ABSTRACT
To better understand the research progress and trends in the mechanical properties of coal, and to promote theoretical research on the prevention and control of dynamic disasters, we employed the bibliometric method to analyze the research progress in this field. A total of 3450 documents from the Web of Science (WOS) core database were reviewed and analyzed. Our analysis focused on the annual distribution of literature, the distribution by country/region, organization, and author, as well as the distribution of significant source journals. We also identified research hotspots and frontiers. The results indicate a significant increase in the number of research papers on the mechanical properties of coal. China, America, Australia, India, Spain, Poland, England, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey were found to be the most active countries in this research area. The research results from China, America, and Australia were found to be the most influential, and C&BM, FUEL, INT J ROCK MECH MIN, INT J COAL GEOL, RM&RE, C&CR, and JCP were identified as the primary sources of research publications on the mechanical properties of coal. The basic theory and research system of coal mechanical properties investigation have been established, and there are numerous future research directions and areas to explore. Some current hotspots include the development of coal mechanical property models, permeability models related to mechanical properties, establishment and prediction of coal strength-temperature relationships, investigation of the proportioning scheme of granite and coal bottom ash in concrete mixes, and research on the improvement effect of fly ash on concrete manufacturing properties.
ABSTRACT
The dynamic nature of the brain is critical for the success of treatments aimed at restoring vision at the retinal level. The success of these treatments relies highly on the functionality of the surviving neurons along the entire visual pathway. Electrophysiological properties at the retina level have been investigated during the progression of retinal degeneration; however, little is known about the changes in electrophysiological properties that occur in the primary visual cortex (V1) during the course of retinal degeneration. By conducting extracellular recording, we examined the electrophysiological properties of V1 in S334ter-line-3 rats (a transgenic model of retinal degeneration developed to express a rhodopsin mutation similar to that found in human retinitis pigmentosa patients). We measured the orientation tuning, spatial and temporal frequency tunings and the receptive field (RF) size for 127 V1 neurons from 11 S334ter-3 rats and 10 Long-Evans (LE) rats. V1 neurons in the S334ter-3 rats showed weaker orientation selectivity, lower optimal spatial and temporal frequency values and a smaller receptive field size compared to the LE rats. These results suggest that the visual cognitive ability significantly changes during retinal degeneration.
