Characterizing the spatial potential of a surface electrode ion trap

The accurate characterization of the spatial potential generated by a planar electrode in a surface-type Paul trap is of great interest. To achieve this, we employ a simple yet highly precise parametric expression to describe the spatial field of a rectangular-shaped electrode. Based on this, an optimization method is introduced to precisely characterize the axial electric field intensity created by the powered electrode and the stray field. In contrast to existing methods, various types of experimental data, such as the equilibrium position of ions in a linear string, equilibrium positions of single trapped ions and trap frequencies, are utilized for potential estimation in order to mitigate systematic errors. This approach offers significant flexibility in voltage settings for data collection, making it particularly well-suited for surface electrode traps where ion probe trapping height may vary with casual voltage settings. In our demonstration, we successfully minimized the discrepancy between experimental observations and model predictions to an impressive extent. The relative errors of secular frequencies were suppressed within $\pm$ 0.5$\%$, and the positional error of ions was limited to less than 1.2 $\mu$m, all surpassing those achieved by existing methodologies.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

Dual-constraint coarse-to-fine network for camouflaged object detection

Camouflaged object detection (COD) is an important yet challenging task, with great application values in industrial defect detection, medical care, etc. The challenges mainly come from the high intrinsic similarities between target objects and background. In this paper, inspired by the biological studies that object detection consists of two steps, i.e., search and identification, we propose a novel framework, named DCNet, for accurate COD. DCNet explores candidate objects and extra object-related edges through two constraints (object area and boundary) and detects camouflaged objects in a coarse-to-fine manner. Specifically, we first exploit an area-boundary decoder (ABD) to obtain initial region cues and boundary cues simultaneously by fusing multi-level features of the backbone. Then, an area search module (ASM) is embedded into each level of the backbone to adaptively search coarse regions of objects with the assistance of region cues from the ABD. After the ASM, an area refinement module (ARM) is utilized to identify fine regions of objects by fusing adjacent-level features with the guidance of boundary cues. Through the deep supervision strategy, DCNet can finally localize the camouflaged objects precisely. Extensive experiments on three benchmark COD datasets demonstrate that our DCNet is superior to 12 state-of-the-art COD methods. In addition, DCNet shows promising results on two COD-related tasks, i.e., industrial defect detection and polyp segmentation

Characterization of Sulfur and Nanostructured Sulfur Battery Cathodes in Electron Microscopy Without Sublimation Artifacts

Lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries have the potential to provide higher energy storage density at lower cost than conventional lithium ion batteries. A key challenge for Li-S batteries is the loss of sulfur to the electrolyte during cycling. This loss can be mitigated by sequestering the sulfur in nanostructured carbon-sulfur composites. The nanoscale characterization of the sulfur distribution within these complex nanostructured electrodes is normally performed by electron microscopy, but sulfur sublimates and redistributes in the high vacuum conditions of conventional electron microscopes. The resulting sublimation artifacts render characterization of sulfur in conventional electron microscopes problematic and unreliable. Here, we demonstrate two techniques, cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) and scanning electron microscopy in air (airSEM), that enable the reliable characterization of sulfur across multiple length scales by suppressing sulfur sublimation. We use cryo-TEM and airSEM to examine carbon-sulfur composites synthesized for use as Li-S battery cathodes, noting several cases where the commonly-employed sulfur melt infusion method is highly inefficient at infiltrating sulfur into porous carbon hosts

Current reversal in a two-noise ratchet

Transport of a Brownian particle moving in a periodic potential is investigated in the presence of the two correlated noises. We present the analytical expression of the net current at quasi-steady state limit. The competitions among the asymmetric parameter of the potential, the noise correlation parameter and the temporal asymmetric parameter of driving force lead to the phenomena like current reversal. The competitions of different driving factors are necessary for current reversal

Efficacy of a combination of Yiqi Huoxue Tongluo decoction and Chinese acupuncture in the treatment of ischemic stroke, and its effect on neurological function and activity of daily living

Purpose: To investigate the clinical effect of combined use of Yiqi Huoxue Tongluo decoction and Chinese acupuncture on ischemic stroke, and its effect on neurological function and activity of daily living (ADL) of patients. Methods: Three hundred and seventeen (317) ischemic stroke patients on admission at Ganzhou People's Hospital (GPH) were selected and randomly divided into acupuncture group (n = 159) and combination group (n = 158). Routine treatment of lesions was done for all patients. The acupuncture group was treated with Chinese acupuncture, while the combination group received a combination of Yiqi Huoxue Tongluo decoction and Chinese acupuncture. All treatments lasted for one month. Indicators such as clinical efficacy, neurological function and ADL were determined in each group. Results: The combination group had significantly higher post-treatment objective response rate (ORR) than the acupuncture group (p < 0.05). The levels of growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) and plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) were significantly reduced in both groups, with significantly lower levels in the combination group than in acupuncture patients (p < 0.05). Varying degrees of decrease in neuropathy disability (NDS) scores were seen in both groups, and at 1 month and 3 months after treatment, the NDS scores of the combination group were lower than those of the acupuncture group (p < 0.05). Both groups had higher BI scores after treatment, but at 1 month and 3 months posttreatment, the BI scores of the combination group were significantly higher than those of the acupuncture group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The use of a combination of Yiqi Huoxue Tongluo decoction and Chinese acupuncture produced better clinical efficacy and lower serum evels of GDF-15 and PAI-1 than acupuncture, and it significantly improved the ADL of patients