hydrogels were frozen and freeze-dried to obtain porous S-nitrosated chitosan cryogels with high swelling capacities. Through chemiluminescence measurements, we demonstrated that CS-TGA(SNO) and CS-MSA(SNO) cryogels spontaneously release NO upon water absorption at rates of 3.34 × 10−2 nmol mg−1 min−1 and 1.27 × 10−1 nmol mg−1 min−1, respectively, opening new perspectives for the use of CS as a platform for localized NO delivery in biomedical applications.

Exploring the Mechanisms of Excited-State Intramolecular Proton Transfer in Hydroxyphenyl-benzimidazole Derivatives: A Theoretical Perspective

We conducted a comprehensive theoretical exploration for the ESIPT mechanism in a set of HBI derivatives in THF solution (Cpd-A and Cpd-B, and three isomers: Cpd-1, Cpd-2 and Cpd-3), employing time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) methods for the excited-state calculations. An energy scan for the excited-state proton transfer pathway indicates that both Cpd-A and Cpd-B exhibit a low transition barrier from Enol* to Keto*, with the energy of Keto* much lower than Enol* state, which implies a rapid ESIPT process. The high instability of Enol* state contradicts the experimental observed dual emission bands for Cpd-A, where the emission band predominantly contributed from Keto* state. We propose a new mechanism to account for this dual fluorescence phenomenon of Cpd-A, where the overall fluorescence band can be ascribed to the emissions from both Keto* and a stable rotamer of Cpd-A. Calculations suggest that Cpd-A can exist in both syn and anti rotamers, with a relatively low isomerization barrier of 14.0 kcal/mol. The coexistence of two stable isomers in solution gives rise to the phenomenon of dual emission for Cpd-A. Further investigation for the substituent effects on the ESIPT dynamics of three isomers (Cpd-1, Cpd-2 and Cpd-3) indicates that varying substituent positions can have a substantial impact on both ESIPT process and excited-state charge transfer. The methoxy group substitution proximate to the hydroxy functional group decreases the energy barrier for Enol*-Keto* transition, and also promotes a more substantial charge transfer. Our study demonstrates a new mechanism of the dual fluorescence observed for the target HBI derivatives, offering a novel understanding for the ESIPT mechanism in solvent.

In situ SR-CT experiment of Al–SiC microwave rapid sintering: Formation and regulation of rapid densification

SiC reinforced Al (SiC/Al) composites have outstanding advantages in different fields including aerospace. However, the current mechanical and chemical properties of Al–SiC composites are still not up to expectations because of the problems such as wettability, interface reaction, sintering time and SiC size and distribution. Microwave rapid sintering has a promising prospect for the preparation of high performance Al–SiC, however, the lack of process observation leads to the unclear relationship of energy, microstructure and material properties. Therefore microwave rapid sintering of Al–SiC has not been fully explored and applied. In the present paper, the whole process of Al–SiC microstructure evolution was observed accurately by in situ SR-CT experiment during microwave rapid sintering process. Based on the joint analysis of energy-structure-performance, it was found that the spherical SiC located at the neck of Al particles in the microwave field effectively increased the diffusion rate of Al–SiC samples, which inhibited the growth of grains and the densification process was basically completed in a short time. It was revealed that a region with high electric field strength and uniform distribution formed due to SiC with different structural characteristics, thus achieved the rapid densification of the Al–SiC in microwave sintering. The formation and regulation mechanism of rapid densification of Al–SiC during microwave rapid sintering were researched by the relationship between energy-structure and performance, which would provid more understanding for the preparation of high-performance Al–SiC based on microwave rapid sintering technology, and provide the possibility for the preparation of more functional materials.