Under the same exposure time and penetration depth, the chloride ion content in concrete under two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) diffusion under dry and wet cycles was 1.09~4.08 times higher than that under one-dimensional (1D) diffusion. The correlation coefficients between the simulation results of the multidimensional transport model of chloride ions in concrete under multi-factor coupling and the experimental results were all greater than 0.95, and the model can be utilized to predict the distribution of chloride ion concentration in concrete.Chloride ion erosion is an important factor affecting the durability of marine engineering concrete. In particular, concrete structures in wave splash and tidal zones are subjected to dry and wet cycles and multidimensional diffusion of chloride ions. To investigate the intricate diffusion of chloride ions within concrete under these dynamic conditions, we devised a comprehensive experiment. This experiment encompasses multiple dimensions, involving dry and wet cycles, as well as static immersion. The experiment intends to reveal how chloride ions are distributed in the concrete and clarify the changes that occur in its microstructure. Based on Fick’s second law, the multidimensional diffusion model of chloride ions in concrete under the dry and wet cycles and static immersion was established by comprehensively considering the effects of chloride ion exposure time, environment temperature, relative humidity, and the action of dry and wet cycles. The results show that, under the same conditions, the chloride content in concrete decreases with the increase in penetration depth but increases with the increase in the chloride diffusion dimension and exposure time. Dry and wet cycles and multidimensional diffusion of chloride ions increase the development of cracks and pores in the concrete structure and generate large quantities of C With the implementation of China’s marine power strategy and the development of the marine economy, the demand for diverse types of marine engineering concrete structures is rising. Numerous aggressive ions in the ocean, especially the presence of a large number of chloride ions, which is the main factor causing the corrosion of steel reinforcement and leading to the deterioration of concrete ,3,4,5,6,In the experimental study of chloride ion transport in concrete under the action of dry and wet cycling, Neville  investigIn terms of modeling studies of chloride ion transport in concrete under dry and wet cycling, Ababneh et al.  establisFrom the above studies, it can be seen that domestic and foreign researchers have conducted a lot of studies mainly on the one-dimensional (1D) diffusion test and simulation of chloride ions in concrete under the action of dry and wet cycles; however, the concrete structures of marine engineering are often subjected to two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) diffusion of chloride ions. For this purpose, this paper carries out indoor modeling tests on the multidimensional transport of chloride ions in concrete under the action of dry and wet cycles and static immersion by simulating the concentration of chloride ions in seawater in the Tongan District, Xiamen City, China and tests the microstructural changes in concrete before and after the dry and wet cycling by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffractometry (XRD) to study the effects of dry and wet cycling and multidimensional diffusion on the transport pattern of chloride ions in concrete. On this basis, the multi-dimensional transport model of chloride ions under dry and wet cycles and static immersion is established based on Fick’s second law by considering the effects of dry and wet cycles, time-varying diffusion of chloride ions, ambient temperature, and relative humidity and is verified using the experimental results. The research results can provide a reference for the study of multi-dimensional chloride ion transport mechanisms and the improvement of chloride ion resistance of marine engineering concrete structures under multi-factor coupling.3, crushing index of 8.7%, and particle grading of 5 mm~25 mm. The fine aggregate is natural river sand produced by Xiamen Shunlei Building Material Co., Ltd., Xiamen City, China with an apparent density of 2590 kg/m3 and a fineness modulus of 2.5. The fly ash adopted was grade I fly ash produced by Hejin Longjiang Fly Ash Development and Utilization Co., Ltd., Hejin City, China and its performance meets the requirements of GB/T 1596-2017 [The cement used in this test is Longlin-brand P.O 52.5 ordinary silicate cement produced by Fujian Longlin Group Co., Ltd., Longyan city, China; the product complies with GB 175-2007 , and its596-2017 . S95 sla596-2017 . The watThe design strength grade of concrete for this experiment is C55, and the mix proportion is in reference to the construction mix proportion of a cross-sea bridge in Xiamen; the water-to-binder ratio is 0.3, and the mix proportion of concrete is shown in This experiment mainly simulates the corrosive effect of chloride ion diffusion and diffusion dimension on concrete under the dry and wet cycles in the marine environment, and a total of 80 cubic concrete specimens of 100 mm in size, 3 rectangular concrete specimens of 100 mm × 100 mm × 400 mm, and 6 cylindrical concrete specimens of Φ100 mm × 50 mm were fabricated. And, 3 cubic concrete specimens were used to determine the compressive strength at 7 and 28 days, 3 rectangular concrete specimens to measure the flexural strength at 28 days, 3 cylindrical concrete specimens to evaluate the chloride diffusion coefficient using the Rapid Chloride Migration Coefficient (RCM) method, and 54 cubic concrete specimens to conduct diffusion of chloride ions tests.To prevent interference from other factors, we used raw materials from the same batch and poured the specimens on the same day. The temperature of the curing room is (20 ± 2) °C, the relative humidity is greater than 95%, and the molding of concrete specimens and their maintenance are shown in Before the chloride ion diffusion test, the concrete specimens should be pretreated. For the 1D diffusion of cubic concrete specimens, 5 faces are coated with epoxy resin and only one exposition surface is kept in contact with the salt solution; for the 2D diffusion of cubic concrete specimens 2, adjacent surfaces are kept as exposition surfaces; and for the 3D diffusion of cubic concrete specimens, 3 two-by-two surfaces are kept as exposition surfaces, and the rest of the surfaces are encapsulated with epoxy resin as shown in − and SO42− in seawater and to take the average of its value as the concentration of the salt solution for the experiment. High-purity industrial chemicals were used for the configuration, and a salt solution of 2.8% NaCl + 0.29% Na2SO4 was used for the dry and wet cycle tests. Referring to the tidal changes in Xiamen in recent years, a dry and wet cycle system of 12 h natural drying + 12 h solution immersion (the dry and wet ratio is 1:1) as a cycle was selected as a comparison group, while the concrete specimens were put into the salt solution for static immersion for 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days, respectively. To ensure the stability of the ion concentration in the solution, the salinity change of the solution was recorded weekly using a seawater salinometer and the solution was replaced once a month for the treatment. The different dimensions of chloride ion diffusion conditions and numbers are shown in In order to make the immersed salt solution as close as possible to the real marine environment, in the experiment, the seawater sampling was carried out in the Tongan District, Xiamen City; the number of samples was three, respectively, to determine the concentration of Cl(1)Compressive and flexural strength testThe compressive and flexural strength of concrete was measured according to GB/T 50081-2019 . A CXYAW(2)Chloride penetration resistance test−12 m2/s and 1.7 × 10−12 m2/s, respectively, and the grade of chloride ion penetration resistance of concrete was RCM-IV, which means the concrete has good chloride penetration resistance.The migration coefficient of chloride ions in concrete was measured according to the requirements of GB/T 50082-2019 , and the(3)Chloride ion content testThe water-soluble chloride content of the concrete was measured after the concrete specimens had been subjected to diffusion of chloride ions for 30, 60, and 90 days. Concrete powder was collected at 1 mm, 10 mm, 20 mm, and 30 mm from the diffusion surface, respectively, and the sampling locations of concrete under 1D, 2D, and 3D diffusion of chloride ions are shown schematically in (4)Microstructure observationsA ZEISS Sigma 300 scanning electron microscope (SEM) from Germany and Rigaku Ultima IV X-ray diffractometer (XRD) from Japan were used to observe the microstructure and chemical composition of the concrete, respectively, and the sampling point was 5 mm from the concrete surface.When SEM was used to observe the microstructure of concrete, the samples were recovered from fractured surfaces to avoid destroying the internal material morphology of the samples. Due to the poor conductivity of the concrete, which will affect the clarity of the observation, it is also necessary to use the Quorum SC7620 sputtering coater to spray gold on the sample. The sample was fixed on the conductive tape when observing the microstructure of the concrete.When XRD was used, a concrete block with a thickness of not less than 0.1 cm was glued to a glass sample stage, a Cu anticathode with a wavelength of 0.154056 nm was used, the test angle was from 5° to 90°, and the scanning speed was selected to be 2°/min.The distribution of chloride ion concentration in concrete specimens under different exposures modes for chloride exposure times of 30, 60, and 90 days is shown in As shown in For the same exposure time and penetration depth, the chloride ion content of concrete under dry and wet cycles was higher than that of concrete under static immersion. This is due to the fact that under dry and wet cycles, chloride ions are transported via capillary absorption and diffusion. During the immersion phase, the capillary action and the concentration difference contribute to the ingress of chloride ions into the interior of the concrete, and during the drying phase, the internal moisture of the concrete migrates outward, the chloride concentration in the pore solution increases, and the difference in the concentration gradient contributes to the migration of chloride ions towards the interior of the concrete, which leads to a higher chloride ion content in the interior of the concrete than that of the static immersion. Taking the 1D diffusion of chloride ions as an example, as shown in As shown in For the effect of exposure time on the chloride ion content, taking the 3D diffusion of chloride ions in concrete under the dry and wet cycles as an example, the variation in chloride ion content in concrete with exposure time at different penetration depths is shown in As shown in The concrete without diffusion of chloride ions was used as a comparison group, and the results of electron microscope scans of concrete specimens under different working conditions and concrete without diffusion of chloride ions after 90 days of 3D diffusion of chloride ions are shown in 3A·CaCl2·10H2O; at the same time, the surface of the concrete also produced some fine loose particles, the boundary of the transition zone between the aggregate and the mortar was blurred, and the overall staining adhesion deteriorated, so that more chloride ions entered into the inside of the concrete, which further suggests that dry and wet cycles can significantly enhance the chloride ion transport rate in surface concrete. As shown in From 2 (PDF # 85-1053), CaCO3 (PDF # 87-1863), Ca(OH)2 (PDF # 72-0156), and the C3A·CaCl2·10H2O (PDF # 78-1219).The XRD physical phase change curves of concrete after 90 days of 3D chloride ion diffusion under different working conditions are shown in 3A·CaCl2·10H2O peaks within the concrete specimens. Notably, the C3A·CaCl2·10H2O peaks were more pronounced in the SDW group. This increase in peak height can be attributed to the greater number of wet and dry cycles, which accelerated damage within the concrete. The process led to pore expansion, microcracks, and differences in concentration that facilitated the transport of more chloride ions into the interior of the concrete. Consequently, chloride ions diffused more rapidly inside the concrete due to the influence of these dry–wet cycles and concentration variations, resulting in increased C3A·CaCl2·10H2O formation when reacting with C3A.After 90 days of exposure to varying conditions, we detected characteristic CC0 is the chloride ion concentration in the internal of concrete (unit: %), sC is the chloride ion concentration on the concrete surface (unit: %), D is the chloride diffusion coefficient (unit: m2/s), t is the time of concrete structures’ exposure to the environment (unit: s), x is the depth from the x-axis direction of the concrete surface (unit: mm), and erf(u) is the gaussian error function, which is shown in Equation (2).The transport of chloride ions in concrete under static solution immersion is dominated by migration and satisfies Fick’s second law . The 1D The chloride ion diffusion coefficient is affected by concrete raw material components, service time, external environment, and other factors. A multidimensional diffusion model of chloride ions was established under multi-factor coupling conditions by considering the effects of time factor, chloride ion binding capacity, temperature, relative humidity, and concrete deterioration caused by dry and wet cycling. The diffusion coefficient of chloride ions in the model is expressed by the integrated diffusion coefficient of chloride ions.D0 [d is given in Equation (3).W/B is the water-to-binder ratio.The chloride diffusion coefficient D0  for concK can be introduced when describing the chloride ion penetration of concrete materials under the action of dry and wet cycles [t is the effective diffusion time (unit: s). K is the deterioration effect factor [K in this paper is taken as 2.5. i is the number of dry and wet cycles, stt is the wet time of one dry and wet cycle (unit: s), and gtt is the dry time of one dry and wet cycle (unit: s).For the effect of dry and wet cycles, since dry and wet cycles will lead to the deterioration of concrete materials, the deterioration effect factor t cycles , and thet factor , becausetf of the chloride diffusion coefficient within concrete at the standard curing age can be expressed as Equation (5).t0 is the 28d curing time (unit: s), t is the diffusion time (unit: s), and m is the time decay coefficient, which is given in Equation (6) [FAω is the percentage of fly ash to the mass of cementitious material, FAω/50 ≤ 1, which means that the percentage of fly ash to the mass of cementitious material should be less than 50%. SGω is the percentage of slag to the mass of cementitious material, SGω/70 ≤ 1, which means that the percentage of slag to the mass of cementitious material should be less than 70%.For the effect of chloride diffusion varied with time, Thomas et al.  suggestetion (6) .(6)m=0.Bf can be expressed as Equation (7).eω is the volumetric ratio of evaporable water in concrete, BC is the concentration of bound chloride ions (unit: mol/L), FC is the concentration of free chloride ions in the concrete pore solution (unit: mol/L), and α is the slope of the line.For the effect of chloride binding capacity, Perez et al.  proposedTf is shown in Equation (8).T is the environment temperature; T0 is the reference temperature at age 28d, which is 293.15 K [R is the gas constant, which is 8.314 J/(mol·K); and U is the activation energy during diffusion, which is 35 kJ/mol when the water-to-binder ratio is 0.3 according to the reference [For the effect of environment temperature, Boddy et al.  proposed293.15 K ; R is theference .Hf can be expressed as Equation (9).RH is the relative humidity at the time of the experiment and cRH is the critical relative humidity, generally 75%.For the effect of the environment relative humidity, Bazant et al.  proposedD is modified; assuming that the corrected diffusion coefficient of chloride ions is fD, the modified 1D, 2D, and 3D diffusion equations for chloride ions in the concrete are given in Equations (10)–(12) [fD is the modified integrated diffusion coefficient for chloride ions; m is the time decay coefficient; and y, z is the depth from the concrete surface in the y- and z-axis directions (unit: mm).Taking into account the effects of the diffusion of chloride ions varied with time, the binding effect of chloride ions with concrete, the environment temperature, relative humidity, and the effect of dry and wet cycles, the chloride diffusion coefficient 10)–(12) .(10)C(xThe modified integrated diffusion coefficient for chloride ions under dry and wet cycles is given in Equation (13).The modified integrated diffusion coefficient for chloride ions under static immersion is shown in Equation (14).We developed a modified multidimensional chloride ion diffusion model using MATLAB R2018b software. The model was applied to simulate concrete specimens exposed to a 90-day immersion, and the comparison between the simulation results in various dimensions and the experimental findings is depicted in As shown in (1)Under the same diffusion conditions, the chloride content of concrete decreases with the increase in penetration depth, and it can be seen that the chloride content of concrete under dry and wet cycling is greater than that of static immersion.(2)Under the same diffusion conditions, the chloride ion content in concrete increases with the increase in diffusion dimension and exposure time. Chloride ion multidimensional diffusion under dry and wet cycles will exacerbate the chloride ion transport rate in concrete and the penetration depth. The chloride ion content in concrete under 2D and 3D diffusion under dry and wet cycles was 1.09~4.08 times higher than that under 1D diffusion.(3)The coupled dry and wet cycles and diffusion of chloride ions increase the development of cracks and pores within the concrete structure, which accelerates the rate of chloride ion transport in the concrete.(4)The correlation coefficients between the simulation results of the multidimensional transport model of chloride ions in concrete under multi-factor coupling and the experimental results were all greater than 0.95, indicating that the model can be used to predict the concentration distribution of chloride ions in concrete.In order to study the effect of dry and wet cycles in the marine environment on the diffusion of chloride ions in concrete, a multidimensional diffusion experiment of chloride ions in concrete under the dry and wet cycles and static immersion was designed, and the distribution pattern of chloride ions and the changes in the microstructure of the concrete across different time periods were measured. Meanwhile, based on Fick’s second law, a multidimensional diffusion model of chloride ions in concrete under dry and wet cycles and static immersion was established by considering the effects of chloride ion exposure time, environment temperature, relative humidity, and dry and wet cycles, which were simulated by using MATLAB software and then verified using the experiment results; the following conclusions were obtained:


The plum is a kind of delicious and common fruit with high edible value and nutritional value. The accurate and effective detection of plum fruit is the key to fruit number counting and pest and disease early warning. However, the actual plum orchard environment is complex, and the detection of plum fruits has many problems, such as leaf shading and fruit overlapping. The traditional method of manually estimating the number of fruits and the presence of pests and diseases used in the plum growing industry has disadvantages, such as low efficiency, a high cost, and low accuracy. To detect plum fruits quickly and accurately in a complex orchard environment, this paper proposes an efficient plum fruit detection model based on an improved You Only Look Once version 7(YOLOv7). First, different devices were used to capture high-resolution images of plum fruits growing under natural conditions in a plum orchard in Gulin County, Sichuan Province, and a dataset for plum fruit detection was formed after the manual screening, data enhancement, and annotation. Based on the dataset, this paper chose YOLOv7 as the base model, introduced the Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) attention mechanism in YOLOv7, used Cross Stage Partial Spatial Pyramid Pooling–Fast (CSPSPPF) instead of Cross Stage Partial Spatial Pyramid Pooling(CSPSPP) in the network, and used bilinear interpolation to replace the nearest neighbor interpolation in the original network upsampling module to form the improved target detection algorithm YOLOv7-plum. The tested YOLOv7-plum model achieved an average precision (AP) value of 94.91%, which was a 2.03% improvement compared to the YOLOv7 model. In order to verify the effectiveness of the YOLOv7-plum algorithm, this paper evaluated the performance of the algorithm through ablation experiments, statistical analysis, etc. The experimental results showed that the method proposed in this study could better achieve plum fruit detection in complex backgrounds, which helped to promote the development of intelligent cultivation in the plum industry. The plum, a woody plant of the genus Plum in the family Rosaceae, is native to southeastern China and is one of the oldest cultivated fruits in the world, and it is now cultivated in most areas around and south of the Qinling Mountains in China. China is the largest grower and producer of plums, and its plum industry has an important position in both domestic and international economic markets . From 20During the growth of plum trees, too much fruit at the same time will consume a lot of nutrients, weaken the tree’s vigor, and affect the quality and size of the fruit, so it is necessary to artificially reduce the number of fruits. However, if plum trees produce less fruit, it will affect economic performance and require consideration of changing varieties ,7. At thWith the continuous development of computer science and technology, computer vision technology in deep learning has penetrated people’s production life, and its importance is becoming more and more prominent . More anBased on the above studies, the YOLO model has great potential for fruit detection under natural conditions. The YOLOv7 model additionally employs efficient aggregation networks, reparameterized convolution, positive and negative sample matching strategies, auxiliary head training, and model scaling ,34, whicThe spatial Pyramid Pooling (SPP) module  was propIn view of the above limitations, the aim of this study is to achieve the fast and accurate detection of plum fruits in natural environments, so this paper proposed a YOLOv7-based target detection algorithm, YOLOv7-plum. By modifying the structure of the convolutional layer, reducing the number of parameters in the process of feature extraction, and changing the parallel structure to a more lightweight series structure, this paper improved the CSPSPP structure used in YOLOv7 to Cross Stage Partial Spatial Pyramid Pooling–Fast (CSPSPPF) structure. To further improve the upsampling operation in YOLOv7, the nearest interpolation in the original model was replaced with bilinear interpolation . In addiThe remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In order to investigate the effect of data enhancement on the experimental results, this paper used the unenhanced dataset (Name dataset1) and the enhanced dataset (Name dataset2) to conduct experiments on YOLOv7 and YOLOv7-plum, respectively, with the datasets divided in the ratio of 8:1:1 and the epoch set to 100. The experimental results are shown in It can be seen that compared with the experimental results on dataset 1, the relevant indexes of both YOLOv7 and YOLOv7-plum in dataset 2 improved by 2% to 4%. The experimental results demonstrated that the data enhancement method used in this paper effectively improved the model detection accuracy.According to According to In summary, from the comprehensive performance of the model, the YOLOv7-plum model had higher detection accuracy and the size of the model had not increased significantly, and it could perform the plum fruit detection task efficiently and accurately and can be run on lightweight devices.In order to verify the effectiveness of the modules added in this paper, ablation experiments were designed based on the data set constructed in this paper, with S representing the CSPSPPF module, C representing the CBAM, and B representing the bilinear interpolation module. The results of the ablation experiments are shown in From Both YOLOv7-SC and YOLOv7-SB improved AP to some extent, but YOLOv7-SC had the problem of lower precision and YOLOv7-SB had the problem of lower recall. For YOLOv7-SCB, it improved AP by 2.03% while the rest of the evaluation metrics were similar to or better than the original model, which proved the effectiveness of the various modules in our approach.On dataset 2, experiments were conducted on several mainstream target detection networks as well as the YOLOv7-plum proposed in this paper, and the results of the experiments are shown in To verify the robustness of the model, new plum images were acquired through growers in Gulin County, which were taken on 22 October 2022, as the plums are not yet fruiting now. This is called as dataset 3. It contained a total of 81 images, which were classified into four categories, A, B, C, and D, according to the number of plums in the images, and each category was described as follows:A: The number of plums in a single picture was less than or equal to 5;B: The number of plums in a single picture was greater than 5 and less than or equal to 10;C: The number of plums in a single picture was greater than 10 and less than or equal to 15;D: The number of plums in a single picture was greater than 15.Eighty-one images were manually counted in dataset 3, which had a total of 504 plum fruits. This paper utilized YOLOv7-plum and YOLOv7 for detection and counting respectively on dataset 3. Examples of the results of detection and counting by YOLOv7-plum are shown in 2 of YOLOv7-plum is 0.98, which is 0.09 higher than the correlation coefficient R2 of YOLOv7, and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of YOLOv7-plum is 2.72%, which is 11.53% lower than the MAPE of YOLOv7. This proves that the detection error of YOLOv7-plum is smaller than that of YOLOv7.A statistical analysis was conducted on the detection results of the two models, which are clearly shown in Gulin County, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province, with fertile land and abundant light, has about 35,000 mu of plum fruit groves and a perennial production of about 15 million kg, making it one of the best places for high-quality plums in China . In recent years, the Gulin County government and departments at all levels have promoted the development of the local plum industry by establishing professional cooperatives and combining modern agriculture and tourism industries, and the plum industry has now become a characteristic and advantageous industry in Gulin County. The data collection area of this study is a plum orchard located in Gulin County with GPS coordinates of 105°96′ E and 28°10′ N. The dataset was captured in July 2022, and the plums were all grown in their natural state. To meet sample diversity and improve network robustness, plum images were acquired by multiple devices, including a Redmi K20 pro , a Canon camera , and a Sony camera . In order to increase the diversity of the training set and improve the generalization ability  of the mhttps://github.com/HumanSignal/labelImg (accessed on 9 July 2023). An example of the annotation of the dataset is shown in According to the proportion of 8:1:1, the dataset was divided into a training set, a validation set, and a test set, and the dataset was labeled using the open-source script LabelImg from This study was carried out on a professional server. The frame image source was PyTorch 1.8.1, the training environment of Python 3.8 (ubuntu18.04) was used, and Cuda 11.1 was used as the computing architecture. The hardware GPU was RTX 3080 × 1, and the video memory was 10 GB. The CPU adopted a 15-core Inter (R) Xeon(R)Platinum 8358P CPU @2.60GHz, and the memory was 80 GB.The Spatial Pyramid Pooling (SPP) module  can convThe idea of the improvement of SPPF over SPP was referenced. In the CSPSPP module used in YOLOv7, two 5 × 5 convolution operations replaced a 9 × 9 convolution operation and three 5 × 5 convolution operations replaced a 13 × 13 convolution operation, and the parallel structure was changed into a more lightweight series structure, which reduced the amount of computation while ensuring the same perceptual field and improved the computational efficiency of the model. The improved module was called Cross Stage Partial Spatial Pyramid Pooling–Fast (CSPSPPF). The structure diagram of SPP, SPPF, CSPSPP, and CSPSPPF is shown in The interpolation algorithm is a basic and important task in image scaling processing to fill the gaps between pixels during image transformation. Common interpolation algorithms include nearest neighbor interpolation , bilineaThe nearest neighbor interpolation finds the nearest pixel from the location of the inserted pixel and inserts it as its own pixel value; bilinear interpolation calculates the pixel value of the inserted pixel location based on the pixel values of the four points closest to the inserted pixel location; bicubic interpolation obtains the inserted pixel point pixel value by a weighted average of the 16-pixel points closest to the inserted pixel location in the rectangular grid. Experiments were conducted to transform the data in the model run by twice the number of pixels using three interpolation algorithms, derived the transformed images using different interpolation algorithms, and calculated the time spent on transforming the images. Examples of the results of transforming the data in this study using the three interpolation algorithms are shown in From The introduction of an attention mechanism in deep learning can make the network focus on the target region, reduce the interference of invalid targets and improve the effective feature extraction ability of the network, thus improving the detection of targets of concern. The Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) is a lightweight attention module that focuses on both channel and space dimensions , and theTwo CBAMs were embedded between the head and backbone of the YOLOv7 network structure to improve the performance of the network. After embedding the CBAMs the network was able to serially generate attention feature map information in both channel and spatial dimensions separately during feature extraction and then carry out adaptive feature correction between the two kinds of information and the original input feature map to generate the final feature map. YOLOv7 with the addition of CBAM increased the channel weights of the detection target and expanded the perceptual field of the original image. Therefore, in this study, the key information of plum fruit can be better focused from the complex background. YOLO (You Only Look Once) is a typical single-stage target detection algorithm. YOLOv7 is the structure introduced in the YOLO series in 2022, and it offers significant improvements in feature extraction for targets compared to previous models . The basTwo CBAMs were added between the head and backbone in the YOLOv7 network structure to improve the model’s ability to perceive different spaces and different channels, enabling the model to pay more attention to the plum fruit as the focal information in the complex background. Then, the nearest neighbor interpolation used in the up-sampling of the original network was changed to the more effective bilinear interpolation, which resulted in a significant improvement of the image quality during the up-sampling process without a significant increase in the training time of the model. Finally, the improved CSPSPPF structure replaced the CSPSPP structure in the original network, which reduced the number of parameters and the computational effort and improved the computational efficiency of the model while ensuring that the sensory field of the model remained unchanged. The improved network achieved better results for plum fruit detection in complex natural environments, and the improved network was called YOLOv7-plum. The network structure of YOLOv7-plum is shown in In this paper, precision, recall, and average precision (AP), the most commonly used evaluation indexes in object detection, were used as the evaluation indexes in this experiment.According to the combination of the real category and prediction category, the sample was divided into four cases: true positive (TP), false positive (FP), true negative (TN), and false negative (FN). The parameters were defined in Precision can be understood as “In the data that the model predicts to be correct, its true value is the proportion of the samples that are correct”. The formula was:Recall is “The percentage of samples that are predicted to be correct by the model out of all samples that are correct”. The formula was:In the PR  curve, P stood for precision and R stood for recall, and it stood for the relationship between precision and recall. Generally, recall is set as the abscissa and precision as the ordinate.AP meant the area under the PR curve, and AP was also an indicator of PR. The better the classifier, the higher the AP value.In order to promote the development of intelligent cultivation of the plum industry, this study applied the YOLOv7 model to the fruit detection of plums in the natural environment and obtained the YOLOv7-plum plum fruit detection model by improving the limitations of YOLOv7. The results showed that the YOLOv7-plum model could perform the task of plum fruit detection better. For the feasibility of the proposed method in this paper, we developed the following discussion:® Cortex®-A53, quad-core, 1.2 G) for testing, and the inference time for a single image was 0.842 s. The experimental results showed that our model could meet the requirements of hardware deployment and the processing speed could meet the practical needs;(1) The model size of our proposed YOLOv7-plum network was 71.4 MB, which was almost the same as that of YOLOv7, and it took only 0.0193 s to infer a single image in the experimental environment (GPU is RTX 3080 × 1 with 10 GB of video memory). Our model inferred a single image time of 0.186 s in a personal laptop environment (GPU of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 × 1 with 2 GB of video memory). Then, we exported the model and deployed it on a development board environment (ARM(2) Few studies have been conducted for intelligent plum planting, and the models used include YOLOv4 , faster (3) YOLOv7-plum has low equipment requirements and can be deployed on platforms with limited computing power, providing great convenience for the practical application of the model.In summary, the method proposed in this study could meet practical needs and had certain advantages over existing studies, which could well accomplish the task of plum fruit detection in the natural environment and was expected to be further used for tasks such as robotic picking and plum pest detection.At present, most plum-growing industries still use traditional manual techniques, which have disadvantages, such as low efficiency, high labor cost, and subjectivity, so it is necessary to carry out research on the intelligent growth of the plum industry. This study achieved the detection of plum fruits in a natural environment using a deep learning algorithm, and the contribution to the intelligent planting of plums was as follows:(1) Manual picking of plum fruits is a labor-intensive task that takes a lot of labor cost, while robotic picking can help reduce labor requirements and can improve efficiency. This study achieved real-time detection of plum fruits, which could be further used for robotic picking ;(2) Due to the suddenness of crop pests and diseases, real-time monitoring of plum growth was beneficial to the timely detection of pests and diseases. This study can be used as a basis for the study of plum fruit pests and disease detection in the natural environment;(3) Manual judgment of whether plum trees need to be thinned was influenced by human subjectivity, so this study can realize the counting of young fruits with fruit detection on plum fruit trees, which can avoid subjective influence and help growers optimize orchard management . It is aIn this study, deep learning technology was applied to the detection of plum fruits, and the YOLOv7 model was improved to obtain a YOLOv7-plum model with a better detection effect on plum fruits. First, the collected plum image data were enhanced and marked, and then, the plum fruit detection data set was formed. Second, the CSPSPP structure used by YOLOv7 was modified to the CSPSPPF structure to improve the computational efficiency in the feature extraction process. Third, bilinear interpolation was used to replace the nearest neighbor interpolation used by the original model to improve the image quality in the upsampling process. Finally, two CBAMs were embedded between the head and backbone of the model structure to make the model pay more attention to the important information of plum fruit in the image during operation. The main conclusions were as follows:(1) The AP of the YOLOv7-plum model proposed in this study reached 94.91%, 2.03% higher than that of the YOLOv7 model. It was found that the YOLOv7-plum model could alleviate the missing detection of the YOLOv7 model to some extent. Therefore, the improved method is believed to be effective, and the YOLOv7-plum model can effectively support continuous detection and analysis during plum growth;(2) Through comparative tests, it was found that the detection accuracy of the YOLOv7-plum model was better than that of the current mainstream target detection network model. The size of 71.4 M was acceptable, and only 0.0193 s was needed to process a single image. The results showed that YOLOv7-plum could accurately complete the plum fruit detection task and could be run on lightweight devices;(3) The method proposed in this study could effectively realize the detection of plum fruit under the natural background and reduced the problems of traditional manual detection, such as low efficiency, high cost, and subjectivity, which is conducive to the development of intelligent planting in the plum industry, such as yield prediction and pest detection.


The growth on the wire surface is assisted by the electromigration process and it is further enhanced by the application of an external electric field through a pair of biased parallel copper plates. In this case, a high amount of WO3 material is also deposited on the copper electrodes, consisting of a few cm3 growth. The structural characterization of the produced microstructures accounts for the 3 (monoclinic I), which is the common stable phase at room temperature, along with low temperature phases, known as 3 (triclinic) on structures formed on the wire surface and 3 (monoclinic II) on material deposited on external electrodes. These phases allow for a high oxygen vacancies concentration, which is interesting in photocatalysis and sensing applications. The results could help to design experiments to produce oxide nanomaterials from other metal wires by this resistive heating method with scaling-up potential.Polymorphous WO The low temperature phases, monoclinic II  and triclinic  [3, from 290 to 600 K) and tetragonal phases , which are high temperature phases [3 phases widen the applications field of this oxide. As an example, 3 exhibits a ferroelectric behaviour due to the slight displacement of the central W ion in the WO6 octahedra, which would be of interest in memristor applications or sensing applications [3 in the low temperature regime occur at different temperatures in sintered material compared to gas-evaporated microcrystals, leading to an stabilization of the triclinic phase at room temperature [Tungsten trioxide, WOg others ,2. Its iications . For ins2O3, V2O5 or ZnO nanowires [3 flakes [3, the Joule heating of a tungsten filament has been used as a way to provide W species for the growth of the hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) of WO3 thin films deposited on a substrate [3 microstructures directly on the W filament surface or, eventually, on an external metal plate by means of a setup that does not need vacuum conditions, gas flow, or the additional heating of substrates. During the electrical current passing through the wire, some lattice expansion due to both the thermal and electron flow occurs, inducing the ions’ movement, which is known as the electromigration phenomenon [Concerning the synthesis of metal oxides’ micro- and nanostructures, the Joule heating of metallic wires exposed to air/oxygen has been proposed as an alternative method to those based on sintering or thermal evaporation processes. The resistive heating of copper, iron, vanadium or zinc wires up to temperatures in the 720–800 K range, depending on the metal, has led to the formation of CuO, Feanowires ,10,11, o3 flakes ,13. Regaubstrate . Alternaubstrate . In mostenomenon ,17. This3 micro- and nanocrystals in a fast and low-cost way, avoiding the use of furnaces, catalysts and vacuum chambers, which are usually needed in other synthesis methods. The high melting point of tungsten (3143 K) in comparison with the melting point of the above mentioned metals  would make the achievement of WO3 nanostructures a challenging task by this method. To achieve this goal, the resistive heating of the W wire as a function of the electrical current has been simulated by COMSOL Multiphysics, which take into account the heat and charge transfer within the wire. The temperature-calculated values agreed with the experimental measurements. The density currents required are in the range of j∼103 enhanced the growth process [3 material by means of several beam injection techniques has revealed the presence of several crystalline phases with good crystal quality, as demonstrated in the analysis of the experimental data. Our results demonstrate that besides the formation of a high density of WO3 micro- and nanostructures, the method provides an effective and rapid way to achieve low temperature structural phases of WO3. This could be of high interest in the applications of this oxide. Furthermore, the knowledge gained from the simulation of the process allows us to anticipate the application of this method to other metal wires in order to produce the corresponding metal oxide nanomaterials with a scaling-up potential in a fast and cost-effective way.In this work, we use the Joule heating of metallic tungsten wires exposed to air ambient conditions to produce WO process . The cha3 nanostructures were produced by the resistivity heating of W wires of a 0.5 mm diameter  under atmospheric conditions. A Keithley 2400 Series SourceMeter capable of supplying electrical currents up to 20 A was employed as the current source. The local temperature of the wire was assessed by an Infratherm pyrometer calibrated with the emissivity parameters of tungsten. The calculation of the temperature profile along the wire has been conducted with the aid of COMSOL software . The experiment was also conducted under an external electric field applied perpendicularly to the wire through two copper plates that were separated by 6 mm.The WOThe structural features of the produced samples were assessed by XRD diffraction  and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to study the morphology and structural phases of individual microstructures. To that purpose, a FEI Inspec or a Prisma Thermofisher SEM instruments were employed. The TEM microscopy was carried out in a JEOL 300 at ICTS-CNM facility in the UCM. The X-ray photoemission measurements were performed in the ESCAmicroscopy beamline, with a beam energy of 620 eV, at the Elettra synchrotron. The energy calibration was made with the aid of a gold foil. A complementary crystal structure was also studied by high-resolution XRD performed at the CRG BM25 SpLine beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble (France). The incident X-ray radiation used was 22.3 keV. The powders were introduced in a spinning quartz capillary (0.5 mm diameter) and the acquisition was performed in the 2software ,19.3 micro- and nanostructures on the surface of W wires under ambient conditions when an electrical current is going through the wire.It is well-known that the flow of electrical current through a conductor induces Joule heating. This heating will depend on the equilibrium and transport properties of the material, such as the density , 3 (ICSD 80056) and 3 (ICSD 1620) phases are marked with stars, squares and diamonds, respectively. The XRD results show that WO3 formed on the wire consists of a mixture of 3 and 3 phases, while WO3 deposited on copper electrodes contains the 3 phase, as well.In order to assess the crystalline structure of the achieved WOe phases ; thus, d3 structures deposited on copper electrodes and on the wire surface. To that end, samples were inserted in a quartz capillary that rotates during the measurements, to avoid any anisotropic effects. Synchrotron radiation XRD results of two representative samples: structures formed on the W wire surface under an external electric field and on the external copper electrodes have been performed. The results are shown in 3 from the the wire surface and the pink plot for structures deposited on electrodes. From these results, there is also a clear evidence of the presence of the 3 microstructures deposited on copper electrodes.To corroborate these results, synchrotron XRD measurements were also carried out at the ESRF (BM25-SpLine beamline) in WO3 microstructures obtained by resistive heating was also assessed from micro-Raman measurements performed in a confocal microscope. 3, at 133, 272, 716 and 803 cm3 [3, is observed in some structures formed on the surface wire, and bands at 636 and 673 cm3, are detected in structures deposited on the copper electrodes. These results agree with the above-shown diffraction data.The polymorphous nature of the WOline WO3 ,5,7. In 3. 3 structural order  . The hyd32.8 eV) .3 nanostructures contain a significant amount of oxygen vacancies, while keeping the structural arrangements of stoichiometric compounds. These defects often introduce electronic levels that behave as donors but also act as recombination sites that could hamper the performance of applications based on electron transfer, as photoelectrochemical water splitting or photocatalytic applications [3 nanostructures at room temperature reveals a broad emission in the visible range (1.6–2.9 eV) that could be deconvoluted into several components (3 has been reported to be about 2.62 eV, the complex CL spectrum achieved may have contributions from a number of electronic levels related to defects in the polymorphic WO3. Further work will be needed to more precisely understand the luminescence behaviour of WO3.Therefore, the XPS results support that WOications . The donmponents . Taking 3 produced by the resistive heating of metallic tungsten wires is demonstrated. The electrical transport through the metal wire was simulated taking into account the electrical and thermal transport through the wire, which allowed us to calculate the temperature profile along the wire. As a result, the density current conditions to promote the nucleation of WO3 micro- and nanostructures as a consequence of the atoms’ diffusion via the electromigration process were found. The structural and chemical characterization of the produced WO3 revealed that the material consists of a mixture of the 3 nanostructures present a relevant amount of oxygen vacancies, which could affect the electronic band structures as the CL results suggest, and hence, their opto-electronic properties. Finally, the reported method of the resistive heating of metallic wires is shown as a promising route to produce oxide micro- and nanomaterials in a fast, easy and low-cost way. Additionally, it is a more sustainable type of synthesis with scaling-up potential.In this study, the polymorphism of micro-and nanostructures of WO


To analyze, by means of a systematic review and meta-analysis, the proportion of patients with Meniere’s disease who have altered caloric test and vHIT, as well as to determine the prevalence of altered caloric test and normal vHIT dissociation in the diagnosis of Meniere’s disease.The literature search had no restriction regarding the period of publication on the following indexed data platforms: PubMed, PubMed PMC, BVS-Bireme, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Library. Articles that evaluated patients with Meniere’s disease who underwent caloric test and vHIT were included. Two researchers independently conducted the analysis of the articles, promoting the selection and capture of data, following the recommendations of the PRISMA method, and complying with the criteria for articles inclusion and exclusion defined in the research protocol. In case of disagreement during the selection process, a third researcher was included for analysis.From a total of 427 initial studies, the researchers selected 12 articles, published between 2014 and 2021, with a total of 708 patients evaluated, with a mean age of 52.72 years old. The prevalence of patients with Meniere’s disease with altered caloric reflex test was 64% (95% CI 57%‒71%), while the prevalence of altered vHIT was only 28% (95% CI 16%–40%). The prevalence of the altered caloric test + normal vHIT dissociation was 47% (95% CI 37%–57%).The video head impulse test and the caloric test are valuable tools for vestibular assessment. The dissociation of findings between these two tests in patients with Meniere’s disease was more prevalent in this meta-analysis and may be a result of the tonotopy of specialized hair cells in the ampullary crest. The prevalence of altered caloric test was 64% and anormal vHIT was 28%. The dissociation caloric asymmetry and normal vHIT was observed in 47% of the patients.1. To date, Menière's disease is still considered a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. According to the Bárány Society, this condition is characterized by two or more episodes of spontaneous vertigo, lasting between 20 min and 12 h, sensorineural hearing loss at low and medium frequencies in the affected ear and fluctuating otologic symptoms  in the affected ear.Although the diagnosis of Menière's disease is essentially clinical, assessment of auditory and vestibular functions is fundamental in establishing differential diagnoses, as well as in patients’ treatment and follow-up.Among the tests that assess the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex (VOR), the caloric test and the Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT) are the most used. The caloric test is the most accepted test for the study of peripheral vestibular function. However, it is a limited test, as it only stimulates the lateral semicircular canals at low frequencies.4On the other hand, the vHIT is a fast-performing test that evaluates the six semicircular canals at high stimulus frequencies. It is more sensitive to the detection of saccades, especially “covert saccades”, and allows greater reliability in the VOR measurement, as well as its record.5Some studies reported a dissociation in the findings of these two tests in patients with Menière's disease, who had altered caloric test responses associated with a normal Vhit.7A possible explanation for the discrepancy between the results of the two tests is based on the different pathways of VOR stimulation of both or a consequence of the physical widening of the membranous duct in the hydropic labyrinth in Meniere’s disease.The objective of this study is to analyze, through systematic review and meta-analysis, the proportion of patients with Meniere's disease who have altered caloric test and vHIT, as well as to determine the prevalence of altered caloric test and normal vHIT dissociation in the diagnosis of Meniere's disease.This study used the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method.The studies selected for this meta-analysis were established using the PICO strategy , with individuals with Meniere’s Disease aged 18 or older as target population. It was considered as an intervention the performance of tests that evaluate the vestibular function in this condition – vHIT and Caloric Test ‒ as well as the comparison between these two tests. Thus, the studies eligible for this research should present a consistent and comparative analysis between these two tests in patients diagnosed with Meniere’s disease.in vitro; (3) Inappropriate study types: simple reviews, abstracts, letters to the editor, case reports; (4) Insufficient clinical information; (5) Language that does not include Portuguese, English or Spanish; (6) Improper outcome.The following were considered as exclusion criteria: (1) Inadequate target population (under 18 years old); (2) Experimental studies Initially, the titles and abstracts of all articles were read independently by two researchers. After that, according to the eligibility criteria, the pre-selected articles were read in full for the composition of the meta-analysis. In case of disagreement during the selection, a third researcher performed analysis. The selection of studies is shown in Data extraction was performed in a standardized way, consisting of year of publication, authors, sample size, mean age of patients included, study design, in addition to the proportion of patients with Menière's disease who had abnormal vHIT and caloric test, as well as information about the combination of findings from these two tests, when present in the articles.After data extraction, the study consisted of two stages. First, the objective was to evaluate the prevalence of patients with Menière's disease who presented changes in caloric test and vHIT alone. In a second moment, the objective was to evaluate the prevalence of the combination of results of these two tests to analyze the combination through four groups: (1) Normal caloric test and vHIT; (2) Altered caloric test and normal vHIT; (3) Altered caloric test and vHIT; (4) Normal caloric test and altered vHIT.The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ) checklist was used to assess methodological quality and publication bias. It uses 11 criteria to evaluate the studies included in research, namely source of information, inclusion and exclusion criteria, period of time, consecutive patients, masking, quality assurance, explanation of exclusions, control of confounding factors, withdrawal of incomplete data, complete data collection and follow-up of research patients. In each of the criteria, the score is 1 if present in the study or 0 if not present. Thus, a high methodological quality refers to articles with a score equal to or greater than 8 .9Table 1The R software  was used for statistical analysis of this meta-analysis and random models using the Restricted Maximum Likelihood Method (REML) were used to estimate the prevalence.Q test, and the I² statistic was used for the quantitative analysis of heterogeneity. This method estimates the proportion of heterogeneity observed in the studies, which can vary from 0% to 100%. The higher the value, the greater the differences between the studies.The assessment of heterogeneity between studies was performed using the p < 0.05).Checking for the presence of outlier was performed through externally studentized residual. The leave-one-out method was used to detect influential studies. To compare the studies, a random model was adjusted for each analysis and a fixed model to combine them. The heterogeneity within each group was assumed the same and the Wald test was used to compare the prevalence of the combination of results from these two tests, which enabled to analyze the combination through 4 groups: (1) Normal caloric test and vHIT; (2) Altered caloric test and normal vHIT; (3) Altered caloric test and vHIT; (4) Normal caloric test and altered vHIT. The level of significance adopted was 5%  and the I2 measure (77%). On the other hand, the proportion of patients with altered vHIT was only 28% (95% CI 16%–40%) and, similarly, also showed high heterogeneity between the articles, through the Q test (p < 0.01) and I2 measurement (96%) , with high heterogeneity between the articles, evidenced by both the nt (96%) .Figure 2In a second meta-analysis, the prevalence of the combination of findings between caloric reflex test and vHIT was evaluated, making it possible to subdivide it into 4 groups: (1) Normal caloric test and vHIT; (2) Altered caloric test and normal vHIT; (3) Altered caloric test and vHIT; (4) Normal caloric test and altered vHIT. At this stage, only ten articles were included, since the others did not have enough data to allocate patients to the aforementioned groups.p < 0.001), and the other groups did not show significant differences between them.The prevalence analysis of both normal caloric test and normal vHIT (Group 1) was 26% (95% CI 0%–36%), while the prevalence of the association of altered caloric test and normal vHIT (Group 2) was 47% (95% CI 37%–57%). Evaluation of both altered exams (Group 3) resulted in a prevalence of 20% (95% CI 0%–2%) and the prevalence of patients with only vHIT altered (Group 4) was 6% (95% CI 0%–15%) . A statiSeveral studies have previously suggested the dissociation of caloric test and vHIT as a marker of Menière's disease, however, the lack of literature so far prevented the confirmation of this affirmation. Thus, our objective was to analyze, through a systematic review and meta-analysis, the proportion of patients with Menière's disease who have altered caloric test and vHIT, as well as to determine the prevalence of altered caloric reflex test and normal vHIT dissociation in the patients of Menière's disease.NineFive articlesWhen comparing the prevalence of alterations between the two tests, in 64% of the patients the caloric test was found to be altered, while the proportion of patients with altered vHIT was only 28%. On the other hand, the association of altered caloric test and normal vHIT was present in 47% of the patients, and this difference was statistically significant when compared to the other combinations of results from these tests.The dissociation of results in the caloric reflex test and vHIT can be explained by the anatomy and physiology of the crista ampullaris, the main receptor of the VOR. This structure is composed of specialized type I and type II hair cells, which have specific distributions in the crista. Type I hair cells occupy mainly the central region of this structure and are responsible for decoding stimuli of head movement at high frequencies and acceleration. Irregular afferent fibers go from these cells toward the excitatory neurons, located in the vestibular nucleus and conduct the ampullaris stimulus directly to the effector eye muscles, which is evaluated through vHIT. On the other hand, type II hair cells are peripherally located in the crista ampullaris, acting on stimuli and movements of low frequency and acceleration. From them come regular afferent fibers that synapse in the vestibular nucleus with inhibitory neurons that act on the internuclear inhibitory commissural pathway, promoting inhibition of the contralateral vestibular nuclei on the stimulated side, this pathway being analyzed through the caloric test.23One hypothesis is that there may be a selective impairment of the different regions of the crista, justifying the discrepancy in the results of tests that operate at different frequencies. This dissociation is well documented in Menière's disease literature and was described by Tsuji et al., in 2000.Another explanation for the discrepancy between caloric test and vHIT in Menière's disease was recently published by McGarvie et al. and considers the hypothesis that endolymphatic hydrops would promote an increase in the diameter of the semicircular canals.Both the caloric test and the vHIT consist of validated methods for vestibular assessment through the analysis of the VOR, however, they consist of tests that are considered complementary to each other, as they assess the peripheral vestibular system at different frequencies. While the first exam is capable of evaluating at lower frequencies (0.003 Hz), the vHIT consists of high-frequency stimuli (between 4 and 7 Hz).Thus, it is possible that Menière's disease preferentially causes impairment in the vestibular apparatus responsible for processing low-frequency responses, justifying the presence of alterations in the caloric test, to the detriment of a vHIT within the normal range.26On the other hand, another plausible explanation for such findings would be related to the central adaptation mechanism to the damage induced by Meniere's disease, which would be effective only for high-frequency physiological stimuli, not being present in low-frequency non-physiological stimuli.27Q Test and by the I2 measure. Thus, it is necessary to develop new studies later with less heterogeneity and standardized methods for patient selection to corroborate the findings of this present research.However, a limitation of the present study is the high heterogeneity among the articles included in this meta-analysis, evaluated both by the In Meniere’s disease, the prevalence of altered caloric test was 64% and anormal vHIT was 28%. Caloric asymmetry in the presence of normal vHIT was observed in 47% of the patients.The authors declare no conflicts of interest.


The homogeneous cation exchange layer has a negligible effect on the transport properties of the initial heterogeneous membrane. The polyaniline synthesis leads to a decrease in the macropore volume in the membrane structure, conductivity, and diffusion permeability. The counterion transport number in the bilayer membrane is significantly reduced in a solution of calcium chloride and practically does not change in sodium chloride and hydrochloric acid. In addition, the asymmetry of the diffusion permeability and shape of current–voltage curve depending on the orientation of the membrane surface to the flux of electrolyte or counterion are found.A bilayer membrane based on a heterogenous cation exchange membrane with a homogeneous cation exchange layer and a polyaniline on its surface is prepared. The intercalation of polyaniline into the membrane with a homogeneous cation exchange layer is performed by oxidative polymerization of aniline. The influence of the homogeneous cation exchange layer and the polyaniline on the structure, conductivity, diffusion permeability, selectivity, and current–voltage curve of the heterogeneous cation exchange membrane is established. Membrane properties are studied in the HCl, NaCl, and CaCl Electrodialysis allows for a number of important processes, such as separation and concentration of electrolyte solutions, extraction of precious and non-ferrous metal salts, conditioning of food raw materials and products, separation of organic acids from mixed solutions, removal and recovery of nutrients from wastewater ,6,7,8,9,One of the most challenging problems in the electrodialysis conditioning of wastewater is not only to increase or decrease concentrations of all the present electrolytes but to separate them. For example, the separation of lithium salts from seawater ,19, reco+/Mg2+, Na+/Ca2+, Na+/Sr2+, Na+/Ba2+ [+/Zn2+ or H+/Cu2+ [+/Ca2+, Na+/Cu2+, Na+/Zn2+, and Na+/Al3+ separation is shown when using experimental membranes single-face modified with PANI experimental membranes [The creation of the polyaniline (PANI) layer on one of the surfaces of the cation exchange membrane leads to monovalent permselectivity due to the positive charge of the nitrogen ,27. The Na+/Ba2+ ,28 H+/Zn H+/Cu2+ ,30,31,32embranes ,34.The homogeneous or interpolymer cation exchange membranes are used in these studies. The homogeneous membrane Nafion consists of perfluorovinyl ether pendant side chains terminated by sulfonic or carboxylic ionic functional groups. The homogeneous membrane Neosepta CMX consists of sulfonated polystyrene crosslinked with divinylbenzene and polyvinylchloride as a support . The basThe methods of preparation and the electrotransport properties of composites based on PANI and ion-exchange membranes are described in a large number of studies, which are associated with a wide range of applications for such materials. The prospects of using such materials in various sensor systems ,39,40,41The most common methods of membrane modification with PANI are in situ oxidative polymerization ,45,46,49In our previous studies, it is shown that surface modification of homogeneous perfluorinated MF-4SK and heterogeneous MK-40 membranes with sulfonic acid groups leads to a decrease in their diffusion and electroosmotic permeability, as well as specific conductivity. However, for homogeneous membranes, these effects are more pronounced ,58,59,60+/Ca2+, H+/Ca2+, H+/Ni2+) in electrodialysis using the initial and surface-modified with PANI homogeneous MF-4SK membranes and heterogeneous MK-40 membranes is carried out in the studies [A study of the competitive transfer of singly and doubly charged cations . It is reflected in the CVC by the formation of the limiting current plateau. Further intensification of the concentration polarization leads to the catalytic water splitting and the appearance of new mechanisms of counterion transport from the solution, mainly electroconvection [Current–voltage curves of the membranes are widely used for studying their electrotransport behavior under the concentration polarization condition close to electrodialysis ,74,75,76nvection ,81,82,83nvection .The main parameters of the CVC are limiting current density, ohmic and overlimiting region slopes, limiting current plateau length (Δ), and potentials of transiting the system to the limiting and overlimiting states. The CVC is dependent on the peculiarities of the membrane surface ,87,88,89ipseudolim) is found  is used as the initial membrane. It is a heterogeneous material, consisting of KU-2 cation exchange resin, polyethylene, and reinforcing polyamide mesh. KU-2 cation exchange resin is polystyrene crosslinked by divinylbenzene containing the sulfonic acid groups as fixed ions.The membranes were conditioned according to the standard procedure. The membranes were placed in ethanol for 6 h. Next, the membranes were sequentially placed for 24 h in sodium chloride solutions with concentrations of 312 g/L (saturated solution), 100 g/L, and 30 g/L. After that, the membranes were placed in deionized water for 48 h. Then, the membranes were converted into the form of hydrogen cations by placing them in a 10% hydrochloric acid solution for 48 h. Lastly, the membranes were washed with deionized water until neutral with methyl orange after a day of contact of the membranes with a portion of deionized water.2 of the membrane. After the applied MF-4SK layer dried, the membranes were conditioned similarly to the initial ones, except for placing them in ethyl alcohol. The MK-40 sample with an MF-4SK layer on one surface is marked MK-40/MF-4SK.In the first stage, samples of MK-40 membranes with a layer of MF-4SK on one of the surfaces were obtained. For this, a dispersion of LF-4SK (10 wt. %)  in isopropyl alcohol was used. LF-4SK is the perfluorosulfonic acid. The ion exchange capacity of the LF-4SK is 0.98 mmol-eq per g of dry polymer. Before applying to the membrane, LF-4SK was mixed with glacial acetic acid to improve adhesion. The membrane was pre-dried at room temperature for 48 h. The amount of the modifier was 2.5 mL of a 10% dispersion of LF-4SK per 1 dmThe conversion of membranes into the required ionic form was carried out by placing the samples in a 10% solution of the corresponding electrolyte, followed by washing with deionized water from the non-exchange absorbed solution.The synthesis of PANI on the surface of the MK-40/MF-4SK membrane was carried out under the conditions of successive diffusion of a monomer solution (0.1 M aniline in 0.05 M sulfuric acid) and an oxidizer solution (0.1 M ammonium persulfate) through the membrane into water . In the After the modification, the membrane was placed in 0.5 M sulfuric acid for 24 h to remove the remaining monomer and then washed with deionized water. The modification of the MK-40 membrane with the MF-4SK film and the synthesis of PANI did not lead to a change in its ion exchange capacity (Q) .The membranes were brought into equilibrium with an electrolyte solution before measuring the transport characteristics. To achieve this state, the membrane was placed in an electrolyte solution with the required concentration. Portions of the solution were changed 3–4 times on the first day. Further, the membrane was placed in one portion of the solution for 24 h, after which the electrical conductivity of the solution was measured. The criterion for the onset of equilibrium was the equality of the electrical conductivity of the solution before and after contact with the membrane. If equilibrium was not reached, the procedure was repeated.The techniques thoroughly described in ,100 wereP) was calculated by the formulaV was the chamber volume (1 × 10−7 L); S was the membrane area (2.1 × 10−3 m2); sR was the resistance in the second chamber; τ was the time of experiment; C was the electrolyte concentration in the first chamber; and K was the constant of the diffusion cell that depends on the geometry of the electrodes and the electrolyte nature. The K value was obtained as a slope of dependence in coordinates The diffusion permeability of membranes was obtained using a non-flow two-chamber cell b. The te−5 A/s.The CVC of the membrane was measured using cell consisting of four chambers separated by vertically fixed membranes . Auxiliak) was obtained from the active part of the membrane AC resistance measured by mercury contact method. The conductivity was calculated by formulamR was the membrane resistance. The resistance was measured using the potentiostat–galvanostat Autolab PGSTAT302N equipped with FRA-32 impedance unit .The conductivity of membrane , and the total area of the internal specific surface . Also, the volume of unselective macropores (Vmacro) and the volume of micro- and mesopores (Vmicro) having nearly ideal selectivity are defined. The boundary between selective and non-selective pores is at a pore radius of 25 nm [The structure of the wet membranes was studied with the method of standard contact porosimetry based on the laws of capillary equilibrium ,101. Thiof 25 nm . Device of 25 nm .Since the initial membrane is yellow and the emerging modifier is green, its formation on the surface or in the volume of the membrane can be assessed visually. For samples with a synthesis time of 2 h, it is clearly seen that PANI is formed on the surface and slightly penetrates into the volume. However, for the sample with a modification time of 4 h, separate light green areas are visible on the conditionally unmodified side, indicating the formation of PANI throughout the membrane volume. As a result of the long contact time of the membrane with the ammonium persulfate solution, it diffuses into the volume of the membrane. Since aniline is present in the entire volume of the membrane, the appearance of a sufficient amount of the oxidizer leads to the formation of PANI in the volume of the membrane. In this case, the modifier has a gradient distribution in volume: the main part is formed in the surface layers, which then decreases towards the opposite side of the membrane. This makes the further increase of the aniline polymerization time under the given synthesis conditions inexpedient.To assess the thickness of the modified part of the cation exchange membranes, microphotographs of composite cross-sections were made . Three p+ to Ca2+ form leads to a decrease in the maximum water content of all the studied membranes. This is due to a smaller number of cations in the membrane phase, resulting in a decrease in the total amount of bounded water.The maximum water content of the MK-40 membrane decreases after the synthesis of PANI by about 25%, regardless of the time of the sample modification. The proportion of gel pores that provide membrane selectivity somewhat increases as a result of modification. At the same time, the proportion of macropores in the membrane structure decreases. This might be explained by the fact that PANI chains are located in macropores, displacing water from them, which leads to a decrease in the maximum water content and a decrease in the effective pore size due to the fact that part of the space in them is occupied by the modifier.The deposition of an MF-4SK film on the surface of a heterogeneous MK-40 membrane does not significantly affect the electrotransport properties of the membrane a,b. HoweThe diffusion permeability of MK-40/MF-4SK/PANI-2 and MK-40/MF-4SK/PANI-4 samples also decreases, and the effect intensifies with increasing modification time from 20–50% for 2 h to 40–60% for 4 h modifier synthesis . An asymThe application of the MF-4SK layer on the surface of the MK-40 membrane has almost no impact on the specific conductivity  were estimated within the extended three-wire model [t* values is described in Based on the obtained concentration dependences of the electrical conductivity of the initial and modified membranes in HCl, NaCl, and CaClre model . The pro2, the transport numbers decrease by 6–8% for the MK-40/MF-4SK/PANI-2 sample and even more significantly for the MK-40/MF-4SK/PANI-4 sample. A significant decrease in the transport numbers of counterions in the CaCl2 solution and the preservation of selectivity at a level close to that of the initial membrane indicates the possible presence of specific selectivity to singly charged cations.The modification of bilayer membranes with PANI leads to a slight decrease in their selectivity in a solution of NaCl and HCl. However, in a solution of CaClTo reveal the effect of the MF-4SK layer on the properties of the MK-40 membrane, the CVCs of the initial membranes and MK-40/MF-4SK membranes were measured . The mosIn general, the low impact of the MF-4SK film on the electrotransport properties of the heterogeneous MK-40 membrane is natural and is due to the surface distribution of the modifier and the small thickness of its layer.To assess the possible presence of specific charge selectivity in the obtained membranes, their CVCs were measured . An asymFor the composite with the longest PANI synthesis time (4 h), an insignificant decrease of about 8% in the limiting current density is observed when the modified side is oriented towards the counterion flux .iohm/ΔEohm) of the CVC is coherent with the data on the specific conductivity of membranes: for bilayer membranes, the lowest values of the specific conductivity of the electromembrane system are observed. The traditional dependence of the limiting current density and the slope of the ohmic section on the nature of the electrolyte is also observed: the limiting current density and the slope of the ohmic section decrease in the series HCl > NaCl > CaCl2. This is due to the similar value of the diffusion coefficients of electrolytes and the mobility of the corresponding counterions in solution.The change in the slope of the ohmic section  remain, and ions are transferred through them, similar to the initial membrane.


Dependencies of the change in the degree of structural order as a function of the dose of accumulated damage and the concentration of accumulated protons were obtained. It was established that the variation of the ceramics phase composition due to the formation of solid solutions of ZrO2/Al2O3 and ZrO2/Al2O3/AlZr3 type leads to an enhancement of resistance to swelling by 3–5 times in comparison with monoclinic ZrO2 ceramics. The general analysis of the variation of strength and thermo-physical parameters of ceramics as a function of irradiation fluence for ceramics with different phase compositions showed a direct dependence of the decrease in hardness, resistance to cracking, and thermal conductivity on the concentration of deformation structural distortions caused by irradiation.The article describes the influence of the change in the phase composition of ceramics on the stability of the crystal structure and retention of thermo-physical parameters during hydrogenation of the surface layer in the proton irradiation process. The selection of irradiation conditions allows modeling the degradation processes of ceramics associated with gas swelling during hydrogenation, as well as revealing the patterns of the effect of phase composition on embrittlement, de-strengthening, and structural degradation resistance. In the course of the conducted studies, dose-dependencies of irradiation-induced structural changes and consecutive accumulation of radiation-induced damage in ceramics as a result of hydrogenation of the damaged near-surface layer were established. It was found that the maximum structural changes are observed at doses above 10 As a ar fuels ,5,6,7. M00 K, as ar fuels ,9,10,11.ar fuels ,13. Whenar fuels ,15,16. Mar fuels ,18.2–xAl2O3 ceramics under irradiation with protons with an energy of 1.5 MeV and fluences from 1011 to 1017 protons/cm2 are considered. The choice of (1 − x)ZrO2–xAl2O3 ceramics samples with different phase compositions, the variation of which is caused by the use of different stoichiometric ratios of zirconium and aluminum oxide compounds, as objects of study is primarily conditioned by their advanced strength and thermo-physical parameters, the totality of which allows us to consider them as one of the most promising materials for the inert matrices of dispersed nuclear fuel for high-temperature nuclear reactors [In this work, the effects occurring in samples of (1 − x)ZrOreactors ,20,21.2 and Al2O3 powders acquired from Sigma Aldrich  were used for the synthesis of cer-cer ceramics based on ZrO2 compounds doped with aluminum oxide. The chemical purity of the powders used for synthesis was 99.95%. Synthesis of ceramics was performed by varying the composition components (1 − x)ZrO2–xAl2O3 in the range x = 0.1–0.5 M. The ceramics synthesis was implemented by applying the mechanical-chemical method, which consists of grinding the initial powders in a predetermined mole proportion in a planetary mill. A planetary mill, the PULVERISETTE 6 classic line , was applied for grinding. An 80 mL tungsten carbide beaker was used as a grinding cup, the use of which is conditioned by the necessity to avoid impurities in the process of grinding mixtures with increased hardness. The ratio of the initial mixture to the grinding balls was 2:1. The choice of a beaker and grinding balls made of tungsten carbide was due to its high resistance to mechanical stirring as well as the absence of the likelihood of impurities getting into the resulting powders, which was confirmed by X-ray phase analysis by determining the absence of any impurities associated with tungsten. Grinding was realized for 30 min at a grinding speed of 250 rpm. The method of mechanochemical synthesis was used to mix the initial powders and bring them to a homogeneous composition and size of powder particles, which were subsequently annealed in order to initiate the process of phase transformations. The selection of mixing conditions was carried out in such a way that the processes of phase transformations during stirring were not initiated in the samples . After mixing, the average size of the resulting powders was about 1 ± 0.1 µm, while in the initial state they were used with a diameter of about 2–3 µm. Following grinding, the obtained powdered mixtures were then annealed in a muffle furnace at 1500 °C (heating rate 10 °C/min) for 8 h, followed by subsequent cooling with the furnace for 24 h. The samples were annealed in an inert atmosphere (argon) to reduce the effects of reverse polymorphic transformations. Refrigeration of ceramics for such a long time during cooling is due to the need to avoid the effects associated with rapid refrigeration, which can result in surface oxidation and the creation of additional defects in the structure with a sharp change in temperature. To conduct studies related to irradiation and subsequent measurements of hardness and thermal conductivity, the samples were pressed in the form of tablets with a diameter of 10 mm and a thickness of about 20 µm. Pressing was carried out at a pressure of 250 MPa for 1 h, followed by heat treatment at a temperature of 400 °C in order to relieve mechanical stresses associated with pressing processes. The porosity of the samples was determined using the gravimetric method.Micron-sized (2–3 µm) ZrOThe selection of protons with an energy of 1.5 MeV as ionizing radiation is conditioned by the possibilities of simulation of radiation-induced damage processes characteristic of the effect of hydrogenation of the damaged layer, comparable to the real processes of ceramic hydrogenation during operation during nuclear reactions of fissile nuclear fuel as well as the operation of ceramics in the core during their interaction with coolants. The hydrogenation effect and helium swelling are among the most dangerous types of radiation damage due to the high mobility and capability of hydrogen and helium agglomeration in voids, with the subsequent development of gas-filled cavities resulting in deformation, swelling, and destructive embrittlement of the affected layer.The irradiation was carried out at the UKP-2.1 accelerator at the Institute of Nuclear Physics. In order to avoid the effects of local overheating of the samples while irradiating, the samples were positioned on dedicated water-cooled holders, the use of which allowed for a stable temperature of the target during the whole irradiation experiment.2 is explained by the possibility of simulation of the effects of implanted hydrogen accumulation in the ceramic composition with its subsequent agglomeration and the formation of gas-filled bubbles in the affected layer with a thickness of 10–15 μm. According to a number of literature data [16–1017 protons/cm2, for which the concentration of implanted hydrogen, according to calculated data using the SRIM Pro 2013 software code v.5.0, can be of the order of 1–5% at the maximum.The choice of irradiation doses from 1011 to 1017 protons/cmure data ,23, the phaseI is the average integrated intensity of the main phase of the diffraction line; admixtureI—average integral intensity of the additional phase; R—structure coefficient equal to 1.45.The X-ray diffraction method was used as the main evaluation method in order to determine the changes in structural parameters and mechanisms of deformation distortions of the damaged layer, as well as changes in the degree of structural ordering  depending on the irradiation fluence. The measurements were carried out on a D8 Advance ECO X-ray diffractometer , in Bragg-Brentano geometry in the angular range 2θ = 20–90°, with a step of 0.03°. To eliminate texturing effects, the samples were rotated during measurements at a speed of 15 rpm. The phase composition was refined using card values from the PDF-2 (2016) database. To determine the phase composition, a technique was used to analyze the weight contributions of diffraction reflections characteristic of the established phases, followed by calculating their values using the formula Measurements of strength properties, in particular hardness, crack resistance, resistance to one-time compression, and cracking, were performed according to the developed measurement regulations, taking into account state standards on testing machines. The obtained data made it possible to identify the dynamics of variation in the strength properties of ceramics as a consequence of the accumulation of radiation damage and the agglomeration of implanted hydrogen in the near-surface layer, as well as to define dependences between changes in structural parameters associated with deformation distortions and changes in strength properties.The thermo-physical parameters were analyzed using the method of estimating the heat flux of ceramics before and after irradiation, which in turn made it possible to determine the kinetics of change in the thermal conductivity coefficient of ceramics depending on the irradiation fluence and the degree of structural damage to ceramics. Assessment of the change in the thermal conductivity coefficient was carried out by means of a comparative analysis of the obtained values of irradiated samples with the data of the initial samples in the unirradiated state. In this case, the phonon mechanism of heat transfer in ceramics was considered the main mechanism of heat transfer in the case of dielectric ceramics.2 annealed at 1500 °C under the same conditions as the mixed composition samples is presented as a comparison sample.2 sample chosen as a sample for comparison after thermal annealing showed that annealing of ZrO2 ceramics at a temperature of 1500 °C (0.55Tmelt) does not lead to phase polymorphic transformations, and the occurrence of any reflexes that are characteristic of impurity phases was not found on the diffractogram. The obtained data indicate that pure ZrO2 ceramics retain the monoclinic structure (space group P121/c1(14)) at an annealing temperature equal to half of the melting temperature.The analysis of the ZrO2O3 showed that the main reflexes are characteristic of the monoclinic phase of ZrO2. However, the observed reflections at 2θ = 25.653°, 35.372°, 52.992°, and 57.548° are characteristic of the Al2O3 phase ) with a hexagonal type of crystal lattice. The presence of these reflexes, as well as their shape, indicates that the process of mechanochemical synthesis and then thermal annealing results in the development of a structure containing inclusions in the form of a solid solution of Al2O3 without the formation of complex oxides or spinel-type structures. The assessment of the area contribution of the reflections indicates that the ratio of ZrO2: Al2O3 phases for the studied sample was 89: 11%, which in general has a good agreement with the molar ratio of the initial components used for synthesis.Analysis of the presented X-ray diffractogram of the sample containing 0.1 mol of Al2–0.25Al2O3 ceramic sample, it was shown that the input of hexagonal Al2O3 phase grows up to 30% and the input of cubic AlZr3 phase increases up to 5%, which indicates that the content of impurity inclusions becomes higher. The growth of the contribution of additional phases results in the formation of additional interphase boundaries, the presence of which determines the strength properties of ceramics as well as their resistance to external effects.By analyzing the resulting X-ray diffractogram of the 0.75ZrO2 and Al2O3 components becomes equal during synthesis, the phase composition evaluation showed that the content of the monoclinic ZrO2 phase is not more than 58–60% and the content of the Al2O3 phase is more than 35%. In addition to the previously detected phases Al2O3 and AlZr3 in the ceramics, the diffraction reflections characteristic of the cubic phase ZrO2 (space group Fm-3m(225)) are observed on the diffractograms obtained, the formation of which, in accordance with the received data, indicates the occurrence of polymorphic transformations of the type m-ZrO2 → c-ZrO2. Polymorphic transformations of this type in ZrO2 can result in its hardening and increased resistance to external influences and mechanical stresses.In the case where the ratio of ZrO2–xAl2O3 ceramics at variation of weight contributions of the components, the general dynamics of phase transformations can be described in the following format: ZrO2 → ZrO2/Al2O3 → ZrO2/Al2O3/AlZr3 → ZrO2/Al2O3/AlZr3/c-ZrO2.Thus, summarizing the characterization of changes in the phase composition of (1 − x)ZrOOne of the ways to evaluate the influence of radiation damage on the properties of structural materials or ceramics is through the application of the X-ray diffraction method used to define the kinetics of changes in structural parameters and their deformation as a result of accumulating radiation damage. In addition, a number of studies have established that deformation distortions of the crystal structure of ceramics as a result of radiation damage accumulation can lead to the complete destability of ceramics and their amorphization ,25. Also2 and 0.5ZrO2–0.5Al2O3 ceramics, presented in order to reflect the dynamics of changes in the structure of ceramics with increasing irradiation fluence. These samples of ZrO2 and 0.5ZrO2–0.5Al2O3 ceramics were selected as extreme cases in order to determine the effect of the addition of aluminum oxide to the composition of zirconium dioxide-based ceramics on their stability and growth in resistance to structural disorder. The measurements were carried out according to the following scheme: The sample was subjected to X-ray diffraction in its initial state as well as the determination of its structural parameters, which were recorded as initial values (the Pristine diffraction pattern of the sample). Subsequently, this sample was irradiated until a certain fluence was achieved and was again subjected to radiography as well as measurement of structural parameters, which were compared with the original sample in order to determine the contribution of structural distortions and swelling resulting from irradiation. After all the necessary measurements, the sample was irradiated to the next fluence value, taking into account the previously accumulated radiation dose, and all measurements were repeated again in order to determine the dynamics of changes in structural parameters depending on the irradiation fluence. Effects associated with the possible relaxation of structural distortions caused by irradiation were taken into account when assessing the structural parameters, since the relaxation effect manifests itself only at low irradiation fluences, which are characterized by high isolation of structural distortions in the damaged ceramic layer. In the case of high-dose radiation, this effect is minimal.2 ceramics, while for 0.5ZrO2–0.5Al2O3 ceramics, the alteration in diffraction patterns is less pronounced, which indicates elevated stability to radiation damage caused by the accumulation of structural distortions.As can be seen from the presented set of X-ray diffraction patterns, the main changes that occur with increasing irradiation fluence are associated with broadening of reflections as well as a shift of diffraction maxima to the region of small angles, which indicates deformation distortion of the crystal structure. At the same time, in the case of both types of ceramics, the appearance of new diffraction reflections was not established, which indicates the absence of phase or polymorphic transformation processes caused by irradiation. In turn, structural distortions are more pronounced for ZrOV and V0 are the volumes of the crystal lattice for the irradiated and original samples. The swelling results were calculated by a comparative analysis of changes in the parameters and volume of the crystal lattice for each established phase, followed by calculating the average value. Formula (2) was used to calculate the concentration of the defective fraction based on the intensity changes of diffraction reflections and their area.n is the number of diffraction reflections.2–xAl2O3 ceramics, changes related to polymorphic phase transformations typical for zirconium dioxide with a monoclinic type of crystal structure were not found, which indicates that at proton irradiation, the values of ionization losses of protons with an energy of 1.5 MeV are not sufficient for the initialization of phase transformation processes.It should be noted that in accordance with the data of X-ray phase analysis in the whole measured range of irradiation fluences for all studied samples of (1 − x)ZrO2, for which the change in parameters evidences the accumulation of tensile-type strain distortions in the structure. At irradiation doses below 1015 proton/cm2, the main structural changes are connected with the formation of locally isolated structurally distorted regions in the damaged layer of ceramics, the accumulation of which is accompanied by a small growth of the contribution of tensile strain distortions in the crystal structure. Such large differences in the change in structural disorder trends for ceramics irradiated with protons in comparison with the results of experimental studies [12–1013 ions/cm2. Here, when irradiated with heavy ions (even in the case of energies above 200 MeV), the maximum thickness of the affected layer is no more than 20–25 μm [The main changes in the structural characteristics, in particular the degree of swelling and growth of the defect fraction concentration, occur at fluences higher than 1015 proton/cm studies ,28,29,3020–25 μm ,32.2), for which the calculated concentration of implanted hydrogen can be several atomic percent. In this regard, the observed kinetics of the change in structural parameters have good correspondence with this substantiation, since the most pronounced changes occur at fluences above 1015 proton/cm2. In such a case, the greatest structural changes caused by degradation and swelling of the crystal lattice due to the accumulation of structurally deformed regions as well as the formation of gas-filled regions are observed for ZrO2 ceramics. In the case of two- to three-phase ceramics, the effects relating to deformation and swelling of the crystalline structure are less pronounced because of the presence of interphase boundaries that reduce the possibility of agglomeration of implanted hydrogen in the affected layer of ceramics. As is evident from the reported data in 2) in comparison with ZrO2 ceramics, the presence of Al2O3, AlZr3, and c-ZrO2 phases results in a significant increase in the stability of the crystal structure to radiation-induced swelling.With proton irradiation, due to the small size of the protons themselves as well as their high penetration ability, ionization losses of protons in interaction with the crystal structure have a much smaller effect than heavy ions, and the main structural damage is primarily due to the accumulation effect associated with the agglomeration of implanted hydrogen with the subsequent formation of gas-filled bubbles ,34. The 2O3 in the composition of ceramics results in a 3–5-fold increase in resistance to structural degradation in comparison with ZrO2 ceramics with a monoclinic type of crystal structure.This phenomenon might also be accounted for by the presence of an increase in dislocation density and interfacial boundaries in the structure during the formation of two- to three-phase ceramics, the presence of which can prevent the agglomeration of implanted hydrogen by inhibiting it at the boundaries, preventing it from agglomerating into large gas-filled bubbles, leading to an increase in the deformation distortion of the crystal structure. According to the obtained data, the improvement of resistance to swelling with increasing concentrations of Al2 ceramics, the porosity value is maximum, which in turn leads to the formation of cavities in which hydrogen can accumulate, which leads to a sharp swelling of the ceramics. In the case when the composition of ceramics consists of two or more phases, the porosity of the samples decreases, which has a good correlation with the swelling values of ceramics during irradiation.2–xAl2O3 ceramics on the change in strength characteristics was determined in order to identify strengthening factors related to the change in phase composition. Secondly, the dependences of change in strength properties for irradiated samples at variation of irradiation fluence were determined. According to the data obtained for the initial samples, the change in phase composition increases the resistance of ceramics to both single compression and strengthening by increasing the hardness and resistance to cracking. In such a case, the increase in stability plays a very significant role in increasing the stability of the strength properties against radiation damage resulting from high-dose irradiation and subsequent swelling processes.3 solid solutions in the composition of ceramics increases the resistance to embrittlement and softening by 1.5–2 times in comparison with ceramics based on zirconium dioxide under high-dose irradiation. This effect can be accounted for by the creation of additional interfacial boundaries that prevent the implanted hydrogen from clustering into gas-filled blisters in the damaged layer, resulting in an increase in resistance to embrittlement. Similarly, the strengthening of ceramics due to inclusions in the form of interstitial phases can also be explained by changes in the dislocation density of ceramics in the case of the occurrence of grains of different phases, the presence of which was established by means of the method of scanning electron microscopy ZrO2–Al2O3 base is much more promising than ZrO2 ceramics, which, as shown by the experiments, are subject to structural degradation under high-dose proton irradiation, which simulates the hydrogenation processes in the ceramic near-surface layer. However, the key mechanism for enhancing the resistance to degradation induced by radiation for two- and three-phase ceramics is the influence of the occurrence of additional interfacial boundaries and a higher dislocation density, which results in a decrease in the possibility of implanted hydrogen agglomeration and the generation of gas-filled bubbles. The data obtained are in reasonable agreement with a series of previous studies that have hypothesized the dislocation and interfacial hardening of ceramics against radiation damage.As a result of the conducted studies, it can be stated that the use of two-phase ceramics with a ZrO