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Aero-optic imaging deviation research is carried out for infrared-guided vehicle with cone-head side window, with a focus on the propagation characteristics of light in an aero-optic flow field. When the light entering the aero-optic flow field from the free-stream should be close to the normal, numerous data indicate that the light is refracted away from the normal. This paper divides the aero-optic flow field into two parts and uses the gas density distribution in the aero-optic flow field to propose the hypothesis that there are two modes of refraction when light propagates through the flow field. The results show that light propagates from the optically denser medium to the optically thinner medium after passing through the shock wave and eventually leads to refraction away from the normal when the light enters the aero-optic flow field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive review of deep learning applications in the video game industry, focusing on how these techniques can be utilized in game development, experience, and operation. As relying on computation techniques, the game world can be viewed as an integration of various complex data. This examines the use of deep learning in processing various types of game data. The paper classifies the game data into asset data, interaction data, and player data, according to their utilization in game development, experience, and operation, respectively. Specifically, this paper discusses deep learning applications in generating asset data such as object images, 3D scenes, avatar models, and facial animations; enhancing interaction data through improved text-based conversations and decision-making behaviors; and analyzing player data for cheat detection and match-making purposes. Although this review may not cover all existing applications of deep learning, it aims to provide a thorough presentation of the current state of deep learning in the gaming industry and its potential to revolutionize game production by reducing costs and improving the overall player experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-cooperative target tracking technology has significant applications in the field of ocean, serving both military and civilian purposes. The emerging underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) have great potential for target tracking, but face challenges that include energy constraints, stratification effect, variable environment, and measurement outliers. To address these issues, a non-cooperative target tracking method based on UASNs is proposed in this paper. First, a mutual information (MI) function is established with the predicted target state and the received signal strength. Then, an MI-based active tracking node selection method is designed to reduce energy consumption and ensure tracking accuracy. After identifying active tracking nodes, a ray tracking method is used to calculate the distances under stratification effect. Subsequently, a robust and adaptive tracking algorithm is designed based on interactive multiple models assisted unscented Kalman filter to achieve accurate tracking, in which the equivalent noise covariance is utilized to change measurement noise adaptively, and a detector is implemented to detect and correct measurement outliers. The motion model transition probability is also adaptively adjusted based on the corrected data. Finally, the simulation and experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Checkpoint-based immunotherapy has failed to elicit responses in the majority of patients with pancreatic cancer. In our study, we aimed to identify the role of a novel immune checkpoint molecule V-set Ig domain-containing 4 (VSIG4) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Methods: Online datasets and tissue microarray (TMA) were utilized to analyze the expression level of VSIG4 and its correlation with clinical parameters in PDAC. CCK8, transwell assay and wound healing assay were applied to explore the function of VSIG4 in vitro. Subcutaneous, orthotopic xenograft and liver metastasis model was established to explore the function of VSIG4 in vivo. TMA analysis and chemotaxis assay were conducted to uncover the effect of VSIG4 on immune infiltration. Histone acetyltransferase (HAT) inhibitors and si-RNA were applied to investigate factors that regulate the expression of VSIG4. Results: Both mRNA and protein levels of VSIG4 were higher in PDAC than normal pancreas in TCGA, GEO, HPA datasets and our TMA. VSIG4 showed positive correlations with tumor size, T classification and liver metastasis. Patients with higher VSIG4 expression were related to poorer prognosis. VSIG4 knockdown impaired the proliferation and migration ability of pancreatic cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. Bioinformatics study showed positive correlation between VSIG4 and infiltration of neutrophil and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) in PDAC, and it inhibited the secretion of cytokines. According to our TMA panel, high expression of VSIG4 was correlated with fewer infiltration of CD8+ T cells. Chemotaxis assay also showed knockdown of VSIG4 increased the recruitment of total T cells and CD8+ T cells. HAT inhibitors and knockdown of STAT1 led to decreased expression of VSIG4. Conclusions: Our data indicate that VSIG4 contributes to cell proliferation, migration and resistance to immune attack, thus identified as a promising target for PDAC treatment with good prognostic value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When the aircraft is moving at high speed in the atmosphere, aero-optical imaging deviation will appear due to the influence of aero-optical effect. In order to achieve real-time compensation during the flight of the aircraft, it is necessary to analyze and predict the obtained imaging deviation data. In order to improve the search speed and accuracy of the prediction algorithm and the ability to jump out of local optimum, in this paper, an improved sparrow search algorithm optimized extreme learning machine (ISSA-ELM) neural network model is proposed to predict the aero-optical imagine deviation. Finally, the performance of ISSA-ELM, ELM neural network and SSA-ELM neural network was tested. The results showed that compared with ELM and SSA-ELM algorithms, the convergence speed of ISSA-ELM was significantly enhanced, and the accuracy of data prediction was also significantly improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research suggests a methodology to optimize Elman neural network based on improved slime mould algorithm (ISMA) to anticipate the aero optical imaging deviation. The improved Tent chaotic sequence is added to the SMA to initialize the population to accelerate the algorithm's speed of convergence. Additionally, an improved random opposition-based learning was added to further enhance the algorithm's performance in addressing problems that the SMA has such as weak convergence ability in the late iteration and an easy tendency to fall into local optimization in the optimization process when solving the optimization problem. Finally, the algorithm model is compared to the Elman neural network and the SMA optimization Elman neural network model. The three models are assessed using four evaluation indicators, and the findings demonstrate that the ISMA optimization model can anticipate the aero optical imaging deviation in an accurate way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aero-optical imaging deviation is a kind of optical effect, aiming at a conical aircraft. This paper analyzes the influence of the aircraft on the imaging deviation with the change of altitude and line-of-sight angle. In this paper, the relationships between imaging deviation and altitude as well as line-of-sight angle are analyzed, and the coupling relationship between altitude and line-of-sight angle is studied. We give the imaging deviation results of 5°–75° line-of-sight angle. The analysis shows that when the line-of-sight angle is in the range of 5°–35°, the imaging deviation is more sensitive, while the line-of-sight angle is in the range of 35°–75°, the imaging deviation is relatively flat, and the imaging deviation does not gradually decrease with the increase of line-of-sight angle, but there is a turning point in the middle of 5°–75°. The imaging deviation decreases first and then increases, and the turning point of line-of-sight angle is closely related to height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The short-term outcome and long-term survival of pancreaticoduodenectomy with additional para-aortic dissection (PAD) for patients with resectable pancreatic cancer remain obscure. Patients and Methods: Consecutive patients who underwent radical pancreaticoduodenectomy for resectable pancreatic cancer in a single high-volume center during a 7-year period were included retrospectively. Both short- and long-term effects of PAD were compared between the PAD group and the no PAD group. Then, the PAD group was divided into the non-metastatic para-aortic lymph node (PALN−) group and the metastatic PALN (PALN+) group to further analyze the prognosis of PALN+. Results: Of the 909 included patients, 280 (30.8%) underwent PAD during pancreaticoduodenectomy. The PAD group had a higher rate of intra-abdominal infection compared with the no PAD group (28.6% vs. 20.7%, P = 0.009) but no differences were found in the incidence of other complications. The overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were also comparable between the two groups. Subgroup analysis showed that patients with PALN+ had a worse OS than patients in the PALN− group (median of 14 vs. 20 months, P = 0.048). Multivariate Cox regression analysis further revealed that PALN+ was an independent adverse predictor of OS (hazard ratio: 1.70, P = 0.007). Conclusions: This study suggests that the addition of PAD during pancreaticoduodenectomy does not improve the prognosis of patients with resectable pancreatic cancer and may lead to an increased risk of infection. However, the accurate preoperative assessment and appropriate treatment strategy for patients with PALN+ need further investigation due to the poor prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioma is a common tumor in the brain. CircRNA hsa_circ_0030018, also termed as hsa_circPOSTN_001 (circ_POSTN), is reported to exert a promoting influence on the development of glioma. Our study intends to deeply explore its regulation mechanism of circ_POSTN. Expression of circ_POSTN, microRNA-433-3p (miR-433-3p) and Secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) was detected by qRT-PCR or western blot assay. The function of circ_POSTN was analyzed by loss-of-function experiments. The targeting relationship between miR-433-3p and circ_POSTN or SPARC was predicted by bioinformatics analysis and validated by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Xenograft modeling was employed to validate the function of circ_POSTN in glioma in vivo. circ_POSTN and SPARC were upregulated while miR-433-3p was downregulated in glioma tissues and cells. Both circ_POSTN and SPARC knockdown inhibited clonogenicity, migration, and promoted apoptosis of glioma cells. Circ_POSTN sponged miR-433-3p to regulate SPARC expression. Gain of SPARC largely attenuated circ_POSTN knockdown or miR-433-3p overexpression-mediated effects on glioma cell clonogenicity, migration, and apoptosis. Furthermore, silencing of circ_POSTN decreased xenograft tumor growth in vivo. Inhibition of circ_POSTN repressed glioma development, at least in part, via regulating the miR-433-3p/SPARC axis, providing evidence for circ_POSTN as a potential therapeutic target for glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aero-optic imaging is a kind of optical effect, which describes the imaging deviation on the imaging plane. In this paper, the effect of the change of Mach number of blunt aircraft on the aero-optic imaging deviation is studied. The imaging deviations of Mach number 0.5–3 are analyzed systematically. The results show that with the increase of Mach number, imaging deviation increases gradually, and the increase rate is gradually slow. Imaging deviation slope decreases gradually with the increase of Mach number, and gradually tends to be zero, suggesting that imaging deviation is not sensitive to the change of the larger Mach number. In other words, the Mach number of smaller changes can lead to larger imaging deviation. As the Mach number of the aircraft increases, the slope of the imaging offset tends to be closer and closer to 0. When the Mach number of the aircraft increases to a certain extent, the change of the imaging offset will not have much influence. Therefore, in order to reduce the impact of flight speed on imaging migration, the aircraft should fly at a higher Mach number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a signed distance field (SDF) approach for unified discrete element method (DEM) modeling of granular media using arbitrarily shaped particles. The SDF approach employs a generic SDF-based interface defined by an SDF function and a surface projection function to rigorously model particle shapes and their ensuing complications on contact operations in DEM modeling. The signed distance is defined positive inside particles and negative when outside, and the zeroth isosurface of the SDF is conveniently used to represent the particle surface. The surface of a particle is discretized into a set of nodes. Node-to-surface algorithms are formulated to check the signs of the pertaining distance for contact detection. An energy-conserving contact theory is further employed to derive the contact interaction forces according to the contact potential defined on each intruding node. Based on the unified shape-contact description by SDF, specialised grain shape models are further developed to recover classical shape models as special cases, including poly-super-ellipsoid, poly-super-quadrics, spherical harmonics, polyhedron, and level set. A weighted spherical centroidal Voronoi tessellation-based numerical scheme is further developed for rigorous particle surface discretization and reconstruction. Demonstrative examples are presented to validate and showcase the capabilities of the proposed SDF approach for DEM modeling of granular media. The computational aspects, including the memory consumption and computational efficiency of the proposed approach for various particle models, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, tetragonal barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanopowders were synthesized by a new wet chemical route named sol-hydrothermal method. The effects of different temperatures, time and raw materials on the properties of BaTiO3 were studied. The results showed that BaTiO3 was not formed in the precursors. All powders were pure perovskite phase except for the powder prepared using BaCl2 as raw material at 100 °C. The main morphology of the powders was near-spherical. With the increase of hydrothermal temperature and time, the agglomeration decreased, the crystallinity and the tetragonal content increased for the powders. The optimal conditions of tetragonal BaTiO3 nanopowders synthesized by different raw materials were 120 °C (BaCl2), 140 °C (BaAc2) and 160 °C for 24 h [Ba(NO3)2], respectively. The size of the powders prepared by optimal conditions ranges of 125 nm ~ 250 nm in diameter. Moreover, a possible formation mechanism was proposed for BaTiO3 nanopowders synthesized by the sol-hydrothermal method. The as-prepared tetragonal BaTiO3 powders could be used as medium material for multilayer ceramic capacitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Soil aggregate stability associates closely with many environmental and agricultural problems. Some studies using the model aggregates find that soil internal forces exert an important impact on soil aggregate stability. However, the effect of soil internal forces on the stability of natural soil aggregates during vegetation restoration has been little studied. Methods: Five different succession stages (including farmland, grassland, shrubland, early forest, and climax forest) were chosen in the Ziwuling forest region (in the central part of the Loess Plateau, China), and the size distribution and stability of natural soil aggregates under different succession stages were investigated through dry sieving and wet sieving with ethanol and deionized water prewetting. Results: The size distribution of aggregates determined by dry sieving showed decreased first and then increased with decreasing particle size, dominant sizes were 5–1- and < 0.15-mm fractions. The ethanol prewetting treatment showed a distribution similar to that determined by dry sieving. The size distribution of aggregates in deionized water prewetting treatment was mainly < 0.15-mm fractions. Moreover, the mean weight diameter values of farmland, grassland, shrubland, early forest, and climax forest soils determined in ethanol treatment (MWDe) were 4.62, 1.45, 1.31, 1.32, and 1.17 times than those in deionized water treatment (MWDw). In addition, in the fast wetting process, the preservation rate of soil aggregates was higher in 0.5–0.053-mm fractions than in > 0.5-mm fractions. The relative internal force index (RII) of grassland, shrubland, early forest, and climax forest soils decreased by 47%, 54%, 55%, and 64% compared with that of farmland soil, respectively. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that soil internal forces could significantly break down the aggregates and lead to decreasing water stability of aggregates. The vegetation restoration process decreased the repulsive soil internal forces, thereby decreasing the degree of disintegration of aggregates and consequently increased the water stability of aggregates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The at-rest coefficient of lateral pressure, K 0 , is a critical macroscopic parameter for evaluating stress transmission in granular media for engineering practice. This paper revisits the microscopic origin of K 0 and its corresponding underlying physics based on micromechanics-based theories and numerical simulations, with a focus placed on the effect of particle shape. Two typical kinds of distortion (elongation and blockiness) in particle shape are considered, modeled by ellipsoids and superballs in the discrete element method. One-dimensional compression tests are performed on numerical specimens with dense and loose initial states for different particle shapes. An analytical relationship between K 0 and anisotropy of fabric measures (i.e., contact normal, contact force, and shape-related anisotropy) is established within the stress-force-fabric framework. It is found that the analytical K 0 is consistent with the measured one directly from the simulation regardless of particle shape, verifying a well-established relationship between K 0 and fabric. It is further found that contact force partition of K 0 plays the most prominent role in K 0 compared to contact normal and shape-related partitions. Results also reveal the different influence of shape distortion on K 0 and the corresponding mechanical properties related to K 0 , such as void ratio, mobilized friction angle, and coordination number. More specifically, K 0 has a 'W'-shape relationship with elongation for dense ellipsoids and an 'M'-shape relationship with blockiness for superballs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As applications of composite material increasingly increase in the aviation sector, its manufacturing cost is now identified as a bottle neck, which limits the market competitiveness in terms of cost-performance efficiency. To estimate the manufacturing cost of composite structures at the early design stage, this research proposes a manufacturing cost model based on process simulation and represents the cost in the form of "Equivalent Working Hour" (EWH). The research also introduces the "Structural Complexity Element" (SCE) and "Hourly Rate Factor" (HRF) to ensure and improve the accuracy of the model. Then, the model is applied on a composite wing structure to calculate and analyze the manufacturing costs of two structure designs to be manufactured through manual lay-up, automated tape lay-up/fiber placement, autoclave or out-of-autoclave curing, mechanical assembly, and co-cure or adhesive bonding. The results verified the effectiveness of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The selection of optimum design points is difficult due to the fact that the number of Pareto optimal design points grows explosively with the increase of objective dimensions. A finer described Pareto frontier contains many more Pareto optimal design points which increase the selection difficulty. In this paper, the multi-layer convex hull method is developed to decrease the selection number of the multi-objective optimum design points. The concept multi-layer convex hull method is like onions with the convex hulls built from outside to inside. A three-objective optimum design of bolted composite joints is employed to validate this method. Result shows that the large individual number that has to be checked in the last generation is decreased significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the effect of the particle angularity in light of its importance in angular particle assemblies, using the discrete element method (DEM). A discrete element model with a general contact force law for arbitrarily shaped particles was developed, in which angular particles were modeled using convex polyhedra. Quasi-spherical polyhedral shapes with different vertexes were adopted to reflect the change of angularity. Four categories of assemblies with different angularities were generated. A series of direct shear tests performed on these assemblies were simulated at different vertical stresses. All numerical implementations were achieved using a modified version of the open source DEM code YADE. It was found that the macroscopic shear strength and dilatancy characteristics are in agreement with experimental and numerical results in the literature, indicating that the present numerical model is reasonable. Besides, the evolutions of coordination number, normal contact force distribution, and anisotropies of particle orientation and contact normal were investigated. The results show that the angularity plays a vital role in strengthening the interlocking of angular particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of global warming, the occurrences of floods have increased in frequency and severity. Flooding often occurs near rivers and low-lying areas, which makes such areas higher-risk locations. Flood-risk evaluation represents an essential analytic step in preventing floods and reducing losses. However, the uncertainty and nonlinear relation between evaluation indices and risk levels are always difficult points in the evaluation process. Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation (FCE), an effective method for solving random, fuzzy and multi-index problems, has led to progress in understanding this relation. Thus, in this study, an assessment model based on FCE is adopted to evaluate flood risk in the Dongjiang River Basin. To correct the one-sidedness of the single weighting method, a combination weight integrating subjective weight and objective weight is adopted based on game theory. The evaluation results show that high-risk areas are mainly located in regions that include unfavorable terrain, developed industries and dense population. These high-risk areas appropriately coincide with the integrated risk zoning map and inundation areas of historical floods, proving that the evaluation model is feasible and rational. The results also can be used as references for the prevention and reduction of floods and other applications in the Dongjiang River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rain is one of the main sources of error in dual-frequency altimeter Jason-1 wind measurement. In this study, a new radar altimeter backscatter model is proposed and validated to eliminate rain effects. The model takes into account attenuation, volume backscattering, and sea surface perturbation by raindrops under rain conditions. A match-up dataset is built to evaluate rain effects, in combination with the Jason-1 normalized radar cross section, precipitation radar data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, and sea surface wind reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. The results show that rain-induced surface perturbation backscatter increases with rain rate at Ku-band, but their correlation at C-band is poor. In addition, rain surface perturbation and attenuation have major effects onradar altimeter wind measurements. Finally, a rain correction model for Jason-1 winds is developed and validation results prove its ability to reduce rain-induced inaccuracies in wind retrievals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil pore is a key attribute of the soil structure that affects soil reservoir under natural vegetation recovery on the Loess Plateau. This study is to quantitatively analyze soil pore parameters, measured with Computed Tomography (CT) at 15-57 mm depths under five different vegetation succession stages using a concept of substituting 'space' for 'time' in the Ziwuling Forest Region of the Loess Plateau. The results showed that the soil pore parameters, such as pore number, porosity, circularity, and fractal dimension, increased significantly under the natural vegetation successions and varied with the pattern climax community stage>pioneering arbor community stage>scrub community stage>herbaceous community stage>abandoned farmland stage, indicating that natural vegetation recovery could remarkably improve soil pore characteristics. With the vegetation succession, this positive effect will be strengthened gradually, which means that the soil pore parameters may appear to be best at the climax community stage. Soil organic matter content increased linearly with the soil pore parameters ( P<0.001). Increased organic matter accumulation was one of the major reasons for the changes in soil pore characteristics in natural vegetation succession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the changes in soil microbial populations as vegetational succession progress from abandoned farmland to climax forest in the Ziwuling Forest, which is located in the northern part of the Loess Plateau, China. Different organic C and total extractable N between the fumigated and non-fumigated soils were assumed to be released from soil microorganisms. Soil microbial C was calculated using Kec = 0.38 and microbial N was calculated using Ken = 0.45. The released P was converted to microbial biomass P using Kep = 0.40. Soil bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes increased as the vegetational succession progressed. Microbial C was of the highest amount in farmland. Microbial C, N, and P generally increased from abandoned land to climax community. The results indicated significant ( P < 0.05) diversities of soil microbial biomass under different vegetation. There was a significant correlation between microbial biomass and soil nutrients. Knowledge about soil microbial populations is important for forecasting vegetational succession and determining the ecological condition of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pornographic image/video recognition plays a vital role in network information surveillance and management. In this paper, its key techniques, such as skin detection, key frame extraction, and classifier design, etc., are studied in compressed domain. A skin detection method based on data-mining in compressed domain is proposed firstly and achieves the higher detection accuracy as well as higher speed. Then, a cascade scheme of pornographic image recognition based on selective decision tree ensemble is proposed in order to improve both the speed and accuracy of recognition. A pornographic video oriented key frame extraction solution in compressed domain and an approach of pornographic video recognition are discussed respectively in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on monthly river runoff and meteorological data, a method of Morlet wavelet transform was used to analyze the multiple time scale characteristics of river runoff in the Dagujia River Basin, Yantai City, Shandong Province. The results showed that the total annual river runoff in the Dagujia River Basin decreased significantly from 1966 to 2004, and the rate of decrease was 48×106m3/10yr, which was higher than the mean value of most rivers in China. Multiple time scale characteristics existed, which accounted for different aspects of the changes in annual river runoff, and the major periods of the runoff time series were identified as about 28 years, 14 years and 4 years with decreasing levels of fluctuation. The river runoff evolution process was controlled by changes in precipitation to a certain extent, but it was also greatly influenced by human activities. Also, for different time periods and scales, the impacts of climate changes and human activities on annual river runoff evolution occurred at the same time. Changes in the annual river runoff were mainly associated with climate change before the 1980s and with human activities after 1981. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soil infiltrability of hill-slope is important to such studies and practices as hydrological process, crop water supply, irrigation practices, and soil erosion. A new method for measuring soil infiltrability on hill-slope under rainfall condition with run off-on-out was advanced. Based on water (mass) balance, the mathematic models for soil infiltrability estimated from the advances of runoff on soil surface and the water running out of the slope were derived. Experiments of 2 cases were conducted. Case I was done under a rainfall intensity of 20 mm/h, at a slope gradient of about 0° with a runoff/on length (area) ratio of 1: 1. Case II was under a rainfall intensity of 60 mm/h and a slope of 20° with a runoff/on length (area) ratio of 1: 1. Double ring method was also used to measure the infiltrability for comparison purposes. The experiments were done with soil moisture of 10%. Required data were collected from laboratory experiments. The infiltrability curves were computed from the experimental data. The results indicate that the method can well conceptually represent the transient infiltrability process, with capability to simulate the very high initial soil infiltrability. The rationalities of the method and the models were validated. The errors of the method for the two cases were 1.82%/1.39% and 4.49%/3.529% (Experimental/Model) respectively, as estimated by comparing the rainfall amount with the infiltrated volume, to demonstrate the accuracy of the method. The transient and steady infiltrability measured with double ring was much lower than those with this new method, due to water supply limit and soil aggregates breaking down at initial infiltration stage. The method can overcome the short backs of the traditional sprinkler method and double ring method for soil infiltraility. It can be used to measure the infiltrability of sloped surface under rainfall-runoff-erosion conditions, in the related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]