Research application of session-RPE in monitoring the training load of elite endurance athletes

PurposeTRIMP and sRPE are both representative indicators of training load(TL), and the correlation between two has been widely demonstrated across various sports. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability of sRPE-TRIMP correlation across different intensities/duration of training in cross-country skiing, and whether sRPE can serve as an validity supplement to TRIMP data in cases of lost heart rate data.Method10 athletes were used as the experimental objects. The intensity, duration and RPE of 273 different types of training sessions were collected, and statistical methods were used for data analysis.Results1. There was a significant correlation between sRPE and TRIMP (r = 0.68, p < 0.05), but the correlation differs among the LIT, MIT and HIT groups (r = 0.70, 0.46, r = 0.31, p < 0.05) 2. sRPE-TRIMP correlation among three different time duration in the LIT group (0-60 min, 60-120 min and 120-180 min), are all highly significant (r = 0.70, 0.67, 0.69, p < 0.05) and the LRsRPE-TRIMP of 3 duration have no significant differences (chow test, p > 0.05). 3. The difference in actual training duration between samples was the main reason for the difference in the application effect of sRPE, because the actual training duration ratio of LIT was 89.7 ± 16.4%; MIT, 98.5 ± 6.2%; and HIT, 94.4 ± 13.5%.Conclusion1. The linear relationship between sRPE and TRIMP (LRsRPE-TRIMP) is more significant in LIT compared to that in MIT and HIT. 2. Variations in the duration of LIT sessions do not affect the consistency of the relationship between sRPE and TRIMP. 3. Discrepancies between actual and planned training durations directly impact the significance of the LRsRPE-TRIMP

The increased functional connectivity between the locus coeruleus and supramarginal gyrus in insomnia disorder with acupuncture modulation

BackgroundInsomnia disorder (ID) seriously affects the quality of people’s daily life, and acupuncture is an effective therapy for it. As an essential component of the upward activation system, the locus coeruleus (LC) plays a crucial role in sleep–wake regulation, its aberrant functional connectivity (FC) is found to be involved in ID. The purpose of this study was to explore the modulation effect of acupuncture on the resting state FC of LC in ID patients.Methods60 ID patients were recruited and randomly assigned to real acupuncture (RA) or sham acupuncture (SA) treatment. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected before and after the treatment. With LC as the region of interest, the FC method was adopted to examine acupuncture-related modulation of intrinsic connectivity in ID patients. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Hyperarousal Scale (HAS), and actigraphy were used to assess sleep quality and cortical hyperarousal states. Associations between clinical outcomes and FC features were calculated using Pearson’s correlation analysis.ResultsThe improvement in sleep quality and hyperarousal in the RA group was greater than that in the SA group. After treatment, the FC between the LC and left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) decreased in the RA group. The FC between the LC and left insula and supramarginal gyrus (SMG) was higher in the RA group. The change of LC FC values with the SMG was negatively associated with the change in PSQI scores.ConclusionAcupuncture can modulate FC between the LC and IFG, insular gyrus, and SMG. This may imply the potential mechanism of acupuncture treatment for insomnia

Wide-bandgap Donor Polymers Based on Thiophene-Vinyl-Thiophene Ester (TVT-Ester) or Thiophene-Alkyloxime (TO) Units in Organic Solar Cells

The organic solar cells (OSCs), a branch of the third-generation solar cell as a viable future energy resource has received a lot of attention in lab and industry today. The OSCs have advantages of low cost, light weight, flexible, and roll-to-roll printing for large area manufacture. The bulk heterojunction structure (BHJ) is wildly accepted in the active layer of OSCs, which is a blend film of donor polymer and acceptor material for efficient charge transfer. Recently, the combination of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) with wide-bandgap donor polymers as active layer has come to the forefront of OSCs research, which has achieved high power conversion efficiency (PCE) over 18%. In this work, we will introduce donor polymers in D-A copolymer structure, based on benzodithiophene (BDT) or polythiophene (PT) as the donor backbone unit combining with electron-withdrawing sidechains as the acceptor unit. Two novel series of polymers, thiophene-vinyl-thiophene ester (TVT-ester) polymer and thiophene-alkyloxime (TO) polymer based on different electron-withdrawing sidechains, were designed, synthesized, and characterized to function as wide-bandgap donor polymers in organic solar cells. Among the designed TVT-ester polymers, the PEBDT exhibits planar backbone structure, low synthetic complexity, and high quenching efficiency with the non-fullerene acceptors (3PS)2-SiPc and Y6, which is a promising candidate for OSCs. The solar cell device based on PEBDT:Y6 blend film had the highest PCE of 1.23%, with Jsc of 7.32 mA/cm2, Voc of 0.54V, and FF of 31%. The carrier mobilities of blend film were calculated to be 1.37E-6 cm2/Vs and 0.84E-6 cm2/Vs. The low PCE and mobilities were mainly due to poor film morphology with incontinuous network of the blend films. The amorphous property and low carrier mobility of PEBDT could relate to its disordered sidechain packing, so increasing the planarity and rigidity of the backbone maybe beneficial to achieve a more ordered molecule packing and enhanced charge carrier mobility. Further optimized will focus on novel polymer structures by replacing TVT unit with fused ring on the backbone. For the TO based polymers, our group has reported two TO polymers based on BDT and PT, respectively. To further improve the crystallinity of those polymers, two novel polymers based on BDT-terthiophene backbone with alkyloxime side chains substituted on spacing thiophenes were designed by taking the advantages of previous polymers’ structures. The novel polymers P3TOBDT and P4TOBDT both demonstrated wide optical bandgaps and low-lying HOMO energy levels, which can obtain the complementary light absorption spectra and large Voc when blending with acceptor Y6. P3TOBDT neat film achieved a face-on orientation tendency with higher crystallinity than P4TOBDT after thermal annealing, which also exhibited higher SCLC hole mobility. The highest PCE up to 10.17% was achieved based on P4TOBDT:Y6 bland film, which was mostly contributed to high Jsc of 25.95 mA/cm2, indicating the TO unit is a promising acceptor unit on donor polymers. The P3TOBDT:Y6 system exhibited lower PCE and carrier mobilities than P4TOBDT:Y6 indicating the poor phase separation in blend film, which may be due to high miscibility of materials in processing solvent chlorobenzene. However, both systems showed extremely low electron mobilities, resulting from poor interconnecting network of Y6. Thus, there are still large spaces for optimizing the OSC devices, and the improvement of film morphology will be focused in the future direction

Scenario-based analysis for industrial project planning in the context of carbon peaking: Case study city, China

The Chinese government is actively pursuing a low-carbon development model with a clear target of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2030. This study presents a project-based perspective on CO2 emissions from the industrial sector in the city. The article quantifies and analyzes the project planning by including the entire gross industrial production value, industrial structure, energy intensity, energy structure, and CO2 emission coefficient of the industrial sector's CO2 emissions decomposition model. Monte Carlo simulation and scenario analysis were coupled to evaluate how the city's industrial sector could achieve its peak carbon targets by industry. The expected range of CO2 emissions from the city's industrial sector in 2025, 2030, and 2035, based on the project plan and policies in place, is projected to be between 65.64 and 69.26 Mt, 72.13–78.48 Mt, and 69.32–76.62 Mt. However, the simulations show that there are still considerable uncertainties in reaching the peak carbon target in 2030, necessitating greater government efforts. To achieve the 2030 goal for the city's industrial sector, the paper recommends that the government increase the baseline criteria for industrial structure, energy intensity, and energy structure. This study provides scientific project planning guidance for Chinese cities to successfully achieve the 2030 goal

Vibration Characteristic Analysis of Pressure Fluctuating Attenuator with Circular Elastic Sheets for Linear-Driving Pump

Aiming at the problem of pipeline vibration caused by fluids in linear-driving pump pipeline system, this paper proposed a vibration reduction method based on a pressure-fluctuating attenuator with circular elastic sheets. Firstly, a new type of pressure-fluctuating attenuator was proposed, and its working principle and frequency characteristics were analyzed. Secondly, the mathematical model of the developed attenuator was established in combination with the dynamic characteristic equations of the pipeline. Besides, the effect of relevant parameters on attenuation performance was investigated through simulation. The size and material of the circular elastic sheet were screened according to the pressure fluctuating frequency of the linear-driving pump under the rated conditions. The prototype of the pressure-fluctuating attenuator was fabricated, and the performance of the prototype in the pipeline was tested. The experimental results show that the pressure-fluctuating attenuator with circular elastic sheets has a good suppression effect on the pulsating pressure of the linear-driving pump under the rated conditions

Research on Semi-Active Vibration Control of Pipeline Based on Magneto-Rheological Damper

This paper proposes a scheme to control the low-frequency vibration of pipelines by using magneto-rheological (MR) vibration reduction technology. The state equation and the transfer function of the pipeline system are established, and its stability and the sinusoidal excitation response are analyzed. The prototype of MR damper is developed. The dynamic characteristics of MR damper are tested and the double-sigmoid model of MR damper is established. The two-state control, Proportion Integration Differentiation (PID) control and sliding-mode-variable-structure (SMVS) control methods of pipeline vibration using MR damper are analyzed comparatively, and the vibration control laws are deduced. The simulation analyses are carried out to predict the control effect of different pipeline vibration control algorithms. The verification tests through a semi-active measurement and control platform are carried out, and the feasibility and applicability of different pipeline vibration control strategies are analyzed. The test results show that the three kinds of pipeline vibration control methods based on MR damper can effectively control the pipeline vibration. Especially, SMVS control has the best vibration control effect, the pipeline amplitude drop and the acceleration drop can reach 22.31 dB and 16.34 dB respectively, while the amplitude attenuation rate and the acceleration attenuation rate can reach 92.34% and 84.77%, respectively

An experimental investigation on air-side performances of finned tube heat exchangers for indirect air-cooling tower

A tremendous quantity of water can be saved if the air cooling system is used, comparing with the ordinary water-cooling technology. In this study, two kinds of finned tube heat exchangers in an indirect air-cooling tower are experimentally studied, which are a plain finned oval-tube heat exchanger and a wavy-finned flat-tube heat exchanger in a cross flow of air. Four different air inlet angles (90°, 60 °, 45°, and 30°) are tested separately to obtain the heat transfer and resistance performance. Then the air-side experimental correlations of the Nusselt number and friction factor are acquired. The comprehensive heat transfer performances for two finned tube heat exchangers under four air inlet angles are compared. For the plain finned oval-tube heat exchanger, the vertical angle (90°) has the worst performance while 45° and 30° has the best performance at small ReDc and at large ReDc, respectively. For the wavy-finned flat-tube heat exchanger, the worst performance occurred at 60°, while the best performance occurred at 45° and 90° at small ReDc and at large ReDc, respectively. From the comparative results, it can be found that the air inlet angle has completely different effects on the comprehensive heat transfer performance for the heat exchangers with different structures

Regional Vicarious Calibration of the SWIR-Based Atmospheric Correction Approach for MODIS-Aqua Measurements of Highly Turbid Inland Water

Water color remote sensing requires accurate atmospheric correction but this remains a significant challenge in highly turbid waters. In this respect, the shortwave infrared (SWIR) band-based atmospheric correction approach has proven advantageous when applied to the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua satellite. However, even so, uncertainties affect its accuracy. We performed a regional vicarious calibration of the MODIS-Aqua SWIR (1240, 2130)-based atmospheric correction using in situ water surface reflectance data measured during different seasons in Lake Taihu, a highly turbid lake. We then verified the accuracy of the (1240, 2130)-based atmospheric correction approach using these results; good results were obtained for the remote sensing reflectance retrievals at the 555, 645, and 859 nm, with average relative errors of 15%, 14%, and 22%, respectively, and no significant bias. Comparisons with the (1240, 2130)-based iterative approach and (1640, 2130)-based approach showed that the vicarious calibrated (1240, 2130)-based approach has the best accuracy and robustness. Thus, it is applicable to the highly turbid Lake Taihu. It may also be applicable to other highly turbid inland waters with similar optical and aerosol optical properties above water, but such applications will require further validation

Docosahexaenoic Acid-Loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers for the Treatment of Peri-Implantitis in Rats

Being the most common cause of implant failure, peri-implantitis is defined as a pathological condition associated with the occurrence of peri-implant plaque, characterized by peri-implant mucosal inflammation and progressive loss of the supporting bone tissue attributed to the persistence of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is a type of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, is generally used for the treatment of many inflammatory diseases. However, a suitable form for dosing and its therapeutic effect on peri-implantitis remain unclear. In this study, a novel nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) loaded with squalene and DHA was fabricated (DHA-loaded NLC). The encapsulation efficiency and drug loading efficiency values of the DHA-loaded NLC were 78.13% ± 1.85% and 28.09% ± 0.48%, respectively. The release of DHA was gradual and steady until 144 h. In addition, the free-radical-scavenging rate of DHA-loaded NLC (0.57 ± 0.03) was much higher than that of sole DHA (0.17 ± 0.003). By inhibiting nuclear factor-κB p65 nuclear translocation, DHA-loaded NLC prevented the activation of nuclear factor-κB downstream inflammatory pathways and exerted anti-inflammatory effects on macrophages. Moreover, DHA-loaded NLC showed better effects on preventing alveolar bone resorption of rat peri-implantitis model than sole DHA. Hence, DHA-loaded NLC enhanced the anti-inflammatory bioavailability of DHA, offering a novel approach for the treatment of peri-implantitis