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Precise Orbit Determination (POD) of Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR)-tracked satellites is stepping towards millimeter-level precision, which requires further refinement of satellite perturbation models and consideration of more detailed perturbation force models that were not previously taken into accounted. Atmospheric drag is one of the main perturbative forces acting on a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite, however, the atmospheric wind speed associated with atmospheric drag has not been considered in International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) regular data processing. Therefore, in order to analyze the magnitude of atmospheric wind speed influence on POD of SLR satellites, this paper applies HWM14 (Horizontal Wind Model 14) atmospheric wind speed model to perform POD of LARES, Ajisai, Starlette, Stella, Larets satellites and analyses the results. The results show that after applying HWM14 atmospheric wind speed model, the SLR observation residual WRMS (Weighted Root Mean Square) value for LARES, Starlette, Stella, Larets satellites reach 1.04 cm, 2.13 cm, 1.73 cm, 3.36 cm, respectively, which are reduced by 0.10 cm, 0.30 cm, 0.00 cm, 0.05 cm, respectively. However, for Ajisai, one has an almost the same orbit residual WRMS value of 2.88 cm. The 3D (three-dimensional) orbit overlapping arcs error for LARES is 17.53 cm, which is reduced by 1.75 cm; for Starlette it is 19.12 cm, which is reduced by 0.96 cm; for Stella there is almost same orbit overlapping arcs error of 34.9 cm. The accuracy of orbit forecast for 1 day and 3 days for LARES reaches 147.57 cm and 163.96 cm, respectively, which is improved by 0.04 cm and 20.73 cm in the T (Tangential) direction, respectively. The accuracy of orbit forecast for 1 day and 3 days for Stella reaches 191.77 cm and 308.52 cm, respectively, which is improved by 1.95 cm and 6.74 cm in the T direction, respectively. The accuracy of orbit forecast for 1 day and 3 days for Larets reaches 6.18 m and 145.26 m, respectively, which is improved by 7.81 m and 473.61 m in the T direction, respectively. Above results display that considering HWM14 atmospheric wind speed model has a certain improvement for POD of LARES, Starlette, Stella and Larets. Therefore, the influence of atmospheric wind speed should be considered in the SLR POD and regular data processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based multiple intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) network, where the hovering UAV acts as a base station, and the IRS enhances signal transmission to across obstacle between users and UAV. To achieve the maximum sum rate of proposed communication scenario, a non-convex problem considering IRS association results, hovering altitude of UAV, and the phase shift design of multi-IRS is formulated. From the IRS association problem, we can find that the IRS association results are coupled to the decoding order of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). To tackle this, a mathematical interference expansion scheme is developed to decouple it and transform it to convex by binary relaxation method. The non-convexity of hovering altitude optimization problem is solved by logarithm operation, approximation, and auxiliary matrices. For the phase shift optimization problem of multi-IRS, we propose a gradient approximation based initial scheme and develop a univariate optimization based approach on the basis to achieve the users sum rate improvement in multi-IRS. In the end, we compare the proposed scheme with baseline scheme to present the superiority of this work under various network settings. The internal reasons for the variation of simulation results are also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most background suppression algorithms are weakly robust due to the complexity and fluctuation of the star image's background. In this paper, a background suppression algorithm for stray lights in star images is proposed, which is named BSC-Net (Background Suppression Convolutional Network) and consist of two parts: "Background Suppression Part" and "Foreground Retention Part". The former part achieves background suppression by extracting features from various receptive fields, while the latter part achieves foreground retention by merging multi-scale features. Through this two-part design, BSC-Net can compensate for blurring and distortion of the foreground caused by background suppression, which is not achievable in other methods. At the same time, a blended loss function of smooth_L1&Structure Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) is introduced to hasten the network convergence and avoid image distortion. Based on the BSC-Net and the loss function, a dataset consisting of real images will be used for training and testing. Finally, experiments show that BSC-Net achieves the best results and the largest Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) improvement in different backgrounds, which is fast, practical and efficient, and can tackle the shortcomings of existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To analyze the intervention effect of group counseling based on positive psychology on psychological crisis of college student. Method. SCL-90 mental health screening was performed on second-year students in a college by cluster stratification. Among the detected students, 210 were included into the group after brief interview and randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group. The control group was given conventional intervention measures, and the experimental group was given group counseling according to the interview results. One week before the start, on the day of the end of the intervention and 3 months after the end of the intervention, the mental health level of all subjects was evaluated by symptom self-rating scale, general well-being scale, and adolescent mental resilience scale. Results. The scores of two groups were different at different time points during the intervention. With the extension of time, the score of the self-rating symptom scale in the experimental group decreased significantly, while the total score of the self-rating symptom scale in the control group increased, with statistical significance P < 0.05 . Before the intervention, there was no significant difference in general well-being between the two groups P > 0.05 . At 3 months after the end of intervention, the total score of the general well-being scale in the experimental group increased, while that in the control group decreased, with statistical significance P < 0.05 . Three months after the end of the intervention, the total score of adolescent mental resilience scale in the experimental group increased. Conclusion. Group counseling from the perspective of positive psychology can effectively improve the mental health status of medical students with psychological crisis and improve their mental resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Three sequential processes occur, including coalescence, spreading, retraction. • Spreading diameter and time are normalized by impact and stationary droplets. • Effects of Weber number, droplet volume ratio, surface wettability are clarified. • Maximum spreading coefficient elevates at larger Weber number or drop volume ratio. • An accurate theoretical model of the maximum spreading diameter is proposed. In numerous applications related to droplet impact, impacting droplets often interact with solid surfaces with adhesive droplets rather than dry surfaces, but the former is significantly less studied than the latter. Here, for the fundamental process of droplet impact on a stationary droplet on the surface, we investigate droplet dynamics and maximum spreading under various conditions. The spreading diameter and time are reasonably nondimensionalized as the spreading coefficient and dimensionless time by considering both the impacting and stationary droplets, and the complex influence of diameters of two droplets is reduced to the effect of a single droplet volume ratio. The proposed dimensionless framework provides a method to simplify influencing factors and facilitates the study of droplet dynamics under different Weber numbers, surface wettabilities, and droplet volume ratios. The maximum spreading coefficient increases with the increase of the Weber number or the droplet volume ratio, while it is nearly independent of surface wettability. A theoretical model of the maximum spreading diameter is established through energy analysis. By considering the coupled effects of various factors and modifying the viscous dissipation, the model has the merits of high prediction accuracy and broad applicability. Our findings can not only advance the basic understanding of the ubiquitous droplet impact phenomena, but also provide useful guidance for applications such as spraying cooling and inkjet printing. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study is aimed at observing the influence of microribonucleic acid- (miRNA-) 30a-50p on the pulmonary fibrosis in mice with Streptococcus pneumoniae infection through the regulation of autophagy by Beclin-1. Specific pathogen-free mice were instilled with Streptococcus pneumoniae through the trachea to establish the pulmonary fibrosis model. Then, they were divided into the miRNA-30a-50p mimics group (mimics group, n = 10) and miRNA-30a-5p inhibitors group (inhibitors group, n = 10), with the control group (n = 10) also set. Pulmonary tissue wet weight/dry weight (W/D) was detected. The content of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin- (IL-) 6, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) was determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Besides, the changes in the pulmonary function index dynamic lung compliance (Cdyn), plateau pressure (Pplat), and peak airway pressure (Ppeak) were monitored, and the gene and protein expression levels were measured via quantitative PCR (qPCR) and Western blotting. The expression level of miRNA-30a-5p was substantially raised in the mimics group (p < 0.05), but extremely low in the inhibitors group (p < 0.05). The mimics group had obviously raised levels of serum aminotransferase (AST), glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and pulmonary tissue W/D (p < 0.05). Additionally, the expression levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and MPO were notably elevated in the mimics group, while their expression levels showed the opposite conditions in the inhibitors group (p < 0.05). According to the HE staining results, the inhibitors group had arranged orderly cells, while the mimics group exhibited lung injury, pulmonary edema, severe inflammatory response, and alveolar congestion. In the inhibitors group, Cdyn was remarkably elevated, but Pplat and Ppeak declined considerably (p < 0.05). Besides, the inhibitors group exhibited elevated messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of Beclin-1 and LC3, lowered mRNA levels of α-SMA and p62, a raised protein level of Beclin-1, and a markedly decreased protein level of p62 (p < 0.05). Silencing miRNA-30a-5p expression can promote the expression of Beclin-1 to accelerate the occurrence of autophagy, thereby treating pulmonary fibrosis in mice with Streptococcus pneumoniae infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The algorithm proposed in this paper aims at solving the problem of star map matching in high-limiting-magnitude astronomical images, which is inspired by geometric voting star identification techniques. It is a two-step star map matching algorithm relying only on angular features, and adopts a reasonable matching strategy to overcome the problem of poor real-time performance of the geometric voting algorithm when the number of stars is large. The algorithm focuses on application scenarios where there are a large number of dense stars (limiting magnitude greater than 13, average number of stars per square degree greater than 185) in the image, which is different from the sparse star identification problem of the star tracker, which is more challenging for the robustness and real-time performance of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm can be adapted to application scenarios such as unreliable brightness information, centroid positioning error, visual axis pointing deviation, and a large number of false stars, with high accuracy, robustness, and good real-time performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their advantages in rapid deployment and miniaturization, UAVs have been widely used in various fields, especially for disaster scenarios which require emergency communications. This article considers a fog UAV wireless network and focuses on improving energy efficiency through subchannel assignment and power allocation. Specifically, in order to make better use of limited spectrum resources, this article considers integrating NOMA which is widely recognized as an emerging transmission technology into UAV wireless networks. On the basis of the proposed UAV network architecture, a two-sided matching and swapping algorithm is proposed to optimize subchannel assignment. We provide a power allocation method to maximize energy efficiency. Simulation results show that the proposed UAV system architecture, as well as the resource allocation method, can prominently improve the energy efficiency of fog UAV wireless networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium-sulfur batteries hold broad prospects as the low-cost and high-energy storage system. However, the practical application is limited by the intrinsic insulating nature of sulfur and severe shuttle effect of soluble polysulfide intermediates. Herein, we demonstrate a convenient self-assembly strategy for encapsulating carbon nanotubes in nitrogen-doped hollow carbon shells, to construct a nitrogen-doped tube-in-tube carbon nanostructure (NTTC) as a host material of sulfur. In this peculiar structure, the highly conductive carbon nanotube cores facilitate the electron transfer while the hollow porous structure is capable of accommodating high sulfur content of 70 wt% in the composites. Moreover, the nitrogen doping helps to alleviate the shuttle effect owing to enhanced chemisorption towards polysulfides. Benefiting from these merits, the NTTC/S composite with the high areal mass loading of ~2.5 mg cm−2 presents a high reversible capacity (1346.9 mAh g−1 at 0.05 C) and excellent rate capability (533.5 mAh g−1 at 3C). More impressively, NTTC/S electrode exhibits good cycling stability at a high rate of 2 C corresponding to slight capacity decay of 0.055% per cycle over 500 discharge/charge cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green infrastructure (GI) could reduce surface runoff and provide essential ecosystem service (ES) in flood management. More frequent flooding necessitated GI intervention to promote flood regulation and mitigation service. This study presented the Supply-Demand-Intervention framework of ES for flood mitigation in Nanjing, and aimed to explore flood interventions of GI that improve ES supply and satisfy ES demand from the perspective of landscape pattern. This study quantified ES supply by runoff reduction capacity and assessed ES demand by flood risk index, respectively. Stepwise regression analysis revealed the association between landscape pattern and ES supply and demand. We found the mismatch between ES supply and demand in Nanjing, as well as the spatial heterogeneity between ES supply and demand during various design storms. Urban central areas showed the low ES supply, high ES demand and high priority rank of intervention. Current GI conditions had the difficulty in dealing with more severe floods in Nanjing. And landscape elongation, shape, fragmentation, and segmentation were found to have significant effect on ES supply and demand. More elongated and segmented landscape, with less continuity and connectedness, could promote ES supply, while less fragmentated landscape, with complex shape, could reduce ES demand. Different intervention strategies were proposed to adapt to different areas for promoting ES delivered by GI. In Gulou and Qinhuai district, it was suggested to apply well-shaped elongated cropland and water areas to segment and disperse the built-up land. These findings could provide critical implications for reasonable GI planning and management in flood mitigation and adaption. [Display omitted] • This study proposed Supply-Demand-Intervention framework of ecosystem service. • Ecosystem service supply and demand showed spatial heterogeneity and unmatched relationship. • Green infrastructure with more irregular shape promoted ecosystem service supply and satisfy demand. • More segmented and less fragmented landscape was more than essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies, employing ignition temperature as the ignition criterion, utilized surface absorption of radiant incident heat flux in analytical models when investigating the ignition mechanism of solid combustibles. However, in-depth absorption exerts its influence on ignition time significantly for translucent solid, especially at high radiant heat flux. In this work, we extend the previous researches from surface absorption to in-depth absorption to develop an approximate analytical ignition model using critical mass flux instead of critical temperature. An approximation methodology is proposed during derivation to study the in-depth absorption scenario. The comparison among this model, available experimental data of black PMMA in the literature and previous numerical simulations indicates that the proposed model provides relatively high accuracy in predicting ignition time. Furthermore, the pure surface absorption circumstance is also reexamined and compared with the classical ignition theory. The results show that surface absorption hypothesis accelerates the total mass flux, which consequently shortens the ignition time. However, in-depth absorption assumption eliminates the heat accumulation on surface and results in good prediction for ignition time at high heat flux. For in-depth absorption, the absorption coefficient affects the heat penetration depth and temperature distribution in this layer which consequently affects the thermal degradation reaction rate, mass flux and finally ignition time. Meanwhile, the ignition time considering both surface and in-depth absorption is discussed, and the relationship with pure surface and in-depth absorption conditions is obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (V-OFDM) for single-transmit-antenna systems is a generalization of OFDM where single-carrier frequency-domain equalization and OFDM are just two special cases. Phase noise in a V-OFDM system leads to a common vector block phase error (CVBPE) and an intervector block carrier interference effect. Severe performance degradation may occur if these two effects are not estimated and compensated well. In this paper, blind and semiblind phase noise estimation and compensation in a V-OFDM system is investigated by using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. This is motivated by the fact that the conventional frequency-domain phase noise suppression schemes based on pilot-aided common phase error (CPE) or CVBPE estimation and compensation are not spectrally efficient as the vector block size is increased. Two novel schemes are proposed: One estimates the CVBPE only, and the other estimates the entire phase noise sequence in the time domain. General closed-form formulas for the maximization step of the EM algorithm for the two schemes are derived, and their computational complexity values are analyzed. The performances of the two schemes are investigated by using linear-minimum-mean-square-error (LMMSE) receivers. Simulations show that the two proposed schemes are very effective in estimating and compensating for phase noise in V-OFDM systems. It turns out that the second proposed scheme not only outperforms the traditional CPE or CVBPE schemes but is computationally efficient as well when applied to V-OFDM systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The monitoring of space debris is important for spacecraft such as satellites operating in orbit, but the background in star images taken by ground-based telescopes is relatively complex, including stray light caused by diffuse reflections from celestial bodies such as the Earth or Moon, interference from clouds in the atmosphere, etc. This has a serious impact on the monitoring of dim and small space debris targets. In order to solve the interference problem posed by a complex background, and improve the signal-to-noise ratio between the target and the background, in this paper, we propose a novel star image enhancement algorithm, MBS-Net, based on background suppression. Specifically, the network contains three parts, namely the background information estimation stage, multi-level U-Net cascade module, and recursive feature fusion stage. In addition, we propose a new multi-scale convolutional block, which can laterally fuse multi-scale perceptual field information, which has fewer parameters and fitting capability compared to ordinary convolution. For training, we combine simulation and real data, and use parameters obtained on the simulation data as pre-training parameters by way of parameter migration. Experiments show that the algorithm proposed in this paper achieves competitive performance in all evaluation metrics on multiple real ground-based datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baiyin city, which is located upstream of the Yellow River and in the central part of Gansu province, China, is severely contaminated by heavy metals such as chromium. A Gram-positive bacterium BYCr-1 capable of reducing hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) to trivalent (Cr(III)) aerobically was isolated from a rare-earth ore in Baiyin, Gansu, China. 16S rRNA analysis revealed that it was closely related to Bacillus subtilis. It can reduce 0.2 mM Cr(VI) to Cr(III) in M9 medium after 48 h incubation. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image showed that Cr(III) precipitates were located both inside and outside the cells. An nfrA gene was upregulated by 5.3 folds upon Cr(VI) treatment. Furthermore, E. coli-NfrA demonstrated elevated chromate-reducing ability. Our results indicate that BYCr-1 is able to resist and reduce high concentrations of Cr(VI), which makes it a potentially suitable candidate for bioremediation of Cr(VI) contamination. This study also reveals that nfrA confers Cr(VI)-reducing ability in Bacillus subtilis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vector orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (V-OFDM) for single transmit antenna systems is a generalization of OFDM where single-carrier frequency domain equalization (SC-FDE) and OFDM are just two special cases. It has been shown to be able to collect multipath diversity and thus generally outperforms OFDM. The performance of OFDM under phase noise has been extensively studied in the literature. These effects can be summarized as introducing a common phase error (CPE) and inter carrier interference (ICI) resulting in poor performance. The performance of V-OFDM under phase noise still remains uninvestigated and in this paper it is shown that phase noise in V-OFDM systems leads to a common vector block phase error (CVBPE) as well as an inter vector block carrier interference (IVBCI) effect. An expression for the signal plus interference noise ratio (SINR) for a V-OFDM system is derived and found to agree closely with simulation results. A pilot vector CVBPE based phase noise estimation technique is derived, and then combined with the maximum likelihood (ML) and the linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) estimators to estimate the phase noise. It turns out that compared with OFDM, V-OFDM systems can perform phase noise estimation with lower complexity. The decorrelation and cancellation techniques are then used to compensate for the phase noise impairment. Numerical results for both coded and uncoded systems with perfect and practical channel estimation are provided to validate the analysis and effectiveness of the proposed phase noise estimation and compensation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An optical frequency-response analysis (OFRA) method is proposed to detect the winding deformation in a power transformer. Compared to existing frequency-response analysis (FRA) systems, the proposed system has several unique merits, such as high immunity to electromagnetic interference, direct display of winding deformation, no influence of connected power equipment, and long reliability in harsh environments. First, the principle of optical frequency-response detection and noise elimination is introduced. Then, the algorithm used to acquire the winding deformation matrix is discussed in detail. Next, winding deformation experiments are carried out to investigate the diagnostic ability of the proposed OFRA method. The experimental results indicate that the OFRA can locate the deformation disc and determine the deformation level correctly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Star image registration is the most important step in the application of astronomical image differencing, stacking, and mosaicking, which requires high robustness, accuracy, and real-time capability on the part of the algorithm. At present, there are no high-performance registration algorithms available in this field. In the present paper, we propose a star image registration algorithm that relies only on radial module features (RMF) and rotation angle features (RAF) while providing excellent robustness, high accuracy, and good real-time performance. The test results on a large amount of simulated and real data show that the comprehensive performance of the proposed algorithm is significantly better than the four classical baseline algorithms as judged by the presence of rotation, insufficient overlapping area, false stars, position deviation, magnitude deviation, and complex sky background, making it a more ideal star image registration algorithm than current alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many large landslides in reservoir areas have been recognized as the presence of multi-sliding zones owing to the distinctive deformation characteristics. Due to water-level fluctuations, the deformation mechanism of the multi-sliding zones landslide is poorly understood. Herein, a simplified model of a multi-sliding zones landslide subjected to the operation reservoir was conducted to reproduce the deformation process and obtain the deformation characteristics, pore water pressure, and earth pressure to investigate the deformation mechanism. The results suggest that the deformation exhibited by the multi-sliding zones landslide subjected to the operated reservoir take on a regional deformation characteristic with the multi-sliding zones as the boundary and correspond to the abrupt change in earth pressure and pore water pressure. According to the effective stress principle, the deformation mechanism is investigated by relying on the response relationship between effective stress and deformation. It shows that the softening effect caused by initial water infiltration, outward seepage force caused by initial water-level drawdown and the driving force are the external factors triggering the regional deformation of the multi-sliding zones landslide, while the immediate cause of the regional deformation is the rapid change in effective stress, which combined with the decreasing trend before the rapid effective stress release, is crucial for accurately assess whether the multi-sliding zones landslide is about to deform. This research provides improved insight into the deformation mechanism of the multi-sliding zones landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space debris detection is vital to space missions and space situation awareness. Convolutional neural networks are introduced to detect space debris due to their excellent performance. However, noisy labels, caused by false alarms, exist in space debris detection, and cause ambiguous targets for the training of networks, leading to networks overfitting the noisy labels and losing the ability to detect space debris. To remedy this challenge, we introduce label-noise learning to space debris detection and propose a novel label-noise learning paradigm, termed Co-correcting, to overcome the effects of noisy labels. Co-correcting comprises two identical networks, and the predictions of these networks serve as auxiliary supervised information to mutually correct the noisy labels of their peer networks. In this manner, the effect of noisy labels can be mitigated by the mutual rectification of the two networks. Empirical experiments show that Co-correcting outperforms other state-of-the-art methods of label-noise learning, such as Co-teaching and JoCoR, in space debris detection. Even with a high label noise rate, the network trained via Co-correcting can detect space debris with high detection probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well-connected seepage channels are the key components of tunnel water inrush. To study the trends of the pore water pressure in the rock mass in a seepage channel, the physical experiment and corresponding numerical model were established. First, in the seepage experiment under excavation disturbance, the propagation rate of the high-pressure water source and the growth rate of the pore water pressure in the rock mass were analyzed by considering the different water pressures. Second, under the same model size, parameters, and working conditions, the finite element method was used to simulate the seepage process of water in the rock mass. From the microlevel, the evolution process of the pore water pressure isosurface was obtained. The results showed that the pressure water head is positively correlated with the pore water pressure in the rock mass, which displays multiple approximate relationships. Moreover, when the water pressure is high, excavation disturbance can significantly increase the pore water pressure in the rock mass. The disturbance caused by the first excavation is larger than the subsequent excavations. In addition, the research results were compared with previous results. Reasonable agreements that would provide a reference for the conditions of high water-pressure disasters in deep buried tunnel construction were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]