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Implementing the transformer for global fusion is a novel and efficient method for pose estimation. Although the computational complexity of modeling dense attention can be significantly reduced by pruning possible human tokens, the accuracy of pose estimation still suffers from the problem of high overlap of candidate regions and severe background noise. Moreover, the undifferentiated fusion of features from different views also leads to a sizeable effective information loss. To address these challenges, we propose a Gated Region-Refine Pose Transformer (GRRPT) for human pose estimation. The proposed GRRPT can obtain the general area of the human body from the coarse-grained tokens and then embed it into the fine-grained ones to extract more details of the joints. Experimental results on COCO demonstrate that performing the Multi-Resolution Attention mechanism learns more refined candidate regions and improves accuracy. Furthermore, we design a Fusion Gate module consisting of two gates to pixel-wise select valid information from the auxiliary views, which significantly alleviates information redundancy. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of our method on Human3.6M and our dataset FDU-Motion and achieve state-of-the-art performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical motion capture systems have been used intensively to obtain human body poses. However, there still exist several problems. First is the dislocation problem caused by joints being too close together. The second is the joint lost problem. Restricted by severe self-occlusions, cameras may not capture the target joints. Given this observation, we investigate the high-level constraints over human poses to solve these two problems. In this work, we present a Simplified-attention Enhanced Graph Convolutional Network (SaEGC-Net) to extract both spatial and temporal features from monocular videos flexibly. The SaEGC-Net for 3D human pose estimation is U-shaped and involves the Cascaded Spatial-Temporal Graph Convolutional (CST-GC) blocks and the Simplified Spatial-Temporal Attention (SST-Att) blocks, allowing for drawing long-range dependencies between unconnected joints by graph topologies and attention mechanism, respectively. Specifically, the CST-GC block embeds two predefined graph structures into a convolutional network, incorporating discriminative features from distant joints. The proposed SST-Att block disregards redundant information by sharing part of the attention map, which is highly lightweight. It also considers dimension-expanded joint relationships to maintain the diversity of dependence. To evaluate the effectiveness of our method, we conduct extensive experiments on two datasets: Human3.6M and our own dataset FDU-Motion. Results demonstrate that our model achieves excellent performance and can competently handle the above two problems. Also, ablation studies show that our network's submodules can better exploit the motion information of the human body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Four different NBWs were added to the sludge anaerobic digestion. • The hydrolysis of sludge anaerobic digestion can be enhanced by the addition of NBW. • Addition of NBW increased methane production by 9.0–27.8% compared with control. • Addition of NBW (Air, CO 2 , He, and N 2) improved the dewaterability of digestate. • Air-NBW was the most cost-effective additive for sludge anaerobic digestion. The subsequence anaerobic digestion (AD) of dewatered sludge (DWS) from wastewater treatment plants necessitates an emphasis on enhancing methane production and dewaterability. The effect of different nanobubble water (NBW) on AD of DWS was investigated under mesophilic conditions. Cumulative methane production was improved by 9.0–27.8% with the addition of different NBW (Air, CO 2 , He, and N 2). NBW improved methanogenic performance by significantly enhancing the hydrolysis of sludge AD. Results from the digestate, the capillary suction time, specific resistance to filtration, and moisture content could be decreased by 14.6–18.2%, 18.8–29.6%, and 13.6–19.5%, respectively. The addition of NBW can improve the dewaterability of digestate by reducing the digestate particle size and increasing the zeta potential of digestate. The addition of NBW significantly increased methane production and improved dewaterability in AD; Air-NBW showed the best improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Microbial electrolysis cell was integrated in different phases of different TPAD. • Thermophilic conditions enhanced hydrolysis more than microbial electrolysis cell. • TPAD integrated microbial electrolysis cell improved the methane yield. • Microbial electrolysis cell was more effective in mesophilic-mesophilic TPAD. Temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD) and microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) are both able to improve hydrolysis and methane yield during anaerobic digestion (AD) of dewatered sludge. However, the effect of TPAD and MEC integration at different temperatures and different phases is unclear. This study investigated the effect of the integration of intermittent energization MEC in different phases of TPAD on the digestion of dewatered sludge. Thermophilic and MEC hydrolysis could release higher total ammonia nitrogen of 186.0% and 10.3% than control, mesophilic methanogenesis phase integrated with MEC relieved the ammonia inhibition and accelerated the acid utilization leading to the relief of acid accumulation. The ultimate methane yield of the TPAD integrated with MEC was increased by 118.9%, in which the relative abundance of Methanothermobacteria and Methanosarcina was increased. Therefore, intermittent energization MEC integrated TPAD synchronously improved the hydrolysis and methane yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the extreme values of wind loads is crucial for wind-resistant design of structures. The Hermite polynomial model (HPM)- based translation method, which uses the first four moments of wind load, is the most recognized and widely used method for extreme wind load estimations. In this study, a quartic HPM-based translation method for estimating extreme wind loads is proposed. A strategy for solving the shape coefficients is suggested for better practical use. The monotonic increasing condition required for the translation between non-Gaussian wind load and standard Gaussian process is discussed, based on which the constraint of shape coefficients governing the applicability of the quartic HPM is derived. From the validation study, it is found that the applicability of the quartic HPM is satisfactory. Compared with the cubic and improved HPMs, the quartic HPM stands out for yielding more accurate estimates of extreme wind loads. Comparative analysis with the XIMIS, an observed-maxima method, reveals the quartic HPM's consistency in estimating extreme wind loads from data with shorter periods, while the performance of XIMIS deteriorates with decreasing periods. Furthermore, the quartic HPM exhibits robustness in addressing strong non-Gaussian wind loads, outperforming the other methods under such conditions. • A quartic HPM-based translation method for estimating extreme values of wind loads is proposed. • Constraint of shape coefficients in quartic HPM that governs requirement of monotonic increasing condition is derived. • Intensity of non-Gaussianity is quantitatively defined and successfully associated to tail characteristic of parent distribution of wind loads. • Quartic HPM outperforms cubic and improved HPMs, as well as XIMIS, in estimating extreme values of wind loads with strong non-Gaussianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the self-supervised learning issue on heterogeneous graph. Currently, contrastive learning has become the dominant approach on various heterogeneous graph tasks. Its performance is highly dependent on the elaborate selection strategy of negative samples. However, it is difficult to design such an ideal strategy giving sufficient consideration to the characteristics of graph, such as structural similarity and feature similarity. To circumvent this problem, we propose a novel negative sample-free self-supervised framework named HGISD (H eterogeneous G raph learning based on I terative S imilarity D istillation), where the student improves itself by imitating the teacher's behavior and the teacher updates itself as a slow-moving average of the student. Moreover, metapath-based HGNN is employed as the built-in information encoder. We argue that previous metapath-based HGNNs neglect the correlation among metapaths and the locality within metapaths. To tackle these issues, we respectively propose IMCD (I nter- M etapath C orrelation D istillation) and IMSD (I ntra- M etapath S imilarity D istillation) within the self-distillation framework. Both IMCD and IMSD treat the embeddings in the shallow layers as the knowledge source, which well preserves the inter-metapath correlation and the intra-metapath locality. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments on several real-world heterogeneous graph datasets. The results show that the proposed HGISD achieves superior performance compared with the state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of total solids (TS) content on sludge mesophilic anaerobic digestion (AD) was investigated in batch reactors. A range of TS below 10% was evaluated with two replicates. The volumetric biogas production rate (VBPR) increased with increasing initial TS. On day 5, VBPR increased from 133.2 ± 11.2 mL L −1 d −1 at TS 2% to 1111.7 ± 58.1 mL L −1 d −1 at TS 10%. The ultimate biogas yield ( P ) firstly increased and then decreased with the increasing TS. The greatest P was 246.8 mL g −1 -VS added at TS 8%. The corresponding free ammonia nitrogen (FAN) and total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) were 84.0 ± 16.1 and 1163.0 ± 108.6 mg L −1 , respectively. Normalized capillary suction time (NCST) and solid content of thickened sludge obtained by centrifuging sludge increased with increasing TS. On day 49, NCST were 1.2 ± 0.2 (TS = 2%) and 13.2 ± 1.1 (TS = 10%) s g −1 -TS. Meanwhile, solid content of thickened sludge was 7.5 ± 0.5 (TS = 2%) and 15.4 ± 0.0% (TS = 10%). In summary, high VBPR and dewatering effects were obtained after TS content optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of total solids content on sludge thermophilic anaerobic digestion was investigated in batch reactors. A range of total solids content from 2% to 10% was evaluated with two replicates. The lowest inhibitory concentration for free ammonia and total ammonia of sludge thermophilic anaerobic digestion was 110.9–171.4 mg/L and 1313.1–1806.7 mg/L, respectively. The volumetric biogas production rate increased with increasing of total solids content, but the corresponding biogas yield per gram volatile solid decreased. The result of normalized capillary suction time indicated that the dewaterability of digested sludge at high total solids content was poor, while solid content of sediment obtained by centrifuging sludge at 2000 g for 10 min increased with increasing of total solids content of sludge. The results suggest that thickened sludge mixed with dewatered sludge at an appropriate ratio could get high organic loading rate, high biogas yield and adequate dewatering effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Methane yield of thermophilic digester is greater than that of mesophilic digester. • Bacterial and archaeal diversity of mesophilic digesters is more abundant. • Plant growth promotion of mesophilic biogas slurry is more prominent. • Potassium in biogas slurry is the key factor to promote plant growth. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of mixing ratios of Chinese cabbage waste (CCW) and cow manure (CM) on methane yields, microbial community, and biogas slurry fertility during anaerobic co-digestion. Batch experiments were conducted at mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures with five different CCW/CM mixing ratios. Methane yields at mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures were 4.2–184.4 mL g−1 Volatile solids added (mL g−1 VS added) and 11.8–321.7 mL g−1 VS added , respectively. The richness and diversity of bacteria and archaea at mesophilic temperatures were higher than those at thermophilic temperatures. Compared with the unfertilized control, the dry weight of corn seedlings with the follow-up application of mesophilic or thermophilic biogas slurry increased by 12.3 %-73.4 % or 16.8 %-43.3 %, respectively. This study demonstrates that thermophilic temperatures are conducive to increasing methane yields, but mesophilic temperatures are conducive to improving the biogas slurry fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Filler enhance conversion rates of sludge digestion. [•] Pre-incubated filler improve dewaterability of digested sludge. [•] Filler alone do not improve dewaterability of digested sludge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Protein degradation mainly limited by hydrolysis under aerobic condition. [•] Protein degradation limited by hydrolysis and metabolism under anaerobic condition. [•] Humification degree of aerobic digested sludge was greater than anaerobic one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In anaerobic digestion (AD) of sludge, AD efficiency and digested sludge (DS) dewaterability are critical factors. In this study, polyester non-woven fabric fillers were integrated into a sludge digester. The effect of such fillers on digestion was investigated in thermophilic temperature range in semi-continuous mode. Methane production of filler system and control reactor were significantly different ( P < 0.05, paired t -test). At hydraulic retention times of 18 days and 12 days, the corresponding methane yields from filler system were 140% and 161%, respectively, of the yields from control digester without filler. Improvement of DS dewaterability was uncertain during 110 days of operation. While after a longer period of digestion, filler system resulted in a lower normalized capillary suction time of DS (76.5 ± 21.6 s L/g total suspended solids) than control reactor (118.7 ± 32.9 s L/g total suspended solids). The results showed that the filler could improve thermophilic AD performance, except at too short hydraulic retention times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enhance the dewaterability of anaerobic digested sludge and to make full use of the biogas slurry. This study set up five sludge conditioning methods: polymeric ferric sulfate, polymeric aluminum chloride, cationic polyacrylamide, chitosan, and chitosan combined with rice husk powder. Their effects on the dewaterability of thermal hydrolysis-anaerobic digested sludge, bacterial community, and biogas slurry fertility were studied to find a non-toxic and non-risk dewatering technology for the environment and biogas slurry. Compared with that of the control group, moisture content, normalization capillary suction time, and specific resistance to filtration were reduced by 12.8%, 97.7%, and 82.9%, respectively. Chitosan enlarges the sludge flocs and forms complexes with proteins, disrupting the structure of the extracellular polymeric substances, thereby exposing more hydrophobic groups and reducing the hydrophilicity of the sludge. The subsequent addition of rice husk powder enhances the adsorption of hydrophilic substances and provides a stronger drainage channel for the sludge. In addition, the biogas slurry obtained by this conditioning method used as a fertilizer increased the dry weight and fresh weight of corn seedlings by 59.3% and 91.0%, respectively. And the total chlorophyll content increased by 84.6%. Pearson's correlation analysis showed that chitosan and rice husk meal had no toxic effect on the biogas slurry compared to the other three flocculants. The results showed that the combined treatment of chitosan and rice husk powder resulted in the best dewaterability. Overall, chitosan combined with rice husk powder is a green dewatering technology with great potential for anaerobic digested sludge dewatering and biogas slurry recycling. [Display omitted] • Compared with control, CS+RHP reduced SRF and NCST of sludge by 82.9% and 97.7%. • Compared with PFS, PAC, and CPAM, CS is better for plant growth promotion. • Compared with control, dry weight of corn seedling in CS+RHP increased by 59.3%. • Compared with control, total chlorophyll of seedling in CS+RHP increased by 84.6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The prevalence of BRCA1 somatic mutations status in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has not been well documented. The aims of this study were to determine the frequency of BRCA1 somatic mutations and to investigate the association between BRCA1 deleterious somatic mutation status and response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women with TNBC. Methods Two hundred and five TNBC patients without BRCA1 germline mutations were enrolled in this study. Fresh tumor tissues were available for this cohort of 205 patients, including 112 patients with fresh core needle biopsy tumor tissues before treatment and 93 patients with fresh tumor tissues procured after surgery. BRCA1 somatic mutations were determined in the tumor samples using PCR-direct sequencing assay. Among the 112 patients with core needle biopsy samples, 97 patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results Eight patients (3.9%) carried a BRCA1 pathogenic somatic mutation in this cohort of 205 TNBC patients. These eight BRCA1 deleterious somatic mutations included five frameshift or nonsense mutations (c.191_212del22, c.1664delA, c.4674_4675 + 17del, c.3671_3672insTTCC, c.1162A > T), one splicing site mutation (c.134 + 2T > G) and two missense mutations (c.5511G > C and c.286G > A). No significant differences in tumor characteristics between BRCA1 deleterious somatic mutation carriers and non-carriers were observed. The pCR (pathologic complete response) rate was 32.0% in the 97 patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. BRCA1 deleterious somatic mutation carriers (n = 5) had a higher pCR rate than did non-carriers (n = 92) ( BRCA1 carriers vs non-carriers, 60.0% vs 30.4%, P = 0.32), although it did not reach a significance due to a small sample size. Conclusions A small subset of TNBC patients carried a BRCA1 deleterious somatic mutation; BRCA1 somatic mutation carriers are likely to respond to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Co-digestion improved methane yield 31.3%-68.0% at thermophilic temperature. • Co-digestion improved methane yield 83.0%-136.5% at mesophilic temperature. • The highest methane yield of anaerobic co-digestion obtained at P/S = 2:1. • NCST and TS of sediment increased with increasing initial TS of substrate. • NCST has a strong negative correlation with the water removal efficiency. The objective of this study is to assess the effects of the mixing ratio on the methane production and digestate dewaterability of co-digestion of pig manure (P) and sludge (S). Batch experiments were carried out at five different P/S mixing ratios at mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures. Compared to sludge anaerobic digestion, co-digestion of pig manure with sludge increased methane yield 83.0%-136.5% at mesophilic temperature and 31.3%-68.0% at thermophilic temperature. The normalized capillary suction time (NCST) and total solids (TS) of sediment (centrifugal dewatering) increased when pig manure proportion of substrate increased. The NCST at thermophilic temperatures (4.87–17.58 s g−1-TSS) was higher than that at mesophilic temperatures (1.89–10.95 s g−1-TSS). However, the TS of sediment was close at thermophilic and mesophilic temperatures. The results indicated that anaerobic co-digestion of pig manure and sludge at a proper mixing ratio (P/S = 2:1) provides a good choice for energy recovery and land utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]