Emergence and Development of Task-Orientated Intergovernmental Network: An Explanation for China’s Partner Assistance Model

This paper concentrates on China’s partner assistance phenomena. It adopted network analysis methods, task-orientated organization theories and institutional evolution theories to construct an analysis framework for task-orientated intergovernmental network, and apply it to analyze China’s partner assistance practices since the 1980s. The results show that China’s partner assistance virtually builds a task-orientated intergovernmental network. This network is evolving under overlapping, embedding and reconstructing effects. According to the emergence and development process of task-orientated intergovernmental network, China’s central government plays a critical role in this process. The relationship between nodes, the relations between assistance providers and recipients are not properly, many interactions among local governments need to be formalized

Complexity of Wake Electroencephalography Correlates With Slow Wave Activity After Sleep Onset

Sleep electroencephalography (EEG) provides an opportunity to study sleep scientifically, whose chaotic, dynamic, complex, and dissipative nature implies that non-linear approaches could uncover some mechanism of sleep. Based on well-established complexity theories, one hypothesis in sleep medicine is that lower complexity of brain waves at pre-sleep state can facilitate sleep initiation and further improve sleep quality. However, this has never been studied with solid data. In this study, EEG collected from healthy subjects was used to investigate the association between pre-sleep EEG complexity and sleep quality. Multiscale entropy analysis (MSE) was applied to pre-sleep EEG signals recorded immediately after light-off (while subjects were awake) for measuring the complexities of brain dynamics by a proposed index, CI1−30. Slow wave activity (SWA) in sleep, which is commonly used as an indicator of sleep depth or sleep intensity, was quantified based on two methods, traditional Fast Fourier transform (FFT) and ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD). The associations between wake EEG complexity, sleep latency, and SWA in sleep were evaluated. Our results demonstrated that lower complexity before sleep onset is associated with decreased sleep latency, indicating a potential facilitating role of reduced pre-sleep complexity in the wake-sleep transition. In addition, the proposed EEMD-based method revealed an association between wake complexity and quantified SWA in the beginning of sleep (90 min after sleep onset). Complexity metric could thus be considered as a potential indicator for sleep interventions, and further studies are encouraged to examine the application of EEG complexity before sleep onset in populations with difficulty in sleep initiation. Further studies may also examine the mechanisms of the causal relationships between pre-sleep brain complexity and SWA, or conduct comparisons between normal and pathological conditions

Oriented ice eddy detection network based on the Sentinel-1 dual-polarization data

The complex convergence of cold and warm ocean currents in the Nordic Seas provides suitable conditions for the formation and development of eddies. In the Marginal Ice Zones (MIZs), ice eddies contribute to the accelerated melting of surface sea ice by facilitating vertical heat transfer, which influences the evolution of the marginal ice zone and plays an indirect role in regulating global climate. In this paper, we employed high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery and proposed an oriented ice eddy detection network (OIEDNet) framework to conduct automated detection and spatiotemporal analysis of ice eddies in the Nordic Seas. Firstly, a high-quality RGB false-color imaging method was developed based on Sentinel-1 dual-polarization (HH+HV) Extra-Wide Swath (EW) mode products, effectively integrating denoising algorithms and image processing techniques. Secondly, an automatic ice eddy detection method based on oriented bounding boxes (OBB) was constructed to identify the ice eddy and output features such as horizontal scales, eddy centers and rotation angles. Finally, the characteristics of the detected ice eddies in the Nordic Seas during 2022-2023 were systematically analyzed. The results demonstrate that the proposed OIEDNet exhibits significant performance in ice eddy detection

Aqua­azido­{2,2′-[o-phenylenebis(nitrilo­methyl­idyne)]diphenolato}manganese(III) hemihydrate

In the title compound, [Mn(C20H14N2O2)(N3)(H2O)]·0.5H2O, the MnIII ion is chelated by the N,N′,O,O′-tetra­dentate Schiff base ligand and further coordinated by one azide ion and one water mol­ecule in trans positions, resulting in a distorted fac-MnN3O3 octa­hedral arrangement. The O atom of the uncoordinated water mol­ecule lies on a crystallographic twofold axis. In the crystal, O—H⋯O and O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds help to establish the packing

Age-Related Alterations in Electroencephalography Connectivity and Network Topology During n-Back Working Memory Task

The study of the healthy brain in elders, especially age-associated alterations in cognition, is important to understand the deficits created by Alzheimer's disease (AD), which imposes a tremendous burden on individuals, families, and society. Although, the changes in synaptic connectivity and reorganization of brain networks that accompany aging are gradually becoming understood, little is known about how normal aging affects brain inter-regional synchronization and functional networks when items are held in working memory (WM). According to the classic Sternberg WM paradigm, we recorded multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) from healthy adults (young and senior) in three different conditions, i.e., the resting state, 0-back (control) task, and 2-back task. The phase lag index (PLI) between EEG channels was computed and then weighted and undirected network was constructed based on the PLI matrix. The effects of aging on network topology were examined using a brain connectivity toolbox. The results showed that age-related alteration was more prominent when the 2-back task was engaged, especially in the theta band. For the younger adults, the WM task evoked a significant increase in the clustering coefficient of the beta-band functional connectivity network, which was absent in the older adults. Furthermore, significant correlations were observed between the behavioral performance of WM and EEG metrics in the theta and gamma bands, suggesting the potential use of those measures as biomarkers for the evaluation of cognitive training, for instance. Taken together, our findings shed further light on the underlying mechanism of WM in physiological aging and suggest that different EEG frequencies appear to have distinct functional correlates in cognitive aging. Analysis of inter-regional synchronization and topological characteristics based on graph theory is thus an appropriate way to explore natural age-related changes in the human brain

Concept Design of the “Guanlan” Science Mission: China’s Novel Contribution to Space Oceanography

Among the various challenges that spaceborne radar observations of the ocean face, the following two issues are probably of a higher priority: inadequate dynamic resolution, and ineffective vertical penetration. It is therefore the vision of the National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology of China that two highly anticipated breakthroughs in the coming decade are likely to be associated with radar interferometry and ocean lidar (OL) technology, which are expected to make a substantial contribution to a submesoscale-resolving and depth-resolving observation of the ocean. As an expanded follow-up of SWOT and an oceanic counterpart of CALIPSO, the planned “Guanlan” science mission comprises a dual-frequency (Ku and Ka) interferometric altimetry (IA), and a near-nadir pointing OL. Such an unprecedented combination of sensor systems has at least three prominent advantages. (i) The dual-frequency IA ensures a wider swath and a shorter repeat cycle which leads to a significantly improved temporal and spatial resolution up to days and kilometers. (ii) The first spaceborne active OL ensures a deeper penetration depth and an all-time detection which leads to a layered characterization of the optical properties of the subsurface ocean, while also serving as a near-nadir altimeter measuring vertical velocities associated with the divergence, and convergence of geostrophic eddy motions in the mixed layer. (iii) The simultaneous functioning of the IA/OL system allows for an enhanced correction of the contamination effects of the atmosphere and the air-sea interface, which in turn considerably reduces the error budgets of the two sensors. As a result, the integrated IA/OL payload is expected to resolve the ocean variability at submeso and sub-week scales with a centimeter-level accuracy, while also partially revealing marine life systems and ecosystems with a 10-m vertical interval in the euphotic layer, moving a significant step forward toward a “transparent ocean” down to the vicinity of the thermocline, both dynamically and bio-optically

Ultra-small topological spin textures with size of 1.3nm at above room temperature in Fe78Si9B13 amorphous alloy

Topologically protected spin textures, such as skyrmions1,2 and vortices3,4, are robust against perturbations, serving as the building blocks for a range of topological devices5-9. In order to implement these topological devices, it is necessary to find ultra-small topological spin textures at room temperature, because small size implies the higher topological charge density, stronger signal of topological transport10,11 and the higher memory density or integration for topological quantum devices5-9. However, finding ultra-small topological spin textures at high temperatures is still a great challenge up to now. Here we find ultra-small topological spin textures in Fe78Si9B13 amorphous alloy. We measured a large topological Hall effect (THE) up to above room temperature, indicating the existence of highly densed and ultra-small topological spin textures in the samples. Further measurements by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) reveal that the average size of ultra-small magnetic texture is around 1.3nm. Our Monte Carlo simulations show that such ultra-small spin texture is topologically equivalent to skyrmions, which originate from competing frustration and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction12,13 coming from amorphous structure14-17. Taking a single topological spin texture as one bit and ignoring the distance between them, we evaluated the ideal memory density of Fe78Si9B13, which reaches up to 4.44*104 gigabits (43.4 TB) per in2 and is 2 times of the value of GdRu2Si218 at 5K. More important, such high memory density can be obtained at above room temperature, which is 4 orders of magnitude larger than the value of other materials at the same temperature. These findings provide a unique candidate for magnetic memory devices with ultra-high density.Comment: 26 pages, 4 figure

Post-treatment and enhancement for coatings formed by spontaneous polymerization on aluminum

Post-treatment and modification of a new process to form protective coatings on aluminum have been studied. This coating process S-Poly® is based on spontaneous polymerization on aluminum and other metals. The polymer coating studied here was formed from styrene, n-phenyl maleimide (NPMI), bismaleimide (BMI), and 2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl acetoacetate (MEA). Both optimization of the process and the characterization of changes in coating structure after polymerization were investigated. It was seen that the coating successfully changed into an adherent film through controlled rinsing and drying with the aid of a coalescing solvent, and drying at a high temperature (\u3e170°C) enhanced the performance of the coating in terms of corrosion resistance and adhesion. It was revealed that improvements could be attributed to removing surface water on the substrate and forming a dense protective layer by means of thermal crosslinking of β-diketone functional groups in the coating. The reaction mechanism associated with evolution of acetone, carbon dioxide, and acetoacetic acid was reported. The resultant coatings showed adhesion strength over 30 MPa in torsional test and corrosion free for 3000 hours exposure in salt fog spray test (ASTM B-117). Furthermore, a new coating system incorporating N-isobutoxymethyl acrylamide (BAM) was developed. The new system became crosslinked at temperatures below 150°C through the interaction between BAM and β-diketone groups. The resultant coating obtained desired performance without the damage to mechanical properties of some aluminum alloys, which is caused by high temperature drying. It is also reported that the use of a corrosion inhibitor Nitrolotris (methylene) triphosphonic acid (NTMP) resulted in superior corrosion resistance and adhesion, especially wet adhesion of the coating formed from this new system.

Use of Fluorescence for the High-Throughput Evaluation of Synergistic Thermal and Photo Stabilizer Interactions In Poly (Vinyl Chloride)

The selection of thermal and photo stabilizers for poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) using conventional methods is a time-consuming process. The high-throughput screening method developed in this research demonstrates rapid and efficient ways to quantify the effectiveness of PVC stabilizers with respect to raw plastic materials, stabilizers, levels of use, and testing conditions. An experimental protocol using liquid sampling and fluorescence measurement was developed to determine the effectiveness of formulations. This was used to evaluate the performance of stabilizers based on the change of fluorescence emission at 440 nm after thermal aging or ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The performance of PVC formulations using six different types of stabilizers was successfully mapped for both PVC resin and flexible PVC. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics