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High quality single crystal ZrSiS as a theoretically predicted Dirac semimetal has been grown successfully using a vapor phase transport method. The single crystals of tetragonal structure are easy to cleave into perfect square-shaped pieces due to the van der Waals bonding between the sulfur atoms of the quintuple layers. Physical property measurement results including resistivity, Hall coefficient (R H ), and specific heat are reported. The transport and thermodynamic properties suggest a Fermi liquid behavior with two Fermi pockets at low temperatures. At T = 3 K and magnetic field of H ǁ c up to 9 Tesla, large magneto-resistance up to 8500% and 7200% for I ǁ ( 100 ) and Iǁ ( 110 ) were found. Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) oscillations were identified from the resistivity data, revealing the existence of two Fermi pockets at the Fermi level via the fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis. The Hall coefficient (R H ) showed hole-dominated carriers with a high mobility of 3.05 × 10 4  cm 2 V −1 s −1 at 3  K . ZrSiS has been confirmed to be a Dirac semimetal by the Dirac cone mapping near the X -point via angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) with a Dirac nodal line near the Fermi level identified using scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS).

BackgroundThe thin film coating and the microsystem device’s reliability can be strongly affected by residual stress; thus, accurate residual stress measurement in thin films is important. ObjectiveThis study conducted residual stress measurement to provide a viable semi-destructive method for evaluating the residual stress of bilayer thin film. MethodsA model for analyzing residual stress in elastically isotropic bilayer thin film was developed by combining the usage of Focused Ion Beam—Digital Image Correlation (FIB-DIC) with finite element (FE) modeling calculated calibration coefficients. The relaxation stress of thin film can be revealed with corresponding milling depth.ResultsResidual stress results of ZrN/Zr bilayer thin films were measured with the implementation of FE analysis calibration coefficients and the resulting strain release. A comparison between the collected results with other studies was performed to prove the practicality and applicability of this method.ConclusionsThis study showed that the residual stress of each layer of the bilayer thin film corresponded to its deposition conditions. Therefore, the residual stress of the bilayer thin film could be measured using the proposed Incremental FIB-DIC ring-core method.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a complex disease which is incompletely accounted for. Basement membrane (BM) Collagen IV (COL4A1/A2) is abundant in the artery wall, and several lines of evidence indicate a protective role of baseline COL4A1/A2 in AAA development. Using Col4a1/a2 hemizygous knockout mice ( Col4a1/a2 + /− , 129Svj background) we show that partial Col4a1/a2 deficiency augmented AAA formation. Although unchallenged aortas were morphometrically and biomechanically unaffected by genotype, explorative proteomic analyses of aortas revealed a clear reduction in BM components and contractile vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proteins, suggesting a central effect of the BM in maintaining VSMCs in the contractile phenotype. These findings were translated to human arteries by showing that COL4A1/A2 correlated to BM proteins and VSMC markers in non-lesioned internal mammary arteries obtained from coronary artery bypass procedures. Moreover, in human AAA tissue, MYH11 (VSMC marker) was depleted in areas of reduced COL4 as assessed by immunohistochemistry. Finally, circulating COL4A1 degradation fragments correlated with AAA progression in the largest Danish AAA cohort, suggesting COL4A1/A2 proteolysis to be an important feature of AAA formation. In sum, we identify COL4A1/A2 as a critical regulator of VSMC phenotype and a protective factor in AAA formation.

RGB and CYMK are two major coloring schemes currently available for light colors and pigment colors, respectively. Both systems use letter-based color codes that require a large range of values to represent different colors. The problem is that these two systems are hard to use for manipulating any operations involving combinations of colors, and they lack the capacity for inter-changeability or unification. Based on prime number theory and Goldbach’s conjecture, this study presents a universal color system (C 235 ) using a number-based structure to encode, compute and unify all colors on a color wheel. The proposed C 235 system offers a unified representation for the efficient encoding and effective manipulation of color. It can be applied to designing a high-rate LCD system and colorizing objects with multiple attributes and DNA codons, opening the door to manipulating colors and lights for even broader applications. The C 235 color system unifies RGB, CMYK and HSV wheels with high compression rates and low compression errors.

This paper considers the single-machine scheduling problem of total tardiness minimization. Due to its computational intractability, exact approaches such as dynamic programming algorithms and branch-and-bound algorithms struggle to produce optimal solutions for large-scale instances in a reasonable time. The advent of Deep Q-Networks (DQNs) within the reinforcement learning paradigm could be a viable approach to transcending these limitations, offering a robust and adaptive approach. This study introduces a novel approach utilizing DQNs to model the complexities of job scheduling for minimizing tardiness through an informed selection utilizing look-ahead mechanisms of actions within a defined state space. The framework incorporates seven distinct reward-shaping strategies, among which the Minimum Estimated Future Tardiness strategy notably enhances the DQN model’s performance. Specifically, it achieves an average improvement of 14.33% over Earliest Due Date (EDD), 11.90% over Shortest Processing Time (SPT), 17.65% over Least Slack First (LSF), and 8.86% over Apparent Tardiness Cost (ATC). Conversely, the Number of Delayed Jobs strategy secures an average improvement of 11.56% over EDD, 9.10% over SPT, 15.01% over LSF, and 5.99% over ATC, all while requiring minimal computational resources. The results of a computational study demonstrate DQN’s impressive performance compared to traditional heuristics. This underscores the capacity of advanced machine learning techniques to improve industrial scheduling processes, potentially leading to decent operational efficiency.

Taichung is the center of the Taiwanese precision optical industry. Optics companies are modernized and automated, with most running 24 h production lines. With machines running around the clock, production lines must be assigned engineers to handle unexpected situations. The optical lens industry depends on precision technology. For fully automated production lines, each production process requires an engineer to be on call to troubleshoot production problems in real-time. However, shifts are currently scheduled manually, and the staff of each unit are responsible for scheduling the various production processes for each month. Administrative staff for each engineering department must take half a day to one day to complete the shift for a month, with results that usually do not ensure the best average workload, often leading engineers to question its fairness. Considering the manpower requirements for the actual production line shift and the fairness of balancing shifts, the scope of this study is the shift scheduling of engineering staff in the assembly line to perform different duties during a fixed cycle. The research aims to provide a solution for Glorytek to increase the efficiency of engineering shift scheduling and optimize the allocation of engineering staff. We will compare the duty allocation and efficiency of the current manual shift scheduling system with a new automated one. The results show that the efficiency of shift scheduling arrangements increased by more than 96%, and the maximum number of days of staff attendance (5 days) is less than that for manual assignment (6 days) while still satisfying the shift limits stipulated by the company. Two factors remain when implementing the proposed system. First, due to technical concerns, the internal process of the scheduling arrangement would be shifted from administrative staff to the IT department. Another concern is the inevitable investment in off-the-shelf optimization software.

This paper investigates a single-machine scheduling problem of a software test with shared common setup operations. Each job has a corresponding set of setup operations, and the job cannot be executed unless its setups are completed. If two jobs have the same supporting setups, the common setups are performed only once. No preemption of any processing is allowed. This problem is known to be computationally intractable. In this study, we propose sequence-based and position-based integer programming models and a branch-and-bound algorithm for finding optimal solutions. We also propose an ant colony optimization algorithm for finding approximate solutions, which will be used as the initial upper bound of the branch-and-bound algorithm. The computational experiments are designed and conducted to numerically appraise all of the proposed methods.

The three dimensional (3D) Dirac semimetal is a new quantum state of matter that has attracted much attention recently in physics and material science. Here, we report on the growth of large plate-like single crystals of Cd 3 As 2 in two major orientations by a self-selecting vapor growth (SSVG) method and the optimum growth conditions have been experimentally determined. The crystalline imperfections and electrical properties of the crystals were examined with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and transport property measurements. This SSVG method makes it possible to control the as-grown crystal compositions with excess Cd or As leading to mobilities near 5–10 5 cm 2 V −1 s −1 . Zn-doping can effectively reduce the carrier density to reach the maximum residual resistivity ratio (RRR ρ 300K /ρ 5K ) of 7.6. A vacuum-cleaved single crystal has been investigated using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to reveal a single Dirac cone near the center of the surface Brillouin zone with a binding energy of approximately 200 meV.

This Special Issue of the journal Mathematics is dedicated to new results on the topic of discrete optimization and scheduling [...]