Failure Behaviours of Steel Projectiles with Localised Melting Against Armour Plates

The surface remelting technology of high energy beam can locally weaken the case for controlled fragmentation, which may affect the survivability of the impacting projectiles. Failure behaviours of steel projectiles with melted layers grid normally perforating armour plates was investigated. The results reveal that shear fracture mainly occurs in the nose region of projectiles due to high loading, and the melting zone of projectiles can keep integrity with no damage, which means the survivability of projectile can be assured. Furthermore, an analytical model was proposed to the structural analysis of projectile, which is in accordance with the test results

Energy-efficient Integrated Sensing and Communication System and DNLFM Waveform

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is a key enabler of 6G. Unlike communication radio links, the sensing signal requires to experience round trips from many scatters. Therefore, sensing is more power-sensitive and faces a severer multi-target interference. In this paper, the ISAC system employs dedicated sensing signals, which can be reused as the communication reference signal. This paper proposes to add time-frequency matched windows at both the transmitting and receiving sides, which avoids mismatch loss and increases energy efficiency. Discrete non-linear frequency modulation (DNLFM) is further proposed to achieve both time-domain constant modulus and frequency-domain arbitrary windowing weights. DNLFM uses very few Newton iterations and a simple geometrically-equivalent method to generate, which greatly reduces the complex numerical integral in the conventional method. Moreover, the spatial-domain matched window is proposed to achieve low sidelobes. The simulation results show that the proposed methods gain a higher energy efficiency than conventional methods

Integrated Sensing and Communications for V2I Networks: Dynamic Predictive Beamforming for Extended Vehicle Targets

We investigate sensing-assisted beamforming for vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication by exploiting integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) functionalities at the roadside unit (RSU). The RSU deploys a massive multi-input-multi-output (mMIMO) array at mmWave. The pencil-sharp mMIMO beams and fine range-resolution implicate that the point-target assumption is impractical, as the vehicle’s geometry becomes essential. Therefore, the communication receiver (CR) may never lie in the beam, even when the vehicle is accurately tracked. To tackle this problem, we consider the extended target with two novel schemes. For the first scheme, the beamwidth is adjusted in real-time to cover the entire vehicle, followed by an extended Kalman filter to predict and track the position of CR according to resolved scatterers. An upgraded scheme is proposed by splitting each transmission block into two stages. The first stage is exploited for ISAC with a wide beam. Based on the sensed results at the first stage, the second stage is dedicated to communication with a pencil-sharp beam, yielding significant communication improvements. We reveal the inherent tradeoff between the two stages in terms of their durations, and develop an optimal allocation strategy that maximizes the average achievable rate. Finally, simulations verify the superiorities of proposed schemes over state-of-the-art methods

Cuidados paliativos para imigrantes chineses na Nova Zelândia: experiências e percepções

Over the past several decades, palliative care has seen tremendous development in Western countries, but there is still inadequate access to palliative care among non-dominant ethnocultural groups. The Chinese have been the largest immigrant group in New Zealand since the 19th century(1). They have unique beliefs and practices around illness, death, dying and filial piety(2). These differ greatly from those in Western cultures and have notable implications for hospice palliative care planning and provision. However, immigrant Chinese community remains a relatively marginalised and under-researched group in palliative care(3-5). This results in limited knowledge about its culture and people among health professionals, as well as the lack of experience in providing terminal care to Chinese immigrants. Through the introduction of New Zealand Palliative Care Strategy and the analysis of Chinese immigrants’ difficulties and preferences for palliative care, this aims to increase understanding of how cultural values of Chinese affect their acceptance and decision-making with respect to palliative care so that for efficiently providing palliative care to this ethnic minority group in New Zealand.En las últimas décadas, los cuidados paliativos han experimentado un enorme desarrollo en los países occidentales, pero el acceso a los mismos sigue siendo insuficiente entre los grupos etnoculturales no dominantes. Los chinos son el mayor grupo de inmigrantes en Nueva Zelanda desde el siglo XIX(1). Tienen creencias y prácticas únicas en torno a la enfermedad, la muerte, el morir y la piedad filial(2). Éstas difieren en gran medida de las de las culturas occidentales y tienen notables implicaciones para la planificación y prestación de cuidados paliativos en los hospicios. Sin embargo, la comunidad china inmigrante sigue siendo un grupo relativamente marginado y poco investigado en el ámbito de los cuidados paliativos(3-5). Esto se traduce en un conocimiento limitado sobre su cultura y su población entre los profesionales sanitarios, así como en la falta de experiencia en la prestación de cuidados terminales a los inmigrantes chinos. A través de la introducción de la Estrategia de Cuidados Paliativos de Nueva Zelanda y el análisis de las dificultades y preferencias de los inmigrantes chinos en materia de cuidados paliativos, este ensayo pretende aumentar la comprensión de cómo los valores culturales de los chinos afectan a su aceptación y la toma de decisiones con respecto a los cuidados paliativos para que para proporcionar de manera eficiente los cuidados paliativos a este grupo étnico minoritario en Nueva Zelanda.Nas últimas décadas, os cuidados paliativos tem experimentado um enorme desenvolvimento nos países ocidentais mas ainda há acesso inadequado a cuidados paliativos entre grupos étnico-culturais não dominantes. Os chineses tem sido o maior grupo de imigrantes na Nova Zelândia desde o século XIX(1). Eles tem crenças e práticas singulares em torno de doença, morte, morrer e devoção filial(2). Isso difere grandemente das culturas ocidentais e tem implicações notáveis no planejamento e fornecimento de cuidados paliativos em lares de idosos. Entretanto, a comunidade de imigrantes chineses permanece sendo um grupo relativamente marginalizado e sub-investigado no que diz respeito a cuidados paliativos(3-5). Isso resulta em conhecimento limitado sobre sua cultura e povo entre profissionais da saúde, bem como na falta de experiência em fornecer cuidados terminais a imigrantes chineses. Através da introdução da Estratégia de Cuidados Paliativos da Nova Zelândia e a análise das dificuldades e preferências de imigrantes chineses para cuidados paliativos, esse estudo tente aumentar a compreensão de como valores culturais de chineses afetam sua aceitação e tomada de decisão a respeito de cuidados paliativos, de maneira a eficientemente fornecer cuidados paliativos a esse grupo étnico minoritário na Nova Zelândia

Clinicopathological and prognostic features of Borrmann type IV gastric cancer versus other Borrmann types: A unique role of signet ring cell carcinoma

Background: Evidence specifically comparing the clinicopathology of Borrmann type IV (B-IV) gastric cancer with that of other Borrmann types is insufficient. Methods: A total of 3130 patients with advanced gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy from January 2001 to September 2017 were enrolled in the analysis. Logistic regression and survival analysis methodology were used to investigate factors associated with peritoneal metastasis and overall survival (OS). Results: Of the total cohort, 264 (8.43%) patients were B-IV type, 1752 (55.97%) were small-size other Borrmann types, and 1114 (35.59%) were large-size other Borrmann types. Signet ring cell carcinoma (SRC) was more common in B-IV types than in other Borrmann types (33.71% vs 11.42% vs 12.66%, P 0.05). Conclusion: SRC was more common in B-IV gastric cancer than in other Borrmann types. It was significantly associated with peritoneal metastasis and poorer OS in the B-IV type but not in other Borrmann types. As a unique prognostic factor for B-IV gastric cancer, SRC might help evaluate risk stratification and optimize treatment for this entity, especially for patients with locally advanced stages or R0 resection

One new genus and two new species of the spider family Phrurolithidae (Arachnida, Araneae) from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Southwest China

Edelithus gen. nov. is described based on the discovery and description of two new species from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China: E. puer sp. nov. and E. shenmiguo sp. nov. Both species are described in detail and illustrated. Types are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IZCAS) in Beijing, China

Waveform Design and Hybrid Duplex Exploiting Radar Features for Joint Communication and Sensing

Joint communication and sensing (JCAS) is a very promising 6G technology, which attracts more and more research attention. Unlike communication, radar has many unique features in terms of waveform criteria, self-interference cancellation (SIC), aperture-dependent resolution, and virtual aperture. This paper proposes a waveform design named max-aperture radar slicing (MaRS) to gain a large time-frequency aperture, which reuses the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) hardware and occupies only a tiny fraction of OFDM resources. The proposed MaRS keeps the radar advantages of constant modulus, zero auto-correlation, and simple SIC. Joint space-time processing algorithms are proposed to recover the range-velocity-angle information from strong clutters. Furthermore, this paper proposes a hybrid-duplex JCAS scheme where communication is half-duplex while radar is full-duplex. In this scheme, the half-duplex communication antenna array is reused, and a small sensing-dedicated antenna array is specially designed. Using these two arrays, a large space-domain aperture is virtually formed to greatly improve the angle resolution. The numerical results show that the proposed MaRS and hybrid-duplex schemes achieve a high sensing resolution with less than 0.4% OFDM resources and gain an almost 100% hit rate for both car and UAV detection at a range up to 1 km

Deciphering the Underlying Mechanism of Eucommiae Cortex against Osteoporotic Fracture by Network Pharmacology

Background. Du Zhong (DZ), or Eucommiae Cortex, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, has been used to treat osteoporosis. Although it has been reported that DZ can improve bone mass in ovariectomized rats, its pharmacological mechanisms in treating osteoporotic fractures (OPF) remain unclear. Methods. In this study, we used a network pharmacological manner to explore its potential complicated mechanism in treating OPF. We obtained DZ compounds from TCMSP and BATMAN-TCM databases and collected potential targets of these compounds through target fishing based on TCMSP and BATMAN-TCM databases. Next, we collected the OPF targets by using CTD, GeneCards, OMIM, HPO, and GenCLiP 3 databases. And then the overlapping genes between DZ potential targets and OPF targets were used to build up the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and to analyze their interactions and find out the big hub genes in this network. Subsequently, clusterProfiler package in R language was utilized to conduct the enrichment of Gene Ontology biological process and KEGG pathways. Results. There were totally 93 active compounds and 916 related targets in DZ. After the enrichment analysis, we collected top 25 cellular biological processes and top 25 pathways based on the adjusted P value and found that the DZ anti-OPF effect was mainly associated with the regulation of ROS and inflammatory response. Furthermore, 64 hub genes in PPI network, such as MAPK1 (degree = 41), SRC (degree = 39), PIK3R1 (degree = 36), VEGFA (degree = 31), TP53 (degree = 29), EGFR (degree = 29), JUN (degree = 29), AGT (degree = 29), MAPK1, SRC, PIK3R1, VEGFA, and TP53, were considered as potential therapeutic targets, implying the underlying mechanisms of DZ acting on OPF. Conclusion. We investigated the possible therapeutic mechanisms of DZ from a systemic perspective. These key targets and pathways provided promising directions for the future research to reveal the exact regulating mechanisms of DZ in treating OPF

Long period fiber grating and high sensitivity refractive index sensor based on hollow eccentric optical fiber

We have demonstrated experimentally a long period fiber grating (LPFG) written in a hollow eccentric optical fiber (HEOF). A high-quality LPFG with no structural deformation was fabricated using a highfrequency CO2 laser with a low energy density of 0.896 J/mm2. The LPFG writing parameters showed only a weak dependence on orientation of the fiber core to the writing beam. The liquid-filled HEOF LPFG has a high refractive index sensitivity of 1005 nm/RIU over a refractive index range of 1.422-1.441. The good performance and easy fabrication of the HEOF LPFG indicate that it is a promising platform for novel in-fiber microfluidic devices