Guowei Li^1,*, Shujuan Bu², Xinle Yang², Kaijie Liang¹, Zhengri Shao¹, Xiaobei Song¹, Yitian Tang³, Dejing Zong⁴

Energy Engineering, Vol.121, No.12, pp. 3843-3874, 2024, DOI:10.32604/ee.2024.056195 - 22 November 2024

Abstract A novel dual-pressure organic Rankine cycle system (DPORC) with a dual-stage ejector (DE-DPORC) is proposed. The system incorporates a dual-stage ejector that utilizes a small amount of extraction steam from the high-pressure expander to pressurize a large quantity of exhaust gas to perform work for the low-pressure expander. This innovative approach addresses condensing pressure limitations, reduces power consumption during pressurization, minimizes heat loss, and enhances the utilization efficiency of waste heat steam. A thermodynamic model is developed with net output work, thermal efficiency, and exergy efficiency (W_net, η_t, η_ex) as evaluation criteria, an economic model is established… More >

Alonso Alvarez, Borja Bordel Sánchez^*

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.81, No.2, pp. 2935-2966, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.056990 - 18 November 2024

Abstract Agile Transformations are challenging processes for organizations that look to extend the benefits of Agile philosophy and methods beyond software engineering. Despite the impact of these transformations on organizations, they have not been extensively studied in academia. We conducted a study grounded in workshops and interviews with 99 participants from 30 organizations, including organizations undergoing transformations (“final organizations”) and companies supporting these processes (“consultants”). The study aims to understand the motivations, objectives, and factors driving and challenging these transformations. Over 700 responses were collected to the question and categorized into 32 objectives. The findings show More >

Jiajun Liu¹, Lina Tan^1,*, Zhili Zhou², Weijin Jiang¹, Yi Li¹, Peng Chen¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.81, No.2, pp. 3221-3240, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.054542 - 18 November 2024

Abstract Many existing coverless steganography methods establish a mapping relationship between cover images and hidden data. One issue with these methods is that as the steganographic capacity increases, the number of images stored in the database grows exponentially. This makes it challenging to build and manage a large image database. To improve the image library utilization and anti-attack capability of the steganography system, we propose an efficient coverless scheme based on dynamically matched substrings. We utilize You Only Look Once (YOLO) for selecting optimal objects and create a mapping dictionary between these objects and scrambling factors.… More >

Ahamad B. Alkodre¹, Nour Mahmoud Bahbouh², Sandra Sendra³, Adnan Ahmed Abi Sen^4,*, Yazed Alsaawy¹, Saad Said Alqahtany¹, Abdallah Namoun¹, Hani Almoamari¹

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.81, No.2, pp. 2727-2751, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2024.053706 - 18 November 2024

Abstract In Saudi Arabia, drones are increasingly used in different sensitive domains like military, health, and agriculture to name a few. Typically, drone cameras capture aerial images of objects and convert them into crucial data, alongside collecting data from distributed sensors supplemented by location data. The interception of the data sent from the drone to the station can lead to substantial threats. To address this issue, highly confidential protection methods must be employed. This paper introduces a novel steganography approach called the Shuffling Steganography Approach (SSA). SSA encompasses five fundamental stages and three proposed algorithms, designed… More >

XUELING HE, LINLU JIN, YIXUE QIN, JIAN ZHONG, ZHI OUYANG, YE ZENG^*

BIOCELL, Vol.48, No.11, pp. 1521-1529, 2024, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2024.055410 - 07 November 2024

Abstract Cellular biomechanical features contributed to the occurrence and development of various physiological and pathological phenomena. Micropillar arrays have emerged as an important tool for both the assessment and manipulation of cellular biomechanical characteristics. This comprehensive review provides an in-depth understanding of the fabrication methodologies of micropillar arrays and their applications in deciphering and fine-tuning cellular biomechanical properties and the innovative experimental platforms including organ-on-a-chip and organoids-on-a-chip. This review provides novel insights into the potential of micropillar technology, poised to update the landscape of stem cell research and tissue engineering. More >

TIANYUN HAN^#, ZHONG LI^#, LUONING ZHANG, LINSHEN XIE^*

BIOCELL, Vol.48, No.11, pp. 1625-1638, 2024, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2024.055029 - 07 November 2024

Abstract Objective: The study aimed to explore the protective mechanism of Ganoderic acid A (GAA) in renal fibrosis and to verify that GAA can ameliorate renal fibrosis by regulating the Niemann-pick C1-like 1 (NPC1L1) gene. Methods: Transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF-β1) was used to treat Human Kidney-2 (HK-2) cells to establish a renal fibrosis model. The differentially expressed genes in the control (CTRL) group, TGF-β1 group, and TGF-β1 + GAA group were screened via transcriptome sequencing technology and verified by qPCR and Western blot experiments. The NPC1L1 gene overexpression plasmid was constructed. The expression levels of N-cad, E-cad,… More >

Rongzhuang Song¹, Yinbo Zhu^1,*

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.30, No.3, pp. 1-1, 2024, DOI:10.32604/icces.2024.012598

Abstract Kink defects are prevalent in nanocellulose. The existence of diverse kink patterns lacking molecular-scale resolution has caused uncertainty regarding the mechanisms governing the formation of different kinks in nanocellulose, including both reversible and irreversible kinks. The constraints resulting from these limitations often lead to significant confusion in exploring the structure-property relationships of nanocellulose. By integrating AFM experiments with molecular dynamics simulations, we examined the microstructure-dependent kink deformations in nanocellulose (Iβ phase) and the resultant local microstructural damages. In atomic force microscopy images, bent nanofibrils typically display minor curvatures, whereas kinked nanofibrils exhibit pronounced sharp bends,… More >

Amjad Rehman¹, Muhammad Mujahid¹, Robertas Damasevicius^2,*, Faten S Alamri³, Tanzila Saba¹

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.141, No.3, pp. 2375-2397, 2024, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2024.056937 - 31 October 2024

Abstract This study aims to develop a computational pathology approach that can properly detect and distinguish histology nuclei. This is crucial for histopathological image analysis, as it involves segmenting cell nuclei. However, challenges exist, such as determining the boundary region of normal and deformed nuclei and identifying small, irregular nuclei structures. Deep learning approaches are currently dominant in digital pathology for nucleus recognition and classification, but their complex features limit their practical use in clinical settings. The existing studies have limited accuracy, significant processing costs, and a lack of resilience and generalizability across diverse datasets. We… More >

Laviza Falak Naz¹, Rohail Qamar^2,*, Raheela Asif¹, Muhammad Imran², Saad Ahmed³

Intelligent Automation & Soft Computing, Vol.39, No.5, pp. 855-887, 2024, DOI:10.32604/iasc.2024.055074 - 31 October 2024

Abstract Domain shift is when the data used in training does not match the ones it will be applied to later on under similar conditions. Domain shift will reduce accuracy in results. To prevent this, domain adaptation is done, which adapts the pre-trained model to the target domain. In real scenarios, the availability of labels for target data is rare thus resulting in unsupervised domain adaptation. Herein, we propose an innovative approach where source-free domain adaptation models and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) are integrated to improve the performance of computer vision or robotic vision-based systems in… More >

Suhua Huang^1,2, Hao Chen^1,2, Fan Wei^1,3, Changqian Quan^1,3, Meihua Xu^1,3, Zhining Chen⁴, Jingchun Li⁴, Hongyu Li⁵, Lijun Shi^1,*, Danfeng Tang^1,2,3,4,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.10, pp. 2645-2662, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.053492 - 30 October 2024

Abstract To explore the effect of fertilizers on the yield and quality of Platostoma palustre, in this study, P. palustre was utilized as the research material, and field experiments were conducted with different application rates of compound fertilizer and organic fertilizer and non-targeted metabolomics analysis was further employed to compare and analyze the differences in the metabolic components between the compound fertilizer and organic fertilizer treatments. The results of field experiments demonstrated that both compound and organic fertilizers could promote the fresh weight, shade dry weight, and dry weight of P. palustre, with 450 kg hm⁻² compound fertilizer and 4500… More >