The dislocation behaviors in body-centered cubic (BCC) multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) containing ordered phases remain incompletely understood. This study elucidates the dislocation-dominated deformation mechanism in the Al-12(HfNbTiZr)(88) with ordered phases on the scale of tens to one hundred nanometers. Advanced techniques, including HAADF-STEM, 3D APT, and DFT calculations, were employed to reveal the presence of substantial B2-type ordered phases coherently embedded in the BCC matrix. In-situ TEM observations combined with molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that individual dislocations pair into superdislocations within the ordered phases. Interestingly, these superdislocations can readily enter and exit the ordered phases, without forming the pronounced pile-ups typically observed at ordered phase-matrix interfaces. Notably, these superdislocations frequently undergo cross-slip from the primary {110}< 111 > to the secondary {112}< 111 > slip system upon encountering pronounced local lattice friction. Such intriguing superdislocation behaviors enable the Al-12(HfNbTiZr)(88) alloy to achieve a good balance between strength and ductility, compared with the chemically disordered HfNbTiZr, short-range-ordered Al-8(HfNbTiZr)(92) (the size of the ordered phase < 1 nm), and intermetallic compound Al-16(HfNbTiZr)(84) (the size of the ordered phase > 500 nm). These findings deepen our understanding of dynamic dislocation slip behavior and elucidate the critical influence of nanoscale ordering on plastic deformation in BCC MPEAs.
Objectives This review synthesises the available evidence on the efficacy of post-intensive care unit (ICU) discharge follow-up interventions on the various domains of post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) in sepsis survivors. Sepsis survivors face a distinct recovery trajectory from general ICU survivors, characterized by higher post-discharge mortality, more severe and persistent cognitive and physical decline, and prolonged immune dysregulation. This burden, driven by infection-triggered inflammation, multi-organ dysfunction, and catabolism, warrants dedicated investigation. Methods Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PubMed were searched from inception to 31 March 2026. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing post-ICU follow-up interventions with usual care in adult sepsis survivors were included. Risk of bias was evaluated using the Cochrane risk of bias tool 2.0. Results Six trials comprising 847 patients from the USA, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands are included. All studies had some concerns regarding risk of bias, primarily due to non-blinded designs, attrition, and non-blinded outcome assessment. Interventions vary in content, duration, and follow-up. One trial finds that nurse-led case management improves patients' physical function and activities of daily living at 6 months and reduces symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 24 months, while a feasibility trial finds that ICU-specific virtual reality (ICU-VR) reduces PTSD and depression up to 6 months following treatment. Conclusions Post-ICU follow-up interventions may improve specific domains of PICS in sepsis survivors, particularly physical function and PTSD symptoms, though evidence is limited by the small number of studies, risk of bias, and lack of sustained effects. For cognitive impairment, no interventions have been adequately evaluated. High-quality clinical trials with standardised outcomes, adequate follow-up, and complete reporting are needed across all domains. Implications for clinical practice According to this study, no specific post-ICU follow-up intervention can yet be recommended for routine use in sepsis survivors, though nurse-led case management and ICU-VR have shown potential benefits for physical function and PTSD symptoms. Systematic screening for PICS symptoms remains essential.
Chemical looping combustion (CLC) has achieved in situ CO2 separation during coal combustion. Oxygen carriers (OCs) as the core components provide lattice oxygen and function as catalysts in the mercury removal process. However, the complete mercury removal mechanism during the redox process of OCs has not been fully understood. Co3O4 has attracted widespread attention due to its excellent catalytic oxidation activity. Therefore, it is essential to study the interaction mechanisms between Co3O4 and elemental mercury (Hg0) during the redox process of OCs. Experimental and DFT methods reveal that mercury removal efficiency decreases with increasing reduction degree (Co3O4 > CoO > CoO0.75 > CoO0.5 > Co). The primary mechanism is the oxidation of Hg0 to HgO via lattice oxygen following the Mars-Maessen pathway, rather than adsorption. CO2 enhances Hg0 oxidation performance by replenishing lattice oxygen. When oxygen release from CoO reaches 50% (CoO0.5), the generated HgO becomes difficult to desorb from the oxygen carrier surface. When highly reduced, Co adsorbs Hg0, which is then oxidized and desorbed as HgO upon re-oxidation by O2. The complete mechanism of Hg0 oxidation and desorption over Co3O4 during the redox process is revealed. This work provides mechanistic insight into mercury control during coal CLC.
In human-centered flexible manufacturing systems under Industry 5.0, some human operations can be performed through cooperation among multiple workers. The selected worker number affects both processing time and total labor input, so scheduling involves three coupled decision dimensions: operation sequencing, resource assignment, and worker number selection. This study investigates a multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem with multi-worker cooperation, processing times that vary with the selected worker number, and transportation time. A mathematical model is formulated to minimize makespan and total labor input while describing the diminishing returns from multi-worker cooperation. To solve this problem, a preference-conditioned heterogeneous graph reinforcement learning method is proposed. The scheduling process is formulated as a Markov decision process, and a heterogeneous graph is used to encode operation precedence, resource states, station worker capacity, and transportation information. Based on this graph representation, a hierarchical policy network is designed with an operation-resource pair selection actor and a worker number selection actor to handle the additional worker number decision for human operations. Furthermore, the objective preference weight is embedded in both the state representation and the reward function, enabling a single model to generate multi-objective schedules under different objective preferences. Experiments on 130 instances constructed from a welding and assembly workshop show that the proposed method has advantages over ten classic and recent algorithms across multiple evaluation metrics. Preference interpolation and ablation analyses show that the preference input and hierarchical policy design help improve solution set quality. An industrial order case study further demonstrates that the method can generate executable schedules and has the potential to make fast decisions after disturbances.
Hydrocracking of polyolefins into fuel oil is an ideal pathway with substantial environmental and economic benefits. However, the interactions between catalyst structure and catalytic performance are not well understood. Herein, a series of HY zeolites with similar textural properties but varying acidities were employed as the support to prepare Ni/HY catalysts. The synergistic effect among metal, acidity and porosity of Ni/HY catalysts on hydrocracking of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) were investigated. The results suggest that Br & Oslash;nsted acid sites on Ni/HY catalysts serve as the primary active sites for hydrocracking of LDPE, and a proper metal-acid balance can maximize the C5-C12 yield. In the investigated catalytic system, nanoscale metal-acid proximity was not found to be a prerequisite for achieving high conversions; instead, micron-scale metal-acid proximity was associated with the reduced deep cracking products. The introduced mesoporous mitigates over-cracking, thereby enhancing the C5-C12 yield. The external surface acid sites of Ni/HY catalysts appear to play an important role in the primary activation and cracking of LDPE. The carbon deposits formed in reaction might preferentially cover some acid sites located on the external surface of Ni/HY catalysts. By constructing a rational synergistic relationship among metal, porosity, and acidity, a LDPE conversion of 99.1% and a C5-C12 yield of 87.3% were achieved over 3Ni-HY-36.2 at 280 degrees C and 1 MPa H2 for 1 h. This work provides insights into the synergistic effect among metal, porosity, and acidity of zeolite-supported non-noble metal bifunctional catalysts for hydrocracking of LDPE and a basis for the rational design of metal-zeolite catalysts.
