Static and free vibration analyses of laminated composite shells by cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) using three-node triangular elements

A cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) using three-node triangular elements was recently proposed to improve the performance of the discrete shear gap method (DSG3) for static and free vibration analyses of isotropic Reissner-Mindlin plates and shells. In this paper, the CS-DSG3 is further extended for static and free vibration analyses of laminated composite shells. In the present method, the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) is used in the formulation due to the simplicity and computational efficiency. The accuracy and reliability of the proposed method are verified by comparing its numerical solutions with those of others available numerical results

Burden of disease scenarios for 204 countries and territories, 2022–2050: a forecasting analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Future trends in disease burden and drivers of health are of great interest to policy makers and the public at large. This information can be used for policy and long-term health investment, planning, and prioritisation. We have expanded and improved upon previous forecasts produced as part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) and provide a reference forecast (the most likely future), and alternative scenarios assessing disease burden trajectories if selected sets of risk factors were eliminated from current levels by 2050. Methods: Using forecasts of major drivers of health such as the Socio-demographic Index (SDI; a composite measure of lag-distributed income per capita, mean years of education, and total fertility under 25 years of age) and the full set of risk factor exposures captured by GBD, we provide cause-specific forecasts of mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) by age and sex from 2022 to 2050 for 204 countries and territories, 21 GBD regions, seven super-regions, and the world. All analyses were done at the cause-specific level so that only risk factors deemed causal by the GBD comparative risk assessment influenced future trajectories of mortality for each disease. Cause-specific mortality was modelled using mixed-effects models with SDI and time as the main covariates, and the combined impact of causal risk factors as an offset in the model. At the all-cause mortality level, we captured unexplained variation by modelling residuals with an autoregressive integrated moving average model with drift attenuation. These all-cause forecasts constrained the cause-specific forecasts at successively deeper levels of the GBD cause hierarchy using cascading mortality models, thus ensuring a robust estimate of cause-specific mortality. For non-fatal measures (eg, low back pain), incidence and prevalence were forecasted from mixed-effects models with SDI as the main covariate, and YLDs were computed from the resulting prevalence forecasts and average disability weights from GBD. Alternative future scenarios were constructed by replacing appropriate reference trajectories for risk factors with hypothetical trajectories of gradual elimination of risk factor exposure from current levels to 2050. The scenarios were constructed from various sets of risk factors: environmental risks (Safer Environment scenario), risks associated with communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases (CMNNs; Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination scenario), risks associated with major non-communicable diseases (NCDs; Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario), and the combined effects of these three scenarios. Using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways climate scenarios SSP2-4.5 as reference and SSP1-1.9 as an optimistic alternative in the Safer Environment scenario, we accounted for climate change impact on health by using the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change temperature forecasts and published trajectories of ambient air pollution for the same two scenarios. Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy were computed using standard methods. The forecasting framework includes computing the age-sex-specific future population for each location and separately for each scenario. 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) for each individual future estimate were derived from the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles of distributions generated from propagating 500 draws through the multistage computational pipeline. Findings: In the reference scenario forecast, global and super-regional life expectancy increased from 2022 to 2050, but improvement was at a slower pace than in the three decades preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (beginning in 2020). Gains in future life expectancy were forecasted to be greatest in super-regions with comparatively low life expectancies (such as sub-Saharan Africa) compared with super-regions with higher life expectancies (such as the high-income super-region), leading to a trend towards convergence in life expectancy across locations between now and 2050. At the super-region level, forecasted healthy life expectancy patterns were similar to those of life expectancies. Forecasts for the reference scenario found that health will improve in the coming decades, with all-cause age-standardised DALY rates decreasing in every GBD super-region. The total DALY burden measured in counts, however, will increase in every super-region, largely a function of population ageing and growth. We also forecasted that both DALY counts and age-standardised DALY rates will continue to shift from CMNNs to NCDs, with the most pronounced shifts occurring in sub-Saharan Africa (60·1% [95% UI 56·8–63·1] of DALYs were from CMNNs in 2022 compared with 35·8% [31·0–45·0] in 2050) and south Asia (31·7% [29·2–34·1] to 15·5% [13·7–17·5]). This shift is reflected in the leading global causes of DALYs, with the top four causes in 2050 being ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, compared with 2022, with ischaemic heart disease, neonatal disorders, stroke, and lower respiratory infections at the top. The global proportion of DALYs due to YLDs likewise increased from 33·8% (27·4–40·3) to 41·1% (33·9–48·1) from 2022 to 2050, demonstrating an important shift in overall disease burden towards morbidity and away from premature death. The largest shift of this kind was forecasted for sub-Saharan Africa, from 20·1% (15·6–25·3) of DALYs due to YLDs in 2022 to 35·6% (26·5–43·0) in 2050. In the assessment of alternative future scenarios, the combined effects of the scenarios (Safer Environment, Improved Childhood Nutrition and Vaccination, and Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenarios) demonstrated an important decrease in the global burden of DALYs in 2050 of 15·4% (13·5–17·5) compared with the reference scenario, with decreases across super-regions ranging from 10·4% (9·7–11·3) in the high-income super-region to 23·9% (20·7–27·3) in north Africa and the Middle East. The Safer Environment scenario had its largest decrease in sub-Saharan Africa (5·2% [3·5–6·8]), the Improved Behavioural and Metabolic Risks scenario in north Africa and the Middle East (23·2% [20·2–26·5]), and the Improved Nutrition and Vaccination scenario in sub-Saharan Africa (2·0% [–0·6 to 3·6]). Interpretation: Globally, life expectancy and age-standardised disease burden were forecasted to improve between 2022 and 2050, with the majority of the burden continuing to shift from CMNNs to NCDs. That said, continued progress on reducing the CMNN disease burden will be dependent on maintaining investment in and policy emphasis on CMNN disease prevention and treatment. Mostly due to growth and ageing of populations, the number of deaths and DALYs due to all causes combined will generally increase. By constructing alternative future scenarios wherein certain risk exposures are eliminated by 2050, we have shown that opportunities exist to substantially improve health outcomes in the future through concerted efforts to prevent exposure to well established risk factors and to expand access to key health interventions

Plant-based carotenoid supplementation: Growth, feed utilization efficiency, and coloration in false clownfish (<em>Amphiprion ocellaris</em>)

The false clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) is a prominent species in the marine ornamental trade, valued for its vibrant orange-red coloration. However, aquaculture-bred individuals often exhibit less intense coloration than their wild counterparts, presenting a challenge for both breeders and aquarists. This study evaluates the effects of carotenoid-enriched diets, sourced from natural ingredients such as pumpkin, bell pepper, carrot, and gac, as well as a synthetic source like astaxanthin, on the coloration and growth of false clownfish. In a controlled experiment, juvenile fish with an initial average length of 3.21 ± 0.03 cm and weight of 0.61 ± 0.02 g were allocated to 60-liter tanks and fed the experimental diets over a 75-day trial period. Carotenoid supplementation was standardized at 250 mg/kg across diets, with a control group receiving no added carotenoids. The experimental design was completely randomized, involving three replicates per dietary treatment. The results indicated that diets supplemented with gac and bell pepper significantly enhanced growth and feed efficiency (p < 0.05). Notably, the skin redness intensity (a* value) was increased by 75.73% in the gac-supplemented group, 89.20% in the bell pepper group, and 91.99% in the astaxanthin group, relative to the control (p < 0.05). Additionally, carotenoid deposition in the integument was significantly higher in all supplemented groups, with an increase of 83.74% in the astaxanthin group, 89.59% in the gac group, and 98.43% in the bell pepper group, compared to the control (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that natural carotenoids, particularly from gac and bell pepper, can be effective alternatives to synthetic astaxanthin, potentially improving the attractiveness and commercial value of captive-bred false clownfish and alleviating the exploitation of wild populations

Highly dispersed pt nanoparticles on the novel ti0.7w0.3o2 support using the rapid microwave-assisted polyol route

Mesoporous Ti0.7W0.3O2 nanoparticles, being in anatase TiO2 phase, possessed a uniform morphology of spherical nanoparticles of 10 nm diameter with the high surface area up to 201.481 m2/g, which is closely similar to the surface area of common commercial carbon blacks. More importantly, the electrical conductivity of Ti0.7W0.3O2 was found to be 0.022 S/cm, which is ~ 1.0x105-fold higher than that of undoped-TiO2 (1.37x10-7 S/cm). The increase in electrical conductivity of Ti0.7W0.3O2 may attribute to the successful incorporation of tungsten(VI) ions into TiO2 lattices, subsequently resulting in n-type doping and generating more free electrons acted as charge carriers. The Pt/Ti0.7W0.3O2 catalyst also was synthesized via the rapid microwave-assisted polyol route at 160 C for 4 min with the power of 240

Evaluating the Motor Imagery Classification Performance of a Double-Layered Feature Selection on Two Different-Sized Datasets

Numerous investigations have been conducted to enhance the motor imagery-based brain–computer interface (BCI) classification performance on various aspects. However, there are limited studies comparing their proposed feature selection framework performance on both objective and subjective datasets. Therefore, this study aims to provide a novel framework that combines spatial filters at various frequency bands with double-layered feature selection and evaluates it on published and self-acquired datasets. Electroencephalography (EEG) data are preprocessed and decomposed into multiple frequency sub-bands, whose features are then extracted, calculated, and ranked based on Fisher’s ratio and minimum-redundancy-maximum-relevance (mRmR) algorithm. Informative filter banks are chosen for optimal classification by linear discriminative analysis (LDA). The results of the study, firstly, show that the proposed method is comparable to other conventional methods through accuracy and F1-score. The study also found that hand vs. feet classification is more discriminable than left vs. right hand (4–10% difference). Lastly, the performance of the filter banks common spatial pattern (FBCSP, without feature selection) algorithm is found to be significantly lower (p = 0.0029, p = 0.0015, and p = 0.0008) compared to that of the proposed method when applied to small-sized data

Electrical and Structural Properties of All-Sputtered Al/SiO2/p-GaN MOS Schottky Diode

The all-sputtered Al/SiO2/p-GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) Schottky diode was fabricated by the cost-effective radio-frequency sputtering technique with a cermet target at 400 &deg;C. Using scanning electron microscope (SEM), the thicknesses of the electrodes, insulator SiO2 layer, and p-GaN were found to be ~250 nm, 70 nm, and 1 &micro;m, respectively. By Hall measurement of a p-Mg-GaN film on an SiO2/Si (100) substrate at room temperature, the hole&rsquo;s concentration (Np) and carrier mobility (&mu;) were found to be Np = 4.32 &times; 1016 cm&minus;3 and &mu; = 7.52 cm2&middot;V&minus;1&middot;s&minus;1, respectively. The atomic force microscope (AFM) results showed that the surface topography of the p-GaN film had smoother, smaller grains with a root-mean-square (rms) roughness of 3.27 nm. By I&ndash;V measurements at room temperature (RT), the electrical properties of the diode had a leakage current of ~4.49 &times; 10&minus;8 A at &minus;1 V, a breakdown voltage of &minus;6 V, a turn-on voltage of ~2.1 V, and a Schottky barrier height (SBH) of 0.67 eV. By C&ndash;V measurement at RT, with a frequency range of 100&ndash;1000 KHz, the concentration of the diode&rsquo;s hole increased from 3.92 &times; 1016 cm&minus;3 at 100 kHz to 5.36 &times; 1016 cm&minus;3 at 1 MHz, while the Fermi level decreased slightly from 0.109 to 0.099 eV. The SBH of the diode at RT in the C&ndash;V test was higher than in the I&ndash;V test because of the induced charges by dielectric layer. In addition, the ideality factor (n) and series resistance (Rs) determined by Cheung&rsquo;s and Norde&rsquo;s methods, other parameters for MOS diodes were also calculated by C&ndash;V measurement at different frequencies