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Background: Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), also known as Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome, is a rare autosomal dominant genetic vascular dysplasia. Objectives: The aim is to characterize the liver involvement of HHT by multi-detector helical computed tomography. Patients and Methods: Through the use of multi-detector helical computed tomography, scan data derived from 12 cases of HHT were retrospectively studied, and an abdominal scan was performed on all of the patients. Results: (i) Three types of shunting were found in the livers, including arteriovenous (hepatic artery to hepatic vein) in 6 cases, arterioportal (hepatic artery to portal vein) in 2 cases, and portal venous (portal vein to hepatic vein) in 4 cases, (ii) Biliary diseases were detected in 8 cases, including 3 cases of bilomas accompanied by increases of alkaline phosphatase (mean 271 units, ranging from 152 to 479 units) and arteriovenous shunts, and the other 5 cases revealed slight biliary dilation with no increase of alkaline phosphates, but were instead accompanied by arteriovenous shunts (3 cases) and portal venous shunts (2 cases). (iii) Vascular anatomic variants were observed in 4 cases, including 3 with accompanying arteriovenous shunts and 1 with accompanying arterioportal shunting. Conclusion: The involved liver with HHT typically shows vascular shunting and biliary diseases. Also, arteriovenous shunts may be vulnerable to biliary diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze agri-food supply chain operation modes based on system dynamics. We present and analyze three main modes in China as DDR (core of distributor), SS(core of supermarket) and SC (core of supplier) mode. We choose dominant DDR and potential SS mode, analyze detailed flowcharts and compare relationship of inventory level and order under stochastic demand information based on system dynamics theory. Simulation results show SS mode has lower inventory level, less inventory fluctuation and decreased bull-ship effect than DDR mode. Thus agri-food supply chain with core of supermarket or retailer would be more effiecient and cost-effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road detection is a key task for autonomous land vehicles. Monocular vision-based road-detection algorithms are mostly based on machine learning approaches and are usually cast as classification problems. However, the pixelwise classifiers are faced with the ambiguity caused by changes in road appearance, illumination and weather. An effective way to reduce the ambiguity is to model the contextual information with structured learning and prediction. Currently, the widely used structured prediction model in road detection is the Markov random field or conditional random field. However, the random fieldbased methods require additional complex optimization after pixel-wise classification, making them unsuitable for real-time applications. In this paper, we present a structured random forest-based road-detection algorithm which is capable of modelling the contextual information efficiently. By mapping the structured label space to a discrete label space, the test function of each split node can be trained in a similar way to that of the classical random forests. Structured random forests make use of the contextual information of image patches as well as the structural information of the labels to get more consistent results. Besides this benefit, by predicting a batch of pixels in a single classification, the structured random forest-based road detection can be much more efficient than the conventional pixel-wise random forest. Experimental results tested on the KITTI-ROAD dataset and data collected in typical unstructured environments show that structured random forest-based road detection outperforms the classical pixel-wise random forest both in accuracy and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper investigated the process of the slag wool fabrication using high temperature blast furnace (BF) slag modified by coal ash (CA). The liquidus temperature and viscosity of the slag system with different mass ratios of BF slag and CA were measured through an inner cylinder rotation method. The approximate mass ratio used to fabricate the slag wool was therefore determined and slag wool was then successfully prepared with a high-speed air injection method in the laboratory. The effect of mBF/m ratio, slag temperature for injection and air pressure on the preparation of slag wool was systematically investigated. The mechanical and thermal properties were also studied to confirm the long-term working conditions of the slag wool. An industry-scale slag wool production application was established. The energy consumption and the pollutant generation, were analyzed and compared with the traditional production method, which indicated a 70% reduction in energy consumption and a 90% pollution emission decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile phones and personal digital assistants are becoming increasingly important in our daily life since they enable us to access a large variety of ubiquitous services. Mobile networks, formed by the connection of mobile devices following some relationships among mobile users, provide good platforms for mobile virus spread. Quick and efficient security patch dissemination strategy is necessary for the update of antivirus software so that it can detect mobile virus, especially the new virus under the wireless mobile network environment with limited bandwidth which is also large scale, decentralized, dynamically evolving, and of unknown network topology. In this paper, we propose an efficient semi autonomy-oriented computing (SAOC) based patch dissemination strategy to restrain the mobile virus. In this strategy, some entities are deployed in a mobile network to search for mobile devices according to some specific rules and with the assistance of a center. Through experiments involving both real-world networks and dynamically evolving networks, we demonstrate that the proposed strategy can effectively send security patches to as many mobile devices as possible at a considerable speed and lower cost in the mobile network. It is a reasonable, effective, and secure method to reduce the damages mobile viruses may cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the filtering problem of dynamic positioning (DP) ship for the slowly varying sea state, a multiple model adaptive observer (MMAO) for dynamic positioning ship is presented. The MMAO consists of a bank of nonlinear subobserver and a dynamic weighting signal generator, in which each sub-observer is designed based on different peak frequency of wave spectrum model. To improve the performance of the observer, subobserver using the measurement of position, velocity, and acceleration is used to update the estimated velocity of ship. The observer parameters are optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Finally, the method is verified effective by the computer simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boolean control networks have recently been attracting considerable interests as computational models for genetic regulatory networks. In this paper, we present an approach of impulsive control for attractor transitions in Boolean control networks based on the recent developed matrix semitensor product theory. The reachability of attractors is estimated, and the controller is also obtained. The general derivation proposed here is exemplified with a kind of gene model, which is the protein-nucleic acid interactions network, on numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose ? Develop a new three-dimensional discrete element code (BLOKS3D) for efficient simulation of polyhedral particles of any size. The paper describes efficient algorithms for the most important ingredients of a discrete element code. Design/methodology/approach ? New algorithms are presented for contact resolution and detection (including neighbor search and contact detection sections), contact point and force detection, and contact damping. In contact resolution and detection, a new neighbor search algorithm called TLS is described. Each contact is modeled with multiple contact points. A non-linear force-displacement relationship is suggested for contact force calculation and a dual-criterion is employed for contact damping. The performance of the algorithm is compared to those currently available in the literature. Findings ? The algorithms are proven to significantly improve the analysis speed. A series of examples are presented to demonstrate and evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms and the overall discrete element method (DEM) code. Originality/value ? Long computational times required to simulate large numbers of particles have been a major hindering factor in extensive application of DEM in many engineering applications. This paper describes an effort to enhance the available algorithms and further the engineering application of DEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cascading failures and epidemic dynamics, as two successful application realms of network science, are usually investigated separately. How do they affect each other is still an open, interesting problem. In this letter, we couple both processes and put them into the framework of interdependent networks, where each network only supports one dynamical process. Of particular interest, they spontaneously form a feedback loop: virus propagation triggers cascading failures of systems while cascading failures suppress virus propagation (i.e., the interplay between cascading failures and virus propagation, also named CF-VP model). Under this novel model, the interdependent networks will collapse completely if virus transmissibility exceeds a crucial threshold. In addition, only when the network sustaining the epidemic dynamics has a larger average degree, will the interdependent networks become more vulnerable, which is opposite to the observation of traditional cascading models in interdependent networks. To protect interdependent networks we also propose control measures based on the identification capability: a stronger identification capability leads to more robust interdependent networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Objective] Environmental health risk has become the focus of current global research due to the fact that environmental pollution causes harm to human health. The research on health risk of heavy metals in cultivated soil at the provincial level based on interdisciplinary perspectives is of great significance for expanding the understanding of environmental health risk, formulating the control strategies of health risk, and protecting public health. [Methods] Based on the theories of human-environment relationship, the essential connotation of environmental health risk, and spatial statistical analysis methods in geography, we constructed an analytical framework for health risk of heavy metals in the soil of cultivated land. The characteristic factors, the spatial agglomeration characteristics, and the influencing mechanism of health risk were analyzed. Furthermore, the key points for health risk control were identified. [Results] The results show that: (1) The health risk levels of heavy metals Cr, Pb, Cd, As, and Hg in the cultivated soil of Jiangsu Province are within acceptable range. But Cr, Pb, and As were the main risk characteristic factors and need to be controlled. (2) Heavy metals in cultivated soil in some counties of Northern Jiangsu Province had a greater impact on the relative health risk level than the rest parts of the province. The degree of influence of different characteristic risk factors for the region was As > Cr > Pb, and the spatial distribution generally presented a pattern of northeast > southwest. (3) As, Cr, Pb, and the comprehensive health risks showed a spatial agglomeration trend, and the spatial structure of agglomeration exhibited a high-high and low-low pattern. (4) The q values of the four detection factors areal average fertilizer application, residents’ education level, road density, and areal average GDP were higher than 0.3, and any two detection factors showed either a nonlinear enhancement or a dual-factor enhancement effect. [Conclusion] The health risk intensity of heavy metals in cultivated soil puts forward a fresh thought on environment and health researchs, and the research results could provide the practical basis for formulating control strategies on heavy metals in cultivated soil in Jiangsu Province.

In this study, low-cost konjac glucomannan (KGM) microspheres used for desalting were developed by an inverse dispersion method. High concentration of KGM was pretreated to reduce viscosity by acid hydrolysis method under the condition of high temperature and pressure. The selectivity of the obtained cross-linked KGM gels with different degree of crosslinking was studied by constructing calibration curves (Kav) of standard molecular weight substances. The stability of the gels was investigated, which showed that the KGM microspheres are tolerant to a wide range of pH and stable in all commonly used aqueous buffers, and insensitive to autoclaving as well. Furthermore, protein-desalting performances of GM-1250, a cross-linked KGM microsphere, were evaluated with two proteins, bovine serum albumin and filamentous hemagglutinin, which turned out that GM-1250 is comparable to the widely used commercial product - Sephadex G25 Fine. From economic considerations, KGM gel is a prospective alternative for dextran gels in protein desalting process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]