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• The Yuedonghei pig (YDH) is an economically and ecologically valuable Chinese local breed. • Considerable genetic introgression (GI) exists in the current YDH population. • Advanced optimum contribution selection (aOCS) is a population management tool. • Haplotype segment-based aOCS alleviated the GI in YDH by 21.6% units in our simulation. Yuedonghei (YDH) is the only local pig breed with full black hair among the four well-known local pig breeds originated and distributed in Guangdong province, China, which caters to the consumers' preference of the local market of 127 million residents and thus brings a significantly above-average price. However, considerable genetic introgression (GI) has been reported for the YDH population, i.e., gene flow into YDH from other pig breeds, which is mainly due to the recent crossbreeding with several mainstream breeds for upgrading reasons. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the GI as well as the conservation status in the current YDH population and test the feasibility of advanced optimum contribution selection (aOCS) in alleviating GI in YDH. We first analysed the genetic diversity, ancestral structure, population structure, and phylogeny of 360 YDH relative to 782 publicly downloaded pigs of 42 Eurasian or American breeds and wild boars, based on single nucleotide polymorphism chip data. Then, we selected 304 initial YDH and stochastically simulated a practical conservation programme that spanned 10 discrete generations and implemented haplotype segment-based aOCS in every generation. The expected and observed heterozygosity of 360 YDH were 0.344 and 0.336. The linkage disequilibrium-based recent effective population size (N e) was 32.89. Considerable GI amounting to 32.9% foreign ancestry was found in 28 lowly related YDH individuals using admixture analysis. In the simulated YDH conservation programme, the average native genomic contribution was increased from 50.4 to 71.4% while maintaining a N e of 100 by controlling classic kinship and native kinship. Our study showed that segment-based aOCS that required only genomic data can be used to alleviate GI in the current YDH population and meanwhile increase its N e , which provided strategic insights into the sustainable conservation of local genetic resources of livestock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muscle-sparing vertical rectus abdominis myocutaneous (MS-VRAM) flaps are widely used in pelvic reconstruction. Aiming at optimal reconstructive outcomes, flap design and modification should be individualized to restore various kinds of defects. Summarize an empirical strategy about MS-VRAM selection for different pelvic and perineal reconstructions. Thirty patients who underwent total pelvic exenteration and pelvic reconstruction surgery from 2009 to 2017 were enrolled. The patients were divided into four groups according to the type of MS-VRAM-based flap used in the procedure: the modified long vertical flap (n = 10), the wrapping flap (n = 6), the de-epithelialized flap (n = 6), and the cork flap (n = 8). The follow-up period was 1 year after the surgery. Flap size, drainage volume, postoperative satisfaction, and complications were recorded, and postoperative photographs were collected. All of the patients achieved satisfying effect under the targeted reconstruction strategy. Of the four groups, the accurate cork flap finally acquires higher satisfaction, the shortest hospital stay, and the least total drainage volume. Meanwhile, the incidence of complications was not increased compared with the other groups. A new reconstructive strategy for pelvic reconstruction was established. Functional or non-functional reconstruction was accomplished by using various MS-VRAM flaps. Among them, the cork flap is the most economical flap to reconstruct pelvic floor defects with minimal tissue requirement and donor trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate various selection strategies for adoption in dual-purpose (ICD), meat (ICM) and layer (ICL) breeding goals in indigenous chicken breeding programs. The ICM goal aimed to improve live weight (LW 12), daily gain (ADG) and egg weight (EW 12) or together with feed efficiency and antibody response. For the ICL goal, age at first egg (AFE) and egg number (EN 12) or together with feed efficiency and antibody response were targeted. In the ICD goal, the objective was to improve LW 12 , ADG, AFE and EN 12 or together with feed efficiency and antibody response. Highest total index responses of US$ 49.83, US$ 65.71, and US$ 37.90 were estimated in indices targeting only production traits in the ICD, ICM and ICL goals, respectively. Highest index accuracy estimates of 0.77 and 0.70 were observed in indices that considered production and feed-related traits in the ICD and ICL goals, respectively, while in the ICM goal, the highest estimate of 0.96 was observed in an index targeting only production traits. Inbreeding levels ranged from 0.60 to 1.14% across the various indices considered in the breeding goals. Targeting only production traits in the ICD, ICM and ICL goals required the least number of generations of selection of 7.46, 5.50, and 8.52, respectively, to achieve predefined gains. Generally, a strategy targeting only production traits in a goal was the most optimal but resulted to unfavorable correlated responses in feed efficiency and antibody response. Addition of feed efficiency or/and antibody response in a goal was, however, not attractive due to the decline in total index response and accuracy and increase in inbreeding levels and number of generations of selection. Considering the feed availability and disease challenges in the tropics, choice of including feed efficiency or/and antibody response in the ICD, ICM and ICL goals should depend on targeted production system, resource availability to support breeding activities and magnitude of correlated responses on these traits when not included in the goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As various disease biomarkers, drugs/biomolecules carriers and physiological function regulator, exosomes play significant roles in various physiological and pathological process. Thus, the purification and detection of some exosome are of great significance, which make it necessary for the development of the recognition elements. Aptamers with high affinity and specificity exhibited well in the above areas. In this work, a new three-step evolutionary enhanced strategy based on capillary electrophoresis (CE)-SELEX was proposed for effective aptamer selection of exosome vesicles for the first time. Natural killer cells (NK) exosome was used as the model target. And the aptamer could be obtained in five round CE selection within three steps evolution including precise nucleic acid sequence convergence (with NK exosome specific proteins as targets in round 1st and 3rd), affinity evolution (with NK exosome as target in round 2nd and 4th) and specific evolution (negative selection in round 5th). Arising from the compatibility of CE-SELEX for exosome vesicles aptamer selection, and the proposed strategy, aptamer against NK exosome had been selected with good affinity (K D value of 27.6 nM) and excellent specificity. The as proposed CE-SELEX strategy paves a novel way for recognition element selection of exosome vesicles. [Display omitted] • Aptamer of exosome vesicles was selected through CE-SELEX strategy for the first time. • Through the three-step evolutionary enhanced strategy, effective aptamer selection of NK exosome was achieved. • The proposed method and strategy provide more effective aptamers for important exosomes distinguishing from complex body fluids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Local Binary Pattern (LBP) is a commonly used method for texture classification that performs well in terms of feature discrimination. However, (1) LBP can misclassify some important edge-located textures as non-uniform patterns with only one bin in the feature histogram, thus losing their discrimination capability. (2) When center pixel is contaminated by noise, a uniform pattern may be transformed into a non-uniform pattern, which can seriously affect the obtained LBP, thus degrading the classification results. To overcome these drawbacks, an edge-located uniform pattern recovery mechanism using statistical feature-based optimal center pixel selection strategy (SFB-OCPS) is proposed in this paper. To extract the correct edge pixels, we divide the whole texture image into 16 = 4 × 4 sub-images and propose an edge pixel selection strategy (EPSS) based on adaptive quantization with local threshold on each sub-image. Then 3 candidate center pixels constructed by statistical features of the local sampling neighborhood are generated for each edge-located center pixel. After the steps above, the SFB-OCPS strategy is introduced into the LBP-based algorithms. It is possible to recover some important edge-located non-uniform patterns to uniform patterns with an optimal center pixel selection, thus improving feature discrimination capability of the LBP-based algorithms. It should be emphasized that any LBP variants can introduce the proposed SFB-OCPS strategy to achieve the recovery of the edge-located uniform patterns. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed SFB-OCPS strategy, we introduce the SFB-OCPS strategy into the original LBP and 5 representative LBP-based algorithms. Experiments are conducted on 6 representative texture databases. Classification comparison reveals that the introduction of SFB-OCPS strategy can significantly improve the texture classification performance of LBP-based algorithms. Additionally, the noise-robustness of the proposed SFB-OCPS strategy is also verified through a series of experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel differential evolution (DE) algorithm is proposed to improve the search efficiency of DE by employing the information of individuals to adaptively set the parameters of DE and update population. Firstly, a combined mutation strategy is developed by using two mixed mutation strategies with a prescribed probability. Secondly, the fitness values of original and guiding individuals are used to guide the parameter setting. Finally, a diversity-based selection strategy is designed by assembling greedy selection strategy and defining a new weighted fitness value based on the fitness values and positions of target and trial individuals. The proposed algorithm compares with eight existing algorithms on CEC 2005 and 2014 contest test instances, and is applied to solve the Spread Spectrum Radar Polly Code Design. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is very competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote medical resources configuration and management involves complex combinatorial Multi-Objective Optimization problem, whose computational complexity is a typical NP problem. Based on the MOEA/D framework, this paper applies the two-way local search strategy and the new selection strategy based on domination amount and proposes the IMOEA/D framework, following which each individual produces two individuals in mutation. In this paper, by using a new selection strategy, the parent individual is compared with two mutated offspring individuals, and the more excellent one is selected for the next generation of evolution. The proposed algorithm IMOEA/D is compared with eMOEA, MOEA/D and NSGA-II, and experimental results show that for most test functions, IMOEA/D proposed is superior to the other three algorithms in terms of convergence rate and distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (anammox) bacteria based technologies are widely applied for nitrogen removal from warm (25–40 °C) wastewater with high ammonium concentrations (∼1 gNH 4 –N L −1 ). Extension of the operational window of this energy and resource efficient process is restricted by the “supposed” low growth rate of the responsible microorganisms. Here we demonstrate that the maximum specific growth rate ( μ max ) of anammox bacteria can be increased to a μ max value of 0.33 d −1 by applying a novel selection strategy based on the maximization of the electron transfer capacity in a membrane bioreactor. This value is four times higher than the highest previously reported value. The microbial community was strongly dominated by anammox bacteria closely related (99%) to Candidatus Brocadia sp.40 throughout the experiment. The results described here demonstrate the remarkable capacity of a phylogenetically stable anammox community to adjust its growth rate in response to a change in the cultivation conditions imposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debris flows are among the most catastrophic natural phenomena, attracting the interest of researchers, engineers and government agencies. The complexity of the physical process has led to the development of numerous mathematical models to simulate and deeper understand the propagation of debris flows. Nevertheless, the intrinsic characteristics of models are not all suitable for every process observed in nature. Hence, this review identifies the main features of the different modelling approaches for debris flows and proposes recommendations for a more rigorous selection of models. The classification of the models is based on the following features: (1) phases of the flow; (2) entrainment of materials into the flow; (3) constitutive relationships; (4) spatial dimensionality; and (5) the solution methods. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the most remarkable contributions by comparing the available mathematical models for debris flows based on each feature. A selection strategy is proposed to be supported by the main assumptions of the models, the classification features and some dimensionless numbers evoked in debris flow research. As a result of this review, the principal considerations can be summarised as follows. First, the complexity of the models has been increasing with the enhanced understanding of debris flows and advances in technology. Thus, the multiphase approach, more sophisticated constitutive relationships, three-dimensional representations and numerical methods requiring higher computational cost are becoming noteworthy. Secondly, three-dimensional representations are better suited for the study of specific and small-scale debris-flow processes, while the two-dimensional depth-averaged approach is still the most appropriate for field applications. Finally, the most recognised and recent models are highlighted and concisely compiled in a table to provide an overview of the options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several papers addressed ellipse detection as a first step for several computer vision applications, but most of the proposed solutions are too slow to be applied in real time on large images or with limited hardware resources. This paper presents a novel algorithm for fast and effective ellipse detection and demonstrates its superior speed performance on large and challenging datasets. The proposed algorithm relies on an innovative selection strategy of arcs which are candidate to form ellipses and on the use of Hough transform to estimate parameters in a decomposed space. The final aim of this solution is to represent a building block for new generation of smart-phone applications which need fast and accurate ellipse detection also with limited computational resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hydrophobic charge-induction ligand efficiency was investigated. • Ligand efficiency was divided into three levels: adsorption, preparation and cost. • A selection strategy based on ligand efficiency was formed. • The optimized ligand and density selected was different from the traditional methods. Ligand is an essential part of the cost of adsorbent preparation, which needs to be carefully selected and evaluated. In this paper, we introduced ligand efficiency (L e) with three levels (recovery, preparation and cost) to form a selection strategy for evaluation of the efficiency of hydrophobic charge-induction ligand. These functions were calculated from static/dynamic binding capacity, desorption efficiency, coupling efficiency and ligand cost. Nine kinds of ligand were used to demonstrate this strategy. The coupling efficiency was determined by preparing the adsorbents with different kinds and densities of ligand. These adsorbents were characterized by FT-IR, SEM. Then adsorption equilibrium, adsorption kinetics, and frontal adsorption experiments were used to test the adsorption and desorption performance of these adsorbents. Finally, L e s of recovery, preparation and cost were calculated. The results showed there were apparent differences in L e s between ligand types and densities under static and dynamic adsorption conditions. 4FF-Tryptophan with 52 μmol/g adsorbent had the best performance with the lowest static/dynamic L e of recovery, preparation and ligand cost. Compared with those methods evaluated by static saturated adsorption capacity or dynamic binding capacity at 10% breakthrough, the selection strategy based on ligand efficiency is more suitable for subsequent research and industrial amplification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Disruptive selection strategy to select the solution from the population to improve the diversity of the population. [•] Self-adaptive strategy for directing the neighbourhood search to enhance the local intensification capability. [•] Modified bees algorithm is combined with late acceptance hill climbing to quickly descend to the optimum solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Efficient reproductive performance is an important prerequisite for sustainable dairy production systems. Moreover, reproductive performance has become one of the most important functional traits in the dairy cattle industry, because of its economic importance, as well as its effect on animal welfare. The objective of present study was to evaluate the consequence of alternative selection strategies to improve fertility performance of Holstein cows in Iran. The traits milk production (M), number of inseminations per conception (INS), days from calving to first insemination (DFS), maternal calving difficulty (MCD) and direct calving difficulty (DCD) were included in an aggregate genotype (H). The selection indices in each strategy were a different combination of fertility traits and milk production. Although fertility traits were included in the aggregate genotype, in the first selection strategy, in which selection was based on milk production, unfavorable genetic gain for fertility traits occurred. In the second strategy, in which genetic gain for milk production was restricted to zero, in comparison to the other strategies, the genetic gains for profit and fertility traits were lowest and highest, respectively. In the third strategy, in which genetic gain for fertility traits was restricted to zero, the genetic gains for milk production and profit differed little compared to the first strategy. Favorable genetic gains were obtained for both fertility traits and milk production in the fourth strategy, in which proportional restriction was used. Although the genetic gain for milk production in this strategy was lower than in the first strategy, genetic gain for profit showed slightly differed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Stress-tolerant forage resources are increasingly needed for the environmental and economic sustainability of extensive Mediterranean livestock systems. Perennial forages such as cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.) can be a valuable alternative to annuals, if they can survive across successive summer droughts. One Mediterranean cultivar of cocksfoot subsp. hispanica with complete summer dormancy (Kasbah), five non-dormant (Delta 1, Jana, Medly, Ottava) or incompletely dormant (Currie) Mediterranean cultivars of subsp. glomerata, and one Continental cultivar (Porto) of subsp. glomerata, were evaluated for dry matter yield over three years and persistence as final plant survival in six sites of Algeria, France, Italy, Morocco and Portugal, with the objectives of: (i) modeling adaptive responses and targeting cultivars as a function of environmental factors associated with genotype×location (GL) interaction; (ii) defining plant ideotypes, adaptation strategies and opportunities of international co-operation for regional breeding programmes. Adaptive responses were modeled by joint regression, additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI), and factorial regression. The most predictive models were: (i) factorial regression as a function of site spring–summer drought stress (as long-term potential evapotranspiration minus actual water available), for yield; (ii) AMMI including one GL interaction principal component related to site annual and spring–summer drought stress, for persistence. GL interaction of crossover type for yield and persistence was large and mainly associated with the summer dormancy trait. Completely dormant germplasm was specifically adapted to severe drought. Non-dormant Mediterranean cultivars tended to be specifically adapted to moderate drought stress, although they varied to some extent in adaptive response to drought-stress levels. The Continental cultivar was generally misadapted. The completely summer-dormant germplasm also tended to have greater general persistence across locations. Early flowering tended to correlate with higher yield and persistence of the cultivars across locations. Considerations on experimental conditions along with previous physiological studies from three sites suggested that water use efficiency of the cultivars tended to parallel their site-specific yield response. On the whole, the results suggest different adaptation targets, plant types, genetic resources and cultivar recommendation for northern Africa and southern Europe. Summer-dormant material of subsp. hispanica has prevalent interest for northern Africa. Breeding widely adapted, non-dormant or incompletely dormant Mediterranean cultivars of subsp. glomerata has prevalent interest for southern Europe, especially when targeted to moderate crop duration (3–4 years). However, completely summer-dormant germplasm could gain adaptive potential for Mediterranean-climate European regions in the future, to mitigate the effects of the predicted increasing drought due to climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The selection of reference compounds is crucial for a successful in vitro test development in order to proof the relevance of the test system. This publication describes the criteria and the selection strategy leading to a list of more than 130 chemicals suitable for test development within the ReProTect project. The presented chemical inventory aimed to support the development and optimization of in vitro tests that seek to fulfill ECVAM''s criteria for entering into the prevalidation. In order to select appropriate substances, a primary database was established compiling information from existing databases. In a second step, predefined selection criteria have been applied to obtain a comprehensive list ready to undergo a peer review process from independent experts with industrial, academic and regulatory background. Finally, a peer reviewed chemical list containing 13 substances challenging endocrine disrupter tests, additional 50 substances serving as reference chemicals for various tests evaluating effects on male and female fertility, and finally 61 substances were identified as known to provoke effects on the early development of mammalian offspring. The final list aims to cover relevant and specific mode/site of actions as they are known to be relevant for various substance classes. However, the recommended list should not be interpreted as a list of reproductive toxicants, because such a description requires proven associations with adverse effects of mammalian reproduction, which are subject of regulatory decisions done by involved competent authorities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Two primary selection criteria were used to collect a pool of nearly 500 candidate probiotic bacteria from Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) larvae, i.e. the dominant intestinal bacterial flora and isolates with antagonistic activity against Vibrio anguillarum. Bacteria were isolated from cod larvae from five rearing groups with variable rearing technologies. The bacteria were brought to pure culture and characterized phenotypically. Based on properties such as uniqueness, dominance and fermentative ability, a selection of ∼10% of the isolates were chosen from the initial pool of bacteria to reduce the number of candidates. These 55 isolates were characterized further in vitro regarding antagonism, adhesion to mucus, growth in mucus, production of extracellular enzymes, fish bile resistance and haemolytic properties. Based on the results of the in vitro tests, the number of probiotic candidates was further reduced to seven isolates. To evaluate the probiotic potential and to assure that the seven isolates were not harmful to the host, yolk sac larvae of cod were exposed to the isolates in a small-scale in vivo experiment. The in vivo experiment excluded two of the candidate bacteria due to increased mortality of cod larvae, whereas three isolates from the dominant (Vibrio and two different strains of Microbacterium) and two from the antagonistic (Ruegeria and Pseudoalteromonas) group improved the survival of larvae compared to the positive control. Thus, a combination of the two screening methods was suited for making multistrain probiotics with complementary modes of action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Segregational stability of the recombinant plasmid pKA18 bearing the pga gene encoding penicillin G acylase (PGA) and the production stability for PGA was studied in Escherichia coli strain W and its descendants. The hosts differ in the number of indigenous plasmids (pRK1–3) and the specific activity of PGA. The production of PGA by the recombinant strain RE3(pKA18) is the highest among the hosts and the increase of activity is proportional to the increase of copy number (CN) of the plasmid pKA18. The plasmid is segregationally stable in spite of the presence of the indigenous plasmid pRK2 that belong to the same ColE1 plasmid family. Both plasmids (total sum of CN equals 271) are maintained without selection pressure during 102 generations. Subculture-based selection experiments taking advantage of a very high segregational and production stability of plasmid pKA18 in the host RE3 were used to study the optimization of the host–plasmid interaction. The clones with increased synthesis of the enzyme average value of 833 U/g DM were isolated: the expression of PGA per plasmid molecule increased in these strains from 3 to 4 U. Once this expression is reached, the population of segregationally stable, high-producing strains becomes heterogeneous: segregationally stable, low-producing clones and segregationally unstable, high-producing clones appear in population. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The seed fates of Castanea mollissima were conducted for 8 consecutive years. • Rodents could discriminate between infested and non-infested C. mollissima nuts. • Non-mast seeding increases the harvest rates irrespective of insect-infestation. • Mast seeding likely promotes seed dispersal and woodland regeneration. Seed predation and dispersal by rodents plays an important role in woodland regeneration. To understand the impact of insect-infestation under different food abundance conditions on rodent predation and dispersal preferences, it is necessary to determine whether rodents have the ability to distinguish between infested and non-infested seeds and whether feeding strategies are affected by food abundance. Here, we compared the predation and dispersal fates of infested and non-infested nuts of Castanea mollissima in mast and non-mast years in a subtropical forest in the Qinling Mountains, central China. We found that rodents could discriminate between infested and non-infested nuts of C. mollissima. Harvest rates of non-infested nuts were relatively faster than those of infested nuts, and rodents preferred to consume infested nuts (typically in situ), while non-infested nuts were cached more often and dispersed farther. Mast seeding had a significant effect on seed predation and dispersal by rodents. When per capita food availability was low (i.e., in non-mast years), harvest rates and dispersal distances (including eaten and cached distances) were obviously accelerated and increased irrespective of insect-infestation. While in mast seed years rodents chose to cache more nuts, and selectively caching a higher proportion of non-infested seeds. This indicated that mast seeding could promote seed caching and result in more seeds escaping predation, which would enhance seed germination and forest regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We estimated genetic parameters for two beef cow longevity (Length of productive life and stayability at 5 years) and three reproduction traits (days to first calving, calving success at second parity, and success of having the first three consecutive calvings we also evaluate their likely consequences on selection. • Heritability estimates for longevity and reproductive traits were low to medium; genetic correlations between them were variable. • Positive genetic changes in longevity and reproductive characteristics can be achieved by applying appropriate selection strategies. The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters for longevity and reproductive and to evaluate their likely consequences on selection. We used calving records of 10,517 Aberdeen Angus cows, born between 1975 and 2012, with first calving in spring, from bulls with 5 or more daughters, herds with 25 or more observations, and pertaining to contemporary groups of 5 or more cows. Longevity variables were length of productive life (LPL) and stayability at 5 years (ST5); the reproductive variables were days to first calving (days1), calving success at second parity (CS2), and success of having the first three consecutive calvings (S3). CS2, S3 and ST5 were defined as binary, and days1 and LPL as continuous variables. A multi-trait, threshold-linear model was used, including contemporary group effects (herd-year of birth; days1 also included management group), age at first calving (covariate), and the genetic effect of the animal. Given the parameters, five strategies were explored to predict annual genetic progress: selection of 5% or 25% of progeny tested males, with progeny groups of 5 or 15 daughters (no selection in females), and mass selection of 75% in females (no selection in males). Annual realized genetic trends and correlated responses when selecting for ST5, CS2 or S3 were also calculated. The estimates (mean ± standard deviation a posteriori) of heritability for longevity traits were 0.08±0.03 for LPL and 0.11±0.05 for ST5; for reproductive traits, estimations were 0.08±0.02 for days1, 0.23±0.04 for S3, and 0.24±0.04 for CS2. The genetic correlation between LPL and ST5 was favourable and large (0.79); and were also favourable and large for reproductive characteristics (negative, -0.66 for days1-S3 and -0.73 for days1-CS2, and positive, +0.83 for S3-CS2). Correlations between longevity and reproduction were variable, from not different from zero (days1 with ST5 and LPL) to medium (+0.45 for ST5-S3). Realized annual genetic trends indicated small but significant favourable changes for ST5 and LPL, and unfavorable for days1, CS2 and S3. Correlated responses were, in general, also favourable, although less than the progress achieved by direct selection. There are wide possibilities for genetic improvement in these characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dandelion Algorithm (DA) is a recently proposed swarm intelligent optimization algorithm which is inspired by the process of dandelion sowing. In DA, the selection strategy (SS) is of key importance which is responsible for choosing the dandelions to enter the next generation. However, current SS in DA only considers the function fitness value, which cannot maintain the diversity of the population and can easily fall into local optimal solutions prematurely. To address this problem, a distance-aware selection strategy (DSS) is proposed by jointly considering the function fitness value and the individual position distance. In addition, inspired by ensemble learning, a fusion based adaptive selection strategy (FSS) is proposed to further improve the performance of DA. Specifically, a fusion pool including several famous SSs and our proposed DSS is established. And in each iteration, the best SS in terms of overall reward is selected. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms are powerful in terms of accuracy in the 28 standard functions from the CEC2013. For DSS, it outperforms several famous SSs in DA. For FSS, it is superior or competitive to 11 participating algorithms benchmarked on CEC2013 and five recently proposed algorithms improved by new selection strategy. Since FSS is a universal framework, it can be applied to other swarm intelligence algorithms with selection strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel vessel membrane segmentation method that combines a region detector and an effective selection strategy is proposed. • Vessel membrane extraction in different IVUS frames and calcific region location in high-frequency IVUS images are simultaneously achieved by the proposed method. • The computational time of the proposed method is competitive, and few parameters need to be initialized. Segmenting vessel membranes and locating the calcific region in intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) images aid physicians in the diagnosis of atherosclerosis. However, the manual extraction of the media adventitia (MA)/lumen border and calcification location are cumbersome due to the excessive number of IVUS frames. Moreover, most existing (semi-)automatic detection methods cannot achieve both vessel membrane extraction and calcification location simultaneously, and they are unable to detect vessel membranes in IVUS frames from different acquisition systems. A fully automatic approach is proposed based on extremal regions and a flexible selection strategy to extract vessel membranes in different IVUS frames and locate the calcific region in high-frequency ones. Three main steps are included in the algorithm. First, a region detector is employed to extract extremal regions from an IVUS image. Then, according to the selection strategy, a part of the extracted regions is selected. At the same time, the calcification is located according to its special acoustic properties. Next, approximate MA and lumen border segmentation is achieved based on the selected extremal regions and the located calcification in polar coordinates. Finally, the final segmentation results are obtained by smoothing the approximate values. To demonstrate the feasibility of the method, it was evaluated based on a standard public dataset. Furthermore, to quantitatively evaluate the segmentation performance, the Hausdorff distance (HD), Jaccard measure (JM) and percentage of area difference (PAD) were used. The results show that a mean HD of 1.13/1.21 mm, a mean JM of 0.83/0.77 and a mean PAD of 0.11/0.23 are achieved for MA/lumen border detection in 77 40-MHz IVUS images. For MA/lumen border extraction in 435 20-MHz IVUS frames, the average HD, JM and PAD values are 0.47/0.28 mm, 0.84/0.89 and 0.13/0.10, respectively. In addition, the approach successfully achieves calcification location in 40-MHz IVUS frames. In comparison with other published methods, the method proposed in this study is competitive. According to these results, our strategy can extract MA/lumen borders in different IVUS frames and effectively locate calcification in high-frequency IVUS frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying research fronts is of great scientific and practical significance. Partnered with Clarivate Analytics and the Higher Education Press, the Chinese Academy of Engineering launched an annual project, aiming to identify engineering research and development frontiers. For engineering research, we determine the candidate hotspots mainly based on data analysis of highly cited papers in the Web of Science Core Collection and select the fronts based on expert research and judgment. The research hotspots are selected from topics clustered through co-citation analysis, which are based on four topic indicators including the number of core papers, total citations, average publication year of core papers, and the percentage of consistently cited publications. It is thus crucial to design proper strategies for hotspot selection. We compared the performance of several hotspot selection strategies and found that the proposed mixed selection strategy performs best. The strategy was used in the 2018 project and led to an improved edition. We present an overall comparison of the performance of the top 10 countries or regions in engineering research fronts based respectively on the number of first author core papers and the citation number per paper of core papers. We believe that our experience obtained from the implementation of the Engineering Fronts project can be used as reference for other similar bibliometric projects. • We compare the performance of several hotspot selection strategies. • We find that the proposed mixed selection strategy performs best. • We present an overall comparison of national performance in engineering research fronts. • Our experience can be used as reference for other similar bibliometric projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-scale low rank method is now a novel technology for the target detection in an image, in which the pattern of the sub-image block partition plays a crucially important role for the performance of the target detection. In this paper, we propose an efficient multi-scale low rank method for the infrared small target detection. The main work is that we systematically analysis the principle of how to select the optimal parameters such as the shape, size and number of the image block to obtain an efficient decomposed combinatorial form which is appropriate for the infrared small target detection. Then, we propose an efficient strategy to determine the optimal iterative times adaptively for ADMM's loop iteration process, by which the more accurate results can be obtained and the running speed is improved. Finally, we fuse the infrared small target images with three optimal scales to preserve the small target information. The experimental results show that the presented strategy on the selection of optimal parameter and adaptive iterative method can guarantee the effectiveness of small target extraction and save the running time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]