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Suboptimal radiation protection evidenced in literature necessitated the development of a theory to optimise radiation protection. To develop a theory, concept analysis of the central concept guiding the theory is required to provide explicit theoretical and operational definitions. This article presents the concept analysis of the central concept of 'facilitating a transformative radiation protection environment' used to develop a theory to optimise radiation protection. The study used Walker and Avant's concept analysis process of selecting a concept, determining the aims and purpose of analysis, identifying all uses of the concept, and determining the defining attributes by identifying a model case, a borderline case and a contrary case. The central concept was dissected into the individual concepts of facilitating, transformative, radiation, protection, and environment to enhance the definition and conceptual meaning of the central concept. The essential and related attributes of the individual concepts informed the summative definition of the central concept, and a model, borderline and contrary case contributed to the conceptual meaning. The summative definition of the central concept of "facilitating a transformative radiation protection environment" was determined to be through the essential attributes of help, process, change, X-rays, keeping safe considering the benefits versus risks of ionising radiation exposure and the total internal, external context within which persons exist and the related attributes. Explored extensively in nursing literature, concept analyses in radiography are limited. Therefore, this article articulates the process of concept analysis and its use in radiography. Concept analysis provides a systematic process to analyse concepts often assumed to be understood, highlighting its importance in radiography literature and to educational praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RGB-D sensors can be a low-cost solution for an accurate silo's content monitoring which is fundamental for its efficient management. Some reference information such as the position and orientation of the sensor with respect to the silo's geometry is fundamental for obtaining correct content measurements from acquired data. Since in real cases this information is not always known, a new method to obtain these measurements is proposed. This, taking as input sensor acquired data (represented as a point cloud), automatically computes the silo's axis to provide a new reference system from which the point cloud can be easily processed. The z-axis of this reference system coincides with the gravity axis and the xy-plane is parallel to the ground plane. It is obtained in a six-step process that exploits the silo geometry properties and an estimation of the shape tensors of the acquired points. The method has been implemented and tested on both synthetic and real silos, considering a complete silo's discharge process and different camera positions. Data acquired at each discharge has been transformed using the new reference system and compared with the silo's ground truth (manually obtained for the real silos). To evaluate the accuracy the input point cloud to adjusted point cloud average distance has been considered. In all the tests, the well-performance of the proposal has been demonstrated, achieving a maximum average distance error of less than 6 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Steps to actualize Future of Nursing 2020–2030 Report education recommendations. • Reconciling shortage of public health and health equity expertise. • Curriculum redesign to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. • Faculty development critical to education about SDOH and structural racism. The Future of Nursing 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity report (NASEM, 2021) provides a comprehensive plan to improve the quality of health care and candidly acknowledges historical and contemporary issues that have stalled previous efforts to dismantle health care disparities. This article spotlights the role that nursing education, nurse leaders, and faculty play in enabling all people to achieve their highest level of health. Through the framework of the four pillars of (1) reconciling the shortage of nurses with expertise in public health and health equity, (2) creating policies that include and promote the tenets of diversity, antiracism, and well-being, (3) designing curricular resources and activities that address contemporary issues, and (4) creating and supporting an ethos that invites, retains, and graduates diverse students and facilitates a sense of belonging, our future nursing graduates will be prepared to advance health equity for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recent success of neural network models in mimicking animal performance on various tasks, critics worry that these models fail to illuminate brain function. We take it that a central approach to explanation in systems neuroscience is that of mechanistic modeling, where understanding the system requires us to characterize its parts, organization, and activities, and how those give rise to behaviors of interest. However, it remains controversial what it takes for a model to be mechanistic, and whether computational models such as neural networks qualify as explanatory on this approach. We argue that certain kinds of neural network models are actually good examples of mechanistic models, when an appropriate notion of mechanistic mapping is deployed. Building on existing work on model-to-mechanism mapping (3M), we describe criteria delineating such a notion, which we call 3M++. These criteria require us, first, to identify an abstract level of description that is still detailed enough to be "runnable", and then, to construct model-to-brain mappings using the same principles as those employed for brain-to-brain mapping across individuals. Perhaps surprisingly, the abstractions required are just those already in use in experimental neuroscience and deployed in the construction of more familiar computational models — just as the principles of inter-brain mappings are very much in the spirit of those already employed in the collection and analysis of data across animals. In a companion paper, we address the relationship between optimization and intelligibility, in the context of functional evolutionary explanations. Taken together, mechanistic interpretations of computational models and the dependencies between form and function illuminated by optimization processes can help us to understand why brain systems are built they way they are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonstationary time series prediction is challenging since it demands knowledge of both data transformation and prediction methods. This paper presents TSPred, a framework for nonstationary time series prediction. It differs from the mainstream frameworks since it establishes a prediction process that seamlessly integrates nonstationary time series transformations with state-of-the-art statistical and machine learning methods. It is made available as an R-package, which provides functions for defining and conducting time series prediction, including data pre(post) processing, decomposition, modeling, prediction, and accuracy assessment. Besides, TSPred enables user-defined methods, which significantly expands the applicability of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vision is the main way for people to perceive and recognize the world. In this paper, four categories of the redundant information of video encoding, spatial redundancy, time redundancy, visual redundancy and statistical redundancy, are first introduced. Spatial redundancy is redundant information existing in static frames, time redundancy is the luminance and chrominance correlation between adjacent frames in the video sequence, visual redundancy is information that the human visual system cannot perceive, statistical redundancy is the expression redundancy of the information source symbols. Then the performance assessment of video coding are introduced. And the future development of video coding and conclusion are finally discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defects can be generated when growing diamond on heterogeneous substrates. The problem dampers the widespread use of diamond films. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed which grows diamond on graphene quasi-homogeneous epitaxial substrate. Results showed that high quality diamond was synthesized on a quasi homoepitaxial graphene substrate through sp2-sp3 hybridization and covalent bond transformation. Firstly, D peak-free graphene was synthesized on nickel metal surface. C–H and C C bonds were then exploited to produce dehydrogenation and coupling reaction which caused the transform of graphene to transform into diamond. In virtue of the superior intermiscibility and catalysis of nickel to carbon, few-layer graphene grew efficiently on nickel foil surface. An internal space microstructure network of carbon atoms was produced through different non-covalent interactions. At last, graphene is converted into diamond. This process can also be used to synthesize hydrophilic porous diamond film. It is a promising approach to the development of new graphene/diamond-based components in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Exhaustive survey of methods for removal of Gaussian noise. • Categorisation of denoising methods into various domains. • Extensive experimental analysis of state-of-the-art techniques. At the crossing of the statistical and functional analysis, there exists a relentless quest for an efficient image denoising algorithm. In terms of greyscale imaging, a plethora of denoising algorithms have been documented in the literature, in spite of which the level of functionality of these algorithms still holds margin to acquire desired level of applicability. Quite often noise affecting the pixels in image is Gaussian in nature and uniformly deters information pixels in image. Based on some specific set of assumptions all methods work optimally, however they tend to create artefacts and remove fine structural details under general conditions. This article focuses on classifying and comparing some of the significant works in the field of denoising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper continues the study of combinatorial properties of binary functions — that is, functions f : 2 E → ℂ such that f (0̸) = 1 , where E is a finite set. Binary functions have previously been shown to admit families of transforms that generalise duality, including a trinity transform, and families of associated minor operations that generalise deletion and contraction, with both these families parameterised by the complex numbers. Binary function representations exist for graphs (via the indicator functions of their cutset spaces) and indeed arbitrary matroids (as shown by the author previously). In this paper, we characterise degenerate elements – analogues of loops and coloops – in binary functions, with respect to any set of minor operations from our complex-parameterised family. We then apply this to study the relationship between binary functions and Tutte's alternating dimaps, which also support a trinity transform and three associated minor operations. It is shown that only the simplest alternating dimaps have binary representations of the form we consider, which seems to be the most direct type of representation. The question of whether there exist other, more sophisticated types of binary function representations for alternating dimaps is left open. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The molten salt reactor (MSR), being a liquid-fueled reactor, exhibits a strong coupling between neutronics and thermal hydraulics originating from the simultaneous utilization of the fuel as the coolant. Analysis of the dynamic behavior of MSRs thus necessitates the use of coupled multiphysics tools. This work leverages the multiphysics capabilities of the Modelica-based, open-source component library Transient Simulation Framework of Reconfigurable Modules (TRANSFORM) and demonstrates its ability to simulate the behavior of an MSR with the focus on modeling the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). The model employs 1D thermal-hydraulic components with a coarse radial and axial discretization of the active core region approximating the design of the MSRE. The power generation within each node is determined by neutron point kinetics which are modified to account for the effects of fuel circulation. Using the developed model, neutronic and thermal-hydraulic behavior under steady-state conditions is characterized and compared to experimental data and alternative computational codes. Some discrepancies are found but most of them are explained by the modeling choices and uncertainties in input data. Performance of the model under transient conditions is then investigated by simulating experiments conducted on the MSRE; the results are again benchmarked against reference data. Overall, good agreement is attained. • Leveraging Modelica/TRANSFORM to simulate MSR behavior • Coupling of 1D thermal hydraulics and distributed model of modified point kinetics • Steady-state and transient benchmarking of MSRE model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Creating and rehabilitating a large number of small and sustainable habitats called "ecovillages" as the beating hearts of sustainable nature systems are regarded as one of the recent achievements of human to reduce the ecological footprint. Despite the proliferation of ecovillages in recent decades and the growing trend of research on these communities around the world, finding the right site to create an ecovillage and the strategic direction of these communities towards sustainability, especially in developing countries, is still considered as a big problem. The study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of the studies related to the world's ecovillages for achieving a framework that can provide a common mental model for developing available ecovillages and managing potential communities strategically to transform into ecovillage in its right direction. In this regard, 27 separate studies covering more than 60 ecovillage were analyzed based on inclusion criteria and inductive approach. Finally, ten criteria and 119 indicators for ecovillages were obtained in order to provide a comprehensive description from world' ecovillages, a pattern with a different approach in categorizing and a framework for assessing progress towards becoming ecovillage. Based on this model, the potential communities can be identified and developed to transform into ecovillages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potential risk of endocrine disrupting compounds on non-target organisms has received extensive attentions in recent years. The present work aimed to investigate the behavior and effect of a synthetic steroid estrogen quinestrol in duckweed Spirodela polyrhiza L. Experimental results showed that quinestrol could be uptaken, accumulated, and biotransformed into 17 α-ethynylestradiol in S. polyrhiza L. The accumulation of quinestrol had a positive relation to the exposure concentration. The bioaccumulation rate was higher when the duckweed was exposed to quinestrol solutions at low concentrations than at high concentration. While the transformation of quinestrol showed no concentration-dependent manner. Quinestrol reduced the biomass and pigment content and increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activities and malondialdehyde contents in the duckweed. The results demonstrated that quinestrol could be accumulated and biotransformed in aquatic plant S. polyrhiza L. This work would provide supplemental data on the behavior of this steroid estrogen compound in aquatic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was measured at an urban site in Beijing from April 2013 to April 2016 and examined its characteristics and particle/gas distributions. The average monthly atmospheric TFA concentration fluctuated significantly and presented marked seasonal variations. The concentration levels of gas-phase TFA were significantly higher in spring and summer than in fall and winter. The PM 2.5 mass concentration and ambient temperature were important factors affecting the concentration of particulate-phase TFA. Hence, at higher PM 2.5 concentrations and lower temperatures, atmospheric TFA tended to be enriched in particulate matter. Our findings suggest that the percentage of gas-phase TFA in Beijing is higher than that in the steady state; thus, gas-phase TFA can still be transformed to the particulate phase and increase the contribution of TFA to haze formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal imaging is an increasingly widespread alternative to other imaging methods. As a supplementary method in diagnostics, it can be used both statically and with dynamic temperature changes. The paper proposes a new image analysis method that allows for the acquisition of new diagnostic information as well as object segmentation. The proposed serpentine analysis uses known and new methods of image analysis and processing proposed by the authors. Affine transformations of an image and subsequent Fourier analysis provide a new diagnostic quality. The method is fully repeatable and automatic and independent of inter-individual variability in patients. The segmentation results are by 10% better than those obtained from the watershed method and the hybrid segmentation method based on the Canny detector. The first and second harmonics of serpentine analysis enable to determine the type of temperature changes in the region of interest (gradient, number of heat sources etc.). The presented serpentine method provides new quantitative information on thermal imaging and more. Since it allows for image segmentation and designation of contact points of two and more heat sources (local minimum), it can be used to support medical diagnostics in many areas of medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a three-dimensional (3D) seismic reflection dataset from the Shipwreck Trough, offshore Otway Basin, southern Australia, we aim to characterise and understand the structural evolution of the Shipwreck Fault Zone (SFZ) and associated extensional structures. The SFZ is a key structural element of the Otway Basin, which is a NW striking, Upper Jurassic-Cenozoic, rift-to-passive margin basin that formed due to the breakup of Australia and Antarctica. The SFZ marks the transition from the major southern margin rift system to the west and the oceanic-continental transform margin to the SE. The SFZ formed and bounds the Shipwreck Trough on the eastern side and is interpreted as a N S striking transtensional fault zone, representing the northern en echelon extension of the transform margin to the south. The Shipwreck Trough is the downward thrown (western) side of the SFZ and is host to an array of horst and half-graben structures, two of which contain the producing Geographe and Thylacine gas fields. The Shipwreck Trough and SFZ are imaged by the Investigator 3D seismic dataset, which has previously been studied to conduct 2D restorations and interpret the timing, magnitude, orientation and nature of the structural events of the Shipwreck Trough. Our study adds to this previous research by using spectral decomposition and coherence volumes to further characterise the SFZ (and associated igneous features), basement structural elements and Late Cretaceous horst and half-graben structures. We have identified examples of releasing bend, releasing jog and restraining jog structures along the SFZ that are indicative of sinistral transtensional deformation and have highlighted areas of increased basement fault block relief, which have driven extensional faulting in the cover. We have also conducted throw-distance and throw-depth analysis on four horst and half-graben structures and shown that the associated normal faults have had continuous Late Cretaceous growth with the structures being formed through incidental linkage of normal fault segments. Finally, our two-way-time (TWT) and isochronal mapping of the entire 3D survey shows the development of the Late Cretaceous rifting event in the Shipwreck Trough and highlights numerous other structural closures similar to (and with close vicinity of) the Thylacine and Geographe gas fields, providing implications for prospectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fourier transform (FT), the nonlinear least-squares algorithm (NLSA), and eigenvalue decomposition algorithm (EDA) are used to evaluate the phase field in depth-resolved wavenumber-scanning interferometry (DRWSI). However, because the wavenumber series of the laser's output is usually accompanied by nonlinearity and mode-hop, FT, NLSA, and EDA, which are only suitable for equidistant interference data, often lead to non-negligible phase errors. In this work, a compressed-sensing method for DRWSI (CS-DRWSI) is proposed to resolve this problem. By using the randomly spaced inverse Fourier matrix and solving the underdetermined equation in the wavenumber domain, CS-DRWSI determines the nonuniform sampling and spectral leakage of the interference spectrum. Furthermore, it can evaluate interference data without prior knowledge of the object. The experimental results show that CS-DRWSI improves the depth resolution and suppresses sidelobes. It can replace the FT as a standard algorithm for DRWSI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since few decades ago, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) based digital image signal compression had been adopted as the JPEG international standard. Later, Wavelet Transform (WT) has replaced the DCT and its being applied in medical image compression. JPEG 2000, the international standardization of WT is using separable lifting structure where the multidimensional image signal is transformed separately in its horizontal and vertical direction. Besides that, each process is realized by cascading in lifting calculation. However, the necessity of waiting for previous step before calculating to the next step will make the overall delay time become longer. The delay time between input and output of WT is reduced as the proposed method reduces its lifting steps. Since the lifting step contains a rounding operation, variance of the rounding noise generated due to the rounding operation inside the transform is reduced. In this paper, unlike the conventional separable structure, the proposed non-separable structure reduces the rounding noise inside the transform, which will lead to the increasing of coding performance. The proposed wavelet transform has a merit that its output signal, apart from the rounding noise, is exactly the same as the conventional separable structure which is a cascade of 1D structure. As a result of experiments, it was observed that the proposed method reduces the rounding noise as well as increases the performance of data compression of various 4D input signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article boundary-value problems of potential theory, that are required for transforming and continuing selected parameters of a potential field, are discussed. By the potential field parameters we understand the potential and its gradients (potential gradients) up to the third order. In particular, integral equations defined for a spherical boundary transforming potential gradients of different orders and continuing potential gradients of the same order through the 3-D space are reviewed and classified. This mathematical apparatus can be used for any harmonic potential, such as electric, magnetic or gravitational, under the assumption of its conservativeness, i.e., neglecting possible temporal variations. Integral transforms are discussed in context of geoscience applications, namely in terms of the Earth's gravitational field; however, the article can serve as a general reference for integral transforms of potential field parameters in any scientific or engineering area where potential fields are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective clinical nursing education is critical to prepare nursing students for their practice-based profession. However, there is a lack of consensus in the literature about the preferred model of the clinical experience. In order improve the clinical experience for nursing students, Mount Sinai Queens and LaGuardia Community College collaborated to transform the clinical experience by developing the five roles of the student nurse. These roles included clinician, leader, educator, researcher, and communicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The finger knuckle print (FKP) of a particular person is found to be unique and can serve as a biometric feature has been revealed recently by the researchers. In this research Finger Knuckle Print has been used as a biometric feature. Hybrid Wavelet Type I and Hybrid Wavelet Type II were used for feature extraction from the images in order to process it further. The important role of hybrid wavelet transform is to combine the key features of two different orthogonal transforms so that the strengths of both the transform wavelets are used. In this research the different transforms like (Discrete Cosine Transform) DCT, Haar. Hartley, Walsh and Kekre are used in combination for generation of 20 different hybrid wavelets. These hybrid wavelets are applied on the database images to generate feature vector coefficients and they are then subjected to Intra Class testing And Inter Class Testing and their performance is evaluated and compared. Proposed system has given up to 77% of EER for TAR-TRR (PI) for multi-algorithmic implementation of HWI+HWII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The finger knuckle print (FKP) of a particular person is found to be unique and can serve as a biometric feature has been revealed recently by the researchers. In this research Finger Knuckle Print has been used as a biometric feature. Hybrid Wavelet Type I and Hybrid Wavelet Type II were used for feature extraction from the images in order to process it further. The important role of hybrid wavelet transform is to combine the key features of two different orthogonal transforms so that the strengths of both the transform wavelets are used. In this research the different transforms like (Discrete Cosine Transform) DCT, Haar. Hartley, Walsh and Kekre are used in combination for generation of 20 different hybrid wavelets. These hybrid wavelets are applied on the database images to generate feature vector coefficients and they are then subjected to Intra Class testing And Inter Class Testing and their performance is evaluated and compared. Proposed system has given up to 80% of EER for TAR-TRR (PI) for hybrid wavelet formed using (Discrete Cosine Transform) DCT and Kekre transform for the multimodal multi-instance implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A parallel Multi-Transform Architecture (MTA) for the computation of the 2-D transforms adopted in modern digital video stan- dards is proposed in this paper. This hardware structure can be dynamically configured to efficiently compute either one transform of size N × N , or k different transforms of size in simultaneous, where N ∈ N and k = 2 i with i = 1, .., log 2 N − 1. The advantages offered by the proposed parallel architecture were assessed by implementing in a Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGA a proof-of-concept transform core compliant with the High Profiles of the H.264/AVC standard. The obtained results show that such processing structure is capable of achieving real-time operation for video sequences in the 8k Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) format (7680 × 4320 @ 30 fps). In addition, these results also demonstrate that the proposed parallel MTA allows to, at least, double both the throughput and the hardware efficiency of the implemented transform cores, when compared to the original design of thearchitecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, reducing the number of false positive cardiac monitor alarms (FA) in the intensive care unit (ICU) has become an issue of the utmost importance. In our work, we developed a robust methodology that, without the need for additional non-ECG waveforms, suppresses false positive ventricular tachycardia (VT) alarms without resulting in false negative alarms. Our approach is based on features extracted from the ECG signal 20 seconds prior to a triggered alarm. We applied a multi resolution wavelet transform to the ECG data 20 seconds prior to the alarm trigger, extracted features from appropriately chosen scales and combined them across all available leads. These representations are presented to a L1-regularized logistic regression classifier. Results are shown in two datasets of physiological waveforms with manually assessed cardiac monitor alarms: the MIMIC II dataset, where we achieved a false alarm (FA) suppression of 21% with zero true alarm (TA) suppression; and a dataset compiled by UCSF and General Electric, where a 36% FA suppression was achieved with a zero TA suppression. The methodology described in this work could be implemented to reduce the number of false monitor alarms in other arrhythmias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: The 12-lead ECG-derived spatial QRS–T angle has prognostic and diagnostic utility, but most ECG machines currently fail to report it. The primary goal was to determine if reasonably accurate methods exist for rapid visual estimations of the spatial peaks QRS–T angle from conventional 12-lead ECG tracings. Methods and Results: Simultaneous 12-lead and Frank XYZ-lead recordings were obtained from a publicly available database for 100 post-myocardial infarction patients and 50 controls. ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and concordance plots were used to evaluate agreement for spatial peaks QRS–T angle results from the true Frank leads versus from several visually applied 12-to-Frank XYZ-lead transforms. The latter included Kors et al.'s regression and quasi-orthogonal, Bjerle and Arvedson's quasi-orthogonal, Dower's inverse, and Hyttinen et al.'s, Dawson et al.'s and Guillem et al.'s transforms. Spatial peaks QRS–T angles derived from the true Frank leads were not statistically significantly different from those derived from any visually applied transform. Of the visually applied transforms, the Kors' regression and Kors' quasi-orthogonal yielded the highest Pearson correlation coefficients against the gold-standard true Frank lead results [0.84 and 0.77, respectively, when individuals with bundle branch blocks were included (N =150), and 0.88 and 0.80, respectively, when individuals with bundle branch blocks were excluded (N =137)]. Bland–Altman 95% confidence intervals showed similar results, with the two Kors'-related methods also having the narrowest confidence intervals. Conclusions: When visually applied, the Kors' regression-related and quasi-orthogonal transforms allow for reasonably precise spatial peaks QRS–T estimates and thus a potentially practical way to visually estimate spatial peaks QRS–T angles from conventional 12-lead ECGs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper presents an exact formula for a Fourier series reconstruction of a function from its V-line Radon transform in a disc. This transform (often also called broken-ray Radon transform) appears in mathematical models of several imaging modalities, e.g. single-scattering optical tomography and -ray emission tomography. Our inversion formula relaxes the support restriction on the image function required in the previously discovered inversion technique (Ambartsoumian, 2012) [8], and uses data from only half of the set of broken rays required before. The general strategy of the current approach was outlined in (Ambartsoumian, 2012) [8]. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Agile ETL is a tool for technicians working in the area of business intelligence, which facilitates consolidation of information in a central repository called data warehouse. Mechanisms have been established to create, control and monitoring processes of extraction transformation and loading of data, which is supposed to give a faster response either in creating or monitoring processes. ETL Framework can quickly integrate and consolidate data with good performance indicators. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In order to exploit new genetic resources, Pectate lyase(PEL) gene was amplified by PCR using the genome DNA from an alkaline Bacillus subtilis521. The PCR product was inserted into pET22b(+) vector. The recombinant plasmids were cloned in E.coli DH5α and then expressed in E.coli BL21. When cultured in the optimized medium, the positive clones E.coli BL21(pET22b(+)pel)showed intracellular pectate lyase activity of 90.0 U/mL. It was indicated that we had obtained the correct PEL gene. The pel has an open reading frame of 1263 nucleotides and codes for a product of 420 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 45.5kD. Based on computer assisted analysis, a signal peptides and two conserved domains were revealed. The sequence analysis for PEL showed that it shares 26-82% homology with other strains in GenBank. In addition, the advanced structure of PEL were also predicted and analysed. This study will help to the experimental design of PEL fermentation and production purification and enzyme evolution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A computational approach to partially address the general elution problem (GEP), and better visualize, isothermal gas chromatograms is reported. The theoretical computational approach is developed and applied experimentally. We report a high speed temporally increasing boxcar summation (TIBS) transform that, when applied to the raw isothermal GC data, converts the chromatographic data from the initial time domain (in which the peak widths in isothermal GC increase as a function of their retention factors, k), to a data point based domain in which all peaks have the same peak width in terms of number of points in the final data vector, which aides in preprocessing and data analysis, while minimizing data storage size. By applying the TIBS transform, the resulting GC chromatogram (initially collected isothermally), appears with an x-axis point scale as if it were instrumentally collected using a suitable temperature program. A high speed GC isothermal separation with a test mixture containing 10 compounds had a run time of ∼25s. The peak at a retention factor k ∼0.7 had a peak width of ∼55ms, while the last eluting peak at k ∼89 (i.e., retention time of ∼22s) had a peak width of ∼2000ms. Application of the TIBS transform increased the peak height of the last eluting peak 45-fold, and S/N ∼20-fold. All peaks in the transformed test mixture chromatogram had the width of an unretained peak, in terms of number of data points. A simulated chromatogram at unit resolution, studied using the TIBS transform, provided additional insight into the benefits of the algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As in earlier works, we consider as a sample space with a probability measure on it, thus making pseudo-Boolean functions into random variables. Under the assumption that the coordinate random variables are independent, we show it is very easy to give an orthonormal basis for the space of pseudo-Boolean random variables of degree at most . We use this orthonormal basis to find the transform of a given pseudo-Boolean random variable and to answer various least squares minimization questions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A coaxial reflective optical system (CROS) is proposed for improving the spot size and combined-distance of multiple axisymmetric beams. As a reflective shaping system, the CROS can be easily designed for this aim using the method of the matrix optics. A numerical simulation of the transformed beams is presented and analyzed. The results show that multiple axisymmetric beams can be transformed to a new form with a smaller spot size and longer combined distance using the CROS. The method we proposed is simple and effectual in material processing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Coupling of equilibrium thermodynamics library Thermochimica with dynamic systems modeling tool TRANSFORM. • Mass accountancy in a model of a molten salt reactor. • Modeling of precipitation and off-gassing during molten salt reactor operation. A mechanistic-based mass accountancy model in the context of liquid-fueled molten salt reactors was implemented in the dynamic systems modeling software library TRANSFORM by way of coupling with the equilibrium thermodynamics code Thermochimica. Liquid-fueled molten salt reactors present new challenges for mass accountancy because of the dissolution of fuel and evolved fission products, which may be soluble in the salt, off-gas, or precipitate. Two cases of mass loss from the molten salt were addressed: off-gassing and precipitation. The software implementation was tested through a series of increasingly complex demonstration problems, culminating in a model of the primary fuel and primary coolant loops of the molten salt demonstration reactor. Analysis shows that negligible mass was lost from the salt under normal operating conditions, but an overheating event caused by partial loss of fuel loop cooling resulted in release of measurable amounts of uranium (among other elements) via off-gassing. The tools developed here are primarily aimed at capability development but are readily available for use in further modeling of molten salt reactor concepts. These tools have not yet been validated, and future experimental work to perform this validation is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Dead Sea Fault System (DSFS) steps-over at the northern head of the Gulf of Aqaba (GOA), crossing the evolving continental shelf. We report detailed processing and interpretation of high resolution sub-bottom profiles of the north western tip of the GOA down to a depth of about 120 m. Our data reveal stepping seafloor morphology comprising a series of relict coastline features, primarily fossil reefs whose present depth results from the combined effect of sea level rise and tectonic displacements. On the northern slope, the fossil reefs are embedded in a predominantly single phase ∼30 m thick retrograde sedimentary stack that evolved presumably during sea level rise since the last glacial maximum, about 20 Ka. Large variations in character within this sedimentary stack bear evidence for large episodic changes in the rates of sea level rise and ensuing environmental conditions during the Holocene. A prominent terrace and face, a suggested relict coastline feature, accommodated on the order of 10 m down to the east vertical offsets across the surveyed area at the north western GOA since submergence, presumably late Pleistocene to early Holocene. The trace of an active strike strike-slip fault crossing the northern slope is defined by: a. NE striking bathymetric features; b. discontinuities offsetting the sedimentary layering from just below the sea floor to the deepest layers imaged; c. a 30±10 m sinistral and 10±1 m down to the west offset of a fossil reef at a depth of about 65 m. Global sea level curves constrain the age of the 65-m deep reef to 11.5±2 Ka, yielding an estimated average Holocene sinistral slip rate of 2.7±1.5 mm/yr, about half the regional slip of the DSFS. We conclude that the submarine fault defined here is a principal strand of the DSFS, a southward left stepping echelon of the Avrona fault. Such secondary echelon segmentation may be typical for the accommodation of strike-slip at tips of transform basins. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: New methods of determining meteor speeds using radar are giving results with an accuracy of better that 1%. It is anticipated that this degree of precision will allow determinations of pre-atmospheric speeds of shower meteors as well as estimates of the density of the meteoroids. The next step is to determine under what conditions these new measurements are reliable. Errors in meteoroid speeds determined using a Fresnel transform procedure applied to radar meteor data are investigated. The procedure determines the reflectivity of a meteor trail as a function of position, by application of the Fresnel transform to the time series of a radar reflection from the trail observed at a single detection station. It has previously been shown that this procedure can be used to determine the speed of the meteoroid, by finding the assumed speed that gives a reflectivity image that best meets physical expectations. It has also been shown that speeds determined by this method agree with those from the well established “pre-to phase” method when applied to reflections with a high signal to noise ratio. However, there is a discrepancy between the two methods for weaker reflections. A method to investigate the discrepancy is described and applied, with the finding that the speed determined by using the Fresnel transform procedure is more accurate for weaker reflections than that given by the “pre-to phase” method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper proposes a method for calculating a nonnegative time–frequency distribution (TFD) whose concentration is identical to that of Wigner–Ville distribution (WVD) when instantaneous frequencies (IFs) of the best-matched elementary functions of the signal under analysis are pre-estimated. This method is based on a special class of transformation group, referred to as semi-affine transformation (SAT) group. The essence of this method is to create a joint distribution by translating the values of WVDs of Morlet wavelet to the positions around IFs of the best-matched elementary functions. Theoretical predictions and numerical results indicate that the proposed strategy can result in the most visually appealing TFDs for highly nonstationary signals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

[Display omitted] • Migration and transformation of PBDEs in landfills were reviewed. • Biological and nonbiological transformation of PBDEs in landfills were summarized. • Analyzed the distribution of PBDEs in the landfill environment. • The management and research direction of PBDEs in landfills. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) serve as brominated flame retardants when added to various products. When these products reach their end of life, a large amount of domestic waste containing PBDEs enters the landfills. Given their weak chemical bonds, they are easily affected by physical, chemical, and biological processes. These processes result in their release and the subsequent contamination of the surrounding soil, groundwater, and atmosphere, causing harm to humans and ecosystems. However, despite the progress made in the research of PBDEs over the years, understanding of the environmental behavior and fate of pollutants is still limited. With the development of cities, the release of PBDEs in old landfills will gradually increase the risk to the surrounding environment. Here we review the biological and nonbiological transformation of PBDEs and their derivatives in landfills and surrounding areas, as well as their distribution in soil, groundwater, and atmosphere. Specifically, this review aims to provide insights into the following aspects: 1) the biological (plant, animal, and microbial) and nonbiological (metal catalysis and photodegradation) conversion of PBDEs and their derivatives in landfills and surrounding areas; 2) the distribution of landfill-sourced PBDEs in the soil, groundwater, atmosphere and cross-media migration; and 3) suggestions and future research directions for the management and control of PBDEs in landfills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical image fusion and classification has been utilized to get valuable significant data multimodality medical image data. The fundamental commitment of this paper is to extricate the compelling features from the fused medical image that is Multimodality Medical images (MMI) for the classification model. At first, MMI are considered for the fusion procedure by shearlet Transform and optimization model to get fused images. The medical images of fusion has demonstrated to be valuable for propelling the clinical dependability of utilizing medical imaging for medical diagnostics and investigation, this procedure is considered as the principal phase. In send phase, few features are extracted from the Fused multimodality Medical Image (FMMI). For example, texture and XOR pattern models for classification, the point of recognition as given fused image as begin or malignant by Deep Neural Network (DNN) with Optimization. The significant purpose of optimization is to improve the classification accuracy. To optimize the DNN structure, we proposed the Discrete Gravitational Search Algorithm (DGSA), and it depends on increasing speed and force of DNN weights. When the optimal structure finds, the test image comprises the input of the structure for classification. The experimental results stated that the proposed model shows effective performance with the fusion factor of 6.52 and spatial frequency of 26.8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]